"Soft. . ." She said sleepily. "Snuggle soft. . ."

 

I sighed again. She was not going to let me go while asleep. I transformed into my human form and ended up with Kiku's arms wrapped around my waist. That woke her up.

 

"Huh. . ?" She said. "Olivia?"

 

"You were holding onto me," I said. "You wouldn't let me go."

 

"Oh, sorry," Kiku said, releasing her hug.

 

"It's fine," I said. I tickled her nose with one of my tails.

 

"Hey!" She said, swatting at me, but I transformed into my fox form and leaped away before changing back.

 

"Can't catch me!" I teased. Kiku quickly got out of bed and leaped toward me. She tackled me and we fell to the ground, laughing.

 

"Come on, let's get ready," I said.

 

 

"Students, please make your way to the main testing grounds," The Director said through a megaphone. "We will call you all up in name order to gauge your Power Percentage."

 

"What do you think your percentage will be?" Lauren asked.

 

"I think all five of us will at least get on the top 20 leaderboard," Cinder said. "I, personally, aim for the top five."

 

"I think I'll get maybe top 10," Kiku said.

 

"I hope to get on the leaderboard," I said. "If I don't, I'll never hear the end of it from my sister."

 

"You'll make it to the top 10 at least," Cinder said. "You have two Unique Magics."

 

"I'm trying for the top 10 as well," Violet said.

 

"Same," Lauren said.

 

"Violet Arondi," The Director called.

 

"My turn!" Violet said. She went down the stairs and onto the testing area. She was given her weapon, a Darkblade. It was a knife-type weapon, with a slightly longer blade and was made of a pitch-black material.

 

Violet swung her weapon at one of the metal dummies standing in front of her. The blade cut through the plate of metal in front, leaving a black mark where the two pieces of metal had touched. Then a loud thunderclap sounded as hovering white blades in the same shape as Violet's Darkblade condensed from the air and also struck, leaving the same black mark.

 

Then all of the marks sizzled and began to eat away at the dummies.

 

"Thank you, Violet Arondi," The Director said. Violet handed back the weapon she had used and exited the room. A red light turned on in the testing chamber, and wherever it touched, all traces of destruction disappeared.

 

We waited for about a minute, chatting, while some other people did their test.

 

Eventually, the Director said, "Olivia Aronte."

 

"Good luck," Kiku told me. I smiled and went down the stairs. One of the staff members gave me my weapon, a Thinblade. It was a small knife with a very thin blade.

 

I stepped into the testing chamber. In front of me were 10 dummies, arranged in a triangular pattern like bowling pins. I slashed forward, similar to how Violet had attacked. Right after I hit, my Unique Magic activated. The shimmering silhouette of a large toothed jaw appeared and snapped shut on the dummy. The only thing left was a portion of the metal pole that held the dummy up.

 

Then my other Unique Magic activated. A huge shockwave emanated from me, not only coating the other statues in ice that trailed behind them but pulverizing them afterward. The frozen bits of dust and ice particles shimmered in the overhead lights as they drifted to the ground.

 

"Thank you, Olivia Aronte," The Director said, a tone of slight awe in her voice.

 

I numbly handed my weapon to the staff member who had given it to me and went back up to find my friends.

 

The only thing going through my mind was, What the actual fuck.