Been a bit longer since the previous update than I'd like but hopefully this chapter proves to be worth the wait.
"Are you sure I can't stay here? I'll be good, honest!" Emily pleaded, putting on the most innocent puppy-dog eyes she could. A sorrowful smile formed on Brendan's lips as he shook his head.
"I wish I could, really, but I just can't. I can barely afford to take care of myself and Kolm now since my rent went up from him just living with me, not to mention the cost of food skyrocketing. If my landlord found out about you and Aspen living here, well... I'd probably be out of a home." Brendan explained before sighing. "You've probably heard this all before too..."
"Yeah... that's usually what people say." Emily replied, her expression plummeting. "But I know they're right. One lady who took me in got kicked out of her room for trying to help." Letting out another huff, Brendan was surprised when he noticed Emily looked less sad and instead simply shrugged. "But I've been around enough to know how to take care of myself! Besides, I have D.O.L.R.E.S. agents like the one you saw before who will look out for me if things get really serious. Speaking of which, my next job for them shouldn't be too far off."
"Are you sure?" Brendan asked, his concerned looked joined by Kolm's skeptical raised eyebrow.
"Sure, I'm sure!" The child huffed as she patted Aspen's head. "I may be small, but both Aspen and I are a lot tougher than we look, and you two know that!"
"Right." Brendan nodded. The four stepped out of the elevator and out of the apartment, with Brendan averting the sideways glance his landlord was giving him. Once they were all outside, the two bookkeepers turned to each other one last time.
"Well... I suppose this is it then." Brendan began.
"Hey, don't go and give me some sort of sappy speech now. It's not like I'm going anywhere extreme." Emily giggled. "Whenever I'm not doing anything for my bosses, I'll be somewhere around the city, usually in one of the alleys."
"Are you well stocked on food?" Kolm asked. "You will not be able to rely on Brendan cooking for you."
"Yup! We packed a bunch of food and water that doesn't need to be in a fridge to last me a week. After that I can manage on my own. You two don't need to worry about me, honest!"
"I don't think we'll be able to stop worrying about you two." Brendan sighed, shaking his head in disappointment despite the smile on his face.
"Well you should!" Emily huffed before returning the smile and giving Brendan one last hug before leaving with Aspen, giving the two men a wave goodbye as she went.
As the girl and her dog went around the corner of the block, Brendan noticed Kolm let out a heavy sigh.
"She reminds me so much of Kolulu..."
"Oh?" Brendan commented. "Is your daughter headstrong and adventurous?"
"Not quite. I mean, she can be the adventurous type when she is feeling confident and with friends, but she is actually quite timid. But back in the Mamodo World, she would often try to reassure both myself and her mother that she was doing fine and that there was no issue going on. While the two of us can see right through her facade, we know that she is much smarter and stronger than she appears and is getting to an age where she can solve her own problems. But, just as you said regarding Emily, I will always be worried about my daughter."
"I guess that comes with being a parent." Brendan replied. "Maybe when we get back you can tell me more about your family and your world."
"We? Are we going somewhere?"
"Well I have to go to work today." Brendan shrugged.
"But why do I have to go with you?"
"Because after what happened yesterday, I realized that keeping you in my apartment is a massive risk. People are targeting me now, regardless of if you're with me or not. If I get caught at the wrong place at the wrong time while you and the spellbook are in the apartment, it won't end well for me. The same applies to you if an enemy finds out where I live, if you have no access to your spells while the book is out in the open, the book will be burned." Brendan explained.
"So I am to accompany you to your work, classes and Adrian's school?"
"You might have to, at least until this whole Musical Assassin business is dealt with. Now come on, I don't want to be late to work."
Adrian and Windsor stood in front of the door to the old shed with Asuka and Venam by their side. The four looked at a note that had been placed neatly on the door. The paper was ripped straight out of a notebook and written using what appeared to be a blue pen, so it certainly wasn't placed their by any school official, but the moment they laid their eyes on it the four knew there was going to be trouble.
The note read: 'Hi! Unfortunately you've made the mistake of messing with the Musical Assassins (I know it's a weird name but I didn't pick it). You and your friends have already burned 2 of our group's books, so they're sending us to take care of you. We know you use this shed to hide your Mamodo, but my bookkeeper wants to wait until you finish school before we make our move. I don't know why, since it doesn't make sense to me, but maybe humans are just weird like that. Anyway, because I'm such a nice Mamodo, I went along with it and decided to tell you in advance since there's no way you're going to beat us anyway! Until then!'
"Well that's certainly a confidence boost I needed today." Asuka sighed. "From one Mamodo attacking us to the next."
"You get used to it." Adrian replied, taking the note off the door and inspecting it more closely with Windsor.
"I daresay, whoever wrote this seems to have a fondness for the color blue." The bird observed before looking at a rather amateurish drawing of what looked like a girl's face sticking her tongue out giving the reader a peace sign. The two weren't sure if the drawing was supposed to have hair or rabbit ears sticking out from the top of her head. "And a rather childish artistic prowess..."
"Still, if this is a real challenge, then it means one of two things. Either that kid from yesterday told a friend about you two hiding in here or..." Asuka began before trailing off and looking at the school.
"Or?" Venam asked.
"Or someone in our school is another bookkeeper that wants to test their luck against us." The Asian girl replied."So what do you two suggest we do?" Windsor asked.
"If this note came from another student, we need to keep a close eye on the our classmates throughout the day. They'll likely be watching us like hawks." Adrian explained.
"We should probably tell the others about this, too. We may need as many eyes as possible. After seeing how tough that kid and his bee Mamodo was, I'm not taking any chances." Asuka added.
"Agreed." Adrian said as the Mamodo nodded. "If this note came from someone who is not part o this school then, well, I'm afraid we'll just have to wait until they make their move. If this enemy bookkeeper is willing to wait until school is over before they strike, then they're oddly courteous for an assassin."
"But that's only if they're not part of your school, right? It seems fishy to me." Venam hummed.
"Well, we'll have to keep a sharp eye on everyone, just as we said." Adrian replied. "For now, you two should get inside, class will be starting soon."
As the two students left, Venam and Windsor entered the shack again with the former looking surprisingly calm while Windsor looked more contemplative.
"You seem to be rather calm about the prospect of another enemy fighting us." Windsor noted.
"Yeah." Venam shrugged as she sat down and opened up one of her comics. "But that's only because I know I'll be able to melt them down!"
Windsor shook his head as he rested in a corner of the shed. "You'd do well to curb your confidence, child. Lest you quickly become humbled by an enemy." He remarked, earning a huff and a bit of a confused look from the purple-haired girl.
"Why do you say that?"
"Because it happened to me." The bird sighed, a forlorn expression on his face as he looked down at the floor. "I come from noble blood. As such, I believed that my lineage granted me a higher level of power than those underneath me in terms of class. After my first encounter with a Mamodo who is currently an ally of ours, I was quickly proven wrong. In terms of raw power, he outclasses me completely. He may even be among the strongest Mamodo in this battle if one looks at physical strength alone. But..." Windsor's eyes sharpened as he looked up at Venam. "...I made a vow... I made a vow that, with Adrian's help, I will grow stronger! When this whole Musical Assassin nonsense is dealt with, we shall challenge Kolm and his bookkeeper again, and this time we shall be victorious!"
"You talk funny, you know that?" Venam asked.
"I do not!"
"You totally do!"
With a grumble from the bird, the two returned to their silence. Still, Venam did begin to think to herself regarding what Windsor said. 'What if there is some crazy strong Mamodo out there like Windsor says. Can I really handle something like that?'
"Hey." Venam suddenly spoke, startling Windsor just a little bit as he looked up to see Venam blankly looking at her comic book, not really reading it. "Whoever wrote that note, if they're really going to attack us... Do you think we're strong enough to beat them?"
Brendan and Kolm walked up to an auto body shop, the latter looking up to get a good look at the sign hanging above the garage: 'Navidson's Auto Repair'.
As the two stepped inside, they saw JT grabbing a tool box from a locker and smiling as he saw the duo.
"Hey, it's the teacher man himself!" He greeted, offering Kolm a fist bump. "Even brought your cousin with you!"
Kolm looked at the man's fist in confusion for a moment before returning the gesture while JT turned to Brendan.
"I don't mind him being here but what made you bring him along anyway? I figured he'd enjoy watching tv when he's not doing... whatever he's doing."
"I was." Kolm responded. "But I... felt as if I needed something to keep me occupied physically. It is not healthy to remain at home and not do anything productive."
"Yeah, I feel you." JT nodded with a shrug. "Still, you should talk to the boss about him being here. It's been pretty chill so far and he looks like he's in a good mood."
JT looked over at an office in the corner of the garage, Brendan and Kolm following his gaze, inside was a man that appeared to be somewhere in his mid to late 50's with his hair greying and showing signs of balding. He was thin and wore a grey suspenders over a brown long sleeved shirt. The man was signing some papers before stuffing them into a folder in a nearby cabinet. Just as the man closed the cabinet, a European car pulled up to the garage.
"Oh god dang it..." JT groaned as Brendan and Kolm began heading for the office, the former knocking on the door.
"Ah, Brendan, my boy, good to see you." The man greeted, a warm smile on his face. "Who's your friend here?"
"Hey Mr. Navidson, this is my cousin, Kolm. He's visiting from Europe and he's going to be here in the city for a while. We figured it wasn't good for him to just be lazing around the house so I figured I'd bring him along to see what it's like here."
"That's good. Idle hands are the devil's playthings, after all." Navidson nodded before looking over to Kolm. "You ever fix work with cars or car parts before?"
"N-no... I have not..."
"Hmm... Well then we better get you up to speed!" The older man said, walking over to a bookshelf and pulling out a few rather large books and putting them on his desk. Kolm began picking up some of the books and looking at the covers; 'The Basics of Automobiles', 'A Beginner's Guide to Cars', 'So You Want to be A Mechanic?'.
"Ah, the old textbooks!" Brendan exclaimed with a chuckle. "I forgot you still have these!"
"I always keep 'em close whenever we need to train a new guy!" Navidson laughed. "Just read those for now, big guy, once you finish we can get you started on some easy work and you can go up from there. You're lucky to have a guy like Brendan in your family, the boy's great with cars." Navidson then turned to Brendan, his face shifting to one that was a bit more serious. "Speaking of which, I need to talk to ya', kid."
"Uh, sure Mr. N."
The two exited the office, the boss closing the door behind him and allowing Kolm to begin reading in silence.
"So, I hear you started work in one of the local high schools." Navidson began.
"Yeah, I started there a few days ago."
"That's good, kid! I'm glad to see you gettin' your foot in the door." Navidson said, a hint of a smile on his face. "Still, being here, going there, doing your classes and taking care of your cousin in there is probably burnin' you out somethin' fierce."
"You don't know the half of it..." Brendan sighed.
"I might not know exactly what you're working with right now with everything, but I've had times where I felt overwhelmed with things, too. Just take things one at a time and they'll sort themselves out. If that means you'll be leaving this place, then, well... That's just how it'll be."
"Are you sure, Mr. Navidson?"
"Sure I'm sure! Teachin's what you want to do, right? Go for it, kid!"
"Yo, B, you think you could give me a hand with this?!" JT called out from the hood of the European car before grumbling how much he hated working with them.
"Why don't you go get ready, I'll look after your cousin."
"Thanks, boss!" Brendan nodded before hurrying to get ready to work.
"So have any of you noticed anything?" Asuka asked.
"What kind of question is that? I just sat down!" Josh exclaimed as he sat down at the school's lunch table with Hannah, Aliyah and Adrian having already joined Asuka.
"No, actually, we haven't." Hannah sighed, opting to ignore her friend's stupidity.
"Everything seems to be going on as it usually would." Aliyah shrugged. "I haven't seen anyone watching you, student or teacher, but I don't have every class with you, so maybe I missed something."
"I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary either." Hannah added. "Seems like whoever sent you guys that note isn't part of this school."
"Oh, the note!" Josh exclaimed, finally remembering the matter at hand. "Yeah, I haven't seen anything from anyone either. Seems like a false alarm to me."
"Well, if it isn't from anyone within this school then that at least narrows things down a bit." Adrian noted before taking a bite out of his sandwich.
"We should have seen this coming, in all honesty." Asuka shrugged. "We haven't seen any other Mamodo team in this school since Venam and I teamed up. Or that creep that was selling books in the basement if you want to count him."
"I don't remember you being there. Were you spying on us?" Josh asked.
"It's not exactly 'spying' if a good chunk of the students in this school were there to watch the whole thing." Asuka rolled her eyes. "News about it spread to the rest of the school the next day. Thankfully they've been quiet about it around the teachers though. Seems like nobody wants that place to get found out and shut down."
"Yeah, if word got around that kids were using The Pit for fights and stuff to the teachers, I think half the school would get suspended or maybe even expelled!" Aliyah said with her eyes wide in worry.
"Let alone the fact that a man that wasn't a member of faculty got in. The police might get involved at that point and I don't even want to think of how that would turn out." Hannah shook her head.
"Let's just hope that info doesn't get to them at all." Asuka remarked. "Back on track though, if the note came from someone outside of the school, then that means that's the second team coming to us for a fight in two days. We can't fend for ourselves like this forever, especially since we only managed to win the last fight because I unlocked a new spell at literally the last second."
"So? You won, didn't you?" Josh asked. "You two can just do it again! It'll still be two against one and we'll have your back in case you need it!"
"Newsflash, Einstein, we don't have Mamodo anymore." Hannah groaned. "They could easily beat us down, or worse, if we try to get involved."
"Th-that doesn't mean we can't at least try to do something, right?" Aliyah asked, concern plastered on her face.
"There is a possibility that you three could serve as a distraction, but I'd rather not risk your safety for us. Even then there is also no guarantee that this is just one Mamodo pair that intends to attack. Remember, you two attacked Mr. Walker and myself together."
"Well you got us there." The pink haired girl huffed before pouting, still clearly sore at how fast her book was burnt.
"So what are we going to do then? Just wait until these guys show up?" Asuka asked.
"I'm afraid we have no other choice." Adrian sighed, finishing the last of his lunch. "They could just as easily strike now if they truly wanted to, but these attackers seem to be fully aware of the consequences of doing so. They're not stupid, and it's likely that the human bookkeepers are the reason why they don't try that. If they're willing to wait until the school is empty, then that means they don't want to get innocent people involved. They are calling themselves 'Assassins', after all. The most we can do is wait until school lets out and wait by the shed with Venam and Windsor." The bespectacled boy turned to Aliyah and his former rivals. "Mr. Walker also gave us and the teachers his email, did he not? If the enemy proves to be to strong for us to handle together, I need you three to head back in here and get in touch with him from the computer labs. He's a college student, so he likely uses his computer more than we do if he owns one."
"Right!" "You got it!" "Sure." The three agreed, with varying levels of enthusiasm.
"Then I suppose that settles things." Adrian said right as the school bell rang. "We'll meet up at the shed when the school day is over, I suppose."
"Man I hate working on those cars..." JT grumbled as he watched the European car he and Brendan just finished working on drive out of the garage. "It's always more complicated for no real reason!"
"Yeah, I feel you." Brendan sighed. "But hey, we at least get a bonus on the next paycheck for working on them."
"Pfft, that's the only bright side to them being here."
Another car soon pulled into the garage, this one was a customized dark green two-door with enhanced suspension, a custom rims, a spoiler installed and what sounded like a custom engine block. JT and most of the other employees of the garage immediately turned their heads upon seeing it. As the car's engine died down, a man stepped out of the vehicle and the sight of him made Brendan's blood run cold; it was the Assassin that he and Emily fought off just yesterday. The man saw Brendan as well, his brows furrowing ever so slightly when he recognized Brendan and approached him and JT.
"Hey." The man greeted.
"'Sup, bro, nice ride." JT said, whistling a bit at the sight of the man's car. "How can we help you?"
"I, uh, ordered some parts a while back and I wanted to see if they came in yet."
"Sure, let me just see if they came in. B, you mind ringing him up for them?"
"...Sure." Brendan replied. As JT left the two alone, the man cleared his throat before speaking up.
"You and that kid really whooped my butt yesterday."
"Uh, yeah, I, um, guess we did."
"The boss was pretty ticked off at me about that." He sighed, smirking a bit. "He kicked me out of the group when he found out my book was burned and he warned me that 'he'll find me if I speak a word about this to anyone', but I think I'll be fine."
"Who is your boss anyway?" Brendan asked, relaxing just a bit as he saw the man was doing.
"Hey, now that I can't say. He didn't say it, but I know that he'll be going after you and those kids more now."
"Great..." Brendan groaned before his eyes widened in horror. "Wait, what do you mean 'those kids'?!"
"Well now he knows about that girl you teamed up with, but there's also these two kids from that school you're workin' in that have Mamodo. They managed to fight off another one of our guys and burned the book of this kid in our team. That seemed to piss our boss off more than my book getting burned. That kid said they even managed to stop his strongest spell, I couldn't even use mine. The boss said that spell is supposed to be 'the key to our power' and is the reason why we're called the 'Musical Assassins'. I still have mine memorized just to get him off my back; Ti Nyubao, that's the spell he told me to not forget and to use if we wanted to finish off an enemy." The man explained. "'Course I never got a chance to use it."
"He's after my students!" Brendan exclaimed. "How many people did he send after them now?!"
"Last thing I heard after he kicked me out was that this was a chance for our newest members to prove themselves. The bookkeeper looks like he might be Russian and that he needed the money the boss was offering. The Mamodo looks like one of those little anime girls like 'Sailor Star' or whatever they're called."
Adrian and Asuka brought Venam and Windsor out of the shed shortly after the last bell rang and the students were piling out of the school. Aliyah, Hannah and Josh all stood with them as they all awaited the arrival of the author of the note. They didn't have to wait very long as they saw a man and what looked like a young girl approaching the group, a deep orange book secured in the man's hands.
"Even if those two look a bit goofy though, I can tell they're tougher than they look." The former assassin continued.
"As much as I want to say those kids are tougher than they look, too. I wasn't even aware another one of them even found a Mamodo partner. But I can't just leave work to go help them..." Brendan said, clenching his fists in frustration.
"I see you've read my note!" The girl called out.
"Yeah, we saw your crappy drawing." Hannah huffed, getting the blue haired girl to growl in anger.
"Urgh! You'll regret making fun of my art! Get ready, Uri!"
The older man remained silent as he opened the orange book, the pair readying themselves just as Asuka and Adrian did with their Mamodo.
"All I know for sure is that they're in for one hell of a fight."
And that will be where we leave off for now. Apologies again for the long wait between chapters, my work/life schedule is rough but I'll keep trying to get these chapters out as soon as I can.
Anyway, next chapter will be the first fight involving a canon character so hopefully I can portray Penny and Uri as they were in the manga/anime. I hope you'll all look forward to it as well!