Chapter 26 Arturo

The café was nice. A little place at the corner of shopping street and one of the smaller streets running through it. To its right was a proper restaurant, and to its left was a kid's karate dojo. The outside was painted in calming greens and browns, giving the whole place an earthy vibe. Not exactly what I would have expected when I imagined the hideout of a secret organization of magic users. Maybe there was a secret passage in there that led to a secret location?

"You don't have to do this," I leaned over and said in Melodia's ear. The two of us were standing across the street, carefully watching the building until it was the scheduled time to go in. She shook her head and gripped my arm.

"You do this, I'm going with you," she whispered back as she focused her eyes on the building. "I'll be fine, it's easier when it comes to magic."

Neither of us commented on that as I checked my phone again. It was time to head in.

The inside was as calm and boring as the outside. On one side of the room were a set of four tables surrounded with bookshelves. On the other side was the counter sitting in front of a giant coffee machine taking up most of the back wall. Standing behind it was the barista who greeted us with a friendly smile. I could feel Melodia tighten her hand around my arm the tiniest bit.

"Good afternoon. I'm here for the book fair," the barista's face immediately changed into a look of surprise.

"Oh, you're new," she walked out from behind the counter and headed over to the tables. She stood next to one of the bookshelves and motioned for us to get closer. As soon as we were standing right next to her, she reached for a copy of 'The Empty Knight'. As soon as she pulled the insect-covered book, I heard a clicking sound come from behind the bookcase. She smirked as the whole thing swung forward to reveal a hidden staircase leading up to the second floor.

Now this… this was what I had been expecting.

"Just go up these stairs, until you reach the hallway. From there, go down until you reach door number three," she gave us a perfect smile. "The room will have a menu and a system for contacting us back on the first floor. Call us if you need anything."

"Thank you," I nodded back and then looked at Melodia. She was staring at the hidden passageway with wide eyes. I shook her hand a little, breaking her out of it. She blushed as we started going up the stairs.

Despite being hidden behind a bookcase, the stairs and hallway still had the same comfy atmosphere the rest of the place had. I ran my hand on the wooden wall as we neared the third and last room. It was shockingly smooth and pleasant to the touch. The perfect thing to touch and overthink about instead of the fact that I was about to walk into the lion's den.

We reached the door, standing awkwardly while staring at the big bronze number three on it. After a second or two, Melodia looked over at me as I gulped. I lifted my hand up to knock. A second before my fist could hit the wood, the door opened a bit and I saw a single eyeball looking at me through the crack. I blinked as the eye blinked back.

Before I could get a word out, the door shut again. We heard a slight commotion on the other side. I could barely make out the muffled sound of two people arguing. It died down after a second and then I heard several sounds behind the door, a combination of clockwork and machinery I assumed were locks.

The noises died down as the door swung open by itself, giving us a good look at the room. What I saw… was not what I had been expecting.

The room behind the door was as nice as the rest of the building, if a bit cramped. There were two sets of booths on the left wall, with an old-timey phone on the right wall. The kind with the spinning dial and a cup to listen with instead of something normal. And the three teenagers scattered around the room weren't any more out of the ordinary than the rest of this place.

"I thought you told him to bring his magic teacher," a brown haired girl with red eyes growled at Marvin. The two of them were sitting across from each other at one of the booths.

"I did, maybe you should allow our guest to explain himself first before you start pointing fingers?" He growled back as Melodia took a half step back to put me between her and the tense air between the two.

"And here I wanted to make a good second impression," the third person, a girl with short blond hair sighed. As her head shifted around, I noticed a streak of white going through it. She clapped her hands and approached us. "We would like to start by issuing an apology. One of us has something to say… right Marvin?"

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"No I don't," he narrowed his eyes at the blond girl, "my actions were more than justified and I already apologized in case he wasn't a threat."

"You had your dolls hold a knife to his throat," the blond girl sagged her shoulder, "don't you think that was a little extreme?"

"Considering the last unknown magical signature to show up was a rogue magi who tried to turn a bunch of students into mushroom growing kits, I would say no," well, it looked like I now knew what he had talked about the other day. I decided to set aside the whole 'rogue magi' thing for now and concentrate on the here and now.

"Apology or no, shouldn't we start by asking him some questions?" The red-eyed girl added. "Marvin told him to bring his teacher, and unless the girl is way older than she looks, he didn't do that."

"No, I brought my magic teacher," I interrupted as I looked down at Melodia's backpack. "He wants a promise out of all of you to not attempt to harm him. Do that and he'll reveal himself."

"No way," the red eyed girl growled, "we do that, and next thing you know, we're stuck watching on the sidelines while you teacher commits terrible atrocities. We know enough about magic to not fall for that one."

"Not a lot of trust going in either direction here," I half-joked. I already knew Marvin used dolls… the normal toy kind, not the monster kind Melodia fought. But the other two were still mysteries. At least I didn't see any of Marvin's dolls anywhere. The last thing I needed was another close shave to the… what was that cold feeling on my neck?

I glanced down and saw a doll holding the sharp side of a sword to my neck. I felt my blood go cold as a streak of sweat went down my face.

"Marvin stop!" The blond yelled as I felt another doll standing on my shoulders.

"New deal. Your teacher shows themselves right now and explains their plans for South Palm City High, and you get to keep your neck."

There was a flash of purple light and the dolls flew away from me and hit the wall. I glanced over and saw my sister in her transformed state, fire in her eyes. Her glare fell on Marvin who tried to scramble back as my sister raced forward and grabbed him by the neck.

His eyes widened as he started falling upwards. She threw him up, tossing him to the ceiling. He stayed there instead of falling back to the floor. The red eyed girl got to her feet and clenched her nails into her palm.

There was a flash of red as her blood rushed out of her wounds and wrapped around Melodia's arm like shiny red ropes. She simply pulled with her arm, pulling the girl in as my sister pulled her other arm back and rushed forward. I winced as Melodia delivered a punch right to the girl's face.

"Ow, why?" She screamed as the blood ropes went back into her body and her hands went to her face. "Why the face?"

Instead of responding, Melodia muttered something under her breath. A second later, the red-eyed girl fell onto the table. She struggled to get up, but it looked like she was stuck.

Melodia stood back before looking over at the blond girl still standing off to the side with her jaw almost hitting the floor.

"Mahou shoujo…" I heard her gasp. I followed her eyes and saw her staring right at my sister with stars in her eyes. "My life is complete, I can die happy now."

"Stop fangirling and help us Tina," Marvin growled from his spot on the ceiling.

"Shut up Marvin, you're the reason why we're in this mess in the first place," the girl stuck to the table added.

"Oh shut up Clancy. At least I'm being proactive about our threats. Now get Tina to do something before their magic teacher shows up and kills us all."

"It looks like this is as good a time as ever to come out and clear some things up," I looked back down and saw Melodia's bookbag on the floor. From where it was, she had probably dropped it to the floor when she transformed. It shook a few times before Pickati flew out from the top and started circling the room. The three other magi watched him as he landed on the table.

"Hello there, my name is Pickati. Holder of the power of the stars and magic teacher to both of these children," he introduced himself. "You mentioned having some questions for me."

The room was silent for a second before Marvin suddenly fell from the ceiling, hitting the floor with a painful sounding splat. Instead of helping her fellow mage, Clancy got back up and stared right at Pickati.

"Would you mind donating a blood sample?" She pulled out a large syringe from somewhere and started getting a bit too close to him for my liking.

This was going to be a long conversation.