Laying on the ground and staring up towards the ceiling, Yuiko pulled up the messaging function on the terminal on her wrist, sad that she had to use the official channels to contact Volcano. 

As Yuiko stretched out on the ground, she muttered to herself as she pulled up the messaging function, “This messaging system is so poorly designed why can’t I just use my phone...”

Fiddling with the messaging system for a while, Yuiko texted Volcano, [Hey, I’m trying to combine my magic with my martial arts, but no matter what the efficiency is really bad, any ideas?]

[MY STUDENT! This uncle will naturally help you to the best of my IMMENSE abilities!] Volcano texted back with rapid fire speed, [Many different martial artists have walked along this path before! So worry not! There are many solutions to your problem!]

“Why are all the commandments so weird sometimes,” Yuiko murmured to herself, scrunching her eyebrows as she read Volcano’s messages, “The most normal one so far I’ve seen is Natsuki... but Blizzard seems twice as weird so that doesn’t help.”

Waiting for a moment to let Volcano send his message, Yuiko squinted her eyes in suspicion, spending a moment staring at Krystina shocking herself over and over trying to ‘unlock the secret of speed’. 

“She...” Sighing, Yuiko turned back to her terminal, pondering, “If everyone around me is like this... maybe I’m the weird one? Hiro’s over there trying to like... establish contact with aliens I think to get ideas. Oh, and Vlad is joining him, good for them, so productive.”

Turning towards Erina, Yuiko fell silent as she watched Erina release barrage after barrage of spells towards the practice dummies at crazy speeds, with a thousand yard stare Yuiko mumbled, “...Maybe I really am the weird one here...”

[Sorry for the wait dear student!] Volcano replied, [Here’s a few ways you can approach getting your goal done!]

Her eyes lighting up as she received the message, Yuiko pushed herself up, brushing her red hair out of her face, an excited smile blooming on her face, “Alrighty! Finally!”

Taking a moment to expand the message, Yuiko scrolled up to begin reading Volcano’s explanation:

[My treasured student! This uncle is here to help!

This is merely a skeleton document that can help you get a basic and rougher idea on how you can achieve your goal! We’ll go over some things in more detail next time we meet after break! However, if I remember correctly, your parents are Henrich and Emily! I’ve heard many good things about them! So if you feel like it, make sure to ask them as well, they will give valuable information that will surely help you!]

Looking up at the ceiling after reading the first bit, Yuiko grumbled, “Why does he use so many exclamation marks? Did he like, never learn about that aspect of language.”

Focusing back on the message after taking a quick glance at the time, Yuiko rejoiced with a small smile, “At least we have a lot of time today... plenty of time to read this article and then get some practice in.”

[So there are a few different ways you can go about doing this! Each with its own advantages and disadvantages, however, depending on your style I’d say that for different things, some drawbacks may not be that much of a drawback.]

[Now, getting onto the juicy bit! The actual strategies!

Strategy one: Develop a system similar to silent casting, where spells are ‘encoded’ to certain martial moves

Strategy two: Learn to use ‘element manipulation’ in tandem with your martial arts

Strategy three: Get EFFICIENT, good ol’ elbow grease

Now that you’ve seen the strategies, you can choose one! Furthermore, since I’m such an AMAZING teacher, I’ve listed them in the order that I would recommend!

Also, if you’re wondering why there’s only three, it’s because these are the ones that work the best, thus, also the mainstream ones! No need to overburden my dear student with unnecessarily bad options now! HAHAHA!]

“I see...” Yuiko nodded, reading through the different strategies, immersed to the point where she was tuning out Krystina’s yelps and momentary screams of pain, “So if I just kept practicing what I was doing earlier it’d be strategy three.”

Looking off into the distance with dead eyes, Yuiko concluded, “So not doing that, so let’s choose from the last two then.”

Standing up and stretching, Yuiko fidgeted with a loose thread on her shirt as she walked outside to take a breath of fresh air. Staring at the view outside, an overcast day with zero snow in sight, she stretched a little, taking in a deep breath, “I miss the snow at home, it doesn’t even get that cold around here, it was roasting just a few weeks ago.”

Meanwhile, as Yuiko was finding a direction in life, to the jealousy of Hiroshi and Vladimir, Krystina sat against the wall blowing some air by her to give herself some fresh air, “Damn, there are results but this stuff isn’t really working. I guess I’ll have to start training my eyes as well to be able to function when I’m moving that fast...”

“Wait actually there’s a spell for that I think,” Krystina pondered out loud, taking a moment to organize the open books scattered around her, “Hey, Vlad? Do you know if there’s a spell for helping the eyes function when you’re moving at high speeds? There’s got to be one right? I’ve seen so many high speed fights!”

“Yeah, it should be in the school’s spell database,” Vladimir answered with a nod, grinning as he flicked around some metal transforming it from weapon to weapon, before snickering in a snobbish yet sarcastic tone, “or should I say, ‘Spell Repository’?” 

Laughing while getting into a sword stance, Hiroshi rebuked with a sarcastic tone, “Come on, make sure to show full respect to the school! Like how the ranking battles’ official name is ‘Monthly Progress Battles’ that ‘give the school a good representation of each student's expertise level in different areas while also giving a sense of friendly competition to the student body’. Make sure to show full respect!”

Snorting as he got into his own ready stance Vladimir nodded, “Mhm, thank you for reminding me Hiro, can’t forget to show my respect to the school! So, ready to get your ass whipped? I mean, spar?”

“Ready? Of course! I can toss your ass in so many ways, anytime you want, that even chef’s would be jealous of my abilities!” Hiroshi retorted with a smile, focusing in before leaping forward to begin the duel.

“Anyway...” Krystina muttered to herself while sitting back down, “why do those two always get so absorbed in bantering with each other? Time to get back to work I guess...”

Esiyx

A chapter!!

damn i be sticking to a schedule during this break from school-

... gonna be honest i don't think it'll be that sustainable once school starts again..

Thanks for reading though everyone! Please leave some comments please! <3