After that intense action scene, it's time to tone things down a bit.

"Xavier, it's time to get up now."

"Alright, Mom, just a second."

...What time is it now? 6:15? Holy crap, I'm gonna have to skip breakfast. The bus comes at 6:30.

I get up and put my shirt, jacket, socks and shoes back on and brush my teeth. I'm not moving that fast because I'm still pretty tired from last night, even though the amount of sleep I got should add up to about nine hours. Now I head downstairs to pack my lunch and electronics and head out to the bus stop. The Sun's starting to come up at this point in the day these days, since Daylight Savings Time hasn't started yet. When I get to the bus stop, Erika is already there.

"Hey X, how's it going?" she says.

"Not bad, except that I had to skip breakfast this morning because I slept in too late," I reply. "How about you?"

"I'm alright. I hope nobody else missed the bus today."

Right then the bus drives up to our stop. We get on, and sit in our seats next to Azalea, who looks like she's trying to sleep. We let her do so. Then Darius and Minerva get on at the next stop, and they look just as tired. Looks like this is going to be a quiet morning.

When the bus driver let's us off at the school at 6:55, we get off and go into the cafeteria. Erika goes to the breakfast line, while the rest of us sit at our morning table. I wait until she gets back to start the conversation.

"Everyone get home alright last night?"

Azalea speaks first. "I did, but my mom was awake and seemed to be really worried about me before I got home. She gave me a huge hug when I came into the house."

"I forgot to bring my key," Minerva says. "Had to go in through a window. But no one was awake."

"My little sister woke up and wanted to know where I was," Erika says. "I told her I was on a secret crime-fighting mission. Hopefully nobody will believe either of us."

"My dad woke up when I went into my house," Darius says. "I managed to convince him I was up doing homework. He wasn't very happy with me though."

I fill them in on my situation. "When I got home, my parents were awake in their room, listening to the news on their alarm clock radio. I managed to sneak in without them noticing."

"Well, at this point, it looks like it's probably best that we don't go out at night like that anymore," Azalea says. "That was the second time someone tried to kill us."

"Yeah, you're right, Zay," Minerva says (she calls Azalea that sometimes). "But then when will we use our powers?"

"We're going to have to figure out how to control them better," I say. "If it's possible to summon our souls on command, we should be able to use our abilities more often as well. Try to find an outlet for your essences in any situation."

"That's a good idea for the most part," Azalea says, "but what if I were to get into a fight? It sounds it would be hard to have Kindness when someone's trying to hurt me."

"That...does sound difficult," I tell her. "Maybe there's a way to, like, carry reserve magic with us or something...holy crud, that's exactly it. Monsters have to have magical technology, right?"

"I guess, I mean, Alphys probably would," Darius says.

"So maybe if we're around a device that runs on magic, it would activate our souls!" I say.

"But where would we get something like that?" Erika asks. "Nobody is supposed to know that magic even exists."

"From Ebott City, obviously," I answer. "The Shadow Guard could probably order something for us from there. I'll call them about that later. Until then, find times to activate your souls on your own."

"Alright, we'll do that," Darius says, putting in his earphones. "I'm gonna watch some Vines now."

"Hey that's a good idea," I say, doing the same thing.

Things go pretty normally for most of the day. I work on a concert piece in band, annotate a speech and poem in English, and do thermochemistry in, well, chemistry. Seems like people have sort of forgotten about what happened yesterday. At the beginning of Spanish class, though, Trent comes and talks to me.

"Hey dude, I gotta talk to you for a second," he says, meeting me at my desk.

I sigh. "What do you want, Trent?"

"I just wanted to say you were right about your girl. She really doesn't deserve to end up like my ex. You keep her happy, man."

"Oh...uh...thanks," I respond, having expected nothing like this from him.

"And dude, you gotta show me how to punch like that sometime! Everybody thought you had superpowers or something!" he says, heading back to his desk.

"Uh...maybe sometime," I tell him. Wow, I am an idiot. Why didn't I tell people that I just shoved him or something?

But the real question is, what happened to Trent? He's never seemed like the kind of guy who would apologize to someone who nearly knocked him unconscious, especially when the whole school started talking about it. Could it be possible that...my pure Justice rubbed off on him? Well, class is starting, better think about that later.

Spanish is pretty easy today, so I have time at the end of class to go and talk to Azalea.

"You doing alright over here?" I ask her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she says. "What did Trent say to you earlier?"

"Oh, he basically said he's letting go what happened yesterday. He thinks I punched him or something."

"That's what it felt like to him?"

"I guess. It definitely sounds a lot more believable than 'I have no idea why the guy standing right in front of me suddenly got knocked against the wall.'"

"Yeah, you're right. But why is he giving up on me now? He's been after me for a while."

"I think the Justice may have got to him somehow. It looks like we're making breakthroughs on the power of human souls left and right lately."

"Hey, we are. Maybe we could do something with that knowledge in the future."

"That would be pretty awesome. But humans and monsters have been living together for years now, so those people probably already know this stuff."

"...Yeah, you're right. But most of the world still doesn't understand souls and magic like we do."

"Yeah, this stuff is still pretty awesome."

Then the bell rings, so we go to World History, where we watch a video on revolutions, and then to Algebra, where we take a quiz on exponential functions, and then Azalea, Erika and I go to lunch.

"Guys, I think I did it," Erika says when we meet at our table. "I got a 100 on my algebra test that I took last week, which I studied a lot for, and that filled me with Integrity!"

"Awesome!" I remark. "Did that do anything cool?"

"Well, somehow I knew that I should partner with a certain person to help them with their work, and felt like things would go great if I did, but that was pretty much it. That turned out to be true, though-you do understand something a lot better if you have to explain it to someone else."

"Nice! The more you do that, the easier it should be, right?"

"I guess...but it would probably still help to have more control over our powers."

"Oh yeah, X, did you ask the Shadow Guard about magic devices yet?" Azalea asks me.

"No, I'm planning to do that right after school," I say. "Yesterday they were also eating lunch when I called."

"Alright, then. I can't wait until we can use our powers again!"

I do follow through with that promise; as soon as I get out of my ninth-period band class, I dial up the monsters on my phone and wait for them to pick up.

"...Hello?"

"Hey, this is X, to whom am I speaking?"

"Whimsalot."

"Hey, I've got an idea that could help us fight better. Do they make, like, wristwatches with built in magic reactors or something?"

"Like, a magic watch? Why?"

"Well, magic activates our human souls, right? So it would probably help us out a lot if we had watches that could give off just enough magic to get our souls going. Like, just enough magic to make a tiny light or something. That should work as long as we're wearing the watch."

"Well, actually, I think they do sell something like that back in Ebott City. They're pretty cheap, but they run on these magical batteries that only last about twelve hours, and those are about a dollar each. I'll get some for you guys if you'll pay for the extra batteries."

"That sounds great. How soon can you get them to us?

"Definitely by the end of the week, but it should take a few days, because they'll be traveling hundreds of miles."

"Alright, thanks so much, Again, let us know what we can do to help you guys out. See you later!"

"Bye."

Right then I get out to the bus loop where the others are waiting for me.

"Hey, were you talking to Whimsalot?" Erika asks excitedly. "What did he say?"

"Yeah, he said he would have watches that run magic for us by the end of the week, but we'd have to pay for extra batteries ourselves when the first set dies."

"Heck yes!" Minerva yells. "We're going do so much cool stuff!"

"Yeah, but don't forget that we magic won't do everything for us," Azalea reminds her. "We may need to use our own essences if things get really bad."

"Darn right, we gotta keep working on that," I say as we get on the bus. "The more we use our soul power, the easier it shoule be, because we'll understand the feeling and mindset a little better."

"Okay, so our powers are cool and stuff," Darius says, "but how are we going to beat up armed murderers if some of us can only float and jump around? No offense, either of you two," he says as he gestures to Minerva and Erika.

"He's right, we need to arm ourselves," Erika says. "Practice soul abilities, but don't forget to find some things you can carry around and use as weapons when necessary."

We then chill for the rest of the ride home, but then I get off at Azalea's stop so I can talk to her.

"Hey Azalea, would you want to go shopping this evening or something? "

"Well, I suppose...yeah, sure, but what would we shop for?"

"I was thinking candy or something, but then if we find anything good we could use as a weapon or armor or something, we could get that too. That, and we'd get some time alone together."

"I'd love to go shopping with you tonight. Let's go at 5:00, on our bikes."

"Okay, but remember, we should probably finish our homework before then. See you then!"

"See you, X!"

I head home, ready to get my decent amount of homework for tonight done as fast as possible. Can't keep her waiting.

Another productive school day, huh?

Next chapter, Azalea and X go out on a hot shopping date...for fighting gear!