As much as I wanted to say that we swiftly won the Treasure Hunt, I had to rephrase that because I didn’t realise that all of my friends were fighting very hard in the qualifier. Perhaps a close call? Maybe. But who knows. For some reason, my action just made both Hosuke and Airi felt very exhausted and a little disappointed.

“Seriously, White. You could have told us that you already got the wand.” says Airi as he was lying down on a chair in our headquarter.

“Hey, tell that to Blax. It was his idea.” I blame everything that happened to Blax. I’m innocent.

“Yes, it was my idea. But it was White who done it.” Blax was trying to run away from his responsibilities.

“What are you trying to do Blax?” I feel irritated.

Blax takes a sip of tea from his cup and then said, “Alright. I admit it. It was my idea to make all of us except White, a bait.”

Rulend arrived with another set of teacups, “You know him, White. Blax always does his stuff in such a weird way. But it will always end effectively. That’s how great he is.”

“I know that. But why didn’t you tell the others about the plan?”

Blax answered, “I did that because I don’t want all of you to get carried away in the hunt.”

“Carried away huh?” Hosuke rolled his eyes, “I heard you were the one who went berserk in the forest.”

“Hey, Rulend was eaten by a monster plant. What can I do?”

“What can you do? You can calm down and fight them all normally. You don’t have to go insane and let a ‘ghost’ control you.”

“Shut up, fatty.”

“Ok. You shut up.” Hosuke were irritated by Blax's remark.

Blax laughed, “I’m kidding. It was a joke.”

“Doesn’t look like a joke when its the truth.” Hosuke pouted.

“Oh come on. I’m just pulling your legs.”

“That’s it. I’m taking some fresh air.” Hosuke decided to leave the headquarter.

“Hey wait up. I’m just joking about you…” Blax also faded away together with Hosuke.

That’s Blax and Hosuke. Always dragging themselves into unnecessary fight. The same goes for Airi and Rider. The difference was that those two actually fight with their magic. They will always, ALWAYS fight whenever there was a misunderstanding between those two. But when they work together, they are like two peas in a pod. Doing things together very well. No problem at all.

In any case, we actually won the Treasure Hunt thanks to Blax brilliant plant. Brilliant…That reminds me of a team from my class, Team Brilliance. Those guys were the 1st to find the wand out of the other 19 wands. According to the rule book, those guys will get an advantage in the group stage with 10 points already distributed to their team right at the start of the Group Stage.

The Group Stage, the true beginning of The Magic Duel. All 20 teams will be split into 5 groups. Each group will have 4 teams competing against each other to get the highest point in their group. Additionally, the team with the highest points overall will get an advantage during the Deathmatch Stage. That stage will pit against 5 top teams in each group. 4 teams will face each other while the highest point gathered team will get a free ride to the semi-finals. Why semi-finals? The 2 teams that was defeated in the quarter-final will have a 2nd chance to fight for a place in the semi-finals. They are not going to fight the 5th team though. They will be having a rematch in the semi-finals against the team they were defeated by.

The 5th team will be facing the other team. Once all of that was over, only two team will be left in the finals. The final will decide which team is the best team in Soul Power Highschool. For now, we must focus on winning The Magic Duel.

“Now that we finally got into The Group Stage. What’s our next move?” asked Lore.

Rulend replied, “For now, we can relax a little. The group stage begins a month before our midterm. Then a break on midterm and continuing it for another month.

“A month before Midterm? So that means The Group Stage is on May, correct?”

“Yes.”

Rider came in bringing some biscuits, “We have a lot of time for training. I can’t wait to show you guys of my new training regiment just for us.”

“I’m glad we passed the Qualifier though. It was tiring and…” Airi looked at me, “anti-climatic”

I made an irritated face and said, “It was Blax idea. Can we bury this thing away from our memory?”

Haz showed up from his underground site and said, “Too bad no one will forget this event for about 2 weeks from today. But since it was you. It might be way longer for us to forget.”

“Are you kidding me, Haz?”

“Science never failed me.” Haz laughed and took a seat together with the rest of us.

It looks like I’m going to be the joke for any upcoming anti-climatic events. I can feel it. In fact, it even happened before the qualifier when we found out Dark Diablo was just a lowly, weak, scum of the earth, Group. Everywhere I go, it always end up anti-climatically. Just like when I got Rider and Lore to join Stardust. We ended up having to clean up the area that we almost tarnished thanks to our duel. Talk about reality.

Back to the matter at hand. It looks like the next Magic Duel event will begin on May which is 3 months from now. Currently, we still don’t know which Group we will be put into. They will announce it next week. To be more specific, on the 1st February. February, what kind of memory will you offer to me. Let’s just hope the anti-climatic curse doesn’t end up a reality for me.

Yeah, it even happened last night during the fireworks. Half of Team Supernova suddenly appeared at the rooftop and dragged Rika away. Leaving me at the school rooftop all alone. It’s not like I’m sad that I’m alone. I think I feel more better. But still, it was anti-climatic. I feel like I kept getting an anti-climatic closure to any events ever since I ate that Infinitum Crystal that Cyclone Flash gave me.

Where is he anyway? I really wanted to thank him for giving me such an ability. It makes me wonder, where did he get the crystal. If only I know. I still have to remember that Flash told me that one day I will have to fight against an organization. Flash might be referring to a Dark Organization. Because why would I face an Organization? Unless they are corrupted or something. That might be the case. But I think I shouldn’t think about it too much since I’ve just started to get the hang of my magic.

“So how are you with Sonozaki, White?” Lore asked me.

“Wakana? He is a bit of a runt. He loves making fun of me. I bet it was him who spread to the entire middle school students about my old crush with Rika.”

“I’m not quite sure about that ‘old’ part though.” Rulend suggestively said.

I pouted and said, “Enough. I don’t want to hear about Rika anymore today. It was all of you who set up the Opening Ceremony, right?”

Zone suddenly appeared behind me and said, “I’m sorry it had to happen. I was leading the mission but PLEASE blame it on Blax. I’m already tired today.”

“You don’t look tired at all, Zone. In fact you look too happy than you used to.” claimed Rider.

“That’s because he finally get to take a peek in the school database.” explained Haz.

“The school database? How?” questioned Rulend.

Haz explained to us, “I simply hacked it from the school’s server at the computers lab. I was able to enter the lab because White holds the key to that room.”

“You were in this as well, White?”

“Yeah, we made a deal.” I answered nonchalantly.

“What kind of deal?”

“I’m not sure if I can say that, Rulend.”

“Why not?”

“You’re an honorary student. I am not.”

“Is something wrong with me being an honorary student? Even Haz is an honorary student.”

Haz told me, “It’s okay, White. We have to tell Stardust. We don’t want everyone to be in the dark forever.”

I sighed and said, “Fine. I tell you guys.”

The deal that I was talking about was actually a part of Haz’s research. He needed more information about everyone in the school. Haz was trying to start a new invention. He pitched to me about it weeks before the Dark Diablo incident. I was intrigue by it but at the same time I was also worried about the outcome. But, I end up allowing him to do his new invention.

Haz has always been misunderstood by many people. But because of me, Haz has been booming with ideas ever since I approved of one of his inventions. It’s not just because I support him as a friend. It’s because I like everything Haz made so far. Well…not all of it though. There was some creation that I despised. But that will be another story for another time I think.

Once I finished explaining about the deal between me and Haz. Everyone nodded in agreement and understands it. I though it would be hard to explain but it end up better than expected. It was simply just how friendship works, I guess.

“So what are we doing next?” asked Airi.

Rulend then said, “I don’t know about you guys. But Rider and Lore, you two will be a little busy at the library next week.”

“Why?” questioned Rider.

“Because you two will be helping me and Blax register the new set of books that will come next week.”

“Another set?” Lore sighed.

“You can’t run away from fate. Blax is your president.”

“What about me then? I’m also a librarian, right?” said Zone as he crosses his legs.

“You won’t be busy next week but you will be busy next month because it will be your turn to help us register the next set of new books that will come in soon.”

Zone gave a sigh, “Fine. Fine.”

The library. Maybe I should hang out over there once in a while. Who knows what kinds of new things I might find among those books that they have over there.

“Hey White.” Blax suddenly showed up.

“What? Where were you anyway?”

“Forget about that. But do you know that February has a special day?”

“What is it?” I purposely tried to forget it.

“I can’t believe you forgot about 'that' one day?.”

And Blax ruined it. I really don’t want to hear that especially from him. I knew what he meant. He was probably talking about Chocolate Day. It's a day where someone will gift you a chocolate. Usually it's from someone that has feelings toward you. I can already imagine how it will go.

In any case, today has been quite a day. We managed to win The Treasure Hunt. What’s next on our list is to make sure that everyone participating will stay in shape, maintain and improve their skills before The Group Stage. No one can ever guess what will happen next. But all they know, it will come soon.

TO BE CONTINUED