When Mages Meet

Ulrich was looking around Shin's house, checking the walls. Various drunken black brushstrokes across a white background, all in a nice wooden frame, against a crimson wall.

"Hey Dominic, you know what this is?" Ulrich asked, figuring he might know at least something on this.

"Overpriced?" He answered, just as confused as him. "But enough about that, our rooms got set up."

The two went into an old, beige room, with an old Fatal Fantasy 2 poster in it.

"Huh. You like Fatal Fantasy, Shin?" Ulrich questioned.

"Yeah. Pretty good at it in my high school days, too."

"Nice. You getting FF5?"

"Ah, probably not. I don't even have a GameBase3." Shin smiled. "And even then, I barely played four with my teaching job."

"Right. So, who gets the bed?" Ulrich asked.

There was a bed with a light blue blanket on it, and a large black beanbag.

"Dibs." Dominic spat out.

Ulrich let him take the bed, and went to the living room, where Lainey and Sapphire were. Sapphire was looking at the bookshelf, while Lainey was tuning her guitar on the black velvet couch.

"Damn, I really gotta improve my Japanese." Sapphire mumbled.

"Sup Ulrich?" Lainey said, not looking up from her guitar, patting her pocket to make sure her granola bar was still there.

"So, you sleeping here?" Ulrich questioned.

"Yep." Lainey responded. "Apparently Shin's sister hates people being in her room, so we're stuck here."

"You got a blanket?"

"Yeah." Lainey replied, pointing at Sapphire and smirking to herself.

"Not a bad alternative, to be fair." Ulrich replied, smiling. He was going to go to the kitchen to get some food, but then heard the door open.

He peered into the hallway, alongside everyone else, and there was the sister. Jet black hair that went down to her shoulders, minus the two long strands covering her ears. Her clothing was fairly casual, a black shirt with crimson sleeves and a pair of jeans, with a leather shoulder bag.

She said something in Japanese to Shin, seeing all the people in front of her.

"Kon'nichiwa, genkidesuka?" Dominic asked, sounding slightly panicked.

"Um, pretty good?" Ayana responded. "Don't worry, I speak English."

"Oh. That's pretty cool of you." Dominic nodded, not knowing how to respond. Ulrich took a look at his face, and he was blushing pretty hard.

"So, I heard two of you are mages. Which two, exactly?" She demanded, losing the flat tone of her last few statements.

"Me and the black-haired guy." Sapphire replied, matching the slight hostility Ayana was giving.

Ayana approached Ulrich, hands behind her back. She looked him up and down for a few seconds. Ulrich just stood in discomfort at what this girl who barely went up to his shoulders was doing, staring at Dominic as if to ask, 'Is this how Japanese people greet each other?'. Dominic just shrugged. When she was done, she gave herself a sly smile.

"Not bad." She mumbled.

"Woah now, I only called it off with a girl like, a month and a half ago!" Ulrich yelled out. "Also, I'm one quarter German, so uh…we shouldn't do this."

"Relax, sir." Ayana replied, losing the grin and backing away. "Mind if I ask you what your powers are?"

"Oh, I shoot fire from my gloves." Ulrich replied quickly. "And Sapphire here shoots wind. So…you?"

"Oh, Elemental types. Never met any of those before. I'm a blood type myself.”

"Blood type?" Lainey asked, sounding slightly worried.

"Yeah, we're blood mages." Ayana responded coolly. "I take blood samples and use them to enhance myself."

"And I can utilise a type of necromancy." Shin replied, with the type of cheer typical of explaining a promotion he got at work.

"Cool." Dominic said, amazed. "Can we get a sample?"

"Uh, no. The blood I need is either expensive or illegal to get, and Shin here needs a corpse to get his powers to work. So unless you have animal blood or corpses lying around, we can't really afford to show you."

"Oh. That makes sense, I guess." Dominic replied, disappointed.

"So, any other questions?" Ayana asked.

"Uh, what are the bathing arrangements?" Dominic asked.

"The…shower?" Ayana sighed with confusion. "If you're thinking about the bathhouse thing, it's a bunch of houses on the side of a hill, we don't have those for a couple miles."

"But hey, a shower." Lainey yelled. "Maybe consider taking one. Please. You too, Ulrich."

"Hey, it's not like there were great shower conditions on the boat!" Dominic yelled to their defence."

"I had a shower. Took a couple, too." Sapphire retorted.

Dominic remembered the distinctly shower shaped object in the bathroom and shut up. "Where are the towels?"

While Lainey, Sapphire, Shin and Ayana were watching TV in the living room with Shin casually explaining the plot of whatever was on, Ulrich was waiting for Dominic to finish up his shower, sitting against the wall. If he were older, he'd probably have a cigarette in his mouth. Or maybe not, seeing as smoking indoors is a dick move. Actually, could he use the heat from a cigarette to heat himself or use his powers more? He never actually considered smoking until now, but it was something to think about.

Ayana stepped into the hallway. "I'm getting some water. You guys need anything?"

After a muffled chorus of things like "No thanks" and "I'm good" she stepped in front of Ulrich.

"Hey." Ulrich greeted her flatly while still kind of in a daydream realm, thinking about incinerating a demon with a lit cigarette.

Ayana looked towards the hallway, and then handed Ulrich a note. Without saying anything else, she went into the kitchen, presumably to get that water. Ulrich opened the piece of paper, and Dominic came out, wrapped in a towel.

"What you got there?" He asked, leering at the piece of paper, Ulrich backing away from the almost naked man beside him.

"Ayana just handed it to me. Meet me at the top of the hill at 2:00AM."

"Is this what I think it is?" Dominic asked, his eyes widening at Ulrich.

"What could it…ah." Ulrich replied, the realization slapping him in the face.

"Go you!" Dominic whispered, trying not to get Ayana's attention. "You doing it?"

"Can we discuss this when you're less naked?" Ulrich sighed.

Just as he said that, Ayana walked in holding a glass of water, shooting daggers at Dominic.

"How much did he see?" She whispered, her voice a mix of aggression and panic.

"All ten words?" Ulrich answered. "I'll go, relax."

Ayana nodded with relief, heading back into the living room. Dominic went to their room to get dressed, and Ulrich went to take his shower.

Once the shower was done, he changed into his old clothes, feeling unsatisfied. He just didn't feel cleaner without the fresh underwear. He slumped into his beanbag, looking once again at the note.

"You gonna do it?" Dominic asked with anticipation.

"Might as well." Ulrich exhaled. "Why do you care so much anyway?"

"Hey, I wanted to go babe hunting once we got the gem, but you just did it! And with a mage chick as well! Wait, what powers would your kids have?"

"We're not having kids." Ulrich was pretty geared to shut him down. "I'm just gonna say no. Like, we just met."

"Damn, really. Mind if I shoot later? She's just my type of girl."

"I thought Sapphire was just your type. You know, before the whole lesbian thing."

"Her too." Dominic responded. "Guess I just have a woman fetish. Like, a woman makes you go 'woah, man' you feel me?"

"Yeah, sure." Ulrich nodded, just letting Dominics mouth run its course. "Well, if I'm meeting her at two, then I guess I'm sleeping at seven thirty."

Ulrich woke up, taking out Dominic's UPod, almost spilling the glass of water beside it. 1:45. Dominic himself was as peaceful as ever. When they met, he expected him to be the type of person to snore like hell. But he was fine. But anyway, time to get going. He had no idea how it was gonna go, so he decided to bring his gloves, just in case.

He waited for a few minutes at the top of the hill under the tree, just as Ayana instructed. He looked towards Tokyo city at night, being able to see the vibrant city from the hilltop, he looked behind him, towards the other side of the hill, and saw a small graveyard. Pretty unsettling, considering the whole blood magic thing, but maybe this was just magic profiling, he turned around, and there was Ayana.

"Oh hey, you actually showed up." She smiled. It was a pretty calm smile, but Ulrich still felt kind of…off.

"Uh, yeah?" Ulrich replied. "Is this like, a declaration of love?"

"It could be." She smiled to herself, sounding innocent, but like something corrupted halfway through.

"Look, I'm just not interested in this, I'm sorry. Besides, we just met, and…"

Ayana put her finger on his lips. "Shut up. I just want to ask you something. It's not about love, yet."

"Sure thing." Ulrich sighed reluctantly.

"So, that tall girl. You from the same place?"

"Nah, I don't know where she's from."

"Hm. What about you?" She asked, once again with that innocent tone. She was steadily moving towards him, and Ulrich was moving back, slightly creeped out. He eventually hit the tree, and Ayana pounced, holding a knife to his neck quick as a flash.

"Where are you from?" She screamed. "Where are the other mages?"

"I don't know!?" Ulrich screamed back.

"When did you get those powers? Where are the other mages?" She screamed the question again.

"Look, I don't know if my hometown had mages in it, but everyone there died! And I'm not even a real mage! It's the gloves!"

Ayana slowly removed the knife from his neck, looking in a mix of shock and disgust.

"Gloves?" She noticed the gloves he was wearing, and then looked towards the graveyard.

"Right, right." She started whispering, resting a hand on her forehead. She then turned to Ulrich, looking…extremely unsettled. Her face was red, her eyes were welling up, and she looked like she was on the verge of screaming something.

"Where did you even get the gloves, anyway?" She asked, taking a few seconds to choke the words out.

"My…boss." Ulrich replied. He had no idea how to explain the whole 'gods and demons' thing to her. "Look, I'll show you."

Ulrich charged the energy from his pinky finger on his right hand, and it shot a predictable flame out. He then took off his left glove, and channelled the energy onto his left pinky, expecting nothing to happen. He was feeling the energy like usual, but that was probably more of a placebo effect than anything. Regardless, he released the energy, and a small flame came out of his left hand. He stamped it out, and Ayana was staring at him. He backed away, expecting her to once again to try putting a knife to him.

"Relax, I'm not gonna stab you." She said, sounding defeated. "There Isn't a point anymore."

And with those strange parting words, she walked back towards her house, with Ulrich following a few meters behind, not even thinking about Ayana or anything she did. Just his gloves.

What was the deal with that, anyway?