Young Magic Knight: Chapter 7 (Azul)

I wake up from that same dream... I feel the pain of being stabbed nearly to death, and wake from my horrible nightmare... but this time... this time something was different. The black haired girl who stabbed me had blue eyes. Bright, beautiful, sky blue eyes... Why? This was just a minor detail, but why did I remember it so vividly? Why is it so important to me? Then as she kept stabbing me... those beautiful blue eyes turned red... A horrible, violent, bloody red...

“Azul!? What's wrong? Did you have a nightmare again...?” Azure bursts into my thoughts, catching me off guard. “Azul!!! Azul, calm down! You're fine! It was just a dream! Are you okay?”

“I'm sorry, Azure Dragon.” I look over my body. Shaking... sweating... terrified. “I'm so pathetic...”

“Azul...”

“What? I-I, uh... Forget it. Look, I'm gonna throw something on and go meet the others. You are coming, aren't you?”

“Don't change the subject, just... never mind! Whatever, go on, get ready.” The mental link is cut, for now.

That's fine by me. I don't feel like talking to her if it's going to be like this. I'll take care of what I have to today and if Azure insists, we can talk about it later. After all, it was just a nightmare... a nightmare that I've learned to put up with for years. It's not that important right now.

So I pick up a short-sleeved, blue-colored button-down shirt and put it on over a white t-shirt. Pull on some blue jeans, slip on some socks, and put my sneakers on. Did I shower? Ah, what does it matter. I'm probably going to be late for whatever they wanted. It's already about 10 a.m. 

Well, I need to take a different bus than the one I take to school, so I'll meet those two there. After a short wait, my bus arrives and I get on...

It's a little surprising how boring these bus rides are when I'm not talking to anybody. Trace and Cleo got on different buses, and Azure doesn't want to talk to me. I hope I didn't hurt Azure's feelings somehow... I just look out the window the whole time.

Anyway, I'm getting close to the address on the paper I was given, so I should get off.

So, after walking around the unfamiliar neighborhood confused for a while, I hear a voice. “Blue! Over here!” It's Cleo, shouting and waving at me. I run over to greet her. Trace is there, too.

“...who's that?” I look at the guy sitting there. Some dark haired pretty boy with medium length hair, concealing most of his face... Wait a second, it's the Shade Phoenix guy!

He brushes the hair away from his face and just looks up, casually smiling at all of us like we're meeting for the first time and he wants to make a good impression... I let out a sigh and try not to show that I'm getting irritated and a bit uncomfortable. 

Time passes...

It's now 11 a.m and nothing is happening.

"..."

"..."

“...well, what brings you here?” I eventually say to him, who now sits next to me on a bench, watching the clouds...

“Same thing as you. This Strife person asked me to come.”

“Hm.” Oh... so he must be just as confused as I am.

“Sorry about that whole trying-to-kill-you thing, by the way. My old boss wanted you dead, but when I screwed up, he wanted me dead, too! What a douchebag, huh?”

“What!?” What kind of person was he working for?

“Yeah, that's the kind of danger I end up with in my 'line of work'. I'm sort of a... Magic Knight for hire, y'know?”

"Oh. It's starting to make sense."

“Yeah, my job was to keep the Azure Dragon from making contact with her person so my boss could do his job a little easier. He didn't know where you lived, but he was sure you were around here, so he hired me to gather info and get to you, and maybe kill those two as well...

“...but I effed up on that, so I called him and told him the job is off. He basically said: 'You know too much to run away from this.' to which I basically said I don't give a shit and I just hung up.”

“That... doesn't sound like it was a smart move.”

He shakes his head. “So anyway... I got home, and someone called me again. It was Strife. They basically said that he tracked my call and was gonna come get me and, well, I just sorta...”

“You brushed it off.”

“Mm-hm.” ...I am trying so hard not to facepalm. This guy doesn't seem bad... but something about him is kinda stupid.

“Anyways, I went to sleep, and when I woke up there were guys in suits layin' all around my house and a message like you got, with some money attached to it.”

“You got money!?”

He laughs. “Don't worry. Strife is probably gonna pay you, too.” He continues to explain how he was given five of those papers, and sent them to the addresses assigned. Three of them were mine, Trace's, and Cleo's. One was his, and he gave the last to some other girl.

“What girl--”

“So there's that.” He stretches. “I'm Baek Hanson. Pleased to meet you.” He extends his hand and I shake it.

“Azul Ryukawa. Over there's Trace Prince and Cleo Arkald.”

Cleo quickly waves at us.

While she's doing that, I notice someone else approaching us. A girl, with green hair and matching green eyes, wearing a white blouse and black skirt. This is probably the girl Baek was talking about.

“...you!?” She shouts this, looking at Trace, who seems just as shocked to see her.

“What? Emerald... what are you doing here?”

This girl that Trace is calling Emerald holds up a piece of paper, in all likelihood the same paper we all got. “If I have to work with you on this, I'm out! I refuse to work with someone like you!”

“Emerald, don't,” Trace says, calmly. "Not now."

“You--”

“Don't.”

Everyone goes uncomfortably silent... What kind of history do these two have? It's possible that I don't even want to know...

I hear a noise. The door to the house we're standing in front of has opened. Another boy who looks around our age walks out of there. A white haired pretty boy with one red eye and one blue eye, wearing a nice white button-down shirt with a black tie and dress pants. 

“Ah, so you've come. Please, Magic Knights. Come inside...”

What seems like a completely normal house turns out to be much bigger on the inside... Not only does the place look nearly fit for royalty, but there's all kinds of weird symbols and other things all about that I don't understand... Before I have time to give it any serious thought, however...

“Wait,” Trace says, suddenly. We all stop, the strange boy included. “What are you up to?”

He smiles. It's a calm, serene kind of smile. One that doesn't fit the tension in the room at all... “You don't need to worry about it, Ms. Prince. I am a trustworthy person.”

“That's not good enough for me!” Trace whips out a handgun... Ah, crap. “How should I know you're not leading all of us right into a trap? You've had us come here under such weird circumstances, you know all of us, but we know absolutely nothing about you, and you want us to come into this house for a reason we don't know yet...”

That calm smile does not leave the young man's face. “Oh, I am not one to use such underhanded tactics, especially since I'm the strongest one in this room.”

“What!?” Trace is just getting more upset.

“Sorry, I meant no disrespect. I was merely trying to say that if I wanted to hurt you...”

Suddenly, I feel a force. Before I can react and comprehend what's happening, I'm watching the ceiling dance above my head, feeling a dull pain in my stomach... As I start to regain myself, I see that Cleo, Baek, and Emerald also spread out on the floor. The boy stands in front of Trace, who looks like she's seen a ghost...

“...I would have done it already...” Trace reluctantly puts away her gun. “You all can trust me for now, okay?”

The tense atmosphere leaves the room, sort of, but... 

“Wh-who are you? Are you Strife?” I ask, still picking myself up.

He puts his hand to his chin, thinking... “Oh, some confusion. I'm sorry, Ms. Echo Strife is too busy to meet you directly, Mr. Ryukawa. For that reason, she woke me.”

Uh... okay... “Woke you? Okay, yeah, but... who are you, then--” He raises a finger in my direction.

“I will explain it in time, but first...” He reveals a secret door behind a bookcase and steps aside.  “I would like you to come further in.” Not willing to protest, I just sorta walk on with everyone else, wondering what he wants to show us...

As we go further into the odd looking house, it starts to look less like a home and more like a... lab of some sort... I hope I'm not the only one getting confused.

“I see things resembling lab equipment in here,” Cleo eventually says.

“Good eye, Ms. Arkald. This is where Ms. Strife does most of her work.”

Cleo continues to look around. “Is that a book of magic?” She points her finger at a large book with a big star symbol on it.

“Ah, yes.” The young man picks it up and allows us to see it. “Do you see the character within the star? This is a book on the Creation spell, which allows the user to create things purely out of mana.”

“Let me get this straight,” I say, holding my hand up slightly for his attention. “Is Ms. Strife... Is Ms. Strife a Magic Knight?”

He kind of smiles at my question for some reason. “That's... close, I guess,” he says, putting the book back. “But no, Ms. Strife is not a Magic Knight.” Confused. So confused. “You see, Strife is a Real Magus.” The meaning of this passes me by completely.

“Oh!” Cleo suddenly says. “You mean, she's capable of using her own life force as mana? Conversion!?” How does Cleo know this stuff? “That's become such a rare ability that I thought I'd never find someone who could do that!”

The boy smiles and nods. “Yes, yes. You're quite knowledgeable about these things, Ms. Arkald.”

“Now that you mention it... Cleo, how do you know about all this?” Strangely, It's Trace, of all people, sharing in my confusion at Cleo's magical knowledge.

After a short, yet awkward silence, Cleo says, “Oh, my Knight's Force has spells in the place of some powers that you guys get, remember? Has to do with her learning magic in life. She just lets me know a few things about it from time to time.” For some reason, I can't help but think there's more to it than that.

The white haired boy gets our attention once again. “Anyway... It's time for what you were called here about. We are going to see the results of Ms. Strife's Creation work...” This is getting me really excited. So this Strife can create things with magic, and she uses her own mana to do it. What lies beyond this door that she wants us to see?

As we walk into this room, we saw thirteen tubes with what appeared to be people inside of them. Actually, the first tube is empty. Is this some kind of human experiment?

The strange young man stops in the center of the room, in front of the largest glass(?)tube, which had something inside that appears to be growing wings... “You all... do you know of the Tredecim Armis et Salvator?”

“Thirteen Swordsmen and Savior...” I say it aloud, in our common tongue, thinking to myself what it had to do with all this. The Thirteen Swordsmen and Savior... They're the most powerful angels of La Salvato, one of the most widespread religions in the world.

I turn my attention back to the boy. “What does this have to do with that stuff?”

He gestures his hand in the direction of the largest tube. “This project is inspired by the miracles from the scriptures they're based on.”

“Strife's going to make angels!?”

He nods. “Something like that. This big one behind me is Salvator.” He starts to identify the “people” in the tubes. Otro Armis... Tercero, Quarto... all the way to Tertiadecimo, the thirteenth.

“...Where's the first?” I eventually ask.

He smiles. “The Primo Armis is standing right in front of you.” What!? This boy... he's one of these artificial angels!? Looking at everyone's faces, I can tell I'm not the only one who's shocked at this. Everyone is feeling the same amount of surprise.

He keeps speaking. “In the case of something bad happening here, Strife wanted someone to protect this city. This world... That's what this project is about.” Makes sense. “Also, if you hadn't noticed, a dangerous criminal has shown up here... The one Mr. Hanson was working for.”

“Wha?” Baek is just as surprised as I am.

“He, like Ms. Strife, is a Real Magus, and a good one, at that. What she wanted to do was have this project done and get this man arrested... That way you five wouldn't have to fight him...”

“So if this works out, we won't have to fight? That's good, I think,” I say.

Cleo, after remaining silent for a while, now says, “But what about the message we all got? It seemed kinda like Ms. Echo Strife wanted our help. What for?”

Something seems to bother Primo as she asks this. “Well, once the project is complete, we can fight him, but even then...” He lets out a sigh and tries to let us know he's being as serious as possible. “Ms. Strife doesn't fully trust us.”

“Why not?” I say, voicing my confusion.

“The Tredecim Armis et Salvator have free will. When released, they are just as likely to do good as they are to bring ruin...”

Worry shoots through me. “Wh... Why is it like that!? Couldn't she just program them to keep doing what they're supposed to!?”

“It's not that easy,” Primo says. “We're not robots, we're 'powered' by the 'Pseudo-souls' given to us by Ms. Strife, herself, so we can think and act on our own. Still, even if Strife decided to control all of them, she would likely have to issue every command. She says it's easier this way, since she's also busy with other important things. Now... this is what she wants you to do...” The mood keeps getting heavier and heavier... “I turned out okay. I'm allowed to walk around like this because I don't want to do anything bad... but these others... their characters haven't been tested... so...”

"You don't mean..."

“If any of the Tredecim Armis et Salvator turn out evil, me and Ms. Strife want you all to kill them...” No one says anything... “Don't worry, we're not humans... in a way, we have no right to be walking around alive in the first place, so ending us if something goes wrong would be the right thing to do." I can tell that saying this has made him sad. "So, will you do this for us?"

“...yes.” I look over. Emerald answers before anyone else. How can she answer something like this so easily...?  I know Primo said they're not exactly human, but killing them still wouldn't feel right to me...

Cleo puts her hand on my shoulder. “Blue, are you alright?”

"Y-yeah."

“It bothers me, too, but for now... I'm going to go ahead to do this for them, Blue. Okay?”

“I got it... I'm with you. I'm in.” After a moment, I'm able to say that... well, maybe nothing bad will happen, right? It's either that, or...

After I say that, Baek also goes along with it. “I've already been paid... Might as well go all the way.”

Primo now speaks to Trace, who hasn't said anything. “Ms. Prince?”

“...I'll do it.”

“Thank you all.” A smile returns to Primo's face. “Now, if you want, we can relax in the living room for a second. I'll make us some tea.” ...and just like that, the mood has lifted...