“What the hell’s he casting?” the burly man whispered. For the first time, doubt began to seep into Otomo’s mind. He was more experienced than Einosuke Sakurai by many years of both practice and real-world application – but in all that time, he’d never seen such a spell. Einosuke’s chant was longer than any spell Otomo knew and the build-up of energy was intense. He mentally shifted from offense to defense, preparing for whatever it was the kid planned to throw at him.

Just then, Einosuke’s eyes opened. His mouth formed a wide grin and he whispered the final word of his incantation, too low to be heard by anyone but himself. As he did, he thrust his hands, cupped against each other, the tip of each finger pressed against its twin, the space formed between them pointed outwards towards Otomo and roared, “Eeeeeyaaaah!”

A tiny flash of light and a puff of smoke popped out of the gap between Einosuke’s hands with a sound that was something like poik!

The young man was dumbfounded. “Huh?”

“. . .” Otomo had nothing to say.

The two men stood staring at each other for a moment.

Einosuke’s eyes turned slowly downwards, drawn by the still-glowing energy around Otomo’s fists, crossed at the wrists and held before his chest in a defensive position.

Otomo’s eyes, however, were still focused on Einosuke’s face. The look of confusion and disappointment the young man wore was almost painful.

Almost.

Otomo burst out laughing. The energy he was storing for a quick defense dispersed and his hands held his tightly-muscled belly as he let the laughter loose. “Hahaha! Eino,” he choked in a breath and began again, “Eino, are you kidding me? What was that?”

Einosuke grit his teeth.

“Man, that was sad!”

A low growl rumbled deep in Einosuke’s throat.

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Otomo wasn’t done yet. “All that prep, all that build up, all that mana swirling around and for what? That tiny little—“

Einosuke stepped forward, closing the distance between the two men, his right arm cocking back as his fingers closed into a fist. He brought it forward with as much strength as he could bear, swiveling from the hips for extra power, and smashed a punch straight into the older man’s face, connecting with a sound like splitting wood.

“Shut up!” Einosuke roared, fury blazing even stronger than his mana had moments earlier.

Otomo’s head snapped back and to the side, staggering him. He let out a groan half surprise and half pain, his hand coming up to the spot on his cheek where Einosuke hit him. It throbbed and even in the low light of the warehouse, it was already turning red. “What… what the hell?! You hit me?!”

Sudden realization of what he’d done touched Einosuke. His stomach dropped into his shoes. “Oh, uh… I…“ He backed away, raising his hands as if to ward off the other man.

“You little asshole!”

Panicked, Einosuke turned on his heel and ran, as he had before, as fast as his legs could carry him, back in the direction he originally came from. “Sorry! I’m sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!”

Otomo spat on the floor, his saliva red-tinged and his eyes narrow with fury. “I can’t believe you actually hit me!” His manaccelerator began to glow again as he readied some new spell.

Einosuke turned a corner, his feet scrabbling for purchase on the smooth concrete. He was struck with the absurd thought that the wooden walls of the aisle were closing in on him. Maybe the towers of packing crates would tumble down at any second, burying him under tons of scrap and abandoned merchandise. It might have been better than facing Otomo again.

Otomo’s angry, astonished voice carried throughout the area. “What kind of sad-sack, wannabe mage-agent just up and punches somebody?”

Why did I do that?! Einosuke screamed inside his head.

He came to a T-shaped intersection, the walkway splitting into paths on both the left and right. He didn’t remember from which way he originally came. He wasn’t sure it mattered, but the wrong choice now could end up being a pretty serious mistake. The heavy, rapid thumping of Otomo’s approaching feet reminded him of that.

“Might as well turn around, Einosuke!” Otomo taunted. “No matter what you do, I’m gonna find ya before long!”

“Aaargh, which way? Which way?”

Einosuke decided and turned left, disappearing down the path just as Otomo, his entire body glowing with magical energy, charged into the intersection.

“Please be right, please be right, please be right,” Einosuke prayed as he ran. He had to find a way out of the warehouse. Was there a way out of there? Why did he have to hit Otomo like that? What the hell was he thinking? Where was the exit?

And then he had his answer: there was no exit. At least not in this direction.