GRUDGE BURST - Urban Fantasy Multi Protag Downward Spiral

"OK

SO-

NOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW THIS ALL WORKS?" says Makoto, pointing at a chalk board full of scribbles and pie charts. Naoki stands alongside her, dragging his face down in annoyance. Akemi sits on a stool by the side, patient as ever. In front of them is Yamada, awkwardly sitting down (or the closest thing to sitting down) on a cramped desk.

"I uh... I hate to be annoying but, could you repeat that one more time? Just a bit slower, please?"

Makoto angrily sighs.

"ONE MORE TIME. FROM THE TOP.

Despite modern belief, sorcery is real. It is manifested in humans through three different ways: spirituality/sorcery, ki, and psychopower. Also keep a mental note that even though we say 'sorcery' or 'magic', depending on the context, it can either refer to the main power type itself, or just referring to all three of them at the same time. A little annoying but, its easier to refer to them all as a whole compared to going 'psychopower, ki, and sorcery' every time we want to refer to all three of them. Cool? Cool."

Naoki continues where Makoto left off, as she begins to scribble on the board.

"Humans are able to use these types of magic, but at a ridiculously low amount. I'm talking a hundredth of our power. Don't take that literally, I'm just putting into perspective how weak they are without knowing how to use these powers. Everyday, whether it be working out, studying, or doing something they're passionate about, they are unknowingly using these powers. However, a key component to 'waking up' a person's power is needed to happen before they can even use any of these powers, that being-"

"TRAUMA!" blurts out Makoto with a smile.

"...

I mean, I was going to say it but, screw me I guess 💀"

Makoto shoots a cheeky smile at Naoki. He looks discheesed.

"I don't even know why I'm here if you're going to do my job for me," he complains.

"Oh stop crying its not that deep."

"NONONO- ITS FINE! TRUST. I don't need to be here; I'll just pick up my shit and leave."

Makoto starts to look annoyed.

"Okay we get it, I'll let you continue 💀"

"LET ME? OH THATS CRAZY- but, fine, whatever. Anyway, yeah, a severe amount of trauma. Whether it be something as instant as experiencing a car crash firsthand, or having your mind slowly edge towards its limit, this is the main component to unlocking power. And hell, some people are just born unlucky and are able to manifest their powers without a trigger, but this is rare and doesn't really dictate potential or anything. Even though having these abilities sounds cool and whatever, there's a major side effect to this: you start seeing the manifestations of humanity's extreme thoughts and emotions come into the world. Let's take for example, a shell-shocked soldier. He's not the same anymore, and he never will be. No matter the amount of therapy he goes through, he's going to carry the burden of what he saw. Now imagine all of that, but on top of it, he can permanently see the misery of the world manifest into spirits. There's no way to turn this off. That sucks but, he's unknowingly tapped into a realm of 'truth' so to speak."

Makoto continues where Naoki left off.

"I know that sounds like flowery language but he's right. These spirits are more often than not, the collection of ideas, concepts, and emotions that plague the world: literally. That's not to say that the world is all bad; that'd be silly... but, I will say that for every one spirit that embodies a positive emotion or idea, there's 10,000 more that reflect the wretched thoughts of everyday life."

Yamada's mandibles tighten, as if pursing his lips.

"That's... bad... right?"

Naoki shoves his face into Yamada's personal space and makes a wide eyed goofy expression.

"Uh- YEAH."

Yamada leans his head slightly back.

"...Alright...

...

...do you mind some space please?"

As Naoki moves backwards, Makoto continues the lecture.

"Yeah, that's bad obviously. But that's why we, the Ordinance Academy, and several other government programs from around the world exist. We know these things are real, and cause physical harm to the world. It's our job to police our country and either exterminate or arrest these spirits before they cause even more trouble. And I believe its important to tell you now than to leave you hanging, there's effectively no solution to fix this. Humans' perception of reality, whether it be through emotions, collective, or whatnot, alter the world; the more extreme the sentiment is, the stronger it becomes. If a collective of people believe in one concept, it spawns. Take for instance, the overwhelming negative sentiment of lying. The amount of humans in an area that have a distaste for lying will spawn a 'lying spirit', so to speak. That's not to say that a concept as old as civilization is strong or is even that old. Spirits fizzle out when we kill them, and they are temporarily down for some time before the cycle restarts, and a new 'lying spirit' with a new face, power, whatever, comes into existence again. And again, its not just negative things. Once in a blue moon, there's a genuinely kind spirit that just happens to be the embodiment of something that seems vile to us. On the contrary, even a supposed positive spirit like 'love' can end up being a massive freak. So, unless the spirit seriously means no harm, we either kill them, or arrest them if they seem useful."

Yamada raises his hand while asking a question.

"So, sorry if this seems ridiculous but, something as popular as say... baseball, would that be a strong spirit?"

Naoki, Akemi, and Makoto all look at each other with a sullen stare, before turning to Yamada and giving a collective "yes."

Yamada stifles a snicker.

"Paha... I'm sorry but that just seems like a silly picture in my head! What, was it some giant demon holding a baseball bat-"

Instantaneously, the next thing Yamada saw was his own neck getting pressed by Akemi's forearm. The kind, humble student glared at Yamada's face with veiny eyes. Gritting his teeth, Akemi hissed. "People died you motherfucker."

"Akemi," says Naoki with a stern tone.

"He didn't mean it."

Makoto closes her eyes as she crosses her arms, puffing air out of her nose. "You're forgetting that he's not a sorcerer. It was a coincidental comment, not an insult."

Akemi's eyes slowly morph back to normal. He stops grimacing, softening up, almost as if being unaware of what he was doing. He slowly let go while commenting, "...y-yeah you're... you're right." He then bows. "Sorry for assaulting you sir."

Barely surviving a heart attack, a long awkward pause between the four of them was held, before Yamada held a thumbs up with one of his hands while the rest of his arms stuck on to the wall behind him. A faint "ⁿ-ⁿᵒ ᵖʳᵒᵇˡᵉᵐ" was let out.

Makoto finally opens her eyes, before concentrating on Yamada.

"...

were those pellets underneath you always there, or is that what I think it-"

"AHAHHA- ANYWAY, LET'S CONTINUE WITH THE LECTURE," cut Yamada off.

Going back to where they were standing, Naoki takes the reigns.

"Now, I know we've been talking a lot about spirits and such, but there's classifications to these things. Not all of them are even remotely the same. So going from weakest to strongest, here's each 'species' of spirits:

The weakest ones are called Remnant Psyches. They're just ghosts. They are dead humans who have died recently, and meander around. There are three common types of Remnant Psyches:

A. Ghosts who are still waiting to be guided by angels to the afterlife.

B. Ghosts who are just chilling, simply choosing to delay their path to the afterlife, and are still on earth either to reminisce in the old days, or simply mess around with humans for fun.

or

C. Remnant Psyches who still had unresolved issues before they died, making them all pissy. This is how remnant psyches 'haunt' items or even worse, evolve into a spirit.

They are all relatively weak but some students have chosen not to kill them-"

"Even though you should," interupts Akemi.

"...Yeah," continues Naoki. "We should but, they're not really a threat. I get the logic is to dissuade them from evolving into spirits in the worst case scenario, but I'm going to be so real with you, most of them are just waiting. I don't think there's anything wrong with befriending someone who's dead. It's an interesting perspective."

Yamada raises his hand and asks another question:

"But wouldn't killing a Remnant Psyche delay them from going to the afterlife?"

"Yes," answers Makoto.

They all awkwardly stare at each other. Yamada looks at the ground.

"I know what you're thinking," continues Makoto, "but we're just doing our job. There's a reason people like Naoki and I don't do it, but why Akemi does it."

"...I see...

...

Do we go to the afterlife?"

Another pause.

Akemi finally answers:

"We don't know."

Naoki then claps his hands then focuses back on the board.

"But- we're just gonna have to find out when we get there.

Anyway, up next on the list are Spirits.

Spirits can either be:

A. A really pissed off remnant psyche that condensed all of their issues into themselves to the point that it alters their composition, thus altering their form into something stronger.

B. A bunch of remnant psyches that managed to merge together to form a giant ball of misery.

Or C. much like what we were talking about before, this is where the manifestations of human thoughts begin to spawn in. Typically, they spawn in a local area, so there could be multiple 'versions' of say, a mosquito spirit. There could be one in Kyoto, one in Tokyo, one in Miyagi, etc. But, rarely, if a large enough area fears or reveres the same idea, there's a chance that a stronger version of that idea spawns, but we'll get to that in a sec.

For now, Spirits are just the beginning of when they actually become threats. Not too big of an issue as long as they don't kill too many people, but its best to exterminate them before they begin causing severe damage.

Greater Spirits (creative name, I know), are when things start becoming serious. Going back to what I was just talking about, these are ideas that happen to spawn when a large area thinks of a specific concept in a short amount of time. Let's say... a terrorist attack happens and it hits national news. That would be the perfect catalyst to spawn in a 'terrorist spirit' so to speak. Or like earlier, you mentioned the idea of a baseball spirit. That exact thing happened. It was the finale to the Japan cup and with the entire country rabid and excited over the sport, they inevitably spawned in a deadly spirit simply due to the extreme amount of high emotions. It is possible to take one of these down by yourself, but you're almost guaranteed to miss a limb. Or four. That's why its best to team up with someone else to take these down.

Up next are Demons.

Unlike spirits, these creatures are not from this world. They are not petty humans who are still mad over something that happened years ago, or the amalgamations of humanities fervent thoughts. These are honest to god creatures of pure evil who come to earth just to mess around. These are thankfully, extremely rare to come across, but they are exponentially stronger than a mere greater spirit. And the worst part is, unlike the other spirits, these are the only creatures who have a physical body. This means that humans can see an honest to god demon in broad daylight, and thus awaken their ability to use magic. That's a huge problem for us, and I'll explain why in the end. But to end this note, even though demons are physically present, you can not kill them permanently. They will respawn back in hell (or wherever they came from), rest, and then be totally fine. That's why its important to kill demons with sorcery to extinguish their soul. But seeing as how they're higher spiritual beings, its going to be really hard.

Next up, we have straight up Gods. They're a lot closer to spirits, in the sense that they are typically born from a plethora of people believing in them. Praising said god; fearing said god. These creatures are on par with demons, if stronger depending on how many people believe in them. Due to the modern age, the era of gods has been over for thousands of years. Not to mention, those gods of olden eras would be way weaker now due to the amount of people that believe in those dead religions are few and far between. I don't doubt that there's some obscure cultish god meandering somewhere around the world, but since no country has disappeared off of the face of the planet without reason, I think we're fine. Finally, the academy does have a vault with a few gods and spirits contained within them but, they're most certainly in a weakened state. And even then, a weakened god would still be enough to level a country.

Finally, the last races are Angels. I hate to be blunt but, we have no idea what they are. The only things that we know are: they guide ghosts to the afterlife, and that they left a warning. "Do not bring anyone back to life." It is said that if humanity were to ever reincarnate someone with a complete body, mind, and spirit, the angels will conduct an extinction event. I don't know what any of that is all about, but as long as we're alive, I don't care.

I will leave a final note: there is a reason we wipe the memories of humans in the local vicinity that we just conducted a mission on. First and foremost, if they awaken their powers, that's going to cause a problem. Even if they are the kindest law-abiding Japanese citizen, without a control of their powers, that will cause harm. And when several of humans are in that scenario, that spreads chaos quickly. Not to mention, since they still don't know how to control their powers, their ideas are still able to manifest and fuel the rate at which spirits are born. And when a whole country is panicking, then these spirits spawn like maggots. We blame all these large scale freak accidents as 'metoers' or 'earthquakes.' The Ordinance Academy, along with the permission of the government, manages the information of media and news coverage just to calm citizens down. Sure, later the down the line we might have to fight a 'meteor' or 'earthquake' spirit, but you must remember this: humans are fickle and fragile. Explaining to them that an earthquake just struck the city is a lot more logical, and saner, than saying a hundred foot tall spirit stomped on cars and wacked a skyscraper with a baseball bat for fun. It's only necessary.

So. Do you have any questions?"

Yamada, slowly looks up. He opens his mouth and says, "I think I get the basic gist of how this world works now but... do you mind doing one big favor for me?"

"What is it?" Asks Makoto.

"Do you mind explaining from the remnant psyches section all the way back to where you just ended off?"

Makoto shoved her fist through the wall.

"Actually, I think I got it all, nevermind."

"GREAT." responds Makoto, holding an irked smile through gritting teeth.

Naoki takes a sip of water while Makoto continues the lecture.

"Now that the boring stuff is out of the way, we can finally focus on to move on to the most important aspect when it comes to these powers: ACTUALLY USING IT!

There are three main types of power: Psychopower, Ki, and Sorcery (/magic).

These three correlate to the concepts of the mind, body, and spirit respectively. They are in essence, what type of person you are, and the unique abilities are who you are as a person. Let's start off with Ki.

Ki is all about the material world. In its most basic aspect, it applies to the body. The main thing we own in life is our own body. Some people just don't care for thinking endlessly for hours on end; some people don't care about spirituality or 'who they are as a person.' Some people just want to grill, and see whether or not they can make the best possible medium-well steak. Some people only care about making money, one way or another. And some people just want to work out for the hell of it. This doesn't mean that using ki makes you dumb or what not. If anything, it makes you 'understand' the world because you appreciate what's in front of you, and you're in tune with matter. Being in tune with the world makes you reach the true essence of the physical world, so much to the point where it bypasses the realm of matter, and is able to reach the spiritual realm, as well as a mental plane. Fancy wording aside, it basically just means that you become so in tune with the physical world to the point where you can affect spirits and combat against magic and mental powers just by punching. By amplifying your ki, your body becomes a pillar of might. Your mere flicks become as strong as a professional boxer's strongest punch. You're able to react to bullet fire and at a certain level, punch back projectiles. Your body becomes as strong as steel, and the world slowly feels like it becomes more and more like its made out of paper. The more a person specializes in ki, the stronger the body gets, reaching ridiculous limits. At a certain point, it stops being 'punching hard to turn their body into paste' and becomes 'punching hard to the point where reality bends around my fist.' A bit of hyperbole, but I believe you get the basic gist.

Next up is Psychopower. Psychopower is all about the mind. The emotional, the logical, the creative, and to a certain extent, the ideological. It doesn't just pertain to basic concepts such as 'being smart.' All that matters is that a sorcerer's mind has been altered to the point where they can affect things with their mind now; in basic terms: psionics. If you're the type of person that doesn't really care for the material world, much less yourself, and you find yourself endlessly wondering about several topics everyday, then chances are you lean more towards psychopower. Seeing as how transforming into a sorcerer has permanently shaped your mind, this now means that your body, spirit, and mind can tap into the spiritual realm in the first place. And with that, if you train your mind hard enough, it can affect yourself and others as well. Instead of going down the route of punching the soul out of people, psychopower affects the minds of spirits and people alike. From flinging objects at your opponent, to flinging your opponent towards objects, the world becomes a plaything of the mind. Do not think that psychopower is only telekinesis however. If your ki isn't strong enough to dent a spirit, don't worry, for malforming an opponent's mind with illusions, debuffs, or even something specific like lowering their intelligence the longer the fight lasts, are just one of many flavors to take down an opponent with psychopower. Not to mention, there are several other situational yet handy applications like telepathy, for communications or teleportation, for traveling. At a certain level, psychopower breaches the mental plane and small scale physical world, and affects things at a much grander scale. Do not underestimate the power of the mind.

Last but not least, is Sorcery. Magic is all about one's self. The ethos of the soul, so to speak. A selfish person, or a person who knows who they are deep down are the ones who are easily able to use magic. Magic is fueled by the soul, and a soul is who a person is; basic stuff. Despite it being labeled as 'the spiritual plane', the souls of spirits aren't so different from the souls of humans. It is after all, a visage of who they truly are. Magic is easily the most varied form, seeing as how there's a plethora of niche techniques to them. Despite the quantity though, I say that with an asterisk because yes, there are several techniques that can be taught to people, but much like psychopower and ki, there are unique techniques that cannot be taught, and are only garnered by specific people. Those specific abilities pertain to those people because those techniques are a manifestation of their soul; who they are. Nobody can train themselves to 'be' another person no matter how obsessive they are. An extreme few amount of people can have that specific ability though, out of sheer coincidence. I'm talking about how a person across the world can have the same ability; they don't know who the other person is, and may be different in every shape and form except in personality, but its possible, albeit, extremely improbable. Seeing as how sorcerers are already rare in the world, having a person that has the same exact personality is an astronomically low chance. Magic comes in all shapes and sizes. Magic that isn't unique are easy to learn, but are rarely as strong compared to unique techniques, unless a person relentlessly trains in that aspect. Take for example, something as basic as a fireball. A fireball the size of volley ball is going to hurt, no doubt. But over the years, since I've been studying physics and the intricacies of wind, ice, and other elements, I can unleash devastating attacks compared to some rinky dinky dollar-store fireball."

Yamada raises his hand.

"Yes, what's your question," asks Makoto.

"Do you have a unique ability?"

An audible "HHGGGKK" escapes Makoto's lips. Naoki looks amused from her reaction. With an irked smile, and a twitching eye, Makoto responds through gritting teeth, "No. Although I'm a magic specialist, I don't have one yet. Not to mention, I'm only 17 years old. I may know who I am as a person, but I still have time to develop."

Yamada looks blankly. "...Magic... specialist?"

"I'll explain in a second. For now, just remember that magic comes from the soul, and there's various ways to express it. I know I mentioned elements earlier, but to be frank, those are only tip of the iceberg. Something as boring as 'fire' or 'ice' can never contain the vast individuality humans have. You can train to summon a tamed spirit, or learn basic forms of teleportation, constructs, traps, portals, manipulation, buffs, debuffs, conjuration, etc. And those are all things you can learn from a textbook. Now, I know that seems like a lot, especially since they all have their own flavors but, first of all, even in the most basic of magic, these will still take years to get down, and second of all, since these are all common types of magic, they're... not that strong. Abilities that are unique to a person will always be stronger compared to something you learned from a scroll. For example, there's going to be a transfer student from Pakistan coming soon. From what I read on the report, she has the ability to inject the poliovirus into a person, and it only takes minutes for a person to succumb to the effects."

Akemi perks his head up with a raised eyebrow.

"How the hell do you know that? Aren't the teachers the only ones to know that?"

"Kuragari showed me. Knowing who he is, do really expect him to care about standards?"

"That's-

actually

yeah, that checks out."

Mesmerized, Yamada sits there with an absent expression.

"Are you keeping up, Yamada," asks Naoki. "This is going to be on the test you know."

"THERE'S GOING TO BE A TEST?"

"Oh yeah, he's awake."

"Yes; excuse me if I look like I'm not paying attention, its just... hard to process someone with an ability like that. Not hard to accept mind you, because, look at me. After what I experienced, everything seems kinda like 'yeah, alright; that exists I guess.' What's really tripping me up is how they're able to do it."

"Good question," Chimes Makoto. "Ki, Psychopower, and Magic can all be taught through various ways. From reading ancient texts, scrolls, and being taught in-person, to using various means of funneling that power outwards with the help of wands, spellbooks, and other weapons or tools imbued with power. Keep in mind though, these appliances simply serve as training wheels. For example, the last time I used my spellbook was like... in second grade 💀. So for the first few months here, you'll most likely be stuck with the equipment we give to elementary students."

Naoki audibly snickers. Makoto shoots a glance back at him. "Say, Naoki, when's the last time you used your spellbook."

Naoki immediately stops laughing. "Low blow dude."

"Speaking of perfect transition, Naoki can't use magic."

"💀"

"That's because not all sorcerers can use all three of the ability types. No matter how hard they try, a person can't force themselves to change their personality; they simply develop over time. For explanation's sake, I'll draw it as this pie chart."

"They're cut into three segments, representing how skilled they are at in said segments. We define a sorcerer as either 'all-rounders', 'half-and-half', or 'specialists.' Let's start off with the easiest one to explain, all-rounders."

"As the name implies, they are sorcerers who are skilled enough to use all three types of power. More often than not they compile abilities to cover up weaknesses yet have a solid enough skillset; sort of like a jack of all trades, master of none type of deal. Even the oldest of all-rounders can never beat a specialist or even a half and half user in their type. Though, being able to use all three types even in their most basic forms is a big upside on its own. One could even use it as a strength as a sort of rock-paper-scissor response to situations."

"Half-and-half users are those who can use two types of power, and have an equal skill between the two. Compared to an all-rounder, they limit their options for the sake of fewer, yet more solid techniques."

"Last but not least, are specialists. The inverse of an all-rounder, they sacrifice the strength of the other two types to maximize their potential in a specific type. They break the boundaries of what people think is possible for their type, at the cost of vulnerability and options.

Despite what I said about specialists, and how appealing 'breaking the boundaries' sounds, do not think that specialists are the strongest solely because they put all their eggs in one basket. Let's say there's a rogue sorcerer who's a ki specialist, and he's really strong. The rogue sorcerer can destroy an island with one punch, sure, but that's going to mean jack shit if they're trapped in a spell, and a psychic ability that reduces their iq to 4 in a span of minutes makes them forget how to breath. It's not always 'specialists beat all-rounders' or 'half-and-half sorcerers beat all-rounders.' It's all dependent on the skillset that a sorcerer uses, the techniques they have, and how they play their cards.

Even though the academy teaches every student the basics of every type in the beginning, once they start to resemble a semblance with a type or types, most students stop becoming all-rounders. Just because I sort of remember how to use telepathy from a long time ago, and how to empower my durability so that I don't die whenever a sorcerer punches me, does that make me an all-rounder? No. I'm a magic specialist. Even if you know how to do one or two techniques from another branch, it doesn't automatically mark you as a separate specialists. It's all about how you spread out your skills and how... skilled you are in that type- yeah you get the gist.

Last but not least, is why these matter. In simple terms, it's to classify a person. I'm a magic specialist; even though I read tons of books and I constantly study the laws of physics and how to manipulate it to my will, that doesn't mark me as psychopower user because, I'm not reading for the sake of learning. I'm reading to get stronger. If it doesn't help me then... yeah I don't give a shit about it 💀. Naoki over here is a half-and-half ki and psychopower user. Despite how stupid he is-"

"Dude."

"-he's able to use psychopower. That's mainly because Naoki is naturally, a very creative person. Even though he's a Buddhist, you'd expect him to use magic because of his religion but, no. He loves to work out and he loves to play on his computer all day... despite materialism being a thing they preach against."

"I'm still just a kid," explains Naoki. "If it was that easy to attain enlightenment, then everybody would just whip out a Wikipedia article about Buddhism and transcend right then and there."

"...right. My main point, Yamada, is like I stated way earlier. You can't force yourself to become a certain type or another; it all depends on who you are. You might never be able to use one type or another, and that's perfectly normal. We just have to use the cards we're dealt. And don't forget that it's deeper than some plastic label. Just because you like working out doesn't mean that makes you a ki specialist by default. Just because you got a high score in a college test doesn't mean you're able to use psychopower. Just because you are religious doesn't mean you are a magic specialist right then and there. It all depends on your intent.

Last but not least about the specialists bit, is that its handy to classify your opponents. I'm a magic specialist, Akemi is an all-rounder, and Naoki is a uses half ki and half psychopower. So someone like Naoki would be an easy match up for me to beat because I can counter his ki, and I'll just simply... dodge his psychic attacks. But we already knew that so we can go over the next topic."

Naoki looks at Makoto with an irked stare.

"Hey," he states with a serious voice. "You wanna test that right now?"

"Nah. I know I'd win."

"Is that so?"

Naoki's cape flares up as he clenches his flute.

"Let's take this outside," he states through gritted teeth.

"Psh. Desperate to prove something?" mockingly rebuts Makoto, as she faces towards him with a cocky stare. "We can do it right here, right now."

"Don't need to tell me twice-"

"Guys." shouts Akemi.

The both of them give him an annoyed look, shouting "what," back at him.

He nods towards Yamada, who was bracing himself with his arms in front of his face.

"..."

"...Tch."

The both of them scoff, before going back to where they were originally standing.

"The last thing you should know about when it comes to magic are contracts. They're restrictions bound upon one's self, or another person. The more limiting the restriction, the stronger the trade-off.

For contracts applied against one's self, these are usually used to squeeze more power out of a technique."

Yamada raises his hand. "You say there's restrictions but... what do you mean by that?"

"Good question. In all honesty, it could be anything. It could be a time limit, like using a technique for only 20 minutes a day, to sacrificing your own hand. The more severe a limitation is, the greater power you'll get in return. Especially, when you mean it. Let's take for example, your hand, right? If you were to apply an impromptu sacrificial contract to deliver the strongest punch possible, at the cost of your hand, that's going to magnify your damage by a lot. But every sorcerer can just go to Ms. Gretchen and have their hand healed right afterwards. But if you do the same contract, and you actually mean it, implying that you'll never heal your hand back, then that contract permanently stains you. You'll lose your hand, at the cost of delivering a punch far stronger than a contract you don't put your life on- metaphorically spea- eh well... sometimes metaphorically speaking, other times, not so much. You know how we mentioned the baseball spirit a lot earlier?"

"...All too well," says the cockroach, actively looking at Akemi.

Akemi kindly waves back at him with an innocent smile.

"Well," continues Makoto, "we managed to take that spirit down thanks to one sorcerer's brave sacrifice he made an on-the-spot contract that not only sacrificed his skin- all of it, but also his ability to use magic. Of course we had to find means to prevent him from dying but thankfully, that sacrifice alone nuked the baseball spirit instantaneously."

"Wait hang on, what happens if a contract is broken," asks Yamada.

"...It depends. Much like how severe the contract is in the first place, the punishment will be of equal worth. Let's say you put a restriction on a technique that says you can only use it between 2 PM to 9 PM, just to make it four times as strong."

"That's an oddly specific contract."

"Just bear with me for a sec. So let's say you do that, and you use the technique after 9PM. The contract will be broken and in a worst case scenario, you just lose that buff, and now your technique is back to its default, mundane version. Bummer, but it is what it is. If for example, you do a contract that restricts you from using a specific yet power technique more than once in your life, that technique is going to easily destroy greater spirits and contest against gods, right? But, if you use it more than once, you just die on the spot. A contract that severe can't be toyed with."

"Ah... that's ... scary, to say the least."

"Oh but that's not the scariest part yet. Under niche circumstances, you can even have contracts with other people. Whether it be sharing a line between two people, thus enhancing both of their capabilities as long as the other person is alive, or even a 'gentleman's agreement' within a fight, banning the use of a certain technique, contracts with other people are fragile, and can end up killing a person over a slight mistake."

"...gentleman's duel?"

"Some people like to fight for fun, and just put arbitrary restrictions to keep the fight going."

"...that seems dumb."

"You'd be surprised by how many people here blur the line between 'dumb' and 'delusional.' Not that I agree with them."

"...no... that just seems dumb 💀"

Naoki props up. "Oh hey look, he's starting to do it too."

Back to Makoto. "Now, for right now, I believe that's the basics and all you need to know about. Later down the line, I can tell you about niche techniques like umbra manipulation, as well as other smaller species of sorcerers like vessels and cyborgs, but for now, I'm pretty sure this amount of information should suffice. Don't want to overwhelm more than I already have 💀"

"I see."

"..."

"..."

The both of them look at each other before Yamada opens his mandibles.

Makoto interrupts him before he could let a word out. "Go ahead and tell me you want a review of everything I just said. Go ahead. See what happens."

Yamada's body stiffens.

"...nevermind...."

"Great!" Makoto claps her hands. "Now, we shall go to the library to check out your first textbook as well as some handy tools to help you start. I'll be frank with you though, since you're such a unique case I highly doubt we're going to teach you to be an all-rounder first, so we're just gonna have to see what type you're prone towards but... we'll see. Let's go."

Yamada gets up and hobbles towards the door, following Makoto. As the door closes behind the cockroach, Naoki leans against the board while Akemi silently sits on the window that he was sitting on the entire time. The air tightens. Both of them are quiet, unwilling to look at each other in the eyes, only staring at the ground, waiting for each other to initiate. It stays like this for a couple of minutes until Naoki breaks the silence.

"So.

You mind telling me what your sponsor's problem is?"

Akemi sighs, closing his eyes.

"Yeah... I don't know. I highly doubt its personal but, Mr. Mishima cares for his job you know? I will always support you Naoki, and you know that-"

"I don't think letting your sponsor take me to court, much less a civilian is very caring of you, I'll be frank."

Akemi wrinkles his nose. "I do care about you Naoki. I don't like that he did that but, first of all, he's a grown man, and a superior. I can't convince him to do anything, no matter my suggestions. Second of all, no matter how much I want to side with you, in the eyes of the law, you are in the wrong."

"He's an innocent person. How blind are you to see that? What did he do to you?"

Akemi stands up and inches closer to Naoki. "I have nothing against Yamada. He seems like a hardworking citizen, and a fine man. But, again, both of you did something wrong. I will always look out for you, but he's just a stranger to me. No matter if he's a hard working citizen, our duty is to prevent him from being seen, much less to prevent people like him from existing. I don't know what happened to him, and I genuinely feel sorry for the guy. But we should have ended his misery when we had the chance."

The both of them stare at each other face to face.

"So you're telling me you want to kill him. Is that it?"

Akemi sighs.

"No Naoki; that ship sailed the very second Mr. Mishima took the matter into his own hands. Again, I don't have anything towards him. Perhaps we could even be friends. And I do respect him to a certain degree; even if he's not bound by our society, he is still older than us, and thus deserves our respect much like any other adult. But that's really I can say for him. I don't like that Mr. Mishima dragged you into it, even if it is your fault. But again, I can't control either of you two, so that's that. Not only that but, the case is closed. I don't know how I can make it up to you, but those are my genuine opinions."

Naoki closes his eyes and clenches his fists. Seconds later, he loosens up and sighs.

"Tsk.

...Ffffffffffffffiiiiiiiiine. Apology accepted."

The both of them hug.

"I'll talk to Mishima about it, because I do have my own qualms about it, even if I agree with him to a certain extent. But I don't think anything I say will change anything."

"It's fine. It's not that I'm necessarily mad at you, its just confusing on who's side you're on, and it seemed bogus that you were playing both sides but... I guess you're right; it's too late to do anything about it so why cry about it. I guess I just wanted things to be cleared, and I'm glad you're at least honest about it. I can't force you to befriend Yamada, and that's that.

By the way Akemi, when you sighed, your breath got in my face. You should brush your teeth."

"Paha, you always know how to lighten up the mood."

"...I'm serious."

.

.

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Meanwhile, in the plains of Wisconsin

Casual evil roams in the search for community.