Chapter 12: Chapter 10
The factory that would now serve as his shelter was a large place, though the interior didn't look at all like a manufacturing site. There were no machines, not even tables or control panels for the workers. There was only a cluster of at least ten monitors, all turned off, and two huge glass cylinders mounted on machines near the wall.
They looked like huge sealed beakers inside which an adult person would have fit without any problem. On the ground near those glass cylinders was a rather large puddle of an amber-colored substance.
This doesn't look like a factory..., was Ishiki's first thought when he entered.
It's more like some sort of... laboratory?
Ishiki recognized the kind of monitors that were there. They were the same ones used in the lab where they experimented on him and his friends when they were just children.
It was thanks to those experiments that he developed his Base Alter, and from there he was able to increase his own power through different types of training.
Why was there a laboratory in such conditions hidden in a factory? Or was the factory just a façade?
But if so, why would a lab need a façade? Were they...?
Illegal experiments?, Ishiki thought.
Looking more closely, he detected a series of wires running from the giant glass beakers to the set of monitors, connected to the largest of the computers. The screen was broken, and looking at the precarious state of the other monitors, barely recognizable, it gave the appearance that a fire had broken out.
The screens were melted, with holes through which the plasma was leaking. Even the keyboards and part of the metal desk on which all the machinery was located were damaged by the heat.
It was as if someone—or something—had caused all that damage on purpose since the rest of the place was intact. It wasn't possible that only the computers caught fire, but not the floor and walls around them, was it?
Will the investigators be all right? I assume so since I don't remember them announcing any deaths of investigators in recent days.
"Although... I don't remember the news saying anything about a lab suffering such damage either", he muttered to himself.
Ishiki took another step forward. Even though that huge computer was undoubtedly broken, its appearance was imposing. He had never seen one of that size before, not even in the laboratories where students developed their superhuman abilities. Even for Academy City, the cradle of cutting-edge technology and research, such a computer was unusual.
Before he could approach, a soft sound behind him made him turn around quickly. However, there was no one there.
Swallowing saliva, starting to feel uncomfortable and scared, he brought his hand closer to the computer. Examining it in detail, Ishiki noticed a rather large deformation on the side, as if a heatwave coming from a specific direction had caused such damage.
"How hot does something have to be to melt even the metallic elements...?", the boy wondered quietly.
"Fire can have incredible effects when you can control the heat levels", a voice behind him replied.
With a shudder, Ishiki turned quickly, jumping backward to get away from the unexpected intruder. It was a girl about his height, perhaps one meter with sixty-five centimeters tall. She had light blonde hair, almost white, wavy, and short. Her eyes were a grayish-blue, and they were fixed on his own.
Ishiki's first thought was that she was a student of the Ryōran Girls' Housekeeping Academy. However, the color of her maid uniform was quite different from what one would expect a maidto wear. The blouse, instead of having a dark blue or black color, was almond-colored, very unusual even by the standards of that institution.
On top of everything else, she didn't even look like a Japanese girl. Her pale, porcelain-like skin and those big, piercing eyes gave her away as a foreigner. Was she American? European?
Ishiki kept alert. In the brief time it took him to change and flee his apartment, he managed to catch a glimpse of his own face on the screens all over Academy City. Was that girl coming to catch him? Would she give him away?
"I advise you to retire, sir", said the girl, speaking in perfectly fluent Japanese. "This place is my refuge, and I don't remember having any visitors scheduled for today."
"Refuge?", Ishiki looked around again. "That sounds like you're trying to hide from someone. Are you a criminal too, miss?"
He said that last word with a biting tone.
"I'm afraid I wouldn't fall for something as crude as that, Ishiki", the girl replied, watching him impassively.
The boy took a step back, startled to hear his own name come from the lips of a stranger. The only way she could know it was from those Judgment and Anti-Skill warnings with his name and face on them.
"What do you want?", Ishiki asked, almost shouting out of nervousness. A thin trickle of cold sweat trickled down his forehead. "I'm warning you, if you come any closer...!"
"If I come closer, what?", replied the girl, taking a step forward.
That triggered Ishiki's fears. A flare erupted in the air, at the height of the girl's legs.
I won't kill her, but I'll make sure she can't chase me down and turn me in to Anti-Skill!, thought Ishiki. I just have to keep combusting the oxygen around her to leave her immobilized.
However, the terror he already felt was increased exponentially when emerging from the screen of flames and smoke, the girl was still walking, unharmed. Not even her clothes had suffered any damage, nor had her hair been disarranged. Not a drop of sweat was dripping from her.
"Aaah... It's a pity you showed so much aggressivity, Ishiki", the girl said, watching him with those cold eyes. "I had intended to let you escape with just a few warnings..."
"D-Don't come any closer!", the boy shouted, this time slowing the vibration of the humid air around the girl. The sudden change in temperature created a cloud of dry steam as a white layer formed on the ground, rising to cover the girl completely.
However, the ice cracked. The girl, still unharmed, looked up at him. In her eyes, once impassive and cold, now flashed a spark of fury.
"I can't stand aggressive people against a lady, you know", she said, still moving toward him. They were a scant three meters apart.
Ishiki tried to back away, but he felt the hard surface of the huge computer against his back. What kind of power did this girl have, that she could get rid of the extreme heat and cold so easily?
That doesn't matter now, I've got to pin her down and get the hell out of here!
Acting on impulsivity, he lunged at the girl, fist raised. Perhaps they would both suffer some serious burns, but the heat of battle, coupled with his exhaustion, made it impossible for him to think clearly.
Ishiki's knuckles ignited. His flaming fist rapidly approached the girl's face and, with a dull sound, made an impact.
"... How did you...?"
It hit, but not against the blonde's cheek, but inches away from it, as if the air itself had stopped his attack.
The flames in Ishiki's hand were consumed, even though he was still using his Base Alterto ignite the oxygen around him. It was as if this stranger's ability, whatever it was, was canceling out his own.
Jumping to the side and trying to get as far away from his opponent as he could, Ishiki rubbed his knuckles. They were reddened, with a few sores that would have bled if the heat had not already cauterized the wounds.
"The flames will not harm me. They're actually on my side, protecting me", the girl said, watching him. "I doubt you even know this, but not all the powers of this world were created in Academy City."
"In fact, my brain is intact. Neither an experiment was performed on me, nor were powers artificially developed through what you call 'science'", the girl finished, looking at him.
Ishiki was stunned. He was trembling in legitimate terror for his life for the first time in a very long time. How was it possible that she had not been raised in Academy City? It was true that there were rumors of a few Ability Users who managed to develop their abilities even before entering the city, but they were such rare cases that they had passed into the category of myth.
It was, therefore, impossible for that girl, with abilities he would categorize as close to a Level 4—no, even Level 5—had not been treated by the scientists beforehand.
"I guess it's no problem if you don't make it out unscathed, right?", said the girl, pulling Ishiki out of his reverie.
"So let me introduce myself properly before I eliminate you, Ishiki", the girl continued, taking a deep breath before uttering words that seemed completely out of place to Ishiki: "My anger burns fiery as the Judgment from God, Ignis124."
"Aaaaaaaargh!", Ishiki lunged at the girl again, ready to strike her this time. However, he ended up only hitting the air around his opponent again.
However, being able to observe better—perhaps because of the adrenaline shot his body had unleashed—he noticed that what stopped each of his blows looked like a hand... A whitish hand, also created by burning flames.
Then, the strange girl began to utter something that again seemed to Ishiki to be completely meaningless:
"OHFTIOPMTS..."
(Oh, Holy Fire that is omnipotent, protect me, Thy servant...).
Such a surge of heat was unleashed that Ishiki was thrown roughly through the air. His back hit the concrete wall with such force that he almost heard his own bones crack.
"FTEFTDTTC."
(... from this enemy's flames that defy Thy Ten Commandments).
From the back of the girl who called herself Ignis124 sprouted two flames as if they were small wings.
"ATPOCFTTA..."
(As the prophet of Camael from the Ten Archangels...).
W-what... what's going on...?, Ishiki thought, his brain working at full speed, and not even aware that he was crying, terrified by the bizarre spectacle.
"...IAFTPTFTDTWAATSW!"
(... I ask for Thy power, Thy flames, to destroy those who act against Thy Sacred Will!)
In the girl's hand, the flames gathered, lengthening to form what looked like a long sword of white fire. The heat it gave off was such that Ishiki thought he would go blind just looking at it, as he tried to understand how his opponent was able to hold such a weapon without incinerating her own flesh.
Then the girl raised her arm, sword in hand.
Knowing he only had one chance, Ishiki changed the vibration of the ground beneath his feet and, creating a jolt with enough force to propel him, he broke into a breakneck run thanks to the momentum. He no longer cared about his pride or his longing for an answer to the growing number of questions in his mind. He didn't care anymore. He just wanted to get away from this place.
Swinging the flaming sword, the girl struck right where Ishiki had been a second before. The heat was so hot that some of the cement had melted.
Unfortunately for her, she had been very slow.
The intruder was gone.
"Well...", she said to herself, as the flames disappeared, and her sword vanished into thin air as if it had never been created in the first place. "I don't think anyone's going to believe him, even if he decides to open his mouth and tell what happened."
"What's more, all of Academy City is doomed to disappear tonight."
The abandoned lab was in the same stony silence it had been just minutes ago. The only evidence of what had happened in the place was the hole in the concrete wall, which still glowed faintly like magma.
—o—
Ishiki had never felt so grateful to have an ability like Base Alter. If it wasn't for his power, he wouldn't have had the chance to vibrate the stone of the ground beneath his feet at that moment to propel himself forward at once.
If it weren't for that, I'm sure I'd be dead right now..., he thought.
He took a deep breath, catching his breath. He was sweaty, and his clothes were even dirtier than before, probably from the smoke of that fiery fight. As he looked around, he realized where he had ended up in his flight.
He hadn't noticed along the way, he just wanted to escape from that factory-laboratory, so he hadn't realized how close he was to his goal.
He was standing in front of Strange, the place where the Skill-Out gathered. Although, in reality, it had always been there, he just hadn't known about it until now.
The factory-laboratory was in School District 10, the same place where that rat's nest was.
I don't have the strength to fight..., he thought, I'll try not to stand out too much while I regain my strength.
At least, with the deplorable appearance he had, he could easily pass himself off as a gang member.
Ishiki had almost forgotten his goal, the reason why he had had to hide in the factory in the first place, and why he had committed all those crimes.
Now, however, he could only think of one thing as he leaned against a wall and sat on some cardboard boxes.
That girl... Is that the power of a Level 5?
... Or is it... something else...?
Whatever the answer, he definitely didn't want to face someone like that again in his life.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone