Into Madness

no.2 "that bitter taste"

Clairvoyance, as many people knew them as, was the alias of someone who seemingly got away with every little crime in the city. They played their cards well, and they always covered up their tracks so well that even the brightest of detectives couldn't deduce who the criminal... Or criminals were.

Many speculate whether Clairvoyance was a one-man army or simply an organization of people. Their crimes were so flawlessly done that it couldn't possibly be done by one person and one ability. They say that Clairvoyance was so successful because they never left a single trace of their crimes, but they knew exactly where are how to get to the money.

"The Disappearance of Clairvoyance" as it was called was the last appearance of the crime master themselves. The news was all over the story for weeks, as it was the only record of Clairvoyance being physically there. No camera had been able to catch Clairvoyance in the past, and even then, nobody caught Clairvoyance's final moments on tape.

For their grand finale, they crashed a mansion that was hosting a large party and set the entire building ablaze. They were unable to identify if Clairvoyance was among those who have died, but by the damaged black yacht hat with a silver heart on the front, what the public could only assume was a staple of Clairvoyance, it was safe to assume that it was the end for the thievery mastermind.

Or so they thought...

"You know any good cafés near here?" Reese asked the next morning when Atticus sat down at the dining table, still barely awake and functioning. While Atticus looked pretty put together, judging by his neatly combed blonde hair, loose blue dress shirt open and white t-shirt underneath, Reese could tell that he didn't get a good sleep.

"You look like you got 3 hours of sleep," Reese commented, watching one of the maids place a cup of black coffee in front of Atticus. Atticus raised an eyebrow at Reese's comment "How did you know?"

"Lucky guess," Reese winked "I mean- I didn't get much sleep either, but I'm used to it." He explained, watching as Atticus silently sipped his coffee. Atticus slowly woke up after finishing his coffee and finally said something.

"There's a nice café not far from here. It has a good view and a nice atmosphere... Though I'm not really allowed there."

"Did you do something illegal?"

"Yes, I am clearly a criminal." Atticus rolled his eyes, before answering "It's just that the place only serves A rank and above."

"You're not an A rank?" Reese asked, quite surprised. Atticus frowned, bitterly replying with a sharp "No."

Reese nodded, despite not fully understanding his situation. Sure- Society was like that, with ranks and all. Ability users and non-ability users live together, but while non-ability users live a simple life, ability users are much more invested in the ranking system that was built.

People discriminate you for being too low of a rank, people fear you for being too high of a rank, there's constant fighting for a higher rank, etc. The only thing keeping ability users in order and stopping them from destroying and disturbing the lives of innocents is the small organization that is of the highest and most powerful ability users in the world. They're called the Eminent, and there's one group per country.

The small café Atticus was talking about was just one of the many acts of discrimination against B ranks. B rankers are seen as the weak, borderline powerless of society: the people that were too dumb to use their ability to their full potential, the people too weak to rank up.

"Your mother's a respected A rank, isn't she? Did you not inherit her rank when you got accessed as a kid?"

When you hit 15, you're given a rank based on the mastery of your ability currently. Some people are born with no powers, so they get put into the C rank, while others are natural-born SS ranks. Sometimes your mastery is based on how good you are at using it, other times its just natural talent inherited from your parents. Though, while you can rank up from your original rank, you can also rank down.