*Renshu*

[The Next Day]

The greenhouse was filled with the scent of damp soil and the sound of birds chirping outside. The sunlight filtered through the glass panels, casting a warm glow on the plants that were already thriving inside. I carefully placed the flower pots on a wooden table, arranging them in a way that would create a beautiful display. We were going to transform this place into part of the twins' spring wonderland.

In our group meetings, Tashunke and Tasunke talked endlessly about creating a wonderland filled with flowers, butterflies, and all things colorful. And I was determined to make their vision come true. After all, as an aspiring star, it was my duty to make the dream of others come true.

I glanced around the greenhouse, taking in the surroundings. There was still a lot of work to do if we wanted to mesmerize the public. But the majority of it would have to be done in the days to come as the school day had already ended. I only stayed after to help tidy things up.

"Not slacking again, are you?" Ona said as he entered the green house with a small pot of daffodils. He carefully placed it next to the pot of tulips I had brought in earlier. The vibrant yellow and red petals complemented each other perfectly. I imagined the twins running through the greenhouse, their laughter filling the air as they discovered the beauty that awaited them.

I huffed. "I'm not a first year anymore!"

Ona snickered as he adjusted his plant. "I'm joking." He lifted his gaze at the glass ceiling. "This place sure brings back a lot of memories, huh?"

"Yeah," I said, nodding.

***

[Two Years Ago]

I hid underneath one of the greenhouse tables. I'd been playing my favorite mobile game for several hours. Since discovering them, I'd become addicted. Currently, I was in a spaceship that reminded me of my home country, except a lot more technologically advanced and differing gender norms.

"Shu? Where are you?" a voice called out. It was Changying. There was worry in her voice.

"Relax, he's probably just slacking off again," Ona said as he trailed behind her.

She interlocked her fingers and held them close to her chest as if in prayer. "But what if that snake mask girl got him?"

"You kids don't have to worry!" a voice called out. "Not while I'm here."

"Lady Isa," Ona said, glancing at the Minese princess. Before attending school in a far off world, she used to attend Nine Petal like her cousin. She, Tahoma, and Yuzu were the bulwark against Mayu. Although, it's possible that our inaction was what allowed Mayu to get away with her psychological warfare on us.

"Kids? Just because you're a year older, it doesn't mean you can call us that," I said, emerging from my hiding spot.

"There you are," Ona said, grabbing me by the wrist. "You made Chang worry about you!"

Chang hugged me. "You're okay!"

"Sorry about that. I just wanted to find a nice place to play my game," I muttered.

Isabel grinned. "I figured. You really got addicted, huh?"

I looked down. "M-maybe."

Ona sighed as he took the phone away. "I'm going to confiscate this until your homework is done."

I sniffed. "You're so mean, Ona. How else will I call cute little Li?"

"You can have it back when you finish your homework, sis-con."

I was no sis-con! Little Li would get worried if I didn't call her at the regular time. If anything, Li was the bro-con.

"Hmm, it appears that you refuse to depart from this academy despite prior warning," a silky voice seemed to echo from the plants themselves. 

My eyes widened as the plants began to move on their own. The prana of somebody was imbued in them.

Isabel held her hand out, casting a small barrier of flames in front of her. "Hmm? So you've decided to resort to violence, huh? That's too bad." She cracked her fingers as red energy swirled around her. Martial magic. "Although, that's fine. I don't mind a fight!"

The voice scoffed. "Like I'll get my hands dirty fighting Wudi scum."

"What was that? At least show your face, you coward!" Isabel snapped, shattering the ground with a single stomp.

Snake Mask really went ahead and did it!

Changying looked around. Her arms were pressed tightly against her chest. She looked as if she wanted to curl up and hide.

"It's going to be okay," I said, patting her shoulder.

She yelped and jumped back, knocking back a flower pot, making her jump toward me.

I pulled her in for a hug and ran a hand through her long hair. "Calm down, Chang. Her control over the plants is gone." Although, it had taken me a while to notice.

She gripped my shirt. Poor girl was trembling like a little child. It felt as if none of my words were reaching her.

***

['Present']

"Both good and bad," I mumbled.

Ona lowered his eyes back to his daffodils.

"So, uh, ready for the tournament?"

Ona looked up and smiled slightly. "Yeah. Not that I have high hopes that I'll make it far."

I patted him on the back. "Come on, you can't quit now. You got to give it your all!"

Ona smirked. "Have I ever told you that you sound like a peppier version of your sister?"

I blinked for a moment before laughing. "Well, we are siblings. So it's natural we might think alike."

"Ling is the vinegar to your honey," Yuzu said as she walked in with a pot of red roses.

I laughed. Couldn't deny that. It was sometimes hard  to tell whether she was trying to encourage or put down a person. Although, I knew she wasn't as cold as other people made her out to be.

"Well, we better head out," I said, heading for the exit. "It's almost time for our little tournament to begin. Not that many are interested in our class like they are with the second-year exchange students."

"Well, can you blame them? They do have heavyweights like Lady Adela," Ona said.

"And Lei," Yuzu added, chuckling. "Although, our class isn't made of slouches either. We grew stronger in the past two years to reach this point."

I smiled. "Yeah. Who would've imagined that Ning and Ori would've been the top two last year."

Yuzu scoffed. "I plan to retake the number one spot this year!"

"Yeah, right," Tahoma said, smirking as he walked in with a bonsai tree in each hand. "I'll beat you this time. Else you'll just go ahead and lose to Ning again."

"I wonder if anyone of us can beat her. She's always working on finetuning her magitech," Ona said.

True. Her electricity and metal magic got polished a lot from that.

"Talking about me?" a walking blue rose bush said. Ning tilted her head, giving us her usual listless stare.

I laughed. "So it's not a walking, talking rose bush after all!"

Ning narrowed her eyes slightly and threw the bush at me. I used my magic to levitate it in the air.

"Hey, no throwing the plants," I said.

She turned around and crossed her arms. "Where did you even get them from?"

Yuzu swung her arms behind her back. "I was told to keep that a secret."

I put the bush down next to the plants the rest of us brought in. If the provider was a secret, then was it somebody important? Or maybe it was...

"It was Mayu, wasn't it?" Tahoma asked. He didn't know? Thought he was the unofficial vice leader of this project.

Yuzu closed her eyes and walked off.

"Huh? Why would she help us out?" I asked, staring at them. This wasn't some kind of trap, right? Because if it was, then I was going to hunt her down and give her a piece of my mind!

Ona touched the leaves of his daffodil. "These plants seem normal, for the most part."

That they did, but a plant mage could use plants they hadn't prepared beforehand too. That was the case more often than not.

"We should probably be cautious and prepare a backup, just in case," Tahoma said before leaving too.

"I think she's changed," Ning said.

"Huh? What makes you say that?" I asked.

She stroked her chin, getting a bit of dirt on it. "She seemed different at the games. Plus, I heard she risked her life in the recent war. Back when we were first years, Mayu wouldn't even show herself. When she did, it was to intimidate us. She only showed herself to Sarah's class to do the same to them, also to try to recruit her."

"So she's less of a coward," I said.

"Uh," Ona said, looking at me.

My face reddened. Was he comparing us? "Shut it, Ona."

He shrugged. "I didn't say a thing."

I grumbled. "Let's just go."

"Wonder who we'll end up fighting," Ning said as we walked out of the green house.

I took to the air using my levitation magic. "Who knows. It could be each other."

Ning pointed her index finger at me as she floated on a hoverboard made with her own magic. "If so then you're going down."

Ona snorted, levitating like me. The way Ning said that with such a poker face would make almost anybody laugh. 

"I hope not," I said, rubbing my neck. To face the likes of her, I needed to warm up first. Even then, my chances weren't very high.

"Same," Ona said, smiling. 

"Wonder who the easy pickings are," Ning said.

Ona sighed. "Well, I'm one, of course."

I put my hands on my hips. "What did I say earlier? You're defeating yourself before your opponent has!" Come to think about it, wasn't Wanikiya similar? Although, Ona wasn't nearly that self depreciating. I felt like Ona did it to be humble, but it came off as low self-confidence.

"I'm being clear-eyed. If I were to slice our class in half, I would say the top five are Ning, Orichalcum, Yuzuki, Tahoma, and Kachina."

Ning smiled slightly. "How kind of you, Ona. But I think you five aren't to be underestimated either. Look at the first years. Vermeil who failed to make it past the first round last year beat the champion. And Lei and Adela who lost to Iah and Nyima last year are now set to face off against the top two second years honor students."

Adela would have a hard time against any of them. Her feelings for Lei were going to make her hold back. And the honor students were just at a whole different level from the likes of Ren and Youko.

"It's odd that they decided to enter the second year tournament this time around," Ona said.

"Think Burai did it to challenge Lei," I said. "Koharu probably just joined to give him a challenge should our friends fail to give one."

"Koharu. Isn't she Kohaku's younger sister?"

"The girl who could turn into a horse and see the future?" Ning asked.

Ona nodded.

I shrugged. "Adela can do the same. Plus, not like Kohaku's future sight helped her and her accomplices much."

"Yeah, but usually it's a bad future our lady sees," Ona said, shaking his head.

He had a point there.

"We better land soon," Ning said, pointing to the stadium. We weren't allowed to fly too close to the buildings unless there was an emergency or we had permission to do so.

The three of us descended. As soon as we did, Ning held her hand out to her hoverboard, causing it to break up into sparks of blue electricity and gray metal cubes which zipped around her before disappearing into the palm of her hands. I wasn't sure how it worked, but Ning could store and reuse constructs she had already made by absorbing them. That usually quickened her casting time. Who knew what she had cooked up for us this year.

"Hey, Ona, Shu," Changying said, running over to us.

I rubbed the back of my head and smiled. "Sorry for making you wait." I'd told her and the others that they could go on ahead before I'd taken the tulips out of the truck of plants we had gotten. Truthfully, I could've levitated all of them on my own, but I feared breaking some of them on accident. Contrary to the poise I tried to exhibit, I was rather clumsy. Plus, it wasn't a good idea to depend on magic all of the time. Moving them manually was a good physical work out anyway.

"That's okay!"

Ning stared at her intensely.

"Oh, and you too Ning," Changying said, giving the short girl an awkward smile.

Ning turned away. "It's fine. I'm going in."

"We should too," Ona said, following after her.

Changying sighed. "I made her mad, didn't I?"

"Well, you did ignore her presence," I whispered. "But, Ning usually doesn't hold a grudge for long. Well, at least when it comes to small things."

"Hope you're right."

"Alright! It's about time we start the third-year exchange part of the third-year class's tournament!" Marina yelled. She snapped her fingers, causing a screen to appear overhead.

Changying turned to look at me. We were to open the tournament.

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter ^^. Thoughts on Renshu's class? Theories? Predictions?**