Fortunately, Luna quickly realised they were fairly close to where she was staying, so they started making their way to the hotel, sticking to crowds, looking out for anyone following them or any signs that a people clearing field was being activated.

When they arrived at the hotel, Luna led them up to the room that she and Wendy were sharing. She opened the door to a simple room with beige wallpapers that had an intricate floral design. Two single beds sat in the middle of the room, with clothes thrown across them and small suitcases next to them. A door was on the opposite side of the room for the beds that most likely led to the bathroom.

However, between the beds and the door was a large space that was currently being occupied by Wendy who was lying on a circle made of chalk. There was something drawn in the circle, but Wendy covered most of it. Small, white balls of light hovered around Wendy's chest as she kept her eyes closed. Ezra knelt next to her, with his hands in the circle

Touma and Mikoto saw this and sighed heavily, letting their heads drop as they recognised what they were doing.

"Can we PLEASE, just have ONE holiday where there are no damned sorcerers or magic or any of this crap?!" Mikoto asked, her voice slowly rising, and she started pulling her hair, as her frustration became evident.

"Sorcerers? Magic? What are you talking about, Mikoto?" Uiharu asked from behind her, clearly confused.

Saten, on the other hand was brimming with excitement.

"You mean I was right? That rumour was true?"

Touma and Mikoto froze.

"Ehm, well you see…" Touma started and looked at Mikoto who sighed.

"I guess we can't really hide it now, can we. Yes, magic is real. However, don't ask us to explain it, because one, we don't have time, and two, we don't fully understand it ourselves." Mikoto explained.

"Right, I'll call my dad and find out where they are," Touma said taking his phone from his pocket. "Mikoto, you start heading out, I'll call you when I know where you need to go."

"There's no need," Ezra interrupted. "He seems to be after espers, so he has no reason to go after your parents."

"I'd still like to know they're safe," Touma argued.

"Then make sure to stay in contact with them but try not to get them worried. The last thing we need is for them to be asking random people in the street if they've seen you."

"Will do."

Touma went into the hallway to call his parents and Mikoto followed him to make sure nothing happened, leaving Saten and Uiharu with the siblings.

"So, what exactly is he doing?" Saten asked, looking at Ezra.

"It's a healing spell, it'll close that wound on her chest, thankfully it wasn't any more severe than that," Luna explained, watching on.

"Wow, magic's amazing. Do you think I could use it?" Saten asked, hopefully.

"Not a chance. Espers and magic don't mix. If you tried to use it, you'd destroy your body from the inside."

"Why's that?"

"It's complicated. All you have to know right now, is that they don't usually mix very well."

As the spell finished closing Wendy's wound, Touma and Mikoto walked back into the room.

"So, do we have any more information on who that guy was?" Mikoto asked.

"We do, however, I'm not sure I believe it," Luna said.

"That's the information we got, so we'll have to work with it," Wendy spoke up, getting to her feet.

"But why would they want an esper? It makes no sense."

"Hey guys? Mind filling us in?" Touma asked.

"Right, the man's name is Ezio Scavo. A sorcerer from a town at the very south of Italy called Calabria," Wendy explained.

"I'm thinking he goes around with a white and red cloak and hangs about with an inventor called Leonardo," Luna chimed in.

"Stop it," Ezra warned.

"Then comes the interesting part. He has absolutely no connection to the Roman Catholic Church," Wendy continued, ignoring her siblings.

"Then, what? He's part of another church that has operations in Italy?" Mikoto asked.

Wendy shook her head.

"Nope. He's not connected to any religion at all. In fact, there's no evidence that he's even part of any sorcerer organisation," Wendy explained.

"Then how did he learn magic and become a sorcerer?"

"That, we don't know I'm afraid. All we know is that he's a sorcerer from Calabria and currently under the employ of a man named Giovanni Marino. Some big shot in the Sicilian Mafia," Wendy revealed.

"What the hell is a Mafia boss wanting from an Academy City esper?" Mikoto shot up, surprised. For someone like that to target an Academy City student was paramount to suicide. What could they possibly be thinking? Were they that stupid or was there someone behind the scenes that had given them the confidence that they could get away with this?

"That question's already on the list, please pick another one," Luna replied sarcastically.

"Do we at least know what kind of magic he uses?" Mikoto asked.

"No, he didn't use any when we fought earlier." Wendy said.

"How do we know he's a sorcerer, then?"

"That's the information we were given, and I have no reason to doubt it."

"Information from Academy City's Anti-Skill? Sorry, but I'm not sure how they'd get information on someone from the Sicilian Mafia."

"Mum and Dad aren't exactly typical Anti-skill, you know. They have plenty of ways for getting information from outside of Academy City."

"Like?"

"Hell if I know. They like to keep their cards close to their chests."

"So, we have no proof that what their saying is correct?"

"Well, there's also what looked like a people-clearing field when he took Saten," Luna suggested. "But then again, what's the phrase? 'There's more than one way to skin a womp rat?'"

"Cat, Luna. It's 'more than one way to skin a cat.' You've just been watching too many movies again," Ezra said.

"Why would you skin a cat? Cats are awesome. What do you have against them, Ez?"

"Cats are satanic beings whose only objective in life is to kill or blind people. There's nothing 'awesome' about them."

"Guys, focus. Mafia guy. Trying to kidnap espers. Remember?" Wendy interrupted.

"Of course we remember, Wen. We're not stupid," Luna defended.

"Well, that's debatable," she muttered.

The three siblings looked as if they were about to start fighting again, so Touma stepped in between them.

"Guys, enough. We need to verify the information we've got, and we need to figure out why these people are after us."

"We don't need to figure out 'why'. Knowing who they are is enough for now. As for the information, I trust it 100 percent," Wendy answered.

"I trust it as well," Ezra spoke up. "Mum and Dad are always careful with the information they give us, especially on enemies. They make sure to verify it before they give us it."

Mikoto sighed. She knew their mother, and she knew how hard working she was. She had put a lot of effort into helping her students, so she figured she'd put even more into keeping her children safe.

"Fine. We'll use that information, but if any of it is wrong, we have to retreat and regroup."

"That sounds fair to me," Ezra agreed.

"Ehm, there's no 'we' here. Their targeting espers, so you espers will be staying here. I'll put up some defences, so you should be safe here," Wendy was already drawing a magic circle on one of the walls using the chalk they had used for the magic circle earlier.

"Meanwhile, the three of us will come up with a plan and take this guy down?" asked Luna.

"The two of us," Wendy corrected, gesturing to herself and Ezra. "You're an esper too, Luna, so you'll be staying here as well."

"Yeah, that's not happening. There's no way I'm missing out on this one."

"Neither am I," Mikoto interrupted. "In case you forgot, I'm a level 5. I can be pretty handy in a fight."

"And there's no way we're going to sit still and let others protect us," continued Saten.

Looking around the room, Touma could see that none of the espers were going to back down any time soon, and Wendy seemed to see it as well because she caved.

"Fine, we've not got the time to argue about this."

The group lay out a map across one of the beds and started to come up with a plan to find and beat this guy as quickly as possible so they could all return to their holidays.

It was ten o'clock and Touma was out in the streets, on his own looking out for his would-be kidnapper. The sky was clear, giving him a full view of the moon and the stars above. He wandered around the edges of the festival, meaning less people filled the streets, but the music was still loud and there were still performances all around him.

"You know, you shouldn't be so nervous. It's not like this is your first time running away from someone dangerous," his girlfriend said through the small Bluetooth earphone in his right ear that was connected, wirelessly, to his phone. They had bought them relatively cheaply so it would be a bit easier to communicate when on the run.

"Yeah, that doesn't help Biri Biri."

"Oh, come on. If you can run away from me, shooting lightning at you, this guy'll be a piece of cake."

"That's provided I don't get shot in the back or anything."

"That's why I'm here. I can't let people attack my boyfriend, that's my job," Mikoto joked, at least Touma hoped it was a joke.

Mikoto had scaled one of the taller buildings around them, using her magnetism on the metal pipes to pull herself to the top and using a pair of binoculars to give herself a detailed view of the area. The building was one of a row of brick buildings running parallel to the street, with small gaps separating each one.

The pair weren't looking for the man named Ezio, although, if they found him, that would be good too, but to let him find them.

"Why is it that we're always the bait? Every time, no matter who we're with. Whether it's Stiyl, Tsuchimikado, or a group of siblings we just met," Touma complained.

"It's almost as if sorcerers are untrustworthy."

"Just going to ignore the incident in Italy?"

"That was Mugino's idea, not mine! She moved before I had time to react!" Mikoto defended angrily.

As they were talking, a figure reached the top of the building behind Mikoto and quietly moved into position to deal a quick and decisive blow that would knock her out instantly.

However, he never got the chance as Mikoto shot a streak of lightning at him.

"Dammit. Now I owe Luna a meal when we get back."

She rolled to her right and scrambled to her feet. She took off running towards the edge of the roof and jumped over to the next one. The gap may have not been that big in comparison to others, but she still needed to use a little magnetism to make sure she got across safely. When she looked behind her, she was a little surprised to see her pursuer make it across easily.

She kept jumping from building to building, Ezio close behind her. He was fast, she'll give him that, but she was able to keep the distance between them constant. Eventually, she reached the place she was looking for, and instead of jumping to the next building, she jumped down the gap between buildings.

Ezio followed her down, using the various windows scattered around the walls as steps to slow his descent. He landed on the ground safely and chased Mikoto out of the alleyway into the middle of the street but stopped.

The street was barren, with no-one around except from three siblings surrounding him. Not even the girl he was chasing could be seen.

"Mr Scavo, right? I'm afraid we're going to have to take you down here," Wendy announced.

Ezio looked around at his three opponents, eyeing them up and prepared himself for the fight.

Comments

Guest: Yeah, I wanted to suggest that happened rather than actually saying outright so I left that part out.