The next day at around 12 at noon.
"He was really cool back there," Haru said with twinkling eyes, "It felt like my father was caring for me!"
Kaori rolled her eyes for the third time of the day. Haru had kept going on with how Kazuma had visited him after hearing that he was sick and what had happened when he was there. He also mentioned that he had completely recovered after Kazuma's visit. It felt to Kaori as if Kazuma had made a fan out of Haru by that visit of his.
Kaori ignored Haru and walked off towards the training ground.
"Hey, Kaori! Wait for me!" Haru skipped after her, flailing his arms on his sides, "You should listen to how amazing your sensei is! Don't you want to know about one of the good parts of his?"
Kaori let out an annoyed scoff as she strode away, "I have no interest in his good or bad parts. Stop fanboying over him, Haru and leave me alone."
"Let's go together!" He yelled.
"Whatever."
I was waiting for Kaori and Haru along with the others in class when I saw them coming. Kaori was striding towards us in hurry while Haru skipped after her with a bright grin on his face.
I stood before the the students of the class who had formed rows of lines. Kaori and Haru slipped in one of those lines and stood with attention with their arms behind themselves.
It was the training period now and I was the one who would be taking the class. I stood with my head held high and said to the students, "So, I think everyone is here now. It is I who will be taking the class today," I informed them since it's a different teacher everyday who takes the class of training.
"As you know, on field, we are nothing without skills. So today, I want to see what kind of skills each of you have. Can you show me what you are capable of?" I asked them.
Kaori from the back was the first one to speak before anyone else, "What kind of skills are you asking for us to show you?"
I shrugged, "Anything is okay. But basically I'm asking for battle skills."
I put my hand on my chin as I observed the class, walking through the lines, "Why don't we divide the class into small groups of four? That should make things more interesting."
"How so?" Kaori asked me again, "Do you have something in mind?"
The way she was talking to me so casually, stirred a whisper among the other students.
I quickly tried to avoid things from getting complex, "Please refrain yourself from asking questions like that, miss Kaori. Even if you are my disciple, class rules are rules."
Kaori was taken aback by my attitude and so she quieted down. But I could tell that she was fuming inside for revealing her true identity to the others in class. It left me to smile to myself.
I divided the class into eight groups of four and instructed each of the groups to fight against another.
Kaori was in a group with three boys. One of their name was Maki, who was from the lightning section. He had black hair - which had a spiked haircut - and sharp hazel eyes and a high nose. He fought with a spear and he was much swift in fights as well.
Another boy of the group was a boy with a mane of heavy, shoulder length white hair. He wore a blue overcoat with diamond patterns on top of a white robe with brown hemlines, fastened by a green scarf around his neck, and dons brown short boots. A blue bandanna wrapped his head around and a golden hair piece was dangling from it on the right side of his hair. He had almond shaped sky blue eyes, an earring was worn in his left ear. He had big, heavy clothings on and he looked really skinny and frail. But his eyes showed the determination of the strongest. He was Xeno Xin from the Wind section.
The last one was the only one who looked normal in the group. He had messy black hair and under the long fringes which covered most of his forehead, lied beautiful sharp green eyes. He looked strong but he also had a small, skinny body. He fought with knives and I could see the art in his moves while he fought with whom he was against. He was, if I am correct, the boy from one of the newest section - the cursed blood section's Yamaguchi Yamaken.
"𝘒𝘢𝘰𝘳𝘪 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘺𝘴, 𝘐 𝘴𝘦𝘦," I thought while I watched them fight with the group they were against - Haru's group.
Haru was in a group which had one girl and two more boys. The girl with navy blue hair and eyes was named Saki, who was from the water section.
One of the boys, who had short silver hair and slit yellow eyes like a cat was named Gin. He was from the wind section and the eldest among the others in this class.
The other boy was Aoi, who was also from the water section. He had blackish navy blue hair and round purple eyes.
Everyone fought seriously, specially the two teams I kept my eyes on mostly.
Kaori was against Haru and they used this chance to find out how much Kaori benefited from the personal training. Overall, in the end, after each of the members of one team fighting the other team's each members, it was Kaori's team which won against Haru's.
When I saw all the teams in class did a good job in demonstrating what they were capable of to me, I highly praised them for their wholehearted efforts.
Then I dismissed the class promising that I would teach them more fighting techniques in the next class. The class bid me goodbye with evident grins on their face, meaning that they had enjoyed the class time.
I also departed back into the main building with a satisfied smile on my face.
**********************************************
Kaori watched Kazuma leave with her hands folded. Even if he had dismissed the class, meaning that the students had to go back in to the campus to attend their next classes, the students didn't move from their position at all. The members of the groups that had been made earlier, started to talk to each other and new friendships were growing among.
"Hey, wind boy," Spoke Maki, "You are really good at using your powers already."
Kaori quietly looked at the boys she had been grouped into.
The wind boy, Xeno Xin, replied to Maki enthusiastically, "Thank you a lot! Though Xeno has a name so please call him by it!"
Maki grunted, "I don't really find your name easy to pronounce so I'll call you 'wind boy' instead. Nothing to thank me about. I found it really cool. How do you do it?"
"The power of Xeno is something that is dealt with calmness. The calm you are, the easier it is for you to deal with it!"
"Calm?" Maki shrugged, "I didn't know wind had something to do with calmness."
"The wind," Xeno smiled, "Won't be nice for you if it becomes rough. The powers of the wind, is very heavy. But Xeno is not that strong, so please don't feel uneasy around him."
Kaori asked suddenly, "Why aren't you strong? Don't you train?"
"Xeno," Xeno looked at Kaori, "Doesn't want to achieve the true powers of the wind. Xeno doesn't like violence so he doesn't want to be strong. So he doesn't train, yes, young miss, you're right!"
Kaori's eyes widened slightly before going back to normal, "Kaori is okay."
"Yes?" Xeno asked uncertaily, not understanding Kaori.
So Kaori repeated, "My name is Kaori. Call me that."
"Oh, okay!" Xeno grinned at her, "Call Xeno by his name, too!"
"𝘟𝘦𝘯𝘰 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘣𝘰𝘺," Kaori smiled to herself and looked over at the third boy boy of the group. But he was already gone.
"𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵?" Kaori thought bitterly, "𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘺?"
But when she turned around, she saw the boy standing with the navy blue haired girl from the opponent team. They were talking to each other.
"𝘚𝘰 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴?" Kaori shrugged, "𝘞𝘦𝘪𝘳𝘥𝘰."
"Hey."
Haru's voice snatched Kaori's attention. She looked at him to see him smiling.
"What?" She asked.
"You were good out there," He complimented her, "Did you do it because sensei was around?"
"No," Kaori squinted at him, "It's because I am good, duh. You were also serious."
"Of course I would be," He said back, "I wasn't your trainer this time. I was your opponent."
"Are you guys friends?" Xeno popped in between Kaori and Haru.
Kaori replied to him, "Ah, yes. This is Haru," She pointed at Haru and then at Xeno, "And this is Xeno."
Haru shook hands with Xeno, "Nice to meet you. You are the wind boy, right?"
"Why does everyone call Xeno that?" Xeno pouted, "I have a name, you know?"
"Sorry," Haru laughed, "So, Xeno, right? You are from the wind section?"
"Yes," Xeno smiled, "And you are from the water section. It's nice to meet you, Haru."
"How do you know?" Haru asked in surprise.
Xeno replied earnestly, "Xeno knows everyone from this class. But he doesn't have friends," He added sadly.
Haru started fretting over it, "Ah, then, how about we become friends? All of the members of the two groups?"
"Haru," Kaori tried to object but was cut off by Haru, "Come on, Kaori. You need friends, too."
"No, I don't!" Kaori said defensively, "I'm fine on my own!"
Xeno smiled at her, "It's okay if young miss doesn't want to-"
"I told you to call me by my name, Xeno!" Kaori yelled at him desperately.
Xeno laughed out, "Kaori is a nice person! Xeno would like to befriend her."
Kaori blushed at his words which did not go unnoticed by Haru. A smirk appeared on his face.
"Yeah," He threw his hand over Xeno's shoulder, "Kaori thinks Xeno is a nice boy, too," He pulled Xeno, "She wants to befriend him as well."
"What are you guys playing?" Maki asked, entering the scene, followed by Gin and Aoi.
"We don't play," Kaori said bluntly.
He came and threw his arm around Xeno, too, "Even if you don't play, count me in. I like this group, so I want to blend in."
"We don't-" Kaori began only to be cut off again.
"Sure. I'm Haru, nice to meet you," Haru reached his hand out.
Maki accepted it, "I'm Maki. You were great in field, too. Wow, I'm in a group filled with cool people! Let's all be friends."
"Of course!" Haru agreed.
Maki then remembered something and pointed at his companions to introduce them to the rest. "By the way, this is Gin," He pointed one first and then at the other, "And this is Aoi. The three of us are old friends."
"Nice to meet you," Both Gin and Aoi said in unison.
Xeno threw his arms in the air, hyped, "Yay! Xeno is happy to make so many friends today!"
"Who's your friend?" Kaori said in annoyance.
Maki looked at Kaori, "Who are you?"
Kaori was struck with shock. "I'm-! I.. I'm Kaori.. Izumi Kaori..." She introduced herself awkwardly.
"Oh!" Maki said in surprise, "You are the headmaster's disciple!"
Kaori stayed silent but nodded.
"It's nice to mee you," Maki stretched out his hand for a shake.
As Kaori shook it lightly, two more hands came towards her for shakes. It was Gin and Aoi
"Nice to meet you, too," They said together again.
Haru had slipped away to bring Saki and Yamaken to join their group. He was back with the other two when Kaori let out a light but wholehearted laughter. Everyone watched her laugh in surprise. She didn't look like rumours described her to be. She seemed friendly and easygoing. And they were pleased by it.
kaori took Gin and Aoi's hands and shook each of them one by one, smiling pleasantly, "Nice to meet you all, too."
She caught a pair of beautiful green eyes looking over at her and she warmly smiled at the owner of them.
The little boy blushed slightly at the smile.
Xeno jumped over Kaori from the back, hugging her in joy, "Yes! That means Kaori is our friend now!"
"Wait- I didn't agree to that!" Kaori yelled out, holding Xeno's arms which were around her neck.
But everyone laughed and ignored her objections.
Meanwhile in their supposed to be ongoing class, Ms. Mars said blankly at the empty classroom, "Where are my children?"
**********************************************
"Good morning, Kazuma-sensei!"
"Good morning," I greeted.
"Kazuma-sensei!"
"Hello there. Study well," I smiled.
"Sensei! Will you accept these?" A small girl pushed a packet of cookies to me, "My older sister gave these to you!"
I let out a nervous laugh, "Look, it's not in the school's rules to accept something given by the students. So please don't make me feel burdened by these. Sorry for not being able to accept them."
"I don't mind at all, sensei! You're the best!" The girl ran away, hiding her face.
These days, I've been getting too much attention than usual. I sometimes start to freak out but I control myself barely. I thought countless of times why it could have happened but nothing came to mind.
I was walking towards Kaori's classroom. I had to check on her before going to my class for homeroom.
But when I reached the corridor of her class, I saw her coming out of the classroom, followed by a huge gang of boys and a girl around her.
She was basically following Haru out the room but Xeno was enthusiastically following behind.
"Yay, Xeno is happy to accompany Kaori!" I could hear him exclaim with joy.
"No one asked you to accompany me, Xeno!" Kaori said to him, looking desperate.
"However, Xeno was allowed to accompany you by Haru!" He protested.
Kaori looked at Haru and snapped, "Who allowed you to allow someone?"
Haru just laughed her off and pulled Xeno, "Let's go, Xeno."
Kaori quietly looked around her and said, "It's fine that Haru allowed Xeno and that's why he is accompanying me but.. Why are you guys here?"
Maki, Gin, Aoi, Saki and Yamaken stopped in their footsteps and gave a nervous laugh. They were also following the first three.
Maki replied to her promptly, "We are friends, we should go together wherever we go."
"Did I ever promise to be so devoted?" Kaori asked blankly.
"You didn't," Gin said simply.
Aoi added with it, "But nobody listens to you."
"I know, right?" Kaori pulled on her hair. She looked back to meet Yamaken's eyes again and she nodded this time but he didn't do anything in return and simply looked away, walking faster to the other boys. This left Kaori to walk with Saki.
On the way to following the boys ahead, the two girls started a conversation between them and walked along.
Watching them, I put two and two together and understood what had happened. I couldn't help smiling to myself and think that I did a great job at putting up groups last day in the class.
Seeing her doing well, I turned around on my heel and left for my class.
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