I breathed deeply, feeling my adrenaline slowly fading as I picked myself up and coughed, grunting in pain.

  I gnced around, spotting the red magical girl with the cat ears and tail who'd been tossed aside by Eris lying in a heap. I quickly jogged ently pig her up and propping her back against a statue, making sure not to aggravate anything.

  She groaned in pain as I gingerly brushed her hair back, cheg for any obvious signs of injury.

  My aura sight picked up an invisible red, crag energy that surrounded her body - and I narrowed my eyes. I didn't have anything like that on me, but it didn't look good. I focused my Luminary version on it, slowly purifying it and pulling it into me.

  "Hnn...?" the girl grunted as red motes of light sparked around her body, and she slowly came to.

  "Easy now," I murmured softly. "Are you okay?"

  She rubbed her forehead, wing as she nodded slowly. "Hn... I'll be alright miss..."

  "Call me Lux. You're one of the cadets here, right?"

  She blinked, nodding slowly as she pushed herself to her feet. "I'm erm, Cw Strawberry. Freshly out of cadet status. Freshman here."

  She shook her head, and I smiled as she steadied herself.

  "Cw Strawberry? That's a cute name."

  She grinned, blushing as she rubbed the back of her head. "T-thanks. Erm, and you are?"

  "Harmonia Lux. You call me Lux for short."

  Cw Strawberry gestured over at the fallen boy with the tiger mask and purple fur coat. "And that's my older brother. Cw Currant. He's also a first year"

  I made my way over and k o him. A closer examination revealed his breathing to be bored and uneven, and to no surprise, he also had a red energy ed around his chest like a strait jacket.

  Without hesitation, I began pulling it aurifying it, abs the molte into my own reserves.

  "And, uhm..." she poi the boy in the hi-tech suit. "His name's Gear. He's a friend we made during orientation aeically a Pioneer, but he's here with a team from Goldenrock City so he's been hanging out with us."

  "I see," I murmured, yanking the energy out of him as well.

  I smiled, standing back up as the st of it entered my body. The wave of warmth from having my mana replenished by the magiergy I'd taken made me feel refreshed and invigorated. Using Shadow Dance alone drained me of over ten pert of my reserves per sed from my experimentation - so I robably still under half my maximum strength.

  But it was a hell of a lot better than how I felt before.

  "Um, are you an uppercssman?" Strawberry asked me curiously. "Your... well, that performance retty outstanding. I didn't see you at orientation so..."

  I rolled my eyes, uo stop myself from blushing.

  "No. I'm in your year, but I took an emergency tract during the Cataclysm. We had a separate indu day, though, so I suppose you haven't seen me."

  Her eyes widened in surprise, and she stepped back. "You took a... an emergency tract? From the Guardians?"

  I sighed. "Yeah, my best friend got bitten by a zombie and the move I just used to dispel whatever Eris did to you and your brother saved his life. It was either I take it right there or watch him turn. So yeah, I did."

  Her cat ears drooped, and she hugged her waist. "Wow. I, I'm sorry that happened."

  I grinned, stretg my arms out as I drew a circle with my right hand. "It's all in the past. I'm here, I'm alive. So's he, and so are you, yeah?"

  Her expression became curious, and she grinned back at me. "Hey, that means we might have csses together? I know the freshmen ECs are going to be joining us for an exercise ter this week. Maybe we team up?"

  "Ha! Maybe. We'll see what happens. Right now, though, we should check up ohers."

  She looked back at her brother and then at me, unsure of what to say. The two of us walked up to the rge boy in the purple fur coat, and I studied him for a moment. He groaned, holding his head as he tried to sit up, and I k down, steadying him.

  "Be careful. Don't move too fast."

  He blinked, gng up at me with his purple eyes shinih the mask as he hunched roaning in pain. A tiger's tail twitched behind him, and I blinked in surprise as I got a closer look at his aura's size ay.

  "Wow, you're uh, you must be pretty strong."

  "Currant. Cw Currant. First Year but a bit of a veteran as a solo Knight. Proud to serve and stuff."

  Huh, the kid has a bit of military energy to him.

  I smiled softly and steadied him. "Take it slow, Currant. That was a nasty energy attack she hit you with. Name's Lux, by the way."

  His eyes twinkled with a hint of gratitude, aeadied himself against the wall. "Thanks, Lux. Appreciate it. Ugh. Kinda stings that she took me and Gear out with o like that."

  The boy in the blue suit was sitting on the grouo me, groaning and rubbing the back of his head as I moved to che him.

  "I'm fine," Gear muttered. "Ego's just a bit bruised. Would be nice if I could actually handle someone in a one-och for ohough."

  Currant snorted. "Wanted a crack at Eris yourself, huh Gear?"

  Gear shook his head. "Nah, not really. She was just kinda more than I expected. I mean, the forums always mentioned her as a kind of D-list joke vilin, y'know?"

  Strawberry chuckled. "Holy, same. Who would have thought that the Dark Princess of Chaos could leave seven of us id out like this in just a couple of minutes?"

  Oh.

  Right.

  I kled my nose, rushing over at the four cadets who hadn't regained sciousness, and got tain. One was a magical girl with long blue hair, wearing a flowing blue middle-eastern style dress, another a roguish, dark-skinned and athletic spearman in a light cotton tunic with a scar on his cheek, a girl with scarlet curly hair and freckles who wore a musketeer's coat, and a fourth — a girl with messy braided blonde hair, a pair of sabers, wearing a French-style cavalier's outfit.

  I purified their auras, wing as I struggled to absorb the massive amount of energy that I was being force fed. But with the boost from drawing energy out of the other two, it was much easier.

  When I was done, I watched as they groaned, slowly opening their eyes.

  My body was humming with a dull aow, and I knew I was reag my limit.

  Thank god Albert wasn't around. His teasing would be endless.

  "Is everyone okay?" I asked in .

  All four of them were covered ihick, viscous substahat smelled like barbecue sauce, and Strawberry's clothes were ripped and torn from her earlier stunt. Currant and Gear had gotten off easy, haviaken out i, but the rest of them were drenched iicky, savory substance, and I made a face as the smell reached my nose.

  "Just sticky and gross," the blue-haired girl muttered, wiping her hands off on her dress.

  The spearman groaned, slig back his silver mohawk. "Ugh, it's everywhere. Does she seriously attack with barbecue sauce of all things?"

  I looked around, taking in the ons as I stared in disbelief. The ndscape was marred with scorch marks and impacts, and dozens of trees had been toppled over.

  Eris was definitely not the pushover that supervilin watunities made her out to be. She had a ing intellect, incredible speed, agility, and was absolutely brutal with her attacks.

  Just who was she, really?

  The red-haired musketeer owards me. "Thank you for healing us. I'm Scarlet Verhe Muse of Twilight. We're the Knights of Summer Melody. Freshman year. Sorry you had to e in and bail us out. "

  "Don't worry about it. I'm a freshman like the rest of you. She gave us all a run for our money."

  "A freshman? I didn't see you at orientation," Verne blinked.

  "Oh, uh."

  I'd just had this versation with Cw Strawberry, and it made me unfortable bringing it up again. "I was an emergency tract."

  Verne paused, staring at me for a long moment. "Oh. Really? That's, uh... wow."

  "Yep," I shrugged. "Took it in the heat of the moment to save my best friend. Still kinda getting used to everything, holy."

  She smiled. "Yeah, I guess that's true. Do you have a css p?"

  I cocked an eyebrow. "Css pn?"

  She leaned ba her hands, sprawled out on the grass as she sched her nose. "Yeah, those of us with a team normally try to coordinate our bat igineering courses to boost our team synergy. You, er, I guess you came in alone, right?"

  "Well, yeah," I ughed nervously. "Not sure how well that'll work out."

  She shrugged. "Hey, just something to think about for the ing week. Gd to see you weren't hurt too bad in that fight. We'd spent a year helping a senior knight team in our city round up supervilins and we were still barely able to nd a few hits on that crazy psycho."

  Gear, Cw Strawberry, and Cw Currant approached, nodding. "She got Cw Currant I both i," Gear admitted. "Guy's gotta respect that."

  "I was the same way," the spearman added, eyeing me. "We should've knoere walking into a trap a she id for us. What ended up happening?"

  "Lux here mao drive her off!" Strawberry expined, wiggling her ears happily - causing the four of them to stare at me in surprise. "The two of them were actually pretty bad forth, holy."

  "You took Eris on alone, without a team?" The spearman grinned. "Respect."

  "I mean, I kinda got the drop on her and didn't let her monologue. Just rode the momentum I guess." I sighed, grinning. "Then again, she still mao give me one hell of a beating."

  It retty obvious in hindsight that she'd been holding bae in a major way. If she'd just rushed me the way she did towards the end, I wouldn't have been able to keep up with her skills in cle.

  If she hadn't been such a showboat, I wouldn't have been able to pull the rug out from under her like that.

  Although, in the end, she'd been the oo get away while leaving us a colossal mess to up. And there was the likely possibility that... Dark Princess Eris likely wasn't her true identity either. There was something she was hiding.

  I wasn't sure why, but there was a feeling that tugged at my mind.

  Something to do with that aura fluctuation and the rea she had when I used Hopeful Heart Alchemy.

  She'd reized the ability I borrowed from Nightingale Eclipse. I was certain of it.

  And she'd dropped the Eris persona and became serious when I briefly disrupted whatever illusion she was using. A disruption that sted just enough to show me raspberry pink hair before she refocused it.

  ...Before she summoned a wand eerily simir to Arcadia Vox's iid. And used it to attack me with an attack that wasly her Heartfelt Bloom, but damned close.

  Something was definitely going on here.

  I would have to iigate this further.

  "Looks like the crisis is over. Might want to hose that shit off," I sighed, gesturing at the thick, spicy, delicious-smelling substahat dripped off of them. "I'm Harmonia Lux, by the way."

  The blonde girl with the sabers approached me. "I'm Menia Aucir - Chevalier de Plei."

  She looked at her sticky hands awkwardly, deing to offer me a handshake, and I ughed nervously.

  The spearman walked up behihe butt of his spear against the ground. "Yuzuki, Samurai of the Seven Moons."

  They stared at each other for a moment, and the two of them high-fived as if they'd do a dozen times, before ging as their hands stuically glued together.

  Their names were so... flowery. Colorful.

  Finally, the girl with the long blue hair and flowing blue dress shook her head, sitting down on a park bench. "Azraq. Prima Ballerina of the Blue Danube."

  "I love your hey're so... fairytale-like," I said in amusement.

  Gear chuckled. "Puh-lease. You ever meet a samurai named Samurai of the Seven Moons?"

  I bit back a grin as Gear and Yuzuki gred at each other.

  It was almost like I'd stumbled onto a unity of sorts here. I was... genuinely afraid I wouldn't make any friends here other than Al, but seeing everyoerag and joking around was f.

  Well, now I just had to get to my dorm and up.

  Just when I thought I had enough oddities and adventures for one day, I sensed a rge energy signature suddenly rushing towards the campus with incredible speed.

  Uh oh.

  "Lux? What's up?" Strawberry asked me with a worried look.

  "Pretty sure that's some of the uppercssmen ing back from the i downtown. They probably heard there was a otion up here."

  She looked around in fusion. "O-kay... But why are you so worried?"

  "Because..." I ughed sheepishly. "These guys be a little... much."

  Currant perked up, gng at me. "Wait, what?"

  "Luminary Barrier."

  I deadpanned my skill, creating an artificial nding zone in the middle of the now virtually-empty ons.

  "Brace yourselves," I deadpanned again.

  There was a sudden rush of air, and four radiant streaks of light raced over the campus. A raucous chorus of ughter echoed through the air as they circled around us, virtually creating a tornado of sound and light.

  Then, all four of them simultaneously smmed into the ground in an explosion of dust and debris that filled the ring I created with my Luminary Barrier. Through the cloud of dust, I could make out four distinct shapes, and I felt a grin tug at my lips.

  The students around me looked at each other in fusion, and I ughed, rubbing the bay neck.

  Eris had been a thorn in my side sihe moment she showed up. She'd ruined a perfectly good pair of shoes, and I still hadn't fiven her for that. Even more than that, she had put me through a brawl that had left me drained and exhausted.

  But if anything could cheer a girl up...

  I groaned, shaking my head as the suspense built up. As expected, four shadowy silhouettes slowly came into focus, already positioned in a dramatic group pose.

  "When the cries of fair maidens ring out, we shall rise to the call..."

  I giggled, reizing the frantic, almost Shakespearean ce of a boy who had... probably spent way too much time going to renaissance fairs.

  "Hey Strawberry?" I grinned.

  "Y-yeah? What's up, Lux?"

  "How do you feel about... himbos?"

  Her ears drooped as her red eyes lit up in curiosity. "Wh-what?"

  "When the dark clouds gather on the horizon, we shall shih the light hteousness..." a deep baritone voice followed the first.

  The silhouettes in front of us began to e into focus, and I couldn't help but smile.

  "Corre, Strawberry..."

  "And if the moon and stars are obscured by shadow, we shall light a path for those who ot see!" a perky, boyish voice tinued.

  "What the hell..." she muttered. "They're..."

  I smirked. "Yep."

  ...

  "Magical Himbos."