Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 22 - Prologue of Disturbance (II) - Chapter 6.3

It was almost 18 hours. It was not long before sunset. Erika and Leo left school and now were in the Chiba Dojo.

"Erika, I'm sorry for making you wait."

While she was questioning the students, Mikihiko came up.

"Did you send Mizuki home?"

"I led her home." Responding to Erika, Mikihiko seems to have been a bit embarrassed.

"It's clear."

However, Erika ignored Mikihiko's sincere reaction.

"Erika, what have you got? Did you find any clues?"

"At the moment, records from street surveillance cameras are being studied."

"Clear. If it is known that the car started from First High, then it can be tracked through the street cameras, even if they used the railroad crossing."

"And why did I not think about such an obvious thing before?"

Mikihiko reproached himself for not paying attention. But Erika turned away with an uninterested face. So Leo had to answer.

"A proposal to check records from street cameras came from a message from Izumi."

"From Izumi-san? Yes, then there is no reason to be surprised."

Mikihiko mentally compared the parameters of Kasumi and Izumi.

"I do not know what you thought, but Izumi seems to have received this advice from Tatsuya."

"Haha..."

Now Mikihiko realized what Erika's behavior was about. Although the fact that this advice was given by Tatsuya, in this case was only Leo's assumption, no one in this place even doubted this.

"Sorry, please allow me to pass."

At that moment, Saburou came up to them.

"Saburou, any news from the Mitsuya family?"

From the question of Erika, Saburou's face darkened. In this expression of the person was hidden not only disappointment, but also anger.

"...It seems that both the head-sama and Motoharu-sama still do not consider it necessary to make a big deal of this situation."

"Motoharu... who?"

"The elder brother of Mitsuya-san."

Leo and Mikihiko exchanged phrases in a whisper. Saburou did not seem to have heard them.

"Strange and somehow ... suspicious!"

Saburou was confused by his guess.

"For the gentlemen of Shiina's family, it seems like they are not paying attention to her - like this is common! Allegedly, she does not have a strict injunction to go straight home! It's because she was assigned a real guard instead of me! They do not know where she is, and they tell me

'do not fuss,' I do not understand this!"

"Listen, maybe her guards secretly follow her?"

To Leo's question, Saburou sharply waved his head.

"I asked the Yaguruma family. Shiina is still outside their field of vision."

Erika's face showed that she was thinking about something, but she did not comment on it aloud.

"So, Saburou, what are you going to do now?"

"Let me wait here. I came for this."

"I see. Then it's good."

More and more people were going to the dojo. Soon the evening training section for working adults was goin to begin. Erika's father also had to participate as an instructor.

"You three, follow me."

Without waiting for an answer, Erika left the dojo.

She led them to a small separate building, which was considered Erika's room.

"This way."

The door that Erika opened opened was less than 170 centimeters high, and the three guys had to duck to enter. It was a room on 4.5 tatami in traditional Japanese style, in the center of which there was a stove in the floor, and in the wall there was a niche with scrolls of calligraphy.

"Heh, this is the tea room"

"It's funny, right? They pretend to be kenjutsu. Although the traditional kenjutsu and our kenjutsu are completely different things.

Erika replied with contempt to the surprise of Leo. And this contempt was not for himself, but for other people. Mikihiko darkened when he saw that her enmity with the family had no sign of relief.

"And I thought that the entrance to the tea room should be even smaller."

It's unclear whether Leo did not notice this, or pretended not to notice, but he completely ignored Erika's insulting remarks.

"A small door? If you want such limitations, try, come in from there."

Erika casually pointed to a small sliding door 70 cm high, then retired to the inner sliding wall-door, are located opposite the door through which they entered.

"Why stand, take a seat."

Erika returned, holding a tray with a teapot and a few cups. Erika slowly sank to her knees and placed cups for 4 people on tatami mats. Three guys sat opposite each of the cups, placed on saucers.

Under the expectation of what she will say, with the looks of the guys, Erika sipped her tea and raised her head.

"What? Or do you want me to hold you a tea ceremony?"

The three guys waved their heads sharply. Erika, narrowing her eyes slightly, looked at them with her eyes.

"I do not want to be engaged in such tiresome things."

"Ahaha... and the truth."

There was a sincere apology on Mikihiko's face, but Erika ignored him.

After that they sat for a while in silence.

Sometime later, Erika suddenly jumped up and ran away with the words

"wait a bit", then returned with an armful of pies-manju. After that, all four again spent some time sitting almost motionless. "Almost motionless" meant that there were movements of hands holding pies to the mouth.

The further development of events began closer to 8 pm.

"Erika-Odzosan." On the other side of the miniature door the young man's voice was heard. Erika quickly got up, walked over and sat on her knees next to the mini-door and opened it. A small sheet of electronic paper was pulled out from there.

Erika took it and went back to the center of the room.

"...What's there?" Mikihiko quietly asked, after waiting for Erika to finish reading.

"It was confirmed the place where Shiina was delivered by car."

Hearing this, Saburou leaned forward and laid his hands on the tatami.

Nobody called him to calm down. Erika, Leo, and Mikihiko fully understood that Saburou was looking forward to the news.

"It seems that there were no stops and on the way, the car came to Karuizawa."

"It's surprisingly far..."

In Leo's words, the meaning was "it means it would be good if we understood this earlier."

"It's better to spend time to get ready for anything possible."

This phrase was invested with the sense that it would be difficult to make it possible to use data from surveillance cameras. Hearing Erika's indirect answer, Leo shrugged slightly.

Erika turned the sheet of electronic paper so that everyone saw it.

"It looks like a western style haunted house."

"Miki. When you say this, it does not sound like a joke."

Saying this, Erika did not seem to mind the part about "ghosts."

"...Can I get a road map?" Saburou looked at the report and looked up and asked Erika.

"Good. Just do not think to go there today."

"Why!?" Saburou shouted fiercely at Erika. For Saburou, who wanted to save Shiina as quickly as possible, these words of Erika were completely unacceptable.

"For two reasons. First, we are not yet ready for this."

"I'm already ready!"

"Do you want to go alone? Stop it. You'd just dig your own grave."

Not "fail," but "dig your own grave." Hearing this, Saburou finally realized that this might be a trap.

"And yet, after we finally found it...!"

"We cannot say that we found it. We only know that the car brought Shiina to this mansion. We watch the building, and find out if they start moving on."

"......"

Seeing that Saburou, at last, was silent, Erika voiced a second reason.

"Secondly, the necessary agreements with the police have not yet been completed. If you yourself do not care that you're jailed, then I do not want to see the dumbhead here who neglects the necessary preparations."

Having understood the hint of the possibility of being sent to prison for magicians who broke the law, Saburou did not say anything else.

Saburou himself would not have regretted losing his life for Shiina. But he could not force his sempai from school to do it. And alone he most likely cannot do anything.

"Saburou, go back to your house and discuss this with your family. It would be good to enlist the cooperation of people working for the Mitsuya family. And even in the worst case, do not start acting alone."

"...I understand."

Indeed, it was just like this. His actions in the end could bring problems not only to his family, but to the Mitsuya family. Saburou reminded himself again that he was not in a position where one can freely do anything.

At the same time, Shiina relaxed carelessly, lying in the tub.

"Ah... Saburou-kun is probably worried..."

Feeling guilty for leaving school, without warning her senpais from the school board and not saying anything to Saburou, always worried Shiina, like a fish bone caught in the throat. Thus, even though the tension was removed by the relaxation from the bath, it again and again came to the surface of her consciousness.

And about this she could not do anything. Because in the school waiting room Tsukasa asked her to keep it a secret that the self-defense forces are engaged in such things.

Since these "military exercises" were regarded as military secrets, it is natural that communication was forbidden about it. While she had no idea why they took a high school student for these trainings, she did not even think about going against the instructions of Tsukasa.

Moreover, she could not say that an adult 10 years older than her, whom she admires, can do something bad to her.

Justifying herself with this, Shiina, in order to not suffer even more, focused her attention on bathing.

Unfortunately, in this western house, in which she was under a kind of

"house arrest", there was not a big bathroom like at a hot spring. Instead, there was an antique bath with curved legs.

?

Calculated for large Europeans, it was considerably more spacious than standard Japanese baths. Little Shiina could easily pull her legs in. Thus, she had to worry about not going completely under the water, if you relax your legs.

A faint smell, mixed with steam, said that aromatic oils were added to the hot water. It was an aroma that calmed down, slowly penetrating into the depths of the mind. At first, she was tormented by doubts whether it was some sort of narcotic substance, but very quickly she did not care.

Needless to say, that while bathing, Shiina took off her headphones, playing the role of ear plugs. Even the sound of water from the shower that was washing her hair was heard for her like the sound of pouring rain, so she had no other choice. Even though Knowing that her magical abilities at this time will be weakened she was washing her hair and body while she used sound-blocking magic.

However, while she was just lying in the water, trying not to make too much noise, she could directly encounter the outside world of pure sounds without her "ear plugs". At this time, not only was her acute hearing manifested, but also, according to her subjective opinion, magical perception also became much sharper.

All the waves in this Western-style mansion were caught by the

"hearing" of Shiina, who was just sitting with her head on her arm, lying on the edge of the bathtub.

Before the door to the bathroom stood guard, a female soldier. The weak psion waves emanating from her sounded like the noise that a CAD

produces in the standby mode. In other words, this female soldier was a war magician.

And not only her. Those who moved through the building, both men and women, all kept their CAD in standby mode while being ready for battle.

Conversely, among the five people patrolling the building from the outside, there was only one magician. And the psion waves emitted by him, unlike the soldiers inside, were suppressed. Perhaps this was done so that that from the outside it was not clear that there are magicians inside this western-style mansion.

...Such information Shiina was able to draw only from waves scattered in space.

And that was not all she noticed. Waves emitted by magicians inside the building carried a clear aggressiveness. It was felt that they were waiting for the enemy. The purpose of their counterattack was not just resistance to the enemy, but his destruction or capture.

This fully corresponded to the explanation of Tsukasa about this "workin-progress".

Tsukasa asked Shiina to play the role of an important person in training to save the VIP. In other words, this meant that some main force playing the role of saviors would "come to the rescue" of Shiina.

That is, now the kidnapped party is in a state of waiting for the attack of the rescue squad. The treatment of Shiina seemed unsuitable to the concept of a hostage, but here, undoubtedly, the meaning of the words

"important person" was reflected.

Reflecting on this, Shiina realized something important.

Playing the role of a hostage, she did not know when the rescue team would arrive. It could be right now. She was afraid that if this happened, she could be taken out in this form, only wrapped in a towel.

She could no longer relax, sitting in the warm water. Trying not to make too much noise, Shiina got out of the bath.

At the same time, when Tatsuya and the girls returned home, as if knowing that they had come, the sound of a videophone sounded. The name of the caller - the head of the house of Yotsuba, Maya - was displayed on the screen.

Fortunately, they had not yet changed into homewear. Tatsuya exchanged glances with Miyuki and pressed the call acceptance button.

"Good evening Tatsuya-san, Miyuki-san. Ara, did you go somewhere?"

Maya spoke in a friendly manner from the screen. Today she also looked friendly.

"Yes, we were invited by Saegusa Mayumi-jo." There was no particular need to hide this, so Tatsuya answered honestly.

"Ara, then an invitation from the Saegusa family?"

"Not really. Since the head of the Juumonji family was present, they probably wanted to talk about what happened at the recent meeting."

"Hu-huh-hu, this sounds just like that young lady."

Tatsuya agreed that it was in the style of a good-natured Mayumi.

"However, there were some difficulties, and we were forced to cancel the conversation immediately after entering the prepared room."

"...I think it was rather impolite, what happened?"

Tatsuya told Maya the whole story, from the moment of the disappearance of Shiina.

"The youngest daughter of the Mitsuya family... This is a very entertaining story, but now we do not have time for it."

In other words, it meant that there was some urgent matter. And there's nothing to be surprised about, because when Maya calls them directly something almost always happens. Tatsuya stood still and waited for her next words.

"It turned out that yesterday, when Tatsuya-san and Miyuki-san were attacked, it was the work of the agents of the USNA army penetrated into the country, which the intelligence department of the national self-defense forces brainwashed."

"So this is the work of the intelligence department?"

For Tatsuya, who received a warning from Yakumo, this story was only a confirmation, but he could not help but admire the ability of the family to collect information that gathered evidence in just one day.

"Many USNA Army agents are still under arrest."

Tatsuya was interested in what these agents came for. He believed that, with a high probability, their goal was finding magician using "Material Burst", that is himself, but he would not even have thought to try to convince himself of this by interrupting Maya.

"So, I would like Tatsuya-san to release them."

"The agents of the American army?" Tatsuya asked, slightly surprised.

The intelligence department attacking Miyuki is not forgiven. Sooner or later she was going to let them understand this.

But their work was to detain foreign agents who commit illegal activities. It would be bad to interfere with this for the sake of revenge.

"Among these agents there are Star members."

This Tatsuya also assumed. True, he believed that the Stars were almost all of them, and not a few "among them," as was said.

"Instead of helping them only, it's better to let everyone escape, is not it?"

"Got it."

This meant that there was some connection between Maya and the Stars. And on this route came a request for salvation.

Now the interests of the Yotsuba family and Tatsuya's interests in revenge for the attack on Miyuki have united. And since this will benefit Miyuki, the effort will not be wasted.

Tatsuya accepted Maya's order, including also his "differences" from the events of the previous evening.

Early the next morning. Leo, Mikihiko and Saburou arrived in the Chiba family dojo.

"Saburou. Have you talked to anyone in your family?" Dressed, Erika went to them and turned to Saburou.

"Yes. I was told that I can do whatever I want."

"...That's good."

It was like saying that it was useless, but Erika did not care. It was important that Saburou learned to be responsible for his own interests.

"I understand that Leo wanted to participate in the fun, but I did not think that Miki would come too."

"My name is Mikihiko." It seems that he could not just not say this phrase. After his daily complaint to Erika, Mikihiko added a serious voice. "How can I remain indifferent when I'm so drawn into this?"

"Ahaha... What a kind-hearted person."

"...Call it what you want. It's better than being tough."

"Well, maybe. Well, are we going?" Having said this, Erika climbed onto the passenger seat of the police car parked on the road opposite the dojo. Three guys squeezed into the back seat, and the police car started off.

"By the way... is this normal?" Leo turned to the policeman in uniform, sitting at the wheel.

"Was it not because of the irrational behavior of Erika-Odzosan that we had to start so soon?" Answered the policeman, without changing his face. Leo thought it was not the result of Erika's adoration, but because of the inability to smile. He mentally swore that he would never become like this in his life.

The police car reached the Karuizawa station on a road train (it was more economical and faster than even driving at full speed). There they met with the local police. Needless to say, these policemen were also under the auspices of the Chiba family.

Leo thought that in fact the Chiba family was more terrible than the Yotsuba family, but he was not so reckless as to voice it.

Saburou, who has a direct relationship to all that is happening, did not have time to think about such things.

Saburou attached his gaze to this western-style mansion he saw in yesterday police report. Or maybe even tried to look inside with the help of some magic.

Erika was busy instructing the assembled policemen.

Therefore it is natural that the most relaxed of Erika's group, Mikihiko was the first to notice the approach of these girls.

"Yes this is Kasumi-san and Izumi-san."

Two identical faces turned to the side, from which the unintentional voice of Mikihiko sounded. Haircuts and behavior were completely different, but facial features were exactly the same.

"Yoshida-senpai."

"And also Chiba-sempai and Saijou-senpai? And Saburou-kun also came?"

Saegusa sisters ran up to Mikihiko and the other guys who stood at a distance from the rest of the adults participating in the meeting.

"Are you also here for Mitsuya-san?"

"Yes."

In their exchange of questions and answers, many unnecessary words were missed, but among them there were those who did not understand what the conversation was about.

"It would be foolish if we interfere with each other, maybe it will be best to unite?" Said Erika, appearing from behind Mikihiko.

"Really." Agreed Izumi. From Kasumi, too, there was no objection.

Neither Izumi nor Kasumi doubted that Erika would be honest with them. Those who felt this discomfort, were Leo and Mikihiko.

Such reasonable care was not at all in the style of Erika, which they knew. In such cases, last year's Erika, would defiantly disregard tactics, preferring simply to go on ahead.

Now everything was completely different.

Both Leo and Mikihiko, both thought that this was, in some way, similar to Tatsuya's way of thinking.

Nevertheless, it was senseless to interfere with this. Here, as Erika said, there was a scene in which everyone, in order to avoid friendly fire, should act in an organized manner.

Keeping this light puzzlement in mind, the two joined in to discuss tactics.

When she opened her eyes, it was already light outside. At the same moment, when her consciousness finally awakened, she was overtaken by a stream of unbearable noise. Shiina hurriedly put on her headphones.

The abnormal, amplified hearing of Shiina works only when she is conscious. When drowsiness exceeds a certain threshold, sounds to her become normal. This was the basis of the hypothesis that her excessively sensitive hearing is a magical effect.

Evaluating her position, Shiina came to the conclusion that, in the end, she was never "saved" overnight. Tsukasa told her that this "work"

would take only half a day, but it looks like the schedule was extended.

Shiina was hungry. But not so much that the stomach is already rumbling. Remembering that she could be taken away at any time, she decided to change into her school uniform first.

In this room, or rather in the private space of Shiina on the second floor, similar to the room in a luxury hotel, there was a separate bathroom, toilet and wardrobe.

Wearing only the dress from her school uniform she, while in the dressing room, was engaged in what became her everyday morning habit

- brushing her unruly hair. Since there were the same cosmetic accessories that she used to use (although she wondered how they knew this), she quickly did her make-up, having magically checked beforehand whether any harmful substances were mixed in.

Just at that moment, there was a commotion. From the corridor, there were claps and sounds of the running of people running around.

Wanting to find out what is happening there, Shiina pulled at the doorknob. The ancient pin did not fall.

"Locked!? ...well, yes, that's as it should be."

Her reflex surprise lasted only for a moment. Shiina calmed down, remembering that she played the role of a "kidnapped important person."

She mentally told herself that everything was all right.

Her CAD was not taken from her. She can use magic at any time. If necessary, she can escape, knocking out a window or making a hole in the floor.

Her thoughts on this was evidence that the situation in which she fell into began to seem very suspicious. However, she suppressed suspicion of Tsukasa and decided to continue to consider herself as a "captive princess" for a little while longer.

"I want to eat..."

With these thoughts, she distracted herself from the growing tension.

"The image from the surveillance cameras has been restored!"

"Is this a special magical assault force? Why are the police attacking us?"

The commander of the operation, the lieutenant (this time Tsukasa did not bear the official responsibility for the task), shouted with misunderstanding visible on her face.

A Special Magical Assault Team, abbreviated SMAT . It was an organization that brought together the military magicians of the police, created as a result of a rethinking of the fact that the police could not adequately react to the incident in Yokohama the year before last. The decision to create it was taken immediately after the incident, but after the signing of the peace treaty with the Great Asian Alliance, protests rushed in from all sides, and as a result, the formation was completed only a month ago, under the influence of the incident in Hakone.

Being under the sights of major media, accused by the new non-profit press by "taking too long to set up", this squad was finally formed.

However, despite the attacks from these short-sighted reporters, the morale of the detachment's members was high. And their main feature was that almost all of them were graduates of the Chiba dojo.

The lieutenant appointed by the commander of this operation belonged not to the division in which Tsukasa was.

He was not informed about the secret details hidden behind this operation. And the details lying on the mind, he did not really understand. The mere fact that this building now had SMAT storming it forced him to now build various assumptions...

(...So, that fighter from the Chiba family intervened?) With the thought of "how troublesome..." Tsukasa sighed. With the use of Shiina as bait, not only was the appearance of those two (Tatsuya and Miyuki) from the Yotsuba family expected, the calculations also provided for the intervention of the Saegusa family.

Tsukasa knew that the "Saegusa twins" loved Shiina and took care of her. That's why she facilitated the departure of the head of the family, Saegusa Koichi, to Kyoto, to an "important conversation" with

"important people."

As planned, several magicians of the Saegusa family still appeared. This meant that the Saegusa family itself did not interfere in the drafting of the strategy. If only there was no intervention from the police... that is, from the Chiba family.

Despite the fact that the intervention of the Chiba family is a very significant factor, it was not such a serious miscalculation, which would have a fatal threat for this operation.

But there was another miscalculation, made with the original meaning of this operation.

(Shiba Tatsuya did not appear... He did not go for the bait?) The main miscalculation was that the main goal did not appear.

(I thought he would be more selfish, but it's more like the middle class than expected.)

From the school, in which the next head of the Yotsuba family is the president of the school board, the first-grader was kidnapped. Tsukasa assumed that it would be a matter of honor for Tatsuya to come to return her.

Based on observations of the day before yesterday's attack on the etiquette school, Tsukasa came to the conclusion that Tatsuya has absolute certainty in his power. If he is this type of person, then for him the honor should be above all.

Tsukasa's theory was that in his ability to sacrifice his honor, he would consider it equal to a defeat inherent only to children or the elderly.

However, the guy named Shiba Tatsuya, apparently, had a character that was not obsessed with these boring notions of honor. Tsukasa acknowledged her miscalculation. She planned to observe how carefully Tatsuya would handle state forces in the rescue of Shiina. If he did not take into account the lives of the military, she was planning to destroy him as a dangerous man for the country.

But, unfortunately, she did not manage to observe whether he would act hostilely or not, knowing that the enemy is the self-defense force.

"It's a pity that things did not go as planned..." Tsukasa muttered in disappointment. Then she went to the commander of the lieutenant.

"Commander-dono."

"What is it, Sergeant Tooyama?"

"Let me, as your subordinate, go to watch our prisoner of war."

The term "prisoner of war" had a clear definition of military law.

For the military, the use of the word "prisoner of war" in any conditional sense "captive" was not a rare occurrence.

In antiquity, even captured horses of the enemy army were recorded as

"prisoner of war".

It is unlikely that the lieutenant could have thought of anything other than the fact that the "prisoner of war" mentioned by Tsukasa is the girl who is held in this building, that is, Shiina.

"I'll authorize it."

"Many thanks."

Tsukasa wanted to go first to Shiina's room. But she did not plan to stay there.

With the permission of the commander, she planned to go to the place where the "prisoners of war" were kept by the agents of the American army. Although in fact they were not considered "prisoners of war" yet.

And the rule that illegal agents cannot be considered "prisoners of war"

until they themselves recognize them, she decided not to notice.