Friday, August 27, Late Evening

Xavier Uzual

The two of us ducked into a classroom. Leo led us to take cover underneath a large window. That was smart, I realized. We won’t be spotted from here. If I were less dazed, I probably would’ve proposed the idea myself.

But…

My eyes trailed to the large gashes on my jacket. Leo had healed my wounds, but the cuts and stains remained. Had they been blood, they would’ve been less visible, but I’d been bleeding that blue liquid… What was that?

“How am I going to explain this to Xylia…”

“It’ll be restored once you leave here,” Leo replied. It took me a moment to realize that I had spoken aloud. “Damage to inanimate objects doesn’t transfer over levels. Though, any damage that isn’t healed will transfer, so be careful.”

I could only nod. “I… I see.”

After another moment of long silence, Leo exhaled. “Okay, now is as good of a time as ever to break it to you. You, Xavier, are an Esper.”

Yer a Wizard, Harry. “Like… psychic powers, and stuff?”

“Kind of. There’s a lot to go over, but you should know that. For the record, you didn’t know that you were one before just now, right?”

What was he getting at? I didn’t know. I need more information. For now, I’ll tell him the truth. I shook my head, slowly.

Leo’s eyes widened. Clearly, the fact that I hadn’t known anything was significant. Perhaps… if I had, would it be a sign that I had come into contact with one of the other groups? It was taking a shot in the dark, but if I was correct, it could suggest that Leo, for whatever reason, didn’t want to come into contact with the other groups roaming around. But, that was just conjecture. I needed more information.

“Wait,” I said. “Before you continue. Does this… whatever this world is… does it have anything to do with epileptic seizures? I’m… random question. Just curious. It’s got nothing to do with me.”

He raised an eyebrow. He’s hesitating, I noticed. A possible sign that it was an unusual question, in which case, the answer would be no. Leo confirmed this less than a second later. “No, not that I know of.”

“I see,” I said. “So, what do we do now?”

Leo explained his purpose for being here. A Virus had possessed an object in the real world, and as a result, I had been dragged in. When possessing an object, Viruses could cause strange effects. He cited a time where a Virus possessed the school’s main wifi hub and caused it to go offline.

This Virus would look like a larger version of the Commwarriors we’d been fighting against, with a sinister aura around it. Once we got rid of the Virus and purified the object, I’d be able to go back to Xylia.

A large Commwarrior with a dark aura… “I think I’ve seen something like that,” I said. I’ll try cooperating with him right now. It seemed like the most efficient way to get back. Though, of course, I prepared myself to run away at any time. “When I was first sucked into this… ‘Command Level,’ it was right in front of me.”

“What? Where was this?”

I backed away. Personal space, please. “It was when I was coming back from your club, to the film club. Somewhere along that route.”

He nodded, and straightened his scarf. “Alright! In that case… whenever you’re ready. Let’s head out!”

“Hold on,” I said. “There’s one more thing. Those two girls that I saw. They said, something to the effect of, ‘those things are immune to bites.’ Can you tell me what that means?” I don’t think it’s a startling reveal that those Commwarriors aren’t edible.

Leo thought for a moment. “As a fledgling Esper, allow me, Caladbolg Montoya, Magus of Blue, to explain the nature of your powers.”

“And here I was thinking your name was just Leo.”

“Fool!” He covered one eye with one hand. “ ‘Leo Maxia’ is but my mortal handle. You, who have been chosen by the Ancient Ones, shall know me for who I really am.”

Oh, definitely. I know you’re a lunatic.

“Anyways, bites. Explain.” I already had a hunch, but I wanted to make sure before I started jumping to baseless conclusions.

He extended a hand and pulled a tarot card out of thin air. He snapped his fingers, and the card shattered; the fragments encircled him and reformed as floating, shimmering spheres of water. “I’m using a Five of Cups card, so I’m controlling five bytes. By the way, in case you’re wondering, it’s b-y-t-e. Nothing to do with eating.”

“So it’s a unit of control, then?” I had assumed it would be something to do with their powers, just not what. Half credit.

Leo nodded, and stood. “Here’s the plan. We’ll move quietly and take out the target Virus, and avoid contact with other Espers.”

“How are you going to fight that thing? It’s immune to your powers.”

“Heh. One, it’s not immune to all of my powers. Two…” Leo grinned. “We’ll figure something out.”

Had I not just pushed a Commwarrior off a third story railing, that wouldn’t have filled me with confidence. Well, even then, the latter point really didn’t.

But still… ‘all’ my powers. There had to be more, then, that didn’t manifest as ‘bytes.’ He’d used a ‘Five of Cups’ earlier, five bytes for fives cups… I didn’t know much about tarot cards, but I do know that they’re closely related to traditional playing cards.

In which case, just like playing cards, there must be cards other than number cards. Such as royals, or face cards, for example… Given that they had no numbers, would it then be logical to assume that their powers manifested in a form other than bytes?

Perhaps. But I’d need more information.

“Oh, that’s right,” I said. “What about your club members?”

Leo raised an eyebrow. “How’d you know that they’re also Espers?”

“Lucky guess.” I had just kind of figured. But, I wasn’t wrong, it seemed.

After a moment, he shook his head. “They’ll find us. Erin’s got the ability to sense emotions. And, since she can tell where the emotions are coming from, it works as a location power, too.”

“Erin is… the one with hair covering one eye?”

“Like a sharingan, yeah.”

Not that I knew what that was, but I nodded anyways. “How will she know it’s us, and not one of the other Espers?” After all, there was at least one other pair of Espers walking around here. I recalled the two girls I’d witnessed.

“I’m not the one with the Temperance power,” Leo said, “but from the way she talks about it, I think each person’s got a different emotional signature. Like… I think she described it as different colors for each emotion, and different mediums for each person.”

Okay, so we won’t have to worry about that. Furthermore, it didn’t seem tied to bytes. So, that confirmed my suspicions: there are powers that are not related to bytes. But another thing… “What if one of the other Esper groups has that same power? After all, wouldn’t they just need that card?”

Leo thought for a moment. “Major Arcana powers work a bit differently from the Minor Arcana. Each person’s got one, and you can’t use anyone else’s.”

“In that case… can you guarantee that none of the enemy Espers have that power? Or, that they’ve got another power that can be used in a similar way?” For example… if there was a psychokinesis power, that allowed one to move objects, but also told the user where the objects were. Couldn’t that also be used to detect people?

Leo shook his head. “I can’t. But even if the enemy did have that power… there’s no use waiting around here. The faster we take out that Virus, the faster we can get out of here.”

“Or, we could wait for the enemies to take it out for us. From the sound of it, you guys ultimately have the same goal.” And from the sound of it, it’d be safer that way anyways. Leo knew about the possibility of people with scan powers, yet chose to hide away in here. Therefore, this should be a safe place, based on his decisions and actions.

Leo said, “No. We’re not staying here.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s not h--” he stopped. “I don’t want to. I can’t stand it just waiting around.”

What a ridiculous reason. “You can’t just--”

“Let’s move. We don’t have any more time to waste.” He waved his hand; a tarot card was visible only for a sliver of a second. “Six of Cups!” In front of Leo, the shards transformed into two floating boards of ice. “Hop on.”

Is this guy even listening to anything I’m saying? I gritted my teeth. “You…”

“Don’t worry.” Leo grinned. “I’m the Magus of Blue. I’ll see to it that no harm comes to thou.”

I don’t know if that was the correct use of ‘thou.’ But, it didn’t seem like I was going to be able to reason with him. I sighed and placed one foot on an ice board.

“Lead the way.”

“Keep your center of gravity low.”

I stepped onto it with my other foot; ice cuffs formed around them and secured them in place.

“Let’s go!”

We rode through the hallways at a brisk pace. I’ll give credit where it’s due: riding on the floating ice sheets was a good idea. It was faster and quieter than walking, for sure.

Each time we approached the end of a hallway, Leo would slow and peek over the corner. I didn’t think it was exactly the most effective way of seeing if there were enemy Espers, but I didn’t suppose there was much else we could do. I did notice, though, that his fists would unclench if there was no one there.

We slowed, again. He paused for a second, then unclenched his fingers. Now’s my chance to talk to him.

“So, Leo. What are the specs on your Major Arcana?”

He placed a finger on his lip. “Later.”

“There’s no one around right now. Just tell me in brief.”

After a moment’s consideration, Leo nodded, and whispered as bombastically as he could, “Manifest now, my true power! Holy Sword of the Magician!” With a flash of light, a longsword of blue steel materialized in his hands. “Okay, let’s move and talk.”

Leo and I continued down the path to the Film Club.

“The Holy Sword’s got multiple forms, for different purposes. Kind of like positions, in Yu-Gi-Oh. You ever play that as a kid?”

Can’t say I have. That’s the kind of thing that requires friends. Ask me about Spider Solitaire, then we’ll talk. That’s the kind of thing that doesn’t.

“Each of them’s got their own abilities, but the broad strokes of it is that there’s one for attack, defense, speed, and purification.”

“Explain purification,” I said. The first three were pretty straightforward. Even if I didn’t know exactly what they could do, I could plan around them nonetheless.

Leo stopped talking and looked around a corner. I was listening for footsteps, too. I hoped they weren’t all hovering around on ice boards.

“It expels a Virus from its host,” Leo said. “So once we find the infected object, we’ll stab it, and then we take it out.”

So, we can’t take it out unless it’s been purified. “From in here, or from the real world?”

“Either works,” Leo said. “But--”

I placed a hand over his mouth. There was a tapping sound, coming from down the hall and around the corner.

Footsteps.

I motioned to a nearby classroom. Thankfully, he got the message. Being able to levitate soundlessly was useful and all, but seriously less so when I can’t control where I move. Besides, my feet were starting to get really cold.

Leo shut the door behind us, as softly as he could. The Holy Sword had disappeared from his hands.

It was quiet.

“I didn’t hear anything,” Leo said.

But I was certain I did. I could swear I did. After a moment, though, I couldn’t be sure. There wasn’t anything. Was it the wall and enclosed space blocking the sound? No, it was probably just my imagination--

“Sense anything?” A boy’s voice. He couldn’t have been much older than us.

“Give it a minute. I’m not a Justice.” The second voice was feminine. It struck me as the way a princess might talk, deliberate and refined. “No, nothing here. Wasn’t one of the Commwarriors supposed to be patrolling this path?”

The… Commwarriors? They talked like they knew something about them that we didn’t. It sounded like… they were on the same side.

“Hm…” the boy said, “Well, the Chariot might’ve decided to deviate from the plan. That girl does what she wants, really.”

“Remind me again why you thought it was a good idea to hand total control over the Commwarriors to her, Hanged Man?”

The first voice, this ‘Hanged Man,’ paused for a bit. The footsteps stopped.

The Chariot… I recalled the two people I’d witnessed fighting at the shopping center. One of them had called their attack, ‘Reins of the Chariot.’ I suppose that meant that was his Major Arcana.

But also, control over the Commwarriors… was it possible for Espers to control the Viruses? It didn’t seem like it, from what I’d observed, but the two of them talked as though it was possible. I intended to ask Leo about it later.

“Tell me I’m not the only one enjoying this night as much as I am. Didn’t it turn out so fun?” He laughed. A chill ran down my spine.

The two of them kept walking. At least, they kept moving. But… there was only one set of footsteps. I pressed my ear against the door. There was the sound of a joint, squeaking. A… wheelchair? But, again, I couldn’t be sure.

“As long as she doesn’t get bagged by an Officer.”

He laughed, again. “That’s why we’re here. Especially you. Lady and Lion, and all that.”

The girl sighed. “Whatever you say.”

After a long wait, the footsteps disappeared around the hall.

“I think they’re gone,” Leo said. He stood, and extended his hand. I got up without taking it. I can stand by myself, thank you very much. He gave a wry grin as I did. “Let’s get moving. We have a Virus to take out.”

I stopped him. “Leo. Can Espers control Viruses?”

“You mean…”

“Like those two were talking about. Is it possible, and can you do it?”

Leo frowned. “This is the first time I’m hearing about it, too. So no, I don’t think I can.”

So the enemy can, but he can’t. Presumably, neither can I. I patted my jacket pocket. The airsoft pistol that I’d used to bait out the Commwarrior was still there. I wish I’d thought to bring the baseball bat, but it was a little late or that. “One more thing.”

“Yeah?”

“Your Holy Sword. You’re not supposed to use it in front of other Espers, am I correct?”

“How’d you know?”

I’ll take that as a yes. “You put it away as soon as you knew they were coming. Now, another question. In that case, does that extend to Major Arcana powers in general?”

He nodded, slowly.

Then… I shouldn’t ask him to use his Major Arcana out in the open. But… those things are immune to his Minor Arcana. I gritted my teeth. So then, before we can even fight those things, we’ll have to--

“If you’re done asking questions,” Leo said, “we need to get moving.” He cut a piece from his sleeve. “Use this to cover your face. Let’s move!”