Since it was now closing time for the cafe, Hani decided to help Ivory close up.
"You better not be expected to get paid for this!" Ivory said playfully. They laughed as they finished clearing the shop, and all the customers were gone.
Hani was getting ready to leave when Ivory stopped her and grabbed her shoulder. "Hani... shall I help you become more powerful? Do you think you are smart enough to do it?"
Hani turned around and blinked at Ivory. "Um, Miss Ivory will make me stronger?" Confused, she tilted her head a bit, pointing at herself.
"Yes!" A determined grin, "Let me show you a trick with ice magic. I think you are going to love it. It's not hard when you have a master like me to teach someone like you. Anyone else, I would say no to, but I think you can handle it, Hani!"
Ivory was fascinated by Hani's skill and how she trained under Emma. If she was able to keep up with that devilish training with Emma Wang, I think she can do this simple trick in a day! She is quite an interesting child.
Hani's eyes glistened as she heard this. "Of course! Please teach me!"
Miss Ivory gave Hani some examples and tips on teaching her basic ice shard magic. Since Ivory knew the ins and outs of circulating ice magic, an hour or so of explaining it to Hani, she was able to replicate a miniature version of it. Small rocks of ice, no bigger than 2cm, were formed by Hani.
"I don't think I can do any better than this, Miss Ivory. They are so small." Hani poked at the floating rocks.
Ivory was pissed that Hani, who had managed to do something like this in an hour, when normally it took around a week. She smacked Hani on the back of her head. "You are impatient, aren't you? It's not the size that matters." Ivory told her cheekily. " It's how you use it. Instead of making it bigger, make it sharper like a 4-pointed star."
Hani followed Ivory's instructions. "Now use the wind magic, the same used for your slash that your friend taught you, and aim at this glass," Ivory said as she placed a glass on the counter.
Hani flicked the ice shard towards the glass. The ice shard went straight through it. Without shattering the glass, the ice pierced through it clean. Hani dropped her mouth wide open. Omg I did that?!
Ivory, seeing this, was pleased. "See what I told you, it's all about how you use it. Just because it's big and fancy does not mean it will work like those pillars."
Thanking Ivory, Hani parted ways as she had one last thing to do today. Get her hair cut.
---
[Class 1-C, Friday, The day before the school festival]
Hani walked in with her hair cut. Today, there were a few people who noticed Hani instead of being ignored. Leo was staring with eyes that could kill towards Hani after hearing what happened to his minions. Rowan, the A-rank mage from her class, who used to ignore her before, was also one of the guys who got a place in the tournament. And finally Stella.
Seeing Hani with her new short hair, Stella was mesmerised. Hani looks so adorable with her short hair, too! I wonder why she cut it.
"Hi Hani!" With her chin propped up using her hands, she turned around and smiled at Hani. "I missed you yesterday. Where did you go? Did you skip school just to cut your hair?" Stella pouted as she did not like not knowing things.
"About that... I will let you know at lunch." Hani looked around the class, eyes on her now that Stella was giving her so much attention. She leaned towards Stella's ear, a bit shy and red, surprising herself that she had become bold enough to approach Stella like this, "There are too many people listening."
---
It's lunchtime, and as usual, like clockwork, Emma slid the door open, "Hani~" and as always got annoyed as Stella tagged along.
Getting lunch, they all sat down as Hani explained what had happened to her. Shocked by the situation, Stella could not believe someone from this school had done this. "I am gonna make sure those families can never be able to buy anything that has the Powell name on it. I can at least do this much! But I cannot do much about Leo and his family, as my father is hellbent on keeping close ties with him." Stella looked at her feet, not knowing how else she could help Hani.
"Oh! Don't worry, Stella! You are doing enough siding with me. I will take care of Leo myself in the tournament!" She flexed her near non-existent biceps and acted strong to reassure Stella, which in turn was met with giggles, making her face red. "I may not look it, but I am strong! So guys are so mean." Hani pouted.
In the afternoon, everyone was ensuring that everything was ready for the tournament. All 64 spots had been filled, and to make it fair, everyone was being paired up with a lottery-based system.
For their arena, they were using one of the outdoor training grounds, which already had a prebuilt barrier around the fighting area. Decorations were added around the bland arena, which now looked lively with banners made by fans who were rooting for their contestant. A temporary screen was set up, which displayed the matchups and time schedule for the tournament tomorrow. People were already taking pictures and posting them as it went viral. It was good marketing for the school and also a chance for future students to see the capabilities of their students.
As the girls got to the area to check it out, Hani saw that every single contestant had their banners on the fences and was surprised to see even hers. It was not just a basic one either, it had actually been properly decorated by her fans, which she did not know she had.
"I have a banner too? I did not think it would be this fancy!" Hani said as she ran up to it, admiring the handiwork. Taking her phone out, she posed next to it and took some pictures. "I am gonna post this online!"
"Yes! After you made a mess out of Leo, you suddenly got some fans cheering you on! It seems that he has more enemies than friends." Stella said, smiling at Hani's antics. "Before I could even help, there was already a group who had started your banner. I was lucky enough to add some of my own touches to it, too." With a bashful smile, she pointed at some weirdly drawn creature at the corner of the banner.
Emma clicked her tongue at this. Now there will be more flies around Hani for sure. I can't believe it, I could not even get a place on that banner. That fox basically seduced them to get her scribble on that banner.
The three surrounded the art Stella had added to the banner. Hani was excited to see that it was. "Oh, that's a lovely... Um, flower?" Hani said, confused at the doodle.
Stella had gone sad at this and sulked, feeling down, she twiddled her thumbs. "That's a bunny... cause Hani is always jumping around everywhere like a bunny..."
"Oh! Yes, of course! A bunny!" Hani blurted out, her eyes swirling, not realising it was one.
I did not know it was a bunny! Ahh, I hope Stella does not hate because I could not recognise it...I'm just happy that she did something for me overall! I hope I get to take this banner home after the tournament is done!
Hearing this, Emma burst out laughing. She pressed her stomach as she weezed out some laughs, "I guess even the mighty princess has flaws! Good to know that you are still human in some ways!"
Stella pouted as she lightly shook Emma, "Stop making fun of me, I tried my best!"
Seeing her now, two close friends support and joke around with each other. Hani was glad that she decided to get stronger. It got her closer to two amazing classmates and gave her the confidence to even set new dreams.
After Emma was done laughing at Stella cause she had a coughing fit, they walked in front of the massive screen to see Hani's matchup.
"Your opponent is Ryusuke Kazehaya!" Stella points towards Hani's block.
"Who's that?" Emma and Hani asked simultaneously.
"He is actually quite well known. He has a strong base with sword skills as he uses the katana, but he mainly shines in his talent with speed!" Stella replied. As a person who was always interested in strong people, she had memorised most of the stronger students in the whole school.
"Hah? That will be easy then." Emma smirked, putting one hand on Hani's shoulder and the other signalling a thumbs up, "Just land one good hit and it will all be over, Hani. If you have strength, speed is nothing!"
Hani awkwardly laughs at Emma. For you, maybe I am just a beginner who has never faced a person who is fast! Hani decided to keep this thought to herself.
The only thing she could do now is prepare for tomorrow.