"Welcome," a voice called out. Walking down the hall was a white-haired man wearing a fox mask. "Nice to see you again, Osamu, Takeshi."

Osamu came to a stop. "King Shin'en..." my royal uncle said in a low voice.

Shin'en removed the mask. "So, you recognized me."

"Of course, he would, you wore that mask when we met before!" Takeshi said, pointing at the ceramic mask.

He laughed nervously. "So, I did... Though I have you know, I am not a 'king'. I never accepted the title. Maki over there will be the first king of Kasai no Ki since our father's time."

Maki stepped forward. "Though I think that you would be a better king than I."

Shin'en shook his head. "You are a smart young man. Somewhat lazy at certain times, but hard working when it counts."

The younger prince's blue-eyes widened. "Y-you noticed?"

Shin'en smiled at his younger brother. "Of course."

"Kai and I have as well," Koukyuu said, smiling. "You give your all in the tasks you love. Your lack of ambition isn't a bad thing either. However, many rulers have been destroyed by it."

Osamu averted his eyes. "Let's continue," the king said, passing the Kasai no Ki siblings. "We already got delayed by that ogre from earlier."

"Right. I did bring some special people along. Hope they'll be of assistance."

"Special people?" Rosa asked, tilting her head to the side.

Kohri snickered. "I have a rough idea as to who they might be," the hammer-wielder said.

"Koukyuu, please continue to lead the way," the eldest Kasai no Ki brother said.

The young princess nodded. "Right away, brother."

***

The princess of Kasai no Ki escorted all of us to a room filled which red velvet chairs. The seats overlooked another room, giving it the air of a stadium.

"Is this the gym?" Zyuuni asked, walking up to the golden rails and peering at the glossy-wooden floor of the room below. Separating the two was a crystal wall.

"It's rather large for a gym," Ryonoko said, whistling. "It resembles one of the smaller Draco-domes back home and the Angel Domes of Zionia."

"The room below is in fact a gym," Koukyuu said. "Where we are right now is technically the 'Room of the Watchers'."

"Watchers, huh?" Kuroshi asked, chuckling. "Interesting name."

"Not sure what you find so interesting about it," Osamu said, sighing. "So, is this room all you have? I would've thought that a 'prestigious' magical academy would have more than one gym."

Koukyuu nodded. "Oh we do. This is simply the larger of the two. We usually use this for large scale exercises while the other is used for everyday gym classes. If you'll like I can show you the smaller one if you desire to split up into two groups," she explained.

"We also have a stadium we use for our annual Spring Festival tournaments," Shin'en added.

Osamu crossed his arms. "That would do fine. The Xelerians and Wynagans with huge familiars, transformations, and dragons can utilize the stadium. As can those who wish to spar with them. The rest can use the smaller facilities."

"Sounds good," the green-haired brother of Maki said, turning around. "In that case, I'll be waiting at the arena for anyone who wishes to face me."

"I'll join you, Kai," Yuri said, walking over to him. The dragon wrapped around his neck let out a gentle growl. The usually stoic doctor smiled at her. "You're excited, huh?

Kai blinked. "Why is she growling? She can speak."

The Wynagan doctor snickered as he patted his dragon. "She tends to do so from time to time. It's a cute act."

His dragon nodded her head.

"Well, I'll be accompanying you as well," Huang said, making his way to his fellow teammates.

"Wait, I got something for you before you go!" Takeshi said, taking out a black rod from the sleeves of his cloak. "Catch!"

"Uh, what's this for?" Huang asked as he caught the rod.

The black-robed man smirked. "It's a language transcoder, a kind of special translator. It is what allows us to speak to one another despite having vastly different languages."

Huang furrowed his brow. "What do you mean?"

"You might not have noticed as you likely know Ryomaruian, while I can speak mainline Xelerian," Kai said. "But all this time, the language barrier has been brought down by the weapons of the knights or by rods like that one."

Huang gasped. "Seriously?"

"Don't believe it? Try talking," uncle said, snapping his fingers. The rod in Huang's hands turned gray.

"Heiloiah," Huang said, nonchalantly.

"Heiloiah? What does that mean?" Rosalba asked, glancing at Ryonoko.

Huang stepped back. "Qiurem diihzenem?"

"He said 'what did you say'?" Ryonoko said, chuckling. "So glad I'm trilingual."

"Same," Zyuuni said, nodding.

"Cool!" Rosa said, grinning. "Say, how say my name in Xelerian?"

"Rosalba? Well, that's 'Ruoiseazhlobeehuazh."

"Sounds so alien, huh? Took me awhile to get used to speaking it," Kohri said.

"Oh right, you studied here for some time!"

"Yup. My name in this world is 'Keoiheiruih."

"Yours sounds cooler!"

"Takeshi, stop that," uncle Osamu said, sighing. "We should've explained this to them earlier."

Uncle Takeshi snapped his fingers again, causing the rod to revert to black.

Huang left with his group without asking any further questions.

"Yuko, Nori, Ximena, follow me," Koukyuu said, making her way to the door. "I'll be accompanying you in your training with Mr. Obi. After what he pulled, it's best to keep a close eye on him."

"Please do," I said, staring at Xime.

"I'm going too," Yuko's older sister said. "I want to keep an eye on Yuko. We barely got reunited, so if anything, bad were to happen to her..." A hand wrapped around hers.

"Yuko would like that very much! Yuko is afraid of ogre-man, but with big sis around, she won't be scared," Yuko said, smiling.

"Nori is also afraid... brings back bad memories..." His red eyes glanced at uncle Takeshi as he walked away.

Uncle averted his gaze.

"Allow me to take you there," Shin'en said. "Perhaps our guests went there instead of here."

Maki sighed. "Or maybe they're wondering the halls. Well, good luck, brother, sister."

Shin'en and Koukyuu smiled. "We won't need it! See you later," Koukyuu said, waving.

"I'll try to find them as soon as possible so that we can begin our training in earnest," Shin'en said as a vortex of cold air surrounded them. Within a few seconds, they were gone.

Kohri snickered. "I seriously gotta learn how to do that!"

"Speakin' of learnin', how did you uncover that, Pa? The language thing," Takuya asked, glancing at his old man.

Takeshi snickered as he jumped the rails, landing on the barely visible glass. "It took years of painstaking research. Had to code every single known word of the major languages of three of our universes and a few others. I even visited a small, dying world. It had so many languages for such a tiny place. Oddly, there was no unifying one. Even the beings of other planets had their own. So, I got really bogged down while there."

"You wasted your time in that universe," Osamu said, sighing. "I mean, who visits dying worlds?"

"I took it as a way to preserve their history. Plus, that universe is important for our god. He made it. His favorite creation inhabits it."

The Sky Father's favorite creation? Conrad once told me something about it, but I was too tired from training with Tetsu... Though I did recall that they had a relation to our non-angelic ancestors. And that some of our angelic ancestors were angry that these 'lesser' beings were favored.

"True. A sizable number of angels are still stationed there," Ryonoko said, stepping on the glass platform. He summoned his sword and swung it. His blue eyes glanced at me. "Say, Serrano, how about a spar? I'll like to determine which of us is the superior one."

"I would like to, but uncle is going to teach me how to use Aventine to its full potential," I responded.

He swung his sword over his back. "Oh, then carry on. We can spar later."

"Say, can you use second heaven?" Takeshi asked.

"Uh, no, but I did try to awaken it," he said, lowering his eyes to the gym below. "Seems Hyosetsu was right... I am a failure of an angel prince. I can't even fly..."

"Hmm, perhaps it has to do with the three energies within you," uncle said, rubbing his chin.

"My three energies?"

"Yeah. Your Wynagan chi, your Xelerian prana, and your Zionian mana. All three are similar but they function differently. Since you were raised in Wynaga, you likely understand the importance of energy balance."

"Y-yeah, I do."

"Yet it's still unbalanced," Kohri blurted out.

Ryonoko clenched his hands into fists. "Yeah..."

"It's likely because you've only focused on chi while disregarding the other two. Also, there's the physical factor. Your wings aren't symmetrical, making flight difficult. That can be relieved by covering them with a cloak of prana which will temporarily make them appear the same."

Ryonoko's eyes widened. "Why didn't I think of that?"

Uncle laughed. "You have to start thinking outside of the box, kid."

"Wish I were as smart as you, Pa," Takuya said, sighing.

Takeshi patted my cousin's head. "You are smart, Taku. You have a wisdom that even I don't."

The edges of Taku's ears turned bright red. "I do?"

"Yup! There's a difference between wisdom and knowledge. I have the latter, but lacking in the former."

"I wouldn't say that," Ryonoko said. "You seem wise."

"Yeah," Rosalba said.

Uncle Takeshi blushed just like his son. "Really?"

"Hardship makes one wise," Taku said, nodding. "Even though I might not know all the details, it's obvious you've endured a lot, Pa."

"Taku!" he said, hugging him. "Wish that brat was more like Tere and you!"

Taku smiled. "Tetsu will come around, as will Mom."

"Anis is mad at you?" Uncle Osamu asked, grinning.

"Everyone, let's get to training!" Takeshi yelled.

The king snickered. "Now you stop talking. Well, I'm going to go check out the big arena in the meantime. Want to come, Rosa? You like Kaiju still, right? There's bound to be something close to that caliber over in the arena."

Rosa's eyes glistened. "That's right! Hey, Oca, want to accompany me? We can spar!"

Ocarina smiled and said, "You sure? I can safely say that I'll be a rather tough opponent for you."

Rosa pouted. "How overly confident of you!"

"It's not confidence," Ocarina said as she walked toward the door. She snickered. "It's the truth. I don't have qualms about fighting you, though. If that's truly what you wish."

Eri sighed. "Wish that Tetsuya were here. I wanted to spar with him..."

"Same," the usually reserved Shin said. He walked toward Rosa and Ocarina.

"You're accompanying us, big guy?" Rosa asked, smiling.

Ocarina grinned. "Say, you can be my sparring partner after I'm done with Rosa."

Shin smiled at them.

Kohri gasped. "He smiled!"

Shin turned away.

"Hey, don't turn away!" Rosa said. "Your smile is nothing to be ashamed of. It's actually as nice as Tetsu's..."

"And Eri's," Ocarina said, glancing over at her boyfriend.

Eri and Feng glanced at the tall, long white-haired, muscular man. "Are you our Wynagan counterpart?" they asked in unison.

He gave them a puzzled look. "Counterpart?"

"Say, do Oca and me remind you of anyone?" Rosa asked, pointing at herself.

Shin smiled again. "Yeah... my wife."

Feng laughed. "My wife also reminds me of them."

"So, does that mean that Rosa marrying Tetsu is assured?" Kohri blurted out.

The king narrowed his eyes at his nephew-in-law.

"No, Yuko is their counterpart too," Takeshi said, grinning.

Rosa gasped. "Wait, you knew?"

"Yeah. I did, but just didn't say anything. Though what I am not sure of is why your doppelgangers and you have fragments of the same soul... and why Xelerian and our realm ended up with two each."

"Wait, does that mean that there's another Tetsu?" Rosa asked.

"I... don't think so. Your soul is more fractured than his."

Rosa brows furrowed. "Why?"

He shrugged. "Wish I knew. But, what I do know is that your soul is rather old."

"Seriously? Rosa is an old soul? But she's so childish!" Kohri said.

Rosa grumbled. "Who are you calling childish?"

Kohri snickered. "Yeah, I guess I'm no one to judge on that front..."

"Hey, Ryonoko, are you friends with Shin?" I blurted out.

Ryonoko shook his head. "No. I don't know him that well."

I glanced at Eri. "Are you friends with Sirius?"

"Me? No, I didn't really meet him until the Mahoulympics. He seems like a nice kid, though."

"Feng, are you friends with Nyima's father?" I asked.

"You mean Mr. Yahto? He's my neighbor, but I don't really interact with him much. Why do you ask?"

"Just... curious," I said, turning away. So, Tetsu's counterparts aren't all that close to mine... then does that mean that our friendship is indeed an anomaly?

No, I couldn't think like that, again. I had to focus on training. Plus, there was no use thinking that way if Tetsu wasn't around.

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter ^_^. Thoughts?**