Minami answered while bowing, Tatsuya headed to the lobby where Miyuki and his friends were waiting.

When she couldn’t see his back anymore, Minami knocked at the door of the room where Minoru slept.

Without waiting for his reply, Minami opened the door with the electronic key that was entrusted to her by Tatsuya. Minami had no intention in disturbing the sleep of an ill person just for that.

She closed the front door, and opened the sliding door, where Minoru tried to rise from the futon. Minami ran to sit by his side without any sound, she was pressing both of his shoulders gently as to let him lie back down.

“Minoru-sama, please don’t mind me. If you do so, there is no meaning in me taking care of you.”

Minoru felt that those words were coming out of a villain who tried to blame him for overdoing things. However, no matter how hard Minami tried, she wouldn’t be able to treat Minoru that way, it seemed like Minoru had misunderstood Minami’s true meaning.

“I understand. Then, I will dutifully sleep.”

This time Minami wore a disappointed expression.

Minami sat beside Minoru while staring at him motionlessly, she sat with aligned knees as the correct manners dictated.

After 30 minutes passed, Minoru’s closed eyelids suddenly opened, and he smiled wickedly.

“Sakurai-san, if you keep staring at a man like that, it’s quite embarrassing, even for me.”

He should have been accustomed to being stared at due to his good looks. Yet, he felt like his liberty was affected in this private close proximity, and the fact that his sleeping face had been observed intensely.

“Pardon my rudeness!”

Minami lowered her head to touch the mat in apology with “uwaaa” voice, she also set two meters distance between them to be seated.

Her bright red face which was facing down on the tatami mat was not visible to Minoru.

As for Minami, she had not meant to stare at Minoru’s face. It wasn’t like there was anyone else in the room to talk to, and she thought it was rude to the patient if she read or watched videos, in fact, she was only dazed without any significant thoughts in her head.

However, after hearing Minoru’s words, Minami even doubted her own actions with a “Was that true?”.

The things that Minoru said about her staring at him.

Minami questioned herself, “Was I really staring intently at him?”.

—— “And if I did, what did I do that for?”

Her face which had been red became more and more blushed.

Even Minoru who was lying down could see that her ears had turned red, Minoru was worried about Minami’s physical condition since the dogeza pose that she had maintained seemed to have burdened her much.

“Ehh, umm… are you ok?” Minoru was about to rise.

“I’m alright! Please continue your rest!”





She was pushing with a strong tone on the verge of screaming as compared to the gentle push of her hands earlier, Minami rose noisily and went out of the room while hiding her face.

She closed the sliding door forcefully. Yet, still leaving a little gap.

There was no sound of the front door being opened or closed.

Minoru seemed to be solidified for a while, with a hand stretched towards Minami who had now gone.





Although in the original plan Tatsuya’s group had consisted of five members, since Minoru was sick and Minami stayed behind to nurse him, in the end they had three members, the same as Mikihiko’s group. And Masaki who was supposed to follow their commuter with his bike, since the commuter was only a 4-seater capacity, they ended up riding the commuter together.

The two seats in front were occupied by Tatsuya and Masaki, while Miyuki was seated in the rear alone. Honestly, Masaki wanted to sit beside Miyuki, yet he suppressed his real intention and sat next to Tatsuya, since he prioritized common sense and manners in this situation.

The one who set the destination was Tatsuya. Masaki had agreed on going to Mt. Arashi during yesterday’s meeting, hence Tatsuya proceeded directly to the parked commuter without even stopping to think twice.

“Shiba, aren’t we going to Mt. Arashi?”

“We’re going to get some clues before going there.”

He answered Masaki while turning back, Tatsuya looked back at the foot outside the car.

“I want you not to talk about Zhou Gongjin from here onwards.”

“…Is it supposed to be a secret?”

“I do not want to involve that person, if possible.”

Masaki returned with questioning eyes at Tatsuya. Tatsuya suspected that Masaki misunderstood his words, but they had already reached their first destination. Furthermore, Tatsuya didn’t feel any need to give an excuse.

It had been three minutes since Tatsuya’s group arrived here.

“Tatsuya-kun, I’m sorry for making you wait.”

“No, you are right on time.”

Tatsuya said so to assure the female college student who had rushed from her commuter.

“Huh? Miyuki-san?”

“Good morning, Saegusa-senpai. I didn’t get to meet you last time, so ‘long time no see’.” Mayumi’s eyes were wide open, while Miyuki smiled at her.

“I didn’t expect that Miyuki-san would be coming along.”

As she said, Tatsuya did not tell Mayumi that he was not coming alone.

However, Mayumi had to restrain herself from using her usual sarcastic tone due to the presence of the other companion.

“Ichijou Masaki-kun, right? This is the first time we have the chance to do self-introductions. I’m Saegusa Mayumi.”

Instead of showing her wanton behaviour in front of Tatsuya, she introduced herself as a daughter of Saegusa Family from the Ten Master Clans.

“I remember your face. I’m Ichijou Masaki.”

Masaki replied with a hint of nervousness. As both of them said, this was not their first meeting.

Nevertheless, it had been four years since their last greeting and this meeting was their second. Although they both knew the other party as a celebrity in the magic world, otherwise, it would be weird to remember about each other.

“I’m sorry, Ichijou-kun… Tatsuya-kun, come here for a second.”

Mayumi retreated away from Masaki with a dazzling feigned smile, while winding her right arm to Tatsuya’s left arm——not with any visible sweet intention——she pulled Tatsuya. After distancing herself about two meters away, Mayumi began to cross-examine Tatsuya in whispers.

“Tatsuya-kun, why didn’t you mention that Miyuki-san would be coming along?” Tatsuya showed a natural amazed face.

“I don’t think you need to ask specifically about this. Didn’t you expect me to come together with Miyuki?”

In a failed attempt to refute, Mayumi showed a “giving up expression”.

“That’s right…There’s no way Miyuki-san would let Tatsuya-kun go alone, right.”

She shook her head in exasperation, before suddenly turning back to her serious expression. Her sight was fixed upon Masaki.

“Then, I wonder why is Ichijou-kun also coming along.”

“That is a total coincidence. Yesterday, Yoshida who did a preliminary investigation of the surrounding area for the Thesis Competition met Ichijou who had the same purpose. Since he has been wandering around the venue to look for suspicious people, I brought him along in place of a bodyguard.”

“So Yoshida-kun and others are also here… Ah, of course, he is the current Public Morals Committee Chief after all.”

“You are well informed.”

Without speaking out his real intention, Tatsuya was trying to say “You’re well informed despite having graduated”, Mayumi shot an “I won’t be cheated” look at Tatsuya. Seemed like Mayumi knew that Tatsuya had a habit of trying to find something that could be used against her.

“Then, does Ichijou-kun know about my situation?”

“I have not received such permission from senpai, I won’t blabber anything unnecessary.” Suspicion dwelled in Mayumi’s eyes, they had become increasingly distinguished.

Tatsuya also noticed the suspicion that was directed at himself. However, Tatsuya couldn’t be bothered about it.

“Anyway, senpai, do you really not want to explain the situation to Ichijou? I think he is someone you can rely on.”

Tatsuya flakily made a smile at Mayumi.

Mayumi sighed heavily.

“I wonder if it’s wise… To use the only son of the Ichijou Family under your chin.”

“I’m not using him under my chin. In the first place, he wasn’t even that cute of a guy.” Tatsuya answered with a disappointed voice, Mayumi giggled and smiled.

“Ok, I will gladly accept his help then.”

He finally scored, Mayumi might take it that way. Yet, she regained her mood, and gave permission for Tatsuya to explain the situation to Masaki.





Led by the detective on duty, the four of them entered the evidence storage room in the police station.

Masaki showed a surprisingly positive attitude when he heard that she wanted to search for the culprit who murdered Nakura. It seemed like he expressed a great sympathy in (what he interpreted as) the investigation to dispel the chagrin of the bodyguard. As a future head of a family of the Ten Master Clans, the thought of (what he interpreted as) using a subordinates as a mere tool seemed to touch his heart.

Usually, this variance of purpose was not preferred. Since the ancient times, there was a saying

“He who runs after two hares will catch neither[24]”, this was a predictable proverb. However, Tatsuya had a premonition. Rather than based on his reasoning, this time he was betting on his “hunch”.

——Zhou Gongjin was the one who murdered Nakura Saburo——

Tatsuya had that conjecture. That was why even when Masaki inflamed his chivalry for Mayumi, it was not really conflicting his purpose. Therefore, he felt no inconvenience.

While he was thinking about the matter, the detective came back with Nakura’s belongings on the table.

“These were the clothes which were worn by Mr. Nakura on that day. Unfortunately his CAD…”

Nakura’s CAD was obviously retained by Kouichi. A CAD was not only useful for those who knew how to adjust it, but also an amazing research material to know about other magician’s magic by analyzing it. Thus, it was natural in the magic community not to pass such an important secret to non-relatives.

However, Mayumi remembered the guilt covering Kouichi when he recovered Nakura’s CAD. In fact, it was possible to analyze the flow of the battle to a certain extent by examining the CAD. It could even uncover the state of the battle at the time, and guess the kind of damage that the enemy received. Further possibilities included narrowing the suspect list by investigating the patients who visited hospitals to receive treatment for grave injuries. It was a common practice for magicians not to let the CAD fall into the possession of others, but it might be due to the fact that Kouichi was not so cooperative with the police, or rather, blatantly uncooperative.

“Excuse me, Keiji-san[25]. Whose blood is this?”

The detective replied with a rueful shake of his head.

“Unfortunately, all of it is from the victim.”

Even though it was not easy to examine all the blood stains on the victim’s clothes, modern forensic technology had made it possible. To investigate all of the body fluids on the victim’s body for a hint of the perpetrator was a basic procedure in all murder case.

“Nakura-san’s abdomen was pierced from behind, his chest muscle burst out from within, and his heart also ruptured.”

Which was why it was reported as a strange corpse.

However, the newspaper had not reported such details. Tatsuya learnt this from Mayumi.

“Burst from within…?”

Masaki voiced out with a deep suspicion.

“It was as if he was ‘exploding’.”

“No, Shiba! The Ichijou Family is absolutely not involved!”

Confusion floated within his mind during his conjecture, making Masaki show an excessive reaction.

Hearing such a loud voice within a closed room, Mayumi knitted her eyebrows lightly.

Tatsuya was not seriously doubting the involvement of the Ichijou Family.

“However, there is no natural phenomenon that can explain how one’s chest can burst from within, to control bodily the fluid of a human, a magician to boot, I think there isn’t any other magic that could manipulate the momentum of the burst to be strewn over this way.” The purpose of this discussion was to sort out the information.

“That’s…”

——Even so, it was a tough situation to be in.

“The Ichijou’s ‘explosion’ is not something that can be copied so easily though.”

“Of course! Ah, but still.”

“Calm down. I only said that it looked like he ‘exploded’. I didn’t mean to put any special meaning in the word ‘explosion’, I don’t even doubt that the Ichijou Family is not involved.” Masaki blushed faintly, realized that he had been distraught, and he was probably ashamed to be scolded. Tatsuya saw that as “his guy’s personality took a weak turn against an unexpected circumstances”.

“Magic which interferes with another individual’s body is difficult to be applied. However, it is not so difficult if it’s applied to your own body. For example, self-acceleration is a fairly popular magic.”

Mayumi opened her mouth.

“Tatsuya-kun, do you think that Nakura-san exploded him——killed himself?” Mayumi questioned Tatsuya timidly, and Tatsuya shook his head.

“Even if he did explode himself, he did not commit suicide.”

“Onii-sama, do you think that Nakura-san chose to explode himself since he already had a fatal wound?”

Tatsuya nodded to Miyuki who was beside him.

Before returning his sight to Mayumi.

“I think the ruptured heart was due to some sort of side effect from his magic.”

“He must have already received a mortal wound from behind that pierced through his abdomen, so he simultaneously attacked the murderer with this magic?”

“Senpai. Did Nakura-san have a special magic with liquid as his weapon?” After answering Masaki’s question, he turned to ask Mayumi.

“…I’m sorry, Nakura-san had never really used his magic in my presence.” However, Mayumi failed to answer that question.

“I see.”

Tatsuya did not answer with a disappointed voice.

However, Mayumi heard his patience wearing thin in his reply.

“Ah, but I heard something when I first met him. Wait a minute.”

Mayumi folded her arms, while thoughtfully humming “umm, umm”.

(Somehow… She ticks like a manga character.)

Before Tatsuya thought that “it might be rude”, Mayumi made a revelation gesture with her hand.

“Now that I recall, Nakura-san was good at magic to make needles from water.” Masaki knitted his eyebrows.

“Water needle? How? And what kind of effect would it result in?”

“I’m not sure how he did it, I wonder if it supposed to pierce through something since it was called needle. If you applied a Convergence-Type system to water, it could even securely gather force at a practical level for a weapon.”

Masaki was annoyed at the involuntary uninteresting answer, and was about to ask another question. However, right on that instance, he remembered that Miyuki was present.

“…That means, the victim turned his own blood into needles and shot the perpetrator, huh. A counterattack at the price of his life…”

Tatsuya stored the information of Nakura’s blood from the remnant of his clothes with his Elemental Sight.

“Shiba, what are you doing?”

“I was checking if there is any other magical trace at the area of the abdomen wound.”

“I see…” The one who squinted his eyes due to Tatsuya’s plausible lie was not only Masaki, but also Mayumi. They actually detected a usage of magic instead of observation with the five senses, to recognize magic with one’s eyes was the most direct analysis.

“Umm, nothing left.”

Mayumi dropped her shoulders in disappointment, Masaki also sighed heavily.

“Me too. I can feel some traces here, but the pattern is just too blurred to be understood… Shiba, did you find anything?”

“I can’t obtain any specific clues to specify a certain individual. However, this injury was probably caused by a genjuu[26].”

“Genjuu?”

“Onii-sama, what is this genjuu?”

Mayumi and Miyuki sought an explanation of the alien word. The detective behind the two of them was seen taking notes.

Tatsuya tried to impose upon Masaki to take the explaining role, yet Masaki casually denied his invitation. Either he did not know about the matter, or he was just tired of explaining things.

Since the one who asked was Miyuki, he’d probably answered it enthusiastically if he knew. Hence, Tatsuya interpreted that Masaki, most probably, also did not know.

“Genjuu is a kind of kasei-tai. It reflects the light that comes into contact with the body through magic, which causes a pretext that it possess an entity[27] and even applies pressure to the object. It shows a shape to the enemy via an illusion by reflecting the light. Therefore, it also has an effect to fit into a created form, the same as a Kasei-tai.”

“Kasei-tai can be seen by everyone since they reflect physical light. However, genjuu utilizes magic from the Spirit Interference System, it will only be visible to the opponent intended by the magician. Am I right?”

Tatsuya gave a satisfied nod to Miyuki’s explanation.

“That’s right. You’ve explained well. These type of illusions are not restricted to visuals. There are also established genjuu spells for auditory illusions.”

“Wait a minute, Tatsuya-kun. If I digested this properly, you said that genjuu would not form if it’s not recognized by the opponent?”

“The main difference between genjuu and Kasei-tai is found in the Magic Sequence that affects the opponent to think that there is ‘something’.”

Mayumi did not fully comprehend this, her face was filled with questions.

“If that’s the case, then why did the attack come from behind? He would have realized if there’s noise. If it materialized behind him, Nakura-san should have realized it if the distance between them was close enough, he shouldn’t have ended up getting pierced from the back.”

“He did not necessarily notice where the creature was.”

“What do you mean…?”

“In the case of genjuu, it can work even without clear recognition from the opponent. Since genjuu do not exist fundamentally, if one see its shape clearly, one will know that it is an illusion. As long as anxiety is risen, against some unknown creature, that will give strength to genjuu which is a phenomenon that is not supposed to exist in reality.

“…I don’t really get it.”

“I’m sorry, did I confuse you? To put it briefly, his enemy firstly imprints a recognition magic of the shape of the beast that would give a pretext that he was going to be attacked by something, which in turn causes the enemy’s magic to get stronger. It didn’t even matter if the first illusion shown was only a kasei-tai.”

“By getting alarmed by the enemy’s magic, he strengthened the power of his opponent…?”

“If you understood this, the effect is reduced by half. The effect was as you’ve seen in the remnants of Nakura’s clothes.”

She lowered her head lightly in appreciation of Tatsuya.

Mayumi was puzzled to the point of not knowing how to react.





The four of them rode on the same commuter and went to Mt. Arashi. (The commuter that Mayumi used had headed with other users upon release, since it was unmanned for quite some time.)

The front seats were taken by Tatsuya and Masaki, while Mayumi and Miyuki sat behind.

Once the commuter started to run, Masaki talked to Tatsuya.

“Shiba, about the genjuu earlier.”

Neither Tatsuya nor Miyuki had ever mistaken who he was referring to. Masaki called Tatsuya with “Shiba” without any honorific, while calling Miyuki with “Shiba-san”.

“Are they different than the ‘Kugutsu-shiki-oni’ that we’d encountered yesterday?”

“I’ve also never heard about Kugutsu-shiki-oni before.”

Tatsuya sat in the front seat, but the commuter did not require him to drive since it was automatically driven. Hence, there was no problem to shift his line of sight.

“Nevertheless, you should have heard of Golems, since it’s quite common. You should be able to discern their differences by their name right?”

“Ichijou-san, Onii-sama, sorry for disturbing your conversation.”

Miyuki leaned lightly from the rear seat. To be more exact, she grabbed the back rest of the front seat and shoved her head forward.

“Onii-sama, I also only know Golems by name, do you mind explaining briefly about some of its characteristics?”

Tatsuya shot a questioning stare for a moment. Golems were popular in the Christian and Jewish culture. Miyuki who had also received an education about foreign magicians who were less likely to “only know it by name”.

However, he noticed his sister’s eyes were glanced towards Masaki, so he noticed her real intention. He did not think that she was a busybody, he didn’t even waste his effort to do so. Tatsuya began to explain about Golems a little bit for Masaki rather than Miyuki.

“Golems are made by embedding parts from a number of organisms or a monster with a independent information body that is programmed to mimic the legend, it continuously changes the relative position of each part in addition to Convergence-Type Magic, a magical robot that reproduces an organism-like behavior.

For example, a titanic golem stone soldier. At first glance, it only looks like a lump of hard stone joined together, yet once it moves, it mimics human movements. However, it was not due to a wholly connected system. It is similar to fortifying magic, the magic is only for securing a relative position. In short, each part of the body is only piled up on top of one another.

As a consequence, golems would be irregular, depending on the substances that formed its body. Inorganic material such as water, or organic material such as wood, alike. However, it has every capability affiliated with physical materials, unlike kasei-tai and genjuu.

To move the golem, it is necessary to embed an independent information body behavioral pattern program. If the magician stopped supplying Psion’s, the magic sequence for the golem would stop working. If the magician himself were beaten, the golem would also lose its power. This is also applied to those which are created from a formless material, such as water, the golem will just collapse in the aftermath.

For wood or stone based golems, they are often used in the engraving magic technique to affix the magic type. On the other hand, the amorphous materials based golems, such as one that is made of water, it is used as a magical communicator that requires the magician to continue casting the magic over and over again. Yesterday’s golem was rather small and disposable, it was presumed from the blood of the Ninjutsu users as the communicator.

Before Modern Magic was established, blood had been considered an important magical tool. The Ancient Magic seen is a highly effective offering, and there are many magics’, which require blood as a medium. In Modern Magic, the Eidos of blood is directly connected to the life support of your body, including the brain, which records the details of the Psion property of the owner in high density. Therefore, it can be said that blood is very suitable to project a magic.”

“…In short, the difference between genjuu and Kasei-tai to golem is in the existence of its entity?”

Mayumi summarized Tatsuya’s explanation in one sentence, she might feel that it started to get cumbersome.

“After I heard your explanation, I think that the golem which has an entity seems to be easier to deal with.”

Tatsuya shook his head lightly in response to Masaki’s opinion.

“If only Kasei-tai and genjuu were strong enough, there wouldn’t any need for troublesome and inefficient biological forms. In fact, the magic was centralized in the narrow range of its nucleus, and can be erased easily if you destroy the nucleus. Or you can simply destroy the force field which shapes the virtual image. Moreover, golems are much more useful in terms of physical strength, it possesses destructive strength for physical work.”

While they were having this conversation (through the one who was mostly doing all the talking was Tatsuya), the commuter ran closer to their destination.





Minami read quietly beside the sleeping Minoru.

Aside from his fever, his condition was stable. There wasn’t any household chores to be done at the hotel, and there was no need to compete for preparing the meals and teas either. Minami was finally in a relaxed mood after a long time.

Still, she was together with a young man——or a boy with the same age, just the two of them. Moreover, the other party was superbly beautiful, so she was feeling impeccably content. Yet, she was wondering why she felt this relaxed.

It shouldn’t be because she was used to Miyuki. Both her and Miyuki were——though sometimes she did not think that——female. Minoru was a male. Of course she would feel different about him.

Moreover, the visit to Nara before, and yesterday, too, when she was nearby Minoru, she had been really nervous. She was aware that she was nervous. It was by no means due to the fact that he was a “son of the Kudou Family” that she had been kind of nervousness. Most likely, because she saw Minoru as a member of opposite sex who was of the same age as her. He was a “boy” as contrasted to Tatsuya.

He had great magic power, and could even be said to be a tremendous one. He might even stand on par to the Yotsuba’s masterpiece, Miyuki.

His looks were also extraordinary, which didn’t need to be said at this late hour.

Yet, why did she feel a sense of familiarity. Somewhere inside, she felt just like him. She was attracted to him, she was aware that Minoru was aware of this, which resulted in her nervousness.

Minami held both of her cheeks with her hands. She blushed as she was ashamed of her delusion. She stood to cool her head, and went to wash her face.

However, she immediately returned to her position. Not for reading a book, but a seating pose beside Minoru. She noticed that Minoru’s breathing was suddenly raged.

His breath was short and painful. His hand was getting hotter. Minami rushed to call a doctor, but she stopped in the middle.

Minoru was from the Kudou Family. A magician who inherited the bloodline of the former Ninth Laboratory. I wonder if ordinary doctors would be allowed to examine him?

Minami wavered. Minoru’s illness was certainly not to be nursed by an amateur. Nevertheless, she could not decide if she can call the doctor by herself.

A solution flashed in Minami’s mind.

She wanted to ask Tatsuya.

Minami hurriedly retrieved her information terminal, and launched the voice communication function.





Tatsuya received the call from Minami right after he got off from the commuter.

“How is Minoru? I see. You made the right choice for not asking for help from the front desk. Contacting Fujibayashi would be the best choice… Yes, no problem. In fact, she told me in advance to contact her if something happened to Minoru. I asked for you to do simple nursing since she’s probably heading to the hotel now… No, I didn’t give him any medicine… Ok, that’s good. It’s probably a little troublesome for you alone to do it, but I’m counting on you… Yes, I’ll leave it to you.”

Miyuki looked up anxiously at Tatsuya who had just finished the call.

Moved by her gaze, Tatsuya called the number that had been registered in his information terminal.

“Fujibayashi-san? This is Shiba. Actually, Minoru is sick now, and Minami is nursing him, she said that his breathing looks painful… CR hotel, room XXX… I’ll leave everything in your care.”

“Was that just now Kyouko-san?”

From the side, Mayumi’s voice came out with an anxious tone.

“Has Minoru-kun’s condition worsened?”

Questioned by his sister, Tatsuya nodded in silence.

“Shiba, is it ok for us not to go back?”

Masaki asked so with a serious face. They had just met yesterday, but he seemed to be seriously worried about Minoru.

“I’ve contacted his relative, she will reach the hotel in about one hour.”

“Sudden illness? Kyouko-san’s relative?” Mayumi hadn’t met Minoru yet.

“The youngest son of the Kudou Family. He was helping us out as a guide around Kyoto for a little while before.”

“The Kudou Family’s last son, is he that Minoru-kun? I heard he has a weak constitution.”

It was surprising that Mayumi knew about Minoru. As expected of the eldest daughter from the Saegusa Family, rumored to be the most socialized in the Ten Master Clans.

However, even for Mayumi, she still did not know about Minoru’s constitution. From the information she received, she imagined Minoru to have a similar constitution to that of Itsuwa Mio. Since Mayumi often visited Mio, she had been preconditioned to associate everyone with poor health from Mio’s appearance.

“He is sickly, but he doesn’t look frail. I haven’t heard from his doctor, so I don’t know much about the details, but it seems like his magical power is too strong that it causes an excessive load on his body.”

“…Can such a thing happen?”

Mayumi tilted her head with a puzzled and skeptical face, while Miyuki showed her face from the other side to see what was happening.

“At any rate, since Fujibayashi-san is rushing there, we can proceed with our planned investigation.”

Mayumi was acquainted with Fujibayashi. Even before the Yokohama Incident last year; from the relationship between their houses. Of course, she knew the situation of Fujibayashi Kyouko and the Kudou Family.

On the other hand, Masaki did not know a thing about Fujibayashi. Yet, he didn’t add on any extra comments from his mouth.

Nakura’s corpse had been discovered across at the river bed of Katsuragawa[28], right beside the Arashiyama[29] district at Nakanoshima Park. Just before the Katsuragawa River, towards the south, there were small sandbars scattered.

The site of the police investigation seemed to be over; Tatsuya was able to enter the site without any problem. Of course, there were no blood stains that remained. Although, using Elemental Sight might help to trace and verify the data which he had obtained earlier, Tatsuya decided not to waste any effort there.

“Was it here?”

“Yes.”

Masaki asked, Mayumi nodded. Masaki was quite optimistic for this investigation.

“This much momentum, it is unlikely that he was shed from upstream.”

Miyuki said so while looking at Tatsuya. Tatsuya thought, apparently, his sister had poor skills to be a crime detective.

“That’s a possibility that probably doesn’t exist.”

Tatsuya stopped his answer there, he didn’t say the following words, that there hadn’t been any signs of a trail of blood to be found in this area.

“Shiba, what do you think of the situation? Was Nakura-san approaching the criminal that stood here, or did the perpetrator approach him after Nakura-san arrived first?”

“I don’t know.”

Tatsuya immediately answered Masaki.

“The conclusion wouldn’t come out even after we think about it. In the first place, we don’t know if Nakura-san and the perpetrator had made an appointment to meet up, or if Nakura-san was just attacked randomly by the criminal.”

“…Certainly.”

Masaki did not show any useless rebound, and seconded Tatsuya.

“Onii-sama, what should we do now?”

After Miyuki asked him, Tatsuya turned to Mayumi.

“I want to investigate the surroundings a little bit, do you mind?”

Mayumi was surprised from the sudden offer, and answered, “Yes, I’m the one who asked for your assistance, if you have anything on your mind, I will follow it”.

Tatsuya did not stay by the Katsuragawa river bed, but headed upstream across the Togetsukyou Bridge. Rather than going back, it was further forward in the direction of the Arashiyama district at Kameyama Park; there was a small warehouse at the peak of the eastern part of Mt. Ogura.

Tatsuya headed there according to the clues obtained from the shaman he met at the tofu shop nearby Kiyomizu Temple, the place where Zhou Gongjin had been hiding. He did not tell that to Mayumi, but she was following him without any complaint.





Autumn had deepened, Mayumi was overdressed in her own way with a pair of sandals. In contrast with Miyuki who wore long pants and sneakers, Mayumi wore heels with long sleeves and a long dress. She mustn’t have fully understood what they were going to be doing and just dressed confidently, still it wasn’t an extreme up and down hiking course.

Inevitably, the four of them moved at a slower pace.

Within the park, in the slope area, there was a sign stating of a “bamboo forest”. Tatsuya headed there without hesitation. Mayumi found it to be uncomfortable that she hadn’t found any hesitation in him.

“Hey, Tatsuya-kun.”

“What? Are we moving too fast?”

Hung with Mayumi’s voice, Tatsuya halted his feet. Masaki and Miyuki also halted together.

“No, we don’t, but.”

Now that he mentioned it, Mayumi noticed that she was starting to lose her breath. She could understand that Tatsuya’s and Masaki’s breath would not be affected, but even Miyuki did not show any sign of fatigue, she found this unreasonably indescribable.

“Tatsuya-kun, do you have any place in mind? You seem to be very sure of where to go since earlier.”

After Mayumi pointed out so, Tatsuya realized that his attitude was certainly unnatural as she had said.

He wanted to dispose of her suspicion, not because he wanted to continue his lies, but he didn’t want to involve Mayumi. To Minoru, he said that he was a direct descendant of the Ten Master Clans officially since the first time they met, Masaki was also not suspicious after his involvement, since they hadn’t had any excessive contact more than usual. However, Mayumi was a close friend. It would feel awkward once she got dragged into his own circumstances. Although she wouldn’t ask Tatsuya to “take responsibility” over the matters, but she would end up lending her power to Tatsuya. Tatsuya did not want to break the appearance of him lending his assistance to Mayumi, this was his lie.

He was troubled without much to say.

He wavered for a second.

Only for a second, since he had no time to do so the next second.

“Onii-sama!”

Miyuki extended her interference area.

The onibi’s that flew towards them disappeared, swallowed by her magic. The Ancient Magic “Onibi” was not a physical fire, it was a magic with visualization of fire. There was no way that it could possibly breakthrough Miyuki’s interference area.

The enemy seemed to perceive that well, and pounced the wind blades next. However, it ended up the same. Whether they be blades or compressed air blades, he must maintain his magic continuously under the strong interference.

“Ichijou!”

“Leave it to me!”

Tatsuya attacked from the front, with Masaki behind. The two people took their stance to protect Miyuki and Mayumi.

Thin straps extending from the left and right of the bamboo grove towards Miyuki. Blue, red, white, black, and yellow breaded with 5 colors.

Tatsuya caught it before it reached Miyuki.

Waves similar to Cast Jamming came out from the braid.

(Esoteric system trap from Ancient Magic rite!)

Unlike Cast Jamming which scattered the Psion noise to inhibit magic activation in space, this method effectively sealed the opponent’s magic by pouring the noise directly through the string.

Tatsuya decomposed the noise without disassembling the strap itself. He tore the string apart with his own hands.

Tatsuya had strong physical power, yet he did not boast superhuman strength like a juvenile villain. Originally, such a strap might need the brute force of two people to haul it in each hand. However, it stunned their opponents, now that they’d seen their magic was broken in such an unexpected way. Tatsuya used that chance to figure out where they were hiding.

Tatsuya raised his guard. Furthermore, he noticed that someone had disappeared. Tatsuya assumed the barrier was erected to protect themselves from him and his friends, but the barrier was made to prevent the public from entering the area.

However, it was to their convenience too, that they had no worries of being seen by the public.

The strap extended to Masaki and Mayumi, Masaki pushed it back with a gush of wind. The wind itself hadn’t affected the magic actuation inhibitor sequence in the strap, since it was a product of magic.

The bamboo in the forest buzzed violently, the leaves danced in the wind.

Mayumi activated her magic. It was the original form of her specialty “Magic Shooter”, the magic that rained a hail of dry ice, “Dry Blizzard”.

Carbon dioxide concentration in the air was 350 to 400 ppm. About 3/10,000 to 4/10,000. It was within normal standards, in fact, it did not contain less than the common area. However, this number only accounted for up to 10,000 meters in the troposphere, and it’s possible to form the dry ice from pressurized carbon dioxide only within two meters.

Components of the air were evenly distributed in the atmosphere. When the distribution was disrupted by magic, the Eidos would try to rectify this. Targeting a specific gas in a narrow area, in this case, collecting the carbon dioxide, and concentrating them together. Since nature tried to rectify this phenomenon, the concentration of molecules in the area where the magic was activated would cause the airflow which replaced the gas molecules to decrease.

The magic to make dry ice was a carbon dioxide convergence process, the gas molecules were replaced with a speed which exceeded the speed of sound. It was an interesting phenomenon to be observed at the microscopic level. Yet, the event modification triggered by the magician didn’t actually change the configuration of the macro-gas molecules at the atmospheric level. The technique focused on unilaterally converging carbon dioxide, which was the raw material for the dry ice; in a narrow area, the world will immediately procure the raw material shortage in order to counteract the effect of the natural phenomenon modification caused by the magic.

Hails of dry ice stormed in the bamboo forest. Its speed was 500 to 600 km/h which was far slower than the speed of sound. The bullets were also much lighter as compared to lead bullets. However, they had been hardened by magic and were enough to pierce through human flesh.

Six men came out of the bamboo forest in a hurry. There weren’t any serious injuries, perhaps due to the magical shield to avoid the dry ice bullets. Still, there were traces of blood on their limbs.

On the other hand, two magicians were dragged out by Tatsuya, and immediately Miyuki activated her magic to drop the temperature of their bodies into a point of hibernation. His sister had some resistance towards killing others, hence, Tatsuya struggled to actuate the limiter for her magic power.

Tatsuya used his hand, forming a karate chop pose with Decomposition Magic. He hadn’t brought with him his Silver Horn this time. He wore a specialized CAD in bracelet form on his wrist instead. He could add multiple directions to the antennas which in turn, would provide a similar effect to a short sighted auxiliary support.

The CAD that was attached to his chest used thought-operated input commands. This forced him to use a new fighting style which didn’t require the use of his hands during combat.

After all, at this distance, Tatsuya could activate his Decomposition Magic even without a CAD or sight auxiliary. His aim was, the bamboo above the head of the person in hiding whose Psion’s were detected earlier. There might not have been any blood splatter from the blow, but the magicians’ decided to close their eyes.

Since they shut their eyes, the traditionalists couldn’t verify the identity of their attacker. They had understood that this deliberate attack was a warning. It was not an indiscriminate attack, which meant hiding any further wouldn’t serve any purpose.

Soon after, they decided to show up, four traditionalist magicians came out of the bamboo forest. Including the two that he had dragged out earlier, there were 12 assailants detected, yet another one was still missing.

“Ichijou!”

“Leave this to me!”

Tatsuya knew very well the extent of Masaki’s capabilities. He was never worried about Masaki in the first place, and now he reaffirmed that such a worry was baseless. Tatsuya focused to take care of the four opponents in front of him.

In front of Masaki, there stood six magicians. He knew that the opponents were of the traditionalists Buddhist sect beforehand. Thus, there was no confusion in his preliminary action.

From behind Masaki, a sign of magic being activated could be detected. Mayumi was ready in position to use magic.

Masaki and Mayumi both had distinguished power.

The Ten Master Clans, the eldest daughter of the Saegusa. A rival from first high, the former student council president who was considered a genius in long-range precision shooting magic.

However, Masaki had no purpose to fight Mayumi.

The technique earlier, Dry Blizzard. Masaki found out by sight that she purposely reduced the power.

Although as a result, she failed to neutralize the opponent. It did manage to smolder the enemy, but Masaki thought that was due to the idiocy of the opponents.

He wondered if she was not used to the battlefield. The older traditionalist magicians appeared in front of them.

Ancient Magic had inferior speed as compared to Modern Magic.

This was an undeniable truth.

The traditionalists from the Buddhist sect knew about this. They were developing a technique called “Ichijishu” that could activate magic with a much faster time, close to the activation speed of Modern Magic.

Nevertheless, it was still impossible to surpass the speed of Modern Magic. Modern Magic was created by fusing ESP and magic, and it was fast.

Masaki thought so.

However.

“Down!”

Masaki directed his favorite gun-shaped CAD, the traditionalists cried simultaneously. Immediately, Masaki’s magic started to take effect, the right hands of the traditionalists lit up in fire.

“What!?”

“What the heck is this!?”

They didn’t think it wasn’t an illusion. No, it was not. The men’s clothes were already on fire. First from the right hand, to the elbow, they were burnt black, before the unpleasant smell rose to Masaki’s and Mayumi’s nose, the smell of burnt protein.

“Ugh…!”

Mayumi held her mouth. She seemed to have a nausea due to the smell instead of the sight.

Masaki was staring at the sight and forgot to pull the trigger of his CAD.

From the right hand that was still burning, a sword of flame was coming out.

The flame swirling around the sword, a double-edged stick, wrapping around it like a dragon.

If Mikihoko had been present, he would have identified the sword.

Kurikara Sword[30], and.

Two people held the swords, and they plunged at Masaki.

The four of them, they had no time to ask any questions. Masaki put his specialized CAD into his right hand and operated a general-purpose CAD on his left wrist to put up a barrier.

However, this barrier was easily torn down by the sword in a single swing.

Kurikara Sword was a Kōmanoriken[31]. It cut through the “magic”. By that logic, it had the power to cut through the phenomenon that was altered by magic.

“Impossible!”

While his barrier was torn apart, Masaki shouted in reflex.

The sword swung in front of his eyes.

A gust of wind blew from the side and hit the two traditionalist magicians.

“Ichijou-kun, slash the magic!”

In spite of the few words that were said to him, Masaki understood Mayumi’s warning. The gust of wind was created by a phenomenon modification. Not the magic itself, it was a result of an ongoing phenomenon re-writing process. The effect of the flaming sword, fell short.

Masaki re-gripped his red CAD which had fallen from his right hand.

The Magic Activation Selector was placed on the trigger.

Their right hands were getting thinner——burnt down over a period of time——the six traditionalists raised their flaming sword all at once.

The look on their faces expressed anguish.

Masaki fully understood that these magicians had no conscious of what they were doing.

——These magicians were only flesh puppets.

——In place of the threads which manipulated marionettes, he used magic to manipulate their limbs.

Masaki pointed his red CAD at the bodies of the six puppets.

——The magic which controlled them was slashed?

——My “Explosion” should not have resulted in such a lousy thing.

Masaki pulled his trigger six times in succession.

The dolls protected the flaming swords with their bodies. It was a poised magic defense.

Neither Masaki nor Mayumi knew what good that would do.

After all, it had no meaning.

The feet of the traditionalists who were just meat puppets had burst open.

Red flowers bloomed.

The flowers bloomed in the air, due to the red blood cells which were scattered from the skin after the plasma was vaporized.

Masaki adjusted his “Explosion” power, and purposely used it at an un-fatal level just to neutralize the opponents.

In no time, each of the traditionalists had a leg that burst open one after another.

Burst open.

Burst open, again and again.

Six red flowers bloomed, which were immediately scattered by the wind.

The six magicians fell miserably to the ground, with one of their legs bursting open.

Due to the severe pain they experienced, the fire in the swords had extinguished.

Their right hands had carbonized from their elbows; little remained.

One of their legs had ruptured, blood vessels, muscles and skin, with the exception of his bone which turned to shreds.

Mayumi held her mouth at the ghastly sight.

Quite an obstinate young lady from the Ten Master Clans, as the usual reaction would have included some vomiting.

Masaki turned back to face her, there was neither hesitation nor regret on his face.

The same phenomenon occurred before Tatsuya.

The four magicians’ hands were lit on fire.

The difference was here.

Those hands were covered by white mist.

The flame tried to resist the cold air, the cold air went over the skin and burnt them.

The magical flame that was supposed to burn, succumbed to the overwhelming “magic”.

Needless to say, it was Miyuki’s magic.

Miyuki’s magic could freeze the spirit itself, it wouldn’t be difficult for her to freeze a Magic Sequence.

Tatsuya pointed to the enemy’s feet.

The blood from the four enemy’s thighs had blown all at once.

The defeated magicians overturned. The noise of pain arose and shook their control strings.

Vibrations propagated in the reserve direction.

(Over there.)

Tatsuya looked sideways through the bamboo forest, with an unvoiced glare.

A disturbance from in the thread was caused by a Psion, no Psion waves could escape Tatsuya’s “eyes”.

He turned his right hand in the direction of the bushes.

He dealt with the spiders who had rained over his head with his left hand.

The spider disappeared without a trace, simultaneously, a scream from the bushes was heard.

“This still feels awkward.”

Tatsuya soliloquy said so, he tried the prototype of the fully thought-operated CAD bracelet “Silver Torus” instead of the Silver Horn specialized CAD (Torus meant ring rather than Taurus), he was commenting about the combination response.

“Seems like it will take quite some time to master it smoothly.” However, Miyuki mentioned a reverse evaluation.

Both of them had something else to think about, namely the scream behind the bushes and the six people who laid before their eyes. However, Tatsuya knew that the Houjutsu user wouldn’t be able to escape due to the pain, Miyuki also believed that there wasn’t any prey that could flee her brother.





Tatsuya threw the Houjustu user that he had dragged out of the bushes. The man was quite old, he appeared to be at least in his 60’s.

The Houjutsu user was forced to regain consciousness violently. He stabbed himself with a long needle through his waist, apparently shutting off the pain from being shot at the thigh. Tatsuya wondered if it was a kind of acupuncture method.

The Houjutsu user only did that, he did not resist any further. It seemed like he was hit by a wave of pain again the moment he tried to use magic. He was hesitating as if he should beg for mercy or if he should just give up.

“Tatsuya-kun, Ichijou-kun, what should we do with them now?” Tatsuya faced Masaki.

The first one to open his mouth was Masaki.

“Originally, I would interrogate this man, but.”

Masaki saw the Houjutsu user who is an old man that sat down on the ground with a defiant face. The only one who still conscious among the assailant group was only this old man.

“He doesn’t seem to be able to give a straightforward answer, since they’ve been defeated, the Ancient Magic ward should also have collapsed.”

“People… Might come, huh?”

“That’s right. I think we can claim that we counterattacked them in legitimate defense, but… Their charred right arms was their own doing.”

“However, an interrogation done by civilians like us is not recognized. We are likely to get arrested due to suspicion of… Torture, unfair arrest, intimidation, assault, right?”

“Exactly my thought.”

“Tatsuya-kun, what do you think?”

“While I don’t think that we’d get arrested, I agree with the other arguments. More importantly, let’s try to ask for a wise detective to hand them over to.”

Mayumi pondered while frowning her eyebrows, before giving up and sighing.

“Let’s contact the police.”

“Senpai, I will contact the police.”

After saying so, Miyuki took out her information terminal.

“Miyuki-san, I’ll leave it in your care.”

While Miyuki called the police, Mayumi and Masaki kept their sight on her.

They were not aware that Tatsuya was watching the Buddhist sect traditionalists that laid on the ground.

Both of them also did not realize that Tatsuya did not focus his eyes on the injuries.





In the end, Tatsuya’s group investigation of Mt. Arashi ended with being questioned by the police.

Their wounds must have been too severe. The detective who handled them didn’t seem to complicit things even under the name of Saegusa and Ichijou.

Moreover, the detective in charge seemed to be a little antagonistic towards the Ten Master Clans, he even purposely looked for their mistakes.

Detectives in charge of magic crimes were mostly magicians, but not all were Modern Magicians. In the eastern area, where Modern Magic influence was strong, the police force was also dominated by modern magicians. However, in an area like Kyoto, where there were a lot of Ancient Magicians, they also made up a considerable number of the force, sometimes even more than the modern police officers.

The detective that questioned them was an ancient magician from the Yin-Yang System. Although he was not related to the Buddhist sect, his strong antipathy towards the Ten Master Clans, without a doubt, was affecting the investigation. He kept insisting that they were excessive in their defence, it as quite a mentally exhaustive process. However, Mayumi and Masaki seemed to be able to handle this much, lest they would reach their boiling point and turned everything into a disaster.

Tatsuya had his hands full in suppressing Miyuki’s outburst against the detective who doubted them and even told them that they used excessive force in their own defence.

When they were finally released from the police station, Tatsuya had a significantly lowered tension and returned to the hotel. Fujibayashi was waiting in the room. ——Masaki was going to the station with his bike to travel back to Kanazawa, he rode a long-distance train where he could mount his bike. Mayumi stayed back at the hotel, as she had already booked a room.

“Tatsuya-kun and Miyuki-san, both of you look somewhat tired.”

After a light greeting, the first sentence that came out of Fujibayashi’s mouth was this.

“We were detained by the police.”

“The police? What on earth did you do?”

“We’ll talk about that later. More importantly, how is Minoru’s condition?”

Tatsuya asked so while sitting in front of Fujibayashi. Miyuki also sat beside her brother.

Minoru had slept. Judging from his sleeping face, seemed like he had calmed down.

“He slept after the medicine worked. He was suffering quite a bit until not long ago.”

Fujibayashi answered with a clouded face. From her facial expression, it could be seen that it was not “a little misfit of health”.

“…Hey, Tatsuya-kun. Can I ask you a favour?”

“What is it?”

Tatsuya returned the question to Fujibayashi.

She averted her eyes subtly, hesitating to answer the question.

Fujibayashi told the content of her “favour”, after the long hand of the clock had rotated a single round.

“It’s about Minoru-kun’s body.”

Tatsuya listened to Fujibayashi in silence.

“This child, had undergone all sorts of medical check-ups and was declared healthy. Even from his nervous system to his immune system, there are no anomalies. Yet, why is he so susceptible to disease, even the doctors couldn’t figure out the reason.”

“Second Lieutenant, I don’t have any medical knowledge, you know?”

“If that were my goal I would go see a hermit monk instead.”

“Naturally. Then, what is it?”

“I… not only me, but all the researchers from the Fujibayashi Family have the same opinion of the source of Minoru’s weak constitution, I suspect that the reason lies in the Psion-body.”

The Psion body, was one of the various names for Eidos, which records physical information, it was a flesh-like existence. In theory, it should be called an ethereal body, however that conclusion has yet to be concluded.

The Psion body is backed by the body itself. Humans are trained to control their body movements regardless of Psion’s through the nerve pulses which conduct the movement of the body. Furthermore, by controlling the information of the parts that were linked with the internal organs, it was possible to fix the visceral function, or even to strengthen them.

For magicians like Tatsuya, the idea of upsetting the Psion body that modulates the body was simply an impossibility.

“What would you like me to do?”

The Psion body can affect the body. It was a popular idea in the magic community. In fact, many researchers did some studies on this subject. The Fujibayashi Family’s researchers would be one of them. Tatsuya had never thought that he would be asked to investigate the matter himself.

“I want you to take a look at Minoru-kun’s Psion body with your Elemental Sight.”

Tatsuya was flooded with unexpected feelings. Not only Tatsuya, but also Miyuki who had been sitting beside him in silence.

“As far as I know, Tatsuya-kun, you can analyse the Psion information body. However, it is entirely up to you to do it. I’m not asking you to cure Minoru-kun’s constitution. I just want to know of the cause.”

That was right on the spot. It was not unnatural for her to think so, as she knew of Tatsuya’s power. However…

“Lieutenant Fujibayashi. Do you fully understand what it means to ‘show’ me that much information?”

Tatsuya’s eyes read the information, “What were you made from”.

From what materials, how did you come into existance.

What was the fundamental cause, which could result in such a condition.

His “eye” can read the structural information, and analyse the cause and effect. The target of his “eye” was the “roots” of a human being called Kudou Minoru.

“Please. I will take full responsibility.”

“I understand.”

No one could take that kind of responsibility. Tatsuya knew this, and nodded.

Fujibayashi herself should have known about that. She promised to take the responsibility of something she couldn’t bear. Tatsuya didn’t understand why she would go that far. However, if it was only to see the current state of Minoru, there was no demerit for him. He had also been troubling Fujibayashi with a lot of things, so he planned to go along with her request at least that much.

He directed his “eyes” to the sleeping Minoru. Since he was sleeping from the medicines effect, he shouldn’t be able to resist the “sight” which was directed at him. As Tatsuya thought, access to the Psion body of Minoru proceeded smoothly.

“Onii-sama.”

Not even a single second had passed, when he was pulled back to reality by Miyuki’s voice. Tatsuya was covered with sweat.

“I’m ok, don’t worry.”

After he said so, a smile bloomed on his sister’s face.

Miyuki immediately showed a relieved expression, and headed to the bathroom with brisk steps.

She came back with a wet towel in her hand.

“I’ll do it myself.”

“No, Onii-sama. Please let me do it for you.”

Without further argument, Tatsuya allowed Miyuki to wipe the sweat from his face.

“Tatsuya-kun… How was it?”

Fujibayashi asked him, after he finished wiping the sweat on his face.

Tatsuya figured out in that instance what the Fujibayashi, no, the Kudou Family had made a great deal of to create. He was able to see the roots of Minoru, and had gotten to know the secret of his birth.

However, even with an entire explanation, Tatsuya would only answer of what she asked.

“As you’ve said. I believe Minoru is healthy, his fragility is due to the abundance of his magic power. His body cannot tolerate the strong Psion pressure within him.”

“In other words, his magic is simply too strong is that what’s affecting his body?”

“The Psion body is the container of Psion’s within the human body. The pressure concept is similar to the concept of gas pressure, where the amount of Psion’s and the usage capacity are determined. In Minoru’s case, his Psion’s move about too violently even for a magician to handle.”

“The pressure of the Psion’s… Is damaging the Psion body?”

“Although it’s a little hard to imagine, the Psion body consists of thin pipes with countless branches and turns, in the same shape as the human body. The pressure within these pipes is too overwhelming that it breaks parts of the pipes, which in turn give a feedback that damages the body.”

Fujibayashi was about to scream. However, Tatsuya continued his words.

“I don’t know if I should say that this is a fortunate one, the pipe of his Psion body was torn due to the Psion pressure. His Psion’s have been very active and it actually is actively repairing the tear. The tear and the repair of the Psion body happens in a short cycle. I think that is the main cause of Minoru’s weak constitution.”

“It would not remain broken, right…?”

“I think, he has more power to repair those than the average magicians.”

Fujibayashi showed an expression of relief on her face. However, her beauty was to be soon clouded in sorrow.

“But, I wonder what can we do?”

“The most direct way is to limit Psion activity, but it also means that will cause shackles to be put upon him as a magician. His family wouldn’t want him to lower his magic capabilities. Then, the only choice is to strengthen his Psion body.”

“How?”

“I don’t know that much.”

Fujibayashi hid her facial expression with a bow. She might not want to show the conflict that happened on the surface. If you think about Minoru first, to limit his magic power is the first solution. However, magic is Minoru’s foothold, him being a good magician is a part of his identity.

Tatsuya did not think that Minoru would be happy to live in a healthy body at the price of his magic. Yet, it must have been hard for his family more than himself, to see him spending a quarter of his time in a hospital bed.

“…Thank you. It should be sufficient enough information. I’ll try to consult with the experts later.”

Fujibayashi said so with a bow.





Minoru woke up approximately 30 minutes later. By that time, Fujibayashi had regained full reign of her emotions. She worked hard in order not to show Minoru her horrible face.

“Minoru-kun, how do you feel?”

“I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”

Minoru deeply bowed in response of his question. No, he was about to do so.

Before Tatsuya interrupted with his hand, and straightened Minoru to see his eyes.

“There is no need to lower your head. Even if you didn’t neglect your health, your body has a weak constitution, right? It’s not your fault. You can’t take responsibility and lower your head for something you have no control over.”

Tatsuya’s voice was strong. But more soothing than comforting, with a chiding tone. He was scolding Minoru with “you’ve felt too much guilt”, and encouraged Minoru after.

“Sorry, no, thank you.”

Minoru agreed with Tatsuya.

Tatsuya did not say anything this time.

“Then, Tatsuya-kun.”

Fujibayashi asked him, “Can we hear about your case in the police that we dismissed earlier?”, before re-enacting “Welcome back~ Tatsuya-kun, Miyuki. Huh? Lieutenant Fujibayashi-san?”

“Lieutenant Fujibayashi? Ah, Tatsuya reached here first.”

“We’re back, Tatsuya. Well, Lieutenant Fujibayashi-san, long time no see.”

Mikihiko’s group who went to the Thesis Competition venue had come back. They were uniformly surprised that Fujibayashi had shown up.

“Today, I’m not here for a military mission. You can stop calling me lieutenant and call me Fujibayashi.”

Fujibayashi smiled to see their surprise with an “adult smile”. Erika was of the same sex, and Leo didn’t really care about it. The only one person left, reacted like a normal youth. It might be very fortunate that Mizuki was not around.

Erika was sitting on the opposite side of the futon where Minoru slept. As compared to Miyuki who sat elegantly, Erika’s siting pose was straight and neat, they had different flavours, but their figures were similar.

“Minoru-kun, how are you doing?”

“I-I’m alright now. Sorry to make you worry.”

Erika was certainly a beauty, however, Minoru’s face was objectively better. Yet everyone would be agitated at those friendly smiles that were cuter than his appropriate age. One thing, Erika spoke in a friendly manner, he had no experience with an overly-familiar girl in his surroundings.

“I see.”

Seems like Erika also noticed the TPO, she did not make a joke out of Minoru’s reaction.

Tatsuya repositioned himself to the center of the room. Miyuki followed her brother. Fujibayashi moved beside Minoru, Minami moved to Miyuki’s side instead. Erika sat in front of Tatsuya, while Leo and Mikihiko sat down. Hence, everyone was seated in a circle.

“Let’s exchange information from today’s results.”

“I’ll start first.”

Mikihiko agreed to start first.

“Even so, there is almost nothing to say. We didn’t find any locations likely to be a hideout at all. There wasn’t any feedback from the Shikigami either. Moreover, there are many police officers making rounds since yesterday. With that, even if there is a threat of foreign spies, I doubt it will grow as big as last year.”

“Thanks for touting your body, the safety of the Thesis Competition is assured.”

“Touting my body, well, you can put it that way too.”

Mikihiko’s face did not falter, but Erika was pitching at Leo with their regular gig, “That’s your role”, “What did you say!”, so nobody cared about them and left them alone.

“In other words, we have succeeded in searching for the foreign spies that targeted the Thesis Competition, since there were none.”

“Yesterday’s capture was enough of an achievement right. The police seemed to enter their hideout, we can leave the rest to the authorities. Originally, the investigation work is also a part of police work.”

“Onii-sama, you don’t have to say that so blatantly[32].” At Miyuki’s rebuttal, Tatsuya continued his report.

“We were attacked at the foot of Mt. Ogura.”

“The foot of Mt. Ogura, isn’t that in the Arashiyama district at Kameyama Park?”

Tatsuya nodded as an affirmation to Minoru, before continuing with his explanation.

“There were 13 assailants. 12 from the Buddhist sect, and one exiled Houjutsu user who was controlling them. All of them are in police custody.”

“It’s an obvious result with Tatsuya-kun, Miyuki and the heir of the Ichijou Family in the battle. They wouldn’t win even with 10 times the numbers.”

“They weren’t that easy.”

Tatsuya smiled wryly and suddenly remembered the earlier question.

“Mikihiko, the attackers wielded a double-edge sword with snakes, or dragon fire wrapped around it. Do you know what kind of magic it was?”

Although he threw in a sudden question, Mikihiko reacted immediately. Still he only answered 10 seconds later.

“…That should be the ‘Kurikara-ken’.”

“The sword from Acala[33]’s possession?”

“Yes, it is a magic that borrows its power from the sword of Acala. The symbol of power that can annihilate ‘magic’. When it faces Modern Magic, the sword will activate the Eidos and become a kind of counter-magic to destroy the overwritten Magic Sequence.”

“Hee… To have such magic, Ancient Magic is quite powerful too, huh.”

Mikihiko frowned at Erika, which was in response with “Poro”. He felt her words were looking down on Ancient Magic. However, Erika wasn’t insensitive enough not to realize that she was rude, even if she wanted to rephrase her words, it was too late.

“I’m amazed that they have magicians that can operate such a high level magic. Kurikara-ken is very difficult to maintain in nature, since the magicians themselves would be disabled in order to maintain the magic.”

“What will happen if you force others to use it?”

“That’s kind of impossible. The origin of magic activation is in the hands of the magician, it consist of a Kurikara-ken spell that can’t be touched by others. The blade will automatically disable any magic that comes into contact with the flame, so there is a need to hold it with a little gap in the magician’s hand. There isn’t a magician capable of doing such a thing… Though, it’s another story altogether if he forced others to wield it.”

“After forcing them to use it, what would happen to the person?”

“Their hands would burn.”

“Eehh!?”

Erika shouted out loud. Miyuki knitted her eyebrows down uncomfortably.

“Despite being formed with a magic, Kurikara-ken’s flame is real. Given that fact, it’s only natural if your hands burn after you wield it right? There was even a rumour that the sword was purposely thrown at the enemy to use, in order to burn their hands, however, that was not the Sword of Wisdom that was the Sword of Evil.”

Tatsuya and Miyuki stared at each other secretly. They decided not to tell them the full story with that eye contact.

“I see, that was quite masterful.”

“You’re really something, Tatsuya, to be able to beat that kind of opponent unscathed.”

“Thanks to Miyuki and Ichijou. Then, about what we’ll do next.”

“Eh? Aren’t we going to check out the hotel today and return to Tokyo?”

As Erika said, they originally planned to check out in the evening and go back to Tokyo.

“Yes, you guys can go back to Tokyo first. I’m staying for another night. Tomorrow, I’m going to the police station in order to listen to the testimony of the captured assailants.”

“I’m same with Onii-sama.”

“Miyuki.”

Tatsuya interrupted Miyuki’s words in the middle.

“You’re the student council president. It’s not good for you to take a leave of absence for two days in a row.”

Tatsuya was far more important to Miyuki than school, however, since she was ordered with a firm tone, she did not rebel.

“I understand.”

“Then, I’ll stay here! You always need an intermediary with the police.”

“Erika, don’t look for an excuse to skip the school.”

“Skip school!? How could you!”

Tatsuya turned away from Erika to Mikihiko.

“Regardless to say, it’s best for the Public Morals Committee Chief not to skip two days in a row either.”

“If it’s ok with Tatsuya.”

“I must investigate something else a little bit more.”

Mikihiko and Leo knew Tatsuya’s “stance”. Erika had figured out the details. Once he said this, they could only back down.





Miyuki and the others went to the station and Tatsuya returned to the hotel. It took quite some time to put Miyuki on the train, but somehow he managed to get her on a train to Tokyo. He was prepared to cancel his plan when he saw her with tearful eyes while saying “Onii-sama, please take care” in his right hand’s embrace, it seemed like he was thinking too much.

Minoru was supposed to go back home with Fujibayashi since his condition was stable. Minoru himself seemed to want to help with the investigation tomorrow, however he had his own share of absences. He agreed to return home after Fujibayashi, whom he regards as an older sister, had rebuked him strongly.

Fortunately, the hotel still had other empty rooms. Tatsuya moved to a single western-style room from a Japanese-style room, since it was too big for a single occupant. Soon after, Tatsuya met Mayumi at lounge.

“Tatsuya-kun, is it ok for you to skip school? Though I’m not qualified to say such a thing either.”

“No, I have decided myself to first investigate further.”

“Is that connected to… that work?”

There were other people in the lounge. She couldn’t afford to expand the sound barrier field in a place such as this. Mayumi rephrased her words due to this circumstance.

“Yes, so you need not be worried, Senpai.”

“Honestly, I appreciate that. I already feel that I’ve troubled you so much today.” Tatsuya changed the subject after shaking his head.

“Anyway, about tomorrow, Senpai, can you wait for me here again?”

“Here… do you mean at the hotel!?”

When Tatsuya nodded, Mayumi visibly repaired her mood.

“Was I really a hindrance? Well, I may not have been really useful today.”

“No such thing.”

Tatsuya shook his head and laughed.

“I have high regards for Senpai’s ability.”

Tatsuya said so while looking straight at Mayumi’s eyes.

Mayumi diverted her eyes while blushing.

“Then why did you ask me to stay behind?”

“It’s not because of the danger.”

Mayumi probably thought that he would answer “Because it’s dangerous”. She looked back at Tatsuya with an “Eh?” expression.

“The situation was not so obvious today, but tomorrow will be a little rougher. I do not want to show such things to a girl. Especially a lady like Senpai.” Mayumi diverted her eyes from Tatsuya yet again.

“It’s alright. Despite my looks, I’m used to this kind of thing.”

Certainly, she even won over the “Man-Eating Tiger” in the battle field of Yokohama. She might be able to take the roughness, but the conversation had gone in an awkward direction.

“Even so, I don’t want to let you see such things.”

Tatsuya pressed again, unwilling to give up. Mayumi still looked away, and began to put her hands together and massaged her hands with her fingers.

“If that’s the case, then I can’t do anything.”

By the time she said those words, she had completely turned away, Mayumi’s body was trembling lightly even without her noticing it.

“…That was close.”

Mayumi returned her gaze to Tatsuya. Her eyes were narrowed with hints of suspicion.

“I was about to get caught in your hand.”

Tatsuya opened his hands, and shook his head lamely at Mayumi who was glaring at him.

“I was not deceiving you. I truly don’t want a lady to see such a scene.”

“Onee-san will not be fooled.”

Mayumi still glared at Tatsuya. Tatsuya chose not to care about it.

He had no memory that he was ever trying to trick Mayumi, yet, apparently Mayumi had a strange belief.

It was unmistakably his true feelings, when he said that he didn’t want to show a lady such a scene.

However, he couldn’t afford to be glared at forever.

“…Very well. In exchange, please don’t faint at anything you see, ok?” Tatsuya succumbed and Mayumi laughed happily for some reason.

“I’m fine. Despite how I look, I’m still an adult.”

Unreliable, Tatsuya thought so, but of course he wouldn’t purposely say such thing from his mouth.





“Ah, thank goodness. You arrived safely.”

“Miyuki was quite anxious since Onii-sama was not around.”

“It’s ok, I’m always looking after you. My ‘eye’ has never left you.”

“That’s right. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not something to apologize over. I’m the one who was supposed to say so because of this sudden change, I’ll be surely back by tomorrow, so please be sure to lock the door and rest tonight.”

“Dear, Onii-sama, I’m too old to be treated like a child.”

“No matter how old you are, you will still be my sister.”

“…I think that’s what a father says to his daughter though.”

“You don’t want our father to say that to you right?”

“That’s right. Then, I’ll do as Onii-sama said, I will lock up carefully and rest well tonight. Onii-sama, good night.”

“It’s a little early, but, good night, Miyuki.”

Soon after he finished calling Miyuki, the room door where Tatsuya was staying was knocked on. He went to the front door, and turned on the installed monitor. Mayumi was reflected in the screen.”

“What happened? At this hour…”

Tatsuya opened the door, and Mayumi asked so. Even though it was still 8 P.M., it wasn’t the time for a young women to be visiting a man who wasn’t her lover.

At the very least, that was what Tatsuya thought, though apparently Mayumi had a different stance.

“Tatsuya-kun, you haven’t had your meal right? Why don’t we eat together?”

Certainly, Tatsuya had not had his meal, but he could easily do so in a public dining room. Although he had no intention to dine at the luxurious restaurant within the hotel.

“At the restaurant?”

“Yes, I reserved seats at the front desk just now, since he told me there were free seats. It’s French cuisine.”

Apparently, she had decided that he would escort her.

He had to be careful not to show a sullen expression.

“I understand. Could you wait at the lobby while I change?”

“It’s fine as it is.”

“I won’t go if you insist on that.”





Although Mayumi’s dress was not so formal as a cocktail dress, the A-line black one piece with lace on top could be seen as glamorous attire. Moreover, she wore appropriate shoes and accessories to complement the dress, it was not an appearance you could afford to be wearing for daily activities.

Tatsuya closed the door with a strained smile.

“Wah! Tatsuya-kun, it suits you well.”

“Not as much as you.”

Tatsuya’s words were based on the fact rather than humility. What he was wearing was a suit and tie that was prepared for emergency cases, to meet the minimum standard of the dress code.

“Then, let’s sit down.”

This restaurant had not been as formal as what Tatsuya expected. There was no waiter, only a waitress who guided them.

“Here you go.”

Tatsuya pulled a chair out for Mayumi.

“Oh dear, thank you.”

Mayumi sat in the chair and smiled over her shoulder.

Tatsuya sat on the opposite side, Mayumi opened her menu book to choose her course. It was a rare type, having been printed on paper.

“Tatsuya-kun, what will you have?”

“Let’s see. I will go with this course.”

“I see~. I think the À la carte is also good, but since this is my first time, it’s safer to go by this course.”

After their exchanges, the both of them ordered the same course for two.

There were no noteworthy events during the meal.

Since they weren’t sure if they were being spied on. They couldn’t talk about the incident.

When suddenly Mayumi complained “It’s inconvenient not to be able to use the sound barrier field”, Tatsuya focused his eyes.

He found out that within the past two days. The people of Kyoto were unfriendly to magicians. Since the Magic Association HQ was placed here, Tatsuya thought, the locals would at least be neutral, however it was the exact opposite.

——Did something happen between the Association and the locals.

He ended up thinking about such thing. That was the reason he hid his CAD in his sleeve slightly above his wrist. Tatsuya thought that he should avoid acting like a magician here.

However Mayumi did not wear her CAD. He could only wonder about the reason, whether to avoid the hostility of the people in the surroundings, or simply because it didn’t fit in with the style she wore today.

The eventful night started while he was enjoying a dessert with coffee. Mayumi saw this and asked him to accompany her to the bar.

“I don’t need to say this after all this time, but I’m still a high school student.”

“Well, nobody here thinks that you’re a high school student. Since you aren’t wearing your uniform, you don’t look like one.”

Mayumi’s remark was without harmful intention. Nevertheless, Tatsuya received a slight shock.

Perhaps, due to that shock, Tatsuya was successfully forced to the front of the bar.

Once they got in, Mayumi closed the distance between her mouth and Tatsuya’s ear.

“ ‘Senpai’ is prohibited here, so can you call me Mayumi?”

“…Why?”

Tatsuya replied a single tempo later. Even if he didn’t show it, he was quite disturbed by Mayumi’s pace.

“If you call me Senpai, they’d know that we’re Senpai-kouhai from school right? I’ll call you ‘Tatsuya-san’ too.” He wondered if Mayumi wanted to do role-playing.

“It would be troublesome if they think you’re a student.”

With that reason, Mayumi pulled Tatsuya by the arm to the bar. It was a small size, counter-only shop.

There were only a pair of customer in the back who were a couple.

The bartender only glanced at the two who just came in, and continued to steer (lightly stir the cocktail that he was making).

Mayumi sat at the other side of the counter, followed by Tatsuya next to her.

“Master, can I get an Alexander. Tatsuya-san, what do you want?”

“One Summer Delight.”

The well-toned bartender fixed his eyes at Tatsuya. He nodded soon after without saying anything, and took out a large cup in his hand.

After some observation, not only was his skin well-toned, his body was well-built and firm. Even though his behaviour was crisp, he made an impression that he had received some specialized combat training in the past. What did he do in the past… Tatsuya couldn’t help but wonder.

“Why did you order a non-alcoholic beverage?”

Yet, Mayumi was intrigued by Tatsuya’s order. The content of Summer Delight was lime juice syrup and carbonated water. It was indeed a non-alcoholic cocktail as she had said.

“Please forgive me, Mayumi Ojou-sama.”

“Huh?”

“I must not dampen my response in the case of an emergency as your escort.”

“Huh? Huh?”

Mayumi probably looking forward to enjoying being a pretend lover. However, as expected, it was contrary to Tatsuya’s principles.

The bartender waved the shaker tenderly and poured out a brown- chestnut colored liquid into a transparent glass, before serving the beverage to Mayumi.

He spoke to Tatsuya instead of Mayumi.

“Customer, are you a bodyguard? You are young, yet you look considerably strong.”

“I’m only an apprentice.”

“You are very humble.”

The bartender took out a new shaker, he poured in lime juice and red Grenadine syrup. After fully pouring the mixture into the glass, he added a small amount of sugar syrup.

With a nimble movement. He poured in the carbonated water into the glass and served the beverage to Tatsuya.

“Customer, with all due respect.”

The bartender said so before asking Tatsuya.

The couple sitting at the other end of the counter were in their own world, and weren’t listening to their conversation.

“Customers, are you not magicians?”

Tatsuya didn’t show a surprised face.

“If you can figure that out, Master, you too are a magician right?”

The couple left their seat. The bartender sent the two a polite bow.

When the bartender was washing the dishes, he continued the conversation.

“It’s an old story. I lost my power as magician due to an accident during training.”

“I see. Pardon my rudeness.”

The bartender shook his head in response to Tatsuya’s apology.

“As I’ve said, it’s an old story. Furthermore, I’m the one who started this conversation.” In that instance, Mayumi spoke with a stuffy voice.

“Master, give me a second one.”

“Ojou-sama, would you slow down your pace a little…”

“I’m fine. Tatsuya-san who doesn’t want to drink sake should just stay out of it.”

Apparently, she didn’t like that Tatsuya kept talking to the bartender. Or perhaps, she didn’t like to be the escorted Ojou-sama.

“Pardon my rudeness.”

The bartender lowered his head as he interpreted that it was his fault, he returned to washing the dishes while grinning.

However, Tatsuya had no intention in stopping the conversation with him despite the situation.

“Master, I have something that I’d like to ask.”

Although the bartender asked him through an eye gesture, “Is it ok to leave her alone?”, Tatsuya never took Mayumi’s mood into account.

“Is there any problem between the Magic Association and the local residents of Kyoto?”

“Why do you ask of such thing?”

“It might be my false impression, but the people in this city don’t seem to have a good impression of magicians.”

“Ah, you noticed that the Kyoto locals are not so friendly to magicians.”

The bartender wiped his hands with a towel. He began to polish the glasses with his dry hands. Tatsuya observed the process, all of his products were not made by machines, and he thought that it really looked like a stage setting than a bar.

“There wasn’t any big trouble in particular. There were stacks of minor misunderstandings. From outsider’s point of view, it was a very common thing to say. However, since the other party was a magician, the people in this area had overreacted.”

Tatsuya had an unsatisfied face. The bartender handed out a small dish with a single piece of chocolate.

“The lady over there, please help yourself.”

“Thank you very much.”

Tatsuya received the dish and placed it before Mayumi.

Mayumi grasped the one piece chocolate and put it in her mouth, while turning away, likely in a gesture of a “hmph”.

Tatsuya smiled wryly at the bartender.

The bartender laughed through both his mouth and eyes, while continuing the conversation.

“It might be fuelled by the existence of the Magic Association HQ’s. The locals might have felt that the magicians had taken over the city.

Even though they weren’t hijacking it, there were still magicians who lived here who were also residents of Kyoto, but.”

“Although you’ve lost your magic, you understand us, but for non-magicians, magicians are a fearful existence. As humans who cannot use magic they wouldn’t stand a chance against a magician. Furthermore, they don’t know what magicians will do to them, whether to restrict them or to wound them, or worst, to kill them, I understand their anxiety of this.” The bartender cut in when Tatsuya was about to continue.

“There’s no room for resisting, even with a gun. However, please consider the other end. For locals who aren’t magicians, magicians are mysterious creatures with an invisible gun. Kyoto residents are not special, such things happens in every other city.” Mayumi left the bar, with a pretty strange step.

(That’s why I told her that three cups was too much.)

Tatsuya complained in his heart, yet it was too late. He didn’t know that the alcohol content in that cocktail was more than 20%.

“Senpai, it’s your room, please get a hold of yourself.”

“Yeah, thanks, Tatsuya-kun.”

Mayumi felt like she could fall asleep at any moment. He had delivered her safely to her room, so Tatsuya’s mission was supposed to be over, yet.

“Ugh.”

After seeing Mayumi sit down and slurp in front of her room door, as expected, even he, couldn’t say “Excuse me” and leave her here.

“Senpai, where do you keep your key?”

“Here…”

Mayumi shook the card key in her hand. And for some reason, she was about to put it in her chest, Tatsuya snatched the key immediately.

(…What in the world did she want me to do, this person.)





When he recalled the horror briskly, Tatsuya unlocked the door.

Fortunately, there wasn’t any underwear scattered in the room like in a popular fiction setting. “Saegusa-senpai, please sleep in the bed.”

“Yea, I know…”

Tatsuya learnt one thing. Mayumi was the type to regress into an infant when she was drunk. Seems like he was surrounded by these type of people. It might still be better than crying and hugging, but it didn’t change the fact that it was time-consuming to take care of.

Mayumi walked to her bed, Tatsuya supported her, since she was staggering.

Tatsuya led Mayumi to the bed side that way.

“Senpai, you’ve reached the bed. It’s better to take off your clothes, lest your precious dress be crumpled.

What do you want?”

“Help me undress.”

Hearing the expected answer, Tatsuya’s head began to earnestly ache.





Monday, October 22nd. Tatsuya went to Mt. Arashi, Sagano again. It was the place where he was attacked by the traditionalists the day before.

Mayumi was sleeping in the hotel due to feeling sick. Needless to say, it’s a hangover. Tatsuya thought that this is the only positive effect of last night’s incident.

There were no signs of the police. At the very least, there was no one investigating yesterday’s incident. Seems like the detective who hated the Ten Master Clans had no willingness to do a decent investigation on yesterday’s review. Or perhaps, another emergency had arose. Either way, it was advantageous for Tatsuya not to pay any concern for being in the eyes of the police.

Tatsuya stood at the gate, he recalled the information that he had gotten yesterday. It was similar to a state of hibernation since he wasn’t hurt yesterday, and there hadn’t been a release of Psion waves to get in his way, the possibility of fainting due to recalling this information had been kept to a minimum, he opened the data of “where they had come from”. The coordinates of the traditionalists’ groups’ hideout.

It would be unnecessarily conspicuous of him to stand still in the middle of the bamboo forest. Hence, Tatsuya went down the road while collating the map from his memory and the data from the information terminal.

The destination was easily found.

It was a mundanely big house. No, if it was this big, it probably couldn’t be categorized as mundane.

At first glance, the rural atmosphere still existed, it was a building similar to those used as meeting places in towns and villages.

Tatsuya secretly scanned the building with Elemental Sight from the outside. It seemed that there hadn’t been any hidden traps inside. Tatsuya went through the gate without hesitation.

Even after he entered the site, he didn’t feel any sign of magic. However, it was not something that he could confirm just from scanning the outside.

He put his hand on the sliding door. Of course, it was locked. It was a double key, electronic and physical. Unfortunately for Tatsuya, he couldn’t obtain either of them. He didn’t have such a handy magic. Therefore, he decided to open the door by magic that he had on his hand.

The lock on the door was broken apart.

Tatsuya opened the door without hesitation and proceeded inside, the same way as when he passed through the gate. A wheel shaped weapon flew in soon after. The blade had a circular ring with eight spokes extending radially from the center. It was a Buddhist magic tool called Hourin[34], which seemed to be used as a projectile weapon.

When Tatsuya dodged the Hourin, it stopped in the air before it went out to break through the door in the reverse direction. The Hourin came flying in from another direction, it carried out the same movement. After some observation, there was an extended thin thread of Psion’s to guide the Hourin.

“Yoyo, huh?”

The movement was very similar to a yoyo. The rest was simple. Tatsuya dodged, now, the four Hourin, and broke down the yarn of Psion’s.

The Hourin flew towards the door and broke through to outside.

There was agitation spilling out from the other side of the wall. Tatsuya decomposed the four threads, and closed the distance between him and the magician who was hiding in the optical camouflage in a single jump.

The transparent figure was shimmering, and was gripping a blade-like weapon in both hands. This was a magic tool of the Buddhist sect called Dokumeikine[35]. It was a reformed weapon, the same as the earlier “Hourin yoyo”.

The Magic Sequence projected off from both ends of Doukumeiki was for lightning magic. It was projected, but had not completely overwritten the Eidos. Disregarding the magic that was about to be activated, Tatsuya used Flash Cast on his palm and slammed it at the opened chest of the shadow.

Due to the virtual waves that made vibrations inside solids, and also by active Aerial Mines. The tissues within the body vibrated violently from the point of contact with Tatsuya’s palm. The vibrations spread to the upper body along with the fluids, and the man collapsed. The optical camouflage he used was solved, he had a similar appearance to yesterday’s assailants.

Tatsuya ducked his body, while the invisible man approached him from behind——he had clarified that it was optical camouflage instead of transparent body tissues——hastened the steps. Rather than welcoming the opponent’s large swing of his feet like Chinese Martial Arts, Tatsuya raised his foot to hook the opponent’s foot.

The invisible man was wavering. His figure was flickering, there was a visual of a man’s back.

He used his palm with vibration magic to strike him down. The second assailant laid on the floor.

“Even I know how the transparent spell works. Stop wasting my time and show up.”

After Tatsuya’s provocation, men within a wide range of ages came out from the shadows. There were 10 of them. Fortunately, there weren’t any women. It wasn’t as if Tatsuya would go easy on woman, but the aftertaste would be quite difficult to forget[36].

“Why, the Marishiten[37] way doesn’t work on him…”

It’s because your magic is inexperienced, though Tatsuya didn’t say this. Their skill level was low, Tatsuya was sure that it was the cause. If Yakumo used the same spell, even Tatsuya would have difficulty to finding his whereabouts.

“Bind and curse him!”

One of the men shouted out the instruction. He didn’t appear to be the oldest, but Tatsuya felt the strongest magic came from him. Tatsuya set that man who seemed to be the leader as a target.

Tatsuya stepped forward daringly to the center area. There wasn’t any furniture or obstructions in the room, just like a Kendo dojo. “So it was not a meeting place, but a dojo”, Tatsuya suddenly thought of that out of nowhere.

The 10 magicians surrounded Tatsuya at regular intervals.

A regular decagon. Overlapping a pentagon with a 36° interval, or a staggered five-pointed star.

Tatsuya jumped, while five of the magicians threw a strap each from their hands.

Not towards Tatsuya, but towards each other diagonally.

After they threw the straps, they received another end of the strap from another person.

The five-pointed star made of a strap with five different colors was pitched.

Tatsuya observed it from above.

Most probably, the five-pointed stars was some sort of magic that pinches the target in the middle by multiplying pressure from five different directions.

However, Tatsuya had no plan to just stand in the center until they completed their magic.

The moment the straps were thrown, he flew directly above it.

Before he reached the ceiling, he kicked the air and headed to one of the vertices of the fivepointed star.

It was a move that was hardly used in a match. Yet, that scene caused the other party to be amazed, it was a peculiar war-specific skill.

He created a foothold for his foot, and accelerated through kicking the panel, he punched the magician’s face with the total force of his body weight plus the acquired speed.

The magician fell down. The after effect momentum was usually worrisome, but Tatsuya didn’t have time to worry about such things.

The five-pointed star formation collapsed. However, this was not the end of their effort.

Tatsuya graced a knee kick at the magician next to him before he landed on the floor.

The magic was only activated when he wanted to make a foothold. It was only possible since he made it with Flash Cast that had a fast activation speed.

The Buddhist sect of traditionalists who had gathered here had by no means weak psyches. Despite their emphasis on asceticism, they were first-class combatants. However, that was only in decent fights. They couldn’t keep up with Tatsuya’s acrobatic movements.

By the time they were able to respond to the surprise attack, only five of them remained.

Six eyes gazed upon him, while the other two magicians were behind him. One of the magicians behind him had activated a lightning magic.

Modern Magic couldn’t generate electrical currents directly at the subject.

However, Ancient Magic talent could emit the shock from the magician towards a specific location.

This difference usually didn’t matter so much, as the speed of lightning is 100,000 km/s. It was an impossible attack to dodge even for someone who noticed the lightning was coming.

Just before the lightning was fired, Tatsuya jumped sideways to interrupt the attack.

The magician who casted the lightning had lost sight of Tatsuya. However, it was too late to abort the magic. The lightning struck out from the Doukumeiki Blade and collided with his fellow’s attack.

Due to this fact, those magicians were hesitating to use another magic.

The gap that was created, provided a sufficient time for Tatsuya.

By reflecting a force field, he could obtain a speed equal to self-accelerating magic by supporting his frame, Tatsuya knocked out the remaining traditionalists.





This traditionalist magician who served as the base’s leader, awoke due to severe pain piercing his body.

He couldn’t think well amidst the pain.

However, he couldn’t stay unconsciousness due to the pain.

“Are you conscious now? If you understand my words, nod. I’ll loosen the pain a little.” The pain lightened, and the man’s consciousness steeped in, he shook his head hard.

As promised, the pain would be reduced a little.

His line of sight was hazy due to the severe pain, he regained a little clearer profile.

A young man.

The man had shaded his own face, to hide it.

The leader was trying to join his hands to form a magic.

At that instance, severe pain struck his consciousness.

“Don’t do any unnecessary things. You only need to answer my questions.” The leader nodded hard, when the voice told him to obey.

The pain lowered again.

This time, to even allow him to think, yet his hazy sight was still intact.

“Zhou Gongjin was here right? The foreign magician who fled from Chinatown in Yokohama.”

The leader didn’t have any reason to lie, he nodded honestly.

“That man was here until Friday, the 12th. Am I right?”

The 12th, 12th… the leader was thinking hard as his head still wasn’t working well. Then, he recalled that Zhou Gongjin was there until Friday, he shook his head vertically over and over.

“Where did Zhou Gongjin go?”

A new wave of pain struck him. Strangely, he could think clearer.

His eyes were still hazy and his limbs couldn’t even lift a finger, yet his mouth could speak freely.

“He said he wanted to go to Uji. He said that there was a good hiding place nearby the tomb… I don’t know if it was the truth or a lie… I don’t know.”

“Your men have been used as a puppets by the Houjutsu users from the continent, did you give your consent to this?”

“I’m not… their teacher… I don’t have any… position to instruct them.”

“You are the leader right?”

“They were comrades… we’re equals… we don’t receive any orders from among us…”

“I understand. Good work.”

Immediately, the greatest amount of severe pain passed through the leader’s mind. His consciousness had broken, falling apart.

Tatsuya sent a mail to Fujibayashi, regarding the place of these unconscious traditionalist magicians. Finally, he asked her to pick up the traditionalists, he wondered if it was an unnecessary note. Even without the note, Fujibayashi would have arranged to collect them.

Tatsuya could weigh the credibility of the information that he elicited from the leader of this base. It was hard to believe the story that there hadn’t existed anything like a chain of command in such a group. He didn’t think it was possible to conduct a collective battle in conjunction only to a share a sense of purpose.

However, the information of the hiding place of Zhou Gongjin was consistent with the information Tatsuya obtained from the shaman at Kiyomizu Temple. He decided to believe this fact as both Buddhist monks and the shaman couldn’t have possibly given him the same information just to mislead him, he didn’t plan to doubt them that much. There wasn’t a need for a clear division line for conjectures.

Tatsuya decided to report to Hayama that Zhou’s hideout was likely to be around the tomb at Uji, as he needed to go back home today.





After finishing his work, he was greeted with ashamed, diverted eyes at the hotel. She didn’t say “Terrible” or “It’s different from your promise” from her mouth, but she was blushing from her cheeks up to her eyes.

He had an idea of the cause of her embarrassment.

Last night, Tatsuya had received an unreasonable request from a young lady (Mayumi) to strip her from her dress. He stripped her quickly before it became troublesome, and shoved her into her bed with just her underwear. He went out of the room without a seconds glance at her.

Even Tatsuya thought that she had been quite wild last night. However, he also had his share. It was good enough that she wasn’t (sexually) assaulted in that situation.——Of course, he didn’t say such a thing out loud.

“By-by the way.”

Up to here Mayumi who had been quite confident to stand beside him, suddenly entangled her tongue.

“Umm, that, I have something to say to Tatsuya-kun.”

Tatsuya thought from his heart, “I decline” or something along that line, while remaining silent. He could guess the topic while observing Mayumi’s attitude.

“I…”

Despite knowing that they were alone in the room, Mayumi looked restlessly to her left and right, as if she was afraid to be heard, she closed the distance between her lips and Tatsuya’s face.

“Why… did I sleep with only my underwear?”

Because you said you wanted to strip… But this was not the right way to say it, Tatsuya couldn’t find a way to to say this phrase.

“Didn’t you do that yourself? No matter how drunk you were, you should have enough discernment as to not remain in your dress while you go to bed right?”

Tatsuya took a step from Mayumi’s lips which almost touched him, and answered so innocently.

“I wonder if a drunken human could think that much?”

“Who knows? Since we’re talking about Senpai here, you should understand yourself better than me right?”

“Tatsuya-kun, I.”

The perimeter of Mayumi’s eyes reddened with shame, she faced Tatsuya for the first time since he was back.

“I can’t hold my liquor much, but I’m the type who remembers everything.”

Tatsuya wanted to flee that place at that very moment. Unfortunately for him, he understood that he couldn’t do that in such situation as a man.

“…Though I feel that you didn’t have to be that rough.” Certainly, he did shove Mayumi into the bed roughly.

However, could he be blamed because of that? He questioned himself when he recalled. Yet, to say “You’re the one who wanted to strip to your underwear” would be a king-cobra-grade boomerang.

Mayumi was still looking at Tatsuya shyly.

In this very awkward atmosphere, it was a mental labour intense mission to send Mayumi back to the nearest station in order to go home, while Tatsuya waited at the end.





The moment Tatsuya opened the house’s gate, the front door opened.

“Onii-sama, welcome back.”

The one who greeted Tatsuya back was Miyuki, as usual.

“I’m home. Sorry for this time.”

Miyuki couldn’t hide the color of relief of worry from her face. Logically, it was impossible for Tatsuya to get hurt, but her worries were of a different aspect. Tatsuya said “sorry” since he understood his “crime”.

“No. As long as Onii-sama is safe, Miyuki is satisfied enough.” Miyuki shook her head at his apology.

Tatsuya immediately went into the house, and proceeded to the living room after taking off his shoes. His travel bag was taken by Minami, while he was sitting with Miyuki on the sofa.

There was no meaning in resisting. Rather than giving the service, he was probably receiving the service. He let his sister do as she liked quietly.

Miyuki sat beside Tatsuya joyfully while Tatsuya lifted the coffee cup. However, he suddenly put down the cup and the calmness disappeared. She repeatedly shifted her eyes from and to Tatsuya’s face.

“It’s alright. I have progressed well on the request of Oba-ue. At this stage, it should even satisfy even Oba-ue herself.”

Miyuki must have wanted to hear about today’s progress. Since he thought of that, Tatsuya gave her a rundown of today’s events.

“No, It’s because of Onii-sama after all.”

However, it seemed like Miyuki had wanted to ask something different.

“Say it. What do you want to ask?”

Tatsuya encouraged[38] her to speak, Miyuki seemed to hesitate for a while and finally shook her hesitation and asked her brother.

“Onii-sama, what causes Minoru-kun’s weak constitution?”

In response to this unexpected surprise, Tatsuya failed to answer immediately.

“…As I said yesterday. Minoru’s magical power is too strong for his body to contain it.” Miyuki’s face was cloudy, while furrowing her eyebrows anxiously.

“That’s his current situation right? Onii-sama, have you seen the cause?”

“Why are you interested in such a thing?”

“Your state from that time wasn’t something Onii-sama would usually have had. I just wondered what had made you do so.”

It was Tatsuya’s blunder for being speechless. It was the same as confessing that “there was something”.

“Onii-sama, please. If you have anything that you are worried about, please let Miyuki hear it. I want you to share your worries with me.”

Miyuki worked very hard to stare at Tatsuya. He appreciated his sister’s effort to lighten his heart from the depth of his heart.

“It’s better for you not to know.”

However, he was hesitating to tell Miyuki about the secret that he had gotten. ——By the way, Tatsuya didn’t feel anything wrong about violating Minoru and the Kudou Family’s privacy.

“Please. I don’t want Onii-sama to suffer alone.”

However, since Miyuki solicited a haunting teary look, Tatsuya could no longer keep the secret hidden.

“I understand. This is a pretty shocking story, so you have to hear it with strong heart.”

Miyuki breathed in relief. To see that his sister was calm, Tatsuya proceeded to tell the secret. “Minoru and Fujibayashi-san are half-siblings.” Miyuki failed to show any reaction for a while.

She must have digested her brother’s words when she covered her mouth with both of her hands.

“But! Fujibayashi-san’s mother is Minoru-kun’s father’s real sister.”

“Minoru was an experimental body. Probably through artificial insemination. Strictly speaking, it was not incest, but he is still a child born of two real siblings.

Miyuki’s shocked face was intensified. It took her a considerable amount of time to regain her ability to speak.

“Then… Minoru-kun’s constitution, was the harmful effect of incest?”

Tatsuya shook his head. However, he did not indicate a definite denial.

“I can’t make any conclusion. The problem lies in the imbalance of the Psion body, which affects his physical body. It might be from the cause of mis-adjustments throughout the process.” Tatsuya sighed before continuing his words.

“However, it might be due to the close relationship between the genes being undeniable. Even during the research of magic, researchers have refrained themselves from using genes from parent and child or between siblings. There are still a lot of aspects of a Psion body, and also the spirit being affected, to be discovered.”

The color had bereted from Miyuki’s face.

She received a big shock, as if it were her own doing.





Chapter 9




Saturday, October 27th. Finally the day before the Thesis Competition, the support team, First High representatives and the security team all went to Kyoto in the afternoon. First High was the sixth school to present, actually the competition started at 1:40 P.M., so they should have been able to arrive in time even if they departed the morning of the day itself. However, it had been the custom of First High to go one day earlier whenever the competition was held in Kyoto.

They rented a large bus and a truck dedicated to carry the demonstration equipment for the presentation to a dedicated terminal. The Car train (a high-speed train which mounts a large passenger vehicle and enormous luggage) was opposite the station in Kyoto’s suburbs, thence, they would go to the Kyoto hotel.

CR hotel was one of the high standard luxury hotels for high school students to stay in, but it was difficult to change the mindset of people when there was some degree of fixation. Nobody dare to move to a lower grade hotel, since it had been their tradition since long ago.

“We’ve arrived~!”

The first one to get off from the bus was Kanon, who enjoyed the bus trip with much excitement. Last year, her expectation to travel by bus along with Isori during the Nine Schools Competition was shattered, that was the reason she looked forward to this trip. Although she should have gotten her revenge during the last Nine Schools Competition this year, but it seemed like the result was not as expected as she still recalled last year’s Nine Schools Competition disgruntledness.

The last person to get off the bus was Izumi. Actually, Miyuki as the student council president was supposed to check the attendance and left behind items, but Izumi said “there such chores” and volunteered to do it for Miyuki.

Instead, Miyuki checked into the hotel as a representative from First High. The keys were then distributed by Tatsuya and Honoka.

Thus all First High students scattered to their assigned room.

The First High students stayed at a cheaper type room than the Japanese-styled room. It was a twin Western-style room. Tatsuya shared his room with Mikihiko. It was certainly not a coincidence, but a deliberate choice.

“Mikihiko, I’ll leave the rest to you.”

“Leave it to me. It’s a pity not being able to accompany you.”

“I can’t depend on you that far, there is also information disclosure issues. Moreover…”

“What’s wrong, Tatsuya?”

Waiting for Tatsuya to say something, Mikihiko tilted his head.

“…No, I have something that I want for you to ask everyone in school. I don’t think that anything will happen, but it’s better not to neglect the warning.”

“Yeah, I understand.”

The thing that Tatsuya failed to voice out was “Isn’t Mizuki here too?”. The art club had been greatly participating in the making of the current demonstration instrument and were selected to support the members by preference. Mizuki was included among the selected members. Tatsuya was wondering if Mikihiko was concerned about her.

In the end, Tatsuya did not say that. He judged that it was not his business. Tatsuya thought that it wasn’t something that should come out from an outsider’s mouth.

“I might be late. I’ll contact you if I can’t come back tonight.”

“Got it. Be careful, Tatsuya.”

Tatsuya hid his favorite gun-shaped CAD, Silver Horn, before responding to Mikihiko by raising his hand, while walking out of the room.





Tatsuya headed to a hotel, one smaller than the CR hotel where First High students stayed, but inconspicuous. It was a hotel that was frequently used by the Kuroba Family for work purposes.

“Good afternoon, Tatsuya-niisan.”

“Tatsuya-san, we have been expecting you.”

Fumiya and Ayako were waiting for him in the lobby.

“I’m sorry for asking you to come all the way here.”

“No, the case was originally brought to us after all.”

“We can’t keep talking while standing up like this, Tatsuya-san, why don’t you sit?”

Ayako welcomed Tatsuya to the sofa. After Tatsuya was seated, Ayako sat at the opposite end of the table, while Fumiya brought in some drinks.

He was wondering if it was allowed to bring food or drink here, before he noticed a 3H wiping another table. No, it was a business type “Humanoid Servant”, it was similar to the type found in the aircraft which was called “Servanoid”. Since Tatsuya determined that it was not a problem, he received the drink without refrain.

Ayako expanded the sound barrier. There was no warning against unauthorized use of magic. It seemed like this hotel was not only at the level of Kuroba family’s work, like what he had been told, but also completely modified for the work of the Kuroba——no, the Yotsuba.

“This will do, and. Tatsuya-san, here are the things that you’ve requested.”

“The bike is the same model with the one that Tatsuya-san has been using. It is parked in the parking lot.”

“The clothing is stab proof and also bulletproof, do you want to change into it?”

“Boots, gloves, helmet and all of the combat requirements are fulfilled.”

“How gracious…”

They had put in much more effort than he had expected, Tatsuya was about to laugh. Of course, he didn’t actually laugh, since he knew what the two of them think about him seriously.

“Thank you. I’ll use them well.”

Hearing this response, Fumiya and Ayako showed a really happy smiles.

“Then, we will guide you to your room.”

Ayako put down her tea cup and rose. Fumiya stood and left the drinks at the table, hence Tatsuya followed him. The change in clothes that were prepared really fit into Tatsuya’s body, that it felt creepy. Tatsuya wanted to ask where did they get his measurement from, but in the end he decided that it’s best not to ask, so he stopped himself from asking.

“How far have you narrowed it down to?”

Tatsuya asked about the hiding place of Zhou Gongjin.

Hayama had been sharing the information that he got on Monday to the Kuroba Family. Based on that information, the Kuroba’s had been investigating around the hideouts of Zhou Gongjin this week.

“We are almost certain of this.”

“I see, as expected of the Kuroba. Then?”

At Tatsuya’s question, Fumiya showed a slight hesitation.

“That, it’s hard to believe, but,”

“JSDF, Uji Second Supply Base. There is almost no other place to shelter him in this area.” In place of Fumiya who couldn’t speak about this so lightly, Ayako answered him.

Tatsuya failed to say, “No way”.

“I see. It is indeed quite a hideout.”

After he wore a blazing look, Tatsuya move to take the communication console.

“Fumiya.”

“Yes.”

After being called with a hard appalling voice, Fumiya answered with a louder than necessary voice. This voice was evidently showing that Tatsuya’s feelings had reached a critical level. Since Tatsuya was not able to have a high level of strong emotions, the moment it reached a certain stage, he would show it as an non-emotional intention on the surface.

The treachery of the National Defense Forces, was way over his tolerable limit. Since rebels had shot Miyuki in Okinawa, he was especially intolerant against betrayers.

There was a phrase called “nukeba tamachiru mizu no ha[39]”. It was a representation to say that a Japanese sword would shine coldly, eerie like when it was sharpened. Tatsuya who lost his feelings in anger, was reminiscent of this phrase.

“Is it possible to do external communication?”

“Please wait for a second.”

Fumiya outstretched his hand beside Tatsuya, and keyed in the security code in the keyboard.

Tatsuya was prompted by Fumiya, he sat down in front of the console.

Tatsuya entered the complex code. He waited for about 5 seconds before a female officer appeared on the monitor.

[Tatsuya-kun, what’s suddenly wrong?]

Tatsuya entered the code for emergency calls that are assigned to Fujibayashi’s own line.

“Lieutenant, I’m in Kyoto now.”

[I see…]

With only those words, Fujibayashi seemed to understand him.

[Did you find out?]

She intentionally omitting words in her question, Fujibayashi sighed in the midst of resignation.

“I have an idea of Zhou Gongjin’s hideout.”

Tatsuya hadn’t only shared the information from the traditionalists at Kiyomizu Temple and Mt. Arashi to Hayama only, he also shared it to Fujibayashi. It was a serious crime for this country’s army to assist Zhou Gongjin who led the foreign troops in this land. Tatsuya could not afford to avert his eyes even if he’s asked to. Tatsuya was going to use that.

[Where is it?]

Fujibayashi showed a painful expression in response to Tatsuya’s straightforward question.

[The military police are scheduled to be dispatched. Special Lieutenant Oogura must not interfere.]

“This is not subjected to the military rule of secrecy. Fujibayashi-san, where is Zhou Gongjin? You’re part of the Kudou Family who promised me cooperation, please answer me.”

[…He’s inside the JSDF, Uji Second Supply Base. Tatsuya-kun, leave the rest to the Armed Forces. Even if it is you, you won’t be left unexcused if you trespass on the base.]

“I understood. See you.”

[Tatsuya-kun!?]

Without clearly saying what he “understood”, Tatsuya cut off communications. Additionally, he locked the line via the console.

He looked back, behind him Fumiya and Ayako had seen his exchange with Fujibayashi with rounded eyes.

“Support is cut off. How about the plan?”

“It starts at sunset, and then we get into the base.”

Fumiya who just regained his sense answered Tatsuya.

“How about the intrusion path?”

“We’ll enter proudly from multiple gates. It is not a big problem to overcome such a plain fence.”

“Of course, we have to have someone to standby by the gate.”

“We don’t have the numbers…” Tatsuya stood up while glaring.

“Fumiya, Ayako, I will get someone to help us. I might not be able to enter the base on time, but I will do so if the time allows me to.”

“Understood. Tatsuya-niisan, the communication device will not be connected at that time.”

“Tatsuya-san, be careful.”

“Fumiya and Ayako, you too, don’t let your guard down.”

“Yes.”

“Of course.”

After hearing their replies, Tatsuya proceeded to the bike that had been parked at the parking lot.

He immediately recognized the bike. However, he rode the bike in a different direction than what was shown by the arrow.





The sky in the west had started to turn the color red. Not much time until the start of the operation. Tatsuya called Ichijou Masaki while riding the bike, he used the radio interface from information terminal that was charged in the helmet.

“Shiba? Do you have something?”

For Masaki, a phone call from Tatsuya seemed to be a surprise. On the other hand, Tatsuya might show a similar reaction if he received a phone call from Masaki. Since he knew that himself, Tatsuya did not say anything unnecessary.

“Ichijou, I narrowed down Zhou Gongjin’s hiding place.”

“Really!?”

“Yes, where are you now?”

“Nearby Kamigamo Shrine.”

As Tatsuya thought, he came. Third High usually arrived the day of the Thesis Competition itself, not a day before. However, Masaki should have come earlier for a preliminary inspection when he considered last week’s situation.

“Let’s meet up at the southwest entrance of Uji Park at 5:00 P.M.”

“5:00 P.M.? Understood. I will be there.”

Masaki probably thought that there was no more time. However he understood immediately the meaning of the specified time. Despite the unfriendliness of their communication, he still immediately took action.

He would be a formidable adversary, but a reliable ally. He understood well that Masaki was a good man, which was why Tatsuya preferred to contact him.

(I should hurry up myself.)

It would be awkward if Masaki managed to get there on time while he’s late. Tatsuya increased the speed of the bike.





At the JSDF, Uji Second Supply Base, Zhou Gongjin who had been pursued by Tatsuya’s group was preparing to leave the base.

“Zhou-sensei, do you really need to leave?”

The man who was barely over 30, said so with a disappointed voice.

“Captain Hatae, I also have no plan to leave, but it seems like this place has been found out.”

“I see. How regrettable. If you stay here longer, I could shield you even from the Ten Master Clans, I won’t let any of them touch even a finger on you.”

Captain Hatae was not only an advocate for integration with the Great Asian Alliance, but also committed to Ancient Magic from the continent, and was one of the individuals that adherently believe that Japan was “a history of upstarts from less than 100 years ago”. He fervently believed and claimed that Zhou Gongjin “was not involved in the Yokohama Incident”, he had been harboring Zhou for a week due to his sense of justice as a retaliation to modern magicians until the Kuroba had tracked him privately.

“We have no choice. Their side is backed up by his excellency Kudou after all.” Zhou laughed thinly. The smile was very becoming of his beautiful face.

Captain Hatae pursed his lips. As Zhou Gongjin said, it was not possible for him to refuse an order from the base commander for an inspection request as he was only a captain. Originally General Kudou Retsu had so much influence that he could step over the regular procedure for inspection in this situation.

“I wanted to listen to more about senjutsu from you…”

“I myself, am still a fledging mage. I am still immature, which is visible in unexpected ways. I still have a ways to go before being able to teach others the arts…”

Zhou used his usual excuse to softly reject Hatae’s request.

Hatae changed the subject without any sign of feeling rejected.

“So, when will you depart?”

“I think during your spare time tonight.”

“Certainly, the inspection is scheduled to take place early tomorrow morning, so that would be for the best…”

“I’m grateful that you could obtain information prior to the inspection notice.”

When Zhou lowered his head saying so, Hatae wore a pretty pathetic looking expression.

“However, the gate will be closed at night.”

“I can take care of that much.”

Watching the confidence show up in the form of a smile, Hatae recalled Zhou’s special magic. “You’re right. At the very least, I’ll prepare a car for you. It’s from my personal belongings instead of a military vehicle. I think you wouldn’t be followed that way.”

Official cars, not limited to military vehicles, had a tracking device planted for theft prevention. That means, for disguise purposes, it was better to use a private car for sure.

“I thank you for all of your good will.”

Zhou showed his gratitude carefully by lowering his head.





Tatsuya had been leaning against the bike that he borrowed from Fumiya when he noticed a red bike approaching him after 15 minutes of waiting.

(This guy really likes red.)

Somehow, he was heart fully dazzled. Since the emblem of Third High was a red colored star, it probably sparked some love for his school. Tatsuya wondered if Masaki was aware of this.

“I’ve made you wait.”

Masaki got off from his bike and took off his helmet while greeting Tatsuya.

“No, you’re quite early from the specified time. We still have enough time to form a strategy.”

The current time was 4:50 P.M. The sunset would be at 5:10 P.M., so they still had some margin of time.

“Then, what kind of setup is it?”

At the very least, he had to explain the strategy that he had prepared beforehand to Masaki.

“Zhou Gongjin’s hideout seems to be over there.”

Tatsuya pointed in a southern direction while saying so.

The immediate place that he was pointing was the JSDF base.

Masaki did not immediately catch Tatsuya’s intention. However, after a few seconds, he understood the meaning of “over there”, and widened his eyes.

“No way, are you saying that he’s inside the JSDF’s base!?”

“JSDF Uji Second Supply Base. There is a high possibility that Zhou Gongjin is hiding inside.

“…Are you sure?”

“It’s a possibility, and we’re about to confirm it.”

“Into the base!?”

Masaki wore the face of “is this guy serious” or “is this guy insane”.

However, Tatsuya was experienced in the matter of the forces inside and of the JSDF. Hence, he did not flinch at this late hour to enter the JSDF blockade area.

“The arrest of Zhou Gongjin has been mobilized in secret by a certain magician group.”

“Apart from the military police, is it?”

“Yes. It is not a formal operation.”

Masaki perfectly understood that he was suggesting of an illegal operation.

“Soon they will be entering the gates of the base.”

“From the gate? …I see so they are using Outer-Systematic Magic?” Tatsuya nodded at Masaki’s question.

Masaki guessed the identity of the “magicians who were mobilized in secret”.

Magicians who specialized in Outer-Systematic Magic, magicians who might go against the JSDF. Masaki only had one idea of where it was heading to.

“Shiba, you are…”

“I’m different from them.”

Before the question formed, Tatsuya denied him flatly.

“It’s about time. I will be entering the base by jumping over the fence. Ichijou, what are you going to do?”

Masaki did not answer immediately. Trespassing into JSDF base was an obvious criminal act. He still had a law-abiding spirit which couldn’t be conveniently shut off like Tatsuya’s.

His parents would place the priority of the Ten Master Clans over that of their morals as citizens. His father, especially, might even skip pushing his back and go straight to kicking his ass if he saw Masaki hesitating like this.

The problem was his position as the production team of Third High. If he gets caught in police matters right before the Thesis Competition, moreover causing a serious incident isn’t just a misdemeanor, the competition might be affected. The shock given to the students of Third High, regardless of being an upperclassmen, classmates, or juniors, would be big. More than anything, he was afraid to let his best friend’s effort to go to waste.

(——But, I’m of the Ten Master Clans.)

Masaki was lost in his thoughts for a few seconds.

“…I will go. In the first place, I was deceived by that man last year. I couldn’t just act indifferently.”

Tatsuya glanced at his information terminal, before gripping his bikes handle.

“The operation starts in 5 minutes. Let’s go, Ichijou.”

“Understood.”

Both of them put on their helmets at the same time and began to ride their bikes.





At that time, at the east side of the Uji Bridge just outside of the infamous Byoudou-in Temple, a car stopped.

“Thank you. I’ll call you once I’m done, so you can wait at the usual place?”

The one who got out from the car and talked to the driver was no doubt, a beautiful boy.

The passerby who happened to be at the scene stared at him as if his soul had been pulled out of his body. With the background being that of the ending of the day, Minoru’s ethereal beauty drifted through the time of this world.

A middle-aged man followed Minoru from behind. There wasn’t any need to say that he was Minoru’s escort, as he was visibly trained, despite not having a large build.

“Minoru-sama, should we wait here?”

“Yes.”

It was a clearly different tone than the one he used for Tatsuya and friends, he seemed accustomed to ordering people.

“Zhou Gongjin may flee through here to escape from the siege. When the time comes, I must detain him here at any cost.”

“However, there is another bridge in Uji River towards Oshima.”

Rather than doubting Minoru’s words, the timid bodyguard asked him a question. It was not as if he was acting miserly, however it was futile of him to hide being afraid of something. If Zhou Gongjin chose a different route, Minoru’s efforts to push his still unhealthy body would be wasted.

“That side is a private flyover right? His escape route would be limited once he got on to that flyover. He needs to be able to move freely in all directions in order to exert the true power of Qi Men Dun Jia. Zhou Gongjin will not use that route.”

“However, that means there is a possibility that he will flee in the eastern direction…”

“There’s Mt. Takamine at the east side. As seen from his escaping pattern, Zhou Gongjin prefers the city more than mountainous terrain. I guess it relates to his Ghostwalker skill.”

“But.”

“Noisy.”

The bodyguard who was still trying to express his concerns, was blocked by Minoru’s hand.

“Are you trying to say that my reasoning is flawed?”

The bodyguard fell silent. He was not meant to refrain someone from his employer’s family. However, the clear and cold air that was drifting out of Minoru’s body had sealed the mouth of the bodyguard.





“It’s time. Start the operation.”

“Yes! As you wish, young master.”

After answering so, the man turned his head while still wearing his black spectacles, making a nimble cracking sound.

“You idiot, its young lady! Young master’s disguise is.”

“Shut up!”

The quarreling between the black glasses’ men was blocked by Fumiya who had turned into “Yami”.

“It’s not the time for twiddling! Start the operation!”

“Yes!”

The men in black glasses lowered their heads and with one knee down, and dissolved in to thin air like a mirage all at once.

“For goodness sake… to think that they’re Kuroba’s genjutsu[40] users…”

Fumiya lamented while holding his temple, when Ayako came out, dressed as “Yoru” and approached him from behind and spoke a word of comfort.

“Yami-chan, there’s nothing to do but to use them right. Competency and personality are two different things. Rather than having good but incompetent subordinates, competent ones with bad personalities are favorable right?”

“Well, that’s right, but…”

“More importantly Yami-chan, it has started.”

The flashing alarm was resounding within the base. His subordinates were not supposed to make such a blunder. There were a lot of flaws in their personality, but their abilities were acknowledged even by Fumiya.





“I wonder if it’s Tatsuya-niisan.”

“Yes, he must have been thinking of becoming a decoy. I wonder if he intends to evict the prey from the northern side to the south.”

“Tatsuya-niisan, why is he doing such a dangerous things.”

“Tatsuya-san has his confidence. No matter how he is threatened by compromising situations, he is still be able to walk out safely. That’s why he shouldered the most dangerous role.”

“…I see”

“We must not waste Tatsuya-san’s good will, let’s not keep standing around. We must confirm the whereabouts of Zhou Gongjin soon.”

“I got it”

Behind Fumiya, there was a small passenger car, which was painted dark-blue had refrained. It was not a normal car, for sure. Its body strength was equal to that of tanks, it was a custom-made robotic car with an engine which was comparable to a race cars.





The alarm rang in the JSDF Uji Second Supply Base. Additionally, one or two shots could be heard.

“What’s happening!”

Captain Hatae yelled from outside of the room. The subordinates heading outside answered the question with pale faces.

“Intruders in the base! There are two of them! Both of them are probably magicians!”

“What!?”

Hatae’s surprise could not be said as exaggerating. Magicians are powerful adversaries, even if he’s alone. A magician’s power can’t be generalized due to the difference in capacity between individuals, but it was said to be comparable to the strength of a single squadron of forces. If he is a powerful magician, his power could be that of a battalions scale force by himself.

There were two of them. Rather than infiltrating the base secretly, they were boldly showing resistance, supposedly there was no way that they were below average.

“How’s the situation!?”

“The intruders are coming towards us while destroying the supply goods. They can’t be stopped even after were to fight back!”

Even with the alerts, Zhou Gongjin continued to pack without raising his face, after he made a snap sound, everything became quite.

“Just in time.”

“Huh? Zhou-sensei, what…”

“It’s a good opportunity. Everyone, please eliminate the intruders. Utilize the full strength of this base.”

As soon as Zhou said so, Hatae and his men were trembling as if they were electrocuted.

It hadn’t happened exclusively in that room. The same thing occurred to the squadron under Hatae’s command.

“Captain-san, as your gracious words, I will borrow your car. Hand over the key.” Hatae handed over his car key to Zhou in an awkward fashion.

“Then, what should you be doing now. If you do not eliminate the intruders who entered the base, the military wouldn’t be able to maintain its pride. You must thoroughly eradicate them without even leaving a piece of their corpse.

Yes. This is a challenge to the pride of JSDF. Don’t underestimate them. Crush them.”

“Yes.”

The tone of his voice was contrary to the content.

At the neck of Hatae and his subordinates, who saluted and left the room, the mark of spider bite could be seen.





The two intruders entered the base with a full-face helmet for bikes on their heads. Just in case, Tatsuya had decomposed the surveillance cameras after a thorough search.

Of course, he didn’t only destroy the surveillance cameras that were hard to see.

“What’s that magic!?”

“It’s not the time to ask that.”

Tatsuya brusquely dismissed Masaki’s question. They were careful not to call each other’s name in front of the enemy, the conversation between the two had become increasingly not amiable.

“I’ve never heard about such magic!”

Masaki cried out so, it probably couldn’t be helped. It was his first time to see Tatsuya’s “decomposition”.

Against Tatsuya’s CAD, weapons and weaponry was broken down and scattered on the ground in pieces. The guns were taken apart. For vehicles, first the wheel would come off, then the door, until everything was gradually loosened and scattered around.

“More importantly, the fuel vaporization is really slow.”

“This is time consuming!”

Masaki was vaporizing the hydrogen absorbing liquid in the fuel and separated the hydrogen gases by convergent magic, as to prevent ignition from the leaked fuel. The hydrogen gas was collected and tailored into a hydrogen balloon within a spherical fire which prevented it from escaping into the sky. The difficulty of the magic itself was much more complex than the “decomposition” magic that Tatsuya using doing.

“So explosions aren’t your only talent.”

“I know!” Masaki followed Tatsuya’s instruction despite some complaining, he understood that this technique might be useful in the future for him. Magic vaporized the fuel as to avoid ignition by converging and isolating the hydrogen before releasing it into the sky. This would help him to neutralize weaponries on the battle field without unnecessary casualties. It could even be a more useful technique than “Rupture”.

The two of them broke down the weaponry randomly, the shower of bullets at them had suddenly intensified. The bullets had changed from the powerless rubber bullets to live ammunition. Masaki expanded his barrier. The partial part that couldn’t be covered by him, was secretly tackled with decomposition magic by Tatsuya. The two of them separated, while jumping behind the shield.

“They’re shooting!”

“Live ammunition. Apparently they seem to be manipulated. Just like the traditionalists.”

Masaki’s face was colored by understanding.

Last Sunday, he was attacked by magicians, who ultimately committed suicide, at Mt. Arashi. They had been manipulated by the houjutsu users from the continent who had been hiding behind the bushes.

A roar came from the building. Tanks appeared one after another. It was not only a single vehicle, but a line of four of them.

“Hey, they’ve even taken out the tanks!”

“They don’t learn. They intend to bring it to a higher level, huh.”

They were small vehicles for urban warfare, but it was excessive to be used against two individuals on foot. However, depending on the situation, they were still insufficient forces against two magicians.

In this case, it was the latter.

“I’ll go at once. Don’t let it ignite.”

“Don’t ask for… the unreasonable, leave it to me.”

Masaki was trying to say, don’t ask for the impossible, was cut off as he did not perceive that such whining was something to be done at this situation.

The wheels fell off at the same time. The barrels fell and guns displaced. Armor plates peeled of all at once. This all happened at the same time to the four tanks.

Fuel leaked from the engines.

It ascended to the sky and vaporized prior to ignition, as it mixed and diffused in the atmosphere.

“Good work.”

“It doesn’t make me happy to be complemented by you.”

Towards Masaki’s cold attitude, Tatsuya smirked wickedly.

“Should I ask Miyuki to complement you?”

“Do-don’t joke around! It’s not the time for that!” Masaki was upset about an interesting thing.

“At any rate, let’s go! Zhou Gongjin is escaping… It’s him!”

“What?”

Tatsuya extended his “eye” towards the direction of Masaki’s sight.

Tatsuya didn’t ask if Masaki was certain.

Masaki had seen Zhou Gongjin in close proximity face to face. There was no way he could be mistaken about any information that he got during that situation.

Zhou Gongjin was heading to the south gate, riding a gunmetal colored sedan. He chose to pass through the passage where the surveillance devices were not recording, he must be planning to get out of the base.

(This…?)

Within the perimeter of Eidos, the foreign matter was mixed into Tatsuya senses. It didn’t belong to Zhou, it was something he unintendedly devoured.

(A stung of the bee, huh… I won’t let your death wasted.)

Tatsuya made a convenient oath for the sake of the deceased that he only met once.





“Zhou Gongjin is approaching the south gate.”

“I wonder if the other gates had been guarded by the people of the base. As expected of a magician who has beaten us, the Kurobas and escaped.”

At Fumiya’s words, Ayako responded with a tone of irony and admiration.

“Otherwise, we’ll be troubled.”

Fumiya sat in the rear seat of the autonomous car, while Ayako sat next to him.

At the same time, a gunmetal sedan with Zhou Gongjin in it had appeared out of the south gate.

“Chase him!”

“Yes, young master. No, young lady.”

“Anything will do! Start quickly!”

Even the autonomous car was not allowed to speed up if there was no emergency driver outside the area of traffic control. The previously elected leader of the black glasses operation team who was yelled at, was chosen as the driver to chase Zhou Gongjin.





(What is this obnoxious feeling…)

While driving the car to the south, Zhou Gongjin gradually felt a sense of being tied up that he had never felt before.

Strictly saying from the result, he was successfully evading the enemy with a narrow gap. He acknowledged that Kurobas——Yotsuba’s chasing team was obstinate, but in the end, he managed to get away from them. He was living peacefully for the last 10 years in Chinatown, but he was previously being hunted constantly for about 30 years, and kept living in hiding.

(Oops… I’m still only 24 years old now.)

At least, that was stated in his identification. He bought his restaurant in Chinatown four years ago, and he remembered that he wrote “20 years old” on the documents that were submitted at the time.

(Years are but like a name for us, it is just another label.)

Perhaps, he was too absorbed reminiscing in the thought that he failed to recognize that there was a shadow of a human blocking his way, before the anti-crashing device was activated.

Zhou attempting to ring the horn, he wore an expression unbefitting of his character.

He saw the boy’s face.

He was an otherworldly beauty.

Zhou himself had a beautiful face, but this boy was on another level altogether.

However, he recognized the beautiful boy.

He remembered seeing the boy before.

“Kudou Minoru! Why are you here!?”

He was one of the very few magicians that Zhou kept in mind to be wary of.

He learnt the extent of Minoru’s capability during his attack in Nara.

Zhou disabled the anti-crashing device in the car forcefully.

Minoru raised his right hand to aim at the car.

A flame started within the car.

Zhou jumped out of the vehicle before the engine was ignited.

Zhou Gongjin felt a chill running down his back. He didn’t feel this way when he faced Kuroba Mitsugu or Nakura Saburou.

Kudou Minoru did not hesitate even a second when he blew up the car.

He didn’t only aim at the target without any hesitation, he was also not afraid to drag in any bystanders within the vicinity.

There were no bystanders. There hadn’t been a car that had passed by either. However, he could see that the boy had never really cared about the surrounding.

His ethereal beauty matched up very well with his ruthlessness, it made Minoru looks mysterious in the eyes of normal beings.

Zhou took out his artifact and aimed at Minoru. It was not kasei-tai, but genjuu. Zhou realized that he had to use his strongest technique in order to go against Minoru.

A black one horned beast materialized, it ran towards Minoru at a high speed that couldn’t be tracked by the eyes.

It was not a speed that humans could react to.

Minoru couldn’t deflect the attack, the black beast pierced through Minoru——and soon after Minoru’s body slipped through it.

“Disguise!”

Zhou Gongjin recognized the magic. It was “Parade” the trump magic of the Kudou Family. The magic did not only hide Minoru’s actual position, but also altered the position information in Eidos.

Zhou decided to flee. He realized that he couldn’t break through “Parade”. He understood that after seeing Minoru’s technique once.

Minoru aimed his right hand at Zhou.

However, the lightning he initiated landed one meter away to the right of Zhou’s position.

Minoru shook his head childishly. The expression that he had was not humanly, it was more like angelic. Like an exact image of a angel who smiled mercilessly.

Lightning struck down at Zhou Gongjin’s surrounding.

Minoru did not miss. Zhou used Ghostwalker to influence Minoru’s aim.

However, the one feeling the horror was Zhou. He was planning to shift Minoru’s aim by 90°. However, Minoru was always able to spot his position and his aim was only shifted by 30°.

Zhou called all the remaining beasts from his artifact.

At the same time, he took out a black handkerchief, and spread it in front of his eyes.

All the beasts were simply slipping through Minoru’s figure.

The black handkerchief fell down on the ground.

Minoru kept an eye on the downstream of Uji River, while smiling without malice.

His eyes were looking directly at the Eidos, he caught ——the “shadow”, “yin”——of Zhou who fled, and did not lost sight of his position.

Zhou was running at a speed of 40 to 50 km/h along the Stream of Uji River. It was a popular technique of Suikoden[41] called “Shinkouhou”.

He was running back in the direction of the base, but he was planning to go down to the lower side of the bridge in the middle and going over to the opposite shore.

However, an adversary showed up in front of him all a sudden. She didn’t jump from the side of the road, instead, she materialized from thin air.

“Mock Teleportation!?”

He knew the technique when he acquired a parasite who was able to do this. However, it was in a much lower level than hers, her technique allowed her to appear without any premature sign.

A girl in a bob-hair-style shoved a fist with a knuckle duster while fluttering the hem of her skirt.

The distance was too wide.

Yet, Zhou suffered a blow enough to make his right leg fumble down.

Zhou spread out a white handkerchief.

It was large enough to hide him when opened.

Behind the shade, Zhou pierced his own acupuncture point to numb the pain in his right leg. The severe pain continued, but he affirmed himself that it was just an illusion.

He took out his last artifact which he had kept as a spare from his chest.

When visibility of the blockade fell, the bob-haired girl had disappeared.

In exchange, there was a familiar boy with a red CAD in his hand standing in front of him.

“Ichijou Masaki!”

“Long time no see, Zhou Gongjin. You deceived me well last time.” Zhou tried to jump down from the Uji Bridge.

However, in that instant, the water from the river blew up causing water to splatter.

“Jumping into water in the face of the Ichijou Family’s ‘Rupture’ is the same as charging in to a mountain of bombs.”

After hearing that voice from his back, Zhou Gongjin turned around.

“Shiba Tatsuya…”

Zhou activated Ghostwalker at his best. He tried to get away by slipping through Tatsuya’s side.

However, in front of his eyes, Tatsuya formed a hand chop. Zhou Gongjin knew the sharpness of the Demon Blade that could even shear through steel, he was forced to step back.

Zhou was sandwiched between Tatsuya and Masaki for the second time.

“Why does my Ghostwalker not work on you!” Zhou was still smiling in this kind of situation.

Was it a façade?

Masaki didn’t comprehend his real intention.

Tatsuya didn’t really care about his real intention.

“Ghostwalker, what an amazing technique. I heard it may not work in close proximity, but yours can work just fine. I didn’t know that you’re going to slip through by my side.”

“…I don’t understand. Then, why did you prepare to attack just now?” A smile bloomed in Tatsuya’s lips.

That smile was at the same essence as Zhou’s, albeit not as beautiful.

There was no feeling in it, a façade smile.

“I didn’t know your position. However, I knew the position of Nakura Saburou’s blood that resides within you.”





Zhou opened his eyes widely in surprise.

For the first time, Masaki felt like he was seeing the true face of the ageless Taoist magician.

“Nakura Saburo’s blood… from that time?”

“Did you get pierced by needles of blood? Usually foreign elements would disappear from the body within two weeks. Seems like it contains quite a strong desire.”

“Desire, was it? I thought that concept had been tossed away by Modern Magic.”

“No matter how you reason, the things that exist, exists. Likewise with the opposite.”

“There are things which exist, yet do not materialize.” Tatsuya raised his silver CAD at Zhou.

“You can continue your lecture in jail. Though they might not give you much time.”

“Either way I would be killed right.”

“I’m not the one who can decide that.”

“In other words, asking to spare my life is useless?” Tatsuya did not return any further answers.

“As long as Nakura Saburou’s blood is within you, you cannot escape from me.” This was Tatsuya’s ultimatum.

“So, this is it…”

Zhou sighed, accepting his fate.

At the next instant, he was jumping towards Masaki.

Shinkouhou had no connection with leg muscles. Even if the legs were numb, so long as the magician had them, it could be activated.

Masaki did not know about that.

However, he did not expect this kind of case. It was probably a good coincidence, that he was prepared.

At the moment Zhou Gongjin jumped at him, Masaki pulled the trigger of his red CAD.

In no time, his magic “Rupture” was activated.

He improved his technique by vaporizing the blood from the body parts instead of the whole body.

Both of Zhou Gongjin’s legs burst from within.

Shinkouhou was canceled, while Zhou lied on the ground.

“This is it.”

Masaki still ready with his CAD, encouraged him to surrender.

Zhou Gongjin got up immediately. His pride did not allow him to lie pathetically.

“Certainly, this is the end.”

Zhou stood up slowly, even though the parts from his knees downward were not supposed to be able to move.

It was a ghostly movement.

“However, you cannot catch me.” Zhou masked his face with a smile.

It was a mask-like smile.

“I shall not perish. Even if I die, my existence shall prevail!”

“Ichijou, back off!”

Tatsuya leaped backward at the same time as he shouted.

Ichijou also took a distance away from Zhou Gongjin.

The next moment, Zhou’s whole body was spouting blood, red blood, which turned into red flames.

“Hahahahahahahahaha…”

An endless laugh followed the burning flame. It lasted until the fire died out.

After the flame disappeared, there wasn’t any trace of bone.

“Has Zhou Gongjin really died?

Masaki was dazzled and stunned, the sunset turned into night, and the stars had begun to shine.

“There was no trace of him escaping somewhere else. He had undoubtedly died in that fire.” Tatsuya didn’t face Masaki. His eyes were looking at the direction of Uji River.

Masaki had somewhat the same feeling, he answered Tatsuya, “I see”.

Masaki didn’t ask him, how he knew that.

“With this, the case of the Yokohama Incident has ended?”

“Yes.”

“I see… It was dangerous.”

“What was?”

Tatsuya asked back at Masaki.

Since Masaki didn’t say anything else, even Tatsuya couldn’t understand it.

Masaki faced Tatsuya.

“The JSDF was manipulated, they even took out tanks. It could have triggered insurrection.”

“They had already used flashy magic. They were already in the stage of insurrection.” Masaki laughed at Tatsuya’s serious answer.

“Then, should we say to ourselves ‘good job’ since we’ve managed to bring the situation under control before expansion of the insurrection?”

“You can see it from that point of view.” Tatsuya also laughed aloud.

The laughter of the two, was dissolved by the lonely autumn wind.





“Tatsuya-niisan, thanks for your hard work.”

When he returned the bike to the hotel, Fumiya and Ayako had arrived before him.

“Fumiya and Ayako too, thanks for your hard work. I was able to stop his movements thanks to your stunning combination.”

The two of them looked away in embarrassment when Tatsuya praised them.

“By the way, Tatsuya-san, how did you figure out that man’s position? We lost sight of him despite chasing him with a car.”

Ayako was indeed embarrassed, she didn’t look at Tatsuya’s eyes when asking this question.

“Thanks to a certain magician’s obstinacy, who cornered him even after death…”

“?”

Ayako made a confused face. Fumiya stopped looking downward, tilting his head curiously.

“I still don’t know how that had happened. I will tell you more, once I figure it out.” Tatsuya entered the room next to the one that the both of them used.

He left his clothes there when he first came to the hotel.

Tatsuya left the door open while he changed, Tatsuya spoke to Fumiya.

“Fumiya, why don’t you report to Hayama that the mission has been completed. I still need to settle a lot of things from now on.”

“I understand. Please leave that much to me.”

After having finished changing his clothes, Tatsuya came out.

“I’m counting on you.”

He said so as an exchange for saying farewell, Tatsuya left the hotel soon after.





Chapter 10




The next day, Sunday, October 28th.

It was finally the day of the 2096 Thesis Competition.

Tatsuya didn’t participate in the Nine Schools security as one of the joint guard, but only came as a supporter, so that he could move relatively freely.

During the lunch break, Tatsuya met Mayumi with Miyuki who was freed from her judge seat in the Thesis Competition.

“I see… So the culprit who murdered Nakura-san has committed suicide.”

“Well, it was the result of us cornering him, so I don’t know if you can say that it was suicide.” Tatsuya told Mayumi that the case of the murder of Nakura had been resolved.

“That’s good. Since Tatsuya-kun has helped me to settle Nakura-san’s grudge.” Tatsuya received a heartfelt smile from Mayumi.

“Thank you, Tatsuya-kun. I will forget about what happened that night.”

“Senpai, that.”

“See you. Work hard on the security work. Miyuki-san, good luck in judging.”

She didn’t listen to Tatsuya’s answer, Mayumi stood up from her seat and disappeared into the crowd.

“Onii-sama.”

In the tea room, Tatsuya remained with a bomb that had been thrown onto his hand, Miyuki forcefully smirked while staring at Tatsuya.

“What did she mean by that night?”

“No, about that.”

“And? Please tell me if it doesn’t trouble you… Or perhaps.”

Miyuki put her hand on top of Tatsuya’s while asking this question.

“Is there any harm in me knowing about it?”

Miyuki’s hand was cold, yet it felt soft. Her hand had restrained Tatsuya in that place.





“——This way, there isn’t any need to position a sensitive alloy plate at the ‘engraved’ part in order to activate the engraved type magic. ‘Engrave’ is intended only to induce Psion flow, as we can see right now at the projected image, the same pattern of ‘engrave’ can be obtained after the Psion’s fill in. The essence of engraving magic, as you can see, does not depend on the engraving itself.”

After the main presenter finished his words, First High ended the presentation. A round of applause arose from the audience.

“It is the greatest applause until now.”

Miyuki had been selected as one of the judges, she described the reaction of the audience in the auditorium next to Tatsuya. They also thought that “the content was innovative enough”. Both Miyuki and Tatsuya agreed that First High could win this year’s Thesis Competition.

“Then, Onii-sama, I’ll return to the judge’s seat.”

“Next is Second High. Huh… who’s that?”

“Huh? Isn’t that Minoru-kun?”

The venue was filled with buzz. Perhaps, amazed by the beauty of Minoru who stood at the stage in preparation for the presentation. However, Tatsuya was surprised due to another reason.

Soon, there was an announcement from the facilitator.

“This is an announcement to everyone in the venue. There is a change in the presenter from Second High, as the original presenter suddenly fell sick, thus the presenter has been changed.”

“…Miyuki, don’t you need to go to the judging seat.”

“You’re right. Then, Onii-sama, excuse me.”

Normally, the audience would leave their seats in the time between the announcement and the presentation. The audience who supported the schools also changed. However, this time, none of the audience left their seat.

The presentation from Second High began with a peculiar atmosphere.

“I will start the presentation of Second High. The theme is ‘The Principle of Mental Interference Magic’ and the Theory behind its Activation Sequence.”

The buzz within the venue had just risen. Little was known about magic of the Mental Interference System. This is definitely an ambitious and revolutionary topic in magic research.

“——As you can see from this observation, when a person has recognized something, a Psion Information Entity is formed. Then, when this Information Entity is no longer recognized, the information body will break down. It’s noted that for a Psion Information Entity, which forms due to recognition, is actively erased by the recognition target. For example, for momentary incineration, the object will start to collapse before the actual disappearance.

The Theory of Psion’s being a particle that makes an Idea or a thought into a form has been proven by many observations up to the current date. It shows that the passive cognition of human’s is what makes a Psion Information Entity, but it’s actually the active mental process that is what makes the Psion Information Entity.

I think, an Idea has to turn into the Psion Information Entity in order to create a reaction in the physical dimension from the mind. If we apply this theory, we can translate and categorize Mental Interference Magic starting from Telepathy to Sensory type ‘ESP’ as a magic that uses a Psion Information Entity.

——Therefore, I believe a Psion Information Entity forms through the mind, the mind has characteristics that I have explained. Of course, my theory has not covered every characteristic, but if we can write the elements which are shown in this presentation into an Activation Sequence, we can speed up the formularization of Mental Interference Magic. At the same time, it will lead to magic that can counter or nullify Mental Interference Magic. This will also become an opportunity to remove any mythical fear towards Mental Interference Magic.

——In this way, Mental Interference Type Magic is not essentially different from Four Great Systems and Eight Major Types. The mind forms a Psion Information Body within the correlation with reality. Correlatively, a Psion Information Body is formed from the mind. Thus, by building an Activation Sequence that can alter Psion Information Body, we can at least reform the current consciousness. This magic can alter the active consciousness through altering the cognition of a person.

If a person’s mind is not divided into consciousness and sub-consciousness, instead has two parts within itself as present part and dormant part, I believe, every Mental Interference Magic can be developed into actual magic skill through observing and analyzing Psion Information Entity.”

Minoru concluded his presentation.

A moment of silence.

The venue was wrapped in a thunderous applause.

The 2096 National Magic High School Thesis Competition crown of victory was won by a freshman from Second High, with Kudou Minoru as an appointed main presenter.

It was the birth of a new star for National Magic University from the First to Ninth Affiliated High Schools.





At the same time, in the Yotsuba Main Manor, there was a more serious meeting held than the Thesis Competition.

“As you’ve heard, this time Shiba Tatsuya has faithfully fulfilled the mission despite not having any helping force, and even having successfully fulfilled the request of the client. He is a valuable resource for the Yotsuba and through this mission, I can see that loyalty is not an issue.” While everyone showed a bitter face, Maya slowly opened her mouth.

“This mission was set as a test for Tatsuya. The result is as reported by Hayama-san. Everyone, don’t you agree?”

“We can only acknowledge him.”

The head of Shiiba family, opened his long sealed mouth.

“His power is certainly valuable.”

The head of Mashiba family also agreed.

“This time he passed, only this time.”

The head of Shibata family did not hide his displeasure while raising his opinion.

“Shouldn’t we drop our strange prejudice?”

The head of Mugura family proposed, “I second that. If we think about it, we have expect too much of him from the beginning, hadn’t we? It’s time to judge him more objectively.” The head of Tsukuba family agreed.

“I think that we’d made a premature decision. Objectively, it is true that Shiba Tatsuya has a disproportionate talent.”

The head of Shizuka family prudently proposed so.

Everyone fixed their eyes to the head of the Kuroba family, Kuroba Mitsugu who had kept silent.

“Kuroba-dono, what do you think?”

The head of Shibata family asked him.

“I have failed the mission this time. I believe I’m not in any position to talk about this matter.” A heavy silence fell upon the room.

A bland voice, which disregard the silence concluded the discussion.

“Then, let’s postpone the final decision until the New Year Celebration meeting.” It was the final statement, until the final decision would be made on the New Year.

No branch families could object to the words of the head of Yotsuba Family.





(To be continued in “Yotsuba Succession Arc”)





Afterword





How did you like “Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei” Volume 15 “Ancient City Insurrection Arc (II)”. Although the subtitle “Ancient City Insurrection Attempt Arc” might suit the content better, but the title would been a spoiler for you. That’s why, I ask for your understanding and forgiveness that I didn’t put “attempt” in the subtitle.


Now, we finally see the Yotsuba’s branch families. Although they were only in supporting roles in this installment, for me this is something memorable as “…finally these guys can come out”. Well, I can say that they will be in supporting roles in the future as well, since they are an essential part to producing the climax of “Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei”, they were always waiting for their turn. The installment where they will make a major appearance will be one of the climaxes of this series.


The appearance of the branch families itself had been decided from the beginning, although their structures and family names were only decided recently. The various NG[42], I was quite troubled by them. Shiiba, Mashiba, Shibata, Kuroba, Mugura, Tsukuba, Shizuka. Among those, Shiiba, Mashiba, Shibata are the easiest to understand. Each of them carry “four-leaf”, which is a variation of “Yotsuba”.


Maybe you’ve already noticed about Kuroba, it was taken from “Yotsuba no Kuroba” (four-leaf clover).


Mugura was derived from a plant called “Yostsubamugura[43]”.


Tsukuba was taken from “Tsukubanesou[44]”. Tsukubanesou is a perennial plant of the Lily family with four leaves.


Shizuka was inspired from a plant called “Hitorishizuka”. It is also a perennial four leaf.


During the process of choosing their surnames, I had a hard time in attempting to follow the naming law, thank goodness I could find good names.


Lastly, a little background story of the creation for the setting of “Zhou Gongjin mixed up with Qi Men Dun Jia” (in the end I’m going with this setting), in “Yokohama Disturbance Arc” and this “Ancient City Insurrection Arc” came from the “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms” (to be exact, the play which was written by Yoshikawa Eiji-sensei) with some improvisation in the episode where Zhou is coming out. In other words, rather than using the story of Kongming and Qi Men Dun Jia, I only used his Qi Men Dun Jia as a part of the setting. It doesn’t mean that Zhuge Liang wasn’t depicted in “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms”, in the end, I was just using the setting of Qi Men Dun Jia in this story.


I’m heart fully thankful to you for having read this series up to here. If it suits you, please look forward to the next installment Volume 16 “Yotsuba Succession Arc”.





(Satou Tsutomu)





Illustrations





Cover




Teaser #1




Teaser #2




Teaser #3




Teaser #4




Teaser #5




Map




Chapter 6




Chapter 7




Chapter 7




Chapter 8




Chapter 8




Chapter 9




Chapter 9




Advert #1




Advert #2





Notes





Old Girl: Ex-female student of First High.


Translator’s Note: The original word “Uwasabanashi o Nana Jū Go-Kakan,” literally “75 days life span of rumor.” It means that rumors in the world do not last long, it is something to be forgotten soon by its nature.


Onibi (鬼火): Is a type of kaika in legends of Japan. According to folklore, they are the spirits born from the corpses of humans and animals, and are also said to be resentful people that have become fire and appeared. Also, sometimes the words “will-o’-wisp” or “jack-o’-lantern” are translated into Japanese as “onibi.”

Also, Yukumo used Onibi for Miyuki’s Mirage Bat practices.


Kunai (苦無): Is a Japanese dagger, possibly derived from the masonry trowel. The two widely recognized variations of the kunai are short kunai (小苦無 shō-kunai) and the big kunai (大苦無 dai-kunai). Although a basic tool, in the hands of a martial arts expert, the kunai could be used as a multi-functional weapon. The kunai is commonly associated with the ninja, who used it to gouge holes in walls. Kunai were originally made to be farming tools but soon evolved into the weaponry they have become today. Many popular manga and ninjutsu characters use kunai as both their primary and secondary weapons.

The kunai was conventionally wrought in lengths ranging from 20 cm to 30 cm. It was used by peasants as a multi-purpose gardening tool and by workers of stone and masonry. The kunai is akin to a crowbar. The blade is made of soft iron, and is left unsharpened because the edges are used to smash relatively soft materials such as plaster and wood, for digging holes and for prying. Normally, only the tip is sharpened.



Kunai normally had a leaf-shaped blade and a handle with a ring on the pommel for attaching a rope. The attached rope allows the kunai’s handle to be wrapped to function as a grip, or to be strapped to a stick as a makeshift spear; to be tied to the body for concealment; or to be used as an anchor or piton. Contrary to popular belief, kunai were not designed to be used primarily as throwing weapons. Instead, kunai were primarily tools and, when used as weapons, were stabbing and thrusting implements.



Varieties of kunai include short, long, narrow-bladed, saw-toothed, and wide-bladed. In some cases, the kunai and the shikoro, a wide-bladed saw with a dagger-type handle, are difficult to distinguish.


Hand Seals (印): Is an Ancient Magic technique for evoking magic. There are also spell chants, talismans, magic staves, tomes, etc.


Translator’s Note: Slank word which means “How dangerous,” or “That was close!” (in this case).


Bunshin: Shadow Clone.


Kasei-Tai: Is one in which were visualized the spiritual energy. Make a mass appearance in illusion magic with the foundation of the Psion, interfere weight in substance, acceleration, and shows as if they have a body, etc. Movement magic. The name “kasei-tai” were given by researchers of modern magic when analyzing ancient magic, to be used exclusively for ancient magic. More details here: 魔法科高校の劣等生@wiki - 化成体.


Kugutsu-Shiki-Oni: A Demon-Type puppet or shikigami.


Souryuu: Or Xiangyou is a nine-headed snake monster that appears in Chinese mythology. An oral version of the Xiangliu myth was collected as late from Sichuan as 1983, in which Xiangliu is depicted as a nine-headed dragon, responsible for floods and other harm.

According to the Shan Hai Jing, Xiangliu was a minister of the snake-like water deity Gong Gong, Xiangliu devastated the ecology everywhere he went, leaving nothing but gullies and marshes devoid of animal life. Eventually, Xiangliu was killed by Yu the Great whose other labors included ending the Great Flood of China (or else he was killed, according to one modern version, by Nüwa, after being defeated by Zhurong), but so poisonously virulent was the blood of Xiangliu that the soil which it soaked could no longer grow grains.


Kyoda (巨蛇): Or Madtsoiidae are an extinct group of mostly Gondwanan snakes with a fossil record extending from early Cenomanian (Upper Cretaceous) to late Pleistocene strata located in South America, Africa, India, Australia and Southern Europe. Madtsoiid snakes include very primitive snakes, which like extant boas and pythons would likely dispatch their prey by constriction, such as Gigantophis, one of the longest snakes known at an estimated 10.7 meters, and the Australian Aboriginal mythology-named Wonambi, Waugl and Yurlunggur. As a grouping of basal forms the composition and even the validity of Madtsoiidae is in a state of flux as new pertinent finds are described.




Unfruitful Swamp: Acidic soil that can’t be used for agriculture.


Houjutsushi: Doll forming magic.


Kiyomizu no Butai Kara Tobioriru: An idiom. Literally: “To jump from the stage of Shimizu.” It means to be prepared in doing something out of desperation.


Usankusai: Fishy business, suspicious.


Yudofu (湯豆腐): Is blocks of tofu simmered in hot water along with veggies, eaten with condiments like ponzu and yuzu kosho. It takes no time to make and is incredibly satisfying, healthy and delicious.




Yuba Nabe: Yuba, also called tofu skin, is a food product made from soybeans. During the boiling of soy milk, in an open shallow pan, a film or skin forms on the liquid surface.



Although the taste isn’t very different from tofu, many people like yuba better because of its texture.

Yuba Nabe is one of the many different ways to eat Yuba.


Nanzen-ji (南禅寺): Or Zuiryusan Nanzen-ji, formerly Zenrin-ji (禅林寺 Zenrin-ji), is a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. Emperor Kameyama established it in 1291 on the site of his previous detached palace. It is also the headquarters of the Nanzen-ji branch of Rinzai Zen. The precincts of Nanzen-ji are a nationally designated Historic Site and the Hōjō gardens a Place of Scenic Beauty.

Nanzen-ji was founded in the middle Kamakura period (1291, or Shōō 4 in the Japanese era system). It was destroyed by fire in 1393, 1447, and 1467, rebuilt in 1597, and expanded in the Edo era. A large complex, it has varied over time between nine and twelve sub-temples.



Zenkei Shibayama, who provided a popular commentary on the Mumonkan, was an abbot of the monastery.


Shugenja (修験者): Were the 7th century practitioners of the Japanese religion of Shugendō. They were sometimes known as yamabushi.


Onmyoudou (陰陽道): lit. “The Way of Yin and Yang”) is a traditional Japanese esoteric cosmology, a mixture of natural science and occultism. It is based on the Chinese philosophies of Wu Xing (five elements) and Yin and yang, introduced into Japan at the beginning of the 6th century. It was accepted as a practical system of divination. These practices were influenced further by Taoism, Buddhism and Shintoism, and evolved into the system of onmyōdō around the late 7th century. Onmyōdō was under the control of the imperial government, and later its courtiers, the Tsuchimikado family until the middle of the 19th century, at which point it became prohibited as superstition.



Abe no Seimei (安倍 晴明, February 21, 921 – October 31, 1005) was an onmyōji, a leading specialist of onmyōdō during the middle of the Heian Period in Japan. In addition to his prominence in history, he is a legendary figure in Japanese folklore and has been portrayed in a number of stories and films.

Seimei worked as onmyōji for emperors and the Heian government, making calendars and advising on the spiritually correct way to deal with issues. He prayed for the well-being of emperors and the government as well as advising on various issues. He was also an astrologer and predicted astrological events. He enjoyed an extremely long life, free from any major illness, which contributed to the popular belief that he had mystical powers.



The Seimei Shrine, located in Kyoto, is a popular shrine dedicated to him. The Abeno train station and district, in Osaka, are sometimes said to be named after him, as it is one of the locations where legends place his birth.


Shishi Shinchuu Nomushi: Literally: “Insect within the body of lion.” It means those who bring harm while at inside and, even if those who return the favor in revenge.


Kimon Tonkou no jutsu: Or “Ghost Walker (鬼門 遁甲)” in the anime, is a specialized branch of Mental Interference and Ancient Magic that selects positions based on fortune. The user consciously manipulates the target’s direction, unrestricted by physical parameters. However, Ghost Walker also has a side of its own. It is a magic that manipulates the vectors. Based on the user’s wishes, this secretive magic can redirect other people’s attention to the desired location and people with their vectors scrambled will never locate their target. Much like someone who intends to walk straight forward but is actually walking in circles, or maybe seeing a carriage plainly in walking distance but is never able to catch up.



Qi Men Dun Jia (simplified Chinese: 奇门遁甲; traditional Chinese: 奇門遁甲; pinyin: Qí Mén Dùn Jiǎ) is an ancient form of divination from China, which is still in use in China, Taiwan, Singapore and the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia. Qi Men Dun Jia may be applied to business, crime-solving, marriages and matchmaking, medical divination, Feng Shui, military affairs, finding missing people, travel, personal fortune divination etc.



Along with Da Liu Ren and Tai Yi Shen Shu it is one of the collective Three Arts or Three Styles (三式 sān shì), China’s highest metaphysical arts.



Check the afterword for details.


Zhuge Liang: Was a chancellor (or prime minister) of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period. He is recognised as the most accomplished strategist of his era, and has been compared to Sun Tzu, the author of The Art of War.

Often depicted wearing a Taoist robe and holding a hand fan made of crane feathers, Zhuge Liang was an important military strategist, statesman and accomplished scholar and inventor. His reputation as an intelligent and learned scholar grew even while he was living in relative seclusion, earning him the nickname “Wolong” or “Fulong” (both literally mean “Crouching Dragon”).



Zhuge is an uncommon two-character Chinese compound family name. His name – even his surname alone – has become synonymous with intelligence and strategy in Chinese culture.


Nitowooumonohaittowomoezu: Literally: “To chase 2 things and obtain not a single one.” It means when you chase 2 goals by greed, in the end you will get neither of them.


Keiji (けいじ, ケイジ): Is a Japanese given name usually used for males. Meaning varies depending on the kanji characters used. Keiji can also refer to a police detective, using the kanji 刑事.


Genjuu: Cryptid or mythical beast.


Entity: Real body/substance.


Katsura River (桂川): Is a continuation of two other rivers, the Hozu River, a small, speedy river which begins in the mountains near Kameoka and then slithers through the mountains separating Kameoka and Kyoto; and the Ōi River (大堰川 Ōi-gawa), which emerges from those mountains and expands into a shallow, slow-flowing river until Togetsukyo Bridge in Arashiyama. From that point forward, the river is referred to as the Katsura River, and its flow continues for several kilometers through Osaka Prefecture until it joins the Kamo and Uji rivers.

The Katsura River area features some of the oldest shrines in Kyoto and Japan, such as Matsuo Shrine, and, as a counterpoint to the channelled Kamo River, supports acres of agricultural area on its flood plain. It also is known for its summer supply of ayu and is a popular place for holding barbecues.


Arashiyama (嵐山 Storm Mountain): Is a district on the western outskirts of Kyoto, Japan. It also refers to the mountain across the Ōi River, which forms a backdrop to the district. Arashiyama is a nationally designated Historic Site and Place of Scenic Beauty.

Mount Arashi (Arashiyama) across the Ōi River pictured above.


Kurikara-ken:

Buddhist sword of wisdom, cuts through 3 passions, desire, anger, and confusion. More details here Fudo Myo-O - Introducing Japanese Deities: Kurikara, the Sword of Fudo Myo-o.


Kōmanoriken: The sword of Acala that made the devil surrendered.


Translator’s Note: Miyuki was saying “mi mo futa mo arimasen” which literally: “no body and no cover.” It means too blatant.


Fudou Myouou: Acala (Sanskrit: “immovable”) is a dharmapala primarily revered in Vajrayana Buddhism, particularly in Tangmi traditions of Japan where he is known as Fudō Myōō, China and elsewhere.

He is classed among the Wisdom Kings and preeminent among the Five Wisdom Kings of the Womb Realm. Accordingly, his figure occupies an important hierarchical position in the pictorial diagramatic Mandala of the Two Realms.



In Japan, Acala is highly venerated in the Shingon Buddhism, Tendai, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism and in Shugendō. Fudo Myo is also highly revered amongst some Yakuza members, who oftentimes draw on his intense facial expression and demeanor.


Hourin: The dharmachakra (IAST: dharmacakra; Pali dhammacakka; “Wheel of the Dharma”), is one of the Ashtamangala of Indian religions such as Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism. It has represented the Buddhist dharma, Gautama Buddha’s teaching of the path to Nirvana, since the time of early Buddhism. It is also connected to the Noble Eightfold Path.

The Sanskrit noun darma is a derivation from the root dhṛ, which has a meaning of “to hold, maintain, keep”, and takes a meaning of “what is established or firm”, and hence “law”. It is derived from the Vedic Sanskrit n-stem dharman- with the meaning “bearer, supporter” in the historical Vedic religion conceived of as an aspect of Ṛta.

The word chakra “wheel” derives from Proto-Indo-European *kʷekʷlos, and its cognates include Greek kyklos, Lithuanian kaklas, Tocharian B kokale, Slavic koleso and English “wheel,” as well as “circle” and “cycle.” *kʷekʷlos is derived from the root *kʷel-, a verb that meant “to turn.”.



The wheel is also the main attribute of Ganesha, the Vedic god of preservation.


Translator’s Note: Kinda hard to explain, here goes the pics Taobao or do a Google search.


Yariniku: Remembering a difficult thing after you do it (you won’t forget).


Marici (Buddhism):

In Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, Marici is a devi or bodhisattva associated with light and the sun. She is known as Molizhitian (摩利支天) or Molizhitian Pusa (摩利支天菩萨) in China and Marishi-ten (摩利支天) in Japan and in Tibetan as ’Odzer Canma, “Woman Endowed with Rays of Light” (Wylie: ’od zer can ma). She is one of the 20 (or 24) Celestials (二十/二十四諸天). In Taoism and Chinese folk religion, Marici is known under the epithet of the Lady of Dipper Mother (Chinese: 斗母元君; pinyin: Dǒumǔ Yuánjūn) or Doumu, a name sometimes used by Buddhists.


Mizuwomukeru: Literally: “Directs the water.” It means to encourage other party to speak something that you’re willing to entertain.


Translator’s Note: Usually heard in the narration of activities in a sword play (as in stage play).


Genjutsu: Illusion.


Water Margin: Is a novel attributed to Shi Nai’an. Considered one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, the novel is written in vernacular Chinese rather than Classical Chinese.

The story, set in the Song dynasty, tells of how a group of 108 outlaws gathers at Mount Liang (or Liangshan Marsh) to form a sizable army before they are eventually granted amnesty by the government and sent on campaigns to resist foreign invaders and suppress rebel forces. It has introduced to readers many of the best-known characters in Chinese literature, such as Wu Song, Lin Chong and Lu Zhishen.


Translator’s Note: A surname of Asian origin.


Yotsubamugura (ヨツバムグラ):




Tsukubanesou:

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