Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 29 - Pursuit (II) - Chapter 12.2

Arriving at Odawara, Minoru got out of the car at the station. Minami got out after him.

The faces of both, of course, were changed, but not with Parade. It was a disguise, using makeup props, prepared by Zhou Gongjin in his hideout. “Parade” at the moment was only focused on concealing their location.

In the car, there were androids received from Kudou Makoto, in which Parade attached the individual information about Minoru and Minami. Turning the autopilot on, Minoru sent the car further East along the coast. The car was set to self-destruct when it reached the city of Zushi, but Minoru thought it would be discovered and caught up to much earlier.

Minoru and Minami's destination was Yokosuka. That is, their route and direction of travel coincided with the car that had left. From the point of view of common sense, in order to break away from the pursuit, you need to go in a completely different direction. However, in the current case, the coincidence of course made sense.

“Kaso Tonkou”... I hope it works as it should...”

Deciding that in order to hide from Tatsuya's sight, he needed magic that combines the effects of “Parade" and “Kimon Tonkou," he practically mixed the magic of

“Kaso Tonkou" in a hurry. He himself understood that it was a hastily made, temporary spell. But being limited in time, Minoru used all of his strength and invented this magic. So even now he had a slightly inflated ego, although it wasn’t easy to see at first glance.

Will Kaso Tonkou deceive Tatsuya? You won't know until you run away. The car had already started, leaving Minoru and Minami behind. The plan he developed to ensure a successful escape has already started being carried out.

The die is cast.

It's too late to doubt anything.

All that remains is only to act.

Minoru and Minami got into an individual Cabinet. Their destination was the

“Yokosuka military port."

When Tatsuya was only a short distance away from Odawara, he saw Minami's Eidos split up.

“What does it mean?"

If it wasn’t for the highway, Tatsuya would have stopped the motorcycle on the side of the road. Instead, he switched the motorcycle to semi-automatic mode, and began to think about this mysterious phenomenon.

“The coordinates, as before, can’t be determined."

“The specific point is unknown, but at least the area where the target may be is known."

“But now. even that vague location data split in two and was in motion?"

Tatsuya sensed that this wasn’t from “Parade,” or “Kimon Tonkou.”

This phenomenon had features of both of these magics at once. Tatsuya had the impression that this wasn’t the use of two magic spells at the same time, but a kind of merging of “Parade” and “Kimon Tonkou.”

“Did Minoru create a new magic?"

If this is true, then it means that in such a short time Minoru surpassed what Kudou Retsu had been creating for decades.

Also, it can’t be said that it is completely impossible. Because none other than Tatsuya himself had come close to the completion of the magic, “Astral Dispersion”

in less than a week.

“No, it’s not important now."

In this situation, the problem wasn’t the short time with which the magic used was developed. Tatsuya reproached himself, his thoughts were going in the wrong direction.

“Which of them is Minami's Eidos... that is, Minami herself?"

In the end, that's the only thing that really needs to be figured out.

Tatsuya completely gave up control of the equipment to autopilot, and sent his consciousness into the information dimension.

“The first one is moving on the road along the coastline."

“And the other... on the same road? No, on the line of intercity public transport...?"

Tatsuya's “sight" couldn’t see what was hidden under the disguise. Due to the same direction of travel, areas of possible location overlapped, blurring the differences between the two Eidos.

“... For starters, I'll drive to the place where they separated."

The “disguise" showing Minami's current location split up near the Odawara station.

Tatsuya switched the controls back to manual, and drove to Odawara station.

The most important rule for the members of the Illegal MAP squad, when carrying out the tasks assigned to them was “by any means don't fall into the hands of the local authorities.” It was necessary to hide the fact that they were committing crimes and terrorist acts on instructions received from the USNA government.

Even if they didn’t have any possessions with them indicating a connection with America, they could be forced to confess if they were caught alive. But, even if they

don't confess, the information can be obtained by extracting it from their brain. A certain amount of information can be read even from the brain of a corpse, so if it came to suicide, then they should blow their brains out.

Gabe Shu and Iggy Ho, caught off guard by a sudden attack from the counterintelligence units led by Toyama Tsukasa, blew their heads off with small explosive devices made specifically for suicide. But, such self-destruction is the last resort. To avoid this, it was important to plan an escape route.

In addition to Gabe and Iggy, the remaining eight members of the Horsehead unit had evaded the manhunt of the Army's Intelligence Department, using an underground tunnel designed for transporting supplies. But, they still couldn’t breathe a sigh of relief. The Commander of the Horsehead squad, Al Wan, knew that they were being pursued by at least two separate teams. The operation failed, but now it was more important to shake off the pursuit.

They advanced down the underground tunnel that was about one kilometer long in less than one minute. They used magic to move around, so there was also the possibility that they were spotted. Without waiting for an order from the commander, the surviving members of the Horsehead squad one by one began to enter the helicopter.

The helicopter they were looking for in case of escape belonged to some news service. In truth, this place was in the territory of a branch of a large newspaper company. However, there was no secret collusion between this company and Illegal MAP.

A preliminary inspection showed that the helicopter located here is extremely inefficient. They had to rely on such an escape route. After all, “efficiency is extremely low" doesn’t mean that it “doesn’t work at all."

There was also no guarantee that the helicopter would be present here. If they were unlucky and the helicopter was currently in flight, then they planned to hijack another vehicle. So if you look at the circumstances from the point of view of luck, then to some extent it was “not so bad."

Bart Lee, who had sat down in the pilot seat, immediately began the take-off

procedure. Al Wan pulled a mobile terminal from his waist bag that specializes in communication functions and was designed to intercept military and police radio communications.

Putting the speaker to the left ear, he tuned in to the police radio frequency first, since it was easier to decipher. However, before he could hear the police talking, the incoming message signal came on at the terminal.

The sender of the message shown on the display of the compact terminal was the USNA fleet. Al Wan frowned at the unexpected message, but still took out his multi-functional smart glasses from his breast pocket and put them on his head. By clicking on the smart glasses icon on the communication terminal, he paired these devices, and a message appeared before his eyes.

When Al Wan ran his eyes over the plain text message without any pictures, his eyes widened under his smart glasses.

“Who are you!?”

Through the microphone, the question Al Wan asked the communication terminal, automatically converted it to text and was sent to the other side.

The answer came immediately.

“Seven Sages? Why are the Seven Sages providing us with information about Shiba Tatsuya?”

All of Al Wan's subordinates heard his voice and turned around. Even some isolated members of the Illegal MAP in prison were aware of the "Seven Sages" as an influential force.

“...Okay, I understand. This time I will believe you.”

Al Wan unceremoniously turned off the receiver, and without removing his smart glasses, turned toward the pilot seat.

“Bart, fly to the freeway leading West from Kamakura to Odawara. Shiba Tatsuya

has been seen riding on this road.”

“Understood.”

Without saying anything more, Bart set up a new route in the flight navigator.

“Commander, what kind of group is the Seven Sages?”

Ellie Chao, seated on the right of Al Wan, asked in an arrogant tone.

“The mission entrusted to Horsehead is the murder of Shiba Tatsuya. You don’t have to worry about other things.”

Al Wan answered Ellie, having read aloud the message he received earlier as a reply.

“It may be nerve-racking, but the Seven Sages are right. In our case, the reliability of the source of information should be ignored.”

“And what will we do if it's a trap?”

The helicopter had already begun to rise, and Ellie Chao still kept asking questions.

“Then we will break through.”

Al Wan told her in a commanding tone.