Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 23 - Isolation - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"And yet... it's a bit sad." Miyuki said while leaving the door of a typical private house.

"We will not sell this house. We can return at any time."

Miyuki nodded in response to Tatsuya's consoling words.

"Tatsuya-sama, Miyuki-sama, if you don't mind, I think it's time to go."

A humble voice was heard from behind the two of them.

Tatsuya turned around and saw Hanabishi Hyougo standing there wearing a black suit and white gloves.

"Understood. Miyuki, Minami, let's go."

Tatsuya nodded to Hyougo and turned to his companions. The two girls responded with "Yes" and "I'm listening" and they followed Tatsuya.

Today was the day of the move in order to strengthen Miyuki's protection. From the house nominally owned by their father, to the building in Chofu, which is the Tokyo headquarters of the Yotsuba family.

A large sedan was parked in front of the house. All the necessary luggage has already been transported. The furniture was organized on the spot, so under the luggage there were clothes and accessories, as well as personal training terminals.

Data from the laboratory on the ground floor has also been moved to the underground research center of the Tokyo headquarters building.

The data has been moved, not copied. This "private laboratory" will be completely destroyed in a few days.

Miyuki and Tatsuya sat in the backseat, then Minami boarded the passenger seat. Although it wasn't a limousine, the legroom was spacious, and it didn't seem that there wasn't enough space behind the driver's seat.

Making sure that everyone sat down, Hyougo took the driver's seat. The sedan moved smoothly from its place. They traveled from Futu* to Chofu. At such a short distance, the driving time on the private car and in the booth of the electric train was approximately the same. Of course, if you take into account the time of the trip from the station, the car was faster.

*If memory serves me right, we were told for the first time where their house was. Futu and Chofu are next to each other, only 5 km. Both at the same time in 20-25 km to the west of the center of Tokyo.*

Hyougo skillfully drove the car. Considering the features of the car, there was also no shaking or inertia. During this short comfortable trip, neither Tatsuya nor Miyuki said a word. Minami was silent as usual. Hyougo also read the atmosphere and was silent.

The car stopped at the buildings underground parking. It was a garage built on the style of the usual type underground parking, but equipped with automatic checking devices. The parking spaces marked with white lines had induction sensors for automatic parking.

"This way please."

At Hyougo's invitation they entered the elevator. This elevator goes directly to the entrance to the "apartment" where Miyuki will live from now on, and no one except Tatsuya and Miyuki can use it without a special key.

"During a state of emergency, it can be used to descend to other floors"

Hyougo added with a moderate smile. It seems that at the same time they could only be used to get to the first floor, underground parking garage, the roof and to this apartment. On the roof was the helipad, which they'd used the other day.

The provided accommodations are luxurious. The furnishings were elegant and tasteful and Miyuki liked it at first sight.

"Tatsuya-sama, are you staying here tonight?"asked Hyougo.

"No, I will go to the villa as soon as the preparations are completed."

From today on, Miyuki will live here. Minami will live with Miyuki as her servant and guard.

However, Tatsuya, following Maya's instructions, will go to the villa in Izu. This isn't yet Tatsuya's home.

The main reason that Miyuki was sad about leaving the old house, wasn't that she left a familiar house, but that she would live apart from Tatsuya for a while.

"I'll handle this while you rest for a couple of hours."

Bowing respectfully, Hyougo left the room.

Tatsuya led Miyuki to the living room and sat her on the sofa.

In fact, the preparations for the move to Izu have already been completed. But Hyougo, who understood what was what, offered a two-hour postponement. Tatsuya and Miyuki both guessed this.

To move to Izu, a familiar vertical takeoff and landing plane (VTOL) was prepared.

The flight took about 30 minutes. The reason for this slow flight speed was crowded airspace. In the near future, jokes about "traffic jams in air traffic" will be made.

As expected, the villa was in the mountains. Izu used to be an air defense base during the war, but afterwards was converted into a golf course. Even before the war it was quite far away. This place was ideally suited for the role of a "quiet" environment where no one will be disturbed.

"Mother... that is, stepmother was treated in such an uncomfortable place?"

Without thinking, Tatsuya asked Hyougo a question which came to mind. But he corrected himself, calling Miya "stepmother", because now his real mother is Maya.

"I heard that for Miya-sama it was necessary to have a quiet environment."

Tatsuya immediately understood the meaning of Hyougo's abstract answer.

The point was that for her all sorts of psion noises, emitted by large clusters of people, were a heavy load. Tatsuya once again realized that Miya often overpowered herself for her children. But he couldn't understand if it was for his own sake or for Miyuki's.

Hyougo led Tatsuya to the villa. Inside the building, everything was prepared to live without any problems. The laboratory was fully equipped like the house in Futu.

"Please call me at any time if you need anything. I will deliver it as soon as possible. In addition, the 'Freed Suit' and 'Wingless' were delivered here so you can freely use them."

The "Freed Suit" is a flying combat suit disguised as an ordinary riding suit, and "Wingless" is an armored motorcycle with the function of connecting to the "Freed Suit". They will be useful not only if he's attacked by an armed opponent, but also for a simple exit into the city.

"Many thanks."

"You're welcome. Please rest easy here."

"Thank you for your concern."

"Then, on this I ask you to excuse me."

Hyougo went outside to VTOL.

Completely alone in this building, Tatsuya heard the sound of spinning blades moving off.

The USNA's large aircraft carrier the Enterprise was anchored 500

kilometers east of Newfoundland, in the neutral waters of the Atlantic Ocean,

It belonged to the 2000-foot class, because it was about 600 meters long.

The attention of the whole world was attracted by the technology that allows this giant without a nuclear reactor to move, yet be twice as large as the largest pre-war aircraft carriers with nuclear reactors.

Immediately after this ship was commissioned 4 years ago, it was suspected of having a nuclear reactor. However a short distance survey conducted by the International Magic Association, showed that it is clean. Given the circumstances under which the International Magic Association was founded, it possessed a technology absolutely reliable in detecting nuclear fission reactions. The Association has never been able to find traces of the use of nuclear energy.

Further examination could be carried out only by getting inside the ship, but USNA policy does not allow anyone to conduct inspections on their facilities or warships. As a result, the power plant of the Enterprise is still a mystery.

A small plane was approaching this giant aircraft carrier. It was a high-speed transport aircraft with 4 fighter escorts. Apparently, they didn't have the function of vertical landing, as in VTOL or STOVL.

"Bezobrazzoff is on this plane..." Lina mumbled to herself, dressed in the official Stars uniform (but without a mask), watching the approaching airplane with golden eyes.

"Apostle" of the New Soviet Union, Igor Andreivitch Bezobrazzoff. The owner of the nickname "Igniter" and the user of the Strategic-Class Magic "Tuman Bomba."

Before his appearance on a television interview a few days ago, his appearance was considered a military secret of the New Soviet Union, but the USNA army knew him. Bezobrazzoff's location was also carefully monitored, although not always.

He was a member of the New Soviet Union's Academy of Sciences, as well as an influential authority in the field of modern magic education.

We can say that in such conditions it was impossible to hide his appearance and location.

However, the true essence of Bezobrazzoff's Strategic-Class Magic

"Tuman Bomba", has not yet been established. Not just the system of magic, even its effect wasn't clear. Only its name "Tuman Bomba" and the fact that it causes damage in an explosion over a very wide area. And also that it killed the previous Sirius in the armed conflict between the USNA and the NSS in the Bering Strait 8 years ago.

For Stars, he was a fateful magician, and for Lina an opponent standing on the road to the title of the strongest in the world. But that chance will not come if Bezobrazzoff takes part in "Project Dion."

The plane went to land. The approach procedures for aircraft carriers haven't made significant progress over the past 150 years. Aircraft without vertical landing functionality use a combination of an angular deck and a brake hook clinging to the brake cable.

Even the 600-meter deck isn't enough to ensure that only the reverse thrust brakes are enough to land. Although take-off technologies have made significant progress, landing technologies are limited by the need to mitigate the load from cable braking.

"...Was the brake hook not be released?"

Lina felt a strange discomfort from the sight of this approaching aircraft, and immediately realized its cause.

This wasn't noticed only by Lina. The sound of voices rose on the deck.

"The brake thrust is too weak!"

"It will fall...!"

The cries of the aircraft carrier's staff were heard.

To prevent an accident, Lina activated her CAD. The next moment the plane was enveloped by psion light. It was a non-physical light born of excessive psions, emitted by the activation of magic.

But Lina's magic has not yet been activated.

"This magic was activated from inside!?"

Lina noticed that the magic that acted on the transport plane was launched from the cockpit of this plane.

The landing gear touched the deck. A small braking jet smoothly reduced the speed, which would have been impossible normally.

"Inertia and acceleration reduction, but in order to so smoothly decelerate..."

From the moment of contact it usually requires about 1000 meters to stop, but now this distance has dropped to 100 meters. And it didn't look unnatural at all.

"Where does this precise control...?"

The enterprise boasts dimensions that can be called "gigantic", but that does not mean that there's no pitching. There is also wind. Lina believed that she herself would not be able to brake as accurately as possible considering all these factors.

"This is the 'Igniter'... his abilities were above all expectations."

Lina didn't doubt that this magic was the work of Bezobrazzoff.

Soon after Bezobrazzoff, MacLeod's plane arrived. Then the tripartite negotiations began.

In this room were: Edward Clark, Igor Andreivitch Bezobrazzoff, William MacLeod and the fourth man, Lina in the image of Angie Sirius. Lina was assigned to Clark, because he was an ordinary person who cannot use magic.

Bezobrazzoff and MacLeod are Strategic-Class magicians.

Hinting that "it would be better for Clark's guard to be a Strategic-Class magician" MacLeod requested Angie Sirius's presence in the negotiations.

"Dr. Clark. As you promised, please tell us the identity of the Japanese Strategic-Class magician, Taurus Silver."

This was the first phrase spoken at the meeting. Bezobrazzoff suddenly turned to Clark.

Lina shuddered at the news.

Now "Angie Sirius" was without a mask. Therefore, the other three could easily see her surprise.

"Doctor Clark, have you hidden this information from your side as well?"

There wasn't noticeable surprise in MacLeod's voice. From the unexpected reaction of Angie, even Bezobrazzoff showed impatience.

However, this didn't affect the development of the situation.

"I recently received evidence of the person." Clark responded with an obvious lie, then continued:

"The real name of Taurus Silver is Shiba Tatsuya. He's from the direct line of the Yotsuba."

Then they discussed the primary plan of action, and the meeting ended without much debate.

With the successful conclusion of the meeting, Lina's mission was over, but there was still some time before the departure of the aircraft to take her home. To occupy this time, she wandered through the Enterprise, with permission from the ship's captain.

She "examined the neighborhood" only nominally, because all her thoughts were now captured by one person who wasn't here.

(Tatsuya... is the Strategic-Class magician that caused "Scorched Halloween?)

Lina didn't remember what Clark, Bezobrazzoff and MacLeod were talking about after that. She didn't forget it, the conversation just didn't get to her memory from the very beginning.

From the meeting there were only scrappy memories. Perhaps it would be reasonable to say that she couldn't follow the course of the conversation because of this shocking information.

The magic that burnt out the southern tip of the Korean peninsula in October of the year before was called "Material Burst."

Shiba Tatsuya is the user of this magic.

The real name of "Taurus Silver", the ingenious magic engineer who developed flying magic, is also "Shiba Tatsuya."

(And it's true, because from the very beginning there was such an assumption!)

In January of last year, Lina was sent to Japan to determine the identity of the so-called "Great Bomber," the Strategic-Class Magician who summoned "Scorched Halloween," and then deal with them. Tatsuya was a candidate for the identity of the "Great Bomber," which Lina was instructed to follow. The investigation and conclusions of the Intelligence Department of the USNA army were correct.

(But Tatsuya never showed such behavior...)

(Tatsuya's magic was completely different...)

Thinking about it, in the mind of Lina arose the "other I", quietly arguing with herself.

(He didn't show such behavior? This is quite obvious. At least from the fact that he was a head taller, as an opponent.)

?

?

(Was Tatsuya's magic different? He just didn't have to show the Strategic-Class Magic.)

(I didn't even know that he was from the direct line of the Yotsuba line.) (Tatsuya deceived me.)

(...Though, I was deceived by deceiving myself.)

But even with such thoughts, she didn't have a feeling of surprise or regret.

However, along with these thoughts came the realization of different things.

The sympathy she felt for Tatsuya.

And Tatsuya's sympathy for her.

This, of course...

(...Sympathy for like-minded prisoners of fate to be weapons.) Lina waved her head, trying to shake out the endlessly arising negative thoughts.

"Ah ..."

At that moment, her consciousness finally returned to reality.

(It's bad... I wandered into the restricted area...) Lina scolded herself for her gloomy thoughts. She decided to assign the responsibility of this to security officers, who somehow didn't stop her.

In any case, she should leave this compartment immediately. As the commander-in-chief of Stars, Lina had the right to access most secret information. However, the existence of rights and their actual use are two different things. There is always a good reason why information is marked as secret. When someone puts his nose into secrets which he shouldn't know, it's like suicide.

She went too far.

(What are these psion waves...)

Forgetting that she wanted to leave this place as quickly as possible, Lina frowned.

She didn't feel the psion waves until she entered this compartment. It seems that in the walls there are grids of induction stones built-in that weaken psion waves.

For a moment, Lina thought that this was a way to conceal the nuclear reactor, but then realized that she was mistaken. Induction stones convert psion waves into an electrical signal. The side effect is the attenuation of psion waves so that these waves can no longer be detected. However, induction stones didn't possess the ability to absorb or reflect radiation.

(Magic? But here...)

When thoughts of forbidden nuclear energy were gone, another suspicion arose in her mind.

Magic is used by one person. It is in principle impossible for several magicians to cooperatively activate one magic.

Magicians with this ability are very rarely born. But even in those cases, no more than 2-3 people can join together to summon magic.

But the psion waves that Lina felt now were...

(...More than ten people, maybe about twenty...)

So many magicians have invested their efforts in one magic.

(How to understand this? The coercion of magicians to use magic is prohibited by military regulations.)

While communicating with the developers of "Brionac", Lina heard about the experiments conducted during the war where they tried to cause large-scale magic by creating forced connections between many magicians. The experiment, which was conducted jointly with the Japanese army (Japan was a closer ally than now), was found to be unsuccessful, and the data on it had to be destroyed.

The recognized reason for the failure was the self-destruction of magicians, who became "guinea pigs". There began to be cases one after another of dulled thinking, which led to their inability to perform actions to maintain their own life. Lina was told that this was due to the forced connection of their minds. So she was told not to play with group magic.

But that wasn't all. It was just Lina's intuition, but this magic loaded all the components of the activation sequence into the magicians and forcibly activated the spell. This technology which ignores the will of the magician and makes him part of the magic machine, contradicted the USNA military statute of the army which guarantees the observance of the rights of servicemen...

(...The magic itself is simple enough it only rotates the flywheel.) (But to continue to perform this routine action for a long time should be difficult because of accumulating stress...)

(More than ten magicians are involved because the mass of the flywheel is quite large and its rotation speed is quite high.)

"Really!?" Lina unknowingly said this out loud.

"Is this... a power generation system!?"

"Is this really the secret of the Enterprise's power plant!?"

Lina covered her mouth with both hands, so as not to let go of the new unconscious screams, and looked around in panic.

No one was around.

The surveillance cameras seemed to be functioning, so she should have been seen when she was in a state of confusion and mistakenly entered the forbidden compartment.

Lina convinced herself of this and quickly headed back to the exit.

Lina and Clark were coming back on the same plane.

Work as a security guard ended at the end of the meeting, but preparing another plane to return to the mainland was inefficient in terms of costs.

Therefore it was inevitable that they became fellow passengers before Washington.

"Major Sirius, you've done a good job."

"Thank you." Lina laconically answered Clark.

She was in such a mood that she didn't want to talk to anyone right now.

She just wanted to remove the "Parade" disguise and sleep, not thinking about anything. She tried hard so that her voice didn't sound sarcastic.

It seems that Clark was wise enough not to show that he was concerned about Lina's behavior.

"Major I think I should repeat it once more, but don't reveal the secret identity of Taurus Silver to anyone, including Colonel Walker and Colonel Balance." He said, not paying attention to Lina's mood.

"...I have to report everything that happened."

"It's all right, Major. No one can blame you for this."

Clark wasn't a soldier. He was a scientist from the National Science Agency of the United States. In his position he couldn't influence the army's system of rewards and punishments. Lina wanted to point this out to him indignantly.

"If Taurus Silver learns that his identity was revealed by the major, then he in turn can reveal the true identity of the major."

However, Lina's language was numb with the words Clark said.

"Where did you hear this..." Lina was able to squeeze out a few words.

"I think it was a big mistake for the military when they contacted the major and Silver. You are still young. Emotional change is inevitable."

Clark said this without a smile on his face. He hinted that he knew what Lina was doing in Japan, even more than the army knows. Then he said something that made Lina completely shut up.

"By the way, besides the identity of Silver. The truth about the Enterprise is also not worth reporting."