Fwsshh.
Once more, the teleportation rune in the unoccupied and forgotten attic of an apartment building flashes quietly with bright blue light that simmers down immediately, revealing a lone young man standing on it, dressed in his usual black modern mage garb, who waits for the light to disappear completely and gives the rune a few moments before holding his hand out to it, resetting it so that he can reactivate its teleportation usage again when he returns to the departure rune later tonight.
Uesugi Fuutarou is maintaining total radio silence tonight, so his dad isn't providing him with eyes in the sky, so to speak. Given the commotion he'd made on the city news during his time last here, he needs to assume that whoever was in charge of planting the bomb at the drug cache across the street is keeping a close eye on this site.
But that's precisely why he's returned - to try to lure the perpetrator of the attempted bombing of the drug cache and the police officers who were investigating it at the time out. Who knows - maybe Shirazumi Rio himself - herself? - will come out.
Making his way down to street level first, instead of crossing the street to head into the drug cache site directly, he takes a bit of a detour and goes behind the building to scale it and perch himself on the roof to keep vigil for a little bit of time over the area. The streets seem a bit less busy than usual, probably due to the police scene that was established here because of the drug cache site last week, but there's still at least a bit of traffic flowing on the asphalt down below. Taking a deep, silent breath, Fuutarou wishes that he had the luxury of safety to take his time and enjoy a cigarette from a vantage point over the city's immediate vicinity like his...but such luxuries will have to wait for another time.
"A time and a place for everything"...was what he was told when he was young.
Still, as he stands with his Presence Concealment spell over himself active to mask his position to potential rival mages and common passersby alike, Fuutarou lets the city ambience set the tone for tonight. It's most likely due to his nighttime schedule and his self-established role as the so-called manager of this particular city, but he's slowly but surely grown to like the vibes that a downtown night gives off. The chilly winds...though those won't last long, with summer rapidly approaching...the rumbling of car engines down below, with the occasional horns or tire screeches, the lights of the streets and the skyscrapers, and, if the night permits, the heavy, toxic air of cigarette smoke. Life doesn't get much better than that...
...or maybe that's only because that's the best life can get, according to Uesugi Fuutarou.
Now that he has some time to kill while standing watch over the former drug cache site, which has by this point been cleared out by the police over the weekend, the young mage on duty tonight decides to ponder some more pressing...personal matters at hand.
Today is Tuesday...all of their midterms are pooled on Friday. Again through Ichika's phone, since her number's still the only one that he knows among the girls, he's given the quintuplets this week off from his lessons so that they can self-study, though how much they'll actually study is highly dependent on the quint: Ichika might study, if she's not already busy sleeping or going off to that part-time job of hers that he still doesn't know anything about, Nino most likely won't bother, Miku will definitely study, Yotsuba might not study, and Itsuki will also definitely study, even if he himself didn't tell her to.
Are the quintuplets ready for the midterms? Honestly, no. While their scores have undoubtedly improved thanks to his every day lessons, the rate of improvement still isn't quite to the point where he can be confident in everyone's abilities to pass them without worry, which is an opinion that hasn't changed ever since his last overnight cram session with the girls, unfortunately. Maybe this was only to be expected; there's only so much he could have expected out of five girls who all consistently fail four out of five subjects that they'll be tested on.
He seriously doubts that one more truly last-minute cram session would help them at all - in fact, it might even be a detriment, since he'll be making the girls study throughout the night as per the instructions he'd sent to Ichika to relay to her sisters. But at least he'll be able to use this as learning experience for himself as a tutor; at least, he'll know that if the girls all bomb their midterms completely here, he'll know not to resort to last-minute cram nights the day before the actual midterms.
And it's not just cram sessions like that that need rethinking. So far, Fuutarou has only ever taught the girls with conventional methods; sure, he's had to teach entire lessons to the girls wherever needed because they just didn't get what their teachers were saying in class, but most of the time he's been doing the classic "ask the tutor a question, and the tutor will answer" approach; he's been explaining how to answer whatever questions that the girls have had, but the girls naturally don't have a very good sense of retention that would allow them to remember to answer those same questions or questions like them on their own in the future. He has the feeling that he needs to be more hands-on from the start, and that his usual tutoring style just isn't going to cut it. Desperate times call for desperate measures...not that any of this is "desperate" at all, especially not when compared to what he's going to do tonight.
Still, being able to ponder the educational concerns of his quintuplet clients is, itself, a luxury...and perhaps the biggest luxury of them all, in a night full of contemplated luxuries by yours truly, Uesugi Fuutarou. There are certainly other more worrying things about them that he could be worrying about...
...like Ichika's Mystic Eyes.
After learning of the pair of Mystic Eyes that Nino and Miku possess, their tutor made a mental note to himself to study up on them, but due to his busy schedule and the relative lack of activity from their magic eyes, he didn't feel the urge to do his magical research right away. But Ichika was a different story, because not only is it obvious that she possesses a Mystic Eye or Eyes of her own, but she very clearly also knows how to use it and is fully aware of what its effects and abilities are. Ichika was the one who pushed him over the edge to take action and start his damn research, because he sure as hell doesn't know a whole lot about Mystic Eyes...again, partly because he's never had many opportunities to run into another mages at all.
The lack of magical resources certainly didn't help either, so he had to call up an old associate of his to see if he knew anything about them. And unfortunately, his buddy wasn't available at the time, mainly because he lives across the Pacific Ocean from him. Though, at this time of the day, this late at night, he probably can answer if he were to call right now. Then again, since he left a voice message on his phone, he should've called or at least emailed back his response if he knows about it.
Shrugging a little to himself, Fuutarou pulls out his phone to dial his old buddy's number. The smartwatch that was damaged during the explosion last week is still undergoing repairs, as his dad got wind of it and volunteered to help repair it as well whenever Fuutarou himself wasn't working on restoring it, so he's back to square one with his trusty Google Pixel 3 smartphone as his sidekick. Might as well venture another shot at calling his associate, since there's nothing much else to do other than wait for now.
His phone dials the number he's inputted. As the phone call is being directed internationally, Fuutarou isn't looking forward to the bill that this conversation will cause - but such is the price of knowledge that he can't find easily on his own. He could always consult with the boys up in London, but like the samples he's sent to them to analyze, they'll take their sweet-ass time with it...
The call doesn't connect, as Fuutarou half-expected. Seems like his friend's habit of rarely being able to pick up the phone continues to this day. Actually, is it appropriate to even call him a friend? He's still not sure if they even know each other all that well to warrant that. Oh great, now he's reminded of his run-in with Ichika and how he pissed her off by insisting that he wasn't here to make friends. And just as he thought he'd moved past that...
The young mage sighs annoyedly, in the midst of stowing his phone away, but to his silent surprise, it vibrates quickly with the receipt of a text message. This isn't a typical hour of the day - or rather, night - to be receiving texts from anybody. Maybe his dad? But Isanari never really has a reason to text him...well, Fuutarou did specifically tell him that he wouldn't need him as a communicator back at home for tonight's agenda, so texting would be the next sensible means of communications.
Even more surprise creeps up on his face in the form of his eyes widening somewhat when he glances back down at his phone screen, which shows a text message from the same old associate whom he attempted to contact just a moment ago. What the hell, this guy's never texted him anything before. What few times they'd ever been in remote contact, it's always been over the phone. How much are international texting rates again?
Mentally preparing himself to see a lot more digits on his phone and text bill the next time he sees it, Uesugi unlocks his phone to view the text message in full.
sorry I couldn't answer your calls, been busy lately and rn isn't the best time for calls but at least I can text. how ya doin buddy, been a while, what can i do for ya
A small smirk of sorts also encroaching onto his face, Fuutarou pulls up his phone closer to his face to begin texting back, though he makes sure to shift his eyes back and forth from his phone and the former drug cache site and the surrounding streets down below.
I'm doing fine. English is okay?
yeah np
Just so you know, texting like this is going to cost me a lot.
what you don't have like an international plan or smth
And why would you think I'd need an international plan?
ok then what about one of those messenger apps like whatsapp or kakao or line or smth
You're implying that I have any friends that I can use those things for.
touche. if it'll make u feel any better u can foot me the bill so u don't have to worry about it. it'll make up for not answering ur calls
That would be nice, thanks.
so what u need
Fuutarou takes another deep breath as he begins typing out his situation.
Right now I know a few classmates who I think have Mystic Eyes. I had an argument the other day with one of them and she ended up using it on me. I'm fine but the fact that she knows how to use it concerns me. I need you to tell me what you know about Mystic Eyes; any information will be useful.
mystic eyes huh. haven't had to deal with those in a while
I wouldn't think so either. Especially with what's going on with magic in the world these days.
yeah it's unfortunate but hey thats how it is
So what do you know about them? Or am I going to have to go ask someone else? I'd rather not consult with the guys up in London about this if possible.
oh yea dont talk to the clock tower boys about this, they're gonna go apeshit and hunt anyone down that they know have confirmed mystic eyes. first how much do u know about mystic eyes
Not much. All I know is that they're special eyes that give mages an extra layer of magical ability or power basically for free, or some kind of power that interferes with the outer world in some way.
well u basically have the gist of them down so theres that. but mystic eyes don't always give power for free
So they can come at a cost?
ye, it depends on a few things like type of eye, personal strength/magical talent of the owner, genetics, etc
What kind of cost are we talking about?
again it depends on the eye. thing is, mystic eyes even back when magic was still in okay shape were pretty rare, so while I can sit here and give you categories of mystic eye side effects, it's just a lot easier nowadays to individualize each case. in the case of your classmates, have you noticed any symptoms from them, or have they told you about them at all
One of them told me a bit about theirs. They said that their eyes feel like they burn sometimes.
burning huh. might be mystic eyes of flame, i think there was someone in the clock tower named yvette who had them but idk, could be something else
Another one told me she had similar symptoms. But like I mentioned before, one of them used her mystic eye on me.
what happened
I felt like I got frozen in place. I also get the feeling that something else was supposed to happen to me but my defensive spells managed to block it I think. I couldn't move for a few moments, but everything went back to normal after that.
sounds like mystic eyes of binding. one of the more common types, cripples a target just by making eye contact but that's all it can really do. if ur saying u felt like her eyes shouldve done something else
I'm sure of it. I don't know what its other effect could be, though.
what it is isnt relevant, its the fact that it can do something else that makes it probably not binding. maybe enchantment? but only vampires had those so probably not
Can you identify what type of Mystic Eye it is just by looking at them?
as in like what they look like?
Yeah.
no not really. just knowing symptoms isnt enough most of the time either; the best way to identify them is to see what they can do. like I said mystic eyes were already pretty rare, and now good luck even finding anyone with them. they can look like anything and have wildly differing effects so trying to categorize them by appearance is pointless. how the hell did u find three people with them lmfao
They're quintuplet girls. I'm tutoring them.
real shit? hell of a job bro
Yeah, you're telling me. They have midterms this Friday.
well gl with the tutoring. im assuming three of those quints have mystic eyes then
Yeah. Two of them don't know how to use theirs, or at least they haven't shown that they can to me. But one of them definitely does.
if two of em don't know how to use their eyes, im assuming they're not from a mage family?
No, they were just normal girls up until recently. Well, more specifically, they knew about their eyes when they developed them but they didn't know what they actually were until I showed up.
how long they have em for
Ever since middle school, so like two/three years?
bit of time but not too long then
Since these are identical quintuplets we're talking about, do all of them have Mystic Eyes if three of them already do?
its highly likely, ye. i'd go so far as to say that you should expect the other two to find out about theirs at some point too but thats just me
And would they all have the same Mystic Eyes? Or can they be different?
ill be honest ive never heard of quintuplets all having mystic eyes. i'm sure there've been like twins or smth before who've had mystic eyes but i don't have any examples that i know. typically all the case studies of mystic eyes we've had were on individual subjects. so i have no clue if all five of them are gonna have the same or have different ones. id love to study a case like that but i got my hands full over here
I'd rather you not use them like one of those fucked up magical experiments that I've heard about.
well i wasnt planning on doing anything fucked up so theres that. anything else u wanna know
Fuutarou, constantly scanning the streets in between texts, pitches his gaze down once more below him before returning to his phone.
I told two of the girls when they came to me asking about their eyes since they know I'm a mage that because they have Mystic Eyes, they're both mages. Is that true? Or was I feeding them fake news?
no ur right, mystic eye carriers are mages because of the whole concept of a mystic eye stems from the fact that they alone can change the world that they perceive, and that's not something a normal person can do. but remember that regular people can become mages too, and ur one of them
I know, thanks very much. But what I'm asking is, it's possible for normal people like the quints I'm tutoring to just wake up one day and find that they're mages, basically?
its rare but its happened yeah. i guess finding out that u have mystic eyes would be one of the easier-to-explain situations
What do you mean?
have u been teaching the girls magic
No, not really. I don't want to, I don't want to drag them into the magic world. I don't think they can handle it, they're just normal girls. But I have been telling them bits and pieces of magecraft-related stuff, like the stuff I already knew about Mystic Eyes since they know they have them, and they also know I'm a mage. So I'd feel bad for not telling them about something they'd obviously want to know more about.
ic. ive had to explain to people before when they find out that they have magic powers n shit, it can get pretty complicated sometimes. i just figured telling someone that their eyes have some kinda power is easier than tellin em hey u can do this this and this, u know
I'm not quite sure if I follow, but sure, okay.
goddamn it
Don't give me that. We haven't even talked in years, not like this anyway.
ok ill give u that but still. anything else u wanna ask
How dangerous can Mystic Eyes be? I told you that one of the girls used them on me. I'm fine for now, I don't think I suffered anything beyond being stunned for a few moments when it happened, but back when I first learned about them, I got the impression that they're very strong.
their power can range anywhere from pretty trivial to reality-bending. sometimes literally
I don't like the sound of that.
and u might have up to five of em to deal with. glglglgl
Don't remind me.
lmaooooooo gg no re
What does that even mean.
nm. but no rly be careful around them. u already know tho
Yeah, I do. Now that I know they're all potentially mages, I'm monitoring them closely.
and ur ok with them developing into mages on ur turf?
I don't mind them being in my territory; I just don't want them to go down the mage path, you know?
ye ye you told me before. but they can always go down that path on their own if they want to. u sure they won't like backstab u down the road or smth
I don't think they will...well, now I'm not so sure.
yea not with that one girl who could stun u. imagine if she also decided to kill u too
Well, if I could imagine that, I wouldn't be talking to you right now, would I?
eh reality is a crapshoot in this world anyway lol
What the hell does THAT mean?
maybe ull find out one day. not smth i can teach like i used to for u
Thanks a lot. You sure know how to leave a friend hanging.
says the kid who always says he's not here to make friends
Ouch, that comment hurts a bit more than it should. Fuutarou cracks open a little smile of amusement as he rapidly types back.
Alright, I see how it is.
hahahaha. hows the hospital work comin along
And just like that, the smile is gone.
I'm still working on it. It's like...80% done, I think. Rough estimate. But I'm running into a few problems, progress is stalled for now.
u dont need my help with that now do u
No, like I said, I'd like to do this one on my own.
not even that one doc?
No. This is all me.
well shit good for u. didnt think u'd make it this far
Eh, that doesn't mean much when I'm stuck for the time being.
keep at it, u'll figure it out
Thanks. I have to get going, I'll text you again if I feel like I need something. And don't forget to pay my bill for this, my bank account info's all the same.
what ur not gonna put it on ur tab or anything
I already have enough debts, I don't need another one to pay to you.
LOL
Rolling his eyes as he pockets his phone, the young mage peers back down at the streets. He's been texting for the past twenty minutes, almost, and still no sign of anything coming in or out of the site. Perhaps they've chalked this place up as a dead site, and so they won't use it again? No, it can't be that simple, whoever's responsible for this site has got to know that he knows about this place and is keeping an eye on it, which is exactly why Fuutarou himself wants to bait them out, even if it means putting himself in danger for doing so. In a situation like his where information is severely lacking, it's worth putting his life on the line just to figure out who's behind the establishment of the caches all over the city, or at least this one right before him.
But waiting for upwards of half an hour like this isn't getting anything done. This very well may be a situation where he has to take initiative to force the opposition's hand, though Fuutarou himself has to wonder whether or not it's just him getting impatient. He likes to think that he's a pretty patient guy, as he remembers the long night hours he's spent keeping vigil atop the city skyscrapers, but that doesn't make him immune to doing the opposite.
More than impatience, though, indecision is a more capital sin, and acting on that, Fuutarou mentally commits to investigating the scene in person again. Rechecking his Presence Concealment to make sure that it's still active, the young mage vaults over the edge of the apartment rooftop and lands on the street below, cushioning the impact with a shock-absorbing rune that sprouts beneath his feet just before he lands, and he strides across the street with relative ease thanks to the lack of traffic, hoping that there won't be another policeman down here who'll try to cockblock him again.
To his silent relief, there is no policeman safeguarding the former drug cache site - there is a distinct lack of human presence at all, for that matter, in the entire building, which, understandably, has been put on lockdown and has not been cleared to be reoccupied yet. Fuutarou wades his way past the KEEP OUT police tape and descends to the basement, where there is also a distinct lack of drugs or boxes or cases or any sign of the former cache.
Just in case he's missing anything about this now-empty basement, Fuutarou steps inside, off the stairs, and slowly patrols around, checking the floor, the walls, the cracks, everything that could be of any shred of interest to him. His past experiences in dealing with rival mages have taught him valuable lessons in how to fight them; perhaps one of the more basic lessons he's learned is to never leave a detail overlooked. This oftentimes means doing quite mundane and boring things like staring at a wall like this for a few moments at a time each, but it do be like that sometimes.
Scouring the basement like this for another half an hour, Fuutarou fails to find anything of interest. This room is as boring and empty as they come - nothing about it seems off. No drugs, no hidden floorboards or panels leading to secret, smaller stashes that the police didn't manage to catch, no hidden runes or planted spells or explosives to be found. The high school mage begins to wonder if it were a mistake to even come here at all; maybe the culprits really did abandon this site because they'd rather not have to deal with the police? If it were a regular drug gang like the one Nino was associated with a month ago, then perhaps so. But if they're led by another possible mage, like Rio for instance, wouldn't they be a bit more bold about it? Unless their leader is also acting way more cautiously than normal...
He puts his hands in his pockets, slowly and deliberately, still facing the far wall in front of him. It's probably time to head back, since there's nothing of value to be gained here.
"Came to see what someone was doing in your little hiding spot, huh?" he says suddenly, raising his gaze up at the wall in front of him.
Behind Fuutarou, whose back faces the bottom of the stairs, stands a tall man, noticeably taller than the young mage. He sports a bright red leather jacket, by far his most distinctive physical feature, a purple shirt with almost an obnoxiously large v-neck, black heavy-duty jeans, and leather boots. His other distinct physical feature is his stereotypical shade of bright blonde hair that is cut neatly to reach the base of his neck but no further.
"Huh...I was wondering who'd be fucking dumb enough to come back here. Turns out it wasn't one of the smooth-brained pieces of trash I hired around the city..." the tall blonde man scoffs condescendingly. "...and instead, it's a mage. Does that make you dumber than the sad excuse for the trash that this city calls 'gangsters', or what?"
"I like to be confident about my intelligence, but at least I have the awareness to know that boasting about it to someone like you is fucking pointless."
"Oh ho! Sharp with that tongue of yours and not dumb, at the very least. I like you, kid."
Fuutarou's ears twitch slightly at the subtle sound of a blade of some sort being unsheathed.
"So I'll take my sweet time eating every last bit of you."
Sensing a sharp accentuation of magic aggregation planted right behind where his left kidney should be, Fuutarou sidesteps just in time before the small rune activates - and does nothing. However, more such runes threaten Fuutarou's space, and sidestepping again, he swiftly turns and flicks a playing card in the direction of the tall blonde man. The card flies true, straight for the man's face, and only his own reactions save him from catching Fuutarou's three of diamonds with his eye, which thus causes the card to stab itself into the wall behind him on the stairs.
"And you must be the guy who killed Ebata," Fuutarou snarls lightly, quickly adjusting his cap by pushing up the visor a little. His opponent, sporting a psychotic, nasty little grin, lowers his seven-inch knife.
"Ebata? Oh, you must mean that butler in front of the Pentagon. So you are hired to keep those girls safe, now, aren't you? I was wondering if the mage I sensed in this area and the guy who saved those girls a month ago were the same person. By chance, you wouldn't also happen to be the same guy who's been takin' out some of the idiots I've been sending around the city, now, are you?"
"Of course not, I'm just a passing mage who happened upon this place because I heard there was some kind of drug cache here. Drugs are all the rage these days in this city apparently, didn't you know?" Fuutarou chuckles dryly.
"'Passing mage' my ass, bitch, you're the one who's staked this city out, I know it. I can fucking smell you all over this goddamn city," the man spits viciously.
"Your name wouldn't happen to be Shirazumi Rio, now, would it?"
"It is, but why the hell did you just ignore what I just said?!"
"Here's a better question, tell me exactly why I should have to put up with you sounding like a low-budget slasher movie villain."
The surprised look on Rio again twists itself into a nefarious, creepy grin.
"Oh, I see, you're a kid of action. I like that too - then I'll give ya what'cha wa - "
Fuutarou attacks first before Shirazumi Rio can even finish his thought, tossing out another playing card that flies straight for his adversary. Now knowing Fuutarou's primary means of offense, however, Rio swiftly snaps his right arm up, shanking his knife through the air and cutting the card cleanly in half, but there are more where the card came from, and Rio swings his knife in multiple directions to eliminate the follow-up cards that he chucks at his enemy.
Letting out a frenzied shriek, Rio, taking advantage of the pause in Fuutarou's playing card ammo, leaps terrifically at him with his knife-wielding arm stretched back for a stab aimed for Fuutarou's head, but the high school mage stands his ground by planting his feet firmly, focusing mana into his right arm, and keeping his eye on his enemy's weapon so that when he swings, Fuutarou is able to read its movement and lean forward to avoid the strike and counterattack with a clean right hook that pops Rio in the side, just underneath his left arm. The strength Fuutarou puts behind his punch is enough to send Rio crashing into the wall to his left, but as soon as he crumples against the wall, Rio lands on his feet like a cat and pounces at him again, though this time with a notably more serious expression on his face.
A flurry of knife swings is launched at Fuutarou, who cannot counterattack this time because Rio starts swinging even before he gets within striking range so that Fuutarou can't retaliate, so the young mage is compelled to duck, sidestep, backstep, and dodge the blows to avoid getting hit. Despite being in this disadvantaged position, however, Fuutarou doesn't mind it too much; as he focuses on his own defense, he studies his enemy's attack patterns, habits, and tendencies: he uses a Hammer grip for his stainless steel knife, and fitting to his unhinged and somewhat psychopathic personality, Rio mainly uses huge, powerful swings with randomized directions and strike locations to attack. An ordinary knife user must either commit to speed or strength to maintain combat effectiveness, in the form of either small or light swings or thrusts that trade power for controllability and stamina conservation or heavy strikes or stabs that are few in number and must be aimed but devastating when successfully landed. Rio is breaking this convention by combining both speed and power, so every one of his knife swings is potentially deadly if they connect, but his reckless abandon means that his attacks are not quite as accurate as he would like them to be, giving Fuutarou ample space and opportunity to dodge them. He just cannot find the time or space to counterattack, however, because of Rio's sheer speed.
But just as much as Fuutarou is gaining information about his enemy, so too is Rio: his swings get less frequent, but they still maintain their power as he slowly adapts to his opponent by trading his speed for his much needed accuracy. He also begins to toss in a few feints randomly in an effort to throw Fuutarou off his defense, which works the first time Rio tries it, but Fuutarou blocks his attempt to capitalize on his success with a parry as the back of his bare left hand meets the knife edge and releases its stored mana with perfect timing to nullify the damaging momentum.
After one particularly heavy swing, Rio attempts to break this stalemate of sorts by charging with his right shoulder to assault Fuutarou directly with his whole body to use his superior mass to his advantage and perhaps knock the young high schooler down to the ground. But this proves to be a mistake, because with his knife tucked away due to the way his body is positioned relative to the young mage, Fuutarou can counterattack freely without worry about a follow-up knife strike - and while Rio's knife-handling skills are certainly formidable, they can't be put to use if he can't have his knife in position to use them. As Rio goes crashing into Fuutarou, the latter simply bends his knees, leans his own body slightly forward, and puts both of his hands against the incoming Rio's shoulder and diverts his momentum, causing Rio to dive straight to the ground behind Fuutarou instead.
Wary of how Rio fights when he's down, Fuutarou wisely backs off instead of descending upon his downed opponent and opts to toss another playing card at him. He doesn't have time to aim it to hit a critical area like the neck, eye, or elbow, as Rio might have enough time to recover and defend himself even on the ground, so Fuutarou has to launch his shot right away, which strikes Rio rather harmlessly on the back of his wide shoulder. Snarling viciously, Rio turns around and gets back up to his feet, flicking off the annoying card stuck in the back of his shoulder, before launching himself at Fuutarou again.
This time, however...
"Threefold Blossom, activate!"
To Rio's surprise, a six-inch blade tracks him back and dives straight for his face, and he barely stops it with the flat side of his own weapon. Fuutarou swiftly slides his knife point off and jabs at Rio repeatedly with weak but swift movements, to which Rio is forced to respond with defensive knife motions of his own. The constant bumps of steel on steel ricochet off the confined walls of the building's basement, dully filling the air with blunt impacts rather than the movie-cliched high-pitched clangs, but Fuutarou does not hold the offensive for long as Rio's superior skills with the knife begin to bleed through: deliberately stepping forward into one of Fuutarou's jabs, Rio lets the opposing knife blade enter the front of his left shoulder this time, knowing that his enemy isn't putting anywhere near as much strength as he needs to make his attack lethal in any way, in order to push his own knife blade in the direction of the young mage's face.
Reacting quickly, Fuutarou pushes back with his feet to dodge the stab and pulls out his knife from Rio's shoulder in the process before landing on the floor behind him and jumping back up to his feet. But he barely manages to get back up before Rio is on top of him again, resuming his usual flurry of powerful swings, this time seemingly even more frenzied than before now that Fuutarou has been able to draw blood from him. Fuutarou intentionally dives to his right all of a sudden in the middle of Rio's rapid attacks and performs a perfect combat roll to smoothly transition back up to his feet, which buys him time to safely readjust his own knife grip to a reverse edge-out grip to allow him to defend against Rio's moves more efficiently.
Rio continues to track him, and once again the two knives meet threateningly, slicing off each other repeatedly as Rio attacks and Fuutarou defends. With a more suitable defensive grip, however, Fuutarou holds his ground much more effectively, and soon, Rio's swings slowly begin to look more and more sluggish and out of form. Even for a mage with magically reinforced stamina, one can only last for so long, and this is certainly the case for Shirazumi Rio, who finally makes an unforced error of lunging for a desperation swing aimed for the top of the high schooler's head, which Fuutarou once again sidesteps to his left and punishes by plunging his knife square into the back of Rio's right side. To remove the knife from his opponent's body, Fuutarou tugs hard and pulls his hand inwards, ripping the blade out as Rio's body tumbles forward, slightly skewed in direction because of Fuutarou's knife pull.
Fuutarou doesn't let up just because he's finally managed to land a successful hit on his opponent: tossing his knife to his left hand, he digs his right hand back into his storage rune that contains his pack of playing cards and, taking the time to aim this time, flicks three more cards in total at his enemy. With both power and accuracy put into them, the cards fly true, aimed for Rio's head and throat, and Rio is forced to block them with his arms if he doesn't want to die right here and now. The cards produce chunky thuds upon impacts, much chunkier than one would expect out of ordinary playing cards, and Rio hisses with pain upon feeling the cards sink into his skin like shark teeth.
"Why are you setting up drug caches like this one all around the city? And why this one specifically, in the middle of the city?" Fuutarou asks in a calm voice, chilling enough to freeze the blood in an ordinary human being as he takes a few foreboding but wary steps towards his injured opponent.
Rio gives a short laugh as he tears the cards out of his arm that is now rendered useless for combat, as the cards have struck deep enough to sever important tendons. "And why exactly do you think I'll answer that for you? You didn't even give me a chance to talk to you now, did you?"
"Because there's a difference between me talking and you talking. I'm talking when I've got forty-five more cards that'll turn you into a fucking human porcupine, while you talk to make yourself sound like a fucking idiot. Fitting for someone who hires gangsters around the city and calls them dumb trash."
Whistling tauntingly, Rio slowly gets back up to his own feet. "Listen to you talk shit, kid. Think you're so fuckin' smart for tryin'a use my own words against me? 'Cause that ain't how it fucking works."
It's Fuutarou's turn to crack a grin of amusement. "Oooh, hit a nerve there, did I? Add that to the list of nerves I hit in your arm, too. Now fucking answer me, you piece of shit."
"I ain't answerin' shit!"
Plunging his hand into the innards of his red leather jacket, Rio pulls out what looks suspiciously like some sort of grenade. As soon as this registers in his head, Fuutarou quickdraws another playing card and snaps it at Rio, but in his haste, he misses a clean hit on the wrist, so the card merely gives the side of the wrist a deep cut, which is not enough to force Rio to release his secret weapon of sorts. And so seeing his attempt to thwart Rio fail, Fuutarou instead resorts to Plan B: he pivots and immediately dashes for the stairs as Rio is throwing it down on the ground before him. As the young mage escapes manually up the stairs, he hears a sharp hisssss! stalking him up the stairs, followed by another pair of heavy footsteps coming after him like those in a horror movie, to reuse the analogy from earlier.
The young mage bursts back out onto the street outside the building. It's only ten o'clock at night, but the lingering presence of the former crime scene here means that there is no vehicular traffic in this block, and there probably isn't any foot traffic here either. Mages shouldn't be fighting out in the open like this in case of unwanted witnesses, but with how much of a psychopath Rio seems to be, Fuutarou doubts that they'll merely go their separate ways just because they aren't fighting in a secluded area. In fact, if Rio's the one responsible for the kidnappings recently, then a fight like this is exactly what he wants. Either that, or at the very least, he doesn't give a damn being seen.
Sure enough, Shirazumi Rio flies out of the building entrance after Fuutarou, his red leather jacket fluttering violently in his wake, and he once more assaults the high school mage violently with another flurry of strikes that are reinvigorated by madness and high-pitched and shrill giggles and shrieks. Their short blades meet again, and their sharp edges make contact in the cool, crisp night air of the city. But with much more room to work with, in stark contrast to the confined basement from before, both parties are able to maneuver much more aggressively about each other: Rio adds lunging strikes to his repertoire of attacks, bouncing off cars, streetlights, and even the sides of adjacent buildings as he puts his best Claw impression on display.
But Fuutarou, also with the advantage of space to maneuver, puts focus into his feet and performs a short-distance flash-step to avoid Rio's crazed lunges every time he dives for him, oftentimes counterattacking again with more playing cards, but Rio dodges those and leaves the thrown cards lodged into the sides of the buildings and cars he dives behind for cover. Seeing that Fuutarou's defensive is too sturdy for him to break, even with his superior strength, Rio briefly concedes their close-quarter engagements and peeks out from behind the car that Fuutarou has lightly peppered with cards that are jammed into the glass and sheet metal alike.
"Seventh night, blood rite! Now is the time for murder, for chaos! Come forth - Consumption!"
A double-layered red rune appears in front of Rio. Fuutarou, standing out in the middle of the street with his backhanded knife, senses the return of the magical spikes of energy on his profile, but this time there is an alarming increase in their sheer number, as though he's about to be peppered in remote knife strikes, and so he dives away again, but Rio has prepared for an evasive maneuver on his opponent's part and has placed more knife traps in every direction of Fuutarou so that no matter where he dives, he'll likely head straight into another one. And such is the case - when Fuutarou rolls back up to his feet, an invisible knife trap is lying in wait for him to pass near it.
"Gotcha!" Rio yells gleefully, plunging his knife into the rune, which causes it to shatter like glass.
The rune that Fuutarou runs into disappears suddenly, but it will soon be replaced by an invisible blade that will stab its target, in this case Uesugi Fuutarou, right in the side of the neck.
PING!
...was the plan, anyway. Fuutarou foils it instantly with a last-second Parry with the back of his knife hand, effectively nullifying the remote knife strike. However, it isn't perfect - the back of his right hand is split open, and while luckily no tendons or cartilage of Fuutarou's own were severed, the cut is still rather deep and is bleeding moderately.
"The fuck, man, you can even block those? What kinda freak are you?" Rio laughs sarcastically over to his rival mage.
"The same kind as you. Together, we're a goddamn freakshow, just like what you're trying to turn this city into!"
Hucking another playing card at Rio, Fuutarou puts as much power and accuracy behind this throw as he can, but this time Rio doesn't attempt to dodge it; he simply clamps his teeth down on it instead to stop it. This isn't without its own consequences, either: the sheer magic energy that Fuutarou puts into the card to turn it into a lethal weapon is absorbed by Rio's face itself, and thus his gums, teeth, and his face around his mouth briefly look like they're in front of a powerful wind blower for a moment. Besides looking a little funny, Rio also makes the card stab into the corners of his mouth by biting down on it, so now the corners of his mouth begin to bleed as he spits the card out and, with a deafening, hysterical burst of laughter, reaches down to the bottom of the car in front of him and, with a brief display of superhuman strength, flips the car in Fuutarou's direction.
The car crashes dramatically behind Fuutarou, as Rio's overthrown it by a good bit, but as the red jacket-toting, bloodthirsty mage leaps yet again at his opponent, Fuutarou hears a distinct scream of a girl behind him, and to his alarm, it sounds familiar.
The high school mage backs up to avoid Rio's landing zone and turns to run in the direction of the scream, knowing that Rio has also heard the scream and will interpret his own retreat as a sign that he intends to prioritize the safety of whoever's back there. In so doing, he sees the source of the scream who's been forced to dive out of the thrown car's way: a familiar classmate with long, peachy-red hair and an ahoge he can recognize from the other side of the city.
Nakano Itsuki.
Sure enough, Rio falls for the bait, and Fuutarou brakes hard, turns, and sinks all of the knuckles in his right fist deep into the top half of Rio's face. Rio, who was again mid-pounce, cannot react quick enough to Fuutarou's ploy and is stopped dead in his tracks (not literally, though) and comically falls flat on his chest on the ground as Fuutarou safely doubles back down the sidewalk and flash-steps in front of Itsuki to secure her.
Gazing down at the incredibly frightened quintuplet with her school bag at her side, Uesugi Fuutarou scowls deeply down at her, still with his own knife gripped tightly in hand.
"What the hell are you doing here?" he growls at her lightly teary eyes, wide open with surprise and shock.
Itsuki doesn't have a chance to answer him, though, as Fuutarou hears the cackling voice cry out again somewhere behind him,
"CONSUME!"
Another spike of magical energy begins to form, ready to detonate in only a moment. Because Fuutarou's appeared directly before Itsuki, Rio's ranged magic has them both lined up in a collateral shot. And from his earlier experiences of dealing with it, Fuutarou knows that its range of effect is long enough to hit both him and Itsuki. So he has to either Parry this attack successfully with the little bit of time he has to react to it, or dive forward and tackle Itsuki out of the way.
Either way, blood flies before Itsuki's stunned blue eyes.