Volume 27 - CH 6(3/4)
Due to its nature, Mirror Shield blocked visible light coming from the outside, so Lina could not physically see what was going on, but Lina would hear an explosion if it reached the ship or feel psionic vibrations if the beam was stopped by a barrier.
Lina quickly moved to a new position with movement magic in order to shoot straight down the laser snipers sights. She removed the mirror shield and looked at the transport ship.
“Zoe?!”
Zoe Spica stood next to Regulus on the prow of the ship. Her right arm was forward, pointing directly at Lina – she was in the process of activating Molecular Divider.
However, this magic was only medium range, and would not reach Lina from 1
kilometer away.
“..clear!”
Lina once again pulled the particle rifle’s trigger, sending a beam of particles forward, but about halfway to the ship, the beam dispersed. The particles ended up scattering without reaching the ship.
“I thought so!” Lina shouted.
Molecular Divider inverts the polarity of electrons, cutting molecular bonds.
The electric field created in a straight line towards the particle beam inverted the polarity of the electrons present in the beam. This turned the neutral particles into positive particles that repelled each other, dispersing the beam.
Regulus jumped away from Spica as Lina aimed the particle rifle towards him.
He moved forward in zigzags, using the water as a surface to prevent Lina from aiming. If Lina had been able to use Brionac, his attempts at evasion would have been useless – Lina could control Brionac’s plasma even after firing, so it was impossible to evade unless one was moving at a speed faster than Lina could follow. But the particle rifle only sent a beam in a straight line, so advanced rifle shooting skills were necessary – skills Lina did not have.
Lina threw the particle rifle to the side and pulled out a pistol – a gun with an integrated CAD. Weapons with magically increased penetration power had been produced in Japan for a long time, so Lina had asked the CAD development center staff to give her some equipment more similar to the weapons she was used to.
The transport ship began to turn away from the island, but Lina didn’t have the luxury to follow.
A light blue car left the parking lot of Aoba clinic in Chofu with Tatsuya behind the wheel. He ignored the rules of the road and opted for flight, lifting off of the road. Minoru watched this occur through a camera in a combat quinoid that had not yet been turned into a Parasite doll.
“And so the mission begins,” Minoru muttered, seemingly talking to himself.
In reality, however, it was not a monologue – Minoru was giving the order to start to the driver of the van, who dropped him off at the curb. The driver was a member of the Kudou family assigned to Minoru.
Minoru transmitted the order to start to the other six vans by radio. In total, there were six, including the van Minoru was in. All six had parasite dolls and fighting guinoids in their cargo compartments, and though the vans were currently separated to avoid detection, they were heading towards the same destination – the hospital in which Minami lay.
Tatsuya, ignoring the rules of the road and air traffic, flew off the public road directly, but the police did not bother to stop him and no chase was sent. The car, registered as an ordinary car – not an aircraft, had no need to keep the radio channel for aircraft open. Combined with the fact that police helicopters could not keep up with the air car and the Air Force wasn’t about to send fighters to chase a car that had started flying from the main road, even if a chase had been attempted, it wouldn’t have been successful. In other words, law enforcement agencies had neither the means to deliver the order or stop the pursuit whether they wanted to or not.
The car’s license plate had probably been captured by the street cameras, so there was a chance that trouble would come later, but that was not important at the moment. Besides, Tatsuya still had the claim that the self-defenses forces hadn’t done anything to stop Miyaki Island – Japanese Territory – from being invaded by a foreign military force. Still, Tatsuya didn’t want to use this as justification for legal exemption but as a means for bargaining.
Reaching the coastline, Tatsuya put the car on course to cross Tokyo Bay and the Urag channel in order to avoid flying over land again.
Tatsuya raised the aircar’s speed to 900 kilometers per hours, Tatsuya headed for Miyaki Island.
Holding a gun in her right hand and a knife in her left, Lina stood ready, preparing to meet the oncoming Regulus. However, it was not Regulus, but Deneb who attacked first.
“Lina!”
Deneb called out to Lina, shortening her name not because they were close, but because the Parasite’s conversation previously had used Lina’s shortened name to reference her.
“Leila!”
Lina did not freeze from the change in enemy and changed her aim to Deneb who was jumping out of the water, rushing her in a top-down attack. Lina attacked Deneb with the weight magic Hammer, which tracks an enemy and applies pressure to a detected surface. The magic struck at Deneb from her left side, but Deneb softened the blow by using movement magic towards the right.
As this played out, Regulus began to activate Laser Sniping, but instead of activating her Mirror Shield, Lina sent a knife attached to her belt at Regulus. She was using her magic “Dancing Blades” through her thought-controlled CAD, so she didn’t even need to touch the knife with her hand – it flew out of the holster and rushed Regulus on its own.
Regulus’s concentration was broken as he was forced to dodge, and the laser bullet flew towards the sky. However, Lina’s attack was still not finished and she controlled the knife behind Regulus to strike the weapon device for Laser Sniping. Regulus threw the broken device with a knife now stuck through its hardware to the side, and as it fell into the water, the device blew up. Regulus quickly grasped the handle on his belt with his right hand and pulled – quickly turning what had been his thin belt into a rapier. The sword was not just sharp - Regulus had also added an electric shock over the entire blade.
Lina didn’t have time to continue her attack on Regulus, as now the weight magic Hammer was being used on her – and it was more powerful than magic she had used.
“Vega!?” Lina shouted.
Weight magic attacks flew at Lina one after another.
“..Your still being familiar?”
Vega still had a grudge against Lina for “betrayal.”
Lina quickly took a step backwards, but Vega followed her movement and went ashore. Holding her pistol and knife, Lina looked towards her left and right.
In front of her was Vega.
To the right, Regulus.
On the left, Deneb.
And behind them, the Star Dust soldiers-turned-Parasites began to come out onto the beach.
Despite Lina’s attempted intervention, the sabotage unit of Stars had successfully made it onto Miyaki Island.
Lina had struggled to fight the three opponents of First-magnitude Star class.
With the addition of twenty Star Dust soldiers, she could not possibly cope alone.
“So, you’re also Parasites now?” Lina spoke.
Lina tried to change the situation by speaking to Vega and Deneb in her native language. Neither bothered to answer Lina, but Deneb raised her eyebrows slightly.
“Now that you are Parasites, surely you know the truth. It wasn’t me who caused the Parasites, and the idea that I have secret connections to Japan is also a false accusation!”
“If you have no connections with Japan, then why did you run here!?”
Deneb didn’t hide her passion as she spoke with anger in response to Lina.
“To escape. From you, the rioters,” Lina answered calmly. Though her heart raged towards Deneb, she suppressed her emotion and gathered her will into a fist.
“Right. Then it was a false accusation,” Vega responded.
Vega’s voice could not be called calm, but it also couldn’t be considered excited – it was more apathetic, and Vega grinned in her response, continuing.
“But now you are helping a Japanese private military organization. As an American soldier, you came out against the States.”
“Japan is a federal state. Planning an act as dishonorable as sabotage to take advantage of the New Soviet Union’s attack is unacceptable,” Lina answered.
“This was the decision made by the Pentagon – not we, simple soldiers fighting on the front line.”
“Wha-wow..”
Lina was surprised momentarily, but quickly accepted it as fact – if the government was willing to use Parasites, they should also have been willing to risk sabotage.
While Vega and Lina had their verbal struggle, the Star Dust soldiers attacked the rest of the defensive squad and slowly continued to move inland. Lina saw this, but could not offer any assistance – if she ignored the three around her, she would instantly die. Lina was trapped.
“Traitor Sirius. It’s good that you were here, because now, caught red-handed in a hostile act towards the States, we can shamelessly get rid of you!” Vega finished.
As soon as Vega finished her statement, Vega, Deneb, and Regulus – three members of Stars with the rank of First-magnitude class now merged with Parasites –
simultaneously attacked Lina.
Deneb breached the peace first as she waved a large knife at Lina and used movement magic to close the distance. Lina reacted with the same magic in the same direction, keeping her distance. Realizing that she couldn’t catch up, Deneb fired her pistol and Lina once again responded the same way, turning the battle into a shootout over shields.
Regulus followed Deneb, and using self-acceleration magic, he appeared in front of Lina. With his electrified blade, he struck her shield.
Stuck in place, Lina attacked Vega with gravitational magic, but Vega destroyed her gravitational field with Molecular Divider.
..more precisely, Lina’s magic was interrupted because of the inconsistencies between the modification of phenomenon caused by Molecular Divider and Lina’s gravitational magic encountered in the air, and the magics canceled each other out, destroying both Vega and Lina’s magic.
As this was going on, Regulus continued to attack Lina’s shield, and it began to tremble. The electrical surges emitted by Regulus’ blade finally finished off Lina’s barrier, breaking it. Deneb took her opportunity and shot Lina’s left shoulder. While Lina’s armored suit was able to stop the bullet from penetrating, the momentum of the bullet was transferred to her shoulder and the impact caused Lina to involuntarily drop her knife. She instantly activated Muspelheim in defense.
Vega, Deneb, and Regulus all leaped to the side to evade the generated plasma. When it dissipated, in the center of the area previously filled with high-energy plasma, Lina stood breathing heavily.
The three Parasites exchanged looks.
Lina pulled her pistol’s trigger, but penetration magic was not applied to the bullet so Regulus stopped it with a magical barrier, and a Dancing Blade Lina had released earlier in the fight was knocked down by Deneb. Her two attacks stopped, Vega created a repulsive field which threw Lina back.
Lina was thrown down the road running along the cobbled promenade, and she fell onto the rocky surface of cooled lava. Vega, Deneb, and Regulus cautiously approached her, looking down at Lina.
Lina was unable to stand, barely finding the strength to climb onto one knee Vega punched Lina back down, but despite her weakness, Lina’s fighting strength had not faded. She grinned faintly.
Deneb pointed her pistol at Lina.
Regulus pointed the tip of his sword.
Lina bit her lip with regret.
But at that moment, a light blue car cut threw the air and landed as if it was aimed at the three Parasites.
Vega attacked the car with her repulsive force field, but the magic dispersed before it was completed. Vega rounded her eyes, and Regulus and Deneb could hardly believe their eyes as the aero car landed about 10 meters in front of Deneb. The three had dodged the air car by jumping back to the embankment.
The driver’s door opened, and Tatsuya stepped onto the Miyaki Island battlefield dressed in the Freed Suit.
Tatsuya had flown from Chofu to Miyaki Island in 20 minutes. If he had flown at subsonic speed the entire distance, he could have made it in 10, but the flight from Chofu to the sea and over Tokyo Bay required him to go at a slower speed.
Tatsuya knew about the situation on Miyaki Island even before he arrived. He was receiving the data from the island in real time, in addition to monitoring the psion wave oscillations from Lina’s fight. However, there was no magic for teleportation, so Tatsuya could not instantly move from Chofu to Miyaki Island.
Restraining his growing impatience, Tatsuya focused on controlling the aircar.
A camera mounted on its nose caught sight of Miyaki Island, and without slowing down, Tatsuya headed towards the northeast coast that was now a battlefield. He didn’t bother to use the runway at the airport and landed directly on the road running along the embankment where the battle was being fought. As he was landing, he
dispersed the magic of an anti-gravity spell that was trying to prevent him from landing.
There were fighters from the defense squad still on the road, so Tatsuya slammed on the breaks so as not to hit them. There were also enemies on the road, but Tatsuya didn’t really care – his thought process amounted to “if I hit them with the car, I can save time.” Tatsuya had no doubts about his ability.
Three Parasites fled from the path of the air car by enhancing their jump with movement magic. Tatsuya could tell that they were the Parasites of First-magnitude Star class with only one glance using elemental sight.
Like the rest of Japan, driving was done on the left side of the road on Miyaki Island, but Tatsuya ignored the law and stopped on the right side of the road for his convenience. Lina was barely standing on one knee on the hardened lava next to the road.
“Lina, can you continue?” Tatsuya asked.
He had already checked Lina’s state by looking, but still asked the insensitive question.
“Can,” Lina responded, not wanting to hold Tatsuya back.
With the last of her strength, Lina rose to her feet. She looked as if she was trying to stand during an earthquake, but she somehow managed to stay up.
“I will figure this out. Cover me.”
Without waiting for Lina’s answer, Tatsuya turned towards the three Parasites who were now on the embankment. This was probably for the best, as Tatsuya’s cold voice made her shiver all over her body as goosebumps formed on her back. She wouldn’t have been able to answer even if Tatsuya had waited.
Vega used magic to push Tatsuya back with his car, but the magic was demolished before the sequence had even been fixed on the Eidos of the target. Tatsuya had released a dense flow of psions from his whole body to vanquish the spell.
“Gram Demolition?!” Vega and Deneb cried out simultaneously.
Tatsuya raised his right hand. There was no gun-shaped CAD in his hand – he just pointed his finger and activated Mist Dispersion with the fully thought-controlled CAD built into his suit. The activation time was almost zero.
He erased the magic suppression zone almost instantly.
He tore down the Data Fortification magic around the Parasites so quickly that it could not be perceived.
He cut the intermolecular bonds of Regulus’ tissues in essentially no time.
The man named Regulus had been completely erased, and all that remained of the Parasite was its true body. Now Tatsuya reached out with his other hand and shot Armor Piercing Psion Bullet. He wasn’t aiming at the Parasite that had recently been in Regulus and instead shot at Vega.
Vega, struck in her chest by a dense shell of psions, fell backwards and violently convulsed. Rolling down the embankment in that state, she fell back into the sea.
In the blink of an eye, Regulus had been deleted and Vega thrown from the battlefield. Deneb was frozen in shock as Tatsuya sent another Armor Piercing Psion Bullet at Deneb. She fell back.
Deneb was not the only one frozen in place – Lina lifted her helmet flap and stared, dazed, at Deneb writhing on the road. She could hardly believe her eyes – Tatsuya had instantly neutralized these three whom she had been at her limit fighting against.
“Lina, look after this woman,” Tatsuya told Lina.
He realized she was in shock and that she would now overestimate his combat power because of a misunderstanding. Tatsuya had only been able to neutralize the Parasites so quickly because of surprise, but he didn’t have time to explain himself. The true body of the Parasite in Regulus had appeared, and it began its activity as an intangible life form as it searched for a new host. The real battle was now beginning.
Tatsuya concentrated psions inside his body before releasing them into the Parasite. He attacked from all six sides – front, back, left, right, top, and bottom.
The Parasite attempted to push back against the psionic currents, but realized it was impossible and tried to escape by moving away. However, pressure was being applied from the front, back, left, and right, and the top and bottom sides were closed tightly.
Surrounded by walls, the Parasite created a shell in an attempt to protect is pushionic information body, but the walls quickly ate into the shell, penetrating it. Trapped, the Parasite shrunk and hardened, mixing with the walls.
Tatsuya’s psionic currents continued to converge, concentrating a progressively smaller area. Finally, all the Psions were compressed into a sphere with a 3-centimeter diameter. The sphere hung intangibly about 10 centimeters above the concrete embankment.
Tatsuya had sealed the Parasite that was recently Regulus in his Sealing Sphere.
Miyuki and Minami followed the instructions Tatsuya gave right before he left and returned to Minami’s ward. Miyuki read while sitting on the single couch while Minami continued preparing for her exams, sitting on the bed which had been raised to support a sitting position.
Miyuki, turning the electronic pages of her book, suddenly looked up.
“..he was pretty quick. Have our guards already discovered them?” Miyuki said.
“..Miyuki-sama?” Minami asked, confused.
Minami turned to Miyuki and asked for her to clarify, but Miyuki’s words had mostly been her muttering to herself.
“Minami-chan, he came.”
Still, Miyuki didn’t ignore Minami’s question.
“Who.. really?!”
Minami closed her textbook program and turned off her terminal as she got out of bed.
She was not in pajamas, however, so she wasn’t panicking about having to change her clothes.
“Yes,” Miyuki said while nodding.
Miyuki didn’t answer with the name of who had arrived because Minami had of course figured it out: it could only be Minoru.
Miyuki called the security intercom, and Yuuka appeared on the small screen of the terminal.
“Miyuki-san, the company has arrived.”
Before Miyuki could speak, Yuuka explained the situation that she had already figured out.
“I feel signs of Parasites from six directions,” Miyuki responded.
“..So you already knew. The sensors are saying the same thing.”
Miyuki was so ahead of ordinary magicians in her magical perception that she seemed to be at a different stage of evolution. Yuuka’s surprise was based on this prejudiced notion, but Miyuki smiled broadly after hearing Yuuka’s astonished voice.
“Shouldn’t you expect this from the next head-sama?” Miyuki said, teasing Yuuka.
“In that case, perhaps you also know where Kudou Minoru is now?” Yuuka asked, moving on.
“The response from Minoru is quite blurry. It seems he is disguising himself by both Parade and Ghost Walker.”
Miyuki’s words made it seem like trying to detect him was pointless, but her tone contrasted this and Miyuki continued trying to find Minoru.
“I don’t feel Minrou-kun’s signs from other groups, so he’s probably inside a car or other vehicle approaching from the northeast,” Miyuki explained.
“A car from the northeast? Alright, I’ll pass this information to the Juumonji family then.”
“Thank you.”
“Miyuki-san, please do not leave the ward. Even if he gets into the hospital, we’ll figure this out,” Yuuka warned.
“I understand.”
“..Then I’ve said everything. Until next time.”
Yuuka was slightly suspicious of Miyuki’s quick agreement with the situation, but she didn’t ask Miyuki about it.
When the intercom went down, Miyuki sighed a little.
“..Onii-sama will not have time to return,” Miyuki assessed.
Miyuki was dissatisfied with the situation but held no grudge against Tatsuya for having left the defense against Minoru’s attack.
Minoru got out of the van about 200 meters from the hospital. There were tall building all around, so he could only see the highest floor of the Aoba Clinic.
At the same time as Minoru, 6 Parasite dolls left the back of the van. The other cars held the same load. In total, Minoru had prepared a fighting force of 36 parasite dolls
– 15 already made in the former Ninth Laboratory, and 21 made by Minoru using the dummies in the factory in Ikoma.
The base bodies (dummies) for the Parasite dolls were gynoids originally made for military use, but these dolls were dressed in casual clothes. They each had ankle-length pants combined with various blouses, T-shirts, and summer sweaters.
Since it was daytime, pedestrians were walking around. There weren’t as many out as usual because of the New Soviet Union’s invasion, but some people still went out for urgent errands. By giving the Parasite dolls casual clothes, the dolls could blend in with passers-by without giving off the feeling that something was wrong.
Contrary to the goal of blending in, however, Minoru didn’t bother to hide his appearance at all with magic so his beauty stood out like a sore thumb. Pedestrians passing by even stopped to stare at him as if he had descended from heaven. Minoru couldn’t even walk to a hospital without attracting attention.
Suddenly, Minoru stopped.
The crowd also stopped.
Minoru spoke, looking at the big young man who blocked his way.
“Juumonji-san, could you let me pass?” Minoru asked.
“I didn’t think you’d appear at this time,” Juumonji responded, ignoring Minoru’s request.
“I’m not a vampire, so I don’t have to wait until night,” Minoru answered jokingly.
“You are not an ordinary vampire, but I wouldn’t say that the description doesn’t fit.
Vampires suck the blood of people and turn good into bad – at least, that’s how it is in fantastic stories, but you are real,” Katsuto said with a serious face.
“It’s a shame you think that. I’m not attacking people who accidentally stopped me on my way,” Minoru said.
“But now you are trying to turn one girl into something inhuman.”
Minoru and Katsuto’s conversation took place in front of pedestrians walking by on the street, but none of them really understood what was going on through the metaphor the conversation was using. Some of the passerby were whispering phrases like “what is this, a movie shoot?”, but these were the minority. Most felt that the conversation was real and not just a figment of some story.
“Juumonji-san. Let me pass.” Minoru made his request again, this time more forcefully.
“Kudou Minoru. You are under arrest.”
This time Katsuto answered, but his answer more than just denied it.
“What charges?”
“Unauthorized transportation of military weapons in public.”
While Katsuto was speaking, a detective behind him hidden in civilian clothes and working under the Juumonji family appeared with a police warrant.
After Katsuto’s words about weapons and the appearance of the police, unrest appeared in the crowd of passerby.
“Are you talking about the Parasite dolls? Well, you caught me, but can you fight in a place with civilians?”
Minoru provoked Katsuto.
“So you plan to involve the civilians in this?!”
Katsuto created a barrier to lock Minoru in front of him as he was talking. However, Minoru switched places with one of the Parasite dolls behind him at the same time – it wasn’t teleportation but Parade he had kept active through the conversation with Katsuto.
Minoru used stun magic on the detective, but Katsuto defended his subordinate with barrier magic. To do this, however, he had to release the barrier around the Parasite doll that Minoru had swapped places with, and this doll attacked Katsuto.
Katsuto’s barrier collided with the doll’s barrier, giving off sparks of psionic light.
This Parasite doll specialized in anti-object barrier magic.
Like Parasites, Parasite dolls tended to specialize in specific magic. Though they had a lack of diversity, they were able to demonstrate powerful abilities in their field to such an extent that the doll specializing in barrier magic could resist against Katsuto.
Still, this was not enough to make it a fight on equal footing. Katsuto was forced to take his focus away from Minoru, but as soon as he became serious, he destroyed the barrier around the Parasite doll and crushed her mechanical body, being careful to not completely destroy the doll – he knew that death of the physical body of the Parasite releases the true body, and it was safe to assume that it worked the same for Parasites in machines as for Parasites in humans. Still, Katsuto couldn’t leave the doll in serviceable condition, so he destroyed the head and limbs, leaving only the electronic brain and fuel cell of the gynoid.
Until this point, everything had been within Katsuto’s expectations, but what happened next went beyond. The Parasite doll exploded.
The explosion itself was blocked by Katsuto’s shield, but the destruction of the body meant that the Parasite had been released.
This was not the only exploding doll – other parasite dolls attacked other magicians of the Juumonji family standing in Minoru’s way, and the Juumonji family could not ignore them. To stop Minoru, the Juumonji magicians hurried to neutralize the dolls.
And each of the neutralized dolls exploded.
Many Parasites were released, searching for new bodies. The non-material life forms attacked the Juumonji family as well as nearby civilians and people hiding in buildings.
Katsuto and his subordinates were forced to protect the civilians from the Parasites.
They didn’t have time to chase Minoru.
After erasing Regulus’ physical body and locking the released Parasite into a Sealing Sphere, Tatsuya did the same with Deneb. Two completed Sealing Spheres hovered about 10 centimeters above the ground, and they would remain for about 12
more hours in their current state without outside interference. Further processing of the seal should be performed by specialists, so Tatsuya left the spheres to be dealt with later. During his flight to Miyaki Island, Tatsuya had asked Hanabishi Hyogo to
send a magician with sealing skills, and Tatsuya had no doubt that Hyogo would find someone who could finish the job.
“Lina, I leave this place to you. Don’t let anyone get close to the Sealing Spheres.”
Lina was fascinated by Tatsuya’s actions in dealing with the Parasites so efficiently, but she came to herself when he assigned her a task.
“Sealing Spheres? Are you talking about these things?” Lina asked.
“Yes.”
Tatsuya replied to Lina without even looking before jumping onto the jetty. Lina only saw the back of his helmet and couldn’t see his expression, but she somehow got the feeling that he had smacked his tongue.
Tatsuya ran east of the embankment chasing Vega who had fallen into the water. After being hit by Tatsuya’s Armor Piercing Psion Bullet, Vega revealed the true nature of the Parasites.
Without bothering to breathe, Vega tried to swim underwater in an arc towards the east coast of the island. Still standing on the embankment, Tatsuya targeted Vega with Mist Dispersion. As if it were a survival instinct, Vega suddenly surfaced. Tatsuya detected an increased number of psions as this happened – meaning Vega was beginning a counterattack.
When Vega had became a Parasite, her rate of activation drastically increased. Now, with her true nature fully manifested, the speed increased even further, but.
Vega’s magic was not yet completed.
The magic she was in the process of building was dispelled.
The magic that protected her body was destroyed.
And then her physical body was erased.
The substances that made up the body of Charlott-->>