When Pixie got in touch with Miyuki again, the clock read 18:05.
“Miyuki-sama. Sorry to bother you.”
“Pixie? Report.”
“The movement • Mitsui-sama • stopped. Presumably, the kidnappers • arrived • at their • hideout.”
“Is Honoka okay?”
“It seems that • Mitsui-sama • is still • under the influence of • a narcotic substance.
Other • harmful effects • not felt.”
“I see...”
Miyuki breathed a sigh of relief.
There weren't any medical sensors connected to Honoka, and Pixie didn’t receive medical information. However, Pixie received her supply of psions from Honoka regardless of the distance between them. It seems that she's been receiving the details about the state of Honoka as a side effect of this psionic transmission.
While respecting the privacy of Honoka's private life, neither Tatsuya nor Miyuki usually requested this information from Pixie. But this was an emergency. The news that the kidnapping victim has no physical injuries brings relief to the people who are worried about the victim.
"Pixie, can I get accurate information on where Honoka is being held?"
Magic isn’t limited by physical distance. Even if you try to go back through the magical connection, you can’t get the distance and direction.
However, Pixie had a body derived from the fusion of a Parasite with a humanoid machine. In much the same way that psionic radar works, she could recognize the direction and distance of the source of these waves - the source of the psionic flow that feeds her, from the received psionic waves.
“I am conducting • mapping • with cartographic • data... Mapping is • completed.
Send • data?”
“Yes please.”
“Obeying.”
Simultaneously with this response, the signal for data received flashed on the display.
The call was in voice only mode, so the display was blank, but after loading the data, a map was displayed.
“Received. Please keep watching.”
“All right, Miyuki-sama. Continuing • to conduct • observation.”
Through the remote control, Miyuki ended the conversation with Pixie. She had taken the first call from Pixie in her room, and now she was in the living room.
Miyuki got up from the couch, turned around, and looked at the man standing behind her.
“Hyougo-san.”
“Yes, Miyuki-sama?”
Hanabishi Hyougo replied in a respectful tone.
“Can you prepare a car right away?”
But Hyougo didn’t answer Miyuki's question.
“I dare say that Miyuki-sama is going to personally go to the rescue of Mitsui-sama?”
“Right.”
Although she was answered with a question, Miyuki only nodded in response, not showing that she was offended.
“You mustn't.”
To which, Hyougo gave an adamant answer.
“What do you mean you mustn't? Can we not go?”
“Quite true.”
“Are you ordering me?”
“This isn’t an order. Just a warning.”
Miyuki looked at Hyougo with unconcealed displeasure.
Hyougo didn't mind.
“Miyuki-sama, you are the heiress of the main family line, as well as the bride of my Lord, Tatsuya-sama. You are too valuable, and shouldn't expose yourself to danger for such trifles.”
“Trifles? Hyougo-san, are you saying that the threat to my friend Honoka's life is nothing?”
In the living room there was a cold... no, frosty voice. Miyuki didn’t raise her voice.
But her voice echoed throughout the room, in which such an effect shouldn't have been created.
Although, most likely, this isn’t the sound reflected several times in the confined space of the living room, but the voice echoed only in the minds of those who heard it.
Hyougo bowed apologetically, but he wasn't afraid.
Raising his head, he met Miyuki's eyes.
“It’s not so important that Miyuki-sama personally has to take care of it. So let me go and deal with it.”
“You, Hyougo-san?”
Miyuki questioned with furrowed eyebrows.
Miyuki knew about his career - about how he gained experience in a foreign private
military company, before becoming Tatsuya's butler. But Miyuki had never seen Hyougo actually fight, or even heard of anything like that.
In addition, Miyuki's doubt was due to the fact that, from her point of view, Hyougo didn’t possess any special abilities as a magician. Miyuki simply didn’t see enough of Hyougo's combat power to be confident in it.
“Yes. Leave it to me.”
Hyougo bowed low to Miyuki.
Miyuki's gaze, directed at Hyougo, remained sharp.
The air in this room wasn’t cooled with air conditioning. There was a long silence (perhaps Miyuki's influence had silenced everyone), which was broken by another person present.
“Miyuki, let me go with him? Will that suit you?”
“Lina, you go?”
“Yes. Miyuki, you know my power.”
“But we don't know who kidnapped Honoka, do we? If these are USNA agents, then what are you going to do?”
“Why would agents from the States (USNA) kidnap Honoka?”
“I don't know, but...”
At the moment, neither Miyuki nor Lina knew that Miyuki's assumption was true. In response to Lina's simple counter-question, Miyuki responded with a vague phrase that carried the meaning “maybe I'm exaggerating?”.
If events had developed in this way, it could have come to such a difficult situation, as the clash of the illegal detachment of assassins, Horsehead from the Illegal MAP
and Lina, who is “Angie Sirius."
Such a future was prevented by the incoming phone call to Miyuki's mobile terminal instead of the apartment's landline terminal.
“Yes... Erika?”
The call was from Erika.
Leo, Mikihiko, and Mizuki went up to join Erika. Mizuki got up there with Mikihiko, with the help of his magic, and Leo climbed with his legs without the use of magic.
Mikihiko's magic dried the clothes of all three and removed the dirt sticking to them.
Finally experiencing a refreshing feeling, Mizuki breathed a sigh of relief. After that, her legs gave way abruptly.
Mikihiko hurriedly offered her his hand. Mizuki managed to grab Mikihiko's hand and somehow avoided falling.
“I-I'm sorry...”
Mizuki let go of Mikihiko's hand. Immediately after that, she staggered again.
Mikihiko held out his hand again, and this time Mizuki clung to it.
“When you get out of a state of extreme tension, sometimes your legs and lower back lose their strength. You'd better hold on to Miki for a while.”
This time, Erika advised in a serious tone, without teasing those two.
Mizuki and Mikihiko looked away in embarrassment.
Erika and Leo, each in their own way, simultaneously shook their heads, expressing the thought “there's nothing you can do about them."
After which both of them noticed that they had the same reaction.
However, both no longer had the strength for their usual quarrel.
Erika turned away from Leo and pulled out her mobile terminal.
She switched the terminal to telephone mode, and called Honoka.
However, the connection wasn’t established.
Making a serious face, this time she called Miyuki.
“Yes.”
“Ah, Miyuki? It's me. Erika.”
“Erika? You seem excited. Did something happen?”
“Why is she in such a hurry?"
Erika thought. But, deciding to leave this question for later, she answered the question first.
She quickly and in order told about what happened. Mizuki and Mikihiko were attacked. The opponents were East Asian in appearance, but with English names.
After that, she called Honoka, but couldn’t get a hold of her.
“... By the way, are you all right, Miyuki?”
The answer came after a second pause.
“...I'm all good. I see... Mizuki was also targeted.”
“Do you know something?”
Miyuki said “Mizuki too." This meant that something similar happened to someone
else. Erika quickly realized that.
“Honoka has been kidnapped.”
“...So that's how it is.”
Although it was possible to guess in advance what happened, but Erika was still momentarily speechless.
“We don't know who the criminals are, but thanks to Pixie, we found out where she was taken.”
“... Can Pixie do something like that?”
“Yes, but not with anyone...”
“Oh, I see.”
Erika also knew the circumstances of the case when the Parasite had taken up residence in Pixie. So, she quickly realized that there was a special connection between Honoka and Pixie.
“So we're going to go help her out.”
Erika didn’t spend much time thinking about coming to this decision.
“...It's dangerous.”
“Miyuki, were you not going to do it yourself?”
“You're right, but...”
“I think Miyuki and Lina would be better off not going there. The opponents may be American agents.”
There was a brief silence on the other side of the phone line.
“I beg your pardon, Erika. Can I call you back?”
“Sure.”
Erika ended the call.
Less than five minutes passed before the incoming call signal came on her terminal.
“Erika, it's me.”
“Yeah. So?”
“I think everything is exactly as you said, Erika. It is highly likely the opponents targeting Mizuki are part of an illegal commando group from the USNA. I think the criminals who kidnapped Honoka are also from this unit.”
“Is that Lina's opinion?”
“Yes. Like you said, Erika, neither Lina nor I should go. But you guys can't go on your own, either. The opponents - agents from the USNA army. They're too dangerous.”
“We've already fought with them here, so it's too late to talk about danger.”
Erika's ear, pressed against the terminal speaker, caught a faint sigh.
“I could tell you not to put yourself in danger again, but... Erica, you're not going to agree, right?”
“You already understand, don't you?”
Erika heard another sigh.
“If you promise not to force your way into the enemy camp, but to go with the right men, I will tell you where Honoka is being held."
Miyuki thought that further attempts at persuasion would be futile. So she made this
condition.
“Who are the right people?”
“I already asked SMAT to go there. I ask you to unite with them on the spot.”
SMAT. Special Magic Assault Squad. This is an organization that brought together combat magicians from the police, created as a result of rethinking the fact that the police weren’t able to adequately respond to the Yokohama incident the year before last. The kidnapping of a civilian by a group of magicians was certainly under the responsibility of SMAT.
“But won't the police make a fuss?”
As Erika said, the likelihood that large-scale police movements would endanger the kidnapping victim wasn’t zero. That's just...
“Even if I hadn’t told you about this, you were going to use the police force yourself, weren't you?”
Erika had close ties to the police. She could use the police to locate Honoka, and she had planned to do that.
“I give up. I will do as you say, Miyuki.”
Realizing that Miyuki could see right through her, Erika raised a white flag. More precisely, it could be considered a draw, because she won Miyuki's compromise of
"handing over the rights to save Honoka."
“Sending the coordinates.”
“...OK, received.”
“Be careful, Erika.”
“Leave it to us. I will contact you when we save Honoka.”
Erika said and completed the call.
Tatsuya headed toward the shade of a tree 10 meters away. From this place, he felt a response, and heard someone fall there.
That “someone" was Fujibayashi Nagamasa.
“Do you know where Minoru is going?”
Tatsuya didn’t boast of victory or accuse him of betrayal. He only indifferently began to interrogate Nagamasa. More precisely, judging by his tone of voice, he simply
“asked,” and not “interrogated.”
“I don’t know...”
On the other hand, Nagamasa, sweating due to the sharp pain from the holes in his body, answered with a voice from which the will to fight hadn't disappeared.
“I see.”
Tatsuya asked nothing more. He turned his back on Nagamasa and was about to leave.
“Wait...”
The one who wanted to continue the conversation was Nagamasa himself.
“Does it suit you...? You're not going to interrogate and torture?”
“You don’t know, do you? If so, then there is no need to ask questions.”
“I see... You know that I am trying to buy time...?”
Nagamasa’s assumption was partially correct. Tatsuya did think that Nagamasa was
stalling for time, but he didn't think there was any point in interrogating Nagamasa, because he didn’t know of a way to check whether Nagamasa was lying or not.
Therefore, the first question about the direction of Minoru's escape was asked only on a whim.
Tatsuya didn't waste any time responding with unnecessary kindness. He was about to leave this place, leaving Nagamasa sitting there with his back up against the trunk of a tree.
“That's not all! I'm not done yet!”
Tatsuya looked wary. After all, Nagamasa hasn't lost his combat power yet.
Tatsuya looked back, and at the same time a new hole appeared in Nagamasa's body.
But the pain from those wounds wasn’t enough to stop Nagamasa. Tatsuya didn’t kill Nagamasa because he was the father of Fujibayashi Kyouko. And because of the difficulties with the subsequent settlement of problems that will arise if the head of the Fujibayashi family, the famous clan of magicians of ancient magic, is killed.
But Nagamasa wasn’t such an adversary that could be dealt with so easily.
Usually a person can't use their right arm if you shoot them in the right shoulder.
However, Nagamasa intertwined both hands in a symbolic gesture.
Seeing this, Tatsuya this time made a hole in the tendon of the left elbow.
But this didn’t break the gesture of Nagamasa.
On the contrary, he began to change the symbols shown by his hands, and at such a speed that was impossible to keep track of with the naked eye.
By the time Tatsuya decided to do away with Nagamasa, his technique had already been completed.
The “Sekirei Hachijin” barrier covering this area focused with the center being in the form of Tatsuya and Nagamasa.
It was already later than 6 pm. Although the days were supposed to be long for this season, the Sea of Trees was shrouded in darkness.
And now this darkness has become even more dense and impenetrable.
And something in this darkness began to put oppressive pressure on Tatsuya.
Tatsuya focused his “sight” on the true form of this pressure pressing on him.
Something that looked like a misty haze in the shape of a man was reaching out towards Tatsuya.
“Twins...? Or Astral projection... No, residual thoughts of the dead!?”
If we assume that the information received from the Fujibayashi family (from the enemy who is right in front of him now) is true, then the “Sekirei Hachijin” barrier, which is an array of “Kimon Tonkou” installed in fixed positions, which uses the same technology as “Magic Amplifiers.” Or, most likely, “Sorcery Boosters” a magical tool, for the manufacture of which some of the technologies used in Sekirei Hachijin were borrowed.
The technology of “Sekirei Hachijin” is as follows: while the magician is still alive, their body is transferred to a state of cadaveric fat, leaving only the brain, whose structure crystallizes in the process. On the forehead of the victim magical symbols and drawings are carved. As a result, these magician's remains are transformed into a magic output device that can work for hundreds of years. They are buried underground in several places, and they support the continuous work of the magic,
“Kimon Tonkou.”
A week ago, Tatsuya didn’t know how corpses could support magic.
But now, after the experience gained in the battle with the Astral projection of Arcturus, he knew how.
The source of the interference force in the phenomenon is the Pushion waves.
Tatsuya personally witnessed it in that fight.
Perhaps the magical processing that transforms the magician into a state of cadaveric fat, contains the process for enclosing the pushion information body inside these remains. Thus, the magic of the concealment barrier is maintained by periodic discharges of interference force into the phenomenon, using the Pushions stored in the remains.
The psychic pressure (which can be rephrased as “pressure by external systemic magic"), currently acting on Tatsuya, was undoubtedly caused by Pushion information bodies enclosed within human remains transformed into magic output devices. Tatsuya described them with the phrase “residual thoughts of the dead," but usually these information bodies are called “ghosts" or “spirits."
Carved on the foreheads of the corpses, transformed into a device called “Sekirei Hachijin," the command “to distort the sense of choosing a path." The ghosts were unable to think for themselves, and simply tried to lead Tatsuya astray. If they break through the barrier of Tatsuya's will, he will be forced to wander around the Sea of Trees until the ghosts' powers are exhausted.
“Fujibayashi Nagamasa... committed suicide?"
The hands of the ghosts reached out to Nagamasa as well. Tatsuya didn’t have the ability to “see” the activity of the Pushion information bodies. He could only dimly sense them. However, he realized that Nagamasa's mind had already been captured by these residual thoughts.
He isn’t dead.
But in such a state, Nagamasa was like the living dead.
“If the caster commits suicide, then the magic can’t be undone."
“If you continue to push away these residual thoughts, then one day their strength will be exhausted..."
“But I can't wait for that!"
Tatsuya focused his “sight” on the psionic information that was generated when these
“ghosts” (residual thoughts) tried to interfere with him. If Tatsuya hypothesis wasn’t wrong, then information should be recorded in this world that “something is trying to interfere with Tatsuya' s mind and distort his sense of direction,” as well as information about “Pushion information bodies trying to interfere with Tatsuya's mind.”
Based on these records, he considered the following information: “the structure of the pushion information body that exists in this world in such a form that it can interfere with the phenomena that forms part of this world, called Shiba Tatsuya."
“I see."
“I see it!"
He discovered a foothold that allowed the pushion information body called “ghost” to exist in this world...
Destroy it.
Decompose!
“The magic of decomposition of the structure that's supporting the pushion information bodies, "Astral dispersion,” activation."
...Destruction of the structure of the psionic informational body that helps the spiritual body (the pushion information body) to exist in this world.
... Not the destruction of the pushion information body itself, but its expulsion from this world.
The white misty figures in the shape of people surrounding Tatsuya quickly disappeared one after another.
After that, Tatsuya immediately realized that “Sekirei Hachijin," which was supported by the thoughts of the dead, had been destroyed.
The magic of decomposition of the structure that's supporting the pushion information bodies, "Astral dispersion."
It doesn’t seal the spiritual body in this world.
It makes it so that the spiritual body can no longer exist in this world.
The phrase “can’t exist in this world" means that from the point of view of those who live in this world, it simply disappears.
Dies.
We can say that this is tantamount to killing by erasure.
Tatsuya finally has at his disposal the means to kill spiritual bodies and spiritual life forms.
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