Volume 9, 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 only allowed one step at a time.

Still, just because no one was walking did not denote that 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 over coat, 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 altered.) (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 also trod 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 are officially recognized within the USNA, only Angie Sirius is affiliated with Stars. The other two are 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 previously 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 need 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 targets 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 on 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.

“The higher ups have ordered you to be killed on sight. However, if you are to cough up information on your cohorts, a lighter sentencing would be available.”

After hearing the hunter say her piece with her finger still on the trigger, Sullivan shrugged.

“Demus Second. You have 10 seconds to decide.” “No, there’s no need.”

She must have been bemused by the utter lack of terror or anxiety in Sullivan’s tone, because she failed to fire any bullets.

“You two should be Hunters Q and R from Stardust.”

Upon hearing Sullivan name their call signs aloud, the slightly slackened finger once again tightened.

“There’s no way you can beat me.”

At the same time Sullivan made this outrageous declaration, a gunshot rang out. Thanks to the silencer, the sound was roughly equivalent to that of an air gun. However, the bullet fired from this gun could snuff out life with little to no difficulty.

A muffled groan rang out from behind Sullivan. The fired bullet did not penetrate Sullivan’s breast that lay directly ahead, but went through Hunter R’s arm.

“Didn’t you hear? They must have told you to avoid firearms when going up against me.”

“This is Trajectory Alteration?”

Once Sullivan condescendingly said those words, Q revealed an expression of utter shock. They knew that Sullivan specialized in magic that altered the trajectory of projectiles, but they also heard that he was unable to use magic without a CAD.

“Could it be that the Cast Jammer was ineffective....?”

“Wrong.”

Sullivan didn’t even turn around as he directly rejected R’s words as she pressed a hand to her arm.

“Cast Jammer is functioning normally. Except,”

Q and R noticed through the surrounding atmosphere that Sullivan’s face under the cloth with black bats had twisted into a sneer.

“I have long since surpassed the need to use a CAD.”

Q holstered the gun beneath her skirt. The two hunters drew stilettos from their sleeves and charged at Sullivan from both the front and the rear.

A normal human being should not be able to avoid the attacks from augmented physical bodies. Yet, the supposedly normal Sullivan fluidly dodged the attacks. This wasn’t something that could be accomplished with athletic prowess. R’s blade, which was originally aimed at Sullivan’s neck, had unnaturally shifted its trajectory and slid elsewhere. As if being pulled along by the blade, Q slid before R and managed to stifle Sullivan before he began his attack.

“He can even change the trajectory of the blade that’s in my hand!? How are you able to manipulate such powerful magic?”

“I have no reason to explain this to you why I am no longer who I was.”

“Silence!”

Suddenly bursting in a sprint, Q changed the direction of her downward stroke and cut a hole in Sullivan’s coat to reveal the carbon armor beneath. Immediately on her heels, R was closing in and striking at the gap between the armor with her blade.”

“Ugh!”

Still, R’s blade slid across Sullivan’s chest as he turned. The blade’s trajectory once more when awry, causing R to lose her balance and let out a gasp.

As if performing a magic trick, a blade that looked just like the ones the hunters had materialized in his hand.

Sullivan immediately swung the blade downwards towards R’s back. Yet, his blade bounced back as if it had impacted an invisible wall. “Inertia Reversal!? And at this degree of strength!”

“Major!”

Sullivan’s line overlapped with Q’s outcry.

Sullivan immediately realized the implication behind those words and swooped directly towards R, who was still trying to recover her balance.

At this time, blades descended from the skies.

Four daggers flew towards Sullivan’s back as he leaped. Sullivan’s body massively slid to one side.

His original leaping trajectory would have led directly to R, but he was forced to slide to the right in order to avoid the descending blades.

The moment he landed, Sullivan immediately pulled R’s body towards Q and threw the four daggers towards them.

The blades that flew towards Sullivan rebounded just before hitting the ground and blocked the daggers through towards Q and R.

Sullivan took this opening to leap onto the walls of the skyscraper.

After kicking off three times from the skyscrapers, he reached the rooftop of the buildings that formed one of the alleys.

A Magician with flaming red hair, golden eyes, and wearing a mask planned to follow the others footsteps and pursue as she watched his fleeing form.

Still, taking note of the newly active psions bustling about in the alley, she abandoned the pursuit.

Correction, in order to prevent additional victims from appearing, she charged headlong into the depths of the alley.

? ? ?

Feeling the rapidly growing tension in the air that could mean nothing but combat, Leo’s footsteps came to a grinding halt rather than speeding up. He wasn’t lying to Toshikazu when he said he wasn’t planning on doing anything dangerous. Leo’s instincts told him the area ahead of him wasn’t somewhere he could safely tread out of curiosity alone.

He removed the information terminal from his pocket and sent a concise message to the address that Toshizaku taught him. The contents were simply “The vampire is here”. After reporting his current location, Toshikazu could immediately arrest the suspect of the serial homicides if he was on the ball. Leo planned on leaving the current area before he could be embroiled in another incident, so he turned around – to find a figure laying on one of the benches in the park.

Concern and caution warred within him before caution finally caved in the end. Instead of calling him a goody two shoes, it was more appropriate to say that he was a little deficient in the fear department. This was a weakness only the strong are born with, so suffice to say, a descendant like him also inherited that. Despite this, he wasn’t entirely defenseless as Leo carefully and exhaustively approached the young woman’s side.

“Hey, are you OK?”

Leo carefully reached out a hand to shake her by the shoulder, but the woman failed to react in any way. When he pressed a hand to the woman’s neck, Leo’s expression stiffened. The flesh was old, with no sign of a pulse. – Scratch that, while very weak, but at the very least there was still something.

Leo frantically pulled out the information terminal and sent out an emergency distress call, this time directed to the ambulance instead of the police. Just as Leo was about to send out a distress call about someone being on the verge of death,

He reflexively turned his head around and raised the hand holding the terminal in front of his face.

The terminal shattered into pieces. By the time Leo was able to recover after leaping back several steps, he already knew that his opponent’s weapon was a retractable police baton.

What an odd opponent. Beneath the round hat, only the eyes could be seen since everything else was covered by a chilling white mask. The long over coat that went all the way from the shoulders to the feet obscured any human form or hint of gender. Nay, forget gender, Leo couldn’t even tell if he was fighting a human.

In the depths of Leo’s consciousness, the sound of insects flapping their wings could be heard, just as silent as it was before. But this time, Leo felt that this was a “voice” urging its comrade to retreat.

Taking advantage of the fact that he was distracted by the noise, the masked individual had charged in front of him in a flash. Leo was aware that this was Personal Acceleration Magic, but he couldn’t detect any sign of an Activation Sequence. It was almost as if they were directly manipulating the Magic Sequence before charging forward. He didn’t even have time to call up Fortifying Magic, so Leo could only raise his left arm to block the police baton that was sweeping forward in a horizontal arc.

The next instant, a dull thud heralded something being smashed in.

Seeing the police baton bent out of shape, the masked individual visibly faltered.

“That hurt!”

Leo struck the masked man dead center on the chest, creating the sound of two hard objects impacting one another.

The odd man lurched backwards while Leo shook both his hands as if in great pain. Still, he appeared to have been spared the fate of fractured bones. The left arm that took the full brunt of the police baton also seemed to retain its full freedom of movement.

“Carbon armor beneath that coat, huh? You came well prepared.”

Leo inwardly regretted not bringing a weapon while keeping a wary eye on the masked man, falling into a combat stance in the meantime. Leo’s gut feeling told him this masked man was the “vampire”.

The stranger abandoned the police baton and extended both hands forward. On the left side, the left fist was raised to chin height while the right fist was held before the chest. This looks like Chinese martial arts, Leo thought. Still, there was one other detail worth noting. The size of those fists looked like they belong to a woman –.

The stranger struck with the wind. Personal Acceleration Magic coupled with Move-Type Magic with the wind at their back.

Leo used his jacket, already with Fortifying Magic spread throughout, to deflect the narrow blades that came with the wind.

The stranger’s hand chopped towards Leo’s left arm. The stranger managed to grab hold of Leo’s left arm.

In the next moment, Leo suddenly felt like his strength giving way, causing his right fist to come to a halt.

His opponent stretched the right hand towards Leo’s chest, right above the heart.

Leo exerted his strength one last time and moved his right fist again.

Just as the masked man’s hand came into contact with Leo’s chest, Leo’s fist struck a major pressure point on the man’s waist. The stranger crumpled back while Leo fell weakly to his knees.

He definitely felt his blow strike home, but Leo wasn’t sure if that constituted a fatal attack.

If he lost consciousness here, he was as good as doomed. There was no guarantee that his life wouldn’t end permanently here. Realizing this, Leo forced himself to raise his head.

The masked man had already risen. While he or she was pressing their chest, it was plain that they hadn’t lost combat effectiveness. However, for some unknown reason, this stranger wasn’t finishing Leo off or even looking at him for that matter.

Reading the atmosphere, Leo followed the masked man’s gaze to find what Leo was forced to admit was a “demon”.

Flaming red hair and golden eyes. Maybe because of the distance, the body size looked a little on the petite side, or maybe Leo was plainly losing consciousness.

Within his murky awareness, Leo thought he saw the stranger flee towards the side street, with the demon in hot pursuit.

Fully transformed into her persona as the masked Magician Sirius, Lina briefly wavered after glancing over Leo’s crumpled figure on the side of the road. Nonetheless, that only lasted a brief instant before Angie Sirius elected to pursue the stranger. Earlier, the man with the bat masks – Charles “Demus Second” Sullivan – escaped while she was busy providing cover for her allies. There was no way she could afford for this white masked individual to escape as well.

“Silvie, can you trace the psion waves?”

Lina’s question was posed to Silvie, who was still at their base. Unfortunately, the answer that came back was not the desirable one.

“I’m sorry. There’s too much background noise, so I can’t lock on.” “How about the cameras?”

Hearing that the psion radar was unreliable, Lina immediately asked if they could use low altitude satellite imaging to continue the pursuit.

“We still have visual on the target. However, there’s a lot of obstacles in the city, so it is unknown how long we can maintain visual.”

“Understood. Continue the pursuit.”

Knowing that she could rely on technological support, Lina’s pace quickened. Obviously, the late night streets were filled with the auras of young men and women, causing the stranger’s psion remnants to die out even faster. In order to keep up with the masked individual who was fleeing at superhuman speed, Lina raised the output on her own Personal Acceleration Magic.

Maybe it was because the target noticed she was closing the gap, but the target in the white mask suddenly altered their route. The stranger switched from the streets filled with people to the slopes of the residential sector. The greenery increased while signs of human life decreased.

This actually made it easier for Lina. With less people around, this made it easier to differentiate the psions. While the frequency of her losing sight of her target increased, but now she was getting more and more familiar with the prints of her target’s psion wave. She was almost there, Lina estimated based off her experience. She finally caught up to her target – or at least that’s how it was supposed to be, in the park.

Lina was immediately surrounded by psion noise. (Cast Jamming!?)

The moment that thought crossed her mind, Lina quickly rejected it. Her Personal Acceleration Magic had not decreased in the slightest. Even if magic applied to oneself received a reduced effect from Cast Jamming, that was still “somewhat more uncomfortable than usual” and not complete immunity. Even for Lina – no matter how capable Sirius’s magical ability was, it was impossible to completely disregard the effects of Cast Jamming. Thus, this background noise must come from something else.

(Damn it!)

Lina immediately realized its true purpose. Rather, she personally felt it.

She was unable to pursue the white masked individual’s psion remnants. They hadn’t disappeared, she was just unable to differentiate them.

Lina finally understood why her target drew her to a place where there was less people about. Sure, it was easier for her to recognize her opponent’s psion waves, but the reverse was true as well. This background noise was a type of long distance magic. In order to create this background noise specifically for Lina, the white masked individual brought Lina into this remote location where no one was around.

(....It’s a shame, but I can’t do this alone.)

“Major, what happened?”

Likely out of concern for Lina, who had suddenly stopped her footsteps, Silvie’s voice that came over the ear set was rather perturbed.

“I lost them. Returning to base.”

Regretful, but frank, Lina admitted her failure.

? ? ?

Chiba Erika’s day started very early in the morning. Every dawn, her training of blood and sweat was her homework.

Until the age of 10, she had followed her father’s instructions without question.

Until the age of 14, when told of who she was, she wanted to be a Chiba swordsman more than anyone else.

Until last March, she always did this out of habit.

Yet, since last April, since she first met him, this was now her own wish.

By her own will, to become even stronger.

At dawn, she doesn’t hold a sword. Accurately reading Erika’s ability, her father diligently raised her to be the user of the Secret Arte – Yamatsunami, no, trained her for the sake of her becoming the wielder of Yamatsunami. The technique imparted to her struck like the wind and descended like lighting, a sword of agility. Hence why during her training, the conditioning of her legs and the ability to run were especially important. In days of sloth where she had lost her goal, the long distance running that she had long neglected was never forgotten again once she vowed by her own will to “become stronger than today”.

This morning, Erika woke with her alarm clock and rose from bed. By temperament, Erika wasn’t a morning person. Even if her body had a physical reaction, mentally she wasn’t entirely awake yet. Even so, thanks to the tens of thousands of repetitions that engrained this habit into her, her feet swung off the bed.

Fighting down a yawn, her feet remained steady as she meandered over to her private bathroom. Despite calling it a private bathroom, the only facilities inside were a bathing area and a sink, but the fact that Erika had one of these in her own room was because she was the daughter of a capitalist, and not reared in just any normal family.

The head of the Chiba household was not miserly enough to treat children differently at least on a material level.

The hot water heater was left off even at the height of winter, allowing Erika to use ice cold water to wash her face and finally wake up completely. As she stood in front of her dresser and prepared to put on her sports clothes, she noticed her mailbox was lit with notification of new messages.

It was still before dawn. By the local time, it was 5:30 in the morning. She went to bed at 2330 hours last night and there were no unread messages, meaning that this must have arrived late during the night.

Possibly out of some promotion that she couldn’t explain herself, Erika immediately opened the message.

Precisely because of its ease of use, e-mail remained in use to this day without being abandoned. Once the subject heading came to view, Erika’s brows became furrowed. After reading the entire message, Erika’s teeth audibly ground against one another as she managed to grit out.

“That idiotic brother of mine.... What the heck did he ask that moron to do....”

Violently tossing her pajamas to one side, she changed her underclothes.

From her wardrobe, Erika left her sports clothes where they were and removed a sweater and dress.

Before school started, the bad tidings reached Tatsuya just as he was about to leave the house.

Not by the home phone, but by text to the personal terminal. Normally, these time intensive notifications were reserved for major disasters, which definitely lent an ominous anxiety to this message. Of course, this anxiety could be swiftly replaced with something else by reading the messag-->>

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