Saegusa Mayumi, a fourteen-year-old girl who was the direct descendent of one of the Ten Masters Clan and also an aspiring Magician, was currently sitting on a chair, with her limbs bound with ropes.
Her body was still numb because of the injection her kidnapper injected earlier before she was taken away from her middle school.
It was another common day of her life when she was studying and enjoying her day with her friends. She knew that being the eldest daughter of the clan, she was constantly monitored by the Saegusa surveillance division and also, her personal bodyguard, Nakura-san must be around as well.
However, what she didn't expect was one of her friends could be the perpetrator behind this incident, leading Mayumi to the washroom and using a spell that blends with the air.
Mayumi was taken off guard and before she could use her own magic to counter her opponent, some men appeared from the stalls of the bathroom; signifying how the whole school was under the radar of the ambushers.
Mayumi was a confident girl with appropriate self-defense training—however, in front of several adults and while being under the effect of a drug, she was rendered helpless—allowing her kidnappers to take her away without much of a protest.
The next time, she opened her eyes, Mayumi found herself inside this room with ropes tied all around her with her lips sealed with tape. Her body wasn't listening to her command nor was she able to use her magic. Although she didn't have her CAD(Casting Assistance Device) Mayumi was trained enough to alter the reality for some moments and free herself.
However, all she could do now was to weep in silence without any hope of being saved.
'Otou-sama...Izumi...Kasumi...' Her breathing was steady but her heart wasn't. Her body was numb and so was her conscience as she kept on repeating the same thing again and again, without any hope remaining in her eyes.
Any minuscule sound sent a shiver down her spine. Being aware of how she had attracted numerous gazes in the past from older men because of her body—which didn't match her age—Mayumi hoped that only death awaited her at the end of this day; nothing else.
'...I wish...I...' She could only close her eyes and think of 'what if' in silence.
It was then, when suddenly, for the first time, Mayumi heard a voice,
"Quite hopeless you seem." She shot her head up, only to be met by a pair of green eyes staring back at her. Those Green orbs contained no emotions in them, for some reason, however, Mayumi didn't feel hostility from him either.
The person seemed a little younger than her and had silver hair covering his forehead. Wearing casual clothes and sneakers, the boy crouched to match his eye level with her.
"Let's see..."Without much thought, he slowly pulled the tape and allowed Mayumi to taste the air after who knows how long.
"I-err-I...w-who..." She didn't know how long it had been since she talked, however, speaking a single word seemed laborious for her.
"Don't speak. Your pharynx is compressed a little. You will only hurt yourself."
Mayumi didn't know whether this person was a perpetrator or benefactor, but she nodded in understanding.
The boy raised his brows before he whipped his index finger and told Mayumi, "Open your mouth and drink slowly. It's warm water. Will help your throat."
Not like Mayumi had any other option so she parted her lips and tilted her neck. Soon, her throat was allowed to re-energize with the lukewarm water and her mind became a little clearer than before.
The boy only fed her two mouthfuls, even though Mayumi needed more. However, naturally, she didn't ask.
"Hmm, let's see. Saegusa Mayumi, that is you, has been kidnapped by an infamous syndicate that is currently targeting every big family to gain their support or worse, destroy them entirely. Their motive remains unknown but the procedure is the same as always."
Mayumi didn't understand most of the part, but she had a feeling that the boy was not part of this group.
"A-Are...y-y-you...here...t-to...save...m-me?" Her voice was hoarse, but she was able to utter out the words, she was desiring to hear the answer for.
The boy tilted his head before he replied, "I was just wandering here and there, truth be told. However, your eyes caught my attention so I dropped by."
Mayumi's heart sank at those words. If not for the criminal then someone who comes to meet you in confinement surely must be your savior—was what she theorized. However, this boy seemed to be a moody adventurer, both from his words and demeanor.
Tears welled in her ruby eyes as she stared at the person in disbelief.
"Alright, stop crying. I don't like seeing your eyes blur. You want to get away from here."
Mayumi instantly shook her head up and down with tears never leaving her face. She could do anything right now to get away from the confines of these people and see her family again.
"Hmm...let's see...we are G-3 here and flying all the way...hmm..." Mayumi didn't know what the boy was saying but the fact he said 'fly' made her eyes widen.
'Flying magic...but how?' She wasn't courageous nor stable enough to ask him anything regarding magic or whatsoever.
To break her reverie, Mayumi suddenly found herself being lifted off the chair with her body, no longer restrained by the ropes.
"Ah..." On the reflex, she grabbed the boy's shoulder as she found herself being pressed against his back and her legs behind held by him, firmly.
"Your body is quite weak so I am going to tie you up again." Mayumi blinked in surprise as she found a rope going around her back and the boy's chest in an 'X' pattern. Twice, thrice...Mayumi was flabbergasted about how it was occurring when the boy was not moving at all.
'Movement type magic...and gravitation type as well?' Mayumi tried looking at his CAD, but she found nothing.
"Ready, Princess?"
Mayumi instinctively tightened her hold before humming in response. She clenched her jaw and found her heart rate going higher at the anticipation.
She couldn't see his expression, but she felt he smiled just now. However, she couldn't keep on thinking about it for long as she found the boy finally moving toward the wall at a sprinting pace.
Just about ten meters away, the boy halted and raised his index finger toward the wall.
"Bang." Just as the word left his lips, a purple orb was released from the tip of his finger—and the next instance, the wall in front of them was entirely destroyed.
BOOOOOOOM*
Alarms blared, however, the boy didn't stop using the gap he created in the wall and moved toward the stairs that ascended toward the ground floor.
"STOP RIGHT THERE!" There were four guards around this floor(which was surprising for Mayumi), who raised their batons and ran toward them with the intent to apprehend them.
The boy again paused, raised his hand to either side, and in an instant, the four guards began floating in his direction; against their will.
"What the...?!"
"Magic?"
The power of attraction remained only until they reached inches apart from the magician, before the boy jerked his arms, and all the four men were thrown away—crashing into the wall with enough force to make a small crater and ultimately losing consciousness.
"W-whaaaaa!!" Mayumi wasn't able to ask any further as she found herself moving again forward.
Ascending the stairs there was another door that surely leads to the upper floor.
"Thirty-six eh...too less..." Mayumi could somehow hear him clearly now—only to find her eyes widening.
"There are so many guards on this floor?"
She asked, but didn't get any reply as the boy pressed his palm against a metal door and spoke out a single word,
"Echo." The very next moment, Mayumi had to cover her ears as a loud noise, akin to nail scratching against metal, reverberated from the other side of the door.
"Ugh..." She gritted her teeth to bear with the pain before finally, the noise subdued, and the door fell down in an instant.
"Huh...?" The reason why Mayumi had a dumbfounded look on her face, was because she was expecting a confrontation of more than thirty men behind the door. However, once the floor appeared, all she could see were bloodied corpses of humans—wearing the same guard uniform as the four before.
"Haah...they died after all." Hearing the boy so nonchalantly declaring how he mass murdered just now, left Mayumi in another great shock.
Regardless of what she was thinking, the boy suddenly jumped from the spot and landed all the way near the staircase.
He was continuously using Gravity and Movement type magic to tread through the obstacles and fluidly move with Mayumi on his back.
Next floor, the number of guards doubled...
Just as she saw him raising his hand against the metal door again, she asked,
"W-Wait...can't you just not kill them?" Mayumi knew she was being unreasonable right now for asking her savior to save her on her condition. However, upon hearing her request, the boy halted in his movements.
I will not kill them—was what he discreetly said before he clenched his fist in front of his chest, and the metal door was scrapped into a ball.
However, what Mayumi didn't expect from the goons—who had taken her hostage with the intention of negotiation—to suddenly start firing at them without reservation.
"Hiick!" Mayumi ducked her head and closed her eyes, expecting her body to be full of holes after being aimed with so much ammunition. However, all they heard was the sound of loud thumps, from all around her.
"Huh?" Mayumi raised her head and found out that they were currently surrounded by a multi-colored single-layer protective shield, which not only was blocking the bullets, but the heat radiating from the bullets was also not reaching her, at all.
"P-Phalanx?" Despite not being entirely knowledgeable about the treasured technique of the Jummonji family, Mayumi knew the application and appearance of the technique. The indestructibility signified the boy was using a spell, which only a direct member of the Jummonji family can use.
However, she had never seen or heard of someone from the family having such peculiar hair and versatile magic before.
Regardless of whatever she contemplated, the boy walked slowly toward the next metal door. However, the notable part of this walk remained in the fact, that from wherever he passed, the group of soldiers fell on their knees.
Although Mayumi couldn't track his CAD or what kind of spell he was chanting at such rapid succession, the way the soldiers were choking their necks, and gasping to breathe, she detected that it must be air compression or maybe he had a tool to release poisonous gas using divergence type magic.
"I didn't kill them, but they surely will suffer once they are up." Hearing the bit nonchalant voice, Mayumi was shaken off her daze.
The next metal door arrived and what they left behind was a graveyard of soldiers, lying all around the floor. The number easily exceeded fifty, yet the boy showed no sign of being exhausted by continuous usage of magic, at all.
'...what kind of training he must have gone to build such confidence and strength?' Mayumi wondered as she saw the boy again going through the same procedure as the previous level and suffocating the adversaries to oblivion.
"Oh lord..." The reason why Mayumi's eyes were filled with horror and her heartbeat had slowed down to a minimum was that upon exiting the building where she was held captive—a whole army awaited.
Although she could tell that most of them weren't magicians, being pointed against hundreds of soldiers and several big war tanks could never give someone a pleasant feeling, until they weren't psycho-war lovers.
The small flame of hope that ignited within her seems to be trembling at the sight of her probable doom.
It was given that Mayumi was no longer required as a hostage, either because the negotiation was done or maybe, it failed. Regardless, no one came forward to provide a warning or offer a chance for Mayumi to retreat to her prison.
However, what made Mayumi feel guilty was the fact, that because of her, this boy would also have to face the same fate as her.
"Your eyes are being clouded again. Are you scared?" Suddenly, Mayumi heard some words from the boy, which didn't seem to match the situation they were in.
Without removing her eyes from the incoming doom, she nodded.
"I am scared...I am terrified...I-I don't want to die..."She wishes-no, she begged for her life in that instance. There was no chance for her survival even though her father suddenly appeared here.
Mayumi couldn't be sure but somehow she heard the boy mumbling something along the lines, 'So they are the cause huh...'
"Huh?!" Suddenly, her eyes widened. Not because the bullets or the cannon came rushing toward her, but because, the scenery in front of her eyes cleared out entirely. No, it was more like she wasn't looking at the surface at all, and staring at open space.
"A-Are we flying?!" Mayumi knew it was foolish for her to ask this while she could the abundance of military forces right beneath her feet, several meters down.
The gunmen and the soldiers soon spotted the duo and began to launch missiles and live ammunition at them. However, the shield erected around the duo was not affected by the assault at all.
"They are the reason why your eyes are clouded right..." For the first time, Mayumi felt something from the boy.
It was a sensation.
A feeling, that he was experiencing something...something akin to frustration.
Soon, her eyes diverted toward a drop of purple orb, forming on top of his right index finger. The boy turned his finger and allowed the droplet to flow down toward the center of the army.
"Hades."
That day, the world came to know about the existence of a monster.
An untamed and unnamed monster that only Mayumi knew.
Amidst several small mountains, in the middle of nowhere was where the main house of Yotsuba was situated.
Although the clan comes in the prominent Ten Masters Clan, which boasts quality concentrated personnel rather than gaining a multitude of numbers—like the Saegusa clan. However, the Yotsuba main house was relatively smaller than any standard mansion. It wasn't an implied decision, but a choice.
Inside the mansion, there could be seen several maids and butlers currently cleaning up and calling it for the day—given it was already nearing midnight.
Amidst the silence permeating the mansion, inside the study room of the Matriarch, the terminal resounded with the news of a recent explosion near the outskirts of Nara.
"Maya-sama, you seem rather stressed about this incident." The only butler who could remain in the presence of Maya, even at this hour—Tadanori Hayama asked in a heavy voice.
"Stress you say...I wonder if I have begun incurring wrinkles." Both of them knew Maya couldn't gain stress marks over her charming face. And the way she tilted her head while saying so, expressed how she was trying to be humorous here.
Hayama didn't say anything further; his silence played a great role in pressing Maya for a reasonable response.
Dropping her act with a slight click of her tongue, Maya spoke, "I am just curious about this miraculous escape of Saegusa heiress."
Maya cares about none in this world, Hayama was aware of the fact. That's why, for her to pay attention to this incident, seemed rather divergent. The core of her interest was something else.
"Isn't Nara under the jurisdiction of the Kudou family? I wonder how they never found out about the base of those lunatics. Were they even searching for Saegusa's heiress?"
The abduction of Saegusa Mayumi was no small incident. The Ten Masters Clan was informed about the event that transpired yesterday and was asked to look out for the child in their vicinity of surveillance.
More than a magician, the victim was the daughter of the Clan head. This incident would surely leave a scar on the name of TMC. However, Maya was not bothered because of it. If anything, she would use this point as her bid against Saegusa Kouichi in the next clan meeting.
Her interest remained in the perpetrator behind the kidnapping, and more profoundly, in the person who saved Saegusa Mayumi from her possible demise.
The pattern of destruction was familiar. Although, this person couldn't be compared to the tool Yotsuba has in possession of, still, this person...or might be another tool, has the potential to create an imbalance.
Although Maya was not anxious about this existence, given her trump card, ready to be deployed any moment, she seemed rather intrigued to know about the affiliation of this entity.
"Madame, should we assign the Kuroba family for the investigation?"
Maya hummed at that; not assenting, rather contemplating.
However, she soon drew to a conclusion far more interesting than what her butler suggested,
"Rather than searching for the unknown, keep an eye on the known."
With a smile darker than the night itself, Maya finished speaking her intention,
"Put Saegusa Mayumi under surveillance. If that thing could rescue her from a literal hole, then it would surely come to visit her again~"
A/N:- The world is mostly the same as Mahouka, but as the saying goes, great powers give birth to great evils as well. Like Gojo's birth brought so many curses into existence to balance the world.
That was why the adversaries would be different and stronger than the ones portrayed in the show. Again, I have only read Mahouka up to Vol 19 so please be patient with me with updates.
Drop a review if you liked the chapter.