by Sato Tsutomu
"Likewise. Onii-sama is engaged in battle, I cannot stand by and do nothing."
"M-Me too!"
"I will contact my father to arrange for company helicopters."
"I am not of the Ten Master Clans or the Hundred Families...... But since all the girls from the lower grades are staying behind, how can I slink away with a tail between my legs?"
"Me too. I have confidence in my own skills."
"I shall stay as well. Although I do not have Erika-chan, Kirihara-kun, or everyone's might, allow me to make my amends."
"The Yoshida Family is not of the Hundred Families...... But we are also recipients of preferential treatment."
"Well, I don't have any power, but at least I can serve as everyone's 'eyes'......"
"......The underclassmen all want to stay, how can we just flee?"
"Indeed. I'm uneasy at leaving Mayumi behind by herself. Maybe there will be something Mayumi unexpectedly overlooked."
"I say......"
After Suzune's comment, Mayumi finally voiced her objection,
"Speaking of which...... I guess everyone here is an idiot too......"
This was no act. This was Mayumi honestly sighing in "despair", her beautiful face filled with resignation as she turned back to Fujibayashi.
"It's just as you heard. Seriously, my children are all so willfully disobedient...... I apologize for not being able to take up your kind offer."
Seeing Mayumi bow deeply in apology and the group behind her avert their eyes like miscreants, Fujibayashi appeared to be very serious on the surface, but inwardly she found this to be highly interesting.
"No, they're quite trustworthy. Allow me to leave a few subordinates behind."
"No, there's no such need!"
That voice did not come from the crowd of First High students but came from behind Fujibayashi instead.
"Inspector?"
"Toshi-nii?"
Two different names for the same person.
Inspector Chiba turned to face Fujibayashi, who had referred to him as "Inspector".
"Just as the military's duty is to repel the invader, it is the police's task to safeguard civilians. We will remain here. Fujibayashi...... Ahem, Lieutenant Fujibayashi, please rendezvous with your unit."
"Understood. Inspector Chiba, I leave this in your hands."
This superb entrance was coupled with a suitably dramatic declaration.
Yet Fujibayashi didn't even react to this as she saluted smartly and departed swiftly.
"Hm......What a wonderful woman."
"Ha, dream on. She's not the type of woman who'll fall into Toshi-nii's hands."
Unfortunately, the words he mumbled to himself were mercilessly dashed by his sister's retort, causing Inspector Chiba to truly stand there "speechlessly".
◊ ◊ ◊
In the parking garage reserved for large cars and special vehicles where Third High students were locked in combat with irregulars, approximately half of them were unable to join in the fighting. —Because they were emptying out the contents of their stomach.
"Ichijou, can't you hold back a little!"
"You too senpai, please retreat."
The culprit was Masaki, not that he cared about the reprimand.
He was pointing a handgun-shaped Specialized CAD stained in the scent of blood at the guerillas of unknown nationality.
A blood red flower bloomed, and sprinkled down.
Oomph, the sound of another person covering their mouth traveled to Masaki's ears.
Every time he killed a man, both his side's and the enemy's morale dropped a bit.
(If this is enough to terrify you, you should never have stepped onto the battlefield in the first place.)
Regardless of how those eyes perceived him or what words were directed towards him, Masaki coldly ignored them all.
His perspective was correct. Indisputably correct.
However — how many soldiers could calmly witness human bodies rupturing and blood (more like red blood cells) scattering like dust?
The Ichijou Family's secret technique, "Rupture".
Magic that was able to instantaneously vaporize fluids within a physical object.
When used on humans, blood would vaporize and the subsequent pressure would tear through muscle and skin. Red blood cells, which made up the majority of the composition of blood, would then scatter outwards like a crimson flower that was blooming.
Besides a select minority, his classmates and upperclassmen found out for the first time what it meant to be known as "Crimson".
◊ ◊ ◊
From the other side, which was the command center located on the bridge of the camouflaged amphibious vessel that successfully launched their surprise attack, the area was covered in an atmosphere which was radically different than one of complete success.
"We lost communication with the unit sent to the underground shelter. There is also no reply from the bipedal tanks."
The Commanding Officer(CO) of the unit, who was also the captain of the camouflaged amphibious vessel, had a sour look on his face when he received the signal officer's report. His original plan called for the infiltrated operatives to take hostages before he committed the mechanized troops.
However, the losses of the plainclothes operatives greatly exceeded initial estimates. This was especially true for the squads sent to the international conference center and the parking garage for large vehicles, where casualties were heavy. The captain judged the strategy that called for their feint to allow the operatives to do the majority of the work regretfully needed a little reworking.
"Allow the mechanized troops to land!"
He gave the order to launch the bipedal tanks and APCs manufactured in their own country.
◊ ◊ ◊
"......So? Why is Toshi-nii here?"
In a corner of the plaza before the station, the Chiba siblings were putting on a not-quite-warm reunion (?) act. (The older brother was quite happy, so maybe a reunion was not incorrect.)
As for why they were in the "corner", that was because neither Erika nor Toshikazu were adept at cleaning up the bipedal tanks' wreckage, interrogating the captured pilots, or clearing the area so the helicopters could land. —Although saying that the currently active Inspector Toshikazu was "inept at interrogation" was a problem in its own right.
At any rate, that was the reason why the two of them were loitering (in defense of their honor, Kirihara and Sayaka were doing the same).
Still, at least Toshikazu didn't mind that he didn't really contribute much to this situation — Inagaki was — so he was enjoying this verbal spar with his little sister, who stood there with both hands on her hips.
"The fact that you ask me why thoroughly saddens me. Is there anything strange with a kindhearted older brother wanting to help out his dear little sister?"
"Kindhearted!? You have a lot of gall saying those hypocritical words......"
"Hey, hey, Erika, a young lady should not use terms like 'gall'."
"You! And now you dare to talk to me like I'm some sort of Ojou-sama. Do you even have the right!?"
"Ah, how terrible...... It's obvious that I love my little sister dearly."
Maybe Toshikazu went too far in feigning silliness, but the excited Erika swiftly calmed down. Seeing his sister's expression change to one that was watching him with cold eyes, Toshikazu sighed as if bored.
"At least my coming to help is definitely true."
Toshikazu said this with a bored expression and indolent tone, but upon seeing his sister sneer at him, he suddenly wore a mischievous smirk.
"Is that the right attitude, Erika?"
"What do you mean?"
Erika's expression wilted slightly. The other person is stronger, that was the impression — an uncomfortable feeling she didn't know how to handle since her early childhood years and wasn't something that could be easily erased.
"I brought something nice for you."
"Something nice? I don't wa
nt something like that."
Even so, Erika still held out — stubborn and refusing to capitulate. Chiba Toshikazu was one of two people that Erika would never surrender to.
Not only was this something Toshikazu approved of, this was also something his sister always aimed for since her childhood.
"Don't be like that. Today, this is something you absolutely need."
For Toshikazu, "Little Erika" was the cute little sister whom anyone wanted to tease. Now, she was standing much stronger and cuter than before. "Let's just end it here," he said with with mischievous thoughts running through his head as he brought out a long, curved object from the cargo truck.
Seeing the silhouette, Erika was at a loss for words.
Removing the thin outer covering, Toshikazu handed the odachi to Erika.
The entire length ran 180 cm and was even longer than Erika's height.
Just the blade alone was 140 cm long.
For a tachi the curvature was too shallow, making it an unnatural shape—
"Orochimaru? Why is that here......?"
"Why? What a ridiculous question, Erika. Orochimaru is the blade forged to use 'Yamatsunami', and you are the only who can perform 'Yamatsunami'. Neither our father nor Naotsugu can use 'Yamatsunami'. Although they can mimic the form, the only one who can 'truly use' that is you. In other words, Orochimaru exists for you to wield."
Erika's hands shook as she accepted the odachi.
She tightly gripped this weight that was sufficient to send her swaying back and forth and finally stopped shivering.
The Chiba Family forged the strongest weapons. Just like Ikazuchimaru, this was the pinnacle of sword-type armament forged by the Chiba Family, the secret weapon that was the source of their pride.
Even for the briefest of moments, to be granted the freedom to wield this blade was something Erika never even dared to dream of.
"You look delighted."
Hearing her brother's voice, her head violently rose.
The earlier resistance she bore towards her brother had vanished. Erika's entire being was focused on Orochimaru.
If she had to say why, that was because this sword—
"Are you that happy to hold the beloved sword you see as an extension of yourself, Erika? Hm...... So that's the case. No matter what our father or Naotsugu think, Erika, you are a true daughter of the Chiba Family."
"......Hmph! I'll say thank you this time."
"That's why young ladies should be so brusque......"
Without waiting for Toshikazu to finish, Erika turned and left.
Seeing Erika prance away with Orochimaru in her hands, Toshikazu smiled in delight at his sister's easily understood attitude.
◊ ◊ ◊
"Do you have any new intel?"
His upper body stuck inside the pilot's seat of the bipedal tank, Isori heard a voice behind him, so he pulled himself out and shook his head.
"No. I'm not very good with weapons and I think this is an older model purchased in the second hand markets. There's no way to identify nationality."
"There are second hand markets for weapons?"
Noticing the shocked expression on Mayumi's face as she asked this question, Isori smiled and nodded his head.
"There are even second hand markets for fighter jets. In small scale conflicts, weapons from the last World War are still seeing service."
Hmph~, despite Mayumi's gentle smile of admiration, Isori felt a rather miffed aura beside him.
At this time, he could tell who that was without even bothering to take a look.
Isori reined in his expression and once again glanced at Mayumi.
"Generally, weapons purchased from second hand markets in allied countries tend to be cheaper. Given that this bipedal tank is manufactured in Eastern Europe, the chance that these guys are operatives from the Great Asian Alliance is quite high...... However, in order to get at their motives, we still need intelligence out of the pilot."
"But, will he just give that up?"
"That depends on Mari's skills."
Mayumi shrugged her shoulders at Kanon's obvious question.
"Then I'm off to clean up the area."
Watching Isori lightly nod and head off with Kanon pressed close against him, Mayumi walked towards where Mari was conducting her interrogation.
Besides slight frostbite on their faces, the two bound pilots showed no signs of external injury.
Inagaki was questioning one of them while Mari handled the other one.
"How is it going?"
Mayumi sidled alongside Mari and simply asked about the situation.
"Silence. If I knew this would happen, I would have brought a stronger perfume......"
Unable to obtain a satisfactory result, Mari was starting to get a little anxious.
"There's nothing we can do about that. Our condition for interrogating Sekimoto today was that all chemicals were forbidden."
Publicly acknowledged as an anti-personnel combat specialist, Mari excelled not only in magic and swordsmanship, but also smaller weapons and even chemical weapons.
One of her favored tactics was to manipulate the air flow to direct pheromones into the enemy's nose.
This evil woman also carried hidden perfume on her that could directly affect her opponent's mental status (which was practically a crime).
Now, she was using this chemical on her bound opponent in a clandestine fashion, but to no avail.
"Well, there's always torture."
"Wait, no matter what we......"
Hearing Mari utter that dangerous phrase, Mayumi hurriedly put a stop to this.
"Relax. I have confidence that I will only cause pain and suffering without leaving any visible injuries."
"That's not what I'm talking about! ......Mari, why don't you take a break?"
"......That's true, I'll catch a quick breather."
She must have realized that she was too highly strung.
Mari waved her hands at Mayumi and moved towards where Suzune sat on a bench with a map unfurled in front of her.
On the floor in front of where Suzune sat on the bench (covered of course), an intricately detailed map was being projected.
Suzune used the terminal to open the map while Honoka refracted light to project it.
This was a detailed map of the local shoreline where they were that stretched from Sakuragi-chō to Sangechō.
There, another projection showed newly added ships, crowds of people, and the scenery of the local streets.
"Ho, how impressive."
"Ah, Watanabe-senpai."
The projection of the map on the ground wobbled slightly, but was quickly restored to a clear image.
The scenes of the street overlapped and matched the map perfectly.
Suzune's fingers flew over the keyboard of the notebook-type terminal. After hitting the last confirmation key, Suzune raised her head.
"Did you learn anything new?"
"Alas, no."
Mari bitterly shook her head at Suzune's inquiry, but her face quickly transformed into an interested expression.
"Looks like you guys got some results."
"Ah. Thanks to Mitsui, we have a good grasp on the enemy forces and direction...... Mitsui, that's enough."
Hearing Suzune's praise, Honoka smiled with embarrassment as she nodded.
At the same time, the map on the ground vanished.
"Even if it's light-controlling magic, isn't it quite rare to see such a fine degree of control?"
"Indeed. I cannot recall anyone who can just use light refraction to create clear images that rival low altitude observation drones. Looks like this is a different type of magic than the average light refraction magic."
Suzune's faint praise caused Honoka's face to redden even further.
"How can that be...... Compared to Tatsuya and Miyuki, my magic is nothing special......"
"No need to be so humble, Mitsui. It's true that both of them possess powerful magic, but based on
the situation, there are times when intelligence can control the battlefield even more than firepower."
"Just so, Mitsui. The ability to look down and grasp the situation is a tremendous asset. Since we are cut off from unmanned observation drones and the street level camera system, the contribution from your magic is incredibly meaningful."
"Thank you very much!"
Watching Honoka bow deeply with her entire face flushed, the two Year 3 students revealed gentle smiles.
Recently, they had seen too many thick skinned (?) underclassmen, so occasionally catching a glimpse of an innocent reaction was rather refreshing.
◊ ◊ ◊
In order to get from the international conference center to the Magic Association branch headquarters in the Yokohama Bay Hills Tower, taking the route along the coast would be faster, but taking the inland route wasn't that much of a detour either.
The enemy's main force was amphibious troops launched from the combat vessel of unknown nationality. Currently, their troops that had infiltrated the city were also active along the coast.
However, Katsuto shook his head when asked "Should we take the detour?" Not up and down, but left and right.
Immediately afterward, the military vehicle that Katsuto was riding advanced through the crossfire on the street along the coast as it moved towards the Bay Hills Tower by the shortest route possible.
Near the Bay Hills Tower — actually the closer they got to the Hillside Docks — heavy weapons appeared among the enemy. Likewise, the number of mechanized weaponry (bipedal tanks) was also on the rise.
"Rather than saying the enemy's forces are concentrated here, it would be more accurate to say that they are in the process of spreading out."
Sitting in the passenger's seat, Sergeant Tateoka proceeded to explain the situation to Katsuto.
Katsuto wordlessly nodded.
The reason he said nothing was not because he looked down on the low ranking officer, but because he was putting all his concentration on his magic.
Next, on the side of the intersection ahead, a small group of enemies carrying shoulder-mounted rocket launchers appeared.