Published at 26th of March 2019 2:11 am

Volume 10, Chapter 10

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

Tatsuya fervently denied any connection to the humanism agitator who leaked the information about the micro-black hole experiment to Lina.

Tatsuya had also judged Lina's conjecture to be correct.

Nonetheless, as if to mock both of them, the large wave of anti-magician actions flowing from east to west on the North American continent was blamed on the humanism agitators.

That the wave would soon engulf the world was only a matter of time. March was the wrong time of year, yet 'winter' would arrive then.

◊ ◊ ◊

It could conveniently be called diplomacy, on the same level as battleship diplomacy or 'behind closed doors' diplomacy.

The great alliances forming the balance of power in this era created the framework for diplomacy, making conferences and ceremonies the main style of diplomacy practiced; however, that did not mean battleship diplomacy and secret 'behind closed doors' diplomacy had disappeared. Ceremonies could not be successful without secret 'behind closed doors' diplomacy to do the preliminary arrangements; those who participated in this transformed their status from the ornaments of diplomacy to the craftsmen of diplomacy, who secretly maneuvered the present world.

In any era, in any nation.

The seeds of conspiracy could be eradicated from this world. Tonight also.

In this nation as well.

"…For the love of Pete, this group of fanatics is incorrigible."

"Hahaha… It's easy to get groups like that moving, but taking the reins is difficult."

Two middle aged men, separated by a table, were sitting across from one another wearing suits as can be expected, but the man plying the other with sake was of European descent, not Asian.

Perhaps he had been in Japan for a long period of time, or maybe it was just a matter of taste, or maybe it was a product of his education, but he gracefully poured the transparent liquid from the bottle into a small bowl; in short, he was pouring into sake cups while obeying all the proper etiquette for sake drinking.

"When I re-examine it, I find it truly mysterious that this high quality sake

—what's it called, this sake called Seishu… despite not being distilled, has no color and is so clear."

Flawlessly, he did not forget to interject some flattery concerning the other's country.

"No, no, compared to wine's vivid red and floridity, it is undeniably inferior. Of course, I intended to only prepare things that satisfied your preferences."

The one who had been complimented did not forget to show modesty.

What these men had in common was that they would never show what they really thought.

"That is the truth… it's so comfortable that I almost decided to get drunk, but since the fanatics I mentioned never run out of lawless things to do, I cannot afford to take it easy."

"I cannot thank you enough for the special consideration that you have given to the safety of my compatriots during our stay in your country in this regard."

There was no change in their voices. The slight smile on their faces remained the same. Nonetheless, if someone had been sharing the same space as these two, that person would have been aware of a strange atmosphere from the beginning.

"No, no, it's a natural courtesy. Since the fanatics you mentioned cannot be reasoned with… For example, no matter how much we explain it to them, they will not listen to the fact that the blast that destroyed the Asian Alliance Armada is the product of scientifically organized magic and not the work of a demon."

""They won't listen to us" is not an excuse when you can't protect foreign visitors under your care from harm… you have my sympathies."

The two men tilted their bottles toward each other and gulped from their sake cups simultaneously, as if they had planned it.

"You might take this as mere bellyaching when you hear it, but if I could give them at least a general outline of the 'Great Bomb', then I think I could get them to settle down."

"…You might also take this as mere bellyaching when you hear it, but the military is maintaining its grip on all information regarding the weapon used on the southern tip of the Korean peninsula. No matter how confidential it is, civilian control is a basic democratic principle… why are the soldiers being so stubborn about it?"

The instant their eyes met, sparks flew; the next instant, both their faces had vacuous eyes and smiles on them.

◊ ◊ ◊

"Everything is as you heard just now."

Fujibayashi stopped the playback of the recorded conversation and lifted her head.

"Lately, even our diplomats seem to be giving their all. As expected, they are probably able to comprehend the importance and rarity of the 'Strategic Class'."

"What else?"

Fujibayashi tilted her head and looked inquiringly at Tatsuya, who was hesitating to say something, in order to press him to continue.

"…Besides, I believe it involves the honor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Three years ago, we underwent a one-sided invasion; they were slathered with the slur of 'coward' throughout Japan, despite the fact that they were working desperately to reach a non-military resolution — efforts that have been made to look foolish."

"The Asian Alliance's actions did that…?"

Explaining this to Fujibayashi was 'like lecturing to Buddha', but it appeared that Miyuki wasn't getting it.

Well, even Tatsuya had enough common sense to recognize that this should be considered a normal level of comprehension.

"Japan and USNA are allied nations, but at the same time, with regards to the North Pacific area, they are potentially rival nations. If Japan became moderately weaker, the USNA would reap benefits."

Seeing that Miyuki had made a small nod of agreement, Tatsuya continued.

"On the other hand, although the Asian Alliance is a large nation, it doesn't have the power to go head to head with the Japan-America alliance. Additionally, they are not in such a bad state internally that they would need to make a gamble of this level. —So then, why did the Asian Alliance recklessly invade Yokohama?"

Tatsuya paused his explanation in order to give Miyuki time to think. He did not want his sister to become nothing more than a pretty air headed 'puppet'.

"The Asian Alliance does not have the power to take on Japan and America at the same time… Although Japan is an ally of America, they think it would be better for them if Japan became a little weaker than it is now…"

During her monologue, Miyuki silently made an "aha" as she grasped the concept.

"Unbelievable… the Asian Alliance and the USNA were secretly working together?"

Tatsuya's satisfied smile said "Well done" and Fujibayashi, who was watching both of them, sported a wry grin.

"Working together might be too strong a term, but I think the likelihood that there was some form of complicity going on is extremely high."

Tatsuya turned his eyes in Fujibayashi's direction, and her wry grin disappeared with a slight nod of agreement.

"For example, something like the USNA intentionally delaying the dispatch orders to its Pacific fleet regarding the Asian Alliance's military invasion."

Fujibayashi's response to Tatsuya's conjecture was a positive one.

"Perhaps the Asian Alliance's military objectives were not occupying territory and destroying government facilities; isn't it more likely that their objectives were to kidnap technical experts and plunder technology?"

"That could be true. If you take the place and military power into consideration, then they could not have hoped to have greater results than that. Until they reached the point of mobilizing their fleet, I believe that they were prepared for tactical failure. As a result, they felt it was alright to take on a hornet's nest."

"As they say, the bird that doesn't make noise doesn't get shot. If you scare a snake by poking a bush, then you will get hurt — naturally I mean our side."

Tatsuya kept his poker face, but,

"The opinion of the one who is the most involved in this matter is expected to be packed with a lot of emotion."

Apparently Fujibayashi was not going to let him get away with it.

"Well then… it is about time I took my leave of you. No matter how much we call it 'a pre-recruitment interview', it is unnatural for a soldier to spend so long in a civilian household on a Sunday."

"Thank you very much for giving us your time today."

Tatsuya got up at the same time as Fujibayashi in order to convey his gratitude to her.

He was not trying to make a point or be modest. Although he himself was unaware of it, the thought of "Miyuki is entertaining so I should not stint on any form of courtesy" was running through Tatsuya's mind.

As he escorted her to the door, Fujibayashi thrust her hand into her bag while saying "Oh, yes." Actually, she did not really remember just now; naturally, this was just an act.

What she took out was a small, beautifully wrapped box. "Here, it's two days early but it's your courtesy chocolate."

(Courtesy Chocolate or Giri choco is given out of politeness and does not indicate that the giver has any romantic feelings for the recipient.)

"Courtesy, is it?"

She had been completely honest about her lack of time.

Calling it courtesy chocolate was enclosing it in a joke, but Tatsuya knew quite well that Fujibayashi was not the type to cut corners, so this was not a convenient mistake.

"Are you unhappy that it's courtesy?" Fujibayashi laughed mischievously.

For an instant, Miyuki's eyes were tinged with a sharp light,

"No, stop kidding around."

But as Tatsuya replied promptly, the light completely disappeared as if it had been an optical illusion.

The bubbling voices of young women could be heard as they exchanged parting courtesies together on the way to the closed door, but the siblings returned to the living room with faces that said nothing had happened.

◊ ◊ ◊

There was a strong impression that the war which changed borders (the Third World War) had completely changed the cultural trends in this country.

Nonetheless, the truth was that it had not produced that great a change; numerous so-called 'superficial' customs had failed to become obsolete.

One of them, Valentine's Day, was scheduled for tomorrow. Essentially, comments like 'St. Valentine's Day' are not supposed to be so superficial; chocolate and presents are nothing but a plot by the candy companies, and the rest lacked the persuasion power necessary to kill the custom. While well aware of those things, the young engaged in their personal dance.

Tomorrow would be Valentine's day, and its frivolous ambience would permeate the First High School campus all day long. In this matter, magicians (to be) were also normal young girls.

"…Mitsui-san, it's alright to stop for the day, really." After school, in the student council room.

For some time, the error bell had been repeatedly going off.

Azusa was not irritated with Honoka, who had set it off again; she had spoken those words because she was concerned that Honoka might be sick in some way.

"That's right, Honoka. It's better if you leave for the day already."

The one who made that assertion with her clear blue eyes clouded was Lina, who had been roped into being a temporary Student Council officer. Lina's real identity was hidden from ordinary students like Azusa and Isori, but she couldn't help being audacious.

-It was clear to even Honoka, herself, that it was best in these circumstances if she left; however, "No, I'm fine."

While she was clearly showing that she was in a bad state, Honoka firmly made that answer.

…Since she was aware of the cause of her poor condition, she was embarrassed about them indulging her out of concern; for that reason, the persistent girl knew she gave off the mistaken impression of overexerting herself due to extreme feelings of duty, which made them worry more and made her feel worse.

"Mitsui-san, I think it is a fine thing that you are so responsible, but it is not wrong for you to rest."

Even though she was being spoken to like that by Isori, Honoka would not say "Okay, I'll rest" yet until Miyuki dealt her the knockout punch.

"Honoka, it is really better that you don't overexert yourself. No matter how hard you try, you are not really getting any work done today, are you?"

Miyuki also, on the surface, wore an extremely concerned face. As the girl whose mysterious beauty tended to make you forget she was human made that look while giving out the truth, Azusa, Isori and Lina were left with nothing to do but nod "That's right."

Nonetheless, Honoka was aware that Miyuki had figured out the reason for her 'poor condition', so to her, this was an extremely distressing comment. Especially the "you are not really getting any work done today" part.

"I see… Um. Then…"

After displaying that slight hesitation, Honoka enthusiastically stood up and energetically bowed.

"I am truly sorry! Please forgive me for leaving early, today. Since from tomorrow onward, I will once again work hard!"

"Yes, we will work hard tomorrow."

Miyuki gave her reply to Honoka, forestalling (disregarding) any answer from the two sempai. Azusa felt that there was something strange about Honoka not using 'also' to indicate the effort put into today's work was the same as the effort she intended to put into tomorrow's work, but only Honoka, herself, could understand what she meant by that.

As she bowed her head and asked to be excused, Honoka's face as she abruptly left had red-stained cheeks.

◊ ◊ ◊

"…Honoka left early for that reason."

Miyuki explained that to Tatsuya as they took the road from the school to the station.

"Oh… Maybe she's getting ready for tomorrow."

"Unmistakably."

Miyuki nodded, extremely sure, and Tatsuya's face started to look as if he was feeling very uneasy.

"Since Honoka is the type to put a lot of effort into things like this…"

"Are you happy, Onii-sama?"

She was not feeling jealous — Miyuki was questioning him in a teasing tone; not really in the mood to be teased, Tatsuya shrugged in answer.

"Rather than feeling happy, I feel guilty. Even though I can give her material things in return, I can't give her the most critical thing in return."

Miyuki made a show of shyly grabbing Tatsuya's sleeve as he whispered to her in a somewhat serious tone of voice.

"…Please, don't trouble yourself about that. Both Honoka and I just want Onii-sama to be happy with all our hearts."

"…Really?"

"Really, it's okay to accept her gift without protest."

"Umm, I'm sorry to bother you just as you were getting in the mood, however..."

Tatsuya, with Miyuki still clutching his sleeve, turned to look at Lina, who had hesitantly interrupted them; although she sounded more irritated than embarrassed, reluctance displayed on her face.

"Mood? You are uttering peculiar things, Lina."

"The peculiarness is in your heads!" is what she wanted to assert loudly, but applying verbal brute force would not win against Tatsuya anyway, as she had already found out.

"In short, Honoka's condition was bad, because she was worrying about giving Tatsuya chocolate tomorrow?"

"You've grasped it quite well, Lina. Giving chocolate is a custom unique to Japan, I believe."

Lina had been looking at Tatsuya's face when she asked the question, but Miyuki answered as if it was perfectly natural for the reply to come from her. …This could not be said to be the first time it happened, so Lina had already stopped thinking "these siblings are doing it again" when Tatsuya didn't answer the question.

"That not true. 'Girls giving chocolate for Valentine's Day' is a famous Japanese cultural tradition. Even in the States, a lot of girls copy it, and I have heard about it about from some of my classmates aside from Miyuki."

Lina dealt with Miyuki's reservations by giving her a somewhat tedious answer.

"Hmmmm… who are you going to give chocolate to, Lina?"

"Even you are asking me that question, Miyuki…?"

It could be deduced from the disagreeable scowl that Lina had been asked that question persistently by a lot of people. Although it might take different forms, this kind of curiosity was the same as a hundred years before and make no mistake, it will not change in another hundred years.

"I don't plan on giving anyone chocolate."

"Oh my, not even courtesy chocolate? Or is it possible that you weren't told about courtesy chocolate?"

"I know the general details of courtesy chocolate."

"Then, wouldn't you make a lot of people happy if you give it to them, to the people who helped you when you started to study abroad and others like that?"

Lina lightly glared at Miyuki's face. However, she was not able to read anything but mild curiosity from Miyuki's expression.

"If I gave people presents from me, personally, various problems would break out."

"That's it? Popular people have it tough."

Lina's breath stopped in her throat at Miyuki's mutter.

She felt like Miyuki's popularity exceeded even Miyuki's power, but she recognized that was a paranoid delusion.

"If we are talking about popular people, aren't you even more popular,

Miyuki? Who are you going to give chocolate to, Miyuki? You're going to give Tatsuya your 'I love you' chocolate, right?

That Miyuki would bestow true love chocolate on Tatsuya was obvious, so go ahead speak of your love for him to the utmost, because I am going to tease you so bad, thought Lina, but…

"What are you saying, Lina? Onii-sama and I are siblings. It would be weird if I gave my older brother 'I love you' chocolate, right?"

"…"

I didn't say anything because I had decided not to say another word, right… Lina whispered in the depths of her heart.

◊ ◊ ◊

"…Psst, psst, Izumi, what do you think Onee-chan is doing?"

"I think that… she's making chocolate?"

"Then… what's up with the creepy laughter…?"

Currently in their third year of middle school, Saegusa Kasumi and Saegusa Izumi, twin daughters of the head of the Saegusa Clan, were quietly whispering into each other's ears at the entrance to the kitchen.

"She looks like… she's happy. Sort of."

"But, isn't that a little wrong?"

In front of the pair's eyes, Mayumi was happily double boiling bars of chocolate. However, even if they described her as happy, the smile on her face was definitely not the kind that belonged on the face of a young maiden in love on the night before Valentine's Day.

"…Who do you think she is going to present it to?"

The tone of Mayumi's laughter had already gone from "uhuhuhuhu," passing through "HuhHuhHuhHuhHu…" and the rest and was now close to becoming something like "KukKukKukKukKukKu…" As the person who resembled their elder sister acted as if she was plotting to poison someone, the twins looked at each other with faces drained of color. "Kasumi-chan, about the chocolate that Onee-sama is using, is that…"

"Aah, oh yes… that's the stuff that's ninety-five percent cacao with zero percent sugar…"

In the past, products that stated that they contained ninety-nine percent cacao had been available for purchase, but what was currently available commercially was the strongest, bitterest chocolate, and that was what Mayumi was using as an ingredient.

"Over there, that bag…"

"It's espresso powder…"

"Onee-chan, what kind of awful…"

◊ ◊ ◊

An incredibly heavy burst of Psion arrived in the Information Dimension and quickly crashed into an isolated Information Body.

"You are only doing so-so today, so why don't we cut off this morning's session now."

"…Thank you."

As Tatsuya adjusted his breath and directed a bow towards Yakumo, Miyuki rushed up to him to hand him a towel.

Despite it being midwinter, there was a large quantity of sweat on Tatsuya's forehead. After spending some time being lost in watching Tatsuya wipe the sweat off, Miyuki started a conversation with Yakumo.

"Sensei, I think Onii-sama is extremely exhausted from using Gram Demolition…"

Yakumo caught Tatsuya's eye as he was about to answer the question himself, then shook his head to indicate that it was alright.

"Some exhaustion can't be helped. Since for Tatsuya-kun, the Information Dimension holds concepts of things that did not originally exist, 'Movement' and 'Exclusion'."

Since Monday of last week, Miyuki had demurred with "I would be a hindrance" and had not watched training. Because today was Tuesday, it had been a week and a day since Miyuki had come. Therefore, although Miyuki knew Tatsuya had proposed "How about we try to work out some new magic that will work against the Parasite," (as Miyuki was agitated that Yakumo was the one he made the proposal to) she hadn't known what they had come up with until she had asked Yakumo. Even though they called it new magic, it looked like nothing more than simply practicing using Gram Demolition in the Information Dimension to Miyuki.

"That's …something that is produced as a byproduct of arranging, right?"

She was confident that her brother was the strongest magician, but she knew there were a lot of things that he couldn't do. If it were necessary to secure victory, her brother would let his heart and body be damaged, for example — shortening his life span — and she intended to use anything, even tears, to quickly stop him from doing that.

"No, I don't think it's that kind of thing."

Yakumo's answer quickly contradicted Miyuki's theory.

"Because only Tatsuya-kun's recognition method is changing. He is not directly hitting the target; he is establishing coordinates by making marks from one second to thirty-two minutes from the side of the target, and he is producing a concept bullet that will give him the exclusion of movement in an area he has subconscious dominion over that he connects to the real world — right, Tatsuya-kun?"

"That's what we're doing, Miyuki. Rotating back and forth between thinking and sensing makes me mentally… no, it only exhausts my sensitivity. Don't worry, I won't do anything that would make me fall victim to a side effect."

"Really…"

Miyuki appeared reassured by Tatsuya clear explanation.

"So, there is a good chance of making a means to attack the Parasite?"

Upon being gazed upon by his younger sister with glittering eyes that said "just what I would expect from Onii-sama," Tatsuya unintentionally made a pained smile.

"No."

"If he goes up against a 'child' who has just been born, he will probably destroy him. But it would be tough to go up against an 'adult' fortified with months and years of experience."

Tatsuya let out a pained laugh as he shook his head. Yakumo intervened and lowered her expectations slightly.

—Thanks to that, the siblings ended the session without awkwardness.

Miyuki had not accompanied Tatsuya this morning on a whim, much less to check on the progress of Tatsuya's training.

Miyuki had come to Yakumo's temple on the morning of February fourteenth last year and the year before, so this was the third time.

She probably didn't have to state her errand.

When they returned to the temple priest's quarters, Miyuki took out a pretty package from the bag she left there and presented it to Yakumo.

"Sensei might consider this a heathen custom, but please accept this. Sensei is always doing so much for my brother."

As she did this, Yakumo made a smug smile.

"No no, good things are steadily maintained, even if they're foreign heathen customs."

Surely Tatsuya wasn't the only one thinking "Every year, he says the same thing, this guy…"

"Shisou, everyone's watching."

However, Tatsuya was the only one who could give him a chiding look rather than merely keeping his face unnaturally stiff.

"Hm? Isn't it alright? It's an incentive to train you."

Naturally, Yakumo didn't act like he noticed Tatsuya disapproval at all. "Doesn't this touch on the precepts on worldly desires?"

"As long as it doesn't end in carnal desire, it doesn't matter."

Yakumo spoke as if he was aloof from the world, but the avarice on his face didn't suit his words.

As Tatsuya shrugged "there's nothing that can be done with this man," the number of disciples who silently agreed with him was close to a majority.

◊ ◊ ◊

Until half a century ago, a large number of people used electric cars for transportation, but the modern era's cabinet had won on the point of ability to estimate arrival times.

If the method of how they're used is considered, the reason why can be understood, but cabinets do not have what is called an arrival time table. Naturally, in order not to cause any congestion, there is a wide window for cabinet arrival without being late. The lack of legally imposed speed limits within a cabinet's route forms the basis for fast arrival times. Though it can be said that it was a little inconvenient for meeting at a prearranged time and place.

In the first semester, Tatsuya and his friends had met at the station and joined the flow going to school together many times, but recently their pattern had been to congregate when they arrived in their classroom.

"Good morning, Tatsuya-san."

"Morning, Honoka."

This defiance of the difficulty, could it possibly be due to being young. Or perhaps it was due to being in love.

Maybe both answers were correct. "Ah, good morning, Honoka-san."

"Morning, Mizuki."

And for a maiden in love on this day alone, companions are intolerable. Since being with Miyuki was the default, nothing could be done about that, Honoka thought.

However, anyone other than Miyuki was not a friend but a mere obstacle. No, it was because they were friends that Honoka thought she wanted them to make assumptions based on what today's date was.

—Certainly, that thought showed on her face.

It could be said that Mizuki read the mood by the slight change in Honoka's expression.

Mizuki quickly started fidgeting. Although she was extremely uncomfortable. It would be too unnatural to suddenly burst out words like "I'll go on ahead" or "I remember I have to" right now.

Even though she wanted to align with Honoka's expectation, in that situation Mizuki couldn't move; unexpectedly (?), Miyuki was the one who abolished the stalemate.

"Mizuki, is there something on your uniform?"

"Eh?"

Of course, upon suddenly being told that, Mizuki craned her neck with all her might, trying to look over her shoulder to see her back.

There was no way doing such a thing would allow someone to see their own back and since there was nothing back there in the first place, it was nothing but an exercise in futility, however—

"Stay. I'll get it for you. Onii-sama, I'm sorry, but please go on ahead. Honoka, could you go on ahead too?"

"Oh, I understand."

Honoka looked awestruck by this unexpected development; Tatsuya nodded easily and Honoka nodded at his look.

Honoka awkwardly forced her legs to trail after Tatsuya's back and turned only her upper body to thank Miyuki with her eyes.

Miyuki nodded with a small smile.

Honoka's nervousness and excitement over the unimaginable chance to walk to school with only the two of them knew no bounds. Even though Tatsuya made conversation, she was only able to make the proper responses by the skin of her teeth. Additionally, her voice was hoarse. In spite of Tatsuya walking rather slowly, her legs had difficulties due to joint stiffness, and she nearly stumbled over spots where there was nothing to stumble over.

Even if she was the only one who called it stage fright, it was the unmistakable truth.

If they entered the school building like this, the difference of status between the first course and second course students would part them. Honoka also understood that this incredible chance was also about to be wasted very well.

Not using the salt you were given was nothing more than betraying yourself to your rivals.

"Um, Tatsuya-san!"

Just as they passed the school gate, Honoka called for Tatsuya to stop.

"Would it be alright if I could have a moment of your time!"

The way she spoke was like she was standing on ceremony with a superior officer several ranks above or an upper level manager several classes above her.

"Fine."

Not even the least bit of surprise showed on the humbly smiling face that had stopped for her as Tatsuya nodded.

"Over here… please."

Stealthily, as if hesitant to attract people's eyes (which made her stand out), Honoka advanced on quick feet in the direction of the outer garden, Tatsuya following at a pace that was neither faster or slower. —With a face that said he knew all.

"Well, Tachu…!"

The private spot on the school grounds (it made a passable confession spot) she knew of was in the shadow of a tree behind the robot research garage. (However, there was no special legend attached to it.)

Honoka stood in front of Tatsuya, vigorously presenting a small wrapped box held steadily in both hands — with all her heart and fumbling her words.

Honoka froze in that position.

Her long hair, fastened in two ponytails above her neck, did not conceal her burning red ears. Her head hanging down showed off the part in the middle of her hair, that little slice of skin displaying the fact that she was completely red.

She couldn't make the slightest movement. She also couldn't speak. She could neither advance or retreat. Both of her arms trembled weakly, her heart throbbed loudly. Other places on campus were producing similar ripples but the waves produced from her heart were as strong and big as anyone else's. The form of the wave was pretty and unbundled like the ping produced by a tuning fork. —Guiding the bud of ego of a trembling soul with no heart.

"Thank you, Honoka."

From both of the stretched out hands of Honoka, who was strangled by her own passion and unable to move, Tatsuya gently disconnected the wrapped box of chocolate to prevent it from breaking. And in exchange, installed a slightly smaller gift bag in the palm of her hand to grasp.

The uncertainty over the unexpected action might have (temporarily) overcome her shyness; Honoka pulled the gift bag to her breast with a blank expression on her face.

"Uh, Tatsuya san, this…"

"For the time being, a return gift. Since I'll give you something different next month, that one you'll have to wait for."

(In Japan, girls give gifts on Valentine's day and one month later boys give a return gift on White Day)

Honoka wiped the tears out of her eyes in confusion as she steadily opened her eyes and clumsily smiled.

"Uh, um, I never thought… Uh, Tatsuya-san, is it alright if I opened it?"

"Of course."

Honoka stared at the present she took out of the bag as if afraid that it would cease to exist.

"…Honoka, don't you have to get to class soon?"

Until Tatsuya spoke to her, Honoka had kept standing stock still.

Tatsuya had paid attention to make certain no one eavesdropped or spied upon them. That being said, he had not gone as far as using Elemental Sight. He did not risk the damage of the discovery of a highly confidential skill for Valentine's Day.

However — Tatsuya should have used Elemental Sight.

Certainly, there were no signs of an eavesdropper. Since until just before now, that thing had not possessed consciousness.

Within a nook in the garage built on the grounds of First High, that thing that was slumbering within the doll without a heart was stirred awake by a wave that resembled the one that had drawn that thing into this world.

The word awake might invite slight misconceptions.

Bathed in a strong pure thought that resembled a prayer, a new self sprouted in that thing.

Reconstructed the self is probably a more accurate way of saying it.

Within that thing residing inside the doll with no will of its own, a consciousness was born.

A consciousness resided in the doll.

When Honoka arrived at the class room, as soon as she put her things down she rushed into the restroom.

Dragging along Miyuki who had arrived slightly before her. Her goal was not the private stall but the mirror in front of it.

She impatiently took off the bands that tied up her hair, then in a complete change, she carefully collected her hair.

And used the pair of bands she had just received from Tatsuya as a finishing touch. The bands were of a simple design with two small balls hanging down from the closure. However, even though the design was uncomplicated, it didn't mean that it was made from cheap materials. Not only was the loop for tying the hair rubber, a covering had been molded on to the loop, and the form of the silver colored closure had thin claws grasping balls that were spheres of highly pure crystal.

Rather than being a decoration, crystal was recognized in modern times as a valuable medium that assisted magic (as it was said to effectively enhance the directionality of thought waves). As Magic High School students, the girls naturally had a deep interest in such minerals, and Honoka understood its value. She would have been very happy with a present from Tatsuya even if the balls had been cheap glass, make no mistake, so she was deeply moved.

"Hey, Miyuki, how do they look? Not strange? Do they suit me?"

Honoka questioned, with slight unease, the hair ornaments held in both hands.

Miyuki answered seriously with no trace of amusement or disgust. "Be at ease Honoka, they suit you quite well."

"…Really?"

"It's the truth. There's no way Onii-sama could possibly choose an unsuitable gift."

Honoka nodded, blushing in response to Miyuki's words.

With her head in the clouds, Honoka did not notice that Miyuki voice had an aura of someone reading a script.

After parting from Honoka during the short distance to his own classroom,

Tatsuya battled the feelings of self-hatred that welled up in him. The feelings of guilt caused by the actions that seemed to deceive the girl and the regret for making his sister an accomplice to that caused pain in his heart like that of a gradually widening cavity in a tooth.

To tell the truth, the hair ornament he'd given Honoka had been chosen by Miyuki.

If that was all it was, he would let it go as "the end justifies the means." It wouldn't change the fact that it was a 'present from Tatsuya', and it was definitely not necessary to disappoint Honoka.

However, the reason for preparing the present was not such an innocent one as that.

Tatsuya could comprehend just how thoroughly the gift he gave in thanks for the chocolate she gave him had unfortunately inundated her consciousness. The matter of giving and receiving Valentine's chocolate naturally invokes the images of 'feelings' being exchanged, of the relationship of two people being bound by a 'promise'; it is truly completely to be expected that such things would float to the surface of her mind.

That was the reason he prepared a return gift on this day; Honoka's reactions completely met Tatsuya's calculations.

Tatsuya had trifled with Honoka's affections.

He had resigned himself to accept the guilt a long time ago.

He couldn't do anything about the fact that he was a brute who couldn't comprehend human emotions, and even if he used social graces to deal with that or possibly even to receive retribution, he thought of it as reaping what he'd sown (If you didn't call it resignation but noncompliance, it would be completely correct).

However, even knowing his sister would never contradict something he had decided on, in order to postpone the inevitable, he made use of his sister in a makeshift ploy and he could not help but feel regret.

—The fact that he could think this way was proof that he was not as wicked as he thought himself to be; however, unfortunately, there was no adult around Tatsuya to tell him that.

"Hey, did something happen this morning — you look worn out."

He had probably not gained control of his emotions soon enough. Those words came at him the moment he entered the classroom.

Tatsuya raised his hand to also greet Leo, who had raised one of his hands while straddling his chair.

"You, on the other hand, look pretty healthy for someone who just got out of the hospital yesterday."

"Hey, you two, the a.m. greeting is 'Good Morning'."

With a laugh that said "there's no help for you two," Mikihiko came over to take part in the conversation.

"Ah, good morning Mikihiko."

"Yo."

Tatsuya obediently returned the morning greeting. Leo persevered in keeping to his own personal style — there's probably no deep meaning to this.

"Good morning. Leo, you look very much as you were." When he said "as you were," Mikihiko meant "as usual," but,

"Right, the doctor really didn't want me to leave the hospital, but since I was too healthy, he couldn't do anything about it."

Maybe Leo understood and maybe he didn't, but he responded with an exact explanation as a reply.

According to that first medical examination, he should have stayed in the hospital at least a month; that the doctor was quite skeptical about a rejuvenation power defying common sense was unavoidable, he thought.

However, since the doctor couldn't see anything wrong and the patient wanted to leave the hospital, the doctor could not detain him in the hospital room. For that reason, Leo came back to school today.

"Um, Tatsuya, did you have a fight with your sister this morning?"

"Impossible."

The statement was not Tatsuya's, but Mikihiko's.

He wasn't fully satisfied with the snap judgment, but he couldn't decide on an excuse that wouldn't lead to misunderstandings.

"Isn't it more likely that he's tired of the spectacle? Today's Valentine's Day."

Leo gave a big nod of agreement. That also grated on Tatsuya's nerves, but getting angry over it here would, unfortunately, get him bogged down in the subject.

"Those who have not decided on someone do not get caught up in the spectacle. Mizuki. You're late."

Tatsuya forcibly and very stupidly tried to use Mizuki, who had just entered the classroom, to blatantly change the subject.

"No, I just stopped by the clubroom for a bit. Good morning, Yoshida-kun, Leo-kun."

To be frank, Mikihiko looked regretful at the change of topic, but being completely unaware of that was one of Mizuki's idiosyncrasies.

"Leo-kun, you're resuming school today. You've gotten well quicker then I thought you would, great."

The truth was that Leo left the hospital yesterday and came to school today; last week, when they visited him in the hospital, they had heard the details of his condition, so naturally Mizuki was also aware of it.

Therefore, if it was true, the statements just now were bizarre, but Tatsuya, Mikihiko,

"Oh, thank you, for visiting me so often," and Leo, himself, continued smiling.

As soon as Mizuki arrived at her seat, she passed a small, palm-sized box to each of the three of boys. Her attitude was truly light; she did not put on airs, she did not appear nervous, and she did not appear embarrassed in the least.

It was the face of someone taking part in an annual tradition.

One of the boys looked a little miffed about that, but since the other two received the impression that the person in question intended to endure it with a poker face, they said nothing.

The sympathy of warriors. Incidentally, that person was not Leo.

However, he was gazing at the small box he received as if it was something amazing.

Apparently, this was the first time he had received chocolate on Valentine's Day from someone other than a relative.

That was fairly unusual, but they had no way of knowing what kind of student he'd been in his middle school years, so neither Tatsuya nor Mikihiko voiced their amazement.

Erika, who had just entered the classroom, interjected herself into the conversation.

"I thought you got out of the hospital real fast; so you were after the chocolate."

"There's no way that could possibly be true! Stop screwing around, you simpleton!"

Not simply retorting, Leo kicked his chair as he stood up. "Ooh, could I have hit a bulls-eye?"

It was an absolutely adequate explanation for the extreme reaction, if it were looked at with those suspicions in mind. —If forced to come up with an explanation, however. If viewed literally, the sound Leo was unleashing, "Gununununu," was a composite made from grinding his back teeth and growling. However, Tatsuya had been thinking it was the forerunner of retribution and was unable to leave things alone, so he threw his friend a lifeline and spoke to Erika.

"Good morning, Erika. You're late today."

Erika turned her entire body to respond to Tatsuya. "Good morning, Tatsuya-kun."

Naturally, dropping the matter left Leo at a loose end.

"February the fourteenth, it's awful every year. Because we have a large number of guys."

Obviously, Erika preferred honestly grumbling over toying with Leo, and it appeared that her mind had shifted in that direction.

"If I don't give them any, it won't be just one or two who sulk like spoiled children, and that's not limited to the very skilled ones, so I can't ignore any of them; it's just awful."

She repeated awful twice, probably because her true feelings were that strong on the subject.

"Wouldn't it be better if you only gave to the ones who wanted it?"

"If I did that, there would be guys who would make a fuss over my playing favorites. And this is the only thing they're united on. Usually, the guys don't know the meaning of the word 'Harmony'." Erika was fed up to the bottom of her soul.

"Under the pretext of amity between the trainees, my old man puts up money for it; I really wish he would use it to buy us some female students instead."

The look on her face made Tatsuya feel like he should pretend to feel sympathetic.

"That really sounds like hard work."

"That's sure true! I'm so tired of it… It would be so much better if Valentine's Day and the like ceased to exist."

It seemed like stress was bursting out of her as she talked. Erika's indignation was real and extreme.

"It must be great at Miki's place."

At times like this, some people ran amok, striking at people near them to release their stress.

"Aren't most of your disciples female?"

The target she chose this time was Mikihiko. "Every year, don't you take your pick?"

"Yoshida-kun… is that true?"

Mizuki did not really understand why she had said that, herself. Or rather, she was not conscious of that reason.

And on Mikihiko's side also, for some reason he did not consider probing why; he received more damage from that one line from Mizuki than Erika's needling.

"That's not true!"

Out of reflex, he responded with an answer.

If you considered the background a little, then you could quickly make a reasoned response that would take care of the various aspects of the conversation; however, that might be a little difficult for a teenager to do.

"In general, it would be ridiculous to undertake our discipline holding that frivolous attitude."

Even so, this outburst was quite foolish.

"Backtalk, huh. So why do you want to call my dojo frivolous?"

"Uh, no, I didn't mean to say that…"

"Then what did you mean?"

As Mikihiko began to burst out in cold sweat, Erika steadily glared in his direction and Mizuki looked at both of them with a similar stare for some reason, Tatsuya and Leo exchanged wry smiles.

◊ ◊ ◊

The curriculum of Magic High Schools is the same as a normal high school, with the addition of the study of magic. The modern education system supported a policy of advancing to specialized subjects in quick stages which was not limited to Magic High Schools. Perceptibly, that meant that there were 'Literary Arts High Schools', 'Science High Schools', 'Fine Arts High Schools', and 'Sports High Schools' to develop students with talents in specialized fields important to the education system. The curriculum of specialized high schools differed from normal high schools because part of the institutionalized integrated doctrine of education at a high school had been removed and the specialized educational subjects were jam packed. Nevertheless, it was said that even in comparison to other specialized high schools, there was even less give in the curriculum of Magic High Schools.

Consequently, Magic High Schools' students are industrious. While they are in the middle of lessons, they hardly ever gossip, daydream or waste their time in other ways, like playing. It's unfortunate, but it should probably be said that this practice is followed more by second course students than first course students at First High School. This is probably more due to their fear of being left behind than their fighting spirit to conquer adversity.

However, even here there were exceptions. Apart from the practical skills of magic, time had been set aside for normal physical education, wherein even the tense atmosphere loosens. Especially today, somehow no one could concentrate on their schoolwork from the morning onward on a day like February the fourteenth; the unpredictable ambience wafting throughout the day was that prominent.

Changing out of the female school uniforms took more labor than changing out of the male school uniforms. This was not limited to First High School alone, and was probably the same for every school. In the first place, the issue was not limited to uniforms. A portion of the advocates to abolish sexism demanded that there should be a cultural change to unisex attire and the like, but the majority of males and females did not wish to do so.

In the short break period before P.E. class, the atmosphere in the changing room was always saturated with busyness. Everyone was in a great hurry as they took off their clothes carefully, put them on a hanger in their lockers and then changed into their gym uniforms. More bio-keyed lockers had been prepared than there were people to use them, and they had to register the vein pattern of the user each and every time, so that also took up time.

That being said, by February, even the first years were used to it, so while their hands moved briskly, they could chat with their classmates using the locker next to them and also feel less ill at ease (?) with the underwear clad bodies of their classmates. The changing room was a degree noisier than usual today.

By this time of year, the locker positions were generally decided. Miyuki, as usual, was changing in front of her locker in the middle of the right wall. The one to her left was Honoka's and the one on her right was the one used by Shizuka; however, Class A had less members taking instruction than usual lately. Nevertheless, today Lina had come to take the place on Miyuki's right.

"Oh, Lina. Is your usual spot occupied?"

Miyuki asked this question as she finished stowing away her CAD and information terminal in a locker cubby. The locker Lina usually used was near the door. At first, all the Class A girls thought she would use Shizuka's locker, but Lina had chosen an open locker near the door where there weren't a lot of people. When Miyuki talked to Tatsuya about it, he had said "She probably chose a place she can make a quick escape from" and she had thought "I see." There was no proof that Tatsuya's guess was correct. It could certainly be said that this was the first time Lina changed her clothes beside Miyuki.

"That's not the reason."

Miyuki did not ask what the reason was. She did not have any interest in the answer and had been busy taking off her jacket as Lina spoke.

Nonetheless, perhaps because she thought her answer just now was too unfriendly, Lina, of her own free will, added to her answer while stripping off her jacket as well.

"Everyone's asking who I am going to give chocolate to… I know no one's doing it out of meanness, but I've gotten a little sick of it."

"Everyone is wondering about it. Since you are so pretty, Lina."

Miyuki said that with a serious look while taking off her necktie; Lina puffed up her cheeks in frustration.

"Then why do I have to suffer a barrage of questions from you Mi…yuki."

The instant Miyuki extracted her bare right shoulder from the dress portion of her uniform, Lina had cut off her response mid-sentence. Lina's eyes were glued to this not very extraordinary deed and her tongue no longer functioned properly.

"Huh? I wonder if it's because I lack sex appeal."

Miyuki's remarks had made Lina irritable for some reason and she didn't know why. Lina was not aware that she was energetically stripping off her dress in a competitive fashion.

This time, Miyuki let out a sigh at Lina's half naked body that was emerging from underneath her uniform.

"Lina, your figure is so nice. I am envious."

There was no trace of timidity as she spoke, Miyuki was also only wearing her underwear.

"Is that sarcasm? In what way does Miyuki have reason to be envious of me?"

As she spoke, Lina, with her hands on her hips in an imposing pose, peered intently all over Miyuki's semi-nude body and got in Miyuki's face.

"After all, your hips and bottom are just the right proportions and extremely sexy. You're not thin, but extremely fit, Lina."

Miyuki reached out with her right hand and patted the narrowest part of Lina's waist. It was completely without lust, from a certain point of view; it was an innocent touch. Even though Lina knew that the touch was not accompanied by any lesbian lust, it was hard for her to retain her self- possession. The sound of someone swallowing their saliva could be heard here and there in the changing room; the scene probably threatened people's peace of mind even if they were only looking at it.

Of course, Lina was too busy to worry about the gallery. "Mi, Miyuki, you..."

As she spoke, Lina reached out her hand. However, she hesitated just before she touched Miyuki's bare skin and drew her hand back.

"There aren't really any spots where you're too thin — your very womanly body makes me so jealous."

Miyuki sent a devilish little smile towards Lina, who couldn't handle being stared at and was turning red, and released her hand from Lina's hip.

Just then, a loud crash rang out behind Miyuki. Miyuki turned around; Lina moved her eyes.

There they found that Honoka had lost the use of her legs and was clinging to her locker.

Somehow, Miyuki surveyed the area and became aware that her classmates had paused partway through changing their clothes and were now averting their red faces in an unladylike manner. Normally, Miyuki ignored anyone staring at her, so she had not been aware until now that they had drawn everyone's attention.

"…Why don't we change quickly." In response to Miyuki's proposal, "Yes."

Lina, who felt the same, nodded as well as spoke her reply.

◊ ◊ ◊

Immediately after school, the capricious ambience flourished. During instruction, the students had probably practiced self-restraint. And now it seemed that they couldn't hold back any longer; scenes full of pain and pleasure that made you want to throw cold water on them unfurled here and there across the campus.

The situations varied.

For example, among his circle of friends, a slightly too potent scene of chocolate gifting unfurled between a betrothed couple, whose match was approved by themselves as well as by their parents. Apparently Kanon, the

Public Morals Chief, invaded the Student Council Room, and used a smiling face to apply pressure on Isori, the Treasurer, to eat all of the homemade drops of chocolate in the nearly overflowing stenciled ornamental box the size of a female student's bento box.

For the next example, let's take the case of a certain shy but strong willed girl. Apparently, she had politely and solemnly disregarded her status as a second course student to overcome the lofty threshold of the first course classroom, in order to present her beribboned package with her face red and eyes cast down to a male student wide eyed with surprise when he received the gift, and even now looked like he was ready to dance for joy. So it was for people like the Kendo and Kenjutsu couple.

For today only, the students of First High were not 'magicians to be', but 'high school students' rejoicing in their youth.

Those who couldn't get into the festive atmosphere wanted to avert their eyes.

"Oh, Tatsuya, you're on patrol duty today."

A voice called out to him from a table with a look that didn't bother concealing the owner's boredom and search for amusement, sealing Tatsuya's fate by making it impossible for him to ignore this sight.

"All of the upperclassmen seem to have previous commitments, so it's just the first years today, Morisaki and I."

Normally, the thought that he had a compatriot would have probably made him feel a little better. However, since even now Morisaki had not dropped his unfriendly attitude, his arrival would only change his mood slightly.

"That's quite a tactful way of saying that they unloaded their duties on you and left."

"I did not intend to be that blunt."

The resignation in his voice was quite the opposite of the high pitched laughter made in response to it.

"By the way, Tatsuya-kun."

Perhaps she had enough of laughing for a while, thought Tatsuya when Mayumi called out to him. —For some reason he avoided looking at the seat across from her.

"Could I have a little bit of your time."

"That would not be a problem, but before that..."

As he spoke, Tatsuya cast his eyes on the upperclassman who had fallen prostrated on the side of the table across from Mayumi.

"What on earth happened here?"

The spot they currently were in was in a corner of the cafeteria, a line of partitions cordoning the meeting spaces in this area.

Since they had no roofs and no ceilings, the sound of conversation carried.

Still, the fact that it wasn't a quiet private space probably made it feel more secure than if it was.

The high popularity was actually only among the third years in the first course; it was rare for an underclassman to set foot here unless accompanied by a third year. Incidentally, Tatsuya also had not used it yet.

As for why he was here now,

"There shouldn't be any poisonous substances inside the school. What on earth did Club Management Group Leader Hattori eat?"

In the middle of his patrol of the school grounds, he had stopped by the café to quench his thirst when the sound of an extremely painful moan entered his ears, so he checked out that situation first.

"No. Well… not poison. Of course." He soon realized who the culprit was.

After all, directly in front of Hattori, Mayumi sat with a perplexed look on her face.

Her slightly puzzled bearing could be called strange.

Even now, her gaze was inviting him to partake her hospitality. "…Shiba…"

Tatsuya was still deciding on how to deal with the situation when Hattori, who still looked like he was about to faint, called out to him in a hoarse voice.

"…water…"

It was the voice of a traveler who had used up all his strength in front of an oasis.

"Just a moment."

Only the request was clear.

For an instant, he debated between getting mineral water and going to the water cooler, but he chose the water cooler since it was closer. He placed one of the water cooler cups full of cold water on the table.

Hattori clumsily grasped at the cup, sluggishly got his limbs moving, and aimed the cup in vicinity of his mouth as he listed from side to side and guzzled it down in one gulp with a grimace.

He keep his eyes closed, slowly gathering himself; the clock ticked ninety seconds off before Hattori opened his eyes and gave a deep sigh.

"—Shiba, my thanks."

What could have really happened. The duel they had had in April had not made them enemies, but even now you could not call Hattori's and Tatsuya's relationship friendly.

Tatsuya did not harbor any grudge on his end.

Nor did Hattori carry any malice or hostility, although people do not always recognize the emotions they hold, but even so, the docility with which he was thanking Tatsuya created an insuppressible sense of wrongness.

"…Are you okay?"

"…Hm, I'm okay now."

To prove his words, Hattori stood upright.

—The feeling that he was straining himself was undeniable.

"It is just a matter of time. Since no special problems should arise, you shouldn't worry about me. Well then, Presi-, no I mean Saegusa-sempai, I will be off."

Hattori politely bowed in Mayumi's direction and straightened his spine. Wow, that is probably one big bluff, thought Tatsuya as he watched him.

"Umm, for the time being could you give me a moment?"

Mayumi directed Tatsuya into the chair, her smile laced with fake innocence.

The reason for Hattori's weirdness was unmistakably her; that she was trying to pretend otherwise was obvious, but he could see that it would be rude to expose her when Hattori himself was covering up for her.

Consequentially, Tatsuya forgot act one as Hattori wished him to.

Since he certainly didn't have anything that he had to do, Tatsuya nodded an "Understood" in response; however,

"Ah, he's here! Subaru, over here!"

The lively voice kept him from continuing.

The nimble galloping feet made a pata-pata sound as they rushed to him.

They soon made it to Tatsuya's side and took what was probably their first look at the inside of the partition.

A sound like the squeal of brakes arose from the momentum as the voice's owner stopped.

"Pres-President."

"Hey, Eimi, it's not president, it's Saegusa-sempai, right?"

A quick flick to the head, "Ouch!", sweetly settled Eimi down; Subaru avoided looking at Eimi's upturned gaze of protest and bowed deeply to Mayumi.

"I have no excuse that I can give you for the commotion just now." The suggestive tone made Mayumi twitch around her eyes.

"It was not much of a commotion, so please do not bother worrying about it, Satomi-san."

The one who composed her face and answered so coldly was Mayumi.

To a normal underclassman, the words, the tone and the gaze would all be withering.

Currently, Eimi had stiffened slightly.

"Is that so? We will finish our errand quickly." Nonetheless, Subaru was extremely determined.

As she calmly exchanged words, she handed the bag (a cloth bag to be exact) in her hand to Tatsuya.

"Will you please accept this from us?"

"…Satomi-san. Today, you're like you're in a high class play."

"I don't know what I've done to deserve it, but Eimi and I were chosen as representatives. As you might expect, we are, to be honest, slightly embarrassed to do this."

If you looked closely, her cheeks were slightly red.

Saying that she was embarrassed did not seem to be a lie.

"In that case, is it alright for me to ask who you are representing?"

He had a fair idea of how she would answer, but in order to buy himself some time to prepare, Tatsuya ventured a question.

"Most of our fellow members of the Nine Schools Competition first year girls team… well it's a thank you."

Subaru's choice of words was unusual but the definition was the same. In short, courtesy chocolate, right.

Never the less, to receive it from the entire team was an unanticipated bounty.

"Ah, even though I said my fellow members, I did not include Honoka or Miyuki."

Now that she was no longer petrified, Eimi on the other hand did not look all that embarrassed. After all she did not originally have a very timid personality, plus she was probably (it was often said about her) fairly naïve about male-female relationships. In Eimi's case, she probably had too many other things to worry about.

"Since those two would probably wish to pass theirs themselves."

"If we interfered with that, they'd probably get angry."

"You could call it a replacement, but we included Shizuka instead. We'll call or email to tell her about her inclusion later."

"Well, see you later. President, no I mean, Saegusa-sempai, excuse us." No one interrupted their goodbye.

After overwhelming Mayumi and Tatsuya with their whirlwind conversation, Subaru and Eimi departed.

"…What's the expression, it's good to be young?"

Perhaps the lively intruders had thrown her off her game, as the emotions Mayumi was radiating felt a little out of focus.

Of course, Tatsuya made no move to step into the minefield he saw lain out in front of him.

He silently took his place on the chair that Hattori had occupied a little while ago.

Simultaneously, Tatsuya reflexively lowered his eyebrows.

"Something wrong?"

"No, there's a slight smell… someone probably spilled coffee."

Was the strong odor assaulting his nose coming from coffee beans or cocoa beans. The cleaning robot was supposed to have a deodorizing mechanism, but… it could have deliberately cleaned it by hand.

—Tatsuya mused on one side of the table, "Really? I hadn't noticed."

While Mayumi, who knew the truth, pretended she didn't know on the other side.

Naturally, calling her on it would be meaningless, however. "More importantly, here."

After all, the same scent was drifting up from the box Mayumi presented as she spoke.

Of course, Tatsuya was aware of the scent. The thing that had dealt Hattori that damage was undoubtedly this, Tatsuya perceived. Tatsuya had intended to forget what he had seen a little while ago, but it seemed that Mayumi would not let it go.

"…This is?"

Considering the shape, the way it was wrapped and what day today was, it was obvious what the thing was, but even so, he couldn't help asking.

"Oh my, isn't it exactly what you think it is?"

Underneath the statement, voice and expression that all professed surprise, Mayumi was enjoying herself immensely.

"…Thank you."

Unfortunately, he did not have an excuse to refuse it.

If it weren't for the scene just now, he might have gotten by with the cliché "I dont like sweets," but that did not have any persuasive power after he just accepted a large quantity of chocolate from Subaru and her friends.

There was nothing he could do, so Tatsuya accepted Mayumi's chocolate. It was very big.

From how it felt in his hand, it had five times the weight of commercial grade chocolate.

That allowed Tatsuya to take a rough guess that she had used high quality materials for what she was plotting. When and where did I earn your enmity, he thought, but he did not have a single clue to her motive; however,

"Hey, taste it."

He had anticipated this sort of statement from Mayumi. "Right now?"

"Yes. I want to hear your impressions."

He did not say, why didn't you end your experiment with Hattori-sempai. That saying anything like that was futile was obvious.

She probably wanted to see what kind of face he made right before her eyes.

I didn't know she could be so childish… as he thought so, Tatsuya began to unwrap it.

(Well, it's okay.)

There was a little something he wanted to ask Mayumi about just now. Because she was close to taking the university examinations she was preparing for, her time was limited and he had felt awkward about bothering her; however, if she intended to take the time to use him as a toy then he probably shouldn't worry about it.

"Then since there is a small matter I want to consult you about, may we change the location?"

He did not want ordinary people to overhear the discussion. Naturally, that was not the only reason he wanted to change the location. Even Tatsuya worried a little about his reputation. Collapsing from eating chocolate could never be called dishonorable, but he did think it was the type of embarrassment that people would bring up forever.

"It would be bad if we're overheard."

It seemed that Mayumi quickly understood one of his reasons.

The smile disappeared from her face. The transformation was so abrupt that he almost heard a ping when her expression changed.

"Yes."

"…Understood. Follow me."

She spent the time before she replied looking at the information terminal of her phone making arrangements. Perhaps she had pinpointed an empty classroom. A normal student wouldn't have been able to do it, but it wouldn't be strange if this upperclassman could do it.

Tatsuya took the box he had been given with him when he got up to pursue Mayumi, who had stood up from her seat.

He felt the gazes of well over ten people, but he had already decided not to worry about things that nothing could be done about.

◊ ◊ ◊

Mayumi used a disposable key code downloaded through her phone terminal to open the door to the room, which was one of the lounges used for interviews with guardians and merchants. It was not as formal as a reception room, but it still felt awkward to be using it as students.

It wasn't as if he never thought of asking if it were really okay to use the room, but it was probably too late to ask now since she had already downloaded the key code. There was a completely automatic tea server in place, so she had chosen a room that they could eat and drink in.

"Black tea, okay?"

"No, you needn't bother with it."

"Don't make me lose face as a lady."

Once she went to the length of saying that, there was nothing he could do but accept the tea.

Despite the fact that it was completely automatic, she did not use the paper cups that were dispensed. She placed tea cups underneath the selection spout and made the effort to make a place setting, complete with matching saucers.

Mayumi seemed to really enjoy the process. "Here, please have some."

"Thank you."

From the moment he took his first polite sip from the cup, he corrected his seating posture.

Almost automatically, Mayumi also straightened her spine as she sat down.

"The subject you wanted to discuss, is it the 'Parasite'?" The one who fired the first shot was Mayumi.

Perhaps she had also wanted to discuss the subject with Tatsuya.

"Yes, the information has not been released by the media, but is the damage calming down?"

Not only the media, but the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion's information routes had also abruptly stopped relaying damage reports.

It was simple if you thought about it; it made it look as if their extermination of the demon had cleared up all the problems. However, they had been able to confirm that the covertly operating demons had a multitude of forms. Not knowing if they had even been able to defeat the 'Vampire' despite its lack of substance, for that reason he did not consider the matter completely resolved.

"Officially, things are calming down."

Mayumi, or more precisely the Saegusa clan, possessed different information routes than Tatsuya. However, even she did not have details about the current situation.

"Although, since the number of missing people is more numerous this year compared to last year, I believe that we may interpret it to mean that they have gotten more skillful in their operations. Our vigilance might have allowed us to bring down one of our prey."

The conjecture was not Mayumi's alone; the Saegusa clan also found the facts strange. One week before, only a small portion of the people had been informed that all of the Parasites were said to have been temporarily exterminated.

Thus, the conversation being exchanged here between Tatsuya and Mayumi was truly off the mark in regard to the truth. However, that there was no way that the actual body of the parasite was destroyed and it would be revived in a new host sooner or later was close to the truth. Therefore, the sense of impending danger the two of them harbored was not something pointless.

"There is no way to be sure we brought it down, but perhaps we should be keeping a lookout. Maybe we should equip our allies with telepathy."

"Tele…pathy?"

The unfamiliar word stalling the flow of the conversation. Mayumi tilted her head, asking for an explanation.

"It is a term for the ability to share inspirations and perceptions. The phenomenon has been observed between identical twins; it is one of the numerous forms of Extrasensory Perception. Even though I said numerous, the examples of it are relatively rare, however."

"In short, something that can see and hear a portion of its body and allow the whole group to share that experience, is that what you mean?"

"It is nothing but conjecture." Mayumi brooded with a glum face.

In order to not interfere with that, he drank his black tea without making a sound,

"…I don't like all these things we don't understand," but he could hear Mayumi mutter that.

Tatsuya completely shared that emotion, but if he voiced that, it would become a mutual gripe session. He thought that would be too detrimental.

"All we are doing is fumbling around, looking for a method of handling unknown situations."

Thus, when she spoke of things that they could not do anything about, he withheld any words of comfort.

"…"

Tatsuya also perceived that saying that it didn't have a physical body increased the discomfort they felt while examining the problem they were giving their complete attention to.

"…If we can't do that..."

Nevertheless, apparently Mayumi's attention was centered on a completely different purpose.

"I don't fully understand what you mean by the ability to share inspirations and perceptions, but hmm… hey, is there a created sequence for it?"

"…ESP is regarded as being attached to an entirely different field of study than magic research, so I think not."

The anxiety was heading toward a pinnacle.

How could they end their exchange of information on a good note — Mayumi summed up all she felt with a sigh. At that point, Tatsuya stood up intending to leave without eating anything, but the cuff of his sleeve was firmly grasped by a hand that reached out from the other side of the table. —If Tatsuya had thought to evade it, he would have been able to do so, but he restrained himself since Mayumi didn't need another poor result.

"Now, why don't we enjoy our tea time."

Tatsuya sent a distrustful stare (naturally, intentionally) against the iron wall of Mayumi's smile, and Mayumi lightly thrust the small box that had been placed on the table with her other hand.

It seems that she was not going to be kind and forget about that.

So that's how it's going to be; Tatsuya let out a small sigh at Mayumi, who was no longer trying to conceal the fact that she was planning something.

No words of rebuke were let loose.

Quite the opposite, Mayumi was looking at Tatsuya with anticipation and excitement in her eyes.

Isn't she regressing back to childhood due to her anxiety over taking the university entrance exams? While he considered that impossibility (In the first place, Mayumi had no reason to be anxious about her grades), Tatsuya freed the box from the covering.

He did not do it in an overtly, slow, time-consuming way, but he politely peeled it off in a manner that did not damage one bit of the wrapping paper as a token form of resistance.

What came out was a cardboard box covered by a lid. The homemade Valentine's box had inner walls treated with vinyl; the largeness of the box made it one of the so-called 'to convey your true feelings' type.

Of course, he did not mistake it for that.

The atrocious combination of chocolate and coffee that made him light headed would not allow him to have that kind of delusion.

The inside of the box was packed tightly with black, cube shaped objects. They did not resemble anything Tatsuya recognized as 'chocolate'.

He had a forewarning of what it would taste like just from the odor.

No matter how much it is said that bitter things do not have to taste bitter, that is limited by quality and quantity.

Tatsuya resignedly put the objects that looked like they should be called medicine instead of food into his mouth and chewed them.

The results of this were — only recorded by Mayumi's smug smile.

◊ ◊ ◊

Honoka cut across the school yard toward the preparation room with a large notebook style terminal.

The sun was well on its way down, and the temperature had dropped several degrees. If she let her mind wander, her body began to shiver.

However, her mood was not affected by the cold.

Anything that tried to mar her day was brought to heel by her two swinging hair ties.

Her mind unintentionally drifted towards the crystal balls that shook with her.

She acknowledged to herself that she was wearing a stunned expression but she told herself again and again that "It was okay for today only."

Honoka was well aware that she was not Tatsuya's girlfriend. She did not forget that her love confession had been refused. She had already been rejected.

Even so, for as long as Tatsuya allowed it, she was going to keep clinging to him.

She sometimes she felt that she was a 'wicked girl' for doing that.

There were also nights that she resented him for not cutting her loose after he rejected her.

However, today she felt like all those negative emotions had been blown away.

Logical thoughts, like this small accessory was too cheap a handout to make her this happy, were powerless in the face of these feelings.

"Honoka!"

As Honoka entered the preparation building with soft footsteps, a voice called out to her from the side and she halted her feet.

"Ah, Eimi."

The slight girl, who stood out due to her vibrant ruby like hair, rushed up to Honoka with quick feet.

"How unusual for you to come here, Honoka. Isn't it the first time we've seen each other since you've become a Student Council officer?"

"I'm standing in for Isori-sempai."

As she said that, Honoka lifted the notebook style terminal slightly to display it and Eimi gave a look of comprehension.

"What about you, Eimi; are you taking a break from your club?"

The uniform of the hunting club Eimi belonged to was supposed to be a long sleeved shirt under a short jacket, thin trousers and boots, but right now she was in her school uniform. And it was not yet time for club activities to be over.

"There was only a meeting today."

Since Eimi quickly understood that Honoka had asked the question because of the uniform, she did not inquire 'why' she was being asked.

"Hey? Is that crystal?"

She had not meant to ask another question, but the light flickering in Honoka's hair quickly caught her eye and she asked a question in a tone bursting with curiosity.

"Umm, yes."

The embarrassed expression might have set a bell ringing; Eimi grinned happily.

"You got that from Shiba-kun, right?"

"…Yes, he said it was a return gift for the chocolate."

The happiness of the blushing Honoka put a contagiously happy smile on her face, which was shown to the wide-eyed Eimi.

"Ooh… he prepared a present ahead of time, way to go Shiba-kun. He seems so aloof, but he can be that considerate. How mature, eh?"

Honoka's smile became increasingly happier.

Nonetheless, Eimi's next words cast a shadow on that smile.

"I understand he's also quite popular, eh. Just now, it looked like the president was giving him chocolate, maybe that might have been 'I love you' chocolate?"

"…President?"

"Ah. I got it wrong. Former president. Saegusa-sempai."

"Saegusa-sempai was?"

"It felt like sempai was detaining him against his will, however. Since

Shiba-kun was making a somewhat troubled face, I don't think you should be worried."

Eimi had declared that there was nothing going on and she was probably voicing her real impression. But even though she had been told that, the inside of Honoka's heart was not calm.

"Doesn't it seem like Mayumi holds some special feelings for Tatsuya…" that suspicion had been in Honoka's mind for some time. If she had to compete against Mayumi, Honoka was not confident that she would win.

Her greatest rival right now, Miyuki, was restrained by the fact that they were 'truly brother and sister'. Ultimately, there was no way that they could be bound in that fashion, which gave Honoka some peace of mind.

However, Mayumi didn't have that restriction.

She was superior both in looks and actual magic power; the sole advantage that Honoka possessed was that 'the other girl was older than him'. However, Honoka did not think Tatsuya would be bothered by a one to two year age difference.

Waves radiated from within Honoka's heart.

The waves spread without showing signs of abating. The waves did not confine themselves to Honoka's heart.

The thing housed inside the puppet had throbbed for an instant that morning with Honoka's incredible joy.

Now, through the link that formed at that moment, thought waves flowed causing it to throb again.

The barely born slumbering consciousness had truly awakened this time.

◊ ◊ ◊

When Tatsuya carried a big cloth bag past the school gate, the sun had already gone down.

Since it was the middle of February, the shortest of days had past and sunset was falling later.

But they were still receiving a serving of extreme cold.

When the sun's warmth disappeared, the temperature dropped extremely rapidly.

Naturally, people moved into huddling distance — they couldn't help it.

Actually, there was almost no distance between the line of figures of students walking home in a hurry who had all remained to be evicted when the school gate was on the brink of closing. —However, there were some exceptions.

On both sides of Tatsuya, in short both Miyuki and Honoka stopped their movements just short of snuggling with him; for some time they had been alternately repeating the action.

On the surface at least, they were probably aware of each other's existence certainly, but…

"I wonder if perhaps it would be better if I went on ahead."

Maybe the eyes of the person walking with them were the ones that were most aware of their existence.

"No."

Lina's considerate remark was delivered in a monotone; Tatsuya replied with a curt denial.

Tatsuya and Miyuki and Honoka and Lina.

The ones who were currently together were these four.

Tatsuya's classmates had already been considerate enough to return home ahead of them.

However, Lina was a member of the Student Council, albeit a temporary one.

With both Miyuki and Honoka still working, there was no way Lina could leave early alone. Student government activities were not just like play when compared to her regular army duties; it was play, but that didn't mean that she could do the work indifferently. Since she had a sense of responsibility as well as an awareness that this was necessary for her infiltration duties, for the time being she was not a 'Sirius' and her daily activities did not include being a 'chief' or an 'executioner', and it would be a shame to let it go to waste with half measures.

Naturally, today of all days, that unfortunately resulted in her being stuck as the sole observer of Miyuki and the rest as they all went to the station, which put her in her current state of deep regret. —The ambience was so difficult for a third party to endure that Lina forgot that Tatsuya and

Miyuki were the targets she was directed to observe and that if it was at all possible, she was to keep her eyes on them all day long.

"Really?"

Tatsuya said he didn't mind, and the other two silently refused to challenge that. She was on the brink of possibly going on ahead anyway when the station came in sight.

That being said, she still had to hurry down the straightaway; however,

"We're already this close to the station. So there's no need to think about going on ahead."

As has already been explained, modern cabinets do not have a timetable. But that has nothing to do with up and down.

Tatsuya's house and Lina's apartment were in the same upward direction, and Honoka's was in the downward direction.

By chance on that day, no upward cars remained.

The waiting time posted on the platform was about three minutes.

The three saw Honoka off and waited inside the transparent wall to stave off the cold air for the next car to come around.

Three minutes more or less is a short time. It would not be unnatural even for people in an intimate relationship to not have a conversation.

In contrast, it was completely normal for people who knew each other but were estranged to not have a conversation.

The atmosphere between Lina and the siblings was divided between being hostile and friendly.

Calling a relationship where they had at one time tried to kill each other 'friendly' might sound odd if other people heard about it.

Never the less, neither Tatsuya nor Miyuki harbored any ill feelings toward her. Especially Tatsuya, who was aware that his feelings were closer to sympathy.

For now, Magicians could not escape from being treated like weapons. Tatsuya especially could not forget that he was 'that type of thing' himself.

If he ever tried to reject that, the nation or society would probably try to eliminate him.

Since his magic held the potential of turning an entire nation into a wasteland.

—And that was true of Lina as well.

—She, like himself, could never run away from being a weapon.

—In a certain sense, Lina had a closer existence to his own than Miyuki’s…

"…Something wrong?"

Perhaps due to his being engrossed in his musings, Tatsuya had been unaware that Lina wanted to say something until Miyuki pulled on his sleeve to get him to pay attention.

"…Not really, it's nothing."

Since Miyuki had deliberately let him know, this was not the case of Lina merely looking at him by chance for a few seconds. Lina's unnatural attitude also said that it was not an "it's nothing."

"Really."

However, Tatsuya did not make any insinuations in order to get her to confess what it was. He was not that much of a busybody, and if he got too close to Lina, Miyuki’s mood would sink as well.

More importantly, the cabinet was about to arrive at the platform. "Onii-sama."

And additionally.

"Is there something here?"

"No."

Turning his head, Tatsuya embraced his sister's shoulder.

Miyuki trembled in surprise, and leaned her whole body into Tatsuya without hesitation. No more questions came out of her mouth.

For these siblings, this was a simple way of silencing the other.

Tatsuya stowed the knowledge of the gazes upon them in his heart alone.

◊ ◊ ◊

"What's wrong?"

Her quick eyes spotting the tension running through her subordinate's body, Colonel Barons curtly questioned him.

The face of the operator who took his eyes off of the monitor to turn around trembled in confusion.

"What, is…is he aware of our surveillance?"

"What kind of stupidity are you saying?"

Barons, the dyed in the wool realist, tossed away her subordinate's confusion as a mere figment of his imagination.

"It's a low orbital one but it's still a surveillance satellite. In the first place. There is no way you could spot the camera from the ground with the naked eye."

"But just now, I'm certain I saw Tatsuya Shiba's eyes look straight at me from the monitor."

In short, their eyes had met while he was watching the camera, but—

"No matter how superior a human's eyesight is, it is absolutely impossible for them to spot the actual form of a low orbital satellite, right. Much less pick out a camera on the satellite; it cannot be done even by the perception abilities of altered humans whose abilities have been massively transformed."

As Barons spoke in her irritated voice, the look on his face relaxed a little.

"Alright. Just in case. I'll take a second look at the images from three minutes ago."

"Yes, ma'am."

The real time images were switched to small window display and the recorded images began to be replayed on the main screen. The high resolution camera clearly displayed Lt. Commander Sirius nervously allowing her gaze to make a round trip to the right, to the left and to the right.

That image was of deep interest to Barons (or rather she could not ignore it), but she concentrated her attention on her subordinate's problem, Tatsuya Shiba.

The gaze the boy directed toward Lt. Cmdr. Sirius flickered upward. Certainly, it seemed like for an instant he had been peering at the camera. Nonetheless, it was something that could be easily explained away if you thought about it, it was that minor a thing.

What probably actually happened was that he only took a look at the sky on a whim.

The proof was that after that instant he diverted his gaze from the camera.

"It's just your imagination, like I thought. It's better than letting your mind wander, but over-vigilance also leads to mistakes in judgment.”

The colonel gave that instruction and turned her eyes away from the main display.

On the sub display, an image of Lt. Cmdr. Sirius riding inside the small railway car that was called a cabinet in Japan was presented. Of course, Barons was more bothered by the unstable behavior the young girl who bore the title of Sirius was showing.

◊ ◊ ◊

Lina returned to the rented apartment that was serving as her base of operations in Japan and made a deep sigh in front of the door to her own room.

She was aware that it was too late to do anything with the wrapped box of chocolates lying in her bag.

In the end, no matter how well she had prepared the courtesy chocolate, she had not found a good excuse to broach the subject and returned with it. Reflexively, she had dodged his question with an "it's nothing," but the truth was that afterwards, she had decided to pass it to him when they parted.

(…It wasn't necessary to dodge the question. It's just courtesy chocolate, after all.)

There was absolute no deep meaning to the chocolate. In fact 'courtesy chocolate' was defined by the world as not having a deep meaning.

—Even so, for her it was a very important resolution. She repeatedly whispered to herself from deep within her heart a number of times that since she had taken the trouble to make it, somehow her stiff face had a smile on it.

Even though they had tried to kill each other once, they had also fought side by side, once.

(Besides, he's keeping quiet about who I am.)

Since it was only a courtesy, it was not improper. There was no reason to fear creating an improper impression.

She mustered her willpower and took the bundle out of her bag. (It's such a waste…)

She hadn't passed it to him.

Suddenly, she had seen Tatsuya embrace Miyuki's shoulder and her hand wouldn't move.

(Why at that time did I…)

She received an extra level of shock from the fact that her hand wouldn't move from the shock of watching Tatsuya embrace Miyuki's shoulder.

(What on earth happened to me!)

That the chocolate had gone to waste was unfortunate. (However, that was inconsequential.)

(More importantly, that was just as if I…) This was a real problem for Lina.

(Isn't it like I received a shock due to my liking Tatsuya.) (That's not a joke.)

Lina screamed that in her mind. She was deeply disturbed by her own reasoning.

(I refuse to accept this! I absolutely refuse to accept that I might feel that way about a guy who is so sis-con that he's illicitly in love with that nasty sister of his!)

(…I can accept that I'm aware of him.)

Though she was not aware of who she was talking to, Lina proclaimed that in her heart.

(I am aware of Tatsuya. And not in a normal way, but in an intense way.)

That thought seem to snarl. Still, she herself didn't understand who it was snarling at, however.

(But, that's! That's because of the humiliation he gave me! Until she wiped out the stain of her defeat, she would not be able to get Tatsuya out of her mind!)

A normal girl might have quipped to herself that if that was so, perhaps she shouldn't have prepared chocolate, perhaps she should have prepared a white glove.

Nonetheless, at this time Lina did not have that much presence of mind.

When she opened the door in her unstable mood, she became aware of an abnormality.

Her state of mind quickly cooled.

Silvia had returned home, so Lina now lived alone. Despite that, she felt the presence of a person. Cold tension ran down her spine.

It was too negligent of her to not be aware of it until she opened the door, so she rebuked herself. While she mentally prepared herself that way, she cautiously slipped inside.

It was far too late for forethought, she thought, but she softly closed the door without making a noise.

She worried about what to do with her shoes for an instant. It was not really a significant consideration, but she did consider how much she was going to have to clean up later.

Once again, she rebuked herself to clear her mind of foolish, idle thoughts; she softly placed her bag on the floor and remained in a crouch in order to rush in.

"—It seems your declaration of perception abilities not being one of your fortés was a modest opinion."

And when the disgusted voice of the superior officer fell on her from above, she terminated her advance.

"If you had need of me, I would have come to you myself."

The way Lina finished up preparing the tea (and teacakes) could definitely not tactfully be called smooth as she timidly conversed with Colonel Virginia Barons, who was seated at the side of the simple dining room table.

Nonetheless, the colonel did not make an immediate reply to Lina's proposal.

"Possibly you might already know this, but the majority of my military service record is comprised of covert behind the scenes operations. And the major part of that career was in the management of personal relations."

Of course, Lina knew the personal history of a famous person like Colonel Barons. The colonel had graduated from a prestigious business school with superior grades and that record indicated a shrewdness no one would be ashamed to have, and the number of times her work had been on the front lines in her career was not few; she had given a meritorious war service that no one could complain about.

"Now that I have informed you of my experience, Lt. Cmdr. Sirius."

"Yes."

Lina made her spine straight as a pin and answered in a stiff voice. She had instinctively realized halfway through that these were not words to listen to with a smiling face.

"Regarding the current operation, I am concerned that you might possibly be a little too emotionally involved with your target."

Lina did not reply to Barons' probe. She had intended to prepare herself for it, but when it came that was completely useless.

"I would never…"

"Really. If I am over thinking it, then it doesn't have to go any further, but..."

While saying that, Barons turned her eyes to Lina's bag on the chair. Lina's shoulders stiffened.

If she saw what was in that bag, no matter how much she lied, it wouldn't do any good. She was nearly convinced that her suspicions were true, and that would probably tip the scales. No matter how much she protested that it was a 'misunderstanding', it would probably be impossible to get anyone to believe her…

"I, too, intend to understand your special situation."

Never the less, Barons did not command her to "show her what was in the bag."

"You are the only one who has been assigned to the post of commander of the STARS corps while still in your teens."

The simple condemnation was accompanied by a slightly different gaze.

"The potential for magic to usher in a new age for the common people through the use of modern magic techniques allowing magicians to make new discoveries adding to the body of energy theory is high, but quite a few people say you are too young. If my opinion had been asked, I would have probably proclaimed that you were too young for the position of corps commander as well."

Barons' voice sounded different than the others who had chanted about the unusualness of Lina's position.

"You are now sixteen. I understand how it might be hard to control your emotions while being around at your fellow sixteen year olds."

Understanding how her superior's earnest tone and mood were supposed to work on her, Lina inclined her ears with a meek look.

However, seeing the slightly sincere look on Lina's face for some reason made Barons sulk a bit.

"…From your point of view, I might be an obaa-san, but I am still in my twenties."

"Don't be absurd! I would never think anything like that!"

Lina franticly and vigorous sprang to give a defense against the unwarranted accusation.

Nonetheless, at the same time, Lina felt strangely and surprisingly relieved. The colonel, that impeccable female officer who was seemingly completely without chinks in her armor, was displaying an unthinkable 'cute' aspect which had the effect of purifying Lina of her tension.

"…Well, fine. Forget my outburst just now."

The look that said it was a slip of the tongue on Barons' face that Lina saw was probably the central part of the performance that was deliberately made to look completely genuine.

"…Certainly, I hold emotions toward Tatsuya Shiba that are undesirable in a soldier of the USNA."

Since this indeed made it possible for Lina to be more open.

"However, it is absolutely not feelings of love or anything similar to that. The feelings are the type of competitive feelings that a rival invokes."

"Rival, hm."

"Yes, I believe the colonel is aware of the written report that I was once defeated by Tatsuya Shiba."

"I see, this is the first time you have lost a magic battle since you assumed the title of 'Sirius'."

"Yes."

The truth was that she had experienced countless mock battles with Major Canopus since making it into the commanding officer level, but every one of them had multiple safety conditions and it was not necessary to correct the colonel's declaration.

"Understood. If that's so, than this is a simple conversation."

The colonel's tone subtly changed; the previous mood was mixed with notes of freezing cold.

That was the only thing that informed Lina that the moratorium was over.

"Lt. Cmdr. Sirius, at the present time, the tracking and disposal of the deserters is temporarily shelved and you are commanded to return to your initial assignment."

Lina had readjusted her posture before she noticed.

"For now, securing the 'conversion of mass to energy' cast sequence user takes precedence. If securing the user is impossible, then it is necessary to render the cast ineffectual."

To render the cast ineffectual is an euphemism for ensuring that there was no one who could use the sequence. Namely, to assassinate the user.

"For now, we will assume Tatsuya Shiba is the target. The first wave of our attack will be launched tomorrow evening using Stardust. You will equip yourself with Brioneic and intervene when you judge the time is right."

"—Yes Ma'am."

With a blank expression, Lina stood up and directed a salute to Barons.

◊ ◊ ◊

Erika was part of the group of First High School Students who had long commutes to school. It had been recommended that she get a room close to school when she got accepted by the school. However, she was obstinate about commuting from her own home.

It wasn't that she could not tolerate being away from her family. It was the reverse.

When her father arranged the condo (he did not say he was "renting it for

Erika," he said he was "buying it to give to Erika"), she became stubborn about "commuting from home."

It was somewhat inconvenient, but that wasn't important. —Not compared to her father's and eldest brother's irritation over her not doing what they told her to do.

The road from the station to her home was pretty dark on the way back, and Erika walked rather than using a commuter. It was not something that was recommended for a pretty girl like her to do, but her family had absolutely no worries. Because perverts and the small time hoodlums called purse snatchers did not have people among them who possessed the skills to be able to harm Erika.

This was not a mere clan conceit, but the subjective truth. Today, Erika once again survived traveling to the entrance to her home without anything happening.

Her room was not in the main house. Her 'home' was an outbuilding beside the dojo.

No one aside from her lived in the outbuilding; the minute she entered her room, Erika flung her bag away and collapsed on her bed, still in her uniform. She wasn't usually this sloppy. She was just exhausted from the annual holiday tradition, her emotions running wild after all of the inquiring gazes she had received throughout the day.

She was aware of her own good looks (objectively she rated herself a little modestly), so she knew nothing could be done about the attention she received from boys around her age (and some girls) on a day like today, but…

(If they like me, they should know I'm not the type for courtesy chocolate.)

"From the start, they can only see my outer appearance" was the conclusion she made, which left her feeling even more exhausted.

She didn't hate the way she looked. It was better to be beautiful than ugly.

But she thought the disadvantages equaled the advantages.

Erika believed it was better to have her level of prettiness than face the numerous hardships of being an overly beautiful girl like Miyuki.

But she hated being judged by appearance alone.

And of course she abhorred being fussed over for her looks.

An over-reliance on goodwill that comes from being good looking was only the foundation for the ill fortune of liking only the part of yourself that others like.

Erika was sure of that.

Her eyes spontaneously went to a spot above the dresser. Which was adorned by a small photograph in a frame.

It was not a digital photo, but a photographic print of a woman with hair a little brighter chestnut than Erika’s own and whose features greatly resembled Erika. The resemblance was such that after ten years that you would think Erika would look identical.

It was a picture of Erika's mother, who had passed on when Erika was fourteen years old.

The woman who gave birth to Erika was also the woman who created the reason she lived all alone in this outbuilding.

Anna Rosen Katori.

That was the name of Erika's mother.

As the name suggested, she was half German. And her family name was not Chiba.

For her father, the head of the Chiba family and one of the Hundred Families, Erika's mother had been his 'lover' if you used the current euphemism; if you used an blunt, old style word, she had been his 'concubine'.

Erika had not been allowed to use the family name of 'Chiba' until after her mother had died; moreover, it was not until just before she entered high school — actually, she didn't receive the name of 'Chiba Erika' until she took the high school entrance exam — did her relatives permit it. (As a result, Tatsuya had not known of the existence of 'Chiba Erika')

Erika had been born before his legal wife had died from an illness. While his wife was prostrated on her sickbed, 'that kind of thing' happened. Erika did not think either of her parents had any excuse for what they did. It seemed cold, but on that point, she divided the guilt placed on her mother.

Therefore, as it is said, she absolutely did not accept that only her mother should be treated as the wrongdoer. After all, half the responsibility was her father's.

There had been a time when she had lived her days not knowing the reason for the contemptuous eyes, her small body hiding even shorter breath.

There had also been a period when she just wildly swung her sword around in order for her mother and herself to be acknowledged. —That had been when she became the Chiba Dojo's Idol. Among the young dojo trainees in their teens and twenties, skilled students had gathered and formed 'Erika's personal guard corps' because they could see that Erika had lost her enthusiasm for swordplay after she lost her mother, and stuck their noses into a lot of her personal affairs.

Looking back at the past, she believed that now was the richest, most enjoyable time in her life up to this point.

Girlfriends who meekly accepted that 'they were no match for her' and boyfriends who could not see her core no matter how much they looked at her.

Classmates that warmed her heart, Friends she could squabble with and tease, A childhood friend she could also tease.

A group of friends who acknowledged her 'power' and the chance to brandish that power.

Now, waving a sword was fun.

The time spent couching a sword was by no means wasted.

If she was with them, she felt like she could climb to the paramount. Therefore — she didn't want to be bothered by trivial love games.

She idly gazed at the ceiling while she mused about these things; unexpectedly, the door chime rang. Not the signal to answer, but the signal of the door being opened. Since she hadn't turned the key, the person had probably entered freely.

There was no way she was going to peek in the room to see who it was — she didn't intend act like she was nervous.

She checked the time.

It was too early to sit down for dinner.

Her two elder brothers (naturally, neither shared a mother with her) and her elder sister (of course, she didn't share a mother with her either) to be blunt hated sitting with her; on Erika’s side, time slipped away. Since it was evident that whenever they met, not only her elder sister but she too felt uncomfortable, there was no need to persevere in obstinacy.

Just as she was about to rouse her body to see who it could be, there was a knock on her door.

By the way the footsteps sounded coming toward her, the even breathing, and the controlled presence, who it could be was narrowed down to her two brothers. Since her eldest brother was devoting all his time to a certain case and was supposed to be returning home late every night—

"Tsugu-aniue? Please come in."

As she said that, she migrated from above the bed to in front of the desk. "Sorry for interrupting your rest, Erika."

Erika sat in front of the desk with the chair rotated toward the door, with her spine straight and both hands place on her knees, but her next eldest brother, Naotsugu, took in the condition of the bed in a fleeting glance and voiced an apology.

Well, this level of observation power from an elder brother given the title of the 'Chiba Kirin' wasn't surprising.

Actually, Erika didn't even twitch an eyelid.

"No, I was just resting my body a little. Well then, you needed something?"

Seeing him with that female during summer vacation had unfortunately sent her into a frenzy, but other than times like that, being by the side of this brother was for Erika the place her heart felt most at ease.

She would only raise her voice to this brother when he was entangled with that female.

"Hmm… I'm puzzled about whether I should tell you or not, but… after all, I think I will tell you. Erika, I believe you have a male classmate named Shiba Tatsuya?"

"Yes, what about him?"

It didn't show in her face, but at this moment, Erika was pretty disturbed. Her next eldest brother suddenly asking about Tatsuya was completely unexpected.

"He is under surveillance by the National Defense Force."

"…Uh?"

"It's not surprising that you have difficulty believing it without any warning, but it's the truth."

Certainly, she had trouble believing this surprising information, but she probably found it hard to believe for a different reason than Naotsugu thought.

Erika knew that Tatsuya is what is known as a civilian member of the National Defense Force.

At that time, an officer had taken him away and told them that the fact Tatsuya is attached to the National Defense Force is a highly classified national secret.

So it was likely that the lower ranks of military personnel would not be aware of his status.

But still, Erika felt it was so ridiculous that she didn't even want to laugh, that a member of the National Defense Force would be used to conduct surveillance on Tatsuya, who was a member of the same organization, albeit an atypical one.

Naturally, dumbfounded as it made her, that had no connection to the duties given and so,

"I have also received an informal order."

It seemed that using a member of the same organization was not pure stupidity.

"Does the mission really need you, Tsugu-aniue, with your formal status as a student at the military college? What on earth could you…"

"Watching him and, if necessary, protect him."

"Watch and… protect?"

"Ah. Apparently Shiba-kun has got himself involved in some kind of trouble that the military has an interest in."

Erika thought that rather than being involved, he was the matter the military had been concerned with for some time now, but she thought she'd better not say anything for Tatsuya's sake and for Naotsugu's sake as well, so she was silent.

"Erika, I think it's better if you stay away from Tatsuya for a while."

"Do you mean even inside the school? He and I are in the same class." She wasn't going to automatically listen and obey no matter how much she respected her next eldest brother, but — make no mistake, if her eldest brother had said that she'd be laughing her head off — for now she was going to try to investigate this extremely fishy matter.

"No, I believe that he won't be attacked at school."

From those words, she understood the true motive of the party that gave Naotsugu the order — rather than being a target, Tatsuya was acting as bait.

In short, the main attackers were a different lot than Lina; even if Lina was a part of it, the possibility of a different group was high… Erika decided.

"In that case Aniue, there's no need for concern. Since Shiba-kun and I are friends that go to and from the station together, we aren't close enough to make plans for after school or go to each others' homes."

"That's true. Really you should avoid commuting to school with him… since it wouldn't be good if you stir up uneasiness."

"Anyway, be careful, Erika."

"Thank you, Aniue."

—As she had been told to when she was with Tatsuya, she'd be careful, Erika added on in her heart.

◊ ◊ ◊

Immediately after they got home, Miyuki took the paper bag full of chocolates from her brother's hand and stowed it in the refrigerator.

Up until last year, even when he received no more than one or two, he had been concerned about his younger sister's response; however, this year, to Tatsuya's great relief, Miyuki's resentment had been cooler than he thought it would be.

"Onii-sama, I will soon start preparing dinner, so will you please stay in your room for the time being?"

Miyuki abruptly turned to Tatsuya, who had followed her into the kitchen in order to see how she was, and, with an unnaturally wide smile, thrust that barb.

If he translated it, she meant "don't come out and look until I call you."

Remembering with a touch of unease at how bizarrely things had played out last year, Tatsuya meekly shut himself up in his room.

And in about one hour, "I've come…"

Without thinking, Tatsuya murmured that aloud.

The dining room was filled with a sweet fragrance, the genuine article completely different from Mayumi's fake concoction; there could be no mistake, this was the smell of chocolate.

With a smile — this time it was a natural smile — Miyuki invited him to take a seat.

Her appearance stunned Tatsuya into silence. "How may I help you, sir?"

Her smile transforming into a wickedly mischievous one, Miyuki tilted her head slightly as she asked him.

Clearly, the face of someone who was aware of what she was doing. "…I don't know where you could have gotten that costume."

"Costume? These are simple clothes used by waitresses."

Now that she mentioned it, the clothes certainly might be suitable for use by the hospitality industry.

However, not only did Time and Occasion have to be considered, but Place, and he did not think it suitable here.

If this was not a dining room in a private home, but rather a restaurant that served clientele with certain inclinations, then it could be said to fit the Time, Place and Occasion.

Miyuki’s waitress uniform had puffy sleeves, a high laced jumper skirt, and an apron full of ruffles. In short, it was Julie Andrews style.

Even though he could understand how the concept suited the food, hadn't she gone a little too far…

"Umm, could it be I don't look good in these clothes…?"

"No, it looks good on you. Very cute."

When his sister asked him that question in an unsure tone of voice, no matter what Tatsuya thought, he wasn't going to say anything that would hurt her and cause him to look for something to hit his head against.

"Thank you!"

In contrast to what was going on in the depths of Tatsuya's heart, Miyuki spirit had revived and she brought out her dishes one by one. Leaving Tatsuya with no reason not to go to the dining room table.

On to the all important menu for today.

The main meat course was a beef filet in chocolate sauce.

It was accompanied by cookies full of nuts and a chocolate fondue. The dessert was fruits with a brandy-infused white chocolate fondue. Without exaggeration, it was overloaded with chocolate.

"Onii-sama, please enjoy this feast. I, Miyuki, have prepared this Valentine Chocolate especially for Onii-sama."

Certainly, this was not something that could be done if you didn't live together.

This presentation of cooked chocolate as something other than a sweet. All things considered, it would certainly go into Tatsuya's mouth today. Everything here was the result of Miyuki stretching her resourcefulness.

Around the time he finished the dessert, Miyuki's face was tinged with a lot of red. While he was eating the white chocolate fondue, he had been worried that Miyuki didn't cook out enough of the brandy's alcohol, and apparently it wasn't just a figment of his imagination.

Because Miyuki hadn't eaten as much as he did, she had absorbed a higher quantity of alcohol than him, but…

"Miyuki, are you okay?"

"Yes? What is it?"

As Miyuki answered with a puzzled look on her face, she got up to clear the table.

The pronunciation of her answer was slightly off.

Miyuki piled all the plates on top of each other in order to take them away in one go.

Tatsuya felt this was dangerous.

The normal Miyuki would have taken two to three trips to carry this many dishes.

She was probably not thinking about the difficulty and had unmistakably made the choice out of an unconscious desire to get it done quickly.

Tatsuya swiftly and silently went around the table. "Eek!?"

As feared, he had to embrace his sister's body to keep her from falling when she tripped over her own feet.

There was no crash of dishes hitting the floor.

While one arm supported Miyuki, the hand on the other arm was catching the rest of the plates.

Smoothly, he twisted his body and returned the dishes to the table.

Afterwards, he once again supported his sister's body with both hands and straightened.

"Th…thank you, Onii-sama."

"Miyuki, rest on the sofa for awhile." Miyuki did not protest that she was alright.

The only result of protesting would be causing unnecessary trouble for Tatsuya and that would be awful.

He piled the dishes in the sink and left the rest for the HAR to take care of for her. Even though she knew it wasn't a lot of work, she felt guilty for letting her brother handle the clean up alone and tried to rid herself of at least some guilt.

However, she could not avoid becoming depressed.

Despite the nice atmosphere she had created, at the very end she had clumsily stamped it out… was the lie she told to herself.

She could not help feeling that something beyond human understanding might be disgusted with her.

No, from the start it should be called disgust. It should be called an obstacle. It should be called a curse.

"…Why must I be Onii-sama's younger sister?"

With a large sigh, the words unintentionally sprang from her mouth. A piece of her real wishes had gushed forth.

A shard that reflected her heart.

A phrase that had been repeating over and over in her heart since yesterday.

Panicked, Miyuki turned around.

The statement she made just now must never be heard by her elder brother. A thought that must never be uttered.

She was not unhappy to be his younger sister. These were Miyuki's true feelings, not a falsehood.

After all, the reason Miyuki could be with Tatsuya was because she was his sister.

Indeed, it was because she was his sister that her brother was constantly concerned about her.

However — without a doubt — there was also a self that desired a different relationship within Miyuki's heart.

For now, there weren't too many pieces.

Never the less, someday, that self might overwhelm the self that thought it was good to be his little sister.

Miyuki feared that day.

She feared her brother finding out about the part of her that wished for that.

When she had looked behind her, Tatsuya was still in front of the sink.

Even with the five sharp senses he possessed, the distance was too far for him to catch a soft whisper.

Miyuki was relieved.

In a corner of her heart, there was regret that he had not heard her. She averted her eyes from that part of her.

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