Nina's Sincerity

Being kind to others is easy. But being sincere to others… is harder than you think.

While myself… I missed those days of sincerity.

******

Two days later.

Nina and her sister began to fully train their magical affinity.

Nina can't neglect her sister's unusual magic increment. She wanted to find a way to stabilize Aily's unbelievable unstable mana energy. She thought it might be caused of overly ejected used mana energy or known as Mana Emission.

Mana Emission is an after effect once a spell has been casted. Basically, the remains of used mana energy expelled from the user. This phenomenon is highly possible to happen to young elementalists that just got into using magic. Aily herself has only two years since she began using magic.

Now… the training began once again. It's only five days left before the Elemental Test. Nina wanted to make sure her sister didn't go out of control during that event. Nina herself is actually at Level 3 Wind right now, but she isn't really sure for herself and wants to see for herself in the upcoming test.

"Okay, Aily. Today we will learn how to press our mana emission,"

"Eh? We? You're training along?" Aily stood up from polishing her scepter and put it near the tree stump.

"Uh-huh, that's what I thought—wha—hey!" Nina got slightly suffocated from Aily suddenly hugging her tightly.

"H-Hey, quit it, will ya?" said Nina funnily.

"Thanks sis, you're the best!" Aily smiled adorably.

Nina exhaled shortly. She smiled at what her sister said to her. Aily's negligence was transformed into a wholesome compliment that a sibling would kindly say.

"I'm very thrilled… but first, I guess it is better you let me g-go, Aily…"

"O-Oh! Yeah, right. I'm sorry." Aily releases her hug. Nina inhales some fresh air and spew it out slowly. She glanced at her younger sister.

A short silence,

Aily looked down onto her red shoes for a while, then, she grabbed her scepter near the tree stump.

"I'm so glad that you stood by my side at all times... you cared too much for me, while I... I don't do anything in return..." so said Aily regrettably and ended with a sigh.

Nina showed a slight smile after hearing her sister's kind words,

"Aily, my dear... It is a must for me as your big sister to protect you at all time! It doesn't matter whether you don't nor you can't repay me. I promised it to you, didn't I?"

Aily glanced at Nina. She felt incredibly glad to hear such words.

"Y-Yeah..." she wiped her face. "S-Sorry, sis, forget what I said earlier—

"Ahahah, my li'l sis is growing mature than ever!" This time, Nina hugged her. Aily hugged her back after she dropped her scepter onto the ground.

Deep within their cuddle, Aily is silently dripping her tears to the ground. "Thank you, sis... you're truly the best sister in the world!"

"Aw... how cute of you. But you're one moody girl aren'tcha? You said you're happy now you're fallen in tears," Nina pats her head gently,

"There, there. Come on, we've got some workout to do, OK?"

"Hm!" Aily nodded her head as she released her hug along with Nina. Aily wiped her face off her tears and shifted into smiling.

"Okay, pick your scepter, today's training will be SUPER hard!" Nina clenched her fist forwardly.

"I'm not gonna cry anymore. Please, train me, sister! I want to become stronger!" Aily courageously stated.

"Whew.... you've said that before," Nina covered her mouth as she held her giggle.

"A-Ah, nevermind, that. Come on let's just uh... start training! Yeah! That's it!" Aily's face blushed and looked the other way.

"Ahahahah, how cute of you,"

A few moments later, they stand ready in the middle, wielding their weapons, ready to start.

"Let's see... in order to stabilize mana usage on your magic, try directing your mana energy to one point only, like your finger for example. Here's how it's done..." Nina then practices on how it's done. She aims her cane at a small rock.

"Windforce!"

The rock flung three meters off but didn't fell off the edge, "See that, Aily? You can sense how much mana energy was sent, right? Activate your mana sensing ability to feel it thoroughly,"

Aily nods, "I've activated it, don't worry,"

Nina then casted another Windforce magic, Aily senses the way mana energy flows minimally and being send through Nina's cane as its catalyst. It's super-efficient!

"Now, you try," Nina gave Aily her turn.

"Alright, here goes, then!" Aily closed her eyes briefly. She focused the flow of mana in her body, focusing it onto her index finger and directed to her scepter. The orb on her scepter lit up. Aily turned sideways to the right and aimed her scepter at a lone rock.

Nina stepped back, she had a hunch that things MIGHT go wrong. She used her special skill again, "Mana Perception," *ZIIIIIIM*

And followed by Aily's spell: "Windforce!"

*ZWAAAAAASH! *CRACK* *SHTASH*

Aily opened her eyes, only to see that instead of a rock that flung off the ground, a small tree got forced off its roots and flung off the cliff. Nina, whose behind her got agape silently. She saw it right, the mana energy that flowed from her hands onto her scepter... was like a burst of stream.

Nina watched her intensely. Slowly, the mana emission fades in from her entire body like a cloud of smoke but in dark purple color.

"S-Sis… did I do it… wrongly?" Aily wondered.

"I'm pretty sure that's quite a 'blast'…" Nina replied frowningly. Suddenly, someone shrieks:

"GYAAAHAHAHAHA—LOOK OUT! SLIDE OFF, MAN!"

A scream was heard. It's a man's voice. Aily and Nina quickly moved into the cliff edges to take a look.

"HYAHAHAH! It's a frickin' tree! Scias, SLIDE LEFT!" Marco shouted.

"You slide left, I'll g-go RIGHT!" Scias shouted louder.

"FINE!"

It's Marco and Scias.

They managed to get away in time. The tree slid past them and hit a cliff rock before going all the way down to the mountain feet. Marco and Scias watched as they laid themselves down on the ground.

"Phew... that was quite a close one," Marco wipes his forehead.

"Yeah, g-good t-thing we managed to avoid in time," said Scias gladly.

"Serves you right, mate. The heck's going on, anyway? Did nature finally fight back?"

"Silly fool, that can't be it. Judging b-by the tree shape, someone must've chopped it," Scias guessed.

Marco quickly launched into rage, "Gaaah! WHO THE HELL CHOPPED DOWN A DAMN TREE FROM UP THERE—

"Wait, M-Marco, that tree just n-now... it's not chopped down... I remembered seeing its roots flying along with the t-tree..." Scias pointed at the place where the tree fell off the cliff.

"Ha...H-Haaaaaaaaaaaah? Are you serious, man?" Marco then gets up and pats his cloth off from dust. "That's gotta be one strong armed guy to be able to lift a tree along with its roots, huh?" Marco rambled.

"Dammit, man... I just got this suit the other day," he added.

"Oh, you, heheh, must've b-been veeery unlucky," said Scias mockingly as he stood up as well.

"Bah, enough with that. There's somethin' else to deal here,"

Aily from the summit witnessed them both chattering even after nearly rolled over by a falling tree.

"Uwoh? W-Wha-hey! It's Aily... and her sister!" Marco spotted Aily in the distance.

"I-I-I'm so sorry, a-a-are you guys hurt?" She asked. Nina still got her mouth open.

"No," Scias casually replied.

"Your sister's there?" Marco asked loudly.

"Uh… yeah, she's here with me," Aily stated casually.

Later, Marco and Scias joined them in the summit. Nina tried to 'explain' what's going on. Aily quickly shifts into a barrage of pardons:

"I'm SUPER sorry, really sorry, so sorry, I don't mean to harm you two, please forgive me, Marco, Scias!" Aily bowed down a bunch of times.

"I thought it's some muzzling deforester from abroad... *sigh* it was you all along, huh?" Marco rubbed the back of his head.

"That's odd... Windforce spell s-shouldn't be able to send a tree f-flying out of their roots..." Scias held his right hand on his chin as he wonders.

"Ah, it's uh..." Nina tried to clear up things for everyone.

"So… THIS is the absolute result of your training, huh, Aily?" Marco grinned funnily.

"Y-Yeah… ahahaha…" Aily replied awkwardly.

"Hm…" Scias kept thinking about something as if he's thinking a theory of quantum physics. He felt like he knew a thing or two about the case with Aily.

But eventually, he stopped thinking.