"Alright, let's end training for today. Good work everyone!" Rudabaugh said as he looked at the time displayed on his phone. The sight of a fully-dressed cowboy using a modern-day phone still amused Yoshino even after years since the first time she saw it.

"Yaaaayyyy..." Yoshino and Nozomi celebrated with tired cheerfulness while giving Rudabaugh a weary smile. Yoshino felt exhaustion from her body and mind after Rudabaugh and Outsider's training respectively. But, although Yoshino felt like she would drop dead on the floor if she were to continue training for another second, she also felt a sense of satisfaction from it all now that it was over.

When she glanced at her side, Yoshino saw that Nozomi felt the same. It might have been worse for Nozomi as her legs gave in before she suddenly dropped her weight on Yoshino.

"N-nozomi?!" Yoshino's eyes widened in surprise. If it weren't for her quick thinking in arranging her footing, Nozomi's weight would have surely made them fall together on the ground.

"Brain and body tired...please hold me..." Nozomi muttered in Yoshino's ear.

"G-get off me, you're all sweaty!" Yoshino sputtered out, flustered, her face blushing red. She grabbed her best friend's shoulders and pushed her away, but didn't let go as she didn't want Nozomi to fall.

"But you're too..." Nozomi argued back, letting her arms relax to the point that the only movement coming from them was the wind blowing at the moment.

Yoshino's eyebrow twitched at that. "Seriously...hmm?" Yoshino looked around her and realized Outsider was nowhere to be found. I suppose there isn't any reason for him to linger now that training is over...but he sure could at least say goodbye.

After saying proper goodbyes to Professor Rudabaugh (who assured them that Kurai hadn't summoned or ordered any darkspawns to come after them), Yoshino and her friends were on their way home on foot. They could ask Seiza to fly them home, but after such intense and fast-paced training, they could afford to go a little slower. The fact it was currently more day than night, making it harder to go unnoticed, convinced her further.

Nozomi, now untransformed, insisted on escorting Yoshino home so no darkspawn would ambush her while she was tired, in case Rudabaugh proved to be mistaken. It was a gesture Yoshino would have appreciated under most circumstances if she hadn't realized almost immediately it was an excuse for Nozomi to use Yoshino as support to get around, as she wrapped her left arm around Yoshino's neck.

Eventually, after much tiresome negotiation, Yoshino and Nozomi settled on supporting each other as they walked. Their steps synchronized to one singular rhythm after a few near-falls. Yoshino would have preferred to have some personal space during their walk (or at least enough where Yoshino wasn't so close to Nozomi's face where she could feel some of her tired breaths in her right ear), but if her best friend needed her help to get around that much, at least until they arrived at her home, then Yoshino argued it couldn't be helped.

"Hey, uh, how was your training with Rudabaugh?" Nozomi asked a few minutes after they descended the hill which led to the abandoned building.

Yoshino couldn't help but notice the unease in Nozomi's expression as she asked that, but decided to play along for now. "It was fine, more tiring than anything."

Although the discovery of her unique magic was surprising, the rest of Rudabaugh's training on how to use her potential essentially boiled down to gauging how strong Yoshino had become with her magic and how she could apply her aura on objects and fight with them so she would be able to defend herself against any darkspawns. She still needed to apologize face-to-face with Henry for calling them "monsters," something she had only apologized for through Rudabaugh, which didn't sit right with her. Even if the discovery of, what Rudabaugh called, her unique magic had thrown a wrench into things.

"I see...how does it feel when you use that aura?" Nozomi asked.

"Hmm, I guess it feels...invigorating? I certainly feel like I can do more than I normally would with my body...why do you ask?" Yoshino asked Nozomi, paying extreme attention to how the latter would react.

"N-nothing...it's something dumb..." Nozomi tried to wave it off, nervously looking away from Yoshino.

Yoshino couldn't help but sigh. "Nozomi, please..." Yoshino pleaded, her tone calm but stern, as she felt she would regret not getting a proper answer now.

Seeing how Yoshino wouldn't drop the subject, Nozomi sighed. "I mean, not that I don't trust Henry. If you do, I will also trust him, and I know that you will probably need that power since...there will probably be a time when you will need it." Yoshino noticed the slight pause after Nozomi's "since." If Yoshino were to guess by her best friend's expression and behavior, "a time where you will need it" most likely meant "if I'm not good enough to save you," which made Yoshino frown slightly but not enough for her to interrupt as Nozomi continued. "But..." Nozomi trailed off.

Yoshino's frown deepened. "But...?"

Nozomi stopped walking, while Yoshino stopped almost immediately. Nozomi looked down at the ground before her expression grew into a frown. "I'm scared. Whenever I looked or glanced at you while you had that aura surrounding you, it just...didn't feel like I was looking at the Yoshino I knew. Like, the air around you had changed to be cold and dangerous, as if you were someone who, if I weren't to fight against, I'd run from without looking back."

Nozomi bit her lip and clenched her free hand. "I knew that wasn't true...but, the fact that I doubted enough to consider fighting or running away from you, even if it was for a moment..." Tears threatened to leak from her eyes, but Nozomi remained strong. "I hated that! Thinking there was something fundamentally wrong with you...where the only choice was to either run away from you or, or..."

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Nozomi shook her head. "And then there's this whole situation with magical girls, darkspawns, my powers, the crystal of darkness, and the grand master. I...don't know if I could handle it if you weren't there for me..."

"I see..." Yoshino didn't let her finish those words as she pinched one of Nozomi's cheeks with her free hand to get the latter's full attention.

"Ow! What was that for?!" Nozomi began to cry in pain as she rubbed her hurt cheek.

"That...is for you worrying over nothing," Yoshino declared with a stern look.

"W-wha-?" Nozomi's eyes widened, and her jaw hung open in surprise.

Before Nozomi could get the wrong conclusion from her words, Yoshino sighed before giving Nozomi an assuring smile. "Look at me," Yoshino raised her free hand to her chest before continuing. "I'm here, I'm alive, and I'm..." She hesitated for half a second as the words I'm fine got stuck in her throat. Yoshino might be physically fine, but she sure didn't feel it with how her life had so suddenly flipped upside down and forced her to adapt on the fly or die horribly.

So instead, she went on with something else that wouldn't be a lie. "Not. Going. To. Fight. Against. You." Yoshino poked lightly at Nozomi's torso at every word she said to emphasize her point.

"B-but...what if one day...?" Nozomi was about to ask, but Yoshino was having none of it.

Yoshino sighed. "If, and that's a massive if, I ever, for some dumbass reason, lose myself enough where I want to fight you...I want you to knock some sense into me."

Nozomi and Seiza tilted their heads in confusion. "What?" Nozomi finally asked, the first to recover from what Yoshino just said.

Yoshino sighed before trying to come up with the right words. "Y'know, like...give me a big ol', magic girl, slap in the face, the kind that would wake up even the dead as Uncle Henry would say it." Yoshino clarified awkwardly, saying the "big ol'" part in a poor attempt to imitate Henry's accent.

Nozomi blinked a few times at Yoshino. "H-how are you so sure I would be able to do it? Would I even be strong enough?"

Yoshino only needed to think back to how Nozomi had saved her the first time back on her first encounter with a darkspawn for only a second before she giggled. "You're already strong enough to me." Even if Yoshino hadn't seen it, the fact Nozomi stood her ground against something that would scare away even the most courageous just so she could protect a friend was all the former needed to prove her best friend would be strong enough to do it, even if Nozomi would deny such a claim.

Nozomi's eyes widened before she looked away from Yoshino. "If you say so..." Nozomi muttered, unaware that even with her face turned away from Yoshino, the latter could see how the former was fighting the urge to smile and cry in happiness. Yoshino, thankfully, had the willpower to resist the urge to tease Nozomi for it while poking at her cheeks.

"So, how was your training with Outsider?" Yoshino asked after they had started walking again for a few minutes and Yoshino felt Nozomi had calmed down enough. Yoshino was soon proven right as Nozomi went on about her training with a familiar bright smile Yoshino would never get tired of.

The rest of the trip to Yoshino's home was uneventful.

"Okay, we're here." Yoshino said as she, Nozomi, and Seiza stood facing her house. Normally, Yoshino would be nervous about going inside her home now knowing the truth, but after the intense training she had today and the talk with Nozomi, she just wanted, at this point, to take a bath and go to bed until dinner was ready.

Letting go of Nozomi, Yoshino was about to give a tired goodbye to them, but the words caught in her throat when she laid eyes on Seiza. The talking dog stared, unblinking, at Yoshino's house with an expression of pure dread.

That sounded all the figurative alarm bells inside Yoshino's head.

"What's wrong Seiza?" Nozomi nervously asked before Yoshino did, the former looking between Seiza and Yoshino's house.

Snapping out of whatever trance he was just in, Seiza looked down at the ground and took quick raspy breaths as if he had forgotten how to breathe. After Seiza breathed in and out, with Nozomi helping him through it as she went to one knee, Seiza recovered enough to look at Yoshino, expression still tense. "Yoshino...is this really your home?"

Yoshino frowned before nodding, not liking where this was going. "Yeah...what about it?"

"I'm smelling two presences of absurd power inside of it...Yoshino, could it be...?" Seiza trailed off, almost turning to look at Yoshino's home before thinking better of it and sticking to look at Yoshino.

Yoshino didn't need Seiza to finish that sentence to know he was referring to the former's mother and brother. Once again today, Yoshino was reminded of how big of a gap she and Nozomi would have to clear if they wanted to defeat the Grand Master, someone stronger than the two already strong powers inside her home. "Yep, it's probably them..." Yoshino said as she got up to leave as staying here wasn't doing Seiza any favors. "Wish me luck~" Yoshino said before going for the door to her home.

"Good luck." Yoshino heard Nozomi's voice from behind her just as the former was about to grab the door handle. Yoshino should have known Nozomi would do this, but she was still caught off guard by it. A small smile, hidden from everyone, grew on Yoshino's face as she finally went to grab the door handle to her home.

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When Nozomi finished watching Yoshino enter her home, the former turned to Seiza, who looked frozen in time with muscles trembling, eyes wide open in shock. "Seiza?" Nozomi called for his attention, growing worried about the Labrador's silence.

As if time had started to move again for the dog, Seiza snapped out of it and let out a series of continuous raspy breaths. Nozomi watched Seiza calm down until, if she were to guess from his reaction, he finally noticed the worried look directed at him by the former. "I-I'm fine." He reflexively said.

Nozomi bit her lip, considering what she should do. Seiza closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. "Seriously, I was just...caught off guard by it, yeah, just caught off-guard." Seiza tried to assure Nozomi while giving a wry smile, barely preventing a tear from leaving his eyes.

Nozomi concluded Seiza wouldn't budge or admit he was scared, so she decided to scoop Seiza up from the ground, rocking him in her arms with care so he wouldn't fall off. "W-what Nozomi?!" Seiza gasped in surprise.

"Sorry, Seiza, I think...Yoshino's aura might have just sent me chills. Would you...let me hold onto you until I managed to calm down...please?" Nozomi asked, with probably the flimsiest excuse she probably ever thought of.

Thankfully, it seemed to have worked as Seiza soon accepted Nozomi's request after recovering from the surprise hug. "I-I guess if it's like that, it can't be helped..." Seiza nervously trailed off as he got comfortable in Nozomi's arms.

Nozomi couldn't help but smile at that, not only because Seiza looked incredibly cute in her arms, but because it truly felt like Nozomi had done something right to help one of her friends instead of messing things up like always.