There was something he 'forgot' to mention...
The invisibility Fritz casted on them wasn't just formed via one Paper Charm. It was a complicated 'Art' that required him to not break his particular breathing rhythm for even a short millisecond.
The 'Breath Circulation' technique of the Lazrik Clan was a special one that was unable to be taught to outsiders. It allowed him to circulate magical energy directly from his Limiter Inverter.
Martial Artists called this power 'Internal Qi', while Magi called it 'Mana'. But that itself wasn't important. Once they got to the bright yellow taxi's destination, someone stopped them abruptly.
"Why are you following our target?" There was a youth who seemed similar to them in position.
Fritz quickly jumped out of her arms and brushed himself off. He was already sure Betty would tease the life out of him should she find out what happened earlier. It was embarrassing to think of.
"You're target is the Poison Butterfly, right?" Valry straightforwardly asked the student before the destination. It was a café that was inconspicuous enough to not draw attention from the outside.
Her Squad Leader recognised the student, but was unable to act close to him compared to before...
"Yeah. So what?" The student's rude attitude rubbed her the wrong way, but Fritz stopped her.
His hand grabbed her shoulder to hold her back.
"We have a different target. Don't worry about us getting in the way... Roger." Even though he called the student by name, the angry youth shrugged his attitude off and went back to his leading position.
It was certain that the popular 'Assault Squad' of Anti-Martial Academy were planning an ambush.
Seeing the student walk away, Valry was annoyed her 'leader' didn't even try speaking up for her.
"Do you know him?"
"...We used to be friends."
"Used to?"
"Had a falling out on our first year in the Academy."
"Then you should stop taking this attitude from him and fight back. Stop being such a pushover."
"I know, right~?" Despite her harsh words, he only laughed meekly in response. This annoyed her greatly. The youth didn't even have the attitude or charisma that was expected to lead a Squad.
Fritz could tell what she was thinking about. It wasn't the first time he'd been told that as an insult. Still, he'd find it much more hurtful coming from someone as professional in the field as her.
That's why the youth decided to move on. There was a job to be done regarding their objective.
Since bringing a bunch of equipment would've been suspicious, they could only make do with small gadgets they could fit on them. He took out equipment he'd hidden underneath his loose shirt.
One of them cybernetic visor made of glass. The other being a mini-microphone on his palm.
"Betty, can you see this?" On the other end of the video call, the two that were left behind were there.
From the top left side of his vision, he could see that their Battle Engineer was messing with their sniper. Upon hearing him sigh, the black-haired bimbo straightened her back and got serious.
"Tina, time for lip reading-"
"On it!" The brat on a computer beside her starting typing on a keyboard while looking at their mouths.
The youth always found this blonde girl's ability to work at such speeds to fill him with admiration.
He tried relating body language with the words coming up on the visor to make out the situation.
"That person's Kyle Lancaster. I remember his profile. He's quite a big figure in the underworld."
While making out what was happening, he heard Valry's voice speaking to him in the background.
"Is there anything I should be wary of?" As thanks for telling her about Poison Butterfly before she recklessly attacked him, she brought up some information most students wouldn't be privy to.
It was just that Valry was bad at descriptions....
"Name is Kyle Lancaster. He's a boss of a local mafia. Ummm... He does illegal dealings. He's a bad guy. Is pretty strong overall. The Association have him on their wanted list. He comes from a lineage of Martial Artists. He's a bad guy."
Fritz was sure that he'd heard that last part many times already, but one part stuck out to him.
"Did you say he comes from 'a lineage of Martial Artists'?" That last part had gotten his attention.
"Yeah. His family practised selective breeding for generations to gain an extreme affinity for flames, and has his own style of Martial Arts. It's said that he also has a 'Combat Gift' he keeps secret."
Fritz multitasked on this stakeout while listening to her explain. This 'lineage' was a little similar to his.
The only difference was that his Lazrik Clan knew how to adapt with the times. As Magi became more useful on the battlefields, the old techniques of his clan were discarded and replaced with new ones.
His 'Gaiasayer Style' was the end result of it.
With Limiter technology making it impractical to be a both a Martial Artist and a Magi, Fritz became what's known as a 'Combat Mage'. Even his Clan's own Combat Gift was pushed into their Limiter.
Now that he had a MagiPen, he could only access it while pretending that it was part of his 'Seals'...
Suddenly, the conversation between the two ended and the Poison Butterfly left the Mafia Boss a vial.
"He gave him poison?"
"Medicine, actually." Fritz corrected her before she came to a wrong conclusion about what happened.
"But I thought he specialised in poison...?"
"Medicine is just the other extreme from poison. It looks that guy is smarter than I thought..." Fritz was surprised himself. From what he'd heard, 'Kyle Lancaster' gave a lot of cash to buy this medicine.
"He doesn't seem to actually need it..." Valry took a glance towards the man's large and robust figure.
"You two. There's something I found out." Betty spoke after Valry and found some clues about it.
"What did you find?" The youth was curious.
"Kyle Lancaster has a comatose daughter who has been bedridden for years... I think that's for her."
The mood suddenly dropped. The scarlet-haired beauty wasn't able to respond for quite some time.
"So we're trying to take back the Healing Artifact anyway?" This mission suddenly became serious.
"Unless we want someone else to take this Mission and take the credit." Betty nodded her head.
"We should leave them be!" Christina cried after seeing an image of his daughter's condition, but their Squad Leader shook his head. Fritz wasn't someone capable of making an irrational decision.
It was at that point the trio of girls saw something they never usually saw in their leader's eyes.
His face was completely expressionless...
"The Mission is still on..." His words were like a hammer bashing nails down into a block of wood.
There was a lack of sympathy in his eyes. It was something taught to him by that 'old demon' who took him in after the tragedy of his past. He clearly remembered the teachings from his 'kind' Mentor.
"If you want to keep those close to you safe, then learn how to close off your heart to those who aren't as important. Be cruel and decisive. Be pragmatic. That's the true nature of a 'Demon'." A faint red glow arose on Fritz's eyes in nostalgia.
To him, failing this mission and getting closer to being kicked out of the Academy wasn't possible.
There was no way he'd let it happen...
Even though Valry had crushed his hopes and dreams, he felt being here was what he needed.
It was an obsession even he himself didn't understand. One he hid by changing the subject:
"There's a chance it's useless for her anyway."
"Really...?" The scarlet-haired maiden asked, and his other team members started listening in.
"You said his family practiced selective breeding?"
"Right..."
"There's a high chance what he's trying to cure his daughter of is actually an 'OverBody Mutation'."
"None of us know what you mean. Anyway, I'm interested either way." Betty spoke up on the line.
"Err... The whole purpose of selective breeding is to attain the power of those in the 'Divine Realm'."
"You mean that place you usually see in Eastern Fantasy? That's real?!" Christina seemed to have read some interesting works in a spare time. The she had secondhand familiarity with the subject.
"Not sure. Those rumoured to have actually 'ascended' there in the past never came back. So it's likely just a belief. Anyway, there's a lot of things that don't make sense if I'm right."
"Like what?" Seeing his deep knowledge on Martial Artists, Valry wondered how he knew so much.
"OverBody Mutations are supposed to be blessings to their user. It's extremely rare that one would harm the body. Either way, no amount of medicine can 'cure' a power that's more like an appendage."
"Her condition COULD be that 'rare case'."
"Even so, lineages that practice selective breeding should have already attained perfect control over their bloodline. Blood transfusion to turn normal people into 'Clan Members' and techniques to remove an OverBody Mutation should exist in their family. Are you sure Kyle Lancaster is a Martial Artist?" Fritz was doubtful of that being the case.
"Maybe not... but why are you so familiar with it?"
"...Read it in a book."
"Which one?" Valry asked, but was interrupted:
"ANYWAY..." Sensing her leader's discomfort, Betty cut in to swiftly ask: "Can you heal her condition?"
"Suppression shouldn't be a problem." His Paper Charms practically existed for tricky tasks like this.
"Then let's get going!" Christina seemed happy about their mutual agreement they'd come to.
A few minutes later, they followed the Mafia Boss to what seemed to be his base of operations.
It was a 70 to 80 floor skyscraper which wasn't that uncommon in the reformed architecture of Old Modern New York. Seeing that this would be the place, he asked their sniper to arrive at the area.
Betty and that brat immediately went to find a suitable location for her to to put down her rifle.
They used the authority granted to them by the Academy to book a room in the nearby building next to their target location. It was around 50 floors high and was a good vantage point for their sniper.
She put together her sniper one piece at a time while the duo of Fritz and Valry looked up information about the place they'd hit. Though Valry herself seemed amazed by their cooperation.
Even though that annoying bimbo was still at the Academy, she was able to set-up an interesting system between them using a small lens-attached headpiece. The two agents also prepared themselves to infiltrate deep into enemy territory.
It went without saying that they put on their Academy uniforms, not just for pure aesthetic purposes, but because the materials and soft armour underneath was optimal for combat.
In a room in the same building Christina had to get near the top of, Valry was putting on her boots as her Squad Leader was fiddling with the futuristic headpiece that had a lens on his right eye.
"You guys are much more professional than I thought." The beauty suddenly spoke out to him.
"...How did you think we'd do work?"
"To be perfectly honest, I thought you guys would do things in a sloppy way." Her sincerity was brutal.
"So you don't regret joining up with us."
"That's yet to be seen."
"Fine... Anyway, Tina, how's the view up there?"
"I have a clear visual on the target."
"Can you find the Artifact we're looking for?"
"...It was easy to find it using 'Magic Sight' Auto Skill, but you're not gonna like the answer." She said while adjusting her rifle's scope. The Macro Converter she had attached deactivated its power.
'Auto Skills' were pretty common for Academy students. Although Macro Converters only had a certain amount of data storage space to record Automatically Executed Magic Skills (or 'Auto Skills' for short), their benefits was in range of versatility.
'Magic Sight' still lingered on Christina's own eyes as she gazed towards their target from the rooftop.
The situation was worse than she imagined...