n.

“Tuman Bomba?!”

Kichijouji silently nodded at Masaki's question before trying to clarify the status of the allied ships through an information terminal connected to Masaki’s CAD.

However, in the short period of time since he had last checked, data from all eight ships sent by the Niigata base had stopped being transmitted.

“George! Please help with aiming again!”

Masaki put the glasses back on and aimed in the same direction. At the same time, a message arrived at Kichijouji’s terminal: “the attack is allowed.”

His thoughts cursing the indecisiveness of the self-defense forces, Kichijouji once again brought the convoy of enemy ships to the monitor.

“Masaki, don’t forget the time delay! Focus on the predicted frame!”

Kichijouji shouted to remind Masaki of the time lag before activation, before noticing some other ships on the monitor.

“It looks like there are fishing boats 20 kilometers to the north! Move the sight further south or you’ll sink them!”

“Correcting it so the northernmost warship is on the border of the target area!” Masaki responded.

Masaki pulled the trigger after adjusting the scope. The activation sequence stored in the computer was recalculated based on the target dimensions and coordinates.

The resulting data was converted to an activation sequence before being sent to the induction stone. The induction stone transformed the data into a psionic signal and released it.

Masaki’s magic calculation area took the activation sequence and built a magic sequence. The time delay was about 1 second.

The convoy of enemy ships was speeding across the sea at about 120 knots, or roughly 60 meters per second. Their current position perfectly matched the predicted frame.

“Done!”

Masaki shouted at the same time the magic was projected. The wedge shaped area containing all the enemy ships was filled with magic sequences. As soon as the copying was complete, all the sequences simultaneously overwrote the surrounding phenomenon.

The surface of the sea in the target area evaporated to a depth of 3 meters. This was the result of using Rupture with chain casting.

?

This was the Strategic Class magic Ocean Blast.

The water turned into steam expanded rapidly, causing an explosion as the water molecules accelerated. This high-power steam explosion blew up all 12 ships of the New Soviet Union.

Thus, the New Soviet Union’s attack on Sado Island ended in failure. The Japanese army sacrificed eight ships, but due to Masaki’s Ocean Blast, the entire

“special” group of ships sent by the New Soviet Union fleet was destroyed.

July 8, 2097, 14:07.

Ichijou Masaki became the newest Strategic-Class Magician.

Miyaki Island, northeast coast.

Lina was in the CAD development center which had been opened last month.

Testing magic with a magician was necessary when developing CADs, and the higher the specification of CAD being developed, the higher the skill requirements for the magician.

It was not even worth mentioning that Lina was a world-class magician, and this made her an extremely valuable tester for developers. Combined with the fact that she had more than enough free time, she frequently visited the CAD development even when the researchers had not made a request – and both sides felt the exchange was for the others sake. Still, building a friendly relationship with those around her wasn’t out of the ordinary, given her situation.

When Lina had first escaped, her CAD had been taken. When she asked Tatsuya to return it, Tatsuya responded by giving her a new CAD of the latest model, and Lina was satisfied with this result. She didn’t have any reason to complain as her new CAD provided by Tatsuya was more efficient that the one she originally had, but she was still slightly dissatisfied – while fleeing from the USNA, she left her weapon armament “Brionac” in the weapons warehouse of Stars. She could not take the device on missions without permission from the general staff, so she naturally could not take it to Japan, but when one is separated from something they like, their heart starts to hurt. Just spending 1 tranquil week on the island was enough for Lina to miss her beloved Brionac.

Brionac operated based on the FAE theory, but Tatsuya had confirmed to Lina that he understood the theory. Lina believed that the team of scientists on the island would be able to create a copy of Brionac under the guidance of Tatsuya, so she had gotten close to the CAD developers based on the small chance that they would fulfill her selfish desire and create a substitute to Brionac for her. She was at the development center with this intention, so today, too, she enthusiastically responded to the requests of the developers in the hope that the opportunity would come that she could get them to create the armament. But in the midst of her work..

“Waa!?” Lina screamed, stunned at an unexpected surging psionic wave. “What was that!?”

The wave did not hold significant power, but she felt an unpleasant feeling around her resembling a stab in the back because of her surprise. Lina was not the only one to felt the wave – the other magicians in the engineering room frowned.

“Are these excessive psions from attempting to activate large scale magic? But to have this much power, the source would have to be Strategic Class magic..”

Given the current international situation, it would most likely be Tuman Bomba or Thunderclap Tower, but neither of the magicians responsible for operating that magic would have wasted their strength like a newbie.

"How new?"

Suddenly, Lina remembered something.

“When someone uses magic for the first time, the dispersion of wasted psions makes the magician’s inexperience clear.. it this the new Strategic Class Tatsuya was developing?”

Lina had come to the correct conclusion, but she had no way to check her reasoning before an alarm sounded.

“A suspicious ship is approaching us!?”

“They managed to approach the inner boundary of the adjacent waters without detection by using stealth magic!?”

"This stealth magic!?"

Hearing the numerous shouts of technician, Lina shifted her attention to the sea.

"What caused that wave just now!?"

Minoru’s concentration was disturbed by the sudden surge of psionic waves originating from Masaki’s Ocean Blast. He had been sitting in a van parked 1

kilometer from Minami’s hospital in Chofu, waiting for an opportunity while maintaining the catamaran Midway’s stealth magic through Regulus.

“Damn..”

His concentration lapse had caused him to lose control over the stealth magic. He immediately started to reactivate the magic, but decided it was meaningless. The transport vessel should have already been detected by both radar and stratospheric surveillance systems, so it would be impossible to hide again. Once tracking systems focus on the object, it becomes impossible to hide again in a way to deceive the observers.

“..The distraction should be more effective when they are detected just before the attack than with a completely sudden attack.”

Minoru convinced himself with this argument and now focused completely on the hospital.

The sudden psion waves startled the Parasites on Midway.

“Lieutenant Regulus!?” Vega yelled.

Vega was not the only one surprised at the suddenly disabled stealth magic.

“I apologize! I lost concentration because of the surge of psions!”

Regulus believed that it had been he who had lost concentration, not realizing that he was not the one controlling the spell.

“I’ll restore it!”

Regulus hastily tried to re-activate the stealth magic.

“Don’t bother, Lieutenant. That’s enough,” Vega said, stopping Regulus. “We’re near the goal, so there’s no need for the disguise anymore. Let’s just start the invasion.”

Following the orders of Vega, Deneb left the cabin. They were not using any flying combat suits for this operation because the Parasite-turned Star Dust soldiers had poor compatibility with flight magic. They planned to use traditional landing craft to reach the island, and Deneb had left to lead preparation of their landing craft.

“Lieutenant Spica and Lieutenant Regulus prepare to support the landing.”

“Yes, ma'am!”

Though Midway’s main purpose was for transport, it was equipped with a small number of anti-aircraft, anti-ship, and anti-submarine weapons. Being a transport craft, it had no use for weapons against ground targets, so they would not be able to attack the island from the boat. However, the ship had an abundance of small bombs which Spica and Regulus could use to attack with the help of transport magic.

They would support the landing by doing this.

“Raymond Clark. I ask you to protect the ship in the unlikely event of an attack,”

Vega finished before leaving to prepare for the landing with Deneb.

Miyaki Island was divided into an area that was previously used as a prison for criminal magicians and an area for construction of several new research facilities. The first area was located on the west coast, and the second – including the Star Reactor plant – was on the northeast coast.

A suspicious ship was approaching Miyaki Island from the northeast, and the research facility staff quickly realized that the target was the Star Reactor plant.

By the time the catamaran of unestablished affiliation began to decelerate, it was already in Japan’s territorial waters, but had not yet attacked any of the objects on the island. Miyaki Island was defended by a small detachment of maritime police reinforced by the Yotsuba family, but they could not take any measures besides inspecting the vessel before hostile intent was established.

However, the police boat was not even dispatched for this because it was clear the suspicious vessel was pursuing military objectives. They would not be allowed to inspect the vessel, and the approach of a police boat would only result in the destruction of the boat and death of its operators.

The defense squad magicians took positions to be able to activate shield magic at any time, but as if reacting to it, the suspicious ship fired bombs as it approached the coast

from 4 kilometers away. These shots were not given velocity physically from something like a grenade launcher or Fleming launcher, but rather were produced by movement magic. The bombs were small but numerous, and under this hail of explosive shells, the members of the defense squadron created magic barriers.

One by one, light flowers bloomed in the air. The fragments hitting the magic barriers did not have much impulse, but the flashes from the explosions lowered the visibility of the defenders.

“Light grenades?” one of the magicians supporting the barriers shouted.

Though they were against light munitions, the defenders maintained the magic barriers on the chance that there could be a real bomb among the light shells.

Meanwhile, the suspicious vessel continued to approach, and two amphibious vehicles separated from it. The administrative building immediately sent a command to intercept the vehicles, but there were not enough magicians to form a serious fighting force. Many of them were still needed to protect from the catamaran’s bombs.

First, the interception team attempted to prevent the vehicles from making it to land by knocking them over, but both amphibious boats were protected by counter-magic and the interception team was unable to directly influence the phenomenon around the ship. The magicians on the island quickly discarded the plan of directly attacking the boats with magic and instead used magic on the water.

They reproduced tidal currents to create streams of water from the coast.

They caused explosions on the surface of the water to create waves.

They made ice harpoons underwater and launched them towards the bottom of the boats.

However, movement-slowing magic was used to neutralize all of the physical attacks on the vehicles.

The interception unit’s failure was not due to a lack of magic power. They were subordinates of the Mashiba family, one of the side branches of the Yotsuba, and had been responsible for defense and security when the island was a prison. Though they were not blood relatives of the Mashiba, they had experience violently suppressing dangerous criminals, and held reasonable strength as magicians. They were strong, but the Parasites were stronger.

The magicians of the interception unit already knew their opponents were Parasites –

Miyaki Island had been equipped with experimental radars for detecting Parasite activity.

The landing craft began to bombard the interception team with bullets and grenades as they got closer, putting the team in a position where they couldn’t even look out from cover to see where the fire was coming from.

The defense team could not send reinforcements to assist the interception team.

The bombardment from the catamaran continued periodically, so all of the defenders were necessary. Meanwhile, the staff of the administrative building notified the main house of the Yotsuba and asked for instructions.

The administrative building was not the only area observing the attack on the island. Lina was also watching the transmission from a camera behind the defense squad through a large display in the CAD building. Suddenly, she took off her helmet used to measure CADs and went to the engineer in charge of the testing.

“Hey.”

“W-What?” he asked, slightly startled.

Lina’s beauty was comparable to Miyuki. The thirty-year-old scientist swallowed his tongue as the unmatched beauty stood in front of him and spoke.

“Other than this measuring helmet, is there anything that’s blast proof?”

Lina was accustomed to this place and spoke at ease, but her question seemed out of place in the CAD building. The researcher rounded his eyes at the request, surprised and suddenly feeling worried.

Ignoring the researcher’s surprise, Lina continued.

“Also, is there any armored-clothing that allows movement?”

Lina wore a protective suit while testing CADs in case her magic got out of control.

The suit would at least work to soften the external shock, reducing Lina’s injuries.

However, it wasn’t made taking into account the need to move, so it was unsuitable for battle.

“T-there is, but..”

“What’s the size?” Lina asked.

“I think it will fit,” the researcher responded.

“How fast can you prepare it?”

“But why?”

The last question did not come from the researcher Lina was talking to until now, but from a different employee who looked to be 25 years old.

“That ship is a USS Navy transport ship.”

Lina said this while looking at the catamaran from the satellite view shown on the display.

“The attackers are Parasites, so I should be the one to deal with them.”

“....” The researchers didn’t have a response for Lina.

“I am not Sirius here,” Lina said as her tone changed, “but I am not going to silently observe the mistakes of my comrades.”

Even though she had been exiled, she still considered herself to be a USNA citizen and member of the USNA military.

Lina wanted to protect her army’s dignity, not as “Sirius”, but as an ordinary combat magician.

Tatsuya received an emergency call from the main house while he was in the security room on Minami’s floor. It was a special emergency line and not the usual telephone line, and while Tatsuya knew of the system’s existence, he did not expect it would be used to communicate with him.

“Tatsuya-sama, I apologize, but this will only be a voice call.”

“Hanabishi-san, get straight to the point.”

Hanabishi Tajima spoke to Tatsuya through the dedicated wireline. He had the second highest rank among the butlers of the Yotsuba, and he was the father of Hanabishi Hyogo. One of his duties included the management of cases involving weapon usage – he worked to provide everything necessary for conducting combat.

The fact that Hanabishi had established contact combined with the current situation gave Tatsuya a rough idea of what happened.

“Miyaki Island was attacked, wasn’t it?” Tatsuya asked.

“It was. Amphibious boats were sent from the Midway, a high-speed transport vessel belonging to the US Navy.”

Unlike the Miyaki Island staff, the main Yotsuba staff had been able to determine the affiliation of the ship by its form.

“That is to say, an army warship was used?”

Tatsuya was a bit astonished at the openness of the USNA in this attack. Was the USNA going to stop hiding its hostility towards Japan, or would they perhaps insist on an obvious lie such as “it was a rebellion”?

“The landing party consists of 22 parasites. There are also responses from 3 Parasites on the main vessel. There are also responses from ordinary people, but they can be ignored as a fighting force,” Hanabishi continued.

The ordinary people remaining on the transport ship were almost certainly the crew. Were they volunteers in taking part of the attack on Japan, or were they blindly following orders? Tatsuya thought there was a chance they were being manipulated, but that was not the main problem.

“The defense squad will fail, right?”

“Unfortunately. Two people in the boats and two people on the transport vessel exhibit power comparable to the ‘First-magnitude class’ of the Stars. Shields-san has presumably already identified the Parasites from Stars,” Hanabishi continued.

“..They will not be able to fight back against such a force.”

Tatsuya immediately came to this conclusion. He had been mistaken in thinking that he prevented the entrance of Stars reinforcements into Japan.

“Looks like they fooled us..” Tatsuya said, but he easily suppressed this regret as if it were someone else’s failure. “I’ll hurry to Miyaki Island.”

“Thank you. I will organize additional staff to protect the hospital.”

“Clear.”

“All the best,” Hanabishi finished.

The emergency voice call was ended here.

The conversation between Tatsuya and Hanabishi had taken place through a device with the same microphone and speaker as a regular videophone rather than a personal communication device, so everyone in the room had heard the conversation without even having to strain their ears.

“Will that be okay?”

Yuuka, sitting next to Tatsuya, was asking whether the protection detail for Minami would be alright without Tatsuya. They both believed Minoru would attack that day, so the question was founded.

“Nothing good comes from talking about what is good and what is bad,” Tatsuya vaguely replied as he slightly knitted his eyebrows. “I don’t have a choice about going: I cannot allow them to destroy the Star Reactor plant.”

“I don’t think I need to say this, but this is clearly a ploy to divert attention,” Yuuka responded.

“I understand that.”

Without waiting for Yuuka’s argument and without giving her the chance to stop him, Tatsuya headed to the dressing room. Once he changed, he headed to where Miyuki was helping Minami with her studies. They could not hide their surprise as Tatsuya’s look.

“..Onii-sama, are you leaving?” Miyuki asked.

Tatsuya was wearing a “Liberated Suit”, the flying combat armor developed by the Yotsuba as a replacement for the 101 Brigade’s mobile suit.

“Miyaki Island was attacked by Parasites from the USNA military. There are a total of 25 enemies, and among them are four at the level of First-magnitude Star class according to Stars’s classification of magicians. The defense there cannot cope, even if Lina joins.”

Tatsuya’s answer provided enough justification for Miyuki.

“I understand. Onii-sama, good luck in battle,” Miyuki answered without any hidden feelings.

“You two should return to your room,” Tatsuya instructed them.

“Okay.”

“I will try to return as soon as possible.. Miyuki, Minami, do not do anything reckless.”

Both Miyuki and Minami understood why Tatsuya was saying that. While Tatsuya was absent, Minoru would certainly attack. His departure was a planned measure to take him away from Minami’s defense.

“Of course,” Miyuki responded with a smile, even while knowing that Minoru would attack. “Don’t worry, Onii-sama. Leave this place to me.”

There was no sign of anxiety in Miyuki’s eyes.

The resistance of Miyaki Island’s defense squad ended up being much more intense than Deneb expected. It was not that it was fierce - neither Deneb's boat nor Vega's boat had been damaged. However, they still had not managed to get close to the shore. Though the boats were not stopped or thrown back, they were slowed down greatly, delaying their arrival.

It was not easy to defend against attacks against boats. If it had been only the Star Dust soldiers, the boats definitely would have been damaged – possible even sunk. The boats were of a standard design and not especially sturdy.

“These are the untouchables, yes? So they weren’t just rumors.”

Deneb muttered this with a ferocious grin on her face. She wasn’t aware she had expressed her thoughts verbally. While she had always been a war-like character, Deneb had become especially so after her transformation into a Parasite. Despite her change, Deneb had failed to notice it, and her squad mates had not mentioned it, so she was still in the dark about her change in personality.

Although it took longer than planned, but continuing to move forward, after a while they approached the goal.

The moment of the landing was near. The faces of the enemies standing on the shore were already visible to the naked eye.

“Her...?”

Deneb frowned in doubt when she saw one of the people waiting on the shore. Gender did not affect magical ability, so it was not unusual for a female magician to stand on the front lines of a battle, but the enemy dressed in an armored suit and holding what looked like a grenade launcher attracted Deneb’s attention. It was not because she was a woman, but because the weapon triggered some of Deneb’s memories – she was sure she recognized it.

“That's her!” Deneb exclaimed.

The answer to Deneb’s question arose in her subconscious and reached her conscious thought – it was the traitor disgracing the name of Sirius!

Deneb snatched her knife from her weapon belt and threw it towards the shore.

The knife flew straight towards the female magician, but just before it struck, she lost control over it and the knife fell to the cobblestone quay on which the magician stood.

Deneb specialized in melee combat because she was not very good at remote attacking magic. She really wanted to quit her duty leading the squadron and jump to the magician she had recognized as Sirius, but she restrained that desire with all her might.

"A little more... Just a little...!"

The magician she was looking at pulled the trigger of what looked like a grenade launcher. The barrel erupted fire and Deneb immediately felt it pierce the boat’s multilayered shield.

Deneb was not the only one to recognize her enemy. With the help of the built-in long range view function of her helmet, Lina saw that the boats were commanded by Vega and Deneb.

“Charlotte, Leila, you too!?”

She knew every Parasite on the boats. Her feeling upon seeing Vega and Deneb among them was not anger or distorted joy from thinking, “serves you right,” but compassion – Lina was truly good-natured.

“If they became Parasites, they should know the truth..”

But this logic was not enough to convince Lina, and her finger on the trigger was frozen by indecision. Psychologically, Lina lacked what it took to be a soldier.

Though she had more than enough power, she was too soft, and she was not suitable for the occupation. The only mental quality making her a suitable soldier until now was that she would not sympathize with the enemy to the point of endangering allies, but even this trait was not all that suitable for soldiers.

The firearm Lina was holding had a thick barrel, like a grenade launcher, but the muzzle was more like a large-caliber rifle – this gave the weapon a weird look, with an unusually thick barrel for what seemed to be more of a rifle. The weapon was made weirder by the lack of rifling inside the barrel, giving the weapon some resemblance to a shotgun.

However, the weapon was not a firearm, but a magic device. It was a prototype weapon with an integrated CAD developed at Miyaki Island. Lina pulled the trigger of the device entrusted to her by its developers.

The electrical conductor at the base of the thick trunk began to create plasma.

As it expanded, the pressure in the trunk increased, and the plasma tried to exit the trunk. However, the positive electric field generated by the barrel pulled electrons out of the plasma and repulsed the remaining cations, preventing them from exiting.

Once the electrons were separated from the cations, another electromagnetic field was created inside the trunk, accelerating the cations towards the barrel – the exit. At the same time, the original electric field created in the barrel was removed. The barrel was essentially turned into a miniature particle accelerator.

The cations ejected from the muzzle absorbed the released electrons, turning back into a cloud of neutral particles directed in a beam towards a target.

This weapon was a charged particle rifle. The principle was completely different than Lina’s Brionac, and it was worse in power than the Brionac. But..

?

“It’s quite powerful!"

The particle rifle was effective enough to excite Lina and make her forget about the depressing situation for a moment.

A beam of neutral plasma particles flew into the magic shield of Deneb’s vehicle. The barrier magic in place was effective against particles moving at up to 10

times the speed of sound. It was not nearly enough to stop the plasma, with a mass comparable to a rifle bullet, flying at a speed exceeding 100 times the speed of sound.

The ray of neutral particles pierced through the magic shield and the boat, causing an explosion of steam on the opposite side. The Parasites on Deneb’s boat all jumped into the sea. Now Lina turned the barrel towards Vega’s vehicle.

Vega used gravity magic to lift the water from the ocean and make a shield of sorts, seeming to have grasped the principle of Lina’s weapon. Lina reacted by activating gravity-neutralization magic with the thought-controlled CAD Tatsuya had given her.

Lina’s magic did not interfere with the gravitational field – it overwrote it, returning the area to normal. Using gravity control magic, once can change the direction of the attraction force without changing its properties, and if Vega’s magic only changed the vector of the gravity, then Lina’s counter magic would not have had any effect.

Instead, Vega changed the gravitational field in that area, allowing Lina’s magic to work.

Lina pulled the trigger of the particle rifle, and a bundle of neutral particles flew into Vega’s magic shield. However, her rank as commander of the 4th detachment was not just for show: her strength exceeded Deneb’s, and Vega’s barrier withstood the particle beam.

“That’s not all!” Lina shouted.

A moment later, the plasma that had seemingly scattered across the surface shone bright as its temperature shot up from Lina’s special magic Muspelheim.

Usually, this magic only transformed ambient air into high-energy plasma, but this time the plasma particles emitted by the particle rifle were still scattered in the area. Lina focused her magic on the area around Vega’s ship, increasing power as the affected volume decreased. Vega’s magic barrier collapsed as the area affected by Lina’s magic contacted it. At the same time, Vega and the Star Dust soldiers jumped out of the boat.

A second later, plasma swallowed the vehicle.

The heat from Lina’s magic ignited the hydrogen fuel and the boat went down. Lina sighed with relief as she lowered her weapon, but she still kept her guard up, and her Mirror Shield magic reflected an infrared beam of light – Regulus’s fast-firing, high-energy infrared laser bullet, Laser Sniping. Though the magic had “fast firing” in its title, the nature of the magic caused it to have about a 1 second gap between each shot.

As soon as Lina sensed the laser bullet’s impact, she removed the shield and located Regulus. He was approximately 1 kilometer from the coast on the bow of the catamaran Midway. Once she found him, she restored her shield.

Lina’s Mirror Shield blocked outside electromagnetic waves from getting in – it did not block particles going out and was like a one-way mirror.

Lina shot a beam of neutral particles through the mirror towards the ship.

“Huh?” Lina mumbled a moment after the shot. She had -->>

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