Magi: The Tale of Faith and Hope

Leap of Faith

"Don't tell such an obvious lie!" said Seishuu.

"It's true, I swear! Look, if I was gonna risk lying to y'all, don't you think I would've tried fooling you with something that was a hell of a lot more believable?" Hope pointed out shortly, crossing her arms.

"What do you call this?" Kouen asked bluntly, pointing at the zipper on her bag.

"It's a zipper. We call it that because of the sound it makes, see," Hope answered calmly, zipping and unzipping the bag for him to demonstrate.

"What material is it made with?"

"Mainly plastic."

"And your shoes?"

"The fake jewels are plastic, the straps are gold pleather, which is a type of artificial leather made from yet another type of plastic, and the soles are artificial rubber. The buckle is stainless steel."

"Is 'plastic' an abundant material in your world?"

"Yes, but only because we make lots of it. Plastic is a man-made material. And if you think that's interesting, I have plenty of other goodies in this bag that I'd be happy to show you in exchange for more information about this world," Hope replied seriously. "I don't want to continue stumbling around blindly. Ignorance won't help me find my sister."

"Hmph. I see," said Kouen. "Unfortunately, it seems we shall have to continue this conversation later."

"Yes, it appears we have some uninvited guests..." Hope agreed, narrowing her eyes slightly, as the hisses of the R.O.U.S.s that had begun to surround them increased in volume. She carefully reached into her bag and withdrew a pen. "How do you want to handle this? Judging by the number of eyes, there are hundreds of them..."

"Young master, please leave this to us," said Kin with a smirk. "There is no need for you to dirty your hands dealing with these rats." With that he and Seishuu, Kokuton, and Shou prepared to activate their household vessels.

"Come, Household Born From Phenex, I Consecrate My Body To You, Become One With Me!!"

"Come, Household Born From Astaroth, I Consecrate My Body To You, Become One With Me!!"

"Come, Household Born From Agares, I Consecrate My Body To You, Become One With Me!!"

To their great shock nothing happened, and they all remained as they were. Shou tried to belt out a roar of fire, but all that came out was a small puff of smoke. The foot soldier Hope saved coughed awkwardly in the stunned silence that followed.

"Uh... was that supposed to do something?" Hope asked, sweat-dropping.

"Sh-Shut up!!" snapped Seishuu. It was embarrassing enough already without her pointing out their failure.

Seeing their enemies looking so confused, the R.O.U.S.s assumed they had caught them off-guard and attacked.

That turned out to be a big mistake. Even without their Djinn powers Kin still had his spear, Shou still had his tough dragon hide and claws, Kokuton had his horns and claws, and Seishuu... Well, they'd all had military training, and Seishuu was a decent kicker. But the real star of the show was Kouen. With his sword the prince and general cut down giant rat after giant rat without so much as breaking a sweat or even the slightest hint of change in his expression. Hope was impressed, but there was no time to stare with R.O.U.S.s swarming them on all sides. With pen in hand she executed several well-placed puño strikes by using it to stab any rats that came near her in the eyes and other soft spots and nerve points. With her legs she delivered powerful kicks to their noses, stomped on their clawed paws, and kneed them in the gut. She felt kind of bad since she had once owned a hamster, but these things were nowhere near as cute as George, and they weren't holding back in their attacks, so neither would she. Everyone fought their best to defend themselves against the attacking rodents. Even the foot soldiers were doing their part. But it seemed like for every rat they took down, ten more would appear.