“Zhou Gongjin is approaching the south gate.”
“I wonder if the other gates had been guarded by the people of the base. As expected of a magician who has beaten us, the Kuroba’s and escaped.”
At Fumiya’s words, Ayako responded with a tone of irony and admiration.
“Otherwise, we’ll be troubled.”
Fumiya sat in the rear seat of the autonomous car, while Ayako sat next to him.
At the same time, a gunmetal sedan with Zhou Gongjin in it had appeared out of the south gate.
“Chase him!”
“Yes, young master. No, young lady.”
“Anything will do! Start quickly!”
Even the autonomous car was not allowed to speed up if there was no emergency driver outside the area of traffic control. The previously elected leader of the black glasses operation team who was yelled at, was chosen as the driver to chase Zhou Gongjin.
(What is this obnoxious feeling...)
While driving the car to the south, Zhou Gongjin gradually felt a sense of being tied up that he had never felt before.
Strictly saying from the result, he was successfully evading the enemy with a narrow gap. He acknowledged that Kuroba’s——Yotsuba’s chasing team was obstinate, but in the end, he managed to get away from them. He was living peacefully for the last 10 years in Chinatown, but he was previously being hunted constantly for about 30 years, and kept living in hiding.
(Oops… I’m still only 24 years old now.)
At least, that was stated in his identification. He bought his restaurant in Chinatown four years ago, and he remembered that he wrote ’20 years old’ on the documents that were submitted at the time.
(Years are but like a name for us, it is just another label.)
Perhaps, he was too absorbed reminiscing in the thought that he failed to recognize that there was a shadow of a human blocking his way, before the anti-crashing device was activated.
Zhou attempting to ring the horn, he wore an expression unbefitting of his character.
He saw the boy’s face.
He was an otherworldly beauty.
Zhou himself had a beautiful face, but this boy was on another level altogether.
However, he recognized the beautiful boy.
He remembered seeing the boy before.
”Kudou Minoru! Why are you here!?”
He was one of the very few magicians that Zhou kept in mind to be wary of.
He learnt the extent of Minoru’s capability during his attack in Nara.
Zhou disabled the anti-crashing device in the car forcefully.
Minoru raised his right hand to aim at the car.
A flame started within the car.
Zhou jumped out of the vehicle before the engine was ignited.
Zhou Gongjin felt a chill running down his back. He didn’t feel this way when he faced Kuroba Mitsugu or Nakura Saburou.
Kudou Minoru did not hesitate even a second when he blew up the car.
He didn’t only aim at the target without any hesitation, he was also not afraid to drag in any bystanders within the vicinity.
There were no bystanders. There hadn’t been a car that had passed by either. However, he could see that the boy had never really cared about the surrounding.
His ethereal beauty matched up very well with his ruthlessness, it made Minoru looks mysterious in the eyes of normal beings.
Zhou took out his artifact and aimed at Minoru. It was not kasei-tai, but genjuu. Zhou realized that he had to use his strongest technique in order to go against Minoru.
A black one horned beast materialized, it ran towards Minoru at a high speed that couldn’t be tracked by the eyes.
It was not a speed that humans could react to.
Minoru couldn’t deflect the attack, the black beast pierced through Minoru——and soon after Minoru’s body slipped through it.
“Disguise!”
Zhou Gongjin recognized the magic. It was ’Parade’ the trump magic of the Kudou Family. The magic did not only hide Minoru’s actual position, but also altered the position information in Eidos.
Zhou decided to flee. He realized that he couldn’t break through ’Parade’. He understood that after seeing Minoru’s technique once.
Minoru aimed his right hand at Zhou.
However, the lightning he initiated landed one meter away to the right of Zhou’s position.
Minoru shook his head childishly. The expression that he had was not humanly, it was more like angelic. Like an exact image of an angel who smiled mercilessly.
Lightning struck down at Zhou Gongjin’s surrounding.
Minoru did not miss. Zhou used Ghostwalker to influence Minoru’s aim.
However, the one feeling the horror was Zhou. He was planning to shift Minoru’s aim by 90°.
However, Minoru was always able to spot his position and his aim was only shifted by 30°.
Zhou called all the remaining beasts from his artifact.
At the same time, he took out a black handkerchief, and spread it in front of his eyes.
All the beasts were simply slipping through Minoru’s figure.
The black handkerchief fell down on the ground.
Minoru kept an eye on the downstream of Uji River, while smiling without malice.
His eyes were looking directly at the Eidos, he caught ——the ‘shadow’, ‘yin’——of Zhou who fled, and did not lost sight of his position.
Zhou was running at a speed of 40 to 50 km/h along the Stream of Uji River. It was a popular technique of Suikoden (Water Margin, a classic Chinese novel) called ‘Shinkouhou’.
He was running back in the direction of the base, but he was planning to go down to the lower side of the bridge in the middle and going over to the opposite shore.
However, an adversary showed up in front of him all a sudden. She didn’t jump from the side of the road, instead, she materialized from thin air.
“Mock Teleportation!?”
He knew the technique when he acquired a parasite who was able to do this. However, it was in a much lower level than hers, her technique allowed her to appear without any premature sign. A girl in a bob-hair-style shoved a fist with a knuckle duster while fluttering the hem of her skirt.
The distance was too wide.
Yet, Zhou suffered a blow enough to make his right leg fumble down.
Zhou spread out a white handkerchief.
It was large enough to hide him when opened.
Behind the shade, Zhou pierced his own acupuncture point to numb the pain in his right leg. The severe pain continued, but he affirmed himself that it was just an illusion.
He took out his last artifact which he had kept as a spare from his chest.
When visibility of the blockade fell, the bob-haired girl had disappeared.
In exchange, there was a familiar boy with a red CAD in his hand standing in front of him.
“Ichijou Masaki!”
“Long time no see, Zhou Gongjin. You deceived me well last time.”
Zhou tried to jump down from the Uji Bridge.
However, in that instant, the water from the river blew up causing water to splatter.
”Jumping into water in the face of the Ichijou Family’s `Rupture’ is the same as charging in to a mountain of bombs.”
After hearing that voice from his back, Zhou Gongjin turned around.
“Shiba Tatsuya…”
Zhou activated Ghostwalker at his best. He tried to get away by slipping through Tatsuya’s side.
However, in front of his eyes, Tatsuya formed a hand chop. Zhou Gongjin knew the sharpness of the Demon Blade that could even shear through steel, he was forced to step back.
Zhou was sandwiched between Tatsuya and Masaki for the second time.
“Why does my Ghostwalker not work on you!”
Zhou was still smiling in this kind of situation.
Was it a façade?
Masaki didn’t comprehend his real intention.
Tatsuya didn’t really care about his real intention.
“Ghostwalker, what an amazing technique. I heard it may not work in close proximity, but yours can work just fine. I didn’t know that you’re going to slip through by my side.”
”…I don’t understand. Then, why did you prepare to attack just now?”
A smile bloomed in Tatsuya’s lips.
That smile was at the same essence as Zhou’s, albeit not as beautiful.
There was no feeling in it, a façade smile.
”I didn’t know your position. However, I knew the position of Nakura Saburou’s blood that resides within you.”
Zhou opened his eyes widely in surprise.
For the first time, Masaki felt like he was seeing the true face of the ageless Taoist magician.
“Nakura Saburo’s blood… from that time?”
“Did you get pierced by needles of blood? Usually foreign elements would disappear from the body within two weeks. Seems like it contains quite a strong desire.”
“Desire, was it? I thought that concept had been tossed away by Modern Magic.”
“No matter how you reason, the things that exist, exists. Likewise with the opposite.”
“There are things which exist, yet do not materialize.”
Tatsuya raised his silver CAD at Zhou.
”You can continue your lecture in jail. Though they might not give you much time.”
”Either way I would be killed right.”
“I’m not the one who can decide that.”
”In other words, asking to spare my life is useless?”
Tatsuya did not return any further answers.
“As long as Nakura Saburou’s blood is within you, you cannot escape from me.”
This was Tatsuya’s ultimatum.
“So, this is it…”
Zhou sighed, accepting his fate.
At the next instant, he was jumping towards Masaki.
Shinkouhou had no connection with leg muscles. Even if the legs were numb, so long as the magician had them, it could be activated.
Masaki did not know about that.
However, he did not expect this kind of case. It was probably a good coincidence, that he was prepared.
At the moment Zhou Gongjin jumped at him, Masaki pulled the trigger of his red CAD. In no time, his magic ‘Rupture’ was activated.
He improved his technique by vaporizing the blood from the body parts instead of the whole body.
Both of Zhou Gongjin’s legs burst from within.
Shinkouhou was canceled, while Zhou lied on the ground.
“This is it.”
Masaki still ready with his CAD, encouraged him to surrender.
Zhou Gongjin got up immediately. His pride did not allow him to lie pathetically.
”Certainly, this is the end.”
Zhou stood up slowly, even though the parts from his knees downward were not supposed to be able to move.
It was a ghostly movement.
”However, you cannot catch me.”
Zhou masked his face with a smile.
It was a mask-like smile.
“I shall not perish. Even if I die, my existence shall prevail!”
“Ichijou, back off!”
Tatsuya leaped backward at the same time as he shouted.
Ichijou also took a distance away from Zhou Gongjin.
The next moment, Zhou’s whole body was spouting blood, red blood, which turned into red flames.
“Hahahahahahahahaha...”
An endless laugh followed the burning flame. It lasted until the fire died out.
After the flame disappeared, there wasn’t any trace of bone.
“Has Zhou Gongjin really died?
Masaki was dazzled and stunned, the sunset turned into night, and the stars had begun to shine.
“There was no trace of him escaping somewhere else. He had undoubtedly died in that fire.”
Tatsuya didn’t face Masaki. His eyes were looking at the direction of Uji River.
Masaki had somewhat the same feeling, he answered Tatsuya, ’I see’.
Masaki didn’t ask him, how he knew that.
”With this, the case of the Yokohama Incident has ended?”
“Yes.” ”I see... It was dangerous.”
“What was?”
Tatsuya asked back at Masaki.
Since Masaki didn’t say anything else, even Tatsuya couldn’t understand it.
Masaki faced Tatsuya.
”The JSDF was manipulated, they even took out tanks. It could have triggered insurrection.”
”They had already used flashy magic. They were already in the stage of insurrection.”
Masaki laughed at Tatsuya’s serious answer.
”Then, should we say to ourselves ’good job’ since we’ve managed to bring the situation under
control before expansion of the insurrection?”
”You can see it from that point of view.”
Tatsuya also laughed aloud.
The laughter of the two, was dissolved by the lonely autumn wind.
“Tatsuya-niisan, thanks for your hard work.”
When he returned the bike to the hotel, Fumiya and Ayako had arrived before him.
”Fumiya and Ayako too, thanks for your hard work. I was able to stop his movements thanks to your stunning combination.”
The two of them looked away in embarrassment when Tatsuya praised them.
“By the way, Tatsuya-san, how did you figure out that man’s position? We lost sight of him despite chasing him with a car.”
Ayako was indeed embarrassed, she didn’t look at Tatsuya’s eyes when asking this question.
”Thanks to a certain magician’s obstinacy, who cornered him even after death...”
“?”
Ayako made a confused face. Fumiya stopped looking downward, tilting his head curiously.
”I still don’t know how that had happened. I will tell you more, once I figure it out.”
Tatsuya entered the room next to the one that the both of them used.
He left his clothes there when he first came to the hotel.
Tatsuya left the door open while he changed, Tatsuya spoke to Fumiya.
“Fumiya, why don’t you report to Hayama that the mission has been completed. I still need to settle a lot of things from now on.”
”I understand. Please leave that much to me.”
After having finished changing his clothes, Tatsuya came out.
”I’m counting on you.”
He said so as an exchange for saying farewell, Tatsuya left the hotel soon after.
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