Nii-chan, how's high school in a foreign country? Middle school is the same as always. Days are longer now. Nothing poetic mind you. Teachers just keep yammering on. Especially history, I don't know. I hate history but I seem to be really good at it. I remember a lot of things. Some of my classmates are jealous of me over it, but in truth I'm jealous of them. They're all good at math and sciences, but I'm not. I know enough just so I don't fail but I can't get anything right. Sometimes I feel like I'm being bullied. How about you onii-chan? I hear you got into a really expensive super duper exclusive school for the rich and famous, on a scholarship at that. Are you being bullied? I hear a lot of normal people who go to private schools on scholarships get bullied a lot. If it gets bad then come home okay? mom, dad, auntie and uncle are waiting for you to come back to Japan.
Your protective magical angel Otohime chan V^_^V
Touma smiled at the glowing screen before him. Nothing's changed. Nothing really. He brings his hand up but pauses as the day's aches haunt his body. He nearly curses out. His hands rest on the laptop before him and he types.
Hime-chan sounds like she's having fun. I'm doing fine here. The people treat me well.
He smiles through a swollen cheek.
My days are so exhilarating that they feel too short.
He remembers fights one after another.
It's kind of hard to pay attention in class for me. The language is foreign and even after a year I'm having a hard time understanding it yet.
He remembers hateful words tossed behind his back.
Filthy commoner
What an eyesore
He should learn his place or just die
I wonder who he paid to get in?
Pay? He doesn't even have enough to stay in?
Did he sell his flesh to some old noblewoman?
Disgusting
I can understand not getting everything right on the first try. That's no reason to give up though.
He remembers looking down to see his test papers. 30's and 40's across every subject. Even PE and arts.
Still can't learn the language?
How can one expect a neanderthal to muster up enough brains to do so?
I thought he was a pig
HAHAHAHA!
Everyone has their good points and bad points. Everyone points out what's bad about you. All you have to do is make those bad points into good points.
He's so scrawny
He's so stupid
He's not even good at anything other than tripping up
He really doesn't have any redeeming qualities does he?
If you do that then what you think is bullying will stop.
He doesn't think this will ever end. When he sees the wall of boys around him he just sighs and raises his fists.
On my end though, there's nothing to worry about. I'm fine. I have friends surrounding me so there's no bullying at all.
He remembers after all those fights, fainting in the middle of the streets only to wake up and see a raven-haired angel looking at him in worry. He's always afraid of wether he'd died.
When I have the time, I'll go back to Japan to visit. I miss you, mom, dad, aunt and uncle a lot. I want to see everyone again. Untill then, take care.
the protected Kamijou Touma.
And so he clicks the send button. Kamijou Touma leans back on his chair and can't help but hiss in pain. The bruises on his ribs are still sore. In his room in this dark dead of night he remembers the day's events. He closes his eyes and says the words that have become synonimous with his presence.
"What misfortune."
A few days later...
Ting ling ting
"Owner!", Touma walks in. His hands are full wtih three brown paper bags, each one filled with very different things as suggested by their sizes. One was clearly defined, small and rectangular, a book. Another was big, rounded at the bottom, groceries, maybe food judging by the bagette sticking out the top. The last one was rather ctinkly, the odd point poking out here and there but still shapeless, tools.
"Ah thanks Touma.", the middle aged man waved from behind the counter. He jabbed a thumb behind him, "Just put it all in the back will you?"
"Aren't you going to help me? This is all your stuff anyway!"
The man behind the counter stared at him. He was facing a computer, rather out of place considering the antiquity of the cash register and his shop in general, even though it sold something as contemporary as jeans. "I'm rather busy."
Touma grumbled, "Oh please, you're just chatting up middle school girls.".
"Saten-chan is a customer! a cus-to-mer! This is work!"
"Whatever.", the young man sighed in exasperation as he struggled around the displayed items with his hands full. He opened the door and stepped inside, leaving behind the world which resembled some form of normalcy. What greeted him was darkness, an odd darkness that did not completely rob you of your sight. There was no light but there was no lack of vision at all. As if it was rightly calculated how dim everything should be. Touma moved about even more carefully than before. Despite officially retiring, once a mage, always a mage. Behind the front of a simple jeans shop owner, the blonde middle aged man at the counter was actually one of the most skilled trackers in Great Britain. Touma had some level of respect for the man, one that was completely lost once women were added into any form of conversation, company or god forbid topic when interacting with the man.
He roughly dropped his burden on the worktable he could not see but knew was there. Rubbing the ache from his arms and shoulders, he wondered wether he should go home to prepare dinner at this time. It seemed his companion was coming back after a long while now.
Ting ling ting
The sound of the front door bell catches the young man's attention. He steps out of the arcane atelier and back into reality. The dimness leaves his eyes but his sight is not impeded by the sudden brightness, proof that the darkness had been unnatural. Standing at the door was a woman in a shirt and jeans, dressed in a way one would call lewd as the shirt was tied off to show a flat stomach and navel, accenting bountiful breasts. The jeans had one whole leg cut off exposing creamy skin of a leg up through the whole thigh and tempting peeks of supple flesh of a round behind. Her ebony hair contrasted starkly with the fairness of her skin giving her an almost glow. But her beautiful features were not what made her notable, it was the two meter long sword holstered around the cowboy belt at her waist. Matching cowboy boots tapped the wooden flooring, announcing an exceptional presence that could only be described as sexy.
The two men however had mixed reactions.
"Still cutting up jeans I see"
"What's up Kanzaki?"
The jeans shop owner and Touma respectively said their greetings at the same time.
Despite the bombshell that had just walked in, the two personally knowing her were not perturbed by how attractive she was.
"What? No greetings for me?"
The sultry voice that slithered around the shop sent shivers up and down the two males' spines. A good shiver. A blonde woman who was poorly dressed for the colder weather of October appeared behind the one known as Kanzaki. The blonde had her hair in ringlets, a simple black tube top or bra that looked like it was having trouble holding back boobs that exceeded even the swordswoman's. The blonde wore a sarong, understandable as the long skirt she wore resembled papers that had gone through an office shredder, showing all of her leg and, if left undisturbed, panties.
"Orianna's here too!?", Touma nearly jumped in surprise.
The blonde with the curls pouted at his reaction, "Not only do you not greet me, you even act like you don't want me here.".
Touma was quick to correct himself, "N-no! Not at all. It's just that..."
"Well?", Orianna leaned forward with interest and a grin. "What is it?"
The young man's eyes narrowed into a flat glare when he got a clean look down the lady's cleavage, "You're doing that on purpose aren't you?"
"Well what if I am?", she challenged.
Touma opened his mouth but the first to speak wasn't him. "Then I will forcibly remove you from his presence.", were Kanzaki's words of cold barely restrained fury.
"You know he likes it. Why take it away?"
"Because I don't like it.", Kanzaki brings up her Shichiten Shichitou.
"Well I guess that's too bad.", Orianna pulled out her flash cards. "I was hoping to double up with you."
"Guys.", Touma stepped forward, but soemthing pulled him back. "Owner?".
"Sit down kid. This is one hell of a cat fight that's gonna happen."
Touma gave the man a flat glare. "If they notice you holding that digi-cam then it'd be one hell of a beating that's gonna happen."
No matter how one looked at it, there was no way for this to end well. Looking around, Touma surmised that no hero was going to come in and stop two hot- VOLATILE woman from going at each oth- KILLING each other. So in the end he had to get in between them and make them beha- GET ALONG.
Ugh...
Touma held his head in his hand. Those two women will be the death of him, either by beating or cardiac arrest he would never know.
Pa! Pa!
The sound of crisp claps pierced through the musty vintage air.
"Alright you two. Break it up!"
The two dangerous women in the middle of the shop turned to the person who dared disturb their showdown. But it wasn't Kamijou.
"Come on now we haven't got all day!", the dainty voice of a young woman resonated with an odd authoritative squeak.
Touma and the jeans shop owner had just notice the new arrival. Either her entrance was that of a professional assassin or her presence was just that weak as none had heard the bell ring. The males preferred to imagine that the two women standing almost bust to bust was holding their attention too much to care for anything else. That is not to say the rather lacking bust of the newcomer was the reason they didn't notice her, definitely not.
"Miss tour guide!", Kamijou exclaimed in surprise.
"Oh God.", the jeans shop owner curled up into a stressed heap.
A pout swelled up in the mousy woman's cheeks, emphasizing the youthful girlishness in her features. "Just what do you mean by that?", she cried indignantly.
The jeans shop owner remained slumped over for a few minutes before groaning out in defeat, " You have a job right?"
Miss tour guide harumphed indignantly, "Why yes we do have a job for which we have to leave for immediately. Necessarius has called for the saint Kanzaki Kaori and sinner Orianna Thompson to collect a newly found saint in Germany. It seems the saint's powers are still unstable from the observations made by headquarters. The upper echelons are afraid that this saint may be taken advantage of by other magic cabals. The team of Kanzaki and Thompson has been decided on basis that the former is a saint and stands a chance to empathize while the latter has experience in tracking."
Hearing those words, jeans owner shot up. His face nearly split from the grin stretching ear to ear. "Does that mean what I think it means?", the man looked like he was about to cry tears of joy.
Touma himself still confused concluded only one thing. He turned to his companion, "So does this mean you can't come home for dinner?".
The saint looked away, "Sorry. I promise we'll have a homecooked meal when we get back."
"Then all I can say is good luck and be careful."
"Dwah!"
Kamijou stumbled back when he noticed the face of the blonde bombshell, Orianna Thompson's face was a bit too close to his own. She was staring at him in an annoyed accusing manner which made him feel uneasy. "Wh-What!?", he asked as an unknown pressure pressed down on him.
"It's just...", Orianna began, "What was with that mood!?". The grown woman demanded with a pout and fists akimbo. The way she acted was so childish contrating with the way she dressed and looked was so adult, Kamijou felt a blush go on his face as he wondered wether this was the gap moe that was all the rage back in japan.
"Anyway boy.", the sinner pointed at the normal high school boy. "You seem to be misunderstanding something. When we said we, we meant us and by us, we mean everyone."
"Um... What?"
The elder woman just sighed, "It means you're coming with us!"
"Oh... Wait... WHAAAAAAAT!?"
"Orianna, that's not part of the mission terms!"
"Is that so saint?", the sly woman turned to miss tour guide who quickly understood what was being asked of her.
"Other than miss Kanzaki, miss Thompson and myself, additional staff may be recruited as seen fit by each member of the initial members.", she recited like she had memorized it by heart.
"So long as they are members of necessarius, active or former.", Kanzaki added with a cluck of her tongue.
"Or if they are listed as Necessarius' civilian collaborators.",Orianna finished the statement. "Boy here may not be a Necessarius member seeing as he failed the exam, but I remember he volunteered to be a collaborator for a certain someone's sake isn't that right?".
"I-it wasn't a-a-nything like that! Stop making stuff up!"
Kanzaki was sputtering intelligible words while Thompson was soaking up her victory, playing with a curled lock of hair with her fingers. "So it isn't anything special right? There's no problem if I ask him to protect me then right? Just like how you're recruiting that old man to be your tracker."
"WHAT'S WITH THAT!?"
The shouts of both males in the dinky shop echoed each other's shock. Both though were for very different reasons. Kamijou supposed there wasn't anything that he was losing in this. He agreed to work as a collaborator so that his abilities could be of use to people who needed them. Even if it was small, he wanted to be of help if he could. Ofcourse he wanted to protect Kanzaki, but that wasn't the sole reason for signing up. To protect people was why he joined, but to be suddenly drafted out lke this...
"I'm still against this. Touma is just a normal highschool boy. The difference between we who passed the necessarius entrance test and he who didn't show how big the gap is!"
"So you've no faith in his abilities just as you don't believe in mine?", came the sinner's challenge to the saint.
Kanzaki raked one hand through her raven locks in frustration, "This and that are different! I don't trust you, but I just don't want Touma to get hurt!"
Orianna sneered, "Well I trust you to leave me high and dry when the situation gets rather messy. I want someone I can trust not to do that to me."
"You..."
The proper words to signify how aggravating Orianna was to the saint continued to remain elusive, lest she resort to rather crude name calling.
"Ugh! Why are you so willing to involve people in things they have no business in!?"
"Becau-"
"I'll do it."
That simple declaration halted the argument. The eyes of both women went to the subject of their debate. Touma stood there awkwardly, unsure of how to feel as he rubbed the back of his neck out of nervousness. "I said I'll do it.", were his repeated words.
"Touma-"
"He said he'd do it saint."
"Quiet you!", Kanzaki hissed to her supposed partner. Speaking to Touma, she said, "There's no reason for you to go. Your strength isn't needed there."
The young man could only sigh, "Yeah, I know.". He out his hands in his pockets. "But it'd be lame of me to just let you girls do all the work. Besides", he jerked his head towards Orianna, "She already asked for my help.".
Kanzaki groaned at that response. That was just like Kamijou. He didn't need a reason. If somebody asked him for help, then he would help them. She had this argument with him before many times. And every time he brought out that argument, he would end up in London Central Hospital wether she dissuaded him or physically bind or disable him. He always found a way into the fray and eventually onto a stretcher. "Fine.", she surrendered. "But no heroics.", with conditions.
"Hai Hai.", Kamijou responded flatly. "Well owner. Seems like we're-"
Words could not describe what Touma was seeing before him. It seemed miss tour guide had spotted him before hand because she was particularly petrified. Kanzaki and Orianna were oddly calm though the flat look in their eyes and mouths agape showed signs of their souls struggling to get free. It was probably a mixture of being the last to see and ImagineBreaker that kept him safe from the image.
The image of the jeans shop owner frozen mid jig on top of his wooden and glass sales counter with his caboose bulging in a particularly disturbingly wide and flexible swing while his face was agape in utter horror to the point his palor became utterly white.