Alexander's eyes widened at the grand sight of white light bursting from Giovanna's fist. It was a sight he had only seen once before with his own eyes, coming from his own body and magic.

He had never expected it would come next from Giovanna Belmonte, but as he laid his gaze on it, on her, all he could do was gleam with pride.

"Holy shit!" Leonard screamed out, jumping up, bouncing in joy, though he still held onto the metal railing.

Lumiel rushed up to Alexander and wrapped her arms around him. She held him tightly and asked directly into his ear. "Did you teach her that?!" she screamed out, trying to be clear past the overjoyed clamoring of the crowd.

Alexander couldn't help but laugh in response. "Hell no! That was all her!" he guffawed through his shout, his eyes still fixed on his friend, as she raised her fist into the air.

The crowd's cheers didn't begin to cease until minutes after the battle's end, while the commentators continued to verbalize their shock, spewing and ranting out whatever poetic phrases they could come up with.

"Mitch!" one screamed. "What a beauty that was! A white wreath to release the rage of a family's negligence and a girl's natural talent! No more can she be contained! With that brilliant flash of white light, there can be no doubt! Giovanna Belmonte is the absolute victor!"

Giovanna headed over to the stands and began to climb in, the spectators parting as she made her way through to her brother. Medics and nurses had rushed in as well, hurrying to Giorno's barely conscious body.

"Please, don't touch him, Miss!" a nurse shouted at her, just as Giovanna reached her brother. She gently placed her hand on his cheek, a far different sensation than having his hand smack her.

"I'm sorry," she said with a slight smile. "I didn't mean to do that. But to be fair, it could've been worse, Giorno. A bit more magic, and..." She shuddered to herself as he began to open his eyes. "I'd rather we don't think about that. I'm sure Mother and Father are already at the school's hospital, waiting for you. Tell them I say hi."

The other medics had finally reached the two siblings, and with a stretcher and bags of medical equipment, they loaded him on and began to gingerly, although hastily, carry him through and out of the arena.

Giovanna found herself standing alone, surrounded by empty seats and standing spectators.

They took pictures and videos, although for the time being, not one dared to approach her.

She pressed her thumb against the side of her lip and wiped off her blood.

Lumiel, clad in white, waved her long arms in the air and caught her attention. With that, she couldn't help but smile. Her friends had witnessed the entire bout and could have no doubt of what she had achieved.

A thin circle of blue light appeared before her, and even before it finished forming into its perfect form of crackling magic, she already knew. Without so much as a glimpse of hesitation, she lept into the circle.

She passed through the next second, appearing just a few feet in the air, yet still landed gently, grazing her feet against the metal walkway and stepping forward in the same motion. Before she could carry on or bring herself to a halt, Alexander burst forth and wrapped his arms around her.

"Giovanna," he told her, holding her to his chest and laughing all the while. "I'm so proud of you."

Lumiel knocked her elbow into Anastasia's ribcage. "I bet you wish that were you."

Anastasia had no response as the other virtues surrounded the two, chattering and pushing themselves closer and closer to Giovanna to congratulate her.

All she could do was smile and laugh alongside her friends.

As the chatting quieted down, Liam checked his phone for the time.

Alexander noticed the simple motion and realized. "Liam, when's your fight scheduled?"

"One hour from now."

The others quickly turned to him just as Alexander furrowed his eyebrows. "Is that right? Dude, we're heading for the island–" He stared at his watch. "22 minutes from now."

Liam shrugged. "Good luck, then."

"I wanted to watch you fight, though!" Leonard groaned. He let out a heavy sigh with his complaint, swinging his arm up onto Liam's shoulder. "I'll be watching your fight's video when it's uploaded online, so no spoilers. You better win, either way, though."

Leonard paused. "Wait, Alexander. 22 minutes?"

They each let out their own gasp upon that realization. They had to go.

Time only allowed them a quick goodbye to the three that stayed behind, and Anastasia was forced to spur four different Connections for those that went along since they all needed to do different things.

Still, it was only a matter of minutes before they were reunited on the path to the harbor.

It was at the same time that Liam, Lumiel, and Giovanna made their way down to find any area where the inter-school battle would be displayed.

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"Are you sure you should be coming with us?" Lumiel asked as she scrolled through her phone to find more details on the rest of the event's days. "You'll only be able to watch part of the battles before you have to go fight."

Liam chuckled at that. "It's fine with me. Half an hour is plenty of time. Alexander's fighting Keith, and that'll only last a few minutes. So there's still time to see the rest of them play their part before I leave."

As Lumiel nodded, she finally found the page outlining Liam's battle. She froze in her tracks and stared. "Liam... you're fighting Mr. Tucker?!"

"Yep."

He kept walking, although Lumiel and Giovanna had both halted at that remark.

"Liam, what?"

- - - - -

Alexander already built a habit of carrying a weapon around, just in case. At the same time, he didn't want to injure anyone with such a thing during the schools' royale. And so, he gripped a sheathed dagger, a blade that had long been dulled– so much so that Alexander, to assure himself of its lack of danger, slashed it against his forearm, and found that it would barely leave a cut at all.

He tied it to the back of his belt with a heavy breath and began to stretch.

"Seriously? You're stretching?" one of the New York participants asked.

"He has to," Gabriel interjected, sliding fingerless gloves onto his hands. He held no other weapon and sought to fight with his bare hands, although his hands were not needlessly bare. "He's going up against Keith Miller. You gotta stay loose if you wanna have a chance."

Alexander chuckled as he heard that. "Power comes from tightness in the muscles. Physical power, I mean. So it's not just being loose. It's being ready– about being able to tense up and loosen up at any instant." He smirked in excitement.

"So you are ready, then? To fight Keith Miller?"

Alexander faced the open sea, the dark waters sloshing back and forth on the stony shore. "Does the little prince have an order?" he asked.

Gabriel held his digitized map, staring at the island and into its geography. "The forest is densest near the center of the island. There, the topography is mostly flat, with just a couple of small hills around, and of course, the thick tree roots. It's the best place for you to fight him, and since you two have already met, he already recognizes your energy. The moment it starts, he'll head straight to you, which is to say... the sooner you get there, the better."

"Alright, but... How far is it from our shore?" Alexander asked as he tightened the knots of his shoelaces.

"800 meters. Just less than that, it seems."

Alexander paused, still crouching on one knee as he thought to himself. "All things considered... I can make it there in a minute."

"Don't tire yourself."

"Yeah, that's what I considered. I can't go full speed, anyway– there are too many trees in the way. Magic is pointless to use for the running now."

"Right."

Leonard approached the two in their discussion. "Real talk, though... Alexander's gonna be handling Keith. That leaves New York and Houston with nine fighters. San Fransisco still has ten."

Gabriel looked up and met the sight of the other New York students staring at him. They had put their hopes and trust in him, and while part of him relished the fact he was their de facto leader as of now, he shook his head.

"Well..." he said, trying to find a word that could envelop them all. Friends wouldn't do it. And y'all was too crude. Guys wasn't his sort of word, either. He was forced to skip over that part.

"I believe," he continued. "That this battle isn't about strategy. It's so the Association can know what you're capable of. Even if you lose after being ganged up by three kids from Houston, the Association will still judge that. And, hell, losing alone is better than relying on others to win in this case. And we... Yes, we, specifically... of the New York branch do not need strategies. We can win– each of us on our own. All we have to do is kill the curses and fight the students. All good?"

The group remained silent, although Alexander and Leonard simultaneously raised a thumbs-up.

Gabriel sighed, and turned back from the others to prepare his mind.

Meanwhile, the Houston students also discussed each of their roles and purposes, albeit with many disagreements.

They, too, had spontaneously turned to a leader in Lionel Ankara, although the young boy was quick to turn that into an opportunity to bark orders. He focused on Keith now, nearly pleading with him to confront Gabriel Archibald so no other student would have to.

"You manhandled him before. Besides, he's an Archibald. Do you think he'll let that go? I wouldn't be surprised if he brings a sword with him, purely from the intention to kill you," Ankara argued. "It's only natural for you to face him again."

"That's not how he operates. He's gotten stronger for sure, but... He knows he can't beat me. Besides," Keith said. "I already have my own challenger."

"What are you talking about?"

"The Demon-Born," Dolores said aloud. That term was enough to catch the minds of each student "Alexander Lane is participating, and the New York kids chose him for the purpose of holding Keith back for as long as possible."

"Which means he's either as strong as we expected him to be," Keith elaborated. "–or even stronger. I'll take him on."

Lionel Ankara shook his head. "Dammit, Keith, you always put your own desires above everyone else's. I made a plan for a reason. If you stick to the plan, we can have an absolute victory. And not just that, but... but dominance. You have to lead the charge, and I'm sure you'd like that. Why can't you just follow that?"

Keith grit his teeth, stepping toward the supposed leader of the first-years. "If the two of us were to fight to the death, right now... how would it end?"

The group fell silent, unable to do anything other than stare at Keith towering over Lionel.

"Your brains would be splattered over this floor. Because I'm stronger than you. And because I'm stronger, I have no reason to put your plan over mine." He took a step back and smiled at his junior. "I'm here to have fun. And at the end of the day, that's why we're all here. This isn't the most important competition of your life. Make the most of it."

He turned away, cracking his neck along the way. "Let's get ready, guys," he said, lifting his hand and smacking the doorway as he exited into the sunlight.

The time had finally come, and Alexander and Anastasia stood beside each other in their casual silence, their shoulders just barely touching as they both gazed into the murky abyss of the harbor's water. It would only be minutes until they would have to depart to the island, and much against her own hopes, Anastasia would have to use a transporter.

For the sake of the island and its visitors' safety, it was protected by magic and all beings beyond a certain wavelength wouldn't be allowed entry. The school-issued, event-specific transporters were the only way on and off.

With the loudspeakers announcement– a blaring countdown of 30 seconds until the battle would begin– each student knew what they had to do.

"You wanna use the same transporter? To save energy?" Alexander asked.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Are you saying that because you forgot your transporter?"

Alexander chuckled. "No, I'm just saying," he said, patting his back pocket to confirm for himself– he had brought it.

Anastasia sighed, although nodded at the same time. "Grab onto me," she told him, as the countdown reached 15.

He smiled at her as he placed his hand onto her shoulder. "Stay safe out there, you hear?"

With a grin in return, she shook her head. "Alexander, we're here to fight. You don't have to worry about me."

Ten seconds were left, and with a push of a button, another flash of white light burst into Alexander's eyes.