Dilemmatic [Takumi's Ace Exam]

GRACE UNDER FIRE

Hmm… She slowly paced about the land, watching as her feet would hover above the ground of the planet. If she forced them down against the weird gravity just hard enough…! And whoops. That was a mistake. Her breath would hitch in her throat as the gravity rebelled, pushing Sorano up and onto her back, ever floating just slightly above the surface of the planet. Well, shoot. That happened. Attempting to push herself up in the wobbly field of force, the letter mage would unfortunately slip and fall several more times before hanging tightly onto a 2-D sculpture that near bowed under her weight before she found herself balanced again. Ah… Hopefully that wouldn’t happen when Takumi came…

See, the young Guild Master had chosen the planet of Nazo for the location of the examination process of initiating a new Ace of the guild: Takumi Yoshino. Although she knew a fair lot about the serious man, she had to admit that never had she truly talked to him, got to know him before. It was something that would be crucially important were she to even begin to consider him as a candidate for such an influential position in the guild as Peacemaker. Both Mura and Hera were people she knew well, people whom she trusted to do play their roles. Was Takumi someone deserving of equal trust? She would have to find out. Now, an Ace exam is something quite unique in different guilds. Unlike a rank-up exam, where the main focus was power, knowledge, overcoming obstacles, an Ace exam was something tailored very specifically to the mage themselves. No two were ever the same, for are any two people the same? Remembering back to her own Ace exam, which had happened to double as her A rank-up, Sorano sighed at the memories of the brief spar, and thoughtful discussion she and the shamaness had had afterwards.

Would it be the same with Takumi? What were Takumi’s weaknesses? Surely a serious discussion was not something that was needed in such a situation – the man was solemn enough as it was. Neither was it battle prowess she felt the need to test. She knew well enough from her Aces’ reports that he was capable. No… That wouldn’t do. What she needed to see now, was what he lacked. What would cause him to falter in the position of a Peacemaker? Ah. Now she knew. He was far too…stubborn. Loyal. Unable to twist and bend flexibly, the way any negotiator must. It was a lesson Sorano herself had had to learn, giving her the reputation of an accomplished mediator even today. While loyalty was rewarded and commendable, it would get in the way of a truly unbiased judge.

Leaning against a strangely jelly-like structure, she pondered how to go about it. Memories of the discussions about Lucie, where Takumi had remained so terribly stubborn about the familial theme of the guild. He didn’t know when it was right to give up, hmm… She needed to come up with a dilemma. A problem so frustrating and one that Takumi would so obviously be biased in, that it would be very much difficult for him to see the truly practical, balanced choice. A decision that would require diplomatic skills and much self-control. Calmly, she knelt down to the wobbling force of Nazo that kept her floating upwards, and began to write. With hope, it would be something to truly challenge the lightning mage.

GRACE UNDER FIRE

The portal rippled, and Sorano lifted her head, brushing aside sweat from her forehead. While she was an experienced user of Solid Script, she had to admit that creating so many illusions, even in as flexible a space as Nazo was something difficult – something that took up much of her energy. Carefully, she would shield them away, and stood up, looking at Takumi, who stood nervously with his eyes closed. A small sigh breathed from her lips, and she awkwardly moved her way over to him, still in a constant struggle with Nazo’s physics. Each person moved by different laws of physics, and thus it was never an easy terrain to move around in. Ah, well, the easier malleability of this universe worked to her advantage here, so she would live with these struggles.

“Thank you for coming, Takumi. I apologize for calling you all the way out here,” she said calmly, wondering why his eyes were closed. It was unusual of the usually down-to-earth slayer mage to act this way, that was for sure. But no matter! “I’ve recently received an anonymous tip that two groups of mages – minor legal guilds who’ve only recently started up have gotten into a fight. If found out by the Magic Council, they most certainly will be severely punished. In fact, from this mysterious informant, it seems as though these were two guilds founded by two rivals in shadow magicks. There is worry that they will begin to dabble in forbidden spells of their craft, and if possible, I would like to stop them. What they might end up doing would cause great harm to the planet of Nazo, as well as adding two new dark guilds to the already plentiful population of the type. This is something I don’t want to happen, and I’m sure you feel the same, Takumi.”

Pacing over to the side of the small clearing in the rest of the chaos of Nazo, Sorano would think for a moment, before looking back up towards the slayer. “You know, these mages… They’re not anything special or especially powerful. They’re quite ignorant, really, from what I’ve seen. I highly doubt they even know that they’re dabbling into forbidden magic. So, I would like to ask you to try and solve this rivalry. I can’t contact Hera or Mura at the moment, and while I could solve this myself, I’ve got an appointment later on that I have to attend to. The mages are somewhere on this planet, in that direction… I apologize for inconveniencing you, Takumi. If you don’t have the time, I’d be willing to get someone else. But it’s something I know you can do, so please consider.” Now, to prepare the spells...

GRACE UNDER FIRE

Nodding at the man in thanks, Sorano would walk off in the other direction, casting a cloaking spell to hide herself once she was out of range. She would have to watch from a distance to avoid detection as much as possible. While her aural cloaking skills were fairly sufficient, she wasn’t completely sure of Takumi’s abilities, and thus kept herself a margin of error. However, already, she began to let the sound of heated voices rise of the next hill, angry comments being shot across a valley by two groups of people. If Takumi were to continue in that direction, the ice mage would soon find himself staring from the top of the hill, down into a shallow valley where there seemed to be two separate camps. The tension here was incredible. If you were to take in a breath of air from this standpoint, it would be like trying to breathe in sand, for the feelings of hostility absolutely choked through the atmosphere.

One man standing on one side of the two unmoving flanks of mages pointed towards the leader of the other group, yelling something about how they had taken what was rightfully theirs, that they were nothing but thieves and liars. The other captain responded with something rather foul, and the opposing guild visibly bristled at the words. It was obvious that a fight would most certainly break out soon, and there were signs that one had already happened. Splotches of color showed on the floor of the valley, plants withered and the sky above them stormy with signs of weather magic. Though these were minor guilds, there were still a good amount of higher-ranked mages capable of doing some real damage. The leader of the guild arrayed in blues was an anthro, animalistic ears peeking out through the top of a navy headband as he bared sharpened canines in rage. On the opposite side, a group arrayed in orange was led by a heavyset woman, face covered in a blinding mess of neon paints. Both sides seemed equally passionate about their position, determined not to let the other win.

The woman raised a fist again in anger, and suddenly a burst of colors splayed outwards from her knuckles, slamming towards her enemies. As a cry of outrage rose up on both sides, a shield rose to counter the paints, and war had begun again. How would Takumi deal with something like this?

GRACE UNDER FIRE

The woman jerked her head up as a stranger entered their midst, a strange-looking young man. Definitely not someone from either guild. He held himself with an air that seemed, to her, like a rather arrogant one. That infuriated her. What sort of lowdown rat like him would dare to interrupt her goal here? Who would dare interrupt this fight that could mean her life? Though the sides had paused in battle briefly, the heated passion that both sides held in this matter was too much to keep them at lunging at one another for more than a few seconds. Grinning, she let loose anther volley of her famous paint missiles, beating back a rush of lasers that the opposing mage sent at her. He was no match for her, ha! But nooo, this stranger wasn’t done yet, how stupid could he be? Anyone knew that jumping between two high-ranked mages battling each other was not a good idea. And when he began yelling at people to stop fighting, suggesting they solve this peacefully, she could feel the hair on her neck rising. How could he know what they were going through?

The kemonomimi on the other side snarled as well when the stranger appeared, immediately disliking the lanky man that appeared in their midst. Who was he? A small burst of satisfaction could be felt when their clashing magicks collided into him in the center. Served him right to come between such an important battle. “Don’t meddle in things you don’t understand, stranger,” he drawled slowly, magnifying his voice via magical means, “Get yerself out before ya get killed, yeah?” He sent a ribbon of blue light at Takumi, whipping it smartly against his behind like a father might discipline a misbehaving son. It was obvious he didn’t think much of the slayer mage. Instead, he began to put things into place for the ultimate strategic move he had begun to prepare for so long, a strategy meant just for this guild. He sent a sudden, seemingly random wave of blue light out, infusing the secret bombs hidden throughout the area with magic. Not even that woman could guess what he was about to do. In fact, even he himself was not quite sure how this strange class of magic worked – he just knew that it was effective, and by this point, he no longer cared of the consequences.

This had gone on too long. Nothing would interrupt him in his mission now.