SHINOBI In A World Of Magic

'That was big sis! How could she act so..... girly!?' Yohan was stunned at the effeminate behavior his sister exhibited right before his very eyes. If anything she was willful and a combat maniac that wasn't cut out for romance, in fact Yohan could never have imagined Amber being capable of acting the feminine counterpart in a couple's relationship. Heck, he didn't even see any feminine charms which would elicit someone's romantic interest towards her, probably because he was her brother.

"Achoo!" Amber sneezed. 'Is someone talking about me behind my back?' she thought as she continued her getaway.

Cain -Amber's initial rival on arrival to Advent and probably the most unlikely candidate to become Amber's boyfriend in Yohan's book- stood frozen in place, staring in the direction to where Amber had scurried off to. A solid 30 seconds passed before he finally shook his head in disbelief and walked dazed towards the dorms with his right hand held close to his face.

Yohan was still mulling it over, he entered another entrance to a different dorm. The dorms were separated into years, making 6 dorm buildings for each gender on campus. The elite and standard course students were integrated together into three floors.

Each dorm room was assigned to one student and was essentially like a studio apartment in that it was an open plan room with a tiny open corner kitchen with the kitchen counter which is capable of being used as a dining table near the entrance and a separate room bathroom opposite it. The bed, dressers, etc was in one corner while a a small couch and coffee table which acted as the living room took up another space conveniently placed so you could walk directly into the kitchen. The walls were concrete and the floor was tiled which gave an overall simplistic yet futuristic vibe since it had an interface on the wall at the entrance of the dorm room. It was a bit over the top for a high school student, but for prospective mages in a major magic academy it was standard.

Yohan took a shower and decided to go to the combat center to spectate. He was feeling lazy and wanted to watch some people go at it in the combat center.

The combat center allowed for students to settle disputes, rise in ranking, sparring, etc. It was open for many students to use. There was going to be ranking matches soon which pitted people against each other in both standard and elite courses for his year only since they haven't formally established the combat hierarchy yet.

The major magic academies were going to participate in a series of friendly matches between newly enrolled students at the end of the week which displayed the talents which had enrolled into their respective schools. The combat instructors couldn't wait for the formal ranking matches at the end of the month which set the rankings of each student and needed to handpick a few of them. Some of them who had watched the combat exams had some understanding of their abilities but, that was just a few matches and some of them might not have fully displayed their abilities since they were matched against similar elements or counters making them unlucky in the match-making since they wouldn't have much impressions compared to Yohan, Snow, Klara, etc.

There were 6 different arenas available for use, Yohan looked at 6 different large screens which displayed who was fighting who with their profiles and live video footage of the arena they are fighting or will be fighting in. Yohan saw a fairly larger crowd heading towards arena 5 so he decided to tag along.

He walked into an arena which had a large amount of spectators seated and impatient for the next match.

"I bet on Xavier!" "I bet on Hiro!" "How much?" "$5." "You're on!" There was a group who were engaging in another activity in anticipation.

Two senior boys, one elf and one cat-kin walked out into the arena to which a robotic voice announced the combatants after which they began to fight. Yohan quietly watched along with the cheering crowd. Their fight was indeed entertaining, the crowds spurred on, a couple of girls outright called out their names, probably their girlfriends.

Yohan enjoyed watching their fight, he could learn a few things from them since they looked to be from the 3rd year and were using low-tier magic.

"I've seen you haven't been slacking Hiro!" "Heh, I'm not serious yet." As they exchanged blows they exchanged words in the arena which were hardly audible to the crowd. The fight ended with Xavier's win, with a few disappointed gamblers here and there.

"Next match! 3rd Year, Rank 11 Ashley Proudmoore versus 3rd Year, Rank 15 Rebecca Quinn " The robotic voice resounded.

"It's principal Proudmoore's daughter!" "She's as beautiful as ever." "I wish I could date her." "Dream on unless you have a death wish." "Yeah the principal has such high standards" "Not to mention he's very overprotective." A group of enamored guys whispered among themselves near Yohan. The girl was none other than the girl who he had bumped into. Ashley wielded a mage's magic staff which had a large magical gem which gleamed a greenish yellow hue which was grasped by branches on one end. Her opponent wielded a sword embedded with a small magic gem and a rune. Rebecca was indeed pretty but her appearance was still overshadowed by Ashley's own beauty and *ahem* m.a.t.u.r.e *ahem* figure for her age.

Ashley looks about and sees Yohan on the stands and shot a slightly mischievous smile, wink and a wave directed towards him.

"Woah she waved at me!" "Nah, you're blind, she waved at me." Yohan was a bit surprised at the discord she could produce with so little gestures. Yohan didn't take it to heart and just assumed that it was meant for someone who was behind or around him and he was caught in the general direction of her gesture since they didn't know each other personally so he continued spectating with a deadpan face.

Ashley didn't dwell on Yohan's lack of response since the match was about to begin. She pointed her magic staff at her opponent cautiously. The match counted down, everyone was on the edge of their seats.

Rebecca dashed towards Ashley in a zigzag pattern. Ashley chanted [Lightning Bolt] and an arc of yellowish green lightning shot forth from her magic staff towards Rebecca and narrowly missed her. Yohan was surprised at the unusual color but continued watching. The duel continued with Ashley wisely retreating while continuing to chant [Lightning bolt] a few times at intervals of 5 to 10 seconds. As Rebecca approached she continued to feint movement and evade. However as Rebecca approached Ashley, the error in the trajectory of the lightning bolts due to angles became less notable and she was dodging with a hair's breadth. Rebecca felt goosebumps as the lightning streaked passed her peripheral vision with the audible thunder from ahead and sound from lightning bolt impacts from behind made her feel as if she was in a war zone. Very soon Rebecca had to come at a wider angles but, she couldn't close the distance and eventually the lightning struck her and afterwards worn down by Ashley who was announced the winner. Ashley helped Rebecca up and exchanged pleasantries while exiting the sights of the crowd who had erupted with cheers.

Yohan enjoyed watching a couple more matches before leisurely heading back to his dorm room. There was an interface on the wall at the front door. Yohan walked to the interface on the wall which displayed many functions like air condition, call function and ordering food. Yohan went to select a dinner option he wished for and it appeared on top of the kitchen counter through a magical circle.

Magic transferring circles have no problem with transferring objects between them but there are a few limitations when doing so such as that you needed the circles to be at both places, you can't transfer living things and you can't transfer magical items, since the magic circle would destroy the magical integrity within them to power itself when activated. Though this was nonetheless convenient for commerce which made prices lower for most products, so that along with being subsidized by the government allowed the magic academies to have fairly low tuition fees establishing these institutions firmly as meritocracies. Tech and magic have integrated allowing Humanity to have these conveniences.

Magic provided another way of observing phenomenon at the molecular level which helped facilitate understanding the regularities of their universe much better, however it differed from our reality since mana was fairly integrated within the regularities, some more than others. A reality where a pervasive super fluid resembling our close outdated notion of 'aether' which is mana in this case, to put things as an analogy.

Yohan ate and went to bed. He remembered the earlier Amber and Cain incident when he returned to the dorms and didn't want to come to conclusions but, a kiss strongly suggests a certain degree of intimacy between both parties.

'Well I would need to get to the bottom of what their true relationship is, and if it is what I think it is.... I think would need a word with Cain.' Yohan thought before dozing off.

Meanwhile a sneezing Cain felt a cold wind blowing down his spine.