Power Watches

Arina woke up yet again to her second day in MCA, short for My Caster Academia and like last time, Serena was already up and it made her wonder if she just woke up later or the Mech Caster was just an early bird.

"Definitely the second one." Arina commented as she looked to the desk at her side while her roommate freshened herself up in the shower. For some reason, the school liked using books instead of digital notes which was fine because when they were in the Compartment Bag, it didn't feel even slightly heavy so it was like she didn't even carry them around.

She sighed in relief. The day before, they had almost forgetting that they had been given numerous assignments in every subject and used the rest of the day after heading back from Solike City to complete them.

Luz had another roommate but she decided to come to their room instead to do their homeworks together simply because she had grown closer to them in just two days and had a feeling they were going to become best friends.

Arina placed her hand on the Food Synthesizer and soon appeared a tray of pancakes and syrup with a can of water which she quickly feasted upon as Serena came out of the bathroom in her uniform.

"I'm the one who gets up early, right?" Serena asked, putting on shoes to which the Light Caster responded by nodding her head as she gulped down her food.

* *

Minutes later.

"Alright, all set. Hey! I appreciate you waiting for me this time." Arina remarked while looking in the mirror to see if her hair looked fine and her uniform was all straightened out on her body. Right now, she was really thankful that the school hadn't changed their uniforms back to the regular ugly one as Luz' spell had made them a whole lot better.

"No problem. Now, let's hurry to the main building. They said there is gonna be a morning assembly because of an announcement for the First Years."

"And we definitely don't want to be late for that." Arina and Serena, after making extra sure they had everything they needed for the day of learning intact, rushed out of their room.

Running through the corridors filled with other students and their rooms, they got in touch with Luz who had also had the same idea to run through and out of the dormitory.

"Hehe..." The trio chuckled as they headed out of the dormitory.

The trio finally arrived at the main building, specifically in ths main hall and it looked like they had gotten there on time. All the First Years from every class were gathered there and like a recurring theme, there was a stage at the very front.

  The headmistress walked up the stage instead of using her extravagant entrance, gaining the silence of every single one of the students.

"Hello, aspiring Casters." Although it wasn't in her nature to be this warm in her expression, this was her first year of being the headmistress of the school and she tried her best to somewhat replicate a friendly expression, "Today is the day you will all be receiving your Power Watches."

"These Watches are special magic detection and analysis devices." As she explained it, the homeroom teachers lined up below the stage, in front of the students and opened boxes in their hands and objects resembling wristwatches came out of them and stuck themselves to the student's wrist.

They were all white in color with small square shaped screens in front of them with an interface that allowed the students to interact with them as they quickly got to exploring them.

"These watches will allow you to keep track of your progress as you advance through the stages of power as a Caster. They also have the special feature of identifying those in your vicinity if they are either a Caster, Human, Seraph or although incredibly unlikely, a Demon as well as their respective power stage."

"They will blink purple for Casters, bright yellow for Seraphs, blue for Humans and dark orange for Demons." Ririka finished explaining and took in a deep breath as she exited the stage.

The students however, stayed in the hall as they analyzed their watches.

Arina and her friends quickly figured out that the watches would show arrows pointing in different directions as an option to scan the person nearest to them while it had a seperate arrow icon that they could click that pointed at themselves.

As Arina did just that, clicking on the arrow, Serena snuck up from behind her, trying to steal a glance at her watch but Arina quickly moved two steps back.

"What number do you have?" Serena inquired calmly with her hands folded behind her back.

"Uh... I'd like to see yours first." Arina responded, a bit sheepish after seeing her current Stage displayed on her newly acquired watch.

Without even a hint of embarrassment, the Mech Caster replied with an okay as she raised her arm in the air for display.

[Stage: 2]

Arina was quite astonished as she flickered her wrist a bit in excitement before calmly showing hers as well which was the exact same thing.

But she soon learned through the murmurs that her ears were oh-so attracted to that being at Stage 1 would almost always only be the case of those who had not yet received their Charm along with their first Spell.

So starting off at Stage 2 was normal. However, some lucky individuals were already at Stage 3 and were bragging about it to everyone around them but she didn't care about any of that.

"Whoa! Me too." Luz showed hers as well.

Under the influence of clumsiness, Arina's leg tilted back a bit, prompting her to move backwards slowly and before she knew it, she was falling to the ground. Mid-fall, she remembered vividly that she saw a leg that someone had stuck out, prompting her to fall.

However, before she could hit the ground, she had been caught by someone with black hair wearing a black leather jacket.

"Oh. Thanks, Yuri." Arina reluctantly thanked him as he remobed his arms from her torso, letting go of her and she quickly hopped away but he stopped her by calling out.

With his hands in his pocket oh-so nonchalantly and his face looking away, he asked, "So, what number did you get?"

"Two." She replied, trying to sound as cold as possible. He really hadn't left a good impression about himself on her and it looked like he didn't even care to change it in the slightest bit.

And there he went, walking away from her, insinuating that the conversation was over and reluctantly, this time, she was the one who called out to him.

"What number did you get?" She emphasized the word 'you' in a partially annoyed tone.

Without even looking back, he just raised up his wrist ro give her a clear view and she had to squint twice to see if what she was seeing wasn't her eyes playing tricks on her.

[Stage: 4]

Later that day...

"Alright class, later today, you'll be going on your first ever Drach Hunt in the uncleared forest just behind the Academy and for that, you'll need to place yourselves in teams of fives so I'll give you five minutes to make your teams, and then you'll report back to me." Kento finished his long-winded statement and in no time, the students of Class D began forming teams among each other.

"So of course, the three of us are gonna be in the team but who else can we ask." Arina pondered.

Serena rubbed her chin, looking around, "Yeah, we haven't really interacted with anyone else and we can't just choose anyone."

A light bulb switched on in the Light Caster's head as she remembered a girl she had met when she had first stepped into the class. An entire day ago.

"Hey, Kasami. Can you join our team?" Arina asked from across the class.

Kasami was first startled but then went on to shake her head, "Sorry, Arina. I'm already taken."

"Umm... Can I join your team?" A girl with aqua blue hair appeared in front of the trio who had a shy demeanour. It was the Water Caster, Raine Harukaze, simply known as Raine.

"Of course you can." Arina and Luz quickly welcomed her into the group while Serena used a pen and paper to take note of who were in their team.

"Now we just need one more..."

"Can I join?" A boy casually walked to them with a goofy grin. He had dark purple hair with freckles while wearing a casual white T-shirt with his uniform tied around his waist.

The Academy must have been really lenient on the dress code.

"And who are you?" Serena inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm... Zane Yomutzuki, ladies." He replied, giving them a comical bow to which they quickly reacted to by laughing. They welcomed him as part of the team and Serena handed over their team list to Kento.

"Great. All the teams are complete. Note that the Drach Hunting trip will be taking place at 11:40 sharp and you'll be competing against another class. Class A." The Homeroom teacher added.