Chapter 11
In an intersection between the station and First High, Humanists were activating Antinite, something inaccessible to civilians. With it, they were releasing Psion noise that interfered with the activation of magic.
Minami’s expression contorted at the sound of Cast Jamming.
She grasped her chest and fell, facing down.
Her slender shoulders rose up and down as she struggled to breathe properly.
Her suffering figure reminded Miyuki of the memories from that summer day, five years ago.
August 11th, 2092, the events of Great Asian Union’s assault on Okinawa.
During their insurrection, soldiers attacked while seeking refuge in the territory of the National Defense Force.
From her memories of that time, in order to “stop” an enemy, to “stop”
all of their enemies, Honami was shot, her mother was shot, and even Miyuki herself was shot and was about to die.
At that time, the three of them were saved by Tatsuya’s “Regrowth”.
However, in the end, Honami didn’t make it.
At this moment, there was Minami, the spitting image of Honami, suffering under the events of Cast Jamming. Suffering just like Honami had. The sight of her figure replaying the same scene as that day before Miyuki’s eyes??
“…I won’t allow it.”
Miyuki murmured softly in a voice quaking in anger.
To once again make “her” suffer.
To once again take “her” away.
I won’t allow it.
This time, I will stop them.
This time for sure, I will stop all of them.
In a world where past and present blended together, Miyuki lost sight of herself. Driven by the regret and anger of the past, Miyuki tried to release her powers.
“Miyuki-sama, please stop!”
In the midst of pain, Minami’s strained voice stopped Miyuki’s rampant magic.
“Do you wish to defy Tatsuya-sama’s orders?”
Tatsuya’s words repeated in her heart, which had begun relinquishing all self-control.
It would be bad if you, as the successor of the Yotsuba Family, used magic to act against a non-Magic using citizen??
Those were the words of Tatsuya last night. To Miyuki, Tatsuya’s orders took precedent, and suppressed the memories of “the scenes from that day”.
Miyuki’s magic, “Cocytus”, that could even “stop” the spirit, heart, and body was on the verge of being invoked, but dispersed with the mention of Tatsuya’s name.
“…Minami-chan?”
As if she had just woken up from a nightmare, Miyuki called out Minami’s name with an uneasy voice and expression.
“…I’m fine, Miyuki-sama.”
Minami forced a smile, trying to pacify her master despite the danger of that moment.
Giving up on casting “Deceleration” on the wall that shook from the effects of Cast Jamming, she concentrated on “Isolation”.
The hands of the attackers struck against an invisible wall. It was a sight that would arouse instinctive fear in any weak, young girl, but Minami ignored it, directing a firm gaze at Miyuki as cold sweat ran down her forehead.
Minami looked at Miyuki protestingly to tell her that she was fine and to keep her from doing anything rash.
At such a look, Miyuki gave a smile that seemed to say “I’m fine”.
Miyuki returned the CAD in her left hand to her breast pocket.
“Miyuki-senpai …?”
While frowning at the Psion noise, she asked Miyuki in a wondering tone.
There was no way that Miyuki couldn’t resist the Cast Jamming.
Izumi believed so for no reason.
Unfortunately, Izumi herself had difficulty using magic, but if it was the “respected Miyuki Senpai,” then small fry of this level would be easily defeated. That was how much Izumi admired Miyuki.
Miyuki then nodded and gave a look that said “Don’t worry” to Izumi.
She then cast down her eyes and crossed her hands on her chest.
A tender radiance emanated from Miyuki’s body.
It was a light that the self-proclaimed humanist thugs could not see.
It was a non-physical light that only people of magical disposition could see. The Psion light radiated from Miyuki.
The light possessed no “power of influence”. Rather, it didn’t contain any intention. The light that Miyuki released was a “pure psion light”
that held no qualities.
Psions that had no interference strength had no effect on phenomena.
Without harming Minami’s wall or the men trying to harm them, the radiance spread outwards.
Wrapped in the gentle light, Minami suddenly noticed that the pain from the Cast Jamming had lifted.
Cast Jamming was, first and foremost, a tool to hinder the activation of magic, but not to inflict damage on magicians. In the case of magicians with high Psion sensitivity, Cast Jamming caused a nauseating and dizzying effect.
No, a noise that could hinder the magic activation was no ordinary noise.
Magic activation was not related to the object of operation, but rather to the origin of the operation, more specifically, the Magic Calculation Area in the subconscious of a magician.
Even if the sensitivity to Psions wasn’t strong, the instant that the route of magic activation opened, the effect of the noise could not be avoided.
For barrier magics, small cycles of renewal were required to continue the (seemingly) continuous magic. Therefore, Magicians who use this kind of magic suffered more damage from Cast Damage.
Minami could feel the sickness caused by the noise of Cast Jamming on her mind and body subsiding. The effects were still there but her discomfort was half gone.
“Miyuki-sama…?”
Minami watched Miyuki’s face and figure with renewed intensity. The only thing she knew was that this change was brought about by her master.
“Miyuki-senpai, amazing! You’re using thick Psion curtains to drown out the waves from Cast Jamming!”
Izumi betrayed a voice of admiration, and Minami expressed her agreement, too. Psion clouds that had no interference could not stop magic, but against the Cast Jamming which had a similar nature and no phenomena interference, it acted as a thick cushion.
Izumi’s voice was heard by the villainous men.
“Impossible! There is no magic that Cast Jamming can’t penetrate!”
The leader of the humanists shouted with impatience. Unwittingly exposing his own ignorance, his words were humorous to Izumi and Minami. Since they felt this way, the two stopped hiding their amusement. Rather, the two never had the intention to do so.
Minami wore a faint smile without any intent behind it. In contrast, Izumi grinned widely, making it a point to mock the men.
It was indeed true that Cast Jamming was effective against most magic.
Though, the technique that Miyuki just performed wasn’t ‘true’ magic.
Rather, it was a technique that released and controlled external Psions, which in a sense could be considered magic.
It was a magic that was not magic, that obstructed techniques meant to obstruct magic.
The degree of difficulty in the technique that Miyuki displayed, coupled with her talent as a magician, were both things that the ignorant members of the cult could never comprehend.
Of course, there remained the fact Cast Jamming was ineffective on other magic as well.
For example, magic that decomposed the structure of the Psions that interfered with magic activation.
Suddenly, the Antinite that had been releasing the Psion noise dissolved.
The irregular noise of Psion waves became uniform waves of Psions.
“Onii-sama!”
Miyuki opened her eyes and looked over.
There, Tatsuya stood with a Noh mask on his face, but both of his eyes were burning fiercely.
Today, Tatsuya had reached a dead end with his investigation and had decided to head towards Kamakura to try and track down the mastermind of the terrorist attack, Gu Jie.
He had already informed Katsuto that he would not be attending the meeting today. After Kamakura, he planned on heading towards Zama to once again check if any clues had been left behind.
If he got serious about finding Gu Jie, there was a more efficient and reliable way to do it.
Although it was only once, Tatsuya had ‘seen’ Gu Jie.
To clarify, Tatsuya did not have the power of clairvoyance. He was not adept at finding the presence of people that he did not have a connection with.
Since they never came into close contact, there wasn’t much of a connection between them. The fact that Tatsuya had fought his student, Zhou Gongjin, would not serve to deepen the connection between Tatsuya and Gu Jie. Tatsuya also did not consider the fact that Maya was attacked to be an incident of much importance. If he allowed himself to form connections for such trivial matters, his sight would soon be clouded by the immense amount of information.
To track down an opponent that he had only ‘seen’ once, he would have to focus his perception on that target alone. He would have to remove his ‘sight’ from other targets that he was observing.
Which means, he would have to remove his ‘sight’ from Miyuki.
For Tatsuya, Gu Jie did not have that much value.
However, if there was something left behind that had a strong tie to Gu Jie, he could use that as a clue to track down the trail of information. If such a clue had been left behind, the other investigators would have found it long ago, but the current situation was so dire that even such a remote possibility had to considered.
In spite of that, he turned back while he was on the way to Kamakura.
Not towards his house, but towards the school.
He did not have the power to see the future. His "eyes" could only allow him to look back in time only to a very short extent ?? to be precise only up to 24 hours ?? from the present.
That is why, this was just intuition. ??That someone was attempting to harm Miyuki.
However, Tatsuya did not have the option of ignoring this feeling.
Because, compared to Miyuki, the matter with Gu Jie was meaningless to him.
He switched his bike into semi-automatic drive mode, transferred half of his sight into the information dimension so that he could rescue Miyuki at any time, and sped towards First High.
Although now, the sight of a group of ruffians keeping Miyuki trapped came into Tatsuya’s view.
Tatsuya neatly parked his bike, removed his helmet and slowly let out a breath.
If he did not calm himself down in this manner, he risked being unable to rein in his murderous intent against these insolent people.
An attempt to harm Miyuki was not something he could ever forgive.
Just knowing that his opponent had such thoughts would make Tatsuya want to erase them.
If he perceived any real threat to her, Tatsuya would not hesitate to kill.
He had the ability to completely destroy a person without leaving any evidence, after all.
Even if Antinite was used, he knew that it would only make Miyuki feel slightly uncomfortable, so he didn’t have to pull the trigger in his heart.
The fact that Minami was suffering wasn’t enough to elicit his killing intent.
Even so, Tatsuya couldn’t just stand by and do nothing while a younger girl was in pain. Especially if the person in question was someone who was almost family. He activated a decomposition magic meant to erase the cast jamming that was causing Minami’s suffering.
He didn’t even need to use the circular-shaped CADs that he had on each wrist. ‘Decomposition’ is one of the two magics that he could wield freely. He did not even have to use the gestures that magicians used to settle their aim, such as ‘pointing his fingers’, or ‘stretching out his arm towards his target’. Just by focusing his senses, he could set the target of his magic.
Gram Dispersion.
The magic that decomposes information bodies erased the complex structure of the Psion waves that interfered with the ability to use magic.
The structure of the jamming waves had been destroyed, and the waves turned into dull ripples then faded away.
“Onii-sama!”
He heard the voice of his sister calling out to him from within the crowd of people.
He could see Miyuki looking at him with eyes widened in surprise through the gaps in the crowd.
Tatsuya wondered why she was so surprised, and felt strange for a bit.
No matter how trivial it was, there was no way that he wouldn’t come running whenever he sensed that Miyuki was in danger.
But his consciousness was instantly overwritten with rage.
Although it was faint, there were unmistakable traces of fear and unease on Miyuki’s face.
A high school girl was surrounded and confined by a group of unknown men. Regardless of how much power she had, it was natural for her to be afraid.
He glared at the crowd of people and sucked in a breath.
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