Author's notes:
So, a person commented that Kumagawa actually uses 『』 these in his speech patterns instead of [ ]. I know that. However, since I have no idea how to type that out on my computer, and since I am sure as hell not going to spend an obscene amount of time having to constantly copypaste that, I made do with what I could.
Also, to that same person, the [ ] do not replace the " ". They are meant to signify a particular manner in how Kumagawa speaks, kind of like how if a person suddenly speaks in all caps, it means they're being very loud.
-STORY START-
"So is it true what they say about your familiar, Miss Valliere? That he somehow erased the familiar contract between all the students in the class and their familiars?" Osmond said severely. "All at once?"
Louise fidgeted uncomfortably as she bore the hard stares of Headmaster Osmond, Professor Colbert, and several other teachers. The only person there who wasn't staring at her in a severe or disbelieving manner was the headmaster's beautiful green-haired secretary: Miss Longueville. Beside Louise, Kumagawa was standing there, looking bored.
It had not taken long for the news of yesterday's duel and the events preceding to spread. At first, the rumors had started fairly honestly. It had been about how Kumagawa had somehow erased the magical contracts of the familiar ritual and had come back to life after being killed. But it had not taken long for the rumors to rapidly change their shape. Now, the prevalent rumor was that Louise's familiar could somehow spread her "Zero-ness" and make it contagious, something that had become known as the "Zero disease." They weren't even talking about the fact that Kumagawa had come back from the dead and had brought back Guiche as well, a fact that angered Louise as that was entirely unfair.
After all, it was not her fault in the least that they lost their familiars. The so-called "Zero disease" wasn't even real! Kumagawa had literally explained what he did. Using his "All-Fiction," he undid the reality that they had summoned and contracted their familiars.
…
Okay. Maybe it was understandable that they believed such inane nonsense as the Zero disease. Undoing reality was something that was completely impossible after all. But it was still unfair.
Well, at least the teachers know the truth, Louise thought.
"I think so, Headmaster," Louise said. "I mean, it's impossible to tell for sure, but that's what Kumagawa says happened."
"Kumagawa? Is that your familiar's name?" Osmond asked curiously.
"Yes, sir," Louise nodded. She glanced aside at Kumagawa and inwardly groaned and nearly palmed her face.
Kumagawa had dropped to his hands and knees and was crouching right beside Osmond's mouse familiar and mimicking its actions. That is to say, Kumagawa, like the mouse, was staring up Miss Longueville's skirt.
In response, Longueville angrily stopped down her feet twice; once to crush the mouse, though she missed as it quickly scurried its way back to Osmond, and the other to stomp on Kumagawa, which she succeeded in doing.
"And what do you two familiars think you are doing?" Longueville asked icily.
"[I was so inspired by that mouse's actions that I couldn't help but copy it,]" Kumagawa said happily even as Longueville ground her foot against Kumagawa's head. "[A mouse that peeks at a woman's panties? What an amazing mouse! But... Instead of white, I think you should use black. Black is just more mature and is nice and sexy.]"
This time, Louise really did facepalm, as she flushed in humiliation at her familiar's display. Most of the other teachers in the room were coughing awkwardly and also looked embarrassed, though none as much as Miss Longueville herself, who was also angrier than all of the other teachers put together. The only one who wasn't sharing a similar reaction was Osmond.
"Oh! You think so too?" Osmond said excitedly. "For Miss Longueville, black really is the way to go! White is just too goodygoody for her!"
In an instant, Kumagawa escaped from beneath Longueville's heel and reappeared in front of Osmond's desk.
"[That's exactly it!]" Kumagawa enthused. "[She's really better off going with the 'sexy seductive teacher' image. White panties are for the 'innocent and pure' types, so she shouldn't use those.]"
"Indeed, indeed," Osmond nodded sagely in agreement. "She really should stay away from the innocent and pure panties, and stick with the sexy ones. They fit her so much better."
"I am too innocent and pure!" Longueville shouted angrily, and then instantly flushed abashedly as she realized what she had just said. "Ahem. I mean, Headmaster, let us return to the actual topic at hand. Now."
"If we must," Osmond sighed ruefully. No doubt he wanted to discuss more about Longueville's panties with Kumagawa, a person who shared his interests. "So, then, Kumagawa. Could you explain to us how you erased the familiar's contract, and, according to the reports, returned to life after being killed by Guiche de Gramont, who you also brought back to life after you killed him?"
"[I don't wanna,]" Kumagawa said dismissively. "[That's too boring. Let's talk about the green haired woman's panties. Speaking of which, don't you think she has a really nice butt?]"
"Truly, she does," Osmond agreed sagely. "Out of all those I've seen in the Academy, her butt is truly the finest."
Longueville walked up to Osmond and smacked him across the backside of his head.
"I mean," Osmond said, "please answer the question, Kumagawa."
"I'll explain, Headmaster," Louise said.
All eyes riveted upon her, except for Kumagawa who was once more looking bored by the proceedings. If there was one good thing about Kumagawa's actions, it was that it had relaxed Louise by making her feel so humiliated that she had long since gone past the point of stuttering or fidgeting and entered the realm of temporary emotional detachment from her surroundings. Of course, she would naturally later revert to normal and immediately burn with embarrassment, but for now, at least, she was able to think and speak clearly. And since that was the case, she decided that she might as well make the most of it and answer the teachers' questions.
"According to him, he possesses a power he calls 'All-Fiction' which allows him to make reality into nothing. In this case, he turned the reality that my classmates summoned and contracted a familiar into nothing," Louise said. "How exactly it works or if he's even telling the truth and not simply using tricks is unknown to me. Whatever it is, it seems completely unlike any magic I have ever heard of, even when considering the elves' Ancient Magic, though of that I only know what the stories say."
"I see," Osmond mused.
"Oh, one more thing," Louise said as she recalled something very important. "Though it has not been proven, Kumagawa's All-Fiction may even be able to erase a noble's ability to use magic."
That immediately froze everyone in the room. It occurred to Louise that given the surrealism of All-Fiction, they, the teachers, had not truly believed what Louise was telling them. But by stating the possibility of him removing from them their most cherished ability, the fearsomeness of All-Fiction suddenly became much more... perhaps not real, but more nightmarish for them.
"Impossible!" Mister Kaito, the first year wind magic teacher, declared, attracting every eye to him. "That is simply impossible. Even with his other purported deeds, those must have been happened some sort of trick."
"While that may be true," Colbert spoke up for the first time, "it is a fact that every student in my class was able to cast Summon Servant again, even though I had personally witnessed each and every one of them successfully summon and contract a familiar the day before. And as you know, casting Summon Servant whilst already having a familiar is a proven impossibility. Only Founder Brimir is known to have been the exception."
"Hmph. Mere tricks," Kaito said adamantly, though he offered no rebuttal to Colbert's words.
"In any case," Osmond said, "the fact of the matter is that somehow the familiar contracts were all erased, necessitating another summoning. Therefore, as punishment, Miss Valliere and her familiar are to clean a classroom every day after classes for a week. And without magic."
"Yes, Headmaster," Louise said obediently, though she groaned inwardly. Her, a Valliere, having to clean a classroom like a lowly commoner? That was absolutely humiliating. But a familiar's actions is the master's responsibility, and she needed to make amends for what Kumagawa had done. At least she wouldn't have to do this by herself. She had Kumagawa to help her.
"[No thanks,]" Kumagawa said, waving his hand airily. "[I'll pass. That sounds too boring.]"
Louise groaned and palmed her face again. Why was she even surprised that Kumagawa reacted like this?
"Kumagawa, you can't simply refuse a punishment," Osmond said patiently. "What you did was wrong, after all."
"[Eh? Really?]" Kumagawa's smile slipped ever so slightly. "[In that case, I have a question. Is bullying wrong?]"
Osmond blinked in confusion at the sudden tangent. "What are you talking about?"
"[I mean what I said,]" Kumagawa said. His smile had ceased and his face took a neutral expression. "[Is bullying wrong?]"
"Well... Yes," Osmond said. "But I fail to see where you're going with this."
"[I'm just curious why you aren't punishing the class full of bullies for bullying Louise,]" Kumagawa said with a shrug. His smile was slowly starting to return in a sinister way, and Louise was beginning to get a bad feeling about it.
"That is because..." Osmond frowned as he considered how to answer the question. After a minute pensive silence, Osmond finally said, "We have our own reasons."
"[Oh really? It sounds to me that you're just playing favorites for the elites. That's really unfair,]" Kumagawa said. "[So I don't think I will accept the punishment.]"
"Now see here, familiar," Osmond said sternly. "You cannot simply refuse the headmaster's orders. It is not your place to do so."
Kumagawa frowned thoughtfully as he considered this. Then he shrugged and impaled Osmond in the body with three giant screws.
"Great Brimir!" Colbert shouted as he whipped out his wand. However, instead of a wand, Colbert drew a thin, elongated screw. An utterly useless tool for casting magic. All around, the other teachers found their own wands somehow replaced with similar screws.
"Kumagawa! What are you doing!?" Louise shrieked in panic.
The Minus, however, wasn't paying attention. Instead, he had put the tip of another giant screw against the headmaster's forehead.
"[Did you think that just because you're the headmaster that I wouldn't attack you?]" Kumagawa said with a wide, malicious grin. "[Or perhaps it was because you thought that a noble such as yourself would not be harmed by little ol' me? That's naive.]"
Louise's eyes went wide as her mind began working frantically. Her familiar was about to kill her headmaster. He had proven before that he could bring the dead back, but didn't mean that he would. What if he simply killed the headmaster and left him dead for good? She needed to stop him. But how? She wouldn't be able to cast a spell well enough to stop Kumagawa.
Louise suddenly remembered Kumagawa's words. "This much. You have to do at least this much."
The petite pink-haired mage's eyes flicked towards the nearest teacher, Mrs. Chevreuse. Or rather, Louise's eyes flicked towards the thing in her hand: a sharply pointed, elongated screw.
Moving like a wildcat, Louise snatched the screw out of Chevreuse's hand and pounced on Kumagawa with a violent scream and stabbed him in the neck with the screw. Her familiar let out a large spray of blood from his punctured neck and fell to the floor.
Taking labored breaths, Louise looked at the headmaster. He was barely still alive, but they would be able to get him to the infirmary and get him healed by a water mage quickly. But why weren't the teachers moving? Why were they staring at her like that?
"H-hurry," Louise found herself struggling to say as she pointed a bloody hand at the dying headmaster. "G-get Headmaster Osmond t-to a healer."
Upon noticing her blood covered hand, Louise slowly looked down at herself. Her blouse was thoroughly soaked in blood, turning it from white to completely red. Her hands and arms were also covered in her familiar's blood, and it felt slimy and warm on her skin. Slowly, Louise tapped Kumagawa on his arm with her foot, which was also bloody from the pool of Kumagawa's blood that had formed beneath them.
"Hey, wake up, Kumagawa," Louise found herself saying, though she wondered if it was really her. Her mind felt so numb and blank, that everything felt as if it were some kind of surreal dream.
When there was no response, Louise felt everything she had eaten that day come surging up her throat, the bile forcibly clawing its way out of her body.
She vomited.
She had done it. She murdered her familiar. It had been to save her headmaster's life, but she had still murdered someone, and the blood would never wash away from her hands. When the last of the vomit ejected itself from Louise's body, she fell to her knees and screamed, clutching her head as she did, and staining her hair with blood. When she finally stopped screaming, she belatedly noticed the rustling of cloth beside her.
"[Oh, thanks for stabbing me in the neck and killing me, Louise,]" Kumagawa thanked her sincerely. "[If you hadn't stopped me, I was going to kill everyone here.]"
Louise looked up at her revived familiar blearily. There was not even a scratch nor a drop of blood on him. Louise looked back at herself. Her blouse was clean and white again, her body no longer soaked in blood or vomit.
"[What's wrong, Louise?]" Kumagawa said as he crouched down in front of the silent Louise until they were face to face and smiled at her. "[Was this your first time murdering someone? Are you afraid that the blood on your hands will never be washed away?]" Kumagawa laughed happily. "[You don't need to worry about that. No matter how much hands get soaked in blood, I will make it into nothing for you.]"
Louise began screaming again.
"[Hm... Now then,]" Kumagawa said as he stood up and looked around the room, leaving Louise to her delirious screaming. All the teachers were watching him with fearful or cautious looks. By now, Headmaster Osmond had died of blood loss, and his head was bowed heavily in the unnatural position of the dead. Kumagawa reached over the desk and flicked the headmaster on the forehead. The screws in the old man's body suddenly disappeared, and his eyes snapped open. "[But I don't exactly hate that kind of naivety,]" Kumagawa greeted Osmond with a friendly smile.
"You!" Osmond hissed as he shot to his feet and whipped his wand out from his pocket.
"[Now, now,]" Kumagawa said, raising his hands in a placating gesture. "[Let's not get violent here. We can talk things out like civilized people, right?]"
Osmond glared at Kumagawa for a moment, before slowly lowering his wand. "Leave," he said. "Now."
"[Sheesh,]" Kumagawa rolled his eyes. "[So rude. But fine, I'm going.]"
Louise had stopped screaming by this point, but she appeared to be in some sort of daze, for she did not react in the slightest to Kumagawa as he lifted her up in his arms. Like that, the Minus and the Zero left the office room.
-SCENE BREAK-
"Tabitha," Kirche said as she paced inside her diminutive friend's book-filled room. "We need to do something about Louise's familiar."
The blue-haired Gallian flipped a page in the book she was reading from her bed. "Why?" she said in a quiet voice.
"He's dangerous," Kirche said. "Haven't you been listening to the rumors at all? Louise and that familiar get called into the headmaster's office. She's seen carried out by the familiar as if she's in a coma. No one has even seen or heard from her since then, and it's been two days! And every teacher I've tried asking act as if they're being threatened not to speak a word about it!"
"Can't," Tabitha said as she flipped another page.
"I know we can't kill him, Tabitha. I've heard the news of the duel," Kirche said exasperatedly. "But if you and I work together, we can force him to leave."
"How?"
"It's simple," Kirche said. "If he can't die, then all it means is that we have to keep killing him until he can't take it anymore. If we can force him mentally to accept defeat, then we can force him to leave the Academy."
Tabitha was silent for a minute as she continued reading. Then, she placed a thin strip of leather in the book as a bookmark and closed it. She looked directly at her friend and said, "When?"
Kirche smiled warmly at her friend. "Tonight."
-SCENE BREAK-
Even now, Foquet found herself shivering as she recalled what had happened in the headmaster's office two days ago. She had seen many strange things in her life, but none as wrong as the familiar known as Kumagawa. She found herself wondering exactly what Kumagawa was. At the beginning, he seemed like a regular, albeit incredibly perverted kid, perhaps only a few years younger than herself.
By the end, however, he had become something straight out of a nightmare. Like a demon, or worse.
Foquet shook her head, forcing the thoughts out of her mind. She didn't have time to think about that. The final preparations for her heist needed to be made ready. The moment she had been preparing for was finally here. She would steal the Staff of Destruction tonight.
-SCENE BREAK-
"So I really did die," Osmond murmured as he pressed his mouth against the steeple formed of his fingers, his elbows planted firmly on his office desk. "And he really did bring me back to life."
"Yes, Headmaster," Colbert said.
"The Gandalfr has proven to be an incredibly dangerous being," Osmond said thoughtfully.
"Yes," Colbert agreed quietly. "Headmaster, I realize that you had wanted to keep the Gandalfr's existence a secret, but the time for that has passed. We need to remove the Gandalfr. Now. Even if that means calling in the palace guards. He is clearly proving to be an entirely negative and very dangerous presence, especially to Miss Valliere, the one closest to him."
"I agree, Jean," Osmond said. "He is like a creeping darkness that holds many nightmares. We must be rid of him. Permanently."
"Unfortunately, he can't be killed," Colbert said.
"No, he can't," Osmond agreed. "But there are ways to kill an immortal."
"Such as...?"
"We can seal him away," Osmond said. "Forever. Bury him far beneath the earth such that he cannot even breath. Leave him there to die continuously, for all eternity. A continuous death is no different than true death, after all."
"Morbid, but we have no choice," Colbert said gravely.
"Indeed. We have no choice," Osmond said. "We'll do it tonight."
-SCENE BREAK-
Louise woke up. It was dark outside. She could tell from the way the gentle moonlight shined through her window.
"[Yo. You're awake.]"
Louise turned her head to the side to see Kumagawa sitting at the table with one of her silk panties worn on his head. For a moment, she stared at him with a blank expression. And then the memories of what had happened returned. She nearly vomited again, but her stomach was empty, so her body reacted with painful dry heaves instead. This continued on for a few minutes, until her body finally settled down.
"You're sick," Louise muttered at Kumagawa.
"[Me?]" Kumagawa said. "[No, you're the one who's sick. After all, you've been asleep for two days. Should I call the nurse for you or something?]"
"Shut up," Louise said, wanting to scream it at him, but finding her lips too dry and her throat too hoarse to speak any louder. She glanced around and noticed a glass of water placed on her nightstand. Louise grabbed it and drank from it slowly, letting the water work its way into her system. "What in Brimir's name were you thinking? Why would you kill the headmaster?" Louise said as soon as she finished the glass of water and placed it back on the nightstand.
"[Hm... Don't you think that's the wrong question to ask, Louise?]" Kumagawa mused. "[What you should be asking is why has the headmaster and the other teachers encouraged others to bully you?]"
"They never encouraged it," Louise said.
"[They did,]" Kumagawa said. "[They permitted it to continue. They never even tried to stop the others from saying mean things to you. Their lack of action is the exact same thing as encouraging the bullying to continue, because it shows the other students that they can bully you freely and get away with it.]"
"Even if that were true, that's not a good enough reason to attack them," Louise retorted. "I just need to work harder and stop the bullying through my own merits."
"[Yeah, you said something like that before,]" Kumagawa nodded in remembrance. "[But, Louise. That's wrong. You see, people like you and I? We're failures. We're weak. We're useless. We're nothing. We are the ones who cannot succeed. The ones destined to lose, to be insulted and spit upon. So if we want to stop all the bad things in the world, there's only one thing we can do: destroy the elites. If everyone else is as weak and useless as we are, then it'll be peaceful and everyone can be friends.]"
"No! That's wrong!" Louise shook her head angrily. "I might be weak, but I'm not useless! What we need to do is work harder to improve ourselves!"
"[A noble sentiment,]" Kumagawa nodded again. "[But useless. There are some things that just can't be done, even with effort. If you try harder, you'll improve? That's naïve. Tell me, if you try harder, can you be your mother's mother?]"
Louise blinked. "What? No. Of course not. What kind of stupid question is that?"
"[If you try harder, can you turn yourself from a girl to a boy?]" Kumagawa continued as if he hadn't heard her.
"No," Louise said, utterly bemused.
"[It's the same, then,]" Kumagawa said. "[Just because you try harder, doesn't mean you can win.]"
"That's not even logical!" Louise cried out ludicrously. "How does me being unable to be my mother's mother or turning into a boy mean that I can't improve myself and win?"
"[Dunno?]" Kumagawa shrugged nonchalantly. "[That was just a joke. Jeez, Louise. Lighten up. But since you want to be serious, let me put it this way. If you try harder, all that will happen is that you will fail harder. Then everyone else will laugh and insult you even more. That in and of itself is okay, but if you want that to stop, then it's more efficient to just bring everyone down to our level.]"
"You can't know that for sure!" Louise said accusingly. "Whether I can or can't succeed is up to my own efforts!"
"[Oh really? Let me ask you something then. How long have you been putting in that effort into improving?]" Kumagawa asked. "[How long have you been trying and continuing to fail? How long has your effort and practice proven to be useless? One year? Two years? Five? Ten?]" Kumagawa spread his hands as if he was making a theatrical announcement. "[But that's okay, Louise. I am the ally of the weak. So fall! Become a Minus like me, and let's destroy the elites together!]"
"Shut up!" Louise shouted and hurled the glass cup at Kumagawa.
Kumagawa didn't even try to dodge, instead allowing the glass to hit his face and shatter, causing several deep lacerations on his face. An instant later, the cuts disappeared and the cup reappeared, totally unbroken, back on the nightstand. Louise took the restored cup and threw it at Kumagawa again with an angry snarl, only for the same thing to repeat.
"Don't follow me," Louise spat angrily as she got out of bed and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
Stupid Kumagawa, Louise thought angrily as she practically stomped down the hallway. He doesn't understand a single thing. Not a single damn thing!
Louise suddenly stumbled and leaned against the wall. Something was wrong. A sudden drowsiness seized her, and she wondered if it was due to having been in a coma for two days. Louise shook her head and began walking forward again. She took two more steps and fell to the ground, asleep.
-SCENE BREAK-
Kumagawa sat at the table in Louise's room, drumming his fingers on its wooden surface as he pondered about Louise.
Specifically, what kind of underwear would fit best for her.
Her best colors would probably be pink or white, Kumagawa thought, and unlike the green-haired woman or the redhead, Louise was better suited for the cute and charming type of panties. Perhaps striped or bunny panties? Yes, that would be perfect for her.
Knock! Knock!
"[Coming!]" Kumagawa called out cheerfully as he walked over to the door and opened it. He blinked upon seeing the one standing there. A bespectacled blue-haired girl who was even shorter than Louise. "[Yes?]"
"Come," the girl said simply and began walking down the hallway. When she noticed Kumagawa not following her, she turned around and stared at him quizzically, as if to ask "why aren't you following?"
"[Why?]" Kumagawa responded.
"Because," the girl said.
"[No,]" Kumagawa said, deliberately using one word answers to match the girl.
"Louise."
"[What?]"
"Captured."
"[Oh.]"
"Come."
"[Okay.]"
Kumagawa followed the mysterious girl outside the Academy, to the place where he had first been summoned. Awaiting him were three other people: the headmaster, a balding middle-aged teacher, and the redhead with big boobs and nice underwear. Tied up and sleeping behind them was Louise. At that, Kumagawa narrowed his eyes slightly.
"[Hm... I guess that this is for revenge, huh?]" Kumagawa said after moment. "[Well, that's okay. I'm used to being lynched by groups.]"
"Unfortunately, Kumagawa," Osmond said, "you are too dangerous and evil to allow to live."
"[So? What will you do then?]" Kumagawa asked curiously. "[You know that I can't be killed, right?]"
"That's not entirely accurate," Osmond said as he pulled out his wand. "You can be killed. You just resurrect yourself afterward. And if that's the case, then all we need to do is seal you away by making sure you are killed continuously, forever. A continuous death is the same as an eternal death. That is how you will die."
Kumagawa looked at Osmond approvingly. "[Oh, nicely thought out! You are right. That is indeed the weakness of All-Fiction. And with magic, you might be able to succeed where Sukinasaki failed. I am curious though. Did you purposefully recruit two students and kidnap another student just to fight against me?]"
"Tabitha and I decided to do this independently because you are too dangerous to be kept around," Kirche spat. "It was only coincidence that Headmaster Osmond and Mister Colbert decided to do the same thing as us on the same night. Though, given the kind of monster you are, you really shouldn't be surprised."
"[I see,]" Kumagawa said. "[And Louise?]"
"She's safe, of course," Osmond said. "Merely asleep due to the effects of the Bell of Sleep."
"[Well, that's good,]" Kumagawa said. "[Then, shall we get started on the count of three? One... Two...]" Kumagawa flung four giant screws at his opponents, but they each blocked the attack with either a wall of ice or earth or by burning it to ashes before it reached them.
Kirche and Colbert counterattacked first, each unleashing a torrent of fire that combined to form an intense inferno upon Kumagawa. Because of its wide range, Kumagawa was unable to dodge, and he was near instantly burned to complete ashes, such that not even a speck of him remained.
And then, a moment after the inferno dissipated, he reappeared, completely and totally unharmed.
"[Phew! Who turned up the heat?]" Kumagawa said jokingly. "[Well, anyways, now it should be my turn to attack again, right? That's how it would work in manga.]"
Kumagawa charged forward towards the strongest looking one of his four opponents, Colbert, and with a pair of giant screws in his hands. However, Tabitha unleashed a barrage of icy spears upon him from the side. Kumagawa unleashed a barrage of his own screws to counter it, and many of the projectiles hit each other midair. When they did, the ice spears would shatter and the screws would lose their momentum and fall to the ground. However, some of the screws and ice spears missed each other, and continued on to their targets. Tabitha defended herself by raising a thick wall of ice, whereas Kumagawa simply took the attack, the ice spears piercing his body easily, and then made it as if it never happened an instant later.
With that, Kumagawa briefly backed off as he considered his plan of action. Merely charging in a straightforward manner would be useless. He needed to attack them more cleverly if he wanted to beat them. He needed a plan.
Therefore, he charged again. Faster, this time.
Osmond raised a ring of stone ten feet high around Kumagawa to entrap him. Without slowing down, Kumagawa flung a series of screws at the stone wall, forming a series of footholds for him to use to easily escape the trap, though he only narrowly managed to do so fast enough before the ground in the ring suddenly caved in and became a deep, dark hole. An abyss meant to swallow him and trap him underground forever.
Having been unprepared for Kumagawa's escape, the four mages momentarily froze. It was a brief weakness that Kumagawa immediately pounced upon by throwing a barrage of giant screws at Headmaster Osmond. Given his physical frailty, the old man was unable to react in time and was pierced by the screws, the force and momentum of the screws flinging him backwards and impaling him to the ground.
"Headmaster!" Colbert cried out.
"Bastard!" Kirche shouted angrily. "You'll pay for that!"
"[I'll pay?]" Kumagawa laughed. "[Weren't you guys the one who came to attack me first? This isn't my fault.]"
"Shut up!" Kirche shouted as she released a flurry of fireballs at Kumagawa. At the same time, Tabitha and Colbert unleashed a storm of ice spears and an enormous snake made of pure fire upon Kumagawa.
Kumagawa threw down a cluster of screws in the ground in front of him, forming a dense metal wall that blocked the magical onslaught. Underneath the heat of the fire magic, the screws began to glow a bright red, and when the cold ice magic hit them, the rapid decrease in temperature caused the wall of screws to shatter.
At the same time, Kumagawa moved to close the distance between him and the mages as well, this time seeking to bring down Colbert. However, a sudden rumbling in the earth accidentally caused him to trip and tumble into the ground.
"[Ow,]" Kumagawa said as he stood back up and brushed himself off.
"Look!" Kirche cried out, pointing to an enormous dark silhouette near the castle.
There, standing at around fifteen meters in height, was a moving stone statue, only vaguely in the shape of a human being. It brought one enormous stone fist up and smashed it against the walls of a castle tower. The stone wall fractured, a spiderweb of cracks appearing on its surface.
"It must be Foquet!" Kirche declared.
"Shit!" Colbert snarled, though he never took his eyes off of Kumagawa.
"[I'm not really sure what's going on,]" Kumagawa said, pointing at the stone construct, "[but shouldn't you go stop that thing? Don't worry about me. I'm not going anywhere.]"
The giant stone construct once more smashed a heavy fist against the wall, causing even more cracks to appear.
"There's no other choice," Colbert said. "Miss Tabitha, Miss Zerbst. Go distract Foquet while I will deal with him."
"Are you sure, Mister Colbert?" Kirche said hesitantly.
"Yes, now go!"
Kirche and Tabitha glanced one more time at Kumagawa and Colbert, before they turned and ran for the stone construct.
Colbert made a quick gesture with his wand and muttered a spell. From his wand, a tiny ball of brightly glowing fire, no bigger than a child's fist, flew out. For a moment, Kumagawa simply watched it, perplexed on how that was supposed to hurt him. Then, when it reached about three-quarters of the way to Kumagawa, the ball of fire suddenly burst into a dazzling display of light, as if the sun itself had suddenly appeared no more than a few feet away from Kumagawa.
"[Uwaaah!]" Kumagawa screamed in pain as he clutched his eyes, blinded by the sudden burst of light.
Colbert seized this chance and began concentrating and preparing his most powerful spell.
"Flame Sna-" Colbert began to cry out. However, he was interrupted when three screws suddenly impaled him, two in his shoulders and one in his guts.
"[Just kidding,]" Kumagawa said cheerfully as he walked over to Colbert.
"H-how?" Colbert managed to cough out, spluttering blood all over his jaw.
"[Blinding me first to set up another spell. Your plan was simple, but good,]" Kumagawa complimented. "[But by blinding me, you also blinded yourself. You thought that just because I couldn't see, it meant that I couldn't attack you. That was a mental blind spot, a weakness that I can advantage of without even looking. That was your mistake.]"
"B-bastard," Colbert coughed.
Kumagawa walked over to Colbert and placed the sharp, pointy tip of a giant screw on top of Colbert's forehead, and then carefully balanced it there with one foot on its head.
"[Well, don't worry about a thing,]" Kumagawa said cheerfully. "[I'll make sure to bring you guys back to life later. And then you can apologize to me for such an unwarranted attack. It was a truly shameful behavior as teachers, you know.]"
With the last of his strength, Colbert spat bloody saliva at Kumagawa, only barely managing to hit him in the leg with it. Though, it immediately disappeared afterward. Without another word, Kumagawa then stomped down on the screw, drilling the screw into Colbert's head and shattering his skull into bloody pieces.
Kumagawa went over to the still sleeping Louise's side and placed a hand on her forehead. The ropes binding her disappeared and Louise's eyes snapped open. She shot up with a gasp, nearly headbutting Kumagawa in doing so.
"What? What's going on?" Louise said in a bewildered tone while quickly looking around the area. When she saw the corpses of Osmond and Colbert impaled by screws, her face twisted in anger. "Kumagawa! You killed them!?"
"[They kidnapped you and tried to kill me first,]" Kumagawa shrugged carelessly. "[It's not my fault.]"
"Bring them back!" Louise ordered with a snarl.
"[Later,]" Kumagawa said as he patted Louise on the head. She quickly swiped at his hand and slapped it away. "[There is something else we need to take care of. See over there?]"
Louise looked at where Kumagawa was pointing. There, a giant stone construct was fighting two, much smaller humans, who were blasting it with fire and ice, but to no avail. They did, however, prove to be enough of a distraction so that the construct had been forced to cease its attacks on the tower wall.
"Foquet?" Louise said, bemused. "What is that thief doing here?"
"[Dunno,]" Kumagawa shrugged. "[Let's go watch.]"
Kumagawa began walking over to the battle as if he were simply taking a casual stroll. Louise glanced back at the two corpses of her teachers for a moment, and then quickly followed after her familiar. Once they were close enough, they could see that the battle was not going well for Kirche and Tabitha. Both of them were sweating heavily and laboring to breathe. The stone construct had several black scorch marks and holes from where Tabitha's ice spears pierced it, but those were all superficial damages. Standing on the shoulder of the construct was a cloaked person.
"[Yo!]" Kumagawa called out to Kirche and Tabitha. "[How's it going?]"
"You! Why are you here?" Kirche cried out as she dodged a stone fist. "What happened to Mister Colbert?"
"[Colbert? That balding guy?]" Kumagawa said. "[He's dead.]"
"You monster!" Kirche snarled angrily and aimed her wand at Kumagawa.
"Kirche! Dodge!" Louise cried out.
The redhead whipped her head back around, but failed to move fast in time before a giant stone hand grabbed her body. From the stone arm, a smaller hand grew out and grabbed Kirche's wand and snapped it in half, before putting her back on the ground. Whoever Foquet was, while he may be a thief, it seemed that he was no murderer.
Now, with only Tabitha left to fight, the thief turned his attention back to the tower wall. The stone construct raised a mighty arm and smashed it against the wall, finally causing it to break open. Foquet quickly hopped down onto the stone arm and ran into the open tower, dodging Tabitha's ice spears as he did. Moment's later, he was back outside and on the construct's shoulder. Slung across his back was a long wooden box; his prize.
"Fireball!" Louise shouted as she aimed her wand at Foquet.
However, likely due to her poor aim, the ensuing explosion merely landed on the golem's broad chest, leaving a spiderweb of cracks due to the spell.
"It's no use, Louise," Kirche said in a defeated tone. "The golem is too tough for us to get past. Foquet is too strong for us."
"No! We can't give up!" Louise declared as she cast another spell, another explosion, upon the golem, which was slowly beginning to make its escape. "We can't let that thief escape!"
"What else can we do?" Kirche sighed. "My wand is broken, Tabitha is out of willpower, and you alone don't have the power to stop Foquet."
"But... I'm not alone," Louise said slowly. She turned to her familiar. "Kumagawa. Help me stop Foquet."
Kumagawa scratched his head, and then nodded. "[Okay. I'm an ally of the weak, after all.]"
Kumagawa charged the golem. Upon noticing his rapid approach, Foquet's golem lashed out with a giant stone fist. However, due to its great weight, it was slow, and Kumagawa easily ran past the attack, dodging it. Then, before the golem could make another attack, Kumagawa reached the golem's feet. In a near instant, he impaled dozens, no, scores of giant screws into each of the stone feet, bolting them to the ground. Thus, due to its great height and weight, when the golem attempted to move, it quickly unbalanced itself and fell forward to the ground with an enormous crash. However, even as it fell, Foquet easily jumped off of it and lightly floated to the ground, safely away from the crash site.
Foquet silently raised his wand at Kumagawa, who watched the thief with a frown.
"[Aren't you going to take your cloak off?]" Kumagawa asked. "[This is where you're supposed to reveal yourself and surprise us by actually being someone's long lost sibling or something.]"
When the thief didn't respond, Kumagawa shrugged. An instant later, the cloak was no more.
"Miss Longueville?" Louise said in shock. "You're Foquet?"
"[Huh. Teacher works too, I guess,]" Kumagawa said with a note of disappointment in his voice. "[Not as dramatic, but it'll do.]"
"... I see," Foquet said thoughtfully. "You used All-Fiction to make my enchanted cloak into nothing."
Kumagawa said nothing, but smiled as he watched Foquet.
"And I don't suppose I could convince you to just let me go, could I?" Foquet asked rhetorically. "I don't really feel like fighting someone who killed Colbert and that perverted geezer, Osmond."
"Of course you can't," Louise immediately said. "There's no way Kumagawa will just let a thief like you go free. Right, Kumagawa?" When Kumagawa didn't answer, Louise looked at the Minus warily. "Kumagawa?"
Foquet seized this chance to negotiate. "Of course, I'm not asking you to do let me go for free." Foquet reached underneath the short skirt she was wearing and stripped off her black panties. She tossed that at Kumagawa, who caught it out of the air. "Here, one of the panties that you love so much."
Louise groaned upon noticing the gleeful look on Kumagawa's face. "Oh you have got to be kidding me..."
Kumagawa carefully pocketed Foquet's panties. "[Okay. I'll let you go,]" Kumagawa said happily. "[But I have one more condition.]"
"What is it?" Foquet narrowed her eyes. "I don't have anymore panties on me, if that's what you're wondering."
"[No, no, no,]" Kumagawa waggled his fingers in negative. "[I want you take me on the greatest panty raid this world has ever seen! A worldwide panty raid!]"
Louise palmed her face. Beside her, Kirche did the same thing, while Tabitha merely pulled out a book and began reading.
"... Uh... Right..." Foquet said, bemused. "Sure. We'll do that. But can we set aside that promise for the next time we meet?"
"[Okay!]" Kumagawa said cheerfully. "[Bye, then!]"
Foquet cautiously stepped back, and then turned to run. Louise to raised her wand to cast a spell to stop the fleeing thief, but Foquet suddenly vanished into the earth.
"What do you think you're doing letting that thief go?" Louise hissed. "She probably stole something very valuable, and you're just going to let her get away with it?"
"[But she promised to go on a worldwide panty raid with me,]" Kumagawa protested. "[Besides, while I did tell her I'll let her go, I never said anything about letting her get away with what she stole.]"
"What are you-" Louise broke off as she glanced over to the tower Foquet had broken open and noticed that it was completely unbroken. She sighed as realization dawned upon her. "All-Fiction."
"[All-Fiction,]" Kumagawa agreed. "[The reality that she stole whatever it was that she stole is now nothing.]"
"But you still shouldn't have let her go!" Louise said angrily. "She's a thief that needs to be captured and brought to justice."
"[Silly Louise,]" Kumagawa chuckled. "[Pretty words like 'justice' are the words used by elites, not by Minuses like us.]"
"I am not a Minus," Louise spat. "And you realize that she probably lied to you. You'll likely never see her again."
"[No way!]" Kumagawa said with fake surprise. He sighed with exaggerated disappointment and hung his head. "[You mean I lost again?]"
Louise reached up and grabbed Kumagawa by his collar, and shook him violently. "Why!? Why are you like this? If it was you, you could have stopped Foquet easily!"
"[What are you talking about, Louise?]" Kumagawa said in an amused voice. "[I'm a Minus. It was painfully obvious that if we fought, I would have lost. She would have gotten away and I would have failed to stop her.]"
"So just because you think you'll lose, you don't even try?" Louise said in disbelief. "You... You're just... You're such a Minus!"
"[Oh, thanks,]" Kumagawa said happily, taking her words as a compliment. "[But aren't you misunderstanding something? It's not that because I'll lose that I didn't fight her. If there's one thing we, as the weak and useless Minuses, hold proudly against the elites, it's that we don't run away from losing. I didn't fight her because I didn't have a reason.]"
"Her being a thief isn't a good enough reason to stop her?" Louise said incredulously.
"[Why should I care if she stole from the people who tried to kill me?]" Kumagawa asked in a perplexed manner. "[That wouldn't make any sense at all.]"
Louise opened her mouth, and then shut it and sighed. All she was doing was talking in circles. No matter what she said, it would not change Kumagawa's mentality.
"Forget it," Louise sighed again. "Just go and revive Headmaster Osmond and Mister Colbert."
-SCENE BREAK-
Foquet breathed heavily as she walked into her hidden hideout, a small, dilapidated looking cabin in the middle of the forest, and set the box containing the Staff of Destruction on the table. With a satisfied sigh, she sat down on the chair and leaned back carefully.
She had done it. She had stolen the Staff of Destruction, a legendary artifact. She had been worried that Kumagawa would interfere, but she was fortunate that he was easily bought off. In this case, his perverseness worked in her favor.
With a victorious grin, Foquet opened the box to look at her prize. In an instant, her gleeful face transformed into one of pure anger.
"Son of a bitch!" Foquet snarled.
There, where the Staff of Destruction should have been, was one of Kumagawa's giant screws.