Chapter 201: Noah already has the entire group.

After the apologies were accepted, Yume smiled at Stella.

"Welcome officially."

Stella looked at the group.

"I guess thanks."

Luna stepped forward.

"Before that, verification."

Stella nodded.

"Fine."

Luna checked her phone.

"Question."

Stella waited.

"What was the first thing Noah said to you when he handed you the object?"

Stella thought.

"That magical girls existed."

Noah nodded.

"Correct."

Luna continued.

"What did you say when he mentioned the object would transform you?"

Stella frowned.

"I asked if it could explode."

Noah smiled.

"Also correct."

Luna put her phone away.

"Confirmed."

Stella raised an eyebrow.

"That was weird."

Iris answered without looking up.

"You’ll get used to it."

After finishing the verifications, Noah decided to start the training.

The first thing was to find out what Stella could do, so she activated her transformation.

Energy surrounded her body and the magical uniform appeared once again.

Yume watched her with interest.

"It looks really good."

Stella looked at her clothes.

"It still feels strange."

Noah positioned himself in front of her.

"We’ll start with something simple."

"Alright."

"Try concentrating energy in your hand."

Stella raised a hand.

"How?"

Noah stayed silent and Stella looked at him.

"That didn’t help."

Luna approached.

"Don’t try to overthink it."

Hikari observed attentively and Luna continued.

"Look for the energy you feel inside."

Stella closed her eyes and several seconds passed, but nothing happened, which Yume watched.

Stella opened one eye.

"I don’t feel anything."

Yume smiled.

"I like her."

Noah looked at her.

"Yume."

"What?"

Stella tried again and this time a small light appeared, but it lasted less than a second before disappearing.

Stella sighed.

"This is going badly."

Yume raised a hand.

"No."

Stella looked at her and Yume smiled.

"That was way better than my first try."

Luna answered.

"Your first try destroyed a tree."

"Exactly."

Yume pointed at Stella.

"So she’s doing fine."

Noah laughed.

"As weird as it sounds, she’s right."

Stella tried again.

The energy appeared once more, lasting longer, but when she tried to move it, it shot off to the side and hit the ground.

Stella jumped.

"Sorry!"

Yume’s eyes went wide and then she smiled even bigger.

"Yes!"

Everyone looked at her and Yume cleared her throat.

"I mean..."

She tried to put on a serious expression.

"...no big deal."

Luna watched her.

"You’re happy."

"Of course not."

Noah smiled.

"Leave her alone, Luna."

Yume crossed her arms.

"I’m just saying it’s nice not being the only one who had problems."

Stella looked at her.

"Were you that bad?"

Yume pointed to an area of the field.

"There used to be a bench there."

Stella looked and there wasn’t one.

"What happened to it?"

Luna answered.

"Yume."

Stella understood.

"Ah."

Yume frowned.

"It wasn’t that bad."

Noah, Luna, and Iris looked at her, so Yume sighed.

"Fine."

The training continued.

Stella was having trouble, since she could generate energy, but keeping it stable was difficult.

Every time she tried to concentrate it, she lost control, it disappeared, or it shot off in the wrong direction.

At one point she almost hit Aria.

"Sorry!"

Aria looked at the small hole in the ground.

"That was close."

"I know."

Stella brought a hand to her forehead and Noah approached.

"Take a break."

Stella deactivated the energy.

"This is going to take time."

"Yeah."

Noah didn’t want to lie.

Stella checked the time and her expression changed, which Hikari noticed.

"What’s wrong?"

Stella hesitated.

"Nothing."

Hikari looked at her phone.

"Your next commitment is in an hour and forty minutes, right?"

Stella froze.

"How do you know?"

Hikari pointed at the folder and Noah smiled.

’I get it now.’

Stella looked at that folder.

"What is that?"

Hikari approached.

"A proposal."

"Of what?"

"Organization."

Stella looked at her confused, so Hikari opened the folder where there were several pages, actually way too many, and Stella took the documents.

"What did you do?"

Hikari pointed at the first page.

"I checked your public schedules."

Stella started reading.

"Short training sessions on days with recordings."

She turned the page.

"Longer sessions when you don’t have events."

Another page.

"Travel time."

Another one.

"Rest."

And another.

"Margin for schedule changes."

Stella slowly raised her gaze.

"When did you do this?"

Hikari answered with complete naturalness.

"Last night."

Stella looked at the calendar and flipped through more pages.

"But there are fourteen pages."

Hikari adjusted her glasses.

"Actually, it’s fifteen."

Stella looked at her and there were a few seconds of silence, but then she laughed.

It wasn’t a polite laugh or a forced one, she simply started laughing and Hikari watched her, confused.

"What?"

Stella tried to calm down.

"Nothing."

"Is there a mistake?"

"No, it’s not that."

Stella laughed again.

"It’s just..."

She lifted the folder.

"...it’s fifteen pages."

Hikari nodded.

"Yes."

"To organize my training."

"Correct."

"And you did it in one night?"

"That’s right."

Stella shook her head while still smiling.

"You’re crazy, you know that?"

Hikari went still and Noah feared for a second that she would take it the wrong way, but Stella added.

"In a good way."

Hikari blinked while Stella looked back at the pages and her expression grew calmer.

"This..."

She turned another page.

"...is actually pretty useful."

Hikari relaxed a little.

"I organized it based on the available information."

"And if my schedule changes?"

"There are three readjustment options."

Stella looked at another page.

"Of course there are."

Yume approached.

"Did you make meal schedules too?"

Hikari answered.

"Of course."

Stella laughed again, which made Noah laugh too, and even Luna smiled slightly.

Stella closed the folder.

"Thank you."

Hikari raised her gaze.

"For what?"

"For this."

Stella held up the documents.

"One of the things that worried me the most was not being able to do both."

She looked at the magical object.

"Work and this."

Hikari nodded.

"It can be done."

Stella smiled.

"I can see that."

Hikari added.

"As long as you respect the rest periods."

"That sounded bossy."

"It’s a recommendation."

"Sure."

Stella looked at the plan again.

"Really."

Her tone changed.

"Thank you."

Hikari smiled slightly.

"You’re welcome."

Noah watched both of them and said nothing.

He had tried too hard to make that relationship progress, creating plans, setting up meetings, deciding how they should talk, and none of it had worked.

Now Hikari had simply done something because she wanted to help and Stella had accepted it.

Noah smiled.

’Much better.’

Yume sat on the ground.

"Can we rest?"

Luna looked at her.

"You only trained for twenty minutes."

"They were twenty intense minutes."

Iris sat nearby.

"I vote for resting."

Aria shook her head.

"That’s not how a vote works, but..."

Aria looked at them and then ended up sitting down too, which made Noah laugh.

"Alright."

Everyone got comfortable.

Stella stayed next to Hikari reviewing some pages.

After that, Yume started telling her stories about her first training sessions, but Luna corrected every exaggeration.

Iris played with her phone while listening and Aria thought about what exercises they could add.

Noah looked around.

For the first time in several days, no one was chasing him and no villain was attacking.

Stella was safe while Hikari seemed much calmer and the magical girls were gathered.

Noah relaxed with the group and Yume looked at him.

"What’s with you?"

"Nothing..."

Noah smiled.

"...I’m just resting."

Luna observed him for a few seconds and then nodded.

"Good."

Noah looked at the group again.

He knew that this calm probably wouldn’t last too long, but for now it was enough.