Somewhere in the Central Stadium

Julian can’t help but smile as he drinks his soda with a bowl of popcorn in his lap, his friends located around him simply chatting away about the tournaments. Ever since he became a Guardian, Julian’s life has improved by leaps and bounds. To the point that the only moments when he wished he were elsewhere, or that he’d made a different choice at some point were the two times he almost died, once in each Fracture.

And even then, those near death experiences led him to meeting her. Not that he has any feelings for her anymore.

If she were my age though… maybe…

Julian sighs at the thought before shaking his head and grabbing a handful of popcorn to stuff into his mouth as his friends Robert and Julie both laugh at something Larkin just said, the masses of people all seated around them drowning out most of their laughter with their own noise.

I wonder if she would’ve thought of me any differently if we were the same age?

“You thinking about her again?” Robert suddenly elbows Julian, almost making him spill his drink as he sputters out denials.

“He totally is,” Julie says with a laugh, meanwhile Larkin just gets an amused look on her face.

Julian’s silky silver fox ears flop down onto his head as he focuses on the battle currently going on in the arena, one between a man a lot of people recognize from the last tournament as Crim, and another man that not as many people recognize. A man who happens to be losing pretty badly.

And Julian can’t help but ignore the small wave of awes that come about from both Julie and Larkin, along with a couple other random people who see his ears.

Damned ears and tail, always causing me problems…

“Who do you think will win this tournament?” Robert asks, the man sitting next to Julian and Julie in the bleachers.

Before Julian can say anything, Julie immediately answers, “Scarlet, of course.”

Both Robert and Julian turn to stare at her in surprise, but she just shrugs and says, “Hey, our little Julian here isn’t the only fan of hers here.”

Larkin snorts at that, meanwhile Julian just blushes at her words and focuses on the arena again.

“Well, I don’t know,” Robert says, turning his attention back to the screen as well. “I know she is absolutely a top runner, but I’m not sure about winning the whole thing. My money would be on Lost or Shifter for that.”

“You know your parents would kill you if you actually b-” Larkin begins only for Robert to say, “I know, I know. I’m not actually gonna bet on this. You should know that already.”

Julian sees Larkin once again raising a brow at Robert from the seat on the other side of Julian from Robert.

All four of them go silent though when the battle on screen finishes and a certain wolf suddenly appears on it in the middle of a wasteland of Tartarus – something the demonology class always shows each year. A completely barren wasteland filled with nothing but demon corpses, red and black soil, and dead trees with the occasional hills and rocky cliffs from time to time.

Julian perks up upon seeing her on the screen, only to immediately regret it when Robert shouts, “Ha! I knew you still had the hots for her!”

“I do not!” Julian says in denial, ignoring the blush creeping onto his face.

“You should give up, dude,” Larkin says while shaking her head, the girl’s long black hair falling over her shoulder in the process. “She’s like, four years older than you, right? There’s no chance. And I’ve heard that she has no interest in romance anyways. At least not now.”

Julian frowns for a few seconds, only to sigh and slump down a little as he says, “I know that already. I gave up on her long ago. It’s just…”

“Hey, you’re not the only one,” Robert says while patting Julian’s shoulder. “A lot of people fall in love with Guardians. They’re celebrities after all, and most of them seem to look rather beautiful or handsome for some reason, so you absolutely aren’t the only one.” He stops patting his shoulder and grins. “Just keep it as a fantasy and not reality, kay?”

Julian snorts at that and shakes his head.

“You’d wonder if it were just some hidden qualification for the Guardians to be good looking…” Julie mutters, sounding vaguely saddened by that. But Larkin just shrugs and says, “Well, there are plenty of Guardians who aren’t good looking like that. And I feel like a few of the fae might just focus more on the good looking ones since they tend to stand out more, you know what I mean?”

“Yeah, guess that makes sense,” Robert says, but they all go silent when the battle in the arena begins. And almost immediately upon the countdown hitting zero, Scarlet breaks off into a sprint with small amounts of red steam lifting off of her body as she zips across the barren wasteland, occasionally running around some hills or cliffs here and there.

If Julian remembers correctly, the only humans to have ever gone to Tartarus themselves were the five Knights, which is how they’re as powerful as they are today. So all of the magical realities that are on Earth using images from Tartarus are taking them directly from those Knights’ descriptions of the places. Or even their memories, assuming the Knights let someone do that.

And the places that the Knights had visited weren’t exactly pleasant places.

I kind of wish they had seen the cities and villages on Tartarus though, because those interest me more than any wasteland or forest would. But I think the teacher mentioned those mostly being controlled by noble demons. And the Knights didn’t want to draw the attention of the Demon Lords, who are stronger than them. Even more so back then.

Julian sighs at the thought, only to quickly become enthralled when he sees Scarlet bursting around a corner to find the Conductor – a girl wearing a suit with the black jacket in the back flaring out into two points at the bottom as she holds a conductor’s baton. The type of thing he’d often see band conductors waving around during a concert.

Now this’ll be good!