Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 06 - Yokohama Disturbance Chapter (I) Read online

  "Yoshida Mikihiko, the one-time prodigy of the Yoshida Family. Even though there's some degree of improvement since his adolescent years, I still wish he would pay more attention on the streets."

  Names are a symbol of the actual body, so once the name was spoken, then one could home in on the actual body. Closely related individuals, essentially people who are closer on a mental scale, can be used as markers for magic by setting their movement, status, and names as specific variables.

  "Even Ancient Magic will leave traces in the observation system."

  Compared to modern magic, Ancient Magic, especially SB Magic, was much more difficult to capture by the cameras of the observation system. The difficulty wasn't that it was harder to catch the magic being invoked since the cameras would still record it, but determining who was the one wielding the magic in the first place. The emergency mission that Fujibayashi was currently tasked with was to overwrite the areas where the magic was recorded.

  Even though erasing recordings for the improper use of magic wasn't within Fujibayashi's job description, she knew very well that it was integral that the people surrounding Tatsuya didn't stand out too much. If there were too many flags being raised, the prey would be on guard and no longer continue its pursuit. In other words, Kazama and company were using Tatsuya as bait—

  (—On that point, I doubt you would mind.)

  With these words in mind, the "Electron Sorceress" activated her unique ability.

  ◇◇◇

  The operative from an unknown country called Jiro Marshall stopped running after using his enhanced legs to run the distance between bus stops. He stopped running at such a dangerous speed that would draw attention to himself not because he judged it to be safe.

  Actually, it was the exact opposite.

  Even though he was running at a pace that no one could match no matter how hard they trained, something was continuously following behind him. He hadn't verified what that "something" was, but Jiro Marshall was strongly suspicious whether that "something" was even human.

  There was no need to check whether it was the pair of teenagers from before. He was not a moron who allowed his opponents who he was in a standoff with to follow him without his knowledge. Regardless of whether his pursuer was a Magician or an enhanced human being, the likeliest possibility was that this was an enemy. As a solo operative, Marshall didn't have a team for this mission. Even if he received unexpected reinforcements, he would still receive a message ahead of time to avoid friendly fire. However, since the start of this mission, he never received any intel of this sort.

  (—Where are you hiding?)

  Marshall slightly lowered his head to concentrate on listening and, using his extensive expertise, searched for the "aura" that was the most critical aspect of three dimensional sound. There was no way he could fail to detect the man following, no, pursuing him. Even if that guy was hidden, he should still be able to find him, Marshall thought.

  Unfortunately, his prediction was entirely incorrect.

  Suddenly detecting an unexpected "aura", Jiro Marshall abruptly raised his head.

  Directly in front of him, a young man stood there in silence.

  Just now, he realized that any noise in front of him had been entirely muffled. Marshall was only able to physically detect the danger thanks to his instincts.

  The man was exceptionally tall and well built, but his figure was East Asian. He wore a plain grab that consisted of a pair of gray sports pants and a gray jacket with a black jersey beneath. His features were not particularly eye-catching or ugly. From appearances, he was undoubtedly human — but Marshall had the inkling he was squaring off against a man eating beast.

  Seeing the young man's face, Marshall suddenly recalled where he knew him.

  "The Devouring Tiger!"

  In reality, it wasn't that they had met before, since this was the first time he saw the man face to face.

  "Lu Gonghu......"

  The name of his opponent that unconsciously slipped from his lips headed the list of targets that he had to watch out for during his mission briefing. Rumored to be the one credited with the highest number of kills in melee combat from the Pan Asian Alliance, he was an S-ranked individual from the Pan Asian Alliance special Ops.

  By the time Marshall recovered his wits, he had already raised his right hand to aim the gun at Lu Gonghu. Born of reflex honed by countless hours of training, Marshall's body had long since surpassed his mental facilities.

  However, Marshall's finger never clicked the trigger.

  Faster than even his reflexes, Lu Gonghu's fingers already pierced Marshall's wrist. The inside of his wrist pierced by the other man's thumb, the handgun slipped from Marshall's hand to the ground.

  Marshall could only blankly watch his handgun fall to the earth.

  When was his wrist pierced? No, speaking of which, when did Lu Gonghu stand right next to him?

  Marshall never caught a glimpse of Lu Gonghu's movement.

  As Marshall's consciousness was wallowing in the pain that overwhelmed his surprise, his life had already fallen into eternal darkness.

  Lu Gonghu swiftly retracted his right hand from where it was embedded in Marshall's throat.

  Even though his fingers were stained blood red, very little blood escaped from the wound.

  Using his left hand that was free of any blood, Lu Gonghu removed a stack of paper from his chest pocket and carefully wiped away the bloodstains on his right hand.

  Afterwards, he flung the papers soaked in Marshall's blood onto the corpse. During the descent, the paper spread out to a handkerchief's size and fell onto Marshall's corpse.

  The blood soaked paper suddenly ignited into flames that were redder than blood. The flames started from the center of the paper and spread outwards in a circular fashion.

  Nothing existed within the inside of the circle. No matter if it was the ashes from the burnt paper, the clothes that covered the corpse, or even flesh, nothing remained.

  After the flames consumed the paper, they began spreading across the corpse.

  And so, the circular flames completely devoured the corpse.

  Seeing the corpse vanish, Lu Gonghu turned to leave.

  There was nary a human presence at the scene. Regardless of whether it was voices or footsteps, there was no trace that someone had ever been there.

  The only thing that witnessed this scene was the broken camera that swayed near the intersection.

  Chapter 5

  Miyuki was somewhat surprised to see the ugly look that Erika wore when everyone showed up for the arranged lunch meeting in the cafeteria.

  "Erika, is yesterday's incident still weighing on your mind?"

  Until the moment they separated at the bus station, Erika was extremely irritated that the suspected special agent from USNA intelligence got the last laugh during the final moments. Even though she didn't verbalize her displeasure, her attitude was apparent from a glance.

  This was already an incredibly frank admission on her part considering her usual antics where she used a mischievous smile to hide her true feelings. It was simply unheard of for her to brood on this until the second day.

  At Miyuki's question, Erika's answer was half confirming and half dissenting.

  "It's not simply because we could only watch as he got away."

  The words, watch as he got away, seemed to denote her frustration, but apparently that wasn't the full story.

  "That guy's words were really worrisome...... Don't let down your guard even on campus, doesn't that mean that some of the students......"

  Mikihiko and Honoka didn't participate in the incident back in April so they weren't able to follow, but Tatsuya and Miyuki immediately grasped what was on Erika's mind.

  At the time, Sayaka had been an unwitting pawn for foreign agents posing as terrorists.

  Even now, Sayaka was unable to put that behind her.

  "If we're putting on an encore for that unpleasant business, please count me o
ut......"

  Tatsuya was both in the know and understood those feelings, so he made a comment that ran counter to his personality in an effort to take care of Erika's mood.

  "Still, it's not like we can arrest them if they haven't even done anything yet."

  "That may be true......"

  Her sulky tone hinted that she hadn't fully accepted this, but at least he successfully defused her intent to do some snooping around on her own, Tatsuya thought.

  Speaking of which, though Erika wasn't a "goody two shoes" by any stretch, when something pertaining to one of her close friends arose, she would "change the subject" even when there wasn't a direct connection.

  "Yet, isn't it to our disadvantage to always be reacting? That's not a problem if it's a head-on assault, but theft would be......"

  "Not like we can always worry about something like that......"

  Tatsuya smiled and shook his head at Leo and Mikihiko's concerns.

  "Since we don't carry that data in a terminal on us, there's no danger of physical theft. Originally, it would be strange to worry about theft or burglary on campus, no? Well, discreet photographs aren't out of the question, but that issue wouldn't be restricted to this competition only. To steal data from on campus, it would be more convenient to go after the documents hidden behind lower safeguards, but we're not that silly. Is it possible that we have been misinformed by a suspicious individual?"

  "Is that so...... But we still need to guard against the other person directly spying on you yesterday, so be careful."

  "I know."

  Even though Mikihiko's words were largely bucking against Tatsuya's explanation, he looked like he was satisfied with that answer.

  Still, in Tatsuya's eyes, Erika and Leo both gave him the impression that they remained silent because they wanted to say something more, but were unable to come up with any arguments of their own.

  ◇◇◇

  Compared to the 52 representatives selected for the Nine Schools Competition, the Thesis Competition only had three. —The difference in scale was so great that the event almost seemed pointless. Even so, the Thesis Competition was seen as an important event that rivaled the Nine Schools Competition itself.

  One of the reasons was that this event was actually another stage for the nine magic high schools to determine a victor. Especially for schools that obtained undesirable results in the Nine Schools Competition, the desire to erase their old shame became a powerful motivator.

  Another reason was that many students were able to participate beyond the selected three representatives.

  The greatest difference between the debate and research competitions for non-magic high schools and the "National High School Students Magic Thesis Competition" was that a live demonstration was incorporated into the presentation.

  In addition to the thesis presentation, a fully functional magic device was required to display the actual manifestation of the magic. Even though the presentation only required a model, this was no simple child's toy that could be stuck together with glue and papers. The device needed to run reliably, or at least mimic reality — this was the Thesis Competition for magic high schools.

  For this, the design of the magic device and the support systems involved, the controlling software, outer frame, required conditions and target production, testing personnel and supporting testers, individuals in charge of safety...... Near the actual deadline for the competition, the Technical Club and Arts Club would naturally join in. Even clubs that work on purely theoretical ideas and students with outstanding grades would be mobilized for the success of the official competition.

  The total number of participants for the report preparation exceeded that of the Nine Schools Competition.

  Since the official competition was set for the Sunday two weeks from now, not only was the campus filled with sounds of machinery and magic activating, "Self Design" and "Self Study" sprouted up to squeeze more time in. The open area in the quad was swiftly filled to capacity by prototypes, calculation devices, and other machinery. Even consolation squads formed by female volunteers loaded with drinks and snacks entered the fray. In order to support these consolation squads, the Robotics Research Club chipped in the Humanoid Home Helpers as well.

  "Ah, there they are."

  The person Erika was looking for stood amid the ruckus.

  "Hey—, Tatsuya-kun—"

  Next to Erika, who was shouting while waving her arms back and forth, Leo turned his body in another direction. Mikihiko chose to simply move two meters behind Erika to a safe distance. The two of them were probably pretending not to know her.

  "Erika-chan, please don't bother everyone......."

  Mizuki wasn't as brazen as Leo, so she still tugged at her friend's sleeve despite knowing this would do nothing. —As expected, there was no effect.

  Seeing Erika waltz over, Tatsuya stopped his hands and smiled wryly as if to say "what can I do", but there were of course people who were visibly displeased by the interruption to the experiment.

  "Chiba...... You, should probably take a look at your surroundings."

  As one of the guards on station, Kirihara was one of the unhappy ones.

  "Eh~, Sayaka is observing too?"

  However, Erika's response, or more like her conversation target, was directed to Sayaka, who was standing next to Kirihara.

  "What do I even say......"

  "Erika......"

  Kirihara spoke weakly while Sayaka had a wry smile of her own. Given that he didn't fly into a rage, Kirihara must have matured somewhat.

  "You don't look like you're just here to observe, Erika. What's up?"

  Still, seeing that the other upperclassmen besides Kirihara were about to burst out, Tatsuya quickly seized the initiative.

  "Mizuki got called in to help, so I tagged along."

  Erika was always someone who did things her way, but that does not imply she was slow in any way. Noticing the warning, she didn't waste any time with her response.

  So that's why, Tatsuya thought as he shifted his gaze to Mizuki, who was frantically apologizing to her senpais from the Arts Club.

  "Erika, over here."

  Using this opportunity, as strange as it sounds, Miyuki reached out and pulled Erika into the crowd of observers.

  Sayaka also left Kirihara's side and sidled along Erika, while the interrupted activation of the magic device was restarted on Isori's signal.

  "What experiment are they doing? It looks like a giant light bulb."

  A transparent globe with a 120 mm diameter was supported on a stand with four legs, which did give the impression of being a giant light bulb. Of course, in this age, "light bulbs" had long since been retired from household use, so Mizuki tilted her head in confusion at Erika's opinion.

  "That is the Low Temperature Ionic Generator we're using for the presentation."

  Miyuki obviously knew what a "light bulb" was, but she didn't pay attention to Erika's joke and directly answered her question.

  "Low temperature? Weren't we going for thermonuclear fusion?"

  Mikihiko, who had also adopted Leo's approach of pretending not to know one another, heard an unexpected term that forced him to abandon this pretense. (Speaking of which, Mikihiko still used formal speech when addressing Miyuki.)

  Erika also seemed to remember her physics lessons and a question mark mushroomed over her head after a beat.

  "Thermonuclear fusion is a type of reaction, so high temperature is required for the entire process."

  "............"

  "......My apologies, Yoshida-kun. I am unfamiliar with the details as well, please consult Onii-sama for a more in depth explanation."

  Seeing Mikihiko's blank look, Miyuki added on that last sentence, prompting Mikihiko to say "please don't bother" and furiously shake his head back and forth, sending his hair flying.

  With a diminutive look at Mikihiko, Erika and Sayaka whispered quietly to one another. They frantically shut their traps when Miyuki leveled a smi
le in their direction (which didn't reach her eyes).

  From the start, Leo's eyes blazed with curiosity as he silently stared at the experimental device.

  In the midst of the unconscious silence, Isori sent Suzune a signal.

  Suzune started supplying psions to the large, control board-shaped CAD that Tatsuya was operating.

  The CAD functioned at a much higher strength and speed than the normal smaller CADs that were carried around and multiple complex Magic Sequences were being activated.

  Under high pressure, hydrogen broke down into ions and the separated ions struck against the glass to emit light. Although this was only the simple effect of electricity caused by high pressure, they had already achieved electron separation without providing energy. In addition, in order to allow the electrons to break away from atomic attraction and move towards the outer perimeter, a highly complex spell had to be constantly sustained to change the Eidos.

  "......So it really is a light bulb?"

  Erika's rude comment that slipped from her lips was fortunately covered by the cheers of "Excellent!", "First phase successful!" and other related celebratory words. The others were the same, with Miyuki smiling quietly as if success was the only possible result, while Leo had two fists tightly clenched before his chest, Mikihiko gripped his arms and nodded, and Sayaka clapped as she jumped with joy.

  The glass container continued to give off light for 10 seconds.

  By the time the light faded, the excitement also wore off.

  That was because they only finished with the largest piece and many more components still needed to be put together. The helpers that congregated for the experiment dispersed back to their stations, but Erika noticed Sayaka was staring in a certain corner.

  "Saya, what's up?"

  "That child......"

  She didn't reply and murmured to herself.

  "Hey, what's going on!?"

  "Hey, Mibu!?"

  In order to catch up to Sayaka, who suddenly burst into a run, both Erika and Kirihara also started sprinting.