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Chapter Five: Firestarter

The next three weeks saw Hisaki improve strongly in her base of magic. Yomiko-sensei had made her study and memorize any trigram spell, as the triangle spells were called, she saw, whether or not it would be useful. Regularly the girl was tested on her knowledge, ordered to recite the three runes required to cast a certain spell. In addition, Yomiko-sensei assigned books of reading on the theory of the Craft; anything in Japanese was fair game. Now and then the teacher would ask for the outcome to a random situation: Hisaki was expected to explain what would happen and why.

Hisaki had been allowed to come on a mission with Yomiko once, last week, despite the teacher's insistence that she wouldn't be interested. Yomiko-sensei had been dreadfully right: the entire event took less than half an hour, where Yomiko examined and confirmed that a book was authentic. Hisaki couldn't even remember what the book was supposed to be about. The whole thing hadn't required any use of force or even witty dialogue.

And that was a 'normal' mission.

Gods, Hisaki thought to herself as she stared up at the summer sky. The sun was almost completely set, leaving a glow on the western horizon. Hisaki had taken to wearing the Library uniform, now that she was officially inducted as a Trainee Agent. The Firestarter, as her codename went, wore a white blouse, brown vest and red tie, each bearing the odd singe mark. Instead of the skirt, Hisaki preferred a pair of black slacks; large pockets held chalk, candles and other casting materials. On her feet were a pair of plain grey running shoes and socks. Hisaki's hair was still kept in braided pigtails that barely reached her waist. Around the girl's neck was a wooden image of Ken, the rune for fire and light. In a pinch, it made an excellent focus for her energy.

I thought it would be more exciting, Hisaki thought to herself. Like when Yomiko-sensei came to rescue me. But I guess that was a fluke. Well, what was I expecting from a group called the British Library? Hisaki blew her bangs off her face in exasperation. Idly she lifted a finger and traced her name in flame in the air; first in kanji, hiragana and katakana, then in the upper case, lower case and handwritten letters Yomiko-sensei had taught her. Hisaki knew a few words in English, but her pronunciation (as several Library workers had informed her) was quite poor. Yomiko-sensei was trying to teach, but in between controlling her magic and knowing how to work as an Agent, learning a second language was low on Hisaki's list of priorities.

"Hisaki-san!" Yomiko called out from the back door. Yomiko looked around; the sky was dark and it was hard for her to see. She caught a flare of light in the field and frowned - what if Hisaki-san lost control? The grass would go up in flames. Yomiko sighed. Had she been this careless with her own powers? "Hisaki-san!"

"Yes, Yomiko-sensei?" Hisaki got up and walked over to Yomiko.

"Mission," Yomiko answered tensely.

"I think - " Hisaki cut off her own refusal when she saw Yomiko's face. "What's wrong?"

"The Library was investigating a document," Yomiko answered as she walked through the house, Hisaki trailing. The woman picked up her coat and checked her paper as she continued. "The workers were ambushed and killed; a thief ran off with the document. He's armed with what someone described as a wand that can shoot fire."

"Odd," Hisaki commented, but she couldn't help having her voice perk up at the description of his powers. "Is he a Witch? Or a Special Ability User?"

"Neither," Yomiko answered. She flicked a wrist and a fan of paper appeared in her hand; satisfied, The Paper made it vanish. "Some invention someone was working on, but we think it's stolen. He doesn't seem to know how to use it properly."

"Must be good enough if he can kill people," muttered Hisaki under her breath. Yomiko looked at her student and shook her head sadly.

"So, we getting a ride or something?" Hisaki asked. She shut the door behind her and locked it securely.

Hisaki's question was answered when a helicopter landed behind her.

The Paper and the Firestarter arrived at the scene. It was a small, abandoned factory. Parts of it were scorched, but a team of firefighters stationed around the building kept anything from spreading. No one, not even the police, were willing to enter; several charred bodies were piled under a third storey window as a warning.

The two landed on the roof and made their way in. They borrowed small flashlights from the firefighters and went in, one Agent holding a few cue cards while the other flexed her free hand. They cautiously searched the top floor, room by room.

"Hisaki-san, we need to make sure he can't run back and use these rooms as a hiding place," Yomiko said.

"Huh? Oh - "

Hisaki stood at the door to a long hallway they had just searched. Hisaki took out her chalk and drew a circle around a triangle on the door, then filled in the runes. Complete, the circle glowed a dull orange.

"That's very neat," Yomiko said, examining it. The teacher held the doorknob and pushed at the door; it didn't move.

"Thanks," Hisaki answered.

This continued for about half an hour, Yomiko checking and Hisaki setting up spell circles, when a yelp was heard down the hall. It was followed by a flare of light and the smell of something burning. Instantly the two women knew what had happened: the thief, having got around them, had tried to wipe away Hisaki's trigram. Because he hadn't done it properly the spell had lashed out at him - in Hisaki's case, her spells contained a bit of fire. They raced back to the scene, finding the spell circle turned to ash and the thief running away.

"No you don't," Yomiko muttered. She threw a length of paper at the man, which extended like a tentacle and snaked around his ankle. It grabbed him and sent the man sprawling, but he didn't lose his grip on his weapon. The man quickly twisted around before either female could get to him and sent a burst of flame at the paper. Yomiko screeched and skidded to a stop before she could run into the sudden inferno but Hisaki leapt through it, trailing streams of smoke.

"Stay back," the man warned in a rough voice. The wand, made of steel with brass caps, was about as long as Hisaki's arm. One cap was open, revealing some sort of machinery and a tiny yellow flame in the centre, and it was pointed at Hisaki's chest.

"Play with fire," the Firestarter smirked, "and expect to get burned." She dropped her flashlight and opened her fists, revealing a golden fireball in each palm.

"What - "

Before he could complete his sentence the trainee Agent was on him, sending gold-coloured flames in his direction. The man backpedalled, dodging the two fireballs in the narrow hallway before running.

"The Paper!" Hisaki yelled. Caught between checking on her teacher or the thief, the Firestarter was torn.

The Paper stepped through the flames, smothering them with even more paper. Coughing, she pointed.

"Get the thief," The Paper ordered. "Don't kill him."

"But - " The Firestarter frowned at the commands - what was she, stupid? She decided that they weren't worth harassing her sensei over right now, however, and ran.

It didn't take the Firestarter long to find the man. The hall opened onto a large room, dark and empty. With a quick trigram Hisaki called on light to fill the room; her quarry was found lurking in a doorway. He ran, and Hisaki was forced to follow. She would've loved to throw fire and burn him, but Hisaki knew that her teacher didn't give idle orders. Twice the man tried to throw a fireball back at her but the Firestarter burned each one out with her own magic; Hisaki wasn't completely immune to non-magical fire and didn't want to find out how badly she would burn if she got hit.

Finally the man was trapped. They arrived at a long catwalk, suspended several metres above the floor. The door at the end of it was locked, putting Hisaki between the man and his only feasible escape route.

The man was trapped.

A smile twitched on the Firestarter's face. She threw open her hands, sending fire into the air. Old rope, hanging from pulleys attached to the ceiling, easily caught fire. The room gradually grew brighter and hotter as more rope caught fire, as though the two were standing in a sky of fire.

"Surrender to the British Library," the Firestarter ordered. Tiny flames danced along her fingertips.

"No way!" yelled the man. He tried to shoot Hisaki but she casually deflected the flame to the concrete floor below.

"Last chance," she warned. What did sensei do if a villain was uncooperative?

Hisaki found out too quickly when the man charged, swinging his flaming wand at her. The Firestarter frantically tried to dodge the weapon but it only managed to throw her off balance.

"I'll kill you before that happens!" the man roared. Hisaki felt herself rise from the floor and realized what the man was going to do: thinking that he couldn't burn her to death, he would simply send the girl plummeting to her death.

"No!" Hisaki screamed. On pure instinct she conjured fire and threw it at her attacker.

The man screamed, dropping Hisaki and his weapon as he tried to put out his burning clothes. Hisaki swiped at and grabbed the railing of the catwalk, hanging on for dear life. With her sudden weight the catwalk tilted; the man and the wand fell to the floor below.

"No!" Yomiko screamed. She entered just in time to see the thief hit the concrete floor with a sickening crunch. The man was still after that, but flames continued to devour his body. To Hisaki's surprise, the Paper attempted to put out the flames by smothering them with her own paper, but it was too much.

Afterwards, Hisaki was closely questioned by the Library about the events in the factory. They didn't seem to pleased that the man was dead. Finished, Hisaki found Yomiko sitting on a bench near the parking lot, staring at the ground.

"Yomiko-sensei?" Hisaki asked quietly. She sat down next to her teacher. "I know that you didn't want me to kill him, but..."

"It's okay, Hisaki-san. Everyone makes mistakes," Yomiko said. She tried to smile at her student, but failed.

"It wasn't a mistake," Hisaki said. "I...I actually tried to kill him. But it was out of self-defence - he was trying to kill me!" Yomiko sighed heavily.

"The Library is just hard on its Agents," Yomiko explained weakly. However, Hisaki could sense that something was wrong.

"Yomiko-sensei...why was it important to keep that man alive?" Yomiko hesitated, then explained.

"We needed to know how that man got the book, or who sold it to him. He might have also known about the wand - an interesting piece of technology. But when he died the book...it also burned with him. The objective of the mission was to get that book. We failed."

Two days later Yomiko was ordered to report to Joker. She was now standing in front of Joker's desk, looking extremely nervous.

Joker sighed and ran a hand through his hair. All that commotion, involving almost every level of security that London and Great Britain had to offer, had gone to waste. Who was going to pay for it? And on top of that the Library had gained nothing: the man was dead and the book burnt to nothing. Even the wand, which would have at least provided some technological research or a pretty penny on the black market, was damaged and inoperational, a combination of the fall and the fire.

He looked up at Yomiko. He couldn't really blame her; his memory reminded him that he had been the one to push The Paper into training the witch. If he hadn't bribed her or threatened to bring the Firestarter back to Tokyo Yomiko would have dug in her heels and protested all the way along.

Something had to be done.

"The Paper, we will be taking the Firestarter out of active service," Joker said.

Yomiko blinked. Had she heard that right? "Joker-san...why?"

"Too many mistakes were made during the last mission," Joker said. "We cannot afford to have something like that happen again." He ran a hand through his hair again. "I don't blame you, Yomiko. I really should have done something else. But her powers are destructive and she needs further training before she can be allowed to come on another mission."

Yomiko hung her head in shame. She had known that Hisaki would use her powers, given the opportunity, and those powers could work against the mission. The girl needed more control and discipline, but Yomiko had hoped that with a mission Hisaki might learn it on her own. Instead...she got this. To Yomiko this announcement made her feel like a failure.

"I hope you understand," Joker said.

"Ano, I do," Yomiko answered, lifting her head again. Joker handed her a letter.

"Please give that to the Firestarter," he said. "Also, we need you and Drake for a mission in two days; please meet in front of the Library on the afternoon."

"Ano, yes, Joker-san..."

Wednesday, December 29, 2004