Arc 4: Ludus

The four of us stared blankly as Ichigo went through her ninth helping of uni don in ten minutes. She was starting to slow down, but was still shoving pieces into her mouth with the same fervor as before.

It was impressive considering how lean she was. Where the hell did she put it all?

Stella, sitting on my left, was watching with an expression of amusement, while Albert and I were both watching in a mixture of horror and awe.

"Mrghl," Ichigo muttered through her stuffed cheeks.

"I don't get it. How are you still eating?" Black Star asked.

"Me nher grmn phrrrr."

"What?" he replied.

Ichigo chewed loudly, and gulped loudly, swallowing her food. "I train four or five days a week. I need calories, damnit."

"Does your body just not convert sugar to fat?" Stella asked, her eyes wide.

"Good metabolism. Also, my mana conversion ratio is abnormally high," Ichigo explained, pointing at her stomach with a chopstick.

Albert had stayed quiet for most of the conversation, his eyes fixated on the empty plates of sushi, but he finally spoke up. "I still can't get over how weird it is that we're eating here."

I chuckled and shook my head.

"I mean, I've never eaten at a place owned by a super villain. I don't think, I've never had the head honcho's secretary and enforcer just walk in like she owned the place, either," he continued. "That's just, really crazy to me. And it's also kind of scary how easy it was for them to just, like, walk in and out like that."

I shrugged. "Yeah, well, it's not like we're the ones paying. It was on her."

"I mean, yeah," Albert replied, "but it's still a lot to process. Like, I feel like I should be more nervous. Or, you know, maybe just freaked out a little bit? Like, I don't think that was normal."

Black Star gave him a reassuring nod.

"You get used to it, buddy."

I chuckled. "It's a little surreal, yeah, but it's fine."

He shook his head. "Hey, wasn't your friend Aurora and Ichigo's teammates going to meet up with us? They were supposed to be here by now."

"Yeah," Ichigo said through a mouth full of uni. "They were. But they aren't. It's no big deal, though! I let my brother know I was fine, too."

I frowned, feeling a pit in my stomach.

Something was wrong. I just didn't know what.

"I told them we got away from the thugs and were getting dinner," I answered, staring at my phone.

Albert nodded and looked back down at his plate. "Oh. Okay. I guess they'll catch up later."

I looked up, a sense of urgency filling me.

I couldn't explain it, but something was definitely wrong.

Stella giggled as Ichigo shoved more food in her mouth.

The look Albert had given me before we'd made our way to the restaurant was back on his face, his eyes were narrowed. I could see his brow was furrowed, his mouth set into a line, and I knew something wasn't right. But I wasn't sure what was going through his mind.

"Hey, Albert. Is everything alright?" I asked, trying to keep my voice casual.

Albert didn't respond. Instead, he continued to stare at his plate. His eyebrows furrowed further and his lips curled into a frown. He sighed heavily and then looked up, meeting my gaze. His face was filled with concern and worry.

"No," Albert answered, shaking his head.

"What is it?"

"I don't think we should be here," Albert said, looking around the restaurant with a frown. "I don't trust this place."

Black Star gave him a reassuring smile. "Look, man, I know you're nervous about all the shit that went down, but I swear, we'll be fine."

"No, that's not it. There's something off about this whole situation. I don't trust it. I don't feel comfortable. I feel like I've been watched all night. I mean, we were literally attacked a few hours ago, and we just waltz in here like everything is fine, but nothing about this is normal."

He turned to Black Star. "How did Arsenal know we would be here?"

"Uh... I left her a note in my hideout because I kinda knew this was all my fault?" Black Star said.

"And you brought us along in spite of knowing this?" Albert replied, raising an eyebrow. "I get you guys are on a friendly basis, but you didn't even try to reach out to me or the girls to make sure everyone was safe and okay with it before just coming over to eat sushi."

"I..." Black Star groaned, rubbing the back of his head. "You're right. I'm sorry. I just didn't think it through."

"Damn it, Black Star," Ichigo muttered. "Now I feel like shit for enjoying the meal."

Something definitely wasn't right. And Albert had noticed it too.

Noticed it first, in fact.

Stella had been watching our exchange, and her expression had turned to one of surprise.

Then, she slowly set her chopsticks down, her lips thin.

She closed her eyes, her aura expanding into a pink haze. It was a faint glow, and it was barely noticeable, but it was there.

I felt a tingling sensation run down my spine as she did so.

"What are you doing?" I whispered.

She opened her eyes and met mine, the glow around her vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.

"It's fine. I just wanted to check on something," she replied.

Albert furrowed his brow, and he clutched his head. "I've been trying to wrap my head around it since we sat down. Feels like my brain's been going into some kind of logic loop whenever I think about this stuff, but the pieces finally fit. Why didn't we go straight back to the academy?"

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What was he talking about?

Black Star was trustworthy, wasn't he?

Black Star had a confused expression on his face, and I couldn't blame him. I was confused as well.

"Because we needed food," Stella said flatly.

"Exactly," Albert replied. "That's why. But why? Because you guys were hungry? Because Black Star wanted to get us to eat?"

Black Star scratched his head, looking around at the four of us. "I mean, yeah? What are you trying to get at, man?"

"Did any of you consider contacting the academy to report the incident? Whenever I think about it, it feels like there's some force trying to convince me that everything's okay," Albert continued, his eyes narrowing.

Black Star looked at me and then at Stella, and then at Ichigo. "Uh... I guess I just didn't think of that."

Ichigo groaned and covered her face.

Stella looked at me, her eyes narrowing.

"That's what's off about this," Stella said.

I looked at her, my eyes widening. "You feel it too, right?"

She nodded.

"I don't understand," Black Star muttered. "What's off?"

"Hang on..." Stella closed her eyes again. This time the glow of her magic was brighter. I could feel the warmth of her power wash over me, a tingling sensation running down my spine.

And then, it was gone. Her aura returned to its normal state, and her eyes snapped open.

Albert and Ichigo looked between us, confused. "What's going on?" Albert asked.

Stella's eyes were filled with worry. "We're compromised. All of us. It's too subtle to detect passively, and the only way to notice it is by actively searching your aura with an enhanced magical sense like mine. But we all have the same imprint of foreign magical energy in our aura, a sign of some form of curse. Everyone except Black Star has multiple layers, meaning we were probably cursed multiple times by the same source. There are just some... razor thin red streaks running through Black Star's aura but nothing like us."

My blood ran cold as she spoke.

"How?" Ichigo asked, narrowing her eyes. "When? A spell that affects a knight internally would trigger an aura clash. There are no traces of that in my aura, or the other girls. I know that for a fact."

"Could it have been El Mago? Sanguine Sorcerer?" Albert turned to Black Star. "What did he do, exactly?"

"El Mago's blood magic can be subtle," Black Star said, frowning. "But I've never heard of him being able to do anything like that without you realizing it. He'd have to touch you or have your blood to be able to use that kind of magic on you."

I gulped, thinking back to our fight with Huntsman, and then Warden and Hypertroph.

There were only three people who had touched us, that I knew of.

No, it had to be... be... a what?

My thoughts were muddled, and I shook my head.

"He... they did something," I said, the pieces starting to fall together in my head.

Stella sighed and closed her eyes again. "Guys? We have company."

A scream and gunshot outside the restaurant cut off our conversation. We heard a series of gunshots and shouting from outside the sushi place.

Ichigo got to her feet and dashed towards our room's door, peeking outside.

"Ah, fuck," Ichigo muttered.

Footsteps echoed from behind the counter, and I scrambled beside her, turning to look at the kitchen.

The wait staff were all carrying hi-tech weapons.

"Protect Master Enrico and his friends!" the manager shouted, cocking a shotgun with electric blue lines running through it.

"Aw, double fuck," Ichigo groaned.

"Something big's outside," Stella muttered, closing her eyes and using her aura sense.

"Ichigo? Sienna? Can you guys do your invisibility trick?" Black Star whispered.

"Yup, I can get us out," I replied, tapping into my aura. "Just need to stay quiet."

Everyone around us nodded.

I grabbed Stella's arm and disappeared. The rest of us began to follow. We slipped out of the side room, past the hostess desk, and headed for the exit.

Just in time to see a gangster get flung through the front windows.

The glass shattered, and he crashed down onto the sidewalk outside. The few patrons all started to panic and flee the restaurant in droves, their screams filling the air. The gangsters in the restaurant had taken cover behind tables, and they were all firing on someone in a red suit outside.

"Shit! This is sooo not good!" Black Star exclaimed.

"Too much noise!" I hissed. "Shut up, let's get the hell out of here!"

"Too late," Ichigo muttered dryly, her ears and tail appearing in a flash of pink beneath my veil.

A hulking man with red and black power armor stood in the shattered windows of the sushi place. He had a large shotgun in his hand, and his body was glowing with a dark, ominous red glow. He wore a skull helmet with a red glowing eye that looked like some kind of hi-tech camera. A small blue cape was attached to the shoulders of his outfit.

I turned my attention outside, where Arsenal was jumping around the street — two pistols drawn as a sword-wielding figure with a white cape and domino mask clashed with her in a blur.

"Fuck off!" Arsenal shouted, ducking under a wide slash.

A series of gunshots rang out from behind her as more gangsters poured out from vans parked nearby.

The swordswoman leaped backwards, a pair of glowing daggers appearing in her hands as she dashed forward deflecting the bullets with her glowing blades. She twirled the daggers and clashed with Arsenal in a flurry of attacks, sparks flying as metal struck metal.

Bullets ricocheted around the street, destroying streets lamps and store signs alike.

Arsenal was pushed back and the swordswoman followed her. I could briefly make out Arsenal dropping her pistols in favor of a pair of sawed-off shotguns pulled seemingly from nowhere.

She fired a salvo of rounds at the woman, and she vanished into the cover of night.

I turned my attention to the restaurant. The red armored man had stomped his way to the front, and the waitstaff and the gangsters alike were firing on him, to no avail.

I immediately look toward Albert. He had gone pale at the sight of the man in the red armor.

He had frozen in place. His eyes were wide, his mouth was open, and his breathing had become ragged.

"Triple fuck, Ichigo," Albert hissed as he snapped out of it. "This is going to be bad."

"Who's that?" Ichigo whispered back. "He looks like he walked out of an edgy sci-fi video game!"

The man in the power armor rolled out his shoulders, and then slowly raised a fist. A large glowing blade made out of red and purple light emerged from the gauntlet. It was about two meters long and had a wicked curve to it.

"Aw'right, y'all!" the man in the red suit shouted with a drawl. "This is yer' one and only warnin' to drop them fancy guns 'n' get the heck on outta here!"

He pointed at the group of wait staff. "You, there! I'm here to speak to yer' manager, 'n' that there manager needs to give me the kid they got back there! It's gonna be easy 'n' quick, 'n' no one'll get hurt if y'all don' make things more complimacated than they gotta be."

"He's one of the best and most feared in the entire business," Albert explained quickly. "He's not just a mercenary. He's also a bounty hunter. We got a heads-up about him when we ate at the cafe last week, remember? All the upperclassmen went after him. Class 8 Artificer, with a Team Buster designation like Red Masque. Scrapper Scuttler."

"The girl in white. That's White Rose," he said. "Also bad news. Class 6 Striker."

The gangsters in the sushi restaurant started screaming, and I turned to see one rush in from the back with a heavy, futuristic-looking machine gun.

"Fuck you, creep!" the man shouted.

The mercenary shook his head. "Yer' not makin' this easy."

With that, the armored mercenary dashed forward. The man with the heavy machine gun screamed and opened fire, a barrage of bullets pelting the mercenary.

He moved quickly, his feet stomping against the ground as he dashed in a blue and red blur, and he swung his glowing sword. The blade sliced through the gun, cleaving it in two.

Then he drove the blade through the gangster's chest.

The waitstaff and gangsters started shooting at the armored man, who was unfazed. The man turned until the skull helmet's single glowing red eye was facing directly at us.

I looked over to Albert, and then at Black Star and Stella. We were still invisible, but I had a strong feeling he could sense us somehow.

"Well, dang it. Yer' makin' this hard for me, ain'tcha?" he said, his voice dripping with amusement. "I hate when they make me do that. I'm gonna get blood on this nice new armor."

Ichigo and I shared a look of confusion. I could hear her growling, and I could feel the fur of her tail and ears standing up. Her aura was swirling around her like a typhoon.

"Run?" I whispered.

She nodded, and we turned around as she yanked Albert by the shirt, ignoring his yelp of surprise as she scooped him in a fireman carry.

"Run!" I yelled, grabbing Stella's hand and dashing towards the back exit.

I kept my eyes trained on the front door, and could only throw my hand up out of reflex as a compartment in the mercenary's armor opened up and fired a series of small missiles. They shot through the restaurant with a trail of fire behind them.

I could only scream as they slammed into my hastily-constructed barriers, shattering them with ease and exploding.

My world became fire, smoke, and dust. I heard Ichigo screaming. I heard the sounds of glass breaking and debris flying through the air.

And then I was flat on my stomach, hearing nothing but ringing.