The announcement of the joint training camp between the Seven Grand Magic Academies took place exactly four days after Xiao Mei had originally informed us that this whole thing was happening. To say that it shook the halls of Theta Magic Academy was a grand understatement. Every single person in every single classroom, hall, and building was all talking about it. For the first time besides the Seven Stars themselves, an event that involved the cooperation of all 7 Grand Magic Academies was going to take place.
But what people were mainly talking about was the fact that it was a limited-access training camp. The only way you would be able to participate is if you were to be recommended by a teacher and then approved by the headmaster. It was something that everyone was aiming for, and so, sensibly, discussion around how to get recommended erupted all around the school.
However, all the while people were discussing the different ways and methods they could use to be cleared for the training camp, which was going to begin a week from now, I was unfortunately not participating in those discussions. Instead, I found myself sitting in the library, a massive textbook filled with all of the different branches of Theta Magic Academy and what their main goals were.
I was sitting on one of the massive reading tables within the large, labyrinth-like library. Next to the massive book in front of me was my course selection form. Completely blank. Not even my name was on the paper. I had spent the entire week putting it off, and now that the deadline had arrived, I was rushing to get it done. If I were being honest, nothing really caught my eye. If this had been completely optional, I would have been glad to throw this paper away and not think about it again.
I should rephrase that. It wasn't as if nothing caught my eye; I thought that the Magic Sequences and spell creation classes were interesting. As well as the Magical Engineering branch. It was more that I just didn't feel like joining any of them.
Ariel: In simple terms, you're just a lazy bastard.
Right on the money.
Ariel: You know, for a guy who talks all big about his one major goal being freedom and all that, you sure are content just sitting around and doing nothing.
What's wrong with that? Is it not true freedom that I can even afford the opportunity to sit around on my ass? I replied as I yawned, flipping the page of the book.
I feel Ariel's sigh of disappointment.
Ariel: Allow me to rephrase this in a way that will convey the urgency of things for you. For a guy whose heart was stolen by a literal god-like entity, who has multiple other god-like entities to worry about, as well as preparing for the greatest ceremony of your life, on top of having to worry about many disasters spawning from these god-like entities, you sure do like to sit around on your ass a lot.
I was silent. The scary part about it was that she had barely scratched the surface of just how much I had on my plate.
Ariel: No, the real scary part is your priorities. Just scribble down any old 3 courses and call it a day, won't you? You don't have an infinite amount of time; you know that, right?"
But I can't do that? I pointed to the page as if I wasn't talking to someone who was sharing my vision. There was a course about pottery. With magic. How original. What if I end up choosing 3 really boring courses and then end up boring myself to death before the Witch or any of those other higher beings end up getting to me?
Ariel: Haha. You know you have a really nice sense of humor when you're talking to yourself. How about you try and use that more often? You know, when you're talking to your friends?
Haha. Maybe I'd talk to you more if you'd drop that sardonic attitude and quit cracking so many jokes.
A short silence. I went back to turning the page again and again, staring at the options that I had. Unfortunately, the problem wasn't the courses but instead me.
Ariel: Thank you for noticing.
I'm really considering kicking you out.
Ariel just laughed. Like I could actually hear her laughing in my head. I was annoying. Ariel: You can try.
Ignoring her, I was going to turn back to uselessly turning the pages of this book when the sound of someone calling out to me grabbed my attention.
"You know procrastination is never a good thing."
I turned to see Ms. Lia walking in my direction with Minerva following her.
"Good afternoon, Ms. Lia, and hi, Minerva."
Ms. Lia waved back.
"H-hi, Raiden!" Minerva was jumpy as always. Looking at the two, I noticed that Minerva also had her course selection forms in her hand.
"Are you guys....." I let my question trail off, realizing that it was extremely nosy of me to just pry into other people's business in such a manner.
"I was just helping Minerva select the last courses in her form. Even though she's a third-year here, she hasn't actually bothered to check out any of the other courses besides magical engineering. And she was too shy to ask anyone else, so I decided to help her out."
As Ms. Lia explained, I nodded my understanding.
"I mean, why go to people when I can find my answers in books-" Minerva muttered quietly to herself.
Ms. Lia gave her a sharp stare. "What was that?"
"No-nothing!"
Watching their interaction, I couldn't help but smile slightly. That's when I immediately stopped as I realized that my paper was still as blank as it was when Ms. Christmas had first given it to me.
"Well, as you can see, I'm not doing so well either." I laughed nervously as both of their gazes fell upon my blank paper.
Ms. Lia laughed. "Don't worry about it, Raiden. It's your first year here, right? Understandably, it'd be hard for you to choose a course." She then noticed the massive textbook in front of me, and her smile widened. "Well, then you came to the right place."
Minerva also noticed the book. It seemed like she wanted to ask something, but she didn't.
"Anything you're looking for in particular?" Ms. Lia asked me.
I was just going to make something up; however, I realized that that was going to get me nowhere anytime soon, so I just told her the truth. "I found a lot of them interesting, but I can't really decide on any one because, if I'm being honest, I'd rather not do anything at all."
Ms. Lia raised an eyebrow. "Just openly admitting that?"
I nodded.
She chuckled. "It seems Ms. Elmer was right about you, Raiden. Well, if that's the cas-"
"Maybe you could join the Magical Engineering course?" Minerva suddenly burst out. Realizing that she had completely interrupted Ms. Lia, she began to frantically apologize; however, Ms. Lia just shook her head.
"No, not at all. You made a nice suggestion. What about it, Raiden?"
I thought about it for a moment. "Well, I don't know...."
As I spoke my thoughts aloud, I immediately noticed Minerva's expression fall. "Oh, right. Of course. Sorry. I'm sure you don't want to join up with the person who's almost killed you twice. Sorry." She had an absolutely devastated expression on her face, and it even seemed like she might cry.
Just looking at her made my heart hurt. As that happened, Lia leaned down to console her. "If you don't want to, it's okay. No one's forcing you to..."
The combination of the crestfallen Minerva and Lia's words created a scene that gave me a horrible feeling I was the one at fault.
Ariel: How could you make such a cute girl with an innocent request look so sad? Are you a monster, Raiden?
Even you?
Just accepting that this situation was my fault, I decided that I had to be the one to fix it.
"No, I'd love to actually." Minerva immediately perked up, a smile on her face. "Really?"
I nodded. "Not like I have anything better to do anyways." I marked it down on my paper. "But that still leaves two more spots." I muttered to myself. "
Just then, a voice I could never forget called out to me.
"Raiden! Raiden!" Shouting much louder than would have been socially acceptable even in a bar, Hikaru was making her way over here all the while waving at me.
I was suddenly caught in a moment of indecision. Do I greet her back and let everyone know that yes, I am in fact affiliated with this girl screaming at the top of her lungs inside of a library, or do I not and face her wrath head-on?
"H-hi there, Hikaru." I finally decided.
And then I noticed it. Judging from the angle that she was coming at me at, and the speed she was going, and the fact that she hadn't slowed down yet—
I slide my chair out of the way of a flying hug that would have sent us both sprawling across the table. Before she could slam against the table herself, I grabbed her by the leg and pulled her backward. She did a flip before landing on her two feet and striking a pose as if she didn't just almost faceplant into a wooden desk.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
Ms. Lia clapped.
Every other living soul in the library just stared at us in silence. Hikaru was smiling brightly.
I just sighed.
"Did you learn that move from Aq-"
"Aqua? Yep! She said that it was the best way to ambush your friends! It always works, according to her. I wonder why I missed it.
I sighed again. "Don't worry. Aqua's technique is one in a million. Besides that, what was your plan if you did catch me in that flying hug, and we crashed straight into the table?"
"Plan? Heh?..."
I didn't even bother sighing this time.
Hikaru turned to look at my paper, noticing that it was pretty much empty.
"Raiden? Were you planning to turn it in like this? You do realize that you need to have at least three classes, right?"
I nodded. "I'm just struggling to figure out which ones to choose, you know?"
Hikaru perked up before pulling a paper from out of her blazer pocket. "If that's the case, then I have the perfect way to help you!" She placed the paper on the table. It was her own subject selection form. However, unlike my barren wasteland of a paper, hers was filled to the brim. In fact, I was seriously wondering how she would even have the time to take so many.
"Okay, so first of all, I think that the ones involving magic sequence creation are very interesting—"
As Hikaru got into her explanation of each course, Ms. Lia and Minerva waved goodbye to me as they headed on their way.
I waved goodbye to them, and when I turned back to look at my paper-
The barren wasteland had been filled.
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I stared at my paper with the same expression a mother would stare at their hurt child with.
The once empty paper that I had only planned to choose three courses from was now filled with an uncountable number of marks, so many that I didn't even want to think about it anymore.
At first I wanted to argue profusely against choosing so many classes, but then Hikaru pulled out the good old puppy dog eyes and pleading tactics.
She even threw in a "Sorry." I guess I'd just thought it'd be a lot of fun if we took it together....."
I didn't have the strength in me to break her heart, so I just accepted it. We were now on our way to turn in the forms when Hikaru suddenly stopped me.
"Hey, Raiden?"
"Yeah...."I replied, unable to hide the dejectedness in my voice.
Hikaru ignored me as I stared at my paper. grief-stricken.
"I realized it over the weekend, but I don't have a good way to stay in contact with you."
"Hmm?" I was not only caught off guard but also a slight bit confused at her sudden statement. But she was right. What would she need it for, though?
Ariel: You're a dumbass.
"It's just that sometimes I get the urge to share something really cool or talk about something, or I just want to plan hangouts. And so, I thought, maybe...."
It was the first time I had seen Hikaru stutter and get flustered. That was usually my job.
"C-can we trade numbers?" She finally managed to get that out. Her face was flushed.
Seeing her like that, I couldn't help it when my own face began to heat up. Even though there was nothing to be embarrassed about. It was normal for friends to exchange cellphone information, wasn't it?
"Y-yeah, sure, of course. There's nothing wrong with that at all."
Thinking quickly, I grabbed a stone from the ground and used fire magic to heat up my finger to a point where I could inscribe my number onto it.
As soon as I handed it over, Hikaru clutched it tightly while staring down at it with a smile on her face.
"So.....We should probably get going."
She jumped up as if I had scared her. "Y-yeah, right!" She rushed ahead of me. I watched her walk away from me with a flushed face.
Seriously, what was wrong with me?
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When I finally got home, I collapsed onto my bed, ready to just fall asleep for a little bit and forget all about the fact I was going to be killed by the sheer amount of courses I'd have when my phone rang.
When I picked it up, I saw it was a random number. I almost just ended the call, but then I remembered what had happened at school. Picking it up, I put it up to my ear.
"Hikaru?" I asked.
"Raiden!"
Her cheery voice came over the line, and I knew it was her.
"Were you just calling to save my number?"
"Well, yeah. That and.....Well, I still had a lot of energy left over and nothing to really do, so I thought I'd just call you.
"Oh, yeah. Okay." I was bone-tired, and I was already beginning to fall asleep. My vision was shifting from black constantly.
"Is it okay if I just, I don't know, talk?"
"Yeah, sure, I don't mind."
"Great! I guess I'll just start with that Credo guy."
As Hikaru spoke, I found myself listening to her voice and being calmed by it. I didn't know what it was. It just felt like no matter what she was talking about, it would have been pleasant to listen. I just wanted to listen, and that was it. There was no need for me to speak, I could just listen to her talk for what felt like forever.
Eventually, my tiredness overcame me, and I blacked out.
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"And that's about it. Oh, look at the time. Sorry for holding you up so long. Raiden? Raiden?" Hikaru said as she clutched the stone he had given her tightly.
Over the phone, Raiden was fast asleep. The only sound was his snores.
Hikaru smiled. "Idiot. Why'd you let me keep talking if I was boring you to death? Bye."
Even though she was done talking and had said her goodbyes, Hikaru could not end the call. Even though Raiden was just snoring and breathing on the other end, Hikaru couldn't end the call.
Eventually, she herself had fallen asleep, calmly, with a smile on her face.