“I don’t think that’s necessary.” Even though Sue was smiling, her eyes were cold.

“Yeah, I’m sure Aida’s ready to go,” Levi added. He was better at hiding his feelings than Sue, but his response was still clipped. He turned back to Aida. “You ready?”

“Um—“

“Oh come on, you said it yourself just now. Aida needs a break,” Lara cajoled. She leaned over the wall, catching Aida in a steely gaze. “What do you say, Aida? Let me get in on this extracurricular training session.”

Aida frowned. The dynamic among the top five was weird. Something was off about Lara, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Even Caleb was fidgeting uncomfortably. Ezra was approaching, his expression wintry. “I don’t know—“

“Please?” Lara dropped her mask for a moment when the word slipped out, leaving Aida perplexed. She glanced around at the others to see even they looked disconcerted.

“…I mean, I do need to recover some more mana,” she muttered under her breath. Sue frowned, nodding slightly. Levi clicked his tongue, looking away; letting them decide. Caleb shrugged uncertainly.

Aida looked towards Ezra. He was impassive.

“What do you think?” she prodded. “You’re the one who’s going to be ganged up on.”

“Whatever you all decide,” he said after a moment’s thought. “It won’t matter to me.”

“Okay,” Aida said cautiously, after another round of indecision. “Let’s keep it short, then. You all get five moves each, and Ezra has no limit. If you can’t make him surrender in five rounds, he wins.” She raised her eyebrow at him, asking if it was fair. He nodded.

Aida hesitated, patting him on the back for good luck when he kept his gaze on her. She leaped onto the wall as Lara dropped down, neither girl acknowledging the other as they passed each other in the air.

On the other side of the wall was Lara’s posse. They had already commandeered the bleachers at the front from the other fangirls, chattering to each other and completely ignoring Aida. Foregoing a seat, she decided to lean against the wall to watch the match.

The four challengers fell into position, facing Ezra. Caleb took point, standing closest to him. Levi was slightly off to the side, while Lara and Sue took up positions in the back. Nothing happened as they all stared at each other. Then Sue sent a fireball at Ezra, forcing him to leap backwards - a streak of silver. Vines that had just sprouted out of the ground where Ezra’s feet had been a split second before curled in the flames.

Iron chains sprouted out of the ground, latching around Caleb and dragging him to the ground, utterly immobilizing him. Levi, Sue, and Lara dodged their own manacles, shouting. Sue and Levi immediately started bickering about their wasted turns.

Lara, for her part, dashed after Ezra, trying to capture him in the biggest Water Cage Aida had ever seen: it took up half the arena. It didn’t stop Ezra - he pierced right through the sphere, leaving a hole behind him that immediately gushed out water as Lara swore, trying to regain control of her element. Ezra easily dodged all the potholes Caleb had opened up in the ground, snaking his way around the widening maws.

“Stop growing those holes, we’re not going to be able to navigate either!” Levi shouted, growing a cluster of mushrooms and failing as Ezra sliced through the stems and tapped Levi in the chest for good measure. Levi stumbled back, swearing as he recovered from the disruptive mana. His eyes widened as he ducked, trying to avoid another fireball Sue aimed at him.

Fortunately, Caleb was a good guardian - a pillar shot up in front of Levi, melting into glass as it absorbed Sue’s blast. “CAN YOU NOT WASTE YOUR ATTACKS LIKE THIS,” Levi roared from behind cover.

“Get out of the way then!” Sue shot back as she zoomed after Ezra.

Aida watched the battle below, enthralled. Ezra wasn’t even really doing much - he was mostly just dodging, using well-timed Mana Surges to bait attacks out of his opponents, turning them against each other. He even - double jumped? - through the air. Aida stared, wide-eyed. A light ping drew her attention to her Unlearned Skills list.

Double Jump (Lv1) [100 RP]: Combining Mana Surge and Mana Blast, you will be able to use Double Jump to change directions in midair.

Total RP: 146

Before she could select the new skill, one of Lara’s friends leaned against the wall next to her.

“Hi there,” the girl said brightly. Her profile box labeled her as Stella Feiron, a second-year Metal student. She blinked her large green eyes at Aida innocently. “We never really had the chance to speak. My name is Stella.”

“Aida.”

“Nice to meet you!” Stella held out a limp hand, which Aida unwillingly took. Stella retracted it as soon as Aida squeezed. “Anyway, I was wondering - how did you get Ezra to pay attention to you?”

Aida blinked slowly. Stella continued prattling, acting as if Aida was her best friend who was equally as invested in Stella’s interests as she was. Lara’s other friends had crept closer as well, following Stella’s lead.

“—also tried asking him about how their new build is going—“

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“Are you trying to get to know him, or trying to prove to him that you know him?” Aida interrupted. Stella frowned, as if Aida was being silly.

“Trying to get to know him, of course! That’s why I’m asking.”

“…I see.” Aida turned back to the match. She felt the girls shuffle uneasily behind her. “I’m sorry, I can’t really help. You’ve done a lot more research on him than I have.”

“What do you talk to him about?” Stella asked, looping her arm through Aida’s. Aida pulled away, giving Stella a look that did nothing to faze her.

“I dunno. Casual stuff.”

“Come on, there’s gotta be something that gets him to open up to you,” Stella persuaded. “Is it clothes? Vacations? Golems?”

Aida hitched a broad grin on her face, reached out and clapped a friendly hand on Stella’s shoulder, and pushed her away in the same firm movement. “It’s not about what we talk about. It’s about how we talk.”

“How do you talk?” Stella asked breathlessly, pressing against Aida’s hand as she tried to creep closer.

Aida dropped her grin, letting her resting dead face come to the forefront. “Don’t be weird.”

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t be weird.”

“I’m…but I’m not weird,” Stella stammered.

“Trust me. You’re being weird.” Aida stared expressionlessly at Stella while she and her friends exchanged confused glances.

“H-How am I being weird?”

“If you don’t know, then that means you’re weird. Be chill.” Some of the girls’ expressions transformed from bewildered to offended.

“Not all of us can be chill,” a redhead snapped, while a girl with hair the color of emeralds nodded, affronted.

Oh dear. Aida raised her hands helplessly. “I don’t know what to tell you. I can’t speak from another element’s experience.” Turning back to the arena, Aida studiously avoided the discontented murmurs rumbling behind her. Aida slammed her fist against the arena wall, swearing.

Ezra had somehow strung Levi up so that he was dangling from a tall metal post, looking very much like a bad-tempered street lamp. Sue and Lara were trapped in the same column of metal, back to back. Both girls were yelling over their shoulders at each other, accusing the other of sabotaging her efforts. Caleb was still in his nest of chains, resigned.

Aida glared angrily at Lara’s friends for making her miss the match. They shriveled together under her baleful gaze.

Leaping down from the wall, she ran over to Ezra, leaping over deep cracks and wilted plants, avoiding puddles of water and small flames taking far too long to gutter out. Ezra was standing between the three monuments he made, arms folded. Sue stopped yelling as she saw Aida approach, smiling. The blood started receding from her face. The anger on Lara’s face faded as well, leaving her with a small - smile? - though her face was still flushed.

“Nice job, everybody,” Aida said enthusiastically. “Ezra looks slightly more tired!”

“They did all right,” Ezra conceded, as he started melting the metal away from everybody. Levi squawked in protest as his cocoon just split, dumping him from thirty feet above the ground.

“So, what did we all learn from this match?” Aida asked the challengers, adopting Professor Havi’s gravelly old-man tone.

“Suelina fights as if she’s the one getting ganged up on,” Levi complained. Lara nodded vigorously. She opened her mouth—

“After two years, everybody should know I do best as the primary attacker," Sue declared. “It’s a waste of mana for me to try to shepherd Ezra somewhere - I’m more likely to cause collateral damage that way!”

“You could—“ Lara started, before Caleb chimed in.

“I’m more useful as support in general. My Earth manipulation can change the combat landscape in unexpected ways, so if I learn Suelina or Levi or Lara’s fighting styles I can shape the environment to better suit their attacks,” Caleb said earnestly. Lara’s eyes sparkled, and she opened her mouth again—

“Honestly, I don’t even think it’s necessarily the meshing of our abilities at this point - Ezra’s been harassing my casting every time I try something, so I can’t ever pull off one of my awesome attacks!” Levi barked, throwing his hands up. He turned a critical eye on his teammates. “Is it the same for you?”

They all nodded sullenly. Lara, however, seemed ecstatic. Weird. Very weird.

“I guess that settles it,” Ezra said dryly. “I’m just better than all of you.”

Aida giggled as Levi and Sue started chasing after Ezra, waving their fists at him as he fled - no, strolled quickly to the arena’s exit. Chuckling, Caleb jogged after them.

Aida felt her giggle fade away as she observed Lara’s expression. Normally a very stoic girl, Lara had a gentle smile on her face, and her flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes gave her a youthful expression. She’s lonely, Aida realized, thunderstruck. She wants to be friends with them.

“What?” Lara asked, finally noticing Aida gaping at her. She had closed her expression back up.

“Are you - do you want to be friends with them?”

Lara stared at Aida, lips barely parted in shock. “Excuse me?”

“You just seem so happy to have been involved in this match,” Aida said, shrugging. Lara colored.

“I’m not like you,” she spat. “I didn’t ask to train with them today so that we could become friends. I just did it because it was obvious you wouldn’t have been able to put up a challenge against Ezra.”

Aida was taken aback at the sudden venom. “I mean, sure, but it didn’t look like you put up much of a challenge either.”

Lara scoffed, stepping away from Aida with a straight back. “You probably wouldn’t have been able to keep up at all.”

Aida stared after her. She forgot how touchy schoolgirls could be - especially when it came to admitting emotions. Almost worse than boys. Boys would play it off, and never admit to their true feelings - but girls? They got vicious.

That’s okay, Aida allowed. At least I know why the dynamic is so weird now. The leads must have sensed Lara’s desperation to be included - a desperation that didn’t exist when Lara was away from the leads. And Lara likely wouldn’t take Aida’s advice that desperation was unattractive.

Shrugging, Aida followed after Sue and the others as Lara reconvened with her friends, who latched on to her and sent scathing looks Aida’s way. Based on how furiously their lips moved, she could imagine the kinds of opinions they were vomiting on Lara.