Published at 26th of March 2019 2:11 am

Volume 16, Chapter 3

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

Saturday, December 29th. It was the day Tatsuya and the others, no it was the day Miyuki departs for the Home of the Head Family.

Tatsuya, Miyuki and Minami took their lunch a bit early and left the house before noon.

The village where the Home of the Yotsuba Family was does not have a designated address, so unfortunately they could not use any home delivery services. So even though their luggage had ended up increasing, the distance they would walk was not that much of a burden since it was essentially just as far as the distance of getting on and off at the Station from the Cabinet. Originally, they needed only to carry along their clothes and their personal essentials, so it was not supposed to be heavy. It was just bulky. Besides, the furisode that Miyuki will be wearing, it has always been prepared for her every year at the Home of the Head Family.

It took them short of a single hour from her house to reach the Kobuchizawa Station where they agreed to meet. With no problems along the way, the three reached the appointed station within schedule.

Tatsuya had not forgotten about Kuroba Mitsugu’s request, which might as well have been a warning of an attack. However, he thought there would be no possibility of a terrorist attack happening at a Public Transport Facility. Taking on the government head-on was not the way the Yotsuba deals with its enemies. Should there be an attack, it should have happened by now, Tatsuya expected.

The car that was picking them up had already arrived. The driver was also vaguely familiar to him. He showed a smile and exchanged words with Minami as if the two had been acquainted in some way when she worked at the family home until last year. Though his eyes turned toward Tatsuya; his gaze was always that of seeing something that wasn’t human.

After having finished loading his suitcase into the trunk, Tatsuya led Miyuki in. After all, the driver’s stare that once befell Tatsuya turned troubled when it centered on Miyuki. Tatsuya was avoiding any unnecessary trouble, so parts of him wished the driver who came to meet Miyuki at least remembered to better play his part, but the driver is someone employed under the Butler, Obara, who prioritizes strength and courage above that of courtesy. The required skills include not only the ability to drive, but also the strength to fight when necessary, so it couldn't be helped even though he was a little incompetent.

There was another reason for why he hurried Miyuki into the car. As he expected, he felt inquisitive eyes. Rather than saying that someone had been on the lookout for Tatsuya and the others, it felt more like someone had been on the lookout for this car.

If we assumed that there was a traitor or a conspirator in the Branch Families of the Yotsuba, it should not be difficult for them to know that this car had come from the Main House to meet Miyuki. Tatsuya had the feigning suspicion that they would seriously go that far, but reality would not change however he thought of it.

Except, there were less eyes on the lookout for them than he thought. Tatsuya was concerned about that. He had the impression that their destination was known and that they were going to get ambushed. It was bound to happen, that information of Miyuki's departure had been leaked.

The use of magic other than for self-defense purposes is against the law. He couldn't make use of magic to do away with them for the reason that they would be seen; it would end up the same even if he didn't use magic, either. Immediately starting the car was the only applicable choice in this situation.

Minami sat in the front passenger seat. It was easier to keep an eye out on the surroundings from the front seat. But Minami hurriedly marched into the front passenger seat and was modestly yet stubbornly demanding, so he could not help but surrender the seat. Left with no choice, Tatsuya observed the surroundings from the back seat.

They got on the move immediately after leaving town and staying clear of private citizens.

The suspicious vehicle was caught in the police dragnet for Tatsuya.

“Onii-sama, what…”

“It’s an attack!”

Saying that Miyuki would notice the changes in Tatsuya earlier than her older brother could give a warning may be an understatement; if that should ever be the case, it is in reaction to the delay of the moment. Even now, a slight time lag was being created as Miyuki’s words were interrupted.

“Grenade shots: two in the front, two in the back.”

In response to Tatsuya’s voice, Minami tried to discharge a physical, heat-resistant barrier magic.

However, what she released was a disorganized, half-complete Magic Sequence that was affected by the interference of 21 other people present in the area.

The target was the automobile Tatsuya and the others were riding in. Minami’s barrier magic was obstructed due to the Magic Sequences that the 21 people were producing, as if almost deliberately being subjected in a conflicting state——a state akin to being under the effects of Cast Jamming——which obstructs the invocation of magic due to chaotically overlapping Magic Sequences mutually interfering with each other. No, ‘almost deliberately’ aren’t the right words. Looking at how each of the

21 Magic Sequences were being adjusted at the same outputs, one might say the conflicting state was being produced deliberately.

It wasn’t a coincidence, at least Tatsuya thought so. This isn’t a collaboration made possible by training overnight.

This was a way of using magical abilities in order for them to be able to use magic. That is, it is a technique for magicians who cannot use magic at all, a strengthened experimental magical combat technique for subjects who failed to become magicians.

“Minami, stop using magic.”

“Huh? Okay!”

Without waiting for Minami’s reply, Tatsuya pointed diagonally upwards with his right hand. On his chest was a complete Thought- Operated Type CAD, on his wrist was a ‘Silver Torus’, a Mind Control– Compatible, Torus-Shaped, Specialized CAD.

It disintegrated grenade shells midair as the shells lost their trajectory and their parts scattered on the road.

It also delivered the same fate to the high-explosive projectiles lobbed at them at the sound of two or three explosions, one after another.

The car that Tatsuya and the others were riding in slipped away at the sidelines of the small-scale explosions.

The fuses of the high-explosive projectiles set off as they fell from the sky. Fortunately, the explosives themselves from where the fuses separated did not explode.

Tatsuya waved and flailed his left hand as if driving away an insect overhead.

The magic he invoked was Gram Dispersion.

The form of magic which was fixed in a state of conflict midway in its operation was blown about in an instant.

“Go back to town!”

Tatsuya took the role of guarding their convoy, and without paying heed to Minami who was depressed in the front passenger seat, he ordered the driver to take a U-turn.

However, the driver simply laid his eyes on the car chasing them reflected on the rear mirror, from whose window a grenade launcher jutted out, and made neither an indication of stepping on the break nor an indication of turning the steering wheel.

Not following Tatsuya’s words, he was in the position to bulldoze his way through.

“Please turn the car back to town!”

Miyuki repeated her older brother’s order.

“Understood!”

The driver immediately followed Miyuki’s command.

“Minami, Miyuki, I am at your mercy.”

Tatsuya told Minami as he took out a pair of heat-resistant, bulletproof military-grade sunglasses from his pocket.

“O-okay!”

With Tatsuya’s expression hidden by the well-fitted sunglasses on his face, he voiced to Miyuki.

“Miyuki, let’s rendezvous at the front of the station.”

“Onii-sama!?”

The driver made a spin turn at the same time that Tatsuya opened the window.

The four-wheeled cars of this era cannot make side turns due to their structure as their anti-lock brakes are intensively constructed. However, they are equipped with four-wheel steering that has a high degree of freedom, so expert drivers can make turns in small turning radius by spinning at that location. Currently, this is called a spin turn, not a side turn.

The moment the car turned, Tatsuya flew out of the rear passenger seat window due to the centrifugal force. Landing through the use of a combination of jumping and his inertia control ability, Tatsuya disassembled the gun in the hands of the closest attacker, preventing further attacks on the car.

Turning back, he removed the wheels from the self-propelled vehicle pursuing the car with Miyuki inside that was in mid-turn. There was a short sound of the car’s body grinding on the road surface.

After checking that the car with Miyuki inside was going to town, Tatsuya leaped towards the closest attacker.

Such a counterattack shouldn’t usually be expected. However, the opponent's reaction was fast. He wasn’t even hindered by his gun’s disassembly. Facing the unarmed Tatsuya, the man, dressed in working clothes of a certain delivery agency, pulled a fighting combat knife from behind his back. It was a knife with a wide guard for protecting fingers, resembling brass knuckles but with a blade.

(A Reinforced Soldier of the National Defense Army? No, an Artificial Psychic!?)

It was equipment for hand-to-hand combat without relying on firearms. There was no way that a regular soldier or a band member of a gang would have such a thing. That, and the magic that created the recent conflict, meant that this combatant could be nothing but a failure of Magician Development. It was surely an Artificial Psychic that couldn't become a Magician.

A knife struck out. The special stainless steel blade of the knife was clearly charged with electricity. Even before having guessed that his opponent was a Psychic, Tatsuya was using both his physical and spiritual 'eyes'. With this knife, even if you were to dodge the blade, you would be hurt by sparks or electrical discharge from the energy stored within. The energy level there is different from non-lethal weapons like stun guns because it is lethal.

Tatsuya wasn't just barely dodging the blade, he was retreating with big steps.

Sparks were flying from the edge of the knife. Electricity then ran from the knife and into the man's arm.

He must have been wearing protective clothing just in case. It didn’t look like he got an electrical shock. But he was shocked by another thing.

He stopped for a second, realizing that his abilities were used without his will, and that his superpowers betrayed him. And in that time, Tatsuya hit him with his palms. He reaped the consciousness out of the man by hitting him with a vibration wave, his next best magic after his unique ability.

The trick behind the man's knife's discharging by itself was simple. When jumping behind, Tatsuya used a narrowly refined spell dismantling and blew away the magic containing the charge. The thing is, Modern Magic originates from the study of Psychic Abilities. It was common sense for Tatsuya that Psychic Abilities and Magic were the same thing.

When the man fell, the baseball-like working hat that he wore very low, maybe to hide his looks, fell off. The man looked like he was around 15 years old.

But Tatsuya didn’t have the time to closely look at the man's face The enemies were coming at high speed from both sides. They were wearing the same delivery working clothes and baseball caps as the man lying here. There was no need to think about it, they had to have been his allies.

Their speed was comparable to the fastest magician Tatsuya knew, Erika.

However, their control was sloppy. Two Psychics attacked at slightly different times. Tatsuya stepped to the right, in the direction of the man that would have hit him first.

It was not to counter. Only to dodge. The man's legs were still moving when Tatsuya stopped behind him.

The Psychic attacking from the left dodged the Psychic coming from the right.

Tatsuya was readily waiting for the man on the left.

A knife was drawn.

A face was hit with a palm.

Vibration waves were released from Tatsuya's palm, dodging the knife and circling from behind, and shook the Psychic's Mind.

(Did I kill him?)

For a second, Tatsuya doubted for a deeper than he expected response, but, seeing that the man slipping on the road surface was still releasing life force, he turned to the man and guided his attention there.

Acceleration Magic was working on the man's body. There was no visible carrier responsible for inertial control there. The G force on his body should have been well above the body's limit, but the man managed to sustain his balance.

(So the body is also enhanced. Then it's decided.)

So the opponent really is both body-reinforced and an Artificial Psychic. So it's a Reinforced Soldier with Magical Abilities. They were developed in the first half of the repeated 20 years of World Wars, but were never completed. Germany tried to achieve this goal with genetic manipulation, but Japan used drug reinforcement.

The reason for scrapping the plan and concluding that the development project for a Reinforced Army of Artificial Psychic was a failure lies in the fact that their ability range was only 30 cm. In other words, they could only use weapons that were within a 30 cm radius from their body. They couldn't sustain the magic required for event transformation at longer distances. They could only project Idea Information, but it had no effect on events.

(So it wasn't entirely pointless? It's impressive to combine imperfect magic to interfere with the workings of magic. There are smart people anywhere you look.)

Setting those thoughts aside, if they are the experimental Reinforced Artificial Psychics, they should be more than 60 years old. It may not be fully proven, but the ability to preserve youth must have been a side effect of their strengthening.

If put into words, this was the amount of information that passed through in Tatsuya's brain, but in reality it took only a single second. And in the meantime, Tatsuya's body moved to counterattack the man that moved with the speed of a cannonball due to Acceleration Magic.

The opponent's movements might amaze you, but it was only due to the sheer speed. The movements themselves weren't polished at all. To Tatsuya's eyes, they were sloppy. Maybe it was because he was comparing them to Yakumo and Yanagi, but the fact that even on a more general level, "the techniques were weak" was the objective truth.

They weren't lacking in training. Artificial Psychics only accelerated their movement through speed, but they lacked the mental ability to follow it. They were unable to follow their magically accelerated speed.

To Tatsuya's knowledge, the fastest magician was Erika, but if it was only about moving fast, then there should be countless magicians with even faster movements. Both Yanagi and Kazama should be capable of it. Measuring by magical ability, even Miyuki, Mayumi and Katsuto should be able to do it. Tatsuya thought that it should be possible even for Ichijou Masaki. But, they don't use that level of self-acceleration in a real fight, not because there was no need to, but because they were unable to control their accelerated bodies.

Only Erika with her natural talent was able to precisely control her body and ability without losing balance with that speed. You couldn't catch up to her with fake skills. It was possible to deal with them because they were imitations.

And that was how.

Tatsuya slightly opened the palms of his hands in preparation.

Knocking the knife aside, the Artificial Psychic's wrist slid into Tatsuya's palm.

It looked like he himself went on to be caught, just like that time when Yanagi fought No Head Dragon's Generator during the Nine Schools Competition.

Tatsuya made his weight and inertia disappear, and, forcibly straightening his opponent's hands, flew.

He lost his weight and inertia in just that single moment.

The man’s body was pulled down as the weight suddenly burdened his outstretched arm.

Tatsuya’s feet straddled the man’s arm.

He feigned a jumping perpendicular armbar and sent a kick to his head.

Losing his consciousness, the man was slammed against the road, while Tatsuya regained his posture mid-air and headed for his next prey upon landing.

There were 28 remaining enemies that he caught with his superior senses. Among them, 9 were Artificial Psychics. There should have been another one, aside from the 11 Psychics who generated the disruption field deliberately, who more likely than not had been showing restraint inside the car that was tracking them. The 19 normal people (meaning those who were neither Psychics nor men who possessed super abilities) had already fled.

However, Tatsuya did not intend to have a single one of them escape without harm.

Unfortunately, the police arrived, so Tatsuya left that place just as he had defeated 20 of them.

He eventually ran past the street by the station while carefully slipping through from the sight of the police before joining up with Miyuki and the others.

It was already 4 P.M.

“Onii-sama, welcome back!”

Having drunk her tea in the waiting room of the station, Miyuki jumped out right from there when she laid her eyes upon the silhouette of Tatsuya.

“I’m sorry, I kept you waiting.”

Tatsuya caressed Miyuki’s head she stands still, on the verge of hugging him and goes together with Miyuki into the waiting room where Minami had been left behind.

“Thank you for your hard work, too, Minami.”

“No, your safety is more important than anything.”

Signaling Minami with his hand to sit before she stood up in refusal, Tatsuya also sat on the opposite side of her.

Miyuki was, needless to say, beside Tatsuya. Then, beside Minami were the trio’s luggage.

“What happened to the car that was supposed to meet us?”

“It went back. The pattern of the attack was without a doubt being recorded by traffic cameras, so I explicitly told him not to return to the Main House directly… Umm, would it have been better if we had kept him here?”

Laying his hand on his sister’s cheek as she looked up at his own face apprehensively, Tatsuya laughed as if to calm her.

“No, your judgment was right, if you think of about it hard enough, Miyuki.”

“Thank you very much…”

Miyuki gazed downward, blushing, as he looked at her with his teasing eyes asking, “What now?”

But Minami’s face quickly changed into a reserved expression the moment Tatsuya’s eyes moved.

Miyuki’s color of being shocked by Tatsuya’s eyes looking at her was probably because she failed to notice the moment of that change. Minami endured the uncomfortable pain as much as she could.

Tatsuya fortunate as he was did not have any twisted pretense that he was enjoying fixing his eyes on Minami like that to see how far he could fool her.

Tatsuya immediately turned his eyes back to Miyuki and removed his hand which had been lying on her cheek.

“Ah…”

Ignoring Miyuki’s seemingly sorrowful voice, Tatsuya ordered his younger sister to contact the Main House.

“We will temporarily return home today. We will head out again tomorrow, so make a request for that dispatch.”

Originally, arriving at the Main House on New Year’s Eve was no problem. What happened today was an accident. No, it was because he took into account the possibility that they would be stranded due to sabotage.

Unfortunately, his concerns hit the mark, but that was precisely why there was no need to overdo it today.

“Understood.”

Miyuki immediately took her mobile information terminal out and opened the communication line to the Main House.

The person who came to answer the phone was the Butler Obara. Obara asked about Miyuki’s safety many, many times, apologizing for the mishap even more, and repeatedly insisted on sending a car to pick them up afterwards.

“…Obara-san, I would like to go back to my house for a while.”

Miyuki got angry without warning. No, it was not as if she raised her voiced so much that we would say she got angry. Rather, that cool voice of hers made it clear that it was a no, even to the listener who had no room for changing his mind.

“O-okay, it is acknowledged.”

Obara stood at attention beside the voice receiver——at least, his voice resounded as if he made that posture.

Miyuki saw her chance and decided to press him for answers.

“Please relay to Oba-sama that I will report once again on today’s matters after returning home.”

“O-okay, as you wish.”

“And then, I would like to request for a car to pick us up tomorrow as well.”

“O-okay, certainly, anytime as you well please.”

Obara has always stood out for his exaggerated manners, but she hasn’t quite remembered him ever speaking this tense before until now. Miyuki silently reflected whether she had been too harsh with her words, while she inquired Tatsuya with her eyes of how she should answer.

Tatsuya showed Miyuki the screen of the terminal where he typed, “10 A.M.”

“Well then, how about at 10 A.M.?”

“Understood.”

Obara’s answer was prompt.

Would it really be okay, Miyuki thought to herself, but there was no way she would feel relieved, she thought again.

“Well then, I shall be expecting you tomorrow.”

“O-okay, Miyuki-sama, please take care on your way home.”

He seemed to have some ulterior motive due to the fact that he asked it, but as expected, Miyuki ignored it, thinking that she was just imagining things, and hung up the call.

◊ ◊ ◊

Tatsuya, no all three of them did not dare to speak a single word about the incident until they got home.

Having gone back home, the luggage they packed piled up in the living room undisturbed as they changed clothes before they finally waved their self-imposed gag order.

Miyuki and Minami brought out coffee and red tea: the coffee, made by Miyuki for Tatsuya, and the red tea, made by Minami for Miyuki and herself. The two of them preparing separate drinks may seem wasteful, but Tatsuya had resolved right from the start to never comment about this matter.

“Miyuki, Minami, thank you both for your hard work. You can sit here too, Minami.”

He gave Miyuki the thankful remark and made Minami, who was trying to grab the opportunity, to sit on the sofa.

“Regarding the opponents who attacked us today…”

With Miyuki at his side, Tatsuya made Minami sit on the opposite side of Miyuki and started talking about that which the two have been dying to know.

“They were soldiers of the National Defense Army, which has, as its main battle force, the physically strengthened combination-type Artificial Psychics whom the National Defense Force failed to develop.”

“Why would the National Defense Army…”

Miyuki’s statement was intended to ask about the reason why, and not to question the information's authenticity. Her older brother definitely said that they were Soldiers of the Army, and it was true that Miyuki had no room to doubt that.

“Besides, what are 'physically strengthened combination-type Artificial Psychics', Onii-sama?”

“I don’t know the reason why. I wasn’t able to question them because the police arrived while I was in the middle of neutralizing the attackers. Physically strengthened combination-type Artificial Psychics are…”

Tatsuya narrated to Miyuki the full account of how the Artificial Psychics were developed. It was a topic that he would hesitate to talk about in front of Minami, a second-generation modified body magician, but Tatsuya thought that being too cautious would probably be, in turn, disrespectful.

“…The development of the Artificial Psychics has been discontinued for over the last 40 years. The men who became its test subjects must be more than 60 years old by now. I used to hear that they were detained in either the former Gunma or Nagano Prefectures, but I suppose there were detainment facilities in the Suwa-Matsumoto areas.”

“Were they also under house arrest for more than 40 years?”

Minami turned around murmuring.

“They weren’t given any roles, they are just being confined.”

The closing of her eyes and the lowering of her face might have been her holding back her tears.

“…However, could it be that someone brought the subjects out from those facilities? Say, even if all of them were volunteers, they would still be living proof of human experimentation. It isn’t something for us to deal with now, but they are an existence that the Army definitely cannot just keep hidden from society and especially from the media.”

Miyuki saw Minami’s elucidation with astonished eyes.

“Perhaps, it was not the powers belonging to that of the National Defense Forces that ordered the attack on us.”

“No, that’s not possible.”

Tatsuya dismissed Miyuki’s lingering fear with conviction.

“They wouldn’t have sent such half-cooked forces in my way if the leaders of the National Defense Forces were the ones pulling the strings. Even if we assumed that they were throwing their test subjects out into the field, they would have prepared more powerful peons, particularly their overpowered and indispensable goons.”

In other words, if the top brass of the National Defense Forces were at work, this meant that even if they could not defeat Tatsuya they had prepared countermeasures to dispose of the test subjects who were no match against Tatsuya. That seemed more likely here. It was uncomfortable to ponder upon, so Miyuki decided to change the topic.

“Yuuka-san knew that we would be attacked, didn’t she?”

“That seems to be the case. But then, she might have been thinking, too, that we wouldn't be attacked if I were with you.”

Tatsuya titled down his coffee cup.

“There is also the thing about Kuroba-san’s advice.”

Tatsuya put off the threat from Mitsugu to Miyuki as advice.

“I don’t want to think about it, but there is a high possibility that someone in the Branch Families has been pulling the strings behind today’s attack.”

“…Is it our fault?

Miyuki asked nervously.

“No.”

Tatsuya immediately shook his head.

“At least, Kuroba-san had said that it wasn't the case. The thugs that attacked us today didn’t seem to be after Miyuki.”

Actually, there was no basis to say that the target was not Miyuki in today’s incident. Even in the face of getting attacked, it felt like they did not know who they were attacking.

However, Tatsuya had no incentive to stupidly or directly declare that.

“I almost suspect they don’t want you, Miyuki, to attend the New Year’s Gathering. But there is a high possibility that they did that not to get in the way of the Yotsuba Succession itself but to delay the appointment of the next Family Head. If ever it were their objective to hinder you from becoming the next Family Head, it would be irrational for them go through the trouble of aiming for us after we got off at Kobuchizawa Station. Long story short, it would have been quicker and more guaranteed for them if they attacked this house while I was at FLT.”

Tatsuya came up with a plausible assumption by skillfully corroborating the behind-the-scenes information that he knew about today’s incident.

“I see now… No, it’s definitely as my Onii-sama says.”

Miyuki forced herself to believe.

Tatsuya felt a pang in his chest, but he had already decided beforehand to make Miyuki feel at ease. He knew that it was merely postponing the problem but either way, it was more productive to postpone than confront her anxiety.

“Miyuki, it would be good if you called our Oba-ue soon.”

“Oh, that’s right.”

Tatsuya stood up and moved to the dining room.

Miyuki stood before the camera, while Minami fiddled with the remote control behind her back.

At midnight, she accepted Miyuki’s apology while smiling on the screen, and said she was looking forward to being able to meet her tomorrow.

◊ ◊ ◊

That night, a young officer belonging to the Matsumoto Base of the National Defense Army died due to his involvement in a brawling incident at the Kobuchizawa Station. In the newspapers on the following morning, it was reported that he had lost his life in a turn of bad luck when he forced his way through trying to stop a dispute between fellow Yakuza.

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