It was nighttime. The time was 11 pm. The sky was as dark as it could be, and there was a full moon out tonight. It was an amazingly beautiful night. The lights of the buildings looked amazing in combination with the sky. It was a completely normal night for everyone. Well, everyone except for these 2 individuals.
"Hey, brother... How long do we have to wait? We've been waiting here for almost 30 minutes!" said one of them, a young girl with long grey hair and yellow eyes, while laying down on the ground. "I'm so booooored".
"Calm down, Kaede. This won't take much longer. All we're doing is simply waiting for them to show up". Said the other individual, a boy with semi-long spiky red hair and yellow eyes while he was looking at the city scenery.
"We can't even use our magic for God's sake! Even THAT would be enough to cease my boredom." The girl, whose name is Kaede, kept whining over not being able to use her magic. "Yes because that could bring a lot of attention to us, you know? You never know who's watching…" said the boy with a cautious tone.
Magic. The extraordinary gift to use various supernatural abilities for various different things. Magic was a very useful tool in the world because of its amazing variety. It could be used for things like combat and self-defense, or for more laid-back things like cleaning or doing your chores. The type of magic depended on the person. But for specific reasons, magic was forbidden in many areas around the world, like the city the 2 of them were at right now. But it's not that they didn't use it, it's the fact that they couldn't. Using magic in areas like cities and neighborhoods is strictly forbidden due to the dangers that it could bring. It's also forbidden because there have been many accidents involving magic in areas like these. So that's why, if you get caught using magic without any special permissions, you will get punished severely.
The 2 of them were waiting on top of a building. They had both been waiting there for around 30 minutes and the sister couldn't take it any longer. They were both wearing black clothing. The boy was wearing a black shirt with a long black hoodie and black pants. The girl was wearing the same black shirt and hoodie, except that she was wearing a black skirt with black stockings underneath it. They were both also wearing a pair of black gloves. The 2 of them were wearing those specific clothes and waiting in that area because they were on a certain mission, you could say. They were on many missions before, but this one was one of the longest ones yet. Suddenly, something started ringing. It was a device on the boy's pocket. It was a blaring sound for such a small device, but they were already used to it due to hearing it constantly. The boy pressed a big green button on the device. After a few seconds, a hologram appeared over the device. It was a person with black hair and grey eyes with a set of grey glasses. He looked like he was in his early 30s.
"Good evening, Shu and Kaede. I hope you're both doing well. I have been tasked by your grandfather to talk to you at this time on order to check up on the both of you. So, how are you both feeling?" said the person in the hologram.
"We're bored out of our minds, Mr. Nakamura! We've been up here for 30 minutes, and I can't take it anymore!" The boy's sister said to the man and looked away while pouting. "I'm sorry, Mr. Nakamura. But I can see where she's coming from. We haven't been in a mission this long in a while, so we are pretty bored up here". The boy, whose name is Shu, responded after his sister's whining.
That's understandable. A good number of agents get bored on missions as long as these" said Mr. Nakamura.
Mr. Nakamura was someone who worked for Shu and Kaede's grandfather's company: Shadow Raven, sometimes shortened to simply SR.
The SR is an agency whose members are all magic users. They usually help with crimes that they know the government would not be able to handle, particularly those that involve any sort of magic activity. Because of the recent increase in illegal magic usage, this group has been way more active than before, and because they usually deal with magic related incidents, the government has started to develop hatred for the group. As we speak, the group is endlessly being hunted down by the government in hopes to eventually terminate it.
Shu and Kaede are the SR's most powerful members. They joined the group out of respect for their grandfather, but they are rarely summoned due to them having to deal with their own things, like school, and magic studies.
"Yes. We have gathered all the possible information on Nefarious" Shu responded.
Nefarious is a magic criminal group that has the goal to kill every mage they come across with their own bare hands. Shu and Kaede had been tasked by their grandfather to put an end to this organization; a mission that started over a week ago. They had apprehended, captured and even killed many of the members of Nefarious by many different means due to their dangerous nature. They have been able to do this by using a list of Nefarious' most well-known members in the criminal society.
"Excellent" said Mr. Nakamura. "Just remember to be very aware of your enemies. They are still as tough as they come"
"Understood" both siblings said at the same time.
"Alright. Well, I'm off then. I have also been tasked to check on many other agents. Goodbye. Please succeed." The hologram disappeared and Shu put it back in his pocket.
The 2 of them suddenly heard a sound nearby. They started wandering around the top of the building to try and locate the sound, and that's when they found its source. On the ground nearby the building in a very dark alleyway, there was a person walking with what seemed to be some sort of grey briefcase in his hand.
"What is he doing? There's absolutely nothing there" Shu said, thinking out loud.
They were both trying to analyze what the person was doing in the suspicious area of the alleyway. He seemed to be walking towards one of the 3 adjacent walls in the area. Kaede then took out a pair of binoculars she had in one of the inside pockets of her coat. She zoomed in on the person and noticed a very important detail. "Hey, brother. Look at this" She told her older brother, who was right beside her, trying to figure out what to do.
"What happened?" Shu looked at his younger sister. She then handed him her binoculars and he started to use them. "Look at where I'm pointing". Kaede told Shu.
"Oh…I see…! But that doesn't make any sense…" She was pointing at a very specific area in the wall the person was walking towards. Then, the person put his hand on the specific area of the wall Kaede was pointing towards. And that's when it happened. A red magic circle appeared on the surface of the wall and that piece of the wall suddenly disappeared.
"It's a magic spell…but how are they doing that? Using magic like this is illegal. If they were to somehow be caught, they would be in very big trouble with the government" Kaede said, thinking out loud.
"If that's so…how did they get their hands on them?" said Shu.
The person who opened the magic door proceeded to enter this secret passageway. The door quickly started closing.
"It's starting to close. Let's go, Kaede!" Shu told his sister. "Alright! Something interesting! I mean, roger that, brother."
The 2 of them jumped down from the tall building. The building wasn't the tallest, in the world, so they could easily survive this fall.
The 2 of them did a front flip as soon as they hit the ground and landed safe and sound. They stopped near the open passageway. They couldn't get caught, so they needed some sort of spell to cloak them from others' eyes.
"Kaede, activate a Cloaking Spell" Shu said in a whispering voice.
"Understood" she responded.
Kaede then took of her right hand's glove and suddenly bit her hand's middle finger, up to the point of bleeding. She held out her arm and a single drop of blood fell to the ground, instantly creating a big magic circle that surrounded both Shu and her.
Usually, they wouldn't use magic out of nowhere since unless it was necessary since, of course, it was illegal. To counter the possibility of anyone seeing their magic abilities, their devices had a feature that would not let anyone that was farther than 35 feet from them detect or see their magic. The only downside of this feature was that it only lasted around a minute to a minute and 30 seconds (it was sort of random and still in development), but it worked anyhow. However, for this specific spell, that feature would simply not cut it.
She started to cast a magic spell. She started to say the necessary incantation while whispering so no one else but Shu could hear her.
"Magic Cloak that surrounds us with Mana.
Lend us your strength to hide from society
In order to seek the treasure we desire"
"Cloak of Transparency!" Kaede finished the spell.
As soon as she finished the spell, the 2 of them went fully invisible and the circle below them disappeared. This was 1 of Kaede's Cloaking Spells, spells that affected the target's entire body.
Since the device would cancel out other people's ability too see magic but they were using an invisibility spell, they would still be able to see their full entire bodies.
"Remember: we have 10 minutes" Kaede reminded Shu of her spell's time limit.
"Understood. Let's go."
They both went into the passageway, fully invisible. It was a long set of stairs that went very far down to the ground. To be extra careful, they both put on their coat's hoods in case the spell wore off when they weren't paying attention. They proceeded to finally start climbing down the amazingly extensive stairs.
"Why are these stairs so long? Whose idea was it to build these stairs?"
"I don't know, but you're right. They're way too long for what seems to be a criminal base."
Both of them kept walking down the stairs. Even though they were going down, they were both exceedingly tired from all the steps they were taking. But after around a minute or so, they finally reached the bottom of them. What they saw in the bottom of the stairs left them both very surprised.
There was an entire base of operations in this area. It was a very big area with 2 floors. The first floor had many different things: it had a giant map of the city, marked with what seemed to be different colored pins. Some even had some wool to connect the different areas. There were many computer monitors in many different tables around the base, and also some couches and seats scattered throughout. The second floor was connected by a set of stairs in a corner that was far away from the entrance. Up those stairs were a second floor with many different doors and what seemed to be different pathway.
"How the hell is this all here? This looks so big to be on the bottom of those stairs." Shu said out of shock.
"I know. This is starting to make less and less sense with every mission we do." responded his sister.
They started to walk around the base. Surprisingly enough, there was absolutely no one in the base, so using the invisibility spell was practically unnecessary. At least, that's what they both thought until they heard a voice in the distance. The voice was very muffled, but they could still hear where it was coming from.
"That's our target." Kaede said quietly. "Let's go, brother."
Shu nodded to his sister's command. They walked towards the stairs and silently climbed up them and went towards where the voice was coming from.
They finally reached the room. They were able to hear the voice clearly.
"I'm sorry I took so long, sir. I was being very cautious. I didn't want anyone to see me come here." The voice spoke.
A more mature voice started speaking afterwards.
"Don't worry. Its fine. Anyway, do you have what I asked for?" the second voice proceeded to respond to the first.
"Yes, I do. Here it is."
Shu and Kaede were right next to the door, still invisible, listening to the conversation. They heard a sound that sounded like something opening. It was the briefcase that the person brought in here.
"Here you go, Commander. 20 vials of Neutralizing Serum. It was very difficult to obtain all of these."
The Commander picked up one of the vials. They were filled with a glowing green liquid.
"Perfect. We can finally forcefully cancel out Mana. Now we just need to test them…"
Shu and Kaede heard all they said.
"Neutralizing Serum…aren't those near impossible to obtain?"
"Yes, they are. They shouldn't even have access to them. That must mean that they're getting made illegally by someone."
After that, what came next was very unexpected.
"And I know exactly who to test them on…Now!" the Commander screamed.
Suddenly, there was a beeping sound near the siblings' vicinity. They heard the sound as it was getting faster and faster. Then out of nowhere…
"Look out!!"
Boooooom!
There was a magic bomb that exploded near them. It was a type of bomb that didn't destroy anything, but it did injure anyone caught in its explosion radius. As soon as Shu realized this, he grabbed Kaede and pushed her and himself out of the way. Afterwards, they both landed on the floor, him on top of his sister.
"W-what was that?!"
"It was a bomb that was nearby. I had to grab you out of the way to avoid you getting hurt."
"Oh. T-thank you. Also…can you get off me?"
"Oh. Sorry about that."
Shu quickly got off his sister. Once this happened, they noticed that their invisibility spell went off. It wasn't necessary to use it anyway since there weren't many people in this base. Until now, that is. Someone walked out from the same room as they were eavesdropping. It was a man with white hair wearing a suit. He looked to be in his early 20s.
"So, it was you 2 who were listening in, wasn't it? I knew something was wrong."
"So, you're the Commander, I assume." Shu said with confidence while grinning.
"Hehe. So, what if I am? What are you going to do about it?"
"What we came here to do. End this organization."
"You really think you can defeat me? You make it sound too easy. NOW!"
Suddenly, from all the doors that were close to them, a bunch of people suddenly appeared. They were all wearing heavy black armor and were equipped with different types of guns.
"Everyone. Kill them!"
"Oh well. I guess I'm gonna need to use my magic. It's about time, anyway." Shu said.
"I agree. Let's do this, then!" His sister responded.
Shu then proceeded to take off his gloves and then threw them to the side. He put his hand up and then…activated his magic. In the back of his right hand, an orange diamond-like symbol appeared out of nowhere and his hands became engulfed in orange fire.
Shu grinned as he was getting ready. "Alright…let's go!"
"Alright, everyone. Kill them! Teach them a lesson for spying on us!"
"Yes, Commander!" After all the soldiers said that they started to shoot them.
"Hehe. We got this." Kaede commented.
"You can do better than that." In the middle of all the shooting, Shu started running towards the soldiers, with his sister behind him. He ran up to one and punched him in the face with his fire fists. Another one tried to catch him from behind, but Shu easily kicked him very far away and he fainted.
Very close to him, Kaede was fighting the rest of the guards. Whilst fighting them, Shu noticed a peculiar smell of blood…the same smell he was used to every time his sister used her magic.
The siblings fought all the guards, of which there were around 10 or so, by doing many different stunts, like backflips, uppercuts, etc., and by using their respective magic, of course. After a few seconds, all the guards were on the floor.
"Impressive…," said the Commander. "I guess you're both really stronger than you look"
"Thank you. I get my skills from a certain someone. Now, surrender and we'll stop fighting."
"Oh, I never said I was done."
"What do you…"
Right as Shu said this, someone behind him appeared out of nowhere, with the intent to kill him. Of course, though, someone else noticed.
"Brother, look out!" Kaede said.
As soon as Shu turned around, he looked at the man. But the man looked strange. Well, of course he did. He was hit by something in the forehead.
The man fell to the floor, and behind his head, Shu saw a weapon he obviously recognized. It was a small, blood red knife.
"Th…thank you, Kaede."
"Of course."
"Oh no, you don't!"
Next to the Commander, from the door closest to him, someone else appeared. They were holding a gun and pointing it towards Shu.
"Take THIS!" The gun fired a bullet. But something was odd about this bullet. It was glowing green.
"That's…a Neutralizing Bullet!" Shu exclaimed right as he saw it after he turned around from looking at the man Kaede had knocked out. He quickly tried to avoid the bullet, but then realized that he wouldn't be able to avoid it.
Wait…I won't be able to avoid it. It's going too fast!"
As he was preparing for the bullet's impact, something that he wasn't expecting happened.
"ARGH!" he heard a familiar voice's pain.
Huh? He thought as he was opening his eyes after closing them to prepare himself from the impact.
He saw his sister in front of him. His sister had taken the hit from the bullet to protect him.
The bullet had hit her in the chest. It exploded and her chest became covered with a glowing green liquid. "What is…this…"
Kaede fell to her knees. "Are you ok?!"
Shu quickly went on his knees to talk to his sister. She looked like she was losing her strength. "Are you ok?"
"I feel…weak. It feels like my Mana's…being drained…"
"Hehehe. So, it works after all! This is the effect is the Neutralizing Serum. It will make magicians' Mana "deactivate" for who knows how long! With this, we will be able to easily kill all mages we come across!"
"You little…We need to get out of here" he said.
"But what about-"
"That doesn't matter right now. Your safety is top priority, Kaede."
Shu quickly grabbed Kaede and started running to an empty area. The Commander and the man with the gun quickly followed suit. The man with the gun tried to shoot Shu to stop him, but he wasn't able to hit him. Shu quickly went up the stairs and went outside the base. The 2 behind him did the same.
"You're not getting away!" The Commander said.
"You…you'll pay for doing this to my sister!" Shu quickly activated his magic. The symbol appeared again, and his hand became engulfed in fire once again.
"Take this! Flame Blast!" He shot fire towards both of them. They were both trying to run away from the magic's vicinity to avoid getting hit. Once they looked again, Shu and his sister were completely gone.
As soon as they both disappeared, the Commander took out a communication device. He placed it in his ear and contacted someone.
"They're gone. Did you…see it all, sir?"
In the other side of the device's communication, a voice spoke towards the Commander. "Yes…its perfect. Thank you, Commander. The plan is coming into place."
The voice disappeared from the device. In the other side, there was a man wearing a suit who stood in a room that was located in the tallest floor of a certain building in the city. A room with many cameras. Cameras showing footage of the base.
"Hehehehe…so that's them. Shu and Kaede Makahoushi…I've found you…"
Shu was jumping between buildings, holding Kaede in his hands.
"Are you ok, Kaede?" Shu asked his weak sister.
"I'm…fine…but are you sure this was the right move?" she asked back.
"Your safety is more important than this mission. So of course, this was the right move…sister."
Shu kept jumping in between buildings until they finally reached their base of operations.