Chapter 48 Against the Magician Hunter

At this moment, Tatsurou and Naoki were now in front of the gate of the first Esper school to have been created in District 4, this school looked like all the other public Esper schools, from its 3 stories rectangular design, right down to its gate and the walls that surrounded it, you could say that this school was the model to all the other Esper schools of District 4 or all the Esper schools in Takamagahara.

"We're here, Izumi..." Tatsurou said as he got close to the school's old rusty gate while he placed his hand on it and began to push sideways to open it.

"It's stuck..." As Tatsurou said this Naoki got close to him and placed her hands on the gate.

"Let's push it together..." Naoki said as she began to push with Tatsurou and soon enough the gate began moving, while it made a screeching sound that showed its old age.

"Thanks..." Tatsurou said as he cleaned his hands that were dirty from the rust.

"No need to thank me, let's go..." Naoki said as she stepped inside the schools ground, with Tatsurou walking right next to her.

"This place, really has seen better days..." Tatsurou said as he looked around and saw the old trees that were scattered throughout the school grounds and the very damaged school building filled with cracks and broken windows, but as Tatsurou and Naoki were halfway through the school ground...

"Who the hell, are you?" A voice from a boy in a school uniform said as he stepped out of the main entrance of the school building and walked towards Tatsurou and Naoki.

"Were from the Soteria unit, and were here for a bastard named Amasami Raiko, and no one else, so step aside..." Naoki said with an angry tone as she and Tatsurou stooped walking and looked at this boy.

"Huh? And you really think, that just because you're with the Soteria, you can waltz in here, like you own the place and order us around?" The boy asked in an angry tone towards Naoki as he stooped.

"We just want Raiko and no one else, please don't make this more complicated, than it has to be..." Tatsurou said in a calm tone as he tried to not start an unnecessary fight.

"There's no way, were going to turn in our leader like that! You want him you have to go through us!" The boy said as he snapped his fingers and suddenly Tatsurou and Naoki were surrounded by 3 other boys in school uniforms.

"I would say you two got some shit luck and planning, by coming here all by yourselves!" The boy said as he laughed and joined the other 3 boys that were preparing themselves to attack Tatsurou and Naoki.

"Just what we needed, right now..." Tatsurou said as he sighed and got into a fighting stance, but Naoki on the other hand.

"Kurokami...get down..." Naoki said as she glanced at Tatsurou that looked at her a bit confused, but not for long as he saw Naoki drawing a magic circle with her right and left hand, and out of each, she took a black M1911 covered in neon.

"Gunwelt: Azure ballet!" As Naoki said this she did a small twirl and prepared to shoot her guns, Tatsurou threw himself to the ground as he saw this and the next thing that was heard was the sound of Naoki shooting as she kept twirling, and she only stooped, when all of the boys that surrounded her and Tatsurou were hit with a bullet each that send them away as they rolled and hit the ground.

"What the hell!! This hurts so much!!" The boy that started this "fight" said as he placed his hands around his stomach to ease the pain and rolled around with the others doing the same.

"Consider yourselves lucky that I hit you around the stomach...Gunvelt: Azure Net bullets..." Naoki said as she pointed the gun in her right hand at the boys and began shooting them with bullets that when they hit them, covered the boys in a blue neon net that made them unable to move.

"Let this serve as an example, as to why you should never underestimate the Soteria unit!" Naoki said in a smug tone as she made her two guns vanish and as she did that Tatsurou got up from the ground and looked at her for a bit.

"What's wrong?" Naoki asked a bit curious as she turned to Tatsurou.

"Are you trying to hit me too?" Tatsurou asked in an angry tone as he pointed at Naoki.

"Huh? Of course not, you idiot!" Naoki said in an angry tone too, as she placed her hands on her hips.

"Then why, did you start shooting around like that?" Tatsurou asked still with his angry tone as he got close to Naoki.

"We don't have time to waste on these idiots here! Were only after that asshole!" Naoki said as she pointed at Tatsurou too.

"I know that! But this was really reckless what if innocent people were standing by?" Tatsurou asked as he placed his hand on his forehead and sighed a bit.

"T-There weren't any...and I only used this attack, because there was no one around, Hmpf!" Naoki said in an embarrassed tone as she looked away from Tatsurou.

"Are you two, really with the Soteria?" The boy asked as he looked at Naoki and Tatsurou.

"Who asked for your input on this? Shut up!!" Naoki said in an angry tone as she glared at the boy, that jolted upon hearing her.

"Just try to be more careful, Izumi...!" As Tatsurou said this he got interrupted by the sound of clapping, that came from the main entrance of the school building, and when Tatsurou and Naoki looked in its direction, and as they did, they saw the boy in the white gakuran clapping as he walked out of the school building, with a girl that had light red hair tied in a ponytail and dressed in a white sailor fuku uniform, walking close to him.

"My, my quite the unexpected guests, I should say..." Raiko said as he stooped clapping and adjusted his student cap a bit.

"Amasami...Raiko..." Tatsurou said as he looked at Raiko that was signaling the girl that was following him to stop, as he walked towards Tatsurou and Naoki.

"Honestly, I wasn't expecting you to find me this fast or to find me at all...so I have to ask, how did you do it?" Raiko asked with a curious tone as he stooped walking.

"Like I would tell you, that..." As Tatsurou said this, Naoki suddenly ran towards Raiko.

"I-Izumi?!" Tatsurou said with a surprised tone as he looked at Naoki running.

"This one is for hurting Miyu, you asshole!" Naoki said as she did a small hop and punched Raiko in the face.

"And this one is for all the innocent people you hurt for the past 3 months!" Naoki said as she landed on the ground and hit Raiko in the stomach with a sidekick, which made him hit and roll around on the ground, away from Naoki, and soon enough Raiko was lying on the ground without moving.

"And you better stay down, you bastard..!" As Naoki said this, the girl in the white sailor fuku, lunged herself towards Naoki preparing to punch her, something that she failed to do as Tatsurou was faster and placed himself in front of Naoki and blocked this girl's punch by holding her fist.

"Don't even think about it!" Tatsurou said as he kept holding this girl's fist, but it wasn't enough to stop her as she prepared to punch Tatsurou with her other fist.

"That's enough, Tetsuyami!" Raiko said as he slowly got up from the ground, and upon hearing this, the girl got away from Tatsurou with a small back hop.

"I'll admit it...I deserved that punch and kick, not gonna lie..." Raiko said in a joking tone as he got up and cleaned the dirt on his gakuran.

"That punch and kick, is just the beginning!" Naoki said as she glared at Raiko.

"Let's not get too much into it shall we..." Raiko said as he adjusted his student cap a bit.

"Now, I'll let this one slide, because I'm in a good mood, but mostly because you brought me the person I wanted to talk with the most!" Raiko said as he opened his arms a bit.

"What are you talking about?" Tatsurou asked as he looked at Raiko a bit confused.

"I'm talking about you, silly!" Raiko said as he pointed at Tatsurou.

"Huh? What do you mean by that? We have nothing to talk about..." Tatsurou said with a confused tone and expression.

"Oh! Believe me, we have..." Raiko said as he smiled.

"You see when we were on that alley I didn't attack you not just because you're an Esper...but because we're very similar..." Raiko said as he moved his hand a bit.

"Excuse me? Similar? Kurokami, what is he talking about?" Naoki asked with a confused tone as she looked at Tatsurou, that was just as confused as her.

"Kurokami, isn't it? I saw it, you know...those eyes of yours, I saw that we went through the same things you and I..." Raiko said as he smiled, but Tatsurou just opened his eyes wide as he heard him.

"That is why, I want to ask you to join me, Kurokami!" Raiko said as he walked towards Tatsurou.

"Excuse me? Join you...?" Tatsurou asked even more confused as he looked at Raiko.

"Yes! Think about it, you and I...were Espers that were toyed and played with by all those Magic users that think that are above us!" Raiko said as he stooped in front of Tatsurou.

"Together, with everyone in our movement, we will get even more people to join and then we will take District 4 back from these filthy magic users, killing them all in the process and then all of Takamagahara...so come and join me, Kurokami!" Raiko said as he extended his arm to Tatsurou, that just looked at him in silence.

"Kurokami...what's wrong...!" As Naoki said this, Tatsurou clenched his right fist that was trembling but not for too long as Tatsurou punched Raiko in the middle of his stomach sending him crashing against one of the walls that surrounded this old school, surprising everyone present.

"I don't know, what you're talking about, but if you think for even a second, that I'll join you after everything you've done and after telling me that you will kill innocent people, your not just crazy... you're completely delusional!" Tatsurou said with an angry tone as he glared at Raiko, that was still close to the wall he hit.

"My, aren't you hard one to convince?" Raiko said as he got up, while he adjusted his uniform.

"Looks like we need, some alone time to talk...Tetsuyami! Would you arrange that, please?" Raiko said as he pointed at Naoki and before Tatsurou could react, the girl in the white sailor fuku grabbed Naoki by an arm and threw her inside the school building, through the main entrance.

"Izumi!!" Tatsurou said as he turned towards the school building, but as he started to run towards it, he stooped thanks to thunder that hit the ground, in front of him.

"Kurokami, you can't go and help your Magic-user friend! We still have to talk..." Raiko said as he showed his hand shooting bolts of lighting.

"But worry not, Tetsuyami, will take good care of her..." Raiko said as he looked at the girl that walked slowly towards the school building.

"I already told you...we have nothing to talk about!" Tatsurou said in an angry tone as he turned towards Raiko.

"Believe me...we have..." Raiko said as he began walking towards Tatsurou once more...

Meanwhile, inside the school building, Naoki was lying on top of some old metal shoe lockers by the entrance...

"Ow, ow...my back..." Naoki said as she got up and placed herself in a sitting position on top of the lockers while she rubbed her back.

"That girl is really strong, I wasn't expecting that...but I don't have time for this! I have to go and help...!" As Naoki said this she looked to her side and saw the girl in the white sailor fuku, lunging towards her and preparing a punch, but Naoki was faster as she jumped away from the lockers and as she did the girl punched the lockers sending doors and pieces of it flying everywhere.

"T-That was close!" Naoki that was now lying on the ground thought as she looked at the girl that made the old lockers look like scrap metal.

"Who told you to dodge?" Tetsusyami asked with a monotonous tone, as she glanced at Naoki.

"There's no way, I would stay put and let you hit me like that..." Naoki said in a jocking tone, as she got up.

"You dared, to hit Raiko like that...I'll make sure you regret it every bit of it..." Tetsuyami said as she took her fist away from the lockers and glared at Naoki.

"After what he did to my friend, that's wasn't even enough!" Naoki said as she drew a magic circle and took her gun out of it, and pulled the trigger without releasing it, making the gun light up.

"This one is going to hurt! Gunwelt: Azure pressure bullet!" Naoki said as she pointed her gun at Tetsuyami while she let go of the trigger and out of the gun came a blue bullet, that became bigger as it got close to Tetsuyami.

But as the bullet was about to hit Tetsuyami, she didn't move, she turned to the bullet and took it with open arms so to speak.

"W-What..." Naoki said with a surprised tone as she looked at Tetsuyami and saw the bullet hitting her torso and fall on the ground.

"Surprised, are we? This is my ability "Iron maiden" makes my body as hard as Iron and resistant to any attack, both magic, and Esper..." Tetsuyami said as she looked at the bullet on the ground, then at the surprised and shocked Naoki.

"What I'm trying to say here is, that anything you might have to counter me...is useless, Miss filthy magic-user..." Tetsuyami said as she clenched her fist and glared at Naoki as if she was a prey of sorts

"No way! I wasn't counting on this...but I can't get cold feet now...first of all I need some time to think and plan my next move..." Naoki thought as she drew another magic circle and out of it, she took a blue ball with black stripes, that she threw at Tetsuyami.

"I already told you, there's nothing you have that can take me down.." Tetsuyami said as she dodged the ball.

"It's not meant, to hit you..." Naoki said as she shot the ball, and when the bullet hit it, a blue smoke cloud, covered the entrance.

"What the?" Tetsuyami said as she looked in every direction inside the smoke cloud, that didn't last long and it vanished as soon as it started, but it was enough for Naoki to run and find a place to hide.

"Try whatever you want, with these cheap tricks...there's no way you're escaping me!" Tetsuyami said as she got off from the lockers, with a small hop and began to look for Naoki...

Meanwhile, outside of the school, Tatsurou and Raiko were now close to each other and face to face.

"Well then, Kurokami...now that the Magic-user girl isn't here...you can talk and be honest with me, right?" Raiko asked as he tilted his head a bit.

"We have nothing to talk about..." Tatsurou said with an angry tone as he took a step back.

"Kurokami...don't play so hard to get, pretty please..." Raiko said as he shrugged.

"I'm not playing hard to get, I just don't want to talk with you..." Tatsurou said still with an angry tone.

"Yes, you are! What's so hard in admitting it?" Raiko asked as he made a small pause.

"Just what are you even talking about? What do you want me to admit?" Tatsurou asked as he clenched his fists once more.

"I'm talking about how you suffered a lot at the hands of Magic-users..." Raiko said as he pointed at Tatsurou that opened his eyes wide and jolted as he heard him.

"Surprised? Well, after all, I can tell when someone went through hell, just like me...so what happened? In which facility were you, Kurokami?" Raiko asked with a curious tone, as he opened his arms and looked at Tatsurou.

"I don't have to tell you anything about my personal life..." Tatsurou said in an angry tone as he clenched his fists even harder.

"Oh! Looks like, I struck a nerve here..." Raiko said as he raised his arms a bit, as to if he was telling Tatsurou to calm down.

"Listen, Kurokami, this island is a joke, you know right? "Protect everyone that uses magic or supernatural powers"? Bullshit! We are all nothing more than test subjects for these idiots...especially us Espers!" Raiko said as he adjusted his hat, Tatsurou just looked at him in silence, as he tried to calm down.

"We are superior in all the ways to Magic-users, we don't need any enchantments, magic circles or talismans, our powers can be used as naturally as breathing! So tell me, why do we have to share District 4 with these useless and weak magic users? Why is District 4 filled to the brim with more Magic-users and Beast-kin than Espers?" Raiko asked as he did a small pause and opened his arms a bit once more.

"This a joke and I will be the revolutionary that stops it! With my movement, I'll go and take back District 4 to us Espers! I'm the only one that can help and stop this and I will do it by driving out every filthy Magic-user and make District 4 ours again, then it will be our turn to make them, go through hell!" Raiko said as he looked up to the sky.

"So what do you think, Kurokami? Let's work together and take revenge!" Raiko said as he opened his arms completely as if he was performing a theatrical act, Tatsurou just kept looking at him in silence.

"So, what do I think?" Tatsurou said as he looked at Raiko for a bit and took a deep breath.

"I heard everything you just said, and the only thing I can say is that your nothing more than a delusional idiot..." Tatsurou said with the most honest tone he had to Raiko that looked at him with surprise written all over his face.

"To me, you just sound like the type of person that blames everything bad that happens to you on people that had no fault or involvement it..." Tatsurou said as he looked down then back at the speechless Raiko.

"Honestly, for someone that calls himself a "revolutionary" you don't have that big of a following, only 5 people, right? That just shows how shallow and empty, your ideals are, so much so that the speeches you did never worked, the website also didn't work and so you decided to attack innocent people to have attention, right?" Tatsurou asked as he looked at Raiko that aver his eyes from Tatsurou.

"And I'm sure the few people you were able to convince, never wanted this, you took advantage of weak minds by telling them what they wanted to hear, and bring them on board this dangerous and delusional ride of yours..." Tatsurou said as he did a small pause.

"You're doing this, for revenge and only revenge! This was never to help Espers, this is all just for your own selfish goal!" Tatsurou said as he looked at Raiko while he clenched his fists.

"So my answer, to your proposal is pretty simple...go shove it!" Tatsurou said as he looked at Raiko that felt as if he just got slapped with a glove as he looked at Tatsurou, that read him like an open book, but suddenly Raiko began to laugh, at first it was a normal laugh until it slowly turned into a maniacal one.

"Looks like your too blind to see the reality of things, looks like I have to use some other methods to convince you, Kurokami..." Raiko said as he smiled like a madman after he laughed and got into a fighting stance.

"You don't get what you want and this is how you react..." Tatsurou said as he let out a small sigh.

"I don't want to do this, just turn yourself in Raiko...it's not too late..." As Tatsurou said this Raiko shot him with a lightning bolt that came out of his index finger, but this lightning bolt did not hit it just made a small cut on Tatsurou's cheek as it passed right next to him.

"There's no way, I'm going to go and turn myself in! Now, you're being the delusional one, Kurokami!" Raiko said as he smiled like a psychopath towards Tatsurou, that let a small sigh again.

"So, that's how you, really want to do things?" Tatsurou asked as he cleaned the blood that dripped from his cheek with his thumb and looked at Raiko that just smiled again, as he started to shoot lightning bolts out of his hands.

"Looks like it..." Tatsurou said as he sighed again.

"If that's how you want to do things, fine, but I'll warn you now, when things stop going your way, remember, you brought this upon yourself!" Tatsurou said as his eyes became blue and a light blue aura emerged from his body...