Nagoya, Japan

Wednesday, August 10th, 2050

Kiyo surprised me in the elevator lobby on the level of the boy’s dorms. She was in her normal uniform, which made me feel a bit underdressed in my Field Day shirt and shorts. Thankfully, they had finally stopped insisting on the full tracksuits once the weather was hot enough to bother Mr. Maki. It was a few weeks too late for the rest of us, but he set a high bar for endurance.

“Good morning, my dear! You’re looking lovely.”

“Thanks!” She pointed up at her face with both hands. “Do you like what I tried with my makeup? The tutorial said it was supposed to make me look seductive.” She had indeed laid it on a bit thicker than normal, and I detected mascara for the first time since I’d met her.

“I’m hardly an unbiased source,” I replied. “I always think you look cute.”

“Sure, but I’m going for seductive. It better have worked!” She blinked a few times and rubbed at the corner of her eye. “These fake lashes sucked to put on.”

“You left something on your lips right about here.” Our lips met briefly. Too briefly, but I thought I heard noise behind us. “You’re absolutely ravishing.”

“You should teach that to Yukiko,” said Hiro as he entered the lobby.

“I don’t know, she didn’t appreciate the last time I kissed her out of turn,” I quipped.

Annoyance briefly flashed over Hiro’s face because he shook his head. “You know I mean Kiyo should teach…” He stopped himself before he could give me more ammunition for teasing. “You know what I mean, you smartass.” He walked up and put out his closed hand to Kiyo. “Lookin’ good, buddy.”

“Thanks, man,” said Kiyo, lightly meeting her fist with his. “Well, I got two guys to comment on it. Personal record.”

“What’s the occasion?” I asked.

She shifted awkwardly. “H-hiro’s my bro, but I don’t wanna say in public.” She leaned in and whispered in my ear. “It was kinda Paul’s idea.”

I raised an eyebrow. They all knew of the breakup by then. Why was he suddenly talking with Kiyo? He had reportedly ignored her in class before. “Oh? What did he say to you?”

“Well…” She hemmed and hawed a moment before kissing me again. There was something desperate in her touch, and the way she clung to the back of my neck. She broke off when Hiro coughed into his hand. “Later, dude. We’ll talk after school.”

“That’s hardly fair, my dear,” I said. “Now I’ll have no choice but to think about you all day while we train.”

“Mission accomplished.” Kiyo grunted and crossed her arms over her chest. “Stupid Mrs. Perera’s homeroom, doing field days on Monday and Tuesday.”

We parted ways when we arrived at the floor of Room 2-C, but picked up some other students on the way down. I got the sense that Hiro wanted to say something, but he kept his mouth shut in mixed company.

We arrived at the field and did our customary warmup exercises. I hadn’t been in bad shape when I arrived at the school, but I hadn’t been at my peak either. I had spent months in sloth and debauchery in Pandemonium as we celebrated the fall of England, and then I had starved myself for weeks to look as much like a human refugee as I could. A few months of conditioning had done their magic; what had initially been a decent workout on its own was now hardly a warmup. Though I regretted that I continued to strengthen the humans around me, at least the school returned the favor.

Mr. Maki and Ms. Edwards were ready for us when we finished our warmup jog and stretches. “Alright everyone, bring it in!”

“Does Mr. Maki sound kinda pissy this morning?” whispered Leo Hernandez as we shuffled over.

“Just a tad,” I whispered back. I stopped it there, since I didn’t want to push my luck with side chatter after the other morning.

“This will be your last field day before we change gears for the War Games,” said Mr. Maki. “Think carefully about your choice of teammates. Your position when you advance to your second year will depend on your rank in the games. Many of you should even be able to get out of remedial courses!”

There were two types of students in Class 3-B: the type who began chattering excitedly about a possible promotion, and those who shrugged and passively stood at attention. There’s no motivating some people, I supposed. Technically, my Kiyo was one of latter, aside from her fixation on me.

I found myself in the former camp, to my surprise. I wasn’t sure why I cared. Even if I stayed around long enough for another partial year of classes, there was no way I was going to graduate. I chalked it up to my competitive spirit.

“There is one rule,” said Maggie, in her full bubbly, overly enthusiastic teacher persona. Unlike Mr. Maki, she had to speak into a microphone to be clearly heard. “You have to team up with classmates you haven’t competed with before.”

The go-getters and shirkers all let out a collective groan. At least we could agree on something.

“Before we get started, we’ll run you through some light sword practice,” said Maggie. “Some of you are still struggling with your form, and we need to make sure we have you up to speed before the combat exams.”

I couldn’t help but notice that every underachiever was paired with somebody who knew their way around a blade. I was put with Rafal Kowalski. I’ll spare you the details, but I was surprised to find that he wasn’t nearly so hopeless as when we had fought in the War Games. Not worlds better, but enough that I pitied whatever demons had to face him someday. If he could get halfway competent and not have to lean entirely on his Buddy affinity, the towering, broad-shouldered young man could be a force to be reckoned with.

He immediately spoiled that assessment by slipping on the dew-slickened grass and skinning his knee.

“Rafal, you need to be more careful,” Mariko scolded as she healed him. She wore the white and green uniform of a combat medic, including a green beret with a little red cross that gave me a mild headache if I looked too closely.

“Sorry, ma’am,” he said, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

“Ma’am?” she asked, taken aback.

“Point that glare somewhere else, Mariko!” I said. “I didn’t tell him to say it!”

Her petulant pout told me she didn’t believe a word of it.

We were called together again for the main event. “Choose your partner, and we’ll explain the rules shortly,” said Mr. Maki. “Pick wisely, because you’ll be together all day.”

Hiro clapped me on the shoulder, and I nodded. His Immortal Form affinity gave him short bursts of immense physical power, but he didn’t have much in the way of magical reserves. It made a good counterbalance to my magical talents and lack of an offensive magical affinity.

“You’re forgetting something, Asahi,” chided Maggie.

“Don’t call me that in front of the students,” he said, his tone resigned. I could just hear him from the front row.

Maggie smirked, and I caught just a hint of the real woman underneath the chirpy mask. “Headmaster Tachibana has been kind enough to furnish us with improved Peace Bond shields, so you can go all out!” She stepped aside, revealing a wheelbarrow filled with dozens of leather anklets studded in wood and metal fabricata. “Come on up, don’t be shy.”

“I still say it’s a waste,” muttered Mr. Maki as I passed. I wasn’t sure he meant anyone to hear, but even his muttering had some bass behind it.

“Don’t be a sore loser, Asahi,” said Maggie. “Oops, was my mic still on?”

Mr. Maki’s only response was an annoyed grunt.

We all took a minute to strap in. I noticed that Mariko didn’t grab one of the fabricata. She wore a white and green cadet’s uniform, with a red cross on a beret to mark her as a medic.

“Mariko, you should take one too,” I said.

She shook her head. “I won’t be fighting.”

I rolled my eyes. “My dear, let’s not make such obvious mistakes after the other night! You don’t have to be a fighter to get caught by a stray spell. You know that better than anyone.”

Now that I knew to look for it, the increased tremor in her right hand told me I’d agitated her. Oh well. If she was going to burden me with her concerns, she couldn’t complain when I wanted to fix them. It was bad enough I cared, she was going to respect my wishes!

With a reluctant nod, strolled over and took a fabricata without a word. She struggled a bit with the smaller holes on the lower strap.

“Kowalski, go give her a hand,” I said, shoving the blond boy at her.

He looked at me dumbly. “Me? Why?”

“I don’t want my girlfriend hearing that I was poking around under Ms. Yamada’s skirt. I’m in enough trouble as it is. Consider it a personal favor.”

He nodded. “Sure, man. Though, you know you can call me Rafal.”

“So you’ve told me. I’ll take that under advisement, Kowalski.” The taller boy left with a frown. There, that balanced things after I’d been kind to Mariko.

“You’re a mean guy, Marlowe,” said Leo as he straightened up, his anklet firmly in place.

“I never said otherwise,” I replied before bending down to put on my own training gear.

I had to tip my metaphorical hat to the headmaster, though I was a little surprised he had cranked out so many Peace Bonds so quickly. When last we met, it had sounded like he wanted to do more rounds of testing first. He must have put the rest of his weekend to good use.

The leather anklets were easy to adjust, and surprisingly secure. They had a bit of a heft, though. On the inner part of the ankle, a pouch with straps held a block of wood the size and shape of a bar of soap, etched with runes. A quick scan of the characters gave me the impression that the leather surface of the anklet was there to guide the energy from the transmitter to the right place, and the wood inside was the “brain.” The fabricata weren’t exactly comfortable, but I doubted that was his main concern.

“I didn’t know he was ready to roll it out yet,” I said.

Rose smirked at me mischievously. “He might have mentioned something when I visited him yesterday. He also might have also told me to keep it under my hairband.”

“Gasp!” I said, putting my wrist to my forehead theatrically. “Rose Cooper, keeping secrets? How could you?”

Rose stuck her tongue out at me. “Right, Soren, you’ve never been anything but open.”

“He does like hiding things pointlessly,” said Mariko, as she jogged over. “For example, he didn’t tell me he sent Rafal to help me.”

“No, but he did, I imagine.” I made a mental note to never trust the boy with any secrets worthy of the name.

Hiro cut off Mariko with a shout. “Awesome!” He kicked the air a few times and whistled appreciatively. “Wow, it didn’t slip a centimeter! It’ll be nice to cut loose again!”

“Let’s not go too nuts, Takehara,” said Leo. “We don’t all punch like gorillas.”

Yukiko came into our midst and clapped her hands twice. “Alright everyone, fall in! We all have our partners. We are keeping the teachers waiting.”

“Why should we care?” asked Leo.

“Because Mr. Maki makes us run more laps when he gets cross,” I said.

There were disappointed groans from the unambitious students as their chitchat was cut short, but even they resigned themselves to it.

Hiro and I joined up with each other at the center of the field. Maggie fiddled with something on the satellite dish-shaped transmitter and the world distorted, like I was viewing it through a dirty window. The wood and metal fabricata beamed energy to our anklets and shrouded us in a field of energy from head to toe. The Peace Bond was always a disconcerting sensation, since it cut you off from touch and even reduced the heat of the sun. It beat a Magic Bolt to the face, though.

However, I had to shut my eyes. As I had deepened my control over my Mimic, I had begun to see the flow of magic in others without intending to. I didn’t usually mind much, but I was suddenly overwhelmed as everybody was surrounded in the energy bubbles all at once. I uselessly covered my eyes with my hands.

I stayed quiet, trying to force my vision to stop swimming. Damnit all, I needed to tune it out, to get ahold of this deluge of magical information. I shut out the world, taking the techniques from our lessons on meditation and applying them a different way. Usually I saw more magical visions when I meditated, but I needed to focus my efforts. Otherwise, my Mimic Sight might drive me to Wizard’s Desolation before the first match of the day! I’d never live that down if that happened.

“Are you alright, Soren?” asked Rose. I heard her hand tap against my Peace Bond bubble, but didn’t feel it.

I hopped up to my feet. Sweat ran down my brow, but the overwhelming visions were gone. “Never better, my dear.”

She gave me a doubtful look, but decided not to question it further. “Mr. Maki? It’s a hot day. Maybe we should shut it down for a moment and all grab a drink?”

He nodded, flipping a switch on the transmitting fabricata. “Make it quick. We have a full schedule today.”

We raided a cooler by the side of the track. Several of the students gave me appreciative nods. The Divine Blade tended to forget we were mortals. It wasn’t that he never gave us water breaks, but he thought we didn’t need quite so many as we might like.

All too soon, we were back in formation. “Alright, ladies,” boomed Mr. Maki, “now that you’ve powdered your noses, are you ready to begin? If you need to warm up more, we can always run more laps!”

A chorus of no’s filled the air.

Mr. Maki nodded, and Maggie flipped the switch back on, surrounding us once again with the Peace Bond force fields.

An odd smell tickled my nose. “Do you smell that, Takehara?”

“Hm? Smell what?” asked Hiro.

“The whole field reeks of lavender,” I said. “Like Rose’s perfume.”

“You must be imagining things,” he said. “She’s half a field away. Unless you’re a bloodhound and not a magpie?”

“Maybe that’s it,” I said sardonically. The scent still filled my nose, and I couldn’t help but detect a lingering Rose-ness all about me. It wasn’t unpleasant, but odd, since I couldn’t account for it.

“Cut the chatter!” bellowed Mr. Maki. “You might have noticed we drew the chalk circles much larger this morning. That’s because there’s going to be four of you in there instead of two.”

So they had. Where normally they were five meters in diameter, these were double that, with a line down the middle to divide them in half. It explained why they had built the arena at double the size of a normal football field. We usually had quite a bit of excess space left over.

I detected a flicker of something magical along the edges of the chalk lines as well. I raised my hand, earning a nod from Mr. Maki. “Sir, is the chalk itself enchanted?”

“Well spotted, cadet! Though, you’re a bit off. Look closer.”

One of the girls I rarely spoke to raised her hand. I didn’t recall her name off the top of my head. With her boring haircut and unassuming face, she had never drawn my eyes like some of the others. “There’s a rope running through the chalk. I almost tripped earlier.”

“That’s correct. Also a tad disappointing, Cadet Yamaguchi! You need to be more aware of your surroundings! The Horde doesn’t miss a trick.”

The mousy-haired young woman deflated a little. “Sorry, sir. I didn’t expect traps on our training field.”

“Now you know to check. We must always be vigilant,” he said. Maggie rolled her eyes where he couldn’t see, but I think many of us shared her opinion. “Today is going to be a two-on-two combat match, but with a bit of a twist. I decided to give you a little taste of an exercise we do with the second-year students.”

He strolled over to one of the circles and pointed all the fingers of his right hand at it, while his left was held aloft in a fist. It was a positively textbook Position Twelve; indeed, Mr. Maki was literally the model they used for the textbooks in those days.

“Red and Blue!”

The ropelike fabricata came to life at his command, and the grass within the sphere was immediately colored red on one half, and blue on the other. A couple of the students applauded at the display.

My Mimic picked up on the spell instantly. I took a step back so that Hiro blocked my line of sight from Mr. Maki. I couldn’t resist trying it out myself. I found that when I whispered the spell and imitated the motion, though, I only succeeded in making a purplish energy structure at my feet that vanished as soon as I stopped casting. I hadn’t put much oomph behind it, but that was still less than I’d intended. I gathered that the spell needed the fabricata rope to give it structure.

Mr. Maki brushed his nose with his thumb. “Who’d like to volunteer to show how Red and Blue is played? How about you, Cadet Cooper?”

“I don’t like the way he’s smirking at me,” said Rose. She pasted a smile and jogged over to him. She gave him a well-practiced salute. “Of course, sir!”

He put his hands in Position Twelve again and rested his fingers on the edges of the Peace Bond bubble surrounding her. Runic energy patterns briefly danced around his fingers. “Blue Team!”

Her clear barrier changed to a light shade of blue. Rose flinched in surprise, but recovered quickly.

“The Peace Bond isn’t the best spell for teaching you about the reality of combat, but it has its advantages,” Mr. Maki continued.

“I’m glad we have it back,” said Maggie. “Red and Blue isn’t the same with colored headbands. It’s dull to watch.”

Mr. Maki nodded to Rose. “Cadet, go walk into the blue side of the circle.”

“Yes, sir!” She stopped just at the edge of the chalk line. “Is it supposed to do something?”

“Patience, Ms. Cooper. Walk over the line.”

She complied, and I could just make out the two magics interacting. She left blue tracks that quickly vanished in the reddened grass. She kept her composure for a few moments, but succumbed and began uselessly scratching at her arms. “What the heck?”

“Is something the matter, cadet?”

Rose stood ramrod straight, trying to act the part of a good soldier. “N-no, sir. Just an itch.”

Maggie stepped up and spoke into her microphone. “Okay, Asahi, that’s enough playing around. Ms. Cooper is experiencing what happens when the two colors clash. It’s the equivalent of a mild itching powder.”

Mr. Maki narrowed his eyes, but let it slide. “That’s right. You’re safe in your own territory, but you’ll itch as soon as you enter the other team’s zone. It’s a point-based system. You earn points the longer you stay in the opposing team’s zone, so your objectives are to stay in their zone, and keep them out of yours. You also gain points when you strike your opponent’s Peace Bond with your own. You forfeit if you leave the circle.”

Rose’s hand shot straight up. “Permission to forfeit, sir?” That earned her some laughter from the waiting cadets.

“Granted,” he said with a chuckle. It must have been payback for the previous Saturday. I made a note not to make the Divine Blade wait around for me. The man could hold a grudge.

“The rest of the rules are simple enough. You can only cast spells when you are on your opponent’s side, but you can use your affinities anywhere. We don’t want you sitting back in your own zone and casting spells from safety. Also, don’t use your spells to force a ring-out. Anything else is fair game.”

I groaned. “Once again, Mimic lets me down.”

“Oh my,” said Mariko, belatedly raising her hand when the teachers focused on her. “Isn’t it cruel to make everybody itch when it’s impossible for them to scratch?”

“What do you care?” asked Maggie with a dismissive wave of her hand. “You aren’t part of the game. You’ll be fine.”

Mr. Maki frowned at Maggie. “I’m sure she’s concerned about her classmates. No worries, Cadet. The magical effect can’t cause any lasting injury. It isn’t physiological, it’s psychological. The spell is the equivalent of a disguise fabricata fooling your eyesight.”

It was strange seeing Mr. Maki defend her with their history of conflict, but then, Mariko had saved his life. He could be spiteful and boastful, but I got the impression he did care about us. If he hadn’t killed so many of my fellows over his career, I might have felt bad about consorting with his would-be assassins.

The issue seemingly settled, the teachers began to walk among the students, marking them as red or blue. I was put on a red team, which was fine by me. I had never looked the part of a proper devil, and the red hue the spell gave my hands let me dream a little.

Mariko crossed her arms under her chest and bit her lip. “Magpie, mark me. I know you must have just copied his spell.”

“I don’t see why-” I started.

“I’m not a fighter, but I’m part of this class,” she said. “For now. I’ll suffer with them.”

I thought back to our conversation in the hallway, when she had expressed her concerns about being left behind by the other students when they moved on to second year. Well, if I could get comfort in false red skin, then she could torture herself to not feel left out. “Of course. Red or blue?”

“Blue,” she said without hesitation. I complied, and she looked pleased with herself. “It’s so pretty! This would be a perfect shade for the school uniforms in my manga.” She covered her mouth with her hands. “Or it would have been.”

Damn that sympathy to the darkest depths of Our Father Below’s domain. “Mariko…”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “It slipped out. I’m just not used to having somebody who knows. I’ll try not to be a downer.”

“I would appreciate that.” I had quite enough on my mind.

Maggie had just finished marking Yukiko in a shade of blue and strolled. “Ms. Yamada, go check in with Mr. Maki. He’ll have a job for you.”

With a gulp, Mariko gave the teacher a respectful bow before walking away. I think she didn’t respond verbally because she didn’t want her voice to break. I had seen that forlorn look the night I had first learned of her scars. Of course reminders of her lost artistry would be a sore spot.

The redheaded teacher didn’t give me long to contemplate it as she dragged me out of the mass of waiting students.

“Yes, Maggie?” I asked, not keeping the annoyance out of my voice.

“I’m having you face Yamaguchi and Hernandez,” she said, her voice barely audible. “Hernandez is useless, but I think Yamaguchi is Holy Sister material.”

“Oh, you mean Rei? I met her once. Nice girl, though a little intense.”

“You met her? What did she fry with her magnetic powers?” asked Maggie, flashing me a knowing smile.

I sighed. “My cell phone.”

“That makes seventeen this year,” said Maggie. “Still, it isn’t all bad. She always agrees with me when I start talking sense about the League. Plus,” she said, brushing a hand through her hair and cocking her hip. “I think she may have a crush on me.”

I rolled my eyes. “You should be Holy Sister Siren, with the way you draw people in.”

“Guilty,” she replied. “I can’t say she’s my type, but I’ll let her dream. We need all the Holy Brothers we can get.”

“We do have some job openings…” Some part of me wanted to spare her, images of Haru Obe flashing through my head. She was an awkward girl who had enough problems in her life. Did she really deserve to get sucked into all of this?

I shoved that aside. I needed tools to get back home. “I think she has potential. Are you asking me to take it easy on her?”

“God, no,” she said, her nose curled in disgust. “I want to see what both of you can do. Kick her ass, little Magpie.”

I found myself excited at the prospect. Hiro wasn’t the only one eager to cut loose again.