This is another part of my series of posts on what awaits us next after Trails beyond the Horizon. This time, I want to talk about Rean Schwarzer and the future of the Eight Leaves One Blade school itself. So, expect a lot of theories about Yun Ka-fai and Shizuna.

First of all, what exactly does Yun Ka-fai want Rean and Shizuna to do? We know that Yun Ka-fai is one of the most knowledgeable individuals in Zemuria when it comes to hidden truths. He knows much more than we do, and he has apparently known about the Grand Reset for a very long time. We don't know exactly how much he knows about it, but he has been preparing for Heavensturn for years. And in his preparation, he started training people to stop it from happening. This raises an obvious question: Yun Ka-fai is incredibly strong, so why couldn't he just save the world by himself? There are multiple possibilities I can see:

1. Yun Ka-fai is a Holy Beast of Time, so he can't actively participate in Zemuria's events. To say he doesn't participate at all would be a stretch, but that would somehow explain why Judith said about him: "...He was different, though. Almost like he's gone beyond good and evil." That sounds like something that could be said about a Holy Beast.

2. The one who will stop Heavensturn and "defeat" the Laegjarn's Chest must possess something that Yun Ka-fai does not. It's obviously not strength or knowledge that he lacks. It must be something more unique, possibly connected to Rean's and Shizuna's demonic forms. Maybe only people who have something "mixed" in them, as McBurn called it, can do that.

3. Yun Ka-fai believes that Rean and Shizuna are simply better suited for the job, but if they fail, he plans to fight in their place. Obviously, that won't happen, but maybe he just thinks that Rean and Shizuna have higher chances of winning than he does.

4. Yun Ka-fai does not know exactly how to win against the Laegjarn's Chest. That's why he made sure that two of his best students are masters of two different styles – Eight Leaves and Black God. He leaves it to fate to decide which of these two is capable of saving the world.

I'm mostly leaning towards option number 2, but with some elements from theory number 4.

Now, I'll share some of my other thoughts on Yun Ka-fai. For a long time, he was just a master of an old school of Black God. Yet, at some point, something inside him changed and he decided to found the Eight Leaves One Blade school and began teaching it to others. From the short dialogue between Rean and Shizuna in the old observatory, we can guess that the core difference between the two styles is that Black God users find their strength alone, they don't need any friends on their path. This is the dark path of the sword. But Eight Leaves is different. It's the style the Sword Hermit himself created – something that lets people find their true strength through their friends and the help of others. This is the light path of the sword, the one that people do not walk alone. I bet something very important must have happened in Yun Ka-fai's life for him to create a style so fundamentally different from the one he studied his whole life and the one his people used for hundreds of years. Maybe at that time, he already foresaw that he needed to find a student to teach the Eight Leaves style to. His first two main students, Cassius and Arios, despite being talented, likely did not possess what was needed to save the world from the Grand Reset. Rean was the student he saw the most potential in. In fact, Yun Ka-fai apparently knew that Rean was the student he had been seeking from the moment he saw him. With his Omniscient Eye, he already saw the grim fate awaiting his student. But that only made it clearer that if Rean succeeded in overcoming that fate, he would have the strength needed to overcome an even greater adversary – the Laegjarn's Chest.

After teaching his two best students his two different styles, he left them to their own devices so each could hone their skills even further. All of this was only leading to what the Sword Hermit wanted – for Rean and Shizuna, for Eight Leaves and Black God, to fight each other in a deadly battle. The winner of that fight would elevate their skills to a whole new level – the one needed to stand a chance against the event capable of ending all of Zemuria and starting it anew. Yun Ka-fai wants to see what this fight will lead to, and whether swordsmanship is a path that many people help you walk, or if it's the path one must walk alone. Two sides of the same power. However, I think Yun Ka-fai will not get what he wants. I see it as very likely that only by combining both sides of the path of the sword might the great "evil" be defeated. Both Rean and Shizuna are needed in that fight. That doesn't mean Rean and Shizuna won't fight in the next game – they most likely will have a duel. I'm just saying that whatever Yun Ka-fai wants is not what will happen. Rean and Shizuna will fight, and both will elevate each other to new heights.

While we can call Rean's path the right one and Shizuna's path a mistake, I really don't think Shizuna's Black God is the one Yun Ka-fai taught her. Shizuna changed over the course of the Calvard arc. In the Finale, she chose to help Van instead of doing anything else, be it fighting Rean or watching the launch. She made her decision not to be alone. That already isn't what the Black God is all about. Shizuna's style became something different entirely, perhaps she might have gotten a glimpse of the true style of Black God. So, in that way, Shizuna isn't an opposite to Rean anymore. She's not what Yun Ka-fai wanted her to be. Instead of fighting Rean to the death, she will most likely join hands with their group to save Zemuria with their combined power. In their duel, Rean and Shizuna will find their own tachi, as Yun Ka-fai said... But not in the way he wanted them to. They will both create something different from what their teacher was using. They will create their own styles that will be their true weapons to "pierce a god".

After seeing how his students changed his teachings, Yun Ka-fai might try to fight them. And I definitely think that both Rean and Shizuna will surpass their teacher in the next game. I don't know if they will both best him one-on-one, or if they'll fight against him together, but it's something that has to happen.

After achieving new heights, both Shizuna and Rean will play a crucial role in defeating the Laegjarn's Chest and preventing Heavensturn from happening. Their most likely role will be fighting against the Ishmelga-looking knight that it summoned. I can see them having help from Divine Knight pilots like Crow and maybe even Rufus, and Hermes will likely also be there to help if she's alive in the next game (which I think she will be).

As for Rean's route as a whole in the next game, it could include some new characters: Gaius has the highest chance, given his connections to every party from Horizon (he's a Dominion, a student of Bergard, and part of Class VII). Maybe someone else from Class VII (Ash, Millium, Sara, Kurt, and Emma seem the most likely to me). Richard (copium), Anelace (ultra-copium), Walter, and Zin might also join them. I don't think other Eight Leaves students will appear, but there's a chance, I guess... 

Overall, from everything I've written, it's easy to see that Yun Ka-fai, despite having good intentions, will likely be an antagonist in the next game, while Rean and Shizuna will both be on the good side, trying to do things their own way – a way different from what their teacher envisioned.

If Yun Ka-fai is, by some miracle, actually a Holy Beast of Time, that changes some parts of my theories, but the overall idea will mostly stay the same: he mistakenly thinks that only by killing the other could Rean or Shizuna gain the power to save Zemuria.

In the end, Yun Ka-fai stands as one of Zemuria's greatest enigmas – a man who has peered beyond the veil of reality and spent decades preparing for a crisis only he truly understands. Having walked the solitary path of the Black God himself, he eventually created something entirely new – the Eight Leaves One Blade school, proving that he, more than anyone, understands that strength can be found in both solitude and connection. He isn't here to judge which path is "right." He's here to see which one can save the world.

This is the true purpose behind the duel he has orchestrated between Rean and Shizuna. The Sword Hermit simply needs to witness the ultimate expression of both philosophies under the highest possible stakes. Can the light path of the Eight Leaves, the strength found through friends and bonds, prove itself against a world-ending threat? Or will the dark path of the Black God, the solitary strength Shizuna was taught, reveal itself as the necessary answer? By pitting his two finest students against each other, Yun Ka-fai hopes to see which sword is truly capable of piercing a god.

But if the Trails series has taught us anything, it's that the best answers are rarely the simplest ones to achieve. Shizuna's choice in the Calvard arc, choosing to help Van, choosing not to be alone, suggests that even the Black God's path may be evolving into something its original master never anticipated. And Rean, for all his bonds, has always carried a solitude of his own. When these two finally cross blades, I don't believe we'll see a victor and a vanquished in a fight like this. We'll see something far more valuable: two warriors pushing each other beyond their limits, each glimpsing what the other's path has to offer.

When Rean and Shizuna find their own tachi, they won't simply be surpassing their teacher. They'll be proving that the sword itself is greater than any single school that teaches it!

Whether the Sword Hermit will stand aside after witnessing this, or step forward to test the result himself, remains to be seen. When Heavensturn arrives, the fate of Zemuria won't be decided by either light and dark paths. The world's fate depends on Rean and Shizuna understanding that the truest strength lies somewhere in between.

Let me know what you think will happen in Rean's route next! Do you believe Rean and Shizuna's duel will end in Rean defeating her? Will Shizuna be an antagonist or an ally for Rean?

Theories on Rean Schwarzer's future in the next game after Horizon: what awaits after the Eight Leaves?