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the vibrations of the shaken ground woke you up from your small nap in the middle of the forest behind the owl huts within easton's campus. not a very secure spot to be napping all vulnerable and defenseless, but surely convenient in an odd sense.
"graviole." you heard a familiar voice cast. the sudden impact of the spell caused you to fall forward, your first kiss being given to the ground.
"whoever's magic that is... i'm killing you." you groaned, pushing yourself up from the ground as blood dripped from your nose.
you regained your footing, a hand against the tree you slept on for support. you used your other arm to wipe the blood of your nose, letting your magic work its way through your wound.
you trudged through the forest, careful for any unstable grounds due to the gravity magic that was just cast.
in the distance, your sights were caught on mash charging at lance. no wonder that voice sounded familiar, it was lance's magic. but whether friend or foe, you were gonna kill him for his nuisance of a spell.
"trying to win without magic? graviole!" the siscon casted once more, the conversation of the two students becoming slightly more coherent.
mash, unguarded against the gravity magic, was immediately tugged to the ground. you watched as lance's mouth moved, but you weren't listening to a thing he was saying, thanks to the drowsiness of your nap.
mash was evidently attempting to resist the strong gravitational pull, but his attempts were futile from the unexpected weight. his hands curled into fists as he tried pushing himself up, only to be forced back down.
you cautiously approached closer to the fight, ready to step in if it had gone too far. you had seen numerous many cases where students beat each other half to death over mere coins, and though you doubted that neither lance or mash were mentally incompetent enough to cause that, it was best to be on standby.
"trying to stand is futile. no human can withstand this gravity." lance stated, his wand pointed down at the direction of the gravitational pull.
"i don't need to stand." mash muttered before plunging his arm into the ground.
it was a clear improvisation, but mash reached into the ground, searching for a large root that would be forcefully pulled out when found. cracks formed on the surface of the ground as roots emerged from the soil. in other words, mash had split the very battlefield.
unbeknownst to the blue haired boy, the roots had reached beneath his very footing. the unprecedented emergence had caused him to lose his balance, roughly tumbling onto his hands and knees.
"oh? i didn't know you liked rolling on the ground too."
mash looked down at lance, his shadow looming over the double-liner. the tension was thick between the two as they momentarily stared each other down with menacing glares.
'come to think of it, i've never watched any of them truly fight.' you pondered to yourself, watching as lance got up and mash getting ready to deliver the next blow.
mash made the first move, sprinting straight at the siscon.
"graviole." he casted, significantly slowing the lackmagic down.
however, mash had increased the strength used to go against the gravity in his legs. effectively, he had managed to push himself forward with a punch headed straight for lance.
the slowed movements of the boy allowed lance to dodge, but it was only followed up by another, and far swifter, punch. he had barely managed to escape the blow, his cheek getting nicked and his locket snapping off his neck.
and just by coincidence, it landed right by your feet, drawing the attention of both students to you. you wordlessly picked the locket up, the slightest look of disgust on your face.
"(y/n)? when did you get here?" mash lowered his arms at the sight of you.
you didn't even want to confirm whether the image you saw that day was really one of an innocent 12 year-old girl, tossing the locket straight at mash who caught it with ease.
"since you started fighting." you responded, fully revealing yourself from the tree you stood behind. you leaned against it, arms folded.
mash let out an 'oh' before staring down at the locket. curiosity winning over him, he clicked it open. a shiver ran down his spine as he, too, was caught speechless by the image.
"lo-lo-lo-lolicon. you're a lolicon." he stuttered, nervousness coursing through his words.
"w-we've got to call the police, (y/n). he's a criminal." mash turned to you. you only nodded in agreement, a grim expression on your face as you pitied the girl he supposedly deemed his 'sister'.
"i'm not." lance sternly denied.
"so you're aiming to be one?"
"i'm not a lolicon. i'm a siscon."
"and that makes it better?"
you sighed, shaking your head. a pretty face wasted on a loli-siscon. the gods had to be toying with you.
"give it back." the siscon demanded.
mash returned the locket, tossing it back to lance. the male gripped the locket and placed it back into his cloak.
"let me ask you both, mushroom-head, lost puppy." lance started.
"what did you just call me?" a vein popped om your cheek as you gave him your middle finger.
"what's the most precious thing in the world?" he dismissed your statement, questioning the two of you.
"you're putting me on the spot here. cream pu─"
"wrong." lance cut him off.
"my phone." you answered.
"wrong."
"life."
"wrong.
"love."
"wrong."
"smut."
"wrong."
"freedom."
"wrong."
"cream pu─"
"wrong."
"my phone!" you cheerfully pulled out your phone that contained your most vile secrets, your most shameful of moments, and the dirtiest of smu─ books.
"wrong! wrong, wrong, wrong!" lance, sick of yours and mash's bullshit, placed a hand over his face.
"it's not that hard, you know. the answer's as obvious as '1 + 1 = 2' or 'blue and yellow makes green'." siscon stated, unable to fathom the barely working braincell you and mash shared.
"so what is the most precious thing in the world?"
lance gripped his own face, fingers pulling at his skin with the look of a maniac on his face.
"my little sister."
'i'd trade her for a cream puff from mash.' you dare not say that out loud, but mash's cream puffs were truly a delicacy to savour.
"... everyone's got their priorities." mash reality-checked lance.
"you're just another waste of time. this world is full of idiots." lance spat, walking over to the edge of the cliff.
"okay, a little creepy, bud."
"okay, edgelord."
he took out a bottle that resembled an ancient magic tool, but you sensed no magic energy from it. instead, you picked up the presence of a secondary bottle, the real thing, with three other presences.
"i'm going to drop this bottle off the cliff. then i'll speed up it's fall with my magic. you'll try to grab the bottle to save your friends, and that's when i'll attack you. sorry." the siscon predicted, apologizing for his foul play.
he had a stiff look on his face, as if recalling an unpleasant memory, the bottle hovering meters above the ground. mash, on the other hand, had disrobed, hopping up and down as if to prepare his legs.
'wait, don't tell me he's going to...' you sweat-dropped, lips curved into barely a smile of nervousness and disbelief.
lance released the bottle before enhancing the speed of it's drop with his spell.
"now what, mush─ uh..." his eyes widened at the boy who was springing up and down before shifting into a starting position.
'he's really gonna do it...' you were at a loss for words.
"hamstring magic... big bang dash." he 'casted'.
"i can't fail them. i won't loose."
he sprinted off the cliff, dashing for the bottle with incalculable haste. it was inhuman; he could outrun a car at that speed. but moreover, hamstring magic?
"at least he understands the function of spells now, but really..." you mumbled to yourself and deadpanned before sighing.
lance looked over the cliff, taken aback by the burst of speed mash had took off with. scanning the forest below, the lackmagic was nowhere to be found. but in an instant, he had reappeared behind the two of you, holding the successfully caught bottle.
lance snapped back, holding out his wand to cast another spell.
"let's stop this. you don't seem like that bad of a guy. i don't think we should be fighting." mash intervened.
"what?" the boy uttered, only for mash to hold up the fake bottle.
"this bottle's empty. you dropped a fake." mash said before suddenly appearing a few inches away from lance, rummaging through his cloak and searching for the actual bottle.
"and we're done."
"but why?! why would you give up the chance to win my silver coins?! are you trying to mess with me?!" lance exploded on the unmarked boy.
"no, not really." nonchalantly, mash replied.
"then why..." the blue haired boy gritted his teeth, desparate for answers.
"i guess... hmm. i'm just not the rational type. maybe i'm just foolish?"
you let out a soft hum at his response. perhaps it was his ignorance towards the corrupted systems of this world, or perhaps it was just his ability to prove words with action, but you acknowledged him as a worthwhile individual. something you rarely did, and something that wouldn't matter much to mash himself.
"i'm done. i'm heading back. we'll stop the fight here. but..." lance scoffed.
"i did make a bet with you. take it." staying true to his word, he tossed mash one of his two silver coins.
"if we fought for real, i wonder what would've happened..?" you heard mash mutter as he released his friends from the bottle.
watching lance leave, a last-minute idea came to you.
"i'll see you later, mash. i need to talk to that guy." you hurriedly let mash know before turning on your heel to chase after the siscon.
however, you were stopped as mash grabbed your arm, pulling you to him. you had a look on confusion on your face, watching his hand reach out to your face.
"you've had dirt on your face all this while, by the way." he used his thumb to brush off the specks of dirt on your cheek. must've been from when you fell over due to lance's magic.
"you should've told me... but thanks, anyway." you gave mash a small smile before heading after lance.
as mash and the three insanities watched your silhouette shrink in the distance, lemon had grabbed mash by his cloak.
"mash. what's your relationship with that girl?! you're not cheating on your future wife, are you?" the deluded girl was exasperated, envious beyond normal means.
"i shouldn't have let her leave..." mash muttered, immediately regretting his decision to allow you to leave him alone.
(...)
"lance!" you called out, your sprint slowing to jog, then to a final stop as the blue haired boy halted his movements.
"why're you following me again?" he furrowed his eyebrows at you, recalling when you followed him through the maze.
sometimes, things really don't change.
"i wanted to ask if... something happened to your little sister." it was just a hunch. a strong hunch you couldn't shake off while witnessing his standoff with mash. a hunch that it may have a relation to the mystery you were trying to solve.
"...that's none of your business." his look darkened with caution, not a glint of trust in his eyes as he glared at you.
"it is. it is when i can do something about it... if my hunch is right." you stated.
you were walking on glass, knowing how protective lance was of his sister. so, you hoped. you hoped that he would give you a chance to act on an illogical will to retain the slightest bit of humanity you had left.
"and why should i trust someone i barely know? we may be acquainted with each other, but know your where you stand in my circle." lance's statement was of the full truth.
you clicked your tongue. you could risk the truth of your true identity right then, but at the very least, you wanted that assurance of knowing you were who you were, that you could be who you wanted to be.
"my hunch is that she has fallen victim to a magic draining disease. your means of being so determined to become a divine visionary is to either find a cure or prevent the bureau from taking her, i suppose."
it was uncanny.
it was uncanny how you figured it out in a single go. it was creepy how you managed to pin down his exact situation. it was creepy how someone he barely knew had saw right through him.
it sent shivers down his spine. the look on your face, that dark and calculating look that should not belong to a human.
or, could you even be considered human by that point?
"just who... are you?"
"so, my hunch was right." you murmured with a sigh.
"like i said. i could do something about it, but that's up to you." you crossed your arms, looking directly into lance's eyes. it felt as if your gaze was piercing into his soul, a powerful and suffocating gaze that would make anyone tremble.
"what is it?" lance muttered, his bangs shadowing his eyes.
"you're saying you can save my sister... so what is it that you want?" again with that look of desparation, lance clenched his fists.
"nothing." you shifted your gaze from him to the ground.
and as much as lance wanted to say you were lying, that you were trying to deceive him, he had no evidence that you were telling false tales. in fact, he was unsure whether an airhead like you was even capable of deception.
but if you knew that much, there was no doubt about it. you were a case to be weary of; someone who wasn't who they claimed to be.
"i'll hear you out. just once. but in exchange, i want answers from you as well."
for his beloved sister to be saved by hands that did not belong to him, he could shame himself for an eternity for that. but for his beloved sister to be saved, it was enough for him to rest peacefully.
"i could use my magic to strip her illness away from her, but there comes a risk." you muttered, the light in your eyes dimming as you recalled a bitter memory.
"if her body fails to respond properly, without a doubt, she will die."
in the next second, lance was holding you up by your neck. the look that reflected off his deep frown was murderous. your face scrunched up from the asphyxiation, tightly gripping at his wrist.
"lance!" you choked out, but his grip only got tighter.
"is this some kind of sick joke?" his words seethed with rage.
"there's also─ another way..!" you coughed. you seemed to have played your words right as lance's grip loosened. it was enough for you barely breathe.
"you don't have to agree with my idea. but all you'll need is someone with higher authority to give the command to leave your sister be." you gazed down directly in the eyes of the gravity magic user.
"and that person would be you?" the tone of his voice suggested that he had suspicions about who you were.
you had backed yourself into a corner, but if lance's ideations were against the status quo, you firmly believed that he could keep a secret in exchange for his sister's guaranteed safety.
"in the bureau, my word is absolute..." you murmured before tilting your head down to meet eye to eye with lance.
"i am their ace."
lance scoffed, releasing you from his grasp. he was underwhelmed. underwhelmed by the fact that a legendary folktale was right in front of him.
the tale of the bureau's ace card. the legend who would bring death to those who walk to it. however, it was not the death of life that she brought...
but the death of magic.
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ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁
proofread.
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ᝰ.ᐟ ︎︎ ︎︎ ︎︎ ︎︎ ︎︎AUTHOR'S NOTE
；lore drop next chp :3
also, this screencap of
orter and kaldo is so 🤭