DAY 2
Thump! Thump! Thump! The air resonated with quick sound of shoes slapping the concrete. "Crap!" She spoke as her lungs were about to burst. "Just a little off." Her thighs burned, "gotta…" She hurried down the street. Her long black hair waving behind her as she ran. "Get better…" She pushed herself, "at calculating." Ruiko Saten pushed herself some more. Her long blue skirt rose in the wind as she ran down the street. She tried to open a portal by herself, much to the chagrin of Katrina and Gabriella. The destination was the Seventh Mist department store. And Ruiko missed it by a mile, well it felt like it as she ran. "Can't do magic here." She whispered between her hurried footsteps slapping the ground. Her heart slamming against her chest. Her skin glistening as the perspiration started to rise. "Why did I bet them?" She sighed, shaking her head. She looked down the sidewalk, not very many people were out today. And that suited Ruiko just fine. She put on a satisfied smile, continued running straight, occasionally shifting to the left or right to avoid people, "on the right!" She yelled passing a few girls talking on their cell phones. She could see the street name up ahead, "a shortcut." She huffed. She quickly turned the corner, then.
Wham!
She hit something or someone. Her body twisted, her feet tangled, her body becoming airborne, hit, tumbled to the ground, rolling violently and slammed against the bushes. "What the hell?" Someone yelled. "Ow!" She grimaced in pain, trying to get up, only to fall to the ground. Her muscles burned from overexertion. She inhaled a deep breath, grabbing her shin, jerked it to her chest. Her knee badly scraped, blood slipping down her leg. She hissed, hoping the pain would disappear, feeling it burn. "sssorry..." She squeezed her eyes, biting her lip, "ow!" She said, puckering her lips, blew across the wound. "You!" A guy yelled, "TPIMIMSPFT!" with those letters Ruiko's eyes went wide. "Huh?!"
Stiyl Magnus, a magician associated with the English Puritan church, Necessarius, was walking, in a quick pace, underneath the blue skies of Academy city. His red shoulder length hair bounced across his shoulders, along the sidewalk. People nervously watching the young man dressed in black priest robes, his fingers and thumbs adorned with silver rings. And an odd bar code tattoo underneath his right eye. He looked tall for his age as he towered over most of the students. A cigarette hanging from his mouth. He wasn't sure why they were staring at him. Was it his appearance. An Englishman in Japan. The way he dressed, wearing black priest robes or the fact that he had a cigarette hanging from his mouth in a city where he found it increasingly difficult to get a cigarette as a minor.
"Kaori." He spoke as smoke rose from the cigarette. "Yes." A woman's voice answered.
"Anything?"
"Not yet." She sounded apprehensive.
Kanzaki Kaori high above the street, watching Stiyl Magnus moving along the sidewalk. She stood at the edge of a ten story tall building. The wind lifting her long black hair from her tall lean body. Her hair tied into a ponytail, the tip slipped in the breeze. She was wearing a short white T-shirt tied into a knot at the bottom, exposing her navel. One of the legs of her jeans had been cut off, showing very much of her leg. A two-meter-long sword hung from her hip.
"Do you think the seers got it wrong?" She spoke like she was carrying on a normal conversation with the person right next to her. "Possible." She heard him answer, from the street. "A powerful sorcerer is going to come after Index." Kanzaki Kaori spoke, remembering the information they had received after disposing of the magical cabal just outside Tokyo. "Bastards!" Stiyl spat the word out, squeezing his hands into a tight fist. His eyes flashed. "I will burn them to a crisp." He growled, thinning his eyes. "Now, now…" Kanzaki spoke, slowly closing her eyes. The wind hiding her worried sigh. "We just need to get to the apartment." She said, her cheeks quickly blushed.
The apartment where Index lived, free loaded, with a certain boy, Kamijo Touma. He had in his possession the ultimate weapon, the imagine breaker and it existed in his right hand. It could negate all forms of magic, esper powers and divine abilities. Index, known as Index Librorum Prohitorum or the list of forbidden books. She carried inside her head 103,000 grimores. Books so vile just looking at the covers could warp the human mind.
Kanzaki nervously swallowed, thinking she'd see him again. Someone with an intense desire to help others, even if it meant putting his own life on the line. Which he had done many times. In fact, that's how they met. He stood against Stiyl and herself protecting Index, someone he'd never met. And finally saved Index. And was rewarded with the privilege of having Index, a nun in training with a very big appetite, quick to temper, living with him for the time being. Her cheeks reddened, shaking her head, "poor Touma." She sighed, her heartbeat thumped against her chest, as his name slipping off her tongue.
Kanzaki's eyes suddenly open wider, hearing Stiyl's angry voice. He sounded like he had been hit, "dammit!" She heard him mumble as he hit the ground. "What the… Sorcerer!" He yelled, "I hereby make this place my refuge." Kanzaki heard him saying the incantation to form a barrier. She quickly stood up, near the edge, "Stiyl!"
"Ash to ash" he said, "dust to dust…" Kanzaki leapt off the 10-story building, falling towards her comrade, "squeamish blood rood!" She hit the ground, her knees bending, the ground bent, the air rushing away. She crouched, glaring at her opponent, her left hand gripping her sword.
