Alice had approached the two and handed them both a second pair of battle uniforms.
"Find an empty locker in the back to put your stuff and be out in five minutes. If you are not out by then i will give you a tardy slip, If you obtain too many you will be staying after class for disciplinary time."
Ardere glanced at Kenji while he kept eye contact with Alice for a short moment before he turned and went to the back room where all the males were coming from.
Ardere glanced back at Alice before turning and doing the same.
Alice watched as they both left and when they disappeared behind the walls she pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.
Melodi felt awkward standing there with Alice, so she crept away to a more secluded part of the room and waited for Ardere and Kenji.
Ardere had no trouble finding an empty space for her belongings and pulled her wand out.
Twirling the wand in the air it left a blue trail behind as the tip moved through the air and when she poured her mana into the wand her everyday uniform swapped out for her battle uniform.
As she placed her wand back into her bag she could feel the eyes of everyone left in the room and the whispers and giggles of those who thought they were out of earshot.
"She can't even properly control the Aports spell?" One girl had said in a hushed tone.
"If she was that incompetent then what's going on with all the rumors i heard about her last duel?" another girl had said
Ardere had heard it all before, but she wasn't numb to the comments. In reality everything they had said hurt her and they only did so because they were right.
In the duel both her and Kenji had their roles, but Kenji still had to put his task aside just to help Ardere.
She had thought back to what Kenji said earlier, about how she still had something to lose and so she lets everyone walk all over her.
Ardere put her items down and walked out of the back room and made her way back to Melodi.
Ardere looked around and couldn't see Kenji.
"Has he not come back yet?"
"Umm...He still doesn't have magic to change his clothes, i think it will take him just a moment." Melodi said
Ardere had wondered how inconvenient it would be to not be able to use magic. Almost everything they did relied on magic and yet Kenji had been doing fine without it.
Soon enough Kenji came out if the boys area wearing his red trimmed uniform that stood out from everyone else. Almost immediately after he came out all eyes in the room were on Kenji.
The room was split between three groups of people; those who were wondering why he had a different uniform, those who saw the fight with Ian and were cautious of Kenji, and finally the woman of the room who could clearly see Kenji's toned body through the skin tight clothes and couldn't keep their eyes off him.
Melodi was a part of this group; even though she had seen him without a shirt before she still couldn't help but stare at him.
Kenji saw where Ardere and Melodi were and the group stood together while Alice started the class.
"Alright everyone form groups of two. Today we will be learning about each other's summons and their abilities along with how they compliment your own abilities."
Immediately the groups began forming and Ardere, Kenji and Melodi all stood together while everyone formed a group.
"Not you three." Alice said pointing to Arderes group.
Alice then went to a different group and grabbed another female student and brought her in front of Melodi.
"You, go where i just pulled her from." Alice said gesturing to the lone student standing in the middle of the room.
Melodi looked to Ardere and Kenji for a moment hoping they would protest, but soon realized that their was no going against the teacher and complied.
Melodi walked over to the other lone student and Alice left the student with Ardere and Kenji.
The girl was silent while Kenji crossed his arms and eyed the girl while Ardere waited for the girl to introduce her summon.
"U-um, hi." The girl said stuttering.
The girl looked to Kenji from the corner of her eyes and when their eyes met she looked away and she began to sweat.
"Go ahead and start first." Ardere said trying to get the girl to bring out her summon.
The girl nodded and pricked her fingers and summoned her magical beast.
The beast she summoned was a giant cat like creature with thick dirt red looking scales that covered its body.
"This is my summon, he is a Vishup; a cougar like magical beast with rock like armor and great strength. He is resistant to most magic, but if its powerful enough it can penetrate his armor." The girl said.
The Vishup walked over to its masters side and sat with a loud thud.
"Wild Vishups can harden their scales even further, but mine had to give this up to become my summon and instead gained the ability to cover me in armor like his."
"So your summon gives up its natural defence to protect you?" Ardere said.
"Yes"
"And what of your summon?" the girl said glancing back at Kenji.
Ardere had looked to kenji as he stood with his arms crossed still.
"Well Kenji is a hu-" Ardere cut herself off as she thought about how crazy she would seem if she told the girl that Kenji was a human.
"He's a humanoid beast." Ardere said as Kenji glanced at Ardere before looking back at the girl.
"Really? but that's so rare."
Humanoid magical beasts that existed in the world almost never became contracted as their intelligence was greater than those that did not have a humanoid appearance, but it wasn't unheard of it was even said that the Demon king of slaughter had a Dragon that could change its form into that of a human.
"It is indeed, but Kenji has no mana pool so the biggest advantage he has is his intelligence."
Kenji turned his head an raised an eyebrow at what Ardere had said.
Soon enough Alice had called to rotate partners and Melodi began making her way back to Ardere and Kenji, but was stopped by Alice and she pointed to another student who stood alone.
Melodi once again reluctantly made her way towards the lone student while a male student with a colorful large snake went towards Ardere.
"My Summon is a Basilisk; in the wild a Basilisk can paralyze its prey using curse magic through their eyes. Though my summon lost this ability to camouflage with its surroundings."
When the student looked at his summon he gave a command and the scales on the creature all changed to look like the ground beneath it. The camouflage wasn't perfect as one could see a shimmer in the air if the Basilisk moved.
Once again Ardere told the student that Kenji was a humanoid Beast and Alice called for another rotation.
This time Melodi went to another lone student on her own knowing Alice wouldn't let her go to Ardere.
Ardere and Kenji stood face to face with another male student and by his side was a black wolf.
The boy who stood in front of Kenji and Ardere wasn't Ian. Unlike Ian this boy had blonde hair and wasn't a noble.
"This is my Summon, she is a black wolf. Black wolves in the wild have a resistance to fire and my Summon can extend that resistance to me and in return i can also change the elemental resistance; however my summon can only hold the resistance to fire."
Their was a pattern with this class that Ardere had noticed. All of the summons they had seen so far had gained an ability when the contract was formed.
Most Magic beasts that were summoned didn't lose or gain an ability such as with Ian's Black Wolf, but with everyone Ardere had seen so far their summons had gained a new ability to support their master.
Once again Alice called for a switch and this continued on for the rest of the class. Ardere and Kenji would see summons who gained abilities for the sake of their master and Ardere would just say that Kenji was a humanoid beast.
Some students had more questions about Kenji, but no one asked for more details about him as everytime they made eye contact with him they felt the urge to look away and this constantly made them nervous.
Finally Alice called for the end of the class and for everyone to split back up.
"Hey Kenji, did you lose any abilities or have any kind of changes that you noticed when i summoned you?" Ardere asked
Kenji was at the side of Ardere facing Alice, but when Ardere had asked him this question he didn't face her like she thought he would. Instead Kenji glanced at Ardere from the corner of his eye before looking back towards the front of the class.
"Not really. I was never able to use magic and nothing feels different."
Ardere had wondered why Kenji would be considered a perfect partner when he could barely defend himself against anyone with magic, and almost everything he did was a direct contradiction of what she wanted.
"As you all might have figured out by now all your summons have a common trait and that trait is the gaining of an ability to better enhance your partnership and capabilities." Alice had explained
One student towards the middle of the room had raised their hand and Alice pointed at the student.
"If all our summons have that common trait then how did we end up in the same class?"
"A good question indeed. normally students are to wait to be assigned to a Magical beast class depending on the summons known characteristics and wether or not they evolve to better suit their master; however using my original spell i am able to determine if your summons have evolved or not and so the normal summons who retain their original abilities without any evolution are grouped together."
"The same can be said with those that are unknown, at a higher tier, or from a different region."
New Magical Beasts were not very common as most of the time summons would be contracted from within the Demon nation, but on rare occasions a new summon would be discovered. Some came from the Demon nation while most came from a different region owned by another race.
"This will be the end of todays lesson. I expect you all to remember the summons of your classmates because in three weeks we will go on a hunt and you will need to form groups of three. Class dismissed."
After her first day in class with Kenji, Ardere wondered why they were chosen to join this Magic beast class. Kenji had not evolved, if anything they should have marked him down as a new beast or as one from a different region.
Ardere turned to the changing room and saw Kenji walking towards Alice
"Oh no" Ardere said underneath her breath.
"Yo, miss black"
Alice had recognized the voice and reluctantly turned around as she met Kenji's gaze.
"What is it Mr.... what is it Kenji" Alice had to reform her sentence forgetting that Kenji had no family name she knew of.
"I understand you have some kind of way to tell if a summon evolved, so why am i in this class."
In all reality Alice had no clue why Albeon had assigned Ardere to her class. When Kenji was first summoned she used her original spell to sense the flow of mana that surrounded him and see if it shifted as the contract formed, but when he came into being the mana dissipated and she couldn't sense anything.
Alice couldn't say whether or not Kenji was an evolved summon or not, because she had never seen what Kenji managed to do and that frightened her; so in a panic she tried detaining Kenji that day in the field when he was first summoned for fear that he was a high level Beast that failed to form the contract because of the mana that leaked and in the end he nearly killed her.
"I don't question the Head Masters decisions, if you want to know then you can ask him."
Kenji could see the fear she held in her eyes for him, it was a look he was all too familiar with; so in the end he left it at that and walked back to the mens changing room.
Ardere had seen the conversation only last a moment and the two of them both left without any frustration so Ardere was quite happy that Kenji truly kept to his word and kept out of trouble.
Back in the changing room Ardere and Melodi had met up as Ardere grabbed her bag and began rummaging through it.
Melodi was already dressed and at that pint was just waiting for Ardere so they could all walk together.
Even though Melodi was upset that she couldn't talk with Ardere all class she was happy that they had one class together and now all she had to do was ask if she could be a part of her group for the hunt.
Ardere was moving things around in her bag and began to get nervous
"Where is it?"
Pulling out her uniform and moving everything around in her bag she knew it wasn't in there. The wand that she used on a daily basis to change clothes using the Aports spell was missing.
"I know i put it in my bag where is it?" Ardere began looking around the room and Melodi noticed the unusual behavior.
"Is something the matter?" Melodi asked.
"Someone took my wand." Ardere said as she scanned the room of diminishing female students.
Melodi looked around and couldn't see anyone in particular that looked suspicious and wondered who would do something so petty as steal a wand used for switching clothing.
Ardere felt drained now that she knew her wand was gone. It wasn't a rare or expensive item, but she needed it if she didn't want to end up wearing her skirt on her neck.
Instead of attempting the Aports spell Ardere sat down with her head hung low as she spoke.
"Do you think you can stay here with me till everyone leaves and I can change?"
Melodi felt bad for Ardere, she had seemed really self conscious of her ability to perform the Aports spell and now that her wand was gone she didn't have the courage to attempt the spell and instead opted to waited for all the girls to leave so she could change clothes.
"I'll wait with you as long as necessary." Melodi said as she sat next to Ardere and Luna crawled over Melodi's lap and rubbed his head on Arderes arm.
Back in the classroom Kenji had finished changing and didn't see Melodi or Ardere anywhere, he looked outside the classroom to see if they were waiting for him there, but they were nowhere to be seen.
Suddenly a group of giggles caught his attention as he saw three girls walking down the hall and turn a corner and for a split second Kenji saw something he recognized.
Kenji walked at a brisk pace and caught up to the group and got a better look at what one of the girls was holding.
He would know that wand anywhere.
Kenji recognized where he was and saw the direction the girls were going and took a sharp turn down another hallway.
The group of girls continued walking and gossiping without a care in the world.
"Lets see how long it will take before we see her in her underwear in the training room." one of the girls said.
"Come on she wouldn't be so stupid as to embarrass herself like that she probable wont even show up to the training hall." Another girl had said.
"It's inevitable that she will either waste time dressing herself and end up getting disciplinary time or she just wont show up for class. either way this will be entertaining." The girl holding the wand had said.
Suddenly while she was looking at her friends walking beside her she had tripped and dropped the wand. She wouldn't have time to brace herself from colliding with the floor so all she could do was take the impact, but just as she was about to hit the floor she got caught and was being held on her back a foot off the floor.
In front of her was Kenji holding her like they had performed a perfect dip and he lifted her back up with ease.
Looking down at the floor Kenji could see the wand and he picked it up and examined it.
"Oh thank you i didn't realize i dropped my wand."
Realizing she could be caught by Arderes summon the girl made up a lie.
Kenji looked away from the wand and back to the girl and gave the most heart melting smile the girl had ever seen.
Back in the classroom when she had been grouped up with the two Kenji hadn't said a word and the girl hadn't paid much attention to him as a man, but only as a summon.
Kenji's brown tanned skin mixed with his deep blue eyes and soft smile. It made the girls heart race and it was the same for the other two as well.
"Now, Now, there's no reason to lie to me. I would need to blind not to see that this does not belong to you."
Kenji gestured to the wand and placed it in his pocket as he got up close to the girl and her heart began to race even more as Kenji gently guided her back towards the wall.
Kenji towered over the girl so much so no one could see the girls face from behind Kenji.
Kenji got close to the girls face.
"I see no harm in having a bit of fun and causing a few inconveniences here and there." Kenji said as he reached for the girls chin and lifted her head up so he could clearly see into her eyes.
The girls face began to turn red with heat as her heart pounded so loud she was sure Kenji and her friends could hear it.
The girl began to giggle softly as she tried to hide how bashful she was being.
Then suddenly Kenjis soft smile faded as his deep blue eyes pierced her and a shiver ran down her spine. The girl couldn't move and the heat drained from her face as her beating heart grew louder with dread.
"But you see the thing is that when you cause an inconvenience for that girl it inconveniences me and i don't like that. I would advise that you don't do that again, do you understand what i'm saying?"
The girl had no words and just slowly nodded her head.
Then just like before Kenjis whole demeanor changed like a light switch and he once again had his soft smile, he looked to the other two girls and waved goodbye as he made his way back to the classroom.
Kenji waited outside the classroom for a couple more minutes before Ardere and Melodi exited the classroom with Ardere looking defeated.
"Why such a long face." Kenji said as he grabbed the wand from his pocket and handed it to Ardere as he began to walk the opposite direction he saw the girls go before.
Ardere had hollow eyes before when coming out of the classroom and they lit up after Kenji handed her the wand.
Ardere looked at the wand and looked at Kenji as he walked away and ran up to him and spun him around.
"Wait! you were the one who took my wand!?"
Kenji was surprised at Arderes reaction, he never expected to see this kind of a reaction.
"Yes and no. I did take your wand, just not from you." Kenji said as he spun back around and began walking again.