The party that Elizabella Newton is throwing for The Chess Company is still about a month away so they had plenty of time to prepare unless she decided to act sooner than this, but there was no point worrying about something that might happen that they also had no control over. As long as they remain vigilant for this possibility they should probably be fine for the time being.

 

In the meantime they decided that it would be a good idea to increase their training time. Violet got Zari’s permission to use the virtual training room over the weekend.

 

“Alright team!” Violet says as she walks up to the control panel of the training room. “I think that it would be a good time to practice combo moves. I know that we already have quite a bit of experience fighting alongside one another, but there’s always room for improvement.”

 

After brainstorming for a while they came up with some interesting ideas.

 

Maka and Ash decided to go first.

 

“Honestly, I’m kind of surprised that we didn’t think of this before?” Ash says as the two of them head into the training room.

 

“Better late than never.” Maka says with a shrug. “Okay! Let’s do this!”

 

Maka funnels some water from the fins on the back of her suit as Ash lights up his arms with flames.

 

“STEAM EXPLOSION!” Maka and Ash yell in unison.

 

Maka’s water and Ash’s flames clash with each other. This creates a massive amount of steam that covers just about the entire room and fogs up the viewing windows.

 

“Fascinating!” Violet says as she presses a button on the control panel that clears the steam out of the room. “That move was a lot more tactical than I expected!”

 

“What were you expecting!” Ash asks as he puts his hands behind his head.

 

“Honestly, I was expecting something a lot more aggressive from you two, well mostly from Maka if I’m being honest, but this is great!”

 

“You know, I’m not aggressive all the time! I’m a little more multi-dimensional than that!” Maka says as she crosses her arms.

 

“I know it’s not all the time, just most of the time!” Violet says with a smirk.

 

Maka rolls her eyes as a small smile crawls onto her face.

Next up was Candi and Fang.

 

Fang just opens his fanny pack and pulls out a cookie and tosses it to Candi.

 

“Since I can pull almost any object out of my fanny pack I realized that includes sugary desserts.”

 

“Yeah! Short and sweet!” Candi says as she eats the cookie then quickly takes a lap around the training room.

 

“Actually, there’s something I wanted to ask you, Fang?” Violet asks.

 

“What’s up?” Fang says as he zips up his fanny pack.

 

“Do you have to place things into your fanny pack pocket dimension and then pull them back out, or can you just create things from it?”

 

“I can create things from it! I just think about what I want and it appears in the bag!” Fang says as he pulls a chili dog out of the bag and begins to eat it.

 

“Is the food that comes out of your bag real?” Violet continues.

 

“Yes.” Fang says as he finishes the last bite of his chili dog.

 

“I know you said earlier that your bag creates the object that you pull from it, but are you sure it doesn’t randomly pull objects out of the real world?”

 

“Beats me.” Fang says with a shrug. “I’ve never put that much thought into it.”

 

“...Fair enough…” Violet says before asking one final question. “Do you know if there is a size limit to the things that you pull out of your bag?”

 

In response Fang pulls a catapult out of his fanny pack.

 

“No, not really!” He says with a smirk. “Also, that wasn’t our only combo attack idea!”

 

Candi almost immediately jumps into the bucket of the catapult as Fang pulls a knife out of his pack to cut a rope and launch the catapult.

 

As Candi flies towards the wall of the training room she kicks the wall and flips back down to the ground with a perfect landing.

 

After she lands both her and Fang bow.

 

Violet almost questions what just happened, but decides against it because she is sure that she wouldn’t understand any explanation that she is given.

 

“Ash, can you man the control panel for a bit.” Violet asks as Ash nods in response as she enters the training room.

 

“You just gave me a few ideas.” Violet says as she walks over to Fang.

 

“I think I know where this is going!” Fang says with a smirk as he dumps a massive boulder out of his pack and onto the ground.

 

Violet walks over to the boulder and easily picks it up.

 

Ash presses a few buttons on the control panel and a target suddenly appears on the wall of the training room.

 

Violet throws the boulder at the target as the boulder shatters into pieces.

 

“You know what, even though your power is really silly I think it can also be quite useful!” Violet says as she dusts her hands off.

 

“It can be both!” Fang says as he places his hands behind his back as the two of them walk out of the room.

Love, Maka, and Candi head into the training room.

 

“...Before we show you what we came up with…we need to tell you all something first?”

 

Love then takes both Maka and Candi’s hand into her own.

 

“...Even though we have all been good friends for a while now, we’ve decided to take our relationship to the next level…”

 

Maka and Candi then both give Love a kiss on the cheek.

 

“Awww! I’m happy for you guys!” Violet genuinely states.

 

“Took you guys long enough.” Ash says with a small yet knowing smile on his face.

 

“...Wait…am I the only straight person here?” Fang asks as he scratches the back of his head.

 

“No. I’m also straight.” Violet nonchalantly responds. “...but it is interesting that our class is mostly comprised of queer people though.”

 

“...Thank you guys…” Love says as a blush covers her face.

 

“It’s good to finally have that out in the open!” Candi says through a laugh.

 

“...Yeah!” Maka says with faux confidence as she tries her best not to blush from embarrassment. Maka was cool and confident about most things, but that didn’t include romance. Not yet at least.

 

“...Anyway…” Love said as she summoned her bow. “...Since my power is based around emotions…we thought that this would be a quicker way for me to get some of my more useful arrows more often…”

 

Violet presses a few buttons on the control panel and a ton of targets appear on the wall of the training room.

 

A golden arrow materializes in Love’s bow, but it is noticeably bigger than her arrows usually are.

 

She shoots it at one of the targets and gets a bullseye before her arrow explodes in a bright yellow flash. As the light fades the cracked pieces of the target fall to the ground of the training room.

 

“...So…I think I have a rough idea of how your power works…” Fang says as he rubs the back of his neck. “...but how does it work exactly?”

 

“...Oh…yeah…I can explain it…” Love says as she generates another golden arrow onto her bow. “...The more powerful the emotion I feel the stronger my arrows are…My golden arrows are the most basic ones which I can activate at almost any time…They appear when I’m not particularly feeling any strong emotions, but that means that they are also my weakest arrows…”

 

She shoots that arrow at another target and hits another bullseye. She then generates a green arrow.

 

“...This one appears when I am feeling worried for someone else’s safety and can be used to heal…”

 

“...Wait…what are you worried about right now then?” Fang asks.

 

“...I noticed that Candi scraped her knee the other day…” Love responds as she gives a small smile towards her blonde energetic girlfriend.

 

“...Huh…” Candi says as she looks down at her knee. “I didn’t even notice that!” She rubs the back of her head with a small chuckle.

 

“...To be fair I’m always a little worried about the people I care about, but even though it is a small injury it doesn’t change the fact that you got hurt…”

 

“Awww! You care about me! That’s so sweet of you!” Candi says as she quickly runs up to Love and gives her another peck on the cheek.

 

“...Yeah…Of course I care about you…” Love says with a small blush as she fires the green arrow at Candi’s knee which quickly heals the scrape.

 

“Oh wow! That does feel better!” Candi says with a smile.

 

Love gives Candi a small smile before generating a pink arrow.

 

“...I only discovered this one recently…for what should be obvious reasons…This one is kind of similar to Cupid’s arrow, but instead of a person who is hit with this arrow falling in love with the first person that they see they are briefly stunned from being charmed by…me I guess…I don’t know why though…”

 

“What do you mean “I guess”? You’re cute, Love!” Maka says a little too enthusiastically with a massive blush on her face. “Accept the fact that you are cute!”

 

“Yeah! That’s my girlfriend you’re talking about!” Candi also says with a little too much enthusiasm.

 

“...Thanks…” Love says with a blush of her own before firing the arrow at Maka.

 

Just as Love said, Maka’s eyes almost cartoonishly turned into massive pink hearts. After about a minute she shook her head and went back to normal.

 

“Hey Maka!” Candi says as she waves her hand in her other girlfriend’s face to get her attention.

 

“...Huh…oh Candi…what’s up?”

 

“How did being charmed feel?”

 

“...Not that different from usual if I’m being honest…” Maka says with a small chuckle as she rubs the back of her neck. “...I mean…you know what this mushy stuff does to me sometimes…”

 

“...Yeah…” Candi says as she gives Maka a small kiss on the cheek.

 

“...I’m honestly not sure if I can generate the rest of my arrow types right now…I can still explain them though…red activates when I feel extreme emotions like anger or despair and is sort of like my basic golden arrow expect a lot more powerful…but I sometimes lose control of myself when this happens…blue arrows appear when I’m feeling sad and act like a massive depressant to those that are hit by it…orange arrows appear when i’m anxious and are kind of like electricity…purple arrows appear when I’m feeling scared and create a shadow-like smoke screen and paralyze people with fear in the proximity of the smoke…and…I think that’s about it…If I’m being honest I might have more colors of arrow than that, but I haven’t discovered them yet…so yeah…”

 

“...Wow…That was…thorough…” Fang says as he tries to suppress a yawn. “...You maybe could’ve summarized it a little quicker than that…”

 

“...Oh…I’m sorry…” Love says as she pressed the tips of her pointer fingers together.

 

“...It’s fine…” Fang says in response as he stretches his arms above his head. “...I just have a really short attention span, but I think I got the jist of it…”

 

“...Okay…” Love continues “...As I was saying…my girlfriend’s can help me get some of my rarer types of arrows more efficiently than usual, but I also set up a few mood specific playlists on my phone so if I want to feel some of these emotions I can just listen to them while fighting…”

 

Love then turns to her girlfriends and gives both of them a hug before leaving the training room.

 

“Me and Candi also came up with a unique combo move!” Maka says as she funnels a lot of water from the fins on the back of her suit.

 

She holds the water up in a column in the middle of the room.

 

Candi pulls out a small vial of sugar, downs it in one gulp, and begins to quickly run laps around the water.

 

“WHIRLPOOL WHIRLWIND!”

 

The water then turns into a tornado as Candi quickly slows down and dizzily steps away from the tornado.

 

Maka catches Candi before she falls to the ground and puts her free arm around her shoulders.

 

“I can now control where the tornado goes…or if I’m done using the tornado I can do this! SEA SPRAY SPEARS!” maka exclaims before clenching her fist as the tornado explodes and sends water spears in most directions.

 

Maka then helps Candi, who was still dizzy from creating the tornado, out of the training room.

“Good work today!” Violet says as she gives her classmates a thumbs up. “I feel a lot better about our mission now…as a reward for your hard work, let’s go get something to eat.”

 

“Can we get ice cream!” Candi shouts as she raises her hand.

 

“Do you ever get full?” Maka says with a smile as she ruffles Candi’s hair.

 

“Not really! I have an incredibly fast metabolism!” Candi says with a smile. “Also, my body uses up sugar more quickly than other people so it’s almost like it isn’t even bad for me!

 

“...Lucky you…” Love says as she gives Candi a kiss on the cheek. “...That explains why you are so sweet!”

 

“Oh, stop it you two!” Candi says with a giggle. “...But not really though…keep up the compliments!”

 

“Can do, cutie!” Maka and Love say in unison as they each give Candi another peck on the cheek.

 

“...So…I know a good barbeque place.” Ash tells Violet as he puts his hands in his pockets.

 

“I’ve never been to a barbeque place before…sounds interesting.” Violet says as she pulls out her phone to do some research.

 

“...I sometimes forget that you used to be rich…” Ash responds.

 

The friends enjoy most of the rest of their day at the restaurant and the group decided that Ash had really good taste when it came to food.