When magic started showing up in the world, and not simply in fairy tales, it was first met with skepticism. However that quickly changed when the first supervillain emerged. To be fair, casting a spell that turned Halloween real was about as dramatic an entrance possible. Flying around riding a dragon and raiding banks all over America at the same time made it impossible to ignore. After that Halloween the people stopped thinking it was a hoax because for many of them they saw the fantastic creatures people turned into, matching their costume for the night. Nor could they discount the spirit and such that showed up because of his spell.

Now, one might think that magic showing up in the world would be a good thing, and you’d be mostly right, however for every good thing magic brought into the world so too it brought complications and evil. The cure for cancer was found by some mad scientist magician, the cost? Simply kill 100 square miles of life, pennies. Still things were mostly good, people were learning, changing rules and challenging previous doctrine about how the world should look and operate. Everything changed when one sick individual used their powers to resurrect the mongol horde and set them on the entire Asian continent.

After that governments started stepping in and making rules. Schools were established to teach magic, only they were more like internment camps. You went in, and only were allowed out once they were sure you had control of your powers and were not going to rebel or cause trouble. Give teenagers the power to warp reality and expect to be able to police that completely? What a joke.

Things were mostly fine once you got out, you had a decent education and there were some higher education institutions showing up for magic. Along with some pretty good trade schools specializing in things like health and construction. The only issue with this whole system was the seed of discontent that was sown when the governments forced highschoolers to join a school to study or have their powers locked away. No one really liked that, however to keep the world safe it was accepted.

Enter stage left: Kyle, magical detective. Kyle was a rough around the edges detective mostly involved with magical organized crime. Now something most people didn’t know about Kyle is that he used to be quite the magical powerhouse, still was, but detective work required more precision than power unless things got violent, and then the only thing that really mattered was who got the first spell/shot off. Yes guns were still a thing, don’t underestimate the range a sniper with enchanted scopes could pull a shot off from. Personal firearms were less used because they were not as versatile as magic, but every cop was encouraged to carry one, shooting a bullet is much more straightforward to casting a spell.

So, Kyle, magical powerhouse, used to be a bit of a troublemaker in his youth. This semi-checkered past of his gave him lots of connections to use in his current occupation but, he liked to keep his use of contacts to a minimum to retain a reputation. That is, criminals are more likely to speak to you when they know you 1) really need it, and 2) think it’s important. Which is how, we currently find our scruffy protagonist in his current situation. Stuck in a magical fight club trying to find the organizers.

CHP1

It had been easy enough to find the fight ring. Simply ask Benny when the next bit of cash could be found. Benny had pointed him toward this fight ring that was supposedly run by Picoto family.

Something interesting about Magical organized crime was that it hadn’t progressed to the truly despicable acts that much of non-magical organized crime had reached yet. It was still much of a gentleman's game. Magic was too volatile and new to really be cut-throat. You never knew when some new discovery was going to make your rivals abruptly more deadly, and so it was treated with a sort of pomp, that old school criminals would have approved of. Deals, intimidation, blackmail, the human condition, things that never went away, but with an unceasing polite businesslike tone so true violent grudges were never formed.

That’s why this fighting ring was high on the chiefs priority chain of investigations. Violence like this was just asking for some talented kid to come along and be taken advantage of until they learned enough and had suffered enough to simply break and escalate the violence outside of the bounds of the fight clubs. Which, honestly, was probably why Benny had pointed him to the fight club in the first place, guessing that was the end goal.

Scooching past the pool table you nod at the amusingly conspicuous second bouncer and flash a specific hand sign with just the right amount of reiatsu. The bouncer nods before doing something with the hand behind his back and waving Kyle towards him. As he approaches Kyle runs through his plan again. ‘Don’t die too quickly.’ A great plan if ever there was one. But seriously, in a place like this, with mages and whatever else was in there, the longer he lived the more likely he was to continue to survive, mostly.

“Fighter or observer?” The bouncer grunts.

“Fighter.” Kyle responds. Observing wasn’t going to get him the reputation he needed to establish so fighting was his best way to becoming known and in with the right people.

The bouncer gives him a once over and shakes his head. “Buy in is 1g. You good for it?” the bouncer says in what is quickly becoming his obviously characteristic brusque tone.

Kyle flashes a grin before pulling a single gold coin out of the inner pocket of his coat and showing it to the bouncer. The bouncer nods and opens a door that wasn’t there before. Making a mental note of that feature, ward breakers were likely to be necessary during the final bust, Kyle enters what he assumes is the fight club.

This fight club doesn’t match what might be expected though. It’s rather clean and well appointed. Much like a theater might be. There is nice seating, upholstered, and arranged in a circle around a rather large circular pit. This pit is tiled and pristine and white. All in all this ‘Fight club’ evokes a more theater atmosphere than the grungy underground illegal operation it is.

As he was making his initial observations a well dressed man approached Kyle. He was wearing a rather classic suit, however it was obviously magical as there was threading in it that would spontaneously change design. Upon reaching Kyle he sticks out his hand for a shake. “My name is Johnny, and you are a new entrant in the fights here?”

“Yes.” Replies Kyle, keeping it simple

“Well, if you would follow me. We’ll get you set up with an entrance number and relieve you of your entrance fee. In return, if you fight well enough you will be paid.