Marth held his fighting stance and shifted his gaze from left to right, top to bottom. Aldo had just vanished from before him, and Marth expected Aldo's next move was to attack from Marth's blind spot.

Marth kept scanning the viscinity, quickly turning his head like a bird looking for prey. Several moments passed, and the feeling of an immediate threat started to wear off.

"I'm waiting!", Marth called out in the silence. "I thought you were going to school me!"

Marth stood there with one fist streched out, and the other defensively held near his face. A minute passed before Marth lost his patience.

"What gives, sensei?" I thought we were going to have a bout. Marth relaxed his posture, standing up straight. He scratched his head, wondering why Aldo had talked such a big talk then just off and disappeared.

"Disappeared?" Marth remembered seeing Tsubasa-sensei achieve the same effect. "She wasn't disappearing, she was Planar Shifting!

The silence expired with a concussive air burst and a loud Z-Z-Zap sound. Aldo sensei emerged into view, mere inches from Marth. Instead of an attack as Marth hypothesized, Aldo was being flung backwards away from Marth, as if he had just taken a strike to the forehead.

"AhhhhG!", Aldo cried out as he was tossed through the air like a ragdoll. The Zap sound reverberated against the stone walls as his head was tilted backwards and his clothes shred from the birsting air pressure. His hair blew in all directions as his ragged body tumbled head over heels. His head and right shoulder hit the ground first, arching his back. The crashing thud of his arms and legs followed as he roughly bounced and slid on the sandy ground before drifting to a stop.

Aldo lay face up with his arms and legs spread randomly in all directions. With badly torn clothes exposing even more of his chest than normal and hair standing up on end as if he had just stuck his finger in a toaster.

Marth looked in disbelief at the teacher who lay motionless in the dust. Had Aldo attacked, Marth would have been completely defenselesss since his attention span expired. Marth hadn't done a thing, yet Aldo lay there incapacitated.

"What happened?" Marth couldn't explain the blow Aldo had taken. "Aldo used Planar Shift to conceal himself, but then what was that?" Marth thought of seeing Aldo accellerate away.

Aldo grumbled in pain. Unable to move, his body twitched as he struggled to speak.

"Since when have you had a defense barrier?!" Aldo strained himself to ask the question before he lost conciousness.

"What the hell?", Marth was shocked at what had just happened. "Defense barrier?" thinking back on Tsubasa-sensei's work, Marth was relieved. "So that means..."

Aldo-sensei had attacked Marth, but he had done it in a way that left Marth completely vulnerable. Aldo attacked Marth's mind directly from an alternate plane.

"No way!", Marth had been wide open. Aldo was on a whole other level. "I'm no match after all?". It was true that Marth was up against one of the greatest Espers at St. Ezreal's.

Yet this great had fallen from Tsubasa-sensei's defense barrier left in Marth's Astral Realm. Marth walked up to the teacher, zonked out from the Astral barrage.

"Note to self, don't piss off Tsubasa-sensei." Marth reasoned from the rattled mess that was Aldo sensei. "If Tsubasa-sensei can send Aldo flying from just a defense barrier, I can only imagine what she's capable of in-person."

Marth crouched down to try and wake Aldo, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking.

"Hey! Teacher! Wake up!", Marth shook Aldo. Aldo didn't respond, his unconcious face only held it's position with eyes closed and mouth wide open. Aldo-sensei was out cold.

"This incapacitation must have been meant for the Esper who used me as a proxy. Once that Esper was down, Tsubasa-sensei would have a chance capture them", Marth continued to hold Aldo up by the shoulders, then looked back at the entrance.

"Where is Tsubasa-sensei? If Aldo saw me use Remote View, shouldn't she have as well? Not to mention, her barrier kicked in. Surely she has some means of realizing that."

Marth didn't like the idea of waiting. The next class could show up to the range and he'd have a lot of explaining to do. Marth decided he'd bite the bullet and drag Aldo to the infirmiry.

"The infirmiry? Where is that?" Marth hadn't been given a tour of all the buildings yet. "I can't drag him across campus looking for it, there's a chance I'll be noticed."

Marth remembered the Administration building.

"That's it! Nobody's ever on this plane there, and it's just next door!"

Biting the bullet, Marth grabbed Aldo-sensei from under his arms. Walking backwards, Marth dragged the Aldo as the teacher's heels ground agains the sand leaving a solid double trail.

Marth pulled the teacher near the entrance and sat him up against the wall. Marth pied the corner, scoping out the walkway in front of the yard.

The five water fountains in the yard were partially visible past the tall hedges, and the concrete path going from left to right which split a range of grass was free of passersbyers. The administration building's entrance to was visible to Marth's left.

"Nobody's here." Marth deduced after looking from right to left.

Picking up Aldo, Marth took burdened step after step as the heels of Aldo's pointy shoes dragged across the concrete walkway. Encumbered by Aldo's weight, Marth cut through the grass, blazing the shortest possible trail of pressed down grass from Aldo's limp bases.

Marth reached the entrance amidst the tall marble pillars around the circular building. Dragging Aldo, Marth proceeded to the innermost section, strenuously climbing the short stair set to the center stage.

Marth lowered Aldo's upper body until he reached the stage top, lying him on the stone surface. Marth then looked up at the ceiling from which rods of light were shining.

"Is anybody here?" Marth raised his voice and shout out into the abyss. "I could use some assistance!" he said as his voice echoed. "They've gotta have Astral cameras or something, so they can see visitors from whatever plane they're on."

Indeed, someone was watching, and suddenly an attractive young doctor in a white jacket was standing in front of Marth.

"Good morning!", The doctor chimed in with a bubbly expression, a stethoscope around her neck. She rose and fully extended an arm to wave as she stood on one leg. With her other leg bent at the knee, she briefly held a pose as if she was a figure skater. Marth wasn't expecting a cheerful woman in this situation.

"Uh, good morning.", Marth replied to the curly pink haired woman.

"Please allow me to take a look!" The doctor put her arm and leg down, producing a tool from pocket above her well endowed breast.

"Yes, go right ahead", Marth said, trying not to stare at her chest. He took a step back and allowed the doctor to begin triage.

The doctor gently held open Aldo's eyelids one by one, using a flashlight on her tool to see his iris react.

"Mhm!" The doctor said with a smile. A reflection shone off her thick framed glasses as her eyes squinted.

Marth couldn't help but stare at the cute doctor as she inspected Aldo. She never seemed to stop smiling.

"The patient is stable. Let's shift to the infirmary!"

Without any delay, the dark interior of the administration building faded away, and a brightly lit medical room came into view. Two beds with privacy curtains, a long desk with a sink, and cupboards of supplies. Aldo was still on the floor below the doctor.

"Let's get him up to one of these beds." The doctor gestured Marth for help.

The doctor had already taken Aldo's upper body, so Marth stepped up and grabbed the teacher's legs.

"On the count of three!", The doctor said with a smile. Marth awkwardly returned the smile. He was taken back by her carefree attitude as they got a firm grasp on Aldo.

"One. Two. Three!"

The two lifted Aldo up to the bed with ease. The doctor was two heads shorter than Marth, but she wasn't lacking in strength. With Aldo-sensei in the bed, the doctor turned to Marth for introductions.

"Thank you! I'm Yoshida-sensei, nice to meet you!"

Yoshida sensei extended her hand to shake with Marth's. Marth joined his hand with hers and the doctor brought in her other hand. The two warmly shook hands.

"I'm Watanabe, Marth", he replied as their hands were together.

Their hands released and Yoshida walked to the long desk. "I'll take it from here. Aldo-sensei may be out for some." She said as she retrieved a card from a cupboard, then walked over to Marth.

"Take this. I'll let you know when he wakes up." The doctor reassured Marth, although Marth preferred not to be around when Aldo's consciousness was regained.

Marth took hold of the card, holding it in front of him. It was similar in size to a playing card. Rigid paper construction and smooth. On it's face was a painting of a blue stained glass window, the art within it was a yellow shooting star in a deep blue night sky. On it's back side, The symbol of St. Ezreal's.

"Are you giving me a tarot card?" Marth was perplexed.

"Ah, you must be a first year!" The doctor chuckled before explaining. She walked over to the cupboard, pulling from it a stack of cards. She spread them out between her hands, showing nothing but blank card stock. "We call these place cards. They are specially designed to hold an Astral projection to be used at a later time."

Marth was fascinated. He inspected all parts of the card in his hand, comparing it to those in Yoshida's.

"You created the image of the stained glass window and St. Ezreal's emblem as you handed it to me?", Marth was catching on.

"Yes, as I embedded a projection into the card, I drew onto it's face the image I've associated with the projection."

"What was the projection?" Marth wondered.

"Starry Notif."

"Starry Notif?"

"Think of it as a communication device. With that place card, I can get a hold of you from anywhere in the universe."

"Cool."