Chapter 4 - Counterattack
Part 1
A twist of fate rapidly approached. No, it was unclear whether it would arrive or not. But at the time she didn't have the strength to see it beforehand.
The pressing state of the world. Omens of war. The Onmyou Bureau had been reestablished by the military and he had been given command as the Onmyou Head. Also, he had the tall task of reviving the magic that was gradually declining.
Could he do it? She answered yes without any hesitation when her master asked her this.
How many people other than Yakou-sama would be able to complete a feat of this difficulty?
His ability was genuine. His fervor towards magic and his lofty ambition had no equal. She herself had become a first-rate practitioner because his ability had allowed her to bloom, so she understood.
He was a genius.
Such an extraordinary genius couldn't be granted wide-ranging powers without a purpose. It was now - with this difficult duty - that he had to complete his mission.
"Can you lend me your strength?"
She practically felt regretful at her master for asking her this. Why did he still have to confirm that obvious answer now? She scolded him and he laughed and apologized. Maybe she had only been born into this world to assist him to complete his mission with all her strength. She believed so.
At that time, a beautiful harmony developed in the world, everything matched perfectly, and formed a huge flow - forming fate. At least she thought so.
She didn't have any doubts at all.
Pure and innocent, completely clueless about the omens of the upcoming tragedy.
Of the many people who visited the Onmyou Agency to take back Harutora, it was actually Tenma who succeeded in infiltrating the agency building first.
But it wasn't something on the level of 'breaking in'. He entered properly through the side door that the agency members used.
"Sorry to bother this late at night. My mom insisted that we should at least give him a change of clothes."
He gave the name of an actual department and agency member, raising the paper bag in his hand with an extremely apologetic cordial smile.
The name of the agency member he was borrowing was Fujiwara Kenichi. He was the nephew of the teacher Fujiwara. He belonged to the General Affairs Department of the Onmyou Agency, and though he lived in the city, he had been sleeping at the office recently. He had heard this from Fujiwara a few days ago. Also, he had also heard that he had another nephew, a highschooler named Koji who wore glasses. His heart beat painfully behind his smiling face, but the person in charge didn't check with Fujiwara Kenichi after glancing at Tenma's face, smiling, saying "Thanks for your work", and letting him through the door instead.
Zero casualties, zero damage, zero magical energy expended, and it only took a brief forty-five minutes. The only thing hurt was Tenma's conscience. This was a peaceful and cunning infiltration, and even if the powerful Mystical Investigator Ohtomo saw it, he would have nothing to say and no issue to point out with the infiltration - but to be honest, Tenma was the only one among their group of companions who could perform this stunt.
Tenma didn't conceal his nervousness after entering the agency building - after all, there was no need- and first checked the map on the wall.
To an outsider, the Onmyou Agency building was a complex structure that seemed mazelike. This intricate and complex was an unignorable, troublesome factor for an invader.
But it was meaningless to Tenma.
"Um, excuse me. I'm sorry to disturb you during work, but could you tell me where the research and development room is?"
He politely questioned an agency member that he saw, receiving an enthusiastic reply, and then thanked him politely again. As a result, Tenma almost didn't get lost at all and easily got close to his destination.
Incidentally, Tenma was the first infiltrator since the Onmyou Agency was constructed to reach the depths of the agency building without using magic. Moreover, in this time, Tenma had not attracted the enemy's eyes at all. Then if you viewed Tenma's current actions as second-class magic, you could call its effectiveness superior to Ohtomo's and Doman's first-class magic in being able to avoid the enemy's eyes while slipping deep inside.
What was truly important in a real battle were the results, not the process. What's more, the smaller the effort required and the less conspicuous it was, the better. In any case, Tenma's second-class magic was - in terms of results - an ability like infiltrating the enemy's ranks themselves.
... 'Listen, Momoe Tenma.'
Saotome's words reawakened in his mind. Tenma carefully moved through the corridor.
... 'The Onmyou Agency's eyes aren't aimed at you right now. The opponents don't have you in their eyes at all. You have no quantifiable value to the Onmyou Agency.'
Though that was mean, it was the pure truth. Unlike Touji, Kyouko, and Suzuka, he was just an ordinary Onmyou Academy student. He wasn't good with practical skills, and he wasn't strong in actual battle either. He didn't have any particular strengths.
But.
... 'But, the Onmyou Agency is an 'enemy' to you. Then to you, these current circumstances are as if you used an extremely powerful stealth magic against the Onmyou Agency. It holds the same meaning and the same value.'
The so-called Onmyou Agency higher-ups, the professional world whose dazzling talents pushed against each other, the elites who climbed higher 'up'. It was very difficult for those people to notice an unimpressive ordinary person like him. Right, it was 'very difficult'.
Then, that became Tenma's advantage.
... 'Even a wall that looks solid at first glance will crumble if you remove the key stones. Even a pebble fallen along the road can become a 'weapon' depending on the situation. Listen up, pebble. ......No, Momoe Tenma. I'm going to aim at the target and throw you out. Smash the key portion of the Onmyou Agency perfectly for me.'
If you fail, I'll make it so that you won't be able to get married. He had been fiercely threatened in that mysterious manner. Though he still hadn't gotten over that fear, Tenma had gotten all the way here. He could no longer turn back.
"......It's here."
The third research and development branch.
It would be a lie to say he wasn't disappointed. But no, even Tenma understood this.
One could say that he had effortlessly infiltrated through wit and planning alone - but there were also other ways to see it. For example, that he had no power to resist if the enemies noticed him. He couldn't escape either. Though the opponents weren't watching him, on the other hand, he would be instantly defeated if he was noticed. In that sense, he was crossing a fearsomely 'dangerous bridge'. In other words, he was taking a huge risk and reaping the corresponding reward.
...What a gamble.
He even felt stunned. But he had gambled thus far to be of some use to his friends, and he didn't plan on doing anything but raising the stakes until the end. He understood and decided this himself.
...Moreover, the real work starts now......
Tenma looked ahead again.
At the end of the corridor was a vast room with a high ceiling. There were several desks arranged in the depths and it was cut off by a glass partition. His target was the sealed storage room that was on the other side of that partition.
He had learned from Saotome that there were other security systems on the other side of that glass partition. But he had obtained a pass to get through there from her as well.
The problem were the people. The interior of the vast room had great visibility, and even at this time there were a few people still continuing to work at the desks.
Even if he were challenged in that room, he might be able to muddle his way through. But if he were noticed just once, it would be almost impossible to sneak past that wall again. Also, if he were noticed while trying to enter, then even putting on a harmless smile and using the name Fujiwara Kenichi would be ineffective. After all, it was a security system that was supposed to keep outsiders from entering.
...The entrance...... there. It was so visible. He wondered whether the people around would notice if he opened that door.
He entered the corridor in front of the room. Tenma hid behind a potted plant placed there and desperately racked his brain. The method he thought of was to cause a slight commotion in another place, draw the attention of the people in the room over there, and then take that opportunity to sneak deep inside.
...Like if he pulled the fire alarm......
Since it was inside the Onmyou Agency building, that kind of classical method felt more useful than recklessly relying on magic. Okay. Tenma decided to turn back and look for a fire alarm.
But.
"...H-Huh?"
Suddenly, the bureau members in the room left their seats and started to get noisy. Moreover, they were coming this way.
...E-Eh!?
Had he been noticed? Tenma doubled back in a panic, hiding in the men's bathroom on the way. He rushed into a stall and locked it. His painfully-thumping heart felt like it was going to burst.
But.
......They're not coming? I wasn't noticed?
The sound of footsteps running through the corridor soon grew distant. He gingerly peeped into the corridor outside but didn't see anyone. Puzzled, he came back into the corridor and headed to the room again.
There was no one in the room. Tenma's eyes widened.
"......What's going on?"
Though he didn't know the reason, this was an opportunity. Tenma came to his senses, taking out an identification card from his pocket. It was the pass through the security system that Saotome Suzu had given him. There was no stairwell behind the glass partition. Rather, several rooms were separated from each other. The Research and Development Department third branch was a department that invented magical tools, and each of those rooms were all research labs. Before Saotome transferred into the Imperial Household Agency Lingering Spirit Division, she had belonged to the Research and Development Department. That was why she was familiar with the security system.
Clutching the identification card, Tenma prepared to rush into the room from the corridor.
But--
Suddenly, he felt a gaze and stopped in surprise.
He spun around like a spring. But there was no one behind him. The empty corridor extended outwards.
......What was that?
No one was there, but he was being watched. Tenma took a stance in the empty corridor, cautiously looking around.
Just then, something moved in the corner of his vision. The corridor wall. Near the ceiling. Tenma reflexively chased it with his eyes.
It was a spider.
"......A spider?"
A spider about as large as his thumbnail. Though the Onmyou Agency looked like it had the newest equipment, it seemed that it was still a structure with some old areas. Of course, there would be things like spiders. Could the gaze he felt just now have come from the spider? How could that be. His nerves were too much on edge.
But.
...Huh?
The spider silently stared at Tenma, preparing to climb away from the wall as if viewing him as harmless. He didn't know whether it was his mistake, but the spider's movements seemed mysteriously human. But Tenma couldn't keep his mind off it when he saw this spider.
An old, nostalgic, memory not suited for the moment.
It was a complete coincidence that he was able to recall it.
"......'Trick Spider'?"
The instant he couldn't help but murmur, the spider's movements completely stopped. Then, it slowly changed direction, looking back at Tenma. As if it were surprised at its name being called and unconsciously watching the opponent's actions again. No, maybe it wasn't 'as if', that might truly be the case.
This spider was a shikigami.
Moreover.
"......Why is my mom's test product in this kind of place?"
Upon careful inspection, the spider was blue. It was a trait of the manmade shikigami created by the Witchcraft Corporation, the popular magical tool manufacturer that Tenma's deceased parents had created.
Moreover, if he scrutinized more carefully, that spider's blue color was a richer, deeper blue than the color of the manmade shikigami that the Witchcraft Corporation created.
This was the color of original shikigami test products of his mother, the Witchcraft Corporation's chief designer. This 'Trick Spider' was also one of those test products, but it hadn't ended up becoming commercialized. Hence, there were very few people who knew of the codename 'Trick Spider'. The spider had stopped for that reason as well.
"......A 'Trick Spider'......Come to think of it, a long time ago......"
Thinking of that codename became the trigger, and old memories faintly awoke.
Even among all the test products that his mother created, the 'Trick Spider' was a shikigami with one of the richest colors. Basically, it was a detection-type shikigami that moved according to the practitioner's chant and which shared vision with the practitioner. It only possessed the same movement speed and strength as an actual spider, and it could shoot out approximately thirty meters of spider silk, silk strong enough to support ten times its weight. But the spider silk of living spiders was known to be five times stronger than steel of the same thickness, so considering that, its performance was quite low.
But because of its shape and stealth, and because it used almost no magical energy, it would theoretically be able to materialize semi-permanently as long as it stopped moving and absorbed the surrounding aura for a while. Also, it would essentially require no magical energy to use afterwards as long as it was set up at the start. The shikigami could send images at any time, and the control of the magical energy system could be established by the shikigami. Though its activity was limited to a range of five hundred meters from the practitioner, in the extreme, even ordinary people would be able to use it as long as it was set up by a professional first.
Actually, Tenma had once asked his mother to let him use the Trick Spider as a child. Hence, he particularly had recollections of it among the large number of his mother's shikigami.
When it had been first developed as a test product, the Trick Spider was able to enter narrow spaces that the humans couldn't, and even normal people would control it with Onmyouji supervision. Judging by these two, there would be a definite demand for using the detection shikigami to collect information during disasters and the like. But it ended up being shelved and never commercialized because its magic was overly cumbersome and complex, and mass production was extremely difficult. There were only two, even among her mother's test products.
...I, I see! There's only two. There were only two Trick Spider shikigami. Why is it......!?
Having once played with it, the young Tenma had felt quite disappointed when they decided to stop creating it, but his mother, the inventor, was pretty indifferent. It was extremely nostalgic - and a memory that would be a mistake to get nostalgic over now. But Tenma desperately dug through his memories, trying to recall it.
...Right, back then, I asked mom......
The two test product Trick Spiders. Tenma had made a fuss that he wanted one if they weren't being used anymore. But he hadn't been able to get one. He still remembered his mother's words at the time. Sorry, Tenma - his mother had apologized to him.
There was someone who also felt that the Trick Spider was interesting and who wanted to privately acquire it. That person was a customer who had recently become a leader of part of their customer base and whom they had had many dealings with. As thanks, they had given test products to him - she said.
Wouldn't he just peep indiscriminately if they gave it to that kind of person? Her conscience hurt.
His mother joked happily, smiling wryly while showing a definite trust for that person. That's right. His mother had definitely said that.
The most popular product that had established the Witchcraft Corporation's position was the 'WA Swallow Whip' that was known as a binding shikigami.
It was the Onmyou Agency Mystical Investigation Department that was responsible for almost all of its purchases. The Mystical Investigators.
"Could it be?"
Tenma walked close to the wall that the spider was on. The Trick Spider still stayed motionless, continuing to stare at Tenma.
"Could it be that you're--"
Suddenly, as he was preparing to ask, the magical energy of something rushed towards him from far away. Eh? The moment he thought this, he was surrounded by a raucous breaking sound, and the extremely frightened Tenma's heart almost stopped.
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