by Sato Tsutomu
Along the way, he sensed two invocations of oscillation type magic.
He was able to see from behind the fight, an attacker receive a bottom of the palm strike and tumble down onto the road.
Within his mind, Naotsugu murmured, ‘did that boy use magic arts?’.
The dossier did not mention this information.
Since this was not information worth concealing, the dossier makers had probably not gotten a hold of this detail.
There seemed to be various other hidden gems of information.
Naotsugu’s interest in the observation target — in the current situation, he was switching it to subject of protection — ‘Shiba Tatsuya’ deepened inside him.
Good grief, just what is his fighting ability…
Nevertheless, there would be other chances to check that out. Naotsugu was a person who drew a line between private and business matters. (At least, he thought himself as such)
He pressed the switch on the armament device he was holding in his hand.
The short baton morphed into a kodachi.
Naotsugu had modified the newly developed product that the Chiba clan had just begun to supply to law enforcement for his personal use.
He preferred convenient, easily replaced, general use weapons to unique high quality weapons like ‘Ikazuchimaru’ and ‘Orochimaru’.
Weapons were fundamentally tools to be used and replaced. Besides, even famous blades became dull with use.
It was an ironic thought for someone who styled himself as ‘one of the world’s greatest magicians in combat within a three meter limit’.
The boy which he had to protect made a great leap backward.
The information contained in the dossier concerning the troops facing the boy displayed itself in Naotsugu’s brain.
His opponents were Stardust — modified magicians attached to the USNA, no, they were weapons made from the bodies of magicians. A suicide squad constructed of magicians who were certain to have no more than a few years left to live who had been strengthened and altered. In Stardust, there existed groups that had various abilities. Naotsugu was able to learn that the unit that the boy was now facing were soldiers modified for close combat.
If I don’t have long to live then I don’t want to die a futile death……they had been brainwashed to turn their thoughts in that way without a doubt, but Naotsugu did not think of it as evil. Instead he felt sympathetic, they were gambling their lives on a mission — not theoretically — literally.
Nevertheless, that made them dangerous opponents.
Suicide soldiers were the toughest soldiers in the world.
No matter how skilled the boy was, they were probably too much for a high school student to handle.
Naotsugu interposed himself between Tatsuya and Stardust.
Tatsuya had already grasped that he was under observation. He had even known that it was the USNA and another party.
Nevertheless, he hadn’t anticipated intervention within this short time period. Tatsuya had believed that the other party would remain as onlookers.
The fact that the newcomer turned his back to Tatsuya probably meant that the newcomer wasn’t an enemy at least in the current situation.
He even knew who this person was from the profile he’d seen when the man had intervened.
Erika’s second eldest brother.
However, Tatsuya did not know the reason why Naotsugu was lending Tatsuya his assistance in this fight.
"Shiba-kun"
Tatsuya had also not expected to be spoken to.
"My name is Chiba Naotsugu. I am the elder brother of your classmate, Chiba Erika."
That the man would personally identify himself was also unexpected.
"I will deal with this situation. Retreat behind me."
As expected, there was not an explanation, but this was not the occasion for that.
"Thank you."
If he was going to say leave it to me then Tatsuya wasn’t going to contradict him.
As he retreated at a rapid pace, Tatsuya discerned indications from Naotsugu’s back that he was going to make an under shoulder swing.
Naotsugu had probably expected him to make some kind of "I will fight, too!" statement.
Unfortunately, Tatsuya did not have that kind of egotistical personality. If a specialist said fall back, all he would do is meekly obey. —As long as it was to his advantage.
Naotsugu’s sudden intrusion confused his adversaries for several seconds.
Since one opponent was already down, the four remaining masked figures produced guns from somewhere and pointed at Naotsugu.
CADs answered the speed factor that was significant in modern magic.
Even so, taking off the safety from a gun is faster than constructing the magic sequence needed to process the activation sequence. At this distance, it wasn’t necessary to spend time aiming.
These men were probably extremely accustomed to real fights. Rather than relying on their unique magic skills, they chose an option that eliminated the hindrance to speed without hesitation. Abandoning magic did not mean not using it at all, a movement type magic — an activation of magic that halted flying objects was simultaneously proceeding. Probably, to deal with any airborne tools their opponent might have.
They were armed with guns and shielded with magic.
They were using their faculties to their best effect. As he thought, their true fighting potential had probably been hampered by their need to ‘to capture Tatsuya alive’. Don’t ask questions, just destroy the enemy; without a doubt, that was their original fighting style. The fighting style was extremely pragmatic and sufficient to take down the average enemy.
However, Chiba Naotsugu was not an ordinary opponent.
Faster than the men could pull the trigger, Naotsugu had closed the distance. Unquestionably, aside from the man Naotsugu had closed with, they had all lost sight of him. His speed was such that even Tatsuya would have lost track of him if he hadn’t been concentrating.
As he passed by, the kodachi flashed. He had added a black border to the edge of his blade.
The hand holding the gun fell from the wrist down. The point of repulsion produced by the edge of the blade of the kodachi as it moved from left to right parted skin, flesh, and bone with astounding pressure.
His adversaries were probably aware of the instant slashing attack executed with the weight type magic ‘pressure cut’.
Unconcerned with their comrade’s cry of pain, the three men redirected their guns at Naotsugu.
The bullets penetrated Naotsugu’s afterimage.
To the BGM of glass breaking and painful moans, Naotsugu bridged the gap between his opponents.
Despite it not being the swiftness of the gods, the soldiers could not keep him in their gun sights.
Their fields of vision were too full of real and false images of their target.
Even Tatsuya watching from behind was not confident that he’d be able to perceive Naotsugu’s true whereabouts if he was facing him at point blank range.
The root of the trick was to continually cycle between charging and freezing.
Due to Naotsugu repeatedly charging, freezing, changing direction, charging, and freezing, afterimages were being produced in his adversaries’ retinas.
Originally, the logic of sword technique abhorred suspension or in other words ‘being still’. Without going into the fine details of the theory, being still was stiffening the muscles, halting the movement of the legs meant fixing the legs in a state where the leg muscles were stiffened, being still could lead to collapsing.
However, that was the case when only the muscles were moving.
Naotsugu used ‘Beginning’ in short, by controlling his body’s first movement with magic, he could switch from being at a complete standstill to top speed without a time lag.
Nevertheless, saying this was easy, doing it in combat was incredibly difficult.
Movement proceeding thought was the natural state i
n the world of martial arts. It was said that if you did not move before thinking then you would never become first class.
What Naotsugu was doing could be called the body’s movements surpassing thought even beyond the invoking of magic.
Come to think of it, with the ‘pressure cut’ from a little while ago, Naotsugu went from being an onlooker observing the adversary from far enough away in the area that he could not be sensed to instantly invoking and instantly finishing off an opponent. To do that without being able to read his opponents intentions, he probably did not take any countermeasures.
This switching, indeed this on and off speed was without a doubt the essence of the techniques that made Chiba Naotsugu one of the top ten martial artists in the world, Tatsuya thought.
While Tatsuya had been analyzing Naotsugu’s fighting abilities, all of the masked men had been rendered powerless.
Naotsugu lowered the hand holding the kodachi.
He did not visibly relax his vigilance, but it felt like he was less tense.
It was the same for Tatsuya as well.
He must thank him for his assistance, as he took his third step towards Naotsugu,
an intense sense of danger assaulted Tatsuya.
Naotsugu probably sensed it as well. Tatsuya hit the deck and Naotsugu raised his kodachi almost simultaneously.
Afterwards,
a shining ray attacked Naotsugu.
The kodachi was attacked by the shining ray — a high energy plasma beam.
As the blade took a direct hit, the beam parted left and right.
The point where ‘pressure cut’ would form a point of repulsion was probably bending the raging stream of plasma.
However, the electromagnetic wave’s influence would not be enough to block it.
The shining ray disappeared.
Strangely, the plasma beam disappeared before it reached the buildings along the road.
Naotsugu’s body trembled slightly as he stood stock still with his kodachi raised. His muscles were probably convulsing from being bathed in the electromagnetic waves shielding him at point blank range. It was probably like having his whole body receive the full force of a stun gun.
Tatsuya directed his eyes to where he estimated the ray had been fired from.
Far away, in the center of a roadway shrouded in darkness.
Floating leisurely in the street light,
with deep crimson hair and golden eyes.
Something cane-like was pointed in this direction. The masked magician, ‘Angie Sirius’ was looking at Tatsuya with a gaze of invitation.
(To be continued)
Afterword
Firstly, to those who picked up this book, I offer my gratitude from the depths of my heart. To the first-timers, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you, and if this is not your first time, I thank you for following this series.
This series, Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei, is one with quite a fair amount of characters but, the guest heroine for this “Visitor Chapter” is the first of its kind to appear I believe. It is also the first time a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl appeared too, is it not?
Regarding this series getting an unusual blonde, young lady, during a meeting for the ninth volume, I had a conversation with the one in charge that went something along the lines of:
In-charge: “You know, I kind of really like those good-for-nothing, lazy beauties you know.”
Me: “Well, Lina does fit those characteristics a bit but she is more of a striking, yet worn-out beauty. However, she is very cute, is she not? Rather, those types of characters are very cute.”
Thus, Lina gained a new character attribute. Well, from the start, she was molded to be an unfortunate young lady except during battle, but she wasn’t this incompetent. … … But she is definitely cute, wouldn’t you agree?
Speaking of characters that have changed, a bitter(?) highlight in this volume, shows Kuroba Mitsugu’s personality is completely different from before. In truth, it is because of the influence of the Drama DVD on me. The honourable voice actor who played Kuroba Mitsugu’s nicely adlibbed line completely reformed his character.
My, an actor’s performance is quite incredible right? It was quite an experience thanks to the combined efforts of everyone involved in the production.
Now then, the next volume is finally the end of the “Visitor Chapter”. This middle volume (II) had “Continued in the next volume!” but don’t think that (III) will say some sort of incredibly mouthful line like “To be continued in the final volume of this chapter” so please be relieved. The first year portion of the story is brought to a close with a suitable climatic ending I prepared so please do look forward to the next volume “Visitor Chapter (III)"
(Satou Tsutomu)
Notes
↑ Courtesy Chocolate or Giri choco is given out of politeness and does not indicate that the giver has any romantic feelings for the recipient.
↑ In Japan, girls give gifts on Valentine's day and one month later boys give a return gift on White Day
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