After a fun sunset with Sasha, as well as a handful of jokes, both teens go back home to rest.

Tomorrow would be a fun day for Magatsu.

After waking up, Magatsu changes into his usual attire and goes to school. Once there, however, he doesn't find Juno anywhere for some reason and since she didn't have friends he couldn't think of anyone he could ask about her.

Not thinking about it, he goes through with his morning as usual and, once it's over, goes back home to grab his gi, then straight to Disarm's dojo, all while sprinting as fast as he could, in part, to practice.

Once there, he is greeted by Ramon with a welcoming handshake. When he looks around, he realized Disarm isn't anywhere.

– Where's Disarm?

– Mr. Aliodi usually doesn't instruct normal, daily activities by himself, not after we came in. He only shows up when something interesting happens or is about to. – He notices Magatsu carrying his gi in his hand. – Didn't have a bag to hide that?

– Not one small enough. – He answers while excusing himself in. He goes to the bathroom and gets changed into his gi, already prepared for the day.

Something that surprised him when he came out was Disarm's sight on the entrance while wearing the brightest red someone ever wore in a gi before. Juno was next to him in her normal clothes while looking around, and only stopped when she found Magatsu. When she noticed he was looking, she looked to someone else, successfully avoiding an embarrassed face from appearing.

– M-Mr. Aliodi?! – Ramon says with a surprised face. Vanessa has the same reaction when she notices who just entered the dojo.

– Just Disarm. – He says while laughing. – And of course it's me.

– But why are you wearing your gi?

– I'm going to be today's instructor. – He waves his hand to everyone's awed faces as everyone hypes up. It seems that he didn't teach them in a long time.

Juno slowly approaches Magatsu before greeting him.

– Hi.

– Hello. Why weren't you at school today? Something happened?

The question makes her feel uncomfortable as she changes her weight from one foot to another.

– Can we not talk about that? – She asks as politely as she can. Magatsu nods with a slight shrug and walks to Disarm with expectancy in his eyes.

– So, what are we learning today?

– Simple. – He addresses Ramon. – Ramon, grab some chalk for me, would you?

Ramon rushes to the wardrobe and takes a broken white chalk.

– Thanks. – Disarm says while approaching a wall, everyone already around him. – So. Before anything, I'd like to talk about Elemental Affinities. – Most students nod, but some look to each other with confused faces and raise their hands.

– What's that? – Disarm looks at them as if they had just grown a second head.

– You're telling me you don't know what an Affinity is? Well then, today's class is for you.

He clears his throat and starts explaining.

– Ok. Everyone in this world is born different, and a lot of things are important factors when it comes to defining their main personality traits. One of those factors is a person's Affinity. – He draws a poorly done blank stickman on the wall. – Much like the main elements, there are four Affinities a person can be born with and said Affinity is completely random upon birth. It's impossible to tell which one a person will have until they take their first breath and they are completely free from genetic heritage, meaning parents' Affinities will have zero impact on their child's one.

Everyone nods as Disarm draws (or tries to) artistic representations of the elements around the stickman.

– Naturally, an Affinity will not 100% define someone's personality, but it'll be a core aspect and you can easily tell how someone will behave based just on that. First, we have fire. – He draws a circle around the fire draw. – People with this Affinity are intense, passionate about everything they do, and honest. It's nigh impossible to find someone with this trait that's corrupt. However, they are hot-heads and are easily irritated, especially with touchy or specific subjects. Fighting wise, they are naturally stronger than others and usually have no obvious weaknesses.

Two kids on the class look to their hands with wide grins across their faces as they fist bump each other.

– Then, we have water. – He draws another circle around the water draw. – These guys are a pain. They are naturally better with learning things, regardless of what, and are usually pure at heart. They're troublesome, however, because they're extremely likely to be deceiving when it comes to their real intents and can be easily corrupted or infected with false ideals.

– Wouldn't that make them kind of self-contradictory? – A girl asks while raising her hand. Disarm nods.

– That's the weird, fun part. Go figure. Either way, fighting wise, they tend to get flashy with their moves, making it a tad hard to predict what they'll do next.

After that, he circles the earth draw.

– These bad boys are my favorite. Those born with earth Affinity are usually as dense as someone can be. They're hard hitters in every regard, meaning you could throw the worst insult at them and they would, under normal circumstances, keep their cool. The problem with that is that they can be cold-hearted to more touchy or sentimental subjects and are nonchalant about things that don't interest them.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

By instinct, Ramon, Vanessa, and Juno all look to him, gaining a surprised look from his face before he bursts in laughter at himself.

– And that explains that. Fighting wise, they are weapon geniuses.

Magatsu rubs his chin as he thinks about how literally everything can be dangerous when under Sasha's possession.

– And finally, wind. – He circles the wind draw. – They are carefree, laidback and open-minded when it comes to most things in life. They are also notorious for rarely attaching to things or staying in one place, always wanting to move around and about. – He looks to Magatsu. – They are the easiest to deal with in most regards, but they are usually unstable and contradictory, making them dangerous to deal with when they're undergoing severe pressure and/or stress.

Everyone nods, with some people looking to Magatsu the same way as Disarm did. He looks around before raising his eyebrow.

– What?

Ignoring that, Disarm continues. – Fighting wise, they're fast, much like our friend here.

Everyone nods as Disarm starts to erase his draws with his hand.

– That's just the basics, though. The best part of all of this is when someone becomes an Adept.

Almost everyone looks at each other with confused faces. Including those who didn't were Magatsu, Vanessa, and Ramon.

– I figured you would have this reaction. Well, to put it shortly, an Adept is someone that can trigger their Affinity to tap into its power in a, let's say, cool way. Like this.

He raises his left hand as it slowly gets covered by stone, like it was a piece of armor, starting from the tip of his fingers and going all the way to his elbow. Everyone does awe faces at the sight in front of them. Even the already mentioned three are surprised by the demonstration.

– Since I'm an earth Adept, I can control earth to do things like this. I can also materialize tools and weapons made of any kind of stone. And if I struggle hard enough... – After saying that, he frowns while forcing something, his petrified arm shaking mildly. Then, the stone that surrounded his arm gains a gray color as it starts to do blurry reflections of people and objects around it.

His arm was now surrounded in steel. Everyone did awe faces again while clapping with excitement.

– I had my fair share of time to practice and get to this level. Something you should also keep in mind is that this is how I used my Affinity power because I don't like using weapons, so I made my whole body a dangerous one. – He flexes his muscles with that last statement as the rest of both his arms find themselves surrounded by steel.

– What about becoming an Adept? – Magatsu raises this question because he thought Disarm had forgotten to address this detail. Mr. Aliodi nods while pointing at him.

– I was getting there, but thanks anyway. You see. Like some heard me yesterday, Adepts are either born as such or have to train extremely hard to trigger their Affinities. If neither is the case, you still have a slim chance to trigger yours by undergoing an accident or traumatic event. I, obviously, don't recommend neither of those methods to anyone, especially to any of you.

Magatsu rubs his chin while thinking to himself if he would be able to trigger his Affinity again, and if, when. His train of thought is interrupted by Disarm as he claps his hands, the sound of metal with metal being made as both his arms go back to normal.

– And that ends my 101 on what are Affinities. – He then rubs his hands together in excitement. – Now that that boring thing is out of the way, let's get our real training started. And that includes you two. – He says, with a smirk, while pointing to both Ramon and Vanessa.

With that, everyone cheerfully follows Disarm's training instructions for the following two hours. To Magatsu, it was roughly the same in terms of difficulty, but it was definitely different, something else, from Dedalus' way of teaching.

Speaking of which.

Inside Dedalus' dojo

– Sup, D. – A tall, muscular man greets Dedalus from near the dojo's entrance with a smug smirk, both his hands inside his pockets. The Master nods with a satisfied smile.

– It's nice to finally see you again, Yinsak.

Yinsak Astarosa, Magatsu's father, had long (for a man) and spiky black hair that nearly reached his shoulders, sharp dark blue eyes, and a strong, split chin. His clothes were, to put it simply, a copy-paste of Magatsu's, except for his shirt: the already mentioned was made of cotton but was tightly close to his chest. His pants were made of synthetic fabric and his shoes were laceless. Unlike Magatsu though, instead of black, his attire had a mix of grey, white, and dark green all over it.

– What brings you here? – Dedalus asks him as Yinsak looks around to see D.'s students.

– I'm here to pay a special someone a surprise visit, but I can't find him anywhere. If that's the case, I don't have any business here, so I'll get going.

– Leaving already? – D. asks with a disappointed voice tone. Yinsak raises an eyebrow to this. – Why don't you stay for a bit? You just came.

– Sorry, pal, but I have some important business to attend to. – He, quite rudely, says before turning his back.

His name, however, is called by Shinda, who had just changed into his gi and was coming downstairs.

– Yinsak, if I heard right. Who do you think you are to disrespect my father like this and leave like it wasn't a big deal? I demand you to...

Within an instant, Yinsak goes from being with his hand near the doorknob to having his entire body facing Shinda's front, his eyes wide open.

– You? Demand? From me? HA! – He leans his torso back with both hands on his stomach as he ironically laughs before wiping a nonexistent tear from his eye. – Ah, you crack me up. Real talk, kid. I do whatever I want with whoever I want, and Big D. over here is an old friend of mine, so he doesn't mind me doing that.

He kneels a bit, his hands over his thighs, to be on the same height as Shinda as he pokes his forehead with his index.

– So I think you should mind your manners while talking to others. Especially when "others" include me.

Shinda's lip edge quivers as his fist closes tightly with the raising anger from inside him. He, however (and somehow), manages to calm down enough to take a deep breath and ignore it happened.

– Come on, Yin. – D. says. – Let my son be, just this once.

– As if. I want apologies, and I want them coming from his mouth. I'm not leaving until I hear the magic words. – He finishes his sentence while standing straight with both arms crossed. To Shinda's surprise, he was quite intimidating.

Regardless, he wasn't ready to kill his pride like this and refused to do so by disdaining Yinsak. Arms still crossed, he waited patiently for ten seconds as the scene didn't shift to what he wanted, so he looked to Dedalus.

– Either he does it by free will or I'll force him. – Dedalus lets an annoyed sigh go.

– Do as you must. It'll be a good reality check for him. Just don't break anything.

Shinda only has time to see his father with a skeptical face before Yinsak snatches his left arm from where it was and pins it against his back. Then, he sweeps his leg, forcing the teenager against the ground as Yinsak's leg weight is pressed against Shinda's back.

Shinda yelps in pain as Yinsak forces his arm more and more.

– Say it or I'll break it.

After resisting for another five seconds, Shinda almost cries as he reluctantly apologizes.

– I'm... Sorry...

And with that, Yinsak quickly leaves him laying on the floor with an injured arm as he walks to the exit, satisfied. Before actually leaving though, he looks over his shoulder.

– Be humble and lower your head when speaking with someone stronger than you. I'll let you have that attitude again when you grow strong enough to force me into accepting your sass. – He shifts his attention to Dedalus. – You really should educate your brat better, geez.

– But who are you after, anyway? – Dedalus asks him with a skeptical voice tone. Yin smirks with a raised eyebrow.

– Try to guess. You're smart, or at least was named after someone smart, so this shouldn't be hard for you to figure out. – And with that, he finally leaves the building behind him.

Defeated, humiliated, and at the verge of crying with how his pride was stepped on, Shinda sees the man before him walk away.

He would pay for that, even if it costed Shinda's arm. He would make him pay.