After a few hours of having classes, the bell on District 4's Public Esper school rang at 13:00 pm on point, to signal that classes were over for today and that students could finally go home, normally classes would end around 15:00-16:00 pm, but on Mondays, classes finished earlier, to the delight of many students.
Meanwhile, Tatsurou was on his desk, in the process of packing up his notebooks and pencil case, in his school bag but he stooped, as he glanced to his side and saw Marie that was in the desk next to his pouting and looking away from him.
"She's still angry, about leaving her behind, this morning..." Tatsurou thought as he sighed, and looked at Marie, that didn't speak to him since she got to class.
"Uhm, Marie, classes have ended, so how about we go home?" Tatsurou asked this as he got close to Marie, that was still avoiding to look at him.
"You idiot...you left me behind, if it wasn't for those girls in our class showing up, I would still be lost..." Marie said this as she kept pouting and looking away from Tatsurou, that felt as if he was hit by a bullet, as he remembered how the girls that helped Marie, gave him an earful for leaving her behind when they brought her, calling him things like "idiot" or "heartless" for doing that.
"I'm really sorry about that, it was kind of an emergency...so could you forgive me?" Tatsurou said as he bowed in Marie's direction, but she kept looking away from him.
"She is really angry, just how do I...wait! I got it!" Tatsurou thought as he scratched his cheek, but then it hit him.
"I know, that it was bad on my part for leaving you behind, so what if, I do something to compensate for that?" Tatsurou asked as he looked at Marie that upon hearing this glanced at him for a brief moment before looking away again.
"By compensating, do you mean I can ask you to do something and you will do it, in return?" Marie asked as she gave another look to Tatsurou.
"Well, more or less yes, that is the point..." Tatsurou said this without thinking too much, as he just wanted Marie to not be angry with him.
"Ok then! I accept your proposal, let's go then!" Marie said with a smile, as she placed her hands on her desk and got up from the chair she was sitting.
"Are you, not telling me what you want?" Tatsurou asked a bit curious as he saw Marie already taking her, leave.
"When the time comes, I will tell you!" Marie said as she kept walking.
"Ok, now I might have made a bad proposal..." Tatsurou thought as he did a small dash to catch up to Marie...
Now Tatsurou and Marie, were walking through the halls of the school, and that was when Tatsurou decided to continue the conversation with Marie, that was interrupted by Naoki earlier this morning.
"So, Marie, about that thing, I was going to ask you this morning..." Tatsurou said this as he looked at Marie, was curious about what he was going to ask.
"Can you tell me, how summoning a weapon, works?" Tatsurou asked this to Marie that looked at him for a second in silence.
"Well, I can do that, but why?" Marie asked a bit curious and Tatsurou answered almost instantly.
"You remember that during the fight in the museum, I had a gauntlet, right?" Tatsurou asked this and Marie, just nodded.
"You see, I don't know how this gauntlet works, it just shows up whenever it wants and I don't know how to control it, but since you can summon a weapon, I thought you could help me, and shine some light on this..." Tatsurou said as he once again looked at Marie.
"Hmm, yes, I can do that, so what do you want to know?" Marie asked, as she waited for Tatsurou's response, which came rather quickly.
"Well, first off, some context on summoned weapons, second how does it work and how can I use it?" Tatsurou said as he counted with his fingers what he wanted to know Marie then proceeded to explain.
"Very well then, let's see, summon weapons are a type of magic that involve the summoning of weapons, be it regular magic ones, to ancient ones, if one had to be specific there are 3 types, Regular weapons, Sacred weapons, and Divine weapons..." Marie said as she looked at Tatsurou, that was giving her his full attention
"As for how it works, normally, regular ones don't need anything too specific, it is basically the type anyone can use, as for the sacred or divine ones, it's a bit different, for the first normally you have to perform a type of contract to use it, as for the divine ones, they normally are the ones that choose you to be their wielder..." Marie said as she placed her index finger on her cheek and Tatsurou just nodded.
"As for how to use them, is like I said, it's either through a contract or being chosen by the weapon, for example, my weapon "Vivianne" is a sacred one, so to use her, I had to make a contract with her that makes me the sole and only user, and thanks to that, I don't have to carry her around and when I call her she appears on my hand as you have already seen..." Marie said with her index finger up as she was a teacher explaining something.
"And I think that this pretty much covers it, do you have any more questions?" Marie asked this with a curious tone, to Tatsurou that looked like he was more or less still trying to process, what he just heard.
"I get it, more or less, and to make said contract, do you need to have the weapon in front of you or know something about it?" Tatsurou asked a bit curious with what Marie would answer.
"Well, normally yes, the weapon has to be in front of you or be held by you to perform a contract that usually works like an enchantment, the enchantment has to be made by you from scratch and that will make the weapon yours, as for the need to know something about the weapon, well, normally some small details or a general grasp of the weapons past, is more than enough since it has to be used in the enchantment..." Marie said in an informative tone that made Tatsurou just nod in agreement.
"I see, but that's going to be pretty hard, to make that happen, if the gauntlet doesn't show up when I want to..." Tatsurou said with a tone that had a faint hint of sadness, Marie took notice of that "If that's the case then yes, it will be quite hard, but if you need something, I'm here to help out with it!" Marie said as she smiled
"Thanks, Marie..." Tatsurou said as he smiled at her too.
"Look's like, I have to know something about this gauntlet to make it mine, but it's going to be a problem, the only person that knows a bit about it, is Wilma and she's in jail and I'm probably the last person she wants to see..." Tatsurou said as he sighed a bit.
"But, I believe, Shirayuki mentioned something about, Wilma telling her a bit about the gauntlet, not too long ago, hmm, looks like I will have to ask her, please Shirayuki, remember something, anything..." Tatsurou thought again as he did a small mental pray, that Shirayuki knew something about the past of the gauntlet.
And just as Tatsurou was doing that he suddenly stooped.
"No way..." Tatsurou said with an expression and tone that were both impressed and annoyed, as he looked out the window.
"What's wrong?" Marie asked a bit curious as she too approached the window and saw the same thing as Tatsurou, in front of the main gate of the school, was Naoki with her arms crossed and with an angry expression on her face.
"It's the girl from this morning! What is she doing here?" Marie asked a bit curious and worried as she looked at Tatsurou.
"There's only one way, to find out..." Tatsurou said as he began walking towards the school gate, with Marie following behind him...
Now, at the school gate Naoki, stood out like a sore thumb, as she had placed herself right in the middle of it, and everyone that passed her, had questions like.
"Who is this girl? She is cute!" or "What is a student from Misaiko doing here?" floating around, but none of these questions reached Naoki, as she only had one person on her mind.
"There you are!" Naoki said as she saw Tatsurou getting close to the gate, with Marie walking next to him.
"Yes, it's me alright, what do you want now?" Tatsurou asked with a more or less annoyed tone.
"I already told you, didn't I? Get out of the Soteria Intern Program!" Naoki said this with an angry tone that made Tatsurou look at her for a bit.
"No can do, I will stay on it..." Tatsurou said in a stoic tone as he looked at Naoki that was more or less shocked by his words.
"Now, if you'll excuse us, we're going home..." Tatsurou said this as he began walking and passed Naoki, but she wasn't having it.
"How can this be, your just a weak no rank nobody, that showed up out of nowhere, and took my chance away of being under Kuroiwa-san's wing! What do you have, that makes you deserve being with her!" Naoki said with an angry tone, as she pointed and glared at Tatsurou that upon hearing her, stooped and also started to looked at her confused, with what she said.
"Just, what is her problem?" Tatsurou thought as he looked at Naoki that kept glaring at him, but then.
"Excuse me? A weak nobody? Don't you dare say that, in my presence!" Marie said as she placed herself in front of Naoki that became surprised upon hearing her.
"Hah? Who are you? And what's with that nun's habit? This is not a church you know!" Naoki asked with an angry tone as she pointed at Marie's nun habit, but she ignored her remark.
"I am Marie Chateunoire, a nun in training and I can't accept anyone calling Tatsurou weak! He is one of the strongest persons, I have met to this day, so take back what you said, this instant!" Marie said as she smiled and placed her right hand on her chest and her left on her hip, Tatsurou upon hearing this blushed a bit as he didn't think of himself that highly, but Naoki on the other hand just shrugged.
"This guy, strong? Pff, a sorry excuse for a delinquent, look alike? No way that's true! And your opinion on this doesn't matter, he probably just hangs around you because of those lumps of fat on your chest, that you dare call breasts!" Naoki said this with an angry tone as she pointed at Marie's chest, and when she heard this, Marie got embarrassed at first as she covered her chest, but not for too long as a smug smile, appeared on her face.
"Oh! Are we perhaps a bit jealous, of the "big" difference between us, hmm?" Marie said with a smug tone and expression, as she placed her right hand on her mouth and used her left arm to push her chest up while she looked at Naoki's chest, that if we had to compare it, to Marie's, was like comparing a mountain to a barren flatland, this obviously made Naoki embarrassed, as she blushed while covering her chest, you could say, that she dug her own grave, with this remark of hers.
"What is it? Did the cat bit your tongue off, Miss flat board?" Marie said as she gave mischievous smile to Naoki, that didn't let her do that, for too long.
"No, I was just thinking that what you have in breast size you lack in brains...you fatty..." Naoki said as she too gave a smug smile to Marie, that looked as if she just snapped upon hearing Naoki calling her fatty, this was the moment that they began giving each other death stares, and it looked like thunder started to appear in their eyes, clashing against each other as they kept glaring at each other, that was when Tatsurou tried to intervene, as he saw this spiraling out of control.
"Hey, you two stop that already..." Tatsurou said as he approached Marie and Naoki but...
"Stay out of this!" they said at the same time to Tatsurou, that jolted upon hearing them, and began to back away slowly.
"That's it, I'm not going to jump into that lion's den..." Tatsurou said as he looked at both Marie and Naoki, that took on battle stances, with Marie preparing to summon "Vivianne" and Naoki drawing a magic circle, with her right hand.
"I'm going to make you take back everything you just said, Miss flat board!" Marie said as she prepared herself to attack.
"And I'm going to teach you not to underestimate me, fatty!" Naoki said as she did the same.
"Somebody, please stop these two..." Tatsurou said as he placed his hand on his forehead, and looked at both Marie and Naoki that were about to start a fight, that could turn real ugly if no one intervened, but nobody came, and so they dashed at each other, and in the blink of an eye they were already about to hit the point of no return, as they screamed preparing for the impact, they were stooped, dead in they're tracks by a hand that came out of a vermilion magic circle, that placed itself, between them.
"Oh, no..." Tatsurou said as he jolted upon realizing who that hand belonged to.
"Just what do you two think you're doing, in the school's front gate, huh?" An angry voice said to both Marie and Naoki, that when they looked in its direction, they saw Yumeko, with her hands on her hips and an angry expression that could make anyone scared, and Marie and Naoki were no exceptions, as they both jolted upon seeing Yumeko.
"K-Kuroiwa-san..." Naoki said with an impressed, but scared tone as she looked at Yumeko walking in her direction.
"Wait! Wait! Kuroiwa-sensei I can explain..." Marie said as she flailed her arms around, but it was mostly useless.
"No excuses here! You know too well that starting fights on school grounds is against the rules!" Yumeko said with an angry tone as she finally stooped close to them.
"Now, you two, know what happens when you break the rules, right?" Yumeko said still with an angry tone as she cracked her knuckles and looked at Marie and Naoki, that hugged each other in fear, as they had nowhere to run...