A few days have passed since I lost to Yuuko in that duel. I've still been thinking about how she won, but something has been filling my time.

Yesterday, our teacher said that if we ever hope to fight The Undead, you need power at least equivalent to the one they have. So he gave each of us a book, describing how to use "Magic Weapon Skills". He told us all of them were created to be used with bows.

When we were on our way home, a symbol on the cover of the books started glowing. We thought nothing of it, it was a magic book after all. But this morning, after we ate breakfast, Mother told us she found two old metal boxes in the basement that were glowing the same color as the books. She said she wanted to open them, but weirdly, they didn't seem to be made with the intention of anyone ever opening them. When we took the books closer to the boxes, they started glowing even more. We tried looking at the boxes more, and I found that there were holes in the bottom of the boxes that matched the shape of our books, so we tried putting them in.

As soon as we did that, the box made a clicking noise and the top of it lifted just enough so we could open it. Kori and I excitedly opened them, and we couldn't believe what was inside. Two bows, but they weren't the kind we used when we were training. They looked like they could have been used by extremely skilled archers.

When she saw them, Mother said that Father put them in the basement a week before he left and told her they were full of junk. That seemed a little strange to me too, but I was more curious about why the bows reacted to being near the books.

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Nevertheless, we went outside to try them out. When I pulled on the string, it felt like the bow was doing everything for me. I didn't even realize how little force I was putting on it. I shot at a log and was left stunned by the fact that the arrow was halfway inside it. This bow was stronger than I've ever seen. I could tell just by looking that Kori's reaction was more or less the same as mine.

Today, we still had to practice the Skills written in the books we got yesterday, but I was sure that these new bows would make it much easier.

I already read the introductory page yesterday, so I knew how they worked.

To activate a Skill, you have to first visualize it in your mind, and then say its name. It didn't seem too hard, so I took an arrow, and looked at the first Skill that was written in the book. Precision arrow. It said that this Sill was used often at long range, to make it easier to hit your targets. I stepped back a little to see if it would actually make me aim better. I tried visualizing it and said its name. Almost instantly, the tip of my arrow started glowing a faint yellow. I let go, and it flew exactly where I wanted it to go. It worked perfectly.

I started practicing the skills, one by one until I could activate most of them from memory. Kori was doing the same. By now, it was almost noon, so we ended it there for the day. Also, we were both pretty hungry.

Now it's evening. I've been thinking about everything that has happened today, trying to comprehend it all. Yet there were still some mysteries. Why did the bows react to the books? Why did Father put them in the basement in the first place? Questions like those, I could not answer.

However, I'm very excited to see what's going to happen in the near future. I have a feeling, a premonition, something big is coming.