Sangre De Reyes

Ari leaves Taiho's office, what's waiting for him outside slightly startles him, It's Kevo.

"Oh! What's up, man? How you been?" He asks as they shake hands,

"I've been good… I heard you passed Taiho's test… congratulations…" He replies,

Ari chuckles, "Of course man, you know me." He says with a grin,

Kevo nods quietly, they start walking together,

"So if you're here, that means you passed your test too right? Who did you pick?" Ari asks,

"…Beretta, it was a written test…"

'This guy had a written test while I fought maniacs.' Ari jokes to himself,

"Oh yeah? What about?"

Kevo thinks for a second, "Mostly scenarios and Mana based questions…"

Ari nods in return, they arrive just outside their classroom, the crew is posted up,

Beyce's face lights up as he sees Ari and Kevo, "Hey guys! How was it? Did you train hard?" He asks grinning,

Ari chuckles back in return but quickly zones out, he notices Monita standing behind Beyce, clutching Dori Dori to her chest tightly while avoiding eye contact,

He gets startled once again, this time by Plaster, slapping his back jokingly, "Cat got your tongue?"

Ari's eyes widen, "Plaster! Good to see you…"

Plaster crosses his arms, "Hmph, you ain't think I was gonna pass or sum'?"

They get interrupted by Beyce ecstatically chatting about his Instructor,

"So my mentor, right? He's apparently pretty low ranked and nobody picked him, but he's actually super strong! I expected him to be a wimp, but oh man, I'm much stronger now! Kevo, I might need that rematch soon!" He laughs, while rubbing the back of his head,

Kevo smiles in return,

Ari clears his throat and walks up to Monita, "Can we talk?" he asks quietly,

In the background, Beyce continues to brag about his instructor.

Monita carefully looks up at Ari, then slowly nods,

They walk a bit away from the crew, Plaster notices,

"So uh… did you come out okay?" He asks hesitantly,

Monita looks at Ari with wide eyes, before closing them shut tightly and nodding,

Ari glances around nervously, "Cool… cool…"

The tension is awkward for a moment before Monita finally speaks up,

"Dori Dori says thank you…" She murmurs softly,

He shakes his head, "Hm? Oh, It was nothing… we're friends of course!" He replies with a warm smile,

Plaster walks up, eyeing them both suspiciously, "You two lovebirds or something now?" He asks teasingly,

Monita looks away quickly and blushes, Ari chuckles, "Woah man, come on… we're just talking…" He laughs while wraps his arm around Plaster, walking away,

"What's wrong with you bro?" Ari whispers,

Plaster tries not to laugh, "I had to." His voice shaky,

Ari glances back, "I'll catch you later, Monita!" He waves,

Monita gives him a small smile and waves back slowly,

…

Elsewhere, Prince and Saint just finished sparring,

"I'm not dreaming, am I?" Saint asks shocked, he looks at his fist,

Prince wipes off the dust from his clothes,

"That was a good shot, I won't deny it."

Prince chuckles lightly, "Let's wrap things up for today, we'll use the remaining week to focus on your control, we don't want your red Mana taking over at the auction. That's gonna bring us a lot of attention." 

Saint nods in response,

"Yeah."

"You haven't leaked any Mana yet, right? You've been doing that exercise I taught you?" Prince asks,

"Yeah. I made sure not to."

Prince runs his hand through is hair, "That's good. Let's keep it that way."

…

Back at the rogue warehouse, Jovi called a meeting,

"Everybody, please take your seats."

The group take their seats in a circle, with Jovi in the middle.

"This Friday… we're executing the most dangerous mission we've ever had. But if we all stick to the plan, we can make it work. Saint and Prince aren't here, but let's have a toast…"

He walks up to a table and reveals glasses with champagne,

Mari frowns suspiciously, 'Champagne? This is the first time he's ever done something like this…'

The gang group together and start to grab a glass each,

As Jane walks up and tries to grab one, Jovi calmly puts his hand over her glass,

"Not you, you're underage remember?" He smiles innocently,

Mari quickly walks up to Jovi and drags him away to a secluded corner,

"Hey, what's the deal?"

Jovi glances around calmly,

"Nothing, we're just having a good time."

Mari frowns in confusion,

"Since when do WE have 'a good time?'"

Jovi takes a deep breath,

"Mari, don't do this, let's just return and enjoy each other's company for the night." He replies calmly,

"Not if you don't tell me what's going on!" She asks annoyed,

Jovi clenches his jaw, he grabs Mari's hand and leads her outside, they sit down on a nearby bench,

"We're losing somebody." He continues,

Mari's eyes widen, "What?! What do you mea-"

"I can feel it. My gut feeling is telling me we're gonna lose somebody."

Mari looks down in confusion, "But it's just a gut feeling… you could be wron-"

He cuts her off again, "Mari… you know well my gut feeling is never wrong… I told myself, not to get attached to everyone… but I can't help it, Mari…"

He has this sadness in his eyes, Mari just stares at him with sympathy,

Suddenly he gets up, "We're just gonna have to continue, we all know what we signed up for."

Mari gets up after him, "You're just nervous, don't worry… we're the strongest."

Jovi glances back, he gives her a small smile, "I hope so…"

…