Joey was on his way to meet with Nina, for his next bout of training with her in his school's gym. He had been training with her now for a few weeks as well as his training with Ryuchi and Tina. Training with Ryuchi had at least helped him learning some basic healing magic and some ward type magic with Ryuchi teaching Joey light based magic. Tina on the other hand had progressed where he has been getting better and better at reading her attacks but still no closer to land a single hit on her, but at least he was able to doge her swings and kicks.

Upon reaching the gym, Joey pushed the doors open and walked inside and was surprised to see the other princesses there sitting on the bleachers off to the side. Instead of Nina,waiting for him, he saw the small blue mew, sapphire, in her toddler form, floating in place waiting for him to arrive.

"About time, Nina did mention that you had a tendency to be a bit late" She replied with a smile

"Whats going on?" Joey asked looking around in confusion

"Nina didn't tell you?" Sapphire asked

"Tell me what?" Joey asked waiting for her to just tell him

"I thought you were going to tell him" Sapphire said as she turned to the ninetails sitting in the stands

"I guess I forgot to mention it to him" Nina replied with a nervous chuckle, grinning as she rubbing the back of her head

Joey just stared blankly feeling a bit annoyed with being kept in the dark.

"Well Sapphire here is wanting to challenge you to a little sparring match, she wishes to see what you can do" Esmeralda chimed on in to fill the otter in on what was going on

"She does? Why is that?" Joey asked

"I will tell you if you beat me" Sapphire replied

"I have to beat you?" Joey asked

A few of the princesses in the stands tried their best to keep a straight face upon hearing that, to not let the otter in on how strong she really is.

"Also, I want to know how well you can handle yourself, the outcome of this little match will determine if I allow for you to tag along with Katie on any of her little missions" Esmeralda added

"Oh?" Joey simply asked

"Yes, I asked if you could join me in my little adventures but you have to be strong enough to tag along, shouldn't be too hard for you" Katie chimed on in to answer

Joey just stared off blankly and nervously as he felt some level of stage fright to be fighting in front of a large crowd.

"Just do your best" Sapphire commented snapping Joey back to reality

Joey turned to face the mew as the queen stood on up out of her seat.

"Begin!" Esmeralda exclaimed

Without much warning the otter was hit and knocked back by a simple bubble beam attack from the mew.

"No fair, I wasn't ready!" Joey exclaimed in defense

"You always have to be aware of what's going on in a real fight" mew replied, "I hope you aren't giving up already"

"You wish" Joey replied as he jumped up to his feet and charged his paws with mana

Mew held her paws close together in a circle shape, and began to charge up a black orb of energy readying a shadow ball attack. Joey quickly slapped his paws on the ground just as she launched her attack at him. In an instant, there was a loud explosion and steam and smoke filled the room as sounds of gushing water could be heard.

"What happened? Can anyone see?" Katie asked waving the smoke out of her face

The air quickly cleared as Sapphire used defog to clear the air around them as two columns of water could be seen flooding the ring with water.

"Good thing this is an enclosed space" Joey muttered to himself filling the arena up with as much water as he could

"Clever boy, you used your water summoning to block my attack, very clever indeed" Sapphire began praising

"Yeah clever" Joey replied as it was actually a fluke but wasn't about to admit that

The otter broke his hold on the ground as the jets of water ceased, leaving their arena filled with water. Sapphire took to the defensive as she watched the otter step onto the surface of the water and walk around on it as he used his mana on his feet paws to walk on water.

"Smart move, would be more effective if I had to move around by foot. This much water would slow down any other foe who would have to wade through all this, but me, I can fly" She replied rushing at him with quick attack

Joey quickly dashed to side, by skating on the water's surface, narrowly dodging her charge. She quickly u turned and charged again, to keep him from being able to retaliate.

"This is no different than dodging Tina's attacks, just stay focused" Joey thought to himself as he waited for an opportunity to fight back

The mew charged once more but instead of dodging, Joey stomped his foot on the waters surface and created a wall of water to stop Sapphire in her tracks. While the water wall was still standing, Joey unsheathed his sword and began stabbing the wall with the sword. On the other side of the wall Sapphire was met with sword like projectiles of ice flying right at her but had quickly put up her protect bubble, shielding her from the volley.

"You will have to do better than that" She exclaimed using charging up a thundershock attack as the water wall collapsed

Joey felt his fur standing up on end, feeling the air fill with electricity. He quickly jumped into the air and used his magic to freeze the water below him just as she shocked the water electrifying it before he landed safely on icy platform.

"Quick reflexes there, probably want to rethink your little flood of water" Sapphire pointed out

Joey looked at her as he was trying to think of how he could even beat her, seeing she could zap the water at any time. Joey thought to himself and thought of an idea, if his mana could allow him to walk on water then it should let him freeze the water under his feet. Joey tested this out as he took a step off the side off the frozen platform and froze the water under his foot. It wasn't a perfect solution as the platform wobbled on the water's surface as Joey tried to keep his balance but better than being zapped.

"You are creative, I will give you that much but warm up time is over, now lets see how you react on the fly" Sapphire said to Joey as she charged at him using extreme speed

The otter was knocked off the platform as she moved too fast for him to react and fell into the water. She then charged up another thundershock attack and zapped the water. Joey saw her building the electricity up around herself and froze the water around him into a ball of ice. The mew zapped the water cracking the ice ball protecting the otter.

"Seems like trying to hit you with electric attacks won't work, you are quick" Sapphire commented praisingly before charging a solar beam

Joey watched and unfroze the ice ball and swam off to try and avoid the attack as she tried to track him. Once her attack finished charging she fired the beam at the otter, Joey barely avoided the attack swimming away from the beam at the last second.

Should've known better, you otters are too fast in the water" She commented to herself.

Joey lept out of the water and and fell onto his feet, standing on the water's surface. Tired of always being on the run, he put the tip of his blade onto the surface of the water and charged at the mew. Sapphire watched while putting up her protect bubble as the otter swung the sword up into the air, slicing through the water and creating a tall blade of water that rushed at the mew. Her bubble held up against the attack, knocking her back a bit before seeing the otter leap up towards her with his fist encased in ice. Before the otter could strike, she teleported away and appeared behind him before striking him with another shadow ball, sending him crashing down to the water below.

"Nice follow up, but you were too slow, if you had been a bit faster you might have landed a hit" She complimented

Joey groaned, as he picked himself on up and began to think of what to do. He looked back at his training with Nina and recalled one of the skills she had been teaching him.

"I hope I can pull this off" Joey thought to himself

He focused his mana into the sword and began to swing the blade at the mew, sending slashes of water, flying through the air at the mew, she flew around dodging each slash as they struck the roof of the gym.

"You really need to work on your aim" Sapphire commented as she held out a paw and her eyes began to glow.

Joey found himself being lifted up into the air as she began to confusion on him and held him in place.

"No hard feelings" She replied as she held out another paw and began to charge up a psybeam

Joey could only watch as he flailed around in the air and held out his left hand as she fired her beam. A loud blast rang through the gym as a glowing yellow light shone from Joey's hand, a wall of light shielding him from her attack.

"So even you have some protective magic" Sapphire muttered as she noticed a a glowing yellow tail of mana from the otter as well.

Joey turned and looked at it not knowing where it came from as the kanji symbol on his back glowed weakly.

"Okay this is new...." Joey replied seeing all of this

The otter noticed that Sapphire was distracted, and took the opportunity to use his water magic to create a pillar of water beneath the mew. She broke her psychic hold on the otter to block the attack allowing him to get free and unleash another flurry of sword slashes. Sapphire watched and got away from the pillar of water as the water blades slashed all around her as she put up her protect and braced the strikes. Joey charged at her to go for a follow up attack, but was caught by surprise when he saw a blue ball of aura fly at him. The otter had no time to react and prepared to take the blow but the sphere was deflected by his mana tail, sending it back at the mew. She watched and teleported away from her own attack just in time as the sphere struck a wall.

"Okay I had no idea I could do that, but.....how did I do that?" Joey asked himself

"Impressive, if you don't mind me asking how did you do such a thing?" Sapphire asked

"I uhh...... don't really know, it just kinda happened" Joey admitted "This little tail is kinda new for me"

Sapphire eyed it as it moved about on its own free will, "Hrm will have to be careful with that ability of yours"

She focused her psychic power and sent out a wave of psychic energy at him as he used his light barrier to shield against it. The barrier began to crack and shatter under the crushing force of her psywave. While Joey was distracted with defending against her attack she used her future sight and saw one of his attacks and widened her eyes.

"I gotta prepare for that one, that might actually break my defense" She commented to herself

Joey collapsed onto his knees and panted a bit seeing his basic magic skills not even doing much against her. He watched her as she held out both paws and charged an aura sphere in one and a shadow ball in another. Joey got up to his feet and tried to put up his magic ward again unsure how much it could even shield against. she threw the attacks at him as the aura sphere easily destroyed the ward he put up and his mana tail couldn't deflect the shadow ball but instead just blocked it. Smoke from the shadow ball blocked his line of sight, as she charged him with extreme speed again and knocked him down on his back.

"This is crazy, she doesn't even look tired and she is kicking my butt. I really don't know if I should use that magic but I am going to be defeated if I don't" Joey commented to himself

He picked himself back on up as sapphire looked at him, "Here it comes" She thought as she charged up her solar beam again

Joey's paws glowed a bright yellow as he drew a magic circle in the air with his palms and thrust his hands and arms through them. As he did, magic circles, enveloped his fingers, wrists and forearms, before a pair of water arms rose on up in front of him and the mew.

"Please let this work!" Joey shouted in desperation

As he clenched his right hand into a fist the right water arm did the same before the knuckles of it froze into ice. Joey threw a punch at the mew but the arms collapsed into water as Joey passed out before Sapphire could use her solar beam.

"Wait, what just happened?" She asked

"Seems Joey pushed himself too far with that attack" Esmeralda replied, "Out of mana and energy to keep going"

"Awww, just when it was about to get interesting" Sapphire complained ending her attack "I was just about to get started for real"

Katie hopped on down to help the others get him to the nurses office so he could get some rest.

"So what do you think?" She asked the queen

Esmeralda thought some for a bit, "Well....." She started to say "He has a lot to learn still, but then again you were all the same, still though he isn't ready for anything big, but he can tag along for small stuff if its not too dangerous, once he has learned to control his magic better he can fight Sapphire again and see if he is ready for anything bigger"

"I hope he does get better he could be fun to fight in the rematch" Sapphire commented

An hour later Joey came to and looked up at a plain white ceiling and found himself lying on a small cot in the nurse's office. He sat on up and looked around a bit and saw Katie and Esmeralda sitting beside him.

"Oh good you're awake" The queen replied

"Pushed myself too far" Joey replied with a deep sigh realizing what happened

"Afraid so" Esmeralda replied

"So why the sudden fight with one of the girls?" Joey asked

"Well Sapphire wanted to see how strong you were and Katie had been asking me if I could let you tag along with her on adventures so I figured this was a way to kill two birds with one stone" She answered

"Well yes but why did she want to see how strong I am?" Joey asked

"She wanted to see if you were as strong as her" Esmeralda answered

"As strong as a mew?" Joey asked

"Not Sapphire" She replied

"Then who?" Joey asked confused

Katie handed Joey a photo of an otter woman wielding a large scythe. As he gazed at it for a few minutes, his eyes widened up in surprise.

"She was the same, always pushing herself a bit too far, a lot of her defeats was because she used up too much of her magic. Seems you have inherited that from her" The queen commented

"Wait.....are you seriously telling me that she was a princess too?" Joey asked in disbelief

"That is correct" She replied

"I can't believe she never told me" Joey replied

"She probably has her reasons" Katie replied

"Yeah but, I mean my mom being a princess wielding a scythe, that's so cool!" Joey exclaimed in excitement

"Well I can tell you about her some other time, for now you should rest" Esmeralda replied

"Don't worry we can ask her about it afterwards, won't she be surprised to hear you are dating a princess" Katie replied

"Yeah but ummm.... can we leave out the part where I got my ass beat by a kitten" Joey asked

"I dunno she might find it funny that you lost to someone who isn't potty trained" Katie teased