Static buzzed as TVs glowed with the typical news. A rather boring morning in Missouri.

A newswoman reported the usual schpeal.

"Tragedy struck this morning at 6:18 AM, as a local grocery store was robbed by two assailants. One of the suspects has been killed by the police while the other has been taken into custody. The reports state that seven injuries and two deaths occurred at the scene."

A teenager with fresh red eyes was interviewed.

"It was awful! sob We were having a normal day and all of a sudden these men in black just started shooting in the air! We all got down and did what they told us and yet sob they...they shot my grand-"

They broke down crying. The news then cuts off towards a new interviewee.

"I don't know what else can be said, man. Every day people keep buying guns for the sake of protection and yet... where's the protection? Even when they keep hammering down restrictions with all these gun laws, to keep the criminals from buying guns, these criminals still have access to guns so I don't- sigh. I don't know man. I don't know who's in the right or who to root for anymore, I just-

I don't know."

"More info about the event will be displayed at 7. In other news, at around 4 AM, a local church was engulfed in flames, leaving a massive ruin. Father O'Conner, the head presider of the church has also gone missing. If there's any sightings of him, please let the local authorities know."

"Lastly, for the missing people's report:

Johnny Fitzpatrick, a fourteen year old boy has gone missing. He was last seen last night at around 6:43 PM, playing basketball near Oakson avenue park. Here is the most recent picture of him. He has short brown hair, blue eyes, has pale skin, is around 5 feet and 7 inches tall. If there are any leads to his whereabouts, please notify the local authorities, as well as his family's phone number: 555-314-8787. That's 555-314-8787.

The other missing person is Shameik Jones. A seven year old who was last seen three days ago. Here is a picture of what he looks like. If there are any leads to his whereabouts, please let the local authorities know."

Present day.

"I've been a sorcerer my entire life. We help people. Save them. Occasionally make sure remnant psyches don't wander off and actually go towards their destined realm... eventually. We risk our lives, day in, day out, killing all these abominations. For free, no less. We carry the weight of being human, on top of the heightened responsibility. I don't hate it. It's bullshit- it is bullshit. But I don't hate it. Nevermind the fact that we'll never fit a normal life. That's a petty reason to be mad. Nevermind the fact that most of us will die if we develop a shitty skillset. We're either born better, or we study hard enough to catch up with those that are blessed. That's just the way it works. It's the same thing with sports and careers. Some are physically gifted, others train to catch up, while others opt out to work with their heads instead of their bodies. That's fine. It is what it is; it's the way the human- nae, the way the world works. I can accept that. Death is inevitable, and for as much as sorcerers can fight back against coagulated blobs of condensed sentiments, or walking-talking embodiments of ideas, it's inevitable that some are going to die. It was naive of me to glorify all these people in the past. What essentially amounted to outdoor janitors. The effort is what counts though... I think that's why I liked them all. Heh. Hahah... It's so fucking stupid. I'm so fucking stupid for even thinking about it in the first place. But hey, kids are dumb. You know? But that's what molds kids. Trauma. tRaUma bUiLdS cHaRaCteR! Pahahaha... how silly...

...

Do you know what it feels like to have your loved ones die around you? And no, I don't mean in a 'slowly but surely, death came for them all' type of way. I mean in a literal sense, everyone got gored in front of your very eyes. Flesh turned into ribbons. The audible crackle of bones and yelling. Ways that you wouldn't even think humans could bend. Ways that the human psyche couldn't imagine. It's always the fucking creative types... that get to you... Have you? If you know, you know. And that's what I don't like. Death is a bitch. You can talk about it. You can understand it. You can even get teased by it. But when it stares at you in the eyes, and taunts you by finger painting your face with the liver of your best friend... We just can't comprehend it. And- chuckle, despite being the one who got away! Who got the misfortune of being LUCKY! You always end up wondering to yourself: why wasn't it me? You'd think it'd feel great to be alive- to be blessed by the grace of luck and to prosper onwards to live life towards the fullest.

...

Tch. If only I was so lucky.

So for the past couple months or so, I've been ruminating. After deep meditation, as well as concentrating an outlet for my anger, I found the resolve to continue onwards.

I'm going to defy death."

It was a hazy summer day in a lively park. A twenty year old Japanese man with orange hair, prescription glasses, and black and red apparel sat on a bench with another individual; he had just finished sperging. Whether or not he was talking to his accomplice, or to himself was unclear. Said partner was a tall, slender man at a similar age, wearing a blue polyester priest's robe... or was it a trench coat? He had rings around his finger as well as earrings that gave him an unassuming slick appearance. He had an odd tinge of hair that depended on the lighting. On some angles, it showed up as gray. On others, white. Yet during darker settings, it settled down to black.

The priest figure absorbed the information, and slowly turned to his partner after a good fifteen seconds.

"...that's good and all...

...

...but is that a yes or a no?"

"A yes or a no to what," asked the Japanese man.

"I asked you if you were going to join us since you responded to our email. We met up here to catch up and in all honesty, I was already convinced, so that's why I asked you if you wanted to join- and then you just started ranting out of nowhere 💀

Like, I'm not trying to downplay your emotions- no offense of course. But... that wasn't very coherent, I'm going to be totally honest with you."

The Japanese man waved it off.

"Ah no, I understand. I do that a lot sometimes. Don't pay any attention to that. And to answer your question well, I kind of have no choice. I gained forbidden knowledge on how to revive the dead-"

The priest slowly shot up.

"Now, I'm relatively new to this whole sorcery thing but- isn't that really Illegal?"

"Yes. So much so that it's banned internationally."

"...Why? You'd assume that with literal magic, everything is fair game."

"You'd think that, and though very few of us have the powers to rival gods, there is ultimately, a method to the chaos. We can reap death up, down, left and right. But if we manage to bring back as little as a single human back to life, there will be consequences. Due to messing with the order of life and death, messing with the scales so to speak will blur the order of life and death, pissing off the Angels. Though we have very little understanding of it, that's what makes proving religions so goddamn hard. Are the Buddhists correct, and we all eventually come back to one of the realms? Or are the Abrahamic religions correct, and there are genuinely only three realms with a permanent lock once we leave the mortal coil. We don't know. And we can't know, seeing as how it would bring about the end of the world. A fabled extinction event. Funnily enough, the closest thing we've gotten to reviving someone is through the technique of Umbra manipulation, which summons the 'imprint' of someone's soul, so to speak. People may manipulate the shadow of a person and use it to help in combat; the closer the person was, the stronger the bond and said Umbra is. But that's the thing- it is the mere 'shadow' of the soul, not the actual soul. Doesn't help that they can't communicate, so it's more like puppeteering a corpse's corpse... if that makes sense.

Tch.

How ironic, isn't it?"

The priest gave a concentrated look and furrowed his brow.

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"...let's rewind the dial back again-

you want to revive someone?"

"Yes."

"Even though that bears the chance of killing you?"

"Not just me. Humanity. The entire planet."

"....Why would you want to do that?"

"To spit in the face of god. The universe. Whatever controls us. Bring back my- our loved ones. Destroy the cycle. A greater purpose. Whatever- however you want to interpret that as such. I don't care about the why's; only about whether or not I succeed. And besides, I'd ease up if I were you. I know the basics of how to do it, but I am far from my goal. I need specific ingredients, a lot of prep time, as well as gaining enough fire-power in the worst case scenario that the punishment is actually true. You'd think that with something so catastrophic and tempting, hundreds of people would've attempted it in the past. And yet- here we are. So who's to say this isn't all just bogus fear mongering to prevent anything bad from happening... But if that were the case, surely somebody would have done it either way. So it's a paradox, and the only way we can find out is by-"

The Japanese man clapped.

"-finding out! It's that simple."

The Priest stared at the person right next to him. It was one of slight confusion skewed with a sentiment that screamed of "yeah...sure dude."

"I see..." commented the Priest, before continuing.

"In the worst case scenario, what would you do if the Angels actually do show up?"

"Like I stated before, I- and I highly doubt your team- are well equipped for such a task. However, by working our way upwards, and improving our abilities by considerable amounts, I have hope. It sounds naïve, I know. But if there are sorcerers who have the ability to control the sun in the palm of their hands, and pitch it towards any demon like a baseball, I have high hopes in our abilities. It depends on who joins, as well as how smart we play it. Though unlikely, there's still a chance."

"...

I see...

And how did you find out about this practice? Surely if its forbidden knowledge, there would've been no way to read about it... unless the people you got it from were immensely stupid."

"Well you see I-"

The Japanese man paused for sec

"I...I..."

He put his hand on his forehead.

"I think it had to do with a dream... but there's more to it than that- there has to be! I know it sounds silly, but the specifics are a bit foggy...from what I remember, after I found out about the basic fundamentals of the art, I stole some artifacts from the academy, killed a couple of people, and fled the scene as fast as I could. I'm branded as a traitor now, and no doubt, they're most likely looking for me in Japan. It was so sudden I couldn't even say goodbye to my family; not that I cared to."

"Uh-huh.

And why are you helping us in specific?"

"Well, I've been in hiding for a good couple months or so. I fled to various countries, living as a scoundrel. With my abilities, it was easy to get what I wanted. The main issue however was trying to not get spotted. I think you understand how suspicious it would be for a Japanese man to be in a very quiet town within Ireland or Canada. I hopped from country to country, eventually finding refuge here. It was much the same- hopping from state to state at a much slower pace, though, whenever there was internet available, I scoured it. I wanted help with my mission, so I looked up videos, joined forums, talked to so-called 'psychics' and 'sorcerers'. Most of them were all phonies and freaks who believed they were privy to our world. Yet, as if it were fate, I saw one of Chad's videos. I talked to him for a bit, and we got along surprisingly well."

The Priest made a mental note.

"(So far, this guy's story seems pretty straight with what Chad told me. I understand he's running away...but what if this is all a trick? No. No way. A Japanese Sorcerer coming all the way to the States to hunt down a small group of guerrilla style sorcerers would be stupid. Can never be sure though...)"

"Sorry to cut you off," said the Priest.

"You said your name was?"

"Jinsei. Jinsei Tsudzuku."

"Jen...say?"

"Jinsei."

"Yeah that's what I said. Jensay."

"Jinsei."

"Jensay that's what i'm saying."

"Jinsei-"

"I know how to pronounce your cockroach language you-" snapped the Priest.

A visible vein popped out of his forehead; his face reddened, before slowly fading back to his normal white skin color.

"Ah...ah-hem. Excuse me..."

Jinsei looked unamused. He stared at his new "partner" with a sullen tone.

"No worries. And you said your name was?"

"Edward."

"Ah, Edward.

...

No last name?"

"With what we're doing, I- we won't be needing it."

"I see. Anyway, that's the basic gist of the story. I heard you guys want to go to Japan?"

"For the most part, yes. We all have our different reasons, but as long as we all agree that Japan's the target, and we take down the Ordinance Academy, it should all be smooth sailing."

Jinsei chuckled a bit.

"...What's so funny?" asked Edward.

"No, no, it's just. This literally couldn't have lined up any better.

I understand fate is a phony subject. And yet, with all these odd coincidences lining up, it just seems a little too perfect for it to work out like this."

Jinsei smiled.

"So now that I tirelessly ranted about myself, what's up with you? Why did you join this gang of terrorists?"

"Oh, you know, God told me to" nonchalantly responded Edward.

Jinsei's eye instinctively twitched.

"I...see."

"It's as if my life was a blur before this. Come to think of it, I can't remember anything. Hell, I'm pretty sure I don't want to remember anything. I saw the radiant light. God, in all his white, bearded glory instructed me to look for an individual named 'Chad Bernard', as well as to take down the Satanic, alien forces of the Japanese Ordinance Academy, and from there, a new glorious era of Spiritual energy will arrive. And he said I would be the shepherd to control the herds of the world.

Of course, that was all he said to me, before he instructed me to hide a body and burn the church down. And, I have never looked back since! It's weird how I've been a Priest for so long and yet... I guess it just seemed so boring that I don't remember any of it, you know?"

Jinsei tried his hardest not to give a weirded out stare.

"...Can't say I relate but, I know what you mean..."

"And of course what with the whole taking down the Academy schtick, I'm assuming you don't mind that, right?"

"I've been running away from them for a long time and they're my biggest obstacle. Yes, I'm fine with the basic plan."

"Great. Just didn't want to seem xenophobic for our new member, you know?"

"...Uh-right."

"Say, how'd you get so good at speaking English by the way? You're practically a natural at it."

"The Academy makes students study at least three languages, so English was obviously one of them. That- and living in the states for at least a couple months has made me get used to practicing it."

"Gotcha, gotcha.

....

Welp, I believe that's all I needed to hear. You're definitely on board with the team. We'll notify you when we’ll meet up next time. Sound good?"

"Affirmative."

"Alright well, see you around"

"Likewise."

They both got up from the bench and started walking towards opposite directions. They smiled and waved goodbye towards each other before quickly hiding their own faces in hopes of the other not seeing their reaction. At that very moment, both of them thought of the same exact idea:

"(that guy is fucking CRAZY)"

.

.

.

Near the bench that the two sat, was another bench.Typical park setup. In the midst of children running around and teenagers playing frisbee with their dogs, the human smokescreen did their unsuspecting jobs well. A figure reading a newspaper noticed that their targets had left the scene. Good.

The figure lowered their newspaper.

It was a tall teenage boy with shaggy bangs, a brown and beige hoodie-

And a bandana that covered their eyes.

They smiled.