The room where members of the Special Unit were having their briefings looked spacious and comfortable. In the corner there was a platform for a projector and its slideshows, surrounded by a number of chairs. They were occupied by the mages, who had already started feeling tired from waiting.

“Bright day to you all!” Shadow was, as always, radiating with warmth and kindness.

“Will you ever come on time?” Elio, one of the twins, was sitting with his chair turned backwards and playing a game on his smart.

“When a noob wins in PvP,” his sister quipped. She stood next to Elio, arms crossed over her chest and her leg bent against the wall.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Shiningreel said.

Elio looked up from the screen. Despite the gender difference, he and his sibling seemed almost identical—Elio, a guy with softer, feminine facial features, and Elia, who never had any makeup so many people mistook her for a handsome young man. They both chose the same boyish hairstyle for their fair hair, and the same uniform design further erased their differences. However, they could still be distinguished by the peculiarities of their eyes—Elia’s right eye was blue, and her left eye was green; while her brother’s were the opposite. Similarly, their amplifiers were mirrored on their necks.

Elio got up and pulled a vacant chair closer to him, nodding to Shiningreel—and she accepted his silent offer. Shadow leaned on the edge of the desk nearby.

“For starters, I have some bad news for you.” Aoi coughed. “Cinder is in the hospital. Again.”

“Oh, was Harold Whatever Omnious involved?” Elio grunted.

The commander nodded, and Shiny whispered into Elio’s ear: “I saw their chase the other day. Funny guys they are.”

“Yeah, a never-ending comedy.”

After his comment, Elia threw a disapproving look at him. Meanwhile, Aoi continued: “A couple of hours ago they bumped into each other downtown. Eyewitnesses claim that Cinder was pursuing Omnious and Yui Kusanagi along the blue subway line. He was found not far from the tracks. According to the doctors, he was hit by a pole, then fell from the roof of the carriage and was almost run over by the next train.”

“That’s terrible,” Shadow remarked without expressing any surprise or horror whatsoever.

“This time he did not hurt any civilians on the way, but the Ministry of Transportation will obviously have questions about the broken doors of the carriage.”

“Why do we even keep this thug?” Elio asked.

“Daisuke is our frontline warrior, and we cannot—”

“This warrior was sent to a hospital for the third time this year! The reason is still the same.”

“The fourth…” a gorgeous Asian woman with an elegant hairstyle corrected him, sighing heavily.

“By the way, Hitomi, Harold sends you his regards,” Takeshi remembered.

“How sweet of him.”

“Enough!” Aoi shouted at her crew. “Now Daisuke’s condition is stable, but as he didn’t receive the proper treatment right after the incident, he won’t be able to join us for the time being. You can visit him in the Medical Corps; Recreation Department.”

“Well, more work for me, then.” Shadow shrugged. “I’m starting to get used to having no proper backup.”

“Next point. Izumi-san, please tell us how your investigation into the ‘Lazy Dracula’ is going.”

“Thank you. Unfortunately, my report will be short, because today I was able to obtain very little information which could be described as ‘new.’ The final numbers of casualties were received from the Medical Corps—none of the civilians were seriously injured. I interrogated another eyewitness from magicless people. According to this person, a group of pseudo-violets from the ‘Children of Evolution’ entered the premises without any obstacles and did not behave aggressively until one of them had a fight with the bartender, after which they began to use magic to scare the public. This made the visitors and the musicians leave the building. The data is confirmed by CCTV footage of the hall.”

His speech was interrupted by the sound of Aoi’s smart. She apologized, ordered for Izumi to continue, and left the room to answer the call.

“In addition, this afternoon I managed to talk with another one of the witnesses of the incident, Niji Murasaki. She, Dasnor Hunt of M.A.G.E., and the above-mentioned Harold were present at that concert as well. However, there was nothing—”

“WAIT! She’s with THEM?!” Shiningreel jumped up from her seat.

“To my utmost regret. Alas, from Murasaki’s words and the testimonies of other visitors, I would suggest two possible versions of the accident. The first is a spontaneous act of vandalism, typical of the past actions of these fake mages. The second—the gang of ‘Children’ was going to cause a turmoil as an act of revenge on Freyja, an ex-member of M.A.G.E. She possesses many clandestine techniques for crafting amplifiers and magical threads, which is what the ‘Children’ are interested in—so far their methods of awakening the magic look more destructive than effective. Whether she has refused to cooperate, or there were other conflicts, remains to be seen. Freyja’s current location is unknown.”

“But how could Niji be involved in all this? She would have—”

Shiningreel stopped short as Elio gently pulled her hand, making her sit back. “Don’t interrupt,” he whispered to the girl right in her ear. Izumi adjusted his glasses and continued:

“Please, Miss Omnius, do not get disquieted so much. I tend to believe that members of M.A.G.E. are not related to the activities of the “Children,” and the enforcers just happened to be in a bad place at a bad time. In the end, couldn’t they just go and listen to good music, played by an old friend? After all, it’s been quite a while since Freyja—”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Aoi said as she returned to the room, “but a message has just arrived. One of the Gray Sisters killed a Lackluster; a former member of M.A.G.E.”