If you had told me that there was a man out there with worse luck than me, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.

Normally, a statement like this is met with a few cackles, one or two angry faces, and one voice that says: “Come on, it can’t be that bad! Just be positive!”

It’s not that I was whiny, or just grumpy. It was that my day had started in the most ordinary way possible, all for it to somehow escalate to...this.

“Seriously?”, I muttered to my friend next to me, with a face of disappointment in all that was living. The girl in the black and red hat, always with that big grin of hers, turned to me. Her eyes were wide, but not because of concern or fear. Rather, she just wanted to find a way to make me uncomfortable.

Yeah, that was odd. That she wouldn’t be scared of the scene unraveling before our eyes.

That was, a dozen hulking men, clad in black clothes and wearing various cartoonish masks, aimed firearms at us.

I’m telling you, all I wanted to do was get some money to buy dinner. And because of my ungodly bad luck, I was led straight to the middle of a bank robbery.

Look, I know life in this city is like this, all the time. But today is my free day! Why can’t I have one day of peace?

“Hey, do you think this bank some sort of compensation for getting robbed while we’re in it?”, that smiling red-haired devil asked me.

“I don’t think so. I sure would dig getting like, 5 dollars for my troubles, though.”

“Just five dollars? Nah, be a bit more ambitious. What are you getting with five bucks? A pack of chewing gum?”

Our hushed exchange continued, like we weren’t at all concerned with the elephant in the room that might kill us if we made single wrong move.

To be fair, the giants that we had as robbers were mostly trying to organize the amount of money each would get.

Right then and there.

I bet those guys hadn’t even taken robbing classes. Not that there was such a thing, but my brain was just trying to make up fun concepts to distract me from the fact that I was blowing all my free time on being robbed by mediocre burglars.

Meanwhile, me and my friend were simply staying still with our hands in the air, along with about sixteen other unfortunate bystanders.

As to distract myself, I looked to the corner of the bank, and spotted a screen that appeared to display what the cameras were seeing.

There, I could see the people’s frightened faces, as well as the girl in the hat’s head, I couldn’t see her face, but I knew her well enough to predict that she would have that mischievous smile she always had.

She was always kind of a psycho, after all. What can you expect from her?

With a sigh, my eyes moved a bit to the side, finding a man that stood, motionless next to my friend.

He was a very scruffy kind of man, that couldn’t be denied. His wavy black hair was all over the place, totally unkempt. His eyes looked like that of a teacher who had stayed up all night to grade his student’s assignments, and he was slim and tall.

This man was named Leonardo Faye, the one who believed himself to be the unluckiest being alive.

In other words, the man being displayed in that screen was me.

Well, I can certainly recognize myself..

After such a phase of boredom, I really wanted to get this whole ordeal over with. I glanced at Roselia Valentine, the demon in the hat, and then looked straight at the robbers.

With an imposing, long step forward, I decided to face them head-on.

“Can we get this over with already? Agh, I had a show to catch on TV. I’ll miss it because of you bunch!”, I said as I let my hands fall from the air, lazily stepping to the sides as to provoke them.

Suddenly, one of the men rushed forward, and landed a devastating punch to my stomach.

“Kuh!”

I would have fallen to the cold, hard floor were it not for his sudden grab at my sleeve, keeping me suspended. I swore I could hear Roselia giggle a bit behind me.

I’ll teach her a lesson or two later. Anyhow..

The man then threw me like a baseball to the side, making me hit the wall hard.

BANG!

The sound, akin to a gunshot, resounded across the entire bank. I’m pretty sure I had heard a few bones crack, but that might have been my imagination. The hostages jumped like frightened cats at the sudden noise. From that angle, I could see Roselia was about to burst into laughter. The only thing holding her back was probably the idea that she would be done the same, should we pull off a bluff like mine.

I’m talking about it as if it wasn’t that big of a deal, but it hurt like hell. If I had been one of those crazy masochists, I absolutely would have exploded with glee.

In case that barbaric assault just wasn’t enough, he moved towards me once again, and forcefully picked me up by my collar.

Now carrying me upwards, he roared straight to my face

“You think you’re so funny, huh?!”

Though the man in front of me was mildly scary, I also found it funny how he didn’t shoot me, and instead opted to sucker-punch me. Something told me that letting yourself be carried away with rage just wasn’t the way to pull off a heist.

Then again, my entire plan all consisted on me not getting immediately shot. Perhaps I was the real idiot here. I tried to imagine how the scene could have gone differently.

“Can we get this over with al-“

BOOM!

And that was that.

My imagination overdrive was interrupted by the man punching me twice in my face while still keeping me suspended in the air.

Right, time to focus.

The robbers all shot their piercing glares at me, only one of them paying attention to the hostages. God, these people really weren’t good criminals.

I looked straight at Roselia, and made a vague sign which my hands. After seeing it, her expression once again transformed into mischievous happiness.

She closed her eyes, apparently focusing hard.

The people around her now had concern plastered all over their faces, as they all took a few steps back. They were not aware of it, but they were not

moving their legs out of their own volition.

It wasn’t instinct, it wasn’t their body telling them to flee.

Once again, I looked at the hostages. Finally, they all stood a few steps behind Roselia, who gave me a thumbs-up.

Now, the plan could be executed with zero need to worry.

“You know, I’m not exactly a very comedic person, but..”, I said after taking in a deep breath. I closed my eyes, and focused, paying no mind to the aggressive man in front of him.

A shining, soft blue energy now floated around my body, its soft glow almost like that of a star in the night sky.

“What?!’, my beast-like enemy yelled out, his steel grip on me getting weaker by every passing second.

My blue aura grew stronger and stronger, all of it coming to a booming crescendo.

BZZT!

Around my body, there was cracking, volatile electricity, waiting to lash out at its opponent. Thanks to the flying sparks, the man’s hold was so weak that I could have practically shoved him slightly to the side to make him let go.

But I had a different fate for him in store.

︾

“But there’s no damn way this is funny!”, I roared as I grabbed his arm with my lightning-clad hands. Twisting my entire body around, I delivered a powerful kick charged with blue energy straight to his ribcage.

This was my power, the “Static Railgun”

My kick hit him like a speeding train, the mini-thunderstorm around my body all coming together and releasing itself into one azure bolt. He was followed by a bright trail that caught the attention of all near it.

Just like me before him, the man hit the wall with the booming sound of a cannonball.

After my attack, I fell to the ground still on my feet, not losing my composure.

“Damn it! Open fire!”, one of the men yelled out in panic, their firearms now aiming their barrels at the hostages.

I was just too far to do anything, but I didn’t need to.

“On guard!”, called out Roselia as she extended her arm in front of her, her open palm aiming straight at the men.

Out of it flowed scarlet, ethereal energy, delicate particles amalgamating into a red barrier that separated the entire bank in two.

Bang, bang, bang!

Their guns roared, releasing bullets towards the hostages and Roselia.

What awaited the projectiles was not flesh. Instead, it was the red, almost transparent wall that Roselia had created less than a second ago.

They clacked, as they fell to the floor having failed their only mission.

In reality, it wasn’t a very elaborate plan.

Knowing that these robbers were quite incompetent, I distracted them with my babbling as to allow the hostages to move behind Roselia. Then, when I attacked one of them, Roselia could simply use her power.

This power, named “Psycho Red”, allowed her to create a magical energy out of her body that could take various forms, along with other abilities. It was something like psychokinesis, to put it bluntly. With this same power, she had forced the people to walk backwards with her own energy.

As the men realized their situation, they turned towards me.

The final stage could begin, now that I didn’t have the bystanders to worry about.

“Let’s get this show started..”, I mumbled to myself, a phrase that I almost never say intentionally. Maybe it was my internal show-off, or maybe I just wanted some sort of cool catchphrase.

Whichever it was, those same words would always escape out my lips.

Crackling electricity now coursing through my entire body, I took a few steps forward without hesitation.

“Damn it! Shoot him!’, the man in front yelled, their hands once again getting to work. I wasn’t as fast as to dodge bullets as they came, so I already had somewhat of an idea in mind.

My Static Railgun wasn’t all that powerful in it of itself. I couldn’t shoot lightning bolts out of my hands like the characters in the movies could. I could only shoot out really short-ranged static attacks that didn’t do much but paralyze the target.

If I wanted to do something with this power, I needed to use my brain.

Thankfully, I had long ago figured out how to do so.

I relaxed my position, making sure to stay focused on my targets. The flow of the electricity became much more relaxed, no longer lashing out, but instead coursing softly, almost akin to a river.

Once it enveloped all my body, I felt a bit lighter. Before the men even aimed their guns at me, I jumped to the side. A blue trail right behind me, the speed at which I moved was not human.

Shocked at the swift movement, the men readjusted their aim, only to realize that I was already somewhere else.

By making the energy flow through my entire body, I could make my body enhance itself at the cost of my stamina. Like so, I became much stronger and faster than your average person.

I had gotten to name this technique “Free-Flow”

After dashing to the side, I jumped high up into the air and stuck my feet on the wall. Thanks to the effect of Free-Flow, I could quickly stick and jump out of almost any surface.

After locking my eyes on one of the men, I jumped off the wall, my body rushing forward like an azure bolt.

Delivering a powerful kick to his face, I slid on the floor and punched the man next to him. Before the other two could even blink, I extended my palms and delivered a shock to the two, causing them to fall to the ground incapacitated.

The doors flung open, and more robbers came in, their march so loud it was deafening. I reacted quickly, jumping to the side before their bullets were even near me. However, now the men aimed at every direction in the bank. I jumped around madly wrapped in lightning, realizing that this wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought.

As their rushing firepower overwhelmed me, I took to jumping from wall to wall, hoping to lose their eyes. Still, they followed my trail relentlessly. Normally, I would have asked Roselia for a bit of support, but she was too busy keeping the barrier up. If she even moved, the barrier would disappear, and the robbers could shoot the hostages without any obstacles in their way.

“What to do now…”

For a few seconds, I felt somewhat afraid. There were just too many enemies this time, and asking for support would cause dozens of deaths. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if that happened.

As soon as you hesitate, the fight is over!

Those words suddenly popped in my head, the words of a righteous man who did all he could to save others, until the bitter end.

I had an idea, though it had a high chance of me ending up covered in lead.

My rational brain told me that it was almost the same as committing suicide, but my other brain told me that there was no other choice.

“This needs to work..!”

I jumped off the wall I had been stuck to for that half second that felt like an eternity. I slid off the ground and touched the very corner of the bank, which was immediately being shot at. Before that happened, I rushed to the side, reaching the other corner. In one last dash, I moved straight to where the circle of robbers stood.

It would be impossible to dodge the bullets here, so my idea either worked, or I would die.

I kicked the man next to him, and the electricity from the attack diverged from a straight line into a chain of energy that shocked two other enemies. Rushing the group of robbers, I punched and kicked without even a millisecond of a pause.

Faster, I need to go faster!

My body would not stop moving for as long as it could. I would fight until my last breath.

Less than one second had passed since I left that wall and began my assault. They had not been as fast as to begin shooting me, and seven men had already been knocked out.

Two seconds, and the bullets came to me. I was forced to stop my attacks to dodge to the side, kicking overhead and hitting the attacker. My instincts were doing all the work, as my mind was completely blank.

“Haa!”

I yelled out as I punched the man farthest to the back.

Three seconds, and the entire group was now on the ground, completely knocked out. My breathing had stopped. My arms and legs were sore from all the movement.

︾

“Take that, you jackasses..”

I tried to get out one last insult before I collapsed, completely exhausted. Roselia lowered her palm, and the scarlet barrier disappeared. She skipped across the bank, reaching my resting place.

“You sure did give them a lightshow!”

“Shut up and call the police.”

“You’re so mean..”

She extended her hand out to tired old. Struggling a bit to keep my eyes open, I grabbed her hand and pushed myself up. As I rose from my half-second slumber, the people looked at us, baffled.

“Hey, I think we forgot to tell them.”, I said as I fished in my pocket for my badge, nudging Roselia with my shoulder for her to do the same.

“Oh, right!”

Finally having found what I looked for, I raised it for all to see.

A black and purple badge, with the letters “VPA” in the middle. Roselia found hers, and did the same.

“I’m Leonardo Faye, and this is Roselia Valentine. We are agents for New Yon’s Vanguard Protection Association.”

Their faces showed that they understood, and that they could leave the issue to us.

I took a look at the unconscious bodies scattered around the floor.

“We should probably ask for some help.”, I said as I took my phone out of my pocket and looked through my contacts.

“Right! But I want some fresh air, I’ve been in this stinky bank for too long,”

She bounced around like an innocent child, despite the fact that she was anything but.

The agency sure were taking long to pick up my call. Maybe someone was making a sandwich and dropped the phone while they were at it.

Knowing the people there, that didn’t seem impossible. Some of them were probably  the clumsiest beings in the entire planet. Following Roselia, I stepped out of the bank, not really focusing on my surroundings.

“Pick up the damn phone alr-“

“Leo!”

At Roselia’s sudden cry, my head turned upwards. What I saw was not at all pleasant.

A gigantic blazing ball of fire, aiming straight at the bank’s entrance. By extension, it would hit us.

And I was almost impressed.

With the phone still to my ear, I didn’t take my eyes off the ball of fire. In that instant, I knew for sure that I was the unluckiest man in the world.

Are you for real?

As the fiery energy shot towards, me observing the scene in slow motion, I knew that my day had only just begun, and that God’s curse on me had not yet been lifted.

︾

“Of course”, I sputtered as the terrifying ball of fire approached swiftly. I had been hoping for this entire ordeal to end after me and Roselia had defeated all the robbers, but it seems destiny had other plans.

Before the ball of fire touched the door frame, me and Roselia moved forward a bit. The original plan was to destroy it before it made any harm, but with how fast it was approaching, and how little time we had to activate our abilities, it was simply not possible.

Both our faces were the first to meet the blazing sun.

Blown to the side by it, we flew to opposite directions outside the bank. My coat was a bit tattered, but I didn’t receive more damage aside from that. Roselia looked fine, so there wasn’t any need to worry about her.

Thanks to the sudden and fiery impact, my vision was rather blurry. After a few seconds of laying miserably on the sidewalk, my eyes re-adjusted.

I was met by the familiar, day to day scene that was the city of New Yon. Towering buildings, shops with striking advertisements and signs, and above all, people walking to their destinations,

Looking to the side, I found my phone completely toasted. I would definitely need to buy a new one, as the damage was probably impossible to fix.

“Hnmgg..”

I tried to stand up, momentarily forgetting what had happened moments before. I was too exhausted by my confrontation with the burglars, and the recent attack would make it difficult for me to stand up.

Surely enough, I had the worst luck in the world.

Lamenting the circumstances of just about everything (even my own birth), I tried to stand up, to no avail.

I heard quick footsteps near me, most likely coming from Roselia.

As the scene played out in my mind, she would help me stand up once again.

Instead, she delivered a powerful kick to my side.

“GAH!”

My entire body flew to the side, hitting the wall of the bank. I had already been done this that same day. I would have scratched my head and wondered about the odds of such a thing happening, had I been able to move my hands, or not be too exhausted to think anything that wasn’t “I want to go home already.”

“What the hell was that for?!”

“Get out of the way! Incoming!!”

As I rested my head on the wall, I looked to the side. What I found was another man, who looked even stronger than all the burglars before him.

The difference was that he didn’t carry a gun. Instead, his right hand was lit up with blazing flames.

“Great, another Effect user..”, I whined as I again tried to stand up. Roselia’s kick only left me worse off. I realized that she only did so to get me out of the battlefield, but there were other ways to get people out of danger. Surely enough, Roselia would not fare well in the medicine department.

For some reason, the image of her as a nurse randomly kicking people in an emergencies hospital was extremely funny to me, but I didn’t have the energy of the  laugh,

Roselia stared at the man with the flaming hand, who I assumed had created the attack that struck the bank door. Suddenly, a grin was plastered on Roselia’s face. The same mischievous, somewhat frightening smile as always.

She made a few strange gestures, and her hands lit up with ethereal, red energy. Erratically shaking around, the energy eventually converged into a stylish, shining scarlet sword.

Her power, “Psycho Red”, was quite versatile. It not only allowed her to use her energy to fire out projectiles, she could also use it to create barriers and weapons. In more than a few ways, her power was better than mine.

“Alright, let’s go!”, she cheered for herself (a bit too energetic for someone who was charging straight into battle) and ran forward.

The man narrowed his eyes as the fire around his hands began to heat up even more, intensifying with every passing second.  He took a couple of steps forward, and swung his hand in front of him, The fireball shot out, aiming straight at the running Roselia.

“Heh!”

She imitated his technique, tossing the magical blade forward. She couldn’t create more than one object at once, so her barrier couldn’t be used.

Red and orange clashing, a burst of energy fired a few sparks before disappearing entirely. Roselia had not stopped her running for even a millisecond, as she continued her mad dash towards her enemy.

Once again, her hands moved quickly, creating another blade. She was only about five meters away from the man, who was preparing another flame strike.

“Hya!”

Rushing forward, Roselia’s blade clashed with the man’s flaming hand. Just like before, the energies clashed in a striking show of light before canceling each other out leaving behind only a strange, loud noise.

The final burst caused both Roselia and the enemy to flinch, pushing them away from each other.

Before the hulking titan of a man could even catch his breath, Roselia flung a ball of energy to his feet.

As she tossed sphere after sphere of energy, she laughed like a girl playing with her best friends. The expression of her enemy changed, as he not only realized that he was being overwhelmed, the maniacal laugh of the red-haired demon reached his ears.

Throwing two last spheres, Roselia stopped dead on her tracks, relaxing her shoulders and lowering her arms. After such a rush of using up all her energy, she would be quite tired.

What she didn’t expect was that the man would be so quick to recover that he would attack her again before she could even blink.

“Ah!”, she whined as she was blown back by an unexpected flame attack. Hitting the ground beneath, she rolled around a few times, striking her face down on the street.

Luckily, everyone in the street had long evacuated, and there were no cars roaming around.

She landed only a few meters away from me. Both of us quite beaten, we must have looked miserable.

“So, I see you’re doing well.”, I told Roselia, who didn’t move an inch as she lamented her defeat.

“I’m not! Come on, let’s attack at the same time! Let’s tear him apart.”

“Fine, fine. Don’t be so pushy, though..”

I forced myself off the ground, and tried activating Static Railgun. Aside from the fact that the energy flickered a bit, it seemed to flow along well. Roselia did the same, with her hands already wrapped in her power.

“How are you planning to beat him?”, I asked.

“He seems to recover from attacks quick, right? Your electricity is perfect for this. You just need to rush him until he’s out of commission.”

“Yeah, but what if he fires back? I’ll be at point-blank, and I’m not as resilient as you are.”

She paused for a second, as she thought up a solution.

“Let’s work together. If I can somehow boost you, then you could jump from, uhm..”.

Pointing at the buildings behind the man, she continued: “You could jump from side to side to gain a bit of speed, then punch him hard!”

I squinted. That sounded like something out of a cartoon.

“Are you daft?”, I asked. “I’m still vulnerable. Besides, that doesn’t even sound like it’ll work.”

‘Nuh-uh! Don’t knock it ‘till you try it!”

At that point, the occurrences so far were weighing down on me. I decided that we would try that, setting aside my rational thought.

Now that I think about, I often ignore my brain in situations like this, huh?

I nodded, and Roselia grinned,

“Let’s get going, then!”, she said as she took a battle position. Wrapping my own body in lightning, I activated my Free-Flow technique and immediately began running forward.

The man took notice of his, and instantly tried to shoot a fireball at me. As I had already been expecting it, dodging to the side wasn’t at all difficult.

Seeing an abandoned hot-dog cart near me, I suddenly had a crazy idea.

I jumped on top of the umbrella on the cart, and focused all my electricity on my feet. In a single swift movement, I shot like a bullet upwards, my feet now stuck to a building.

Fireball guy reacted quickly, firing at the building. I dashed to the side running along the wall to the right. When the barrage of flames stopped, I slid a bit and stuck my feet to the wall again.

“Got you!”, I yelled as I shot off the building once again, my trajectory leading straight to him.

Free-Flow allowed me to do crazy athletic feats that I could never even dream of without using it. Taking advantage of this, I spun in the air, and delivered a kick straight to his head.

As I landed right next to him, he didn’t seem all that phased, as he was already attacking me.

“Hey, psycho! It’s your turn!”, I called out to Roselia.

“Roger that!”

Then, four or so round red platforms appeared around me and the man, and I knew that the plan could be carried out. I jumped straight forward, and stuck my feet to the red platform. Suddenly, I shot to the air without having to make the jump to myself.

As I sped high up in the air, Roselia’s hands moved without even a second of a delay. More and more of her creations appeared around us.

I landed on another one of the platforms, which shot me to the left. Touching another one, I was directed to the right.

Roselia’s platforms had a bouncing effect that automatically made me shoot to another direction. Roselia then created another platform which would do the same, and so on. Each time I touched one, my momentum would increase-

At some point, I had grown so fast that I appeared to be nothing more than a blur, an image that sped by the man’s eyes too fast to react to.

“Get ready, Leo!”

The bouncing effect got faster and faster, and my movement was so fast that I grew nauseous. Without warning, my trajectory then changed to charge straight at the man, who was looking to another direction.

He thought I was somewhere else, as he couldn’t follow my trail. Understanding what Roselia wanted me to do, I kicked the man square on the face and landed on another platform, which threw me out of danger less than a second later.

Jump, bounce, and attack.

I repeated this process of attacking the man and escaping as fast as I could several times, until he grew desperate. His entire body was now wrapped in fire, and the air around him was so hot that it was suffocating.

If he grew angrier, the air would have probably began to burn me, and then I wouldn’t stand a chance. Heat was never something I could take well.

“Let’s end this..!”, I said to myself as I was shot towards him one last time. Putting all of my energy into my right leg, I aimed at my blazing opponent. My leg now shone so much that it could blind.

“HAA!”

A blast of lightning shook my enemy as he flew backwards at bullet-like speeds. I could hear his grunts of pain as his body rolled backwards. Once his little rollercoaster ride ended, he laid face down on the floor, totally unconscious.

“Who even was that?”, Roselia asked as she put her hands on her knees, panting thanks to her recent rush of movement.

“He was probably the leader of the robbers, or something. Weird he didn’t come in sooner, though.”

I tried to talk as if nothing was amiss, but I was about to collapse. Static Railgun’s energy had disappeared, not because I withdrew it, but because I had no stamina to keep creating it. Roselia was probably on the same boat, as her Psycho Red stopped functioning and her hands were now free of red particles.

“My phone is useless. Call the police yourself.’, I said as I settled down on the floor.

“Oh, right.”

I heard her rustling around her pockets, and grabbing her phone. I looked at the top of her head, to see that black and red hat she always kept impeccable.

“How come that thing never falls off your head?”, I asked, trying to make a joke to lighten the mood.

“I use Psycho Red to make it float whenever it’s gonna fall off.”

“WHAT?!”

That had to be a joke, right? Right?!

“Are you serious?!”, I sputter as all my energy comes back to me, standing up on the street.

“Yup.”

“B-But that wastes your stamina! And you’re supposed to use it to fight! Not to-“

“I don’t care. My little Hatty is never falling off my head! Never, ever.”

I felt my entire reality shake, my whole world was collapsing unto itself. Was she serious? If that was the case, then she could do all that stuff while using energy on her hat.

What was her stamina output? Did that mean that it was bigger than mine? Was she that much stronger than me?!

“I HATE YOU, YOU PSYCHO!”

“I hate you too, hehe.”

I sat down like an irritated child, as Roselia spoke into her phone.

“Yeah, so we need some help around here. Agent Valentine, sir.”

After listing out a few other details, she put her phone aside and skipped towards me, placing herself in my sight.

She grinned, apparently taunting me.

“Gh..”, at that point, I was just too tired to care. I looked up at the blue sky, the sun shining on my face, not a single cloud in sight. Despite the weather being so clear and comfortable, the events this day had ruined my entire week.

“There goes my free day..”

But such was day-to-day life in the city of New Yon.

A few minutes passed, and not a single loud noise threatened the peace. Internally, I wished every day was like this one moment. Peaceful, with a bright sun and warm weather, with the birds singing and…

...a bunch of men with guns surrounding us?!

︾

“What? There’s more?!”

I stood up quickly and struck a battle position, and so did Roselia. There were more robbers, and they formed a circle as they aimed more guns at us.

And at this point, I began to wonder if this was all a cruel, wacky dream that was soon going to end.

But it wasn’t, I wished it was, but it wasn’t.

I tried to light up my Static Railgun, to no effect. I had no stamina left. Roselia had a very small amount, as her energy barely shone any. Without our abilities, we were no match for our enemies.

Then and there, I wondered if this was the day I would die.

It had been a life full of ups and downs, of the lowest lows and not very high highs.

I think I forgot to feed my cat. Will he be fine when I die?

More than the idea that I would soon be brutally killed, my mind was occupied with the thought that my Mister Snuggles (no, that wasn’t my cat’s real name) would be hungry.

“Hey, Leo, now that I think about it, you still owe me ten bucks!”

“Ten bucks from what?”

“Don’t you remember? You had no money for cat food, so you asked me to borrow you some. Yeah, I still remember the brand! It was-“

“Nevermind that. Why are you bringing that up now? We’re gonna die, you’re never getting that money back.”

She smiled, and adjusted her hat. It was strange, even she shouldn’t be able to stay calm in this situation.

“Because we’ll live! And you’ll pay me pack what you owe me, got it?”

Her optimism was too much for me to wrap my head around.

“What makes you think we’ll live?”

“In three, two..”

She raised her hand high up in the air, and snapped her fingers.

“..One!”

Around the robbers, little red sparks of energy blew up, knocking the guns off their hands, But what good was that? They would pick them up before we could even move!

“And...now!”, she called out as she pointed forward. She pointed towards.. a horde of police cars! The policemen swiftly got off their vehicles, and aimed their guns at the robbers,

“Hands up in the air! You’re all arrested!”

I stared in shock as they subdued the criminals efficiently.

“How...The bombs? How?!”

“Remember the platforms I made for you? I put little bombs in them, so that I could detonate them later.”

“I thought you couldn’t make more than one complex object?! And why did you even make bombs?”

“Bombs aren’t complex, You snap your fingers, and boom! And I thought we would need them later. That’s just what my intuition told me.”

I scratched my head, wondering why Roselia did things as nuts as this, Not that I was mad, I was just utterly baffled.

“Anyway, you owe me ten bucks! Oh, make it twenty for the bombs. I’ll buy lots of chocolate today.”, she squealed as she jumped around, making her way to one of the police cars.

Following close behind her, I saw a familiar face.

A young man, wearing a black hat not unlike Roselia’s, as well as a black trench coat and a police badge stuck to his chest.

“Oh, Inspector Hei.”, I said as Roselia tapped the man on the shoulder.

“We won, we won! Are we getting a reward?”, she asked cheering for herself.

“Yeah, yeah. You’re both getting rewards, don’t worry. How are you holding up, Leonardo?”, Hei asked me, as calm and cool as ever.

“Well, I need to lay down for a bit, but I’m okay aside from that.”

“I see. Sure were a bunch of punks, huh? But they were no match for the Red and Blue Duo.”

Both me and Roselia tried our hardest to hold our laughter.

“Huh, what is it? Why do you have those faces?”, he asked.

“Hei, it’s Blue and Red duo. And that was lame, don’t say that stuff.”

“Ugh..”

He looked at the floor as I exploded into laughter. Roselia pat the young inspector on the back.

“Anyway, Leo..”

︾

It had been one hell of a day, though not in a good way. One that was filled to the brim with robbers, fireballs, and getting punched.. repeatedly.

And that’s not even bringing up the bullets.
Anyway, a few seconds after the situation with the robbers had been dealt with, Inspector Hei said he needed to talk to both of us.

Normally, I would have tried to dash away from the scene, leaving all my dignity as a Vanguard Protection Association agent behind.

Not that you could blame me, I was dead-tired. In those moments, only two things seemed appealing: my warm, soft bed, and a nice cup of coffee.

Before I could run, Hei told me something that caught my attention. That was..

“We can meet up in Cafe Royal, I’d rather talk in a comfortable place.”
And as soon as he heard that, the unluckiest man in the world broke down crying tears of joy, calling out to the heavens for finally giving him what he wanted.

Except I didn’t, I just nodded and said “Okay, let’s go then.”
With enthusiasm seeping from every pore on my body (Not really), we sat on the backseat of Hei’s police car.

As the vehicle started up..
“So, the boss told me something..”, Hei said with his eyes glued to the streets beyond the front window.
I tensed up, and oddly enough, Roselia did too. It was quite odd to see her like that.

The silence overtook the car as we awaited for the answer that could make or break our entire careers. Maybe we did something wrong? Did I accidentally kill someone while I was being blasted by the fire-throwing leader? Though that sounded ridiculous, it was at least slightly plausible. Even if that was the case, how had the boss found out so quickly?

“Don’t worry, you’re not fired.”
“Oh, thank God!”, I said as I relaxed my posture. “Why didn’t you say so before? You gave us like twenty seconds of dramatic silence, you dumbass.”
“It was funny to me. Besides, Roselia doesn’t usually shut up for more than three seconds, let alone twenty. New record.”

Roselia looked to Hei in confusion, adjusting her hat.
“And how would you know that, Detective-Dumbass?”
“We barely talk to each other, but I already know you never shut up. I think that speaks volumes about you. Also, don’t call me that.”
“I won’t, Detective-D!”

Must have been about ten minutes of babbling back and forth before we finally got to our destination.

“We’re here.”, Hei announced as we both opened our doors and got out of the car. The building that was the cafe was mostly colored in brown, with plenty of pots with plants and other decorations hanging outside.

The entire place already felt like it was disconnected from the rest of New Yon, as if the chaos didn’t affect. I appreciated that, to say the least.

The three of us made our way inside. Opening the door caused the little bell attached to it to ring, alerting the owner of the cafe of our arrival.

“Welc- Oh, hey! Leo! What brings you here?”, the tall, dark-skinned man asked me. He shook a drink in his hand, presumably for one of the three customers that were in the installment besides us.

“Nice to see you again, Jason. I should swing around here more often..”, I mumbled as I remembered the reason I was here. “Oh, we’ll be sitting down now. We need to talk with..”

I made vague gestures to Hei next to me. Jason immediately nodded and showed us a table we could sit down in,

We made our orders so we could have something to eat after all the hassle that was that morning.

“So, let’s get straight to it..”, Hei said as he  put his shoulders on the table. “The boss wanted to make something he named the IT Project into a reality. Though he didn’t really tell me what exactly the project was, he did tell me that you both would be the first involved,”

“Us?”, I asked. “We are pretty high in the performance rankings, but we’re nowhere near the top of the VPA. Why would he choose us?”

“He said something about your capacity to be a leader, and to guide a group of agents. After all, we’ve all seen how you devise strategies on group operations. I’d say that if this project is anything like that, you fit like a glove.”

I pondered for a few seconds. Though I appeared to not like the idea of being used for special projects, I was looking forward to whatever it could be. After all, if I was ever going to become the next boss of the VPA, I needed to be in the very top of the rankings. Participating in this would give me a bit of a shortcut, I thought.

“Crime rates really are going up, huh..”. Hei whined as he took a bite out of his sandwich. I noticed that the cafe was already empty besides us three.

“Hey, Leo! And your friends too. Come on, sit here!”, he pointed at the table besides him. Roselia whined about having to move tables, but we made the switch anyway.

“You haven’t visited in forever!”, Jason said as he scrambled around for the TV’s remote controller. “Who’s your friend, by the way?”

“This is Inspector Hei, from the VPA.”

“Oh, sheesh! He’s from the VPA as well?! Please don’t arrest me, I haven’t done anything bad.”

“Don’t worry about it. If there was a reason to arrest you, me and Roselia would have done it ourselves.”

“Hey, man, you’re so mean,”

He turned on the TV, presumably to keep the place from getting silent.

While Roselia, Hei and Jason told jokes to each other, I focused on the TV instead.

“..which brings us to The Rupture, the catastrophe that remains mysterious.”

As I heard the words “The Rupture”, my ears focused completely on the TV. This must have been some documentary of the story of New Yon.

“After The Rupture in March 17th of 2005, people all over the world began to gain strange abilities that were not unlike magic. These were eventually named Verve Effects, and those who have them Verve Effect Users. This can also be shortened to Effecters. We will talk about how Effects work in our next program, as there’s something more interesting ahead..”

I already knew all of this, but a bit of a history lesson wouldn’t bother me.

“After these events, criminal Effecters sunk the city into chaos. To counter this, the Vanguard Protection Association, or VPA for short, was formed. As well as having top technology, the organization also counts with hundreds of Effecters that work for them. Without the VPA, the city would already be just a bunch of ashes.”

Well, the documentary wasn’t wrong about that. Ever since I saw The Rupture with my own eyes, I knew I needed to become an agent for the VPA. And here I am now.

“Leo, one last thing.”, Hei turned to me.

“Huh?”

“The project begins tomorrow. You’ll be meeting up with the boss in his office first thing in the morning. You too, Roselia.”

We both immediately tensed up, Seriously, so soon?

“Then we’ve gotta celebrate today, guys!”, Jason said as he raised two bottles. “The drinks are on me!”

For the rest of the afternoon, we had fun in our last moments of our ordinary lives. Surely enough, after tomorrow, everything would be even crazier.