Himitsu ruled the battle as a draw, as time ran out before decisive blow could have been landed, but a majority of the crowd had come to the conclusion that if the battle had been allowed to continue, Aura would have probably taken the victory. A few more mock battles were held, but none of them were as impressive as the first. After the last one concluded, Himitsu gave one last message before the final bell of the day rang. "This is just the beginning of everything that Theta Grand Magic academy has to offer. Tood aloo!"
"That guy is way so happy for my liking." I complained to Erika as the final bell of the day rang and we were walking out. By this point we had met up with Masayoshi and Nova already.
"His entire existence is like one huge oxymoron. Wears a massive trench coat, Fedora, and glasses, and yet acts like some little kid." Erika replied. She then turned to pat Nova on the back. "Great fight out there Babygirl." She added a wink and blew Nova a kiss.
Nova, however, shook her head. I could tell that she was more than a bit bummed by how the battle went. "At the end of the day, that battle can only be considered a loss, nothing more, nothing less." Her facial expression and tone suggested that she had more to say on the subject, much harsher than what she had.
"I'd say your being a bit harsh with that analysis. You made use of a great strategy, just turned out that your opened was able to make a final play that you couldn't foresee." Nova gave an exasperated sigh before running to face Masayoshi.
"I get that you're trying to make me feel better about myself, but if anything, that comment just made me feel worse. So do us both a favor and shut up." Masayoshi didn't seem very oppose to the suggestion.
We had just made it back onto the second floor of the second year building when two students called us over. Aura, and another girl, who had long blonde hair and was blowing a fairly large pink bubble in her mouth. Her school uniform was the ordinary one, save for the fact that it fit tightly around her slim figure, and it marked her as a second year. Her dark blue eyes were watching the crowd absentmindedly, seeming as if she didn't have a care in the world.
Suprise was the emotion that was etched unto Nova's face, and understandably so. "What business could this girl possibly have with me."
As we approached, Aura's expression shifted from a neutral one, to a serious. She pushed herself off the wall, before stopping in front of us, crossing her arms. "So.... what exactly did you want?" Nova asked. There was a bit of edge to her voice that was barely noticeable.
"Well, I'd like to say, what you did in that battle...Was actually fairly cool." Nova froze. She had been expecting a wide variety of things, however a compliment, was definitely on the lower part of that list.
"Um, wow, thank y-you. I guess." She was reduced to a stuttering mess by the unexpected compliment. "That thing you did at the end, were you turned the spell into a sword, was pretty cool." Immediately, Aura's face began to redden, and she looked down, murmuring.
"Thanks, a-a lot." She said some more, but the rest was absolutely unintelligible. The rest of us looked on at the situation with suspended disbelief. It was hard to believe that this was what she had actually wanted to say. Not to mention, both of them seemed to melt into a puddle of jelly at even the whiff of a compliment.
"I'll be honest, this was the last thing that I was expecting." I said this aloud.
"We'll you really shouldn't stereotype people by looks." Masayoshi said. I couldn't tell if it was a joke or a genuine accusation.
"Well, how could I think anyone else. According to how Erika spoke of her..."
"Erika also hates the fact that the student council president won't punish her. It's safe to say her idea of bad and good or significantly twisted in the direction of masochism." Masayoshi sidestepped out of the way of a punch.
"Keep your creepy comments to yourself dude." Erika followed up that statement with another attempted grab on Masayoshi.
"You guy's seem like pretty good friends." This came from the blonde-haired girl. For the most part, her presence had disappeared, and she now reasserted herself back into the conversation.
I would have made a comment on the situation, however Erika responded for me. "Yeah, we're great pals!" She hooked her arm around my shoulders, and I caught flashbacks to when the same thing had occurred earlier on in the day. This time, her grip wasn't nearly as death tight, but it still felt like someone had placed a boa constrictor around my shoulders.
The girl took one look into my eyes, for not even half a second, and seemingly came to a conclusion. What that was, I didn't know, nor did I want to know. The entire time that these shenanigans had been going on, Nova and Aura had been having some sort of conversation, and it had just come to an end.
"Thanks for that, though a brief rundown of the battle was the last thing that I had been expecting you to talk about." Nova said.
"Well, I was really impressed with your performance during that battle, and I really wanted to talk to you about. I heard what some people were saying, and I thought I'd let you know that I-I really thought that was a great battle."
Nova nodded. "Thanks. Nice to meet you, Aura."
"N-Nice to meet you too."
After saying our goodbyes, we turned and left. However, I could feel someone's eyes boring into the back of my head. I didn't even have to turn around to know that it was that blonde haired girl who was staring directly at me. And her gaze remained there, as I made my way through the hallway. Tracking me through the wall of students. And just as I reached the end of the hallway, I could hear a, POP! The kind that comes out when you let a bubble pop.
***
"We meet again, brother." Kami greeted me with a serious expression on her face. I had broken off with Erika and the others around the time we exited the second-year building, albeit, with more than just a bit of effort. Erika's grip was no joke. And Masayoshi had more than one interrogating question to ask. Nova was the only one who hadn't tried to keep me from leaving. She instead, spent the time looking up at the ceiling, most definitely reminiscing about the conversation she had with Aura.
"Why are you greeting me like that?" I asked immediately. If there was one thing that I didn't trust, it was Kami telling me the truth the first go around. Kami sniffled.
"It's just, I had a really rough day at school."
"So you couldn't make any friends. Tough luck." I pushed myself off of the wall of the entrance of the first year building I was leaning on. Kami looked shocked for a few seconds before jogging to catch up with me.
"Obviously I was joking. However, you said that as if you do have friends."
"Is it really that surprising that you are strong, handsome, and charismatic brother was able to make a plethora of friends?" I was exaggerating everything in that sentence.
Kami looked like she wanted to puke. "Dark black eyes, and black hair. At least your hair covers your eyes, so you don't look like a dead man walking everywhere. However, you are related to me, so I guess you're not all that bad." She shook her head, causing her long hair to shake a bit as well.
"Jesus Christ. Critic much?" I murmured this part under my breath, too low for Kami to hear.
"Anyways, moving on to more important things. Brother, it seems I've received a summon to the student council office."
"What exactly did you do to get sent there?" I thought back to how even mentioning the student council had brought tension when I was with the others.
"Don't say it in such I grave tone! I didn't do anything wrong, I'm sure of it."
"Yeah yeah, whatever you say." I took a step away from Kami to avoid the air of cold that had begun to build up around her. She stepped closer. It felt like I was inside a freezer.
"I thought, why not accompany me? That should make up for your obvious transgression this morning. Only a little bit, of course."
"Didn't I make up for that by walking you to class? Besides, your 15 years old. I'm su-"
"Pretty Please Brother!"
She had come to stand in front of me, her eyes pleading. It seemed like she was on the verge of tears. All that cold from before had completely vanished. I had just about enough of weird stares for today, so before others could even notice, I said,
"Fine fine fine. Just get moving."