The door slid open and let out a rumbling Lily, her words unintelligible but the meaning behind them clear enough: She was not satisfied, or at least not happy. She stumbled through the now open portal, leaning against the wall, and finally ceasing her grumbling only to start panting.

"I swear that bitch is trying to kill me," she groaned, sliding down the wall until she sat on the floor. "Five hours. For five fucking hours she forced me to blast those damned dummies again and again and again." She leaned her head back against the wall, closing her eyes and savouring what little coolness the concrete wall offered her.

She had just finished what she mockingly called Introduction Torture, though it was more of a way to see how they had improved over the past month of summer break. Needless to say, Lily had taken the time to go shopping and see what could be found in Longnan, whether they be useless baubles or pretty dresses. She'd found a rather lovely one of the latter a few days prior. It was a traditional Chinese dress with a cut by both of her thighs, allowing for free movement while still protecting her modesty. It was a pretty thing, she thought, sleeveless and with a primarily red colouration, black swirls and shapes decorating it, and lined with black sewn with an easily visible silver thread. Had she known that Ikari would throw her into the Dummy Room, as it was often called by the students, to strike down hard light holograms for five hours, she wouldn't have worn it. It would reek of sweat for days to come.

And here I was hoping to surprise Tsuki with it as well. First time I'm wearing it, too, she thought, opening her eyes and staring at the ceiling without really seeing it. "I wonder what Tsuki's doing? Not to mention that weird guy... Sindri, was it? Freaky as fuck, but... mildly interesting." She glanced around, fast for her in her tired state, but relatively slow otherwise. "I hope he didn't hear that."

She sat there for another few minutes, recuperating some of the energy she had lost. She had been so tired that she had reverted to her human form once she was told that she was done, not at all feeling up to the task of dragging all those tails with her. Even with her enhanced strength and endurance, she was simply too tired at that point.

With a groan she finally stood up, legs wobbly as she stumbled down the hallway, heading for one of the mini trains that would leave her to the living quarters where her room was. At least she could sit down in the few minutes it took for her to arrive.

---

About five minutes later she found herself in front of the door to her rooms. She opened it and entered, unceremoniously slamming the door behind her as she went for the bathroom, already working on taking off her dress.

The next few minutes was spent undoing her braid, undoing the obscene lengths of hair. Sometimes she wondered why she kept it so long, but then she always reminded herself that she liked it. Either that, or Tsukiko would remind her that it was some sort of reminder of her time with Max, as she hadn't cut it since he died... or she would simply start brushing it for her, silencing any and all complaints in the meantime.

Yeah, not cutting it anytime soon, she thought, finally untangling the last bits and stepping into the shower, warm water washing over her and soothing both aching muscles and quickly removing the residue sweat. She sighed appreciatively, closing her eyes and lifting her head to the stream of water, smiling into it as her mind returned to the past month. More than one of those days had been spent with Tsukiko, both shopping and chatting. As well as training and sparring which the teachers had outright demanded that they do.

She stepped out of the shower several minutes later, refreshed and with far more energy now than she had previously. The drying, however, was an arduous process, owed entirely to the fact that drying her hair took so long. Once done with that, she tied it back into its signature braid, letting the lingering moisture in it help hold the individual hairs together.

She stepped out of the bathroom, stark naked, and threw her dirty clothes into the corner, and was about to head for the drawer to get something to wear when something yanked her braid behind her. She whirled around, ready to send whoever was pulling it flying, and shout at them at the same time.

What she saw gave her pause, however. Behind her sat a small-ish, japanese girl with long, unkempt brown hair, a pair of green, slitted eyes and twin pair of cat tails. A pair of feline ears atop her head completed her look.

Tsukiko sat there, playfully batting at Lily’s long braid with both her hands, sending it back and forth like some cat’s toy while chanting a constant, high pitched “Nya nya, nya ya, nya nya.”

“Tsuki, you…” Lily chuckled, running a hand down her face as she beheld the painfully adorable thing that was her girlfriend. “When do you ever get tired of that whole ‘Nya’ thing?”

At Lily’s voice, Tsukiko looked up, an innocent smile on her lips as she balled up her hands and held them in front of her in the imitation of paws. “Nya?”

“You are impossible, you know that?” Lily asked, smiling as she turned away from Tsukiko and headed for the dresser. She withdrew a dress similar to the one she had worn earlier, but a bit shorter and plainer. This one went to just above the knees, and was blue with several images of lotus blossoms. A pair of white socks and a strange sort of boots made of cloth, with ribbons attached to the shoe itself meant to tie around the shin of the wearer. A small illusion woven around the knot ensured that it looked like it was just a piece of uninterrupted ribbon.

“I don’t understand why you go to such lengths for those shoes of yours. Not like you could just use a normal pair of ballerina shoes like I do,” Tsukiko interjected from behind, tails swishing back and forth behind her.

“Because I like them,” Lily replied, turning around to the cat-girl. “And why do you constantly walk around like some otaku’s wet dream?”

“Because I—uuh—Like it?” She looked away from Lily, an embarrassed blush colouring her cheeks as she realised her earlier remark was rendered void. “Touché,” she muttered. “Anywho, wanna go for something to eat? I’m starving!”

“You’re always starving,” Lily said, chuckling as she walked to the door.

“I’m n-” Any further denials or retorts were silence as by Lily reaching up to scratch her behind the ears, earning a pleased purr instead.

Works every time.

---

The two of them made their way towards the cafeteria, the largest one in what was pretty much the centre of the Academy. It had everything—close to everything. Even two years down the line, Lily still found herself filling her plate to the point where it could hold no longer; just as she had the first day she arrived and saw just how much food was available. The first day she hadn’t been able to do much of anything for hours after eating, having stuffed herself to the point of getting sick.

She had always lived on the bare minimum of food, scraping together what she could and when she could, occasionally getting a “proper” meal in some run-down cafe after she had “relieved” some random passerby of his, or her, wallet. Cash was still a thing, something which she found mildly surprising given how almost every other type of transaction was made via the internet.

“So what’re you going to get?” Tsukiko asked, hungrily eyeing the various plates filled with sea-food: fish, shrimps, crabs and everything else from the sea, tails swishing erratically behind her in anticipation. She had always had a thing for seafood, having grown up in a coastal village in Japan, but things had only gotten worse after she became a Bakeneko Shifter. Whether it was actually that her preference of such foods had increased, or if it was just an act, was unknown to Lily, but she found it entertaining nevertheless.

“Think I’m gonna go for a proper beef. Haven’t had one in ages.”

Tsukiko snorted, lifting her nose into the air. “Suit yourself. You don’t know what you’re missing.” Her pretence of aloofness fell away, replaced by the previous look of hunger and anticipation. “I, for one, will stuff myself in some salmon and fried shrimps!”

She didn’t have time to reply before Tsukiko had run off, already filling her plate with smoked salmon and fried shrimp, entirely foregoing any sort of vegetables. She shook her head and went about getting something to eat herself.

---

Nearly an hour had passed, and Lily was stuffed, as was Tsukiko. They had finished eating after the first half hour, then started chatting about everything and nothing. Twenty minutes had passed with that before Tsukiko announced that it was time for dessert, at which point she bought a couple of muffins for the both of them.

That, coupled with the previous lunch, was almost too much for Lily’s stomach, and she wondered if she’d ever be able to eat again.

I wonder what that weirdo is doing, Lily thought, her mind turning to Sindri as Tsukiko was detailing a sparring fight she had had with one of the other Bakeneko. It was interesting, but not overly so, so she couldn’t quite help her mind from wonder.

For that matter, I wonder if anything’s going to happen, soon. Something interesting, perhaps?

A crisp midday wind caressed Sindri’s brow as he sat amongst one of the many stone circles he had set up in the Academy grounds, perched on a tall boulder like some sort of curious spider, eyes wide and unblinking. Earlier in the day he had been tested against numerous other Fae of comparable skills, they had provided an interesting challenge, but even with the “Contract” binding his actions he had managed to defeat all of them by opening the doors of perception upon them and drowning their thoughts through his subtleties.

Now he was here, amidst the circle, observing, listening, tasting.

He could smell the closeness of the Otherworld in such places, were the circles were aligned properly on specific points, but the doors remained closed to him infuriatingly, taunting him with the smells of paradise. One day he would be free from this dull illusory realm, free from the Demiurge and his puppets, free to live and breathe as he saw fit, he just required the gate, and the termination of the nightmarish “Contract” and his dreams would be complete.

His eyes twitched and with lightning speed he turned to stare at a group of students, who upon seeing him immediately backed off on a different path in avoidance of him.

They knew what he could do.

Sindri made a noise half between a snarl and a giggle at them as they left. Such dull fabrications… he wished he could rend their false little minds apart and devour what remained… but the “Contract” forbade it. For a moment his mind flickered back to that night, what fun it had been! But then “she” had come and ruined it for him, the other one… and bound him to a deal.

Casually he crawled sideways down the boulder he had been sitting on, sliding into the long grass around each like a panther. Slowly he made his way around each stone, touching the rough face of each with a long bony hand, feeling the grooves he had carved into each and the circular patterns which would in time open the way, yes… they were perfect.

Soon… Soon.

For now however he would have to make do with the current situation, his stomach growled in annoyance, it was time for lunch. Making his way slowly through the academy grounds he passed a few other students, barely recognising their existence as they in turn gave him a wide berth as he glided his way through various paths to the main building.

Eventually he entered the building through a portal into the ever clean and sterile innards of the monolith. His burgundy red suit and small red kufi cap creating a stark contrast to the white surroundings, he drew the attention of the few people in the corridor, who promptly ducked their heads down and continued past him, focusing intensely on the ground to avoid attracting his attention.

After some time traversing the corridors of the facility, the crowds began to thicken and various delectable smells wafted through the air. With a push on a pair of double doors he entered the hall, drifting from place to place and listening to the happy babble of talk which continued to cloud out all noise around him. He didn’t much like being in places with this many people, too much noise, dulled the mind and denied his senses… he would leave if he could.

Collecting some plates he absentmindedly built up a menagerie of various foods, the cafeteria staff giving him odd looks at his choices he did so, but they didn’t intercede. A pile of conflicting foods soon collected across three plates, each one balanced precariously in his arms as he left, beef and pork contrasting with crab and lobster as well as smoked fish, and here and there portions of curry and other spiced foods.

Peering about he realised he must have arrived relatively late into lunch, as the hall was considerably less full than it usually was, clearly second sitting. He passed a pair of nearby students and settled at a nearby vacant table with his food, hunching himself over like a vulture over his collection. He began with the crab, its hard shell was wonderful protection against hungry sea-life, but to Sindri’s capable hands it split apart like so much wet paper. He stripped the carcass quickly and efficiently, and ate the sweet tasting flesh quickly, but almost rat-like. Every few minutes he would pause and look around, sniffing the air as if to catch the scent of some predatory animal, watching for eyes that might stare at him.

Once or twice he thought he caught someone looking at him as he did so, but when his eyes turned they were always looking away.

He hated the staring of their eyes.

With the crab carcass gutted he moved on to the lobster, picking it apart with the same clean skilled efficiency he had with the other crustacean, occasionally pausing to wipe his hands on a host of nearby napkins. Halfway through he paused again and looked about, this time he was sure he caught someone watching…

His eyes flickered past her for a minute and then returned to look at her, he was sure she was the one that had been looking at him!

It was a woman in a Chinese dress, she had long hair knotted in a tight braid down her back, and was clearly of Japanese stock. The light skin colour suggested however, some European blood in her, of uncertain origin. He had seen her before, he was certain. She was the fox woman, like the Ikari… what were they called again? Kitsune? It didn’t matter, he was sure she was staring at him.

He didn’t like her staring at him, he didn’t like Kitsune either, they lied and stole and tricked people, he loathed liars and the Kitsune were some of the worst. He averted his gaze, his face contorting into a grimace or a smile of sorts as he wiped his hands and reached into his pockets, taking out a selection of small pocket watches and a repair kit.

The pocket watches kept him calm around the others, kept him abiding the rules of the “Contract”, they made sure he was busy rather than focusing on the ever staring eyes of the others. One select watch was non functional, and with a series of quick motions he began to take it to pieces on the table and used a select group of tools to correct the malfunction, replacing some twisted gears and other parts with new brass workings, before making sure they moved correctly and rewinding the instrument. Sometimes these things were just very old watches, most of them from over six hundred years previously, or which had been made with his own hands. Other times he connected some of himself to the watches, gave them attributes they wouldn’t normally have had… some good, some bad. It depended on his mood.

He believed the other was still staring at him and his face twitched, going into momentary spasms as if hit by an electrical impulse before settling in a taunt smile. He began eating quickly between seeing to the other watches, causing the piles of food to decrease at an amazingly rapid speed, and without any sort of mess between mouthfuls.

After this he had sword practice, Slyphide rarely let him practice his powers in full except under her moderation, she knew what he might do if that slipped, she had to control his influence during duels otherwise… otherwise the incidents might begin again.

A passing group of heavyset students passed behind him laughing uproariously, making him twitch in the middle of a delicate operation, breaking a cog or two in the process. His face tensed for a moment and then he closed his eyes, and took a few deep, deep breaths, counting to ten. When he was sure he wouldn’t inflict mental torture on them in revenge, he saw to the repairs once more.

When he was sure everything was properly set again in all his watches, he rewound them and then set them ticking once more, pausing momentarily to stare at the digital clock far above on one of the atrium walls in order to collect the time. With his main course finished, he returned to the lines in order to collect some dessert, a single slice of thick dark chocolate cake with a small silver spoon. Returning to his seat he began to savour the food, hunched over like a brooding raven in a hailstorm and looking nowhere but downwards at his food.

He began to consider what he would do after this, he had sword practice of course, but that was in an hour or so. He considered building another ring, but put such thoughts away, the Academy had a bad habit of destroying them if he made too many, and he had no need to attract their attention to his new ones. He had a few books he could read back in his room, but they were providing far more frustrating than helpful in his search for the latency between worlds.

Finishing the slice, his eyes shot up again to stare at the woman once more, he was sure he had caught her that time. He eyed her curiously through large amber orbs, like a spider might whilst analysing a struggling fly in its web, interested but not entirely without some level of aggression beneath it all. His lips contorted into a slanted sort of smile, one half of his face remaining immobile whilst the other slid up into a twisted grin.

What do you want? he wondered as he stared at her, before turning back to his plate in silent contemplation. He rose from his chair suddenly, and made his way passed the two of them, staring at the ground and striding quickly across the hall in almost unnatural movements, making his way towards the exit.

He hoped that they hadn’t noticed him.

Alice didn’t need to see the looks of other people she passed by, the way their noses scrunched up, the way they glared at her, how they hurried on the moment they got near her. She wasn’t stupid, who’d want to be around her? Nobody in their right mind, that’s who.

God damn she smelled. She wasn’t even inside yet and she could smell the rank stench emanating from under her jacket, even with the cool breeze dissipating things slightly. The return to a regular schedule from the previous month long “break” had been brutal, even for someone like her who hadn’t done much in the way of break-like activities for the most part. She’d read a book, and browsed the internet occasionally, but there were only so many stupid jokes from people concerned about being conquered and subjugated to alien rule that she could take. She’d huffed off at some point and spent at least half her waking hours cutting, hacking, slicing, and thrusting at hard-light holograms.

And still the return had managed to completely and utterly exhaust her. To say nothing of the other people, several of them had done only the bare minimum required and they’d been painting the floor with the contents of their stomachs. She’d almost felt sorry for them, sparring against each other was part of training after all, and she was all too aware of how a kick to the solar plexus felt. And that hadn’t even been half, or a tenth of it. Then it had been on to actual swordplay against hard light holorgrams, and plain old dragging every single mote of energy contained in their bodies and using it. The Morrigan was absolutely brutal.

Passing more people, Alice mused silently on what they all might’ve done with a month free of classes. Maybe some of them had gone out to the nearby city and bought things, probably a good deal of them just slept through the whole thing.

She’d contemplated going out, but’d had no idea what she’d have even done. She was a stranger in a strange land even back in the country she’d grown up in, to say nothing of China. Unless eating contests were a thing here.

But that break was over, and they were all back to learning new and exciting ways to kill new and less than exciting people. Such fun…

Nearing the building itself, and sighing in relief as cool air washed over her, Alice made for her room- or at least the tram that would take her to the area where her room was.
_________________

Alice barely had the energy to flop onto the bed as she practically dragged herself into the room. “Hey look at me colonel, I can do the crawl after all.” she rasped wryly, burying her face into the mattress. A shower could wait, a little nap first was in-

Actually the bathroom sounded lovely. Very, very lovely.

Pulling some energy from somewhere, she hurled herself off the bed and onto her feet, running headlong for the great and towards the small room off to the side, or more accurately the perfect porcelain throne within.
______

Emerging fifteen minutes later with a wet mop of hair still clinging to her face, Alice flopped back down on the bed with a soft sigh.

Tempting though it was, she didn’t sleep. Pushing herself to her feet, she stumbled back over to the small closet nestled near the bathroom and grabbed a jacket, shirt, and pair of pants exactly like the dirty ones, the only difference being these were clean. It wasn’t as if there were different clothes to choose from, she kept them all the exact same for a reason.

Never again would she know the hassle of choosing what to wear in the morning!

But choosing clothing was a problem she’d rectified long ago, and it was a non-issue at this point, and the reaction of her turning up in something other than the trademark cargo pants coat would be more hassle than it be worth. No, there was a problem, but it wasn’t related to clothing. The problem in the present was the ferocious, gnawing, howling, vicious hunger that tore at every inch of her stomach.
_________________________________
Alice was in a very bad mood by the time she arrived at the cafeteria. She’d just missed the tram and had to wait for the next one, she’d somehow managed to take a wrong turn in a building she’d lived in for more than two years now, she gotten even hungrier, and it looked like most everyone there was wrapping up on seconds and thirds.

At least the food wasn’t sparse by any stretch of the imagination. She had to admit, if this was what her last few days, months, or years would be like, she didn’t have too much of an issue with things.

Mouth watering slightly as she loaded shrimp, mashed potatoes, fried shrimp, dumplings, more shrimp, and essentially enough food from the American Deep South to give a coronary to an elephant.

Hefting the plate and carrying it to a table along a wall and near a corner, Alice made idle observation of the other occupants of the room. Most of them seemed to be finishing up and engaging in idle banter, but as she scanned the room she noticed at least three people who apparently were similarly late to lunch- judging by their full plates and lack of post-stuffing-your-face-lethargy.

She looked over to the two girls eating their food. One of them- Lily something was her name- sat in a blue dress with no pockets or anything useful whatsoever, and was speaking with her friend. Who had… cat ears…?

But of course.

Grabbing some of her own food and scarfing it down to keep her stomach quiet, she looked over at the other person.
Ah yes, she didn’t know his name but she knew who he was. He kept to himself, and that suited her just fine. She didn’t really get why people stared at him or well, anything they stare at. He was a guy who apparently liked playing with pocket watches, big whoop.

He suddenly stood up and made for the exit, Alice watched him with a mild curiosity. She looked back over to the two girls, then back at him. Curiosity to know what the hell had just happened burned in her gut like a hot spike.
From what she knew, he wouldn’t exactly take kindly to an “Excuse me, I was curious as to what just happened over there?” and to be fair, she most certainly wouldn’t either. She looked over to Lily and her friend, then to the door he’d gone through.

Making up her mind, she sighed, pushing up from the table and taking her plate with her, she made her way over to the other table at a medium pace, sliding her plate onto a table a little ways away she walked over to the table.

“Pardon me, but do you know what was up with him?” She gestured vaguely to his abandoned plate of food and the door. “He looked over at you when he left, did you notice? I’m wondering what exactly is up with that.” She said in the somewhat dry, if not lifeless, tone of voice she used when speaking to most people.

Lily and Tsukiko was still there chatting by the time most others had left. Not that it was much of a surprise. Despite the literally thousands of people living in the Academy, they were one of the few couples. Or at least one of the few public ones. They always spent a lot of time together, and spending over an hour after they had eaten just to chat was not an uncommon occurrence.

As they talked, something caught Lily's eye. It wasn't one of the Mythics that sometimes walked around the Academy; they were relatively rare outside of the teachers. No, it was another student which caught her eye, and namely one she might very well call her rival. Sindri. A small smirk bloomed on her lips, her eyes following him as he made his way towards a table with a veritable mountain of food balanced on several different plates. Even with her own ravenous appetite and tendency to over-eat, she knew that there was no way she could eat as much as he did, and even despite how much he consumed... he still managed to stay so thin; something many of the girls in the Academy were jealous of.

She kept her eyes on him for several moments until he looked up, at which point she looked back to Tsuki, resuming the chat with her. It was something about a new sword technique she was practising. Being a Demon meant that Tsukiko was focused around speed and some physical strength, as well as some magic. What made Tsuki special, however, was that she--a Bakeneko--had very little magic to speak of. She was capable of splitting herself in two, one tail on each "copy." She had very little practical magic otherwise, and looked very much like most Titans in terms of how her magic worked. Just like them, it worked on her body itself, granting her increased speed and strength, as well as durability and endurance.

Thanks to this, she was one of the fastest Shifters in the Academy, surpassing just about everyone in that as well as raw strength. Even Lily could not keep up with her, despite priding herself on being amazingly quick, and that was not to mention just how physically strong the cat-girl was. Yes... she was a strange Demon Class Shifter, and it's also why she uses at least one sword for fighting as opposed to most Demons, darting around and delivering quick, decisive strikes.

Tsukiko continued talking about the new technique as she leaned back in her chair and stared up at the ceiling. Lily, however, glanced towards Sindri again, as she had done many times by now, and couldn't help but nearly gape at how quickly he had emptied his plates. Almost all of the were empty to the point where she suspected he had licked them clean of every tiny crump or drop of gravy.

Her eyes followed him as he stood up and made his way towards the doors, looking away only when he finally glanced at her again. She smiled as he walked past them, her eyes immediately locked onto the back of his head. The smile then became a grin as she lifted a hand to her lifted and blew across it as if blowing dust off of her palm. From her palm came not dust or powder, but golf-ball sized balls of blue fire, hovering in the air for a second before they moved forward, inching up on Sindri until they were dancing around his head, capturing a couple of the remaining students' attention, including Tsukiko's who fell silent and just watched Lily do her thing.

One, two, three, four--Nine such small orbs floated around him, dancing in and out of his vision, giving off only the tiniest hints of warmth and light.

The grin one her lips receded, replaced instead by an infuriating, challenging smile as she rested her head on her left arm, that in turn placed on the table for support. And then she just looked at him: Waiting, watching for the reaction she knew would come. Rise to the challenge, little one. I know you can't resist when a "Lying Vixen" is playing with you.

She neither registered nor heard the other woman approach, her attention solely on Sindri. Tsukiko, however, did, and turned to her and shushed her with a finger on her lips. "He's Sindri, and Lily's rival. Be quiet and watch." She let out a low, musical giggle. "This is about to get interesting."

With a sneer of disgust, Sindri spat at the floating illusions which now circled their way around his head.

Typical Kitsune trickery.

A pulse of glowing green light erupted from his eyes as he manifested his limited human form powers into action. Levitating himself a foot above the raising his long body arms above him as if in supplication to some dark heathen deity, before clenching his fists and turned to look at the foul vixen once more. This time she was clearly staring at him, in a way which made his skin crawl and blood take a level in temperature.

She was challenging him, take the bait those eyes said, come on now, you haven’t yet not done it before.

But Sindri was not going to allow her to draw him into her manipulations this time.

With a burst of explosive green, a solid orb of magical flame erupted in a full meter around him, dismissing the false fires with some of his own very real ones. The flames abated after this blinding flash, instead coursing across his red clothing like green coiling serpents, bending to his will and design.

Slowly he approached the Kitsune and her companions, head cocked sideways as if he was a lizard inspecting a very fascinating insect before going in and crushing it between his jaws. Around his glowing green eyes, the façade of humanity was cracking away like old paint. Despite his attempts not to rise to the bait, he was failing quite badly.

Stopping a few feet from the seated Kitsune he glared down at her in hatred, the lying thieving cheat that this creature was repulsed him, stinking unbridled egotism and manipulative interests. Instead of rising to her challenge however, his eyes turned away from the Kitsune to her catlike companion.

A horrible vindictive smile of delight lit up his face.

An idea.

He floated away from the Kitsune, and turned his gaze more fully on the cat Shifter, a smile like if the Cheshire cat had replaced its teeth with knives pointed in her direction. He raised slowly one boney arm to point directly at her, like an uncurling spider leg.

Turning to face the Kitsune again, he let out what must have been a chuckle, but which sounded more like the death rattle from torn vocal cords, undulating uncomfortably in the ears of those who surround him.

His intent could not have been clearer.

Lily eyed Sindri, first with interest, and then with caution. She hadn’t reacted to him extinguishing her flames, as doing so would have been a trivial task for anyone with powers similar to his or hers. She did, however, react to him gesturing at Tsukiko, pointing at her like some witch doctor from thousands of years ago would point a femur at a tribesman, declaring him dead.

Her eyes didn’t quite narrow, though she did tense of slightly—readying herself to Shift should things go beyond what they currently were. She should have expected it of him, really. He was as vindictive as he was powerful, and there was no better way to hurt Lily than to go after those she cared for the most, and he knew that.

When he finally turned back to her, she untensed, becoming relaxed again and—to what she suspected would be to his surprise—smiled at him. Not a fake, a mischievous, or a challenging smile like before. This one was as similar to the Kitsune’s signature Trickster smile and was, in fact, a genuine one.

“I’m impressed. First time you’ve managed to not get back at me, Sindri. You’re one step closer to becoming someone great.”

Beside her, still sitting by the table, sat Tsukiko with a confused frown marring her otherwise gentle features. I guess you should expect to unexpected when dealing with a Trickster such as the Kitsune…

“Your compliments are as empty as your existence Kitsune, you are merely one of many adversaries created by the Demiurge, and you will dissipate in time, like fog before the morning breeze.”

Despite his dismissive tone, his eyes began to regain their less hostile and more human appearance, the flames and distortions disappearing as quickly as they came, but still levitating a foot above the ground. “If I had wished I could have convinced your companion that her flesh was being feasted upon by an infinite swarm of rats and glutting maggots, but that would have been to acknowledge your existence, when you are but a figment of nothingness given form.”

His face by now had lost its contour of anger or hatred, instead sinking into an almost depressive outlook of misery.

“I must escape this place…” he seemed to mutter to himself, “the key… the key…”

Casually his eyes flickered to the newest companion at the table, a woman with extensive cybernetics and a fighters flame in her eye. He cocked his head once more eyeing her up critically, “What illusion are you, what name has he given you, to torment the chosen few with your emptiness?”

So… I’m not the best at reading people in social situations- thanks dad- but I’m willing to wager these two aren’t exactly friends. Alice deadpanned in her mind, wishing she had just stayed seated. This really wasn’t the best situation to put her in- kill something? Easy. Lie your way out of a situation without showing a single trace of emotion? Child’s play. Figure out just what’d been purposefully broken in a rifle and told to fix it blindfolded and with cold hands? Been there, done that. Those didn’t require really speaking to people unlike the current situation she’d gotten herself into.

Lily whatever her name was apparently thought it was a good idea to harass the dark and edgy guy. If she hadn’t been standing right next to her when she did so, Alice would’ve been perfectly content to watch and take notes from afar.

She kept her face blank as Sindri and Lily managed to calm down without landing somebody in the infirmary and kept it blank right up until he asked her directly what her name was, along with some other things that gave her the impression he had too much free time on his hands. She started very slightly, eyes refocusing on him as she snapped back to reality. Quirking an eyebrow but otherwise remaining more or less emotionless, she replied, “If you want a name to refer to me by, it’s Alice.”

She casually reached down to the plate she’d set down on the table and snagged a few shrimp, before asking him in kind, “And who are you aside from the guy everyone either walks on eggshells around or can’t resist the temptation to harass?”

Empty my ass! She mentally exclaimed, only realising too late that she had taken his bait, even if he probably didn’t mean to bait her. That was… just the way he was, she supposed. He’s always had this thing about him; muttering about how people aren’t real and everything is a lie… I could understand it if Ikari had cast us all under a spell, but… She groaned internally, scooting closer to Tsukiko while keeping her gaze focused on Sindri.

Her attention was diverted to the newcomer as she was addressed by Sindri. She kept silent for the moment as both he and the new girl talked. At least for a time. She couldn’t quite keep silent at the woman’s last comment, retorting indignantly. “That wasn’t harassment. I was only teasing. It’s nothing more than you’d do to a little brother or sister. Gentle teasing, nothing else.” Beside her, Tsukiko just groaned, albeit with a barely hidden smile on her lips.

Alice glanced over to Lily, “Because everybody feels the same way about something as you do. Of course, what was I thinking?” She sighed, rolling her eyes skyward for a second before looking back over to Sindri.

Instead of acknowledging Alice’s comment, and almost semi-oblivious to now small argument that was breaking out between her and Lily, he focused instead on Alice’s portion of tiger shrimp. Extending two fingers in a triangular or scissor like fashion he levitated one of them up under the nose of its current owner and launched it towards his fingers, catching it between the two outstretched ones, before bringing it to his mouth and beginning to munch it, seemingly without a care in the world.

Through a mouthful of shrimp his almost morbid tone took on a lighter aspect as he answered, “I am Sindri, and despite being an illusion I believe the figment Lily is correct for the wrong reasons, purely because she does not exist to actually harass me, and is primarily a figment of imagination.”

Scoffing down the last of the shrimp, me took on a philosophical expression, deep in thought, “I blame the Demiurge for her immense ego and conflated sense of self worth…” with this he broke into a demented cackle, before flicking his finger at a nearby students table and lighting the food on their plates on fire, the same students who had caused him to break the delicate operations of his watch earlier.

“Sindri,” Lily said, standing up to her full—and not so impressive—height, attempting to draw the attention of the other two. “I have a question for you. One that might make you think a little.” She looked up at him, smiling faintly. “Why do people fear death, but love life? Why is it that such a natural part of existence is feared and hated; seen as a curse, when a journey through which you are put through so many challenges and exposed to so much hardship?”

Sindri gave her a big cheshire grin again, not tinted with anger of any form, instead almost patronising in nature. In a slow steady voice, as if reproving a child, he answered back in a series of short definite statements. “Life is illusory, death is illusory, you fear the concept of death because you fear the end of the illusion and what may be lingering beyond that specific sphere. You cling to what you know, despite its foulness, because its ALL that you know, and upon this falsehood you call ‘death’ you repeat this cyclical illusion for eternity. Only by breaking the chain can you understand the truth, this is a prison and you must search for the key.” His smile widened once again, even more patronising than before, “But you do not exist Lily, you are but a figment, when this world dies, so shall you.”

Looking him right in the eye, she returned the grin, albeit at a less maniac level. “You’re right, but you’re also wrong. Life is a beautiful lie, whereas Death is a painful truth. You, by saying that life is an illusion, acknowledge its existence and the reality of it. You live, do you not? You can plunge a dagger through your heart and end your life, but even doing so you acknowledge that you lived, and then died.”

She reached a hand behind her, making sure that her hand was out of sight as she grabbed the fork she had been eating with. As she grabbed it she brought another knife into existence; a perfect copy that would be indistinguishable from the other one: A perfect copy right own to the food remains on it. “Which of these is the real one?” She asked, holding both of the up.

Sindri let out a barking laugh, “Death is no truth because there is no death, and by saying that life is an illusion I am saying just that! nothing here exists! If I ended my time here in this hell, it would simply recreate itself and repeat the process once more, there is no life or death, there is only existence and nothingness.” Stretching out both hands, he touched the forks, a spark of magic launching from each finger. In a blink of an eye both disappeared, he grinned at her again “There was no real one, because neither of them ever existed.”

Lily only smiled, tilting her head to the side. With a flex of her mind she brought one of them back, placing it back on the table. “Yet you pointed at them, affected them with your magic. You Deigned yourself to turn your attention towards them… If they’re not real, then would you not ignore them? If you acknowledge them in any way, then does that now prove their existence?” (Btw, how does our Valkyrie react to all of this?) (If you’re wondering the Valkyrie is just munching shrimp with a raised eyebrow at the moment)

He tilted her head again, looking at her with big inquisitive eyes, “If one night I dream, and in the dream I realise it is in fact a dream, does that make the events happening in the dream, ‘real?’ I cannot, not interact with the illusion if it is all encompassing. The only escape is the refutation of its own existence.”

Lily stood for a second, holding his gaze, unflinching, chewing on what he had said. His view on reality was… interesting, if a bit disturbing. In some ways he was barking mad, but he also made somewhat sense—from a strange point of view, though.

She eventually turned to Tsukiko, arching an eyebrow at her. “What do you think, Tsuki?”

“...Nya?” The cat-girl looked thoroughly confused for a moment, nose scrunching up and ears flattening against her skull. “It’s really, really confusing. Why can’t you just… I dunno… do Jan-Ken-Pon or something?”

Snorting, Lily reached out to scratch one of Tsuki’s ears, earning a pleased hum in return. “Perhaps we should… Regardless,” she turned back to Sindri, “by virtue of having to do anything but simply ignore it you acknowledge its existence. If you have to refuse it, then it ultimately means that there is something to refuse.” Her smile widened a bit, and she turned to Tsukiko, taking her hand and helping her stand. “Either way, Tsuki and I have stuff to do—”

“We do?”

“—and as fun as it was to talk to you, I think we’d better part now before we make more people nervous.” She glanced around, nodding her head towards some of the other students watching them cautiously. Lily’s and Sindri’s rivalry was not a secret in the Academy, and those who knew of it knew that getting too close to them when they were together wasn’t always a good idea. Especially when the air was as loaded as now. “So, without further ado,” she nodded to him, and then to the Valkyrie—Tsukiko mirroring her on both accounts—and made her way towards the exit. “I’ll see you!” She called over her shoulder, raising her free hand in a backward wave.

Sindri made a “mmmm”ing noise at that response, scratching his chin in thought “by that logic there is nothing which does not exist, and every falsehood is truth because you have acknowledged it… contradictory. Would this however, not mean that truth and falsehood in turn do not truly exist? Thus meaning that we return to the status quo of falsehood.” He raised an eyebrow, vaguely intrigued, “interesting nonetheless, faretheewell figment.” he waved back, eyeing up the Valkyrie in turn as if judging her for her philosophical abilities. raising one finger in the air he opened his mouth, pausing temporarily for one last look.

“Something tells me you won’t be as fun…” he stated matter of factly, shrugging his shoulders.

“Fun is a subjective entity we assign a meaning and a word to,” Alice replied, “It’s entirely based on our own perception of things, if indeed everything is an illusion are you really having fun?”

With an overly long finger he pointed directly at her, a small smirk running across his face “touche”. Turning around he took in the now slightly disturbed surroundings with an element of amusement, he began floating off, “perhaps I fool myself into believing so, but then again…” he turned back for one last grin, “fun is rather fun”.

With this he levitated himself at high speeds towards the door, blasting it open with a deranged cackle, and leaving several just entering students in a state of complete confusement as he barreled through them.

Alice watched him go with a raised eyebrow, still munching on shrimp. “I must say,” she murmured to herself, returning to her previous seat in the corner, “I can’t disagree there.” She ate quickly and dusted her legs off before following the example the other three had set and striding briskly out.

A pair of dueling violins drowned the soft humming of the engine as the carriage sped along its path, passing in front of stores, restaurants, and apartments. It was a veritable shopping district. People hustled and bustled with the rhythm of a living, breathing city, and the green of bushes and trees planted all along the path gave the place an open feeling that made it difficult to believe the area was enclosed within a building.

Celica yawned tiredly, stretching protesting arms before glancing around the carriage. There were other people in the cart with her, but none she could give a name to. Maybe a face or two she remembered seeing somewhere else, but she could be mistaken. The Academy was vibrant, true, but at times there was a certain anonymity to places as crowded as this, and many new faces had moved in with the coming year.

Her eyes roamed back to the window, momentarily glancing at her translucent reflection. Clear blue eyes stared back, half-lidded. Dark, straight black hair fell down past her shoulders, framing a pretty face of pale complexion, one of those that remained that way regardless of how much sun one shone down on it. She had taken comfortable clothes that day, some of her favorites. Boots, loose, gray cargo pants and a white, form-fitting t-shirt completed her ensemble. A black, sooty line covered a good chunk of the shirt’s left shoulder.

Letting out a soft groan that drew a couple of curious looks, she leaned back on her seat, closing her eyes. The feeling of the carriage decelerating and the announcement that it was her station interrupted her respite.

It was with the dancing strings of an acoustic guitar in the background that she left the carriage, pausing to glance as the other people left the car before following in a sedate pace. She pulled her phone out as she walked, checking the time, then fiddling with it, occasionally looking up to make sure she was not about to collide with someone else, music shifting times and genres as she went.

At an intersection, she noticed another person out of the corner of her eye. She looked up from her device to the familiar face, and accidentally brushed a button in the screen. Immediately, the music’s volume exploded, and Celica started, quickly clawing the earpiece out of her ear, where it continued to blast the chords of an electric guitar loud enough to be heard from the other end of the hall until she shut it off.

“Hey, Alice,” she greeted with a wry smile, returning the phone and its earpiece to her pockets. “How has the first day been treating you?”

“Nice music.” Alice smiled wryly, “Needs a few more more cats on a stretching rack though.” She walked down the hall in the rigid manner she usually had, as though being casual had been an alien concept until she’d been old enough to look it up. “Heading for the mess I presume?”

“I ate earlier. Thinking of the dorms, actually.” She fell in step with the other woman. “I was thinking of heading to one of the gyms, but after this morning…” She trailed off with something between a grimace and a smile. “I’m not sure I want to do anything else today.”

“Benefit to spending your early life doing nothing but work and exercise- it pays off later on.” She looked over at Celica, “I mean, some of those poor bastards threw up whatever they’d eaten for breakfast and dinner last night. Trust me, I’ve talked with enough veterans of just about any war that’d still have living veterans, take a nap when you can.”

“You don’t need to tell me. One puked on me while Shifted.” She rubbed at the black blotch on her shirt. “They did it to the lower years too. I did not think being a Teacher Assistant for Combatives would involve dragons breathing fire on you.”

“I suppose there are benefits to not being expected to do much but stab and blast people at close range and occasionally make sure nobody’s dying of blood loss.” Alice snickered, raising a hand halfway to cover a cavernous yawn. The day had been completely enervating, even for somebody who’d been fully expecting it like herself.

She walked up to the designated area for waiting for the miniature trams to pull up, reclining against a wall to wait. “So, anything particularly exciting happen today aside from exhaustion?”

Celica looked down to her shoulder, then fixed Alice with a blank stare. After a moment she shook her head and sat on one of the available benches, resting her elbows on her knees. “No. You?”

“I suppose trying to figure out how magical weapons work beyond ‘Magic’” – she made air quotes – “might count. I mean, with the amount of training in guns I’ve had you’d think I’d have found my way to get something like you have, however you got them.”

“Magic,” she answered with a cheeky smile, before relenting before her scowl. “The guns are completely mundane, for the record. It’s the ammo that’s special. I could lend you some, if you need it.”

Alice raised an eyebrow, “I might just take you up on that.” she smiled with a hint of scheming in her eyes, “Only real obstacle is shipping prices.” She looked back over to Celica, “Assuming they’re not some specially manufactured materials, that would mean you probably make them yourself?”

Celica winked. “Give me bullets, I’ll give you magic bullets.”

“Because bullets are a common thing nowadays, of course.” Alice deadpanned, “Besides, you make things freeze, I prefer to burn them to a cinder.”

Celica snorted, then shrugged. “I’ll keep the good ammo to myself, in that case.”

She was finally back at her room. It was a rather long day, with most of her classes being about different strategies and how to successfully excecute them and how to react to different responses from the enemies. Mana felt like most of the emphasis was put on how to use their powers against the enemy, which slightly annoyed her, because she felt like some powers could also be used to enhance the regular people weapons and armours. But she didn't feel like speaking up in any of her classes, not wanting to attract attention to herself because she felt like she knew what most of the responses would be.

Moving to her bed, she allowed herself to crash on it and then letting out a fake snore. She felt a bit tired, but she knew that going to sleep at this hour meant she would wake up in the middle of the night, which wasn't quite something she wanted to do. Pushing herself from the bed and moving to sit on it with her legs crossed, Mana pondered on what she should do. She needed to check her social group to see if there were any new topics, eat dinner, choose clothes for tomorrow, make sure she doesn't need to do the laundry yet, shower and only then she could go to sleep.

Deciding to check her social group while eating to save herself a bit of time, Mana grabbed her tablet before placing it in her sidebag and then leaving the room, locking it once she was out. Sighing to herself, she already knew that to reach the cafeteria she needed to take the train. She slightly disliked trains because they didn't feel too stable for her, but she never felt a single rumble that suggested the train in the Academy was not stable, which reassured her a bit.

---

While on the train, Mana placed an earpiece in her ear and then pressed it, beginning to listen to any recorded message people might've left for her. She had a couple from her parents, letting her know that they wanted to hear more from her, and not just once a week. Another message was from one of the managers from the social group, informing her that she was once again nominated to become a co-manager due to her expertise and knowledge in different technologies, and that they required her acceptance to proceed with giving this to the other managers.

Upon hearing the last message that was left for her, Mana smiled. It was one from a friend she had from highschool, letting her know that she just recieved a scholarship and will begin studying in a university in a bit, and in the subject she had wanted. Putting a finger on the earpiece, she would change the setting to call and try to get in touch with her parents. Neither of them had answered, so she assumed that they were working and left a voice message. Then she left a message to the social group manager, letting him know that this time she accepts, feeling she is ready.

She chose not to call her friend just then, and removed the earpiece from her ear and placed it back in the bag. The train had just stopped at her station and Mana got off with a quick step, before going to the cafeteria. She had seen a few faces she had known from her class, but none she would want to say 'hey' to. So instead she quickly made her way to the cafeteria, going inside and getting herself some beef, a salad and a glass of water, not wanting to over do it with food.

Sitting down at a table and taking out her tablet, she begun skimming through the new topics and replies in the social network before noticing something on the other side of the room. A few other people stood up and two of them appeared to be having a conversation that could very easily lead to a fight. Putting the tablet back in her bag, she begun eating her food while watching from the distance at what was going on. She had no intention of suddenly stepping up and getting involved with people she didn't quite know, so she eventually decided to keep on eating and pay them less attention.

After finishing her food, she noticed that three of the people had already left the cafeteria, with the last person leaving just as she rose her sight. Drinking her glass of water, she then let out a sigh of satisfaction. Now all she had left to do was to go, take a shower, catch her friend with a call and then crash on her bed again. Standing up, she begun to walk casually towards the exit, knowing that the train back to her dorm should be arriving in a few minutes, and she didn't want to accidently miss it.

---

A couple of minutes later she was about halfway to the train station when she overheard a conversation going on a conversation going on about mundane guns using special bullets, and how one person prefered using bullets that burn things and don't freeze them. With her curiousity raising, Mana moved to walk a few steps behind the two girls, being extremely curious as to how the conversation will keep on going and wanting to hear more. Obviously she knew that some shifters could create special ammo, but she hadn't seen any example of this thus far.

Not exactly watching where she is going, Mana stumbled and fell head first to the floor. Letting out a grunt of pain, she moved to sit on the floor and see that she was lucky and the only thing that happened to her was a scratch on her forehead. Her knees hurt a bit, but no actual injury was shown, so she figured she was fine, before moving to stand up slowly.

Alice’s head whipped around towards the sound, and by extension the girl connected to it. “The hell?” she asked incredulously, stepping from the wall and looking over at the girl. “... who are you?” she asked, guard up – if not visibly.

Celica blinked and looked at the girl. She looked young, maybe family from another student, come to visit, or perhaps one of the incoming Shifters who had been brought in this year. Fresh out of high school seemed likely. She frowned briefly at the coloration of her hair. There was a certain stigma to dyeing one’s hair that color, for good reason.

“Hey,” she called, getting up and approaching the girl. “Are you alright?”

Suddenly hearing the voices of the two girls made Mana surprised. She didn’t think she made that much noise falling down. Moving to stand up, she dusted herself a bit “I’m fine, thanks for asking. And people call me Mana. Or well, people would call me Mana if I knew more people around.” She said and then realised that she was talking to the two people she was previously following.

“Sorry if I interrupted your conversation or something, but I couldn’t help overhearing what you said about the different types of bullets for regular guns. Being a techno geek, I found it interesting. How can you make different types of bullets, if I can be rude and just plainly ask?” Mana said, hoping that they won’t decide she is too rude and then just leave her.

“Well, if you were to ask me I’d mainly have an answer for non-magical bullets, because apparently nobody thinks I’m smart enough to understand magic or any of the arcane. Celica might know a bit more,” Alice responded, motioning towards Celica, “and could I ask what you mean by ‘techno geek’? Either you’re a geek about techno music or you obsess over technology which appears to be well on its way to be supplanted by magic that nobody bothers explaining to me.”

“Probably the second,” she quipped, before turning to the girl with a half-smile. “Don’t mind Alice too much, she’s just sour.”

Alice glared at her, “I am the sapient equivalent of those sour candies that make you incapable of tasting anything for a week. I am lemons on steroids and LSD. I am the walking epitome of sour, mortal.” she shrugged, “Which does nothing to improve my standing with people, I suppose.”

Celica blinked, then nodded slowly. “That was a joke.”

“I did mean the second. And I’m not just interested in technologies that are supplanted by magic, but in general. Show me a piece of technology, and I’ll be curious.” Mana said to both girls before moving her sights between the two “So it’s Alice and Celica. Nice to meet the two of you.” She said and then turned to look at Celica “So you can make Magical bullets, huh?” She asked in a curious tone.

“Uh…” Celica hesitated at Mana’s expectant look. “Well, yes.” She looked around, frowning at their surroundings, the fingers of one hand idly drumming against the side of one of the holsters at her belt. “I’d rather not make a demonstration here, though.”

“Shockingly, people tend not to like it if you put a bunch of holes in the walls and basically freeze everything moving until they can get somebody who knows magic to undo it in a way that doesn’t involve the other extreme or waiting for several hours.” Alice interjected with a mock scholarly tone.

At first Mana didn’t quite understand what Celica meant, but when she heard what Alice said “Ah. I’m sorry if I hadn’t been a bit clearer, but I didn’t expect a demonstration here. Of course that wouldn’t make any sense to do. But I was hoping for an explanation on how its possible, or how, in theory, do you do it. But if its hard for you to explain I’ll understand too.” She said and then felt a vibration in her bag.

Taking out her phone, she saw there was only a couple of minutes before her train arrives “Uhm… Which train are you two taking? Because I’m headed to the dorms, and I’d like to keep talking to you two.” Mana asked.

“Dorms.” Alice responded, “Waiting for the train.”

Celica gave a pained smile. “I guess I don’t have an excuse not to explain, do I?” She shook her head, shifting her weight. “It is hard to explain, though. I don’t think I could teach someone else how to do it unless we had the same compatibility. Shifter magic rarely works the same for all of us.”

“I see. I didn’t expect that I could do the same thing exactly or something, but I had another thought, though with what you just said, I guess that thought is also pointless now.” Mana said and let out a small sigh while looking in the direction of where the train was supposed to come from.

“I’m sorry. Magic comes almost instinctually at times, you know? It’s partly why Alice is so sour,” she teased. She followed Mana’s gaze, noticing a shape starting to move closer. Realizing the tram was nearly there, She tilted her head towards the tracks, motioning for them walk with her. “I suppose – if I were to give the most barebones explanation I can think of – is that I can give an object an… an intention, let’s say, and the magic it needs to carry it out.” Celica shook her head, clearly unsatisfied with what little she could get across, but quickly turned to smile at Mana. “What year are you? Most of the new students don’t really care about conventional firearms when they can be shooting lightning out of their fingers and torching things on their own.”

Alice interjected again, mumbling this time, “Because most people can’t comprehend the magnificence of a finely crafted revolver.”

“Now I know what to get you on your birthday.”

“I have several guns at home, I just can’t get permission to ship any out here yet.” Alice grumbled in reply, pulling a phone that looked more akin to ballistic plating from one of the many pockets on her jacket, checking something before sliding it back into the pocket.

Hearing Celica’s explanation, Mana nodded, and was about to say something when she heard her question. So she thought she was a first year just because of her appearance, just like most people “I’m in my third year here…” She said and her expression changed in a more depressed one as she walked besides Celica and Alice “I’m 21 years old, despite what I look like.” She said in a more depressed tone. She really disliked when people jumped to conclusions like that.

“Oh.” Touchy subject. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sa—I mean, I…” She trailed off, giving Alice a pleading look. ‘Help me,’ she mouthed.

“You didn’t mean to judge by appearance. It’s what most people do, due to how young I look.” Mana said and rose her sight a bit to look at Celica “I should’ve gotten used to it, but I guess I haven’t. But it’s fine.” She said and slightly shook her head at her own reaction.

“To be fair,” Alice piped in, “You wouldn’t believe the number of people who greet me as sir, even when they’ve heard me speak. It leaves one rather disgruntled after the first fifty or so times, after the first fifty people.”

“Well, you do sound a bit like a guy, with how you talk…” Mana mumbled to herself before sending a small smile in Alice’s direction “Well, I guess both of us have something we dislike other people doing.” She said and the realised how silly that sounded. Everyone had something that they disliked about the actions of others, most likely. Slightly blushing, she moved to get on board the train that had just stopped.

“You two are not making me feel like a good person,” Celica sighed, plopping down on an empty seat.

“I am a horrible person, and am well aware of it.” Alice declared, “One becomes well acquainted with their inner horridity when one spends ten years learning how to kill people with everything short of empty air.”

“Don’t worry Alice, I think you’re good on the inside,” Celica said, lazily. “Like how your side of the room looks like a hurricane went through it, but you keep your bathroom supplies so well organized my first drill sergeant would weep tears of joy.”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to make you feel bad!” Mana said with a sad look in her eyes. She sat down next to Celica and looked at her, wanting to make sure that her apology would be accepted. She also wondered to herself if she was trying too hard to be accepted by others or not.

“Now you’re making me feel worse.” Celica chuckled, waving one hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. But, since we already stepped on this mine, what year do you think we are?”

“Uhm…” Mana looked at both of them and hesitated on answering. Both were higher than her, and she wondered if she was supposed to catch a hint that they weren’t as old as they appeared. Deciding to guess it, she took a quick breath “I think both of you are in the third year as well.” She said in a quick sentence.

Celica gave her a half-lidded stare. “Are you saying we’re old?”

“Maybe. I’m saying that you two are at least as old as me.” Mana replied in a more relaxed tone, figuring that either way, no real harm could be done.

“I was hoping that would fluster you. I suppose I am a terrible person when it comes down to it,” Celica admitted, laughing good-naturedly. “Good guess. I’m surprised we haven’t met before. What’s your Shifter Class? Fae?”

“Thats a good guess on your behalf. Thats exactly my class.” Mana spoke with a happy tone “And even if we were in the same class, I doubt you would’ve noticed me. I don’t have an easy time making friends.”

“Really? I never would've guessed.”

“Yup. Most of the people in my class don’t really notice unless I’m answering something or we are training outside.” Mana said and rolled her eyes.

“Can’t say I’ve had that problem.” Alice shrugged. “People tend to notice you when you kick them halfway across a field.”

Celica gave Alice a brief glance shaking her head. “That's strange.” She turned to Mana. “Trust me, I don’t mean to offend, but you do look rather distinctive.”

Bits of lightning begun to come out of her eyes as Mana turned to look at Celica “If you mean my hair, then yeah. It’s different.” She said. She didn’t sound angry or annoyed, but it appeared as if the lightning appeared without her controlling it, or even noticing it.

Another touchy subject. This Mana was turning out to be quite the prickly girl. That was not a reaction one would have expected from commenting on hair dye, however. Celica’s eyes widened slightly, and she looked away, lips pursed in a grimace.

“It’s natural, just so you know. A lot of people think its dyed, but it’s not.” Mana said and rubbed her eyes a bit, making the lightning go away before looking at the nearest window “Both of you look very nice.” She said in a slightly weaker voice.

“Am I supposed to care if your hair is naturally blue, for whatever cause?” Alice asked, “So what if your hair is blue – and I could probably guess the reason – are you charging in here waving a magic rifle and trying to impose a universal government on us all? If not, I see no issue.”

Letting out a sigh, Mana kept her eyes on the window. “That’s pretty much the first time someone said that to me.” She whispered before looking at Alice. “Thanks. That means a lot.” She added.

“See? Good on the inside,” Celica said with a wan smile. She took a deep breath and absentmindedly brushed her hair back with one hand. “I’m sorry,” she said after a short pause. “I don’t usually put my foot in my mouth like this.”

“It’s fine. I just get tired of people making remarks about my hair, of any kind. It’s not like I chose how my hair is, and I also found out that I couldn’t colour my hair, because there is something about it that wouldn’t react well to hair dyes.” She said and rolled her eyes “But I guess natural is the best colour at the end.” Mana added before turning to look at the two of them again.

“So, what kind of shifters are you? Because if I had to guess, I would go with Demon. But that’s just a guess.” Mana asked in a curious tone.

Celica smiled at the change in topic. “Okay, I’m curious. What makes you say Demon?”

“My sulfuric personality, obviously.”

Mana giggled at Alice’s remark “Well, that, and I don’t think Titans can create magical bullets. If you were Fae, then you would’ve asked me how come you didn’t see me in classes before after I’ve confirmed it.”

“Logic, you foil me again,” Celica said dryly.

“That left Demon and Spirits. So I decided to have a guess.” She finished explaining.

“I’m surprised you didn’t pick Spirit. It’s the first thing a lot of people think of when I bring up guns.”

“Some spooky damn guns then,” Alice commented, a small smirk playing at the corners of her mouth. “Why would spirits be the first thing people think of when you say guns? Guns aren’t exactly subtle weapons last I recall.”

“They are also useless up front against most Shifters, unless you have some trick up your sleeve,” Celica pointed out.

“Well, I didn’t quite think about that, but I figure spirits might need guns too, for protection should they suddenly find themselves in a dangerous situation. Like, most of the forces had already went into battle and the enemy troops sent a small undercover unit to try and take out any support our troops left behind.” Mana said, shrugging her shoulders a bit. That was her own assumption, she didn’t think that anyone on a battlefield should be left weaponless.

“Anyhow, you didn’t reply to my guess. Are you Demon type shifters?”

Celica finally nodded. “Yes, we are. Yuki-anesa, or Snow Sis, if you want to avoid the Japanese,” she said gesturing at herself, “and Valkyrie.” She motioned towards Alice.

“I’m expected to stab things and not much else, it drives one crazy at times.”

“That’s only because you want to mix it with shooting.”

“Hey, I spent a good deal of my early life shooting things, it’s fun, dammit!” Alice protested, “I’m going to resubmit that paperwork. Maybe if I phrase it nicely, make valid points, and kiss some ass they’ll let me.”

"How did you even manage to get rejected in the first place? We're in a military facility, for crying out loud."

Trying to remember their shifter type, Mana didn’t quite pay attention to the little side talk they had going on, before realising she hadn’t told them her own. “I’m a bit rude, I didn’t tell you my shifter!” She said in an apologetic tone, drawing their attention. “My Fae shifter is Thunderbird.” She said and rubbed the back of her neck a bit.

“Ah.” Celica nodded. “So that’s what the lightning eyes were about.”

“What a shocking revelation,” Alice noted, “It’s almost as if the girl with the lightning in her eyes has lightning powers. Incredible.”

“Congratulations,” Celica groaned. “The bad pun means she likes you.”

“Like is a subjective term.” Alice corrected her, “It’s more accurate to say I’d be more surprised if you were to sink a knife in my spine.”

“Trust me, good on the inside.”

“Good is a subjective term as well.”

“Then I guess we could call Alice ‘Miss Subjective’ instead.” Mana said with a teasing tone before laughing.

Celica joined in with soft snicker. Their mirth, however, was soon interrupted by a female voice announcing the following station. Celica looked up, as if expecting to see the source of the voice, then sighed.

“We’ll have to get off soon,” she commented, before smiling at the blue-haired girl. “It was fun talking to you, Mana. We should do it again sometime. Actually,” she said, pulling out her phone, “how about we exchange numbers?”

“Sure, I’d like that.” Mana replied with a smile while taking out her own phone “I can only assume Alice isn’t one to do these kind of things.” She said and gave her a curious look, wanting to see if she would pull out her phone or not.

“Sure she is. Right, Alice?” Celica prodded, teasingly.

Alice shrugged, pulling out her own phone and twirling it in her fingers, looking over at Celica. “To offer the phone number or not to offer the phone number, that is the question, is it not?” She tossed it in the air, catching it with two fingers, “I suppose it couldn’t hurt.” She laughed quietly, passing the phone to Mana.

“Just write down your contact info in there, and we’ll send you a message.” Celica added. “With the way the Academy is, it would be a shame if we met up like this and then didn’t run into each other until graduation day.”

Taking the phone from Celica and Alice, Mana wrote down her number in each of them before handing them back. She then nodded before putting her phone back in her bag. “Well, seeing we covered that, I guess this is where we are going our separate ways.” She said with a somewhat cheerful tone, mainly due to having a couple of new friends now.

With a muffled groan, the tram slowed to a stop, and the people around them began to stand up, making for the doors.

Celica glanced around at the movement before standing up as well, a satisfied grin on her face. “Alright then, we’ll see you later.”

On the station, the group split up, the girls headed for their respective dorms. “She was nice,” Celica commented as they neared their building. “A bit sensitive, but nice.”

Alice shrugged, as she often did, “I’d imagine that stigma would make somebody sensitive.” She coughed awkwardly, remembering the instance in her youth involving toxic chemicals. “Yep.” She affirmed quickly.

“I suppose, though I wish she hadn’t been so serious about it. Oh well, nothing to it.” Celica shook her head, sighing. “The year starts in earnest tomorrow.” She chuckled wryly. “There ain’t no rest for the wicked.”

“I get rest.” Alice rasped in protest, “Anyway, I’m going to try and resend that application to ship at least one of my guns out here. Could you look it over for me, maybe point out why I keep on getting the responses I do?”

Celica snorted. “Sure, if only out of morbid curiosity.”

“Morbid is subjective, too.”

"So what was it we had to do, Lily?" Tsukiko asked curiously, head tilted to the side as Lily continued to lead her through the wide corridors by hand.

It had been several minutes since the two of them had left the cafeteria. They were currently on the way towards what Tsukiko and Lily had dubbed "The Lair." Though it wasn't really a lair, but rather the rooms in which Ikari spent most of her time. She couldn't help but wonder why exactly they were headed there, as Lily rarely sought out this particular Mythic unless absolutely necessary. Despite how similar they were, there was something about Ikari that kept Lily away most of the times. She didn't know exactly why, but she assumed that it had something to do with Lily's past. She figured that, perhaps, someone who had so many things in common with Lily, and acted so much like a mother for her—albeit a strict, nigh immortal, and absurdly powerful one—shocked her enough that she pushed her away.

Being so lost in her musings, Tsukiko found herself missing Lily's answer, only realising such when she caught her questioning stare. She chuckled sheepishly and rubbed her neck with her free hand. "Sorry, what did you say? I was... sort of lost in my own little world."

"You don't say," Lily replied, a half-smile on her lips. "And here I thought I was the only thing you bothered to pay attention to... what were you thinking about?"

Her nose scrunched up in thought at the question, causing Lily's smile to widen almost imperceptibly "About why we're headed to Ikari's rooms?" She offered slowly, not quite sure what to say.

"So you figured that out?" She glanced away, idly biting her lower lip. "Only a question of time, I suppose."

Now confused even more than before, Tsukiko tightened her grip on Lily's hand. She planted both heels into the ground and pulled back on Lily's arm, forcing her to come face to face with her. "Something's not right," she stated, brows knitted together. "You don't usually seek out Ikari, and when you do you answer why when asked. But not this time... What's up, Lily? Really, tell me!"

Lily just looked at her, one eyebrow raised in the best show of indifference she could pull off. Sadly, it wasn't enough to fool the one who knew more about her than anyone else. She sighed; her shoes having suddenly become very interesting. "It's silly, really. I just..." She looked up again, bottom lip between her teeth once more. "All I really want is for her to make sure that Sindri and I are paired up for the next sparring. That debate we had... makes me wanna beat him once and for all. He's both infuriating and just... gah!" Her foot met the ground with a thud; a display of childish annoyance.

"But that's not what's bothering you," Tsukiko stated. "The two of you have butted heads I don't know how many times, so this time shouldn't be no different... it's about Ikari, isn't it?"

“No… It’s just…” she sighed. “Some trickster I am, can’t even fool myself. Yes, it’s Ikari. I don’t like being near her. She’s far too… motherly for me. The only person that was ever kind towards me, and had compassion in their heart left for me was Max, and now Ikari has just sort of… appeared. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice that someone seems to care about me as more than just a random fling—”

“I do care about you as more than a fling!” Tsukiko interjected, suddenly sounding very stern, and almost angry.

Lily smiled almost sadly in return. “I know, but it’s different than that… You care about me because we’re together as a couple, but Ikari.... I don’t even know if she really does care about me, but the way she sometimes act… if it wasn’t because she was a kitsune mythic I might very well view her as a surrogate mother, but I… I really, really don’t know.”

“You’re afraid that it’s all just an elaborate hoax? Created by the greatest trickster alive?”

Lily nodded, glancing off to the side. “More or less. I mean, she’s so kind to everybody, it’s not like she treats me differently… It’s probably just me not knowing how to deal with actually being treated nicely for once.” A small smile spread across her lips as she looked back at Tsukiko. It only made her seem even sadder. “It’s not like I was treated very nicely on the street.”

At that, Tsukiko couldn’t quite help but let out a small chuckle. “I still remember when we first met. It’s… a day I won’t soon forget.”

“No… neither will I.”

---

Lily pushed open the door and stepped in, a tiny bag slung over her shoulder containing what little she owned. She stared with wide eyes at the two expansive beds on either side of the room, with a closet for clothes between it and the far wall, as well as a cupboard by the head of the bed, nearest where Lily stood.

She didn’t even register the other occupant as she took another step in and closed the door behind her, eyes roving over every part of the room. It wasn’t exactly huge, but with a pair of desks standing by the far wall in the room, the beds and small door which lead into an adjacent bathroom, it was more than enough for her.

She stepped over to the bed, crouching down until she was almost eyeheight with the bed itself. Even when the other occupant spoke she didn’t react, at least not for the first few seconds.

“Hi, how’re you?” The voice asked, clearly feminine. “I’m Tsukiko, and since you’re here I assume we’re roommates.”

Tsukiko waited patiently for Lily to reply, and her patience was finally rewarded when—after almost a full minute—Lily said. “Never had one of my own before.”

Tsukiko tilted her head to the side as she stared at Lily. “Never had what before? A room?”

Lily simply turned her head, looking at the other woman with a stare that spoke of pain and loss, but also happiness. “A bed.”

---

“I still can’t believe you lived on the street,” Tsukiko muttered after a while, she and Lily having resumed their walk towards Ikari’s rooms. “I mean, I know some people are homeless still, but I figured most of them would only be so temporarily. Didn’t you have any family?”

Lily shook her head. “None that I know of. I had Max, but he died before I even reached puberty—got sick one winter.”

“That’s sad.”

“Yeah, it is, but he taught me a lot of things which helped me along the day, so I’ll remember him. It’s the least I can do.”

Tsukiko grinned, darting in for a quick peck on Lily’s cheek before she stopped, and nodded towards the nearby door. “We’re here. You knock, or should I?”

“I’ll knock,” Lily replied exasperatedly, rolling her eyes, and stepped towards the door and knocked.

A few seconds later the door was opened, revealing a silver-haired beauty that even Lily—when shifted—could not compare to. Her sharp yet gentle features, full lips and clear eyes made Lily seize up for a short moment, just like she did every time she came near Ikari—she was just that beautiful.

Smiling at the two women at her door, Ikari opened the door fully and stepped aside. With a sweep of a delicate hand she invited them inside, to which they obliged. “How are you feeling, Lily?” Ikari asked, closing the door with one of her many tails. “You looked quite worn earlier today after training.”

“Are you surprised?” Lily retorted, almost sourly. Tsukiko took a seat on the couch situated near a small fireplace in the room, Lily taking the spot beside her while Ikari sat in a chair for herself. “Five hours non-stop of blasting those dummies? I don’t have that much destructive force, and being forced to do that for five hours… it’s should be counted as torture.”

“And that’s why I told you to do it,” the Mythic replied in turn, the smile having never left her lips. “To become as strong as possible, you must learn how to destroy as much as create.”

“I get that, but… Gah. Can we just drop the issue? That’s not why I’m here.”

“I thought as much. So why are you here? It’s not for tea, I don’t think.”

“I want to ask a favour. For the next sparring match, I want you to pit me up against Sindri—the fae guy who has powers similar to ours.”

Ikari was silent for a moment, one tail idly tapping the chair’s leg in thought. “The one who has the contract with Sylphide? That should be possible.”

“Contract?” Lily and Tsukiko asked in unison, their eyebrows shooting up under their respective fringes. “What contract?” Lily finished.

For a moment Ikari looked like she had said something she shouldn’t have, but it was gone so fast that the two shifters barely registered it. “It’s nothing. If you want to know you can ask him. Perhaps he’ll answer. As for pitting you two together, I’ll see what I can do.” She gave them both a nod and another smile, and stood up. “If there’s nothing else?”

“That’ll be it, I think,” Tsukiko said, looking at her girlfriend for confirmation.

“I’ll see you two tomorrow, then.” With a flick of her wrist, the door opened, letting the two shifters out. “I’ll see you two some other day, until then.”

Tsukiko waved at the Mythic as they exited the door, though Lily settled for simply a nod, both of them receiving a wave in return.

“I think she’s nice,” Tsukiko said after a short while, glancing every which way in search of something interesting. “So where are we headed now?”

“The cinema, I think, and after that bed, probably. I need to relax after today; too much stuff has happened after that torture session this morning.” They rounded a corner, the tram station coming into view. “What movie do you wanna watch? If you’re coming with me that is.”

“Hmm… How about ‘The Kid’?”

Of all the things Lily had expected, that was certainly not it. “The Kid? Tsuki… That movie is literally over six hundred years old! Why would you watch that?”

The cat girl only shrugged in return. “It’s interesting.”

“I guess we’ll watch The Kid, then.”

---

The Next Day

Lily woke up to a pair of cat tails almost slapping her in the face, forcing her awake in the most impolite way possible.

“Damnit, Tsuki, I’m asleep!” Lily grumbled, sitting up and let the sheets fall away from her naked body. “Or was… What is it?”

“You have to get up! You slept through the announcement!” How Tsuki could be so energetic so early in the morning was a mystery to Lily, and something she had given up on finding out about by the second month they had lived together.

“What was the announcement?” She asked, stepping out of bed and over to the dresser, pulling out a set of underwear first, then a pair of jeans and a tank top. “It must’ve been important for you to wake me up for it,” she continued, finally getting the top on.

“Group A2, B4, and C1 of Titan, Fae and Demon respectively are to meet up at Rendezvous Point Charlie for sparring practice in ninety minutes.”

"Which one was Charlie again?" She asked, currently looking under the bed for a pair of shoes.

"The one in the north west part of the compound. You know, the one which takes half an hour by train, and is five minute's walk from the exit into the open areas outside."

"You didn't have to be so specific," Lily mumbled, having finally found her shoes and put them on.

"Also!" Tsukiko chimed in, closing her own closet from which she had produced a one-handed, double-edged sword. "Sindri will be there, so I guess Ikari managed to pit you against him."

Despite still being tired, the news brought a smile to the Kitsune’s lips. “Nice. That means I'll finally get to punch him in the face,” she said, chuckling. “Come on, let’s get some breakfast quickly and head for the rendezvous point.”

“Nya Nya!”

“...Right after I finish braiding my hair.”

Celica took a pause in scanning the document in front of her to take a sip from her cup of coffee, the liquid scorching as it flowed down her throat. Then her gaze turned back to the paper, brows knitting together in an irritated frown.

As she walked to the site specified by the announcement, coffee in one hand, paper in the other, and duffel bag hanging from her shoulder, she repeatedly paused in her examination to frustratedly simmer on the Academy’s lack of respect for its own schedule. After yesterday’s morning session, being woken up earlier than she had planned, by an announcement which she could only imagine preluded more of the same torture as before did not have a positive effect on her mood. The previous day’s clothing had been replaced by new, clean apparel, but she wondered how long that would survive.

She had assumed the papers in her hand would provide some amusement, but, while clearly written in Alice’s taut handwriting, all hard lines, there was a notable absence of the loose tongue she imagined had led to the paperwork being rejected. In fact, there was nothing she could see in the writing itself that was out of place.

“This is starting to annoy me,” she commented, idly, forcing her lips into a crooked smile.

“What is?” Alice asked, cocking her head to one side slightly in curiosity.

Celica shook the paper in her hand. “I can’t see what keeps getting you turned down. I mean, even if you were giving them hate mail, we are walking nukes. What would the problem be with shipping a gun?” She looked back at the form and grimaced distastefully. “For how long have you been trying to get this done?”

Alice shrugged in defeat, “About once a month for eight or nine months. I keep getting this ‘your request could not be processed’ type response. It’s infuriating.”

“I can imagine…” For a moment, Celica had the strangest urge to empty the rest of her drink on to the document, if only so she didn’t have to look at it any more. Then something struck her. “Wait, so you weren’t actually getting rejected.”

Alice stopped dead in her tracks, staring at Celica, “What do you mean?” she demanded.

Celica turned to look at her. Suddenly, it was Alice’s head she wanted to dunk the scalding coffee on. “If they were denying your requests, they would have explicitly said so. ‘Could not be processed’ is the kind of automated response one gets when there’s a mistake in the paperwork.” She turned to look at the paper, and the problem was so glaringly obvious she wondered how she could not have noticed it at first glance. “Alice, you’re trying to get permission to mail a gun over. Why are you addressing it to the Human Resource Management office?”

Alice looked blankly at Celica, then to the letter in her hand, then back to Celica, and snatched the letter, reading it with a scowl. “I don’t see the issue.” She admitted with a grumble, “But I’m guessing it’s not with my prose.”

“They don’t deal with that stuff, of course you’re not going to get anything out it if you ask them.” Celica started walking again, one hand massaging her temple. “And you’ve been doing this for a year?” She didn’t know whether she should laugh herself silly or cry.

Alice then heard Celica’s words about Human Resources, which somehow had managed to completely slip by her. “Wait. Wait. I’ve been addressing this to the Human Resources office?”

“Yes,” she told her, curtly.

Alice smacked her forehead in exasperation, “You know, you’d think after all the training I’ve had, I would notice what people say. And what I write on letters.”

“One would think,” Celica agreed, dryly. They were almost to the rendezvous point, and the murmur of conversing student’s slowly began drifting into earshot. “But you’ve never been about doing what’s expected, now have you?”

“Expectation is subjective. Some people might’ve expected me to do something, who knows?” Alice shot back.

“Well, I can’t believe you expected to get your gun out of this. And you did it, what? Ten times? I can’t get over it.” Celica shook her head disbelievingly. There was something here to be said about insanity, but she could not recall the quote.

“это пиздец,” Alice grumbled, “How the hell do I not notice this? You’d think that in this day and age you wouldn’t even have to handle paper, but no, you still have to bother with a pen, paper, and apparently having one wrong digit in a number.”

She leaned against the wall, sighing in exasperation. “Well, guess I’ll fix the address. Thanks.” She said awkwardly, shifting uncomfortably a little.

As they reached the waiting area, Celica took a gulp of her coffee, letting out a long sigh. “Don’t mention it. Really. I should be making fun of you, but I don’t even want to think about it anymore,” she added, dropping her bag against the wall.

Waking up slowly due to the announcement, Mana tried to listen as carefully as she could while rubbing her eyes. Group A2, B4, and C1 of Titan, Fae and Demon respectively needed to meet up at Rendezvous Point Charlie for sparring practice in ninety minutes. She yawned a bit while rubbing her eyes some more and then it struck her. Group B4. That was her group. Jumping out of her bed, she looked at how much time she had. Due to how unfocused she was prior to this, she hadn't noticed at which time exactly the announcement was made, so she had to assume it has been about five minutes since.

Quickly moving to her wardrobe, she went and took out the first set of clothes she could see and matched each other. A white sleeveless shirt and a pair of blue shorts. She enjoyed wearing that so much, that she had went and bought the same shirt and pair of shorts three times. She had other clothes, but in times like these, when she had a limited time to arrive somewhere, she knew she couldn't start over thinking it.

Throwing the large shirt she was wearing away, Mana put on her undergarments and then her clothes as quickly as she could before going to brush her teeth. She then realised that her toothpaste had just run out and she barely had any on her brush. Fantastic. Brushing nevertheless and giving herself a mental note to get more toothpaste, she wondered how much longer she still had. Due to the fact it was a sparring training, she knew that she could just take her bag without most of her stuff.

Quickly going to her bag and moving all the stuff she didn't need onto her desk, Mana wondered if she should take her tablet. Deciding that she'll try and pay attention to all of the training matches that will occur, she then went andleft her room, with only 30 minutes left. Knowing it will take her longer than that to arrive, she already started to think on apologies she could tell whoever will be incharge there.

Heading to the train, she saw there was one in the station and made a dash for it, She just barely made it through the doors and a second later they were closed and the train begun heading towards where she needed to arrive at.

Taking a seat and looking out the window, Mana couldn't see anyone else who was also late so she figured that most of the people had managed to catch earlier trains to there. Looking at the clock, she knew it still had an hour to reach the station and then a bit of walking, but she was already running late. She then let out a yawn and leaned a bit back in her chair, figuring that if she is late then she doesn't really have a reason to hide why she was really late.

__________________________________________________________________________________

After an hour passed, Mana let out another yawn while getting off the train station. She looked at the time and wasn't surprised to see that she arrived just when they were supposed to be there already. Letting out a sigh, she quickly made her way towards the site.

Arriving there after five more minutes, she could see just about all of her classmates and many others that she didn't quite know. Mana went and approached one of the instructors there and begun apologizing to him repeatedly a few times until he told her to merely get herself ready and go join all of the others who were already there and preparing themselves. Putting her bag where many other students had placed their bags, she went and joined the other students, hoping not to attract the wrong type of attention to herself by arriving late.

A pair of groggy eyes peered out from the depths of a quilt as Sindri heard the broadcast, dark rings showing his consistent failure to get past his insomniac tendencies.

Admin was calling.

After his confrontation with Lily he hadn’t been able to get much rest, for some reason her logic did seem to have a insufferably clinging edge to it, he couldn’t seem to rid himself of the possibility of the truth of her words. It had driven him up the wall most of the night.

Did this mean she was possibly speaking the truth?

He shook his head, trying to clear his mind of the systematic worry, and the minor case of exhaustion he still felt after his fight against consciousness last night. He had resorted instead to trying to read one of his many books which lay scattered about in tottering piles, like some sort of literature based jungle fauna, added to by piles of brightly coloured clothing which had been discarded many days before.

But that had failed, the words just ran by without comprehension, and he could remember very little of what he had read the night before.

He rose from his bed, a wide yawn barely being stifled by his hand as he moved down from his position on the top of the bunk bed. Stumbling down the ladder as the bulletin repeated itself, he felt his feet sink into the thick carpet below and eyed up the empty bed beneath his own, now dominated by books and various bits and bobs he had picked up.

It had been a year and they still hadn’t found a willing replacement to bunk with him.

Snatching up a pile of slightly crumpled clothes, he tossed them on the bed below in preparation before moving for the shower, hot water and refreshment beckoning like a seductive siren.

After this, it was all a matter of picking which colour he was going to go for today. Grabbing whatever picked his fancy, he began dressing quickly; water still collecting in heavy thick droplets in his hair.

Today’s colour was yellow.

Once in the suit and looking somewhat presentable, if ruffled, he sidled out of his domain, discarding the hat due to his hair still being wet and fluffy. Most of the other students in his section hadn’t woken up yet, or if they had they didn’t have any classes, so for the most part he walked through the corridors in complete silence, asides from the tip tap of his footsteps.

Sindri eyed up his surroundings dispassionately, he wished current architectural design had incorporated more interesting additions to their interiors; you could only pass so many smooth steel walls before getting bored of the monotony of it all. He paused momentarily at a coffee machine, sliding a couple of coins in for a latte and standing idly by, yawning as last nights insomnia caught up with him.

With a choking sort of slurp and shudder, the machine slowed to a stop and Sindri pulled the cup out of its holder, and began sipping it as he made his way to the local train system to the training fields.

It didn’t take long for him to reach the rendezvous point, with the assistance of the local train service –which had been somewhat awkward due to the presence of the people whose food he had set on fire- he was quickly outside in the sunshine and fast approaching a small crowd of students and teachers prepping for training.

With nothing else to do, Sindri settled into his usual sort of hovering state, pulling out a small deck of cards and doing some small tricks with them while he waited, yawning in relative boredom at amidst the drifting groups of students and teachers, waiting for them to get paired up for combat.

Once or twice he caught sight of Lily out the corner of his eye, still talking to her cat like companion as usual. She seemed to look back at him once or twice, relatively excited for some reason, a trickster like smile tugging at her lips.

I wonder what she is up to… Sindri mused, frowning slightly at the attention before downing the last of his coffee and suddenly noticing Slyphide flitting quickly towards him. He shuddered slightly in discomfort, before straightening up somewhat and putting on a strained sort of smile which looked more like a grimace than his usual impish grin.

I hope this is just a quick chat…

Lily and Tsukiko had to run for the train to catch it. It was the second to last train they could take and still be on time, whereas the last one would bring them there with dangerously little time. Knowing Ikari—who would undoubtedly be there—it wasn't outside the realms of possibility that they would start early. They passed through the corridors as fast as they could, and soon saw the station with the train already there.

It was not without panic that Tsukiko grabbed hold of Lily, slipping a hand under her knees and back as they can and sped up, running almost as fast as she could towards the train station with her girlfriend held bridal style. "Almost there!" She exclaimed, the doors to the train getting closer and closer. Tsukiko grinned as the doors started closing and she barrelled inside, falling into a heap with Lily, though turning so that she cushioned the fall for her un-shifted companion.

"Do that again in public and you're not getting any massages for the next month," Lily grumbled as she stood up, rubbing the back of her head, one eye clenched shut in pain.

"Sorry," Tsukiko replied, chuckling as she stood up herself, and started leading them towards a couple of empty seats. "But you were so slow~!"

"Sure... slow. Not like you're the bloody speedy gonzales, what with you running a hundred kilometres per hour if you actually want to." Lily sat down, sighing contentedly as she leaned back into the plush seats. Or, well, as plush as the seats on a relatively cheap train could be. It was better than the metal floor they had fallen on.

A pout found its way to Tsukiko's lips, her eyes shining. "It's not my fault cats are fast," she mumbled dejectedly.

"I... What?" Blinking repeatedly, Lily turned to look at Tsukiko, a perplexed look on her face. "What are you talking about?"

"That you're sweet," she replied, leaning into her and wrapping both arms around her. Lily, for her part, simply returned the hug as they drove towards the rendezvous point.

---

Lily and Tsukiko were some of the last to arrive, as evident by the already large group at the rendezvous point. There were a few faces she knew, but mostly she didn't know them, or hadn't met them often enough to care remember their faces or names.

They waited patiently for the next twenty minutes, during which nothing happened but a few stragglers showing up. One person, however, did catch her interest. Sindri came walking towards the group barely ten minutes before they had to start. She smiled impishly at him even before he had noticed her, and continued shooting glances at him even when, and after, he did.

"There he is," she whispered, drawing Tsukiko's attention. "Am I sadistic for wanting to punch him in the face?" She added.

"Not really," the cat-girl replied, watching Sindri out the corner of her eye as well. "You two do have a reputation for being... rivals isn't quite the right word, but you have a weird relationship. You seem to either hate each other or have a rivalry going on between you at any given time, and it sort of shifts from day to day basis."

"True enough—Hey. What's Sylphide doing? Talking to Sindri?"

---

"Hello Sindri," Sylphide said, a gentle smile on her lips as she stepped closer enough to be within earshot. "You look tired today?"

Sindri nodded, the tense smile on his lips wavering as he struggled to keep it in place.

Sylphide sighed, shaking her head slightly. "You should sleep more. It's not good for you if you don't stay well rested. Bad things could happen if you don't make sure that you're fully awake and aware of what you're doing. You know that, right?"

The Mythic was silent for a bit, allowing Sindri to say anything if he had something to say. When he didn't, she just smiled again, and while it was not any different from the previous one, it seemed to have a different quality. "Also, for the sparring matches, please try to be nice to whoever you're paired up with, right?" She didn't wait for a reply before she walked away again, giving Sindri a light pat on the head before she left.

---

"What the heck was that about?" Lily muttered as Sylphide walked away from Sindri again.

"I don't know, but there's Ikari and Draco. Sylphide is walking over to them so I guess they'll be supervising us."

"Observant as always, Tsuki. What made you think they were going to be supervising us?" Lily replied, the sarcasm in her voice all too easy to notice. "But yeah. It'll be those three today."

Before Tsukiko could reply, Ikari snapped her fingers and produced a loud whistling noise, drawing the attention of every student near them. Even then, it wasn't until several moments later that everyone had quieted down. She then spoke.

"Good morning!" Ikari said—or rather, shouted. "It's time for the first sparring match of the year, and for that we will be laying down some ground rules."

"First!" It was Draco speaking, still in his humanoid form; a man whom some might call 'big' in the sense that he has more fat than necessary, but in fact was hardly anything but pure muscle, which was also the reason for his expansive belly. "As always, do not attempt to kill your opponent. While most of you are permitted the full use of your powers, always make sure to stop before dealing a blow that might be lethal or crippling. These matches have the purpose of teaching your how to fight other Shifters, but as every kind of practice, it can't fully prepare you for the real deal."

"Secondly." It was Sylphide this time. Even those farthest back could hear her clearly, despite the fact that she never seemed to raise her voice beyond normal speaking levels. "Do not interfere with other matches. While interference does happen in a real fight, you are not allowed to do so here. Practice matches for those instances will come at a later date."

"And third," Ikari said, speaking up once more. "If any severe injuries should happen send a mental shout. A fellow Mythic has cast a telepathic network across the entire field which will allow you to contact one of us should accidents happen. It is, however, only connected to us, so you can't look into each others' minds. Now, if you got all that, then it's time for the pairings." Turning to look at Draco, she nodded and stepped back together with Sylphide, allowing the sole man among the three Mythics the spotlight.

"You will be divided into pairs, and given a designated area in which you are allowed to fight. Exceeding those boundaries is not forbidden, but it is highly encouraged that you stay within them. The pairs are as following: Tsukiko Kitaouji against Drake in Area North #4. Alice Blackwood against Lily Strider in Area West #14—"

"What?!" Lily exclaimed, only able to stop herself from shouting because she didn't want to live through the following scolding from Ikari. "She promised me!"

Tsukiko said nothing, she just grimaced and stayed silent, for once not quite sure what to say.

"—Melina Yelis against Sindri Haynes in Area North #6. Celica Dancer against Charles Lafreniere in Area South #2—" He continued listing up the different pairs, stopping only after several minutes when all had been announced. "In case some of you forgot during the summer break, Area South is to the south, North is to the north, and so on. The number indicates which section it is. You will be notified via a telepathic message when you've reached the centre of the area you've been designated. Alright. Move out!"

Shifters, big and small, started walking or running towards their designated areas, some shifting to fly, as well. Lily, however, just grumbled and stomped over to Ikari, eyes alight with annoyance and anger.

"You promised me you'd pit me against Sindri!" She said loudly, but not loud enough to drown out the din of all the other students walking or running.

"I didn't promise that you would be pitted against him," Ikari explained, her face a mask of neutrality, albeit with a smile tugging at her lips. "I promised that I would see if I could get you pitted against Sindri in the next sparring match—and you specifically asked for the next one—and since the next sparring match was today, there was no time to change the schedule. As you should know, the matches are decided upon at least a week in advance. I promised that I would look into it, and I did. I asked Draco if we could change the schedule, and he said no." She smiled at Lily, a Trickster's smile. "I did as you asked, after all."

"Stupid fucking... Why did I even bother?"

"You know why," was the only response Lily got, not that she listened to it as she started running west, not even bothering to see if Alice was following, or if she had gone there already.

---

She reached the area after half an hour of running, a mental ping telling her that she'd reached the area.

"Now, where is that Alice?" She murmured, looking around to see if she could spot her.

A whistling noise cut through the ranks of students, drawing Celica’s attention away from the conversation. She gulped down the rest of her coffee before discarding it and falling in line with the rest of the group as they turned to face their instructors.

Celica listened attentively as addressed their audience. It was the usual routine stuff, nothing they had never heard before, and she found herself hiding a small smile as the three Mythics cycled through the short speech. They must have had it memorized, by that point.

Soon enough, they reached the important part. As Ikari and Sylphide ceded the spotlight to Draco, Celica took a calming breath, waiting for her name to be called. Alice’s name came first, and it was accompanied by an outraged cry from a few feet away. Celica furrowed her brow in the direction of the sound, but the announcements continued unabated.

She perked up as her name was called. “Celica Dancer against Charles Lafreniere.”

Celica frowned, silently mouthing the name. She couldn’t recall hearing it before, meaning that there was a good chance that she had been paired up with a different kind of Shifter. Would it be a Titan or a Fae? Both presented their own set of difficulties. The thought left her scanning the crowd of students, wondering what to expect.

As the speech reached her conclusion, Celica took a few steps back, letting the others disperse. Many took on their alternate forms right then, some taking to the skies, while others simply took off running. Others met up with their opponents before setting out together. Alice was among the former.

Celica hummed. Still no sight of this Charles. After a moment, she spun on her heel and began walking to towards her designated area.

Power thrummed inside of her as she walked, and she allowed it to flow out with practiced ease. A chill ran down her spine as her blood turned pleasantly cold. Her skin acquired a deathly pallor, a bluish tint spreading through her lips, and ice spread from her left eye into the shape of a scaled mask. With a tilt of her head, it was left hidden under a swath of black hair. Her bare forearms glimmered under the sun’s light as they were replaced by hands of crystalline ice in the shape of plated gauntlets reaching up to her elbows.

In this form, the Shifter took a breath of crisp air, letting it out in a pleased sigh. It was cold, but pleasantly so, the nipping sensation leaving her awake and energized. She felt like she could run forever, without ever growing tired. And so she did.

---

Celica slowed as she began approaching what she believed to be the area she had been assigned. The grassy plain had given way to flat, rocky terrain some time ago, dust and barren earth painting the scenery in browns and grays. A few patches of dried grass mottled the scene with yellow. In the distance, she could see the edge of a ravine, snaking through the ground.

Still no Charles Lafreniere.

She had kept her eyes open for any Shifters flying in the same direction, or any runners behind her, but any that came to view had gone their own way. Had she misheard the location when Draco had been listing the pairings for that day’s spar? Or perhaps her partner had gotten himself lost.

Out of habit, her hand settled on one of her pistols, feeling the weight of the sleek, metallic weapon on her waist. As she scanned the landscape, she considered the possibility that her opponent was hiding, but the land was as flat as a plateau, and the few patches of grass that dotted it barely reached up her thigh. It seemed she would either have to wait, or walk around, hoping her partner eventually showed himself.

Sindri gave a small grin of amusement at the outcry from Lily, obviously she had tried to set up a merry dance with him beforehand but had been outmaneuvered by the foxy Ikari.

Tough luck little princess... he mused smugly.

He had recognised the individual he had been assigned, occasionally he had spotted her in his more Fae centric classes and he was pretty sure she had something to do with lightning or somesuch. Regardless it didn’t really matter, the battlefield awaited and he wanted to test this Fae’s mettle.

Downing the last of his coffee, then crushing and discarding the cup, he glided off to the location he had been assigned. the area was a little rough and hilly, but not something that caused him too much trouble. Once he reached the peak of the mound he was currently standing on, he turned back to look for his assigned ‘playmate’.

Mana was having a light jog in the direction of the field, after she finished asking one of the instructors a couple of questions she had for him. After that, finding the field took a few minutes for her, and she headed there in a steady pace, but not too fast, to ensure she doesn’t feel exhausted before she even arrived at the field.

Upon reaching it, she saw it was a slightly hilly field. Nothing that she couldn’t handle, but she wondered who her opponent was. His name sounded familiar, most likely from one of the classes, but she didn’t quite remember who he was. After moving to stand on a hill across from
where Sindri was, Mana looked at him for a second “Alright then. I’m Melina, but call me Mana. I hate being called Melina. I guess you’re Sindri, right? Want to go ahead and start?” She asked him in a loud voice, to ensure he hears her properly.

Sindri eyed up his opponent with a bemused smile stretching across his face from cheek to cheek, “Well aren’t you an interesting one, If I wasn’t up to date on Academy policy I’d say they’d dropped recruitment age by a good four years, and the blue hair! you must attract a lot of attention with that, given that its natural.” His eyes almost popped out their sockets, and his grin reached cheshire proportions, “You must have such insecurities… oh this is just going to be marvelous!” he rubbed his hands together with glee, slowly rising into the air as he did so “We shall begin, little Madoka.”

As he rose up into the air, his skin began to peel away like old paint, and his eyes took on a radioactive green glow, in a voice as hollow as a demon he spoke through rows of translucent teeth, “Playtime has begun!”.

Hearing the way he spoke about how she appeared young and how her natural blue hair brings her attention made Mana lower her sight to the ground. He was correct about that, but he was slightly mistaken about the insecurities part. She already knew very well that no matter where she went and who she will encounter, there was a big chance of hearing that and being judged by it. She let out a deep breath before beginning to focus.

Not hearing his last remark about calling Madoka, Mana’s appearance would begin to change. Her arms would become wings with hands and her ponytail would suddenly raise a bit. Her eyes became more like that of a bird and a couple of small wings appeared where her ears used to be at. She then looked at Sindri before focusing carefully on her hands “I guess we have started.” She said before bringing her hands together very quickly, sending a very strong burst of wind and lightning in his direction. The wind would be strong enough to make trees fall out of their place and the lightning would go in different directions.

As the lightning barrage launched itself towards him Sindri countered with an exertion of his own raw force, blasting a line in front of him free of its power and protecting himself from its raw fury. Despite this, a few glancing blows struck him, punching his changing form backwards a few feet in the air. As the last of his human form left him, the ghoulish visage of him became apparent, and eyes once jovial met his opponent in a look of utter malice. “Oh you’ll have to do better than that little birdie girl…” he snarled “enjoy this…”

With an explosion of magic his green wings erupted from his back and raised an arm in her direction, “lets see how your concentration holds out now...” he grinned, as the first dulling mandibles of power began their assault on his opponents mind, “...and to improve the fun! I think there is too little of me here today! Enjoy.” With that he erupted into doppelgangers, perhaps twelve in all flitting through the air, each going in different directions.

Increasing the power of his manipulations, he began one of his most amusing tricks, beginning the ringing of disorientation and nausea with his attack.

Suddenly seeing twelve of Sindri made it fairly easy to narrow down what kind of magic Sindri had, and the sudden ringing and slight nausea that came afterwards allowed Mana to understand that she was dealing with someone who could mess around with her mind. With ease too, so it appeared. Ignoring the feeling of the nausea as much as she could, she looked around at all of the different Sindri that begun going in different directions.

Mana focused on both her arms, and lightning would appear to be gathering in them before she took off into the air, much to her dislike, in order to be in the same height as Sindri, and then spun on the spot as she shot the lightning out of her arms, shooting several lightning bolts all around, trying to get rid of as many of the Sindri’s as possible.

The swarm scattered as the Thunderbird took to the air and began blasting away indiscriminately, one unfortunate ‘ganger was not quick enough and swiftly disintegrated into blackened ash, becoming immaterial and becoming nothingness on the breeze. They all turned to look at her in amusement and collectively spoke.

“Missed me!”

They spun away cackling as the true Sindri led them on a merry chase, intensifying the previous assault with his own whisperings and temptations, he doubted they’d do anything now, but they were distracting and eventually they might make her submit. Rising out of the swarm at blinding speed, Sindri, aimed a forceful punch to the back of Mana’s head before diving and rising into the swarm once again.

Hearing all of them tell her that she missed him was certainly irritating, but she didn’t want to let him get on her nerves, so as she started to think on what to do next, Mana suddenly felt herself be struck at the back of her head, which made her slightly fall down, but she managed to stop herself midair. Moving to properly land on the ground, she looked up at all of the Sindri’s that were flying around. Along with the feeling of the nausea and the constant disorienting ringing, she thought that he couldn’t have made it any more obvious that he was trying to make her lose her focus and just attack until she gives up.

“Interesting power you have, Sand-ri. Let me guess, you usually bore all of the people you fight to death.” She said in a teasing tone, trying to return the favor he was giving her. She then kept her eyes opens and her arms started having lightning gather in them making it clear that she was waiting to see his reaction and attack accordingly.

“Only the ones I consider of no consequence little bird, and you are nothing more than carrion to me. However, perhaps I should spice up my attack somewhat? How about improving the scenery!” The Sindri’s all collectively grinned, a nightmarish swarm of degraded angels making mockery of her.

All raising a collective arm in the air, the swarm twisted it into a clawed fist of too many fingers, “Lets lighten things up shall we?”.

Suddenly the currents of air changed, the ground began to thrum with potency. Around her the grass and shrubbery was quickly reduced to ash and marsh, her boots sinking into an ever softening ground as he did so. “And given your so chipper, lets give you a nice headache, to ground you in reality a little more.”

The clawed fist erupted before her as they spun around her, circling like sharks. The low ache in her mind would soon erupt into a mind numbing thrum, as if a heart were hammering inside her brain.

Above them dark clouds began to form, blocking out the sun and darkening the arena, “There little bird!” the Sindri’s proclaimed as they erupted like a flock of starlings, “what do you think of my redecorating?”

“Its very interesting. Shame none of it is real. It may feel very real and appear very real, but I know it isnt. So, if you won’t mind, I’ll try and make my own move now, alright?” She said, her eye slightly twitching due to all of the new additions that made it obvious she won’t be able to properly focus on attacking him directly. So she only had one other option.

Raising both her hands up, she shot several lightning bolts into the sky and vanish into them. Not long after, more clouds appeared in the sky, other than the ones that appeared when the area changed. The clouds would begin to roar and soon enough they would send out what appeared to be even stronger lightning bolts out of them, reaching all the way to the ground around Mana. She moved to close her eyes and breathe deeply while trying to have more lightning in her arms, hoping she will be able to surprise him enough.

“Where does reality begin and dreams end little bird? I wonder what you dream in the night? perhaps those dark treacherous thoughts of your brethren, oh! You can deny them, but I know you’re nothing more than a blue haired traitor. I bet the Academy has eyes on you constantly.” Sindri broke into a raucous laugh and spun away in a loose mob “and now you’re trying to fry me! How droll!”

With a sudden break the Sindri’s fell to earth like stones, disappearing into the quickly forming marsh and then rising once more in organised formation, heading straight toward her, “Lets put this little bird in a cage shall we?”they said in unison as they each reached out a clawed hand, as if to carve her eyes out.

Hearing the voices speak in unison made Mana aim both her hand to the ground before using all her force against it, knowing that the lightning will not go any further than the spot she was at, but the lightning would give her a massive speed and height boost, allowing her to get up high before beginning to fly in circles, using her bird eyes to be able to properly see if Sindri will try and approach her.

Mana breathed heavily, as it was hard to maintain control of her powers with all the little mental effects Sindri put on her. She tried to think about a way out of it. What could possibly make him decide to give up on his own accord, due to the fact that it appeared as if he is enjoying every moment of thinking that he is tormenting someone like this. Then she thought about a possible way.

“Keep going Send-ri. The more you do this, the more I’ll be able to handle later on. So this is actually good for me! You are like my own personal trainer right now! I should find the real you and give you a hug of gratitude!” She shouted to him.

“How delicious, the little bird has spirit! If I had my way I would be invoking your nightmares right now, a pity the academy is so stringent on me… still I wish I could crush your wings little bird, and have my figments feed on the entrails.” The flock spun and twisted towards her like a malign swarm of bats coursing past her, suddenly a rogue taloned finger caught her face, carving a thin line of blood across it.

“As for my illusions Ms Mana, I assure you, they are very much real.” The swarm spun upwards into the air, amassing themselves in the darkened glory of the clouds. Around her, the feeling of tension calmed…

the calm before the storm.

Feeling the finger carve the line of blood across her face made her eye twitch. Where did the finger come from, she wondered. Sindri kept claiming that the illusions were real, but he kept missing such little details. In any electronic machine she had seen, they always paid full attention, to ensure all the pieces are properly placed in their spot and that none are missing. Obviously Sindri didn’t quite mind about the little details.

She suddenly allowed herself to drop towards the ground with great speed, nearly reaching the ground, but stopping just before it and then landing on it properly. She moved to kneel and looked up at the many Sindri Hmm… He keeps talking about taking away my wings, but he doesn’t do it.

“Is it possible that you have a bit of respect towards people who can fly, much like you? Because you said you want to take away my wings several time, and I’m sure that even without reaching the strongest power you have that you could’ve done it.” Mana said in a loud voice. She wondered if he had already understood what she was trying to do or not.

“Are you baiting me?” the voice from the clouds sounded incredulous, “Ha-ha-ha! Oh, thats just magnificent” The clouds suddenly erupted in a swarm of dozens of Sindri’s increased to an even greater number than before, “You want me to take those wings of your’s? Then I shall oblige”.

With that the Swarm plummeted towards her, seeking to mob her as they fell down upon her. The lead Sindri grinned “Lets begin with the left!” and spun towards her at a breakneck speed, hands outstretched.

Smiling as she saw the Sindri’s head right at her, Mana looked at them with the smile before moving her hands with high speed, sending out another powerful burst of wind and lightning bolts directly at the swarm that was approaching her with very high speed. Due to their speed and direction, it was near impossible for them to dodge the incredible burst of wind, and if the lightning would catch one of them, it would start chaining between several of them before dying out.

She then let out a sigh before moving to lay on the ground. If she didn’t manage to take them all out, then she most likely lost. If she had, then there was a good chance that she won, but she still couldn’t be sure due to the fact her opponent was using illusions, which meant that even if it appeared that she won, it could be the complete opposite.

With a inhuman howl the lightning whipped between the swarm of Sindri’s, and in an explosive show of light they erupted from within as Mana landed, not one making a strike before being hit. All that was left was ash in the air, and a whispering wind.

“it seems you missed a detail” a voice suddenly whispered in her ear as a foot smashed into the side of her head from her right, as Sindri rose from his prone position he had taken since the swarm had flown down. “I wasn’t in the sky” he grunted, flipping away as the current shocked his system, flipping him into the murkiness of the marsh in evident pain.

Damn bird has current running through her! better watch out next time.

Mana rolled a bit on the ground before forcing herself into a stop and seeing Sindri fly up. Raising her hand and aiming in his general direction, Mana figured she had nothing more to lose “You are very tough. Thats a good trait to have. I wish I was as tough as you.” She said before focusing as much as she could on her arm, and then shooting a single, rather large lightning bolt in Sindri’s direction, which would come at him with high speed. She figured that if the lightning won’t hit him, then the lightning could once again trigger one of the storm clouds that were still high above them and send another, surprise lightning bolt at Sindri.

Mana then moved to place her hand on her head, feeling how all of the effect were beginning to be too much for her.

“Toughness has nothing to do with it little bird, but it does seem that I underestimated you a mite.” came the response, he flattened himself to the ground as the first shot launched itself overhead, but the response from the sky’s proved harder to miss. Launching himself to the side he barely missed the booming blast as it struck the ground, singing his hair as he did so. His nostrils were filled with Ozone and the smell of burnt hair.

“Its a pity I won’t repeat it.” he growled as he began working on his attack again, His enemy has been in the air longer than him and had likely exhausted herself blasting his illusions. With another twist of the screw he intensified the mental assault, now the thrum became as if two church bells were beating themselves inside his opponents head, the voices now screaming at her in hatred “SUBMIT”, repeating over and over with an ever greater allure.

“Just lie down and submit!” they howled “submit to his glory!”

“Are you getting tired little bird? That last shot was abysmal.” he cackled, hatred coursing through his voice as a fog began to rise from the ground, making the area murkier and murkier as he retreated into the darkness, “You’ll give in soon, and then your mind will be my plaything...”

“I’m not a bird. I dislike flying. You forced me into flying, but that doesn’t mean I enjoyed it one bit.” She muttered, as she just barely heard his voice with the loud voices in her head and it felt like there were church bells in her head “I’m not a bird.” She muttered again before removing her hand from her head and pointing both of them towards the sky.

“I’m not a bird. I’m lightning.” She said and shot out two, rather weak looking lightning bolts aimed at the sky. One had just barely missed a storm cloud, but the other one managed to hit it, making it let out another lightning bolt in Mana’s direction, which was stronger than what she had sent.

“You are a bird my dear” replied a whisper, coursing through the mist indeterminately “A little chicken, flapping her wings to try and get into the air, how cute… or perhaps you are a little blue Dodo…”

The marsh suddenly trembled around her, forms rising from it, horrible distorted forms of men and women, rotted from within, flesh in tatters from the marsh. They moaned and dragged themselves towards her, distorted figures which looked ever so real…

One lone one emerged before her from the marsh, dragging itself up and biting into her foot with rotten teeth.

A dark form emerged from a pillar of flame before her, a form little more than a silhouette of a man, an unnaturally tall man.

“And if you are lightning my dear” came the voice again, deep and sonorous, “I am fire.”

With a roar, a sudden eruption of flames sped towards her as if someone had lit up a stockpile of gasoline beneath the marsh, throwing her backwards with the force of it.

As she begun heading backwards, she felt the lightning hit her leg, so she forced her hand to point at the last spot she had seen Sindri at, making the lightning move and use her body as an arrow before heading in that direction. She then landed on the ground, feeling rather weak now and figuring that she should surrender after this.

With another blast of force, the blow only managed to glance of Sindri, but it still ran spasms up his arm, causing him to curse with pain. He retreated into the mist again, becoming a shadow of a shadow.

“Feeling tired? have a rest, the ground should be inviting beneath you...” he shouted. at this the ground beneath her feet solidified, becoming verdant and lush, a small patch of sky opened and the sunlight beat down her from the little hole.

The voices in her head encouraged her, whispered of the necessity of sleep, of submission and surrender, “Sleep.. Sleep…”

Already he had managed to circle around her, crouching in the mist to the right, swiftly he sent distractions from the left, movement of the corpses towards her.

With a little luck the glamour should take effect…

With her eyes closed, Mana took a deep breath before speaking “I surrender, but not because any of your silly tricks. I surrender because I would’ve taken this chance to try and retreat, to recover and plan new strategies against you, now that I have more knowledge on what your capabilities are.” She said before staying there, and telepathically calling for a mythic to come and help her recover.

She was met with a barking laugh at this, suddenly Sindri ended his magic, the marsh and the figures disappeared, as well as the ringing of her head and the whispering. “You would have failed my friend” he grinned “I could make you believe you had been walking for years in there if I wanted to, You were failing against my assault, you’d have no time to form a strategy, you’d be my puppet.”

He raised his hand in a mildly bemused smile, “You can’t blast your way through my illusions Mana” he finalised, “lightning won’t make them disappear or make your mind reject my whispers. Blunt force will always fail against trickery”

“Still!” he exclaimed happily, “You did well out there Mana, didn’t rise to my bait, I admire that in a person, even if your are quite possibly an illusion yourself in this miserable world. You weren’t too shoddy with the bolts either! some of those really hurt you know Haha!” with this he gave her a small nudge at this with his elbow.

“Shall we go then?” he gestured with a long hand and a cheshire grin, “I am sure the Mythic will be here shortly.”

Seeing that everything went away and her head felt a lot better now, Mana moved to a sitting position and smiled at him “I’m glad you think that. All those Illusions of yours, especially the one that had scratched me across the face, were very realistic. I didn’t even see what Sindri did that to me and thought for a second it was a flying finger.” She said before slowly standing up.

“I already called for the Mythic to come here. You can go ahead and start walking there, I need another minute to let my legs recover more properly.” She said and did small steps on the spot “You will definitely be a challenge to anyone who comes your way, and a very scary one too.” She said before grinning back at him.

Sindri shrugged, “fair enough, I think I’ll take a breather too however, let the mythic take the hike. I am pretty sure it was Sindri seven that did that, I can make them semi-corporeal with a fair bit of extra effort. As for the scares… well I can go deeper, in the field I’d be digging into people’s minds realistically, I can drag out their worst nightmares like a carnival display. It usually works a treat… at least that last time I tried it” he shook his head “I never saw Frank again after that....”

Crossing his legs he began to hover midair as he waited, soon enough a dark shape came loping across the field towards them “I think thats our trainer arrived.” He mused, still sitting relaxed nearby, “Until next time?”

“Until next time Sindri. But don’t be stranger and say hey from time to time.” Mana said with a smile at the trainer approached her to begin ensuring she was in a good condition to head back “And that’s one scary power you have there…” She muttered to herself, hoping he would never use it on her. After the trainer told her that she was good to go, she went to Sindri and offered him her hand “I’ll see you around.” She said with a smile.

He gave it a firm shake, his long fingers enclosing it like a small vice, before breaking off and hovering away languidly “Ta-ta now!” he shouted back distractedly, and then sped off as fast as he could across the field.

Nodding to herself, Mana begun making her way back to where they received their instructions, wanting to see what will be the next thing they will be doing today, and enjoying the fact she met a new person that she has come to respect.

The mental ping telling her she had arrived to her destination dispelled any lingering doubts about being lost, and she paused, glancing around the empty landscape once again, as if the act would suddenly make her sparring partner materialize out of thin air.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught movement.

Celica threw herself back out of reflex, just in time to see cracks appear where she had been standing only moments ago, the ground reverberating with the force of a heavy impact. She pulled out one of her guns, firing straight in front of her.

The bullet collided with the seemingly empty air and jagged ice burst outwards, forming a patch of crystals twice the size of her head. The ice lingered in front of her for a moment, before slowly lifting upwards. The air in front of her seemed to distort and ripple, color darkening and shifting to a dark, polished green.

Celica looked up to the head of the giant dragon. The beast’s head, almost the size of a small car, was cocked to the side, one of its amber eyes levelled against one of its claws, inspecting the crystal that had formed there. While its attention was elsewhere, Celica inspected the creature. Its body was long and serpentine, with two long, clawed limbs, each holding in place a leathery membrane similar to a bat’s wings connecting to its sides, in a manner that reminded her of a cape. Much of the beast’s apparent size came from its wingspan. Coiled behind the creature, Celica could peek at a large tail, ending in fins similar to that of a whale’s. Horns and ridges protruded from its head in the shape of a crest, and, as it turned its long neck to regard her, Celica noticed that the monster’s upper lip seemed hardened, and curled downwards, like a raptor’s beak.

One of its claws passed over the ice, dislodging it like a piece of gum stuck to a finger, and the weapon in her hand, still pointed forward, suddenly felt woefully inadequate.

“Très bien, ma fifille,” the dragon rumbled. “For a moment I feared you wouldn’t be much of a challenge.”

An invisible Titan. That was new. Celica grimaced. She much preferred human sized opponents. Through her mind, she ran over what she knew about fighting them. Not facing them head on unless you were a Titan yourself was the only thing to come to mind. In their flat, desolate surroundings, she wondered if she even had a choice. She would have to be smart about this one.

She glanced at her feet for a moment, before a half smile set on her lips, and she looked up to the large beast. She kept her eye half-lidded, avoiding the dragon’s orbs. “Charles, I’m guessing? It’s not much of a sparring match if you wait around, hoping to stomp on someone while they’re not looking.”

“All is fair in love and war, mon trésor.” The winged serpent lowered its head slightly. “Speaking of, what would you say about a date with me?”

Well, not like that, I hope, Celica thought. He certainly doesn’t waste any time, does he? Choosing to play along, she smirked. “I bet you say that to every girl you don’t squish.”

“Only the pretty ones.”

“Really?” She asked, grimacing. “How clichéd can you get?”

The dragon smirked, showing rows of glinting teeth. “A lot more, but you can’t say you didn’t feed me that line.” The report of her gun echoed in the landscape, and the dragon sniffed, eyes crossing slightly to look at the small crystal sticking from the center of its snout. “Should I take that as a no?”

Celica smiled down the length of the barrel. “More of a ‘maybe if you catch me.’”

There was a predatory glint in the serpent’s eyes as one of its large claws darted forward, but Celica had been expecting that, and as she hopped out of the way, a large icicle surged out from the ground below her. The beast bellowed in pain as the spike tore a bloody hole through its hand.

Celica set off into a sprint towards the ravine in the distance. She needed to tip the scales to her favor, and flat land with no cover would not be of use to her. She couldn’t count on getting that lucky again.

She glanced over her shoulder in time to see the beast pull its wounded claw out of the spike, its narrowed gaze settling on her fleeing form. The dragon melded with the environment before her eyes, and the only indication that it had taken after her was the thump of heavy footprints against the ground.

Thinking quickly and without turning around, Celica emptied the rest of her magazine in the direction of the monster. The ice sticking against the camouflaged surface gave her a better idea of the Titan’s position. Celica swore under her breath. The wounded arm hadn’t slowed it down at all. For all the speed she had gained as a Demon, the dragon’s long strides were steadily swallowing the distance between them.

Celica returned the empty gun to its holster and pointed a palm behind her. Shards of ice formed in the air and burst out towards the beast. Most bounced harmlessly off hardened scales, and the few icicles that stuck did little to impede its charge, serving only to give her an outline of the beast.

Dismayed, she realized she wouldn’t be able to reach the escarpment before the dragon caught up to her. She needed to change tactics.

Sliding to a stop, she turned to face the incoming charge. Maybe noticing that its invisibility was not helping it, the beast materialized, roaring a challenge. Thin streams of blood ran from the few shards that had managed to pierce its thick hide, but they were little more than paper cuts to a monster that size.

Celica let her magic pour out. A wall of sharp crystal materialized in front of her in a wave of frigid air, pointed icicles bursting out like a wall of cold lances pointed at the enemy’s charge. She poured more power into them, letting them grow and solidify. A beast that size would not be able to halt in time to avoid the wall of spikes, she knew, and she braced herself for the impact.

However, the dragon made no attempt to slow down. Instead, the tremors of footfalls were replaced by a heavy beat as it leapt to the air, extending its wings and flying over her trap.

Celica paused, watching speechless as the monster flew over her, completely bypassing her spikes.

Cover. I need cover.

The thought brought her out of her daze, and she took off like a crossbow bolt, running towards the opening in the ground. It was not too far now. With luck, she would make it without being caught.

The dragon had other plans for her, however, and it banked in the air, turning in a circle until it was coming from her side, outstretched maw revealing files of sharp teeth. Celica put on a burst of speed and lunged forward, leaving the serpent’s head to snap down and tear off a piece of the ground. She landed into a roll, without breaking her sprint as the dragon wheeled around for another pass, turning until he was coming straight at her. Once again, Celica dove past as its head snapped down, feeling the rush of wind as the monster flew over her.

The sight of the ravine, only moments away spurred her on, but the beast was still hot on her trail. This time, it approached from behind. Celica prepared to dodge one more time, but instead of snapping down at her, the dragon slowed down and beat down with his wings.

The strong gust lifted her in the air, throwing her forward in an uncontrolled roll. She hit the ground hard, rolling towards the edge of the cliff. She barely had enough presence of mind to sink a clawed hand on the ground, leaving her to hang over the edge.

With a grunt, she brought her other hand up and pulled herself over the escarpment. Her eyes widened as she saw the looming shape of the dragon approach. The beast hung in the air, motionless for a moment, before it brought its wings down and pushed against the ground. Against the weight of the beast, the floor gave, and the edge broke off, rocks falling down the cliff in a cloud of dust.

With strong beats of its wings, the dragon pushed itself aloft. Its eyes focused on the crack in the landscape, searching for signs of its opponent. It could take her some time to pull herself out of the chasm, if she did at all. “Does that count as catching her, I wonder?”

The sound of a cocking gun, and a weight settling over his head interrupted his musings. An amber eyeball rolled up to see a pale woman pointing a pistol down to it.

“Not quite,” Celica answered, then fired.

Crystal covered the eye, and the dragon let out an outraged cry. Celica turned towards the other eye and aimed. Sensing the peril it was under, the dragon shook its head, making her next shot go wide. She swore, grabbing onto the dragon’s crest, trying to stabilize herself enough to blind her opponent.

It was then that gravity seemed to shift. Celica found herself being pulled to the side and, looking out towards the landscape below, realized that it had been replaced by the horizon. The dragon had started to fly straight up at frightening speeds. Narrowing her eyes against the wind blasting at her face, Celica levelled the gun at the dragon’s head and fired again and again, trying and failing to cover the other eye. It was then that the dragon started to spin in its ascent, and it was all Celica could do to grab on.

She looked up just in time to see the clouds fast approaching. She held her breath. Just as they broke their surface, she lost her grip and was sent flying away. Trying to stabilize herself, Celica opened her legs and arms, letting the air slow her down as her sheer momentum continued to carry her upwards.

For a moment, the wind in her ears ceased it roar, and she looked around. She was soaked in small droplets of freezing water. The sun blasted away at her eyes, and clouds formed a holed mattress below her. In the back of her mind, she registered her ears popping. She floated in silence for a long moment, before gravity reasserted itself with its gut-wrenching pull and she began to fall again.

She twisted herself so that she was facing the white shapes and closed her eyes, feeling the clouds drench her as she passed through them. When she could see again, she was looking down at the earth, as if from a map, and her heart hastened in her chest. Forcing away the apprehension, she began scanning the horizon for her enemy.

The drum beat of wings announced the dragon’s presence, and her head whipped around to see small crystals outlining a large shape dangerously close to her.

As the dragon’s invisible maw began to close around her, she seemed to dissolve, leaving behind a cloud of white mist that recoiled away. In a heartbeat, Celica emerged from the cloud a few paces away from her previous position. She stretched out her arms, trying to find purchase, but a flapping wing batted her away.

Shaking her head, she stabilized her fall once again, looking down to make sure the ground was still far. “I need a way to bring him down,” she muttered into the wind.

On the corner of her view, the dragon began its wide turn towards her, having become visible once again. Celica frowned at the creature, an idea starting to form in her mind.

Gathering her focus, she aimed a palm below her, forming a slab of ice under her. Gingerly, she set her feet on it, as though it was a surfing board, holding the ice still through will, and shaped its ends into sharp edges. Satisfied, she stood over it, hair flowing wildly in the wind as she drew her pistols, taking the time to reload them before taking aim and firing at the Titan.

The dragon let out a mocking bellow as small pellets impacted against its side, decorating it with jutting crystals, and wheeled around for another pass.

Celica kept firing until her gun clicked empty, then returned the guns to their holsters. As the dragon approached, she bent her knees, bracing herself.

When the Titan reached her, she was ready. As the dragon opened its mouth, she twisted, bringing up the sharpened slab of ice vertically, and kicked it towards the dragon before disappearing into a cloud of mist. The dragon’s mouth closed with a resounding clack, and the large crystal pierced through its snout. A muted cry, almost whining, echoed through the air as Celica reappeared at the dragon’s side.

Knowing this to be her best chance she reached out towards the beast. Her gauntlets gripped one of the sharp crystals sticking to the dragon’s side, but the strong wrench pulled the ice free, and she was sent careening down the dragon’s side. She scratched at the serpent’s polished scales, but try as she might, she could not find purchase. Desperate, she formed a dagger in one hand, and brought it down with all her strength.

The blade stuck itself on the Titan’s shoulder, and Celica let out a pained cry, muscles tearing with effort as she suddenly ground to a stop. With her other hand, she made another dagger, and stuck it further in the beast’s arm. With her grip secure, she dove into her reserves of magic, and did something that came very naturally to her.

Suddenly, as the beast flew, ice began forming on its side, quickly growing to encase part of its body and wing. A reverberating groan tore from the creature’s chest as it began a lumbering fall, one wing sending it on a spin as it flapped in a futile attempt to keep it afloat. With a terrible crash, the earth rose to meet them, the beast’s momentum carrying it towards the opening in the earth. It went down with aplomb, dust and debris following its fall.

The ravine was deep and wide, light lazily drifting in through the cloud of dust, painting an orange line along the stone walls. A thin river, little more than a trickle of what had shaped this scar in the earth flowed down, undisturbed by the strangers in its midst.

White mist gathered in one spot, and gave way to Celica. She stumbled out, tentatively setting foot on stable ground. She grimaced at the taste of vomit.

Celica let out a breath and looked over to the crash. Dust obscured her vision, but she could see the ice she had formed and the rocks that had fallen from the escarpment. She frowned. She could not see the dragon its—

A boulder suddenly burst from the haze, and she barely had enough time to step out of the way. However, just as the rock went past her, something hit her in the side, and she was smashed against the ravine’s wall. Celica gasped, forcing down the bile. She could feel a sharp pain in her chest, and wondered if something had cracked.

The dragon’s head floated into view, visible even before he dropped the illusion by the ice protruding from its snout and lower jaw like bloodstained horns. A slitted eye locked on her.

Celica looked down to the claw pinning her against the wall, feeling warm blood staining her skin. But it wasn’t her blood. She smirked as she realized this was the hand she had wounded when the fight had started.

“Okay, you caught me,” she wheezed, before looking up to the amber eye. “But you can’t hold me.”

The temperature around her suddenly dropped, and the blood and air around the dragon’s claw froze, sticking to the wall. Celica dissolved into a cloud of mist and reappeared a few meters away from the dragon.

She lifted a hand and icicles began growing from the ground, snaking their way towards the trapped Titan, growing larger as they travelled. The dragon tried to lift its neck, but growled in pain as it found resistance. Celica had her other hand balled into a fist, holding the crystal spearing through its mouth in place, and she pulled it closer.

The beast groaned as his head was slowly pulled down, and the icicles in the ground grew until one tapped its neck.

“Had enough?” Celica asked, voice strained. With the amount of force she was exerting, she was amazed that the slab of ice hadn’t torn itself out of the dragon’s snout. Had it been willing to tolerate the pain, it might have been able to free itself. Perhaps the beak would not give so easily.

After a moment of silence, the dragon tilted its head ever so slightly, the smallest assent.

Breathing a pained sigh, she let the icicles crumble, as well as the ice restraining the dragon’s claws, and released her hold on the slab of ice. Seeing the dragon draw back and lean its head on the side of the ravine, and feeling the pain in her chest, she had to wonder if they had been a little overzealous.

Celica Dancer, Area South #2, she mentally called, sitting down and trying to keep her breathing shallow. Fight is done. Could use some medical assistance.

Looking down, she let out a small groan. A large smear of dark red covered the front of her clothes, where the dragon had pinned her. Another thing to add to the laundry pile. At least the garment had remained in one piece this time. Not for the first time, she wished the humanoid Shifters were issued clothing meant to withstand the abuse.

The dragon turning its blood-soaked snout to give her a deadpan stare elicited an embarrassed smile.

Alice flew lazily over the fields and valleys of the training center, coasting on any warm updrafts she could find. She eyed the terrain, checking regularly to make sure she was on track.

She eyed the landscape admiringly, it really was beautiful viewed from the air, nothing could quite compare. Sure, she could always climb into a hot air balloon or visit some grand vista and gaze from a tower, but there was nothing quite like the bird’s eye view that flying over it all on her own gave.

She angled forward, bleeding off some altitude for a small speed boost- the designated area was coming up. Raking the ground with her eyes again, she noticed what appeared to be somebody waiting. A small ping in her mind alerted her that this was the place she needed to be and she folded in her wings, spiraling down like a heavily armored arrow.

As she neared the ground she flared out her wings, slowing herself down to more comfortable speeds. Tucking the wings behind her back she dropped the remaining couple feet, dropping and rolling to kill any extra velocity before standing and looking towards the other girl- or rather, the same girl from yesterday. Interesting… she mused, she looks a bit peeved, she noted with a flicker of amusement.

She coughed awkwardly, rasping out a, “Sup?”

Lily caught view of her incoming opponent the corner of her eyes, but didn’t move until she had landed and addressed her. She turned to face the Valkyrie—the wings, the sword strapped to her hip and the metallic looking armour adorning her body made it all too obvious—and gave her a half-smile, a hand on her hip.

“Took you long enough,” she commented casually even as she looked her up and down, measuring her. Valkyries are a Demon Class. Can’t be anything else. At least, I’ve never seen a Titan that small. “Been waiting here a grand total of one minute. You must be Alice, I take it?”

Alice looked back at the other girl, who clearly hadn’t shifted yet, so any real appraisal of her abilities beyond “little balls of fire” would have to wait a bit, “Clearly. Unless I’m her secret identical twin sister.”

“Well, a pleasure to meet you then… You are a Demon, right?” She gave Alice yet another cursory glance. “Can’t help but wonder… that armour. Looks like something a Titan might wear. I’m surprised I haven’t heard of Alice “Ironclad” Blackwood.” She shrugged, not really giving alice a chance to reply before she continued. “At any rate, I suppose we’ll have to punch each other and—”

”Lily, I want you to continue your exercise from yesterday. Avoid reality bending as much as possible, focus instead on direct attacks.”

Lily had stopped paying attention to the outside world for a moment as Ikari’s message was transmitted. By the end of it, her eyes was almost twitching. “What?!” She exclaimed. “You can’t be serious! I’m no match for her without those!”

”Yet you will do without them.” The link was cut, ending the telepathic conversation between Lily and Ikari.

“Great,” she mumbled. “Better get this on with.” She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath, letting it out after a few seconds. As she did so, she opened her eyes to reveal a pair of summer blue irises with slitted pupils, the first of many changes. A pair of fox-like ears poked through her hair atop her head, almost immediately turning towards Alice. Her facial features softened, though the structure of it became a bit sharper and pointier, but far, far more attractive, and from behind her sprouted nine white tails, each as long as she was tall.

She looked down as some of the last changes were about to happen, watching with a widening smile as her breasts grew to twice their previous size, filling her her shirt. As did her hips and posterior widen and grow respectively, giving her a figure that most women would envy.

When she looked up again, it was with a toothy grin, elongated and pointy canines glimmering briefly in the morning sun. “Forgive me for being narcissistic, but I love seeing them grow… so, you ready?” She asked.

Alice had been about to ask what exactly Lily was no match for her without, but held her tongue as her opponent began to shift, answering the question for her. To most anyone it would be obvious that the main strength of a Kitsune was their illusions… and without those…

“I’d offer to handicap myself but in an actual fight nobody would be so noble.” she commented, “But I can definitely see the practicality of something like the magic rifles Endola uses now.”

She drew her sword, idly twirling it in her hand as small wisps of magic began to dance on her fingers, augmenting her already considerable strength and endurance. “Could certainly do with a decent ranged method of attack, anyway, I’m ready whenever you are.” she shrugged at Lily, adopting a relaxed pose that she could nonetheless spring from at a moment’s notice.

“You must be straight,” Lily said, an eyebrow raised. “And very much so. Most people, even girls, tend to comment on my change… Well, whatever.”

“I prefer to think of it as hiding any impressions I may have.” Alice replied, “And my door in any case is either rusted tight or has so many directions it can swing it doesn’t know which way to go.”

“So bisexual. Alright.” She chuckled, a brief and almost musical sound. “Fine with me. As for starting, it’s already begun.” She smiled and waved her hand, disappearing from view as she bent the light around her, and started walking in a slow circle around Alice. “Only question is,” she continued, her voice seemingly coming from every direction. “Where am I?”

Alice idly glanced around, shrugging. She sheathed her sword and stretched out her arm languidly, yawning slightly.

Straightening suddenly, fire swirled around her fingertips as she blasted the area around her in a full circle, launching herself into the air on the heat generated.

Hadn’t expected that! Lily thought as she jumped back, avoiding the fire with relatively little effort but still feeling the heat, albeit briefly. She had shed her invisibility when she jumped, instead focusing on keeping her eyes on the now airborne Valkyrie.

A small grin returned to her lips, replacing the surprised expression from before. She stretched out a hand, a mass of energy quickly gathered in it before she flung it at Alice, a ball of blue fire quickly homing in on her.

Alice drew her sword, launching herself higher in the air she dove under the ball of flame, and spiraled towards Lily. Her sword began to emanate flames of its own, and Alice slammed into the ground, feet embedding themselves in it slightly, lunging with the flat of the sword towards Lily. Her left hand was cloaked in fire as she prepared to follow up with another close ranged blast.

Even as Alice started her descent, Lily cloaked herself in another illusion, leaving behind a copy of herself to act as a decoy. She couldn’t quite help but wonder why Alice would stoop to such simple tactics, knowing that a blatant charge wouldn’t work.

She had gone far enough away to stand behind her when she landed, watching the sword go through her clone with no resistance. Meanwhile, she had been gathering energy, arcs of blue lightning coursing along her right arm, sometimes jumping from elbow to wrist, or shorter or longer distances.

“You shouldn’t be so predictable!” She called, unleashing a blast of lightning at Alice’s back at the same time.

Alice hadn’t really expected it to work, and was completely unsurprised when her sword passed through the clone with no resistance.

Keeping the energy for the blast contained for later use, she heard a small crackling from behind, pushing off from the ground and rolling to the side. Flaring out a wing she rapidly rose and unleashed her own magical blast, throwing all her energy into a rapid dash to follow up, sword blazing like an elongated inferno.

Lily found herself getting thrown through the air, the blast coming unexpected and powerful enough to push her off of her feet. She somersaulted through the air, hands momentarily extended to push her off of the ground and into a controlled fall.

With one last backwards somersault, she landed on her feet, a baleful glare aimed at the now charging Valkyrie. She bent down in her knees and set off, charging towards Alice, ducking beneath the blade and delivering a powerful punch in her abdomen, though fuelled by nothing but her own strength.

Alice grunted slightly as the kitsune punched her, though it was considerably negated by the armor. She brought around her sword, using the pommel to strike between Lily’s shoulder blades, and smashing downward with her elbows as she simultaneously brought up her knee, catching Lily between the hammer of her arms and the anvil of her knee.

She charged up another blast of fire in her free hand, springing back and blasting it before Lily could also escape.

Lily cursed at the beating she received, letting out a loud grunt. Even then, it didn’t deter her. She shifted and grabbed hold of Alice, keeping her in place so that she couldn’t jump back. She raised her head and looked the Valkyrie dead in the eyes, teeth bared in something akin to a victorious snarl.

Blackness spread out around them, the grass withering away and becoming nothing but black husks in a small area around them. Lily’s tails turned, their tips pointing directly at her. “Gotcha,” she snarled, unleashing a powerful blast of raw power at point blank, the blast divided into nine; one from each tail. She let go of Alice, too, jumping back with the help of the blast, landing in a crouch.

Alice stumbled slightly from the blast, but grinned nonetheless. “We taking off the kiddy gloves, then?” She called, launching herself high into the air once more. Building up energy in her entire body, she took a breath and dove. She wasn’t holding out any hope of hitting Lily directly, she was too fast for that. But she felt like breaking something.

Sword held back as she streaked towards the ground like a feathery comet, though she struggled to maintain all the energy she’d built up.

Doesn’t she ever learn? Had she had time, Lily would have shaken her head, but as it were she did not have the time. Rather, she decided to do as Alice had suggested and “took the kiddy gloves off.” She locked eyes with the Valkyrie and extended her will, taking hold of her mind. She then called upon her magic and lifted both arms as if pulling something from the ground. In response, illusory, rocky spikes shot from the ground, shooting up to meet, and spear, Alice should she keep diving.

Alice flinched as the rocks shot from the ground- though they were clearly illusory, they’d caused her to hesitate for that crucial second, more than enough to destabilize her. She flailed, managing to catch herself before smearing herself all over the ground.

“Fucking illusions…” she grumbled to herself, eyeing Lily venomously. As the pent up magical energy coursing through her system once more made its presence known, a grin came to her face.

Folding her wings and dropping to the ground she lunged into a slash with her sword while in the air, funneling raw power down the sword as an arc of flame shot out from the end towards Lily. She flared her wings out just before impact, catching her fall. She charged up another shot of the same flame as she did so, putting less raw power into it this time, it wouldn’t do for her to lose control.

The illusory spikes had the intended effect of stopping Alice in her tracks, and keep her from dive bombing Lily once again. But it didn’t stop her entirely, as evident by the fact that Lily found herself enveloped in her own tails, a barrier of fur between her and the blast sent her way.

It had come too fast to dodge entirely, so better to try to block it. She was blown back, landing on her back with a grunt of pain, a dismayed look in her eyes as she looked at the damage wrought to her tails; charred and blackened fur on some of them, but most whole.

“That’s it,” she snarled, standing up. Her slitted pupils staring death and destruction at the Valkyrie. “Gloves off.” Like a wolf or a lion would, a growl emanated from her throat even as the air started to hum with energy. Raw, destructive power might be something she lacked, but she was by no means weak. “One on one seems a little too balanced, don’t you think?” She asked, a venomous smile on her lips. “Let’s… make the odds a little uneven.” Each of her tails made a whipping motion behind her, and from each whip came an identical copy of herself, even with the blackened fur.

“Good luck,” she mouthed, the real one retreating into the group of her clones. Then, as one, they ran towards Alice, splitting up once they were halfway, and started circling her, each running almost as fast as they could.

Alice regarded the clones with a raised eyebrow, sword erupting in flames once more as she built up power for another arc of fire. She bunched her wings together, giving a strong flap as she expelled herself from the circle, traveling close to the ground.

Before she had gone far -maybe three meters- she whipped around, sword whirling with the centrifugal force as the blade unleashed a tongue of flame in the direction of Lily and her clones, before Alice lept into the sky once more.

Lily—the real one— grinned, watching Alice spew fire at a couple of random clones. She let the fire pass through two of them, but had a third one appear to have been struck, adding a few burn marks and sending it tumbling backwards, groaning. It stood up somewhat shakily, teeth bared in an angry snarl. The rest of the clones had stopped, just watching Alice.

An orb of blue energy materialized in each of the clone’s hands, both of which which she subsequently threw up at Alice, one after the other. But instead of just hitting her, the orbs flew up and above her before splitting into several smaller ones, all of them raining down like a carpet of death.

Hoping, or rather assuming, that a carpet of death would distract her, the real Lily started gathering energy, taking only a little from the grass and other greenery surrounding them, making sure that none were outright killed but only lost a bit of its colour to further lower the chances of being discovered. A smile that was mirrored by every other clone spread across Lily’s lips. Good luck, little bird.

“Fuck.” Alice swore in an even tone as the balls of blue light sailed into the sky and detonated, raining down smaller balls like a magical cluster bomb. Poised to either make a break for it, or trying and blast her way through, she caught sight of the grass, and the rather prominent lack of dead grass.

Thoughts raced through her mind, primarily that the imminent danger above was an illusion. Which meant… which meant a real attack was coming.

She swore again, pumping her wings as hard as she could, oblivious to the small blue spheres as she sailed through them, nonetheless subconsciously trying to avoid them.

She conjured a small ball of fire, lobbing it halfheartedly in the general direction of the Lilies as she began to twist, turn, corkscrew, make sudden drops and do anything possible to make herself hard to hit.

Lily couldn’t help but grimace a little as Alice flew through the illusory orbs, getting hit by at least five of them but with no effect, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise since they weren’t real, after all. She sighed, not even bothering to move as the fire blast from Alice hit some of the clones a little way away from her. Can’t she just be a good little Tank Buster and fall into my trap?

She glanced around her. The grass was still slightly darkening, but it was starting to become noticeable. Reaching beyond what she currently was, she extended her reach and drew from vegetation farther away to avoid suspicion. This is about all I can do, she used and used a little of the power she had gathered, cloaking herself in a field of invisibility, and erased the other clones from existence, except the one which had previously thrown the illusory orbs. With that, she stepped back, away from her precious location. She didn’t want to risk being blasted by sheer luck born of suspicion.

It’s a trap. How stupid does she think I am? Glaring at the surrounding terrain, Alice pursed her lips, pausing for a moment in her erratic movements.

“So, guess there must have been some scary monsters when you were a little girl, what, did mommy and daddy starve you?!” she bellowed across the ground, “Or did you have to hide from the monsters because mommy didn’t tuck you into bed enough?” she hovered in the air, varying her location enough to make her a harder target but not as extreme as the aerial acrobatics just prior.

Lily grit her teeth, knowing it was a barb the second it was said. Still, it didn’t keep her from reacting. She dispelled the last clone but remained out of sight, standing still. When she spoke, there was a definitive edge to her voice, even as she cast it out to make its source be from all over the place.

“Monsters? Starving? What do you know of any of that. Are your monsters perhaps a beating? Going to bed without dinner?” She was silent for a moment, then threw away the invisibility, coming into full view. She was standing on the ground, tails swishing behind her lazily. As she looked up at alice, she didn’t seem angry nor sad. There wasn’t a shred of malice.

No. She was smiling. A Trickster’s smile. “So what’re you waiting for?” She asked, almost excitedly.

Alice shrugged, “I don’t know. I suppose I’m waiting for you to get over your childhood trauma. I guess mommy didn’t tuck you into bed enough.” she smirked, “Or did you sleep on the ground too?”

Ah, shit. She swore in her thoughts, Of course I fucking give away information. Damn it. She bluffed it off, unsheathing her sword and setting it ablaze once more, “Here! I help compensate for those cold nights!”

“Seems like I hit the mark, then?” Lily shouted, grinning. “So which is it? Sent to bed without dinner? Daddy bringing out to belt to punish your naughty butt? Perhaps he went farther than that? ...Who knows. I bet you do.”

She was silent for a time, gauging Alice’s reaction. She’d seen a reaction before, a small one but noticeable. She just hoped that the barbs worked and she took the bait. Had her father beaten her? Hell if she knew, but it was either that or petty starvation which didn’t seem like something Alice had suffered from. Still, she wasn’t done yet.

Her smile turned from mischievous to downright malicious. “Do you perhaps want to see all those things again? I can make it happen, you know. Just a,” she raised one hand and snapped her fingers, “snap, and you could experience it all again.”

“While that sounds like a delightful offer, I think I’ll have to pass. If you can’t even hit the mark, I doubt you’d even be able quirk an eyebrow.” She called back at Lily, “Though it sounds to me like you’re haunted by your past, maybe you should take a break, see a therapist. I guess you must’ve been hungry, hmm? Stealing from dumpsters and pickpocketing people’s spare change?” She folded her arms, “Maybe you should give yourself an illusion, eh? Pretend you’d tasted a hot meal before you came here? Imagine the possibilities for yourself!”

Keep. Calm. Lily breathed deeply, the same smirk staying plastered on her face. It wasn’t strained, not yet, Ikari had taught her that much, but any more bulls eyes and she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to keep her cool. Anything? Anything I can use? What has she said so far, she… Rusted door. No reaction, no admission of the accusation either… possibly?

“Say…” Lily started, looking at Alice with an inquisitive eyebrow. “Remember when we started? You never did answer my question. You made it pretty clear that you weren’t gay, but you avoided the question when I asked if you were straight. Why’s that?” From an outsiders perspective it would look quite ridiculous; two enemies locked in battle, and suddenly one of them asks about the others sexuality as if asking how the weather was. Scratch that. Wouldn’t just look ridiculous, it sounds ridiculous to even say it.

Alice’s eye twitched. That one had hit home, and painfully so. She scoffed, shouting back, “You seem rather focused on sex, don’t you?” she unfolded her arms, placing her hands where her hips would be if they weren’t covered in armor, cocking her waist to the side slightly, “What, your mom never give you a hug, so you went looking for other sources of warmth? Surely you must have, it gets cold in the winter just about anywhere!” she paused for a moment, “Hell, did you even have a mother? What with how you act I wouldn’t be surprised if she dropped you on a street corner the moment she could!” she pulled her hands off her hips, “Can’t say I blame her!”

It was only through a mountainous effort that she did not fly off that handle at that comment. You could say many things to Lily without her reacting at all, a grin being the most you got in return. Perhaps an insult thrown back. But this…

The glare she shot Alice was one akin to a dragon’s baleful glare, the one only those who dared challenge it received. She bared her teeth, canines glimmering in the sun. “You know nothing,” she said, almost at a whisper, and yet it still carried to Alice.

And then she let loose.

Everywhere around them the grass blackened; a circle that continued to spread around them until the edges of it was out of sight. The energy gathered in Lily’s body was enough that it arced off of her, small blue sparks dancing between her fingers, tails, individual strands of hair. The air itself seemed to hum with the energy of a million dead flowers.

“Fuck your rules.”

Wisps of smoke seemed to drift from the corners of her eyes, removing the space around her head. It spread. An impenetrable blackness spreading outwards and surrounding a wide area around them, the two of them being the only things visible.

“I hope you had fun. Enjoy your Wonderland.” She raised one arm and brought it down, a titanic dragon foot coming from above Alice, sending her crashing down onto the ground. She walked closer, each step sending ripples across the blackness surrounding them. Each one bringing her closer to Alice. As the walked, the crackles of energy seemed to move, travelling from all around her body to her right hand, all of it gathering for one last blow.

Well… fuck. Alice thought, She’s cranky, and it seems I should to get out of here. She looked at the dragon claw, straining against the weight. “I really don’t like illusions.” She pushed against the claw, bracing herself as she pushed once more, straining to lift the massive weight. She panted slightly, shoving against it more, Fuck this. Fuck this. Fuck it all. Fuck the weight, it’s not there. She grinned as the claw moved, flooding her body with more magic, channeling it all into getting the damned claw off. “MOVE SOME MORE ALREADY, DAMNIT!” she shouted at the foot, shoving it with all her might again and almost blinking in suprise as the claw shifted considerably, more than enough for her to kick it off and roll out.

“You really need to get a thicker skin.” she called over to Lily, building up energy throughout her own body and channeling it into her sword. She flew at Lily with flames licking off her own body and let loose an arc of flame bigger and stronger than anything else she’d made that day, she wasn’t trying to kill Lily, far from it. She began pumping her wings with a fury, trying to get away from the homicidal Kitsune. She was pretty confident that sparring matches weren’t to the death. She shouted, “Hah, take tha-” only to stop abruptly as several ropes blindsided her, latching onto her legs and torso, “Oh fucking hell.” she swore, throwing another quick blast of flame Lily’s way and straining against the new illusion.

Lily’s left hand clenched into a fist, the ropes she had summoned from the ground latching unto Alice and holding her in place. They didn’t, however, latch unto her arms quick enough to stop the blast from coming. Not that she cared. She was way past caring.

The flames hit her dead center, and while she was forced to take a step back and use her tails to avoid getting thrown back, she continued forward. What remained of her shirt hang in tatters around her; one half of her sleeve still clung to her shoulder, but the rest was dust and ashe. Her torso wasn’t in much better shape, either. A large wound of sizzling flesh and oozing blood covered the upper half of her chest, spreading further across her left shoulder and arm.

But despite that she still did not show any signs of pain save for gritting her teeth even more.

With a few more steps she closed the distance between the two, standing face to face with Alice, Lily’s slitted eyes boring into the Valkyrie’s. With almost torturous slowness she raised her right hand, a large orb of swirling blue energy hovering just above her palm. With an almost animalistic scream, she brought it down. And was stopped.

A hand seemingly materialized out of nothing, grabbing hold of Lily’s arm before the orb connected with Alice’ face. Barely a split second later and the orb was snuffed out like a candle, and Ikari stepped into view. With a wave of her free hand the illusions around the were banished and Alice found herself able to move again.

Lily looked up, her eyes livid with barely restrained anger. It was Ikari, that much she realised, but she cared not the least for her right now. “Why did you stop me?” She demanded.

“Because you would have killed her had I not,” the Mythic answered, her tone calm and collected, but with a dangerous edge to it. The furrow of her brow only deepened as Lily spat at her feet.

“And so what?”

What Ikari said next was in a tone that could only be described as dangerous. Even Lily in her current state gave pause at the tone, yet it was too late. “That’s enough,” she said, and barraged Lily’s mind with just enough force that she fell unconscious, then turned to Alice. “You’re not off the hook either. Her wounds will be tended to first, and then we will have a talk.” She raised an eyebrow, challenging Alice to so much as think about speaking up against her. “Got it?”

Alice gave a small salute and a nod. The near brush with death had certainly shaken her a bit, but she kept it under lock and key.

Ikari nodded and lifted Lily from where she lay, carrying her with one arm under her back, and another behind her knees. “Follow me,” she said, then turned her attention to the mental link. ”Everything’s in order here, Draco. I got Lily, but she needs urgent medical care; go get The Sister Dryads. Also, these two were the last of them. You can tell everybody that classes are over for the day.”

”Got it. And good luck.”

---

“And you’re not leaving here until you’ve both worked it out,” Ikari warned, closing the door behind her.

Lily and Alice were currently in what—at the moment—could best be described as an interrogation room, albeit far more comfortable thanks to the small fireplace, table, armchairs and a single couch. It was, in fact, one of Ikari’s personal rooms, but for Lily it felt like she was some suspect in a mystery novel.

Bandages covered her entire chest as well as her shoulder and upper arm. The Sister Dryads could have healed her completely to the point where there wouldn’t even be scarring, but Ikari had asked them to leave enough damage that she was forced to deal with the pain for the remaining few weeks it’d take to heal naturally. At least they promised there wouldn’t be any scarring.

She moved to the nearest chair and sat down, hands restlessly playing with her braid. Ikari had asked—no, commanded—them to work out their differences. That included an apology on both sides, as well as an explanation, she had said. She wasn’t much keen on it, if she had to be honest, so she simply stared into the fire for the time being, completely ignoring the presence of Alice.

Alice, for her part, lacked any significant injuries. There was bruising here and there, and a bloodied lip, but for the most part she stood uninjured. The room was considerably nicer than she’d been expecting, and she walked slowly and stiffly towards another chair, furthest from the fireplace, sitting down without removing her hands from the pockets of her coat. She replayed the fight from earlier in her mind, analyzing it and thinking up new strategies for fighting another Kitsune like Lily, or even Lily herself again.

Eyes trained on the fireplace, watching the flames dance and weave, grow and shrink, minutes passed without Lily even noticing it. Her mind was… empty; the fight was forgotten, Alice’s presence unregistered. Even Ikari’s orders were pushed to the far recesses of her mind. But even then, a question came to her, one she spoke without even realising it.

“Why?”

Alice looked up, over at Lily, muttering something along the lines of “Hmm?” Her mind kept replaying the fight from earlier, now having moved on to tactical errors of hers, “Sorry, what’d you say?”

Glancing at Alice through the corner of her eyes, Lily said again. “Why?” Her gaze returned to the fireplace. “Why did you say what you said?”

“Why do we say anything?” Alice replied, leaning back into the chair, “Why did we suddenly see fit to sling insults at each other? Why are we sitting here right now asking why?” she looked up at the ceiling, “Honestly, we were taunting each other, baiting each other. The insults got worse and hit home more accurately. It was only a matter of time before either you or I found an especially sore spot, I just found it faster.”

Silence reigned again for moment after moment, until enough time had passed that Lily didn’t care guess how much. Could’ve been half an hour, could’ve been an entire hour. Her gaze was still fixed on the flames, having purged Alice’s presence from her mind as best as possible, yet… it wasn’t entirely possible. She could hear her rustling; the slight movements of someone trying to sit still.

“Tell me,” She said after a long while. “What’s it like having a family? A home? Friends?”

Alice looked to her and shrugged. “Does a father who makes Drill Sergeant Hartman look kind and understanding count as family?” she sighed, leaning into the chair, “Do black belts with an attitude problem count as friends? Wouldn’t a home be a place you want to return to?”

Lily’s eyes were trained on the tip of her braid she was still playing with when Alice spoke, and she couldn’t quite help but give a lopsided grin, but it was empty; devoid of life. Grim, even. “Hell if I know. Sounds like you had a father, food, and a place to sleep, at least.”

Alice glanced back over at Lily, grumbling, “Wouldn’t call that sick fuck a father, but you are right about the latter two.” she leaned back into the chair again, “Damnit.” she sighed.

“But he was there, is what it sounds like to me,” Lily said, unable to counter Alice complaints with what might be called the silver lining. “Cruel though he may have been, but you had him… I had a cardboard box.”

Alice blinked. “Oh.” she rasped awkwardly, her voice dropping off a bit as she muttered again, “Oh.”

Lily couldn’t help but smile ruefully. The way Alice spoke made it easy to hear that the comment had taken her off guard. “Twenty one years,” she continued, figuring that she may as well get it over with. Not like she’d get out before she gave at least half the truth. “I’m twenty three.”

Alice nodded, “I see.”

“That’s why I asked you those questions. Because I don’t know. To say I’ve been lonely would be the understatement of the century. Heck, there are two people in this world I’d consider friends, and one of them died seventeen years ago. And family… It’s a word as foreign to me as the sun. I’ve heard it, I’ve seen it, but I don’t know what it feels like.” She glanced at Alice. “And don’t think I’m going to start sobbing and asking for a hug.” She looked back to the fire. Silence.

“If we’re talking blood relatives you didn’t miss much, as far as I’m concerned.” Alice grumbled back at Lily, “If you want to talk family, maybe don’t talk family with me. All I’ve got from family is a contract with a private military company and this.” she waved her right leg around aimlessly for a second, before halfheartedly grabbing the pant leg and pulling it up.

The dull firelight gleamed off of black carbon nanotubes in thick cords, clinging to dull grey composites underneath, a solid rod of the same composite material around the place the fibula would normally be, outside the mass of synthetic muscle. Parts of the leg resembled an organic one in shape, while others looked like something straight out of science fiction.

Despite herself, Lily turned her head to look as she heard Alice move and pull up the pant leg, revealing the prosthetic. She couldn’t help but snort. “Congratulations. You have a fake leg. What’s it to do with anything?” She looked back at the fire. “If anything, I’ll agree that it’d suck to lose a part of your body.” She sighed, glancing at the door. How long do I have to be stuck with this bitch? “Did you have a mother?”

“The fake leg is to do with that father you think was nice to have around, he’s the one responsible for needing it.” she grumbled, “And no, I didn’t have a mother.”

“Better to have something you hate than nothing at all,” Lily murmured. “You could say that’s why I stuck with Tsukiko. Hated her positive attitude to begin with, but I kept near her because she was the only thing I had. That and she refused to let me get out of sight.” She sighed, closing her eyes briefly before she stood up and faced Alice. “Don’t discount what you had just because he treated you like shit. He stuck with your for a reason, even if you don’t realise it. Regardless of how much you hate him, you have something I don’t, and what you said—” she waved her hand in the direction she hoped was to their previous fighting grounds “—out there reminded me of that. You rubbed it in my face that I had never had anything whatsoever before I came here.” She stopped, tilting her head. “Do you understand now why I reacted the way I did?”

Alice nodded simply, “Yes. I can see why.”

“A word of warning, then,” Lily said, her voice taking on a warning edge. “Don’t ever say anything like that to me again. I’m not going to try to make a threat, but should we be put on the same team we need to be able to trust each other, and that’s not going to happen if you don’t keep your mouth in check.”

“But enough of that, I’m tired of being here. Ikari told us to apologise, so I will apologise for acting the way I did,” for trying to kill you. She didn’t move for the door, but just looked at Alice.

Alice nodded, “I apologize for what I said.” We’re all assholes here, it seems.

Contrary even to what Lily herself would have thought, she smiled; not mischievously or falsely, but an actual thankful smile, even though it was brief. “Thanks.” With that she walked out the door, leaving it open behind for Alice to exit as well. She briefly caught Ikari looking at her as she made her way out of the Mythic’s rooms, just barely noticing the small, approving nod they received.

Alice rose and walked out after Lily, acknowledging Ikari’s nod. Depending on the Morrigan’s attitude she’ll either be amused or kick my ass. Maybe both. she thought as she walked towards the exit, looking at nothing in particular, even if she kept her ears and general senses open as usual.

Lily was already well on her way towards her own rooms, but the one who had waited for her was not. As Alice stepped through the door to the hallways outside of Ikari’s room, Tsukiko grabbed one of Alice’s shoulders and pressed her against the wall with the one arm currently not in a sling, her usually kid eyes filled with something akin to fear. “Please,” she said, “be careful what you say around her. She’s more fragile than you think.”

Alice looked after her, “I’ll keep that in mind, please tell her I am sorry.” she began to walk to her own dorm, muttering silently to herself, “Join the club…”

Tsukiko grinned, her large canines making her look not quite as happy as she had hoped. “I will.” She then removed her hand from Alice’s shoulder and started at a jog to catch up to Lily.

The sound of conversation, mixed with the tinkling of utensils scraping their plates provided a an almost constant murmur to the cafeteria halls. It was a busy time of the day, several of the Academy’s students coming out to get lunch in the interim of their classes.

Celica sat with Alice, having taken a seat on one of the few remaining empty tables, and she stared, eyes half-lidded, past the hubbub of dining students, her fork swaying absentmindedly over her food as if she was stirring water. Most of her thoughts were occupied by the last spar, and the effectiveness of her abilities and tactics.

Part of her wondered how much of the difficulty in the fight had come from the need to avoid fatal blows. It was considerably more difficult to judge what was needed to subdue a large Titan than other kinds of Shifter, and the simplest, most effective magic she had at her disposal that would do more than inconvenience such a foe were meant to draw blood, and a lot of it at that. Her pistols could have created an opening to completely subdue a smaller opponent, but the ice pellets had been little more than shiny ornaments to the beast. That they had helped her locate Charles while he used his camouflage was nothing more than a situational advantage she was unlikely to have against any other Shifters of that type and size.

She sighed.

The sparring session had finished some time ago. She would have been done with lunch and moved on to other things by then, but she had insisted on waiting for Alice. It was something she was beginning to regret in a guilty, self-conscious way, considering how little attention she had paid her since.

Celica forced herself out of her contemplation.

“So,” she started, propping her elbows on the table, “how did your fight go?”

Alice gave a half-shrug, chewing rather obtrusively on a large mouthful of shrimp. Swallowing the large mouthful, she leaned against the table in kind with an elbow, “Eh, say the wrong thing, drive someone to homicidal rage, lack a decent ranged attack, the works.”

Celica hummed at the flippant answer. “Sometimes I can’t tell if you’re being sardonic or serious. What got you held back at the end?”

“Had to apologize for saying some mean things.” She shrugged again, “For the record, Kitsunes are hard to fight when they kill all the grass to the horizon and beyond.”

“That Lily girl was a Kitsune, then.” Celica groaned in sympathy. “I hate illusionists. You can never be sure of anything you do when they’re around.” Then she frowned. “Apologize, though? Sometimes I wonder if the Mythics think this is kindergarten. What did you even say?”

“Hmm, well. First it started with taunting, then it went to personal insults, then it went to deeply personal insults, and then it went to who could find the berserk button first.” Alice replied nonchalantly, nibbling on another shrimp, “Long story short, I found hers first.”

Celica leaned back, considering. Hence the ‘homicidal rage’. There was something profoundly wrong with the thought that a member of the academy had tried to kill another. It felt like a breach of trust, and left a bitter taste in her mouth. “She actually tried to kill you? I didn’t know Kitsune’s had that much firepower.”

“Well, she did kill all the grass to the horizon and beyond and suck up the power from that.” Alice reminded Celica, “This wasn’t under purely her own power. And I was just trying to get out of there, because I’m pretty sure if someone goes homicidal in a training match, reduced force generally won’t cut it.” She paused, “Shame there isn’t a better way to break illusions, though. Or to deal with them before they can get a strong one on you, all I can do is throw some fire around.”

“Hm… right. I forgot they could do that.” Absorb… something from the grass. Life, magic, the soul. One had to wonder about the specifics, as she doubted she suddenly absorbed the nutrients of everything around her. And the potential it could have, if she could manage something similar to fuel her enchantments. Perhaps she could meet this Lily...

Celica shook her head. That was not the point of the conversation. “Speaking of throwing things around, are you going to try to get your gun here today?”

“I was going to yeah, if it does go through, they should be able to flash it over here without too much trouble. What I’ll actually do with it is beyond me, because I don’t think lead is too useful against a titan, and it’s not like there are shooting competitions at the Academy. Shame there’s not much I could do with that for a real fight, thing has some nice punch.”

“I keep telling you I can get you special ammo,” she commented.

“True, but the stuff you make is ice. What’s the point of freezing something if you can just put a giant hole in it instead?”

“Something I’m starting to ask myself, really,” she said with a chuckle. “Okay, let me think for a moment.” With that, Celica crossed her arms, looking at the din around them. “I was planning on speaking with requisitions, see if I could get some extra pistols and ammunition to test some ideas. I usually work with the bullets, so the guns are there mostly in case something happens and I need a replacement.” She snapped her fingers and looked at her. “What about your sword and armor? You make those whenever you shift. Couldn’t you do something similar for a weapon, or its bullets?”

Alice’s head snapped up from her food, “That,” she stated, “is brilliant. Why didn’t I think of that? Not to mention the runic material is lighter than lead, with some proper sealants I could get some insane velocity out of that thing,” she grinned evilly, “I think this will do very nicely. We’d have to test it out first, just to make sure, but oh, the possibilities!”

Celica blinked. She could count the times she had seen Alice excited over something with one hand, and she was never sure if it was a good thing. Still, she smiled back. “If you end up being able to do it, it shouldn’t limit itself only to bullets. I was also going to reserve one of the testing and training areas tomorrow, so we could take care of that together. You help me, I help you.” The grin turned sly. “And if it works, maybe I could use some of that runic weaponry too, for a change.”

“I’m not sure how the runic thing works for other people, but I think I can agree to that.” Alice rasped in agreement, scheming grin plastering itself over her face.