Shu, Kaede, and Sasha had already met up and were currently making their way to the most popular spot for this break: the cafeteria, or whatever you want to call it. Too many people call it by different things, anyway.
The siblings walked next to each other while Sasha walked on Shu's right, albeit a few feet behind him. She was told by Shu to just walk alongside them normally, but Sasha felt that as his new maid, she had to be in front of him due to being their master.
Shu still wasn't too fond of that idea, but there was nothing that he could do about I, so he brushed it aside.
The pathway to the cafeteria was a relatively long one. Many students walked it every day while talking, playing and (sometimes) arguing or fighting, turning it into a very living atmosphere even for school.
"Magic history was interesting, though I already knew about what they were talking about. Even so, it was a nice refresher. As for my second class, relearning about some magic items I'd forgotten about was fun, too." He'd said that with a smile on his face.
He was followed up by his sister's experience so far: "That's good to hear. Catalyst construction is interesting, though I've never made one myself, so let's hope that it's not as hard as I think it is!"
"I think you'll be fine, Kaede. I hope that you do your best!" responded Sasha with a motivational tone.
"Thanks, Sasha. But yeah. Oh, also I took the Magic Runes class, and oh boy was it hilarious!"
Smiling, Shu asked: "Oh, really now?", followed by a curious face afterwards.
"Yeah! So, to put it simply…"
And so Kaede spent a few minutes telling both her brother and Sasha about the incident that occurred in her class. She finished telling the story, and Shu's reaction was:
"Oh my god, are you serious?! That's hilarious!" He started to laugh just as much. "Who thinks they're so cool by breaking a wall?!"
"I got to say, that IS quite humorous." Sasha said, giggling as she put one of her hands over her mouth. "Do you think I can tell how my classes went?"
"Of course, you can. Why wouldn't you?"
Shu said so in a "scoffing" tone, thinking that Sasha shouldn't ask for something like that. Even so, Sasha decided to ask due to the desire to keep training herself for what was to be her future role, due to being a member of the Sonomari family.
"Magic runes was also my first class, and my second was Magic Training. Due to my magic, I was placed with specific people with magic similar to mine. It was interesting, to say the least."
"That's cool. Oh, hey is that it?"
Pointing at a specific building a few feet away, Shu pointed to it as they walked, to which Sasha nodded and responded his question with a single "Yes."
The building that was their destination had many students coming in and out of it every few seconds. Of course, with 20,000 students in this academy, that was to be expected.
I hope the food is good here! Kaede exclaimed to herself in her thoughts, fidgeting with a certain part of her hair in the process, for whatever reason.
Once the 3 of them entered the building, which was the cafeteria of course, they looked around. This was a place in which they hadn't entered before, so of course they would've liked to look around.
This building in which the cafeteria was satiated had a few floors. The first floor, that being the cafeteria itself, was extremely big with white floor tiles, walls, and the same color white ceiling. There were many long tables and some that only fit 2 people. There were many students that were waiting in the long lines for their turns in their own respective food stands, and many of them were simply sitting in tables enjoying their food or simply waiting.
As Shu looked at the lines, Kaede noticed that many of the tables, if not all of them, that either didn't have anyone using them or had students simply waiting for their food, had a light gray holographic screen that projected from the center of each table.
"By the way, you don't have to wait in like if you don't want." Putting up her hand and extending her index finger up, she started to explain: "You can either choose to do the line, or you can just order from the screen on every table."
"Ohhh, that's interesting," Reacted Shu, "But what's the point of doing the line then?"
"It really depends on what you want to do. Some people prefer doing the line just because, and others prefer to order on the table and wait while they're sitting. It's personal preference, really."
That's strange, but it's cool. Thanks for letting me know!" The one who actually thanked her was Kaede.
After Kaede shared her gratitude with her, Sasha bowed down in front of her with manners akin to that of an already perfect maid. "Glad I could be of service."
This didn't go without bringing attention, as some of the students that were closer to the 3 of them stared at them with surprised looks.
"Did she just bow down? To a younger girl, no less?"
"Yeah, that's… strange."
"Let's just ignore it. It's none of our business, really. And plus, I've seen way weirder. Remember when…"
They didn't really care anymore, so they blanked out what that one specific person kept saying without care.
"If I gotta be honest, I want to order from a table."
Once Shu spoke, Kaede followed. "Yeah, same. I want to sit again."
"Are you sure? If you don't want to wait, I can go do the line for the both of you." Sasha put both her hands over her skirt in a beautiful proper manner with a smile on her face.
"No, it's fine, we-" in that second, Shu cut himself, unconsciously putting a hand to his chin in the process.
Wait,,,what if I tell her to do so? I'm not the biggest fan of this master-servant thing, but I might as well try it. I am curious if I'm being honest.
Exactly as he said. He wasn't too into it, but his curiosity decided to pique that specific moment.
"Oh, it's fine don't worry. We can just-" as much as he didn't want to do it, Shu interrupted his currently speaking sister as she told something to Sasha.
"Yeah, okay then. You can go to the line, then."
Sasha would be lying if she said she wasn't surprised to an extent. And with the smile Shu put in his face while giving her the order, there's no way she could refuse.
"Alright then! I'll be back soon!"
Once she turned around and scurried away in order to get to the line faster, she couldn't help but be excited and nervous at the same time. Her body was shaking.
It's okay, Sasha. You can do this. It's your first job as his servant-in-training. You'll be okay.
Kaede looked to her brother with a smile. "That was sudden. Did you have a change or heart on the whole "contract-training" thing?"
Shu couldn't help but now feel slightly awkward at the order he gave Sasha. "N-no, I was just curious…"
"Riiiiight…" Kaede responded teasingly.
The siblings proceeded to walk around the cafeteria to find an empty seat that could fit at least 3 people. After around a minute or so, they were able to find one on one of the edges of the entire cafeteria. Once they did, they sat down. Shu sat on the seat that was against the wall and his sister across from her. It was up to Sasha whether she'd like to sit down next to either the sister or the brother.
"Ah these seats are nice."
"I know right. Oh right, I wanted to ask you something brother."
"Hmm? What is it, Kaede?"
As they were both relaxing, they started to talk about the one though that Shu has unconsciously stored away deep within his brain.
"I wanted to ask you about your uniform. I came to realize a bit late while I was in my first class, but why are you wearing that cool coat while most other male students get the usual blazer? Well, I assume it's "the usual" because there's nothing else they wear."
"Oh, so you noticed too." He looked down at his cool uniform. "Yeah, I don't know. I feel that there's a reason as to why it's different, but aside from that I- Wait, you said "most other male students?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Have you seen other male students wearing this uniform?"
"Actually, I've seen both guys and girls wearing that uniform. There aren't many though; I think I saw around 6 or so…" Kaede went into a thinking position, crossing her arms and looking up at the ceiling.
"Where did you see them?" Shu asked sort of impatiently. Even though it wasn't the biggest deal, he would've loved to know why he was wearing this specific uniform; maybe the other students who wore it knew.
"Oh, so I remember seeing one in-"
"Don't you dare start this again!"
Shu and Kaede, alongside the 95% of students in the cafeteria, were interrupted by a random shouting voice. They both looked around to try and find the voice's source.
"What are you saying?! Stop making shit up! You know you're just saying that!"
At the same time, they found the voice's sources. They were near the main entrance, already surrounded by a crowd of people, albeit not the biggest; the main "participants" were still visible to the other students.
"Stop it with your bullshit lies, Aika! You know for a FACT that you stole my terminal once again! Give it back!"
"Why would I do something to someone as annoying as you, Ryu?!"
From what Shu and Kaede could gather, these were the 2 who were currently fighting:
The boy, whose name is apparently Ryu, who possessed standard short black hair and dark grey eyes. His body was also averagely built. He wore the standard uniform, although his blazer was completely unbuttoned, and on the left side of his waist, he had a sword that was sheathed. It appeared to be a katana.
A girl, presumably named Aika, whose pink hair was styled in twin tails, scarlet-colored eyes that looked extremely beautiful, and the required uniform. She appeared to be a very petit person, and she was relatively short.
It appeared that they were fighting over Ryu's terminal or something like that.
"Oh, come on, don't lie, Aika." Ryu's mouth turned from a frown into a grin. "I know the truth. I know that you like me. Why else would you be acting this way?"
Aika blushed as soon as she heard that. "Th-th-that's not true! I-it's not like I still like you or anything, dumbass!" She crossed her arms and turned her head, closing her eyes in the process and making her look even angrier.
"Tch. Fine! I guess we'll have to settle the other way once again." Still grinning, Ryu took his right hand and put it over the handle of his sword.
"Fine! I guess we WILL!" She put her arms in a fighting stance.
"What the hell is going on…?" Shu couldn't help but ask.
"Tell me about it. Although this is pretty entertaining." Kaede laughed to herself.
Shu smiled and laughed to himself, putting his hands in his pockets in the process. "I guess it is, huh?"
Funnily enough, the crowd around them (or better said, the entire cafeteria), started a countdown from 10 in order to signal them. Since everyone was doing it, Shu and Kaede joined as well. Sasha also returned to them as they were doing that.
"I'm back. Sorry, this entire less sort of messed up the line." She said to the siblings with a deprecating smile. Shu stopped counting down once she returned to tell her:
"Don't worry about it. We're having fun just watching this whole thing. Join us too, come on."
Sasha smiled, putting the food trays on their tables.
The countdown was now at 6.
"5, 4, 3, 2, 1…" could be heard reverberating inside the cafeteria's hall.
Both contestants we're prepared, and then.
"FIGHT!" Their fight began.
Ryu drew out his sword. It was your standard katana. The handle and guard were black, and the blade itself a metallic grey. Which made total sense, since the katana WAS made out of metal. Steel, to be exact.
"Here I come, you terminal robber!" He charged towards his opponent.
He ran towards her location, but once he was about to slash her…
"Here I…huh?!"
She disappeared. She was nowhere to be seen. Until…
"Eat this, you dumbass!"
Ryu immediately turned to the voice, it coming from above him. "Huh?!"
Aika was charging down at him from her location with a kick. But this wasn't just any kick, however. Her foot was surrounded by fire.
"HIYAH!"
Aika shouted as she kicked Ryu. The impact was so great that smoke formed around them and a few of the tables flew from their original locations.
Once the smoke cleared up, some cheers and gasps could be heard.
Aika's feet was on Ryu's sword. He'd blocked the impact with it.
Aika did a backflip and landed in front of them. She noticed something different with the floor and looked down. Ryu did the same out of curiosity due to seeing her shocked face.
"Oh."
As it turns out, the impact had made a crater below them. "When was the last time we damaged the floor like this?"
"I don't know…" Ryu stopped but then continued.
"…and I don't care!"
He charged towards Aika once again. She was still looking at the floor but noticed Ryu's fast footsteps and looked up. He was a few feet away from her. However, this didn't top her. Using her magic once again, she covered both of her feet with fire and blocked Ryu's first hit.
With a grin, Ryu said: "Wow, that was fast."
"We've fought before. You should know I'm not weak."
"I never said that."
Ryu jumped back 2 feet or so and went to hit her again, only for her to block her hit again. She did exactly the same, but Ryu blocked her kick. Now, they were both exchanging hits. Ryu used his sword, Aika used her feet. The impacts were so strong that it caused the cafeteria to start vibrating, as if an earthquake was happening.
"I'm surprised you haven't used your sword's ability yet." Grinning as she said this, Aika stared at Ryu.
"I don't need it right now. Especially since I know I'll beat you this time!"
"Heh. In your dreams!" Aika used his sword to propel herself upward, doing a backflip and landing safely on the ground.
"This is such a cool fight. 2 students just battling like there's no tomorrow…" Shu commented to himself. "Also, that fire magic is awesome. But why hasn't he used his yet?" Shu then realized something. Could it be that… he has-
His thoughts, however, were interrupted by Aika's shout.
"Well, whatever. It's time to end this!"
These words were said and once she finished, she started running towards Ryu. But for some reason, as she ran towards him, Ryu sheathed his sword. Just what was he planning?
"Why did he do that?"
"I don't know, brother. But if I had to guess, he probably has a secret weapon alongside his usual fighting skills."
"That's a good guess, Kaede. But still…"
"Get ready to lose, dumbass!"
As Aika continued running, Ryu put his sword over his sword's handle, about to unsheathe it. He couldn't help but grin to himself. "It's finally time. Let's end this!"
The building they were in shook. The force was extremely strong. So much so that some of the windows had broken already.
"Take this and DIE-"
But this fun couldn't last forever. Out of nowhere, a path of bright white light interfered their argument. The light's power was so strong that both Aika and Ryu were knocked back by it's force.
"GAH!" They both exclaimed at the same time.
Every student was shocked. Whispers and conversations echoed through the entire cafeteria as if some kind of murder had happened. Of course, though, that wasn't the case.
"Knock it off, you two!"
A voice could be heard from within the white light, now the shape of an orb.
"Impressive magic…but we never got to see what Ryu was about to do…" Shu was disappointed, to be honest. As someone who found magic extremely interesting, not being able to see someone's secret weapon was a relatively big letdown.
The white orb slowly faded away and from within, a female figure could be seen slowly standing up from a kneeling position.
As she stood up, her appearance became clearer. Beautiful, long orange hair with 2 long bags that reched her chest, greyish-blue eyes with such an infatuating, mysterious color, and of course, the female academy uniform. Like Ryu, she also had a sword on her waist. And to finish it all off, her "assets" were of average size, to say the least.
With her sword in hand, she pointed it towards Ryu. "Why do you keep getting into these fights? Haven't you learned better?!"
Ryu was on the ground, appearing as if he was trying to say something back at her. He finally spoke: "Do you not understand that she stole my terminal?! I need it back!"
"I've been trying to tell you that I haven't stolen anything! I don't have a reason to!"
"You know damn well that's a lie!"
"No it isn't! Try asking anyone I've talked to to-"
The orange haired girl couldn't take it any longer.
"Can you two just shut up for a second?!" She said as she sheathed her sword.
"Don't you understand that…"
As the ordeal was happening, Sasha poked both Shu and Kaede on their shoulders, both turning around as a reaction.
"I don't want to ruin the fun…but it's almost time for class."
Shu looked at the time on his phone. There were 2 minutes left until class started. "Oh shit!"
"Oh, we should hurry! Let's go!"
After Kaede said so, the 3 of them started rushing towards their next class. Of course, due to the entire ordeal that happened right in front of their eyes, they hadn't had the chance to eat, so they took a small amount of the food they'd ordered and ate it as they ran to their next classrooms. It was a bit awkward, but it was better than starving, at least.
As they ran to their next class, Sasha separated from them, telling them that she had something to do before going to class. They said that it was okay, Sasha bowing down again as a way of saying "thank you" before running another direction.