Chapter 8: Confrontation.

  Zoey stood outside the student council room with her bookbag opened. She was in the process of wrapping her hands and putting on her boxing gloves. There was no way in hell was she going to willingly let herself be executed after all the shit she put herself through. The entire purpose of joining the boxing gym was to prevent something like this from happening. And she was going to make sure she got her money and time worth.

  Zoey softly opened the door to the room and saw Alexander and Lindsay in the middle of talking about something.

"Glad you could make it so soon Zoey." He said before noticing her gloves. "What are those for?"

  Zoey made sure to close the door behind her before rushing forward. Alexander freaked out after seeing the look in her eyes as he tried to get up from his seat. Zoey's boxing glove smashed into his face before that could happen and sent the student president to the floor, bashing the back of his skull against the floor. Zoey couldn't tell if he was unconscious or not but she still had one more magician to deal with before she could feel relieved. Her eyes squinted over to Lindsay.

"What are you doing!?" She screamed.

"Protecting myself." Zoey answered calmly with a dangerous tint in her eyes as she slowly cornered Lindsay.

"We weren't planning to hurt you! Why in the world would you think that!? We just wanted to make sure you kept our secret safe! In a non-violent manner!" She made sure to clarify.

"You weren't?" Zoey was taken aback.

"I don't think I've ever been hit that hard in my life..." Blood leaked from the student president's nose and his lip was busted.

'Magicians are tougher than I thought... I put everything into that punch.' Zoey thought to herself.

"Zoey, we don't plan to hurt you in any way... We just wanted to ask for your help." He revealed.

"How could I help you?" Zoey asked. What could a bunch of magicians not do that she could?

  Except punch things pretty hard. She had confidence in punching things. But surely magicians would have a better way to deal with problems than punching them. A magic missile or a classic fireball could deal with most problems probably.

"It seems you are aware that we are Magjistars and can use magji."

"I don't know what that is and no I don't." Zoey continued to refuse the existence of the supernatural.

"Non-Magjistars would normally call us magicians, wizards, sorcerers and stuff like that. And the source of energy we use to perform magji is called mahna which is commonly referred to as mana while magji is magic." Alexander explained.

"Magjistars are magicians and magji is magic?" Zoey asked for clarification.

"That's right." Lindsay nodded as she went to one of the lockers and brought out a medical kit to patch up Alexander.

"So, what is it you need my help for again?" Zoey asked.

"As Magjistars, we can't recklessly get involved with normal humans but we have no choice but to get involved with them if we wish to help them." He began explaining.

'Help from what?' Are we in some sort of danger?' Zoey wondered.

"We've actually been looking for someone like you for a while now... But who would believe us if we told them we were magjistars and could do magji?"

"If you showed them what you did in that room, they would." Zoey told them. If someone did magic in front of you, you'd have to believe it.

"We are forbidden from revealing our true selves in front of normal humans. The normal punishment for revealing in front of a human is being stripped of our ranks and having our magji sealed but... if you help us solve a case here at school, we won't have to go through that." Alexander said.

  Zoey took a moment to think before responding. They needed her help and from how they described their situation, they needed it badly. But what could she get from helping them out? It was their own fault they screwed up. Zoey had no real reason to help these two for free. She wasn't some noble heroic person who's willing to help anyone in a bad situation. Zoey was completely selfish and only cared about herself and her own interests!

"I'm not agreeing to help you but what is the case?" Zoey asked.

"You know about the Jeffrey William? The student who died the other day?" Zoey nodded.

"This case deals with the daemonic being that killed him."

"So, I could lose my life?" Even more of a reason for her to refuse.

"Well, yes, but if we go about it smartly, no." Alexander tried to reassure her.

"What he's trying to say is, if you can be bait for it, we can easily take care of it." Lindsay explained more directly.

'Now I'm bait?' Zoey's willingness to help reached an all-time low.

"What will I get for helping you?" Zoey asked before she turned around and started walking away.

  Her asking this question seemingly caused Alexander's eyes to widen in surprise. As if her not immediately choosing to help them was something unexpected and shocking. Does this little handsome idiot not realize that her life was at stake and she was being bait for a demonic creature that already killed someone?! Her trust in them wasn't all that high either! Their magic origins got revealed by her of all people! A fucking socially awkward retard! Plus, Alexander and Lindsay couldn't defend themselves against her earlier. She could've had her way with them and pummeled them into a coma! How could these two even think about dealing with demons?

"If you help us, you can feel relieved knowing that you helped avenge the death of an innocent boy and stopped the chance of another murderous daemon from attacking another student at the school." Alexander said.

"Not interested." She replied instantly, surprising him again. Zoey Winters was not a hero and never would be. Doing dangerous work without any benefits wasn't something for her.

"If you help us, we can help boost your grades for the rest of the year by doing your homework and providing you a split of the reward for the case after we turn it in." Lindsay said, speaking more to her liking.

"What is the reward for a case like this?" Zoey wanted to know.

"We Magjistars are gifted cavons for a case like this along with normal US currency. We will give you the US dollars and keep the cavons for ourselves."

"How much?"

"For a low-level daemon like this, you should expect 1 grand at the least. Three thousand, if you're lucky."

"I'm in." Zoey immediately agreed.

  Alexander didn't understand how Lindsay was able to easily understand Zoey and convince her while he couldn't. He planned to ask her at a later date but for now, was relieved they finally found help to deal with this daemon. Should be a simple open and shut case with Zoey here. Maybe if they're lucky, she'll hit the daemon twice as hard as she hit him!

"Let's go deal with the daemon then." Alexander spoke.

"Right now?" Zoey questioned.

"When else?" Lindsay retorted.

"He's at the gym in the storage room. Follow us." Alexander led the way to the gym.

  The teachers gave them strange looks but none of them stopped them or questioned them on what they were doing. Zoey guessed that was one of the benefits of being student council president and vice president. All the adults trusted you. Even that hard ass Brock smiled at them with a wave. His gaze on her was softer after seeing her with the two. What a fake piece of shit.

"Wait, so you knew where the demon was but didn't deal with it until you had bait? Why do you need me?" Zoey wasn't sure why she was needed at all.

"Daemons don't show themselves to Magjistars. Only normal people because most of the time they can't defend themselves."

"Why does that matter? Can't you use like magic and sense them or something and then kill them dead with a spell?"

"I wish." Lindsay sighed.

"We are only trainee Magjistars. The magji we can perform is limited to only exterminating daemons. Once we solve enough cases, we'll be allowed to learn more magji as the Organization of Magjistars will feel that we are reliable enough to spend resources on." Alexander explained.

"So, how did you figure out it was a demon if you can't even sense it or whatever? And what was that magic you were doing in the classroom then?"

"We investigated the details around Jeffrey's death and also frequently heard rumors about strange things happening in the gym's storage room." Lindsay spoke this time, ignoring the question about what they were doing in the classroom.

"There are plenty of strange rumors in the school. They can't all be demons, can they?" Zoey said.

"Maybe." Alexander answered, not completely sure. He couldn't sense daemons. Just kill em.

"We'll need you to tell us about those rumors in the future." Lindsay said.

  They soon arrived outside the gym storage room.

"So, what's the plan here?" Zoey wanted to know. She probably should've asked on the way.

"You go in and when you see the daemon, scream. Then we bust in and kill him." Lindsay explained simply.

"This plan seems too simple to work."

"Well, all we needed was a normal person to bait the daemon out so we could deal with him. We didn't have that before today, so, he usually did whatever he wanted." Lindsay told her.

"Why didn't the magic organization just send someone to help you with this then?"

"Ask Alex." She rolled her eyes.

  Zoey saw a small blush on his stupidly cute face. It wasn't Ethan's level of cuteness but still hard to ignore.

"I'll explain later... Let's focus on dealing with this case for now."

"3k, here I come..." Zoey took a deep breath as she entered the dark storage room with her boxing gloves. She got into her usual stance and kept her senses up. From what Alexander and Lindsay described, this demon seemed more like a ghost that needed to be exorcised than a supernatural demon needing to be killed.

  Alexander and Lindsay closed the door behind her. They stood outside the door and waited for Zoey's scream. She wasn't going to scream like they wanted though. Even if she got jump scared, she would stay as silent as a mouse and only horribly jump in fright. Her heart would race and she would start sweating but no scream. Zoey chalked it up to people handling fear and fright differently. She didn't see the way she reacted to scares as strange or anything.

"Another tasty human sent for me to play wi---" The voice's words were cut off as Zoey's boxing glove whacked into something's face to the side of her.

  It looks like the fear that struck her heart after hearing a voice suddenly whispering in her ear manifested in the form of a powerful left uppercut. The demon growled in irritation but Zoey's fear at facing the supernatural exploded. She let the demon take the brunt of these terrifying feelings coming out of her by dishing out punch after punch on its face. A face that had two overgrown canines from the bottom jaw and red skin. It tried resisting by reaching for her fists but this only frightened Zoey more, activating her Focus skill.

  Its claws moved in slow motion in Zoey's eyes, no not just its claws. Everything seemed to have slow down for her. The blue blood leaking from out of its face, the impacts of her gloves denting in the face of this unholy creature, and its cries of anger and pain. Zoey rarely was able to activate Focus because of the requirements for using it. She needed to feel as if her life was in danger or her body was being pushed to its absolute limits.

  Zoey's fists moved without her input as she continued to bash the demon's face in. Once it fell to the ground, she got on top of it and continued smashing its face with all of her strength. Soon, her fear from earlier turned into something resembling excitement. The demon could barely resist anymore and the only signs of it being alive was the small whimpers coming from its mouth. The student president and vice president were going to kill this thing anyway, right? They shouldn't mind if she took care of this nasty little thing for them instead.

  Zoey's body felt as if it was already spent from the adrenaline used earlier but this didn't stop her from containing the dopamine flaring off in her brain into dispersing. She didn't stop her assault on the demon even after she barely heard any sounds coming from it. Her mind was being blanked with ecstasy and joy from defeating the supernatural. Zoey's skills were rising with every punch she gave to this evil creature. The feeling of herself improving at a visible rate so easily blanked her mind that she didn't even realize that she was killing a living creature. It might be something that killed an innocent young boy but it was still a living being. Most humans have a sort of innate hesitation and refusal to end another's life. Especially when it resembles them in physiology and intelligence.

  It wasn't until she delivered the final blow, that Alexander and Lindsay forced the door open. They haven't heard any sounds inside for at least 5 minutes! The plan was for Zoey to scream when she encountered the daemon but there wasn't a peep out of her! Eventually, the two started to get worried that maybe something happened to her before she could scream.

  And what they saw when they walked in was something that made both of them nauseous. Their stomachs doubled over inside their gut and they both had to turn away and vomit from the sight. Alexander had to empty his insides longer than Lindsay but she still couldn't bear the sight of looking at Zoey and the aftermath of her actions. Zoey's body and face were splattered with blue blood all over. Her dark purple boxing gloves were now colored completely dark blue and she held a strange dark red shard in her glove's hand.

"That shard! Please give it to me!" Lindsay asked, still unable to directly look at her.

  Zoey got up from the corpse feeling like she just had the greatest orgasm ever. Hell, her legs were wobbly too! The death of the demon still hasn't really sunken in for her yet. As she was about to toss over the gem to Lindsay, the shard decided it didn't want to go to Lindsay. And instead, it shattered into pieces and went inside her boxing gloves.

"Uh...? I didn't do it?" Zoey proclaimed.

"Just our freaking luck..." Lindsay muttered under her breath with a facepalm.

"What happened? Did the magji shard break? I heard something shatter." Vomiting his guts up really took a lot out of him. He looked withered and drained. Not nearly as cute anymore.

"It merged with her boxing gloves." Lindsay told him.

"Oh, so she killed it. A normal human killed a daemon with boxing gloves... A girl around our age killed a daemon without even using magji. Haha... We're totally screwed Lindsay... Hahahahahaha! We can say goodbye to our magji for good!" Alexander muttered.

"What's going on? Isn't it good that the demon is dead?" Zoey asked, completely lost.

"That shard was the only proof we had of turning this case in at the organization..." Lindsay informed.

"I could go with you guys and show them my boxing gloves. They should be able to sense it inside of them, right?" From what Zoey could tell, if she couldn't give them the shard, she wouldn't be getting her three thousand dollars.

"Are you sure you want to do that? Because the only way we cannot get stripped of our rank and have our magji sealed is if you agree to partner with us and reveal yourself as a human who knows about the magji side of the world hidden from the public. Letting the Magjistars at the organization examine your boxing gloves will only allow us to claim the rewards for the case." Alexander said.

"So, I'll have to do this type of stuff more often if I partner with you two?" Zoey tried to understand.

"Yes, and other stuff." Lindsay spoke up.

"I'll do that then." Zoey couldn't stop the shiver of excitement going through her body.

  She could experience something like this more than once? Just seeing the changes to her Status Box was more than enough to want a repeat of this situation. The things she felt during this little demon hunt were something she never thought she'd ever feel before. Dealing with the delinquents in the main city or sparring with some of the beefcakes at the gym couldn't compare to dealing with that creature. She'd be crazy to refuse!

"What? Really?!" Alexander looked at her in excitement before quickly turning back around and retching nothing out.

"Yeah. I'll be down for some more demon hunting." Zoey agreed.

"Meet us in the student council room tomorrow. We'll take you there to get registered and get your share of the case."

"Okay."

"We'll be leaving now... The Magji Cleaners will deal with the daemon's body." Lindsay said.

"Can't I get a towel or something? I can't go home drenched in blue." Zoey asked.

'Inconsiderate pricks...'

"Oh uhm... There should be a towel in there, right?" Alexander still couldn't look in her direction.

"I'm not seeing anything..." Zoey searched inside the storage room. "Oh! I found some. You two can go now." Zoey told them as she started wiping herself clean.

  They were glad to hear those words and left without any hesitation. Zoey didn't know how those two were going to ever rank up if they couldn't even stand a dead body. Their job was to kill the demon! Whatever magic they were going to perform to kill the demon can't have been clean and easy, right? A question she had for herself was why was she handling it so well? Zoey watched a lot of movies and read a bunch of books where a person's first reaction to a dead body was like Alexander's and Lindsay's but she handled it kind of well. Maybe it was because of the Status Box's effect on her... Or maybe she was always fucked up and the world never had the chance to pull it out of her until now.