by Sato Tsutomu
To them, the Chiba were like their master. Although they knew nothing about Erika, who was not publicly acknowledged, they naturally knew about Naotsugu who was famous as the ‘Chiba Kirin’. Not just knew; the commander of the squad had been personally introduced to the sword through Naotsugu.
And so,
"Assistant instructor……"
The reason they had frozen the moment Naotsugu arrived onto the scene was for that reason.
In terms of military rank, the squad commander as a regular officer outranked the student Naotsugu.
Right now, however, the hierarchy was martial.
Naotsugu stepped through their unmoving ranks, and stood to face Erika.
Erika appeared daunted.
However, she immediately rallied and looked back strongly.
Even if it was bravado, for both Erika and Naotsugu, this was a milestone.
Erika had directed her sword at Naotsugu.
This didn’t mean they were literally pointing blades at each other.
Both of their swords were still aimed at the ground.
Yet everyone could sense that the two were at knifepoint.
Naotsugu was aware that this sister of his, born of a different mother, had always been relying on him.
He had considered this understandable.
Children were not so strong that they could live without depending on anyone — he had always thought so. To him, there was no one who was forceful enough to ‘become an adult without needing anyone else’.
Normally, these would be the parents. Parents are the ones a child unconditionally relies on.
But for Erika, this was not the case. Her mother was weak, and her father had not been content to play that role from the start.
In truth, Naotsugu also hated his father. The reason he was so absorbed in what Erika called ‘frivolous’ pursuits was partially due to the spite he felt towards their father. Why had this man’s brothers and sisters, looking at he who abandoned his obligations as a parent, not found anything strange with it. Rather, as the head of one of the Hundred Families, it had been seen as something natural.
It may have been then that he felt sympathy for this half-sister of his. In the family he alone had been gentle with her, spoiled her, encouraged her, and raised her to be able to stand on her own two feet.
It seemed the time for his sister to finally become an adult had come, Naotsugu thought.
He experimentally released a blast of sword pressure. While it was a spiritual technique, when used by a highly skilled practitioner it could actually manifest cut skin and blood flow along with the illusion of being cut.
Erika deflected Naotsugu’s sword pressure with pressure of her own. By deflecting, rather than dodging, she was declaring she could face him straight on.
Involuntarily, a smile drifted onto Naotsugu’s expression.
He raised his right hand.
When it appeared he was lifting his weapon, his sword was already swinging towards Erika.
It wasn’t that he had acted faster than the eye could see.
By minimising preceding actions and blurring the line between preliminary act and the true act, he achieved this ‘earliness’. This was a phantom blade technique, which took advantage of the blind spot in the opponent’s recognition. A skill realized by merely moving his limbs, the sword of the genius.
Erika’s blade intercepted that slash of Naotsugu’s.
He had intended to stop his blade in the beginning, but now he held the course. Countering Naotsugu’s ‘earliness’, by her outstanding senses and reaction rate, was Erika’s ‘speed’.
A clear smile now broke out onto Naotsugu’s face.
The tension coloring Erika’s eyes darkened.
She gripped her sword two handed against the sword Naotsugu had swung with one, and pushed back hard.
Abruptly, the pressure disappeared.
Without a moment’s delay, Erika caught herself.
Not bothering to correct their posture, the siblings faced each other again.
Then Naotsugu turned around and faced away.
Wary of a surprise, Erika slipped a slight ‘opening’ into her stance.
Yet no blow came to take advantage of that opportunity.
"Jikei-ue……?"
Naotsugu did not respond to his sister, and instead raised his sword towards the sword corps.
Dismay filled their faces.
They took positions, but their reactions were notably duller than Erika’s.
—He held no fondness for them.
The smile on Naotsugu’s face disappeared.
"National Defence Academy special warfare technology research division, Reserve second lieutenant Chiba Naotsugu."
Keeping his sword raised, Naotsugu declared his name, rank and affiliation. (By the way, to achieve the rank of second lieutenant while still in school, and a sophomore at that, regardless of being in reserve, was exceptional even for a magician and could only come through having true achievements.)
"I am currently carrying out my mission of escorting civilians who have become the target of terrorists. Please state your name, rank and affiliation!"
At Naotsugu’s apparent about-face, Erika exchanged glances with Leo.
"If you have been mobilised for the purpose of harming civilians, that will be construed as an act of rebellion against democracy. I will oppose you with all my might."
Listing the Ten Master Houses and the Hundred Families under democracy was really stretching it. They pursued the interests of magicians more than that of the general public after all.
Those were Erika’s thoughts upon hearing Naotsugu’s speech, and Naotsugu himself felt so too.
There was no hesitation in the aura he now emitted however.
With the addition of Naotsugu’s blade, the situation had shifted into a stalemate.
The confrontation between Naotsugu and the Sword Corps was interrupted by an explosion of Psions a short distance away.
"Erika, Leo, take care!"
"That’s the Parasite’s true body!"
Slightly blurred from the speed of speech, an impatient voice flew from the communication device.
They were Mikihiko’s and Mizuki’s voices.
As a warning, it was incomplete.
"Jikei-ue! It seems a Parasite's true body is heading towards here!"
Erika however deduced what the two were trying to say.
The ones who became wariest as a result of Erika’s words were probably the Sword Corps.
All things considered, the probability Naotsugu had not received a full briefing on the Parasites was high.
Erika was both impatient and hesitant as to whether she should try to explain their threat or not.
Spreading her awareness in all directions right down to the level of her feet, Erika turned to face Naotsugu.
At that moment, whether because she had perceived accurately or by chance.
The ground behind Erika exploded. A figure leaped up from amongst the raining sand and debris.
"Earth release!?"
It was Leo who cried aloud. Of the techniques commonly known as the 'art of five releases', one of the first-class schools of Ancient magic, Ninjutsu, was particularly adept at using the five elements of 'wood', 'fire', 'earth', 'metal' and 'water' as a medium for reconnaissance, flight and ambushes. That variation was a duality of ninjutsu and Japan itself, but after ninjutsu and its 'art of five releases' became famous, internationally all magic using these five elements came to be blanketed under the terms 'wood release', 'fire release', 'earth release', 'metal release' and 'water release'.
In short, just because this attack came from underground did not automatically make it actual ninjutsu. It was just as likely this was Ancient magic from the continent. There was no time to ponder that now however.
The target of the emerging man was not Erika but the one opposite her, Pixie.
A blade resembling a thick hatchet swung down upon Pixie from the undergroun
d assailant.
"Shield!"
Leo jumped in front of her. The hatchet the man had swung took Leo in the left arm, and was caught in the protector of his CAD.
"Leo, that's a Parasite!"
Hearing Mikihiko's warning, Leo whipped his arm around and flung both the hatchet and Parasite away.
After his bitter experience, he made sure not to touch the thing's body directly. But even Leo's strength was not enough to disarm it. The Parasite brandished the hatchet again.
The monster's feet however never kicked off the ground.
A sword was pierced through its chest.
Erika, having impaled the Parasite with Mizuchimaru, wore a faint smile as if saying 'whoops'. Perhaps she remembered Tatsuya's entreaty not to kill. She had opposed his words at the time, but it still was what it was.
The attack had not only come from the ground. The moment Naotsugu's attention had been diverted by the events occuring behind Erika's back, a soldier had sprung from behind the sword corps with blade in hand.
That he appeared like a soldier was an illusion. Dressed in a navy blue costume indistinguishable in the darkness, the man had deprived a sword corps soldier of his weapon and rushed towards Pixie. The leap was assisted by weight systematic magic. The man's body didn't make a parabola with the ground, and closed in on Pixie faster than gravitational acceleration.
The blade held overhead never fell. In the middle of his spring, the man was knocked aside by a kick from Naotsugu.
The flying jump kick was so brilliant it was hard to remember that Naotsugu was actually a swordsman. The beautiful form wouldn't have been out of place in a karate dojo poster. Erika had always accused Naotsugu of wasting time with 'frivolous magic', but evidently he had been involved in various other aspects such as martial arts as well.
A murmur arose from the sword corps. The soldier whose blade had been taken was collapsed. He had likely received an attack from this man. The feedback from the kick had been considerable, but Naotsugu carefully walked towards the man now lying on the ground. He had been hidden carefully enough that even Naotsugu had not noticed him before the attack. There was no such thing as too much precaution.
Such attentiveness was quickly rewarded.
When Naotsugu reached a distance of three steps away, the man's body suddenly burst. Naotsugu jumped back, but he was inevitably caught up in the spraying gore.
At this unforeseen development, Naotsugu was at a loss. Behind him, Erika and Leo also frowned. The sword corps were stunned. Nobody in that place noticed the Psion wrapped Pushion mass which issued from both the impaled man and the ruptured body.
"Pixie, link up with me!"
Breaking the spell was Tatsuya's rough voice issuing through the communication devices.
"Of course."
Pixie turned to the direction of the Psion explosion, the direction that Miyuki had headed towards and where Tatsuya was likely right now, and began running.
"Honoka, please follow Pixie."
From the voice communicators set to group communication mode, Tatsuya's voice flowed again.
"Got it!"
Honoka's voice was terse.
"Erika and Leo, don't move from there. Tell the people there likewise."
"Eh......right."
"O-Ok."
Erika and Leo replied in voices suggesting they had not yet fully recovered.
Overhead, the two Psion and Pushion lumps chased after Pixie like clouds blown by the wind.
◊ ◊ ◊
"Honoka, please follow Pixie."
"Got it!"
Receiving Tatsuya's instructions, Honoka wasted no time. —Immediately after acknowledging, however, she realized she didn't know exactly what it was she was meant to be doing.
It was quite a Honoka-ish moment, but her subsequent action was just like her as well. Being told to 'follow', she decided to monitor her status for now and trained her optical magic towards Pixie.
Although that was easier said than done.
She lucked out.
Despite there being various interpretations for those words, Honoka decided to open the Psion circuits which linked her to Pixie.
◊ ◊ ◊
There had been a total of 12 Parasites drawn to this world.
One currently inhabited the integrated auxiliary housework humanoid robot, the Humanoid Home Helper '3HP' Pixie.
Two had been sealed in today's battles.
Four had had their hosts killed by Lina, and one by Erika, releasing them.
Four more had self destructed, being likewise released.
A total of nine had lost their hosts, and that was the number of Parasites gathering here now. As their true bodies, the spirits were drawn to Pixie.
They were all Pushion bodies from the same dimension of information.
Originally, all 12 had been one 'consciousness'.
Having their true body exposed, they were now trying to return to one existence.
The nine Parasites had coalesced already.
Whilst sharing the consciousness of one, yet possessing nine wills, they were an amorphous Pushion mass.
That structure of one stem branching into nine, if one possessed 'eyes' capable of 'seeing' Pushions, one no doubt would have thought of one of the most famous spirits of this country, albeit with one head extra[9].
And it was attempting to capture one more.
Spreading their nine necks, they resembled a 'serpent' bent on devouring Pixie.
Pixie fortified her barrier of 'will', and endured the storm.
That will, what drove 'her' now, was something imparted to her by the human who could be called her 'mother'. Even now these feelings from her 'mother' flowed into her matrix of Pushions, mixing in.
The will that she was not one of 'those'.
The will that she was not her own.
The will that she existed for 'him'.
A single individual's will would not normally be able to oppose 'those'.
But Pixie's 'mother', Honoka, was not normal.
She was a descendant of the 'Elements'. The blood of the Element of 'Light' flowed through her veins.
The Elements were those magicians who had first practitioned magic in this country, before the development of the Numbers.
Before the organisation and classification of the four systems and eight types, a classification based on the traditional attributes of 'earth', 'water', 'fire', 'wind', 'light' and 'thunder' had been used. The Elements had developed in accordance with this concept.
Upon the establishment of the four system eight type classification, however, the developments of those magicians following the traditional attributes became regarded as inefficient, and the development of the Elements ceased.
This could be said to be one of the frequently questioned episodes of the secret history of magic development.
However, the Elements also innately inherited — or were given — gifts separate from magic.
During the dawn of magic research. When fears and superstitions of those against magic ran rampant.
The authorities who practiced Elements development, being labeled as 'sorcerers' and 'witches', took it upon themselves to show that they would not be a threat. They had scientists incorporate into them genes compelling absolute obedience to their leaders.
Is this characteristic inheritable?
That is a question which is still unanswerable even now, vexing both psychologists and geneticists alike.
Even identical twins will grow up to have very different personalities. In light of this fact, it could be concluded that 'personalities are not inheritable'.
On the other hand if one goes back long enough through parent and child, grandparents and grandchildren, great grandparents and great grandchildren and so on, undeniable similarities begin to show which cannot be explained away by simple 'environmental factors'.
With this challenge the authorities had given to them, the genetic engineers took whatever steps they could.
As a result — although it cannot be said whether it was for better or worse — the 'descendants of the Elements' have a high chance of expressing a certain trait.
That is, dependency.
It was very commonly observed that they would have one specific person, usually of the opposite sex, that they would greatly attach to and rely on.
The descendants of the Elements themselves believed that their destinies were written in their genes.
Perhaps, using that as an excuse was their way of accepting their reliance on another.
The 'dependency' that they felt was not the publicly perceived emotional 'weakness'.
Some scholars have claimed that there was a more appropriate word for that 'dependency'.
That is, 'loyalty'.
An unshakable faith, that 'I am theirs'.
That was more than strong enough to push back the coalescing synergetic will of the spirits.
◊ ◊ ◊
The point where Tatsuya had been fighting the Parasites, and the point where Erika had been confronting Naotsugu.
Pixie's battle against 'that', and withstanding ‘that’'s attack, was right between the two.
Reaching that place, Tatsuya saw the shape of the nine-headed dragon rearing its heads as if to devour Pixie.
He could not comprehend the Pushion information structure. But he knew there was 'something' there. He could *see* it.
Nine Pushion information information bodies were joined together at the base. And branched into nine, that interface was attempting to capture Pixie. That was sufficient to resemble a nine-headed dragon in his mind.
"What is that!?"
Lina, who had for some reason followed Tatsuya, exclaimed in shock.
"You can see it?"
"It's not......that I can see it, but I can sort of understand it. Some massive 'power' is pressing on that doll. Tatsuya, just what is that?"