Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 06 - Yokohama Disturbance Chapter (I)

by Sato Tsutomu

  "Yoshida-kun, let me treat you to a meal as well!"

  Mikihiko was once again following Sawaki only to find himself meeting with the leader for the compensatory team. What terrible timing, Mikihiko thought. Now, the only people left in the combat center were largely Year 2 students. There were some Year 1 students selected as part of the security detachment, but unfortunately, he just met most of them for the first time today. Actually, since he was famished right now, his timing should be perfect. However, eating with these people would turn the food to ashes in his mouth, Mikihiko thought.

  Regardless, he should still decline, Mikihiko thought. Just as he was considering this, he felt an odd gaze filled with unease and hopeful relaxation fall upon him. Normally, "hopeful" and "unease" are opposite one another, but that earlier gaze plainly had a "relaxed" feeling. Quite concerned about that, Mikihiko couldn't help but follow that gaze. When their eyes met, a familiar (of course) girl's face leaped into his eyes.

  At Mikihiko's surprise, Mizuki hurriedly turned her face and revealed a warm smile.

  Thanks to Mizuki, now Mikihiko didn't have any way to escape — that was probably true no matter which excuse he spun — so Mikihiko could only sit in the outer circle of boys.

  This appeared to be the last station for delivering meals. The young ladies from the compensatory squad sat primly with the sandwiches for the bentos on their lap (there were sandwiches and rice balls with meat for the boys). Probably pitying the hopeful stares from the bachelors in the security group, the evidence was that the female students were preoccupied with handing out towels and pouring tea before sitting down on the mats in the gym.

  By the time Mikihiko took a seat, the compensatory squad was practically finished with their duties. The forcibly conscripted Mikihiko also sat on the mat, but his upbringing immediately prompted him to adjust his seating posture before accepting a bento box from the young lady sitting across from him. There was no need to identify this young woman because he had been following her from the corner of his eye whenever he had a chance.

  "Thank you, Shibata-san."

  An embarrassed look flooded Mizuki's face at Mikihiko's formal reply. While there were quite a few upperclassmen (mainly women) who secretly laughed at this scene, no one was rude enough to actually bother them. The students of the far famed First High were better than that. How would they be able to witness such a hilarious scene if someone openly mocked them?

  —Mizuki and Mikihiko were unaware of the devious thoughts of those surrounding them. Neither of them had the spare time to do that. While she had plotted ahead of time to sit next to him, even though they were classmates, Mizuki didn't have the courage to initiate a conversation with a boy while surrounded by so many upperclassmen. On the other hand, Mikihiko's family had a lot of women studying their style (the Shinto System and Ancient Magic shared this distinction), so it wasn't like he was inept at carrying a conversation with a woman, but Mizuki's completely flushed and embarrassed expression caused him to be overly self-conscious and unable to broach any subject.

  The end result was — in the eyes of their innocent observers, this was the bittersweet atmosphere of "first love". Not only were the young women using warm eyes to offer support, even the combat-orientated boys that had no connection with romance had noticed the peculiar atmosphere between Mikihiko and Mizuki. Whenever Mizuki poured tea for Mikihiko, her hands would frantically retreat whenever their fingertips occasionally touched. Whenever this sort of theatrics usually reserved for clandestine meetings on a bridge occurred, a flood of wordless killing intent and cheers would spring forth from their watchers.

  Until now, the clueless duo had no idea that they were providing entertainment for dinner, but they were aware that "something seems to be off (really)?" The two of them possessed this degree of sensitivity and were getting slightly uncomfortable in the middle of the stares they had unknowingly engendered, especially Mizuki. Her fidgety appearance was becoming more and more obvious. Finally, she said something vague along the lines of "Ah, I, uh" and erratically stood up — rather, tried to stand.

  Speaking of which, modern Japanese culture no longer called for kneeling on cushions. Sitting on chairs had already become the norm and the only people who still knelt were those engaged in martial arts, paired instruction, or religious practice. Essentially, they were all individuals engaged in special training. Nonetheless, society still held the stereotype that "women should kneel", so most of the young ladies in the compensatory squad were kneeling. Still, upperclassmen often secretly used Weight-Type Magic to lighten the load. Even Year 2 students in Course 2 knew how to use this sort of magic that didn't rely on speed without a CAD. Of course, the effect would only kick in ten to thirty seconds later, so whenever these ladies fell into brief lull of silence, they were secretly invoking Weight-Type Magic. The boys were all well aware of this point, so no one was going to start a conversation with one of the girls who suddenly fell quiet.

  However, for Year 1 students and especially Mizuki, who was in Course 2, this was something beyond them at this point. Strictly speaking, she wasn't even aware that there was a trick to "reduce her weight using magic while kneeling". In addition, she never really practiced kneeling on a mat—

  "Ah!?"

  —So naturally, her feet went numb.

  Seeing Mizuki wobbling on her feet and letting out a small shriek as she fell, Mikihiko immediately reached out a helping hand, but he still wasn't going to make it in time. He maintained a kneeling position and caught Mizuki's upper body. Since all his concentration was focused on not falling down together, Mikihiko never consciously noticed exactly where he was putting his hands.

  After halting their momentum, Mikihiko let out a long sigh. It was then he noticed that he was facing the back of Mizuki's head. In other words, he was more or less in a posture that was hugging Mizuki from behind. He also noticed exactly what that firm, soft feeling was in his two hands......

  Mikihiko's mental facilities ground to a dead halt. But his thought betrayed his intention, he recognized the true identity of what was grabbed by his hands. At this time, Mizuki's consciousness finally rebooted and accurately deciphered what her current situation was.

  "———!?"

  "S-S-Sorry!"

  Mizuki let out a soundless scream of despair and started shaking. At this, Mikihiko frantically let go of both hands. Without any support, Mizuki's body started tilting forward as she fell forward, using her hands to support herself on the mat, placing all four limbs on the ground and her rear towards Mikihiko, a result that terrified Mizuki even more. As she stumbled to her feet, her numb feet caused her fall back on her rear once more. Owing to her sudden chain of surprising motions, her skirt had flipped upwards, revealing a significant proportion of her sock clad feet, shins, and even her thighs. This time, Mizuki used a blazing speed that normally wouldn't be attributed to her to swiftly restore herself to a kneeling position that "women were supposed to be" with her two hands tightly clasping the hem of her skirt. Her already flushed face was now completely burning red. Her eyes laced with tears, she strove back to her feet and didn't fall over this time before fleeing from the gym.

  "What the heck are you staring for! Go after her, Yoshida-kun!"

  Mikihiko was just standing there and staring blankly at Mizuki's back when he was roused by a nameless female upperclassman scolding him and hurriedly leaped to his feet. After running out of the building, he doubled back inside and grabbed his shoes from the rack. After grabbing a pair of slippers for Mizuki, who had fled without getting her shoes, he once again chased after the figure who had already disappeared out of sight.

  Chapter 7

  Even though today was Sunday, Tatsuya still had to go to school.

  Not for remedial classes. There was still one week until the Thesis Competition, so of course he still had to make preparations.

  But right now, he was headed in an entirely different direction than school on board his beloved electric motorcycle. His
sister's pristine arms were wrapped tightly around his waist, her soft bosom was pressed against his back.

  This wasn't a date.

  Nor was it a simple trip.

  Their destination was the FLT research labs. Heeding Yakumo's suggestion, they were going to return the relic specimen. He wasn't going to return it to the company, but 3rd Research Division that served as Taurus Silver's operational headquarters. While there weren't any plans yet to begin the analysis there, Sayuri had already expressed her consent when he got the specimen, so there wouldn't be a problem if the specimen was stolen from there. (Shouldn't be.)

  They forewent public transit because they were worried about another attack.

  At full speed, it would take roughly an hour to reach the research lab. Public transit took a longer detour, so it was far more expedient to take the motorcycle. For Tatsuya, who had rigorously trained his physical body, and Miyuki, who was capable of using inertial resistance magic, there was normally no need to take a break for a trip of this distance. However, shortly after leaving the city proper, Tatsuya pulled over the motorcycle next to a cafe that opened in the morning.

  After urging the confused Miyuki indoors and taking a seat by the windows, Tatsuya finally answered his sister's questions after ordering two drinks (they already ate breakfast at home).

  "We're being pursued."

  Resting both elbows on the table, Tatsuya covered his mouth with his interlaced fingers and whispered to Miyuki.

  "Eh!?"

  Miyuki was barely able to suppress her volume.

  "I didn't notice it at all...... Is it a car? Or a motorcycle like us?"

  She leaned her head forward and whispered in her brother's ear.

  The blushing waitress might have turned her head aside, but given her frequent, sly glances this way, she was only pretending not to see them. Of course, Miyuki wouldn't bother contemplating what the servers would think. (Speaking of which, she probably hadn't noticed her actions would easily lead to a misunderstanding.)

  "It's a crow."

  Tatsuya's concise answer prompted a "Ha?" from Miyuki as her eyes widened while she briefly turned the idea over in her head.

  "......A familiar, is it......?"

  "Yeah. And with a chemical congregation, too."

  There were observation systems that were avian machines disguised as animals, devices buried within animals, using Ancient Magic on animals, or a chemical congregation in the shape of a bird.

  Chemical congregations are objects that have materialized due to pushion energy.

  The physical form was only for appearances' sake and was created by using psion particles as a foundation and applying life-refracting illusion magic to create the figure, then applying Weight, Speed, Move-Type Magics or a field with similar effects so as to give off the impression of a physical body.

  On the surface, creating a chemical congregation seemed like a pointless exercise, but applying a few simple magics to the medium would allow the user to see and feel through the medium, making it a simple task to issue orders to the medium with a few simple changes. At the same time, creating one of them was a fairly simple process.

  "......Doesn't appear to be a Magician from this country. Where did this Magician come from?"

  Only Ancient Magic possessed the magic to create chemical congregations. The name "chemical congregation" was applied by modern magic researchers when they were researching Ancient Magic. What Miyuki meant was that it had been a long time since this country used chemical congregations as familiars. Today, most Ancient Magic users used familiars that didn't possess a physical body.

  After the waitress brought the coffee and milk tea, Tatsuya spoke again.

  Although he was wordlessly matching Miyuki's gaze while waiting for their drinks, this only deepened the misunderstanding. However, the two of them were either slow on the draw or just that thick since they didn't betray any reaction at the surrounding stares sent their way.

  "Their identity remains unknown. If Mikihiko were here, he might be able to tell us."

  Tatsuya set their cups aside and took hold of Miyuki's hand.

  A ruckus broke out around them, causing the two of them to notice how conspicuous they were. Still, retracing their hands in embarrassment would only be admitting defeat, and there was a pressing need for them to hold hands. His sister wore an expression that conveyed her helplessness at the misunderstanding, while Tatsuya continued onward with a serious expression on his face — that only served to fuel the flames.

  "It would be unwise to lead it all the way to the research labs."

  "............"

  "Miyuki?"

  "Eh, ah, yes, you're right."

  Tatsuya wanted to cover his head and sigh at the sight of his sister's wandering eyes and mystified expression, but managed to throttle that urge.

  "The chemical congregation's location is here."

  Tatsuya transformed the image of the chemical congregation as a target into psion signals and passed it across their joined hands into Miyuki's unconscious magic calculation area in her nervous system.

  The moment magic is invoked, Magicians need to plug in the target's data into the magic calculation area. This data is every Magician's perception in digitized form and was something that generally couldn't be shared. Tatsuya and Miyuki were using magic unique to the Yotsuba Family and thus were able to transfer psion signals through physical contact.

  "Miyuki, take it down."

  A simple order.

  At this time, Miyuki returned to a more serious expression.

  "......Understood."

  After a brief hesitation, Miyuki nodded.

  Miyuki wasn't going to disobey Tatsuya's order.

  The cause of her hesitation came from her understanding that magic sniping was her brother's area of expertise and that she was far less capable than her brother in this regard.

  "Right now, I don't want to reveal my hand yet. The target will flee in the time I take to bring up the CAD. Miyuki, it's up to you."

  "Yes!"

  Excitement suffused Miyuki's face as there was no way she wouldn't give it her all once her brother asked it of her.

  And so, with the fingers of her right hand interlaced with Tatsuya's left, she slightly dipped her head and lowered her eyelashes — her embarrassed posture was certainly ironic for these siblings. Beneath the table, her concealed left hand swiftly brought out a CAD and started operating it.

  There was practically no delay for her magic invocation.

  Tatsuya's "sight" beheld the familiar's body instantly freezing along with the magic that was sustaining that fake body, causing the chemical congregation of psion particles to scatter.

  "Seemed like an amateur......"

  "Eh? What?"

  Miyuki piped up from the back seat after hearing Tatsuya's murmuring. Her posture hadn't changed from before, with both arms wrapped around her brother's waist and her chest and face pressed tightly against her brother's back.

  She was still in an ebullient mood after flawlessly destroying the familiar in the cafe and her brother's subsequent praise, so even her voice was filled with joy.

  In this situation, objectively speaking she was being careless, but no one would reprimand her here. Her conversation partner did not do so and merely answered her question.

  "We only had one pursuer using long distance magic who attacked Sayuri first and then tried to follow us. In other words, their target is undoubtedly the Magatama. Of the suspicious crowd recently lurking around us, a portion of them must be here for the relic. But if that's the case, their determination wasn't enough."

  "Wasn't it because Onii-sama's airtight defenses? There's a huge risk picking a bone with Onii-sama over a second-rate relic after all."

  Miyuki's answers always automatically triggered her bro-con concerns, actions of reflex born of powerful thoughts and feelings.

  (So, that's just risk and reward, is it......?)

  However, within Miyuki's perfectly natura
l answer, Tatsuya felt that he had caught a glimpse of the true nature behind this sequence of events.

  ◇◇◇

  They lost them. When Chen heard this report, he clenched his teeth as a bitter expression crossed his face. Originally, he was unhappy with such a passive stance like remote observation in areas he couldn't reach (where neither he nor his opponents could reach). On top of that, their opponents had realized this in 15 minutes and taken out their observer. This tragic turnout of events only deepened his displeasure.

  (All this did was raise our opponent's hackles.)

  Even if he tore them a new one, his incompetent minions would only shrink back even more, so Chen chose not to say anything. Yet, a burning fury was plainly spreading from his body.

  "Do we know where Shiba Tatsuya is heading?"

  "They should be heading for the FLT research labs of the R&D 3rd Division."

  The subordinate who answered Chen's question was overly nervous. In order to avoid angering his superior, he had chosen the most limited answer that was least likely to rouse his wrath.

  "ETA?"

  "Approximately 40 minutes from now."

  Looks like he couldn't just keep asking one question at a time.

  "As soon as they arrive at the estimated time, order the network team to immediately attack the FLT research labs."

  Without waiting for his subordinate's reply, Chen already gave out the next set of orders for the mission.

  ◇◇◇

  This morning, the research lab inhabited by the individuals whom the workers at the FLT main branch derided as "Captain Taurus and his companions", the R&D 3rd Division, was consumed by chaos that was completely abnormal.

  "—Hurry up and cut all the lines before wasting time worrying about it! Copy? Make as many as you can and that's it!"