"S..." I raised my hand at them, "Stop this!"

"Oho, what's this?" Aguilar chuckled to his boys, "This guy suddenly shit his pants or something? Sorry bro, but you're far too deep to back out now. Now, say goodbye."

As soon as the gun's muzzle flashed, I had Gone Solipsistic and charged straight into it. The reason I didn't back away was because I knew I was tired. I only had this one chance, as I was too tired to stay in slowed time for any longer due to overexerting myself in looking for these guys, not to mention helping out Jelena. If I ran to the side, not only would the bullet pierce Lemmy, but I would also use up the last of my Focus on dodging, effectively not solving anything. Thankfully, in pausing his actions with my pleas, I had given the Sinus Wave enough time to roughly rise. It wasn't fully at the top, but it was just enough to give me the luck needed for the bullet to miss.

"Hup!" I took the gun away from him, the bullet just barely grazing my cheek, "Now, time shall resume!"

"Eh?" Aguilar stood shocked at the sudden turn of events, "What the...!?"

"Back away, now!" I held them all at gunpoint, "I will not hesitate to shoot you all!"

"Pheh, my ass you won't!" Aguilar instead displayed his bravado and started approaching me.

Crap, he's right...! If I was alone here, I would've easily splattered their brains on the walls behind them. Still, everyone was here with me. I would have witnesses, and no matter how trustworthy they are, it would eventually get out that I killed a bunch of fellow students on campus grounds. Crap, why are they even allowed to open carry if they're in campus!? Everything's so confusing...!

"The fuck's the matter, huh guy!" He punched me square in the face, sending me flying backwards, "Too scared of getting expelled?"

As the others guffawed annoyingly, only hyping him up further, their entire group suddenly pulled out all kinds of weapons. Be they stilettos, guns, instarope, or even metal star shaped throwing blades. It seems they had finally decided to join the fight. This is bad, I need to find a way to send the others to a safe place...!

"Stop." Lemmy's order reverberated throughout the room, "I'm gonna need you to give all of your weapons to us."

"Khk!" Aguilar tried fighting Lemmy's Command with all his might, but in the end still handed me his butterfly knife, "What the...!?"

"I will gladly take that." I chuckled as the others soon followed his example, "Well, now that they are all here, we might as well ask them exactly why they were looking for the book, no?"

"We ain't tellin' shit, bitch!" One guy from the crowd piped up.

"Tell us everything." Lemmy's stared deep into their very core as he Commanded, "I won't say it again."

"Ghk!" They fell to their knees, "I-It...!"

"Go on, what's the matter?" Kevin jeered from the sidelines, "Too scared to speak?"

"Kevin, shut the hell up." Javi stopped him from making himself a target.

"I-It's...! T-The book is...!" Aguilar felt conflicted on whether to follow his own free will or Lemmy's absolute orders, "I-It's... The Book of Misfortune!"

As soon as he said what he had said, they were all temporarily freed of Lemmy's Command, leading to Aguilar quickly getting up to jump me. Pushing me onto the table and engaging in a flurry of punches and kicks, the surprise was too much for me to react to in time. I was too tired as well, which only made my movements even more slowed. As everyone tried desperately to fend off the other guys from jumping me, a loud bang had made everyone fall deathly silent. Indeed, it was none other than Jelena who had knocked Aguilar off of me with a folding metal chair she had apparently gone to the back to get.

"Phew. Now we're even, scholar boy." She flashed me a smile, "Huh? What're you doing?"

"Tying him up?" I said as I immediately used the instarope we took from them to tie Aguilar up tightly, "Crap, that was too close."

"Aguilar!" The fellows once again got riled up, "Stop what you're doing! We're not done with you!"

"I know." I smiled back, my Eyes brightly glowing, "We are not nearly done, are we?"

Gulping, some of the guys actually suggested to their second in command to run away and leave Aguilar, however that didn't seem to bode well with the guy. He instead turned to me, eager to get a few punches in and hopefully free his friend, but alas, I had other plans in mind.

"Lemmy!" I shouted, "Command them to follow me!"

"S-Sure thing!" Lemmy nodded, "Peacefully follow Meil somewhere else!"

As if clockwork, they all stopped dead in their tracks and formed an orderly line. It was like looking into an ugly mirror, if I moved to my left, they mirrored their footsteps and went to their right. If I moved to my right, they would go to their left. Wearing them out a bit with this by sidestepping repeatedly, I had stopped the jokes and began walking them all outside.

"Huh? Where are you going, Meil?" Mademoiselle asked, "Come on guys, we need to...!"

"Stay back." I put my palm out, "I will have these guys explain everything they know about this Book of Misfortune. I will tell you everything once I get back, so trust me."

"It's not a matter of trust, Meil." Javi noted, "You're outnumbered, having us around will surely help."

"None of you are fighters, safe from Lemmy who has a good sense for it, but not the body." I explained, "I will be fine."

"Wait, then before you go!" Lemmy Commanded, "Scratch the previous order! From now on, you will treat Meil as if he were Aguilar, and vice versa!"

"Got it!" The men suddenly turned to me, "Come on, boss! Let's go back to the hideout and celebrate!"

"Celebrate?" I tilted my head.

"Well duh!" They smiled, "We got the book!"

Looking down at what they were point to, I chuckled as I tried my best impression of their mob boss, Aguilar, "Haha! Sure as shooting!"

"Eugh, his acting skills are atrocious..." Mademoiselle winced, "I-I mean! I-I think it's s-splendidly unique!"

"No, it's just outright bad." Kevin corrected her.

"The hell'd you say about our boss!?" The thugs started getting rowdy, "Boss, let's drop his ass!"

"Maybe later." I glared back at them before walking away, "Come on now, fellas! We betta' get movin'!"

"Awe yeah, boss!" They cheered as they dutifully followed behind.

This is... perfect! Lemmy really outdid himself with this one! I was planning on just taking them somewhere secluded to kill them all off, but this is even better! We could find out their hideout's location, get to find out the deal behind this book, and then we'll be one step closer to figuring out the mystery behind the System! This is it - absolute victory!

***

"So Aguilar, we never did get our drinks." The second in command tried walking next to me.

"Step back." I ordered, "Do not treat me like we are friends."

"Ooh, now you made him mad, Heffer!" The other joked, "Yeah, you know how he gets when you talk to him about her."

"Oh come on, dude. Don't be an ass just cause you didn't get to talk to her."

"And who exactly are you talking about?" I rolled my Eyes as I turned to them.

"Aw, don't act all shy now!" He chuckled, "Y'know, the short black haired one. The one that keeps getting away, so to speak."

As he talked about who I presume is Jelena, the other boys burst out laughing. So Aguilar had a romantic interest in Jelena? Huh, sucks to be him, I guess. She isn't the type of girl to hang out with such a rowdy ragtag group, so unless he shook his attitude and pride away, I'm afraid miss Jelena will forever stay out of his league.

"I am just a bit preoccupied at the moment to be thinking of her." I looked away as I examined the Book of Misfortune.

"Right, makes sense. We finally got our hands on it after that long-ass search." He lightly kicked the knocked out Aguilar I dragged behind me, "Still, we got super lucky with taking this guy down so easily. We almost got ourselves found out."

"Hm?" I furrowed my brows.

Ah, that's right. They're still under Lemmy's Command, meaning they think I am Aguilar, and the person I'm dragging along is Meil. It's a bit scary, the lengths Lemmy's Iro Ability can reach. Makes me think of Cecily as well, as she has the same Iro. Lune really lucked out with her not yet having realized this ability, otherwise I feel like he'd be in for a way tougher time with her. Nevertheless, a bit more walking later, and we had arrived at "our" hideout thanks to these guys' guidance.

The entire place was a giant rusted warehouse in the middle of a forest. The rusty metal ate away at the watered down blue coat of paint, leading to a dangerously ominous feeling to it. I had braced myself for all sorts of monstrous sights to be inside it, however I was even more surprised to spot nothing of the sort. Instead of torture chambers and tables upon tables of drugs and weaponry, the only thing I saw was a homely couch and a ton of giant construction containers.

"Woohoo!" The second in command raced to get up the containers, "Parkour! Haha, come on, guys! First one up is a rotten egg!"

"What the...?" I questioned his sanity as I got left in the dust, the others quickly following the second in command to the top.

"Ooh, Aggie's a rotten egg~!" They jeered from atop the container, "See what happens when you take strangers with you to the base? Seriously, the hell are you even planning on doing with him? Recruit him or something?"

"Huh? Recruit?" I once again recalled I was to be playing the role of Aguilar, "Not at all! I am planning on killing him!"

Expecting a loud cheer to come, I was surprised by the utter lack of noise they were generating. Instead, they only gasped in terror before nervously cracking up shortly after. Hold on, is it out of character for these guys to kill? But they're thugs, they almost killed me, goddammit!

"A-Aggie, that's not funny." The guys darted their Eyes around, "I-I get you're kind of on edge after what happened back there, but we really would get in trouble."

"Psh! So what?" I dropped the real Aguilar hard on the ground, "Is that not the safer option? We do not want to leave any witnesses, do we?"

"Ow! H-Huh, guys...?" The real Aguilar got jolted awake from the shock, "Why am I tied up...? H-Huh? You!"

"Aha! You're awake, black guy!" I pointed the gun at him, "Time to say bye-bye!"

"Wuh-! G-Guys, help me!" The real Aguilar struggled, "Heff! Get down from there and stop him!"

"Huh, how do you know my name?" Heffer refused to get down from the container, "Never mind. Aguilar, let go of the gun, we made a promise to only flash these weapons for self-defense, didn't we?"

"Huh? Why are you calling HIM by MY name, asshole?!" Aguilar shouted back, "If this is all some sort of elaborate prank, then it's not a very funny one! A-And you, guy! I'm sorry for everything, so just please let me go-!"

Shooting him square in the forehead, he had dropped down to the ground, without even a flinch more. Aguilar was dead. Huh, that was pretty easy, I had expected this to be harder.

"Aguilar, what the fuck!?" Heffer finally dropped down from the container and shook me up, making me drop the gun, "Y-You... You killed a man! Aguilar, y-you...!"

"Calm down, it is fine." I shook my head, "He would have ratted us out if we let him live. We can just clean the mess up and say he fell and died from the impact or something."

"A fall won't justify a gunshot to the forehead, idiot!" He started hyperventilating, "S-Shit! What's your mother gonna say to me now?! Her son just killed someone, a-and I let that happen!"

"Mom?" I sounded indifferent, "I do not have a mom."

Gulping, they had finally realized I (Aguilar) had lost my marbles. Well, if they had known me as Meil, they wouldn't at all consider any of these sentences as scary, but I'm sure hearing "Aguilar" say this after killing "Meil" must've sent chills down their spines. Heffer now darter around the room anxiously, and the others didn't know what to do either. I didn't really care though, as these guys will all be dead by the end of the day anyways, so I just skipped the pleasantries and got down to business.

"Shall we cut to the chase?" I sat down on a nearby cinder block, "My memory seems a bit hazy, can any of you remind me why we needed this book in the first place?"