Published at 26th of March 2019 2:11 am

Volume 15, Chapter 8

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

The next day, Sunday, October 21st. The investigation scheduled for the day continued in two groups. Yet, Mikihiko was in a better spirits than yesterday, since his friend had revealed the true purpose of this trip.

Tatsuya, Miyuki, Minami were going with Masaki and Minoru to Mt. Arashi, while Mikihiko, Erika and Leo were going to Takaragaike, towards Matsugasaki. The eight of them planned to gather at the hotel early in the morning.

However, the situation took an unexpected turn.

“...I’m sorry, Tatsuya-san.”

Minoru said so from the futon with a pitiful voice. He suddenly had a fever this morning, it was a completely unpredictable situation.

”Don’t mind it. It’s not your fault, Minoru.”

“Nevertheless... I feel really pathetic.”

Hanging onto words of consideration from Tatsuya, Minoru frowned as contrary to the hotness of his face.

”Minoru, you don’t need to blame yourself. You’ve done well so far.”

The only ones who were in the room were Tatsuya and Minoru. The other members with exception of the two had been waiting in the lobby.

”I’ve heard that you have a weak constitution. That is not of your will, I was willing to receive your help with understanding of this possibility.”

Minoru averted his eyes from Tatsuya.

”You’ve helped enough. We wouldn’t have been able to go to that shaman’s place yesterday, were it not for your help.”

“...Really?”

While averting his face in front of Tatsuya, Minoru answered with a weak voice.

“I do really think so.”

Minoru returned his line of sight to Tatsuya timidly.

Tatsuya’s expression was surly as usual. He did not wear a compassionate smile, nor the fake smile that was full of lies in his face. Tatsuya’s face was as sincere as his words.

“You have been very helpful, you should not force yourself now. That way, you’d be more helpful in the case of an emergency later on.”

”Am I still... Tatsuya-san’s friend?”

”At any rate, we won’t reach Zhou Gongjin’s place today. We’ll need your power by then. That’s why, you can rest for today.”

“…Understood.”

Minoru smiled weakly. Although he was still depressed, at least he had stopped blaming himself.

”I’m going to let Minami stay behind. She can do universal household chores. Feel free to rely on her, since Minami will also enjoy doing so.”

Minoru showed an embarrassed expression. He probably had other reasons than a fever for the blush on his face. Perhaps, he was ashamed to receive help from someone who rejoiced over it.

”Please watch our belongings while we are away.”

This did not mean that they would immediately go back to Tokyo after their investigation, it was only until they came back here again.

“Leave it to me.”

Minoru seemed to understand Tatsuya’s kindness, he floated a smile.

After Tatsuya went out from the room, he met with Minami who had been standing there alone, and talked to her.

”Sorry to trouble you, please take care of him.”

“It is no trouble at all. This is part of my job. Please leave Minoru-sama in my care.”

Minami answered while bowing, Tatsuya headed to the lobby where Miyuki and his friends were waiting.

When she couldn’t see his back anymore, Minami knocked at the door of the room where Minoru slept.

Without waiting for his reply, Minami opened the door with the electronic key that was entrusted to her by Tatsuya. Minami had no intention in disturbing the sleep of an ill person just for that.

She closed the front door, and opened the sliding door, where Minoru tried to rise from the futon. Minami ran to sit by his side without any sound, she was pressing both of his shoulders gently as to let him lie back down.

“Minoru-sama, please don’t mind me. If you do so, there is no meaning in me taking care of you.”

Minoru felt that those words were coming out of a villain who tried to blame him for overdoing things. However, no matter how hard Minami tried, she wouldn’t be able to treat Minoru that way, it seemed like Minoru had misunderstood Minami’s true meaning.

”I understand. Then, I will dutifully sleep.”

This time Minami wore a disappointed expression.

Minami sat beside Minoru while staring at him motionlessly, she sat with aligned knees as the correct manners dictated.

After 30 minutes passed, Minoru’s closed eyelids suddenly opened, and he smiled wickedly.

“Sakurai-san, if you keep staring at a man like that, it’s quite embarrassing, even for me.”

He should have been accustomed to being stared at due to his good looks. Yet, he felt like his liberty was affected in this private close proximity, and the fact that his sleeping face had been observed intensely.

“Pardon my rudeness!”

Minami lowered her head to touch the mat in apology with ‘uwaaa’ voice, she also set two meters distance between them to be seated.

Her bright red face which was facing down on the tatami mat was not visible to Minoru.

As for Minami, she had not meant to stare at Minoru’s face. It wasn’t like there was anyone else in the room to talk to, and she thought it was rude to the patient if she read or watched videos, in fact, she was only dazed without any significant thoughts in her head.

However, after hearing Minoru’s words, Minami even doubted her own actions with a ’was that true?’.

The things that Minoru said about her staring at him.

Minami questioned herself, ‘was I really staring intently at him?’.

—— ‘And if I did, what did I do that for?’

Her face which had been red became more and more blushed.

Even Minoru who was lying down could see that her ears had turned red, Minoru was worried about Minami’s physical condition since the dogeza pose that she had maintained seemed to have burdened her much.

“Ehh, umm… are you ok?”

Minoru was about to rise.

”I’m alright! Please continue your rest!”

She was pushing with a strong tone on the verge of screaming as compared to the gentle push of her hands earlier, Minami rose noisily and went out of the room while hiding her face.

She closed the sliding door forcefully. Yet, still leaving a little gap.

There was no sound of the front door being opened or closed.

Minoru seemed to be solidified for a while, with a hand stretched towards Minami who had now gone.

◊ ◊ ◊

Although in the original plan Tatsuya’s group had consisted of five members, since Minoru was sick and Minami stayed behind to nurse him, in the end they had three members, the same as Mikihiko’s group. And Masaki who was supposed to follow their commuter with his bike, since the commuter was only a 4-seater capacity, they ended up riding the commuter together.

The two seats in front were occupied by Tatsuya and Masaki, while Miyuki was seated in the rear alone. Honestly, Masaki wanted to sit beside Miyuki, yet he suppressed his real intention and sat next to Tatsuya, since he prioritized common sense and manners in this situation.

The one who set the destination was Tatsuya. Masaki had agreed on going to Mt. Arashi during yesterday’s meeting, hence Tatsuya proceeded directly to the parked commuter without even stopping to think twice.

“Shiba, aren’t we going to Mt. Arashi?”

“We’re going to get some clues before going there.”

He answered Masaki while turning back, Tatsuya looked back at the foot outside the car.

“I want you not to talk about Zhou Gongjin from here onwards.”

“...Is it supposed to be a secret?”

“I do not want to involve that person, if possible.”

Masaki returned with questioning eyes at Tatsuya. Tatsuya suspected that Masaki misunderstood his words, but they had already reached their first destination. Furthermore, Tatsuya didn’t feel any need to give an excuse.

It had been three minutes since Tatsuya’s group arrived here.

“Tatsuya-kun, I’m sorry for making you wait.”

“No, you are right on time.”

Tatsuya said so to assure the female college student who had rushed from her commuter.

“Huh? Miyuki-san?”

“Good morning, Saegusa-senpai. I didn’t get to meet you last time, so ‘long time no see’.”

Mayumi’s eyes were wide open, while Miyuki smiled at her.

“I didn’t expect that Miyuki-san would be coming along.”

As she said, Tatsuya did not tell Mayumi that he was not coming alone.

However, Mayumi had to restrain herself from using her usual sarcastic tone due to the presence of the other companion.

“Ichijou Masaki-kun, right? This is the first time we have the chance to do self-introductions. I’m Saegusa Mayumi.”

Instead of showing her wanton behaviour in front of Tatsuya, she introduced herself as a daughter of Saegusa Family from the 10MC.

“I remember your face. I’m Ichijou Masaki.”

Masaki replied with a hint of nervousness. As both of them said, this was not their first meeting. Nevertheless, it had been four years since their last greeting and this meeting was their second. Although they both knew the other party as a celebrity in the magic world, otherwise, it would be weird to remember about each other.

“I’m sorry, Ichijou-kun... Tatsuya-kun, come here for a second.”

Mayumi retreated away from Masaki with a dazzling feigned smile, while winding her right arm to Tatsuya’s left arm——not with any visible sweet intention——she pulled Tatsuya. After distancing herself about two meters away, Mayumi began to cross-examine Tatsuya in whispers.

“Tatsuya-kun, why didn’t you mention that Miyuki-san would be coming along?”

Tatsuya showed a natural amazed face.

“I don’t think you need to ask specifically about this. Didn’t you expect me to come together with Miyuki?”

In a failed attempt to refute, Mayumi showed a ‘giving up expression’.

“That’s right…There’s no way Miyuki-san would let Tatsuya-kun go alone, right.”

She shook her head in exasperation, before suddenly turning back to her serious expression. Her sight was fixed upon Masaki.

“Then, I wonder why is Ichijou-kun also coming along.”

“That is a total coincidence. Yesterday, Yoshida who did a preliminary investigation of the surrounding area for the Thesis Competition met Ichijou who had the same purpose. Since he has been wandering around the venue to look for suspicious people, I brought him along in place of a bodyguard.”

“So Yoshida-kun and others are also here… Ah, of course, he is the current Public Morals Committee Chief after all.”

“You are well informed.”

Without speaking out his real intention, Tatsuya was trying to say ‘you’re well informed despite having graduated’, Mayumi shot an ‘I won’t be cheated’ look at Tatsuya. Seemed like Mayumi knew that Tatsuya had a habit of trying to find something that could be used against her.

“Then, does Ichijou-kun know about my situation?”

“I have not received such permission from senpai, I won’t blabber anything unnecessary.”

Suspicion dwelled in Mayumi’s eyes, they had become increasingly distinguished.

Tatsuya also noticed the suspicion that was directed at himself. However, Tatsuya couldn’t be bothered about it.

“Anyway, senpai, do you really not want to explain the situation to Ichijou? I think he is someone you can rely on.”

Tatsuya flakily made a smile at Mayumi.

Mayumi sighed heavily.

“I wonder if it’s wise… To use the only son of the Ichijou Family under your chin.”

“I’m not using him under my chin. In the first place, he wasn’t even that cute of a guy.”

Tatsuya answered with a disappointed voice, Mayumi giggled and smiled.

“Ok, I will gladly accept his help then.”

He finally scored, Mayumi might take it that way. Yet, she regained her mood, and gave permission for Tatsuya to explain the situation to Masaki.

Led by the detective on duty, the four of them entered the evidence storage room in the police station.

Masaki showed a surprisingly positive attitude when he heard that she wanted to search for the culprit who murdered Nakura. It seemed like he expressed a great sympathy in (what he interpreted as) the investigation to dispel the chagrin of the bodyguard. As a future head of a family of the 10MC, the thought of (what he interpreted as) using a subordinates as a mere tool seemed to touch his heart.

Usually, this variance of purpose was not preferred. Since the ancient times, there was a saying `He who runs after two hares will catch neither’24, this was a predictable proverb. However,

24Nitowooumonohaittowomoezu, literaly: to chase 2 things and obtain not a single one; meaning: when you chase

2goals by greed, in the end you will get neither of them.

Tatsuya had a premonition. Rather than based on his reasoning, this time he was betting on his ‘hunch’.

——Zhou Gongjin was the one who murdered Nakura Saburo——

Tatsuya had that conjecture. That was why even when Masaki inflamed his chivalry for Mayumi, it was not really conflicting his purpose. Therefore, he felt no inconvenience.

While he was thinking about the matter, the detective came back with Nakura’s belongings on the table.

“These were the clothes which were worn by Mr. Nakura on that day. Unfortunately his CAD…”

Nakura’s CAD was obviously retained by Kouichi. A CAD was not only useful for those who knew how to adjust it, but also an amazing research material to know about other magician’s magic by analyzing it. Thus, it was natural in the magic community not to pass such an important secret to non-relatives.

However, Mayumi remembered the guilt covering Kouichi when he recovered Nakura’s CAD. In fact, it was possible to analyze the flow of the battle to a certain extent by examining the CAD. It could even uncover the state of the battle at the time, and guess the kind of damage that the enemy received. Further possibilities included narrowing the suspect list by investigating the patients who visited hospitals to receive treatment for grave injuries. It was a common practice for magicians not to let the CAD fall into the possession of others, but it might be due to the fact that Kouichi was not so cooperative with the police, or rather, blatantly uncooperative.

“Excuse me, Keiji-san25. Whose blood is this?”

The detective replied with a rueful shake of his head.

“Unfortunately, all of it is from the victim.”

Even though it was not easy to examine all the blood stains on the victim’s clothes, modern forensic technology had made it possible. To investigate all of the body fluids on the victim’s body for a hint of the perpetrator was a basic procedure in all murder case.

“Nakura-san’s abdomen was pierced from behind, his chest muscle burst out from within, and his heart also ruptured.”

Which was why it was reported as a strange corpse.

However, the newspaper had not reported such details. Tatsuya learnt this from Mayumi.

“Burst from within…?”

Masaki voiced out with a deep suspicion.

“It was as if he was ‘exploding’.”

25Keiji: detective

“No, Shiba! The Ichijou Family is absolutely not involved!”

Confusion floated within his mind during his conjecture, making Masaki show an excessive reaction.

Hearing such a loud voice within a closed room, Mayumi knitted her eyebrows lightly.

Tatsuya was not seriously doubting the involvement of the Ichijou Family.

“However, there is no natural phenomenon that can explain how one’s chest can burst from within, to control bodily the fluid of a human, a magician to boot, I think there isn’t any other magic that could manipulate the momentum of the burst to be strewn over this way.”

The purpose of this discussion was to sort out the information.

“That’s…”

——Even so, it was a tough situation to be in.

“The Ichijou’s ‘explosion’ is not something that can be copied so easily though.”

“Of course! Ah, but still.”

“Calm down. I only said that it looked like he ‘exploded’. I didn’t mean to put any special meaning in the word ‘explosion’, I don’t even doubt that the Ichijou Family is not involved.”

Masaki blushed faintly, realized that he had been distraught, and he was probably ashamed to be scolded. Tatsuya saw that as ‘this guy’s personality took a weak turn against an unexpected circumstances’.

“Magic which interferes with another individual’s body is difficult to be applied. However, it is not so difficult if it’s applied to your own body. For example, self-acceleration is a fairly popular magic.”

Mayumi opened her mouth.

“Tatsuya-kun, do you think that Nakura-san exploded him——killed himself?”

Mayumi questioned Tatsuya timidly, and Tatsuya shook his head.

“Even if he did explode himself, he did not commit suicide.”

“Onii-sama, do you think that Nakura-san chose to explode himself since he already had a fatal wound?”

Tatsuya nodded to Miyuki who was beside him.

Before returning his sight to Mayumi.

“I think the ruptured heart was due to some sort of side effect from his magic.”

“He must have already received a mortal wound from behind that pierced through his abdomen, so he simultaneously attacked the murderer with this magic?”

“Senpai. Did Nakura-san have a special magic with liquid as his weapon?”

After answering Masaki’s question, he turned to ask Mayumi.

“…I’m sorry, Nakura-san had never really used his magic in my presence.”

However, Mayumi failed to answer that question.

“I see.”

Tatsuya did not answer with a disappointed voice.

However, Mayumi heard his patience wearing thin in his reply.

“Ah, but I heard something when I first met him. Wait a minute.”

Mayumi folded her arms, while thoughtfully humming ‘umm, umm’.

(Somehow… She ticks like a manga character.)

Before Tatsuya thought that ‘it might be rude’, Mayumi made a revelation gesture with her hand.

“Now that I recall, Nakura-san was good at magic to make needles from water.”

Masaki knitted his eyebrows.

“Water needle? How? And what kind of effect would it result in?”

“I’m not sure how he did it, I wonder if it supposed to pierce through something since it was called needle. If you applied a convergence type system to water, it could even securely gather force at a practical level for a weapon.”

Masaki was annoyed at the involuntary uninteresting answer, and was about to ask another question. However, right on that instance, he remembered that Miyuki was present.

“…That means, the victim turned his own blood into needles and shot the perpetrator, huh.”

“A counterattack at the price of his life...”

Tatsuya stored the information of Nakura’s blood from the remnant of his clothes with his Elemental Sight.

“Shiba, what are you doing?”

“I was checking if there is any other magical trace at the area of the abdomen wound.”

“I see…”

The one who squinted his eyes due to Tatsuya’s plausible lie was not only Masaki, but also Mayumi. They actually detected a usage of magic instead of observation with the five senses, to recognize magic with one’s eyes was the most direct analysis.

“Umm, nothing left.”

Mayumi dropped her shoulders in disappointment, Masaki also sighed heavily.

“Me too. I can feel some traces here, but the pattern is just too blurred to be understood... Shiba, did you find anything?”

“I can’t obtain any specific clues to specify a certain individual. However, this injury was probably caused by a genjuu26.”

“Genjuu?”

“Onii-sama, what is this genjuu?”

Mayumi and Miyuki sought an explanation of the alien word. The detective behind the two of them was seen taking notes.

Tatsuya tried to impose upon Masaki to take the explaining role, yet Masaki casually denied his invitation. Either he did not know about the matter, or he was just tired of explaining things.

Since the one who asked was Miyuki, he’d probably answered it enthusiastically if he knew. Hence, Tatsuya interpreted that Masaki, most probably, also did not know.

“Genjuu is a kind of kasei-tai. It reflects the light that comes into contact with the body through magic, which causes a pretext that it possess an entity27 and even applies pressure to the object. It shows a shape to the enemy via an illusion by reflecting the light. Therefore, it also has an effect to fit into a created form, the same as a Kasei-tai.”

“Kasei-tai can be seen by everyone since they reflect physical light. However, genjuu utilizes magic from the Spirit Interference System, it will only be visible to the opponent intended by the magician. Am I right?”

Tatsuya gave a satisfied nod to Miyuki’s explanation.

“That’s right. You’ve explained well. These type of illusions are not restricted to visuals. There are also established genjuu spells for auditory illusions.”

“Wait a minute, Tatsuya-kun. If I digested this properly, you said that genjuu would not form if it’s not recognized by the opponent?”

“The main difference between genjuu and Kasei-tai is found in the Magic Sequence that affects the opponent to think that there is ‘something’.”

Mayumi did not fully comprehend this, her face was filled with questions.

“If that’s the case, then why did the attack come from behind? He would have realized if there’s noise. If it materialized behind him, Nakura-san should have realized it if the distance between them was close enough, he shouldn’t have ended up getting pierced from the back.”

26Genjuu: cryptid or mythical beast

27Entity  real body/substance

“He did not necessarily notice where the creature was.”

“What do you mean…?”

“In the case of genjuu, it can work even without clear recognition from the opponent. Since genjuu do not exist fundamentally, if one see its shape clearly, one will know that it is an illusion. As long as anxiety is risen, against some unknown creature, that will give strength to genjuu which is a phenomenon that is not supposed to exist in reality.

“…I don’t really get it.”

“I’m sorry, did I confuse you? To put it briefly, his enemy firstly imprints a recognition magic of the shape of the beast that would give a pretext that he was going to be attacked by something, which in turn causes the enemy’s magic to get stronger. It didn’t even matter if the first illusion shown was only a kasei-tai.”

“By getting alarmed by the enemy’s magic, he strengthened the power of his opponent…?”

“If you understood this, the effect is reduced by half. The effect was as you’ve seen in the remnants of Nakura’s clothes.”

She lowered her head lightly in appreciation of Tatsuya.

Mayumi was puzzled to the point of not knowing how to react.

The four of them rode on the same commuter and went to Mt. Arashi. (The commuter that Mayumi used had headed with other users upon release, since it was unmanned for quite some time.)

The front seats were taken by Tatsuya and Masaki, while Mayumi and Miyuki sat behind.

Once the commuter started to run, Masaki talked to Tatsuya.

“Shiba, about the genjuu earlier.”

Neither Tatsuya nor Miyuki had ever mistaken who he was referring to. Masaki called Tatsuya with ‘Shiba’ without any honorific, while calling Miyuki with ‘Shiba-san’.

“Are they different than the ‘Kugutsu-shiki-oni’ that we’d encountered yesterday?”

“I’ve also never heard about Kugutsu-shiki-oni before.”

Tatsuya sat in the front seat, but the commuter did not require him to drive since it was automatically driven. Hence, there was no problem to shift his line of sight.

“Nevertheless, you should have heard of Golems, since it’s quite common. You should be able to discern their differences by their name right?”

“Ichijou-san, Onii-sama, sorry for disturbing your conversation.”

Miyuki leaned lightly from the rear seat. To be more exact, she grabbed the back rest of the front seat and shoved her head forward.

“Onii-sama, I also only know Golems by name, do you mind explaining briefly about some of its characteristics?”

Tatsuya shot a questioning stare for a moment. Golems were popular in the Christian and Jewish culture. Miyuki who had also received an education about foreign magicians who were less likely to ‘only know it by name’.

However, he noticed his sister’s eyes were glanced towards Masaki, so he noticed her real intention. He did not think that she was a busybody, he didn’t even waste his effort to do so. Tatsuya began to explain about Golems a little bit for Masaki rather than Miyuki.

“Golems are made by embedding parts from a number of organisms or a monster with a independent information body that is programmed to mimic the legend, it continuously changes the relative position of each part in addition to convergence-type magic, a magical robot that reproduces an organism-like behavior.”

“For example, a titanic golem stone soldier. At first glance, it only looks like a lump of hard stone joined together, yet once it moves, it mimics human movements. However, it was not due to a wholly connected system. It is similar to fortifying magic, the magic is only for securing a relative position. In short, each part of the body is only piled up on top of one another.”

“As a consequence, golems would be irregular, depending on the substances that formed its body. Inorganic material such as water, or organic material such as wood, alike. However, it has every capability affiliated with physical materials, unlike kasei-tai and genjuu.”

“To move the golem, it is necessary to embed an independent information body behavioral pattern program. If the magician stopped supplying Psion’s, the magic sequence for the golem would stop working. If the magician himself were beaten, the golem would also lose its power. This is also applied to those which are created from a formless material, such as water, the golem will just collapse in the aftermath.”

“For wood or stone based golems, they are often used in the engraving magic technique to affix the magic type. On the other hand, the amorphous materials based golems, such as one that is made of water, it is used as a magical communicator that requires the magician to continue casting the magic over and over again. Yesterday’s golem was rather small and disposable, it was presumed from the blood of the Ninjutsu users as the communicator.

“Before Modern Magic was established, blood had been considered an important magical tool. The Ancient Magic seen is a highly effective offering, and there are many magics’, which require blood as a medium. In Modern Magic, the Eidos of blood is directly connected to the life support of your body, including the brain, which records the details of the Psion property of the owner in high density. Therefore, it can be said that blood is very suitable to project a magic.”

“…In short, the difference between genjuu and Kasei-tai to golem is in the existence of its entity?”

Mayumi summarized Tatsuya’s explanation in one sentence, she might feel that it started to get cumbersome.

“After I heard your explanation, I think that the golem which has an entity seems to be easier to deal with.”

Tatsuya shook his head lightly in response to Masaki’s opinion.

“If only Kasei-tai and genjuu were strong enough, there wouldn’t any need for troublesome and inefficient biological forms. In fact, the magic was centralized in the narrow range of its nucleus, and can be erased easily if you destroy the nucleus. Or you can simply destroy the force field which shapes the virtual image. Moreover, golems are much more useful in terms of physical strength, it possesses destructive strength for physical work.”

While they were having this conversation (through the one who was mostly doing all the talking was Tatsuya), the commuter ran closer to their destination.

◊ ◊ ◊

Minami read quietly beside the sleeping Minoru.

Aside from his fever, his condition was stable. There wasn’t any household chores to be done at the hotel, and there was no need to compete for preparing the meals and teas either. Minami was finally in a relaxed mood after a long time.

Still, she was together with a young man——or a boy with the same age, just the two of them. Moreover, the other party was superbly beautiful, so she was feeling impeccably content. Yet, she was wondering why she felt this relaxed.

It shouldn’t be because she was used to Miyuki. Both her and Miyuki were——though sometimes she did not think that——female. Minoru was a male. Of course she would feel different about him.

Moreover, the visit to Nara before, and yesterday, too, when she was nearby Minoru, she had been really nervous. She was aware that she was nervous. It was by no means due to the fact that he was a ‘son of the Kudou Family’ that she had been kind of nervousness. Most likely, because she saw Minoru as a member of opposite sex who was of the same age as her. He was a ‘boy’ as contrasted to Tatsuya.

He had great magic power, and could even be said to be a tremendous one. He might even stand on par to the Yotsuba’s masterpiece, Miyuki.

His looks were also extraordinary, which didn’t need to be said at this late hour.

Yet, why did she feel a sense of familiarity. Somewhere inside, she felt just like him. She was attracted to him, she was aware that Minoru was aware of this, which resulted in her nervousness.

Minami held both of her cheeks with her hands. She blushed as she was ashamed of her delusion. She stood to cool her head, and went to wash her face.

However, she immediately returned to her position. Not for reading a book, but a seating pose beside Minoru. She noticed that Minoru’s breathing was suddenly raged.

His breath was short and painful. His hand was getting hotter. Minami rushed to call a doctor, but she stopped in the middle.

Minoru was from the Kudou Family. A magician who inherited the bloodline of the former Ninth Laboratory. I wonder if ordinary doctors would be allowed to examine him?

Minami wavered. Minoru’s illness was certainly not to be nursed by an amateur. Nevertheless, she could not decide if she can call the doctor by herself.

A solution flashed in Minami’s mind.

She wanted to ask Tatsuya.

Minami hurriedly retrieved her information terminal, and launched the voice communication function.

◊ ◊ ◊

Tatsuya received the call from Minami right after he got off from the commuter.

“How is Minoru? I see. You made the right choice for not asking for help from the front desk. Contacting Fujibayashi would be the best choice… Yes, no problem. In fact, she told me in advance to contact her if something happened to Minoru. I asked for you to do simple nursing since she’s probably heading to the hotel now… No, I didn’t give him any medicine… Ok, that’s good. It’s probably a little troublesome for you alone to do it, but I’m counting on you… Yes, I’ll leave it to you.”

Miyuki looked up anxiously at Tatsuya who had just finished the call.

Moved by her gaze, Tatsuya called the number that had been registered in his information terminal.

“Fujibayashi-san? This is Shiba. Actually, Minoru is sick now, and Minami is nursing him, she said that his breathing looks painful... CR hotel, room XXX… I’ll leave everything in your care.”

“Was that just now Kyouko-san?”

From the side, Mayumi’s voice came out with an anxious tone.

“Has Minoru-kun’s condition worsened?”

Questioned by his sister, Tatsuya nodded in silence.

“Shiba, is it ok for us not to go back?”

Masaki asked so with a serious face. They had just met yesterday, but he seemed to be seriously worried about Minoru.

“I’ve contacted his relative, she will reach the hotel in about one hour.”

“Sudden illness? Kyouko-san’s relative?”

Mayumi hadn’t met Minoru yet.

“The youngest son of the Kudou Family. He was helping us out as a guide around Kyoto for a little while before.”

“The Kudou Family’s last son, is he that Minoru-kun? I heard he has a weak constitution.”

It was surprising that Mayumi knew about Minoru. As expected of the eldest daughter from the Saegusa Family, rumored to be the most socialized in the 10MC.

However, even for Mayumi, she still did not know about Minoru’s constitution. From the information she received, she imagined Minoru to have a similar constitution to that of Itsuwa Mio. Since Mayumi often visited Mio, she had been preconditioned to associate everyone with poor health from Mio’s appearance.

“He is sickly, but he doesn’t look frail. I haven’t heard from his doctor, so I don’t know much about the details, but it seems like his magical power is too strong that it causes an excessive load on his body.”

“…Can such a thing happen?”

Mayumi tilted her head with a puzzled and skeptical face, while Miyuki showed her face from the other side to see what was happening.

“At any rate, since Fujibayashi-san is rushing there, we can proceed with our planned investigation.”

Mayumi was acquainted with Fujibayashi. Even before the Yokohama Incident last year; from the relationship between their houses. Of course, she knew the situation of Fujibayashi Kyouko and the Kudou Family.

On the other hand, Masaki did not know a thing about Fujibayashi. Yet, he didn’t add on any extra comments from his mouth.

Nakura’s corpse had been discovered across at the river bed of Katsuragawa28, right beside the Arashiyama29 district at Nakanoshima Park. Just before the Katsuragawa River, towards the south, there were small sandbars scattered.

The site of the police investigation seemed to be over; Tatsuya was able to enter the site without any problem. Of course, there were no blood stains that remained. Although, using Elemental Sight might help to trace and verify the data which he had obtained earlier, Tatsuya decided not to waste any effort there.

“Was it here?”

“Yes.”

Masaki asked, Mayumi nodded. Masaki was quite optimistic for this investigation.

“This much momentum, it is unlikely that he was shed from upstream.”

Miyuki said so while looking at Tatsuya. Tatsuya thought, apparently, his sister had poor skills to be a crime detective.

“That’s a possibility that probably doesn’t exist.”

Tatsuya stopped his answer there, he didn’t say the following words, that there hadn’t been any signs of a trail of blood to be found in this area.

“Shiba, what do you think of the situation? Was Nakura-san approaching the criminal that stood here, or did the perpetrator approach him after Nakura-san arrived first?”

“I don’t know.”

Tatsuya immediately answered Masaki.

“The conclusion wouldn’t come out even after we think about it. In the first place, we don’t know if Nakura-san and the perpetrator had made an appointment to meet up, or if Nakura-san was just attacked randomly by the criminal.”

“…Certainly.”

Masaki did not show any useless rebound, and seconded Tatsuya.

“Onii-sama, what should we do now?”

After Miyuki asked him, Tatsuya turned to Mayumi.

“I want to investigate the surroundings a little bit, do you mind?”

Mayumi was surprised from the sudden offer, and answered, ‘Yes, I’m the one who asked for your assistance, if you have anything on your mind, I will follow it’.

28Katsuragawa: Katsura river

29Arashiyama: Mt. Arashi

Tatsuya did not stay by the Katsuragawa river bed, but headed upstream across the Togetsukyou Bridge. Rather than going back, it was further forward in the direction of the Arashiyama district at Kameyama Park; there was a small warehouse at the peak of the eastern part of Mt. Ogura.

Tatsuya headed there according to the clues obtained from the shaman he met at the tofu shop nearby Kiyomizu Temple, the place where Zhou Gongjin had been hiding. He did not tell that to Mayumi, but she was following him without any complaint.

Autumn had deepened, Mayumi was overdressed in her own way with a pair of sandals. In contrast with Miyuki who wore long pants and sneakers, Mayumi wore heels with long sleeves and a long dress. She mustn’t have fully understood what they were going to be doing and just dressed confidently, still it wasn’t an extreme up and down hiking course.

Inevitably, the four of them moved at a slower pace.

Within the park, in the slope area, there was a sign stating of a ‘bamboo forest’. Tatsuya headed there without hesitation. Mayumi found it to be uncomfortable that she hadn’t found any hesitation in him.

“Hey, Tatsuya-kun.”

“What? Are we moving too fast?”

Hung with Mayumi’s voice, Tatsuya halted his feet. Masaki and Miyuki also halted together.

“No, we don’t, but.”

Now that he mentioned it, Mayumi noticed that she was starting to lose her breath. She could understand that Tatsuya’s and Masaki’s breath would not be affected, but even Miyuki did not show any sign of fatigue, she found this unreasonably indescribable.

“Tatsuya-kun, do you have any place in mind? You seem to be very sure of where to go since earlier.”

After Mayumi pointed out so, Tatsuya realized that his attitude was certainly unnatural as she had said.

He wanted to dispose of her suspicion, not because he wanted to continue his lies, but he didn’t want to involve Mayumi. To Minoru, he said that he was a direct descendant of the 10MC officially since the first time they met, Masaki was also not suspicious after his involvement, since they hadn’t had any excessive contact more than usual. However, Mayumi was a close friend. It would feel awkward once she got dragged into his own circumstances. Although she wouldn’t ask Tatsuya to ‘take responsibility’ over the matters, but she would end up lending her power to Tatsuya. Tatsuya did not want to break the appearance of him lending his assistance to Mayumi, this was his lie.

He was troubled without much to say.

He wavered for a second.

Only for a second, since he had no time to do so the next second.

“Onii-sama!”

Miyuki extended her interference area.

The onibi’s that flew towards them disappeared, swallowed by her magic. The Ancient Magic ‘Onibi’ was not a physical fire, it was a magic with visualization of fire. There was no way that it could possibly breakthrough Miyuki’s interference area.

The enemy seemed to perceive that well, and pounced the wind blades next. However, it ended up the same. Whether they be blades or compressed air blades, he must maintain his magic continuously under the strong interference.

“Ichijou!”

“Leave it to me!”

Tatsuya attacked from the front, with Masaki behind. The two people took their stance to protect Miyuki and Mayumi.

Thin straps extending from the left and right of the bamboo grove towards Miyuki. Blue, red, white, black, and yellow breaded with 5 colors.

Tatsuya caught it before it reached Miyuki.

Waves similar to Cast Jamming came out from the braid.

(Esoteric system trap from Ancient Magic rite!)

Unlike Cast Jamming which scattered the Psion noise to inhibit magic activation in space, this method effectively sealed the opponent’s magic by pouring the noise directly through the string.

Tatsuya decomposed the noise without disassembling the strap itself. He tore the string apart with his own hands.

Tatsuya had strong physical power, yet he did not boast superhuman strength like a juvenile villain. Originally, such a strap might need the brute force of two people to haul it in each hand. However, it stunned their opponents, now that they’d seen their magic was broken in such an unexpected way. Tatsuya used that chance to figure out where they were hiding.

Tatsuya raised his guard. Furthermore, he noticed that someone had disappeared. Tatsuya assumed the barrier was erected to protect themselves from him and his friends, but the barrier was made to prevent the public from entering the area.

However, it was to their convenience too, that they had no worries of being seen by the public.

The strap extended to Masaki and Mayumi, Masaki pushed it back with a gush of wind.

The wind itself hadn’t affected the magic actuation inhibitor sequence in the strap, since it was a product of magic.

The bamboo in the forest buzzed violently, the leaves danced in the wind.

Mayumi activated her magic. It was the original form of her specialty ‘Magic Shooter’, the magic that rained a hail of dry ice, ‘Dry Blizzard’.

Carbon dioxide concentration in the air was 350 to 400 ppm. About 3/10,000 to 4/10,000. It was within normal standards, in fact, it did not contain less than the common area. However, this number only accounted for up to 10,000 meters in the troposphere, and it’s possible to form the dry ice from pressurized carbon dioxide only within two meters.

Components of the air were evenly distributed in the atmosphere. When the distribution was disrupted by magic, the Eidos would try to rectify this. Targeting a specific gas in a narrow area, in this case, collecting the carbon dioxide, and concentrating them together. Since nature tried to rectify this phenomenon, the concentration of molecules in the area where the magic was activated would cause the airflow which replaced the gas molecules to decrease.

The magic to make dry ice was a carbon dioxide convergence process, the gas molecules were replaced with a speed which exceeded the speed of sound. It was an interesting phenomenon to be observed at the microscopic level. Yet, the event modification triggered by the magician didn’t actually change the configuration of the macro-gas molecules at the atmospheric level. The technique focused on unilaterally converging carbon dioxide, which was the raw material for the dry ice; in a narrow area, the world will immediately procure the raw material shortage in order to counteract the effect of the natural phenomenon modification caused by the magic.

Hails of dry ice stormed in the bamboo forest. Its speed was 500 to 600 km/h which was far slower than the speed of sound. The bullets were also much lighter as compared to lead bullets. However, they had been hardened by magic and were enough to pierce through human flesh.

Six men came out of the bamboo forest in a hurry. There weren’t any serious injuries, perhaps due to the magical shield to avoid the dry ice bullets. Still, there were traces of blood on their limbs.

On the other hand, two magicians were dragged out by Tatsuya, and immediately Miyuki activated her magic to drop the temperature of their bodies into a point of hibernation. His sister had some resistance towards killing others, hence, Tatsuya struggled to actuate the limiter for her magic power.

Tatsuya used his hand, forming a karate chop pose with Decomposition Magic. Ha hadn’t brought with him his Silver horn this time. He wore a specialized CAD in bracelet form on his wrist instead. He could add multiple directions to the antennas which in turn, would provide a similar effect to a short sighted auxiliary support.

The CAD that was attached to his chest used thought-operated input commands. This forced him to use a new fighting style which didn’t require the use of his hands during combat.

After all, at this distance, Tatsuya could activate his Decomposition Magic even without a CAD or sight auxiliary. His aim was, the bamboo above the head of the person in hiding whose

Psion’s were detected earlier. There might not have been any blood splatter from the blow, but the magicians’ decided to close their eyes.

Since they shut their eyes, the traditionalists couldn’t verify the identity of their attacker. They had understood that this deliberate attack was a warning. It was not an indiscriminate attack, which meant hiding any further wouldn’t serve any purpose.

Soon after, they decided to show up, four traditionalist magicians came out of the bamboo forest. Including the two that he had dragged out earlier, there were 12 assailants detected, yet another one was still missing.

“Ichijou!”

“Leave this to me!”

Tatsuya knew very well the extent of Masaki’s capabilities. He was never worried about Masaki in the first place, and now he reaffirmed that such a worry was baseless. Tatsuya focused to take care of the four opponents in front of him.

In front of Masaki, there stood six magicians. He knew that the opponents were of the traditionalists Buddhist sect beforehand. Thus, there was no confusion in his preliminary action.

From behind Masaki, a sign of magic being activated could be detected. Mayumi was ready in position to use magic.

Masaki and Mayumi both had distinguished power.

The 10MC, the eldest daughter of the Saegusa. A rival from first high, the former student council president who was considered a genius in long-range shooting precision magic.

However, Masaki had no purpose to fight Mayumi.

The technique earlier, Dry Blizzard. Masaki found out by sight that she purposely reduced the power.

Although as a result, she failed to neutralize the opponent. It did manage to smolder the enemy, but Masaki thought that was due to the idiocy of the opponents.

He wondered if she was not used to the battlefield. The older traditionalist magicians appeared in front of them.

Ancient Magic had inferior speed as compared to Modern Magic.

This was an undeniable truth.

The traditionalists from the Buddhist sect knew about this. They were developing a technique called ‘Ichijishu’ that could activate magic with a much faster time, close to the activation speed of Modern Magic.

Nevertheless, it was still impossible to surpass the speed of Modern Magic. Modern Magic was created by fusing ESP and magic, and it was fast.

Masaki thought so.

However.

“Down!”

Masaki directed his favorite gun-shaped CAD, the traditionalists cried simultaneously.

Immediately, Masaki’s magic started to take effect, the right hands of the traditionalists lit up in fire.

“What!?”

“What the heck is this!?”

They didn’t think it wasn’t an illusion. No, it was not. The men’s clothes were already on fire. First from the right hand, to the elbow, they were burnt black, before the unpleasant smell rose to Masaki’s and Mayumi’s nose, the smell of burnt protein.

“Ugh…!”

Mayumi held her mouth. She seemed to have a nausea due to the smell instead of the sight.

Masaki was staring at the sight and forgot to pull the trigger of his CAD.

From the right hand that was still burning, a sword of flame was coming out.

The flame swirling around the sword, a double-edged stick, wrapping around it like a dragon.

If Mikihoko had been present, he would have identified the sword.

Kurikara Sword30, and.

Two people held the swords, and they plunged at Masaki.

The four of them, they had no time to ask any questions. Masaki put his specialized CAD into his right hand and operated a general-purpose CAD on his left wrist to put up a barrier.

However, this barrier was easily torn down by the sword in a single swing.

Kurikara Sword was a Kōmanoriken31. It cut through the ‘magic’. By that logic, it had the power to cut through the phenomenon that was altered by magic.

“Impossible!”

While his barrier was torn apart, Masaki shouted in reflex.

The sword swung in front of his eyes.

30Kurikara-ken: Buddhist sword of wisdom, cuts through 3 passions, desire, anger, and confusion

31koumarinoken: the sword of acala that made the devil surrendered

A gust of wind blew from the side and hit the two traditionalist magicians.

“Ichijou-kun, slash the magic!”

In spite of the few words that were said to him, Masaki understood Mayumi’s warning. The gust of wind was created by a phenomenon modification. Not the magic itself, it was a result of an ongoing phenomenon re-writing process. The effect of the flaming sword, fell short.

Masaki re-gripped his red CAD which had fallen from his right hand.

The Magic Activation Selector was placed on the trigger.

Their right hands were getting thinner——burnt down over a period of time——the six traditionalists raised their flaming sword all at once.

The look on their faces expressed anguish.

Masaki fully understood that these magicians had no conscious of what they were doing.

——These magicians were only flesh puppets.

——In place of the threads which manipulated marionettes, he used magic to manipulate their limbs.

Masaki pointed his red CAD at the bodies of the six puppets.

——The magic which controlled them was slashed?

——My ‘Explosion’ should not have resulted in such a lousy thing.

Masaki pulled his trigger six times in succession.

The dolls protected the flaming swords with their bodies. It was a poised magic defense.

Neither Masaki nor Mayumi knew what good that would do.

After all, it had no meaning.

The feet of the traditionalists who were just meat puppets had burst open.

Red flowers bloomed.

The flowers bloomed in the air, due to the red blood cells which were scattered from the skin after the plasma was vaporized.

Masaki adjusted his ‘Explosion’ power, and purposely used it at an un-fatal level just to neutralize the opponents.

In no time, each of the traditionalists had a leg that burst open one after another.

Burst open.

Burst open, again and again.

Six red flowers bloomed, which were immediately scattered by the wind.

The six magicians fell miserably to the ground, with one of their legs bursting open. Due to the severe pain they experienced, the fire in the swords had extinguished. Their right hands had carbonized from their elbows; little remained.

One of their legs had ruptured, blood vessels, muscles and skin, with the exception of his bone which turned to shreds.

Mayumi held her mouth at the ghastly sight.

Quite an obstinate young lady from the 10MC, as the usual reaction would have included some vomiting.

Masaki turned back to face her, there was neither hesitation nor regret on his face. The same phenomenon occurred before Tatsuya.

The four magicians’ hands were lit on fire.

The difference was here.

Those hands were covered by white mist.

The flame tried to resist the cold air, the cold air went over the skin and burnt them. The magical flame that was supposed to burn, succumbed to the overwhelming ‘magic’. Needless to say, it was Miyuki’s magic.

Miyuki’s magic could freeze the spirit itself, it wouldn’t be difficult for her to freeze a Magic Sequence.

Tatsuya pointed to the enemy’s feet.

The blood from the four enemy’s thighs had blown all at once.

The defeated magicians overturned. The noise of pain arose and shook their control strings. Vibrations propagated in the reserve direction.

(Over there.)

Tatsuya looked sideways through the bamboo forest, with an unvoiced glare.

A disturbance from in the thread was caused by a Psion, no Psion waves could escape Tatsuya’s ‘eyes’.

He turned his right hand in the direction of the bushes.

He dealt with the spiders who had rained over his head with his left hand.

The spider disappeared without a trace, simultaneously, a scream from the bushes was heard.

“This still feels awkward.”

Tatsuya soliloquy said so, he tried the prototype of the fully thought-operated CAD bracelet ‘Silver Torus’ instead of the Silver horn specialized CAD (Torus meant ring rather than Taurus), he was commenting about the combination response.

“Seems like it will take quite some time to master it smoothly.”

However, Miyuki mentioned a reverse evaluation.

Both of them had something else to think about, namely the scream behind the bushes and the six people who laid before their eyes. However, Tatsuya knew that the Houjutsu user wouldn’t be able to escape due to the pain, Miyuki also believed that there wasn’t any prey that could flee her brother.

Tatsuya threw the Houjustu user that he had dragged out of the bushes. The man was quite old, he appeared to be at least in his 60’s.

The Houjutsu user was forced to regain consciousness violently. He stabbed himself with a long needle through his waist, apparently shutting off the pain from being shot at the thigh. Tatsuya wondered if it was a kind of acupuncture method.

The Houjutsu user only did that, he did not resist any further. It seemed like he was hit by a wave of pain again the moment he tried to use magic. He was hesitating as if he should beg for mercy or if he should just give up.

“Tatsuya-kun, Ichijou-kun, what should we do with them now?”

Tatsuya faced Masaki.

The first one to open his mouth was Masaki.

“Originally, I would interrogate this man, but.”

Masaki saw the Houjutsu user who is an old man that sat down on the ground with a defiant face. The only one who still conscious among the assailant group was only this old man.

“He doesn’t seem to be able to give a straightforward answer, since they’ve been defeated, the Ancient Magic ward should also have collapsed.”

“People… Might come, huh?”

“That’s right. I think we can claim that we counterattacked them in legitimate defense, but… their charred right arms was their own doing.”

“However, an interrogation done by civilians like us is not recognized. We are likely to get arrested due to suspicion of… Torture, unfair arrest, intimidation, assault, right”

“Exactly my thought.”

“Tatsuya-kun, what do you think?”

“While I don’t think that we’d get arrested, I agree with the other arguments. More importantly, let’s try to ask for a wise detective to hand them over to.”

Mayumi pondered while frowning her eyebrows, before giving up and sighing.

“Let’s contact the police.”

“Senpai, I will contact the police.”

After saying so, Miyuki took out her information terminal.

“Miyuki-san, I’ll leave it in your care.”

While Miyuki called the police, Mayumi and Masaki kept their sight on her.

They were not aware that Tatsuya was watching the Buddhist sect traditionalists that laid on the ground.

Both of them also did not realize that Tatsuya did not focus his eyes on the injuries.

◊ ◊ ◊

In the end, Tatsuya's group investigation of Mt. Arashi ended with being questioned by the police.

Their wounds must have been too severe. The detective who handled them didn’t seem to complicit things even under the name of Saegusa and Ichijou.

Moreover, the detective in charge seemed to be a little antagonistic towards the 10MC, he even purposely looked for their mistakes.

Detectives in charge of magic crimes were mostly magicians, but not all were Modern Magicians. In the eastern area, where Modern Magic influence was strong, the police force was also dominated by modern magicians. However, in an area like Kyoto, where there were a lot of Ancient Magicians, they also made up a considerable number of the force, sometimes even more than the modern police officers.

The detective that questioned them was an ancient magician from the Yin-Yang System. Although he was not related to the Buddhist sect, his strong antipathy towards the 10MC, without a doubt, was affecting the investigation. He kept insisting that they were excessive in their defence, it was quite a mentally exhaustive process. However, Mayumi and Masaki seemed to be able to handle this much, lest they would reach their boiling point and turned everything into a disaster.

Tatsuya had his hands full in suppressing Miyuki's outburst against the detective who doubted them and even told them that they used excessive force in their own defence.

When they were finally released from the police station, Tatsuya had a significantly lowered tension and returned to the hotel. Fujibayashi was waiting in the room. ——Masaki was going to the station with his bike to travel back to Kanazawa, he rode a long-distance train where he could mount his bike. Mayumi stayed back at the hotel, as she had already booked a room.

"Tatsuya-kun and Miyuki-san, both of you look somewhat tired."

After a light greeting, the first sentence that came out of Fujibayashi's mouth was this.

"We were detained by the police."

"The police? What on earth did you do?"

"We'll talk about that later. More importantly, how is Minoru's condition?"

Tatsuya asked so while sitting in front of Fujibayashi. Miyuki also sat beside her brother.

Minoru had slept. Judging from his sleeping face, seemed like he had calmed down.

"He slept after the medicine worked. He was suffering quite a bit until not long ago."

Fujibayashi answered with a clouded face. From her facial expression, it could be seen that it was not 'a little misfit of health'.

"...Hey, Tatsuya-kun. Can I ask you a favour?"

"What is it?"

Tatsuya returned the question to Fujibayashi.

She averted her eyes subtly, hesitating to answer the question.

Fujibayashi told the content of her 'favour', after the long hand of the clock had rotated a single round.

"It's about Minoru-kun's body."

Tatsuya listened to Fujibayashi in silence.

"This child, had undergone all sorts of medical check-ups and was declared healthy. Even from his nervous system to his immune system, there are any anomalies. Yet, why is he so susceptible to disease, even the doctors couldn't figure out the reason."

"Second Lieutenant, I don't have any medical knowledge, you know?"

"If that were my goal I would go see a hermit monk instead."

"Naturally. Then, what is it?"

"I… not only me, but all the researchers from the Fujibayashi Family have the same opinion of the source of Minoru's weak constitution, I suspect that the reason lies in the Psion-body."

The Psion body, was one of the various names for Eidos, which records physical information, it was a flesh-like existence. In theory, it should be called an ethereal body, however that conclusion has yet to be concluded.

The Psion body is backed by the body itself. Humans are trained to control their body movements regardless of Psion’s through the nerve pulses which conduct the movement of the body. Furthermore, by controlling the information of the parts that were linked with the internal organs, it was possible to fix the visceral function, or even to strengthen them.

For magicians like Tatsuya, the idea of upsetting the Psion body that modulates the body was simply an impossibility.

"What would you like me to do?"

The Psion body can affect the body. It was a popular idea in the magic community. In fact, many researchers did some studies on this subject. The Fujibayashi Family’s researchers would be one of them. Tatsuya had never thought that he would be asked to investigate the matter himself.

"I want you to take a look at Minoru-kun's Psion body with your Elemental Sight."

Tatsuya was flooded with unexpected feelings. Not only Tatsuya, but also Miyuki who had been sitting beside him in silence.

"As far as I know, Tatsuya-kun, you can analyse the Psion information body. However, it is entirely up to you to do it. I’m not asking you to cure Minoru-kun's constitution. I just want to know of the cause."

That was right on the spot. It was not unnatural for her to think so, as she knew of Tatsuya's power. However…

"Lieutenant Fujibayashi. Do you fully understand what it means to 'show' me that much information?"

Tatsuya's eyes read the information, 'what were you made from'.

From what materials, how did you come into existance.

What was the fundamental cause, which could result in such a condition.

His 'eye' can read the structural information, and analyse the cause and effect. The target of his 'eye' was the 'roots' of a human being called Kudou Minoru.

"Please. I will take full responsibility."

"I understand."

No one could take that kind of responsibility. Tatsuya knew this, and nodded.

Fujibayashi herself should have known about that. She promised to take the responsibility of something she couldn’t bear. Tatsuya didn't understand why she would go that far. However, if it was only to see the current state of Minoru, there was no demerit for him. He had also been troubling Fujibayashi with a lot of things, so he planned to go along with her request at least that much.

He directed his 'eyes' to the sleeping Minoru. Since he was sleeping from the medicines effect, he shouldn't be able to resist the 'sight' which was directed at him. As Tatsuya thought, access to the Psion body of Minoru proceeded smoothly.

"Onii-sama."

Not even a single second had passed, when he was pulled back to reality by Miyuki's voice. Tatsuya was covered with sweat.

"I'm ok, don't worry."

After he said so, a smile bloomed on his sister’s face.

Miyuki immediately showed a relieved expression, and headed to the bathroom with brisk steps.

She came back with a wet towel in her hand.

"I'll do it myself."

"No, Onii-sama. Please let me do it for you."

Without further argument, Tatsuya allowed Miyuki to wipe the sweat from his face.

"Tatsuya-kun… How was it?"

Fujibayashi asked him, after he finished wiping the sweat on his face.

Tatsuya figured out in that instance what the Fujibayashi, no, the Kudou Family had made a great deal of to create. He was able to see the roots of Minoru, and had gotten to know the secret of his birth.

However, even with an entire explanation, Tatsuya would only answer of what she asked.

"As you've said. I believe Minoru is healthy, his fragility is due to the abundance of his magic power. His body cannot tolerate the strong Psion pressure within him."

"In other words, his magic is simply too strong is that what’s affecting his body?"

"The Psion body is the container of Psion’s within the human body. The pressure concept is similar to the concept of gas pressure, where the amount of Psion’s and the usage capacity are determined. In Minoru's case, his Psion’s move about too violently even for a magician to handle."

"The pressure of the Psion’s… Is damaging the Psion body?"

"Although it's a little hard to imagine, the Psion body consists of thin pipes with countless branches and turns, in the same shape as the human body. The pressure within these pipes is too overwhelming that it breaks parts of the pipes, which in turn give a feedback that damages the body."

Fujibayashi was about to scream. However, Tatsuya continued his words.

"I don't know if I should say that this is a fortunate one, the pipe of his Psion body was torn due to the Psion pressure. His Psion’s have been very active and it actually is actively repairing the tear. The tear and the repair of the Psion body happens in a short cycle. I think that is the main cause of Minoru's weak constitution."

"It would not remain broken, right…?"

"I think, he has more power to repair those than the average magicians."

Fujibayashi showed an expression of relief on her face. However, her beauty was to be soon clouded in sorrow.

"But, I wonder what can we do?"

"The most direct way is to limit Psion activity, but it also means that will cause shackles to be put upon him as a magician. His family wouldn't want him to lower his magic capabilities. Then, the only choice is to strengthen his Psion body."

"How?"

"I don't know that much."

Fujibayashi hid her facial expression with a bow. She might not want to show the conflict that happened on the surface. If you think about Minoru first, to limit his magic power is the first solution. However, magic is Minoru's foothold, him being a good magician is a part of his identity.

Tatsuya did not think that Minoru would be happy to live in a healthy body at the price of his magic. Yet, it must have been hard for his family more than himself, to see him spending a quarter of his time in a hospital bed.

"…Thank you. It should be sufficient enough information. I'll try to consult with the experts later."

Fujibayashi said so with a bow.

Minoru woke up approximately 30 minutes later. By that time, Fujibayashi had regained full reign of her emotions. She worked hard in order not to show Minoru her horrible face.

"Minoru-kun, how do you feel?"

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience."

Minoru deeply bowed in response of his question. No, he was about to do so.

Before Tatsuya interrupted with his hand, and straightened Minoru to see his eyes.

"There is no need to lower your head. Even if you didn't neglect your health, your body has a weak constitution, right? It's not your fault. You can't take responsibility and lower your head for something you have no control over."

Tatsuya's voice was strong. But more soothing than comforting, with a chiding tone. He was scolding Minoru with 'you’ve felt too much guilt', and encouraged Minoru after.

"Sorry, no, thank you."

Minoru agreed with Tatsuya.

Tatsuya did not say anything this time.

"Then, Tatsuya-kun."

Fujibayashi asked him, 'can we hear about your case in the police that we dismissed earlier', before re-enacting 'welcome back~ Tatsuya-kun, Miyuki. Huh? Lieutenant Fujibayashi-san?"

"Lieutenant Fujibayashi? Ah, Tatsuya reached here first."

"We're back, Tatsuya. Well, Lieutenant Fujibayashi-san, long time no see."

Mikihiko's group who went to the Thesis Competition venue had come back. They were uniformly surprised that Fujibayashi had shown up.

"Today, I'm not here for a military mission. You can stop calling me lieutenant and call me Fujibayashi."

Fujibayashi smiled to see their surprise with an 'adult smile'. Erika was of the same sex, and Leo didn't really care about it. The only one person left, reacted like a normal youth. It might be very fortunate that Mizuki was not around.

Erika was sitting on the opposite side of the futon where Minoru slept. As compared to Miyuki who sat elegantly, Erika's siting pose was straight and neat, they had different flavours, but their figures were similar.

"Minoru-kun, how are you doing?"

"I-I'm alright now. Sorry to make you worry."

Erika was certainly a beauty, however, Minoru's face was objectively better. Yet everyone would be agitated at those friendly smiles that were cuter than his appropriate age. One thing, Erika spoke in a friendly manner, he had no experience with an overly-familiar girl in his surroundings.

"I see."

Seems like Erika also noticed the TPO, she did not make a joke out of Minoru's reaction.

Tatsuya repositioned himself to the center of the room. Miyuki followed her brother. Fujibayashi moved beside Minoru, Minami moved to Miyuki's side instead. Erika sat in front of Tatsuya, while Leo and Mikihiko sat down. Hence, everyone was seated in a circle.

"Let's exchange information from today's results."

"I'll start first."

Mikihiko agreed to start first.

"Even so, there is almost nothing to say. We didn't find any locations likely to be a hideout at all. There wasn’t any feedback from the Shikigami either. Moreover, there are many police officers making rounds since yesterday. With that, even there is a threat of foreign spies, I doubt it will grow as big as last year."

"Thanks for touting your body, the safety of the Thesis Competition is assured."

"Touting my body, well, you can put it that way too."

Mikihiko's face did not falter, but Erika was pitching at Leo with their regular gig, 'that's your role', 'what did you say!', so nobody cared about them and left them alone.

"In other words, we have succeeded in searching for the foreign spies that targeted the Thesis Competition, since there were none."

"Yesterday's capture was enough of an achievement right. The police seemed to enter their hideout, we can leave the rest to the authorities. Originally, the investigation work is also a part of police work."

"Onii-sama, you don't have to say that so blatantly32."

At Miyuki's rebuttal, Tatsuya continued his report.

"We were attacked at the foot of Mt. Ogura."

"The foot of Mt. Ogura, isn't that in the Arashiyama district at Kameyama Park?"

Tatsuya nodded as an affirmation to Minoru, before continuing with his explanation.

"There were 13 assailants. 12 from the Buddhist sect, and one exiled Houjutsu user who was controlling them. All of them are in police custody."

"It's an obvious result with Tatsuya-kun, Miyuki and the heir of the Ichijou Family in the battle. They wouldn't win even with 10 times the numbers."

"They weren't that easy."

Tatsuya smiled wryly and suddenly remembered the earlier question.

32Miyuki was saying ‘mi mo futa mo arimasen’ which literaly: no body and no cover, meaning: too blatant

"Mikihiko, the attackers wielded a double-edge sword with snakes, or dragon fire wrapped around it. Do you know what kind of magic it was?"

Although he threw in a sudden question, Mikihiko reacted immediately. Still he only answered 10 seconds later.

"…That should be the 'Kurikara-ken'."

"The sword from Acala’s33 possession?"

"Yes, it is a magic that borrows its power from the sword of Acala. The symbol of power that can annihilate 'magic'. When it faces Modern Magic, the sword will activate the Eidos and become a kind of counter-magic to destroy the overwritten Magic Sequence."

"Hee… To have such magic, Ancient Magic is quite powerful too, huh."

Mikihiko frowned at Erika, which was in response with 'Poro'. He felt her words were looking down on Ancient Magic. However, Erika wasn’t insensitive enough not to realize that she was rude, even if she wanted to rephrase her words, it was too late.

"I'm amazed that they have magicians that can operate such a high level magic. Kurikara-ken is very difficult to maintain in nature, since the magicians themselves would be disabled in order to maintain the magic."

"What will happen if you force others to use it?"

"That's kind of impossible. The origin of magic activation is in the hands of the magician, it consist of a Kurikara-ken spell that can't be touched by others. The blade will automatically disable any magic that comes into contact with the flame, so there is a need to hold it with a little gap in the magician’s hand. There isn’t a magician capable of doing such a thing… Though, it's another story altogether if he forced others to wield it."

"After forcing them to use it, what would happen to the person?"

"Their hands would burn."

"Eehh!?"

Erika shouted out loud. Miyuki knitted her eyebrows down uncomfortably.

"Despite being formed with a magic, Kurikara-ken's flame is real. Given that fact, it's only natural if your hands burn after you wield it right? There was even a rumour that the sword was purposely thrown at the enemy to use, in order to burn their hands, however, that was not the Sword of Wisdom that was the Sword of Evil."

Tatsuya and Miyuki stared at each other secretly. They decided not to tell them the full story with that eye contact.

33Fudoumyouou: Acala

"I see, that was quite masterful."

"You're really something, Tatsuya, to be able to beat that kind of opponent unscathed."

"Thanks to Miyuki and Ichijou. Then, about what we'll do next."

"Eh? Aren't we going to check out the hotel today and return to Tokyo?"

As Erika said, they originally planned to check out in the evening and go back to Tokyo.

"Yes, you guys can go back to Tokyo first. I'm staying for another night. Tomorrow, I'm going to the police station in order to listen to the testimony of the captured assailants."

"I'm same with Onii-sama."

"Miyuki."

Tatsuya interrupted Miyuki's words in the middle.

"You're the student council president. It's not good for you to take a leave of absence for two days in a row."

Tatsuya was far more important to Miyuki than school, however, since she was ordered with a firm tone, she did not rebel.

"I understand."

"Then, I'll stay here! You always need an intermediary with the police."

"Erika, don't look for an excuse to skip the school."

"Skip school!? How could you!"

Tatsuya turned away from Erika to Mikihiko.

"Regardless to say, it's best for the Public Morals Committee Chief not to skip two days in a row either."

"If it’s ok with Tatsuya."

"I must investigate something else a little bit more."

Mikihiko and Leo knew Tatsuya's 'stance'. Erika had figured out the details. Once he said this, they could only back down.

Miyuki and the others went to the station and Tatsuya returned to the hotel. It took quite some time to put Miyuki on the train, but somehow he managed to get her on a train to Tokyo. He was prepared to cancel his plan when he saw her with tearful eyes while saying 'Onii-sama, please take care' in his right hand's embrace, it seemed like he was thinking too much.

Minoru was supposed to go back home with Fujibayashi since his condition was stable. Minoru himself seemed to want to help with the investigation tomorrow, however he had his own share of absences. He agreed to return home after Fujibayashi, whom he regards as an older sister, had rebuked him strongly.

Fortunately, the hotel still had other empty rooms. Tatsuya moved to a single western-style room from a Japanese-style room, since it was too big for a single occupant. Soon after, Tatsuya met Mayumi at lounge.

"Tatsuya-kun, is it ok for you to skip school? Though I'm not qualified to say such a thing either."

"No, I have decided myself to first investigate further."

"Is that connected to… that work?"

There were other people in the lounge. She couldn't afford to expand the sound barrier field in a place such as this. Mayumi rephrased her words due to this circumstance.

"Yes, so you need not be worried, Senpai."

"Honestly, I appreciate that. I already feel that I've troubled you so much today."

Tatsuya changed the subject after shaking his head.

"Anyway, about tomorrow, Senpai, can you wait for me here again?"

"Here… do you mean at the hotel!?"

When Tatsuya nodded, Mayumi visibly repaired her mood.

"Was I really a hindrance? Well, I may not have been really useful today."

"No such thing."

Tatsuya shook his head and laughed.

"I have high regards for Senpai's ability."

Tatsuya said so while looking straight at Mayumi's eyes.

Mayumi diverted her eyes while blushing.

"Then when did you ask me to stay behind?"

"It's not because of the danger."

Mayumi probably thought that he would answer 'because it's dangerous'. She looked back at Tatsuya with an 'Eh?' expression.

"The situation was not so obvious today, but tomorrow will be a little rougher. I do not want to show such things to a girl. Especially a lady like Senpai."

Mayumi diverted her eyes from Tatsuya yet again.

"It's alright. Despite my looks, I'm used to this kind of thing."

Certainly, she even won over the 'man-eating tiger' in the battle field of Yokohama. She might be able to take the roughness, but the conversation had gone in an awkward direction.

"Even so, I don't want to let you see such things."

Tatsuya pressed again, unwilling to give up. Mayumi still looked away, and began to put her hands together and massaged her hands with her fingers.

"If that's the case, then I can't do anything."

By the time she said those words, she had completely turned away, Mayumi's body was trembling lightly even without her noticing it.

"…That was close."

Mayumi returned her gaze to Tatsuya. Her eyes were narrowed with hints of suspicion. "I was about to get caught in your hand."

Tatsuya opened his hands, and shook his head lamely at Mayumi who was glaring at him. "I was not deceiving you. I truly don't want a lady to see such a scene."

"Onee-san will not be fooled."

Mayumi still glared at Tatsuya. Tatsuya chose not to care about it.

He had no memory that he was ever trying to trick Mayumi, yet, apparently Mayumi had a strange belief.

It was unmistakably his true feelings, when he said that he didn't want to show a lady such a scene.

However, he couldn't afford to be glared at forever.

"…Very well. In exchange, please don't faint at anything you see, ok?" Tatsuya succumbed and Mayumi laughed happily for some reason. "I'm fine. Despite how I look, I'm still an adult."

Unreliable, Tatsuya thought so, but of course he wouldn't purposely say such thing from his mouth.

"Ah, thank goodness. You arrived safely."

"Miyuki was quite anxious since Onii-sama was not around."

"It's ok, I’m always looking after you. My 'eye' has never left you."

"That's right. I'm sorry."

"It's not something to apologize over. I'm the one who was supposed to say so because of this sudden change, I'll be surely back by tomorrow, so please be sure to lock the door and rest tonight."

"Dear, Onii-sama, I'm too old to be treated like a child."

"No matter how old you are, you will still be my sister.”

"…I think that's what a father says to his daughter though."

"You don't want our father to say that to you right?"

"That's right. Then, I'll do as Onii-sama said, I will lock up carefully and rest well tonight. Onii- sama, good night."

"It's a little early, but, good night, Miyuki."

Soon after he finished calling Miyuki, the room door where Tatsuya was staying was knocked on. He went to the front door, and turned on the installed monitor. Mayumi was reflected in the screen."

"What happened? At this hour…"

Tatsuya opened the door, and Mayumi asked so. Even though it was still 8 P.M., it wasn’t the time for a young women to be visiting a man who wasn’t her lover.

At the very least, that was what Tatsuya thought, though apparently Mayumi had a different stance.

"Tatsuya-kun, you haven't had your meal right? Why don't we eat together?"

Certainly, Tatsuya had not had his meal, but he could easily do so in a public dining room. Although he had no intention to dine at the luxurious restaurant within the hotel.

"At the restaurant?"

"Yes, I reserved seats at the front desk just now, since he told me there were free seats. It's French cuisine."

Apparently, she had decided that he would escort her.

He had to be careful not to show a sullen expression.

"I understand. Could you wait at the lobby while I change?"

"It’s fine as it is."

"I won't go if you insist on that."

Although Mayumi's dress was not so formal as a cocktail dress, the A-line black one piece with lace on top could be seen as glamorous attire. Moreover, she wore appropriate shoes and accessories to complement the dress, it was not an appearance you could afford to be wearing for daily activities.

Tatsuya closed the door with a strained smile.

"Wah! Tatsuya-kun, it suits you well."

"Not as much as you."

Tatsuya's words were based on the fact rather than humility. What he was wearing was a suit and tie that was prepared for emergency cases, to meet the minimum standard of the dress code.

"Then, let's sit down."

This restaurant had not been as formal as what Tatsuya expected. There was no waiter, only a waitress who guided them.

"Here you go."

Tatsuya pulled a chair out for Mayumi.

"Oh dear, thank you."

Mayumi sat in the chair and smiled over her shoulder.

Tatsuya sat on the opposite side, Mayumi opened her menu book to choose her course. It was a rare type, having been printed on paper.

"Tatsuya-kun, what will you have?"

"Let's see. I will go with this course."

"I see~. I think the À la carte is also good, but since this is my first time, it's safer to go by this course."

After their exchanges, the both of them ordered the same course for two.

There were no noteworthy events during the meal.

Since they weren’t sure if they were being spied on. They couldn't talk about the incident.

When suddenly Mayumi complained 'it's inconvenient not to be able to use the sound barrier field', Tatsuya focused his eyes.

He found out that within the past two days. The people of Kyoto were unfriendly to magicians. Since the Magic Association HQ was placed here, Tatsuya thought, the locals would at least be neutral, however it was the exact opposite.

——Did something happen between the Association and the locals.

He ended up thinking about such thing. That was the reason he hid his CAD in his sleeve slightly above his wrist. Tatsuya thought that he should avoid acting like a magician here.

However Mayumi did not wear her CAD. He could only wonder about the reason, whether to avoid the hostility of the people in the surroundings, or simply because it didn't fit in with the style she wore today.

The eventful night started while he was enjoying a dessert with coffee. Mayumi saw this and asked him to accompany her to the bar.

"I don't need to say this after all this time, but I'm still a high school student."

"Well, nobody here thinks that you're a high school student. Since you aren’t wearing your uniform, you don't look like one."

Mayumi's remark was without harmful intention. Nevertheless, Tatsuya received a slight shock.

Perhaps, due to that shock, Tatsuya was successfully forced to the front of the bar.

Once they got in, Mayumi closed the distance between her mouth and Tatsuya's ear.

"’Senpai' is prohibited here, so can you call me Mayumi?"

"…Why?"

Tatsuya replied a single tempo later. Even if he didn't show it, he was quite disturbed by Mayumi's pace.

"If you call me Senpai, they'd know that we're Senpai-kouhai from school right? I'll call you 'Tatsuya-san' too" He wondered if Mayumi wanted to do role-playing.

"It would be troublesome if they think you're a student."

With that reason, Mayumi pulled Tatsuya by the arm to the bar. It was a small size, counter-only shop.

There were only a pair of customer in the back who were a couple.

The bartender only glanced at the two who just came in, and continued to steer (lightly stir the cocktail that he was making).

Mayumi sat at the other side of the counter, followed by Tatsuya next to her.

"Master, can I get an Alexander. Tatsuya-san, what do you want?"

"One Summer Delight"

The well-toned bartender fixed his eyes at Tatsuya. He nodded soon after without saying anything, and took out a large cup in his hand.

After some observation, not only was his skin well-toned, his body was well-built and firm. Even though his behaviour was crisp, he made an impression that he had received some specialized combat training in the past. What did he do in the past... Tatsuya couldn't help but wonder.

"Why did you order a non-alcoholic beverage?"

Yet, Mayumi was intrigued by Tatsuya's order. The content of Summer Delight was lime juice syrup and carbonated water. It was indeed a non-alcoholic cocktail as she had said.

"Please forgive me, Mayumi Ojou-sama"

"Huh?"

"I must not dampen my response in the case of an emergency as your escort."

"Huh? Huh?"

Mayumi probably looking forward to enjoying being a pretend lover. However, as expected, it was contrary to Tatsuya's principles.

The bartender waved the shaker tenderly and poured out a brown- chestnut colored liquid into a transparent glass, before serving the beverage to Mayumi.

He spoke to Tatsuya instead of Mayumi.

"Customer, are you a bodyguard? You are young, yet you look considerably strong."

"I'm only an apprentice."

"You are very humble."

The bartender took out a new shaker, he poured in lime juice and red Grenadine syrup. After fully pouring the mixture into the glass, he added a small amount of sugar syrup.

With a nimble movement. He poured in the carbonated water into the glass and served the beverage to Tatsuya.

"Customer, with all due respect."

The bartender said so before asking Tatsuya.

The couple sitting at the other end of the counter were in their own world, and weren’t listening to their conversation.

"Customers, are you not magicians?"

Tatsuya didn’t show a surprised face.

"If you can figure that out, Master, you too are a magician right?"

The couple left their seat. The bartender sent the two a polite bow.

When the bartender was washing the dishes, he continued the conversation.

"It's an old story. I lost my power as magician due to an accident during training."

"I see. Pardon my rudeness."

The bartender shook his head in response to Tatsuya's apology.

"As I've said, it's an old story. Furthermore, I'm the one who started this conversation."

In that instance, Mayumi spoke with a stuffy voice.

"Master, give me a second one."

"Ojou-sama, would you slow down your pace a little..."

"I'm fine. Tatsuya-san who doesn't want to drink sake should just stay out of it."

Apparently, she didn't like that Tatsuya kept talking to the bartender. Or perhaps, she didn't like to be the escorted Ojou-sama.

"Pardon my rudeness."

The bartender lowered his head as he interpreted that it was his fault, he returned to washing the dishes while grinning.

However, Tatsuya had no intention in stopping the conversation with him despite the situation.

"Master, I have something that I'd like to ask."

Although the bartender asked him through an eye gesture, 'is it ok to leave her alone', Tatsuya never took Mayumi's mood into account.

"Is there any problem between the Magic Association and the local residents of Kyoto?"

"Why do you ask of such thing?"

"It might be my false impression, but the people in this city don’t seem to have a good impression of magicians."

"Ah, you noticed that the Kyoto locals are not so friendly to magicians."

The bartender wiped his hands with a towel. He began to polish the glasses with his dry hands. Tatsuya observed the process, all of his products were not made by machines, and he thought that it really looked like a stage setting than a bar.

"There wasn't any big trouble in particular. There were stacks of minor misunderstandings. From outsider's point of view, it was a very common thing to say. However, since the other party was a magician, the people in this area had overreacted."

Tatsuya had an unsatisfied face. The bartender handed out a small dish with a single piece of chocolate.

"The lady over there, please help yourself."

"Thank you very much."

Tatsuya received the dish and placed it before Mayumi.

Mayumi grasped the one piece chocolate and put it in her mouth, while turning away, likely in a gesture of a 'hmph'.

Tatsuya smiled wryly at the bartender.

The bartender laughed through both his mouth and eyes, while continuing the conversation.

"It might be fuelled by the existence of the Magic Association HQ’s. The locals might have felt that the magicians had taken over the city."

"Even though they weren’t hijacking it, there were still magicians who lived here who were also residents of Kyoto, but."

"Although you’ve lost your magic, you understand us, but for non-magicians, magicians are a fearful existence. As humans who cannot use magic they wouldn't stand a chance against a magician. Furthermore, they don't know what magicians will do to them, whether to restrict them or to wound them, or worst, to kill them, I understand their anxiety of this."

The bartender cut in when Tatsuya was about to continue.

"There's no room for resisting, even with a gun. However, please consider the other end. For locals who aren’t magicians, magicians are mysterious creatures with an invisible gun. Kyoto residents are not special, such things happens in every other city."

Mayumi left the bar, with a pretty strange step.

(That's why I told her that three cups was too much.)

Tatsuya complained in his heart, yet it was too late. He didn’t know that the alcohol content in that cocktail was more than 20%.

"Senpai, it's your room, please get a hold of yourself."

"Yeah, thanks, Tatsuya-kun."

Mayumi felt like she could fall asleep at any moment. He had delivered her safely to her room, so Tatsuya's mission was supposed to be over, yet.

"Ugh."

After seeing Mayumi sit down and slurp in front of her room door, as expected, even he, couldn't say 'excuse me' and leave her here.

"Senpai, where do you keep your key?"

"Here…"

Mayumi shook the card key in her hand. And for some reason, she was about to put it in her chest, Tatsuya snatched the key immediately.

(…What in the world did she want me to do, this person.)

When he recalled the horror briskly, Tatsuya unlocked the door.

Fortunately, there wasn't any underwear scattered in the room like in a popular fiction setting.

"Saegusa-senpai, please sleep in the bed."

"Yea, I know…"

Tatsuya learnt one thing. Mayumi was the type to regress into an infant when she was drunk. Seems like he was surrounded by these type of people. It might still be better than crying and hugging, but it didn't change the fact that it was time-consuming to take care of.

Mayumi walked to her bed, Tatsuya supported her, since she was staggering.

Tatsuya led Mayumi to the bed side that way.

"Senpai, you've reached the bed. It's better to take off your clothes, lest your precious dress be crumpled"

"What do you want?"

"Help me undress."

Hearing the expected answer, Tatsuya's head began to earnestly ache.

◊ ◊ ◊

Monday, October 22nd. Tatsuya went to Mt. Arashi, Sagano again. It was the place where he was attacked by the traditionalists the day before.

Mayumi was sleeping in the hotel due to feeling sick. Needless to say, it’s a hangover. Tatsuya thought that this is the only positive effect of last night's incident.

There were no signs of the police. At the very least, there was no one investigating yesterday's incident. Seems like the detective who hated the 10MC had no willingness to do a decent investigation on yesterday’s review. Or perhaps, another emergency had arose. Either way, it was advantageous for Tatsuya not to pay any concern for being in the eyes of the police.

Tatsuya stood at the gate, he recalled the information that he had gotten yesterday. It was similar to a state of hibernation since he wasn’t hurt yesterday, and there hadn’t been a release of Psion waves to get in his way, the possibility of fainting due to recalling this information had been kept to a minimum, he opened the data of 'where they had come from'. The coordinates of the traditionalists’ groups’ hideout.

It would be unnecessarily conspicuous of him to stand still in the middle of the bamboo forest. Hence, Tatsuya went down the road while collating the map from his memory and the data from the information terminal.

The destination was easily found.

It was a mundanely big house. No, if it was this big, it probably couldn't be categorized as mundane.

At first glance, the rural atmosphere still existed, it was a building similar to those used as meeting places in towns and villages.

Tatsuya secretly scanned the building with Elemental Sight from the outside. It seemed that there hadn’t been any hidden traps inside. Tatsuya went through the gate without hesitation.

Even after he entered the site, he didn't feel any sign of magic. However, it was not something that he could confirm just from scanning the outside.

He put his hand on the sliding door. Of course, it was locked. It was a double key, electronic and physical. Unfortunately for Tatsuya, he couldn't obtain either of them. He didn't have such a handy magic. Therefore, he decided to open the door by magic that he had on his hand.

The lock on the door was broken apart.

Tatsuya opened the door without hesitation and proceeded inside, the same way as when he passed through the gate. A wheel shaped weapon flew in soon after. The blade had a circular ring with eight spokes extending radially form the center. It was a Buddhist magic tool called Hourin34, which seemed to be used as a projectile weapon.

When Tatsuya dodged the Hourin, it stopped in the air before it went out to break through the door in the reverse direction. The Hourin came flying in from another direction, it carried out the same movement. After some observation, there was an extended thin thread of Psion’s to guide the Hourin.

"Yoyo, huh?"

The movement was very similar to a yoyo. The rest was simple. Tatsuya dodged, now, the four Hourin, and broke down the yarn of Psion’s.

The Hourin flew towards the door and broke through to outside.

There was agitation spilling out from the other side of the wall. Tatsuya decomposed the four threads, and closed the distance between him and the magician who was hiding in the optical camouflage in a single jump.

The transparent figure was shimmering, and was gripping a blade-like weapon in both hands. This was a magic tool of the Buddhist sect called Dokumeikine35. It was a reformed weapon, the same as the earlier 'Hourin yoyo'.

The Magic Sequence projected off from both ends of Doukumeiki was for lightning magic. It was projected, but had not completely overwritten the Eidos. Disregarding the magic that was about to be activated, Tatsuya used Flash Cast on his palm and slammed it at the opened chest of the shadow.

Due to the virtual waves that made vibrations inside solids, and also by active Aerial Mines. The tissues within the body vibrated violently from the point of contact with Tatsuya's palm. The vibrations spread to the upper body along with the fluids, and the man collapsed. The optical camouflage he used was solved, he had a similar appearance to yesterday's assailants.

Tatsuya ducked his body, while the invisible man approached him from behind——he had clarified that it was optical camouflage instead of transparent body tissues——hastened the steps. Rather than welcoming the opponent's large swing of his feet like Chinese Martial Arts, Tatsuya raised his foot to hook the opponent’s foot.

The invisible man was wavering. His figure was flickering, there was a visual of a man’s back.

He used his palm with vibration magic to strike him down. The second assailant laid on the floor.

"Even I know how the transparent spell works. Stop wasting my time and show up."

After Tatsuya's provocation, men within a wide range of ages came out from the shadows. There were 10 of them. Fortunately, there weren’t any women. It wasn’t as if Tatsuya would go easy on woman, but the aftertaste would be quite difficult to forget36.

"Why, the Marish*ten37 way doesn't work on him…"

It's because your magic is inexperienced, though Tatsuya didn't say this. Their skill level was low, Tatsuya was sure that it was the cause. If Yakumo used the same spell, even Tatsuya would have difficulty to finding his whereabouts.

"Bind and curse him!"

36yariniku: remembering a difficult thing after you do it (you won't forget)

One of the men shouted out the instruction. He didn't appear to be the oldest, but Tatsuya felt the strongest magic came from him. Tatsuya set that man who seemed to be the leader as a target.

Tatsuya stepped forward daringly to the center area. There wasn’t any furniture or obstructions in the room, just like a Kendo dojo. 'So it was not a meeting place, but a dojo', Tatsuya suddenly thought of that out of nowhere.

The 10 magicians surrounded Tatsuya at regular intervals.

A regular decagon. Overlapping a pentagon with a 36° interval, or a staggered five-pointed star.

Tatsuya jumped, while five of the magicians threw a strap each from their hands.

Not towards Tatsuya, but towards each other diagonally.

After they threw the straps, they received another end of the strap from another person.

The five-pointed star made of a strap with five different colors was pitched.

Tatsuya observed it from above.

Most probably, the five-pointed stars was some sort of magic that pinches the target in the middle by multiplying pressure from five different directions.

However, Tatsuya had no plan to just stand in the center until they completed their magic.

The moment the straps were thrown, he flew directly above it.

Before he reached the ceiling, he kicked the air and headed to one of the vertices of the five- pointed star.

It was a move that was hardly used in a match. Yet, that scene caused the other party to be amazed, it was a peculiar war-specific skill.

He created a foothold for his foot, and accelerated through kicking the panel, he punched the magician's face with the total force of his body weight plus the acquired speed.

The magician fell down. The after effect momentum was usually worrisome, but Tatsuya didn't have time to worry about such things.

The five-pointed star formation collapsed. However, this was not the end of their effort.

Tatsuya graced a knee kick at the magician next to him before he landed on the floor.

The magic was only activated when he wanted to make a foothold. It was only possible since he made it with Flash Cast that had a fast activation speed.

The Buddhist sect of traditionalists who had gathered here had by no means weak psyches. Despite their emphasis on asceticism, they were first-class combatants. However, that was only in decent fights. They couldn't keep up with Tatsuya's acrobatic movements.

By the time they were able to respond to the surprise attack, only five of them remained.

Six eyes gazed upon him, while the other two magicians were behind him. One of the magicians behind him had activated a lightning magic.

Modern Magic couldn’t generate electrical currents directly at the subject.

However, Ancient Magic talent could emit the shock from the magician towards a specific location.

This difference usually didn’t matter so much, as the speed of lightning is 100,000 km/s. It was an impossible attack to dodge even for someone who noticed the lightning was coming.

Just before the lightning was fired, Tatsuya jumped sideways to interrupt the attack.

The magician who casted the lightning had lost sight of Tatsuya. However, it was too late to abort the magic. The lightning struck out from the Doukumeiki Blade and collided with his fellow's attack.

Due to this fact, those magicians were hesitating to use another magic.

The gap that was created, provided a sufficient time for Tatsuya.

By reflecting a force field, he could obtain a speed equal to self-accelerating magic by supporting his frame, Tatsuya knocked out the remaining traditionalists.

This traditionalist magician who served as the base's leader, awoke due to severe pain piercing his body.

He couldn't think well amidst the pain.

However, he couldn't stay unconsciousness due to the pain.

"Are you conscious now? If you understand my words, nod. I'll loosen the pain a little."

The pain lightened, and the man's consciousness steeped in, he shook his head hard.

As promised, the pain would be reduced a little.

His line of sight was hazy due to the severe pain, he regained a little clearer profile.

A young man.

The man had shaded his own face, to hide it.

The leader was trying to join his hands to form a magic.

At that instance, severe pain struck his consciousness.

"Don't do any unnecessary things. You only need to answer my questions."

The leader nodded hard, when the voice told him to obey.

The pain lowered again.

This time, to even allow him to think, yet his hazy sight was still intact.

"Zhou Gongjin was here right? The foreign magician who fled from Chinatown in Yokohama."

The leader didn’t have any reason to lie, he nodded honestly.

"That man was here until Friday, the 12th. Am I right?"

The 12th, 12th… the leader was thinking hard as his head still wasn’t working well. Then, he recalled that Zhou Gongjin was there until Friday, he shook his head vertically over and over.

"Where did Zhou Gongjin go?"

A new wave of pain struck him. Strangely, he could think clearer.

His eyes were still hazy and his limbs couldn't even lift a finger, yet his mouth could speak freely.

"He said he wanted to go to Uji. He said that there was a good hiding place nearby the tomb… I don't know if it was the truth or a lie…. I don't know."

"Your men have been used as a puppets by the Houjutsu users from the continent, did you give your consent to this?"

"I'm not… their teacher… I don't have any… position to instruct them."

"You are the leader right?"

"They were comrades… we're equals… we don't receive any orders from among us…"

"I understand. Good work."

Immediately, the greatest amount of severe pain passed through the leader's mind. His consciousness had broken, falling apart.

Tatsuya sent a mail to Fujibayashi, regarding the place of these unconscious traditionalist magicians. Finally, he asked her to pick up the traditionalists, he wondered if it was an unnecessary note. Even without the note, Fujibayashi would have arranged to collect them.

Tatsuya could weigh the credibility of the information that he elicited from the leader of this base. It was hard to believe the story that there hadn’t existed anything like a chain of command in such a group. He didn't think it was possible to conduct a collective battle in conjunction only to a share a sense of purpose.

However, the information of the hiding place of Zhou Gongjin was consistent with the information Tatsuya obtained from the shaman at Kiyomizu Temple. He decided to believe this fact as both Buddhist monks and the shaman couldn’t have possibly given him the same information just to mislead him, he didn't plan to doubt them that much. There wasn’t a need for a clear division line for conjectures.

Tatsuya decided to report to Hayama that Zhou’s hideout was likely to be around the tomb at Uji, as he needed to go back home today.

After finishing his work, he was greeted with ashamed, diverted eyes at the hotel. She didn’t say 'terrible' or 'it's different from your promise' from her mouth, but she was blushing from her cheeks up to her eyes.

He had an idea of the cause of her embarrassment.

Last night, Tatsuya had received an unreasonable request from a young lady (Mayumi) to strip her from her dress. He stripped her quickly before it became troublesome, and shoved her into her bed with just her underwear. He went out of the room without a seconds glance at her.

Even Tatsuya thought that she had been quite wild last night. However, he also had his share. It was good enough that she wasn't (sexually) assaulted in that situation.——Of course, he didn't say such a thing out loud.

"By-by the way."

Up to here Mayumi who had been quite confident to stand beside him, suddenly entangled her tongue.

"Umm, that, I have something to say to Tatsuya-kun."

Tatsuya thought from his heart, 'I decline' or something along that line, while remaining silent. He could guess the topic while observing Mayumi's attitude.

"I…"

Despite knowing that they were alone in the room, Mayumi looked restlessly to her left and right, as if she was afraid to be heard, she closed the distance between his lips and Tatsuya's face.

"Why… did I sleep with only my underwear?"

Because you said you wanted to strip… But this was not the right way to say it, Tatsuya couldn't find a way to to say this phrase.

"Didn't you do that yourself? No matter how drunk you were, you should have enough discernment as to not remain in your dress while you go to bed right?"

Tatsuya took a step from Mayumi's lips which almost touched him, and answered so innocently.

"I wonder if a drunken human could think that much?”

"Who knows? Since we're talking about Senpai here, you should understand yourself better than me right?"

"Tatsuya-kun, I."

The perimeter of Mayumi's eyes reddened with shame, she faced Tatsuya for the first time since he was back.

"I can't hold my liquor much, but I'm the type who remembers everything."

Tatsuya wanted to flee that place at that very moment. Unfortunately for him, he understood that he couldn't do that in such situation as a man.

"…Though I feel that you didn't have to be that rough."

Certainly, he did shove Mayumi into the bed roughly.

However, could he be blamed because of that? He questioned himself when he recalled. Yet, to say 'you're the one who wanted to strip to your underwear' would be a king-cobra-grade boomerang.

Mayumi was still looking at Tatsuya shyly.

In this very awkward atmosphere, it was a mental labour intense mission to send Mayumi back to the nearest station in order to go home, while Tatsuya waited at the end.

◊ ◊ ◊

The moment Tatsuya opened the house’s gate, the front door opened.

"Onii-sama, welcome back."

The one who greeted Tatsuya back was Miyuki, as usual.

"I'm home. Sorry for this time."

Miyuki couldn’t hide the color of relief of worry from her face. Logically, it was impossible for Tatsuya to get hurt, but her worries were of a different aspect. Tatsuya said 'sorry' since he understood his 'crime'.

"No. As long as Onii-sama is safe, Miyuki is satisfied enough."

Miyuki shook her head at his apology.

Tatsuya immediately went into the house, and proceeded to the living room after taking off his shoes. His travel bag was taken by Minami, while he was sitting with Miyuki on the sofa.

There was no meaning in resisting. Rather than giving the service, he was probably receiving the service. He let his sister do as she liked quietly.

Miyuki sat beside Tatsuya joyfully while Tatsuya lifted the coffee cup. However, he suddenly put down the cup and the calmness disappeared. She repeatedly shifted her eyes from and to Tatsuya's face.

"It's alright. I have progressed well on the request of Oba-ue. At this stage, it should even satisfy even Oba-ue herself."

Miyuki must have wanted to hear about today's progress. Since he thought of that, Tatsuya gave her a rundown of today's events.

"No, It's because of Onii-sama after all."

However, it seemed like Miyuki had wanted to ask something different.

"Say it. What do you want to ask?"

Tatsuya encouraged38 her to speak, Miyuki seemed to hesitate for a while and finally shook her hesitation and asked her brother.

"Onii-sama, what causes Minoru-kun's weak constitution?"

In response to this unexpected surprise, Tatsuya failed to answer immediately.

"…As I said yesterday. Minoru's magical power is too strong for his body to contain it."

Miyuki's face was cloudy, while furrowing her eyebrows anxiously.

"That's his current situation right? Onii-sama, have you seen the cause?"

"Why are you interested in such a thing?"

"Your state from that time wasn’t something Onii-sama would usually have had. I just wondered what had made you do so."

It was Tatsuya's blunder for being speechless. It was the same as confessing that 'there was something'.

"Onii-sama, please. If you have anything that you are worried about, please let Miyuki hear it. I want you to share your worries with me."

Miyuki worked very hard to stare at Tatsuya. He appreciated his sister's effort to lighten his heart from the depth of his heart.

"It's better for you not to know."

However, he was hesitating to tell Miyuki about the secret that he had gotten. ——By the way, Tatsuya didn't feel anything wrong about violating Minoru and the Kudou Family’s privacy.

"Please. I don't want Onii-sama to suffer alone."

However, since Miyuki solicited a haunting teary look, Tatsuya could no longer keep the secret hidden.

"I understand. This is a pretty shocking story, so you have to hear it with strong heart."

Miyuki breathed in relief. To see that his sister was calm, Tatsuya proceeded to tell the secret.

38mizuwomukeru, literally: directs the water, meaning: to encourage other party to speak something that you're willing to entertain.

"Minoru and Fujibayashi-san are half-siblings."

Miyuki failed to show any reaction for a while.

She must have digested her brother's words when she covered her mouth with both of her hands.

"But! Fujibayashi-san's mother is Minoru-kun's father's real sister."

"Minoru was an experimental body. Probably through artificial insemination. Strictly speaking, it was not incest, but he is still a child born of two real siblings.

Miyuki’s shocked face was intensified. It took her a considerable amount of time to regain her ability to speak.

"Then… Minoru-kun's constitution, was the harmful effect of incest?"

Tatsuya shook his head. However, he did not indicate a definite denial.

"I can't make any conclusion. The problem lies in the imbalance of the Psion body, which affects his physical body. It might be from the cause of mis-adjustments throughout the process."

Tatsuya sighed before continuing his words.

"However, it might be due to the close relationship between the genes being undeniable. Even during the research of magic, researchers have refrained themselves from using genes from parent and child or between siblings. There are still a lot of aspects of a Psion body, and also the spirit being affected, to be discovered."

The color had bereted from Miyuki's face.

She received a big shock, as if it were her own doing.

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