Yomikawa and Yoshikawa were just stepping out, Yomikawa dressed in her usual green tracksuit and Yoshikawa in her regular outfit and lab coat.
Yomikawa was the first to see the two walking back to the apartment. "Where did you go, Accelerator? Oh, and hello, Haruka. Woke up last night?"
Haruka smiled at the two women while Accelerator replied for both of them. "We went onto the roof for a while and then took a walk around."
"Oh, I see. Ayato's still sleeping on the couch, and Last Order's still in your room, Haruka, so try not to wake them up. Anyways, what happened to you? You look different."
"Magic stuff." She saw looks of understanding dawn on the women's faces. She decided to change the subject. "Hey, where are you guys going?"
"Oh, I got a job interview for Kikyou as a teacher at my school. We're heading over there now."
"Wow, congratulations Yoshikawa!" Haruka smiled with delight.
"Ah, thank you."
"Anyways, we should go or else we'll be late. Don't mess the place up, Accelerator."
"Tch, you make it sound like I'm totally irresponsible," grumbled Accelerator.
"Just a reminder. See you two later." The women waved and walked off, leaving Accelerator and Haruka to enter the apartment.
Haruka cautiously opened the door, putting her finger to her lips for Accelerator to stay quiet. Rolling his eyes, he went in the door without making a sound, removing his shoes and heading for the couch Ayato was sleeping on. True to Yomikawa's word, Ayato was still sprawled out on the couch. His messy black hair covered his eyes, making it hard to see the closed eyelids. His chest rose and fell rhythmically, indicating that he was indeed asleep.
Haruka caught Accelerator's attention, gesturing in the general direction of where Last Order's room was. "I'm going to check on Last Order. Want to join me?"
He nodded, following her to her actual bedroom. Quietly pushing open the door, Haruka poked her head inside.
Last Order was sleeping in the middle of the bed, her body parallel to the floor. One half of the blanket covered her body and the other half hung over the edge. The pillow was on the floor. To sum it up, everything was askew.
Haruka gaped at the scene, while Accelerator was snickering quietly. "I bet you never knew the brat tossed and turned this much."
"Nope."
"The night I rescued you, she was kicking me in her sleep. I had to get out for a while."
"So she kicked you hard enough for you to wake up?" Haruka asked incredulously.
"Yeah. She snuck onto my bed when I was asleep."
"Well, I'm not going to let her keep on sleeping like that. Help me out."
"What are you going to do? Try to move her without waking her up? She's a really light sleeper in the mornings."
As if to prove his point, Last Order suddenly started to shift around, murmuring unintelligible words. Both teenagers froze, none daring to make a move or even breathe. To their relief, Last Order stilled again, her breathing steady again.
Haruka sent a telepathic message.
Can you lift her with air or something?
And just what are you going to do? He shot back.
Make the bed.
Tch, I can't believe you want to do this. The brat's sleeping fine. She's always like this.
Come on, just this once. You owe me.
No I don't.
Shut up, let's do this already.
Tch, fine.
Accelerator gently lifted Last Order up with a cushion of air, making sure not to move her as much as possible. Haruka quickly put the blanket and pillow back in place, motioning for Accelerator to softly set down Last Order. He did so, and Haruka tucked the blanket around Last Order. They quickly exited the room, where Accelerator promptly fell against the wall, leaning against it.
"I don't know what goes on in your mind half the time," he grumbled. "That was completely unnecessary."
"Come on, if she did any more tossing and turning, she'd fall off the bed."
"And why is that my concern?"
"I give up."
Accelerator smirked. "And the argument goes in my favour."
"Shut up. Anyways, what time is it?"
"8:07. Ayato might be up."
"No he isn't," Kaguya said in a sing-song voice, appearing out of nowhere. Haruka stifled a shriek of surprise.
"Stop scaring me, Kaguya!"
"Oops, sorry." Kaguya did not sound apologetic at all. "To reiterate: Ayato is still sleeping. I'm surprised. He probably spent too much energy yesterday. He's good at hiding it."
"Let's leave him and Last Order then. So what can we do?"
"Study the Moonlight Codex, of course. Both of you should be learning some spells. And to be honest, some take a long time to learn. It will prove essential in the war, so start studying!" Kaguya snapped her fingers, and the book appeared on Accelerator's arm again, yanking itself rather roughly off his arm.
Fighting down a snarl of irritation, Accelerator snatched the book with his other hand. "Next time, don't yank off my damn arm."
"Oops, was that too hard? Just trying to make a point. Summon me if you need any help. I suggest going to your room to study, Accelerator."
"Tch, whatever." However, when Kaguya disappeared, he stalked off to his room, Haruka following him.
Both of them sat on the ground, leaning their backs on Accelerator's bed. Accelerator warily placed his hand on the cover and slowly opened the book to the first page. Nothing happened, to his relief.
"I seriously hope this thing won't explode on us. Handling this thing makes me feel like I'm handling a hydrogen bomb. I know the power in this thing is enough for regular people to spontaneously combust if they even hold it."
"Come on, Kaguya said she already accepted you as a keeper of the grimoire. It'd probably explode on other people, but I don't think it should on us."
Without a word Accelerator kept on flipping until he reached something that looked like a table of contents. Scanning the words, he immediately recognized them as Latin. "Oi, Kaguya said nothing about the entire book being in Latin."
"Whaaaaat? Let me see." Haruka leaned over, silver-streaked hair almost brushing the book. "Well, at least this gives us a chance to practice Latin."
"You can read it?" Accelerator glanced at her incredulously.
"Yeah. I think it was something to do with the ritual Kaguya did on me. How about you?"
"Most likely the same thing. Well then, which section looks interesting?" Poring over the book, he studied the table of contents. "Chapters 1 and 2, defense and barrier spells. Chapter 3, healing spells. Chapters 4 to 6, elemental and offense spells. Chapters 7 to 14, the Priests of Diana bloodline history and spells used. That's for you, then. Chapter 15 to 17, angels of Heaven and Awakening. Better check that later. Chapter 18 to 21, forbidden magic. This book seems very interesting."
"Forbidden magic, huh? I wonder just what's in there."
"Probably stuff that was outlawed in the world of magic a long time ago. I'll read that later."
"There's so many chapters for stuff about my bloodline," Haruka commented.
"In reality, the chapters for that aren't that long. So, which one should we be starting with?"
"Elemental and offense spells, to start off. We can look at the more dangerous spells later."
"Good point. Ayato said he was going to teach me offense spells anyways. As for you, elemental spells should help with your element control."
"Smart guy. Although, what use is there for elemental spells for me? When I use that power, it's instinctive, like espers, but it's actually magic power. It's weird."
"Whatever; I'm looking at that section first." Flipping to the right page, he started reading. "Combat spells: spells to directly or indirectly attack or injure an opponent in battle, or to enhance the body and physical skills. Looks like this section is for my supposed battle expertise." Flipping to the next page, his eyes widened in surprise. "What the hell is this?!"
Haruka looked at the page. "Each page has one or two spells, incantations or cantrips. There's a description of what it does, and the words needed to cast it. Hope you have a good memory."
"I'm not the first-ranked level 5 esper for just my ability. How do you even know this stuff?"
"Don't know. The knowledge just popped into my head."
"Whatever. I'm only going to memorize the ones that are actually useful."
"Suit yourself. Although it's better to be safe than to be sorry."
Accelerator ignored her, studying the page intently. His eyes scanned each line, memorizing words and descriptions. After he was done one page, he moved his eyes to the next page, not even turning his head. He flipped pages once every while, until he finished the section. "Okay, I got everything in the section. You can have the book for now."
Haruka gaped at him. "That took only three minutes!"
"Told you my ability wasn't the only thing that made me first-ranked."
"I get it. Fine then. I'm going to study the elemental section and the chapters on my bloodline."
"Take your time. I'm going to go through the spells I just learned in my mind."
"Have fun." Haruka's voice had a tinge of sarcasm.
Closing his eyes, Accelerator recalled the first page of spells he had read about. There was a very brief spell for invisibility, and an anti-detection spell.
Hm, the invisibility spell combined with the anti-detection spell would give opponents a nice surprise. Maybe that's why my father put them on the same page. I wonder if Ayato uses these spells.
He suddenly heard Kaguya's voice in his mind. You're correct, you know. Minato wrote all the spells in me with a specific order or combination. However, it takes some concentration andtime if you want to use both at once.
He sent a mental thanks. Kaguya giggled.
Hope you learn everything that you need for the war. Minato wrote the Moonlight Codex solely for your use and Haruka's use in the war.
With that, he felt her presence leave his mind. Shaking his head ruefully, he went back to running through spells in his head.
After one week of training, Accelerator and Haruka had learned a large majority of spells from the Moonlight Codex. Ayato had done additional training on both of them, teaching them how to perfectly blend in with shadows and attack with easy grace.
Ayato had commented that their magic power had increased substantially, but still continued to push them. Despite all that, both teens still found time to spend with Last Order, trying not to make her feel left out.
One day ago, a public announcement had been issued, saying that a threat of war was sent and the schools would be closed down until further notice. Yoshikawa and Yomikawa seemed mildly annoyed, but they had no complaints, especially since Yoshikawa was still reveling in her success of getting the science teacher job at A Certain High School.
Accelerator had received training from Michael as well at night when he was sleeping. Michael had trained his mental power and his mind, allowing him to concentrate better. He had also given Accelerator skills with a sword, as the archangel claimed that he would need it when fighting Lucifer. Accelerator had made no comment when a silver-like metal sword sheathed in a pure white scabbard appeared on his bed the day after Michael had told him, choosing to just carry the sword around attached to his jeans.
Ayato, Haruka and Last Order had gaped at him on the first day, but they learned to ignore the long blade. It took a little while for Yoshikawa and Yomikawa to get used to it, but they tolerated it under the promise that Accelerator would not draw the sword in the apartment.
Five days before the war, Ayato called Accelerator and Haruka to the roof. There, he sat with them, staring at them calculatingly.
"What's with the stare, Ayato?" Accelerator asked, a bored look settling over his face. "Don't tell me we're training our minds again."
"Hmm, no. I have a question for you two."
"And you dragged us up to the roof out of the others' earshot. Why is that?"
"No reason. However, it's come to my mind we will need additional help during the war. 4 against eight aren't very good odds."
Accelerator and Haruka exchanged bemused glances. Noticing the looks, Ayato sighed.
"I'm sure you guys can beat up at least three magicians without backing down. Plus there's Imagine Breaker, and I plan on joining the fray as well. If Stiyl and Kanzaki are still in the city, I'll ask them to fight as well. But if the information we got from Nathalia is right, we'll have a lot more trouble on our hands."
"Like?"
"There are at least three necromancers who will join the battle, one alchemist, two combat magicians almost on the same level as me, one very powerful elementalist, and one simulcrist. These are the eight magicians who we are up against. They make up the Roman Catholic Church's elite force of magicians, just a little bit below the magicians of God's Right Seat."
"Alchemist?" Accelerator asked at the same time as Haruka asked, "Simulcrist?"
"Alchemists are magicians who can change their thoughts to reality. I think Imagine Breaker fought one before. Simulcrists are magicians who make artificial beings out of clay or other materials and bring them to life. Very annoying. And I suppose you guys know the other kinds of magicians?"
"Necromancers reanimate dead bodies, right?"
"Correct, Haruka. There are three powerful ones, so working together, they may be able to call up long dead corpses of magicians. On his own, one necromancer can call up an entire graveyard of dead people. They're easy to beat up, but sheer numbers can overwhelm you."
"So what was your original question?" Accelerator didn't look too overwhelmed by the power Ayato had described.
"How well do both of you know the other six Level Fives?"
Accelerator's eyes widened and he stared accusingly at Ayato. "No way… don't tell me…"
"Yes, I am." Ayato's expression didn't change one bit. Haruka just stared at Accelerator, confused.
"We seriously have to get help from the other Level Fives?!"