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Chapter 10

When Tatsuya arrived at the Aokigahara “Sea of Trees,” the hands of the clock had already passed 17:00.

He returned to the same place where the pursuit squad from the Juumonji family had lost sight of Minoru's car. On the narrow road which he had discovered by breaking the illusion, new tracks of wheels were now visible..

“So it was the right way after all?"

Such a thought filled with a little bitterness came to Tatsuya's mind. Now that he had determined the exact coordinates of the hideout, he knew for sure that this road leads to the right place. If only that day he would have searched a little more aggressively and persistently...

“... No, this is a useless assumption.”

That day he wouldn’t have been able to find the right way, even if he had searched until nightfall. Even today, he was able to see his goal only because someone else had broken the barrier before. He wouldn’t know the route to the goal if he hadn’t traced backwards, starting from the final destination. For Tatsuya, this barrier was such a complicated and confusing maze.

Tatsuya parked Wingless, the electric motorcycle, on the side of the road and entered the Sea of Trees on foot. From the place where the bike was parked to Minoru's hideout was about 700 meters in a straight line. Even when walking on foot it won’t much time. Even if the road is winding, you can get there in less than 10 minutes. It wasn’t time that bothered him more, but the fact that along the way it was possible to turn the wrong way at the forks.

The “Freed Suit” that was created by the Yotsuba family, now worn by Tatsuya, in contrast to the “Mobile Suit” developed by the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion, wasn’t equipped with the power assistance function. But fewer mechanized parts also made it easier to use. His total weight was less than 20 kilograms. Such a weight wasn’t a burden to Tatsuya even without magical support. He could run at a speed approximately equal to the speed of a regular high school student in running sports, while wearing the suit.

Starting to run slowly, he increased his speed with each step.

“Coming!”

Minoru didn’t feel the approach of Tatsuya with “Elemental Sight,” but with the sensory function of the barrier, 'Sekirei Hachijin.'”

At the moment, he and Minami were still in the hideout. Not to ambush and counterattack Tatsuya. The “Sekirei Hachijin" barrier interferes with magical detection and is an array of “Kimon Tonkou" installed in fixed positions. This barrier may no longer prevent Tatsuya from invading, but inside the barrier, Tatsuya will have a harder time finding them than he would outside the barrier anyways.

At that moment when Tatsuya gets inside the barrier, the “competition" will begin.

So decided Minoru.

When “Sekirei Hachijin” disrupts Tatsuya's “sight,” Kudou Soushi will copy the Eidos of Minami and put the copy on the gynoid, then copy the Eidos of Minoru and cast it on himself. After that, he will start driving away from the barrier by car. If Tatsuya buys it, then Minoru will take Minami with him and flee in the opposite direction. And if he doesn’t buy it... then he's ready for a direct confrontation.

If he manages to escape from here and get to Odawara, then there will be all the necessary geographical conditions for the use of “Kaso Tonkou*." “Kaso Tonkou” is the composite magic from “Parade” and “Kimon Tonkou.” Minoru concocted this improvised spell in half a day today, and theoretically no one should know this magic except for him. Even Tatsuya won’t be able to quickly understand magic that's unknown to him.... At least Minoru hoped and prayed for it.

Although, he understood that being a Parasite, he didn’t have a god to whom to pray.

[Couldn't come up with a normal version of the translation of this. The name is formed from the first two characters of the Japanese name Parade and the second two

characters of the Japanese name Kimon Tonkou. “Parade Thin" or “Disguise Thin" -

all these options sound silly, given the fact that the second word is a transliteration from Japanese, resembling a Russian word.]

“... Hmm?”

Tatsuya, who ran with the speed of a middle distance runner, stopped when he felt a weak but sufficient enough not to be ignored, feeling that “something is wrong here."

He felt that he had shifted slightly from the desired path, as if his feet were slightly leading him away.

“This is the impact of “Kimon Tonkou"...?"

“Kimon Tonkou" is magic that distorts the sense of direction. Tatsuya knew this before, but now for the first time he had personally experienced what this “distortion of the sense of direction” felt like.

Perhaps he wouldn’t have noticed it if he was riding his motorcycle. He also wouldn’t have known about it if he had ran with magical support. He was able to detect a slight deviation only because he felt the surface of the earth while running, and his feet were firmly planted on it.

“Is it just because I know where to go?”

This time the destination was strictly defined. He was moving along a winding road, constantly keeping in mind the location of the target, so when the direction shifted, he was able to understand that it wasn’t his mistake.

“Quite the problematic magic...”

Tatsuya was once again convinced of the effectiveness of this East Asian continental ancient magic “Kimon Tonkou." It would be too difficult for him to overcome this barrier only on his own. Whatever the intentions of the Kudou family, they only helped him.

Tatsuya finally crossed the “Sekirei Hachijin" barrier.

“Come!"

Finding out about Tatsuya's invasion, Minoru turned on a short-range directional radio.

“Soushi-niisan, move out, please.”

“Understood.”

The answer came back in a clearly dissatisfied voice, but Soushi still showed no signs of resistance.

The barrier transmitted the response from the exit of the car to the outside. With the help of Elemental Sight, Minoru “watched” as the car followed its intended course. In the car, he “saw" Soushi, on which was imposed his (Minoru) Eidos and a female-type android, on which Minami's Eidos was superimposed.

“Now let's see if Tatsuya-san can be fooled by this!”

Although Tatsuya hadn’t yet penetrated the inside of the mansion, Minoru unconsciously held his breath and began to observe Tatsuya's movements reported by the barrier.

“What is it!? Minami and Minoru?”

Less than a minute has passed since Tatsuya received a response that “something had crossed over the barrier." Now he suddenly caught clear signs of Minami and Minoru's presence.

He activated his “Elemental Sight" again. Information about Minami and Minoru moving northward at a speed of about 30-40 km/h was displayed in his “field of view."

“So, there's more than one road that leads to this hideout?”

Providing multiple escape routes during preparation for a likely escape from pursuit is common sense. There was nothing surprising in the fact that Minoru escaped on a different path when he discovered Tatsuya's approach.

But...

“... Where is he going? Besides, so openly?”

Tatsuya couldn’t believe his perception, because Minoru's behavior seemed unnatural.

Although he said “so openly,” Parade acted on the Eidos of Minoru and Minami. Not Lina's spell, namely the “Parade” of the Kudou family. Without receiving that data from Fujibayashi, he wouldn’t have been able to “see” it so clearly.

But it was too clear. He saw them too well. It seemed to Tatsuya that they were making a show of themselves, knowing that they would be “watched.”

In addition, the direction of their escape also raised some doubt. The Minoru group passed through the Sea of Trees and continued north along the state highway.

If they continue in this direction, they will come upon Saiko Lake. If from there they turn east, they will follow the central road along Lake Kawaguchi. If they turn to the west, and then, before reaching Lake Motosu, turn to the north again, they will eventually end up in the city of Kofu. The route leading south of Lake Motosu could be ruled out altogether. Because in that case they would've immediately gone south straight out of the Sea of Trees.

The question is where will they go next.

If they head east, then they will be in the suburbs of Tokyo. They will be entering the territory of the Juumonji family.

If they go to the north, then the Yotsuba family will be waiting for them there. The location of the main house of the Yotsuba family - the former Fourth Laboratory -

was kept secret from the other Master Clans and the Magic Association. But the Mitsuya, Mutsuzuka, Saegusa and Kudou families knew that this place is somewhere in the region “from the city of Kofu to the city of Suva.” Nobody particularly monitored the non-disclosure of this information, so the neighboring families of Ichijou, Futatsugi and Juumonji also learned about this.

Perhaps Minoru himself didn’t know about this. Or was he going to cross the

“backyard” of the Yotsuba family and continue moving north?

“... But is it really Minami and Minoru?”

The more he thought about it, the more he doubted it.

“... But I just can’t leave it unattended, I have no other choice.”

There were no guarantees that these carriers of Minami's and Minoru's Eidos weren’t fakes.

“Should I wait for reinforcements?”

Instead of training staff, priority was given to rapid response. And it gave the opposite effect. Regret about it filled Tatsuya's thoughts.

Feeling indecisive about the choices, he nevertheless turned around and followed back along the road he came here on.

From information received from the barrier, Minoru learned that Tatsuya had come out of “Sekirei Hachijin.”

In general, the disguised road was part of this barrier, but there were only devices to support the illusions there. The barrier didn’t have a surveillance function for monitoring intruders.

Minoru had difficulty resisting the desire to directly verify Tatsuya's movements by directing his “Elemental Sight” at him.

If he directs his "sight" towards Tatsuya, he will feel it. The same was true for surveillance hardware — cameras, sensors, etc. He will soon notice that the car heading towards Lake Saiko is a dummy.

If he leaves the hideout too early, Tatsuya will notice this too.

However, it was impossible to hide here indefinitely. The bait won't give him too much time.

Minoru was sure of that.

“... Minami-san, let's go.”

“...Good.”

About 5 minutes after the response from Tatsuya disappeared from the barrier.

Taking Minami with him, Minoru left the hideout.

Having passed along a narrow road surrounded by trees, they drove onto a public road leading from north-north-east to south-south-west.

Tatsuya wasn’t there.