Chapter 15

“So, you swear she just slept in the same bed? Nothing else happened?” Marie said as she sat next to me.

Even here, in the middle of public, she was still pestering me about what had happened last night. I had thought that taking everyone shopping in order to get our new guests the supplies they needed, such as clothes, would bring some peace of mind to us, but unfortunately Marie does not forgive easily. She never once left my side and didn’t let me stay alone with Tsuki at any point. We were both currently sitting on a bench outside a clothes store that was in a mall attached to one of the train stations. We were waiting for both Tsuki and Ichiro to get back. Ichiro insisted he was fine with just the one outfit he had, but both Tsuki and I had forced him to get a few new clothes.

“Why aren’t you answering me? Do you admit guilt?” Marie glared at me.

I let out a deep sigh and rubbed my eyes. “I explained everything to you. What do I need to do for you to believe me?”

She paused and sat in silence for a moment before answering. “There’s a special edition of the Silver Bullet manga you can buy for me.”

“You read Silver Bullet?! I love that!” An energetic, upbeat, and high-pitched voice shrilled out.

The voice was, of course, coming from the pink-haired she-demon that we took into our company after finding her in the Secular compound, also known as Tsuki. She came out of the store wearing her new clothes and carrying several bags with her. Her new wardrobe was pretty much what I expected from her. She had a red low-cut v-neck T-shirt, a pink choker with studs, and a pair of denim hot pants with a belt that matched her choker. Her right arm had a long, pink and white striped fingerless glove that went up to just below her shoulder, and her left leg had a similarly striped thigh high. Marie stared at her, her face motionless and expressionless. Yet, I could tell what she was thinking. Her mind was conflicted, debating with herself whether to acknowledge that Tsuki, her rival and her currently most disliked person, also enjoyed her favourite piece of media or to ignore it and insult her fashion choices that were the opposite of hers. Then, she finally spoke.

“You know of Silver Bullet? I thought you were held captive your entire life.” Marie said, her eyes betraying no emotion.

“Oh, yea, I can’t really answer that, I just know that I like that series. Didn’t the author disappear for like thirty years or something, though? Did she come back?” Tsuki said, not really giving a serious answer.

“She started up again recently, yes.” Marie then looked over at me, slowly blinking her eyes, before turning back to Tsuki. “Tsuki, I will forgive you for now. But no more sleeping in the same bed as Ryu.” She then stood up, took Tsuki’s bags, handed them to me, and grabbed her hand. “Come, we are going to the manga store.”

I stared at her in bewilderment as she hooked her arm with Tsuki’s and the two walked off together, Tsuki squealing in content. Then shortly after, Ichiro came out of the store, carrying no bags and wearing the exact same clothes as he always did.

“Where are those two headed?”

“Manga store. Also, weren’t you supposed to get new clothes?”

“What do you mean? I did." 

“Oh."

"And I thought they hated each other. I’ll never understand women.”

"Same here.”

“You might want to call them back, though.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why’s that?”

“Because there are a few Secular agents roaming around here. Pretty sure they followed us.” Ichiro said, scratching his ear as if it was a non-issue.

“What? How do you know? Did you see someone you recognize?” I started looking around, searching for people in the usual magi officer attire.

“No, I can sense magic. Don’t you remember how I found you guys? I followed Tsuki’s mana trail.”

“That is quite the talent you-” Suddenly I interrupted myself as I realized something strange. The bustling mall was silent, the stores were empty, and the background noise of chatter vanished. We were alone. “Ichiro, you need to hide.”

“Roger that, but first, I’d like you to try this at some point.” He handed me a parchment with a spell on it.

“This seems overkill, don’t you think?”

“Yes.”

“Alright. I’ll see if I can. Get somewhere safe.”

He nodded and went into one of the vacant stores. I then pressed a finger to my ear, activating the earpiece to talk to Marie. However, all I got in response was static. I muttered an expletive as I conjured my manifestation, preparing for an ambush. I crept behind the door to one of the stores, peering out as I swept the area for any mages. But then the ground started to illuminate just like it had back in the compound. The crest formed in its circular shape and shined brightly. I knew this meant only one thing.

“Oh, shit.”

As the light faded, two robed figures stood inside the crest. Apostles. They instantly started marching through the halls of the mall, shooting out spells into each store as they walked by, either incinerating or completely freezing them and destroying everything inside. The spells were of high level magics as the fire was white, and the ice froze the air around it as it sailed into the stores. They marched ever closer to me, but my concern wasn’t that they were going to find me. They were soon going to hit the store Ichiro was hiding in. I took a deep breath and stepped out from behind the door and started to fire my manifestation at them. Orange magic bullets flew through the air and, just like the Apostle at the compound, they easily deflected it. Still, I kept firing at them in hopes to not let them conjure their manifestation. If they had ones similar to the one at the compound, I would be in trouble without Marie to save me this time. As I fired at them, I conjured blue flames in my other hand and launched several fiery orbs at them. One of the Apostles countered with a torrent of water to intercept them in the air, quickly making a cloud of steam and mist, obscuring us from each other.

“Might be able to use this...” I muttered.

I blindly fired my manifestation through the mist as I started to retreat. In my other hand I was forming a lightning spell, specifically a heavily volatile one, unlike the Tesla spell I used before. It wasn’t a particularly high-level spell, but like all lightning magic, it was highly unstable. The lightning was arcing everywhere, zapping anything conductive around me. It zapped my mana shield repeatedly, coiling around my arm like an electric snake. I held the spell waiting for the perfect moment to let it go. Just then, a figure burst through the mist.

“Fool.”

I thrusted my hand forward, the lightning shooting out from it like a railgun, electrifying the mist in the air and arcing to the Apostle, who, having jumped through the mist, was covered in water. The lightning easily arced to him, then continually jumped from each drop of water to his mana shield and back, creating sparks of electricity all over his body. He stood there, the electricity paralyzing him as it continually arced over him. My eyes widened in shock, however, as he then raised his arm trying to conjure a spell. I went to fire my manifestation at him, but then suddenly, his chest erupted with blood. In it, the hilt of what looked to be an ethereal, pink katana was impaled. A manifestation.

“What...?” The Apostle whispered out before collapsing to his knees.