CH23 (153), End Of The First Term

'Finally' was the biggest of my thoughts after Ms. Yu finished her class. I began packing up my stuff happy to be done for the day since this was the last class of today for me. That today was Dialday, 30.24.2178, which was also the last day of the first term was a doubly happy occasion.

We now had a month-long holiday and the classes were going to resume on Arcday the 01.26.2178. If anyone had told me that 5 months of lessons was ever going to be the first of six terms of my school/academy year, I would have told him or her to get lost but now that was my reality.

The last nearly two months since I started my aura-centric lessons with my third-year classmates went by pretty calmly. "Meditation III", "Emotion Sensing II", "Aura Sensing II", "Aura Speech II", "Internal Aura Manipulation", and "Combat Preparation" were all my aura-centric classes.

The content for all subjects, except maybe for "Combat Preparation", was pretty obvious and they all turned out somewhat useful for me too. I'll skip going over "Meditation III", "Emotion Sensing II", "Aura Sensing II", and "Aura Speech II" since those lessons were pretty basic and completely within my expectations.

As for "Internal Aura Manipulation", I had 15 more double lessons since my first class and 11 of those were still on enhancing the eyes. The last one was used for a written exam, which I obviously aced, and the 4 lessons before that were practical ones, where we tried to enhance our eyes under supervision.

Ms. Yu did bring along a Tier 4 assistant for those practical lessons and they supervised us together. Turns out Ms. Yu was at the top of Tier 3, so she could have done the practical lesson on her own, but she still applied for help so that two students could be given attention at once.

This allowed me and my classmates to perform the exercise more often than we would have otherwise. At least that was the case for those that had reached Tier 1 First-Class at the time, which was the case for 15 of my 21 classmates. The other six simply observed the rest.

Luckily, for them, those were not the only chances to practice enhancing our eyes since Ms. Yu said that the last term was a practical one, where we practiced all the enhancement methods we learned over the year.

So, those who did not get to practice at all, or those who did not receive permission to practice without supervision from Ms. Yu or her assistant by the end of the practical lessons could still practice during the last term. However, only 5 of us, myself included, did get that permission.

I used the first two lessons under supervision to "reach" my actual vision limit, which was 2.8 times the distance and improved it to 3.2 times during the third day. I used the last day to improve my visual speed perception.

I only brought it up from 1.1 to 1.3 times but I got the go-ahead from Ms. Yu to improve it on my own. I had tried that one on my own before as well, but I hadn't made much progress after I became temporarily blind after one of my tries, which was why it was at 1.1 times.

Some subconscious fear was probably the reason why I didn't focus on that anymore afterward, but I managed to overcome the fear after improving under supervision. At least I hope I managed to overcome whatever subconscious fear I had.

Anyway, the 4 lessons after the exam were on enhancing our hearing, which I had honestly not tried before since I thought it wasn't that interesting.

Nonetheless, the lessons turned out more interesting than I thought. I had to admit that I had underestimated enhanced hearing. I knew that it did not consist of only a wider hearing range, but also selective hearing, and perceiving of higher or lower frequencies.

However, one tended to look down on those even knowing that Daredevil or even Superman used those abilities. Still, the lessons went more into detail on the how and what happened as a result, which improved my opinion on enhanced hearing.

The last one about frequencies was apparently really useful in combination with our next topic once we were done with the current one, enhancing our vocal cords. On a side note, another one of my classmates managed to reach Tier 1 First-Class, so the number went up to 16 of 21.

Speaking of Tier 1 First-Class Aura Users, "Combat Preparation" was a subject that was related to "Internal Aura Manipulation". It focused on close combat and the use of internal aura manipulation to improve one's combat abilities.

The lessons were semi-practical with alternating theory and practice lessons. The theory lessons went over the most practical ways that internal aura manipulation could be used during combat, while we practiced applying them during the practical lessons.

Funnily enough, no kind of real combat happened until now. According to Mr. Koetsuji our "Combat Preparation" teacher, we would only start sparring during the last two terms.

Anyway, while I was thinking about the last two months I finished packing up everything. I saw Weiss and Ace move towards me, so I stood up and moved towards them as well.

Those two were the only ones I bothered to befriend from my class, the others simply became acquaintances and the reason for that was simple. The fact that I was "better" than nearly all of them in our classes became apparent pretty quickly and Weiss, as well as Ace, were the only two that genuinely did not care about that.

They kept doing their best and just treated me "normally". That our performances in class were "equal" was another factor. In short, they didn't care how good I was and treated me like a "normal" person, and while I would not list them among my exclusive list of "real" friends yet, we did become regular friends.

I didn't have that many of those either, so that much was pretty good too. Whether we would become "real" friends would show in the future, but they did qualify in my opinion.

"Yo, Mikail./Mikail." Ace and Weiss greeted me simultaneously in a happy tone, evidently happy about the start of the holidays as well.

"Ace. Weiss. I can practically feel your happiness upon seeing my handsome face, and I am flattered, but Ace I'm sorry, I don't see you like that." I returned their greetings and teased Ace a bit while I was at it.

My response made Weiss laugh, while Ace protested vehemently, which made me laugh as well.

"Any plans for the holidays?" I asked both while we made our way out of the room and received immediate nods.

"I'm returning home on Grouday. My pops managed to get a vacation for once, so we're going to spend the holidays together," came from Ace.

Well, I had expected him to go home during the break to accompany his mom. That his dad was at home during the holidays too was just the cherry on top.

Ace had obviously told me stuff about himself during these 2 months and some things about his family and where he was from were included in this.

The name of his mother was Rouge, and she was an Expert-class trainer turned housewife. They lived in Bluetiful City, one of the two man/pokemon made Tier 6 cities of Kanto that were located on the sea.

His father's name was Gold Roger, and he was a Vice-Admiral, which was equal to a Major General. This was the 2nd highest military rank in the region, the 3rd highest on the continent, and the 4th highest in the world.

According to Ace, his father was one of the "pretty recent" Champion-class trainers, if something that happened nearly 10 years ago can be called "pretty recent". Roger was also apparently a water-type specialist, which was not that surprising.

I did have to say that when I heard about Ace's mother and father for the first time I gaped. Ace probably thought I gaped because of his father's name and he was right just for the wrong reasons.

I mean, before me stood an Ace, whose mother was named Rouge and whose father was Gold Roger. I couldn't believe the coincidences I kept coming across.

In my defense, the reason I didn't make the connection just by his name and looks was that he wasn't that recognizable without his hat, clothes, or rather lack of clothes, and all his tattoos.

Brown eyes and black hair were pretty common. Furthermore, his black hair was not as long as in One Piece, since he had a crew cut. He wasn't as tall either, at 175 cm, since he wasn't fully grown yet. The only things that could have maybe helped were his freckles and those weren't something that rare either.

"I'm returning home on Grouday as well. What about you?" Weiss added shortly after Ace which roused me from my musings.

Weiss having to return home was not a surprise as well. From what she told me she was a member of the Schnee family from Seafoam Island. The Schnee family was a clan of Ice-Elementalists and ice-type trainers, and since Weiss was talented in both aura and the ice element, she had to return to Seafoam Island during the holidays.

This was so that her family/clan could make sure she hadn't slacked off in her ice training and to continue her training in said element. As far as her direct family members were concerned, her mother, Willow, was a "retired" ACE-Class ice-type specialist, while her father, Jacques, was a Tier 4 Ice-Elementalist and Elite-Class ice-type specialist.

She also had a big sister, Winter, that was older by 12 years, who was currently a Tier 2 (First-Class) Ice-Elementalist. She was also an Expert-Class ice-type specialist, that wasn't too far off from reaching ACE-class.

In short, the poor girl had a lot of expectations and burdens heaped upon her shoulders by others. That she didn't buckle or stumble under that burden made me respect her quite a bit.

"Cool, I hope you enjoy your time at home. As for me, my parents are going to come over sometime around Kyoday evening and are going to stay for the whole holiday." I told them and they nodded.

"Hmm, seems like tomorrow's the last day we could meet before classes resume." Ace said to which Weiss and I nodded.

"How about meeting tomorrow for a few "practice" battles? I know a good place we could hold our battles and since it's outside the campus as well as academy time we won't have to make an appointment with any staff member." He continued and I immediately agreed while Weiss made some thinking sounds, showing that she was considering it.

"You know what, why not?" She agreed shortly after we left the building.

"Where and at what time should we meet?" She asked right after she agreed.

"How about meeting in front of my house at 1 p.m? That should give us a few hours to battle and for some lunch if you want to have one." I offered, obviously not just because it would allow me to relax until they arrived.

"Great./Sure." The two agreed to my offer, just as we arrived at the gate of the academy.

"Alright. I'll see you two tomorrow then." Ace said, to which Weiss and I responded with an "until tomorrow" before we went our separate ways.

I obviously made my way home and the other two probably did the same. I knew that both were living in one of the academy-owned apartments I had seen during our house hunt.

As for our battles tomorrow, those were not going to be too boring. Both Ace and Weiss had some rather strong Pokemon since they received some Pokemon from their families during their childhood.

So, in addition to the Academy-given Pokemon, they had some older ones as well. In Ace's case, he currently had 3 Pokemon. He got his first one from his father when turned 5. A Totodile which had become a Feraligatr at the (mid) silver stage since then.

He also had a Ninetales at the (high) bronze stage, which evolved from a Vulpix he received from his mother on his 6th birthday. Ace's final Pokemon was a Mienfoo he chose from the academy at the end of his first year, which had since reached the (mid) bronze stage.

Weiss on the other hand had 4 Pokemon. Her first Pokemon was a (high) silver-stage (Alolan) Ninetales, that evolved from an (Alolan) Vulpix she received on her 4th birthday. The second one was a (mid) silver-stage Dewgong that evolved from a Seel she received on her 6th birthday.

Number 3 was a (high) bronze stage Jinx, that evolved from a Smoochum she received on her 8th birthday, and her last Pokemon was a (mid) bronze stage Buneary she received during the beginning of her second year.

All in all, they probably belonged to the top of their age group. Anyway, I still had until tomorrow at 1 p.m to consider who to use, so that the battles didn't turn too one-sided.

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