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.


Well… It looks like we've finally reached the fifth floor…

After stepping up the final step of the fifth stairwell, Kamijou grit her teeth against the dull pain that was slowly receding from her muscles. The magician who had been walking besides the student also began to stretch out, most likely to relax her own tired and sore muscles, as her overly annoyed face was clearly showing.

After the magician stretched her arm across her chest for the third time, she sighed and looked at the corridor that stretched out before the two girls.

"Well now… That's the easy part of this section done, now… onto the part where we could get crushed completely."

Kamijou grimaced at the magician as she also turned her head down the hallway, her eyes catching on each of the various doorways as they branched off from the hallway.

That's right… We aren't here just to climb stairs and yell at each other, are we? Now that my entire body isn't screaming out in pain, I kind of remember that we have to deal with some crazy alchemist, don't we?

While the student was fretting over this thought, the magician also took her time to stare, and take in the various doorways that lined the hallway as well. The magician's critical eye took in every detail of the scene, and she sighed once she was done doing that.

"Now… If we are all done standing around, the hidden room we are after is around the middle of the hallway, so how about we start moving in that direction, shall we?"

Why in the world are you acting like I have a choice in all of this? It is really getting on my nerves you bitch.

Kamijou, for the umpteenth time that day, did not vocalize her thoughts to the object of her annoyance, and instead simply nodded her head. The magician, accepting Kamijou's nod without any suspicion to the thoughts behind it, and began walking down the hallway. Kamijou slowly trudged along behind her, frowning to herself.

The student's eyes were wandering from door to door her mind wandering as she took in the scene around her.

I wonder… Are we going to have some sort of plan of attack for when we enter the hidden room, or are we just going to go in blind and hope for the best's, as we've been doing? I would ask… But I get the feeling that the magician would say that it is pointless to worry about it, and call me an idiot for doing so.

The student sighed aloud in a gesture of defeat, and the magician turned in the direction of Kamijou, a look of bored annoyance on her face.

"What? Do you have some sort of problem with investigating the hidden room? If you do then I would be happy to hear them from you."

Kamijou instantly began to shiver in fear at the thought of talking to the magician about why she thought going investigating was a waste of time, and instead quickly put on a fake, timid smile as she reached up and rubbed the back of her head.

"O-Oh! No, No absolutely not! No complaints here! I was… I was just nervous about what might be in this hidden room. I have no idea what we might find in there, so I just needed to release some stress about it."

The magician stared over at the student in the wake of their explanation, her eyes the picture of uncaring interest, and after a second she sighed and turned back to take in the scenery surrounding her.

"You don't really have to worry about what will be inside that hidden room. In fact, there is a very good chance that you might actually be a massive hindrance to me, considering you previous displays of intelligence. Do me a favor and try to stay out of my way when we get in there, will you?"

Kamijou looked over at the magician, her eyes fixed in a blank, unemotional look, before she hung her head in defeat and directed her attention towards the doors lining the hallway.

You know… Compared to all the shit you are giving me… I might actually prefer dealing with whatever is waiting for us inside that room… Provided that there is a chance for me to stay alive after dealing with it.

Shaking her head to rid herself of the rather strange thoughts in her head, Kamijou refocused her attention to the rooms whose doors were open to the hallway, now at the very least bored enough to be semi-interested with the content of the courses offered by the school.

However, as she slowly began to realize, the rooms that had open doors towards the hallway were rooms with no class going on in them at that time, while the ones that seemed to have classes going on had their doors shut, probably to maintain the order of the class.

Really now… Even if I might not join this school, I would, at the very least, like to see one of the classes they offer here. Under normal circumstances I could just open the door and walk in to look around, but since I'm on the inside of this barrier, there is no way I can… Wait… Hold on a minute!

Kamijou spun her head around to look at the magician, who was at the time observing just the doorways of the rooms, rather than care about the rooms beyond. Looking at the red haired girl with the expression of utter confusion, the student began to ask her question.

"Hey… Miss Rune Magic… May I ask you something?"

The magician did her best to pretend and not notice the student's question, and instead did her best to observe everything around her. However the student began to inch her way closer and closer to the magician, as if her glare increased in intensity the closer she got.

It apparently worked, as the magician finally sighed and looked over at the student once again, an expression of annoyance and anger clear on her face.

"I guess I have enough time to answer whatever inane question you have. So… What is it this time?"

Kamijou began to almost instantly gesture at the doorways that lined the hall, planning to surely use them as an example.

"Yeah… It's just one little thing Miss Rune Magic… I had this small question that came up while looking at these lovely doors… Tell me. How in the world do you plan for us to investigate this hidden room, considering the fact that we can't even open any of these regular doors? Is there some sort of special doors that are involved in this room, or do you have a plan for finding a way in, or do you..."

Not even have a clue of what you are going to do at all?

Leaving her unasked question unasked, the student patiently waited for the magician to respond to her.

The magician briefly stared at the student, her face a completely blank canvas of emotion as she looked at the Kamijou. After a moment of this, the haired magician simply shook her head and sighed in disappointment.

"Really now… You are just stupid, aren't you?"

Kamijou quickly bit back the venomous retort that sprung to her mind, swallowing it back down as the magician looked back up at her.

"Tell me… Firstly… do you find it logical, or even probable, for a magician to go through all the trouble of hiding a room so well that it wouldn't even appear on a map of the building, also create a barrier that makes it easy to move around secretly, and then fail to make a way to enter into to it while hidden?"

Kamijou felt a bead of sweat roll down her neck as the magician glared at her after delivering her argument. Finding no way to argue with the magician, Kamijou could only sigh in a concession.

"Well… I guess it would be logical to think that there would be some sort of way to enter the hidden room when you put it like that."

The magician nodded in agreement to Kamijou's concession, shrugging a second later as she turned away from facing the student.

"Besides… If it is impossible for us to enter the hidden room, then we can simply leave and not waste any energy on it."

With that one line, all pretense of Kamijou keeping her mouth shut leapt out of the nearest window.

"Wait a second now?! Are you just going with the flow of things or something?! How in the world can you be this lazy?!"

The magician turned back towards the student, a vein in her head bulging out in annoyance and rage.

"Now hold on a second here! This has nothing to do with me being lazy or anything like that! It's just proper management of our time and energy. If we spend our entire time trying to break into this hidden room, the alchemist would be able to beat us quite easily when they decide to come and get rid of us."

Kamijou could barely contain her words as they began tumbling out of her mouth.

"But… But… But… Why are we even wasting our time to going to this room if there is no guarantee that we can enter it? Wouldn't it be better to just go and attack the alchemist right off the bat?"

The magician sighed yet again and slowly placed her hand on her head in dismay.

"… You know… It might just be me… but I get the feeling that you think I don't have any idea about what I'm doing. Now… I know you might think I'm incompetent, but the fact is that I have much more experience with this sort of thing than you do."

Kamijou instantly felt as if she were on the spot as the red haired girl stared at her. With no real retort prepared for the magician, the student turned her head away in another concession. The magician sighed and began to talk down to the student yet again.

"Now then… With that out of the way, now we can refocus ourselves on finding that hidden room… If I recall correctly… That room should be right around…?!"

Kamijou raised her eyebrow in curious interest at the shocked noise the magician made, and turned her head back to look at them, only to be surprised at what she saw.

The magician was holding a hand across her eyes, as if to hide reality from herself. Her face was a glowing red of embarrassment and annoyance, while she bit her lower lip as if to keep anything from spilling out.

Kamijou perplexedly looked past the magician.

What in the world could have caused that, and how do I reward it?

Looking past the embarrassed magician, Kamijou saw a particular doorway that stood out amongst the several that lined the wall. This doorway was a set of semi-translucent glass doors, with metal bar handles with a gold tinted color. Hanging on a hook next to the left most door was a small wooden plague that read "cafeteria".

All in all, it looked like something that was interesting, but not something that would elicit such a response from a magician. Kamijou tilted her head as she looked over at the red haired girl.

I… Don't think that is what set this crazy bitch off. I mean… it's just a door anyway. There isn't any way for us to…

"Ah…"

After Kamijou made that one sound, the magician lowered her hand from her face, revealing eyes that were tinged in annoyance and anger.

"So… It looks like we have arrived at our destination… As glorious a place as it is."

Kamijou stared at the doorway, words completely absent from her mind from the pure shock of being correct about something, while in the presence of the magician. After blankly staring for a few more seconds, the student looked over at the magician.

"So…Just for clarities sake… This is the hidden room you wanted us to find?"

The magician glared at Kamijou with an expression that spoke volumes about whether or not Kamijou should have asked that question, before clicking her tongue and glaring back at the doorway.

"That damn… Whatever they are! Do they have some sort of grudge against me, or do they think that this would be something that I would find funny? At this point, I couldn't even guess."

Kamijou watched the magician yell at themselves for a few seconds longer, before sighing to herself.

Well then… since this seems to be the hidden room…

"So… What now? If this truly is the 'hidden' room you were going on about, then are we just going to leave it like you said we would? There obviously isn't any way for us to get in there."

The magician sighed and semi nodded at Kamijou's point.

"… To be honest… I would rather just pass this up like I said I would… but you are wrong when you say that there is no way for us to enter the room."

Kamijou tilted her head in confusion, and, for some reason, a single bead of cold sweat began to flow down her cheek.

"Uhmmm… What are you talking about? I thought you said that we couldn't affect things on the other side of the barrier, unless you plan to use magic to open it."

The magician shook her head, again with a sigh, and gestured at the doorway without any flourish to her movements.

"No it's not something as complicated as that. There is a very simple solution to our problem, and luckily it is right in front of us."

Kamijou tilted her head again, completely confused by the magician's statement, and slowly turned her head to look at the translucent doors.

What in the world is she talking about? Unless there is something I'm missing here… I don't see any way to…?!

Kamijou felt her heart leap when she realized what it was that the magician was referring to.

Through the translucent doors of the cafeteria, Kamijou could clearly see the outlines of people moving around on the other side of them. The student turned her head to look over at the red haired magician, who was staring at the doors intently.

"Wait a second! You can't mean… That is your way in?!"

The magician glared at the student with an annoyed expression.

"What? Do you happen to have a better suggestion for getting in there? If you do, I would be glad to hear it."

Kamijou, despite not having anything else to suggest, stood her ground against the magician.

"But… But this is an incredibly stupid plan! Not only might we get killed because of it, but is there any real benefit to it if this is just some prank played by your contact?"

The magician continued to stare at the door for a few more moments, and, realizing it wouldn't open any time soon, sighed.

"Listen… Just because I said it was a 'joke', the common sense version of the word does not apply to that person in any way, shape or form. When they make a 'joke', there is always some shred of relevance to it."

Kamijou put her head in her hand as she tried to contemplate what the magician was saying, along with her own stumbling thoughts.

Now… I can understand that the magician wants to go in there for god only knows what reason, but… I really can't see how this will end well…

Kamijou looked once again over at the translucent doors, her eyes lingering on the figures that were shifting behind the doors. With a sigh, she looked back at the magician, who had returned to giving a death stare to the door.

"… Hey… Miss Rune Magic… Do we really have to-!"

Suddenly, as was pretty much everything that was happening to Kamijou lately, the doorway to the cafeteria opened up, being pushed open by a large male student maybe a year or two Kamijou's senior.

In that somewhat serene moment, one filled with tension and silence, the magician took the opportunity to charge forward, directly for a gap between the large male and the other door.

This sudden movement caught Kamijou completely off guard, but the situation left the student with absolutely no other option to take.

Gritting her teeth in the face of what was going on, Kamijou reluctantly rushed after the magician, as, one after the other the girls dove through the gap, seemingly not caring at all about the barrier that would crush them in a moment's notice.

The second after Kamijou had entered the room, she could see numerous people crowding around the entrance/exit of the room, and she had to quickly dodge around the mass of people for a good few seconds before she reached a point that could be called breathing room.

For the few seconds that Kamijou could relax, the student took a look around the room beyond the doors.

... Wow… This is… A pretty normal room isn't it?

Kamijou saw several people frantically running around, fighting over the few available tables in the room, while those with tables were calmly chatting with each other. The movements of the frantically moving people were almost impossible to predict, making Kamijou realize that if she took one misguided step, she was going to die a horrible death by being crushed to death.

However, before Kamijou could even begin to search for a 'safe' place and a route to it, she reflexively moved out of the way of two male students, who came careening towards each other as a speed that gave the female student only a fraction of a second to escape.

The second the Kamijou began to move, everything began to go to hell. A flurry of outstretched arms, walls of students and quickly moving bodies made an unpredictable corridor of death for the female student, one where every second her heart stopped from pure fear of what might happen to her if she stopped.

Finally, after a few seconds of frantic dodging, spinning and ducking, Kamijou finally made one last desperate lunge underneath a male students flailing arm, before running headfirst into the wall that had been on the other side of the room.

Don't say anything… there probably isn't anyone around to hear it, but I know that if I say some, I'll lose something important.

As the student remained silent, her face still pressed against the wall, as the stinging pain rushed into her face, primarily the area around her nose, as she began desperately tried to not to think negatively about what had just happened.

And of course, at that moment, the voice of the red haired magician began to sound off right next to Kamijou.

"Well… I must say… That was a rather spectacular finish to your blunderings… If I must say so myself."

Kamijou felt a vein in her neck begin to bulge out in rage, and she turned to look at the magician, completely prepared to scream at the girl.

However, when the student finally laid eyes on the magician, all inclination to yell when her gaze was met with a rather surprising scene.

The magician was against the wall, back to the ground and legs to the wall, looking up at the student with a gaze of accepting embarrassment. Somehow, the magician's habit was staying despite the force of gravity acting on it, but somehow Kamijou thought it was the willpower of the magician holding it up, rather than anything magical.

The magician quietly stared up at the ceiling, remaining silent despite having the student staring at them, before the magician began sighing in exhaustion.

"… Well… I guess I can say now that this room was completely pointless towards our investigation… And all in all, this seems to be a completely normal room."

Kamijou felt as if her blood pressure was rising up in response to the magician's words, but the student managed to contain her anger enough to offer a hand to the downed girl.

"Now that you have figured that out, maybe you should figure out a way to get us out of here safely and preferably before everyone else leaves the room and traps us here?"

The magician gratefully nodded and reached up and grabbed ahold of the students out stretched hand. After they had righted themselves, the magician began to take in the absurdly normal scenery with a critical eye.

"You know…. I really have to wonder about why in the world my contact would decide to send us here? I mean… for all I can see, this is a perfectly normal room, with absolutely nothing going on in it. My contact wouldn't send us here without some reason… but I can't figure out what that reason is."

Kamijou gave the magician a sarcastic roll of her eyes and a small sigh.

"Well… Maybe that contact of yours is getting revenge for something you did to them in the past? Can you think of anything that would have brought this on?"

The female magician either ignored Kamijou's sarcasm, or simply decided to no acknowledge it, but she began to answer the students question without even a single retort.

"No, it can't be that at all. My contact wouldn't go and pull a prank like on account of any slight I had dealt them. If anything, the most likely reason for my contact to do this to us would be because they know that I have no way of getting back at them for it."

Kamijou tilted her head to the side in clear confusion at the magician's choice of words, but the magician ignored the look in order to continue to critically assess the room. After a moment of this the red haired girl sighed again.

"Something about all of this just doesn't sit right with me… I just can't shake the feeling that there is something here. What in the world am I missing?"

Kamijou, almost ready to grab the magician and drag her back to the doors by force, sighed to the magician, gesturing in her annoyance.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe you are just over thinking these things? If you are constantly thinking you are missing something that you can't find, aren't you always going to think that there is something missing?"

The magician began to slowly nod at Kamijou's explanation, before her entire body froze up in surprise. Her eyes widened for a single moment before her regular motion returned to her.

"Yes… I would agree with you completely on that point, but right now the problem with my thinking isn't what is missing in this picture…. But rather what I'm adding on my own."

Kamijou raised an eyebrow in a gesture of surprise, clearly questioning what it was that the magician was going to say next. The magician, in turn, began her explanation.

"Before we entered this room, before we discovered the barrier, and before we even entered the building… I have been acting on basis of two assumptions that I had made that I had assumed to be right at the time… Now I see that I was wrong to assume them."

Kamijou opened her mouth to ask a question of the magician, but the red haired girl held up a single finger, signaling the student to remain silent. Kamijou grudgingly appiled, though it did not keep her from clicking her tongue.

The magician instantly launched back into her explanation.

"The first assumption… was that the alchemist actually had talent for magic as well as a talent for alchemy. I had no indication that the alchemist could use magic, yet I had instantly assumed that if I was being used to fight them, then magical skill had to have been present."

The student tilted her head in confusion yet again, and this time managed to ask a question before getting shushed by the red haired girl.

"But if that is true, then what about the barrier? I the alchemist truly doesn't have magic, then how are they controlling this?"

The magician smiled across at Kamijou and continued her explanation.

"My second assumption… was that the cult had been destroyed. Though their destruction was almost certain, it is clear to me now that assuming that to be the case blinded me to the truth."

Kamijou tilted her head, now completely confused as to what the magician was saying. She gestured at the room in general as she sighed.

"What in the world are you talking about now? First you say that the cult has been eliminated; now you say they haven't been? Can you please make your mind up about these things?"

The magician nodded her head in an accepting manner, also gesturing to the room as she began to continue her explanation.

"I will admit, that is a mistake on my part, considering it was I who made the assumption that the cult had been completely destroyed. Had I not assumed that from the start, then perhaps I might have done things differently."

Kamijou sighed and put her head in her hands.

"Well then… If this cult hasn't been destroyed, where are they then? I haven't seen anyone that strikes me as a cult member, and you haven't presented me with any evidence that they exist."

The magician nodded to Kamijou as if she were agreeing with her, yet her eyes clearly communicated to the student that the red haired girl was focused on something else.

"Well… those are all excellent questions… But they are best left for someone who is in the cult, don't you think?"

Kamijou simply raised an eyebrow in a gesture of being completely lost, a gesture that the magician did nothing to respond to. Instead the magician walked over to one of the tables that were near the far wall.

At the table there were three girls around it, all talking with each other in a normal way, none of them giving off a particularly strange aura. The magician went up and stood at the head of the table, taking the time to look at all three of the students sitting at the table with a critical eye.

In a flash, a card flashed from a hidden pocket of the magician's, and within a second, the card was at the throat of one of the female students, holding it there for a few seconds before speaking.

"Now… You can put your hands up right now, and possibly have a chance to live… Or we could have some fun?"

After a moment of silence, girl with a card to her neck slowly raised her hands up.

"Okay… I give up…"