"What class do you have next?" Shizuma asked Marth.

Marth paused, with muffins half chewed in his mouth. He hadn't thought that far ahead, as he was appreciating the moment of eating yummy snacks with Miyu. Marth quickly chewed his food and swallowed.

"P.E.!", Marth impromptly came up with the answer.

"Ohh, cool!", Shizuma was impressed. "Which course are you taking? Mixed martial arts? Krav Magaw?"

Marth wasn't the sporty type, and taking either of those subjects were out of his comfort zone. Regardless, the emerald eyed Shizuma Miyu was right there, and he didn't want to look lame in front of her.

"MMA!", he went with the subject that seemed the most difficult.

"I have applied Astral Physics!", Shizuma replied with a smile. She looked up at the clock, and started to rush. "I have to get going, I want to get a good seat in the lecture hall."

"Ok, see you later!", Marth acknowledged.

"Bye for now!", Miyu ran off, waving back at Marth.

"I better get going too." Marth took one last sip of his drink, pushed in his chair, and briskly walked through the cafeteria towards the east exit. As he passed by the kitchen, he strategically scratched his head to mask his face from the Kitchen staff.

As Marth exited the building, the sight of students was sparce. Any left in the vicinity were running to make it in time to their next class.

"Shit, I lollygagged too long". Marth picked up the pace, jogging between the Administration and the yard. The splashing water in the fountains was evident, it's sight intermittently visible as Marth ran and tall hedges partitioned the view. As usual, activity around the administration was unsubstantial.

Marth arrived at the walled-in range where he figured P.E. would take place. Marth passed through the arched entrance, The walls were made out of a thick light, tan coloured stone. Through the doorless entrance, another wall lie in his path, forcing a left or right turn. The sky was visible above, as well as the two story dorm building to the north.

"This must be to block any projectiles from escaping through the door." Marth shuddered at the thought of an incompetent trainee endangering others with a misfired projection.

Marth turned to the right, walking parallel to the second wall. He came to it's end, turning left. The full range came into view.

Covering the ground was a thin layer of sand above packed in dirt. Within the rectangular barrier formed by the walls, several human torso shaped steel targets were attached to spring loaded mechanisms planted in the earth. A line was drawn in the sand, fifty meters in front of the dummy targets. A few emtpy wooden tables were placed on either side of the line.

No other persons were present; Marth was alone with the range.

"No class here? Dammit!", Marth cursed, striking the interior wall with his fist.

A clock in the yard chimed, signalling the top of the hour and the start of class.

Marth sighed with his fist still against the stone wall.

"This sucks."

Looking down at the ground, he shuffled his foot, pushing it through the thin layer of sand and into the dirt.

"This is St. Ezreal's practice range.", Marth lifted his fist from the wall and chuckled. "this is a day of firsts!"

Marth stepped forward, stopping at the firing line. He pushed his palm in front of him and imagined firing a volley of hot lead from a summoning circle.

"Ratta-tat-tat-tat!" Marth made the noise with his mouth, then stopped to chuckle. With his palm still stretched out, Marth continued to look down his arm, turning his body to face the left wall. He rose his arm, pointing it above the wall at the second floor of the dormitory.

"Hey, my room is up there!" Marth drew his hand back to his side, wincing his face at the thought of a novice misfiring a projection into his quarters.

"I guess first year noobies can't be trusted in the range, until they've studied up on safety!" Marth shrugged as he raised his hands next to his face.

Marth thought the first day of school would be too soon for new students to use the range. Instead, they must be in classes somewhere else on campus.

"Where would that be?", Student or not, Marth didn't want to fall behind.

"In times like these, the dragon knows best." Marth turned to face the center of campus, eyes piercing through the rock wall in between as he imagined the yard and it's fountains. He took his fighting stance, firmly planting his right leg in the sand. A plume of dust formed beneath him as sand and dirt were slung into the air. His left leg stretched forward, dragging in the sand and producing more particles. He crouched with most of his weight on his right leg, with his left foot pointed out towards the campus. He rose one fist near his face, and the other pushed out again towards the yard.

"The town may be occupied by villagers, but the dragon controls the earth." Marth spoke with a firey passion. "No petty secret is safe from the Dragon's gaze." Marth closed his eyes, diving into his Astral realm.

Marth saw himself standing in a vast expanse of sand surrounded by four walls. Wearing Hakamashita, Tabi, and Hakima, traditional Japanese martial arts atire, Marth held his stance amidst dust devils of pure energy kicking up large volumes of sand. The view before him was that of St. Ezreal's campus, although it was augmented by Marth's imagination and the prestige he felt for the space.

The campus was completely black, with wavy blue threads outlining every feature. The walls were black with blue lines. The hedges were black with blue lines. Lifeless and still, this image of the school which Marth had in his mind since childhood, was imperfect and Marth quickly brought in the proportions to match that of what he had seen so far. The range wasn't that big. The Incorporeal Science building was new. The cafeteria had a couple sections.

Marth scaled his mental model of the school, creating a perfect match, then from distant astral mountains, Marth summoned an ancient dragon to scope out the location of the Martial Arts class. The dragon wisped in, slithering vigorously through the air.

"HYPER-DRAGON-E...", Marth was interrupted by a figure emerging from a large blue portal two meters in front of him. With Marth's eyes still closed, the palm of the figure's hand met Marth's forehead, knocking him backwards. His arms and left leg flew up in the air as he pivoted on his crouched right leg. There was no time to react as Marth's body met the sand with a loud thud, the air escaping from his lungs, the mana for HYPER-DRAGON-EYE absconding.

With his back against the ground, Marth opened his eyes. His projection had already fizzled away into nothingness as he reached up to hold the back of his bumped head.

"Oww!", Marth rubbed the back of his head as he sat up to see who had just pushed him. Marth had to turn to see the silver haired slender man standing there, staring at the steel targets.

"Aldo-sensei.", the shaken Marth said, still holding his head. Without turning to face Marth, Aldo spoke.

"Tell me, boy. Do you have a death wish?"

Aldo pointed his hand towards the steel target, fingers spread apart. A blue summoning circle the size of a bus appeared in front of his hand, before spinning rapidly and letting out a stream of energy. Blue and white energy ripped through the air, creating a sound like a string of firecrackers. The energy hit the steel target, exploding into dozens of blue fireballs on impact and sending a burst of air in all directions.

Sand blew from the epicenter, blowing Aldo's clothes and forcing Marth to squint. The dust settled down, revealing the scorched earth and streaks of newly expanded glass. All that was left of the target was a molten stub of iron which would have joined the target to it's hinging mechanism.

"Tsubasa-sama ordered me not to kill you, but you're testing my patience." Aldo turned to face Marth for the first time. "She said nothing about kicking you around, though."

Marth stood up and sighed. His day of freedom had been cut short.

"I should have known I couldn't use Remote View. Tsubasa-sensei said she'd be monitoring my Astral activity."

"I as well. Tsubasa-sensei may be the higher rank, but I know trouble when I see it. If she had the school's best intentions in mind, she'd gladly let me finish you off."

"Aldo-sensei, you're like a broken record with that line! You should already know that I'm innocent. I was framed!" Marth defended himself.

"Oh I'm well aware of Tsubasa-sensei's report, and I disagree. You should be killed anyway. You're are an accident waiting to happen." Aldo's distaste for Marth was clearly visible.

"If you killed me, we'd never find out who was behind this. I want to know just as bad as anyone about who was in my head. My goal of becoming an Esper is on hold because of this whole fiasco!" Marth rose his arms in contempt.

"Pfft, you're more trouble than you're worth." Aldo-sensei said with arms crossed.

"Is that because I beat you last time?" Marth said with a smile. Aldo glared at Marth.

"Tsubasa may have ordered me not to kill you, but she didn't say anything about kicking your ass!" Aldo's glare intensified as he took a step forward, his flared pants and loosely buttoned white shirt flapping in a gust of wind. With his open left hand, he covered half his face, and with spread fingers, stretched out his right towards Marth.

"Bring it on!" Marth egged Aldo on. "I missed the martial arts class anyway. I think I could learn a lot from destroying you again!" Marth was feeling confident. He resumed his fighting stance, with one fist pointed at Aldo.

"Oh, you want to get schooled? I'm happy to oblige!" Aldo took another step forward. "First lesson. Know your enemy!" With that, took another step forward, and disappeared before Marth's eyes.