It's Just A Stupid Barrier Anyway

Keizo ran as fast as he could to get to his first class, and made it just in time, too. Mika, who was sitting in her usual seat, spotted him.

"Hey hey~!" She said, her voice lilted and playful.

"Hey times two Mika." Keizo replied.

"You wanna take a look at who's sitting to your right?" Mika motions to a familiar face.

Keizo turns his head.

It's Eiji Hamada, the weightlifting club president and one of Keizo's two closest friends whom he'd completely forgot about. Although given his current situation and the events that happened this past week, it was understandable why Keizo had forgotten about him.

"Hey Keizo! It's been a while!" Eiji says cheerfully despite looking like he's never heard the words 'cheer' or 'full' before. He wore a sling around one of his shoulders.

"How does a buff guy like you wind up like that?" Keizo asks, pointing to Eiji's sling.

"It's actually a funny story..." Eiji starts.

As Eiji spoke, Keizo stared off absentmindedly and kept taking glances at Eiji and Mika from time to time.

"Hey Keizo, this is the good part!" Eiji flexes as he continues the retelling of his story. "A few weeks ago I went out for breakfast, and I sat down at my usual table. When the waitress approached me, I asked for a giant stack of blueberry pancakes. Not central to the story, but MoeMori Café has some criminally underrated pancakes. Anyways, I'm chowing down, enjoying life and all that when suddenly these thugs a few tables over wanna cause a big ruckus. Turns out, MoeMori's owner's daughter, the daughter of that rich hipster guy, just came out for breakfast herself. And apparently that morning, one of those guys started flirting with her. So naturally, she panicked and I wasn't having none of that, so the guy and I fought, and I clobbered 'em good and got a bit banged up myself in return."

"Did you at least get the girl?" Keizo asked smugly.

"Actually yeah, for about a day or so... she was too much of a free-spirit for me though... I want a more classy type of girl when I marry..." Eiji mumbles.

"A true brawny beefcake of a gentleman!" Keizo salutes Eiji.

At that moment, the teacher walks in, signaling the start of class.

"Sorry for not keeping in touch by the way..." Keizo says sheepishly, turning to face Eiji again.

"No biggie, I'm sure you were to involved in your math like always Kei! All good!" He replies.

Keizo smiles brightly at him as he turns to face the front of the class.

Crisis averted. For now.

As class went on, Keizo thought back to all the memories he and his two friends made over the years. He thought of a small handful, but that's all he has going for himself. Keizo's not an afterschool club kid or a student council leader either.

Keizo was just... well... Keizo.

It's all right though, because while the purpose in his current life in Japan may be non-existent or fading at best, suddenly the prospect of going to a new world at the sacrifice of a couple of friends he may never see again doesn't seem so bad after all.

He knows his mother and father wouldn't approve, but what were they gonna do anyway? A change of scenery and adventure sounds pretty appealing at this point. Keizo was beginning to resonate with the idea that there is more to life than just coming home from school and a later workplace to an empty house that should be filled with supportive parents.

✧ ✧ ✧

The day dragged on and slowly came to a close; the students headed home for the night. Keizo took a glance over at Mika, and noticed that she was smiling a little.

"What's up, Mika?" Keizo says, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Nothing much." She answered.

"Something on your mind?" He asked again, staring right into her bright emerald green orbs.

She shakes her head lightly.

"It's just... I've been thinking about how this is our last year of high school and I never really got to talking about the plans each of us have after high school, y'know like university and stuff..." She admits.

"I understand." Says Keizo.

Keizo can feel the question that's coming next. His plans for the future? To escape this world, move on to the next and enact a grandiose amount of justice in some new other world with a magical girl while honing skills of his own? But if he were to mention that to Mika now, it would make him seem like even more of a chuunibyou. Saying the alternative of having absolutely no idea what to do wasn't that much better either.

"I don't know what the future will be like for me." Keizo lies. "It's something I've never put too much thought into."

"I always thought you'd use that big math brain of yours to be some number-crunching genius... or at least a professor..." Mika laughs.

"Maybe... I don't know what I should do. Have you got any idea on what you wanna do after high school?"

"Well, maybe I'll take a gap year and just work part time until I get the money I need to move out of my mom's house."

"Your plan's definitely got more structure than what I've got so far." Keizo says, trying to make light of the subject.

"Yeah, I just hope I don't go crazy living alone all alone in some apartment or something..." Mika says.

Keizo spaces out thinking of Izumi. She's remarkably strong for not going crazy all by herself in her situation.

He snaps out of it to see Mika's hands in front of his face.

"Hey, Keizo, you're doing that thing again, y'know the staring thing?"

"Oh, uh, sorry... I just remembered something. I gotta go, we'll pick this up another time, ok?" Keizo says running off while waving back at her.

"See you around, Keizo."

✧ ✧ ✧

Keizo made his way home with a look of determination.

Talk is cheap, and if Izumi and him were to just stand by wondering what could be for the rest of eternity, nothing would get done.

"We need an action plan." Keizo says to himself, huffing as he walks up the stairs.

Keizo quickly shuffles over to the bathroom mirror. he looks into the mirror to see Izumi frantically attempting to cast magic. each spell fails and sends her flying at the wall but she gets back up to try again.

"I WANT TO BE FREE!" She cries out of desperation. "FREE! DO YOU HEAR ME!?"

"SET ME FREE, HELP! SOMEONE! ANYONE! SET ME FEEE, DAMNIT! THIS REALM IS TEARING ME APART!"

She keeps screaming and yelling, tears pouring down her cheeks.

"Izumi..." Keizo quietly says her name, putting one of his hands on the pane of glass. "I'm here, just relax and listen to me." He says calmly.

"I WANT TO BE FREE! I WANT IT ALL TO STOP!" Izumi yells out again before taking huge deep breaths.

"Look at me! Look at me, stay focused!" Keizo calls out to her.

" Oh... H-h-h-h-hey... Keizo." Izumi looks up at Keizo.

"I was sleeping and then suddenly I had a nightmare or some sort of vision. I saw my family, but not how they used to be. My sister kept shouting 'in the forest start looking, in the forest start looking, gone hiding, gone hiding' That strange vision really spooked me and I just hit my breaking point... Sorry you had to see me like that..." Izumi said, looking a bit ashamed.

"Don't apologize." Keizo replied, "And don't beat yourself up. This shows just how much power is waiting to be released. That being said, I actually rushed home to see you because I wanted to tell you something."

"Tell me what, Keizo?" Izumi asks curiously.

"You and I need a serious action plan, just talking about getting you out of here needs to stop. The end of the school year is around the corner which means that as time goes on, I'll have more and more free time on my hands. It's better to start sooner rather than later."

"Really!? You mean that?" She covers her mouth in astonishment.

Keizo nods yes, grinning from ear to ear.

"It's just a stupid barrier, how hard can it be?" Keizo says, with a hand on his chin.

✧ ✧ ✧

The answer to that? Incredibly hard. An overwhelming magnitude of difficulty. It wasn't impossible, it just required a lot of thinking, a whole book of notes, careful communication, hypotheses and theories. Keizo wasn't much of a reader or a magic user, but deep down, he knew that getting over that hurdle would be absolutely necessary to get to the endgame.

They first had to figure out what spells could and couldn't work.

"We need to figure out the rules of this barrier. Once we've found them out, we can start figuring out how to bend the rules to our favour." Keizo said, pacing.

Izumi was pretty close to being an Omnimage if she discounted being officially appointed and based it off of solely what she could do. She was a master of nearly all known magic. Light, Dark, Teleportation, Sigil Warping, Illusion, Clairvoyance, Elemental Sensory - it didn't matter. Her skill sets ranged from being one of the brightest geniuses of her generation and possibly one of the greatest to have ever lived.

Even so, none of these things could help them break through the barrier. In fact, none of these seemed to work at all.

It was all on Keizo to do any spell casting, which was proven to be an easy task at times. At the end of the day, it all came down to finding the best way to do all of that.

Then something snapped inside of Keizo.

"We're getting down to the bottom of this. Forget my old life, forget any pre-existing goals I may or may not have had, forget who I used to be. We'll fix this. Together. We're stronger together."

Izumi stood and watched on as Keizo ranted to himself. To her, it seems like he had hit his breaking point as well.

"I don't need to stand by idly anymore as someone suffers when I can clearly put more effort in helping them instead of wasting my energy on meaningless endeavors such as a life goal."

Keizo continues his speech.

"Damn it I've just been so ambivalent with my decision making, and for that, I'm sorry Izumi." Keizo turns to face her.

"Keizo, no. I'm the one who intruded into your life and sprung this situation onto you." Izumi says, shaking her head.

"None of this is your fault. We're in this now and there's no turning back and I've decided that we're gonna work together and figure this out. Whatever it takes. Because I love you and you're worth it to me."

Keizo pauses at his sudden utterance of the words 'love' and 'you' in the same sentence before continuing. He has to admit, it feels strange and weird to say the words aloud. Like he finally said something he's been waiting to say.

"You do?" Izumi asked, her expression growing hopeful.

"Yes." Keizo replies with a nod. "I think you're a nice person. You're smart and witty, caring about people and wanting to be kind and selfless. I really respect that in a lot of ways. And to not do something to end this suffering, is not loving someone. I am the opposite when it comes to that, so in a funny way, I do love you and will stop at nothing to both free you and fight alongside you when the time comes."

Nice save.

Keizo has just taken a plethora of huge steps out of his comfort zone, all leading up to this moment. He wasn't exactly a firm believer in fate or destiny, but somehow Izumi changed everything for him. She taught him something important about the world, helped him gain new perspective, and gave him purpose, love and support to go on. He doesn't regret saying anything.

Izumi looked at Keizo with big, shimmering eyes and teary face.

"If you truly mean every word you say. I'm going to give you the second best gift I can in return, Keizo." She says, leaning into the mirror, planting her lips on the glass. Keizo does the same.

Even though it was through a pane of glass, Keizo could've sworn he felt her kiss his lips.

✧ ✧ ✧

The tone after that kiss through the glass quickly shifted. Both of them looked serious and stared each other down with determination.

"I'm getting you out of there." Keizo points directly at her, not breaking eye contact.

"Let's go over what we know about the mirror..." Izumi replies holding his gaze, not wavering in the slightest.

"For starters, you mentioned a barrier." Keizo says. "A powerful one that bars any magic from being cast within it."

"Correct." Izumi says nodding her head.

"From what you've been telling me, it seems like it's affecting the area contained within the barrier which is a realm inside my mirror." Keizo asks.

"Mhm." Izumi nods again.

A smile begins forming on Keizo's face, the gears working away in his head.

"I think I've got it." Keizo states proudly.

"Let's hear it." Izumi replies anxiously.

"If we go by that logic, the barrier prevents magic from being cast within, but how good is it on the outside? Is there a spell that has the ability to create an opening? What will we do after I create an opening?" Keizo asks, excitement beginning to build up in his stomach.

He didn't know whether Izumi knew what he was planning to do, but he was going to do it anyway. There was no doubt. His mind worked faster than it ever had; maybe even faster than before. All the information flowing through his brain like water in a stream. All of his ideas came naturally.

Izumi looked at him curiously with wide eyes, trying to process all of the information Keizo threw at her.

"There is a spell that has the potential to poke a hole in the barrier's defenses." Izumi says after a few moments.

"...what's the catch?" Keizo asks, already guessing the answer.

"It'll require quite a ridiculously high amount of power, it's also a spell that has only ever been performed by erudite mages."

Keizo ponders his next move, knowing there's only so many options available.

"I suppose that we can use that." He replies with a sigh, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

After another minute of silence, he slowly opens his eyes and looks at Izumi.

"What do we do after we break through the barrier's defenses?" Keizo asks.

"There will be a small window of time for me to summon a sigil warping portal."

Keizo tilts his head sideways a little.

"I can tell you're confused, but this portal that I'll create will be the final push for even further resisting and eventually breaking the barrier down, corroding its resistance aura!"

"Tell me what to say and I'll say it."

Izumi takes a breath.

"By the convergence of these words and the harmony of my voice, I call upon the power to pierce the veil of resistance. By the might of my will, I invoke you: Aura Schism"

Keizo felt the power of those words, even without using any magic. It's truly a highly powerful invocation.

"Think you can do it?" She asks, giving Keizo a confident look.

"I must give it my all." Keizo says readying himself.

Keizo takes a few deep breaths.

"If I do this... Promise me you'll cast the portal right away!" Keizo cries out anxiously.

"You have my word!" Izumi reassures him.

"The it's settled..." Keizo says plainly.

The boy takes a few moments to gather himself together. He thought of everybody and everything. Those he'll leave behind and those he would miss dearly. As he empties his mind, he reaches a state of complete focus. He repeats the spell with his hands extended outward. Into each word he pours out every ounce of emotion that has accumulated inside of him since he met Izumi. The last thing he wanted to do was let anyone down. He couldn't let Izumi down either. Not this far into it.

"By the convergence of these words and the harmony of my voice, I call upon the power to pierce the veil of resistance. By the might of my will, I invoke you: Aura Schism!" He cries out, so loud his chest feels like it's about to explode.

The mirror starts pulsing, a resonating hum filling the entire space.

Keizo is knocked back against the wall, falling to the floor.

"Keizo! Are you ok!?" Izumi asks worriedly.

"I'm fine, summon the portal already!" Keizo calls out to her.

"With grand diction, may worlds converge,

Through realms unknown, let pathways emerge.

In ancient tongues, this chant be spoken,

Sigil's call answered, the portal awoken. I invoke you: Sigil Warp!"

In that instance, a portal was created. The mirror began to crack slightly. Keizo took notice of this immediately.

"Izumi, jump through it now! Hurry!"