From A-Z, and Everything in Between

This Wasn't Supposed to Happen (1)

 "They're really going at it this time, huh?"

Amatsuki and Kashitaro watched as two males were arguing in the middle of the clearing. It had started out as a small dispute. The two had arrived at this clearing with their friends at nearly the same time, much to their annoyance. They both felt they had the right to practice here, but they were entirely unwilling to share. And, in their attempts to convince the other to leave, a full-blown argument soon broke out. Neither Amatsuki nor Kashitaro were surprised. Those two had been rivals for as long as they could remember.

"Alright, then how about this? Let's have a duel. The winner gets to practice here, and the loser has to find somewhere else to train," Soraru suggested.

"Fine. I hope you know where you'll be going," Mafumafu said.

Soraru scoffed. "Don't get ahead of yourself, shorty."

"I'm not even that much shorter than you!" Mafumafu exclaimed.

Soraru ignored him, choosing instead to draw his sword from its sheath. Mafumafu huffed in annoyance. There was no way he was losing to a person like this.

"Whoa, hold on a second, guys. There's no need to get violent," Kashitaro said.

"Yeah, just calm down. We can settle this without anyone getting hurt," Amatsuki chimed in. He went over to his white-haired friend and put a hand on his shoulder. "Plus, you know how unstable your magic gets when you're emotional, Mafu-kun. It's not a good idea to try using it right now."

Mafumafu shrugged off his hand. "I'll be fine, Amatsuki-kun. I can handle myself."

"I'm not just concerned for your safety, you know..." Amatsuki said.

"The same goes for you, Soraru-kun. I don't think it's a good idea to have a duel with Mafumafu-san. You two have completely opposite abilities, so there's a good chance at least one of you will get hurt," Kashitaro said.

"So? What's he really going to do, freeze me? Wow, I'm so scared," Soraru said mockingly.

Mafumafu glared at him. "Do you even know anything about magic?"

"Who needs that when you could have a sword or two instead? Real skill lies in being able to take down an opponent without all those fancy words and junk," Soraru said.

"Oh, I'll show you what real skill is," Mafumafu grumbled.

He snapped his fingers, and a barrier appeared, separating him and Soraru from their friends.

"Mafu-kun, stop this. Let's just go home, okay? We can always come back and train another time," Amatsuki said.

"Amatsuki-kun, you should know better than anyone that that's not why I'm doing this," Mafumafu said, giving his friend a small smile.

Amatsuki glanced over at Kashitaro nervously. This time things had gone too far. Amatsuki never thought Mafumafu would get to the point where he'd actually fight Soraru. Sure, they said they'd fight each other a lot whenever they argued about something, but they'd never acted on it before. Up until now, it was just a bunch of empty promises.

"What do we do? They're actually going to do it this time," Amatsuki asked. He couldn't hide how worried he was.

"I don't know. Neither of us are magic users, so we can't get rid of this barrier. There might not be anything we can do," Kashitaro responded.

"But they're going to seriously hurt each other," Amatsuki said.

Kashitaro looked over at the two males taking a fighting stance in the center of their makeshift arena. "I know. But I'm afraid that if we try to interfere at this point, we might end up getting hurt too. Right now, the safest thing to do is wait for them to get it over with."