August 6, AD 2092

Okinawa

Onna Air Base

The rope-climbing training ended shortly after we arrived for our tour. After that, they began practicing martial arts in pairs. It might have been interesting for those into such things, but I couldn’t even tell the difference between karate and kenpo, so honestly speaking, I grew bored of it quickly. I couldn’t see my brother’s true ability just by watching this.

Maybe I should excuse myself early… No, I can’t. My brother wouldn’t leave my side, and if I did that, what will I have come here to see? That would simply be far too rude. If only I could watch him practicing with them…

Obviously, there was no way he could have read my mind, but Captain Kazama suggested the same. “Shiba, you must be bored just watching, right? Want to join the practice?”

My brother gave me a glance. “Yes, sir. If you would be so kind.”

Wait… Did he just completely see through to the fact I was bored? My face reddened. Meanie, meanie, meanie! Why do you always have to notice the things you don’t have to?!

…He didn’t even show a hint of laughter. My voice of reason told me this was all just childish venting. But my emotions kept on yelling at him.

I…I hope they beat you up, Brother!

I only thought the words, but I couldn’t deny the odd feeling it gave me to call him that. It was as though something was telling me there was something better I could be calling him.

But what was it…?

I no longer understood my own mind very well.

They called over a sergeant of middling height and build, who looked in his late twenties or early thirties, to be my brother’s opponent.

“Shiba, you don’t need to hold back,” said the captain. “Sergeant Toguchi was in national boxing meets when he was a student. He’s very good.”

Did that mean he was on a national level of skill even without magic?

Instead of taking steps, the man slid his feet across the floor, closing the distance little by little. It looked like a karate match, not boxing, but maybe this was the boxing style in Okinawa. Or maybe the air force’s style.

As my amateur mind was preoccupied with this, the practice match quickly came to an end. Just as there was a gap in my thoughts, my brother had swiftly closed in and thrust out his right hand.

That was my guess, at least, from the result I saw.

What I’d actually seen was him already having gotten in close to Sergeant Toguchi and punching him in the solar plexus with his right hand.

The sergeant collapsed without even a squeal, managing to fall to his knees without toppling over completely.

“Toguchi!”

A soldier watching them ran up to him with haste and began first aid—or what I thought was first aid—on the now-sweaty sergeant.

My brother went back to his original position and bowed lightly. He looked like he was both paying respect to the opponent he’d beaten and showing off the fact that he’d won.

“Well, well…” murmured Captain Kazama next to me in admiration. Lieutenant Sanada’s eyes were wide, and he couldn’t speak. “Corporal Haebaru!”

“Yes, sir!” At the captain’s shout, a soldier in his midtwenties ran out energetically.

He was skinnier than the sergeant from before, but he didn’t seem weak in the slightest; he was like a sharply forged blade, as though all his impurities had been scraped away by fire, hammer, water, and whetstone. Considering how the captain called for him, he was probably more skilled than the sergeant.

“You don’t need to hold back,” said the captain. “Give him your all!”

“Yes, sir!”

As the words were leaving his mouth, Corporal Haebaru charged at my brother.

That’s not fair! A thirteen-year-old kid can’t possibly stand up to a trained soldier fighting seriously!

The cry of Stop! almost made it out of my mouth. But I didn’t actually speak it.

I heard impressed murmurs from around me.

My brother had barely evaded the corporal’s fierce attack with speed exceeding that of a blur.

And not by a hair did he avoid the punches and kicks—but by a mile.

“He’s adept at real combat,” said Lieutenant Sanada. “Look at how he’s keeping his distance—he’s considering the possibility his opponent has a hidden weapon.”

“Yeah,” replied the captain.

I didn’t understand at least half of what they were saying, but it was clear even to my layman’s eyes that my brother was at least as good as the man.

You only had to look at the strain in the corporal’s face to see that. Despite his unrelenting offense, he was anxious.

Oh! —My brother counterattacked.

But that corporal was good, too. My brother then threw a right punch, then a left, then a right, then a left. But the man repelled all of them, and right when my brother was defenseless, he moved in for the attack!

I almost shut my eyes, but something inside me calmly whispered that I didn’t need to. That it would take more than this to take him down.

The moment I saw the corporal’s right hand connect with my brother…his body slipped past the corporal’s waist.

His right hand had grabbed Corporal Haebaru’s right sleeve at around the elbow. Then, his motion stopped, and it dragged the corporal along with him, sending the man’s body into a swivel until he bared his chest to my brother.

Then my brother stepped in and buried his right elbow in it.

With a wet grunt, the corporal staggered a few steps back.

The captain barked, “Enough!” and signaled the end of the bout.

After receiving treatment, my Guardian and Corporal Haebaru shook hands. A crowd of people had formed around them. As rough praise flew my brother’s way, the captain stepped between them. I followed him out through the hole he left in the crowd.

“You even beat Corporal Haebaru,” said Lieutenant Sanada. “I’m impressed. He’s one of our top ten fighters.”

“I hadn’t thought you’d be quite this skilled,” said Captain Kazama, staring at my brother with interest. “Have you had some sort of special training, I wonder?”

“No, sir, nothing unique. If I had to say, my mother’s house has a dojo, and they let me practice there.”

“Really…?” The captain didn’t look completely convinced, but he nodded, his face implying he wouldn’t pry any further for now. “Still, at this rate, the Onna paratroopers’ honor will be destroyed… Could I ask for one more go-around?”

Instead of prying, the captain suggested something quite selfish. He was the one who invited my brother to train in the first place. And now that my brother had beaten his subordinates, he wanted to save face. What reason could there possibly have been for us to go along with such an egotistical offer?

I tried to gently refuse Captain Kazama’s request. My brother is my bodyguard. I should be allowed to refuse this.

“Please allow me, sir!”

But I was a step too late. A familiar voice boomed out, interrupting mine. It was the one I’d just heard earlier.

“Private Higaki?” said the captain. “If you’re after revenge, I can’t allow this.”

“Not revenge, sir! Exoneration!”

What’s the difference? It’s the same thing! I see now that it was a mistake to think he isn’t a bad person.

“Hmm… Shiba, you heard him. Would you mind humoring him? Private Higaki is young, but he’s good enough to rival Haebaru.”

His request is unfair. You should refuse it. We don’t stand to gain anything from it.

“I’ll spar with him, sir.”

Ignoring my feelings, however, my brother agreed to the captain’s proposal.

Private Higaki confronted him, with his stance lowered, his hands lifted in front of him, and his eyes peering out from behind them. Even with his waist lowered, his line of sight was at a higher position than my brother’s. Their positioning brought to mind a bear about to attack a child.

I felt the pressure crushing me just by watching them.

But as his opponent slowly arced right and left, looking for an opening, my brother simply used his right foot as a pivot and slid his left foot forward to change where his body was facing. His expression was empty.

The tension was stifling, but it didn’t last long.

Suddenly, it looked as though Private Higaki’s body inflated a good deal bigger. A moment later, his large frame charged at my brother like a cannonball.

So fast…!

My brother avoided it by taking a big jump backward, but it still threw him off balance.

The private wasted no time in charging again. My brother purposely rolled onto the ground, managing to avoid the tackle and put distance between them.

I was astounded by Private Higaki’s speed. Still, the candidate for the leadership of the Yotsuba of the Ten Master Clans, though young, wasn’t so weak that she would let her surprise blind her to other things.

“He’s using magic?! He’s a coward!” I cried in anger at Captain Kazama.

Not even I had seen the man hit his CAD’s switch. He concealed it well. But I would never let slip the fact that he’d used magic. The private’s speed just now had a self-acceleration spell pushing him!

Captain Kazama turned his head to me at my protest.

The answer, though, came from the other part of what the captain was still half looking at.

“Stop, Miyuki!”

My brother’s words shocked me on two levels.

He just gave me an order.

He just called me Miyuki.

“There was never a rule that said we weren’t allowed to use magic for our sparring match,” he stated decisively.

He wasn’t speaking respectfully to me. He was calling me Miyuki instead of a formal title. Though he was following Mother’s orders, my brother’s own will had rebuked me.

My brother, by his own volition, had just scolded me for naive thinking.

Instead of being angry or rebellious at the prospect, I felt an odd sensation rise up in my heart, numb and aching.

As I stood there unable to say anything, Captain Kazama, next to me, let loose his own scolding. “Higaki, focus on the match!”

Belatedly, I realized something. The air around my brother had changed. It was like the lights had dimmed a little. That was an illusion, of course. My brother was emanating a pressure that induced tunnel vision in those watching him.

He changed his stance, pointing his right palm at the opponent and holding his right arm straight out. He brought his left hand up to the inside of his right elbow.

Was this my brother’s typeless magic stance…?

All of Private Higaki’s muscles swelled again. This time, he dived at my brother, meaning to sweep his legs out—but then…

My brother released a torrent of psions from his right hand.

The psi-waves shot through the private’s body, massively decelerating the man’s charge.

I knew it…! Program Demolition!

Psions blustered like a storm, breaking the self-acceleration magic program applied to the private’s body through sheer force and at the same time rocking the connection between his mind and body. The more skilled a person was at controlling their body directly with their mind—instead of automatic nervous impulses—the graver the damage imparted by external psionic interference.

It was like Private Higaki had forgotten how to tackle somebody.

The private careened toward him defenselessly, and my brother, opening his stance, brought a gentle-looking strike down upon his head. The man’s giant body spun around like a top and flew away like a joke.

As Private Higaki lay on the floor, limbs sprawled and eyes on the ceiling, my brother walked up next to him. The man only panted with exhaustion and showed no signs of getting up.

My brother, face impassive, offered his right hand.

After a moment of hesitation, the private grinned and grabbed it. He tugged on his hand.

Is it a trap?!

But I was overthinking it. Even my brother had to hold tight because of the weight difference, but the man didn’t pull him to the ground, instead using his hand to get himself to his feet.

“…All right, I lost. Completely. Now I know what happened yesterday wasn’t a slipup on my part.”

He didn’t speak very loudly, but for some reason, I made his voice out quite well.

“Let me introduce myself again. Leading Private Joseph Higaki of the Japan Air Defense Force’s Okinawan Sakishima Air Unit’s Onna paratroopers. Could you tell me your name?”

“Tatsuya Shiba.”

“Got it, Tatsuya. You can call me Joe. You’ll be in Okinawa for a while longer, right? If you get bored, give me a call. Despite how I might look, the people around here know me.”

“That’s enough, Joe. Back to training,” said Captain Kazama, grinning. Private Higaki straightened up as though shocked by electricity.

Huh… He calls him by his nickname. I wonder if that means he trusts him…?

With my impression of the private flipping around so much, I had a hard time figuring out what kind of person he was. Of course, we wouldn’t be seeing him for very long—in fact, we probably wouldn’t see him ever again—so I supposed it didn’t particularly matter what he was really like.

“Sorry for asking so much of you, and thank you—it looks like my subordinates’ minds are clear now,” said the captain to my brother. “Why not join me for some tea for a bit over there? I’d like to ask you about the far-strike, too, if you’re willing to talk about it.”

Far-strike must have meant his untyped magic. I felt increasingly like I couldn’t underestimate this man, but it was difficult to refuse his invitation in this situation.

“Then, that psi-wave was Program Demolition?”

“That can’t be all. I thought I spied some of the old mainland spell Point Cut’s effects in there.”

He mentioned tea, but they brought coffee.

On our side were my brother and I. On their side were Captain Kazama and Lieutenant Sanada.

A coffee break for four.

It felt odd to me. Captain Kazama was talking to my brother. Lieutenant Sanada was also talking to my brother. All they needed from me was to put in a word or two here and there as his sister, which I did, almost forgetting the fact. Right now, my brother was in the lead, and I was an accessory.

“…It doesn’t look like you’re carrying a CAD, Shiba.” When he said “Shiba,” he was referring to my brother; I was Shiba’s sister. “What are you using for assistance?”

This was the first time I’d experienced this. And strangely enough, it wasn’t unpleasant.

“I use a specialized CAD, but I’m having trouble finding one that feels right… I’m not very good at properly using magic that uses CADs.”

“Hmm, is that so? I wouldn’t think handling one would cause you difficulty, as used to controlling psions as you seem to be.”

Thus, the topic of conversation shifted from the untyped magic he used to his CAD.

“Shiba,” said the lieutenant, “if it’s all right with you, would you mind testing a CAD I developed?”

“You make CADs, Lieutenant Sanada?”

“My job is to develop all kinds of magical arms, and that includes CADs. I have a specialized CAD prototype whose storage is a cartridge instead.”

I could almost see a glow from my brother’s eyes. Almost might not have sounded like much, but it was wondrous at the time. How often have I seen him show curiosity so clearly? I, at least, had barely any memory of it.

“I’d like that,” he said.

…And was that the first time I’d ever seen him clearly state what he wanted to do?

We were led to a clean, tidy research facility that you’d hardly think was inside a base. I’d always thought of military bases as either completely filthy or completely empty and tasteless, so I probably wasn’t able to fully hide my surprise. Perhaps that was why Captain Kazama and Lieutenant Sanada gave me a warm smile.

My brother—impressed or maybe excited—looked around the room. I felt like I’d been getting to see a lot of surprising things about him today. I always thought he was indifferent and unfeeling all the time, but he had emotions and curiosity just like everyone else…

…But if that’s the case, then what does he think of me?

The question suddenly came to mind. My answer formed automatically. I hugged myself, trying hard to stop trembling.

“…Miyuki, do you feel sick?”

Right as my body was about to start shaking, I heard his voice and it stopped. Not only did my body stop—it felt like my heart would stop, too. The moment he said the word Miyuki, it felt like he had just answered my question. As if to coldly confirm the answer I’d gotten for myself.

But my brother’s voice wasn’t cold at all—for some reason, it sounded sincerely considerate.

“…No, I’m not sick,” I said. “I might be a little tired. I think I’ll be okay if I sit down. Would you mind if I borrowed the chair over there?”

I excused myself from the captain and sat in a chair by the wall.

I was a little relieved to leave my brother’s side.

My brother took a large gun-shaped CAD in hand and listened to Lieutenant Sanada’s explanation. When I looked at him, my doubts from before came to the fore once again, inflated, and leaned heavily on me. No matter how much I tried to swat that question away, it wouldn’t leave my mind.

What did my brother think of me…?

I wasn’t confident he loved me.

I knew he couldn’t possibly want to be kind to me.

Maybe he hated me.

If not for me, if only I weren’t here, my brother would be able to live as a talented student, a first-rate athlete, and very soon a full-fledged magician for the military.

But I was still more scared of looking away from him, because it would be like letting go of his hand—like letting him shake free of my hand.

“…A compound spell of acceleration and movement is installed in this armament device, and with it, you can have a max firing range of ten miles with 7.62-millimeter bullets…”

“…That’s amazing. But how would you actually use…?”

My brother sounded like he was having fun with that big rifle-shaped CAD in his hand, and I caught bits and pieces of his voice.

In the same room, unable to close my eyes or cover my ears, I endured the clinging, insistent dark clouds in silence.

I dearly wished that this would be over soon.

But I used everything I had to maintain a poker face, so that nobody would know of my selfishness.