It was the day of the practical test.

Kai was looking at a white military uniform, waiting to be put on. Since the camo-style military uniform was not effective against the magical beasts, they chose a white military uniform to replace it.

There were two main reasons for that. First, it was so that nearby allies could recognize them, especially when they were in the forest or something since the white color would stand out the most. As for the other reason, it was to differentiate the student and the current soldiers.

When he put on his white uniform, he appeared more gallant and stylish. In fact, this was not like a soldier’s uniform anymore. It looked like a military uniform for celebrations.

At the same time, he heard the click on his door. He knew what would happen, so he threatened her. “If you enter, I won’t talk to you for a week.”

Kai knew Tasha was the one in front of his room. In fact, Tasha was ready to ambush him and take pictures of him. However, with Kai’s threat, she didn’t dare to do it. Because she knew, Kai was very serious about it.

She could only sulk and go downstairs.

His parents seemed to like the uniform too. Ultimately, they took a few photos. Of course, Tasha was the one who convinced them… so she could have his picture and let her eyes have a feast.

Well, with his parents joining the fray, Kai let them do what they wanted. After finishing his breakfast, he finally went to school.

As soon as he arrived at school, he noticed that there were a few buses parked in front of the school. It wasn’t only for their class, but also for the other classes of the first-years. They were going to take them to the military airport before going to the Changjin Aircraft base. After that, they would go toward the Kanggye Stadium with choppers.

He looked around and saw Ayaka in her new military uniform. Although the white military uniform wasn’t that different from their usual white school uniform, it still gave them a different expression from their usual impression.

The uniform was a bit tight, which exposed their body figures. And with Ayaka’s nice figure, she stood out. Kai was slightly astonished. She also wore a short white tight skirt that was designed like a women’s sport skirt so she could move easier.

“Kai, have you prepared?” Ayaka came to him and asked with a smile.

He nodded. “It’s all right. Well, I have a skill that can help us later and I might use it constantly. So you’ll know about it later.”

“Oh? A new skill? I’ve been working on one, but I still can’t quite wrap my finger around the concept. I want to make a delayed skill.” She said.

“A delayed skill? The one where you plant it first before you can remotely activate it or with timing?” Kai asked.

“Yeah. I’m going with the timing. Although the timing is a bit hard, I think I’ll be able to grasp the timing well with practice. At first, I wanted to make one that I would be able to control remotely. But it’d be a bit difficult since I won’t be able to control it if I’m too far.”

“Too far? If you’re fine with me asking, what kind of skill do you want to make?”

“I want to make a Time Bomb!” she answered with a cheerful tone, a bright smile pasted on her face.

“Oi, girl. You’re dangerous.” Kai twitched his eyebrows. He was wondering how she could say that with that kind of big smile like she was happy with it.

“But I was thinking about making multiple time bombs. Well, I already made the concept with the time bomb, but every time one of them exploded, the nearby ones would also explode and make a chain of explosions. That’s now how I wanted it to be. I mean, wouldn’t it be much better if the magical beasts don’t realize that I’ve planted another bomb there when the first bomb explodes?” Ayaka explained.

Kai contemplated for a bit before he realized what she wanted. “You mean, you want the first one to attract the magical beasts’ attention and the second one to kill the magical beasts? And since it’s delayed magic, you don’t need to be there.”

“Yeah. That’s what I want.” Ayaka nodded her head rapidly.

Kai shook his head helplessly. It was a good thing that this girl wasn’t a terrorist. If not, she would be a problem with those kinds of thoughts.

“How about surrounding the skill with a shield magic circle?” Kai thought for a while before voicing out his thoughts.

“I’ve tried that. The shield couldn’t protect the magic circle inside, so it’s useless as the shield would be broken and the magic bomb inside it will explode.” Ayaka shook her head.

“Fire magic, huh… I’m not really good with fire, so I don’t think I can help you with this,” Kai said.

“No, it’s fine. Talking about it with someone already motivated me. I’ll just keep doing what I can. I’ve tried making a super magic shield and it drained my magic power even though I just used a few of them. So it’s certainly not practical, and even when I tried to make it explode, the other one still also exploded from the inside.”

“Exploded from the inside?” Kai asked, slightly curious.

“Yeah. I concentrated the magic shield for it to block the force from the outside. That way, I’ll be able to make a super magic shield that can withstand the explosion. I was inspired by your ‘Oscillation Shield’ when I created this. After all, your shield only sent energy to where the shield was facing, right?”

“Indeed… huh? How could it explode from the inside when the magic shield blocked the force from the outside?”

“I don’t know. I thought it was because of the vibrations, but it seems that I was wrong. I already tested it, and that didn’t seem to be the case,” Ayaka said. She, too, had been perplexed about this for quite a while.

“No, no. What I mean is, you’re the problem.”

“Me?” Ayaka was dumbfounded when Kai said that. She thought that it was because she lacked talent, so she looked down, downcast.

Seeing her expression, he explained hurriedly, “Your element. Fire generates heat. Especially for an explosion, wouldn’t the heat be the problem?”

Ayaka opened her mouth in surprise. “Yeah… You’re right, why didn’t I think of that? If it is really the problem, I’ll just need to fix that… but how can I do it?”

Ayaka started pondering over the matter.

“Why don’t you just make two shields? One to prevent the blast from outside and one for heat insulation. I don’t understand the concept that good. If I’m not mistaken, it’s about heat conductivity? I don’t really know.” Kai shrugged.

“Yeah, you’re right. It’s indeed heat conductivity. I can try to make it so the shield has a low heat conductivity. With that, the heat wouldn’t be able to reach the magic circle. I can do this! I can do this, Kai!” She became excited when she finally found the solution to her problem. Although she would need to try it before she could be sure that it would work, she could already picture the result.

She unconsciously hugged Kai in her excitement. She didn’t realize that many people were watching how she hugged Kai. And it was also the same for Katsuragi Takaki, who was in shock because of that hug.

He never expected that Ayaka would hug Kai so excitedly. He was so jealous that he wanted to kill Kai immediately. He gnashed his teeth and snorted, ‘Just you wait. Enjoy it while it lasts! I’ll make sure you die painfully!’

He left the scene as he didn’t want to see them acting intimately like that. As for Ayaka, she immediately blushed when she realized what she had done. Her face became redder than a tomato. She unconsciously grabbed Kai’s hand and dragged him onto the bus.

Since they had been informed about which bus they were supposed to be in, they knew which one was their bus. Ayaka sat on the window seat so Kai would hide her well with his body. Unknowingly, she just convinced them that they had a ‘relationship.’

Kai only sighed as he looked at her behaving like that. Well, he was accustomed to this kind of farce because of his elder sister, so he didn’t care about it that much. However, he suddenly thought about her sudden hug. It was different from his sister, who always tried to hug him.

It was a weird feeling for him, but he didn’t feel repulsed by her hug. He decided to shake it off of his mind and forget about it.

After an hour or so, all the students were finally on the bus, and they set off toward the military base.

At the same time, Tasha was looking at a screen.

“Tasha, what are you doing in front of that screen? I mean, it has no purpose other than telling us if the first-years have an emergency,” Yajima Haruko, the president of the student council, suddenly came to her and asked as she didn’t understand why Tasha was doing what she was doing.

“I want that to happen! That way, I can go to Kai’s side!” she grumbled.

“You shouldn’t wish for something like that. They’re still on the bus, they haven’t arrived there yet.”

“They might meet terrorists on their way, and maybe their buses might get hijacked? Or they might be attacked by flying magical beasts? Or they-gah!” Before she could finish her words, her head was hit by Haruko.

“That is enough.”

“But…”

Haruko ended up lecturing her for the whole day, and Tasha was sulking while looking at Kai’s photo that she took earlier.