"Hi, welcome to the Kaleidoscope's Underworld. My name's Black Star. Or Henry. And I'll be your host tonight," Black Star joked. "First thing you need to know, you're being tailed by some of Red Masque's men. More specifically, the silver-spooned brat over here has caught the eye of Arsenal's faction. The Crimson Order is in chaos with... ahem, Red Masque's designated successor missing."

Stella's eyes narrowed, and the rest of us shifted uncomfortably at that remark. Black Star smirked, his deep brown eyes dancing with mirth.

"And how, may I ask," Stella said coldly, "did you come by such knowledge?"

Black Star rattled his electric kettle on the makeshift table, turning the heating pad off and pouring some water in his ramen. He dialed in a timer the table and started mixing the soup base. "You guys don't want your noodles? No? Ok then."

He turned to Stella and spoke up. "Well. Let's say Red Masque was a relative of mine and I was being groomed for a leadership position in the Crimson Order. And, let's say, I've done some soul searching and I'm not particularly keen on taking up the role of a supervillain. We had a big fight and I booked it to set up this hideout just a couple of hours before everything went to shit and monsters starting pouring out of portals. So let's say I'm on a gap year and I want nothing to do with that shitshow."

Albert raised his hand. "I have so many questions."

"Me too," Ichigo nodded, looking at Black Star in confusion. "Uh... what?"

Stella raised an eyebrow at him, her expression still stony and unyielding as I stood next to her and crossed my arms.

"Man, you two have the exact same glare," Albert remarked, chuckling to himself as he turned to me. "Uncanny. And a little creepy."

Black Star shrugged, a wry smile forming on his lips. He turned to me, his smile widening. "So. Long time no see, Sparkles. What've ya been up to lately?"

"Not now, asshole." I scowled at him. "So, what's the plan?"

"Plan's simple." Black Star shrugged again, pausing.

"I don't got one," he said. "Not really, at least."

Albert and Ichigo both facepalmed. Stella's frown only grew more severe, her eyes narrowing dangerously. "You're joking, right?" She hissed.

"Nope. This is gonna sound kinda cheesy but I was going to improvise," he grinned.

"So what are you thinking? Run away? Fight? Call the authorities?" I asked.

''Pends. Dunno how many of you four are knights or have Arts or Skills and whatnot."

He scratched his head. "But hopefully we won't need them." Because honestly, that sounds like a recipe for disaster."

Albert frowned, looking at the hooded boy. "Wait, why?"

"Eeeeh. We've got some bad motherfuckers in this squad. Arsenal's right hand man is with 'em along with a couple of her lieutenants. His name is El Mago. He's bad news. I'm betting they've come here to abduct Matsudaira's heir and take her back with them. Anyone she's associated with will probably die if we're not careful. Especially when her little pet is involved."

"Hang on. This seems a little too convenient to be random," Albert said. "What're the chances that these guys are here by chance? And why'd they choose today to attack? What's their game?"

Black Star shrugged. "They've had sentries up at major commercial districts for the past week. I'm betting one of them ID'd Matsudaira tonight and called it in. They probably thought you would make for an easy snatch and grab, and I think I interrupted their first attempt with that little oh-so frustrating oopsie. I'd say it's just coincidence, but they're not leaving now. So. That's where your problems begin."

"You think this'll go that far? Like, enough to make the news at a time like this?" Ichigo murmured.

"Oh yeah." He smirked. "Arsenal's goons were Red Masque's main enforcers and they're pretty damn scary. These guys aren't exactly known for their subtlety and the jefe only brought them out when he needed a mess cleaned up or wanted someone dead. Arsenal is a class 6 artificer and she has access to a lot of really dangerous toys and gizmos, so she's probably armed these men with some nasty gear."

A person's total level was a representation of their potential to impact the world and their surroundings. Normal, ordinary everyday Janes and Joes rarely achieved a level over 35, but it was not a very useful metric, practically speaking.

Someone who was level 60 could be a solid, freshly graduated magical knights from secondary education. Or they could be a cadet like me — with highly skewed attributes like a magic score that drastically inflated their overall levels. I may be able to level an small building by throwing magic at it, but I had pretty poor control and efficiency, all things considered.

Magical knights aside — Olympians and highly esteemed scientists, philosophers, corporate executives, politicians, and elite soldiers also floated around level 40 to 70 without any World Skills or magical abilities, and they usually had some of the incredible base attributes. Often, the refinement of their crafts would lead to the creation of Personal Skills, and they had a chance to be identified as Pioneers by the World System.

Pioneers were those whose personal skills transcended the limits of normal people, and those with World Skills could usually reach a minimum of level 100. Average knights who completed their training typically floated a level around 125 to 175 or so in their primes, and world-class Guardian Knights in charge of securing macro regions floated around 250 to 325. Individuals who achieved 500 or 600+ were borderline mythical.

However, in a combat situation - which was common when supervillains were involved, even elite normal soldiers were no match for even the weakest magical girl that could unlock their transformations. Or even a Pioneer that had refined a superpower they'd unlocked through pursuing their talents, dreams, and ambitions to the point of attaining abilities acknowledged as World Skills.

World Skills were personal skills that'd been refined to a point the world itself acknowledged their transcendent properties, and they usually required the ability to channel mana into one's own soul. Pioneers with World Skills were referred to as Superhumans by normal civilians, and the government would often monitor and police their actions and ensure they didn't become too unruly. Skills could be taught to others, but it took exceptional talents to refine one that was passed on to the same point a Pioneer had refined their Personal Skill to transcend it into a World Skill.

In contrast to Skills and Arts, which could be taught to another, a Depravity was a unique manifestation of the darkness and malice that existed within a human's heart, and the depravities that existed within a villain were the ones that made them the most dangerous. Once an individual had mastered their talents enough to be acknowledged as a Pioneer, the old System would actively guide their development to achieve mastery and refine them into World Skills.

Some of the options for a Pioneer's personal development and goal seeking were dark and destructive but incredibly powerful, and the System had identified and classified them as Depravities. These people had been tempted and corrupted by the darkness of their own hearts and the power of evil. It was a state of the soul that led to a complete and irreversible loss of one's innocence. Even if they returned from such a state of mind, their actions could never be forgotten and forgiven.

But the existence of Signature Talents from Knights, Depravities from Villains, and varied World Skills from Pioneers made levels a poor choice to classify the threat potential of an individual.

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Threat classification ratings were a much more useful measure, ranging from the weakest of individuals who were a negligible threat at class 0, to a classification of 10. Class 10 designations were incredibly rare and historically significant, and only the likes of Arcadia and her archnemesis Mortifera Nox were given that designation. Even individuals that could topple a country on their own without international intervention such as Tesseract or Osmium Titan only had a Class 9 rating.

Common henchmen and law enforcement had a Class 1 rating, magical knights cadets at the minimum of a class 2 rating, veteran elites were usually class 5 or 6, the best heroes and villains were class 6 or 7, and there was a significant jump between 7 and 8.

A Class 7 designation usually indicated that an individual was the greatest in their field or country and represented a major international presence - whether as a threat or deterrent. A Class 8 was essentially a demigod, and Class 9s were truly in a category of their own. I'd once read about how Nox's heavy hitter Osmium Titan once defeated an entire coalition of over three dozen class 6s through 8s selected to counter him.

Superhumans were further segmented into categories such as Artificer, Shadow Manipulator, Mentalist, Pyrokinesis, and other descriptors, but that was only a broad guideline of what an individual's powers and threat potential might look like. Usually, it was a bad idea to even engage with a combatant more than two class ratings above one's own, but a gap of three ranks was typically just enough not to be dead weight.

"Not good, then. That's seven potential Pioneers with powers and the manpower and equipment to take out a small army." Ichigo shivered, biting her lip nervously.

"And that's just their big guns." Albert added. "There'll probably be dozens of henchmen, too. Even if we hypothetically had a knight or two in our group here ready to pop their identity, the normies like me would still get caught in the crossfire."

"Well. I've got some good news and some bad news," Black Star said. "Bad news is that there's a bunch of mooks out here looking for us right now, so they probably have a vague idea where we went. And they're gonna keep looking. They have numbers on their side, and if they catch any one of us alone, well. I think it's safe to say that the whole kidnapping plan will probably happen a lot faster and more efficiently than they anticipated. They won't stop till they have what they came for."

Black Star stirred the ramen again. The timer beeped, and he grabbed a fork, stabbing at the block of instant ramen and stirring it up into a mush of noodles. "You guys sure you don't want one? I can make another kettle worth of water real quick."

He shrugged when we shook our heads and began chowing down, scarfing down a forkful of instant ramen in one gulp.

"Uhm, so, uh. What's the good news then?" Ichigo asked hesitantly.

"The good news is that I'm pretty good at what I do and understand this crew of bozos, so I'm confident in our chances. I could probably be convinced to get put under a contract if anyone wants to tip their hands about their skills."

"Contract? You're kidding." Albert scoffed.

"A magical vow of silence, yes. Red Masque operated a lot with these involved, so I can vouch that I can get you something to put your mind at ease." Black Star said.

Albert suddenly looked at me. "Yo. Is this kid for real?"

"Yup," I answered, shrugging helplessly. "He's an asshole, but he's trustworthy."

"Okay, just checking. Um..." Albert trailed off.

I took a deep breath, pulling out my phone.

"If it's all the same, can we just skip straight to calling for backup through the group chat? Or are we just going to assume nobody else has anything to hide here?"

The others shifted nervously.

I quickly tapped a few messages into our chat with the group that'd gone through Tesseract's exercise, explaining the situation and asking for backup or a way to evacuate us.

"That's... surprisingly sensible, but El Mago's got a Scryer with him." Black Star frowned. "They're gonna find us before your cavalry comes."

My phone vibrated as Aurora chimed in immediately with an alarmed emoji, saying she was with a bunch of older students at a club, but she'd put together a team and get there as fast as possible. I'd mentioned that Strawberry was with me, but that didn't mean much. We were outnumbered by supervillains, but hopefully we could get more on the way. Hopefully.

A few more seconds later, an account with a cute blue-eyed magical girl anime profile picture sent an emoji and a brief message that was a mix of abbreviations and emoticons. More names I didn't recognize chimed in a minute later, all promising they were on the way.

"I've called for backup from the others," I said. "They'll probably be a while, but that just gives us more time to prepare, right?"

"Yeah. Hopefully we won't have to wait for them to arrive. Or worse, have them die in a heroic, desperate attempt to save us." Black Star snarked, smirking at me.

I nodded, staring down at my phone. Everyone here knew who I was, so there was no point keeping my identity hidden.

I channeled my mana into my Nexus, transforming my phone into a heart-shaped device, and let my magic envelop me, transforming into my magical girl identity. A swirl of red and gold mana enveloped me, my clothes dissolving and being replaced with my red dress.

Stella sighed, stepping forward as a piece of paper appeared in her hand in a swirl of blue. She shoved it into Black Star's hands, pulling a pen from her purse. "Draw blood with that and swear on it. I have a feeling we don't have time to spare. I want you to promise you won't sell us out, share or disclose anything we've talked about, and that you won't use any of what we tell you to hurt us. That's my magic paper, and it binds you. So be very specific with your vow."

I chuckled. I guess that answered whether Stella was going to transform or not.

Black Star winced, pricking his finger with his knife and letting his blood pool onto the paper.

"Alright, but you guys seriously better buy me dinner sometime for this. This isn't exactly comfortable." He grumbled as the blood flowed into the paper and turned it red, and then white.

He muttered an oath under his breath, and then handed it back to her.

Ichigo stared at Stella in shock, gaping. Her mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out.

Finally, after a long moment, she spoke. "What the actual fuck. Matsudaira, of all people?"

"Right?" I chuckled.

Stella giggled, stepping back from Black Star.

"Hi. I hope I am not incorrect and being presumptuous. You are Claw Strawberry, correct?" Stella smiled, turning to her.

Ichigo's face went pale. "Wait. You already know?"

"I'm not blind. You literally picked a name that was a direct translation of your civilian name. I figured it out in like a day, and that's because I wanted to be sure," Stella rolled her eyes.

Ichigo flushed a deep shade of crimson, her cheeks turning a dark red. She coughed awkwardly.

"Okay. So, that would make you..."

Stella beamed, pulling out her own phone and morphing it into a snowflake shape.

"Take a guess," she smiled, turning her attention to me. "Sienna?"

She gave me a sly wink, and I stared at her, scratching my head.

"How good are you at maintaining your illusions on the move?" she asked.

"Depends," I frowned.

"Excellent. We'll discuss more soon. I'll need your help with something later." She smirked, her eyes glinting mischievously. "But for now, I believe we should focus on the matter at hand."

Albert leaned back, whistling nonchalantly as Ichigo's head whipped over to him.

"You knew!?" She scowled.

Albert grinned sheepishly. "It was pretty funny to watch, honestly. I didn't know for sure, but I was like eighty percent sure about you. Stella here is a shock, though."

"I hate all of you." Ichigo muttered.

"Well," Stella continued. "You might know me as Elysia, but I think I have a plan. We need to buy time, right? In the event we cannot defeat them in a straight fight. So, I'll start us off with this. We should run a misdirection play."

I grinned, a plan forming in my mind.

"Well, you do seem like you have the perfect personality to throw them for a loop," I teased.

Ichigo frowned, slowly pulling out a phone with a cat's paw charm on it. "You guys gonna fill me in or not?"

Stella's expression suddenly shifted as the snowflake shifted into an edgy black smartphone case with red runes. A crimson mist started to gather around her as her face took on a cruel, sadistic look.

"Oh, you adorable little kittens," she chuckled. "Let me explain to you all the intricacies of my master plan."

She grabbed onto her face with an exaggerated gesture of surprise, a cruel, maniacal grin forming on her face as her eyes seemed to glow a menacing red.

"I am. So lost." Ichigo said, shaking her head.

She yelped as Albert stepped in, throwing his big, heavy arm around her in a friendly, comforting squeeze. "Welcome to the club!"

"I don't like this," Ichigo whimpered, crossing her arms but not protesting Al's hug.

"Oh, I'm loving this." Black Star laughed.

"I see you're confused! Don't worry your little hearts. I, the Goddess of Chaos, shall bless you with the knowledge you so crave!"

"Ok, this is officially extra." Albert chuckled. "She's really a chuunibyou, isn't she?"

I sighed. "Just go with it."

A crack of red lightning sparked in Stella's hair. A gust of wind seemed to come out of nowhere as she raised her hands dramatically. A sinister aura began to surround her. I couldn't tell if it was just for dramatic flair or an extension of her transformation.

Albert and Ichigo exchanged looks with me. Then, the two exchanged stunned looks and nodded.

Ichigo turned back to Stella, who was cackling like an old woman while stroking her chin like some sort of cartoon villain. She raised an eyebrow. "So, uh... she's supposed to be Elysia, huh?"

I shrugged, smiling.

"NYEHEHEHEEHEHE!" Stella cackled. "NOW! GAZE UPON PERFECTION, MORTALS!"

A flash of red light filled the alleyway, and the next thing I knew, Stella stood in a black and red goth-lolita dress, with her hair dyed raven-black, streaked with blood-red highlights.

Ichigo stared like her brain had short circuited.

...

A long moment of silence passed as Dark Princess Eris held a long, confident pose with one hand on her hips and the other framing her face with a wink and grin. You could practically hear a pin drop as she held the pose.

And then, Ichigo finally broke the silence.

"...What. The fuck?!"