"Oi, Azur! Wake the hell up and get ready your shit in ten minutes!"

Katlin was met with nothing but silence for a few moments—then, the black-haired girl beside her opened her eyes, groggy from the haze hanging over her eyes—and Azur grabbed the nearest item next to her and flung it at the Constellation next to her.

"No one tells me to wake up," the teenager sighed—she seemed to be oblivious to the fact that her friend was reeling from the pillow that had just slammed into her face. "Still, out of consideration that it's the first day of school…fine."

She climbed out of bed—albeit reluctant—just as a Zodiac walked into the room, taking one glance at the two girls before scowling and throwing two muffins towards them.

Vani sighed—she'd already changed for class—and walked over, throwing a glare at Katlin and forcing the older girl to move to one side. "What did I tell you?" she muttered. "Star Patron is a school for protecting Constellations and Zodiacs. If you won't follow the rules, then I regret ever introducing you both to the school in the first place."

With that, she ran her fingers across the harp in her hands—and a hand of water appeared in the air, grabbing on to Azur and throwing the girl out of her recluse. "Seven more minutes before class starts—good luck. You won't be missing much, but I'd like to get there on time to see my team."

Shouting a muffled "screw you" after the Zodiac's disappearing figure, the raven-haired teenager—somehow, she represented Aquila despite her personality—clambered out of her bed and reaching out for the pile of clothes in front of her.

"I guess we should be more excited," she commented. "I mean, we're a new batch of students—and we'll actually be able to have fun and all that shit."

"And this sounds like a cliched line straight from some movie," Katlin mumbled in response. "But you're right. Star Patron does sound exciting—and, according to Vani, there are people even stronger than me here. That's a first."

Azur stood up, making a beeline for the small bathroom as she thought out a witty reply. "Are you sure?" she teased, conjuring a small hovercraft out of the surrounding air and gliding through the door with ease. "Because the last time I checked, Vani kind of crushed you in a battle."

"T—That…That never happened."

• • •

The two of them had ended up being five minutes late—from what Vani had said, they'd expected some kind of punishment—but the supervisor just sighed, as if he was used to that sort of thing happening, and waved them off to the noticeboard.

"Adan!" The Aquila waved frantically as she spotted her red-haired friend—another rookie amongst them—and she tiptoed in order to even see over the crowd. "We were late—uh, could you help us check our teams? There're too many people here."

Nodding, the boy looked back up at the large sheet of paper tacked to the wall. "You, Kat and Vani are on Team 2," he read. "Along with someone called Levi and someone else called Shizuka. No idea who they are, though."

"I'm on a different team," he sighed. "You three are lucky you got to be together—the only other newbie here is Calla. Shinju—I've heard of her, at least—has been here for three months, and I have no idea who Nika or Nyxia is."

He was interrupted by someone tapping his shoulder, and he looked down to see a small-sized girl—she could have almost been mistaken for a child, with her large lilac eyes and messy black hair.

"You're Adan?" She tilted her head—and he was intimidated by the soullessness of her purple irises. "I'm Nika, representing Perseus—nice to meet you," she greeted. "I've been here for two years, so I'm among the most experienced in Team 3—I think I'm almost as experienced as Nyxia."

She startled as one of her friends joined the conversation, the tall teenager flashing them a gentle smile. "Ranmaru from Team 1, Pisces," he started, giving a brief introduction to Alan before continuing on. "Nyxia's been here for three years—around the same period of time as me and Christina. She's not here now, though—she's been gone on some mission for months. Apparently, she'll be back within the week, so you may be lucky."

Nika glanced back up at the board. "So you're representing Aries, huh?" Her voice was genuinely curious, and she bounced slightly as she struggled to see over the small crowd. "Cool. Shinju's Gemini—she's really, really strong! And Calla—" she gave up trying to read, falling back down to her original height as someone else blocked her vie. "—dammit."

"It's nice to meet you, anyway," Adan offered. "My friends may be in another team, but it's a great opportunity to expand my social circle."

Nika simply laughed. "We're having a team battle today—it's to get used to our teams…" Her voice trailed off for a moment. "Well, shall we go and find Calla?"

• • •

"Why's your name Levi, though?"

Shizuka narrowed her eyes at the taller boy across her—they were on the same team, yes, but she wanted to know why his name was associated with the creator of jeans. "You know we have to get along," she taunted. "I need to know this. It's going to plague me for the rest of my life."

The older teenager simply let out an exasperated sigh. "I have no idea," he tried to reason. "Do you think I named myself? Maybe my parents were a really big fan of jeans…or something. Anyway, I see our other team members over there—perhaps we can introduce ourselves?"

The Shinigami—also representing Cetus—crossed her arms, obviously dissatisfied with his answer. "I'm letting you off this time," she sighed. "And fine. We can be the first team to have assembled all five members—maybe that way we'll be stronger and more well-known!"

"Team 1's already done with that," Katlin answered, noticing the duo—they weren't too far away, after all—and beckoning her friends over. "Still…both of you look quite strong. We're all newbies, right? I mean, except for Vani."

"I've been here for six months, actually," Shizuka volunteered. "I'm still considered new, but I'm from that era before Nyxia left on a mission. It's become a pretty rare era, if you ask me."

Nyxia's name caught the attention of someone from Team 1—she was pretty sure her name was Kinu—tilted her head as she spoke. "Nyxia?" Her voice was curious, and it fluctuated in pitch—as if she had too much caffeine or something. "I was late arriving to school—and apparently she's back or something."

"Wait, she is?" Ranmaru raised an eyebrow, shooting an expectant glance at the doorway. "She's been gone for five months—all of us weren't even sure if she would come back. I'm going to go and see if she's really here—hey, Christina, come with me!"

"Ooh, she's on our team, right?" Shinju hopped in anticipation, grabbing on to Calla's hand with nearly enough force to shatter her wrist. "I have no idea who she is, but let's go and check out how strong she is! We can drag the rest of our members along too—"

The Virgo next to her simply gave her a pointed glance, carving a sliver of air from the sky and wrapping it over around her teammate's mouth. She turned to Adan—she knew that this guy was their team leader, but he gave off a sort of bad vibe. "Are you going?"

"What type of leader would I be if I didn't?" The Aries gave her a reassuring smile. "Of course I'm going."

• • •

"Nyxia, you didn't tell us you would be returning today."

The twin-tailed girl sighed at Ranmaru's sentence—and her tense grip relaxed once she realised she was back in a familiar setting."Sorry," she apologised, accepting the boy's invitation to actually enter the building. "I was kind of…held up somewhere."

"You're beat up," Christina noted. "It must have been a tough mission—but you can make use of the regeneration spells placed around here, right?"

She nodded, glancing around at the small crowd of people that had grown curious about her arrival. "This place looks different than before," she breathed. "I recognise these new members—they're the ones the Principal told me about, right? I have all their bios here."

"Who are you?" Shinju asked, earning a few murmurs of agreement—most of the newbies were curious about the youthful girl's identity. "I have no idea who you are, and you're on my team. Are you strong? Do—"

"Highest Special Attack in the school," she answered, voice sly as she looked in the Gemini's direction. "Other than that, I have no idea—haven't really measured myself against anyone for five months."

"Cut all that crap," Shizuka shouted, charging in and spotting her friend in the doorway. "We're having a team free-for-all in half an hour. You can fight me, then—we're all different teams and I'm going to slay you. Utterly and completely."

Nyxia smiled. "Interesting," she laughed. "I do hope that these five months actually did something to your strength. And, to my team members…I hope I can measure up to your collective strength."