The night sky was filled with stars. Within the inside of the motor sedan which was racing along the highway in the heart of the city, views of the outside came as 3D imagery as neither sound nor vibrations transferred through.
"...Sensei."
Sitting in the back seat of that quiet cabin, Miyuki hesitantly opened her mouth.
The person she was addressing was the Ninjutsu user sitting next to her, Kokonoe Yakumo.
"Nn, what is it?"
Yakumo opened his eyes, and turned to face Miyuki.
"Why at this time...are you helping? If I remember, your rule had always been to not get involved in the real world."
It was caution, or rather observance of Buddhist principles. The meanings were different, but the results were similar. And the commandments Yakumo had imposed on himself involved both.
"Well, there are some circumstances involved."
Yakumo's tone was frivolous as always, and it was difficult for Miyuki to see through to the true intent beneath.
"Though I discarded all earthly bonds when I took up my ordination, I did not discard my work as a shinobi. It wasn't my call alone to make after all."
Not that he couldn't, but that he *didn't*. There was no sense of regret, but rather the feeling that Yakumo considered it to be perfectly natural...that was what Miyuki read.
"There are those who call it the responsibility or obligation of those who have inherited skills...it may be considered the height of worldliness, but even in Buddhism, authority is not free from tradition so it should be acceptable I guess?"
Although he had technically asked a question, Miyuki had no answer. Nevermind Miyuki, it wasn't something you'd ask a 15 year old girl in general.
"Haah..."
The best she could do were ambiguous words of support. It seemed that Yakumo's disciple in the driver's seat was sending signals reminiscent of raised eyebrows, but that may have been just her imagination.
"The thing is, I heard from Kazama-kun that the enemy Tatsuya-kun was facing may have been using the Kudou's 'Parade'. If that really is the case, we'll have to give them a warning. The one who taught the Kudou 'Matoi', which they developed into Parade, was my predecessor after all."
The whole thing's such a pain, Yakumo sighed.
That indiscreet remark however passed Miyuki by.
"The precursor to the Kudou's secret technique 'Parade', was taught by Sensei's master..."
If it had been Tatsuya, he would probably have just said 'ah, so that sort of thing happens' and simply accepted it. But for Miyuki, it wasn't as easy to swallow.
"Oh? You didn't know? The purpose of the Ninth Institute had been to develop magicians who could implement streamlined and re-systematised Ancient magic into modern magic. To that end, the Ninth Institute gathered many Ancient users. My predecessor was amongst them."
Naturally, Miyuki had no idea.
Rather, the idea that a high school girl would be knowledgeable about the dark side of modern magic, the sealed miseries which were the Magic Ability Development Institutes, was more absurd. Even Miyuki, an inheritor of the results of the most infamous Fourth Institute, would be clueless as to what the other institutes had been up to.
"...Then could it be, Sensei's family name [2] ?"
Miyuki's eyes widened as she gasped, and she inquired with a pale expression.
"No, you're just overthinking things."
He probably guessed what Miyuki was thinking immediately. Laughing bitterly, Yakumo shook his hands in denial.
"The name Kokonoe is merely something I inherited from my predecessor."
The air in the car eased up a little. But that warmth plunged back down almost immediately.
"Anyway, it was under those circumstances that my predecessor taught the Kudou 'Matoi' and they developed it into 'Parade'. It involves original secret techniques of our own. So if the magician tangled with Tatsuya-kun is truly using 'Parade', they'll have to be warned not to flash it around any further. And if they're not inclined to listen, well, that'd be most unfortunate."
Yakumo's tone and expression were as carefree as ever. And yet, Miyuki felt a chill run down her spine. Nor was it just her. Gripping the wheel, Yakumo's disciple's hunched shoulders were rigid as stone.
A demon turning into an angel. That was the impression left on Tatsuya's mind, so vivid was the change.
The scarlet hair, reminiscent of the darkness of the abyss blazed into gold shining in the feeble light.
Cruel golden eyes transformed into the serene blue of an azure sky.
The curves of her face softened, and her figure slimmed down.
Even her height seemed to shrink slightly.
Such beauty couldn't possibly have been hidden by such a small mask.
Of course, if one could change even their physique, it's no wonder they could have fooled the world.
If various evidence had not built up until now, even Tatsuya probably would not have known.
Tatsuya's hand moved unconsciously. From the hand of the golden-haired sapphire-eyed girl flew another five bullets, all of which disintegrated before reaching him.
Then just before she could fire off any more bullets, the slide of her handgun flew off and the barrel fell out.
Being forced to stop shooting, not to mention having her device impossibly destroyed by magic, the masked girl froze.
"That's enough, Lina! I don't want to fight you!"
Taking advantage of the lull, Tatsuya tried to contain the situation. His goal today was the capture of the Parasite. To restrain it, and find out its identity. That was why he had taken the hard route of firing a bullet which would shoot out an anesthetic needle from that single-shot gun.
To him, the fight with the masked magician/Lina was a pointless waste of time. That line should have been the end of the battle, but...
It was a bad move — achieving instead the opposite effect. From behind the mask, blue eyes glinted with a hard light.
Returning the wrecked specialised CAD to its holster with her right hand, she withdrew it holding miniature throwing daggers instead.
The magicians of the USNA favour and make widespread use of integrated armament CADs. It was more than possible that those daggers weren't simple blades, but some sort of armament device.
Short boots kicked off from the surface of the softcourt. It was hardly a speed one would expect out of a young lady, but it didn't exceed the limits of ordinary men.
Tatsuya took a ball of lead out from his pocket and flicked out his fingers.
Whistling through the air, it flew straight towards Lina's right hand — and passed right on through.
There was no spray of blood. It hadn't hit flesh, but rather an illusion.
At that moment Lina pulled back her arm. The dagger sped towards Tatsuya from a meter away from where his naked eye had perceived it.
Jumping aside to dodge, Tatsuya's eyes traced its trajectory. Where his eyes led, he saw an illusion throwing another dagger.
His naked eyes saw a small masked girl, yet his minds eye knew it was only an insubstantial stereoscopic image.
(How troublesome!)
Tatsuya let out a wordless complaint. The difference between knowing and actually dealing with something really was quite pronounced.
The technique Parade created an Information Body containing all the elements 'color', 'shape', sound', 'heat' and 'position'. It was the same as Yakumo's 'Matoi'.
Unlike 'Matoi', which projected a Body identical to the original in color, shape, sound and heat yet with a different position, Lina's Parade emphasised projecting different colors and a different shape. However, that didn't mean Parade was unable to shift position too. The technique which the Kudou devised, and Lina inherited, was perfectly capable of doing so as well.
Right now Lina was focusing the computing power for changing color and shape all into changing position, preventing Tatsuya from getting a grip on her real location. And without target coordinates, he was unable to cast magic. Magic which required coordinates based on determination from visual information was as good as disabled once the target was no longer in sight. And the difference between 'Parade' and an illusion was that the false position carried over even into the dimension of information.
For magic to take effect, the magic sequence must be projected upon the target's Eidos. For example, to execute a file on a computer, the path of the directory where the file is located must be specified and an execution command must be carried out, but since specifying the path every time is laboursome a shortcut is often used. If the shortcut is changed to instead specify a path leading to an inexistent dummy file, then despite carrying out the same procedure as before, rather than executing the actual file an error will occur.
Applying this principle to the magic process, in most cases the visual information is the shortcut icon, and within it is the auditory and temperature tactile information. If the visual information is disrupted due to an illusion the magic will not trigger, yet if the illusion and true body are overlapping the sequence can still reach the Eidos through the coordinate information most of the time. In this case, despite a delay the magic will function as normal.
Even if the illusion is in a different place, it's still possible to take the association between the illusion and true body as a key and attempt to locate the position of the true body. But if the coordinates are faked and a dummy is present in the dimension of information, the magic formula released taking the information from the five senses as a shortcut acts instead towards the dummy, the result of which is 'nothing happened'.
This is the system of the anti-magic 'Parade'.
—Thus in order to break through 'Parade',
—it's necessary to either locate the body between the time when the old illusion breaks down and a new illusion is created,
—or disregard the five senses to find the coordinates of the body directly in the dimension of information.
The former was currently not going so well. To make matters worse, Lina's magic activation was blindingly fast. Her activation speed surpassed that of even Miyuki. Not to mention, she would have especially practiced this particular magic to death. The speed at which she reactivated the magic was utterly monstrous.
For Tatsuya, the latter method was a possibility. Being under constant physical attack, however, the majority of his perception was in the material realm, and shifting into the immaterial would be a considerable gamble.
(—There's no choice.)
As she pulled out the fifth dagger, Tatsuya decided. Unable to find the body before a new illusion sprang up, nor able to locate his target's Eidos in the dimension of information, he settled for the third option.
He took out a small cylindrical can from the pocket of his jacket.
And threw it lightly upwards.
For a split second, a confused expression floated on Lina's face, yet upon recognising what the 'can' was, her eyes widened.
It was a miniature canister grenade.
"Je—"
Jesus, was probably the word she was going for. But Lina didn't have the chance to finish. Wasting not the time to utter even that short word, she threw up an objective barrier.
(Fixed Deceleration.)
On the other hand, Tatsuya Flash Casted a magic for constantly decelerating the movement speed of objects. If he had tried creating a weak barrier with his virtual magic area, it would have been impossible for him to completely block out his own canister grenade (a grenade specialised for throwing out shrapnel).
And if he had used speed stopping suspension magic, it was possible that it would lose out to the sheer kinetic energy of the projectiles and fail to modify the event.
Which was why he used fixed deceleration. Even then, he wouldn't have been able to achieve a large scale deceleration like to a hundredth or a thousandth of velocity.
By combining the fact it was a weapon he had prepared and knew everything about with his virtual magic area's interference strength, he was able to produce magic of the bare minimum required for success.
Fixed deceleration alone, however, couldn't stop the shrapnel. It wasn't a magic designed for that task. As he turned to his side and dropped to his knees, tiny shards peppered his flank, thigh, and the arm he had raised to cover his head.
Very few penetrated the fabric of the artificial leather with a minor bulletproof capacity, but still over a dozen were now digging into the flesh of his limbs.
[Self restoration / Auto start]
(Self restoration cancel)
Willfully suppressing his self restoration which automatically tried to initiate, Tatsuya leaped towards Lina who was completely unscathed behind a barrier. He immediately began working to decompose the anti-personnel barrier Lina had newly thrown up. Being completely caught off guard, even Lina couldn't manage any more than that.
"...How reckless, Tatsuya."
Lina was thrown onto the ground, and Tatsuya pressed down from above. Pinned to the ground, Lina spoke in an amazed voice. Her lips, not hidden behind her mask, were curled into a smile, but it wasn't difficult to see through her bravado.
"It's textbook when dealing with an opponent you can't locate to simply bring out non-directional attacks, right?"
"That's called an indiscriminate attack."
"Feel free to think so. Unfortunately, I simply don't have the skill to cast area effect magic. Well, if it's Lina I'm sure you would've been able to defend against that anyway, so with that said please forgive me."
"If you incapacitate yourself in the process, I think it defeats the whole purpose."
"Without resorting to this, there was absolutely no catching you."
"You wanted to catch me? If you're going to declare your love, I'd have preferred a more romantic manner."
Looking downwards into those azure eyes, Tatsuya grinned. He was pinning both of Lina's hands above her head with one palm.
When he moved his free hand towards her mask, Lina's shoulder twitched. The fingers of her left hand wrapped in thick gloves tried to move, but Tatsuya forcibly splayed them open.
"...It hurts, Tatsuya."
"Unfortunately, I know the trick of that CAD. Now then..."
Tatsuya's hand took hold of the mask.
Lina closed her eyes, and turned away. Even though her identity had long since been exposed, she still seemed reluctant to show her true face. Tatsuya didn't understand the thinking behind such rationale, but it wasn't like he was trying to strip her, so he had no reason to stop.
"Activate, [Dancing Blades]!"
The moment his hand touched the mask, Lina facing away cried out.
The five daggers Lina had thrown out responded to the sound of her voice, and whirled towards Tatsuya.
(A voice activated armament is it...a device which activates not on an activation sequence but on a delay trigger is pretty interesting.)
Sensing the daggers rushing at him, Tatsuya muttered to himself.
Two were aimed at his right hand holding the mask, one at his right shoulder, one his left arm and one his leg.
None targeted his vitals.
Come to think of it, all of Lina's attacks had been meant to disable, none with the intent to kill...as he considered such things, the daggers had already reached his flesh.
And the moment they made contact, they dissolved into dust.
"Corrosion...no, Decomposition...?"
Lina's eyes returned to face Tatsuya, as they widened in shock.
Paying it no mind, Tatsuya began peeling off the mask.
Lina tried to resist, violently shaking her head, but Tatsuya's hand was immovable.
"You'll regret this, Tatsuya!"
"The moment the target I should have successfully captured fled, I felt plenty enough regret."
During the scuffle with Lina, the Parasite had escaped a good distance away. Even though he had insurance, he couldn't help feeling frustration over the whole affair. Lina should have been after the vampire too, so what in the world were her intentions in helping it escape filled Tatsuya's thoughts.
Despite being faced by those teary eyes, being pleaded to in such a desperate voice, Tatsuya felt no obligation to hesitate. He removed the receivers acting as clasps on her ears. As expected, it seemed the mask acted as an information terminal.
He gently removed the mask which was made of a surprisingly firm material. Even Tatsuya, who was more than accustomed to good looks, couldn't help almost letting out a sigh at the sheer beauty now revealed.
Lina clenched her lips and glared at Tatsuya.
The very next moment, heartrending screams issued from those lips.
At that totally abrupt development, Tatsuya was stunned.
His arm restraining Lina's hands didn't loosen however, having been mercilessly educated as a subordinate of the unscrupulous Kazama.
"Someone, anyone help!"
It was like she was crying to be saved from a rapist.
Although not a rapist, Tatsuya's very convincing cold eyes weren't helping his case.
As if lying in wait for Lina's scream as a signal, the sound of rushing footsteps could be heard. Wearing navy blue uniforms under scarlet bulletproof vests lined with white reflective paint, four people hurried in from four directions. The emblem that shone on their caps was the sakura crest.
Grasping Lina's left arm, Tatsuya forcibly tore off the glove from her left hand.
With the sensation of a cord ripping, Lina's white hand was revealed.
"Put your hands in the air and turn around!"
A policeman — or at least a man dressed up like one — yelled as he ran up while aiming a handgun.
Tatsuya spun behind Lina, and rushed the man.
Lina was pushed into the chest of the man as he gave a cry.
The man caught her.
And Tatsuya, vaulting overhead, landed on the man's shoulders.
As if booting a soccer ball, he slammed a kick right into his face.
Leaping off the shoulder of the man who crumpled back without a sound, Tatsuya slipped out from the encircling fake cops.
"...What in the world would you have done if he had been a real cop?"
Lina's voice was absolutely disbelieving.
However,
"It's really time you dropped the act, Angie Sirius."
At Tatsuya's reply, the atmosphere hardened.
"If they're aiding you, it doesn't matter if they're real or not. Although complacent 100 years ago, modern criminal law states that even unwittingly abetting foreign aggressors is grounds for prosecution. If you think dressing up as cops is enough to scare people, you're gravely mistaken. Don't underestimate the resolution of the magicians of Japan."
The three fake officers, excluding the one kicked down, turned to await the decision of Lina, of their commander Angie Sirius.
With a sigh Lina faced Tatsuya and, lightly bending her knee, gave a polite bow.
"We're sorry for the rudeness. Truly, we underestimated you. There's a great difference between hearing and seeing. As a fellow magician, I apologise."
Then she aligned her feet, stood up straight and placed her right hand to the side of her forehead. Even without a military cap, it was unmistakably a salute.
Earlier she had been just another magician, but now she was acting as the captain of the USNA military magician corps. That was what Tatsuya interpreted her gesture as.
"I am the captain of the USNA army integrated magician force Stars, reporting directly to the Chiefs of Staff, Major Angelina Sirius. Angie Sirius was the name I went under during my previous disguise, so please just continue calling me Lina as you always have done. Now then."
The killing intent which she had kept under wraps for the sake of courtesy, now assaulted Tatsuya in full force.
"Now that you know both my true face and true identity, Tatsuya, the Stars have no option but to annihilate you. If you had left the mask on we could have avoided this, however much a deception it would have been; it's a pity."
"Are you telling me you regret this?"
In the midst of that bloodthirstiness, Tatsuya laughed fearlessly.
"If you had just stayed quiet and allowed yourself to be caught, we could have ended this without killing at the least."
"My bad. I've let your heartfelt consideration go to waste."
"No, what will be taking your life is our self-centered circumstance, so there's no nothing to apologise for. You may even feel free to resist."
One of the fake cops handed out to her a combat knife in one hand, and a medium-sized handgun in the other. A blade form armament device, and a gun shaped specialised CAD.
Tatsuya also drew his CAD.
"This really is a shame, Tatsuya. I had gotten to quite like you."
Stretching out her left hand, Lina pointed her CAD at Tatsuya.
Stretching out his right hand, Tatsuya pointed his CAD at Lina.
Lina's subordinates took positions behind him. He was surrounded.
"...Goodbye, Tatsuya."
"I won't let you, Lina!"
Suddenly at that moment, a commanding voice cold as deepest winter froze the air.
A startled light floating into her eyes, Lina turned towards the sound of the voice.
As if covering their now wide-open superior, Lina's subordinates moved in to simultaneously attack Tatsuya from three sides.
Large combat knives swung towards Tatsuya. Extending from the blades edges was 'Molecular Divider'.
Tatsuya pulled the trigger of his CAD. The virtual territory, designed to invert the bonds holding molecules together, vanished in spite of the operators intent.
Now that the combat knives were mere blades, Tatsuya broke out from the net. One of Lina's subordinates, running right past Tatsuya, suddenly pressed a hand to his stomach and fell over. Welling out from between his fingers was blood.
His blood-soaked left hand flung out. Blood splattered towards the other fake cops.
One of them stopped in his tracks, and the other one ran right into him.
Tatsuya's right hand returned to point towards Lina.
Lina's left hand was aimed at the person who had gotten in her way — Miyuki.
The activation sequence she initiated was dispelled by Tatsuya's 'Gram Dispersion'.
Before a man could jump at Tatsuya, a cold which chilled the blood of all the attackers descended.
The man's footsteps came to an abrupt halt.
Behind him stalked up a shadow.
Wordlessly, the man fell unconscious.
The one person remaining was already flat on the ground.
"Well, Tatsuya-kun, that was pretty dangerous."
Having incapacitated two of the Stars members in an instant, Yakumo strolled up with the same unconcerned expression as always.
Seeing that figure able to maintain 'as always' even in this situation, Tatsuya acknowledged his own inexperience.
"How shameless, master. Despite the fact you were waiting to make the perfect entrance."
Being impressed in spite of himself was vexing, so he threw out sarcasm instead.
At that line, Lina's eyes widened.
In front of her was Miyuki, CAD prepped and battle ready.
Tatsuya's right hand was aimed straight at Lina.
Yakumo's eyes were directed towards Tatsuya, but Lina was also fully within his field of view.
The one surrounded was now Lina.
"Well, I guess this is fine. There are some things I had wanted to ask you anyway."
"Eh, was that so Onii-sama?"
Miyuki turned around in dismay. Looking away from Lina she left herself wide open, but due to the increased pressure from both Tatsuya and Yakumo, Lina was paralysed.
Immediately noticing her own blunder, Miyuki also returned her focus to Lina in a hurry.
"You allowed yourself to be surrounded on purpose in order to draw information from them right...and without considering that, I just stormed in. Please forgive me, Onii-sama."
Still turned towards Lina, Miyuki spoke in an apologetic voice as she begged Tatsuya's pardon.
"No, it really was dangerous, so your judgment wasn't wrong. Therefore there's nothing to apologise for. Rather, I should be the one expressing my gratitude. Miyuki, thank you."
"Onii-sama...there's no need..."
Miyuki muttered with a dazed expression. Well, Miyuki apologising to Tatsuya and then this happening was pretty much a guaranteed occurrence. Or like some sort of ritual. Despite never taking her eyes off Lina, Miyuki was paying only the bare minimum of attention.
"Besides, I can simply start asking them now."
This was spoken towards Miyuki, but they were also meant for Lina. From the way he spoke every word clearly, Lina realised his intent.
"...Are you going to try to force me to talk?"
"Interrogation generally involves force."
Lina spoke through ground teeth, and Tatsuya returned an indirect confirmation.
"Three on one is cheating! Unfair!"
"Unfair...just how many of you were ganging up on Onii-sama earlier?"
At that vexed cry of complaint, Miyuki hit back dumbfounded.
"Come now, don't say that."
Before her shock turned to anger, Tatsuya soothed his imouto.
"Fair is a façade [3] when in a favourable position to maintain that condition, and unfair is an expedience when at a disadvantage to wring concessions from the other side. From a tactical perspective, using words to avoid conflict when one cannot win through force is not wrong. The moment you're drawn in is when you lose, Miyuki."
"I see, so that's what it was."
It was rather blunt, but at least it managed to achieve its effect of calming Miyuki down.
"Façade? Expedience?"
At the same time, it had the effect of setting Lina off.
Incidentally, Yakumo was just muffling his laughter all the while.
"I don't want to be told that by you Japanese who aren't ashamed to hide your true intentions with a façade!"
"Aren't you 1/4 Japanese yourself?"
"..."
"The 'Parade' you use was developed in Japan, and the reason you can use it is because of the Kudou, in other words Japanese, blood flowing within you right? Besides which, double standards are the hallmark of the white establishment. I've yet to hear of a people who don't separate their true feelings from their façade."
Lina silently glared at Tatsuya, her white skin flushed bright red. Silently, as she didn't even let out a groan.
Facing Lina's eyes with his terrible grin, Tatsuya noticed her bloodlust had completely faded and he smiled wryly.
"...Is something strange?"
"No, I'm just thinking that interrogating Lina at this rate is just going to make her more obstinate."
"At least call it pride!"
Knowing the difference between obstinacy and pride, her Japanese really isn't bad, Tatsuya thought, impressed. —Not that that was very relevant.
"The other groups will be here soon too..."
"Wait! Are you listening to me at all??"
It was best to ignore the irrelevant things.
"Lina, let's have a fair deal. If you think three on one is unfair, what about a one on one. If you win, we'll let you go for today. If I win, you'll have to truthfully answer our questions. How's that?"
Even if Lina won, Tatsuya still knew her true identity, and if he won, she would have to talk. Although the match would be one on one, the conditions still weren't balanced.
"...Fine." "Please wait!"
As Lina accepted bitterly, Miyuki spoke up at the same time.
Both Tatsuya and Lina looked over at Miyuki.
Undaunted, Miyuki spoke clearly.
"Onii-sama, please leave the match with Lina to me."
"Miyuki, just what are you..."
"Lina, remember this. I will never forgive those who intend harm on Onii-sama. I think of you as my rival and my friend, but when you declared your intent to kill him, even if those were mere words, I absolutely will not forgive it. By my own hands, I will have you realise your sin."
Miyuki's eyes shone with a fully serious light. Seeing that far too deep obsession, it seemed like Lina would laugh it off as deception, but she only let out a chuckle.
"Don't worry. I won't kill you."
Miyuki's words declared it was already her victory.
"Hmph...Miyuki, you think you can win against me? I, who hold the name of Sirius, me!"
Hearing that, the flames of battle flared up in Lina's chest.
The two queens glared at one another.
"Alright. Miyuki, I leave it to you. Is that fine with you, Lina?"
"Thank you very much, Onii-sama."
"Have it your way. If I lose, I'll tell you whatever you want. Not that that will ever happen though!"
The agreement was made. And so it was that the two extraordinary beauties prepared to raise the curtain on a magnificent duel.
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