The signal for the beginning of the battle was a swirl of leaves in the wind.
Elm, Oak, and Mountain cherry. Even though it was midsummer, green leaves began to fall from the trees growing in the schoolyard, as if they had been torn off or cut off.
Both this leaf fall and the wind were unnatural.
Tatsuya jumped aside before this swirling of leaves reached him.
He didn’t manage to dodge some of the leaves, and they grazed him on the arm, leaving a line of cuts.
The leaves looked thin, but they were able to cut the “Freed Suit,” which possesses properties of being bulletproof, and resistance to piercing and cutting blows.
“Leaves" and “blades." It was probably “Imitation Magic” that used “kotodamas” -
the word of spirits.
The swarm of leaves flying past spun into a big arc and came back at Tatsuya.
Tatsuya's body was covered in a blinding Psion light.
Contact-Type Gram Demolition.
It was a special ability of Tomitsuka Hagane, with whom Tatsuya once fought. With the help of psionic manipulation techniques, he developed a technique that has a similar effect with the unique ability of Tomitsuka.
When the wind touched the Psion armor, it lost its power, and the leaves lost their blade like properties and fell to the ground.
“Is this a kind of “Mokuton-jutsu*” - 'Hidden foliage?'”
[Tonjutsu - ninjutsu techniques (for stealth and escape) with the participation of the Five Elements. Roughly speaking, the use of each of the elements to distract the attention of the enemy. Fujibayashi Nagamasa's fire spell, for example, was also from Tonjutsu. Not so bad “distracted attention," having burnt the whole house. Prefixes for tonjutsu: Moku is tree, Ka is fire, Do is earth, Kin is metal, Sui is water.]
[Read more about the Five Elements themselves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/y-syn]
Tatsuya canceled his psionic armor, and began to look for signs of Yakumo's presence.
Not using his “Elemental Sight." In the course of the battle on the highway, it became clear that Yakumo possesses techniques capable of deceiving “Elemental Sight.”
Relying only on that is too dangerous. Rather, on the contrary, there are more opportunities to fall for some trick of Yakumo.
Tatsuya's perception caught not the location of Yakumo, but signs of magic activation.
Right under his feet.
Tatsuya abruptly jumped back from this place.
While he was in the air, all the leaves that had fallen to the ground caught fire at the same time.
The fire was quite strong, as if dried leaves were burning, not fresh and green.
“Is this “Katonjutsu" the magic of fire adhering to the system of the Five Elements?"
According to the system of the Five Elements, “wood makes fire." By forcefully applying this concept to reality, this magic burned the fresh leaves as if they were dry. Perhaps this, too, can be called the magic of the spirits of word.
The fire didn’t go out even after the leaves burned. Tatsuya was pursued by a physically impossible fire magic burning without combustible substances.
It wasn’t a real flame.
It was an illusion of a flame.
However, Tatsuya knew that if you touch this flame, it will burn the skin.
Tatsuya threw a projectile of compressed psions into this illusory flame.
“Gram Demolition."
Illusions are nothing but information that doesn’t possess a material entity. And the psion pressure just blew it away.
He didn’t use “Gram Dispersion” because he was cautious, suggesting that a trap might be waiting for him in the process of reading the magic sequence.
Of course, this could be unnecessary suspicion. But if the goal of Yakumo is to seal Tatsuya's special abilities, making him cautious, then it turns out that Tatsuya has already fallen for his trick.
But Tatsuya wasn’t so simple either.
“If he follows the Five Elements, then the next one will be “Earth.”
“Dotonjutsu?”
Tatsuya, who had extinguished the flames while still in the air, tucked both legs high in the air a moment before landing. And at the moment of landing he strongly stamped them on the ground.
Psionic waves, propagating from the soles of his shoes, shook the surface of the earth.
The magic sequence that began to “infect" by coming into contact with the “ground"
obtained from the ashes of the burnt leaves was broken by the psionic shock wave.
“You are well-versed in the 'Five Connected Tonjutsu Technique.'”
Yakumo's voice echoed in the schoolyard, the source of which couldn't be determined.
It was the first time Tatsuya had heard the name “Five Connected Tonjutsu Technique," but he decided not to be distracted by it.
It was probably magic that uses the principle of the interaction of the Five Elements, connecting together the elements of wood, fire, earth, metal and water in a chain.
Tatsuya himself suggested this when he was able to predict the attack using Dotonjutsu - earth magic.
However, he didn’t devote the slightest bit of his mind's resources to this thought.
Instead, he focused his mind on finding Yakumo's location.
“But it's not over yet.”
Yakumo's words weren’t a bluff.
Guided by intuition, Tatsuya looked up.
An innumerable number of needles fell from above.
Tatsuya had to exert all his strength to breakthrough and avoid this swarm of long needles, which were coming down with considerable acceleration.
Needles with a length of about 30 centimeters, one after another, stuck into the ground of the schoolyard. Their length and thickness were completely the same.
Obviously, they were made with one standard for use as throwing weapons.
Periodically activating the magic of self-acceleration using his instant recall technique, Tatsuya dodged all these long, thick, and sharp needles coming from the sky.
However, this didn’t leave a moment of time for a break. The needles stuck into the ground still existed. From all these needles there were signs of magic activation.
“Magic of the release system?"
Tatsuya intuitively sensed that it was magic that created lightning, even without using his “sight."
“By the way, “ninjutsu users" and “exorcist-onmyoji" are completely different things!"
In general, in the ideology of the Five Elements, lightning refers to the element of the tree. The generally accepted principle of interaction between the element of metal and the element of tree seems like “metal defeats tree,” therefore it can’t lead to the phenomenon of metal needles emitting lightning. Tatsuya's discontent was based precisely on this discrepancy, but regardless of his swearing thoughts, he had already begun to confront another real threat.
Activating the CAD built into the suit with his mind, Tatsuya released the activation
sequence.
It took only a moment to build a magic sequence.
And it wasn’t “Gram Dispersion” - the magic of decomposing information bodies designed to neutralize magic.
It was “Mist Dispersion” - the magic of decomposition, designed to break down any object, solid or liquid, into their basic molecules & elements by interfering with the structural information.
Several objects of the same form can become the goal of decomposition magic as a single set of objects. This is an extremely useful feature of Tatsuya's decomposition magic.
All the needles that fell from the sky were of the same length and thickness, and ended with the same point. This made it possible to recognize them as a single set of objects.
One step ahead of the magic activating in the needles, Tatsuya applied “Mist Dispersion" simultaneously on all the needles stuck in the ground.
The forest of needles instantly disappeared, as if they had evaporated.
And along with this, the magic built into the needles was also forcibly canceled.
The power of interference in the phenomenon, prepared for the performance of magic, lost the place in which it was supposed to go to.
Most of the power of interference in the phenomenon simply dissipated in the surrounding space, but a small part of it returned to the caster in a reverse flow.
If Tatsuya had not previously observed the true nature of the interference force, he would have lost sight of it now.
If the magic had been released from a distant place, unreachable for the normal five senses, then Tatsuya, who wasn’t able to see pushions, couldn’t do anything.
But now the place was within range of normal vision. The Pushion streams rushed to a single point that was in Tatsuya's field of vision.
Tatsuya (like most other magicians), although he couldn’t recognize Pushion information bodies, but he could vaguely feel Pushion flows.
Tatsuya confidently saw how the Pushion flow returned to the spell caster — that is, to Yakumo.
The distance to him was approximately 25 meters away.
Which was within reach of his “Gram Demolition."
Tatsuya squeezed a mass of psions into his hand in less than an instant...
He shot the compressed psions out of his right hand.
A dazzlingly shining, powerful psionic stream collided into the trunk of a suspicious-looking elm tree towering on the edge of the schoolyard.
Ripples appeared on the surface of the trunk.
As if emerging from muddy water, the silhouette of Yakumo appeared from the ripples.
Then he turned to face Tatsuya.
Hearing a quiet voice from such a distance won't work. But according to the movement of his lips, Tatsuya could read Yakumo's question: “Did you find me?"
But he looked no more tense than a child being found while playing hide-and-seek.
Tatsuya didn't say anything in response.
He only rushed towards Yakumo.
High-speed transport ship of the USNA Navy fully submersible type, “Coral". Inside it, Raymond wasn’t the only one accompanying Minoru.
Raymond led Minoru and Minami behind him, and behind them were two soldiers and one female officer. They were walking down a wide passageway toward the stern of the ship. The female officer was First Lieutenant Zoe Spica, a Parasite from Stars, who has the class of the First stellar magnitude.
The spacious interior of the warship “Coral" contradicted the generally accepted image of a cramped and narrow submarine. Perhaps it was designed so that there was even more space on it than on a luxury passenger liner.
“This is your cabin, Minoru, and next to it is the cabin for your girlfriend. However, the lock can only be locked from the inside. This function is not provided from the outside. I'm sorry about that.”
“I wasn’t going to ask for luxury. But thank you for the individual cabins.”
Minoru replied gratefully to Raymond, who didn't look all that apologetic when he apologized.
“Though perhaps it would have been better if you had shared a cabin?”
“It's nothing like that.”
Minami didn’t react to Raymond's teasing, as if she was wearing a mask, and Minoru answered with a short, dry phrase.
He seemed to be trying to hide his embarrassment in this way.
“Oh, yes, by the way. Just because you can't close the door from the outside, also means that you can't open the door from the outside. This means that if the door is locked, no one will be able to find out what you are doing inside.”
Raymond added with a grin.
“That's unlikely. Also don't tell me there are security cameras.”
Minoru voice went cold. He didn’t even try to hide his dark feelings.
Minoru and Minami were strangers here. And on a warship it is impossible to remain without observation. Minoru believed that the statement about the impossibility to open the door from the outside was an outright lie. It is unlikely that the USNA Army was so courteous.
“No, no, it's true. You aren’t prisoners of war, but guests. Such rudeness like peeping is impermissible.”
Minoru decided to ignore Raymond's stupid joke and changed his mind about arguing about it.
“Since you are treating us with such hospitality, can you at least let us know where we are going?”
Minoru had not yet heard from Raymond about the destination of this ship, and didn’t know where he and Minami were going.
“Of course, we can.”
Raymond nodded.
Lieutenant Spica and the two soldiers didn’t stop Raymond. Therefore, Minoru thought that treating them not like prisoners of war was probably not a lie.
Without even noticing that he was being treated with suspicion, Raymond turned to face Minoru and said:
“This ship is heading to the naval base on the Pearl and Hermes Atoll.
Tatsuya abruptly approached Yakumo. He feinted with a left hook. And with an actual right uppercut Yakumo took a hit to his left elbow.
Opening his left hand, Tatsuya pulled it to Yakumo's right hand and grabbed hold of him. Even though it was through a glove, he definitely felt that he had touched Yakumo's hand. That is, Tatsuya was now undoubtedly facing the real Yakumo.
But despite this...
Tatsuya was hit in the back with a heavy blow.
Tatsuya lost his balance, leaning forward. Yakumo aimed his right hand at his head.
A blow that flew in from behind was affected by the blind spot in the limited field of view of Tatsuya's helmet. Tatsuya semi-intuitively tilted his head diagonally forward and to the right.
It wasn’t possible to completely dodge, and Yakumo's right hand grazed his helmet.
Without resisting the impulse of the impact, Tatsuya rolled in the direction in which he had tilted his head. As he stood up, he took off his helmet and cast it aside. The last blow had the power to break through the helmet. More precisely, this power really did break through the helmet.
His armor or helmet won’t protect him from Yakumo's attack. Such a helmet, which impeded visibility, is only a hindrance when the enemy can deliver blows that penetrate armor. Tatsuya took off his helmet, because he knew it instantly.
With his head now exposed, Tatsuya rushed to Yakumo at an even higher speed than the last time. His left jab was aimed at Yakumo's face.
But the enemy didn’t even budge or evade.
It was an illusion.
Tatsuya stopped his left jab a moment before his hand was fully extended, then opened his hand and pointed it down.
And with his palm in this position, he swung his left hand down.
This hand touched Yakumo's monastic attire. The illusion was canceled, and the real Yakumo appeared.
Tatsuya grabbed Yakumo by the collar of his monastic robes near the collarbone.
He tried to activate the magic of decomposition on the fingertips of his left hand. He tried to inflict damage by making holes with “decomposition” in the places where his left hand made contact with Yakumo's body.
But before Tatsuya managed to activate his magic, a side kick landed on his face from the right.
Tatsuya involuntarily had to remove his left hand and increase the distance away from Yakumo.
At the same time, Yakumo also stepped back to a spot behind a Mountain Cherry tree growing nearby.
“That was dangerous. I can’t thoughtlessly let you get so close.”
Yakumo mumbled in a tone in which the tension was read. It seems that the last attack almost managed to get him.
However, Tatsuya didn't have time to talk right now.
“What was that blow just now?"
Tatsuya couldn’t recognize the last attack that caused him damage.
“It wasn’t a left-handed hit. I saw Kokonoe Yakumo's left hand."
“With his right hand from that position, he couldn’t strike at that angle."
“The legs also don’t fit. I saw the left leg. As for the right leg, the angle is even greater than that of the right hand."
“...Was it 'Direct Pain?'”
Tatsuya involuntarily voiced the thought that came to him.
The magic of mental interference “Direct Pain." This is magic that causes pain directly to the mind, bypassing the physical body.
“Other than Fumiya, are there other users of it?"
“Direct Pain" is magic that is masterfully wielded by his second cousin Kuroba Fumiya. However, Tatsuya didn’t know anyone other than Fumiya who could put it into practice. Tatsuya considered this magic to be a kind of innate superpower that only Fumiya could use. But it turned out that...
“...Was I wrong?"
“Wrong. This isn’t 'Direct pain.'”
Seeing Tatsuya's doubt, Yakumo spoke to him.
“This technique is called “Gishin Anki.*” Pure Ninjutsu. Well, more precisely, only one of the many secret techniques in ninjutsu.”
[Literally, something like “dark spirit, deceiving the body."]
“'Gishin Anki'...”
“The technique, though secret, but it works very simply. This is a kind of illusion that causes the enemy to hallucinate that he “received a blow." Well, you've heard of hypnosis, haven't you? There is a phenomenon when the subject's skin blisters like a burn, when it's suggested that he's being touched by a red-hot iron rod. “Gishin Anki"
is a technique that allows you to do this, skipping the procedure of hypnosis. That is, it can be applied without words, simply by putting your own fighting spirit into it. At the same time, unlike “Direct Pain,” it's the physical body that feels the pain. And this pain won’t disappear until you destroy the illusion.”
Simultaneously with the completion of this monologue, a blow flew into Tatsuya's belly. He lost his breath, and he involuntarily stepped back half a step.
Yakumo's verbose speech wasn’t intended to boast of his scholarship and skills. Just a strong impression of the existence of the technique called “Gishin Anki" was supposed to enhance its effect.
In desperation, Tatsuya released “Decomposition." But this magic, as if entangled in the branches of the Mountain Cherry tree, ended up failing to activate.
The technique of “Body Substitution."
A high-level ninjutsu user like Yakumo simply can’t help but use “Body Substitution." Unlike the standard “Body Replacement," Yakumo left a double with his Eidos in the branches of the tree. That is, Tatsuya tried to apply magic to this deception. And if you decompose structural information that doesn’t have a material entity, then it simply doesn’t affect the material world.
Tatsuya realized his haste and clicked his tongue.
And he took the chance to prepare to meet the counter-attack of Yakumo.
Tatsuya was expecting an attack with the “Gishin Anki” technique.
Therefore, he directed “Elemental Sight" at himself.
He thought that if the pain was caused by a hallucination, the illusion technique should be directed straight at his body.
In the information dimension, the point of view isn’t fixed. Therefore, he could “see"
himself even without a mirror.
In the information dimension, Tatsuya “saw” how two large snakes crawled out of the ground right under his feet, twisting in a spiral around his body. These snakes were chains of magic sequences. In order to use only one illusion, Yakumo constructed dozens of magic sequences, divided into two groups.
Tatsuya covered his body with psion armor.
Contact-Type “Gram Demolition."
However, the snakes from the magic sequences weren't destroyed.
They didn't even jump away.
They just wriggled around the psionic armor. And the hallucination effect began to seep into the armor-forming psions.
Tatsuya canceled the contact-type “Gram Demolition" and activated “Gram Dispersion."
This time the magic sequences of the illusion were dispersed.
In order not to be deceived by the “Body Substitution” again, Tatsuya began to look for Yakumo's Eidos with his “sight.”
He found nine informational bodies of Yakumo. Probably one of them was real, and eight were doubles. The surname “Kokonoe*" and Nine Doubles. A very symbolic coincidence.
[Kokonoe ( ??): approximate translation (if surnames could be translated) - “nine-fold," “nine-layer"]
Instead of releasing the decomposition magic of information bodies to erase the duplicates themselves, Tatsuya tried to activate “decomposition” aimed simultaneously at nine information bodies at once. At this point, he has already increased the number of objects that he can simultaneously target up to thirty-two. If you don't follow the two-step procedure of erasing the doubles and targeting the real body, but simply target both the doubles and the real body at the same time, this will save some time and increase reliability.
However, immediately after Tatsuya set out to target nine information bodies, he was again attacked by the snakes of illusion magic.
Yakumo was an experienced combat magician. He wasn’t stupid enough to silently
wait for Tatsuya's attack.
Tatsuya neutralized this illusion with “Gram Dispersion.”
And again found every Eidos double of Yakumo.
But an instant before he had managed to aim the magic at them, the illusion reappeared and attacked him.
All this was repeated many times.
Apparently, Tatsuya and Yakumo had exactly the same speed of magic activation.
But it was Yakumo who made the very first move, so Tatsuya couldn’t overtake him in constructing magic.
Yakumo couldn’t attack, but at the same time Tatsuya couldn’t attack.
It all came down to a draw with alternating repetitive actions.
But the time went and repeated.
And the loss of time in this battle meant victory for Yakumo, and defeat for Tatsuya.
The illusion attacked, the illusion disappeared.
It took time to activate “Gram Dispersion” to erase the illusion, so Tatsuya didn't have time to attack.
To destroy the illusions it was necessary to abandon the attacks.
“... Do I really need to destroy these illusions?"
Tatsuya thought with another part of his consciousness, not responsible for the application of magic.
“If I don’t destroy the illusions, then I'll get hit by the “Gishin Anki” technique.”
“Then my body will have to endure the pain."
And at that moment the direction of his thoughts changed.
“But why should this pain bother me?"
“Even when something hurts, it doesn’t mean that the motor functions are damaged."
“It's only pain."
“Am I not already accustomed to such pain, which exists only in the form of sensations?”
Tatsuya's “Regrowth” during the reverse tracking process recognizes the information received by the object in a concentrated form in an instant. When using “Regrowth”
to heal wounds, all this pain accumulated from the moment of injury until the application of “Regrowth,” he feels in a single moment in a concentrated form.
He has already experienced pain tens or hundreds of times more intense than the pain of a fatal wound..
He experienced the pain of hundreds of people, amplified tens and hundreds of times.
“The pain can simply be ignored." - Thought Tatsuya.
Such determination greatly simplified the matter.
A sharp pain shot through Tatsuya's chest.
Ignoring it, Tatsuya activated the two-fold “decomposition."
First, he laid out the Data Reinforcement covering the shoulder joints of the nine information bodies corresponding to the doubles of Yakumo, and his real body.
Yakumo, himself, and his doubles became partially defenseless.
With an absolutely zero time delay, he laid out the tissues of the body.
Decomposition of the skin.
Muscle breakdown
Blood vessels, nerves and other tissues found in the body that met in a straight line —
everything was also decomposed.
A hole was drilled in the joint of the right shoulder.
The signs of Yakumo's presence faltered.
In the information dimension only the real body remained, and the duplicates disappeared.
At the same time, the figure of Yakumo appeared within sight of the naked eye.
Tatsuya instantly moved to Yakumo, who had dropped to one knee.
And he put the edge of his hand to Yakumo's throat, on the edge of which was prepared for the activation of “decomposition.”
“... Master. This is the end.”
“... I admit. I lost.”
The killing intent immediately disappeared from Tatsuya's eyes.
“No, I lost.... Minami has left Japan.”
Immediately after Yakumo was neutralized, he focused his “sight" on Minami. That's how he learned that Minami was already outside the territorial waters of Japan.
In international waters, the rule of sovereignty applies on board any vessel assigned to a State. For civilian vessels, this rule can be ignored, but encroachment on the sovereignty of military ships can easily ignite international conflict.
The easy solution to this problem has become impossible from this moment on.
“I see.”
Yakumo didn’t smile. He didn’t have his usual vague grin, which made it impossible to read his thoughts. Instead, a feeling of fatigue emanated from him, as if he had finished a job.
“Master.”
Tatsuya said and stretched out his hand to the right shoulder of Yakumo.
The hole in Yakumo's shoulder instantly disappeared.
“Thanks.”
Yakumo smiled wryly.
Between them, the familiar atmosphere reappeared.
“Can I hear the reason?”
“The reason why I prevented you?”
Tatsuya nodded silently in response to Yakumo's question.
“Alright.”
Yakumo agreed, continuing to sit on the ground.
But he didn't start right away. Muttering “Let me think...,” he seemed to be pondering how best to explain everything.
“In our country there are people who really don’t like the filth generated by demons.”
“I'm aware.”
Tatsuya nodded.
“No, I'm talking about an organization unknown to you.”
Yakumo shook his head with a bitter smile.
“The people in this organization don’t hold any positions in the government. They have no official status. But in our country they occupy second place in terms of influence.”
“Secret state rulers?”
“Well, you could say that. This time I worked at the request of these people. The request was to banish these monsters, “Parasites,” from our country as soon as possible.”
“... So you helped Minoru to escape?”
“Sealing monsters doesn’t seem like a good option for those people. Everyone understands that a seal is something that might break one day. Therefore, it is obvious that these people want to drive out the monsters, since they can’t be destroyed.”
“And you can’t go against these people?”
Tatsuya asked in a sarcastic tone.
Yakumo answered him in exactly the same tone:
“Among these people is also His Excellency Toudou Aoba.
The expression disappeared from Tatsuya's face.
With the face of Yakumo, too.
An awkward silence arose between them.
This silence was broken by Tatsuya.
“Master, you always said that you are a hermit...”
Even by this vague phrase, one could understand what Tatsuya wants to say.
At that moment, Yakumo's face broke into the bitterest smile of the evening.
“Yes, here you deftly got me.”
Yakumo muttered in such a tone as if they weren't speaking about him at all.
“That's for sure. This can no longer be called a mortal existence.”
In addition, Tatsuya said nothing more, but turned his back to Yakumo who continued to sit on the ground with his legs crossed, and walked away.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login