Shu and Kaede were in their respective classes, this time both being held in similar areas, those areas being arenas.
Rose Academy had a few arenas locating throughout campus. Shu was in the one farthest from the main building, and Kaede in the one between the other 2.
These arenas all had a roof and looked to be extremely modern. They had a good amount of technology built within them and they were mostly grey within. There were also other facilities within the arena, but where they took the class itself (the center) was the most important.
The teacher had already explained to them everything about the class: It was a class that, as the name suggests, focused on everyone training their own individual magic. You can either do it by yourself or alongside anyone you desire. Also, if you'd like, if you train for at least 10 minutes during the class period, you can go to the other arenas if there's another training class currently being held there. Also, you can go to the cafeteria as well, or to any area near any of the arenas. Aside from those places, no going anywhere else.
He also explained something about a time limit, but neither Shu nor Kaede cared enough to remember.
Currently, Shu was practicing his magic. Of course, the orange symbol appeared on the back of his hand, and he started doing various moves such as throwing fireballs, using his "Ring Barrage", and casting other related spells and performing movements such as backflips and spins in the air, which looked a bit too cool for anyone to focus on their own thing.
Simultaneously, Kaede practiced her magic. She practiced her signature move, which involved throwing blades of blood at the opponent (on in this case, the walls), and a variety of other spells.
Since it'd already been 10 minutes since they'd practiced, the siblings figured they'd might as well go walk around the area out of boredom. As Shu walked out of the arena, though, he noticed something interesting.
It was the girl. The one he'd tried to call earlier. The one that had the same uniform as him, the girl version of course. This time, he thought he couldn't let this chance go to waste. He walked up to her and asked her again: "Excuse me? Sorry for earlier, but I wanted to-"
The girl turned around and this time, he got a perfect look on her face. The girl looked…extremely familiar. He'd recognized that exact beautiful blond hair.
"Huh? Avery?" He asked her. She looked exactly like Avery, the girl he'd met in the Mana Test who'd randomly given him her phone number.
"Eh? N-no, I'm not-" For some reason, instead of listening to her, Shu just interrupted her:
"Hey, it's been a while, Avery! Remember me? Shu? The guy you met in the line for the Mana Test in Bluebell?" He figured since everyone called Rose Academy "Rose", Calling Bluebell Academy "Bluebell" would be easier.
"Yeah, sorry you got the wrong person…" The girl responded in a shy tone.
"Huh? No, I'm sure I remember you. You stood in front of me in line."
The girl was trying to speak but was stuttering. "Are you okay, Avery?"
"Hey, what are you doing to my sister?!" Another girl's voice was heard from Shu's side. "Leave her alone!"
The girl stood next to the blond girl. Shu looked at them both and was immediately confused. They both looked exactly the same!
"Huh?! Why are there two of you?! What's going on, Avery?!"
"Hang on…I remember you…" The girl who just arrived said.
"Wait…are YOU Avery?" Shu pointed at the girl who currently arrived.
"Oh, that's right! We met in Bluebell! That explains a lot!"
"Wait…if that's you, then…who's this?"
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Avery put her hand on the identical girl's head and started petting her, much to the victim's dismay.
"Hey, knock it off, Avery…"
As Avery pointed at her with her free hand, she said the line that cleared the confusion: "This is my identical twin sister, Lucille!"
"Oh my god, I am so sorry, Lucille! I thought you were Avery!"
With a shy tone, she responded: "That's okay…People confuse us all the time."
"If you don't want to confuse Lucille and I, look at the way our hair parts."
Shu then noticed this detail. Avery's hair parts to the right, and Lucille's parts to the left.
"I see. I'll keep this in mind." Giving a thumbs up, he smiled.
Just as things couldn't get more convenient: "Oh, hey, brother!"
"Shu turned to look to his right and saw Kaede running towards him. "Oh, Kaede, hey!"
"How've your classes been, brother?"
Responding to Kaede's smile, Shu said the truth of course: "They've been fine. I was going to walk around and then I-"
As he was talking, Kaede interrupted him when he noticed the identical twins in front of them. "Brother, why're there 2 Averys here?"
"Oh, we're identical twins, aren't we, Lucille?"
"Y-yes…"
"Oh, I see. So, your name is Lucille. I'm Kaede. I'm his younger sister." She said, pointing towards Shu with her thumb and smiling confidently in the process, with her other arm on her waist.
"I'm glad you both remember me. So did you finish your training, I assume?"
"Well, I did. I assume Kaede did as well, right?"
"Yep! I was planning on walking to check out the rest of the campus, but seeing as you're all here, I might as well stay with you three."
"I-I have an idea, actually…" Lucille started with her usual shy tone.
"Hm? What is it?"
After Shu asked this question, she began stuttering again, but Avery told her to whisper what she had to say into her ear so she could say it.
"She asks if you want to go eat something or just talk in the cafeteria because it's kind off hot and tiring here."
"Yeah, that sounds fun!"
"Oh, sure!"
After Kaede and Shu's responses, the four of them made their way to the cafeteria.
* * *
"That's hilarious! I haven't heard a school story as funny as that in a while!"
Kaede had taken the liberty to tell Avery about what'd happened in her magic runes class, the story about the boy who thought he was so cool because he destroyed a wall.
They were sitting in a booth. Shu and Kaede sat in front of Avery and Lucille, with Shu and Lucille in the corners. They'd already eaten something small, but they decided to kill time because of boredom.
Shu did feel a bit awkward being the only boy there, though. He wasn't nervous or flustered or anything, but it would've been nice to have a fellow male companion. Either way, there wasn't much he could do.
There were actually a few other students inside the cafeteria, which wasn't really weird, but more so unexpected.
"Hehe…hi-hilarious…" Lucille spoke with her shy tone in response to Kaede's story.
"So anyway, what do you two think about Rose so far?"
"It's honestly been fun so far. As you know, this is our first year in a magic school, and learning about subjects that'll actually help you in life is very fun! I'm also surprised that you ended out enrolling here."
"I second what my brother said! It's way more fun than a regular school. The only thing I miss, though…is my old friends…"
"Yeah, we all do, Kaede. But at least you call contact them every once in a while!"
"That's true, Avery. Thanks!"
"Actually, I want to ask, Avery…what is your magic?"
"Oh, my magic? It's…strange, to say the least."
"Really? How so?"
"I can…well, WE can shapeshift, both Lucille and I."
"Oh, really? That's cool!"
"What about you two?"
"Oh…that's a weird story…"
And so, Shu and Kaede explained to them their situation with magic: Kaede inherited his family's signature magic, Crimson Magic, whilst Shu was born without any but one day out of the blue developed the ability to use extremely versatile fire magic.
"I see…that really is sort of strange, isn't it?"
At one point as they were talking, Lucille had opened a small book and started reading it. The other 3 had noticed this, but decided to leave her be, knowing how shy she was.
"So, Shu, have you been able to figure out why you developed this magic?"
"No. Not even my family has. The only "clue" we have is this symbol."
Shu put up his right hand and activated his magic, his hand becoming engulfed on a bright orange flame, which caused the diamond-shaped orange symbol to appear.
"Woah, that a cool symbol!"
"I say it's a clue, but we don't know what it is yet. Not even my family, which is very into magic, has figured it out yet."
"What a mystery…" Avery put her hand to her chin.
"Either way, even if it's not my family's, this magic is extremely useful and dare I say, cool. But I still really wish that I could use my family's- wait a second."
Shu just remembered something he'd completely forgotten about: the knife his grandfather handed to him that could apparently allow him to use that magic temporarily. He'd left it inside his backpack in his dorm room, and he forgot to test it.
"Huh? Something wrong, brother?"
"Hm? Oh, it's nothing, Kaede. Oh wait. You'd given us your phone number right, Avery?"
"Oh yeah, I'd completely forgotten about that!"
"Since I didn't give you mine or rather, we didn't give you ours, how about we exchanged contact info? That way, we can talk at a later date!"
"Sure, sounds good!"
In that moment, Avery received their phone number. They finally had their first real friend within the academy.
"Hey, Lucille, you should also exchange contact information with them just in case!"
"O-ok, sure…"
And so, Shu, Kaede, and Lucille also exchanged contact information.
"Awesome! We're officially friends now!" Kaede couldn't help but say with a very cheery voice.
"Yes, we are." Avery smiled.
"Y-yay…" Lucille muttered.
"Well, thanks for all this, Avery, Lucille. It's been really fun. Looks like the class period's ending soon."
"Yeah, let's go back and get our things. Thank you so much for talking to us!"
"Of course. Anytime!"
As Shu, Kaede, Avery, and Lucille stood up, they each said their "thank you" to each other once again (or in Lucille's case, said it her first time), and they all parted ways. Something to note was that Avery was also in Shu's Magic Training class, but she went to the bathroom before the class started and before Shu even noticed her.
And now, even though they'd just eaten, it was officially lunch time in Rose Academy. They all wondered what they were going to do now that eating again was sort of redundant.