Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

Volume 19, Chapter 11

In an intersection between the station and First High, Humanists were activating Antinite, something inaccessible to civilians. With it, they were releasing Psion noise that interfered with the activation of magic.

Minami’s expression contorted at the sound of Cast Jamming.

She grasped her chest and fell, facing down.

Her slender shoulders rose up and down as she struggled to breathe properly.

Her suffering figure reminded Miyuki of the memories from that summer day, five years ago.

August 11th, 2092, the events of Great Asian Union’s assault on Okinawa.

During their insurrection, soldiers attacked while seeking refuge in the territory of the National Defense Force.

From her memories of that time, in order to “stop” an enemy, to “stop” all of their enemies, Honami was shot, her mother was shot, and even Miyuki herself was shot and was about to die.

At that time, the three of them were saved by Tatsuya’s “Regrowth”. However, in the end, Honami didn’t make it.

At this moment, there was Minami, the spitting image of Honami, suffering under the events of Cast Jamming. Suffering just like Honami had. The sight of her figure replaying the same scene as that day before Miyuki’s eyes──

“…I won’t allow it.”

Miyuki murmured softly in a voice quaking in anger.

──To once again make “her” suffer. ──To once again take “her” away. ──I won’t allow it.

──This time, I will stop them.

──This time for sure, I will stop all of them.

In a world where past and present blended together, Miyuki lost sight of herself. Driven by the regret and anger of the past, Miyuki tried to release her powers.

“Miyuki-sama, please stop!”

In the midst of pain, Minami’s strained voice stopped Miyuki’s rampant magic.

“Do you wish to defy Tatsuya-sama’s orders?”

Tatsuya’s words repeated in her heart, which had begun relinquishing all self-control.

──It would be bad if you, as the successor of the Yotsuba Family, used magic to act against a non-Magic using citizen──

Those were the words of Tatsuya last night. To Miyuki, Tatsuya’s orders took precedent, and suppressed the memories of “the scenes from that day”.

Miyuki’s magic, “Cocytus”, that could even “stop” the spirit, heart, and body was on the verge of being invoked, but dispersed with the mention of Tatsuya’s name.

“…Minami-chan?”

As if she had just woken up from a nightmare, Miyuki called out Minami’s name with an uneasy voice and expression.

“…I’m fine, Miyuki-sama.”

Minami forced a smile, trying to pacify her master despite the danger of that moment.

Giving up on casting “Deceleration” on the wall that shook from the effects of Cast Jamming, she concentrated on “Isolation”.

The hands of the attackers struck against an invisible wall. It was a sight that would arouse instinctive fear in any weak, young girl, but Minami ignored it, directing a firm gaze at Miyuki as cold sweat ran down her forehead.

Minami looked at Miyuki protestingly to tell her that she was fine and to keep her from doing anything rash.

At such a look, Miyuki gave a smile that seemed to say “I’m fine”.

Miyuki returned the CAD in her left hand to her breast pocket.

“Miyuki-senpai …?”

While frowning at the Psion noise, she asked Miyuki in a wondering tone.

There was no way that Miyuki couldn’t resist the Cast Jamming.

Izumi believed so for no reason.

Unfortunately, Izumi herself had difficulty using magic, but if it was the “respected Miyuki Senpai,” then small fry of this level would be easily defeated. That was how much Izumi admired Miyuki.

Miyuki then nodded and gave a look that said “Don’t worry” to Izumi. She then cast down her eyes and crossed her hands on her chest.

A tender radiance emanated from Miyuki’s body.

It was a light that the self-proclaimed humanist thugs could not see.

It was a non-physical light that only people of magical disposition could see. The Psion light radiated from Miyuki.

The light possessed no “power of influence”. Rather, it didn’t contain any intention. The light that Miyuki released was a “pure psion light” that held no qualities.

Psions that had no interference strength had no effect on phenomena. Without harming Minami’s wall or the men trying to harm them, the radiance spread outwards.

Wrapped in the gentle light, Minami suddenly noticed that the pain from the Cast Jamming had lifted.

Cast Jamming was, first and foremost, a tool to hinder the activation of magic, but not to inflict damage on magicians. In the case of magicians with high Psion sensitivity, Cast Jamming caused a nauseating and dizzying effect.

No, a noise that could hinder the magic activation was no ordinary noise. Magic activation was not related to the object of operation, but rather to the origin of the operation, more specifically, the Magic Calculation Area in the subconscious of a magician.

Even if the sensitivity to Psions wasn’t strong, the instant that the route of magic activation opened, the effect of the noise could not be avoided. For barrier magics, small cycles of renewal were required to continue the (seemingly) continuous magic. Therefore, Magicians who use this kind of magic suffered more damage from Cast Damage.

Minami could feel the sickness caused by the noise of Cast Jamming on her mind and body subsiding. The effects were still there but her discomfort was half gone.

“Miyuki-sama…?”

Minami watched Miyuki’s face and figure with renewed intensity. The only thing she knew was that this change was brought about by her master.

“Miyuki-senpai, amazing! You’re using thick Psion curtains to drown out the waves from Cast Jamming!”

Izumi betrayed a voice of admiration, and Minami expressed her agreement, too. Psion clouds that had no interference could not stop magic, but against the Cast Jamming which had a similar nature and no phenomena interference, it acted as a thick cushion.

Izumi’s voice was heard by the villainous men.

“Impossible! There is no magic that Cast Jamming can’t penetrate!”

The leader of the humanists shouted with impatience. Unwittingly exposing his own ignorance, his words were humorous to Izumi and Minami. Since they felt this way, the two stopped hiding their amusement. Rather, the two never had the intention to do so.

Minami wore a faint smile without any intent behind it. In contrast, Izumi grinned widely, making it a point to mock the men.

It was indeed true that Cast Jamming was effective against most magic. Though, the technique that Miyuki just performed wasn’t ‘true’ magic. Rather, it was a technique that released and controlled external Psions, which in a sense could be considered magic.

It was a magic that was not magic, that obstructed techniques meant to obstruct magic.

The degree of difficulty in the technique that Miyuki displayed, coupled with her talent as a magician, were both things that the ignorant members of the cult could never comprehend.

Of course, there remained the fact Cast Jamming was ineffective on other magic as well.

For example, magic that decomposed the structure of the Psions that interfered with magic activation.

Suddenly, the Antinite that had been releasing the Psion noise dissolved. The irregular noise of Psion waves became uniform waves of Psions.

“Onii-sama!”

Miyuki opened her eyes and looked over.

There, Tatsuya stood with a Noh mask on his face, but both of his eyes were burning fiercely.

◊ ◊ ◊

Today, Tatsuya had reached a dead end with his investigation and had decided to head towards Kamakura to try and track down the mastermind of the terrorist attack, Gu Jie.

He had already informed Katsuto that he would not be attending the meeting today. After Kamakura, he planned on heading towards Zama to once again check if any clues had been left behind.

If he got serious about finding Gu Jie, there was a more efficient and reliable way to do it.

Although it was only once, Tatsuya had ‘seen’ Gu Jie.

To clarify, Tatsuya did not have the power of clairvoyance. He was not adept at finding the presence of people that he did not have a connection with.

Since they never came into close contact, there wasn’t much of a connection between them. The fact that Tatsuya had fought his student, Zhou Gongjin, would not serve to deepen the connection between Tatsuya and Gu Jie. Tatsuya also did not consider the fact that Maya was attacked to be an incident of much importance. If he allowed himself to form connections for such trivial matters, his sight would soon be clouded by the immense amount of information.

To track down an opponent that he had only ‘seen’ once, he would have to focus his perception on that target alone. He would have to remove his ‘sight’ from other targets that he was observing.

Which means, he would have to remove his ‘sight’ from Miyuki.

For Tatsuya, Gu Jie did not have that much value.

However, if there was something left behind that had a strong tie to Gu Jie, he could use that as a clue to track down the trail of information. If such a clue had been left behind, the other investigators would have found it long ago, but the current situation was so dire that even such a remote possibility had to considered.

In spite of that, he turned back while he was on the way to Kamakura.

Not towards his house, but towards the school.

He did not have the power to see the future. His "eyes" could only allow him to look back in time only to a very short extent ── to be precise only up to 24 hours ── from the present.

That is why, this was just intuition. ──That someone was attempting to harm Miyuki.

However, Tatsuya did not have the option of ignoring this feeling. Because, compared to Miyuki, the matter with Gu Jie was meaningless to him.

He switched his bike into semi-automatic drive mode, transferred half of his sight into the information dimension so that he could rescue Miyuki at any time, and sped towards First High.

◊ ◊ ◊

Although now, the sight of a group of ruffians keeping Miyuki trapped came into Tatsuya’s view.

Tatsuya neatly parked his bike, removed his helmet and slowly let out a breath.

If he did not calm himself down in this manner, he risked being unable to rein in his murderous intent against these insolent people.

An attempt to harm Miyuki was not something he could ever forgive. Just knowing that his opponent had such thoughts would make Tatsuya want to erase them.

If he perceived any real threat to her, Tatsuya would not hesitate to kill. He had the ability to completely destroy a person without leaving any evidence, after all.

Even if Antinite was used, he knew that it would only make Miyuki feel slightly uncomfortable, so he didn’t have to pull the trigger in his heart. The fact that Minami was suffering wasn’t enough to elicit his killing intent.

Even so, Tatsuya couldn’t just stand by and do nothing while a younger girl was in pain. Especially if the person in question was someone who was almost family. He activated a decomposition magic meant to erase the cast jamming that was causing Minami’s suffering.

He didn’t even need to use the circular-shaped CADs that he had on each wrist. ‘Decomposition’ is one of the two magics that he could wield freely. He did not even have to use the gestures that magicians used to settle their aim, such as ‘pointing his fingers’, or ‘stretching out his arm towards his target’. Just by focusing his senses, he could set the target of his magic.

Gram Dispersion.

The magic that decomposes information bodies erased the complex structure of the Psion waves that interfered with the ability to use magic.

The structure of the jamming waves had been destroyed, and the waves turned into dull ripples then faded away.

“Onii-sama!”

He heard the voice of his sister calling out to him from within the crowd of people.

He could see Miyuki looking at him with eyes widened in surprise through the gaps in the crowd.

Tatsuya wondered why she was so surprised, and felt strange for a bit.

No matter how trivial it was, there was no way that he wouldn’t come running whenever he sensed that Miyuki was in danger.

But his consciousness was instantly overwritten with rage.

Although it was faint, there were unmistakable traces of fear and unease on Miyuki’s face.

A high school girl was surrounded and confined by a group of unknown men. Regardless of how much power she had, it was natural for her to be afraid.

He glared at the crowd of people and sucked in a breath.

◊ ◊ ◊

“Out of the way!”

Tatsuya spoke in a sharp and angry tone.

The men were staggered by the force contained within Tatsuya’s voice, and the crowd split into two halves.

This was not the effect of a magic that affected the mind.

The men’s bodies reacted faster than their minds when they heard the roar of a creature far more powerful than themselves.

Tatsuya walked briskly in a straight line.

He didn’t even need to push his way through the crowd of men.

No one obstructed Tatsuya’s way. No one even stretched a hand towards him.

“Minami.”

Standing in front of the magical barrier, Tatsuya called Minami’s name. “Yes, Tatsuya-sama.”

Minami responded to his voice while keeping the barrier active.

“Can you move while keeping that barrier up?”

“It is possible.”

Tatsuya should have known that Minami was capable of that. Minami took it to mean that Tatsuya was concerned about her present condition.

“I see. Then follow me as you are, you three.”

Tatsuya turned around. As he looked from one side to the other, the Humanists, frightened of that gaze, took one or two steps back.

“W-What are you doing! Jamming team, one more time!”

As expected, the Antinite rings were given to the most proficient members selected from among the group. At their leader’s shaken voice, the men gathered up the courage that had been broken by Tatsuya, poured Psions into their Antinite, and released Cast Jamming.

However, the structure of the Psion noise could not be maintained for even half a second.

Tatsuya just turned around while looking annoyed. He didn’t even wave his hands.

That was all it took for the cast jamming to lose its effectiveness. It was a Psion noise that could inhibit all kinds of magic.

It was not something chaotic that was made by chance.

The noise from Cast Jamming was a wave pattern of Psions that followed a complicated set of rules in order to take shape.

As long as it has a structure, it cannot escape Tatsuya’s ‘Decomposition’. Even more so if it was simply a bare information body. Against Tatsuya, the Cast Jamming that could neutralize magicians didn’t even slow him down, so forget about it being a trump card.

“What!?”

The bearers of the rings shouted in dismay.

“Don’t falter! Once more!”

The fanatics’ leader repeated his meaningless order.

Tatsuya didn’t even turn around anymore.

As expected, the noise that impeded magic didn’t even last for half a second.

Cast Jamming was not a continuous emission of noise. It was a repetitive invocation wherein each burst of noise occurred before the previous one faded away.

It was a property of Antinite to convert the Psions injected into it into jamming waves that were released. However, continuously injecting Psions without the help of a mechanical device, like the one used in flying magic, is difficult even for regular magicians. This was why Cast Jamming was only used intermittently.

For non-magicians who were not used to controlling Psions, even injecting enough Psions to produce an effective jamming wave would take a considerable amount of mental concentration.

The noise was quashed as soon as it was invoked.

After doing this twice already, these young people did not have enough training to be able to immediately repeat it for a third time.

Tatsuya stopped walking and had the other three people go ahead of him.

They were already outside the crowd of Humanists.

“Minami.”

“Yes, Tatsuya-sama.”

“Well done. You can release the barrier now.”

Minami obeyed Tatsuya’s words and cancelled the barrier magic. “Miyuki.”

After hearing Tatsuya call her name, Miyuki replied, “Yes, Onii-sama” with a meek voice.

“Go back to school with the both of them.”

“Yes, certainly.”

Miyuki gave Tatsuya a graceful bow, put a hand each on the backs of her underclassmen, and urged them to head back to First High.

At this point, the leader of the Humanists regained his senses.

“W-What are you doing! My comrades, do not allow those wicked people to escape!”

However, that only served to bring them to an unfortunate conclusion.

The group of Humanists ignored ── no, avoided Tatsuya, and ran past him.

However, not one of them managed to take more than three steps ahead.

There were a total of fifteen men. Not all of them started running at the same time. At that time, only a third of the group, that is five people, had started to run. And now, the only ones who remained on their feet were the two-thirds who had not yet started to run.

Needless to say, the person who had caused one-third of the group who were guilty of capturing people and attempted violence (regarding their act of capturing people, it could be said that they were caught red- handed) was Tatsuya. However, this was not due to his magic.

The first person to step forward received a fist to the solar plexus and fainted while experiencing immense pain.

The second person was struck in the temple by the base of Tatsuya’s palm as he attempted to take a second step.

The third person had his neck grabbed from behind just as he took his second step, and was pulled backwards.

The fourth person received a blow to his chin as he was taking his third step.

The fifth person had his wrist grabbed as soon as he took his third step, and fell on the road after spinning one full circle in mid-air.

After experiencing Tatsuya’s barrage of fluid techniques, none of the men were able to get off the ground, let alone stand up.

“You bastard! Do you think you can get away with such violence!”

The leader of the ruffians threw a selfish outcry at Tatsuya.

To this, Tatsuya replied with a smile filled with hostility, provocation, and ridicule.

“I was just preemptively stopping an attack on women. The data captured by the street cameras should prove that these people attempted to assault female students of First High.”

Tatsuya deliberately directed his gaze at the camera installed on one of the streetlights. He then turned to the leader of the Humanists with a smile filled with scorn.

Even from afar, it was clear that the leader’s face had turned red.

Of course, this was not because he had realized the folly of his actions and felt ashamed. It was due to rage.

As expected of a fanatic, his eyes became bloodshot from his madness and he screamed while pointing at Tatsuya.

“Finish this guy off first! Divine punishment!”

His lackeys shouted “Oh!” with raised spirits. Rather, it blended into a strange clamor.

Their bodies understood that they could not stand against Tatsuya, and automatically withdrew.

However, their minds had been poisoned by fanaticism, and they were unable to comprehend the danger signals called “fear” that was being sent throughout their bodies.

“Realize your sins!”

The young man who was standing in the front ranks attempted to assault Tatsuya. He was holding a collapsible baton that had already been expanded.

Tatsuya used his left hand to strike from the inside at the man’s descending right hand. His sword-like hand hit the fingers holding the collapsible baton.

“Aargh!”

The baton went flying out of the young man’s hand. He bent forwards and cried out in pain while holding his right hand.

Tatsuya’s extended his right hand towards the young man’s face. He wasn’t moving at a speed that was too fast to follow. Rather, he was moving quite slowly.

From the side, Tatsuya thrust his thumb at the area directly below the man’s ear.

The man ceased his cries of pain and his body crumpled to the ground.

“I’m warning you. If you keep attacking me, I can’t hold back.”

Without even sparing a glance at the young man sprawled at his feet, Tatsuya said so while looking around at the ruffians.

He didn’t mean these words as a provocation. These were words of warning.

After Miyuki’s safety was assured, Tatsuya had calmed down. He lost the will to proactively engage in violence.

Of course, that didn’t mean he would try to avoid a fight. If he was attacked, he would surely neutralize his opponent. The reason he said those words was mainly in order to provide an alibi for the cameras that were recording the situation.

However, the people he said those words to took it as provocation.

“Stop messing around! You’re just a tool!”

The leader of the Humanists thus acted in a detestable manner. However, his comrades were secretly exchanging looks amongst each other. At this point, the fear of fighting was starting to overcome their blind faith.

Even so, they didn’t try to flee the scene. They had yet to recover enough to make sound judgement calls. They weren’t under the impression that they would be given pardon for attacking a magician, rather they hadn’t come to realize they were inferior in a fight.

This stalemate would probably work in Tatsuya’s favor. On the way here, he saw that a crowd had formed near the police box as well. It was probably to stall the police. However, it was around time for the police to start showing up.

“The police will be here soon. Why don’t you just run away? You perverts who attempted to assault women.”

Tatsuya gave them a warning once again. This time, however, it seemed like he was inciting them. Tatsuya himself didn’t see any reason to be careful of how he worded his sentence.

The fanatics easily flew into a rage.

“This brat!”

The leader let out a shriek as he himself rushed to attack Tatsuya.

Tatsuya narrowed his eyes at the weapon he took out from an inside pocket of his jacket. It was a stun whip that was approximately fifty centimeters in length. By passing electricity through it, not only would it produce an electric discharge from the tip, but it could also become more resilient and take the shape of a flexible leaf spring. However, once the switch was turned off, its state would change to something similar to a leather belt that could be wrapped around one’s hand or body, allowing it to be carried discreetly and unnoticed from the outside.

This was the cane sword developed by Erika’s family (A club made from shape-memory alloy that transforms into a short sword). It was just beginning to be adapted by the police, and was not yet commercially available to the general public. It wasn’t something that could be obtained unless you had connections with the police or the manufacturers themselves. Perhaps, he had stolen it from a policeman.

Investigating this could yield interesting results. While thinking of such things at a corner of his mind, he dodged the stun whip that was being swung down. Along with taking a step, he spun his body and got behind his ‘enemy’.

From his opponent’s perspective, it must have seemed like the weapon passed right through Tatsuya’s body.

“Over here.”

Tatsuya called out to the young man before he could discover Tatsuya’s location.

The Humanists’ leader spun around in a panic. He must have thought that he would be attacked in return if he didn’t do anything. He recklessly waved the stun whip about.

Tatsuya raised his arm and pretended to block the whip. Just before the whip made contact, he withdrew his arm.

To begin with, Tatsuya had already retreated beyond the range of the stun whip. The exaggerated attack from an unstable position ended in failure, and the young man lost his balance and fell on his behind.

Tatsuya let out a chuckle. It was not meant as an insult. Rather, at least, Tatsuya had no such intention. He just naturally laughed after seeing this display of excessive clumsiness. Tatsuya had no intention of deliberately insulting the young man before him, but he also didn’t have any obligation to control his expressions out of consideration for his opponent’s feelings.

It couldn’t be helped, even if the leader of the Humanists took Tatsuya’s chuckle as an insult.

“I’ll kill you!”

However, he had gotten into a fit of excessive madness. What’s more, the young man’s hostility wasn’t restricted to his words alone. He threw the useless whip aside and stuck his right hand into his coat pocket.

Just as his hand left his pocket, Tatsuya’s right leg moved at lightning speed.

Tatsuya stomped down on the fanatic’s right hand instead of kicking it away.

Tatsuya’s heel swung succinctly downwards and knocked the weapon out of the fanatic’s hand.

Instead of putting his right foot back on the ground, he shot it forwards.

After taking a front kick on his face, The Humanists’ leader’s head snapped back and he fell down forcefully. It wasn’t clear if he lay there without moving due to the impact of the kick, or because of the extreme impact inflicted on back of his head the moment he fell down.

However, even if he had been hit at a bad place, the police probably wouldn’t blame Tatsuya.

Lying on the road was a small gun with two barrels positioned one above the other. Even now, at the end of the 21st century, the palm-sized gun had continued to inherit the name ‘Derringer,’ and this was the latest model of it. Of course, for regular civilians, carrying around one of these was a crime with no room for excuses.

In fact, the Humanists were the ones who were in a daze as they looked at the gun lying on the road. All of them who were standing and were conscious had a look of disbelief on their faces. It looked like they never imagined that their leader was carrying a gun.

Tatsuya turned to look at the remaining fanatics.

All the fight had gone out of them. Not only that, it appeared that they didn’t even have the energy to run away.

Tatsuya judged that the matter was done and relaxed his fighting stance.

However, his expression immediately stiffened as he turned around and prepared to fight.

“Onii-sama!”

He didn’t even need the warning from Miyuki, who was watching him from the end of the street, he had already finished his preparations to use magic.

The leader of the Humanists was standing up.

He was supposed to have been unconscious. Even now, he didn’t look like he had regained consciousness.

Although, that was a trivial issue.

What Tatsuya had reacted to was not an outward abnormality.

The expressionless Humanist had both arms outstretched, and a SB ── a so-called spirit, was floating over them. No, it was more appropriate to call this ominous purple flame an ‘evil apparition,’ instead of a ‘spirit,’ or so Tatsuya thought.

“Miyuki, stay hidden!”

“Yes!”

Rather than because of Tatsuya’s command, Miyuki retreated from the corner of the street because she was frightened of his menacing attitude.

Tatsuya stuck out his opened hand. A violent stream of Psions were released from his palm.

The purple flames that were hovering over the fanatic’s hands were erased by the gale of Psions.

Gram Demolition. After being hit by this non-systematic magic that was said to be one of the strongest counter magics, this was the obvious result.

“What!?”

However, a startled cry escaped from Tatsuya’s mouth.

That was because the flames of the evil apparition once again flickered on the fanatic’s hands.

It was definitely not impossible to reactivate a magic right after the magic sequence has been blown away by Gram Demolition. Gram Demolition simply struck the target with a high-density stream of Psions. Its effect ended as soon as the stream of Psions stopped. The effect of erasing magic did not persist.

However, re-creating the magic required early preparation on the part of the caster. No matter how fast the magician was, they couldn’t omit the step of building the magic sequence. Even people with ‘supernatural abilities’ who didn’t need an activation sequence couldn’t overwrite a phenomenon without a magic sequence.

This process was not detectable within this man.

(This power is not his. A third party is supplying him with SBs)

The spirits, no, evil apparitions were being delivered to the young man’s hands by a different caster, ignoring the limits of physical distance and moving along the connection formed by ‘association.’ In short, this meant that the anti-magic faction had become underlings of Ancient Magicians. The person might have had the magic cast upon them without their notice. In fact, the probability of that was high.

Tatsuya once again erased the flames of the evil apparition ── rather he didn’t actually do that. A person who initiated violence against Magicians because of a terrorist attack presumed to be carried out by Ancient Magicians was, in fact, under the influence of an Ancient Magician. There was no way that this could be a coincidence. Tatsuya used these flames as a foothold, and focused his “eye” on the real body of the caster.

“A-A Magician!?”

“Leader is… a heretic!?”

Seeing the fireballs floating over the young man’s palms, his comrades groaned with shocked voices.

The flames this time weren’t something that only Tatsuya could see. The SB that had been summoned by ── or rather, had been forcefully pushed onto the young man, took the shape of a purple flame. Since the flames were stained with a dark color, it wasn’t possible to see what was happening to the hand underneath. Perhaps, it didn’t just look like a flame, but also possessed the physical properties of it.

“Uh… Uwaaah!”

The young people who were supposed to be his comrades ran away in all directions like a nest of disturbed spiders.

Tatsuya didn’t chase them. Or rather, there was no need to chase them.

At that moment, the purple sphere burst open.

Instead of a large flame, it became compressed into a small fireball and shot out, then it multiplied into around ten fireballs of the same size, which scattered from the young man’s hand.

The fireballs could not penetrate into buildings. Forget the walls, even the purple flames that came into contact with the window glass vanished without leaving a trace.

However, the trees by the roadside that came into contact with the fireballs were charred black and looked like they would break at any time.

No, the word ‘charred’ was probably not the right way to put it.

The parts that were exposed to the purple flames were dried out and became black with decay. The effect wasn’t like applying a high temperature to them, rather, it was more like their warmth of life was being seeped away.

What would happen if a human came in contact with these flames?

Tatsuya shot down the fireballs that came at him with Gram Demolition—but only the ones that headed directly towards him. He couldn’t deny that he had focused too much of his attention on discovering the true identity of the caster, and as a result, he was falling behind in neutralizing the magic.

Looking at the results, the fireballs weren’t aimed and fired at a particular target. The fireballs that Tatsuya didn’t shoot down passed on either side of him and flew off into the sky. A portion of them also rained down upon the young ── comrades ── subordinates.

Several of them let out screams in what could be described as agony in death.

Tatsuya didn’t turn around, but behind him, there was a mysterious phenomenon of human bodies undergoing localized desiccation. Rather than becoming dried out and mummified, only the portions of the body that were hit by the purple flame appeared to be experiencing rapid aging.

Tatsuya didn’t see this condition as it occurred on their bodies, but he recognized that it would be dangerous to ignore this magic. Although he felt that it was a little too late, he cancelled his tracking of the caster and switched his focus to obliterating this magic.

If this magic was being summoned by the leader of the Humanists, then the matter would have been settled simply by knocking him unconscious. However, this young man was just being used as a medium to launch the magic. Besides, it wasn’t possible to knock out someone who was already unconscious. The only thing you could do was to kill them.

That might have been the most efficient way to settle the issue. It was possible that the enemy could control the corpse and use it to relay the magic, but Tatsuya’s method of killing turned flesh into dust. No corpse was to be left behind.

However, he couldn’t use that method now. It would count as excessive self-defense no matter how anyone looked at it, and would only serve to needlessly incite the mass media.

(…The caster who is using the purple flame magic won’t be able to send SB’s here unless he uses that man to relay it.)

If the caster could freely launch fireballs at this location while staying hidden somewhere, he wouldn’t go to the trouble of using that young man as a medium. If he made use of other fanatics as well, and created a free-for-all fight, he might have been able to injure Tatsuya.

(There must be some reason why he has to use that man in particular.)

──For instance, he might have a sign carved into him that would serve as a marker to turn him into a medium.

Tatsuya thought of this and focused his ‘eye.’

(This is in the way.)

Once again, Tatsuya used Gram Demolition to blow away the flames hovering over the young man’s hands.

The purple flame SB Magic was reactivated immediately. (──Found it.)

The seal was carved into the young man’s hand. It was a pattern drawn by Psions that pierced the back of his hand and ran onto his palm. Even momentarily extinguishing the flames was enough for Tatsuya to see through the trick behind relaying the magic.

There was a tattoo drawn on the back of the man’s hand. A pigment similar to his skin color was used to try to hide it. It had a different pattern from the engraving magic that Tatsuya was familiar with, but it had similar properties that allowed one to produce a magical effect by running Psions through it.

Ancient magic still had the edge when it came to such versatility. While thinking of such pointless things, Tatsuya used ‘Decomposition’ on a portion of the tattoo.

Some of the pigment was removed from the center of the tattoo, which was so complex that it seemed impossible to have been drawn by hand. The pigment was separated from the underlying layers of the skin by the use of decomposition magic.

The last two purple fireballs that shot towards him from the front were shot down using Gram Demolition. By distorting the Psion pattern that served as a marker for the magic relay, it became impossible to remotely operate the SB magic.

The tattoo must have also served to remotely control the leader of the Humanists. The man froze like a statue, his body sitting on the ground with his torso erect and both hands sticking forwards, before falling over backwards.

The young man didn’t get up. It looked like he was really disabled this time.

Tatsuya waited for ten seconds, then relaxed.

From the corner of the street, the voices of policemen could be heard, yelling, “Nobody move!” Tatsuya, at least, did not think that they were useless for arriving after the matter had been settled.

He looked at the trees on either side and furrowed his eyebrows. He then looked back at the condition of the fanatics, and let out a small sigh. Tatsuya was honestly glad that the policemen didn’t get caught up in the fight. All the policemen stationed in police boxes near the Magic High Schools were magicians who were trained in physical combat, but it was doubtful whether the policemen from the one near the First High School train station could have defended against that SB magic, or neutralized it.

Tatsuya complied with the order to “not move” and stood motionlessly at the same spot. There was no reason to move about now. He didn’t need to move his body to follow the trail of data.

He had obtained the necessary information from the tattoo, which had been the enemy magician’s magical medium, while he decomposed it. Tatsuya was now following the enemy’s trail in the information dimension.

The effects of the magic had already worn off, but the person who had come into direct contact with the caster and acted as a medium for the magic was lying just a few feet away. In gathering data, there was both temporal proximity, since the magic had been used recently, and spatial proximity, since the medium used to remotely activate the magic was close by. There was also a cause-and-effect relationship formed due to the fact that Tatsuya himself was the target of the caster’s magic.

With so much information to work with, and the fact that information related to the magic was close at hand, it wasn’t hard for Tatsuya to track down the owner—in other words, information on the magician.

He was here because he acted on a vague premonition that something bad was drawing closer to Miyuki. It wasn’t due to his search for Gu Jie, so finding a clue here was a complete coincidence.

It was because of this that Tatsuya had no intention of letting this chance slip away, even if he had to take some risks for it.

Right now, the search for the terrorist by the Ten Master Clans was at a dead-end. Even the Yotsuba Family were unable to uncover any new clues, so people were now starting to get impatient.

However, it wasn’t like Maya was demanding results from him, and Tatsuya himself felt little, rather, no impatience at all. He thought, in private, that it was alright to leave Gu Jie to the police or the Information Division. He also thought that the activities of the anti-magic faction were, to some extent, unavoidable.

It was an irrefutable fact that to non-magicians, magic was as dangerous as a weapon or a bomb. Magicians in their vicinity armed themselves with magic, so it was only natural for unarmed citizens to try and keep them at a distance. Tatsuya felt that this couldn’t be helped, and the only option was to give up and accept it. ──Until just now.

If an enemy magician was taking advantage of the hatred and fear of the anti-magic faction towards magicians in order to use them as pawns, he couldn’t ignore it. Though, perhaps, he hadn’t realized that he himself had become a “magician’s pawn,” but in his case, he was more of a “tool” rather than a “pawn.” On the other hand, from the perspective of a hostile observer, there wasn’t any real difference between being a “pawn” and “tool.”

A wristband with white and red stripes was around the wrist of the Humanist who was used as a magic relay device earlier. It was proof that he was a member of “Egalite,” a lower branch of the national anti-magic organization “Blanche” that Tatsuya had a deep history with.

Controlling Blanche from the shadows was Zhou Gongjin, and Gu Jie commanded Zhou Gongjin. Tatsuya had heard this from various sources.

Looking at the chain of command, the members of Egalite had been pawns of Gu Jie from the start. However, it seemed that the closer one got to the top, the more they resonated with the ideologies of humanism

──or perhaps, brainwashed ── and were included in the organization.

This leader didn’t look like he was acting when he shouted about the creed of humanism, either.

As expected, they were being duped. The tattoo used to relay the evil apparitions was probably placed on him without his knowledge.

It would be dangerous if people armed with guns and magic infiltrated unarmed groups of demonstrators again and attacked Miyuki, like what happened just now. That was what Tatsuya was worried about. If he could constantly stay by Miyuki’s side, there would be nothing to fear, but until he captured Gu Jie, he couldn’t do that. Due to the mission, there would be times when he would have no choice but to work away from her.

In order to carry out his mission of exterminating the terrorist, he had no choice but to feel the fear of exposing the one he loved to acts of terrorism. It wasn’t just limited to terrorists. Even if his opponent was a criminal organization, or on a larger scale, a civil war, or even an international war, it would result in the same sense of irony. The only difference between war and terrorism was the whether or not direct attacks on non-combatants were permitted. Perhaps, it was right to say that war and terrorism meant different things only in the modern times because some people differentiated between combatants and noncombatants. Although, it was a different matter, whether or not that rule was always followed.

Still, Tatsuya didn’t have the option of stopping his search for Gu Jie. Even if he withdrew here, Miyuki’s safety wouldn’t be assured. In the end, the only option that he had was to find Gu Jie as soon as possible and suppress him. There was no other way.

He divided his consciousness into two parts, and sent one half into the large ocean of information. The other half was on the lookout for anyone who might attempt to harm Miyuki, as the other followed the trail of the magician, who had used the purple flame magic.

Information was always attached to an event. If something underwent a change, there would always be traces of information left behind to indicate the “event of a change.” This didn’t change, even if magic, a “technique to manipulate information,” was used. Even information manipulation designed to wipe out the information would leave traces of its own. Even if they tried to paint over the fact that “SB was used,” even if they used ink of the same colors as the background to overwrite the black ink, the unnatural shade of color would remain behind. In addition, although faint, it would not disappear and could still serve as information about the event.

(…There.)

Information about the magician floated up into Tatsuya’s field of vision. (It isn’t Gu Jie, but…)

The information that Tatsuya perceived was unfortunately not that of Gu Jie, whom he had encountered in Zama. If the person he had encountered after tracking the information had been Gu Jie, he could have just used Mist Dispersion from here and the matter would be settled. If he could only ‘see’ him clearly, physical distance was of no consequence.

(At this level of clarity, maybe I could gain some detailed information on his location as well?)

One after the other, Tatsuya “read” the information about the magician at the distance. His name was Oumi Kazukiyo, his pseudonym as a magician was “Dollmaker,” and his current location was in Kamakura at…

(Tch!)

All of a sudden, a drastic change was introduced to the information that he was observing. In order to avoid damage from that backlash, he reflexively cut off the connection. Tatsuya’s vision returned to what was observed through his normal sight. The distance between him and the oncoming police had barely changed since he shifted his perception to the information dimension. Less than one second had passed.

(In other words, he killed him as soon as I destroyed his magic.)

The change in information was a transition from the state of being alive to death. Tatsuya had began to track down the information a little over ten seconds after destroying the purple flame magic. This was just about the amount of time it would take for a person near the magician to realize what had happened. It was a coincidence that he had been killed while being observed by Tatsuya, but the killing itself might have been premeditated. One of the reasons he could think of for the falling out was that the enemy knew he had the means to track down information, or that they had inferred as much.

“He’s a troublesome opponent…”

Tatsuya let out a sigh a he raised his hands and showed a posture of submission to the approaching police.

Perhaps he could no longer afford to nitpick over his methods.

That’s what Tatsuya thought.

◊ ◊ ◊

In Oumi Kazukiyo’s mansion, Gu Jie finally began to reflect upon the fact that he was running out of time as he gazed upon the corpse of the owner of the house whom he had just killed.

The reason why Gu Jie killed his friend, an Ancient Magician, was because he had sensed a retaliatory technique. It didn’t fit into any category of magic that he knew of, but he sensed the intent of someone backtracking along the trail of the SB Magic that had been used and was approaching at a frightening speed.

Almost reflexively, Gu Jie had killed Oumi, and thereby cut-off the trail of magic. However, he wasn’t confident that he had managed to entirely block off the enemy’s technique. Even though the risk of being exposed to counter-magic was abated, Gu Jie thought that there was a possibility that his location had been revealed.

He had sensed Tatsuya’s “gaze,” but Gu Jie didn’t know that it was an ability capable only of seeing, not attacking. However, after spending nearly fifty years living a life on the run and conducting his secret feud, Gu Jie was immediately able to detect that momentary observation in the information dimension. ──It was hostility directed towards him.

“I had originally hoped for one more day and night, but…”

Gu Jie murmured as he gazed towards the next room where two human bodies laid. One of these bodies had more potential than any other body he had handled before. It was enough to make Gu Jie feel that it was a waste to use it as a disposable pawn. If he had just one more day, he wouldn’t have had to turn it into a soldier of death ── not a soldier who was prepared to die ── a literal undead soldier. Instead, he could have turned it into long-lasting Generator.

“It’s a waste… though being too greedy is foolish as well.”

Gu Jie shook his head as if to dispel any lingering regrets, then moved towards the next room while holding the elaborately decorated dagger, which he had used to take the life of his old friend, the Ancient Magician, Oumi Kazukiyo.

◊ ◊ ◊

(My own vanity will probably end up destroying me someday…)

Izumi put on a depressed expression to hide her bitter thoughts from the adults before her. She was actually depressed, so it wasn’t that hard to put on an act.

“…So, apart from Sakurai-san, who used barrier magic to shut out the violence, no other magic was used?”

“Yes.”

Izumi returned a short affirmative to the question raised by the teacher in-charge of her class, Class-1B.

“Is it true that the opponents used Cast Jamming?”

This question was put forward by the Vice-Principal, Yaosaka.

“Yes.”

Izumi once again answered succinctly, but, even for her, it wasn’t easy to deal with four teachers including the Principal and Vice-Principal by herself.

Why did she have to go through something so bothersome? Such resentful thoughts ran through Izumi’s mind. However, Izumi herself was responsible for being in this situation. Since she was aware of that fact, her anger and irritation continued to smolder under her skin without the flames getting bigger.

Female students from her school had been harassed by a group of young men. Besides, there was a chance that it might have escalated enough to cause injuries, so it wasn’t strange that the matter didn’t stop at the Vice- principal, and that even the Principal got involved. It was also reasonable that she was being questioned regarding the incident because she was involved in it.

The problem was, why was she being made to do this alone?

No, even Izumi knew why this was the logical conclusion, and that her current situation was unavoidable.

The opponents were armed with Antinite, a precious military resource. Not only that, they also tried to use a gun meant for assassinations.

In the end, the ruffians, who were supposed to be anti-magic supporters, used magic to cause damage to both people and property. The police wouldn’t be able to write this issue off with a simple interview at the police box, either. Not only were the assailants being taken to the Hachioji police station, even Izumi and the others, who were the victims, had been asked to go there as well.

Since it was such a serious situation, someone had to immediately inform the school, too. In other words, someone had to return to the school.

Minami had been asked to come by the police since she was the person who used the barrier magic. Tatsuya couldn’t refuse to participate as he had used violence, even though it was in self-defense. As for Miyuki, she didn’t really use magic, but the large amount of Psions she had released were detected by the sensors.

In the process of elimination, Izumi was the only person left to go back to school to report about the incident. From a logical perspective, Izumi understood this as well. However, as the saying went, “Logic and feelings are different things.”

“Saegusa-kun.”

Principal Momoyama, who had been silent until now, spoke up.

“Yes.”

Izumi looked at the principal and answered nervously.

“Is it true that the thugs changed their targets to you and Shiba-kun after recognizing both of you?”

While being apprehensive of Momoyama’s sharp gaze, Izumi replied in an unwavering tone.

“I am sure of it, Principal. They looked at me and called me ‘a member of the Saegusa Family’, then, after looking at President Shiba, they said, ‘First High’s Student Council President’. They confirmed this among themselves before approaching us.”

“Which would mean that your group had a higher priority to them, compared to the other first years from our school who were being harassed.”

“I think so, as well.”

Momoyama replied, “Fumu…”, and drifted into thought while folding his hands inside the sleeves of his Japanese-style clothes.

Izumi patiently waited for him to resume speaking. The ones who were unable to withstand the pressure of the silence were the other adults.

“Principal.”

Vice-Principal Yaosaka spoke to Momoyama in a reserved, or rather, frightened tone.

Momoyama looked at Yaosaka without giving any indication that he was annoyed at the interruption of his thoughts.

“Vice-Principal. The school will be temporarily closed starting tomorrow. For now, the period of closure will be until Saturday, the 23rd.”

“Principal, temporarily closing the school on such short notice…”

Yaosaka unintentionally retorted at the Principal’s sudden decision. He immediately shut his mouth and put on a chastised expression, but the scolding he expected from Momoyama did not come.

“Do you need a reason?”

“Ah, yes, about that…”

Instead, Yaosaka was directed with a gaze filled with contempt that seemed to say, “Can’t you understand even this much?”

“If our students were being attacked at random, that would have been just some discontented elements going on rampage.”

Even so, Momoyama gave an explanation. Maybe it was because he was a teacher, but he liked to explain things.

“However, it appears that our students are being assigned priorities, and are being targeted based on that. Rather than a spontaneous outburst, there is a high probability that this is an organized and planned crime.”

“Organized crime, you say…”

Yaosaka wasn’t the only one who went pale. The class adviser of Class- 1B, the teacher in-charge of all first-year students, the other adults who had gathered around the Principal’s desk, and even Izumi, went pale in the face.

“Unlike ordinary rioting, there is a chance that their methods might get more radical. We need to wait out and observe the situation for a while.”

“Yes… I agree with you completely.”

“I’ll leave the formalities to you.”

After giving Yaosaka that order, Momoyama once again looked at Izumi.

“Saegusa-kun, thank you for attending.”

Although there was no hint of gratitude in his voice, Izumi took this to mean that she was being dismissed.

“No, I only did what was natural.”

Izumi wanted to leave this place as soon as possible, so she didn’t let this chance pass.

“In that case, please excuse me, Principal.”

She gave a courteous bow and turned towards the exit.

◊ ◊ ◊

After completing the interviews at the police station, it was already past 7:00 P.M. by the time that Tatsuya and the others reached home. Due to what had just happened earlier, the police escorted them home in an unmarked police car. A motorcycle police officer from the Traffic Division had driven Tatsuya’s bike to their house. The police appeared to have noticed that the cowl and tires of the bike were bulletproof, but they didn’t say anything. It was probably because they knew about his parentage.

The personal items belonging to Miyuki and Minami were still in their lockers at school. However, there was nothing among them that would melt or spoil, so they decided to retrieve them tomorrow and planned to stay at home for the rest of the day. This meant that the long-awaited information regarding Gu Jie that was obtained from data tracking would go to waste, but Tatsuya had an idea on what to do about that.

In any case, both Tatsuya and Miyuki intended to completely relax at their own home, but a mail arrived hardly ten minutes after they took off their shoes at the front door.

Tatsuya had promptly changed into casual clothes from his riding jacket and trousers that doubled as fighting togs. He then sat on the sofa in the living room, and looked at the fully unfolded screen of the mobile terminal with a frown on his face. At this time, Miyuki who had taken a little longer to get changed, came down the stairs.

“…Onii-sama, is something the matter? You have a troubled expression on your face.”

“No, it’s nothing like that.”

Tatsuya raised his head and responded to Miyuki, then indicated the space next to him with his eyes.

Miyuki sat down next to him as invited, and looked at the screen of the terminal that Tatsuya turned towards her.

“Tatsuya-sama, Miyuki-sama, the tea is ready.”

Minami brought out the tea while wearing an apron over her uniform. As Tatsuya had requested, the tray held strongly-brewed Sencha. Minami placed the teacups on the table and looked inquisitively at Tatsuya to see if he had any other request.

“Please wait a little.”

After saying that to Minami, Tatsuya looked at Miyuki.

Miyuki had just finished reading the mail that wasn’t very long, and lifted her head.

“Onii-sama, this is… we can’t reject it, right?”

“You’re right.”

Tatsuya let out a small sigh and looked at Minami, who was awaiting his orders.

“After we finish drinking our tea, Miyuki and I will be going out. We’ll be eating outside, so you can do as you wish, Minami. Feel free to go to sleep early.”

Miyuki must have felt that her brother’s explanation was unsatisfactory.

“We’ve been invited by the new Head of the Juumonji Family. I think we’ll be a little late in returning home.”

She gave an additional explanation before Minami could react to Tatsuya’s order.

“Understood.”

Of course, Minami’s answer wouldn’t have changed, whether or not she had received a detailed explanation. She gave a respectful bow to the siblings, who were her masters.

◊ ◊ ◊

Although Miyuki had told Minami that they “had been invited by the Head of the Juumonji Family,” that hadn’t been the full story. As Tatsuya arrived along with Miyuki, it was not only Katsuto, but also Mayumi and Masaki, who were waiting.

The place was the restaurant that they always used for meetings. From the outside, it looked like a slightly larger detached residence, but after entering it, even Miyuki was slightly taken by surprise.

Tatsuya had already explained the reason why he didn’t attend today’s meeting to Katsuto. The time was already past 2200. Usually, by this time, they would be finishing their meal after the meeting.

However, they had still been summoned here. Katsuto, Mayumi, and Masaki greeted them with serious looks on their faces.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“Sorry for asking you to come on short notice. Please, take a seat.”

In contrast to Tatsuya’s genteel apology, Katsuto responded in a tone that indicated that he truly felt guilty, and urged Tatsuya and Miyuki to take a seat.

Katsuto and the others, who had been waiting for Tatsuya and Miyuki, were already sitting at the table. Katsuto was sitting at the end of the table in the host’s seat, and Mayumi and Masaki were on either side of him. Although this was a French restaurant, was the table set in the British-American style to say that they need not be concerned about intricate table manners? Or perhaps, they never cared about such things in the first place. Tatsuya decided that it was the latter, and made Miyuki sit in front of Mayumi, while he sat in front of Masaki.

“Shiba-san, are you alright?”

As soon as she had taken a seat, Masaki asked Miyuki if she had been injured.

“Yes. At the end of the day, there was no real damage. Thank you for worrying about me.”

Miyuki gave her answer, and smiled sweetly at Masaki. Masaki went red in the face, and relaxed with an expression of relief.

It appeared that Masaki was really worried about Miyuki. Both Katsuto and Mayumi understood that, and didn’t berate Masaki for his rashness.

“Shiba, it seems you’ve had a rough day.”

Instead of reprimanding Masaki for his behavior, Katsuto spoke to Tatsuya.

“Yes, I did. It was outside of my expectations.”

Tatsuya didn’t act tough, and instead, honestly admitted that his expectations were naive.

“The assailant didn’t just have a gun, but he also used magic, didn’t he?”

After Mayumi asked this with a worried expression on her face,

“An anti-magic supporter used magic? Or did an enemy magician infiltrate the Humanists’ group?”

Masaki came out with a straight question.

Instead of answering Masaki directly, Tatsuya phrased his words in the form of a report to Katsuto.

“The one who was used as a relay for magic was a member of ‘Egalite,’ asub-branch of ‘Blanche’.”

“Blanche?”

Katsuto’s raised eyebrows indicated his surprise. “Wasn’t that organization eradicated from Japan?”

“The remnants must have burrowed underground.”

At Tatsuya’s reply, Katsuto replied, “Fumu…” and folded his arms. His bearing indicated that he wasn’t convinced. After the “Blanche incident,” the Juumonji Family had also participated in the clean-up. Katsuto must have been under the impression that they had completely neutralized Blanche and Egalite.

“Tatsuya-kun, what do you mean by ‘relay’?”

Although Mayumi was also involved in the incident that took place in First High during April of the year before last, she showed interest in a different matter.

“The member of Egalite, who was leading the group that was harassing the First High students, was not a magician. An Ancient Magician was using him as a relay, or in their terms, a ‘familiar,’ and was controlling the magic remotely.”

“They can do something like that?”

Mayumi appeared to be genuinely surprised. The technique of setting up a relay and controlling magic remotely was not unique to ancient magic, but it was scarcely used in modern magic. It wasn’t surprising that she didn’t know about it.

“I’ll skip the detailed explanation, but the basic method was to put a magical marker on the relay and invoke the magic from there. It doesn’t have to be by means of projectiles, heat, or sound. There are other methods available. In this case, an SB was activated from the relay, and used to perform an indiscriminate attack.”

“So the enemy was an Ancient Magician? Do you know their identity?”

As Mayumi was saying ‘hee…’ while sounding impressed, beside her, Masaki asked this question.

Although he didn’t say it aloud, Tatsuya thought that this was the most pertinent question.

“I took a recording of the technique. I’m having it investigated right now.”

For now, Tatsuya covered up the issue with that answer. Although, saying that it was under investigation was the truth. While he did have a name and an address, those alone weren’t of any use since they didn’t belong to Gu Jie.

What kind of background did the Ancient Magician named Oumi Kazukiyo have? Who was he acquainted with within the country, and what places did he visit? What organization did he belong to? They still didn’t have any information that would help them find out Gu Jie’s whereabouts.

Besides, while Gu Jie must have left Oumi’s residence already, he might have left some items behind that had some connection to him. Hoping that it was the case, he had asked Ayako and Yuuka to investigate the matter. The reason why he had called Yuuka was because he felt that the Tsukuba Family, who were skilled in Mental Interference magic, were better equipped to track down the enemy than the Kuroba Family for this case.

“A recording of the technique? Just how did you do that…”

The CAD’s activation sequence program was a blueprint of the magic sequence that was been stored in a digitized form. Recording the magic sequence was a technique that was currently being used, so it was definitely not impossible. However, that technique only assembled a magic sequence that would bring about the desired change and recorded it. Observing, analyzing and recording the magic sequence of another person as data in the middle of combat exceeded the current limits of Magic Engineering. It was natural that Masaki had his doubts regarding that matter.

“…No, that was insensitive of me. My apologies.”

However, Masaki didn’t wait for Tatsuya’s response, and instead apologized to him while bowing his head. In the magical community, prying into the nature of magic used by others was considered rude. Masaki realized that his question went against this principle before any of the other attendees could point this out.

“That’s okay. However, I would appreciate it if you could keep this matter a secret.”

“Of course. So, Shiba, when will the results of the investigation be available?”

Tatsuya accepted the apology with a smile, and Katsuto turned the conversation back to the main topic.

Tatsuya stopped smiling and turned towards Katsuto.

“I think it will take all of tomorrow. I will let you know as soon as we find any leads, senpai. Of course, Ichijou, as well.”

“Understood. I’ll leave that to the Yotsuba Family.”

Neither Mayumi nor Masaki objected to Katsuto’s statement.

Instead, Mayumi exchanged a glance with Katsuto, and turned towards Miyuki.

“Miyuki-san, you’ve had a terrible day, right? I’m glad that you weren’t injured.”

“Thank you for your concern.”

Miyuki slightly bowed her head and waited for the next words.

Of course, what Mayumi really wanted to talk about was something else.

“I heard the story from my sister, and it seems that the people from the anti-magic faction were aiming for Miyuki-san?”

By sister, she must have meant Izumi. Since there seemed to be a miscommunication, Miyuki inserted a correction.

“Actually, they were originally harassing a different group of students, and came our way after noticing us.”

“So, Miyuki-san, they knew about you, after all.”

What Mayumi was probably trying to say was, “Did they know Miyuki was going to be the next Head of the Yotsuba Family?”

Miyuki refuted that in a roundabout manner.

“It seemed that they knew that I was the Student Council President of First High.”

In terms of people who were connected with the Ten Master Clans, Izumi was actually the one who was tentatively identified by the mob as a direct descendant of the Saegusa Family, but Miyuki didn’t talk about that.

“In any case, were the Humanists insolent enough to set their eyes on Shiba-san?”

Masaki asked from beside Mayumi.

“We think so.”

Mayumi instantly replied as if seeking to prevent Tatsuya and Miyuki from disagreeing.

“That’s why, would you let us assign an escort to you, Miyuki-san?” Mayumi’s proposal caused Miyuki to be perplexed.

“An escort? But I already have…”

Miyuki was about to say, “I already have Onii-sama,” but realized that those words wouldn’t be accepted due to the current situation.

Currently, Tatsuya was returning from school separately from Miyuki due to the search for Gu Jie. Although they were physically apart, Tatsuya always kept an “eye” on Miyuki, and eliminated any danger in her vicinity. However, this was a secret pertaining to Tatsuya’s strength, and could not be explained to people from other families.

Mayumi and the others probably wouldn’t be convinced, unless she explained Tatsuya’s abilities in detail. Especially since just today, he had rushed to save Miyuki.

“You mean, you want to assign someone to capture the people who might come to assault Miyuki?”

As Miyuki was struggling to give an answer, Tatsuya came to her rescue by speaking in a voice filled with displeasure.

Tatsuya looked at Katsuto and Mayumi, and fixed his sight on Masaki.

“Ichijou. Do you intend to use Miyuki as bait?”

“No!”

Masaki replied in an extremely agitated voice.

“I won’t let them do that! I will act as the bait instead!”

There wasn’t a hint of deception in Masaki’s words, but Tatsuya continued to look at him with a narrow gaze.

“So, you won’t deny that there is a plan to lure the enemy out?” Masaki made a ‘oh, crap!’ expression and closed his mouth. “This must be Kichijouji’s idea.”

Since Tatsuya hit the bullseye, Masaki wasn’t able to say anything back.

“Yes, Ichijou did put forward an idea wherein he would act as a bait.”

In the middle of the uncomfortable atmosphere, Katsuto began to arbitrate.

“Regarding the issue of assigning an escort to the next Head of the Yotsuba, I will not deny that there was a plan to capture a group of terrorists and use them to gain a clue about the hideout of the mastermind, Gu Jie.”

Needless to say, the “Next Head of the Yotsuba” that Katsuto was talking about was referring to Miyuki. He admitted that Tatsuya’s criticism was not unwarranted.

“However, that is not the main reason. The escort’s main task is to act as the next head’s protector. Shiba, this is something that Saegusa came up with so that you could focus on your search.”

Tatsuya shifted his gaze from Katsuto to Mayumi.

Mayumi put strength into her eyes and received Tatsuya’s gaze. “…Understood.”

Saying so, Tatsuya softened his gaze.

“However, we will have to decline. The Yotsuba Family will assign an escort.”

However, his tone of voice completely rejected Mayumi’s offer. Considering her personality, she probably wanted to assign an escort to Miyuki purely out of goodwill. However, the person who would actually assign the escort was her father. There was no way that it would be limited to just bodyguard duties.

“I see… Considering Miyuki-san’s position, I suppose that is only natural.”

“Not at all. It’s the thought that counts.”

Miyuki gave Mayumi a courteous bow.

As Mayumi shook her head while laughing, this discussion came to a close.

“Juumonji-senpai.”

As Miyuki and Mayumi looked at each other, Tatsuya spoke to Juumonji past their gazes.

In response to Tatsuya’s voice, Katsuto looked at him.

“I am the person who actually caused harm to the Anti-magic faction. If you need someone to act as bait, am I not the best choice?”

The person who objected to Tatsuya’s words was not Katsuto, but Mayumi.

“No hyena would willingly rush towards a lion, unless it was being chased by the lion and had no choice but to fight back.”

“It could also happen if they were both fighting over the same prey.”

Mayumi looked intently at Katsuto, who had casually made such a comment.

“Juumonji-kun. Don’t tell me, are you really planning on using Miyuki- san as ‘bait’?”

“Saegusa, don’t talk like this doesn’t concern you. It’s not just the next Head of the Yotsuba, but as the eldest daughter of the Saegusa Family, there is a good chance that you might be targeted by the Anti-magic faction as well.”

Caught by surprise, Mayumi blinked at him.

“Regarding the incident today,”

To fill the gap in the conversation while Mayumi was at a loss for words, Miyuki began to speak.

“I was not the only one who was targeted by the Humanists. I definitely heard them say ‘belonging to the Saegusa Family’ after seeing Izumi- chan.”

Miyuki didn’t particularly wait for a situation where her words would have the most impact, but she didn’t waste the unexpected opportunity that came her way.

Katsuto’s, Tatsuya’s, and Masaki’s gazes gathered on Mayumi. “…Eh, me?”

Mayumi pointed at herself with a flustered expression.

“Saegusa. What about your escort?”

“I’ll be fine. I can look after myself, after all.”

Katsuto repeatedly shook his head sideways.

“I think the issue of Saegusa-senpai’s escort is what actually needs to be reviewed.”

“Indeed.”

At Tatsuya’s comment, Katsuto, as expected, moved his head repeatedly, this time in a nod.

“Hey, didn’t I say that I would be fine?”

“I don’t intend to doubt your skills, Saegusa, but this is just in case.”

“It’s not like I’m walking around completely unprotected!”

“Is that so? I don’t recall seeing anyone like that on campus…”

“There’s no way I would bring a bunch of unrelated people into the campus!”

It appeared that they would be able to avoid having an escort from the Saegusa Family assigned to Miyuki. Tatsuya and Miyuki thought that as they watched Mayumi and Katsuto arguing.

◊ ◊ ◊

As Tatsuya and the others finished their meeting and moved on to dinner, Kokonoe Yakumo was entertaining an unexpected visitor.

At the back of the temple, Yakumo was wearing a monk’s stole, which was unusual, and was sitting in a respectful manner. Although he called himself a hermit, he could not ignore the customs when meeting with this person.

The guest had a strange air about him. His muscle mass may have reduced due to age, but he was broad-shouldered. Even while sitting, it could be inferred that he must have had a magnificent body in his youth.

His head was clean shaven like that of a monk’s. However, he was wearing an obviously expensive-looking suit. It looked very natural on him. He didn’t look like someone who was just used to having expensive things. Instead, he gave off the feeling of materialistic power that his expensive bespoke suit symbolized.

He had thick, grey eyebrows and large, round eyes. While his features couldn’t be called handsome, his face had a dignified look. However, his cloudy white left eye gave off a strange sense of pressure to people who faced him. The strange impression he gave off was, undoubtedly, mostly due to this eye.

“For Your Excellency, Priest Aoba, to visit a nameless temple like this, whatever could be the reason?”

Yakumo served the guest a cup of carelessly-made tea.

The monk, who was wearing a suit, casually picked up the tea cup, took a large gulp and returned the cup to the tatami mat. It was a way of drinking that wholly ignored propriety, but strangely did not appear to be rude.

“Nameless temple? Being too modest makes you sound sarcastic, Kokonoe Yakumo.”

“My apologies.”

As Yakumo answered in an aloof manner, the elderly person called, “His Excellency, Priest Aoba,” scrutinized him with his right eye.

“Besides, there’s no way a lowly chief priest of a nameless temple could talk to me, Toudou Aoba, in such a rude manner.”

“Oh, did I hurt your feelings?”

“No. In fact, it makes me feel more comfortable.”

This time, Elder Toudou drained the remaining tea that Yakumo had prepared in one gulp.

“I request a refill.”

Yakumo gave a faint smile, bowed, and received the cup.

Yakumo poured the water that he had boiled on the portable stove ── this back room used a portable stove even in mid-winter, despite having a fireplace ── into the teacup, picked up the tea whisk, and asked in a carefree manner.

“So, Your Excellency, what brings you here today?”

Yakumo stirred the mixture of matcha and hot water, removed the tea whisk, then pushed the tea cup towards Elder Toudou instead of presenting it to him, before raising his head.

“You just visited us last month, so it can’t be that you wanted to see the face of this humble priest once again.”

The ‘last month’ that Yakumo was talking about was regarding the fourth of January, when Tatsuya and Miyuki had come to give their New Year’s greetings. The person who had arrived without notice and spoke to Yakumo before them was this elderly monk.

“Kokonoe Yakumo, I wish to borrow your strength.”

Elder Toudou’s answer to Yakumo’s question was very direct.

“Well, I am merely a monk who is lacking strength, so will I be able to help Your Excellency?”

“Enough of the humility. You are praised as the reincarnation of Kashin Koji due to your illusionary techniques, so if you are lacking strength, then there are no strong practitioners in this world.”

“Well, now. Kashin Koji was rumored to be a simple conjurer. If that is the case, perhaps that gossip about me being ‘Kashin Koji’s reincarnation’ meant that my techniques were no more than a sleight of hand?”

“Isn’t that a belief from when magic was considered to be a pipe dream? Such deception won’t work on me. I am well-aware of your true ability.”

After hearing that declaration of confidence in a tone of voice that indicated that it was taken for granted, Yakumo scratched his head.

“…So, Your Excellency. What do you require of me?”

To begin with, Yakumo didn’t think that he could deceive Elder Toudou. Yakumo was well aware of just who this elderly man with a cloudy white eye was.

“The unrestrained activities of the necromancer from the continent, Gu Jie, are inexcusable. The technique that uses corpses as puppets spreads enough impurity as it is. If he uses it indiscriminately like that, it will be too late to exorcise.”

“Your Excellency. There’s no point in talking about Shinto rituals to a Buddhist monk like myself.”

“I won’t ask you to participate in the exorcism. I just want your help in removing the source of the impurity.”

“So, you want me to exterminate the necromancer known as Gu Jie?” Yakumo’s sigh was not a pretense.

“It is enough that you remove him from Japan. I don’t care if he is dead or alive.”

“It seems that your subordinates don’t feel that it is okay to let him escape, Your Excellency.”

“The people of the Yotsuba are no longer my subordinates. Now, I am merely a sponsor.”

Yakumo did not take Elder Toudou’s words seriously. It was true that this old man was once the owner of the Fourth Institute, and was now a sponsor of the Yotsuba Family, but the word ‘merely’ was false. Yakumo was also aware that it wasn’t just the Yotsuba Family that he was sponsoring.

“If I dip my hands in such worldly issues, the main temple will get noisy.”

This was not an excuse. It was a pretty shameful thing for Yakumo, but it was the truth.

Of course, there was no point in complaining to Toudou Aoba about such a thing.

“I have already talked to Mt. Hiei regarding this.”

This old man already had enough influence in the shadows to easily overturn something like that.

“Is that so…”

Although it was rare for Yakumo, he felt like there was nothing he could do but sigh.

“Despite what I said, I don’t intend to ask you for a very big favor. I am not in a position to do so, after all.”

“To begin with, please tell me what it is you wish of me in more detail. I will let you know if I can accept the job after that.”

Yakumo was the only person who could give such a reply. For example, even though Kudou Retsu was older than Elder Toudou, he would not be able to decline his ‘request’.

“I want you to help Shiba Tatsuya.”

“…You are worried about him, as well, Your Excellency?”

“Although he was an accidental creation, he is still one of the extreme cases. I need him to remain useful for a while yet.”

Yakumo felt sympathy for Tatsuya. He knew that what Elder Toudou meant by ‘useful’, was that he wanted Tatsuya to act as a lab rat in gathering more data.

Toudou Aoba had a long reach. Yakumo thought that it would be considerably difficult for Tatsuya to escape from his clutches.

However, Yakumo did not think that Tatsuya would have any trouble with the circumstances he was currently facing.

“I don’t think someone like Gu Jie could do anything to him.”

“I am not worried about Shiba Tatsuya fighting against Gu Jie.”

“In that case, are you worried about a possibility of clashing with the STARS?”

Yakumo was aware that one of the leaders of the STARS, the magician corps under the direct command of the USNA Joint Chiefs of Staff, had secretly entered Japan, and he also knew about his objectives. Although he didn’t know the motives behind it, he was aware that the USNA military wanted to assassinate Gu Jie with their own hands. The USNA military was trying to prevent Gu Jie from falling into the hands of the Japanese authorities. There were probably some shady circumstances that they didn’t want Japan to find out about.

If Tatsuya drove Gu Jie into a corner, it was easy to predict that the STARS would once again get in his way. Even so, Yakumo didn’t believe that it would become a situation where his help would be absolutely necessary.

“If we’re talking about pure combat ability, I don’t think even the second strongest member of STARS, Benjamin ‘Canopus’ Loews, could win against Shiba Tatsuya.”

“Yes, if it were just a fight to the death with no rules.”

“I see.”

Yakumo understood what Elder Toudou was worried about. What he was afraid of, was going against the ‘rules.’ Toudou Aoba was trying to prevent Yotsuba’s ‘creation’ from getting dragged into a decisive fight by means outside of violence.

“What I want to ask of you, is to hold on to his reins, and prevent him from falling into an unfavorable situation.”

“What about searching for Gu Jie?”

“If you are able to dispose of him, then that would be great, but that is of lower importance. In any case, even if we leave him alone, the STARS will get rid of him.”

Basically, it was okay, even if Gu Jie was assassinated by the STARS. This meant that there was no need to worry about the honor of the Ten Master Clans. From Elder Toudou’s perspective, it was probably better if the Ten Master Clans were driven into a slightly difficult position.

“If that is the case, then I will accept your request. Shiba Tatsuya isn’t a stranger to me, after all.”

“My thanks. Is ten cushions sufficient as your payment?”

The ‘cushion’ mentioned here is a code word from back when deals were often settled with paper money. One ‘cushion’ meant 10,000 notes, with each note being worth 10,000 Yen, so basically, it was one hundred million Yen. Ten cushions would be equal to one billion Yen.

Yakumo gave a bitter smile and shook his head at Elder Toudou’s proposal.

“No, no. Despite appearances, I consider myself a hermit. There is no need for monetary compensation.”

This time, Elder Toudou shook his head with a serious face.

“The truth is, there is nothing more valuable. At the very least, this is what I think. If you cannot accept cash, then I’ll find a statue of Buddha from somewhere and deliver it to you.”

Incidentally, the statue of Buddha that Toudou Aoba would send would be made of pure gold.

“Please, don’t send anything that would be difficult to dispose of.”

“Something that you would find difficult to dispose of? Although that would be interesting to see, I doubt that could happen.”

Elder Toudou stood up by putting a hand on his knee. It was an action befitting his age.

A second later, Yakumo stood up without a sound.

“The tea was horrible as usual, but thanks, anyways.”

Yakumo smiled at Elder Toudou’s usual phrase and opened the sliding door.