Too Cool for School

Mamoru leapt over the steps and landed hard on the floor below without a second thought. His leg twisted on the landing and a sharp pain cut into his ankle. With gritted teeth he turned back only to see icy spears piercing the window. Some glass flew to his feet, and he took a few steps back. The hallway began to frost over, and before he could reach the nearest door, it was frozen shut.

“A shame,” A woman’s voice spoke cooly from the window. Mamoru pulled his sword free. “Now that you haven’t died quickly, my whole schedule will be ruined.”

The woman sat in the broken window with one leg crossed over the other. Raven’s black hair hung down past her feet tucked into high heels, and she wore a solid white dress uniform. She glared at him with crystal blue eyes, then hurriedly pulled a notebook from under her uniform. “Ah, my next meeting was in fifteen minutes too, give me a minute to change this.” She produced a phone next and began to swipe.

What a horrid woman. Let’s cut her real short!

“Mamoru!” Mirai’s voice came from a frozen over TV. Her form was distorted under the ice. She vanished from the TV and started talking from Mamoru’s pocket.

“She’s an Upper Manager, Yuto is already on the way, just run for now!”

“How?” Mamoru cut himself off and started to run. There was no time to talk.

“Toshio was watching through the security camera’s when she came on site. I didn’t expect her to move so fast though.”

Wait, don’t run that way, she’s looking at us! Hikari shouted in his mind. He didn’t have time to question where the ghost girl was looking and jumped back. Icy spears shot from the ground into the ceiling.

The woman at the window shook her head. She swiped on her phone a few more times before tapping the screen with her thumb.

“I’ve cancelled all my meetings for today; you have my full attention.” She dropped from the window and landed in the stairwell. The woman’s heels clicked on the floor, and she brushed her hair back behind her head. It hung to her calves.

She looks like an overgrown hedge! How stupid.

Mamoru held his sword ready. The woman tilted her head. He swung and the blast of wind made her hair go everywhere, but she never budged.

“When I heard Sato-san lost a fight, I was expecting something more impressive. It seems our decision to demote him should have been much more… harsh.”

Mamoru swung his blade again and another blast of wind only accomplished messing up the woman’s hair.

That didn’t work the first time!

“Shut up!”

His opponent raised an eyebrow.

“No respect either, this generation must truly be doomed.”

An icy blast surged from her hand, and hit Mamoru’s elbow as he ducked to the side. He screamed as the ice burned his joint.

Mamoru, come up with a visualization like when you swing your sword for the wind. Something fiery. Mamoru pictured himself doing a downward strike.

Got it!

It was hard to make the move with his elbow frozen, but Mamoru swing his sword downward and the blade erupted in flame.

“Oh my,” Mirai shouted.

The woman’s blue eyes grew wide.

“I see you have some tricks. Did you even chant anything?”

Mamoru ignored his opponent and held the blade close to his elbow. The ice quickly began to melt but the joint still hurt. He glared at the woman and took a ready stance. If things worked as he expected, he should be able to combine his two tricks.

With a swing of his sword a fiery burst shot from the blade at the woman. A thick ice wall appeared before it hit her. She glared at him through the hole melted into the wall and clicked her tongue.

“Mamoru, how advanced in magic are you?” Mirai said in shock. Her virtual head had popped out of his pocket to witness the action.

“Was that impressive?”

It was a rather basic maneuver in my time, just a mix of complementary elements, but must not be common in the modern age.

There wasn’t time to discuss further, the opponent waved her hands and icy wolves emerged from the frozen hallway floor. They snarled at Mamoru from all sides.

The first that to attack came from behind. Using a burst of wind, he spun round and sliced it clean in two with the fiery sword. The rest came at once, all lunging at different angles, he swiped, and spun combining wind and fire through the air and pushing his body to cut down each in short order.

Half melted ice wolf bodies suddenly began to move to one another and reform back into distorted amalgamations of their canine forms. Mamoru cursed and lobbed another fire burst at the woman. Another ice wall blocked it, but he didn’t stick around to see the aftermath. He rushed down the hall as fast as the slippery floor would let him. An ice wolf made a twisted howl and sounds of their feet filled everything behind them.

“How do we kill these things?” he shouted.

“I don’t think you can, they are powered by the caster,” Mirai shouted back.

This ice magic is rather advanced, I’d say she ate a yuki-onna to be using these abilities. You probably need the witch.

Mamoru didn’t reply, but he was sure Hikari got his thoughts. He didn’t want to drag Yamiko into this fight. It was bad enough that the school was dragged into it. It was strange that there wasn’t much reaction though.

“What’s going on with the rest of the school?”

“Toshio is telling me that no one in the classrooms is aware of what is happening out of them, she must have a set up a whole field over the school, which means we are dealing with a powerful yokai ability.”

“A yuki-onna.”

“That’s not good if that’s true, but I don’t have a better guess. Let me go find Yamiko, maybe we can get her to do like she did to the Middle Manager.”

“We can take care of this woman ourselves!”

No reply came, Mamoru assumed Mirai was already off. He grunted and shook his head. Even if she found Yamiko, the field was would probably prevent her from jumping in.

A wolf snapped at his leg, and he swung his sword behind for a fiery wave. Stopping and spinning around, Mamoru saw he melted most of the ice off the floor. The remaining ice monstrosities stood at the other side and growled at him.

He assumed they needed to be connected to the ice, which was how she could control them from a distance. It made sense, at least. He shot another fire burst into a wolf in the center and left only ice paws behind. They growled and fanned to the walls where ice still covered. It was if gravity shifted for the monsters as the wall became their floor and they burst across.

Mamoru jumped back before sharp jaws snapped shut on both sides. He melted a few more whole and cut apart the others. Before they could reform, he washed them in flames. His breath was heavy and he stabbed the blade onto the ground to use it as support.

You’re overworking yourself; you need to take a breather.

“Tell that. Tell that to the crazy ice woman.”

Mirai’s voice rang out from his pocket. “Mamoru, good news, Yamiko was already in the hallway when she setup the field. She’s headed this way now.”

Good thing the witch is a delinquent who was cutting class.

Mamoru shook his head. He melted the ice on the walls and ceiling just in case more wolves were coming, and leaned up against a chilly locker.

Mamoru! Something is not right. Something is coming! Hikari’s ghostly form hovered just in front of his face, and for the first time he saw an expression completely overtaken by dread. It’s not the ice woman. It’s something else.