✮ Raisa A. Gremory ✮
Just as Raisa was getting her bearings from her demonstration of the most difficult of the powers she actually had some semblance of skill with, something seemed to cause the already rebellious Makoto to snap. A sudden surge of blue flames from her left caused the young magus to stumble back, alarmed, only to find herself looking on in confusion as the boy's form shifted to that of a gigantic black horse-like creature. Then, giving a roar of defiance that rang throughout her mind, he bounded into the air and soared off, a trail of azure sparks showering down in his wake. Raisa opened her mouth to call after him, but by the time she realized that he had literally just had the audacity to take off and run in front of pretty much the entire school, he was already far beyond the range of her voice. Slapping a palm to her forehead, Raisa stifled a groan. This was all going to be put on her shoulders, wasn't it?
A peal of slightly demented and utterly hysterical laughter snapped her back to attention as, turning to her left, she found the hooded boy half doubled over in fits of giggling as he asked the question she herself was now wondering somewhere in the back of her mind.
"Did he just turn into a horse?"
"Looks that way," She replied with a sigh. "And a flying one, at that. But if you're looking forward to a pony ride, given his previous attitude, I have to say, it's probably not going to happen. Especially since he seems to have just up and left." She tried to joke about the situation, but given the glum expression on her face, it was fairly clear her heart wasn't in it. Turning towards the teacher, she gave an apologetic bow. "I'm sorry, sir. It appears I offended him when we first met. Him running off like this is probably my fault. If I'd just been able to calm him down..." She trailed off, biting her lip. "Either way, it looks like we'll need to retrieve him before going after our doppelganger. Can I see that map?" Stepping over beside the teacher, she glanced down at the paper he held indicating where their target would be - but which also showed the surrounding area in fairly good detail. Using that, they could at least determine where Makoto had been going. Aligning the surrounding scenery in her mind, the young mage tried to work out his likely destination from the course he'd taken. However, as she realized the answer to the question that plagued her, her scarlet eye went wide with surprise.
"He's heading straight for the doppelganger!" She murmured aloud. "Is he planning on taking it out before us and discrediting the rest of his own group?" She groaned, slapping her forehead yet again. Well, they couldn't very well just let him rush off and fail the rest of them. Besides, if the enemy was supposed to be a copy of the Headmistress, even a flawed one... it might just end up killing him. She didn't want to face this thought, but it was certainly a distinct possibility. They had to get there quickly and help, before he rushed into a fight that might have been the death of him.
Turning to face the hooded boy, she was about to ask him to follow her quickly when he suddenly spoke up, answering a question which hadn't been asked, but which had nonetheless been plaguing her.
"Am I still supposed to say my powers? I mess with people's brains. I can change their morals and ideals, as well as give them some recommendations as to what they should do. Its cooler when I'm around kids, 'cause they've got, like, no impulse control. I was notorious for making my classmates wet themselves when I was younger, since they went along with whatever popped in their head." Raisa raised a single eyebrow, her gaze narrowing into an expression of perplexed, slightly annoyed disappointment. Was it just her, or did he sound proud that he could and had used his abilities in such a childish fashion?
And... wait. Somebody with the power of hypnotic suggestion was complaining not five minutes ago about me being able to give him orders? The magus wondered, bewildered at what leaps of self-justification this train of thought must have required. Maybe he was just angry that she was infringing on his area of expertise. "That may prove quite useful. Maybe between the two of us, we can get Makoto to stand down before he does anything else rash," She said gravely. "This exercise was designed for a group of three people, which means that if he charges into it alone, he could end up getting himself hurt or killed. We have to stop him before then, which means we need to get there first. I'm not going to force you to go along. If you feel the same way as he does, I'll go and stop him on my own, regardless of the risks that entails." Speaking resolutely, she took one last glance at the map, and then turned her gaze towards the sky into which the Qilin had just soared away. "There's no time to waste. Follow me if you so choose." Speaking these words, the girl braced herself against the firm ground, power rushing forth from the center of her body and from the knife stored in her skirt, bathing her form in a halo of crimson. Reinforcing herself so as to be able to withstand the strain its own high-speed movements would create, she launched herself high into the air, trailing power like a red comet. She soared upward, rising high over the hill upon which the school was located and landing on a nearby telephone pole. A faint green flash blinked from underneath her eyepatch as she analyzed the path taken by the row of cables laid out ahead of her. It led straight to the target area. Using it as a vector, she found it simple to plot out her path and destination. And so, drawing her dagger, she took a deep breath. Short distance teleportation always took a lot out of her, but that was nothing compared to the strain of moving herself a great distance. Still, if it was the only way to get her to the doppelganger before Makoto charged headlong into it...
In an instant, the energy around her flared several times brighter, then collapsed inward upon her form, obliterating her body's mass and converting it directly to energy, which darted along the "road" set out by the cables ahead of her. Streaking over the city in a flash, like lightning, she found herself dizzily rising to her feet atop a particularly high telephone pole overlooking a large park, at the center of which stood a figure which looked eerily similar to the headmistress - a figure which was already gazing upward not towards herself, but rather towards a rapidly approaching bolt of black and blue. It seemed that even transporting herself instantaneously hadn't been enough of a head start of the young Qilin. Nevertheless, even though he'd probably hate her for what she was about to do, she had no choice but to act. She had no idea if this would work, but if the doppelganger was already preparing to attack him, it was her only option.
Focusing all of her power into her crimson eye, she wished with all her might that he would see her, that he would notice her before he saw anything else. If wishing to disappear had caused her to become imperceptible, maybe this wish would make her draw his perceptions to her instead. She could only hope it had worked, for in the next instant, the shadows on the ground began to rise in bladed masses, streaking upward to skewer the soaring Qilin. The light of Raisa's eye intensified a thousandfold as her wish changed, becoming something new. She wished that for just a moment, he would perceive her as his master, and would follow one command. Her green eye, even beneath the patch that covered it, could already see through the openings in the incoming indiscriminate attack. There would be a small gap to his right if he just moved a little bit in that direction, and then dived. Raising her voice, she gave the loudest yell she could muster.
"Move to the right, then dive straight downward!" Giving this commanding shout, she leaped from her perch atop the telephone pole, converting her energy back into reinforcing her body as she streaked downward towards the doppelganger below her, knife raised to strike. She needed to draw its attention so that Makoto could safely land. Once that was done, she could fall back to a safe distance and wait to see if Rabesach would arrive to support them. Planning thus, she came crashing down, plunging her blade downward towards the back of the construct's neck. But the Doppelganger, too, had been affected by her attention-grabbing eye, and had already turned its gaze upon her. Darting backward, it evaded, her knife cutting through thin air as she collided with the ground with a crash, sending a cloud of dust rising into the air. For a moment, everything was obscured. Then, in the next instant, the cloud shattered outward, scattered by the force of some unseen movement as, seemingly instantly, Raisa had moved directly in front of her enemy, her eye glowing a brilliant red as her knife, now held in a reverse grip, slashed upward towards the copy's neck. The trick of this technique lay in simply concealing her presence until the attack itself broke her illusion of invisibility, thereby making it seem as though she had closed the distance and begun an attack all at once, her movements rendered invisible. Yet, once again, the doppelganger defended itself, its shadow rising up to form a tangible barrier that deflected the girl's knife at the last second. Twisting with the force of her redirected blow, Raisa allowed her legs to fly out from under her, whirling as she slid past the doppelganger's legs to spin upward into a kneeling stance, slashing the back of its left knee before launching backward to evade a torrent of shadowy blades that slammed into the space she'd occupied just a moment prior. Barely managing to land on her feet, she skidded backward towards the spot where she estimated that Makoto, had he followed her command, would now be standing. She only hoped that as her gaze turned to face him for just a split second that he would actually be there, unharmed - because if he wasn't, she now had a very angry doppelganger of the most powerful mage in the area that was relatively unharmed and was now dead set on tearing her to pieces.