I got up in the morning with a clear mind. Last night won't happen again. I definitely told myself. I carefully touched my newly cut hair. It felt strange not to feel the hair on my shoulder. I got up and walked over to the mirror to check myself. I may not be a hairdresser, but my haircut was pretty good. I'm just going to go to the hairdresser after finals to get it straightened after all. I laughed and grabbed the back of my head, feeling much stronger. Without the dark moments, we wouldn't have been able to be stronger the next day. There's always a way out of the endless darkness. There's always a way to escape.

  "But enough dark thoughts. Let's go take a shower." I said to my reflection in the mirror and stripped.

  I walked to the bathroom and got straight into the shower. I turned the faucet and let the cleansing water hit me. When I got out, I cleaned up the bathroom some more. I'm not letting my hair roll around in here after all. What if that pervert Hiro comes in and starts drugging it again. I had to laugh out loud at the thought.

  With my towel wrapped around me, I made my way back to the bedroom. I was still wiping my wet hair with the other towel when I stop and stand like a post in a fence.

  "Huh? What do you want here?" I blurt out in surprise.

  "Oh shit... What have you done to your head!" Kenji yelled to the entire room.

  It was 100% heard all the way down the hall. I got to thinking while he was yelling.

  "I was just getting a haircut. Don't comment on it if you don't like it."

  "Don't. It's lean. You're even cuter now!" He squealed.

  He walked over to me and ruffled my hair. I growled in protest.

  "Don't touch me like that."

  "Why not? I like it." He frowned and repeated it.

  By then, I'd pulled his hand away and was walking to the closet.

  "Hey, you wanna get out?! I want to change." I hissed at him.

  "Not really. I'd love to see what you're hiding under that towel." And he laughed again.

  "Excuse me?! Try that on Aki. Now get out of here, or at least turn around before I put my shorts on."

  "Yeah yeah. I know you belong to someone else." He made one more comment and disappeared behind the door.

  "I wonder who, idiot." I muttered and pulled on my clothes.

  After I changed and did some hair, we made our way to the dining room. The room was filled to bursting. We arrived at the exact time when the line was the longest. Blondie and I got in line and waited our turn.

  "Hey, what's the next rehearsal?" I asked when I got tired of just standing there quietly.

  "Well we're split into groups of three and we're going to be given a sort of mission to complete."

  "What? So I'll be with someone else?" I gave him a hurt and rather desperate look.

  "No. Luckily we're together and we have a mage named Shika Yui assigned to us."

  "A girl?"

  "Yeah, but I don't know who she is. It was just posted on the information board this morning. So hopefully we can find her somehow so we can discuss strategy before we start."

  "Yeah. Just make sure he's okay. I suppose it's going to be a team effort here, so don't let him ruin it for us."

  "Don't worry, he'll be fine."

  "What about you guys?!" I was interrupted by the voice of the cook who was passing out the food.

  The next difficult task came. Where do we sit? I looked around and found nothing. Everyone was sitting in groups, or at least two by two. Only Kenji and I were milling around looking for open seats.

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  "Hey you! You're Samara Kenji, right?" A soft female voice addressed Kenji.

  A girl about the same height as me stood in front of us. Maybe even a little shorter, I'd say. She had long crimson hair tied in two ponytails and two braids braided in it. Despite how she had it tied, it was thick and long to her waist. She looked pretty fragile and awfully cute too. Maybe it was the giant purple peepers that did it. She was really sweet. She was wearing a blue dress that ended above her knees. . But I think what struck me most about her were her slightly pointed ears. Could she be an elf? But I could be wrong.

  "Yes I am." Kenji replied, finishing his inspection as I did.

  "I'm Shika Yui. Your new companion. You'll be Huro Iruka, right?"

  "Yes. Very nice to meet you." I replied with a smile.

  "It's an honor to meet a person like you, especially you Kenji." And she smiled at him.

  It's going to be disappointing when he finds out he's not his type. I giggled mischievously in my soul.

  "Eeehm yeah. Nice to meet you too." He scratched the back of Kenji's head uncertainly.

  "Do you have a spare table somewhere?" I asked her.

  I got tired of standing around like this. First of all, people were looking at us and my feet were hurting. And my stomach was screaming with hunger.

  "Yeah, over there." She pointed and led us there.

  When we sat down, we both happily dug into our food. Shika looked like she had finished eating.

  "Wow not only are you eaters, but your souls are so strong." She uttered in amazement, looking somewhere above us.

  I looked at Kenji in puzzlement and then at Shika. Kenji probably didn't understand much either. At least I'm not the only one. When Shika could tell from our dumbfounded expressions, and slow chewing, that we didn't understand much, she triggered.

  "I can see your souls. Every mage has such an invisible beast that personifies his magical power. The more the animal glows and is similar to a normal animal, the more powerful it is. You, Iruka, have a dragon. Which is strange, because a dragon is a very rare animal in itself. You, Kenji, have a cougar, and a very strong one."

  "Ahaaa. What do you have?" Kenji asked.

  "I have a lark." And she chuckled.

  I couldn't take my eyes off their ears the whole time. It's really weird, but they just fascinated me.

  "Shiko, are you an elf?" I questioned.

  I couldn't find a better way to ask. The redhead paused for a moment, but then smiled.

  "Half. My mom was an elf and my dad was a mage. I inherited my mother's eyes, as opposed to her ears. They are quite small and uncharacteristic of elves. I'm surprised you noticed."

  "Sorry, I've never seen an elf."

  "No? How so? You've never been to Idile?"

  "Iruka is from Earth."

  "What? But there are no mages there, right?" Shika wondered.

  "I was probably dropped off there by my parents. I found out about six months ago when I was staying with the Naruno brothers."

  "Twice what! You know the legendary Naruno brothers?"

  "Well... Yeah... I live with them and Kenji. They teach us."

  "Oh, my God. You're lucky. I didn't have any masters and you had four right away, and hunters, mages, and vampires all rolled into one! Amazing."

  I just smiled. If she knew what kind, they were pigs. At that moment, I also remembered all the nasty things the famous Naruno brothers do. They can't wash dishes. They have a mess in their room that I'm surprised they can find their stuff. They can't do their laundry. They act like children. And I could go on and on.

  "I was out of my mind too when they agreed to teach me." Kenji stated with a laugh.

  Shika looked rather dreamy. Kenji, meanwhile, finished his last bite. I wet my full stomach with water. We all finished eating.

  "So Shika, what are your strengths in magic? We need to know by the stragia. We have to have one, because this isn't going to be a cakewalk." The blond asked seriously.

  "Well on the elven side, I have a gift for healing magic, so I'm pretty focused on the magic here, but I'm also proficient in star magic and have started to learn earth and air magic." She told us her skills without any inhibitions.

  "Excellent. The medic will come in handy. It's good that you're improving, despite your genetic abilities." Kenji complimented.

  "Ooo Thank you so much."

  Shika almost melted away at his praise. The one from Kenji was visibly infatuated. As much as I understand it, Kenji is really beautiful.

  "Well, what about you?"She asked when she came back down to earth again.

  "I control all the elements and stuff, too."He answered evasively. But it was enough for her.

  It's like she knows who she is. Even thinking about it, how else would she know him if she didn't know something about him and didn't see him? Kenji is hiding something from us, and it's starting to annoy me that he doesn't want to tell us, but now Shika's here. You're on tape, Kenji. My evil self laughed throatily in my head, but he had to stop when he was rubbing kenji into me.

  “I did the same thing and well..." I faltered.

  Should I tell her? Fuyu advised me not to just honk it, but to trust me if I didn't tell her. I looked desperately at Kenji. He knew she didn't know whether to tell her. He looked at the red thread for a little second. It was immediately apparent to me that he had read her mind. It's nasty, but it's effective. We have to be careful, even though the inner hassle told me I could trust her. The blue eyes ended back on me, and he nodded only slightly.

  "And I have dragon magic."I muttered.

  The girl squealed madly. Was it joy or fear? I said to myself. Kenji told her right away, but told her not to yell.

  "Is that why you have the dragon? What dragon do you have? Is he strong? Where did you get it? What's his name."

  She started spouting questions at me, and with each question she leaned across the table closer to me. Terrified, I rolled my eyes at the ceiling. That girl is nuts. That's a good one for us. It said my inner self. Unfortunately, he was right about that.

  "I have four. Earth, wind, water and fire. I don't know the names, I haven't really talked to them. Actually, I can't do it yet. I haven't had much time to study, this technique."

  I answered nervously. She smiled gleefully and nodded to the sign that this was quite enough for her.