Chapter 2 Grimoire Haze: Book of Law
You've got to be kidding me, she transferred here!?
Although I haven't been caught in Himemiko's line of sight yet, she would see me in a few seconds as she sweeped the class to look at... an empty seat.
Here I am hiding under my table like a juvenile kindergarden kid. Oh genius me. If Yomikawa could see me now.
As my nervous giggling took a crescendo I saw an awesome set of skinny legs that led to a skirt that was too long to peek up, "So what are you doing under there Ryusuke-san?" Himemiko asked.
"U-ummm looking for my eraser!" I said a little too quickly as I pulled out an eraser I had in my hand the whole time.
"Uh... huh." Himemiko said as she smiled with a grin that broadcasted the fact she knew that I was lying as she sat in front of me, "I look forward to learning with you."
"L-likewise." I replied as I took my seat once more as Yomikawa tapped the blackboard to get our attention once again.
"So with Daihaseisai coming up we will be participating in all of the events, I expect you all to work hard jan."
"Sensei... A-all of them?" Iruko said as he grit his teeth.
"You heard me right Iruko, all of them. And no slacking off! Do your best alright everyone?
"Yes sensei!"
A few hours later, after going through several painstaking hours of class, I breathed a heavy sigh of relief when the lunch bell rang.
"You shouldn't sigh like that Ryusuke-chan, you age every time you do." Himemiko said as she pulled out a small bento box.
"Wow you make your own lunch?" I asked, fishing in my pocket for any spare change.
"Yes, it's cheaper and more nutritious." Himemiko replied as she pulled out a pair of chopsticks.
"Huh, so you're the new girl huh?" Takashi said as she eyed Himemiko, sizing her up.
Flanked by her two bodyguards as usual Takashi twitched her head causing her tresses to jerk over her shoulder, "What's your level?"
"What might you be talking about?" Himemiko asked politely, folding her chopsticks over her bento box as she turned her attention up to Takashi and her flunkies.
"Your ability level! You're an Esper aren't you?! Don't tell me this class has another brainless bimbo." Takashi said angrily before muttering the last insult under her breath.
"Hmm but level wasn't relevant when I applied..." Himemiko replied, tilting her head in mild confusion.
"Are you kidding me? You want to fight?!" Takashi yelled, glaring at Himemiko as she started to raise a hand.
Oi oi, I'm right here.
"You really work faster and faster don't you?" I growled as I started to stand up.
"Relax Ryusuke-san." Himemiko said as she looked at me and back to Takashi.
"I am relaxed. I'm just going to go buy lunch, I'll bring it back here to eat with you ok?"
"I'll be right here then." Himemiko replied with a nod.
"Oi don't just ignore me assholes!" Takashi yelled, conducting an electric charge from Iruko shooting two lightning bolts out one for each of us.
As both attacks fizzled in midair, Takashi took a step back in shock at what happened first looking at Himemiko and then me trying to find out who the culprit was until her gaze finally settled on me.
"You didn't learn anything from our last fight I take it?" I said with a sardonic smirk, Hayato starting to inch away, "Well I'd love to stay and play but if I do I'm sure Komoe-sensei's lot will grab all the yakisoba buns so I'm off. Try not to kill each other while I'm gone."
"You think you can just walk away?!" Takashi growled at my retreating back.
"Yes I think I can. I personally don't feel like doing anything today." I replied as I walked out of the class without looking back.
"Your boyfriend's gone. Who's going to save your skin now?" Takashi said from inside the classroom.
Sighing softly as I leaned on the wall next to the back classroom door, I heard Himemiko say calmly, "Iruko-san, didn't Yomikawa-sensei want to speak to you regarding your homework?"
"What? Why would she want to when I didn't give her... any..."
"Wouldn't you want to hand up at least something? I don't know how she is with her class but she's really quite the Anti Skill." Himemiko said as she smiled up at him.
As heavy footsteps quickly sounded in the class and towards the front classroom door, Iruko started to set a new land speed record towards the library carrying his exercise books as the other onlookers in the class watched in awe as Takashi was left alone with Himemiko.
"So Takashi-san, where were we? I'm sorry for that minor interruption but you now have my full attention." Himemiko said with a genuine smile.
"Tch, this isn't over!" Takashi muttered as she stalked off out of the class.
With the rest of the day passing by rather uneventfully I let out a soft sigh of relief when the final bell rang signalling the end of school.
"Again with the sighing Ryusuke-san, if you're not careful you'd be an old man by the time you're 30." Himemiko said.
"I hope it doesn't come to that." I replied as my eyes rolled to the top right my mind trying to visualise that for a split second.
"Well, I've just moved in to the girls dorm so I haven't unpacked yet. Would you be free tonight? It would be faster if two people tackled it instead of one."
My first reaction to refuse on the grounds that unpacking wasn't a two person job especially if it's only for a single student until my mental gears started turning. Could she have an alternate reason for asking me over?
"Well, if I have no plans for tonight I'd be happy to help." I replied with a smile.
"Oh you have plans? It's alright, I did spring this on you all of a sudden after all."
"No it's fine really, you know how guys are, never deciding whether to go out for dinner or not until half an hour after they get hungry then everything turns into a mad rush." I replied with a snort.
"You really should be more organised, but okay." Himemiko replied as we started our walk back towards the dormitories.
We had barely gotten halfway back when my phone beeped with an incoming message. With Len and Tsubaki still on their study trip and the MIISAKA sisters easily contacting me via the network insntead of my phone I started to wonder who could have sent the message as I moved my arm to tap the top left hand notifications bar to enlarge the notification.
"Is something wrong?" Himemiko asked, noticing my bizarre hand movement.
"N-no just stretching my arm." I replied with a nervous grin as I opened the message with a downwards drag of my hand.
"Sorry to disturb your date, but meet me outside your dorm room in ten minutes. It's urgent, I'll brief you on the way. -Akiha"
Sounds serious, and date...? Wait, is she stalking me?!
Turning my head around to look around for possible vantage points where she could be watching, my phone beeped again as I was doing so, "Stop looking around like an idiot. I'm already gone. Your dorm room. Nine minutes don't be late. -Akiha"
"Something wrong?" Himemiko asked.
"Y-yeah, sorry. I guess something did come up after all. I'll see you tomorrow yeah?"
"Sure, see you tomorrow then." Himemiko replied with a nod.
Dashing off to my dormitory room, Akiha was outside tapping her foot irritably as I arrived totally out of breath.
"You're two minutes late. I told you it's urgent." Akiha said, staring me down.
What happened to her usual joking and flirtatious side?
"When you're done staring at me, dump your bag and lets go. I have a lot to tell you and not much time to do so. Oh and you'll need these." Akiha said, handing me an envelop.
Exit papers...?
"We're leaving the city?" I asked as Akiha broke into a jog.
Scrambling to keep up with her while not losing any of the precious documents in my hands I looked over the papers, "They seem legit but these are falsified, I'd get in trouble for this!"
"That's where you're wrong." Akiha replied, not even breaking a sweat as we headed for the wall that separated Academy City from the outside world, "The ink on those papers will dissolve into water in a few hours. It will get you through the checkpoints but by the time they realise the papers are false there'll be nothing left. Your institutions really do invent useful toys."
Please don't just admit to breaking and entering like that in public, it'd be troublesome if you got caught.
"So... Why the sudden need to leave? You're not running away... are you...?"
Akiha motioning me to be silent as we approached the checkpoint, I calmly handed my papers over to the Anti Skill in the booth before being passing through the gates and out of the city.
That was... too easy.
"Not it wasn't. You would not believe how long it took me to get that thing filled in." Akiha muttered.
Giggling at Akiha's remark, her expression changed again from joking to serious, "Ryu, what I'm about to tell you is highly sensitive and you should not even have knowledge of it. But there is a world of the supernatural that you don't know about, the world that I come from."
"Magic?" I ask with a grin.
"Wait how do you know that?" Akiha asked, visibly shocked.
"You appear using abilities that are not Esper related, a guy I know ran into a complete red headed weirdo that used a brand of pyrokinesis tht totally did not stem from an AIM field. I'm sensitive to these things. I know."
"Well that saves half of my explanation..." Akiha muttered, her hand colliding with her forehead and making a small smacking noise before she continued, "Well then this is the current situation. Do you know what a grimoire is?"
"A book?" I replied, the dictionary definition of a grimoire appearing as I performed a quick search via Glegoo.
"That's a very basic definition of it yes." Akiha replied, handing her papers in at the checkpoint motioning for me to do the same.
Waiting for the both of us to clear the checkpoint before elaborating further Akiha looked around probably to make sure we weren't being listened to before continuing, "Grimoires are books of magic that contain vast amounts of knowledge within their pages."
"You mean that thing you were reading that time I came home? The one you shut as soon as I walked in."
"Yes, that's one of them. The knowledge they contain is toxic to the mind and can cause insanity or even kill the reader." Akiha said seriously.
"You seem to be handling it well enough."
"I'm used to the headaches. What I'm worried about is if others try to read it."
"It's not like you to be so concerned over everyone else's well being." I casually remarked, half expecting a punch in the shoulder from Akiha until I noticed she suddenly looked very down, "Sorry, I didn't mean..."
"No... It's not that... The reason I brought you out here... Is that there's a grimoire missing near here. And Grimoire Haze is after it." Akiha whispered.
"Grimoire Haze?" I asked quizzically eyebrows raised as we walked away from the city on the pavement.
"It's a magic cabal... I used to be part of it as one of their scribes until... They found out what I was."
"No offense but it sounds like you were a peon." I replied with a giggle.
"I'm trying to be serious here Ryu. My job was to read and rewrite the grimoires into forms that could be read without any harmful effects. Only three people were capable of it in the whole organisation. I was told they'd use it to help people... But eventually they started losing sight of their original intentions."
"If that is true it sounds like the classic case of good gone evil. But what does you being a vampire have anything to do with it? Do they have something against vampires or...?"
"They originally formed to help people... But when a third of our members got killed in a clash with another magic group they became purely focused on obtaining power. When they found out I was a vampire they questioned me on why I didn't try to prevent the deaths of our friends and... I left." Akiha said sadly.
"Oh... So why are they here? Are they behind the grimoire theft?" I asked, patting Akiha's back.
"I'm not sure of the details, but there seems to be a large gathering of magicians near here, that would probably be the best place to start."
As we trekked through the heat, I started to wonder whether I should somehow cool myself using one of my abilities but I quickly killed the thought when I saw Akiha's sweat soaked top. If she knew I was enjoying myself without her she would probably kill me out of jealousy.
"I wouldn't kill you, greviously harm you would be enough... If you have time to think about how you can dissipate the heat for yourself, why don't you do it for both of us." Akiha groaned as she wiped more sweat off her brow.
"Don't you have your own cooling spells?" I muttered nonchalently, my hand lazily manipulating my email window as I checked my inbox for any new emails I might've received.
"Not unless you want the entire place turned into a frozen tundra." Akiha muttered as she pulled out a tiny notebook and started flipping through it.
"That isn't a grimoire is it." I asked as Akiha stopped in front of an old building used for performing arts.
"No, it's a text that I'm currently studying transcribed from a grimoire. Instead of carrying the actual thing around and risk it getting stolen I transcribe bits and pieces to learn so even if I lose it, whoever picks it up doesn't get a complete copy."
"Smart..." I muttered, wondering why we stopped in front of the Gloaming House, "Sooo... Why are we here...?"
"Amakusa!" a girl's voice yelled from inside the Gloaming House.
"For that." Akiha replied.
Both of us running in looking for the source of that voice, it seemed the Gloaming House was bigger than we though as we searched corridors and floors one after another to no avail.
"This way!" Akiha suddenly yelled, tugging my hand in the direction of the open courtyard.
"What? Why?" I asked, trying to catch up to Akiha as she dragged me along not unlike a kid with a rag doll.
"Someone's using magic from over here!"
With Akiha leading the charge both of us burst from the door at breakneck speed just as Stiyl Magnus, magician, swung his flaming sword down.
Into a hole.
As everyone entered a stunned silence from the sudden appearance of two intruders I gritted my teeth half expecting half a dozen attacks to suddenly fly in my direction until I surveyed the area amidst the stunned silence that settled.
This is awkward.
"What are you doing here?" Stiyl asked, directing the question at me.
"U-ummm..." I replied, not quite sure how to answer.
"Who is this? Comrades of yours?" A red headed nun on platform slippers asked as she regarded us with suspicion.
"I'm Isha Ryusuke and this is my friend Makushou Akiha... She's here with a warning..."
"Orsola Aquinas and The Book of Law are in danger of being stolen by a third party." Akiha said, cutting me off, "We're here to stop them. We will not interfere with your own matters, we're just here on standby in case they try to make a move."
"Assuming we believe you which we don't, who's this third party that we should be wary of?" the redhead nun asked.
"Grimoire Haze. A magic cabal that seeks grimoires to further their own ends." Akiha replied.
"I've never heard of them." Index said.
"They haven't done anything noteworthy. Right now they are only focused on acquiring as much power as possible as quickly as possible."
"Well thank you for the warning but you can go now you don't need to stay around." the red headed nun said.
"Sorry but, who are you? Where are you from?" Akiha asked, tension starting to build between the two redheads.
"Agnese Sanctis, Roman Catholic Church." Agnese replied swiftly, "We have 250 nuns working on finding the Amakusa Catholics, stopping a nobody cabal should fall well within our abilities."
"Nobody cabal it may be but what contingency plan do you have to fight a squad armed with grimoire magic? How much of your forces can you dedicate to fighting them? One wrong move and you'll have wasted forces and valuable time." Akiha replied.
"So why are you here?" I whispered to Touma as the argument got more heated.
"Stiyl kidnapped Index and dragged me out here." Touma replied with a sigh as his stomach rumbled.
"... I also have more knowledge on how they fight so it's obvious that I'll do a better job of containing them."
"How do I know if I can trust you?"
"Enough!" Stiyl barked, his cigarette flying from his mouth, "As long as they don't interfere they can stay right?! We're here under the same conditions so I'll monitor them. Is that agreeable with you?"
As silence settled again over the group, Agnese seemed to think for a while before finally giving a reluctant nod.
This is going to be a long night indeed.
-End of Chapter 2-