You will not panic. You will not panic! You were born and raised on the Mouth of Hell, and have not died or turned into a monster. You have lived your entire life with recurring dreams of the life of the King of Evil, without becoming a gibbering wreck of a human being or turning into a total psycho. You have singlehandedly beaten an overgrown octopod with one tentacle stuck in a high voltage socket until it bled ink and eyeball juice! You have faced an ominous, life-drinking shadow monster whose unholy gaze caused paralyzing fear, and withdrawn without completely losing your head! You will not freak out just because a teenaged sorceress knows that you were monitoring her with magic during a fighting match in a public venue! Never mind that girls, teenagers, and sorcerers alike all hate it when other people pry into their affairs and tend to respond disproportionately to such intrusions, or that someone who combines all three traits is likely to respond in an exponentially worse fashion-!

"Hey, kid," Sakaki says, interrupting your carefully controlled not-panic. "Do you know that girl or something? 'Cause that look she was givin' you? Last time I saw anything like that, was when my sister got ticked at me for puttin' a scratch on her bike."

"We haven't actually met," you reply slowly, "but we have a mutual acquaintance. Of sorts. Sensei?"

"Yes, Alex?"

"Remember that big fellow we ran into yesterday?"

Next to you, Cordelia tenses. You hear Briar begin making noises of reassurance.

"I am unlikely to forget anytime soon," your master admits. "Why do you- oh dear."

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure Beryl's the one that was with him right before we came along."

Sakaki's head turns back and forth for a moment. "Trouble?" he finally asks of your teacher.

"It was yesterday," Lu-sensei replies. "I'm uncertain about now. Alex?"

"I don't know if she recognized me or not, sensei, but I'm pretty sure she just sensed me looking at her."

"The whole crowd was looking at her, kid," Sakaki points out. He frowns. "Unless you weren't just using your eyes...?"

You nod. From his earlier remark about you turning into a giant, Sakaki knows that you can use magic, so there's no real point in trying to hide your ability now.

"Lu-sensei tells me that really skilled martial artists can sense when another fighter's watching them. Well, if a magic-user is good enough, he can sense when somebody else is casting spells nearby - especially if they're aimed at him. Or her, in this case."

Sakaki's frown deepens. "You weren't messin' with the match, were you?"

"No! Nothing like that. I was just trying to see how she cast those spells, to get some pointers for developing my own style."

"Ah. Okay, then."

"And you don't think she recognized you?" Lu-sensei asks.

"I didn't use magic near her yesterday," you answer plainly. "And there was at least one wall between us the entire time, which would have messed up any detection spells she tried to cast after she heard us walking by." You recall something, and nervously bite your lower lip. "She might be able to pick out Altria, though. She was using a magic cellphone, and there was that knife... I should probably find her and Ambrose, and let them know what's up. Do you see them anywhere, sensei?"

He doesn't, but your master isn't that tall. Briar is still handling Cordelia.

"Altria?" Sakaki says. "The little blonde that nearly beat the crap outta you in the finals?"

"The same," you admit. "Do you see her, sir?"

"Over there," he says, pointing across the arena with one thick finger. "And don't call me 'sir.'"

"Sorry," you apologize, while looking where Sakaki indicates. And indeed, there is Altria, about halfway across the fifth row from the front. Ambrose is to her left - chatting with a woman less than half his age, possibly even less than a third - and to her right is a Japanese girl a few years older than your British acquaintance. Both girls are carrying on a fairly animated conversation, and the boy sitting on the Japanese girl's other side seems to be taking part as well, as are some of the people in the row behind them.

"And thank you," you add to Sakaki, as you get up from your seat. As you turn towards the aisle, you get a clear look at Cordelia. She isn't freaking out or borderline catatonic like she was for a while yesterday, but the look she gives you is clearly not happy to have heard about Beryl.