Lieutenant Silvia, call sign "Mercury One", served as Major Angelina Sirius’s support during her mission to Japan. That being said, taking care of Lina was not listed among Silvia’s duties.
The members of Stars were categorized into 1st Class Planets, 2nd Class Planets, Constellations, Comets, and Satellites. Among them, 1st and 2nd Class Planets as well as Constellations were treated as frontline fighting troops, whereas Comets and Satellites typically filled the role of auxiliaries or undercover agents. Of course, that was just how the roles were divvied up on paper since Lina was given an undercover mission despite her status as a 1st Class Planet.
As a "1st Class" member of Comet "Mercury", Silvia’s duties typically resided in supporting from the rear, such as utilizing magic to gather and analyze data. For this mission, her data analysis abilities were highly prized among her compatriots and, unlike the embassy, she was specifically preparing to secretly analyze the psion wave signature.
Her current task revolved around identifying the masked individual who gave Lina the slip after their fight. In order to verify whether another shared a similar psion wave signature with their target, she was singlehandedly pouring over all relevant information regarding people affiliated with the USNA military and government.
As a core component of CADs, the sensory stone possessed the function to translate psion signals into electric signals. Furthermore, regardless of whether it was a Magician, trace psions would still be released even if they weren’t doing anything. After the sensory stone had finished translating the psion signal into an electric one, the pattern could be recorded electronically and broadcasted on a projector. However, when compared with the flat image on the projector, there might still be a few minute differences when trying to convert the image back into a psion wave signature within a short period of time. This was why a Magician trained in psion wave signature identification was deployed to this task instead of delegating it to someone who was not a Magician.
In the end, it was practically impossible to gather data for all the USNA military and government officials, but pretty much every Magician was included within. Also, individuals who were not Magicians but still under the Stars’ umbrella were also included. Silently praying that she wouldn’t find a match within this group, Silvia continued her examination.
First, she verified that no one within Stars had this psion wave signature. Anyone from other frontline forces not affiliated with Stars that bore similarities all had alibis. Shortly after noon, Silvia discovered something worthy of note around lunch time.
(Huh? This can’t be……)
As Lina dined with her classmates from Class A – and not with Miyuki’s group, she was struggling with what she should do afterwards. Lunch break only lasted one hour, and there were only 30 minutes left. They will probably be finished with their meal in five minutes. Normally, they would find another place for tea or pop into the Student Council as a part-time member, but today–
(……Maybe I should go see Mia.)
She was Lina’s neighbor and, on some level, a comrade as well. Today, Michaela Honda, or "Mia" for short, was visiting First High under the guise of a salesperson from Maximilian Devices. Preoccupied as she was with pursuing the deserters, Lina hadn’t seen Mia in the past couple of days. Although she didn’t have any reason in particular, this was still an excellent opportunity to catch up.
While her brain was ruminating on this, Lina’s hand motions and expression never revealed what was on her mind as she continued to converse naturally with her peers until the last empty plate had been removed.
(This is!?)
Lina instinctively wanted to stand up, but she immediately caught herself just as she lifted her waist. Fortunately, her classmates assumed that she was correcting her posture and paid her no heed. Lina put on a polite smile and furiously clamped down on the agitation running through her mind.
Just then, an alien wave surged outward. Seeing as how her peers around seemed oblivious to the matter, it probably wasn’t a magical aura but a pushion wave instead. Lina only noticed because she came into contact with this multiple times recently in combat. This was the presence of the masked individual, the "vampire". She also had a rough grasp on its direction. It was coming from beyond the door where the workers were coming out of.
(That’s right, Mia!)
The moment she thought of the location, everything she was considering floated across Lina’s mind. Right now was precisely the time Mia was visiting First High. As a member of the transportation crew, she must have received access to those doors.
"—Sorry, I just remembered that I have something to attend to. I’ll catch you guys later."
Lina politely excused herself from her peers and rose from the table.
(It turned out to be an Illusionary Contact Formation…… Looks like it was a mistake to rate them too lightly as a normal high school.)
A wordless voice came from the Maximilian Device’s trailer. The rebounding pushion wave was like the flapping of a bee’s wings, a noise that could not be heard with human ears. This was the "sound" formed from the collective consciousness of the vampires. Within this "voice", 70% was in the affirmative and 30% was in dissent. The jumbled and disparate voices could not be separated so easily.
(Do you think they noticed?)
The formation spread out along the wall and doorway. There was only a momentary disruption between the hidden pushion wave and the disguised psion waves. There were only a few Magicians who could identify pushion waves and, setting that aside for the moment, their psion wave signatures were just like human beings.
Within the trailer, the vampire’s body sprouted a new question that was answered by the pushion waves from within her. If a third party capable of detecting these thoughts was present, then the observed individual would seem like they were talking to themselves. This time, the response was 90% dissenting – their belief was that they had not been detected.
(I think so too…… Still, we shouldn’t have come here.)
In order to maintain appearances, her disguise that allowed her to brazenly access First High was truly an excellent opportunity. Still, when taking her true objectives into account, walking into First High’s campus filled with sensory devices and Counter Magic carried unnecessary risk. Her outer appearance did not allow her to refuse this task, but she might have been better off avoiding this place even if she had to abandon her outer persona...... Unease began mounting around her.
After lunch, Tatsuya arrived on the school rooftop.
Owing to Erika’s sour mood today, it turned out to be Tatsuya, Miyuki, and Honoka taking lunch together.
From a certain perspective, he appeared to be in a situation where he had a flower on each arm. Scratch that, he was precisely in that situation. After all, neither Miyuki nor Honoka bothered to hide their attraction. It wasn’t that they weren’t planning on hiding it, but more like they never intended to do so from the very beginning.
There was nothing he could do about it, but even someone with Tatsuya’s heart would feel a little uneasy at the furtive glances sent his way. Owing to this, he elected to flee from the cafeteria.
The rooftops of First High’s campus bore some semblance to an aerial garden, complete with fashionable benches, and were a highly popular site at school.
Still, given the high tide of winter, few braved the biting chill of the outdoors to come up here.
Today was fairly humid, but as temperatures go, it was overly chilly. In spite of this, they were the only three on the roof. Someone might point out that magic could be used to combat the cold, but except for a token minority on campus, most people were forbidden from carrying CADs. Furthermore, no one was foolish enough to "use magic without a CAD" simply to safeguard a location during lunch break. Regardless, the three of them belonged to that token minority. Currently, Miyuki employed magic to block the chill and allowed the three of them to enjoy a comfortable moment.
Once again for emphasis, Miyuki’s magic operated while covering all three of them. Miyuki’s magic condenses oxygen to create cold air. Even if she reversed the direction, a trivial task like keeping the cold that hadn’t even reached freezing point outside was a piece of cake for her.
In other words, there was no way it could be cold.
Even so, Honoka had her arms tightly wrapped around Tatsuya’s arm so that not even a gap could be found.
The instant Honoka made her move(?), Miyuki gave a startled look – though it was more like a chilly gaze of her own, but now she also took hold of Tatsuya’s other arm as if to contest Honoka’s claim.
Thanks to this, Tatsuya was now completely immobile, as if both of his arms had been tied down.
Now Tatsuya would be simply adorable if he blushed slightly here, but even with both sides pinned down by breasts of significant curvature, Tatsuya still wore his customary wry smile that seemed to say "what can I do". Many were the male students who believed that no one in his position could complain even if they were stabbed in the back right then and there.
Likewise, Miyuki and Honoka lapsed into silence for some unknown reason. Upon closer examination, the two of them were blushing to the tips of their ears. Since it wasn’t because of the temperature, then that must be the reason, so wouldn’t they be better off letting go of their hands, Tatsuya thought. –With that line of thinking, even if he dodged the insensitive label, there was no way he could avoid the accusation of being oblivious to a woman’s heart.
Nonetheless, even if the situation had turned into this, Tatsuya wasn’t going to dwell on the matter forever. Since the two of them were no longer speaking, Tatsuya started to organize the data regarding the current incident in his head.
Initially, he thought that the "vampires" were attacking humans with some goal in mind. Based on the current situation, the only known information was that they attacked humans with high magical properties and took away blood and spiritual energy.
Why were they attacking Magicians?
And what was the point in taking blood?
In the end, why did they arrive in Japan after fleeing the USNA military? Did they have to remain in Japan to accomplish some objective, or was there a third party forcing them to do something here.
Unable to find an angle to tackle these questions, he somehow shifted to the true identity of the "vampires."
(Based on the identification system of the Ancient Magic practitioners, we should be correct in that the real identity of the "vampire" is actually a "Parasite".)
(According to sensei’s hypothesis, there is a good chance that Parasites are formed from the independent information bodies splintered off from the human psyche.)
(Shizuku’s information on the USNA’s miniature black hole experiment being the catalyst also seems trustworthy.)
(In that case, this incident was caused by information bodies invading from an alternate dimension…… Was my theory spot on?)
(The problem is the connection, or lack thereof, between the information bodies invading from another dimension and the information bodies formed by the activity of the human psyche.)
(The bottom line is, where is the true form of the "psyche"? Another dimension? A higher dimension? Or even "nowhere"?)
(In that case, then where is the Idea? The Eidos?)
Noticing that he was drifting into a cognitive dead end, Tatsuya slightly shook his head and tried to reorganize his thoughts.
(There are two possibilities.)
(First, Parasites invaded from an alternate dimension.)
(Second, uncontrolled energy trickled in from another dimension and stimulated the previously dormant Parasites that dwelt in this world.)
(Lastly, so long as the Parasite – well, given our lack of knowledge on the real identity of the independent information body derived from the activity of the human psyche, this is about as far as we can go, eh.)
(Given that premise, what I should be considering is how to discover and deconstruct it.)
(If the information body came from the psyche, there is a high chance that its composition is made up of pushions.)
(So considering my capabilities, there are still enemies that I cannot decompose even if I can perceive them, eh……)
His train of thought was derailed by Miyuki’s unexpected movement.
"Miyuki, what’s wrong?"
Her earlier action was not because she couldn’t hold it back any longer, but an involuntary act of uncomfortableness.
Hearing Tatsuya’s voice, Honoka noticed that this wasn’t because he was coddling Miyuki and also separated herself from her previously snug position at Tatsuya’s side. Immediately, her body started shaking because the magic that held back the chill had dissipated.
"Ah, I’m terribly sorry."
Miyuki used her empty hand to quickly manipulate the CAD.
The cold air fled at once.
However, Miyuki’s expression remained listless.
"No, compared to this, what happened?"
Tatsuya’s actions betrayed no hint that he was affected by the cold.
With his Self-Restoration Magic coupled with literal training from hell, Tatsuya had no reason to put on a brave front in the face of the chill. Compared to this, he was more concerned about his sister’s odd behavior.
"……There seems to be the feeling of some sort of uncomfortable wave brushing over the skin…… No, that’s probably my imagination."
Miyuki apologetically shook her head as if she was feeling guilty about disrupting Tatsuya during his down time. Still, Tatsuya did not move to accept Miyuki’s apology.
"Uncomfortable wave? Was it a psion wave or a pushion wave?"
Coincidentally matching up with his earlier contemplation, Tatsuya couldn’t simply write it off as a misinterpretation. Nevertheless, this question was rather pointless.
"I do not know…… Yet, seeing as how Onii-sama didn’t notice, I guess it should be pushions?"
So long as it was a psion wave, it was impossible to escape Tatsuya’s detection.
Completely overturned. While that thought ran across Tatsuya’s mind, he immediately made the connection that this wasn’t the time to think of such leisurely thoughts. There was a mountain of classified secrets kept in the terminals of a magic high school that was directly affiliated with the national magic universities, so from a protection standpoint, safeguards on par with the magic universities were required and had been implemented. Countermeasures for suspicious individuals, hidden recordings or eavesdropping aside, there were also serious countermeasures in place for magic.
A sudden burst of pushion waves hinted that someone might have tripped the countermeasures. The government agencies would definitely step in if this place was usually inundated with magic waves that triggered discomfort. Given that this feeling was largely unnoticed, the owner of this wave possessed the power to rein in their pushion waves.
Just being uncomfortable alone wasn’t sufficient grounds to determine that the owner was a harmful individual, but there were even fewer explanations for an optimistic outcome. That didn’t need to be said given the situation at hand. Among their possible opponents who could cause Miyuki to feel discomfited, there was a high chance that they were up against the "vampire".
Just as he was ruminating over how to uncover the source of that pushion wave and what was the best method to approach that hurdle, his information terminal beeped. This was the sound of an incoming call. Tatsuya moved the receiver to his ear.
"Tatsuya-kun, it’s terrible!"
Before he could say anything, this phrase burst forth from the receiver. Even if nothing critical was happening, a more timid individual – assuming they didn’t "fall over" just after the word "terrible" – might have flown into a panic. Under normal circumstances, one might think that declaring a name should come first, but this wasn’t the time and place. Likewise, this was an excellent opportunity for Tatsuya to chime in.
"Saegusa-senpai, do you know the precise location?"
The transmitter fired into the vampire’s body last time had not expired yet. So long as the invading creature was the same vampire as last time, they should be able to use the campus’s Local Positioning System (LSP) to lock on to the target’s current position. As the previous Student Council President, Mayumi should know the password to the LSP control mechanism (of course, this was a blatant violation of her duties as the Student Council President).
"The vampire is on campus – Ah, this will be much easier if you already understand. The earlier signal is progressing from the side door towards the staff’s loading dock for the Practical Skills classes. Today, there should be employees from Maximilian Devices scheduled to demonstrate the new examination equipment."
(In other words, they have infiltrated that group.)
Despite being pertinent to his earlier considerations, Tatsuya set aside questions like why the vampire chose this moment to appear or what their goals were and swiftly stood up.
Immediately afterwards, he activated the Flying-Type Magic device at his waist and jumped over the railing.
Miyuki quickly followed suit with her own Flying-Type Magic.
Lacking a personal Flying-Type Magic device, Honoka was left behind on the rooftop.
Besides members of the Student Council and select members from the Public Moral Committee, students were forbidden from carrying CADs on campus.
To compensate, students left their CADs in storage and removed them after school.
It was fairly difficult to remove the CADs from storage when school wasn’t out. During the incident in spring, anyone with eyes could tell that it was an emergency, so special exceptions were made for CAD removal. Unfortunately, only a tiny proportion of the students and faculty detected the anomaly today. Regrettably, the staff at the storage room was not included, so Erika and Mikihiko’s requests were denied.
—If they were the only people there, that is.
"Yoshida-kun, how…… Ah, you guys also noticed."
Katsuto arrived while Erika was arguing with the staff.
"Juumonji-senpai."
No matter how much Erika danced to her own tune, there was no way she could ignore Katsuto. Unrelated to their positions as underclass or upperclassman, this was because of the difference between their skills and status.
Erika retracted her body but left her hands on the counter while Katsuto slightly leaned forward. Just by this alone, the employees – the school staff on duty had already been overwhelmed by a student’s presence.
"There’s been an emergency, I wish to retrieve my CAD."
In reality, the Club Activities Group had also been unofficially awarded the right to carry CADs, but Katsuto politely observed the rules after relinquishing his position to Hattori.
"B-But, it’s not the scheduled time yet……"
"It’s an emergency."
Even so, he seemed like someone who wasn’t going to be bound by the rules. Faced with a female employee earnestly trying to uphold her duty, Katsuto once more applied pressure. Finally, a fine adult piteously caved and lost all color to her face.
"Leaving it alone may result in serious consequences. Please return my CAD."
"……Please wait a moment."
Chiding the employee as "weak" would be rather inappropriate. If not for an equally ferocious character, there was no way to stand against Katsuto’s will.
"These two are my assistants."
"……I understand."
Still, that posture was truly pitiful.
After running here with her heart in her throat, Lina hurried after Michaela’s trailer after it came into sight. Originally, she was highly resistant to the idea of her acquaintances catching her in a high school uniform. It was one thing for someone to just see her wearing the uniform, but she would be incredibly embarrassed if someone caught her in an actual high school setting with a uniform on. Lina’s given mission was to infiltrate as a high school student. Thanks to her other mission hunting down the inhuman deserters, her intelligence work was currently on hold. In addition, her true identity had been uncovered by the targets of her investigation, Tatsuya and Miyuki. One thing that worried Lina to no end was whether she still had to disguise herself as a high school student.
Yet, even with Tatsuya and Miyuki in the know about her identity, her peers and professors seemed to be oblivious on the matter. It appeared that Tatsuya and Miyuki had no intention of revealing the true face of "Sirius". As to what they were planning, Lina had no idea. Under the situation where she had no way of preventing the two of them from revealing the secret, keeping the details under wraps was the best possible choice for her.
Right now was the time she had to make sure she avoided any suspicious behavior that was out of line with high school students.
Thus, Lina struggled with herself regarding whether she should visit Michaela at the trailer for Maximilian Devices.
Still, simply reminding Michaela was not even a choice in Lina’s mind. Though this might be somewhat naïve, she was unable to ignore her duty towards her comrades. Caught between her duties towards her comrades and her mission, Lina was stuck between a rock and a hard place. She had adopted an attitude that avoided enemy detection, but had neglected to be wary of her surroundings.
Even if she could see Michaela descending from the trailer at a distance, Lina didn’t feel anything in particular as she sighed.
While it was a specified location, Tatsuya and Miyuki hardly descended from the sky with a violent roar. There was no doubt that the vampire responsible for causing a ruckus in the capital had invaded the school, but in reality, there didn’t seem to be much chaos. The target must be under observation since triggering the security alarms, and employees from Maximilian Devices would follow legitimate channels to enter the school. Reckless actions were forbidden without a valid excuse.
Neither was continuous observation a good tactic for Tatsuya. This was also the first time that Tatsuya was up against a magical creature and not a Magician.
Haphazardly initiating combat contained the possibility of revealing classified spells and techniques. Just imagining the cover up and gag orders alone was causing him to feel downtrodden.
At the very least, things would be facilitated if they knew who was the "vampire" infested by the Parasite. Maximilian Devices operated in teams of six employees. If they moved together as a group, there was no way to identify which one emitted the signal. Even so, causing all of them and any additional witnesses to disappear – in this case, it would be more like "eradicate" – was also out of the question. Hidden in an empty classroom in the science wing, Tatsuya and his sister kept a close eye on the mobile lab near the docking area (the modified trailer used for storage).
"Lina?"
Involuntarily, Miyuki said this aloud. Before his sister spoke, Tatsuya was already aware of Lina’s presence tailing the trailer, but now he renewed his attention on the blonde transfer student.
Today, the day after yesterday – their "duel" occurred near midnight, so anything before dawn was considered to be yesterday – yet here she was attending school like nothing had happened. Special forces from large countries were expected to be made of sterner stuff, but here she was also making careless moves unbefitting her status.
There was no sign that this was a premeditated action. Her focus was too lax, to the point that she failed to detect their eyes on her. She gave off the impression that she was in the throes of indecision.
Tatsuya kept an eye on her without any specific reason just as a woman wearing a suit walked towards Lina from her previous position near the trailer.
Based on Lina’s lip movements, she appeared to have said the name "Mia." Tatsuya assumed that this woman must be the USNA agent sent to infiltrate Maximilian Devices.
Based on yesterday’s interrogation, Lina said she was hunting for vampires. This wasn’t for appearances’ sake, she actually faced off against them. Yet at the same time, she also said that while they were aware that the deserters fled to Japan, they were unaware of their actual identities. There was a high chance that a vampire was disguised as one of their agents, making their identities that much harder to identify.
(Hard to imagine that someone like Sirius of Stars would be unable to identify her target even after repeated head-on confrontations with her target……)
As he thought this, Tatsuya risked using his "sight" to sweep over that woman.
Immediately afterwards, he felt it. Within his amplified senses, there were traces of another observer searching around.
A massive amount of "spirits" danced around that woman’s surroundings.
In regards to Angelina Sirius’s unexpected request for contact on First High’s campus, Michaela Honda felt a surge of confusion and anxiety. Although they shared the same mission in identifying the mysterious Strategic-Class Magician, Lina and Michaela belonged to different command structures. Lina was her superior in terms of rank, but it was hard to imagine her giving Michaela any sort of order. In this regard, Lina was a little of a purist. Putting it lightly, she wasn’t contaminated by society, and putting it negatively, she was simply stubborn. That being said, Michaela had no idea what Lina would request her help for. Lina was the High Commander of Stars whereas Michaela was simply a technician.
Even so, there was no way she could ignore her direct superior. Doing so would have been practically screaming she was suspicious. Michaela stepped off the trailer and earnestly tried to assume an air of normality as she walked towards Lina.
Towards the spirits that kept hounding her, she waved her hands like someone trying to fend off a pest.
The sight of the female technician attempting to avoid the spirits that would be invisible to your average Magician solidified Mikihiko’s belief that she was the one.
"It’s definitely her. There’s no way it could be wrong."
Hearing Mikihiko’s muffled voice, Katsuto wordlessly nodded.
"That’s Lina, I think. So…… She’s the leader."
Her whispers barely containing her fury, Erika already held her equipment in the shape of a wakazashi.
Although Tatsuya and Miyuki knew this was a misunderstanding, it was perfectly natural for her to make this assumption.
"There’s a barrier in place that blocks sight and hearing, but they can’t lie to machines……"
"In that case, let me do something."
Mikihiko and Katsuto exchanged nods. Behind Mikihiko, Mizuki was completely unable to hide her dismayed expression and shuddered.
"Erika, not yet."
"I got it."
It was true that she was a little distracted, but she still kept her calm while replying. Upon hearing this, Mikihiko threw the talisman he held in his hand. Six strips of paper arrayed in the shape of a fan slid over the ground at a low altitude. The talisman landed after forming a perfect hexagon around the trailer.
"I’m starting."
Unlike the theories behind modern magic, the magic he invoked was a wide area magic that inhibited the senses.
"Mia…… What’s wrong?"
Seeing Michaela wave her arms as if she was shooing insects, Lina tilted her head in bemusement.
There would be no confusion if this was still summer. Nor would it be odd in spring or fall, but this was the heart of winter. Without any hint of warmth, the temperature was bone chilling. Indoors was one thing, but there should be no way that any pests would be flying outdoors.
"No, it’s nothing."
Just hearing the voice alone might mean exactly that without any ulterior meaning. Yet, her expression blatantly faltered and, depending on the time and place, that would have been a grievous misstep. That was what Lina believed.
Lina also believed that exactly what the mistake Michaela made wasn’t important at this point in time.
Still, she was now forced to indicate to Michaela that they had to leave this place. Although Lina’s instincts screamed at her to verify the source of Michaela’s wavering, logic demanded that she first ensure Michaela safely escaped the vampire’s threat.
This indecision weighed down Lina’s actions. Fortunately(?), there was no longer any need for her to wrestle with this any longer.
"—What’s this? We’re surrounded!?"
The fact that they were encompassed within a wide area magic for sensory inhibition immediately drew Lina’s attention.
"Is that a barrier!?"
Even Miyuki was shocked that the large trailer she was watching suddenly disappeared from view. Seeing his sister turn her head towards him in question, Tatsuya nodded in the affirmative.
"Must be Mikihiko. Quite an impressive technique, actually."
"Yoshida-kun?"
Unrelated to Course 1 or 2 students, Miyuki was unable to hide her surprise that a first year high school student could devise such a complicated and powerful formation that befuddled the senses.
"Its effects lie in cutting off sight and hearing.
Looks like it can’t affect physical movement though……"
He was slightly uneasy at leaving Miyuki in the dark about the proceedings ahead of time, but he couldn’t afford to waste the painstaking effort involved in creating this stage. Tatsuya temporarily reestablished connection with the line that previously lay dormant.
"Saegusa-senpai, this is Shiba."
"What is it?"
The response was immediate. She must have remained on the line the entire time.
"Please turn off the recording devices near the docking area leading towards the practical skills building."
This would have been an outrageous request even for the daughter of the Saegusa Family if these were the streets, but within the confines of the school, then on some level Mayumi was still able to manipulate everything as she saw fit.
"Why...... Even if I asked, you probably wouldn’t answer me anyways."
"Please."
"Ha…… OK, it’s off."
If one thought about it for a moment, Mayumi actually coddled Tatsuya very much.
Then again, Tatsuya pampered Mayumi as well, so this was more like "tit for tat", or maybe "mutually beneficial".
"Let’s go, Miyuki."
"Yes, Onii-sama."
After exchanging a glance, Tatsuya and Miyuki flew out of the classroom window from where they were hiding.
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