Baptism 1.9

Angry Bat and Knife guy was first to make a move, as he suddenly turned around without warning and smashed the bat on one of the guys I thought was going to be Sophia's backup, as if he knew all along they were there despite never having looked back once.

The bat collided with one of the black guys' head and he just crumpled, while Angry Bat and Knife guy didn't miss a beat and immediately threw himself at the Mediterranean guy.

Sophia's eyes widened and she burst forward to assist when the other guys in Jun's group swarmed her.

Emma screamed an unintelligible war cry and charged in to attack the head of the group, Jun, who had been just watching as if he didn't plan to do anything.

One guy broke off from the five-man swarm attacking Sophia, trying to intercept Emma, and I took that as my cue to act.

I deftly sidestepped one guy who was swinging in with a punch, the dashed straight past the other one coming up behind him.

Madison was already on the ground after receiving a debilitating kick to her side. She didn't look like she was in too much pain, but she had lost her footing and was now getting kicked around repeatedly as she held tightly onto her assailant's leg.

I shoved the asshole kicking her aside, then grabbed Madison's arm and pulled her up with me into a run.

Yeah, I was running away.

Why? Because it wasn't my fight.

So what if my power thought Emma would make a good follower? So what if other people lumped me in with Emma and Sophia?

I was the one that called the shots, not my power and not some random gang wannabes.

The only reason I grabbed Madison was because she literally couldn't fight back with 0 attack, and it was wrong to just leave someone like that to get beat up, especially after I'd already sort of taken her under my wing earlier.

Once I dragged Madison around the corner, we kept going in a direct break for the Principal's office.

The proper thing to do when a fight breaks out is to get the teachers.

Barring that, I could use the phone in the admin office to call police.

The wrong thing to do would be to join the fight and possibly get suspended. I knew that Emma and Sophia had pull with the admin, so maybe we would all be fine and it would be accepted as self-defense, but could I even be sure that they wouldn't say I was fighting on the other side after all was said and done?

No, I couldn't. Then, if I got Madison to back up my story, it'd still just be my word against theirs, with a bunch of witnesses around who weren't necessarily on our side either, judging by the tool that told Jun we were insulting the ABB.

The secretary gave me a frown when I barged in. She was already on the phone with someone, and Mr. Gladly was also in the office.

I quickly realized listening to the secretary that Mr. Gladly had already informed her of the situation. Okay, so maybe he wasn't totally useless.

We were asked to stay in the office as witnesses for when police arrived, and when the police did arrive a few minutes later, we led them to the scene of the fight.

By the time we got there, Jun's whole group had already escaped, and only Sophia, Emma, and the guys that were with Sophia were left.

Two of the guys were out cold, while Emma was on the ground leaning into Sophia. I could see that both of them were injured in various places, Emma more than Sophia.

Sophia saw us, then gave me a glare, I assume because I ran away instead of helping them.

I had nothing to be sorry for, so I ignored her.

I might have turned away an opportunity to make allies in this school, but I saw today that joining an existing group came with its own problems, namely, enemies.

What followed was the school medics coming to take everyone injured to the infirmary, and while they received medical care the police decided to question us first, along with some other volunteer witnesses.

While I had no reason to help Sophia and Emma, I didn't have any reason to lie either, so I told the police what happened, that Jun and his group suddenly came for a fight, and they started it first before I ran away.

Once that was done, I left for home.

I mean, Emma and Sophia weren't even my friends, so I had no reason to stick around and visit them in the infirmary or anything.

O O O

I had 116 MP in reserve when I went home, after using 30 on Madison during the day.

Not enough for another Heroism enchantment, but I wasn't going for that this time.

I soon spent 90 MP to make an Armlet of Speed +3.

Everything that I planned to keep for myself, I was going to make into armlets, necklaces, or anklets to avoid unnecessary attention. Armlets and anklets could be hidden entirely under my clothes, while some types of necklaces could hold multiple jewels or items hanging from them, all of which could be enchanted separately before being attached to the neck chain.

Rings were cool but they were too eye catching, especially if I was wearing multiple rings on different fingers, and while some people wore a lot of bracelets, I still thought it was too conspicuous.

Just getting a full set of enchantments and stat bonuses meant more than ten items, not even counting any future spells I might get.

And the items themselves were conspicuous too. The enchantments changed the items slightly, and I had seen that with both the armlets I'd made so far.

There was a script I couldn't read engraved onto the item, and from certain angles it seemed to reflect more light than should have been there. I didn't notice it with the first armlet, but I did notice it now, observing the new healing armlet.

It was a small difference, but enough that I was glad I took the extra precaution.

With that done, I went to the library and started researching into potential costume designs and the costs of making one. I was already feeling disappointed with the Wards program, and if I wasn't going to join the Wards I'd need my own costume.

A short while later, I came to the realization that any decent costume would be out of my current budget, which was basically zero.

Even the cosplay pieces that offered no protection whatsoever and just looked good, I had no money to buy.

Trying to make one out of my clothes and other stuff lying around the house would probably result in something embarrassing to go out with.

By now I could probably convince my dad to help out, but I really didn't want to.

After a moment of sitting around, I decided it was time to look into my options for being a rogue.

O O O

I didn't know what to expect when I called the PRT about registering as a rogue offering services, but they were quite eager to arrange a meeting despite the lack of promotion and information on their site.

We'd agreed on a location for me to wait at and they gave me a license plate to watch for, so they could pick me up within half an hour.

So I went out in a jacket with a big hood, put on sunglasses and a hygienic face mask, then walked a few streets to the designated location, just a neighbourhood curb, and waited.

The car that came to get me had nothing on it marking it as PRT, except the license plate number I was told ahead of time.

All in all, I would have looked like nothing more than a normal girl getting into a normal car, and that was the point.

I knocked on the passenger side window twice as the car came to a stop, as I was instructed.

The window rolled down a bit, then the driver inside who I saw to be a middle-aged man dressed in casual clothes spoke up. "Hey, front seat needs some repair work, you should head in the back instead."

I nodded, and went through the back seat door.

Everything was going according to the scenario the PRT had constructed to confirm both sides' identities.

As the car started moving, the driver looked at the rear view mirror to me.

"So you're White Mage?"

"Hi. Yes, I am. And you would be?"

"I'm officer Berger, PRT rogue relations manager. It's good to see another cape willing to work on the side of the law."

"Thank you for coming to pick me up in person. I wouldn't have expected a manager to go all the way out here to get me."

"Oh it's no trouble. Honestly we don't get enough rogues trying to register, so I have plenty of time on my hands. Most capes that contact the PRT are trying to join the Protectorate or Wards, or they have no idea so they contact the front desk and never reach me before they get persuaded to become a hero."

"I can imagine. But don't you guys get a lot of false alerts, too? People that don't actually have powers?"

He laughed out loud. "Yeah, the front desk does, and so do the Wards inquiries. But the ones that take the time to find the number to contact us for registering as a rogue? That's enough effort on your part for us to take it seriously. The fakes generally don't care about being a rogue. It's not sexy, it's not promoted, it's not all that safe either because PRT doesn't give that much support if you're not on the hero roster, so the few that do find their way to me are generally serious, and I'm happy to put in the extra effort for them."

I couldn't help but smile along with officer Berger's light-hearted tone. I'd been expecting a PRT that was going to try and pressure me into being a hero, but he wasn't doing any of that, and was doing a great job of making me feel more comfortable. Hopefully any deal we could reach would be just as comfortable.

Eventually we drove into the PRT's underground parking lot and went up through a few security checks before going to a generic meeting room, and he went to get me a glass of water before sitting down.