The Golden Girl

Cifer wasn't sure what he'd said wrong to make the fiery Akemi Sensei so pale. In his experience that was the worst possible sign from her. It was inevitably followed by-

"Would you shut up already!? Whose class is this, yours or mine!? Get out now!!!" Akemi erupted with all the famous passion of a War Essence cultivator. Cifer would never understand why she insisted on trying to use the fear of Tyranny.

Seeing Cifer not moving, Akemi's face grew as red as her hair before it slowly paled again. It wasn't fair to be tossed out for such a ridiculous reason, but Cifer knew everyone would support her more drastic measures if he refused to go. He stood just exactly before she spoke again and bowed. "Yes Sensei." He politely spoke, then calmly walked out.

He could hear the shocked giggles of his classmates cut off by Akemi's next explosion finding an unfortunate new victim after the primary target fled. He sighed. "You didn't deserve that either." Maybe he could find Momo. The Clan Leader's daughter hated bullies as much as he did.

Despite their polar opposite treatment by the Clan, Cifer and Momo were ideologically and intellectually the closest to equal among their peers. With a 2 year age difference, Momo hid rather a lot of secrets. Like the fact that her actual rate of growth was the highest in her year and her apparent Beginner Broken Origination Realm was only the surface. Of course, those came down to the same root secret actually.

See, on the surface of things she was by far the slowest, as all of them were Advanced Broken Origination other than the twins who recently made Transformation. Not all Stages were equal, and from Advanced to Transformation was a Large Stage, same as Early to Beginner. So many being held up temporarily at the same point wasn't odd at all.

But below the surface, Momo had her hidden ace, which easily put her over the twins in a 2 v 1. The Clan strictly hid that even from themselves. Cifer only knew because Momo told him herself. The difference in treatment really couldn't get more drastic.

Cifer's thoughts had a habit of wandering like that when he simply put himself on auto pilot to get from A to B. Had he been paying it any mind he'd have found the houses most of the Clan lived in as nice as ever. While hardly spacious or well suited for cultivating in, the simple wooden structures had enough room for as many as ten people, with two floors and several bedrooms.

The classic training grounds, where spars and irreconcilable differences were fought. But mostly where people Cultivated. Like Auntie Azumi, who still dreamed of making it past the barrier to Low tier Origination after spending every last scrap she earned feeding him at the price of feeding 10. He really thought of her as his mother, and waved as he passed. She didn't see it, but it was the thought that counted.

Then there was the private cultivation grounds where only the privileged few could cross a thin fence to practice in a beautiful landscape with a river running through it and a waterfall at the end. Momo always seemed to love practicing in the cave the two of them found under the waterfall four years ago.

He tossed a rock in first, just to let her know it was him. She spoke up a moment later. "Come in Cifer."

As he took the round about walkway, Cifer found himself again thinking about just how different some things were for them. He was dirt poor, she had meat every meal and more Cultivation resources than anyone else. He didn't even have access to the Clan's Library, she was given the Ancestor's Cultivation Art directly. He'd never see any of the Clan's Armory without a dramatic shift in fate, while she...

Momo nearly ran him over coming after waiting barely a minute. "Hurry up slow poke! What are you going to do when Dad realizes we're meeting here again?" She drags him inside.

Which reminded him of another set of differences. Where he was steady and thoughtful, she was impulsive and emotional. Not to mention, as Cifer realized every time they were alone, he was ugly and she was the most beautiful, pure maiden in the entire Clan.