"So you need to gather Anima to become a Rank 1?" Tillie asked Dirin.
Everyone was in his dorm. Keith, Ritchard, Markus, and even Zack were there as well. Dirin was sprawled out on the sofa with an agitated expression on his face. He felt slightly proud to be the first normal person to need Anima, but it also meant that he would have to wait again, which he wasn't happy about.
"Yep. I need Anima, but I don't know how much or where I'm going to get it from. I guess it does mean that I should get some pretty cool powers, right?"
"I hope it ends up with you being able to produce toilet paper and that's it." Keith butted in.
Dirin's gaze landed on him with a confused expression. "Toilet paper? Out of everything that it could have been... You chose toilet paper?"
"You can TP houses with it, and we wouldn't have to buy any anymore! Think of the possibilities, Dirin!" Keith seemed genuinely excited about this, which caused Dirin to become a little concerned.
Dirin waved him off. "Then what is your plan for the time being?" Zack was fiddling with a book that had the pages flipping without any effort. "Are you just going to laze around while they find some for you?"
So far, he hadn't heard anything from the headmaster or even Mr. Till. It's been only three hours, but he was expecting it to be a little bit faster. He was slightly disappointed at the speed that it was taking, but he was even more disappointed that he wasn't involved in it at all. "I'll probably start preparing my schedule for when I become Rank 1. With how many people are helping me, I pretty much have a guarantee that I'll become a Rank 1."
"Just don't be too lazy. I'll make sure that you are still sparing. Even if I have to drag you out of here." Ritchard seemed like he was joking, so Dirin laughed.
"Good thing you don't have a key then! I would be really worried if you d-"
Everyone pulled out a key. Even Tillie seemed to have one. "When! Why?!"
Keith looked at Dirin with a sly smile. "I figured since you might lose some motivation, everyone should have access to you. For encouragement, of course." Dirin looked at him as if he were crazy. He was in his eyes.
"Why would you give our key away?! You of all people should know that ten seconds of knocking is enough for me to come marching to the front door!"
Keith scoffed as he looked away. He had a certain glint in his eyes that made Dirin's narrow a bit. Keith looked back at Dirin with a smile and said, "Because it would be more fun if they could just come in and drag you out as they pleased."
"And why would you give Zack one?" Dirin asked, and Zack flinched a bit. He didn't know why he was being singled out at all. "At least make it someone that would actually have the ability of dragging m-"
Before Dirin could finish his words, he felt a strong, invisible force pull him off the sofa. He let out a yelp as he fell on his butt on the rug. It didn't hurt at all, but it was very sudden and surprising. He shot Zack a glance and saw pure smugness in return. He didn't know what he expected, but he couldn't be mad.
"Point taken."
Everyone laughed at that for a couple of seconds, but Dirin was just shaking his head a couple of times before clearing his throat. "Why aren't any of you in class anyway? You just became Rank 1, so shouldn't you be focused on that right now?"
"Tell me you don't know how it works without telling me y-"
"I get it." Dirin stopped Keith's belittlement and turned to Tillie for an answer.
"Right now, we are more focused on what we already can do. Getting a firmer grasp on what we already have shows us how we can go forward. That's why classes aren't really being filled by us just yet. Even Vale is the same way."
"Vale is the girl who has been watching me getting beat by Mr. Till for a couple of weeks now, right?" Dirin asked Ritchard and got a nod.
"She became Rank 1 just a couple of hours ago. She's been using the rest of the day to get familiar with what she can do now." Ritchard said as he subconsciously rubbed his side. "I offered to spar, and I held back for a bit. After three minutes, she started to read my every move."
"She wasn't reading your moves," Dirin said as he rolled his eyes. He's seen what the girl was doing for weeks now. "She was reading your rhythm. Same thing we tried to do against Mr. Till, except she actually knows what it means." Dirin then laughed at the thought. Then he stopped because he knew the same thing would happen to him.
"How can music be something that can be used in the fight?" Ritchard mumbled. "I even got a headache during the fight after she started to whistle. Music is so annoying."
"Sounds like you shouldn't have held back," Keith said as he sat down on the sofa. He had a huge smile on his face. "You got beat up by a girl." This caused Tillie to give him a glance from the side of her eyes, but he didn't notice it.
"You would too," Ritchard said.
"Of course I would, but unlike you, I don't focus on combat. Mr. Aura-and-Weapons." Ritchard started to raise his hand as his life energy started to radiate from it. "Of course, she could've just got lucky. Yeah. Lucky. Uh hm. Definitely. Yep." Kieth nodded quickly.
Dirin pointed and laughed at Keith after seeing him back out so quickly. "Maybe Ritchard having a key won't be so bad after all. I'm starting to like it already.