My Enigmatic Life

   Gege, Akai, Naoya and I enter what at a mere glance appears to be a hardware store, and that is what it is. However, this hardware store is very special, and that’s because..

“Yo! About time you guys came to visit the shop!”

Takai greets us with a toothy grin as he comes from around the corner. That’s right, this is Matsuoka Hardware & Goods. Takai’s mum and dad give us a similar greeting.

“Nice to see you, boys! How are you all doing?”

“How can we be of service to such fine young men?”

“Hello, Mr. and Mrs.Matsuoka.”

The four of us greet them with a smile in unison.

Much like Sunni, Takai’s mum is tall for a woman, being just shorter than Gege and the aforementioned Sunni. As for his dad, let’s just say that he’s a wee bit vertically challenged.

“Don’t worry about it.”, Takai waves. “I’ll take care of things with them.”

Takai leads us to a backroom where the surplus goods are stored.

“So, how have things been with the Enigma Squadron job?”, Takai asks.

“Dangerous.”, Naoya replies swiftly.

“Luckily, nary one of us has been seriously hurt.”, I add. “Yet.”

“Good, good!”, Takai nods. “I would haunt you bastards if you died on me so early.”

“Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?”, Gege mumbles.

“He would probably find a way, though.’, Akai smiles wryly.

Takai stops in front of a mid-sized crate and smacks it proudly. So this must be it.

“The special package.”, Akai observes. “What’s in it?”

Takai winks at him as he opens the lid of said crate. Peering inside, I gaze upon what look like spheres with a button in the middle. Gege reaches into the crate and picks one up.

“What are these? They kinda look like Caseballs..”

“Push the button and toss it away!”, Takai says excitedly.

Gege nods and does as instructed. In about a second or so, a blinding flash engulfs the entire room, causing us to instinctively shield our eyes. After a while, the light dissipates and we can see clearly again.

“Flash grenades?! That’s awesome!”, Naoya yells.

“Not just that, but they seem to be Magic-based!”, I say feverishly. “Where did you get these, Takai?!”

“They’re called Shine Bombs! Some old couple in the mountains were advertising them, and I paid them one hundred thousand yen for the whole lot! They said that these aren’t as good as the normal ones, but I didn’t care.”

Woah! What a deal!

“Didn’t the World-Tree Templar use something like this against us?”, Akai queries, looking at one of the bombs with intrigue.

“That’s right, but those lasted longer than these ones do. How much are these without using the coupon, Takai?”

Takai ponders for a bit before stating his price.

“Ah, just give me forty thousand.”, he says dismissively.

“Like hell, you’re getting at least fifty.”, I say strongly.

“Haha! What kind of customers offer a higher price?!”

“Just because we’re your best friends doesn’t mean you should take a low price, Takai.”, Gege says sternly.

Takai slaps on the box again. Now that I know that these things are at least slightly explosive, I would prefer it if he didn’t do that…

“Listen, listen, I got these things specifically for you guys, you know? Who else is gonna have any interest in these? But I tell you what, make it fifty-five and I’ll throw in some eye goggles so that you don’t get flashed as well.”

“Deal.”, Naoya says, giving a thumbs up.

“Good! To the register!”

“Last one to say ‘I’ has to pay!”, Gege says quickly. “I!”

“I.”

“I!”

“You cheating bastards! I wasn’t ready yet, damn it!”

With that, Naoya reached into his wallet and handed Mrs. Matsuoka fifty-five thousand yen. That was his allowance for the month, by the way.

 

   It’s 10pm. We, the Dawn Wolves, are sat in a shipping crate being carried by a lorry. We’re currently on an escort mission to make sure that no one attempts to make off with the goods being transported.

“Escorting, eh?”, Naoya mutters. “A nice change of pace, I suppose.”

“Don’t start lazing off, Naoya-nii. We need to be on alert in case someone attacks.”

“Yeah, I got it, I got it..”

Red, who’s sitting on top of some stacked crates, asks a question.

“So, why were we chosen for this mission? Is it just random or something?”

“I was wondering the same thing.”

Sunni, who’s sitting next to me, nods in agreement with Red’s query.

“If I recall correctly, it’s due to the merit system.”, I answer.

“Merit system?”, Akai echoes.

“That’s right. It’s pretty much like what they do in schools.”

Gege’s voice that transmits through all of our earpieces begins to expound upon the merit system.

“Simply put, your good and bad deeds get tallied up and assigned to each squadron. Good deeds are merits and bad deeds are demerits.”

“So what counts as merits and demerits respectively?”, Yokie asks.

“Saving civilians, lessening or avoiding property damage and adhering to Enigma Protocol count as merits. Whereas use of excessive force, extreme property damage and breaking rules are tallied as demerits.”

I had a vague idea of the workings of the merit system, but this definitely is a good refresher.

“We have a total of ten marks as a Enigma Squadron, eleven merits and one demerit.”, Gege continues. “The demerit came from when Yoko-san and Arianne-san cut that guy's hand off and stabbed him in the thigh.”

Yokie and Sunni laugh nervously together.

“Sorry about that, everyone.”, Sunni apologises.

“We don’t regret doing it, but we’re sorry that it ended up affecting the squadron as a whole.”, Yokie amends.

“Refrain from doing something like that next time, please.”, I plead. “I don’t want us to have a bad record.”

“We’ll try.”

The two of them give me smiles full of mischief. Surely, that can only be seen as reassuring.

“Don’t worry about it too much, Leader!”, Haruhi-chan says cheerfully. “How many marks you have doesn’t have any effect on your rank at a squadron!”

“Really? That’s a surprise.”, I say bemusedly. “You would think they would hold more weight than that.”

“Nope! They only determine what kind of missions you get sent on.”

That’s good to hear, but we should still try to maintain our record.

“How many marks does Master’s squadron have, Gege-san?”, Yokie asks.

“About negative eighty-five.”, Gege replies.

Surely, this bloke is trolling.

“Negative eight-five?!”, Red exclaims. “How is that even possible?!”

“That bastard Yonaguni probably doesn’t care a lick about the damage he does.”, Naoya remarks sharply. “I’ve heard Shirogane-senpai chastise him about it before.”

“Maybe our good work will rub off on him?”, Sunni suggests.

Naoya and I lock eyes, and exchange amused glances. Before either one off of us could say anything-

“Hey! Someone’s after us!”

One of the drivers calls out to us. Immediately, Naoya flies the door open, and sure enough, there are some dangerous looking blokes on motorcycles driving at full speed towards us.

Naoya jumps off of the back of the lorry, and I quickly follow suit.

“Naoya-nii! Aniki!”

“You all stay here and make sure that no one gets in! Naoya and I will handle this!”

I land nimbly onto one of the motorcycles, taking its rider by surprise. They quickly recover though, pulling out a knife from their riding boots and attempting to stab me. But it’s too late, a swift, sharp punch to the gut knocks them out. I carry them off of the out-of-control cycle and cuff them. That’s one.

“Son of a bitch!”

Another of the riders barrels towards me at max speed swinging a chain over his head. Let’s see just how fast I am.

I turn heel and run away from my would be attacker, and to my surprise, I’m easily out-pacing him. Wow, I feel like I could hit up to 400 km/h or so without issue! Putting that aside for now, I actually need to slow down so that I can capture him.

“Die!”

The rider swings his chain at me, but I catch it bare-handed. Unable to stop his forward momentum in time, he gets pulled back into me for a swift takedown move. That’s two.

“Enigma fuckers!!!”

Here’s another. This one’s wielding a katana this time, I may need my trusty wooden sword for this one. I should probably give it a name, just calling it my wooden sword is kind of boring, honestly. Maybe Wooden Fang could work? Oh right, the rider.

I ready my stance, but it turns out to be unnecessary. A wooden staff lodges itself into the bike’s front wheel, bringing it to a halt. It’s rider, on the other hand-

“WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!”

Ah, Inertia. Of course, I caught him. Flying off at that speed would likely kill him.

“Are you okay?”, I ask.

“Y-yeah, thank-GACK!”

As soon as he confirms his well-being, I deliver a blow to his neck to incapacitate him. That’s three.

“Oi, Govvy. What were you thinking about?”

Naoya struts over to me, having already removed his staff from the motorcycle’s front wheel.

“Ah, I was thinking about a name for my sword.”

“How about Wooden Fang?”

Sounds familiar.

“I like it.”, I grin. “How many did you round up?”

“Five. That was pretty easy, honestly.”

“Good. I’ll get in contact with Gege and let him know that the enemy’s been detained.”

“Right, we ought to wait here then.”

….I turn around and peer all the way down the road, and then up at the top of the billboard advertising flavoured milk breads. But there’s nothing. Strange, I felt like someone was watching us..

“Govvy? What’s the matter?”

“I thought I sensed someone…Guess I was wrong.”

Disregarding that, I get in contact with Gege and relay the news of our success.

   Whilst we wait for the police to arrive, Naoya and I throw one of our Shine Bombs back and forth to each other like it’s a baseball. Is doing this dangerous? Probably. Do we care? No.

“Oi, Govvy, do you think those plonkers are part of Shade’s crew?”

“I doubt it. Even though the shipment we were guarding carried a few weapons, they were all pretty run-of-the-mill.”

“I see. I just thought that because they seemed kinda weak.”, Naoya shrugs, throwing the Shine Bomb at me. “Shade’s cronies are usually a lot tougher than that.”

“Did you ever think that you’ve just gotten stronger?”

Naoya pauses, placing his hand on his chin. He begins to nod affirmatively, a smirk spreading across his face.

“Yeah, I’m really like that now, aren’t I? Some low-level goons are nothing to me!”

“Oi, don’t get cocky now. Or else you get sent through a wall again.”, I tease him.

“Shut up, you.”

Hmm. People are approaching from above.

“Someone’s headed this way.”, Naoya says, his head tilted upward.

Naoya can sense it too. His Detection training is finally starting to bear fruit.

Seven people dressed in long, black cloaks descend from the sky, all of them have their faces covered with plague doctor masks. At first, Naoya and I set ourselves to either fight or escape, but we lower our guards after the one in the lead speaks.

“Don’t worry, we’re allies. My name is Toyotaro Yuutaro, and I’m a guy.”

He pulls out his Enigma ID card and shows it to us, his name is blue and highlighted in gold, meaning that he’s the Squadron Leader. His card is also Blue rank, so they’re higher ranked than we are, but his name colour indicates that he’s at the same level of strength as I am.

“Colen Daisuke, Leader of the Dawn Wolves. Nice to meet you.”

“Colen Naoya, member of the Dawn Wolves. It’s a pleasure.”

We both display our IDs to our fellow members of the Enigmatic Society.

“The feeling is mutual, comrades. We are the Twilight Ravens, a fellow Enigma Squadron as well as Reseters. We’ve been looking forward to meeting you.”

“Reseters? What are those?”, Naoya asks.

The tallest amongst them answers him.

“Reseters are responsible for repairing damage done to property, removing any traces of Magic use and altering the memories of any average civilian who managed to witness something they shouldn’t have.”

Ah, so they’re basically like a clean-up crew. I thought that the police handled it all by themselves.

“Pardon me, but can I ask a question?”

“Sure.”

A girl’s voice comes from underneath the mask of the figure approaching us. That high pitch coming from such a daunting outfit is a bit jarring, I’ll be honest.

“Are you really the kouhais of Yonaguni and Servants?”

“Yonaguni and who?”, Naoya repeats in sheer disbelief.

Wow, Yonaguni is so humble, he let his squadron members take over for the naming process. How sweet.

“Yes, we unfortunately are.”, I mutter.

“It’s true!”

“Impossible…”

“I still don’t believe it.”

The Twilight Ravens start clamouring after my words of confirmation. That’s a good sign.

“How are you guys so clean, but your senpais are always leaving a mess behind?!”, the girl protests.

“If you all do make a mess, you at least try to organise it so that we don’t have to work so hard. We appreciate that.”

The member in the back gives us some gratitude, which kind of makes me feel guilty about Yonaguni’s actions.

“It’s no big deal, really. We’re just glad to be of some help.”

“I asked Yonaguni to at least try to minimise some of the damage he and his squadron do, and he just told me to stop being a whiny, lazy-ass son of bitch and do my damn job. And then he proceeded to try to flirt with Hanabi.”

“Yeah, that’s him alright..”

Despite his face being masked and his voice being slightly muffled, Toyotaro-san’s annoyance is abundantly clear. I can’t believe that git Yonaguni sometimes, man. What a complete arsehole he is.

“Sorry about that Toyotaro-san. He’s a lost cause.”, Naoya apologises.

“Don’t worry about it, and call me Yuutaro.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course, this business we’re in is too dangerous to waste time on being formal.”, Yuutaro waves dismissively. “And besides, you’re wolves and we’re ravens. This meeting was destined to happen.”

“Oh, yeah! Wolves and ravens have a symbiotic relationship, don’t they?”, the one besides Yuutaro says.

“Actually, their relationship is way more special than that.”, I amend . “Wolves and ravens have been seen playing games with each other, and it’s been discovered that wolf pups and fledgling ravens that played with each other would always leave together once the wolf sets off to form their own pack.”

“That’s so cute~!!! Nature is amazing!!”

We all started talking about wolves and ravens until the police arrived. It was a lot of fun.