Chapter Six

"Oniiiiiiii! Oniiiiiii!"

Heaven Canceler could hear the screaming from the far end of the hall. He jogged down the passageway, white jacket flapping in the wind. He was flanked by pink-clad nurses, ready to assist if necessary. Turning into the room the doctor immediately saw two armed men standing beside the bed with guns leveled at the hysterical patient.

"Put those things away! It's just a panic attack, you fools!" Frog-face bellowed as he stepped in front of the two men and slapped the muzzles into the air.

"I'm sorry, sensei, but we have orders from the-" one of the two began to explain.

"This is a hospital! I won't have anyone making more work for me here!" The Doctor gave both of them a shove, "Get these two out of here!"

Three white-cloaked men stepped forward and pulled the militants from the room, shutting the door behind them.

"Musujime-san!" Heaven Canceler leaned over the restrained maiden and spoke urgently, but softly. "Please calm down! There's nothing to be afraid of!" He placed a hand on her forehead. "Slow down and take deep breaths."

Arms wrapped tightly around her. From behind.

A familiar, nostalgic scent.

On her balcony. Nights ago.

Musujime Awaki slowly stopped struggling and began to breathe regularly.

"That's a good girl. Just like that."

"Onii… Onii…" she continued to mutter.

"Onii?" Heaven Canceler frowned. There was something odd about the way she was intoning the word. Something…

His cheek touched hers.

How long had it been?

Like this. Always behind her.

Watching over her shoulder.

"Onii…" The doctor muttered to himself. "Onii-san? Impossible…"

"Excuse me, sensei?" a nurse bent over to hear what her superior was saying.

"He died years ago. I was there to pronounce him dead."

"Onee-chan," he whispered softly into her ear. She felt a tear slide down his cheek and onto hers. "I'm back."

"Onii-chan!" Awaki suddenly cried.

Old frog-face leapt up from where he knelt beside her and looked into her the face. Her eyes were focused and tears flowed freely from them.

"Welcome home!"

(***)

"Well, I'll be leaving first!" Takeki smiled at the doorway.

"Keep safe out there," Touma smiled back and waved from the table.

It had been a great morning. Not only did he have nothing to fear with no female in the house, but Takeki had gone out of his way to make breakfast. Evidently the boarder had gone out to the convenience store early and gathered fresh ingredients. It was the first time that Touma had awakened to a well prepared breakfast. In retrospect, this was probably his reward for all his good deeds. He was looking forward to Takeki being in town a bit longer.

Takeki had taken a step down the hall when the neighboring door opened. Motoharu yawned and stepped into the sunlight. The two looked each other over. Tsuchimikado was dressed leisurely, as always; the top buttons of his Hawaiian shirt were left unbuttoned and his school bag was slung over his shoulder. In comparison, Takeki was dressed very formally with a white collared shirt tucked into pleated slacks.

Motoharu could practically hear a "nipaa~" as Takeki smiled brightly, said "good morning," and bowed.

Takeki continued strolling past the man, whose gaze slowly turned fierce. Before Musujime could move out of reach Motoharu grabbed him by the collar, pulled him into the room, and slammed him into the wall. Takeki didn't make a single objection to the violence.

"What are you here for!?" Motoharu demanded, his characteristic cool far removed from him.

"Ummm…," Takeki shrunk away from the attacker as best as he could, looking like he might start crying, "I'm sorry, I-"

"Don't give me that crap, Mage Slayer!" Motoharu shouted. He grabbed Takeki's hair and yanked on it.

Musujime Takeki's hair was the only thing that remained. The rest of his body was gone.

"You filthy bastard," Takeki's disembodied voice rumbled like thunder.

Motoharu's head was crushed against the wall. His glasses splintered in his face, piercing into it. His hand holding the hair was gripped and torqued into a wristlock. The action caused him to instantly drop the wig. The unseen assailant bent Motoharu's wrist further, distracting him momentarily while the attacker removed his hand from the young man's head and forced an elbow sharply into his shoulder. Pinning Tsuchimikado to the wall with his elbow, Takeki used the same hand and the wristlock to turn the threatened arm into an arm bar.

"I killed the last person that touched my hair," the well-mannered young man informed the thug. That being said, Takeki pulled the arm back and struck forward with his elbow. Tsuchimikado grunted as his arm snapped and then he crumpled to the floor. "Consider yourself fortunate that I'm not allowed to kill you," Mage Slayer uttered darkly, picking the wig off the floor gingerly.

Motoharu, gritting his teeth in pain, looked up at the living legend. He saw what few other humans on earth have seen. A scar arced around the left side of Takeki's bald head. It was deep, but clean and perfectly made. Super imposed across his entire skull was a glowing, red rune. It was a rune so complex that Motoharu couldn't even begin to decipher it. The glow from it cast shadows across the young man's face, making him seem older and well worn. The mix of these shadows with the red glow left an overall menacing and slightly demonic impression. Before Tsuchimikado could look at the rune in more detail Takeki donned his wig.

"Thank our Heavenly Father for granting you fast healing," the Mage Slayer commanded as he bent down to pick up the glasses he had lost in the scuffle and place them in his shirt pocket.

"Just 'cause I'm part of Necessarius doesn't mean I'm catholic," Motoharu spat. "Tell me, is it you who is attacking the Level 5's?"

Takeki leaned back against the opposing wall, pressing the sole of one foot against it. "Yep."

"Were you told who to attack?" Shards of glass began to plink against the ground as they fell from Tsuchimikado's face. He had stopped bleeding and the skin was starting to knit itself back together.

"Nope, the church didn't tell me anything about my targets. I'm just here to defeat every Level 5 in the city." The air around Takeki was completely different now. He radiated power and pride even though his posture was relaxed.

"I assume you're staying with Kamijou-kun because you know about his faction."

"That's right," he replied easily.

"Then are you aware that one of those Level 5's that you attacked was the electromaster that's part of his group."

Musujime studied the boy with a sage-like scrutiny. "I thought she was a wind mage at first. Even so I wasn't sure if the rumors were true."

Motoharu nodded. His elbow began reconstructing itself which caused an annoying, tingling feeling. In response he began massage it firmly despite the pain. "You probably saw her steel sand field. Though it looks like a wind spell she's actually using magnetism to manipulate it."

Takeki scowled and looked at the ground. "I'll go apologize to her and hope the Church doesn't find out." He gave the injured middle schooler a meaningful look.

"Don't worry, I won't tell them." Motoharu paused for a moment as a thought occurred to him. "They don't expect you to come back, do they?"

A wry smile pulled at Musujime's lips. "It's that obvious, huh?"

"No information prepared before hand, no contacts once you enter the city, they didn't tell me or anyone else on the inside that you were coming… What would prompt you to take a job like this?"

The small smile disappeared. "Something more valuable than all the Church's assets."

"Such as?"

Takeki glared down at him. "You have some nerve prying like that."

"But of course," Tsuchimikado began grinning, "you can't kill me, nya."

The pain was gone and with it was any fear that he had.

Takeki suppressed his indignation. "That's all the information you will get," he raised his chin and stared down into Motoharu eyes, "Fallere825."

"Ooh, mage name, nya!" the boy cooed mockingly. "Getting serious now, nya?"

Takeki ignored his taunts. "Where do I find the rest of the Level 5's?"

Understanding that the Mage Slayer wasn't going to be baited anymore, Tsuchimikado began relinquishing information. "Let's see-nya. Two nights ago were Rank 2 and Rank 3. Were there anymore last night nya?" As he spoke he got up and walked over to his closet.

"I took care of the leader of ITEM last night."

"Good job then, nya." He slid the door to the closet open and began rummaging around inside. "You did me a favor, nya."

"Stop it with the nya's."

"I can't help it, nya. It's my character," and with that his head emerged from the storage area. His grin was bigger than ever and he was wearing a new pair of shades.

Takeki sighed and rubbed his temples with his right hand. "So… Who's left?"

"That would leave Rank 5, the Queen. I'm not exactly sure where her dorm is, but you can find her at Tokiwadai during the school day, nya. Then Sogiita Gunha, Rank 7, will be a pain to track down, nya. I'll look into it, but chances are you're just going to have to ask around on the street until you finally find him, nya."

After a moment of anticipation, Takeki continued.

"ITEM's leader was either 4 or 6, so there should still be one more."

"You can give up on that one, nya." Tsuchimikado shook his head. "Not even I know anything about the Rank 6, nya."

Musujime stood silently for a while. "Well," he exhaled at length, straightened his posture, and began smoothing out his uniform, "I suppose there's nothing I can do about that." He pulled his glasses out of his breast pocket and turned his innocent personality back on. "I look forward to working well with you in the future!" he beamed.

"Aren't you forgetting someone?" the Onmyōji called as the Mage Slayer reached for the door handle.

"No, I'm not." There was a brief silence. Takeki knew that Motoharu would prompt him again if he didn't answer. "I plan to take my time killing him. He'll be the last one before I leave this city."