Chapter 5
[Escape]
Diplomatic relations between Japan and the Great Asian Union presently stand in good order. Although tensions persist burbling under the surface, ostensibly economic interaction and people traffic have been proceeding smoothly.
So when a Chinese woman landed at the Tokyo Bay International Airport this day, no one paid any extra attention to her beyond the usual vigilance against any inimical foreign nationals.
◇ ◇ ◇
An East Asia-American visited the safe house where Rocky Dean has been hiding out in Richmond, California, USNA.
"…I am much obliged. Lord Zhu was quick in his protest."
"Yes. My master says to be assured that the leader of Bāxiān, Mr. Qiao8, promised to address the matter."
Dean's guest was a servant from Zhu Yuen Yun. A change from the men who usually deliver his daily necessities, A woman of around 30 years old. Seemingly unremarkably plain at first glance, she is quite beautiful at close inspection. More striking than her face was her body, hidden by her oversized clothes. It goes without saying Zhu Yuen Yun's intentions in choosing this woman to be his messenger.
But the message she brings was more important right now than the meaning behind the choice of her as the messenger.
"Do you mind telling me, if you are privy to it, and if you are able, what kind of assurances have been made?"
"Gladly. Also, please there is no need to be polite to me, Dean-sama."
The woman smiled glamorously at Dean. It is obvious from the flirtatious demeanor that she has been ordered by her master, Zhu Yuen Yun, to take care of Dean's shortages.
Frankly, Dean would be eager to quench his cravings, but he never lost sight of his priorities.
"Understood. So?"
"Yes. The Great Asian Union has agreed to send one of the Bāxiān, He Xiangu, to Japan. If we are on schedule, she should be arriving in Tokyo just about now."
"And that person will be bringing Laura back?"
"That was Mr. Qiao's promise."
"I see."
Dean didn't fully believe in the woman's ─ in the Great Asian Union's "promise," but he had no alternatives at the moment. All Dean could do was hope that this unreliable promise would be fulfilled.
"Do you mind if I take a little more of your time to listen to more details? What do you say?"
"Yes, at your pleasure."
Dean helped the woman to her feet and took her by the waist to the bedroom.
◇ ◇ ◇
All the families in the Ten Master Clans, leading the Japanese Magic Community, are modern magicians. The twenty-eight families that are eligible to be chosen for the Ten Master Clans also do not include any families of ancient-style magicians, even though some do carry elements of ancient-style magic.
However, a significant share of the Hundred Families, the second in influence after the Ten Master Clans, is composed of ancient-style magic. Which is not particularly surprising, since most families have in some way inherited some kind of special skill that is today summarized as "magic", as opposed to families qualified for the systematized magic of the 21st century and who have newly become magicians.
Such families that have traditionally inherited a lineage power have a distinct tendency to maintain a higher and more stable ability than families with newly acquired power. The rate of families that have descended from ancient-style magicians, as opposed to those that practice modern magic, is over 80% of the Hundred Families.
And among the Hundred Families, the Izayoi family, residing in the northern Tokyo Metropolitan area, is said to be one of the most powerful. Particularly among the Hundred Families that practice ancient magic, the Izayoi family is regarded as "the strongest in the Hundred Families" and that "the strength of the Izayoi family is on par with that of a family from the Ten Master Clans."
The head of this Izayoi family has a younger brother. This younger brother, by name Izayoi Shirabe, is rumored to be more skilled than his older brother. The man lives in his own mansion, separate from the main Izayoi house where his older brother resides.
And in said mansion, the sub-leader of FAIR, Laura Simons, is currently being held captive.
"What has our guest been up to today?"
Shirabe stopped the housekeeper in her way from bringing Laura her lunch and asked her how she had been passing the time.
"Simons-sama has been telling fortunes with the cards provided for her."
"Fortune-telling, huh…"
Shirabe frowned at the response.
"Those were cards from this house, correct?"
"Yes, without a doubt, sir."
"I see… Thank you for your service. You can go now."
Shirabe walks past the bowing maid with a contemplative look on his face. Midway, Shirabe stops in front of the door to the room where Laura is being locked in.
The cards given to her are just a generic off-the-shelf tarot deck. Shirabe personally confirmed that there was no magical power in them. No matter how skilled a witch she is, she can't use any proper spells with a novelty like that as a medium…
The thoughts repeated in his mind as he stood in front of the door.
He eventually left without entering the room.
◇ ◇ ◇
"A transient bond, assistance, escape from a difficult situation… Subtle enough, huh."
Laura exhales a sigh as she concludes her divination. The food brought in by the housekeeper remains untouched. Not that she is wary of drugs anymore, but she was in the middle of a fortune-telling process, so she left it aside.
Izayoi Shirabe guessed wrong. Nay, he underestimated Laura. It did not matter to her whether the card had magic power or not. As long as it generally followed the correct symbols it would be useful enough as a medium of divination.
In this respect, a card carefully made by nitpicking Japanese makers was remarkably high-quality, despite being a market item. Laura so much suspected it being a trap when she received the card. A careful examination ensued.
Suddenly, Laura's whole body shook in a startle. Her slouched posture straightened out, as if her spine had been replaced by a pole.
She received a vision. A witches' vision is not something she has in demand, it comes to her passively. Divination for witches is a mere tool to facilitate visions.
Following a predetermined procedure does not always result in a vision. At the same time, the quality of the ritual instruments was not a decisive factor in achieving visions. There is the misunderstanding that Izayoi Shirabe may have had.
Surely, by following established procedures, an oracle can be obtained with a certain degree of accuracy, depending on the skill of the practitioner. Shirabe is more accustomed to this kind of fortune-telling. In such, commercial trinkets would not yield proper oracles. Shirabe unconsciously assumed that his fundamental principles also applied to witches' divinations.
In this case, the results are quite different. Using the commercial tarot cards as a springboard, Laura dived into the vision.
"The woman of the Bāxiān… I remember that face."
The mutter escaped Laura after she returned to reality from her vision.
◇ ◇ ◇
Tuesday afternoon. Tatsuya landed at Naha Airport in his private jet.
Each of his steps through the airport lobby was closely scrutinized by a number of eyes: public security, military intelligence, and foreign intelligence agents. Information that Tatsuya boarded his private jet alone was enough to trigger the movement of so many people.
He is fully aware that he is being monitored. Like always. The surveilling parties are not even that keen on hiding either. This is particularly true of the local authorities. Tatsuya's surveillance was more of a means to keep him in check.
However, Tatsuya did not feel the duty to indulge the spectacle for long, just because it always happens. The lobby was relatively empty today. It was highly unlikely that anyone could try to blend in with the crowd and lose sight of those following behind.
─And yet, all those who were watching Tatsuya, both domestic and foreign actors, lost sight of his figure in the lobby.
"I've lost sight of the subject. What about you?"
"We have no sight of the subject over here yet. Was he really heading this way?"
The intelligence officers who had been monitoring Tatsuya exchanged whispered comms. A similar chatter was also taking place among those of the Public Security Bureau and foreign intelligence agents.
A tone of resignation was shared by all of them. Today was not the first time this had happened. If anything, it was a regular occurrence. Even though they had supposedly not taken their eyes off him, they couldn't recognize him anymore. It was the same even when making use of tracking systems equipped with the latest in human-recognition AI. No man or machine could pick up Tatsuya's figure.
"That's the apprentice of the greatest ninja of his time, for you. He's no slouch…"
"Then should we learn ninjutsu too?"
Carefree jests of such were a regular feature at such moments.
After effortlessly eluding the watchful eyes, Tatsuya and his youthful companion boarded a robotic taxi. Having confirmed that the taxi was not bugged with any audio or imaging devices via the Elemental Sight, Tatsuya set the destination as a restaurant in the town of Kadena.
As the taxi pulls out, Tatsuya speaks to his youthful companion.
"It's so much easier to shake off surveillance when you're around, Minoru."
The young man with a humble impression was Minoru under [Parade] disguise. As per usual, he altered his height and build in addition to his face, so it might be better to call it a whole transformation instead of a disguise.
"I don't believe there would be much of a difference if you were alone, Tatsuya-san. My [Kimon Tonkou] was hardly putting in any work, you know."
Minoru, under the guise of the young man he had transformed into, responded to Tatsuya's words with a wry smile. It wasn't an attempt at modesty on his part. This was mainly because he felt that "Kimon Tonkou" did not contribute very much.
［Kimon Tonkou] is a magic that acts through the medium of the directed gaze. It interferes, disrupting the perception of the conscious mind that looks at the object. The more intense the gaze, the more powerfully this magic is applied.
But now that Tatsuya had developed a ninjutsu technique to vanish into thin air, he was able to make himself unrecognizable to the public. The "vanishing into thin air," is an active effect of the ninjutsu that Tatsuya had mastered.
Unlike the Recognition Inhibiting Magic [Aidoneus], which prevents people from recognizing the caster even with visual contact, in this ninjutsu, which Tatsuya stole from Yakumo, he blends into the scenery in a way that does not inspire the desire for visual contact.
And since [Kimon Tonkou] utilizes the gaze as its medium, it will not produce effects unless a gaze is consciously directed toward it. So as long as Tatsuya's ninjutsu is in effect, [Kimon Tonkou] has little chance to play a role.
"Because [Kimon Tonkou] was active from the beginning, it was easier than usual for me to vanish from the consciousness. [Kimon Tonkou] did its job well."
"If that's what you want it to be."
Tatsuya's earnest response loosened the "impression" of the "wry smile" from Minoru's face.
At said restaurant they found a U.S. officer waiting for them, just as agreed upon with Canopus.
"It's been a while, Mr. Shiba."
Tatsuya recognized this female officer.
"Warrant Officer Sylvia Mercury, am I correct?"
"Ensign now, sir. I would like to thank you again for your kindness during the incident three years ago. Once again, thank you very much."
This officer greeting them is Ensign Sylvia Mercury, a Planet-Class STARS member. She and her comrades had been captured three years ago after invading Japan on an undercover mission, and had been rescued from captivity in a prison camp on the southern tip of the Boso Peninsula by Tatsuya.
"You're welcome. That was a matter of mutual interests, so please don't bother."
Breaking out the imprisoned USNA agents was part of the deal struck between the Yotsuba Family and the STARS. Also, it was in a time when Tatsuya was partly in an antagonistic relationship with the National Defense Forces, so the act was consistent with his own interests.
"I should thank you for your hospitality today."
"It's a pleasure. As for your companion…"
Sylvia looks at Minoru.
"Pleased to meet you, Ensign, my name is Oujima Hikaru."
Minoru introduces himself under the fake name on his passport. After the incident in which he stowed away at a base in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands when he kidnapped Minami, his face has become well known among the USNA military. In particular his inhumanely beauty, if nothing else. Sylvia, herself, remembered Minoru's face well.
Yet the name "Kudou Minoru" never dawned on her when she looked at the unassuming young man in front of her.
Tatsuya and Minoru entered Kadena Air Base in a self-propelled car driven by Sylvia, completely unhindered. Although the base is in Japan soil, it's a joint Japan-U.S. ownership.
As defined in the US-Japan Alliance, any joint base that can be used by an allied country in the same way as a base in its own country. These are not prescribed in the formal terms unilaterally, but there are also joint bases established within the USNA that can be used by the Japanese military.
And, being a joint base, any U.S. officers have virtually a free pass. One might think of it as a kind of diplomatic immunity. The guard on sentry duty only checked Sylvia's ID card and made no inquiry as to the identity of Tatsuya and Minoru. They didn't even ask her to lower the smoked glass of the rear window where they were sitting.
Now they were in front of the [Stealth Diver] in its full glory.
"Even though it matches the data, it's surprisingly compact…"
"It's meant for infiltrations. It's natural the profile would be reduced."
Tatsuya's response to Minoru's remark was not a flattery meant for the ears of their guide. It was just his honest assessment of the situation.
The Stealth Diver is about 4.5 meters long, with about 1.8 meters in maximum width and depth, narrowing at the front and rear in a spindle shape. It has no wings, tail, intake or exhaust nozzles. The surface is a smooth, curved, utterly matte jet-black. Its stealth factor seems to rely more on the material than on the shape of the fuselage. Nevertheless, since it has no independent heat emission ─ the only heat is that by air compression by fluid friction ─ even in the event that it is detected, it is most likely to be misidentified as a meteorite or a scoria.
"The inside is more spacious than I expected."
Said Minoru looking inside, sounding a bit relieved.
"This is not like a human torpedo, you know. Take this as one individual re-entry capsule of the early manned rockets."
In the design the passenger is seated in a half-lying position on the seat with a large reclining angle, rather than riding on his or her stomach. It would be an unsettling experience if there were windows, but fortunately, the inside is completely isolated from the outside world. There weren't even optical cameras, all the external feedback was limited to radar and magnetometers.
"…The control scheme is quite simple, isn't it?"
In position on the seat as he receives the lecture, Minoru looked up and shared his impressions with Tatsuya, who was peering in from the side.
"How do you feel about the flight magic system?"
"The response doesn't seem to be bad, but I wouldn't trust it to handle this frame very well. It is best to assume that it can only be used during a small time frame."
"That's also mentioned in the specifications. But that should be good enough for our purposes."
"I agree."
Both gave the Stealth Diver a passing grade after examining it in person.
◇ ◇ ◇
During Tatsuya and Minoru's visit to Kadena Air Base.
An incident occurred at Izayoi Shirabe's mansion, located in the former Saitama Prefecture.
Laura managed to break the seal on her room and vanished from the mansion.
"─I see, she has escaped…"
In contrast to his men, who couldn't hide their consternation and urgency, Shirabe maintained composure.
"Judging from the residual impressions left in the room, it cannot have been more than 30 minutes since the escape. I believe it's possible to capture her! With your permission, sir!"
One of his men asked Shirabe for permission to pursue in a tone of aggravated agitation. He was not alone in feeling insulted by someone escaping from this house where they had been confined. As proof of this, several voices rose in agreement from those around him.
"There is no need for pursuit."
Shirabe's decision was unexpected and hard for them to accept. Although no one directly objected, there were more than a few discreet grumbles.
"Laura Simons is being hunted by my shiki9."
This line replaced the grumbling with exclamations of admiration.
"...Did Shirabe-sama anticipate that the woman would escape?"
"Of course. You should all have known from the start; that woman was not the kind to stay quiet for long."
"From the beginning… Sir, has the shiki been in use since then?"
Shirabe gives a meaningful smile in response.
"Look for yourselves."
"The item─"
Shirabe calls out to the boy servant standing in the corner of the room. Though, being only half a man, the boy should be more of an apprentice than an underling.
The young apprentice bowed briskly before exiting the room and returning shortly after.
He brings with both hands a sanbou of white wood. Atop the sanbou was a bundle of amulets.
"This talisman is the counterpart to the Shiki on that woman. The point was to catch the spies who had helped her infiltrate."
"So was that person a bait for that purpose…?"
"Let the Ten Master Clans take care of those greenhorn small fry such as the likes of FAIR. We are looking for the source of the bandits who are helping to contaminate this country. Until the original agents show up, she must not find out about it. For that we have this Chasing Talisman10."
"Yes, sir!"
Shirabe's command was met with a collective cry from his men. Then one after another, they picked up a charm from the tops of the sanbou.
◇ ◇ ◇
After escaping from Shirabe's mansion, Laura was heading east. Her mode of transportation was, surprisingly, a police car.
Laura didn't have an easy time breaking out of the mansion; Izayoi Shirabe might have planned to let her go at large eventually, but he hadn't settled on when. He did not know when the spies would try to contact Laura.
Therefore, he did not conveniently loosen the art keeping her confined. By the same token, if the prisoner couldn't break the spell by herself, it would not serve its true purpose. As such, Shirabe had set the "sealing spell" at a level of challenge that Laura, could not disarm by herself, without external assistance, but could destroy if she used her full power,
Shirabe underestimated Laura's skill in divination. Frankly put, he was waiting for Laura to make contact with the other side, not for her to make a move on her own. And although he put on a facade of "everything is going according to plan" in front of his subordinates, he made a miscalculation in that respect.
However, he was correct in that the off-the-shelf deck couldn't assist in her incantation. She didn't use the tarot cards he arranged for her; she broke through Shirabe's spells with her magical power alone.
Right after brute-forcing her way through Shirabe's spell, Laura was in shambles, both inside and out. Dark circles were appearing under her eyes, her mental exhaustion was naturally severe, and her thin shirt and skirt she wore was torn here and there from the rebound from breaking through the physical restraints of the spell.
At first glance, she looked like a victim of prolonged abuse. So dire an appearance that a police officer on bicycle patrol approached her.
Laura mesmerized the officer. Not with her feminine charm ─ which are not negligible, per se ─ but with her witch magic. Charming men with Evil Eye is a basic skill for any witch. Though she couldn't conquer a highly skilled magician like Shirabe, who had strong resistance, Laura had enough mastery to charm even a well-disciplined police officer as long as she was dealing with a non-magician, that is someone from the majority.
Even bewitched the man was not completely enthralled, deprived of his free will. He simply felt obliged to show a gentlemanly act of kindness so that he would be willing to take her to a safe place in a police vehicle. And he wasn't alone in that sentiment; his fellow officers at the police station were similarly allured.
Despite her escape thus appearing to be going well, Laura had yet to recover from her exhaustion in the breakout. For this reason, she remained oblivious to the shiki that lurked in her shadow.
◇ ◇ ◇
Sent to bring Laura back to the USNA was a single Bāxiān, He Xiangu, a master of appearance-altering magic. With a differing system from that of Lina and Minoru's [PARADE], He Xiangu's [Alteration] was not at all inferior, if at all. Making use of this magic, He Xiangu blended into a remote corner of the metropolitan area.
This was not her first visit to Japan. On the contrary, she has infiltrated more than two dozen times. And not just in Japan. Leveraging her [Alteration] magic, He Xiangu has traveled throughout the entire East Asia establishing numerous bases of operations. In other words, she is a specialist in infiltration and establishment of operational footholds.
The location where she is currently hiding is one of the many outposts she has built throughout Japan. In exchange for the Tokyo base ceded to Chen Xiangshan at the time of the Yokohama incursion five years ago, she had a Japanese collaborator purchase this private house in the southern part of the former Saitama Prefecture.
Neither Zhou Gongjin nor any ethnic Chinese living in Japan were involved in the acquisition of this base. Thus, it was not picked up by the Army Intelligence Department or the Public Security Bureau in their investigations of the Zhou Gongjin-Gu Jie network.
Therefore, this place should not have been known. And yet, He Xiangu sensed the approach of a spirit (ki) wielded by a Japanese magician.
He Xiangu has acquired some knowledge of ancient Japanese magic as a necessity in her trade, and although she cannot use it herself, she is able to recognize the type of spell wielded or about to be wielded against her.
Now she felt that a person with an Onmyoji shiki on them was approaching.
(It doesn't seem that it's carrying along voluntarily, just that it didn't notice that it was being possessed…)
(This person is a magician… and is being possessed… I'd understand if it was an ordinary person, but to not be able to notice the ki on them. That's pathetic.)
Muttering words of contempt in her mind, He Xiangu unintentionally tilted her head in thought. Two questions popped into her mind.
First, there was a sense of discomfort that the presence of the possessed magician was not that of a weak individual. To her perception, the magician who approaches with the shiki is of considerable ability. It was incongruous that such a high-level magician would be unaware of the shiki strapped to them.
The second reason being that the magician's presence seemed to be that of a "witch". He Xiangu's objective here was to rescue a "witch". Could it be that this magician, who was being stalked by a shiki, was the target of this rescue mission?
If so, the picture is not good. "The shiki is to find out where I am, this 'witch' is being used as bait to catch me…" He Xiangu thought.
If this was an enemy ploy, she would need a plan of action. The easiest way was to not meet the approaching "witch". It's unclear if they know where she is, but it'd not be difficult to avoid her with the sign of the shiki.
But that could be tantamount to abandoning the mission, so it is a last recourse. More importantly, neutralizing the pursuers here and now would facilitate the subsequent escape from Japan.
"Since I can sense the shiki approaching, the tracker probably doesn't realize that I have a way to deal with the ki," He Xiangu thought, and began preparing a trap. He Xiangu thought so and began setting up the trap.
◇ ◇ ◇
"Thank you very much. I'll be fine here. Thank you so much for your hard work."
Laura offered the policeman a sensual smile. With a line that many of the general public would find inappropriate for a civilian to say to a police officer. Still, the officers in question both smiled and said, "Have a great day." and saw Laura off from inside the patrol car.
Laura began walking toward one of the houses and looked back on the way. Seeing a police vehicle pulling away, she turned and walked in the opposite direction.
Finding herself standing in front of an unremarkable second-hand house, Laura muttered, "Here it is."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Laura Simons."
"Please call me Renka Kase while we are in Japan."
He Xiangu responded to Laura's introduction.
"While in Japan, right?"
"Yes. Best not to give any other name than that. Least you spout it in the spur of the moment and make us look suspicious."
"I'm not the type to screw up like that."
Laura took on a self-assured stance, probably in an attempt to avoid showing any weakness. A tough act, in essence, feeling that she would lose if she showed weakness even when, and specifically when, the other party is in a far stronger position. That is how the status quo is determined; the law of the world she lives in.
"You must be a Bāxiān. Do you mind telling me your codename?"
"I told you it is best you don't know…"
Even upon the right guess of her identity as a Bāxiān, He Xiangu showed not a hint of consternation. She refused Laura's request with an elusive smile.
While her codename might not be her real name, her magician name still told more about her than her Japanese fake name would have. It was with this notion in mind that Laura tried to extract her codename in the Bāxiān, but He Xiangu's guard remained firmer.
"…Yes, of course. By the way, what about your colleague Lü Dongbin, who brought me to Japan?"
"Another is on their way to retrieve him."
Laura tried to rattle something off of her with a new line of questioning, but He Xiangu refused to yield.
"So you'll be the one taking me out of here?"
"That's right. We should get moving."
"─Got it."
Laura gave up on trying to dig for information after He Xiangu managed to answer the questions without being reticent, but, at the same time not revealing any extra information.
"First of all, here, take it."
"A passport? I have one."
He Xiangu extended to Laura a USNA passport.
"That passport may be marked. Safer to use a different one."
"I see. Alright."
Laura accepted easily enough and pulled out the passport she had used to enter the country from the only item she had with her, a small handbag.
At that moment, Laura scowled. This was the first time she had touched her passport since leaving the mansion. She had shoved it in her handbag during her escape and hadn't even shown it to the policeman, as she would normally be required to.
"That man!"
Her eyebrows suddenly shoot up, and Laura slams the passport to the floor.
"You've got to be kidding me!"
Laura stomps on the passport with all her "strength".
An artificial spirit ─ a Shiki seeps out from the paper of the passport and dissipates under Laura's feet.
He Xiangu watches the scene with an impassive smile on her face.
She can see that the one in the passport is just a decoy, and that the real Shiki is possessing something else.
In her mind, He Xiangu held a different kind of smile to the oblivious Laura, one of cold scorn.
"There is a change of clothes in the bedroom upstairs."
Laura did not resist the indirect instruction to change her clothes. She snatched her new passport from He Xiangu's hand and headed upstairs where said a change of clothes was prepared for her.
A short time later, Laura returned in the new set of clothes holding the one she had just before.
"These clothes have a spell in them, don't they?"
She says in a displeased tone, lightly pinching the collar of the clothes she changed into, in complaint to He Xiangu.
"These are charms to deal with the tracking magic. On the same note, leave these clothes you have been wearing behind."
With this said, Laura, who at till this point was unaware of the shiki planted on her passport, couldn't argue with her.
"Then let's get moving."
"──Yes, please, lead the way."
Laura responded in a high-handed tone determined to keep her pretense up.
With Laura in tow, He Xiangu left the hideout with a wry smile on her face.
Leaving behind the clothes Laura had taken off and the passport with Izayoi Shirabe's magic still lingering in it.
◇ ◇ ◇
In a self-propelled car, in their pursuit of Laura, Izayoi Shirabe sensed that the shiki in Laura's forged passport had been destroyed.
"Finally noticed, huh…"
A derisive chuckle escapes his lips following his muttering. That said, there was no nuance of mockery in his tone. It was no surprise to him that a low-ranked character such as the likes of Laura would take so long to notice Shirabe's techniques.
The main shiki was operating fine and well, lurking in the shadows. It hasn't moved since a while ago. He may have been caught off guard with the decoy shiki being disposed of, which may seem insistence on carelessness in light of the fact that Laura has at all escaped, but Shirabe did not feel any uneasiness.
To him, FAIR is nothing more than an affiliate of New Humanity Front, an organization he appropriately manipulated, a small fry that did not even realize it was being manipulated by him.
Such a low-level group and the spies supporting them could not possibly serve as my enemies. ─Izayoi Shirabe thought of it so quite naturally, so much so that he didn't consciously realize it.
Using the charm linked to the shiki led Shirabe to an ordinary old family house. He signaled to his men to set up a perimeter around the house. Then he took out the charm, transformed it into a shiki, and released it to scout the interior.
Shirabe looked all around the house through the shiki and involuntarily scowled.
─There is no one around.
"Shirabe-sama, we secured the perimeter."
Then came the leader of his men with a report.
"Understood. You two, follow me."
"Yes, sir. Come on."
Following the leader's cue, two surgeons followed behind Shirabe.
There is no one around, but there is a presence. If anything, the shiki that possessed Laura Simons is still inside the house. Shirabe steps into the house, with two of his men at his back, he is determined to see for himself what is behind this incongruous situation.
Inside, Shirabe picked up a distinct presence of two human beings. It was clearer than when seen from outside through the medium of the shiki. One of them was definitely Laura Simons.
(She's clever─)
(Did you notice the decoy shiki and set up wards to hinder [sensory attunement])
The ancient-style magic technique of [sensory synchronization] allows the caster to see and hear what the shiki experiences as if they were there. It was Shirabe's conjecture that the spy must have set up a ward to obfuscate their presence so that they would not be seen.
Laura's magic was out of his consideration. Witches' magic interferes with human-related phenomena. It was unlikely that she could have used her magic to interfere with a shiki-oni, let alone a demon. If she could, her escape would have been much smarter.
"To be able to use such a technique," Shirabe felt a bit wary of the spy who is helping in her escapade. Nevertheless, he is still confident of his superiority. This hardly shook his boat. His pride held on to the fact that the contact with the shiki possessing Laura had not been cut off.
From the layout of a typical house, Laura would be in the living room, and the other person would be in the kitchen. Shirabe took out a dart-sized [Hama-ya] and opened the door to what he thought was the living room with great vigor.
◇ ◇ ◇
"Got you."
Midway to the airport in a robot taxi, He Xiangu unexpectedly muttered.
"What is it?"
Asked Laura, who was seated next to her. Though, she did not expect to get an answer from her companion.
"That arrogant pursuer of yours."
Contrary to Laura's expectations, however, He Xiangu responded with a smile. The amused smile struck Laura as the first genuine emotion shown by the still anonymous helper.
"May I ask you to explain in a little more detail?"
Laura proceeds with an intrusive question in the mind that it would do no harm to just ask.
"It seems that Japanese magicians are unfamiliar with jinjutsu."
"Jinjutsu?"
"The warding techniques to close off a place and the summoning techniques to employ spirits are certainly something to behold. Yet, likely because of their familiarity with the art of wards they have little caution against unenclosed formations11."
"The warding techniques to close off a place and the summoning techniques to employ spirits are certainly something to behold. Yet, likely because of their familiarity with the art of wards they have little caution against unenclosed formations. Also, because of their lack of confidence in the summoning technique, they do not even realize that they have lost control of their spirit. The spirit summoning techniques came from us in the first place."
"…Are you saying that you took control of that man's familiar?"
"Technically speaking, I didn't take it away, just rewrote the commands. To possess not you, Miss Simons, but the clothes stained with your bodily fluids."
Laura frowns in disgust. Even if it was a woman doing, she could not be okay with the fact that someone used her sweat-soaked clothes as a decoy.
"Of course, I'm not happy with the idea. It was to avoid pursuit that I asked to change clothes."
"……"
"You also don't have to worry about the clothes you took off being used for incantations, I've severed the [connection12] between you and the clothes you took off."
"I'm not worried about that. Do not assume that repaying curses is a specialty of yours only."
"Now that's quite rude…"
He Xiangu renewed her unassuming smile. It irked Laura how there was a hint of condescension in the way she smiled, but she restrained herself from acting immaturely by throwing a tantrum here.
◇ ◇ ◇
"How did this happen!," the line befitting a poorly written comedy was repeatedly shouted in Shirabe's mind.
Upon entering the living room, he found a pile of the clothes she wore and a forged passport that had been trampled underfoot. Not a soul was in sight, not a trace of Laura or the spies. Shirabe was left with no choice but to admit that he had been completely outsmarted.
Struck with humiliation, Shirabe quickly set about resuming his pursuit, hoping to use the clothes Laura had removed as a medium to locate her, a task that should not prove difficult. He consoled himself with the thought.
Shirabe had his men pick up Laura's clothes, and he moved to leave the safe house. He wanted to get away from this loathsome place as soon as possible.
Except, he found himself unable to leave the house.
The house isn't big, it's a run-of-the-mill, second-hand two-story. Not the kind he would ever lose track of or misunderstand the layout.
The living room, where he is now, is located just past the front door.
The route to the exterior comes to mind instantly, without even having to think about it.
And yet, Shirabe and his men all took the wrong route.
They moved towards the corridor leading to the front door, but they found themselves in the dining room, where they had moved from the doorway that had been left open. In their haste to get out into the hallway, they now had a staircase in front of them. At which point, Shirabe realized that they had fallen into the enemy's trap.
"This is probably a [Hachimon Tonkou13] modus operandi. Release a shiki and find the [open gate14]."
Shirabe stopped and took out a charm as he instructed his men to do the same. [Hachimon Tonkou] is a wide area ancient-style magic, stemming from East Asia continent's divination arts, that creates a jin, or "formation15"; a magical field.
"Jin" magic targets lands or buildings, often with illusory effects. Compared to normal area-based magic, the range of effect is wider, but it takes more preparation time and is not as potent.
To compensate for the lack of power, it is often employed with areas within the field with purposely lower power, thus bolstering the effects in other areas. [Hachimon Tonkou] follows this pattern. Furthermore, although "Kimon Tonkou" share the same original concept, they branched out completely from each other.
In the original Hachimon Tonkou form of divination, there are three directions that are auspicious, four directions that are adverse, and one direction that is neutral between auspicious and adverse. Ancient-style magic formation called [Hachimon Tonkou] also has three zones of escape, only one of which is a path of escape. The other two are just so-called safety areas. Shirabe's instruction to look for the "open gate" refers to the single possible escape route.
As stated many times already, the hideout Shirabe was lured into is an ordinary single-family house. For many, it is a two-story house; it is not very big, and from Shirabe's point of view, it is quite small, at least in comparison to the mansion in which he lives.
(…Why?)
Unable to escape such a small house, Shirabe let out an exclamation in his mind for what seemed like the hundredth time. He can at least keep his pride in not verbalizing it, but he did not know how long he would be able to keep that up. A concern that none other than Shirabe himself harbored.
Shirabe is not unfamiliar with magic like [Hachimon Tonkou]. Though he has not yet reached the level to use it himself, he has studied enough to know how to break it in case he comes across an enemy who uses this magic. Cases such as this one right now. This is why he recognized right away as a [Hachimon Tonkou] and was able to detect the location of the escape route, that is the [open gate]. But he still was a long way from it. No matter if he chose the right route, he never got to the gate.
Little did Shirabe realize that there was another magic layered on top of [Hachimon Tonkou].
[Alteration], the specialty magic of the Bāxiān He Xiangu. This was not just a magic that changed one's appearance. Far from a magic that just changed one and others' appearances. It could change the appearance of more than people, it can change the appearance of information bodies.
And while [Parade], used by the likes of Lina and Minoru, creates a false information body to mask the original information body, He Xiangu's [Alteration] disturbs the perception and measure of an information body.
Since the information body itself is not being spoofed, it does not counter high-level perception abilities such as [Elemental Sight], which directly observes in the information dimension. However, in the case of the vision magicians ordinarily, which reads the information behind an object or event, an illusion reaches their "eyes" in the course of the process.
Furthermore, this magic is mediated by entities such as charms. Meaning that the effects of [Alteration] are maintained until the charm loses its power.
Essentially, as ancient magic employs an entity as its medium, it tends to have a longer duration compared to modern magic, which does not use a medium. This is one of the distinctive characteristics of ancient magic as opposed to modern. And although longer duration isn't by itself an advantage, as it requires more time and effort to operate, it is definitely more suitable for use in traps.
The framework of [Hachimon Tonkou] that Shirabe was reading through the shiki was distorted by He Xiangu's magic.
By the time Shirabe managed to escape from [Hachimon Tonkou], the robot taxi with Laura arrived at the airport. And, as He Xiangu assured her, there was no way to curse her out of the clothes she had left behind.
Thus, Laura was taken safely out of Japan by He Xiangu, and Izayoi Shirabe's pride was shattered to smithereens.
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