@Accurian
Felix felt Zuri's aura approach before she knocked. The room that they were in was the secret laboratory, the pathway to which was accidentally been left open. The secret pathway led to the laboratory that was separated from the pathway by a frosted glass door.

Felix turned to the door and opened it, "Ah Zuri, I see you've found my lab.The room is covered in runes to suppress mana waves so you must have followed my aura before we got to the lab." Felix thought out loud, "No matter, the lab isn't supposed to be kept a secret from our team, just from anyone who tries to infiltrate the headquarters."

Felix placed his hands inside his robe's pockets, "What can I do for you Ms. Zuri?"

---

Raiya let out a puff of air, "Whatever... Friends are lame anyway. They just betray you at a moments notice and cast you aside. It's better to keep everyone at an arms length if you ask me." Raiya replied.

"But you still have... what were their names..." Nemo started, tapping his temple a few times while he thought. "Ah yes, Tsukihi and Akane?" He remembered after a brief pause. "Are they not your friends? At the very least close comrades." Nemo asked.

"I understand you and Felix have had a falling out, I'd feel hurt if I was you too. Fear of betrayal is common, rational even, as the damage it can do isn't limited to physical. It can leave scars in your mind, something that can take much longer to fade." He commented. "Being betrayed makes it seem like that to them you weren't worth it, that you weren't of value. Which is an especially despondent thing to be inflicted with."

"It's only human to want to feel treasured by someone else, it's a good feeling. I'd like to think I'd be a good friend, double crossing somebody I share fellowship with is a thing I think I'm incapable of dreaming up. To somebody like me having a bond with someone is invaluable, there's nothing anybody could ever offer me that I'd put above it." Nemo explained.

Raiya pulled her legs up onto the chair, balling herself up in a fetal position of sorts. She wrapped her arms around her legs and buried her face into her knees as she listened to Nemo.

When she was ready to reply she placed her chin on her knees to talk. "Akane and Tsukihi... they've sacrificed a lot for me. But, in the back of my mind I still have doubts. There's something inside me the really believes that they are not above betraying me as well." Raiya rested the right side of her face on her knees before she continued, "Humans are vile creatures, even the book Felix and I were raised to believe upon threat of heresy says so. But it wasn't until I saw it for myself that I believed it. And I'm not just talking about Felix betraying me either." Raiya stopped to think if she really wanted to share with Nemo her inner darkness, but ended up deciding that it was okay.

"I've been tortured, seen allies tortured. Seen allies turn on other allies just to get what they want. I have turned on allies just to get what I want..." Raiya was feeling especially raw and vulnerable at this moment, "Nemo, I'm evil. And, if you know what's good for you, you'll stay as far away from me as possible. Because one day, I will betray you."

Zuri had a lot of questions but she didn't want to take up too much of their time for her concerns. "H-Hey Felix, I was just wondering if you had any advice for me regarding my powers and if I should be concerned about using too much of my mana..?" She asks Felix with a slightly worried look about the mission, afraid that she'll make mistakes that might hurt her own teammates.

Nemo's expression went deadpan during Raiya's reply, hiding his emotions towards it. Once she was done, Nemo hesitated to reply, clearly thinking for a few moments. He slowly raised from his seat, "Do I look like someone who does what's good for him?" Nemo asked, a small smirk appearing on his face.

"Evil is a strong word, I don't think you're evil, and that's coming from me, "The White Scourge", the "Mad Dog from Nowhere." Before I was captured in the public eye I was labeled one of the most wicked forces money could buy. Nobody is free from evilness, but what I think matters is why? Why is it so? The way I see it, every action has a good and bad side to it, people often choose to only see the side they want. Even evil things can have a goodness to them, something that's too easily missed. What matters to me is why did they come to be, and what purpose do they serve?" As Nemo talked he seem to put an extra effort into making his actions seem theatrical. Speaking off towards walls as if there was an audience there. Dramatically spinning around in a circle. All the while he slowly began to step closer to Raiya till he was standing only a few feet from her.

"I've long considered myself to be a tool, a weapon. I'm meant to be cast aside once I've outlived my usefulness. Even if you betrayed me Raiya, it wouldn't be unjust until the third time you've done it." Nemo finished, outstretching both his arms towards her in an invitation to make good on that hug he suggested earlier. "Life's more interesting when it's lived within arms length." He added with a grin.

Raiya unhooked her arms and extended her legs, breaking her fetal position. Her expression a bit downcast as Nemo spoke.

"Evil is evil, good is good. There are no in-betweens, just changes between the two. If a person is doing evil they are evil at that time, if they do good after that they are good at that time. To be good only means your good deeds outweigh your bad. No one is without evil. Some are just more naturally prone to good. And I'm telling you that I am more naturally prone to do evil." Raiya's hard expression gave off an aura of seriousness, "I will betray you more than three times given the opportunity and the motive. So, you can forget your little third time rule." Raiya stood up, her expression changing to an expression of soft anger.

"You say you're a tool to be used however the user sees fit. I say that I will abuse your nature until to get what I want every time." Raiya explained.

"As for your hug, you can keep it. My leather jacket is enough to keep me warm and cozy." She said, gripping the edges of her jacket and tugging on it to accentuate her claim.

And with that she left Nemo's room to go to her own room. She was feeling a bit bothered and needed something to do and a place to think in silence. After she closed the door behind her, she sat herself at a small table in the corner of her room. She retrieved her katana from her inventory, and placed it on the table. She removed the scabbard from the sword, and then began on removing the pins the held the blade to the handle. After she removed the handle, she brought out a cleaning cloth and began cleaning the metal. She materialized an alcohol solution from her mana inventory, pouring the solution onto the cloth. Then she began wiping the metal down starting at the tang and moving up to the blade. No matter how tight the pins and metal separators were on the assembled weapon, blood seemed to always find its way into the tang of the blade. The blood was already dried and black, which made it almost impossible to remove without the solution. As the cloth passed through the dirty areas, dissolving the dried blood and absorbing it into itself, the white cloth began to become tinted red. She would continue this until her blade was satisfactorily clean or someone until interrupted her.

---

Felix raised an eyebrow at Zuri. Her mana-well seemed still on the low side, but not as bad as it was when she came in those few days ago. What Alya was doing seemed to be working.

"I wouldn't be too worried. Mana consumption only becomes a problem when you end up having to tap into your secondary mana-well, your life reservoir. Once that mana-well is completely drained you'll die. Untalents and people like me who use their secondary mana-well as an extra source of power tend to know how their limits a bit better than those who do not. Here's a hint, unlike when using your mana from your primary mana-well, when you use mana from your secondary mana-well, you'll start to feel a pull of fatigue and tiredness. It isn't that great at first, but it becomes worse as you continue to draw from your secondary well." Felix finished.

Nemo stood silent, his grin soon dissipating and his arms falling down to his side as Raiya responded. After she left he left out a small sigh, not saying anything. Nemo walked over to the record player, which had been turned off not long after Raiya entered the room. He pulled out a new record from the shelf and took it out of it's sleeve. After replacing the current record he dropped the needle, playing Bobby Darin - Beyond the Sea.

Nemo stepped into the bathroom, his hair now completely dry, and ran his fingers through it it push it back, inspecting his appearance.

"I'm not insane." He softly spoke to his reflection in the mirror to break the long silence.

"I haven't gone mad." He added.

"I'm in control." Nemo repeated the mantra a couple of times, steadily growing louder in tone. Once he reached a borderline shout, he started to violently punch himself in the face with the top of his left fist. By the time Nemo was done, a steady stream of blood trickled down from his nose and mouth into the sink, spattering deep crimson red all over the white porcelain. He hung over the sink until the stream trickled out.

Nemo raised his head back up, looking at himself in the mirror. A good third of his pale face was stained with blood now. He used his tongue to lick up a decent portion of the liquid, followed by a small guttural laugh. Nemo spawned a small blue crystal orb roughly the size of a gumball. It had a faint glow to it, and anybody using manalysis would be able to tell it was filled with a significant amount of mana. Nemo then opened his mouth and popped it in like a candy, swallowing it whole down his gullet.

The action had quick results, through the mirror one could see the small cuts Nemo caused with his self-inflicted beating rapidly begin to heal. Finished with his mana supplement, Nemo started to wash the remaining blood off his face in the sink till there was no trace left of what he had done.

After relieving his stress, Nemo crashed back down on the couch, listening to the remainder of the record.

---

A couple minutes went by before Nemo exited the room, judging by his appearance it seemed to had diverted it to a wardrobe change. Nemo wore his usual black boots and accessories, a pair of bright pink velour sweatpants, a white tank top underneath a black button up bowling shirt. The shirt had a leopard print collar and piping around the edges, and worn with the top buttons undone. A black leather asymmetrical moto jacket worn unzipped. Unlike Raiya's the only motifs adorned on his piece was one circular white and black metal smiley face pin on his lapel, and a white X painted the back of the jacket, clearly a play on how most of the members of Raiya's crux gang had upside-down crossed painted on them. And finally, he wore his black and white polka-dot silk scarf around his neck and loosely tied together below his chest.

Nemo strolled over to Raiya's room and knocked on the door three times before opening the door. He seemed unsure of what to say at first. "I do hope my ensemble is up to par?" He noted, comically spinning around in a circle in the doorway. "You're right, these jackets are quite warm and cozy." Nemo added.

Raiya was still rubbing down her blade with the cloth. The blade was now completely clean, gleaming even, yet she was still rubbing it down as if it had a deep stain she was trying to get rid of. This did not change when Nemo entered her room. In fact, it seemed as if her blade cleaning got a bit more fervent as Nemo drew closer. Raiya didn't look up from her work to acknowledge Nemo, but rather, she tilted the blade metal which had an enhanced mirror finish from being cleaned, and glanced at him through the reflection. There wasn't much Raiya would ever compliment Nemo on, but she could not deny that he did in fact have a sense of style, even when attempting to imitate another.

"What do you want...?" She muttered, "Can't you see I'm busy?" She replied as she wiped her cloth on the part of the blade that reflected Nemo, as if trying to wipe him from existence by erasing his reflection. Normally after cleaning any blade, she would sharpen it with a whet-stone and water, but her blade had been forged and enchanted by a master swordsmith and therefore could never lose its keen edge. This just made Raiya more irritated than grateful in times like these, because she could not use sharpening her blade as another excuse to refrain from social interaction. So, she just continued wiping down her blade, every so often putting more alcohol solution on her dirty cloth before continuing.

"Ah yes, while I was putting together my outfit, it got me thinking." Nemo started as he found someplace to sit. "I don't know all that much about your Crux gang. My work makes knowledge on things like that valuable, so I was wondering if you could tell me a bit. I've been out of the underworld scene for eleven years, so I could use a bit of catching up." Nemo explained, crossing one leg over the other. "What's new in New York? How's competition? Any good stories?" Nemo specified. "As usual, I'll tell you whatever you want in return."

"Thanks for enlightening me, Felix!" Zuri felt grateful that she had such friendly and talented teammates that were willing to help her. She also knew that she can trust them as well, which made her feel comfortable to ask them a more personal question. There was something she wanted to talk about with these two people who were knowledgable and experienced with magic.

"My past memories haven't returned after awakening from the crystal imprisonment that I was trapped in for hundreds of years and the only thing I remember is my name. I discovered that I have the power to manipulate darkness but I think there's more to this.." she pauses for a few seconds to catch her breath and think about what she wanted to say, "It feels like my past memories are clouded or something.." Zuri walks a little bit closer to Felix and says "I want to find out who I used to be, and I'm hoping that there's something that can be done.." she finishes.

Felix leaned back, his butt touching the edge of the table that he was leaning on for support. Felix crossed his arms and placed his right hand under his chin in an expression of deep thought.

"In terms of returning your lost memories, there is not much in the way of remedies that can help you in that department. Neurology is not a hard science as we know it, there is much left unknown and unexplored. We have made various assumptions on how the brain works in junction with the electrical impulses and have mapped out potential areas of stored memory, but it is all still very uncertain. What we do know is that magic cannot restore memory, it is impossible to recreate a genuine experience in the brain. Even illusions are not neuro-centric as we know them, they are tricks of the light, sounds and smells. In other words, they do not effect the individual directly but rather illusions effect the physical reality around them, creating fake sensations that feel real." Felix explained. He then looked over at Zuri, narrowing his eyes, "But you said that your memories are, 'clouded'? Meaning you sense bits and pieces of a remnant of something that you can no longer fully grasp? Interesting..."

Felix activated manalysis and began sensing Zuri's aura. He could see the thick black cloud of void energy as it filled the room. Yes, no doubt this was a void aura. While not unheard of, void was certainly among the rarest of all the aspects. Aether was next to void in terms of rarity, the two being opposites of each other yet intertwined together. As Felix began to take a closer look he noticed something. Zuri's aura was not all black. There was a hint of a different aura. It took Felix by surprise, but he was certain that Zuri had two separate auras.

"Hmm... that's certainly odd..." Felix murmured, "Zuri, you have two separate auras. but that must mean... Yes, I'm certain of it! You're cursed. That's the only explanation. Another magical energy has come into contact with your own, dampening it, and almost taking over. I'm not quite sure what it has done to you, but I know that it has fully integrated within your mana-wells, it has quite literally tainted your soul." Felix explained

"I'm not quite sure how to deal with this. Obviously the first step would be to attempt some basic purification spells." Felix explained.

Felix raised his right hand and his left hand, a ball of fire appeared in his right hand and a ball of water in his left. He began reciting a spell-verse, "Everything that can stand the fire, you shall pass through the fire, and it shall be clean," Felix released the ball of fire at Zuri, the fire enveloped Zuri, but was not hot, in fact it did not have a feeling to it whatsoever, "But it shall be purified with water for impurity," Felix continued, "But whatever cannot stand the fire you shall pass through the water. Numbers, verse 31 chapter 23" Felix released the ball of water which quenched the fire engulfing Zuri. The water did not dampen Zuri, or even have the same properties as normal water. In fact, it all seemed a bit illusory.

"Intersting," Felix said, "that spell I just cast was a purification spell. However, it seemed to have had no effect on lifting your curse. This is worse than I thought."

Felix continued watching the black aura closely, a small hint of a different aura barely registering on Felix's senses. "If only we could sever the hold this curse has on y-" Felix stood up straight and snapped his fingers, "That's it!" Felix exclaimed, "Ley lines! The ley lines, if we sever them, the curse would be lifted." Felix's enthusiasm died down a bit after he realized the weight of what he said, "The only current method of severing ley lines is irreversible so that won't work."

"But if Travis and I can figure out a solution to this permanent ley line severing, we would have a cure." Felix eyed Travis, "You know what this means don't you?" Felix rhetorically asked Travis, "It means you have your next official task to work on!" Felix clapped his hands together in a swift single motion, a big smile on his face.

"You know, Zuri." Felix pointed his clasped together hands at Zuri, "It occurs to me that because of your amnesiac state, you do not understand the fundamentals of magic theory and the application there-of." Felix paused, "In other words, you don't know how magic works." Felix surmised, "I could tell you a bit of the basics before I send you out on the next mission if you'd like."

---

Raiya continued fidgeting with her metal and her cleaning cloth. Not looking up from her work, she replied to Nemo's question.

"Not much to know really. The Crux gang is new. It was set up as a proxy gang for the Yakuza, as a sort of Yakuza foreign affairs office. The Crux gang deals with the distribution of Yakuza goods on US soil, as well as the routing of profits gained through this distribution back to Japanese soil. We also deal with every business negotiations on the US soil." Raiya said with little enthusiasm, "The main office is in New York, but there are 50 different main branches, and thousands of sub-branches throughout the states. My job mostly consists of keeping the New York gang in order. But my word is law throughout all of the gangs, and this sometimes requires me to visit the different states in order to settle disputes and quash dissent." Raiya glanced up from her work staring briefly at the wall in front of her, "But the threat of the Yakuza power and name is usually enough to keep dissenters in line." Raiya looked back down at her blade and resumed her work of futility.

"In terms of the name and the theme of the gang, those decisions were left up to me. All of the management decisions were left up to me, actually. I was given one simple task, to, 'extend the Yakuza's reach into the United States territory.' How I did that was up to me." Raiya finished.

"I like what you did with the name and the uses of the crosses, very thematic." Nemo replied, lightly and rapidly clapping his hands together for added effect.

"Very informative, very serious-serious. Only one more base to cover though. Who are your enemies? A person like you is sure to have some people not too happy with them. I'm not saying this in a mob favor sort of way, unless you want me to do something for you. But anyone who's after you will be in turn also after me now. Guilt by association." Nemo explained. "And I like to know what I'm up against, despite how spontaneous I might seem." He added.

It was Zuri whom beaconed them from beyond the secured lab. Travis hadn't anticipated her to pop up or even find him and Felix but Felix had deduced that she had likely tracked them down due to traces of his aura. It was of little consequence however as she gave her query about her abilities. While Travis had been devoted in to perfecting his runic project, he had however gotten word of the uncertainty surrounding what she was capable of and her unique ebony aura. There was also the unusual fact of her imprisonment within the catacombs which bore no explanation. It simply made sense for her now to address her concerns and how she may use her mana and be of use to their team.

While the question was somewhat vague, Felix had nonetheless educated Zuri about how her mana well could be utilized and what was to be expected. It was of course information Travis knew already based on personal experiences and the Arch Mage summed the explanation up well enough that Zuri appeared pleased with the quick lecture. It was then she described the reluctance of her memories returning to her, even after sometime after her awakening. Felix, not surprisingly, caught on once Zuri explained that her memories were somehow obscured and eventually deemed the case cause was due to a curse. Travis had to take a minute more to piece together the likelihood of that diagnosis after Felix verified the existence of another aura surrounding Zuri.

Just for the sake of trying, Felix had casted an unfamiliar purification spell upon Zuri to remedy the supposed curse. Unfortunately, the alien aura remained present and briefly brought Felix into fleeting pause before he produced an idea that both appealed to Travis and bothered him. Travis knew where Felix was getting at just as he abruptly mentioned ley-lines and while the concept of using his rune to surgically separate the curse in the most unorthodox of methods seemed practical, even with the eventual notion of finding a reversal plan to counter-act the effects, he felt reluctant trying on a living being. Felix however appeared optimistic and promoted the idea to Travis whom gave his best reassured smile he could muster despite his sudden unbalanced feeling regarding the matter.

"Y-yeah," he replied as he tried to hide the uncertainty in his tone, "I'm sure I can solve our ley-line problem."

'A-A curse?!' Zuri was a bit shocked at what Felix said. She tried not to think too much about the curse, especially before an important mission since being emotionally distressed is the last thing anybody wants. The flames that engulfed her during the purification spell only made her slightly nervous since it wasn't actually burning her, but it was a bit scary nonetheless. It was a bit disappointing to hear that it didn't work, but she didn't expect it to, at least not when she's been cursed for well over a thousand years.

She couldn't really keep up with what Felix was talking about regarding ley lines, but it sounded like some sort of solution to this curse that was deeply embedded within her. After Felix assigned Travis his new task, he offered to lecture her about how magic works, where she happily accepts his offer, "Yes please." Zuri replies with a smile.

Raiya decided that her fidgeting was no longer accomplishing anything. She took the cloth and clenched it in her hands, creating an immolation spell that burnt the cloth into ash. She poured the ashes into a small trash can next to the table she was using. She clapped her fingers together, removing the remaining ash dust. Then she laced her fingers together and bent them outwards, a serious of pops rang out from her hands and then she waved her hand over her dissembled weapon. All the sword components levitated from the desk and began reassembling themselves, a pinkish aura surrounding them. Raiya slid the clean sword into its scabbard and then flicked her wrist outwards, storing the sword in her mana-inventory.

She turned to Nemo. "As you can imagine, I have lots of enemies. Rival gangs, occasional Salem Disciples, law enforcement..." Raiya leaned back in her chair and placed her hands on top over her head, her elbows winging out. "Nothing I can't handle though. Nothing that really offers me a challenge. Although, the Arcanocracy has been after me for quite some time, they stopped sending people after me after the second or third one I killed. Well... I suppose I didn't really kill them myself, my gang members did. But they still attribute their deaths to me." Raiya finished

"What about you? I'm sure you have tons of people besides Felix who want to see you dead. Any interesting ones?" Raiya asked.

---

Felix smiled and folded his arms, "Where to start, where to start...?" Felix pondered out loud while tapping his right forefinger on his upper left arm. He jolted up right and snapped his fingers, "Magic types!" Felix exclaimed. "Their are many methods of categorizing magic. Restoration, and destruction, fire and ice. Blah blah blah. Here's what you need to know. Most everyone is born with a clear aura, an aura untainted by our personalities and use. The only people who are born with an aura color are people with Talent Marks. Talent Marks are a wide range of biological mutations that occur in rare cases. The cause is unknown but we know it has something to do with the how the aura of the mother and the fetus interact with each other. It results in certain beast-like physical qualities. Take Raiya for example, her yellow eye is like that of a great snake, and by all means biologically it IS a great snake's eye, at least the dna template is the same as an actual great snake's eye. And, I never asked Nemo so I don't know for sure, but I am fairly certain that his ghostly white appearance is the result of a Talent Mark as well. People with Talent Marks have a Aura color from birth, which means they are extremely adept at their magic type." Felix paused for a moment before continuing.

"Auras come in many colors but they all either fall under one or between two of the six types of magic elements. Earth, fire, water, air, aether, and void. Raiya's, for instance, falls between fire and air. Now, the color of the aura by itself is not important, but the color mixed with the feeling or vibe it gives off is the main indicator of what type of aura it is. And you can feel and see all of this if you activate manalysis. Manalysis is a fancy term for using our own aura to feel the mana waves given off by other auras. When it is activated, it also enhances your sight and allows you to see mana waves as well as feel them." Felix explained.

"Your aura is the manifestation of the mana in your mana-well. Your mana-wells are metaphysical organs located within the heart. They are not visible to the naked eye, but can be seen with manalysis. Mana is released through your blood stream and secretes out of your pores which creates the visible aura. To cast a spell, you must focus on your aura and give it meaning, intention. In order to do this you can do a number of things, using incantations, or placing the aura into a runic symbol, or channel it through a physical medium like a staff or sword. Once you're skilled enough, you can even cast spells without using such means, just by thinking about it some spells can be cast." Felix flicked his wrist causing his blue manaegis sword to solidify to existence. It dropped in his right hand, he twirled it around for a moment before tossing it up into the air causing it to dissipate into a blue flame.

"Is any of this making sense to you?" Felix asked

"After my time away I'm afraid I'm gonna have to start from scratch. I've lost a lot of notoriety." Nemo replied. "Most well known magic organizations find my existence to be both a threat and an insult. So that's an easy one. Other than that I have to worry about assassin in-fighting. A good portion of my colleges have enough respect to keep things civil, but that's not always the case. Everybody wants to be considered the gold standard, killing me would remove me as a competitor and also significantly boost their reputation." He explained.

"Retaliation from somebody who I've done a job against isn't as much of a problem as one would think. Anybody worth their weight knows that attacking me would be like fighting the weapon used in the act. It's a guaranteed net loss from the start. What they really want is the person who hired me."

"In the era building up to the standoff between Felix, his team, and I, there were a couple of noteworthy adversaries. Karl Magnussen, a former Dutch Academia professor gone rogue. He was renown for having an exceptionally large manapool, and thus being able to pull off incredibly destructive spells successively without draining himself dry. Magnussen's radical splinter organization had been causing havoc in multiple French towns, he planned to eventually raid a underground museum which preserved powerful artifacts with the end goal of obtaining an item that he believed could amplify his magical prowess to the point where he could destroy the Academia's colleges and eventually collapse their organization." Nemo explained.

"After being tipped off with what's to come, the museum hired me both as protection, and to eliminate Magnussen and his cause. After gaining information, I began to pick off his members one by one at a distance to cripple him. Magnussen took it personally, and over the course of a couple weeks escalated it to a standoff. I sieged his base of operations, slaughtered his lackeys, and then fought the head honcho himself. His destructive capability wasn't a bluff, it rivaled mine quite well, but in the end my absorption ability gave me the upper hand, and I later consumed all that he had. I didn't even have to torch his base, as he did that himself quite well with his recklessness."

Nemo got up from his seat before continuing. "The other I can think of is Sir Charles Reginald Glastonbury III, bit of a mouthful. He was a British manhunter who operated in South Africa. Charles was a big game hunter at first, but eventually got the taste of magi blood and never went back. He was an example of what I talked about before, someone looking to gain reputation for killing me. As a game hunter it's in his nature." Nemo placed his hands in his pockets. "When I was on a trip that brought me to Swaziland, Charles ambushed me out in the wild. For eight days and nights we exchanged fire with bolt action rifles. Moving, or really crawling only when it was safe, eating and drinking only what we had on us and what could be found nearby, not a lick of sleep. When the sunrise of the ninth day came, I caught a glint of his scope and fired."

"I thought I had killed him, but by the time I reached the place where his body would be, it was gone. Turns out the bullet lodged in the scope, only blinding his right eye. After two days I tracked him down to his humble abode and we had ourselves one final duel. He cheated death once, but after getting downed by a rifle shot to the chest, he didn't get back up." Nemo finished, walking over to the door.

"All this talk has got me parched. And after seeing those Japanese blades earlier, I'm in the mood for green tea. Care to join me downstairs, Raiya?" Nemo asked, opening the door.

Zuri listened carefully to what Felix told her, taking mental notes as she paid close attention to each and every word. She looked quite amused when he created a sword out of thin air through the use of mana. She took a few seconds to digest all this information before replying "Yeah, I've got a better idea of how magic and mana works now." and follows up with a question, "Do you think I could get a wand?".

Raiya considered all the things Nemo said. She had never personally heard of any of these people and she supposed that just went to show how out of touch with the underworld community she had been. While she was technically a part of an underworld community, her role had her mostly interacting with untalents. Ordinary gangsters who just wanted to sell drugs to the community, or traffic weapons, among other things.

"I have to be honest, I have never heard of any of those people you just mentioned." Raiya confessed, "I don't really interact with very many Talents. And the ones that I do interact with are either my immediate comrades, or they tend to end up on the wrong side of my sword." Raiya explained.

Raiya considered Nemo's offer.

"I suppose my mouth is a bit dry. But I'd rather go for a stiff drink," Raiya explained as she got up to follow Nemo.

---

Felix considered Zuri's request.

"Wands are a pretty difficult medium to channel magic through. Mostly because unless the wand is made from the finest materials, it can fail on you at a moments notice. Plenty of important historical figures met their dooms because of the failure of their wands. Gilgamesh, Muhammad, Alexander the Great, Adolf Hitler, all people whose ultimate deaths were caused by the failure of their wands. Are you sure that is the medium you want?" Felix asked.

Nemo walked down the hallway towards the stairs. "Even so, it doesn't surprise me that you haven't heard of them. They were only relevant when you were much younger. I'd like to say the reason you've heard of me is because I'm just such a natural star, but it's probably just because of my confrontations with Felix and rough history with the Arcanocracy." Nemo replied, taking the stairs down.

"It might be worth your while to invest expand your presence in the magic underworld more. If your goal is to find your parent's killer, it certainly wouldn't hurt. That is, unless you plan to leave the society altogether once you've done that. Speaking of which, how goes that endeavour, if you don't mind me asking? Do you have any leads?" Nemo asked, sitting down at a table in by the kitchen.

"Yeah, I was fearing you might say that. If you don't have any tea I'll feel like an odd duck. If I want something Japanese, and you want alcohol, I suppose there's only one solution." Nemo said, putting his hands together, and then separating them vertically, slowly revealing a bottle of a alcohol in magic trick-esque fashion. The bottle had multiple various Japanese characters on label, and a fancy paper cover fastened with cord over the cap. It was unopened "Umeshu, my favorite drink from Japan. This one is from my personal collection." Nemo said, placing the bottle down on the table and spawning himself two ornate crystal tumbler glasses in a magical display of sleight of hand.

Nemo unfastened the cord and took the paper topper off, he then twisted the cap off and filled both glasses half full before placing the bottle back down on the table. He slid the filled spare glass over to Raiya. "I like sweet things, so Umeshu and me were a easy match."

Zuri let out a nervous "Ehehe.." when he said that wands are a hard medium to cast spells."On a second thought, maybe a wand isn't the best idea then." she pauses for a bit, "So uh.. what would you suggest me to use? Maybe a staff of some sort?" Zuri asks Felix. She starts envisioning how she would look like with a dark robe and a staff, excited for the mission.