I awoke pretty early that morning. Not because I wanted to, but my internal clock was messed up. I noticed one thing... Big Nep had decided to sleep with me. Her arms were tucked around me in a tight bear hug. If I moved, she would wake up.
I tried to go back to sleep. But I couldn't. Well, my troubles were solved when Big Nep rose from her sleep. She squeezed me. "Nnn... G'morning, Kenji." she greeted sleepily. I smiled back. Big Nep got off of me after a bit to feed herself pudding.
I walked over to the bookshelf. It was Histoire's collection, but she didn't mind if people looked through it. "Kenji, you don't have to ask me time and time again for bookshelf permissions. I'm just happy that you're into reading. As long as you return the books you borrow, you don't have to ask me." she had told me.
I sifted through the books. La Delphinus: The History of Fire Magic, SEGA: The Rise of Planeptune. There were a ton of books here. Then I spotted the copy of THE WORLD: The Art of Time Divination and Control. What? This book is outright forbidden in most of the world. I picked it up and looked for spies. This felt illegal. But I was... quite curious. I sat down and flipped open the book. It was quite old.
Time Divination is one of the most difficult forms of magic to master. And it is quite dangerous. When a user manipulates the flow of time, they utterly break the laws of physics. The key to stopping time is patience. In order for the mind to grasp how to stop, slow or hasten the flow of time, one must experience it.
Well, that's a bummer. Because there is no person alive in Gamindustri who has time manipulation skills. Nevertheless, I continued reading.
"Kenji, what are you reading?" I jumped when I heard Noire's voice. She snatched the book away. "Where did you get this? This book is illegal here." she questioned. "You have a ton of explaining to do. So for your safety, start talking."
Before I could explain myself, Histoire had flown in and taken the book from Noire. "For your information, that book is my property." Histoire told Noire in a posh British accent. "Aren't you familiar with the Clause of 2019 for the Protection of Literature, passed by Nepgear and your sister?" Noire sighed. "Of course I do." she replied.
I decided to leave, because I preferred to be on speaking terms with Noire. "Not so fast." the CPU told me, grabbing me by my collar. "You do realize time divination has been banned for over 2 decades, right? I looked over. "Of course."
"If you use it, it's a 1st degree felony. Using forbidden magic lands you a life sentence."
"Yeah."
"So I'm going to have Histoire lock it in her cupboard."
"You do that."
"You can't touch it."
"Okay."
Noire gave me a look, as if she expected me to argue with her. But it was Histoire who had the debate with her.
Histoire told Noire that the book falls under the Protection clause. Noire told Histore that the book contained illegal divination and that it needed to be hidden. "For your information," she told Noire, "I read through it a while ago. You don't become a time wizard by yourself. You have to experience time alteration to use it properly. And the last time a time wizard existed is before Neptune came into power."
Noire gave up and stormed off. Uni came into the room and watched her sister leave. "What was that about?" she asked. Histoire showed her the book. "Noire disagrees with me that this is under the Protection clause." she huffed. Uni looked at it. "I haven't seen this book in ages. The last time I saw it was the first time I visited."
Then of course, something bad happened. A ball flew through a nearby window. "Blimey! What was that?!" yelped Uni. I picked up the ball. On it was a note that read:
hey I kidnapped your sister lol
I looked at the note. I was horrified and... confused. I looked out the window. I saw CFW Magic floating there. "Hey, which sister did you mean?" I called. I signalled to Uni to take Magic down.
Magic turned to look at me. "What?" she asked.
"I don't know which sister you kidnapped!"
"Are you dense? I captured Nepgear!"
"I don't believe you!"
"Neptune lives in there, right?"
"Yeah."
And she has a sister named Nepgear, right?"
"Of course."
"And I threw a rock through the window saying 'I captured your sister,' and it was meant for Neptune, so Nepgear should be who I captured, right?"
That makes perfect sense."
"So I captured Nepgear."
"You might have mistaken her for Nepgya."
"LISTEN HERE YOU LITTLE-"
CFW Magic was shot out of the sky. She fell and crashed I to the pavement below. I laughed at her as I used my glider to fly down the side of the building. "You moron! You fell for the oldest trick in the book!" I teased, as I landed.
When I looked up, CFW Magic was gone.
What? I looked around. I turned and suddenly knives materialized out of thin air. I held up my arms. A few of the knives bounced off my metallic arm, but a couple embedded into my skin before I could deflect them. Ouch.
I stopped to pull the knives out of my skin. They had hit me in non vital spots, but the wounds were now bleeding profusely. I growled as I bandaged myself up. Just as I turned around, I was struck by an invisible force and I was slammed through the glass window of one of the shops.
There was screaming as people clambered away to safety. I finished bandaging myself up and stood up. I employed a magical movement detection barrier about 5 meters in radius around me.
The barrier whistled. More knives! I ducked to dodge them. I didn't know what was attacking me, but whoever it is can somehow strike at inhuman speeds and remain undetected.
Incendiary device detected. A couple pipe bombs flew through the window. Before I could dive out of the way, the bombs went off, blanketing me in fire as I was slammed against the back wall. Searing pain wracked my body as I was engulfed.
Suddenly, the pain ceased. The flames were... responding to my will? I cast my hand into the fire. It turned into a blade, casting the white hot material from what was the metal counter into a fiery hot blade...
Fire-slug has been forged.
I burst out of the burning building. I remembered studying fire magic.
Flames of crimson and brimstone, guide me to my foe!
The flames jettisoned into the endless sky, beginning to take a form. Uni froze and watched. It turned into a fiery dragon, soaring through the air. It reared and swallowed an invisible foe and imploded. The invisible foe plummeted to the ground, slamming into the concrete below.
I ran over to the crater. There lie a strange fellow. With the head and wings of a dragon, but the body shape of a human, it was quite an odd sight.
I picked up the draconian. He growled, his voice gravelly and deep, like Diavolo's English dub voice. "To whom do I owe the pleasure to?" he growled slyly. He vanished. I did a double take. Hevanished.Then I heard a scream. I turned around and my heart sank. Ram was crumpled onto the floor, her shoulder coated in blood. I almost flew over to her. This was the draconian human hybrid's doing. He bit her. I ripped up my shirt and bandaged her up on the spot. Her left wing was in bad shape, so she could not fly right now. "Kenji… CFW Magic got... away…" began Blanc, who had transformed. She saw Ram and zipped over. "What the hell happened?"
I looked over at her. "It's best if we get her looked at. It's pretty bad." I replied. "She got bitten. I suspect a dislocated shoulder." Blanc followed me as I walked into HQ and went into the elevator. When I got up to the correct floor, I ran into a couple of coworkers. Blanc called out. "Compa! Quick! She's hurt."
The nurse ran over and scooped up Ram. "She's not the only one. IF got beat up pretty bad." As the nurse said this, she noticed my burns and wounds. Before she could say anything, Blanc noticed. "You look like hell, Kenji." She told me. Compa was beside herself. "Really? It's a miracle he's stillconscious,let alone still walking around! I'm taking him to the couch."
"The couch is already occupied. Compa."
"By whom? I was never aware that the couch was occupied!"
I sighed. "I'm alright for now, Compa. I'll lie down after I check up on everyone." The nurse sighed. "Well, if you pass out, it's not my fault." I put on one of my emergency shirts and walked into the living room. IF was sitting on the couch. She had a black eye and a bloody nose. I didn't have time to ask IF anything because I suddenly felt a sharp prick on my neck. I reached back and pulled out a tranquilizer dart. I looked back and saw Nepgear holding the launcher and shrugging. "Sorry, bro." I conked out on the spot.
