That day the sun was shining high in the sky and clouds were becoming scarce. These days of clear weather were becoming more and more frequent over the city of Suva.
Fortunately, these dry days were interspersed with periods of high humidity, which helped to maintain the correct level of water in the soil and the atmosphere.
Life was as usual in this capital city: the inhabitants were as lively as ever, the roads were full of cars, trucks and of course their horn symphony. The markets were full, and trades were going well.
Among all this activity, one place stood out among the others: located in the west, this establishment covered an inordinate amount of land, it was not wrong to say that it was the heart of the western districts of Suva.
This place was called Xenia, it was a school. Here, nearly ten thousand high school students rubbed shoulders with each other every day, and more than twice as many academics.
Among all these students, one young teenage girl stood out from the others, not only because of her beauty, but also because of the expression on her face.
In two months, Sora's personality had not improved: she considered the world and the people around her to be rotten, and therefore unworthy of her interest.
Fortunately, all had not remained frozen in ice.
"Hey, look, there's another guy who's going to declare his love to the princess!"
Indeed, since the start of the new school year, Sora's popularity within the school had only grown, and this was not that surprising: her beauty was rare, and there was quite a few japanese people in Fiji. But there was even more than that about her. Sora had severe albinism. Indeed, her hair was immaculate white, almost like snow, and fell down along her back, down to her lower thighs, while caressing her cheeks. In addition, her eyes were flamboyant red with purple shades.
Sora had an extremely rare body, almost unique in the world. Moreover, her personality made her very attractive to some young men: she was detached from the rest of the world, arrogant, aggressive and introverted. But she was not that mean. In fact, she was sometimes kind and tactful, even if these reactions were involuntary.
The young man approached Sora and asked her if she wanted to date him. To which she replied:
"I'm sorry but... Who are you?"
Although this time she showed a certain amount of tact, her gaze showed that she refused to accept any advance.
'Who the hell is this guy? Who did he think he was?I don't know him and he comes up to me and asks me if I want to date him... He thought he was in a romantic comedy ?'
Sora resumed her walk to her classroom. Her feelings and emotions weren't frozen in ice, no, it was more like crushed ice.
--
When Sora entered her classroom, almost two-thirds of the students were already there. All eyes turned to her. Some looked at her with slight contempt, others with admiration. Rare were the looks that were completely neutral.
As Sora went to sit, her front neighbour, a young blond girl with aquamarine eyes, called out to her:
"Hello, Sora! How are you doing?"
"Hi."
Sora looked away, a little hesitant, then continued:
"I'm alright... and you?"
The eyes of the person, who was none other than Lily, lit up as she clenched her fist in victory. Once again, she had managed to extract an answer from Sora's mouth. For her, it was not just a small victory.
After having been ignored for almost the whole first month, as time and effort went by, she gradually managed to break the ice between her and her comrade.
With effort, anything is possible!
This was her code of conduct with Sora. She had to go slowly and this way she would reach her.
Lily was lost in thought when their teacher arrived. It was of course that famous S-rank arcanist, nicknamed the Bloody Princess, Lorena Melany.
"Hello everyone. Today we are going to talk about your very first exam, then you will be free for the day to practice."
Suddenly, a great cacophony spread through the classroom. Xenia's quarterly exams were often synonymous of exam retakes or even repetition in case of failure.
"Don't worry, as you are still young arcanists, you won't be asked to do anything difficult. More than an exam, it's more like a test to check how fast you're progressing. If any of you are judged to be too slow because too little work is being done behind, then you will be sanctioned. On the other hand, those who have surpassed themselves or even moved up in rank will receive an excellent mark, which may rub off on your second exam."
Everyone was relieved to see that the first exam was just a simple test of magical concentration and mastery.
"However, you will also have to show a technique that can be used in combat. No matter how weak it is, it must be usable. On this point, some of you are at a greater advantage than others, so those of you who are struggling, try to train well. "
Hearing this, Sora's face turned slightly pale. Indeed, although she was able to summon flowers, these were useless in a battle. Unfortunately, it was not possible to win a fight by offering bouquets of flowers to her enemies.
"Well, I'll leave you now, I have a meeting waiting for me. Good luck with your training."
So Lorena left as quickly as she entered the classroom. Most of the students left, and only a few stayed. Three of them came closer to Sora.
"Hi Sora, Lily. "said two of them at the same time. They were, of course, Lei and Loki.
" Hello! " Although Lily replied, Sora only nodded.
Loki, slightly worried, asked:
"Do you think you're ready for the exams? "
When Lily heard his question, she couldn't help but laugh:
"Haha, not at all! I hardly know how to enter into symbiosis! I'm still far from being able to use it in a fight. But I have some ideas of how I will handle this issue."
Loki sighed with relief, although his concerns have not yet been completely dispelled:
"You're lucky. I have no idea what I'm going to do to be honest."
"You just have to do something very simple. I don't think they're going to judge on the power or the actual use of the skill, but rather our ability to imagine a skill that can be used in different situations. The theme here is fights. A skill with a minimum impact on the enemy will be sufficient. »
Loki, realizing something, replied:
"I just have to be capable in making a technique that can hinder my opponent... Besides, I'm not the one in the worst situation."
His gaze turned to Sora who noticed him:
"Tss- Don't worry about me, I'll find a solution."
That's at this very moment that Lily reacted strangely, as if she had something that blossomed in her mind.
"Hey, I've got a great idea! How about we name our team, instead of 'team 2'. I mean, we're not going to be called 'team 2 of class C' all our lives. Plus the teacher told us we're going to be super strong! So we need an outstanding name !"
Lei looked at her perplexed, then answered, with a minimum of tact so as not to hurt her:
"Lily... She said that we had a chance of being good if we practiced well... For the moment we're far from being useful to anyone. Well, apart from that, me too I would like to have a good team name."
Everyone was thinking about it, even Sora was getting down to business. Actually, she was the first to have an idea :
"Maybe we should focus on our specificities, what makes us different from other teams?"
Unfortunately, this did not really move the discussion forward, everyone was left to their own thoughts. Until Lily had this triumphant look on her face again:
"How about using flowers as a main theme? That's right, what's unique about us is Sora !"
Loki, being quite often on the same wavelength as lily, understood instantly what she was getting at.
"I think that 'The four flowers', for example, sounds pretty good to the ear, doesn't it? »
Lei and Sora looked at them, amazed. But Lei knew how to bounce back on their ideas to propose something capable of pleasing everyone :
"What if we were called 'The Four-Petalled Flower'? It's pretty simple and mysterious."
For the third time in a few minutes, Lily had a strange reaction. Sora couldn't help but laugh.
"I love it, from now on we'll be called the four-petalled flower team."
Sora got up from her chair and looked at her three friends:
"Good, that suits me. But let me remind you that we are supposed to practice. Let's go, we'll inform Lorena of our decision the next time we meet her."
So Sora walked to the door and left, accompanied a few steps further by her team.
__
In the evening, after their training, all the students would separate and return home. This was also the case for Loki.
Loki lived in a district at the eastern end of the city. His family owned a small estate, although he was the only one living there at the time. Every night he came home, although nobody was waiting for him.
But this day was different.
When Loki was about to open the door, even before he pushed the key into the lock, he noticed something strange: his door was already open.
So he decided to enter the house, without knowing if anyone was at home, and without knowing the reason for the intrusion if there was one.
"Is anyone there? "
A few seconds after asking, a relatively old man, with a large scar on his face and a sword that seemed to have many technological modifications, appeared.
"Father."
"My son. We need to talk."