The sun peeked over the horizon, spilling golden light across the dew-covered grass of Exiastgardsun. A chorus of birds chirped, some of which immediately scattered when Adiw screamed, "MY SWORD! WHERE IS MY SUPER AWESOME HURTY SWORD?!"
Yetsan, in the middle of sanding down a freshly carved pole, didn't even look up. "You mean the one you broke in half trying to smash a rock that was clearly bigger than your entire head?"
Adiw scowled. "It was a combat test."
"It was a stupidity test," Yetsan muttered, tapping his lance with approval. "And you failed."
Nearby, under the shade of a large leaf canopy, the other children were busy examining their new weapons, all still made of wood, carved from branches of fallen limbs blessed by the mana tree. Before that, however, Yetsan had taken his time. While others rushed with excitement, he sat cross-legged, staring at Yuuna's sketches with quiet contemplation. He considered axes, swords, even an experimental twin-boomerang design Fahleena tried to convince him was 'the future of warfare.'
Yuuna had crouched beside Yetsan earlier that morning as he pored over the weapon sketches. "Still deciding?" she asked.
Yetsan nodded. "I want something balanced. Not too heavy. Not flashy. Just... useful."
Yuuna pointed at a design. "Lance. Simple reach, stable defense, mid-range advantage. Good for keeping dust, and danger, at a distance."
He stared at it thoughtfully, then gave a slow nod. "Yeah. Strong, but with distance. Simple. Effective. I like that."
Yuuna gave a small, approving nod. "Efficient.", its balance, reach, and straightforward nature resonated with him. 'It's practical,' he'd said. 'Strong, but with distance. Simple. Effective.' Yuuna approved with a subtle nod, and Yetsan got to work crafting it himself.
Now, he was sanding it smooth, the weapon already showing signs of his craftsmanship., all still made of wood, carved from branches of fallen limbs blessed by the mana tree. Yuuna supervised quietly, she took notes in her book.
Gigih opened his magic book with reverence, tracing glowing runes upon the page like a poet painting the air with silence. His fingers moved slowly, carefully, as if coaxing secrets from the ether itself, the forming circle pulsing faintly with promise.
Sinryo admired the curve of his dual daggers, testing their weight. Sakura had already wrapped a silk ribbon around her staff and was humming softly. Fuhiken polished his sword-and-shield combo with such diligence you'd think it was already real steel.
Fahleena twirled her keyblade, essentially a wooden paddle shaped like an oversized key, and shouted, "This key shall unlock the destiny of the cosmos!"
Orchid clapped. "So majestic!"
Jessica was off to the side, silently practicing with her wooden katana. Though the blade had no sheath, she mimicked the movements of drawing and striking, her motions fluid and deliberate. Every step was measured, each swing controlled. She repeated sequences again and again, not for show, but for precision, until her body memorized the rhythm like a quiet song. Occasionally, she'd pause, adjust her stance, and begin again, as if dueling an invisible opponent only she could see. Her focus was complete, unaffected by the chaos around her.
Then there was Kyle. Kyle stood in the middle of the training field, proudly holding his newly made wooden mana gun.
"Behold! The Mana Blaster Mark I!" he declared, spinning it on his finger like a revolver. It immediately slipped and bonked his forehead.
Yuuna glanced up from her notes. "You are aware that's just carved wood with a mana chamber etched by Yetsan, yes?"
Kyle rubbed his forehead. "Of course! It's a prototype. Which means... we test it!"
Yuuna narrowed her eyes. "Test it carefully."
Kyle aimed the gun at a distant target board. He took a deep breath. Concentrated. Channeled mana just like Yuuna taught him.
The moment he pulled the trigger, the gun exploded with a WHUMP, a puff of smoke and blue sparks rocketing backward and launching Kyle into a stack of wooden crates.
.....
A few seconds of silence.
"Ow," came Kyle's voice. "I think I saw the future. It was bright. And on fire."
Yuuna calmly walked over and looked down at him.
"That," she said, "was perhaps the dumbest interpretation of a mana flow diagram I have ever witnessed."
Kyle grinned through the soot on his face. "But it worked, right?"
Yuuna raised a single eyebrow. "In the same way eating raw wasabi with your eyeballs is technically ingesting it."
Gigih snorted.
"Hey! It had style!" Kyle added, sitting up with a groan.
Yuuna leaned closer. "If you try that again without recalibrating the chamber, I will personally enchant your next gun to squeal like a duck every time you pull the trigger."
Kyle blinked. "...Can it be a cool duck? Like a warrior duck?"
Yuuna stared at him. "No."
Fahleena gasped. "But imagine the quack of justice echoing across the battlefield!"
Fahleena and Kyle met in the middle of the chaos and gave each other a triumphant high-five, both bursting into giddy laughter like they had just saved the world, or at least invented the most entertaining accident. Kyle did a victory spin while Fahleena twirled with sparkles only she could see. Off to the side, Yuuna watched the scene unfold with deadpan silence, then slowly dragged her hand down her face in the universal expression of intellectual despair.
---
The rest of the morning passed in noisy, slightly smoky chaos. Yetsan rebuilt Kyle's gun under Yuuna's hovering gaze, grumbling the entire time about splinters and fireproofing. Sinryo and Adiw sparred with wooden weapons and dramatic yells. Fahleena narrated her every move like a magical girl transformation. Jessica ignored them all and quietly perfected her footwork. Orchid attempted a charge attack and accidentally ran into a tree.
Through it all, Yuuna kept writing.
Observation: All weapons functional. Materials: wood (mana tree-derived). Combat potential: low. Chuunibyou contamination level: rising. Kyle combustion rate: 1.5/day.
She sighed. Tomorrow, they would train more seriously. Today, she'd settle for making sure no one exploded twice.
---