“JinYoung is the winner!”

The crowd cheered for the young mage, who waved with a bright smile on his face. His familiar, a large cat demon, stood proudly before him, smirking with the red handkerchief retrieved between her sharp canines. JinYoung bowed respectfully to his defeated opponent before exiting out of the arena. With a slow exhale, he wiped the sweat off his brows as his familiar transformed back into her human form.

“Good work, Jia. As always.”

She flipped her hair in irritation as she glared at JinYoung. “That half pint wasn’t even worth my breath. Seriously, JinYoung. Call me when there’s actually something worth doing. Otherwise, handle it yourself.”

JinYoung sighed, “It’s not my fault. This is a test for mages AND their familiars.”

“Why do they hold these things anyways? And what’s the point if we’re not allowed to hurt the other opponent? Isn’t the point of this type of training to defend against invading demons? Humans really are stupid,” Jia ranted as she blew at her bangs. JinYoung chuckled, petting the cat demon on the head right behind her ears. She began purring from the action, calming her down just enough that she didn’t feel the need to tear someone apart.

“That test will be later in the year. For now, we’re working on teamwork between mage and familiar,” JinYoung explained as he took the flag from Jia and throwing it into the trashcan.

“JinYoung-ah, good job. You too, Jia,” congratulated his leader, JaeBum, with his familiar, Yubin, walking next to him.

“Although don’t think we didn’t see your little slip there, Jia~” Yubin taunted with a smirk, earning her a sneer of irritation from Jia.

“Yubin,” JaeBum warned. His sassy familiar shrugged, walking past the pair towards the exit to the arena. Yubin’s ears twitched in excitement as she walked past Jia, who pinned her ears back aggressively at Yubin. With a huff, Jia showed herself out to the locker rooms.

“Seriously? I just calmed her down…aish…I’ll see you later. Don’t take too long, JaeBum-ah!”

“I won’t!” the leader called after the sprinting mage as he left to the arena to his own temperamental familiar.

~

“Next match: JaeBum vs. HyunJun!”

HaNa blew out a breath in boredom. Next to her sat an munching KyungHye and an excited EunMi, taking notes in her notebook. The girl probably had a log of all the familiars in this town; it amazed HaNa to no end. To be honest, HaNa really didn’t want to be there. EunMi and KyungHye came to these events every year, but HaNa thought them to be unnecessary and pretentious. Similar to how normal schools had midterms and finals, so did the mage schools. However, unlike normal schools, big exams in mage schools were a public event. While they are showy and cheesy, different special force sections of the come to observe the progress of the mages and their familiars as prospective colleagues. Of course, only mages with familiars could participate. HaNa was only attending this year for YoungJae. Other than today, HaNa had come to witness the mage exams two times: when YongGuk had JiEun and when YoungWon, YoungJae’s older brother, was still in school. She wondered how he was doing. It had been awhile since she last saw him since he worked on the other side of town. The other members of B.A.P filed in with an extra person.

“Oh, YoungWon-ah!”

“It’s been awhile, HaNa~” he greeted as he took his place next to her with his familiar sitting on the other side of him.

~

“This is stupid.”

YoungJae sighed, rolling his eyes at his uncooperative familiar. “Nobody asked your opinion.”

“Except for the fact that I’m being forced to participate.”

“Do you want me to be in school forever?”

“Does it look like I care?”

“Obviously not. I don’t know why I bother asking.”

YoungJae continued strapping his safety gear on, checking to make sure his pads were on properly. Kira yawned as YoungJae finished checking his safety gear and placed his limit bands on his wrists. One of the rules for this particular mid-term is that mages are prohibited to use spells. Limit bands were used as restraints to prevent mages from performing any sort of magic related attacks. The bands only affect magic used by mages but don’t affect their familiars. Therefore, mages had to rely on their familiars to protect themselves from their opponents.

“JaeBum is the winner!” the announced revealed on the TV screen in the locker room.

“Come on, Kira. We’re next,” YoungJae called out as he made his way towards the arena. His lazy familiar just stared as he walked away. When he realized she wasn’t following him, he turned around and sighed, “Kira…seriously, I don’t ask you to do much…just this once so I don’t fail anymore classes? It’s a serious pain in the to be going to school and working, you know.”

“Yoo YoungJae?”

Said mage turned to the one who called him out.

“Oh…Jackson Wang…”

Jackson sneered in annoyance, “Ah, they’re lettering the Class Skipper attend the exam even though he hasn’t gone to a single class? What? Getting special treatment just because your leader is the head of the West station?”

YoungJae sighed. He couldn’t even retort since it was probably true. Granted, it wasn’t YoungJae’s fault. He had tried every single time to get Kira to go to class with him, but there was really no use attending classes when his familiar didn’t go with him. All he could do was read the material at his own convenience and take any of the written tests that were given. On his own time, he would apply the things he learned with Kira, but that was very rare.

“That’s what happens when you pick such an unruly species as your familiar,” Sunmi scoffed the feline familiar as she tied Jackson’s red flag to his safety vest. “Is that thing even going to protect you during the match?”

“…who knows…” YoungJae could only chuckle dryly.

“I almost feel bad for him,” Sunmi sighed with a sympathetic shake of her head.

“I don’t. I’ll defeat you in 5 seconds and show you how a real mage does it,” Jackson taunted with a glare at YoungJae.

“…somehow…I feel like he really hates me…” YoungJae mumbled.

“I feel the same way he does,” Kira nodded in agreement.

“You’re not allowed to have those kind of thoughts when you’re the one causing all the problems, you troublemaker!”

~

“Next match: Jackson vs. YoungJae!”

The goal was simple. All they had to do was capture the flag attached to the opposing mage’s vest without having their own flag removed. The first to remove their opponent’s flag without having their own removed is the winner. However, mages aren’t allowed to use magic, and injuring anyone in this competition is prohibited. In fact, any serious bodily injuries to the opponent results in automatic failure.

Across from each other, Kira and Sunmi stood in between the two mages, YoungJae and Jackson. The feline familiar glared at the canid.

“I’d almost feel bad for you. Since you’re the last of your kind around here. But then I remember how you betrayed the demons as a whole. And I no longer feel bad at all.” Sunmi smiled much too pleasantly for the venomous words that struck at Kira. The fox returned her sugary sweet smile with her own overly exaggerated one.

“You don’t really have much claws if that’s all you have to say to me, Kitten~?” Kira pretty much purred out with a click of her tongue.

“I’d watch your mouth if I were you. And do try and keep things fair, Traitor. The very least you could do is be a good familiar and serve the rest of your pathetic life at your master’s feet.”

“Is that what you’ve decided to do? I suppose that’s not much different from your previous lifestyle. Serving at your ‘master’s’ feet,” Kira shot back with a smirk when she saw how riled up Sunmi became at her words. This would be easy. Felines might be agile but they also tended to be hot-tempered and easily angered. In most cases, they wouldn’t be able to fair against a fox, who mastered the art of trickery and provocation. She knew Sunmi hadn’t quite reached that point yet, however Kira determined to ruin her. The fox could tell that she already tousled a bit of the cat’s emotions. And they haven’t even started the battle yet.

“Fox, you’re going to regret those words. I’ll show you what my ‘previous lifestyle’ taught me,” Sunmi hissed in frustration, the hairs on her back stiffening straight up.

“Sunmi, calm down! Don’t listen to the little . She’s just jealous she isn’t even half the beauty you are,” Jackson ordered as he smirked at Kira.

“Hey now! You be nice to her! Even if it’s true, you can’t say it out loud,” YoungJae ‘defended.’

“Thanks, you good for nothing ,” Kira hissed at YoungJae, who shrugged.

“I’m just being honest.”

“READY? SET. GO!”

Without hesitation, Sunmi charged for YoungJae. The feline assumed Kira would do the same, charging at Jackson rather than protecting her own mage. To her surprise, Kira shot a wall of flames in front of Sunmi, preventing her from reaching YoungJae. Out of spite, Sunmi grazed the flames, yelping out in pain while she retreated. Kira grunted in annoyance as she saw the referee hold up a yellow card as a penalty on their team.

“That ing did that on purpose,” Kira growled.

“It’s fine. I’ll deal with her. You go after Jackson. I’m sure you can easily outsmart him,” YoungJae suggested.

“Like I can trust you to not get your flag stole?” the fox shook her head with a glare at YoungJae, who rolled his eyes. Sunmi ran towards YoungJae again but Kira collided with the feline demon, knocking her off her feet before picking her up by her clothes and tossing her back at Jackson. Despite being thrown off balance, Jackson’s familiar stopped herself from crashing into the ground by turning herself around and skidding on all four feet into a stop.

“Since when are foxes that strong?” Sunmi mumbled in surprise as she backed towards Jackson to protect her own mage, learning from her previous two attacks that attacking straight on was ill-advised.

“I don’t know…but we know that the referee is on our side considering he didn’t call a foul to your self-inflicted injury,” Jackson planned. “They must be cheating somehow…”

“Yah, Kira, calm yourself down! You can’t just go throwing people like that!” YoungJae accused.

“Me?! She’s the one charging at my face! Aish! I’m getting irritated from these stupid rules! Why can’t I just punch them both in the face and be done with this?!” Kira replied in anger as she stomped her feet at her mage. “Yoo YoungJae~!”

“That might be the first time you’ve actually whined to me specifically about something…I don’t know if I should be honored or annoyed,” YoungJae sighed. “Let’s go, Kira. We’ll attack them at the same time. Unlike these other mages, I’ve worked by myself long enough to know how to take care of myself instead of relying on my familiar.”

Kira smirked in excitement, “Now that I can agree with. Just don’t lose your flag, idiot.”

“Well, let’s make things interesting,” YoungJae mirrored her expression as Kira caught on with what he was implying. The two of them charged at the same time, side by side.

“Are you getting desperate already?” Jackson called out. Kira grinned widely at his question while sidestepping behind YoungJae for a moment and reappearing as an identical image of YoungJae. Before Jackson and Sunmi could question what was going on, the Kira-YoungJae duo commenced jumping back and forth in rapid succession to confuse their opponents (mostly Kira, who was quick enough to challenge their eyes with her inhuman agility).

“Sunmi! The one that’s faster! Keep an eye on her and take her out!” Jackson ordered when he figured out the trick. However, before Sunmi could carry out his order, YoungJae and Kira already attacked the two of them at the same time. Sunmi gasped as they both went after Jackson. She had to guess. There was no way Jackson could fend off both of them at the same time. Left or right? Which one was the fraud? Foxes are horrible at hiding their tails. If she focused hard enough…

“THERE!”

Sunmi lunged at one of the YoungJaes’ flag. When she made contact, the male vaporized into a cloud of smoke. Jackson managed to grab the hands of the other YoungJae, who just smirked at him. Just as Jackson tried to grab YoungJae’s blue flag, his red flag flew past him in the wind. Behind him stood another YoungJae, perched up on one of the rocks of the terrain and wiggled his fingers in a provocative wave, clearly responsible for swiping Jackson’s own flag.

“YoungJae is the winner!”

Jackson threw YoungJae on the ground in a huff and sneered at him before calling Sunmi to him so they could leave. Kira strolled over to YoungJae, cackling in amusement while he picked himself up and dusted the dirt off his pants.

“You’re enjoying this way too much…” YoungJae grumbled as he picked himself up.

~

“Congratulations, YoungJae!” HaNa was the first to say after YoungJae changed out of his protective gear into street clothes. She ran up and hugged him.

“Thank you, HaNa…I wouldn’t have been so stressed about this if you know…someone just went to class with me…” YoungJae grumbled as he glared at the “someone” scratching her ear with her back leg as if the conversation had nothing to do with her.

“I see you’re doing just fine with your familiar. And here I was worried about you when I heard you weren’t going to classes.”

“Hyung!” YoungJae exclaimed in surprise at the familiar voice that he hadn’t heard in a while. “What are you doing here? Hi, Gina.”

“It’s my favorite dongsaengie~!” squealed the gorgeous girl next to YoungWon whose dog ears twitched in excitement. Her tail swished back and forth as she hugged YoungJae. “You did so well with that insufferable fox!”

“You must be the fox I have been hearing so much about. You’ve made quite the stir around here, even I have heard about your mischief,” YoungWon chuckled as he stood in front of Kira. Rather than responding, Kira walked past him and called for Bummie, who ecstatically ran up to her from HaNa’s side. YoungWon looked over at Gina, who sneered at Kira in aversion, flatting her ears against her head while narrowing her eyes. The older brother hummed in thought at his normally kind canine familiar. The other dogs of B.A.P pranced back and forth by their masters’ feet, antsy to say hi to Kira as well. They had been trained to stay by their masters unless told otherwise and cried out to their respective owners’ to allow them to greet this new friend.

“Aww, Bummie really like Kira and it seems the other dogs too,” HaNa cooed. YoungJae nodded in acknowledgement.

“Gina doesn’t seem to agree though…” EunMi noted with interest. “The feline familiar of that…that weirdo from GOT7 wasn’t fond of Kira either…”

“Outcast by nature?” KyungHye suggested.

To YoungJae’s surprise, YoungWon smiled down at his fox familiar and patted her affectionately on the head.

“It’s been rough for you, huh?”

Kira looked up at him in shock. “You…remember me?”

“Of course. We met during the War. Also where I met Gina,” YoungWon commented, looking back at his unhappy familiar.

“Wonie…let’s go…I don’t like that…thing,” she casually derided, looking Kira once over before pulling YoungWon away. The helpless mage waved bye to YoungJae and his friends while Gina dragged him away. She sent a warning growl at Kira when YoungWon was finally going the direction she wanted him to him.

“I’ve never seen Gina so upset before…” YoungJae commented.

“Get used to it,” Kira mumbled as she ran off with Bummie chasing her in tow.

The other members of B.A.P talked amongst themselves with the other two girls as HaNa went up to YoungJae and tugged on his sleeve.

“Jae…is she going to be okay?”

“I hope so…for my sake…”

=====================================================================

Boring chapter is boring.

/clonks out/

~Kira :3