Chapter 8: Chapter Eight

(8)

The club room was almost remarkable in how unremarkable it was. It really did look like just another room, with a large table in the center, folding chairs around it, a small closet, and a television and DVD player on a rolling stand. Natsumi even had snacks out she was already working on while Ran dutifully took the opportunity to get a head start on the weekend’s homework. No one walking by would ever be able to tell the Witch Club from any other media club in the school.

Even with the teacher and club president pouring over a golden set of bracelets.

Miss Sada let out a low hum as she delicately ran her fingertips over them, as if fearful they might evaporate in front of her. “Evangelium and hordestadt, I never dreamed I’d lay my eyes on this level of demon weaponry without laying siege to the imperial palace, itself. Whatever you had to do to get this kind of favor, Miss Kelly, keep it up.”

“Oh, that shouldn’t be too hard,” the brunette replied with flat sarcasm. “I only had to lose all memory of the guy that wants me dead. Perfectly safe to repeat.”

“I am being strictly jovial, dear, I assure you,” the teacher responded after a short chuckle. “Our dear old friend spared no expense on your behalf, they appear quite well-crafted, too. He must have commissioned a very revered craftsman for it.”

“We get it, Miss Hada,” Haru put in, shouldering into the conversation. “They’re really, really valuable. That’s great. But what are they? You called them weapons, but they don’t look like any weapon I’ve ever seen, much less one Riko would use.”

The white-haired woman got a smile on her face that was typical of her going into teacher mode. “Well, you see, dear, demons don’t transform like you witches. Not usually, anyway.” She motioned toward the bracelets. “Instead, they use equipment like this to automatically channel their energies. The end result is more or less the same, with a few minor trade-offs. For example, you can’t really be stripped of your gear because it doesn’t exist separately from you, but at the same time, at least some small part of your magic is always tied up in creating it in the first place. As witches, you possess immensely high magic levels, but are throttled by how much your mortal body can channel, which is why strenuous fighting causes burnout to your body long before you’re actually out of magic.”

She thought for a moment, then held her hands wide. “Imagine a great basin held back by a dam, and that dam lets through just enough water to fill a small stream on the other side. If you let more water than that through, you’re still not going to drain the basin, but you’ll flood the stream. Since your transformation is pulling from the basin instead of the stream, it’s not an issue to maintain it. You’re never really going to notice the draw. Demons, on the other hand, draw directly from their basin, but theirs aren’t quite as uniform in size. Dretches, for example, have pitiful basins that are only larger than the average human’s because it’s like comparing a small bundle of grass to one blade of it. At the other end of the scale, the basins of greater demons are, for all intents and purposes, on par with witches.”

She picked one of the bracelets up from the table and turned it over in her grip. “The thing is, they’re always fighting. Even when they aren’t fighting others, they have to be wary of getting attacked in a moment of weakness by one of their own. The fastest way to a promotion, after all, is to take out anyone else in position for it. So they’d have to go around transformed all the time. Obviously, this would be incredibly inconvenient, so they developed as a society opting to arm themselves instead of having to survive an ambush while defenseless long enough to cast a spell.”

Now, Miss Sada actually slipped the bracelet on to her wrist. Despite being sized a moment earlier for the brunette’s wrist, it conformed perfectly now to hers. “The thing is, you can’t just make a steel sword and call it good for a magic weapon. Different materials and combinations of materials have different levels of resistance to the flow of magic, exactly, remarkably, as you would describe electrical conductivity.”

She held her hands out to illustrate a bowl with them. “To go back to our basin analogy, the more water you want to release from the dam at one time, the wider the stream bed needs to be. The width, then, is the arcane resistance of the material, since the body is irrelevant. The lower the resistance, the wider the channel. Demons use a variety of materials for this, using more common but less conductive ones to arm weaker demons like the dretches, while rarer but more conductive ones are used for the gear of more powerful demons.”

She held up her wrist and tapped the bangle with her fingertip from the opposite hand. “Evangelium and hordestadt, however, are extremely difficult to make, but come together to make an arcane superconductor, with effectively zero resistance. Its rarity and the simple fact that few demons outside of the imperial family have big enough basins for it to make a difference over the next material down means that it is almost never used, though.”

Natsumi was getting visibly agitated. “Miss Sada, you’re lecturing. Okay, the stuff channels magic really, really well. How is it a weapon? Is it some sort of blaster?”

But the fifth dimensional being merely grinned like an imp. “I don’t know!”

Every set of eyes at the table stared flat and dumbstruck at her as she seemed to revel in the reaction.

“But you called it a weapon,” Ran put in quietly, her homework forgotten for the moment. “You recognized it as one, didn’t you?”

The brunette’s mind went back to the dretch weaponry she had used a couple days prior, and it suddenly clicked. “Demon weapons are mimetic!” she provided quickly, noticing out of the side of her field of vision how Miss Sada’s eyes lit up. “They change according to who wields them!” She turned her attention to the teacher. “So these bracelets must be some sort of …” now she floundered for just the right word, “concealed state that can be called into the form of an actual weapon, then, right?”

“Oh my, Miss Kelly,” the white-haired woman praised, “you’re going to have to share your tutors with the rest of the class. They’re going to be terribly cross if you get too far ahead of them.”

“Ehehe …” She scratched the back of her head for a moment. “Sorry, Dakunaito told me. I disarmed a couple dretches in that attack. Their weapons changed a little when I picked them up, but immediately started to overload. He said all demon weapons can change at least a little to fit the user. He must have shelled out extra to get these hidden since humans can’t walk around armed to the teeth.”

“Indeed. And would you mind telling me what kind of weapons you took from them?”

“A sword,” she provided immediately, then considered again. “A sword and a gun.”

Sarasa held her arm with the bracelet on it diagonally across her so that it wasn’t pointing at anyone, and the next moment, the bracelet flashed with energy. By the time it faded from their eyes, the teacher’s hand held a sword with a large, triangular blade nearly three feet in length, gold edges going from the base of the blade to the tip on either side and framing a field of amorphous white energy, with a line of half a dozen evenly spaced, light blue, hollow circles running down the middle in line with the hilt and the tip.

Miss Sada let the girls gasp and ogle for a moment, then stepped up from the table, making a few very gentle swings safely avoiding getting anywhere near anything. “Oh my, but I could get used to one of these.” She smiled, however, as she turned it around to offer the hilt toward the brunette. “But I believe this one belongs to you, dear.”

She looked at the ludicrously fancy weapon for a moment, but then reached out to take it by the handle, not quite missing the glint in her history teacher’s eye. When her hand closed around the hilt, the weapon flashed again, becoming slimmer and more functional, in the same way the dretch sword had done, a golden yellow blade with a light blue fuller and ivory handle. The gold and ivory wrapped together in the flat cross guard, and more of the blue stone extruded as if an insert in the pommel. She could immediately tell it was lighter than it looked, as she expected it to drag her hand down and had reflexively pushed up against weight that failed to materialize.

Miss Sada, meanwhile, was looking down at the sword with a smug smile on her face, no doubt comparing it to the appearance it had in her grip. “Oh, what a lack of imagination you have, Miss Kelly!”

She frowned at the teasing, though not really in offense. “Maybe I just like my swords functional.” She brought it around in front of her, carefully placing the flat of the blade in her other hand as she examined it more closely. “But how do I turn it on and off?”

“Concentration, dear,” the teacher answered. “It responds to your will. Just as it changed to take the form of how you picture the concept of a sword, it will change if you picture it doing so. Imagine it as a bracelet around your wrist.”

It took a moment, and she had to close her eyes to focus, but again the weapon flashed, and now it was once again a bracelet on her right wrist. She opened her eyes and held the limb up before her, turning it over in wonder.

“Same thing in reverse to draw it again, dear,” Miss Sada urged. “Imagine it as a sword in your hand.”

Again, it was difficult to do at first, though it happened a little faster, and soon, the weapon was in her hand again as if it had never been a bracelet. It took more than simply imagining it, she was figuring out. There was an assertion of will that was hard to describe before the weapon actually shifted.

“… That is handy,” Ran quietly understated what might have been everyone’s thoughts at the table, judging from their expressions.

“Very,” the white-haired woman agreed. “You’ll need to practice, but the more you sheathe and draw it, the better you’ll get.” She raised a hand to stop the brunette when she reached for the other bracelet. “Oh, but practice the gun at home, dear. We are still on school property, after all.”

“Is it safe, though?” Haru looked between both her teacher and her upperclassman. “I mean, I couldn’t detect anything bad in it, but …”

“Neither could I,” Reina replied. “The … devices,” she dubbed them after having trouble still calling them weapons or bracelets, “have no hexes on them of any sort. No taint, no corruption, either. They’re pure.”

The redhead leaned forward, her face lined with suspicion. “But why would a demon just hand a witch such a rare and powerful artifact, then? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Miss Sada touched her lip. “If there is a game afoot, we clearly lack any key pieces to see it right now. As it stands, by every metric we can determine, these weapons are safe for Miss Kelly to use, and use them, I believe she should.” She held a hand up even as Haru began to inhale a protest. “Let’s not forget she has no spells or transformation abilities at her disposal right now, and this morning made it very clear that one escort alone is not going to protect her if someone sets their mind to getting to her. Maybe we were naive and arrogant to believe otherwise. Maybe Dakunaito really does value getting to the Thunder Witch that highly. Maybe, maybe, maybe. All we really know is that we are currently a witch down and the entire team is weaker for it.”

She let the girls drop their gazes at that grim thought. “But more importantly, Nariko is vulnerable right now, more vulnerable than she even was before awakening, at least then she was a nobody to the demons. Now she’s a target. If this … mysterious benefaction can change a scenario where she might die to one where she might live, then my decision stands. She will practice with them at every reasonable opportunity until she can readily draw and sheathe them as needed, and I encourage her to practice her fighting with them, as well.” She pointed to the redhead. “Miss Homura, you’ll help with that.” Again, she cut off objection. “My decision stands. Do any oppose?”

* * *

No one had opposed, and with the pressing business thus determined and the prospect of the weekend ahead of them, the girls had been quick to wrap the meeting up after that. She couldn’t say she really opposed such a short end to the first “Witch Club” meeting she’d ever attended. She’d be lying if she said the spark of childish glee wasn’t in her driving her to start practicing with the new weapons right away. Besides that, though, she and Haru still needed to make that supermarket stop.

“So does Yoshi have any preferences for these dinners?”

The two were walking down the street in a somewhat neighboring district to the one they called home, and Haru laughed at the question. “Do not give him a say in the meals. He’ll insist on something like marshmallow cereal pizza and ice cream.”

“You’re kidding,” she looked back at the blonde with incredulity. “Isn’t he getting kind of old for that kind of thing?”

“Pardon me, Lady Strawberry,” Haru replied, placing her fingertips daintily upon her chest, “but you haven’t exactly grown out of your sweet tooth, either.”

Her mind went back to her nigh-spiritual response to the milkshake only a couple days ago. “Ah …”

“Yeah, Ah.” Haru waggled her finger at her. “And your mother will kill you if you give in and actually feed him lots of sugar instead of actual food.”

“Hah, alright,” she moved along, crossing one arm and motioning with the other. “Then what foods does he hate?”

Haru arched an eyebrow at that one. “So you can torment him with them?”

She grinned and winked. “It sounds like something I would do!”

The blonde broke into laughter. “It is something you would do!”

Only a short moment or two later, Haru stopped as something caught her eyes in a path between a couple buildings that led to a small ball court. It took her a second to realize what she was looking at, but then she gasped and put a hand out to stop the brunette from going any further. “Riko!”

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She followed where her friend was pointing and her eyes went wide when she saw a familiar form down on the ground with three others in front. “Yoshi!”

The two girls hurried across the street and toward the access drive, but before they came up on it, Haru reached out and grabbed her by the arm. “Riko, wait!”

“What?!” She spun around to see what was wrong, desperate to get around the corner.

“You can’t use magic on people!”

She stared at the blonde briefly, trying to process what she said. The idea hadn’t even occurred to her, but once her brain clicked in on what Haru was talking about, the concern made sense. If she could do, say, what Natsumi’s magic was capable of and, in a heat of temper, didn’t think not to do it, the aftermath would be horrible. Instead, she just grinned and gave the blonde a thumbs-up. “Don’t worry! I don’t know any spells, remember? And it’s not like I’m pulling a sword on some kids.”

“Those kids may or may not be Yoshi’s age, Riko, but they’re as big as you or me. Be careful!”

Again, she just grinned and slipped her thumb across her chin. Apparently, it was an expression familiar to Haru, because it didn’t look like it made her any calmer, but she went on around the corner anyway.

“What’s wrong, Kelly? You’re the one who called me out here.” The leader of the standing boys was lean and tall, clearly the benefactor of an early growth spurt, and he was using Kioshi’s last name as a derogatory, as if it were a girl’s name. “Now you wanna complain about what you get?”

“Hehe, what a girl, right?” The dumb laughter came from a big but heavy boy.

“Man, Reg, this is what we get for coming out and answering somebody named Kelly.” This one was muscular, no doubt on the middle school’s sports teams.

“Who knows?” the leader replied. “Maybe it was a confession, you never know.”

“But it wasn’t a confession, Reg!” The heavy boy looked confused. “He wanted to get out of paying!”

Reg sneered. “Heh, yeah, who’d have thought he had so little gratitude. Here I am, standing up for our school, protecting our fellow students, and this little girl Kelly wants to fight me over the little bit of stipend I ask for to make it all possible.”

“So what you’re saying is you’ve got a protection racket in the first week of school.” Her voice caused all four boys to look over to her in startled surprise.

The fat boy was first. “Reg, it’s a high schooler!”

“It’s a girl, you blubbering coward,” the muscular one corrected.

But Kioshi’s eyes lit up with recognition. “Big Sis!”

“Heyo, Yosh,” she greeted casually, continuing to walk toward the group. “You look like you’re in a bit of a pickle.”

The boy’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “I hate pickles!”

Reg, however, looked over her as she approached. “You’re little Kelly’s big sister, eh? So what do I call you? Big Kelly?”

She smirked, but at how little it took to get his two goons laughing hysterically than at the incredibly uncreative title. “My friends call me Riko, but you can call me Ma’am.”

“Oh, I’ve got a lot of things I’d like to call you, especially on your knees,” the tall boy replied, grinning fiercely. Haru was right, this boy had several inches on her, and was full of wiry muscle. He’d be a heck of a grappler, but she doubted he had that kind of dedication. “In fact, you do that, and I just might be persuaded to forgive your little sister’s outburst today.”

Now she laughed, genuinely, at the sheer testosterone-deluded guts of the boy. “Why in the world would I be intimidated by anybody who needs two extra people to beat down one?” She watched his grin turn into gritted teeth as her fingers came down to casually rest against the lid of a metal trash can. “Or did I misunderstand what I was seeing here? Tell me, Reg, did you fight my brother one on one, or did your boyfriends help?”

His answer came through those tightly-clamped teeth. “I don’t need help to deal with a runt like Kelly.”

“Well, you’ll need them to deal with me.” In one motion, she gripped the lid and send it flying. It missed Reg by inches, but powered hard into the side of the muscled boy’s head, sending him sprawling. While the leader was flinching away, she came in at him, fist drawn back …

… and ran right past him as he jumped away from her, and instead, she turned to drive her foot into the fat boy’s middle, briefly making him look like he was going to hurl before she took him by his neck and shoulder and rolled him to the ground. The muscled boy was getting back to his feet, so she spun about and kicked in the back of his knee, and uppercut his chin, sending him back down again.

Reg seemed to have rallied his senses, and was charging her with a blatant haymaker. “Get off of them!”

She had to respect that he did seem concerned with the well-being of his friends, but his haymaker was easily converted into an arm bar as he went face first into the ground. She gave just enough of a crank on the arm to draw out a cry of pain from him. “You will never lay a hand on my brother again, do you hear me?”

His words were distorted by the gravel in his mouth, but they weren’t pretty, so she cranked it a little more. “What did I tell you to call me?”

That snapped his bravado, and he cried out, “Ma’am!”

“Will you harm my brother again?”

“No!”

“No, what?”

“No, ma’am!”

She looked over to his buddies, who were in various states of pulling themselves up, but watching the proceedings. They didn’t seem inclined to intervene, either. She released him and stepped back toward Kioshi. “If I ever hear otherwise, I’m coming for you. Now get out of my sight.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Reg took the lead to get his feet under him and take off, followed quickly by the other two.

She found herself feeling like there was no sense of victory there. Oh, for Yoshi’s sake, it was a fight worth having, but as they ran, it struck her they really were just kids. Big kids, but kids all the same. They had no idea what they were doing in that fight, and never really had a chance against someone who did. After a moment of entertaining that introspection and once they were far enough away not to be coming back, she turned her head slightly to call back over her shoulder. “Is the middle school near here?”

Haru was still at the entrance to the access drive. “It’s a short walk from the court here. Close enough to get to without anyone being too far out of their way of getting home, far enough to be outside any teacher’s authority. A couple intramural teams practiced here when we attended, a few more used the place to settle grudges.”

So it wasn’t any sort of lure that got this confrontation out here, then. This sounded like it was the equivalent of behind the bleachers. Though if what the bullies were saying could be trusted, it sounded like Kioshi was the one who threw down the gauntlet, if not without provocation.

She turned to check on the boy, but was taken aback by how he was up and looking at her. “Wow, that was amazing! You’ve been practicing with Big Sis Homura, haven’t you?! You really took them all out in seconds!”

The sudden attention caught her bashful, driving her to look away again as she scratched behind her ear. Dakunaito’s words came back to her, Nariko Kelly didn’t fight like that. Oops. She hadn’t really forgotten it, but in the heat of needing to act, she’d let it slip out of her consideration. Her gaze drifted to Haru for vindication or rescue, but the blonde looked just as bewildered by her display. She had a suspicion she was going to be hearing about it later.

Instead, she cleared her throat and turned her attention back to the boy, reaching over to ruffle his hair. “Yeah, well, you let me know if they give you any trouble from here on, okay?” After considering, she bent down a little to look him in the face. Her hand didn’t leave his head, though she’d stopped ruffling, as she more seriously added, “And if I catch you trying to lord it over them and using me to be a bully to them, I’m letting you get your just desserts.”

His elation turned deathly serious at that prospect, as well, and he simply gave a silent nod.

“Great!” She stood up as her tone went back to chipper. “Well, I’d say this was good timing. Haru and I were on the way to the store to decide on food for this weekend. Want to come with?” She knew it would be putting a hold on their ability to talk freely, but the boy needed something comforting after this encounter.

Yoshi certainly seemed eager enough. “Can we do banana splits?”

“For dessert,” she assented, glancing again to Haru, who was beginning to smile at her previous prediction being vindicated.

“Oh, come on, Sis,” the boy attempted to argue his case. “It’s got all of the important food stuff! It’s got fruit and dairy, and protein if we use nuts!”

She chuckled as she took a moment to straighten his ruffled collar and dust off some of the dirty patches of his uniform. For getting beat down, it didn’t look like he’d taken too many real hits. “It also doesn’t get me protection from Mom, you know the rules. Dessert’s the best I can do.” She began guiding him back out to the sidewalk with a firm hand on his back as Haru moved to walk on her other side.

“Fine,” he relented with a pout, but only for a moment. “How about macaroni and cheese?”

That brought a smile to her face. Apparently, her concern about such a change in food pace was going to be unnecessary. “I think we can get away with that.”

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