"See, you're supposed to counteract that with a winding kick."

Resh pointed incriminatingly at Vivi. She swiped a hand across her mouth, withdrawing a sheen of mud and blood. A few of her teeth felt loose on the gum. Great. "Are you serious? Of all people? You, with the pink hair, teaching me standard defense tactics?"

"Awfully judgmental for a pacifist," Demi responded.

Phil rolled his eyes. "Glad to debunk the great stereotype, milady."

"Also, you couldn't exactly defend yourself from it," Vivi said, appearing mostly undeterred. She flounced backward until she reached Demi's side, brushing off her clothes. Phil frowned in disdain. "Or you could've caught my ankle. Just sayin'. I mean, I'm not trying to help you win this battle in any way, but I've never been able to land a perfect blow on someone. I could thank you for that, although that was more than embarrassing on your part. Even your book reader warned you about it."

"Phil," he corrected tonelessly.

"Oh, we know," Demi answered. "It'd be impossible to forget your monotonous personality."

"Well, you're lucky. We just got back from another country, where we faced a few other mamodo and it was-"

"I'm sure, I'm sure," Vivi replied, waving away the remainder of her answer. "You and thousands of other mamodo, surely. Please do better next time is all I'm saying, yeah? That was disappointing, dare I repeat a thousandth time?"

Resh faced Phil, breathing hard and as annoyed as he was with their opponents. "Phil, I refuse to lose this battle."

"Yeah, so I've heard."

"No, not this entire battle. Against these corny, circus-themed girls, I mean. Their confidence is nauseating. Their spells are wimpy, come on."

"Wow, this is a new side of you if I've seen one. What do we call this emotion on my planet? Vengeance? Revenge? I'm sure we have therapy for this type of-"

"Phil, I'm serious."

"Okay, okay, relax." Phil said, looking considerably lax, despite Resh's insistence. He opened her spellbook to one of their newer spells and focused in, although he still didn't have the energy to follow it with. "Resh, get ready this time. The second spell, Mirudo!"

"Oooh, here we go, now we're stepping up our game," Demi said with a weightless sigh, watching as Vivi flounced away from her to intercept the incoming mirror. Vivi launched herself over it, like an acrobat but Resh intercepted her, teeth gritted. They exchanged fists for a moment. Resh shoved Vivi, but the latter managed to catch herself and she slammed her back into the mirror that lingered. Vivi glanced behind her, pre-preparing herself, then flounced when Resh's fist came in her direction and shattered a portion of the mirror, spraying the dirt floor in shards. It dissipated, then. Demi couldn't see her behind the guise of their mirrors and that was the key point of their strategy.

"Mirar!"

Resh aimed this mirror toward the floor, angling it so the beam would fire at her diagonally, Vivi's eyes widened and she tried to jump backward, but tripped over her own feet and it momentarily delayed her. Even if she could dodge it in full, the brunt of the hit would sting. There would be no way getting around an implosion of mirror shards and a burning beam of light, so she was forced to partly intercept it and by doing so, it took her off her feet.

"Vivi!" Demi screamed, running over.

Phil and Resh breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Well, I'm heading off. This battle is a bore," Lilja said, yawning an awful sound of exaggeration. "Lilja, let's be off. Are you coming, Sundance?"

Sundance blinked. "Um, no thanks."

"Oh noooo," Fuuma said, frowning over Lilja's answer. "Will we see you soon?"

"Unfortunately, we probably will," Phil said without mirth.

Viola and Lilja left without further comment. Vivi climbed back to her feet, mostly undeterred. She shook Demi off without even a sound, but a courteous nod. "Well, I have to give you that one," Vivi said, gesturing to her torn sleeve and her burned shoulder. "Demi, a spell?"

Demi nodded. "Of course. Ringda!"

"Where's Sloane? I need to text my boyfriend. My boyfriend...I need to text my boyfriend."

Eve had no clue where Sloane was, or her phone, or Sindri, or Caleb, or her phone, or Sundance, or her phone. Then, there was someone and they were handing her a cup, saying, "Here." And she said, "Get away from me." In that cup was her phone. Oops, thanks. She fished her phone out, but the keys weren't working properly and she needed to text Caleb. She needed to call Caleb. She needed to talk to Caleb right now.

Caleb.

She needed to text him.

But someone was screaming.

Eve placed her phone aside and followed the sound because that's the best thing. Outside, Sloane was arguing against a group of girls. One against twenty, really. Eve was tempted not to get involved because logistically she could never win this. Also, it was a Miroashi genetic to have one's ass kicked and she was drunk enough to come to that realization. Although, Sloane was kind enough to invite her to a party and give her nice clothes and vodka-

"What's going on here?" she shouted over. They all turned at the sound of her voice.

Damn.

"Eve, these bitches insulted my shoes!"

The girls jumped Sloane, which was so obviously unfair. Eve ran over, flung her drink aside. She had to. She couldn't just let that happen. Eve grabbed Sloane from behind, but she was fighting, scrabbling to continue the one-sided fight. Eve promptly got socked in the face. They scrambled away from another and Eve grasped for her face, and she thought, distinctly, of how she would look with broken facial bones and reconstruction surgery and a newer nose. Something was streaming through her fingers.

Then, there was cops and the other girls were running. She and Sloane were still there, laughing and spitting and bloodied. Total morons, but they were the ones being arrested and questioned. Sloane was shouting, "My father is a lawyer. You can't do this. Do you hear me? Are you listening?"

Then, Eve realized she was actually being arrested, too. As in, actual arrest. As in, her bondsman of a biological father might catch word of Eve Miroashi in a county precinct, then be Grade-A pissed. As in, her brother was trialed for stealing and attempting to hijack cars but spent a few months in a diversion center because their father knew people and turned Would-Be Rebel Sindri into Good Egg Student Teacher/Teacher Sindri.

"Hey, hey, you. Pay attention. What's your name?"

Eve was gesturing to prove her point. "Um, Kana. It's actually Kanad, see. Kana is a nickname."

"Yeah, yeah, lady. It'll look awfully pretty on the report. Surname."

"Shōda."

"When's your birthday?"

"It was...yesterday."

"Stop talking to them, Shiniro. They're drunk as shit."

"Well, you're not wrong on that account."

Eve was blinking, trying to regain her vision. And her head hurt and her face hurt. She was seeing everything misty, then someone was saying, "Here." again. She could still barely see, but whatever they had to give was cold and she pressed it into her face, where it hurt, and there was a hand in hers. Eve opened her eyes. She saw Sloane's blur of wild curls, her grin. It felt like safety. Security, so she closed her eyes.

"...Firefly Bail Bonds, please hold. Firefly Bail Bonds, please hold."

"Ike!"

"I'm on the phone, Hiromi. Please hold...I mean, hold on."

"No, you're not. You're telling everyone to hold, so that means you're wanting to close shop for the night," Hiromi explained at Ike's lack of response. He rolled his eyes without providing an answer.

"This is a twenty-four place. Sadly, it never closes," Ike deadpanned. "What do you want from me?"

Hiromi gasped. "Is that how you talk to me?"

Ike closed his hands and "Hi Hiromi, I offer my sincerest apologies. Can you tell me what you want from me, so I can please get back to work?"

"Your personality is horrible. It's amazing your kids still call you," she added jokingly. Ike raised his eyebrows as response to that. He was mostly unreceptive. He ignored most of the emails she sent, and even his son said he rarely "Well, your son did call. He wanted to talk to you, personally, though."

"I'll call him when I have the time. If that's it, you can head home, Hiromi." Ike advised, taking the phone from the cradle. Hiromi, however, lingered in the doorway with an unexplainable expression. "Okay, so do you need something? Or?"

"There's someone with the name, Kana Shoda, at the precinct," Hiromi said, breathless in her might. "Do you think we should call over? Or I can send a-"

"What kind of question is that?" he asked in that same monotone, sliding the phone down his neck in an obvious display of disinterest. "Kana Shoda is a common name. Don't be stupid, Hiromi."

"But-"

Ike had already reclaimed his phone. "This is Firefly Bail Bonds, Ike speaking. How may I help you this evening?"

"Your friend was right. This battle is getting to be a bore," Demi announced from across the field. Many of Vivi and Resh's blocks and punches were being intercepted, although Resh had received the bloodier half of the battle. She was panting, even Vivi showed obvious signs of exasperation. They were at an essential stalemate. "Don't worry, we'll gladly spark the interest back in."

"Wait, what are you even talking about?" Phil shouted over to her. The sky was darkening already. Most of their onlookers already looked tired as well, and the battle footage via Phil's camera would show fog and nothingness, despite his high-quality lens.

Demi grinned, flipping Vivi's book to its last pages. "See if you're ready to handle this. Our final spell, Finato Cometuga!"

Vivi raised her hands to the sky as clouds parted, the skies changed color, brightening and darkening simultaneously in a bizarre combination, fiery meteors, some of whom were shaped like rabbits, were heading in their direction.

"If only Itosagi were here," Sundance said with a dry laugh, unfitting of him, remembering the bite marks.

"And this day just gets better." Resh said with a deadpan.

For those still reading this story, thank you so much! You're awesome. Anyway, Happy 2017! Don't worry, I'll be sure to finish this one. My next college semester starts later this month, so that'll probably consume most of my time but I'll pop in when I can. (Amazingly, I didn't even have to fact-check Demi's spells. A first.)