[SS] District 15: Encounter

"I got her. Now she..." but Chisa couldn't end her sentence and gasped, as she saw how the other small girl still stood on her feet after her electric attack. "No way. She should..." The red nun dashed in Chisas direction. The little girl wanted to prepare herself, but her oppenent suddenly stopped and grabbed her phone. She blinked with a confused expression. What? This sound... She pulled out the nails and hit the ground with her bare fist. She wanted to escape? "No, wait, you...!" The ground shattered and it felt like an earthquake for a moment.  She couldn't see anything because of the dust... And the culprit vanished. Chisa clenched her teeth fo a moment, but then she looked to the guy she just met before the Judgement office. She seemed a bit worried and walked up to him. "Are you all right, Furuhashi-san? She got you good." Chisa said calmly and tried it with a reassuring smile.

So it was over? Gou started to relax his body a little while staring into the distance. The enemies had escaped, both of them, taking a possibly innocent person with them. Just like that Judgement was beaten without any need to get serious. The boy couldn’t even believe what he had seen, however he felt relieved that he was still alive. Fear had disappeared. That frightening enemy had left the scene and so there was nothing more to worry about. At least for the next few seconds.
He took a deep breath and a another one, just to release all the stored air, as if he was trying to refresh power. Feeling the sharp pain emitted by his stomach the tall boy did suffer. Another hit like that would have brought him to his knees, that was for sure. As he was holding the hurting area, the other blonde girl, his new colleague approached him, presenting some worried words. ”It’s alright. Don’t worry.” As cold as usual the grey haired boy presented himself, trying to build up his best poker face, in order to prevent anyone from facing his weakness. He was weak at this moment, very weak.
”But thank you…”, he spoke out faintly, blushing slightly. It wasn’t usual for him to be met with such worry, as well as it was unusual for him to reply to words like that. He wasn’t used to interact with people in such a way, so it was an obvious consequence. Lowering his shoulders and upper body, he cleared his mind for the next few moments. It was alright. It was over after all. Now there was enough time to take a short break, wasn’t it? Relaxing, recovering just the usual things one had to do after work was done.

No, there was still something to do. Work wasn’t done yet.

Just when he was about to give in to the temptation a short break could offer, his started to look around. The ground was torn apart, rubble was to be seen everywhere, streetlamps were broken from the outside as well as from the inside. Even some shops may have taken damage from the tremor just now. Even some danger to the underground systems like hidden cables and canals seemed possible in Furuhashi’s eyes, who was actually an expert about such events, having a power that could perform things similar to that.
Right after noticing the situation they were in, the boy turned towards the Tokiwadai girl, Fuyuki Chisa. ”Seems like there is a lot left for us to handle, huh?” Not sounding disappointed in the slightest, Furuhashi already prepared a check list of what to do inside of his mind following the exact things mentioned in one of Judgement’s textbooks, which he had studied quite thoroughly. ”It’s only weird that Anti-Skill didn’t show up so far…”, he mumbled while analysing the damages he could observe from his current position. To him it really seemed like the report about today’s events would become rather long, great. For a workaholic like him there was nothing better than such a situation, wasn’t there? Excitement couldn’t be hidden anymore, his body was shaking, aching for some office action!
”Fuyuki-san? Now that there is so much stuff to handle: Do you have any preferences?”

Splitting up all of the work was fine; however, Gou didn’t want her to take any of the exciting stuff, like writing the report on the damages. He only wanted to sound friendly on their first meeting, nothing else. Actually that was even another rule set up by Judgement, if he remembered correctly? Or was that written into another textbook?
Looking over the whole scene once again, finally some thoughts crossed the boy’s mind. Who were these people? What was their goal? They left him without an answer. Further investigation would follow, that was for sure. Even if no answer would be found, Furuhashi Gou wouldn’t back down. This was for justice after all. Also some more training wouldn’t be wrong, would it? That fight – no matter how short it was – had given him enough to work on. Next time he’d be a better opponent.

Before these thoughts would proceed into another direction, he decided to step forward, getting back to work…

"A demand? It seemed like a perfectly reasonable question to me."
"You went through the trouble of having me brought here, so you must have some business with me. I just wanted get straight to the point. Formalities have no point, after all."
"Rest assured, I am well aware of the tension between the two sides. I have no intention of doing anything to tip that balance. A war would be a huge pain, after all. Plus, tons of interesting people and things would be wiped off the face of the earth."
"Anything that could potentially cause such a result would have to be crushed preemptively."

The floating figure of Crowley seemed content with that answer. It may have been simply a figment of Jack's imagination but he could have sworn he saw the vaguest hint of satisfaction on Crowley's androgynous features. Such a thought was enough to chill his blood. Anyone caught in the web of Academy City's master was unlikely to escape unchanged.

He certainly wouldn't be the first spy that Crowley had manipulated to his own agenda.

"It might interest your employers to know that a man by the name of Milo Lorelei is now hiding somewhere in this city. As a matter of fact I believe he has something of theirs that they might want back. I wonder what that sort of individual might be doing in the city of Espers? Certainly something which should not be left unchecked. I'm sure you would agree?"

Crowley's words insinuated his intent. Find the rogue element, Milo Lorelei and if necessary eliminate him. Was Jack's role simply to remove a thorn in Aleister Crowley's side? In a way it was demeaning to be used for such petty actions. And yet when it came to the "Wickedest Man Alive" there was a sense that no action was petty. That it all had some greater meaning. And who could say for certain just what his plans for the man known as Jack Nightingale entailed.

"I trust you have seen enough?" Crowley spoke again. "Of this building, I mean." Jack's searching gaze had not been overlooked. "Those employers of yours would likely kill for the secrets contained within these walls. However I am afraid they would find its contents far from enlightening even if they were to experience them for themselves. Such blinkered minds have a way of ignoring the truth that is right in front of their eyes. You may tell them what you wish. It matters not."

Awaki's hand rested on Jack's shoulder, readying him for the 'journey' outside.

Having finished saying his piece, Jack stopped and waited for a response from Aleister. What he got was completely unexpected, and it sent a chill down his spine. What he saw on Aleister's face, though it only appeared for an instant, if that, was something that might be taken as satisfaction. "It might interest your employers to know that a man by the name of Milo Lorelei is now hiding somewhere in this city. As a matter of fact I believe he has something of theirs that they might want back. I wonder what that sort of individual might be doing in the city of Espers? Certainly something which should not be left unchecked. I'm sure you would agree?" said Aleister. It seemed that they had moved on to another topic.

"Milo Lorelei?" thought Jack. It wasn't a name he'd heard before. That didn't really matter though. What mattered was what Aleister insinuated with those words. "So basically, I, an intruder, am being hired to track down another intruder? Interesting. At first glance, it looks like I'm just being hired to take down an annoyance, but he has that red nun. Which means that either she's a bad match for this Milo guy, or he has some other reason." He almost smirked at the thought of what the other reason could be. Having finished his internal monologue, Jack said, in a half-sarcastic tone of voice, "Yeah, who knows what could happen if someone like that is left unchecked? I'll have to pay him a visit sometime."

"I trust you have seen enough?" said Aleister, changing the topic once again. "Of this building, I mean." Jack had, of course, been glancing around the room this entire time. He was in the Windowless Building, after all. Even if he couldn't explore it, given the circumstances, he was going to leave with an eye-full at the very least. "Those employers of yours would likely kill for the secrets contained within these walls. However I am afraid they would find its contents far from enlightening even if they were to experience them for themselves. Such blinkered minds have a way of ignoring the truth that is right in front of their eyes. You may tell them what you wish. It matters not." "I probably won't bother." replied Jack. "Even if I told them I'd made it in here, they'd probably just get suspicious and start thinking that I was lying to them or something. I've only been here for about an hour, after all." There was not another reply from Aleister. It seemed that he had said all he was going to say, and the skimpy-clothing girl rested her hand on his shoulder. That was the last he saw of the Windowless Building that day.