"Aren't these too many snacks?" I asked as I tried to balance to avoid a can of potato chips from rolling off the top.

"We're a pretty large group, so we need a lot," Alto said, laughing.

I smiled. He seemed to be more cheerful now than he was during most of the break. It made me wonder if he missed school.

"Think that I'll get to face Iah?" Alto asked.

I averted my gaze. He didn't know about what happened at the ruins as he wasn't there when Nyima told the rest of us.

"No, none of us will," I said.

"Huh? Why? Is he sick?" Alto asked, looking over his shoulder.

I shook my head. "No, but he is on a trip to find himself."

"Find himself? Is he trying to become a sage? Hmm, maybe I should do that."

"Well, it's a bit more complicated than that. Nyima can tell you all of the details."

Alto frowned. "Sounds serious. Hope the trip helps him with what he's struggling against."

"I do too," I said, staring back at the large pile of snacks.

"You two look like you're struggling. Need some help?" a familiar voice called out.

Our eyes widened as the owner of the voice came close enough for us to make out. It was Aban.

"Aban? What are you doing here?" I asked, running over to him. Some of the bags and containers rolled out of my arms and would've fallen into the floor if not for floating hands of dirt catching them.

"Woah," Alto said. He glanced back at Aban. "When did you learn to do that? Secret training?"

Aban snickered as the earth hands brought the fallen snacks over to him. "Yeah, something like that."

"Is that a yes or a no?" I asked, tilting my head.

Alto smiled. "Not that I'm not glad to see you here, but why are you here? Better yet, why didn't you join us on the way here if you were coming?"

Aban walked over and took some of the snacks from me. "I'm not allowed to tell."

"Not even to your best friends?" I asked, blinking.

He smiled slightly. "Yeah, not even to you."

"Bummer," Alto said. He passed by Aban and laughed. "Oh well, it's nice to have you here. Makes up for the bad news I just got."

"Bad news?" Aban asked, glancing at him.

"One of the friends I made at this school isn't attending right now. Seems he's having issues of his own. Well, it's probably not fair to compare mine with his."

Aban balanced the snacks with one hand and put his now free one on Alto's shoulder. "Sounds rough, buddy."

Alto nodded. "Yeah, it is."

"At least you have us," I said, getting closer to them.

My best friend laughed. "Yeah, that's why seeing Aban here is a good thing."

"Wait, wouldn't it usually be?" Aban asked, grumbling.

"No, in the past I used to hate running into you."

My white-haired friend sighed. "Yeah, don't remind me about that."

"Let's forget our troubles for now," I said, walking ahead of the two. "We have some matches to watch!"

"Or participate in," Alto added as he began running.

I lowered my gaze again. "Yeah..."

"You don't sound excited? Worried you might not do well?" Aban asked as his shoulders slumped.

I shook my head. "It's not that. It's my magic. While Ms. Zettai and Ms. Key know about it, the other teachers don't. I guess you can say I'm afraid of being discovered and executed for it."

"You know, you can take a page from Zyuuni's book," Alto said, grinning.

"What do you mean?" I asked, blinking.

Alto snickered. "He uses flashy names for his attacks, calling them shadow this and shadow that as if he were a darkness mage when in reality they're illusions."

I beamed. "I get it! I can pass it off as a different kind of magic!"

"How do you know about Zyuuni?" Aban asked.

"It's obvious if you pay attention. Plus, my brother told me," Alto said. He turned his head away.

"You didn't speak with him before leaving, did you?" I asked, furrowing my brow.

"Yeah, I didn't. I feel too ashamed about how I reacted when I discovered Ms. Key was his wife."

"Dude, you're being overdramatic. You're young. We make all mistakes. Just look at me, I was a gangster for three years. If it weren't for you and your sister-in-law, I probably would be in jail by now or worse."

"True. You were a punk up to a year ago," Alto said with a slight smile.

Aban narrowed his eyes. "I don't like the way you just said punk."

I laughed. "Let's get going. The match probably already started."

"Hey!" Wanikiya yelled as he ran toward us.

Zelde and Nahimana followed him. The latter gave the former a dirty look as if she had just committed a crime.

"Need some help with those?" the prince of Wahkan asked. His eyes widened as soon as he saw Aban. "Why are you here?"

Nahimana stepped back.

Aban raised an eyebrow at the two of them. They were acting weird. Wait, could Aban have been the one that Kitsune implied Wanikiya had taken the spot of?

"Why are you acting as if you just saw a ghost?" Aban asked, scoffing.

"No reason," he said, turning away. The prince ran off. Nahimana ran after him too.

Aban scoffed. "What's with that guy? He offered to help and then ran off. And that girl who went after him was acting weird too."

"They made a mistake too," I said, sighing.

"A mistake?" Aban asked, raising an eyebrow at me. "Does it involve me?"

"What makes you think it does?" Zelde asked, walking over to us.

"They seemed fine until they saw me, duh."

Zelde snickered. "You sure are smarter than you look."

Aban gritted his teeth. "You want to fight or something, redhead?"

She shook her head as she took some snacks from Alto's pile. "I only plan to fight those in the arena."

Aban smirked. "Fine. We'll see how things turn out."

Zelde gasped. "What do you mean?"

"Does it have to do with why you're here?" Alto asked. His eyes widened. "Wait, are you joining us?"

"You'll see later," Aban said as he ran ahead.

"I get the feeling you hit the nail on the head," I said, chuckling.

Alto smiled. "I hope so." His smile faded somewhat. "Would be better if Iah were also here, though."

The three of us followed after Aban.

Everyone except for Hal, An, Orion, and those who did proctoring were here.

"There you are," Mr. Mizu no Kin said as he walked toward us. He was followed by an orange-haired girl with dazzling sapphire eyes.

"Oh, it's Ulissis!" Marina said, waving. She glanced at the group of girls. "Nyima and Sarah are here too."

"What are you doing here?" Nyima asked as she came closer.

"I'm here to help my dad. He's not confident in his MC skills."

Her father laughed. "Yeah, I'm not as good at getting a crowd excited as Sonata and Koukyuu are. I think even old man Obi is better."

"Old man? Aren't you older than him?" Marina asked, chuckling.

Her father laughed. "True."

Crowd? I glanced around and noticed that students started appearing in various parts of the arena. Most of them appeared to be third years. I even saw Renshu, Orichalcum, and a few others I knew.

"Well, it's nice to see you again," Nyima said smiling at Marina.

Sarah raised two fingers as if to say 'me too'.

Marina smiled slightly. "Likewise."

Did she feel regret about what happened to Sarah at the games? She didn't hurt her. It was Aida.

"Alright, think we should start things," Marina said, running to the center of the arena.

A sprout of water erupted from underneath her feet, raising her into the air. She summoned a microphone from a hyper ring.

"Hello, everyone! I'm Marina and I'll be your MC for today! Here we are to witness the clash between the second-year foreigners! Without further ado, let's begin with the first match!"

Marina's hyper ring threw multiple pieces of paper into the air. Closing her eyes, she jumped up and grabbed one of the papers.

"Let's see who will start things," Marina said, opening her eyes. She smiled. "Seems our first match is Wanikiya versus Ulissis!"

I smiled at Wanikiya. The prince gave me a weak chuckle. Was he scared? Or was he still thinking about what Nahimana had done to Aban for his sake?

The two of us walked over to the ring that Marina now stood on as the waterspout ceased.

She turned around and smiled. "Alright you two, give us a great match. Okay?"

"We'll try," I said.

Wanikiya nodded. "I'm sure we will."

I smiled. "Seems your self-confidence didn't really vanish."

Wanikiya averted his gaze. "You figured out what's bothering me, didn't you?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I might've been exhausted, but I remember overhearing what Kitsune said about you having a stolen spot. Listen, I might be Aban's friend but I don't hold it against you. It was Nahimana who did it, no?"

He nodded as ice encircled him. "Yeah."

I smiled. "Thought so. You're a good guy, Wanikiya. Sadly, I have to take you down."

He gasped. "When did you become so cocky?"

I raised my fists and moved my neck side to side. "Hey, I have my moments." Dad did say that we came from a family of cocky jerks. Though, hopefully, I wasn't being too jerkish.

I lurched forward, only for a wall of ice to rise between it. It didn't stand a chance as soon as I threw my fist disintegrating into nothing. It wasn't my punch that did it, but my anti-magic. Hopefully, I made it look like it was my fist. I wasn't a good verbal actor, so this was the best I had.

Wanikiya stepped back and rose his hands. I kicked the ground as a glacier started to form, undoing the spell as soon as it drew closer.

Wanikiya clicked his tongue. "Seems that magic won't do it." He removed his black horse fur cape and lurched at me. I blocked his fist and delivered a punch of my own to his gut.

The prince grabbed his abdomen and grimaced.

"If you want a non-magical fight, I'm glad to give you one." I dashed forward and punched him in the chin, sending him flying back.

"Lord Wanikiya!" Nahimana screamed. Her shriek would make one think that I had just stabbed the guy.

Wanikiya formed a rod of ice to keep him suspended in the air. With an angry look, he wiped the blood from his lips.

"Back to magic?" I asked, leaping into the air. The rod of ice shattered as I delivered a flying kick to it.

The prince of Wahkan clapped his hands, causing a sea of ice to form around me.

I glanced at the ice which resembled the inside of a blender as it spun around rapidly with me. The icy spikes closed in and dissolved before I could deliver a kick.

"V-vanishing shield!" I shouted, closing my eyes. Hopefully, people would buy that.

My eyes widened as Wanikiya came down and jabbed me in the side with his elbow. I flew into the ice, shattering it.

"Looks like the tables have turned," Wanikiya said, smirking.

I laughed as I got up. "When did you get so cocky?"

He moved his neck side to side. "I have my moments too."

"Ha. Very funny," I said, swinging my arms back and forth.

"Did you break them?" Wanikiya asked.

"No!" I said, lurching at him.

He crossed his arms as I delivered a fury of punches.

My eyes widened at the sound of snapping. It didn't come from his arms nor my hands break, but from behind me.

My eyes widened as the ice came at me.

I grimaced as it came at me all at the same time. Wanikiya had to have seen what happened when I went against Hoin in the games if he was pulling out this stunt. I could only stop so much magic before my anti-magic dried up. If he continued to hit me with this much ice, I wouldn't be able to escape.

Jumping back, I spun around and punched the ice. My eyes widened as I made real contact with it this time. My anti-magic had run out.

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter ^^. Overall thoughts? Theories? Predictions?**