Part 4

There was a slight groan that broke out in the retro diner.

Haruko Matsumoto.

If there was one major feeling he was experiencing right now, it would most likely be boredom.

26 minutes had passed since Haruko had agreed to join this group to stop the man known as Anatoli Azarov, The Mage Killer.

Six people are in a single booth near the back of the retro diner.

On one side.

Aoi.

Haruko Matsumoto.

Valeria Lucia.

On the other side, across from them.

Alistair Michaels.

Camellia Lucia.

Aurelius Lucia.

It wasn’t sure who decided to bunch up like sardines in a single dinner booth.

Everything felt tight, as it felt like early morning rush hour riding the train to school to the teen, who was just trying to eat his fries.

Sticking the fry in his mouth, he glanced at the table.

On the table was a single map of NEO New York City and its surrounding counties with New Jersey.

Grabbing another fry, everyone was focusing on the map—well, mostly everyone.

There was something about the fry the teen was glancing at that made it feel special.

He could not tell between the warmth or the right amount of BBQ sauce on it to not dip over or drown out the flavor of the fry, but this fry was perfect.

A one-in-a-million chance.

That was the teen's thought as he moved the fry to his mouth.

Brown.

For a split second—maybe even less—it was just a blur, but something swiped at his hand from his left.

Blank.

Haruko blinked several times.

His left hand was empty.

The fry was gone.

It took a while for his mind to accept that realization.

"Huh."

The teen began looking down at the table.

(Did I drop it?)

As he was looking down, he heard a faint humming sound.

His blue eyes slowly drifted to the right.

To the right of him was a brown-skinned, blue-eyed girl who was holding a half-eaten hamburger in her right hand, with her left index finger on her lips, in the process of stuffing something in her mouth.

Aoi.

The Water Crystal Guardian.

Her blue eyes slowly glanced at Haruko, letting their eyes meet.

Haruko's eyes drifted to the lower half of her face, mostly to her lips.

She was sticking a fry past her lips, removing her finger from her lips.

A fry.

His fry.

Stolen.

Taken from him.

Aoi stared at the teen with no regard.

Not taking her eyes off Haruko, she slowly moved her hand towards his fry tray.

The teen's left eye twitched as he watched the girl pull the tray closer to her with her left index finger.

".....Hey." Haruko said in a low, deep voice.

Aoi moved the tray in front of her.

"Hey," Haruko repeated again in the same tone.

The girl grabbed several fries, taking them off the tray.

In a quick motion, Haruko, with both hands, grabbed the side of her face.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?" Haruko shouted out, pulling on the girl's cheeks.

“I am helping myself to your food.” Aoi complained through pained whimpers.

“Why”. Haruko asked.

“Because you have something different from me.” Aoi said, placing her right hand under Haruko's chin and cranking his head back.

“If you wanted the same food... I was eating... then you should have gotten the…. same thing as me,” Haruko said through grunts, trying to push his head down, but the girl's strength was no joke.

“It is meaningless to share food if it is all the same.”

“What the hell kind of logic is that?”

The table began to shake as the two bumped into it.

Both of their foreheads collided against each other.

The sudden commotion between Haruko and Aoi caused a dipping cup of barbecue sauce to tip over, creating a small spill over the Manhattan portion of the map.

As if both were sharing the same brain cell, both spoke, turning their heads to the table.

"Eh.”

The pair looked at the now-ruined map.

.

..

......

....................

Aoi tuned to Haruko.

"Look at what you did," Aoi said to Haruko.

A vein popped up on Haruko's forehead before he quickly turned his head back at Aoi.

"Me, are you fucking stupid!?"

“It's great that you two are so lively, especially you, Haruko, given what happened earlier, but can we focus on what we need to do?” Alistair said, staring at the teen.

"Yeah,” Haruko said, taking in his words, lowering his shoulders, and grabbing several napkins out of the steel dispenser. "Right, just let me clean this up.”

Wiping the sauce off the map, his fingers brushed over a certain marked location on the map.

Haruko paused.

A black circle was at the location where he fought Anatoli.

"Hey, quick question, just asking why is this location point a different color from the rest?"

Alistair stared at the map before answering the question.

"It's marked that way because we could not confirm or deny that there is a body at that location."

Still looking at the map, Haruko spoke.

"These bodies—is that the only way you have been tracking him?"

"Not entirely; the blue dot markings on the map are locations where he has been sighted; the red circles are where most of his actions were committed."

Haruko raised his head from the map toward Alistair.

"The murders?" Haruko asked.

Alistair did not reply beyond a simple head nod.

Haruko stared at the map again, seeing three red circles across the map.

"And if he killed someone here, then this area two would be marked red too?"

"Yup, but according to you, there was no body there."

After a few seconds of silence, staring at the map, Haruko spoke.

"But an exception is not the rule; assuming there was a body there, then what changes?"

"Well, this."

Alistair grabbed a red marker from the table and scribbled a red circle, overwriting the black circle on the map of Haruko and Anatoli's fight location.

On the map, there are four red circles.

"So, four locations, it doesn’t look like much." Aurelius said.

"Look closely." Alistair said, "At the entire map."

Valeria brought her head closer, staring at the map.

"I might be off, but this is starting to look like a magic sigil."

"Wait, really?" Aurelius said, getting closer.

"Yeah." Valeria pointed to the giant gray circle on the map representing the city walls. "Using the city walls as the initial outer magic circle, the red circles would be the axis points."

"Axis.......points." Haruko asked for clarity.

"There are three main parts to a magic symbol. The first is the outer layer, usually an outer circle or multiple, given the complexity of the spell; that is what gathers the mana into a specific spot." Camellia said, turning to Haruko.

"To keep the gathered mana from going out of control, another symbol is needed, and that is what is referred to as an axis point. One or more symbols are inside the initial circle that the mana can travel through."

"Haruko"

The sudden call of his name turned his attention to Alistair.

"You fought him a lot better than most people, so right now, you are the only insight that we have into his abilities."

The teen paused.

Right now, it felt like everything was on his shoulders as he stood there.

What took him out of his myriad of emotions was Alistair asking him a question.

"Do you have any idea of what his magic is like?"

"Knives," Haruko replied bluntly.

"Anything special about the knives?"

"At first glance, they look like regular knives, but..." Haruko stopped.

"But-"

"But through those knives, he could do a wide range of things, such as throw fireballs, create mini fireball bombs, make icicles out of the ground, and a giant fist."

Alistair placed his right hand under his chin.

"So, fire and ice."

"Not just that, but lightning too, but for some reason it didn’t do much against me."

"Well, that is to be expected," Aoi said, causing Haruko to turn to her. "Being the lightning Crystal Guardian, you are not only immune to the lightning that you create, but all lightning in general."

"Really?" Haruko asked.

"Yup," Aoi said, sticking one of Haruko's fries in her mouth.

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"Other than that, is there anything else that we should be worried about?"

Now it was Haruko's turn to put his right hand under his chin.

"His hand-to-hand is no joke despite his appearance and is way too precise."

"Well, that is something," Alistair said, leaning his head back and grinning.

Alistair then leaned forward, lowering his head, with his left hand lowering his sunglasses slightly.

His red eyes were staring at Haruko.

"Would you say that his hand-to-hand is better than yours?"

"In just hand-to-hand, in a drawn-out fight, I can probably outlast him." Haruko said confidently.

"How did he use his spells?" Valeria asked. "Chants, dances?"

"....Dances?” Haruko weakly replied.

"Rituals?" Camellia butted in.

"No....no, he just said some words in a foreign language and swung his knives around.

"So, we have a magician, with some level of hand-to-hand, who can throw spells out on the fly." Aurelius said.

"It seems that he is a special case, even among mobile magicians."

Haruko turned to Alistair.

"A.....mobile magician, what is that?"

"There are two ways that a magus does battle: the first is entirely through their spells, like a drone operator watching from afar from behind a monitor. They won't engage one up close, making them the long- to mid-range type who will throw out the heaviest spell with no regard, being outside of its radius."

"I see."

"The second is the one you are now mostly familiar with now, Magi, who are not afraid to get up close and personal. Such a concept was unheard of decades ago with a proper defensive spell, but magic, like all concepts in the world, only manages to evolve with the times, as the weapons that they have are far more dangerous; swords, knives, and even bullets are not out of the question, but with one set of weapons, he is versatile with three elements."

"The knives that could shoot fire he had on his belt, from what I can tell, the knife for his ice is on his lower leg, and for the lightning, I am not too sure, but if what you’re saying about circles and axis is true, then it is one single spell."

Alistair, Aurelius, Camellia, and Valeria all stared wide-eyed at the teen.

"Are you sure? A hundred percent positive."

"Yeah, when I stumbled upon him, the first thing he did was throw a knife at me. I....it was like my body moved on its own, but I caught it with my hand without thinking, on that knife handle, and all the others I had caught mere glimpses of all have the same symbol. A circle with a pentagon inside and within that pentagram is an upside-down triangle."

"On this map, can you draw it using the points we have already established?"

"I can try," Haruko said, standing up and grabbing the red marker.

Haruko stared at the map.

Deciding to take Valeria's words into consideration, he decided to forego the city walls as an outer layer.

He focused on the four points on the map.

Haruko drew a slightly crude line, connecting the top three points into an upside-down V, starting from left to right.

Hudson County, the Bronx, and Queens.

Three points on the map are connected.

From the upper Hudson point, Haruko drew a line downward to the point on Staten Island.

Four points were now connected.

But the teen paused as he ran into a problem-

On the map, there were four points.

A pentagon needed five; a point was missing.

Somewhere, a location in Brooklyn was supposed to be a fifth location.

Staring at the map, Haruko continued, using the other four points to make an inferred guess on the final location.

He dragged the tip of the marker from Staten Island across, right, drawing the line across under Brooklyn before stopping, taking the marker off the map, and Haruko bringing it to the point in Queens.

Staring at the point, Haruko mentally shuddered at the thought of using geometry to figure out the last point on this map.

Connecting the two points, Haruko drew a straight line across from the Hudson and Queens points, and from there, a horizontal line from the bottom line back up to the Hudson point.

On the map, there was a pentagon with an inverted triangle in the center.

Haruko put the marker on the table to gaze upon his handy work.

Alistair, staring at the map, spoke.

"So, this is it? This is the symbol as you remembered it."

There were a few seconds of silence from Haruko as he stared at the map.

".... Somewhat"

That statement caused Alistair to raise his head toward the teen.

"What do you mean?"

"What was the original plan regarding this symbol?"

"To reverse engineer his spell and pinpoint two specific locations,"

"Can you really do that?"

"Against a normal mobile magician, their magic symbols are really hard to spot, but our one saving grace, thanks to you, is that we know what magic he is using and the symbol too."

"About that, based on the existing points already established, this symbol is... off. The symbol on his knives was a perfect shape..." Haruko said, pointing at the map. "The space between the Hudson and Queens points connecting to the would-be Bronx points is at different lengths and angles, and if that would be the fifth point in Jamaica Bay is anything to go by, then this throws the entire shape off."

Alistair, Aurelius, and Valeria stared at the teen in silence.

"So, it's either a different sigil entirely." Aurelius said.

"Or..." Alistair said, glancing up at Haruko, who was staring at the map in silence.

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A meow broke out from a small black cat as a bedroom door opened.

“You found Aoi? What happened?" A soft voice spoke out belonging to Alexis Matsumoto, who was walking into her room, dropping several bags onto the floor with one hand and holding a smartphone to her right ear."

[Yeah]

On the other end of that call was Haruko Matsumoto.

[It’s a long story that is too much to get into now.] That was his response, short and simple, which given him was to be expected.

[About the thing I asked about earlier]

"That," Alexis said, plopping her face first onto her bed before rolling onto her back, still holding her phone to her ear. "What did you say it was?.....a city-wide magic sigil.... a spell." There was a hint of skepticism in her voice, trying to process what the teen said.

Alexis stared at the ceiling.

[Yeah, about that. Would something like that actually be possible?]

"It is entirely possible; the matter is not if, but rather why would somebody want to do it?"

[I don’t understand]

"Magic is very specific in how it is used; since the energy is drawn from the earth, you need to have everything right; the slightest mistake can cause a horrifying result.”

There were a few seconds from Haruko before he spoke.

[About the symbol part by itself, wouldn’t one have to draw or mark it down for it to work? Something like this on a city-wide scale would take days, if not weeks.]

"Not exactly; it just has to be in the right place. Magic symbols and sigil magic are some of the oldest magic next to human sacrifices and weather dances; what makes them so persistent is how loosely the word symbol is and what counts for a symbol."

[I.....don’t follow.] Haruko said.

"Symbols exist all over the world, regardless of whether one is aware of them or not. If one is knowledgeable and well versed, anything can become a symbol to them, from the constellations of stars to the various positions of the sun to something as small as a single tarot card out of a deck on a table."

Haruko looked down at the new blank map on the table, holding a red marker in his right hand. He then put the phone on speaker before placing it on the table.

"Alright, let’s start over. Four locations with a fifth phantom location."

[What is so special about those locations?] Alexis asked.

"A....." Haruko paused.

Death.

Several murders.

A possible war.

There was no way he could tell Alexis about what he was now involved with.

"We just have it marked for reasons I can't get fully into."

[Are you okay?]

"For the most part, yeah."

Haruko sighed before speaking.

"Right now, using the city walls as the outer circle, we have three, basically, four separate points for what is to be a pentagon. Trying to basically connect the four points we already have against this fifth point gives us an oddly shaped pentagon.

[Could it be that the four points are wrong?]

Blank.

Haruko paused.

(Wrong.)

That was something he had not accounted for.

Right now, the only information this group had was these four points.

Looking down upon the table, Haruko's fingers slightly moved across the map.

[Haruko] Alexis’s voice brought the teen out of his thoughts. [The points....the locations that are marked—what happened there?]

Haruko wanted to say something.

But-

How could he?

He turned his glance to Alistair, who simply nodded.

A confirmation.

Haruko closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, before exhaling.

"Alright, but you cannot tell Reiko, and try not to overreact. I have you on speaker. At four of the points, a murder was committed by a magician who snuck into the cit- ”That was all he managed to get through before-

[WHA-] Alexis’s voice yelled out over the phone.

“I said not to yell,” Haruko said. “See this right here; this is why I did not want to tell you.”

[Me, look at what you got yourself into!!]

“Can we stop focusing on me and get back to the reason I called you?”

[The symbol, right?]

“We have a guess on what his symbol is, but the points we have do not line up evenly.

[Could it be a different symbol?]

"No, I've seen the symbol up close in its entirety.

[Did you draw it right? Art has never been your strong suit.]

"I drew it according to the points we have already established."

[And it still came out wrong.]

"Yeah."

[Then it's not the points that make up the symbol.]

Alexis blunt statement caused everybody to turn their attention to the phone resting on the table.

"What do you mean?"

[The more complex the spell, the lower the margin of error. If this is a city-wide spell, there is no way this magician would make a mistake by creating the wrong symbol.]

“If it’s not the points, then what is it?" Haruko asked.

[The points, while not correct, would lead you to the real points if you expanded your parameters.]

"What do you mean?" Haruko asked slowly.

[Seriously, the answer has been staring you in the face. The locations wouldn’t be crime scenes without a key item.]

Alistair raised his head slightly as an answer came to him.

“…The bodies”

“Could he be marking the bodies?” Valeria asked.

“It is hard to tell; I didn’t see the autopsy reports.

"However, there is no guarantee that these bodies will stay in the same place or be tampered with.” Haruko said.

[But perhaps that is the goal]

“Have the bodies moved to a certain location? Out in the open, a body would be out of place, so what is the logical thing to do?" Alistair asked.

"You have the bodies brought somewhere else.” Haruko answered.

"What is the one place you can have a body brought somewhere and not draw attention?"

Haruko's eyes slowly widen at the realization.

".....A morgue." Haruko said, quickly turning his attention to the map on the table. "If he is marking the bodies, then it’s not where the victims are murdered, but where the bodies are going to end up."

There was a clicking sound as a black office phone was hung up, followed by a soft exhale from a female sitting at a receptionist desk.

Silence.

An unnerving silence.

The lobby, which consisted of a few chairs and a desk with magazines sprawled over it, had a box television hanging in the corner a few inches below the ceiling.

It was hard to get used to too, but somehow this room had the most life in the entire building.

A morgue.

But some days, to her, it wasn’t such a bad thing; it just meant less work.

As she was fidgeting with her pen, a middle-aged man who was unrolling his sleeves for his button-down shirt walked up to the desk.

“Hey, I am heading to the store to pick up lunch; you want me to pick up anything?” The male asked, grabbing his thin jacket off the coat rack.

The woman stood up and began walking to a closet to get her purse out. From her purse, she pulled out her wallet, opening it.

Taking out a ten-dollar bill, she spoke.

“A strawberry yogurt and a bottle of water.” She said, handing the bill to the man.

Fixing his collar, he grabbed the money from the woman.”

“Anything special?” He said, sticking the money inside his jacket pocket.

“Not really; anything will do.”

As the two were talking, there was a soft beep as the two entrance doors slid open, which caught their attention.

Silence, followed by the sound of soft footsteps approaching.

Slowly, an elderly man walked through the opened doors.

His feet were dragging on the blue-tiled floor.

His clothes had appeared to be wet, with fading blood stains that appeared a pinkish red on the collar.

His hair was a mess.

After a few steps inside, the elderly man stopped.

With lost and empty eyes, the elderly man glanced up at the pair.

——————————————————————————————————

A noise broke out in a small office room.

It wasn’t a loud noise, but it caught everyone off guard, given what it was.

A punch.

Anatoli Azarov.

Slowly, everyone in the room turned to the source of the sound.

The program director was punched, knocking him into a vase stand, causing several of the glass items to fall over and break on the ground.

With a maddening look on his face, Anatoli grabbed the program director's collar, pinning him against the red-painted wall.

"....YOU!!!!...." Anatoli managed to say it through gritted teeth.

The program director just glanced at the young man, not saying a word, but that was enough to make Anatoli angrier.

Anatoli pulled his right hand back, with his left squeezing the collar tighter.

And then-

From all sides, Anatoli was swarmed by the other men in the room.

The young man did not have any time to react as his right arm was grabbed and he was put in a head lock with an arm around his neck.

A foot swiped at his feet, throwing off his balance.

The added weight of several men caused him to fall to the ground, face first, with a loud thud.

On the ground, his right arm was twisted behind his back with a knee pinning it in place. His left arm was under his body.

Anatoli, with his forehead pinned against the ground, attempted to push his body upward, but against the four men on him, it was all for naught.

He was pinned to the ground.

Grunting, Anatoli turned his right, staring at the man who was pinning his head to the ground.

Pavel Zotov.

"Pavel, what do you think you are doing? GET....OFF.....ME!" Anatoli said, struggling on the floor.

"You need to calm down, Zero-six." Pavel said, still holding on to Anatoli's head.

Anatoli turned his head, staring at the ground.

"Don't call me that; after what happened, don't ever call me that again.”

There was a light sound as the program director pushed himself off a small cabinet with his left thumb rubbing the left side of his lip.

Glancing at a small blood smudge on his thumb, the program director smirked.

"DO YOU FEEL NOTHING ABOUT WHAT JUST HAPPENED, WHAT WE JUST DID? ......" Anatoli was trying to free himself against the other men, but to no avail. ".....WHAT YOU HAD US DO"

The program director did not reply, simply walking to the back of his desk and pulling out his chair to sit down.

Not getting an answer, Anatoli spoke.

".... Why him." Anatoli asked with his voice breaking.

The program director, fixing his collar, stopped before staring at the pinned man on the floor.

"Treason, working with an enemy organization to undermine this country," the program director said in a cold voice.

“YOUR LYING!!” Anatoli shouted out in the room.

After a few seconds of silence, the program director spoke, “I know that it is hard to believe given your past relationship with that individual, but through our own intel, during his trip in Europe, he met with an individual from The Magic Association."

Anatoli stared at the man with wide eyes.

"The....Magic Association." Anatoli slowly repeated.

An emerging coalition of several countries to handle the growing number of magi in the world.

A self-designated enemy to the Soviet Union.

“Even…..even if that were true, surely other methods could be taken. AN ENTIRE FAMILY DID NOT HAVE TO BE GUNNED DOWN!!!”

There were a few seconds of silence.

“Is that so, an entire family?” The program director said, leaning back into his chair, looking up at the ceiling. “… I seem to recall that he had a daughter. Our children went to the same school, and over time we were close.” There was a slight hint of regret in his voice before he glanced back down at the pinned man.

“Collateral damage, I suppose.” The program director said with all human emotion void from his voice.

Anatoli could only stare at the man before staring at the ground.

“I…1 can’t be a part of this.” Raising his head to stare at the man sitting behind a desk. “…..I won’t.”

“But you will.” That was the program director's only response, which surprised Anatoli with how blunt it was.

“You are too far in to simply walk away; any attempt to desert now will only be met with execution.

“…. What?”

“You do not understand that everything in your life—the privilege and good will you have experienced so far—has been given to you. The oldest lesson in the world is: What can be given, can be taken away.”

Anatoli's eyes slowly started to widen at the realization of what was being said.

“You have a good life now, do you not?”

Anatoli paused.

“I hate to sound this way; believe me, I really do, but these measures, no matter how unethical they may seem, ensure both the safety and survival of this country. Mines, yours, ours, from enemies on the outside, enemies from within. Were in a gridlock with the United States, if a situation arose that would bring in The Magic Association, this country would be devastated on all sides. To prevent that, I created this small group here.

Resting his chin in the palm of his right hand, with his elbow on the table. He continued.

“You walk outside and see people living in blissful ignorance. Most of the world does not know how close we are to war, and those that do will not take it seriously. One assassination of a major figure, one misfire of a nuclear warhead or several, an all-out war—all those things can throw the country and the world into chaos, and if something goes wrong, we will all look back, wishing there were those who understood the risk and moved to act. For that reason, what are a few innocents among the threats that we can eliminate who jeopardize this country, so that all of us can be safe and all of us can be happy?”

The program director leaned back in his chair.

“These targets you eliminate; do not think of them as people; their very existence harms this very country, and the only way to deal with them...”

The man and woman inside the morgue lobby were on edge.

In the lobby, there appeared to be a deranged man holding a knife.

The man moved in front of the woman to shield her.

Anatoli Azarov started breathing heavily as he stood at the entrance of the lobby as the sliding doors closed behind him with a soft sound.

The pair stared at the man as he stared at the pair with cold, dead eyes.

In his right hand was a knife.

(…..The only way to deal with them is to slaughter them where they stand as the animals that they are. There is no escape, Zero-six; this is your life now.)

The hand holding the knife began to shake.

He started to inhale and exhale rapidly, almost wheezing.

There was a slight wail that escaped his mouth.

Without warning, the elderly man ran toward the pair, swinging the knife as several screams were let out in the building.