Chapter 7
It was another morning, and another school day. Tatsuya exited the station with Miyuki and the two of them went to meet up with their friends, then go on their way to school. One had left earlier in the year, and last week yet another had gone, but besides that it was the same as since spring.
This morning, however, something different awaited Tatsuya. Before they could find their friends, the voice of a senior called out from the ticket gate. Both Tatsuya and Miyuki had already been aware of her presence before she had called out.
At this time, most of the people using the station were students of First High and associated persons. Unlike with the mass transit trains of old, it is now uncommon to see large crowds of passengers at the station all at the same time. Nonetheless, in order to get out of the way of the students arriving moment by moment, the siblings walked over to where Mayumi stood by the wall.
More than a few students flickered glances their way, but none of them were overly concerned. There was nothing particularly wondrous about the previous Student Council President and the current Vice-President conversing, and that the brother of the VP was a favourite with the previous Prez —from a gossip point of view anyway— was a well known fact in First High.
In truth, there wasn't even a conversation. Without linking up and walking to school together, Tatsuya and Miyuki went through the ticket gate. Mayumi had uttered only one line: "After school, come to the second cross-field club room."
The cross-field club (a club for magic combat survival games) was a club Katsuto had once been a member of. Their second club room implicitly served as an informal meeting place, and amongst those in the know, it was an open secret that Katsuto continued to use this room privately after he had left the club. Sure enough, when Tatsuya turned up, both Mayumi and Katsuto were already waiting.
"You're alone?"
It wasn't just Katsuto who asked this, but a surprised Mayumi as well.
"Yes, you called only me after all."
Truth be told Miyuki had vehemently insisted on accompanying him, but he had somehow eventually managed to coax her cooperation. —The price had been as cheap as promising to accompany and treat her to a cake buffet.
Regardless, it was evident that Tatsuya had come by himself. While it was true that Mayumi had called out Tatsuya only, she hadn't really expected that Miyuki actually wouldn't come. Despite that, she immediately launched into the topic at hand.
"Tatsuya-kun, last night, did you go out?"
Mayumi's question was within Tatsuya's expectations.
"I did."
He didn't add 'What of it?'
"By bike?"
"Yes."
People normally become more talkative when trying to deceive another. Tatsuya at this moment however had no need to feign verbosity.
"...May I ask where you were going?"
Rather, it was Mayumi who had to puzzle over how best to proceed. She didn't have the deviousness or experience for such subtle probing. Katsuto, waiting beside her, didn't even seem to be bothered at all.
"I was called by Yoshida who was engaging the vampire, and saw there both the vampire as well as an unidentified magician who was following it."
Things could take a while at this rate, Tatsuya thought, as he voluntarily decided to advance the discussion. As Mayumi blinked in amazement, he kept his expression emotionless. Even a more experienced adult, for example Mayumi's father, would have found it difficult to read his face.
She had no idea what he was thinking.
That simply fueled Mayumi's anxiety, and her psychological defenses began to waver.
"From when?"
Perhaps stepping in to support Mayumi, or perhaps not, Katsuto came up with a question in her stead.
"I merely rushed over yesterday because I was called. I was not involved in the actual search for the vampire."
Since the question didn't ask by whom, or for what, Tatsuya omitted such things in his answer. He had no interest in finding out what Katsuto or Mayumi thought either.
"The two of you are aware that Saijou of Class 1-E was attacked, correct?"
There was no way they didn't know. He was more making a statement than asking a question. The reply was of course in the affirmative.
"It's not just me who wants to find out exactly what is going on. Until those responsible are found and apprehended, there can be no peace. Whether there's a lone culprit or a group, whether it's non-communicable or contagious; shedding light on at least these is the bare minimum."
Having been looking at the two of them while talking, Tatsuya now shifted his gaze to Mayumi alone.
"Senpai, if you don't at least tell me how much you know about the situation, or what you intend to do about it, I can't help you."
His seizing the initiative was probably the opposite of what was expected. Taking a breath, Mayumi's expression turned serious.
"If Tatsuya-kun promises to help, we'll gladly give you the information we've got. As I'm sure you know though, you mustn't leak anything."
"Understood. Let's cooperate."
Tatsuya agreed immediately to Mayumi's proposal. It was the answer she had wanted to hear, but being unable to comprehend his true intentions, she continued to scrutinize him for a while.
"...Does that mean you'll join our search parties?"
"That's what I meant."
"Why now, all of a sudden? It's not like you didn't see the conference notice."
That was Katsuto speaking. The Saegusa and Juumonji families had jointly set up 'Vampire Hunt' teams, and notices had been sent to the heads of the Ten Master Houses, 18 auxiliary houses, and Hundred Families requesting cooperation. If one is not connected with the 'Numbers' then it's certainly not something a mere high school student would have seen, yet Katsuto was basically speaking as if it were already a fact.
"Considering I'm not even of the Hundred Families, I had thought it's none of my business."
For his part, Tatsuya didn't bother trying to conceal that he had indeed read it. Obtaining non-classified notices wasn't a hard thing to do, after all.
"Being asked directly, however, is a different story."
It was a rather vague answer, but while it wasn't perfectly clear, there was nothing irregular or particularly strange about it. Thus, both Mayumi and Katsuto felt compelled to accept.
In terms of previous experience, Mayumi's exposure to Tatsuya's terrible personality was different from Katsuto's.
"...Still, is this alright? Earlier, I do believe it was said that before cooperating it'd be necessary to disclose information."
"If neither of us make concessions we won't get anywhere. Besides, even if you do back out I can do that just as easily."
At his words, which while appearing far too straightforward, seemed to contain various hidden meanings within them, Mayumi gave a dry laugh. There was a sense of secrecy coming off her, yet for the most part it looked like she simply wanted to get things over with.
"Understo~od. Then, I'll tell you everything we know at this stage. Before that though, can I say just one thing?"
"What?"
"Tatsuya-kun, your personality is too terrible."
"..."
In the information Mayumi shared, Tatsuya learned three things in particular.
First was the scale of damage. This far exceeded his previous expectations, yet still did not seem to be at a critical level yet.
Second was that it was increasingly unlikely all this was the work of a lone perpetrator. Tatsuya had considered the possibility of collaborators before, but the idea there were multiple vampires themselves had not crossed his mind.
And lastly was the presence of a third force interfering with the efforts of Mayumi and the others. At first Tatsuya had thought of Erika's group, but upon hearing the details he soon realized it was a different group altogether.
The second and third points particularly bugged Tatsuya. That masked magician likely was one of those disrupting the search parties. He could also make a good guess as to their identity.
However, he could not fathom the motive they would have to do such a thing. He felt that if only he could understand, it would make things so much easier, yet that only served to irritate him more.
"What do you intend to do after catching one?"
In order to avoid being stuck in those roundabout thoughts, Tatsuya switched issues. Though he had only promised cooperation, he couldn't simply ignore what would come after.
"We'll interrogate them, find out their true identity and purpose. After that..."
"It'll be disposal."
Katsuto finished off Mayumi's sentence. Well... Tatsuya wasn't particularly keen on hearing a phrase like 'disposal' coming from a high school girl's mouth either, so he didn't think of it as being soft or naive.
Besides, humanitarianism wasn't one of Tatsuya's strong points. Neither practically nor emotionally.
"—Got it. So, what should I do?"
"Accompany us then, I guess. If possible from toni—"
"No Shiba, move on your own. Please report in if you find anything."
At Katsuto overturning her instructions, Mayumi simply stared in silence. There was no discomfort in her eyes, but a dramatic sense of suspicion.
"Understood."
To be honest, it would have been easier for Tatsuya to go along with Mayumi's instructions. In any case he had never been too serious about his promise of 'cooperating', so he nodded without hesitation to Katsuto's words.
Revealing nothing of his own hand, and having heard everything he wanted to hear, Tatsuya left the two and departed.
When Tatsuya's footsteps were no longer audible (there were hidden mics as spy countermeasures in the room), Mayumi spoke.
"Juumonji-kun, why did you tell Tatsuya-kun to move alone?"
There wasn't reproach in her tone, but a sense of incomprehension.
"I thought it'd be more efficient that way."
Katsuto's voice as he answered lacked no confidence.
"But as things are, wouldn't he simply go with the Chibas?"
Mayumi knew that Erika's group was going around in a way contrary to the notice. Although the Ten Master Clans are leaders, they are not rulers, and so cannot easily go around enforcing their will or throwing out penalties. But in a situation where the shadows of foreign powers can be glimpsed, being headstrong and doing things one's own way was inconvenient trouble. While the combo of Chiba Erika and Yoshida Mikihiko was unavoidable, Mayumi's true intentions had been to keep at least the siblings, Tatsuya and Miyuki, within eyeshot.
"Truthfully speaking, that will likely be the case."
However Katsuto waved away Mayumi's concerns.
"As long as we keep faith, Shiba likewise will not betray us. That's the sort of man he is."
"...So an absolute form of give and take? What a subtle reliability."
"Even the code of the samurai came from 'favour' and 'duty', or give and take. I'd say it's much more trustworthy than blind submission."
"...And underlying absolute loyalty is 'dependence'. That's not something to be expected from Tatsuya-kun, nor is it something fitting the First."
At Katsuto's nod, satisfied, Mayumi returned a nod.
Although he was still missing several crucial pieces — meaning that he had gathered enough pieces already to realize that he was yet missing something definitive — what he had collected thus far was still a satisfactory result. Going over the information he had, Tatsuya hurried over to the Student Council room where Miyuki was waiting.
It was still light out. Perfectly natural, considering it was a Saturday. School had ended, but it was barely past noon. Tatsuya wasn't hurrying because he was getting late going home, but because he was getting late for lunch.
There wasn't a prayer that Miyuki would begin eating without waiting for Tatsuya. It'd be different if he asked (ordered?) her to eat without him, but he hadn't done so today because he hadn't thought he would end up being this delayed. In fact Miyuki wouldn't have been waiting for that long, but the mere thought that he was keeping his sister was sufficient to drive his feet forwards.
—That made two of them.
Tatsuya's physical prowess was on full display as he leaped up an entire flight of stairs, to come to a stop in front of the Student Council room. The moment he did, almost as if watching and waiting, the door opened.
A brilliant gold flashed into his view.
Tatsuya slid aside while Lina backed away from the door at almost the same time. They had been trying to get out of each others way, but seeing the humorous situation they were now in, the corners of Tatsuya's mouth twitched as he stepped into the gap once occupied by the one who was blocking his way (?).
Technically he was ignoring the convention 'ladies first', but he didn't ignore the lady herself.
"Yo, Lina. How's it going?"
Turning to her as he passed, he lightly patted her on the shoulder.
"Hello, Tatsuya. I am doing fine. Thank you."
Being suddenly touched, Lina didn't cry out 'Sexual harassment!' or anything. Instead, without raising one eyebrow, she simply smiled as she returned Tatsuya's pat twice.
Both Miyuki and Honoka joyously rose at the sight of Tatsuya, as he took a seat at what he guessed was a conference table. —He didn't even want to think that it was there expressly for the Student Council members to simply have meals and drink tea off of.
There was no sign of Azusa or Isori. Not that he would have been troubled if they were here, but he did feel more comfortable this way. It wasn't that he was tense around seniors, rather that he had to take care. Particularly around Azusa, who at the slightest matter (or so Tatsuya thought) would immediately start looking terrified.
Mayumi calling him had been completely unplanned for. So, he didn't have anything prepared for lunch. Besides, if he suddenly brought up what had happened, it would definitely cause panic rather than help. Going to the cafeteria by this time would likely only lead to a view of 'Sold out' signs everywhere, so he decided to leave himself in the care of the Student Council dining server.
Honoka was operating the cooking panel, while Miyuki prepared drinks. Tatsuya's role was to sit quietly and wait to be served. ...Looking at things objectively it'd be 'what a lucky bastard', but he cut off such unproductive thoughts before they reached his conscious.
"Come to think of it, what was Lina doing here?"
Instead, he turned his mind to another matter.
"The school suggested making Lina a special Student Council member during study periods."
Setting a coffee cup before Tatsuya, Miyuki tilted round and answered his question.
Her lustrous jet black hair cascaded before Tatsuya's eyes like a waterfall. Transfixed as she lightly brushed her hair behind her back, his mind nevertheless resolutely processed the information his ears had just received.
"Ah... That reminds me, earlier, she had said she couldn't decide on any clubs and was feeling troubled."
"Yes. The soliciting from behind the scenes had gotten rather intense... It seems that President Hattori then came up with this idea."
The one who answered this time was Honoka, bringing a steaming tray up to him. In that manner Honoka, U-turning, and Miyuki, walking around the table, brought their own trays to the table and lunchtime began.
"She's only studying here this one semester, so she wouldn't even be able to attend the athletics festival."
"I'm pretty sure there were more ulterior motives behind it."
A rather wicked smile flitted across Miyuki's face,
"There were even idiots who wanted to make photo albums of Lina to sell off."
As Honoka sighed with a frown.
"There's a photography club in this school?"
Tatsuya wouldn't have been surprised if there was, but he had no recollection of there being one.
"The Art department's photography team. They wanted to do something as moronic as have Lina join the light gymnastics club and take pictures of that."
Light gymnastics is a sort of gymnastics for magicians with the limits of gravity and inertia lowered, performing floor exercises as if on a trampoline without actually using trampolines. The Mirage Bat competition which Miyuki and Honoka had competed in was a development from light gymnastics.
"I see... Certainly, that would make for quite the picture."
"O-nii-sa-ma?"
"Although I'm not sure about selling them."
"..."
As Miyuki swung a suspicious look in his direction, Tatsuya quickly averted his gaze.
However, a similar look stared back from that direction as well.
"...Wait, that was a rather bad way to put it. Sorry."
Returning to face his sister, he raised the white flag. If he had faced those fierce glares in a 'staring contest' it was likely the girls would have caved first, but exploiting their feelings over something as trivial as this seemed like a very bad idea.
Miyuki, upon realising that Tatsuya hadn't meant anything by those words yet had acted so apologetically, was unable to contain her embarrassment and lowered her head.
"A-Anyway. Similar stories were abound, and the situation was getting to the point that the recruiting was troubling not only Lina herself but staff as well, and um..."
Honoka, often seen as someone rather intense yet in fact a delicate (or timid) person, began to fret at the strange atmosphere.
"So it was decided to make her a Student Council member."
Immediately understanding Honoka's consideration, Tatsuya came up in support,
"Yes. If she uses Student Council duties as a front, it should be enough to head off any club."
And Miyuki followed up.
Seeing that the sensitive air which had drifted between the siblings was swept away, Honoka breathed a sigh of relief. The one anticipating a quarrel between them and thinking other such disingenuous thoughts was, unfortunately(?), a different girl.
"So, what was Lina's decision?"
"She didn't seem terribly enthusiastic."
"It seemed like she wasn't keen on spending any time after school. I think that could also be the reason she's still undecided on clubs, despite being so sought after."
At Miyuki and Honoka's replies, Tatsuya nodded with a 'That just might be it' look.
After dinner, Tatsuya was sitting on the sofa in the living room looking at a large screen mounted on the wall.
Miyuki was snuggled up beside him.
The screen was divided into three. The main section depicted a real time video feed of Tokyo seen through stratospheric surveillance cameras as well as three glowing dots moving through it. The top subsection had roads and maps overlaying the same three dots, while on the bottom, text scrolled by in 30 second intervals.
The reason he had access to the stratospheric platform cameras was thanks to Sanada.
The reason he had access to and could monitor the tracer signals of the Saegusa/Juumonji search parties was not because Mayumi had provided the authentication codes, but because of the unparalleled hacker Fujibayashi Kyouko.
Fujibayashi also tracked the signal of the Chiba search party at the same time.
The spots of light were apparently interference strength, the waves of which were detected by transceiver interceptors mounted on the stratospheric platforms and processed by the supercomputer belonging to the Independent Magic Battalion.
Being an experimental magic force, and as far as Tatsuya vaguely knew, being equipped with state-of-the-art technology (they wouldn't have the Mobile Suits otherwise), he was reminded again of their peculiar abilities.
And speaking of technology.
"It seems like the Stars have better technology for detecting Parasites than us."
Watching the Stars’ movements as they fixed on a spot of interference strength, Tatsuya muttered in an impressed voice.
Although it was impossible to track the movements of Parasites directly, by analysing the pathway of the energy the three Parasites that they were tracking left, it was possible to trace them. And despite not having the benefit of street camera sensors nor stratospheric platform observation equipment, the ones Tatsuya estimated to be the Stars were tracing the movements of the Parasites the fastest. Tatsuya didn’t know whether that was due to some special ability or advanced technology. He also didn’t know whether it was specific to tracking the Parasites, or if it was capable of detecting other magical signals. All he knew was that the USNA was ahead of Japan in this field.
Tatsuya had never considered Japan’s magic technology to be in the forefront of the world. He didn’t consider himself to have an exhaustive knowledge of current technology either. Yet even so, he couldn’t help feeling some pangs of regret and a desire to know.
"Now’s not the time for that though."
Saying so and cutting off unnecessary thoughts, Tatsuya straightened.
"Onii-sama, are you going?"
As Tatsuya rose, Miyuki spoke while looking up from the sofa.
"You’re a good girl, so just wait here, all right?"
Tatsuya stroked her cheek.
Miyuki raised her hand and pressed Tatsuya’s palm against her cheek. It was as if she were imprinting his warmth onto her.
"I’ll be waiting for you."
"Yeah. Without a doubt, sometime soon, your strength will be needed. When that time comes—"
"Yes. Then, together—it’s a promise, Onii-sama."
"…Well, I don’t think this situation will turn out as dangerous as Yokohama."
While Tatsuya joked, Miyuki, also smiling, released Tatsuya’s hand.
Miyuki saw Tatsuya off at the doorway, equipped with his favourite CAD and other equipment as he went to battle.
She continued staring at the closed door until her brother’s presence faded.
Then the moment she could no longer make sense of his whereabouts, she turned around with a snap.
There was no trace of sadness. Within her determined expression, her eyes burned with a bright light.
Miyuki returned to the living room, and hit the switch of the dimmed screen. Although by no means mechanically incompetent, in terms of strengths and weaknesses, what she now had at hand was definitely not her area of expertise.
However she was blessed with extraordinary memory. Although not as great as Tatsuya, who had vast memory capacity as a side effect of his mental remodelling, reproducing the operating procedures she had just seen earlier was not a problem.
She brought up the display she had been watching a while back with her brother. The scroll speed of the text data was a little too fast for her, but she didn’t know how to change it so she bore with it.
She desperately tried to calculate her brother’s whereabouts from the points of light moving around. She had been told to just ‘wait’, but this time she didn’t intend to ‘just wait’. Even if it meant going against her brother’s orders, even if it meant she would be scolded when he got back, it was still far more preferable to doing nothing as her brother was hurt.
Certainly, there was little chance of a large scale conflict breaking out. In that sense, the danger was indeed less than Yokohama.
But even though the scale was small.
Even though the situation would greatly limit the use of force.
His opponent, in all probability, would end up being those Stars.
—Though having said that, there was nothing Miyuki could do.
As an individual, at 15 years of age, she possessed one of the highest levels of power in the country. It might easily be one of the highest levels of power in the world.
But her power lay not in farsight or clairvoyance.
Nor did she have the authority yet to mobilise the Yotsuba.
Unlike her brother, she did not have a personally built-up network.
None of the hacking skills of Fujibayashi either.
With no specialised magic to find Tatsuya, neither contacts nor expertise, Miyuki could only hug her chest as she stared at the screen.
It was an unconscious action.
In her chest was her heart. And although her clothes were in the way and she couldn’t feel it beat, she could feel something else in its stead.
Within her chest, in her heart,
She could feel her connection to Tatsuya.
Abhorrent, latching on to her brother.
The reconfigured Limiter.
The lock and chains were none other than she herself.
She herself was also the key.
Binding her to bind her brother, it was nothing short of a curse.
Yet for all that, it was still a definite connection which linked her and her brother.
—If only I could see too—
Miyuki thought.
However far Tatsuya was from Miyuki, he was able to know her situation. She had heard that his ‘vision’ could analyse existential information, and things such as her whereabouts and condition were always known to him in the form of data.
In a sense that meant she had absolutely no privacy whatsoever, but that didn’t bother Miyuki in the least.
She didn’t have a single secret she had to keep against her brother. If there ever was something she could not say hidden in her heart, she would want him to know of it through his power. She thought so even as she knew his ‘vision’ didn’t extend to the mental realm.
On the other hand, Miyuki had no way to ‘see’ her partner from a distance.
Instead, for Miyuki who was born with Mental Interference magic, she could ‘sense’ the ‘location’ of the ‘mind’. By releasing the Limiter on Tatsuya and thereby freeing her own abilities, Miyuki could ‘touch’ the minds of others. She might even be able to touch the spirits drifting in the world.
However, she couldn’t feel the ‘being’ of one far away. She couldn’t transmit like her brother in the dimension of information, where physical distance had no meaning.
That was the difference between sight and touch. Even if she could touch something which ‘is there’, she couldn’t use it to find something she couldn’t locate.
Feeling her brother in her chest, which only heightened her sense of frustration, Miyuki thought hard.
Driven by an unexplained ominous sense of foreboding, she wished she could rush to his side.
She didn’t know how long she had continued to feel so, as she stared at the screen.
Awakening her was the chime ringing, announcing an unexpected visitor.
With a start, she glanced at the clock.
Alright, let them leave, Miyuki thought. There was no fault in not even pretending to not be at home, since it was far too late an hour to be visiting others anyway.
She had a look at the intercom monitor. Recognising the visitor, Miyuki immediately modified her plans. While considering what to change into, she also calculated how long it would take.
"Please wait a moment, Sensei."
Standing there was Yakumo.
Tatsuya watched the fight between the Parasite and the masked magician from the shadow of a tree.
He had gotten to the park three minutes before the battle broke out. When they had reached the predicted point of capture he had let out a sound despite himself, but now he concealed his breathing and erased his presence, awaiting an opportunity to intervene.
According to the information from Mayumi, there were multiple vampires and multiple hunters after them, but seeing the two before him he was certain they were the same two from yesterday. He had merely looked at the movement of the groups and predicted where the first contact would occur, but he hadn’t identified the individuals.
(…This is a coincidence, right?)
A shiver ran down Tatsuya’s spine and he almost inadvertently revealed his position. Somehow holding it back, he complained in his mind. –Something along the lines of ‘if this is fate, it’s far too disagreeable’.
He looked back to the state of the battle. The momentum was clearly on the side of the masked magician. By comparison, the white masked vampire was attempting to get away. And the net to block that escape was yet incomplete.
(Four people. As I thought, it’s not enough.)
As three forces — if you include the police who weren’t working with the Saegusa, it’d be four — ran together and got in each other’s way, four magicians were converging here from four different directions. They were the away team, without any street monitoring equipment, yet had impressively managed to call in four other people unnoticed by the others, is what he would have thought, but at the end of the day it was safe to say such numbers could not hope to cut off all the escape routes in this three-dimensional city.
Which was why this situation would soon become not 'hide and seek' but 'tag'...
(Your enemy's enemy is, in the end, just another party. That one fact alone doesn't automatically make them an ally, huh.)
If all the forces pursuing the Parasites were to work together, each team had only to send this many people out and then herding them in would be a simple matter. But due to the differences in intent, it wouldn't work out. Even his own goals did not completely match with those of Mayumi or Erika.
But for the moment, the vampire was more of an enemy.
(Now then, how to make my entrance.)
Whilst predicting the various reactions the masked character could make, Tatsuya pulled from his waist not his CAD but a gun. Of course it was illegal, but that was about the furthest thing on his mind at this point. He pointed the gun at the vampire which had just made a huge leap to avoid a knife stroke with complete calm, aimed at around the belly, and casually pulled the trigger.
The average effective range of a handgun is 50 meters, while in real combat the effective range is said to be more within 20m. This had changed little from the last century, and the reason was because handguns were a weapon made with those needs in mind.
The distance between the shaded tree under which Tatsuya was hiding and the longcoat wearing phantom was about 10m. Although Tatsuya had exceeded the minimum necessary training time, he by no means practiced with a handgun every day, and it was a still a fairly difficult distance.
The gun in his hand was a single shot chambered gun designed for a special bullet. There were no second chances. He would have preferred to aim for an area of exposed skin, but he had to give up on what he couldn't do.
Besides, as the target was wearing a hat over the eyes as well as a longcoat which stretched down to the ankles in addition to a white mask which completely covered the face, it was a fair bet that there was no exposed skin in any case. There was nothing to fret over.
The low speed heavy bullet absorbed more of the discharge than a suppressor would have, yet as aimed, the bullet hit the abdomen of the coat. While the weight of the bullet was twice that of a standard 9mm, the lack of speed was compensated by the fact the vampire had been falling back towards the bullet.
The masked magician turned towards Tatsuya. Golden pupils glinted with a harsh light as they watched him.
Discernible within them was unmistakable hostility.
She abandoned her knife at the same time Tatsuya released his gun.
Her hand shot to her waist, as Tatsuya's went to his breast.
Tatsuya's hand reached his destination first.
But his finger froze midway through pulling the trigger of his CAD.
In his opponent's hand was a medium sized automatic pistol. Tatsuya's vision discerned a magic formula already formed within its barrel.
The activation speed was comparable to Tatsuya's Decomposition. It was a specialised device which began an activation sequence the moment it was gripped, cutting out the time and effort needed to operate the switch and thus seizing the initiative.
The magic triggered was Data Fortification. A magic which strengthened any bullets passing through the barrel.
Tatsuya flicked the selector of his CAD, switched from a magic for decomposing Eidos to one for decomposing entities and began activation.
His target was the chamber of the gun the masked magician held. More precisely, the bullets which would be fired from therein.
Time seemed to slow during that moment of high-density information processing as magic was activated, as Tatsuya watched the masked magician pull back the trigger of her automatic pistol while Tatsuya did the same with his CAD.
The distance between the masked magician and Tatsuya was approximately 15m. The subsonic bullets fired from that suppressed gun, which emphasised stealth, would take 0.05s to reach him.
That was almost the same as instantaneously.
However, the time after being enhanced with Data Fortification would be even less.
As the speed enhanced bullets sped through the air, they disintegrated to dust.
A jolt was evident from behind the mask.
She certainly had reason for her confidence, Tatsuya thought.
Mere 'suspension' or 'vector modification' would not have been sufficient to stop those bullets. If one had sufficient ability such as Katsuto it would be a different story, but the average magician wouldn't stand a chance. Even a magician of the combat class from the Ten Master Clans would be hard-pressed.
In Tatsuya's case, 'Decomposition' was a strong counter to 'Data Fortification' so he was able to cope, but if that hadn't been the case he would have definitely been in trouble with no countermeasures.
That was all, however, mere conjecture. And now, the masked magician had exposed a gap before Tatsuya.
He fired off magic the instant he became aware of that gap.
The magic he had failed to fire off initially, now hit the masked magician head-on.
Reflected in Tatsuya's vision, things such as 'color', 'shape', 'sound', 'heat' and 'position' were written as information. He targeted not the magician herself, but rather locking on to her disguise magic he released the anti-magic Gram Dispersion.
Decomposing the magic formula itself, it stripped her insubstantial outer covering and scattered it away.
—In that instant,
—the demon was reborn as an angel.
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