This work is based (mostly) on the work of Kazuma Kamachi and other writers. A translation from Baka Tsuki was used in its creation and I claim no ownership over their work. Please Read, Review, and Enjoy.
"Ahh… You're here already? Strange… I had expected you to take another 20 minutes to get ready but… then again, now that I think about it, your most prominent and important feature is being unexpected."
"…"
Kamijou stared blankly out of her front door, into the half balcony, half corridor, where she beheld the red haired magician from earlier, on her hands and knees and placing a myriad of small card like objects on the wall directly across from Kamijou's front door. The wall was already partially covered by strangely sized cards, and, as Kamijou took a slightly closer look at them, she could see that the pattern on the cards was similar across all of them.
... Is this really happening right now, or am I just dreaming all of this bullshit?
Kamijou reached out to her arm and pinched down hard, sending a wave of pain surging throughout her body. Once she had did that, and felt the repercussions of it, Kamijou sighed to herself, and she quickly turned around to look back into her room.
Index, who Kamijou had wanted to keep as far away from this woman as possible, was currently kneeling down next to Kamijou's bed, staring intently at the creature which he had brought into Kamijou's room, completely engrossed with looking at the strange creature, which was had engrossed itself with sleeping soundly.
"…"
Kamijou silently stared at Index for a few moments more, and then, as quietly as she could, she shut the door behind her, sighed to herself in tired sort of way, and reluctantly turned to look at the red haired magician, who was still putting cards on the wall opposite of Kamijou's home, as if she had every right to do so.
"What… the hell… are you doing?"
The red haired magician turned her head to look at Kamijou, an annoyingly bemused gaze the response to the student's quietly asked question.
"What? Do you mean what I am doing to this wall, or could you possibly mean why I'm here out in front of your house? Because really both of those questions should have fairly obvious answers, even for someone like you."
Kamijou slowly put the palm of her hand over her face, sighing as she did so.
"Well then, since you seem to really take pleasure in explaining obvious things to me, why don't you just go ahead and explain this to me as well? And please, though it might be difficult, please try and explain the easier to understand of the two questions first."
Styx put on a slightly annoyed face, and promptly returned her attention to placing cards on the wall as she unenthusiastically began her explanation.
"Fine then, how about we start with the question 'why am I here?' since that is the simplest question to answer. I did tell you that I would be meeting up with you later, didn't I? Did you seriously take that as some kind of idiotic joke?"
No not really, I just honestly expected you to at least wait out in front of the dormitory like a normal, sane individual, not barge in here like you owned the place and set up your own wallpaper.
Instead of vocalizing that thought, however, Kamijou sighed again and pointed at the cards the red haired magician was placing down with care almost motherly care.
"Okay then, now it's time for the next, and probably most important question. What the hell are you setting up on my wall?"
The red haired magician turned her head to look back at Kamijou again, the annoyed expression on her face growing sharper and clearer as she stared at the high school girl.
"What in the world does it look like I'm doing from your perspective? I truly am curious to know. Because, from my enlightened perspective, it appears like I am setting up a spell. A very powerful one for that matter, one that requires my full attention and not divert it for utterly pointless questions."
Kamijou sighed and decided to lean in towards the card like objects to get a closer look at them. The results of her cursory examination gave her little actual new info on the cards save that she could now see the finer details of the pattern on the cards.
"Yeah, well… I'm quite sure that is exactly what you are doing… but do you have to put the setup for this spell right out in the open like this? The dorm manager already hates me for all the damage 'I' caused two weeks ago, so I don't want to make her angrier by giving her the idea that I'm now just posting random shit on the walls outside of my room."
Kamijou briefly saw the red haired magician's mouth twitch for a single moment, and there was a very slight shadow of what could be concern in her eyes. However, that shadow quickly dissipated and the magician's expression quickly returned to normal and continued to post the card like objects to the wall.
"I'm… Sorry for adding on to your problems so haphazardly, but I honestly won't be able to go to the battlefield with peace of mind unless I set up some sort of defensive measure to protect Index. And hey, you never know. Maybe you'll get lucky and Innocentius will kill your dorm manager for you while we're out."
Kamijou felt her mouth fall open in utter shock as she stared at the red haired magician, the distaste she felt completely clear in her gaze.
"What the hell do you mean 'If I'm lucky' your spell will just up and kill someone? Do you have a fucking screw loose in your head or… Wait… You said …Innocentius, right?"
For some utterly strange reason, the name Innocentius had a very strange feeling after it had left Kamijou's tongue. It had caused a strange chill to crawl up her spine, and Kamijou shivered due to an unknown fear.
Doesn't… Doesn't Innocentius mean… 'I will surely kill you' or something like that? It… It's a spell that is composed of the element of fire and to perform the spell… You need to arrange a set of inscriptions in such a way to create a temple for it… The spell weakness is…
Kamijou looked up at the magician, who was now wiping off her hands now that all of the card like objects she wanted to place were posted on the wall in the pattern necessary to summon Innocentius. Seeing the completed spell in front of her, Kamijou instantly began to panic at the sight of it.
"O-Oi! Hold on a second! Are you absolutely certain you should be using that spell here? Won't that spell kill anyone who doesn't have even a shred any supernatural experience? And isn't the spell also extremely weak to pre-emptive strikes by people who understand it?"
The red haired magician sighed and turned to look at Kamijou, the annoyance that she currently felt completely clear on her face.
"Listen here… While I might have looked rather simple and heartless two weeks ago when we fought against each other, don't assume that I am normally fine with thoughtlessly killing people and doing things that appear pointless. I've already taken the necessary time and energy nedded to improve my spell cards since the last time, and, while I did say that the spell could kill someone, I have set it up so that it will only manifest itself if someone gets to close to your room, and by extension Index. That is all it will do, nothing more."
Kamijou again looked warily at the spell cards that had now been basically plastered to the wall like wallpaper, and she could not help but tilt her head at the magician in a gesture of clear skeptical confusion.
"Are you absolutely certain about that? As much as I want to protect Index from crazy people, I don't want to accidently kill someone, or even purposefully kill someone, for his sake, and I doubt Index would be happy if someone would die for him either."
The red haired magician sighed and nodded in an agreeing gesture, and began to stare at the wall in front of her, looking for any potential problems in the spell.
"I know exactly what you are saying, believe me. This is such a pain for me, you know that don't you? I have to set up this spell in such a way so that it will work and summon Innocentius, but I can't make it to powerful, or it will actually kill someone without a seconds notice. Not to mention that Index would sense the spell within a moment of me setting it up. Honestly, this is really such a gigantic pain for me."
Despite the fact that the red haired magician was saying this with a tone of utter annoyance, Kamijou could clearly see from the magician's expression, a very slight smile, that she was absolutely happy that she was doing something for Index. It was at that moment that Kamijou spoke without giving a single thought to what she was going to say.
"So… Just for clarification, do you… like Index or something?"
Suddenly, the red haired magician froze in place for a single moment, before turning, hesitantly, to look at Kamijou, the magician's face almost as completely red as her hair. One of the card like objects that the magician had been holding onto so tightly slipped out of her loosened hand and slowly floated down to the ground.
The girl magician, still a very bright shade of red, took a few slow, deep breathes to calm herself before speaking.
"What… What in the world are you talking about? I mean, the stupidity required for a person to ask a question like that is just too much, even for someone like you. I mean… You and I are barely even acquaintances, let alone friends. I don't hate you or anything ridiculous like that, but… honestly, what exactly did you expect to get from that question?"
Kamijou sighed openly at the obviously panicking magician before she retreated to the relative sanity of her mind.
Well… At the very least I was expecting you to answer like a normal human being, if anything at all, but, now that I think about it, I guess I was really reaching out for nothing, wasn't I?
Kamijou unenthusiastically gestured toward the way out of her dorm building, via elevator, with a wave of her hand that exuded her unwillingness to leave.
"Well then… Since you refuse to answer, how about we leave right now before Index gets suspicious of all the yelling outside the front door, and then, perhaps on the way to wherever you're dragging me, you could clue me in on what you are going to be getting me into."
The red haired magician, who looked mildly relieved at the prompt change of subject, began to walk toward the elevator that went towards it with all haste. When both of the girls were in the elevator, the magician hit the button to go to the ground floor before speaking.
"So as my… partner, I'm guessing… What utterly miniscule detail of our operation would you want to be informed about?"
Kamijou bit her lip as tried to contain all the venomous words that suddenly came into to her mind, and instead she thought of all the things she should ask, and finally settled on what she thought was the most obvious and important question to ask.
"You… You said earlier that the person we would be… going up against tonight would be a magician right? Just for some… peace of mind, who is this magician we are going to be… 'Dealing' with?"
The elevator dinged after reaching its destination, and the magician stepped off the machine with a sigh and proceeded towards the exit of the building, with Kamijou trailing behind her at her slowest pace.
"Is that really your biggest concern right now? Knowing the person who you might end up killing later? Don't you have more important-?"
Kamijou completely failed at containing her anger at that moment and gave a sharp retort to the magician.
"And are you going to continue to question every question I ask? I might not be the smartest person around, but isn't that insanely unproductive considering how little time we have?"
The magician glared over at the student and opened her mouth to obviously retort back at Kamijou, but, at the very last moment, the red haired girl quickly bit her lip, catching whatever venom filled words she was going to spew out with a visibly apparent effort. After a few moments of contemplative silence, the magician sighed in a tired sort of gesture and shrugged at the same time.
"Well then… I guess you are right about not being the smartest person around, and you also make a fair point of me questioning you being unproductive. Now that I think about it… there isn't really anything dreadfully important that I need to tell you, so I guess I can indulge your idiocy for a few minutes, if that is what you want."
Kamijou looked at the red haired magician and gave the obviously sarcastic girl a purely skeptical gaze, but she then quickly swallowed any bad mouthing she was going to do.
"So… Are you really going to answer my question, or am I just going to have to wait until I'm facing the person before I know who we are going to be dealing with?"
The red haired magician gave Kamijou a side long glance that clearly communicated her annoyance, before she pulled out a cigarette from some hidden pocket of hers, lighting it with a single angry stare.
"Fine, Fine, I'll answer your pointlessly idiotic question. Now… What was it again? Something about… Who exactly we are going to be fighting today? Now that you mention it… I recall that earlier I said that we would be going up against magician, correct?"
Kamijou nodded an affirmative, not paying too much attention to the sights that the two were passing as they walked along the street. The red haired magician did not seem to be paying much attention to that either, taking a quick puff from her freshly lit cigarette and blowing the smoke politely away from Kamijou.
"Well… That is mostly correct, though it is a very general form of correct. I am, of course, considered to be a magician, but my true designation, when you get down to talking about my particular style, is more around the area of rune magician, due to my extremely heavy use of runes in my spells. So, just so you know for future reference, whenever I say that a person is magician, I am simply referring to a person who uses magic."
… Oh god… I already feel my eyelids getting heavy from this, and I don't think we are even a quarter of a way to the fucking place we are supposed to be. I'd much rather put up with her sarcasm if this is how boring she is when she's calm.
Despite the fact that Kamijou was thinking all of this she kept her mouth tightly shut, and the magician continued to drone on in her explanation in the same droning tone as before.
"Now then… since the magician that we are going to be fighting today is an alchemist, the type of magic we are going to be fighting against is most likely going to be almost exclusively alchemy and little else, which, considering the venue where we will be fighting, might be a serious problem for us."
Kamijou tilted her head at that moment in a gesture of interested confusion.
"So… How is the fact that the enemy is using alchemy posing such a serious problem for us? And, if it really is a serious problem, why are we going to attempt to charge into their hideout against what be considered better judgement?"
The red haired magician turned to look at the student, her expression clearly intrigued by Kamijou's questions, and the faintest of smiles forming across her mouth as she began to answer them.
"So… A two questions at once, huh? Are you trying to test the limits of my explanation capabilities to the fullest?"
Kamijou sighed in utter dismay and mentally braced herself for what was obviously going to be a long and arduous lecture to follow. The red haired magician did not seem to take notice of that sigh, and she took another long puff of her cigarette before beginning the lecture.
"So, to start with you first question, as to why alchemy will be an absolute problem for us, I will first like to take your question as a sign that you don't actually have an idea as to what alchemy is, do you?"
Kamijou gave the magician a sneer in a show of her annoyance, and she then began to seriously ponder for an answer to the magician's question.
"Is… Isn't the word alchemy basically just a name for the studies of chemistry before science was properly founded? While it was a discipline that was from before the founding of any current scientific principles, it still served to establish many of the early concepts needed for both chemistry and science. That… That's a good enough understanding of it, isn't it?"
"…"
Kamijou, who had been genuinely expecting an answer, looked over at the red haired magician, who had gone suddenly quiet in the face of the student's explanation. Kamijou found the magician staring at her with a mouth that was hung open in complete shock and surprise. This was enough to elicit a response from the student.
"Wha-What in the world is your problem all of a sudden? I… I didn't say something weird there did I?"
The magician began to quietly chuckle to herself as she watched Kamijou panic after asking that question, before she took another puff from her cigarette.
"Oh, don't worry. It's nothing really. It was just a huge surprise for me to hear you of all people say something so intellectual. So… In a way, you could say yes, you did say something weird."
Kamijou could not help but to grimace at the magician yet again, and yet again, the magician completely ignored her gesture and launched back into her explanation again.
"So… What was it that you were going on about again? All that stuff about alchemy being around before the existence of 'proper' science stuff?"
The red haired magician was silent for a few moments, before she sighed in a tired sort of way and tapped her cigarette, sprinkling the ash at the end on the ground.
"I am forced by clear facts to agree that most of what you say is true, if you are only considering alchemy from an entirely scientific point of view. Though, as you could probably guess, when one would look at the subject it from a magical viewpoint, you will, of course, find some ot the rather secret information about it."
Kamijou raised an eyebrow, a gesture of the students questioning interest.
"Oh… Well, what sort of 'secret' information are you talking about? Please, don't neglect to tell me something and leave me ignorant of it after you present it to me."
Styx turned to give Kamijou a simple glance of cold annoyance before she took a puff of her cigarette, and blowing the smoke yet again away from the student.
"Hmmm… What would even be a good example about the potential of alchemy… Well really the most well-known example would probably be a good enough place to start."
Styx looked over at Kamijou, the exhilaration to deliver her explanation quite clear in her gaze, almost transcending from a feeling into a physical force.
"Tell me, with all of your knowledge of science, have you ever heard of the concept of a philosopher's stone? From what I've heard, they have been very popular motifs for use in stories during recent history."
Kamijou nodded her head in a gesture of agreement, and then crossed her arms.
"I'm not going to say that I'm an expert on stories or anything, but I have heard of the concept of a philosopher's stone at the very least. Something that is said to give one the ability to obtain eternal life, or gift one the ability to make as much gold as one could want is certain to make an impression on someone, no matter how impossible the item-"
A thought suddenly came to Kamijou and she quickly glared over at the red haired magician her skepticism clear in her gaze.
She… She can't possibly… Does she actually mean to say…?
The magician promptly noticed Kamijou's gaze, and she smiled at the student and even gave a small chuckle as if she knew what Kamijou was thinking at the moment.
"Ha… It's incredibly surprising to know that you have that much information about a philosopher's stone, considering how unintelligent and uninformed you make yourself seem. I must give credit to the thoroughness of modern day authors in their research of overly obscure topics. I seriously worry that one day all the secrets of magic will be laid bare to the world because of curious authors."
Kamijou bit back her utterly horrid remarks towards the red haired magician due to the insults, and instead put all of her focus on the core of the magician's response.
"So… So what you are actually telling me… Is that…?"
The magician almost maliciously chuckled at the student and took a casual puff of her cigarette as she responded.
"Well… As to whether or not a philosopher's stone actually exists or not, I have not seen one personally, but I have heard many reliable stories of different old magic families, particularly one prominent family out of Germany, producing and using Philosophers stones in their experiments."
Kamijou felt her mouth fall open in a mixture of surprise and shock, while her mind began to race for some response to that vague revelation.
"But… But… How in the world is that even possible?"
The magician looked at Kamijou raising a questioning eyebrow at the student as she did so, blowing out some more smoke from her half-finished cigarette.
"Just to clarify… Are you asking me the a philosopher stone works, or are you just asking me another pointlessly obvious question?"
Kamijou waved her hands around in the air in a clear show of frustration.
"What I'm asking is how something as impossibly stupid like a philosopher stone could even exist in this world! Everything about it just seems to make it impossible for me to believe that it does exist. The ability to transform one type of metal to another… being able to extend a person's life… I mean it just breaks so many of the scientific laws that have been proven by tons of evidence."
The red haired magician sighed in a tired sort of way and slowly put the palm of her hand on her forehead.
"Really now… Two weeks ago you were the one who said to me that magicians should be able to do the impossible, and now here I find you being so vocal on questioning the powers of magic. I guess this must be one of the problems facing one with such a small intelligence, huh?"
Kamijou almost failed in biting back another horrid rebuttal to Styx's insult, and the student simply sighed aloud as her brief instant of anger receded.
"So then… Tell me this then. With all this talk of philosopher's stone's and such, will one come up, or even be important at all in this battle of yours? If it will, in either case, I could see how such a powerful and valuable thing would be such huge problem."
The red haired magician sighed yet again, but this time it seemed to be one created out of disappointment rather than annoyance directed at Kamijou.
"No, we don't actually have to worry about a philosopher's stone suddenly appearing here, which is, all things considered, an unbelievably good thing. Philosopher's stones are things of incredible power and high value, but they also carry a heavy curse due to the fact that they can be readily used outside of the discipline of alchemy. If a stone were even hinted to be in this city, then we would have way more problems than just one alchemist controlling a single building. A lot more."
The red haired magician slowly took another puff of her cigarette, giving a reasonable interval for Kamijou to ponder the various possibilities of what could happen, before she continued her explanation.
"No…The alchemist is a threat, but not due to anything as crazy as a Philosophers stone. Rather the reason she is a threat is because of her considerable talents and where she happens to be, which is in this city. I'm sure that even a person with your limited intelligence could figure out why that is."
Again Kamijou barely contained her outrage at the insult the magician was throwing her way, instead putting her hand to her chin as she began to ponder for an answer.
What in the world is she talking about anyway? I mean, It's probably something to do with the relation between Alchemy and Chemistry, but if something like a Philosophers stone could exist through the process of alchemy there is no way that chemistry would be any use to an alchemist… I mean even the resources they must use…!
Kamijou's eyes suddenly widened in surprise, an expression that the magician must have been waiting to see, for, using it as a cue, she continued her explanation.
"I'm sure you have arrived at the mostly correct conclusion as to why this is the worst possible spot to fight an alchemist of any power. Though it did eventually give way to study of Chemistry, Alchemy and Chemistry have not changed that much in few centuries they have been apart. Tin fact, I've heard that with access to a proper chemist lab, an Alchemist could outfit a defenseless area and turn it in to an impregnable fortress in a matter of hours."
The magician looked up at the buildings stretching up to the sky above her head, and Kamijou could hear the slight sound of the red haired girl grind her teeth in anger.
"So, due solely to the fact that we are in this god forsaken city, that bitch might just be able to toe to toe with me, a true magician in every sense of the phrase."
Kamijou could actually feel the thinly veiled anger that was being given off by the magician's words, and quickly tried to refocus the girl's attention away from her rage.
"S-So… What in the world are we actually in for going into that place? Are we just going to die the instant we walk in, or are we going to survive a heartbeat before we melt into puddles of bubbling goo?"
The magician took another puff of her cigarette in a way that clearly showed that she had calmed down somewhat, but she still sighed in an annoyed way before responding.
"Don't worry so much about all of that, it's just me bitching about the venue where I have to fight. The actual chances of something the alchemist could throw at us that would escape my detection and kill us are almost nonexistent, and even then, we'll have a third pair of eyes keeping a look out for us, so that takes that chance down to impossible. There are few things an alchemist can make that might give us some trouble, but those require months of prep and special materials to use effectively in combat."
Kamijou nodded, her face a mixture of hesitation to continue asking questions and expectation for what would come next.
"Yeah, Yeah… I can… sort of understand all of that … but what sort of things are we really going to be seeing in there? Please, just tell me right now so that I can have an idea and some slight peace of mind once something comes up."
The magician gave Kamijou an annoyed sidelong glance, but she nodded all the same as she took another puff of her cigarette.
"Well now… what should you expect? Well there is always the courtesy blow dart or bear traps that are doused in poison to kill you even if you escape, then the machines that spit out liquid fire that is impossible to get off, and then the chemically adjusted, mind controlled civilians attacking you at every turn making sure you have no time to rest."
Kamijou felt as if she had been drowned in cold water as her entire body shivered in fear of what might be waiting for her.
"S-S-So… All those things… are normal things to expect when raiding an Alchemist's base?"
For the first time since seeing the magician, the girl began to openly laugh at Kamijou before giving the student an almost mocking grin.
"Of course it's normal for someone to expect when going into any situation where an alchemist is present. This is the sort of thing you get used to when you do things like this on a regular basis."
Kamijou gritted her teeth down and quickly looked away from the magician, the sudden urge to punch the red haired girl almost too strong for Kamijou to bear.
Of course someone as crazy as you would say that something like this is a normal occurance, you red haired bitch! You probably know that I don't have to deal with shit like this on a regular basis, so why do you continue to insist on-…!
Suddenly, a small cloud of smoke hit Kamijou unexpectedly, causing the student to unintentionally breathe in the cancer causing, nicotine filled air. Kamijou, overwhelmed by the smoke that had filled her lungs, began to roughly cough, and the red haired magician grinned over at the struggling student before returning to her explanation.
"Hey, Hey. You don't really have to worry so much about the alchemist, you know that right? At the very least, I'm going to be the one between you and the scary alchemist, so you shouldn't have to worry about them for the most part. Honestly, I'm really wondering why I even brought you along to this battle. I mean, if I'm at all lucky with this battle, I won't even have to use your special power at all."
Kamijou looked at the magician, with all of the surprise and anger that had been building up due to the red haired girls insults perfectly clear in her glare.
"What the hell do you mean you won't have any use for me?! If you truly didn't need me here with you, why did you have to go to the trouble of bothering me and drag me out here with you?! Do you really hate me that much or-…!?"
Kamijou was suddenly silenced when the red haired magician reached out and placed a finger on the student's lips.
"Now, Now. I didn't say I wasn't going to find a use for you, I just said that if I was in any way lucky in this upcoming fight, which I'm almost guessing that I'm not going to be, I wouldn't have to do anything with you. I admit that my wording made it an easy thing for someone as unobservant as you to misunderstand, so I guess, just this once, I'll let it go."
Kamijou felt as if some nerve in the very back of her brain was going to break if she had to suffer one more barely veiled insult, but the student managed to quell the rage that coursed through her body just enough to ask a question in a civil way.
"So… what is it that my illustrious magician friend wants me to do once we get into the building, huh? Did you perhaps bring me along solely for the reason of picking up any loot that you don't want to carry yourself while you're dungeon diving? Funny, I hadn't taken you as the kind of person who was worried about the micromanagement of inventory management."
The red haired magician tilted her head in a clear sign of confusion, undoubtedly not understanding any of the RPG terminology that Kamijou was using.
"Well… I'm… not 100 percent sure whether or not you will be doing anything like that, but I know that the reason I brought you along was to deal with a… very specific problem we might encounter while we are working in there. It's… A very, very specific job you will have to do if the situation calls for it."
Kamijou began stare at the red haired magician, the expectation the schoolgirl felt absolutely clear in her gaze.
"Oh really, well then please tell me, what is the very important and very specific job that you want me to do, if it even comes up at all? Oh, please go ahead and tell me if you don't mind. Can't you see that I'm waiting here with bated breath, dying to know what it is?"
The magician looked away from the student with a sigh, before taking a puff of her cigarette, and shrugging in an utterly defeated manner.
"Well then… The undeniable truth is… There might be one more enemy in the battle besides the one we will be finding within the alchemist. It is an enemy that I… rather hope doesn't appear if it I had any say in the matter. If they decided to actually make an appearance… things might things might get to dangerous for Academy City to remain as uninvolved as I would have liked to have hoped."
Kamijou turned over to look over at the magician, her mind filled with an absolutely clear sense of confusion, but once she beheld the magician's somewhat disturbed face, a very small shiver of fear went up the student's spine the instant she did.
"Th-The way you say that… Is this other enemy… Are they really so dangerous that you should be as afraid as you are? The way you described the alchemist, you made them out to be quite the handful by themselves, so how much more dangerous is this magician?"
Kamijou saw the magician instantly scowl instantly after Kamijou spoke, before she launched into a continued explanation for the student.
"Please… Don't refer to them as a magician! That enemy… That enemy isn't a magician at all, not in the… truest sense of the term anyway. To call them a magician is an insult not only to magician's, but for them as well."
Kamijou instantly raised an eyebrow and held up her hands to calm the enraged magician as her own expression began to change due to her piqued interest.
"Why in the world are you so adamant about me not calling this person a magician? Is this your own pride that is guiding your words, or is there some real reason to not refer to this person as a magician?"
The magician paused for a moment, and slowly began to smile in a sad and understanding way at the student, and slowly took the last puff of her depleted cigarette.
"It isn't really my pride that is causing me to say this, though I will admit that it might be altering my perception of the situation, which is fairly limited. Apparently the other enemy has a sort of sore spot when it comes to magicians, a fair thing to have in my opinion considering he is bonded with a magical artifact against his will."
Kamijou stared at the magician, her piqued interest growing much greater than before.
"Bonded with a magical artifact? Do you mean something like an old weapon that only responds to the bloodline of an old king, or anything like that? How powerful is something like that really?"
The red haired magician looked over at Kamijou with a malicious grin slowly forming at her mouth.
"Well… I have heard many stories about the power of this particular artifact, and many of them have been so outrageous, that even I could scarcely believe them when I heard them. Most of them claimed that the artifact had been responsible for hundreds of deaths at the least, and at the most… one particular story says that a whole city was wiped out due to this artifact being used."
Kamijou's mouth instantly fell open in shock, the interest that she had felt towards the topic suddenly turn to horror.
"And- And you… You want me to fight against something like that?! Are you actually fucking crazy, or are you just building me up in order to hit me with an incredibly idiotic punchline? I can barely fight you, let alone some crazy person with an artifact that can kill an entire city!"
The magician chuckled at Kamijou, casually tossing her completely spent cigarette to the ground and stepped on it with her booted foot.
"Fight them? No, No, No. I don't expect you to fight this enemy, because that would be giving your powers to much credit. You are right in saying that you can barely hold a candle to me in a true fight, so I am certain that you could do nothing more than serve as a distraction for this other enemy, while me and my other ally deal with the alchemist, and thus try and attempt to remove any reason for them to continue to fight."
Kamijou stopped walking and gawked at the magician with an expression that perfectly represented the feeling of utter horror that the student felt at that moment.
"And what happens if this person doesn't want to stop when you defeat the alchemist? Will you just abandon me if that plan doesn't work?"
The magician looked at Kamijou with the same malicious grin on her face as before, her eyes glinting with a sadistic light.
"Well… That really depends on whether or not you survived long enough for me to defeat the alchemist. I really don't expect for you to survive for more than 10 minutes, and I seriously doubt that I can defeat the alchemist in that time, even if I was trying my hardest."
Kamijou's gawking slowly turned to glaring as the desire to punch the magician rose to the surface of her mind. The student managed to contain her rage just enough for he to look away from the magician, and at the destination of the two's journey which was laid out in front of her.
Well… Here I am, whether or not I like it. Though now that I think about it, whether I like it or not seems to be irrelevant at this point.
The 'building' that was Misawa Cram School was in fact four separate buildings, each connected to the others by a series of suspended corridors at different levels of each. Each one of the buildings was the same kind of 12 storied, brown rectangular designs, there being no real difference between them noticeable to a normal person besides positioning.
Kamijou looked at the facility that was before and could not help but to sigh to herself, and give the magician a skeptical side long glance.
…Is this place really under the control of some crazy magician… or alchemist for that matter? Because if this place is under the control of a magician, then all of Academy City must be under the control of one, cause this looks fairly normal to me.
Kamijou turned her attention to students who were streaming in a constant flow in and out of the closest building, while the magician silently looked up at the building, using whatever crazy magic knowledge that was beyond Kamijou in order to discern some sort of hidden information from what she saw.
After a few moments of that, the magician sighed in a defeated manner and ran her hand through her flaming red hair.
"Well… No surprise, but there isn't really anything indication on the outside of the building that would give away the madness that is going on within, so I guess that is something we can be thankful for. Once our other ally gets here, we'll head in and investigate several suspicious areas before confronting the alchemist. These were most likely used by the cult which previously occupied this building, so they might hold something of interest for both us and the alchemist."
Kamijou unenthusiastically nodded at the red haired magician's explanation she watched yet another normal looking student walk past the student and magician, a look of fearful confusion on their face. With a sigh, Kamijou looked over at the magician.
"So… Not that I'm in a hurry to get in there but… When is this ally of yours going to get here? If we are going to be waiting for a while, shouldn't we move to a more out of the way spot so we aren't standing out?"
The magician shook her head at both of Kamijou's questions, in a prompt fashion.
"You don't have to worry about that as much as you are. When I met our ally earlier, they said that they would be going ahead to scout out the area around here while I collected you. They should be here within a few moments."
Kamijou again nodded unenthusiastically at the explanation, looking amongst the crowd of people around them for a person that was dressed even half as crazy as the magician next to her. As she did and found none, she absentmindedly asked a question.
"So… do you know this ally of ours personally, or is this your first time ever meeting them?"
The magician broke her gaze away from the building to look at Kamijou, the sharp feeling of her annoyance clear in her glare.
"While I have not met this person properly before today, I have heard of their reputation, and know that it is quite an honorable one. Your constant worry about these things is starting to work on my nerves."
Kamijou grit her teeth at the insult, but could not contain her rage well enough to keep herself from slinging a retort back at the magician.
"Oh really now, I'm working on your nerves now? Well this ally of your is actually starting to work on mine if you must know. You said that we would have to wait only a few moments, yet they still haven't shown up. They might have just run off so they wouldn't have to work with your evil personality."
The magician sighed and reached up to grip the bridge of her nose, her anger radiating out of her like a heat wave.
"While I am quite aware that my personality is indeed a detriment to working with me for most people, I am also aware that my considerable skills make up for it every time. Besides I know this person's type and they don't run away from anything regardless of what is arrayed against them. If anything, they would-…"
Kamijou turned to look at the magician as they fell quiet, which went against their character. The student saw the magician staring at the entryway of the building, a set of automatic sliding glass doors, her eyes wide in a mixture of fear and certainty.
"… Shit… He couldn't have… But of course they did…"
Kamijou tilted her head at the magician's mutter phrases, and attempted to obtain her attention yet again.
"Oi… What in the world is the problem? Is your ally delayed or something?"
The magician said nothing to Kamijou, apparently completely ignoring the student to continue to stare at the entryway of Misawa Cram, completely silent. After a few moments of doing this, the magician began to walk towards the entryway, not even talking to Kamijou as she did so.
Kamijou watched as the magician walked toward the entryway, completely expecting some form of signal on whether to follow or not, and once the magician was halfway to the doorway, the student realized that the magician was entering without giving her any sort of idea on what to do. The student briefly thought on whether or not she should say anything.
What… Does she expect me to follow her without even a word on what to do? Who the hell does this girl think she is?!
Kamijou turned her back to the magician walking towards the battlefield, and instead looked back the way that she and the magician had come.
I mean…I shouldn't have to help her anyway, with all the stuff she expects me to do. She wants me to fight against some crazy artifact wielding mad man, while she basically insults me every time I ask for a basic explanation. I should just leave right now and let her deal with all of this.
Despite thinking this, Kamijou could not force her legs to move, some force keeping the student in place and not escaping like she should. The student slowly looked up to the sky, and sighed.
"I can't walk away from this, can I?"
With a sigh, Kamijou turned on her heel, and followed the magician into the battlefield.
