"Are you absolutely certain about this Flue?" asked Luvia as she held a cell phone up to her ears. Luvia couldn't help but smile as she walked down the crowded hallways of the Department of Fundamentals.
"Yes, I am certain" replied the carefree voice of Flue "I even triple checked my divinations. The El-Melloi are definitely going to make their move on a certain magic crest soon."
"Well, we can't have that now can we" mused Luvia as she considered the implications "you have done a great service by bringing this to my attention Flue. Anything that can be used to hinder that disgrace of a lord is something that I'm willing to pay for. I will send you the usual fee with a bonus depending on just how much damage this can cause."
And with that Luvia ended the call. She didn't trust the astrologer or his intentions a single step more than she could throw him and even that was being far too generous. What she did trust was the filthy spell casters greed for money. So long as no one else came by with a better offer, then she had a decent source of information on future events. Naturally, she would make sure to double check with her other informants before making any move on the information herself.
Their relationship was simply one of convenience that had started nearly a year ago in a castle of angels. It certainly wouldn't do if he had found a new patron whom wanted to discredit the Edelfelt name by having her act on false information. Furthermore, while his information usually came far in advance of anything her other sources could provide, the information he provided often lacked the fine details necessary to make a plan.
"Ho ho ho ho" laughed Luvia feeling a little giddy as she made her way into the class room. She completely failed to notice that several students start to distance themselves from her at the sound of her laughter.
"Is it just me or do I hear the sound of a hyena suffering from one to many bumps on the head" asked Rin aloud from her position leaning against a wall with a single eye open focused on Luvia. A small and twisted smile was stretched across her face.
"Oh, what is this? Do my eyes deceive me or do I see a talking board?" sniped back Luvia with a red face. Why in the world did that insufferable gorilla girl have to be here too?
"Why you…" growled Rin as her own face started to turn red.
"Oh, did I hit a nerve?" asked the Edelfelt heiress as a dark smile manifested on her face "I guess that it can't be helped if a penniless failure like you couldn't afford to pay for the proper food needed to grow properly in addition to the jewels required for our trade."
"Hardly. The Tohsaka still make a decent amount from our many patents. I can more than afford to pay for my craft from that alone" said Rin with a belittling smile as she held her head up high "the difference between us is that I don't like to rely on the hard work of others too much."
Luvia felt her eyes twitch at that. She almost wanted to ask why the young Tohsaka head even bothered to use her magic crest which by its very nature relied on the hard work of the girlss ancestors. The only thing that stopped her was that, unfortunately, Luvia privately had to admit that this was one area that she could agree with Rin on. There was nothing that could compare to standing on your own two feat and showing the world what you could accomplish with nothing more than your own wits and determination!
That didn't mean she would let the insult slide.
"Well, of course a barbarian from a back water country like you would think that. I suppose it was wrong of me to expect that someone who believed themselves to be a proper magus would understand the intricacies of financial investments. You know, making sure that your descendants are well off" replied Luvia as she brought a hand up to her face "ho ho ho ho…"
"Shut up and take your seats."
In a flash Luvia and Rin suddenly found themselves seated before the voice had even fully registered in their minds. What a truly terrifying presence!
The chair at the front of the room swiveled around revealing a women of eastern descent with her red hair in a pony tail. Her face held a small yet decidedly wicked smile as she set down a pair of glasses on the desk in front of her. It did not take long before Luvia realized that the women must have put up a bounded field in order to conceal her presence from the entire class. And from there it didn't take much to determine that her hiding was a subtle exam to test their abilities. A test which the entire class had apparently failed.
Luvia shared a look with Rin as they both grudgingly acknowledged their mutual defeat. This pond held a far bigger fish than just the two of them.
"My name is Touko Aozaki and I am your instructor for the term" said the women as she stood up and let her eyes rove across the students. Luvia shivered for the brief moment that their eyes made contact "it would seem that you are one of the few lucky classes that get to have their originally intended instructor. Congratulations are in order."
"What exactly happened to the normal instructors for the other classes?" asked Rin from her seat as a nervous look crossed her face. Luvia couldn't help but grimace herself as she figured out where this was heading.
"A lot of them suffered various 'accidents' during the ceremony yesterday" said Touko in wry amusement "I can't say that I'm surprised with all the chaos that was said to have taken place. A lot of the politically oriented Magi tend to suffer from an obsessive compulsive need to assassinate anything and everything the moment an opening is revealed. They tend to make poor pet owners. Even the department heads like to take a few pot shots at each other every once in a while when the opportunity arrives. It would seem that I was actually rather fortunate to have suffered a flat tire and to have missed the entire ceremony."
Luvia and Rin nervously shared a look as they belatedly realized that they might have unintentionally helped to start more than a just few blood feuds.
"Even if its more out of tradition these days, a lot of magi can't help but join in on a brawl when they come across one. They really only have themselves to blame for their resulting injuries and loss of pride" said Touko before a knowing smirk crossed her face "but that still wont stop those who lost face from taking out their frustrations on the ones who started the chaos in the first place once all the dust from the political reshuffling has settled. The noble families especially know how to hold on to a grudge."
Luvia almost collapsed in alarm. If the great families decided to go after her then where would she get her jewels from? Mundane jewels certainly had their uses but nothing could compare to the crystals grown by alchemist families such as the Einzbern and the Istari. But even more importantly, where would she get the enchanted fabrics needed to make her stuffed animals?
Luvia felt herself on the verge of panicking!
Hoping to find a companion in her suffering Luvia turned to face Rin and noticed from the corner of her eyes something that gave her a moments pause. Her rival had in the last few minutes gained a very pale complexion as large swathes of sweat ran down her face. The girl appeared to be for all intents and purposes on the verge of hyperventilating. Huh. Rin certainly seemed to be taking this pretty hard.
What a wimp.
"Since we have all settled down I will go ahead and start todays lesson" said Touko from her position at the front of the room.
"Isn't this the part where we are supposed to state each others names and goals?" asked a young man with very average spiky brown hair and an even more plain face. With only a single glance it was obvious to anyone who looked at him that he was nothing more than a random and completely unimportant background character.
"Do I look like I care about your names and goals?" replied Touko with a raised eyebrow. She moved back over to her desk and finally decided to put her glasses back on.
And suddenly the women didn't seem quite so scary and psychotic anymore.
"Since this is the first day we will go over a quick refresher on the dangers of magecraft" said Touko as she entered a lecturing pose and a more gentle smile appeared on her face.
Luvia took out her notebook and a pen.
"Not all of the dangers related to the use of magecraft are the results of mistakes made in the preparation or activation phase" said Touko as she masterfully adjusted her glasses causing glint of light to dangerously reflect off of them "it is in fact possible for an experiment or spell to be too successful."
"Too successful?" asked the unimportant background character.
"Hm, perhaps an example would be best? I once made a doll with the purpose of siphoning off my negative karma" said Touko as she reminisced with a melancholy fondness "the kid was a cute little bugger who always managed to get himself into all kinds of trouble. A few weeks after I had made him a good chunk of the city was destroyed in an inferno with his last known location being near the epicenter. It turned out that not only did he take the bad karma I was accumulating from my day to day activities, but he had also absorbed all of the bad karma I had gained throughout my entire life up until that point."
"Was that city by any chance Fuyuki?" asked Rin as she stared dully at the instructor with her face now even paler. Luvia was starting to actually feel some worry for her nemesis. How strange. Usually when she saw an opening she would ruthlessly crush her opponents.
Let it be known that there was a reason that Luviagelita Edelfelt had to settle for stuffed animals...
"Yes" asked Touko as a strange gleam entered her eyes "how did you know?"
"Just a lucky guess" said Rin with the shake of her head "the only city that I could think of that had experienced any major fires like that in the recent past was Fuyuki. Just for curiosities sake, what was the range of the siphoning?"
"I see" said Touko as she held eye contact for a few more seconds "the strength of the siphoning was inversely proportional to our distance from each other. The most effective distance was anywhere within a two kilometer radius so long as there weren't any bounded fields around that dealt with probability."
"Thank you for this most enlightening lecture Ms. Aozaki" said Rin with a cheerful smile "I just need to make a quick phone call."
Rin reached out for her purse before suddenly someone else's arm met her own halfway. The strange part was that the arm that had caught her own was coming from inside the purse itself.
"Huh? Wha-" yelped Rin as to the astonishment of the entire class her arm was pulled into the purse before the rest of her body quickly followed suit.
Then an older red eyed gentleman wearing a hospital gown jumped out.
"Don't mind me" said Zelretch to the befuddled class as he bent down to pick up the purse that was now shaking from the struggles of its new occupant "by the way it turns out that when you combine true magic with a luck sink you get a powerful resonance effect. Just thought you might like to know that if you ever decide to give it another go."
Just before Zelretch reached the exit to the room he paused.
"Oh, one more thing, your sister called me the other day and said that the next time I abducted a student I should ask for your help with something called shibari" said Zelretch before his head was nearly decapitated by a heavily reinforced stapler "fine, have it your way, I guess I'll have to figure it out on my own."
The shaking of the purse greatly intensified after that.
"I had hoped to test it out first on that annoying minion of mine but he apparently has some powerful danger senses. Too bad for you."