Between the lines (Arc 4 Side Story)

Of course, the path of violence had been the only outcome of this situation. Adjusting to the not all too sudden shift of the odds, Stella only let an amused chuckle escape her lips, before assuming a posture to invite in the vicious striker with open arms.

Truly a madwoman, or not?

«40-60~♫»

After swift dance of her right hand, the ground around Stella’s feet malformed the very moment the nun in red arrived and when it did it, the attacker immediately lost any stable groundwork, as though she was trapped in quick sand. However, unlike quick sand the mass surrounding her was far heavier, essentially weighing down upon her plenty fold.

«My my my. What a foolish girl you are. Attacking without understanding the attacked?»

However, a true artist did not dare to leave things like that.

«60-40~♫»

Even more sudden than it had initially malformed, the matter that had been the floor twisted and gathered explosively with Sasha at its core, launching the full brunt of it at her from all sides, left, right, front, back, below and above, as though crushing a can of coke.

It had only been a split second. Just a fraction of a moment, but the foreign stranger had managed to gain enough distance that he not only left Yomikawa's sight, but Gou's as well. The boy, who had no idea of the man's ability, had no reason to suspect the girl who helpfully pointed him in the direction of the fugitive. He doggedly pursued Heinrich, unaware that he had already passed him by.

And by the time Yomikawa arrived, that 'teenage girl' would be long gone...

***

Sasha's lunge had taken her onto the warping ground. It gave way beneath her and she faltered, her strike falling short by the narrowest of margins. The stoic girl frowned, gritting her teeth in a quiet snarl as the twisting ground rose up and enveloped her from all sides in a crushing grip.

But before that earth could bear down on her, three rapid swings carved the rock open as easily as if it had been made of paper.

"That was close, little Sasha. Try to be more careful next time, eh?" The blonde magician twirled a golden sword hilt in his hand from several meters away. "I won't always be around to save you."

It was truly an anticlimax. Those last moments of escape were something that still bored into Sara, like claws of dread from a cat.

And yet…

I’m out.

She didn’t make the mistake of saying that out loud as she had walked out of the arrivals lobby along with the evacuating crowd. She had merely walked apace with the rest of the crowd, simply blending in by looking like one of the many panicked evacuees.

From there, the crowd had split. Some had tried to grab taxis. Others had tried to move to more distant buildings. Taking a moment to keep an eye on the crowd, she moved herself into an alleyway, into a blind spot to the escaping crowd.

With all eyes off her, she used the walls of the buildings on either side of her to jump off of until she reached the top of the taller building. From the roof, she looked out upon the surroundings.

I’ve still got a decent amount of time left.

Taking a moment, she reset the choker and placed on her headdress. That should have been enough to add an extra fifteen minutes of effectiveness. There was no way she was letting her magic wear off just yet.

As she did, she caught sight of something in the distance.

A signal flare?

Things had already gone wrong, but they were lacking information. In that case, she needed to find out exactly what was going on. So, Sara took to the skies, hopping from building to building, trying to get as close to the source of the flare as she could without being seen. And there, she found...

Heinrich wandered through the city, away from the airport where he had been detained. As poor as it had been, his escape plan had worked, and he'd left the pursuers long behind in the airport. He had been separated from his group, but he wasn't worried- those kids should have been able to handle themselves both in escaping the pursuers and then finding a way to reunite. The only part of the equation was for him to rejoin them. He took out his cellphone, ready to see who answered him, when a thought crossed his mind. What if it was bugged or being tracked? He'd rather not smash it against the ground right then and there, so he simply put it away and thought of different ways to find the others. Looking up, Heinrich saw what appeared to be a signal flare in the distance. He wasn't sure if it had anything to do with his allies, but figured it was the best lead he had, so he began walking in the flare's direction. However, he was getting bored of walking around in the form he'd used to escape the airport. Plus, what if that esper freak boy realized he's been had and reported the mysterious girl to his superiors? Heinrich looked for a quiet location he could use to dispel transformation. It had to be somewhere hidden, as the spell left behind the body of whatever disguise Heinrich had been wearing, looking like something had burst out from inside it. As he kept walking, he noticed a quiet looking alley next to a convenience store. He'd rather there have been somewhere more abandoned, but the area didn't look like it had too many hidden corners. Additionally, things didn't seem too busy at that time of day. Odds were, if someone stumbled across the body, he'd be long gone. Walking into the alley, Heinrich began to pull at his flesh, emerging from the body of the girl. He stumbled a few steps forward as it took him a moment to readjust to his proper form, and then looked back at the aftermath. Even though it was his own spell, Heinrich still found it somewhat horrifying to look at what was left behind when the spell ended. But never mind the thought of staring at the body; he needed to find the others. Heinrich walked out from the alley, leaving behind the cast-off corpse of his disguise. As he walked, he kept on the lookout for any law enforcement, but encountered no one. Eventually, he arrived at the source of the flare, where he saw...

What greeted them upon reaching the site of the flare could be summed up in a single word.

Devastation.

The entire intersection of blocks had been torn apart. The ground was shattered by craters and long gouges as though struck by meteors or cut by some enormous blade. The walls of nearby buildings had melted like wax and reformed into jagged spears. Scorch marks still sizzled with steam, their glassy surfaces glowing a bright orange. One building had collapsed entirely, others looked close to doing the same.

A young, blonde man sat fallen against the melted wall, his arm stretched upwards where it was buried up to the elbow in the wall. He stirred, wincing in pain from the myriad injuries that covered his body.

Further down the street a pile of rubble budged, shaking loose fragments of brick and concrete. A girl in red emerged from the debris, throwing back her head as if breaking the surface of a swimming pool. Sasha Kreutzev reached down into the rubble and retrieved a long L-shaped metal bar and shook it clean of dust before clasping it back onto her belt. She turned her head slowly to scan for her enemy.

“This is quite the sight.” Sara muttered as she gazed down upon what was clearly the aftermath of what could almost be mistaken for a gas or steam pipe explosion. On one portion, she saw a young blond man who was clearly injured in the process.

Elsewhere, she saw…

Despite the chaos of the situation, she could smile as she saw a face that was all too familiar—one who she had remembered from a certain incident involving a vampire back in February.

If I remember correctly, her name was…

Grabbing a piece of paper from the notepad she kept in her pocket, she folded it in half and wrote a name on the outside of one half.

Sasha Kruezhev.

The folded paper would be functionally a booklet, a symbol representing the goddess Saraswati, creating a spell that would allow for two way communication with the owner of the name that was written on it—a quick and functional communication method that required minimal set-up.

“Looks like quite the mess, Sasha-chan.” From atop the building, she spoke while holding the book and looking down, even adding the unnecessary honorific that someone of her origin had no reason to be using. “What’s going on here? Do we need to become an unstoppable two-man cell again like we did in Whitby?”

While Atsa original plan had been to head to the hotel where they were supposed to be staying during this mission, this all changed when he saw a flare go off in the distance. For a mission all about stealth and staying under the radar using a signal flare to gather everyone together seemed like the worst option someone could choice. Then again, they had been caught the moment they stepped off the plan so maybe there just was no point in trying to remain hidden anymore. There was also always the possibility that the flare wasn't being sent by one of his allies and instead was an entirely different party trying to communicate with their group.

Regardless of what the purpose of the signal flare was there was no way Atsa wasn't going to investigate it. How could he resist? He was already in an strange new city and being chased by the law, what was there to lose by getting a look around and investigating? Best case scenario he runs into his allies and their target happens to to be there as well. Worst case scenario, it turns out to be a trap but unless their enemy knew about the mechanics of his invisibility spell he was fairly certain he'd be safe.

With that in mind he'd head off in the direction of the flare all the while still hidden beneath the invisibility of his Four Worlds spell. Unfortunately, while the spell was great at avoiding detection it was horrible when it came to moving through crowds of people. Even a slight tap for a person walking by would be enough to knock Atsa backward since at this point his body weighed less than even a piece of paper. While it was a pain though he'd eventually arrived at the area the flare had originated from.

Pure unadulterated destruction was the only description Atsa could think of to describe the seen in front of him. It was clear that fight had happen here and know he had to wonder if the flare was a signal or had just been part of an attack. Since they were in academy city he'd usually question whether the fight had been between espers or magicians but given the appearance of the two people he spotted amongst the rubble, it seemed clear what the answer was.

The fact that they were magicians still left the question of whether these two were friends or enemies though regardless of the answer to this question Atsa would still lift the mask off his face. Immediately he would materialize in front of Sasha and the blonde haired magician. If they were friends then maybe he could get some information from them, if they were enemies he had to at least keep them here long enough for his comrades to arrive. After all he doubted they hadn't noticed the flare.

"Hello there"

And what Sasha spotted were a familiar face and voice.

Friend or an enemy?

Her skull was buzzing. She felt dizzy. Had been throughout the entire fight. An odd smell was stuck in her nose, not wearing off so easily. Her memory was as cloudy as her mind. What had happened?

Enemy or friend?

«Declaration Number One: All intruders are to be apprehended without exception.»

As she raised her monotone voice its, her cold gaze wandered across each of the three newcomers before fixating itself on Saravati. Then with a loud boom of earth shattering under the force of her step the red nun transformed herself into a human rocket and launched herself at her former comrade, fully intent on mercilessly unleashing the force of her L-shaped crowbar upon her now enemy’s head. What it hit, it’d shatter.

The intruders had gotten away. By what could only be described a miraculous escape the larger portion of their group had slipped past Academy City’s supposedly water-tight security. The larger portion with a single exception. One girl had been taken prisoner in the wake of all that chaos. But so far they hadn’t talked.

And things hadn’t remained that easy in the first place.

Currently, Furuhashi Gou and Shirai Kuroko were zapping across the city, jumping from building to building, hurrying from one incident to another.

Shortly after the events in the airport, chaos had broken loose in the city. Naturally law enforcement drew the connection between that band of intruders and these strange happenings. And with the situation at the airport having calmed down significantly, additional forces had to be deployed into the city.

Namely, a few Judgement members and a couple of Anti-Skill cars were now headed to the new epicentre of the maelstrom.

«What the hell is going on?»

Furuhashi’s words upon stopping atop a building of a District 7 department store perfectly expressed the strange nature of the state of the world below. Windows were shattered, the nearby cafes’ furniture had been tossed all over the street, and elsewhere parked cars’ alarm sirens were blaring as some had been set ablaze. The sight was as though an angry mob had wreaked havoc. And indeed the root of it all was an angry mob.

But not a unified one.

Students, adults, any pedestrian around had engaged in what could only be described as mindless violence. People were actively attacking one another. Some were swinging their fists, others weapons, and a few even more dreadful means in the form of Esper abilities. Fireballs, wind blades, shockwaves, ice spears, lightning; the easily lethal phenomena you could find around any corner in this city were being used mindlessly to inflict violence upon each other.

She had hoped that reaching out to Sasha first would be enough to cause her to at least share information considering what was happening was clearly beyond the two of them. She had hoped that they could collaborate just like they did before and deal with the current issue while maybe doing the bridal carry set-up from before.

Sara would be a blatant liar if she didn’t say she didn’t have any excitement towards collaborating with Sasha again.

But, Fate conspired against her as Sasha’s first response to her two-way communication was not one of collaboration, but one of complete repulsion.

Were it not for her augmented reflexes and speed, she would have found herself splattered across building as chunks of flesh and bone from Sasha’s explosive assault. She only needed to dodge a few steps backward and avoid the flying shrapnel and debris that had erupted from the epicenter of the attack.

“Wait, Sasha! What are you doing?! The fact that both Necessarius and Annihilatus are converging in Academy City should be proof that something is amiss so please don’t just go auto-attacking without ascertaining things! We can still talk this out like professionals!”

Sara was almost tempted to question out loud whether part of Sasha’s annoyance was due to a residual memory of cosplay, but she knew better than to push buttons here.

---

Between the incident in the airport and the failure to apprehend any of the suspicious individuals in the airport, Shirai Kuroko found herself growing ever more irritated as the world seemed to spiral ever further downwards into chaos. While she was grateful for the incident at the airport finally abating, things didn’t seem to let up one bit as the entropy seemed to merely translocate itself.

A grand sum of the forces Anti-Skill and Judgment could muster had all began to make its way towards the newest incident. Carrying Furuhashi with her (regrettably), she made serial teleports there only to find herself stopping atop a District 7 department store overlooking it all.

“How far away is Anti-Skill?”

Given the commotion and violence that was taking place, it was only natural for someone like her to want to jump into the fray.

However….

“We can’t jump into this without proper support.”

Jumping into there on their own would only add unnecessary casualties as they could not control a clear riot of Espers with the two of them, regardless of how high their levels were. Shirai Kuroko may have been a reckless girl, but even she had some survival instinct.

Out of the frying pan into the fire felt like an appropriate way to describe their current situation. They arrived in Academy City only to immediately get questioned by the police and accused of being terrorists. You'd think that'd be enough trouble for one day but no, now they had just happened to walk into an entirely different kind of fight, a fight between magicians. While Atsa was curious about who this red clothed nun had been fighting before there was no time to think about that now. After all it only took a moment to figure out exactly who the Annihilatus nun's new target was.

Why the nun wanted to apprehend Sara? He had no idea. They were intruders in Academy City by what would a magician being enforcing the city's rules? Regardless Atsa would quickly throw open his suit case revealing a longbow along with various different kind of arrows inside. He'd grab an arrow with steel arrow head, quickly nock it, and then take aim at their new enemy. Such a rapidly moving target definitely wasn't easy but at the very least he knew exactly what direction she was heading in so he could try to predict her location.

Accounting for her current speed and anticipated location Atsa would release the bow string sending the arrow hurtles towards its target. If it managed to land where he intended the arrow would pierce through the shoulder of the arm holding the crow bar. Even for a magician with enhanced strength it'd be hard to swim a weapon around when your shoulder muscles had been cut through. At the very least he hoped to slow down the red nun's assault, he was fairly confident in Sara's ability to avoid an attack given her speed but given the devastation he had just watched their new enemy walk away from seemingly unfazed he didn't want to take any chances.

Chaos. There was no other word to describe what was happening on the street outside. Tables were flipped, cars were burning, and people of all ages were going at each other full force. A normal riot usually wouldn't have the rioters attacking each other which made this situation especially strange. The fact that espers were mixed in with the crowd meant that more lethal forces then just punches were being thrown around as well which didn't bode well for the rioters. It also seems that Anti-skill or even Judgment for that matter were still not on the scene to attempt to deal with this. Unfortunately for Chiyo, it had only taken one stray ice blast from the streets flying through one of the windows of their building to get the scientists around her all worked up and scared for their lives and precious research data. Chiyo already know what was going to happen, but still felt disappointed when it did.

"Chiyo, investigate the cause of this disturbance. Find the cause and stop it."

Who did they think she was, some kind of detective or some level 5 power house. A rhetorical question. To them she was just a tool. One that could be used for any situation deemed even slightly to dangerous to risk anyone else. It didn't matter, she was used to this by now.

"Yeah Yeah, I'll go deal with an angry mob of espers and you can all sit here twiddling your thumbs and hiding behind your desks."

Chiyo walked out of the room and up the stairs to the roof not bothering to remove the lab coat she was wearing over her normal clothes in preparation for the day's experiments. She'd have to be crazy to just walk out into the middle of the mob without getting at least a better view of what was going on down there first. As she stepped out onto the roof, she noticed two figures on the roof of the neighboring building, some department store. Chiyo spent enough time on these roofs to know that building didn't have open roof access so these two definitely seemed suspicious. Maybe she'd lucked out and found the cause immediately. Chiyo decided that a closer investigation was in order. Using her ability she created a second copy of her directly behind the two people on the roof, then sent the original back down the stairwell to investigate at ground level. On the roof, she was just in time to hear the disbelief expressed by the pair.

«What the hell is going on?»

“How far away is Anti-Skill? We can’t jump into this without proper support.”

"That's disappointing. Two suspicious figures on the roof, I thought I may have found the cause of this riot quickly, but it looks like the two of you are just Judgment. What's the matter, hiding out on the roof instead of helping the people getting injured on the ground, not very heroic of you. So this is the reason I'm stuck dealing with this."

The tone of her voice was scathing. Having to be anywhere near the lab already put her in a bad mood, but this riot that she'd been forced to deal with made sure her attitude today was foul. Maybe she'd just have Mio on the ground join in the riot, she could use an outlet to let off some steam. The pair on the roof wouldn't even need to ask the name of the girl that had suddenly appeared behind them, it was displayed prominently on the badge pinned to her lab coat "Masaki Chiyo - Utagawashi Pharmaceutical Research Laboratory Research Assistant".

«Nice try, but not so quick.»

With the swiftness of a single swing, the arrow was cleanly cut in half mid air.

«I’d like you to forfeit now and spare us the hassle, okay? I’m really not in the mood for more of this stuff today…»

A dozen of metres away the figure of a blonde man with green eyes and simple clothing had appeared. Albeit visibly battered his demeanour felt quite aloof. However, in stark contrast to his presence stood a golden hilt and a blade born from a messy synergy of oddly unfitting materials such as stone, plastic, metal and glass which he held in his right hand. The weapon he had just swung.

Yet, the oddity of this weapon did not stop at its shape or reach. Another oddity was lingering in the air surrounding the three intruders. An oddity strongly connected to the sword. Laden bad premonition.

However, that wasn’t the end of these oddities. There was another.

«Actually. Maybe it’s better if you just go down like this.»

Even as he spoke, the blonde man named Jack Nightingale felt it. Much like a headache it clouded his very perception of the world. And as a result of it, his usual lighthearted aloofness was tainted by a strong sense of hostility.

Ultimately, this hostility caused another swing. Followed by another clean cut dividing its very first target, which in his ideal world was the brave bowmen he had intercepted.

«Wait, Sasha! What are you doing?! The fact that both Necessarius and Annihilatus are converging in Academy City should be proof that something is amiss so please don’t just go auto-attacking without ascertaining things! We can still talk this out like professionals!»

«Clarification Number 1: You are unauthorised intruders and as such you need to be punished.»

Naturally, these words of reason met stone cold ignorance, underlining the line drawn between the two sides that existed. Enemy and ally.

Even though she had missed, the nun in red did not lose time to hesitation and instead break off into another charge. Full force. Full power. Just like the human steam roll she was. This time accompanied by a lunge of that golden crowbar of hers that bore the clear intention of making this one even more powerful than the last one. Certainly as a testament of her abnormal strength this one would go beyond a simple one hit kill.

And yet, that wasn’t all.

Sasha Kreutzev and Saravati Nair already had a history, after all. Hence she knew her opponent’s signature agility. Consequently she understood where she had to compensate.

Right before their presumed contact the red nun quickly tossed one of her rune engraved 33 ton nails at her enemy, but not with the intention of hitting. Based on her past experience she knew that both her wrecking ball strike and any projectile she could ever toss would likely miss the little bird. Therefore, her actual target was something else: The ground behind her.

Expecting the girl’s coming evasion, Sasha would trigger the actual spell’s effect upon that foreseen move by uttering the appropriate formula, immediately calling for a multiple metres tall stone wall to rapidly sprout from the ground and cut her prey’s area of escape, highly intent on following this combination up with another lethal crowbar smash.

Of course Shirai would throw overboard all protocols and their underlying reason to jump into the frenzy, intent on saving the innocent civilians. Of course she would and that was where Furuhashi Gou would have to give in to the demands of the reckless rebel who’d pull him along. Of course things had to go like…

Hold on, what did she just say?

«Ye-yeah! We…uuuh…can’t jump in without support! You’re right, Shirai-san!»

Entirely at loss of words the grey haired boy’s recovery turned out as clumsy as it could get. However, before things could become even more shameless, a stranger’s voice cut in.

«That’s disappointing. Two suspicious figures on the roof, I thought I may have found the cause of this riot quickly, but it looks like the two of you are just Judgment. What's the matter, hiding out on the roof instead of helping the people getting injured on the ground, not very heroic of you. So this is the reason I'm stuck dealing with this.»

«Clearly, you lack understanding of this situation. We are not hiding. We are first assessing the situation and in pursuit of our duty as Anti-Skill’s helping hand by providing them with the right intel necessary to resolve this situation.»

He had already been prepared for a fight, even if he had had no intention of winning. Now with the snarky glasses girl in sight he could at least use this as a chance to unwind. But not only to unwind.

«Besides, I am pretty certain this rooftop has a no trespassing policy. And, given these actions, you are the true suspicious figure!»

That boy also had a duty to pursue.

As the arrow was cut mid-flight Atsa head would quickly turned towards the source of the new voice while his arms simultaneously nocked another arrow and aimed it at his new opponent. Instead of firing though his eyes would study the blonde haired magician, overall he didn't seem to match the usually extravagant appearance other magicians had. In fact, the only reasons that Atsa was certain his new opponent was a magician instead of an esper was the sword he had just used to cut the arrow and his association with the red nun that had just run off to fight Sara.

"Well I'm all for avoiding hassle but I still have a job to do and I'd probably have to deal with even more hassle if I tried to skip out on it. We both clearly aren't in the mood for this though so why don't we just call it off for the day? I'll grab my friend, you grab your red nun, and then we'll go our separate ways? Easy way to avoid all this hassle, right?"

It was still possible that the blonde hair magician and red nun worked for their target but given Sara's seeming familiarity with the nun that kind of seemed unlikely at this point. Furthermore, even if they happened to be working for their target it was far easier to spy on them later then fighting them now and trying to forcible extract information. A peaceful solution was definitely the least energy consuming path to take so thats the one Atsa would pursue. With that in mind he'd slowly release his pull on the bow string and unnock the arrow in an attempt to show his opponent he was willing to avoid the fight.

Unfortunately, it seemed his opponent had suddenly decided the hassle of it all was worth it. The moment Atsa saw the blonde hair magician raising his hand for another swing he'd grab at his First Man mask and begin pulling it over his head again. The mask would reach past his earring activating the spell just in time from being bisected by the sword's swing. At the same time though the swing of sword would still cut through the air creating a wind current that Atsa had no way of avoiding. In his current state, he had the same mass as the air so the wind easily knocked him off his feet and would send him flying. The next thing Atsa knew he was suspended in the air completely at the mercy of the wind and to high up to simply undo the spell. He wanted to be solid again but not so much that he'd risk free falling to his death. Fortunately, a strong breeze would soon carry the Navajo magician through an open dorm window.

For the occupants of the dorm, what followed was a strong breeze blowing into their window followed by a foreigner holding a bow in one hand and a mask in the other spontaneously appearing a meter in the air and immediately falling on to his back. The intruder would quickly get to his feet before looking around the room before an awkward smile would spread across his face.

"Hi there! Sorry about the intrusion, it seems I hopped on the wrong wind current. I won't take up anymore of your time though, have a good day and stay safe!"

With that said Atsa would quickly run over to the window to check where he was before climbing out of it and beginning a downward descend towards the ground again. He needed to make his way back to the fight before Sara ended up having to deal with the red nun and the magic sword wielding blonde.

As much as Furuhashi Gou was shocked by Kuroko finally adhering to protocol for once in her life, It was obvious that this situation was not one that was conducive to her usual methodology of jumping into the fray in an instant. Frenzies like the one she was witnessing were not the best place for a teleporter like her to jump into since it would put her and more civilians at risk.

Granted, if she could find or create a good open space, that would be another story entirely. But from the looks of the chaos unfolding, neither option seemed feasible at the moment.

There had to be a cause to all of this, but there was no guarantee that things would calm down even if she found the cause and shut it down.

But before she could ponder any further down that route, the voice of a new interloper caught her attention.

“As stilted as his speech is, he’s right. Who are you and what are you doing here?” Her hands dropped by her sides, her muscles loosening as her fingers remained less than an inch away from the pins she had strapped to her leg.

“You’re intervening on a criminal investigation and an incident for the authorities to handle. Speak now or we will take you in for questioning even if it’s by force.”

There was no guarantee that this person was even involved. If she was, she was likely here to check on something. If not, she was likely just a curious idiot. But she couldn’t take any chances. She needed to ascertain the new entry’s position as soon as possible.

---

“You’re letting your mind be too stiff Sasha!”

As Sasha had expected, Sara had quickly evaded. But just as Sasha knew a decent chunk of Sara’s bag of tricks, so to did Sara know Sasha’s.

That nail is not the attack itself. It’s either a feint or a trigger.

Rather than taking any chances, the girl had jumped up to make her evasion.

“Cooperation is far more fruitful than trying to take each other out. So let’s lay down arms for a bit and figure things out, no? It’s been nonstop chaos the whole time so I’m sure your mind is flexible enough to think this through and you’re sensible enough to agree.”

Even as she was attempting to dodge the onslaught, Sara continued to try and talk down Sasha. Appeal to her sense of logos.

Rather than landing on the roof of the building she had jumped from though, she aimed to glide down the side of the building until she could find a spot to jump into or jump off of.

Even if she didn’t like it, she needed to work on the Plan B that was encircling and caging Sasha if Plan A (Basic Conversation) failed to work.

«Clearly, you lack understanding of this situation. We are not hiding. We are first assessing the situation and in pursuit of our duty as Anti-Skill’s helping hand by providing them with the right intel necessary to resolve this situation. Besides, I am pretty certain this rooftop has a no trespassing policy. And, given these actions, you are the true suspicious figure!»

“As stilted as his speech is, he’s right. Who are you and what are you doing here? You’re intervening on a criminal investigation and an incident for the authorities to handle. Speak now or we will take you in for questioning even if it’s by force.”

The pair in front of Chiyo certainly seemed aggressive. Especially for judgement. That was fine by her though, If they wanted a fight she'd gladly give it to them. Originally she had planned to send a Mio down to the ground to investigate, but the moment she had realized the two people on the roof were judgment she had been anticipating something like this. So instead of heading to the ground, she'd had Mio head into the testing area of the lab and get into the deprivation chamber there. With her in place, she could really go all out.

"Who am I? NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!! And what am I doing her here? APPARENTLY I'm cleaning up the mess that you both decided to just sit back and watch unfold!!"

With that, Chiyo started taking steps towards the boy that had spoken out to her first. Being a student in the school garden, Chiyo was well aware that the Tokiwadai uniform worn by the girl meant she could be trouble. She didn't know what kind of ability she had, but best not to provoke her up close before finding out. That meant her first target would be disabling the boy. As she continued her approach, suddenly the boy would feel a set of arms grab him from behind as a girl shockingly similar in appearance to Chiyo appeared behind him. Chiyo yelled at that boy as she raised her arm to deliver a punch.

"Take a nap on the ground and I'll deal with this all myself you useless drone!!"

For only a moment Furuhashi Gou was startled by the sudden sensation of arms wrapping around his body. But the very moment he came to understand that he had been grabbed, the outcome of this situation had been set.

Yes, of all things they shouldn’t have approached it like this.

This had not been his first run-in with this extremely basic street fighting move, after all. As such they not only had lost the impact of their surprise reveal that there was another enemy, but their hope to bring the tall boy down swiftly.

Using the advantage his size, mass, and general physical strength gave him over the middle school girl attempting to hold him down, he’d twist his body with perfect timing to swing the vicious grabber into the attack path of the punch, rooting to deflect the girl’s attempted quick k.o. onto her companion.

«Now you’ve done it! Resistance to city authority! You’ll be put under arrest!»

If not successful or building on his swinging counter, Furuhashi would then attempt to cause himself to fall onto his back, or rather onto the assailant still holding him, once more relying on his overall physical advantage.

Even though his mind was clouded by this strange headache, Jack had not yet lost his connection to reality. Hence, when he saw his enemy scale down the front of the building he’d been launched into out in the open, disbelief was added to his emotional palette of blinded anger.

«You’re kidding me??? You’re supposed to be a pro Magician???»

Not that it’d stop him in any way. Not that anything could right now.

Thus, once more he would swing his sword borne from all kinds of debris.

Once more the invisible strike that’d cut anything in its path came for its very first target.

His target being the reckless free climber.


«Clarification Number 2: There is nothing to discuss anymore. You are intruders. As such you will face execution.»

Plan A had long since ceased to be an option. In fact, given the circumstances it never had been one.

Neither in case of Sara, nor Sasha, who would relentlessly chase after the little bird, even as she jumped down the building’s roof. Jumping just as carelessly, Sasha would transform into a living projectile dedicated to chase after her prey. And, much like before, she would toss a couple of nails after her target, not aiming for a hit but to sprout more stone walls that’d become a hindrance for the other girl’s path down instead. Like this, the sprouting walls would serve as multiple powerful hammers intended to knock the girl in and out of the air, whilst Sasha herself would remain the lethal torpedo she was and tear right through them, launching shrapnel to deal additional collateral damage in the process.


Albeit everyone was busy with their own fighting, the problem at hand wasn’t bound to take a break either. As a matter of fact, things were getting worse. In the first place, this had not been an ordinary riot, but people from all around falling into a violent frenzy where all of a sudden they began to throw their fists at anyone they hadn’t taken a liking to, while becoming overly protective of those they held dear.

And what the outcome of it was, could only be best described as fatal.

A random group of Level 0s had ferociously attacked a middle school girl that had an Esper ability barely useful for combat, beating her with makeshift clubs they had made from a cafe’s furniture.

An Esper who could control flames had engaged in battle with one who commanded electricity. Both flinging fireballs and lightning balls about as though they were puny toys, not minding any collateral.

Elsewhere a frustrated child in a classic school boy uniform capable of triggering explosions based on combining microwave radiation with liquids had begun to randomly combust any source of water he’d find, such as drink bottles, glasses, whatsoever, throwing dangerous shrapnel about in any direction.

Still, these were only a few instances. Not all.

Was climbing down the building a good idea? Not at all, there were so many other more reasonable solutions to the problem and yet Atsa had decided to go with potentially one of the worst options. One of the most obvious being just using the dorm's front door and finding the stairs but after being thrown through the air and flying through a dorm window he hadn't exactly been thinking straight. At the very least he had considered simply reactivating his air form spell and floating down but given how the wind had sent him through the window he didn't want to leave himself to it's mercy again. While it had saved him from the first sword slash there was no guarantee the next breeze wouldn't send him sailing out of Academy City all together.

Even still Atsa was wondering whether the random chances of the wind was far better than his current plan as he descent down the building by taking advantage of the guard rails and windows stools to maneuvering himself from one dorm balcony to another. He wasn't too far from the ground so it wouldn't be too long before he reached the ground and once he did he'd be able to head back to try to help Sara. Since he had been tossed away by the blonde haired magician's attack he imagined he was probably going after her now and while he trusted in her teammate's skills a two on one match with those two didn't seem like it would end well.

With that in mind Atsa felt both relief and immense terror when he turned to look back at the battlefield only to notice his opponent had already spotted him. Once again, his regret about choosing not to use the stairs filled him but there was no time to dwell on that now since they were probably about to unleash that attack of theirs again. Atsa wasn't entirely sure how the ability work, after all he had only seen it once twice and during one of them he had been the intended target. At the very least it seemed to be a cutting ability and it required the user to swing the blade at the target to initiate it.

Given his current position on the balconies of the building the Navajo magician could think of only one solution and quickly swung from the rail he was currently on to throw himself on to the balcony below before throwing the sliding door of the balcony open and attempting to dive for cover before Jack managed to swing his blade. Atsa truly wasn't sure how the spell worked but he was fairly certain it had to be aimed so if he was inside he would at least benefit from the fact his opponent couldn't see him.

At this point, it was completely clear to Sara. Attempting to reason with Sasha was like running into a solid wall, much like the wall she had been sliding down towards that had just popped up.

Sara knew first hand just how dangerous Sasha was. That was why she could not afford to play around. Even when she had been trying to talk some sense into Sasha, she had been fighting at her utmost against the girl who had seen her doing so before.

While gliding down into what was Sasha’s next attack, she pulled out one of the many knives in her arsenal. In her next instant, she jumped off the wall she was sliding down.

I just need to knock her out.

The girl exhibited ragged breaths as her feet separated from the surface they had just been sliding down.

Once she’s not in the heat of the moment, I can get through to her. But first…

She would jump slow down as she landed onto the wall and jump back up into the air using the stone wall as a new platform. If Sasha was careening towards her, she would meet speed with speed and drive the knife handle straight into the red nun’s solar plexus.

Admittedly, it was a plan far flashier than she had expected, but what could one expect of an idea formed in the heat of the moment?

---

Does she know the source of this?

Shirai Kuroko should have attempted to speak further on this and question the new girl. That was the most optimal strategy. However, Shirai Kuroko was hardly a negotiator or a savant with words. What she was known for in Judgement first and foremost was—

Dammit! Why can’t she just calmly explain things like a normal person?!

The hypocritical hot-blooded girl who was infamous for jumping into the fray quickly worked to help Gou, quickly noting the new entry that had turned this from a two-on-one into an even fight.

But rather than charging in and letting Gou’s attempt to route the two enemies into each other be interrupted, she instead focused on making sure that the attack would succeed.

With a quick motion from both hands to the numerous pins wrapped to her legs, she teleported four into each shoe of the girl they had been talking to, in an attempt to keep her pinned down and startled for long enough to take the punch.

Unfortunately for Chiyo, the boy she had attempted to get the drop on by coming from behind seemed to be ready for such a maneuver. Grabbing onto Mio, the boy twisted her, flinging her around to the other side of him and directly into the path of Chiyo's punch. Suddenly, Chiyo realized that she was also unable to move her feet. To continue the unfortunate series of events, her punch landed, smacking Mio directly in the face and knocking her to the ground while at the same time, her momentum from the punch and the fact that she could not adjust her footing caused Chiyo to fall to the ground next to her.

«Now you’ve done it! Resistance to city authority! You’ll be put under arrest!»

This comment from the boy was then followed by him dropping his full body weight on top of Mio, resulting in a loud "AACK" from the girl. To say the pair had handily lost that initial attack would be an accurate assessment. As Chiyo lay on the ground, she looked back at her feet to see the spikes pinning her shoes to the ground. Glancing over at the girl, she could now see a number of pins just like the ones in her shoes strapped to the girl's leg. Had she shot them in? Teleported them maybe? As she lay on the ground, Chiyo took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down and consider her situation. The boy was stronger than her, and hadn't even displayed his ability yet, whatever it was. The girl also seems like a competent esper, whether she'd launched the spikes or teleported them, her accuracy was to the point she somehow also didn't hit her feet at all. A fighter good enough to stop her surprise attacks and a teleporter? capable of pin point accuracy didn't seem like a fight she could win, at least not quickly.

Dismissing and reactivating her ability, Mio then disappeared from underneath the boy and reappeared standing behind Chiyo. Then doing the same thing, her removed the version of herself pinned to the ground and remade her next to Mio. With the pair standing side by side, it was easy to see they were identical, even the name tag on both of their lab coats read Chiyo. It would also be clear to see that the injure suffered from the punch to the face was not there on either of them. Chiyo then took another deep breath and seems to calm down.

"I'm sorry I attacked you on sight, you caught me in a real bad mood, but I think I've calmed down now. If you still intend to arrest me, we can continue this fight and I'll kick your ass, but that'd take time, effort, and I can assure you that you have no chance of winning. So, I say how about we work together and figure out what is causing this riot."

Honestly, the thought of working with Judgement on anything was not pleasant. However, if it meant completing the task she'd been given faster, she'd put up with it for now.

«Whaaaaat???? That’s all you come up with????» Flabbergasted rage best described the emotion radiating from Jack the moment his enemy attempted to flee into the building. In fact, it may have been the one felt by any onlooker. However, while emotions were one aspect of human being, they were best to be given a secondary role in battle. Instead, what mattered was icecold will. The will to attack. Thus, he’d prepare another swing. Yet not without resisting that ungodly urge to express his disdain: «That’s not gonna take you anywhere!!! Why do you make it this hard on yourse–––»

BOOOOOOOOOOOM

Distraction by a mixture of rage and confusion that had long since left his understanding, Jack Nightingale had become so wide open that had had little chance to evade the explosion of golden light that hit him at point blank range, launching him dozens of metres across the streets.

«Yeah, they’re kidding. If not, I just cannot see how they keep getting caught up with small fry fuzz like this for no reason at all», the young lady spat out in great annoyance as her polished pumps landed on the rubble of the crater the explosion had left behind. Blonde hair, blue eyes, and clad in a white dress with black stockings, the group’s saviour revealed herself to be Leivinia Birdway. Albeit small, the girl had another blonde tucked under her armpit, while waving around a wooden red want she held in her other hand.

Entirely driven by the cold killing intent every fibre of her being radiated, Sasha Kreutzev would charge at her prey flying through the air. This way she may not have the manouvreability to change her trajectory even slightly, but at the same time it’d allow her to pierce any and all defense in her path. An attack her opponent would greet one of similar nature.

What mattered now was whose would succeed? Graceful speed versus unstoppable force.

BOOOOOOOOOOOM

Another golden explosion tore any speculation on that outcome apart by becoming the wall between the two fighters, instead throwing them into their respective corners of the battlefield; either the sky or the ground.

«Idling by in face of the world’s end. That’s the witch hunters of Necessarius for you, huh?» But their defeat wouldn't end without another kick by the clear victor.

With nothing more than a soft thud, Furuhashi Gou’s back hid the concrete ground. And while he attempted to process the sudden change, a glance to the side revealed that the girl he’d fought with had repositioned herself a bit way. Moments later, the other had done the same. However, what was most intriguing was the fact that they both were entirely unscathed. In fact, their physical state was fundamentally identical.

«I’m sorry I attacked you on sight, you caught me in a real bad mood, but I think I've calmed down now. If you still intend to arrest me, we can continue this fight and I'll kick your ass, but that'd take time, effort, and I can assure you that you have no chance of winning. So, I say how about we work together and figure out what is causing this riot.»

Grunting, the grey haired buy returned to his legs, stretching his arms when he finally stood. Clearly, that speech had only contributed to his personal annoyance over smoothing any of the tides they had caused. «What makes you think any of that? First of all, you openly showed your ability like this, while all we did was play around a little. Secondly, we are Judgement, the officials meant to deal with this, not you. If anything at all, we allow you to team up with us, in case we assume that your safety as a civillian might not be endangered. However, where is any reason for that? All I see, is a civillian recklessly engaging into combat with two trained veterans, making amateur mistakes over and over», he spoke under a strongly forced facade of seriousness. An act to seem as frightening as possible he would escalate maybe a tad too much. «I got you figured out. Now what stops me from simply throwing the two of you off the roof?»

It was then that the facade of the department store that had become the epicentre of all the conflict tore open, followed by a young girl’s desperate cry for: «HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!!!!»

«Fine, let’s get going…»

Even if he didn’t want to admit it Jack Nightingale had a point. Atsa was supposed to be an agent of Necessarius, a professional, and yet he was just barely surviving this fight by the skin of his teeth. Not only that but it wasn’t like he was putting up any kind of fight of his own either, he hadn’t landed or even attempted a single real strike against Jack. Meanwhile his opponent had just barely missed dealing him a fatal wound multiple times now. It was actually just kind of embarrassing at this point, he had once hunted down an entire cabal himself and now here he was not even able to stand his own ground against a single magician. He was cowering behind a dorm wall for Pete’s sake! What the hell was he thinking?! Was he really so out of practice that he couldn’t think of a better strategy than hiding behind walls that might as well be made of paper given his opponents power.

As such when he heard an explosion go off behind him, he anticipated that his death was going to arrive shortly after and yet it never came. No even so much as a scratch. Had he been killed so quickly that he hadn’t even felt it? That couldn’t be it, after all when he reopened his eyes he still found himself in the same dorm he had jumped into. There was no way some random student’s dorm was the afterlife, well at least he hoped he didn’t Just to be sure he’d quickly touch his face, then his arms, chest, and lastly his legs. Yup, every part of him was still there and still very solid.

"Hahahaha! You missed ya blond haired sword freak!"

Probably not the best thing to be saying considering Jack had Atsa on the ropes throughout the whole fight but if he was going to die soon he wanted to get a few jabs in. It was at this moment he made two more realizations; one he was really going to work on his insult game and two if the dorm wasn’t destroyed what had created that explosion. It didn’t seem like Jack would’ve just missed the target on his own and even if he did Atsa imagined he would’ve sent another attack by now. Well there was really only one real way to find out, to check it out himself. He’d walk back out on to the balcony staying low and just peaking his head over the edge just enough to see what was going on. At least he did until he saw Birdway, a crater where Jack used to be, and Jack now on the other side of the street.

"Birdway! You’re alive! Well I guess I should’ve expected that… Anyways, thanks for the back up!"