I was by the clubroom door right after classes ended. There wouldn’t be practical classes for another week, so I didn’t have anything else to do. I didn’t even know what these clubs were even for.

I understood the importance of the lightsaber club, I mean they could always net money- ahem, good experience. But the other clubs? Sports were out of fashion, cooking was outdated and things like study groups were just made for nerds to hang out. It was the sad truth. Long story short, I had no enthusiasm for clubs.

The clubroom doors were shut so I just knocked and waited. After a few minutes it opened and I went in.

“Oh hi, what brings you here today?” It was the same girl that had given me the pair of sabers yesterday. The Amie, girl.

“Oh, I wanted to join the club. I thought about it and I think this club might be suited for me.”

“But admissions isn’t due for another week. Plus you’d need to fill up a form and you even have to have a teacher’s permission.” Amie walked along with me. Her voice was awfully stale and it was almost as though she was uninterested in me.

There weren’t any students in the clubroom today. Just me and her. Maybe last time she was just pretending to be nice in front of others?

“I see. In that case, I’ll just take my leave. Good day.” I smiled and turned to leave.

It wasn’t shocking. This school was a reputed one and it had its regulations. I just wished the captain of this club had wasn’t an overexcited idiot. If there still was a week to go, then why the hell was he even trying to recruit me now? Come to think of it, didn’t the guy come to our class even yesterday?

“So how long have you two been going out? Did you know her from before?” It didn’t take a genius to figure out where Amie was going with this.

“I didn’t and I’m not going out with her. Besides, she’s not my type.” I was being awfully frank, but I was also maybe telling a bit of a lie.

“I see. So this was a prank from her…” Amie quieted down a little. “The swords, how did you like them?” She looked at me and spoke up. Her uninterested tone was gone and replaced by a curious one.

“Oh yeah, they were fine.” I mean, I was used to running around with heavier stuff than this but these two weren’t bad. They were just basic sabers and yet, they weren’t that bad.

“I see. Too bad we don’t have anything to compliment your powers.”

“Compliment? Come to think of it, Blaze said something like that too.” I said to myself. I didn’t realize that I was speaking out loud. A bad habit.

“Well, I still don’t know if it was courageous or stupid of you to fight him but-“She smiled faintly. “You have my respect for standing up for you sister.”

Just how fast did information travel in this school anyway?

“Thank you, I guess?”

She giggled. She seemed to open up a little. She was also in a better mood than before. “What do you think swords are?”

Was she trying to be philosophical or something? I didn’t have time for this.

“Weapons?”

“Fair enough. But not quite. I think they are tools. They can be used as weapons, like you said. But also as toys for enjoyment.” Yup, she was definitely being philosophical. Maybe holding a sword down her throat would have taught her what kind of threats these things actually possessed.

She walked around in front of me. I was still standing by the door looking like a moron. This whole thing just felt a bit stupid.

“Can I g-“Go now, that’s what I wanted to say but Amie’s smiling face made me stop in my tracks.

“You didn’t just fight Blaze, no, you fought his sword too. They were one in that fight and that’s why you lost.”

I scowled. If I was being lectured at for who knows how much longer then the least I could do was gather some information. “What’s his power? Gravity?” It sure felt like gravity.

“Close. He’s like a magnet. And his sword can manipulate electricity. Together, they’re invincible.” She paused. “Of course, with those two powers he could do much more than that, meaning, he went a little easy on you. And that brings me back to my question. At that moment he could have just killed you if he used his sword as a weapon but he didn’t. He held back and just played with you. That’s why swords are mere tools. It’s how you use them that counts.”

“Please tell me there’s a reason why you told me all this.”

“Of course there is. I just wanted to chat about this that’s all.” She smiled so innocently that it made me want to crawl into a hole.

I didn’t know what ticked this girl. One time she was smiling, another time she was being uninterested then then there was the occasional burst of wrath. Was she alright on the head?

“I have plans so-”

“Oh wait, wait. Don’t you want to find out if there’s any sword here that can complement you?” Why was she so desperate to keep me here anyway?

I really wanted to sigh right about now. “How can a sword even do that? I mean they’re just plasma anyway!”

“It’s not like I study these things!” She laughed. “You see,” And then proceeded to give me a detailed explanation. Was something wrong with this girl?

Long story short, the government had all the core tech and only certified companies handled the designs of the sword. And most of the swords were only ever invented to aid explorers and hunters to hunt Mutors. With the number of Mutors decreasing exponentially, nowadays this technology was mostly used for entertainment purposes.

“Didn’t you say something about there not being any swords for me here?”

“Well,” She stopped and fidgeted for a second. “We can very well build one. It’s costly and takes time. We might actually make it before the tournament though.”

I grimaced. “I think I’ll pass. I don’t have money.” Now I seriously wanted to leave.

“The club will pay as long the base sword is compatible.” She looked at me for a second understood my confusion and continued. “Everyone first confirms their compatibility with all the sword and the sword type with the most compatibility gets chosen as the base. Of course, these bases are often not compatible with most, hence you don’t see too many students running around with personalized swords.” She was speaking so fast, that I didn’t think she was making sense to even herself anymore.

“So, basically, I won’t have to pay anything?”

“Technically,” She was smiling a bit too much. Something smelled fishy and it wasn’t the pond on the other side of the building.

“You know-”

I stopped in my tracks as a guy just brushed past me and panted.

Monty?

“Blaze-” He huffed and puffed and glared at Amie. “He’s going berserk. “He stuttered on more than one occasion but he made his point. “Wher-e’s the captain?”

Amie flinched. “He’s taken all the second-year members over to the association for the yearly checkup.” She paused. “What happened?”

“Blaze just-” He banged his hand on the wall. The wall creaked but no visible damage. “A moron from my class- class B broke through his door and interrupted his, ‘you know what’ time.” His face went pale. “They’re fighting in the grounds. It’s more like the guy’s being massacred. We need someone to stop Blaze but-”

“But everyone’s out?” If everyone from the club was out, then that meant no one would dare to stop that Russian. “What about the disci-”

“Rose is also out. The prefects are saying that the headmaster’s called her over and she’s locked in the headmaster’s room.” His face twisted in an odd way forming a grimace and a scowl. “And Dick’s dick isn’t big enough to stop Blaze.”

“The teachers?”

I heard that Demigrace academy was free but I never thought it was this bad here.

“They never do anything if it involves students fighting. It’s always been like this.” Amie cleared her throat. “What about you?”

“What about me? It’s got nothing to do with me. Why should I care if some moron decides to butt in during that kind of time?” I already knew how damn monstrous that guy was. As much as I wanted revenge, I wasn’t stupid enough to get out there. Besides, it just wasn’t worth it. “But what about you two? You’re members of the club and so is he.”

Monty just grimaced and looked away. “I’m no match.”

Amie looked straight. “If I wanted to stop him, I’d have to either sell my body or die trying. Sorry, but I’d rather not do either.”

“Guess so.” Well, I spent enough time here anyway. “Alright, I’ve got an assignment to finish. Catch ya later.” I waved.

“Damn you Merin! Why’d you have to pick that girl!” Monty grunted.

I stopped in my tracks, looked back in horror. “Did you just say Merin? The same moron who’s on room 420 in the boys’ dorm?” My face twitched in horror. What if Merin took my words seriously and literally ran after his love and ended up doing something stupid?

“You know him?”

My horrors came alive. ‘It’s my fault?’

“What’s wrong?” Amie asked.

“Well, you’ve convinced me to fight.” I flashed a grin, but inside, I was dying. This was my fault. This happened because of my lapse in judgment. I should have known something like this could have happened.

‘I shouldn’t have told him.’

“Take a sword. Any sword. Blaze always fights with a sword and without one, you’d be in a disadvantage,” Amie, yelled before I could start running.

She was right, barehanded I was at a massive disadvantage. My powers weren’t something that I could use in public either. But what sword, and more importantly, whose sword?

My basic swords were good but they weren’t good enough to stand up to that monster.

‘That’s right, that night her sword got-‘

“Then get me Eve’s.” I patted Monty’s shoulder and ran out. I didn’t care if they could get that sword or not but I didn’t have enough time.

I started this and I was going to end it: I had to.