Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 09 - Visitor Chapter (I)

by Sato Tsutomu

  But her power lay not in farsight or clairvoyance.

  Nor did she have the authority yet to mobilise the Yotsuba.

  Unlike her brother, she did not have a personally built-up network.

  None of the hacking skills of Fujibayashi either.

  With no specialised magic to find Tatsuya, neither contacts nor expertise, Miyuki could only hug her chest as she stared at the screen.

  It was an unconscious action.

  In her chest was her heart. And although her clothes were in the way and she couldn’t feel it beat, she could feel something else in its stead.

  Within her chest, in her heart,

  She could feel her connection to Tatsuya.

  Abhorrent, latching on to her brother.

  The reconfigured Limiter.

  The lock and chains were none other than she herself.

  She herself was also the key.

  Binding her to bind her brother, it was nothing short of a curse.

  Yet for all that, it was still a definite connection which linked her and her brother.

  —If only I could see too—

  Miyuki thought.

  However far Tatsuya was from Miyuki, he was able to know her situation. She had heard that his ‘vision’ could analyse existential information, and things such as her whereabouts and condition were always known to him in the form of data.

  In a sense that meant she had absolutely no privacy whatsoever, but that didn’t bother Miyuki in the least.

  She didn’t have a single secret she had to keep against her brother. If there ever was something she could not say hidden in her heart, she would want him to know of it through his power. She thought so even as she knew his ‘vision’ didn’t extend to the mental realm.

  On the other hand, Miyuki had no way to ‘see’ her partner from a distance.

  Instead, for Miyuki who was born with Mental Interference magic, she could ‘sense’ the ‘location’ of the ‘mind’. By releasing the Limiter on Tatsuya and thereby freeing her own abilities, Miyuki could ‘touch’ the minds of others. She might even be able to touch the spirits drifting in the world.

  However, she couldn’t feel the ‘being’ of one far away. She couldn’t transmit like her brother in the dimension of information, where physical distance had no meaning.

  That was the difference between sight and touch. Even if she could touch something which ‘is there’, she couldn’t use it to find something she couldn’t locate.

  Feeling her brother in her chest, which only heightened her sense of frustration, Miyuki thought hard.

  Driven by an unexplained ominous sense of foreboding, she wished she could rush to his side.

  She didn’t know how long she had continued to feel so, as she stared at the screen.

  Awakening her was the chime ringing, announcing an unexpected visitor.

  With a start, she glanced at the clock.

  Alright, let them leave, Miyuki thought. There was no fault in not even pretending to not be at home, since it was far too late an hour to be visiting others anyway.

  She had a look at the intercom monitor. Recognising the visitor, Miyuki immediately modified her plans. While considering what to change into, she also calculated how long it would take.

  "Please wait a moment, Sensei."

  Standing there was Yakumo.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  Tatsuya watched the fight between the Parasite and the masked magician from the shadow of a tree.

  He had gotten to the park three minutes before the battle broke out. When they had reached the predicted point of capture he had let out a sound despite himself, but now he concealed his breathing and erased his presence, awaiting an opportunity to intervene.

  According to the information from Mayumi, there were multiple vampires and multiple hunters after them, but seeing the two before him he was certain they were the same two from yesterday. He had merely looked at the movement of the groups and predicted where the first contact would occur, but he hadn’t identified the individuals.

  (…This is a coincidence, right?)

  A shiver ran down Tatsuya’s spine and he almost inadvertently revealed his position. Somehow holding it back, he complained in his mind. –Something along the lines of ‘if this is fate, it’s far too disagreeable’.

  He looked back to the state of the battle. The momentum was clearly on the side of the masked magician. By comparison, the white masked vampire was attempting to get away. And the net to block that escape was yet incomplete.

  (Four people. As I thought, it’s not enough.)

  As three forces — if you include the police who weren’t working with the Saegusa, it’d be four — ran together and got in each other’s way, four magicians were converging here from four different directions. They were the away team, without any street monitoring equipment, yet had impressively managed to call in four other people unnoticed by the others, is what he would have thought, but at the end of the day it was safe to say such numbers could not hope to cut off all the escape routes in this three-dimensional city.

  Which was why this situation would soon become not 'hide and seek' but 'tag'...

  (Your enemy's enemy is, in the end, just another party. That one fact alone doesn't automatically make them an ally, huh.)

  If all the forces pursuing the Parasites were to work together, each team had only to send this many people out and then herding them in would be a simple matter. But due to the differences in intent, it wouldn't work out. Even his own goals did not completely match with those of Mayumi or Erika.

  But for the moment, the vampire was more of an enemy.

  (Now then, how to make my entrance.)

  Whilst predicting the various reactions the masked character could make, Tatsuya pulled from his waist not his CAD but a gun. Of course it was illegal, but that was about the furthest thing on his mind at this point. He pointed the gun at the vampire which had just made a huge leap to avoid a knife stroke with complete calm, aimed at around the belly, and casually pulled the trigger.

  The average effective range of a handgun is 50 meters, while in real combat the effective range is said to be more within 20m. This had changed little from the last century, and the reason was because handguns were a weapon made with those needs in mind.

  The distance between the shaded tree under which Tatsuya was hiding and the longcoat wearing phantom was about 10m. Although Tatsuya had exceeded the minimum necessary training time, he by no means practiced with a handgun every day, and it was a still a fairly difficult distance.

  The gun in his hand was a single shot chambered gun designed for a special bullet. There were no second chances. He would have preferred to aim for an area of exposed skin, but he had to give up on what he couldn't do.

  Besides, as the target was wearing a hat over the eyes as well as a longcoat which stretched down to the ankles in addition to a white mask which completely covered the face, it was a fair bet that there was no exposed skin in any case. There was nothing to fret over.

  The low speed heavy bullet absorbed more of the discharge than a suppressor would have, yet as aimed, the bullet hit the abdomen of the coat. While the weight of the bullet was twice that of a standard 9mm, the lack of speed was compensated by the fact the vampire had been falling back towards the bullet.

  The masked magician turned towards Tatsuya. Golden pupils glinted with a harsh light as they watched him.

  Discernible within them was unmistakable hostility.

  She abandoned her knife at the same time Tatsuya released his gun.

  Her hand shot to her waist, as Tatsuya's went to his breast.

  Tatsuya's hand reached his destination first.

  But his finger froze midway through pulling the trigger of his CAD.

  In his opponent's hand was a medium sized automatic pistol. Tatsuya's vision discerned a magic formula already formed within its barrel.

  The activation speed was comparable to Tatsuya's Decomposition. It was a specialised devic
e which began an activation sequence the moment it was gripped, cutting out the time and effort needed to operate the switch and thus seizing the initiative.

  The magic triggered was Data Fortification. A magic which strengthened any bullets passing through the barrel.

  Tatsuya flicked the selector of his CAD, switched from a magic for decomposing Eidos to one for decomposing entities and began activation.

  His target was the chamber of the gun the masked magician held. More precisely, the bullets which would be fired from therein.

  Time seemed to slow during that moment of high-density information processing as magic was activated, as Tatsuya watched the masked magician pull back the trigger of her automatic pistol while Tatsuya did the same with his CAD.

  The distance between the masked magician and Tatsuya was approximately 15m. The subsonic bullets fired from that suppressed gun, which emphasised stealth, would take 0.05s to reach him.

  That was almost the same as instantaneously.

  However, the time after being enhanced with Data Fortification would be even less.

  As the speed enhanced bullets sped through the air, they disintegrated to dust.

  A jolt was evident from behind the mask.

  She certainly had reason for her confidence, Tatsuya thought.

  Mere 'suspension' or 'vector modification' would not have been sufficient to stop those bullets. If one had sufficient ability such as Katsuto it would be a different story, but the average magician wouldn't stand a chance. Even a magician of the combat class from the Ten Master Clans would be hard-pressed.

  In Tatsuya's case, 'Decomposition' was a strong counter to 'Data Fortification' so he was able to cope, but if that hadn't been the case he would have definitely been in trouble with no countermeasures.

  That was all, however, mere conjecture. And now, the masked magician had exposed a gap before Tatsuya.

  He fired off magic the instant he became aware of that gap.

  The magic he had failed to fire off initially, now hit the masked magician head-on.

  Reflected in Tatsuya's vision, things such as 'color', 'shape', 'sound', 'heat' and 'position' were written as information. He targeted not the magician herself, but rather locking on to her disguise magic he released the anti-magic Gram Dispersion.

  Decomposing the magic formula itself, it stripped her insubstantial outer covering and scattered it away.

  —In that instant,

  —the demon was reborn as an angel.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  The night sky was filled with stars. Within the inside of the motor sedan which was racing along the highway in the heart of the city, views of the outside came as 3D imagery as neither sound nor vibrations transferred through.

  "...Sensei."

  Sitting in the back seat of that quiet cabin, Miyuki hesitantly opened her mouth.

  The person she was addressing was the Ninjutsu user sitting next to her, Kokonoe Yakumo.

  "Nn, what is it?"

  Yakumo opened his eyes, and turned to face Miyuki.

  "Why at this time...are you helping? If I remember, your rule had always been to not get involved in the real world."

  It was caution, or rather observance of Buddhist principles. The meanings were different, but the results were similar. And the commandments Yakumo had imposed on himself involved both.

  "Well, there are some circumstances involved."

  Yakumo's tone was frivolous as always, and it was difficult for Miyuki to see through to the true intent beneath.

  "Though I discarded all earthly bonds when I took up my ordination, I did not discard my work as a shinobi. It wasn't my call alone to make after all."

  Not that he couldn't, but that he *didn't*. There was no sense of regret, but rather the feeling that Yakumo considered it to be perfectly natural...that was what Miyuki read.

  "There are those who call it the responsibility or obligation of those who have inherited skills...it may be considered the height of worldliness, but even in Buddhism, authority is not free from tradition so it should be acceptable I guess?"

  Although he had technically asked a question, Miyuki had no answer. Nevermind Miyuki, it wasn't something you'd ask a 15 year old girl in general.

  "Haah..."

  The best she could do were ambiguous words of support. It seemed that Yakumo's disciple in the driver's seat was sending signals reminiscent of raised eyebrows, but that may have been just her imagination.

  "The thing is, I heard from Kazama-kun that the enemy Tatsuya-kun was facing may have been using the Kudou's 'Parade'. If that really is the case, we'll have to give them a warning. The one who taught the Kudou 'Matoi', which they developed into Parade, was my predecessor after all."

  The whole thing's such a pain, Yakumo sighed.

  That indiscreet remark however passed Miyuki by.

  "The precursor to the Kudou's secret technique 'Parade', was taught by Sensei's master..."

  If it had been Tatsuya, he would probably have just said 'ah, so that sort of thing happens' and simply accepted it. But for Miyuki, it wasn't as easy to swallow.

  "Oh? You didn't know? The purpose of the Ninth Institute had been to develop magicians who could implement streamlined and re-systematised Ancient magic into modern magic. To that end, the Ninth Institute gathered many Ancient users. My predecessor was amongst them."

  Naturally, Miyuki had no idea.

  Rather, the idea that a high school girl would be knowledgeable about the dark side of modern magic, the sealed miseries which were the Magic Ability Development Institutes, was more absurd. Even Miyuki, an inheritor of the results of the most infamous Fourth Institute, would be clueless as to what the other institutes had been up to.

  "...Then could it be, Sensei's family name[2]?"

  Miyuki's eyes widened as she gasped, and she inquired with a pale expression.

  "No, you're just overthinking things."

  He probably guessed what Miyuki was thinking immediately. Laughing bitterly, Yakumo shook his hands in denial.

  "The name Kokonoe is merely something I inherited from my predecessor."

  The air in the car eased up a little. But that warmth plunged back down almost immediately.

  "Anyway, it was under those circumstances that my predecessor taught the Kudou 'Matoi' and they developed it into 'Parade'. It involves original secret techniques of our own. So if the magician tangled with Tatsuya-kun is truly using 'Parade', they'll have to be warned not to flash it around any further. And if they're not inclined to listen, well, that'd be most unfortunate."

  Yakumo's tone and expression were as carefree as ever. And yet, Miyuki felt a chill run down her spine. Nor was it just her. Gripping the wheel, Yakumo's disciple's hunched shoulders were rigid as stone.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  A demon turning into an angel. That was the impression left on Tatsuya's mind, so vivid was the change.

  The scarlet hair, reminiscent of the darkness of the abyss blazed into gold shining in the feeble light.

  Cruel golden eyes transformed into the serene blue of an azure sky.

  The curves of her face softened, and her figure slimmed down.

  Even her height seemed to shrink slightly.

  Such beauty couldn't possibly have been hidden by such a small mask.

  Of course, if one could change even their physique, it's no wonder they could have fooled the world.

  If various evidence had not built up until now, even Tatsuya probably would not have known.

  Tatsuya's hand moved unconsciously. From the hand of the golden-haired sapphire-eyed girl flew another five bullets, all of which disintegrated before reaching him.

  Then just before she could fire off any more bullets, the slide of her handgun flew off and the barrel fell out.

  Being forced to stop shooting, not to mention having her device impossibly destroyed by magic, the masked girl froze.

  "That's enough, Lina! I don't want to fight you!"

  Taking advantage of the lu
ll, Tatsuya tried to contain the situation. His goal today was the capture of the Parasite. To restrain it, and find out its identity. That was why he had taken the hard route of firing a bullet which would shoot out an anesthetic needle from that single-shot gun.

  To him, the fight with the masked magician/Lina was a pointless waste of time. That line should have been the end of the battle, but...

  It was a bad move — achieving instead the opposite effect. From behind the mask, blue eyes glinted with a hard light.

  Returning the wrecked specialised CAD to its holster with her right hand, she withdrew it holding miniature throwing daggers instead.

  The magicians of the USNA favour and make widespread use of integrated armament CADs. It was more than possible that those daggers weren't simple blades, but some sort of armament device.

  Short boots kicked off from the surface of the softcourt. It was hardly a speed one would expect out of a young lady, but it didn't exceed the limits of ordinary men.

  Tatsuya took a ball of lead out from his pocket and flicked out his fingers.

  Whistling through the air, it flew straight towards Lina's right hand — and passed right on through.

  There was no spray of blood. It hadn't hit flesh, but rather an illusion.

  At that moment Lina pulled back her arm. The dagger sped towards Tatsuya from a meter away from where his naked eye had perceived it.

  Jumping aside to dodge, Tatsuya's eyes traced its trajectory. Where his eyes led, he saw an illusion throwing another dagger.

  His naked eyes saw a small masked girl, yet his minds eye knew it was only an insubstantial stereoscopic image.

  (How troublesome!)

  Tatsuya let out a wordless complaint. The difference between knowing and actually dealing with something really was quite pronounced.

  The technique Parade created an Information Body containing all the elements 'color', 'shape', sound', 'heat' and 'position'. It was the same as Yakumo's 'Matoi'.

  Unlike 'Matoi', which projected a Body identical to the original in color, shape, sound and heat yet with a different position, Lina's Parade emphasised projecting different colors and a different shape. However, that didn't mean Parade was unable to shift position too. The technique which the Kudou devised, and Lina inherited, was perfectly capable of doing so as well.