"Wait, a demon?" Miyuki interrupts.
"Yes, a demon."
"Explain. Demons are an abstract entity, and are commonly believed to be fictional in modern society." Tatsuya commands.
"Well, I am from a plane of existence different from your own. Long ago, my line made a pact with my master's ancestors in order to ensure our continued survival. We are permitted to feed on our master's life force and exist in this world in exchange for eternal service. I am afraid that is all I know. I have no memories of anything before a few moments ago. As I said before, my knowledge has been gained from my master's memories."
"So wait, everything you know is from my memories?" Archimedes inquires.
"Precisely."
"Then how did you know what you knew about our situation when I had no knowledge of any of it?"
"I am… Unsure…"
"Wait, I was not able to cast magic on this being before. It may be that the creature is eroding the seals our mother put on your memories." Tatsuya proposes.
"Is that even possible?" Miyuki asks.
"Possibly… We are still unsure of how our mother was originally able to seal Archimedes memories in the first place. It may be that letting a magic resistant entity poke around in Archimedes' memories may be just the thing to dislodge her seals."
"I shall do everything I can to assist my master!" The cat declares.
"Let's not get our hopes up. How about we start with naming this thing."
"That's a brilliant idea, Master! Do you have a name in mind?"
"How about 'Kuro?'" Archimedes asks.
"That was… Uninspired, Master."
"What about Eureka?" Miyuki suggests.
"Eureka." A rchimedes restates, dumbfounded.
"Yeah! Eureka! That's what Archimedes is supposed to be known for saying! So, let's name it that!"
"Eureka… I am quite fond of that. Master, can that be my name?"
Archimedes sighs.
"Fine. Its name will be Eureka. Archimedes and his cat named Eureka. It sounds like the basis for a bad manga."
"Oh, but I can appear as much more than just a cat!" Eureka says, jumping off the table.
As Eureka hits the ground, his form bubbles once again transforms into the appearance of a wolf. [A/N fuck it. I am calling it 'him' out of convenience for both of us. It makes everything easier.]
"How the fuck can you do that?" Archimedes questions.
"I can affect the density and form of my body thanks to the psions you gave me. I can change into the form of anything, assuming it is not too large or small." Eureka responds, pacing over to Archimedes.
Archimedes reaches out and pets Eureka as he gets close.
"Wow. It feels like real fur. Amazing to think that this was my blood once. How big can you get, exactly?"
"I am afraid that this is the upper limit to my form. The smallest mobile form I can change into is the size of a field mouse."
"Can you fight?" Tatsuya inquires.
"I can. I can harden the different parts of my body to deflect blows. The same concept goes for attacking."
"Are you heavy enough to tackle things?"
"Let's find out."
Eureka jumps onto Archimedes' lap, causing Archimedes to let out a grunt of pain.
"Yup. Definitely heavy enough." Archimedes says through gritted teeth.
"I apologize, Master. Give me a moment."
As Eureka says this, he changes back to the form of a cat.
"The hell? You suddenly got a lot lighter. How is that even physically possible?" Archimedes demands.
"We are dealing with magic after all. Anything is possible." Tatsuya offers.
"There have to be some kind of rules to this…"
"There always are, we just haven't found them yet."
"Can I still communicate with you while you are on my ring?" Archimedes asks, not breaking the motion of petting Eureka.
Archimedes is currently laying on his bed with Eureka on his chest. The room is sparsely furnished. The only things that remain in the room are the bed itself and a dresser. The other furniture had been 'lost' in various ways, and Archimedes didn't get any of it replaced because he honestly did not use the room very much. However, what did remain reflected Archimedes well. The room consisted of only whites, blacks, and grays. There was a small pile of ancient looking books on top of the dresser, and a few small metal cubes scattered across the surface.
"Sadly, no. After I return to your ring, I go into a dormant state. I will not wake until you call upon me again. However, there is no reason that I ever absolutely have to return to the ring. I can function fine without ever returning that ring again. The only practical purpose its saves is for bringing me with you discretely."
"Good, is there a limit of how far away you can be from me?"
"I am constantly feeding on your life force, so I would imagine that there is a finite distance I can be from you. The further the distance, the greater the drain. Of course, there is no way of checking that until we try it. I am just guessing on most of these things."
"That about sums up my experience with Necromancy." Archimedes says with a chuckle.
"Meaning?"
"As you can tell, I have no memories of the time before I washed up on that beach. I eventually remembered how to cast necromancy, but I didn't remember what all the different symbols and glyphs meant. I was able to figure out that they enhanced my magic somehow, but honestly I don't know how."
"I apologize that I can't help you with that, Master. I can only remember what you can remember. I don't have any memories of my own."
"It's not your fault. Your existence brings a lot of new questions to the table, and that's not a bad thing. I want to figure out everything I can about necromancy, because I may very well be the only person able to use it."
Archimedes is greeted by a very concerned looking Mayumi the next morning when he delivered the lunch for that day to the student council room.
"Are you okay? You just suddenly collapsed! I wanted to help but I couldn't because of the people who took over the intercom room." She says as she quickly walks over to Archimedes.
"I am fine, don't worry. It was just some backlash from over working myself. I have been busy because of Q3 coming to an end. I have to send a lot of stuff into my grandfather to be evaluated and vice versa. It's a busy time because the next quarter includes the holiday season and my grandfather likes to start designing new little trinkets to sell around this time."
Mayumi looks at Archimedes with a dubious expression.
"Are you sure you are alright?"
"I'm fine Mayumi, now get back to work. I'm sure you have a lot to deal with after yesterday's incident." Archimedes says, patting Mayumi on the head.
"Yes, I am going to be debating some course 2 students about equal treatment."
"Is there anything to it?"
"Yes and no. When it comes to things like clubs, there is no more discrimination than there is inherently in competition. The more successful clubs receive more funding than those that don't do as well. But, when it comes to classes and the such, there is a good bit of discrimination and not much we can do about it. There are simply not enough teachers to accommodate the course 2 students. The only thing we can do is try to play damage control and keep tensions between the students low."
Archimedes whistles softly.
"And here you had me thinking that you were just a pretty face. You actually thought this through."
Miyuki sticks her tongue out.
"I am the president for a reason. I'm not all looks and fun."
"Bravissimo, you have colored me impressed. I wish you luck in your debate."
With that, Archimedes turns on his heel and begins walking back to the door.
"Archimedes? Where are you going?" Mari asks as she helps herself to the food Archimedes brought.
"Library, there are some things I need to research."
The Library at the Magic High-school was a place that Archimedes both admired and loathed for the same reasons. The library was on a completely different grid from the rest of the school, in every aspect. It was powered by solar panels on the roof of the school, and had no connection to the outside energy grid. It has its own dedicated backup generators, completely isolated in that aspect.
It's network was equally impressive. No outside connection whatsoever. The data on the library's servers were regularly updated by a direct satellite link from the main servers, and had no connection to the rest of the school's network. Even the security systems and cameras were separate, leaving no possibility for any outside digital access.
Archimedes applauded the extreme measures the Magic Universities took to protect their data, but it was also a major hindrance as he had to be physically in the library to access the data stored there. However, the data he had access to after entering did not disappoint, as most of it was information you could not get from anywhere else.
Archimedes twisted his ring as he entered the library, the black coating of Eureka rippling at each touch. He sat down at a terminal and opened a page on medieval magic before casting necromancy. As he began assimilating and categorizing information, he felt the gentle tug of Eureka at the edge of his consciousness.
"If there is anything I can do to help, master, all you need do is command me."
"Why is it that I am 'speaking' with you rather than the direct mesh that I usually have?" Archimedes asks of Eureka.
"I am much different than any other being you have assimilated. Your necromancy does not work the same on me as it does on others, as I am sure you have noticed. I do not posses the same structures as the others and therefore work differently. With my 'birth' excluded, we will never again directly mesh. You and myself now have different memories and can only communicate them through 'talking.' Your necromancy now works on me as more of a telepathic link than anything. You cannot take control of me. I follow your orders because I am indebted to you, no more. You cannot use force through necromancy to make me do anything. My 'self' exists on the same plane as your psions. I can interact with them and communicate with you through them, but you cannot use them them to assimilate me do to my sharing their nature."
"But we still don't know how or why…"
The bell signaling the end of the lunch period chimes and Archimedes closes his instance on the terminal and heads back to his classroom.
"Mr. Shiba."
"Yes Sensei?" Archimedes responds without opening his eyes.
"I feel as if current events make this a good time to bring this up. You can't continue to sleep through classes."
The other students are reading a passage on their terminals. Archimedes had memorized the text long ago.
"I don't see the problem, while I may appear to be sleeping, I am still listening and can see everything that you bring up."
"And how exactly do you accomplish that?"
"My magic."
"I'm afraid that that is not an acceptable answer. Would you please elaborate?"
"It's quite rude to ask someone else about their magic, even more so when said Mage is a practitioner of an ancient magic. Due to the nature of the ancient magic I use, I cannot disclose how or what exactly it is. All I can tell you is that I can clearly see and hear the lesson."
"Mr. Shiba."
"Your fly is down, Sensei."
The teacher looks down and turns beet red before quickly zipping himself up.
Archimedes sighs.
"If I am able to tell you the state of the room without opening my eyes, will you let me continue as I am?"
The man ponders this for a moment before nodding.
"Column one, row three. The student just bent down to pick up his pencil. The magic equation on his paper forgot to apply the principle of thermal exchange that you taught us yesterday. Column 3, row 5 just finished their reading and is now drawing fractal patterns in a sketch book. Miyuki is currently rolling her eyes at me, most likely because she thinks I could have solved this problem a bit more tactfully."
Archimedes opens his eyes and looks up at the teacher.
"Will that be sufficient proof?"
The man sighs and shakes his head.
"You may carry on." He says before returning to his lectern.
"That was quite sloppy compared to your usual work." Miyuki says with a small smirk.
Archimedes rolls his shoulder blades and stretches, small pops emanating from his back as he does so.
"It wasn't worth the effort. I'm too tired. Speaking of which, let's have the source of my woes help me with something trivial."
Archimedes taps the black coating on his ring, which ripples under his touch. He casts necromancy and red glyphs shine through as Eureka slips off the ring in one big drop.
"Yes, master?"
"Go check on Tatsuya."
"As you command."
Eureka's form rises out of the puddle and takes the shape of a small mouse. He scampers over to the back window, which is partially open, and jumps out. Soon after, a small pitch black bird flies by the window.
Tatsuya's eyes snap to the window as an unknown presence approaches. A small black bird lands on the windowsill and looks at the people in the room before melting away and dripping under the window. As the substance pools on the ground, it forms the shape of a small mouse. The mouse shakes itself off before stealthily making its way over to Tatsuya. Tatsuya recognized Eureka as soon as he came into view. While Tatsuya could identify Archimedes' general location because of the field of Pisons that surrounded him at all times, Eureka could only be called an absence of information. In fact, the only reason that Tatsuya was even able to detect Eureka's approach was because some of Archimede's Psions were accompanying him. As Eureka got to Tatsuya's chair, Tatsuya lowered a hand for him. Eureka jumped into Tatsuya's hand and scurried up his sleeve, popping out of Tatsuya's collar before wrapping himself around Tatsuya's ear.
"Archimedes sent me to check up on you. I can communicate any messages you two wish to send."
"Archimedes. What exactly is the point of this?"
"I was bored and figured I'd see how useful Eureka could be. Dd he manage to get to you without detection?"
"Yes, he is currently wrapped around my ear in order to keep noise to a minimum."
"Interesting… Anything you need to tell me?"
"No. How is Miyuki?"
"She's fine, albeit a bit annoyed with me for messing with a teacher."
"I'm sure you deserve it. Now I need to get back to class."
"Aye, Cap'n."
With that Eureka drips back onto the floor, once again taking the form of a mouse. He runs at a small ventilation grill near the floor, his form turning into a liquid as he hits the grill before reforming on the other side without breaking pace.
"Is something wrong, Archimedes?" Kokonoe asks as he walks out with Tatsuya and Miyuki.
"No, just waiting for something. I was present for the conversation regardless."
Archimedes turns as he says this, the soft red glow from his eyes and ring coming into view as he does so.
"I see, may I ask what you are waiting for?"
"Eureka."
"Eureka?"
At that moment, a raven swoops down and lands on Archimedes' shoulder. It drops a flash drive into Archimedes' open hand before turning into a cat and leaping off his shoulder.
"This is definitely one of my favorite forms, it is not too big or too small and has excellent mobility." Eureka says, stretching before sitting down and licking his paw.
"Sensei, meet Eureka, my familiar of sorts."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, I know much of you from my master's memories." Eureka says, lifting a paw up to Kokonoe.
Kokonoe bends down and shakes Eureka's paw.
"I was wondering if you would be able to expand your search into my past to include creatures like Eureka."
"I can certainly try…" Kokonoe says, tapping the side of his head. "But what exactly is Eureka?"
"If we can believe what he says, and I think we can, he is a demon who took corporeal form using my blood as a vector. Apparently his lineage made a deal with my ancestors in which they swore eternal servitude to us in exchange for being able to feed off our life force."
"So, he appeared spontaneously? You didn't summon him or anything?"
"I was born into this world quickly and violently. I came into being by possessing some of the blood of my master. I have no personal memory of anything before then save the knowing of my contract. I did, however, receive a copy of my master's memories when I was born."
"That is certainly different from the average summoning of a familiar. The part about Eureka receiving a copy of Archimedes' memories is particularly interesting. Do the Yotsuba's know of this development?"
"They do not." Archimedes says with a wry smile.
"Fu-fu-fu, looks like Archimedes is attempting to hide an ace up his sleeve…"
"Something like that. Although, Miyuki still has an unbeatable hand. I'm just fighting for second at this point."
Miyuki cocks her head in confusion.
"What do you mean by that?" She asks.
"Tatsuya. He will do anything you ask, and he is practically unstoppable. Even with people like me who he can't decompose directly he can still use hand to hand or the environment to take us down with general ease. Hell, we don't even know the true extent of his powers because of the possible consequences. Tatsuya is a trump-all, and he is your unshakable guardian."
Tatsuya pets Miyuki's head, causing her to look up at him with a smile.
"So are you willing to look into this for me?" Archimedes asks.
"I am. We can discuss compensation based on the information I am able to get."
"Thank you, Sensei."
Just so you know, this is a story I don't plan on abandoning like the others. I have put a lot of thought into this and have a plan up through the Visitor chapters right now. I plan to delve deeper into Archimedes past, but that obviously won't happen for a while based on the pace I am going at. Just know that Archimedes' lineage has a path in real history that I intend to follow. If you have read the LN's you may have an idea of what I am getting at, if you do feel free to contact me. I would love to have someone who figured it out on their own to bounce some things off of.
Adieu!
