Editing Mahou Sensou:Volume 2 Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 1===
Finally, that ill-fated semester exam was behind us, and now that it was November, autumn had finally made its appearance. All the students at the Subaru Magic Academy spent their days busily training their magical affinities for the next exam that was very close.

This time, they were no longer training only in the gymnasium, but also places like the outdoor sports complex and the classrooms themselves. The exam in question was called the "Magical Aptitude Test" which was to be held at the end of the month. This was a large-scale test and as the name suggests, it sought to assess the students' abilities to control their magic of their affinity. During this exam, students would be grouped according to their magical affinities regardless of the academic grade they were studying.

The academy held three such exams during the course of the school year. The first was held in May. It was a tournament where teams representing each class faced each other in battles with magic. The next one, held at the end of November, was the "Magical Aptitude Test" mentioned above. The last one was held at the end of January and consisted of an event of snow magic battles by teams separated into colors. All the tests were aimed at analyzing the students' abilities to use their magical affinity powers. So, they were strictly evaluated by the teachers and the results could affect the ranking system of the students for the next year.

Takeshi was going to take the exam for the first time, and he was trying to find out what it was about, but none of his classmates could give him a clear idea. He was only four months into learning how to use magic and had just learned how to control his magical power to use Twilight without draining his magical power completely. For such a reason, she had not had much time to have started training with her Evasive Magic properly.

During that exam, Takeshi was supposed to be grouped together with other students of evasive magic where he would have to pass a test imposed by the teacher in charge. However, he was sure that there would be no other students of evasive magic who had better control of their magic than him. That, despite the fact that the test made no distinction of academic level, -except for the elementary students since they had not yet learned the use of their magical affinity and therefore, they were the only ones exempt from participating-.  He was sure that among those in his group there would be no one who had learned to use magic in such a short time as he had. Ida and Kurumi had finally returned to training as a team with him and were giving their best.

Kurumi, had practically mastered her biological magic affinity completely by now. A power called "Metamorphosis", which allowed her to change the physical age of her body at will. She could turn into either a girl or an adult woman of ages that Kurumi did not want to give details, but that Takeshi estimated to be around forty or fifty years old.  Moreover, she could not only turn her whole body, but also parts of it and once proved it by growing her breasts despite having become a girl in elementary school age. In spite of everything, Kurumi complained that her magic was useless.

Her magic was useless for fighting and if she had any test where she had to face someone in battle, she would lose easily. For that reason, Kurumi was now concentrating on training her basic magic, which was her weak point. However, she did not take it easy as she was as serious as the other students. Despite everything, Takeshi still had a strained relationship with both Kurumi and Ida. It was no longer as easy to exchange words as before.

Whenever training ended right at five o'clock, Ida would immediately leave without saying anything. When he was left alone with Kurumi, the atmosphere between them remained tense even though he accompanied her to the dormitories. He wanted to return to the relationship he had before with the two of them, but he didn't want to apologize and that had him at a dead end. The only one he had been able to talk to normally was Mui. But lately even she had begun to act strangely and he couldn't communicate well with her anymore.

In Mui's case, maybe it was just because of the misunderstanding of the dating relationship he had with Kurumi, that's why he thought of telling her the truth but in the end he didn't tell her anything. (Mostly because Kurumi objected to it). Takeshi held Twilight tightly as he thought about it all, and when the magic circles began to glow in his eyes, he suddenly stood watching one of the groups on the other side of the gym. Beyond the crowd, Mui, an elementary school boy and a middle school girl who were part of his group, were sitting around chatting happily. They seemed to be taking a break at the moment. The elementary school boy was holding up his hands, making faces as if he was imitating something, while Mui and the other girl were laughing loudly.

-Takeshi, let's get it over with....

Takeshi turned his gaze to Kurumi behind him and nodded.

-Oh, right...

-Then, I'll be going now. See you tomorrow.

Ida made the orange magic particles disappear from her hands and left the gym quickly. Seeing that, Takeshi simply let out a slight sigh.

So far, Takeshi had always had many friends but he had never had that kind of tense relationship with one of them before. That's why he didn't know what to do.

"Now that I remember, I've never had a fight with a friend before," He analyzed.

With his younger brother Gekkou, he hadn't had many fights. His parents always told him that when they fought, to always play along with his little brother, so Takeshi thought that's what he should do with everyone. By using that method, he also avoided unnecessary arguments with his friends and so he didn't even know how to make up.

-Takeshi, it's time for us to leave too.

When he heard Kurumi's call, Takeshi sheathed Twilight, deactivated her magic and started walking with her.

In the surroundings, there were still students training and releasing affinity magic and basic magic everywhere, as the most enthusiastic ones, stayed until six in the evening. (Because at that time the gymnasium closed). Suddenly, one of the spells that the students were casting, was about to hit Kurumi, but Takeshi pushed her away immediately without the need to use his evasive magic. Then the staggering Kurumi lost her balance and crashed into Takeshi's chest. He, felt a glance above him and turned to look back. It was mui who from the other side of the gym was staring at them.

-Isoshima... get away now. -He stammered, pushing Kurumi by the shoulders to get some distance from her.

-Ah, right. Sorry, I'm fine now. Thanks, Takeshi.

Kurumi was blushing at that moment, but Takeshi didn't notice. So he took her hand, started to walk pulling her.

-Takeshi?

Kurumi followed Takeshi's pace with a faint smile and a face blushing up to her ears. However, unlike her, Takeshi wore a tense expression.

"I don't mind pretending that we're boyfriend and girlfriend, but I don't want to feel committed to that even in training."

Takeshi was very worried that Mui would get the wrong ideas about them, so he left the gym as quickly as possible as if he had run away.