Chapter Six: The Traditions
“Magic was defined under nine names, nine schools that would branch out into smaller concentrations. The knowledge of shaping reality itself would overlap with each other, but each school was unique, for magic is versatile – there is no one way to achieve the desired effect. The Council of Nine Traditions became the overseer of the nine different sects of magic, with the Hermetian Theory developed by Bonisagus being the first of the nine to be named, and still remain the most popular and influential theory of magic to study.
Next was the Marauding, a collection of clans made up witches who see the ancient “magical example” as the god – that is, they do not believe that Bonisagus is the first existing magi, and turn to Simon the Sorcerer, whose feats were listed in Biblical literature. Many of them were wiped out during the infamous witch-hunt in Europe and America, and to find a member of the Marauding is a rare sight – many have fled to the Faerie Realms, where man cannot touch them any longer.
The third was the Western Church of Light,that followed a separate “Western Hermetic” theory that the Order of Hermes, under Bonisagus, developed. From the man that was called “Thrice Great”, the Western Church once came into the public in the late 1800’s under the name “The Hermetic Brotherhood of Light”, under the leadership of Max Theon, who was later branded a heretic for breaking the most important rule of the Council – to never involve those outside of the world of spells.
The fourth was the Nexus, a small group of radicals who believed that magic was universally defined, and sought to find the connection between all the theories, through whatever means – they were notorious for their inhumane experiments on living beings to see what different organs sorcerers and ordinary humans seemingly had. Although the Nexus had been admitted into the Council, the other eight Traditions do not see them as anything else but mad scientists, and while the members of the Nexus were no doubt brilliant, their “claims to magic” has often been the subject of skepticism, since no one actually saw them perform any spells in front of the Council.
The fifth were the Dreamweavers, who believes in the formation of magic of connecting to the spirit and faerie realms during slumber, and that imagination was the ultimate battery for magic. A mysterious and reclusive group, the Dreamweavers kept to themselves so often that a joke in poor taste was made about them – in order to maintain their theories, the members must be like cheetahs: inbred and slowly dying out. The levels of magic performed by the Dreamweavers were also difficult to measure, although the prophetic ability of the few Dreamweavers to have revealed themselves seems to measure a level of magic that could possibly contest as the most powerful magic within the Council.
The sixth tradition was dubbed the Fellowship of Iron, a thought of magic that came around when the Industrial Revolution began to revolutionize the numerous empires and kingdoms around the world. They were the first to push for the study of magic in relation to the advancing technology of the West, and while House Mercere of the Order of Hermes would eventually back up the Fellowship in this ambition, they were commonly mocked as fools – magic was natural, industry was not. As such, many of the magical inventions developed by the Fellowship of Iron were looked down upon when compared to the trinkets and weapons that the Order of Hermes have produced, but the Fellowship continues to survive the years without support – after all, their inventions lead to the creation of the steampunk genre, and Wild Wild West certainly revived the interest in the genre. There are no known members of the sixth tradition who are currently alive.
The seventh tradition was the University of True Alchemy; while Mercere was generally accepted as the father of modern Alchemy, a large group of alchemists rejected Mercere’s approach. Mercere had worked with a Middle Eastern alchemist who went by the name of Geber in the magical world, and the University greatly dislikes the “laboratory approach” – they believe in the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life being created not through the test tubes, but in a hidden dungeon elsewhere, and they reject the lab work of Mercere and Geber’s alchemy in favor of seeking out the clues left behind in history regarding the location of the Philosopher’s stone. Many famous people such as Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein were a part of this organization, and most successful scientists were members of the University.
The eighth tradition was the Monastery of Eastern Mysticism – the tradition had been existing just as long as the Order of Hermes, but those of the Oriental countries had no desire to join in the Council until much later, after World War II, where it’s generally agreed upon that shared knowledge of magic may be able to cut down motivation for battle between countries, and by extension, sorcerers. There had been so many different concentrations within the libraries of the Monastery that even after several decades, the Council has yet to compile a complete list of the focuses.
The final tradition, Horus, joined just five years ago with members of this tradition being spread out between South Korea and Japan. The charisma of their leader, who simply calls himself as “The Eye of Aleph” (named after the supposed source of magic), was enough to convince the Council to allow his beliefs in drawing power from a single being, in gathering the energy from a source that would never run dry, to be included in the traditions. Upon the announcement regarding Aleph’s terrorist activities, Horus was investigated with intense scrutiny to see if the “Eye of Aleph” and his tradition had any relation to the terrorist. No conclusive evidence was found, and Horus was simply left alone after that, although little activity could be found or heard from them.”
-Anonymous, The History of the World You Didn’t Know
Roppongi Hills
Tokyo, Japan
Time: 23:41
The center of all entertainment was right here, in this strip of land found in the Minato area of Tokyo. Comparable to Las Vegas, which in itself is just its own strip of land in the middle of a desert, Roppongi was an island in the urban ocean of Tokyo, but the lights that shined from the streets only confirmed the rumored nightlife activities that Roppongi had to offer.
One of the highlights of Roppongi was an area of property known as Roppongi Hills. Purchased by a wealthy Japanese businessman, his goal was to develop property that could raise the standards of living within Tokyo, and the centerpiece of this urban development was the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, named after the businessman who had started the development of the area.
The fifty-four floors that made up skyscraper were the pride of the Roppongi Hills area, but in the magical world, it was only the very top floor that held any real value – not that most people knew. The elevator would never head up to the fifty-fourth floor without an elevator key, which was unique to a select few – Akira Mori made sure of that. The aging businessman slipped the key into the elevator, and felt the elevator carry him to the very top floor. It was a trip that took around two minutes and six seconds without stops, and soon enough, Akira arrived on the top floor – it was almost completely empty, except for a single desk that had three computer screens on top of it, with a monitor underneath the desk.
Sitting in front of the desk in a gigantic gaming chair was a young man with numerous tattoos and piercings on his face – this person was Gakuto Mori, the son that his older brother, Minoru Mori, had from a fling in the early stages of his marriage, a child he had no knowledge of his entire life. Gakuto turned his head and looked rather lazily at the grim-looking Akira.
“Ah, old man. You didn’t let me know you were coming.”
Akira trembled with rage. His face growing red, the old man tried very hard to hold his temper, and after a few silent moments of anger, the old man took a deep breath and began to speak in his quiet yet powerful voice.
“Gakuto, these ‘security guards’ you hired went out again and brought back the homeless people and animals and bringing them to the lower levels of the tower. We do not have the means to keep them here, and the company is starting to see a decrease in revenue because of these little projects of yours. Explain yourself! I have been patient because of my older brother’s legacy, but I will have you thrown out for the sake of this company he built!”
The young man simply sighed, and flipped the computer screens on once more. It revealed several different security cameras, placed all over the tower – the rooms and angles revealed that these cameras were installed without Akira’s knowledge. The surveillance focused on the sleeping homeless populace, placed in “cells” all around the upper floor.
“Do you know what a formicarium is, old man?”
“An ant farm, Gakuto? You’re building an ant farm?”
“Well, something like it, but this homeless vivarium is for something bigger. All you have to know is that the useless people and animals out there are without a roof for a reason, and that nobody in this world is going to think twice about the fact that they’re missing.”
Shutting off the monitors, Gakuto relaxed on the chair, turning away from Akira, who couldn’t hold his temper for a second longer.
“THEY ARE LIVING BEINGS, GAKUTO! YOU MUST HAVE SOME SORT OF COMPASSION! I do not care for your ‘Horus’ games, you do not bring in people and use them for your own amusement!”
Taking a deep breath, Gakuto sighed once more. This was a moment he knew was going to happen one day, and it looked like it has finally come. This was going to be a terrible night to sleep through.
“Old man, you are a traditional person. You resect heritage, and had this floor reserved for me because you felt as if my father was unable to leave anything for me. In many ways, traditions can shape a good man, and for that, I am grateful. But you can’t recognize progress, or anything outside of what I am trying to do. I am going to make Tokyo, Japan, and the entire world a better place, with the help of my ‘friend’. I’m sorry, old man.”
Standing up from the chair, Gakuto walked towards Akira, who was dwarfed by Gakuto’s impressive height. Drawing out what appeared to be a ceremonial dagger from one of the inner pockets of his jacket, Gakuto raised it before Akira could react, and plunged the blade straight through the top of the old man’s brain.
Akira could not speak, but surprisingly, no spurt of blood was leaving the wound. The only sound to escape the dying man’s lips was a moan, but not of pain, but of surprise. The moan disappeared, and then returned as a scream. The dagger began to glow green as blue light shout from inside Akira’s body. The wrinkles on his face slowly disappeared, returning Akira to his youthful appearance from just after World War II: a handsome, excited young man looking forward to the successes of life despite the hard conditions his country was in. Black blood broke through his back, where the shoulder blades were, and shot out and quickly solidified into wings.
The homunculus breathed heavily, like an animal, and Gakuto removed the dagger from Akira’s head – there was no blood to be wiped, and there was no wound to cover. The homunculus, while appearing human, was also very imp-like and demonic in nature.
“This is my gift of gratitude, uncle – an eternal life, in a new and superior form.”
The homunculus did not respond, but Gakuto didn’t need it to respond. Hiding the dagger within his clothes once more, Gakuto snapped his fingers, and screens went down to cover the windows. Faced all appeared on the screen as Gakuto sat down on the chair once more, smiling at his ‘friends’.
“This is your leader, ‘Eye of Aleph’, speaking to the Horus tradition. No doubt you all just saw what I did – I used a tool given to us by our god, and I say it’s about time we go ahead with the next step in our plan. In order to bring in an age of true order and peace, we must re-introduce something to the human heart: terror. Now then, to begin…”
____________________
It was rather late at night, with Banri shivering. Being a teacher was an interesting job, and he could see the rewards for it – but Takeda was probably the most unreasonable boss out there, because what man would send a high school kid to take his two students to Roppongi Hills, out of all places? The Roppongi area used to be much safer, with the Yakuza losing quite a bit of influence and more or less leaving the bars and clubs alone.
But homeless people around the area had started to disappear. The government didn’t care too much about it, and the general population also didn’t care much for the bums, but not caring isn’t enough for rumors to circulate, whether it be on the street or through the internet: a group is taking these homeless people in for god knows what, but the purpose can’t be anything promising.
And that was the mission: to find something regarding these disappearances. Takeda said it himself when he briefed everyone on this investigation – they were working with the Thoth Covenant in America to try and located Aleph, and that they are the last two operating covenants. The rest of the covenants had been wiped out, and while Takeda agrees with the Thoth Covenant’s leader William Gorman regarding the trails to hunt down Aleph, he disagrees in making the hunt the bigger priority; the people that were suffering because of a rogue magician should always come first. As such, Takeda suspected that the disappearances were probably a magic-related matter, and if it wasn’t, it couldn’t help to confirm it.
Banri bought Iam and Laura a steaming takoyaki from a late-night snack stand, and as all three of them sat on a bench, Banri looked up at the towering Roppongi Hills Mori Tower. It was a place of quite a few scandals – Banri was fairly young at the time, but a boy once had his crushed in the revolving doors around ten years ago. For such a magnificent building, the security was fairly shitty.
“Banri, find anything?”
Banri looked to see the approaching Abramson with his own cell of novice mages, Frederico and Maximilian. Apparently, all three men had been going around the cheaper cabaret clubs to see if any homeless men had been frequenting them, and to see if there was any information that made anyone stand out. The hosts and hostesses all said the same thing – they only allowed gave their services to these “customers” because they had the right price, and sometimes were rather good-looking. Of course, every single one of them smelled bad.
Banri shook his head, and Abramson simply nodded. Results were definitely more difficult to come by, and many of the officers were starting to think that Takeda might be off the mark on this one, which would be a first – Takeda was only elected as a leader because he was pretty much guaranteed to make the correct move.
Brynja’s voice rang out through the aether communication system that was set up by Koshima – thoughts that wanted to be shared were broadcasted, a very useful thing to have in these sort of situations.
“Jamie and I just dropped off Alicia and Omer to their spot – they’re going to be entering the tower and we’re going to follow soon enough. I will be arriving just about…now.”
A black van pulled up, with Brynja in the driver’s seat, and Jamie seated shotgun. The door opened up, and everyone present piled into the shuttle. As Brynja drove down the street to make a turn at an intersection and head back towards the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, Yukina’s voice shot out through the aether system.
“Christian and I got through the service entrance to this tower – we’re going to look around and see if there’s a dungeon or something here. If Takeda is right, then we should look for a large space as to where they might be keeping the prisoners.”
In response to Yukina’s message, Rebecca’s voice rang out as well.
“My boys and I have the area around the towers almost completely roped off. These guys learn quick – two barriers already! I’m going to send Jonathan and Rudy inside once I finish the side of the barrier the shuttle is arriving from, and I’ll find a place to hide so I can keep the barrier up during your investigations. No one will be coming in or out.”
Not even a moment later, the shuttle passed by the silver-haired woman, who winked and held a thumbs up with left hand, before raising her right into the air, and bringing it down, as if she was bringing down the blinds over a window. There was no noise, but for a split second, a shining wall was visible as it sealed off the area surrounding the tower.
Jonathan and Rudy were just a few hundred yards down the street, and they entered the shuttle as well – with the passengers having to shift around for the two rather large men – and Brynja continued down the way, with the tower appearing in sight.
____________________
It was safe to say that Omer really did not like the current situation. To backtrack a little, Omer had prepared his coffee for Alicia when she did wake up, and although the white-haired woman did not usually drink coffee, she accepted the drink as a token, and instantly enjoyed it.
But alas, she did not see Omer as anything more but a stuffed animal, and she would hug him as she slept. She barely spoke, and Omer did not get much out of her, but the weird thing was that she kept a cat that she did not name, and the one thing Omer got out of her was that she wanted him to name the cat, which began to vomit a rainbow-colored fluid. So it was up to Omer to name the cat. How Alicia was going to be a mentor to him, he had no idea.
But now he was playing the agent to a porn star – and Alicia was his “porn star”. Her regular, skimpy dress was enough for her to pass off like that, and she never seemed to change out of it. Omer had to wonder why the clothes continued to smell so good, and Alicia looked beyond attractive with her hair brushed over the flower-shaped seal over her right eye.
The security guards had let them in without asking too many questions – escorts were common, especially leading into the weekend. Of course, the men were fairly jealous they couldn’t afford their own overtly sexy porn star to sleep with, but it was beside the point.
The elevator was directing them to the office of one Shigeo Coda, who was the primary consultant in regards to company organization and structure – if anyone was worth questioning, it was either this man or Akira Mori, who no one has been able to track. The door opened up at the seventeenth floor, and Alicia walked out with a long stride, causing her dress to flow. Omer could only try to follow and not look so shameful as he held the cat in his arms.
They opened the door to what was assumed to be the office they were looking for, and a nameplate that read Shigeo Coda was on the desk. The man they were looking for was entering his forties, and was currently making out with a topless woman, who looked slightly older than half his age, on top of the desk. Alicia and Omer could only stare silently at the scene in front of them, before Alicia reached into her dress and pulled out a pistol, firing a shot right on the bottom of the desk.
“You.”
Alicia pointed the gun at the call girl, who was so terrified that she didn’t bother trying to cover herself. Alicia shook the gun to indicate that the girl should leave, and gathering up her wrinkled clothing off the floor, the girl ran off. Alicia pointed the gun back towards Shigeo, who was zipping up his pants at this point.
“Where are you keeping the homeless people?”
Shigeo began to stutter, presumably an insult, but whatever statement he had to make was shushed as pressed the gun against his chin, her eyes menacing.
“Ten words, Shigeo Coda.”
“I…I only know about those in the basement.”
“Two words left. Any guesses as to where the other ones are?”
“Ah, um…”
Shigeo’s brow revealed a line of sweat, and he took his time contemplating an answer – after a few moments of pondering, Shigeo whispered in a terrified voice.
“G-Gakuto knows…”
The fear in Shigeo’s voice was not of Alicia, but of that name: Gakuto. Nodding curtly, Alicia raised the gun over her head and smashed the butt of the gun against Shigeo’s chin, knocking out the poor man as he fell over his desk and to the other side, out of sight. Tossing the gun towards Omer, Alicia walked out of the room with her second order to her pupil, something golden in her hand.
“Pocket the gun, there’s no bullets in it, so don’t worry about having to shoot yourself.”
Omer snugly placed the gun underneath the waistline of his jeans, hidden in sight by his jacket and shirt, and he followed Alicia back to the elevator. In Alicia’s hand was something of a key card, and she placed it in the keyhole underneath all the floor buttons – the fifty-fourth floor, previously unlit, began to light up, and without a moment’s notice, Alicia pressed that button, and the elevator door closed.
Around a minute later, the elevator door opened up, revealing an empty floor. Nothing was in the room: no furniture, no equipment. The only thing that stood there was a shadow, and it turned to face them – the shade of a human, with black wings sprouting out from the back. The homunculus roared a challenge towards the pair, and before Alicia could react, the homunculus swiftly appeared right in front of her and jabbed at her neck, causing Alicia to collapse on the floor of the elevator, unconscious. The man-made monster grabbed Omer by the collar and tossed him out of the elevator, causing the young man to slide across the floor and close to the window.
The homunculus approached Omer rather menacingly, its fingers turning into claws. The gun that had previously been in Omer’s possession was now between him and the monster – there were no bullets, but Omer bet that in whatever pocket Alicia had, there were probably bullets.
It didn’t mean much though – Omer doubt he could take on the homunculus in a straight battle, and while he did make have a thermos of his coffee in his bag, which he was sure would wake Alicia right up, he would still have to go past the enemy in front of him. The cat hissed at the approaching homunculus, and Omer knew he didn’t have much of a choice – either try to wake Alicia up, or try to find the bullets and try and shoot the homunculus.
____________________
Christian could say for sure that he would never ride in the back of a moving truck again, and even more, in the space of the removed bottom of an office couch. The bottom had been removed so that he and Yukina could fit through the bottom, and after the workers left the couch in the holding docks, Yukina lifted the couch up with ease, and Christian rolled out, with Yukina crawling out soon after she held the couch up with one hand.
They snuck around all the late-night workers, who looked as if they wanted nothing more than to return home, and checked around the gigantic room filled with boxes. It felt like an Indiana Jones movie, where they were essentially going through Area 51, with the crates surrounding all of them.
A clatter could be heard behind them, and claws grew from Yukina’s nails as she snarled, looking around for the source of the sound. The sound of steps could be heard, but where from? Christian and Yukina looked towards the direction from whence they came, but when they turned back once more, a dark-haired man with a Japanese sword on his back was standing there, quiet. His face was more or less expressionless, and it said nothing of his thoughts, but when the man, with one of his arms slung into his clothes, used his free arm to draw the nodachi from its sheath, it was fairly obvious that he was looking for a fight.
The sword was incredibly long, and looked fairly heavy, but the swordsman held it with one hand easily. Brandishing the weapon, he issued a silent challenge towards Yukina and Christian. Growling, Yukina’s face began tot run fairly animalistic, and her frame began to grow larger – a moment later, what stood there was a brown-colored werewolf, which howled and then charged the enemy standing in their paths.
The swordsman and Yukina could not seem to hit each other – they were too fast for each other, and the exchange between them was a storm of claws and steel. Christian could change the advantage of the fight, but should he try to make Yukina’s attack more powerful, or should he try to make the swordsmen weaker? He wasn’t sure about what the effects of this “double-edged magic” could perform, but depending on who he directs the spell towards and what intentions he had upon casting the spell, the effects would differ.
Might as well test it now.
____________________
The van pulled up right in front of the entrance, but what was strange was that the security guards were nowhere in sight. Brynja slowly drove the car forward, circling the tower until she neared the entrance, and then a spurt of blood splashed itself onto the windshield, causing her to stop. What was thrown at her disappeared from sight, but Brynja feared the worst, and as she stepped out, she saw the crushed remains of a human head.
“Oh, a redhead! I quite like the redheads, you know.”
A gigantic man stepped out: dark-skinned, with sunglasses and other gaudy ornaments, he appeared to be the stereotypical Asian representation of black people. However, what stood behind him were several bodies, all of them missing a head. When Brynja looked at the rings on the man’s fingers, they were coated with blood.
“You want to enter the building? C’mon, try and enter it. I dare you.”
Brynja was silent for a moment, and she stepped inside the shuttle once more, turning to everyone.
“Abramson and I are going to drive this vehicle straight into that man. All of you are going to step out and make a run into the building. You’re the leader of this group, Banri. On three.”
As Abramson began to count down, Brynja quickly set up a kit for Jamie, and then she placed it in her student’s jacket pocket, much like a fussy mother. She then hurried Jamie out of the vehicle, and Abramson directed everyone to step out. The man stood there silently, grinning all the while – he didn’t care who got past him, just as long as he got to deal with somebody. Abramson hopped into the shotgun seat, and both of them buckled their seatbelts once more. Brynja took a deep breath, and then floored it, smashing straight into the gigantic man while screaming “TAKE THIS, MOTHERFUCKER!” as the shuttle continued down the street, pushing the man down.
Banri wasted no time to speak; he ran into the building, followed by Iam, Laura, Jamie, Max, Jonathan, Rudy, and Frederico. As they all ran into the gigantic lobby, what appeared to be a clown stood in front of the escalators leading up to the balcony, where the elevators to the other floors were located.
“Oh my, the Professor sure knows how to take the fun ones for himself, isn’t that right, darling?”
And the clown seemingly split in two. His body did not deform, but rather, from the shadows, a clone just appeared right next to him, with the same infuriating pose, and the same cocky smile.
“Certainly, darling, but for these um, initiatives, I’m sure we only have to go to, say, eight? You should take the high school boy though, he looks like he knows some magic.”
Both of them cackled, and from their own shadows, more of the clowns appeared, until eight of them barred their paths. The original clown cracked his beck, and stretched his arms, and upon closer inspection of the arms, there were two runes similar to those of the Quaesitor magic. Banri understood those runes – perfect human athlete and mirror images. The original than ran towards Banri, and Banri had little time to transform into his bear form before taking the charging clown, both of them crashing through the revolving door and into the streets once more.
The other clowns split off, and began to skip around in a circle. It was as if they were playing musical chairs, without the chairs, and it continued to annoy those who were watching. Without warning, the clowns quickly returned into a line, and all seven of them cackled once more in unison.
“We like to call ourselves Flea Circus! Now come, enjoy our show, as we show you the moves we ripped off from Chinese wuxia films!”
With a sound mocking Chinese martial artists, the seven clones of the clown leaped into the air, all of them lifting their right leg up to bring it crashing down on the heads of the seven mages in front of them. Block, counterattack, run, all of these were options, but some people weren’t prepared for battle, whether it be skill-wise or mentally. Either way, Flea Circus was the enemy, and their first real foe. Their battles have begun.
______________________
The shuttle continued down the street, as the Professor was pushing against the weight of the speeding vehicle. After holding this position for about half a mile, the Professor shoved the car backwards, causing it to swerve and crash into a toy store from the rear. Both Abramson and Brynja were dizzy from the impact, and the Professor slowly made his way to the dazed mages.
A wind began to blow, and the Professor stopped: what stood between him was a beautiful, dark-haired woman: Sierra Milton, who looked at the Professor rather sternly. Michael and Alaina landed on both sides of their teacher, looking at the Professor right in front of them – the reinforcement squad, which was making sure that nobody from their side dies tonight, found their battle: to protect the wounded mages behind them.
The Professor covered his face with his large hands, before giving out a loud laugh. Without warning, he began to run towards Sierra, who quickly moved out of the way, as well as Alaina, leaving only Michael to stand between the Professor and the comrades in the shuttle. The Professor had every intention to run Michael into the shuttle and probably smash him as he kills the other two mages, but Michael was going to stop him – whether it be a blow with his magic, or even his fists, he was going to make sure the Professor will not make it to his objective.
Sign In
Create Account
Back to top
