Anyma opened the apartment's door open. She took a deep breath in, advancing into the living room. "I'm home." She said with her eyes closed.

"You're late," A familiar voice greeted her. Rough, cold, but welcoming nonetheless, it was Chiyo, her teacher. She sat on a sofa, wearing gray yoga pants and a small, black shirt. 

"Sorry, miss." Anyma bowed. 

The black-haired woman glared at the girl, "What did I say about calling me to miss outside school?" 

"I know, but it doesn't feel right."

"Ugh," Chiyo grunted, throwing the TV's remote aside. "You are incorrigible. Let's get this shit over with already!"

"R-right." Anyma approached her teacher, pulling a bottle of alcohol, bandages, and a bag of cotton. 

Chiyo turned away from the girl, pulling her long hair out of the way. Anyma wetted a piece of cotton and passed it onto the stitched wound on her teacher's back. "Looks like it's getting better." 

"J-just get done already...!" Chiyo ordered, wincing and whining at the cold disinfecting alcohol. 

Anyma passed the cotton a few more times on the wound and applied the ointment, "OK, I'm done with your back. I need to put the bandages on." 

Silently, Chiyo removed her top and set it aside. "Do you want me to turn around too?"

"N-no!" Anyma replied with a slight blush. The blond girl hastily passed the bandages over her teacher's shoulder, catching and fastening it. 

"Why were you sleeping during class today?" Chiyo asked, turning around. "Is my course so boring?"

"I-it's not that...! It's just that..." Anyma stammered, directing her gaze away.

"Do you still feel that you don't deserve to be here?" Chiyo inquired, putting back her top. "I told you to stop thinking like that."

Anyma sighed, "I feel like I'll disappoint in the selection ceremony." 

The black-haired woman smacked the girl on the head. "Stop being this negative. Do you remember how we first met?"

"Ouch..." Anyma winched. "That would be pretty hard to forget."

"Hah! Then stop worrying like that!" Chiyo laughed loudly. "We'll train tomorrow in the afternoon and the day after. Don't be late."

"And you were wondering why I fell asleep during class?" Anyma said low, not enough for the teacher to be unable to hear, which earned the girl another smack on the head.

***

The next day, after the class ended.

Chiyo and Anyma did push-ups and stretches in a forest slightly away from the town. After their warm-up, Chiyo spoke up.

"Today, we will be doing a bit more than usual."

Anyma gulped. She knew how intense her teacher could be with training. She remembered once when they trained for an entire week with a bare minimum rest and thousands of exercises. "W-what is it?" She inquired, her voice cracking in fear.

"A different kind of combat training," Chiyo replied, ignoring the girl's voice crack. "The ceremony usually selects two people: One is guaranteed, and the other is fought for. Since magic is out of the question for you, we will prepare so that whoever you face will fight on your ground."

"Fight on my ground?"

"People, especially young folks like you, have the bad habit of underestimating someone with lower magic capabilities. You will use that to your advantage, pull them into a situation where they can't fight back, and demolish them! That is if the ceremony doesn't meddle in."

Anyma tilted her head, "What does that mean?"

"You seriously weren't listening today?" Chiyo pinched her nose ridge while glaring at the girl. "This ceremony is a godly intervention, meaning the Twin Goddesses Lys and Morgana are responsible for it, MEANING they can interfere with it as much as they want."

"Oh, that's gonna be a problem, isn't it?"

"No shit, it will!" Chiyo snorted. "We have this afternoon and the entirety of tomorrow."

"Just don't overdo it, please. I don't want to stitch that wound back again." Anyma warned her teacher. 

"Bold of you to assume you'll be able to force me to be serious." Chiyo chuckled, taking her combat stance. "Come now, try to hit me!"

Anyma closed her gloved hands, her arms raised to her chest. She lunged forward, performing a hook with her right fist. The black-haired woman stepped back, prompting the blond girl to follow with a straight punch aimed at the face. The woman pushed it aside with two fingers and countered with a strike of her own. Her rugged palm connected with Anyma's chest, pushing the girl back. "You improved a bit. Just a bit won't cut it, however."

Anyma charged her teacher with a flurry of punches. "You are fast, good. But not enough to hit me." Chiyo added, swiftly and effortlessly avoiding each strike. "Come on, faster!"

Anchoring her feet firmly into the soil, Anyma accelerated. She added her left fist into the mix. Gradually, she increased her pace until her body could not go any faster. Chiyo grabbed both of the girl's wrists. "That won't do!" She exclaimed, looking into Anyma's silver eyes. "Forget about the form. Fight like that one time!"

Anyma stumbled back as her wrists were released. "Are you sure? I still don't have a proper control over that."

"It will be fine. We won't go overboard. Plus, you won't master that power if you don't take risks." Chiyo advised, coating her hands with a light-brown aura. "Come on now!"

Anyma nodded, taking the glove on her left hand. The girl scowled at the sight; her hand up to half of her forearm colored magenta. It was nearly impossible to tell where the fingers' skin ended and where the claw-like nail began. After squeezing her odd fist a few times, the blond girl took her fighting stance.

A magenta aura surrounded the girl as she vanished and reappeared, her fist flying toward the black-haired woman's face. Chiyo grinned, ducking under the incoming fist and swinging her own at Anyma's stomach, but the girl vanished, leaving only her aura in her wake. She appeared, this time, with her foot coming down onto the woman like an axe.

The dust rose after the impact, "You became better at controlling that thing," Chiyo commended the girl, her arm covered in a stone cuirass. "Back then, you have been coughing your lungs out."

"I'm not good enough yet." Anyma rejected the compliment, pressing her foot down with more of her aura. Chiyo began to sink into the dirt. Her cuirass cracked under the pressure the girl put on it. 

"Stop beating yourself down already!" The woman shouted, pushing the girl's foot aside and uppercutting her in the chin. Anyma staggered back, the world around her blurring. "Training over," Chiyo announced, looking at her stone armor crumbling down. "This girl is special." She said mentally while turning around.

Her attention was brought back to the blond girl, "Hm?" Chiyo observed the girl clutching her chest while coughing intensely, and an instant later, Anyma collapsed.