Kanon promptly apologized to Izumi after she returned to the Student Council Room, and correspondingly, Izumi apologized for her bad attitude towards Kanon. They had successfully made up with each other, but this result could only have been achieved thanks to Isori's rationality which dissolved their anger.
In real life, there were no private exchanges between Magicians and non-Magicians. No entity existed to mediate between the two groups, either. Hence, the resentment, which grew due to the large number of non-Magician victims, would continue to escalate.
It wasn't like there weren't any Magicians trying to justify themselves, but their voices were simply too small. No matter how reasonable and logical they may be, their words simply didn't have the power to reach the ears of others.
The Magicians of this country don't seem to have much choice besides just grinning and bearing these opinions. Such a view was hard to swallow in the eyes of the youth.
The eldest son of the Shippou Family, Shippou Takuma, of the newly appointed clan in the Ten Master Clans, was one among the youth who that idea didn't sit well with.
He was only 16 years old and lacked the means to channel his discontent towards society outwards. Takuma was in the peak of his adolescence, which meant instability covered up by sports and music. In the midst of his turbid emotions, bursts of misguided anger turned into violent incidents.
However, Takuma had clues on the person who ‘started the commotion'.
For him, she was the very image of an ‘unfortunate incident' that happened in the past, yet he had no one else to turn to for now.
Until last spring, they were still on equal ground. The fact that they were lending their powers to each other unilaterally didn't damage Takuma's pride.
But at this moment there was so much more at stake than his own puny pride. Takuma convinced himself that what he was about to do was for the sake of Ten Master Clans and the Magicians in Japan.
He thought that it was an act worthy of the Ten Master Clans, so even if he needed to grovel in front of that woman, he would do it. After he decided that, Takuma proceeded to Sawamura Maki's apartment.
Takuma had prepared for the worst, but Maki smoothly invited Takuma inside.
"Good evening. Long time no see, Takuma."
"Yeah. Maki, long time no see."
It was still 9 in the evening, yet Maki was dressed cozily. She was wearing a nightgown that sported a sheer fringed hem that reached down to her calf.
"Sorry. Were you about to rest? If so, I can come back another time?"
Takuma didn't bow in the slightest and was about to turn back, "Wait, Takuma. I don't mind, so come in."
Maki sat down on the sofa.
Takuma, who was standing still, got offered a seat in front of Maki across the table from her.
The seating arrangement was quite distant compared to the days he visited last spring.
"Takuma, do you want anything to drink?"
"No, don't bother."
For him to show up without any prior arrangements was trouble enough, Takuma didn't want to impose any further.
Maki went wide-eyed and was surprised by his reply.
"…Then, how about some coffee?"
"Yeah, thanks."
Maki pressed a button on the inner part of the sofa's armrest and said "Please serve some coffee". Takuma didn't see any obvious microphone from where he was seated, but it was clearly somewhere.
"Takuma, you knew that today was a day off for me?"
"No, I did not. I was planning to leave a message on the interphone and come back sometime later if you were not around."
"What the heck?"
Maki voiced her amusement out loud. Her facial expression didn't change much, thus Takuma wasn't sure if it was her acting skills or real feelings in play.
"If that's the case, wouldn't calling in advance have saved you the time?"
With Maki's remark, Takuma showed a smile while lamenting his reason for all of this.
"Well… I didn't want to call you for this. To be honest, I hesitated a lot while deciding if I should come here."
Maki didn't inquire into his reluctance to call. Takuma and Maki had parted amicably already, and she was the one who requested it. She could imagine how hard it would've been for the proud boy in front of her to call someone who had dumped him.
"Yet, you didn't think that it would turn into a fool's errand?"
Instead, she asked this.
"Since I'm about to ask for help, I think it's expected to make some effort to meet you."
Maki stared intently to Takuma's face.
Right at that moment, the door of the living room opened.
A women slightly older than Maki emerged, and she politely placed a saucer and coffee cup in front of Takuma.
"Thanks."
The women bowed respectfully to Maki before retreating back to the living room's door.
"…That woman just now was not a 3H, right?"
"No, she isn't."
Maki smiled faintly hearing Takuma's murmur.
"She's my new housekeeper. You know that I hate the 3H, right?"
"I remembered. That's why I asked."
It came up in one of their little chats incidentally, and Takumi hadn't forgotten that Maki felt like she was 'under constant surveillance' with a 3H around.
Takuma wouldn't normally be one to commit such a small detail to memory, but he was still able to remember his partner's likes and dislikes as long as it didn't inconvenience him.
Maki was staring at Takuma, and he averted his eyes awkwardly.
Due to that, he missed Maki's expression when she uttered the next sentence.
"Takuma… you really changed."
Yet, Maki's voice was enough to make Takuma blush in embarrassment.
"Well, somewhat."
Takuma kept reminding himself that this woman was an actress… that she could manipulate other with her voice and expression. He kept his eyes off of her and said,
"It's not a big deal."
Even though he was looking away from Maki, her voice still mysteriously managed to entangle his thoughts.
"Boys around your age sure grow up fast… Not yet a man, but it's somewhat pleasant…"
Maki didn't move an inch from her seat in front of Takuma, but he could still smell the sweet scent of her skin.
"What should I do… I was told to stay away from you, but if it's only this once…"
Even though they were separated by a short distance, he still could hear her murmuring something.
"Maki, I want to ask for a favor!"
To dispel Maki's doubt he lowered his head as he said this.
"A favor…?"
Maki's startled expression went unseen by Takuma as he was facing the floor. All of her playfulness was dispelled by her shock.
Maki and Takuma had a unilateral relationship in the past, which had her fulfilling Takuma's requests. Hence, his bowing gesture caught Maki off guard.
Instead of just asking for her charity, Takuma was willing to pay her back. Maki understood his intention to do so from his actions.
Therefore, Takuma didn't do anything more than lowering his head.
Even though he depended on Maki, he still had the resolve not to look lame and weak in front of her.
Even so, the sight of Takuma bowing to the extent of his body being parallel with the floor was too bizarre for Maki. She was almost at a loss trying to figure out how to react to Takuma's changes.
"Takuma, first off, raise your head."
Maki hadn't forgotten Tatsuya's warning. Even if Takuma had been the one who initiated today's meeting, she still wanted to get out of this situation. She just had embellished things with her acting. Maki wanted to avoid any scandals, and she wasn't certain if what Tatsuya had told her earlier was a joke or not.
But even with that possible threat hanging above her, she wrestled with her feelings while looking at how much Takuma had changed.
"What do you need me to do?"
Takuma wasn't the calculating type, and Maki felt that he had truly changed a lot in the past 6 months. Somewhere within her, a feeling of affection sprouted, much like one would have for a younger brother. She became emotionally attached, to a degree, to this young boy who struggled to become a full-fledged man.
Takuma was taken aback by the positive response given by Maki, even more so when he realized she was warmly smiling at him. He quickly got his wits about him and answered in a rushed voice.
"You should know well of the terror incident that happened recently."
"The one in Hakone? By the look of things, it was quite bad."
"Yeah. Despite the fact that Magicians were victims in this as well, we're the ones taking the brunt of the public's outrage."
"But there are reasons for that, right? Due to that incident, innocent people became collateral damage. It's not exactly a baseless complaint."
Maki was not an anti-magician. On the contrary, she wanted to get close to Magicians. The statement she made just now was just the general opinion reflected by the public.
Takuma was not irked by her comment, so either he was being understanding or simply putting up with her.
"Maybe the reason is obvious to you, like you said. But we, Magicians, aren't going to just settle with being labelled as the bad guys in this. If a proper line isn't drawn, Magicians will start to lose their basic human rights, and people will start witch hunts in the name of 'justice'.
Humanity is twisted like that."
Maki didn't try to tell him that was a paranoid notion. Rather, she thought it was just a matter of time.
"I understand. Takuma, you want to borrow my father's power rather than mine, right?"
Maki's father was a president of a corporation with media companies under his wings, including a TV station.
"——Yes!"
After his intentions were laid bare, Takuma faltered for a second.
"I understand this situation will put you at a disadvantage. There's no merit for your father to side with us Magicians on this. Even you would be stigmatized for it. But still, please help me!"
Takuma lowered his head once again. If he was kneeling down, his head would probably have touched the tatami mat.
"I couldn't think of anyone else to depend on other than Maki…!"
Neither could see the other's face, and it worked to Maki's advantage.
Maki recalled her blunder of developing a crush on someone nearly 10
years her junior.
However, she was an actress. There was no way she would let something like this slip out.
"Takuma, you'll return the favor to me."
"Maki…!"
Takuma raised his face with a joyous expression.
"I will definitely ask for a return."
"Yeah, if it's within my power, I'll do anything!"
Takuma would come to regret these words 3 years in the future, and it was recompense he would've never expected. ——In the year 2100, while Takuma was still in college, he would debut on the silver screen as Maki's co-star. He would be the first Magician in the last year of the 21st century to do such a thing.
Late that same night, the bodies of the perps behind the terrorist attack, currently located in the police morgue, were visited by two people.
One wore a felt hat that covered his eyes, and had a trench coat over his body. On the less suspicious side, he was a middle-aged man who looked like a detective. The other person wore a cap with large sunglasses, topped off with a muffler that covered the lower features of their face. This figure was too tall to be a woman, yet too short to be a man, and was covered in a large woolen coat which caused their body to look ambiguous. Based on just their outward appearance, even if was a young woman in her 20's, nobody would be able to tell.
The one who let them into this place was the coroner. As he let them in, he moved out of the room to leave them to their business. It wasn't from being threatened, but the coroner had been bribed by the man wearing the felt hat —— Kuroba Mitsugu.
Mitsugu turned over the body bag at the side of the bed, looking at the head of the corpse that was about to be swapped. The ones brought in here were all assailants judged to be the terrorists. Suicide bombing as a modus operandi normally wouldn't leave an intact corpse, but there were still some bodies that were relatively undamaged. The corpses on the bed were among those.
For their purposes, leaving the head out wasn't a problem. A freshly severed head would work, but so would something as extreme as a brain that had been blown to pieces. As long as there was something of the head area present that was more or less intact, it would cause no problems and could be used as a clue.
"Yoshimi."
Mitsugu called to the woman accompanying him. It could've been her given name, surname, or nickname. "Yoshimi", with her cap, sunglasses and muffler, nodded, and touched the laid out corpse with a hand wrapped by a leather glove.
A pale Psion-like light was produced where her hand touched the corpse's forehead. It was similar to the light that was produced when a CAD was activated. In essence, it was about the same. A distortion-less homogenous Psion wave without intention was injected, then the rebound of the Psion was read. Treating the corpse as a CAD, in other words, was a method to process the Psion information body that the corpse stored.
The woman, Yoshimi, was currently reading the corpse's residual thoughts. She was a psychometrist who was skilled in reading traces of psionic information in bodies.
Psions are particles that form thoughts and intentions, while Pushions are particles that result from thoughts and intentions, such was the consensus of current studies in Magic.
In the end, it was still just theory.
The nature of Pushions are still largely unclear.
But the fact that a Psion information body changes according to intention and thoughts was something that has been observed.
Magic sequences, too, are Psion information bodies. Which is why even if the human body was subjected to external magical interference, a person's active and passive mental faculties will cause the Magic Sequence to deform and disappear.
But the dead cannot feel anything. The dead cannot think of anything.
Hence, the Psion information body left and the magic sequences stored in a corpse last for much longer compared to that of a living body.
The Kuroba family, the information gatherers of the Yotsuba clan, had a trump card for secret intelligence activities that allowed them to read the Psion information body recorded in a corpse: "Memory of the Dead".
"Yoshimi."
"It's still okay."
Yoshimi coughed from the inside of the muffler, then reached out her hand towards the corpse once again.
"Don't go in too deep. Lest you might not return."
Treating Mitsugu's warning as unnecessary concern, Yoshimi successively retrieved information from the corpses.
Then, after backing off from the sixth corpse, she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Found it."
"I see. Then, let's leave."
Mitsugu pulled the gloves from Yoshimi's hand. Yoshimi then took out a new pair of gloves from her coat pocket.
They then left the morgue. Before anyone could notice, Yoshimi's gloves disappeared from Mitsugu's hand.
Needless to say, the Ten Master Clans weren't the only people looking for the terrorists.
A large-scale terrorist attack taking place right in front of the capital city was an insult to the pride of the police, and was sufficient to anger the top management.
The responsibility for the investigation of the incident fell not on the Kanagawa Local District Police (referred to as the "Japanese FBI") but the Police Department's wide area search team. Usually, the local district police should've been mobilized, but with the nationwide deployment of the Special Investigation detective team that was gathered in South Kant?, it was clear that all manpower was being put into investigation.
Unexpectedly, Officer Toshikazu, who had been put on standby in the home office, had gone ahead to investigate without waiting for the detectives to be mobilized. Much like many others, he, too, felt resentment at the incident this time. Hence, his rare motivation surfaced.
However, the investigation hit a wall right off the bat.
"All the perpetrators are dead? How is that possible?"
Toshikazu was idly grumbling while standing by an unmarked police car.
"It's because they're suicide bombers, which was already mentioned before, right?"
Assistant Inspector Inagaki, acting as the driver, replied as though to pacify Toshikazu. But Inagaki, too, found it strange. The explanation wasn't too persuasive.
"I understand that suicide bombers naturally die. But for those who don't have any traces of wounds from explosions to die, isn't that strange?
There are corpses here that don't have many injuries."
"Moreover, the autopsy report states that the time of death is at least 1
day before the day of the incident. Taking into the account that the body might have been in cryopreservation, the time of death could possibly go back up to ten days… Corpses carrying bombs and walking?"
"Is this a B class occult movie!? …If only that was something to laugh at."
Toshikazu said as he leaked a smile filled with despair.
"As I thought, the police department thinks that it's a magic that can control corpses?"
Toshikazu nodded reluctantly towards Inagaki's question. Inagaki, who was driving, noticed the subtle gesture and muttered "is that so?".
"That explanation fits the scenario most logically. …How annoying."
To conclude that Magic was a result of fiction and, therefore, excluded from investigations was a thing of the past. Police investigations could no longer disregard magic as a factor, with Toshikazu being a magician himself. To deny the existence of magic would be to deny his own existence.
Having said that, to current magic users like him, magic that can control corpses, no matter how you looked at it, was a suspicious and shady thing.
"As expected, we have no choice but to consult a specialist huh?"
"Spirit magic specialists? Well, we're definitely amateurs in this field.
Having someone well-versed in that area to explain it to us would be a great help, but?"
Toshikazu knit his brows at Inagaki's suggestion. There were Magicians who were privy to some knowledge of magic that could control corpses but it certainly presented an ethical problem. It would be unthinkable to publicly announce having that knowledge.
"The only information that came up when searching the police database for ‘Necromancy' was that of those who were dead."
Though it was something that he himself suggested, Inagaki understood that looking for such personnel was difficult.
"That is so… But, we have no useful leads. Let's just try that plan."
Sighing, Toshikazu muttered slovenly to his subordinate.
"Inagaki-kun. Head to Roter Wald."
"That information shop huh…? I understand."
With an "it can't be helped" face, Inagaki drove the car to Yokohama.
In the middle of the Yokohama Yamate Hill, there was a tea cafe with a mountain hut design called "Roter Wald." Upon entering the calm atmosphere of the interior of the shop, Toshikazu instinctively moved his eyes to look for someone.
He was very aware of who he was looking for. It was in the fall of 2095, just before the "Yokohama accident" which shook Japan, no, the whole word. He recalled meeting that woman, Fujibayashi Kyouko, when he was investigating for clues regarding illegal immigrants.
Toshikazu hadn't met with her except for that one time at Sakuragichou Station. It wasn't a date, but rather spurned by their interests and duties being aligned. ——Though, Toshikazu's feelings did not stop there.
After it had all been resolved, Toshikazu was busy chasing after the illegal immigrants who were still in hiding, hence he didn't have the luxury of contacting Fujibayashi again. Just as he wrapped up his collecting, the "Vampire Incident" had begun, which ended up keeping him occupied. Last Spring, he had also taken a short leave from Kant?.
Due to all of this, he never had a chance to even think about her.
Toshikazu had started thinking about Fujibayashi again because this was the first place he had met her. Was it romance? Sentiment? Possibly…
regret? Engaging in self-derision, which was totally unlike him, Toshikazu sat down at the counter.
Catching Inagaki seated beside him from his periphery, Toshikazu ordered "two Blends".
The owner didn't like impatience in his shop.
While waiting for his coffee, Toshikazu absent-mindedly looked around the shop.
As usual, there were many customers, but it was not full.
Not wanting his gaze to seem too unpleasant, Toshikazu soon stopped looking around.
Then, hearing the ring of the cowbell on the door, he turned around to look at the person. It wasn't out of vigilance, but rather because he was bored that he did it reflexively.
He almost immediately stood up. It was an unconscious reaction to him seeing who had walked in.
"Oh, Inspector."
Laying eyes on the beautiful woman the same age as him, they opened a little wider than normal.
"Fujibayashi-san…"
The person who opened the door was the woman he was just thinking about, Fujibayashi Kyouko.
"It's been awhile, Inspector Chiba. May I sit here?"
She purposely avoided wearing conspicuous makeup, but upon closer inspection, she had features that were rather eye-catching. With an appearance similar to the first time they had met, Fujibayashi asked him a question.
"Ah, sure, go ahead."
Not noticing Inagaki knitting his brows —— not that he was pretending not to notice, but he really didn't notice —— Toshikazu nodded while replying.
Smiling, Fujibayashi sat down next to Toshikazu.
Toshikazu was aware of his unreasonable nervousness. ——Although whether or not it was truly "unreasonable" was something that he was not aware of.
"Owner, a blend please."
Putting her coat on the adjacent seat, Fujibayashi ordered the same thing as Toshikazu.
"Inspector, you don't seem to have changed."
"Yes, my only redeeming factor is that I'm quite sturdy."
Even now, Toshikazu's voice seemed uneasy.
"Maa, how humble."
Fujibayashi replied with a polite smile.
The side of Toshikazu's cheeks stiffened.
"By the way, is Fujibayashi-san on holiday today?"
The nature of her job wasn't exactly easy going. Despite knowing that, Toshikazu couldn't just directly ask her "Did you come here on duty?"
without knowing if anyone was listening in.
"Yes. Since the coffee that the owner makes here is quite delicious."
While saying so, Fujibayashi bowed to the owner who had just turned to face her.
If Toshikazu had said the same thing, the owner would probably not have shown any response. It seemed that despite the fact that Fujibayashi's residence was quite far from here, she was a common customer in this cafe.
"Is Inspector on break too?"
"Uhh, well… haha… speaking of which, is Fujibayashi-san familiar with Ancient Magic?"
He really wanted to get up and run away, but he hadn't forgotten about the investigation. It wasn't as a man, but rather as a detective, that he remembered this woman's lineage.
"Yes, more or less."
"If you have the time to spare, could you please tell me a little about it?"
Fujibayashi's and Toshikazu's eyes met.
"Sorry for the wait"
At that instant, the owner's voice cut in. A coffee cup was placed in front of both Toshikazu and Inagaki.
"I don't mind. But before that, did you have something you wanted to ask the owner?"
As Fujibayashi pointed that out, Toshikazu recalled his motive for dropping by this cafe. Unfortunately, it seemed that he couldn't just neglect his work.
Toshikazu wrote a request for an introduction to a specialist regarding magic for controlling corpses under the memo, then the owner returned it after writing his answer. Cramming the information into his head, Toshikazu then returned the paper to the owner. Seeing the owner's light smile, it seemed that was the right choice.
As for Fujibayashi, she came today truly just to drink the coffee, and have some light chatter with the owner.
He rose together with her.
"Owner, the bill. I'll pay for hers as well. Keep the change."
Before Fujibayashi could interrupt, Toshikazu passed a high limit money card to the owner. Inagaki, who stood up after Toshikazu, raised his brows in shock at the amount the card held. Though Toshikazu had included the cost of the information he received, he paid much more than the market price.
"It's a little too much."
The owner lightly knit his brows.
"Then please count it when we come next time."
Toshikazu replied.
"I await your continued patronage."
The owner refrained from further dispute and slightly lowered his head.
Toshikazu, as he exited Roter Wald, accepted Fujibayshi's invitation for a ride. Inagaki's unmarked patrol car followed after them.
"Then, Inspector, the thing you wanted to ask about is related to the terrorist incident in Hakone, correct?"
Soon after heading out, Fujibayashi suddenly brought up the issue.
"…Yes."
Toshikazu decided to throw caution to the wind. He understood it was a good idea to just cut to the chase.
"There's something strange about this incident."
"Strange?"
Fujibayashi's hand was on the drive lever, but in truth the car was driving itself. This meant that there was no danger in turning to talk to someone sitting in the shotgun seat. Toshikazu had unexpectedly decent police training, so he was aware of this, but he still considered it a somewhat dangerous move.
It seemed his thoughts were more obvious than he realized, as Fujibayashi quickly turned her head back to face the road.
"Yeah, none of the perpetrators are alive."
"…Could they have escaped?"
Fujibayashi offered a logical response.
"No."
Toshikazu flatly denied.
"The attack was concentrated in the hotel. The street cameras were still functional even after the incident."
"The cameras didn't show any of the terrorists running away from the scene?"
"Yeah. The terrorists that infiltrated the hotel were all captured by the cameras, and the identity of each one was confirmed. Some of the corpses have yet to be found, but we can say for sure that no terrorists escaped alive."
"Although the perpetrators were caught on the camera, they weren't stopped?"
Toshikazu was embarrassed to answer, but he didn't hide it and gave an explanation.
"We found no traces of explosives, and their appearances were rather normal, so there was no reason to stop them from entering a hotel that was open for business."
"…You're saying that if the Ten Master Clans had booked the whole hotel beforehand, the situation could've been avoided?"
"Well, yes. At the very least we could have greatly reduced the number of casualties."
Until the Master Clans Conference, Fujibayashi was a relative of the Kudou Family, which was one of the Ten Master Clans. What Toshikazu said inevitably brought about an awkward atmosphere.
Shaking that off, Toshikazu moved on to the main topic.
"In truth, there is one other odd thing about all of this… my conjecture is that the terrorists were already dead by the time they had infiltrated the building."
"I see… so you came to ask about "Doll Makers"?"
"Doll Makers?"
Toshikazu had tried to find researchers familiar with Necromancy Magic. He had no intention of asking about people who could control human bodies.
"The ones you're actually looking for aren't researchers, but Ancient Magicians called "Doll Makers". They're rumored to use forbidden magic that can control corpses, and they're a group that the Magic community are cautious of."
"That's…"
"They would definitely be your best bet, they're privy to knowledge in that field. They're more or less 'researchers'."
Fujibayashi turned to face Toshikazu again.
"But please be careful, Inspector. "Doll Maker" Oumi Kazukiyo's ties with Dahan magicians are by no means shallow."
At Fujibayashi's warning, Toshikazu's face stiffened as he nodded.
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