A Solution

"Okay, I think that's enough, you Half-Demon." Zake told Yuri as he inwardly sighed out. "The Officials might think a Wild Drach broke into the Academy." He added.

Yuri had gotten frustrated with those Monkey-like Drachs that when he finally grabbed a hold of one of them, he showed them no mercy. He had killed all four of them and had broken some nearby trees in the process.

"Yeah, maybe you're right." Yuri said as he calmed himself down, dimming down the red glow in his eyes before staring at the moon which was still up.

"I may have gone a little bit overboard because of my Demon instincts. I have to find a solution to relaxing them." Yuri thought as he dipped his hand into the Compartment Bag and pulled out a pack of food after settling on the floor with his legs crossed. As he opened it, a delicious and hot smell lingered which Yuri took a whiff of with a rare smile on his face.

Insidd the pack of food was Beef Stew, Yuri's favorite dish.

"Ah!" Yuri sniffed it again in delight before he began to chow down on it with the help of a spoon that was attached to the food pack. This dish was one they served often in the Orphanage he was from and it always helped to relax him but he knew this wasn't a real solution as he couldn't just eat this every time his Demon Instincts kicked in, the Bad ones that is.

"Thanks for coming here, Zake. I may have asked you a bit rudely but you showed up anyway, not a lot of people like putting up with me." Yuri told him as he finished the Beef Stew he was eating.

"Hey, it's no problem, dude." Zake replied to him.

"Alright." Yuri got up from the grass. "Let's go again." Yuri told him.

Zake smirked, "Alright. But I won't be going easy on you any more."

Yuri decided to stop halfway to morning time when he finally achieved part of what he wanted.

[Stage ▪︎7]

* * * *

The next day, the students of Class D were learning how to properly hone their Pure Magic.

"Ha!" Staria released what was a crescent-shaped invisible attack towards Yuri who had to block it.

Yuri in response summoned up the Pure Magic in his body and was able to create a barrier with it and not just a skin-tight one, but a much wider one this time. It goes without saying that Yuri's barrier withstood Staria's attack before Yuri brought it down on her own.

"Good work, Yuri. So far you have been the best in Pure Magic out of everyone in this class. I've seen the students from other classes and even they have a harder time learning this." Kento said as he gave Yuri a thumbs up, to which the Shadow Caster just nodded.

Arina on the other hand was struggling to bring up a barrier.

"Picture Casting: Past Encounter!" Luz released towards Arina at a slower velocity than she normally would.

"Come on, concentrate." Arina told herself. "You should have way more reserves of Pure Magic because of that accident with the Queen or at least a better feeling of it." Arina thought because Raw Magic and Pure Magic consisted of the same materials, it was just that Pure Magic normally dwelled within one's body.

As the Past Encounter came towards Arina, a dim white aura appeared around her and she tried increasing it but it only moved out an inch more. Eventually, Luz' attack made contact with Arina and it hurt Arina, but just to a weaker degree.

"Damnit!" Arina exclaimed as she clenched her fist in frustration.

"Arina, maybe we should take a break." Luz told her but Arina shook her head.

Luz then looked over at Yuri who had gotten it perfectly and even did better and Arina had also saw him and gritted her teeth.

'Why does she feel so pressured to learn this? Her own magic's already powerful enough, is she trying to tap into that form from the War." Luz thought, unaware of the Light Caster's thought.

"Come on, Luz. We are going again." Arina told her with a slight twitch in her eye.

"I don't like this but it is.. kind of exciting. Waku waku." Luz' otaku brain thought as she decided to help her friend with her problems.

After a while, Arina was finally able to get the barrier thing down but it was still weaker than Yuri's.

* * * *

The same day, after classes were over.

"I'll see you back at the dorm later." Ayato waved at Yuri as he left the classroom as Yuri was still packing his things. He had been so focused during the Pure Magic class which they had one more that was the final period that he forgot to pack his books earlier.

As he did, he noticed Luz rush out of the room and had forgotten something by mistake on her desk seat.

Yuri picked it up after packing his own stuff without looking at it and rushed out of the class to catch up to her.

"Hey, Luz! You forgot your eh.." Yuri didn't know what kind of book he had in his hand. It was darkly colored with people resembling Devils or Evil Creatures in the front but with handsome faces. The title was written in a different language but there was another below it that had the words "Deal with the Devil."

"Oh, yeah. My manga, it's called Manga." Luz told him as she waited for Yuri to hand the book over to it but he seemed enchanted by it as he began to open the book.

"Are you interested in it? You can have it if you want." Luz told him as she felf excited that someone else liked Manga. Serena and Arina didn't show any interest in it and the only person that had had been Vanessa.

"Yeah. It's soothing." Yuri told him to which Luz was dumbfounded and made a weird face.

'But that's a horror manga.' Luz wanted to tell him but held her mouth, not wanting to ruin it or take away Yuri's interest by mistake.

"You can keep it and I'll give you the second and third volumes later tomorrow." Luz told him.

"Thanks, Luz." He told her with a small smile shortly playing on his face. Luz told him it was no problem and he began to walk towards his own dorm.

The real reason Yuri wanted to train with Zake was because on the first day, he saw that Arina was at Stage 7 and not too far away from Stage 8 while he himself had just entered Stage 7 the other day when going up against Zake. She used to be two whole Stages higher than her and had moved up two Stages during and after the war which wasn't normal. She had moved two Stages in the short time span of a few months while it would take most Years to do so unless they weren't gifted.

"I need to get much stronger. That's why I pressured myself to learn that Pure Magic Skill." Yuri thought to himself. "I need to get stronger so I can be worthy of Arina's lo.. I mean be her equal."

* * * *

Meanwhile, Arina had been unconsciously having similiar thoughts since she too had a crush on Yuri.

While sitting on her bed, she thought.

"Why does he have to be drop-dead gorgeous anyway?" That was not a conscious thought of Yuri.