Charu came near the group of friends and said, "I heard your plan to defeat Rashmi in the Sarvayogita competition.  But you will face the same defeat like the previous ones".  When they looked at her in anticipation for further steps, she told, "I have an idea to gift her a crushing defeat".  She smirked saying this and the others heard her plan and were elated to execute the same in the competition.

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The night before the Sarvayogita competition, Agneya was standing in the balcony of Rashmi's Chamber and was in deep thoughts.  Rashmi came to the balcony, which has now become a place to hold serious conversations.  She asked, "What are you thinking?".  He turned towards her, leaning his back on the railing and said, "I don't know why but I have a feel that tomorrow is not some normal day of the competition.  There is much more and we don't have a clue about what is going to happen".

Rashmi smiled at him and said, "We never know what happens in life, the next second Yuvraj.  So it is nothing to be worried about being clueless.  Moreover, I got an information that Charu had met with the group of Royal brats.  So we should be ready to face the unexpected".  He looked at her after hearing her words and sighed while saying, "This is what I feel the difference between Rakshatra and Pranyakta.  There were so many trustworthy people in my kingdom with whom I had grown up with and trained since my childhood.  As I returned from my Gurukul, I was about to meet up with them.  But then this happened".

Agni didn't look at her as he was reminiscing his life before entering this realm.  She too kept quiet as she didn't want to interrupt his  personal memories.  After a few minutes, she asked, "Tell me about your siblings. You mentioned about your younger sister.  Any other siblings?".  Agneya smiled and said, "Yes, I have one younger brother and younger sister.  My sister is just 3 or 4 years old as I mentioned earlier.  My brother is just one year younger than me.  His name is Arunaditya".

Rashmi listened to him intently and asked, "So it will be almost like you and your brother are twins since the age gap is less?".  Agni chuckled and said, "Not so true because he always called me as 'Bhai' and never disregarded my words and neither did he argued with me in anything".  She too smiled unknowingly as she heard their childhood stories.  Agni looked at her in a cheerful mood after a conversation about his family and found her to be immersed in thoughts.

Rashmi felt a nudge on her shoulder and looked at him and shook her head when he asked her through his eyes.  He asked, "What is in your mind?".  She sighed and said, "I just thought what it would be like to have a loving parents and friendly siblings.  I wish I had such a bond with my sister as you have with your brother.  I can only wish for it".

Agneya pulled her in a side hug and then said, "You know what, I feel that the bond between siblings is determined by the parents".  She scrunched her eyebrows at his words and he continued, "Your parents didn't treat you with the same love as it was for your sister.  Neither their treatment of you was good infront of her nor was their love.  This inequality subconsciously gave her a superiority complex over you and she took you for granted.  Although she didn't mistreat you openly, she did think that she always deserves everything better than you".

Rashmi looked back at her past in a new perspective and realised that he does have a point.  Agni continued, "That superiority complex was triggered when you came to be known as the soulmate of Rajkumar Dakshesh ".  He didn't like to say that she was once his destined soulmate but it needs to be said.  He continued, "If your parents treated you with the respect that you are the older one and there is someone who is younger than you, looking upto you, then the younger one would also have given you the same respect". 

Both of them kept silent to restrospect their own lives in their respective homes and then Rashmi said in a whisper, "You will be an amazing Father".  He frowned and asked, "Father?".  She looked into his eyes this time and said while pinching his cheek, "My Agni will be the best father for our children".  She chuckled at his stunned face and ran inside the chamber.

Agneya too followed inside and asked, "You called my name?".  She looked at him with squinted eyes and said, "Yes, Any problem? Well you shouldn't have any problem".  Then she continued with her work, which is clearing her bed although Dakini had cleaned it earlier.  Agni tried to control the blush which was spreading on his neck and thanked God that she is not looking at him, unknown to the fact that she is also hiding her blushing face. 

Agneya cleared his throat after calming down and called her, "Rashmi".  She looked back at him in surprise and he continued with a smirk, "Is there any problem?".  When he shook her head, he came near her and pulled her by her waist and asked while drawing some random circles on her back, "When shall we disclose our relationship before everyone?".

Rashmi sighed as she had expected this question.  Infact she does feel guilty for forcing him to keep this a secret.  She replied, "Samrat has already announced that Charu will be entering the Palace after the competition is over.  And now we are very sure about what we want in our relationship.  So now we don't have to hide this from anybody.  Let's tell the world that we belong to eachother".  Agni smiled at her words and then they slept off that night.

The next day, the competition arena was filled with enthusiastic students and Acharyas.  Everyone including Samrat, Samragyi and the Royal Kings and Queens of the five Kingdoms and the family members of Samrat were present today as this Sarvayogita competition is for the Anniversary of the academy.  All of them took their seats

A few students challenged their opponents and fought with great confidence.  After a few fights, Jitendra from Agnipura openly challenged Rashmi.  As she was about to enter the arena, Vedanth from Vayupura also entered the arena challenging her which made the crowd go silent as it was new thing for more than one person to challenge someone.  Even the Royals were also surprised and Samrat was about to reject their challenge when Apoorva and Leela also entered the fighting arena challenging Rashmi.

Rashmi's father, the King of Akashpura was angry at the blatant disrespect towards their Kingdom by the Royal Princes and Princesses of the other four Kingdoms.  He stood up from his seat and joined hands infront of Samrat and said, "I request you to give justice to us, Akashpura, Samrat.  All other Kingdoms have teamed up to fight us today which shows their hostility towards us.  How come this is ethical Samrat? My daughter is still the soulmate of Rajkumar Dakshesh and them fighting her is putting a question of the Kingdoms loyalty to the Royal family of Pranyakta.  Please give us justice Samrat". 

Although the other four Kingdoms were not happy about the actions of their children, they cannot show themselves as the wrong party before Samrat and others.  So one of the Kings said, "Think before you accuse us of anything.  Your Daughter did the unthinkable when she removed her soulmate mark of the Royal of Pranyakta.  May be they have some small fights among them which is why they are challenging her.  Moreover your loyalty itself is in question as Yuvraj Agneya was attacked within your boundaries.  So don't cry for justice infront of us now".

Samrat stood up from his seat high on the stairs and said, "Stop it both of you.  No ones loyalty is questioned here.  If I had the slightest clue that Akashpura had conspired to kill Yuvraj Agneya then he won't be sitting here now.  Infact they have surrendered the attacker to us.  As for as the fight is concerned, we cannot stop them as the rules were made lenient for the day.  Let's see how the match goes.  I have full faith on Rashmi to win this match". 

Everyone went silent after his speech as they couldn't refute him anymore.  Agneya too felt that Rashmi was unprepared for the fight as they had not expected such a conspiracy from them.  Rashmi gestured through her eyes that she would fight them.  So agneya calmed down but still he had an intuition that the fight won't be in their favour.  Just when the Acharyas were about to announce the fight, one guy from the Space power came forward and challenged Rashmi.  If it were any other time, this wouldn't have been a big problem but joining the group of Royals to fight their own Crown Princess seemed to be a cunning plan for all those present there.

Even the other four people and Charu didn't expect such a twist.  But then Acharyas announced the start of the fight and all 5 of them surrounded Rashmi in a circle.  She took a double edged sword form of a thunder in both hands and averted their attacks of a fireball, waterball, sandball, dustball and small thunderbolts.  They started off easy as everyone took turns to attack her one by one.

Soon the speed of attacks increased as Rashmi had to swiftly swing her double edged swords in a circular motion to avert their attacks.  She got hit by two of their attacks and soon changed her weapon and created the anti gravity bubble around herself which actually shocked her Father.  Now the other 5 had to put all their power because the bubble is preventing all their advances and attacks.  After almost ten minutes all six of them were tired but Rashmi was growing much more weaker due to the extensive use of her powers and finally the bubble was gone.  But still this is a new record for herself as she had broken her own record for the maximum time to sustain the bubble.

Rashmi fell down on her knees exhausted and the whole arena around her fell silent as her 5 opponents closed around her.  Agneya who was sitting in the grand tent for Royal family, clenched his first as he saw all five of them surrounding her exhausted form with their weapons.  Rashmi looked up at their raised hands and tried to lift up her hands to use her powers but her body felt weak to defend against them.  As their raised hands closed down towards her to tackle her to the ground, the most unexpected thing happened which saved Rashmi. 

As their hands neared her, suddenly all 5 elemental powers took the form of a human, with only the upper body while their lower body is still just a cosmic form, attacked from all the sides of Rashmi with a vigorous force and made all the opponents lose their weapons and forced them to lay down on the ground while still hovering above them.  All of the five human faces roared on their opponent's face, which even vibrated around the whole arena and made them accept their defeat as they were not able to tackle the unexpected force.  All this happened within a few seconds that many people couldn't fathom what happened for a moment.

Agneya stood up from his position followed by all others present in the arena while a shocked Acharya announced that Rashmi has won the fight.  Samrat looked at Agneya and then the weakened Rashmi who was still kneeling on the ground and also the five forces which are still keeping the opponents down.  Agneya walked to the centre of the arena and picked up Rashmi in his arms, which effectively controlled the five forces to retreat back.  Agni went out of the arena.

Glossary:
Samrat - Emperor
Samragyi - Empress
Rajkumar - Prince
Bratashree - Brother
Bhabhishree - sister-in-law
Acharya - Master/Teacher
Mamashree - Uncle (Mother's Brother)
Mamishree - Aunt (Mother's brother's wife)
Bade - elder or big
Chote - younger or small

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Precap:

Rashmi to enter the Palace.

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Hi guys,

Do vote and comment if you like the chapter.

Word count: 2100

Thanks,
SM.