[Paxville, South Carolina, 1987]
The scene unfolding was one of pure pain and carnage.
From all around, as far as the eye could see in the darkened forest, death and destruction littered the landscape amidst a sea of shattered trees and flaming cars.
On one side of the clearing, a mound of corpses, stacked high enough to reach eye level, quietly rested in front of an old pickup truck. On the other, a group of five men hung from nooses connected to a tree branch that looked as though it was ready to snap at any moment. Their bodies lazily swinging from one side to another as their white robes fluttered in the wind.
Despite the chaos that had already been wrought under the pale glow of the overhead moon, there was still much more that needed to be done. And this madness was only going to come to an end when there was nothing left but corpses and ash.
"Wait, please!" A man shouted in fear as he desperately tried to crawl away from his assailant. "We surrender! Please! Just let us-"
The man's desperate pleas were cut short when a boot collided into his chest with enough force to completely cave in his ribcage. By the time his torso hit the ground, he was already dead. But considering what was still to come, he might've been considered the lucky ones.
"Surrender?!" Eugene MacNamara shouted with a wicked smile plastered all over his young face. "As if! Do you really think I'd let you get away so easily, loser?!"
The 'wind magic' user triumphantly stood over the corpse that he had just created with satisfaction as he gazed upon the chaos that he and his friends had brought with them. And to say that he was happy would be putting it mildly. In fact, this might have been the happiest he had been in weeks.
Eugene, who had just turned seventeen not even a week ago, was every bit the young man that everyone knew him to be. Tall and broad-shouldered, with a handsome face and dark skin that was impossibly free of any blemishes or scars. His shoulder-length dreadlocks were perfectly twisted in a way that let everyone know that he had recently gotten them retwisted. And the arrogant smile that he wore did nothing to hide his perfectly aligned teeth.
Before the young man could get out his next statement, a stream of pale-blue lightning shot past him only moments before colliding with a tree that burst into flames upon impact. And not even a second later, yet another body fell to the ground, revealing nothing but the now burnt corpse that was hiding behind it.
"You missed one, jackass." Maurice Owens said to Eugene with a smirk of his own.
Although not as tall as Eugene, Maurice still cut an impressive figure to anyone who saw him. He was just a few inches shorter than his cousin, with similarly chesnut-colored skin, a short afro, and a perfectly symmetrical face. He also had the beginnings of a mustache growing upon his upper lip, but he still had a neat and tidy appearance about him.
"Whoops!" Eugene gave the 'lightning magic' user a playful shrug. "I guess one managed to slip away from me."
"Yeah, yeah…" Maurice rolled his eyes before turning his attention back to the center of the clearing.
The two young sorcerers took a second to observe their recently acquired quarry. In front of them was a group of twenty men of varying ages, all of whom were bound by their hands and feet, kneeling in the low grass with solemn looks on their faces. Most of them were bloodied and bruised, with a few of them now sporting a set of missing teeth and broken noses to boot.
Despite the state that these men were now in, no one in the group felt even the slightest bit of sympathy for them. After all, how could they? Especially when they had the audacity to proudly wear those disgusting white and red robes in their presence.
"Well, that's the first half of these losers out of the way!" Yuto Watanabe said casually. The 'water magic' user, who was the same age as Eugene and Maurice, had long black hair that elegantly fell over his right eye. A look that contrasted well with his thin face and high cheekbones, which was coupled nicely with his slight frame and average stature.
"Honestly, that was a bit less fun than I thought it would be." Celeste Alvarez replied to Yuto's comment while sitting atop the hood of one of the destroyed cars. "Like, these racist losers barely put up a good fight!"
Celeste, the only woman of the group, was a young woman of average height who possessed an athletic build that showed through the sweatsuit that she was wearing. She had thick, black hair that was meticulously styled in the latest trends of the year. Along with sand-colored skin that paired well with her deep brown eyes and long eyelashes.
"Seriously." Eugene said with another smile. "But I suppose that we shouldn't have gotten our hopes up with this lot."
The group then turned their attention back to their captives, all of whom were now staring at them with fear written all over their faces.
Not even an hour ago, Eugene and his friends had descended upon this group of Klan members right when their little meeting was in full swing. They had been tracking them and observing their movements for the better part of a day, and decided to hold off on their attack until they were all vulnerable and half-drunk. And once they did, they made sure to come in with a bang.
Before the gaggle of racists even had the chance to figure out what was happening, the group of young sorcerers began firing off their magic in all directions in order to take them down. One by one, the hooded losers fell to their attacks. And soon enough, the bodies started to stack as they all ran around like a group of headless chickens while trying to avoid getting slaughtered.
Naturally, the Klan members tried to fight back, but mere guns and hunting knives were pretty much useless when dealing with people who could shield their bodies with barely even a thought. Something that they all failed to realize before completely running out of ammo in only a few minutes.
Before long, the most rambunctious of the Klan members lay dead in dirt, and that's when Eugene and his crew really got to work.
"Now then…" Eugene smiled at the group of racists as he made his approach. "What are we going to do with the rest of you?"
At the front of the group of captives, five young men were positioned a fair bit of distance away from the rest. None of them looked to be any older than eighteen at the most. But that didn't matter as far as the sorcerers themselves were concerned. To them, they might as well have been the dirt beneath their shoes.
"W-who are you p-people?" One of the five said in a shaky voice. "What are you people?"
"Who are we?" The 'wind magic' user tilted his head in mock confusion. "Oh, that's simple! We're your executioners!"
"Why are you doing this?!" Another one of the captives asked. "Why did you come here and start killing all of us?!"
Celeste gave the guy a smirk before answering. "Oh…you already know the answer to that."
"We do?"
It was now time for Eugene to give these future corpses the rundown on their current situation. It was clear to the others that the young man was enjoying messing around with these guys. And they knew better than to try to stop him when he got like this.
"You see… a month ago, you five took upon yourselves to rape and kill a little girl who was living in the next town over." The 'wind magic' user began to explain.
"What are you talking about? We we-"
Eugene was quick to cut the guy off before he continued his speech. "Yes, yes, we know that you all were acquitted of the charges against you. But anyone with a functioning brain knows that you were definitely guilty. And that the only reason why you all got away with it is because the judge who was appointed to oversee your case is also a member of your little group. Or I guess I should say that he was a member."
Eugene then pointed a finger at the man in question, who was one of the five bodies hanging off the nearby tree branch.
"You see, that little girl was the daughter of one of the men working in my dad's factory. He was absolutely devastated at the fact that his daughter's killers managed to evade justice for their actions. So, he reached out to my old man, looking for help, and my dad sent us to come deal with the men responsible for what happened."
"Wait…your father…?" One of the captives said before the realization hit him. "Your father is Ezekiel MacNamara? The guy who's been pouring all that money into Manning over the last couple of years?"
"That's right!" Eugene replied with a smile.
"I can't believe you losers actually thought that you were going to get away with what you did." Yuto then said in a casual tone. "Like, for real, did you not think that there would be consequences for your actions?"
It was then that the group of Klan members finally realized what was going on. This wasn't just some random attack. This was a planned assault. An assault carried out by a group of high schoolers who apparently had superpowers and no qualms about committing mass murder out in the open.
A brief silence lingered in the air before one of the five criminals decided to let his voice be heard. This one, the apparent leader of the group, if the reports were to be believed, had short brown hair and matching eyes. Along with a slender build and a sunken face.
"You can't do this to us!" The boy shouted. "We were proven innocent! So what if that little Asian bitch died?! That's not our fucking problem!"
"Jeff, stop!" One of the other captives tried to keep his friend calm.
"Oh!" Maurice chuckled. "This one's still got some fight left in him! How adorable."
The 'lightning magic' user's comment seemed to piss off the boy, now identified as Jeff, even more than what he already was. So much so that he felt no need to hold himself back from screaming at Eugene with a hefty amount of rage on his face.
"I don't care how much money your family has; you can't just come in here and start killing people whenever you want! You don't belong here! And neither do any of those fucking foreigners that are now crawling all over the place!"
Eugene was silent for a moment before he began laughing in the boy's face. "Geez, man. What is hell's your problem?"
"You're my problem!" Jeff shot back. "Do you even know what your father's been doing here over the last couple of years?!"
The group of young sorcerers remained silent as they waited for the boy to continue. They were all genuinely curious to hear what the guy had to say.
"Two years ago, your family bought up damn near all of the land in Manning and started building those factories and apartment complexes all over the city. On top of flooding a bunch of money into the town and buying out all of the property that they could get their hands on."
"And why exactly is that a bad thing?" Yuto asked, wondering where the guy was going with all of this.
"Aside from forcing people out of their homes who've been here for generations?" Jeff answered angrily. "Not only that, they've been putting every store in the area out of business in favor of those damn department stores that keep popping up all over the place! When it all started, everyone was happy to see some new business come into town. But you've been slowly bleeding the area dry and putting people out of work!"
'Is there a point to this shit?' Eugene silently wondered as he continued to listen to this loser's angry tirade. He was really hoping to get back to killing those racist assholes as quickly as possible.
"And worst of all, nobody in either here, Manning, or any of the other towns has been able to get jobs since this whole thing started. When your father built those damn factories, they didn't bother to tell anyone that they had already hired their workers well in advance. So instead of the locals being able to get work, we've had to suffer while a bunch of Mexicans and Chinks get to drive around in nice cars and live in fancy new houses while we don't see any of that money!"
A few of the other Klan members grumbled and nodded their heads in agreement with what the guy was saying.
"My father hasn't been able to find a job in over a year because of you bastards! You assholes bought out the auto shop that he was working at and fired everyone without so much as a warning before tearing the place down and building a strip mall over it!"
Eugene kept a calm face while still keeping his eyes focused on the boy in front of him.
To be honest, the guy wasn't totally wrong. In fact, it was a pretty accurate assessment of what his father had been doing in the area over the last couple of years. Just like the guy had said, Ezekiel MacNamara had been doing a series of hostile takeovers all over South Carolina to help out with a new business venture that he and some of his friends had been working on. One that had been in the works for the last half-decade.
Although his father's main businesses were the record company and bank that he owned, the man had been looking into expanding his portfolio into manufacturing and infrastructure before finally deciding to do so with the head of the Murphy family not too long ago. Which was the reason behind all of the new buildings that were being put up around the city of Manning.
And just like this stupid little Klan member had said, Eugene's father made a point to import foreign workers from Japan and Mexico to help with the process. Thanks to the civil war that Mexico was currently going through, and the recent collapse of the Japanese economy due to their real estate market taking a nosedive off a cliff, there was a bunch of cheap labor that was desperately looking for work at a discounted price. Something that Ezekiel MacNamara wanted to take advantage of while he still had the chance.
"And how exactly did that lead to you doing what you did to that girl?" Celeste then asked, her face now one of pure disdain after listening to what the young Klan member had to say.
"It served her right!" Jeff shouted in response. "Those damn foreigners don't belong here! This is our land, not theirs! If they think that they can just come here and start waving their dirty money in our faces with no consequences, then they need to learn what happens when they do!"
"You can't be serious?" Maurice frowned.
"I am!" The boy answered. "We don't need any damn-"
"I hope you don't think that I'm supposed to feel bad for you." Eugene then said.
"What?"
"Let's be serious here for a moment, worm." The 'wind magic' user took a second to kneel down in front of the boy before he continued. "Who cares if any of you impoverished losers can't find jobs anymore? None of that actually matters. If anything, the fact that you mongrels still haven't left yet is a problem in and of itself. Instead of just leaving to go find work somewhere else, you decided to stay here and cause problems for everyone. It would make everyone happy if you just went away. Or just fucked off and died like the little backwoods country rats that you are."
"Fuck you, you damn nigg-"
Jeff didn't get a chance to finish his insult before Eugene's mana-enhanced fist flew across his face. The punch was so strong that it broke the captive's nose upon impact. But Eugene didn't care about that in the slightest. "It doesn't matter how many of you gutter rats my father puts out on the street. It's a necessary evil. As long as we keep making money, then we'll put this whole rinky-dink town in a hole if that's what we have to do."
"Y-you bastard…"
"Besides, you people are bad for business. The factory workers are now scared for their lives because of what you and your little friends did to that girl. That's why my father sent us here, to make sure that you don't do something like this again. After all, we can't have you running around causing chaos whenever you want. It's screwing up my inheritance."
Eugene then stood up and ran a hand through his dreadlocks. They were already committed to killing these racist assholes, but there was no reason as to why he couldn't have a bit more fun with them before they finished up their work here.
"That being said, I'm in a pretty good mood today! You see, I just cleaned out a casino right before coming here. So…I'm willing to give you guys some special treatment since I'm in such high spirits."
"Is that true?" Celeste looked to Maurice for confirmation.
The 'lighting magic' user let out a sigh before responding. "It is. Eugene was feeling a bit restless while we were waiting for you and Yuto to show up. So he dragged us out to that one place in Charleston last night and ran the place dry."
"How much did he make?" The 'water magic' user then asked.
"Twenty million bucks."
"I swear…" The 'dark magic' user shook her head and laughed. "That guy has the devil's luck. Isn't this the third one he basically robbed in the last six months?"
"Fourth, actually." Maurice replied. "He wanted to hit another one last week, but they realized that he was using a fake ID and kicked us out before he could hit the tables."
"Wait, is that why you guys weren't in class last Wednesday?"
"Unfortunately...."
Eugene had gained a reputation around school for skipping class to go raise some hell whenever he felt like it. It was pretty much the main thing that he was known for. Aside from being a spoiled rich kid with everything going for him and too much time on his hands.
All of the young sorcerers were currently students at Summers Academy, one of the three sorcerer schools within the country's borders. And they were all already slotted to join the DPA once they graduated. But that didn't mean that they couldn't enjoy themselves before that.
"What are you going to do to us?" One of the men in the back of the crowd then said to the group.
Eugene simply stared at the man for a brief moment before a wicked smile formed on his face. "Since I'm feeling rather magnanimous today, I'm going to let one of you losers live!"
"Really?"
"Yup!"
'He's lying.' Yuto, Maurice, and Celeste all thought in unison. They were all ordered by Eugene's father to make sure that there would be no witnesses to what they did here tonight. But neither of them felt the need to say anything about it out loud. After all, why should they feel bad for a group of racists who tormented a little girl for their own petty amusement?
If Eugene wanted to play with their emotions for a bit, then so be it. They were still getting paid for their services, no matter what happened.
Just then, the boy beside Jeff finally decided to speak up.
"P-p-please, let me live!" The boy said as tears began to well up in his eyes. "I'm not like the rest of them! I didn't want anything to do with it! I'm innocent!"
"Oh, is that right?" Yuto asked the boy. "Please, tell us more."
"They forced me to be there when it happened! They told me that if I didn't join them, then they would come after me next! All I did was stand next to the door while these lunatics took turns raping that girl! I didn't do anything to her, I swear! I don't even want to be a part of this group! The only reason why I'm here is because my dad made me join after he lost his job!"
'Are we supposed to believe that bullshit?' The 'dark magic' user wondered while looking at the sniveling loser in front of her.
"Will, you fucking rat!" Jeff growled at his friend after hearing that.
The boy, now identified as Will, ignored that and continued to plead for his life. "I won't say anything about what happened here, I promise! Please, just let me go! You guys already killed my father and uncle; there's nothing left for me here anyway. If you let me go, I promise to leave this town and be good for the rest of my life!"
Eugene regarded the crying boy for a moment before grabbing him by the collar and using his strength to pick him up to the point where he was now eye-level with him.
"So…you're innocent, huh?"
"Y-y-yes! I didn't touch that girl, I swear!"
"Well then…since you're not like the rest of them, I guess I can give you the grace of providing you with a quick death!"
"What?"
Instead of responding, Eugene activated his body reinforcement before winding back the arm that he was holding the boy in and throwing him across the clearing, sending him flying into a nearby tree. The boy's body hit the tree with so much force that his neck snapped upon impact, leaving nothing but a bloody patch on the bark as the newly created corpse slid down to the ground.
"You fucking monster!" One of the men in the back shouted in horror, only to end up being on the receiving end of a lightning bolt to face, courtesy of Maurice.
"Who the hell gave you permission to speak, mongrel?"
The Klan members wanted nothing more than to run and get as far away from here as they possibly could. Unfortunately for them, the group of sorcerers took the liberty of cuffing their hands and feet to stop them from doing so. As things stood, there was no chance for any of them to get away. Well, not unless one of them suddenly awakened a mana core and gained the strength to break the cuffs on his own.
Before Eugene could continue the slaughter that he had been looking forward to for the better part of three days, the 'wind magic' user turned around and directed his attention toward the fifth member of their group. The one who had been quietly standing a few yards behind Yuto the entire time.
"Eddie!" Eugene shouted to his brother. "You've been standing there like an idiot the whole time. Come out here and pick one of these racist asshole to kill before they're all gone!"
Edward MacNamara, aka Eddie, was Eugene's younger brother and the youngest of Ezekiel MacNamara's three children. But unlike his two older siblings, his personality was far gentler than theirs.
The boy, who was all of fifteen years old, had been quietly standing in the background as he watched his brother and his friends round up the Klan members after their initial assault took place. His only real contribution to the mission so far had been to place handcuffs on the ones who had already been knocked out. After that, he chose to simply hang back and watch while the rest had their fun.
"I-I uh…" Edward stammered now that all eyes were on him. "I-I'm good…."
"What?" Eugene scowled at his brother.
"I d-don't want t-to…."
"Argh!" The elder MacNamara sibling groaned in obvious displeasure. "Here we go with this shit again! For real, I don't get how you can play football while still managing to be such a whimp all the time. It makes no damn sense!"
"Come on, Eugene..." Celeste then looked to the leader of the group. "Cut the boy some slack. This is still his first time coming with us on one of these raids."
Maurice decided to throw in his two cents. "She has a point, man. Besides, you know he's never been good with violence."
"No!" Eugene said before grabbing one of the four remaining rapists by the neck and dragging him over to his brother while the man tried to beg and plead for his worthless life. "My dad made me bring him with us because he's too damn soft. If he's going to be here, then he's going to participate."
The elder 'wind magic' user then held the crying man up by his neck and waved him around in front of his brother as if he were nothing more than a mere rag doll.
"Here, kill this guy!"
"What?" Edward replied.
"He's nothing but a mongrel and a damn rapist, no better than a wild animal. You shouldn't feel bad for getting rid of a useless waste of air like this. Now shut up and get it over with!"
Edward hesitated for a moment as he thought about what to do next. His father had forced him to tag along on this little excursion of theirs for him to toughen up a bit and get his feet wet. But he obviously still had his misgivings about just killing people at the drop of a hat. Unlike his brother and sister, he simply didn't have the stomach for things like this.
After another few seconds had passed, Eugene rolled his eyes before using his free hand to grab the man at the top of his head and using his strength to forcibly separate the Klan member's head from his shoulders.
Naturally, that action caused the rest of the tied-up Klan members to begin screaming and shouting at the sight of one of their comrades being killed in such a brutal fashion. But the 'wind magic' user simply ignored their cries and focused his attention back onto his brother.
"Fine! Since you want to be such a little crybaby, just stand there and shut up until we're done!"
"Geeze, man." Yuto said to his friend. "You don't have to be such a dick."
"He'll be fine." Eugene replied with a casual wave of the hand.
What happened next could only be described as wholesale slaughter as Eugene, Yuto, Maurice, and Celeste proceeded to spend the next few minutes killing the rest of the Klan members in brutal fashion.
As the 'water magic' user took his time using his powers to drown a group of Klan members where they stood via a series of water balls placed around their heads, Celeste used her 'dark magic' to sink another group of men halfway into their own shadows before cutting her powers off and slicing their bodies in half at the waist.
While that was going on, Maurice used his 'lightning magic' to fry another small group of Klan members with brutal efficiency. All while Eugene happily flew around the clearing as he unleashed a flurry of wind sickles upon the others as they desperately tried to flee in horror.
However, unbeknownst to the group of young sorcerers, on the other side of the clearing, underneath one of the Klan members' trucks, a pair of eyes watched this scene unfold in silent terror.
Patrick Lynch, a boy only eleven years of age, with short, scruffy brown hair, matching eyes, and a pale complexion, desperately tried to keep quiet as he witnessed the slaughter take place. He truly had no clue how to comprehend what was happening. But he was smart enough to know that his best chance at survival was to keep himself hidden underneath the truck to avoid being seen.
This was his first time attending one of these meetings alongside his father and brother. And although he had his doubts about participating in something like this, he couldn't stand the sight of seeing so many of the men and boys that he grew up around being killed by these strange people and their weird abilities as if it were a sport.
Nor would he ever forget them….
Things quickly took a turn when Patrick watched as Eugene grabbed his brother, Jeff, by the feet and proceeded to use some invisible power to slice the boy's legs off before stepping on his chest and leaving him to bleed out in the middle of the clearing. His father had been killed in the initial chaos, and now it looked as though his brother would be joining him soon.
Patrick wasn't dumb; he knew good and well that his brother and his friends were guilty of tormenting that little girl. He had admitted as much, not even a day after the judge dropped the charges. But even so, seeing the boy bleed out on the ground like that as he desperately clung to life was simply too much for him to bear.
Despite his feelings about watching the horror before him, Patrick stayed quiet. It was clear that these people were here to kill them all, and that they had no qualms about taking out teenagers and children as well. He still had no idea what to make of any of this, strange people with superpowers suddenly appearing out of the sky and slaughtering people like cattle. But he knew not to gain their attention in any way possible. If he did, then he wouldn't live to see tomorrow.
Eventually, after about ten minutes had passed, all of the Klan members were now dead.
Fifty people in total had lost their lives today, but as far as the sorcerers were concerned, nothing of any great value had been lost. In their mind, they had done the world a favor by getting rid of these racist losers. So there was no reason for them to feel bad about any of it.
"Man, that was fun!" Eugene said as he wiped a bit of blood off his hands.
"I'll say!" Celeste replied with a smile. "I've been looking for a chance to try out some of the spells that my father taught me, and this was a good chance to see how well I could do."
Yuto simply laughed at that. "This still wasn't as fun as facing off against cryptids, though. At least they usually have some fight in them."
"Hey, beggars can't be choosers, right?" Maurice replied.
The 'dark magic' user then looked to Eugene. "So, what do we do now?"
"We still need to go pay a visit to the family to let them know that the job's done. My old man wanted me to give them something before we left to go back to the school."
"Fine with me." Yuto shrugged.
"Well, let's hurry up." Maurice then declared. "I want to get back as soon as possible."
Eugene suddenly gave the 'lightning magic' user a knowing smile. "Why? You still hoping to spend the rest of the weekend cozying up to Evelyn before classes start back up?"
In response to that, all Maurice could do was blush as he immediately tried to deny the accusation leveled against him. Unfortunately for him, Eugene was keen on having a bit of fun at his cousin's expense.
"Come on, man! We all know that you have a crush on her! Honestly, I don't see why you're even trying to hide it. I get that you think it's kinda weird since we're cousins and all, but you're adopted. So it's not like there's anything actually wrong with it."
"Shut up!" The 'lightning magic' user shot back with a frown.
"Oh, yeah, that reminds me!" Celeste suddenly spoke up. "Your sister told me that your family is sponsoring the new student that we're supposed to get. What's going on with that?"
"The hell if I know." Eugene simply shrugged in response. "All I know is that she's some human trafficking victim that my mom rescued when she went down to Louisiana to go visit my grandparents. Some drugged-out junkie from Portugal, or Spain, or whatever. She said that she paid like ten grand to get her away from the lady who was holding her. I don't remember all the details. I was barely listening when she told us about it."
"Do you know who she is?"
"Nope!"
"I think our mom said that her name was Joanna." Edward quietly replied. "And, yeah, she's from Spain."
"Anyways…let's hurry and get out of here. The sooner we're done, the sooner we can go eat!"
"Agreed!" Yuto nodded his head.
With that, the group finally decided to leave the area to finish the rest of their business.
Since Eugene, Maurice, and Yuto already had their flying enchantments, the three of them shot off into the air without so much as a care in the world. Celeste, however, had to be carried by Edward since she still had yet to receive hers from Evelyn. Something that she felt the need to complain about as the younger MacNamara sibling held her in his arms like a fairy tale princess.
As soon as it was clear that the group of young sorcerers wasn't coming back, Patrick slowly pulled himself from underneath the truck and took a moment to gaze upon the destruction that the group had left behind. All around him were nothing but bodies and carnage as far as the eye could see. Just an image of pure and utter terror left in the wake of the sudden attack.
A steady stream of tears began to well up in the boy's eyes as he took one final look at his brother's corpse before running off in the opposite direction. He didn't know where he was going, but he knew that he needed to get out of here as soon as possible. There was still a chance that they might end up coming back before too long.
'Who were those people? What were those people?' Was the only thought that crossed the boy's mind as his feet padded the ground as fast as they could.
Fortunately for Patrick Lynch, he would eventually get the answers that he was looking for after stumbling into an old church later that week. And what he learned there would change his life forever.
-(o)-
[Manning, South Carolina (Later That Evening)]
Shortly after leaving the area of the Klan meeting, Eugene and the rest of his friends made the short trip to the next town over in order to finish their duties for the night. There, they quickly made their way over to a recently built neighborhood that his father had ordered to be constructed for the local factory workers. A nice and quiet place that was still reeling from the recent tragedy.
"Hello?" A short, Asian woman said in a heavy Japanese accent upon opening the door.
"Hello, Mrs. Honda." Eugene said to the woman in a polite tone, followed by a courteous bow. "My name is Eugene MacNamara, my father is the owner of the factory that your husband manages. These are my friends, Yuto, Maurice, and Celeste. And this is my brother, Edward."
"MacNamara?" The woman's eyes widened.
Just then, two more people appeared in the doorway. One was an older-looking man with a thin face and greying hair. The other was a young man, roughly around the same age as Eugene, who had a thin frame with shiny black hair, glasses, and a tired look on his face.
Based on what they could sense, the group could tell that both the father and son were sorcerers, albeit not very powerful ones. The only one who wasn't was the mother.
"We're terribly sorry to come here at such a late hour, but we're here to inform you about the request that you gave to my father concerning the death of your daughter, Yui."
Unlike how he was acting before, Eugene was now carrying himself like a kind and gentlemanly young man. Something that the rest of the group couldn't help but giggle at, seeing as how quickly the boy could turn down his crazier side whenever he needed to. Apparently, all that fancy etiquette training he went through was worth the money.
"What's going on?" The father asked with no small amount of anxiety laced in his voice.
"Simply put, sir, we're here to tell you that the men who ended your daughter's life will no longer be an issue. Nor will any of their coconspirators."
The family paused for a moment as they took in those words. And almost immediately, tears began to form in the woman's eyes.
"Are they…are they dead?" The son, Daisuke, if Eugene remembered correctly, then asked.
"They are." The 'wind magic' user replied with a cold smile. "Them, along with the judge who let them walk free after what they did. We'll spare you the details, but just know that they no longer draw breath on this earth."
Almost immediately, the mother began to break down upon hearing the news. No one could really fault her for her reaction; she did just lose a child after all. But luckily, her husband was there to support her.
Maurice then came forward and held up a large metal briefcase and presented it to the family, one that was filled to the brim with money and a few gold bars for good measure.
"Please accept this gift on behalf of my father. Of course, we know that no amount of money will ever be able to replace the life of your daughter. But we wish to at least offer you a bit of compensation for everything that your family has gone through in these trying times. My father also wanted me to tell you that he will cover the debt that your family incurred for the funeral service."
Although reluctant at first, the father accepted the briefcase with shaky hands. The money inside was more than any of them had ever seen in their lives.
"T-thank you." The mother placed her hands on Eugene's shoulders as she did her best to fight back the tears. "Thank you for this, truly, MacNamara-kun. Thank you for bringing justice to my daughter. We are forever in your debt."
"There's no need for you to thank us, ma'am. We were simply doing what was right."
With that, the group of young sorcerers decided that it was best to leave and give the family some time to process everything that was happening. However, right before they could make their way back to the car, Daisuke stopped them.
"Can you help me get stronger?"
"I'm sorry?" Eugene turned around and looked at the boy.
"Can you help me get stronger?" The boy repeated. Daisuke then paused for a moment before continuing. "I…I c-couldn't do anything after what happened to my sister. And I was too scared to confront those men on my own. I don't…I don't want that to happen again."
Eugene looked at his friends, then back towards the boy. And after a few seconds, he simply gave the guy a charming smile and patted him on the shoulder.
"Tell you what…if you're really looking to get stronger, then give us a call sometime. We know that you've been through a lot, and we'll help you if you need it. And something tells me that you're a lot tougher than you look."
The 'wind magic' user then handed the boy a card that had the number to one of his father's offices on it. He told him that if he was serious about upping his game, then he should call it and ask for him directly. And that Eugene will take care of everything from there.
"Okay." Daisuke nodded. "Thank you."
"Don't mention it!"
Eugene gave Daisuke a quick nod before he and the rest of his group took their leave. And just like that, the night's festivities were officially over and done with. None of them could've imagined the effects that this night would have on their lives moving forward, but that was a story for another time.
-(o)-
Info Card:
-Eugene MacNamara (S-rank): Current Commissioner of the DPA. Father of Elaine, Evan, and Elizabeth.
-Maurice Owens (A-rank): Current Regional Director of the DPA (Southeast). Husband of Evelyn MacNamara, and brother-in-law to Eugene and Edward. Father of Elijah Owens-MacNamara and Emma Owens-MacNamara.
-Celeste Alvarez (S-rank): Current DPA Chief Spymaster. Sister of Sonya Alvarez.
-Yuto Watanabe (A-rank): Current Regional Director of the DPA (Northwest). Uncle of Ayako Watanabe.
-Daisuke Honda (D-rank): Current DPA Chief Agent (Charleston Station). Father of Michiko Honda.
-Edward MacNamara (A-rank): Father of Ethan MacNamara.