During the break, it was time for all the clubs to go for recruitment hunt.
The courtyard as filled with students trying to persuade every first year they could find into joining their club of preference.
And of course, after what they heard in class a swarm of students of every year carried Tifa away.
"Clubs huh? Are they really that important?" In my head clubs were just another everyday activity that didn't matter that much.
I never joined a club before so it's natural to think about it like that.
Though I was at least a bit curious nonetheless.
"What are you saying Rant? Clubs are of course important, Each one is an activity led by a number of people that are passionate about it."
"He's right you know Octo-head. I am thinking about joining the art club for example."
Hearing Tada and Akira as they tried to justify the club's cause of existence made me think about them, I didn't know much about Akira but Tada's reaction was really a surprise.
"How come and you're fond of culture you glittery bastard?"
"Do you even draw?"
Disk and Tada asked with curiosity, not expecting a solid answer of course.
"Of course not! What do you take me for? But the art industry simply MUST take a glimpse of the Godly art that is my body!!" Akira replied striking a pose after taking off his shirt.

{Of course he would want to be the model. Why didn't I think of that}
Holding my head I sighed.
Suddenly the room started heating up, the temperature was rising more and more.
There were two students in the middle of a crowd.
One of them wiped the sweat off his head that was covered with long spiky black hair and straightened his silver worker uniform as he kept hammering a piece of iron.
Whilst the other was dressed more firmly, with a suit and had some robots do the work for him. He brushed his brown bowl cut with a silver brush as he was observing with a cocky smile on his face.
Looking at them, one could figure out they were having some sort of duel.
This duel however was like nothing I've seen so far.

It was a blacksmith contest. One of deciding the best way of creating weapons.
The spiky-haired guy sighed as he dipped the piece of iron that was starting to look more like a short sword in water to cool it off.
"Aaand done." The crowd cheered as the bowl cut guy finished making the blade using the power of technology.
The other guy stopped as well.
"See the difference now? Machines are the future of mankind after all. My robots were far superior in terms of speed, My blade was far greater, perfect I may say" He mocked his opponent pointing the blade towards him.
"What's going on here?" Tada rushed towards them, all fired up.
"Are you interested as well? This is a blacksmith contest. One to make the best blade within the time limit wins."
"It's as he said, the one who completes it first is the victor" The spiky-haired guy took off the towel he had wrapped around his forehead and used it to wipe the sweat off his face.

"Then why is that guy acting all high and mighty? He clearly lost."
Pointing towards the one considering himself the victor Tada asked this particular question like it was something natural for him.
"What? I'm sorry, I must have misheard how can a slug with half-finished blade beat me who completed it within the time limit?"
"Just because you were faster that doesn't make your work better. The greatness of a blade depends on the care and time the creator put to forge it. And someone like you who doesn't understand that, won't become a great blacksmith no matter how many machines you use."
"You dare mock me!? You don't even know the slightest thing about forging and you dare mock me??"
"Calm your ass bowl head, why don't you test your so-called perfect blade if that's the case. Here try to cut this dagger" Giving him one of his wooden daggers Tada looked at him in the eyes, not with a mocking look but with a passionate one.

"Alright then, I'll show you! There's no way an amateur like you can be right about my beautiful robots. I'm their creator, therefore I know what they're capable of."
With a quick move, bowl head swang the newly forged sword towards the wooden dagger, and everyone gasped at the view of an iron sword which got cut in half the moment it touched the wood.
"But-But how is that possible!? I re-calculated everything, TWICE!"
"Your calculations weren't perfect. In fact, it's common for a machine to malfunction after overheating and that's what caused your defeat. Well, it's not like I needed to tell you though, that guy over there figured it out too, but he decided not to tell you. So thank him I guess."
Pointing towards the spiky-haired guy Tada spoke the truth.
The loser was the winner all along.

"But president, why?" Asked the rest of the club as they approached him.
"His work was indeed sloppy, but he did beat me within the time limit. So I have to congratulate you on that matter Daichi. I'm sure that if you keep working on them, your machines can truly become the future of forging"
"President..."
And as the contest came to an end, the president approached Tada.
"As for you my friend. My name is Goro Smith, the president of the blacksmith club. Thanks for helping me back there. Looking at you back there, I have to say that I think you have a gift for forging. It's really awkward, but we would be honored we could have you on our club"
"Of course, it would be my pleasure" Replied Tada with a genuine smile.
Not the usual mocking one but an actually bright one.
"Welcome to the blacksmith club then"

It was great to see that Tada has more interests than being a spoiled master, though being a blacksmith was surprising.
"How come and you're so good a forging Tada? Is that another hidden talent of yours?" I asked all curious.
"You could say that, but actually, I'm not that much like you Rant. You see my dream is to become a great blacksmith. That's something I wanted to do as long as I know myself. I can't really put into words but, I have this feeling that it was meant for me to create and gift people with the best sword that ever existed. That's my goal"
"And what a great goal to have." That single speech of his filled me with thoughts.
What about me? I want to become the strongest swordsman to keep my promise to Pandora.
That's what I decided.

"By the way where's Mina?" This question came to mind above all else.
It's been hours since I last saw her. Where could she be at?
The one answering was Lisa who was trying not to get swallowed by the group of macho men that was throwing Tada on the air as they cheered.
"I think I saw her on the west wing of the building. The cooking club? "
She wondered as the blacksmith club became louder and louder.
{The cooking club, of course! Now that's a club for me.} I thought rushing towards the west section of the building.
I had questioned it before. What would I become if not a swordsman?
Since I love eating I had decided on becoming a baker or a cook but my parents didn't want to hear about it.
But now I had a choice. To the cooking club it is.

Arriving at the club, I was greeted with Mina wearing an apron and carrying around a silver plate filled with cookies.
"Where are you taking that?" I asked surprised at the fact that she had not eaten them all yet.
"Ran!" Upon seeing me, She stopped so suddenly that the cookies almost fell off the plate.
"Hey watch out!" I grabbed the plate as quickly as I could to help her out.
"Why all the rush? Did anything happen?"
"Mina wanted to eat cookies with everyone. Ran come too" Immediately she got a hold of my sleeve and dragged me in the room.
The atmosphere inside was heated. There were three girls wearing aprons and two guys.
Their image gave me the impression that they were quintuplets because they all had the same stylized hair with different color.
The long fluffy-haired girls and the short mohawk-looking guys.

Greeting them, I received a response with a smile.
"Hello there. You must be little Ran, Lady Mina told us many good things about you"
This was somewhat creepy. They all looked the same.
"Don't be afraid, I know we look weird but it wouldn't be like that if Maxie had decided to look like literally anything else"
"Me? Carol was the one who started copying you"
"But that's only because Tallo started copying me first"
They were about to fight.
What is it with me and everyone fighting wherever I show up.
"Anyway, we're glad to have you here." One girl with red fluffy hair stood up and bowed.
She seemed older than the others but I'm not sure if that was true.
"If you're wondering, yes, we are quintuplets and we're not members of this club. Since the club members are all sick today, we decided to join Lady Mina for some cookies"
"Lady? Why all the formality all so suddenly?"
"You don't know? " All the temporary members seemed surprised.

"Lady Mina is the Sin Of Gluttony and we are her followers. The Brotherhood Of The Caramel as they call us."
I was speechless. It must be because she's always on my shoulders, but this time I noticed it.
There was the word GLUTTONY written in black on the right side of her belly.
She was a sin. Mina was seriously one of the seven strongest swordsmen in Tsurugi academy.
And I was treating her like a kid.
"I-I'm really sorry Lady Mina!!" I said while bowing on the floor.
"Ran stop. Treat Mina like you always do" Said the little girl pouting in front of me.
"But you're famous. Is it alright?"
"Mina is Ran's friend! Treat her like one" As she finished talking, she pet my head and smiled.
"Come eat now"
"Roger"
I was happy that I didn't need to change my manner of speaking towards her.
She was right, after all, If we're friends we need to act accordingly.