Chapter 5
In addition to the magical education that Miyuki received at magic high school, she also attended various lessons for girls from noble families.
Miyuki having a good memory, most of the lessons (for example, Japanese and Western dances, Ikebana (flower arrangement), tea ceremonies) were mastered before the end of secondary school, and now only attended a general school for children from elite families once a week.
The day of the week could be chosen at your discretion. In order not to become the target of the kidnappers, the visit schedule was drawn up a month in advance, but perhaps it was not completely meaningless. These were measures not for Miyuki, but for the other helpless children who are not magicians.
"Minami, I'm counting on you."
"Yes, Tatsuya-sama. Even if you need to give your life for the safety of Miyuki-sama."
This school forbid entry to men. Tatsuya could not enter even under the pretext of escort. He used to transfer the duty of an escort to school guards at the entrance, but with the advent of Minami, he began to entrust Miyuki to her.
Visiting this school was also planned to be completed before the summer.
This was planned because of the approaching entrance examinations to the Magic University, but under the current circumstances, when everyday life is becoming more complicated, the schedule also had to be revised and accelerated.
To, as usual, kill the time before Miyuki's lessons end, Tatsuya went to the nearest cafe.
He voluntarily tried not to approach the family restaurant next door which caused problems during the vampire incident. In order to wait a while, there were other suitable establishments.
(...Such a pace, suitable for this institution, seems to soon disappear.) Tatsuya paid through the machine and left the cafe, leaving more than half the coffee in the cup. Because he did not want to interfere with the cafe.
Last time there was no real damage, like broken windows or injured visitors.
This time Tatsuya also planned to finish everything so that the problem affected only one of them.
The hostile presence he caught was very similar to the last time. If he had not heard about it in advance from Yakumo, he probably, would have fallen into confusion.
In confusion from the question of why the magicians of the USNA army are again attacking him.
"Deserters have discovered A's goal."
"Continue to observe. Did the removal of civilians cause problems?"
"The civilian operation zone is free."
Listening to the conversation between the place of events and the commander of the operation, Tooyama Tsukasa silently smiled. At the moment, the operation went smoothly.
"There are no problems with the control of the puppets yet. It's a pity that the Puppet Law* does not work on the Satellites class, but it's also not bad, because the response became better."
The strategy of this operation was developed by Tsukasa. The commander present here was a lieutenant, but Tsukasa was the real power, which was only in the rank of sergeant-major. Through a secret agreement between the self-defense forces and the family of Tooyama, she had a strong influence on the head of the intelligence department.
Tsukasa deliberately reproduced the situation that occurred in February last year, when Tatsuya was attacked by Lina and "Brionac". This was done to confuse Tatsuya with thoughts about the similarity with that situation. While it seemed that it worked.
(The absence of the main part of the situation in the person of Angie Sirius is compensated by the absence of an assistant in the person of Chiba Naotsugu, therefore, as a result, this situation should be approximately the same. Boy from the Yotsuba family, justify my expectations.)
Tsukasa quietly watched the development of the situation with her invariably glued on smile.
(Twelve enemies, without firearms? Strange.)
Tatsuya read information about his enemies around him through the information dimension.
(They look like last year's "Star Dust", but there's a strange noise in the information body.)
It was Eidos' familiar body, ready to break. However, this noise seems to have been a trace of an exotic psion information body.
(It seems like the magic of manipulating the corpses of Gu Jie... but these guys are not corpses. Instead of just controlling the mind, they surgically intervened or drug-injected the brain, deprived them of their will, and instead built in ancient magic spells to control their actions...
so what?)
Not lucky for them, Tatsuya muttered mentally.
(Now I want them to return home peacefully.)
From Yakumo at that time he recognized two things.
First, about the fact that the intelligence department of the national self-defense forces is going to allow a mobile detachment of the USNA army to invade the Tokyo suburbs.
Secondly, the captured soldiers of the army of the USNA intelligence department plans to collide with Tatsuya and Miyuki.
He was not of the purpose it is being done for, or what they want to know.
Tatsuya too, did not try to ask for more information. The information already received was already something that could not be known, so the knowledge that a surprise attack was planned could be considered a kind of scam.
It was not a test that required honesty, so cheating could not beconsidered something bad.
Tatsuya decided to go in a direction where there were more passers-by.
Not because he decided to attract unrelated people. And to provoke the people who planned this situation.
However, after leaving the cafe, Tatsuya noticed that there were no passers-by. It seems that by adjusting the accident or street lights, they redirected pedestrian traffic. I wonder how indecisive the information department will be if it is possible to involve civilians in the case?
Tatsuya thought that if he suddenly goes to a side where there are a lot of people, then he will force them to start acting before they reach the crowd. Accelerating the time of the collision, Tatsuya tried to break the plans of the "enemy."
Is the enemy, as Yakumo said, the intelligence department of the national self-defense forces? Or did Yakumo lie?
For Tatsuya, this was more important than the battle itself.
"The direction of the movement of target A is a large number of people.
Commander, there is a possibility that isolation from civilians will not be accomplished in due measure."
Analyzing information from the scene the soldier reported to the lieutenant of the commander of the operation.
"...It's unavoidable. Start the puppets!" The commander reluctantly gave the order.
Tsukasa, who only watched the developments, was also a little disappointed. The situation came from the planned route. Lying on the palm of the hand, the situation was ready to come off this palm.
However, at the same time, the idea was born that this is why it is worth trying. At least she has already managed to understand that a guy named Shiba Tatsuya is not an idealist with the rule "I must protect civilians at all costs."
"Puppets came into contact with target A. The operation goes into phase 2."
According to the plan, the escaped soldiers of the American Army attacked target A, that is Tatsuya. They were members of the "Star Dust"
magician unit, subordinated to the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the USNA Army, who became part of Tsukasa's plan, losing their free will from ancient magic "The Puppet Law." Magical soldiers who did not get into the Stars, and agreed to take measures to increase their strength by not living as "ordinary people", were reprogrammed and now received a command to attack Tatsuya.
"Does not use 'long-range magic'?"
Tsukasa, using the access legally left, watched through the street cameras for the events that were taking place. She was a little surprised that Tatsuya did not use long-range magic to deliver a preemptive strike.
Although Tatsuya had a good physique for the Japanese, the attacking soldiers of the American Army had growth and muscle mass at least equal to him, and even higher than him. With such superiority in numbers, it would be common practice to try to keep the enemy at a distance from afar by the distance.
"Knows that he's under supervision...?"
The probability of this was not so small that it could be ignored. Those magician's accustomed to illegally using magic in the city must be honed by intuition, suggesting that his use of magic can be observed. There was no scientific justification for this, but many believed that this was so.
Tsukasa was also one of those who support this superstition.
"There is no such record in the intelligence database, but it seems likely that Shiba Tatsuya is already taking part in the illegal activities of the Yotsuba family."
At a time when Tsukasa was reflecting on this, the battle between Tatsuya and Stardust turned into puppets began on the street Freed from passersby.
The puppet soldier waved a huge knife, aiming at Tatsuya's tendons. If you use a numerical advantage, usually tactics first involves weakening the enemies combat potential.
The intelligence department did not provide firearms to the puppets. It seems that they feared accidental damage from stray bullets.
When both sides do not have magical means of attack, the battle becomes close combat using knives, clubs, or your own extremities.
However, both Tatsuya and Star Dust were magicians. Becoming puppets, they have not lost their magical abilities. Tsukasa and other members of the Intelligence Department expected that the battle would evolve according to a scenario of fighting with magic with some unreachable distance for close combat.
However, the very first attack, which laid the foundation for the battle, was the swing of a knife. But this does not mean that magic was not used at all. Movement of the puppets knife was accelerated by magic.
This attack did not hit Tatsuya. Tsukasa, who looked through the street cameras, also could not understand exactly how Tatsuya was behind the puppet. If there was still a human will in the puppet, he would be shocked with thoughts, like "when did he have time?".
Tatsuya struck with the edge of the palm over the back of the puppet.
The body of the puppet, as if theatrical, fell forward. Tsukasa, in a hurry, looked at the readout of the psion sensor attached to the street camera.
No signs of using magic were detected by the sensors.
"...It looks like there are ways to use magic without detection by psion sensors."
Cut down the enemy only by a blow to the back of the head. This cannot be done in the usual way. Without the use of special techniques, everything can end only with complications from a trauma received from a strong blow.
A technique was used to stun a person with a blow without any preparation for the accumulation of force. So Tsukasa considered, rather than suggesting that this third-year student in high school can possess such physical techniques, it seemed that he was using the magic technique of deceiving sensors that suited the name Yotsuba.
Not upset by the fall of his accomplice, the other puppets attacked Tatsuya. They did not know fear not because they became puppets. The law of the puppets, used by Tsukasa, only took away free will and inserted orders into the mind. If feelings of loyalty or belonging can still be erased, then those used for self-preservation, the functions of the mind, like fear, cannot be erased. These guys did not know fear because when they became Star Dust, their body was not only redone, but their mind was rebuilt.
Tsukasa did not consider this inhumane. Like many people in her industry, she also used magic to manipulate people, brainwashing them and making them do what she wants.
The fact that she now frowned, was for another reason.
The display showed the battle of one Tatsuya against twelve, or rather already against nine people. It must have looked like a bad situation, in which one person is surrounded by a crowd. But instead, the puppet soldiers with the brainwashed magic fell to the ground one by one.
"Commander. At this rate, target A will be released earlier than a separate unit will come into contact with target B"
It seems that other employees noticed this almost at the same time as she did.
In February last year, the USNA army could not capture Tatsuya with the help of a detachment, including Star Dust and a magician, supposedly Angie Sirius.
Knowing this, not only Tsukasa, but other members of the intelligence department understood that Tatsuya could not defeat the Star Dust alone.
The role of the puppets in this phase of the operation was to detain Tatsuya. Victory over him is not needed.
Tsukasa's goal was to gather information about Tatsuya, but such a result did not work here. With this operation it was planned to obtain data on Tatsuya's fighting power, however, in fact, Tsukasa wanted to learn something else.
"Hurry to attack target B."
"Puppets are completely destroyed. Target A left the scene."
Immediately after the commander gave the order, the remaining four American soldiers fell down. Tsukasa raised Tatsuya's abilities in melee two ranks higher than expected. The psion sensor did not catch the use of Tatsuya magic until the very end.
At the etiquette school, which Miyuki visited, only girls from respected families were gathered. Simply put, only girls from high society who can afford a huge tuition fee could go there.
The security was appropriately, serious. Women with a level of skills sufficient to ensure that at least private criminal organizations could not do anything were employed. That's why the feelings of every parent (but not all of them) entrusted their daughters with them, having established the outdated rule of the "ban on men."
However, this evening it is time to be destroyed by this "myth of security."
"All of you, calm down, please!"
The lecturer who raised her voice to shout over the howling siren, panicked even more students.
"Please evacuate to the safe room in accordance with the emergency manual! The safe room is reliable. Calm down and quickly evacuate, please!"
It's the screaming female lecturer who should have calmed down more than anyone else.
A total of ten pupils (10 today was by chance, usually a different number) whispered to their separately hired family guards. Among the pupils, except Miyuki, there was only one magician, but among the guardians they were all magician's.
"Miyuki-sama, what are we going to do?"
"In a safe room, I see only the future of a cornered rat." Miyuki smiled confusedly.
"However, to disturb the rest of the people from school with a problem that only affects us... For now we obediently abide by the sensei's instructions. In case of emergency, Minami-chan, you will protect us if anyone approaches. You must hold out until Tatsuya-sama comes to pick us up?"
"As you like."
Deciding what to do next, Miyuki began to act quickly. Turning to the students standing next to her: "Come along", she, without waiting for an answer went to the place indicated on the school plan as a safe room.
The other students, their personal guards and the lecturer, followed Miyuki, who went behind Minami.
The School guards fought valiantly. At least it seemed soto Miyuki. But the current situation developed in the enemies favor.
Suddenly an electric shock attack flew from the side of the passage ...
but was stopped by Minami's shield. The anti-object barrier stopped the electric shock attack because it was not an air discharge, but a thin wire, over which an electric current was launched.
"Minami-chan, she understood well. As expected."
"Thank you."
Miyuki praised Minami for blocking this attack not as a barrier against electricity, but as an anti-object barrier. This was a manifestation of a high level of mastery of the magician, when, without wasting time on the high complexity of magic, the nature of the magic of the enemy became clear and immediately activated the appropriate magic for defense.
From the magician's of the guard following them, came expressions of surprise and understanding.
Surprise was associated with the age of Minami. And understanding with the personality of Miyuki.
Surprised at the skill and experience of Minami, unusual at her age, but remembering that she was entrusted to guard the next head of the Yotsuba family, they realized that high skill would be natural in this case.
The other accompanying "Ojou-sama" guards also did not play the fool.
Attackers came not only in front. Side attacks were a rarity, because almost all the way was down a direct corridor, but from behind magic came more than one or two times.
"Covering from the rear, I wonder what house they work for? I cannot remember to see them here. Minami-chan, do you know them?"
Looking back at the very end of the walking group of people, Miyuki asked Minami, looking at the reflected enemy attacks of two women about twenty years old.
"I think it's Tsunashima-sama. The guard appeared as Tsunaga-san."
"Tsunashima-san and Tsunaga-san... I'm sorry, but I do not remember hearing about them."
While not as good as Tatsuya's, Miyuki's memory was also excellent. It is unlikely that she would forget the names of the pupils with whom she studied. The surname of the magician, if he was from the Stamy Semey, she would also know.
"Tsunaga-san said that they started attending classes quite recently."
"Oh?... It was unlucky for them to immediately encounter such a sudden catastrophe."
Listening to this carefree conversation, it would seem to many that they were relaxed, but these two quickly moved forward, in the course of the matter, rebuffing the suddenly appearing offenders.
Protected by Miyuki and Minami at the head of the column, and Tsunashima and Tsunaga from the rear, the students (plus a personal guard and lecturer) arrived at the safe room.
Miyuki and Minami waited at the door for Tsunashima and her escort, Tsunaga, who were fighting off attacks from intruders. Not because they thought they had a duty to help. Instead simply because Miyuki was stronger than anyone else. Stronger than all escort guards, stronger than all the intruders.
Minami took a CAD from her handbag in the form of a mobile terminal and gave it to Miyuki. Until then, Miyuki used a CAD with full mind control, which is completely invisible to an external observer.
Miyuki took a more familiar CAD with a smile, turned it on, and ran her finger across the screen.
Behind the fleeing students and their guards, two black intruders were already prepared to release magic, but were thrown back. The delay was below the recognition limit.
Tsunashima involuntarily froze at this overwhelming magical power.
However, Tsunaga, who had not lost her composure, dragged her into a safe room.
At the other end of the corridor, there were also intruders. Frowning at the thought of how many more of them there are, Miyuki prepared to re-activate the CAD.
Space around them filled with psion noise. Reflecting the light of the corridor lamps, a brass ring flashed.
The intruders used "Cast Jamming".
"Miyuki-sama!" Minami tried to close Miyuki. In her right hand she was already holding a small but reliable combat knife.
"Do not worry, it's all right, Minami-chan." Unlike Minami's painfully frowning face, Miyuki remained calm. "It's a good opportunity to test the new magic that Tatsuya-sama gave me."
Fearlessly stepping forward against two big men rushing along the corridor, Miyuki activated her CAD and released two magics sequentially.
And at the same time psion noise was frozen.
The next moment, after the psion waves became calm, those two men were already frozen. Frozen not in the sense of being frozen. It was
"Frozen" in the sense of a complete stoppage of movement. Minami's bulging eyes looked at Miyuki, who frowned, hoping that defenselessly falling bodies that could not help themselves with their hands would fall without injury.
The surprise was not due to the magic which neutralized those two magicians at the same time. Her surprise was from the magic that stopped the previously released psion noise, which prevents the activation of magic.
"Cast Jamming", which is currently actively used in practice, is considered the most effective means of obstructing magic.
Although this requires a rare mineral called Antinite (it is believed that this is not a natural mineral, but is an artifact a relic of prehistoric civilization), but with it even a person who cannot use magic will almost certainly be able to prevent the activation of magic.
For people who are not magicians, this is the strongest weapon to counter magicians. And Miyuki showed how she, on the contrary, destroys
"Psion Noise."
"Counter-magic 'Freeze Gram'. Counter-magic which Onii-sama, that is Tatsuya-sama created for me. It cannot stop any magic, like 'Gram Demolition' or 'Gram Dispersion', but it's enough for 'Cast Jamming'."
Miyuki did not show this with her face, but her mood increased significantly. So much so that she inadvertently called Tatsuya "Onii-sama", while explaining.
Freeze Gram was an enhanced version of Zone Interference. It could neutralize such types of magic as non-systemic magic, area of effect magic, as well as any magic that has not yet been activated. It is not capable of eliminating magic that has a specific purpose, but, as Miyuki said, "Psion Noise", being a subset of non-systematic magic, was easily neutralized.
"The amount left... is less than ten people. In my opinion, eight."
"I think so too."
Minami nodded, feeling a strong desire for confirmation in Miyuki's voice.
"Then... We'll leave the next defense to the local guards, and we'll wait for the arrival of Tatsuya-sama."
"Yes."
Miyuki and Minami entered the safe room. Miyuki sat on one of the sofas along the wall, and Minami closed the door to the safe room and stayed with her, ready at any time to activate barrier magic.
When Tatsuya arrived at the school, less than ten minutes had passed since he was attacked. From the moment Miyuki entered the safe room, it took about five minutes.
Tatsuya did not receive a message that the school was attacked. The jamming of communications by invaders was organized at a level impossible unless the intelligence department was involved.
From Yakumo, there was also no information that they would also aim at Miyuki.
During the attack on himself, he did not have any conclusions that it was a diversionary maneuver.
He came here only because his main priority is to guarantee the safety of Miyuki.
There were no more battles at school.
However, it was evident at first glance that a forced invasion occurred.
Looking at it, Tatsuya was not alarmed. He knew that there was not a scratch on Miyuki, even without seeing her with the naked eye. Because he was "always seeing and defending her."
He could find out where Miyuki was, simply by sending his consciousness to the "information dimension." At the same time, he learned that within the region of a radius of ten meters around Miyuki there are sings of many people.
The location of Miyuki he recognized with Elemental Sight.
And he defined the location of invaders with a technique that reads signs of a presence.
The accuracy of the information in the first case was an order of magnitude higher, but in the current situation, when the presence tags were not particularly hidden, there were no errors in reading the presence.
Absolutely not worried, Tatsuya entered the forbidden for men, but already trampled by them flower garden.
"Although we deviated greatly from the plan, it all worked."
Looking at the image from the hacked school surveillance camera, Tsukasa ordered herself to cheer up.
Distorted feelings that make you consider yourself a third party. And also a serious defect of the human being, when, as a result of a lack of self-identity, carelessly treat the actions necessary for life support, such as eating or sleeping.
This was the price that the Tooyama family paid for its strength.
Not only puppets from Star Dust, but her personal subordinates were sent to the school.
"Commander."
"What is it, Sergeant Major?"
"I'm thinking of joining the operation. Is it okay if I leave my post?"
"...Understood. I'll authorize it."
The lieutenant commander frowned doubtfully, but remembering what the higher officers said when giving him this task, he gave permission to Tsukasa.
He was then told: "Maximally satisfy the requests of Sergeant Tooyama."
He wanted her to go quickly, because she was incapacitating the system of subordination. Therefore, he granted Tsukasa's request to leave.
"Many thanks."
Tsukasa saluted the lieutenant with an impenetrable face, over which she could not understand whether she knew that he considered her a nuisance.
Tatsuya did not know that the room in which Miyuki was hiding was a so-called "safe room", but he suspected that this would be a room of that kind. But this was not the reason for his calmness. Not paying attention to the guards lying on the floor of the corridors, Tatsuya was heading straight to the safe room.
Along the way, he did not encounter the enemy.
All those who attacked the school gathered at the safe room and tried to break open its heavy door.
Tatsuya pushed himself away from the floor soundlessly. It was a jump not upwards, but forward, for a quick reduction in the distance from the offenders.
The enemy noticed Tatsuya before he approached a sufficient distance for close combat. They did not panic because their mind was suppressed.
Attackers tried to apply the skills obtained during their training as Star Dust. They switched the movement magic to Tatsuya that they were preparing to launch at the door.
Earlier than this magic is activated, Tatsuya fired a compressed psion projectile from his right hand.
It was a magic trick he did not know in the last battle with the USNA army in February of last year, an Armor-Piercing Psion Bullet.
Initially, this magic was created to inflict damage on the true body of the information life form called a "Parasite", but now he often used it to attack the psion information body inside the human body. Its effectiveness has already been tested on the powerful psion armor of Tomitsuka Hagane, which could absorb other's magical attacks.
Star Dust soldiers, who do not have a dense psion veil, like Tomitsuka, flew backward, as if they had received a large-caliber projectile in the chest.
Psions do not have physical striking force. However, in humans and animals in the body there is a psion network that repeats the shape of the body. That is why, with the help of psion influence, it is possible to move your body at a speed exceeding the reaction speed.
Tatsuya fired shells of compressed psions, one by one. Anyone able to perceive psions would see how he shoots from his palms luminous balls of energy.
Having received a blow to the psion information body that copies the structure of the physical body, the human mind tells the physical body to reproduce the damage in the form of an illusion that such damage is actually obtained.
In fact, such a spell exists in non-systemic magic. It is called
"Phantom Blow". Tatsuya decided not to use "Decomposition" to damage the bodies of opponents, but to neutralize them with Armor-Piercing Psion Bullets so that they would think he was attacking with
"Phantom Blow".
He did this to confuse the people watching him. If the military is involved, it was natural to think that the internal surveillance cameras were hacked. Tatsuya came to the same conclusion.
If he had not heard the story of Yakumo, he would have dealt with the enemies much faster. Therefore, he had to think about such troublesome things, such as reducing the battle to close combat. But he had to switch from melee to psion shell attacks, because he was noticed before he could make contact with the enemy. He did not want to disclose his capabilities for as long as possible, at least until he learns the intentions of the self-defense forces.
There were eight attackers in front of the door. All of them were already lying on the floor.
There was no counterattack, the preemptive attack by Tatsuya put an end to the battle. If the enemy had firearms, it would be a little more complicated. Tatsuya again felt that this was suspicious.
Magicians of the United States prefer small arms with a built-in CAD.
Their way of fighting was to increase the magic of their own attack on the weapon itself by introducing a CAD into this weapon. Tatsuya heard that they prefer a combination of various small arms. In fact, during the attack last year, from the very beginning Star Dust had integrated CAD
based on submachine guns.
Why were they now unarmed? The self-defense forces, or rather the intelligence department, easily had to have enough money to supply them with weapons. They were disposable brainwashed agents of another country. Even if the police found this out, the story would go nowhere as no one would recognize anything on them.
Tatsuya felt that the other side might consider that he was not fighting at full strength.
He felt an unpleasant feeling that he was being trapped. But in a situation where you do not know what it will be, you cannot avoid it. Tatsuya began to wait for Miyuki and others to open the door from the inside, realizing that someone is watching through the cameras after the situation.
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