My Enigmatic Life

    I still can’t do it…I still can’t bring myself to even get close to a ladder, much less climb one.
I explained everything to Red and Haruhi-chan. Of course, they were very sympathetic.

“I didn’t know something so horrible happened to you, Daisuke-nii.”

“It’s completely understandable that you got so scared, Daisuke-san. But don’t worry, Akane-chan and I will keep you company!”

Heh, it does help to know that. Although, Haruhi-chan isn’t actually here in person.

DOOOOOOM

?!

What the devil was that?! Did that come from the building?!

“Daisuke-san! The perpetrators have made their move!”

“Ah, crap! Red, let’s go!”

“Right!”, she nods.

I turn to the police, who have already closed off the area, to give them orders to not let anyone get remotely close to here, when I sensed it. Someone’s approaching, and it seems like Red picked up on it too.

“Wha? You guys are still here?”

A slovenly dressed bloke shuffles towards the police officers with a bat covered in barbed wire slumped over his shoulder. He’s eating onigiri…

“You?!”

The police immediately attempt to draw their guns, but he gets in front of the one closest to him and swings at him. I’m not letting that happen.

In step, I block the assailant’s bat with my wooden sword. He sees this, and he widens his eyes in slight surprise.

“Who are you?”

“Colen Daisuke, leader of the Dawn Wolves.”, I say. “Under Enigma Code 01, I ask that you give yourself up willingly.”

Of course, that code only applies to criminals who aren’t yet considered to be threats, and this one here surely is.

“Nah, I’ll pass.”

In an instant, Red leaps from behind me and aims a kick at his head, which he just narrowly dodges.

“See? I waited for his answer first, Daisuke-nii”, she says proudly.

“Good work.”, I reply flatly.

The slovenly guy fixes his belt and throws back his shoulders.

“It seems like I’ll actually get some real work in with-”

He suddenly stops talking and begins to squint at me, as if he’s not sure that I’m real. He then begins to feverishly rummage through his pockets. Red and I stare at him in confusion, unsure of what to do.

Finally, he pulls a sheet of paper from one of his pockets and unfurls it. He stares at it for a tick, then throws his head back in loud laughter.

“I thought I recognised you! Master Shade wants you, Colen Daisuke!”

“I’m glad to know that I’m so sought after.”

So, these pillocks are with Midnight Fox. I wonder if they’re looking for the Orb of Salvation, or if this is just a case of petty theft.

“So, you’re with the pigs who are picking on my Daisuke-nii, huh?”, Red says darkly, her red eyes flashing.

And of course, her usual ear-to-ear smile still on her face. The unkept blokes laughs again.

“It’s his fault for getting involved, isn’t it? Although, I bet that it was you that killed poor Renny.”

He throws a talisman down onto the ground, and a magic circle forms out of it comes-

“GRRRROOOARR!!!!”

A one-horned bear! It sure looks rather friendly, doesn’t it?

“Get the girl!”
With a simple command, the bear hurtles toward us with speed that belies its size. The police officers disperse, obviously not wanting to be in the path of such a dangerous beast. I have to stop it! Before someone gets hurt!

“Eyes on me, foreigner!”

A barbed wire bat comes at my head, just being stopped by my wooden sword. So much for that course of action. It’s too dangerous to fight here, I need to find somewhere secluded!

“Haruhi-chan! Look for secluded areas nearby and guide Red and I to them!”

“On it!”

With that, I hit the dash trying to get away from here. Naturally, my adversary is hot on my heels.

“Don’t leave me behind now!”

I wouldn’t dream of it…

“Daisuke-san! I found somewhere empty on the map!”, Haruhi-chan says quickly. “It’s a scrapyard and it’s about a kilometre or two away from you!”

“You and Gege sure work fast! I’m glad that you’re my Adjutants!”

It takes nothing but a tick to reach the allotted location, once that happens, I ready myself for battle.

“So, you really did want to fight somewhere empty. Aren’t you considerate?”

He makes some small talk before unleashing his assault against me, but I can easily block and parry all of his attacks. I see an opening and go for it.

“Quill Point Thrust!”

I thrust the tip of my sword towards his chin, but he just narrowly evades it. Refusing to let that deter me, I land a forward kick directly in his stomach, sending him reeling backwards.

“Oogh!”

“⌈Let these smouldering embers burst into crackling flames! Ember Shell!⌋”

With a yell, I cast the spell Ember Shell, a low-level Fire elemental magic whilst the plonker is off balance. Unfortunately-

“Magick Missile!”

The bastard counters with a spell of his own! Our attacks collide, causing a surprisingly large explosion that kicks up a huge plume of dust that blocks my vision. Not that it matters, so long as I can sense his mana, I’ll be fine. And no surprise he’s coming straight at me-

“Woah!”

I sensed coming at me wasn’t him, but his Mana Missile spell?! An immense pain reverberates through my body as a barbed bat wallops me squarely in the neck.

“Gyahhh!”

I get sent sprawling into a heap of scrap metal and get buried underneath it. I’m off to a cracking start, aren’t I? But I can’t just give up. Maybe I can find something in this pile that’ll be useful to me in this fight…

!

Yosh, that will do nicely. But I can't just jump out here without a plan, so I’ll need a diversion.

“Come on, Daisuke! Let me have some fun, at the very least!”

I grab hold of the heaviest thing I can find and lob it at him. Luckily for me, it happened to be a washing machine. I suppose he wasn’t expecting something so big, because his reaction is a bit delayed. He attempts to bat it away, but as soon as he does, I’m directly in front of him.

“Half Moon!”

Unleashing a fierce uppercut swing, I strike him sharply in the jaw.

“Wing Sabre!”

I follow-up with a strong lateral swing that connects with his torso, which sends him tumbling across the dirt. I’m still not done!

“⌈Come forth, lighting! Bear down on my adversary like a predator does to its prey! Fanged Bolt!⌋”

From my palm, a bolt of lighting burst forth, but it only goes a metre before dispersing! Damn it! I forgot about the Principles of Magic! Because of that miscue, the pillock regained his footing.

“Lighting Magic? There’s no way I’ll be able to react to that.”

There’s blood coming from his mouth, it seems like my assault did some decent damage to him. Although, my neck still hurts from his swing earlier.

“How did you manage to throw that thing at me so easily? And how come you seem relatively unscathed by my attack? Was it Reinforcement?”

“Not entirely. I used to help my grandad carry heavy things on his boat a lot when I was younger”, I say plainly. “And you shuffled your feet during your follow through. You won’t make good contact like that, you know?”

He smirks and stretches his palms out.

“Magick Missile, Rapidfire.”

A barrage of magical bolts are launched at me! That’s Beetjita’s tech-What the hell am I doing just standing still?! With agility I didn’t know I was capable of, I evade the majority of them, but four of them blast me all about the body. It hurts! Even with this uniform that’s basically like armour, it still hurts!

“Mana Bomb.”

A sphere of magical energy explodes directly in my face, and the next thing I know I’m falling through the air before I hit the earth with a bone-rattling crash.

“Guh..That…hurt..”

But I don’t have the time to whine, because he’s already swinging at me again. He lands a crushing blow on my arm, but that won’t stop me from countering! He’s at point-blank range now!

“⌈Let these smouldering embers burst into crackling flames! Ember Shell!⌋”

“Barrier!”

Realising that he couldn’t evade in time, he casts the Barrier spell and blocks my attack! So he can use that too?! I kick him off of me and gain some distance.

I can feel blood running down my arm, but seeing as to how I can feel my fingers, my arm’s not broken. Man, I’m starting to run out of ways to approach this bloke.

Should I just stall him out until he runs out of mana?

How are the others doing?

Should I have left Red alone to fight that giant bear?

No, I have faith in all of them. I know they can do it.

“What’s the matter, Daisuke? Are you feeling scared or something?”

The crim calls out to me, a grin on his face.

“I haven’t had this much exercise in a good while, y’know?”

I ignore him and get in contact with my Adjutants.

“Oi, can you hear me?”, I say.

“Yes, Leader?”

It’s Haruhi-chan, I gather that Gege must still be relaying info to the others.

“Let everyone know that I’ll be there soon with a detained suspect, alright?”

“Right away, Leader!”

I know how to put an end to this fight, I just need to set things up. I turn around and bolt deeper into the scrapyard, and of course the numpty pursues. Good, he took the bait.

“Oi, oi, foreigner! How are you going to detain me if you run away, huh?!”

He chases me relentlessly to the summit of the tallest pile of scrap. Here goes.

I turn around and hurl my wooden sword at him, and he easily weaves it.

“Getting desperate?! What are you-?”

I start ceaselessly hurling things from the pile at him. At first, he’s able to dodge some of them, but just like how I was with his barrage of Magick Missiles, some items make a sound connection, discombobulating him. With that opening, I charge in!

“Come forth, lighting! Bear down on my adversary like a predator does to its prey! Fanged Bolt!”

“Barrier!”

That’s exactly what I want you to do! From my waist band, I pull out the shear rod of metal I found in the pile he knocked me into, and thrust it into his shoulder! The Barrier spell only blocks Magic, so physical objects will pass right through!

“GYAH!”

He lets out a roar of pain, but I’m not done just yet! Lighting Magic basically works like real lighting, with this rod in his shoulder, I can channel it right into him!

“⌈Come forth, lighting! Bear down on my adversary like a predator does to its prey! Fanged Bolt!⌋”

“GYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA!!!!!!”

Of course, the shock affects me too, but I’ve got elemental resistance on my side, so I’m far better off than the poor bastard.

With smoke coming from his body, he falls back and collapses. Quickly, I check his pulse…Good, he’s still alive. Reaching into my satchel, I pull out my handcuffs and detain him. With those on, his flow of mana gets disturbed, so using Magic is impossible.

“Bloody hell..”

I’m a little exhausted, honestly. Not in terms of mana, but in stamina. But I have more than enough to help everyone. But first-

“How am I going to carry this fellah? It’ll be hard with that rod in his shoulder.”

Maybe I ought to give him some first aid before I carry him along with me.