Notes
Hey Reader, this is Worseman here, and here's part two of the third chapter but this is the third chapter of this story.
Like I said in the notes from the previous chapter, I almost lost my writing skill so I tried to write whatever I could to make it interesting but to me, it is still weak so I might have to rewrite this chapter in the future.
I tried to follow the source material of how the magic in mahouka worked but, to be honest, it's very difficult to write because it had tons of explanations like how it works, their advantage and disadvantage, or their strength and weakness. It may be a good thing but it is tough to understand it as it's like science which is sometimes hard to understand.
I'm also lacking in writing a fight scene in the story as I don't know how to write it so I tried my best to do it. However, it's not the best in my opinion.
Keep this mind; This fanfic is an AU (Alternative Universe) Story but as for Mahoka's story arcs, it remained to be the same but with a little or more changes.
If you spot any grammar errors or spelling in this story, I will try my best to improve my story.
Disclaimer
I did not own any characters from Mahoka Kouko no Rettousei series except my OC.
The trio arrived at the street where Chika's taxes company was and they were further away from the company at the parking street. Daisuke had a camera in his hands, waiting for Hisao to lead them to his smuggling operation. Masato crossed his forearms on the wheel to rest while observing around the street and looking at its entrance. Kazuhiro, on the other hand, shut his eyes to take a rest while looking up to rest his head.
"When is Hisao-San going to come out?" Daisuke asked while observing at the entrance of the taxes company.
"Not sure but we have to wait to see until he comes out," replied Masato.
"What if he's already gone?" Daisuke asked again.
"If so, I could break into Hisao's office to find anything that can reveal his smuggling operation location."
Daisuke turned around to look at Kazuhiro, who was still looking at his phone, with his disbelief. He wondered if he was either just jesting around or truly going to do it in the daylight. If he was seriously going to do it, he could be possibly caught and dropped out of first high school due to his going to be a criminal act. He was about to protest, but Masato suddenly interrupted him by replying to Kazuhiro.
"Not yet, unless I said so, Kaz."
Daisuke was shocked to hear Masato's reply to Kazuhiro's suggestion. He may have forgotten some parts of the private detective role was to go to an extreme to obtain whatever information or find a missing person whatever the client told them to do. Ignoring his thoughts on the conversation, he wondered about Kazuhiro's action during his private detective work besides his recent school life.
"Whatever you say, Masato."
Masato sighed a little in resignation at Kazuhiro and returned to his observation of the taxes company. While doing so, he mumbled, "Always a pain in an ass."
"Masato-Sama, look," Daisuke called as he pointed his index finger out.
Masato's eyes followed Daisuke's pointing finger to the entrance of the taxes company and saw Hisao, who had just stepped out, but he was not alone as there were two unknown individuals which they cannot be identified; both were male but they wore different business attire. He thought of two strangers as two possible types of individuals: an associate or bodyguard. Daisuke raised the camera and pressed the button to take a shot of their face.
"Is it him?" Daisuke asked while still holding his camera at Hisao and two individuals.
"Yes, that's him," Masato replied, "But the other two people might be his associate or bodyguards."
"If they are bodyguards, we have to follow them carefully but further away from them so they won't notice us."
"I'm quite impressed that you thought carefully about the plan. When do you start to think quickly before I do so?"
"It's part of my abilities that I was born with."
A silver car arrived and stopped beside Hisao and his group and they immediately entered it without a thought. Daisuke took a picture of the license plate of the silver car before it drove away. Masato moved the gearshift forward and stepped onto the acceleration paddle to move his car. He maintained his car speed to tail Hisao's car carefully on the road and acted like a normal driver at the same time. Daisuke looked at the screen of the camera to check if the picture was taken to be seen clearly but Kazuhiro, on the other hand, was sleeping with his head looking up while listening to Jazz music by earpieces.
While Daisuke was checking, he began to ask Masato a question. "Masato-Sama, can I ask you something?"
"Sure go ahead," Masato replied, allowing Daisuke to ask a question.
"What was Kazuhiro like before I joined the agency?"
Masato became silent at the question, making Daisuke feel uncomfortable for saying that. Daisuke should have not asked something too sensitive and he knew something should not be spoken of. However, without hesitation, Masato answered the question.
"Let's just say that Kaz is a person fooling the people around him to think that he is a sloth and does not care for everyone, but he is a smart and considerate person to do whether he thinks it is right."
"You mean that he was always true to himself, Masato-Sama?"
"Yes and No. Kaz decides whatever he wants or needs such as having a conversation or helping out. He however can be a little asshole and ignorant, but not without good reason or not every time."
Daisuke understood Masato's words describing Kazuhiro and sensed that Masato deeply cared and had responsibility for Kazuhiro as an older sibling. However, what he does not understand was the word filled with somehow both indeterminate and unspecified.
"You sound like you seem to have trouble knowing more about Kazuhiro," Asked Daisuke.
"Well, he is an unpredictable person, along with his actions. Whether his action was a good intention or he just wanted some fun if he was bored so in conclusion, he is both stubborn and a troubled boy," Masato replied with a sigh, "But to be fair, he still keeps his old memories as a memo even though he accepts them."
Sensing sadness in Masato's last sentence, Daisuke decided not to push any further to get the answer from Masato. He knew something dreadful occurred in Kazuhiro's past and it was not the best time for him to continue. He decided to ask another time as they cannot afford to be distracted to have a conversation during the job.
"Is there anything you want to know more about Kazuhiro?" Asked Masato.
"That's all I should know more about him besides him and I could become friends if possible," Daisuke replied, finishing his conversation with Masato with a smile.
"Heh, you're a little strange in my taste," Masato complemented Daisuke, returning a smile.
Afternoon
Abandoned Factory, Tokyo
Masato braked his car and moved his gearshift backward and right to stop because he cannot process to follow Hisao's car as it entered a restricted area of the abandoned factory. He cannot risk being exposed to Kazuhiro and Daisuke by continuing to drive to the area because there might be guards around the area. He took his revolver pistol from his holster which was inside his blazer, strapped on the side of his white shirt. He pushed the cylinder with his thumb to check if it was loaded. He saw six loaded bullets and closed it. They stepped out of his car and stood after closing the door.
"So, are we going to sneak in to capture the evidence photo?" asked Daisuke.
"Yes, we are, because there will be possibly a lot of guards roaming around the area of the abandoned factory," Masato replied, "One mistake then we're dead in the sport."
Kazuhiro stretched his whole muscular body and cracked his neck, producing a crack sound to relax. He turned around to see the abandoned factory building and speculated that it was a perfect place for any criminal and illegal would hold at. He walked towards Daisuke and Masato who were having a conversation while listening to their rambling.
"Daisuke-Kun, are you specialized in modern or ancient magic?" Masato asked Daisuke for his specialized magic.
"Ancient Magic, Masato-Sama, but I'm still learning to utilize it by extending the duration," replied Daisuke.
"You cannot conjure magic for a short time like five minutes?" Masato guessed Daisuke's ancient magic.
"No, I summoned familiars that lasted for only a minute and a half," Daisuke replied, answering his true ancient magic.
"Wait, your ancient magic is summoning a familiar?" Masato asked again in his shocked tone.
Daisuke nodded, "That's right, I can summon my familiar in the field, but as I said, it only lasted for a minute and a half."
Hearing from Daisuke's explanation about his power, Kazuhiro was both amazed and disappointed. However, he was not interested in seeing Daisuke's magic in action as his mind was focused on the stakeout, but it would be least nice for him to see the ancient magic. As he reached Daisuke and Masato, he coughed with his gripped hand to his mouth to get their attention.
"Are you done talking?"
Daisuke and Masato turned their head around to face Kazuhiro when they stopped their conversation.
"Are you done stretching your body to be ready for stakeout?" Masato asked, ignoring Kazuhiro's question, only replied with a nod of Kazuhiro. He turned around from Kazuhiro and Daisuke and began to walk to the abandoned factory. "Let's go."
[~~~~~]
Smoking with his cigarette, Hisao's grunt was under a little stress due to him being one of few supervising around the area to deal with any intruder or trespasser. He wished that he should be resting, but he only got his neck wrapped by Kazuhiro's arms and choked. Kazuhiro dragged him to the side while choking him unconscious. As the grunt fell unconscious, Kazuhiro lowered him to the ground quietly.
The trio, consisting of Kazuhiro, Masato, and Daisuke, began to jog out quietly, passing by any gunts in any area without being noticed. While they were jogging, Kazuhiro knocked out any grunts, who had spotted them in their way, which amazed Daisuke. As they reached the building, they laid low near the entrance. Masato leaned towards the entrance to take a peek to see Hisao and his grunt were surrounding the wooden crate along with many smugglers lifting and lowering any boxes. He was curious to see what was inside the box that Hisao had stolen.
"Kazuhiro, go to the upper floor and Daisuke, follow me," Masato ordered both Kazuhiro and Daisuke.
The trio entered the entrance but Kazuhiro separated himself from them and climbed up the ladders to the upper floor, trying not to be discovered by the grunts. Both Masato and Daisuke hid behind the crates and sneaked towards Hisao and his grunt to eavesdrop on their conversation. As they reached their position, they listened to their conversation.
"So, boss, are we going to open this box to see what's inside?" Asked Hisao's grunt who was holding a crowbar.
"Yes, I am, because I hoped that they would bring good stuff!" Hisao replied with excitement as he snatched the crowbar from his grunt and he began to hit the edge of the cover with its claw. He began to lift the cover to open and the crate was opened.
Masato and Daisuke raised their heads to eye level to see and they saw Hisao reach his hand into the box and grabbed something inside. He took it out, revealed it to be an assault rifle, and scanned if it was both good quality and high-grade military weapons. Daisuke took the camera out and pressed the button to take many shots of every scene including Hisao and the assault rifle. While Daisuke took a shot, he and Masato continued to listen.
"Is it valuable?" Asked the grunt.
"Of course it is, you fool," Hisao replied rudely. "This was a request to be sent to their client from them so they would do something more destructive, I guess."
"What kind of 'destructive'?"
"I hope it's not a normal bank robbery unless they're going to rob the government bank," Hisao shrugged, putting the gun back to the crate.
After finishing taking many photos, Daisuke lowered his camera down. He never thought that he would be facing a realistic dangerous field that involved death if he was not cautious around his surroundings. He admitted that he was truly afraid to die one day but he cannot afford to be afraid in this situation especially controlling his ancient magic. He turned around to face Masato and said, "I'm done, taking a picture."
"Ok, let's get out of here before…"
Masato suddenly stopped talking when he heard the clicking sound of a hammer of the pistol. He and Daisuke turned their head around to see the grunts pointing their guns at them. He sighed in frustration and cursed, "Shit."
"Get the hell up," The grunt demanded from both Masato and Daisuke.
Masato and Daisuke stood up to their feet and raised both hands up to surrounder. They began to walk out of their compromised hiding spot behind the boxes, followed by the grunts. Hisao noticed them being held pointed by the grunts' pistol to their head and said, "Well, I guess I got two guests right here."
Masato and Daisuke stopped at their spot and looked at Hisao as they remained calm but Daisuke was not. Even though he was calm, he was also nervous and sweat flowed down his forehead. He felt like either he was one step closer to his death or his shoulder was touched by a hand of a grim reaper. However, he has to try to remain calm in the face of death.
"Well, I don't know who the hell you are, but you both do not look like a cop to me," Hisao said as he reached his hand to his back pocket and grabbed something. He swiftly took it out, revealing it to be the pistol, and pointed at Masato to his forehead. "Who the hell you are?"
"Just an average photographer who was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time," Masato answered with a smile, but only returned with a smack of the grip of Hisao's pistol.
"Don't lie to me, you dipshit," Hisao threatened, "Tell me; who the hell you are?"
"Like I just said, Just an average photographer who was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time…"
Hisao's pistol fired at the ground beside Masato's standing position. Daisuke flinched at the sound of firing but returned to remain composure. Hisao moved his pistol away from Masato and pointed at Daisuke with anger.
"Answer me or else the next bullet would be at your partner," Hisao threatened aggressively.
Facing the pointing of Hisao's pistol, Daisuke was unclear to self-control his fear for how long before he would get to be killed on the spot on the very first day of his agency.
"I will tell you…" Masato spoke, getting Hisao's attention.
Hisao turned his head around to Masato with his raised eyebrow.
"Before you will get your ass kicked," Masato finished his sentence with a smirk.
"Wha…"
A stun grenade suddenly appeared out of nowhere in mid-air, which caught everyone on the ground by surprise and confusion. Daisuke noticed Masato had already shut his eyes and quickly looked away to shield his eyes while closing his eyes in extra protection. It exploded into a flash of light, blinding everyone except Masato and Daisuke.
Kazuhiro stepped on a metal railing and jumped off with his custom-made escrima sticks in both hands. He dived towards Hisao and pounded him to the ground before Hisao recovered. Masato took his chance and disarmed the grunts' pistol before pinned him to the ground and Daisuke lunged for the wrist of another grunt and pinned him to the ground. The grunt dropped his gun and Daisuke punched his face with full strength to knock him out.
After taking down the grunt, Masato saw the armed reinforcement rushing in from outside. He took both CAD and revolver pistols out of his gun holster in his jacket and swiftly aimed at them with his pistol-shaped CAD. He triggered his magic sequence and conjured a spell. As they stepped, they flew back with a sudden full force to the ground. His eyes spotted the grunt aimed at him on the upper floor and began to fire. He dodged the bullet and ran to avoid being shot while trying to aim at the grunt with his revolver pistol. He fired his revolver twice and managed to hit the grunt's both knee and shoulder.
Kazuhiro blocked the grunt's swing with a punch, hit his face with his stick in his left hand, and swung both sticks at him from the right. Another grunt tried to lean towards him for a punch but he dropped down to dodge incoming hits and hit him to drop to knee level. He then hit his face twice to drop him.
Seeing both Kazuhiro and Masato in action, Daisuke was amazed but dismayed. He felt useless in this situation, not able to assist them in the fight. Even though he learned self-defense and basic hand combat, he only took down two to three grunts in a fight because they did not utilize magic. He cannot consider conjuring his ancient magic in this situation as it was honestly pointless because of Kazuhiro and Masato's amazing skill. While he was distracted, the grunt recklessly charged towards him with his knife but only got hit in both legs and fell to the ground, dropping his knife.
"Daisuke-Kun. Focus on your surroundings!" Masato shouted at Daisuke while firing his revolver pistol.
Snapped out of his thoughts, Daisuke began to move and tried to take down as many grunts who were in his way as possible with his strength and skill. "Sorry, It won't happen again, Masato-Sama!"
Groaned, Hisao was aching from being pounded by Kazuhiro but he barely managed to stand up due to being heavily bruised. As he stood up, his eyes widely opened at the scene of his grunts being beaten easily by the trio. He thought that he could deal with them with ease but he was wrong to underestimate them because they were magicians. He quickly turned around to run to the car for the getaway.
After dealing with many grunts and reinforcement in his surroundings, Kazuhiro was a little out of breath from fighting many grunts in the fight. He turned around to see that Hisao was running outside to the car and began to chase after him while conjuring a self-acceleration spell with an unknown.
Hisao tried to run to reach the car with his might as he hated to be caught, sent to jail, or possibly beaten up to death. He does not want both operation and life to be jeopardized by a random magician who might be with law enforcement because he can make a ton of money from running his smuggling operation. He was frustrated by it so he decided to lay low and tried to start from the beginning. As he was about to reach the car, he was, unfortunately, hit in his head by the flying Kazuhiro's stick.
Laying on the ground, Hisao felt agony from the bruises on the back of his head but saw the shadow enclosed his whole body and the floor. He turned around to see Kazuhiro was standing with his sticks before him laying. He trembled by his look and shouted, "Get the hell away from me!"
Hisao began to claw backward as fast as he could but Kazuhiro stepped on his chest with his foot to immobilize him from moving. He began to struggle to get Kazuhiro's feet off from his chest but his feet were heavy and untroubled by his struggle.
"Who the hell are you?! The police?!" Hisao asked angrily.
"No, but I need to know if Kiyoko Chika is part of your operation?" Kazuhiro replied and later asked Hisao bluntly.
"Chika... What are you talking about… Oh god."
Hisao realized his fear of Kazuhiro's questions and continued to ask with his fear tone, "Are you hired by Chika to kill me?!"
Hearing a faint sound that was getting louder, Kazuhiro quickly grabbed Hisao's shirt collar and threw him back further away behind him. He then jumped back with his arm crossed to shield himself before the car exploded. He flew back by an explosion and once he landed, he crashed to the ground and rolled across. He quickly stood up to see Chika was walking beside the flaming wrecked car with her murderous intention.
"That's a good save, detective, but you won't be able to escape from my next attack," Chika said as she stopped walking and looked at the cautious Kazuhiro and fearful Hisao. She began to conjure her spell with her bracelet CAD as she summoned a flowing spectral knife-shape projectile aiming at them. "Before you die, how do you know it's me?"
"I both lie and guess just now but back in our conversation about your request, I sense your well-hidden emptiness and enjoyment in your voice on hell bending to destroy Hisao-San to take over, am I right?" Kazuhiro explained as he took his fighting stance in the position behind.
"You're quite cunning despite your lazy attitude and you don't seem to bother to listen and follow what everyone told you to do so," Chika complimented Kazuhiro. "But it won't change the fact that I will kill everyone including your partners."
Chika's projectiles began to move towards Kazuhiro, who quickly grabbed Hisao by his arm and began to run to dodge her attack. Her projectiles missed them but created a small impact crater. As they ran to dodge, they were unfortunately scattered across and hit to the ground by her last projectiles hit. Hisao tried to stand up but his leg was hit by her projectiles. He screamed in pain as he looked at Chika and tried to persuade her to stop.
"Please don't kill me, Chika! Did you forget that I rescued you from the prostitution ring during the operation?!"
"Of course, I remember, but I don't remember why you decided to give up killing because the war isn't even over yet?" Chika crooked her neck in confusion at Hisao.
"That your fucking reason!?" Hisao shouted back.
"That's right because I enjoyed violence from what you taught me to do?" Chika explained with her sadistic smile as she launched her projectiles to Hisao's shoulder, making him scream in pain.
"Please, Chika, I can give you everything that you want once we have enough money from snuggling!" Hisao cried in fear. "I can give you food, dress, jewelry, or we could mar…"
The projectile knife pierced through Hisao's head. His blood began to flow out from his open wound and his whole body began to drop down to the ground with a loud thud.
"You can't tell me that you forgot... what we did after the war, Can you?" Chika said with a hint of venom. "Even though we did great service to our country, it was only a matter of time before we became an annoyance to them."
Kazuhiro slowly stood up and saw Hisao's lifeless body. Sighed in both disappointment and furious, he took his fighting stance to his position when he turned around to look at Chika. His eyes were not focusing on Chika and her projectile knife as he had to be careful with her spell. Chika noticed him and asked, "Do you want to die first even though Hisao is the first one to die by my hand?"
"Like hell, I was," Kazuhiro chuckled.
Chika's projectile knife began to explode into pieces, shocking her. she turned around to see who caused it and it turned out to be Masato pointing his CAD Pistol at her. She quickly fired it at Masato while manifesting as many knives as she could but only did not realize that her stamina began to drop. Masato dodged her projectile knives as he could but gained minor cuts on his right arm.
While Chika's attack focused on Masato, Kazuhiro took his chance to run towards her for a takedown but was noticed by her. Her knives flew straight towards him for a kill but he deflected it with his attack and slid towards the barrel for a cover. It hit the barrel, affecting the shell to be both shaken and moved back a bit. Masato jumped over the car and hid behind from her attack.
"Come out, you detectives, so that I can kill you easily," Chika asked nicely.
'Damnit, she can attack two of us at the same time because her eyes are possibly able to see in a wide-angle and I think this possible area gave her an advantage,' Masato thought as he tried to peek but only both felt and heard a hit to the car and lay down. 'This is the worst.'
Hearing a running footstep, Masato and Kazuhiro turned their heads around to see Daisuke running towards Chika and he seemed to be going to tackle her. Chika saw him running towards her position and grinned that he would be the first to die.
'What the hell is he thinking?! He is going to get himself killed!' Masato thought dreadfully as he was about to stand up to run towards Daisuke to save him.
Before Chika's knives flew towards Daisuke, he quickly took his mobile terminal shaped CAD and began to conjure his spell. As her knives came closer, he dodged her attack to the right but gained a minor cut in his cheek and he tripped. However, before he tripped, tons of pushions moved towards and began to manifested to become an animal to their surprise: White Tiger.
"Byakko! Pounce her!" Daisuke ordered before he fell to the ground.
Byakko began to charge towards Chika with its roar, scaring Chika into recklessly shooting at it. It dodged her attack with ease while charging. Chika became frightened and began to lose her concentration on her casting spell. The knives slowly fell apart into a particle of dust which she never noticed but she used all her remaining knives and fired at it in every direction to kill and trap it.
The dust formed when the knives might hit Byakko. Chika could not see if it hit Byakko but it did not. Byakko jumped out of the dust and roughly pounded at her to the ground. Pinned to the ground, Chika looked at its eyes with her dreadful face and she could not shake it off from her. It groaned with its gritted teeth to bite her head and opened its mouth to bite her. However, it instantly disappeared into the spreading pushions particularly particular dust.
Chika was unable to move her body for a while until she realized that she was free to move. She smiled. She turned around to see her CAD on the ground and reached her hand to grab it but it was kicked away. Her smile disappeared. She looked up to see Kazuhiro who was holding his sticks while looking at her too. He crouched down to see her face clearly with his composure face.
"Are you going to kill me?" Asked Chika.
"No, I'm not because you're the one who put your request for us to gather evidence to expose your boss's operation, remember?"
"Ah yes, I remember. How stupid of me to not think that you remember and kept it to granted my request."
"I always kept my promise as a private detective."
Kazuhiro punched her face without hesitation to knock her out.
Evening
Masato's right arm was treated by a paramedic while he was having a conversation with two men in suits about the incident that happened not long ago.
"So, you and your partners were tricked to accept her request to expose Hisao for his smuggling operation, and turned out that she wanted to kill him?"
"Yes, it's true, Chef Inspector Chiba Toshikazu."
"It seems that you're already taking care of the case without knowing that we're following," Toshikazu said as he turned around to see many grunts being apprehended and sent into a police truck by police officers. "Stop calling me my full name since we are both friends."
"Sorry, my habit didn't go away," Masato chuckled.
"I'm glad you're okay despite having minor injuries that are not that serious, Masato," Toshikazu's assistant inspector said, inspecting Masato's injury.
"Don't worry about me, Inagaki. I survived the worst ever since you two caused a lot of trouble during my time as a police officer." Masato assured Toshikazu's assistant inspector, Inagaki, and reminded him and Toshikazu of their past.
"Don't remind me that, Masato. It gave me a headache by someone's fault for doing his job properly," Inagaki sighed in little irritation as he glared at Toshika who laughed away.
While they were having a conversation, Daisuke leaned against the hood of Masato's car, looking up to the sky to sightseeing the moving cloud. He was both tired and stressed with the situation that he was caught in. Sneaking into the dangerous criminal operation, fighting with the grunts, and summoning his familiar against their client who turned out to be a psychopath. All of this strained his mind.
"Hey."
Daisuke turned around to see Kazuhiro walking towards him with two soda cans in each of his both hands. Kazuhiro threw it over to Daisuke, who managed to catch it. He leaned against the hood beside him and opened his can, producing a fizzing sound.
"Are you going to quit?" Kazuhiro questioned bluntly as he drank his soda.
Shocked by Kazuhiro's question, Daisuke tried to think of an answer for Kazuhiro's question but did not know how to answer with his own words. He was conflicted as he cannot decide to quit the Gruidae Agency and go on with his normal life or continuing as a private detective and possibly lead to his death. However, he recalled what he did in the entrance exam of the agency and even showed his both resolve and the indomitable will to Izanagi. He was willing to experience both the good and worst sides of the people that he would encounter so that he could become a better person other than the private detective.
"How can I quit as I came so far, Kazuhiro-San? I'm willing to continue as a private detective to experience what kind of both unexpected and twist coming to my life as a private detective. Even though I'm afraid, I will continue this until I decide to give up," Daisuke answered with a smile as he opened his soda can.
Kazuhiro chuckled at Daisuke's question, thinking that it was too either cliche, cringe, or both. However, sensing his determination, he understood and acknowledged him as part of the agency despite some still not acknowledging him until they did so. He raised his soda to Daisuke for toast.
"Cheers to your first day?" Kazuhiro asked with a smile.
Seeing Kazuhiro's action for toast, Daisuke smiled back. "Cheers to my first day."
Both Kazuhiro and Daisuke's soda can hit each other as the toast of Daisuke's first day at Gruidae Agency.