The air blew Marth's hair and clothes back as the hot gust kicked up dirt and pebbles. Marth held his arms in front of his face, guarding from the debris.

"A wind place card?" Marth thought to himself has he tried to keep track of Tsubasa's inventory.

Marth looked up from his shielded position expecting Tsubasa to be charging towards him under the cover of the blast of wind. Instead, Marth saw nothing but the scattered dust of planet's regolith.

"An aerial attack!" Marth hypothesized, immediately ducking and rolling to his left.

Tsubasa's steel toed boots slammed into the ground where Marth had just been, creating two craters in the dry regolith.

Marth continued his roll for another meter before putting his feet down and returning to his knees.

"Cheese and crackers, Sensei, are you trying to hospitalize me?" Marth said, agitated.

"Are you saying you can't handle this situation?" Tsubasa sternly gazed at Marth as more dust expanded from around the impact of her feet.

"I.. Uh.." Marth stuttered, conflicted by Tsubasa's question. Tsubasa Hinata, the second highest rank at the legendary St. Ezreal's Academy was standing before Marth, emmanating an aura of viscious intent. The easy way out was in sight, Marth simply had to give up.

"You aren't giving up, are you? Should we just end this right here, right now?" Tsubasa moved her hands to her card pouch.

Never had Marth heard of an Esper from St. Ezreal's doing such a thing. St. Ezreal's Espers were widely known heroes who rose to any occasion and took on any enemy no matter how dire the situation.

"Tsubasa, with you as my opponent, I can't possibly hope to win." Marth voiced his concern, the one thing blocking his path to try.

"Marth, there is more than one path to victory." Tsubasa flicked open her card pouch with her thumb as her gaze locked with Marth's. "Find yours."

Tsubasa drew a card from her pouch, concealing it with her left hand as she threw it forwards towards Marth. The card locked mid-air, emitting a sound much like a cracking whip. Around the frozen card, the air distorted like a mirage in a distant desert plain. From the distortion, a dark humanoid figure emerged, moulding it's own bodyshape as if a liquid within was re-distributing it's mass.

The colorless body's final transformation was to convert it's colours and proportions to form a perfect spacial replica of Tsubasa, armor and all.

The copy dashed towards Marth, sprinting as the real Tsubasa followed behind, doing the same.

"My path to victory..." Tsubasa's words echoed in Marth's mind as she and her copy raced towards him. "I'm outnumbered, outskilled, and outgunned. All the odds are in her favor." Marth figured his situation was looking grim.

"...But I'm not about to die." Marth decided as he shifted his focus to his survival. Tsubasa and her copy drew even nearer. Marth concentrated on Tsubasa and her copy's form. "No weapons, no cards. Are they planning to drop-kick me?" Marth remembered the copy. "Her counterpart isn't alive, as that would violate the St. Ezreal's rules of engagement. It must be a doll then, animated to match the movements of a person. She's using her doll as a shield. She'll force me to react to her doll's attack while her self attacks me from behind."

The Tsubasa in front leaped in to the air, preparing for a heavy drop kick.

"Pfft, the doll distraction, one of the oldest tricks in the book. I'm not about to fall for that." Marth ignored the flying Tsubasa, instead turning to the right to face the second Tsubasa who had circled around.

"The doll is nothing but a series of light reflections, it won't have much mass" Marth thought aloud, bending his knees and brought up his fists. to face the second Tsubasa head-on.

With a crash and a thud, the steel toed boots of the flying Tsubasa fell down on Marth's back, her weight knocking Marth off his feet, falling face first into the ground.

The second Tsubasa stopped in place, looking down at the real Tsubasa sitting ont he ground with her legs atop Marth's back.

"What the hell? The first Tsubasa was just a doll!" Marth was confounded.

"I switched places." Tsubasa said as she backed off of Marth, standing up and joining her doll.

"Why did you do that?" Marth pressed his hands into the regolith, lifting himself from the dusty surface.

"I saw that look in your eyes." Tsubasa crossed her arms. "It's the same look you had when you fought Aldo for the first time."

"You mean you changed your plan in the middle of your attack?"

"Yes. I knew you were analyzing the situation, so I simply applied game theory. Instead of using my doll as a distraction as I theorized you would theorize, I switch places with my doll, turning the distraction into a direct attack.

"When did you do that? I was watching the Tsubasa in front the whole time!"

"The doll is simply an illusion, a hollow, malleable surface which can absorb or reflect light to give off the appearance of a person. Because of it's false structure and the illusion that we share the same physical size, switching places was simple. All I did was run through the doll, becoming the Tsubasa in front."

"That's it?"

"That's it. I'm surprised you didn't notice."

Marth wiped the dusty particulate from his clothes.

"Welp, I guess I failed." Marth admitted. "But I'm not giving up. It's going to take a lot more kicks like that before I keel over."

"That's the spirit!" Tsubasa and her doll jumped backwards, landing and sliding in the dirt. "When you can't win through skill, win through persistence." Tsubasa said with a grin.

"I can't help but think that you're taking this opportunity to make fun of me."

"I wouldn't dare!" Tsubsasa said with another smile.

"I think she's enjoying this a little too much." Marth muttered to himself.

"Now then, let's take this up a notch." Tsubsa suggested. "I want you to go on the offensive. Attack my doll and I. First strike wins."

"Well this is a first." Marth commented. "Usually it's the teachers doing the attacking."

"Let's see what you've got!" Tsubasa encouraged.

Marth thought a moment about how he would proceed. Again the thought of quitting in the face of one of the strongest Espers came up, but was quickly dismissed as Marth focused on what he could do in the moment.

"Resonant Wave!" Marth cried out with both palms pointed towards Tsubasa. Aided by the nearby Admiriate, a large blue summoning circle took form at hils palms, vibrating intensely.

"First, I'm going to level the playing field, by forcing you to take off that stupid armor!" Marth called out as his resonant wave targed the hardened steel atop Tsubasa's chest.

"Ooooh, my oh my!" Tsubasa cooed. "If I had known you wanted to take off my clothes so badly, I may have worn prettier underwear!"

Marth's face began to turn red at the thought of what Tsubasa was hiding under her thick layered armor, but quickly snapped back to shared reality as he felt something was wrong.

"Hey, quit messing with me!" Marth barked at his teacher. "I'm projecting Resonant Wave at you. Why isn't your armor burning up? The Admirite is amplifying my projection like I've never seen. Steel should be red hot by now!"

Tsubasa let out a laugh and she held her stomach.

"I guess I should have sent you to classes after all. I didn't realize you hadn't learned the basics of combat."

"Hey, what's so funny! A teacher shouldn't laugh at their student!" Marth barked back, embarrassed.

"Ok, I'll clue you in." Tsubasa wiped a tear of joy as she composed herself. "As you know, Astral Projections are a manifestation of one's own consciousness. By default, projections exist only in the projector's personal reality. Astral Projections on their own are nothing but imaginary dreams. Espers bridge their projections into shared reality, time and space in which we both participate."

"That's right. I know that already, or I wouldn't be able t project at all!" Marth explained, still holding his vibrating summoning circle in front of him.

"Yes, you already know. Your projection originating in your imagination is brought into our shared reality through your conscious mindfulness. But what happens when your projection directly alters my own personal reality?"

"I don't know, the same thing that would happen if I projected to a tree. It would heat up!" Marth jumped to conclusions.

"A likely scenario." Tsubasa agreed. "However, I'm not a tree. I'm an Esper."

"So what? Resonant Waves will affect any mass by accellerating it's particles to the point of heating up."

Tsubasa shook her head. "Marth, are you aware of the projection, Etherial Void?"

"Sure, it's infamous. The Esper Tobi Maru from the 18th century used it to end the Great War."

"Correct. It's a massively destructive weapon which erases anything it touches. What do you think would happen if I projected Ethereal Void directly inside you?"

Marth laughed uncomfortably. "The battle would be over very quickly."

"Exactly. As Espers who can produce incredible weapons only with our minds, we must always be aware of the possibility that such a weapon could be used on us. With this fact alone in mind, it serves as a most basic barrier shielding us from direct attacks on our personal realities from outside Espers."

"You mean just by being aware of the fact that I may direcly alter your personal reality, your personal reality is safe?"

"That's all it takes."

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