Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 09 - Visitor Chapter (I) Read online

  "Since the entrance examination, we are rivals of three years."

  After each laughed at the other in a hushed tone bout, the two people changed their expression at the same time. Since even while laughing, the heavy feeling of tension was drifting between the two people, one can’t say that the atmosphere changed.

  "Juumonji-kun. I will convey the message from my father, no, the Head of the Saegusa House, Saegusa Koichi. The Saegusa House expects a united front with the Juumonji House."

  "How hasty. Not a 'cooperation', but suddenly a 'united front', huh."

  Cutting his speech, Katsuto requested an explanation with his gaze. Of course, even Mayumi intended to give an explanation so that the other party could understand the circumstances.

  "How much do you know about the Vampire event?"

  "I don’t know anything beyond what is reported. Our House doesn’t have as many henchmen as the Saegusa House."

  To the words that could be taken as Katsuto’s humility, Mayumi’s lips loosened a little.

  "Well, matching for a thousand is the motto of the Juumonji House. Whereas in the Saegusa House, as far as I know, it’s only the number that is large."

  Mayumi suggestively cuts her words.

  And, before being urged by Katsuto, continued like this.

  "The victims of the Vampire event are exactly three times of what was reported. Twenty-four victims have been confirmed yesterday."

  Even if it’s Katsuto, he could not help being surprised at this.

  "…Is that only in this Tokyo neighborhood?"

  "The metropolitan area of Tokyo, and moreover also concentrated in the urban areas."

  Katsuto crossed his arms and was quietly thinking.

  Mayumi silently waited for him to speak.

  "There are victims that the Saegusa House knows that the police don’t know. Moreover, it’s in a limited narrowed area that damage has occurred (the victim is still in place, being locked into a narrow area)… Have the Saegusa officials been victims?"

  "It’s half correct. The victims who the police don’t know are all our magicians and those in cooperation with us. Even the victims who are not are proven to be either magicians or those who possess the disposition to magic. For example, like the students of the Magic University."

  "In other words."

  Katsuto’s expression tinged with dreadfulness.

  "That means the culprit is targeting magicians, huh."

  "…Juumonji-kun, you’re a little scary."

  But the stimulus of that expression seemed to be too strong for a high school girl. Apart from whether it was his real intention or acting.

  "Hmm… Sorry."

  And even if it was an act, it had enough effect to dent Katsuto.

  "We don’t know whether there are one or multiple perpetrators of those serial murders; anyway, it is safe to presume that this 'vampire' assumes magicians as targets."

  For some reason, by calmly returning to the topic without a follow-up to Katsuto, who started off the melancholy, the true nature of Mayumi showed she was surely a "devilkin" after all.

  "In chronological order, first off the Magic University students and staff have been killed, the staff of our House investigating were killed while trying to avenge the previous loss, and meanwhile the victims had also increased, causing this kind of situation."

  "Indeed, we can’t ignore it."

  Leaving the damage received to the edge of the facial expression from Mayumi, Katsuto nodded deeply.

  "Are there not any clues? If it’s someone who possesses ability to injure the Saegusa magicians, we can only consider either enhanced soldiers or magicians. And also, the possibility that it is a foreigner is high. Either someone who entered the country before and after the case outbreak, or a suspicious person among the foreigners who have gone to Tokyo?"

  To Katsuto’s inquiry, Mayumi shook her head. It’s likely that the Saegusa also considered the same thing and had already investigated.

  "But, speaking of foreigners who entered the country before and after the case outbreak…"

  Mayumi had faltered there, but in response to Katsuto's gaze urging her to continue, she hesitantly continued speaking.

  "From the USNA, there are a lot of foreign student magicians and Magic Engineers who entered the country. There is also an exchange student in this school, who has come… Juumonji-kun, do you think she is suspicious?"

  "I think she is suspicious, but she is probably not the culprit."

  Katsuto’s reply was immediate.

  "I don’t think she is completely unrelated, but may we leave her for the time being?"

  "If Juumonji-kun says so…"

  Mayumi also did not seriously seem to doubt Lina. To Mayumi, who cast down her eyes as a loss of self-confidence, Katsuto asked something that was bothering him.

  "But, if it is such a thing, I think you should cooperate with the Yotsuba."

  To the reasonable proposal of Katsuto, It was Mayumi’s turn to frown this time.

  "Actually, I think so too, but… this is breaking the unwritten rule here. If Father doesn’t apologize and admit his faults, I think that the fence-mending will be impossible."

  "But your father has no intention to apologize to the Yotsuba, huh… though it is understandable given the past discord between Maya-dono and Koichi-dono… However, it is really rare for the Yotsuba to harden their attitude until now."

  In the policy of independency if portrayed positively, or the policy of self-centeredness if portrayed negatively that the Yotsuba adopted (though, the independence doesn’t originally have a bad meaning), they had always adopted the stance of not caring about what the other Houses do. Solidly progressing towards improving their own efficiency, ranked with the Saegusa in the top of the Ten Master Clans only by the virtue of their magic power, it was a Clan which can be said to be heretical even among the Ten Master Clans.

  Katsuto had sometimes thought what on earth they even did behind the scenes, but even so, that they were showing a clear confrontational attitude that disrupts the clan meeting was as far he knew. Though, he could not say it to Mayumi, it was the Saegusa who substantially brought up the seeds of conflict.

  Thinking that "What on earth had happened?" was probably reflected on his face.

  "I don’t know the details either, but…"

  Mayumi with a bitter feeling reluctantly opened her mouth.

  "To a certain section of the Defense Military Intelligence under the patronage of the Yotsuba, that sly fox father seemed to have secretly meddled in. And that was discovered…"

  "…I see."

  Then, the Yotsuba's firm attitude made perfect sense. To Mayumi, who had a face likely to begin grinding her teeth at any moment, Katsuto could only reply so.

  A not too short period of time had elapsed and Mayumi, who finally regained a calm expression, turned again toward Katsuto.

  "So, what do you think? Would the Juumonji House collaborate with the Saegusa House?"

  To Mayumi who asked once again, Katsuto nodded immediately.

  "I will cooperate."

  "Although it is the usual thing… it is a really pretty straightforward answer."

  To Katsuto's reply, with also no trace of doubt, Mayumi bustled with a shocked voice.

  "I have said it before. Since I heard the story, even for the Juumonji House, it is not a situation which can be ignored."

  Of course, he would not be Katsuto if he was shaken by that.

  Chapter 5

  An unbroken stream of pedestrians plodded beneath the night skies of Shibuya. However, from a grandiose perspective, this was a problem restricted to Shibuya only.

  Late in the night, there would be brief durations where no one was around, creating small pockets like the eye of a storm. Such as the narrow alleys between the taller buildings and skyscrapers. Like the small parks that dotted the landscape between the intersections of larger boulevards and smaller lanes. –This, was just like the confined green lands which onl
y allowed one step at a time.

  Still, even if no one was walking about, it did not mean no one was present. There were two humanoid entities in the park. One was a shadow-like figure who wore a long overcoat and scarf with a round hat covering the eyes, completely concealing any features or hints of gender. The other wore a gorgeous coat over a knitted sweater and mini skirt with a pair of thick heeled shoes and was clearly a young woman.

  After covering the female corpse on the bench, the individual wearing the hat rose when a new figure appeared to their rear and struck up a conversation.

  (Still incompatible?)

  Long overcoat, scarf, hat. This new figure was dressed in the exact same way as the first one and inquired in a voice that did not vibrate in the air.

  (Negative. The connection was lost after transferring the replica this time, but just as before, we could only absorb psions from the blood before the replica lost stability and returned.)

  The first individual responded to the second in the same soundless voice. The two figures were communicating using telepathy.

  (So replication remains beyond us?)

  (That’s impossible. After all, we ourselves are replicas of the original.)

  (Hm…… Then, even if they possess physical compatibility, they cannot become one of us without desires of their own.)

  (Are there people in this world without desires?)

  (You mean there are other conditions?)

  (In order to determine the truth, we need more samples.)

  (……That remains unchanged.)

  (Just as I am myself and you are you. Nothing has changed.)

  (You have a point…… Hm?)

  The two figures broke off their conversation over the telepathic link and turned their faces towards the same direction.

  (Someone broke through the spiritual barrier. Two…… No, three people?)

  (I raised the power of the barrier specifically because I was conducting an experiment. Looks like these are particularly talented individuals.)

  (There are only two of us. Shall we retreat?)

  (No, this is a rare opportunity. The physical vessel of someone capable of breaking through the spiritual barrier might be compatible. Fortunately, the last member seems to have been separated from the other two. We should be able to neutralize the first two before they meet up.)

  (Got it. Then are we of accord?)

  Signals of consent were passed along. Leaving the corpse on the bench, the two figures disappeared into the shadows beyond the street lamps.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  Tonight, Leo was again treading the streets of Shibuya. Yet, this wasn’t the usual "aimless wandering". He had received details regarding suspicious individuals from a close friend and was hurrying along to verify the veracity of the eyewitnesses.

  Even Leo himself did not know why he was so motivated in doing this sort of sleuthing.

  A sense of justice? There were other more heinous crimes.

  Territorial? Shibuya was not his home turf.

  Curiosity? In all honesty, he didn’t really care about the real identity of the perpetrators.

  At any rate, he felt that this wasn’t something he could ignore. This was probably the reason that was closest to the truth.

  After searching his feelings, Leo arrived at this conclusion.

  Walking at night. Moving in the darkness. Just now, he heard a broken series of noise like the sound of insects beating their wings. This wasn’t a sound in the audible spectrum, but a sound that brushed across the deepest recesses of Leo’s consciousness.

  He couldn’t explain why, but Leo was unable to see this as just simple background noise. Nonetheless, Leo’s instincts told him that this was the sound of people conversing. This was someone using the magic calculation area in the depths of the consciousness to speak. Following the source of the signal, Leo gradually drew closer.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  Stars was the premiere magic combat force within the USNA. –That being said, not all the American combat Magicians were directly a part of Stars. In reality, of the three Strategic-Class Magicians that were officially recognized within the USNA, only Angie Sirius was affiliated with Stars. The other two were currently split between an Alaskan base and a base in Gibraltar.

  Even so, it remained an unshaken fact that the primary source of the USNA’s magical prowess in the army came from the Magicians in Stars. This was especially the case for the Magicians granted the rank of planets, as they symbolized the "strongest magical combat force in the world". Precisely since Alfred Fomalhaut was also of planet rank, his desertion inflicted a huge blow to the high command with the USNA. In this particular desertion incidence, the USNA could not draw the line at Fomalhaut alone. They had to execute every deserter as a warning to the rest.

  Currently, the two people who were rapidly progressing through the Shibuya night were also hunters dispatched from the USNA army to pursue the deserters and belonged to the unit "Stardust". Like Stars, they too were under the direct command of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but they were only the remnants of the stars that could not become stars themselves. In spite of this, these magic troopers still possessed considerable combat prowess. They had given up on being well rounded and instead honed their specific talents to the level of the Stars. That was what it meant to be Stardust. This time, the members selected to hunt the deserters specialized in pursuit. They were Magicians who had been implanted in Japan, but had previously remained as inactivated assets, and specialized in identifying psion waves and traces of magic.

  Tonight, they finally found the psion trail of one of the deserters, Stars Planet-Class Specialist, Charles Sullivan, call sign "Demus Second", and had closed to within an easy distance on foot.

  "Target is in the clearing up ahead."

  One of the two came to a halt and nodded at the other’s words before removing an information terminal from the coat they wore. After calling up a map, they verified through the search function that there was only one path to the park. There was one entrance to the left of their current position as well as an entrance to the right around the corner.

  "We have detected one target. Let’s strike from both sides. I’ll go right."

  Gone were the large coat and skirt, revealing a dazzling set of tights and heavy boots. The outer garb was to better mingle with the young women moving about at night while hiding their identity as American soldiers. The only typical aspect of these female Magicians was that they were speaking in normal tones.

  "Understood…… Let’s get moving, we don’t have much time. Remember, strike at the same time."

  "Got it."

  The two hunters split off to the left and right.

  Beneath the hat pulled low and the scarf, a gray cloth covered in a pattern of black bats obscured the face. Features completely hidden from view, the figure in the long coat walked while keeping an eye on the alley exit. A smirk tugged at the corners of the mouth covered in cloth.

  (Pursuers from the military. They have sorely underestimated me if they think two Stardust members will be a match for me. )

  (That’s based on who you were before.)

  Receiving the cognitive signal from his vanished companion, the creature who was once Charles Sullivan turned its derisive smirk into a wry one. Ever since turning into this form, there was no way for him to hide anything from his compatriots. There was no sense of privacy at all. However, the current Charles Sullivan wasn’t displeased at this turnout. For them, this was only a natural course of events and did not constitute a source of irritation.

  Once he put all his concentration into the depths between his brows, he could also detect what his comrade was thinking about. Through the new sensory organ located between the right and left hemispheres of the brain, they could easily reach consensus. He was the entity known as Charles Sullivan, but at the same time he was also a part of "them".

  (I see. Given their knowledge of my rank as a Satellite-Class, we can also predict their movements. I won’t n
eed the backup.)

  In response to the Sullivan’s cognitive signal, this time the sound of bees flapping their wings came back.

  (Just in case, I’ll still make a few preparations.)

  This formulated response came from his other comrade in the vicinity.

  Contact between the two sides came in the next instant.

  "Deserter, Demus Second. Put your hands in the air and keep them where I can see them."

  A young woman’s voice cried out in front of Sullivan. At the same time, a silent wave of noise impacted him like cutting through glass.

  The real identity of this noise was the psion wave coming from Cast Jammer, a device developed by the USNA Army’s R&D Department to inhibit weaponry and equipment worn by Magicians. The inhibitory waves from the Cast Jammer were unlike the background noise that indiscriminately affected all magic like the ones seen in Cast Jamming when using Antinite. The Cast Jammer specifically targeted CAD functions. By intentionally using multiple CADs to generate additional psion waves, this directly interfered with the Activation Sequence’s processing. Generally, this type of interference could only occur when one individual’s psion waves were interfering with one another, but through the analysis of their opponent’s psion wave signatures, the USNA had successfully neutralized CADs (to a limited degree).

  This wasn’t something that could be used by anyone. In order to use Cast Jammer, a high level of Non-Systematic Magic was required to release psion wave types. In addition, its effective range was less than 5 meters. Nevertheless, in terms of counter magic abilities that did not require Antinite, Cast Jammer was definitely the USNA Army’s ace in the hole in this age.

  Faced with the naked barrel of a gun, Sullivan raised both hands above his head as instructed, with both hands easily visible. This order seemed rather vague to the average layman, but its intent was to deny the target the ability to use a CAD. Based on the data in the possession of the pursuers, or executioners in this case, Demus Second was incapable of using magic without a CAD and his physical abilities were that of an average soldier. Ordinarily speaking, once magic was out of the picture, he would be unable to offer much resistance against them, who were both Magicians and augmented soldiers.