“Wonderful! Let me read up so I know what I’m talking about when we’re cheating- besides. We’re stuck together anyway. Might as well turn this over on someone else.” He said, picking up the book. “Do you have a test, or just a lesson?”

“What? Cheat in school? Do you think I would have any morals against that when I’ve already stolen from rich and poor alike?” He asked, slightly jokingly.

Raven rolled her eyes. “Duh, I didn’t think you’d care whether it was right or wrong. I mean I’m just kinda surprised you bothered to offer in the first place-

“I do hope your reading comprehension isn’t as dreadful as your listening comprehension. I would be in your mind, like I was earlier. But I’d be talking to you, and not as you.”

Seeing that she was putting away her weapon, Ni backed off. Fumetsu opened his hands, releasing the shadow demons. They returned to the shadows of the warehouse, but Nyx would probably be able to see them move once and a while. 

“Interdimensional being. I don’t come from Mars or anything like that.” Fumetsu explained. “It’s how I can control the creatures you chased. They come from the same realm as me. But the details aren’t important. You just need to know to leave my creatures alone and they’ll leave you alone. Most importantly, I’ll leave you alone if you keep out of my business. I already have one superhero to deal with, and I only tolerate her because she’s family.” 

Nyx shook her head. “Can’t leave them alone when they’re attacking people. And cute animals. Call them off and you’ll never have to worry about me bothering them again.” The young superhero crossed her arms, tilting her head slightly to the side. “And what’s this about another superhero? In this city?” 

“Give it up while you’re still conscious. I don’t feel like dropping anyone off at the hospital tonight. I’m certainly not paying for your medical bills either.”

Not that he would feel guilty for hurting her, but he saw no reason to do it and he really didn’t need another hero after him. Java was enough and he only did it with her because he like her as a person. Nothing about this girl had impressed him. 

“I’ll let you walk out of here with no more trouble if you give up.” 

Nyx considered her options, although granted there weren’t many of them. Either keep fighting despite the increasingly obvious difference in power level, or leave and hopefully get a chance to fight another day. 

Neither of those sounded preferable to her. 

With a sigh, she’d sheath her staff, a small void opening up from her ring and sucking it back in. 

“Ah. Yes. Being magically bound to a ghost would do that.” He turned a page. “I could read this and then whisper the answers in your mind.”

Fumetsu retreated when he saw her gathering up the energy. Ni, who had stood aside all this time, stepped in and formed a shield around him and Fumetsu to protect them from the magic. His powers could stand up to it much better than the shadow demons could. He had to brace himself to keep the sheild up against the mere force of it. 

Once he died down, he lowered it. Fumetsu peeked over his bodyguards shoulder. 

Was she still there or had she fled while they were distracted?

Nyx had been unceremoniously blasted back against the nearby wall, and for a moment it seemed she might have been knocked unconscious, or worse. However a small moan would escape her lips, and she’d slowly lift her head to see if her opponent had been taken out by the blast. Unfortunately he seemed to be perfectly fine, and now he had more friends.

She slowly forced herself to her feet, staff still in hand and now pointed towards the group.

“Do you know I would have given for such an education?” He said, picking up the book. “I didn’t know how to read until I was in my teens and that was because I would sneak into the roof of the old school building during the young children’s lessons.”

“No. I don’t think I will. Not until I feel like it.” Fumetsu replied to her demand. He figured that she would eventually figure out how to escape, but he would let her up eventually if she didn’t. He didn’t want to sit on a wannabe hero all day.

“A being from another dimension inhabiting a human body.” He explained plainly. Clearly, he had done it before. “And what’s your motivation for playing hero?”

Nyx almost didn’t respond, still trying to process the ‘being from another dimension’ bit. “Huh? Oh- well, it’s fun.” 

Although what she’s about to do might not be so fun for either of them. She re-summoned her magic staff into her hand, closing her eyes and focusing the best she could. Purple-black energy began to form, growing larger and more volatile by the second.

“You might want to start running.” 

She focused until she couldn’t keep it under control anymore-

“You might as well light the world in fire, there’s always crime. And you might as well just beat every criminal you come across with a brick if you’re not going to be educated.”

The child must’ve bitten the inside of her mouth when she fell back. She’d have to learn not to do that or start wearing a mouth guard. But Fumetsu was pretty sure most heroes didn’t since they could all speak clearly. 

Her knee hit, but it hit something hard instead of fleshy. This time, it was Kalis’ doing. Despite not being one for fights himself, the smuggler had at least learned that he needed to keep all vital areas protected.

“You get a bonus for trying.” Fumetsu remarked as he summoned a couple of shadow demons to hold down her wrists while he positioned himself pin her a bit better. “Now what?” 

Nyx struggled against the demons and the man the best she could, but it was to no avail. What could she do, really? Kicking didn’t work, and using the magic staff on him when he was this close could end up backfiring on her.  

“Get... off of me-!” This was pretty painful, actually. If she survived this she’d be sore for days.

While Fumetsu had been expecting her to fire and attempted to dodge, he did find that the blast hit his shoulder. It was painful and Kalis’ internal screaming didn’t help things. But Fumetsu was at an advantage because he was still on his feet while his opponent had been thrown back.

“Didn’t expect the kick back? You haven’t been training with that toy of yours for very long, have you?”

He charged again, this time jumping in for a tackle and an attempt to pin her while she was down. She probably hadn’t been expecting a physical confrontation. 

Indeed she was not.

“Gah-!” Just as she was about to get back up on her feet, she found herself forced back onto the ground, the impact knocking the wind out of her. Disoriented, it took a moment for her to become aware of the coppery taste in her mouth. Blood, not a lot of it, but it stung pretty bad. 

Nyx, unable to aim her magic staff towards him without potentially hitting herself, did the only other thing she could think of- 

“The studying does in fact matter! You read that book and you absorb that information!” He nudged the book towards her. “I would have killed for such an opportunity!” 

“It’s not as important as going on patrol- and, look, I get school is important- but I’m a superhero first and foremost! I can’t just study when there might be crime going on!” 

While Fumetsu didn’t mind a bit of banter, she hadn’t deserved it in his eyes. She probably didn’t even know any good witty comebacks seeing how new she seemed to be at this. He was not in the mood for bad jokes.

“At least you had enough sense to make it detachable.” He remarked as they tore her cloak to ribbons. “I just hope it didn’t cost too much. I wouldn’t want to put your parents in the poor house.”

A group of shadow demons sprang up in front of him, taking the brunt of the blast. A few dissipated, but Fumetsu held out his hand. A couple jumped up and formed a shadow blade, which he grabbed.

“I wonder if you have a plan for close combat,” was all he said before he charged her. 

“Whoa-!” 

Nyx had summoned a shield of black-purple energy in front of her at the last possible second, and she struggled to keep her balance as the sword slammed down onto the shield. 

Who- or what- was this guy? 

So cool! Nyx had wanted to fight a powered villain for so long, but she’d never imagined her first would be like this. Adrenaline rushed through her as she dismissed her shield in favor of another, larger blast of dark magic. 

“I wonder if you have a plan for this!”

And then she fired- throwing her back several feet as the dark magic shot forward towards Fumetsu.

“What are you having issues with?” He asked. “I may possibly be of minimal help.” 

“It can be and it is! Next time, try not to pull such a trick over someone who isn’t afraid to hit below the belt.”

“Ugh.” 

The rest of the night went by quickly, although the same couldn’t be said for the next day. Raven spent the day juggling both studying and finding an answer to what was going on with this curse the two were under. 

Neither would prove very fruitful.