It had been a few months since the end of the festival. Scott's relationship with Ai was going quite well. They had been spending a lot of time together and were very content with each other. In that time she had managed to convince him to join the Science club in full. He had served them as a kind of consultant in the past. That's how they first met, after all. The members liked his child-like obsession with scientific pursuits and his rather blunt manner of observation. He had a natch of picking up on the important things they tended to miss. Thus, they had come to see him as their personal "five-year old" as the evil overlord list would put it. It also helped that many of them held his utter contempt for regulation and administration. Rules, you see, tend to get in the way of progress.

Scott, sadly in Tomino's eyes, wasn't able to sell his soul to science as she had. He told her he'd already sold it to God. However, God never said anything bad about it, and Gregor Mendel, pretty much the father of genetics, was a religious order priest (you don't get more hardcore than that in the church). Thus, God loved science. So when Ai finally resorted to begging him to join, he agreed. Here was their exchange…

"Ok, I'm not a great scientist like the rest of you guys, but this means I'll get to spend more time with you right?"

"Yeah! You'll get unlimited access to the building, and by extension, me!"

"Alright, so long as I get to help you out." He closed his eyes and smiled.

"Hehe, are you that obsessed with me that you need to spend your every waking moment in my presence?" She asked as she assumed a playful pose.

"No, it's just," He looked away, blushing, "I want to see more of this side of you."

"You sure about that?" She got a scary look on her face, a face she made sure he saw.

"Damn sure," he responded without hesitation, "I want to see every side of you. I want to know who and what you truly are. Only then can I know for sure if I truly love you for who you are."

"So… You want to know what constitutes my soul," She looked into his eyes as she touched her chest, sporting the face of a mad scientist dreaming of what they're going to do with a juicy new test subject, "Right?"

"*gulp* Yes."

She checked to see if anyone was looking. Then, when she was sure they were alone, she draped her arms around him and moved her face but an inch from his, "Ok. I think I can do that."

She kissed him and smiled warmly. They held each other in silence for a long while afterward.

That was a few days ago. Now he was lying in his bed staring at the ceiling, thinking. He hadn't seen her in days with all the work they had to do for their classes and clubs. However, much as he tried to think about something else a snippet of his drunken conversation with his father just kept clawing away at the inside of his skull.

"Notice anything strange Scott?" Asked Alex.

"Aw hell yeah, they be larp'in Harry Potter, but the spells actually go off!"

The more he thought about it, the more certain he became of what he saw, and the more he remembered other little things that wouldn't normally catch anyone's attention. People acting exhausted in the middle of the day for no discernible reason, flickers out of the corners of his vision, the body language of certain professors… none of it passed the smell test.

And then there was the fact of his adoptive father. That just plan stank to high heaven! During the festival he always acted like he was anxious to leave him, a sentiment he had never displayed in all the years he had known him. Indeed, he always seemed sad that he had to leave his presence. And when that anxiousness overwhelmed him, when he suddenly left him... Why? Without even bothering to change into more normal clothing? It just didn't make any sort of sense. Unless...

"There was, no, is something here. Something my Father didn't want me involved in." He realized as he laid in his bed, reaching skyward as he clenched his fist. Then he remembered the incident he told his father about:

"World Tree Pavilion, just after sunrise. Drank too much, stayed up all night and felt like walking, saw that. It was impossible, wasn't it?" He set his alarm clock for 4 a.m. and prepared an outfit he had stashed in the ceiling.

"He feared for me when he left me. He was prying into things people in high places would rather not see the light of day." A large grin crept across his face. "Hehe, this is exciting, I'm getting worked up just thinking about it! I'll show those Potter Posers what a mere muggle can do!" He said. Then he took a double shot of whiskey to hasten his loss of consciousness, He'd need all the rest he could get.

When the alarm went off it was still dark, but it was clear that the sun was fast approaching the horizon. He donned the outfit. It was such a simple costume, consisting of a simple ceramic mask with the kanji for "you", a full-body cloak, and a pair of leather gloves that, when put together, would completely hide all aspects of his identity.

He snuck into a building overlooking the pavilion through an unlocked door. He felt a powerful urge to run away as he made his approach, but he shook it off. The janitors had a habit of forgetting to lock the doors behind them after a long night. Nobody else ever seemed to notice this, so they were never reprimanded.

"Thank God I hate snitches." He thought. He quietly opened a second story window and threw a small gray pellet into the middle of the area, then closed the window and equipped an earbud.

"Now I'll get to hear you turkey's talk!" He thought.

Sure enough, about 30 minutes later a young female professor and several small children filed into the pavilion. He ducked below the windowsill and pushed the earbud into his ear whilst plugging the other one. He tried not to think about the people below him, remembering the warnings of his father:

"If you're shadowing someone, gunning for them, or just in their general vicinity and don't want to get their attention, Remember this fact. Everyone has a bit of a sixth sense. For instance, we know when other people are looking at us, and sometimes we can tell that they're thinking about us. Therefore, you will not think about them. And above all else you will not look directly at them. If you do, you will probably trigger that sense and get discovered before you've completed your business. That is an example of failure, Scott, and I have not raised you to fail."

"Ok children, today we're going to continue learning basic attack magic." Said a calm feminine voice.

"Pff, I already know how to make fire. Watch! Practe Bigi Nar Ardescat!" He heard a flame dancing in the wind. "See? Give me some gasoline and I'm good to go!" said an impetuous male.

"That most basic of magics will not save you from the threats that lurk in the darker parts of the world Atreu!" Said the woman, scolding him.

"Says you Sensei!" Responded the impetuous brat, "Brains beat brawn every day of the week! My dad taught me that!"

"Isn't your father dead Mahi? Didn't he die sealing that demon?" Said a young girl.

"Shadup!" Said the child angrily.

"Ohh, hit a sore spot didn't I? I suppose if he had more brains he'd still be here, eh? Oh, I forgot," she said cruely, "he's not. Well, since he was a weak little…"

"SHAD-UUUUP!" The child yelled at the top of his lungs. Scott heard the sound of a fist impacting flesh. "How dare you say that! He was, *sniff* he was…" Scott could almost hear the tears flowing down the young man's face. He wanted so dearly to see, but that warning kept his head down.

Whatever this was, it was not acting in any sense of the word. He was certain that whole exchange was serious. But that meant…

"Damnit!" he thought as he slammed his fist against the wall, "…damnitdamnitdamnitDAMNIT!" He slammed it again, "I was right. Magic exists, and there's a conspiracy aiming to keeping it hidden. Fuck, I bet that J.K. Rowling bitch is in on it. God knows those books helped would've helped with the plausible deniability of such a conspiracy! This must have been what my father was searching for, proof of its existence. And I haven't heard from him in a month. Oh no, did they…"

His rage gave way to fear. His father had taught him enough of the true history of the world to know what happens when powerful people decide someone "knows too much".

"I have to get out of here before I'm found out." He thought, pushing his swelling emotions aside. He deactivated the bug and snuck out of the building. As he opened the door opposite of the pavilion a chill ran up his spine. Another of his father's warnings forged its way to the surface of his mind, chilling him to the bone.

"You'll know when you've fucked up. A kind of chill will run up your spine as a sense of despair fills your soul. After that terror will attempt to claim your mind." All this was happening to him now, "If this happens to you… RUN! Run as fast as your body will allow you to as you pray as hard as you can to whatever supernatural powers you believe exist. Trust me, you'll need their help to get away at that point. They've found you, and they are in no way feeling merciful. Take it from a formal monster. You have two outcomes at that point, escape or death. No exceptions."

"Oh fuck me, I've been found out! I beg of you almighty God, give me the strength to run away!" He prayed as he immediately broke into a hard sprint. A woman descended from the sky as though she had leaped from the pavilion. A look of contempt filled her eyes as her feet touched the ground.

"Eat THIS!" he yelled instinctively as he leaped and punched her as hard as he could in the face, the massive dose of adrenaline he just recieved releasing all the subconscious restraints placed upon his strength. The bones in his hand cracked under the strain as it pierced her barrier and impacted her skull with incredible force, sending her flying. She hit the ground limply, out cold.

"Tyamira-Sensei!" Screamed the children in unison.

He kept running, his heart and legs assuming the character of a hummingbird. Two beams of light were streaming towards him.

"Crap!" he screamed in his mind as he rolled diagonally to the side, barely dodging them. He regained his footing without losing momentum. A few more paces and he jumped and turned in midair to throw a few packets which exploded into a large, thick screen of smoke. Two more beams passed through the cloud, but they missed him by a wide margin.

"Gotta see em' to hit em' eh? Weak." He thought.

He made it to his room without any more trouble. He locked the door behind him and collapsed due to exhaustion and adrenaline withdrawal. After he caught his breath he got some ice out of his freezer to put on his hand. As he fell onto his bed he noticed a postage box that wasn't on his desk when he left.

"Jeez, don't they know there are mailboxes for this sort of thing?" he thought. Yet upon closer inspection he was surprised to see that it had no postage markings of any kind. He shook it and it rattled, then he slammed it on the desk repeatedly, nothing happened.

"Goddamnit, just explode on me already!" He yelled.

*Slam* *Slam* "Hey, some of us are trying to sleep here!"

"Can it Nomura, I know for a fact you stayed up all night playing H-games!"

"No I didn't!" He responded indignantly.

"Fun fact ya little wanker, I'm up till at least 3a.m. So you might wanna keep the volume down until then. Sex moans are pretty damn easy to recognize, understand?" Of course, he went under much earlier than that last night. But Nomura was very predictable.

"Screw you Gaijin Yankee!"

"Heeeell. If being a Gaijin Yankee makes me less of a pervert than you, then I'm sure as hell glad I am one! Now go back to your 'fun' with the 2D ladies. After all, it's the only action you'll ever see in this life ya butt ugly jap! Gyahahahahaaaa!" He responded.

"Grrrrr, I hate you!" Nomura pouted as he went back to doing exactly what Scott thought he was doing.

He set the dented package down on his desk and stared at it. His mind became full with speculations on what could be in the box. Bombs? Drugs? CIA Intelligence Reports? The Holy Grail? Anthrax? What's in the box?" He wondered, and wondered, and wondered… He knew opening it was the worst idea ever but…

"Gah! I can't take it anymore!" He yelled.

He savagely tore it open and found an exquisitely made prop pistol that looked pretty damn familiar and a note attached to it with a bit of twine.

Dear MedicantSlayer9,

I've known you for many years, yet I've never seen your face, nor have I ever gotten you a birthday present. I know this prop isn't much, but I wanted to get you something you'd think was cool. I know how much you love anime so I hope it looks familiar to you. Sorry it isn't perfect, moving parts are hard to make ya' know? Still, I hope you like it. Be sure to talk to me next time we're both online. You're one awesome motherfucker, never forget that. Ok?

Practe,

CalmDissidia666

This was all very strange, he knew Calm, and Calm knew him. They both knew each other's true name. So why use online handles when they haven't done so for over a year? Furthermore, the close was unorthodox. "Practe?" What the hell was that supposed to…mean.

He picked up the gun and focused his mind, then waved the gun and said "Practe Bigi Nar." Nothing. Now he focused all his energy and in all seriousness and shouted the words "Practe Bigi Nar, Ardescat!"

Two rings of metal fell off the gun to reveal what looked like vents and the breech opened up. The letter immediately began to glow and the writing disappeared. In its place were 5 big words "So You Figured It Out" with a play, pause, and stop symbol in the lower left of the paper. He hit play. A hologram of a tan individual with a sun tattoo around one of his eyes appeared.

"Ho-ly shit. This was one hell of a long shot, damn you're in deep. Of course, I already thought you were. You're too smart for their bullshit.

Anyway Scott, that gun ain't no replica, it's a fully functional reproduction with a few extra features. If you fire it empty it's a standard anti-golem antique. Hits like a good punch on people and completely deactivates magic powered constructs. We're almost done with the ammo to go with it. I got a mad scientist and one of the best mages in my world. Seriously, it'll be badass once it's all said and done. Just hang in there, and don't get caught. I want to meet you in person one day, it'd suck if you thought me a complete stranger. So keep em' in the dark for me in the meantime eh? C'ya around…" The image faded.

"Holy shit, all these years I've been best buds with a mage and didn't know it. And now I know this school's full of em'…now that's some epic level paranoia fuel." He thought. He couldn't break the masquerade, anything he could do or think up had already been tried and failed. Else there wouldn't be a masquerade in the first place. He decided to forget about that for the moment and text Ai.

"Haven't seen you in a few days, wanna skip classes for the day and hang out with me?"

"Wha? No, I need to keep my grades up!"

"You're getting perfect grades."

"Yeah, and I want to keep them that way."

"Ok then, how about this, I've discovered something interesting."

"What is it?"

"Hehe, it's not something that can be explained. Rather, it needs to be seen."

"Show me after classes."

"Gah! C'mon. Please /beg?"

"Sorry, but I'll make it up to you. Maybe I'll let you make them bigger :3"

"No point in arguing with you I see, fine. You better meet me after classes."

"I will. Love you. "

"Yeah yeah love you too grumble grumble." A faint smile showed on her face as she read that last text.

He Grabbed his head, "Damnit! The longer she's in the dark the more danger she's in! To make matters worse, the only way she'll believe me is if I show her the caster! GAAAAAAAH!"

He slammed his fists on the desk, "Oh fuck it!" He retrieved a fifth of vodka he'd stashed and took a large swig. "Kheeeee. I need a drink after all this shit. No, beyond that, I need to get fucked the hell up! Fuck classes and this lying shithole of a school while I'm at it! I've officially had all I can fucking take goddamnit! Fuck this Crapsack World!" he thought as he upended the bottle, chugging the liquor to get as drunk as he possibly could.

It was now 9p.m. local time, the sky was dark and Scott was beyond shitfaced waiting by a fountain with a 40 in hand.

"Scott! Why you…you told me you'd stop doing this!" She said trembling with rage.

"I'm *hic* sorry me love, but ye don't understand."

"Don't understand what? You don't need booze now that you have me! I don't want you to hurt yourself like this!" He started to chug, tears began to well up in her eyes. "Stop it! Please!"

He produced the 'prop' his buddy sent him. "Reconize this thing?"

"Yeah, I know that thing. It was in that anime you made me watch a week ago. It's called a caster, right?"

He fired it straight at the ground, a beam of light flew from the barrel and exploded next to Ai's feet.

"What?" She responded.

"Now I know what ye thinkin', how the hell did ye boy Scott get his hands on a fully armed and operational caster." He fired it a few more times rapidly at the same spot. There was virtually no recoil, so his accuracy was nearly perfect. "Well, not quite fully, shells are in de mail as we speak! Hehe *hic*."

"I have no idea how you're making it shoot like that. Tell me how." her rage was giving way to curiosity. Such realism shouldn't be possible yet, so how did he pull this off?

"Magic." He pointed the gun at his left hand and fired. It was just as Vajra said it would be. It felt just like a good punch, pain and all. His left hand started to bruise. It was now that Ai noticed the fresh ice on his right.

"Wha…what is this? Scott, what have you been doing? Why have you been drinking! Please tell me!"

"You wouldn't believe me unless you saw." He wiped the moisture from her face, "Magic, it exists Ai, and I had a run in with a few mages just after sunrise today." He handed her the recording her bug had picked up and waited for her to finish listening to it.

"I dinnae know tha extent of they powers…if they discovered me true identity and started to investigate, they'd find ye in an instant. Oh God. They could do so much worse than torture ye in front of me eyes!" Now he began to cry, "What if they threatened to remove the very memory of you from my mind to ensure me silence, or worse, me cooperation in their schemes to ferret out others like meself? I couldn't take it Ai, the longer ye remained in the dark…"

Ai had seen Scott like this before. However, even when thoroughly inebriated he never acted like this. The sincerity in his voice... No matter how unbelievable his story, no matter how crazy he sounded…

"The more danger I was in. Anyone could be on the other side, determined to maintain the masquerade at all costs."

"Yeah. Please undestand, I would nae be like dis if I could stand these thoughts sober Ai. Please stop crying Ai," He put his hand to her face, "tha more ye cry…"

"Oh Cipher." She pressed his head hard into her flat chest. "I'm sorry. if I would have listened to you earlier you wouldn't have…"

"*sniff* It's ok, I'm just happy ye don't think I'm crazy."

"Hehe, yeah you are, but that's one of the things I love most about you." She smiled through her tears.

"Us both. Ye don't get into tha Science club if ye not psychologically unstable."

"Yeah, I guess you're right…" Once more, they held each other tightly. Too bad Scott threw up on her mere moments later and passed out. She carried him to his room and placed him on his stomach.

"Friggin' drunk, why did I have to go and fall for you of all people? Because of this...I'm not going to let you touch me for a month!" She yelled at him. It was a promise she ultimately couldn't keep and she knew it, but she sure as hell was going to try. She wasn't about to let someone she loved destroy themselves like that. He loved her too, he'd pour it all into the drain if only he could kiss her once more. That's what she hoped anyway.