Chapter 11
[Diversion]
At the time when the National Defense Forces were busy rounding up the invading NSU forces off the northeastern coast of Hokkaido, Japan, off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, a long-distance fishing vessel based in the Fox Island, Alaska, docked with a passenger ship departing from the port of Oakland, California. There, some of the fishing vessel's crew members transferred to the passenger ship. Official reports stated that, due to some engine issues, the fishing vessel was unable to navigate, and the crew was rescued by a passing cruise ship.
However, the ships routes and timings were no coincidence; the meeting had been planned all along.
One of the crew aboard the fishing boat was Rocky Dean, who had escaped from the USNA.
Aboard the cruise ship, an elderly man greeted Dean with a polite bow and an introduction, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Dean, I am Giraud Lee. I've been instructed by Mr. Jules to come to your aid."
Dean eyed the unfamiliar man with suspicion, "Are the Mr. Joules we speaking right now Zhu-dàren?"
"Indeed. I am under the care of Zhu-dàren. Here you go," with that, the man who introduced himself as Giraud presented Dean with a folded piece of paper. This paper was different from the standard western type. It was a traditional Chinese thick sheet of paper called xuan paper. Carefully, so as not to tear the fragile paper, Dean unfolded the sheet. Though vivid brush strokes spelled out words Dean could not read, the most important thing, the signature at the very end he was able to recognize. That was undoubtedly Zhu Yuen Yun's signature, the one he had taken the time and effort to engrave in his memory.
Dean cautiously folded Zhu Yuen Yun's handwritten letter, contents which he was unable to read, back into its original fold and returned it to Giraud.
"If you would like, I can clarify what was written here," Giraud humbly offered to Dean. There was no hint of disrespect for Dean's illiteracy.
Dean bowed slightly, his tone somewhat more polite, "Then, please."
"Mr. Joule is deeply worried that Mr. Dean may be being tracked by a clairvoyant magician."
"A clairvoyant, you say...?"
"Yes. Mr. Joule believes this to be the most likely possibility."
Dean gulped.
On many occasions he himself had the sensation that he was being watched by an invisible eye. More than once he worried that he was being tracked by some kind of magic.
But now that his fears were echoed by Zhu Yuen Yun, whom he knows has a much broader information network than he does, his fears became all the more real.
"I presume he also intends to provide me with the means to elude this pursuit with you."
Dean's posture dropped slightly. "You are correct. Mr. Joules has entrusted me with the task of giving you, Mr. Dean, a make-over."
"Now, a make-over, you say...?" Dean's expression suddenly soured at the term used by Giraud.
Dean has no prejudice against men wearing makeup. But he has no trust that a touch of foundation is going to do anything to shake off a clairvoyant's gaze on him.
"I understand your skepticism, but make-up is simply Mr. Joule's apt nickname for my [Transformation] skill. I ask for your vote of confidence in my capabilities."
"A version of [Transformation]...? Does that mean it's magic?" Dean asks, his voice filled with a mixture of suspicion and expectation.
"My late father was a magic researcher of the Dahan. I have inherited his research."
"Of the Dahan? Was he related to the Kunlunfang Institute?"
"Indeed. He happened to have defected before their collapse, so he was spared of the same fate."
"I see..."
Dean himself is an overseas Chinese of Italian descent and has no direct affiliation with either GAU or Dahan. But many of the early members of FAIR, which he led, were related to those involved with the Kunlunfang Institute. Though he eventually had to expel them, the memories of all the hard work they did together at the time of the organization's inception were even more vivid in Dean's mind because of the guilt he felt for having to expel them.
"My sincere apologies for doubting you. Yes, I'll gladly accept your offer." There is a twenty-centimeter height difference between the tall Dean and the smaller Giraud.
Dean bowed his head down until that difference was zero.
"Yes, I am at your service. All preparations have been made. Please follow me."
Giraud guided Dean to a beauty salon on the cruise ship.
The next morning, Dean got a whole new look.
◇ ◇ ◇
After Raisen touched down back in Miyakishima, Tatsuya and his two companions switched to a VTOL right away and headed home to Chofu.
Since it was already dinner time, Tatsuya took Miyuki and Lina to the restaurant on the lower floor of the building. They did not have a reservation, nor did they need one. This establishment, like the rest of the building, was primarily dedicated to the Yotsuba family. They wouldn't dare bar Miyuki, the next head, at the entrance.
However, due to the unscheduled visit and the fact that the restaurant does not prepare food outside of an expected demand, it would take some time for the kitchen to prepare and cook their meal. The three of them used this waiting period to discuss the results of the day's activities.
"I'll review the results with professor Higashiyama tomorrow, but I think it's safe to say that the experiment was a success."
Tatsuya began with his overall opinion of the field test. "It was more effective than I expected. Especially the time it took for the effects to become apparent. I was surprised to see that everyone also looked to be put to sleep all at once, that quickly. That must have weighed a lot on you, right, Miyuki?" in a bouncy voice, Lina asked the caster of the magic about the load it put on her mind.
"Yes. I think it's about the same as the [Glacial Age]. The amount of data in the activation sequence was quite large, but Tatsuya-sama adjusted it so well that we didn't have any stumbling blocks in processing." Miyuki looked at Tatsuya as if to say, "As expected of Tatsuya-sama."
"You could say that everything was perfect in terms of the preconditions for the experiment, right? You couldn't have fooled me into thinking that those NSU sailors have passed boot camp," Lina joked in a not so charitable humour.
"I didn't expect them to panic like that."
Tatsuya did not join in with the sneer, he saw the early display with an emotion more akin to disapproval. Perhaps because he was a man shaped by combat, he found the state of disarray that the NSU let themselves fall into "unsightly".
"You think so? I thought it was inevitable they would end up like that."
"Yeah. What do you expect they do when they realize who's on the other side?" Lina's wicked grin grew, "Talk about a reputation, huh, Tatsuya?"
"Careful there, Lina. Before you insinuate that Tatsuya-sama is only known for his ‘infamy,' I'd suggest you consider that it may have been his ‘fame' instead. That deplorable sight of the New Soviet Union is proof Tatsuya-sama's name has reached every ear, in every corner of the world," Miyuki chided Lina in a rather earnest fashion. But that came in through one ear and out the other with Lina.
"Now the NSU and GAU may have to uptick Tatsuya a few levels on their threat scale, if they have any sense," Lina circumvented Miyuki's moodiness by sympathizing with her and trying to lift Tatsuya up even more.
Tatsuya abstained from that conversation. He knew there was nothing he could say that would dampen Miyuki's enthusiasm.
After the meal, Tatsuya holed himself in his private lab in the building, working on compiling experimental data, mainly from the video recordings from Raisen's cameras.
Thanks to this, the examination of the results of [Hypnos Chain] at the Higashiyama Lab in the Magic University went smoothly the next day. It was then concluded that this magic could be expected to be effective enough as a countermeasure against [Gjallarhorn].
Tatsuya was so engrossed in processing the experimental data from [Hypnos Chain] that he had taken his "eyes" off of Dean.
It took him approximately a week to realize that the thread he was using to track Dean through the information dimension had been broken.
〈 To be continued〉
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