Warui seemed taken aback at first, but she walked forward, timidly but surely.
Uh oh, I thought, this will be so not fun for Warui.
Karma's home science was our first lesson on the first day of our studies.
"You need to keep your tummy full to keep your minds quiet during lessons," Aki-nii had explained to everyone earlier that day. "We are growing kids, if we can cook, we can keep ourselves fed."
Although I felt sorry for Warui, I was definitely excited for the lesson.
Or more specifically, I was excited to see how cooking using magic is done.
"We will be making fluffy quokua egg omelette with pygmy dragon links today. They are healthy and nutritious, and by making a bit more effort, you can even make it taste great."
So far, so good.
"Warui, have you ever cracked an egg before?"
"No", she shook her head.
"Let us start by learning how to break eggs properly and filtering out the shell flakes."
Ok, that was pretty normal. I am not sure if I should be happy or suspicious, I thought.
Karma handed Warui a bowl and an egg and took one of each in his hand too. We all leaned forward in our seats.
"So keep this down here, Warui. We need to gently tap it to lightly weaken the shell at the point we will be breaking it at, which will also touch the edge of your bowl. Do it slowly and fluidly, it will take time to do it right on the first try."
Warui breathed a sigh of relief, and so did I. Karma doesn't seem to have anything up his rolled-up sleeves.
The others were relieved too.
Over the past couple of days leading up to today's classes, Karma had been relentlessly pranking Warui. Sometimes, she would even start crying.
But all is fine now. The siblings were cooking peacefully.
Warui cracked her first egg, and although there were 3 shell pieces in the egg, she did well. She had taken care not to crush the shell, so it was easy for Karma-nii to just fish those pieces out.
She continued with two more eggs. The first egg was a flawless success, but the second fell victim to the red menace we called Karma.
Before Warui could start prodding her egg, Karma snuck up behind her and made small sounds of an 'alive egg."
Tiny chirps echoed behind her.
"P-please don't cook me..."
Warui froze.
"...you can talk?"
"Mama..."
She let out a shrill shriek, flinging the bowl into the air and nearly jumping out of her shoes.
Her brother laughed jovially behind her.
Unlike Karma, we didn't find it so funny.
The rest of the class went without any major incidents. The food they prepared was amazing - Karma had added sucre to his food so it tasted slightly sweet while Warui's used capsin seeds. Eating both was well-balanced and satisfying.
It was the first time Warui had cooked a proper meal and we complimented her for it, even Karma, but she didn't seem so proud of herself. I chalked it down to Karma's prank earlier.
I felt quite sad for her.
After clearing away the dishes and washing the bowls, Karma-nii clapped his hands.
"Now that everyone's eaten, let’s continue the rest of the lessons tomorrow."
Before he could sneak out of the kitchen so easily, Aki-nii caught him by the collar.
"Let us go to weapon mastery and defence lesson next. It's a basic life skill like cooking that we all ought to learn, and better sooner than latter too." Aki-nii suggested.
He dragged Karma-nii behind him.
The class was to be held in an indoor training arena, and we walked behind them together.
"Why do we need to maintain our own weapons?" Karma wondered out aloud, in a bit of a whiny voice.
"You need to be able to sharpen your blade any time it wears down, a dull blade is no use. You can only throw it and hope it hits," Warui explained, regaining a bit of color in her face.
I chanced a glance at Karma as we entered the arena. He had a pensive look on his face as he continued being half-dragged to the lesson.
Is he feeling guilty? Can he even feel guilt? I wondered.
"Warui, why don't you take your brother for showing how to spar and defend today?" Noire suggested calmly, or at least tried to. I realised she had been holding the urge to say that since the lesson was decided.
"Gladly." I only saw half her face while replying, but was it amusement I saw?
"Oh no no no, it's quite alright. We should give someone else a chance" he tried backing away in a hurry and almost tripped down the stairs of the raised platform, but his sister caught him at the edge.
"It's totally fine, Karma-nii. You were such a good teacher earlier, let me return the favour!" She cheerfully requested, and from a certain angle it felt as if her pink hair were glowing.
Noire had already gone to the stands to find a seat for the show and Aki-nii looped a hand around my shoulder.
"This will be fun, Riya!" He smiled warmly, the hints of mischief clouding his eyes.
He gently guided us towards the stands where Noire sat already.
"Oh, that reminds me. Why is Warui teaching us these subjects? Is she good at this stuff?" I asked him innocently as we reached Noire.
"You have no idea~" Noire patted the seat next to her and I nestled in it. Aki-nii sat on my right side.
"Care for a snack?" She produced a bucket of popseeds from nowhere.
"Is there something you both know I don't?" I turned to her, but she put my hand on her head and turned it 90° back to the centre.
"Did you think Warui was weak? Innocent? Naive?" She asked me.
"All three to be honest"
"Boy, you are so in for a treat!" Aki-nii chuckled beside me.
"They are heavy, Warui"
"Just a bit further, brother"
The brother-sister duo were carrying a bunch of swords each. It must have been quite heavy for both of them. Karma struggled visibly and hurriedly put down his bundle.
Warui set her bundle down with a heavy thud.
The platform shook slightly.
"...That sounded heavier than Karma's." I whispered, nearly to myself.
"I will show you some basic punches and kicks to attack and defend yourself today."
"Hey! Then what was the point of me carrying all this junk up here?" Karma protested.
For the first time I had seen, Warui met his rebellious eyes with her quiet ones.
"Practice"
She said nothing else.
Karma knew it was useless to expect to prod her any further, so he stood in front of her too.
"This will be a basic demonstration to check how you respond to attacks. After this we can practice the techniques properly and fight again."
Did Karma just shiver a bit?
"1..2..3.. go!" We counted from the stands.
Warui lowered her stance.
Before Karma could react she slipped inside his reach.
Her hands locked behind his waist.
She turned.
Suddenly, Karma wasn't standing anymore.
She flipped him over backwards over herself, and for a moment it seemed like Karma-nii's head would split open on the platform.
I could hear my heart beating wildly in my chest, but Noire and Akise simply watched calmly.
In a split second, before his head could burst open, she bent forward and set him down gently.
Drops of sweat shone on his forehead and Karma took several shaky breaths. I had never seen him so visibly rattled before this.
"You have to adopt a closed defense posture when rushed like that, nii" she cheerfully told him, bending her knees and crossing her arms over her chest to show us how.
Karma just stood there firm, trying to come to terms with his spared life.
“Come on, let’s go over it some more.” Warui decided cheerfully. She didn’t wait for him to answer.
Noire poked us both and signalled us to sit back and enjoy.
So we quietly munched.
Crunch.
Warui lifted Karma.
Crunch.
Karma yelped.
Crunch.
"Want some more?" Noire asked.
"Let's go down and practice too!" Aki-nii said joyfully, and we three hopped down to join them.
I will never make Warui angry, I told myself. I no longer wished to die.
"I will continue training with Karma. You three can form a ring and try it with the one next to you. Let us learn how to block punches next."
She taught us to anticipate the final location of the offending fist and to cross our arms over that exact point, and how to dodge it to make the opponent go off-balance. We had to push them or keel them over with our feet after that.
Karma became the unfortunate subject of bad defense that day.
Each time a new stance came up, he tensed. Warui also used the opportunity fully to show her physical prowess, and he surely wasn't enjoying it.
Us three in the other circle, however, loved it. Noire is the weakest of us three, I realised that day.
She was better at defense than attack, and in a weird way it does suit her personality.
Aki-nii was obviously good at both, and my loving big brother showed me how to improve my stance and stand strong while weathering blows.
The only one who didn't enjoy that lesson was Karma.
"Oh look, it is already mid-noon since we started. Let us go back and eat," Aki-nii reminded everyone, and we faithfully trooped to our tea table.
Noire fell back and matched her steps with Karma.
"Should have listened when I warned, huh?" She was clearly enjoying seeing him in that sorry state.
“If Warui is so strong and Karma-nii knew it, why didn’t she retaliate before?” I whispered to Aki-nii.
“Because she hates hurting feelings.” He whispered his reply back.
What about bodies?
"I will never prank Warui again," he moaned, with pain and sorryness for himself.
All it took for him to forget his resolve was lunch.
But this time, thankfully, Warui equalled him in her own way.
If he played antics with her, she played down his physical strength.
Reflections