Classes were finally done but, even then, the school was still overflowing with students.

Some had club activities and others had their idol practices.

Skip and Chao were no different. Chao went to one of the music rooms to practice her guitar and Skip hopped over to her Photography club with a huge smile.

For the past week, they had been holding special activities: the Picture Challenge. Everyday, a club member would write a theme on the black board and, for the whole afternoon, the members had to photograph only that one theme inside school grounds.

That day's theme was Nature.

Nature seems fairly easy to capture. Take a picture of flowers or the trees and it's practically done. However, those pictures would be way too boring for Skip so she decided to capture something deeper.

As she strolled near the academy's gates, something rammed into her. "THWACK!"

She dived on the floor head first, holding her camera high in the air between her hands.

Skip stood there lying on the ground for a good 5 seconds until someone approached her.

"Are you okay?!" A boy asked with a concerned tone of voice.

Skip brought her arms down and carefully inspected her camera.

"Ah, yes. My camera is fine!"

"I meant you, not the camera though..." The boy offered his hand and Skip got up.

"Me? I'm all good! I'm used to falling all the time!" As if she was actually proud of such a thing, she drew a "V" with her fingers.

"Hey!" The boy turned around and called for a girl standing a few meters away. "Come here and apologize!"

The girl did as she was told and calmly walked towards them.

However, instead of apologizing right away, she sat down on the floor and took out a bunch of tools from her pockets so she could repair some kind of device.

"I'm sorry, Itov Altiui didn't mean to hurt you." The girl conveyed.

Skip's eyes glanced at the drone-like device.

"So this is what bumped into me."

"Yeah, I was one of it's victims too. Twice."

"It's fine~! Skip-chan deeeeesu~! What are your names?"

"I'm Aelic and this is Nullsilver, nice to meet you Skip."

"You guys are school idols, right? I've seen you a few times around the school."

Both nodded.

"Mind if I take a picture?" Skip requested only to receive a positive response.

The aspiring photographer waved them goodbye afterwards and continued on her search for the perfect nature subject.

Walking and running from corner to corner, she soon found what she was looking for behind the Auditorium.

A big pompous tree stood majestically. Sveta was resting underneath with a book on her lap, surrounded by birds. Her hair fluttered on the wind.

Skip immediately captured the scene through her camera lens and continued to admire the beauty of it all.

One bird pecked on Sveta's forehead and the girl glanced over at Skip. It's as if the bird told her there was someone watching her.

"Well, now that I've been discovered, I guess I'll just say hi."

"We meet again, little lamb."

"Can I ask you something?"

Sveta gave the ok.

"Is it really true you can do magic?"

"Ehehe, of course~."

Skip raised an eyebrow.

"It's hard to believe. Science pretty much denies magic."

"Here, I'll show you." There was a grin on the girl's face. She drove her left hand to her skirt's pocket and took a black marker out. Then, she grabbed Skip's right hand and drew a circle with a pentagram on her palm. After whispering some gibberish, a light flickered on Skip's hand giving birth to a blue flame.

"WHOA!" The brown-haired girl jumped backwards in surprise.

Sveta laughed and laughed.

"How...?" Skip analysed the flame carefully. "Is it an illusion? It doesn't burn."

"As long as I draw a magical circuit, recite the spell and infuse it with mana, I can make pretty much anything. I made it so it wouldn't burn you."

"Uuuuh!" Skip was clearly dumbfounded but incredibly curious. "Do I have that mana thing? Could I also do magic?"

"Every living being has mana. Mana is basically life energy. Some spells require more energy than others but yes, as long as you train and recite the spells, even you could cast magic."

Suddenly, someone else walked towards them.

"Skip, hey! Glad I found you! I kinda have a favo-" It was a girl with strawberry blond hair who called out only to freak out with what was developing in front of her eyes. "WAAAAA! SKIP IS ON FIRE! SVETA SET SKIP ON FIRE!" The girl ran away shouting like crazy.

"Oh, shoot! Sorry Sveta, I'll go after her! Talk to you tomorrow~!"

The flame on Skip's hand went *poof*.

"Waaaaaaait, Atsuko-chaaaaan! It's not what you thiiiiiink!"

Soon, Sveta was left alone with the birds again.

"She said she'd talk to me tomorrow..." The girl whispered with a delighted expression on her face.


Obs: Oh man, it was so much fun writing this chapter. xD

Aelic and Nullsilver belong to Ryqoshay and Atsuko is Karai_Sky's creation~.

See you guys on the next chapter! ^w^