A soft but persistent knocking brought Ciel out of his slumber. He opened his eyes and found himself in bed, tucked snugly under the covers. It must have been his parents who put him to bed, since he remembered crying himself to sleep on the floor. It was embarrassing being tucked in like a child at his age but Ciel took it as a sign of unwavering love that flowed in abundance in the family. Besides, if image was important, Blanc and Noire would have aged their appearances already instead of looking like innocent little teens.

The knocking started again, this time with calls of “Ciel” in between. Ciel yawned and got out of bed. He remembered that he had promised Kou that they would spar at the club. Rubbing his face, he went to open the door. Kou was standing at the door full dressed and alert.

“Sorry.” He yawned. “Give me five minutes to get ready.”

“Take your time. It’s still early” Kou said with a smile.

Ciel glanced at the clock only to realize that it was a little after five; he gave his brother a cranky look before shutting the door. Seeing as there was still time, he took a shower before he changed and redid his hair, making a tighter braid than usual. Once he was done, he opened the door to see Kou leaning against the wall beside his door.

“You could have just waited downstairs or in your room. I would have called you.” He said helplessly.

“Too excited. Let’s go!” Kou sprang up and urged him.

Ciel rolled his eyes and followed him into the study and through the portal. They arrived at the club and Kou followed Ciel to the third floor. The training room was next to the gym but since it was still early, they had only met the kitchen staff who were starting the kitchen to prepare breakfast for the family and live in guests. Ciel unlocked the door and stepped inside, switching on the lights as he went in. He yawned and started stretching. It’d been ages since he’d sparred. The excitement from the day before did not count.

“Ready?” he asked, twisting his waist. He was wearing sneakers, black sweatpants and a plain blue T-shirt. Simple, comfortable clothes that were easy to move in. The look was very different from the soft-spoken gentleman that patrons were used to seeing.

“Do we take our shoes off at the mat?” Kou asked.

“If you want. But it’s not like we can ask our enemies for a timeout to take off our shoes. There was a time when father made all of us train in our work clothes. Noire was forever pulling her skirt down.” Ciel reminisced with a smile. “That’s why she wears shorts or bloomers under her skirt now.”

Kou nodded. That made sense. So they both stepped onto the mat and faced each other. There was no bowing or other forms of respect. They just got into defence mode, as if this was a real fight between two enemies. The air was still and tension began to rise but neither of them moved, each assessing the other.

It was Kou who moved first, just as Ciel suspected. His sister was always the type to hit first, ask questions later. Her mantra had always been ‘the best defence is a good offence’, which was the opposite of Ciel’s ‘observe the enemy and strike only when necessary’ style. While Dawn’s style seemed impetuous, she was strong and fast and would normally settled her problems with the least amount of fuss and time. Ciel on the other hand mostly used his skills for self-defence and rarely engaged with enemies. It was easy to see the personalities of these siblings based on their fighting style.

Kou threw a punch with his right which Ciel dodged, he countered with a left hook which Kou blocked with both hands. The momentum threw Kou back and before he could regain his balance, Ciel had kicked at him, aiming for the head. Kou managed to regain his footing so he blocked with his arm. Ciel did not relent as he moved forward, twisting his body and kicked with his other leg. This double kick was enough to throw Kou off and he was knocked to the ground. As was taught by his father, he did not relent and aimed another kick at the prone Kou. It seemed cruel but his father had told them time and again that showing mercy to an enemy was showing cruelty to oneself. The enemy had to be fully incapacitated before they were allowed to relent. But Kou was also Gin’s child. He had also told his children that as long as they were still breathing, still conscious, then they had to fight with everything they had. Gin’s teaching in essence was ‘keep fighting to survive’, ‘never show mercy to stay alive’.

So Kou guarded against the shallow kick of Ciel’s, bouncing back on his feet immediately. He rushed forward and aimed a flying kick at Ciel, who crouched down to avoid it. They continued to trade blows with each other, both sides not conceding the slightest bit. They were forcibly brought back to reality by a loud ‘clang!’ and turned to see Blanc and Noire watching them, Blanc with a bronze gong in hand.

“Father says come back for breakfast.” Blanc said as he went to return the gong.

“Ciel needs to lower his centre of gravity a little bit more for stronger kicks and Kou needs to remember to use his waist when he punches.” Noire, who had been squatting on the ground to watch said as she got up and patted herself before she ran after her twin.

The two elder siblings looked at each other and Ciel realized that they had been at it for nearly forty-five minutes. He gave a weak smile.

“Looks like we’ll have to stop here. Let’s spar again tomorrow.”

“Sure.” Kou replied, wiping the sweat on his forehead and pushing his wet hair back. “Will you teach me magic later?”

“Yes. But let’s go. All this exercise has worked up an appetite.”

The two of them walked back, chatting and exchanging tips good-naturedly, unaware that it wasn’t just the twins that had observed their fight. They had been smirked at by Blanc and Noire but they still remained in the shadows watching the two white-haired men leave.

“Should we train too?” the dark-haired one asked the other.

“We should. Otherwise we’d be redundant.” Replied the blond one.

*           *           *           *           *

In this way, the days slowly passed and a sort of normalcy returned to the club. The days were spent with Ciel and Kou training and getting stronger while they entertained the guests at night. Patrons still talked about the attack occasionally but no one discussed it in detail. The shadow was like a taboo to the guests and they would rather not court danger by mentioning them. Gin had released the rest of Jurogumo’s companions and told them that it was better that they did not speak about their experiences of that day. There was no way for him to remove the curse.

The request by Tlaloc and Iya was still hanging in the air but everyone knew that it would be foolish to rush in and fight an enemy unseen. They didn’t even know where Iktomi and the Great Goddess were and could only wait for them to come instead. But at the very least there was a sense of peace and safety back in Sanctuary. On one hand, Ciel felt like the calm, idle days from before had returned. But on the other hand, there was a certain tension that made everyone on edge, as if it were the calm before the storm.

Ciel and Kou were currently in a 2 vs 2 battle with the twins. It was not a case of strong bullying the weak because the twins were actually pretty strong in their own right. What’s more, they had that telepathy that twins seemed to have, that made their cooperation top notch. Ciel and Kou had actually been pressed back by their younger siblings a few times. Noire who was battling Kou suddenly bent down, allowing Blanc to use her back as a platform to roll over to launch an overhead kick at their older brother. Meanwhile, after her twin had rolled off her back, she aimed a back kick at Ciel who had been chasing after Blanc. Because of their seamless cooperation, they were able to continuously come up with feints and disruption strategies that did not let the elder two get into any rhythm at all. Every time it seemed like Ciel or Kou had gotten the upper hand, the twins would switch opponents and catch them off guard.

But age and experience slowly managed to catch up, along with the level of cooperation between Ciel and Kou. This time, Ciel leapt over his sister, using her leg as a vaulting horse to spring himself after Blanc. Kou, after avoiding Blanc executed a sliding kick at Noire, who was already off balance because of Ciel. In three moves, the elder two finally managed to subdue the twins.

“Do you yield?” Ciel asked Blanc, who was on his stomach, his arms twisted behind him and Ciel’s knee in his back.

Blanc weighed his chances of breaking out of his brother’s grasp. As if sensing Blanc’s indomitable spirit, Ciel added a little more pressure to his back and twisted his arms a little more. He gasped. “Yes!” he answered through gritted teeth.

Noire had already surrendered to Kou who had sat on her, as if it was the most natural thing to do. It was; that was how Dawn normally defeated her little sister in the past. Blanc and Ciel were silent when they saw that scene, reminded of a bittersweet past.

“Let’s go, we should shower and meet father and mother for breakfast.” Ciel said as he helped his brother up.

It was the routine of the siblings now to train every morning before joining their parents at the breakfast table. They would later discuss magic spells and weapons handling in the afternoon or evening, depending on their shifts. The attack had left a mark on all of them. Kou was too weak overall after having just been reawaken while Ciel and the twins had all managed to get attacked and injured. So they trained and helped each other to be a little stronger. The responsibility of keeping Sanctuary safe did not fall on their father’s shoulders solely. They all had to play a part, and they knew the saying: ‘You’re only as strong as your weakest link.’ So they worked hard, none of them willing to be the weakest of them all. With such determination, it had set off a wave of enthusiasm amongst the staff as well.

At first, the staff had been shocked to see them train, never realizing how much effort they had been putting in to be strong. It was especially surprising to see the usually gentlemanly, amiable Ciel throwing punches and kicks at others. But considering who his father was and how he didn’t let his daughters off physical training, the only way Ciel did not know how to fight was if he had no physical body whatsoever. Nowadays, everyone had gotten used to it and even got into the spirit of training as well. Sometimes, the security staff would join the four for their morning bouts, honing everyone’s skills and cooperation.

After all, it wasn’t only the four that felt weak and helpless during the attack. Fifteen others had also been injured in the attack, although none of them life threatening. Dominic and Gawain who had been out because of reasons other than the attack had been even more affronted and had joined in the joint sparring sessions the most. The mage also participated in magic and mana training, to strengthen his overall magic attacks.

Perhaps it had been guilt for overexerting his body, perhaps it was as thanks for allowing his body to be borrowed but Tlaloc had left Dominic with another thunder spell, that was just as devastating as ‘bolt from the blue’. ‘Stolen thunder’ used less mana in exchange for a slightly lower attack power; but because it could be chained in multiple successions, it was faster to cast and the damage was equal and sometimes more than if he had used ‘bolt from the blue.’ This was a huge boost to his magic arsenal but if used too many times in a row could also lead to a kickback; after all this was an attack from a thunder god. So Dominic trained with Ciel and the rest to learn his body’s limits when using the spell.

Kou, who had been leading everyone back to the portal bound for home suddenly put out his arm to block Ciel, who had been walking behind him and talking to the twins. He was a little shocked and looked at his brother in surprise, before looking to the front.

Before them was a man, with black hair and honey coloured skin. He was covered in face paint, of yellow, red and white with black rings around his eyes. Ciel gaped. It was Iktomi.