I raised my hand and turned my head to survey the rest of the class. There was only one other student without a partner, so it should have been obvious who my partner would be. Even so, one student sitting in the center row held his hand up and did a little wave when our eyes met. I moved to gather my things and relocate to his seat as the rest of the first-years did. Before I could stand, he was already walking down the aisle towards me.

"You can stay where you are," he smiled. "I am fully capable of moving down a few rows myself. Besides, as your new mentor, I wouldn't want you to go through the hassle."

"Thanks," I smiled back at him and settled in once more. "It's nice to meet you, Thoma."

"You too, Lumine. I look forward to working with you."

Looking at him up close, I couldn't help but be reminded of a certain someone. Sure, Thoma's hair was a bit more blond and his eyes were a pretty olive rather than ocean blue, but the resemblance was still there. Could he be related to Childe in some way?

"This might be odd." Thoma looked at me carefully. "But have we met before? You look familiar."

"I was just about to ask if you had a brother," I responded in earnest. "I'm pretty sure this is the first time you and I have met, though."

He pulled back and looked up thoughtfully. "A brother? Last I checked, I was an only child."

"Are you sure?"

Thoma laughed. "Positive. Why? Do you have somebody in mind?"

"His name is Childe. He's tall, about your height. Ginger hair, blue eyes, Hydro Vision, super arrogant."

Thoma's face lit up with recognition, but there was another reaction there that I couldn't quite place. "Oh, you mean Tartaglia."

"Right," I forgot that's how most students referred to him.

"I can't say I don't know him." Thoma furrowed his brows. "He has quite the notorious reputation among the student body, and not for good reason. Do I really remind you of him?"

I shook my head and held up my hands. "Not in that way. Just in appearance."

"That's good," he sighed. "Being associated with Tartaglia doesn't usually end up well for anyone. He's an incredible force, and I admire his drive to constantly achieve and grow stronger. Sometimes his power can be quite frightening." Thoma scratched his head. "I'm afraid someone might get seriously hurt because of him one of these days."

I didn't say anything as I let Thoma's words sink in. From what I've heard from students so far, Childe really does seem like a force to be reckoned with. Though, he's been nothing but welcoming to me—albeit a bit too eager for battle. Now that I start to think about it, Kaeya might not be the only one with secrets. There's got to be some reason why Childe is so convinced I'm worthy enough to go up against him in battle.

"Okay, class," Professor Minci called our attention and I temporarily let go of my thoughts. "Now that you and your partner have gotten to know each other for a bit, let's jump straight into today's lesson: an overview of the seven elements."

She picked up a piece of chalk and began to draw a set of seven symbols in a circle. I recognized them to represent the elements in question.

"First, we have Pyro." She pointed to the Pyro symbol. "Can all the Pyro users in the room please raise their hand?"

Several students lifted their hands, including Thoma.

"I see there are quite a few of you. Thoma, please tell us about Pyro."

"Pyro is the element attributed to fire," he began without hesitation. "When interacting with other elements, Pyro can trigger a different set of elemental reactions. Vaporize occurs with Hydro, overload occurs with Electro, burning occurs with Dendro, and melt occurs with Cryo. Pyro can also be swirled with Anemo and crystallized with Geo."

"Well done, Thoma." Professor Minci nodded towards him appreciatively. "We are just covering the basics today, so you all do not need to know the specifics of each reaction. Next, will all of our Hydro students please raise their hand?"

Time continued with Professor Minci announcing an element and calling on a student with that element's Vision. I noticed that there were more Pyro and Cryo users than any of the other elements, but nobody else had gone in nearly as much depth as Thoma had. I copied down the circular format of the elements on the board and listed the element attributes as quickly as I could.

"Now that we have covered each element, we can move on to reactions." She used the chalk to draw lines connecting Pyro to the other elements. "As mentioned earlier, Pyro is necessary for these following reactions."

She attached the names of the elemental reactions along each corresponding line, and I did my best to create a similar diagram in my notebook. There were a lot of reactions, though, and this was just the first element. I tried erasing and redrawing some of the elements to be further apart to make more room, but eventually settled on a semi-squished image. Staring at my messy drawing, I shrugged in defeat. As long as I could tell what I wrote down, this should be fine.

"With Cryo, we have the following reactions." Professor Minci grabbed another piece of chalk of a different color and made more lines. "Frozen with Hydro, electro-charge with Electro, swirl with Anemo, crystallize with Geo, and the aforementioned vaporize with Pyro."

More notes. Less space. I tried not to panic as the professor moved on to the next element. Luckily, Anemo was a breeze as there was only one reaction for four of the other elements. I thought of creating a sidenote that Geo and Dendro do not apply, but the real estate of my page said no.

The following reactions for Hydro, Electro, Dendro, Cryo, and Geo passed by all too quickly. I flexed my right hand to prevent it from cramping up after furiously taking notes the entire time. Staring down at the finished page, it hardly compared to the carefully structured diagram on the board.

"I trust you've all been taking diligent notes on this subject." She surveyed the class. "You can pick up the textbook for this course on your way out. I have them here by the door," she walked over to the stack of books. "The information in the book is the same, but not presented as-is in lecture. You will have a quiz on elemental reactions at the end of the week, so study well."

"How are you holding up?" Thoma leaned over and glanced at my notes.

I shielded my poor scribbles. "Don't look. It's a work in progress."

"This class is fast-paced. It can be hard to keep up." He turned to dig in his bag. "Luckily for you, I brought my old notes from last year. Take them. They should be useful for the quiz."

He pulled out a well-worn notebook and opened to the very first page, revealing an elemental reaction diagram evenly spaced out with clean lines and color-coding. It was even more impeccable than the one Professor Minci had produced.

"Your notes are gorgeous," I gaped. "Are you sure you won't need these?"

He shrugged. "It's hard to forget about elemental reactions once you learn to use them in your favor. Taking notes is only half the battle. Practicing with your Vision is key, just as Minci was talking about earlier."

For the first time, an uneasy feeling settled in my gut at the mention of not having a Vision. Normally, I wouldn't have labeled my lack of Vision to be a setback, but it's different now that I'd be working with Thoma and his grade might be affected.

"About that," I cleared my throat. "You've probably realized, but I don't have a Vision to harness any elemental power. This is probably a huge inconvenience for you, especially since we'll be working together for the rest of the semester. I understand if you feel like it's too much of a struggle, and we can absolutely try to work something out with—"

"Lumine, it's okay," Thoma interrupted and slid his notebook towards me. "It doesn't matter if you don't have a Vision. I'm sorry, it was insensitive of me to talk about something like that. We'll be fine working together. I promise."

I took a calming breath. "Really?"

"You're not the first student to go through this class without a Vision. We can double-down on studying the elemental reactions together outside of class, if necessary."

"Are you sure? You're being a huge help already with lending me your old notes. I can take these, study on my own, and give them back right after the quiz. I don't want to burden you with any more work than I already am."

"You're not going to be a burden." Thoma placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "I'm your mentor. It's part of my role to help out, but it's also something that I want to do for you. Since we'll be spending so much time together, I'm your new buddy—as long as that's okay with you, of course!"

"I would like that," I said after a moment. "You're the best, Thoma. I got really lucky with this whole partner thing, huh?"

He poked at my notebook. "Don't sell yourself short. If you continue this class with just half of the dedication you put into today's lecture, I'm sure you'll surprise both of us with how much you can accomplish."

I picked up Thoma's old notes with great care. "I'll keep this safe. I guard it with my life, even."

"That's the spirit." He grinned and shuffled his things together. "We should leave before the next class shows up. Come on, I'll grab you a textbook."

"I'll grab you a textbook." I slipped past him and took two copies from the pile. "Can't have you doing everything in this pairing. It'll make my evaluation look bad."

"Sure, sure," he grinned and accepted the book. "Where's your next class? I have lunch now, so I'm free to walk you over."

"History. It's in this building—just a few floors up."

"With Professor Morax?"

I tried to recall the details of my schedule. "I think so."

"He's a real delight." Thoma held the door open for me before exiting the lecture room. "Morax has the most interesting stories to tell. It's as if he's lived a long life, but he doesn't have a single grey hair."

"Is it paced anything like Vision Studies is?" I asked with a bit of worry.

"Not at all." He shook his head. "The class material is slow and gets a bit dry sometimes, but such is necessary to cover important details."

"Hopefully, I don't fall asleep."

"Listening to Professor Morax speak never gets dull," Thoma added. "You'll see."