It was a Saturday morning at 11:00 AM, Regina was sitting on a hill while looking down at the city. She thought herself "Hm, the assassination exams start on Monday, which means I should check where my battle arena would be posted at. I already trained in the dojo this morning so I guess I can relax for a few hours.". Mio jumped in "Hey, Regina.", she greeted her friend with a smile, Regina mildly smiled back at her friend and replied "Hey, Mio. What are you doing here?", Mio replied "Oh, nothing. I just came here to sit on the hill and look down at the city, that's all.". Mio sat beside Regina as both girls started enjoying the view. After a moment of silence, Mio asked "You trained?", Regina replied "Yep, I trained from 8:00AM this morning all the way till 10:00. My sensei in the dojo didn't want us to train for too long, so I just came up here to relax my mind.", Regina then asked "What of you? Have you trained?", Mio mildly smiled at her "Yeah, but I didn't train In the form of a spar. I was just practicing my techniques and using simple energy amplification on my body. Not everything is about punching and causing big explosions.". Regina just scoffed, she was silently laughing, Mio looked at her and asked "What, did I say something funny?", Regina replied "No. It's the fact that you just explained that not everything is about big explosions and all.". Mio then said "Well, I mean, aside from using energy to enhance your physical capabilities and using techniques, your ability in combat is necessary. That and the fact that you need a sharp mind as a solidier or assassin. If a person keeps depending on their energy without depending more on tactics and combat styles, that person's probably not gonna make it far.", Regina then joked "That person would probably just die at some point.". Both girls just started to laugh at the joke, they laughed for about a minute before their laugh subsided. Regina looked at her with a soft smile and told Mio "You know, out of all of us, I see you as my best friend, Mio. I mean, I relate more with you than the rest. Not just that, but we both seem to have a few things in common.", Mio replied "Yeah, I feel the same way too. You're a pretty nice person. Not just that, you're very sharp but still easy to be with, although much like Yuji, you don't open up too well.". Regina just laughed softly before she turned to Mio with a soft smile "Lets both do our best in this assassination exams. Okay, Mio?", Mio replied with a soft smile "Yeah, let's. And if we're lucky, we might just fight each other at the end.". Meanwhile, Kazuma was just preparing his purple flame technique while sitting on his bed, he was slowly bringing up the temperature of his flames "Alright, if I add a certain amount of energy, the amount of heat and it's output will be fixed. It looks like I have a better understanding on how this purple flames work. Instead of it releasing a huge amount of power from the moment of activation, I can now determine how hot and potent I want it too be.", he smirked "I finally have better control of it now.". Kazuma's eyes tilted to the ceiling "Although, activating my spirit mark would shift my understanding of how the technique functions. Oh, whatever. I should be happy I can use it with efficiency.", a knock was heared at the end of the closed door. Kazuma turned to the door and asked "Who is it?", a familiar voice replied "Its me, Ranpo.", Kazuma was a bit surprised. He got up from his bed and opened up the door and saw Ranpo standing at the end with a smirk "Hey, Kazuma boy. What you been up too?" Kazuma exclaimed "Wow, Ranpo sensei. You're here!". A few minutes go bye and Ranpo was sitting beside Kazuma on his bed, Kazuma's purple flames were just flowing all over his hand. Ranpo was stunned "Oh, so you've already determined what heat levels to use. Instead of bursting a huge amount of power from the start, you can now reduce or increase the amount on activation. That's my boy.", Kazuma just smiled "Yeah, I know. It's pretty damn cool.". Ranpo then asked "What of Mio and Yuji? Do you know what they're up too?", Kazuma replied "Yeah, Yuji said he went training with his grandfather at home, Mio on the other hand said she'd be training on a hill or something.", Ranpo just smiled nervously "For some reason, I don't think she's training.", he thought to himself. Ranpo stood up from Kazuma's bed "Alright, do you want to go out and eat? I'll make you a deal before we go. If you win this assassination exams tournament, I'd buy you whatever you want for a week. If you are able to make it to the second stage without winning, then I'll just give you some praise and a little money.", Kazuma replied with a confused tone "Ah, why did you put a second condition there? Don't you think I can win?", Ranpo smiled at his student "Oh, I know you can, I'm just trying to see your reaction.". Kazuma just sighed "Ah, whatever. Let's go out and get something, then we'll train.", Ranpo replied as he and Kazuma walked out "Yeah, we're definitely going to train a lot today.". Meanwhile, Yuji was standing at a huge valley, the place was filled with rocky hills and dry grounds, Yuji was beat up, he was breathing heavily as his two daggers were held on his hands. Nagumo while creating huge circles of energy all over the place while pointing his staff at his grandson explained "You're wavering Yuji. Your opponents won't give you time to breath when you're out of stamina, put yourself up and get ready for the next 200 blasts.". Yuji clicked his tounge and thought to himself "Shit, it's been so long. I completely forgot how hard grandpa's train was. And plus....", he exclaimed with annoyance "WHO THE HELL CREATES MAGICAL CIRCLES WHILE BLASTING 200 BEAMS OF ENERGY FROM EACH CIRCLE AT THEIR GRANDSON?!!!!"
END OF CHAPTER.