physically heard, but he was too excited for his mind to react.

“I need you to test new Strategic Class magic! Masaki, it’s magic for you!”

As soon as Masaki processed what Kichijouji said, he, like Kichijouji, grabbed Kichijouji’s shoulders.

“New Strategic Class Magic!? George, you... created Strategic class magic!?”

“Ah, no, not from scratch..”

At Masaki’s question, Kichijouji’s excitement disappeared. He had not forgotten that he received the basic blueprint from Tatsuya, but his mind had been fully occupied with the desire to test the magic as quickly as possible to make sure Masaki could use it.

“So, you didn't create it for me, George?” Masaki asked the stumbled Kichijouji with doubt in his voice.

“No, I finished it alone!”

When Masaki said the phrase “for me,” it pierced Kichijouji’s heart and he unwittingly asserted his achievement. Still, it wasn’t a lie, and Kichijouji should have said it from the beginning, but he had been focused on his rivalry with Tatsuya.

“I see.”

Masaki, not knowing the details, assumed Kichijouji had created it himself, but had used the results of the work of many other laboratory staff.

“It is necessary to immediately test? I assume you came here for this,” Masaki asked.

Their situations had shifted, and now Masaki was leaning towards Kichijouji.

"Yeah, you're right."

Kichijouji answered truthfully.

There was once a “subcritical experiment” to test the process of causing an explosion of nuclear fission by stopping it immediately before the critical point to collect data for the simulation. The experiment Masaki and Kichijouji were about to perform to test the Strategic Class magic was by nature similar to this “subcritical experiment”.

As the name “Strategic Class Magic” suggests, it is comparable in power to strategic class weapons, so it is difficult to test near civilian areas. Therefore, testing the new magic was done by canceling the magic sequences just prior to activation. Even though the result is canceled, it can be determined with a certainty of 80-90% whether the magic will function according to expectations. This method does not just prevent civilian casualties, but also prevents the information of the test from being leaked to other countries through military spy satellites.

Though a probability of error of 10-20% may seem large, the success rate of large-scale magic is usually low until the caster gets used to the magic. It is entirely possible for magic successful during testing to fail to activate during critical moments of battles. Because of this, unlike conventional magic tests, there was no need to cling to the ideal of “100% completion rate of all processes”.

To conduct the experiment, Masaki, Kichijouji and Akane moved from Komatsu airbase to Kanazawa naval base. It was relatively new, built on the site of a coastal golf course destroyed during the last war.

The base was small, but it was built for the use of magical tactics and the former First Laboratory took part in its design, so it was a suitable place for testing magic intended for sea battles.

“Masaki. I think you understand this, but you cannot mess up your control of the interference strength of this phenomenon,” Kichijouji warned.

“Of course I understand.”

Magic projects an activation sequence onto the Eidos of its target and activates by infusing the caster’s psions to give the sequence its interference strength. Usually, the projection of an activation sequence and the infusion of magic power into the phenomenon were performed simultaneously, but in the pre-activation experiment, the interference strength of the phenomenon is kept at a level just enough to confirm the activation of the magic.

Since the infusion of psions could not be controlled by hardware, it relied on the individual’s skill at performing magic. Because of this, experiments testing powerful magic are always accompanied by a risk.

“...Akane. Maybe you'd better hide behind cover.”

Both Masaki and Kichijouji had not wanted to bring Akane here with them and had initially tried to send her home.

“Why?”

“Eh?! What do you mean, ‘why’?! It’s dangerous!” Masaki exclaimed.

“You won’t mess up,” Akane replied, showing no intent to back off.

“I won’t, but..”

“Then there is no danger.”

Masaki could not refute Akane’s logic and was forced to allow her to go with them.

Though he had still tried to stop her caustic phrases on Komatsu base like "nii-san, you are such an awkward child," he could no longer hold her back.

“..Just don’t bother George.”

After saying this, Masaki forgot his worries about Akane to focus all his attention on the experiment. Realizing that Masaki had shifted to a serious mood, Akane did not respond sarcastically as she usually might, but stood silently next to Kichijouji.

Masaki took the sighting device which took his perspective outside the window and led him toward the sea. The length of the device was about 50 centimeters, and it resembled a short machine gun. It had uniform thickness and the handle was precisely in the middle, making the device well balanced and easy to hold with one hand.

However, Masaki was holding it with two hands. He was grasping the device a little closer to the barrel with his left hand, as if he was using a real weapon. One part of the handle was not actually attached to the aiming device, and rather ran through the body and rear part of the entire device – the parts performing the device’s main function. The handle contained the induction stone, which converted electronic data from the computer into psionic signals, so it was easier to connect it to the computer more directly.

The special glasses Masaki was wearing projected a visual of the target area –

they were a tool for visualizing the area to aim at. He was aiming at a rectangular plane on the surface of the sea, and the length and width of the target area could be configured with four buttons on the sides of the device. The top button stretched the width, both left and right, while the bottom did the inverse. Similarly, the front button increased the length, and the back button reduced the length. Changing the area also changed the field of view presented by the special glasses.

The glasses currently projected an image of the sea 20 kilometers from the coastline, superimposed over the Masaki’s actual field of view. Using the buttons on the side of the aiming device, Masaki set a target area 1 kilometer wide and 500 meters long in the middle of the image.

“I am starting the test.”

After this statement, Masaki, Kichijouji, Akane, and all the base engineers who were helping with the experiment held their breath.

Masaki removed his left hand from the buttons controlling the target area and brought it back under the barrel of the aiming device.

Gripping the handle with his right index finger, he pulled the trigger of the aiming device.

The computer converted the target effect on the target area into a format allowing the creation of activation sequences. The computer added coordinate data and timings to copy the magic sequences to each of the activation sequences stored, before sending all this data to the handle of the aiming device. The induction stone

embedded in the handle converted all this electronic data into a psionic information body, and the resulting activation sequence was output as a psionic signal that merged with Masaki's right hand.

The activation sequence had successfully been read.

The activation sequence was sent to the magic calculation zone existing in Masaki’s subconscious.

The activation sequence had successfully been built.

From this point, Masaki was usually able to build the magic sequence in no less than half a second, but this time it took Masaki a full second after reading the activation sequence to even begin outputting the magic sequence. Despite the increase in time, however, Masaki was able to use the magic, and the magic sequence was projected onto the center of the target area.

...After that, the magic was interrupted.

But a moment before that, an essentially infinite number of magic sequences had filled the 1000-by-500-meter area of the sea surface.

“The test is successful!”

This statement from the smiling Kichijouji was drowned out by the joyful shouts of the base engineers.

Local time: July 7, 6:00 p.m.

Before sunset, the Independence aircraft carrier emerged from the port of Yokosuka. It had arrived here 2 weeks ago and belonged to the USNA naval fleet.

According to the official schedule, Independence practiced the takeoff and landing of its fighter planes at night to the southeast of the Boso Peninsula before returning to the base in Hawaii.

Independence was a rather old and slow ship. After it left the port and went onto the open ocean, a high-speed catamaran boat with a breakwater hull approached it.

A small helicopter took off from the Independence to board the speed boat – named Midway. Once the helicopter had landed stably, four soldiers and one civilian left the

helicopter and boarded Midway. The people leaving were: three women officers; Captain Charlotte Vega, First Lieutenant Zoe Spick, and Second Lieutenant Leila Deneb; First Lieutenant Jacob Regulus; and Raymond Clark.

When the five of them stepped onto the deck, a junior officer on board the speedboat greeted them.

“Star dust, Soldier C13, Sergeant Charles Cooper at your service!”

Even the still-spinning rotor of the helicopter did not drown out his voice.

“The commander of the fourth squad of Stars, Captain Vega.”

Vega answered the sergeant. Among the four soldiers in the company, Vega had the highest rank, so it was decided without words that she would be in command.

“Twenty members of Stardust including myself are now under your command, Captain.”

“Including the Sergeant, I accept command of the twenty members of Stardust,” Vega answered.

“Ay!”

All the members of Stardust answered her words. The mental wave from twenty people (except the Sergeant, who answered aloud), merged into one thought and flowed into Vega's mind like a powerful stream. The wave reached the other four Parasites who had come off the helicopter, including Raymond. Every member of the Stardust detachment present on the transport ship was a Parasite.

The five arrivals led by Vega were first taken to a small briefing room inside the ship rather than the bridge. Vega had expected this, thinking there would be a discussion for the plan before they took control of the ship.

“We need to determine the arrangement for tomorrow.”

Vega skipped the intro and immediately brought up the main business.

“Right. The operation is tomorrow, so we have to hurry.”

Spica, accustomed to Vega’s behavior, added her remark to smooth Vega’s impression of excessive impatience.

“Commander, do you have any ideas?”

Deneb opened a map of Miyaki Island obtained by aerial photography on the table-shaped monitor and asked Vega about her plan. The fourth unit often left most of the decisions to Vega.

Vega pointed to the northeast coast of the island and answered her subordinate:

“Yes. Second lieutenant Deneb and I will take 10 Star Dust soldiers each and suppress any resistance. First Lieutenant Regulus will cover from the rear. Finally, First Lieutenant Spica and Raymond will stay on the ship to provide a path of retreat.”

“I do not mind, captain, but what about the destruction of the plant?”

Raymond was the first to agree, but his tone lacked sincerity.

Vega slightly frowned at the tone of Raymond’s question. On the surface, Raymond was simply reminding the Vega of the main purpose of the plan, but the implications that held made the comment seem condescending.

From Raymond’s perspective, he and Vega just didn’t get along - he felt that Vega was displeased with him because she had treated him like leftovers in her plan.

Still, the Parasites had a united consciousness, so Vega’s decision was also Raymond’s. Thus, Raymond’s discontent was the conflict of his feelings and his reason, so he didn’t complain about it openly. Vega also shared Raymond's feeling that "this is not very interesting,” and they couldn’t pretend they didn’t notice it. This was not a conflict for another person for them, but a dispute with oneself.

“I will call you when we complete the neutralization of the enemy, so prepare a bomb on the ship.”

“Okay. Understood, captain.”

The feeling of discomfort in relation to each other was equivalent to aversion to oneself, so they were able to quickly move on.

“First Lieutenant Regulus, will that suit you?”

“Yes captain.”

“Then it’s settled. Everyone is free.”

Vega finished the tactics meeting before the dislike of her began to intensify.