Zack flipped through the newspaper pages rapidly. The amount of people was making it hard to concentrate on both paying attention and being inconspicuous. This park was particularly full, even by Academy City standards, though Zack couldn't think of one reason why.

"Milla," Zack spoke into his earpiece as he lifted up the newspaper in front of him and smacked it. "Can you believe this was the most universal source of information at one point in time?"

"Zack this is hardly the time to make small talk..." Milla quickly replied.

"I thought this guy wasn't supposed to show up for another ten minutes."

"That was just Anti-Skills estimate, it's not like the target is going to show up on the exact second, the Judgement briefing was very clear on that." another silence set in, like the last few dozen times since they started this mission. Zack heaved a sigh.

"Y'know, when Anti-Skill asked us to help with a-"

"Covert operation I didn't think it would be so boring?" another silence. Zack looked through the crowd. he could still see the table where this meeting was supposed to take place. Just an ordinary picnic table. It was a good thing it wasn't in the middle of summer or Zack might've been burned to a crisp at this point.

"Zack." Milla's serious tone surprised Zack so much he practically jumped out of his seat.

"What?" he said a bit too loudly before covering his mouth. He regained composure after a few

uneasy glances from passersby. He looked to the table and saw someone had sat down on one end of it. A young guy in a business suit, though he hardly looked like any sort of businessman. His hair was all over the place and even from across the park Zack could tell he had a severe 5 o'clock shadow.

"Wow, that guy really needs to know how to act the part he's given."

"Because you are doing yours just perfectly." Milla replied sarcastically. Zack watched as the guy pulled a small briefcase onto the table and peaked inside before pulling out a small stack of bills.

"Wow. These guys are idiots." Milla said, also dumbstruck at this point.

"I guess now we know why Anti-Skill was okay with us handling this stakeout thing. Now we just wait for his friend to show. Do you see him from your vantage point?" Zack asked as he pulled the newspaper back up, not noticing the other two men in suits approaching him.

"Hey, kid." Zack lowered the newspaper to find himself in the looming shadow of two very intimidating buff guys. Zack looked at them before briskly raising the paper up as nonchalantly as he could manage. One of them tapped the top of the newspaper and it quickly caught on fire. Zack let out a less than manly scream as it all turned to ash at his feet. He looked back up to see that not only were the two men closer, but the entire rest of the park was empty, and that the briefcase guy was looking right at him, smirking. Zack stuck out his tongue in response. The guy's smirk vanished in annoyance and he made a signal to one of the goons in front of Zack. They menacingly and unnecessarily began cracking their knuckles and chuckling.

"I thought hired goons only did that on TV." Zack sighed "Nice belt buckle by the way." Zack pointed his finger at the buckle and a small but visible electric bolt shot into it. Zack used his ability, and the first goon flew crotch-first into the second one. They were dazed, but Zack quickly unbuckled both their belts and wrapped them around both of them. Glancing back at the table, He saw that the carrier had already left. He looked around and saw him duck into an alleyway just outside the park.

"Milla, you there?" Zack said, trying to decide what to do next. Anti-skill had been very clear they didn't want either of them to get more involved than they had to. The only reason they requested assistance was because they thought students would look more inconspicuous. There was no response. Zack gritted his teeth and rushed after the suitcase carrier.

The alleyway was narrower than he would've preferred, which slowed him down. It led out into a crowded street with tons of people. Zack panicked for a second before realizing the massive amount of noise coming from across the street. He rushed forward just as several gunshots to rang out. The crowd immediately burst into panic, and Zack got pushed to the ground. He got up only to find that the entire area was now devoid of people, save for the carrier and an unfortunate salaryman hostage, who the carrier had pulled in front of him with a gun to his head.

"Don't come any closer, kid!" He shouted menacingly. Zack gritted his teeth in frustration. He could try to disable the gun from there, but he would risk it going off or the guy escaping, and using his whip was not an option either. Zack quickly glanced left and right to see if any signs of help were arriving.

"Yeah sorry but your on your own, kid. No one is going to be coming within fifty feet of this street. We have more power than you or your friends at anti-skill realize." He began to back away slowly into another alley, when suddenly a high schooler practically came out of nowhere and punched the carrier in the back of his neck. There was a loud screech and the air shifted, almost clearing up, despite Zack never feeling something weird, like it had been there but he hadn't realized it until it was gone. He fell to his knee as this strange shift caused him to feel lightheaded. He looked back up and saw the salaryman uneasily gaining his balance and running off tightly holding onto his suitcase. Zack didn't try to stop him, he was probably just trying to get out of the area, and he was still feeling too dizzy to try and grab him for questioning. The high schooler was still there, and pulled what looked like a small scrap of paper from the back of the carriers suit collar. Had it been there the whole time?

"Magic? But how did it get into academy city?" The high schooler mumbled to himself. He looked over to Zack.

"Are you with judgement? Can you handle this? I've got to get somewhere." Zack nodded as he managed to get back on his feet. Suddenly a ringing came from his pocket and he pulled out a cell phone, quickly answering it. Almost immediately, a high pitched scream came through the receiver, and the high schooler pulled it away from his ear. It was even loud enough for Zack to hear it from where he was. "Touma" it said, though very drawn out and angry. The high schooler quickly pulled his cell phone back to his ear and began talking frantically to whoever was on the other end of the call.

"Sorry, I got caught up in something, I'll be back soon with the gro-" He stopped mid sentence and looked up the street. Zack followed his gaze and saw what looked like several crushed

grocery bags, probably knocked out of someone's hands when all the civilians ran from the carriers gunshot, and subsequently crushed by the same civilians. Zack got a pretty good idea of who the groceries belonged to when the high schooler quickly dashed over to them and let out a huge drawn out groan.

"Just my luck, they've all been crushed!" He moaned loudly. "don't worry Index, I'll go back to the store and- Oh no, the stuff on sale is probably sold out by now!" More screaming from the cell phone, and the high schooler ran away, trying to calm whoever he was talking too. Zack could do nothing but watch in amazement at the bizarre spectacle he had just witnessed. Finally regaining composure, he walked over to the now unconscious suit case carrier, except...There was no suitcase. Zack looked around frantically, but it was nowhere to be found. It suddenly dawned on him, the salary man had the suitcase when he ran. Smacking himself on the head, Zack let out his own drawn out groan. He looked back down to the carrier, and noticed the piece of paper the high schooler had grabbed. He must've dropped it when he rushed off. Zack picked it up carefully. It was folded neatly, in a way that would've made it tuck easily onto the collar of the carriers suit. There was some weird writing on it, but it was scratched in a bizarre way, almost like the text shattered. Zack thought back to what happened. The high schooler punched where the paper most likely was located on the back of the carriers collar. The strange feeling in the air also disappeared at the same time. Assuming this paper was the cause of that weird feeling, then the high schooler must've intentionally punched it when he snuck up behind the carrier. The whole situation baffled Zack, who could do nothing but stare at the paper. He pocketed it hesitantly, unsure if it could activate again, and decided to hand it over to anti-skill later. He tapped his earpiece, but no sound came through. He pulled out his cell phone and nervously dialed his supervisor's number. There was going to be hell to pay for this…