Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 11 - Visitor Chapter (III) Read online

  What are vampires (parasites)?

  How did they come out?

  Parasites are recognized as information bodies derived from the spirit. Originally energy information bodies created in an different dimension, it was believed that they invaded this world when the micro-black hole generation and annihilation experiments at the outskirts of Dallas, TX, USNA, caused the barriers to different dimensions to fluctuate.

  Why are they named so?

  Because when the case broke out, large quantities of blood was lost from inside despite of no visible external trauma to the victims. This is unlike how [vampires] in fiction draw blood; it is a side effect of the parasites having failed to propagate.

  How do they propagate?

  A parasite detaches a part of itself to send into a recognized possible host. As the detached body absorbs the psions and pushions in the blood it spreads through the blood vessels, penetrating into the body by replacing the blood with itself. When this is complete it can gain control of the ethereal body (being an information body) ... that should have occurred, but there are no successful precedents until now.

  What are their objectives?

  Parasites have no commanders among them, and share consciousness among themselves, while keeping individual thinking capabilities. They communicate with each other, and can locate up to a certain range their own kind. They are also influenced by the most primitive of desires -- to look for a living being to possess. In short, their movements are based on the basic instincts of [survival and propagation].

  Parasite count

  It was speculated that a total of 12 parasites came to this world. How the numbers fluctuate are detailed below.

  Lina has disposed three at USNA (though the word "disposal" only means host disposal -- it's not far off that the parasites themselves got away as spirit bodies). The remaining nine, Mia and Sullivan included, escaped to Japan. Lina, in Japan for a different investigation, disposed the parasite Sullivan, while Mia self-destructed at First High School grounds. Meanwhile, Kuroba Mitsugu and his crew wasted all of the remaining seven parasites. Back in USNA, three the disposed parasites had found new hosts and resurrected, before coming to Japan. Resurrection attempts were done to nine parasites that were disposed in Japan; as a result eight, Pixie excluded, have been resurrected. Later, Tatsuya and his group successfully sealed three parasites during battle. Even with eight remaining, the sealed three hosts were stolen by the Third Counter-espionage Unit, and thereupon the three parasites have again resurrected. Eleven parasites remain as of last count.

  Chapter 13

  "—Hey, don’t you think it’s terrible? I was publicly humiliated, publicly humiliated."

  The agitation in the shrill girlish voice was obvious and the response to it was,

  […That’s the fourth time, already.][1]

  This voice that was also girlish was truly sleepy.

  The difference between the mental conditions of the pair having this telephone conversation was like the difference in temperature between mid winter and mid summer.

  However, that might be inevitable. Only Honoka had reason to be agitated and Shizuku had a reason to plead to be allowed to sleep.

  Honoka was agitated for a reason. Her heart’s secret longings had been exposed. Not just the likes and loves that resided in her could be called forfeit, even to herself that thought felt like it might be a little too serious for this era. Although the yearnings she herself couldn’t voice being spoken from another’s mouth was humiliating enough, Honoka had been exposed not just in front of the one she was thinking about but to many other people as well, so her feeling of such self-conscious torment was inevitable. The fact that the one who spoke her own feelings for her was not a human, but a maid droid possessed by a parasite did not comfort Honoka at all.

  "That doesn‘t matter, because I have been so humiliated."

  Honoka demanded that her friend comfort her in a sullen voice. The sight of Honoka’s pouty profile made the Shizuku in the middle of the screen sigh lightly.

  [I understand that so please understand my position. What time do you think it is right now?]

  On the other hand, Shizuku had good reason to make the demand ‘I want to sleep’. It was simply the time, no actually it was the time difference. To emphasize Shizuku’s remark, a clock with three hands filled the display. The classic Arabesque design short hand was pointing between IV and V. Tokyo and Berkeley (California) have a seven hour time difference. If it was nine thirty pm in Tokyo then it was four thirty am in Berkeley.

  [Please can’t this wait at least two hours?]

  It could be said that it was perfectly natural for Shizuku to ardently grumble. Even now, the eyelids on both eyes looked just about to close. Naturally, Honoka’s face turned apologetic and her shoulders hunched.

  "I did wait for an hour already but…"

  When she heard the excuse, Shizuku’s sleepy eyes twinkled and this time she sighed her acceptance.

  [That trait of yours has changed very little over the years……]

  "I’m always, always troubling you……"

  [You’re not a bother…..as long as you pay attention to the time.]

  "Uh…..I’m sorry."

  Gazing across the screen at Honoka who had no more excuses, Shizuku sighed one more time. This time she probably shook off her sleepiness with the sigh, as while her eyes were no more than half open, her face was pretty steady.

  [However, something good might come out of this.]

  The voice lacked much inflection — as usual and her pronunciation had become distinct.

  "What? What? There’s nothing good about this!"

  As she thrust away Shizuku’s words of comfort, Honoka forgot how dejected she had been until now and vehemently chewed out Shizuku.

  [But, you weren’t able to speak those words yourself, right?]

  However, Shizuku wasn’t just carelessly using the word ‘good’. Maybe because of her tone or perhaps due to the way she put it into words, Honoka’s protests were taken out with a single shot.

  [Will you acknowledge that you have dependent tendencies?]

  "Such tendencies…"

  Honoka reflexively tried to deny it, but perhaps she didn’t think she could deny it even to herself. Her words of rebuttal faded out part way thru and she averted her eyes from Shizuku’s eyes which were peering at her intently through the screen — to be exact, her eyes were only partly open.

  [Honoka, how many years do you think we’ve been hanging out together.]

  Shizuku delivered one last shot to make sure in a gently instructive tone.

  "…But, I can’t help it."

  Honoka acknowledged Shizuku’s point with a voice that was both defiant and resigned.

  "I am descended from ‘Elements’ after all."

  Is even personality influenced by genetics? Shizuku thought with her usual doubt, however, even if she debated it, it would be meaningless. Besides, she understood debate wasn’t really necessary.

  [Wanting to rely on someone is neither good or bad. Not everyone is a leader that takes the initiative without relying on someone and I think they function in the world quite well.]

  When her friend’s words did not berate her, Honoka’s gaze still showed indecision, but it had returned to normal.

  [What I want to say is Tatsuya-san is a rather good person for Honoka to rely upon.]

  Their eyes met through the camera, Shizuku speaking as if she was carefully giving detailed instructions.

  "You think…so?"

  Shizuku nodded without a qualm of hesitation to Honoka’
s tremulous question.

  [I believe Tatsuya basically does not only do part of what someone wants. Instead, he is a person who precisely answers someone’s desires.]

  "You mean if I do not speak clearly, he won’t understand me?"

  [That’s right. Besides he is certainly ingenuous.]

  "Um, by that…?"

  The answer Shizuku made to Honoka’s oh so timid question was,

  [Even if he does do what you say, he won’t force you to do anything sexual, is what I mean.]

  Such directness — could be criticized as lewdness.

  Honoka’s face became red in the twinkling of an eye.

  Still beneath the red face, a glimpse of a little regret could be seen.

  [Honoka, maybe you want to be a little more forceful in how you approach him.]

  "Shizuku!"

  Honoka raised her voice and glared at the screen. However, in there was only a look on Shizuku’s face that said ‘But, it’s the truth’.

  "Enough!"

  Even though she turned her face away with a sulky look,

  "……"

  "……Shizuku."

  As expected the one who gave in and spoke first was Honoka.

  "What should I do?"

  [The only thing you can do is keep moving forward.]

  Shizuku did not have a wealth of romantic experiences. Rather her experiences could be called meager compared to other teenage girls around the same age in their country in this era. Even so, she dared to give her friend who was trapped in a maze caused by thinking too much a kick in the posterior with simple assertions.

  "Even now, I intend on doing all I can to keep moving forward but…"

  [Just intending is futile. Your rival is too strong.]

  "By rival…?"

  [Victory over Miyuki will be difficult.]

  "Miyuki? But Miyuki and Tatsuya-san are—"

  [Siblings. So?]

  Shizuku dismissed Honoka’s common sense rebuttal with one word. That simple ‘so’ was packed with the nuance of ‘I know that. What does that matter’.

  "But, that, that is…"

  With a shocked look, Honoka shook her head at the camera. However, to the eyes of Shizuku who had been friends with Honoka for a long time, she did not look like she had actually received a shock.

  [Honoka, there’s no way you are going after Tatsuya-san just because you want to have sex with him.]

  "O-Of course not! Well, there’s no way that I am completely uninterested in that but…"

  Shizuku from her side of the screen was looking at Honoka who had started fidgeting with eyes that said ‘what is this person saying’. However, if she remained silent, Shizuku was the one who was going to feel uncomfortable. Shizuku forcibly cut off this part of the conversation.

  [Blood ties only interfere with things like that. If you’re satisfied with just being with someone, blood connections wouldn’t be an obstacle. I would like to ask Miyuki something.]

  "…What?"

  She asked that question with a look…..that said she did not want to ask, but she couldn’t not ask.

  [How she thinks about Tatsuya.]

  "…And?"

  [Does she love him.]

  "Uh….of course…."

  Her face was pale, but she did not want to shriek, so instead she murmured it with a sigh.

  [I did not mean fondness, I meant love.]

  "…Oh?"

  [I meant the feelings a girl has for a boy. Not simply as ‘his little sister’.]

  "?"

  Nevertheless, the supplementary information Shizuku provided put her in a quandary on how to interpret her words.

  [However….]

  "However?"

  When Shizuku hesitated, Honoka pressed her to continue by repeating her words back to her in a different tone of voice.

  [I think even if she officially won’t admit it even to herself that Miyuki does indeed like Tatsuya-san as a girl likes a boy.]

  She continued her statement with a decisive supposition that showed no hesitation.

  "Shizuku also thinks…."

  Although Shizuku’s logic ran a little(?) counter to worldly common sense, Honoka wasn’t raising objections.

  [Yes, therefore, I think you should take her on before she admits it to herself.]

  "What do you mean?"

  Honoka was not feigning innocence when she asked the question.

  [Before Miyuki becomes serious, Honoka-san should become Tatsuya-san’s number one.]

  However, some words formed images, and the words ’Miyuki become serious’ had such a strong future potential that the image filled Honoka’s mind.

  "Such a thing, is impossible…"

  [At this time, it’s wrong to give up. This was a disaster but I think you can use it to attract him.]

  Shizuku delicately instilled the will to win into the whispering hunched over Honoka — she herself was fired up to do this — by giving her encouragement.

  "Attract Tatsuya?"

  [Yes. Somehow you have to convey all your feelings to him.]

  "Won’t I be annoying……"

  [It’ll be alright. Tatsuya certainly won’t feel that you’re a burden]

  However, those words were not merely for reassurance. It was a strange thing to have faith in but Shizuku earnestly believed it was true.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  About the same time when Shizuku was lighting a fire under Honoka.

  Tatsuya was confronting Lina who had transformed into ‘Angie Sirius’.

  Fire-like hair and gold colored eyes. Her entire appearance changed down to her facial features and height. No matter how much you looked at her, she didn’t look like the same person as Lina. Even without the concealing mask, there was probably no one who didn’t already know who would connect ‘Angie Sirius’ and ‘Angelina Shields’. Not as long as they thought the mask was meant to conceal her identity by concealing her face.

  Tatsuya carefully examined her form. There was no way he had spent this past half of a month playing around. He had practiced against Yakumo’s ‘Matoi’[2] making a pile of countermeasures to the information altering magic ‘Parade’.

  Perhaps it was a result of that training. The effect of Lina’s ‘Parade’ now stopped at outward appearance, and he understood the coordinate information was not going to be rewritten. With this resistance, even if the coordinates were falsified, Tatsuya thought he could keep her in his CAD’s sight.

  Naturally, he couldn’t be optimistic. This only affected Lina’s appearance, this was not the time to take things easy or be careless. Rather, there was probably no room for error. Undoubtedly, he couldn’t guarantee that he had the necessary magic power to keep the coordinate information from being rewritten.

  (In short, the magic took that much of his capacity.)

  The USNA army’s most elite magician battalion, ‘Stars’ gave the code name ‘Sirius’ to their head. Namely, the magician who possessed the strongest magic power. This girl must have all the resources for that magic that powerful concentrated in her.

  The glittering striations of the attack on Tatsuya and Chiba Naotsugu had cleaved the darkness of the night. That attack was probably in fact a high energy plasma beam. If it was then the name of the magic she had performed was—

  (Probably, without a doubt. That was ‘Heavy Metal Burst’.)

  The strategic magic of Angie Sirius of the Thirteen Apostles was ‘Heavy Metal Burst’.

  She transformed heavy metals into high energy plasma; the magic disseminated amplified solar ions over a wide area by the use of creating gas and electromagnetic repulsive force and increased high pressure.

  Incidentally, there were more than a few users of magic that changed materials into plasma other than ‘Angelina Sirius’. However, by only ionizing atoms, the complete body of the plasma that sprung forth would not produce the neutralizing electric repulsive force. Angelina Sirius was the only one who used ‘Heavy Metal Burst’ with that speed and scale, because only she
could actually do the process that emitted the atoms to form the cloud and maintain the manufacture of plasma.

  Nevertheless, ‘Heavy Metal Burst’ was supposed to be a magic that expelled high energy plasma in all directions from ground zero. Despite that, the plasma that attacked Chiba Naotsugu was a beam with directionality.

  (It’s not just being condensed. The effective range…..the scope of the dissemination is also being controlled.)

  Plasma had strayed away from Naotsugu yet none of the buildings in the street around him had been destroyed because the plasma hadn’t reached them. Maybe it was accompanied by a magic sequence that made it lose plasma energy after it passed its target, or maybe she established a power point that would serve as a plug to stop the beam at a terminus.

  How was she able to do that? He couldn’t tell from only seeing it one time, but perhaps—

  (Is it that ‘staff’?)

  He had never seen that staff before in Lina’s hands, so that was a good possibility. Maybe but no, undeniably that was a USNA developed casting assistant device. If he wasn’t in this spot, he would probably be praising the excellence of this technique.

  (Nevertheless, right now this has the highest threat potential.)

  He hadn’t attained comprehension of the plasma stream control system but it wasn’t as if he hadn’t understood anything. If he ‘observed’ it one more time then he would be able to make a counter-measure. Was he being optimistic about observation? Tatsuya immediately repudiated that speculation himself. Tentativeness at this time would do him no good.

  Instead, it would become a problem.

  (If he took a direct blow, would he have enough reserve power remaining to counterattack?)

  Against significant physical attacks, Tatsuya possessed revival ability that he did not control, but all he could do was ‘revive’, he could not ‘block’.

  The lack of control depended on the level of injury, not the frequency of use.

  The beam just now was as fast as the speed of light. Which was far faster than the speed of sound which is why lightning is seen before thunder is heard. The speed of light is probably about a hundred times the speed of sound.