Yoooo~

Sorry for being so late this time, I've had quite my hands full.

I'll do my best to upload the next one soon! w

ENJOY! :D

The strongest Magicians of the Triple Alliance gathered inside a dimly lit room; candles placed around them in a circle were the only source of light. The eight Humans crouched down on the floor and started to cover its surface with symbols, drawing them in white chalk.

Ann's hand was trembling lightly as she worked on her part, this was being her very first mission and she was incredibly nervous, even though she was trying to hide it. The fact that she was together with three people from her same clan, though, made her feel a bit more at ease than if she had been the only one from Fudoumine.

"Relax, Ann-chan, we don't need to fret." Sakurai Masaya gently murmured to her, smiling reassuringly at her. "Here, let me help you."

He held her hand gently and traced the first symbols with her, after that he let go of it and she managed to continue with a steady hand.

Yanagi smiled slightly for a brief moment: among his pupils she had always been the one to excel in Magic, easily surpassing their little Demon almost as soon as she joined them, right after Rikkai and Fudoumine had joined forces. Needless to say that Akaya had not been too happy about that.

Inui was the first one to finish, followed by his childhood friend. He proceeded to correct a few sloppy lines that the other member of Seigaku, their rookie, had lazily drawn. A light scolding earned him a huff and a scowling from Echizen.

As soon as they were done, they looked at each other a moment. The general plan was to destroy the barrier, but first they wanted to try and see if they could contact Hirari in some way, or maybe even teleport her to that very same room through a particular spell. Had she been a Demon, they would have just a simple summoning ritual and poof!, she'd materialise there. Unfortunately, in this case, they were dealing with a Human, so they had to try another tactic.

Yanagi stepped in the middle of the circle, surrounded by the other seven. They started to chant a spell in Latin, and the drawn symbols glowed, first slightly and then gradually stronger. The air around Yanagi seemed to tremble a bit, and he got mentally prepared for his mind to be projected near the girl, wherever she was inside that barrier. Just as he seemed to be about to appear there, he hit something that felt like a hard stone wall. He gasped, the hit depriving him of air, and stumbled lightly. The spell was broken and the symbols returned to normal chalk drawings.
"It didn't work."

Inui pushed up his glasses. "There was only a 15% chance that it would."

"No harm in trying." Yagyuu commented.

"Let's go with Plan B then." Uchimura Kyousuke, another from the Fudoumine clan, suggested.

They all agreed, and Yanagi stepped back into the circle, so that they left a space in the middle. As soon as they started to chant again, this time a different spell even though the language was the same, the person whose projection they were trying to summon shifted uncomfortably in her sleep, without waking up though.

The symbols on the floor resumed to glow, yet once again, when it seemed like they were about to succeed, they found a hard resistance that made all of their efforts useless.

By now, Ann was panting, not used to work with spells that were that powerful. She was still learning, after all.

"Let us go on with Plan C, then." Uchimura's partner, Mori Tatsunori, announced.

Seeing how the girl was starting to feel discouraged by their failed attempts at communicate with Hirari, Yagyuu leaned to her and gently comforted her.

"She is fine. Don't forget that Atobe won't harm her." He reminded her, even though they couldn't really be sure of that.

Ann smiled lightly and nodded, thankful to her teacher.

"Can you keep going at it? Or do you need a break?" Yanagi asked her. Of course he knew that she was feeling a bit drained of energy, but the little Tachibana was known to be the most stubborn person in whole Fudoumine.
And just as he had predicted, the girl brushed it off with a shrug. "The earlier we handle it, the earlier we'll get my best friend back."

Echizen scoffed slightly. "Mada mada da ne. You won't be of any help if you collapse in the middle of the-"

"Echizen, I think you just volunteered to try one of my newest drinks." Inui interrupted him, his glasses glinting.

That seemed to be able to shut up the boy at once as he paled.

Ann stuck her tongue out at him before getting back to her position in the circle. "Serves you right, brat."

Echizen twitched. "You little-"

"Make it two." Inui smirked as he cut the rookie's words again.

The boy paled.

Several hours later, Ann did faint from exertion, but that only happened after many hours of chanting and trying lots of different spells, none of which actually worked. No matter how hard they tried, they were absolutely unable to take down the barrier that was cast around Atobe's property, nor even weaken it. That fact left all of them frustrated as well as exhausted, their clothes drenched in sweat. If even the joined forces of the two Datamen were powerless, especially since Yanagi, the Master, was one of the Sannin Bakemono, then they had nearly no chance to complete their mission.

"I'll bring Tachibana-san to our Healers." Yagyuu offered, and the three Fudoumine guys nodded in agreement. He picked her gently up and left the room.

"We need to talk to our leaders." Inui said after the two had left. "I hope that-"

"'They will be able to come up with something else', is what you were going to say, Sadaharu." Yanagi smiled.

The others sweatdropped.

Atobe groaned lightly as he sat down on the couch of his room. He gently massaged his temples with his slender fingers, and licked his lips slowly. The taste of that Scanner's blood was still relishing in his mouth, and instead of quenching his hunger, it seemed to grow: he knew that what he was feeling was pure bloodlust. He leaned back a bit.
That girl's scent literally intoxicated the Ice King, nearly making him lose the control which he always had in check. But he couldn't help it, her blood was so…
It wasn't even just that. Had it been so, he'd be able to keep his coolness. But no, that little Human was stirring some memories in him, both pleasant and unpleasant, memories that were cast aside but never forgotten, memories of a past life.

He growled softly. "Fleur…"

Hirari was reading when the door got unlocked and opened. She jumped lightly in surprise and stood up abruptly. "It is not tomorrow yet!"

The young man that entered cocked an eyebrow at her. "Well, duh."

Hirari blinked at him, a bit surprised that it wasn't her kidnapper who showed up; she thought that he had someone go and retrieve her to make her work, even though he had told her that they'd start from the next day.

"And who are you?" she asked, eyeing him suspiciously. At least he wasn't a Vampire, she realised in relief.

Shishido Ryou." He grumbled as he adjusted his blue cap over his short brown hair. "Come, we have to bring you to a place."

Hirari frowned and tensed. "No. That guy said that I'm going to start tomorrow, I will not leave this room until then."

"What guy?" A gentle voice asked from behind Shishido. Hirari glanced at him, smiling lightly when she noticed that Ootori had entered too; at least he seemed nice.

"That bastard that kidnapped me." She answered with a light growl.

Ootori blinked. "Ah, you mean A-"

"Choutarou." Shishido hushed him. "If he hasn't told her his name, you shouldn't either."

The girl glared at him while Ootori blushed lightly. "Sumimasen, Shishido-san."

The capped man turned his attention back to her. "Now, let's go. I don't have time to lose with a brat such as you."

Hirari twitched at his rudeness. "Are you deaf? I say that I won- HEY!"

Irritated by her continuous refusal, Shishido had simply grabbed her forearm and started to drag her out, much to her protests. The white-haired followed them, quietly apologising for his partner's behaviour.
They went through several corridors; more than a mansion that looked like a maze. Hirari tried to keep track of the path from the room she was staying at, but it was proving very difficult since she was also struggling to break free.

At a certain point they passed by a staircase that lead to the lower floor, and Hirari saw her chance there. Instead of trying to pull away, she neared Shishido and bit his hand so hard that she actually drew blood. The man let go of her with a pained gasp, and she took that opportunity to run down the stairs, skipping some steps to be faster. Since the other two were Humans like her, she actually thought that she could get away from them without too much trouble. Then, she would have tried and find an exit.

Unfortunately for her, she had not taken in account the fact that they might have powers as well. She had not even reached the end of the staircase, when all of a sudden she felt something wrap around her body and effectively immobilizing her.
She gasped and glanced down to see what it was while starting to struggle against whatever it was immediately: what was holding her seemed to be rope as thin as a thread that was glowing white; yet it could not be normal thread as it was incredibly resistant against every attempt that she was making to break it.

Hirari groaned in frustration and glared up at the two. Shishido was massaging his bloody hand, and even though he had a triumphant smirk on his lips, one could see that the wound hurt badly.
What surprised her was that the ends of the white strings were connected not to him, but to Ootori's hands.

"Sorry, but our leader wants you here." He simply said, not unkindly.

Hirari tried a few more times to free herself, but once she realised how futile it was, she slumped her shoulders and gave up, slowly walking up the stairs back to the two. Well, she would have done that anyway since Ootori had started to shorten the threads, pulling her closer.

They spent the rest of the way in silence, Hirari mentally cursing at herself for having already failed two attempts to escape.
At a certain point they finally stopped, and Shishido opened a door, pushing her roughly inside. After closing the door, Choutarou released her from his power.

Hirari quickly moved away from them, holding the book that was still in her hand close to her.

"Boss did alert us that you might struggle… Good thing we came prepared." He smirked and took out from a small bag that he was carrying a pair of handcuffs.

Hirari's eyes widened in fear and she quickly stepped back towards the huge bed behind her. "Don't you dare!"

Shishido shrugged. "Hey, your fault for being so stubborn."

She soon found herself trapped between the man and the bed; once he was close enough, the girl hit his head hard with the thick book she was carrying, causing him to stumble back while groaning in pain. He growled and looked at her in rage, lunging at her. The two of them struggled with Ootori's preoccupied voice in the background as he tried to convince them to calm down; at a certain moment Shishido pinched her neck hard to make her lose focus.
Although, he hit a particular nerve that made her lose consciousness, and she fell to the ground, limp.

Ootori looked at him with a frown. "That wasn't necessary, Shishido-san."

His friend grumbled. "For fuck's sake, Choutarou, look at what she did to me! Now shut up and give me a hand here – thanks to this bitch I can use only one."

Ootori sighed deeply and gently picked her up, placing her on the bed; then they proceeded to restrain her.