Keywords

Synchroliner Fusion

Strategic magic used by Miguel Diaz, one of the "13 Apostles" belonging to the Brazilian Army.
Also known as Synchroliner nuclear fusion. A magic sequence that is provided by USNA.

By colliding hydrogen clouds over the target, a fusion reaction is triggered and the target area is
destroyed by the heat and shock waves from the reaction.

This is the most well-known strategy magic to use, but it has not been reproduced by any
magician other than Miguel Diaz, and only his that has been reported success. Also, no other
magic that causes a similar large-scale nuclear explosion has been reported.

It was used in the battle between the Brazilian army and independent armed guerrillas on March
31, 2097, resulting in more than a thousand casualties. At the time they received torrent of
criticism because usage of Synchroliner Fusion and this incident triggered the usage of strategic
magic on battlefields.

氷河期―Glacial Age―

Super wide-range cooling magic that Tatsuya created for Miyuki which is comparable to the
strategic-class magics.

It's a magic that expands the wide-area vibration deceleration system magic Nifleheim uses
Chain Cast technology in its activation process as used in Tuman Bomba and Ocean Blast.

When it's targeting the sea, it's able to target with a range of direct distance of 20 km, so it
needs a special-purpose CAD that enables long-range aiming in order to be activated.
Future

Doesn’t come yet

Future

Doesn’t come yet

Perhaps the most intensely impatient of those was Edward Clark. He also speculated that it was
Tatsuya who attacked Midway and Pearl and Hermes. And he interpreted that as Tatsuya's
warning ― as a user of Material Burst magic ― for counterattack against him who was trying to
neutralize him using force.

Clark thought that Shiba Tatsuya showed off as if saying "I have the power to hit USNA without
using strategic magic". And, if the people in the senate and high position government officials
realized it, his position will be worse.

Aside from "The Dione Project," the matter that he had a conspiracy with Bezobrazzof, who
targeted Tatsuya and carried out an illegal surprise attack on the Japan mainland, cannot be
justified by any means.

Even if Clark was really against Bezobrazzof's surprise attack.

――There is only one way you can survive.

――Kill Shiba Tatsuya, who became a clear threat for the State.

――At this point, to kill or be killed.

Edwark Clark was cornered to that point.

He was cornered by his own actions.

◇◇◇

Local time July 23. Clark first called William McLeod in England to discuss future plans. McLeod
is an ally who has maintained a cooperative relationship even after he and Bezobrazzof took
different actions after the Dione Project conspiracy.

In other words, the most reliable ally for eliminating the strategic-class magician Shiba Tatsuya
conspiracy. At least that is what Clark thought. However ―.

(... Why? Why doesn't he answer the phone?)

McLeod didn't answer Clark's call.

The number Clark used was connected to McLeod's private office and was assigned exclusively
to Clark. If McLeod was in the office, he would know it was from Clark, and even if he was out of
the office, the incoming call notification would have arrived on his mobile terminal.
[1]
Local time, July 22, 2097 night, Midway base (prison and supply base) fell. The Pearl and
Hermes base was completely destroyed. The news that the two bases on the Northwestern
Hawaiian Islands were overrun in quick succession shook White House and Pentagon.

White House put strict control over the news and completely concealed the news from the
public's eyes. At the same time, they asked the Pentagon for a detailed report of the situation.

This troubled Pentagon ― Defense Ministry. As of July 23, the USNA’s military's headquarters
were not in a position to respond to the question of the identity of the attacker. At Midway Base,
there was no clue the identity of the attacker who used the flight-suit, and that attacker alone
destroyed the cannon muzzle, took down the interception system and took three prisoners
away. There wasn't even a photo left.

Pearl and Hermes Base was in a more distressing state, and the personnel at the base were
wiped out. The soldiers who survived the attack only witnessed unidentified flying objects, and
the only thing that seems to be a clue is the record of the communication that the captain of the
aircraft carrier Shangri-La exchanged. The voice was also subjected to advanced electronic
processing, and even the highest-performance computer owned by the US Army could not
restore the original voiceprint.

However, it does not mean that they had no idea who the attacker was.

The flight combat suit that was used by the attacker was clearly superior compared to the Thrust
Suit which was developed by the USNA military and the attacker's skill to master it perfectly.
From these two points, the USNA military had almost determined that the identity of the attacker
was Shiba Tatsuya ― the developer of the flying magic, Taurus Silver.

But there is no evidence. Regardless whether the evidence was available or not, they couldn't
just expose the fact that their two bases fell to a single attacker, not to mention still an eighteen
year old boy by himself.

No matter White House pressed them for the attacker's identity, the Pentagon always answered
with "Unspecified".

◇◇◇

Thus, the Pentagon, which oversees the US military, decided to shelve the raid on the
Northwestern Hawaiian Islands base once, but naturally there were some who weren't satisfied
with that decision in USNA.
After a short greeting, Clark went into the main subject immediately.

"Your Excellency. There is no doubt that the Japanese strategic magician, Shiba Tatsuya,
attacked the two bases, Midway and Pearl and Hermes.

"The magician of the Great Bomb that caused the Scorching Halloween, no, Material Burst user
magician, huh? What is your basis?"

"There is no evidence, but inferring from the situation, that was definitely that man’s works."

Clark was not frightened by the Secretary of Defense's question. However, he forgets to breathe
for a while after the next line released by Spencer.

"Not even using your favorit Hijdskalf?"

"... So you know about Hijdskalf?"

Clark barely squeezed out this one line.

"Edward Clark. Don't underestimate me. You're not the only information network expert working
at the Department of Defense."

"You mean I was overlooked?"

"I don't know what you all were doing specifically. Hacking using Hijdskalf didn't bring us harm to
the system, so I left you alone."

There was no need to consider whether Spencer was lying or not. The fact that he specifically
said "you all" rather than "you" meant that he understood well the Seven Sages' activities.

Clark realized that he had been dancing on the government plan. He was overlooked because
they considered that Seven Sages' activities didn't clash with the USNA’s government's interest.
If the moment that the Seven Sages were judged to have posed a threat for the government,
they would immediately move to erase the operators.

"So? What do you think we should do if it's that strategic-class magician that attacked us at
Northwestern Hawaiian islands?

Asked so, Clark was reminded that it wasn't the time for sinking in shock after his feeling
highty-mighty for the past shot down. If his position was more dangerous than ever, now was
the time to show his usefulness more.
Perhaps the most intensely impatient of those was Edward Clark. He also speculated that it was
Tatsuya who attacked Midway and Pearl and Hermes. And he interpreted that as Tatsuya's
warning ― as a user of Material Burst magic ― for counterattack against him who was trying to
neutralize him using force.

Clark thought that Shiba Tatsuya showed off as if saying "I have the power to hit USNA without
using strategic magic". And, if the people in the senate and high position government officials
realized it, his position will be worse.

Aside from "The Dione Project," the matter that he had a conspiracy with Bezobrazzof, who
targeted Tatsuya and carried out an illegal surprise attack on the Japan mainland, cannot be
justified by any means.

Even if Clark was really against Bezobrazzof's surprise attack.

――There is only one way you can survive.

――Kill Shiba Tatsuya, who became a clear threat for the State.

――At this point, to kill or be killed.

Edwark Clark was cornered to that point.

He was cornered by his own actions.

◇◇◇

Local time July 23. Clark first called William McLeod in England to discuss future plans. McLeod
is an ally who has maintained a cooperative relationship even after he and Bezobrazzof took
different actions after the Dione Project conspiracy.

In other words, the most reliable ally for eliminating the strategic-class magician Shiba Tatsuya
conspiracy. At least that is what Clark thought. However ―.

(... Why? Why doesn't he answer the phone?)

McLeod didn't answer Clark's call.

The number Clark used was connected to McLeod's private office and was assigned exclusively
to Clark. If McLeod was in the office, he would know it was from Clark, and even if he was out of
the office, the incoming call notification would have arrived on his mobile terminal.
infer from the result. I guess it must have converted from mass into energy directly in order to
generate such destructive power. "

"..."

"Actually, we do not know the magic mechanism or the limit. Is that right?"

Clark could not argue with Spencer's point.

"... But we can't just leave the culprit that terrorized States alone."

The only thing he could barely do was change the argument in this way.

"For that case, it's exactly what you said."

And his effort wasn't wrong.

"But that doesn't mean we can allow the operation to sacrifice a large number of States'
soldiers. ― Mr. Clark, do you get my point?

"I understand."

Clark nodded immediately,

"By the way, Your Excellency. Must I avoid other than human sacrifices too?"

and added this line.

"What a strange thing to say. Mr. Clark, our Federal Army is made up of States' citizens.
Everyone who is obligated to protect the States' citizens is human."

In response to Clark's question, Spencer replied that.

◇◇◇

After finishing the meeting with the Secretary of Defense, Clark brought his feet to fly to Brazil.
He stayed overnight on the plane, and on the morning of July 25th, local time, from President
Juscelino-Kubischecchi International Airport to the USNA Embassy in Brasilia. With the guide of
the embassy staff, he would now head to the western Campo Grande International Airport by
domestic flight.

He arrived at the destination, the Western Army Headquarters, at 4:00 pm local time on the
same day at 4:00 am on July 26, Japan time.
And yet McLeod didn't answer the phone for the whole day. There's no callback. This could only
seem that he denied the contact.

(Why?! What happened?)

Clark thought he was betrayed. But even if that's the case, Clark could do nothing. Comparing
America and England, America clearly has higher national power than England. However,
McLeod is one of the nationally certified strategic-class magicians of The Thirteen Apostles and
a key figure of the England government. Clark, on the other hand, is only one government
official. Clark cannot guide the USNA government to pressure the England government.

(As is this now, I have no choice but to make Pentagon move)

Even if he can't force their close ally, the England, to take hostile action, if it's a ploy to get rid of
a strategic-class magician who threatens America hegemony from a competitor in the Western
Pacific ― Japan ― they would be likely persuaded. Clark calculated so as if he hit the abacus.1

(For that, it might be necessary to reveal the existence of Hijdskalf, but ... it can't be helped
anymore).

Edward Clark was one of the major developers of Echelon III, a military spying system
(wiretapping, monitoring, encryption breaking and other intelligence activities). Hijdskalf is a
hacking system that uses the backdoor in Echelon III that Clark made when developing it. Clark
is likely to be sentenced to life imprisonment for national treason if the existence of Hijdskalf is
revealed. There's a possibility that he's disposed of without trial after his brain scanned.

However, if this continued on, he had no future anyway.

By confessing everything, Clark resolved that he would be willing to make gamble deals with the
government.

◇◇◇

Local time July 24th afternoon. Edward Clark was visiting the Pentagon.

The person he's going to meet is Secretary of Defense Liam Spencer.

He was able to make an appointment with the Federal Minister for an interview because he's the
Echelon III developer, also the creator of the Dione Project which devised to neutralize the
strategic-class magician, Shiba Tatsuya. Pentagon had high expectations with that plan so
that's why his name is considerably well known in the Defense Ministry.

1
​TLN: The actual line: クラークは、そう算盤を弾いた。 which literally is "Clark hit the abacus"
There, Clark found an opening.

"Major Diaz. We need your power."

The reaction that Diaz showed was just to silently look back at Clark.

However, Clark felt a solid response to his silent attitude.

"We are planning a large-scale military operation against Japan."

"Isn't Japan your ally?"

With abruptness of Clark's lines, Maj.Gen Filho of course intervened with a doubting question.

"It's indeed as Your Excellency says, but our target is not the Japanese government or its
military. It's the terrorist who has attacked our military facilities."

"You say the terrorists are hiding in Japan? Does the Japanese government know that?"

When asked by Maj. Gen. Filho, Clark showed a slight hesitation.

"... they probably don't know"

"Probably? Did you not ask?"

Filho was showing the exaggerated surprise.

"Then the military operation isn't under Japan government agreement too?"

"The Japanese government will almost certainly not respond by handing the terrorist to us. The
terrorist who attacked our base is Shiba Tatsuya, the non-official strategic-class magician."

"Shiba Tatsuya?! That Taurus Silver?"

The surprise that Major Filho showed this time was not acting.

"Is it true he resorted to terrorism? And I'm new to him being a strategic-class magician."

That Tatsuya is a strategic magician has already become an open secret in the upper layers of
USNA. Even in Japan, it is well known among the head family of each 10 Master Clans and
their close associates.
After a short greeting, Clark went into the main subject immediately.

"Your Excellency. There is no doubt that the Japanese strategic magician, Shiba Tatsuya,
attacked the two bases, Midway and Pearl and Hermes.

"The magician of the Great Bomb that caused the Scorching Halloween, no, Material Burst user
magician, huh? What is your basis?"

"There is no evidence, but inferring from the situation, that was definitely that man’s works."

Clark was not frightened by the Secretary of Defense's question. However, he forgets to breathe
for a while after the next line released by Spencer.

"Not even using your favorit Hijdskalf?"

"... So you know about Hijdskalf?"

Clark barely squeezed out this one line.

"Edward Clark. Don't underestimate me. You're not the only information network expert working
at the Department of Defense."

"You mean I was overlooked?"

"I don't know what you all were doing specifically. Hacking using Hijdskalf didn't bring us harm to
the system, so I left you alone."

There was no need to consider whether Spencer was lying or not. The fact that he specifically
said "you all" rather than "you" meant that he understood well the Seven Sages' activities.

Clark realized that he had been dancing on the government plan. He was overlooked because
they considered that Seven Sages' activities didn't clash with the USNA’s government's interest.
If the moment that the Seven Sages were judged to have posed a threat for the government,
they would immediately move to erase the operators.

"So? What do you think we should do if it's that strategic-class magician that attacked us at
Northwestern Hawaiian islands?

Asked so, Clark was reminded that it wasn't the time for sinking in shock after his feeling
highty-mighty for the past shot down. If his position was more dangerous than ever, now was
the time to show his usefulness more.
"Is Major fine with that?"

It's just normal that Filho asked that. Diaz was the same as telling Filho to discard him when
Filho needed it. The question that was asked had the nuance of Filho thinking for his desperate
subordinate.

"The current situation is not too different."

Diaz's answer was an exaggeration to say that it was perceived as criticizing the government.

"... You're right."

But Filho didn't blame Diaz.

Filho too was dissatisfied with the government by making Diaz scapegoat to curb the
international criticism of using strategic-class magic.

"And also ... no."

"And also what Major? You don't have to be reserved just because you're in front of a guest."

"... There’s no worth for a magician who can't use magic. Similarly, I'm worthless because I can't
use Synchroliner Fusion."

"Major, it's not `you can't use the magic`, it's `you don't use the magic`".

"Don't have the opportunity to use it. Can't use it. The result is the same."

"Even if you don't use it, it's still used as a deterrent. That's the so-called strategic-weapon."

"But the government has been curbed by international criticism of using the Synchroliner
Fusion. It's the same as admitting that they won't use it anymore. Guerilla are sure to think so
too."

After the World War of this century, Brazil is the only country in South America.

In other areas, armed groups barely control a small area of hundreds of square kilometers
which compete for territories with the army. By the way, as large as Japan's Awaji Island which
is about 600 square kilometers, there's only an armed group occupying that area.
“We should no longer hesitate to do military action. Shiba Tatsuya is very likely to stay on the
island that is building the Stellar Reactor. This is our opportunity.”

"Hmmm ... The Japanese government may not be silent about the attack on the suburbs of the
capital, but it is highly possible that a surprise attack will be successful if it's on an island that is
over 100 kilometers offshore ..."

Spencer paused for a breath.

"But ... can you win?"

Then, he asked a question with a sharp line of sight.

Clark unconsciously gulped.

"... I understand that he's not an easy opponent."

"Right. The opponent is a magician that is able to blow together hundreds large and small fleets
with the naval base. Attacking with numbers is practically meaningless."

"Your Excellency. I think the conclusion is premature."

Spencer raised his eyebrows and demanded an explanation with his line of sight.

Clark leaned himself forward.

"Surely, attacking Shiba Tatsuya with a large fleet would be meaningless. Sending in a large
bomber formation would only prey on that magic. But that magic, Material Burst, only causes a
very powerful explosion at one point. It is not possible to deal with attacks from multiple
directions at the same time.

Clark wielded fervent speech.

Unfortunately, Spencer didn't seem to be impressed.

"Why can you say that?"

Clark could not immediately answer that question which was asked with a cold voice, rather
than a calm voice.

"It's just an optimistic prediction that he can't fire the strategic magic, Material Burst, rapidly. All
we know about, Material Burst is that it converts mass into energy, that too what we can only
After repelling the Greater Asia Alliance invasion, the New Soviet strategic magician Igor
Andreivic Bezobrazzof remained in Khabarovsk instead of returning to Moscow.

He didn't move from the Far East because he was looking for an opportunity to kill Tatsuya.
Bezobrazov released the strategic magic Tuman Bomba twice in early and late June to kill
Tatsuya with bombing. But he got the opposite, the valuable clones that assisted Tuman Bomba
and the train-mounted large-type CAD that can be said as a mobile base to cast Tuman Bomba
was destroyed, and he himself tasted full defeat and suffered serious damage. Bezobrazzof,
who has a high pride, was obsessed because of this humiliation.

In this Khabarovsk, which is close to Japan, he collects information about Tatsuya's

movements, but there are other reasons for choosing this place as a place to stay rather than
Vladivostok, which is closer to Japan. Khabarovsk has been the central city in the Far East of
the New Soviet Union and its predecessor since the days of Tsarist Russia. In the first half of
this century, that role was lost to Vladivostok for a period of time, but in the post-WW III New
Soviet Union, Khabarovsk played the role of the eastern capital.

Vladivostok may be faster for gathering information on Japan and the Greater Asia Alliance.
However, the latest information on the world gathered by the New Soviet Union is easier to
obtain in Khabarovsk.

Bezobrazzof was not paying attention to Japan only.

In the first place, USNA's Edward Clark was the first to identify Tatsuya as a threat and then
they worked together to remove him. Bezobrazov was convinced that although the USNA was
internally split into a force that favored the removal of Shiba Tatsuya and a force that opposed it,
Clark couldn't stand still.

He stayed in Khabarovsk instead of Vladivostok so that he could quickly find out about USNA's
issues with Japan. Therefore, it may have been natural for Bezobrazzof to catch this information
on the day of July 26th, considering the capabilities of the New Soviet military intelligence.

(So Clark pulled out Miguel Diaz)

Bezobrazzof's impression with that information was that Edward Clark seemed to be cornered.

(He even resorted to borrowing a favor to Brazil without moving his own country's strategic-class
magician...)

Bezobrazzof knew that Angie Sirius went missing.

infer from the result. I guess it must have converted from mass into energy directly in order to
generate such destructive power. "

"..."

"Actually, we do not know the magic mechanism or the limit. Is that right?"

Clark could not argue with Spencer's point.

"... But we can't just leave the culprit that terrorized States alone."

The only thing he could barely do was change the argument in this way.

"For that case, it's exactly what you said."

And his effort wasn't wrong.

"But that doesn't mean we can allow the operation to sacrifice a large number of States'
soldiers. ― Mr. Clark, do you get my point?

"I understand."

Clark nodded immediately,

"By the way, Your Excellency. Must I avoid other than human sacrifices too?"

and added this line.

"What a strange thing to say. Mr. Clark, our Federal Army is made up of States' citizens.
Everyone who is obligated to protect the States' citizens is human."

In response to Clark's question, Spencer replied that.

◇◇◇

After finishing the meeting with the Secretary of Defense, Clark brought his feet to fly to Brazil.
He stayed overnight on the plane, and on the morning of July 25th, local time, from President
Juscelino-Kubischecchi International Airport to the USNA Embassy in Brasilia. With the guide of
the embassy staff, he would now head to the western Campo Grande International Airport by
domestic flight.

He arrived at the destination, the Western Army Headquarters, at 4:00 pm local time on the
same day at 4:00 am on July 26, Japan time.
"Why, Chief of Staff"

Near the evening of July 26th. Maj. Gen. Saeki, Commander of the 101st Brigade of the Army,
had an interview with the Chief of Staff while visiting the General Command Department of the
Army.

"Miyakijima, the whole island is private property, but it is a Japanese territory belonging to the
Kanto region. Isn't it natural that the Defense Force is stationed for defense?"

"Because it's private land. You can't have the Defense Forces stationed without the owner's
permission without an imminent crisis. It's not like you can't understand this reason.

"That island was just under attack by an irregular force at the beginning of the month. I think it's
a very emergency situation."

Chief Otomo sighed at Saeki, who didn't back down.

"Before we were able to sortie that time, the owner's security team repelled it without waiting for
us. In relation to that attack which happened on the first 10 days of this month, this makes it
harder for us to put garrison there."

Otomo did not have opposition against the Yotsuba family3. But he felt the same and he agreed
with Saeki's proposal. A foreign power that attacked the homeland and those attackers repelled
by civilian forces. Many uniformed officers didn't like it.

However, as a practical matter, it is difficult to place troops on that private land except during
operations.

If those civilians are common citizens, they could handle it politically, but it's a different story
when Miyakijima's owner is Yotsuba family. In actuality, there's no one from that family that
works as a politician or high key government official, but it's an undeniable fact that the Yotsuba
family has strong backers and influence in the political world.

They also have a strong relationship with the military through informal works.

Even the Chief of Staff knew that it's not a good idea to make those people in a bad mood just
because he didn't like it.

"That's the problem, Chief of Staff, I can't accept the existence of a private force that doesn't
follow civilian control in a democratic nation. Volunteer soldiers must be temporary only."

3
​TLN: 肩を持つ; https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/肩を持つ ; meaning: 対立しているものの一方
の味方をする
There, Maj. Gen. Filho, Chief of Staff of the Western Army of the Brazilian Army, and Major
Miguel Diaz were waiting for Clark.

Miguel Diaz is one of the 13 Apostles nationally certified strategic magicians, and a user of the
strategic-class magic Synchroliner Fusion. This year, he used this magic toward the base of
Armed Guerilla at the end of March, 2097, which sparked the series of strategic-class magic
usages on battlefields.

At that time, there was still aversion to actually using the strategic-class magic for the
battlefields. After its use, Brazil was accused internationally for massacring non-combatant.
Brazil denied the accusation but due to heavy condemnation around the world, they refrained
from using Synchroliner Fusion in subsequent battles.

It's easy to imagine that Miguel Diaz was dissatisfied with this response. Diaz is a regular
military member of the Brazilian Army. Needless to say, the use of strategic magic is not his
discretion. This is the result of following the command of the superior. However, the Brazilian
government, which was blamed by the international community, announced to punish Diaz.

Even though they're said to punish him, it's just a two-week disposition, even so it couldn't
convince Diaz. At first, the Brazilian Government had a bullish attitude toward international
public criticism, but as they couldn't hold the ever increasing critics, they punished Diaz as an
excuse. For Miguel Diaz, it's the same as making him a scapegoat.

Of course, the government did not forget to follow up with him ― to keep him happy ― as the
valuable strategic-class magician. With the addition of giving him a large sum of money, he and
his family were invited to a high-class resort which is usually used for key position government
officials. Of course, the accommodation cost was handled by the government. Other than that,
he was authorized to all high-class resorts, large clubs in the metropolis, with also other
entertainments which usually only privy to high profile politicians that made him as same as
them. Non-officially, they also promised him for rank-promotion next year.

Even from an objective point of view, it can be said that the maximum follow-up was performed.
Perhaps it worked, because they avoided Diaz's departure from Brazil. However the crack
between both sides couldn't be completely covered.

The one who dissatisfied not only Diaz. The government officials, who had to ask him by
damaging their pride, hide their antipathy in their hearts. In truth, those officials were dissatisfied
by thinking that they had to lower their head to "just a weapon."

As their contempt couldn't be completely hidden. Such high-ranking officials' attitudes further
amplified Diaz' dissatisfaction. Currently, Diaz's and Brazilian government's relations are in
endangered state.
[2]
Saturday, July 27th. Tatsuya left the hospital on Miyakijima.

Just a week ago, he crashed with a coast guard patrol ship and was seriously injured. He was
hospitalized all the time for that treatment.

Although the facts are different, this camouflaged hospitalization was making alibi for Tatsuya,
so he couldn't slack until the end. Despite keeping away from all outsiders for visiting, he even
bothered to replace the dummy puppet ― with elaborated material that made a living object ―
at night when he left the hospital room. He did that thoroughly.

"Onii-sama, congratulations on your discharge."

Miyuki with a bouquet was waiting in the entrance lobby of the hospital. Needless to say, Miyuki
knows that Tatsuya's hospitalization is disguised. However, the full-faced smile when presenting
the bouquet seemed to be really happy that Tatsuya was discharged from hospital rather than
acting in accordance to fake hospitalization, and for her, she's really happy now she's able to be
together with Tatsuya without worrying other people.

"Thank you, Miyuki"

Tatsuya smiled and received the bouquet. It’s not the smile that had a nuance of "I can't help it
...", but a smile that showed deep love to Miyuki instead of a bitter smile.

Lina was next to Miyuki, but she didn't show a sigh or an amazed face today.

"Congratulations, Tatsuya. Finally, I can move freely."

"Yeah, I made Lina feel restricted too."

"It can't be helped. I can't leave an injured person alone."

Lina's lines are for camouflage too. However, it's not completely faked out of context. Since
Tatsuya's able to leave the hospital, now Lina's ready for taking new actions that she planned.

◇◇◇

Information that Tatsuya was discharged from the hospital crossed the sea within the day.
There, Clark found an opening.

"Major Diaz. We need your power."

The reaction that Diaz showed was just to silently look back at Clark.

However, Clark felt a solid response to his silent attitude.

"We are planning a large-scale military operation against Japan."

"Isn't Japan your ally?"

With abruptness of Clark's lines, Maj.Gen Filho of course intervened with a doubting question.

"It's indeed as Your Excellency says, but our target is not the Japanese government or its
military. It's the terrorist who has attacked our military facilities."

"You say the terrorists are hiding in Japan? Does the Japanese government know that?"

When asked by Maj. Gen. Filho, Clark showed a slight hesitation.

"... they probably don't know"

"Probably? Did you not ask?"

Filho was showing the exaggerated surprise.

"Then the military operation isn't under Japan government agreement too?"

"The Japanese government will almost certainly not respond by handing the terrorist to us. The
terrorist who attacked our base is Shiba Tatsuya, the non-official strategic-class magician."

"Shiba Tatsuya?! That Taurus Silver?"

The surprise that Major Filho showed this time was not acting.

"Is it true he resorted to terrorism? And I'm new to him being a strategic-class magician."

That Tatsuya is a strategic magician has already become an open secret in the upper layers of
USNA. Even in Japan, it is well known among the head family of each 10 Master Clans and
their close associates.
Tatsuya didn't say anything to both.

About not saying anything too, neither Tatsuya nor Miyuki asked Minami when she was with
Minoru.

Minami, sometimes was seen as if she wanted to talk about it, but each time, Miyuki just
changed the conversation to another topic and Tatsuya said he's busy with other things, so their
actions were to avoid that topic entirely.

Tatsuya, Miyuki, and Minami regained their daily life just like they were before.

"I will go tomorrow."

Lina told Tatsuya during the tea time after the four of them had lunch together.

"Just as planned. Roger that."

As Tatsuya responded, it was planned from the day before yesterday that Lina was going to go
to the nuclear-powered submarine aircraft carrier "Virginia" on July 28th as Canopus was
safekept there.

"What's the time for your departure?"

"I plan to leave before dawn."

"Okay. I'll prepare this as well. Is it OK departing from the underground port at 4 am?"

There is a hidden harbor open to the sea beneath the grounds of Miyakijima. When Tatsuya
headed for the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, he departed from there too.

"... Well, I don't think you need to do that far. I even have been given a Thrust Suit so I'll be fine
going alone."

Lina was reserved to have Tatsuya take her on an aircar halfway.

Tatsuya's plan was to use an aircar to fly over the rendezvous point with "Virginia", and from
there, Lina wearing a replica of the U.S. military flight combat suit "Thrust Suit" jumped into the
sea and transferred.

"I also have my own reason."

However, as it's non-official information, globally, there were more people who didn't know about
this.

"Shiba Tatsuya is a strategic magician who uses the mass-energy conversion magic, Material
Burst, that caused mass destruction and mass slaughter known as Scorched Halloween. This is
sure information."

"Scorched Halloween .... That magic user, huh."

Maj. Gen. Filho murmured exasperatedly. Meanwhile, Diaz remained silent.

"... But I haven't heard that your country's bases were hit by large-scale magic. No matter how
strict the information regulation, if that magic was used, I don't think you can hide it no matter
how hard you do."

Clark gave a bitter look to Filho for a moment.

"... Shiba Tatsuya did not use Material Burst in this terrorist attack."

"So, what's the reason for concluding that the attacker was Tatsuya Shiba?"

Clark looked down as he avoided Filho's eye contact.

"―From the situation, there is no doubt that he is the criminal."

"In other words, no proof?"

Filho cornered with question.

Clark couldn't answer immediately.

"Mr. Clark. Are you trying to eliminate the strategic-class magician who could pose a threat to
your country by reusing the base attacked by someone? Originally, the Dione Project was
intended to do that right?"

"Your Excellency, Chief of Staff. Isn't it enough already?"

It was Diaz who saved Clark, who had a hard time answering.

"There is no need for clear proofs for an informal operation. When we feel threatened, that's
enough reason to dispatch troops. Again, this secret operation is better than an official one for
invasion when considering diplomatic relations with Japan. In the worst case, if you tell that this
is my own discretion, the damage will be minimized."
"Maj. Gen. Saeki came to visit Chief Otomo the Chief of Staff, and insisted that a military unit
should be placed on Miyakijima."

"I see ... Her Excellency Saeki seems to want this island."

At Maya's prediction, Mitsugu nodded with a smile.

"Using the excuse for putting the garrison here, she very likely wants to confiscate facilities
here."

Mitsugu's smile was a mockery towards Saeki.

"Using reasoning such as cannot accept civilian forces, but she in actuality just doesn't like that
their work is taken from civilians."

"Mitsugu-san, you don't have to say that. It's also correct that using front-excuse for not
accepting private forces who don't follow Civilian Control. As a front-excuse of course."

There was a devilish smile shown on Maya's face while reminding Mitsugu.

"―However, even civilians have the right to self-defense."

Adding that, Maya lifted the tea cup gracefully to her mouth.

"So, what should we do?"

At Mitsugu that changed his thin smile to a serious tone, Maya opened her eyes slightly.

"Oh, it's rare. It's a case involving Tatsuya-san, and Mitsugu is motivated so much."

Instead of making fun of him, Maya really showed her surprise, Mitsugu just lightly frowned.

“The Stellar Reactor project is no longer just his project. It's a big project that definitely brings
Yotsuba's profits if it's successful. To remove any obstacle for that, there's no room for personal
feelings.”

"Yes. Especially if the opponent is the military. It's not the time to be split on our own. I'm glad
Mitsugu-san understood that."

Maya's lips remained faintly smiling, but her eyes shined intensely as if stabbing the nail.

Mitsugu showed his understanding by bowing down so he could escape from Maya's gaze.
"Is Major fine with that?"

It's just normal that Filho asked that. Diaz was the same as telling Filho to discard him when
Filho needed it. The question that was asked had the nuance of Filho thinking for his desperate
subordinate.

"The current situation is not too different."

Diaz's answer was an exaggeration to say that it was perceived as criticizing the government.

"... You're right."

But Filho didn't blame Diaz.

Filho too was dissatisfied with the government by making Diaz scapegoat to curb the
international criticism of using strategic-class magic.

"And also ... no."

"And also what Major? You don't have to be reserved just because you're in front of a guest."

"... There’s no worth for a magician who can't use magic. Similarly, I'm worthless because I can't
use Synchroliner Fusion."

"Major, it's not `you can't use the magic`, it's `you don't use the magic`".

"Don't have the opportunity to use it. Can't use it. The result is the same."

"Even if you don't use it, it's still used as a deterrent. That's the so-called strategic-weapon."

"But the government has been curbed by international criticism of using the Synchroliner
Fusion. It's the same as admitting that they won't use it anymore. Guerilla are sure to think so
too."

After the World War of this century, Brazil is the only country in South America.

In other areas, armed groups barely control a small area of hundreds of square kilometers
which compete for territories with the army. By the way, as large as Japan's Awaji Island which
is about 600 square kilometers, there's only an armed group occupying that area.
The opponent that Diaz released Synchroliner Fusion was one part of the large-scale armed
groups. Even though the Brazilian government has not approved the other party as a nation,
doesn't mean they can call them as guerilla.

"Your Excellency Chief of Staff, I don't want idling away2. If North America gives me chances to
use Synchroliner Fusion, I'll be happy to accept. My little brother definitely agrees too."

Maj. Gen. Filho was thinking about hearing Diaz's appeal in just a short time.

"Miguel, what you say is right."

Filho's calling him changed from class-rank to first name. But the tone remains that of his
subordinates. It wasn't the friendship that changed the name, but there seemed to be another
reason.

"It also benefits the military to show the effectiveness of the Synchroliner Fusion. Mr. Clark."

"What?"

Suddenly being asked, Clark wasn't confused.

"How long is this unofficial operation against Japan?"

"It will be settled within a month at the longest."

"I see."

Filho nodded and turned his gaze again to Diaz.

"Miguel. I give Major Diaz a month off with my authority, and I don't need a scheduled report
during that time. Tell that to Antonio too."

"Roger, sir."

Miguel Diaz stood up and saluted Major General Filho.

It was only Clark's attendants who were confused by how Major Diaz is different from Miguel
Diaz.

◇◇◇

2
​TLN: 穀潰し; https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/穀潰し/ ; meaning: 定職もなくぶらぶらと遊び暮
らす者。無為徒食の者をののしっていう語。The meaning is as translated above.
Lina, wearing a thrust suit (replica), arrived in the underground boat 15 minutes later than the
scheduled time, and she found not only Tatsuya, but Miyuki and Minami waiting there too.

Minami was wearing the same maid style as when it came to wake Lina, and Miyuki was
wearing a refreshing summer dress.

"... Miyuki, did you come all the way just to see me off?"

The reason why the word of thanks to Minami and the word of the apology to Tatsuya did not
come out because Lina was fascinated by Miyuki. The one piece of the chiffon material is the
mimore length giving docile impression, but the upper half is indescribably vibrant with the
camisole neckline of both shoulders exposed.

Miyuki this morning gave the impression of a beyond girl. - No, "The expression of giving the
impression" is a little too modest. She filled this underground space with a risque borderline
between an adult and a girl.

"Ara, it's not like that, Lina."

Miyuki showed a light unexpected expression and answered opposite of what Lina expected.
Lina just lightly thought "yeah, right".

(Anyway, it's to send off Tatsuya, isn't it?)

Lina was not aware of it, but her heart's voice was muttered in a relentless tone.

"I'm not going to see you off, I'm going to send you halfway."

"Eh!?"

The last misunderstanding amplified Lina's surprise.

"Miyuki also rides the air car?"

"Aircar flight and stealth systems are independent features. Miyuki will be better for handling
stealth systems perfectly, and I can concentrate on flying."

Tatsuya's answer was off the mark, given the nuances behind Lina's questioning. However, Lina
was saved by his answer that she put herself in awkwardness because of her
misunderstanding. Perhaps Tatsuya might have shifted the point on purpose.

"Then, let's go."

After repelling the Greater Asia Alliance invasion, the New Soviet strategic magician Igor
Andreivic Bezobrazzof remained in Khabarovsk instead of returning to Moscow.

He didn't move from the Far East because he was looking for an opportunity to kill Tatsuya.
Bezobrazov released the strategic magic Tuman Bomba twice in early and late June to kill
Tatsuya with bombing. But he got the opposite, the valuable clones that assisted Tuman Bomba
and the train-mounted large-type CAD that can be said as a mobile base to cast Tuman Bomba
was destroyed, and he himself tasted full defeat and suffered serious damage. Bezobrazzof,
who has a high pride, was obsessed because of this humiliation.

In this Khabarovsk, which is close to Japan, he collects information about Tatsuya's

movements, but there are other reasons for choosing this place as a place to stay rather than
Vladivostok, which is closer to Japan. Khabarovsk has been the central city in the Far East of
the New Soviet Union and its predecessor since the days of Tsarist Russia. In the first half of
this century, that role was lost to Vladivostok for a period of time, but in the post-WW III New
Soviet Union, Khabarovsk played the role of the eastern capital.

Vladivostok may be faster for gathering information on Japan and the Greater Asia Alliance.
However, the latest information on the world gathered by the New Soviet Union is easier to
obtain in Khabarovsk.

Bezobrazzof was not paying attention to Japan only.

In the first place, USNA's Edward Clark was the first to identify Tatsuya as a threat and then
they worked together to remove him. Bezobrazov was convinced that although the USNA was
internally split into a force that favored the removal of Shiba Tatsuya and a force that opposed it,
Clark couldn't stand still.

He stayed in Khabarovsk instead of Vladivostok so that he could quickly find out about USNA's
issues with Japan. Therefore, it may have been natural for Bezobrazzof to catch this information
on the day of July 26th, considering the capabilities of the New Soviet military intelligence.

(So Clark pulled out Miguel Diaz)

Bezobrazzof's impression with that information was that Edward Clark seemed to be cornered.

(He even resorted to borrowing a favor to Brazil without moving his own country's strategic-class
magician...)

Bezobrazzof knew that Angie Sirius went missing.

Miyuki opened her lip broad and turned from the passenger seat to Lina.

"Lina, are you scared by any chance?"

"I-I'm not scared!"

Miyuki's tone wasn't to ridicule, but Lina replied back with red-face thinking so.

"... I just didn't know what was going on outside, so I just got a little nervous."

The reason why Lina toned down was because she realized Miyuki's intention and admitted her
situation. But, since she wasn't able to set a complete poker face, she’s admitting with a little
embarrassment.

"You don't know where the enemy may be lurking, perhaps like that?"

"Yes, that's it."

"Lina is a Major in the America army after all. It's something that I couldn't comprehend though."

Miyuki muttered that in a tone whether she's serious or kidding, turning her attention to Tatsuya.

"Onii-sama. I think I vaguely understand Lina's feelings. Why don't we go up to the sky soon?"

"That's right. It's a little earlier than planned, but we're going to be able to emerge."

Tatsuya nodded.

"You said a little earlier ... Is it okay to emerge not far enough away from Miyakijima?"

It's because of herself that Miyuki requested so, so she's worried about the plan.

"It's almost in Japanese sea territory. It's enough for camouflage."

"Japan sea territory? ... But it's only been about thirty minutes!?"

Lina raised her voice surprised after Tatsuya told her their current position.

"How fast is it?"

"It's up to 400 kilometers per hour."

In addition to Sirius, USNA also has two nationally certified strategic magicians, Elliot Miller and
Laurent Balt, who are the trump cards of strategic points of Alaska and Gibraltar. Hence they
can't move easily.

However, he thought USNA's strategic magicians are not the only three. He's sure that they
have some unofficial strategic magicians hidden, maybe more than a dozen.

(Is there any reason why he can't move them? ... No, I think he's simply doesn't get permission
for that)

Perhaps in USNA, the opinion of avoiding the opposition with Shiba Tatsuya may be dominant.

(―Well, it doesn't matter)

So Bezobrazzof interrupted his thinking. It didn't matter for him whatever Clark or the USNA
domestic situation.

(This is a chance)

Bezobrazzof's purpose is to kill Tatsuya. It was absolutely necessary for him to overcome the
humiliation in his mind.

(Attacking Japanese territory is not a small wager for USNA. Failure is unforgivable. They will
put in considerable troops)

(Clark's military talent is unknown, but he will likely have involved experts and is unlikely to be
repelled easily)

(Even if it's Shiba Tatsuya, there should be no room to wary for another thing when he's busy
handling the surprise attack)

(I'll unleash Tuman Bomba airborne of that man's head, when he's locking in battle against
surprise attack)

Bezobrazzof decided to bury both Tatsuya and Clark with that.

◇◇◇

The conspiracy around Tatsuya even maneuvering in Japan.

"―Maj. Gen. Saeki, isn't that a bit forceful?"

The rendezvous point with the nuclear submersible aircraft carrier Virginia is 1,000 kilometers
east of Japan and 100 meters deep. Virginia has been waiting in the water since last night.

But it was impossible to know by normal means whether they were really waiting at the point of
promise.

Virginia's series of actions, combined with helping to raid Midway Prison and Pearl and Hermes
base, is not based on formal orders. Only those who know its current location are limited to
some of the Pacific Fleet Command. It is impossible to send signals or communications which
could be intercepted.

However, it's just "normally" mean. Tatsuya's "eye" had already captured the position of the
submarine aircraft carrier from just before 100 kilometers.

"Lina, we're here."

The air car was stopped directly above 'Virginia' and ten meters above sea level, and Tatsuya
turned around and called out to Lina.

"You know how to get in?"

Submarines usually do not expect crews to get on and off when submerged in water. However,
submarines equipped with nuclear reactors that were ostensibly forbidden had doorways that
could be used in water to increase their confidentiality.

“It's okay. It's my first time in Virginia, but I've been on the same type."

Nodded to Lina's reply, Tatsuya opened the door in the back seat.

"Tatsuya, thank you very much. I'll call you when everything is sorted out."

Lina waved lightly and dived to the surface of the sea ten meters below.

◇◇◇

The passive sonar of the submarine aircraft carrier "Virginia" caught the sound of Lina jumping
into the sea.

"It's almost time-by-minute. It's not a lie that Japanese people are very punctual."
"Why, Chief of Staff"

Near the evening of July 26th. Maj. Gen. Saeki, Commander of the 101st Brigade of the Army,
had an interview with the Chief of Staff while visiting the General Command Department of the
Army.

"Miyakijima, the whole island is private property, but it is a Japanese territory belonging to the
Kanto region. Isn't it natural that the Defense Force is stationed for defense?"

"Because it's private land. You can't have the Defense Forces stationed without the owner's
permission without an imminent crisis. It's not like you can't understand this reason.

"That island was just under attack by an irregular force at the beginning of the month. I think it's
a very emergency situation."

Chief Otomo sighed at Saeki, who didn't back down.

"Before we were able to sortie that time, the owner's security team repelled it without waiting for
us. In relation to that attack which happened on the first 10 days of this month, this makes it
harder for us to put garrison there."

Otomo did not have opposition against the Yotsuba family3. But he felt the same and he agreed
with Saeki's proposal. A foreign power that attacked the homeland and those attackers repelled
by civilian forces. Many uniformed officers didn't like it.

However, as a practical matter, it is difficult to place troops on that private land except during
operations.

If those civilians are common citizens, they could handle it politically, but it's a different story
when Miyakijima's owner is Yotsuba family. In actuality, there's no one from that family that
works as a politician or high key government official, but it's an undeniable fact that the Yotsuba
family has strong backers and influence in the political world.

They also have a strong relationship with the military through informal works.

Even the Chief of Staff knew that it's not a good idea to make those people in a bad mood just
because he didn't like it.

"That's the problem, Chief of Staff, I can't accept the existence of a private force that doesn't
follow civilian control in a democratic nation. Volunteer soldiers must be temporary only."

3
​TLN: 肩を持つ; https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/肩を持つ ; meaning: 対立しているものの一方
の味方をする
 ◇◇◇

Inside the air car currently only Tatsuya and Miyuki after dropping Lina down in a small sealed
room.

Despite the perfect chance for a date situation without anyone disturbing, Miyuki's expression
was gloomy.

"What's the matter, Miyuki?"

Seeing that Miyuki was having a hard time trying to say something, Tatsuya spoke to her first.

"Is there anything you want to talk about? We're the only ones here. You don't have to worry
about others listening."

She wanted to ask but then when being asked, now it's overlapping between replying and
asking and she's conflicted whether to consult the very root of her anxiety since this the perfect
chance without anyone else listening.

"It's about Minami-chan."

"Ah."

Tatsuya replied so to express his understanding and because it's what he expected.

"Onii-sama, you aren't using the Gatekeeper on Minami... are you?"

Gatekeeper is a technique that monitors the gate, a passage where a magic formula is
projected from the spirit of a magician to target phenomenon effect, and disables the magic by
destroying the magic formula immediately after detecting the passage of the magic formula.

"I'm not using it. Gatekeeper is meaningless for Minami's condition."

As mentioned above, Gatekeeper is a magic that destroys the created magic formula in the
process of invoking it.
Building a magic formula does not limit the activities of the magic calculation area. There is no
effective way to prevent magic calculation area overheat which threatens Minami's mind and
body.

"Why'd you ask that?"

However, it seems that Saeki's judgment is different from Otomo.

"Is the Major General asking the Yotsuba to disarm?"

Otomo asked Saeki, who willing to advent the risk without definite profit4, with the intention of
"Are you serious?" which she answered with "It is inevitable to follow the principles of
democracy, Chief of Staff,"

Saeki looked back at Otomo's eyes with a firm gaze.

4
​TLN: 火中の栗を拾う; https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/火中の栗を拾う ; meaning: 自分の利益
にならないのに、他人のために危険を冒すたとえ ; taking dangerous action by example getting
the chestnut in the fire with the risk of scalding without any profit
Therefore, Miyuki thought that it was very likely that Tatsuya would be able to see Minoru's
magic.

"No, I know how you feel. I'm concerned about Minami too."

"What should I do..."

Miyuki hung her face in dark expression. From any outsider, it's clearly Miyuki thinking hard to
find a way. Even with her current state, her concealment magic was still in perfect state, as
expected from her skill.

After 5 minutes, she muttered "Right" in a low voice.

"Yakumo-sensei maybe knows what Minoru-kun has done?"

"Hmm, that's right... I'll ask him."

If it's just experts of mental interference system magic, Yotsuba had them too. No, compared to
the other 10 Magician Clan, Yotsuba had a better number and quality of mental interference
system magicians.

For example, like the Tsukuba family. The reason why those two didn't consider them, became
a definite proof that those two couldn't completely trust Yotsuba.

◇◇◇

As she made her way straight from the surface of the sea to the bottom of the sea, she made
her way to Virginia. As far as the military mission concerned, she rarely made a blunder.

Lina grabs the tip of the wire antenna at the top of the ship and establishes a wired
communication connection with the ship.

"Virginia, this is Major Angie Sirius of Special Forces. I'd like permission to board."

Contrary to Lina's expectations, the response quickly returned.

"This is Colonel Michael Curtis, captain of the Pacific Fleet Virginia. I'll allow you to onboard the
ship. I want you to come in with a real face."

It's already unexpected that the captain directly sent the reply, but what's even more unexpected
is that to release the camouflage magic to enter.
[2]
Saturday, July 27th. Tatsuya left the hospital on Miyakijima.

Just a week ago, he crashed with a coast guard patrol ship and was seriously injured. He was
hospitalized all the time for that treatment.

Although the facts are different, this camouflaged hospitalization was making alibi for Tatsuya,
so he couldn't slack until the end. Despite keeping away from all outsiders for visiting, he even
bothered to replace the dummy puppet ― with elaborated material that made a living object ―
at night when he left the hospital room. He did that thoroughly.

"Onii-sama, congratulations on your discharge."

Miyuki with a bouquet was waiting in the entrance lobby of the hospital. Needless to say, Miyuki
knows that Tatsuya's hospitalization is disguised. However, the full-faced smile when presenting
the bouquet seemed to be really happy that Tatsuya was discharged from hospital rather than
acting in accordance to fake hospitalization, and for her, she's really happy now she's able to be
together with Tatsuya without worrying other people.

"Thank you, Miyuki"

Tatsuya smiled and received the bouquet. It’s not the smile that had a nuance of "I can't help it
...", but a smile that showed deep love to Miyuki instead of a bitter smile.

Lina was next to Miyuki, but she didn't show a sigh or an amazed face today.

"Congratulations, Tatsuya. Finally, I can move freely."

"Yeah, I made Lina feel restricted too."

"It can't be helped. I can't leave an injured person alone."

Lina's lines are for camouflage too. However, it's not completely faked out of context. Since
Tatsuya's able to leave the hospital, now Lina's ready for taking new actions that she planned.

◇◇◇

Information that Tatsuya was discharged from the hospital crossed the sea within the day.
Lina accustomed with that kind of reaction, not as Angie Sirius, but as Angelina Shields. She
didn't have any particular concerns and asked to meet and say hello to the captain.

"Lina, follow me."

Canopus responded in a tone that was casual enough and led Lina to the CIC.

After meeting with the captain, Lina is now facing Canopus in a fine room where it is hard to
believe it's available inside the submarine. Captain Curtis lent them his room.

Captain's room wasn't only had a bed and desk but also a sofa set too. Lina sat down on the
right edge of a three-seat sofa after Canopus encouraged her.

"Ben, tell me anything after I leave."

After waiting for Canopus to sit across her, she asked.

"I was sent to Midway right after Commander escaped, so I can't tell you much."

Canopus explained how he was sent to Midway Prison.

"...... Major Capella didn't give in to the parasite, did he? "

Major Noah Capella, captain of the STARS 5th Corps. He is the oldest of the Planet-class
STARS magicians and the longest military career. Even Colonel Walker, commander of the
STARS Headquarters, can't ignore Capella's influence, and, regardless of his authority, his
influence is even bigger than Lina's and Canopus'. When she learned that Capella was not in
the parasite camp, Lina patted her chest down with a relief.

"Major Capella is neutral. He's not necessarily favoring our side."

"It's enough to not have him as an enemy. How about the other captains?"

The STARS are divided into twelve squads under Commander Sirius. Each captain not
necessarily controls all their members, but the captain's stance is representing the squad'
stance. "I think Hardy is telling you that."

"Hardy" that Canopus mentioned is Lieutenant Ralph Hardy Milfak of the First Corps, where
Canopus serves as the captain. Lieutenant Mirfak helped Lina escape and sent her to
Albuquerque Airport when a brawl broke out at the Stars headquarters base, and has since
disappeared.
The hospital was banning outsiders from visiting, but it wasn't forbidden to enter or leave the
island. The island was used as Stellar Reactor plants which is the foremost example of magical
usage outside of the military and its result is desirable to be reported to worldwide. Cutting off
from the media exposure isn't something that Tatsuya wanted.

In the first place, Tatsuya showed himself for his discharging to complete his fake hospitalization
alibi against the military and USNA. So the intelligence agent or intelligence agency or journalist
which the collaborators could tell this news to their employers.

―Bezobrazzof received this information about Tatsuya's discharge on the same day in
Khabarovsk, while Clark received it a day later on a transport plane to Hawaii.

◇◇◇

The building that was used as the felony magician prison on Miyakijima, was changed to lodging
for Yotsuba staff for Miyakijima management. Even when Lina was sheltered on this island, she
was using this lodging building too. Shibata Katsushige who was newly assigned as the
manager of Miyakijima also lives in this building on the first floor together with his fiancee
Tsutsumi Kotona. ― Main family recommended him to take the 7th floor but Katsushige
prioritized the practicality to respond immediately to any emergency situations.

And on the 8th floor, on the top floor, there was a new accommodation room for Maya when she
visited the island, and a room for Tatsuya and Miyuki to use as their second house.

"Welcome back, Tatsuya-sama, Miyuki-sama."

"I'm back"

"I'm back, Minami-chan."

"Welcome, Lina-sama."

"I'll be bothering you, Minami."5

Waiting for Tatsuya and his friends at the other house was Minami, who was brought back three
days ago.

She was reinstated as Miyuki's maid. At first, Miyuki suggested having Minami extensively
examined at the hospital. However, at Minami's strong appeal to immediately work on the day
she's back, Miyuki finally couldn't oppose it.

5
​TLN: お邪魔するわね; most common greeting when visiting someone's house or territory, the
literal would "I'll be bother" or any of its variant with related to 邪魔;bother
"Correct."

"That's the guy who let me out of Midway, right?"

Tatsuya didn't name himself during the prison break nor showed his face. But for Canopus,
Tatsuya was STARS target for the winter last year and he inferred from the information he
gathered before, Tatsuya was the one who helped him escape.

"Yeah."

Nodded, Lina didn't think deeply about Tatsuya's cover-up. Maybe she didn't even think about
the possibility that Tatsuya was hiding his identity.

Lina didn't realize that she had done anything rash, and quickly changed the subject.

"I don't know Lieutenant Spica's whereabouts, but you don't have to worry about her."

No, she went back to discussion.

"Lieutenant Spica was on the same boat when Captain Vega attacked Miyakijima."

"Miyakijima is the base of the Yotsuba family where you was sheltered, isn't it?"

To the question of Canopus, Lina nods, "Yes."

"Lieutenant Spica has a strong personality. Return to headquarters without taking revenge for
Captain Vega and Lieutenant Deneb, she won't likely to do that."

"Yes, indeed. That's certainly so."

Canopus agreed with Lina's guess.

"... Are you going to return to headquarters?"

With that he added the question of what is Lina going to do.

"I intend to do that. I don't like to behave, like always running around, and Ben, you pretty much
want to clear your reputation, right?"

"... That's right."

The fight spirit lit in the Canopus eyes. Lina had no intention to provoke Canopus but the result
seems to have ignited his spirit.
Tatsuya didn't say anything to both.

About not saying anything too, neither Tatsuya nor Miyuki asked Minami when she was with
Minoru.

Minami, sometimes was seen as if she wanted to talk about it, but each time, Miyuki just
changed the conversation to another topic and Tatsuya said he's busy with other things, so their
actions were to avoid that topic entirely.

Tatsuya, Miyuki, and Minami regained their daily life just like they were before.

"I will go tomorrow."

Lina told Tatsuya during the tea time after the four of them had lunch together.

"Just as planned. Roger that."

As Tatsuya responded, it was planned from the day before yesterday that Lina was going to go
to the nuclear-powered submarine aircraft carrier "Virginia" on July 28th as Canopus was
safekept there.

"What's the time for your departure?"

"I plan to leave before dawn."

"Okay. I'll prepare this as well. Is it OK departing from the underground port at 4 am?"

There is a hidden harbor open to the sea beneath the grounds of Miyakijima. When Tatsuya
headed for the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, he departed from there too.

"... Well, I don't think you need to do that far. I even have been given a Thrust Suit so I'll be fine
going alone."

Lina was reserved to have Tatsuya take her on an aircar halfway.

Tatsuya's plan was to use an aircar to fly over the rendezvous point with "Virginia", and from
there, Lina wearing a replica of the U.S. military flight combat suit "Thrust Suit" jumped into the
sea and transferred.

"I also have my own reason."

Tatsuya spoke to empty space in his room in Miyakijima.

(Loud and clear, Tatsuya)

The words that Lina uttered in the submarine aircraft carrier "Virginia" in the Pacific Ocean
become something meaningful and flow into Tatsuya's consciousness.

What Lina heard was Tatsuya's voice which reproduced with magic. Tatsuya delivers his voice
by vibrating the air in Lina's ear through oscillation/vibration system magic. The reason why he
speaks out like a monologue is that it's better to replicate the sound that is actually air vibration
rather than magically synthesizing the voice from the beginning. And Tatsuya is reading Lina's
response with Elemental Sight.

Using this method, they were able to communicate between Miyakijima and Virginia submersive
aircraft carriers where both isolated each other.

"Did you have a good conversation with Major Canopus?"

(Yes, Tatsuya. The captain is very kind to me too. It's because you, Tatsuya. Thank you so
much.)

"Captain Curtis's kind response to you is not because of me. So what're you going to do?"

(That's...)

Lina said that stuttered. Tatsuya's super perception ability was able to transmit this detailed
nuances of information.

"Did you decide to return home?"

(Y-yes. I think I'll go back once first. I think I'll cause you trouble if I don't sort out my personal
problem first.)

"I don't think it will be much of a hassle, but if you think so, you'd be better off doing it."

(Thank you, Tatsuya. When I'm done, I'll contact you. Please tell my thanks to Miyuki too.)

"Okay, I'll tell her. Well, keep safe."

Sending that message, Tatsuya disconnected the contact.

As Tatsuya explained, he didn't intend to just send her off out of kindness. Even a small object
such as Thrust Suit could be observed by military satellites. While the process of onboarding the
Virginia wouldn't be known since it's in the deep water, but the object that flying from Miyakijima
to waters in the middle of western pacific would incite suspicion that Tatsuya is Virigia's
collaborators. It's his reason why he preferred using aircar that has advanced stealth function for
secrecy.

"It will be bothering Senator Curtis too if we're found out, so Lina, you don't have to worry."

"Well ... I'll accept your offer then."

Lina understood the need for covert move. She nodded with an admirable look.

◇◇◇

27th afternoon. At the Yotsuba main house, Kuroba Mitsugu was a guest at tea time.

"So, Mitsugu-san, what do you want to report directly?"

"It may be fine too using the communication line, but by chance I want to see your beautiful face
directly."

So Mitsugu greeted her with a look of sorry to have troubling her.

"Just leave it like that."

Unfortunately, Maya's reaction was coldly short.

As Mitsugu read it's not a good sign, he changed his attitude to a serious one.

"There was a report yesterday from Lieutenant Kurachi of the Chief of Staff office."

"Kurachi-san? That one who is working for the Army Chief of Staff?"

"Yes, that's right. It's a newcomer who was just commissioned last year, but the superiors seem
to highly value her."

Second Lieutenant Kurachi that they both talked about is a female officer who Kuroba sent to
the military through military academy. It can be said that it's unnatural that her assignment so
fast by sudden, but considering Kuroba and mainly Yotsuba childhood education, it's actually
normal because of the groundwork they laid.

"What was the story like?"

Lina lay down and took off her shoes without using her hand. The shoes thrown to the floor. In
the building where Miyuki lives upstairs a floor above her, for some reason she couldn't do such
sloppy behaviour even though she knew no one saw her.

As she becomes more relaxed, Lina thinks about what she's going to do.

(First of all, I have to clear up the false accusations that Ben has suffered.)

When he was imprisoned in Midway, Lina heard from him that he was promised that his criminal
record will be removed in case of being quiet for a year in prison.

But Canopus has already broken out of jail. And Lina just can't believe Walker who wags his tail
to the parasites. Even if Canopus'd been quiet for a year, Lina wondered whether Walker would
keep his promise.

(Senator Curtis definitely will help.)

Canopus prison break was commissioned by Senator Wyatt Curtis, who was his great uncle, his
grandmother's brother. The Senator wouldn't just leave Canopus without follow up help.

Clearing Canopus' reputation is also Wyatt Curtis's agenda. Controlling the Joint Chiefs of Staff
would also be the proof of his political strength. But the question now, will Senator Curtis help
her? There's also a chance that the Senator won't accept Lina's request.

(... When it happens, it happens then.)11

(Whether threatening or conciliatory, I will make it happen.)

(Whatever they will say, selfishness or tyranny, I'll push forward)

(Because I've decided to go home.)

Lina reached out her hand to the ceiling as if she's trying to grab something, she saw in her
mind Miyuki's and Tatsuya's faces.

◇◇◇

As soon he cut his contact with Lina, actually Miyuki was sitting in a position where he could
reach her by hand, stood in front of the display wall for Widget Phone.

11
​TLN: その時はその時よ
"Maj. Gen. Saeki came to visit Chief Otomo the Chief of Staff, and insisted that a military unit
should be placed on Miyakijima."

"I see ... Her Excellency Saeki seems to want this island."

At Maya's prediction, Mitsugu nodded with a smile.

"Using the excuse for putting the garrison here, she very likely wants to confiscate facilities
here."

Mitsugu's smile was a mockery towards Saeki.

"Using reasoning such as cannot accept civilian forces, but she in actuality just doesn't like that
their work is taken from civilians."

"Mitsugu-san, you don't have to say that. It's also correct that using front-excuse for not
accepting private forces who don't follow Civilian Control. As a front-excuse of course."

There was a devilish smile shown on Maya's face while reminding Mitsugu.

"―However, even civilians have the right to self-defense."

Adding that, Maya lifted the tea cup gracefully to her mouth.

"So, what should we do?"

At Mitsugu that changed his thin smile to a serious tone, Maya opened her eyes slightly.

"Oh, it's rare. It's a case involving Tatsuya-san, and Mitsugu is motivated so much."

Instead of making fun of him, Maya really showed her surprise, Mitsugu just lightly frowned.

“The Stellar Reactor project is no longer just his project. It's a big project that definitely brings
Yotsuba's profits if it's successful. To remove any obstacle for that, there's no room for personal
feelings.”

"Yes. Especially if the opponent is the military. It's not the time to be split on our own. I'm glad
Mitsugu-san understood that."

Maya's lips remained faintly smiling, but her eyes shined intensely as if stabbing the nail.

Mitsugu showed his understanding by bowing down so he could escape from Maya's gaze.
Tatsuya answers immediately. The reason why he refused to add the escort is because he
thought it was heartless to call for a replacement immediately, or because it was because of
another reason.

Maya narrowed her eyes on the other side of the camera to confirm Tatsuya's true intention.

"... I understand. Tell me whenever you feel the need."

"Sorry for the trouble."12

"Is there anything else you want to talk about?"

"No, nothing."

"Oh. Tatsuya-san, good work for today."

Tatsuya bows his head in response to Maya's encouragement.

By the time he raised his face, the display turned off already.

◇◇◇

Oahu, Hawaii, local time July 28 at 9 a.m. Japan time 29 at 4 a.m.

Edward Clark, who arrived in Honolulu on a direct flight from Brazil, took his feet to The Pearl
Harbor Naval Base.

Clark was impatient. It's because he got the news that Shiba Tatsuya's discharge from hospital
when he's on his way to Honolulu.

He was not shocked that Tatsuya's injury had healed. He was convinced from the beginning that
Tatsuya's hospitalization was a disguise.

Discharging from the hospital means that there's no longer to hide himself. In other words, he's
prepared for the counterattack. That's why Clark was in such a hurry.

Logically, there is no basis for Clark's thought. The Dione project he initiated has completely lost
momentum. The world is now interested in the Stellar furnace plant which has more tangible
profits.

12
​ TLN: 恐縮です; kyoushuku desu; It’s ambiguous and depend to context to properly translating
it.
"How far has that case gone?"

Mayu asked Mitsugu who was still closing his eyes.

"We have all the evidence. We're ready to move anytime."

Mitsugu raised his head and answered Maya's question with a confident expression.

"Let's see if His Excellency Soga at his convenience next week. Hayama-san, can you enquire
about his schedule?"

His Excellency Soga is the General Commander of the Defense Army, General Soga. Hayama,
who was waiting diagonally behind Maya, replied, "Understood. I'll check it out right away." and
then went out of the room using the door behind.

◇◇◇

28, 3:30 a.m.

"Good morning. Lina-sama."

"Ffh!? W-what?"

Lina was sleeping in her room on the seventh floor ― the room here means room for dwelling
and apartment ― within her comfortable dreamland suddenly woken up roll-jumped by a voice.

She got her balance at the edge of bed, rubbing her sleeping eyes and looking up, she saw
Minami standing there wearing an apron over her black short-sleeved dress.

"... Minami. This is my room."

Lina said that with a bit of reproach.

"Yes."6

However, Minami answered calmly.

"Why are you in my room?"

Lina asked with irritation. There she noticed that her hands were holding a small alarm clock
strongly. Looking at the dial of the digital clock, Lina opened her eyes wide.

6
​そんじております；sonjiteorimasu; a polite variant of "I know"
Answering Marquis' question, Clark just replied, "Eliminating the great threat."

Of course, the captain cannot consent only by this answer.

"I'd like to be a little more specific. First of all, where is the destination?"

Marquis seems to be a patient character. She asked without making a loud voice.

"... The destination is about 180 km south-southeast of Tokyo. It is an island called 'Miyakijima'
by the local name."

Clark emphatically pretended to be a little lost, but he answered honestly in the end. He feared
that Captain Marquis would boycott the mission when she heard he would attack the territory of
her allied country, but soon realized that he had to tell her anyway where the destination was
when departing.

"Then, is the threat that Doctor saying Shiba Tatsuya?"

Marquis took very little time to get to the right answer because media reports knew Clark was
sticking too much to Tatsuya. Ostensibly, he was looking for the people he needed to develop
Venus, but those with a military point of view saw true intention that Clark was trying to put
Tatsuya under USNA's control.

Clark looked distraught after hearing the question, but it's just only less than a second.

"Shiba Tatsuya is a mass-energy conversion magic user which caused mass destruction on the
southern end of the Korean Peninsula at the end of October two years ago."

Marquis' eyes opened wide. Now it's her turn to be surprised. Apparently she didn't have any
information about Material Burst.

"Matter-energy conversion magic ... is the 'Scorched Halloween'? Is that information reliable?"

"It's the fact. Moreover, the Japanese government is not in control of Shiba Tatsuya. His
existence is politically unstable and too dangerous. It will be too late if he's to become a threat.
We must contain him now."

Clark's obsession becomes a flame of hot black passion and swallows Marquis.

"... I understand what you think, Doctor."

Overwhelmed, Captain Marquis nodded.

"And it's still three thirty!"

"Yes. It's the time per your instruction."

"Instruction?"

Lina raises her eyebrows. After exactly three seconds, she said, "Oh!" And raised the voice. "I
may not be able to get up on the alarm clock, I entrust you my room key so please come to see
me at 3:30, and if I'm still sleeping, please wake me up."

"Ah, right."

Lina admitted Minami's persistence with a red-face.

At the dinner with Miyuki and others last night, Lina certainly asked Minami to do so. But she did
it just for insurance.

STARS's missions often require them to sortie before midnight or dawn. At that time, she never
needed someone else's help to get up. Sylvia, a warrant officer as her aide in winter last year's
Vampire Case called her "sleeper lazy"7 , but it was only in the days when she didn't have a
scheduled mission.

She was confident that she could get up on her own today. Therefore, she had completely
forgotten having asked to wake her up.

"... Thanks for waking me up. I'll be ready soon."

"What can I help?"

Thank you. But that's fine. Can you tell Tatsuya my apology for being late?"

"Understood."

After a polite bow, Minami left the room.

Lina put the alarm clock on the side table, put both her hand to her cheek and slapped to wake
herself up.

4:15 a.m.

7
お寝坊さん; someone who sleep until late morning or noon
For example, if he has a request from Miyuki like this.

"I don't mind."

This became higher priority without hesitation.

"I'm sorry, but could you come to my room?"

"All right. I'm going now."

He answered that to the internal comm, saved his work and got up from the chair.

Miyuki’s room is located in the back of their double-bed room. He could go through that
bedroom, but Tatsuya went out into the hallway and knocked on the door of Miyuki's own room.

"Please come in."

As Miyuki replied, the door connecting to the outside opened.

While it's Miyuki who replied, it's Minami, who wore an apron on top of her short-sleeved shirt
and short pants, that opened the door.

Miyuki greeted Tatsuya with a shy blush. Standing in front of a big mirror which reflects the
whole body, wearing only a white bikini that could be mistaken as underwear.

"......"

Tatsuya slipped in as Minami had taken a step back to the side, quickly entered the room and
closed the door with his back hand. He's aware that on this floor with a width of 140 square
meters (4LDK) only three of them but somehow he felt the urge to close the door immediately.

"Uhm, my current bra size doesn't fit anymore so I thought to buy new underwear and a new
swimsuit."

When Tatsuya looked at Miyuki dubiously, Miyuki said that with a bit of an excuse while letting
her eyes swim around.

"I see."

Tatsuya didn't show any flustered expression, only said that for the answer.

"So, uhm, would you choose it for me?"

Lina, wearing a thrust suit (replica), arrived in the underground boat 15 minutes later than the
scheduled time, and she found not only Tatsuya, but Miyuki and Minami waiting there too.

Minami was wearing the same maid style as when it came to wake Lina, and Miyuki was
wearing a refreshing summer dress.

"... Miyuki, did you come all the way just to see me off?"

The reason why the word of thanks to Minami and the word of the apology to Tatsuya did not
come out because Lina was fascinated by Miyuki. The one piece of the chiffon material is the
mimore length giving docile impression, but the upper half is indescribably vibrant with the
camisole neckline of both shoulders exposed.

Miyuki this morning gave the impression of a beyond girl. - No, "The expression of giving the
impression" is a little too modest. She filled this underground space with a risque borderline
between an adult and a girl.

"Ara, it's not like that, Lina."

Miyuki showed a light unexpected expression and answered opposite of what Lina expected.
Lina just lightly thought "yeah, right".

(Anyway, it's to send off Tatsuya, isn't it?)

Lina was not aware of it, but her heart's voice was muttered in a relentless tone.

"I'm not going to see you off, I'm going to send you halfway."

"Eh!?"

The last misunderstanding amplified Lina's surprise.

"Miyuki also rides the air car?"

"Aircar flight and stealth systems are independent features. Miyuki will be better for handling
stealth systems perfectly, and I can concentrate on flying."

Tatsuya's answer was off the mark, given the nuances behind Lina's questioning. However, Lina
was saved by his answer that she put herself in awkwardness because of her
misunderstanding. Perhaps Tatsuya might have shifted the point on purpose.

"Then, let's go."

Tatsuya tried to convey the impression he had but then was suddenly distracted by another
thing.

"No, wait a minute."

"Yes...?"

As Tatsuya suddenly gave a serious voice, Miyuki seemed perplexed.

"Minami"

"Yes."

Minami who suddenly called unexpectedly also bewildered just like Miyuki.

Tatsuya raised another question to Minami to add her bewilderment.

"Are you using the online data catalog?"

"Yes..."

Users can also download AR data to try on. However, there are few who do so. The reason is
that it is difficult to procure the necessary computational resources to synthesize a perfect AR
image using a normal household computer due to the sheer amount of data.

The measurement of each person is different. Also they can't just stand still while trying the
product. To be able to synthesize a perfect image, it needs to take pre-computed image poses
first. If it's 100 people, then there are poses from 100 different people. To be able to measure
and take the patterns from this data is not an easy feat even for the current computational era.

Therefore, users are usually just using real-time images synthesized online from the server side.
Miyuki too wasn't hesitant to use online data.

"Disconnect at once. Download the catalog and set it to offline."

These Tatsuya's orders puzzled Minami.

"... I think it will take a considerable time to download."

"That's just for normal household resources right? Using our home comm infra won't take much
time."
Whatever his intentions, there was no need for teasing before embarking.

Minami sent off the air car which carried three people; Tatsuya, Miyuki, and Lina; entered the
sea. The sea before dawn is literally a complete darkness. Tatsuya did not put the light on it and
pushed it backwards.

The propulsion of an air car is gravity-controlled magic even in the water. The direction of the
earth's gravity on the vehicle body has been modified to be pulled from the traveling direction. If
it is in the air, it becomes almost in free-fall state, and if the inside of the car, the passenger
does not feel gravity like the inside of the satellite. However, in the water where the resistance
of water cannot be disregarded, the passenger couldn't help being conscious of the gravity
which constantly draws oneself in the car direction.

Tatsuya's pushing the air car backwards was because he thought Miyuki and Lina would be
more comfortable having the weight of seat-belt than leaning to the seat surface.

It is true that the physical burden is less. For example, a car that moves forward with several
sudden braking would make the passenger feel the G. This moving reverse-forward made
passengers didn't have to lean to the seat and only felt a light weight on the back.

Within 10 minutes, Lina lost track of what she was doing. Inside the car, inertia neutralized by
magic, while in the car and outside of the window just filled with darkness. She didn't even know
which way the car was going.

She didn't know whether she's floating and sitting in this dimly lit car, or whether the car was
moving forward or backward. Sitting alone in the back seat, Lina was squeezed by the anxiety
that was gradually getting stronger.

"Hey, Tatsuya. Don't you want to turn on the lights?"

At last, Lina couldn't handle the pressure and spoke to Tatsuya in the driver's seat.

"It's better not to put the light on. It is not very useful in the sea. It only increases the risk of
being discovered."

"But if you bump into a sea mountain or a whale, it's dangerous, isn't it?"

"There is no sea mountain that will collide at this depth around here. And even without the light,
I could "see" the situation out there."

"What's that? Not fair."

Lina complained childishly in seconds.

Miyuki puzzled how to interpret those words.

Minami then said with a mechanical tone.

"Tatsuya-sama, Miyuki-sama. Catalog downloading and offline settings are complete."

And, she added some unexpected lines.

"It might be rude for me to say this, but I'm surprised. Tatsuya-sama also has the desire to
monopolize too."

Tatsuya's amazed with what Minami pointed out.

With an expression that he could not accept that pointer entirely..

"I see... So this is a desire to monopolize? this is a desire to monopolize..."

In front of Tatsuya who muttered those words deeply, Miyuki was blushed red even to her ear
and just facing down.

Her face, while holding her hands over her chest, filled with a blissful smile from the bottom of
her heart.
Miyuki opened her lip broad and turned from the passenger seat to Lina.

"Lina, are you scared by any chance?"

"I-I'm not scared!"

Miyuki's tone wasn't to ridicule, but Lina replied back with red-face thinking so.

"... I just didn't know what was going on outside, so I just got a little nervous."

The reason why Lina toned down was because she realized Miyuki's intention and admitted her
situation. But, since she wasn't able to set a complete poker face, she’s admitting with a little
embarrassment.

"You don't know where the enemy may be lurking, perhaps like that?"

"Yes, that's it."

"Lina is a Major in the America army after all. It's something that I couldn't comprehend though."

Miyuki muttered that in a tone whether she's serious or kidding, turning her attention to Tatsuya.

"Onii-sama. I think I vaguely understand Lina's feelings. Why don't we go up to the sky soon?"

"That's right. It's a little earlier than planned, but we're going to be able to emerge."

Tatsuya nodded.

"You said a little earlier ... Is it okay to emerge not far enough away from Miyakijima?"

It's because of herself that Miyuki requested so, so she's worried about the plan.

"It's almost in Japanese sea territory. It's enough for camouflage."

"Japan sea territory? ... But it's only been about thirty minutes!?"

Lina raised her voice surprised after Tatsuya told her their current position.

"How fast is it?"

"It's up to 400 kilometers per hour."

[4]
Oahu, Hawaii, noon on July 29, local time. Japan time July 30 at 7 a.m.

Edward Clark, Brazilian State Strategic-Class Magician Miguel Diaz, his brother Antonio Diaz,
and together with several parasites set sail for Japan on an assault landing ship Guam with two
accompanying destroyers.

The Japanese military's intelligence department knew the departure of Guam itself. But they
didn't have any information about Clark or any other additional crew.

They never knew the Guam target was Japan. At this point, the Japanese military thought that it
was just a normal training voyage.

◇◇◇

In contrast to the Japanese military, the New Soviet Union intelligence department was able to
grasp the information about Edward Clark and Miguel Diaz sailing on the assault landing ship
Guam. It's limited only that information however Bezobrazzof, who was staying in Khabarovsk,
was able to infer accurately that Guam target was to kill Shiba Tatsuya.

Bezobrazzof's authority in the New Soviet Union is unrelated to his painful defeat against
Tatsuya. Even with his speculation, he had enough power to move the military.

The Eastern Siberian Command in Khabarovsk, following Bezovrazov's advice, launched the
latest state-of-the-art missile submarine, Kthozov, from the Kamchatka Peninsula and began
preparing for the launch of a supersonic missile deployed at the Birobidzhan base. Both targets
are Miyakijima in Japan.

In this Miyakijima surprise attack, Bezobrazzof was doing a better move than Edward Clark and
the Japanese military. However, even he couldn't guess that this proceeding would overturn the
very root of America military policy opposition against Japan.

◇◇◇

The USNA Federal Joint Chiefs of Staff's headquarters base is located on the outskirts of
Roswell, New Mexico. It is not the old Air Force which Roswell Incident is famous for.

New Mexico local time July 29 at 5 p.m. Japan time July 30 at 7 a.m. A small VTOL has arrived
at the STARS headquarters.
"It's 400 km/h... It's more than 200 knots in the water!?"

Lina's cry roars in the car of the sealed air car.

Miyuki was uncomfortable, but Tatsuya was calm and didn't even move his eyebrows

"Your surprise is exaggerated. The supercavitation8 torpedo of the last century also recorded
200 knots. This air car, like the mobile suit of the Defense Force and your thrust suit, forms an
air orchid around it to reduce resistance in flight. Underwater, this air cocoon has the same
effect as supercavitation."

"... Is that so?"

"It's pointless to doubt the fact."

Although she did not seem to be completely convinced, Lina did not ask any more questions or
refute them.

The air car emerges to the surface of the sea with the body facing up. The air car that was
diving backwards, now reversed toward the traveling to forward direction, and it moved from the
horizontal position to the posture which took a large elevation angle, but neither Lina nor Miyuki
felt the change either. It was a moment when it parted from the surface of the sea that they
recognized that it had soared at the angle which exceeded 45 degrees.

Sun rose at waters 200 kilometers east of Miyakijima, only after seeing the water surface then
Miyuki and Lina realized their car position.

The air car fell straight to the sky which left the color of the night slightly. - From the outside, it
soared at 60 degrees, but what Miyuki and Lina felt was the sensation of falling down.

"Miyuki, please handle stealth control"

"Y-yes."

Miyuki, who had been looking into the scenery, responded panicking to Tatsuya's instruction.
Tatsuya left the control of electromagnetic wave camouflage magic to Miyuki. A magic screen
that emits only infrared and monochromatable visible light of the same wavelength as the
outside temperature and does not reflect any other electromagnetic waves. Freed from the need
for handling camouflage magic, Tatsuya concentrates on flying magic.

The air car reached 1,000 kilometers per hour in a blink of an eye.

8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercavitation
Due to Balance's task, Lina was able to flee to Japan while avoiding the suspicion of defecting.
Walker's question was a kind of sarcasm.

"I have the permission of Colonel Balance for this return home."

Lina answered flatly. That line was giving a hint of not only Colonel Balance on her side, but
also Senator Curtis.

"So, what do you want? Very likely this is not just simple reporting back home."

Walker urged Lina to get into the main issue, giving pressure as a high ranking officer, glanced
at Curtis behind her. But Lina didn't cower because of that and immediately responded.

"Colonel Walker, when you're in a position to suppress the rebellion as base commander, but
you instead conspired with those rebels to give Major Canopus false accusations. There's also
suspicion that you supported Captain Vega and Captain Arcturus for illegal operations attacking
our allies' country."

"What a ridiculous thing to say.."

Walker replied while giving an intimidating look to her.

"Captain Vega's action sprung out because of serious allegations that Major Sirius is a
Japanese magician mole. Are you accusing her and Captain Arcturus as rebels to hide those
allegations?"

"Then, let's have the internal inspector general decide which case is legitimate."

"No, that's..."

Internal inspector general was formed after the last war ended, which was tasked to find out
illegal activities within the military. The second highest command there is Colonel Balance.

It's to find out the spy and rebel within the military. Since it has its own department to handle
such cases, it's correct for Lina to bring that out. But with Balance on Lina's side, he prefered to
avoid those internal inspector generals even though he never did something illegal.

"Why don't we hear the Joint Chiefs of Staff's decision before you go into the judicial process?"

It was Senator Curtis who helped Walker, with that line.

"It's as Mr Senator said. Let's ask them tomorrow morning."

The rendezvous point with the nuclear submersible aircraft carrier Virginia is 1,000 kilometers
east of Japan and 100 meters deep. Virginia has been waiting in the water since last night.

But it was impossible to know by normal means whether they were really waiting at the point of
promise.

Virginia's series of actions, combined with helping to raid Midway Prison and Pearl and Hermes
base, is not based on formal orders. Only those who know its current location are limited to
some of the Pacific Fleet Command. It is impossible to send signals or communications which
could be intercepted.

However, it's just "normally" mean. Tatsuya's "eye" had already captured the position of the
submarine aircraft carrier from just before 100 kilometers.

"Lina, we're here."

The air car was stopped directly above 'Virginia' and ten meters above sea level, and Tatsuya
turned around and called out to Lina.

"You know how to get in?"

Submarines usually do not expect crews to get on and off when submerged in water. However,
submarines equipped with nuclear reactors that were ostensibly forbidden had doorways that
could be used in water to increase their confidentiality.

“It's okay. It's my first time in Virginia, but I've been on the same type."

Nodded to Lina's reply, Tatsuya opened the door in the back seat.

"Tatsuya, thank you very much. I'll call you when everything is sorted out."

Lina waved lightly and dived to the surface of the sea ten meters below.

◇◇◇

The passive sonar of the submarine aircraft carrier "Virginia" caught the sound of Lina jumping
into the sea.

"It's almost time-by-minute. It's not a lie that Japanese people are very punctual."
Prompted by the chairman of the headquarters again, Lina described Walker's charges related
to the rebellion by the parasite members.

Even though he should have to suppress those rebellions, he instead conspired with those
parasites.

Canopus who went against those parasites was detained under false charge in Midway prison,
together with Lieutenant Algol and Lieutenant Saura.

They ordered as if STARS was their private force and illegally dispatched to Japan and
Northwest Hawaiian islands.

Lina especially emphasized the part where Canopus was imprisoned under false charges and
argued that his honor should be restored.

The Army Chief of Staff, who had heard Lina's accusations with an uncomfortable expression,
asked "Any rebuttal?" to Walker.

Of course, Walker pleaded not guilty.

"The Joint Chiefs of Staff have no record of dispatching Captain Arcturus, Capt. Vega,
Lieutenant Regulus, Lieutenant Spica and Lieutenant Deneb. What does this mean?"

However, the vice chairperson pointed out,

"It seems the charges on Major Canopus were done informally, what urgency did you need to
resort to that extent?"

Against those questions, Walker wasn't able to answer to convince those two both. The Joint
Chiefs of Staff Chairman and the vice Chairman had enough material from Colonel Balance,
who received Senator Curtis' intention, to judge Colonel Walker as a criminal.

"Colonel Walker. I'm afraid your claims are not convincing enough to dismiss Major Sirius's
accusations."

As the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff sighed, he made that conclusion.

"Colonel. From this point, you're relieved from your duty as STARS headquarters commander.
Report to the Internal Inspector General department tomorrow noon."

"― Understood."
After receiving reports from the sonar, Captain Michael Curtis muttered in an unclear tone
whether he was impressed or stunned.

"Staff in charge, prepare for embarking a person. It's been a long time since we've used an
underwater hatch. Don't make a blunder."

One prime officer enters the combat command center (CIC)9 here overlapping with answers
"Aye, aye sir". That officer walked up to the side of the captain.

"Captain."

"Major Canopus. Apparently someone called herself Major Sirius going to arrive here. If she's
diving as she's now, she won't lose the way."

Captain Curtis told him immediately.

The very reason Canopus here was none other than Lina.

"I see."

Canopus voiced understanding after that.

"Then I'd like to meet her, too."

On top of that, he directly requested what he intended by coming to the CIC.

"Very well. I allow you."

If Lina and Canopus joined hands and went wild, even this submersive aircraft carrier would
easily sink. For Lina, Canopus is hostage and vice versa.

Considering the safety of the ship, they shouldn't be easily met each other but Curtis not even
thinking that possibility and easily giving permission to Canopus's request.

Canopus ― Benjamin Rouz is Michael Curtis' aunty grandson, for the upper class, this blood
connection is not too far off. And this work is due to the strong request of Senator Wyatt Curtis,
the family head. There was no reason to doubt canopus now.

"Thank you, Captain."

To Canopus' salute, Curtis sat down and replied the salute back.

9
​ 戦闘指揮所; combat command center, literally
However the factor this decision was made not solely on Lina's recommendation but also the
presence of Senator Curtis right there, who's been silently sitting on a cushioned chair.

"Major Canopus will be appointed as the base commander."

As the proof, the Chairman's eyes when nominating Canopus were directed to Curtis who sat
next to the standing Canopus.

"Major Canopus. A formal appointment will be made at a later date, but as you now are
appointed as the deputy commander, so you will be relieved of your duty as STARS First Corps
captain. At the same time, your rank will be promoted to the right rank for headquarter
commander."

When he heard that he's relieved as First Corps captain, Canopus tried to raise his dissent.
However before he was able to do that, the Army Chief of Staff spoke up following the Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"Up to now, your rank was limited in accordance to Major Sirius who was the general
commander. However according to your experiences and accomplishment, it's legitimate that
you've reached colonel rank. This is a good opportunity to correct previous mistakes. Think that
the 'deputy' in your position role name will be removed sooner."

"...... Yessir. Thank you very much Mr. Chairman. I gladly accept this appointment."

Canopus was making an upright and steady posture.

The chairman, vice chairman, and chief of staff nodded and the communication was cut off.

While Lina and Curtis celebrate Canopus' appointment as The Base Commander and the
Colonel's promotion, Walker leaves the commander's office with his deputy.

Neither Lina nor Canopus stopped them.

"Ben. Please sit here."

Instead of stopping Walkers, Lina urged Canopus to sit down at the commander's desk. Wyatt
Curtis quickly stands and says "It's a problem if the commander seat is vacant."

In response to the pressure, Canopus sat down on the seat Walker was using.

Angie Sirius nodded satisfactorily and removed the mask.

 ◇◇◇

Inside the air car currently only Tatsuya and Miyuki after dropping Lina down in a small sealed
room.

Despite the perfect chance for a date situation without anyone disturbing, Miyuki's expression
was gloomy.

"What's the matter, Miyuki?"

Seeing that Miyuki was having a hard time trying to say something, Tatsuya spoke to her first.

"Is there anything you want to talk about? We're the only ones here. You don't have to worry
about others listening."

She wanted to ask but then when being asked, now it's overlapping between replying and
asking and she's conflicted whether to consult the very root of her anxiety since this the perfect
chance without anyone else listening.

"It's about Minami-chan."

"Ah."

Tatsuya replied so to express his understanding and because it's what he expected.

"Onii-sama, you aren't using the Gatekeeper on Minami... are you?"

Gatekeeper is a technique that monitors the gate, a passage where a magic formula is
projected from the spirit of a magician to target phenomenon effect, and disables the magic by
destroying the magic formula immediately after detecting the passage of the magic formula.

"I'm not using it. Gatekeeper is meaningless for Minami's condition."

As mentioned above, Gatekeeper is a magic that destroys the created magic formula in the
process of invoking it.
Building a magic formula does not limit the activities of the magic calculation area. There is no
effective way to prevent magic calculation area overheat which threatens Minami's mind and
body.

"Why'd you ask that?"

The red-hair changed to blonde hair, golden eyes to bright clear blue eyes.

Her back shrank and her body became delicate, this is the scene where Angie Sirius
disappeared and Angelina Kudou Shield regained her true form.

"Ben. It's heartbreaking that the first work to commemorate will be like this."

Lina made a slightly lonely smile.

Looking at Lina's expression, Canopus only had a bad feeling.

"General Captain..."

"Headquarter commander sir. Please accept this."

Lina took out the letter from her pocket. It was written with "Resignation" in it and held it out to
Canopus.

"General Captain, what is this!?"

The only person who became impatient was Canopus. Curtis seems to have known this
beforehand.

"While this rebellion was caused solely by parasites, but it's also true that I'm their reason for the
rebellion. I don't think I'm adequate for STARS commander."

"So you want to take the responsibility and quit!?"

"Well, that's just the excuse."

"......Huh?"

Seeing the dumbfounded Canopus, Lina leaked a small smile.

"I was 12 when I became a regular member of the Stars. It was two years before that I was
scouted by the army and entered the military academy."

Canopus, on the other hand, didn't feel like smiling.

"I've spent about eight years without knowing the world except the military, if we count since I
entered the academy."

Listening to cheerful Lina's words only made Canopus' expression stiffer.

"Because..."

There's a sliver of doubt in Miyuki's eyes.

"Is it because you can't feel any magic power from Minami?"

Miyuki opened her eyes wide looking at Tatsuya because of what he said.

"So it's not my misunderstanding then, right?"

"It's not a misunderstanding. Minami's ability to cast magic completely shut off. The sense itself
is still active... But perhaps that's also limited too."
"Even to her senses. Maybe Minoru-kun did something?"

Miyuki asked with a face full of uneasiness.

There's no doubt of what she's afraid of.

"Currently, there's no trace of parasitic."

Tatsuya had a bitter expression on his face because he felt himself inadequate to completely
remove Miyuki's anxiety.

"That's me, too. But when it comes to parasites..."

"... Minoru, who has become a parasite himself and keeps his ego, has far more knowledge and
know-how about parasites. I don't think he's going to infect Minami with parasites without her
consent, no, I just don't want to think about it, but I can't deny the possibility that he's using
Parasite related technology which we know nothing about to deactivate Minami's magic
calculation area."

"Even Onii-sama couldn't do it with your 'eyes'?"

"Too bad, my Elemental Sight can't reach the spiritual area."

"It's indeed so... I'm sorry."

She understood well that Tatsuya couldn't see pushion body information.

However, if it's magic, it is still using the medium of psion body information, so even Tatsuya is
able to see mental interference type magic, analyze and decompose it.
[5]
July 30th night. At this point, the Japanese government, including the Defense Forces, is not
aware of the purpose of the amphibious assault ship “Guam” that left Hawaii. If they knew the
imminent threat impending, they wouldn't have any leeway to argue between themselves.

No, even if so, they wouldn't have to seriously compete for authority that will give heavy
disadvantage for the military. In reality, however, the proceeding of setting up garrison on
Miyakijima was continuing without the consent of the private company who owns that island.

This move led by Maj. Gen. Saeki was a problematic move even within the military. At first they
doubted the effectiveness for deploying land units and then changed to whether it's okay to
forcefully having military personnel deployed on private island of 8 square kilometers with only
administrative procedures without taking legal measures as they were fear the possibility of
clash between the available private security there and the actual owner of the island, the
Yotsuba.

However the garrison that was going to be deployed on Miyakijima pushed through those
oppositions.

Troops selection and plan for deploying has been completed and the private company which is
also the owner of this island will be notified on August 1st.

At the time this was proceeding, Yotsuba had completed the preparation to counterattack.

July 30th, 2007 at 7 pm.

Supreme Military Commander, General Soga visited a private membership club in Tokyo with
only one escort with him, his secretary. Soga didn't know that this place too was where Tatsuya
and Wyatt Curtis met two weeks ago.

"Your Excellency, thank you for coming here in spite of your busyness."

It was Butler Hayama of the Yotsuba who welcomed Soga and his group, guided them to the
private closed space same as two weeks ago.

"It's been a while Your Excellency. I'm honored to meet you again."

However, unlike that time, there was Maya behind Hayama.

"I'm too. Thank you for your invitation today."

Therefore, Miyuki thought that it was very likely that Tatsuya would be able to see Minoru's
magic.

"No, I know how you feel. I'm concerned about Minami too."

"What should I do..."

Miyuki hung her face in dark expression. From any outsider, it's clearly Miyuki thinking hard to
find a way. Even with her current state, her concealment magic was still in perfect state, as
expected from her skill.

After 5 minutes, she muttered "Right" in a low voice.

"Yakumo-sensei maybe knows what Minoru-kun has done?"

"Hmm, that's right... I'll ask him."

If it's just experts of mental interference system magic, Yotsuba had them too. No, compared to
the other 10 Magician Clan, Yotsuba had a better number and quality of mental interference
system magicians.

For example, like the Tsukuba family. The reason why those two didn't consider them, became
a definite proof that those two couldn't completely trust Yotsuba.

◇◇◇

As she made her way straight from the surface of the sea to the bottom of the sea, she made
her way to Virginia. As far as the military mission concerned, she rarely made a blunder.

Lina grabs the tip of the wire antenna at the top of the ship and establishes a wired
communication connection with the ship.

"Virginia, this is Major Angie Sirius of Special Forces. I'd like permission to board."

Contrary to Lina's expectations, the response quickly returned.

"This is Colonel Michael Curtis, captain of the Pacific Fleet Virginia. I'll allow you to onboard the
ship. I want you to come in with a real face."

It's already unexpected that the captain directly sent the reply, but what's even more unexpected
is that to release the camouflage magic to enter.
"What kind of rumor is it?"

Soga's reaction was close to a mechanical one.

"It may not be a pleasant story to your Excellency."

"Hoo ... Now it makes me want to hear more about the content. I'm not someone who likes
avoiding listening to bad news."

"As expected, Your Excellency. It's a commendable attitude."

Soga's face relaxes because of Maya's praise. Even if the woman in front of him is known as a
monster that can easily ruin his life if she feels like it, her beauty is not something many people
have. Soga, even though he's a Supreme Commander of the Military, is a man too. So he feels
good when praised by a beauty.

"The content of the rumor is that some military general knew in advance of the smuggling of Lu
Gonghu, but that person just overlooked it."

"What did you say?!"

However, Soga's loose expression immediately disappeared because of what Maya said. If it's
true, it's nothing other than an act which gives advantage to foreign power.

"Just who did such a thing?"

"It's just a rumor ... Even so, do you want to hear it?"

"As your capacity of Yotsuba head, I don't think this is something that’s completely baseless."

"Yeah ... I had the family members investigate it out ..."

Soga leaned forward toward Maya as she deliberately muttered those words.

"By all means, please tell me"

"It's Her Excellency Saeki."

Maya this time didn't slide the matter longer.

“Saeki ...?"
"Angie Sirius can't be in a place like this. I'm telling the crew that there's going to be an agent
from the Yotsuba family who claims to be the STARS Commander, so you don't have to worry."

With this explanation, she understood the reason.

"Understood."

Lina released her hand from the antenna, disconnected from communication, and turned to the
rear of the ship.

She broke into the submersible tunnel, which had been modified from a torpedo launcher tube.

"Ben! Glad to see you safe!"

Slipped through a double hatch airlock, Lina raises her voice as she salutes the crew and raises
her helmet’s face-shield as she looks at the canopus in the welcome line.

"Lina, you're safe too."

The reason why Canopus didn't call her "Commander" is because he complies with the
"settings" that the captain Curtis said. There is no awkwardness at all, of course it is not acting
ability - adults are usually able to act according to situation on a daily basis - for Lina, it's mostly
because the usual Canopus treating Lina as a teenage girl rather than "Commander".

He has a daughter two years younger than Lina. Therefore, it's not possible for him to just leave
Lina by herself and always to care for her when she had to suffer after accomplishing
assassination mission imposed to Sirius.

Because Canopus was like this, he became Lina's psychological dependent considering her
circumstance and how he treated her.

The submarine crew never knew such a thing but they were happy too after looking both
Canopus and Lina met..

Noticing a warm look from the surroundings, Lina corrected her posture and saluted them with
only the shield of her helmet raised. In response to the crew's salute, she took off her helmet.

The long hair that was pushed into the helmet flows down, and the sigh of admiration leaks from
among the crew. Even if she has blonde hair, her hair is rare enough to be pure sparkling
blonde. It's also added with her beauty. Since no one whistled after seeing her, very likely
everyone was able to restrain themselves.
Maya painfully said that.

This reports that Maj. Gen. Saiki and Kudou Makoto had been continuing the Parasite-Doll
development using the Military's budget with evidence images.

"This is .... Maj. Gen. Saeki, what you've done ..."

"I believe Her Excellency didn't do this with personal desire in mind but purely with intention for
strengthening the national defense."

"That doesn't mean it's allowed."

Soga turned to Maya and bowed deeply.

"Yotsuba-san. I am deeply grateful that you consult this serious matter confidentially."

"I'm glad this is useful for you."

"If this matter becomes public, the military will greatly lose authority for sure. I can't punish her
openly but I promise that I will handle this to Yotsuba-san satisfaction."

"Yes, I'll leave it to you. That's why I invited Your Excellency from the beginning."

Maya only gave a light smile expression but her eyes gave off pressure that "I won't forgive you
if no definite action is done".

"I also will stop deployment on Miyakijima that Saeki has been planning."

Soga said that even before Maya spoke also because of the pressure she's giving to Soga.

Maya overlooked Soga's blunder for leaking the secret plan which Yotsuba shouldn’t know with
a smile. Then with a bit deliberate added "Oh, by the way.".

"Please do not blame Lieutenant Fujibayashi and the units to which she belongs."

"Huh? ... It goes without saying."

Apparently Soga was genuinely confused.

"I'm relieved. In this world, whistle-blower tends to be hated."

As Soga heard Maya's pointer, he made an understanding expression.

Lina accustomed with that kind of reaction, not as Angie Sirius, but as Angelina Shields. She
didn't have any particular concerns and asked to meet and say hello to the captain.

"Lina, follow me."

Canopus responded in a tone that was casual enough and led Lina to the CIC.

After meeting with the captain, Lina is now facing Canopus in a fine room where it is hard to
believe it's available inside the submarine. Captain Curtis lent them his room.

Captain's room wasn't only had a bed and desk but also a sofa set too. Lina sat down on the
right edge of a three-seat sofa after Canopus encouraged her.

"Ben, tell me anything after I leave."

After waiting for Canopus to sit across her, she asked.

"I was sent to Midway right after Commander escaped, so I can't tell you much."

Canopus explained how he was sent to Midway Prison.

"...... Major Capella didn't give in to the parasite, did he? "

Major Noah Capella, captain of the STARS 5th Corps. He is the oldest of the Planet-class
STARS magicians and the longest military career. Even Colonel Walker, commander of the
STARS Headquarters, can't ignore Capella's influence, and, regardless of his authority, his
influence is even bigger than Lina's and Canopus'. When she learned that Capella was not in
the parasite camp, Lina patted her chest down with a relief.

"Major Capella is neutral. He's not necessarily favoring our side."

"It's enough to not have him as an enemy. How about the other captains?"

The STARS are divided into twelve squads under Commander Sirius. Each captain not
necessarily controls all their members, but the captain's stance is representing the squad'
stance. "I think Hardy is telling you that."

"Hardy" that Canopus mentioned is Lieutenant Ralph Hardy Milfak of the First Corps, where
Canopus serves as the captain. Lieutenant Mirfak helped Lina escape and sent her to
Albuquerque Airport when a brawl broke out at the Stars headquarters base, and has since
disappeared.
Maya's beauty emitting sex appeal would make any man losing their consciousness however
Soga managed to keep calm due to his dignity.

"... The Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion will be promoted to Independent Regiment. But
please keep this information secret until the official decision."

"Of course, Your Excellency."

Maya's smile became more alluring as she nodded at what Soga said.

◇◇◇

On July 31th, the deployment to Miyakijima, which only had to proceed to the final step by
moving the troops, was suddenly stopped.

It's not postponed, but completely cancelled.

Major General Saeki, who is the mastermind of the deployment plan, quickly tried to restart it,
but Chief of Staff Ootomo put a stop by replying that the plan couldn't be revived and
additionally ordered her and her 101st Brigade to sortie out to eastern Hokkaido.

The reason for the sortie was to strengthen defense in preparation of the New Soviet Union's
invasion.

Without the time limit.

Saeki's strength is in the thick personal relation which comes from a long-standing career as a
staff member of the General Command. As she has little experience working on the front lines,
she doesn't have skill to grow her own political faction in rural areas.

In the border areas of Hokkaido, she cannot use her strength as a political strategist.

As her assignment without the time limit, Saeki was virtually neutralized as she positioned away
from power struggles within the country, and had no choice but only to focus on the original task
of the military to prepare against foreign power.

Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion were ordered separately to continue development of

magical combat strategies at the Kasumigaura base.
"Captain Arcturus of the Third Corps, Captain Rigel of the Sixth Corps, and Major Antares of the
11th Corps are parasites. Captain Vega of the Fourth Corps is probably a parasite, too."

"I met Char ― Captain Vega in Japan. She, Lieutenant Deneb and Lieutenant Regulus, were
killed by the Yotsuba magician, and the main body of the parasite was also sealed."

"Was that so? By Yotsuba magician..."

Canopus cuts his words and thinks.

Lina wondered whether Canopus became wary of Yotsuba's fighting power. Seeing his silent
expression, Lina couldn't help but think so.

Canopus was silent in just a moment.

"... When I was escorted to Midway Prison, those 4 captains were definitely parasites. This is
only my guess, but the situation will not change today. I don't think there's a new parasite of
Planet-class members, including captains. However, I can't deny the possibility of parasites in
satellite or stardust members."

"That's right. Leave aside Satellite-class members, if Stardust-class members become parasites
it may prolong their life... If they wanted that and became parasites, I can't blame them."

Lina, who muttered sadly with her eyes down, turned her eyes back to Canopus with a new
better expression.

"―Anyway, so the only Planet-class parasite left is Sixth Corps then."

At Lina's line, Canopus enquired more explanation with his eyes.

"Yotsuba magician ― No, it's useless to hide it I think. I heard from Tatsuya that he killed
Captain Arcturus, Major Antares, and Lieutenant Sargas."

Arcturus was the opponent he fought above Mt. Takao in the first half of the year in the transport
aircraft, or, to be precise, it was sealed rather than killed.

Major Antares and Lieutenant Sargas several days ago fought Tatsuya on the deck of the
destroyer Chevalier on their way to The Pearl and Hermes base, and were destroyed by his
Astral Dispersion.

"About Tatsuya you mentioned, is it Shiba Tatsuya, a strategy-class magician of mass-energy

conversion magic?"
his bachelor degree from Magic University. So it's just pointless to worry about exams for these
two.

“They're thinking about 9SC more than the exam, they said.”

Honoka commented lightly on other people's affairs.

“... Since it's voluntarily held, every player would have to participate at their own expense, but
they're having hard time to secure the venue and management operational budget.”

But maybe she's aware it's a cold-hearted comment, Honoka made a quiet expression while
adding that line.16

"That's ... indeed hard."

The 9SC event is held every year with full support from the military. They even lent their practice
field for the venue.

"Since when has it been scheduled?"

“The talk appeared about July 10th, shortly after repelling the New Soviet Union, and the event
itself will be held last week of this month.”

"... Isn't the timeline too tight?"

“Since the game is just Monolith Code, it would be fine on weekends... considering the exam
too.”

"...Right. I don't think autumn paper competition will be cancelled too, and for current 3rd year
students, the summer vacation timeline is the limit."

“As a student council member, I would like to help them too ... Miyuki, do you have any good
ideas?”

Asked like that, Miyuki could only leak a small sough noise.

"... I'm sorry. I can't think of a good idea. Can you wait a minute? I will have Tatsuya-sama too,
I'll call you back soon."

“No, I'm waiting for you like this!”

16
​ TLN: 神妙な顔; meek expression?
"Correct."

"That's the guy who let me out of Midway, right?"

Tatsuya didn't name himself during the prison break nor showed his face. But for Canopus,
Tatsuya was STARS target for the winter last year and he inferred from the information he
gathered before, Tatsuya was the one who helped him escape.

"Yeah."

Nodded, Lina didn't think deeply about Tatsuya's cover-up. Maybe she didn't even think about
the possibility that Tatsuya was hiding his identity.

Lina didn't realize that she had done anything rash, and quickly changed the subject.

"I don't know Lieutenant Spica's whereabouts, but you don't have to worry about her."

No, she went back to discussion.

"Lieutenant Spica was on the same boat when Captain Vega attacked Miyakijima."

"Miyakijima is the base of the Yotsuba family where you was sheltered, isn't it?"

To the question of Canopus, Lina nods, "Yes."

"Lieutenant Spica has a strong personality. Return to headquarters without taking revenge for
Captain Vega and Lieutenant Deneb, she won't likely to do that."

"Yes, indeed. That's certainly so."

Canopus agreed with Lina's guess.

"... Are you going to return to headquarters?"

With that he added the question of what is Lina going to do.

"I intend to do that. I don't like to behave, like always running around, and Ben, you pretty much
want to clear your reputation, right?"

"... That's right."

The fight spirit lit in the Canopus eyes. Lina had no intention to provoke Canopus but the result
seems to have ignited his spirit.
"Also I cannot let parasites do whatever they like with STARS, fortunately Tatsuya has taken out
tough enemies, so their influence is waning too, this is our chance. Ben, help me."

"Of course, Commander."

To Lina's request, Canopus nodded strongly.

◇◇◇

Tatsuya's super perception power, Elemental Sight, while named like that, is not like see images
in perspective or remote vision. Elemental Sight is the ability to recognize all the physical
information that combines the visual information and magical information which is known as
psion body information. It's not as far as reading the thought but if someone is talking, he can
understand that voice as if he's listening to it.

The physical distance there has nothing to do with it. The magic limit is not the physical
distance, but the informational distance. If the location information of the subject can be grasped
as a reality ― it is possible to recognize it with the feeling that it is certainly there, without listing
abstract numbers, and magic can be exercised without problems.

Elemental Sight brings to the user with more certain information than all 5 senses can gather.
The target location information is included there. Having target location defined before making
sure the target exists is like circular definition, that those checking is done sequentially instead
of concurrently/simultaneously.10

Tatsuya fetched the recorded visual information ― the information to identify an individual ―
and he sent his "eyes" to the location to make sure his target "is there". His Elemental Sight is
not omnipotent enough to know target information solely by their name. Also it's not enough
against Parade which is able to fake the location to Eidos level. Since his Eyes cannot get the
correct target, so it also fails to get the target position.

For the current case, Tatsuya's target is someone he knew very well and also, since this was
already planned beforehand so Tatsuya didn't find obstruction to reach her.

4 p.m (16:00). Japanese time.

"Lina, can you hear me?"

10
​TLN: check location first then make sure target exists, however you cannot check the target
location if it's not exist but then you cannot sure that target exists if you can't grasp its location,
circular-definition
"No, no problem."

Miyuki breaks into the conversation from the side of Tatsuya who nodded.

"How about exam preparation? By you meant 'all', so Erika and Saijou-kun participate right?"

“Oh, that's no problem. We'll be there not only going to play around but also having to study
together to prepare for the exam. It's like a special studying session.”

"Really...? Then that's fine."

It seemed Miyuki was convinced so she didn't ask anymore. The camera focus automatically
turned to Tatsuya with Miyuki taking a step half back. Honoka naturally looked to Tatsuya too
because of that.

Honoka naturally said these lines to Tatsuya.

“Then, sorry for the trouble. The day after tomorrow we'll be visiting using Shizuku's airplane.
The arrival time is maybe around a bit after noon.”

"I'll prepare lunch here."

“We're good! Shizuku said she would give us lunch boxes17 during the flight.”

As Tatsuya said that, Honoka hurriedly shook her head and hands.

"Honoka, don't be reserved. The total number of people is six right? Preparing lunches for that
number of people is not so much trouble."

“... Ah, okay, the usual six people. Thank you, I'll tell Shizuku.”

Because of what Miyuki said, who once again came into the frame, Honoka withdrew her
reserved answer.

"Let's meet at noon the day after tomorrow."

“Yeah, the day after tomorrow. See you then, Miyuki. Excuse me, Tatsuya-san.”

As Honoka lowered her head, the call was cut after she bowed, probably the words and the
gestures were registered action.

17
TLN: 弁当; bento
Tatsuya spoke to empty space in his room in Miyakijima.

(Loud and clear, Tatsuya)

The words that Lina uttered in the submarine aircraft carrier "Virginia" in the Pacific Ocean
become something meaningful and flow into Tatsuya's consciousness.

What Lina heard was Tatsuya's voice which reproduced with magic. Tatsuya delivers his voice
by vibrating the air in Lina's ear through oscillation/vibration system magic. The reason why he
speaks out like a monologue is that it's better to replicate the sound that is actually air vibration
rather than magically synthesizing the voice from the beginning. And Tatsuya is reading Lina's
response with Elemental Sight.

Using this method, they were able to communicate between Miyakijima and Virginia submersive
aircraft carriers where both isolated each other.

"Did you have a good conversation with Major Canopus?"

(Yes, Tatsuya. The captain is very kind to me too. It's because you, Tatsuya. Thank you so
much.)

"Captain Curtis's kind response to you is not because of me. So what're you going to do?"

(That's...)

Lina said that stuttered. Tatsuya's super perception ability was able to transmit this detailed
nuances of information.

"Did you decide to return home?"

(Y-yes. I think I'll go back once first. I think I'll cause you trouble if I don't sort out my personal
problem first.)

"I don't think it will be much of a hassle, but if you think so, you'd be better off doing it."

(Thank you, Tatsuya. When I'm done, I'll contact you. Please tell my thanks to Miyuki too.)

"Okay, I'll tell her. Well, keep safe."

Sending that message, Tatsuya disconnected the contact.

[7]
August 3, 2097.

The Ministry of Defense has been in a tense atmosphere since morning.

This is because the destination of the USNA Navy assault landing ship “Guam”, which left the
Hawaiian island, Oahu, on the morning of July 30, Japan time, was almost certainly the
Izu-Islands.

Both uniform officers group and legal officers group initially didn't believe the result from Tactical
AI. However, whatever the result, the uniform group asked the USNA Navy Pacific Fleet
command the purpose of "Guam" voyage.

The USNA Navy's response made the Ministry of Defense panic.

They replied, "Guam is in a secret operation and cannot answer the question." Also, "We are
not able to know the current location due to the malfunction of Guam communication
equipment."

From the response it's obvious they're lying. It's impossible for the USNA, which operates more
military satellites than Japan, cannot find its own sailing ship position at sea. It's a clear
indication that they're planning something hostile to make such a lie without hesitation.

Because of this, tactical AI results couldn't be dismissed anymore simply as "Calculation Error".
Many in the uniform group members expressed their opinion of the need to prepare against the
USNA ship's attacks on Izu archipelago.

First of all, almost all naval officers held strong antipathy against the USNA.

The reason was coordinated surprise assault attacks which disguised using transport ships with
the New Soviet Union invasion.

Due to agreements between Yotsuba, as the owner of the island, and the Ministry of Defense,
it's never officially recorded, but it's known that transport ship was Midway which affiliated with
the USNA

The attack that happened while the alliance is still in effect, nothing but the act of betrayal and
deception. Moreover, after the surprise attack failed, they acted like nothing had happened, no
excuse given, let alone an apology.
For the uniform group, USNA's attitude and behaviour was making a fool of them. The opinion
for intercepting USNA's attack grew strong among centered on field officers and lieutenant
rankers.18 However, the legal group emphasized strongly that any clear hostility should be
avoided.

Since November 2095, Japan and USNA have had an unstable and delicate relation. After
Japan won against the Great Asia Alliance with unbalanced military power, USNA was
reminded of Japan's threat while Japan could do nothing about it. Before the last great war
happened, Japan's military was in a reduced state and the alliances would respond quickly to
the imminent threat on Japan. However after the great war ended, Japan couldn't rely on
alliances' help anymore and had to fend any threat by themselves. To have the country's power
to defend itself reduced is derelict of duty against taxpayers and citizens.

Even so that doesn't mean Japan was able to take a stance of clear hostile relation with USNA.
A bit blow to the pride could be waived in order to avoid full-scale confrontation with USNA as
this country currently has to wary at west against Great Asia Alliance while at north against New
Soviet Union. At very least they had to maintain friendly relationships to avoid a threat from the
east. This era isn't era where Glorious Isolation19 fad anymore.

The legal group intention was "discard the pride, reap the fruit"20 which means they should have
to bear a little damage to avoid definite breakdown. Due to this difference within the Ministry of
Defense ultimately led to the delay of measures against the approaching foreign warships.

Because of that too, they couldn't give warning to civilians.

◇◇◇

"Tatsuya-sama, there's a phone call."

Minami came to tell about the call to Tatsuya, who has been eating with his friends on the same
table after a while, not too long after they'd finished eating.

18
​ TLN: rank order 尉➝佐, fields officers 左官 while lieutenant rankers 尉官 so the field officers
have higher rank than lieutenant rankers, remember Fujibayashi is 中尉 while Kazama is 少佐
which same as Angie Sirius, Canopus's rank soon to be 大佐, Soga is 大将 while Saeki is 少将,
remember this　少➝中➝大 which represents small -> medium -> large, phew, now we know
some of unnecessary trivia :D
19
​TLN: 栄光ある孤立; eikou aru koritsu; maybe it can be tl-ed as Prideful Isolation, but that's still
not actually representing the meaning so it's left at it is.
20
​TLN: 名を捨てて実を取る;https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/名を捨てて実を取る/ as literally
sacrifice the pride (名誉) in order to gain practical profits (実)
 ◇◇◇

"Yes, you too... uh, cut out already!?"

The conversation with Tatsuya was just a one-sided communication because of his magic skill.
Unlike communication machines, there's no clear-sign indicator.

However, there was a feeling that the glance on her finally passed on. Lina thought that Tatsuya
already lifted off the magic communication from here to Miyakijima.

"... Don't tell me you're spying on me?"

Just to test, she muttered that aloud.

No protest reply from Tatsuya.

"... Tatsuya siscon."

Still no reaction even after she timidly said that.

(No doubt then.)

This time, Lina was convinced that the contact really disconnected and she became more
relaxed. Lina doesn't know in detail the nature of Tatsuya's Elemental Sight. However, she
understood that it was a very high degree of remote sensing which encompassed the sight and
the hearing.

Even now he might be just not listening to her voice. It was awfully exhausting to consciously
think that she's been looked at. Perhaps it's not only Lina, but everyone feels like that too. More
over if they're at her age and the observer is the opposite gender.

Lina realized that Tatsuya could have been monitoring her but he simply was not responding.
But she doesn't want to think about it. If she is not conscious of being seen, she will not be
mentally exhausted by tension. Sometimes she had to tell herself, "It's okay, despite looking like
that, Tatsuya is a gentleman."

She got up from her chair and lay down on the bed. It's too early to go to bed, but this is a
private room for the high-ranking officer that Captain Curtis arranged for. There is no one who
blames it even if she's a little bit sloppy.
"―Understood"

Tatsuya headed to the first drawing room by himself, leaving Minami who politely bowed with a
slightly unsatisfied expression.

◇◇◇

"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting"

Tatsuya first apologized to Masaki, who appeared on a large monitor screen after releasing the
hold status.

"No, I should have said that."

Apart from being magicians, Tatsuya and Masaki both are people that have common sense.
They're not people that suddenly insult and swear to each other.

"Is there an emergency? What happened?"

However, Tatsuya too didn't intend to have small talk. He urged Masaki to enter the main topic
after greeting him.

"Actually, my father told me that he heard this from an acquaintance in the military."

"From Ichijou-dono?"

The 'dono' is a prefix used when calling the head of another family among 10 Master Clan. In
this case, Ichijou-dono refers to Masaki's father, Ichijou Gouki, who is the head of the Ichijou
family.

"Shiba, keep calm and listen."

Rather Tatsuya, it's Masaki that actually needs to be calm from what Tatsuya saw at the display,
but he didn't disrupt with "I'm calm."

"USNA's assault landing ship Guam is heading to the Izu Islands accompanied by two
destroyers. The target is probably you.'

"... Is it true that it is intended to attack, not for exercise purposes?"

"Apparently the USNA military didn't answer the inquiry about the purpose of its voyage."
"It's certainly not an exercise then."

"Three naval melee units are heading straight to Miyakijima. Our military expects it will enter the
effective radius tomorrow morning."

"What is the type of destroyer? Missile-type ship?"

"That information ..."

"Ah, sorry."

After seeing Masaki's bewilderment, Tatsuya realized what he asked was something
unreasonable.

"Nah."

Masaki recovered fast.

"Shiba, the military may not make any move … Are you not surprised?"

As Tatsuya, who was not upset at all when told that he's abandoned by the military, kept calm,
Masaki was surprised and couldn't help but to ask.

"The Yotsuba are currently having some trouble with the military."

"... Is that problem relevant at all in the current circumstance? Our home land is about being
attacked by foreign power. Whatever the circumstance it's, it's military duty to defend."

"In theory of course."

Tatsuya only added figurative words to Masaki, who couldn't hide his irritation, to pacify him.

On the surface, Masaki returned calmly, but the inner fire seemed to be swelling up.

"Shiba, do you need reinforcements?"

"I'm grateful, but it would be a bad move."

Tatsuya did not misunderstand the intention of Masaki's inquiry. He has offered to join the
defense of Miyakijima. Even after understanding that, he declined Masaki's offer.

"Why is it so? If you're worried about the worsening relationship between the Ichijou family and
the military ... “
Lina lay down and took off her shoes without using her hand. The shoes thrown to the floor. In
the building where Miyuki lives upstairs a floor above her, for some reason she couldn't do such
sloppy behaviour even though she knew no one saw her.

As she becomes more relaxed, Lina thinks about what she's going to do.

(First of all, I have to clear up the false accusations that Ben has suffered.)

When he was imprisoned in Midway, Lina heard from him that he was promised that his criminal
record will be removed in case of being quiet for a year in prison.

But Canopus has already broken out of jail. And Lina just can't believe Walker who wags his tail
to the parasites. Even if Canopus'd been quiet for a year, Lina wondered whether Walker would
keep his promise.

(Senator Curtis definitely will help.)

Canopus prison break was commissioned by Senator Wyatt Curtis, who was his great uncle, his
grandmother's brother. The Senator wouldn't just leave Canopus without follow up help.

Clearing Canopus' reputation is also Wyatt Curtis's agenda. Controlling the Joint Chiefs of Staff
would also be the proof of his political strength. But the question now, will Senator Curtis help
her? There's also a chance that the Senator won't accept Lina's request.

(... When it happens, it happens then.)11

(Whether threatening or conciliatory, I will make it happen.)

(Whatever they will say, selfishness or tyranny, I'll push forward)

(Because I've decided to go home.)

Lina reached out her hand to the ceiling as if she's trying to grab something, she saw in her
mind Miyuki's and Tatsuya's faces.

◇◇◇

As soon he cut his contact with Lina, actually Miyuki was sitting in a position where he could
reach her by hand, stood in front of the display wall for Widget Phone.

11
​TLN: その時はその時よ
"That's not it"

Since Masaki had heard that Yotsuba are in trouble with the military, so it's natural that the root
of the problem arises. But what Tatsuya was thinking was a more severe problem.

"It's bad for you to leave now. The threat from the north hasn't disappeared."

"...- You meant the New Soviet Union will attack again?"

"Even if USNA military ships are targeting me, I don't think the USNA government approved this.
It's likely a group of deserters by some hardliners."

"Do you have any idea why that's so?"

"I have."

Masaki didn't ask further what the reason was. It's common etiquette within 10 Master Clan to
avoid unnecessary scrutiny against each other.

"The new NSU invasion is more of a threat than USNA, is that what you are saying?"

"That's it"

"…I've understood."

Tatsuya's answer was too concise, but his voice was convincing.

But perhaps more than that, Masaki himself must have been concerned about the New Soviet
Union's move.

"I prepare for the north. Shiba …… Is it really okay?”

"Don't worry, I won't let Miyuki even get scratched."

"That's not what I meant!"

Is Masaki's face blushed red because of resentment to the unjust allegations?

Or ...

"... Are you not curious about Miyuki?"

"―See you!"

Without answering Tatsuya's question, Masaki hung up.

He didn't say goodbye, but said words to the next encounter.

◇◇◇

After Tatsuya left the small dining room, a bit of a strange situation was formed around Minami.

Not only the fact that she's alone as a 2nd year student when everyone is a 3rd year student,
but the main reason is Tatsuya's friends never know the full story when Minami was attacked.

"Ah, Sakurai. Is your body already good?"

The one who first broke the awkward air there was Leo. He and Minami are senior and junior in
the Mountaineering club.

"Thank you for your concern. The doctor has approved that I'm physically recovered."

"It is good!"

"However, I can no longer use magic."

"Huh?"

Leo wasn't the only one who was surprised. Everyone knows that Minami was a talented
magician. The confession that she couldn't use magic was a big shock to everyone.

"Saijou-senpai and everyone has taken great care for me, but I think I will probably drop out
from First High."

"┅What do you do after quitting school?"

"Tatsuya-sama has permitted me to continue to serve Miyuki-sama, I happily accept it."

At what Minami said, Erika nodded with an exaggerated gesture.

"Yeah! Being a magician is not the only way to live."

"That's right. While you won't be easily convinced, and, I think, you need some more time to sort
out the feelings ┅ But actually in this world, more people cannot use magic."
Mikihiko follows Erika.

"Minami-chan did good grades in general subjects. Whether liberal arts or science, she can
transfer to an ordinary high school and go on to a top-class university."

Honoka says so as the same student council’s member who knows Minami's grade.

"Minami-chan also is very good at cooking."

"Yeah. Even I want to make her my house maid. Minami, won't you work at my house?"

In response to Mizuki's line, Shizuku added that.

"Ah, no, sorry. I'm ┅"

At Shizuku's offer, Minami began to seriously fluff.

"No, Shizuku. I won't give you Minami-chan."

Here, Miyuki, who had been silent until then, spoke.

"Stingy."

As laughter followed Shizuku's complain, the awkward air that's floating around was alleviated

◇◇◇

After returning to the dining room, Tatsuya sniffed the air of suffocating awkwardness but he
didn't bother it.

"Everyone, I have important things to tell."

As there were other urgent priorities at his hand.

"Are you talking about the phone call from Ichijou-san?"

Tatsuya nodded to Miyuki's question and turned his gaze to Shizuku

"Shizuku, it is better to stop the plan for villa vacation."

"What's happened?"

Shizuku looked at Tatsuya's eyes directly and asked "What's happened" instead of "What it is."
She understood that Tatsuya's warning has its reason. Moreover, she demanded that reason.

The fact they're able to proceed until they're about to arrive at villa using a ship, means
something that couldn't be made public happened whether for the government and the military.
Tatsuya, who was asked by Shizuku, conflicted whether to tell the reason or not.

But after he saw everyone, Honoka's, Erika's, Mizuki's, Leo's, Mikihiko's gazes at him too, and
even Miyuki's heat gaze, he thought it's impossible to cover this up.

Without telling the truth, their friends were very llikely wouldn't want to change their plan, or
even they would insist to not leave from here.

"As early as tomorrow, this island will be attacked by USNA's assault landing ship and
destroyers. There's a possibility that Ogasawara islands would get a spilled attack too.

"Is America attacking?!"

"That's not it"

Tatsuya shook his head as Erika screamed.

"I can say that USNA, as a country, don't approve of the attack."

Tatsuya said he knew, but in fact there was no solid evidence. It is only his guess.

"Very likely Edward Clark instigated a small amount of the parasites within their military as a last
gamble attack. If this fails, Clark will definitely be abandoned by USNA."

Tatsuya was guessing, but he's convinced of that. Although he had a contact with Senator
Curtis, Captain Curtis of submersive nuclear powered aircraft carrier and his crew, also
nameless fleet captain during Minami's rescue, USNA govt and its military, they still don't hold
enough fear against Tatsuya to have American people into mass hysteria.

So far the USNA does not hold enough awareness of Japan's threat that upholding the Great
Asia Alliance on Pacific. Depending on this battle results, it will be possible to make USNA think
twice before touching him again. So with this surprise attack, Tatsuya on the contrary thinks this
is a good chance for that.

"Isn't it tomorrow? I don't see that the military is busy there."

Leo asks the question with a rather calm head.

"The military won't move."

"What ...?"

In response to Tatsuya's answer, Leo leaked an angry voice.

"That is also convenient for us."

However, Leo's anger disperses with the words Tatsuya added.

"... Are you planning to repel them with just the Yotsuba?"

"That's it"

Tatsuya said the phrase "for us" did not mean the Yotsuba family. But Tatsuya didn't intend to
make it clear.

"Tatsuya, are you saying that parasites will come?"

This time, Mikihiko threw that question.

"They're coming."

Tatsuya answered Mikihiko's question with a concise line. No further explanation nor the reason
but his answer had a compelling force.

"If so ..."

Mikihiko too didn't seek Tatsuya's explanation.

"Can I help you as well? I can't overlook demons' invasion as a practitioner of Ancient-Style
magic."

"Yoshida-kun!?"

Mizuki screamed unintentionally. It's only logical for her reaction as their opponents are USNA
warships, even though it's only three ships, those are still warships. If he's unlucky, he'd die. It's
just natural, not only for Mizuki but for everyone else too, to stop doing dangerous things.

"Stop it, Mikihiko. You don't have to risk your life."

At Tatsuya's answer, Mizuki was relieved.

On the contrary, Mikihiko still wasn't convinced.

"You don't have to worry. I'll wipe out the parasites. Not only their host but even their cores. I
won't let any of them escape."

As Tatsuya added additional explanation, even Mikihiko couldn't argue anymore.

"But Tatsuya-kun. I don't think it's a bad idea to leave Miki here, regardless of whether he's
participating or not."

It was Erika who argued on behalf of Mikihiko who lost the words.

"Isn't the testimony of the related parties only quite weak? It's easier to argue for proper defense
if there is a testimony of a civilian who happened to be present, and I think it would be more
convincing legally against USNA who break the rules."

"That's right ... That's reasonable."

Erika's opinion was not immediately dismissed by Tatsuya.

"But he doesn't have to do that. There's no advantage for him to risk his life without adequate
merit to profit."

But in the end, Tatsuya rejected Erica's claim.

"Really?"

However, unlike Mikihiko, Erika did not withdraw easily.

"Tatsuya-kun, you said it's risky while you're participating in battle, and Tatsuya-kun won't just
let your friends face such life-threatening situations, right?"

"That's right ..."

"Tatsuya-kun, last time, you said you'll protect Honoka. That promise was only meant for
Honoka?"

Erika was there when Shizuku cornered Tatsuya to take responsibility in the hospital room after
Honoka was abducted by USNA's illegal agent "Illegal Map". The day before that happened, he
told Miyuki and Lina that he planned to put not only Honoka, but also all of his friends under his
protection with his capacity as Yotsuba's next head's fiance. Erika shouldn't have to know this
topic beforehand.
Tatsuya instinctively turned his doubtful expression to Miyuki.

Miyuki slightly shook the head, swaying many times, which indicated "Definitely not me."

Erika was smiling brightly after seeing those two gesture exchanges. That was the very situation
where she's best at.

"... I'll guarantee guest safety."

Tatsuya was only able to return a reluctant reply.

Erica grinned with "fufu".

"Well, can I stay here too? I told my home that I would have camp for four nights and five days,
it's kinda hard to immediately come home."

"... That's not my responsibility, you know."

"I won't do something dangerous."

Against Tatsuya who tried to deny her, Erika said that with serious expression.

"Well, me too." "Count me in."

Shortly thereafter. Honoka and Leo speak at the same time immediately.

"Then me too."

After the two of them, Shizuku went on like that.

"Uhm ... then I'm too."

Finally, even Mizuki said that.

Tatsuya made a big sigh.

Then he turned to the Minami.

"Minami, how many guest rooms can we use right away?"

"Please wait a moment"

Minami brushed her hair above her left ear with her left hand, put her finger to set on the
communication unit attached to her left ear. That's featured with a fingerprint authentication
wearable smart speaker, a model which picks a command by reading the vibration from the
throat using a choker that draped on the neck. It's not the stationary smart speaker AI which
developed for the infamous "AI wiretapping problem"21 that puts the data into the server.

Minami put her one hand to cover her mouth and repeated Tatsuya's question in a small voice.
Minami once again put her finger on the left ear unit to disconnect the smart speaker and turned
to Tatsuya.

"Tatsuya-sama, there's one room each for Single and Twin rooms."

"So Erika is the single room, Mikihiko and Leo are the twins. Honoka, Shizuku, and Mizuki
should return home before it gets dark."

Tatsuya didn't give any chance for rebuttal from his friends.

"No way."

Honoka protested with a pitied tone, but Tatsuya let it slide with silence.

"―No other choice then. Honoka, stay at my home. Mizuki too, if you don't mind."

It's Shizuku's follow-up that made no one argue anymore.

◇◇◇

There are other people than his friends that he had to share information with. As he spent
unexpectedly with his friends, Tatsuya opened a direct communication line to Yotsuba main
house, leaving the see-off of Honoka's group to Miyuki and to Minami for guiding Erika's group.

"Tatsuya-sama, is there anything you need?"

Hayama, who appeared in the display, has completely changed the way he interacts with
Tatsuya as a person. Not just him. All servants there too.

"I just got this from Ichijou Masaki. It seems that USNA assault landing ships and destroyers are
approaching Miyakijima.

"It's that so."

21
​TLN: Alexa, Siri, Google Home? :D
"Did you there hold it too?"

While asking, Tatsuya wasn't surprised.

"Assault landing ship Guam and destroyers Ross and Hull. We knew those were approaching
Japan, but we weren't able to know the destination. ”

"But did you make a prediction?"

"Yes. The same as Tatsuya-sama predicted."

Tatsuya didn't say anything after Hayama's reply. It's not something offending. Miyakijima was
under attack in the beginning (first 10 days) of last month from STARS soldiers which actually
parasitized soldiers at the core. Everyone in Yotsuba knew that's not the end of the attacks.

"Well, it seems I don't have to tell it to you then."

Tatsuya consciously used a first person "I"22 to refer to himself ever since he left the military.

“No, this information is really helpful. While we have ready to intercept the attack, it's really
helpful knowing the exact date and time. By the way, where did Ichijou-sama know about this?"

"From his father, Ichijou-dono, who in return heard it from his acquaintance in the military."

"So it is. We too have our people sneaking into the Staff Department actually┅"

On the screen, Hayama drops his eyes on his hand. Perhaps he was checking what the agent is
doing.

"... Apparently, it seems that they are being dispatched to a base outskirt the capital today."

"It seems to be purely bad timing."

"That's right. We will increase the number of spies in the military and the Ministry of Defense a
little more."

Tatsuya didn't comment on Hayama's self excuse. Espionage was Kuroba's area of work so he
didn't see any need to say anything.

22
​TLN: it's 私, while before he always used 自分 when talking to higher ups in Yotsuba or in
school etc, or 少官 (or maybe this just Lina who using it) or 本官 in military, and 俺 to everyone
close to him.
"We will proceed with that issue at a later date, as for tomorrow's raid's defense, we will add
some reinforcement. Currently the Shibata family is standing by to intercept, but for handling the
parasites, would you like to have Tsukuba family reinforcement?"

"I will leave the decision to the head family."

"Understood. Do you have any more messages to Madam?"

"Then, please tell this literally `I will do my best with full strength to fulfill my promise to Todou
His Excellency.` like that."

Hayama's expression became stiff because of Tatsuya's word.

"... I'm sorry if this is audacious, but may I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"Tatsuya-sama ... Do you intend to use Material Burst?”

Tatsuya grinned to express "Don't worry."

"There will be no situation where I have to resort to that magic."

"Then?"

Hayama asked Tatsuya's real intention with a short question.

"I want the world to understand that my magic is not just material bursts. I'll show the world that
magic can be a deterrent without relying on strategic magic that has limited uses. That's why I'm
going to let the world see."

Tatsuya did not give a concrete answer here.

"So it's like that ┅ Understood."

From the monitor display, Hayama deeply bowed.

Tatsuya's determination is clear enough to tell without specific explanation.

Without any chance of misunderstanding.

◇◇◇
August 3rd, night.

Minami returned back to her room after cleaning up the supper with Erika, Leo, and Mikihiko,
leaving Tatsuya and Miyuki alone.

Tatsuya was enjoying the tea time he had with Miyuki who was sitting beside him. The tea was
ice herb tea which was brewed by Miyuki herself. Tatsuya smiled satisfactorily at tea Miyuki
served. For Miyuki, it's a blissful moment.

Miyuki glanced to her side.

Tatsuya, who was just tilting the glass cup, was smiling as expected.

Miyuki tried to casually look down as she realized that she's about to smile too and just like that
she lifted the cup to her lip.

With a relaxing herb tea, she calmed down and breathed in deeply, and noticed a strong gaze
from her side .

Miyuki became stiff because of that gaze, however she realized that there was no romantic
intent within that gaze.

She turned to Tatsuya timidly.

Their eyes met. Tatsuya's gaze was terrifyingly serious which is a sign of heavy discussion.

"Miyuki."

"Yes, Onii-sama."

Miyuki made considerable efforts to not let her shrieking voice leak and tried hard to make it
natural.

"I'm actually really reluctant to put you into the battlefield. This something that I should avoid,
whether as your guardian or as your fiance."

Heard the phrase "as your fiance" made Miyuki's consciousness almost fly away. It's because
Tatsuya rarely spoke himself as Miyuki's fiance.

"But tomorrow, I want you to lend me your power."

However, recognizing that Tatsuya was asking for help, Miyuki's high mood backs to ground.
"What should I do?"

Since Tatsuya was asking her, she put her concentration on that.

"Tomorrow, USNA warships will be attacking in the morning, but it's not just them. I think
Bezobrazzof is very likely to take advantage of Clark's plan and attacks too.”

"You meant Bezobrazzof of the New Soviet Union?"

"Yeah. There is no definite proof. But for him, this is a perfect opportunity to get back at me. In
addition, the New Soviet Union too will be greatly benefited by killing me as a strategic-class
magician. Hence, that country will very likely interfere. Their attack’s methods may be Tuman
Bomba, medium-range missiles and bombardment submarines. Perhaps their submarines are
already positioned near this island.

"I think it's exactly what Onii-sama says."

Miyuki didn't actually follow Tatsuya's explanation, however she knew at least his prediction was
something that reasonable.

"If they're attacking me, it's just natural for us to repel them. I won't let them go back unharmed
of course. But if I have to repel both the USNA and NSU at the same time, I may have used
more power than necessary. To make it easier for the future too, I need to avoid inflicting overly
unnecessary damage to them.”

"So Onii-sama is thinking that's not enough to win the battle only."

"Using this chance too I will kill Edward Clark and Bezobrazzof. In order to cut the problem for
laters, I cannot leave these two remain alive."

When Tatsuya told that with a determined tone, Miyuki made a clouded expression. She still
cannot easily accept killing.

Even so, she didn't oppose what Tatsuya said. She understood well that there's just some
people who won't compromise. She learned that from her experience.

"But I don't want to use Material Burst. That magic has a strong image of massacring magic."

Tatsuya said that not self-depreciating. Miyuki didn't argue with him as she knew that Tatsuya is
someone that is able to objectively evaluate his own magic.

"It's preferable to have USNA and NSU submarines to be neutralized. Even if I have to sink
them in the end, at very least I want them to be neutralized first."
Miyuki's lit understanding shines on her eyes.

"So that's why Onii-sama want my help right? I see. No matter how many ships they bring, I'll
freeze them all."

Miyuki said that with gallant beauty, it's as if as a saint who received the oracle from war god.

However, for Tatsuya, that's something he didn't actually want. As a proof he made a sad
expression a bit.

As if to hide his expression, Tatsuya while putting a poker face took out a silver decorated gun
from a bag under his feet. However there's no muzzle on it.

"Is this a specialized CAD?"

Picking up this fake handgun to her hand, Miyuki tilted his head. Miyuki, who boasts outstanding
magical power, has never required a specialized CAD.

"That CAD is pre-installed with a super large-scale freezing magic Glacier Age activation
sequence which assembled using Chain Cast."

"Glacier Age. .... Is it new magic?"

As she never heard the magic name before, Miyuki opened her eyes wide.

"Sorry that you don't have time to test and have to directly use it during the actual battle. But
since the magical activation itself is just Niflheim which expanded largely by Chain Cast, there
should be no problem with its activation. To prepare for the worst case, the magic activation has
a limiter built in. So there's no fear of the Magic Calculation Area overheating. I've verified the
limiter function by myself."

Upon hearing his explanation, Miyuki widened her eyes.

"Onii-sama tested it by yourself? ... Isn't it dangerous?"

"All I do is for you. No matter how much I risk that I have to shoulder, I handle it with my best."

"Onii-sama ..."

Miyuki eyes damped. However she knew this is not time for that, no tears flowed out.
"This Glacier Age is the expanded version than Niffleheim so this should have less burden than
simply using Niflheim. Use this magic to neutralize enemy ships."

"Understood. I will stand beside Onii-sama and perfectly fulfill my role."

Miyuki declares bravely.

"No, wait."

However, what Tatsuya said as if splashing the cold water onto engulfing fire.

"I want you to use magic from the command room so the enemy cannot see you."

"……why?"

At what Tatsuya said, Miyuki looks disappointed.

"When you use the Glacier Age, you'll be identified by the enemy as a strategic-class magician.
I don't want you to be foreign power target. All their wariness should focus on me only."

Even though he emphasized that, Miyuki still wasn't convinced.

"So Onii-sama wants to keep me away from the battlefield because of the risk, but what I want
is the opposite, I want to be beside Onii-sama and protect your back. I don't want to just be a
weak girl that always needs Onii-sama's protection."

Under Miyuki's intense staring at Tatsuya, even Tatsuya couldn't win against her. If other people
look at this scene, perhaps they would definitely think there's no way Tatsuya would be able to
persuade Miyuki otherwise.

In fact Tatsuya just,

"I lose here┅"

seriously ― or seemingly serious ― sigh.

"Miyuki. I've never thought of you as a weak girl. As a proof, this strategy itself is based on your
strength, and even the new magic is developed with consideration of your strength. First of all,
without you, I would never have imagined to have this kind of strategy."

"┅┅"
Maybe because Tatsuya's line was something Miyuki didn't expect, she didn't know how to react
and lost words.

"What I want is your continued support from behind.... Having Miyuki behind me, I won't ever be
afraid of anything, whether it's the world or even my own power.

"That's ┅┅."

"I thought you would continue to support me, but ┅┅ was it just my misunderstanding?"

"Definitely, not like that!."

Miyuki panicked and denied Tatsuya's lament.

"I will continue to support Onii-sama's back!"

Did she ever realize that she's herself put in that position before?

"Thank you, Miyuki. Then, tomorrow I will ask for support from the rear."

"Please leave it to me!"

"I'm counting on you."

"Yes!"

Very likely Miyuki didn't realize that she's rolling up and down her position by herself.23

23
​ TLN: What this actually means is that Miyuki initially put herself in the argument of standing in
the battlefield, and now she herself denied it and prefers to be rear support.
[8]
August 8th 2097 AD.

This day, the world was reminded of the power of magic once again.

With the strength of one magician that overpower even a big country.

◇◇◇

August 4th 8 am. Assault landing ship Guam passed the point 24 nautical miles from
Miyakijima's coastline. Guam then continued sailing to west, but two accompanying destroyer
ships, one of them Hull reduced its speed while Ross sped up with changed direction into
southwest.

The Japan military who recognized these two destroyers as guard ships for the assault landing
ship was confused with these sudden changes. They're wondering whether it's just their
misunderstanding that USNA's ships took action as if they're going to attack Miyakijima.

◇◇◇

While the military was in a state of confusion, the owner of the island, Miyakijima, was sure.

"Guam will trespass our sea territory soon. About 5 minutes with current speed."

8:20 am. At the Miyakijima's west bank, this building that was used as an observation center for
magician criminals reconstructed to be a private sector to observe sea territory around the
island, the staff there reported it with heightened tension.

"The interception troops are ready for battle"

It was reported by Tsutsumi Kanata, a guardian for Shibata Katsushige who was tasked the
command of defense by Maya, through radio

"Kanata, calm down a little. The attack started only after the opponents took action."

Katushige felt the impatience in Kanata's voice so he reminded him to not make a false start.

"I know, Master. I haven't forgotten that we need a justification to defend."

The word he said "master" sounds like calling the cafe owner, which is kind of lacking, but
there's no doubt about his loyalty to Katsushige. So Katsushige didn't repeat his warning and
just looked at the main screen which was installed over the front wall.

There's no window in this command room. That main screen reflects the outside situation
displaying a variety of information surrounding the island. Katsushige stared at the USNA
warships data which displayed on the multi-function commander's seat.

"Guam slowed down."

After reading the same data as the operator's report from the main screen, Katsushige operates
the intercom in the commander seat.

"Tatsuya-kun, there was movement in the fleet. Could you come to the command room with
Miyuki-san?"

He said that toward mic.

◇◇◇

Miyuki was right now separated from Tatsuya after breakfast and went to the shelter in the
basement of the residence to meet Minami, Erika, Leo, and Mikihiko in the shelter.

Even though it's called an underground shelter, it's still the same size as the ground-floor and
still comfortable to live in. The room is equipped with four large-scale displays that show the
perimeter of the entire island, in terms of practicability, this room even better than any guest
room above.

As for now, nothing unusual has been detected. The only difference is that at the east coast
where the plant facilities are set, all civilians ― meaning not Yotsuba's fighters ― have been
evacuated. Because today is Sunday, it's just like the usual that no construction and test runs
are being worked on.

With that said, because the scientists and engineers were replaced by reinforcement
combatants, it's actually more people than usual.

USNA warships are not in sight yet. The cameras available from the shelter project the coast
with some limited range. Specifically, the furthest limit is the horizon which is about 8 kilometers
from the coastline and at highest 5 meters above sea level. The boundary line of the territorial
waters, 12 nautical miles = about 22 kilometers, is not reflected.

As nothing happened as of now and it's still showing a peaceful scenery, Erika got bored and
turned away from the display to Miyuki.
"How far have the enemy ships come?"

"Minami-chan, do you know?"

Miyuki connected Erika's inquiry to Minami.

"... Three kilometers to the territorial waters."

Minami didn't sit on the chair when operating the console which centrally controls various
equipment in the room, to get the military information system data under the control of the
command room. This shelter wouldn't be available to any other civilian shelter. This was
possible because the shelter was intended for a VIP room used by the next head of the family.

"Three kilo to the territorial waters means to the coast about ..., umm"

"It's about 25 kilometers, Saijou-senpai"

Minami politely added information after Leo's line.

"Twenty-five kilometers. It's still outside the launcher range."

What Leo's meant with "launcher" is the Fleming Launcher which was used as the main
weapons for ground bombardment during the previous war. The Fleming Launcher, which was
able to launch a large bomb using an electromagnetic projection mechanism, commonly has a
range of 20 kilometers.

"If it's the missile, it's already within effective range."

This time, Mikihiko responded to Leo's line.

"If they're aren't shooting it yet, means they're going to have a landing tactic. Sakurai-san, are
the approaching ships bombardment-type or landing-type?

Minami glanced at Miyuki.

After confirming Miyuki's nod, Minami answered Mikihiko's question with "It's an assault landing
ship."

"It's indeed a landing tactic I see. Instead of indiscriminate bombing, they're specifically targeting
Tatsuya."

Hearing Mikihiko's guess, Erika snorted as if to make a fool of him.

"They'll switch to indiscriminate attack soon. As if they would succeed with assassination tactic
against Tatsuya."

No one objected to her. Leo and Mikihiko nodded too as they're convinced what Erika said.
Miyuki was just putting an inhumanely beautiful smile.

As if it's waiting the lull between the conversation, the door of the room opened suddenly.

"Tatsuya-sama."

Miyuki, who had stood up there even before the three-fold sliding door had fully opened,
welcomed Tatsuya with a polite bow. Minami, who is slightly late, hurriedly gave her bow.

No one there was surprised at Miyuki's quick response. Even if it's so mysterious, unreasonable,
wondering from others' perspective, for Tatsuya and Miyuki friends, they weren't surprised
anymore.

Erika, Leo, and Mikihiko were completely accustomed to how ridiculously both are detecting
each other. Even though the door had gamma-ray shielding alloy and neutron shield composite
resin in it.

"Miyuki, Katsushige-san is calling. Come with me to the command room."

Tatsuya didn't even look at his friends and spoke only the matter to Miyuki, but none of them
complained. That's because it's obvious from what Tatsuya was wearing.

Tatsuya was wearing a flight equipped armor suit with ultramarine color which could be easily
mistaken for black. This is another version of Freed Suit developed by Yotsuba. He was fully
armed with a helmet on, only the face shield of his helmet raised while he spoke so.

This version of Freed Suit was a bit different from what Tatsuya used in the other days. That
version designed so at very worst others would only think "a somewhat unusual riding suit"
when he's using it to ride around the city. In other words, it's the Civilian Version.

On the other hand, he is now wearing a battle suit emphasizing the armor on vital points and
also equipped for melee as it's added with a pocket to put a knife. This is the opposite of the
Civilian Version, so it's called the Soldier Version. This suit breaks many regulations allowed for
civilians, and if the authorities caught one wearing this, they're going to be treated as criminals.
― Disregard whether the authority can actually arrest them or not.

As it clearly emits the air that battle is approaching, Erika and others naturally thought that
Tatsuya came for Miyuki to intercept the approaching enemies.
"Erika, Leo, Mikihiko"

However, Tatsuya was not forgetting or ignoring those three.

"You guys stay here. If there's something you want, Minami will take care of that for you. Make
sure you don't jump out in front of the enemies."

Tatsuya stabbed the nail, Erika and Leo slightly moved their necks. Their reaction was a clear
sign that they didn't intend to behave.

"Mikihiko. Keep an eye on them for me."

"Ah, uh. I understand."

After putting pressure on Mikihiko, Tatsuya left the room with Miyuki.

This might be due to the nature of those three characters, Mikihiko was forced to take short
straw, as one responsible in this situation.

◇◇◇

When Tatsuya entered the command room, Katsushige was changing from his summer jacket
into an armor jacket (a combat jacket with bulletproof, blade-proof, anti chemicals weapon, and
explosion-proof functions).

Katsushige's trouser originally made the same material. It's a two-piece flight-armor suit in
contrast to what Tatsuya's wearing. The stretchable belt is used to ensure the suit is airtight but
its performance is lower than Freed Suit or the military mobile suit.

Nevertheless, this is enough functionality as a means of short-distance flight. Unlike Tatsuya,

Katsushige is able to protect himself with magic alone.

"Sorry I made you wait."

"No, I'm sorry too to call you suddenly while still like this."

After closing the zipper to his neck base, Katsushige who had finished wearing the belt turned
around and replied.

That's the end of greeting.

"Actually, the assault landing ship Guam stopped just before it entered our sea territory."
Both of them didn't compete for an apology as that's just unproductive and immediately talking
about the main topic.

"I want to hear your opinions about the enemy's intention."

"Please tell us about destroyers' status."

Tatsuya just asked back instead of answering Katsushige's question.

"The destroyer Hull is stopping about 30 kilometers east of the island, while Ross is heading
west at around 50 knots, bypassing the island's southern borders."

"Is Guam waiting for Ross to get in place?"

Upon hearing Katsushige's answer, Tatsuya opens his guess as if he knew the contents
beforehand.

"Are they going to do a pinch attack using two destroyers? But Ross and Hull are just naval
melee escort ships. They may have some missiles loaded which can be used for bombardment,
but considering its capacity, it won't be many. The total number of missiles will be limited, unless
those are nuclear missiles ... Are they planning to launch a nuclear bomb?"

"They very likely won't use nuclear missiles. I don't think USNA would tolerate that much."

Tatsuya's answer has another meaning.

Katsushige didn't miss it.

"...Are you saying that the enemy is prepared to have large-scale magic that is comparable to
nuclear attack?"

"It's just a possibility."

"Even if it's so, it doesn't mean we can sink them with a pre-emptive strike."

"I and Miyuki will prepare for long-range magic attacks from the destroyers."

Tatsuya looked to his side and turned to Miyuki.

Miyuki nodded firmly in reply.

"Okay. I'll leave that to Tatsuya-kun and Miyuki-san. I will repel the landing force at the coast, as
planned."

Katsushige turned to Miyuki after telling that to Tatsuya.

"Miyuki-san, please sit on this."

Saying that, Katsushige encouraged Miyuki to sit on the commander seat.

"Isn't that seat entrusted to Katsushige-san from Aunt-sama?"

"I got permission from the head family yesterday."

"But……"

"Miyuki, just accept thankfully. That commander seat has the functionality you need."

Tatsuya added some advice to Miyuki who was hesitating. No, it's more like instruction rather
than advice.

"If, Onii-sama, no, Tatsuya-sama says so."

Because of unexpected advice, Miyuki inadvertently called Tatsuya "Onii-sama", but fortunately,
neither Katsushige nor anyone else in the command room thought suspiciously.

When Miyuki was going to sit in the commander seat, just before that, she immediately
remembered and looked to Katsushige.

"What about Katsushige-san?"

"I'll take command from a mobile command base on the northeast coast"

The mobile command base he referred to is an armored wagon vehicle that incorporates a
tactical data link system and is connected to the computer in this command room.

"In actuality, it won't take much time if I use a flight device to go there, but it's certainly more
convenient to be near the site."

"I understand, please be careful."

"Thank you"

Katsushige left the command room with his helmet under his arm.
Miyuki sat down on the commander's seat and looked up at Tatsuya standing by her side.

"Tatsuya-sama, please tell me what this seat function is."

"Strictly speaking, it's a desk function rather than a seat function."

Miyuki made a dubious look.

It's just natural. As currently there's nothing in front of the commander seat, which was installed
on a circular platform that placed a higher step than the surrounding floor. Miyuki was able to
see the staff in front of her beyond her feet.

"It's faster to use than to explain."

Tatsuya then moved diagonally to the right behind Miyuki.

Miyuki, who follows Tatsuya with her eyes, still made dubious expressions.

Tatsuya stretched his right hand over the shoulder of Miyuki and reached the inner side of the
armrest.

In a position that's almost the same as if hugged from behind, Miyuki became stiff.

Tatsuya's right hand pushed a button that was placed inside the armrest inconspicuously.

Tatsuya pulled his body back.

Immediately after that, the wall that surrounded the back of the seat in a circular arc began to
move from the left side of the Miyuki to the front. The wall that moved to the front now moving
toward the commander seat.

The armrest base moved from outside to front until it's about 10 cm reachable from her hands.

"This is ...?"

Surprised with this exaggerated gimmick, Miyuki rounded her eyes.

"I honestly think they've played too much ..."

When Tatsuya bitterly smiled, she knew that this is probably not his design.
"The engineering designer here probably was a special effects24 maniac or something."

Miyuki seemed relieved to know that Tatsuya felt that this gimmick was strange too.

"... so which one is that useful function?"

"This is."

Tatsuya who moved away from the moving desk, reached out and touched the button that
appeared on Miyuki's right side.

The outer desk opened and the built-in microphone-like stand arm extended into front of Miyuki.

"Tatsuya-sama, what is this?"

"Miyuki, do you have the CAD that I gave you last night?"

"Of course."

From the handbag that Miyuki had placed on her lap, she took out a CAD in the form of a
compact handgun. "Set it here"

The tip of the arm that Tatsuya pointed to was shaped like a small pistol rack. When you put a
handgun-shape device in there, it became the barrel extension for the device. As the device is
put there, the barrel extension automatically grips the device body from left and right to fix the
connection. Since the handle grip part device is exposed, so the user can still use the CAD that
is set on the arm.

"This arm is an aim-assistance CAD extension. When the CAD is set on the arm and has the
"muzzle" pointed to the image of the screen, the tactical computer of the command room will
display the position data of the target. The data sent in activation sequence format to the CAD.
So the CAD itself has to have features to receive and use that data, but this CAD is already
compatible with this system. You can aim at any target in the radius 50 kilometers with you as
the center.

"Just like Tatsuya-sama does with Elemental Sight?"

Miyuki understood that this system was for her. Tatsuya who has Elemental Sight doesn't need
this system. Actually, Tatsuya doesn't need Third Eye as extended CAD with additional
aim-assistance, with only a broadcast or satellite image is enough for Tatsuya to aim the target.
This system is using a machine to perform positional information just like Elemental Sight.

24
​特撮; tokusatsu; special effect like Kamen Rider
However, it's still impossible that any common magician with this system would be able to do
what Tatsuya does. No matter activation sequence and the positional data they have, they can't
do it with pinpointed precision. They need magic power on par with people like Bezobrazzof of
the New Soviet Union and others 13 Apostles. For example, just like Miyuki's power.

"With improved searching system performance and connection to the tactical computer, it's
possible to reach even to the back side of the earth. As of the current system as of now, the
radius of 50 kilometers is the limit."

Just who made this system here? Miyuki didn't think it's created based on Tatsuya's idea.
Tatsuya vehemently rejected the idea of making magicians as parts of the weaponry system. At
very least, Tatsuya wouldn't consider using Miyuki as a weapon part.

Then, might Maya instruct the installation to use the Miyuki as a military force...?

Miyuki didn't think further. Whatever the plan and its intention, it's the fact that the system here
is useful for her in the upcoming battle.

With this system, Miyuki can help Tatsuya.

"――I understand, I will master this system so it can be useful for Tatsuya-sama."

Miyuki was, for this time being, just thinking that.

◇◇◇

8:50 am. Finally, the assault landing ship Guam has begun operational operations. Small
high-speed boats descend from the hull to the sea surface through the slipways of the stern one
by one. It's not only carrying the combatants but also delivering the weapons.

There are a total of 6 boats. In addition to each boat operating crew, fifty members are on
board. The total attacking troops is 300, which is about the strength of two companies. In
comparison to Guam total capacity which reached 1000 personnel on board, that number is too
small, but for anyone that knows the situation, that this operation is an illegal operation, it's
rather good job gathering that amount of troops.

As soon those boats were ready, those boats moved at once instead of one by one. That
doesn't mean it's a coordinated attack. Those boats spread out and are heading separately into
several points on eastern coast of Miyakijima. The reason is to avoid receiving concentrated
attacks also and to avoid each boat destroyed one by one.
Even so, it's just six small boats. The total number of two companies' strength of troops should
be enough for an island of 8 square kilometers, but to intercept each boat which carries 50
personnel, even without a powerful magician like Tatsuya or Miyuki, 20-30 magicians with long
range magic is enough to sink those boats. No, even without relying on the magic, with a more
modern anti-naval defense system, the landing operation itself wouldn't succeed.

The assault landing ship Guam which was affiliated to the USNA regular army should have
understood this. So at the same time each boat started to move, Guam sent an unmanned
aerial assault unit from its deck.

It has a length of 5 meters. Slightly larger than a small truck. It's armed with a physical-rifle with
20.7 mm bullets. It should be called a gun pod drone instead of unmanned aerial assault.

It has a single-type jet engine with winglet of clipped delta wing, the canard type25. Airframe
shape is probably closer to the unmanned experimental machine HiMAT of the second half of
the last century.

This unmanned aerial vehicle is a tactical move to eliminate anti-air naval units, infantry and
light armored vehicles which those units are inferior defense power in terms of quantity and
mobility. Since this unit is small in size, it can be installed in smaller landing unit boats which are
incomparably smaller than aircraft carriers. Six unmanned aerial vehicles flying on each boat to
protect from above. Also eight units are flying above Guam for its protection.

Shibata Katsushige, who was positioned in a mobile base on a hill slope separated from the
road to the coast, grasped these movements in real time through an information link between
this base and the command room.

Enemy boats already entered deep into the sea territory and even can be seen physically from
the coastline.

"Don't attack yet."

Katsushige has not yet given permission to attack. The concrete measure taken to stop assault
landing at this moment was only the installment of the coast fence last night. The coast fence
which is on par to national border fence wall strength installed not even taking all night long
because of the convenience of magic technology, but on contrary, despite it not taking all night
for installment, there's no sea mines used nor the defense system for taking out enemies in the
water. In this aspect, Yotsuba still adheres to Japanese domestic law.

To protect the north and east coasts of the island from sea waves, both coasts were installed
with wave-dissipating shields. For military boats, that shield is not enough to completely obstruct

25
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_wing#Canard_delta
the landing however it's definitely taking more cost to execute landing on coast with those
shields installed. It's only logical for those boats heading to landing points where that shield isn't
installed.

And because it's a logical move, it's only natural too to be wary that the other side has prepared
for it.

In reality, the only countermeasures there are just a tall coast fence. There's nothing aggressive
such as hidden mines or underwater turrets or highly lethal high voltage-current.

However the enemy that's been over vigilance, used the grenade launcher toward the coast
fence. Moreover, it's not a single shot but 10 at once.

The fence was heavily damaged.

Not only that, the damage even extended to a warehouse built near the coast fence.

It's a clear sabotaging action to private property.

"―Start the counterattack."

After confirming the damage they received, Katsushige calmly gave his permission to open the
battle.

◇◇◇

The soldiers were embarking the assault landing ship Guam not only parasites.

Edward Clark promised in a secret talk with the Secretary of Defense that he "will not use
humans with USNA nationality in this assassination operation." At that time Clark intended to
procure assassin troops from the parasites, but at the stage of actually recruiting soldiers, the
total number of parasites turned out to be far less than he expected.

Therefore, Clark was procuring about 200 troops for foreign soldiers who wanted to naturalize,
using the acquisition of citizenship after successful operations as bait. Among them are
magicians, albeit at a low level.

Around 90 people are Stardust members who themselves became parasites to prolong their
lives. The remaining nine are members of the STARS, including the parasites survivors of
STARS members, Captain Rigel of the 6th Corps, Capt. Bellatrix, and Capt. Al Nilam.

The commander of the landing force of the onboard boat that took the first place on the island of
Miyakijima was Sergeant Alejandro Mimas. A member of the STARS satellite class from the
former Mexican territory, he was sent to Japan in 2096 and engaged in a fight with Tatsuya and
was seriously injured. Sergeant Mimas turned into a parasite because he wanted retaliation
against Tatsuya.

For Mimas, this assassination operation was a long-awaited one. He's been proactively doing
this mission. The boat he rode was the first to land because of an unreasonable order maneuver
to other crew who were under his pressure.

It was Mimas who ordered the use of a grenade for the fence that prevented landing. Originally,
he was a man with a short temper, but when he became a parasite, that tendency became
noticeable.

Speaking of the effects of parasitism, Mimas when he was a human was a magician who
specializes in vibrating heating magic. A pyrokinesis-like magic that freely heats objects in sight.
However, it was not the only one that he could use. He was also familiar with Molecular Divider,
the secret technique that was passed down to STARS.

However, due to assimilation with parasites, the ability was altered. As found on many
parasites, magic skills are specialized in a small number of magics. In the case of Mimas, the
skill was biased towards the magic called Bio ignition26 in the heating magic.

This Bio Ignition literally causes the body of an organism to ignite, and somehow it has no effect
on the carcass of the organism or the material from which the organism is processed. For
example, raw wood can be burned, but charcoal cannot be ignited. This mysterious part is
indeed magic.27

Despite its limitation, it exerts unrivaled strength in 1vs1 fight. Perhaps because the effect is
simple, this magic can be activated with little Phenomenon Interference power. With Bio Ignition,
it is possible to bury a higher-power magician which usually can't be done because of the lack of
Phenomenon Interference28 against the higher-power magician.

In this situation, Bio Ignition has no effect on the coast fence.

Some landing units he led were magicians with ranged attack capabilities. However, Mimas
ordered the destruction with conventional weapons impatiently just because he could not
destroy with his own magic.

26
​生体発火; seitai hakka; Bio Ignition, as literal would be Living Body Ignition, which is different
with 人体発火; jintai hakka, as literal would be Human Body Ignition; or as we know as Human
Ignition, which Minoru often used as variant of Spark
27
​The actual line: 魔法という技術の不思議なところだ hahaha
28
​This paragraph phrases the 事象干渉力 which Phenomenon Interference Power instead of 事
象改変力 which Phenomenon Rewriting Power. Is this a new term?
"Begin landing!"

As soon as the onboard boat came alongside, Mimas ordered that. Perhaps his mind full of
taking revenge, he could only see what's in front of him. He didn't order to search for an enemy
which should be done before landing.

Soldiers climb up to the quay one after another from the onboard boat. No, maybe it should be
said as "jump down" because the deck is at a higher level than quay. In fact, many soldiers were
just jumping from the berth to the paved quay. They didn't seem much to be alert, perhaps
they're influenced by Mimas’ proactive attitude.

Suddenly, a storm of arrows attacked the landing squad.

It's not raining down.

Arrows with each of it having length about 50 centimeters were raining horizontally from the
side.

A total of thirty arrows fly from the shadow of the warehouse at short intervals. The magician
members in the squad quickly responded by putting up a barrier. However, as it's not fast
enough, one thirds of total members were injured because of the arrows.

No one was fatally injured, but more than 10% of the troops were incapacitated. Those 6 people
were pierced in their legs and abdomen.

"Aim for that corner with grenades! Those who can use healing magic take care of the injured.
Then bring back the injured who are difficult to continue to the landing boat!"

According to Mimas' command, the landing members start to move at once. Eighteen
non-magicians changed their weapon from assault rifle to grenade launcher and stepped
forward to take a knee-firing position. Behind them, two magicians rushed to give healing
treatment between the ten people who were slightly injured, among the 6 of seriously injured, 3
of them are magicians. These total 5 magicians aren't parasites.

Two non-commissioned officers stood beside the shooters who struck the knee-firing position.
One of them swings down one hand with the command "Shoot!" Nine shots of grenades were
fired at the same time with no gap between them.

The nine soldiers who had finished shooting stepped back together after that with another
non-commissioned officer raised one hand to signal. That stance was for checking the shooting
target where dust blew in that position and that officer shouted, "Sergeant!".

"There's no sign of enemy shooter."

Mimas took his binoculars to see. There's no sign of humans on the other side of the collapsed
wall because of the grenade. He couldn't find the dead body either.

"Stop firing"

Immediately after Mimas ordered so. A flock of arrows attacks again, bypassing the wall.

Mimas understood why they couldn't find the shooter. Its trajectory is bent using magic. The
arrows interfered using magic, sending its trajectory to come from the warehouse.

"Shield!"

Mimas' reaction was immediate but it couldn't be said fast enough to completely block the
attack. In this third volley, more than 20 people were injured, including the soldiers who had
grenade and the commisioned officer, with 11 of them incapacitated.

Including the first seriously injured, there are 17 withdrawals. It has exceeded one-third of this
landing force. With these casualty rates, it should be normally to consider for full-retreat.

Perhaps even Guam couldn't overlook their misery. An unmanned aerial vehicle, which was
escorting Mimas' boat, passed by. Probably it would attack from the sky to wipe out any enemy
in the perimeter.

However, of the six unmanned aerial vehicles that sent out, half of those, three units engulfed in
fire and dropped one by one.

No missile attacking the unmanned aerial vehicle in sight.

No sound of any mechanical muzzle could be heard too.

"Phonon Maser ...?"

Mimas muttered that in doubt. The Phonon Maser itself is not a rare magic. It's required for a
high Phenomenon Interference for invocation. However, the content of Phenomenon rewriting is
relatively simple. Simply said, it's just raising the sound waves' frequencies to the limit.

However, in practice, the expression of "to the limit" itself was the bottleneck.

In order to shoot down a highly mobile unmanned aerial vehicle, it is necessary to generate a
sufficient amount of heat with a single moment of irradiation. It is different from an attack on a
fixed target. In order to obtain such power, it's not exaggerated that it requires a number of
frequencies to be "super frequencies", with also the required high Phenomenon Interference
power.

(There is no information that Shiba Tatsuya can use the phonon maser)

(Shiba Miyuki should be good at large-scale cooling magic)

(In addition to those two, there was a combat magician who could use magic with such high
power ...)

(Yotsuba ... They're too dangerous!)

In the mind of Mimas, apart from the revenge for Tatsuya, a sense of urgency arose.

The rest three unmanned aerial vehicles pulled up. The operator would have determined that
those would just sink without being able to mop the enemy out.

In the meantime, volley of arrows continued.

(I / we will go by ourselves)

Alejandro Mimas called on a parasite of the same unit as a reminder.

(I agree with Alejandro's / our decision)

(I agree)

(I agree)

(I agree)

(Me / Let's go by ourselves)

(Let's go)

(Let's go)

(Let's go)

Eight parasites responded to Mimas's Mind Link.

"Sergeant!?"
A third-class sergeant, a magician who is not a parasite as Mimas' assistant, calls out to Mimas,
who suddenly starts moving forward, with a loud voice.

"Sergeant Colombo, I transfer the control to you. Return with the remaining soldiers."

Mimas replied to the third-class sergeant without stopping, and plunged into a storm of arrows
with eight parasites of Stardust members.

◇◇◇

A food warehouse located about 50 meters away from the coastline. Tsutsumi Kanata, who shot
down three unmanned aerial vehicles from the roof, noticed a strange sign of magic
approaching from the quay.

"This is ... presence of parasites?"

Kanata has a habit of thinking aloud in order to digest the information obtained during the battle.
Even now it was leaking out of his mouth as a soliloquy.

"They're able to block those arrows which have been strengthened with high piercing power
using inersia-control magic. So in terms of raw magic power they're as strong as Shibata's
army."

The Shibata family is a branch of the Yotsuba clan that has been maintaining their private army.
They're specialist in front-liner and base defense rather than assassination and sabotage.

The Shibata family as magic combatants (magicians that don't use mental interference magic) is
number one of all of the branch families. They even might surpass the main family's mercenary
army.

Parasites have power comparable to the magicians who make up the core of the Shibata family.
Kanata was able to evaluate it after clashing its magic.

"It's better to lend them a hand."

The defense combatants and parasites aren't in contact yet. However if it became a melee fight,
the combatants would have the struggle fight.

The both side, parasites and Kanata, were located where they cannot see each other. However
for Kanata, who is the 2nd generation of adjusted body magicians of Musician Series, had a
high aptitude to vibration system magic that interferes with sound. It's easy for him to get the
information such as position, shape, movement based on sound reflection.
He could also snipe with magic based on that information.

Kanata shot the non-lethal magic Echo Cannon aiming at the rear of parasites formation instead
of at the front.

There are three reasons for choosing non-lethal magic instead of the highly lethal Phonon
Maser.

First, Phonon Maser is pinpoint targeting magic, during its invocation, parasites are possibly
able to detect it and it would be easily evaded. While Echo Cannon needs to point at the target
too, however it has a certain range of effect.

The second is to measure the physical endurance of parasites. Echo Cannon is magic that
temporarily disrupts the functions of the human body. If the parasite's physical structure and
physical strength are not different from those of humans, the Echo Cannon will work as usual.
This will be useful information for future-battle against parasites whether it's effective or not.

The third is to slow down parasites' advance. If he killed one of them, they probably just left the
dead body without slowing down, moreover, it's possible they would pick up the speed instead.
However if it's only a paralysing attack, they had to slow down to cover the affected comrades.

Kanata continued with casting the magic of Active Sonar in order to confirm the effect of the
Echo Cannon.

◇◇◇

Suddenly, Mimas sensed a magical sign above his head. Even if it’s said overhead, it is not right
above him. It is around the end of their double column formation.

Even if they are the same parasite, their specifications depend on the level of assimilated
humans. The level of innate possession of Stars members is clearly higher than that of Stardust,
even at the satellite level. Stardust's fighting power was forcibly increased by biochemical
enhancement, and such boosts are not reflected in the parasite's ability. For this reason, it was
only Alejandro Mimas who caught the sign of magical activation.

Since the parasites share consciousness, the information was instantly transmitted to the other
eight bodies.

However, the information about the triggering point is just relative to the Mimas' body.

One consciousness but different body.

Since they're trying to avoid the magic according to the detected point, it just results in
confusion.

A blasting sound hits the last two in the row from above of them.

One of the parasites just got scratched but the other one was hit cleanly by Echo Cannon.

Not only hearing-sense but the whole body is overrun by sound, and the connection between
the mind and the body is partially cut off.

Its effect is shared across parasite consciousness.

In particular, the eight parasites, including Mimas, who are currently acting together, were
greatly affected.

The individual who received the direct hit had only a temporary immobilization of part of their
body.

However, the other seven had the unpleasant illusion of a physical defect.

The parasite, whose body is a spiritual life form, gains its inner body by assimilating with
humans and becomes a stable existence in this world. It's an unstable state if it drifts only using
the spiritual body. One of the reasons why it inhabits even closed container machines such as
Pixie or Parasite-Doll is because it prefers to have stable state.

For the spiritual body, "unstable" means "uncertain". Having a body is a way to reach that
stability, so having a physical defect on the body = being not stable which leads to anxiety.29

This was unexpected for Kanata, that his Echo Cannon caused parasites' anger and hatred.

(I / individual name Alejandro Mimas eliminates this enemy)

Mimas, who detected the magical source, announced his determination to go kill Kanata.

(I / we will help with the movement)

Another parasite offered to Mimas, whose mobility using magic is lowered because he's
preparing Bio Ignition, to support his movement.

(Let move)

29
​不安定➝不安; unstable ➝uncertain/anxiety
(Make movement)

As the subjective and objective exchanged in mixed thought, Mimas' body disappeared from the
street.

◇◇◇

"What!?"

(I have been found out!?)

Kanata screamed with his voice and thought as a strong presence coming straight toward him in
the food warehouse.

They're about 250 meters apart from each other. As magicians, that distance is the same as no
distance at all, however it's not like that in case that both sides cannot detect each other. Kanata
who understood this took extra steps when launching the surprise attack, by suppressing his
presence ― for example psion emission energy caused by psychological state ― carefully in
order to hide the origin of magic invocation.

Nevertheless, this parasite is definitely heading for Kanata. This means that this parasite's
magical detection power exceeds his concealment steps for invoking magic.

He didn't mean to understate the opponent however he had no choice to admit he's not careful
enough.

At the same time, he decided to fight this parasite instead of running away. If he left this parasite
alone, there would be great damage to all magicians' allies here. Of all the magicians in charge
of this area, Kanata has the highest fighting power. It's this sense of responsibility that makes
him decide to hold the enemy here.

It took less than five seconds for Kanata to decide to fight. After his decision, the enemy was
already near him.

(―Now!)

Parasite shows up on the roof where Kanata is.

At the same time, Kanata released Phonon Maser.

In two jumps, Mimas arrived at the enemy, who had launched a surprise attack.

At that moment, he sensed an attack magic and raised his arms in front of his vital point.
His left arm is heated as it's covering his heart.

Mimas cut the sensation of his left arm.

It was after his left arm burned to the elbow that he recognized that the attack was a Phonon
Maser aimed at his heart.

The reason why his arm was not penetrated is because the vacuum shield, a magic that
developed for STARS and anti-heat forearm protector provided for US Army Special Forces
members. As a parasite, although many other his magic skills are greatly reduced, the vacuum
shield is the most popular magic within STARS that can be used as offensive magic like
compressed air bullet and also it can be a defense magic like compressed air shield.

Still, it is a serious injury that causes third degree burn30 to the elbow. Normally, it's so painful
that normally no one can move.

However, since parasites are originally a spiritual lifeform, they have the ability to block physical
sensations to prevent extra damage to their main, mental body. They may be incapacitated
when the cutoff is not in time, but it does not mean that they cannot fight enduring the pain.

To prevent the enemy's second shot, Mimas first set a sight on the right arm of Kanata, who
was pointing a CAD in the form of a handgun, and invoked Bio Ignition.

"Guaaaaa!"

Kanata screamed. He was down to his knees with his protruding his right arm forward.

It's not because he was careless. He knew that the parasite, who was hit with Phonon Maser
and used his left arm as shield, was also trying to counterattack with magic.

But it's the parasite that's faster. Kanata already reached the stage of reading the activation
sequence to shoot 2nd Phonon Maser. Regardless of that, it's the parasite who finished the
magic invocation first.

Kanata didn't feel it hot. The severe pain struck him and only the feeling of pain sticking on his
mind.

It was a moment when his arms were wrapped in flames.

30
​A third degree burn is also called a full thickness burn. Your skin contains 3 layers. A third
degree burn occurs when all 3 layers are burned. This may also include damage to the bones
and muscles. A third degree burn is the most serious type of burn.
[4]
Oahu, Hawaii, noon on July 29, local time. Japan time July 30 at 7 a.m.

Edward Clark, Brazilian State Strategic-Class Magician Miguel Diaz, his brother Antonio Diaz,
and together with several parasites set sail for Japan on an assault landing ship Guam with two
accompanying destroyers.

The Japanese military's intelligence department knew the departure of Guam itself. But they
didn't have any information about Clark or any other additional crew.

They never knew the Guam target was Japan. At this point, the Japanese military thought that it
was just a normal training voyage.

◇◇◇

In contrast to the Japanese military, the New Soviet Union intelligence department was able to
grasp the information about Edward Clark and Miguel Diaz sailing on the assault landing ship
Guam. It's limited only that information however Bezobrazzof, who was staying in Khabarovsk,
was able to infer accurately that Guam target was to kill Shiba Tatsuya.

Bezobrazzof's authority in the New Soviet Union is unrelated to his painful defeat against
Tatsuya. Even with his speculation, he had enough power to move the military.

The Eastern Siberian Command in Khabarovsk, following Bezovrazov's advice, launched the
latest state-of-the-art missile submarine, Kthozov, from the Kamchatka Peninsula and began
preparing for the launch of a supersonic missile deployed at the Birobidzhan base. Both targets
are Miyakijima in Japan.

In this Miyakijima surprise attack, Bezobrazzof was doing a better move than Edward Clark and
the Japanese military. However, even he couldn't guess that this proceeding would overturn the
very root of America military policy opposition against Japan.

◇◇◇

The USNA Federal Joint Chiefs of Staff's headquarters base is located on the outskirts of
Roswell, New Mexico. It is not the old Air Force which Roswell Incident is famous for.

New Mexico local time July 29 at 5 p.m. Japan time July 30 at 7 a.m. A small VTOL has arrived
at the STARS headquarters.
The magician who turned into a parasite does not need CAD, and the magic activation speed
improves.

Although he invoked magic with more power than necessary, Mimas was able to complete Bio
Ignition faster than Kanata's magic invocation.

Mimas invoked Bio Ignition.

He expected that Kanata's whole body would be burned in an instant, or it's supposed so.

"What?"

But nothing happens. Certainly there was a response that the magic was activated, but it was
canceled just before it became a Bio Ignition phenomenon and became reality.

The magic has been erased.

By someone.

Mimas hurriedly turned around.

He didn't feel a presence or anything. It's just a purely intuitive move.

Behind him was a figure in a battle suit with armored protection.

Since that guy was wearing a helmet, the face was hidden. From the silhouette, the gender is
probably man.

He extends his empty handed right hand toward Mimas.

(this man―!)

He doesn't know who it is, but Mimas intuitively understood that this man erased his magic.

Mimas aims at Bio Ignition to the man in the helmet.

At this moment he forgot about Kanata.

Blood suddenly gushes from Mimas' eyes, ears, nose, and mouth as he turns his back to
Kanata.

Mimas' body collapses forward.

Then there was a burnt hole on his head.

Kanata was also lying down, as if he was relieved to see the death of the enemy.

Mimas was defeated by Kanata's Phonon Maser who squeezed his last power and released it.

It was the result because Kanata didn't stop his Phonon Maser invocation even when he's
exposed to Mimas' Bio Ignition.

Phonon Maser that Kanata shot with his line of sight, brilliantly pierced Mimas' head back and
burned his brain. The blood that sprouted from the facial hole in the parasite was pushed out of
the skull by the boiling of the brain serum.

If the brain is destroyed, the parasite will also die physically.

However, that alone does not destroy the parasite. They just get out of the corpse.

Parasite, which has returned to the spiritual body, tries to possess a living human in search of a
host that replaces the body that has become a corpse. Below the parasite, which was "Mimas" a
few seconds ago, an unconscious human body is lying down.

Following its instinct for existence stability, the parasite tried to inhabit Kanata's body. However
when the parasite tried to move in, it suddenly lost its very framework structure of psion body
information which was used as medium for pushion body information.

The psion information body, which is the framework for existence, has been shattered into
pieces.

The spiritual life forms, whose need for a scaffold platform to exist in this world have been
destroyed, are swallowed by the invisible whirlpool and disappear.

The parasite, which was dwelling on Sergeant Alejandro Mimas, a Satellite-class magician,
vanished from our universe.

(Confirmed, parasite disappears)

Tatsuya killed the parasite using Astral Dispersion, and with his left hand, he pulled out a
gun-shaped CAD from his waist, his favorite Silver Horn Custom Trident, and headed to where
Kanata fell down.

Invoking Regrowth.
The unit, which clearly aircraft from the Federal Army but the staff in the base never been
informed of such a visit, made a sudden landing.

The small aircraft that landed without planned and without informing their visit purpose made the
marshala (runway guide personnel) and maintenance personnel dissatisfied and uneasy for the
unplanned overtime job.

Within those glances, an officer at prime age descended from the unit.

Saw that, there's a rustle around those personnel.

The rustle changed to commotion after the appearance of a young woman descending.

Both of them were well known among those personnel.

The first tall man to come down was Major Benjamin Canopus, captain of the STARS First
Corps.

The second red-haired, masked woman was Major Angie Sirius, commander of the STARS.

Staff were whispering to confirm among themselves.

However those whispering suddenly died down after the appearance of the third person.

That old gentleman is a famous and high-profile politician that is well known even among
younger generations who usually don't have much interest in political issues. For someone who
is related to the military, it's a well known person even if they're not an officer there. He's
Senator Wyatt Curtis who is also rumored to be CIA director behind the scene.

Canopus and Angie Sirius, which Lina in her disguise form, immediately were able to meet
headquarters commander, Walker. It happened so as Wyatt Curtis pushes through.

In the commander's office, Lina meets Walker across the desk.

Walker's deputy stands behind him while Canopus and Curtis behind Lina. Walker offered Curtis
to wait in a separate room but Curtis declined it and sat on a cushioned chair.

"Major Sirius, have you completed Colonel Balance's task?"

To Lina who gave the salute silently with shining golden eyes, Walker asked that after replying
to Lina's salute.
 ◇◇◇

Seven parasites attack the defense combatants who are armed with crossbows.

The defense combatants intercept them by throwing away the crossbow and directly firing
arrows using magic, but they're at disadvantage. One by one, they are fallen on parasites
onslaught.

"Oh, not again!"

Erika, who was watching the scene on the shelter's large display, screamed.

"Ngh ... Where's the reinforcement?"

Leo, who was beside her, leaked that line with a vexing expression.

"Their level entirely different with parasites we fought before┅┅"

Mikihiko is still calmer than the two, but he was surprised too.

"I can't stand it anymore! Minami, open the door!"

Erika stands up and yells at Minami.

Minami wasn't upset when she got yelled at by Erika.

"Where are you going?"

"Helping out of course!"

To Erika's answer,

"Where are you going?"

Minami once again asked the exact same question.

"Wha┅┅"

"Currently, there are nine battles on the island. Three of them are at disadvantage. However,
reinforcements have already started going for those places. It seems that the battle situation will
be reversed soon."

Minami explains the current situation while Erika was speechless.

"Then what's with that battle we see? Just leave it alone?"

Erika, who lost her momentum, asked with doubtful tone.

"Soon."

As expected, Minami wasn't even fazed.

She answered that while looking at the console, not at Erika. The data displayed there may give
Minami's confidence.

"What's soon!?"

"He has arrived."

The gaze of the Minami moves from the small monitor on the console to the large display on the
wall.

Erika was baited as she moved her eyes too.

At that time.

There's a figure shown in the frame display clad with a dark-colored battle suit.

"Tatsuya-kun!?"

The battle suit that Tatsuya wore earlier. Even if the face was hidden in a helmet, Erika and his
friends immediately knew who it was.

Tatsuya swings his empty right hand, toward the parasite.

With that alone, more than half of 7 parasites, 4 parasites disappeared.

The three people who saw that opened their eyes wide.

"What the hell is that┅┅"

Stunned, Leo murmured.

"Tatsuya-sama's suit has built-in for Thought-Operated CAD."

Minami immediately adds commentary.

Due to Balance's task, Lina was able to flee to Japan while avoiding the suspicion of defecting.
Walker's question was a kind of sarcasm.

"I have the permission of Colonel Balance for this return home."

Lina answered flatly. That line was giving a hint of not only Colonel Balance on her side, but
also Senator Curtis.

"So, what do you want? Very likely this is not just simple reporting back home."

Walker urged Lina to get into the main issue, giving pressure as a high ranking officer, glanced
at Curtis behind her. But Lina didn't cower because of that and immediately responded.

"Colonel Walker, when you're in a position to suppress the rebellion as base commander, but
you instead conspired with those rebels to give Major Canopus false accusations. There's also
suspicion that you supported Captain Vega and Captain Arcturus for illegal operations attacking
our allies' country."

"What a ridiculous thing to say.."

Walker replied while giving an intimidating look to her.

"Captain Vega's action sprung out because of serious allegations that Major Sirius is a
Japanese magician mole. Are you accusing her and Captain Arcturus as rebels to hide those
allegations?"

"Then, let's have the internal inspector general decide which case is legitimate."

"No, that's..."

Internal inspector general was formed after the last war ended, which was tasked to find out
illegal activities within the military. The second highest command there is Colonel Balance.

It's to find out the spy and rebel within the military. Since it has its own department to handle
such cases, it's correct for Lina to bring that out. But with Balance on Lina's side, he prefered to
avoid those internal inspector generals even though he never did something illegal.

"Why don't we hear the Joint Chiefs of Staff's decision before you go into the judicial process?"

It was Senator Curtis who helped Walker, with that line.

"It's as Mr Senator said. Let's ask them tomorrow morning."

Tatsuya raised his right arm straight above his head. The reason why he didn't use gun-shaped
CAD is because the parasite does not actually exist in physical dimension, no linkage to its form
in physical dimension. For this kind of target, using aim-assistance specialized CAD would just
actually hinder him.

(Pushion Information Body Support Structure Decomposition Magic, Astral Dispersion ―

Activate)

Aiming at all 7 spiritual lifeforms, he swinged down his right arm to horizontal position.

Astral Dispersion has been activated.

The bodies of the parasites are swallowed by invisible vortices. These vortices are probably a
dimensional passage leading to the world where parasites originally existed. The destruction of
the psion information body, which served as the anchor that holds parasites in this world, has
been destroyed, and the bodies of parasites are being drawn into the world it should be.

Seven parasites disappear.

Annihilated from the material and information dimensions that make up our universe.

Tatsuya's magic destroyed the parasite.

The display in the shelter where Erika and others changed because this magic, Astral
Dispersion, shouldn't be shown.

This should not be shown to Mikihiko especially. It's the decision between Maya and main family
researchers.

Astral Dispersion is a magic that interferes with the mind, though indirectly, that the main family
has not finished analyzing yet. They thought that if ancient magicians knew about this magic,
they could create variations in techniques that could threaten the Yotsuba family.

Minami was strictly ordered to switch the display if the physical body of parasites have been
destroyed and she put the relay program to the display to do as such.

◇◇◇

Perhaps the most powerful enemy of the US troops rushing to Miyakijima is the landing boat
headed by Captain Stars Commander Orlando Rigel.
The US military did not evenly divide its forces in the formation of this surprise attack operation.
Rigel's units also include Lt. Ian Bellatrix and Lt. Samuel Alniram of the same Stars Sixth Corps.
It may have been taken into consideration that these three people were good at the group battle
originally, but they put together the only three Stars members who participated in one group.
Inevitably, the force was outstanding compared to other units.

Despite that, the landing forces commanded by Captain Rigel are unable to proceed further
along the coastal road.

Shibata Katsushige stood in front of Rigel, Bellatrix, and Alniram.

◇◇◇

"―strong"

Mikihiko expressed his admiration while watching scenes that have been switched.

"He's definitely not an average ┅┅"

While Leo growls, Erika silently stares at the display.

Now, the camera is relaying the battle pattern of a garrison led by Katsushige who left the
mobile base.

"... Sakurai. Who is this person? Are these strong people can be found easily in Yotsuba?"

“Shibata Katsushige-sama is the one of the Yotsuba-branch's next head family. I'm told that his
power is among the top ten in the family.”

“Wao! Yotsuba top ten. But I'm convinced. I'm relieved."

Leo utters a reassuring voice as the Minami answers.

"Why are you relieved? The fact that he's in the top ten, means there are 9 other people about
his level in the Yotsuba family. I can't feel relieved at all."

But the relaxed air quickly disseminated in the words of Erika, who broke the silence. The
reason why Leo didn't argue was probably because he agreed with Erika's point.

"... But I don't understand. With that much strength, I think he could easily win when fighting at
the coast."

Or maybe there's another objective so the fight had to be moved to this point.
Walker said that to get out of this predicament. No, he's using those very lines to push through.

"We don't have to wait until tomorrow."

But the situation wasn't heading to what Walker wanted.

"But sir. It's almost 19:00 at the Pentagon."

"Colonel, don't worry about that. Through my secretary, I have the members of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff stay in the office."

With that said, Curtis instructed Canopus to connect the communication line to the Joint Chiefs
of Staff.

Canopus immediately executed the instructions. He pushed Walker's deputy back - Canopus
has higher rank than him - opening the direct line of The Widget phone.

Among the large-scale monitors were the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Vice
Chairman, and the Army Chief of Staff.

With this unexpected view, Walker lost words.

Lina took the lead at this opportunity.

"I'm sorry for taking your time when you're busy, Mr. Chairman. I'm Major Angie Sirius."

"Major Sirius, I've heard this case from Colonel Balance, but we'd like to get an explanation from
you directly."

"Yes sir!"

Before Lina was starting to explain.

"Please wait, Mr. Chairman"

Walker who recovered from his shock tried to stop her.

"Colonel Walker, we'll hear your claim later. First, it's Major Sirius."

However Walker failed to do so and had to back down after what Army Chief of Staff.

"Major Sirius."
However, landing directly on the west coast isn't a good idea either. The buildings on the west
coast are known to be highly defended because it's used as a magicians prison. There will also
be a firearms defense system installed.

On the other hand, the north coastal road is a road connecting the old prisons facility on the
west and Stellar Furnace facility on the east with a good view. Here, they won't have to worry
about ambushes or facing the artillery bombardment from the naval defense system. It's also
highly possible the target himself will come to intercept.

Using that reasoning, Rigel decided the landing site would be north coast using the east
coastline route. They had a hard time getting over the sea-wave shield, but after that there's no
ambush and magic attack and they safely landed there.

This proceeded well so that in contrast made him doubt that "this too easy."

Leaving the operating crew on board the boat, the moment the whole landing force crossed the
embankment and stood on the road, they’re attacked with a blast of wind mixed with stones.

What was released to the landing forces was the compressed air bullet, the most popular
offensive magic. Cold lava stone was mixed with compressed air bullets, when it impacted the
target, the compressed state immediately released with the stone crushed and blowing out the
gravel.

It's a technique commonly used on the battlefield to fly a nail or a piece of iron together with an
air mass to increase the magical attack power32. This island is originally made from cold lava
stones. Any number of gravel materials can be procured. It can be said that it is still humane,
because the lava used wasn't burning.

However, because of this attack, they lost half of landing unit strength. All that remains is
magicians who realized the magic activation and put up a shield in time and parasites that are
able to ignore the wound. The non magician soldiers were incapacitated. There are few deaths
but the wounded are moaning in pain with cold lava gravel hitting their body, falling down with
blood.

Rigel wasn't just sitting there doing nothing. As mentioned above, this place has a good view. At
the time of landing, the enemy's figure, which was hidden in the hole dug out over the hill and
could not be seen, is now visible as it emerged from the trench to pursue.

Rigel ordered his unit to fight back, and himself cast magic on the enemy.

32
​it's shrapnel.
But his magic was hampered by a tall young magician at the front of the interceptor.

Rigel's average height is 175 cm, but his lieutenant Alniram is 183 cm, and Bellatrix is 184 cm.

But the young man who stopped his magic was even taller. Perhaps his height is close to 190
cm. Even among the enemies, he is the tallest. He may be standing on a hillside that is higher
than the road. Rigel could only see it as literally "stand on their way."

"What a damn magic power!"

Bellatrix's cursing reached Rigel's ears. Rigel was exactly thinking so.

Now, Alniram joins in and three people are shooting the magic, but the defense of the young
magician does not even budge. On the contrary, despite three-to-one, Rigel, Bellatrix, and
Alniram all had to interrupt their attacks and devote themselves to defend from the young
magician counterattack within the gap in their attacks.

(I / we will use Thunder. Match it.)

(Roger)

(Roger)

Rigel et al, shot the young magician―Katsushige with release-type magic Thunder at the same
timing by sharing consciousness between parasites.

As expected, they're members of Planet-class STARS, unlike the satellite-class Mimas, these
three people are not significantly affected by the parasitization, which limits the types of magic
that can be used.

No, they may have been affected a little. However, since these three people were originally able
to use many kinds of magic, the reduced magic skill because of parasitization wasn't
significantly shown.

Anyway, three people chose the same magic, were able to avoid any reduction of power
because of interference of magic activation, and to amplify its effect.

Unfortunately, the synergized attack doesn't be amplified exponentially but it's simply added to33.
Even so, the electric shock force, that is triples compared to attacking it alone, is flowing down
overhead of Katsushige.

33
​it's not Thunder³ but simply 3 x Thunder
Prompted by the chairman of the headquarters again, Lina described Walker's charges related
to the rebellion by the parasite members.

Even though he should have to suppress those rebellions, he instead conspired with those
parasites.

Canopus who went against those parasites was detained under false charge in Midway prison,
together with Lieutenant Algol and Lieutenant Saura.

They ordered as if STARS was their private force and illegally dispatched to Japan and
Northwest Hawaiian islands.

Lina especially emphasized the part where Canopus was imprisoned under false charges and
argued that his honor should be restored.

The Army Chief of Staff, who had heard Lina's accusations with an uncomfortable expression,
asked "Any rebuttal?" to Walker.

Of course, Walker pleaded not guilty.

"The Joint Chiefs of Staff have no record of dispatching Captain Arcturus, Capt. Vega,
Lieutenant Regulus, Lieutenant Spica and Lieutenant Deneb. What does this mean?"

However, the vice chairperson pointed out,

"It seems the charges on Major Canopus were done informally, what urgency did you need to
resort to that extent?"

Against those questions, Walker wasn't able to answer to convince those two both. The Joint
Chiefs of Staff Chairman and the vice Chairman had enough material from Colonel Balance,
who received Senator Curtis' intention, to judge Colonel Walker as a criminal.

"Colonel Walker. I'm afraid your claims are not convincing enough to dismiss Major Sirius's
accusations."

As the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff sighed, he made that conclusion.

"Colonel. From this point, you're relieved from your duty as STARS headquarters commander.
Report to the Internal Inspector General department tomorrow noon."

"― Understood."
The three parasites poured most of their magical power into the Cooling Field in order to escape
from the high heat.

Thanks to that, the air in their field is kept at around 30 degrees Celsius, which is the same as
the outside temperature.

But of course that Katsushige's attacks didn't end there.

Suddenly, the pressure that was tightening them disappears.

The pressure is not the only thing that disappears. Immediately after that, temperature returned
to their original levels due to the end of the magic, the sudden change of temperature became a
threat.

Because of the subsequent expansion of the air due to the decrease in density, a blast occurs
around them, and the landing members nearby are defeated. The pressure and temperature
dropped sharply around them centered at Rigel.

Now, Atmospheric pressure is reduced to one-third of normal, and temperature is dropped 50

degrees below zero. The three people ― three parasites that were casting the Cooling Field
cannot cope with this temperature change.

The parasites were frozen because they were covered with water droplets.

But Rigel wasn't dead yet.

Rocks about fifty centimeters in diameter form a flock and land on the landing forces, including
Rigel and others. Katsushige's subordinates took advantage of the enemy's turmoil to launch
that attack.

Rigel bounced off a rock on the course of hitting him directly, one meter ahead, in a frozen
state. He also protected Bellatrix as a result.

Not only that. Rigel melted his frozen body. Very likely that freezing stopped only at the skin. He
immediately started to confirm his subordinates' safety.

Following Rigel, Bellatrix also freed himself from the frozen state.

"Ian!"

Upon seeing it, Rigel called out Bellatrix's first name in a voice instead using Mind Link. "Thank
you Captain".
Bellatrix replies with thanks. Even in the frozen state, he was aware that he was protected by
Rigel from the rocks.

Rigel nodded to Bellatrix and turned to the other side.

"Sam!"

And raises a sad cry.

The head of Sam ― Samuel Alniram was crushed by rocks.

Unfortunately, a rock bullet hit him directly. Needless to know. It's instant death.

Recognizing that with his eyes, Rigel finally noticed that Mind Link was cut. The parasite that
lost its physical body would also lose thinking like humans. He couldn't get the signaling from
the pushion-wave of the parasite that lost the human body.

"Ian, let's go!"

"Yessir!"

Perhaps they communicated in voice because they didn't want to feel the loss of Alniram's
consciousness.

Rigel and Bellatrix started at the same time.

The battle style that the Sixth Corps, which was also called the Orion Team, is originally good at
is a close quarter combat that utilizes high mobility through self-accelerating magic. Up until
now, they had to go with medium-range attack because they couldn't ignore coordination with
the other landing soldiers in his squad.

But with the loss of Alniram, both Rigel and Bellatrix abandoned consideration of other
members. They were focusing on revenge by targeting only Katsushige. ―The magic that killed
Alniram was not what Katsushige had thrown directly, but it was undoubtedly him who created
the situation.

The Rigels quickly approached Katsushige. It wasn't that Katsushige's subordinates weren't
holding them back, but no one could keep up with Rigel and Bellatrix.

However, the two parasites suddenly collapsed within 5 meters.

They didn't fall but their steps suddenly tottered.

Walker responded with stretched back and high head as a sign of his pride.

The three executives nodded with satisfaction to his remarkable attitude. Then, on the monitor
screen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff looks to Canopus, who is standing behind Lina.

"Major Canopus. The false accusation imposed on you will be revoked under the authority of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff. At this moment, I declare here that the honor of the Major has been
restored."

"Thank you very much."

The chairman nodded toward Canopus and turned his eyes to Lina.

"Major Sirius. Until a formal successor is decided, I'd like to appoint you as the base commander
in addition to the commander of general captains."

"Not intention of being rude to you sir, but I still lack experience to be headquarter commander."

"So you admitted you lack experiences? What remarkable attitude."

Following the chairman who muttered that in an interesting manner, the vice-chair asked Lina.

"Major Sirius. Then who do you think is appropriate for the base headquarters?"

"I don't think I have authority to recommend someone outside of STARS."

Headquarters commander is outside the chain command of STARS so what Lina answered was
the correct thing to do in accordance to the rules.

"What Major said is reasonable, however right now we have an emergency situation, no need to
stick to the rules without context. Don't hesitate to say your recommendation."

"Yessir, with your encouragement. I believe Major Canopus is the fittest person to have the role
of headquarter commander considering his background from military academy with adequate
professional experiences.

Lina's opinion was a sudden one for Canopus. However for those executives, her opinion was
not something outlandish and a reasonable one. Those executives were whispered to each
other before making their decision.

"Let's adopt Major Sirius's opinion."

Minami answered Mikihiko's questions truthfully.

"Oh, right, using Seal Ball. Yeah, if it is, it's alright then."

"Seal Ball?"

"What is a Seal Ball?"

While Mikihiko was responding to both Erika's and Leo's questions, Minami was silent.

She answered honestly about who was dealing with the parasite, but she didn't explain how it
was dealt with, as instructed by the main family.

◇◇◇

9:30 am While the fierce battle continued on Miyakijima, the situation at the sea changed.

A huge lump of hydrogen plasma appeared above both on the destroyer Hull that was anchored
30 kilometers east of the island and the destroyer Ross that was stopped 30 kilometers west.

Needless to say, it is not a natural phenomenon. It is an artificial phenomenon created by two

magicians. The name of the magician who created the eastern plasma is Miguel Diaz. The west
magician is Antonio Diaz. These two were identical twins.

The magic casted by two magicians hasn't been completed yet. The plasma cloud, which once
grew to 50 meters in diameter, shrinks to 5 meters in diameter in seconds, correction, it's
compressed.34

Both plasma clouds, compressed into a perfect spherical shape, began to dash at exactly the
same rate at exactly the same time.

The plasma cloud above the destroyer Hull is to the west.

The plasma cloud above the destroyer Ross is to the east.

The two plasma clouds rush through the course of head-on collision at a speed that is more
than 10 times the speed of sound.

Tatsuya coincidently recognized the magic cast on the east and west seas when he'd just taken
out the parasites.

34
​Here's the actual line quote プラスマ雲が数秒で直径五メートルまで縮小、いや、圧縮され
る。
(Are they trying to make high-density hydrogen plasma collide above the Miyakijima?)

(Approximately 6 seconds until collision)

(Nuclear fusion does not occur even if it collides at this speed, but if you continue to apply
pressure from the east and west at the timing of the collision, the story changes)

(This is ... Synchroliner Fusion!?)

The time for thinking about 1 second. Five seconds left until the collision.

He didn't have time to estimate the exact explosive power it has, but considering Brazil's use
cases, it may reach at least a few kilotons of TNT equivalent, and possibly tens of kilotons.

Tatsuya didn't hesitate to use Gram Dispersion to nullify it.

(The basis of magic is plasma creation, diffusion prevention, activate)

(The very identical magics are used, with only the direction is reversed)

― The first step, the decomposition analysis of the magic sequence.

(Judging from the nature of this magic, erasing any one sequence of these magics can stop the
magic activation)

(But here, I'll erase both magic sequences)

― The second stage, aiming at the magical sequence to nullify.

― And the final stage.

(Gram Dispersion, activate)

At that moment, the luminous bodies flying at supersonic speeds over the east and west of
Miyakijima were scattered.

…… This is a bit of a pause, but at the meteorological observatory, which is observing Izu
Islands on a satellite, there was an out-of-season UFO turmoil.

However, destroyer Hull didn't realize as much as the meteorological observatory station and
there was no uproar.
However the factor this decision was made not solely on Lina's recommendation but also the
presence of Senator Curtis right there, who's been silently sitting on a cushioned chair.

"Major Canopus will be appointed as the base commander."

As the proof, the Chairman's eyes when nominating Canopus were directed to Curtis who sat
next to the standing Canopus.

"Major Canopus. A formal appointment will be made at a later date, but as you now are
appointed as the deputy commander, so you will be relieved of your duty as STARS First Corps
captain. At the same time, your rank will be promoted to the right rank for headquarter
commander."

When he heard that he's relieved as First Corps captain, Canopus tried to raise his dissent.
However before he was able to do that, the Army Chief of Staff spoke up following the Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"Up to now, your rank was limited in accordance to Major Sirius who was the general
commander. However according to your experiences and accomplishment, it's legitimate that
you've reached colonel rank. This is a good opportunity to correct previous mistakes. Think that
the 'deputy' in your position role name will be removed sooner."

"...... Yessir. Thank you very much Mr. Chairman. I gladly accept this appointment."

Canopus was making an upright and steady posture.

The chairman, vice chairman, and chief of staff nodded and the communication was cut off.

While Lina and Curtis celebrate Canopus' appointment as The Base Commander and the
Colonel's promotion, Walker leaves the commander's office with his deputy.

Neither Lina nor Canopus stopped them.

"Ben. Please sit here."

Instead of stopping Walkers, Lina urged Canopus to sit down at the commander's desk. Wyatt
Curtis quickly stands and says "It's a problem if the commander seat is vacant."

In response to the pressure, Canopus sat down on the seat Walker was using.

Angie Sirius nodded satisfactorily and removed the mask.

"For the future too ―"

However, the lines following it break off unnaturally.

"Antonio?"

Miguel can't hear the contents from the speaker, but the buzzing sound is heard, so the
communication is not cut off.

"What happened, Antonio!"

"Major Diaz┅"

It wasn't his younger brother Antonio who answered Miguel's screams.

Miguel, who was attacked by an ominous feeling, holds his breath and waits for the next line.

"That ... Mr. Antonio suddenly disappeared."

"…What do you say?"

"Antonio Diaz left a small blast and disappeared in an instant!"

Miguel didn't immediately understand what he was saying.

"... does that mean my brother was bombed?"

"No, I think it's different. Let alone corpses or parts of his body, there's even no drop of blood
left. When I thought his body's silhouette was swaying, but there's wind and he disappeared! As
if he himself is turned into the wind!"

"┅┅"

"Major Diaz. What is happening? Is this your magic? Did Major realize the teleportation magic?"

"┅ No, I don't. I don't even know what ┅"

Perplexity runs through two destroyers.

The engineer in the destroyer Ross said that he was "turned into the wind and disappeared", is
correct, but no one of the two ships seriously thought about such a thing.

(Target is erased, confirmed)

Tatsuya, who killed Antonio Diaz using Mist Dispersion, puts back Silver Horn on his right hand
to his waist holster.

(Nevertheless, I never expected that Synchroliner Fusion was a magic that casted by a pair of
people)

The fierce battle continues on the island. It's not a situation where he can leisurely analyse the
magic.

Even knowing that, Tatsuya couldn't help thinking about the secret of the strategic-class magic
Synchroliner Fusion he had just acquired.

(Make plasma clouds run face-to-face with exactly the same magic to make a head-on collision.)

(It is a magic that will not happen if the course or timing is a little off.)

(Perhaps, it even needs a Magic Interference power at the same level too)

(In fact, the level of the Phenomenon Interference power contained in the magic of Miguel Diaz
and Antonio Diaz that I observed was completely the same.)

(The magicians I know who are likely to meet the conditions ...)

(…… Kasumi and Izumi may be able to use it)

"Tatsuya-sama."

At the same time that something that seems to be a conclusion came out, a communication
came in from Miyuki.

"What's happened, Miyuki?"

It was the right time to get out of his current thoughts. By responding, Tatsuya stored his
thoughts on Synchroliner Fusion into his memory and refocused his attention on the ongoing
battle.

“I felt strong magical power from the two destroyers that stopped east and west of the island. I
thought it was an attack on us, but did Tatsuya-sama prevent it?"

"Both are correct. The Synchroliner Fusion released from the destroyer was nullified using Gram
Dispersion."
The CAD is aimed at the destroyer which is projected on the screen. Miyuki, with his back
straight and in a neat posture, grasped the CAD grip with a powerless motion, and then silently
pulled the trigger.

All mechanical processes are handled automatically. There is no voice which reports the
processes step by step. The coordinate data is converted into activation-sequence format by
tactical computer in the command room then sent to CAD. Miyuki read the data which already
combined into the activation sequence in CAD.

There is one type of magic that can be selected with this CAD.

The aiming processes are handled by machine.

In order to reduce the burden of the caster, there's no variable for specifying range on this
magic. The circular effective area centered in the target range is defined according to Magic
Interference power used.

Miyuki only has to decide how powerful the magic is casted.

Since it was the first time to actually use it, she decided to activate magic with 80% of the
power. ―Except for the Spiritual Freezing magic, Cocytus, it is rare that she draws 80% of her
full power of Phenomenon Interference.

The Magic sequence construction is complete, and the first magic hits the target. Miyuki
certainly felt the response.

The magic effect didn't show up immediately. It was about 0.8 seconds after that the rewritten
phenomenon became reality. Considering that 0.5 seconds is a tentative measure of magical
activation flux, it's reasonably slow.

However, none of the people watching the main screen in the command room could afford the
extra thought. They were just holding their breath in the sight spread on the screen.

A piece of ice.

An ice field that fills up the screen.

The vast land of ice, which is not an ice island, that appeared in the midsummer sea.

The icy land which centered on the destroyer Hull spread in an instant and had grown to a
radius of 10 kilometers. It's obviously bigger than this island.

A new magic, Glacier Age, that's created by Tatsuya just for Miyuki.
As its name suggests, this magic, as if recreating the Ice Age rather than the coldest winter of
the Arctic, was overkill for a single destroyer.

This magic is suitable for confining a large fleet.

The magic that makes a large fleet neutralized with a single blow.

If the magic is able to destroy a fleet-scale naval force with a single blow called Strategic-Class
magic, it invites a wondering question whether this magic, Glacier Age isn't considered as
strategic-class magic because of the difference between "destroying" and "neutralizing".

The staff, who were finally able to take their eyes off the sight of the shock of filling the main
screen, turned their awe to the Miyuki sitting at the back of the command room.

Miyuki, who was keeping a calm mental state, misunderstood the staff's line of sight as seeking
the next instruction.

"Put the destroyer on the west thirty kilometers to the main screen."

"Y-yes."

In response to Miyuki's order, the staff member in charge of the search system turned in hurry to
the console and operated it.

The ice island that contained the destroyer Ross had a radius of 5 km, and the ice field that
captured the assault landing ship Guam had a radius of 1 km. At the third time, Miyuki seems to
have finally grasped the power scale.

In less than a minute, the USNA surprise attack's naval forces were completely silenced.

◇◇◇

(I've predicted to some extent ... but this is completely at the strategic-class level. And, what's
more, it even exceeds the scale of the origin magic ...)

Looking at the Glacier Age when Miyuki activated it, Tatsuya had a headache in his mind.

Tatsuya compared it against Bezobrazzof's Tuman Bomba. Strictly speaking, it's his monologue
for comparing the scale of chain cast used in Tuman Bomba and Miyuki's Glacier Age.

(I didn't intend to flaunt the magical power needlessly, but it's Bezobrazzof who created this
chain cast system. He would have noticed that Glacier Age implemented the chain cast)
And of course Bezobrazzof must have noticed that Miyuki’s Glacier Age was better in terms of
scale than his Tuman Bomba.

(It's because he seems a man that is highly prideful ... I just hope this doesn't lit his annoying
competitive pride)

Though thinking so, Tatsuya was convinced that Bezobrazzof would intervene in this battle.

◇◇◇

(Again! Stolen again!)

Just as Tatsuya thought, Bezobrazzof sensed the activation of the Glacier Age. However, the
point which made him angry was a little different from what Tatsuya's thought. Bezobrazzof was
angry because part of his magic, Tuman Bomba, was used.

For Bezobrazzof, the magic linked expansion system that Tatsuya (personally) calls as the
chain cast is not an independent technique, but it's just only a part of Tuman Bomba. For him,
the Ocean Blast used by Ichijo Masaki and Miyuki's Glacier Age are magics that plagiarize
Tuman Bomba's process.

There is no intellectual property right like a patent right because magic developed for military
use is never revealed. Even if some part of the magic process is misappropriated, it is not
possible to claim infringement.

But emotions are another matter.

Just because he doesn't have legal rights on it, it doesn't mean he likes it if his original magic is
stolen. Especially the one who steals it is his hated enemy.

Originally Bezobrazzof intended to intervene in Clark's Miyakijima surprise attack on July 30th.
No, it may be more appropriate to describe it as "taking advantage" rather than "intervention."

No matter how many surprise attacks are done, it is just not enough simply using magic against
Shiba Tatsuya. Though it kinda offended him to admit, he couldn't turn his back from this fact.
His pride does not allow further defeat. Bezobrazzof decided to bring down Shiba Tatsuya
surely this time.

Bezobrazzof speculated that the reason why sudden surprises didn't work was because Tatsuya
was able to remember something like Bezobrazzof’s magic waveform. It was not Shiba Tatsuya
that prevented the first strike of the surprise attack on Izu. However, after the second shot, he
ate a painful counter before Tuman Bomba was completed. Perhaps magic has something like
a waveform peculiar to the magician who invoked it, and Shiba Tatsuya can recognize it.
Bezobrazzof thought so.

―If so, if he creates a situation where Tatsuya needs to take other urgent measures on a
battlefield where powerful magics fly around, he may be able to eliminate Shiba Tatsuya without
him even being aware of a surprise attack.

That was the conclusion made by Bezobrazzof. Following this idea, he was looking for
opportunities.

And there, a large scale magic using Tuman Bomba technology. He screamed in his heart
"chance!" while angry and crazy when he found that.

Bezobrazzof requested the military command department to carry out the plan prepared in
advance.

A hypersonic missile was launched from the Birobidzhan missile base, located 150 km west of
Khabarovsk, in accordance with an order issued by the Eastern Siberian Army Command. The
target is Miyakijima. The speed exceeds Mach 20 and it takes less than 5 minutes to land.

The Japanese Defense Force detected the launch of the missile, but gave up the interception as
soon as the expected landing point was determined. Even with modern technology, the chance
of succeeding in shooting down a hypersonic missile is about fifty percent. When it was
determined that it would not fall into the mainland, the Defense Force calculated to let it drop
into territorial waters and use this case as diplomatic material.

Three minutes after the Birobidzhan missile base launched a hypersonic missile, this time the
Kthozov, which was lurking in the sea forty kilometers south of Miyaki Island, surfaced to a
depth of 50 meters and launched bombardment missiles one after another.

Kthozov is the latest Soviet missile submarine. It can fire missiles from deeper depths as well,
but this time, low depth and short range attacks were selected to emphasize plan success
rather than concealment.

Six missiles were launched. It takes about a minute and a half to finally accelerate to Mach 2
and land on the west coast of Miyakijima.

◇◇◇

Tatsuya constantly allocates half of the capacity of his Elemental Sight to monitor any threat
targeting Miyuki. The target of monitoring is any physical phenomena or magical activation sign
that can harm Miyuki. Since it is not a foresight, he may not be able to notice remote magic that
jumps over a spatial distance and suddenly appears until it's activated, but if it is a physical
phenomena that is moving in the space continuum, he can certainly know that it's moving
toward Miyuki.

Even now Tatsuya was aware about the hypersonic missiles at the Birobidzhan base, and the
bombardment missiles from Kthozov at the time they were launched. He didn't destroy the
missile coming to Miyakijima immediately after launching because he felt he had to wait until the
last minute.

It's not like he has a concrete basis, it's just his intuition. It can be said also that this is his bet
because he's confident that he'd be on time.

However, He didn't really have enough time to say "I have been waiting."

A missile approaches the sky above the island.

(So this is the limit)

Tatsuya did not take the Silver Horn but used thought-operated CAD from his suit to cast
Decomposition.

He didn't use his hand to complement the image for aiming. He's aiming purely with magical
perception.

First, the six bombardment missiles are decomposed down into elemental levels.

Immediately, he's magically aiming at the hypersonic missile. While it is a missile that is difficult
to track with the interception system of the conventional weapon system, it is no different with a
fixed target for Tatsuya, who focuses on its information..

Like the bombardment missiles, this missile wasn't a nuclear missile.

Chemical weapons, biological weapons, and elements other than nuclear are also not included.

All missiles that target Miyakijima, broken in very small pieces at the sky above it ―― the
pieces meant are the pieces that decomposed close to atomic level.

◇◇◇

Bezobrazzof, using large-scale CAD for Tuman Bomba installed in Khabarovsk, sensed a magic
that Tatsuya casted over Miyakijima.

A magic with extremely strong phenomenon interference that crushes bombardment missiles to
the level close to molecules without leaving any fragments.
(Good, as calculated!)

Since this magic is so strong to extend the bending reality that much, it must be difficult to
differentiate with other magics, even if it's the caster's magic.

This was common sense for modern magic researchers, including Bezobrazzof.

(The influence of the large scale magic that frozen the USNA ship should still remain)

(Now is the opportunity!)

Bezobrazzof thought so immediately after the destruction of the missile fired from the submarine
Kthozov, just before the destruction of the missile fired from the Birobidzhan base.

Tuman Bomba has set its aim.

(Die!)

Bezobrazzof casted Tuman Bomba at the exact moment when Tatsuya's magic finished
destroying the hypersonic missiles.

◇◇◇

At the same time as casting Decomposition which targets hypersonic missiles, Tatsuya
recognized a magic sign that hasn't been activated yet and pulled out the Silver Horn with his
right hand.

With single action. He pulled a large gun shaped CAD with his fingers on the trigger and
extended it toward sky above his head

Tuman Bomba is an aggregation of many magic sequences. Moreover, the magical sequences
are subtly different from one another, and so those cannot be grouped and decomposed at
once. Tatsuya's Decomposition is only able to erase a part of it, but the countless remaining
magical sequences will be activated independently of it. In simple words, there are still 99
threats after taking out 1 from the 100 threats.

However, the magic chain expansion system, the process Tatsuya named it as Chain Cast,
begins with a single magical sequence. Before the chain unfolding, Tuman Bomba can be
nullified by destroying the first magic sequence, which should be called the Genesis. Since the
magic sequence structure has been obtained in the past battle, it can be nullified if the
coordinate of the Genesis magic sequence is known before the magic casted.
For example, like now.

―Tuman Bomba, activate.

―Gram Dispersion, activate.

Copying the sequence, rearrange it, and put it in adjacent coordinates.36

Before that process was completed, Tatsuya's Decomposition decomposed the psion of magic
sequence Genesis for each process it unfolds.

Bezobrazzof's Tuman Bomba was completely sealed by Tatsuya.

◇◇◇

(Not unfolded ……?)

(Is Tuman Bomba just erased ...?)

Certainly the response of Tuman Bomba that activated was lost, and Bezobrazzof was severely
upset.

(Impossible! How on earth!?)

(Did he destroy all thousands of individual magic sequences?)

(It's impossible. No human processing power is able to do that!)

(What kind of trick is used?)

(Did he create a virus that infected magic sequences unfolding at high speed?)

At the failure of his magic and that magic also his raison d'etre, he's completely deprived of his
consciousness.

Between his honest feeling of "Impossible" and "I don't want to believe" to scientist's pride of
"escaping from reality is unacceptable", Bezobrazzof was sandwiched between those both sides
of feelings.

36
​This is Tuman Bomba Genesis process
The only way to come to terms with feelings and pride was to convince himself by reasoning a
scientific explanation for the failure of Tuman Bomba.

He is unaware.

He's already been caught in magic.

The muzzle was aiming at his heart and the trigger was about to squeeze it.

◇◇◇

In late June, Tatsuya got this Russian magician's individual information after he was targeted by
Bezobrazzof during class time in First High.

When he was child at age of six, Tatsuya's mental structure was modified by his own mother as
the subject of an artificial magician experiment. Not all good things resulted from that, but since
then Tatsuya has been able to accurately put into and retrieve information from memory no
matter how complicated or how much the data.

Tatsuya found out that Bezobrazzof was in Khabarovsk laboratory using his information he got
previously. If he didn't get attacked two months ago, he wouldn't remember Bezobrazzof's
individual information and he wouldn't find his current location this easy. Since the remnant of
decomposed Tuman Bomba scattered in the information dimension, he could still also use those
to discover his position, but it wouldn't be this fast.

The time he needs to search may not be enough if the second or third wave missiles launched.
The resource for searching would be greatly reduced in order to handle incoming missiles, and
it's highly possible to lose the tracking while doing so.

Bezobrazzof sits in a box-shaped CAD, like a railroad container, in a robust building shaped like
an astronomical observatory.

It has a simpler structure than the CAD he saw before, but the basic functions seem to be the
same.

Last time, he only destroyed the connecting CAD and as result should damage the mental too.

That was to keep the world military balance intact.

But now he can't be that weak hearted anymore.

Since it's possible that he will face a harder future than now, he decided to cut off with
Bezobrazzof eternally, whether it's for himself or for Miyuki.
General Soga responds to Maya's greeting with a smile.

Contrary with his expression, General Soga was very wary. It's Maj. Gen. Saeki who is taking
action and leading the case of deploying troops on Miyakijima, a private island Yotsuba owned,
and Chief of Staff, Otomo who backed Saeki. Soga himself didn't express any opinions.

He didn't agree nor disagree.

However, as the Supreme Commander, he couldn't escape from responsibility to allow that
problem happening.

In the first place, what Soga wanted was to stop Saeki's move.

Certainly, it cannot be denied that the garrison should be stationed at a place that has just been
attacked by a foreign power. But it should be done in accordance with the law and he did not
recognize the urgency of having to resort to extrajudicial measures.

Whatever it is, Yotsuba themselves has power to defend the Miyakijima. It's true too that some
military executives don't happy to let private army to have such power. However what's more
important is the system of defending from foreign power itself working as intended and there's
no need to tweak the working system. As currently the relation between USNA-Japan military bit
of unstable and there's a fear of another invasion from New Soviet Union, there's no place for
authority struggle for them.

As others executives mentioned "this is about military's pride", it's hard for him to oppose the
idea. Another group, a group of legal staff argued "legal order is more important". Military too
doesn't want to have unnecessary conflict with their target to defend.

As a result, Soga was forced to approve this matter.

However, even that reasoning is not enough to convince the Yotsuba.

As he arrived at the same table as Maya and lifted the glass water to his lip, he was trapped in
that thought.

(If only there's something which I can push the blame to Saeki, the mastermind of this, I can
cancel those deployment problems...)

At the same time as Soga was languished.

"By the way, your Excellency, do you know that there are rumors like this? It's related to the
smuggling of the Great Asia Union magician, Lu Gonghu, earlier this month ..."
(Personal Data Fortification Decomposition Magic, construct)

With this he extended the thumb and all his right hand fingers extended.

Because the magic of decomposition for the information body was activated, the
Data-Fortification that protected Bezobrazzof's whole body fell off.

(Body information structure decomposition magic sequence, construct ― complete)

Tatsuya squeezed his right hand firmly again. It's like crushing something invisible.

Mist Dispersion hit Bezobrazzof's body directly.

◇◇◇

The magical defenses of Bezobrazzof's personal laboratory disappear.

The roof of the laboratory, the walls, all the structural materials and equipment, and furniture are
destroyed to sand.

The large CAD he was lurking into collapsed, losing its outline, the case, the console, and the
electronic circuits.

At this stage Bezobrazzof finally realized the strange happening. However, immediately after
recognizing it, he had been cut off the connection forcefully with the running CAD, and it greatly
impacted his mental state.

Perhaps he was fortunate that his consciousness had become uncertain and he was less in
pain and despair.

Bezobrazzof's vision of his body and his clothes became blurred, his form was distorted, its
color fading, and at a moment it burned together with a tiny fleeting flame, he disappeared from
this world.

◇◇◇

Even if Bezobrazzof is killed, the battle is not over. Parasites that have landed on the island
must also be cleared up, but Tatsuya's priority is the new Soviet base and submarines that have
launched missile attacks. These two both would be hard to be handled by anyone except
Tatsuya.
There's no option of not fighting back. Leaving it as it is would only invite more trampling. The
only one who protects your dignity is yourself. This is the same whether for individuals or
nations.

He picked up Silver Horn again. Unless it is an opponent with extremely strong magic power
such as Bezobrazzof, gun-shaped CAD is easier for aiming-image for long-range magic sniper.

Tatsuya turned back to the south. He knew that the submarine was lurking underwater there
after it launched the bombardment missiles. Not more than five minutes have passed since it
launched the missile. It shouldn't have gone far.

(―Ship name Kthozov. 40 km south of Miyakijima, depth of 50 meters in water. Currently

suspended)

The submarine Kthozov was not moving from where the missile was launched. Whether it's as
Tatsuya worried that it's preparing for second wave missile launching, or whether it's ordered to
observe the measure of the battle. In any case, it's good for Tatsuya having it staying in the
deep water.

(Retrieve submarine information structure)

Tatsuya investigated the structure of the submarine, paying particular attention to the propulsion
device.

The propeller of Kthozov is a non-electromagnetic water jet. Electromagnetic propulsion engines

are the mainstream in modern military fleets, but it's perhaps on the contrary using the
non-electromagnetic to avoid magnetic detection. Regardless of the reason, it's better for him
that the mechanical parts are replaceable. ― In terms of breaking it down.

(Decomposition level, disassembling parts)

Disassembling parts that are designed to be replaceable from the beginning is less difficult and
less burden for Decomposition.

Tatsuya pulled the Silver Horn trigger.

Massive damage to the Kthozov propulsion system happened. Although it does not cause fatal
damage to the hull, underwater repair is impossible.

If it's left like it is, it will be stranded on the sea. Kthozov, which doesn't have a nuclear engine,
also doesn't have a device for seawater-oxygen exchange. Eventually, the oxygen in the ship
would be exhausted and the crew would be wiped out. Kthozov has no choice but to surface.
"What kind of rumor is it?"

Soga's reaction was close to a mechanical one.

"It may not be a pleasant story to your Excellency."

"Hoo ... Now it makes me want to hear more about the content. I'm not someone who likes
avoiding listening to bad news."

"As expected, Your Excellency. It's a commendable attitude."

Soga's face relaxes because of Maya's praise. Even if the woman in front of him is known as a
monster that can easily ruin his life if she feels like it, her beauty is not something many people
have. Soga, even though he's a Supreme Commander of the Military, is a man too. So he feels
good when praised by a beauty.

"The content of the rumor is that some military general knew in advance of the smuggling of Lu
Gonghu, but that person just overlooked it."

"What did you say?!"

However, Soga's loose expression immediately disappeared because of what Maya said. If it's
true, it's nothing other than an act which gives advantage to foreign power.

"Just who did such a thing?"

"It's just a rumor ... Even so, do you want to hear it?"

"As your capacity of Yotsuba head, I don't think this is something that’s completely baseless."

"Yeah ... I had the family members investigate it out ..."

Soga leaned forward toward Maya as she deliberately muttered those words.

"By all means, please tell me"

"It's Her Excellency Saeki."

Maya this time didn't slide the matter longer.

“Saeki ...?"
Tatsuya casted Decomposition into target to the elemental levels.

In Birobidzhan, which is 1,700 kilometers away, six underground silos were blown away by
something other than missile malfunction.

None of the people at the site understood that it was an explosion due to a pressure increase
that instantly vaporized solids such as large amounts of metals and synthetic resins, element /
compound semiconductors, plywood, and artificial stone.

The dust that erupted was like an eruption without a fire.

[9]
Japan time, 9:45 am, August 4, 2007.

Just over 30 minutes after the battle began, US troops landed on Miyakijima were wiped out.

Wiped out here doesn't mean that no survivors, but all of the soldiers are captured and even
their wounds are cured. But the only survivors are human. Parasites are completely destroyed.

There is no parasite escaped only by physical destruction. Their main bodies too are wiped as
Tatsuya didn't even let any one of those escape.

In this way, the Battle of Miyakijima ended with Yotsuba's victory.

Despite not being a formal operation, and officially treated as "rebels' violence" the USNA's
regular army was no match against civilian groups of magicians. This fact shook the military
personnel of each country - including Japan itself - and made the Yotsuba's name more
notorious.

But it was not just that fact that made the world quiver.

◇◇◇

"Onii-sama! No, Tatsuya-sama. Thank you for your hard work."

Tatsuya returned to the command room about five minutes after the end of the war.

Stopping just before embracing, Miyuki rephrases her "Onii-sama" to "Tatsuya-sama" and
welcomes him with a gentle bow. ― It seems all staf here act as if they didn't hear anything.

"Thank you, too, Miyuki."

In response to Tatsuya's thanks, Miyuki looks up and smiles with perfect balance between an
elegant lady’s and a neat girl’s smile.

“Thank you very much. Tatsuya-sama, are you injured?”

Tatsuya's battle suit has no scratches at first glance. As expected, there is dust, but there's no
trace of bleeding or blood splash.

"It's okay. I wasn't injured even once."

When Saeki's name came out, Soga immediately thought suspiciously of "Is that slander?" to
what Maya said.

However, he immediately reconsiders and understands it. Soga thought it obvious to investigate
the opposite side scandals.

"As I said, there is no evidence. But we have a witness."

"―Who is that?"

"It's First Lieutenant Fujibayashi-san of the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion. Actually, this
rumor also came from her."

Here, Maya mixed it with a lie. She'd been holding the information about the Lu Gonghu case
even before she got Fujibayashi's testimony. What she did was just a confirmation to her.
However for Soga, it doesn't matter which.

"Fujibayashi-san was deeply distressed by the act of betrayal by Her Excellency Saeki ... When
she was at the funeral of His Excellency Kudou, she happened to talk to me and consulted this."

"I see."

Soga knew that Maya was attending the funeral of Kudou. This information gave him credibility
of what Maya said.

"Actually, I have heard another thing from Lieutenant."

After saying that, Maya looked at Hayama who was behind her.

Soga too looked to Hayama because of that.

"Please, take this."

In response, Hayama presented to Soga the large-sized electronic paper he had in his hands.

Soga turns on the electronic paper without any hesitation.

As the view turned on. Soga was startled as he read the report displayed there.

"This was the main issue for Lieutenant Fujibayashi's consultation. For her, this was a
misconduct involving both her relatives and her colleagues. This something that can't be
overlooked indeed."
"Because we are civilians, we don't have the power to capture military possessions or the
captives. We both are in the same position that is troubled with the same problem."

However, before Tatsuya answered her, Miyuki already understood from Katsushige's reply.

"Anyway, I'm going to have them leave the ship without weapons. Therefore I want you to
remove the magic that freezes the sea. This is Miyuki's magic right?"

"That's right. That's logical."

Tatsuya gives his consent to Katsushige's lines and looks at Miyuki.

Miyuki gave him a bow, replying to Tatsuya's line of vision.

The next moment, a strange thing occurs in the sea. No, it's more like that it's returning to
normal, considering the current season and the sea latitude.

Icefields with a radius of 1, 5 and 10 km disappear in an instant. As evidence that's not a natural
melt, there's no decrease in temperature in the surrounding seawater. On the contrary, the
surrounding water, which had been cooled by the appearance of the ice field, has regained its
original water temperature.

"Katsushige-san, please continue the negotiation."

Miyuki speaks to mic in the very usual voice, as if nothing had happened.

"Roger."

Katsushige's reply was accompanied by a voice in secondary communication channel sound of

"Sheesh, you guys ┄┄"

◇◇◇

Guam captain Annie Marquis had completely lost the energy to resist.

The catastrophe that hit the fleet. It was nothing like the magic she knew.

The dimension is different.

It was no exaggeration to say that's happened in an instant, but a giant body with length over
300 meters was trapped in the ice for a really short time. The cold progression didn't enter the
inside of the ship, but the deck was completely frozen. The seawater inside the electromagnetic
propulsion engine was frozen too which resulted in that it couldn't move at all.
Everyone knew without being told that this was the work of a magician on the target island.
However, there's no way to counterattack in this kind of state. A fleet that couldn't move is as
same as a fixed target, and with a single counterattack, they're done for. First of all, the turrets
and missile hatches were frozen so those couldn't work no matter how they wanted to operate it.

Not long after, there's a radio communication connected in to advise them to surrender, captain
Marquis didn't worry for a long time to accept. Or in this case, she didn't have another choice.
Even so, she's pretending to think it out about 5 minutes in front of her subordinates.

Immediately after that, not only Captain Marquis but also all crew members were taken aback
once more.

They witnessed that the ice that had locked up the ship disappeared along with the ice fields.

Everyone in the crew felt as if they were having a dream or a nightmare.

Since they felt no human would be able to win against that. No one was against the captain's
order to leave this ship.

"Can Doctor also get off the ship?"

Annie Marquis urged Edward Clark, who was left at the battle command post, to leave the ship
with an emergency inflatable boat instead of a warship such as an onboard boat while watching
the image of his men leaving the ship.

"I don't have any other choice then ... May I go back to my cabin once? I want to get my
personal belongings."

"As long as it's not a weapon."

"It's not a weapon. Excuse me."

Clark's attitude was that he was trying to hide his dissatisfaction. On the disembarkation ― She
can see through the truth that he's not really convinced of the surrender.

So Captain Marquis was relieved. She was the kind of person who thought, "A pretending smart
attitude is proof of trying to deceive."

Marquis left the CIC after confirming that no one else remained in the ship's security system and
all the engines were shut down.
Maya painfully said that.

This reports that Maj. Gen. Saiki and Kudou Makoto had been continuing the Parasite-Doll
development using the Military's budget with evidence images.

"This is .... Maj. Gen. Saeki, what you've done ..."

"I believe Her Excellency didn't do this with personal desire in mind but purely with intention for
strengthening the national defense."

"That doesn't mean it's allowed."

Soga turned to Maya and bowed deeply.

"Yotsuba-san. I am deeply grateful that you consult this serious matter confidentially."

"I'm glad this is useful for you."

"If this matter becomes public, the military will greatly lose authority for sure. I can't punish her
openly but I promise that I will handle this to Yotsuba-san satisfaction."

"Yes, I'll leave it to you. That's why I invited Your Excellency from the beginning."

Maya only gave a light smile expression but her eyes gave off pressure that "I won't forgive you
if no definite action is done".

"I also will stop deployment on Miyakijima that Saeki has been planning."

Soga said that even before Maya spoke also because of the pressure she's giving to Soga.

Maya overlooked Soga's blunder for leaking the secret plan which Yotsuba shouldn’t know with
a smile. Then with a bit deliberate added "Oh, by the way.".

"Please do not blame Lieutenant Fujibayashi and the units to which she belongs."

"Huh? ... It goes without saying."

Apparently Soga was genuinely confused.

"I'm relieved. In this world, whistle-blower tends to be hated."

As Soga heard Maya's pointer, he made an understanding expression.

Clark's choice to take the warship and flee here wasn't bad, judging only by his relationship with
USNA.

Once he saw that the inflatable boat captain Marquis took quite a distance from the ship, Clark
ordered his crew to restart the engine. The Emergency Code which is given to the ship captain
and freezes all ship's function forcefully cannot be used wirelessly, so if captain Marquis tried to
get back on board, she wouldn't make it anymore.

"Please launch a missile aiming at the east coast of that island."

This Clark's order is not about trying to fulfill Tatsuya's assassination. The evidence is that he
aimed at the east coast, not the west coast where it is known that there are housing facilities for
people related to Yotsuba. He was trying to make time for his escape by causing confusion by
attacking the defense combatants who are standing by waiting for the inflatable boats to land.

As a result this action led to Clark's death.

"Go south at full speed"

"Roger. Full speed"

A sailor who operates the entire engine and is in charge of navigation increases the output of
the electromagnetic propulsion engine to max at once in accordance with Clark's instructions.

"Doctor! VLS hatch won't open!"

At the same time, the civil servant sitting in the fire control seat reports on the first incident that
occurred on the assault landing ship “Guam”.

The Guam missile system uses vertical launchers. If the hatch that protects the missile does not
open, it cannot fire.

"No choice. Cancel the missile attack."

Clark switched quickly. After all, it's just for distraction so no need to stick with it.

He turned to the sailors in charge of navigation in order to rush the start further.

But before he ordered, a ship condition monitoring system alert was on.

"What is it!?"
Clark raises his voice to keep up with the loud buzzer.

"It is flooding! There are multiple cracks in the outer shell of the ship!"

The voice of the answer was louder and more hysterical than Clark's.

"Bulkhead emergency closure!"

"No, that can't make it in time!"

The CIC fell into panic.

"Cracks expanded! The ship will disassemble!"

Immediately after the sinister feeling, Clark felt a great shaking and floating feeling.

The chair is tilted.

Clark understood that "Guam" was sinking.

"――"

He couldn't make a voice to scream and his thoughts were cut off there.

Perhaps he's fortunate.

Edward Clark didn't have to experience the frosty suffering of drowning.

Clark's life was exhausted when the sinking of "Guam" became apparent to everyone.

His corpse was never found.

Not even a death like leaving his scattered white bones.

His body disappeared at the same time as he lost consciousness.

It was decomposed down to elemental levels, some dissolved in the sea, and the rest
disappeared as bubbles.

◇◇◇

Tatsuya returns the Silver horn that was aiming at the main screen showing the sinking assault
landing ship to the holster.
"But it remains a concern, Her Excellency Saeki is wise, so I'm sure she'll know who was the
one who gave the testimony against her. At that time, not only Lieutenant Fujibayashi alone but
all units she belonged to would be subject to retaliation by Her Excellency Saeki."

"No, I don't think Saeki would go that far ..."

Soga hurriedly tried to argue.

"Even after you've seen what Saeki's done to our family?"

"……"

However, with additional Maya's attack, he couldn’t say anymore.

"I have a suggestion."

"...Let me hear it."

Soga urged Maya to continue while showing his caution.

"How about separating the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion from the 101st Brigade and
becoming a truly independent unit? We have always appreciated that unit. If that unit has more
freedom, I think this will open up many areas that we both can cooperate."

"Is it your opinion as the Yotsuba or the 10 Master Clan?"

"It doesn't matter which one you interpret."

Maya doesn't have a position as 10 Master Clan representation. However there's no hesitation
in her answer and her beauty was overlapped with her composure smile.

"Excuse me a little."

Soga asks for an excuse a bit and talks in whisper with his secretary.

Maya didn't have to wait that long.

"-- I would like to tell the Minister of Defense of your proposal."

"Thank you for the trouble, Your Excellency."

Maya smiled and slightly bowed.

Tatsuya stepped back to go out of frame.

The sub-screen projected a medium-size Miyuki.

Miyuki looked at the camera with a dignified expression in front of her and began to speak in a
calm voice.

"With the name of the next head family, Shiba Miyuki, I declare the battles have ended."

So Miyuki took a deep breath.

◇◇◇

"The victor is, us!"

Cheers scream in response to Miyuki's declaration.

The cheers started mainly on the northeast coast, to everywhere on the island of Miyagi.

It was a cheer for victory and an enthusiastic voice for the young and beautiful leader.

“I, Shiba Miyuki, on behalf of the head family, Yotsuba Maya, would like to thank everyone for
their fights. Thank you very much."

On the screens set up everywhere on the island, the image of Miyuki switched to a full-person
image.

From the tiptoes to top of head, even to tips of the hair, the perfect dignified beauty was
gracefully bowed on the screen.

The island was engulfed in an increasingly fervent cheer.

◇◇◇

As Miyuki's declaration broadcast to the whole island was over, and the camera setup was
cleaned up.

Tatsuya and others praised Miyuki. Tatsuya, after thanking her work, walked to the seat of staff
responsible for handling communications.

"I'm sorry. Can I take over here?"

The female staff was older than Tatsuya. But she didn't seem offended because of Tatsuya's
slovenly tone. Everyone in this room, in just less than one hour, was shown Tatsuya's ability.
That woman staff yielded her seat to Tatsuya with a bow as if she bowed to the emperor.

Tatsuya used his familiar method to connect the communicator to the satellite internet line.

◇◇◇

"I'm Shiba Tatsuya, a Japanese magician"

The message began with such an ordinary greeting.

"Today, at 9:41 am on August 4, Japan time, I destroyed with magic a missile facility in the new
Soviet Union, Birobidzhan. This is a self-defense action against the hypersonic missile that
launched and targeted the Japan territory, Miyakijima, where I'm currently staying."

However, the words that followed were at the opposite pole of the ordinary.

"The missile was destroyed before it landed, but I could not ignore the threat of the second and
third missiles launching."

"As I couldn't afford the time to negotiate. It's possible that when looking for the people
responsible to negotiate, those missiles will attack again."

"That's why I decided and carried out the destruction of the missile launch facilities."

"At the same time as the missile attack, we were attacked by the strategic-class magic Tuman
Bomba. In order to prevent the damage caused by this magic, I magically sniped Igor
Bezobrazzof, a nationally authorized strategic-class magician of NSU.”

"As a result, I do not deny that Igor Bezobrazzof may have died."

"I will repeat this. This is a self-defense action. It is not a terrorist act that tramples the
international legal order. It is a completely legitimate act, and the consequences must be borne
by the New Soviet Union and the Igor Bezobrazzof himself who carried out the illegal assault.”

“I have no intention of using my power for acts of terrorism that destroy the legal order. Whether
now or the future. However, if I am attacked or exposed to an imminent threat and find it
necessary for self-defense, I will not hesitate to use force.”
Maya's beauty emitting sex appeal would make any man losing their consciousness however
Soga managed to keep calm due to his dignity.

"... The Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion will be promoted to Independent Regiment. But
please keep this information secret until the official decision."

"Of course, Your Excellency."

Maya's smile became more alluring as she nodded at what Soga said.

◇◇◇

On July 31th, the deployment to Miyakijima, which only had to proceed to the final step by
moving the troops, was suddenly stopped.

It's not postponed, but completely cancelled.

Major General Saeki, who is the mastermind of the deployment plan, quickly tried to restart it,
but Chief of Staff Ootomo put a stop by replying that the plan couldn't be revived and
additionally ordered her and her 101st Brigade to sortie out to eastern Hokkaido.

The reason for the sortie was to strengthen defense in preparation of the New Soviet Union's
invasion.

Without the time limit.

Saeki's strength is in the thick personal relation which comes from a long-standing career as a
staff member of the General Command. As she has little experience working on the front lines,
she doesn't have skill to grow her own political faction in rural areas.

In the border areas of Hokkaido, she cannot use her strength as a political strategist.

As her assignment without the time limit, Saeki was virtually neutralized as she positioned away
from power struggles within the country, and had no choice but only to focus on the original task
of the military to prepare against foreign power.

Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion were ordered separately to continue development of

magical combat strategies at the Kasumigaura base.
The new Soviet missile submarine Kthozov, which launched a bombardment missiles from the
sea on the island of Miyakima, gave up and surfaced about an hour after becoming
incapacitated.

The New Soviet Union soldiers who had escaped from the submarine by an emergency boat
were rescued as drifters unrelated to the battle by the defense combatants of Miyakijima, and
Tatsuya decomposed and sank Kthozov.
[10]
Without waiting for the day to change, from the afternoon of August 4th, the mass media flocked
to Miyakijima.

Of course, the purpose is Tatsuya.

None of the reporters wanted to look for the truth about the out-of-place and out-of-season ice
field which suddenly appeared and disappeared near Miyakijima. This ice field was observed
not only by the National Meteorological Observatory but also by civilians. This kind of anomaly
happening usually appears on the top page in any news.37

Everyone on TV, in newspapers, online news sites, and others, pointed the microphone at
Tatsuya to get even a bit sensational comments.

Tatsuya didn't refuse to interview, but he didn't meet all the media's demands. Had he tried to
fulfill all the media's wishes, he would have been unable to eat or sleep.

Some reporters, in a provocative manner, argued that Tatsuya's action was nothing but
terrorism and that his statement was a challenge to the international community. Not only there,
but there were also newspaper publishers writing him an article as a criminal, and some
broadcasters of some TV stations denounced him. ― All of those companies belong to a media
group that has been well known for a long time standing against magicians.

However, the government immediately asserted that Tatsuya's actions were legal in both
domestic and international law, and so those presses couldn't lead the public to their opinion.

It seems that the Japanese government's quick response was aimed at putting off the question
and criticism as to why the Military didn't respond to the missiles or might be they couldn't detect
the missiles at all.

The Ministry of Defense countered that it had been detecting hypersonic missiles from the time
of launch, and it was said that the reason for entrusting missile interception to Tatsuya was in
accordance with the memorandum regarding defense cooperation that the government had
signed with the Magic Society for some time.

37
​TLN: I changed the structure of this line (or paragraph?) itself because the actual line is really
hard to follow, I put this into 3 different lines but in actual raw text, it's only in one line with
separate explanations in that one line.
[6]
August 1st. No one in Japan, whether the government, the military, and even 10 MC was aware
of the looming threat.

The content of the phone call Miyuki received in this sweltering afternoon was something very
peaceful.

"Huh? You're going to have 9SC? By yourself?"

As this 9SC event was cancelled because the magic that Tatsuya developed for Shizuku during
9SC ― Active Air Mines ― was used by guerillas as a large-scale slaughter weapon. The event
was cancelled in early May. As 9SC dubbed as the military agenda to actively recruit student
magicians, it was completely cancelled without a chance of resumption. Additionally it's rumored
that 9SC is to be abolished.

Since Miyuki heard that it will be held voluntarily only by magic high school students, it's
reasonable she was surprised.

“It's not going to be the full 9SC, just Monolith Code.”

Honoka heard this too from Igarashi, the Club Management Leader, when she was in school to
access additional reference material in preparation of university examination entrance.

“It's kinda sad that no school exchanges games like usual 9SC, but this talk has been hyped
among all Club Management Leaders of each school. First High is taking the lead for the
preparation.”

"Quite a good guy, that's pretty much Igarashi-kun."

Miyuki didn't exasperated with that but instead smiled.

"But, how about preparation for the exam?"

Since this year 9SC cancelled, third year students are able to put more effort preparing for the
university exam. Because of this too, the passing grade for magic university will very likely be
higher too.

Even though Miyuki was concerned about the exam, she herself didn't spend much time
preparing for the exam. In Miyuki's case, even if there's no written exam and only practical exam
alone, she would easily pass that exam with flying colors, while Tatsuya already guaranteed for
On the same day, a secret special envoy of USNA visited the Miyakijima, which appeared to
have regained peace after the media had left.

The turmoil because of that ―― didn't happen.

Unfortunately, it was raining on the Izu Islands that day.

"Miyuki, I'm home!"

An energetic, bottomless and cheerful voice that seems to blow the rain clouds.

"It's been about 10 days? Yep, that's right! ┄┄ Wait, you don't seem surprised."

The voice quickly turned into a disgruntled tone indicating "that's unexpected".

"Welcome back, Lina. It was faster than I expected. I'm glad."

Lina, who had a look that would make her lips sharp because she was displeased, changed to
an embarrassed smile after Miyuki added her last word.

Lina was guided by Miyuki to a research facility on the east coast. Tatsuya, who was released
from the mass media coverage, was working on the mass production of the artificial relic, which
is the heart of the Stellar Reactor, for copying and preserving magical expressions.

"Lina, welcome back."

As Lina conflicted whether to meet or not, Tatsuya took the chance by saying that, Lina just
answered shyly "I'm home."

"―Say! Why do Miyuki and Tatsuya take this as if it's obvious?"

Immediately, she raises her resentment.

"Take what?"

"I meant, your two 'Welcome back' things! Isn't it just strange?"

From an objective point of view, it may be the correct point.

However, it's an self-explosive statement and incorrect for Lina to say.

"Ara, isn't Lina who said `I'm home` first?"

"Ugh……"

Immediately after Miyuki's counterattack, Lina choked.

"Because I and Miyuki believed that Lina would definitely come back."

Subsequently, Tatsuya asserted with the words "definitely" and "believed" in a tone that it wasn't
a joke.

"What a bunch of embarrassing people!"

Even Lina's strong words didn't break the smile of Miyuki and Tatsuya flat's expression.

"……baka."39

It took five minutes for Lina, who faced down with red-face, to restart.

"Ehem."

Five minutes later, Lina deliberately clears her throat with a slightly reddish face.

Tatsuya, who was at loss whether it’s better to laugh or be serious, decided to wait for the next
word with a serious look.

"I have an autographed letter from the White House to Tatsuya."

"A letter from the White House!? From the President!?"

Miyuki widened her eyes while Tatsuya beside her made a dubious expression by knitting his
eyebrows.

"Not to the Japanese government but to me ...?"

He made sure that the envelope was addressed to him,

"Lina, can I open it here?"

and asked Lina so.

"Rather, please do. I don't know the content, so I would be happy if you could tell me."

39
​TLN: putting 'idiot' or 'stupid' doesn't seem right, considering the context
his bachelor degree from Magic University. So it's just pointless to worry about exams for these
two.

“They're thinking about 9SC more than the exam, they said.”

Honoka commented lightly on other people's affairs.

“... Since it's voluntarily held, every player would have to participate at their own expense, but
they're having hard time to secure the venue and management operational budget.”

But maybe she's aware it's a cold-hearted comment, Honoka made a quiet expression while
adding that line.16

"That's ... indeed hard."

The 9SC event is held every year with full support from the military. They even lent their practice
field for the venue.

"Since when has it been scheduled?"

“The talk appeared about July 10th, shortly after repelling the New Soviet Union, and the event
itself will be held last week of this month.”

"... Isn't the timeline too tight?"

“Since the game is just Monolith Code, it would be fine on weekends... considering the exam
too.”

"...Right. I don't think autumn paper competition will be cancelled too, and for current 3rd year
students, the summer vacation timeline is the limit."

“As a student council member, I would like to help them too ... Miyuki, do you have any good
ideas?”

Asked like that, Miyuki could only leak a small sough noise.

"... I'm sorry. I can't think of a good idea. Can you wait a minute? I will have Tatsuya-sama too,
I'll call you back soon."

“No, I'm waiting for you like this!”

16
​ TLN: 神妙な顔; meek expression?
"As a proof of willingness to cooperate, they're lending Lieutenant Colonel Angelina Shields as
the collaborator for free without a time limit."

"What did you say!?"

After screaming, Lina became stiff.

"Amazing. Did Lina get promoted to Lieutenant Colonel?"

"Wait, wait a minute!"

However, immediately she started to argue with an impatient look.

"I have quit Stars! I’ve even sent them a retirement notice!"

"That's why it's Lieutenant Colonel Angelina Shields, not Major Angie Sirius."

"Such a thing ... is a scam!"

Tatsuya leaked with a small laugh, "fu", to Lina's stunned look.

"... It's written here purposely 'indefinitely'. I don't think they will expect Lina to return to the
USNA military anymore. However if she emigrated, it would look problematic for them, so they
decided to treat it as renting you out, do you think so?"

"Oh, if that's the case ... Hey, I'm not an item!"

Relieved or angry, Lina was so busy.

"Also, it says that they want to be a sponsor for the Stellar Reactor Project."

For the time being, Tatsuya decided to let Lina in her own excitement and moved on to the next,
non-negligible point.

"Sponsor?"

Miyuki immediately responded to the topic.

"It’s actually they’re providing the money so they demand the technological result...like that?"

"Probably like that."

He said probably but to be precise he very likely couldn’t choose otherwise.

"I was planning to provide the technology from the beginning anyway."

Tatsuya's purpose is to disseminate non-military magical technology.

Because of this, magicians are freed from their fate as weapons.

The possibility that Miyuki will be used as a weapon will be filled with another possibility.

Needless to say, about USNA's condition.

"Well, it's not a bad thing to have too much money anyway. We would appreciate it if they take
the burden of the monetary cost."

Tatsuya stopped ignoring Lina and turned to her.

"By the way, Lina, how should I reply?"

Lina blinked a few times and returned from her world of solo wrestling.40

"... Well, the reply right? If you could, I would have it by today. I'm supposed to deliver the reply
to the Secretary of Defense by going to Tokyo tomorrow."

"Okay. This is content I don't have to consult with the main family about. I'm going to reply now."

Tatsuya took out the classic fountain pen from his drawer, purposely using the note paper the
same as the letter he received, and began to reply his acknowledgement with his own.

Alongside that, Miyuki speaks to Lina with a low voice so as not to get in the way of Tatsuya.

"Nevertheless, Lina was really decisive."

What Miyuki had in mind was about the happening that she had struck down a collection of
parasites in winter last year.

Tatsuya back then gave a helping hand to Lina by saying "If you want to quit being a soldier, I
can help." On the other hand, Lina refused Tatsuya's offer, saying, "I never think that I want to
leave Stars."

"You meant about decisively leaving the military?"

40
​TLN: 一人相撲; https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/一人相撲/ the meaning: 実りのない物事に必
死で取り組むこと; taking consideration seriously on things that have no real practicality
On the monitor screen, Honoka greatly shakes his head.

"Is that so? Well, I'll be back soon."

Miyuki said that and pressed the hold button on the Widget phone.

As Miyuki said "soon", Miyuki really returned to her room along with Tatsuya not even one
minute passed.

She released the hold state.

"Honoka, sorry to make you wait."

“Ah, uh. I'm not waiting at all! at all!”

For some reason, Honoka repeated "at all" twice, but perhaps even she herself was not aware
of that.

“I'm sorry to have Tatsuya-san for sharing your time.”

She said that with haste in one breathing and bowed down.

Speakers made the noise of the collision sound "goon".

The angle of the monitor suddenly changed and projected Honoka's feet.

Followed up by a panicking voice, "hwa hwa" was heard from the speaker, the monitor went
blank and the melody for waiting during hold-state was playing.

Tatsuya and Miyuki look at each other. It was not hard to imagine what happened. Very likely
Honoka bumped her head against the camera when bowing down. Miyuki used a widget phone
which had a monitor and camera integrated but in other models, a monitor is independent from
the camera with freely adjustable angle which is also quite popular.

Widget phone returned to the call state after 10 seconds.

“……I'm really sorry……”

The monitor displayed Honoka about to cry expression with her shoulders a bit dropped.

"I have heard the story. It will be difficult to hold the event at the end of the month."
Tatsuya kept his face down and continued in a soft tone while moving the fountain pen to write.

"Miyuki, you don't have to worry about that."

"……Yes"

Miyuki stopped trying to argue.

She forcefully smiled.

It's wrong for her to lament. It's the same as insulting and disdaining Tatsuya's determination.

Because of the message that Tatsuya sent to the world, the existence of Miyuki's magic, the
Glacier Age, became hazy.

For the time being, the future where Miyuki was forced to act as strategic-class magician was
pushed away.

But the price is great. The world now perceives Tatsuya not simply an individual or a magician,
but a single deterrence power for it.

The future where Tatsuya is not required to function as a military force.

A future where he is not compelled to be a weapon,

Desperately, was pushed away.

For Tatsuya and Miyuki, the future that’s ideal for both.

The future that people take for granted.

It can't be seen yet.

The future, still, doesn't come yet――.

(Future Arc ― Complete)

Afterword

I have brought to you "The Irregular at Magic High School" volume 31 ― Future Arc.

How was it?

Did you enjoy it?

If you think this edition arc is kind of twisted, I think so too.

How do you feel about "the future"?

―It doesn't come yet. It will definitely come someday.

―It doesn't come yet. There's no sign of it. I don't think it will come.

When I was young, I was in the former. Well, until the 1980s.

It's not simply because of age too but it was because of historical changes. From the 1990s, to
be precise, from January 1990, my view about "the future" became the latter side.

There was a feeling of slump before that. Maybe something like signs for it. However, I feel that
the feeling of slump has become decisive since that early 1990s. Commonly, many thought it
was because of the Bubble Collapse in March 1991, but my feeling of slump began at the
moment after the tumbling from the peak.

The situation that captures the characters in this work is much more serious than what I feel, but
I think that both me and the characters have originated from my own view of the future.

...... Well, as a spinner of the story, I think that it is not good just to be pessimistic.

I will do my best to realize a world where the future is "only yet to come" in fiction.

Speaking of fiction.

"This story is fiction. The names in the story have nothing to do with real people, groups, or
building structures."

It seems that I have to say this cliché again.

I was careless. "Virginia" is really bad for a fictitious nuclear submarine.