Chapter 179: Before the Final Match
Kai was scrambling eggs when the knock came.
Leo was already moving before the sound finished. He had been sitting at the table with his phone and was at the door in approximately one second.
He opened it.
Sera stood in the hallway in casual clothes, no combat gear, her hair down. She smiled.
"Morning."
Leo’s face lit up. "Sera!"
She reached over and ruffled his hair.
He pulled back immediately. "I’m too old for that."
"You say that every time," she said.
"Because it keeps being true."
Kai turned from the stove. "Come in."
She stepped inside and Mina came out of the other room and the apartment adjusted to four people the way it had been adjusting to four people for a while now, naturally, without requiring reorganization.
Everyone ended up at the table.
Kai set plates down. Eggs. Toast. The rice Mina had made earlier. Sera poured herself coffee from the pot without being told where it was, which said something about how many mornings had looked like this.
Leo looked between Kai and Sera with the specific energy of someone who had been saving questions.
"The Elden fight," he said. "I still don’t understand how you survived."
"I barely did," Kai said.
Leo turned to Sera. "What did you think? Watching it."
Sera considered. "Mira almost turned her defense into offense," she said. "She forced him to keep changing his approach."
Kai nodded. "She never let anything settle."
"Raze gets stronger the longer the fight runs," Sera said.
Kai laughed. "Which is why I stopped letting the fight run."
Leo was tracking this with the attention of someone taking a test.
"Elden?" he said.
Sera smiled. "Ridiculous."
Kai said, "Agreed."
"Lily?" Leo said.
Kai and Sera both paused.
"Mentally exhausting," Kai said.
"Very," Sera said immediately.
Leo looked at both of them. "So you’re all monsters."
They answered at the same time. "Pretty much."
Leo leaned back in his chair with the satisfaction of someone who had gotten exactly what he came for. Then he pointed between the two of them.
"You two are fighting today."
It was not quite a question.
Kai looked at Sera.
Sera looked at Kai.
Both nodded.
"Yeah," Kai said.
Leo stood up so fast his chair made a sound. "YES." He pumped his fist. He was already moving toward his room. "I’m watching the livestream. I’m calling everyone." He stopped at the doorway. "Kei. Rin. Lina. Dorn." He pointed at Kai. "I’m watching."
"Thanks," Kai said.
He stopped for just a second. "Just..." He scratched the back of his head. "Don’t get hurt too badly."
Kai smiled. "I’ll try."
Sera smiled too. "Me too."
Leo nodded once and then immediately ruined the moment. "Okay! I’m calling everyone!"\
The door closed.
Silence.
Mina laughed before looking at the both of them. "Kai told me about the Archive," she said.
Sera raised an eyebrow.
Kai sighed. "She noticed."
Sera looked at him. "Years of her knowing you too well?"
Mina smiled. "Exactly."
She picked up her coffee. "Does this fight actually matter? The Authority part."
Kai blinked.
Sera blinked.
They answered almost simultaneously. "Not really."
Mina stared at both of them.
Kai scratched his cheek. "I mean." He laughed. "I want to fight Sera."
Sera nodded. "I want to fight Kai."
"Authority is the excuse," Kai said.
"We’ve wanted to know for months," Sera said. "Properly. Without needing to hold back for something else."
Mina set her coffee down and pinched the bridge of her nose. "You two are impossible."
Both of them laughed.
She looked at them for a moment with the expression she used when she had accepted something she was not going to change. "Fine," she said. "But come back."
"The dishes are your responsibility tonight."
Kai blinked. "Even if I lose?"
"Especially if you lose."
Sera laughed. "That’s fair."
But interesting enough, neither of them promised to win.
...
Mina walked them to the door when they left.
She looked at Kai first. Then Sera.
"Be careful," she said.
Kai nodded.
Sera smiled. "We will."
The door closed behind them.
...
The city was calmer than it had been on any of the other fight mornings. Not quiet. Just settled. Everyone already knew what today was. The anticipation had been building since the Lily fight ended and the candidate list had come down to two names. The city had had time to process it.
A few people recognized them as they walked. Some waved. Some just watched with the comfortable attention of people who had followed something long enough to feel ownership of it.
Neither Kai nor Sera talked about the fight.
They walked through the morning market district. The vegetable vendor on the corner who was always there was there. The two workers who had their coffee outside the café on the left every morning were there. The training sounds from the nearby guild building.
Sera said, "If you win, what’s first?"
Kai thought about it. "Honestly? No idea."
She laughed.
"I’ll probably ask Lily," he said. "And Elden. They’re much better at understanding how cities actually work."
She gave him a sideways look. "So you’re planning to become Authority and then immediately hand everyone else the paperwork."
Kai smiled. "Sounds efficient."
She laughed properly at that.
They passed the corner where the street widened into the small plaza with the fountain. A child was sitting on the edge of it throwing small stones into the water with complete focus.
Sera said, "Then why do it at all."
Kai looked ahead. "Because someone has to make sure the age doesn’t change. After that." He shrugged. "I’d rather clear dungeons."
"I figured," she said.
They kept walking.
"Do you remember our first gate together," Sera said.
Kai smiled. "The goblins."
"They stole Leo’s lunch."
"He brought food to a gate," Kai said. "That was entirely his own decision."
"You were convinced you had a perfect plan for the dungeon," Sera said.
"I did."
"It wasn’t perfect."
"No," he said. "It wasn’t."
She smiled. "You adapted."
"Quickly," he said.
"You’ve always done that," she said.
They passed two hunters heading in the opposite direction, both of them doing a visible double-take as they recognized who they were looking at.
"We’ve run a lot of gates since then," Kai said.
"A lot," she agreed.
Sera smiled. "I recall you being difficult in doing runs with more people."
Kai laughed. "It’s because I doubt most would want to do it with a no class person."
"That’s true. Back then you weren’t well known."
"I was known but it was pure negative."
"You didn’t seem to mind it though."
"The attention did help me."
"You always said that but never explained what you meant."
"I told you it gave me motivation."
"To prove them wrong?"
"That and to make them become my fans."
Sera laughed.
The E-rank gate appeared at the end of the block. It was a small black-blue one without anyone here. They stopped in front of it. No crowd had gathered yet. It was early enough that the news hadn’t reached critical mass, though that would change within minutes of the stream going live.
For now it was just the two of them and the gate and the morning city going about its business around them.
No speeches. Nothing to say that hadn’t already been said.
Sera looked at the gate. Then at Kai.
"Ready?" she said.
Kai looked at her.
Months of dungeon runs. The Sky Fortress. Thunder Peaks. The territory strike team. The Archive. Every Sunday in the apartment. Every gate where one of them had been the reason the other made it through.
"Always," he said.
Sera smiled. "I’m glad it’s you."
Kai looked at her. "Me too."
Then both of them stepped forward and walked through.
The gate rippled and closed behind them.
For the first time since becoming hunters, neither of them was entering a dungeon as teammates.
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