III

Chapter 17: The Enemy of an Enemy is yet Another Enemy

Snakes_and_Lizards

Part 1

July 31th, 6:00 PM - The Reformatory located in District 10.

There was special ward in the reformatory that the general public might not know about.

Academy City has no laws against treason, thus when one commit such actions, they can't be properly judged. However, that doesn't mean that those people would be forgiven with a pat in the back and a warning of "just don't do this again" and then be left alone as if nothing had happened. They were bought into this special ward and locked up for an undefined amount of time until (and if) the person in charge found a way to deal with them, such as selling them to the dark side, or worse things that is probably better not to mention.

Even though it's called a 'ward', it isn't exactly something as organized as the name makes it sounds. In truth, it was spread along the whole facility within secret passageways containing several cells similar to the ones you would encounter in the general ward. Except that those weren't separated by sex, and no one seemed to care about the complications this could cause either.

However, there were a few exceptions to that.

For those individuals that were considered to be too dangerous when around other people, they were locked in individual cells far apart from the others so there would be absolutely no chance of external communication. And the man that claimed to be Kihara Hideaki happened to be classified as such.

He wasn't that much of a powerful esper, he wasn't that physically strong and he probably didn't deserve to be called a Kihara. But he had a weapon no one could take from him: his natural ability to lead other people. He was a revolutionary. And so, the higher ups were afraid that he would make the mind of the others within the facility and start a rebellion. To avoid that, he was locked in the farthest cell and only the automated robots were allowed to interact with him.

For that reason, during all this time ever since he was captured, he had been alone here save from the interrogation sections that had stopped happening for quite a while now. This would be enough to damage the sanity of a normal person, but if there was one or two actual characteristics this man shared with the Kihara's was his intelligence and the fact he wasn't normal. From the moment he had given up his life that day, nothing in the world could make him break. The death of his followers meant his death as well. And so, believing he had reached the worst possible ending, he accepted his situation as a redemption towards those who had put their faiths on him.

But that was a naive way of thought. He rooting in this place for the rest of his life was probably the best outcome he could ever hope for after following the path he decided to. And the darkness of this city wasn't kind enough to let it end like this.

*Crumble*

"Is this… an earthquake?"

After the tremors and the loud noise, all the lights went out. Hideaki stood from the chair he was sitting on and tried to look outside of the cell, but there was only darkness. From far, far away, he could hear the anxious voices of the people caught by surprise by the sudden black out, though he couldn't tell if they were from the staff members or from the other prisoners.

And then, all voices stopped. All that was left was the eerie atmosphere left by the darkness and silence. "Hey! Is there someone out there!? What is happening!? Hey!" No answer came. Nothing happened for what seemed to be an eternity.

But then, finally there was a source of light at the other end of the hallway. It was an orange colored and very faint shine that barely illuminated the floor and one of the walls. It was slowly approaching his cell, accompanied by the sound of footsteps that made his extremely nervous for some reason.

"Who's there?! Answer me!" He couldn't help but shout, trying to keep himself calm, but he regretted after doing it as the light and the footsteps stopped. Whoever it was, now it knew he was there and he had no way to know what it was going to do with him. However, the person unexpectedly answered him in a desperate tone.

"Professor? Professor, is that you?"

The girly voice sounded totally out of place, and he took a while to recognize it. "This voice… no way… Yuna?"

"Professor!" The footsteps resumed faster than before and the light came close enough to reveal itself as some type of flashlight held in the girl's hands - who was indeed Yuna.

"Is it really you? Are you still alive? Oh, Thank goodness!" He said with a relieved face as he approached the door to get a better look of her. "How did you survive?"

"No time for questions now Professor. First we're going to get you out of here." Soon after she said that, something detonated on the outer side of the cell door, making it fall down like a domino. With nothing separating them anymore, she rushed inside the cell and hugged Hideaki who returned the embrace.

"What about Yuko? Is she with you?"

"Professor, the others… and Yuko… she didn't..."

"I see… I'm sorry to hear that. Still, I'm very glad that at least you made it alive. Really-" And then he noticed there was something wrong. Namely - the state of the body of the girl still in his arms. "Yuna, those injuries…"

The girl hung her head and stepped away from Hideaki. When she lifted her face again after a few seconds, she answered in a playful voice with a mischievous smile. "Hehe... you noticed them, huh? That's a bit embarrassing. Will you believe me if I say that they were caused by the security of the reformatory?"

Hideaki frowned, causing the smile to vanish from Yuna's face. Both of them knew very well that the staff were not armed and relied totally on the anti-esper equipment present in the facility - which may have been disabled now that the power has been cut. Dropping the excuse, the girl started talking on a more serious tone. "Sorry Professor. You know, after that day, I lost everything. I didn't even know you were still alive. So these people came to me and I..."

"Hm..." The man simply closed his eyes and nodded. He pretty much grasped the whole situation she was in - as well as his own now that these people had found him as well.

"B-but you don't have to worry, they aren't bad! See? They even let me come to rescue you!" She continued talking on and on, but at this point, he wasn't interested in her words anymore. You really are a good girl, Yuna… but also naive.

"Commander, I'm afraid we don't have much time left." Warned one of the men behind her.

"Ah- yes, of course. We're leaving right away." Hearing her words, the man bowed and started giving orders to the others waiting outside of the cell. "Come with us, Professor. The Overseer is waiting for you."

Sighting, all Hideaki could do was give in to his fate. He was finally leaving this horrible place, but that didn't meant he had regained his freedom.

Part 2

After the battle against Rüdiger was finally over, Hishiro and Index went to the closest cafe they could find to wait for Touma to come back.

Frenda was intending to go as well, but the boy figured that it would be too bothersome to have her around, asking questions that they couldn't answer, so he asked Asuka to deal with her. He had no idea of what she have actually done, but Frenda received a phone call after a minute he asked her and the girl went completely pale as she tried to make excuses to whoever it was (Hishiro guessed it could be Mugino, but the mere fact that Asuka had a way to contact her gave him goosebumps so he decided to believe that wasn't the case). In the end, she went away satisfied with a simple exchange of phone numbers saying that she would call later for explanations (which he wasn't intending to answer at all).

Inside the air conditioned store, Hishiro finally managed to relax his body after many hours of tension. Besides the exhaustion, there was the pain of his many bruises and burns he had been trying to ignore up until now, but since his adrenaline rush was over, it was finally getting to him and it showed on his face.

"Are you hurt?" Asked Index, who was sitting on the opposite side of the table.

"It's nothing serious, I can deal with it later." He answered forcing out a smile. "More importantly… how can you be so sure that it's over this time? That guy survived even after having his whole body erased."

"It's because his spell relies on a Major Arcana, and those are deeply affected by their positioning. The effect of a spell can change completely depending on if the card is upright or upside down, sometimes even causing opposite effects."

"So in summary…" The boy placed his hand on his chin and tried to catch up with what she was saying. "The spell that was supposed to make sure he always survived changed into something that would absolutely kill him when you flipped the card's position… right?"

"It's similar, but not exactly this. The base of all his magic was the Egyptian god of magic and medicine Heka. Thus, no matter what kind of injury his body suffered, he would always be treated and healed as long as he held onto the symbol, which was the card in this case. Reversing the card reversed the meaning of it, so instead of being having his wounds treated, the healthy parts of his body were destroyed one by one."

"So it's something like watching a video of a surgery from the end to the beginning… that's insane. I've seen my share of brutality, but nothing ever compared to this."

Index downcast her eyes before replying. "Honestly I didn't want it to end like this. I only sabotaged the card as an insurance in the case he got it back, but it would be better if we could have captured him and sent him to Necessarius in England."

"Even though I don't understand much about magic, I think it couldn't be helped. If you haven't done what you did when you did… I don't even want to think about it." He felt shivers just remembering the tight situation he was in at the end of the battle. Letting out a heavy sigh, he decided to change the subject to ask what he wanted to know the most. "What he even wanted to accomplish anyway? You said something about making the Academy City and the Church fight, but… why?"

Index closed her eyes and took some time to answer. "... I'm not sure. A conflict between Academy City, which is the core of the science side of the world, and the church, which is the core of the magic side that transcend even countries, would probably result in a large scale war."

"War?!" Exclaimed the boy, almost tipping the juice cup he was drinking from a moment ago.

"Yes. The conflicting ideals from both sides would lead humanity to a war of scales beyond anything described in history books."

"Seriously…?" He was having a hard time accepting this. How come a single person's actions have such a grand impact? He wanted to reject the idea from how ridiculous it sounded, but after seeing magic happening with his own eyes, he felt it was wrong to deny any possibility. "This is unreal… but if what you're saying is right, we have to go back to the first question: why?"

"I doubt a single individual would have any direct gain from it, so... I think that there must be a group behind all of this. And it's impossible to know the reason without more clues."

"Wait, so in other words… is it possible that more of them would come to Academy City after me and the other Seeds of Doubt and Exceptions?"

Index blinked a few times upon hearing his speculation. "It's possible… I haven't thought about this up until now."

Clenched his fists, Hishiro cursed under his breath. I barely made it alive fighting one of them… If more were to come, what would I do? Silence feel between the two for a while. During the meantime, he started to link the dots inside his mind. Come to think of it… wasn't someone inside the city interested in the magic knowledge inside Index's memories to begin with? I'm fearing for my life here, but that's my selfish view of me being in the epicenter of this incident, which might not be true. After all, the Grim Reaper warned me to stay out of this from the very beginning… dammit, just what all of this means? I want to know… no, I feel like I need to. If I don't understand what is happening, I might end up dying for being in the way of something I didn't even knew that was coming.

Suddenly, his cellphone rang. He was so lost within his own thoughts that he almost fell from the chair by the surprise. Picking it up, he was ready to tell Asuka to call later, but the voice on the other side of the line wasn't from a female.

"Hello, it's me."

"Who… Touma?"

"Yes."

Hearing her friend's name, Index beamed almost instantly. "Touma? Where is he? Is he coming?"

Only now that he had called, Hishiro remembered that there was yet another incident taking place somewhere else. Cursing himself for forgetting about it (and ignoring Index's rapid fire questions), he focused in taking the important information without giving away what they were talking about. "How did it go?"

"I managed to get your friend back. She is in a hospital right now. I know the place, she is surely in good hands."

"That's good… and what else?"

"If you're talking about that crazy girl, I fought her but she started bleeding on her own all of a sudden and retreat right after. It seems it was some kind of side effect of something..."

"I see… I was actually suspecting there was something weird back then."

"But she hasn't given up. She said she was still going after you. If I were you, I wouldn't let my guard down from now on."

"Haha… well, I do get that a lot..."

"Have you ever considering stop doing things that would make people hate you?"

Hishiro's eyes twitched when he heard Touma's last statement. What's with his tone? Is he trying to teach me morals or something? What a joke. "That's not really the time to discuss this, right? Index is here waiting for you to come back."

The other boy feel silent after this retort. Hishiro could tell how displeased he was about the whole situation, but right now, there weren't much he could do about it. He was too tired to care at what Touma would think of him. In fact, it was already a miracle that both situations had been solved without him noticing it, and the brown haired boy thought that this was more than enough for now.

The call ended shortly after that and Touma arrived right after. The three of them enjoyed their meal, talked and laughed as if nothing serious had happened during the day. Hishiro couldn't tell if the whole situation was a comical act or a sign of how the other two trusted and worried for each other. After about an hour or so, they left the store and went in their separate ways.

…

"Hm? Touma, what is it?" Asked Index in a worried tone while Touma kept looking at the back of the other boy as he went away.

"... It's nothing." He shook his head and turned back to her. "But I have the feeling that there is something wrong with him."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not sure… but I can't trust him. It feels like everything he does and says is nothing but a facade."

Index tilted her head and smiled at him. "He probably has his own circumstances, but I'm sure Hishiro is a good person."

"How can you tell?"

She simply kept smiling and turned around, looking at the sky. "I just know it."

Touma was dumbfounded by how unreasonable she was being, but that innocent behavior made him notice that he was finally back to his normal life, and he couldn't help but smile as well. "Well, if you say so..."

Part 3

7:59 PM - Inside a certain roofless warehouse in District 11.

As the night slowly covered the sky of Academy City in darkness, it was almost impossible to spot a single silhouette walking among the tall and large steel containers. It wore black leather boots, black pants, a black cape and suit over a white shirt and a toplet above its red hair. Yes, this person was the magician Rüdiger Nowell, the one who had spread chaos within the city during the whole day until he was finally defeated about an hour ago… or that's what everyone had thought. Yet once again, the man was on his feet and walking as if nothing had happened.

No, that wasn't exactly accurate. In fact, the last surprise attack he had received when Index sabotaged his healing spell was brutal enough to leave some damage on his body even after his revival, and he could feel the phantom pain even now, which made his way of walk slightly awkward.

"Hehehehehehe… wonderful… this is absolutely the best! I don't even remember when was the last time I had so much fun." Exhausted, he leaned his back on one of the containers and let his body slide down until he sat down on the floor. "Haaah… it's too bad that I have to let it end like this. I wish I could at least let them know that it ended up in a tie. The look on their faces would be priceless. But… I guess it's not possible for me to put even more pressure on this body. Just moving around like this is already taking a lot of effort. I better concentrate in recovering my stamina before Hamapep comes back."

The man closed his eyes and tried to rest his mind and body as much as he could before the appointed time arrived for him and his teammate to regroup and leave the city.

However, he forgot the fact that he was still in enemy territory. And letting his guard down like this soon proved to be a terrible mistake. Less than ten minutes passed by, and that was enough for a certain someone to find him.

"Good grief. Only four years have passed and you're already in this pathetic state?"

Rüdiger felt his heart literally stopping for a moment when the voice reached his ears. He got up as fast as he could and got a few cards on his hand while he searched for who had talked to him. Surprisingly enough, the person in question was just 3 steps away from him. He hadn't heard any footstep nor felt the presence of this person at all.

"Why are you putting yourself on guard all of a sudden? Don't you recognize me? Or are you finally feeling a bit of guilt and is afraid of what's about to come?"

The magician didn't understand the meaning of these words right away. Recognize him? Is there someone I know living in Academy city? Perhaps a fan or an old friend… no, nothing rings a bell. He rubbed his eyes and decided to study the figure of the person a little more carefully.

The person was a boy, undoubtedly younger than him, wore what looked like an expensive suit… but it was all messed up, as if he didn't know how to properly wear it, or just didn't care to wear it in the right way. He also had spiky dark red hair and-

Suddenly, Rüdiger's eyes opened wide and his jaw hanged as he took a closer look at the boy's face. "N-no way… impossible… Rupert? Is… is that you, my brother?"

"Yo! Long time no see, Rüdiger nii-san!" A smile beamed on the younger male, but it was filled with a feeling other than happiness of encountering a sibling. "By the way, if you call me by this name again, I'll have to kill you right away, okay? Rupert Nowell is long dead. You killed him, remember? Right now, people refer to me as the Overseer."

"K-killed you? What are-"

Unpleased by the direction of the conversation, the smile disappeared from Rupert's face as fast as it had appeared earlier, and it was replaced by an expression that was a mix of annoyance and boredom. "C'mon, playing dumb now won't get you anything, so just drop it. You left me to die 4 years ago. All for the sake of your foolish and selfish desire. Seriously, do you have any idea of what I had to go through to survive on my own during all this time? No, I bet the thought not even crossed your mind."

"That's wrong! I-"

"Just cut it out already. I'm not here for vengeance or anything, so try to relax a bit. I'm actually grateful for you, you know?"

"G-grateful?"

"Yeah. I wouldn't be on my current position within the core of the science world if weren't from all the shit that happened, after all." The boy opened his arms in a similar way that Rüdiger usually did during his shows before continuing. "Here, I'm at the top. I have enough power and influence to take control of the whole city. Meanwhile, you're nothing but a spendable pawn… how ironic, isn't it?"

Rüdiger couldn't feel calm around his brother at all. Something about him had changed. He was unable to tell what he was intending to do from the way he was acting. "I don't get it. Are you mad at me or not?"

"Hmm… I guess I am. But not for the reasons you're thinking." Answered Rupert with a dangerous, yet childish look on his eyes. "Your presence here today almost wasted months of preparations for my plan. This is something I can't ignore, even if you're my brother. Besides, if I don't take action now, that little faction you belong to will keep getting in my way in the future. Therefore~" He then turned around and walked a few steps away from Rüdiger. Once he was far enough, he glanced at his brother over his shoulder with a malicious grin and lifted his hand towards the sky. Between his index and middle fingers, he held a pair of cards: an ace of diamonds and a ten of spades. "Could you please die for me?"

*Clang*

There were metallic noises ringing all around the place. The older male felt the incoming danger and jumped backwards just a second before the attack came. Dozens of containers moved unnaturally towards the place Rüdiger was standing before and crashed on each other, causing a huge shockwave that sent the magician's body flying backwards until he struck the wall of the warehouse. "Gyhaaaaa!"

"Of course, I know you won't die so easily." The younger male said nonchalantly as he approached his older brother. "Not until something is done about that really annoying spell of yours. The Magician cards from the Major Arcana - one for each of the four suits of the Minor Arcana. I heard you have been busy playing around today… but being careless the way you are, you probably lost at least one of them. You know that pretty well, don't you? That's why bring so many of them with you in the first place, right? That being the case, I wonder how many are left?" And so, he flipped three other cards in his fingers.

Steel containers aligned in lines behind Rupert and shot one after the other at Rüdiger. The magician took a glass cup from within his toplet, crushed it in his hand and threw the shards forward, summoning a snake shaped tornado filled with ice fragments that redirectioned the containers on touch. Meanwhile, he caught his brother trying to sneak on him with the corner of his eye and prepared an ambush. I can't let this drag on for too long. Using the sharp glass shards as the wind dagger is a solid deffence method, but consumes too much of my stamina. Besides, I need to warn Myrin about this. Sorry Rupert, but if I'll have to go this far to knock you down… so be it.

The moment the younger boy reached the older's back and prepared to attack, Rüdiger turned around and sent several cards of the clovers suit flying, ready to pronounce the chant of his divine punishment. However, before he did it, something picked his attention: there was a single card in Rupert's hand. It wasn't of spades, or diamonds, nor hearts and neither of clovers. It wasn't from the traditional minor arcana suits either. The symbol that was drawn on it was… Is this a star? Which element is it tied to?

And something happened right after. There was no chant, no activation signal, no light and no sound. No words exist in the human language that could describe the phenomenon that took place in that moment. From Rüdiger's perspective, it was as if he had stopped in space while the whole world was spinning around him at an incomprehensible speed, distorted, spiraled in a vortex and then stopped as his body simply got damaged from both inside and outside. Once it was over, there was blood sprayed all over the place and all of his cards plus bits of his clothes were torn apart. All in less than a single second. It was so ridiculous, even for someone of the magic side, that he had to process it for some time to realize that he had actually been attacked. And only then the pain kicked in, driving him almost insane. "UgH- KhrTJiNG-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

"Done already? Meh, sooooooo boring..." Said Rupert looking unsatisfied as he watched his brother convulse like a mad man in the dirt.

"Whaaat…. WHAT YOU DID TO MEEE!? GAAAAAAAAH!"

"Oh, this… well, it's too much of a pain to explain. In fact, it isn't something that someone that relies only in magic can understand."

"Khhhhhh!" Biting his lip, Rüdiger forced himself to get on his knees and pointed his wand towards Rupert with his waving hands.

"Ooooh~, so you can still get up after that. That's the nii-san I used to know and love. Trying to impress the crowd even if that means experimenting death multiple times in a single day." After saying this, the younger sibling took a few more cards from his deck.

And the two clashed over and over again as the night went on.

Part 4

8:40 PM - Inside a certain apartment in District 3.

At first, he was intending to go back to his hideout in District 10, but he was so tired after all the battles he fought today that Hishiro decided to head to this place instead. It was basically his second home, but much more luxurious than his first one. It had a large room that served both as a living room and a dining room, a fully equipped kitchen (which he never used because he was terrible at cooking), and 3 bedrooms with a bathroom each and a balcony in the one he used to sleep. He usually felt uneasy to live alone in such a large space, but he couldn't deny the fact that this place was very comfortable.

Not much later than he had arrived there, his phone started to ring. He knew exactly who it was and he was not looking forward to this conversation at all. "Hello?"

"Hi, it's Frenda!" Her cheerful voice made a wry smile appear on his face. Somewhere deep inside him, he was hoping that she would just forget what happened.

"Yeah, I was fearing you would call…"

"What was that? Geez… and I even honored you by giving my personal number. Isn't it exciting to talk to a cute girl at this time of the night?"

His eyes twitched at her provocation. Why is she sounding so similar to Asuka? Are all girls like this when they talk through the phone? "Honestly? No when the girl in question tried to kill me before, and specially, because the subject is something I'd rather forget about for now."

"Tehehe~ Fair enough, I think." Her answer made it clear that she didn't cared at all about what Hishiro felt towards this whole situation.

"Okay, let's get this done with. It's really complicated for me to explain it from the beginning to the end, so I'll just answer any questions you make."

And so, they talked for about 40 minutes. Frenda asked everything she could remember from the incident, from who Index was to why they were suddenly attacked that day. Hishiro gave the shortest answers he could think of, always disguising the magic as the technology developed in England that ITEM's liaison had mentioned when she had analysed the contents of the USB drive during the Breakdown incident - which was actually half truth.

"Hmm… I think I kinda got it, but not really..."

"Good. That means we are on the same page then. Are you satisfied yet?"

"Ah, just one more thing. Why are you actually sharing this all with me?"

"Huh? Well, it's because… uh..." This one caught him off-guard. Why he was even doing this? He had no obligation to waste his time telling her that. They fought together because they had a common enemy twice, but they weren't exactly friends or allies. No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't come up with an easy answer.

"Hey? Are you still there?" Frenda grew impatient, but he paid no heed as he was dumbfounded at his illogical actions. Digging deeper into his own mind, he remembered something.

That woman holding the large Katana.

The moment Rüdiger first summoned the coal snake and turned the scenery into a blazing inferno.

A single felling tied those two events inside him: fear. As much as he didn't want to admit, he was scared of these enemies that defied the logic of this world. He would rather challenge a level 5 to a death battle than to ever having to fight against another magician.

"To tell you the truth..." Sighing, he built up his courage and spoke. "It may not be over yet."

"What do you mean?"

"We defeated Rüdiger, but he might not be the only one after us. If another one of them appear, I probably… no, I definitely won't be able to take him on alone. I simply don't know enough about them, and I don't have enough raw power to fight them head on. So, if it ever come to that..."

"I see… so basically, since I'm the other Seed of Doubt, you'll need my help, right?"

He couldn't answer. That was his limit. It was too embarrassing for him to go past this point. But unlike him, Frenda cast away her pride and continued. "Actually, I don't think I could have survived that one alone as well. So let's make a deal: If any of us get attacked again, the other will help out, okay?"

"... Fine." His embarrassment aside, he felt a bit relieved that she agreed with him. He actually wasn't expecting she would cooperate. "But don't you dare to not fulfill your part of the deal and leave me to die."

"I-I wouldn't do that! Besides, if they kill you, won't I be next?"

...

After that, the call didn't last long. Once it was over, Hishiro decided to put all of that aside for now and relax playing one of the many gaming consoles he had in the apartment. But no matter how long he played to try to forget all the troubles he had gone through that day, his curious mind always drifted towards one thing. "Magic, huh..."

Unable to brush it off, Hishiro got up from the sofa and went straight to the notebook on the table and opened the search website in the browser. From there, he picked one of the myths he knew from the many RPG's he had played and tried to learn everything he could from the subject, as well as bits of the culture of that time. "Seriously, what the hell am I doing?"

The boy then organized all the information he had gathered, trying to classify them into the requirements Index had said earlier that was necessary to use magic. First, to convert life force into mana… she mentioned breathing techniques, right? I guess this one should do then. Next is arranging symbols in a meaningful way, and at last something to work as the trigger...

Satisfied with what he got, the boy then copied the symbols on a sheet of paper, placed it on the floor and began the improvised ritual. As he breathed in and out, trying to imitate what he had read a while back, his body begun to get more and more tense.

Part of him was saying that he should stop right there.

Part of him wanted to to see what was going to happen.

Part of him was saying that this was ridiculous.

His heartbeat got faster and faster when he started chanting the words. He felt it - something was definitely happening around him. There was a tingling sensation on the back of his neck that was both unpleasant and exciting at the same time. It was almost over… what would happen? Was it going to be exactly as he was expecting? Would it turn into something else due to his lack of experience?

Just two more words left…

He pressed his palm over the center of the drawing on the paper…

And then…

…

…

Nothing happened.

"Hehehe… Oh well, I should've expected that. If it was so easy, then a lot of people around the world would end up casting spells accidentally like crazy." Disappointed, Hishiro turned off the power of the notebook and laid down on the sofa, resting the still tingling back of his head on his crossed arms. "Besides, she did say that people with powers like espers can't use magic."

Like this, he closed his eyes in an attempt to calm down his still agitated body. Eventually, he ended up falling asleep on the spot.

Between the Lines

"Haah haaah haah… *cough* *cough* N-not good… I somehow managed to get away from him... but I need to get out of here..."

Coughing a worrisome amount of blood, Rüdiger made his way to the closest place to the southeast walls of Academy City he could get. His clothes were a mess, there were wounds and cuts all over his body, and probably several of his bones were broken, but even then he still pulled off a miraculous escape worthy of a stage magician.

"The only problem is how… I've lost all of my cards and misinterpreting the symbols of the minor arcana on this state without the blessing of Heka would be suicide."

"It's simple: you're not going anywhere-nya."

"Wha-"

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

Four bullets pierced Rüdiger's already weak body, knocking the remaining strength out of him. He couldn't even feel the pain anymore. His limbs simply gave in and he fell on his back as his consciousness threatened to slip away at any second. With great effort, he turned his face to see where the attack came from.

There was a blonde boy wearing a hawaiian shirt and sunglasses (even though it was already dark) wielding a handgun pointed at him. "S-so… The city… finally made a move… a-against me, huh? Hehehe- *cough* *cough* *cough*"

"Yeah, sorry to keep you waiting. We have a lot on our hands right now." The boy stood beside Rüdiger's body and kicked him where one of the bullets had hit, making the wound finally hurt.

"Guhaaaa- *cough* !"

"You sure made a mess today-nya. I hope you're ready to give some explana-"

"If you… expect me to g-give away… any information. Just forge- GAAAWW!"

"Oi, oi, oi, I'm not done talking yet. Don't you have any manners, hmm? And don't worry: we from the science side have very effective ways to make someone spill the beans-nya." Tsuchimikado kicked the magician a few more times on the same spot until he simply stopped responding. "Tsk, fainted already. I wish I could get some answers early, but I guess I have no choice but to wait until he wakes up."

At any rate, his mission was over. It had been a roller coaster ride to track down the origin point of all the odds that were happening in recent incidents, once all the clues pointed towards a magic intruder, everything fell in place and he could wrap it up without any more collateral damage.

Or so it should have been…

Suddenly, a shadow appeared beneath Rüdiger's body and swallowed it. The blonde boy was a second too late to react and failed to stop the phenomenon from happening. "What- what was that?"

And then, he heard a voice coming from the top of the closest building. "Good grief… I knew it would come to this. And I warned you so many times..." Turning his head towards the source of the sound, he saw a brown skinned male about the same age as Rüdiger wearing marble robes, a turban over his short black hair, moon shaped earrings and a sun shaped pendant hanging from his long necklace at the height of his abdomen. It was hard to tell from this distance, but it seemed he also had silver marks on his body. But the most important thing was that, somehow, the redhead magician was on his arms.

Tsuchimikado understood right away that he had made a mistake assuming out of the bat that there was only one of them. Cursing his carelessness, he spoke up to the new enemy with his usual carefree tone. "And who might you be?"

"Oh, forgive my rudeness. You may call me Hamapep." The male said politely while bowing down. "I assume you are the Grim Reaper I heard so much about."

"Being famous ain't easy-nya. I wouldn't expect a magician from the outside to know me."

"We do know everything about you, backstabber." Upon hearing that, Tsuchimikado dropped his smile and aimed the gun at Hamapep, who simply shook his head. "Please stop. I do not wish to confront you, otherwise I would have introduced myself with my magic name instead."

"So what? Do you expect me to simply let you go?"

"That would be for the best of both our interests. I do not have time to spare to deal with someone of your level, and I'm pretty sure you prefer to not use magic and damage your own body because of a simple passerby."

"Passerby?"

"Yes. Even if you do defeat me now, our goals here have already been accomplished, so it would change nothing. You would make better use of your time and energy to prepare to fight off the ones that are still to come before they complete their missions, otherwise you and this city's security will only be seen as incompetent."

"You do have some guts to say that while your friend is in this state."

Hamapep cast glance towards Rüdiger before sighing and answering. "So, your people took a whole day to defeat our healer. Are you sure you should be proud of this? Our actual combatants are leagues above him."

The blond boy got irritated at his words, but couldn't think of nothing to talk back. It was true that those two had gotten him and Academy City as a whole this time.

Seeing as he had nothing left to say, the robed man bowed once more and prepared to leave. "Well then, if you excuse us." He turned around and took out one of his earrings, ready to cast some kind of spell, but before he did… "One more thing. Please, tell your boss, the chairman Aleister Crowley, that the Golden Sages of the Next Aeon sent their regards." and then he threw the earring up. Once it overlapped the moon image on the sky, a blinding light shone from it, forcing even the sunglasses wearing boy to look away. Once it was over, none of them were anywhere to be seen.

Left alone in the back alley, Tsuchimikado clicked his tongue in annoyance. Golden Sages of the Next Aeon? I don't like the sound of this. Things have just barely begun and are already growing out of proportion.

And this is it. Arc 3 is finally done. I'm actually happy to have finished it before Christmas, given how long I took to release the chapters this year.

Before anything else, I must say something: I'm sorry. I lied. The battle on the last chapter wasn't Ruiger's last one. Though I did foreshadowed that the mysterious Overseer was coming for him earlier… I wonder if any of you saw it coming?

With that, the third faction - the Golden Sages of the Next Aeon - is finally introduced. On that note, I want to let you all know that one of many things that inspired me to write this fic was OT15, the Battle Royale arc of the novels. So this isn't a Hishiro vs Aleister's plans story, but a struggle of many powers that have an impact on what drove things to happen in the canon. So far, we have New Pointer, Aleister and Tsuchimikado, the rebel group of the darkness with a magician leader LIZARD, ITEM, the Kamijou Faction (though Touma himself won't appear very often), and even SCHOOL and STUDY were mentioned before. And don't expect those to be the only ones. I want to set up a massive multiway brawl, so if you enjoyed OT15 look forward to it!

Changing the topic, from now on I'll address any question asked in the reviews directly in the Author's Notes of each chapter. I think this format is more organized than throwing the answers in the middle of the text. So...

Guest: 1. My intention was to make him act cocky in front of Frenda because he knew more about the meaning of those cards than her thanks to Index. But I fear that I didn't made it clear enough that both him and Index were watching the battle unfold for a while (starting a little after the smoke covered the place) before he intervened... I made a small change there hoping to fix it.

2. Touma's goal was to save Hinata, so that was all he did. From his point of view, anything Yuna and LIZARD was doing wrong was solved the moment the antenna got damaged, so he had no more reason to go after them. That's a thing about his character, he is extremely reactive to the incidents around him, but rarely proactive in order to avoid something that can happen in the near future (or at least that's my take on it).

That's it for now. Thanks for the support and please leave a review if you have the time. I don't think I'll be able to post any other chapter this year, so Merry Christmas every one, And happy new year! See you guys next time!