– Of course – Master D. speaks loud enough for everyone to hear him. – , just because you didn't make this year doesn't mean you can't try again the next one. Train harder and remember: there's more to life than just being good at fighting.

– Yes, master! – Everyone says in unison.

After a few more minutes of discussions, at least half of everyone go home since today was just the trial and not a regular training day.

Magatsu was about to go home when he was stopped by Shinda with a hand over his shoulder.

– Where do you think you're going?

– Home? – He answers with a puzzled expression. Shinda laughs.

– Dude, you're not going anywhere anytime soon. You promised you would help me with my training today, remember?

Magatsu quickly searches inside his memories, finding the thing his friend is talking about after about three seconds. He does a dumb face while snapping his fingers.

– Ah, right! I remember. Man, do I have to do it now?

– Definitely. – Shinda bluntly answers while dragging his friend to the center of the dojo.

Two hours later.

Both boys fall tired on the wooden floor while breathing quite heavily. Magatsu didn't expect Shinda's little training section to be so hard, not after the previous one being relatively simple and easy.

– Well – Shinda says while wiping a sweatdrop. – , that was perfect.

He stretches his back by curving it with both hands on its sides. Magatsu stretches his' by interlocking his fingers, stretching his arms forward and pushing his back up with force.

– Let's not do that again for the next few weeks. This is a bit too intense for just two hours, even for us.

– Right, right. – Shinda mockingly waves one hand while pocketing his other. Why did his gi have pockets? No one knew nor bothered to ask.

Not that he would answer, anyway.

Magatsu went home walking since he was still tired from both battles he had plus the two hours training he did with Shinda.

He used the time to look around.

His city, Mashifu, was a regular small town that didn't have many things to do to pass the time. If it wasn't for the holy grail that was the internet, a lot of the younger people would die of boredom.

Most houses around his neighborhood were two-story tall and had bright colors that varied between the green, orange and blue.

It was a sunny day with some pure white clouds here and there. No signs of rain, which made Magatsu relieved.

After a six minutes walk, he sees a little park with a bunch of kids playing. What catches his eyes, however, are a group of five kids surrounding one girl...

The city didn't have trouble with kidnappers, so the kids were free to play around as much as they wanted if their parents allowed them to, so no adults were seeing that.

Seeing that made Magatsu's usual smile fade for a split second as he furrowed his eyebrows. He would enjoy finding out what was happening.

– Hey, kids. – He introduces himself with the most polite smile he can give. – Care to tell me what's going on?

– Scram, idiot. – The supposed leader of the group, 11 years old apparently, had a smirk smug, which was annoying to look at. He had red hair and both his shirt and shorts were white with red sideway stripes.

– Yeah – Another kid, 9 years old, supports him. – , no one called you here.

Magatsu then hears the girl sniff. He didn't see it first, but she had signs that she was crying, despite being untouched.

She had light blonde hair, pale skin, and a fitting blue dress with a fake white flower resting on the left upper part of her chest, near her shoulder, and simple dark blue sandals.

A closer inspection revealed that the girl had pure white eyes that blended with her sclera. They were incredibly beautiful and somewhat ominous at the same time, giving the apparently 12 years old girl a really cool and cute look.

– Shut up, no eyes. – One of the bullies barks at her, giving an idea of what was going on to Magatsu.

The thought made a switch flip inside his head as he started to struggle mildly to keep his charismatic and everlasting smile on his face.

– Come on now. That's no way to treat a friend, much less a girl, right?

– And what do you know, loser? – The red-head says.

– Yeah! Show him, Bernard. – Three from the other four kids say almost at the same time.

– You don't want this, Bernard. – Magatsu soothes his voice tone the best he can. – Stop it before someone gets hurt.

The boy is visibly angry with Magatsu when he snaps his fingers.

Suddenly, all five boys with ages around 8~11 surround Magatsu with menacing faces, or what they try their best to make look like ones.

– Give up, idiot. – The red-head smugly says. – This is five on one, and...

Magatsu had enough of that and swept the legs of all boys with a spinning ground-level kick. One right after the other and with no time to react, all of them fell either on their butts or arms.

– Hey! – A police officer was walking by when he saw Magatsu sweep kicking the bullies. He was now running with an annoyed face.

– You're in trouble, big time. – Bernard says while standing up, his friends following him.

Once close enough, the officer inspects the scenario with a glare. He then addresses Magatsu with a reprehensive tone.

– Why did you hurt these young boys? Do you really think just because you're a fighter you can do this kind of stuff with others?

– You don't know half of it, officer. – He says while doing an innocent smile. He then proceeds to explain what was going on.

When the officer heard the story, he too grew furious with the boys as he inspected the girl with caring hands. Magatsu was curious to see if she was really blind and noticed that she could follow the guard's movements with her eyes.

He was still skeptical, though.

– Oh my god, are you...? – The guard is bewildered with something that Magatsu doesn't know. When he turns to the boys, all of them get scared with his glare. – Did you actually torment Aliodi's daughter?! Do you have any idea what he could do to you if he found out?!

Oh, that man.

Magatsu feels proud of himself for stopping the bullies from proceeding with their annoyance section. Hadn't he, bad things would've definitely happened to them, much worse than a mere leg sweep.

– That old man can't touch us! – Bernard starts. – And... – But is stopped by the guard.

– Silence! I had enough of your shenanigans! All six of you are coming with me.

– Wait – Magatsu gets caught off guard by this. – , why me?

– I need you to come with me to answer a few questions and confirm some others.

Magatsu was quite annoyed with this, but if he had no choice, better get the thing done with as soon as he could.

– Actually, officer – The girl speaks up for the first time. Her voice is fragile and soft, making Magatsu grow even angrier with the boys that tormented her. – , this person was trying to protect me, so could you not take him with us?

– I... I see, Mrs. Aliodi, but he still needs to come with me, and...

– Please... Don't make him have to go through this after what he did for me. – She rubs the ground with the tip of her foot, both her hands behind her. – For me...

She had really convincing eyes, Magatsu noticed.

The officer lets a huge sigh out before adjusting his cap.

– Alright, alright. You heard that, kid? You're good to go.

Magatsu looks to the little girl with a wide and thankful smile. He was assuming she was blind, but she seems to be seeing him as she smiles back, warming his insides.

He wasn't fully sure of what to make out of this, so he just assumes she can't see properly or that the boys were making fun of her eye color.

Not wanting to stay there for much longer, Magatsu sprints towards home but a bit faster than when he went to the dojo.

Once there, he goes straight to the shower, and once out he grabs something to eat. A ham sandwich Agatha prepared while he was taking a bath. He was rolled in his black towel.

– Thanks, mom. – He shouts while going to his bedroom.

His house, unlike others, didn't have two stories, so it was considerably larger, and his bedroom was the furthest room from the house's entrance.

Once there, he unwraps the towel from around him and puts on his favorite set of clothes: a black and tight elastic shirt with a dark red circle in its back, fitting synthetic black pants, laceless black shoes, and fingerless black leather gloves.

He really liked black, despite some people taking it for the color of evil or whatnot.

His skinny muscles were prominent and visible through the shirt, and the attire perfectly fitted his slim, average-sized body.

– Nothing to do, let's see if something interesting happened... – He mumbles to himself while checking the news up online on his computer.

– Dear – Ten minutes in, his mother calls him from the living room. – , you have a visit.

Once there and now with a half-empty pack of chocolate biscuits in his hand, he notices his next door's friend Sasha sitting down the couch while chatting with Agatha.

Her hair was really wild, somewhat resembling a hedgehog, and the white with blue tip fitted both its style and her appearance really well.

Magatsu noticed that it has been cut if compared to how long it was literally a few hours ago. It was now shoulder-length.

She had bright blue and charming eyes, a slightly tanned skin, and used a loose blue cotton shirt with different tones of blue blending over each other, slightly dark orange legging pants, and green sneakers with short white socks.

Something that Magatsu always found both funny and adorable about his friend is that Sasha was shorter than most girls, barely reaching his shoulder.

That didn't stop her from being extremely athletic and with her body in shape to run a marathon if needed.

– Sup, Sasha. – Magatsu greets her with a wider than usual grin. She waves two fingers at him.

– Yo.

– We were just discussing how well you probably did today, son. – His mother says while excusing herself. – But I have a little something to do in my room, so mind yourselves.

Yeah, of course she had.

Now alone with Sasha, Magatsu's heartbeats quickened a bit.

– So, you wanted to congratulate me?

– Actually – She corrects him. – , I knew you would pass. So did your mother. Why do you think we weren't there?

– You were probably busy with something, and my mom usually doesn't care much about how my training sections go. – He shrugs with a smirk, both hands instinctively going for his pockets with his thumbs hanging from its edges, just how he likes.

– And how long did it take for you to get there? – Sasha asks with a smirk smug. Magatsu fakes a cough.

– Nine minutes.

– Didn't hear you. – She jokingly says while pressing her ear with an open palm, suggesting for him to speak louder.

– Nine minutes. – He looks to the closed brown wooden door.

– You said eight, so no date for you.

He doesn't look at her just yet, clearly thinking about something as he furrows his eyebrows.

– What? – Sasha asks. He takes one deep breath.

– I was thinking about what that diploma really means, you know. I mean, sure, now I'm officially allowed to take part in any small and medium scale tournament, but that's not what I'm looking for.

– Then what is it? – She is legitimately curious about the answer he might give. Magatsu's smile is faint, but still there.

– I'm going to fight my father someday, and I need to grow as strong as I can to do that.

– Why so? And is he powerful?

– I don't know myself – Magatsu shrugs with a raised open palm. – , but my mom always told me about how strong he is with all the things she saw and heard him do.

– Anything that comes to you right now? – With that question, Magatsu's eyes glimmer for a second as his expression becomes an awed one.

– She told me that he won the Brotherhood League all by himself three times in a row.

– Damn! – Sasha is impressed as she thinks about how close to impossible winning that tournament alone would be. – Who is your father?

– Good question I totally don't have the answer to. – Magatsu sarcastically says with a smirk.

He wasn't being fully honest here. He did know who his father was, kind of, just not personally.

He also didn't really know how he looked beside his mother's descriptions since she didn't have pictures of him. Weird, he always thought.

– Lame. – She remembers something while snapping her fingers. – Oh, remember that one time you and I teamed up against Shinda and still lost? We were, what, 8 or something?

– Oh, that! – Magatsu internally thanks her for changing the subject. – I remember. You were using a broom as an ax, which gave him a hard time considering how dangerous anything can be in your hands...

Their talk keeps going like that for the following hour as both of them enjoy themselves with each other's presence.

Magatsu enjoyed being around Sasha, regardless of the reason or the fact that he was just 15.

Sasha enjoyed being around Magatsu, regardless of the reason or the fact that she was two years older than him.

Neither of them was fully sure of what that feeling meant, but they always shrugged it off as what someone feels when they are around their friends.

They weren't totally wrong.