"KYAAA!"
A scream erupted from Miss Lin's lab room. Joaquin dropped all ease and ran forward at full speed. Finally he made it and he looked inside for a surprise he never would've expected. His face turned blank again before shifting to an enraged frown.
"Foolish woman! I thought something had happened to you."
Miss Lin was tied up in a red ribbon, knot in all the right places with her hands over her head because the ribbon was hanging from the ceiling. Her face reddened as Joaquin glared daggers at her and she tried to move her eyes from his gaze. The longer he looked, the more naked she felt.
Joaquin took a step in and she tried to warn him to stay back but her mouth was also covered up. Her skin boiled as Joaquin grew nearer and near to her, she shook uncontrollably as he opened up his hand and brought his arm closer to her chest.
Steam almost came from her head at this point, she was sweating and the shaking had stopped. She wanted to close her eyes but at the same time she wanted to see what Joaquin was up to.
Finally.
She shut her eyes, but nothing happened for a while. She felt her body getting loose and heard glass scraping against the floor. Slowly she opened her eyes and saw Joaquin kicking around the shattered glass tubes while putting on a lab coat.
He looked at her over his shoulder and gave a small glare and she turned away in embarrassment.
"How could you do that to your teacher? P. Pervert."
Joaquin tilted his head all the way round and almost smiled, "am I now. Last time I checked I wasn't the one practicing my pole dancing moves in school property."
"THAT'S. THAT'S NOT WHAT IT WAS," she covered her mouth quickly before saying anything more. "I was just testing out your new direction runes. I just wanted to know if they could actually guide gasses in and out test tubes and also keep them in one space for later use."
"Aren't you supposed to be a teacher? Even if it was possible to capture all of the gasses produced from a reaction and manipulate how they travel, storing them mid-air will be impossible. First you need to consider…" he stopped and readjusted something in front of him. "What were you doing with these ribbons anyway?"
"I knew that if we kept the gas floating in the atmosphere, contamination will most definitely happen. So I thought of using these ribbons made from pure arachnid silk to trap it, but it was too reactive and the glyphs used in the direction rune work mixed to create something else. The ribbons took on a life of their own and then they…"
"SHUT UP! Just change into something better." Joaquin coughed a bit. "The chemicals dissolved your outfit too."
Miss Lin looked at him and down to her dress, she repeated this for a few times before screaming and running into the storeroom. A second later she came back with all her clothes intact, but Joaquin did not notice her return to the room.
She crept up behind him and peeked to see what he was up to.
"Oh my. I didn't know you were such a pervert." She said slowly in low and soft voice. Joaquin was sniffing the ribbon he got from her when he noticed her, his ear got hot and he froze in place looking down at Miss Lin's curious and pink face.
"It's okay, I didn't know that you liked your teacher this much." She walked further in front and stood straight in front of Joaquin who still had the ribbon up to his face. Her hands flew to the back and her chest pumped out, her bra was visible from behind her white shirt and it seemed to be the only thing she had underneath. Joaquin could see faintly her skin as she moved around nervously.
"But you do know that we can't have this kind of relationship. It will..." a ribbon hit her across the face before she could finish talking. Her tiny hand moved up to remove it and her crystal blue eyes looked at Joaquin who looked very disappointed.
"Sometimes I look at you," he paused and walked closer.
Miss Lin put a huge smile on her face and also leaned in, constantly removing her pink hair from her eyes. "Yes," she said.
"I wonder, who is teaching who." Joaquin flicked her forehead and she jumped back with an "eep" sound.
"You little brute! I am the teacher here," she grinned and leaned back in on him, "if you want I can teach you some biology." She whispered in his ear.
Joaquin felt his heart thump a bit before he pushed her away again, "you said the ribbons took on a life of their own because of a spell, but when I touched them they were a bit wet. So this mean that you used chemicals or potions on them. I was trying to find out what they were, you do know that I have a strong sense of smell."
Miss Lin pouted, folded her arms and looked away, "why do I even bother with you. You'll never get a girlfriend if all you think about is alchemy."
"Since I am that in love with alchemy I'll use it to make a girl for myself then."
Miss Lin squinted her eyes and her lips frowned a bit as she stared at Joaquin with a tired expression dripping all the way to her shoulders. Strength finally returned to her body and she flexed her fists, swinging her face side to side.
Joaquin also sensed a bit of unease in the air and also started looking around frantically.
"You can sense that too? Someone is here with us, but I can't tell how many of them there are." Miss Lin walked over to Joaquin slowly while keeping her eyes around the class.
"I can't sense mana unlike you, but I did hear some odd movement. It was almost as if someone was trying to conceal themselves. From what I could gather, they noticed their mistake and tried to send our senses off track by syncing into one."
"As expected of my star student, your senses are as sharp as ever." She gave him a light tap before she turned to face the door. Miss Lin focused her eyes on the door and extended her free arm to it, took aim and shouted. "WE KNOW YOU'RE THERE!"
The light went out and a blade shone through the darkness and then one after the other weapons filled the room with flashes but their users remained unseen. Joaquin blinked and when his eyes came up they were already on the hallway.
Miss Lin grabbed his hand and said, "I hope you trust me, because this is going to be a bumpy ride." Simultaneously she took off running.
Joaquin kept all of his senses focused back at the classroom. Finally they broke out into the hallway, but they still disappeared into the shadows before Joaquin could count them all. He wasn't even able to tell what they were dressed in.
He blinked again and opened his eyes into a small room, he looked at the door and there were buttons by them. The elevator was set to the ground floor. Joaquin took a deep breath and looked down to Miss Lin on his side.
She appeared to be unfazed by this at all she even smiled at him. "Oh my, please don't give me that scary look. I am noble so it's only natural for me to experience assassination attempts from time to time." She looked away and started humming, twirling her black her around her finger.
The lights in the elevator started going berserk and a second later someone landed on top of it. Miss Lin looked up and moved to the side a bit. Joaquin reached into his pockets and pulled out two kunai.
Nothing happened, the elevator arrived on the ground floor and the doors started to slowly slide open.
Joaquin swung the kunai with all his might and just barely missed Miss Lin's neck. She moved back and Joaquin followed up with another attack, after finally backing her up into a corner Joaquin jumped out of the elevator leaving behind a black little ball.
"Stop play…" the ball exploded on her face before she finished talking. The explosion was so bad it launched Joaquin a few meters away from the lift.
He stood up and spat to the side, "if you weren't going to copy her form perfectly then you shouldn't have bothered."
An arm fell out of the elevator and it was still burning, it switched from a lady's arm to a man's. The veins were bulging out until they finally popped.
"Oof, I just killed a man." Joaquin put his hands in his pockets and pulled out a chalk, along with some beat up plant roots and leaves. He drew up a magical circle and threw them inside, after tapping the circle twice a tiny lightning bolt emerged from it and disappeared just as quick. From behind the smoke appeared two other black balls.
"And everybody said failed transmutations were useless." He stood up and started walking towards the stairs.
"Shouldn't you be running outside?" a cute and soft voice came from behind him.
"How are you not poisoned?" Joaquin asked without even looking back to see.
"Heh! Do you want me dead or something? I got out before his veins popped, now answer my question." She snatched his hand and pressed her chest against Joaquin's arm.
"I don't want to tell you anything, for as long as I am concerned you're a possible enemy." He said as he forcefully yanked his arm away.
"That… That hurt my feelings." She said with a low voice, almost whispering her words.
Joaquin ignored and opened the door to the staircase, Miss Lin followed slowly behind after turning on the lights.
"We have already taken out two of their men so it should take time for them to regroup and come after us. Why don't we slow down and come up with a plan of our own?"
"Up against an invisible enemy, which might have a customs ability making things like regrouping to be useless for them slowing down will be a fatal mistake. Since they will be able to communicate across long distances and attack precisely."
"Are you really mad at me for getting you involved with the assassins?"
"Nope, I am delighted." Joaquin paused and glared back at her. "Are you even thinking about what their ability could be?"
"I am strong, why do I need to be worried about of weaklings that share a single mind? In my opinion it is a much bigger disadvantage. Plus this is not the first time people tried assassinating me so I am pretty much used to it at this point."
Joaquin sighed and relaxed his body, "you're hopeless. At least worry about me, I know that you're strong, but I on the other hand am a different story."
"Are you taking pity on yourself?" She place her hand on top of his and their eyes met.
"Of course not, I am just mad that you might end up being a burden to me." Joaquin pulled his hand away and faced up this stairs, he then leaned back against the wall.
"So basically you're just worried about me?" She smiled and walked up closer to him.
They said nothing and just stood there looking each other in the eyes.
Joaquin shut his peepers and sighed.
"HAVE YOU LEARNED NOTHING AT ALL YOU CRAZY OLD WOMAN!" He smacked her across the head before throwing his palm at his face.
"How dare you call me old, I am not even 40." she sobbed.