Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 10 - Visitor Chapter (II) Page 8

  The systems of magic were all about using magic to turn a concept on its head. Nonetheless, what shocked him even more was that coordinates of the Parasite that had hitherto been dancing in and out of his grasp were suddenly clearly within his vision. There was a sense of an imaginary value suddenly being granted a real value.

  The term Schrödinger’s Cat flashed across his mind.

  Whether the cat in the box was alive or dead could only be verified by opening the box. Contrary to the original creator’s intent, this thought experiment had a unique approach by using an observer’s observations to determine the veracity of the truth. Regardless of whether one subscribed to the Copenhagen or Everett theory, the fact remained that the undeniable truth was that the observer was uncertain of the truth.

  In the case of the Parasite – that which was called a "monster" of an information body, once it had been observed by an observer, wouldn’t the same sequence of events be repeated by a third party?

  Through Mizuki’s vision, has the existence that previously dwelled in the nonphysical dimension grown stronger?

  If that’s the case……

  (This time Mizuki is in danger!)

  There was no way that the Parasite would be ignorant that someone’s eyes possessed the power to alter its very composition.

  Tatsuya frantically concentrated on his "vision".

  Within his mind’s eye, the scene he was most worried about was unfolding.

  He thought about this for less than a moment.

  Tatsuya raised his left hand that wasn’t holding a CAD towards Mizuki.

  When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.

  This was public knowledge even without Nietzsche’s words. In order to look into a passage you must see through, then there was the possibility of an opponent seeing you through the passage.

  Just as Mizuki caught sight of the Parasite, so too did the Parasite catch sight of Mizuki.

  "Incoming!"

  Hearing Mizuki’s loud, almost grim warning – or rather, it may have just been a tragic cry – Mikihiko quickly erected the barrier.

  "Where is it!?"

  Mikihiko pushed the barrier to its maximum strength as quickly as possible while he queried Mizuki for the Parasite’s current position.

  The defensive magic he cast almost on reflex was the same barrier he deployed earlier.

  This magic primarily veiled them against the enemy.

  The durability against invasion was low and once discovered, its veiling power was decreased by half.

  Mikihiko himself was well aware of the need to press the attack from their side.

  Yet, Mizuki had no time to answer the question.

  She was pressing both hands to her eyes.

  Mikihiko didn’t have the heart to reprimand her.

  Mizuki had never stood toe to toe with the "demonic", and Mikihiko knew she was nothing more than an inexperienced young girl. This was the reason why Erika asked Mikihiko to protect Mizuki, and why Mikihiko fully planned on doing so. In the face of the "demonic", it was only natural that Mizuki was reduced to this state, which was why they pulled so far back in the first place.

  As the Parasite approached to a range where even he wasn’t sure he could survive, Mizuki went to pieces just as was expected, so he wasn’t going to berate her.

  In addition – there was no time.

  The Parasite extended a "thread". Although Mikihiko couldn’t see the thread, he was sure that "something" mixed in with the light was trying to seize hold of Mizuki.

  It wasn’t like there was nothing Mikihiko could do. Even if he couldn’t see the actual body, he still possessed techniques that could sever the spiritual effects. Originally, Ancient Magic practitioners like Mikihiko were more accustomed to combating the spiritual than physical phenomena.

  Nonetheless, at the same time, the traditional artes of Ancient Magic required a long time to activate. The decisive lack of speed during critical situations was one of the primary reasons why modern magic had become mainstream while Ancient Magic had fallen by the wayside.

  In spite of this, Mikihiko was still launching the anti-demon magic "Exorcism Cut" at the breach in his barrier. Though its strength paled in comparison to ritual magic, the magic’s speed rivaled that of the artes used by Magicians of the Forbidden Sect.

  Forming into a blade, the psions shredded the threads sent forth by the Parasite.

  Unfortunately, this was only a temporary measure.

  Even if this could break the curse, there was no way of damaging the source.

  Immediately, several other threads slunk towards Mizuki.

  Mikihiko knew that this was a losing cause, but still let fly with Exorcism Cut.

  —However, before the blade could be swung.

  Swifter than Mikihiko’s Exorcism Cut, a rampaging gale of invisible light blew away the actual body along with its "threads".

  The cloth that she borrowed from Mikihiko successfully kept away the uncomfortable wave motions that seeped past her glasses.

  Yet, the amazing thing was that not feeling "uncomfortable" didn’t mean she was unable to see them. Several shimmering strands of dark light billowed down from the figure in the sky, like a crab dancing in the wind.

  Even so, none of this diminished the terror she felt.

  Also, there was another flaw.

  Even if she closed her eyes, she could still see it. Even if she didn’t want to, she could still see it.

  There were thin tentacles that wanted to rush towards her. Those were the things she could see. Both the biological and inherent horror were enough to send her normal thoughts screeching to a halt.

  She could sense that Mikihiko was shouting, but as to what he was shouting, she remained oblivious.

  If she had kept going any longer, her mind would have suffered horribly.

  Maybe when compared to her body rotting away, her mind would be devoured first.

  What saved her then, was the oncoming tide of brilliant psions.

  Much like the scene that greeted her eyes half a year ago in that lab, but this time the force was even more overwhelming.

  Although this was barely in the nick of time, there was no such thing as running out of active psions during a battle where magic was being wielded.

  His right hand was stronger with Decomposition magic, but unlike Gram Dispersal, for Gram Demolition it didn’t matter which hand he used even without a CAD. In that instant, Tatsuya gathered the maximum amount of psions in his left hand.

  As he suspected, thanks to the event with Mizuki’s vision, the creature’s existence in this world was stabilizing. As it drew closer to her, the fluctuations in the Parasite’s coordinates became much smaller, and the scattered points began to congregate.

  Even if the information body existed, the Parasite that once baffled Tatsuya regarding its location and how it could be killed could now be fully analyzed.

  Still, there was no time for him to convey that message. The tentacles that Mikihiko was severing – in Tatsuya’s imagination, it looked like an irregular protozoa extending filamentous pseudopods – immediately regrew and reached towards Mizuki.

  Alas, he had no other options.

  —He slightly squinted his eyes,

  —Took aim at the target and imagined the shot.

  —Tatsuya released the block of compressed psions he held in his left hand.

  With the palm set as the firing point for Gram Demolition, the storm of psions stampeded towards the Parasite and sent both it and its tentacles flying.

  "Shibata-san, are you alright!?"

  Mikihiko’s voice was so stunned that he sounded like he was on the verge of jumping to his feet. Hearing this, Tatsuya lowered the left arm he had raised.

  He bitterly gritted his teeth at the expected result of him calling on his Nonsystematic magic.

  Gram Demolition contained the word "demolition", but in practice the magic was more like using the pressure of a psion tide to flood away th
e information body.

  In situations where the target was a Magic Sequence, the technique could strip a Magic Sequence’s functions through the Eidos, hereby creating its magic nullifying effect as Counter Magic.

  The majority of Magic Sequences would collapse under the strain of the information matrix being shattered at the moment of impact, hence the name "Demolition", but in reality, the psion tide from Gram Demolition did not possess the ability to destroy information bodies. When faced with a target that had a sturdier design than Magic Sequences, there was a high possibility that the information matrix would be blown away rather than destroyed.

  Even with those realizations in mind, Tatsuya still chose to use Gram Demolition at that time.

  In order to save Mizuki.

  Because Tatsuya really couldn’t think of any other solution.

  "It got away……"

  Tatsuya didn’t respond to Katsuto’s murmur. By using Gram Demolition in that situation and removing the Parasite from the field, there was a rising possibility that they might have lost the chance to deliver the final blow. Tatsuya had already turned over that scenario in his head, but the result still turned out this way.

  "Ah, oh well. Although it got away, it didn’t emerge unscathed. Since no one was injured, I think this result is satisfactory."

  Katsuto’s words weren’t all meant to be comforting. When faced with an expected attack from the Parasite, they still managed to escape without casualties. It’s just that this particular encounter was a snare that they devised. Maybe their opponent never planned on fighting in the first place.

  Since they elected to take a battle that wasn’t necessary and wasn’t unavoidable, the bottom line was for there to be no casualties. The primary objective was to capture the target, the secondary objective was to annihilate the enemy. If the above could not be achieved, then at the very least they needed to obtain new clues to help unmask their enemy’s capabilities.

  In other words, from Tatsuya’s perspective on their combat priorities, their net gain was effectively zero. The most they could say was that their score wasn’t negative.

  (What a disaster……)

  Tatsuya forcibly made sure he didn’t say this aloud.

  If he said this,

  Miyuki would worry.

  Mizuki would blame herself.

  Erika would be hurt.

  For Tatsuya, this was nothing more than rubbing salt into an open wound. There was no way Tatsuya would do something that would leave such a mess on his hands.

  Chapter 9

  It had gotten weaker.

  It originally didn’t belong to this world, nor did it come to this world of its own free will.

  It possessed the intrinsic quality that was naturally drawn by strong pushion wave motions.

  Euphoria, despair, hatred, and hope.

  Practically on the level of prayer, the cravings for pushion wave motions drew it through the momentary fluctuation in the "barrier" from the immaterial world to a physical one.

  Thanks to the shock from passing through the barrier, it had split into twelve portions and dwelt inside the humans who beckoned them over.

  In order to survive, it was forced to continuously ingest pushions. So long as it existed, there would be an endless stream of pushions leaking away.

  However, in this physical world, it was unable to gather pushions independently. Without merging with a physical form that was capable of gathering pushions, there was no way to obtain any more.

  After repeatedly using its power while still in its basic form, much of its energy reserves gathered since arriving in this physical world had been lost. On top of this, after being immersed in a high pressure stream of psions, the portion that enabled it to invade the physical dimension had largely been shorn away. With it, much of the psions were gone as well. In order to survive, pushions were absolutely vital, but with insufficient psions, interfering with the physical world would become difficult.

  Its actual body was not capable of high level cognitive thinking. Given that it was the result of the magnified reflections of its hosts’ suppressed impulses, it was nothing more than a monster. There was only enough cognition within that body to plot survival. Even so, even its limited cognition was aware that in its currently enfeebled state, passing through the barrier of consciousness to obtain a new host was highly difficult.

  It needed a place to rest. A location that was meaningless, save for its large congregation of pushions.

  For example, blood that had just been separated from a living body.

  For example, a mindless doll granted a humanoid form to obtain pushions.

  It avoided the moving humans and finally located a receptacle for rest in one of the storage rooms located near the edge of First High’s campus.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  The next morning after the seven of them combined to beat back the Parasite – and not destroying it.

  "Good morning, Tatsuya-kun."

  "Good morning, Mizuki, Mikihiko. ……Is Erika still like that?"

  In his classroom, Tatsuya ran across a certain female friend who was sitting at her seat with both arms propping up her face and fuming.

  "Good morning, Tatsuya. ……She’s still like that. Pretty much just sulking."

  "I am not sulking!"

  Next to where Mikihiko was chuckling wryly and nodding his head, Erika scoffed and returned to her "sour position".

  Of course, there was a reason behind why she was adopting such an easily understood position.

  During lunch break yesterday, after the vampire transformed into its information body form and the subsequent desperate struggle, they finally beat back the enemy. Afterwards, despite the overwhelming 6-to-1 advantage over Lina, Tatsuya let her go without attempting to subdue her.

  Herein lay the reason why Erika was sulking. She believed that Lina was working alongside the vampires. Behind all this, Erika had no way of retaliating against the Parasite once it took on the form of an information body. This was simply a matter of someone being adept at handling certain opponents and not others and certainly not something to be ashamed about, except Erika seemed to think otherwise. She furiously argued her case when Tatsuya was about to let Lina go, to the point that she even swung her blade at Lina. –That was probably her temper talking. In the end, Erika never really planned on actually connecting with the hit, but she quieted down after Mikihiko held both of her arms back from behind. (Yet, she laid a full blown beat down on Mikihiko for what she termed sexual harassment due to him latching onto her from behind.)

  Still, this did not signify that Erika accepted this result, and her displeasure was on full display ever since yesterday after lunch.

  "Erika, it’s about time for you to let go."

  Despite Tatsuya directly striking up a conversation with her, she still kept her back to him.

  "I believe I clarified this yesterday, right? At that time, the welcoming party had already arrived."

  The words were intentionally vague after taking eavesdroppers into account, but the "welcoming party" referred to the reinforcements that Lina had summoned.

  "Just yesterday’s situation was enough of a ruckus already. Anything more than that could not possibly be kept from the students. In the worst case scenario, we might even have had a panic on our hands."

  —Speaking of which, the person pulling overtime keeping everything under wraps was Mayumi and not Tatsuya.

  "I get all that……"

  Such things were within Erika’s understanding, but she still maintained her sulky mutterings while keeping her back to Tatsuya.

  "In addition, we needed to compromise for the sake of the employees from Maximilian Devices."

  —Furthermore, the one who created a situation that necessitated that compromise was Tatsuya while the one who actually brokered the mediation was Lina (well, her subordinates at any rate).

  "I never said that Lina is completely innocent, but there was no need to paint her as completely black at t
he time. If Lina is truly guilty, then we will plan accordingly. I will hold nothing back when the time comes."

  Tatsuya spoke in his usual tone, but the danger lingering behind his words caused Erika to turn her head.

  "……Can you win?"

  Erika wasn’t aware that the crimson haired Magician with the golden pupils was actually Lina. Still, based on their back and forth struggle with the Parasite yesterday, she instinctively judged that Lina was no run of the mill opponent.

  "Victory and defeat are a matter of luck. Furthermore, there’s no proof that Lina will begin the offensive."

  "But you’re not going to hold back."

  "Naturally."

  Tatsuya’s tone was too placid, but that only served to highlight his utter sincerity. As for the listeners around them, Mikihiko had already shrank back while Mizuki was clearly cowed. Yet, Tatsuya’s display sat perfectly well with Erika, allowing her to completely revert to her usual mood.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  Meanwhile, Lina was tasting the bitter dregs of discomfort for the first time in her life after calling in sick from school.

  In terms of humiliation, there was the full body search she had to undergo prior to her meeting with the President over tea, but there was nothing more to that than being humiliating towards women. However, in terms of discomfort, her current hearing at the USNA embassy more than rivaled that experience.

  "……Still, given your status as Sirius of Stars, the fact that you didn’t even resist against high school students and allowed them to take the suspect is……"

  She wanted to retort that Michaela Honda self-destructed instead of being taken, but Lina understood that the investigator wasn’t referring to that as the issue so she could only meekly bow her head.