Hello everyone, Reader here! There is currently a poll on my profile, so if you want to see a new story idea, go vote! There might be some spelling errors and grammatical issues as this was more hastily written, later I will go back and fix them. I'll leave the majority author notes for the bottom, so lets get into the story!

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MAHOUKA KOUKOU NO RETTOUSEI

(Tatsuya - Tokyo - 12 AM) = Person + Place

"Magic" = Thought

Strong = Emphasis

Chapter 2: Trouble in Hong Kong

(Sha Tin City, Hong Kong - Lao Gui - 4 P.M)

It was pouring rain in the bustling city of Sha Tin City with booming thunder in the distance and crackling lightning striking the towering skyscrapers. Darkened clouds gave the impression it was evening or early morning with visibility greatly reduced. Hong Kong had miraculously remained an autonomous region despite the downfall of many other Asian countries during the Third World War. Through a series of strategic deals made with the Great Asian Alliance and with the support of multiple foreign powers, the state managed to preserve its independence.

Standing in an alleyway in the deepest parts of the city, a certain dark haired boy was drenched in rainwater from head to toe. He wore a black military cap with a tan coat and pair of black rubber boots and finger less gloves. Between his fingers were many strands of purple threads that he pulled and twisted in various fashion.

"1, 2, 3…" he spoke quietly as he felt a string snap among a web of invisible strings in the surrounding alleys he had created to act as a type of sensor array. If anything crossed those wires, he would know their exact location.

"Must be a pesky pedestrian…" he said while continuing the same hand motions. Feeling another string snap, this time closer to him, he stopped fidgeting with the strands and focused his full attention on the wire.

"Snap...Snap...SNAP!" he spoke in a increasing erratic voice as more of the strand broke. The person appeared to be moving in his direction at a walking pace. He grinned as he took position behind a metal crate and scouted where the person would. He surrounded the entire area with multiple threads as the person entered into view.

A man dressed in blue jeans, a brown leather jacket, a black beanie and a face mask. In his right hand was a silenced pistol and a knife in the other. He looked around the alleyway, and when he spotted no one, he was about to exit when the boy jumped over the crate and sent a powerful punch towards the hitman.

The Hitman dodged to the right as he tried to send a roundhouse kick to the child's head. Ducking under the attack, he activated a movement type magic that sent him flying backwards.

"Magic...?" the man said while sounding surprised. That was when Lao Gui sprung his trap. He pulled his two hands and the wires ensnared the assumed hitman in an inescapable trap. He tried squirming out of the trap, but in response he tightened the threads and wrapped them around the mans gun.

"Well, well, well...what do we have here?" spoke the boy amusingly as he walked up to the struggling man.

"You!" spoke the man furiously. The child assassin chuckled darkly as he pulled the knife out of the mans hand and pressed it aghast his neck. The man gulped as fear was instilled in his blue eyes.

"Tell me, little fly, why do I believe you were sent here to kill me?" spoke Lao Gui. The man remained silent as the boy let out a loud sigh. He took the knife and stabbed the man in the leg multiple times. He howled in pain as Lao Gui removed the knife from the mans leg and again pressed it against the hitmans neck and whispered sadistically into is ear.

"Let me tell you something, little fly..." he said as he took a long pause before resuming, "...I am not one for keeping silent ones like yourself alive for long. But both you and I can leave here quickly in one piece if you just fess up. If you don't, then we can just keep having fun till you croak..."

"Fine! Fine! I give up! Just let me let me live, please!" wailed the man.

"Just spill it already! Who hired you to kill me?" Lao Gui asked.

"It was... It... was... Ryo... no... Lee..." he said weakly. The red eyed boy growled in response as he furiously bashed the hilt of the knife against the mans head until he lost consciousness. Deactivating his strings, the man body fell to the ground with a thud as the boy felt a wave of irritation.

"I should return to then safe house then. I thought something interesting might happen here." he said while he exited the empty alley.

(2 Hours Later - Lao Gui)

Lao Gui cursed under his breath as he spotted multiple G.A.A. agents searching both inside and outside his safe house. They were all armed with guns, some with pistols while others were armed with SMG's and one had a rocket launcher. He had always hated fighting groups of enemies. He didn't have enough time to enjoy the experience, to savor each life he gruesomely ended, it truly made it a quite boring experience!

He pressed his scarred hand onto the wet concrete ground and let his invisible wires spread out across the area. They laid out and found their respective targets, secretly wrapping around their bodies while some began forming in the air.

His unique ability, which he referred to as Psion Strings, allowed him to create strands of materialized psions that he could manipulate. He could control their properties as well, such as their strength, length, sharpness, and even where they would originate from. He could also control them with his mind, thought it was not nearly as accurate and taxing as it was controlling with his hands.

As soon as he felt that the wires were all in place, he jumped and pulled his hands apart in the air. The strands followed, tearing through men's flesh as cries of horror screeched out. He landed on the nearby roof of a car and let out a small giggle. The surviving agents, recovering from the attack, stared at the boy in terror until another looked with realization upon his face.

"Wait!", he cried out as he aimed his pistol, "That's the target! Kill him!"

He fired his pistol and the others followed suit and attacked with their own guns. None of the bullets reached him and in response, the man with the R.P.G took aim and was about to fire, when he felt his own body move without his control. Lao Gui wrapped the wires around the man's body, and moved his arms as if he was a puppet. The man pointed the rocket launcher at his allied and fired.

The rocket exploded on impact and those caught in the blast radius were torn apart. The remaining agents inside the building ran to the windows and opened fired at the child assassin. Manipulating the wires to be as sharp as possible, he sent them at the building in a wave like attack that tore through flesh and concrete alike. What he didn't predict, however, was that he accidentally made the attack too powerful and as a result it tore through enough pillars to cause part of the building to collapse. Clouds of dust and debris quickly spread out across the city streets as he stood in a daze.

"Well... that was a bit... excessive..." he said in a humorous tone after a few moments of gazing at the destruction. He was all too sure that his own room inside the complex was destroyed, though it would be beneficial to retrieve as much of his gear as he could before the cops would show up. And the Hong Kong police force was known to have a quick response time, so he assumed that they were most likely already on their way.

Looking over to a dead G.A.A agent that was crushed by the debris, he noticed a bright screen in the midst of the dust and blood inside of his pocket. He bent down, removed it and inspected the device. It was a sturdy tablet that had sustained surprisingly little damage. He read the message that was sent around 1 hour ago, and as best as he could translate, it told the agent to kill Lao Gui and to return to base where they would interrogate a captured J.S.D.F agent.

"How interesting...a captured members of Japan's military? Well, not only will get back at those pricks for attacking me, I'll...hopefully...get a new ally to help with taking care of Ryo No Lee. This is becoming quite a thriller!" he said energetically as he slipped the tablet into his pocket. He slipped through a crack in the wall and began navigating the broken halls of the building. He walked over to an opening blocked off by a large slab of metal beams and concrete and activated his Psion Strings.

The boy didn't want to risk destabilizing the building even more by attacking the debris, so he guided the wires over an exposed metal pipe and then strung them around it, then sent them downwards to wrap around the fallen debris. Mustering his strength, he pulled down as hard as he could, lifting the slabs just enough to allow for his small body the slide through. As soon as he reached the other side, he deactivated the strings and allowed the debris the crash to the ground.

Twisting and turning through the ruined building, he eventually reached a door that seemed familiar. Walking up to it, he swiped his key card over the reader and the electronic lock disengaged, unlocking the door and allowing the assassin to enter.

Surprisingly, the room had received little damage other than a few cracks in the ceiling, floor and the walls. The room was littered with various electronic parts, computers and weapons along with a few different C.A.D's. Although he wasn't too keen on using many magics other than his Psion Strings, his research into C.A.D's and other magics allowed him to drastically improve his own gear and techniques. The C.A.D he mainly used were a pair of gloves that allowed for easier control of the wires and improved efficiency.

He went around the room grabbing all the thing he viewed as essential. He grabbed his silenced pistol, a handful of prototype C.A.D's and his duffel bag. At his computer, he pulled out the tablet from earlier and turned it on before attaching a wire to it, quickly breaching through the systems and discerning the data.

According to the data, he located the G.A.A base to be in the northern district of Kowloon City, which was south of his current position at Sha Tin City. It would probably take around two to three hours to travel to Kowloon, assuming that the traffic wouldn't be too congested at this hour.

Downloading all his needed data, he unplugged the device and used his ability to destroy all of the evidence around the room. He exited the room and followed the maze inside the destroyed building before leaving scene as the sounds of sirens resounded in the distance.

(Kowloon City, Hong Kong - Lao Gui - Three Hours Later)

Walking around the dark narrow streets of the squalid housing district, Lao Gui couldn't understand why anyone would stick around to live in these horrid conditions. The buildings were made out of rusted sheet metal and were falling apart, along with streets filled with dirt, trash and human waste. Though he could agree that it certainly was a good place to make a hideout, sort of hiding in plain sight of Hong Kong's vigilant security personal.

He stood at the central part of the northern district and spotted where the base was located. It was an apartment complex that spanned a large area, and was interconnected with the many other high rise buildings in the area. Seeing an isolated area, he walked to it and activated his Psion Strings to attach himself to the top of the builds and pulled himself up.

Reaching the top, he pulled himself onto the tin roof and looked around. Around him were various doors, porches, bridges and hallways that showed how crowded the city was. The city and Hong Kong itself was already burdened by the population, and was added on when refugees from World War Three had taken refuge here.

Lao Gui set out the shortest possible route to the base by using the tablet. It took him around 20 minutes before he was able to reach the entrance to the hidden enclave. He used his ability to trace out the half of the base in just a few minutes, feeling through his wires every person, hall and room they came across. Deactivating it, he felt a slight pain and exhaustion from magic over use. Although he had a large amount of psions, he was unable to keep his wires active for longer periods of time.

As soon as he recovered, he walked to the entrance and examined it. It was a door that had a physical lock rather than an electronic one, and would require a more brute force style entry. Pulling out the silenced pistol, he aimed it at the lock and fired it. The shot dented the only dented the lock, but after 3 more bullets the lock eventually fell off onto the nearby roof.

He pressed the door open and pulled out his knife he stole from the agent before. Spotting his first victim, he crept behind him and slit his throat while he shot another through the head with his silenced pistol.

"This...is...gonna...be...FUN!" he yelled before going on a killing spree through the overly congested halls of the base.

(G.A.A Agents Base, Hong Kong - Fujibayashi Kyouko)

Fujibayashi Kyouko was having quite an unpleasant week. She had to escape from the countryside from that mans guards. She was currently in one of the most decrepit cities in Asia, lost her phone earlier that day, was unsuccessful in finding her target. Then just in a stroke of bad luck, was knocked out when she returned home and woke up tied to a chair surrounded by G.A.A agents.

She knew the assignment given by her C.O was way to good to be true. It didn't help that her interrogator barley knew how to speak Japanese, and the fact that she barely spoke Chinese.

Seeing that she was not listening to him, the large man was about the smack her across the face when she could hear a loud screaming coming from the hall and the sounds of heavy objects hitting concrete. As the one closest to the door was about to open it, she barley spotted multiple purple lines that surrounded everyone in the room besides herself.

Before she could question it, her vision was filled with crimson red and the sounds of bones being crushed filled her ears. Closing her eyes for a brief second, she heard nothing enter or leave the room, neither the sounds of her captors or an outside intruder reached her ears.

Slightly opening her eyes, she nearly vomited at the horrid sight that assaulted her vision. Blood and mangled body parts littered the floor and the walls. Upon the door opening, she saw young boy standing with a silenced pilot in his hand and a bloodied knife in the other. Assuming that the boy was the one who killed the agents, she prayed that this boy wouldn't kill her as well.

"You must be this Japanese agent I've heard so much about..." spoke the child ominously in perfect Japanese. He walked towards as fear built up within her at the sight of the bloodied clothes and sadistic smile plastered on his face, coupled with his predator-like red eyes and messy black hair.

"Wh-Who...who are you?" she spoke uneasily.

"I am called many names..." he said as he walked behind her and swiftly cut the bindings placed around her hands. She rubbed her wrists as she pulled herself up Fromm the chair.

"But you can call me Lao Gui, Hitman extraordinaire and also someone who has a common enemy like yourself." he said before handing her a pistol and her C.A.D.

"Where do you find th-" she was cut off as Lao Gui placed a finger at their lips.

"We don't have a lot of time until the rest of the G.A.A agents return from their patrols. And as much as I would love to kill them, it would add more work and annoyance to our lives, and I don't want that. Just follow my lead until we get to somewhere safe, then we can talk." he spoke as he tossed her the combat armor she had worn and a cloak. She nodded at the boy, as she had no other plan to follow due to her being unable to contact high command without risk of being compromised.

"Put that on, and we can get moving. I'll be waiting outside, you can't follow the trail of corpses I left behind!" said the strange boy as he simingly skipped out of the room.

She stood momentarily before letting out a loud sigh. Today truly was a rather...interesting day. In just a short few hours, she experienced a whole spectrum of emotions. She was angry at herself for being too weak to fight against her attackers, she was disgusted when she saw the agents obliterated into pulp by the boys attack, fear for when the boy approached he with his bloody knife in hand, and topped off with confusion when the boy saved her.

Why did he save her life? Was Roy No Lee also after him to? Why was a mere child more powerful than she was? And what the hell was that magic? She had never seen anything like that in her life. Even the ancient magics, for which her family was known for, she couldn't recall a spell like the one he had just used.

She shook her head, knowing that asking questions like that right now would be fruitless. According to the boy, she would get her answers when they reached a place safe enough. She put on the armor and pulled the cloak over herself before exiting the battered compound.

Upon exiting through the busted door, she spotted the child in question kneeling shield gazing off into the city skyline. Walking over to him, he gave her an overly gleeful smirk as he stood up.

"Let's get out of Kowloon city. I hope you didn't have any personal belonging in your apartment, cause were going to have to leave now. I know a friendly little place in the border town of Sha Tau Kok, where we can discuss more about our "little plan" and answer your questions. Any objections?" he said plainly. She was confused as to the boys constant mood swings, the tone in his voice changing from playful to commanding in a split second.

"Must be why he's so psychotic..." she thought.

She gave him a simple nod and the two quickly reached street level through his strange ability. Walking sibe by side, it appeared as if they were a pair of siblings. The streets were very narrow and two were practically rubbing against each other as they walked, and she slightly blushed.

"So...I know you want to wait to answer any questions, but can you just answer one now?" she suddenly asked.

"Sure, but only one!" he spoke energetically. She took a deep breath in before speaking again.

"Why is someone like you a...a killer. I mean, most kids your age would be sleeping by now, playing video games or reading books. And the way you kill is... especially... gruesome. So why?" she asked sincerely.

She wondered why she asked that. She had only know the child for a short time, yet she somehow felt a little sad for the boy. Killing seemed almost second nature to him, the look in his eyes and the way he carried himself was like the veterans from the Third World War she interacted with due to her career as a soldier. Yet he only looked like he was around ten years old.

He didn't react violently, nor did he cry or laugh or show much emotion. He only remained silent as a frown became present on his childish face.

"Killing...killing is the only thing I know. I guess you could say I was born a weapon. Add in my specialized magic, and you get a nasty combination." he said with a tone of sadness.

Not wanting to press the issue, she gave a nod before the two resumed to walking in silence. Reaching the hyper-train, they quickly were moved on board the train and took their respective seats. The train moved quickly from Kowloon city and on their way to Sha Tau Kok.

(Sha Tau Kok, Hong Kong - 2 A.M)

The two sat opposite to each other inside a small diner on the outskirts of the town. Sha Tau Kok was on the fringe of the border between Hong Kong and the G.A.A. Being a small town that mainly focused on agriculture, it was much less crowded than the nearby cities where most of the jobs were.

There were only a few locals sitting at the bar seats reading from tablets while engaging in small talk. Lao Gud sipped on his black coffee while Kyouko drank a small cup of tea.

"So let me get this straight...", she said while placing down the cup, "You were a hitman working for Ryo No Lee, the director for province #62 of the Chinese district. And over the course of your jobs you assassinated rival political leaders, killed local rebel groups and gangsters and gathering intelligence for him. Does this sound right so far?" she asked while the boy nodded.

"Indeed. He's looking to move up in the G.A.A to try and become the supreme leader. He currently has a string of alliances across the various provinces, and even has support from some of the other districts as well. He aims to start a revolution to overthrow the central party." he responded.

Due to the fact that the Great Asian Alliance was a dictatorship over multiple different areas of Asia, the government was restructured as so after World War Three. A district is a the boundary of the countries prior to the war and is run by a governor. For example, China was its own district, along with others like Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia and other former nations as well. A province was a much smaller state that is directly administered by a director that is chosen by a governor. They had lesser power, but still influenced how provinces were run on a daily basis.

Kyouko sat in a thinking pose with her legs crossed and a puzzled face as she took in the information. She was assigned to gather information about the man in question, and only to assassinate him if there was direct threat posed. Apparently he has shown a particular aggression towards Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan, the three remaining parts of the main portion of Asia that was not under the direct control of the G.A.A.

"So what is this proposed 'plan' entail?" she asked.

"The first part of the plan is to eliminate his spy network so they can't track us. We can't have him chasing us across the whole of Asia to complete this plan. Then next stage is to eliminate his allies in Beijing. They are the ones who give him the money and material support he needs to begin his little revolution. Lastly, we go for the snakes head and kill him directly. Although we could easily reveal his plot to overthrow the government, that will not guarantee his death."

"How do you plan to enact all those things? And just how do I fit into this little plot? Why do you think I will help you with this plan?" she spoke somewhat aloofly. Not being taken aback, he merely smirked and leaned closer to her.

"Mainly because you really don't have a choice. Now that we are out of the city, he surely has given his agents the shoot on sight order. And I doubt you will be able to survive long enough to get to the Japanese embassy or return to Japan directly. Eliminating him is our best shot at survival. And working together will increase our chances of success. It's a win-win." he retorted.

She bit her lip as she contemplated his plan and his reasoning. He certainly wasn't wrong. She had read a report on how large his spy network is, that even spread across the world. With him dead, she would have nothing to worry about. And he exuded this type of confidence...she couldn't describe it. It gave her reassurance that their "mission" would succeed.

"Well, I concede. I guess I will go along with this plan for you... partner..." she said while raising her arm. Lao Gui sat for a moment, seemingly surprised that she so readily accepted his offer, before extending his own hand with a smile. They shook hand and finished their drinks before leaving the cafe.

Well, that's a wrap! Hope you all enjoyed it, I certainly liked writing it! I thank all the kind and helpful reviews everyone has been giving the story, I appreciate it! Hopefully the next thing I plan to update is the Recalled to Life with a new chapter, but everything is up in the air at this point. As I had stated above, there is currently a poll up on profile to vote on a new story! Thanks for reading, and have a good one!

Next Chapter - Chapter 3: Countryside Clash