Early the next day, Kanan headed to the Tamer Association to officially register Twilight. The receptionist girl sat with her upper body sprawled lazily on the counter, her hat bobbing up and down as her head nodded drowsily.
Seeing Kanan enter, she hurriedly sat up and straightened herself out, but visibly relaxed after realizing it was a familiar face.
"Mooornin," she drawled. She looked at Kanan curiously. "Back so soon? Something wrong with your terminal?"
Kanan shook his head. He found it slightly impressive that the girl had managed to get a job somewhere so competitive, let alone keep it. He vaguely remembered that she had been tired the last time he came too. Maybe she had insomnia?
"No," he answered. "I'm here to register this guy today," he said, holding up Twlight.
With lightning-fast movements, the receptionist snatched Twlight from his hands.
"Ohmygod what a cutie! I want to fluff his little cheeks!" The receptionist gushed.
Twilight squirmed in her arms, glaring at the squealing woman and batting her hands with his staff.
From atop Kanan's head, Poppy looked on at the receptionist's reaction sulkily. The reception that it had gotten felt a little… different, right? It was a cute spider, wasn't it? Kanan always said so.
Finally, Twilight managed to pry himself from the receptionist's grasp, hopping back to Kanan's side with a huff.
"Awww…" the girl whined. "What kind of little cutie is this? It looks like a Duskwood Squirrel. Is it an evolution?"
"Mournwood Squirrel, a variant evolution." Kanan clarified.
Sitting down at her computer, the receptionist started typing away. "Mournwood Squirrel, Mournwood Squirrel…" she hummed.
"Aha! Mournwood Squirrel. Evolves due to strong emotions of grief? That's so sad… you must have had a tough time little guy."
Twilight didn't respond, continuing to ignore the girl.
"Well, come on back into the testing area and we'll get you set up!"
The testing went smoothly, and Twilight was registered as Kanan's pet beast. With that, there should be no problem having Twilight accompany him around time, provided it didn't get into trouble as it had yesterday.
After wrapping up his registration and saying his farewells to the receptionist, the three headed to the academy, with Twilight retreating back into his beast space to rest. Hopefully Aurelia wouldn't be too upset that he had missed his appointment again.
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At the dorms, a boy and a spider were prostrated on the ground, begging forgiveness. A girl towered over them angrily, hands on her hips, while a squirrel-like beast looked on at the scene with a hint of disdain.
"You blew me off AGAIN!" Aurelia fumed. "Do you know how excited I wa- I mean, do you know how long I waited for you yesterday? I even skipped the spirit battle match I was going to see!"
"Sorry sorry" Kanan apologized, rising to his feet. "I'll make it up to you. Why don't we go do whatever you want?"
"Tsk." Aurelia clicked her tongue. "I'm going to show you around today like I promised. But I'm holding you to that promise for next time!"
"First things first, these are the dorms, as you've already figured out" she said, gesturing to the building behind them, flanked by a row of others. "This one is the woman's dorm, and that one over theeere" — she pointed to a detached building of roughly the same size and shape on the other side— is the men's dorm. You probably won't be staying in the dorm since you have your room at Professor Quartz's lab, but its still good to know."
"And what about the other two?" Kanan asked, referring to the buildings set between the two gendered dorms. Each was relatively more luxurious and stood one story higher.
"Ah. Those are the faculty housing and the graduate student housing respectively. The faculty housing is self-explanatory. As for the other, the academy allows promising students to stay at the academy after graduating and study personally under the professors. It's a lot of work, apparently, but it's also a fast track to a researcher position after finishing. Many of them even become professors themselves." Aurelia explained.
"Interesting," Kanan mused. "I had imagined that any promising students simply continued to the college division"
"That's an option too, of course. Most taming students interested in spirit beast battles do that, and join the college circuit. The same for the general studies students. But for the breeding and research departments, a lot of it is more about hands-on experience in the workplace so it's not uncommon for them to take that path. Some even do both, though the workload sounds excruciating."
"Oh…" her words caused Kanan to think about his own future path. There were still many things to learn about.
The two of them continued on, reaching the central building of the Academy, a towering structure with an old-fashioned vibe, a spire rising up in the back.
"This is the main academy building! From here you can reach the faculty area in the back, where that spire is, the classroom lectures and labs in the east wing, and the training and battle facilities in the west wing. The classrooms aren't anything to write home about, and the labs are probably worse than what you're used to at the Professor's place, so let's check out the right wing for now."
They headed to the west wing, surveying the training facilities along the way before reaching a large open area. At its center a large arena was marked out, clearly a space for battling. In the arena stood two boys, one looking dejected as he unsummoned his fallen beast. The other, a prideful looking boy with spiky red hair, stood triumphantly. In front of him stood a Sun Crow, preening itself while looking mostly unhurt.
As the boy turned to leave the arena, his eyes landed on Kanan and Aurelia. Seeing the latter his eyes lit up, but quickly turned wary upon realizing that she had company. He approached the two of them.
"Aurelia! I don't see you in the west wing very often! Did you come to see my match?" He spoke confidently towards Aurelia, ignoring Kanan.
At his words, Aurelia gave a strained smile. "Unfortunately not. Today I'm showing my friend around. Kanan, this is Ivan. Ivan, Kanan."
"Oh… Kanan, huh. Aurelia is so nice, showing around a clueless newbie" Ivan said snarkily.
The two of them probably weren't that close, given Aurelia's polite speech, Kanan mused. He wasn't an idiot — the reason for Ivan's attitude towards him was obvious. Poor kid, if only he knew what she was like when she was angry. He decided not to take it too personally.
"Nice to meet you, Ivan. I'll be taking the exam for the beast taming division, so if I pass we'll be seeing more of each other.
Ivan bit his lip, clearly displeased at the news.
"The beast taming division? You?" He looked Kanan up and down, his eyes coming to rest on Poppy. "That little spider doesn't look like much, are you sure?"
Poppy jumped up and down on Kanan's head, furious at the provocation. Underneath, Kanan sighed. It looked like he wasn't going to be able to resolve this civilly after all. Plus, he was frustrated himself. Dealing with the kid's petty jealousy was one thing, but insulting Poppy to his face was another thing entirely.
"As my future senior in the beast taming department, how about you give me and Poppy here some pointers?" Kanan asked, his words laced with anger. "It just so happens that there's an arena right here."
His words caused Aurelia to scowl. "Why are you falling for his provocation, idiot?" she whispered. "There's no point in humoring this guy, just smile and move on."
Given how close they were, her words were clearly audible to Ivan. Hearing them, his face flushed crimson, and he glared at Kanan with renewed vigor.
"Yeah, it seems like you could learn a lesson or two," he bit back. "Come up to the arena and I'll show you how a real beast tamer does battle. Maybe it'll turn out that you're better suited for general studies."
Understanding his intentions, the crow behind him let out a loud caw, locking eyes with Poppy as they stared each other down. Poppy gestured provocatively at the crow in response with its front two arms.
"Sigh. Fine. I'll be the referee." said Aurelia. "It'll be a one on one singles match, alright? Don't go too hard. First beast that surrenders or is unable to battle wins."
Agreeing to the rules, the two boys took their positions on opposite sides of the arena, with both beasts entering their assigned starting positions. Across from Kanan, Ivan beckoned at him with his hand.
"Bring it on, newbie" he taunted, flashing a toothy grin
On the side, Aurelia raised her arm, the two watching her from the corner of their eyes. Chopping through the air, she brought it down, kicking off the battle.
"Begin!"