After finishing the garden duty, I headed to the library to meet up with the rest of my friends. While I was on my way, I was stopped by one of my juniors. The junior walks toward me while her blue coloured hair moves around flawlessly.

“Oh? Senior, how is it going today?” the junior asked.

I responded as I normally would, “It’s been a great first day for my final year, Serena. Nice bangs by the way.”

“This?” she laughs “I guess I was in a hurry doing my braids because it took so long to finish the braids.”

I observed her a little and asked, “You still haven’t dyed back your hair to black?”

“So what? I thought you liked blue.” said Serena.

Serena, a second year student. In our school, our last year in high school is called a fifth year student. So that means, she’s rather young and at the time I was still 16. I’m going to be 17 in 7 months which is July by the way. About Serena, she was an utility type wizard which uses music as her magic. She calls it Beat as in the beats and rhythm of a music. She tends to use music like dubstep or rave or something similar as her main magic. She can use her Beat to heal people or to increase a certain attributes around nearby ally. Pretty useful if I may say.

Before this, her hair was never blue. She dyed to blue when I told her that my favourite colour was blue. I really don’t get what was her true intention other than that though. I just hope she will change it back soon.

I sighed and said, “Whatever then. I gotta go now.”

“To the library right?” claimed Serena.

I asked her back, “How do you know?”

She simply answers, “Blax invited me. He said I would be useful.”

“I see…well then…let’s go.”

So we went to the library together. When we finally reach there I saw another junior of mine. This time it was a boy named, Kaym Famine, self proclaimed Harem King. A 4th year student. What is Harem? In his own word, ‘it is a term used for polygamy when you are still not married’. So what was he trying to say was that he was very popular among the girls, in his dream that is.

“White, my man. What’s up?” Kaym greeted me.

I greeted him back, “I’m fine. No problem, Kaym.”

“Come on in, we’re already discussing about the Magic Duel.” Kaym invited us to get in the library.

The three of us went inside the library. I walked thru the counter and headed to a certain area at the library. I remember it, it was around the middle. It was our so called 'headquarters'.

Blax greeted us as he was wiping his glasses with a piece of cloth, “Hey, you made it! And you brought Serena as well.”

Hosuke looked at Serena with suspicious eyes then silently whispers to me, “Why did you bring along this self proclaimed Girlfriend of yours?”

I whispered back to him, “What do you mean, girlfriend?”

Hosuke whispered back, “She hang out with you very often, you know?”

“Didn’t notice that.” I claimed.

Hosuke and I looked back at Serena who was dragging a chair to our meeting table. Serena was rather close with me. I don’t mind it since I’m just her senior. But maybe she doesn’t think me just as another senior. I’m not sure though. Moving on, Rulend takes out a piece of paper from his backpack. It was an entry form for the Magic Duel.

Blax began his opening speech, “Today, we will be discussing about entering the Magic Duel. Do you know what is The Magic Duel?”

“Can you explain it, senior?” asked Serena.

Blax continued, “The Magic Duel is a big and lengthy tournament that spans an entire year. In that tournament, a Team of wizards will be fighting against a bunch of other Teams. There are many types of battle in The Magic Duel. One of it involves puzzle, where you will have to mostly use your brain to finish this battle. Each puzzle will be different every round and whoever finishes it first gets a point for their Team.”

Hosuke interrupts, “So that’s where Rulend will be useful right?”

“Are you saying I’m just a tool?” Rulend questioned Hosuke’s freedom of speech.

Hosuke got a little nervous and said, “No, you are not tool. Definitely not. You are very important in our team.”

Hosuke was almost about to get wipe out then. He always says the wrong thing at the wrong time but in the end he was the most honest people I ever know. At least he was honest.

Blax continues his explanation, “Another battle is called, Speedrun. Speedrun is basically an obstacle course. First to finish Speedrun gets a point. Oh, and it is different in every round AND during the round because the course will change their theme randomly. It was made like that in order for a player to adapt fast.”

“Sounds hard.” said Kaym.

Blax agrees and continued, “Finally, we have the obvious Team War and the finale to that, Duel. Team War is basically a large scale team fight. While duel is a one on one magic duel. Pretty self explanatory.”

Rulend started his speech following after Blax finishes his, “Now that we know how the annual Magic Duel that was made to celebrate all 5th year students in this school, we have to decide a name for our team.”

“I think this is the time where our unofficial leader can finally become a real leader.” said Blax.

Everyone except Blax and Rulend were clueless.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“It means that now is the time for you, White. To decide a name for our Team!” Blax announced.

I was kind of confused at asked him back, “Why me?”

“Because without you, these group of friends will never come to meet. We are all here together because of you, remember?” explained Blax.

I did remember that. I was the one who interacted with these interesting peoples. Not many wanted to be their friends but I was the one who took in and be their friend.

Hosuke pats me and asks, “So, got any name?”

I laughed a little and told them, “What a surprise, I happen to have my magic already and now this happen.”

Hosuke was surprised, “Wait, what?!”

Everyone was surprised.

I told them all, “I ate an Infinitum crystal that I found when I was doing garden duty.”

Hosuke was still surprised and told me, “Are you serious?!”

Rulend backs me up with his Investigation, “I don’t think he is lying. He is saying the truth.”

“Here, observe my magic!” I claimed.

I focused my mind and release a similar dome that I released back then. But this time, the dome was small. Very small. In a mere moment, the dome was gone. I was quite confused. The others were confused as well.

Thankfully, Rulend understands and explained, “So you can stop time? But only for 1 seconds and the range was 5 meters only.”

“What?!” I was totally not ready for that.

Rulend continues, “I think the logical reason you are surprised was because when you ate the Infinitum crystal, you experience a stronger power back then. Well that was actually common for anyone who ate an Infinitum crystal. Anyone who ate one will first get a taste of power that they will obtain through training. That means, you have to train a lot to increase the range and time limit of your Time ability.”

I wasn’t prepared for this. But after hearing that I sat down feeling disappointed. But somehow, I rose up and stayed positive.

I announced, “Whatever. I will master my newly founded magic and we will win The Magic Duel! From now on, we are called…” At that time I remembered Flash words and said, “Stardust!”

Rulend asked me, “Why Stardust?”

I carefully explained, “Because Star represents hope and optimism. We are the dust of the stars that was once destroyed by humanities despair. We are the leftover that despair forgot to extinguish. They don’t know that even the slightest and smallest hope can make a huge difference. We are Stardust!”

Everyone seems to agree with the naming considering they started clapping and cheering for me.

Blax said to me, “Wow, since when you were philosophical?”

I nonchalantly replied, “It just came out of my mouth.”

Hosuke fist bumps me and said, “At least we have a certain goal, right?”

“Which is to bring back hope to our school, correct?” said Kaym.

Serena agrees, “Indeed it is. We are very happy about this formation even though the two of us can’t join The Magic Duel.”

"Honestly White, I still don't understand what you meant by bringing back hope." Hosuke was being Hosuke.

During the celebration, Rulend brought up a surprise for us.

“Oh, I forgot something. We don’t have enough members for our Team.”

Everyone at the same time in unison just said, “What?!”

TO BE CONTINUED