Part Five

"Okay, girls," Kisaragi-sensei sighed, placing her hands on her hips. "I don't know why you don't know how to Cast anything, but you're going to have to learn."

    "Don't worry!" Eimi beamed brightly. "We learn really fast, so it's no problem!"

    "There are some spells that take minutes and others that take years," Chika said calmly, brushing her hair aside as she walked up to them. "But first, both of you need to pick a  Casting category."

    Eimi thought. "I think I'll go with Flame Casting."

    "Then I'll go with Flight Casting," Meika replied uncertainly, though she knew where Eimi was going with it.

"Shouldn't you start with something easier?" Kisaragi-sensei frowned. "Flame Casts and Flight Casts are two of the hardest Holy Casting types. Flame Casts are extremely difficult to control, and Flight Casts are hard to initiate."

    "It's fine, right?" Minori smiled. "If they want to start hard, then we should let them, right~~?"

    "Fine," Kisaragi-sensei sighed. "Just please don't complain that it's too hard for you, especially since you're freshmen."

    Minori laughed. "Honestly, even I am no good at either. Chika can do both."

    "Well, I try not to because I can't really control Flame Casts all that well and Flight Casts are pretty hard as well...although Ice Casts and Nature Casts I can handle."

    "You picked the hard ones," Minori laughed. "Good luck~~"

    "Was there a specific spell you had in mind?" Kisaragi-sensei asked them.

    "Let's start with the strongest spell, then!" Eimi chirped.

    Kisaragi-sensei's eyes widened in surprise, and Minori and Chika both looked stunned as well. "Wha--?!"

    "Un," Meika nodded. "I'd rather not go through the trouble of leveling up."

    "Right, right~~?" Eimi agreed.

    "Do you even know what you're saying?" Chika demanded. "The strongest attacks, Fire Dance and Air Compression, can take years for people to fully master!"

    "Oh don't worry," Eimi said, brushing her hair out of her mouth. "We just need to see it once. Meika can search up all the spells later. We might as well just perfect those two for now though."

    "All right," Meika nodded. "Does Sensei know how to do either?"

    Kisaragi-sensei pursed her lips together in frustration. "Not really, I suppose. It still needs a bit of work, and I'd rather not destroy anything by accident--"

    "Oh, I found the video," Meika said.

    "Ah, let's see it," Eimi leaned over Meika's shoulder.

    Staring at the two girls whose gazes were fixed intently on the screen of Meika's phone, Chika couldn't help but feel perplexed. "You two...Fire Dance and Air Compression took years for even the best MWs to master. Maybe you should start simpler, like Ever Spark and Turbo Boost--"

"I think I got it!" Eimi declared. "Let's try! Target is over there!"

    Minori sighed. "Just let them try. Try not to blow up the school! There are targets over here." She stepped forward and pressed a button on a nearby table, and the far wall opened up, four large targets emerging. They were in the basement, in a training room, which was a large room that held almost nothing but now the four targets and a couple of weapon racks.

    From a nearby weapon rack, Eimi drew a long silver katana similar to her own black blade. "I don't feel like Form Changing, so I'll borrow this." She wielded the blade dangerously in front of her.

    This is crazy.

    Even the ever-so-cheerful Lance Idol Minori couldn't help but think this as she narrowed her eyes.

    They're still freshmen. No matter how you look at it, there's no way they'll be able to perfect the spell at first sight when they can't even Holy Cast. Besides, without Form Changing, even the simplest spells can't be Cast. I don't mean to be pessimistic, but it's just impossible.

    "Ooh, pretty cool," Eimi agreed as she faced the target. "Counting on you, Meika-chan!"

    "Leave it to me," Meika responded. She raised her hands, closing her eyes in concentration as she remembered back to the video she just saw. It's fine. It's just like Casting the Flight Duplication spell. You can do this, Meika!

    Her blue eyes opened again as she aimed. "Flight Cast: Air Compression!"

    A blast of magic shot through the air--Meika made sure to carefully repress the dark magic all the way--and caught Eimi, who had leaped into the air, in midair. Eimi grinned and ran across it.

    That's right: Air Compression was just what it was called, the forceful compression of air particles. It could be forced into a bullet-like attack, dealing non-fatal damage but with a force able to cause amnesia, or spread out in a small platform that could be used to run on air. That meant that the mastering Air Compression had been a 100% success.

    Minori and Chika gasped. "No way!"

    "Impossible!" Kisaragi-sensei agreed.

    "Eimi!" Meika called.

"Roger, Meika-chan!" Eimi replied, shooting through the air and stepping on another air platform vertically as if it were a wall to propel herself forward. Once there was only around 5 m from her to the target, she raised the silver blade and called out a Cast.

    "Flame Cast: Fire Dance!"

    Red flames danced on her blade and small fireballs floated in the air in front of her.

    "Haaaa!"

    With one slash through the floating flame balls, they propelled forward in a fancy fashion and smashed directly into the bullseye of the target. Because of the magic-proof coating covering the target, it didn't break or burn, but the surface still emerged charred from the strong attack.

    Eimi landed on the floor lightly, with Meika gently controlling the air to make sure she didn't crash, though it was hardly needed with Eimi's swift agility. Of course, it did help to throw off any possible suspicion.

    "Nailed it!" Eimi and Meika shared a high-five when the ruby-eyed girl ran back to the blonde. "Nice job!"

    "Yay," Meika smiled. "And with this, we can Cast all other spells of that category."

    "Un!" Eimi beamed.

    "Wait, you knew about that?" Kisaragi-sensei asked, astonished.

    "Yep," Eimi nodded. "Of course! If you master the strongest spell of a Holy Casting category, then all the other spells known in that category are usually a piece of cake as long as you know the name of it. Right?"

    "Well, yes, but..." Kisaragi-sensei could hardly even find her voice anymore.

    "So mission completed!" Eimi said confidently.

    "V," Meika gave them an emotionless peace sign.

    "I don't believe this!" Chika exclaimed. "You didn't even Form Change!"

    Eimi gently tossed the katana aside. "Meika and I happen to excel in Casting without Form Changing. Well, are we done here?"

    Eimi's brilliant beam was met by the Student Council President and Vice President as well as a teacher's speechlessness.

Sakiko Chika walked down the dark hallway by herself, nervously biting her lip.

    Unbelievable.

    Never before in history had this been heard of. Two teenage girls who had never before Cast anything in their life perfecting the two hardest Holy Castings of all time just after watching it once--and not even Form Changing while doing it!

    Those girls can't be normal.

    Just as Chika was thinking this--she felt something behind her.

    "Who's there?" Her long hair flowing, she spun around with lightning speed, raising her hand and summoning a golden shield--

    "Fu fu, as expected of the Judgemaster."

    "What?!" Chika drew back in shock, gasping. The shield vanished, canceling out her Form Change.

    "But you're still too slow."

    The voice from behind the corner giggled.

    A blast of black magic flew out from behind the corner, striking Chika directly on her legs.

    "Ugh...ah..." Chika collapsed on the ground. "You're..." The girl could only manage to get these words out before she passed out.

    "Fu fu fu..."

    Holding a syringe, chest bouncing, Yamamoto Mizue walked out from the shadows. Her green eyes glinted in the dark.

[Picture 3]

    "Those pesky girls interfered with my plans, but that's fine. I've found myself another interesting plaything~~"

    Her tongue ran over her lips seductively.

A/N: Waaiii, chapter two posted! What do you think of this exciting turn of events? (OwO) I'm sorry that it's another cliffhanger. I suppose I just happen to like them. Gomenasai! But what do you think? Eimi and Meika are getting more and more impressive with every sentence, right? I like them both! Hope you enjoyed this chapter~ ^.^

Well, happy reading!

Chikage