A Hallway Confrontation and a Burning Forest

9 Menses Aprilis, Year 704

After an algebra class, Maxim and Paulo were talking to Yuna as they waited for their next teacher to arrive for a magic studies class. Paulo asked her about how she met Sarah and became close friends with her despite the two being a full two years apart in school. “So was it at a ball or something? I know a lot of noble children become friends through there. Heck, my parents first met at a ball.”

“Exactly,” Yuna nodded. “My brother Werner met Sarah first, and then Sarah saw me at a ball. I was only seven and she was nine, but we had a lot of fun. She showed me how to dance properly after I accidentally stepped on my brother’s feet several times during a formal dance that night. After that, we began writing letters to each other before we began going to the same middle school. She also helped me study for the Rimnan entrance exam, even though she isn’t the best at academics herself…”

Curious, Maxim asked her, “How bad is she?”

“She passed the entrance exam with a seventy-five,” Yuna explained. “She maintains grades in the eighties, which is alright, but her parents expected her to go higher. Most of my grades are in the high nineties.”

“That doesn’t seem so bad,” Maxim replied out of confusion. “When I was in school, most of my grades were tha-“ He then stopped himself as Paulo and Yuna looked at him, perplexed as to why he referred to school in the past tense. He had accidentally used his grades from his old world as a high schooler as reference rather than his grades in middle school as Maxim. “I mean, uh… Yeah, in middle school, they were like that.”

“Huh? You had better grades than eighties, Max,” Paulo replied. “You usually had nineties.”

Not wanting to argue the point further, Maxim sighed and replied, “Fuck… I’m sorry, I had a late night last night.”

“Now that part is true,” Paulo laughed. “I heard you get up at like two in the morning. You must be tired as Hell, man.”

“Maybe I’m so restless because I’m still salty about the Yellowjackets blowing a six-point lead two days ago.”

“Oh yeah,” Yuna then replied, remembering how her brother felt about the game Paulo and Maxim had seen in-person. “He was so pissed off when he was listening to the radio. He was ranting on and on to Sarah about how the Yellowjackets need to fire their coach.”

“They really do,” Maxim agreed. “He’s made some really shitty decisions already and the season’s barely begun.”

Then, Kana walked into the classroom, prompting the group to turn their eyes over to her. She looked back at them, with her eyes solely focused on Yuna as she approached them. “Miss Yuna Miller.”

Confused as to why she asked for her, Yuna replied, “Me?”

“Yes, you,” Kana replied in a rather deadpan tone with a serious expression. “Can I have a word with you?”

Maxim knew immediately that this was the setup to a pivotal scene early in the story. He asked Kana, “What’s going on? Is there a problem?”

“Nothing concerning you,” Kana told him somewhat sternly. “This is a private conversation between me and Miss Yuna Miller.” She then turned back to Yuna and told her, “It’s about your family.”

“My family? What do you mean?” She then got up and told the others, “I gotta go. See you later.”

“Bye, Yuna,” replied Paulo with a wave. When she and Kana left, he turned to Maxim and asked him, “What the fuck was that all about? I swear, that first-year Demas is a weirdo.”

“You noticed it, too?” Maxim knew the truth about Kana, but of course could not tell Paulo without deeply confusing him and causing more questions than answers. “Yeah, she stopped me in the hallway on my first day, too. I wonder what her deal is…”

“We got a little time before our next class,” Paulo then said as he looked up at the clock. “Why don’t you go follow them and find out?”

“I mean, it sounds like a private conversation, though…”

“Just don’t get caught.”

“Ah, yes,” Maxim replied sarcastically. “Just don’t get caught, like that’s so easy. Although…” He felt tempted to follow them, and as the seconds went by, the temptation grew. Finally, he got up and told Paulo, “Fuck it. I’ll be back.”

…

In the hallway, Yuna and Kana were walking together, the former still wondering why the latter had called her out of the room. Even more perplexing, Kana had not yet said a single word to her. “Uh… Kana… What’s going on?”

Kana then stopped in the middle of the hallway and turned around, prompting Yuna to stop as well. “Miss Yuna Miller… Tell me, have you heard about the recent increase in monster attacks across Tamara, and in particular around the capital region?”

Tension filled the air as Yuna explained, “I mean, I was attacked by a monster on my first day, but that Duchess Lena Vale saved me. Is… Is there really an increase?”

“There is,” Kana nodded. “I need you to promise me that you’ll be safe. The monsters are dangerous, but there’s more to the people who hunt them than meets the eye. Not all of them have good intentions like Lena Vale.”

Yuna looked around, clearly uneased by what Kana had to say. “Are… Are you saying Lena’s not a good person?”

Kana, confused as to why Yuna thought that, replied, “How did you get that from what I said? I never said she was a bad person. All I’m saying is that not every monster hunter is like her.”

Then, almost as if it was on cue, Lena said to Kana, “Scaring a new girl already, Miss Demas?”

“Come on,” Victoria then said to follow up with a chuckle. “Give the damn girl a break.”

Yuna saw the duo walking over and waved to them. “Hello, Lena, and… I’m sorry, what was your name again?”

“Victoria Kristen,” Victoria replied. “Just Vic is fine, though. Doesn’t really matter to me.”

Kana turned around and said to the duo, “What are you talking about? I’m just warning her of other people like us.”

“People like us?”

Lena then explained to Yuna, “Only certain people can be monster hunters. Me, Victoria, and Miss Demas are among those certain people.”

Kana further added, “And she shouldn’t get involved in it.”

Lena pointed out, “If she’s able to do it, why stop her?”

“Shouldn’t it be obvious, Lena?”

In response to this, Victoria held out one of her hands, seemingly ready to attack with her own powers. “I’ll make you eat those words, Kana!” Her hand then began to glow as a small and jagged blade of energy began to form.

“Guys, guys,” Yuna then loudly warned them, interrupting the fight before it could begin. “Please, don’t fight in the middle of the hallway! You both should be on the same side against the monsters, right?!”

Seeing that Yuna was clearly in distress from what was going on, Kana backed off and the energy blade dissipated. “Perhaps we shouldn’t do this here. Not at school. Not in front of Yuna.”

“Agreed,” Lena nodded. “Victoria, back down.”

Unbeknownst to them, Maxim had followed them and caught the tail end of the conversation. He knew the general gist of what had been said before, and knew how it would play out prior to him making a potential appearance. He debated internally about injecting himself into the scene or just staying as an observer, both of which caused their own problems. For one, if he stayed as merely an observer and got caught, he could be perceived as a stalker, which, to be fair in his mind, he acknowledged he sort of was. However, if he injected himself into the scene, not only could he face the same judgement, but he could also antagonize Kana further. Before he could make a decision, however, the conversation ended, and all parties split off to go back to their respective classrooms.

Wanting to act natural, he quickly darted to a water fountain to take a drink. However, when he reached for the lever, he saw a green light suddenly shoot from his hand and surround it, pulling it all the way back and causing a jet of water to splash his face. “Agh, shit!”

This caught the attention of Victoria and Lena, who heard him and walked over. The former asked him, “Hey, are you that new kid that Lena saw on the train on the first day of school?”

Lena meanwhile asked him, “Maxim, what happened?”

“I… I don’t know,” he replied, genuinely confused. “I was just getting some water and… Well, something came out of my hand and pulled the lever. It splashed water in my face.”

Victoria chuckled, remarking, “Sounds like you don’t have control of your powers.”

“I didn’t even know I could do that,” Maxim explained. “Like… I didn’t know I was capable of magic at all.”

Lena, surprised, asked him, “You didn’t know until now? That’s strange. Usually, it awakens by the time you’re ten or eleven if you’re capable of it at all.”

“Is that bad?”

Lena did not have a straightforward answer for him. “All I can say is that it’s rare. Usually, if that happens, it’s a sign that your powers are more chaotic, which can either mean you’re stronger than usual or weaker than usual.”

“Well, that’s comforting,” Maxim sarcastically replied.

“Anyway,” Victoria then asked him in a more questioning tone. “What did you snoop in on? How much of that did you hear?”

“You guys almost got into a fight with that Kana girl. That’s what I managed to see. Won’t you get in trouble if you use your powers like that at school?”

“She was starting to piss me off.”

“You do need to calm your temper, Vic,” Lena told her friend as she put a hand on her shoulder. “It won’t do you any good if you get in trouble here.”

Victoria replied with a pout, “I know, I know, Lena. I’m doing my best, okay?”

“Aw, come on, Vic,” Lena replied with a playful smile. “I know you can do it. Besides, we should save that energy for actual battles.”

As a shipper of LenaVic, Maxim was happy to see the two of them interacting like this, careful not to let his inner fan escape. He turned around and began to walk back to his class, telling the duo, “Well, hopefully nothing crazy happens with my powers. I’ll see you guys later.”

“Bye-bye, Maxim,” Lena replied with a wave.

…

10 Menses Aprilis, Year 704

Lena and Victoria were battling against a large lizard-like monster that spat fire at them from a short distance in the middle of a forest near Rimnan Castle School. “I heard this bastard killed a whole family in the village a few days ago,” Victoria told her comrade. “Looks like we’ll be able to avenge them while getting some pay in the process.”

“Now, now, Vic,” Lena replied as she powered up her arms. “The reward money isn’t everything. Protecting others is important, too.”

“Never said it wasn’t,” Victoria pointed out before forming two jagged energy blades in her hands. “Cover me, Lena!”

“On it!” Lena then blasted the lizard monster with an energy beam, neutralizing the fire it breathed out of its mouth and inflicting severe injuries to its face. As the red blood of the lizard coated the burning trees around them, Victoria ran over and jumped up into the air before slashing into the lizard’s neck from the side and from behind. After having made several slashes, the lizard screamed in pain before managing to thrash around and throw Victoria off of its body and onto the ground. “Vic, are you okay?!”

“Yeah,” she replied as she got up. “That fucker’s gonna pay for that!” The lizard then shot out a ball of flame through its damaged mouth at Victoria, which Lena deflected into several trees with another energy beam. This prompted Victoria to say, “Be careful, Lena! We don’t want to cause a forest fire!”

“We’ll deal with that later,” Lena told her. “Just focus on killing this foul beast for now!” She then blasted the beast again, taking out one of its legs completely and causing it to yell in severe pain. “Strike now!”

“Hell yeah!” Victoria then ran up and delivered two final blows to the lizard, slicing into its jugular vein and killing it. When she pulled her blades out, blood gushed from the wounds, forcing her to back up before she got coated in it even more than she already was. “Ah shit, it’s getting all over the place!”

“Looks like you’ll need a change of clothes,” Lena pointed out. “And you said investing in ten school uniforms each for us was a stupid idea.”

“Yeah, yeah, you were right, I know.” The two of them then joined their hands together and chanted the same prayer from before.

“May the Lords of Light take this foul beast away and return him to the soil below our feet. Amen.”

With that, the beast turned into dust. However, unlike before, parts of this beast also turned into several balls of light that shot up into the sky. Confused, Victoria remarked, “What the fuck? That’s never happened before when I battled a monster.”

“I’ve heard reports that that’s been happening recently,” Lena added. “But I’ve never seen it in person until now.”

A voice behind them then declared, “Now you see what’s happening.”

Lena and Victoria turned around to find Kana watching them from below the burning trees. Victoria demanded from her, “How the Hell did you follow us out here?!”

“You started a forest fire with that last battle,” Kana pointed out. “The smoke cloud is visible for miles. It shouldn’t be hard to guess how someone could put two and two together and find you here battling a monster.”

“You better lea-“

Lena then held her hand out in front of Victoria, an order to make her back down. “I’ll take care of this.” She then turned her attention back to Kana. “What the Hell are you talking about? Do you know about the lights coming out of the monsters recently?”

“Yes. The increase in monster attacks is directly related to that. Some of the monsters you fight are not like the ones you’re used to.”

“Care to explain what you mean by that?”

“I cannot divulge a lot of details, but I can tell you that it’s related to missing persons around the area.”

“Damn it,” Victoria muttered. “Why won’t she tell us anymore?”

“And another thing,” Kana then warned Lena. “You better not get Yuna Miller involved.”

Lena smugly replied, “Why not? Are you afraid of competition?”

“No. I’m afraid she’ll get hurt, if not killed.”

“Why are you so concerned about her anyway? As far as I know, you don’t really have a connection to her.”

“You don’t know me or my life,” Kana pointed out. “And I don’t have to explain how I first got to know Yuna… Or you, for that matter.” She then ran back into the forest, disappearing into the night almost as fast as she appeared.

“Hey, wait!” Lena then sighed, frustrated that she had been left with more questions than answers. “That Kana girl is up to no good. I can sense it.”

“We better go back and let the villagers know about the fire,” Victoria then pointed out. “If they don’t know already.”

“Yeah, let’s go. Forget about that new girl for now. I don’t think the villagers want to spend their Saturday night seeing their houses burn down if this gets out of control.”