Yesterday evening, on the stone steps, Zero said something that still echoed in Dice's head. "Focus on control." Six words. Walking home, Dice typed them into his terminal's notepad. Read them three times before bed. Wrote them on a sticky note wedged in the textbook's final page. Did everything he needed to do. Completed it all. So he forgot to plug in the charging cable. Beep beep beep beep beep!!!!!!! Seven-thirty in the morning. The terminal screamed. Battery at seven percent. Alarm blaring. lifted his face from the pillow. Ceiling above. Toretta's morning light slanted through the window. Beyond the cobblestones, merchants were already shouting. Sweet fruit smell drifting through the open window. Blaze Festival—Partiale's biggest magic contest. Held every autumn equinox. National celebration—the preliminaries were today. "...Alright." He sat up. Grabbed the textbook from the pillow. Worn leather cover. Final page, creased from constant reading. Control section completely blank. Father's handwriting. Calculation formulas lined up. Past few days, he'd started understanding them. But not filled in. Still blank. (Somehow it'll work out.) It might not work out. But he decided to think that way now. Shouted toward the hallway. "Lily! You awake?!" "...Been up for a while." Silver hair visible through the door crack. Odd eyes—left gold, right silver—looking at Dice sleepily. But clothes already changed. Proper. Neat. "Your terminal charged?" "Seven percent." "..." Lily said nothing for one beat. Then sighed quietly. Distant look. Single glance at Dice. Distrusting eyes. Same look since they first met. Dice thought it was fair judgment. "Charging spots at the Colosseum." "You already knew that?!" "Checked yesterday." Dice froze, textbook in his arms. She was prepared. He just stuck on a note and called it done. ─ Blaze Colosseum—fifteen-thousand-capacity arena at Toretta's commercial district south end—the underground waiting room was already packed at nine in the morning. Concrete and stone walls. Not fluorescent lights. Magic luminescence—Soltia particles trapped in glass spheres—lined the ceiling. White light. Even illumination. Tense-faced participants doing final preparations. Some confirming incantations. Some stretching. Some staring at walls, muttering. When Dice and Lily arrived, Zero was already there. Standing with his back against the wall. Black coat. Black hair with red mesh. Arms crossed. Eyes closed. Looked the calmest of everyone here. Actually looked like he could fall asleep. Dice approached. Zero opened his eyes. "...You came." Short. No explanation. Dice held up the textbook. "Today's the day I do this!!" Zero looked at the textbook silently. Then took it. Opened the final page. Stared at the blank control section for three seconds. Bit the pen cap. Pulled out a notebook. Wrote three lines. Closed it. "Control section's completely blank. Shoot and you'll lose control. Don't shoot." "You're deciding that in three lines?!" "You're biting the cap." Zero froze. Slowly pulled the cap from his mouth. Put it in his pocket. Faced forward. Expressionless. Lily looked at Zero with admiration. "Zero, you really don't rattle." Zero put the cap back in his mouth. "..." Complete silence. Dice cleared his throat. Tried to change the mood. Pulled out his terminal. Thirty minutes until preliminary assembly. Needed something to ease tension—thought so. Searched: "Pre-performance mental strengthening five-minute method." Opened a video. Hit play. Three seconds in, radio calisthenics music started. Dadadada-dun, dadadada-dun— Every participant in the room turned around. Lily stood up instantly. Spread her feet shoulder-width. Started raising her arms. "Lily stop!!!!!" "That's calisthenics." "No! No that's the wrong one I was trying to open!!" Zero reached out. Tried to grab the terminal. Pressed the volume button. Maximum. Dadadada-dun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The waiting room was conquered by radio calisthenics. Dice reached out his right hand to stop it. Feet tangled. His body moved with the music. Three people did radio calisthenics in the Colosseum basement for five seconds. Only Zero stopped one beat late. Faced forward. Quietly operated the terminal. Sound stopped. Silence for a while. Lily said quietly. "...Zero was doing it the most." Zero looked at the ceiling for one second. "..." Said nothing. ─ Ten in the morning. Preliminaries start. Inside Blaze Colosseum was far wider than imagined from outside. Stone arches stretched high. Sunlight came through grid-patterned skylights. Fifteen thousand capacity—about a third already filled. Cheers and voices mixed. Low wave of sound floating in the air. Field divided into multiple blocks. Blaze Festival Operations Committee—Soltia Academy's subsidiary—staff divided participants one by one. Magic output meters—devices measuring Soltia particle density and precision—set up at each block. Those exceeding the set score advanced. Simple rules. Dice's name was called. Field block three. Twenty-meter diameter match zone. Spotlight on him. (Huge.) The spectator stands looked completely different from down here. Gravity felt different. Air density different. Could hear his own breathing. Zero and Lily were in the stands. Couldn't see them. But probably there. Dice pictured the textbook's final page in his mind. Control section still blank. But he'd practiced the rest. Do that first. That's enough. Deep breath. "Block three, begin." The staff member's voice echoed. Dice started the incantation. "Fiare Soltia—Ve—" Bit his tongue on the third character. Clear bite. "Ve" became "Be." Clearly "Beh." Laughter leaked from the stands. Small laugh. But definitely heard. In the field's silence, that laugh echoed strangely. Dice tried to continue. Tried continuing while biting his tongue. Hand seal—supplementary finger position done with incantation—extended index and middle finger simultaneously. Cramped simultaneously. "—Ugh! Ah, ow!" Completely natural voice came out. The field's acoustics delivered it to the entire arena. About half of fifteen thousand heard it. Laughter mixed with sympathy rippled like a wave. Someone said "do your best." That triggered more laughter. One of the judges—five seated in the special section surrounding the field—barely suppressed a wry smile while writing on the scoring sheet. Somewhere in the stands, Lily was shouting "Dice!!" Zero was probably standing silent. (Calm down, me.) Refocused. Loosened his hands. Finger cramp still lingering slightly. Start over from the beginning. Restarted the incantation. This time carefully. Confirming each sound. Felt Soltia particles moving inside his body. Heat gathering from deep in his chest. Intention concentration. The moment he entered it. Next block, block four, massive sound. 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