- Kalkal -

“Yes, we’ll be continuing our investigations in earnest, you can rest assured your friend will be found.”

The girl responded in a quiet, somewhat solemn tone, “Understood, thank you.” I clicked the phone onto the base and leaned back in my chair, glancing over my notes once more. These days my shifts go late into the night, leaving me maybe four or five hours of sleep. Once we nail down these bastards, they're getting a well deserved bash to the face.

“Investigator Kal-Kal!” I turned my head and saw my subordinate Harvatt skittering towards me. She had her hand raised, smiling from ear-to-ear.

“How many times do I gotta tell you brat, it’s pronounced Kalkull.”

“Sorry Kalkull,” She said mockingly. She sat down at her desk and activated the projector screen. “We just got a call from Andrew, and he says he has a lead on the Antifaction’s movements.”

I checked my watch for the time; It was 2400. Our branch was the only one that operated at this hour. “Put him on the line.” After a second, the phonebase beeped and I picked it up. “Detective Andrew, I heard you got some intel on the radicals?”

“I’ve been tailing an Insurgent group since dusk,” There was a bit of static, “They left the Church half an hour ago and entered a building in the Eastern District.”

“The East?” I sighed. That district is practically devoid of residents and mainly consists of shady businesses and suspicious private property. It’s not like I hadn’t considered them operating there, but It would be much harder to move and catch them if it were the case. “Where are you?”

There was a pause

“Somewhere around the edge of the dome, just past the checkpoint.”

“Okay…” Mass transactions in the underground, a series of kidnappings, movement in the Eastern District. From what I’m hearing, it looks like the radicals are moving forward with their plans. “Detective, standby and contact us when they leave the building.”

“Roger that.”

I stood up and walked around my desk, approaching the rectangular discussion table in the center of the room. I tapped the power button on the control panel, activating the projector. A map of the dome appeared a few inches above the table. It displayed the entire city, and was littered with notes that I placed on various buildings and areas of interest.

“Harvatt.”

“Yes?” She peeked her head out from her cubicle.

“Contact the MD. We’re mobilizing all the agents under our jurisdiction.”

“Should I request permission for use of arms?” She said this quickly, knowing what I would say. These guys are an elusive bunch. They popped up shortly after the formation of MEMA, the full name being The Ministry of Essence and Magic Affairs. They rejected program based Magic, and their group became known as the Antifaction by the people. In these situations, swift action was more valuable than legal protocol.

“Call in Matthew and Priscilla. Permission can wait till later.”

“Roger.”

After a few minutes, the other members of our team arrived.

“Hey Boss, you called?” Matthew popped through the doorway, weakly wobbling over to his seat. He handles most of the tech related issues, and usually works on the informational side of the operations.

“We got a job in session,” I peeked at him noting the bags under his eyes, “and Matt, sleep is just as important as work.”

“You’re not one to talk, Kalkal,” Priscilla said. She stepped through the same door as Matthew and walked down the short hallway towards her desk. “You barely leave this place. I bet you haven’t even showered in the past week.”

“Well I’m not a barbie doll like you princess.”

“Was that a confession?” Priscilla gasped and put on her classic pretty girl act.

“Get to work.” I sighed again and tried to hold back my irritation. Despite how old she was, when it came to conversation her maturity was the equivalent of a grade schooler’s.

“Got it boss~” She slipped into her seat and settled down happily after meeting her bothering-Kalkal quota.

I looked at the map and zoomed in on the right side of the city. I organized the data present and analyzed any patterns I could find.

“Harvatt, have you secured a line with our agents?”

“Yes, they are connected and ready to go.”

“Matthew?”

“I’ve pinpointed and marked the locations of the enemy bases and sent the intel to our allied forces.”

“And Priscilla?”

“I’ve contacted the overwatch and they are clearing the area as we speak.”

I rubbed my temples. These guys are slowly sowing the seeds of destruction in this society and its people. If we manage to capture the Antifaction, we could solidify the development of magic. With that, we can slowly expand both our cities and armed forces, bringing humans closer to recovery.

“No matter the cost, we’ll catch these motherfuckers.”

“Roger!”

- Julia -

Michael and I have just arrived at the school building with Mary. We’ve been more cautious after the incident with Emi, and I’d be lying if I told you I slept for more than a few minutes last night. Michael didn’t talk about it much, but he was a lot quieter this morning and I could tell he was quite shaken by what happened. Even though I knew this, I couldn’t bring myself to comfort him. I’m unsure about how the future is going to look, but with how I am now, I couldn’t make a difference regardless.

I glazed through my classes, unable to push aside the events that occurred that night. I was completely powerless. I watched as she was taken and all I could do was sit there, wallowing in my weakness and fear. If only I were stronger. If only I were more shrewd and more clever maybe I could have saved her.

“Hey, you alright?” Michael sat down across from me at the lunch table. You could tell he was worn out from the classes and his own worries, but came to terms with his emotions. He’s always been like that. Lazy and lackadaisical, but foolishly willful and ambitious at just the right times. I had always thought of myself as his older sister; That I was taking care of him and keeping him in check. But he’s always been doing the same for me hasn’t he? Just in his own… stupid little ways.

“I’m fine, thanks. I’ve just been thinking about Emi a lot and…” My head dipped and I felt my eyes stinging. Remembering my inability to act, and to protect the things I held dear to me was so… frustrating. Emi was so cheerful, so bright. Sometimes she could be annoyingly dumb, and other times she was so much smarter than I could ever be. She was the first friend I ever made here, and of course the world had to take her from me. And in the end it was because I was too weak.

I could feel Michael’s gaze resting on me, and for a minute we sat there silently thinking over what to say. Eventually, Michael decided to speak.

“You know,” he hesitated, thinking over his next words carefully. “When Edward picked me up, I was really frickin’ depressed. My family was gone and I was taken to some place with nobody I knew.” He paused and fiddled his fingers. “But you.. you kept moving forward. We both had lost our families, but you continued to live and thrive, pursuing knowledge with such a fervent unbounded passion. You would push my back when I lacked courage and helped me up when I was knocked down.” He gripped his hands and looked me in the eyes. “Your passion saved me, and I think we should just take this one step at a time.”

His hands were shaking and I could feel him holding his breath. He was right. After I lost my dad, I decided that I would honor his memory, exploring this world and it’s principles, living my life to its fullest without regrets. He raised me after my mother left him, but never showed the grief on his face that I knew he had. After everything he did for me what was I doing sitting here, pitying myself and wallowing in my insecurities?

I met Michael’s nervous eyes and responded with the most sincere thing I could think of.

“You sound like such a dork.” I began laughing without restraint, tears growing on the edges of my eyes. Michael’s hand covered his blushing face, and he started laughing along with me. We must’ve looked crazy cause the two of us laughed loud enough to alert the whole dining hall. I wiped the tears from my eyes and smiled with relief. A weight was lifted from my heart and I had Michael to thank for that.

“I don’t know what I would’ve done if you stayed depressed on me.” He sighed and slumped in exhaustion, wringing his fingers through his platinum hair.

“If worse came to worst, you could have confessed your hidden love for me.” I proposed.

“Yeah yeah, when the stars dance.”

We ate our lunch and talked about our classes. I say talked, but it was mostly Michael complaining about how much homework they were giving him. With how spoiled he is, forget older sister. I could be his mother. Because of the time he spent as a shut in, he was now fatally addicted to videogames and webnovels.

“Maybe you should just do your homework first, and then play video games after.”

Michael looked at me like he wanted to retort my statement, but ended up pouting instead.

“You wouldn’t understand. Video games are an elevated experience. They take you into another world and allow you to see and do things unimaginable otherwise.” He continued ranting until the last minute of the period and expressed a mix of excitement with the topic, and discontent when I presented reasonable counter points.

We left the dining hall and headed towards the student council room. We previously met inside of the principal’s office as a provisional clubroom, but we’ve since been assigned an official room to be our meeting place. It was located on the top floor of the school building, just down the hall from Edward’s office. Even though this floor is technically the fourth year's floor, most of the time they’re out of the building on internships, exchange programs, and expeditions. With how highly rated this academy was, students needed to go leaps and bounds to receive all their credits for graduation. As such, most of the rooms on this floor were vacant making it double as the club/administration level.

I grabbed the door handle to the office and pushed the heavy door open. We were met with a spacious room that included a long meeting table with a dozen chairs, personal studying areas with large desks and built in projectors, and a lounge with couches, a TV, and a small kitchen. The long glass pane windows allow light to shine on the well furnished room, highlighting the lacquer gold appliances and decor. Michael and I gaped at the room, baffled at the expensive luxuries placed before us.

Michael stood behind me and marveled at our new student council office. “Damn. I thought it was going to be some boring office, not a whole ass studio.” I stepped into the room and walked towards the large glass windows. Upon looking through them, I was once again met with a breath-taking sight. “Michael, come look at this.”

He stepped up to the glass and stared in awe, not needing to ask where to look. The viewpoint of the room looked out over the city of Sunimert, as hundreds of lights and people mingled and moved on the ground below. There was even a park down the center of the city, filled to the brim with rows of towering oak trees growing wide parasols of leaves that cast a shadow on the areas below.

Michael went straight to the lounge and collapsed on the couches, placed in a rectangle around a long coffee table. The floor was carpeted with a nice tone of blue, and I walked over to sit down as well. Today was really stressful, and while I didn’t want to be seen in the same room as this idiot I was completely tuckered out. I rested my body on the couch across from him and as soon as I did, I regretted it. I felt my limbs sink into the soft cushioning of the seat and my mind felt fuzzy. I began to feel sleepy and had to make a conscious effort not to take a nap. Who thought it was a good idea to put such a comfy couch in an office? I don’t think I could get any work done like this. They were so unbelievably comfy, I was seriously considering the possibility that they were enchanted.

“A… A little nap couldn't hurt…” I felt my consciousness fade and I relented to the darkness.

When I awoke, I blinked my eyes slowly and looked around. I was in the same place as before and Michael was asleep in the seat in front of me. I thought that I was the only one awake till I heard a voice come from across the room.

“You’re finally awake.” I turned left to see a black haired boy sitting at one of the studying desks. He wore the school’s uniform and I recognized him as the boy who we first tried to convince. A pair of glasses rested on his face and his eyes were constantly tensed and focused, very different from Michael’s and even my own.

“You’re Eric right? I thought you weren’t going to join until we convinced Aidin.” I sat up and looked at him while remaining seated. As far as I was concerned, this guy seemed to always have some kind of agenda he needed to keep up with.

He continued working on the document projected on his screen and talked without looking at me. “The third years must exercise practice as an instructor in order to complete their passing requirements. Most have to sign up to teach classes at another academy.” He glanced towards Michael and I before looking back at his projector. “But Principal Edward offered me full instruction credit if I tutored that boy for two weeks.” He jutted a thumb at Michael who was sleeping peacefully through the conversation. But something bothered me.

“Wait, is Michael the only one getting tutored?” I tried not to sound too winey about it but my desperation leaked out through my voice. I’m not denying that Michael needed tutoring, but I’ve hit a block when it comes to my magic and I was in need of such tutoring as well.

“Don’t worry. There will be someone tutoring you as well. Edward assigned this task to two of the third years, myself included.” I was about to ask who it was when he continued on. “Your tutor’s name is Stella Acidite. She specializes in instant death magic.”