Trixy and The Crescent Of Rana

CHAPTER 16 : RAW

"What are they doing?" asked Ezhil, leaning back on their scooter and studying the women in black who were busily caressing the raw edges of their newly found doorway.

Karthik had fenced the surrounding area with police cones and men as soon as he arrived. Just like Maahir predicted, the word had spread really fast already causing both public and media to crowd behind the cones, hoping to catch a glimpse of the rumoured dark portal or at least the rookie Trixy duo that's said to have discovered the portal out of nowhere. Maahir was still selling the story that Ezhil had accidentally slipped up and pressed the brick while examining the walls for scratch marks.

"They are closing the portal," he replied, gulping his sixth cup of mushroom soup. Publicity, wanton or not, increased his anxiety and appetite exponentially. "Or destroying it, to be more precise."

"And how are they doing it, specifically?"

"With atrial abilities, there is mainly just one rule you cannot ignore. Whatever you do – creation, protection or demolition, only one thing counts, S.E."

"Yeah, I remember Dan saying that too. Said the handcuffs were loaded with them or something. He said it was some energy."

"Not some energy, it's known as Schwan energy. It is similar to your mana strength from video games, except that we don't have a bar indicating the exact value on the top right corner. There is no exact measurement of it. It's like the other traits of a fighter – agility, muscle power, experience. In a real battle, only what's uncountable counts."

"So, why is it called Schwan energy? Pretty weird name. They could have just named it mana, like from your video games."

"Well, that's a rather difficult question which I don't believe an ordinary man of this country could answer," said he, and smirked slyly, "But consider yourself lucky for I used to be this nerdy kid in my high school who never failed to read those yellow coloured 'Did you know?' boxes. So, I just happen to know the answer. Schwan was this Gordian scientist who, three centuries ago, proved the existence of S.E for the first time and thus it was named after him."

She decided to ignore his elaborate preamble. "What are they doing with their S.E there? I don't see them conjuring any attributes or any kind of transformation. They just seem to be touching the walls."

"They don't have attributes, like fire or water, as far as I know."

"What?"

"They use a special class of abilities called the Raw. They utilize no attributes. They don't convert their S.E into any physical matter or directly use it perform any kind of physical change. They only channel their own raw S.E, without changing it's form, in and out. Raw specialize in sealings and summonings. They are currently sending their S.E in through the portal, trying to implode it from inside."

"Whoa, sounds like a crazy ability to me. I think that also means they are somewhat similar to us. They too have very unique abilities but not too well versed in combat."

Maahir grunted a laugh. "What? Not too well versed in combat? Most of the raws are insane fighters. They channel their S.E throughout their body amplifying their stats exponentially. Some end up toning bones like steel."

"Bones like steel? I'm pretty sure that's not the expression."

"No, not the expression. I meant literally. You should have seen Fraudin breaking tables like tea cups."

"Whoa, Fraudin is a Raw?!"

"Technically yes. But Raw is too broad a class to confine people. And more often than not, it acts as a skill than a type. Many people who possess different attributes too have learned Raw skills. Currently, Fraudin can channel his S.E only to improve his strength but he can, and he might, possibly learn some other Raw skills too."

Clearly, there was too much of raw stuff to get into her head in one go. She ought to consider that crash course on 'Principles of Atrial abilities for beginners' that Nancy said her university was offering.

"What is our next move, now?" she asked.

"How about enquiring the crows or some other birds in the area if they had seen anything?" asked he, "Some crow or other should have seen something."

She giggled and waited for him to laugh. But he remained as sombre as a stone. "You are not joking? There should be lakhs of crows in Vinpur. How do you expect me to find a single one that saw your something? We even don't know how long of a memory they have. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack."

"And we might find the needle, if we are lucky."

"That is bullshit. I'm definitely not going to spend the next few years of mine interviewing crows. Forget it."

He sighed with an air of let-down. "Well, then. Let's begin Madhan's investigation tomorrow."

"Where are we going to start?"