Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 28 - Pursuit (I) - Chapter 1.1

Chapter One

Minami had been kidnapped by Minoru. Miyuki called Tatsuya for help, and Tatsuya quickly flew away from Miyako-jima.

Flying by his aircar from Miyako-jima in the Izu archipelago to Chofu, a suburb of Tokyo, took Tatsuya just 20 minutes at the beginning of the 21st century. Tatsuya wasted no time in hurrying back to Miyuki.

Understanding Miyuki’s shock, Tatsuya didn’t question Miyuki much. It was obvious to him that asking any further questions would only pressure her and would not be productive.

“Yes, this is Ozaki.”

Tatsuya contacted Yuuka over the radio, and was answered by her guardian, Ozaki Chiho. After a quick greeting, he asked her to explain the current situation.

“Kudou Minoru attacked the hospital with the help of self-destructing parasitic dolls.

They were destroyed upon being disabled, thereby releasing the true bodies of Parasites which attacked passerby. The Juumonji family had to react to this threat, and Kudou Minoru used the chaos to break through the line of defense, allowing him to get into the hospital.”

“And Yuuka-san left to help deal with the Parasites?” Tatsuya asked.

“Yes, it was an order from Miyuki-sama.”

Chiho's tone was slightly apologetic. Her excuse was effective, however, as Tatsuya could not complain about Miyuki’s decision. Yuuka had no grounds to refuse an order from the next head of the Yotsuba family, so Tatsuya accepted the excuse easily.

“Minoru’s opponent was only Miyuki?”

Tatsuya still didn’t understand the details of the event and asked for clarification.

“Yes. We have not yet established the details of what happened in the hospital, but Miyuki-sama is unharmed. All four parasitic dolls that Kudou Minoru took with him to the hospital were disabled by Miyuki-sama’s magic, but Kudou Minoru still kidnapped Sakurai Minami.”

Chiho’s explanation contained the approximate course of events, but Tatsuya’s attempt to understand the specific details was not making progress.

Obviously, Miyuki’s Cocytus was what neutralized the parasitic dolls.

When Pledge was still in effect on Tatsuya, it was supported by Miyuki’s power, so as well as removing the limiter on Tatsuya’s magic, removing the seal also allowed Miyuki to use her magical powers at 100%.

Miyuki's Cocytus was able to damage the Parasite’s true body — confirmed last winter in the battle at First High’s training forest. While with people, the Parasite “merges”

with the host, in Parasite dolls the Parasite just takes possession as the doll does not have a spiritual body to merge with. Because of this, Parasite dolls had no way to resist Miyuki’s magic.

Cocytus was a magic that did not allow leniency. Using this magic either resulted in death or failure. Minoru could withstand one hit with Parade, but he wouldn’t fool her magic a second time. Once Cocytus was used on Parade, Cocytus – which freezes activity of the mind, including Magic – would not allow Parade to be used again. Even if Minoru was not hit directly, allowing the main hit to be tanked by one of his Parasite dolls, Minoru would still suffer a decline in magical power.

The basic course of events was obvious to Tatsuya, but he couldn’t possibly understand how Miyuki had allowed Minami to be abducted while remaining unharmed. Even if Minoru had somehow found a way to beat Miyuki, he wouldn’t have been able to do it by such a margin as to leave Miyuki unscathed. The only explanation was that Miyuki had allowed Minami to be kidnapped, but that didn’t make any sense.

Therefore, the only explanation was that Minami and Minoru convinced Miyuki to let them go.

There was no guarantee that Miyuki would win in a fight against Minoru. If she hit him with Cocytus, Minoru would lose, but if Minoru’s magic reached Miyuki before this – she would lose. Of course, Tatsuya would not allow Miyuki to be harmed, regardless of distance. As soon as an attack on Miyuki was started, Tatsuya would feel it, recognize the attack, and eliminate. Should the attack be one that could not be expanded, he would erase the enemy carrying out the attack. However, there were always exceptions. It was foolish to assume that Tatsuya was omnipotent. There were attacks he could not expand and enemies he struggled to eliminate. Minoru as he was now was not an opponent to be underestimated.

Miyuki had no reason to kill Minoru or take magic away from him. She wasn’t even necessarily an enemy to the Parasites. Though Parasites were a threat to mankind, Miyuki was a fragile creature that could be destroyed unexpectedly, and her nature was relatively pacifistic. It was entirely possible for her to support Minoru’s love - however misguided he was in trying to turn Minami into a Parasite - if Minami agreed. If Minoru came for Minami and convinced her to go with him, Miyuki might just smile, wish them good luck, and let them go – she was the type of girl to avoid fighting if at all possible.

However, Miyuki most likely would not have entrusted Minami to the current Minoru. If Minoru didn’t give up on turning her into a Parasite for “treatment”, Miyuki would probably have stopped him.

Since leaving Tokyo, Tatsuya had not felt a single direct attack on Miyuki, and Chiho’s assertion that Miyuki was unharmed confirmed this.

Then, Miyuki did not fight Minoru and overlooked his abduction if Minami…? No, Miyuki’s distress at the event meant she surely did not overlook Minami’s abduction.

Something unexpected happened so that she could not attack Minoru?

Tatsuya could not imagine what that should be.

“Is Minoru’s current location known?”

Putting aside his guesses on the events of how Minoru kidnapped Minami, Tatsuya started thinking about the pursuing Minoru. Given that the USNA and New Soviet Union’s plan to sabotage the thermonuclear fusion reactor had for the most part come to a conclusion, the pursuit of Minoru became the task taking precedence.

“We don’t have details of the vehicle used, but it has been found moving west along the main road. The Juumonji family head has already completed preparations for pursuit,” Chiho answered.

Since the appearance of the vehicle wasn’t known, surveillance systems would be useless, raising the question as to it was confirmed that he was heading west on the main road.

“What was the basis of the conclusion that he was heading west along the central road?”

“We confirmed his location using Psionic radar to search for Parasites,” Chiho responded.

This Psionic radar was not yet at a level such that it could be considered complete, but it was still effective in determining the approximate location and direction of movement. More points of observation would have to be established before the radar could determine exact location using multi-point searches.

If Minrou were in perfect condition, he would be able to thwart any attempt at following him by using Parade. The radar was nowhere near advanced enough to be able to break through the Kudou family’s magic. Knowing this, Tatsuya came to the following conclusion:

“Minoru was damaged in a fight?”

Minoru’s magical abilities had to have been deteriorated in a fight for Chiho to be able to be confident about his location, but this raised further questions. Was it temporary, or would it remain for an extended length of time as a side effect? Was the nature of the damage in the Eidos, or was it ironically caused by overheating of his magic calculation area, similar to what happened to Minami?

He most likely received a strike from Miyuki’s Cocytus, but regardless of the cause, Minoru’s inability to use Parade provided an excellent opportunity to both bring back Minami as well as to capture Minoru without killing him.

Tatsuya was still slightly indecisive on whether to kill Minoru. This could have been because of some slight emotional attachment, but more importantly, he couldn’t predict what would happen upon his death, the moment his body was destroyed.

Minoru had retained his identity upon merging with the Parasite and swallowing the ghost of Zhou Gongjin. He was very different from the deserters of the USNA Army he fought last Winter and the magicians from Stars who Tatsuya had just defeated.

Though he was able to seal the magicians from Stars of First-magnitude class, he might not be able to use the same method on Minoru. Killing Minoru could release a powerful spiritual life form unable to be sealed by Tatsuya’s sphere, and Tatsuya didn’t want to take that risk. Tatsuya felt catching Minoru alive and putting him in a state in which he wouldn’t be able to use magic was the method with the fewest possible consequences. The only problem was the difficulty of putting the plan into action.

Capturing someone alive was far more difficult than simply murdering them. Minoru’s struggle in capturing Minami illustrated this difficulty. Tatsuya was not even sure he would win against Minoru in a battle for life and death if Minoru was in perfect shape; he would almost certainly not be able to capture Minoru alive, especially considering the magic available to Tatsuya. He needed to be ready to kill Minoru in the next fight regardless of the possible consequences.

Tatsuya asked his question about Minoru’s condition intending to capture Minoru alive if the situation allowed it, and killing him if not. Chiho answered his question understanding this, but her answer didn’t provide much information.

“It seems that Kudou Minoru’s masking and hiding abilities are weakened, but it isn’t known how long this weakened state will last for.”

With this confirmation, Tatsuya’s thought screamed, “This is a chance.”

Tatsuya arrived at the Aoba clinic in Chofu exactly 20 minutes after Miyuki called him for help. Flying back from the island to the clinic actually took less time than the flight from Chofu to the island – the fact that the return trip took less time than the initial  

trip, a trip in response to an emergency request from the main Yotsuba house, indicated Tatsuya’s priorities clearly.

“Onii-sama!”

Miyuki ran up to him and called him in an unacceptable manner under normal circumstances – forgetting to at least use “Tatsuya-sama” showed her distress.

Thankfully, there were no magicians from the Juumonji family in range to hear her as they had already set out to pursue Minoru, but Yuuka and the Tsukuba family staff were still in place. This wasn’t that much of an issue considering they were still part of the Yotsuba family, but it still would have been more desirable for Miyuki to act as her position dictated. The Tsukuba family realized Miyuki’s distress, however, and didn’t comment on it.

“Miyuki. I'm glad you're not hurt.”

Tatsuya hadn’t planned these words in advance, and Miyuki opened her eyes in surprise, not expecting words of concern. She at least expected questioning on the events or about Minoru, so his first confirming Miyuki’s condition came as a shock to her.

Tatsuya was no less surprised by his words – while his concern for Miyuki was only natural, he was surprised that he had simply said what he was thinking honestly and openly without considering the words he was saying.

“Thank you very much,” Miyuki responded.

Miyuki’s response didn’t make much sense on the surface, but her words of gratitude were natural thoughts to her given the situation.

However, like Tatsuya, Miyuki was surprised by her openness, and she hung her head slightly in embarrassment.

“Tatsuya-sama!” Miyuki exclaimed. “It doesn't matter what happens to me, after all, Minami-chan... !”

Her short exchange of phrases with Tatsuya managed to suppress her panic, and she regained composure enough to switch to a more acceptable title for Tatsuya. Miyuki  

leaned against him and froze in a pose that seemed to call for a hug. Tatsuya gently laid his hands on her shoulders, and a slight tremor passed through his palms.

“Tell me the details later. The main thing now is to get Minami back.”

“...Can you get her back?” Miyuki asked?

“I can’t promise.”

Tatsuya could easily tell soothing lies, but he didn’t want to be insincere with Miyuki.

“Minoru is strong, and his Parade is better than Lina’s. Even with his magical abilities weakened, I might not be able to detect him.”

At this, Tatsuya paused briefly and slightly pulled away from Miyuki to look into her eyes.

“But the longer I take, the harder it will be to save her, and I might end up being too late. It would be best to go right now.”

Miyuki stopped shaking as she thought about how to respond.

“Save… that’s right. What Minoru-kun is trying… is wrong. And Minami-chan…

what is she thinking…”

Miyuki’s words cast a bit of doubt in Tatsuya’s mind - Miyuki’s words made it seem as if Minami left with Minoru of her own free will - but he had enough composure to not let it show on his face. This problem didn’t have to be solved yet.

“Alright. I'm leaving right away.”

“Tatsuya-sama! Please take me with you.”

Tatsuya expected this request. Miyuki considered herself guilty of Minami’s abduction for failing to stop Minoru. However, Tatsuya didn’t yet understand her full motivation. If Miyuki had applied Cocytus to Minoru without hesitating, Minami’s feelings would not have manifested in time for her to act in such an irrational way.

Even if she ended up sad because Minoru was dead, Minami would still be safe.

However illogical, Miyuki felt guilty and blamed herself for Minami’s situation, so she  

stubbornly wanted to correct her mistake herself. But Tatsuya did not give a favorable answer.

“I can not.”

Even Tatsuya could understand how she felt – if their situations were reversed, he would have wanted to go as well. However, Tatsuya’s plan for pursuit did not allow Miyuki to come with.

“I will chase from air with the Freed Suit. The maneuverability of the aircar leaves much to be desired.”

The refusal was not due to possible danger, but due to the lack of suitable equipment.

“...I understand.”

Miyuki was just as able to used flight magic as Tatsuya, but without a suit assisting her, she would only be a burden on Tatsuya. Understanding this, Miyuki did not beg further.

“Tatsuya-sama, be careful. Take care of Minami-chan.”

“I will.”

Answering Miyuki curtly, Tatsuya took off and flew westward.

Compared to the Mobile Suit used by the self-defense forces, the Freed suit developed by the Yotsuba family does not have the power assistance function and has an inferior quality data transmission channel, but it provides the same amount or even higher protection in addition to its more effective stealth and ability to fly much higher.

Also, the data channel is only inferior at processing large numbers of simultaneous connections, and it has no problems processing external data under most circumstances.

The Freed suit should not be considered inferior than the Mobile suit, and its increased mobility and stealth makes it more suitable for pursuit then the Mobile suit which is specialized for fighting.

A translucent map of the terrain was displayed in Tatsuya’s field of view. The map of the Boso area of West Kanto showed a red circle with a diameter of about one kilometer giving the approximate location of Minoru, based on data from a psionic radar tuned to search for Parasites.

He didn’t intend to waste time near the Aoba clinic, but his conversation with Miyuki had taken 5 minutes. He was almost 30 minutes behind Minoru. Tatsuya’s only advantage was that he could fly in a straight line at a higher speed than Minoru who was forced to travel on the road.

The translucent circle giving Minoru’s location was moving west near Mount Takao.

To catch up to him in five minutes, Tatsuya increased his flight speed to 400 km / h.

After abducting Minami from the hospital, Minoru headed west along the central road in a car prepared by the Kudou family. It was separate to the van on which the Parasite dolls were being transported – Minoru was on the "Van Con", a closed-type wagon van in which the space occupied by the rear seats and cargo hold was converted to a livable area so that it turned out to be like a house on wheels.

The only people in the care were Minoru and Minami; the driver was a combat quinoid (not parasitized) that looked like an adult human male. Minami sat down on a long bench that acted as a bed, and Minoru took the front passenger seat.

No one was watching Minami to prevent her from escaping. The car was traveling at a high enough speed that she could not jump out without getting injured, but even if Minami was able to leave, Minoru didn’t intend to follow her. If she wanted to escape, Minoru would have accepted it and let her.

While abducting her was selfish, he wasn’t going to force her to do anything more now that he had escaped. All he wanted was to talk to Minami and hear her opinion without interference from Tatsuya or Miyuki – what does Minami really think?

"I don't want to die"?

Or "I don't want to lose my magic"?

Given the choices, "be human" or "be a magician", what would she choose?

If Minami didn’t mind losing her magic, Minoru wouldn’t try to persuade or force her.

He would never forcefully make Minami into a Parasite.

Minoru just wanted to give her a choice. He didn’t want to observe in silence what appeared to be Miyuki and Tatsuya making Minami’s decision for her.

Minoru realized his decision was selfish, and being smart, he knew that abducting her from Tatsuya and Miyuki was disregarding her intentions. Being conscious of the effects of his actions, Minoru no longer wanted to restrict Minami.

He was also curious about what Minami’s feelings were at the moment.

Was she angry?

Disgusted, perhaps?

Does she look at Minoru with contempt?

Minoru partly chose to sit away from Minami in an attempt to show her he was not trying to limit her. But his main reason was that his magical power was greatly diminished after being hit by Miyuki’s Cocytus. He wasn’t shocked by his weakness, and he had the feeling it was temporary. But his current state wasn’t encouraging considering his situation. From the beginning of his escape, he felt a mechanical look pursuing him, identifying his psionic waves and transmitting them through the information dimension.

In the current situation, in which the efficiency of his Parade had deteriorated due to his drop in magical power, Minoru could not completely mislead the psionic wave detection hardware. The most he could do was reduce the detection radius to about 1

kilometer.

At the moment, he was distorting the response from himself such that the detection radius was accurate to about 500 meters. Minoru was not necessarily in the center of the circle, either – he was constantly moving the signal source to a different direction to reduce the stability of detection results. He was careful about the speed at which he moved the signal source, as well – unnaturally increasing his speed would be clearly visible, so no matter how hurried he was, he wouldn’t go too fast. His only chance at getting away from the Yotsuba and Juumonji would be to use his weakened  

Parade as much as he could. So, his main reason for sitting away from Minami was so that he could focus – he thought that if he sat next to her, his thoughts would automatically divert to her such that he couldn’t focus on his magic.

Minoru had recently begun to feel a different look than the mechanical one from the radar – like an all seeing eye, making it even more difficult to maintain his false image.

It was Tatsuya’s Elemental Sight.

Minoru understood the cause, but it didn’t help him in shaking it off. Minoru could never get rid of Tatsuya’s “eyes” in his current state. He had to make every effort to at least prevent him from accurately determining his location.

Regardless of Minoru’s thoughts in sitting away from Minami, she was grateful towards him for keeping his distance. She felt that if she could physically feel his warmth, she would automatically cling to him. Minami didn’t trust her mental state enough for her to be able to hold herself back.

She was tormented by guilt.

She betrayed Miyuki... she could hardly believe her actions.

Why did she betray Miyuki, her mistress?

How could she betray Miyuki by defending Minoru?

“Because you like Minoru more than Miyuki.”

The depths of Minami’s consciousness whispered her guilt to her, eroding her mental state as she dwelled on her actions. But she still didn’t agree with her other self.

She couldn’t deny that she had feelings towards Minoru, no matter how much she wanted to avoid admitting it. But a part of herself still remained confident that the whispered statement was false.

Her emotions towards Minoru and Miyuki were incomparable; they were fundamentally different in nature.

Minami viewed Miyuki as her mistress. At least, in the beginning, that was all. But now she thought of her as family, as an older, caring sister. She would protect Miyuki with her life not because it was her duty, but because she wanted to in her heart. She was able to extend her limits and overheat her magic calculation area when defending against the attack by Tuman Bomba because of her feelings. It wasn’t disputable that her feelings towards Miyuki existed, and Minami understood that she loved Miyuki as family. Miyuki was precious to Minami, which made her guilt towards her betrayal all the worse.

On the other hand, Minami didn’t understand her feelings for Minoru – how she felt about him.

Was it love?

Was it more of an obsession?

Or did she just not want him to die to Miyuki?

No matter how much Minami thought about it, she couldn’t come to a conclusion.

Minami knew she liked Minoru.

She just didn’t know how much.

Her thoughts had only progressed to the point at which she was just becoming aware of her feelings.

While trying to come to a conclusion, Minami tried to remember how she felt at the moment she betrayed Miyuki, but she couldn’t remember what she was thinking when she stood in front of Minoru and begged Miyuki to “please stop!”. All she was sure of was that given the choice between never seeing Minoru again or never seeing Miyuki again, she would give her farewells to Minoru. Minami was convinced that she still hadn’t given up her loyalty to Miyuki.

Minami ordered herself not to hesitate, to believe that she still hadn’t betrayed her mistress in her heart just yet.

Arcturus decided to try to unite with his colleagues in order to complete his mission to sabotage the thermonuclear fusion reactor.

His biggest problem at the moment was finding them.

Though he had become an Astral body, he still had limitations in transportation. There weren’t any physical limitations like terrain – moving over mountains or sea was about the same as flying along flat ground to him now – and speed was not an issue either.

He was limited to moving at speeds he had personally experienced, but since he had been in the cockpit of a supersonic fighter, he was able to move fairly quickly. His problem was that he couldn’t use any navigation systems as an astral body – he didn’t know where to fly, so any attempt would be a waste of spiritual energy.

His awakening should have been noticed by his colleagues. Also, he should feel his colleagues’ presence. He should have felt where his comrades were, but no matter how hard he strained his perception, he couldn’t detect any sign of Regulus’ presence.

“Am I no longer a Parasite?

Did I… become human again?”

Arcturus tried to make sense of his situation with his immaterial head; his mind, in other words.

He decided to try searching again. This time he looked for the activity of the waves of his subordinate’s body by using ancient perception magic, a form of outer-systematic magic passed down among Native Americans which worked using information distance rather than physical distance.

Information distance could be considered familiarity – close friends, relatives, sworn enemies and the like who one knows very well would give a strong response through the information dimension regardless of distance. On the other hand, one would not be able to detect a response from a stranger even if they were in the same room.

Information distance disregarded the physical world and was a fundamental y different type of distance.

Despite this, Arcturus still couldn’t establish the location of Regulus despite the fact that they had worked in the same detachment for more than five years.

“Has he been kil ed…?”

Arcturus pessimistically assumed the worst.

He didn’t have long to grieve, however, as he was interrupted by a sudden feeling.

“What is this ?”

Arcturus caught a familiar feeling that he had a strong connection to through his network.

“The same as at that time ?”

Arcturus had found the presence of the sworn enemy who attacked the transport plane and sealed Arcturus’ physical body.

“This is the enemy.”

Arcturus knew this without even knowing the identity of the person he was against.

Not knowing that this enemy was the enemy the mission was supposed to neutralize,

"Shiba Tatsuya", Arcturus rushed after his enemy flying in the sky to avenge himself and his comrades.

Tatsuya slowed down while flying near Takao Mountain. He was tracking Minami’s eidos through a filter impeding his view, watching for information related to Minami.

He felt he was catching up to her.

Tatsuya would be able to determine the location of Minami anywhere on the globe with no interference – his information distance to Minami was extremely close after having lived in the same house as her for more than a year – so though Minoru was hiding her exact coordinates using his magic, Tatsuya was still able to read approximated locational information.

Minoru had assumed Tatsuya’s sight was directed towards him, but in actuality, he was feeling Tatsuya’s gaze on Minami because of his deep connection with her.

Tatsuya turned off the helmet’s display and looked at the highway to watch for psion waves.

Even with his masking magic weakened, Minoru didn’t emit extra psions which lingered and could be detected from a distance. However, he couldn’t completely suppress the Parasitic waves he emitted – lingering effects from being hit by Cocytus.

This was how the Parasite radar was able to detect his signal – it picked up the distorted Parasitic waves he was emitting and approximated the source location after receiving a number of them.

“…Are these his?”

Tatsuya settled his gaze on an unusual wave wobble different from waves emitted by normal people. He lowered his altitude in order to establish the source of the psionic waves which spread around him like a mist.

Suddenly, he detected magic aimed at him from his left. He stopped his descent and began to rise sharply, as if he had jumped into the air.

Directly beneath him at the location he had been a moment ago slipped a thin strip of lightning created by magic. Tatsuya turned to face the source of the magic – the point of activation and the point of exit from the magic sequence nearly coincided. Someone had fired a lightning bolt straight from their hand as if it were a gun. This was unusual for modern magic, as weapons devices were preferred for this type of attack.

Knowing this, Tatsuya figured his opponent was probably an ancient magician.

However, Tatsuya was surprised by his enemy’s appearance.

His enemy – was immaterial.

The spiritual body attacking Tatsuya was in the shape of a person’s physical body, exuding hostile intent towards Tatsuya.

“A psionic body storing someone’s will... a ghost? No, an Astral Projection ?”

Tatsuya counterattacked the next attack instead of dodging it. A sharp, rotating spear made from compressed air flew towards him.

Tatsuya neutralized the air spear directed at him by dispersing the spell as well as the plasma sparks on the surface of the air mass.

Scatter spells analyzed the structural information of magic sequences and destroyed the connections between the psionic particles making it up.

The first step of this obtaining the information describing the sequence of the magic.

In doing so, information about the caster of the magic is revealed in addition to the content of the magic.

Though the astral body resembled a human body in shape, finer details weren’t reproduced, so though Tatsuya could “see” the astral body was once a human man, he couldn’t establish any form of identity. All it looked like was a silhouette, like a person wearing a mask of a generic human face.

However, after gaining information about the unknown enemy from the magic they used, Tatsuya recognized his identity.

“Alexander Arcturus, first-magnitude magician of Stars.”

Realizing this fact allowed Tatsuya to recognize some of the astral body’s clearer outlines.

The psionic body, shaped like a man and hovering in front of him in the air, took on the appearance of a large magician whom Tatsuya had fought and sealed in a transport plane.

Minoru detected the signs of a magical battle as soon as it started in the sky above him.

“One of them is Alexander Arcturus… he’s fighting… Tatsuya-san?”

He recognized Arcturus instantly – after all, they were both Parasites, and it was he who undid Arcturus’s seal, awakening Arcturus from “death”. Minoru detected Arcturus from the psionic waves the astral body was releasing, as well as the fact that his release from the seal was incomplete.

The core of the astral body which had come out of Arcturus’ physical body was the same as the information body formed from the Pushion part of Parasites’ true bodies.

The Eidos surrounding it – Arcturus – was covering, as if he were clothes for the Parasite.

Minoru felt Arcturus presence by perceiving an information body similar to himself –

the Parasite – in addition to the accompanying Eidos making up Arcturus.

Minoru could only guess that the second person was Tatsuya, though his reasoning was opposite of what it was when identifying Arcturus.

Minoru could not detect Tatsuya’s psionic waves.

He had definitely used magic, but the only psions used were used in manipulating the Eidos using magic. There were no residual effects in either the information or physical dimension.

This was not done by using high-level magic, but by high-level use of magic –

Tatsuya’s performance could be called an art at how skilled it was.

“…if you think about it, that has to be him. Tatsuya-san is the only one who can use magic that effectively.”

Minoru may have been overestimating him compared to everyone else. There could well be other experienced masters with skills similar to or even better than Tatsuya’s.

However, among magicians Minoru knew – magicians probable to be in this situation

– Tatsuya was the only person in the list.

“…Tatsuya-san is chasing me.”

This fact made Minoru nervous. He wasn’t sure he could defeat Tatsuya even in perfect condition, so with his magic weakened, he had very little chance of defending Minami.

Shortly after successfully abducting her, Minami would be taken from him.

Taken directly from his hands.

“This is bad.”

He still hadn’t heard Minami’s answer – her feelings.

Minoru had never relied on others in matters of magic. He used to rely on others physically due to abnormal pains in his body, but that was all. In magic’s case, his skill had always been sufficient for the situation and he never needed to ask for help from others.

So this situation was Minoru’s first experience in asking for help due to his own magic being insufficient.

“Please! …at least for thirty minutes, please. Somehow, please stall Tatsuya-san…!”

Minoru pleaded for help from an unknowing Arcturus, who continued performing reckless attacks.