——Despite it finally being Sunday, I had to meet that annoying guy in the morning—— Thought Erika as she returned from her long run. Just then, her older brother, Toshikazu, was going out and she met him by the gate.
It did not seem like Toshikazu was going out to play. He was in his work clothes, a coat and a suit. However, Erika did not think this was suspicious. It was not an exaggeration to say that the work of a detective didn't stop on a Sunday. Or, at least, the detectives affiliated with the Chiba Family all felt that way.
Without saying anything or looking at him, she tried to sneak past him.
"Erika."
Nevertheless, she was still stopped just as she had anticipated.
Erika didn't like this brother who was from another mother. And, thus, wasn't also good at dealing with her father.
She still remembered being knocked down time and time again until she couldn't stand up again from her childhood during practice.
She got irritated remembering the various times where she got ridiculed in a joking voice. It was frustrating to her that his words accurately revealed the hidden thoughts in her heart.
Wishing it wasn't such a thorn in her heart, Erika wondered what he needed from her. Since becoming a high school student, she had abandoned trying to reconcile things.
"What is it?"
The most Erika could do was to look at him with a pouting face.
"There's something I want you to listen to."
However, the usual sarcasm didn't come.
"So, what is it?"
She still thought her tone of voice was angry but her pouting face disappeared while she answered the question.
Toshikazu was not concerned by Erika's rebellious attitude. He felt like he didn't have the time to mind because it was different every time.
"You haven't seen Inagaki?"
"Inagaki-san?"
Because of the unexpected question, Erika unintentionally thought about it seriously.
"…I haven't seen him lately. What timeframe are you looking for?"
"From yesterday to now."
"Yesterday?"
Erika frowned because she didn't understand Toshikazu's intention. Is there a reason to worry about a healthy adult who hasn't shown up for a day?
Toshikazu averted his gaze after Erika turned to him with a strange look, sensing his discomfort.
"After that guy took the day off yesterday I haven't been able to contact him."
Having sensed the need for an excuse, he explained uncomfortably while turning away.
"Inagaki lives alone right? Couldn't he have suddenly fallen ill?"
"He also isn't at home. Where on earth could he be loitering around…"
"…You even went over to his house."
Toshikazu turned his back to Erika's quip.
"A-Anyways! If you see Inagaki contact me, as soon as possible and also inform my colleagues."
Colleagues, that is to say, the students of the Chiba doujou.
Toshikazu quickly left Erika behind as she mumbled "Well, that fine but…" After a little while, Erika had taken a shower and finished eating dinner, then she entered the dojo.
Neither her father nor older sister were inside. Erika had aimed for this opportunity to train without them in the dojo. The sisters had a different mother and a bad relationship, living perfectly isolated from each other even within the Chiba Family.
Even though it was Sunday morning, there were a lot of students practicing. In the center, were young men in their twenties. Veterans from the same generation as Inagaki could also be seen.
Having suddenly remembered her talk with Toshikazu, Erika went closer to them to have them listen to the story.
"Naitou-san, Kadota-san, do you have a minute?"
Erika asked the two while one was swinging a wooden sword and the other was giving advice.
"Oh, Erika-san, good morning."
"Ah, you came Erika-san."
Having heard her call out, the two people stopped practice swinging and looked at Erika.
"So why I called out to you… the two of you both joined around the same time as Inagaki-san, right?"
"Yeah."
"Although, Inagaki-san is still a bit older."
"That doesn't change anything, right."
After Erika emphasized an age difference of only two years, Kadota gave her a cold look.
However quickly realizing she was not making any progress, she changed her mind.
"Well then, it seems like Inagaki-san has been missing since yesterday, so have you two heard anything?"
"Missing?"
Naitou who was the same age as Inagaki and probably the closest to Inagaki in the dojo, frowned his eyebrows in doubt.
"Hmm, that's weird. From his character I wouldn't think that there would be a task so urgent that he wouldn't even leave a message behind."
"Inagaki-san isn't as methodical as Naitou-san."
with a thump, a fairly harsh sound resounded from Kadota's head.
"…Stop joking around."
"I am just glad I didn't get hit by the wooden sword."
"Yeah, yeah, leave the playfulness out of this."
Erika turned unamused eyes to Kadota who, in spite of getting hit on the head by a fairly powerful strike from Naitou's fist, didn't show a lot of pain.
"So, the both of you don't know anything right?"
"We don't. …Attention!"
After Naitou turned his head that looked towards Erika he yelled towards the center of the doujou in a loud voice.
"Raise your hand if you have seen Inagaki today or yesterday!"
No one lifted their hand.
"No one knows where Inagaki is!?"
This time, two young men passed twenty lifted their hands.
"I haven't seen him yesterday, however, the day before yesterday I saw him around my home town."
After he said that, other people nodded as well.
"You guys live in Kamakura right?"
"Yeah."
"It seemed like he was looking for something. I thought he was doing an investigation so I didn't call out to him."
"You didn't notice anything else?"
"I only glanced at him… Sorry."
Naitou turned to Erika.
Erika returned a nod to Naitou.
"Got it. Resume practice!"
Removing his gaze from the students who resumed practice and simultaneously yelled out "Yes!", Naitou turned his body back towards Erika.
"It is as you have heard. My apologies that we weren't of much use."
"You don't need to apologize to me. Originally, it was brother's task.
Naitou, please confer the contents of this conversation to my brother."
Saying that, Erika left Naitou and Kadota.
Knowing very well that Erika had trouble dealing with her brother, Toshikazu, Naitou agreed with a smile.
Having been contacted by Naitou, Toshikazu got into his undercover patrol car without even entering the temporary investigation headquarters.
He called out Kamakura and flashed his lights.
While at the same time, his feeling of regret slowly rose.
The house of the Ancient magician who explained corpse control magic that they went to together was in Kamakura.
Just before that, Toshikazu received a warning from Fujibayashi. That Ancient magician was a person under surveillance of the Magic Association. It was rumored that he was friends with former magicians from Dahan.
There were signs as well. After hearing that Magician's story, Inagaki had unnaturally held his head many times.
I fear that the Magician, ‘Doll Maker,' used an Oumi Kazukiyo technique. It was probably a type of mind control magic.
Why did I fail to notice the symptoms that Fujibayashi had told me about in Inagaki?
Toshikazu tried to resist the impulse to verbally abuse himself by biting hard on his teeth but some sound still escaped from his mouth.
Toshikazu stopped his undercover patrol car one block from the ‘Doll Maker' Magician's residence and erased his presence before going to the front of the building.
It was not to the degree of Ono Haruka, the counselor of First High with the nickname "Phantom," however, Toshikazu's hiding technique was also first class. It was an easy feat to fool the passerby's while holding a sword cane in his hand. He could not deceive machines, however, if it were fellow humans, he had complete confidence that he could easily stay hidden.
While Toshikazu was erasing his presence, he extended his perception beyond his five senses to the inside of the residence. His magic didn't cover the target like a cloth, but acted more like countless threads radiating and extending from him.
Against his expectations, there was nothing hindering him. There was no isolation wall to cut off the thread nor was there a special lineage trap that would take advantage of the threads to counterattack. Nevertheless, he continued searching deeper inside the residence without becoming careless.
He quickly found the presence of Inagaki.
Toshikazu remembered to be more careful because it went a bit too easily.
However, he soon pushed away that worry from the corners of his consciousness.
The presence of Inagaki that returned from the thread seemed like he was on the brink of death, and terribly weak. Even when not eating or drinking anything for a full day, he seemed to have weakened way too much. It seemed like it would be a race against time.
There was no time to be worried. Toshikazu instantly abandoned regular procedures.
——Even if he was mistaken, he would just write his letter of resignation—— Becoming serious, Toshikazu decided to enter the residence.
To start with, he peacefully rang the intercom. He couldn't simply meekly open the door, but he was thinking of a pretext to break the lock.
Toshikazu was getting riled up to do that however, "Ow, the police officer from a few days ago? I opened it with my key, come in."
Suddenly hearing that reply, he prepared to dodge any questions.
Even though he his sense of foreboding was increasing, he told himself "Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained" and turned the door knob.
The door wasn't locked.
Toshikazu walked into the entry hall and the hall got illuminated automatically. Nowadays, a gimmick like that wasn't that unusual because most houses didn't have windows anymore. Furthermore, it was now the second time that he came here. Toshikazu put on shoes (that were also in the house's style) and went further down the corridor.
There was an old man wearing a costume with a long stand-up collar waiting for him inside the corridor. From his appearance, you would guess his age to be between 50 years old and 60 years old. His hair was pure white, however his skin was dark with many wrinkles and cracks, however, he did not seem to have any liver spots. From the color of his skin and his looks, it seemed like he originally came from the peninsula of Indochina, thought Toshikazu. In any case, he didn't look like he was Oumi Kazukiyo.
"Oumi-sensei is out right now, however, he said to let any police agent straight through."
Said the older person in Japanese while lowering his head. Toshikazu felt like the older person had an English accent.
"Excuse me, who are you?"
Toshikazu was aware of the fact that he asked the question in a fervent manner.
"I am called Guen, an old friend of Oumi-sensei."
As expected, thought Toshikazu, he seems to be from Vietnam. Provided that it was not a fake name.
"An acquaintance of yours is here."
"Are you talking about Inagaki?"
Even though he lost his fervor, he did not let his guard down. Toshikazu continued questioning the old man who called himself ‘Guen' while warning himself to not let lose his wariness.
"Inagaki-san. Oh, right. Oumi-sensei told me about him."
The old man answered Toshikazu while having his back turned to him and leading the way.
The old man opened the door to the room.
The figure of Inagaki laying down came flying into Toshikazu's vision.
On top of the bed, weakly, painfully breathing.
"Inagaki!"
Toshikazu's dashed into the room. Instantly realizing that this put the old man behind him he stopped.
The old man didn't seem to notice the unnatural behavior of Toshikazu and continued walking towards the side of the bed where Inagaki was sleeping.
Toshikazu made sure he could see both the old man and Inagaki before walking closer.
"What is the meaning of this?"
Toshikazu asked another question while suppressing the anger in his voice and looking down upon the face of the old man.
"Your friend has received a curse."
"A curse?"
"My apologies. Someone is stealing his life force by using a curse technique."
"A curse technique you say…?"
Toshikazu was bewildered, however, that was not that surprising.
Toshikazu thought Inagaki had received a magic attack from a ‘Doll Maker'.
But it seems like in this situation, the ‘Doll Maker' was giving medical treatment to Inagaki.
"Oumi-sensei found your friend collapsed and brought him to this residence to perform emergency treatment and alleviate the effects of the curse. Due to that, he couldn't contact you. The telephone line has also become an avenue of attack for curses."
For the time being, he had a feeling that the old man's words made sense. However, that was not proof that he spoke the truth. Toshikazu did not hear any inconsistencies.
But it was hard to take a hostile attitude here and be rough to him.
Toshikazu thought about returning to his car so he could call for reinforcements.
However, he wasn't able to do that.
"Police inspector…"
He was stopped by the weak call of Inagaki.
"Inagaki, you are awake!"
Toshikazu unintentionally put his left hand on top of the bed's frame.
However his right hand was still free so he could be careful of the old man behind him.
Inagaki's right hand lightly grasped Toshikazu's left hand.
However in the next moment, Inagaki's hand grasped Toshikazu's wrist with the strength of a vice.
Toshikazu tried to repress his surprise.
The strength was incredible. For having been so weak up until now —— when it looked like he could be mistaken for a deceased person, he was able to put out this amount of strength.
Inagaki's left hand jumped out from under the futon. In that hand was something that looked like a syringe.
Toshikazu used his right hand to defend against Inagaki's left hand reflexively.
Right after that, Toshikazu felt a shock on his back with the strength of a stun gun. Not having the strength to turn around, his consciousness fell into the darkness.
The magicians spearheaded by the Ten Master Clans deployed their full strength to find the ringleader of the act of terror in Hakone, and the police were also investigating the whereabouts of the terrorists.
However, it had already been two weeks since the terror incident and the date had changed to February 18th, yet they still had not been able to find the whereabouts of Gu Jie.
They hadn't been able to find new clues from the dead bodies of the generators obtained in Zama. While the feeling of getting stuck in a stalemate in the investigation started to float around, Tatsuya started to investigate the location of Gu Jie once again.
However, Tatsuya suddenly got a feeling of impending danger while on the way to Kamakura alone on his motorcycle. You might be able to say that he was a guy who could feel it in his bones. Stopping his bike and focusing his eyes on the deep snow, he wasn't able to find that which had given him that feeling of danger. There was no skill to look into the future.
Nevertheless, following his feeling of uneasiness he turned his bike towards Hachiouji.
There was still a lot of time to go before the school day ended, however, Miyuki went to the front of the nearest station from First High.
"Miyuki-sama, I'm incredibly sorry."
Minami, who was walking next to her, frequently apologized.
"Haven't I told you many times that it's fine? This is also Student Council work so I don't have any intention to force it on Minami-chan and the others."
"But even so, Miyuki-senpai, is it really okay for it to be just us."
Superficially, it seemed like Izumi was apologizing as well, however, she was not able to hide her real intentions.
Miyuki went out along with Izumi and Minami to purchase souvenirs to give to the graduated students. Every year, the souvenirs are ordered from a shop in front of the station. At last year's appointment Miyuki went alone, but this year going alone wasn't enough so she brought along two other people.
"Excuse me. We are the members of First High's Student Council."
"Yes, please come in."
The person who came out to receive them from within the shop wasn't the shopkeeper, but his wife.
The shop's side had also learned various things from last year's negotiations.
"It took quite some time, didn't it, Miyuki-senpai?"
Having just left the shop, Izumi let out a complaint in a small voice.
Some way or another, a fed up atmosphere drifted around after hearing the complaint coming from an elegant voice.
"Right. However, today's plans had already roughly been decided so we did our best."
Miyuki consoled with a smiling face.
"That's right, Miyuki-senpai, you negotiated wonderfully. As expected of Miyuki-senpai."
Izumi instantly lifted away the tension.
"It's not like I think it was to be expected…"
"No, being able to settle that conversation that fast was all thanks to Miyuki's strength."
Turning her back on her integrity by having just earlier said that it took quite some time and then saying to Miyuki "that she did it that fast" was Izumi's default. Of course, attached was the intention to maximize the time she spent with Miyuki.
"Still, it's wonderful to be that modest."
Up until now, it had mainly been one person that praised Miyuki.
Miyuki was experienced in ignoring Izumi's excitement with a smile.
Leaving that aside, the school day would come to an end before long.
Girls generally walked around with various small makeup items so it wasn't like they left school empty-handed, but It was still necessary to temporarily return to school before going back home.
"Well then, let's quickly go back to school. It isn't like we will only barely make it, but we don't have that much time left over."
"That's right."
"Yes."
After hearing Miyuki's remark, both Izumi and Minami nodded in turn and the three of them turned their feet towards First High.
However, after only having walked for 10 minutes the girls had to stop.
In a side street horizontal from the main street that students took to go to and from school, they encountered a group of around 10 men.
Through the cracks of the circle they stood in, they were able to see the boots that First High female students wore.
"What are you guys doing!"
Izumi, who quickly noticed the female students inside the group of people, quickly walked closer and questioned them in a loud voice.
Some people who stood next to the group of people turned around to face her. The men started talking amongst themselves "Hey, that's the one from the Saegusa Family", "Do you know that the one behind her she is First High's Student Council President". Their voices reached both Miyuki's and Izumi's ears.
"Izumi-chan, wait."
Miyuki, who quickly caught up to Izumi, stopped her by grabbing her arm.
However, Miyuki's restraint had been too late.
No, the men's movement had been quick.
Leaving behind the female students that they had been pestering, they crowded around Miyuki's group.
"What is it, who are you guys!?"
The men did not respond to Izumi's normal question.
"That's the ringleader's daughter from the users of those sinful black arts!"
Except in a violent play, Izumi did not expect to have that line thrown at her.
"Repent!"
After that person loudly shouted that, the other men also called out "Repent!" in unison.
"Pardon?"
"Izumi-chan, wait."
Izumi, who started flaring up against the men was stopped by Miyuki.
"Only God is allowed to perform acts of miracles, everything that twists the established natural providence of God is an act of the Devil!"
The men recited the verse that they had learned by ear, however, Miyuki took Izumi's hand and turned back around.
"If you won't open the path."
The men who got glared at by Miyuki showed flinched expressions, however, not responding to Miyuki's words, they once again recited "Repent!" in unison.
"Humans can only use what has been given to humans by God."
Miyuki also did not want to listen to them anymore.
"If you do not move aside, that would be unlawful confinement. Are you fine with that?"
The guy who looked like the leader stopped the verse he was reciting to threaten the youth in front of him.
"Hey, shut up!"
The man next to the one Miyuki had asked that question to yelled at her.
Miyuki did not pay any attention to the man's threat.
"Minami-chan."
"Yes."
Minami gave a short response to Miyuki's call. Minami had already finished preparing a magic barrier composed of both ‘Isolation' and ‘Deceleration' that just barely did not touch the men.
At that moment, the men did not understand what Minami had done.
Miyuki took out her terminal to ring the crime prevention buzzer.
The man who shouted at Miyuki attempted to grab her terminal with his hands. However, his hands were repelled by Minami's wall.
They noticed that they could not reach their hands towards the three girls.
"You think it's good to use magic as you please, do you!"
A voice rose up from the crowd.
"I am merely defending myself against flagrant illegal confinement."
Miyuki answered in a clear voice to the accusation of the shameless person.
"As a woman, I can feel when my body is in danger."
She added in a scornful voice.
Izumi turned to the leader with a cold look.
That look was an unbearable provocation for people who did not doubt their own virtue.
"Punish them!"
The leader lifted his right hand up and forcefully brought it down again.
Including both the people to his left and right, a total of four young men stepped forward, pushing out their right fists in front of them.
On their middle finger was a brass ring that was giving off a dull shine.
"Could that be Antinite!?"
Izumi let out a panicked statement.
"Divine punishment!"
As the leader's order was carried out, Miyuki, Izumi and Minami were attacked by the Cast Jamming noise from the Antinite.
Minami, who was supporting the barrier magic let out a moan.
The shaking wall was surrounded in every direction by the outstretched hands of the men.
(To be Continued in the next volume)
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