Volume 11, Chapter 13

“---Hey, don’t you think it’s terrible? I was publicly humiliated, publicly humiliated.”

The agitation in the shrill girlish voice was obvious and the response to it was,

[..That’s the fourth time, already.]

This voice that was also girlish was truly sleepy.

The difference between the mental conditions of the pair having this telephone conversation was like the difference in temperature between mid winter and mid summer.

However, that might be inevitable. Only Honoka had reason to be agitated and Shizuku had a reason to plead to be allowed to sleep.

Honoka was agitated for a reason. Her heart’s secret longings had been exposed. Not just the likes and loves that resided in herself could be called forfeit, even to herself that thought felt like it might be a little too serious for this era. Although the yearnings she herself couldn’t voice being spoken from another’s mouth was humiliating enough, Honoka had been exposed not just in front of the one she was thinking about but a gallery of people, so her feeling of such self- conscious torment was inevitable. The fact that the one who spoke her own feelings for her was not a human but, a maid droid possessed by a parasite did not comfort Honoka at all.

“That doesn‘t matter, because I have been so humiliated.”

Honoka demanded that her friend comfort her in a sullen voice. The sight of Honoka’s pouty profile made the Shizuku in the middle of the screen sigh lightly.

[I understand that so please understand my position. What time do you think it is right now?]

On the other hand, Shizuku had good reason to make the demand ‘I want to sleep’. It was simply the time, no actually it was the time difference. To emphasize Shizuku’s remark, a clock with three hands filled the display. The classic Arabesque design short hand was pointing between IV and V. Tokyo and Berkley (California) have a seven hour time difference. If it nine thirty pm in Tokyo then, it was four thirty am in Berkley.

[Please can’t this wait at least two hours?]

It could be said that it was perfectly natural for Shizuku to ardently grumble. Even now, the eyelids on both eyes looked just about to close. Naturally, Honoka’s face turned apologetic and her shoulder’s hunched.

“I did wait for an hour already but..”

When she heard the excuse, Shizuku’s sleepy eyes twinkle and this time she sighed her acceptance.

[That trait of yours has changed very little over the years....]

“I’m always, always troubling you....”

[You’re not a bother....as long as you pay attention to the time.]

“Uh....I’m sorry.”

Gazing across the screen at Honoka who had no more excuses, Shizuku sighed one more time. This time she probably shook off her sleepiness with the sigh, while her eyes were no more than half open, her face was pretty steady.

[However, something good might come out of this.]

The voice lacked much inflection---as usual and her pronunciation had become distinct.

“What? What? There’s nothing good about this!”

As she thrust away Shizuku’s words of comfort, Honoka forgot how dejected she had been until now and vehemently chewed out Shizuku.

[But, you weren’t able to speak those words yourself, right?]

However, Shizuku wasn’t just carelessly using the word ‘good’. Maybe because of her tone or perhaps it was the way she put it into words, Honoka’s protests were taken out with a single shot.

[Will you acknowledge that you have dependent tendencies?] “Such tendencies..”

Honoka reflexive tried to deny it but, perhaps she didn’t think she could deny it even to herself. Her words of rebuttal faded out part way thru and she averted her eyes from Shizuku’s eyes which were peering her intently through the screen---to be exact, her eyes were only partly open.

[Honoka, how many years do you think we’ve been hanging out together.]

Shizuku delivered one last shot to make sure in a gently instructive tone.

“..But, I can’t help it.”

Honoka acknowledged Shizuku’s point with a voice that was both defiant and resigned.

“I am descended from ‘Elements’ after all.”

Is even personality influenced by genetics?, Shizuku thought with her usual doubt, however, even if she debated it, it would be meaningless. Besides, she understood debate wasn’t really necessary.

[Wanting to rely on someone is neither good or bad. Not everyone is a leader that takes the initiative without relying on someone and I think they function in the world quite well.]

When her friend’s words did not berate her, Honoka’s gaze still showed indecision, but it had returned to normal.

[What I want to say is Tatsuya-san is a rather good person for Honoka to rely upon.]

Their eyes met through the camera, Shizuku speaking as if she was carefully giving detailed instructions.

“You think..so?”

Shizuku nodded without a qualm of hesitation to Honoka’s tremulous question.

[I believe Tatsuya basically does not only do part of what someone wants. Instead, he is a person who precisely answers someone’s desires.]

“You mean if I do not speak clearly, he won’t understand me?” [That’s right. Besides he is certainly ingenuous.]

“Um, by that..?”

The answer Shizuku made to Honoka’s oh so timid question was,

[Even if he does do what you say, he won’t force you to do anything sexual, is what I mean.]

Such directness---could be criticized as lewdness. Honoka’s face became red in the twinkling of an eye.

Still beneath the red face, a glimpse of a little regret could be seen.

[Honoka maybe you want to be a little more forceful in how you approach him.]

“Shizuku!”

Honoka raised her voice and glared at the screen. However, in there was only a look on Shizuku’s face that said ‘But, it’s the truth’.

“Enough!”

Even though she turned her face away with a sulky look, “....”

“....Shizuku.”

As expected the one who gave in and spoke first was Honoka. “What should I do?”

[The only thing you can do is keep moving forward.]

Shizuku did not have a wealth of romantic experiences. Rather her experiences could be called meager compared to other teenage girls around the same age in their country in this era. Even so, she dared to give her friend who was trapped in a maze caused by thinking too much, a kick in the posterior with simple assertions.

“Even now, I intend on doing all I can to keep moving forward but..” [Just intending is futile. Your rival is too strong.]

“By rival..?”

[Victory over Miyuki would difficult.] “Miyuki? But Miyuki and Tatsuya-san are—”

[Siblings. So?]

Shizuku dismissed Honoka’s common sense rebuttal with one word. That simple ‘so’ was packed with the nuance of ‘I know that. What does that matter’.

“But, that, that is..”

With a shocked look, Honoka shook her head at the camera. However, to the eyes of Shizuku who had been friends with Honoka for a long time, she did not look like had actually received a shock.

[Honoka, there’s no way you are going after Tatsuya-san just because you want to have sex with him.]

“O-Of course not! Well, there’s no way that I am completely uninterested in that but..”

Shizuku from her side of the screen was looking at Honoka who had started fidgeting with eyes that said ‘what is this person saying’. However, if she remained silent, Shizuku was the one who was going to feel uncomfortable. Shizuku forcibly cut off this part of the conversation.

[Blood ties only interfere with things like that. If you’re satisfied with just being with someone, blood connections wouldn’t be an obstacle. I would like to ask Miyuki something.]

“..What?”

She asked that question with a look....that said she did not want to ask but, she couldn’t not ask. [How she thinks about Tatsuya.] “..And?”

[Does she love him.] “Uh...of course...”

Her face was pale but, she did not want to shriek, so instead she murmured it with a sigh.

[I did not mean fondness, I meant love.] “..Oh?”

[I meant the feelings a girl has for a boy. Not simply as ‘his little sister’.]

“?”

Nevertheless, the supplementary information Shizuku provided put her in a quandary on how to interpret her words.

[However...]

“However?”

When Shizuku hesitated, Honoka pressed her to continue by repeating her words back to her in a different tone of voice.

[I think even if she officially won’t even admit it even to herself that Miyuki does indeed like Tatsuya-san as a girl likes a boy.]

She continued her statement with a decisive supposition that showed no hesitation.

“Shizuku also thinks...”

Although Shizuku’s logic ran a little (?) counter to wordly commonsense, Honoka wasn’t raising objections.

[Yes, therefore, I think you should take her on before she admits it to herself.]

“What do you mean?”

Honoka was not feigning innocence when she asked the question.

[Before Miyuki becomes serious, Honoka-san should become Tatsuya- san’s number one.]

However, some words formed images, the words ’Miyuki become serious’ had such a strong future potential that the image filled Honoka’s mind.

“Such a thing, is impossible..”

[At this time, it’s wrong to give up. This was a disaster but I think you can use it to attract him.]

Shizuku delicately instilled the will to win into the whispering hunched over Honoka---she herself was fired up to do this---by giving her encouragement.

“Attract Tatsuya?”

[Yes. Somehow you have to convey all your feelings to him.] “Won’t I be annoying....”

[It’ll be alright. Tatsuya certainly won’t feel that you’re a burden]

However, those words were not merely for reassurance. It was a strange thing to have faith in but Shizuku earnestly believed it was true.

? ? ?

About the same time when Shizuku was lighting a fire under Honoka.

Tatsuya was confronting Lina who had transformed into ‘Angie Sirius’.

Fire-like hair and gold colored eyes. Her entire appearance changed down to her facial features and height, no matter how much you looked at her, she didn’t look like the same person as Lina. Even without the concealing mask, there was probably no one who didn’t already know who would connect ‘Angie Sirius’ and ‘Angelina Shields’. Not as long as they thought the mask was meant to conceal her identity by concealing her face.

Tatsuya carefully examined her form. There was no way he had spent this past half of a month playing around. He had practiced against Yakumo’s ‘Clothed’ making a pile of countermeasures to the information altering magic ‘Parade’.

Perhaps it was a result of that training. The effect of Lina’s ‘Parade’ now stopped at outward appearance, he understood the coordinate information was not going to be rewritten. With this resistance, even if the coordinates were falsified, Tatsuya thought he keep her in his CAD’s sight.

Naturally, he couldn’t be optimistic. This only affected Lina’s appearance, this was not the time to take things easy or be careless. Rather, there was probably no room for error. Undoubtedly, he couldn’t guarantee that he had the necessary magic power to keep the coordinate information from being rewritten.

(In short, the magic took that much of his capacity.)

The USNA army’s most elite magician battalion, ‘Stars’ gave the code name ‘Sirius’ to their head. Namely, the magician who possessed the strongest magic power. This girl must have all the resources for that magic that powerful concentrated in her.

The glittering striations of the attack on Tatsuya and Chiba Naotsugu had cleaved the darkness of the night. That attack was probably in fact a high energy plasma beam. If it was then the name of the magic she had performed was--- (Probably, without a doubt. That was ‘Heavy Metal Burst’.)

The strategic magic of Angie Sirius of the Thirteen Apostles was ‘Heavy Metal Burst’.

She transformed heavy metals into high energy plasma; the magic disseminated amplified solar ions over a wide area by the use of creating gas and electromagnetic repulsive force and increased high pressure .

Incidentally, there were more than a few users of magic that changed materials into plasma other than ‘Angelina Sirius’. However by only ionizing atoms, the complete body of the plasma that sprung forth would not produce the neutralizing electric repulsive force. Angelina Sirius was the only one who used ‘Heavy Metal Burst’ with that speed and scale, because only she could actually do the process that emitted the atoms to form the cloud and maintain the manufacture of plasma.

Nevertheless, ‘Heavy Metal Burst’ was supposed to be a magic that expelled high energy plasma in all directions from ground zero. Despite that, the plasma that attacked Chiba Naotsugu was a beam with directionality.

(It’s not just being condensed. The effective range....the scope of the dissemination is also being controlled.)

Plasma had strayed away from Naotsugu yet none of the buildings in the street around him had been destroyed because the plasma hadn’t reached them. Was it accompanied a magic sequence that made it lose plasma energy after it exceeded it’s target, maybe she established a power point that would serve as a plug to stop the beam at a terminus.

How was she able to do that? He couldn’t tell from only seeing it one time but, perhaps---

(Is it that ‘staff’?)

He had never seen that staff before in Lina’s hands so, that was a good possibility. Maybe but no, undeniably that was a USNA developed casting assistant device. If he wasn’t in this spot, he would probably be praising the excellence of this technique.

(Nevertheless, right now this has the highest threat potential.)

He hadn’t attained comprehension of the plasma stream control system but it wasn’t as if he hadn’t understood anything. If he ‘observed’ it one more time then he would be able to make a counter- measure. Was he being optimistic about observation? Tatsuya immediately repudiated that speculation himself. Tentativeness at this time would do him no good.

Instead, it would become a problem.

(If he took a direct blow, would he have enough reserve power remaining to counterattack?)

Against significant physical attacks, Tatsuya possessed revival ability that he did not control but, all he could do was ‘revive’, he could not ‘block’.

The lack of control depended on the level of injury, not the frequency of use.

The beam just now was as fast as the speed of light. Which was far faster than the speed of sound which is why lightning is seen before thunder is heard. The speed of light is probably about a hundred times the speed of sound.

However in the present interval, the distance of sixty meters was spanned in less than two milliseconds. Which is the same as being instantaneous. It looked like evading it was impossible.

Nevertheless......

(With the actual body moving at such speed, even if the gas was very diluted, a strong shockwave should occur. Since that was not happening, meant that she had to have prepared some kind of tool beforehand to keep that from happening.)

If he could sense the creation of the ‘path’ then his body could avoid the targeting sights.

Tatsuya fully mobilized his senses and scowled at Lina.

In the darkness broken by the street lights, Lina just averted her eyes from Tatsuya’s field of vision, abruptly turned back, made another quick turn back and smiled weakly.

She was clearly inviting him. Tatsuya was puzzled.

Without a doubt it was a trap but if it was a trap then Tatsuya was already in its jaws.

Even if he did not take her invitation, he did not think she would let him return safely.

If he couldn’t even evade his adversary’s aim then a gunfight at this location was out of the question.

Before the gaze of Tatsuya who was still deciding what he should do, Lina’s feet lightly kicked off the road’s surface.

That broke through his indecision.

While she ran or rather leaped, the deep red hair was growing distant at a rapid pace.

He left behind Naotsugu whose convulsions had brought him to a standstill and invoking the same gravity control that Lina had, Tatsuya pursued that back.

? ? ?

“Lt. Sirius has made contact with the target!” “Response?”

“None!”

The secret command room that had been provided at the Japanese branch office of the USNA’s dummy corporation had fallen into the state of a certain type of panic.

The capture operation had undergone changes beyond their control from the very first stage but, something like that would not cause Virginia Balance’ limbs to shake.

The intervention of a combatant who was apparently an agent of the Japanese army was rather predictable.

The cause was something different.

Lina’s arbitrarily leaving her station had begun the panic.

While the Stars commander, ‘Sirius’ had been given the right of independent movement, she had violated military regulations by not reporting it. However, now the operation for the team was in progress. This was not a situation where asking permission before you did anything was a good thing.

Also, Balance had left the usage of Brionac up to Lina’s personal judgment but setting it of in the middle of the street was extremely unexpected.

“The target has begun pursuit of Lt. Sirius.”

At the report of the new information, a little bit of calmness was returned to the mood of the control room.

When she considered the cleanup of this operation including the retrieval of Stardust, her head started to hurt. Nevertheless, for the time being, they were back on track. ---That was all Lt. Col. Balance was going to think about.

(It might be that I must completely suspend the operation...)

“Summon the outside broadcast van.”

The colonel effectively kept her true irritation out of her voice when she gave the command to the operator.

? ? ?

Within the inviting light that could be seen all over the city, there was a passage where the light was interrupted.

A nightlessness of the city of Tokyo had given it a name, the zone where the black sky becomes a white background.

The park he had been invited to was also at the threshold of the lights.

No, it might be better to call it a vacant lot not a park. The hedges were maintained but, there were no play areas or benches. There were no more than token street lights positioned in it. Perhaps, in the war period, it had been public land maintained as a disaster prevention zone but the redevelopment process had probably neglected it.

Beneath those sporadic street lights, Lina revealed her golden hair.

Above her head, darkness hung over her like a cap.

From the beginning of this night, it hadn’t been possible to see the moon or the stars in the cloudy sky but he understood that it wasn’t just that from one glance.

Optical type magic was being used to obstruct surveillance satellites and stratosphere platform cameras.

Here, he was in the lair of the enemy.

Because he knowingly leapt into the enemy’s trap, he was not surprised or flustered just now. Rather what was unexpected to Tatsuya was that no traces of magic was being used other than concealment magic.

(Do they hate interference from fellow magicians....)

In short, the magic Lina was using was a technique so advanced that letting her attack alone was more effective than a mass attack where she would be forced to consider friendly troops.

Cancelling the illusion was probably done so she could concentrate her mind on the attack sequence.

(Just like I thought, it is ‘Heavy Metal Burst’.) "Tatsuya."

Just as he finished reconfirming his impression of the name of her attack, Lina opened her mouth.

“I didn’t think you would come here so nonchalantly.” “Because, being followed so persistently is a bother.” Hearing his arrogant reply, Lina made a cruel smile.

“You’re quite confident. But that is overly pretentious at a time like this.”

Lina face Tatsuya with the staff she was holding interposed between under her arm and her hand.

“Tatsuya, surrender. I don’t know what means you use to dispel the effects of magic but you cannot dispel the effects of this Brionac.”

To Lina, her statement was nothing more than a simple surrender demand.

(Bri-on-nac....Brionake? Or ‘Brionac’?)

Nevertheless, Lina’s words gave the final piece to the nearly complete puzzle of the beam within Tatsuya’s mind.

The name had meaning to him.

After the name completed the puzzle, part of many of its attributes were revealed.

His mind was taken with inspection of his ideas, Tatsuya forgot to reply to Lina’s demand.

Lina took that for a refusal.

She cannot be slandered as being hasty.

She had carelessly forgotten to establish a time limit on a reply but, not replying to a surrender demand according to tradition meant refusal.

Lina gripped the horizontal crosspiece that jutted out of one side of the staff.

That part without a doubt served as the same function as the grip of a pistol.

Along the long thin eighty centimeters of the lower two thirds of the Brionac, a double helix of psion light ran; in the wider forty centimeter cylinder upper third of the Brionac in front of the grip, a magic sequence was instantly constructed. Tatsuya who perceived it invoked Gram Dispersion and---realizing it would be too late suspended it.

The tip of the cane glittered.

A thin ray of light was squeezed out and grazed Tatsuya’s right arm.

Despite it only being grazed---Tatsuya’s right arm from the elbow down was carbonized and blown away.

His body was twisted by the attack.

Tatsuya did not resist that force, he used it to propel himself behind the hedges.

Lina released her hand from the grip, and charged like the Brionac was a spear or something.

Within that interval, she horizontally swung it at the hedges Tatsuya was hiding in.

The live wood caught fire here and there. The hedges were only shrubbery.

The plasma did not reach Tatsuya who was behind them.

Before the eyes of Tatsuya who was half kneeling with his right shoulder lowered to conceal the right side of his body, a fantastic glowing plasma sword disappeared.

“Brionac....’the label’ is Brythonic. It is one of the weapons of ‘Lleu’ the light god of Celtic Myth. Does the title mean it is a reproduction of the mythical weapon?”

While he was in that posture, Tatsuya questioned Lina who was walking toward him.

The voice was not blurred with pain, his resistance to pain was probably high, Lina thought.

Extensive training against torture was not unusual for special forces.

“You’re worrying about that? Now, when you are at a critical juncture between living and dying.”

Within the staff, the magic sequence was again instantly invoked.

The congealed metal dust was disintegrated into high energy plasma by the magic.

The phenomenon known as ’high energy plasma’ was created by magic but, the container it was bound in changed shape in accordance to Lina’s thoughts.

As an incandescent blade crackling with electricity was thrust at the tip of his nose the final piece slid into place within Tatsuya’s mind.

“It bothered me. People like to give names with meaning. Brionac was a spear that sent a spear tip shaped form of penetrating light bursting out of it at foes, perhaps it could called a bullet of light that was freely thrown about like a spear. Although, in this case, freely probably takes a lot of guts.”

“You copied a weapon of myth, a reproduction of the mythical weapon Brionac.”

“To actualize the theory of FAE....... Just what can be expected from the technical might of the USNA.”

Until then Lina hadn’t been interested in the statements she was hearing from Tatsuya but her eyes widened at the phrase ‘FAE’ and her face stiffened.

“..How do you know about the theory of FAE?”

Seeing Lina’s astonishment, Tatsuya also looked surprised.

“It’s probably not all that strange. Because the FAE theory originally was espoused for a short time in a joint laboratory belonging to Japan and America.”

“That was a secret lab! Furthermore, the documents from that lab were disposed of!”

“Nevertheless, they were not actually destroyed. Isn’t the reproduction of the mythical weapon you have in your hands the best proof of that?”

While Tatsuya peered at the Brionac Lina had, “FAE---Free After Execution.”

That name conjured deep emotions.

“In Japanese, it is called the theory of controlling phenomenon after it had been created but Free After Execution is a better way of expressing it. The phenomenon produced as a result being transformed by magic is already a phenomenon that was not originally in this world, immediately after transformation the shackles of the laws of physics are loose. Perhaps it would be better if I changed it to a short time lag exists between when the laws of physics reasserts itself after an event produced by magic.”

The totally inappropriate explanation made in a lecturing tone created a mysterious void in the middle of this battle to the death.

“According to the theory of FAE, if plasma constructed by magic which is supposed to scatter chaotically can be easily given directional movement then even without flash freezing, plasma can go from a super heated state to normal temperature for an arbitrary period of time rendering it harmless. It is restrained from scattering naturally because maintaining fixed state is also possible. That is the method.”

Lina had forgotten about interrupting Tatsuya’s long winded speech and had just grasped Brionac‘s hasp.

“Nevertheless, if you use the time lag in the law of physics presupposed by the FAE theory, it is only an instant. It is considered impossible for a magician who has just made the invocation to add new conditions to the newly constructed phenomenon.”

At this point, Tatsuya made a mid-shrug like expression with his face.

“That’s true. There’s less than a milli-second to define the phenomenon which isn’t possible for a human.”

And his face showed a completely sincere wonder.

“To do that....within a containment barrier isolated from the influence of the world’s physical laws, magic is executed to expand that gap in the law of physics.”

This was a manifestation of the emotions of the boyish part of Tatsuya, who desired to follow the path of science.

“I humbly praise this person. To bravely evade the law of physics. The person who constructed ‘Brionac’ is a true genius.”

“Tatsuya!”

Lina who had been listening to Tatsuya’s words suddenly raised her voice. She had gotten rid of the plasma sword, and was once again poised to bombard him as she gripped Brionac when she interrupted Tatsuya. ---It the voice of someone forcibly revving up their lost combative will.

“I will say it once more. Surrender! You can’t use your special techniques with one arm. You no longer have any way to win!”

Listening to Lina’s wail, Tatsuya made a cruel smile. The smile was so inhuman that it made her shudder and didn’t seem to be made by the same being who had shown her a different smile just a little while ago.

“If you are able to capture me what do you want to do to me?” However, despite the look on his face, Tatsuya’s voice was not cold, “Maybe experiment on me?”

With a rather sweet snare, he gently laid bare the wickedness of humans.

“Like those guys?”

Unhappily, Lina was sharp enough to understand that by ’those guys’ he meant Stardust. The combination of stress and shock made Lina’s face pale.

“Naturally....I refuse to become a guinea pig.”

“Then don’t move until I come to get you!”

The tip of the Brionac was at point blank range and aimed at his raised knee.

Into that gun barrel, Tatsuya thrust his gun shaped CAD, the custom Silver Horn, Trident.

With the right arm that was supposed to be blown away. “That arm!?”

Lina shrieked.

Partly due to her shriek, her sequence invocation was slow. Tatsuya had already drawn his magic.

The ‘gun barrel’ of the thrust out CAD---the aiming assistance device lead him to the target within the barrier containment unit.

Within the reproduction of a mythical weapon in the part that was supposed to be filled by the power of the USNA’s strongest magician ‘Sirius’, the dissolution magic Mist Dispersion was invoked.

Metal particles changed to gas at normal temperature forcefully burst from Brionac’s muzzle.

Due to the pressure from the gas, the Trident went flying from Tatsuya’s right hand.

However, the impact it had on Lina was greater. -->>

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