Mikayla's brows furrowed, which was thankfully hidden by the Black Knight's helmet. "Yevgenia Han?"

"What's a Han? Is that supposed to be a surname? Yevgenia didn't have a surname. At least, not one she ever told me about," Nocturnus muttered.

"You have a Black Knight Armour Core," Yevgenia tilted her head, her thoughts visibly catching up with her mouth. Mikayla looked at her more closely, and estimated that, despite her status as Mikayla's tutor, Yevgenia was approximately the same age as her; nineteen-ish. Maybe even a bit younger. "Could you please repeat that? I couldn't quite make it out,"

Realising how close Nocturnus was to blowing their cover way too quickly, Mikayla shut down the Black Knight. She would find out what she could about this resurrected, de-aged version of Nocturnus' closest friend and report back to him when they had some privacy. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss, um, Han," She bowed her head, buying herself a few seconds to school her features.

"Mm-hm," Yevgenia sounded unimpressed, taking in Mikayla's actual appearance.

"Lady Han has graciously offered to act as your tutor and first point of contact for your academic career here at Cloudscraper," Abney executed a perfect curtesy, which only hid her apologetic expression from Yevgenia. "Would you like me to assist Miss Aiadon in finding the dormitory?"

"That won't be needed," Yevgenia waved her off.

"Then I shall leave you two to get acquainted," Abney bustled away, leaving the two students to eye each other.

Yevgenia seemed content to look her up and down, seemingly making assessments behind her eyes. Mikayla felt sweat condense and run down the back of her neck; being inspected so blatantly was a thoroughly uncomfortable experience.

"So, you're . . Yevgenia?" she asked, desperate to break the silence.

There was pride in her voice as the yaoguai confirmed, "Indeed I am,"

"As in, one of the five heroes who fought the First Monster King? That Yevgenia?"

"The Four Heroes, you mean," Yevgenia primly corrected her. "I don't know what sort of history they pass down in the barbaric north, but we do not consider the Black Traitor as having anything like the standing of the Four,"

"Ah. Yes. Right. My mistake," Mikayla schooled her features. She had known that she would have to get used to Nocturnus being slandered. She still wanted to rush to the defence of her first friend in this world. "But, Yevgenia. The, um . . what was, er, your title? The . . Rose Assassin?"

"Rosebush Huntress," Yevgenia corrected her again.

"Yeah, exactly. You're . . her,"

"I am her successor, the inheritor of her legacy. So do not refer to me as the Rosebush Huntress, I have not yet earned that,"

"But is that, like, reincarnation? Is that a thing in this world?" Mikayla guessed.

"Reincarnation is a fable for superstitious and desperate fools," Yevgenia shook her head. "Does it not translate correctly when I tell you that I am her successor? I did hear that was a problem sometimes for Stranded people,"

"Apparently not," Mikayla furrowed her brow. "What I'm hearing is that you're the one replacing her? Taking over her position?"

"Exactly. You do understand, then,"

Mikayla really didn't, but she decided not to force the issue.

"Come with me, I will show you to the dormitory," Yevgenia was already leaving the room, not waiting for Mikayla to follow.

She rushed to catch up. "Hang on, what about Keldryn?"

"Your friend? We are going to the girls' dormitory. He'll be shown to the boys' dormitory," Yevgenia off-handedly assured her.

"Guess that makes sense," Mikayla nodded.

They rounded a corner, and were suddenly emerging onto a balcony with no safety railing. "Follow me," her tutor brusquely demanded, and jumped off the ledge.

Pink light shone from below, and an Armour Core rose into view, swollen to its maximum fifty-foot height. It had green insect-like limbs that ended in wicked claws, with decorations like seashells on its elbows and knees. Robes were wrapped around its lower half through which an armoured tail with a serrated tip emerged, while its upper body was sleek and contoured to hug Yevgenia's form. A ghastly yellow grin was etched into its face, beneath a thick yellow visor from which those same curving horns protruded, all set into a smooth green helmet.

The new Armour Core was already pacing away by the time Mikayla had finished taking it in. Fortunately, by now she was used to catching herself with the Black Knight. It only took a bit of falling and some flashes of red light before her spiky suit of armour was rushing to keep pace. Yevgenia hadn't even looked back, seemingly not caring whether Mikayla could keep up.

"That's Moonlight Rose," Nocturnus' voice quietly observed. Mikayla had formed her control room in the heart of the Black Knight once more, and Nocturnus was too distracted to even care about being trapped in a screen on her dashboard. "Yevgenia's Armour Core. Or, at the very least, an identical copy,"

"Yeah, well, she's not the same Yevgenia you knew, I don't think. She said that she's her 'successor', if that means anything to you?" Mikayla muttered.

"I can't say it does. Perhaps she's simply a descendant," Nocturnus sounded pained by the thought, and Mikayla stifled a wince. It must suck to find out that the woman you'd once loved had moved on and married someone else.

Returning her focus to the path that Yevgenia was leading her down, Mikayla blanched.

It was as though someone had scaled up American Ninja Warrior to be performed with giant robots, using medieval technology and a dash of platforming videogame obstacles. There were rows of swinging logs, hanging boards carved into monster visages, balance beams and balls on chains - and Moonlight Rose was practically dancing through the obstacles.

Yevgenia paused at the top of a pile of stone blocks. "Don't just stand there! Show me what you can do!" she commanded.

"Oh! We have been challenged!" Nocturnus observed.

"And she's not even being subtle about it, huh," Mikayla scanned the obstacle course again. "Fine. Let's do this,"

When there was a break in the moving boards, she threw the Black Knight forward, driving her shoulder through the corner of one of the obstacles to knock it out of the way.

With both hands, Mikayla hoisted herself onto the balance beam and strode across it with ease, relishing her suit's implausible flexibility. Her shield appeared in her hands to deflect several balls that were launched and recycled by a spring-loaded mechanism, not even trying to dodge.

Nocturnus wasn't even paying attention. "If Yevgenia started some kind of matriarchal warrior clan, then . . I suppose she must be Yevgenia the Eighth, possibly Ninth. It has been two hundred years," Nocturnus sounded like he was talking to himself more than Mikayla. He hadn't even noticed the acrobatic feats that Mikayla was having to perform in his Armour. "They said she was to be your tutor, did they?"

"Yep," Mikayla was too busy dodging around several spinning crossbars that were trailing spiked balls on chains to reply properly.

"Could you please . . find out how she feels about the Black Traitor?" Nocturnus stifled a wince. "I never imagined that there might be someone alive whom I'd want to talk to,"

"Will do," Mikayla promised, though she wasn't optimistic. She leapt back before one last falling battering ram could strike her guts, then charged forward and fell in next to Yevgenia, who had been watching and waiting for her to finish.

"Hm. I'm glad you can at least follow along, even weighed down by that clunky armour," Yevgenia nodded. Before Mikayla could draw breath to respond, Moonlight Rose shrunk down and dissipated, leaving Yevgenia standing expectantly on the path.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Deciding that a bit of showing off was apparently obligatory, Mikayla didn't bother to shrink the Black Knight before dismissing it, putting Keldryn's crash course in parkour to use and landing with a roll into a crouch. She straightened up, and if Yevgenia was impressed she didn't show it.

"Yeah, so, is it a problem that I'm wearing Black Knight armour?" Mikayla managed to catch herself before she could hint that her equipment was the Black Knight, the original model.

"It won't win you any favours. But only fools would judge you for it. Any fool who is stupid enough to lay the Black Traitor's crimes at your feet merely because your armour looks like his is not worthy of being spoken to," Yevgenia shook her head.

"I'll, uh, remember that," Mikayla shook her head, wincing. She didn't want to give up Nocturnus, but it would put a damper on her plans to become the social butterfly she'd always wanted to be if his Armour made her a pariah.

"You shouldn't have too much to worry about," Yevgenia regarded her with interest for the first time. "So you really are from a world entirely unlike the one we know?"

"Yep!" Mikayla nodded, keeping pace. "So, eh, forgive me if there's some common knowledge stuff that I don't have. Like, uh," She made a face. "Please don't be offended when I say I don't really know what you, um, are. I've heard 'yaoguai', but I don't know what that means. You look kind of like a fictional creature called a tiefling, but . . that doesn't have good associations,"

Then again, for all she knew the yaoguai nation had literally climbed out of hell. After all, less than a week ago she'd been transported to the collapsing personal dimension of a dying god. Nothing was too far-fetched.

"Hm?" She drew herself up, pressing a hand to the nape of her neck. "I am a pureblooded yaoguai. Purebloods have skin ranging in shades between red, pink, purple and blue, elf-like ears, circular pupils and unadorned tails," Her extra limb waved, and Mikayla tried not to stare at it. "Memorise that, you'll need to be able to make the distinction between us and mixed-bloods,"

"Okay, and how do I identify a mixed-blood?" Mikayla guessed from context that a mixed-blood yaoguai was one with human, elf, dwarf or beastkin ancestry - wait, that meant crossbreeding was possible? Could mixedbloods have children? How did that that work? Magic DNA? Could other races crossbreed? What about different types of beastkin? She suddenly regretted not having had the guts to ask Asika if faeries could have children.

"They break one or more of those rules," Yevgenia simply replied, oblivious to her questions.

"Gotcha, gotcha," Mikayla tried not to get too excited by the prospect of researching yaoguai historiography. There was an entire alternate world's worth of history to study. So much reading to do. This was going to be so much fun!

She forced herself to focus on the conversation. "I'll remember all those traits. Heh. So far I've only met humans, beastkin and faeries. This world is really something else,"

"Please do. It is a huge faux pas to confuse purebloods with mixed-bloods, so be careful about it. If you're to be associated with me, I can't have you making me look bad,"

"Oh, great," Mikayla clapped her palms together in exasperation. "My fantasy world has fantasy racism,"

Yevgenia paused and tilted her head, parroting, "Racism. Hm. I'm not familiar with the term,"

"It's the practice of believing some people are inherently better than others based on their ethnic group or blood purity. It's generally considered antiquated at best and obscene at worst. At least, where I'm from,"

"Ah," Yevgenia pinched the bridge of her nose. "It sounds as though your culture is a bit more progressive than mine,"

Mikayla quirked an eyebrow. "Just to clarify, do you buy into that?" While it would be trouble if she had to walk on racially charged eggshells around her tutor, Yevgenia sounded more exasperated by the concept than anything.

"If by 'that', you mean purebloods being inherently better in some ineffable way than mixed-bloods? No, I don't. Only fools do in this day and age. It's a cultural relic, more than anything," Yevgenia grumbled, shaking her head. "Being Stranded, shall I assume you know nothing of the history of Guili?"

"No, but please tell me more," Mikayla perked up. History lessons already? She hadn't even found the library yet!

"Oh? Very well. To summarise a long story, Guili had a longstanding tradition of factionalism. But the Emperor who reigned during the Kaiju Collapse recognised that the various noble houses throughout Guili needed to present a united front against the Monster King and the Kaijus. His solution was to unite the predominantly pureblood noble families and disenfranchise the mixed-blood nobility, using the ties of blood as the foundation for a unified Guili," Yevgenia rolled her eyes. "It was a short-term solution, and we are still healing from its long-term consequences,"

Mikayla winced. "Yikes, yeah, I can imagine,"

"Yevgenia herself was also a pureblooded yaoguai, which was just added fuel to the fire," Yevgenia shrugged a bit, and Mikayla grimaced. It had been less than ten minutes and she was already struggling to keep track of who the name 'Yevgenia' referred to. "But regardless. Change will come. The current Emperor has made it illegal to discriminate based on purity of blood. Not that any of this matters to us," she shrugged.

Mikayla wasn't sure she agreed with that, but didn't feel comfortable pressing Yevgenia about it.

"We're here," They had come to a large building that looked like a strange cross between a Chinese temple and an apartment building; all straight lines, windows and balconies, with large pointed roofs crowning the edifice and an elaborate doorway looming over them.

"If you are to be associated with me, we must keep up appearances. So, no matter what happens, look unfazed and let me do the talking. Understood?" Yevgenia asked with the imperious tone of someone who was used to having her orders obeyed without question.

"I guess, but, why? Aren't we just going to be meeting other students?" Mikayla questioned.

"No! We are meeting our rivals. Our foes," Yevgenia stressed the word. "So we must not show weakness. No matter what happens, nothing they say matters. Understood?"

"Hah. Alright, got it, Nya," Mikayla nodded to reassure her.

Yevgenia wrinkled her nose. "Nya? Who is 'Nya'?"

"It's a nickname! You're my friend, friends get nicknames," That wasn't the only reason, not this time. Mikayla needed some way to differentiate her new tutor and, apparently, roommate, from the Rosebush Huntress.

"Nya," Yevgenia repeated the word again, turning it over in her mouth.

Mikayla winced. Was it too soon for a nickname? She wouldn't be offended, would she? Oh no what if she'd screwed up this budding friendship already?

"Hm. Well, I suppose if this is some cultural sensibility of another world, it would be rude of me to reject it. But I would caution you against demeaning my honoured name on formal occasions or whilst in respected company,"

"Ah, right. Can do," Mikayla chuckled nervously, relieved.

Nodding, Nya pushed the doors open, admitting them both into a dim corridor. There was a doorway to their left, with light and voices spilling through it. Mikayla strained her ears; the voices all sounded the same. Like one person holding several conversations at once.

Intrigued, she moved towards the doorway to peer into the common area.

And within she saw at least twenty other Yevgenias, all with the same face.