Susan swallowed her last bite of donut as she walked through the gates of LG high the next Monday morning. The prize of the Gashadokuro killing contest had made for a truly wonderful Sunday morning, the only sour spot being the dagger-like glares of the shop owner; who, now that she knew to look for it, had rather short arms for a man of his height.

  The leftovers had made for a wonderfully unhealthy breakfast, though the sweet taste in her mouth seemed to sour as a roar from the school courtyard up head reached her ears.

  The concrete square, which sat cradled within the tall walls of the C shaped front of the high school, usually spent its Monday mornings filled with a few dozen bleary eyed students waiting for class to start. Usually that is, as today it seemed that the entire population of the school had arrived early to crowd into its boundaries.

  She and the rest of her fellow bus-mates approached the crowd with slow steps, shock clear on each of their faces as they took in the sight. Susan’s head was on a swivel as she approached the crowd, and it wasn’t hard to see the cause of their excitement.

  Smartphones were being waved around, videos depicting the passing of a grey or gold dragon being waved around for the world to see.

  “What the hell,” Susan muttered as she flitted through the crowd, barely catching snippets of conversation after conversation on the subject of the dragon sightings and other strange occurrences from the past Friday.

  She finally spotted something familiar in the sea of faces. The nerd group had commandeered one of the tables on the far side of the courtyard.

  Struggling her way over to them, Susan arrived to find the group huddled around Andrew. The resident ‘Dragon Truther’ as he had come to be called recently, had a map of the U.S. pulled up, a series of red dots running from Indiana to the East Coast on it.

  “See!” He declared with a wave of a lanky arm, every movement fueled by the kind of mania you could only get from sleep deprivation. “If you plot out the locations of where people took the videos from, you get a line pointed straight toward Antarctica.”

  “That line is pointing east,” Lucy, the shorter and messy haired girl griped from behind him.

  “No, no,” Andrew's sandy hair flew back and forth as he shook his head, “if you follow the line it cuts between Brazil and South Africa to reach Antarctica!”

  “What’s going on here?” Susan asked as she dropped her book bag next to one of the seats and settled down on it.

  “Andrew thinks that dragons blew up Antarctica,” Lucy said, rolling her eyes at the person in question.

  “That didn’t take long.”

  “What?”

  “I said that’s quite the theory.”

  “Hey Susan,” a new voice broke in. Susan turned to see Anne rushing over to the table.

  “You have to see this!” She said, thrusting a phone into her face.

  Susan took it in for a moment, then her eyes widened. The phone was playing a video of a courtroom, with the normal trappings of a trial going on. That was until Susan looked closer and noticed that many of the people filling the back of the room had decidedly inhuman features. Then her eyes flickered toward the front of the courtroom to see a familiar purple suited woman sitting next to the prosecuting lawyer.

  “…the trial of the magical peoples of America vs. the Bureau of Supernatural and Magical Protections,” a tinny voice came over the speakers, and Susan’s mouth curved into a smile.

  “Hey what’s that?” Someone asked, and a minute later the video was playing on Andrew’s laptop as the group looked on in varying stages of shock.

  “There’s no way that this is real,” Andrew muttered as he sat hunched in front of the glowing screen.

  “Dragons are fine but you draw the line at magic?” Lucy muttered back, to which he shrugged.

  Needless to say not much got done that day. The bell rang, and students appeared in classes. But even when the teachers tried to teach instead of watching the trial along with the students, they were never able to catch their attention for long.

  Susan spent the few hours before lunch listening to a chorus of tinny voices echo from different smartphones as the trail slowly started. There weren’t many highlights beyond the prosecutor listing the extensive crimes of the BSMP, some of which had even the most dedicated teachers pausing in shock as they listened.

  It was only a few minutes before lunch when someone was called up to the stand to testify. A messily dressed man carrying a sheaf of papers he was still flipping through even as he stepped up to the stand.

  Susan listened to him be sworn in as she walked to lunch, settling in with the rest of the nerd group as they regathered around Andrew’s laptop to watch the proceedings.

  The half dozen students formed a rough semicircle around the laptop, with Susan sitting across from them. She gave the ongoing trail half an ear as she picked at her lunch.

  Apparently the man was some BSMP bean counter, currently being sacrificed by the higher ups so they could avoid the trial. The Agent, Susan had already forgotten his name, clearly hadn’t wanted to spill that information so easily, but Nora’s lawyers smelled blood. It wasn’t long before they were dragging the truth out, question by question.

  Then the trial started in earnest, and Susan tuned it out in favor of watching the multitude of incredulous expressions in front of her. People watching wasn’t one of her preferred habits, but the open mouthed shock on the faces of the teens across from her were endlessly entertaining.

  Cole and Mattie appeared at one point, both staring down at a phone as they settled next to Susan at the table. Anne appeared a minute after, quickly spotting the open laptop and scampering over to it.

  Shuffling between the gathered watchers, she claimed one of the seats to Andrew’s side before propping her head up on both hands to watch the proceedings. The wide smile covering her face seemed to garner a few odd looks, but she barely seemed to notice.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “How can you not watch this?” Lucy spoke up, catching Susan’s attention.

  “Hm?” She refocused on Lucy to see an incredulous expression now being directed her way.

  “The government has been hiding freaking magic! How are you just sitting around like that?”

  “No way. No way there’s magic,” Andrew interrupted, his head shaking back and forth even as he stared at the screen.

  “Why not?” Susan asked, the spark of curiosity finally overtaking her desire for entertainment.

  “Well,” Andrew sputtered a moment, “there’s no proof.”

  Susan regarded him a moment, before reaching down to her tray and grabbing the milk carton there. It was still cold, a film of condensation covering the sides.

  Placing it in the center of the table, she swiped a finger along the side to get it wet. It took a moment to draw a circle, and she had to rewet her hand several times before she was able to complete a small magical circle sketched in water. A smidgen of power was all it took to activate the circle, and with a soft hum it rose into the air before the wide eyes of the surrounding students.

  “Proof,” she said blandly, waving a hand at the floating cardboard.

  She was met with utter silence, the group in front of her barely moving as their eyes tracked the rising milk carton until it stopped rising about a foot above the table. As one, the eyes flickered over to stare at Susan, and she raised an eyebrow at them.

  “What?”

  “You knew?” Lucy spat out.

  “Yeah.” Susan shrugged.

  “But…” she trailed off, “…I thought you were into science?”

  “What, you think science can’t be applied to magic?” Susan asked, her head tilting to the side.

  “Oh no,” Mattie groused from the side, and the group turned to regard her as one.

  “You’re not doing that ‘magic is science’ bull are you?”

  “But it clearly is,” Susan’s finger pointed to the floating carton.

  “No, magic is by its very nature undefinable!” Mattie shot back, and the heads of the nerd group turned back to Susan as if they were watching a tennis match and she had the ball.

  “No, magic just conforms to the beliefs of the people using it. If you approach it with the belief that it can be measured, then it can.”

  “Ugh, come on!” Mattie groaned as if physically pained. “Don’t suck the magic out of magic!”

  “I-“

  “Miss Hill?” Someone spoke up, a deeper voice this time.

  Susan turned to see a teacher standing at the end of the table. He too was staring at the milk carton with wide eyes.

  “Yes?”

  “Please follow the laws of physics while on school grounds.”

  “Fine,” Susan shrugged.

  A hand swept through the watery circle, the thud of the milk carton hitting the table following a moment after.

  The teacher nodded, and with mechanical movements he turned away from the table before walking off towards the doors of the cafeteria.

  “But how did they cover that up?” Andrew spoke up. “Did they really like, kidnap and brainwash everybody who ever tried drawing a magic circle?”

  Susan just raised an eyebrow at that. He met her eyes, before his eyes returned to the laptop in front of him and his mouth slowly closed.

  “Uh-”

  “Shut up,” Anne snapped, “They’re getting to the good part.”

  She appeared to have missed the ongoing discussion, her nose almost touching the laptop screen in front of her as she leaned toward it with a smile that was somehow wider than the one she had earlier.

  Susan’s eyes slid to the side, where she could catch a glimpse of the video playing on Cole’s phone. The BSMP agent was looking much worse for wear, his face now pouring sweat as the lawyer paced in front of him like a hungry shark.

  “I am unable to comment on the events of last Friday,” the agent was saying.

  “Are you attempting to hide the fact that the BSMP summoned a dragon to kill an American citizen?” The lawyer shot back instantly.

  “Objection,” the voice of the defense lawyers came through the speakers. “The Prosecutor is testi- wait, what?”

  The video switched viewpoints, now showing an open mouthed lawyer frozen in the middle of standing up from a desk. After a moment he unfroze, now moving to lean down so he could speak to the man seated next to him.

  “What the hell?” The whisper could be heard despite the camera’s distance from the two.

  “It is need to know only-”

  “That wasn’t just some citizen we took action against, it was a dragon!”

  The whispered reply was cut off as the response from the Agent being questioned exploded through the courtroom.

  The following quiet was absolute, both in the courtroom and the school cafeteria. Susan’s eyes flickered up for a moment to see the entire room standing frozen in various stages of stock as they stared down at the sea of phone screens showing the court case.

  “Then you admit to it?” The prosecuting lawyer’s response echoed through the silent hall.

  “Yes, but the BSMP was simply attempting to remove a threat to national security,” the agent said with the fervent words of a man facing a firing squad. “Besides, don’t you know its name?”

  “The dragon wishes to remain anonymous,” the prosecuting lawyer snapped back, kicking off a furious discussion between himself, the agent and the judge.

  “It has a name?” Lucy spoke up, breaking the silence in the cafeteria.

  “Yeah, why wouldn’t I-t?” Susan asked.

  “But that means it's like, sentient and stuff,” Lucy said, waving her arms helplessly.

  “They said it was a U.S. citizen, didn’t they?” Andrew said, looking at her.

  “But that means its a completely sapient species!”

  “Yeah, it's great right?” Andrew said with a wide grin.

  Lucy stared at him for a moment then looked away.

  “I hate you,” she muttered.

  “Shh,” Anne hushed them, and they all turned back to the video.

  “Do you believe your organization is truly working to better the world?” The prosecuting lawyer was asking.

  “Of course,” the Agent said,

  “Is there any proof of this beyond the rather dubious claims of said organization?”

  “Well yes,” the agent continued.

  He took a breath, eyes firmly fixed on the prosecuting lawyer so that he missed the BSMP higher up standing up from his chair and holding up a hand for him to stop.

  “The BSMP at this moment is moving to remove the single biggest threat to world peace.”

  “Not another U.S. citizen, I hope.”

  “Of course not. The target of our current operation is the Demon King.”

  His declaration was met with another moment of total silence. The video switched to show the judge, his forehead pressed against both palms.

  “There's a damn Demon king now?” He muttered.

  Susan didn’t hear the conversation that followed. Instead she was thinking about her encounter with the Mana Eater last week, and her conversation with Abana the month before.

  Was the BSMP delusional? They had to have some information on the Demon king. Besides, who could they even hire for it?

  A frown slowly spread over her face as a rather worrying idea occurred to her. Then she stood and started walking toward the cafeteria doors.

  The house was empty. It made sense, it was the middle of the day. But for some reason the echo of her footsteps seemed like they belonged more in a mausoleum than her own home.

  The pressure in her stomach dragged at her, making every step seem harder than the last as she walked toward the dining room. Then she stopped entirely as she entered the room and saw a paper covered in her fathers neat scrawl sitting on top of the table.

  ‘Sorry girls, your mother and I got called for an extended trip today.’ She read, even as the paper trembled in her hands. ‘Food is in the freezer, and there’s some money for dinner if we're not home tomorrow. Love you.”

  It wasn’t a confirmation, she told herself even as her stomach dropped out. The paper crumpled in her hands, but before she could think of any sort of plan of action she heard the front door slam.

  She was dashing through the kitchen the next moment, skidding on the carpet as she came to a stop in the living room. Then her mouth fell open in surprise as she saw Elizabeth standing in the doorway.

  “Susan, what are you doing home?” Elizabeth asked, head tilted in confusion.

  “Me, why are you here?” Susan shot back.

  “They were serving pizza today.”

  “What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “Well it's awful, so whenever they serve it I teleport home to make a PB&J.”

  “Oh.”

  Elizabeth must have seen something in Susan’s face, a frown forming on her face as she looked up at her.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Have… have you been keeping up with the trial?”

  “Yeah?”

  Susan held out the crumpled paper. Elizabeth took it, her face going from concerned to alarmed as she read it.

  “So, you think…”

  “Yeah, Mom and Dad are in danger.”