[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/zhtREIm.png[/img]
[color=a2d39c][h3]Claudius Caligula Westerson[/h3][/color]
[i]Hell on Earth, School District 15[/i]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5LwhhBYsCg[/youtube]
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In the aftermath of the thugs’ collective flight, an accomplishment which had baffled Judgement and Anti-Skill alike, a lone man had emerged to make sense of the chaos. A brilliant madman. A terrifying genius. Tiresias, the blind leading the sighted. It is here that, after laying in wait, standing behind the veil of such mundanities as ‘making friends’ and ‘getting lunch with his sister’, that he made his appearance. 

[b]Rise up, hero.[/b]

Even if your strength is but a pale shadow of His, [i]it surely cannot be naught.[/i]

...

[color=a2d39c]“...no, no, that’s incorrect. Gahaha! Is it not clear?! The truth that my eyes pierce through has already cut through the veil of deception!”[/color]

Where there had once been a throng of concerningly organized thugs, there were now members of Anti-Skill searching the premises, picking up what scraps of information and evidence they could. Among them stood a figure who certainly ‘did not belong’. 

Yes, in the first place, this was a man of the Magic Side, a being of occult fancy who had no place in the monument to science that was Academy City. Were the eyeless gaze of the sealed tower open, it would no doubt be fixed towards beings such as himself. Were his true nature known, he would not be able to stand in public so brazenly. However, he stood there nonetheless, side-by-side with a member of Anti-Skill. A member whose request had called him to this place, and among the first true friends he had met in this sprawling cityscape. His name was Liam Napoce, but the being of magic had chosen to instead assign him a nickname. Simply, ‘A’.

The figure himself was the very picture of absurdity. A young adult whose attire was a horrid mismatch of different eras of history, sunglasses far too small to be of use veiling his eyes, he appeared. 

The hero. The transcendent. The protagonist. 

This. Is. Claudius. 

[color=a2d39c]“Listen closely, my dear friend! This is no mere bottle! This was a glass container used to hold approximately forty fluid ounces of an alcoholic substance!”[/color]

A hand swept down, a spear of light thrust down from the Kingdom Above to sear away the black ignorance below. The site of indication was clear, the shards of glass that had once been a bottle thrown haphazardly down by one of the thugs, their apparent ringleader of sorts. 

“What does tha-...wait, you couldn’t mean...”

At the words of Claudius, confusion splayed itself across Liam’s face, before being written over with something else. Incredulity. Self-derision. Abject fear. Color drained out of his face as he looked from the shards of glass to Claudius himself, a visible shudder tracing along the arch of his spine. 

[color=a2d39c]“...I am afraid so. If that is the nature of the opposition, it is only logical that they were able to escape.”[/color]

“That bastard! Does he want to get arrested?! I’ll arrest him, you know!”

[color=a2d39c]“Calm yourself, A! We must keep a level head. Remember, a being such as that is bound to ‘rules’; just as espers are bound to laws of science, they are bound to ‘stories’. In order to defeat them, then...”[/color]

“...create something that cages their narrative. And if we need to stop something from running wild, then-“

[color=a2d39c]“-Don’t speak it aloud. He may have ears still present. But yes, that is what must be done. The others would decry such methods, but one such as you...I have faith, A. Do not hesitate to call upon my strength, if aid is needed.”[/color]

“Heh, got it. I’ll...no, [i]we’ll[/i] arrest him.”

Nodding solemnly before going separate ways, the two took to their own next steps. 

For Liam, it was investigation. 

For Claudius, though? 

For Claudius, it was food.

He had skipped breakfast. 

[@Breo]