The next day was a break.
Kiara was in Ayato's room. She decided to visit him after the discussion they had yesterday. Well, technically it was today since the date changed during their meeting.
"So, can you tell me more about aether? I don't care if you're restricted from telling anyone."
She said, sitting by the desk next to his bed. Ayato was making tea in the kitchen. He took a plate and put the cups of tea on the desk. Kiara took one and sipped it.
"I've already told you what I know. The only other thing I can say is that I can produce aether too, which is why I became a World Magician despite there being three already."
"Can you show me?"
She asked putting her cup on her lap.
"No... Apparently, I need to be pissed off. Well, not exactly pissed off but I need to be—"
Kiara dropped her cup onto the floor, spilling tea with a nonchalant face.
"Ah! You dropped my cup on purpose! What the fuck are you doing?!"
"What? I just thought the floor needed cleaning."
"Cleaning?! You just spilled tea onto the carpet!"
"So what? A washing machine fixes it. If you have a problem, then burn me."
Kiara teased him while sticking her tongue out.
Ayato stiffly smiled while summoning a black flame.
"See? You did it."
"Hah—oh, I..."
As soon as Ayato calmed down, the black flame dissipated. When Ayato lost his fuel for anger, it disappeared.
"It seems like you can't use it unless you're really in your feelings. Meaning that if you want to use it continuously, you'll have to manipulate your feelings all the time and that's harder than it sounds."
She said, pointing her palm at the broken cup on the floor. A cape of shadows appeared, it wrapped around the broken shards of the cup and turned into a small bag in Kiara's hand.
The girl went over to the bin and dropped the shards inside. She then got a cloth from the kitchen countertop.
"Wait..."
Ayato's eyes widened as he realised something. Kiara knelt, wiping the tea.
"I heard that the Mage Killer is an artificial World Magician."
"Artificial?!"
Kiara stopped wiping.
"Yeah, so I'm thinking that either he's able to manipulate his feelings at will, or he has some sort of mechanism built into him, allowing him to use it. But, perhaps it doesn't have to be negative emotions that activate it. Apparently the Mage Killer was laughing while using it."
"Perhaps a surplus of emotion would work. It probably doesn't have to be negative."
The girl stood up.
"But what would classify as an emotion?"
Ayato thought.
"Maybe one from Plutchik's wheel of emotions. Like the first and second-order emotions. Since mana follows the laws of nature allowing us to use theories to properly describe its occurrence."
The sister suggested. The brother shook his head.
"I said that aether doesn't follow the laws of nature. Although, I feel like what you're saying is somewhat correct but too broad."
He muttered the latter under his breath.
The siblings turned to the door when they heard the door open and close. It was a black-haired woman with red eyes.
"Can I pitch into this chat about aether?"
She asked. It was Akari Chiori. Kiara had talked to her this morning about the Mage Killer incident.
"What're you doing here? It looks bad for you if you visit a student's room."
Ayato suddenly smirked.
"Especially if it's a male one. Who knows what people will think?"
"Should I crush that cheeky head for you? I don't need you making fun of me."
The woman replied with a sigh.
"Anyway, I wanted to talk more about the Mage Killer but you were having an interesting conversation about aether so I wanted to pitch in."
"Go on,"
Kiara prompted her, throwing the drenched cloth into the sink.
"As you guys said, there needs to be a surplus of an emotion for aether to gather."
"You were here for that long?"
The boy ad-libbed but she ignored him.
Akari raised her index finger. A crimson flame formed. It wasn't the work of mana but rather aether.
"The emotion that runs through you can be almost anything. However, it needs to flow as mana does through its appropriate meridians. Think about it, unlike mana, emotions don't have a capacity. Wouldn't it be easier to let everything flow out of control?"
It was true. Something as vague and formless as emotions couldn't possibly have a limit. If anything, the limiter of emotions was the human brain.
The reason would be that the brain would suppress certain emotions depending on the situation.
'What emotion is she feeling right now?'
Ayato thought, staring at the flame.
"You probably just thought, 'What emotion is she using,' right?"
He shivered when she guessed right.
"For your information, I'm currently feeling anticipation since I want to see what you'll do with this information."
The black-haired woman said.
Ayato furrowed his brow.
"Wait, anticipation? I'm sure an emotion like that wouldn't be easy to sustain. So then, why is that flame still burning?"
Akari lowered her finger, dissolving the flame. She walked toward him.
"The important part isn't necessarily the emotion, but rather how strongly you feel about it. The stronger you feel about something, the harder you'll work for it. Of course, not everyone can control their emotions to produce aether even if you do let everything flow."
"So, how?"
The boy asked.
"For you, I would say you would have to channel hatred to use aether. Your childhood is horrible. Nobody else in the world would want to have a past or present like yours. You rarely act out on your anger, so it's bottled up inside of you. So, what'll happen when you release it as aether, hm?"
It was a nice theory. One that could be tested if Ayato managed to control his emotions.
"Act upon my anger..."
He mumbled.
Akari's advice helped Ayato realise something. Although, he wouldn't be able to use it now. There was nowhere to practice something as dangerous as aether here.
He would have to wait until another time.
Suddenly, Kiara's Seeker rang. She put it on her ear and answered the phone.
"Hello? Yeah... mhm... ah, no way!"
"What is it?"
Akari asked curiously.
Kiara looked panicked.
"There's a fight...! Between Lotus and Auralia students!"