Friday, August 27, Late Evening

Xavier Uzual

“Leo...” With quivering fingers, Olivia covered her mouth. “Leo…” Slowly, she rose to her feet. Her whole both was shaking.

Oh my god.

I flicked my eyes behind her. Erin was staring at Olivia. For just a moment, she looked on the verge of a panic attack. I blinked, and a moment later, she had composed herself.

Erin opened her mouth to speak, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying. No, she was drowned out by-- Olivia, who was screaming bloody murder.

It was only then that I really considered what happened. Leo was going to go down safely, but no, he’d been pulled into freefall.

Oh my god.

Is he… Some part of me recognized that I wanted to walk over and check-- but my body wouldn’t move.

Oh my god!

Olivia started to burst into a sprint, but Erin grabbed her from behind as Olivia was approaching the hole in the fence.

“Leo! Leo! Leo!” she screamed.

“He’s fine, Olive!” Erin shouted. I wasn’t sure if Olivia could hear. After another full minute of shouting, Olivia finally stopped to breathe. Erin pulled her away from the fence. “He’s fine.”

I was convinced that Erin was lying to pacify Olivia… but it was something that I wanted to buy into myself. I hate people, sure… but--

Okay, how upset would Xylia feel if one of her new friends just… died? Oh my god.

He isn’t dead… is he?

“He is injured, but not dead,” Erin said. She looked directly at me. “I am not lying.”

That just makes me more convinced that you’re lying.

“I am not lying,” she repeated. “But we need to get to him.”

“Wait… can you… read my mind? Is that your power?”

Erin shook her head and released Olivia. “No. My Angel’s Empathy reads emotions. You were uncertain after I spoke.”

Right. Leo had told me about her power. And also, about how it could be used to sense people’s locations. I just nodded.

Olivia took a deep breath, and looked at me. “H-how are you still here?”

“Huh?”

“N-n…” She kept trying to speak, but the words just wouldn’t form coherently. “Nor…”

“Normally,” Erin patted Olivia’s head and pulled her into a hug, “when the Virus that pulled you in is erased, you are ejected automatically. But you are still here.”

“Doesn’t that mean that Virus wasn’t erased?” I asked.

“It is no longer there.”

“So there must be another one,” I said. “Or… could it have something to do with the fact that I’m an Esper?”

“Perhaps,” Erin said. “We will discuss this later. We must check on Leo.”

“Like I said before. What you do after defeating that guy… that’s none of my concern,” I said. “He’s alive, the battle’s won. I’ll just get in your way from here on out. Thanks for everything.”

Erin’s single, uncovered eye trailed towards the door. “That’s locked. You can’t shift sides here. You’ll be stuck.”

It’s open here. “I’ll just walk through, then.”

“A teacher or student could see you. You’ll materialize out of thin air.”

I gritted my teeth. “Any suggestions on safe places to switch?”

“Our clubroom,” she said. “We will go there after tending to Leo. For now, you will be safe with us.”

Am I seriously out of options? I suppose crossing through the school by myself for the clubroom first is asking for trouble.

“Fine,” I said. It was only then that I noticed the unconscious Esper. “What about him?”

The two girls paused for a moment. “He will recover. I have seen to it,” Erin said. “We need to go, now.”

And with that, the three of us ran down the stairwell, towards the bottom floor.

The stairwell that led to the rooftop was only accessible from the third floor and upwards. In other words, coming down, we’d need to find another path. As we stepped onto it, Erin stopped and looked both ways.

“There is a short path through the building… but there are Espers fighting there. High likelihood of getting caught. There is a long path around. I say, the long path.”

“Short,” I said. If Erin could detect Espers, we could probably do a good enough job of avoiding them. Besides, I didn’t want to say it, but I wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.

Olivia nodded. I assumed it was because she wanted to get to Leo faster. Well, we’re united under the same banner. Couldn’t ask for more.

“I see,” Erin said. “Follow me.”

We cut across the center of the school. From the courtyard below, there was shouting, flashes of light, and other indications of combat. While I didn’t trust Erin, I at least trusted her abilities, and the fact that she seemed pretty protective of Olivia.

I can relate to that.

We touched down on the first floor. All we needed to do was cut back across, turn another corner, and Leo would be there, waiting for us.

Of course, that’s easier said than done.

We were about halfway through the hallway when the windows to our right shattered. Erin grabbed Olivia and pulled her to the ground. I quickly dropped, too. Several throwing knives embedded themselves into the walls to our left.

“Run…” Erin hissed. “Run!”

She started to stand up again. Her head poked up, just past the windowsill, but she ducked just as quickly. Another knife zipped past, just where her head was.

Erin threw her back against the wall. Her chest was rising and falling at a rapid pace. She reached up and tied back the bangs covering her right eye. A bead of sweat rolled down her cheek.

Her heart must be pounding. In fact, so was mine. I’d hardly realized; it was racing. I looked down. There were several glass cuts; I was bleeding ichor all over. A quick glance to my side confirmed that the girls were hurt, too.

“E-Erin… L-Let’s keep going!” Olivia said. “I can block the attacks.”

“But you--”

“I won’t be seen!” she whispered. “I-I promise!”

Erin paused for a moment. Her eyes darted to the wall behind her. She bit her lip and nodded.

As we started moving, more knives started flying all around us, but Olivia threw up a barrier to block them.

We made it to the end of the hallway, and stood up to keep running.

Then, the area in front of us exploded. A dark figure seemed to be walking through the smoke towards us.

Erin drew a staff from hammerspace and ignited a fireball. But before I could even blink, a knife shot through Erin’s fireball and grazed her arm-- another through her leg.

She winced wordlessly. Her knee buckled, but she regained her footing. With a wave of her other arm, Erin fired again, twice, but again, knives ran through her flares; they fizzled out on contact.

That person… they’re using the knives to cancel out Erin’s bytes. No bytes, no control…!

The figure in the smoke seemed to be running towards us, now. Erin extended her staff, but I think everyone realized that her fireballs were an exercise in futility.

I lifted my arms to shield my face. Behind me, Olivia gripped onto my jacket and dug her face into my side.

Are we--

Several loud clangs echoed through the hallways.

“Hey, Super Fighting Robot. If you wanna play with anyone, you should play with me. I don’t like to share my toys.”

Before us stood a girl with silver hair. She had a black floral scythe extended in front of her. By her feet were several throwing knives.

“There you guys are,” Yuna said. “Been looking all over. Where’s Leo?”

“Hurt,” Erin said.

“As usual.” Yuna crushed a tarot card. The figure seemed to hesitate for a moment. “Sorry, Robot. Guess I can’t play with you anymore after all.”

I could hardly make out the face of this ‘Robot.’ Whoever it was, they had a slender humanoid figure; that’s all I knew for certain. “Their main tactic is to neutralize your bytes from a distance,” I said.

“That’s fine. That just means you gotta be more clever with where you put your bytes. Watch and learn. I’ll take care of her.” Yuna flashed a wild grin, but dropped her voice. “You should probably take a step back. Or don’t. Natural selection at work, baby.”

I did. The others did, too.

Yuna dropped to the ground, and planted both palms against the floor. The ground ripped apart, shaking violently. “King of Coins!”

The ceiling above the figure collapsed. From the amount of debris, I wouldn’t be surprised if the floor above that, and the floor above that, et cetera, dropped with it.

And then, it was quiet. Yuna exhaled, and wiped the sweat off her brow.

“Did you just--”

“Takes more than that to kill the Super Fighting Robot. No, I’ve only bought us some time. She’ll be coming after us if we hang around,” Yuna said. “By the way. Do not try that at home.”

“Duly noted.”

“Lead the way, Erin.” But then, Yuna eyed the massive knife wound in Erin’s leg. “Two of Cups. We’ll do more serious healing when we’re in the clear. Can you move?”

Erin nodded. She looked really pale. Yuna slung Erin’s other arm over her shoulder. “Olive. Lead the way.”

On the way to Leo, I briefly explained the situation to Yuna. Erin wasn’t really in a talkative mood, and Olivia presumably wasn’t all that great at explaining. Yuna was silent the whole time.

We found Leo leaning against a wall. As we approached, he listed his head, slowly. “Hey. You made it.” For a guy who had just taken a five-story fall, he didn’t look seriously injured or anything. I did, however, notice trails of ichor leading to a crater, about twenty feet away. The Virus was nowhere to be seen.

In his hand, a cell phone. Presumably, the core of the Virus.

Olivia dropped to his side and pulled him into a hug.

“Hey, hey. I’m fine.”

She continued to cling to him.

Leo’s eyes darted around our group, scanning me first, then Yuna, then Erin. “These are just ichor wounds,” he said. “Nothing I can’t handle. I’m just a little winded, that’s all.”

“Liar,” Erin said.

“I’m being serious.”

“You are in denial.”

“That’s just a river in Egypt.” Leo cracked a grin. “I’ve done some first aid on myself, though. You two,” he motioned to me and Erin, “look like you could use some yourselves.”

Yuna swept Erin on her feet into a bridal carry, then set her down against the wall, just next to Leo. “My thoughts exactly. Nine of Cups.” She crushed a card and looked over at me. “I can do that for you too, if you want.”

“No thanks.”

She sighed. “Looks like you’re not the only one stuck in a river in Egypt, Leo.” Yuna hovered a hand over Erin. The spheres of water enveloped the latter’s wounds. With a flash, they’d washed away the ichor and closed the injuries. Only faded scars remained.

Erin stood, but was still a little unsteady on her left leg. Yuna patted Olivia’s back, pulled her from Leo, and pulled Leo to his feet.

“Let’s head back,” Yuna said. “Let’s bring our little adventure to a close right now.”

No one protested. Everyone looked a little too beat-up to do so. Except, weirdly, Yuna.

Leo seemed to pick up on that. As we started walking back (taking the long route), Leo asked, “Looks like those enemy Espers weren’t so dangerous after all,” he said. “Of all of us, you look the least worse for wear.”

Yuna frowned. “Those guys are no match for me, but neither are you. Keep that in mind.”

Leo did not reply.

Yuna looked over at me. “I guess we solved our member count problem. The kid makes five.”

“Hold on,” I said. “I haven’t agreed to anything. I’m not joining your club.”

Yuna shrugged. “You don’t really have a choice. Sooner or later, you’re going to be pulled back in to the Command Level. Do you want to learn how to defend yourself, or not? I guarantee you, we’re the group with the least strings attached.”

“So there are strings attached.”

“There’s never not strings attached, buddy.” Yuna looked to Erin. “Are we clear?”

“Clear.”

The five of us ascended a flight of stairs and crossed the walkway into the ‘old building.’ After turning a few corners, we reached a locked classroom door.

Leo pulled off his scarf and tugged down the collar of his jacket, to reveal a gold chain with a key dangling on the end.

“After you.”

The Hero Club room was, based on the whiteboard gathering dust, an old, unused classroom. It had a single large conference-style table in the center, with five chairs on one side and one on the other. Leo turned the light on and locked the door behind him. He set the cell phone he’d been holding on the table.

“Is that…”

“The Commwarrior’s host.”

The other Espers were quiet for a moment. “It really is her’s,” Yuna said.

Now that I was getting a good look at the phone, I was suddenly struck with the oddest feeling.

I’d seen this phone somewhere before. But where?

“Yeah. Not only is it back, it’s back with the same target,” Leo said. “Yuna… is it just a coincidence?”

The Espers looked at her. After a long moment’s contemplation, she said, “I don’t think it is. It’s unusual already for Viruses to target cell phones. They certainly don’t make for very efficient hosts. For the same phone to be targeted twice… I need to look more into this on my end.”

Leo nodded. “Alright. As for the rest of us…” He looked to Olivia. “Olive. Take care of her, okay?”

“Y-Yes!”

“Erin, we’ll continue looking for leads. Let me know if anything pops up,” he said.

“Understood.”

“And Xavier…” Leo looked directly at me. “I won’t force you to join the Hero Club. But, I do think it’s the safest for you, that way. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

I didn’t reply.

“Please give it some thought,” he said.

“Sure.” But I didn’t think I would. I should be able to take care of myself. But then again… If something were to happen to me--

No, I didn’t want to think about it.

“If something were to happen to you…” Erin said, “Who will take care of your sister?”

“You…”

Erin looked away. “Sorry.”

I gritted my teeth. “Let me think about it.”

“Take your time. We’ve got our hands full right now, anyways,” Leo said. “But not too long.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, Hero Club. Let’s go back and get some rest. User, Leo Maxia. Exit Command Level.”

With that, Leo faded into light. Erin and Olivia recited the same incantation and disappeared as well.

“I’ll leave after you,” Yuna said. “Make sure you do it properly.”

I just nodded. I didn’t want to spend any more time with her than I had to, anyways.

“User, Xavier Uzual. Exit Command Level.”

As I was fading away, the floor seemed to be opening up beneath me. My gaze trailed to the table, and fell on the cell phone.

Where… where had I seen it before? The phone charm, in particular. I’d definitely seen it before. A ring with an eight pointed star in the middle.

There was that same falling sensation.