-"The morning dawns on a new world"
*Yuzuki*
I stared at the wooden totem in my hands as Orion, Ayawamat, and I made our way to our dorm. Since I was finally a second-year, I was allowed to call upon a familiar. Using the paper they gave me, I was to open a portal into the spirit world. There I would meet my partner in magic. Although, not all found their familiar in the realm of spirits. Some students found theirs in our physical plane.
"Is that the familiar totem?" Orion asked. His eyes were like those of a child's as he took in the sight of the totem.
I hid it under my coat. "Yeah, but right now, it's just a cylinder of wood. I haven't searched for a familiar yet."
"How come?" Ayawamat asked. "Uh, not that I care."
I snickered. "I'm waiting for my fated familiar."
He laughed. "That's it? You expect it to drop out of the sky or something?"
I crossed my arms and grumbled. Of course he wouldn't understand.
Orion walked on ahead and summoned a silver wand. He transformed the wand into miniature needles. "It works just like Brother told me!"
"You mean your brother-in-law?" I questioned. "Or do you actually have a brother?"
He laughed as he walked on ahead. "Yeah, my in-law. My only biological sibling is my sister, Stella." He reverted his needles back into their wand form and turned around, flashing me a slight grin. "By the way, uh, thanks for being my tour guide."
I smiled. "No problem. It's kind of a boring day for us upperclassmen. Helping you will ease some of that boredom. Now, where do you want to go first? The library? The Magic Arena? Your dorm?"
His eyes lit up again and he jumped up and down like a child, much like Lei would do in such a situation. "Magic Arena? What's that?" Orion asked.
Once again I had managed to get Ayawamat's attention as he too turned over to look at me.
"Its name gives it away, well, kind of. It's not an actual building. It's not even a singular place. There are multiple where students can challenge each other to magic duels. One of the largest is in the plaza between the two dorms. You see, here, we have a ranking system. The more matches you win, the higher your rank within your grade, and the school as a whole."
"What's your rank?" Ayawamat asked, smirking.
I danced around lightly and lifted up three fingers. "I'm ranked third in my class. School-wise, I'm ranked tenth." A smile covered my face. "In fact, last year, I won the tournament that you just participated in."
Ayawamat scoffed as he continued to hike up the dirt trail. "So, you're the strongest of the second-years? Ha, hard to believe."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at him. I sighed. "That said, I didn't make it to the finals this year." Ning and Ori did.
"Then that must mean that the top two second-years are among the ten in the entire school," Orion said. He chuckled similar to Lei whenever he got the chance to find a new mage to battle.
I glanced up at the sky. 'What is he doing now? Has he already seen his dorm?'
Side glancing at Orion and Ayawamat, I said, "Want to meet them? The top nine, I mean."
"Of course," Ayawamat said with a grin.
Orion's eyes glimmered like actual stars. "Yeah! Oh, but first, we should head to our dorm." He took out a piece of paper. "It says here that the dorm is called Hotsuku."
"Right, my dorm."
Ayawamat scoffed. "Eien said as much."
His face became red. "It's co-ed?"
I nodded. "Though, this is a great chance for you to meet some of our top-ranking students. It's a small dorm, but all of its members except for you, are in the top twenty in the rankings."
I escorted Orion over to my dorm, a small blue long house-style building. It had been built by some of the first Wahkanian exchange students. Back in the day, each nationality had their own dorm.
Flanking the longhouse were two six-foot tall statues of barn owls. Orion averted their onyx eyes. I also thought of them as creepy-looking when I first saw them.
I took out my key and cracked the door of the dorm slowly. I wasn't sure if anyone else had arrived yet.
"Are you alright?" Orion said, walking into the dorm without worry. Suddenly, a brief pop filled the entrance and confetti rained down.
"Welcome back!" two of my dormmates yelled out. They stepped back from the confetti covered Orion. "You aren't Yuzuki!"
Ayawamat chuckled. "Oh, wow. This must be karma at work."
"Karma?" Orion asked, huffing. "What did I do wrong?"
The long-haired teen sighed. "Uh, pester me. What else?"
"This is what I was afraid of," I said as I dusted some of the confetti off of Orion's white hair.
"That I'll get bad karma?" he asked naively.
I shook my head. "No. If anyone deserves it, it's Aya himself."
He scoffed and averted his gaze.
I glared at the pair of black-haired, grayish, blue-eyed boys hiding in the darkness. I switched on the light, causing both to emerge from behind the thick wooden pillars. Their names were Tasunke and Tashunke, a pair of identical male twins who were kind hearted but noisy. "Did you two pull this on anyone else?"
"Yes," a voice rang from upstairs. A boy with dark blue hair walked down as he dried his hair. His red eyes shifted towards the twins. "These two bombarded me with whistles."
"Tahoma ripped them up," the twins said in unison. They pouted. "So we couldn't surprise you with them."
Orion rubbed his ears. "Frankly, I'm glad he did. That popping sound is still ringing."
Tahoma leaned against the rail of the stairs. "Who is this guy?"
"You forgot who I was, again?" Orion asked in disbelief.
"You aren't anyone of note to us," Ayawamat said, leaning against the front door.
"His name is Orion. He's our new dorm-mate," I responded.
The twins glanced at one another. "So he'll be taking Isabel's room?"
"Who's Isabel?" Orion said.
"Isabel no Mikoto was the former number one at this school." I tensed up upon saying my real last name... I never did figure out how she was related to me. "She transferred here from Mina."
"Mina?" Orion said, eyes wide.
"Yes," Tahoma said. "Iah's country. Most of the top students are from here, though. Yuzuki is the highest ranked Wahkan at this school, and I'm second. Wait, perhaps I should explain what I mean by that-"
I waved my hands dismissively. "No need, I already explained the ranks to him."
Ayawamat shook his head. "Tsk. Cousin, you got to step up your game. Losing to this girl."
I curled my hands into fists. 'Alright, I've had it with this kid...'
Tahoma sneered. "You're one to talk. You lost against that Uanian girl, even though, you had the upper hand for most of the time."
Ayawamat froze up. "I..." He grumbled and walked past him. "I'm going to look around the place."
"Fine, just don't enter the girls' rooms," I yelled.
He turned around. His face was almost as red as his cousin's eyes. "I won't!"
Orion pulled out his wand and smiled at Tahoma. "So you're second among our people, huh? Mind giving me a demonstration of your power?"
Tahoma grinned and made his way back up. "You're new here. First, make your way up in the ranks, once you're in the top twenty schoolwide, I'll consider taking you on."
Orion's shoulders slumped. "Yuzuki, take me to the Magic Arena or wherever you have your rank battles."
I placed a hand on his shoulders. "Later. First, we need you to put your stuff away in your room. Also, you'll need to first start off by finding freshmen without ranks, that way, your opponent and you can become ranked."
"You desire to be ranked?" A light-brown haired girl, Kachina, walked out of the kitchen with a popsicle in hand. "It'll take a while before you can obtain a stable rank, unless you battle non-stop like Tahoma did."
"Number two?"
Kachina snickered. "Don't say it too loudly, especially with that tone, you'll regret saying that if you do."
He bit back his lips. "I'm going to go put my stuff away..." His stomach grumbled, causing him to quickly turn red. He probably had forgotten about eating due to the thought of rank battles.
Kachina chuckled and offered him her unopened popsicle. "Take it. I'm going to go buy us some real food."
The twins grumbled. "It is real food!"
"You two only eat snacks and desserts!" she said as she opened the door.
Orion opened the popsicle and bit it eagerly. "What flavor is this?"
"That's orange pineapple," the twins said as they made their way to the kitchen. "That's Mother's favorite!"
"Their mother doesn't only enjoy that flavor, she runs the company that makes them," I said. "These two are her usual test subjects."
The two smiled as they ran back with chocolate bars. They offered Orion and me one. "Taste this. You'll love it."
Orion took it. "Perhaps I shouldn't be eating too many sweets at once, if my sister knew she would be furious."
"Afraid of your sister, eh? Don't worry, she's not here. You can eat all the snacks you want, so long as you have money and a store that provides them nearby!"
I shook my head. "I think that his sister is right, eating too many sweets is bad for you. You two need to eat healthier."
They crossed their arms and snatched my chocolate bar away. "So be it." They stomped off.
"Harsh duo," Orion muttered. "Are you alright? They seemed pretty mad at you."
I took a deep breath. "It's fine. Those two will come down, eventually. Honestly, Serein is more mature than those two."
He laughed. "Astra is too." He shivered as some of the Popsicle melted onto his hands. "Do you have a napkin?"
I took out a handkerchief. "Use this, return it back once you're done cleaning it."
He wiped his hand and put the handkerchief away in his jean pockets. "Thanks for helping me."
"No problem." I signaled for him to follow as I climbed the stairs.
He ran after me. As he ran, his left foot hit one of the steps causing him to fall forward and then back. I warped behind him and caught him just in time.
He blushed as I held him tightly. "Uh, good catch."
I put him down quickly. "Are you alright? You didn't sprain an ankle, did you?"
"No," he said, rubbing his head. "I just tripped." He looked away and got up. I could swear that he was still red in the face.
I went on ahead of him by teleporting to the end of the hall to his right. "This is your room." I was right, his face was still red. "Are you embarrassed?"
He pulled his white hair up and smiled. "A little."
I was sure that he would've denied it, how surprisingly honest of him.
As Orion turned to open his room's door I noticed a silver earring on his right ear. "You have a piercing already?"
Orion touched his earring. "Ah, yeah. My brother did this. He has several piercings, which I always thought looked cool, so I asked him to pierce mine."
I snickered. "Why only one ear?"
He touched his other ear while wincing. "It was more painful than I had imagined. Well, I'm going to go put my stuff away. Plus, for some reason, my ears healed incredibly fast, so I had to get my single one pierced multiple times before it stuck."
Huh, that was strange.
I took out a silver ring and summoned Orion and Ayawamat's stuff. "Here you go. I'm going to go check on how Lei and the others are doing. Meet up with the rest of us at the plaza between the twin dorms once you're done putting your stuff away. If we have time, I might be able to show you how rank battles work. Oh, and have Tahoma escort you two. I'm afraid that you'll get lost again."
His face reddened once more. "Yeah, I don't plan to go into that creepy forest alone."
I smiled. "Try to get along with those two cousins."
Orion sighed. "I've been trying." He turned his back to me. "I want Aya to be my best friend again at least!"
That wouldn't be an easy endeavor. Ayawamat didn't seem open to making friends at all.
With his shoulders slumped, Orion walked inside. Meanwhile, I ran off to go meet back up with Lei and the others.
**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter ^^. Thoughts?**