A Certain City of Espers

***Ah, okay. Just thought you were being facetious. ***


Jordan

He sat up abruptly, staring at her. Magic, she had said... He had been guessing that for some time, but he had not been sure. And Anzhela, she had known right off the bat! He was sure, now, she was intelligent, and strong.

He swallowed up. "You have my attention, now, Anzhela," he said, voice low and solid. "I will see what I can do to help you, but only on one condition."

"Da?" She cocked an eyebrow, leaning a little closer.

"Teach me, and make me stronger," he said, bluntly.

She only smiled, nodding.

I'm leaving to go camping one more time before school starts. Not sure if I have Internet access or not. If not then I'll be back either Sunday or Monday.

(What does facetious mean? I've never heard the term before.)


Jordan

"What does this thing I'm looking for look like?" Jordan asked.

"It is a blue orb with the zodiac sign of Aries carved into the surface," Anzhela told him. "But, I do not want you to go after it just yet. Enter that child's circle of friends, earn his trust. When he trusts you enough to hold the orb, that's when you take it from him."

"Wouldn't it be easier to just take it from him by force?"

The woman smiled, chuckling a little. "So eager," she said as she strode toward him until she was standing directly in front of him. "Patience, Darling. If you attack too soon, the boy's friends may come to his rescue, da? Do not be so hasty." She placed a finger on Jordan's chest and began to slide it down in a very suggestive manner. "After all, we don't want our enemies to find out about our little plan, do we?"

Jordan's heart began to race as her finger began to trace back up his chest. All he could manage was a nod.

Anzhela smiled and said, "Good. Now be a dear and fetch me my jacket." Jordan simply nodded again and grabbed her jacket from the bed, handing it to her. After she put it on she began to walk away. The last thing she said before leaving was, "The child you are looking for attends Osaki Highschool. The school year ends at the end of the week, so I suggest starting as soon as possible. Good luck, Darling."

(Have fun on your camping trip, Undertaker.)

***Jocular or amusing, someone who likes to joke around... that general line. I'll try to post later; I'm currently doing my laundry (and hoping the power doesn't go out with the impending storm) before I go home for the weekend.***

Takeo

The next morning Takeo felt strangely different. He felt empty but there wasn't the desperate hunger there had been before, just an emptiness. Takeo wasn't sure which was worse. At once it was a relief but also a disappointment, that he could get over losing the orb so easily. And that he was so little without it: such a difference in his strength and power. The orb had made Takeo great and now he was just human. He needed that orb back. He needed to go find Ren, Ren would be at the bus stop. He would have the orb on him, he-

Wait. No. What was this? Another feeling, another level of desire? Taki tried to clear his thoughts and was surprised to feel a surge of anger. This was the orb's doing! It had to be, the orb was trying to trick him into taking it back. He'd almost convinced himself- he. That was it. He was his own worst nightmare. The orb was nothing, just a silly ball and here he was telling himself he couldn't exist without it. Takeo was half disgusted and half fascinated. He almost didn't recognise himself. This weak, half crazed, paranois individual. Could that really be the great Takeo?

"Morning," Startled, Taki spun around to find Lena coming out of the other room. He stared for a moment at her damp, just washed hair and then quickly realised that he was standing in front of her in his boxers. Oh shit. What happened to getting up early and getting dressed? Man. His mind was more warped than he thought.

Grabbing the blanket, Taki tried not to look so embarrassed. "Hey, morning, sleep well? Look, do you mind if I use your shower?"

"No, go right ahead," Lena said, a sort of amused smile playing across her lips. Taki grabbed his clothes from yesterday and slid past her.

________________

Walking to school with another person was almost as strange as walking home with them. Stranger. It reminded him that he hadn't slept in his own bed last night. But the strangest thing of all was the easy conversation they made all the way to the bus stop where Ayaka and Ren were standing.

"Hey guys!" Taki called, pushing down the urge to ask if Ren had the orb. He wasn't even going to think about it. He was going to forget that it even existed.

(I just posted in the DT again. Also, I have something I want to do with Ren when he gets up. Could you change your post so that it's only Ayaka at the bus stop right now? Thanks.)


Ayaka

Ayaka woke up from a surprisingly restful night. No visions had come to her during the course of her slumber. She still wasn't sure if they were safe from the events predicted from her last one, but for now she was glad everyone was still in one piece.

She got ready for school and went to the bus stop. There were only a couple more days left until school was finally over. Maybe then they would all have more time and energy to focus on what to do with the orb problem. When she arrived at the bus stop she noticed she was the first one there. She was surprised not to see Ren there. He was usually the first one at the bus stop, or at least she thought he was. The only way the she remembered was because Ren was the only person who wore sun glasses at their stop.

She heard Takeo's voice as he and Lena arrived soon after.
________________________________

Ren

Ren pulled himself out of bed soon after his alarm clock began to rang. He yawned as he got to his feet and started to make his way toward the bathroom, then yelped in pain when he hit his shin against the edge of the table. He fell back onto his bed and held his shin with both hands. He swore as he waited for the pain to subside.

Then he heard something fall off the table and roll under the bed. When the pain in his shin was gone he got down on all fours to look under his bed and see what it was. It was the orb the others had left with him last night. He pulled it out and looked at it for a moment. Could such a small thing really grant someone power? If so, then why did it only work on Takeo?

Ren pushed the thought aside as he placed the orb back on the table and got ready for school. The first thing he did was go to the bathroom, then got dressed and had something to eat. But as he was getting his stuff together for school he heard some commotion just outside his door. He recognized the familiar whir of a cleaning robot's motor, but there was also the sound of a young girl's voice. The voice was high and frantic, angry even. Ren went to open his front door to see what all the noise was about.

A young girl wearing what looked like a white hooded priest's robe with golden trims was banging her fists on the top of a cleaning robot. The girl was around fourteen or fifteen years old from the look of her height, with long sky blue hair and green eyes. Her robe looked like it had been cut in several places, which were now being held together by safety pins. The robe seemed to be a size too big for the girl, as the sleeves almost out-reached her arms and the bottom was being dragged along the ground.

"What the heck are you doing?" Ren asked.

"This stupid machine swallowed up my donut!" the girl shouted. "I was saving it for breakfast this morning!"

"...And you still want it after the cleaning robot took it?" Ren asked, disgusted at the thought of eating anything after it's come in contact with all the other trash those machines pick up.

"Index!" Toma came running down the hall with a frustrated look on his face. "Leave the machine alone. I already said I'd buy you another one."

"Toma, do you know this girl?" Ren asked.

Toma looked surprised, as if he hadn't noticed Ren was standing there. "Oh, Ren. Uh... yeah, kinda." He turned back to the girl when she started banging on the robot again. "Index, knock it off!" He put himself between the girl and the cleaning robot. Once the machine was out of her grasp it quickly scuttled away.

"So, what is this girl doing here with you? Is she your sister?" Ren asked, although he couldn't see any similarities between the two of them.

"No, we're not related or anything."

"Is she living with you or something? She seems to be a bit young to be your girlfriend."

Toma's cheeks started to go a little red as he struggled for an acceptable answer. The girl answered first, though. "I'm older than I look!" She seemed a little upset at the insinuation that Ren was calling her a kid. Her annoyance seemed to subside when she caught a glimpse inside Ren's apartment. Her eyes widened when she said, "What are you doing with a Zodiac Stone?"


(Ren is probably not going to make it to the bus on time, so you can have the rest of the characters go to school without him.)

((Sorry for taking so long, school just started.))


Lena


I walked out of the shower, only to find that Taki was only in his boxers. I smirked right as he turned around to face me. He seemed embarrassed that I saw him in his boxers. Grabbing at the blanket, he quickly covered himself up.

"Hey, morning, sleep well? Look, do you mind if I use your shower?" He asked quickly.

“No, go right ahead.” I stated.

I watched as he grabbed his clothes and headed quickly to the shower. We really needed to get him some new clothes, or something. I decided to talk to him about it later, right now I had to get ready for school. Soon after Takeo got out of the shower, he was ready to go. We walked down to the bus stop together, having a surprising easy conversation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When we got to the bus stop only Akaya was there. We waited for a while, and the bus came. That is strange, Ren never misses a day. Maybe he got sick… I thought. Trying not to think about it I walked the school bus, walked down the aisle and sat as close to the back as possible. Turning toward the window, I let random thought come through my mind. Heck, school was almost over. Thank god. And if Taki was going to stay at my house again, then we needed to get him some clothes. Could we risk going back to his house, maybe. I’d talk to him when we walk home from school. Suddenly the bus stopped and everyone started to get off. Sighing once more I stood up and made my way to school.

Ayaka

"Do you think Ren decided to stay home today?" Ayaka asked.

"Maybe," Lena said. "Although it's not like him to skip his classes."

Ayaka noticed a look of anxiety starting to build up on Takeo's face. "What if we didn't lose that guy last night and he managed to follow us back to his apartment? We should go see him after school to make sure-"

"No," Lena told him before he could finish. Taki started to say something else, but Lena interrupted him again and said, "Relax, Ren is fine. He's probably skipping school today in order to draw less attention to himself. After all, if that guy knew where you lived then he obviously has the means to find out where we go to school. He's probably watching us right now."

That last part worried Ayaka. She started scanning the area with her eyes, looking for any shady characters. She felt a little better when she couldn't find anything out of the ordinary, but it didn't completely dispel her worry.

"If he's watching us right now, then the last thing we want to do is lead him back to Ren's apartment," Lena said.
_________________________

Ren

Ren looked at the girl with a mixed look of surprise and suspicion. "A what? You know what that thing is?" The girl pushed her way past Ren and into his apartment. Toma made a frustrated noise before apologizing to Ren for her actions. Both of them went inside to see the girl sitting at the table looking at the orb.

"That's the mark of Aries. It really is a Zodiac Stone!" The girl said with wonder in her voice. She then turned a look of suspicion at Ren and the wonder in her voice was suddenly replaced with accusation. "This orb is supposed to be locked in a vault in Moscow, how did you get your hands on it?"

"Wha- hey, I didn't steal it or anything! I'm holding onto it for a friend." Something clicked in his head when her words suddenly sunk in. "Wait, a vault in Moscow? How do you know all this?" He turned to Toma and asked, "Just who exactly is this kid?"

"I told you, I'm not a kid!" the girl shouted as she grabbed the orb off the table. She looked like she was about to throw it at him.

"Whoa! Whoa! Okay, sorry!" Ren shouted back as he moved his arms to shield himself. When he was sure she wouldn't throw the object at him he lowered his arms back down to his sides. "But, who are you?"

"My name is Index Librorum Prohibitorum," the girl said.

"Librorum Prohi... what?"

Toma sighed and shook his head. "Just call her Index."

Who in their right mind gives their kid a name like that? Ren thought. He wanted to ask, but decided he didn't want to know the answer. Instead, he asked, "Okay, so how do you know what that thing is?"

"There is a magical text devoted to all twelve of these stones. It just happened to be one of the 103,000 forbidden grimoires that I read while I was still in the Church of England. I have photographic memory so I can recall any passage from every single book whenever I want."

Ren couldn't believe what he was hearing. A girl from the Church of England, magical books... He shook his head and asked, "Toma, is she serious?"

"I'm afraid so," he said, although he sounded like he didn't want to believe it either.

"How did you even find this girl? Wait, don't tell me. I don't even want to know."

"You don't believe me, do you?" Index asked with an annoyed tone.

Takeo

It was more of the same: nerves and dark thoughts. Taki didn't think he could take much more of this, all the worrying and the hiding. He just wanted it to be over, wanted everything to be- normal again? But do I really? Suppose I could go back and choose to have never found the orb? No, nope. No way. That was so out of the question.

A muted silence fell over the group as Lena led the way to their classroom. They took seats near the back, Taki using his influence to persuade another kid to move.

"Sure, it's no problem!" The boy said as he slouched over to another seat. Taki theatrically pulled the chair out for Ayaka and then repeated the action with Lena who rolled her eyes and looked less than impressed. Fine. So his charms didn't work on these two girls. Pffft.

"I really wish you hadn't said that about him watching us," Takeo whispered to Ayaka. She gave him a small smile and nodded.

"Me too, me too."

"Well personally I'm glad, you got Takeo to see sense, well done!" Lena joked and then they had to all be quiet as the teacher entered the room. Tearing a sheet of paper from his class book, Takeo started to write in big, sloping letters:

We should keep an eye out for new faces. Anyone who tries to talk to us.

He showed it to the girls who both nodded their agreement. But of course when a familiar boy approached them after class, Taki didn't feel worried at all. Afterall, the boy had helped save his life not so long ago and his friendly greeting made the girls feel more at ease.

"Hey, I remember you!"

Ren

Ren frowned. "Well no, not really."

Index got to her feet and walked over to him before shoving the orb in his face. "This stone is one of twelve of the most powerful magical artifacts in the world. Mages world wide spend their whole lives looking for these in hopes of strengthening their own powers with them. You have in your possession a national treasure in the magical community!"

"Magic? Seriously?" Ren asked disapprovingly. "Magic doesn't exist! You're probably just thinking about psychic powers."

"Magic exists!" Index shouted. "Magic and psychic abilities are two extremely different sets of power. You just don't know any better because you've spent your whole life in this city!"

Ren sighed. "Okay, let's say I believe you. How do these magical stones work exactly?" He made quotation signs with his fingers when he said magical. Index seemed satisfied because she went back to sitting down at the table. Ren and Toma did the same, there was no point standing at the front door for the entire length of the conversation.

"The Zodiac Stones aren't magical in nature," Index explained. "They're simply power conduits for mystical energies of any type. When a mage uses one he pushes his power through the orb and the energy from his magic is multiplied."

"My friend was the one who found the orb, and his powers increase whenever he holds it," Ren said. "He's an esper just like me, so exactly how is he able to use it?"

"I told you, the stones aren't inherently magical. They affect all types of energy." Index sounded annoyed for having to repeat herself.

"But my friend doesn't have an ability that manipulates energy, so how-" Ren stopped when an idea crossed his mind. "Wait, do you think these things can affect a person's AIM field?"

Jordan

He attempted to smile, trying to blend in. This was going to be harder than he thought... He had never really...smiled...before, much less accepted company.

"Yes, it's me," he tried, shrugging slightly. "Thought I would check up on you, see if you had any more trouble with those goons."

Taki shrugged, stammering. He finally sighed, and nodded. "Yeah... Yeah, I did."

Jordan sighed. "Sorry to hear that..." He glanced at the girls, they were watching him curiously, alost awkwardly just a little. He scoffed at himself, taking another step forward and extending his hand to each of them. "I'm Jordan. I helped Taki out the other night."

They all giggled and nodded, almost at once. "Oh, okay," was the only real phrase he could discern from their babble, then they all started throwing names at him. Girls...how annoying...

That's when he saw the other girl. Petite, flirtacious, red-head... She came stepping out of the building last, putting on her cheetah-print, dragon-fly-bedazzled sunglasses and striding sassily toward the group. She stopped short when she saw Jordan standing there. "And this is Cait," Taki explained.

Ren

Index threw a questioning look Toma's way. "Toma, what is an AIM field?"

He scratched his head and thought for a moment. "How do I explain it? Every esper involuntarily gives off a small field of energy that can't be seen by the human eye. The intensity of the field is a direct reflection of the strength of a person's psychic abilities."

Index thought for a moment, then nodded. "If that's the case, then simply touching one of the stones shoudld be enough for an esper to use them to increase their own power."

"Then how come it won't work for me?" Ren asked as he reached to grab the orb. The orb remained dim in his hand, just like any other time he touched it.

Index looked at him and said, "Simple, you're not an Aries."

Ren gave her an odd look. "You're right, I'm a Virgo. But what's that got to do with anything? You said these things are power conduits, so they should affect any energy that comes in contact with them no matter who's holding it."

The girl shook her head. "These stones have been around for centuries, yet even after studying them for so long there are still many secrets about them that remain hidden from us. No one knows why, but they will only react to someone if that person has the same Zodiac sign that the stone portrays. Your friend must be an Aries, otherwise the Zodiac Stone wouldn't have worked with him."

"What I'd like to know is why your friend gave it to you in the first place," Toma said.

Ren thought back to the night before. "Him and a couple of his friends were attacked by someone last night, and they ran into me while they were running away. I brought them back here and we decided to hide the orb by leaving it with me since the guy doesn't know who I am yet."

"Where did your friend find the orb?" Index asked.

"He found a priest in an alley a couple days back when ended up giving him the orb. That's when the guy who attacked him first saw him and tried to chase him down."

"Do you know what your friend's attacker looks like?" Toma asked. A few moments ago he looked like he wasn't enjoying sitting through this conversation, now he was listening intently.

"All they told me was that it was some guy in a black cloak. It sounds like he's probably a high level pyrokinetic, because he was able to creating a giant fiery creature to chase after my friend when he first found the orb."

Toma had a thoughtful look on his face, like he knew something that Ren didn't. Ren wanted to ask if he knew anything, but decided to let it go. His attention turned back toward the Zodiac Stone. "So this thing only works on people who were born at a certain time?" He looked at Toma and started to hand him the orb. "Hey Toma, let's see if it'll do anything whe you hold it."

Index shot to her feet. "NO!" she yelled.

Ren flinched. "Why not?" he asked, confused. He was just letting his friend hold the orb, what was the harm in that?

Toma looked around frantically until he spotted the alarm clock on Ren's bedside table. "Whoa, look at the time! We'd better be going." He got up and grabbed Index by the arm before heading for the door. "I'll see you later, Ren. Stay safe." They were already out the door before Ren could say anything.

"...What was that all about?" Ren asked himself.


(I guess I should have thought of this earlier, like when we were putting up our character profiles. Just for the sake of convenience, I'd like everyone to post their characters' zodiac sign in the discussion thread. The reason we're doing it there instead of adding it to our profiles is because we don't have access to Bianca and Ayaka's profile, since their original writers dropped out. I'll post Ren and Ayaka's right now.)

Lena

I watched as this strange boy walked up to the table and stated talking to Taki. I stared at him trying to figure out why he was talking to Taki. Ayaka must have been thinking the same thing because suddenly he introduced himself as Jordan and explained how he had helped Taki before.

Even as he explained I could not help but feel that something was off. I simply watched as they talked, that was until Cait walked in. Automatically Jordan’s gaze turned toward the door. He stared as Cait as she walked in and sat down near Ayaka. As soon as she sat down, Jordan was about to say something to her when the bell rang, interrupting him. I then noticed that a strange expression crossed his face before he went to go sit down.

I didn’t realize that I was glaring at the back of his head, till I felt an elbow hit my arm. Suddenly snapping out if it, I looked over at Taki who was giving a questioning glance. Sighing, I shook my head and then began to take notes again, but instead of talking notes I wrote down, “What are we going to do about getting you some clothes? I mean you can’t wear the same clothes every day…” and showed it to him.

Takeo

That really was the puzzler. Taki had turned the question over in his head several times already. He'd started thinking that maybe he could sneak back just the once, just a quick in and out to grab a few things. He really did like the clothes he already had. That was stupid though. If the priest dude had people watching anywhere, it would be his place and it wasn't like there were many others living in the building. No, it just wasn't public enough to be safe.

Taki chewed his pen for a moment and then wrote: I have my card on me, I keep it in my school bag. Shopping trip anyone??? It sucked really. He'd been saving up so that he'd have something to live on once he finished his schooling. That was going to be scary! Until then he got a monthly allowance from his parents but it wasn't much and he had slightly expensive taste in clothes. Sigh. He wasn't going to have anything decent to wear but his current ones really did need washing.

Lena wrote back that it was a good idea and they should go after school. Takeo nodded. They should probably get some food too, he thought. Then he wouldn't be stealing Lena's all the time. This was her agreeing to let him stay with her, right? Right? He sure hoped so. His money wasn't going to stretch to rent for a new place too. He had already paid for his current flat up front and while his stuff was still there he couldn't exactly cancel later payments either! Putting pen to paper, Takeo wrote again: I'm real glad Jordan goes here - didn't know that before. He might be willing to help protect it. He underlined the word it, not wanting to write the orb as he thought that was risky. If he went around writing orb down everywhere, he'd be found so much more quickly!

Then Lena wrote something else and Taki shook his head. We should dye your hair. Why not? He wrote back: The guy will know my face so ruining my hair won't do any good. Lena snorted but shrugged in consent. It probably wouldn't do any good anyway.

(If you want to skip to when the group is going to the mall, you can go ahead and do that. Nothing's really going to be happening at school today, anyway.)

Ren

Ren remained sitting at his table with the orb, a little stunned at Toma and his friend's sudden exit. When he got over it he started to think about what to do next. One look at the clock told him he was already late for school. Even if he were to wait for the next bus he wouldn't arrive in time for homeroom anyway. Since he was already late, it wasn't going to make much of a difference if he would go to school or not today anyway. He decided to phone the school and call in sick.