Chapter 2: Dual

Captain Setsuna of the White Wing Honor Guard gazed at her security monitors with a deep sense of annoyance. The robot squadron dispatched to bring down their first troublemaker in five months had been decimated by a teenager who was now using the head of one of them as a camera, apparently aware that all androids transmitted data directly back to White Wing headquarters.

"Are you listening, you scum-sucking parasite slave drivers?! I have annihilated your pathetic troop of mechanical monstrosities, and I will do the same to you! Come here and face me, otherwise…"

He turned the camera to focus on a freckle-faced young woman Setsuna took a moment to recognize. It was an old classmate from her days in Mahora, what was her name…Natsumi.

"This little beauty right here is going to suffer beyond her imagination. I will put her through every level of hell, twice, and then I will grant her the release of an excruciating death. I'm sure she won't mind, she's probably used to ending up caught in the middle of your personal affairs, hm? Well, what do you say? Ready to add another innocent casualty to your long list of collateral damage? Better hurry, I don't know how much longer I…can…wait…H-heh, hehehehe HA HA HA!"

Setsuna grimaced. She remembered how often Natsumi, and who knows how many others, had been caught in the crossfire during Negi's battles. Reflecting on their first trip to the world of magic together, she began twirling a finger through her long ponytail, an anxious habit she'd picked up after she'd been chosen to lead the Honor Guard. It was during times when she had to deal with lunatics like these that she regretted having accepted the position, but deep down she knew she'd never have refused. How could she? One of the perks of being leader of the Guard was that she was in complete control over Konoka's protection detail, which meant she could assign herself to be her body guard any time she wanted. Thinking of Konoka, she glanced at her clock and saw that her shift on monitor duty was set to end in half an hour. However, protocol dictated that she'd have to stay on her position until all her active operations were completed. Not wanting to spend a single second longer away from her girlfriend more than she needed to, she decided to try to resolve the situation as quickly as she could and typed in the contact code for the Honor Guard's most lethal member into her video screen.

"Mana, I want you to report to the coordinates I'm sending you and deal with some lunatic whose holding an innocent civilian hostage. He wiped out an entire squadron by himself. Deal with it however you see fit, just get it over with quickly."

"Hmm, want to get back to bed with your lover on time, eh? Very well, captain; I shall terminate with extreme prejudice."

Mana arrived on the rooftop of the building via helicopter drop, and immediately had her guns aimed at him and her eyes on Natsumi. Had he been an ordinary thug, she would've dispatched him before he'd had a chance to harm the hostage using a sniper rifle, but her instruments had detected a force field that would protect him from anything short of a direct assault. And given his proximity to his captive, her speed alone would not be enough to defeat the cloaked adversary. He began to speak, and she felt a shiver run down her spine. It had been a long time since she'd got such a dark feeling from an opponent, and it perturbed her.

"That's it? Only one? We are disappointed. Yes, we will have to punish you for that, little girl. Punish you very badly. How lucky for us."

Mana blinked. So there was more than one of him? Where? They were all alone on the roof, and the copter would have scanned all but the most advanced cloaking mechanisms. She decided to keep him talking. Bad guys always made mistakes when they started talking.

"Who're you calling a little girl? I'm a good fifteen years older than you, kid."

Despite the darkenss Mana felt his eyes look her up and down, and she felt more disappointed than intimidated. Thanks to her athletic and curvy build, she was always getting leered at by male enemies. She saw it as a sign of weakness, that they'd be distracted by the figure of an opponent. Granted, she was perhaps more generously endowed than other women, but nonetheless…

"Older in body, maybe, but not in mind. Still playing cops and robbers with all your old school friends, huh? Still think all there is in life is the next mission and the next paycheck. You're over thirty and I bet you still haven't started to like boys yet, have you?"

Mana shrugged, still holding her weapons steady. The man had not moved. What was he waiting for? "You have a skewed view about what it means to be mature, kid."

"H-heh, maybe so. Maybe we're both just little kids who got messed up a long time ago and never grew out of it. Something bad did happen to you a long time ago, didn't it?"

Mana was used to this speech. She was becoming more comfortable by the moment, as this confrontation began to mirror all the others she'd had with a lunatic who thought he was the best in the world. "Don't waste my time, I've heard that one before. The past is the past."

"True enough. Time to play, then?"

He removed his cloak, revealing a suit of chain mail, and Mana thought she could make out some kind of black symbols on the backs of his hands. Then she felt a surge of dark magical energy pulse from him, and she knew that this fight wasn't going to be a quick one. Setsuna was going to have to wait a little longer before getting back to Konoka.

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours."

"HA!"

After that single laugh, the armored boy leapt into the sky and began firing unincanted dark arrows down at Mana in a standard spread pattern. She dodged them gracefully, adding a little flair to her movements. She liked to enjoy herself on the battlefield when she could get away with it. Besides, it often kept her attackers looking at her instead of where she was going. After maneuvering underneath him she aimed up at the sky to discover that her target was already gone, and she immediately leapt and twirled into the air, firing several shots at where a final arrow had come from behind her. The bullets were enchanted with explosive fire spells, and they engulfed a fraction of the building in flames, sending some of it crashing down to the streets below. Mana glanced back to make sure Natsumi was still okay, which she was. In the firelight she could see that she'd been bound and gagged, but she was still okay. She looked back at the inferno and saw that her opponent had emerged, unharmed, and was casting a spell to counter-attack.

"Hotter than a demon's hand / Older than both god and man / Mark my foe with blazing brand / Sear the sky, and scorch the land!"

Two enormous pillars of flame emerged in front of the youth and spun towards Mana, who calculated two possible methods of escape and chose the riskier one. After getting a running start she jumped in between the scorching towers, her arms folded across her chest to keep them from getting burned. Emerging on the other side of them, she drew her pistols on the boy and let loose a hail of bullets. He ran to her left, dodging the shots with such speed he left after-images, and as he neared Natsumi she was forced to hold her fire.

"Ah, what's the matter? Don't trust your aim on a moving target so close to a civilian?"

"Heh, you need a human shield as a crutch?"

"A tactical defense. Look out behind you."

Even as he'd said it, Mana had felt the heat at her back, and she just barely rolled out of the way of the whirling flames that circled back towards her. In seconds, she'd loaded a new clip of ammunition into her gun and fired freezing bullets into the flames, dissolving them into a cold wind. In the same instant she blasted the fire, she used her other arm to block an attack from the youth, and an instant later aimed a high kick that would have snapped his neck, but he was already feinting to her right, trying to wrestle away her gun. She flipped backwards, drawing the other pistol and fired two shots at him, which he dodged while throwing another spell.

"Buried for an eternity/ Under ground and history / I call upon the Hecatonchire / Free your fists, unleash your fury!"

Glowing fists emerged out of thin air around Mana and began attempting to pummel her. With lightening swiftness, she fired a point-blank shot at each one, and ended up only being hit twice before destroying all of them. The punches were forceful blows, however, and she felt certain that one of them had broken a rib. Panting, she decided to try to buy herself a break by starting conversation.

"You know, I recognize the magic your using. Not the spells themselves, but you're drawing on energy from the same spell Negi learned from Evangeline, aren't you? What, hoping to beat Negi with his own style?"

"H-ha! Good thinking. You know, despite his power, your master really isn't using this technique to its full potential. We're surprised he didn't figure it out earlier. After all, he's supposed to be a prodigy, right?"

"What do you mean, exactly?" Mana inquired, loading more powerful ammunition into her guns as quietly as she could.

"Well, he gained more power by unlocking his dark side, right? But why stop there? Why be satisfied with only two? When you think about it, once a personality's begun to split, the possibilities are endless."

Suddenly, Mana felt a dull pain in her back, and she turned to see that in under a second he'd moved behind her and hit a pressure point. An ordinary human would be either unconscious or in blinding pain from such a blow. Mana gritted her teeth and tried to keep him talking long enough to buy her the thirty seconds she needed to recover.

"Just…just who are you?"

"You want to know our name? We are light, and we are darkness, and we are everything in between. We are one body, and infinite minds. Call us Legion, for we are many!"

He struck her again, and this time she fell unconscious.

"Hey, what the hell, she was supposed to make him more powerful, not turn him into a schizophrenic!"

"Please, calm down, Inugami-san. We think he attempted some kind of experimentation with the technique he learned. Our top scholars are working on it now…"

"We don't have time for that! If we haven't negotiated Mana's return with the Honor Guard soon, they'll just start steamrolling over us and the whole plan'll be in the toilet! Oh, look, she's awake. How're you feeling, girlie?"

Mana couldn't move or see, but she recognized the voice. Somehow, she wasn't surprised to hear it.

"Kotaro? Everyone believes you to be dead. Quite a strategic advantage."

"It's a strategic pain in the ass. You know how long it's been since I was in a real good fight? Laying low has more drawbacks than advantages, if you ask me."

"Same old Kotaro. Were there any other…survivors?"

There was no reply, and Mana's heart sank. She'd always secretly hoped that Kaede had made it out of the failed rebellion alive, but Kotaro's silence made it clear that she was gone for good.

"Inugami-san, we've just received word that the exchange has been negotiated; Mana's return for…"

"Shaddup, ya half-witted grunt! We don't want to give away the whole surprise to our guest, now, do we? Now knock her out again and let's get moving. I've got a long list of scores to settle, and I aim to fix a good number of them tonight!"