It took a while, but it's finally here! Behold - the longer chapter I've ever made (so far)!
III
Chapter 16: The Cards Never Lie
Straight_Flush
Part 1
Breathing heavily, Frenda made her way through the empty streets of District 7 as fast as she could. At first, she was completely lost. Her intention was to catch up with the nun and get some answers from her, even if by force. But even though she was sure she headed the same way, the silver haired girl was nowhere to be seen anymore. Since then, she was running randomly, trying to guess where she could have gone with no luck. That is, until...
"Another explosion… Could this be?"
As if guided by the heavens, a trail of smoke appeared on the sky and drew her attention. Heading to that direction, since she had no other clue, she soon realized the source of that smoke was no regular fire. Several explosions roared through the empty streets at irregular intervals as the smoke grew denser and denser. In an area with nothing but small stores and residential buildings, the cause of so many blasts could not be accidental. Following that line of thought, Frenda could only reach one conclusion. No, this has to be a coincidence. In the end, Mugino erased him for good. There's no way he survived THAT.
Still, destiny soon proved she had been naive, given that he had suddenly resurrected twice in front of her.
After going deep into the gaps of the building, she found the source of the smoke and the person she was looking for.
"I can't believe it's him… what on earth is that guy?" She wondered as she kept herself hidden in the corner, simply watching the situation for now.
The girl in white robes that Hishiro had called Index was facing Rüdiger wearing a serious face. Her clothes were drenched, she had some small scratches on her face and her hands, and there was fire snakes all over the place, but she didn't looked worried at all. In fact, she was more busy trying to capture each and every movement the magician was making instead of watching out for the attacks that could come from any direction at any moment.
Rüdiger, on the other hand, seemed to be having as much fun as a child playing with a new toy. He walked from side to side, doing a lot of gestures for no reason as if he was teasing the younger girl. At some point, he hid one of his hands behind his back and drew small circles with his finger. Three random snakes responded instantly and jumped towards the nun at the same time.
Before Frenda could even think of interfering, Index whispered something under her breath and took a single step to the left. The snakes merged together and exploded into countless fireballs that, when in contact with the other snakes, created the exact same phenomena. The result was a splendid chain reaction that transformed the alley into a sea of heat and flames, forcing Frenda to protect her face and take a few steps back. Once it was over, the whole area was severely burnt - save for the spot where Index was standing and behind the water wall that had appeared in front of Rüdiger at some point…
"HAHAHAHAHAHA! Bravo! Truly amazing!" The red haired male applauded as he laughed in joy. "And I thought that I had got you this time!"
"Are you making fun of me? You should've known by now that it's pointless to hide the signals if I can sense the mana flowing when you give the command."
"Of course not. Holding back against you would be suicide. Not that it would matter anyway, don't you agree?" Index narrowed her eyes while he laughed alone at his joke. "I was preparing a multistepped spell, but you ruined it all. I never thought you would imitate my Divine Judgment and use it against me."
"I can only do that because your spells are too loose. You distort the meanings of your symbols so much that it's easy change the interpretation and transform it into something else entirely. It's really surprising that it doesn't go out of control the moment you cast it."
"Oh-ho, starting to figure things out, hmm? Took you long enough." He mocked as he got closer to her and crouched down to match her height. "I wonder what else you already know."
Index bit her lip for a moment before answering. "You're using golden style rituals and Egyptian symbols in an abstract way to archive the results you want. Also, there must have some kind of limit to your resurrection spell if you are bothering to defend from lethal attacks."
He sighed and shrugged while shaking his head in disappointment. "Is that all? I was honestly hoping for a little more."
"You are really making fun of me, aren't you?" The nun was trying to keep her calm, but she seemed to be at her limit. Not because of his mockery, but because his behavior made no sense. What does he have to gain from me understanding his techniques? Can't he understand that that would mean his defeat? Or is there a trap hidden somewhere behind all of this?
Rüdiger didn't answer. Instead, he simply stood up, turned around and slowly walked away from her while holding the edge of his toplet. For a fraction of a second, Index saw the symbol of the hearts suit on the card he was trying to hide. "Both the god and his priests hold the fate of the sick and the injured on their hands. In the left lies the knife that cuts the threads pulling their souls towards the depths of the river of the dead!"
"What?!" Scream in surprise was all Index could do. She remembered that spell pretty well. As Rüdiger glanced at her from over his shoulders with a malicious smirk on his face, a huge serpent made of water begun to take form around him, swirling in an wide spiral movement as it made it way upwards. A single drop of that water - or rather, poison - could be fatal. Index was forced to step away from the deadly entity until her back was touching the wall.
"If you think I'm still playing around, then let me show you how serious I actually am!" And with that, the serpent came crashing down at the nun. She threw herself out of the way and once again whispered something that sounded like random letters. As a result, the serpent head twisted upwards and she crashed on the wall of the building, splattering water all over the place.
Out of sheer luck, Frenda got out of the way to avoid getting wet, not knowing what would happen to her if the liquid had touched her skin. Index had to roll on the ground and pray that none of it would fall on her. Rüdiger, on the other hand, opened his arms as if he was welcoming the rain of death, but ended up not getting hit by any of it. "Oh my, this must be my lucky day!"
Index slowly got up, half annoyed at his attitude and half worried if she had managed to escape, checking on her own body. "Y-you did something to make the spell harmless to you, didn't you? It would be suicide to use it on such a small space without any safeguards."
"Why would I bother? I can fix my body as many times as I want, after all." He answered while rubbing his left wrist.
"Liar… You're saying that just because I am close to uncover your trick." The magician didn't confirm nor deny any of it. Index gave up on pursuing the subject and focused on the clues she had on hand. "But what's with that spell? I commanded it to fly directly upwards to the top of the building, but instead, it moved in an unnecessary large arc and hit the wall. The same thing happened the first time you used it. How-"
"How am I messing with your undefeatable spell interception - is that what you want to know? Why don't you ask that to yourself, oh almighty library of all magic?" He mocked her in an aggressive tone for the first time, getting her off guard.
Frenda didn't know what to do while watching it all with her jaw literally hanging. "In the end, I can't simply step into this. Those two are too unpredictable. Kinuhata managed to survive those insane attacks, but if I got a single hit… no, a direct confrontation is out of question. I need something to give me an absolute advantage before I can-"
And on that single moment of distraction, Rüdiger turned his head towards her. Their eyes met for a brief moment before Frenda could hide behind the wall again. Her body started shaking and she broke into a cold sweat. Noooooooo! He saw me! He totally saw me!
The magician let out a chuckle before he turned his attention back to Index. "You, people from the church, are so full of yourselves. It's laughable that you are considered to be something so absolute within the magicians when you can't even see through someone like me. It is just as Myrin suspected: your knowledge is limited by the boundaries set by the grimoires you read. If some new set rules were to be made, you would be completely clueless. I guess that's why the chairman of this city does not fear you."
"New set of rules? What are-"
"Ah, that's it. I'm done with you. I still have a few business to take care of with the seeds before I can close the curtains of the show, so could you kindly leave the stage now?" And with a swift movement, he took off his toplet and bowed down, as if thanking an imaginary audience. After the exaggerated gesture, a storm of white pigeons came out of his toplet and surrounded him.
Index had to cover her face with her arms to protect herself from the feathers and sharp claws that had suddenly assaulted her. Once it was over, Rüdiger was nowhere to be seen anymore. "He… didn't used magic just now… so how?" She looked around but it was useless. She was surrounded by buildings and there were 3 passageways leading outside of the alley (one of which Frenda was still using to hide herself). He had used some cheap trick to distract her and run away by using one of these.
While Index was at a loss, Frenda turned around and started to run. That girl may have some strange powers, but in the end, she is just a naive little girl for falling for such a trick. That man knew I was here, and still ran away while mentioning that he was after the seeds - probably referring to the seeds of doubt, which basically means me and that boy. I guess he couldn't do anything to me right now because I was too close, so he must be going after him! Setting an overall plan in mind, she dashed out of the alley, too busy to notice that her footsteps were heard by Index.
Part 2
At this day and age, the inhabitants of Academy City could proudly say that combustion engines are a thing from the past. Being approximately 30 years ahead of the rest of the world in technological advancement, all vehicles within the city uses electricity instead of fossil fuels, making them silent and harmless to the environment. Also, their performance are top notch, to the point that a regular driver is unable to tell the difference between the regular vehicles from an equivalent model of Academy City.
However, this goes only for regular drivers. There were extremely minor advantages that combustion engines had over electric ones that specialists would notice, and this applied even to Academy City models. Of course, the scientists and engineers technically could go out of their way to solve those issues, but given that they were irrelevant for the everyday use of the vehicles, no one believed that the cost of doing so would be worth it.
Except those in the dark side of the city, who didn't mind in breaking the rules and decided to fix this with the cheapest option available. And thus, the modified hybrid cars were born. Those worked like the regular electric cars until the secondary engine is intentionally ignited via a button hidden behind the steering wheel. With both working together, the acceleration, top speed and shift time are increased insanely at the cost of being ridiculously loud.
And so, the two vehicles running at dangerous speeds on the streets of District 7 were the best example of why those were used by the dark side - and also why they were forbidden for civilian use.
Kamijou Touma, the regular high school boy that was experiencing the feeling of going from at 0 Km/h to 150 Km/h in a matter of few seconds for the first time in his life, was glued to the rear sit due to the G forces holding his body. "H-hey, hold on! Aren't we going way too fast all of a sudden!? We gonna hit something like this!"
"Go say that to them, not to us." Answered Hishiro from the front seat as he opened the window and leaned towards the gap, not minding the violent air current flowing through it. "That's insane… they are increasing the distance. Is that thing equipped with booster rockets or something? We gonna miss them at this rate!"
The driver adjusted the position of his sunglasses and tightened the grip on the steering wheel. After a weird noise, the car accelerated even further, possibly going beyond 200 Km/h, making Touma panic even further. "I'm gonna die! I'm seriously gonna die!"
"Don't be so dramatic. The chances of we hitting something is near zero. See? There is no traffic at all." For Hishiro, who was from the dark side and was used to this sort of situation, it was impossible to understand the fear that a normal person would have of hitting a still object on the street, such as a light pole or a wall. "Anyway, what did you and Hinata have done to make that fire head so heated up?"
"Wasn't that your fault?" Retorted the spiky haired boy with teary eyes (it was impossible to determine if the phenomenon had happened because of fear or if it was just his body reacting to the wind coming from the window). "When I met your friend, she was already being pursued. So we ran away and tried to make a distraction by doing something with the radio tower, and then that girl appeared. But she wasn't as mad until you appeared and started provoking her!"
"Oh, is that so?" He said it nonchalantly, as if he had nothing to do with it. Still… she was almost exploding when I accidentally damaged the antenna… what was LIZARD trying to do with that tower? Hinata must know something if she was targeting it from the beginning.
"Don't give me that!" Continued Touma, unsatisfied with the other boy's reaction. "You did something to her sister, didn't you? And what with you carrying this gun as if it's nothing?"
"Well… the former is a long story, and the latter is even longer and way more complicated." Hishiro scratched the back of his head as he thought of a way to explain without creating even more trouble. "There is the possibility of her sister being dead because of me."
"What?!"
"From what you've seen today, you probably have an idea already, but this city isn't as peaceful as the higher ups make it seems." Hearing that, Touma looked downwards and placed his right hand on his head. "It was a kill or die situation. They worked for a shady organization, one of many that exists beneath the carpet everywhere in the world. The three of us were fighting in a building set to blow up. And in order to survive I… immobilized them and ran away." He made a stop after saying a half truth to increase the emotional effect. "I had no other option. It seems like Yuna managed to get out of that alive somehow and joined another shady organization."
"And she's after your friend for revenge?"
"Who knows? There's probably more to it than just that. At any rate, I'm carrying weapons just in case something like that happens. I do have special permission to do so, so don't worry." The brown haired boy shrugged and started to mess around with the glove box in front of him.
"Oh, this one looks nice. Even though my power is back to normal, I can't use it at this speed, so I rather avoid using the AMCP. Do you mind if I borrow this one?" He asked the driver, who answered with a sinister smirk and a thumbs up.
What Hishiro had in hand was… A grenade launcher? No, it looked like a small rocket launcher. Touma eyes went wide when he saw the destructive weapon. "You have permission even for those?"
"I- huh? Honestly, I don't know. Doesn't a permission works for every type of weapon? Well, whatever. I'm already breaking the rules by acting on my personal matters, so let's not mind these small details. Here we go!" And with that, he leaned outside, aimed the mini bazooka look alike at the black wagon and fired without thinking twice. (Just for the record, there were different types of licenses for use of weapons in Academy City, but Hishiro had no way to know that since no one from the dark side had one of them.)
With an unexpectedly quiet noise and no recoil at all, the rocket flew forward tracing a trail of smoke in its way and hit the lower right part of the vehicle. The explosion caused by it was underwhelming, but the noise and damage were not. The sound was strong enough to make the whole car vibrate, and the bumper of the wagon plus the right rear light and part of the bodywork were completely ripped off, even though it was an armored vehicle. "Phew, that was satisfying as heck. Get us a little closer and I'll finish this up with another shot!"
"Hold on, won't you end up killing everyone inside if you do it from closer?"
"Nah, I'm not trying to blow the whole thing up. If I manage to damage one of the front wheels-"
His words were cut short by the loud noise that came from the windshield. Something had hit it. And it was strong enough to make cracks appear all over the reinforced glass surface. Soon after, similar noises could be heard from all around the car.
Of course, their enemies wouldn't simply stay still after the explosion. Narrowing his eyes, Hishiro could see someone leaning out of the wagon's window aiming a large rifle at them. And just from first glance he could tell which kind of rifle it was. "Oh crap... they have Metal Eaters with them!"
Even though the rocket launcher had more destructive power, the Metal Eater had a full auto rapid fire function. The anti-tank bullets were quite a thing on their own, but when fired at such high ratio, it was impossible to stand against it. Hishiro thought they had the advantage by being able to defeat their enemy with just two shots, but he had actually made a mistake by not doing so in the very first. As of now, their loss was pretty much granted.
As the deadly bullets continued raining on them, the rearview mirrors, the roof and even one of the doors in the back were completely destroyed and fell apart. Seeing what had happened just beside him, Touma clung himself to the door that was still on its place to avoid falling on the road while mumbling "Such misfortune, such misfortune, such misfortune, such misfortune, such misfortuuuuuuneeeee!"
Hishiro clicked his tongue and stood up, making use of the new convertible function given to the car and aimed his weapon. It was way easier to shoot from there instead from the window, as he could aim in a straight line. But that was proven to not be a good idea. The moment he pulled the trigger...
Clank
"Dammit!"
A bullet landed a scratch hit on the side of the rocket launcher, changing the aim of his shot and knocking the weapon out of his hands (and out of the vehicle altogether).
They didn't even seen where the rocket had flew to nor hear the explosion that must have happened far behind. It was probably a good thing that the streets were empty, otherwise this stray shot would most likely end in a tragedy.
The boy didn't even had the time to lament over the loss of his weapon. Several silver spherical objects rolled from below the wagon. "Mobile land mines! Watch out!"
Right after announcing the incoming danger, the mines starting exploding one after the other. The sunglasses driver was forced to ride in zigzag to avoid a direct hit, but even then the car was pushed by the shockwaves and took damage.
The fierce assault didn't ended there. Someone else leaned outside from another window, and he had no weapon on his hands. Which could only mean… "Oh no."
Purplish light dots appeared around that person's head and shot forward towards the trashed car. More specifically, towards the windshield. They passed through the glass and rained at the passengers.
Hishiro had to crunch down to avoid the attack. His seat got several burnt marks were the light dots had hit.
Touma simply waved his hand all around the moment he noticed what was going on, but one hand wasn't enough to get rid of all of them, forcing him to crunch down as well.
All the driver could do was lean his body from side to side, trying to stay out of the way. Still, one of the lights hit his sunglasses' lens, but it seems that it had caused no damage.
It had no problem going through the glass, but the sunglasses stopped it… were those lights a concentration of ultra violet rays? Before the next wave of attacks came, Hishiro took something else from the glove box: it was a case containing another weapon. However, he simply set the weapon aside and held the case in hands. When the barrage of light dots rained on them again, he opened the case and made sure that some of them struck the inner part of the lid.
The reason for this action was simple: for some reason, there was a mirror on that part of the lid. If his theory was correct, he could redirect the light right back at the attacker. However, light refraction isn't so simple. The moment the light touched the mirror, it indeed changed direction, but then became weaker and disappeared after a few moments.
Hishiro didn't even had time to wonder why his plan had failed, as the wagon suddenly took a sharp turn to the left that seemed impossible to do at this speed. The driver was too slow to react, completely missing the entrance to the street they had gone. "Shit, this is not good! Turn on the next street, quick!"
It took mere seconds for them to reach the next crossroad. The (barely recognizable) black car drifted its way into the street without reducing its speed, almost throwing Touma out of the door gap. "Eh- WHOOAAAAAAAA!?"
"Damn, we're gonna miss them at this rate." Annoyed, the brown haired boy took out his communication device. "Asuka, come in! We need your support here!"
"Geez, why are you screaming like this Shiro? I can hear you loud and clear."
"Listen, LIZARD has captured Hinata and they are on the run right now."
"Huh? Why? What they want with Hina-chan?"
"I have no idea, but it seems like she was messing with their business. We have lost visual contact with their wagon."
"Okay, let me locate where you are before I can track them. Gimme a sec." And so, 20 seconds went by while everyone stared at the communication device waiting for an answer. Hishiro looked impatient all the way. Touma was staring curiously, probably wondering who Asuka was, but did not dare to ask. Even the driver was looking at it while he kept his foot on the pedal.
And when she finally talked again…
"This is bad! You need to stop! Stop the vehicle right now! If you keep going this way-" Before Asuka could finish, the driver stepped on the breaks and her voice was overlapped by the loud noise of the tires scraping on the asphalt. The two boys (that were not using seat belts) fell from their seats and bounced around inside the vehicle, but luckily weren't thrown flying out of it.
As the car was finally coming to a stop, Hishiro was about to complain when he noticed something a little far ahead on the street. "This is..."
"Ah-" It was a girl with silver hair and green eyes wearing white robes. She looked surprised by the car suddenly coming in her direction and froze in place. For her luck, It stopped just a few centimeters before hitting her.
"Eh… Index!?"
"Touma!" The girl simply ignored what she was doing and the fact that she was almost run over, and ran to hug her friend that she hadn't seen every since the first mad battle of the day had begun.
This is bad. Really bad. Hishiro couldn't help but think this as he left the car right after Touma. He had not expected to run into Index now out of all times, and her mere presence in this place, which was on the complete opposite direction she had took off earlier, felt like a bad omen.
Without noticing his concerns, the nun kept her attention locked on the spiky haired boy. "Are you alright? You're not hurt, are you? Where were you all this time?"
"I'm fine, don't worry. Well, a lot of things happened but I'm fine." He answered with a smile of relief on his face. "What about you?"
"I was scared at first, but Hishiro helped me looking for you during all this time."
Okay, calm down. First of all I need to confirm what is going on here. The boy in question took a step closer to the two, picking their attention for a moment. He exchanged glances with them one after the other and their reaction was exactly the same: a worried look while shaking their heads. Just as I thought. They don't want the other getting involved not knowing that they are fighting a battle of their own, nor that I'm split in the very middle of it all. This is the worst case scenario. Letting out a heavy sigh, he reached out for his communication device and plugged the earphone while the other two were still talking. "So… what should I do now, Asuka? I'm totally at a loss here."
Just like him, all she did was sigh. This was indeed the worst situation they could have run into. Asuka probably noticed they were about to run into her due to the tracker Hishiro left stuck on her clothes and tried to stop them, but it was already too late.
The original plan was to rescue Touma, leave him somewhere far and safe, meet up with Index to see if Rüdiger was still around, wrap up the battle if yes, and only then reuniting the two. However, Hinata was a variable they did not know to be part of equation and now all of that fell apart. Hishiro obviously couldn't settle both problems at the same time and, unfortunately, New Pointer had no spare members to send. Even Asuka's last resort was compromised, since she was the victim this time.
They would have to choose. Hishiro could stick to his current goal and go fight LIZARD along with Touma to rescue Hinata, at the risk of missing the opportunity of getting valuable information out of Rüdiger, or worse, having Index die fighting him and having him go loose rampaging on the city. Or he would follow Index to face Rüdiger, at the risk of Hinata dying, or worse, Touma dying at LIZARD hands, which could or not lead to losing Index's trust and thus losing their only chance to understand what they were stepping into.
Of course, there was a chance of someone else stepping into the situation to avoid Index's and Touma's deaths, since the orders the higher ups (or at least, part of them) have been giving the last weeks suggested that both their safety was a priority, but even that was a wishful thinking at the moment.
After thinking for quite some time, Asuka finally spoke. "If Seira-chan were to decide, she would probably ask you to go after LIZARD. I also really want to rescue Hina-chan, but… we just can't. All points towards that magician still being alive, and out of all people now, that nun is the most valuable to us. Also, who else could possibly fight off that maniac besides you? No one in this city probably knows that this whole magic thing exists."
"So that's how it is, huh..." Up to some point, Hishiro actually agreed with her opinion, but this still left a bitter taste on his mouth. "Seems like I won't be paying my life debit with Hinata any time soon."
"Sorry, but it can't be helped. I'm sure she wouldn't blame you if she understood the situation. Nobody can. There's a limit on how much a single person can accomplish, and you've been hitting that limit for quite some time." The two of them kept silent for a few seconds before she continued. "Don't worry. I'm sure she will be alright. This Touma guy is tougher than he looks. I'll also try all I can to mobilize other teams to stop LIZARD. Hina-chan will be safe by the end of the day even if I have to call Anti-Skill and Judgment."
The boy couldn't help but chuckle at her determination. "Yeah, I'm sure you're crazy enough to do it."
"You can bet I am!" She said confidently with her joking tone, which sent some warning signals to Hishiro's brain. "So, forget allllll about this and make sure to enjoy your date with Index-tan, got it?"
"Tsk. There you go again. Why do you have to ruin everything whenever you start sounding cool for a second?"
"Don't give me that, Shiro. You were the one looking all jealous when she hugged him. This is your chance to score some points-"
"Just shut the heck up. I need to concentrate here. It won't be easy to convince them to booth to act just like we need them to." And like that, he turned off the device before she had a chance to reply.
Hishiro turned his attention back to Touma and Index. It seems they were troubled and didn't what to say. He had to make an opportunity to talk to each of them separately to make things go smooth. The question is how. Think, think, think… While his mind was at full throttle, his eyes landed on the damaged car and the driver.
"Hey, there's a wallet lying on the back seat here. Is it yours by any chance?"
"Huh? Wait, let me check." Touma started tapping his pockets one by one when he noticed the other boy was winking. Understanding what it meant, he scratched his head and walked towards him. "Ah, i-it might be! Ahahaha, how careless of me. It must be the misfortune..."
He didn't know, however, that the wink was also a signal for Index, which nodded and obediently waited there, trusting in that Hishiro could deal with the situation.
Once Touma got close enough, Hishiro put on a serious face and whispered. "Sorry, but I won't be able to continue. Taking you out of danger was a priority, but above all else, I can't let that girl get involved at all costs. If you know her circumstances, you probably can understand why, right?"
Touma nodded, looking slightly suspicious. "Just how much do you know about her? Who are you anyway?"
"Like I said, it's complicated. We don't have the time for that now." He didn't let the other boy pursue the topic and kept talking. "Listen, I need to take her out of the district for now, and I can't do it by car. It would attract the attention of those people. It would be for the best if we kept her hidden until night falls and this whole mess is over. For that to happen, I need you to serve as a diversion. You don't even need to keep going after them. As long as you are on the car going from place to place, it would be enough."
"Okay, I got it." Touma answered with a determined tone. "But I'm not going to hide. I'm going to set that girl free and punch some sense into their heads."
"Yeah, I feared you would answer like that..." Hishiro made a wry smile, actually laughing inside at how everything was going just like he wanted. "Just don't get killed. My initial mission was to keep you safe, after all."
The brown haired boy then spoke louder so Index could also listen. "Too bad. It seems one of your documents are missing."
Touma caught up to his act and played along. "Y-yeah. I wonder if it fell from my wallet before we met up. I guess I'll have to go back to look for it."
"Sure. I'll go with Index to a snack bar nearby in the meantime. We'll be waiting for you there."
"Okay, thanks." And so, Touma climbed once again into the car and drove off, leaving Index and Hishiro alone.
…
Without waiting any second, he asked her the critical question. "Is Rüdiger really still alive?"
"Yes. I failed to capture him and he is on the run again." She replied and started running. Hishiro followed her, surprised that she could keep up this pace after all that she's been through.
"Just damn that guy..." he spat annoyed.
"This is not all," Index continued. "That blond girl is also after him."
"Blond girl… Frenda?! I mean, the one that was fighting him before?!"
"Yes. He escaped from me without using magic to stop me from pursuing him. But I think she saw where he went. Thanks to her, I managed to track where he might be right now."
Index looked downwards before continuing. "I bet she was concerned with what he said earlier."
"The seed of doubt stuff, right?"
"Yes. Though the term probably has no meaning. After questioning Rüdiger, I suspect that his goal is to make Academy City and the Church fight among themselves, and for that he needs people from inside the city to be aware of the existence of magic. It could've been anyone. You and she were just chosen by some unknown criteria."
"I see." He narrowed his eyes and thought back on Rüdiger's words. "He also called me an Exception… could this have something to do with this criteria?"
"It's possible. I can't get into details now, but the exceptions could be used to break the balance between magic and science."
"So, in other words… we have to defeat him all while keeping Frenda for finding out the truth because that would mean his victory. This is a harsh defeat condition. How can he cause so much damage from simply having two people within the world of science knows that magic exists?"
"Three," she corrected. "Touma already knows about it. That's probably why Rüdiger sent him away when it all begun. It's also possible that he contacted more people that we are unaware of, so the number can be higher."
Hishiro clicked his tongue. His enemy was one step away from the goal line and he did not even saw it until it was too late. Inside his head, he went through all the information he had and tried to link things together, hoping to find something he could use to turn this situation around. But in the end, his mind always went back to Hinata, who could lose her life at any moment. What in the world was she doing dealing with the dark side again? That stubborn idiot!
Part 3
"That's the wagon they used to run away with, right?"
Thanks to the coordinates given by Asuka, the sunglasses driver took Touma all the way to District 10, then he said something about going get a new car and left. So, the spiky haired boy was alone sneaking his way through the streets while trying to figure out how would he deal with Yuna once he met her. It would be great if I could find the kidnapped girl without running into her, but I guess that I'm not lucky enough for this to happen.
Said and done. Not that far away from the vehicle, Yuna was giving orders to several people disguised as members of Anti-Skill and even Judgment. And she was still dragging the other girl around like a ragdoll, possibly to make sure she wouldn't escape.
Touma wanted to charge in as soon as possible, but there was no way he could do anything against all of them at once, so he kept waiting for a while until the members started to disband little by little. In the end, Only Yuna and other two were left behind.
The one on her left turned to her after finishing a conversation over the radio. "Commander, there is a unit on standby in front of the reformatory. Should I order them to commence the operation?"
"No, not yet. I will personally lead them. This is the one mission we cannot fail no matter what."
So they will be leaving soon… this is my only chance! Touma left his cover and ran as fast as he could, intending to snatch the younger girl away before anyone noticed he was there. But it didn't go as he planned. "Gaah!"
He had hit something. There was nothing in front of him, but he felt an impact that sent him to the ground. He reached out with his left hand and… W-what is this? A glass wall? In the middle of the street? When he tried to stand up supporting his body on the mysterious obstacle with his right hand, it suddenly vanished with the sound of crashing glass, sending him face first to the ground one more time.
This has caught the attention of the girl on Yuna's right, which panicked and clinged to her arm. "So-something broke into my-my invisible wall! W-w-w-w-what should we d-do?!"
"Hm?" The light brown haired girl turned around and grinned as she spotted Touma laying on the asphalt. "Well, well, well… what do we have here?"
Ah, so that was an esper's doing. I should have guessed. While he regretted his lost opportunity for a surprise attack, Touma stood up and faced Yuna.
She didn't felt intimidated by him and kept talking scanning their surroundings. "Are you alone? Where are your murderous little friend?"
"The grudge between you and him would get in the way, so I came here on my own." Step by step, he approached her, clenching his fists. "I know you are mad at him, and you probably have your reasons, but that girl has nothing to do with this."
"Oh, but he seems to care a lot about her. Wouldn't it be the perfect vengeance if I killed her right in front of his eyes, just like he did to my dear sister?"
"And that would satisfy you? Would your sister be happy to know that you murdered an innocent and brought sadness to the people that loved her in her name?"
Slightly - very slightly - Touma saw her right eye twitch. But besides that, she didn't seemed bothered by what he had said. "Innocent? Heh… now I understand. You have no idea of what has going on, do you? You're nothing but an unfortunate bystander that is trying to play hero in a tale where heroes doesn't belong to. There are no innocents here!"
Seems like I can't solve this with words alone. Touma prepared himself for the unavoidable battle while Yuna threw Hinata aside and ignited her fists.
"Commander? Must I remind you about the mission?"
"Tell the unit to keep their positions until I get there. I'll be done with him in 15… no, less than 10 minutes. We do have this time to spare. And don't you two dare to intervene!"
"... Roger."
"Iiiih?! U-u-understood!"
Obeying her commands, the two disguised agents stepped away (really far away in the younger girl's case) from her. Instead of being irritated about Yuna looking down on him, Touma felt relieved that he wouldn't have to fight all of them at the same time.
After glaring at each other for a few moments that felt like an eternity, both dashed forward at the same time. Touma made sure to erase the flames from her fist with his right hand before anything else, but Yuna still landed the first hit, digging her knee into his stomach. "Guha…!?"
Stumbling backwards, Touma crossed his arms just in time to defend from the next attack. Her high kick was blocked, but she didn't give time for Touma to counterattack. She quickly changed her stance and sent several fast kicks with her other leg until his arms numbed and his defense fell. Yuna then followed up with a punch holding all of her weight that managed to send him to the ground. "This one is just a payback from before. The real thing begins now!"
The boy got to his knees and wiped the blood leaking from the corner of his mouth. However, instead of worrying for his injuries, something else was bugging him.
She's sweating a lot, and her face looks really pale… it might be because of the heat of her flames, but… doesn't that looks like a fever? Or is she just THAT angry?
Putting this aside for now, Touma stood up again and went in for another attack. Yuna saw every blow coming and dodged them all with a mad grin on her face all the time, until she had enough and tackled the center of his body, sending him stumbling backwards once again. Another punch was sent flying for his face, but this time, he caught her fist half way through and countered with an elbow on her ribs.
The girl hissed in pain and took a few steps away, but didn't let that get to her. Once Touma stepped in for another attack, she landed a high kick on his shoulder and followed up with a punch on his chest, knocking the breath out of him.
Intending to finish this now, Yuna ignited her fist and aimed a punch on his face… but failed to see his kick coming faster than her own attack. The strike was brutal and she was sent rolling a few meters back, finally stopping on her knees. Touma stood still, blinking a few times before finally understanding that he had managed to push her back for once. "Ha… ahaha, how's that?!"
"Don't get cocky over a lucky hit, boy!" He actually agreed with her, that just now was probably just a lucky hit. Still, Touma felt that this fight wasn't as hopeless as the one before for some reason…
Massive fireballs coming at Touma bought him back to reality. He could deal with a few of them using his right hand, but it was impossible to get rid of all. And so, one of them exploded on the asphalt right in front of him. "Gwaaah!"
He was the one rolling backwards this time. Finally stopping on his butt, he only had time to barely stand up before Yuna was right in front of him. He once again crossed his arms and braced himself as she started her signature non-stopping punch barrage without giving him a second to breath. Out of options, all he could do was send a sloppy kick on her leg, hoping for it to give him an opening.
"Ah? AHH!"
Surprisingly, the half minded attack sent her completely off balance and she fell back first on the ground. Not understanding how he had done that, Touma stood there blankly and missed his opportunity to get her with her guard down.
Yuna quickly got back to her feet and sent flare after flare at the boy, clearly pissed for what had just happened. The heat bought Touma back to reality as he defended himself from the flames with his right hand and counterattacked with a punch on her side that she was not able to dodge.
Huh? Is it me or she is moving way slower than before? His suspicions were not baseless. Before, both him and Hishiro barely managed to survive the fight, and now it seemed that Touma alone was equally matched with her.
They clashed once again, with both sides landing about the same amount of hits on each other. Yuna was clearly the more experienced fighter, but she wasn't that much physically strong. When the same amount of strikes were done on each side, Touma's superior strength was an absolute advantage.
Seeing that this wasn't going anywhere, she made him flinch with a wall of fire and stepped back while he was busy getting rid of it. "What's… going on here?" She looked down at her own palms and noticed how blurry her vision was, though she couldn't tell if that was the cause of the whole problem or if it was because she had taken too many hits.
Touma noticed there was something wrong with her and charged forward, not intending to waste another chance. This time, Yuna was the one forced on to defend as he sent slow, but heavy strikes one after the other. Eventually, she failed on catching a punch coming at her face, which sent her flying backwards for the second time in the day.
"W-why? Why is this happening?!" She got back to her feet charged in one more time, not believing that she was being pushed back. Touma was not expecting her to go at him so soon and that earned a flying kick in his forehead, making him fall down like a domino being knocked over.
Before he could react, she climbed on him and started punching and elbowing him nonstop. "Yes. Yes! This is how it's supposed to go! You're nothing but a lost rabbit in my hunting ground! You should have fled when you had the chance!"
After taking several hits, Touma managed to get a hold of her wrists and pushed her off him. Once he got to his foot, he saw Yuna preparing a high kick to send him to the ground again, but he acted faster and landed the third punch on her face before she could do anything.
This one was weaker than the others and she managed to keep her feet on the ground, but it made her anger skyrocket nonetheless. "Dammit! Just what the hell is wrong with- ugh! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
As soon as the deafening screen left her mouth, blood started spilling out from her eyes and ears. Shocked, Touma took a few steps back, wondering if that was his doing while her two underlings came rushing to her side.
"Y-Y-Yuna-sama? Wha-wha-wha-what's wrong? What's going on? Yu-Yuna-sama!"
"Commander, you should not overdo yourself. Haven't the Overseer warned you about the side effects?" In contrast to the panicking girl, the male calmly supported her on his shoulders and made her drink a dark reddish liquid from a small bottle he took from his pocket.
The mysterious substance seemed to had some effect as she stopped bleeding. "*pant* *pant* is this… my limit then? *pant*"
"I'm afraid so. We should retreat for now." She clicked her tongue but did not argue against him. The three of them walked slowly towards the wagon that was parked a few meters behind where Touma was, without bothering to pick Hinata back. While they were passing by him, Yuna sent him a menacing glare and said "This isn't over yet. Tell your friend that I'll be coming for his life soon enough. He won't have peace as long I'm still breathing."
The boy felt shivers running through his body, but he did not answer. Actually, he didn't even made eye contact. He just waited until they were gone and then ran to Hinata's side.
"Hey, are you alright? Hey!" No answer. She was unconscious and her breaths were very faint, but she was still alive at least. Even so, she had to be taken to an hospital as soon as possible. "But I actually don't know much about District 10… are there any hospitals here to begin with? This place looks really desolated compared to the rest of the city." In the end, all he could do was wait for the sunglasses driver to come back.
Part 4
The sun had already started to set when Rüdiger arrived to the border between the districts 7 and 18. On his way there, there were already a couple of busses running on the streets, meaning that his time was almost over. "Well, it was fun. Since it's about to end, let's make sure that the final act is so fantastic that no one will never forget."
And for that to happen, he couldn't waste a single second. First, he had to get rid of the bystanders. Namely, the people dressed as Anti-Skill officers blocking the road. "Hey, you! Where are you going? The area is iso-"
"Sorry, but I'll have to ask for you to leave. The show that's about to happen here is not open for the general public." Suddenly, the officers became silent and simply walked away with blank expressions on their faces. "With that out of the way, I would like to prepare a few rituals… but, unfortunately, that won't be possible anymore."
There was someone else there. Someone that wasn't affected by the spell that cleaned the area from the bystanders. The magician knew who it was without even need to turn around and look. "Could you explain how did you get here before me, Frenda Seivelun?"
Wearing her regular black combat outfit and fanning herself with her beret, Frenda observing the magician while leaning on a wall under the shadow of the buildings. "Simple. By observing the direction you were going, it was easy to tell that you were heading to District 18. And since you're from the outside, I assumed the you would take the easiest route to follow instead of the fastest one. In the end, I just had to use some well known shortcuts."
"Not bad. I thought that you were just going to tail me, so I could lead you into a trap. But I guess I am the one inside your trap now, right? That's an interesting turn of events."
"Are you sure you should be smiling in a time like this?" She said in a confident tone, pushing herself from the wall and walking towards him. "This is the end of line for you. When you attacked us a few hours ago, I was almost unarmed and couldn't do much. But now I am fully equipped and you are stepping on the perfect battlefield I prepared. Basically, you don't stand a chance against me!"
"Oh, is that so? Very well, I shall participate in your little show."
His creepy smile sent a few shivers down her spine. Behind all of her act, she was actually a little afraid of her opponent. Calm down, everything is under control. All I have to do is pressure him and then snatch "that" from his grasp. If my guess is right, he'll have no choice but surrender without it.
Frenda took a deep breath and didn't even bother to answer. She simply flipped a switch from a remote controller hidden in her clothes, which caused a chain reaction of several explosions on the whole street. The smile simply disappeared from Rüdiger's face as the blasts sent him flying towards the crossroads.
…
The explosive noise could be heard from several meters away from there.
"That just now… could it be?"
"Yeah, there's no doubt. This was caused by either the flame snakes or Frenda's bombs. We have to hurry before it's too late!"
…
The battle between Frenda and Rüdiger raged on with several explosions and flames all over the place, eventually leading them to a wide abandoned construction site. The red haired male quickly analyzed the place without turning his back to the blond girl. "I see… so your goal was to bring me here, huh… but now what? Even if you have your beloved bombs or any other hidden weapons set up in this place, you'll eventually run out of them."
"Isn't that obvious? I just need to finish you off before that happens."
The male couldn't help but laugh scornfully. "Fufufufu... don't you understand yet? That's impossible for you. No, for anyone that just rely on science. Unless you widen your horizons, anything you attempt to do against me is futile."
Frenda grinned sadistically and looked at him with blood thirsty eyes, just like a hunter ready to devour its prey. "Are you sure about that? Even if you use those mysterious powers of yours, are you sure that there is absolutely nothing I could do that would kill you for good?"
The one feeling shivers now was Rüdiger as the malicious aura around the girl grew more dangerous by the second. "What do you mean?"
He unconsciously took a step back as Frenda walked towards him, swaying around like a snake about to attack. "For example, let's say that you made a tiiiiiny mistake some time ago that made me realize the trick behind your revival. Then I prepared a trap, dragged you to an specific place… all in order to sabotage it. Do you think you would still be safe?"
Her attitude was putting him on the edge, but her words were intriguing at most. "Let me warn you: if this is a bluff, you better take those words back right now. Because if you don't, then you're giving me a reason to stop holding back and bet all my chips in the next turn."
"Sounds good to me. I'm betting everything on my next move as well."
Those were the last words they had to say to each other. Wind blew between them as the tension grew in the area. The first to make a move was Rüdiger, wavering his wand as if drawing an S in midair. "Both the god and his priests hold the fate of the sick and the injured in their hands. In the right lies the staff that keeps the flames of life burning inside the weak bodies of the unfortunate!"
Instead of the weaker fire-made snakes he had been using until now, he summoned the serpent he had used against Index and Hishiro during their first encounter earlier that day. With charcoal colored skin and ember shining eyes, the being looked way more dangerous than the others.
Frenda didn't wait to see what would happen and took a special tool from her pocket. With it, she sent a couple of sparks to the ground, which ignited the duct tape-like trail she had set beforehand. At the same time, she flipped another switch on the hidden controller and a few blasts occurred around the are, filling the whole place with smoke.
Sensing the incoming danger, Rüdiger waved his wand and the deadly serpent opened its jaw wide, breathing out an absurd amount of fire that spread forward as if it was lava. But with the smoke covering the whole place, it was impossible to tell if the attack was successful or not.
Actually, it was impossible to tell even if she was still there. The magician couldn't see a palm ahead of his own nose. And trying to rely on his ears was also useless, as the only things he could hear were the flames he had created himself and the sparks she had ignited that were still running around somewhere. Or rather, upwards.
"Upwards? Could she-"
*CLANG!*
His fears were confirmed a second after. Steel beams that were part of the abandoned building project rained upon the male, but not to crush him under its weight. The blond girl had somehow cut the edges of the beams, turning them into giant stakes ready to impale her enemy.
I see. If one of those were to pierce my body, it wouldn't matter how many times I try to revive. I would be stuck to the ground until someone removes it from above me. That was a smart move, coming from someone that still don't understand about magic.
Clicking his tongue, Rüdiger quickly took a glass cup from within his toplet, crushed it with his bare hands and threw the many fragments in the air while holding a King of hearts with his other hand. Each one of the shards melted into water and expanded vertically, shape shifting into giant tridents that surrounded the magician as if he was locked into a cage. When the beams touched the water, they changed direction and fell down horizontally, piling on each other.
Once it was over, he called off the spell and wiped the sweat from his brow. "Phew, that was a close one. Thank goodness I thought of that spell on the last second but… maybe that girl was right. Mixing different symbols like this is no good. I can feel it's draining my mana faster than I can refine my life force."
"What are you babbling about? Did you forget about me already?"
He didn't even had time to turn around. Frenda, who had approached him from behind at some point, sent a spin kick at his left. He tried to block with his arm, but he didn't expected that her shoe had a blade attached to it. "Gyaaah!"
Without giving the magician any time to recover, she followed up with several kicks aimed at his vitals. Even though he defended himself, his arms were covered with gashes, not to mention the cuts on his torso from the strikes he failed to catch.
Rüdiger's spells took time to activate, and Frenda caught on that, even though she didn't understood how it worked. So, she built her battle tactic around keeping him under constant attacks, with each and every attack being possibly lethal. The male had no choice but try to minimize the damage received, making it impossible to counterattack. Or so she thought…
Her next kick unexpectedly landed on his stomach at full force, sending him flying backwards with a massive amount of blood spilling out of the wound. Huh? Why did he let that one hit him on purpose?
Before she could understand what was going on, she felt her skin burning all of a sudden. Turning her head to the direction of the heat. There was-
"!"
Fire. Fire all over the place. She was so focused on keeping Rüdiger busy that she forgot about the first thing he had done when they arrived here: summoning the dark skinned serpent. He had commanded it to position itself at the right spot while he was under attack, and took the last blow in order to keep Frenda in place so she couldn't escape the fire breath.
"Hahahaha… ahhh, maybe I went a little too far. Well, I'm sure I can fix her up as long as she's still alive in there, but I'm not confident she'll be as beautiful as she used to be. A shame, really."
"Oh, don't worry. My beauty isn't going anywhere, and neither am I!" Frenda reappeared from within the smoke, doing a dropkick on the dark serpent that sent it flying against the wall of the next building. The impact was strong enough to make it crumble to ashes on the spot.
Ironically, Rüdiger was now the one that couldn't believe that his opponent was standing there in one piece. "What? H-how…?"
"C'mon, do you really think I would fight you without thinking in a way to deal with fire? Just look around. Basically, you are breathing the answer to your own question right now."
"You don't mean… this smoke!"
"Yes, it's no regular smoke. It is used in factories and other facilities when there's a high risk of a fire setting off. There is a chemical within it that is not absorbed by the human body that stops the oxygen gas from being consumed in combustions. And is also conveniently heavier than the air, so it won't go away anytime soon. Now then." While grinning, she slowly walked towards Rüdiger, who was still lying on the ground, and stomped on him. "Your body is all trashed and you can't do your fire tricks anymore."
"Then go ahead and kill me. I'll show you a miracle right in front of your eyes."
"Will you? I want to see you doing that… without using this!" And so, she showed him an specific item. He recognized it right away and his eyes opened so wide that it looked like they were about to fall from their sockets.
"When? how did-"
"Seriously, you're too careless. Was it really necessary to make this so easy to steal? Maybe it was. After all, you made sure to have it on your hand every time you were close to take a mortal attack."
What Frenda had in her hands was a card, but it was completely different from anything she had ever seen. It had a weird drawing instead of having a suit and a number. All she could make from it was a single line of text in the bottom: I - The Magician. She had no idea what it meant or how it worked, but she noticed he held it on his hands when he used the water snake attack on the nun earlier, and again when she made the beams fall on him. This definitely couldn't be just coincidence.
"... okay, I have to admit. You got me this time. However..." He made a pause as a sinister smile appeared on his face. "You made a grave mistake. If you went through the trouble to get one of my cards, you should've taken them all instead!"
Still beneath Frenda's foot, Rüdiger threw countless cards in the air. Instead of falling like normal, they started to spin like circular saws, emitting a sound that just screamed danger. "This will definitely kill you if you don't do anything. They are faster than you can run, so it's pointless trying to escape. It won't stop if I die either. They will hit you no matter what."
The girl felt shivers running through her whole body. Part of her want to deny the possibility that those things could hurt her, but just looking at it made her want to get away from there as soon as possible… but she was completely surrounded. I don't understand… I sealed his means of attacking, took away his safeguard and cornered him… and he still turned tables on me? Did I underestimate him so badly?
"But you have a single chance to survive." The magician continued in a scornful tone. "And you're holding it on your hand right now."
"Huh?"
"Yes, that card. You're absolutely right. It has the power to revive and heal its owner as long as he or she clings to their lives hard enough. So pray! Pray for the miracle I promised you!"
And then, all of the cards flew towards her faster than she could react. Clenching her eyes, she held the card close to her chest and braced herself for was about to come… when a different voice reached her ears.
"C-A-T-T-A-R-T-T-O-P! (Circle around the target and return to the original position)"
None of them hit. They swirled around Frenda and piled themselves over each other right besides Rüdiger. "Eh? EHH?!" Confused, that was all she could do while looking around, trying to understand what had just happened.
The male, on the other hand, was clearly irritated by this outcome. "Tsk. You sure love to step into the stage without being called, don't you? But you brought me the other seed, so I guess I can forgive you this time..."
The voice Frenda heard belonged to Index, who had emerged from the smoke alongside Hishiro. "You two..."
"Seriously, what were you expecting to accomplish on your own?" Mocked the brown haired boy. "We need at least three to keep this guy in check. Can't you see he was just playing with you?"
"Playing? But … but..."
"All he wants is to mess with our minds. You can't believe a single word he says. You can't assume anything from the way he acts. And you can't let your guard down for a moment until you see his rotting body being buried before your eyes, you got that?"
Frenda wasn't pleased by the way he was treating her, but she wasn't in position to make any complaints. She felt more relieved for having survived than annoyed for being looked down upon, so all she did was nod blankly and answer with an embarrassed voice. "Okay. T-thank you… for saving me..."
"Don't get me wrong. I didn't do anything for your sake. If you fall for his trick then that means he wins, so I can't let that happen. Besides, she was the one that stopped the attack, not me." While pointing at Index, he walked to her and took the card from her hands. "Still, you did an amazing job getting this."
"How do you know I got it from him? You were watching this whole time and did nothing to help until now?! And give it back to me!"
"Nope. He wanted you to use it, so it's probably a trap. This isn't something that neither me nor you should be handling." And then he threw the card at Index, who almost let it fall trying to get it. "Is this of some use for you?"
"A major arcana tarot?" The nun narrowed her eyes and analyzed the item closely. "Yes… I think I can use this to fill the gaps and trace the origins of his spells and find a weak point."
"That would be satisfying. We will buy enough time for you to do it, so focus on that."
"Buy time, hmm?" Rüdiger spat scornfully and flipped the first card from the deck besides him - a King of Hearts - and a twister of red fog surrounded his body. When it dissipated, the thing that was lying beneath Frenda's foot was…
"Yikes! G-get off me!"
A snake. It wasn't the one made of fire, nor the one made of water, neither the charcoal colored one either. This one was just a normal one, from a very well known poisonous species called Naja. It wrapped itself around Frenda's leg and looked ready to bite her when the area around its head suddenly became distorted, stopping on its tracks.
"Good grief… I can't even blame her for letting this happen. If it was me, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between him and this either." With his palm stretched towards the animal, Hishiro shot at it with his cannon pistol, ripping its head away from its body… and splattering blood and flesh all over Frenda's stockings.
"Eww… was this really necessary?"
"Would you rather let that thing bite you?"
She couldn't say nothing more as a giant water serpent appeared a few meters in front of them, alongside with Rüdiger holding a glass filled with something that looked like wine. Hishiro clicked his tongue, knowing how dangerous that thing was. Index stepped forward, intending to intercept the attack, but the boy blocked her path. "No, this is exactly what he wants! Keep focusing on your task! It's the only chance we have of winning!"
The nun bit her lip and nodded reluctantly. Even though he was right, this spell wasn't something easy to deal with.
"Don't let a single drop reach you or you're dead, understand?" Hishiro warned Frenda and got into his combat instance. The girl pulled a couple of missiles and was ready to attack as well.
"Hehe, interesting! Nothing more fitting for the grand finale than the seeds of doubt joining forces to take me on!" The magician stalled his fingers and the serpent charged forward. Both Hishiro and Frenda dodged it by jumping to opposite sides. The serpent made a large turn to the right trying to get the boy, but he swung his left arm horizontally and…
*KISHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNN!*
The water wavered, twisted into a whirlpool and exploded into many bubbles that missed him by a hair, making him freeze in place for a moment. Meanwhile, Frenda launched her missiles at Rüdiguer who seemed to be defenseless after the massive attack.
In the face of the incoming projectiles, the red haired male simply took a sip from the cup on his hand and flipped it, letting the liquid splash on the ground. From there, a huge pillar of fire emerged, destroying both missiles at once.
"No way! You shouldn't be able to use fire here anymore!"
"My dear, all you did was to avoid the oxygen from being used to fuel the combustion, right? Then all I have to do is to use something else instead. Of course, it's not something you can accomplish with science alone." After declaring this, he flipped his wrist and the pillar spread out, sending several beams of fire at Hishiro and Frenda.
The blond girl skillfully moved around and dodged all of them without issue. But the boy ended up getting caught and had to use his already burnt arms to protect himself from the heat. "Hggrrrr, dammit! I'm fucking sick of fire already!"
"Is that so? No problem, we can play with water instead!" Holding one card on each hand, Rüdiger smashed the glass cup on the ground and summoned the giant water serpent once again. No, this time, something was different.
"Two of them?! You gotta be kidding me!"
Yes, there was one serpent standing besides each side of the magician. "AHAHAHAHAHAHHA! Hey, cursed walking library! If you don't do anything, they'll really die this time!"
…
Index clenched her fist nervously as she watched the battle unfold. She desperately wanted to step in and shield them from the merciless beasts, but she knew that this wouldn't be of much use in the long term. Calm down! I need to believe that they can do it! Just like he is believing in me now!
She had to take a few deep breaths to keep herself concentrated on the task at hand. Think… this tarot card is proof that he had been the regular playing card suits - the clovers and hearts - as if they were the wands and cups suits from the minor arcana, just like I suspected. But a few things doesn't makes sense in this case, like how he used the hearts cards to draw power from the wind dagger when he attacked the blond girl. It can't be from the color, since there is no sign of yellow in his cards. How then? And what is the meaning of the fire snakes? The water ones definitely is a reference to the Nile, the Egyptian river that was deeply linked to death, which explains how it drains life force of everything it touches… but if that was all, why couldn't I take total control of that serpent? There are a lot of mixed symbols in his techniques, but there must be a single one in the core of it all. Something he is using as an absolute base to keep the spells from going out of … Think!
"Huh? This is..." While she studied the card, she noticed a small bend on one of the edges. "This drawing… is glued on the card? What was this originally then?" Index pulled the bend and the drawings of the major arcana came off like a sticker, revealing what it was hiding behind: hieroglyphs. The word it formed was… "*gasp*!"
…
Frenda and Hishiro were being forced to the limit. Trying to dodge the two serpents, as well as the occasional pillars of fire and the spinning card saws, they didn't had many opportunities to attack, giving Rüdiger even more space to attack more aggressively. It didn't took long for them to be completely cornered against the wall of the neighbor building.
"So this is checkmate..." Said the magician slowly approaching the two, bringing the deadly currents of water with him. "You should really call that nun for help if you don't want to die."
"Shut up! I'm not let this go the way you want to!"
"Oh well… in that case, I'll have to revive you right after, but I'll be needing that card back first. At this rate, you'll just be suffering for nothing."
The brown haired male was out of options and clicked his tongue. He had ran out of ammo, and trying to defend against those monsters with his power was unreliable… and that's counting just one of them. Glancing to the side, he saw the blond girl shaking on her bases, probably had nothing up her sleeve to turn the situation around. All he could do was bite his lip and scream in his mind. C'mon, Index! Hurry up!
"You're not changing your mind, huh? So be it." Without warning, the two snakes charged forward, ready to finish the lives of their target.
But them… the one on the left bit the neck of the one on the right.
"What? What happened?" Surprised, Rüdiger looked over his shoulder and saw Index chanting something while approaching him. "What have you done?!"
"I figured it out. Finally." She replied wearing a confident smile. "The answer to everything… is Heka."
The magician pupils literally diminished when he heard her, but she didn't gave him a chance to say anything and continued. "Those aren't actually snakes, right? They are arms. As such, their movement is limited to how human arms can move… unless we break their bones like this." And then, the left arm twisted the right in an awkward angle, breaking its neck… or rather, its wrist.
Immediately after, Rüdiger fell to his knees, screaming in pain as he held his own wrist. "Gwaaaah! Why… WHY?!"
"It was a smart idea to hide your spiritual item behind the Magician Arcana. This by itself was enough to trample with my analysis, and at the same time, it amplified the effects of your spells and filtered the conflicting meanings behind them, so you could twist and misinterpret everything to archive the results you wanted without risks of side effects."
The magician stood up with difficulty while she continued. "Both the god and his priests hold the fate of the sick and the injured in their hands. In the right lies the staff that keeps the flames of life burning inside the weak bodies of the unfortunate, and in the left lies the knife that cuts the threads pulling their souls towards the depths of the river of the dead… That was your chant to summon the fire-breathing and the water snakes. Once I peeled out your disguise, I noticed what it meant right away. Heka was the god that represented magic in the ancient Egypt… but also was a god of medicine. The staff and the knife were the tools used by the healers of that time. You made use of that and mashed it together with fire - meaning the energy of life, water from the Nile - the river of the dead, and the knife - as the wind dagger in the minor arcana. Not only that, but Heka was often represented as a man with snakes on the place of his arms. It all makes sense now."
"Khhh!" For the first time, Rüdiger's face twisted in anger and he tackled the girl, who fell on her but, and snatched the card from her hand.
"... Index!" His sudden action snapped Hishiro out of his confusion and he was ready to attack the older male from his back, but before he had a chance to do that…
"Ugh… khhhh… what… is happening…?" The red haired man fell on his knees once again, as his skin slowly turned purple.
"Flipped." Explained Index. "As long as you had this, you could draw an insane amount of telesma to heal your wounds, no matter how severe they were. But what would happen if I mixed it with the meaning of the major arcana card you used over it? For example, if I glued it back upside down..."
"No...way! ARGH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" And then, the mighty magician withered as his life force was drained in front of their eyes.
Between the Lines
Rüdiger Nowell.
From a very young age, he already showed an unique talent for mischief. Abandoned by his parents, he lived most of his childhood in an orphanage with his younger brother. But he never felt unfortunate because of it. The two siblings were famous among both the children and the caretakers. They would always play pranks on everyone, cheat during games, steal other people's belongings and they challenged everyone to try doing the same against them. Needless to say, no one could actually pull any of that off on them without being caught.
That kid was actually a genius. He did all what he did solely with the intention of outwit the people around him, making them learn from their mistakes and become more wary to increase the difficulty of playing the next prank.
At some point, he developed an interest in illusionism and focused all of this part of his personality into creating tricks that nobody would ever be able to figure out. Eventually, he fell in love with the amazement of the people who watched him, which pushed him further and further towards creating something even more fantastic.
He wanted more.
He wanted to break the basis and assumptions of his audience.
He wanted to show them a new world. A world that himself had created. A world that would completely destroy their reality.
"If that's what you want, you first need to destroy your own basis, your own assumptions, your own reality… your own world itself. Do you think you're ready for something like this?"
That's what that man had said to him one day after a show. He hesitated at first, but his desire was greater than his fear. From that day on, he had learned the true meaning of magic, and welcomed the name Genius472 as his own. That was his first step towards being the great magician that he would become, and also, the final innocent trick he would play. After all, even though that name mirrored his brilliant mind and creativity, it could also be interpreted as a word that summarized his soul and passion: entertainer.
Phew... That was by far the most difficult chapter to write. But it was also the most fun. Actually, I finished this a week and half ago, but felt that something was missing. This is the climax of the arc I've been working on for so long, it would be bad if it ended up being underwhelming. And then, when I noticed, it had surpassed 13,000 words! Let me say this now: I won't make a habit of creating such long chapters. This one here was a special case, since there were two villains to be dealt with at the same time, but this (probably) won't happen again.
So... Rüdiger's trick finally came to light (it feels great to see it happening, since I've planned that scene so long ago). I made a very brief explanation, but for those interested, Heka is the most important name for Egyptian magic. It was not meant to be the name of a god, but the actual word also means magic itself. It felt fitting for a magician, that is also a magician (you get what I mean XP), and has his most important spell focused on The Magician card from the Major Arcana. Also, aside from Heka being heavily linked to medicine, the very fact that The Magician card is the number 1 in the tarot is one of the factors that contributed to his revival spell, since it means "the first step one takes after the beginning of his journey". I tried to make link all of those different symbols to make him as Kamashi-ish as possible... I hope I ended up archiving what I wanted to.
In the end, I set Tsuchimikado's side quest aside for a while (don't worry, it'll resume soon enough) and introduced a bit of Rüdiger's origin there. I wanted to avoid stepping into the tragic past kind of villain - since Yuna kinda filled this spot - and went for a person that just wanted to have fun challenging other people's wits. He doesn't care about what kind of dirty work he have to do as long as he can take his time to mess around and show off. I think that this was the perfect kind of person to reveal magic to people that don't knows about it. I hope you guys liked him... but sadly, he'll be leaving the stage. Though I made sure that his final battle was meaningful: he vs the two seeds of doubt + Index, who he has been messing up since the beginning of the arc.
Next chapter I will wrap up all the loose ends left to finally put an end to this arc (such as how will they explain to Frenda what happened there and what Touma thinks of Hishiro after all he had gone through). As always, I give my special thanks to the people pointing out the typos I somehow left behind (seriously, it's like someone shot down my typo surveillance satellite or something *laughs*) and to those that helped me with ideas for this arc. I'll see you all next time!
PS: I missed the opportunity before because I found out too late, so I'll commemorate it now... INDEX SEASON 3 IS COMING! HELL YEAAAAAAAAHHHH!