Victory in defeat

I wake up to the beautiful faces of Juniper and Sara who're worriedly hovering above my hospital bed.

"I wouldn't mind waking up like this every morning."

In unison, the girls exclaim:

"REO?!"

"Well, *COUGH* minus the excruciating pain in my stomach of course."

Sara looks relieved, like somebody just found her missing dog:

"Y-You dummy! Making us worried like that!"

Tears also start swelling up in the corners of Juniper's eyes:

"Reo, you shouldn't have taken that fight… A-Although I did think you were pretty cool…"

Suddenly a huge, buff dude worms his way in between the girls and starts hugging me:

"Reo Bro! I- *SNIFF* I thought you were a goner for a moment there."

"Oh come on Fudo, I won't die that easily… A-Although you better stop hugging me, or I might really start seeing angels soon."

I suddenly hear yet another voice coming from behind Fudo:

"Yeah right, like they would let a chump like you got to heaven~"

"Lance? Don't tell me that my little bro was also worried about me~"

"S-Shut up…"

Aaah, I really like these guys… I couldn't ask for better friends.

I still have some questions though:

"Did I at least get promoted to a new class? I don't remember much about the final verdict."

Lance looks dejected:

"Yeah, they did promote you, but only to wood [III]… Those bastards, even though you deserve to be in the bronze class, you won that bet fair and square!"

Fudo continues:

"Mr. Ito and Mr. Wyatt protested the decision and wanted you to be directly promoted to the bronze class, but Mr. Nakamura and Kaori refused to budge on the issue, saying that it wasn't a 'real' knockout… They said that the best they could do was promote you to the third wood class…"

I breathe a sigh of relieve:

"Pheww, thank god. Seems like they failed to stop my advancement to the wood [III] class. I mean, I didn't actually except Mr. Nakamura to promote me to bronze, I just wanted to make sure that they couldn't protest my promotion to wood [III]. That way, we would all be in the same class togheter."

I give them a cheeky wink and Fudo starts hugging me again before Lance finally manages to pull him off.

After laughing a bunch about the whole situation, Lance suddenly gets more serious:

"Girls, sorry to ask this, but could you please leave us three alone for a moment?"

Sara and Juniper look dissatisfied, but comply after some more prodding from Lance.

…

"Big bro…"

"You know that you don't actually have to call me that right? I was only joking."

"No, I will call you that. I… I decided to follow you Reo. I know you have bigger plans than this… I would like to be a part of those…"

"So what? You want to be my sidekick or something?"

"I'm serious Reo! After today I'm sure! I… I also want to become more powerful… No, I need to become more powerful…"

"I know Lance, I trust you, but you don't have to become my subordinate. We're friends, I owe you a lot, I would love for you to grow stronger."

Seems like Lance is really touched by my words, he looks almost teary eyed:

"R-Reo… Thanks man… Thanks a lot."

"Hey! Don't forget about me! I already owe you a ton Reo, same goes for Lance… I want to pay you guys back!"

"Of course Fudo, we're in this togheter... I can't tell you guys all my secrets yet, it would probably endanger you to know them. All I can tell you right now is that I'm able to get my hands on some pretty special cartridges."

Lance interrupts me:

"No Reo, you don't have to tell us your secret formula or anything, just training with us would already be a huge help."

"It's okay Lance, I trust you guys. I want you two to become powerful Machia in the future and I know a shortcut towards that goal. If you guys bring me a blank orange cartridge, I know a person who can turn it into a very efficient mana cultivation one. It'll get you mana-count up to 1000 real fast."

Now Fudo interjects:

"You sure? That cartridge sounds pretty expensive, don't you want anything in return?"

"All I want from you guys is to trust and support me, I promise to help you reach your dreams if you help me with mine… I haven't told many people this, and you'll probably find it pretty ridiculous, but I'm planning to create my own guild in the future… I would like you guys to join it as founding members when the time comes."

Lance suddenly falls down to one knee, Fudo swiftly following in pursuit.

I was confused by this sudden gesture at first, until Lance started speaking:

"I might not be worth much with my eye like this, but I promise to dedicate the rest of my Machia career to helping you grow that guild!"

Fudo joins in:

"Me too! I'm not very good with words like Lance is, but I'll fight for you and the future of our guild!"

"You guys… Thanks, I mean it. I definitely won't betray your expectations!"

After some more emotions and bro-talk, I finally convince them to leave me alone, so I can rest. I'm still in a lot of pain after all.

Before I can close my eyes though, Juniper suddenly walks into the room.