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- Volume 27, Chapter 6
- July 8, 2097, 0:00 AM Japanese time.
- The Far Eastern fleet of the New Soviet Union left the port of Vladivostok.
- "The fleet of the New Soviet Union is approaching."
- After this news, many enterprises and educational institutions located in the
- regions on the coast of the Sea of Japan took steps to suspend work and study.
- People living along the coast in Sanin, Hokuriku, and Tohoku were ordered to advised
- to prepare for evacuation to shelters. The areas surrounding the cities were also
- encouraged to remain vigilant.
- The Yokohama incident that took place the year before last was a sudden event –
- there was no time to prepare, and people were not afraid of the approaching army until
- after the fact. By the time most people knew about it, it was already over – and Japan
- had won. In contrast, this time the New Soviet Union advanced openly, putting heavy
- pressure on the people and damaging their psyche.
- At noon Japanese time, the New Soviet Union’s fleet stopped 30 nautical miles
- north-west of the Noto Peninsula. It was a convenient spot, located on the border of
- two adjacent waters.
- The Soviet fleet was as follows:
- Two ships with Fleming launchers as their main armament, designed to attack
- ground targets.
- Four ships with anti-aircraft and anti-ship rocket launchers.
- Four ships with weapons to combat submarines and anti-ship rocket launchers.
- Twelve small ships in battle formation.
- An aircraft carrier with two destroyers as escorts following 10 nautical miles
- behind the rest of the fleet.
- Against this fleet, the Japanese army sent four ships with anti-aircraft and antiship rocket launchers as well as six ships anti-ship rocket launchers and with weapons
- to combat submarines. In addition, each of the nearby cities (Maizuru, Kanazawa, and
- Niigata) had 8 small ships ready for combat.
- Both sides had submarines that might have detected each other somewhere under the
- water.
- The New Soviet Union’s requirement had not changed since the day before –
- they demanded the extradition of Liu Li Lei, a war criminal who killed many civilians
- with large-scale magic.
- In response to this demand, the Japanese government had offered to hold a meeting in
- the International Criminal Court. They had responded from the perspective of human
- rights, stating that a unilateral New Soviet Union court was unacceptable to the rights
- of the refugee. However, the International Criminal Court had not functioned for more
- than half a century – it was currently a nominal organization, which, while technically
- existing, had no power.
- Still, despite the government’s stance on protecting human rights, the
- government received criticism for defending Liu – “Is it reasonable to endanger the
- lives of citizens for the sake of a foreigner?” they argued. However, when the news
- showed photos of Liu, the voices scorning the government lose their support as people
- felt sympathy seeing that Liu was just a 14-year-old girl. This might have been helped
- by the fact that Liu was beautiful.
- Liu Li Lei was still at Komatsu base.
- And today, Ichijou Akane visited Liu with her father, Ichijou Goki - head of the
- Ichijou family.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- Local time: July 8, afternoon. Masaki and Kichijouji were on Sado Island.
- They had arrived there early in the morning, but not because they weren’t
- aware of the movements of the New Soviet Union’s fleet. The reports claimed the
- enemy was aiming west of Noto Peninsula, but Masaki trusted Kichijouji’s opinion
- and instead headed to Sado Island while leaving the duty of guarding his sister while
- looking after Liu Li Lei to his father.
- Masaki and Kichijouji stood on the upper observation platform of the lighthouse,
- located on the northern coast of the island. From there, it was possible to see the
- approach of enemy ships without letting themselves be detected easily.
- “George... Will they really come here?”
- Masaki asked Kichijouji this while looking at the horizon. Doubt had inevitable crept
- into his voice – the New Soviet Union’s fleet was located north-west of the Noto
- Peninsula in a location similar to what the reports had predicted. Masaki was ready to
- repel this fleet with great enthusiasm by using the new magic he had received yesterday, but Kichijouji had strongly insisted that the New Soviet Union would not
- invade Kanazawa or Komatsu, but rather Sado Island. Masaki could not ignore the
- words of his best friend, so he left the neighborhood of Kanazawa and Komatsu to his
- father and headed to Sado. However, the Ichijou family’s news and information
- network reported that the enemy fleet continued to be northwest of the Noto Peninsula
- – they would have to turn sharply east to head for Sado Island at this point.
- "…At this rate, the new magic will be for naught” – this was the thought Masaki’s
- impatience associated with.
- “They will come. I'm certain.”
- In response to Masaki’s doubt, Kichijouji was somehow still unnaturally filled with
- confidence.
- Kichijouji had wondered why Sado Island was attacked from the day he lost his
- life – his hometown and his parents. His conclusion was that the Island of Sado held
- significant military value.
- The distance from Sado Island to Honshu was 30 kilometers, and though the island
- was not in Japan’s face, so to speak, it was still an island, and its proximity to the
- mainland made it a slightly unexpected target. Soldiers have to be sent by land – and
- there was enough space to invading troops, as well as a port ready for use by
- warships. It could be called a springboard for the New Soviet Union to invade Japan.
- Rather than capture Hokkaido and move south, Sado Island provided a more effective
- base for conquering the central part of Japan.
- When setting up a beachhead, the main challenge would be to ensure air supremacy,
- but that would be a problem everywhere. This possibility of an attack was a serious
- problem for Japan, as despite the attack from five years ago, there was only a single
- small defense unit deployed there.
- In any case, Sado Island should have had a base for intercepting hostile naval
- forces because of its special situation. The main reason it didn’t was likely because of
- overconfidence of the self-defense forces with the Niigata base nearby. Though this
- gave some safety to the island, the forces still had to travel to the island, which took
- time. This made it an especially appealing target for the New Soviet Union.
- But Kichijouji also had another rationale for his actions.
- “The Japanese fleet is not weak. The New Soviet Union does not want to face it. Even
- though the Great Asian Alliance has already surrendered, its troops are not completely
- disabled.”
- “Is that why they are planning a surprise attack?” Masaki asked.
- “Exactly, Masaki.”
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- The National University of Magic and its nine subordinate schools all
- responded to the approach of Soviet fleet by closing school indefinitely, regardless of
- location.
- This was not for the same reason as conventional educational institutions, in which the
- evacuation of students, teachers, and other staff was given the highest priority. It was
- a measure organized to allow their presence in the defense force as volunteer
- magicians.
- Tatsuya should have appeared at the 101st brigade because of this, but instead he
- stayed home with Miyuki after visiting Minami at the Aoba clinic.
- “Onii-sama, thanks for waiting.”
- After Miyuki finished cleaning the dishes from their lunch and dressed up, she came
- to the living room to get Tatsuya.
- “Got it.”
- Tatsuya, who was following the current situation through military data
- transmissions and communications, turned off the wall display and stood up.
- Together, they walked down to the underground garage and drove to the Aoba clinic
- in Chofu in Tatsuya’s new favorite car. The road they drove on was empty due to the
- Soviet invasion, so the drive only took 5 minutes.
- “Minami-chan, may I come in?”
- “Please do!” Minami answered energetically. She was wide awake after hearing
- Miyuki from outside the hospital room. She seemed like a different person compared
- to the time she first went to the hospital, but this was natural as she was to be
- discharged the next day. Physically, she was nearly recovered.
- “Tatsuya-san, Miyuki-san, thank you for coming. There are currently no anomalies.”
- When they entered the room, Yuuka - the eldest daughter of the Tsukuba family, one
- of the side branches of the Yotsuba clan - spoke to them. The Yotsuba clan did not
- discriminate against either sex when choosing the heir, and she was the heir of the
- Tsukuba branch.
- “Yuuka-san, thanks. Your help was appreciated.”
- Tatsuya and Miyuki had asked Yuuka to guard Minami for them while they ate their
- lunch. Miyuki thanked Yuuka in past tense to indicate that they were once again
- taking the role of guarding Minami.
- “It's my pleasure.”
- Yuuka got up from the couch, currently pushed against the wall. Yuuka had
- brought it in order to have more comfortable seating, and the hospital room was
- spacious enough to hold it, but the couch did not belong to Yuuka – it was paid for by
- the main house.
- The couch had been in the room for 1 week, the amount of time Yuuka had
- participated in Minami’s defense.
- “I will be in the guard room on this floor, then.”
- “Later, I will also go there.”
- With a slight wave of her hand at Tatsuya, Yuuka left the room. Miyuki exchanged
- glances with Tatsuya, and after a bit of hesitation, she sat down on the sofa Yuuka had
- gotten up from. Tatsuya did not follow her – the sofa was single – and instead sat on
- the stool.
- “Looks like you're prepared to be discharged,” Tatsuya said.
- “What kind of preparation even is there... there isn’t enough baggage to make it
- tough...”
- As Minami said, the suitcase at the entrance was very small, and considering she
- usually acted as a maid, it was unsurprising she would be ready.
- “Tomorrow at 11 o'clock, right? If school’s closure was only today, then it will only
- be me here to pick you up,” Tatsuya said.
- “Why waste so much time!” Minami exclaimed.
- “It doesn’t take much time.”
- Minami opened her mouth several times before closing it, trying to come up with a
- way to deny the help. In the end, she only sighed a little and closed her mouth,
- realizing she would not be able to convince Tatsuya.
- “Um, Tatsuya-sama...”
- Still, she couldn’t suppress her desire to ask a question.
- “Speak.”
- Hearing that, Minami asked her question.
- “…Is it really okay for you to not go to the base?”
- What she really meant to ask was, “why are you here?”
- “It’s all good. They sent someone as a replacement for me.”
- ... He cannot leave this location to others.
- ... He will personally protect Minami.
- So, Minami understood Tatsuya’s answer.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- The high-speed transport catamaran Midway went along the aircraft carrier
- Independence’s course for some time, but they eventually split up as Midway turned
- south and west. The ship headed for an area about 90 km south of Boso Peninsula.
- On that ship, Regulus, Raymond, Vega, Deneb, Spica, and the twenty Parasites of Star
- Dust all headed towards Miyaki Island.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- "Are they already starting?"
- Minoru, though still at Zama Base, was able to “feel” the course of the Midway
- transport vessel change, signaling that the attack on the Star Reactor Plant was
- underway.
- Minoru was still inside the USNA transport aircraft. The plane was damaged and
- could not fly, and the cargo compartment hid the body of the sealed commander of the
- third detachment of Stars: Captain Arcturus, as a Parasite.
- Minoru had been relentlessly trying to remove the seal on Arcturus. He was currently
- at the final stage.
- “After this, his consciousness has to awaken!”
- After preparing the spell, Minoru sent it into Arcturus’s mind. The sequence of the
- mental intervention magic he had prepared for the last several hours entered into
- Arcturus’ pushion information body through the psionic information body connecting
- the physical body to the mind.
- Once the spell activated, Minoru felt Arcturus’s mind awaken. Though his body was
- still asleep, Minoru finally felt Arcturus’s spiritual body react.
- "Well... Now it’s just a matter of time before the seal falls apart on the inside."
- Based on his “inherited” knowledge, Minoru thought that the cracked seal would
- collapse from outside pressure if the shell was not repaired.
- "That's just..."
- Something bothered him. He had aroused the mind of the man named Alexander
- Arcturus - the seal on the parasite was extremely strong, and its system was different
- from the spells of Zhou Gongjin and the Kudou Family, so he had used a spell to
- awaken the human mind.
- In Parasites, the original human mind merged with the body of the parasite, so there
- was a non-zero chance of the human mind rejecting the parasite if only the human
- mind is awoken.
- "...Even if this happens, they should simply merge again."
- Arcturus’s brain had already adapted to the parasite, so Minoru convinced himself the
- reaction rejecting the parasite would not kill him.
- Using Parade and Ghost Walker, Minoru hid himself and walked out of the plane.
- Ghost Walker covered the weakness Parade – the unnatural refraction of light – by
- deflecting people’s attention.
- Remaining invisible, Minoru walked through the base’s gate and crossed a nearby
- park on foot before getting into a van parked on the opposite side of the road. The car,
- brought from Nara on the orders of Kudou Makoto, was designed to transport
- valuable materials or drugs requiring temperature control. Now, however, it had been
- filled with parasite dolls disguised as dummies.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- Masaki and Kichijouji did not have chairs or anything else to sit on while they
- waited on the observation deck of the lighthouse. There was the large CAD shaped
- like a suitcase, but it wasn’t big enough for a high school student to sit on.
- They were young enough that they didn’t tire much from standing, but their youth did
- not affect their minds and they began to become bored and more relaxed. Still, they
- did their best to stay vigilant and overall were carefully watching for the New Soviet
- Union’s invasion fleet.
- “They’re moving!” Kichijouji exclaimed while watching the movement of the Soviet
- fleet through a tablet terminal.
- “Where!?” Masaki exclaimed.
- “Small high-speed ships accompanied by ships with weapons designed to attack
- ground targets simultaneously began to move to the east. They have… monstrous
- acceleration. They will reach our location in less than an hour.”
- Hearing the answer, Kichijouji, Masaki sighed and said:
- “Estimated maximum speed of about 140 knots...? Approximately the same speed as
- our fastest ships, I guess. What about the interception forces?”
- Kichijouji began digging for information from the tablet to answer Masaki’s question.
- “It looks like our missile destroyers are restraining the enemy destroyers and are not
- letting them do anything. Komatsu base aviation is being used to deter enemy aircraft
- carrier fighters. Eight small ships departed from Niigata base, but… the unfavorable
- outcome is undeniable.”
- “So we use it?”
- “Yeah.”
- Kichijouji nodded to Masaki.
- “We’ll interfere with the enemy operation. Before Bezobrazov attacks with Tuman
- Bomba, you’ll hit them with Ocean Blast, Masaki.”
- “Yes, I'll do it!”
- Masaki nodded back in response to Kichijouji.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- Tatsuya and Miyuki were still visiting Minami at Aoba Clinic. Though Miyuki
- was with them, Tatsuya was an eighteen-year-old boy and Minami was a girl turning
- seventeen later in the year, so Tatsuya’s long stay in the small hospital room (when
- compared to the side of the Yotsuba houses; the hospital room was relatively large for
- a hospital room) created an awkward atmosphere. Tatsuya left and went to the
- security room to get rid of the feeling.
- The hospital was mostly under the Yotsuba family’s control, and the floor
- Minami’s room was on was reserved for individuals associated with the Yotsuba.
- Because of this control, this floor had an additional security system installed in
- addition to the security equipment set up by the hospital. Among other purposes, this
- system was designed to track information from all over the hospital and display it in
- the floor’s guard room.
- “Ara, Tatsuya-san. Good job.”
- As Yuuka said she would be earlier, she was waiting for Tatsuya in the guard room.
- “Yuuka-san, thank you for your help. Are you replaced soon?”
- “According to the schedule, I am, but I want to stay here for a while today.”
- Though at times it made her seem impermanent, Yuuka was punctual. She was not the
- type of person to work overtime without a reason.
- “Okay. To be honest, it will help me quite a bit.”
- Tatsuya was thankful for the help, but he understood Yuuka’s reason for staying.
- “In the current situation, that Ministry of Defense Bureaucrat cannot prioritize
- personal conflicts.”
- Yuuka was referring to Shibata Katsushige when she said “Ministry of Defense
- Bureaucrat” - the next head of the Shibata branch of the Yotsuba family. Katsushige’s
- direct combat ability was probably the best among the side branches of the Yotsuba,
- and his inability to participate in the current battle against Minoru due to the situation
- with the New Soviet Union was definitely a hit to the force protecting Minami.
- “…Listen, you think he’ll attack today, right?” Yuuka confirmed.
- “I just do not know exactly when.”
- Tatsuya answered with an indirect confirmation.
- “I wonder if it was Kudou Minoru who created this situation.”
- “Hardly. Still, there is a chance that he knew about it in advance, so he is probably
- prepared.”
- “Maybe.”
- They both expected that Minoru would attack today, and they both thought that this
- time, he would come with help.
- “He’ll come with more than the Parasite dolls, right?” Yuuka asked.
- Tatsuya had learned from Fumia and Yuuka from his report to Maya, but regardless of
- where they learned it, they both knew that Minoru had stolen Parasite dolls from the
- Kudou family.
- “Minoru is no longer underestimating us,” Tatsuya answered vaguely.
- “And yet, I wonder if there won’t be any trick to split our forces up. Do you think
- there’ll be an attack on Miyaki Island?”
- “We know that at least 1 member of Stars is a Parasite, so there’s not a small chance
- for it to happen,” Tatsuya answered.
- Lina had drawn Tatsuya’s attention to the possibility that the plant on Miyaki Island
- would be attacked, and Tatsuya was not the only one from the Yotsuba aware of the
- possibility of an attack on Miyaki Island. In addition to this, Lina had also confirmed
- that the soldier who had entered the country through Kansai International Airport was
- First Lieutenant Jacob Regulus of Stars.
- “However, the other Parasites expelled were sealed in Zama, and since then, no
- military aircraft have flown in from USNA. Local staff should be able to cope with
- defending Miyaki Island on their own,” Tatsuya continued.
- Tatsuya had no way to know that new Parasites had penetrated the country
- from Yokosuka’s base. He also had no way to know that the soldiers infected by the
- Parasites had been transferred from the transport plane to a high=speed transport
- vessel via a submarine. None of the Yotsuba were aware of these facts – even Maya
- herself.
- “In an extreme case, it will be possible to count on the help of Shields-san,” Tatsuya
- concluded.
- Neither Tatsuya nor the Yotsuba were omnipotent – they were far from even reaching
- omniscience, and did not know the whole situation.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- The catamaran Midway rested low on the surface of the water and had a long
- form, and being fast, it also was somewhat stealthy. Still, even if it were possible to
- hide from radar detection, the high-performance cameras located on the stratospheric
- platform would still detect them, so they should not have been able to come close to
- Japanese territory without being detected – even if their target was a small island.
- “Lieutenant Regulus. Have you ever had such an effective optical camouflage
- before?” Vega asked.
- In fact, Regulus had neutralized the observation systems around Japan by
- modifying both visible light and all other electromagnetic waves around the ship,
- providing a powerful optical camouflage.
- “This spell was given to us by Kudou Minoru to ensure the success of this operation,”
- Regulus answered honestly.
- By nature, the Parasites could not keep secrets from their comrades, but even if it was
- possible, even Regulus was too surprised with his new magic to even think about
- deception.
- “Your magical skill improved dramatically after being given a single sequence of
- magic?”
- Spica’s question was one Regulus had asked himself.
- “Isn’t it because we are Parasites? Our minds are connected, so perhaps when we
- share sequences of magic with each other, we also share the skills in using them.”
- “Isn't it weird?” Raymond butted in.
- “What’s strange about it?” Regulus asked.
- “When a magician becomes a Parasite, they tend to specialize in the same magic as
- they did before.”
- Raymond had more knowledge on this than the others because of his use of
- Hliðskjálf.
- “Isn’t that because we keep the personality?”
- Raymond shook his head at Deneb’s question.
- “I don’t doubt Parasite individuality, but we, the Parasites, are parts of a whole. In
- other words, I’m talking about a division of labor.”
- “Are you saying that’s why sharing skills is weird?”
- This time he nodded at Regulus’s question.
- “Giving another Parasite the ability to use one’s skill is like using one’s skill through
- the Parasite, so its weird – then again, Minoru is weird for a Parasite. He’s different.”
- “I don't like this...” Vega mumbled after she heard Raymond's reasoning.
- "It’s like Kudou Minoru is using Regulus as a familiar," she thought.
- “…At the moment, focus on successful implementation of the mission. Regardless of
- the nature of the optical camouflage magic, it’s proven useful by allowing us to get
- close to Miyaki Island.”
- The five Parasites present understood what Vega meant without saying it.
- They were all there, and Minoru wasn’t.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- Minoru smiled wryly while being driven from Zama to Chofu in the van he had
- received from the Kudou family. Though the beautiful and bewitching smile belonged
- to Minrou, the image of Zhou Gongjin peeked through.
- Vega’s suspicion on the transport vessel had been correct. To ensure the success of
- Stars’ sabotage mission, Minoru used optical camouflage magic through Regulus.
- Regulus believed he was using the magic himself, but in fact that Minoru was
- controlling the magic.
- No matter the knowledge Zhou Gongjin had possessed, Minoru would not have
- been able to do this if he tried it on a person. He could have made a puppet like Gu
- Jie, but it would have been difficult to make the puppet act as if it had free will.
- However, unlike people, Parasites had a common mind that blurred their ego, so
- Minoru was able to use Regulus as a medium from which to activate the magic.
- Minoru saw no reason to be discrete. He didn’t consider Regulus and Raymond to be
- close – he only saw them as prisoners of Parasites, and himself the Parasite’s master.
- He did not help Regulus and the others because they were Parasites. He helped them
- because their actions would give him a chance to abduct Minami. Still, the help went
- both ways – despite the lack of feeling, it was a mutually beneficial relationship, and
- this has not changed.
- They helped each other to help themselves reach each of their own goals. He didn’t
- care what they thought of him, because once they would alienate themselves from
- each other once they reached their goals.
- Minoru felt a breeze as the car entered Chofu. The van he was in, loaded with
- Parasite dolls, was not alone. Five cars of the same make and model were making
- their way to the same destination on different routes. Minoru knew this through traffic
- control information, and not some psychic line of communication with the Parasite
- dolls – despite his powers, modern technology was still convenient.
- "Minami-san, wait for me ...!"
- All that was left was to wait for a convenient moment. Minoru hoped that the sabotage
- of the Star reactor plant would at least be partially successful, for he needed a good
- distraction.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- When Minoru arrived in Chofu, Minami had changed her hospital clothes for
- casual everyday clothes and left her room with Miyuki.
- They sat on opposite sides of the table in the visiting room looking at a tablet about
- the size of an A4 sheet of paper (210x297 mm, ~8½x11in). When fully dep
- They sat across from each other across the table in the visiting room. On the table lay
- a folding tablet the size of an A4 sheet of paper. When unfolded, it became closer to
- the size of an A3 sheet (420x297mm). This terminal held all the second-year
- textbooks for First High.
- The above makes it clear what they were doing: Miyuki was helping Minami with her
- studies.
- Last week held the final exams for the first semester. Minami, unable to take
- them due to her special circumstances, received the right to take the exams separately
- when she returned. However, she still needed to understand the content she had
- missed.
- She did not had time to study during the first half of her month of hospitalization, so
- now she had to make up for lost time. Modern school education was not taught by a
- teacher and was instead student driven – the amount of knowledge learned depended
- on the student’s drive for studying at the terminal. Unfortunately, Minami was not one
- to easily grasp magic theory.
- Unable to listen to Minami’s agonizing sighs, Miyuki decided to take on the role of a
- teacher and help Minami. In contrast to when she was learning from the textbook,
- Minami sat with a straight face listening intently to Miyuki explaining the topics
- gracefully with a smile. This was in no small part due to her feelings of guilt at having
- made her mistress take on the responsibility of a tutor. She was worried about
- wasting Miyuki’s time, so she focused too intently on Miyuki’s every word as she
- read the texts and studied the graphics. Ironically, focusing too much on the action of
- listening distracted her and her learning productivity slowed down.
- Suddenly, she heard her name whispered in her ear. Her eyes clouded over, and her
- face showed surprise.
- “…Minami-chan, what happened?” Miyuki asked, concerned. Minami hastily focused
- on Miyuki.
- “I apologize!”
- “Don’t overstrain yourself... is something bothering you?”
- “No, nothing like that! I was just a distracted. I sincerely apologize for...” Minami
- started.
- “You don't need to apologize.”
- Miyuki interrupted the second attempt to apologize with a smile.
- “Let's take a break. Want some tea?”
- “Oh, let me!” Minami said, jumping up to go to the vending machine.
- With a slightly bitter smile, Miyuki allowed Minami to do what she wanted.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- At the lighthouse on Sado Island, Masaki pointed the aiming device for Ocean
- Blast’s CAD at the sea.
- “Ah! Communication should now be established.”
- Hearing Kichijouji, Masaki turned the aiming device towards the left.
- “I see them! It’s just… there are only six outlines of ships. Weren’t there twelve?”
- “I need to correct the scaling. I’ll do that now.”
- Kichijouji used a tablet terminal connected by cable to the monitor and console to
- adjust the image projected by Masaki’s glasses.
- “...it’s fine now!”
- “Keep the sight in this position,” Kichijouji said as he got out another information
- terminal.
- Using this, he sent a prewritten encrypted message to the Kanazawa base, reading:
- “Requesting permission to conduct an attack."
- Kichijouji saw the figures of ships heading north out of his peripheral vision - the
- high-speed warships from Niigata base. They were still accelerating, and their current
- speed was over 50 knots.
- “George!?” Masaki shouted in urgency.
- “Not yet!”
- Kichijouji told Masaki to wait, as they had not yet received permission to attack.
- “But it’s time!”
- “Not!”
- Kichijouji tried to restrain the impatient Masaki from attacking without permission.
- Masaki raised his glasses on his forehead and turned to Kichijouji, but
- Kichijouji opened his mouth to ask Masaki to return to aiming. However, at that
- moment their faces froze at the same time.
- Beyond the horizon – directly above the friendly ships – signs of widespread magic
- appeared. Both Kichijouji and Masaki remembered the psion waves from the magic
- three months ago that caused the explosion over the sea. At the time, Ichijou Goki had
- overheated his magic calculation area trying to block the magic.
- The sound of an explosion roared, and water burst up above the horizon.
- “Tuman Bomba?!”
- Kichijouji silently nodded at Masaki's question before trying to clarify the
- status of the allied ships through an information terminal connected to Masaki’s CAD.
- However, in the short period of time since he had last checked, data from all eight
- ships sent by the Niigata base had stopped being transmitted.
- “George! Please help with aiming again!”
- Masaki put the glasses back on and aimed in the same direction. At the same time, a
- message arrived at Kichijouji’s terminal: “the attack is allowed.”
- His thoughts cursing the indecisiveness of the self-defense forces, Kichijouji once
- again brought the convoy of enemy ships to the monitor.
- “Masaki, don’t forget the time delay! Focus on the predicted frame!”
- Kichijouji shouted to remind Masaki of the time lag before activation, before noticing
- some other ships on the monitor.
- “It looks like there are fishing boats 20 kilometers to the north! Move the sight further
- south or you’ll sink it!”
- “Correcting it so the northernmost warship is on the border of the target area!” Masaki
- responded.
- Masaki pulled the trigger after adjusting the scope. The activation sequence stored in
- the computer was recalculated based on the target dimensions and coordinates.
- The resulting data was converted to an activation sequence before being sent to the
- induction stone. The induction stone transformed the data into a psionic signal and
- released it.
- Masaki’s magic calculation area took the activation sequence and built a magic
- sequence. The time delay was about 1 second.
- The convoy of enemy ships was speeding across the sea at about 120 knots, or
- roughly 60 meters per second. Their current position perfectly matched the predicted
- frame.
- “Done!”
- Masaki shouted at the same time the magic was projected. The wedge shaped area
- containing all the enemy ships was filled with magic sequences. As soon as the
- copying was complete, all the sequences simultaneously overwrote the surrounding
- phenomenon.
- The surface of the sea in the target area evaporated for a depth of 3 meters. This was
- the result of using Rupture with chain casting.
- This was the Strategic Class magic Ocean Blast.
- The water turned into steam expanded rapidly, causing an explosion as the water
- molecules accelerated. This high-power steam explosion blew up all 12 ships of the
- New Soviet Union.
- Thus, the New Soviet Union’s attack on Sado Island ended in failure. The
- Japanese army sacrificed eight ships, but due to Masaki’s Ocean Blast, the entire
- “special” group of ships sent by the New Soviet Union fleet were destroyed.
- July 8, 2097, 14:07.
- Ichijou Masaki became the newest Strategic-Class Magician.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- Miyaki Island, northeast coast.
- Lina was in the CAD development center which had been opened last month.
- Testing magic with a magician was necessary when developing CADs, and the higher
- the specification of CAD being developed, the higher the skill requirements for the
- magician.
- It was not even worth mentioning that Lina was a world-class magician, and this made
- her an extremely valuable tester for developers. Combined with the face that she had
- more than enough free time, she frequently visited the CAD development even when
- the researchers had not made a request – and both sides felt the exchange was for the
- others sake. Still, building a friendly relationship with those around her wasn’t out of
- the ordinary, given her situation.
- When Lina had first escaped, her CAD had been taken. When she asked
- Tatsuya to return it, Tatsuya responded by giving her a new CAD of the latest model,
- and Lina was satisfied with this result. She didn’t have any reason to complain as her
- new CAD provided by Tatsuya was more efficient that the one she originally had, but
- she was still slightly dissatisfied – while fleeing from the USNA, she left her weapon
- armament “Brionac” in the weapons warehouse of Stars. She could not take the device
- on missions without permission from the general staff, so she naturally could not take
- it to Japan, but when one is separated from something they like, their heart starts to
- hurt. Just spending 1 tranquil week on the island was enough for Lina to miss her
- beloved Brionac.
- Brionac operated based on FAE theory, but Tatsuya had confirmed to Lina that
- he understood the theory. Lina believed that the team of scientists on the island would
- be able to create a copy of Brionac under the guidance of Tatsuya, so she had gotten
- close to the CAD developers based on the small change that would fulfill her selfish
- desire and create a substitute for Brionac for her. She was at the development center
- with this intention, so today, too, she enthusiastically responded to the requests of the
- developers in the hope that the opportunity would come that she could get them to
- create the armament. But in the midst of her work…
- “Waa!?” Lina screamed, stunned at an unexpected surging psionic wave. “What was
- that!?”
- The wave did not hold significant power, but she felt an unpleasant feeling around her
- resembling a stab in the back because of her surprise. Lina was not the only one to
- feel the wave – the other magicians in the engineering room frowned.
- “Are these excessive psions from attempting to activate large scale magic? But to
- have this much power, the source would have to be Strategic Class magic…”
- Given the current international situation, it would most likely be Tuman Bomba or
- Thunderclap Tower, but neither of the magicians responsible for operating that magic
- would have wasted their strength like a newbie.
- "How new?"
- Suddenly, Lina remembered something.
- “When someone uses magic for the first time, the dispersion of wasted psions makes
- the magician’s inexperience clear… it this the new Strategic Class Tatsuya was
- developing?”
- Lina had come to the correct conclusion, but she had no way to check her reasoning
- before an alarm sounded.
- “A suspicious ship is approaching us!?”
- “They managed to approach the inner boundary of the adjacent waters without
- detection by using stealth magic!?”
- "This stealth magic!?"
- Hearing the numerous shouts of technician, Lina shifted her attention to the sea.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- "What caused that wave just now!?"
- Minoru’s concentration was disturbed by the sudden surge of psionic waves
- originating from Masaki’s Ocean Blast. He had been sitting in a van parked 1
- kilometer from Minami’s hospital in Chofu, waiting for an opportunity while
- maintaining the catamaran Midway’s stealth magic through Regulus.
- “Damn…”
- His concentration lapse had caused him to lose control over the stealth magic. He
- immediately started to reactivate the magic, but decided it was meaningless. The
- transport vessel should have already been detected by both radar and stratospheric
- surveillance systems, so it would be impossible to hide again. Once tracking systems
- focus on the object, it becomes impossible to hide again in a way to deceive the
- observers.
- “…The distraction should be more effective when they are detected just before the
- attack than with a completely sudden attack.”
- Minoru convinced himself with this argument and now focused completely on the
- hospital.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- The sudden psion waves startled the Parasites on Midway.
- “Lieutenant Regulus!?” Vega yelled.
- Vega was not the only one surprised at the suddenly disabled stealth magic.
- “I apologize! I lost concentration because of the surge of psions!”
- Regulus believed that it had been he who had lost concentration, not realizing that he
- was not the one controlling the spell.
- “I’ll restore it!”
- Regulus hastily tried to re-activate the stealth magic.
- “Don’t bother, Lieutenant. That’s enough,” Vega said, stopping Regulus. “We’re near
- the goal, so there’s no need for the disguise anymore. Let’s just start the invasion.”
- Following the orders of Vega, Deneb left the cabin. They were not using any
- flying combat suits for this operation because the Parasite-turned Star Dust soldiers
- had poor compatibility with flight magic. They planned to use traditional landing craft
- to reach the island, and Deneb had left to lead preparation of their landing craft.
- “Lieutenant Spica and Lieutenant Regulus prepare to support the landing.”
- “Yes, ma'am!”
- Though Midway’s main purpose was for transport, it was equipped with a
- small number of anti-aircraft, anti-ship, and anti-submarine weapons. Being a
- transport craft, it had no use for weapons against ground targets, so they would not be
- able to attack the island from the boat. However, the ship had an abundance of small
- bombs which Spica and Regulus could use to attack with the help of transport magic.
- They would support the landing by doing this.
- “Raymond Clark. I ask you to protect the ship in the unlikely event of an attack,”
- Vega finished before leaving to prepare for the landing with Deneb.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- Miyaki Island was divided into an area that was previously used as a prison for
- criminal magicians and an area for construction of several new research facilities. The
- first area was located on the west coast, and the second – including the Star Reactor
- plant – was on the northeast coast.
- A suspicious ship was approaching Miyaki Island from the northeast, and the research
- facility staff quickly realized that the target was the Star Reactor plant.
- By the time the catamaran of unestablished affiliation began to decelerate, it was
- already in Japan’s territorial waters, but had not yet attacked any of the objects on the
- island. Miyaki Island was defended by a small detachment of maritime police
- reinforced by the Yotsuba family, but they could not take any measures besides
- inspecting the vessel before hostile intent was established.
- However, the police boat was not even dispatched for this because it was clear
- the suspicious vessel was pursuing military objectives. They would not be allowed to
- inspect the vessel, and the approach of a police boat would only result in the
- destruction of the boat and death of operators.
- The defense squad magicians took positions to be able to activate shield magic at any
- time, but as if reacting to it, the suspicious ship fired bombs as it approached the coast
- from 4 kilometers away. These shots were not given velocity physically from
- something like a grenade launcher or Fleming launcher, but rather were produced by
- movement magic. The bombs were small but numerous, and under this hail of
- explosive shells, the members of the defense squadron created magic barriers.
- One by one, light flowers bloomed in the air. The fragments hitting the magic
- barriers did not have much impulse, but the flashes from the explosions lowered the
- visibility of the defenders.
- “Light grenades?” one of the magicians supporting the barriers shouted.
- Though they were against light munitions, the defenders maintained the magic
- barriers on the chance that there could be a real bomb among the light shells.
- Meanwhile, the suspicious vessel continued to approach, and two amphibious vehicles
- separated from it. The administrative building immediately sent a command to
- intercept the vehicles, but there were not enough magicians to form a serious fighting
- force. Many of them were still needed to protect from catamaran’s bombs.
- First, the interception team attempted to prevent the vehicles from making it to
- land by knocking them over, but both amphibious boats were protected by countermagic and the interception team was unable to directly influence the phenomenon
- around the ship. The magicians on the island quickly discarded the plan of directly
- attacking the boats with magic and instead used magic on the water.
- They reproduced tidal currents to create streams of water from the coast.
- They caused explosions on the surface of the water to create waves.
- They made ice harpoons underwater and launched them towards the bottom of
- the boats.
- However, movement-slowing magic was used to neutralize all of the physical attacks
- on the vehicles.
- The interception unit’s failure was not due to a lack of magic power. They were
- subordinates of the Mashiba family, one of the side branches of the Yotsuba, and had
- been responsible for defense and security when the island was a prison. Though they
- were not blood relatives of the Mashiba, they had experience violently suppressing
- dangerous criminals, and held reasonable strength as magicians. They were strong, but
- the Parasites were stronger.
- The magicians of the interception unit already knew their opponents were Parasites –
- Miyaki Island had been equipped with experimental radars for detecting Parasite
- activity.
- The landing craft began to bombard the interception team with bullets and grenades as
- they got closer, putting the team in a position where they couldn’t even look out from
- cover to see where the fire was coming from.
- The defense team could not send reinforcements to assist the interception team.
- The bombardment from the catamaran continued periodically, so all of the defenders were necessary. Meanwhile, the staff of the administrative building notified the main
- house of the Yotsuba and asked for instructions.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- The administrative building was not the only area observing the attack on the
- island. Lina was also watching the transmission from a camera behind the defense
- squad through a large display in the CAD building. Suddenly, she took off her helmet
- used to measure CADs and went to the engineer in charge of the testing.
- “Hey.”
- “W-What?” he asked, slightly startled.
- Lina’s beauty was comparable to Miyuki. The thirty-year-old scientist swallowed his
- tongue as the unmatched beauty stood in front of him and spoke.
- “Other than this measuring helmet, is there anything that’s blast proof?”
- Lina was accustomed to this place and spoke at ease, but her question seemed out of
- place in the CAD building. The researcher rounded his eyes at the request, surprised
- and suddenly feeling worried.
- Ignoring the researcher’s surprise, Lina continued.
- “Also, is there any armored-clothing that allows movement?”
- Lina wore a protective suit while testing CADs in case her magic got out of control.
- The suit would at least work to soften the external shock, reducing Lina’s injuries.
- However, it wasn’t made taking into account the need to move, so it was unsuitable
- for battle.
- “T-there is, but…”
- “What’s the size?” Lina asked.
- “I think it will fit,” the researcher responded.
- “How fast can you prepare it?”
- “But why?”
- The last question did not come from the researcher Lina was talking to until now, but
- from a different employee who looked to be 25 years old.
- “That ship is a US Navy transport ship.”
- Lina said this while looking at the catamaran from the satellite view shown on the
- display.
- “The attackers are Parasites, so I should be the one to deal with them.”
- “……” The researchers didn’t have a response for Lina.
- “I am not Sirius here,” Lina said as her tone changed, “but I am not going to silently
- observe the mistakes of my comrades.”
- Even though she had been exiled, she still considered herself to be a USNA
- citizen and member of the USNA military.
- Lina wanted to protect her army’s dignity, not as “Sirius”, but as an ordinary combat
- magician.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- Tatsuya received an emergency call from the main house while he was in the
- security room on Minami’s floor. It was a special emergency line and not the usual
- telephone line, and while Tatsuya knew of the system’s existence, he did not expect it
- would be used to communicate with him.
- “Tatsuya-sama, I apologize, but this will only be a voice call.”
- “Hanabishi-san, get straight to the point.”
- Hanabishi Tajima spoke to Tatsuya through the dedicated wireline. He had the
- second highest rank among the butlers of the Yotsuba, and he was the father of
- Hanabishi Hyogo. One of his duties included the management of cases involving
- weapon usage – he worked to provide everything necessary for conducting combat.
- The fact that Hanabishi had established contact combined with the current situation to
- give Tatsuya a rough idea of what happened.
- “Miyaki Island was attacked, wasn’t it?” Tatsuya asked.
- “It was. Amphibious boats were sent from the Midway, a high-speed transport vessel
- belonging to the US Navy.”
- Unlike the Miyaki Island staff, the main Yotsuba staff had been able to determine the
- affiliation of the ship by its form.
- “That is to say, an army warship was used?”
- Tatsuya was a bit astonished at the openness of the USNA in this attack. Was the
- USNA going to stop hiding its hostility towards Japan, or would they perhaps insist
- on an obvious lie such as “it was a rebellion”?
- “The landing party consists of 22 parasites. There are also responses from 3 Parasites
- on the main vessel. There are also responses from ordinary people, but they can be
- ignored as a fighting force,” Hanabishi continued.
- The ordinary people remaining on the transport ship were almost certainly the
- crew. Were they volunteers in taking part of the attack on Japan, or were they blindly
- following orders? Tatsuya thought there was a chance they were being manipulated,
- but that was not the main problem.
- “The defense squad will fail, right?”
- “Unfortunately. Two people in the boats and two people on the transport vessel
- exhibit power comparable to the ‘First-magnitude class’ of the Stars. Shields-san has
- presumably already identified the Parasites from Stars,” Hanabishi continued.
- “…They will not be able to fight back against such a force.”
- Tatsuya immediately came to this conclusion. He had been mistaken in thinking that
- he prevented the entrance of Stars reinforcements into Japan.
- “Looks like they fooled us…” Tatsuya said, but he easily suppressed this regret as if it
- were someone else’s failure. “I’ll hurry to Miyaki Island.”
- “Thank you. I will organize additional staff to protect the hospital.”
- “Clear.”
- “All the best,” Hanabishi finished.
- The emergency voice call was ended here.
- The conversation between Tatsuya and Hanabishi had taken place through a
- device with the same microphone and speaker as a regular videophone rather than a
- personal communication device, so everyone in the room had heard the conversation
- without even having to strain their ears.
- “Will that be okay?”
- Yuuka, sitting next to Tatsuya, was asking whether the protection detail for Minami
- would be alright without Tatsuya. They both believed Minoru would attack that day,
- so the question was founded.
- “Nothing good comes from talking about what is good and what is bad,” Tatsuya
- vaguely replied as he slightly knitted his eyebrows. “I don’t have a choice about
- going: I cannot allow them to destroy the Star Reactor plant.”
- “I don’t think I need to say this, but this is clearly a ploy to divert attention,” Yuuka
- responded.
- “I understand that.”
- Without waiting for Yuuka’s argument and without giving her the chance to
- stop him, Tatsuya headed to the dressing room. Once he changed, he headed to where
- Miyuki was helping Minami with her studies. They could not hide their surprise as
- Tatsuya’s look.
- “…Onii-sama, are you leaving?” Miyuki asked.
- Tatsuya was wearing a “Liberated Suit”, the flying combat armor developed by the
- Yotsuba as a replacement for the 101st Brigade’s mobile suit.
- “Miyaki Island was attacked by Parasites from the USNA military. There are a total of
- 25 enemies, and among them are four at the level of First-magnitude Star class
- according to Stars’s classification of magicians. The defense there cannot cope, even
- if Lina joins.”
- Tatsuya’s answer provided enough justification for Miyuki.
- “I understand. Onii-sama, good luck in battle,” Miyuki answered without any hidden
- feelings.
- “You two should return to your room,” Tatsuya instructed them.
- “Okay.”
- “I will try to return as soon as possible… Miyuki, Minami, do not do anything
- reckless.”
- Both Miyuki and Minami understood why Tatsuya was saying that. While Tatsuya
- was absent, Minoru would certainly attack. His departure was a planned measure to
- take him away from Minami’s defense.
- “Of course,” Miyuki responded with a smile, even while knowing that Minoru would
- attack. “Don’t worry, Onii-sama. Leave this place to me.”
- There was no sign of anxiety in Miyuki’s eyes.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- The resistance of Miyaki Island’s defense squad ended up being much more
- intense than Deneb expected. It was not that it was fierce - neither Deneb's boat nor
- Vega's boat had been damaged. However, they still had not managed to get close to
- the shore. Though the boats were not stopped or thrown back, they were slowed down
- greatly, delaying their arrival.
- It was not easy to defend against attacks against boats. If it had been only the
- Star Dust soldiers, the boats definitely have received damage – possible even sunk.
- The boats were of standard design and not especially sturdy.
- “These are the untouchables, yes? So they weren’t just rumors.”
- Deneb muttered this with a ferocious grin on her face. She wasn’t aware she had
- expressed her thoughts verbally. While she had always been a war-like character,
- Deneb had become especially so after her transformation into a Parasite. Despite her
- change, Deneb had failed to notice it, and her squad mates had not mentioned it, so
- she was still in the dark about her change in personality.
- It took longer than planned, but they continued to move forward and eventually
- approached their goal. The moment they would land was near, and the faces of their
- enemies standing on the shore were became visible to the naked eye.
- “
- Although it took longer than planned, but continuing to move forward, after a while
- they approached the goal.
- The moment of the landing was near. The faces of the enemies standing on the shore
- were already visible to the naked eye.
- “Her...?”
- Deneb frowned in doubt when she saw one of the people waiting on the shore. Gender
- did not affect magical ability, so it was not unusual for a female magician to stand on
- the front lines of a battle, but the enemy dressed in an armored suit and holding what
- looked like a grenade launcher attracted Deneb’s attention. It was not because she was
- a woman, but because the weapon triggered some of Deneb’s memories – she was
- sure she recognized it.
- “That's her!” Deneb exclaimed.
- The answer to Deneb’s question arose in her subconscious and reached her conscious
- thought – it was the traitor disgracing the name of Sirius!
- Deneb snatched her knife from her weapon belt and threw it towards the shore.
- The knife flew straight towards the female magician, but just before it struck, she lost
- control over it and the knife fell to the cobblestone quay on which the magician stood.
- Deneb specialized in melee combat because she was not very good at remote
- attacking magic. She really wanted to quit her duty leading the squadron and jump to
- the magician she had recognized as Sirius, but she restrained that desire with all her
- might.
- "A little more... Just a little...!"
- The magician she was looking at pulled the trigger of what looked like a grenade
- launcher. The barrel erupted fire and Deneb immediately felt it pierce the boat’s
- multilayered shield.
- Deneb was not the only one to recognize her enemy. With the help of the builtin long range view function of her helmet, Lina saw that the boats were commanded
- by Vega and Deneb.
- “Charlotte, Leila, you too!?”
- She knew every Parasite on the boats. Her feeling upon seeing Vega and Deneb
- among them was not anger or distorted joy from thinking, “serves you right,” but
- compassion – Lina was truly good-natured.
- “If they became Parasites, they should know the truth…”
- But this logic was not enough to convince Lina, and her finger on the trigger was
- frozen by indecision. Psychologically, Lina lacked what it took to be a soldier.
- Though she had more than enough power, she was too soft, and she was not suitable
- for the occupation. The only mental quality making her a suitable soldier until now
- was that she would not sympathize with the enemy to the point of endangering allies,
- but even this trait was not all that suitable for soldiers.
- The firearm Lina was holding had a thick barrel, like a grenade launcher, but
- the muzzle was more like a large-caliber rifle – this gave the weapon a weird look,
- with an unusually thick barrel for what seemed to be more of a rifle. The weapon was
- made weirder by the lack of cutting inside the barrel, giving the weapon some
- resemblance to a shotgun.
- However, the weapon was not a firearm, but a magic device. It was a prototype
- weapon with an integrated CAD developed at Miyaki Island. Lina pulled the trigger of
- the device entrusted to her by its developers.
- The electrical conductor at the base of the thick trunk began to create plasma.
- As it expanded, the pressure in the trunk increased, and the plasma tried to exit the
- trunk. However, the positive electric field generated by the barrel pulled electrons out
- of the plasma and repulsed the remaining cations, preventing them from exiting.
- Once the electrons were separated from the cations, another electromagnetic field was
- created inside the trunk, accelerating the cations towards the barrel – the exit. At the
- same time, the original electric field created in the barrel was removed. The barrel was
- essentially turned into a miniature particle accelerator.
- The cations ejected from the muzzle absorbed the released electrons, turning back into
- a cloud of neutral particles directed in a beam towards a target.
- This weapon was a charged particle rifle. The principle was completely different than
- Lina’s Brionac, and it was worse in power than the Brionac. But…
- “It’s quite powerful!"
- The particle rifle was effective enough to excite Lina and make her forget about the
- depressing situation for a moment.
- A beam of neutral plasma particles flew into the magic shield of Deneb’s
- vehicle. The barrier magic in place was effective against particles moving at up to 10
- times the speed of sound. It was not nearly enough to stop the plasma, with a mass
- comparable to a rifle bullet, flying at a speed exceeding 100 times the speed of sound.
- The ray of neutral particles pierced through the magic shield and the boat, causing an
- explosion of steam on the opposite side. The Parasites on Deneb’s boat all jumped
- into the sea. Now Lina turned the barrel towards Vega’s vehicle.
- Vega used gravity magic to lift the water from the ocean and make a shield of sorts,
- seeming to have grasped the principle of Lina’s weapon. Lina reacted by activating
- gravity-neutralization magic with the thought-controlled CAD Tatsuya had given her.
- Lina’s magic did not interfere with the gravitational field – it overwrote it, returning
- the area to normal. Using gravity control magic, once can change the direction of the
- attraction force without changing its properties, and if Vega’s magic only changed the
- vector of the gravity, then Lina’s counter magic would not have had any effect.
- Instead, Vega changed the gravitational field in that area, allowing Lina’s magic to
- work.
- Lina pulled the trigger of the particle rifle, and a bundle of neutral particles
- flew into Vega’s magic shield. However, her rank as commander of the 4th
- detachment was not just for show: her strength exceeded Deneb’s, and Vega’s barrier
- withstood the particle beam.
- “That’s not all!” Lina shouted.
- A moment later, the plasma that had seemingly scattered across the surface shone
- bright as its temperature shot up from Lina’s special magic Muspelheim.
- Usually, this magic only transformed ambient air into high-energy plasma, but
- this time the plasma particles emitted by the particle rifle were still scattered in the
- area. Lina focused her magic on the area around Vega’s ship, increasing power as the
- affected volume decreased. Vega’s magic barrier collapsed as the area affected by
- Lina’s magic contacted it. At the same time, Vega and the Star Dust soldiers jumped
- out of the boat.
- A second later, plasma swallowed the vehicle.
- The heat from Lina’s magic ignited the hydrogen fuel and the boat went down. Lina
- sighed with relief as she lowered her weapon, but she still kept her guard up, and her
- Mirror Shield magic reflected an infrared beam of light – Regulus’s fast-firing, highenergy infrared laser bullet, Laser Sniping. Though the magic had “fast firing” in its
- title, the nature of the magic caused it to have about a 1 second gap between each
- shot.
- As soon as Lina sensed the laser bullet’s impact, she removed the shield and
- located Regulus. He was approximately 1 kilometer from the coast on the bow of the
- catamaran Midway. Once she found him, she restored her shield.
- Lina’s Mirror Shield blocked outside electromagnetic waves from getting in – it did
- not block particles going out and was like a one-way mirror.
- Lina shot a beam of neutral particles through the mirror towards the ship.
- “Huh?” Lina mumbled a moment after the shot. She had not felt the defeat of Midway
- after the shot.
- Due to its nature, Mirror Shield block visible light coming from the outside, so Lina
- could not physically see what was going on, but Lina would hear an explosion if it
- reached the ship or feel psionic vibrations if the beam was stopped by a barrier. Lina
- quickly moved to a new position with movement magic in order to shoot straight
- down the laser snipers sights. She removed the mirror shield and looked at the
- transport ship.
- “Zoe?!”
- Zoe Spica stood next to Regulus on the prow of the ship. Her right arm was forward,
- pointing directly at Lina – she was in the process of activating Molecular Divider.
- However, this magic was only medium range, and would not reach Lina from 1
- kilometer away.
- “…clear!”
- Lina once again pulled the particle rifle’s trigger, sending a beam of particles forward,
- but about halfway to the ship, the beam dispersed. The particles ended up scattering
- without reaching the ship.
- “I thought so!” Lina shouted.
- Molecular Divider inverts the polarity of electrons, cutting molecular bonds.
- The electric field created in a straight line towards the particle beam inverted the polarity of the electrons present in the beam. This turned the neutral particles into
- positive particles that repelled each other, dispersing the beam.
- Regulus jumped away from Spica as Lina aimed the particle rifle towards him.
- He moved forward in zigzags, using the water as a surface to prevent Lina from
- aiming. If Lina had been able to use Brionac, his attempts at evasion would have been
- useless – Lina could control Brionac’s plasma even after firing, so it was impossible
- to evade unless one was moving at a speed faster than Lina could follow. But the
- particle rifle only sent a beam in a straight line, so advanced rifle shooting skills were
- necessary – skills Lina did not have.
- Lina threw the particle rifle to the side and pulled out a pistol – a gun with an
- integrated CAD. Weapons with magically increased penetration power had been
- produced in Japan for a long time, so Lina had asked the CAD development center
- staff to give her some equipment more similar to the weapons she was used to.
- The transport ship began to turn away from the island, but Lina didn’t have the
- luxury to follow.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- A light blue car left the parking lot of Aoba clinic in Chofu with Tatsuya
- behind the wheel. He ignored the rules of the road and opted for flight, lifting off of
- the road. Minoru watched this occur through a camera in a combat quinoid that had
- not yet been turned into a Parasite doll.
- “And so the mission begins,” Minoru muttered, seemingly talking to himself.
- In reality, however, it was not a monologue – Minoru was giving the order to start to
- the driver of the van, who dropped him off at the curb. The driver was a member of
- the Kudou family assigned to Minoru.
- Minoru transmitted the order to start the other six vans by radio. In total, there were
- six, including the van Minoru was in. All six had parasite dolls and fighting guinoids
- in their cargo compartments, and though the vans were currently separated to avoid
- detection, they were heading towards the same destination – the hospital in which
- Minami lay.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- Tatsuya, ignoring the rules of the road and air traffic, flew off the public road
- directly, but the police did not bother to stop him and no chase was sent. The car,
- registered as an ordinary car – not an aircraft, had no need to keep the radio channel for aircraft open. Combined with the fact that police helicopters could not keep up
- with the air car and the Air Force wasn’t about to send fighters to chase a car that had
- started flying from the main road, even if a chase had been attempted, it wouldn’t
- have been successful. In other words, law enforcement agencies had neither the means
- to deliver the order or stop the pursuit whether they wanted to or not.
- The car’s license plate had probably been captured by the street cameras, so
- there was a chance that trouble would come later, but that was not important at the
- moment. Besides, Tatsuya still had the claim that the self-defenses forces hadn’t done
- anything to stop Miyaki Island – Japanese Territory – from being invaded by a foreign
- military force. Still, Tatsuya didn’t want to use this as justification for legal exemption
- but as a means for bargaining.
- Reaching the coastline, Tatsuya put the car on course to cross Tokyo Bay and
- the Urag channel in order to avoid flying over land again.
- Tatsuya raised the aircar’s speed to 900 kilometers per hours, Tatsuya headed for
- Miyaki Island.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- Holding a gun in her right hand and a knife in her left, Lina stood ready,
- preparing to meet the oncoming Regulus. However, it was not Regulus, but Deneb
- who attacked first.
- “Lina!”
- Deneb called out to Lina, shortening her name not because they were close, but
- because the Parasite’s conversation previously had used Lina’s shortened name to
- reference her.
- “Leila!”
- Lina did not freeze from the change in enemy and changed her aim to Deneb who was
- jumping out of the water, rushing her in a top-down attack. Lina attacked Deneb with
- the weight magic Hammer, which tracks an enemy and applies pressure to a detected
- surface. The magic struck at Deneb from her left side, but Deneb softened the blow by
- using movement magic towards the right.
- As this played out, Regulus began to activate Laser Sniping, but instead of
- activating her Mirror Shield, Lina sent a knife attached to her belt at Regulus. She was
- using her magic “Dancing Blades” through her thought-controlled CAD, so she didn’t even need to touch the knife with her hand – it flew out of the holster and rushed to
- Regulus on its own.
- Regulus’s concentration was broken as he was forced to dodge, and the laser bullet
- flew towards the sky. However, Lina’s attack was still not finished and she controlled
- the knife behind Regulus to strike the weapon device for Laser Sniping. Regulus
- threw the broken device with a knife now stuck through its hardware to the side, and
- as it fell into the water, the device blew up. Regulus quickly grasped the handle on his
- belt with his right hand and pulled – quickly turning what had been his thin belt into a
- rapier. The sword was not just sharp - Regulus had also added an electric shock over
- the entire blade.
- Lina didn’t have time to continue her attack on Regulus, as now the weight magic
- Hammer was being used on her – and it was more powerful than magic she had used.
- “Vega!?” Lina shouted.
- Weight magic attacks flew at Lina one after another.
- “…You are still being familiar?”
- Vega still had a grudge against Lina for “betrayal.”
- Lina quickly took a step backwards, but Vega followed her movement and went
- ashore. Holding her pistol and knife, Lina looked towards her left and right.
- In front of her was Vega.
- To the right, Regulus.
- On the left, Deneb.
- And behind them, the Star Dust soldiers-turned-Parasites began to come out onto the
- beach.
- Despite Lina’s attempted intervention, the sabotage unit of Stars had successfully
- made it onto Miyaki Island.
- Lina had struggled to fight the three opponents of First-magnitude Star class.
- With the addition of twenty Star Dust soldiers, she could not possibly cope alone.
- “So, you’re also Parasites now?” Lina spoke.
- Lina tried to change the situation by speaking to Vega and Deneb in her native
- language. Neither bothered to answer Lina, but Deneb raised her eyebrows slightly.
- “Now that you are Parasites, surely you know the truth. It wasn’t me who caused the
- Parasites, and the idea that I have secret connections to Japan is also a false
- accusation!”
- “If you have no connections with Japan, then why did you run here!?”
- Deneb didn’t hide her passion as she spoke with anger in response to Lina.
- “To escape. From you, the rioters,” Lina answered calmly. Though her heart raged
- towards Deneb, she suppressed her emotion and gathered her will into a fist.
- “Right. Then it was a false accusation,” Vega responded.
- Vega’s voice could not be called calm, but it also couldn’t be considered excited – it
- was more apathetic, and Vega grinned in her response, continuing.
- “But now you are helping a Japanese private military organization. As an American
- soldier, you came out against the States.”
- “Japan is a federal state. Planning an act as dishonorable as sabotage to take
- advantage of the New Soviet Union’s attack is unacceptable,” Lina answered.
- “This was the decision made by the Pentagon – not we, simple soldiers fighting on the
- front line.”
- “Wow-wha…”
- Lina was surprised momentarily, but quickly accepted it as fact – if the government
- was willing to use Parasites, they should also have been willing to risk sabotage.
- While Vega and Lina had their verbal struggle, the Star Dust soldiers attacked
- the rest of the defensive squad and slowly continued to move inland. Lina saw this,
- but could not offer any assistance – if she ignored the three around her, she would
- instantly die. Lina was trapped.
- “Traitor Sirius. It’s good that you were here, because now, caught red-handed in a
- hostile act towards the States, we can shamelessly get rid of you!” Vega finished.
- As soon as Vega finished her statement, Vega, Deneb, and Regulus – three members
- of Stars with the rank of First-magnitude class now merged with Parasites –
- simultaneously attacked Lina.
- Deneb breached the peace first as she waved a large knife at Lina and used
- movement magic to close the distance. Lina reacted with the same magic in the same
- direction, keeping her distance. Realizing that she couldn’t catch up, Deneb fired her pistol and Lina once again responded the same way, turning the battle into a shootout
- over shields.
- Regulus followed Deneb, and using self-acceleration magic, he appeared in front of
- Lina. With his electrified blade, he struck her shield.
- Stuck in place, Lina attacked Vega with gravitational magic, but Vega destroyed her
- gravitational field with Molecular Divider.
- …more precisely, Lina’s magic was interrupted because of the inconsistencies
- between the modification of phenomenon caused by Molecular Divider and Lina’s
- gravitational magic encountered in the air, and the magics canceled each other out,
- destroying both Vega and Lina’s magic.
- As this was going on, Regulus continued to attack Lina’s shield, and it began to
- tremble. The electrical surges emitted by Regulus’ blade finally finished off Lina’s
- barrier, breaking it. Deneb took her opportunity and shot Lina’s left shoulder. While
- Lina’s armored suit was able to stop the bullet from penetrating, the momentum of the
- bullet was transferred to her shoulder and the impact caused Lina to involuntarily drop
- her knife. She instantly activated Muspelheim in defense.
- Vega, Deneb, and Regulus all leaped to the side to evade the generated plasma. When
- it dissipated, in the center of the area previously filled with high-energy plasma, Lina
- stood breathing heavily.
- The three Parasites exchanged looks.
- Lina pulled her pistol’s trigger, but penetration magic was not applied to the bullet so
- Regulus stopped it with a magical barrier, and a Dancing Blade Lina had released
- earlier in the fight was knocked down by Deneb. Her two attacks stopped, Vega
- created a repulsive field which threw Lina back.
- Lina was thrown down the road running along the cobbled promenade, and she
- fell onto the rocky surface of cooled lava. Vega, Deneb, and Regulus cautiously
- approached her, looking down at Lina.
- Lina was unable to stand, barely finding the strength to climb onto one knee. Vega
- punched Lina back down, but despite her weakness, Lina’s fighting strength had not
- faded. She grinned faintly.
- Deneb pointed her pistol at Lina.
- Regulus pointed the tip of his sword.
- Lina bit her lip with regret.
- But at that moment, a light blue car cut threw the air and landed as if it was aimed at
- the three Parasites.
- Vega attacked the car with her repulsive force field, but the magic dispersed
- before it was completed. Vega rounded her eyes, Regulus and Deneb could hardly
- believe in their eyes as the aero car landed about 10 meters in front of Deneb. The
- three had dodged the air car by jumping back to the embankment.
- The driver’s door opened, and Tatsuya stepped onto the Miyaki Island battlefield
- dressed in the Freed Suit.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- Tatsuya had flown from Chofu to Miyaki Island in 20 minutes. If he had flown
- at subsonic speed the entire distance, he could have made it in 10, but the flight from
- Chofu to the sea and over Tokyo Bay required him to go at a slower speed.
- Tatsuya knew about the situation on Miyaki Island even before he arrived. He was
- receiving the data from the island in real time, in addition to monitoring the psion
- wave oscillations from Lina’s fight. However, there was no magic for teleportation, so
- Tatsuya could not instantly move from Chofu to Miyaki Island.
- Restraining his growing impatience, Tatsuya focused on controlling the aircar.
- A camera mounted on its nose caught sight of Miyaki Island, and without slowing
- down, Tatsuya headed towards the northeast coast that was now a battlefield. He
- didn’t bother to use the runway at the airport and landed directly on the road running
- along the embankment where the battle was being fought. As he was landing, he
- dispersed the magic of an anti-gravity spell that was trying to prevent him from
- landing.
- There were fighters from the defense squad still on the road, so Tatsuya slammed the
- on the breaks to not hit them. There were also enemies on the road, but Tatsuya
- didn’t really care – his thought process amounted to “if I hit them with the car, I can
- save time.” Tatsuya had no doubts about his ability.
- Three Parasites fled from the path of the air car by enhancing their jump with
- movement magic. Tatsuya could tell that they were the Parasites of First-magnitude
- Star class with only one glance using elemental sight.
- Like the rest of Japan, driving was done on the left side of the road on Miyaki
- Island, but Tatsuya ignored the law and stopped on the right side of the road for his
- convenience. Lina was barely standing on one knee on the hardened lava next to the
- road.
- “Lina, can you continue?” Tatsuya asked.
- He had already checked Lina’s state by looking, but still asked the insensitive
- question.
- “I can,” Lina responded, not wanting to hold Tatsuya back.
- With the last of her strength, Lina rose to her feet. She looked as if she was trying to
- stand during an earthquake, but she somehow managed to stay up.
- “I will figure this out. Cover me.”
- Without waiting for Lina’s answer, Tatsuya turned towards the three Parasites who
- were now on the embankment. This was probably for the best, as Tatsuya’s cold voice
- made her shiver all over her body as goosebumps formed on her back. She wouldn’t
- have been able to answer even if Tatsuya had waited.
- Vega used magic to push Tatsuya back with his car, but the magic was demolished
- before the sequence had even been fixed on the Eidos of the target. Tatsuya had
- released a dense flow of psions from his whole body to vanquish the spell.
- “Gram Demolition?!” Vega and Deneb cried out simultaneously.
- Tatsuya raised his right hand. There was no gun-shaped CAD in his hand – he just
- pointed his finger and activated Mist Dispersion with the fully thought-controlled
- CAD built into his suit. The activation time was almost zero.
- He erased the magic suppression zone almost instantly.
- He tore down the Data Fortification magic around the Parasites so quickly that it
- could not be perceived.
- He cut the intermolecular bonds of Regulus’ tissues in essentially no time.
- The man named Regulus had been completely erased, and all that remained of the
- Parasite was its true body. Now Tatsuya reached out with his other hand and shot
- Armor Piercing Psion Bullet. He wasn’t aiming at the Parasite that had recently been
- in Regulus and instead shot at Vega.
- Vega, struck in her chest by a dense shell of psions, fell backwards and violently
- convulsed. Rolling down the embankment in that state, she fell back into the sea.
- In the blink of an eye, Regulus had been deleted and Vega thrown from the
- battlefield. Deneb was frozen in shock as Tatsuya sent another Armor Piercing Psion
- Bullet at Deneb. She fell back.
- Deneb was not the only one frozen in place – Lina lifted her helmet flap and stared,
- dazed, at Deneb writhing on the road. She could hardly believe her eyes – Tatsuya had
- instantly neutralized these three whom she had been at her limit fighting against.
- “Lina, look after this woman,” Tatsuya told Lina.
- He realized she was in shock and that she would now overestimate his combat power
- because of a misunderstanding. Tatsuya had only been able to neutralize the Parasites
- so quickly because of surprise, but he didn’t have time to explain himself. The true
- body of the Parasite in Regulus had appeared, and it began its activity as an intangible
- life form as it searched for a new host. The real battle was now beginning.
- Tatsuya concentrated psions inside his body before releasing them into the
- Parasite. He attacked from all six sides – front, back, left, right, top, and bottom.
- The Parasite attempted to push back against the psionic currents, but realized it was
- impossible and tried to escape by moving away. However, pressure was being applied
- from the front, back, left, and right, and the top and bottom sides were closed tightly.
- Surrounded by walls, the Parasite created a shell in an attempt to protect is pushionic
- information body, but the walls quickly ate into the shell, penetrating it. Trapped, the
- Parasite shrunk and hardened, mixing with the walls.
- Tatsuya’s psionic currents continued to converge, concentrating a progressively
- smaller area. Finally, all the Psions were compressed into a sphere with a 3-centimeter
- diameter. The sphere hung intangibly about 10 centimeters above the concrete
- embankment.
- Tatsuya had sealed the Parasite that was recently Regulus in his Sealing Sphere.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- Miyuki and Minami followed the instructions Tatsuya gave right before he left
- and returned to Minami’s ward. Miyuki read while sitting on the single couch while
- Minami continued preparing for her exams, sitting on the bed which had been raised
- to support a sitting position.
- Miyuki, turning the electronic pages of her book, suddenly looked up.
- “…he was pretty quick. Have our guards already discovered them?” Miyuki said.
- “…Miyuki-sama?” Minami asked, confused.
- Minami turned to Miyuki and asked for her to clarify, but Miyuki’s words had mostly
- been her muttering to herself.
- “Minami-chan, he is here.”
- Still, Miyuki didn’t ignore Minami’s question.
- “Who… really?!”
- Minami closed her textbook program and turned off her terminal as she got out of bed.
- She was not in pajamas, however, so she wasn’t panicking about having to change her
- clothes.
- “Yes,” Miyuki said while nodding.
- Miyuki didn’t answer with the name of who had arrived because Minami had of
- course figured it out: it could only be Minoru.
- Miyuki called the security intercom, and Yuuka appeared on the small screen
- of the terminal.
- “Miyuki-san, the company has arrived.”
- Before Miyuki could speak, Yuuka explained the situation that she had already
- figured out.
- “I feel signs of Parasites from six directions,” Miyuki responded.
- “…So you already knew. The sensors are saying the same thing.”
- Miyuki was so ahead of ordinary magicians in her magical perception that she seemed
- to be at a different stage of evolution. Yuuka’s surprise was based on this prejudiced
- notion, but Miyuki smiled broadly after hearing Yuuka’s astonished voice.
- “Shouldn’t you expect this from the next head-sama?” Miyuki said, teasing Yuuka.
- “In that case, perhaps you also know where Kudou Minoru is now?” Yuuka asked,
- moving on.
- “The response from Minoru is quite blurry. It seems he is disguising himself by both
- Parade and Ghost Walker.”
- Miyuki’s words made it seem like trying to detect him was pointless, but her tone
- contrasted this and Miyuki continued trying to find Minoru.
- “I don’t feel Minrou-kun’s signs from other groups, so he’s probably inside a car or
- other vehicle approaching from the northeast,” Miyuki explained.
- “A car from the northeast? Alright, I’ll pass this information to the Juumonji family
- then.”
- “Thank you.”
- “Miyuki-san, please do not leave the ward. Even if he gets into the hospital, we’ll
- figure this out,” Yuuka warned.
- “I understand.”
- “…Then I’ve said everything. Until next time.”
- Yuuka was slightly suspicious of Miyuki’s quick agreement with the situation, but she
- didn’t ask Miyuki about it.
- When the intercom went down, Miyuki sighed a little.
- “…Onii-sama will not have time to return,” Miyuki assessed.
- Miyuki was dissatisfied with the situation but held no grudge against Tatsuya for
- having left the defense against Minoru’s attack.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- Minoru got out of the van about 200 meters from the hospital. There were tall
- building all around, so he could only see the highest floor of Aoba Clinic.
- At the same time as Minoru, 6 Parasite dolls left the back of the van. The other cars
- held the same load. In total, Minoru had prepared a fighting force of 36 parasite dolls
- – 15 already made in the former Ninth Laboratory, and 21 made by Minoru using the
- dummies in the factory in Ikoma.
- The base bodies (dummies) for the Parasite dolls were gynoids originally made for
- military use, but these dolls were dressed in casual clothes. They each was anklelength pants combined with various blouses, T-shirts, and summer sweaters.
- Since it was daytime, pedestrians were walking around. There weren’t as many
- out as usual because of the New Soviet Union’s invasion, but some people still went
- out for urgent errands. By giving the Parasite dolls casual clothes, the dolls could
- blend in with passers-by without giving off the feeling that something was wrong.
- Contrary to the goal of blending in, however, Minoru didn’t bother to hide his
- appearance at all with magic so his beauty stood out like a sore thumb. Pedestrians
- passing by even stopped to stare at him as if he had descended from heaven. Minoru
- couldn’t even walk to a hospital without attracting attention.
- Suddenly, Minoru stopped.
- The crowd also stopped.
- Minoru spoke, looking at the big young man who blocked his way.
- “Juumonji-san, could you let me pass?” Minoru asked.
- “I didn’t think you’d appear at this time,” Juumonji responded, ignoring Minoru’s
- request.
- “I’m not a vampire, so I don’t have to wait until night,” Minoru answered jokingly.
- “You are not an ordinary vampire, but I wouldn’t say that the description doesn’t fit.
- Vampires suck the blood of people and turn good into bad – at least, that’s how it is in
- fantastic stories, but you are real,” Katsuto said with a serious face.
- “It’s a shame you think that. I’m not attacking people who accidentally stopped me on
- my way,” Minoru said.
- “But now you are trying to turn one girl into something inhuman.”
- Minoru and Katsuto’s conversation took place in front of pedestrians walking by on
- the street, but none of them really understood what was going on through the
- metaphor the conversation was using. Some of the passerby were whispering phrases
- like “what is this, a movie shoot?”, but these were the minority. Most felt that the
- conversation was real and not just a figment of some story.
- “Juumonji-san. Let me pass.” Minoru made his request again, this time more
- forcefully.
- “Kudou Minoru. You are under arrest.”
- This time Katsuto answered, but his answer more than just denied it.
- “What charges?”
- “Unauthorized transportation of military weapons on public vehicles.”
- While Katsuto was speaking, a detective behind him hidden in civilian clothes and
- working under the Juumonji family appeared with a police warrant.
- After Katsuto’s words about weapons and the appearance of the police, unrest
- appeared in the crowd of passerby.
- “Are you talking about the Parasite dolls? Well, you caught me, but can you fight in a
- place with civilians?”
- Minoru provoked Katsuto.
- “So you plan to involve the civilians in this?!”
- Katsuto created a barrier to lock Minoru in front of him as he was talking. However,
- Minoru switched places with one of the Parasite dolls behind him at the same time – it
- wasn’t teleportation but Parade he had kept active through the conversation with
- Katsuto.
- Minoru used stun magic on the detective, but the Katsuto defended his
- subordinate with barrier magic. To do this, however, he had to release the barrier
- around the Parasite doll that Minoru had swapped places with, and this doll attacked
- Katsuto.
- Katsuto’s barrier collided with the doll’s barrier, giving off sparks of psionic light.
- This Parasite doll specialized in anti-object barrier magic.
- Like Parasites, Parasite dolls tended to specialize in specific magic. Though they had
- a lack of diversity, they were able to demonstrate powerful abilities in their field to
- such an extent that the doll specializing in barrier magic could resist against Katsuto.
- Still, this was not enough to make it a fight on equal footing. Katsuto was forced to
- take his focus away from Minoru, but as soon as he became serious, he destroyed the
- barrier around the Parasite doll and crushed her mechanical body, being careful to not
- completely destroy the doll – he knew that death of the physical body of the Parasite
- releases the true body, and it was safe to assume that it worked the same for Parasites
- in machines as for Parasites in humans. Still, Katsuto couldn’t leave the doll in
- serviceable condition, so he destroyed the head and limbs, leaving only the electronic
- brain and fuel cell of the gynoid.
- Until this point, everything had been within Katsuto’s expectations, but what
- happened next went beyond. The Parasite doll exploded.
- The explosion itself was blocked by Katsuto’s shield, but the destruction of the body
- meant that the Parasite had been released.
- This was not the only exploding doll – other parasite dolls attacked other magicians of
- the Juumonji family standing in Minoru’s way, and the Juumonji family could not
- ignore them. To stop Minoru, the Juumonji magicians hurried to neutralize the dolls.
- And each of the neutralized dolls exploded.
- Many Parasites were released, searching for new bodies. The non-material life forms
- attacked the Juumonji family as well as nearby civilians and people hiding in
- buildings.
- Katsuto and his subordinates were forced to protect the civilians from the
- Parasites.
- They didn’t have time to chase Minoru.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- After erasing Regulus’ physical body and locking the released Parasite into a
- Sealing Sphere, Tatsuya did the same with Deneb. Two completed Sealing Spheres
- hovered about 10 centimeters above the ground, and they would remain for about 12
- more hours in their current state without outside interference. Further processing of
- the seal should be performed by specialists, so Tatsuya left the spheres to be dealt
- with later. During his flight to Miyaki Island, Tatsuya had asked Hanabishi Hyogo to
- send a magician with sealing skills, and Tatsuya had no doubt that Hyogo would find
- someone who could finish the job.
- “Lina, I am leaving this place to you. Don’t let anyone get close to the Sealing
- Spheres.”
- Lina was fascinated by Tatsuya’s actions in dealing with the Parasites so efficiently,
- but she came to herself when he assigned her a task.
- “Sealing Spheres? Are you talking about these things?” Lina asked.
- “Yes.”
- Tatsuya replied to Lina without even looking before jumping onto the jetty. Lina
- only saw the back of his helmet and couldn’t see his expression, but she somehow
- got the feeling that he had smacked his tongue.
- Tatsuya ran east of the embankment chasing Vega who had fallen into the
- water. After being hit by Tatsuya’s Armor Piercing Psion Bullet, Vega revealed the
- true nature of the Parasites.
- Without bothering to breathe, Vega tried to swim underwater in an arc towards the
- east coast of the island. Still standing on the embankment, Tatsuya targeted Vega
- with Mist Dispersion. As if it were a survival instinct, Vega suddenly surfaced.
- Tatsuya detected an increased number of psions as this happened – meaning Vega
- was beginning a counterattack.
- When Vega had became a Parasite, her rate of activation drastically increased. Now,
- with her true nature fully manifested, the speed increased even further, but.
- Vega’s magic was not yet completed.
- The magic she was in the process of building was dispelled.
- The magic that protected her body was destroyed.
- And then her physical body was erased.
- The substances that made of the body of Charlotte Vega were divided into individual
- molecules. Once the body was deleted, the molecules dispersed – some remained in in
- their form, other were used in chemical reactions or dissolved in seawater.
- Until this point, everything had gone according to Tatsuya’s expectations, but
- at this point he miscalculated.
- The true body of the Parasite was not exposed. The body appeared after erasing the
- physical body it had merged with, so Tatsuya could “see” the psionic envelope
- covering the Parasite, but he couldn’t analyze the information body – its core. He
- could only feel its existence, and the Parasite drifted underwater.
- This contracted the current hypothesis about the true form of the Parasites – the
- current belief was that the Parasite would relentlessly seek out a human body to
- stabilize its existence. Initially not belonging in the physical world, the Parasite was
- believed to be drawn to strong thoughts and emotions from people. This theory
- assumed that after the disappearance of the host, the Parasite would give the highest
- priority to search of a source of psions to stabilize itself in this world, which allowed
- the creation of Parasite dolls. Therefore, Tatsuya didn’t expect the Parasite to move
- away from potential sources of stability.
- “Is it… afraid?”
- Parasite’s were also a life form, so their behavior could be an instinct for selfpreservation. The Parasite might just be frightened and trying to escape, but it was
- fairly difficult to be certain of that.
- “…no, it doesn’t matter right now,” Tatsuya convinced himself.
- The invasion of Miyaki Island was not over. The strongest 3 parasites had been
- defeated, but more than 10 were still fighting the defense squad. Tatsuya was also
- concerned about hurrying back to the hospital to take care of Minoru – he was
- convinced that the invasion of Miyaki Island was a diversion to get him away. Though
- he knew Miyuki was not the subject of the approaching danger, he didn’t want to take
- any risks and wanted to get back to Chofu as quickly as he could.
- “…do I make it right there?”
- The psions were intangible particles and could only interfere or be interfered with by
- structurally organized nerve cells – non-systematic magic is just as effective
- underwater as in the air.
- While Tatsuya was thinking, the Parasite that had recently been Vega began to
- move towards the sea, trying to escape from Tatsuya. Tatsuya instantly released a
- mass of psions in the sea.
- The mass released towards the Parasite overtook it and flew in front, destroying
- almost half of its psionic sheath and core. Tatsuya sensed that its thickness had
- halved.
- Tatsuya applied Sealing Sphere to the Parasite that had been Vega.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- Still in Minami’s ward, Miyuki felt the true bodies of the Parasites appear near
- the hospital. She quickly turned on the intercom and called Yuuka again.
- “Yuuka-san.”
- “What?” Yuuka answered.
- Yuuka’s voice was somewhat agitated.
- “The true bodies of the Parasites have been released,” Miyuki said.
- “…understood.”
- “At this rate, civilians will suffer. Yuuka-san, please take your subordinates and seal
- the Parasites outside,” Miyuki ordered.
- “But there will be no protection inside the hospital,” Yuuka protested.
- “If ordinary people become victims, the anti-magic movement will rise again – and
- we have finally calmed it down with peaceful magic projects.”
- “But…”
- “If the enemy gets inside, I’ll think of something,” Miyuki reassured Yuuka.
- “…fine. I understand,” Yuuka responded.
- On the small display, Yuuka nodded reluctantly.
- “You're right, Miyuki-san. I will seal the Parasites first so the city dwellers do not
- suffer. I will leave the hospital to you for now.”
- “I will try to hold out until you return, Yuuka-san,” Miyuki said modestly.
- But despite Miyuki’s modest words, Yuuka understood that she did not see Minoru as
- a threat.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- Focusing his magic on remaining hidden, Minoru made his way toward the
- main entrance of the hospital without being detected. He was joined there by four
- Parasite dolls who had made it past the Juumonji guards. Suddenly, about 10
- magicians ran out of the hospital.
- Minoru intuitively understood that the Yotsuba would be the hospital’s last line of
- defense, so he carefully directed his magical perception inside the hospital. He only
- used passive detection, not wanting to risk detection by using psions to actively
- search.
- “Only Miyuki-san is left…?”
- Miyuki was not hiding her presence, so he was able to detect her with passive
- detection. Minoru had expected only Tatsuya to leave the hospital, and Miyuki staying
- with Minami was within his expectations. He had seen some of her abilities in Nara,
- but he was not naïve enough to think that that had been Miyuki’s full strength.
- “Still, compared to Tatsuya-san…”
- …she should not be such a strong opponent. Based on the current situation, Minoru
- assessed his chances of a successful invasion.
- The hospital doors remained open as if inviting Minoru in, and there were no
- more signs that someone would come out of them. The Yotsuba magicians were
- directing all their attention toward the released Parasites.
- Minoru had not wanted to take the civilians hostage. He wished the Yotsuba luck in
- sealing the Parasites while he penetrated the hospital, concealing both himself and the
- Parasite dolls with his magic.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- The Tsukuba branch of the Yotsuba family specialized in mental interference
- magic, and among the people led by Yuuka, eight people had mastered methods of
- mental defense. These eight surrounded Yuuka, forming a circle (or more accurately,
- and octagon) with Yuuka in the center.
- These eight people separated themselves by a regular distance and turned to face away
- from Yuuka.
- The magician Northwest of Yuuka said “Ken.”
- The magician in the West continued: “Da.”
- The magicians to the Southwest, South, and Southeast of Yuuka followed in their
- order:
- “Kon.”
- “Ri.”
- “Son.”
- To the East and Northeast:
- “Sin.”
- “Gon.”
- And finally, the magician in the North finished with:
- “Kan.”
- A barrier from mental interference magic appeared from using the ancient magic of
- the “Eight Trigrams”: Sky, Water, Earth, Wind, Thunder, Mountain, and Water.
- Yuuka was spot on the center of the barrier.
- The barrier was not just a barrier to defend against mental interference magic: it
- was an altar that both protected the spellcasters inside and increased the effectiveness
- of the magic from these spellcasters.
- Yuuka took out a small piece of paper from her purse. It was cut to have a square
- center, square protrusions on the left and right, and a triangular protrusion on its top.
- The bottom was cut into two rectangles connected by the top. It was an amulet
- formed to be a paper doll, abstractly symbolizing a person. Yuuka placed the amulet
- between the index and middle fingers of her left hand, holding it to her face.
- Yuuka managed the bracelet-CAD on her left wrist with her right hand to cast
- her magic. A sequence of magic was projected from Yuuka to the amulet doll, and the
- amulet jumped out from Yuuka’s hand after the sequence of magic to fly towards a
- Parasite. It quickly sucked in the information body core of the Parasite, sealing it
- inside.
- The amulet trembled, dancing in the wind before falling back down into the octagonal
- barrier formed from Mental Interference magic.
- Yuuka quickly pulled out another amulet, but the Parasites were able to sense danger
- and attacked Yuuka with lighting magic.
- But the physical magic was stopped by Katsuto.
- “Ara, thank you,” Yuuka said.
- “The Juumonji family will protect you. Tsukuba-san, focus on sealing,” Katsuto
- responded.
- Katsuto and Yuuka had met a few days ago, so without wasting time on additional
- greetings, they each continued to perform their jobs in order to deal with the released
- Parasites.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- Tatsuya took the Sealing Sphere hovering over the surface of the sea and
- returned to Lina. The battle between the defense detachment and the Parasites from
- Star Dust was ongoing, but the situation was fairly stable and Tatsuya didn’t need to
- hurry to help. If Tatsuya and Lina joined the fighting, it would end in less than 5
- minutes.
- “…or would it be better to finish it all at once?”
- While Tatsuya pondered this, a small armored car drove up the road leading from the
- airfield. The door opened and Hanabishi Hyogo stepped out of the driver’s seat.
- “Tatsuya-sama, sorry for making you wait.”
- “No… Hyogo-san, you are just in time,” Tatsuya replied while raising the helmet flap
- of his Freed Suit.
- After greeting Hyogo, Tatsuya looked at the back of the armored car – Hyogo should
- have come with the spellcaster requested by him to seal the Parasites.
- The rear right door of the armored car opened, and the person who stepped out turned
- out to be a girl younger than Tatsuya dressed in a bright dress unsuitable for the
- battlefield.
- “Ayako?”
- Tatsuya’s voice expressed his surprise.
- There were 2 types of Yotsuba magicians: magicians with high aptitude for
- mental interference, and magicians with powerful and unique magic. Tatsuya and
- Ayako were both of the second type, unsuitable for using mental interference magic,
- but it should have been necessary to seal the Parasites.
- “Hello, Tatsuya-san. Hey, Fumiya! Tatsuya-san is waiting. Hurry up and come out
- faster!”
- Ayako’s words after her greeting instantly dispelled the doubts. Fumiya’s special
- magic “Direct Pain” used mental interference magic, and after he had been forced to
- retreat from Minoru, he had learned a sealing spell for the Parasites from the main
- house.
- Fumiya, moving slowly for some reason, finally emerged from the armored car.
- However, Tatsuya did not immediately know how to greet him.
- “Fumiya… that is, Yami?”
- “Call me Yami, please…”
- With a face the same color as his shirt (that is, red), Fumiya answered Tatsuya with a
- timid voice.
- “I see… Yami, what is with this appearance?”
- “I’ve already said I don’t like it!”
- Fumiya replied in an angry, dissatisfied, and almost tearful voice.
- “Nothing can be done because it’s necessary for the sealing spell.”
- Ayako’s voice was tinged with detachment – she had already been forced to deal with
- plenty of complaints from Fumiya.
- “Needed… for sealing?”
- Tatsuya turned to Ayako as he asked his question. He was short on time, but he
- couldn’t help but ask.
- “It seems that more than 5 spellcasters are needed to use the original magic for sealing
- the Parasites.”
- Ayako said this as both a response to Tatsuya and encouragement for Fumiya.
- “But our staff is currently located in Tokyo, so we have a shortage of people,” Ayako
- continued.
- “I see. So Fumiya came alone?”
- Fumiya was the heir to the Kuroba branch of the Yotsuba family. He was initially
- supposed to help his father take the command of the Kuroba magicians, so the fact
- that he was sent to Miyaki Island showed how much his magical power was
- appreciated as a candidate for the head of the Yotsuba.
- Still, based on only this, it was still unclear why Fumiya was dressed as he was.
- “Apparently certain types of ancient magic have an increased effect when wearing
- clothes of the opposite sex.”
- Dressing as the opposite sex – a woman in male clothes, or a man in female clothes.
- “So now we have Yami in the form of a temple priestess?”
- “Yes.”
- Fumiya’s clothing consisted of a white kimono top and a red hakama shit bottom. He
- wore sandals over white socks, and his wig was square like the one he usually used,
- but had long, straight hair tied behind his back.
- No matter how you looked at it, he was a beautiful priestess-san.
- “Yes. The head-sama said that since there are not enough people, I have to strengthen
- my magic like this,” Fumiya said, somewhat dejectedly.
- “Then… I offer my condolences.”
- Tatsuya was unwittingly serious as he apologized to Fumiya. He had sent a request for
- a sealing wizard, but his request had resulted in Fumiya becoming a toy in Maya’s
- hands.
- “…no, Tatsuya-niisan, you aren’t guilty. Besides, I’m just doing my job!”
- Fumiya absolved Tatsuya’s guilt while encouraging himself. It was clear from his
- appearance that he hoped to complete the sealing as quickly as possible to be freed
- from this cosplay sooner.
- “I see. Then seal these three first,” Tatsuya said.
- It was necessary to preserve Fumiya’s motivation, at least for the start, so Tatsuya had
- him start with the weakened ones. Tatsuya showed him to the spheres in which the
- Parasites that had once merged with Regulus, Vega, and Deneb were locked.
- “Tatsuya-san… did you do this?” Ayako asked.
- Both Ayako and Fumiya stared at the Sealing Spheres curiously.
- “But they look pretty sealed…?”
- Tatsuya shook his head at Fumiya’s question.
- “After about 6 hours, the effect of these Sealing Spheres will disappear. It is also
- inconvenient to store and transport them like this.
- “Indeed… well, I understand.”
- Fumiya went back to the back-left door of the armored car and came back with
- a wooden box which looked like a first aid kit. Inside were 16 Kokeshi dolls without
- painted faces. The armored car also held two more boxes just like the first.
- Fumiya took one Kokeshi doll out of the box.
- Ayako pulled a red mat out of a gym bag and spread it over the road.
- “I am starting.”
- Fumiya placed the Kokeshi doll in front of the Sealing Sphere, sat on the mat, and
- stretched his hand to his CAD – a long and narrow mobile terminal attacked to his
- belt.
- Tatsuya and Lina carefully stepped away from the twins.
- “Tatsuya…”
- Lina turned towards Tatsuya and spoke in a depressed voice. Tatsuya silently looked
- toward her and asked her to continue.
- “And Fumiya…?”
- For a while after her escape, Lina lived under the Kuroba family’s protection, so she
- was already acquainted with Fumiya.
- “…because he wants to change clothes quickly?”
- “Let’s hurry and neutralize the parasites still in the battle so Fumiya can seal them
- quickly,” Tatsuya responded.
- There were still 20 Parasites. Tatsuya replied to Lina with unconcealed pity on his
- face, and the tense atmosphere was finally becoming calmer with Fumiya’s
- appearance.
- However, the tense voice Tatsuya heard from his communication device smashed his
- ease to pieces.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- Minoru and the Parasite dolls who had infiltrated Aoba Clinic climbed to the 4th
- floor using the stairs to get to Minami’s ward. Nobody had tried to stop Minoru during
- his trip from the entrance to the stairs, or while he climbed the stairs to the fourth floor
- corridor. He hadn’t even seen any signs of being noticed.
- “…is this a trap?”
- Minoru found it hard to believe that there weren’t precautions in place against
- Minoru, and he hadn’t seen any patients or other hospital staff either. But if it was a
- trap, where was it? Minoru couldn’t think of anything that could stop him.
- Minoru only detected the presence of Miyuki and Minami inside Minami’s
- ward, so it seemed to him like they were just telling him to come in and pick up
- Minami. Minoru was suspicious, but also a little relieved at the situation.
- …premonition.
- Minoru felt a slight pang of worry for a moment, and the steps felt heavy after it. The
- Parasite dolls had no feelings about the now sinister atmosphere, but they also slowed
- down after Minoru decelerated.
- Minoru and the dolls took almost 3 times longer than they should have to get to the
- chamber. However, there was no indication that we was being attacked from within –
- his worries seemed for naught.
- Minoru took a deep breath and ordered one of the Parasite dolls to enter. Opening the
- unlocked door, the doll entered the chamber. A moment later, Minoru glimpsed a
- sparkling white ice field.
- “I am standing in a lifeless, icy world of absolute silence.”
- This illusion was pressed on Minoru’s mind with such force that his heart felt
- ready to stop – so much that it took him much longer than it should have to notice
- that the Parasite doll entering the ward had stopped.
- The Parasite was not just frozen physically.
- The Parasite’s true body – the difference between the fighting gynoids and the
- parasite dolls – had also stopped. The spiritual life form was frozen.
- As if thrown back, the Parasite doll returned to the corridor and crashed into the
- opposite wall of the door. It fell to the floor of corridor. Minoru didn’t know if the
- electronic brain inside the gynoid had been frozen, preventing body control, but it was
- clear that the Parasite doll was out of action.
- The door to the chamber remained open, but Minoru did not feel an invitation
- to enter. However, there were no signs that someone would leave, so he would only
- seal his fate by waiting – either Tatsuya or the magicians from the guard could return.
- Minoru didn’t have much confidence that the Parasites on Miyaki Island would delay
- Tatsuya for long, and the chance of them defeating him was zero. Minoru’s main
- enemy was time, and he ordered the remaining three Parasite dolls to enter. Then,
- focusing all his strength into Parade and Ghost Walker, he followed.
- As he entered, he heard a whisper:
- “Cocytus.”
- Minoru once again felt the lifeless, silent world of ice. The illusion of Parade was
- frozen; Ghost Walker was useless. If Parade had not protected Minoru, he intuitively
- knew that his body… no, his very soul would have frozen. The Parasite dolls, without
- any such protection, fell onto the floor without any sign of external damage.
- When the vessels shaped like women became ordinary lifeless dolls, Minoru found
- himself facing Miyuki – he was frozen, and Miyuki calm.
- Miyuki did not move.
- Minoru could not move.
- Miyuki was the first to speak.
- “What an eyesore,” Miyuki said as she waved her right hand. The Parasite dolls that
- had fallen to the floor were pushed into the corner of the room.
- “What was that, just now…?” Minoru asked, moaning. He was clearly not asking
- about the movement magic Miyuki had used to move the dolls. Miyuki also
- understood this and answered the real question.
- “Cocytus: magic to freeze the mind. My trump card.”
- Miyuki’s answer was cold, but it contained no hostility.
- “Magic to freeze the mind…?” Minoru muttered, stunned. He couldn’t quite believe
- the events that had taken place as he entered the room, and his question was really
- asking “what does this mean?!”, but Miyuki didn’t answer that question.
- “Minoru-kun. This is your miscalculation.”
- “Miscalculation?”
- “You thought I was weaker than Tatsuya-sama, right?”
- “……”
- Minoru had no answer.
- “I am weaker than Tatsuya-sama.”
- Minoru unwittingly swallowed saliva. He was not frozen anymore by his shock after
- Miyuki’s magic, but by the tension her words brought.
- “However, I am the natural enemy for the parasites. Jobs such as these… I am better
- suited for,” Miyuki said. The last of her friendless remaining in her tone disappeared
- as she said her next words.
- “I can kill the true body of the Parasite.”
- The Parasites were a spiritual life form and could not resist against Cocytus.
- “Magic that freezes the mind… magic that freezes it to death?” Minoru asked.
- “Cocytus is the magic that stops the mind.”
- Physically, it is impossible to achieve absolute zero – heat transfers from higher heat
- to lower heat, so as a substance approaches absolute zero, heat can no long be
- removed. However, Miyuki’s magic Cocytus could completely freeze the mind, and
- once frozen, the mind could never again be set in motion.
- “Mental absolute zero…?” Minoru asked, still struggling to accept the events.
- “A mind without material connections – without a physical body – cannot hold its
- information body and will eventually disappear… it will eventually just cease to
- exist.”
- “……”
- Once again, Minoru was at a loss of words. Miyuki was telling the truth – Minoru
- was forced to admit he had miscalculated. Leading Tatsuya away was not enough –
- when planning a diversion, it was more important to lead Miyuki away.
- “Minoru-kun. Please get out of here.”
- “Huh?!”
- Minoru was not the only one surprised at this suggestion. Minami, next to Miyuki
- watching the conversation unfold, could not hide her surprise.
- “Your capture… it’s the work of Tatsuya-sama. It is enough for me to just protect
- Minami-chan.”
- “……”
- “Run away Minoru-kun. I will not chase you.”
- Even without giving a proper purpose, Minoru was sure Miyuki was telling the truth.
- If he retreated, he would be able to escape, and Minoru found himself considering the
- act, however cowardly. However…
- “…I cannot.”
- Minoru couldn’t accept Miyuki’s offer.
- “I came here to help Minami-san. I can not retreat for my own benefit.”
- Minoru realized he was being foolish, but he was not sure if he would get another
- opportunity to “save” Minami.
- “…perhaps this is the last chance…”
- “…if I run away now, I will no longer be able to reach Minami…”
- Minoru’s reasoning didn’t allow him to make a wise choice.
- “… I see. I’m sorry.”
- Miyuki held her right hand towards Minoru. Cocytus did not need a gesture; she was
- giving Minoru the chance to change his mind, trying to push him through
- intimidation. She was not worried about Minoru attacking in response – she had sensed her previous Cocytus had effected Minoru, so his magical abilities were
- temporarily deteriorated.
- But Minoru still didn’t run away.
- All of Miyuki’s emotions disappeared from her face, and she stood with her arm
- extended. But right before she activated Cocytus, Minami shouted.
- “Please stop!”
- Minami called for Miyuki to stop and ran to Minoru, covering him as she spread her
- arms to the side. She got in Miyuki’s way to defend Minoru.
- “Minami chan, what are you…” Miyuki mumbled and astonished but she quickly
- recovered.
- She did not try to persuade Minami – Minami herself didn’t understand why she was
- doing what she was doing.
- …also, it wasn’t clear how Minoru would act.
- Miyuki started to activate Cocytus, but she was forced to ask Minami to stop
- instead.
- “Minami-chan, don’t do that!”
- Minami was trying to activate her barrier magic.
- “Miyuki-sama, please! Stop!”
- “Why…”
- Miyuki didn’t know what to do – if she used magic, so would Minami. Minami’s
- magic blocked physical events, and it couldn’t stop Cocytus. However, Minami’s
- magic calculation area had been overheated, and if she tried to use magic again… it
- could even deprive her of her life.
- “Minami-san, I’m sorry!”
- Minoru took advantage of Miyuki’s indecision. He stretched his hand around
- Minami’s waist and jumped back with her, slipping through the air towards the
- stairs. Miyuki quickly went out of the ward, but she stopped when she saw
- Minami’s glance from over Minoru’s shoulder.
- If Miyuki attacked Minoru, Minami would defend him from it. Miyuki feared the
- consequences which bound her thinking.
- Minoru escaped from the hospital through the window of the landing, but
- Miyuki did not see it.
- She ran back to the ward, and after making several mistakes while operating the
- terminal, finally managed to call Tatsuya’s communicator.
- ◊ ◊ ◊
- “Onii-sama, Minami-chan...!”
- Miyuki’s desperate cry returned tension in Tatsuya’s heart right as he calmed down.
- “Miyuki, what happened?” he hurried to ask, trying to calm down as he held back the
- trepidation that came along with the tension.
- “Minami-chan is with Minoru-kun!”
- “He could still kidnap her!?” Tatsuya exclaimed.
- “Yes! No!”
- Miyuki’s response was completely meaningless. She was clearly very worried.
- “Miyuki, I'll be back as soon as possible.”
- Tatsuya didn’t further interrogate Miyuki.
- “Do you hear me, Miyuki? I’m coming back to you.”
- “...Yes.”
- Tatsuya’s words diminished Miyuki’s panic, if only a little.
- “Miyuki. I'm leaving now.”
- “Yes, okay!”
- After finishing his conversation with Miyuki, Tatsuya faced Lina.
- “Tatsuya, go,” Lina spoke first. “I’ll figure it out here. You should hurry to Miyuki.”
- “I’ll rely on you then, Lina.”
- Without saying anything to Ayako or Fumiya, Tatsuya ran to the aircar. It pulled
- forward as soon as he sat in the driver’s seat, and Ayako turned at the sound.
- As Ayako, Lina, and Hyogo silently watched, the light-blue care flew off towards
- Tokyo.
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