Chapter 05: Reunited

                                    

                                          
     
School days passed as flash.
Hateful eyes at her presence.
Audible gossips wherever she passed by.
All these events in her everyday life at school were common for the brunette.
Either in sorcery tests or paired practices, she had to deal with the people of the Order of the Imperial Demons', who tried to show their superiority or to ridicule her, but to no avail.
Now, the practice sessions that involved the whole school, were taking place at the schoolyard.
"Gah!" A cry was heard. 
"Continue or give up. Choose one." Mikan said to her classmate, who was knocked down. 
His face was on the ground as she was holding his neck and his arm was twisted behind his back. If he wanted to continue, she wouldn't mind leaving him with a fracture anytime. Clearly, there was no way to turn the tables on her, so the male surrendered.
"I-I forfeit."
At that, she released him from her hold and stood up, brushing away the invisible dust of her skirt. The man glared at her and gritted his teeth in frustration, not wanting to acknowledge his loss. 
"I...I can't accept this!" He launched forward to the brunette, who had turned her back on him. 
Mikan furrowed her eyebrows in annoyance and sighed, before catching his hand. She twisted his hand and threw him off-balance, causing him to fall down again and groan in pain. 
'...I'd have killed him earlier if this was a real battle.' 
The brunette directed her cold, emotionless eyes to her classmate. She then faced the crowd of people who were waiting for their turn to fight her.
"Who's next?"
"Unbelievable...she already won ten matches without using spells."
"Eh?! No way!"
"Isn't she from a low-class branch that betrayed us?"
The whispers continued so on, most impressed by her skills.
"Guah." A grunt came from her side. There was Guren, who just fell by a solid blow from a guy with blonde hair. 
His name was Goshi Norito, a student of the same class who came from one of the elite houses in the Order of the Imperial Demons. His frivolous dropping eyes looked down on Guren.
Goshi looked hard at Guren and grinned. 
"Dude, seriously? It hardly counts as practice when I'm fighting a pushover like you."
The students encircling around Goshi all laughed together.
"Rather, the hand I used got dirty. What a pain in the ass."
"Why don't we tell the teacher? We should tell her that everyone's going to have a low morale with a guy like that in our class." 
Goshi nodded.
"Yeah, we should do that. In the first place, it's really strange that a guy like him got assigned to a class of full elites."
Mikan watched Guren wipe off his bloody lip with his fingers.
Just like that, Guren would get beat up on by their classmates every day at school without fail. He'd then smile like a fool and that made it all the more annoying. It was a sight that didn't sit well with her.
Feeling her gaze, Guren looked at her, but she had already averted her eyes and walked away from him.
"Are you worried?" Shinya suddenly asked as he laid his back to a tree near the brunette with his hands in his pockets.