Chapter 9: The search begins. Round 1!

From: Miko-chan

Sub: Having fun?

So how does it feel to be in a different country for a presentation? Btw, there's someone you should meet when you get back. He name's Haruue Erii. She's Uiharu-san's new roommate, but she's a little shy.

From: Rusty

Sub: Any cute girls?

Yo, En! How u doin' over there? Find any cute girls u wanna bring back? How's Zu-chan? Is he abusing his ability? Lol! Anyways, Shino-chan never wants to play! When r u gonna b back? I miss u~~~~

From: Shino-chan

Sub: He's annoying me

Seriously, En, when are you going to be back? Rusty is annoying me and I already have a lot of stuff to deal with.

"Well, seems like they're fine back there," Enshin said as he replied to the messages he got.

Enshin and Zurui were currently in their room with Esper laying on his bed and the kitsune sitting on his and looking at Enshin.

"That's nice to hear. But we still get the fun stuff over here. I'm so excited! I have only see two magicians back at Academy City!" Zurui said as he bounced on the bed.

"Hm? Really? I thought you were the only one who came in."

"Nope. Some guy with red hair, a lady with long hair and a sword also came through. I also saw a nun, but she didn't look like she could use magic."

'A nun and a lady with a sword...Why do I feel like I've seen that somewhere before...'

"Speaking of which. I'm kinda shocked at how well everyone else took the whole 'magic existing' thing. I thought people from Academy City didn't believe in that stuff," Zurui said with a pondering look.

"Oh. More than half of them weren't paying a attention," Enshin said as he continued to look at his phone.

"What!? Really!?"

"Yeah. The Fake Main Character Kouhai of mine tuned out when I said 'main character,' Nisekoi-chan didn't listen at all since she was too excited to help, Rikuo-chan...I'm pretty sure she was asleep...I think. Anyways, Sai-chan looked like she was thinking about something else, and Awaki-chan...I'm not too sure." (A/N: crappy reasoning, but oh well)

"Okay...What about Gin? I'm pretty sure he would be paying attention."

"He's actually really open minded. He can stay calm and collected in almost any situation," Enshin said as he out his phone away and got ready to sleep. "There's also the fact that I've spoken to him about you and showed him pictures."

"What!? When was this!?"

"Some time."

"Now that you mention it..." Zurui put a hand in his chin. "Isn't he a fudanshi?"

"When I said 'open minded' I didn't mean that, but it's true. It was a little irritating when I had to defend him before."

"Oh yeah. Didn't he say you two were involved in an experiment when he first go to the city?"

"Yeah. It wasn't just that experiment though. We've been in a few before. We were put on groups and have been in those groups for every experiment..." Enshin trailed off with a distant look in his eyes.

"En? Hey, En, you okay?"

Enshin blink a bit and looked over to see Zurui with a worried expression. He felt bad for making the kitsune worry so he out a smile on his face.

"I'm fine. I was just thinking about something."

"Oh...Hey, En. I know you said it was a secret, but can you tell me why you can't reach Level 5? Hey, hey, since you and Gin were in the same experiments, does that mean you know why he can't reach Level 5!?"

"...I can't say...Sorry, Zu, but I can't tell you either reasons," Enshin said while looking down.

"Oh, come on! Please~~~"

"I already said no! Leave it alone, Zurui!"

Noticing he raised his voice again, Enshin quickly turned to see Zurui with a scared look. He saw that the kitsune was shaking a little and there was only fear in his eyes. Even his tails that were waving through the air a moment ago were on the bed.

Enshin mentally hit himself when he saw this. He didn't mean to yell at his friend like that, but he couldn't hold the loud voice back. He even let his ability slip again and made the kitsune terrified.

"Zu...I'm sorry...I didn't mean to yell..."

As it all played out, Enshin couldn't help but think that the scene was like a parent apologizing for making their kid cry. It wasn't far off, except they weren't parent and kid.

"I'm sorry...I bugged you..." Zurui said after calming down a little. He looked down as if in shame.

"You don't need to apologize. You just wanted too know." Enshin felt worse by the second and looked away from the other. "I'm sorry, Zu, but I can't tell you. It's not that I don't trust you or anything...It's that it brings back bad memories that even Rusty doesn't know about."

Zurui didn't say anything. He continued to look down with his tails and ears not swishing around or moving around like usual.

"Let's just go to sleep. Goodnight, Zurui."


"Nise-chama wants to go with Zuzu!"

All the Espers who were going to help were currently in front of the hotel along with Zurui, Arthur and Francis. They had been told that the Amakusa wouldn't be around them and would look for Ruel their own way. None of them seemed to mind as they knew the Amakusa worked as a group.

"So what kind of a ability does this guy have?" Tetsuya asked as he looked around.

"He uses magic based off of Lugh. We don't exactly know what kind of spells he can use, but-"

"Ha! Magic? Yeah right. So he can make a dove appear out of his hat?"

'I should have figured...' Arthur let out a sigh and rubbed his forehead. "Why don't we split up in groups? Since I'm guessing none of you know your way around London-"

"I'll be fine on my own. I memorized the areas last night," Enshin said with his head turned and a distant look in his eyes.

"Since Nisekoi-chan wants to go with Zurui-kun, they can go together. Oto-san, since I doubt you want to go with Senpai, I'll go with him and you can go with Nisekoi-chan and Zurui-kun," Gin said, trying to figure out what would be best.

"Wouldn't it be better to have Nise and the fox faced kid be with Backround Character?"

"Maybe, but you and Nisekoi-chan have a better combo than me. Not to mention that with both Nisekoi-chan, Zurui-kun and Kirkland-san, you can show how strong you are."

Gin was one of the three people there who noticed the distance and tense atmosphere between Enshin and Zurui. He was trying to see if he could helpin some way, even if it meant to give Tetsuya some lip service.

"Hm. I guess you're right. I'll just prove I'm stronger than that backround character."

Gin was now more worried since Enshin didn't both to retort to what the younger male had said. He knew that the two go have their back-and-forth for a good hour or two, so it was unnerving when it didn't even start.

"I will be searching on my own. I would love to be around you, Angleterre, but it would be better if I separated from you all," Francis said with a fake hurt tone.

"Well, we should get going then." Before Gin and Enshin could leave, a fox made its way on to the younger Esper's shoulder. "Hello there."

"He'll help you out," Zurui said in a more hushed tone than usual.

"Thank you, Zurui-kun. We'll be going now."

The two started to walk away from the rest of the people with the atmosphere around them being awkward.

"So...Senpai...What happened between you and Zurui-kun? If you don't mind me asking..."

What the two didn't know what that the fox that was on Gin's shoulder was a part of Zurui. One of his tails to be exact. Once it was to go back to the kitsune all the information it knows would go to him.

Meaning he would know about this conversation.

"Nothing much..."

"Lying is bad, Senpai. You should know that by now."

"Hm. Being told that by you is somewhat insulting."

"So, what happened?"

Enshin sighed and glanced at the younger male before answering with, "I ended up yelling at him last night..."

"Oh... I see." Gin understood exactly what that meant. 'Zurui-kun must have brought something bad up.'

As the two continued to walk, they saw a familiar face up ahead. It was the Amakusa girl with the spear from before. Deciding that there was no harm in it, the two walked up to her.

"Hello," Gin said as they walked closer and got her attention. "You're...Um...Itsuka-san?"

"Itsuwa," Enshin corrected. "I've actually been wanting to ask you a question. If you don't mind."

"Oh hello. I don't mind."

"How were you able to stay awake after I used my ability yesterday? Almost everyone should have been knocked out. No offense, but I'm pretty sure my ability is stringer than you."

"None taken. As for why...Well...I wasn't paying attention to it. I was looking out for Ruel Dawes and had that on my mind. I didn't even know you were using your ability. I'm sorry," she said with a slight bow.

"No need to be sorry. I was just curious. Now you've actually helped me out," Enshin said with his own gentleman's bow.

"I did?"

"Yeah. Now I know that if someone is paying attention hard enough to something else, my ability might not work on them. Thank you."

"No need for that. I mean, I didn't even know I helped you out."

"So, Itsuwa-san, where are the other Amakusas? I thought you were all looking as a group," Gin asked as he looked around the area.

"Oh...Well...I kinda got separated from them. We were in small groups and there was a big crowd...I should have been more careful."

The two saw that she got a saddened expression on her face. They could tell that it might have been inevitable for her to be separated in a large crowd, so they didn't get why she would be sad. They looked at each other and nodded their heads.

"No need to be sad," the two said at the same time.

Itsuwa looked up at the two to see a soft smile on both their faces. She felt a little bit better at seeing the smiles, but still felt a little sad.

This didn't go unnoticed by the two.

"Well, what's done is done, so no need to be moping about it," Enshin said as he put a reassuring hand on her head. "You might as well join us to look for this guy."

"Senpai's right. Plus, think about it like this, if you are the only one of the Amakusa who finds him, then that means you are better than the rest," Gin said with a bigger smile.

"Either way, I wouldn't say that. Our spells are mostly used with groups, so someone like me would be better off with a group."

This time the two took notice that she said that out of modesty and not sadness. They were glad to see she wasn't bashing herself and a little relieve that she was modest and not arrogant.

"Well, shall we?"

Enshin started walking away with the two following close behind.

"By the way, what's with that cute little fox?" Itsuwa asked as she pointed to the fox Zurui had sent.

"Oh. Zurui-kun said he'll help us out too."

The two felt something and looked ahead to see that Enshin was the one now looking sad. His expression didn't change much, but the two who were able to see how a person was feeling just from small movements could easily tell he was sad.

"Is he okay? He was fine just a moment ago..."

"Right. I forgot. Apparently, Senpai yelled at Zurui-kun yesterday, so the two have been having some bad atmosphere between them."

"Are they really that close?"

"Well...Yes and no. You see, Senpai's ability can get out of hand and effect others when his emotions overpower his reasoning. So since he yelled at Zurui-kun out of anger, Zurui-kun was more scared than say if I yelled at him with all my might. That being said, if he's sad like this, we shouldn't really be looking at him. Take a look around."

Doing as she was told, Itsuwa looked around the area to see the people that so much as glanced at Enshin started to look more sad than before.

"Okay. I get it."

"Yeah. When he's mad or sad he can't really contain his ability, so everyone is best thing we can do is just wait until it passes over."

"Well, there is another thing we can try," Itsuwa said before getting closer to Enshin. She could feel the sadness coming off of him, but hardened her resolve. "Come on. I want to show you two something!"

"Hey, Itsuwa-san, do you have any information on what this guy can do?" Gin asked as they made their way through the crowded street. "Kirkland-san said he didn't have much information, so I figure the Amakusa would. We were told something like Lugh."

"Well, we still don't know his main spells, but he has some items that are powerful as well. One is a dagger he has used on us before. If he pints it at a person then they become immobile and are forced to tell the truth. He has been able to get information out of most cabals in that way."

"That sounds tricky to get around. But if he only has one then we'll be fine. Three- Ah. I mean four against one will be easy. Not to mention we're all really strong."

"I don't really think I'll be able to help. I mean it was two on one back at the auditorium, we were in an enclosed area and he wasn't even able to use his magic, yet we still couldn't capture him," Itsuwa said, looking down and sad again.

"Yeah, but you weren't able to use yours either, so we didn't get to see how strong you really are either."

The two jumped a little when Enshin started to talk out of nowhere. They looked at him and saw he had a small notepad out and was writing something on it. When he was done, he tore the paper out and gave it to Itsuwa.

"'Confidence'? Why are you..."

"Oh! I get it!" Gin turned to Itsuwa with a smile back on his face. "If you ever need confidence then you just need to look at that paper! Senpai's ability can be used from far away as long as it's something small like a single word on a paper. As long as the person knows it's from him, it'll work."

"Wow. Academy City's Espers really are something, huh? Thank you for this," Itsuwa said, looking at Enshin.

"Make sure not to lose it."


"Wow! Itsuwa-san, this is amazing!"

The small group was currently standing at the edge of a lake with a waterfall not too far away. Trees and plants were all over the place and were even sticking out and covering the earth that made the waterfall. The water sparkled in the sunlight and they could see fish swimming in the lake.

"I know. I found it not too long ago when we were searching for Ruel Dawes. I was instantly captivated when I saw it all. I thought I should bring you two here to help with the mood."

The two looked over to see Enshin with a small, calm smile on his face as he looked at the scene before him.

All tension in his body seemed to vanish as he shoulders were relaxed and the atmosphere around him became lighter.

"I thought you were suppose to be looking for me. I'm kinda insulted that I was out off like a side request for a simple waterfall."

They all looked up in shocked when they saw their target, that itself was bad enough, but what shocked them more was the fact he was standing on top of the waterfall.

"Hey, do you three mind answering some of my questions?" As Ruel continued to talk, he walked off the waterfall and landed on the water. "They're simple questions, so no need to worry."

"H-how is he standing in water?" Despite being in shocked, Gin got in a defensive stance.

"Oh. How about this...I'll answer any questions you have if you answer mine. How does that sound?"

"Sorry, but we're suppose to capture your not have a friendly chat with you."

"Well, that's a shame. Looks like I need to start off with this." As he said that, Ruel pulled out a dagger and held it leisurely in his hand. "I'll give you guys a freebe. This little dagger in my hand is suppose to represent the blade Lugh had and is known as Freagarthach."

'So that's the dagger that'll make us speak the truth. Interesting.' Enshin didn't seem to move much, but everyone there could tell he was also getting ready for a fight.

Ruel lifted the dagger up and started to point it towards Enshin.

Seeing him do so, Enshin turned his body and sidestepped it. He slightly raised an eyebrow when he did so.

He jumped back when the dagger was starting to point to him again. His smirked when he saw that the dagger was pointing to him, but no effects were occurring.

"So what's the catch?"

"Ah. So you've figured it out, huh? Figures."

Gin and Itsuwa didn't move, but were curious as too what was going on. They could see that the dagger was being pointed at Enshin, but also saw he could move like normal.

"Yeah. There's something not right with that dagger. I purposely moved slower to see if it actually worked, but I was able to dodge an effects. I was even waiting for some sort of lazerbeam to shoot out like some kind of Si-Fi move weapon."

"Well, it has to be pointed at a vital spot, so both times I missed you there."

Enshin frowned at hearing this. The way Ruel was talking to him was if he didn't care about if they were told his abilities simply because they would lose at the very end. The arrogance was there, even if he kept an indifference -if not grumpy- look as he stood on the water's surface.

"You know, if any should feel insulted, it should be us. You aren't even taking us seriously. And that will cost you."

Before any more could be said, Gin was right behind Ruel and landed a hard kick to his side, sending him flying through the trees.

Instead of falling in the water, Gin was somehow able to also stand on it as he watched the man get back up.

"Now how did you-"

Ruel ended up having to duck as a speak sailed over his head. He rolled to the side as the same spear tried to cut him from above.

He brought his arms up to block a punch from Gin, but was still sent crashing through some more trees.

As he sat in the remains of the tree, he saw small flashes in the air and quickly jumped out of the way as even the tree remains were shredded by super thin wires.

"Looks like I'll have to get a little serious with you kids."

Letting out a small sigh, Ruel's expression changed to a more serious one that made them all tense up a little bit.

With inhuman speed, he was in front of Gin and his fist making harsh contact with the younger one's stomach.

After a few seconds, they all realized what happened as Gin was sent flying back and slamming into the rocks by the waterfall and ended up coughing up blood.

The other two didn't have a chance to call out as Itsuwa was kicked in the stomach and also sent flying through the trees.

Quickly snapping back to reality, Enshin let out a loud, high-pitched whistle as he ran from his current spot and weaved through the trees. He pulled out two playing cards, looked at them, then jumped out of the way of a flying kick.

Before he could do anything else, Enshin brought his arms up and blocked a punch aimed for his head. He was shocked when he felt almost nothing when the fist connected.

He saw another punch and blocked that one as well, but was yet again shocked when this punch was at least double the amount of strength he used to send Itsuwa through the trees.

Ruel was suddenly above him and tried to slam his foot into Enshin's stomach, but the younger one dodged at the last second.

Not wasting time, he got up and ran forward with a faster speed and landed a solid punch on the other.

CRACK!

This didn't seem to effect the man as he simply grabbed the arm and used his other elbow to break the bone.

Enshin bit his tongue before he could let out a scream and tried to land a kick, but failed as his opponent simply side stepped the attack.

Ruel's expression turned back to an indifferent one as he easily pushed the Esper to the ground with little effort.

"I guess that's it. That little trick is one I got from The Animals Dancing in the Moonlight."

Ruel looked around and saw that the other two were laying in debris with blood around them. He looked back down at Enshin and saw something that made his eyes widen a little.

'He looks like...'

For a moment, Ruel had seen a boy with blond hair looking up at him with determined eyes, but was clearly shaking from fright.

When he blinked, the image turned into Enshin looking up at him with determined eyes, but was clearly shaking from fright.

"Looking at me with those same eyes...You look just like him..."


Normal.

A normal house. A normal neighborhood. A normal town.

Normal parents. No siblings is normal. Even normal grandparents.

He was also normal.

A small boy born in normality.

Gray normality.

The only thing abnormal from the ages one to seven was his curiosity.

School was normal. His classmates were normal. His teachers were normal.

His appetite for learning was abnormal.

He had stolen to feel the excitement.

He had been caught and learned what it was like to be scolded severely.

He had jumped from a high place to know the thrill.

He found out how painful broken bones felt.

He learned many things by many experiments as well.

The only line he never crossed was a simple one.

Taking a life was taboo.

He also never felt the pain of losing someone important to him.

Until he reached a certain age.


"You said...you were going to get...a little serious..."

The two turned to see both Itsuwa and Gin start to stand up.

'Healing magic?'

"So I think we should...also get serious..."

The two stood tall even with the injuries they suffered. They had their own serious expression as they got ready for their second round.

"Get ready. We'll beat you down and take you in."