Iuvenes Magi Magicae

[Flame]

Today was a day just like any other for the people of Mitakihara town. However, for those who were tied into the fate of the magi, It would be a very important one for various reasons. For now, everyone carried on their normal lives unknowingly. Eiji woke as he usually did, and dressed for school. being a Magi didn't mesh well with a normal school life, but he had to carry on through with this last year of education. He wouldn't do anything beyond that because it would get in the way of his duties. Doing anything beyond hunting specters, (if you survived that long) was an ignorant hope. He knew that, and those he had shared past hunts with knew it too. When you wished, you gave up your life. That's why he felt it was his duty to advise others not to become magi.

He left his apartment, and began his walk to the high school. He could see others walking towards the tower-like school, and wondered what all their lives were like. Ignorance truly was bliss. He made it to the school, and to his homeroom, stepping on the panel on the floor, causing his desk to fold out. He sat down, and swiped his student ID in the desk's side, checking himself in as an attending student, and relaxing in his seat with a book. This class was a mix of students from various grades. Some of which were noisy, and annoying, and others that spoke about him from across the room. He knew what they all thought about him. A normal boy would feel a sense of pride about it, and possibly interact right back, but her brushed them off, simply because it didn't matter.

 

[Ayla]

Karou slapped the snooze on her alarm. She groaned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Damn, she didnt want to go to school today.
Swinging her legs from her bed, disrupting the rows up and rows of stuffed animals on her bed, tossing some to the ground.
She hunched over and yawned, her eyelids drooping. The waves of straight light blue hair felt like a mess on her head.
Standing, she quicky changed and ran a comb through her matted hair. Crap, she waited too long to leave and would need to skip breakfast. Jumping down the stairs, she waved goodbye to her big brother and walked to the place where the bus would pick her up. Karou scowled. Her brother always had a look on his face like he was thinking hard about something painful. She wished she knew what he was thinking so she could help him.
The bus ride was a drab as it always has been. Kids shouting and throwing wads of paper balls and yelling profanities out the window at bypassers.

The walk to homeroom felt awkward. She felt small. Everybody seemed to have a scowl or a pained expression on their faces. Karou desperately wanted to know what they were thinking, to do something than walk by them and not be able to do anything but the same, to never know how to help them.
Walking into homeroom was boring, too. She opened her desk, swiped her card, and sat behind a boy named Eiji. He was older, but only by a year. He was reading a book, like she always does. She took out a pencil and started to doodle on the corner of a report paper she neglected to work on over the night.

 

[Saito Hajime]

Kaoru always started the day paying attention to the news. It was probably one of the more noteworthy things about her, that she actually wanted to know about what was going on in the world. Even her close friends were more concerned with how they looked in the mirror than anything else. She couldn't entirely blame them for not wanting to keep up with the latest headlines though, since even today it seemed to be nothing but grim news. Stories of war, the declining birth rates, and celebrities acting like raging jackasses. It was enough to make someone wish for a change. But there was no point in crying about it, because life marched on, and Kaoru was going to have to keep up.

When Kaoru arrived, two of her friends, Midori and Keisuke, were busily gossiping between themselves. "What are you two housewives gossiping about now?" She asked as she activated her own desk. She sometimes wondered if she was the only one that still didn't get the set up they had in this classroom.

"Him." Midori shamelessly pointed in the direction of a guy on the other side of the room. From the looks of things, a few others were also whispering while looking in his direction. "That creepy dude, Eiji Akaishi. You know, I heard a rumor he doesn't have a friend in the entire school? Isn't he weird?"

"So?" Kaoru retorted.

"What do you mean, 'so'? He's weird." Keisuke stated. It was as if he felt some strong urge to assert that some guy he barely knew was a weirdo.

"If he wants to be weird, let him be weird." Kaoru told him. She didn't mean to call him weird, but that was besides the point. She didn't know anything about the man, and she didn't feel the need to make some bizarre judgement about him.

"Whatever." Keisuke sighed. His attention was then drawn to something else. "Who has blue hair nowadays? What is this, an anime?" He appeared to have locked on to a new target to talk about. As Midori started to agree about how weird this other person was, Kaoru just relaxed in her chair and stopped paying attention.

 

[Ayla]

Karou shifted in her seat, pushing the tendrils of blue hair from her face. She picked up snippets from the gossiping group behind her, first talking about Eiji. Truth being, she probably had the biggest crush on him, ever. He was more mysterious than the word itself. The way his hair fell in his face, or the way he held himself.

She sighed, resting her cheek on her fist. She had never tried to talk to him, but she wanted to. Her restraint was formed when she saw other girls try, and his face was always passive when he shot them down. His eyes held something dark, a secret he carried that he could tell nobody. She wished, desperately wanted to, be able to read his mind. To tell his emotions, to help bear his secret. But she never would.

She nearly choked on her own saliva as she heard somebody comment on what could only be her hair. She was the only one in homeroom to actually have hair the color of a clear sky. She wanted to turn around and hiss a comeback, but as she opened her mouth, the bell cut her off. Whatever she was going to say to the gossipers would need to wait until after homeroom.

 

[RareSecret]

Amelia woke up to the sound of her alarm. She sat up and took a nice long stretch making her spine to pop. Amelia hit the dismiss button as she got herself out of bed so she can go into the bathroom to do her daily duties.

Once she exited the bathroom she was ready in her school uniform, and her hair was in a normal braid. From the she went into the dining room to give her mom and dad a hug. After doing so, she stole a piece of bacon from her mother's plate before running off to school.

It took Amelia a while to get use to this routine. After the car accident, she lost most of her memories. She lived with strangers, went to school with strangers, and talked to strangers. Since it has been 2 months since then, they are now more like acquaintes.

Amelia met up with the usual people she walked to school with. She liked walking with them, even though it seemed like she was always ditsy, but she could only wonder what old her thought of them.

Amelia arrived at school, and parted with her friends because they were not in the same class. From there she went into the classroom. It seemed that some of her classmates were already in the classroom. They were socializing, gossiping, and having fun. Except for a few that seemed to be doing thier own thing. Amelia would be one of those few. She took the seat she was assigned to and places her stuff down. Afterwards, she just went into a daze, looking at nothing.

 

[Flame]

The rest of the students milled into the classroom as usual. Eiji put his book down as the teacher walked in, and leaned back. The class began to quiet down, and everybody stood and bowed. The teacher began to teach the math lesson of the day. Eiji already knew it, but pretended to listen anyway. That was, until he felt the gem in the ring on his finger warm up. He looked down, and saw it begin to glow. He had to go... there was a specter nearby. This kind of thing happened sometimes, but he couldn't just ignore the call. He raised his hand, and asked to go to the nurse because he didn't feel well. The teacher asked for the student in class who was the nurse aid to walk with him down to the nurse's office. He couldn't avoid that, but maybe he could lose them along the way, or leave the nurse's office alone.

 

[Yuuki_Tatsunohi]

It was another ordinary day for Yuzuki Hamasaki. She woke up, ate breakfast and got ready for school, giving her mother a goodbye kiss before heading out the door. Along the way she passed by a television store, many of the TVs tuned to the news. One of the stories was about an upcoming meteor shower that would be in the sky above Mitakihara. It was a meteor shower that only comes once every seven years. Her thoughts wandered to her father, wondering if he was going to watch it while he was still away. She didn't dwell on the thought for long; the news station changed stories and Yuzuki continued on her way.

Yes it was just another regular day for Yuzuki.

She made it to class on time, pulling up her desk and checking in before saying hi to friends. Once the teacher called for class, everyone sat down for the day's first lesson.

It wasn't until minutes later, a boy by the name if Eiji Akaishi, raised his hand, announcing he wasn't feeling well. Yuzuki stood up and approached the boy. Eiji was a mysterious enigma in the class. He rarely talked, prefers to be alone, and often disappears without a trace. Obviously rumors, some unpleasant, circled around about him. Yuzuki, however, would have to disregard them for now, as the boy was still a student who was ill and taking ill students to the nurse was her job as a student nurse aid.

"Hello, Eiji," she greeted. "Follow me, please."

She led him out of the classroom and once they had reached the long hall heading to the nurse's office, Yuzuki turned to Eiji.

"Are you feeling queasy? Dizzy? If you need to stop for a moment just say the word!"

 

[Ayla]

Karou shifted in her seat as Eiji asked to go to the nurse's office. Something was off about him. She wanted to know what it was, for her own curiosity. Not to mention the insane crush she had on him.

She sighed and sank lower in her seat. She could tell that something in Eiji's was off.He was always passive, yet the way his shoulders tensed and his muscles were bunched told her otherwise.

She hardly listened to the teacher as Yuzuki led Eiji out. She felt a stab of envy. She wanted to be the one to lead him out. She watched the door close behind him and he was shut out from her view.

Karou groaned inwardly. This was going to be a long homeroom.

 

[Saito Hajime]

Kaoru only briefly acknowledged that Eiji requested to leave. It was hardly any of her business, and she knew she needed to pay attention to the lesson more than anything. But as Eiji left with Yuzuki, Kaoru felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. During class, it was guaranteed to be Midori or Keisuke acting up again. She had a feeling she ought to stop paying attention to their nonsense, but sometimes it amused her. Plus, she was pretty good at checking her phone without anyone noticing. Taking a look stealthily, she saw it was Midori that had texted her.

"omg, Eiji just pulled a sicky again. he knows we know hes full of it, rite?"

Rolling her eyes, Kaoru managed a reply.

"What do you mean'?"

"liek, ive been told hes done this before. said he was sick, then ditched the person that took him. what a jerk."

"Maybe he just felt better?"

"pls, dodgy guys liek him are full of it u_u"

Sighing internally, Kaoru decided at this point to leave it at that. Conversing too much would attract attention, and she still had a lesson to take. Besides, she doubted Eiji's sick leave was anything important, even if he was lying. What did she care if he wanted to skip out of class? He knew what he was doing, and he would have to accept the consequences.

 

[Flame]

Eiji internally sighed when he saw the aid get up. He wasn't sure if he could shake her along the way without adding to his tally of times he just simply seemed to leave class. So, he followed her. "Weak. I sometimes get drowsy and nauseous. It's a condition that I have informed the teachers of. Some students would like to think I simply enjoy skipping class, but, that isn't the case.", anytime he had split from an aid, he had used the bathroom as an excuse. His story checked out for now. He'd have to stick with it if he wished to avoid punishment for these sorts of things.

As they walked, he felt his ring heat up even more. They were walking in the direction of the specter, despite "heading for the nurse's office". He really did begin to feel sick to his stomach. What if he had to fight it with her around? How would he explain this? He didn't have time to think. The wall ahead, the one that would have said "Nurse's office" on a plaque if it hadn't been covered in a specter's mark was covered in exactly that. "Shit.", he growled, and ran ahead. He stopped at the barrier between worlds. Why had it chosen such an obvious place? Had something happened nearby? The girl could probably see the mark too. "Stay here.... don't follow me if you value your life.", he told her, before he entered the mark.

 

[Yuuki_Tatsunohi]

Yuzuki nodded in understanding. That probably explains why Eiji leaves class often. She promised herself to be a little more watchful in case Eiji looked like he can't walk the rest of the way.

She saw him tense as they approached the nurse's office, his eyes trained on the plaque. She followed his line of sight to see what was wrong, but there was nothing.

"Eiji, are you okay?" she asked him. He suddenly ran forward, stopping just in front of the plaque.

"Shit. Stay here . . . don't follow me if you value your life."

He ran again towards the wall. Yuzuki expected a hard collision, but screamed when he went right through, as if it were nothing but air. She followed after him, expecting to hit a solid concrete, but just like Eiji, her hand went through followed by her arm until her entire body was on the other side. What was supposed to be the nurse's office had been warped into a very large chamber, with bright walls fluctuating in color and odd figures rapidly flitting about.

"W-what is this place!"

 

[Saito Hajime]

Shortly after Eiji and Yuzuki departed, an announcement was made over the intercom. It instructed them all to stay inside their classrooms and lock the doors, citing some kind of vague "security threat" as the reason. It was equal parts suspicious and alarming to Kaoru, but there was someone that was about to put her reaction to shame...

"What does it mean?" Midori spoke out from behind her. Her question didn't seem to be addressed to anyone in particular. "What does it mean? What does it mean!?" The more she asked it, the more distraught she sounded.

"Midori, calm do-" The teacher began to speak, only for Midori to cut him off. "No! I'm too young and beautiful to die! It can't end like this!" She pushed him aside and attempted to open the door, only to find he had already locked it. "Let me out." She said. It was more a demand than a request. "Let me out!" She said louder. "Just let me out already!!"

"Midori, shut up and sit down." Kaoru had finally lost her patience. "We don't know jack about this situation, so stop acting like a hysterical child. Keisuke, go sit with her and get her to calm down." Both Midori and Keisuke did as they were told. Kaoru could sound quite authoritative when she needed to. With their situation under control, Kaoru decided to look out the window to see if she could make out anything that would give a clue as to what was going on. When she did, she could see police arriving on grounds. That was worrisome, but it didn't tell her anything about what was going on. With no way to leave, she figured all they could do was sit and wait. Hopefully no one else felt like having a panic attack over this.

 

[RareSecret]

A loud noise snapped Amelia out of her daze. To investigate the loud noise, she went over to the window. Apparently, the cops were trying to get into the school due to some security issue that she and the other students didn't understand or know.

"Midori, calm do-" she heard with a bunch of shaking of the door afterwards. Students were trying to leave, but she doesn't blame them if she could she would try to leave too. The last thing she wants is her life at risk.

She sat down with the group of girls that included the one trying to escape. She hoped that she could talk to them to get thier mind off it
"Hi. I'm Amelia" She said tiredly

 

[Flame]

She had come into the dungeon... this would be troublesome. Those that had seen the insides of dungeons usually died, or were locked into the fate of a Magi. "Why didn't you listen? You're doomed now.", He grit his teeth, and turned the way they had come. "The seal closed... there's no way back without killing the specter... Stay close to me and don't do anything stupid like scream.", he told her, and walked down the destroyed school hallway. Dungeons usually resembled the location they were found in, or the thoughts of the people of the area... He could see the sky behind them, through the giant hole in the wall. The sky was a swirling rainbow of colors with bird-like things fluttering about outside. The light prevented him from making out the birds, and it lit up the dark hallway quite nicely. He could feel the pulse in his ring pulling him up to the roof. "Come with me.", he ran down the hall, towards the stairwell, and light encompassed him, transforming his school uniform into his magi costume. He took her hand to make sure she wouldn't get lost... there was no doubt something was going on in the real world right now with such a presence here.

In the streets below, police were gathering just outside the school, but what they were saying couldn't be heard. They were small far below, but it was easy to see that there were quite a few of them. There were news vans, and even helicopters. Whatever the situation was, it definitely wasn't pretty. A student pulled up a news report on his phone, and other students were gathered around him. Apparently the nurse had brought weapons to school, and the police were trying to find a way to negotiate with her... the report said she hadn't opened fire yet, and that further news would be released as they heard from the officers and the school.

 

[Ayla]

Karou's head shot up from the book she was reading. What the hell was going on? Where was Eiji? Even from where she was, she could hear the sirens of police cars outside the building. OH GODS, was Eiji hurt? She hoped not. Oh god, what was happening?

She watched as the girl whose name she vaguely remembered as Midori, started to panic. Wasnt that the gir who made fun of her hair? What an ass. If anthing, Karou hoped she would get a heartattack. Her hair was stylish and simple. She hoped Eiji would have noticed when she dyed it, but to no luck. She still has only said one word to Eiji, and that was 'Hello'. She blushed just thinking about him.

Karou sighed and leaned back in her seat. There wasnt much else she could do besides sit and wait for this chaos to be over, and Eiji to come back in the room with his beautiful self. She couldnt wait to see him again.

 

[Saito Hajime]

She sat down with the group of girls that included the one trying to escape. She hoped that she could talk to them to get thier mind off it
"Hi. I'm Amelia" She said tiredly

Midori paid little attention to the girl that had joined them, as she was busy trying to suppress her apprehensiveness. In an effort not to be rude, Keisuke greeted her. "Hey Amelia, I'm Keisuke. You probably know this is Midori already...." Considering her freak out and her name being said out loud twice, it would be a miracle if anyone in class didn't know who she was by now. "So, Amelia's an interesting name. Where does it come from?"

Not long after he asked that question, Kaoru returned to the group. "Hey, did you guys check the news already? They say the school nurse of all people brought weapons to school." Her statement was followed by an extremely sharp gasp from Midori, who was now standing upright. "Oh my god, don't you see!? It's Eiji! He's finally snapped! He's working with the school nurse! HE'S GOING TO KILL US ALL!" Before Kaoru could say a word, Midori sprinted over to the windows. She was trying to get them open. Kaoru raced over and grabbed her before she could do anything more. "Midori, what the hell!? Are you trying to get yourself killed??"

"I'll take my chances! It's either escape out the window or wait for Eiji to come here and kill everyone!" Kaoru struggled with Midori for a short while before wresting her clear of the windows. It helped that Kaoru was a fairly athletic person while Midori was a thin every-girl. She dragged her back over to her seat and forced her down. It was better to make her sit than to have her running around doing stupid things and freaking everyone out. Most of the class was staring at them already. "Sorry about all this." She said sheepishly, addressing the whole class, even if she wasn't the one that should be apologising.

Sitting down with a close eye kept on Midori, she turned to face Amelia. "Hey, I'm Kaoru." She said.

 

[RareSecret]

"I'm not exactly sure. Maybe from England." Amelia replied to thier question. After the news of the nurse bringing the gun to school, Amelia watched as she freaked out again. A bit flustered she tried to calm them down, but she couldn't do anything useful. She had no clue how to react in this situation anyway.

"Hi." Amelia said to Kaoru who just introduced herself. "Are you friends going to be okay?.

 

[Yuuki_Tatsunohi]

Seal? Dungeon? Specter? What on earth was Eiji talking about? It sounded like something from a game! Whatever it was, Yuzuki hoped to get out of here, and not think about being doomed. She didn't want to know what that really meant. She followed after him, staying close to Eiji to prevent losing the one person she knew in this weird place.

Almost everything around her was destroyed, the hallway they walked through vaguely resembling the school's hallway, with familiar items from the staff office. There were desks, chairs, and papers strewn all over. She even saw a few trophies earned by some of the after school clubs. Some of the items were distorted. One stapler was morphed into a grotesque form, as if someone twisted it and banged it with a hammer before trying to return it back into its original shape.

"Get to class on time!" the stapler screamed.

"No running in the halls!" a chair squeaked.

"What is this place?" she asked again, half ready to grab onto Eiji if another stapler talks. What happened here? Where are the teachers?

"Come with me." Eiji was suddenly engulfed in a bright light, emerging moments later with his school uniform gone and replaced with odd black garments. He grabbed her hand, pulling Yuzuki along as they moved deeper and deeper into the hall.

 

[Flame]

"This is a dungeon. A dimension controlled by a powerful being called a specter, who seeks to fill the hearts of humans with despair, and feed off that to make even more specters. Some of them even have names, but... this one does not. I am a magi. It's my job to destroy these things and ensure the safety of the city. It's neither a grand, nor rewarding life. You should not choose to experience these sorts of things unless you are in dire need... It may not make sense for me to tell you this now, but later you may understand... I really wish you hadn't followed me.", he seemed a mixture of disappointed, and sad. As if he had expected this to happen, and there really wasn't much to do about it, yet he scolded her anyway. "The creatures here aren't very threatening from what I've seen. We should easily be able to make it to the roof."

He got into a stair well, and told her to hold onto his back. He held her on, and hopped up the stairwell, kicking off the railings on the way up, quickly ascending the tower-like school. "Have you ever been to the school's roof? I doubt it... they lock the doors for a reason...", he put her down, and kicked open the heavy steel door that had been laden with chains and padlocks. The real door was simply locked, but this was a specter's dungeon... sometimes important things were emphasized like that. "There it is...", he pointed up above the roof. In the sky was a six winged monster. The wings were various colors. White, black, brown, grey... there were numerous little useless wings poking out. It was surrounded by smaller flying creatures. It seems the large one had noticed them, because it turned their way. The source of the brilliant light was revealed... a massive eye produced a blinding beam of light. The smaller creatures flew closer. They looked like various crushed body parts. Blood dripped. They had mouths all over them. They were laughing, and whispering, much like a human group would, if they were talking about someone.

"Stay still... I'll take care of this.", he casted a rune over top of her which summoned a barrier around her, before he hopped up on the fleshy creatures to get up close to the specter. The beam narrowed, focusing the light, and he avoided it. The gaze hit the rooftop, crumbling it and burning the fleshy creatures. Eiji summoned a large rune above it, which dropped chains, staking it to the roof with swords as anchors. It couldn't move, and as he dropped, he disappeared and reappeared in various places, laying runes in the air, then finally landing in front of the specter and casting a large one. It's eye's light entered the rune, and exited the small ones, hitting the creature all over and burning it alive. It melted down to a small shard, which he picked up. The world faded, and they appeared on the school's rooftop. "You aren't to tell anyone what you saw here... And don't ever make any strange deals with anyone either... trust me, it's in your best interest."

During their time in the dungeon, the nurse had managed to get into a classroom... the only one without a working electronic lock, and hold a couple students hostage , directing them to the roof. Eiji's class had been visited, and a few students had been forced to come along as well. Karou, Amelia, Kaoru were the students in that group, and at the direction of the nurse, armed with an assault rifle (god knows where she got it), they neared the fenceless edge of the roof. She ranted about making them fly, and freeing them from the watching, controlling eyes of the school. And didn't they, wouldn't they like that? It was apparent that they would not... Eiji noticed this, and ran to stop the situation. The nurse was beginning to snap out of it, but, the students were much too close to the edge. "Get the hell away from the edge!", he called out. It was hopeless. The wind picked up as soon as they gained the opportunity to leave the edge, making them lose enough balance to fall. "Shit!", he sprinted, and dove off the edge. A second time today he would have to reveal himself... what was that specter's game? It seemed to have been plotting something outside the realm of normal specters... why had it done this? It could have directed her to gun them down on sight, but it hadn't... this wasn't right.

He discarded that train of thought, and caught up with the four girls, waving his hand and summoning a rune below all of them. They flew up, above the roof, and landed a little roughly, but safely. The nurse was unconscious from having been influenced. He would have to explain things. "You are all okay, correct?", he began.

 

[Saito Hajime]

"Hi." Amelia said to Kaoru who just introduced herself. "Are you friends going to be okay?.

"Yeah, Midori will be fine. She's just a bit of a drama queen." She said this, but it still seemed as though she was freaking out a bit more than usual. Still, it was better not to alarm anyone. "I think we'll all be just fine." As she said that, she heard the sound of the door opening. As everyone turned to look, they saw the school nurse, standing there waving around an assault rifle. "You have got to be kidding me." Kaoru muttered to herself. Of all the rooms in the school, they had to be in the one that had a faulty door? And on the day that someone decided to go nuts like this? This was just plain cursed luck.

"Oh my god, we're all going to die. The nurse is going to take us to Eiji and he'll kill us all." Midori spat out lines like this the whole time they were being marshaled up to the roof. Kaoru was amazed at her ability to desperately cling to her little leap of logic. What, was Eiji just going to be waiting up on the roof for them? Kaoru was certain nothing would be awaiting them up there but whatever ridiculous death the nurse had planned for them.

Lined up near the edge of the roof, the reality of the situation was being to dawn upon Kaoru. They were honestly going to die. Marched to their death by some random woman who went off the deep end. What a way to go. But then, there was a voice. It was Eiji. Of all the people to show up out of the blue, it was him. Before she could even process this, a gust of wind picked up, and she felt herself falling. But not for long, as she felt herself land of something in mere moments. As for what it was, she had no idea, because she had never seen anything like this before. It lifted them back up to the roof, where Eiji and Yuzuki awaited them. "What the bloody hell just happened!?" Kaoru exclaimed incredulously. It seemed as though Eiji wasn't as flustered as everyone else, so perhaps he knew something....

Midori and Keisuke, who had been dragged along with the group, had passed out when they fell from the roof. They were both unconscious now, and certainly weren't going to be awake for whatever was said next.