7 Days before the Hakurei Shrine's Music was uploaded on Youtube...
For a while, I had been worried that the crystal-like giants that were the source of parahuman abilities were the sort of things that would have grabbed magic whenever it was used.
But between my run-ins with the Empire 88, the local Protectorate, Trainwreck, Squealer, and the revelation that Taylor had been practicing magic near her father for over one year clarified a few things:
'The giant entities did not all actively attempt to capture people who used magic.'
In fact, Triumph and Battery of the Protectorate, and Trainwreck aside, no parahuman that I have come across so far represents such a risk. And even then, the entities only attempted to grab me when I was directly observing them with my magic.
There was also the issue that the things may have been connected to their beneficiaries before giving them powers, as Daniel Hebert implied.
So what separated those three individuals from all of the others?
As shown with the one Empire Cape I had killed, it didn't seem to matter what the thing's stance on being observed was, I could transverse the barrier between realities and attack them directly.
That said, why did Trainwreck's make a grab for me when I observed it it only to do nothing in its defense when I killed it? Was it suicidal?
I was aware that Trainwreck was one of those 'Case 53' parahumans before my intervention, but Triumph and Battery of the Protectorate were not.
Also, I probably could not test my method of depowering parahumans legally if they were unwilling participants, even if I now had a means of doing this non-lethally.
'Rumia could probably still smell the traces of the Empire parahuman I abducted and killed.'
This meant that I either needed to hire somebody, which I did not have the money for, or find willing volunteers. Lastly, I needed to find out if I could perform the non-lethal method on those with well defended yet non grabby entities.
On the bright side, I did not need to fear being dragged into an alternate reality just from being near a parahuman. But with the whole "secret identities " culture the Untied States of America had, I couldn't go around using my power to expose parahumans, at least not legally.
I don't know why the criminals are protected, so I'll have to look up that set of laws to figure out the specifics.
But as long as nobody found out about the few crimes that I have committed, Lung and his Asian Bad Boys would probably leave me alone.
I've had zero interactions with that guy who supposedly runs the Downtown protection racket, so I doubt he will be coming after me. Then again, I've heard that the people he hires are ordinary humans, so me using my ability to see the crystal-like entities probably wouldn't matter anyways.
The Empire 88, however, was a whole different story. While they seem have followed a no killing other parahumans rule, the death of the girl named Fleur from the group New-Wave would indicate that that rule only applied to parahumans attacking other parahumans.
'If an ordinary human had the Scarlet Devil's luck, bypassed my magical traps and defenses and could still somehow overcome my superior reflexes and combat abilities and thus kill me, the individual wouldn't be hunted down and killed by other criminals.'
This, of course, assumed that Empire 88 had any amount of honor. While I understood the concept of hating other races, the Empire's actions seemed... ludicrous.
To youkai, humans are food; and yet if I had properly understood Rumia's situation then Mush, a parahuman, had her ear. Convincing Rumia to only attack a certain group of humans sounded plausible. But when the druggies following Squealer raided Trainwreck's turf, they were convinced that I, being Rumia, would be friendly towards them.
Not to mention that for her entire time spent in the bay, the only people confirmed to have been killed by Rumia were those of the Empire.
'And up until Veder fought her, she's apparently kept that record up for months.'
Of course, there was also the issue that the Empire may have been getting away with killing unmasked parahumans simply due to a power difference. They had twenty something parahumans, minus the one I killed and harvested. In contrast, the dedicated "Heroes" in the city came to a total of 21, and only if the different groups were working together.
'23 if both Veder and Hebert decided to become heroes.'
Worse, the Empire had cause to want me dead since I had killed one of their parahumans, even if they never find out for certain. As long as the Empire knew my identity, I needed to keep several things secret until I was certain that they could not kill me...
"Alice, what do you think?" My thought process is interrupted by the familiar form of Uber. Ah yes, I was thinking this all over while inside Uber and Leet's... 'Gamer Pad.'
Trainwreck was here too, I forgot the line of events that led up to that.
"I, myself, was thinking about certain intricacies regarding my power and the social dynamic of Brockton Bay," I answered.
Uber blinked at me.
"I meant which game did you think is the best," Uber elaborated.
"I still believe that Final Fantasy XIV is the best!" Trainwreck said from the other side of the room. He and Leet were playing a game.
"Dude," Leet said from beside the former Case 53. "The reasons you gave were basically nostalgic ones."
"Not to mention that we can't get it from either here or Earth Aleph," Uber said, looking back at the two. "We have no way of knowing if that game even exists beyond your say-so."
"But there is the fight with Shiva and everything," Trainwreck started.
"A lot of games have a boss fight against someone called Shiva," Leet argued back. "And a lot of them have awesome music too."
"Anyways," Uber said as he turned back to me, "We've been at this for a few days now so... Do you have an idea as to what game we should feature in our next episode?"
"As much as I like to the Japanese Roleplaying Games," I answered, trying to ignore the glaring issue of them being such slogs, "I felt like the Bullet Curtain games and the Fighting games best represented how it looked to spectators when duels occurred in my homeland."
The game Trainwreck and Leet were playing was paused and Leet turned his head to face me.
Both he and Uber may had gotten pale.
"The bullet curtain games?" Leet asked.
"If that's too much to ask for, I did point out that the Fighting games feel appropriate."
I stood up from where I was sitting and stretched out my arms.
"I am 'video gamed out' right now, if you'll forgive me saying so. I will need to be going soon."
Uber waved it off as if to say that he wasn't offended or simply didn't care.
"Do you have a piece of paper I could write on? I would like to leave some notes behind, a reminder of things that need to be addressed in your next episode."
"Is there anything new outside of what you've already told us?" Uber asked as he used his thumb to point to his forehead, "If not... I got it memorized."
Was that a reference to something?
"I mean I have everything memorized, using my power."
"I leave it to you three," I say to them before focusing on my student magician. "For the time being, Trainwreck, I want you to practice the low-level spells 'Youkai Strength' and 'Steel Skin.'"
Trainwreck paused for a moment.
"Isn't 'Steel Skin' a Hermit technique?" he asked. "That should be beyond the capabilities of a magician."
If magicians can use even inferior versions of divination compared to priests and shamans, then the simple practice of directly enhancing one's physical durability shouldn't be impossible even if it's an inferior version as well. With that logic...
"Come by the boat graveyard sometime and I'll give you something to help with that little issue," I answered. "Until then, work on 'Youkai Strength.'"
The plan was to make Trainwreck learn various physical enhancement spells of the sorcerous nature. If he became good enough at them, he would eventually be able to use the spell that combined all of such enhancements:
'Superhuman Hijiri.' The one spell fully analyzed by Marisa Kirisame after the Geyser Incident.
Names carry power, and I figured that if Trainwreck could move and hit like a train...
...
Weird... it felt like I was missing something important.
...
Oh right, the rent.
"Before I leave," I spoke up to the trio. "Do any of you know of a non-criminal way to make enough money to pay off a month's rent?"