Unleash the Chuunibyou!

Chapter 24: Fearful Future

"This... this has to be the realm of madness..." Fumiko's stunned tone sounded ghostly to her as she looked up at the sky, which was full of rock and other debris as they all slowly moved towards a massive purple magic circle in the sky. However, she was in a state of disbelief seeing as she recognized both the surrounding terrain as well as the several scattered buildings that were also floating among the rocks. This was Algus... but what had happened to it? It almost seemed like the magic circle was somehow eating the world as large chunks of ground were still being ripped from Hail before floating upwards and disappearing in the center of it. However, there wasn't only one as Fumiko noted at least twenty more in only one direction as they completely covered the sky between her and the horizon.

Soon, the vision changed around her, though this was apparently only an earlier version of what was going to happen as she found herself in a different large city filled with humans that currently had one of the purple magic circles above it. However it didn't seem to have begun destroying everything yet before a familiar figure appeared from the center of it. And as she saw the demon that she'd seen herself fighting in her last vision, she saw that it stopped while hovering in the air just above the city before it held out its hand which began to glow immediately afterwards. And once the light around the creature's hand reached a certain brightness, an orb of light of some kind shot towards a large castle which was directly in the middle of the city. Though after the orb hit, everything flashed as if the sun had suddenly appeared where the orb had landed. But just as fast as the orb had flashed, the light ended and Fumiko watched with wide eyes as both the castle and the city around it were nothing but a large crater now.

When the vision changed again, she was afforded a different perspective of the destruction as the creature released the orb again, however, now Fumiko was standing on top of a battlement of the very same castle in which the orb was headed towards. Only now that she was closer and the orb seemed to be moving slowly for some reason, she looked around to find that she wasn't alone as she was standing next to what looked like a human king and queen who were both surrounded by their guards who were all looking up at the orb fearfully. And as she continued to look around, Fumiko felt her blood run cold for a moment as she finally set her eyes on the hero, the silver-haired elf and Hani who were also on the battlement for some reason. Though as soon as she saw them, while the orb had been moving slowly before, time seemed to to fix itself as the queen screamed and everything was enveloped in the same light that had flashed before with the same crater being the result.

"Death and destruction are coming to Hail, that much I understand." Fumiko spoke to herself before her floating form spun in the air so that she could gaze up at the magic circle that still hovered over where the city used to be placed. "But why are you telling me? Certainly there are more-"

Before she could finish, the vision reset itself and Fumiko was once again standing on top of the battlement. And while everything was happening in real time this time, she became curious as, just before the orb of light hit the castle, a spark of what looked like black electricity suddenly raced through the air until it hit the orb and made it vanish without a trace. Though after following the spark to where she thought the source was, she was shocked as she saw herself yet again, standing on top of the flying Arashi while smirking at the creature that had cast the orb before it began to chase after her and she led it away from the city.

"Why must I act when the hero is standing right here?" Fumiko asked out loud in her vision again. "I am a Master of Magic and the Seeker of Hope, but surely there is someone else that would be able to-"

With the vision changing yet again, Fumiko examined the area around her to see that she was strangely inside of what looked like a long hallway with stone-brick making up the majority of the surroundings. And while she once again saw the hero, elf and Hani, they seemed to be struggling as the hallway was collapsing behind them and they were all running for their lives. Though when her form moved after them and they encountered a large chamber that had no other exits save for one that was at least five stories above them and could only be accessed by a single long ladder, all of them started to climb it hastily in an attempt to get to safety. But when they neared the top, a large chunk of stone fell from the ceiling until it hit the bottom of the ladder and destroyed it. And while it was slow, with all of the hero's group wearing large backpacks that held all of their equipment, they couldn't balance themselves to keep the remainder of the ladder on the wall before they slowly fell backwards until the top of the ladder hit the opposite wall and they all were now hanging on it from their arms. Though even that wasn't the worst of their situation as more and more stone fell from the ceiling, breaking the ladder completely before the trio were crushed underneath thousands of pounds of stone.

Completely confused, Fumiko's head started to hurt as the vision changed yet again, playing out exactly like it had last time only this time the group didn't have backpacks and the elf was holding a large satchel at his side. And when they finally reached the top of the ladder and apparently safety, they all breathed a sigh of relief before the elf opened his satchel and flicked a small peice of paper that was embedded into the satchel's flap for some reason. Though soon she discovered why as a canteen full of some kind of liquid seemed to jump out of the otherwise empty-looking satchel before he took a few drinks of it himself before passing the canteen to the others.

Her head-pain becoming even worse, the vision again shifted until Fumiko found herself standing in front of a gigantic white temple in the middle of a city that she'd never seen before. Though unlike with the other visions, this time a noise that sounded like a flag flapping in the wind made her look up to see that there was a large peice of paper that flew in the air above her that read 'Citadel' before it disappeared as soon as she read and understood the word. But as she learned where she was and the paper disappeared just like it had when she'd gained her title, she had to look around before she finally found herself in the vision. Though while she'd been noticeable before, the 'her' in the vision was dressed in a pure-black robe with its hood hiding both her face and her hair as she operated the most shady-looking caravan shop that she'd ever seen before in her life. And now that she looked at it, her prices were terrible too seeing as she was selling everyday items for gold instead of the copper or silver that it would normally take.

"Psst. Hey you." The Fumiko in the vision suddenly whispered, and while she didn't know what was going on at first, the real Fumiko finally spotted the person who her vision was beckoning. That person being a very suspicious yet very familiar-looking elf with silver hair who was walking by before he slowly started walking towards her. "Come here. Come here."

"Do I know you?" The elf asked before crossing his arms and glaring at her after noticing her prices. However, after the rest of the vision played out in front of her, Fumiko suddenly knew what it wanted her to do before everyone disappeared from inside of it and a large ticking sound drew her gaze to the sky once again. However, instead of a paper this time, the sun had turned into a massive clock with a bar beneath it that had numbers slowly counting down. And seeing as she already knew what it wanted her to do, she guessed that this was the time at which she was supposed to do it, which was only two days away. However, thankfully, this was where her visions ended as she suddenly woke up in her bed at the inn in the middle of the night, immediately sitting straight up out of bed while gasping for air as if felt like she hadn't been breathing.

"Fu?! Are you okay?!" A semi-conscious Hani asked in alarm while Fumiko held one hand over her chest in an attempt to calm her breathing and the other over her head to try and ease her splitting headache.

"Y-yeah... I'm fine." Fumiko lied while giving her friend the best forced smile that she could manage. "It was just a nightmare."

Without saying anything, Hani climbed out of her own bed before walking across the room and lifting the covers of Fumiko's before crawling inside and hugging her.

"You don't have to be afraid of anything as long as I'm around." Hani stated sleepily. "I'm... really... strong."

Just like that, even while attempting to comfort Fumiko, Hani had fallen asleep again while leaving Fumiko to calm down by herself. And thankfully, as her breathing recovered, her headache went away as well before she just sat in bed and looked at Hani, contemplating everything that she'd just seen and what it could have all possibly meant. However, even if these visions were beginning to hurt and the possibilities of the future made her afraid, she knew one thing for sure and that was that she didn't want Hani to die. And so, Fumiko didn't even have to think as she figured that she would try her very best to keep her friend alive just in case her visions were true.

"It looks like we're both heading to Citadel." Fumiko said softly while brushing some dangling black hair out of Hani's face. "I won't let you die. Not if I can help it."