"I don't know what I was expecting, but I think it's safe to say it wasn't this." I commented.
"I mean, my mind was full of outlandish things and crazy tests of strength, but this is a lot more tame than anything I was expecting." Yuri added.
"Considering the smile she had on her face, I think we should be grateful it wasn't worse." Minerva said, fiddling with her hands.
The 'task' that Xiao Mei had for us was for us to simply accompany her while she went shopping for an outfit to meet the headmaster in. She had said she wanted to make her very best first impression, and she wanted us to help by pitching in with our ideas on what would leave the best impression. It was not at all what I was expecting, but if I was being honest, that was a good thing.
Considering she was a high-ranking member of the Mage's Association, I was 100% sure she would give us some insane and damn near impossible to complete task. Like Yuri had said, the possibility that she would try to give us some sort of test wasn't completely out of the question either.
Thankfully it was none of those things, and she simply wanted our input on a few outfits. We went out to one of the most expensive malls within Japan. Lia had also decided to accompany us, for what reason I did not know. Still, now that I was thinking about it, a new problem was arising. Xiao Mei had told us that we had around 20 minutes to find an adequate outfit, because that was around the time that the headmaster would be ready for said meeting.
The thing was, I had absolutely no good advice to give on outfits. I rarely ever went shopping, and when I did, I just decided to purchase the plainest things that I possibly could. In fact, the only actual T-shirts I owned were some HxH-themed ones, because I usually spent my time in dress pants and shirts. A habit I had learned from my teacher Yuki, who spent a majority of her time dressed formally for some reason.
So I had absolutely no idea what advice I should give in the realm of outfits. It didn't help that Xiao Mei desperately needed that advice. Looking at the outfits she had her eyes on, they weren't doing much better in the area of modesty than what she was wearing right now. Unless the headmaster was some sort of pervert, he wouldn't be very impressed.
I looked to Yuri and Minerva, only to see that they looked just as confused and lost as I did. The three of us were probably the worst combination of people you could send to go shopping, especially for an outfit that would be adequate for meeting the headmaster in. Realizing that we were in a real debacle right now, I turned to the only person I could.
Come on, Ariel, you've got to have something in mind, right? I made a desperate shot.
Ariel: Oh? Now you ask for my help? Her tone told me that she was expecting something. I sighed.
Listen, I'll get on my knees and grovel for you the next time we meet; just help me out here.
A brief silence as Ariel thought about it.
Ariel: Well, first off, I'd recommend you direct her to a section that doesn't make outfits for strippers.
That was self-explanatory. "Uhh, Ms. Mei?" I asked.
She was in deep concentration when I called out to her, and she turned around to look at me. "Yes, Raiden?"
"I think we should head to that section over there. I think the headmaster would appreciate a formal outfit that highlights professionalism."
Xiao Mei clapped her hands together with excitement at that statement. "Perfect suggestion, Raiden! On we go!"
As we made our way over to the next section, I took notice of a group of people entering through the front. At first they all looked like they had nothing to do with each other. Each one of them was of different genders, age ranges, and nationalities. There was no uniting factor between them; however, I had a gut feeling that there was something going on between these people.
When I turned to look at Yuri, I saw that he was also closely analyzing the group that had entered the mall. When we locked eyes, an unspoken message passed between the two of us.
As we finally made our way to this new section, which had racks filled with business suits, blazers, and dresses for women, Minerva made a suggestion.
"Considering we're short on time, and there are many components that make a good outfit,. I think it would be best if we all split up. We'd all be able to cover more ground that way. With maybe 10 minutes left, we could all meet up at the front of the store."
Xiao Mei snapped her fingers in excitement, pointing at Minerva. "The little lady's spot on!" Her smile grew wider. "All of us will head to different sections of the store. Lia, you get the accessories; Yuri, I want you to grab some shoes; I'd like Minerva to search for a nice hat; and Raiden, I'll trust your judgment!"
Just before we left, Xiao Mei handed us all earpieces, saying that it was so we could all keep in close communication to make sure that the outfit stayed on theme.
I briefly wondered what kind of person just carries around spy tech and leaves earpieces in their back pocket.
I also wondered where she had held them, considering her outfit didn't have any pockets.
With that, we all split up, and I was left to wonder why the hell I was the only one who wasn't given a clear or direct object to search for.
Ariel: Think about it positively! She said that she trusted your judgment, meaning if you choose something she likes, you'll gain some points in her eyes.
Yeah, thanks for the encouragement. I replied dryly.
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I had been wandering around the store aimlessly for 2 minutes. We only had 8 minutes until we were all obligated to meet up with each other again, and I had found nothing of substance.
In fact, this was the third round I was taking around the second floor. Not because I was interested in any of the items here or anything, but instead because I was steadily starting to grow more and more suspicious about the people who were gathered around. All of them belonged to the group of people that I had seen entering the mall before.
None of them interacted with each other; however, there was something about their movements that just felt suspicious to me. So I decided to tail one of their members. I had to do it in a roundabout way, though, by pretending to be searching for a specific item and doing circles around the store, acting as if I couldn't find it, all the while closing the distance between me and my target.
The person was a middle-aged blonde woman who was walking around with a shopping cart stocked to the brim. That immediately made me suspicious. This was a high-end store, so even buying one outfit would cost you a shit ton of cash. And this woman had packed the cart to the brim? Unless she was some mega millionaire, there was simply no way she was actually going to buy all of that.
So why would she need to fill her cart to the very brim? The answer was simple. To hide something within it.
In a single moment my instincts kicked in, and a bunch of possibilities raced through my mind; however, there was one that rang out loudest above them all.
An attack of sorts.
Looking away from the girl for a quick moment, I stared at the other person I recognized from that group, an old man. He also had a basket packed to the brim.
Taking some more time to study my surroundings, I noticed the fact that there were lines of mana all over the air. They connected from person to person. There was even a line of mana connected to me.
That was more than concerning. With a line of mana connected to a person, you could do a number of things, ranging from transmitting mana to them to detonating sequences inside of their body. That was enough for me to realize that whatever these people were up to, it was no good. The more concerning thing was the fact that the two prime suspects I was looking at didn't have any mana in their bodies whatsoever.
They were non-mages. That meant whoever initiated this spell wasn't them. It was some outside magician.
I was still very confused about what exactly was going on, but that was only because I didn't have a full grasp on the situation. The best thing to do was inform the others. Just as I turned on my earpiece and was about to speak, I noticed the blonde woman's gaze was trained on me.
I have to watch my words. Chances are she's starting to suspect me of trailing her.
Taking that into account, I had to figure out a way to get this message across to my allies without outright saying anything. There was a high chance that this was a group of people trying to start a riot, which had become a more common phenomenon nowadays. There were still a lot of suspicious factors, like the collaboration of a mage and what they actually planned to do, but that only made it more necessary that we stop this situation beforehand.
"Hey, guys." My voice cracked. Horrible start. "I've been looking around the store, and I've come across multiple suspicious-looking outfits. They're all different in their sizes, colors, and styles, yet they all have the same maker. I was just thinking that you should probably keep an eye on them. I wonder what magical lines are keeping these pieces tied together?"
I did my very best to create a coded message that emphasized the main points of what I had observed. After giving that message, all I could do was pray that everyone else understood what I was trying to say, all the while continuing to tail that blonde woman.
A voice came over the earpiece. I held my breath. "Yeah, I've been noticing similar pieces around the shoes section as well." It was Yuri. I sighed in relief as I realized he understood my message. "They seem to be positioned an equal distance from each other, on all four corners of the floor. They're really unique designs; I'm starting to think there's an easter egg of sorts within them."
Now that I turned to look at it, the blonde woman and old man had both stopped moving, and running some rough calculations in my head, they had stopped equidistant from each other.
"That magical connection analogy was nice." Minerva was the next to speak. "Looking at it, there might even be a technological connection between them. There seem to be similar pieces of tech attached to each of the clothing items. The technological connections between them seem to run parallel with these magical connections."
What I gleaned from that message was that Minerva had managed to figure out that these people were carrying around pieces of tech that were connected in the same exact path that the lines of mana were. Considering that these lines were all connected with real people, it was clear that these people's plan was to use these pieces of tech to launch some sort of wide-scale attack.
Considering that they had the help of a mage, I wondered if their whole idea was to create an attack that looked like it had been completed by mages in order to frame them and generate even more societal unrest.
The worst part about this was these people also had lines connected to them. This meant they would fall victim to whatever attack they were in the midst of carrying out. Whether they knew that or not was to be seen.
"And how many of these odd pieces are on your respective floors?" Xiao Mei chimed in.
"2," I said.
"3," Yuri said.
"1," Minerva chimed in.
"5," Lia said.
"Simply enough, I suggest we cut off any connection between these pieces for the moment; we can't be distracted from our main goal, which is procuring an outfit for Ms. Mei." Yuri gave us the suggestion to cut off the lines of magic that connected everybody in the mall together. That could easily be done by flexing a large enough amount of mana to disrupt the connection between the lines.
Just as I was about to do so, Minerva interjected.
"There's no easy way to kill the tech connection, though." She was whispering, and I had to strain to hear her. : "I suggest you create a distraction, get the box, and overload it with electricity."
Taking her advice, I moved to stop the attack. I flexed my aura so that it covered the entire floor, and as soon as I did, I could see everyone on the floor begin to shake and look around in shock and fear. As I did that, the magical connection that connected everyone together was cut. And then for the box, I summoned a flame in my hand. The flame was enough to initiate the sprinkler system. All eyes were drawn to me, but that was okay, because the sprinklers turning on distracting everyone was more. In that chaos I moved quickly, stealing the boxes from the old man and the blonde woman and destroying them in my hands with a controlled surge of lightning.
I was standing in front of the blonde woman, who was staring at me in fear. It must have been scary. Seeing a mage flexing their aura like this, standing under the sprinkler system with a flame that could not be put out in hand, all the while at his feet were the two magical devices that you were planning to use to initiate your strategy.
"Done." I said it at the exact same time everyone else did.
From behind me emerged a magic knight who quickly arrested the women. I looked around in shock to notice that the building was suddenly flooded with magic knights who were now evacuating people. How had I not noticed them before?
"Everyone, meet me on the first floor." Hearing Xiao Mei's voice, I realized that they must have been waiting for me. Thinking quickly, I rummaged through the lady's cart, grabbing a random thing near the bottom that hadn't gotten wet in the sprinkler system, and ran down to the first floor.
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"So, it turns out that this was a planned attack you knew was going to happen at this exact mall?" I asked Xiao Mei, who was sitting on the register desk at the front of the mall, while Magic Knights bustled about and gathered all of the terrorists.
She nodded. "We had received a tip from one of our spies that a group of people were planning 'the largest attack ye"t' at this exact mall."
That begged the question—
"Why did you bring us here if you knew an attack was going to happen?" Yuri asked.
Xiao Mei smiled. "Because I wanted to test you all. I'll explain more of that when we meet with the headmaster."
"Wait, are we meeting with the headmaster with you?" Minerva asked, shocked.
Xiao Mei nodded and dropped down from the desk and began to peruse the outfits we had selected. She started with Lia's accessories. "Of course. You guys are essential to the main topic of discussion after all."
I wondered what she meant by that.
"I have to say that I'm impressed by how well you guys were able to handle the situation. I had brought so many magic knights, and yet none of them needed to act because of you guys' quick thinking." She moved to looking at the shoes Yuri brought.
"Anyways, that was a pretty crazy plan of attack. I couldn't figure it out in the moment, but what were they planning?" Yuri asked.
Ms. Lia jumped in to explain.
"It seems like with the help of a magician, they were planning to use those machines you saw to create a massive lightning EMP to hurt everybody within the mall. After that they would have detonated bombs they had planted and made it seem like the doing of a rogue magician. Since the majority of the people who shop here are non-mages, it would have been a heavy hit to the reputation of magicians."
"God. People are getting more and more drastic. Willing to hurt each other in order to hurt the reputation of mages?" Minerva said.
"That's just how things are nowadays. Some people lost everything in the spark, and so now they have nothing more to lose. Why not go for the craziest strategy possible to bring down your 'oppressors"?
The attack that was supposed to happen was a testament to just how much of an effect the dangerous Fangless Python ideology had.
Xiao Mei finally ended up looking at my choice, and when she did, her eyes widened.
"It's perfect."
I didn't actually look at the item I had chosen until now. It turns out I had picked up a red overcoat that was cut short, and it had a fur hoodie as well as intricate gold designs.
"I knew I could trust your judgment, Raiden!"
"Ahh, thank you." I accepted her praise with an awkward smile.
By the grace of God above, I've managed to not screw up.
"Well, I think we should get going. The Magic Knights of the mages' associations should be able to handle the rest. We have a meeting to attend, children!"
I didn't know how to feel about her calling me a child, considering she was shorter than me, but I followed her anyways.
Just before we left the store, Xiao Mei hung behind and passed me a note that had some numbers written on it.
"What is this?"
"My number," she said while winking at me.
I stood in shock for a few moments.
"I saw your abilities, and frankly, I'm impressed. I think you would make a useful asset for me and my duties at the mage's association. Don't lose it. When I have a task for you, I'll call."
She then walked away, leaving me to stand in shock.
"Should someone in her position really be doing things like this?"
Ariel: Don't act like you aren't flattered. And remember what I said? About earning points in her eyes?
Just shut up.
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The air of the meeting room was surprisingly tense after the first introductions were given. I could tell Suijin was more than a bit shocked to see me and Yuri, as well as Minerva and Ms. Lia, standing in the room, when this was supposed to be a meeting between just her, the headmaster, and Ms. Mei.
As she and Ms. Mei talked, she kept tossing glances at us, as if she was trying to figure out the reason why we were here. In fact, I was trying to figure out the same thing. We had been here for nearly 20 minutes, and so far they've talked about absolutely nothing pertaining to us at all. Didn't Ms. Mei say we were the main topic of discussion or something?
"Well now, unto the most important matter of this meeting." My interest perked up. So did everybody else's. "I'll tell you this now. A delegate from the Mage's Association has been sent to the magic academies of each of the 7 continents. All with the same task, to inform you about a new proposition coming from the head of the Mages Association himself."
"And what is this proposition?" The headmaster asked. This was my first time seeing him in a while, and he was just as imposing as ever. He was so tall that he nearly doubled Ms. Mei's height.
"As you may know, the Mages Association has been swamped with tasks from all over the world. Rebuild, immigration, patrols, defense, securities, and the case of mysterious disappearances. There's been more work than units at our disposal."
I held my breath, as I had a feeling I knew where this was going.
"The Mages Association has come to the conclusion that they want to use students from the magic academies to help lighten the load. It would only be with patrol and defense objectives, and it would fit in with their schedules as students."
The headmaster's expression darkened slightly. "I don't agree with this. Not because I don't think these students are capable, but because I can't find the strength within me to tell them they must involve themselves with these horrid problems, especially after they just came back from such a traumatic experience."
Xiao Mei nodded. "I understand that fact completely. Not every student is required to do this, and in fact, it is all up to you as the headmaster to appoint the students that you believe to be the most ready for this task."
"And if I think none of my students are ready? Or mentally prepared?" The headmaster asked.
"Then you may opt to send nobody. However, I have to say, She then pointed at us. "I took these three students out along with me, and they showed exceptional ability. They were able to completely neutralize a terrorist attack before it even started, and they did so with the precision of magic knights."
I then saw the genius in Xiao Mei's strategy. Not only did she bring us along with her to serve as a test for us while also getting her own things done with our help, but she even leveraged that fact to use it as a bargaining chip at the table with the headmaster in order to nudge him in her direction.
The headmaster's eyebrow twitched at that. "You know I could report you for unreasonably endangering students, right?" His tone was all serious.
"You could." Xiao Mei smiled. She was challenging him. Even with her strategy, she still had to make a gamble on whether or not he would accept.
Just as the headmaster spoke, Suijin stopped him. "I think we should agree to this."
"Suijin..." He looked at her in shock.
"You told me yourself, didn't you? After the attack. You told me that we had been given a glimpse at the real world and that it was important we never forget that fact. Trying to protect us from this goes against what you said back then."
The headmaster stared at her for a moment before nodding and turning to Xiao Mei.
"Then I will respect the wishes of my president. However, I want to be in control of the exact students who go. And let me be clear: I want you to never foolishly endanger my students like that again. The next time it happens, I won't be turning a blind eye."
"Of course. I understand completely." Xiao Mei's smile grew even more. She had won the bet. "Of course the students you select will not be accepted automatically. They will first have to undergo a process of being analyzed by the mages association to deem whether or not they are ready for real fieldwork. And that...."
She slid a picture across the table. It was an overhead view of an island in the center of the sea.
"Will be done through a joint training camp between the 7 Grand Magic Academies."