August 11, AD 2092

Okinawa

Beach House—Air Base

The two days after that were business as usual. He followed me wherever I went, and I did nothing but act petty and controlling toward him.

I had wanted to be kinder to him—in fact, I still do. Because I keep thinking that I can change something if I’m able to be kinder to him.

But back then, all it made me realize was that old habits die hard.

Yesterday, and the day before that, all I did was selfishly order him around. We had another seven days left in our two-week vacation. Would I keep treating him like that for the rest of that time? I felt pathetic.

…Until just a week ago, I never thought about any of this. What on earth had happened to me? I didn’t understand myself. I didn’t know what I wanted. When I thought about having to spend today in a mental haze yet again, I started to feel blue.

But thankfully—well, I suppose it would be far too indiscreet to call it fortunate—I wouldn’t have to worry about all that for long. I would no longer have time to worry about something that trivial.

Just as we were finishing breakfast, all the information devices in the house got an emergency alert.

The alert was issued by the National Defense Force.

In short, a foreign nation had attacked.

I watched the TV, my eyes glued to the screen.

“Invasion from western seas.”

“No declaration of war.”

“Raid by a submarine fleet comprising mainly submerged missile submarines.”

“Currently half-surfaced and attacking the Kerama Islands.”

The flood of unfamiliar terms streaming across the screen almost made me panic. The words submerged missile submarines, though, stood out to me. Had the submarine that attacked us during our cruise been a precursor to all this?

“I’ll request that Lady Maya make arrangements for us!” suggested Miss Sakurai, unable to conceal the urgency in her tone.

“Yes, please,” replied Mother with a nod. Even she seemed a little nervous. I couldn’t exactly blame her. Nobody could expect war suddenly arriving on their doorstep without any prior rumblings.

The TV newscaster repeated his request to act calmly, but he seemed so rattled himself that I felt sorry for him. I couldn’t blame him. Telling him not to be rattled in this situation would be a strange request.

Panic had yet to actually come over me simply because I didn’t feel like it was real. The escapist notion made it seem like it was all someone else’s problem. I think that was the only thing holding me together.

But…what about him?

He was reading more detailed information off his small wireless device than what was on the TV, looking as though he’d left behind somewhere human emotions such as disturbance, tension, and unrest. He sat there calmly, thinking in silence. If you told me he looked like an elaborate android, I probably would have agreed.

Did he feel like I did? Like it didn’t feel real to him?

Or did he really feel nothing at all?

I stared fixedly at him. Suddenly, he made a face of slight surprise. As I wondered what it could be, he took a communication device out of his summer jacket’s inside pocket.

“Yes, this is Shiba… No, thank you for the other day… To the base?”

I guessed from his response that he must have been talking to the JDF captain and everyone else from the other day. But the base was literally in a state of war now. What on earth could they want?

“I’m grateful for the offer, but… No… Yes, then I’ll talk with my mother… Yes, I’ll call you back.”

I wasn’t the only one looking at him as he ended the call. My mother was watching him from the sofa, with only her face turned toward him. My brother stood and bowed to her.

“My lady,” he said to his actual mother. Despite the situation, my heart felt like it was being squeezed. Which was a feeling I’d never felt—before one week ago. “Captain Kazama at the Onna Air Base has offered use of their base shelter for us to evacuate to.”

“What?!” I cried in spite of myself, then reflexively covered my mouth. We’d met them twice, and only once for real. Why, then? With the string of unexpected occurrences, I felt my emotions saturating, but the surprising news didn’t stop there.

“My lady,” said Miss Sakurai, handing a cordless voice communication unit—a so-called telephone receiver—to Mother. “It’s from Lady Maya.”

This time, I couldn’t even manage a What?

A call from Aunt Maya? For Mother?

I mean, they were twin sisters, so on the surface, it wasn’t strange for one to call the other…but it was a well-known secret within the Yotsuba that Mother and Aunt Maya didn’t get along very well. They never quarreled, but there was a sort of cold war happening between them. Which was why Mother hadn’t contacted her on her own earlier…

Nervous for another reason now, I watched as Mother irksomely put the receiver to her ear.

“Hello? Maya? …Yes, it’s me… I see, so it was you… But isn’t this more dangerous? …I see… All right, then. Thank you.”

After Mother finished the call, she handed the receiver to Miss Sakurai.

“My lady, what did Lady Maya have to say?” asked Miss Sakurai as she took it, asking the natural-seeming question.

“She says she talked to the JDF so they’d give us shelter.”

“Then, the call Tatsuya just received must have been…”

“Yes, most likely.”

“Wouldn’t that be even more dangerous, my lady?”

“I said the same thing.”

…What? Wouldn’t a military shelter be sturdier and safer than a civilian one?

“They attacked us without warning. We weren’t even in clear hostilities. She says we can’t expect them to follow the rules.”

“That…may be so, but…”

Mother and Miss Sakurai glimpsed my brother’s expression after that. It looked like I was the only one who didn’t understand. Still, I didn’t have the nerve to get them to explain everything, so…for now, I put my questions aside.

“It may not have been much effort, but she did put in some for us, at least. Let’s do as Maya says. Tatsuya?”

“Yes?”

Despite having been left to stand there doing nothing until then, he was very quick to respond… He didn’t look dissatisfied, so I figured my concern for him was misplaced.

“Contact the captain and tell him we’ll accept his offer. Also, ask him to come and get us.”

“Of course, my lady.”

It seemed like she was foisting all the actual work on him—but that, too, was probably just me overthinking things.

I predicted this, but…the soldier who came from the base to get us was Private Joseph Higaki.

“Sorry for the wait, Tatsuya!”

“Thank you very much for coming all this way, Joe.”

“Oh, stop it. You’re acting like we’re total strangers.”

Private Higaki was grinning at him like they were best friends now. My brother was a little more reserved about it, but his expression was pretty casual, too.

No matter how I looked at it, his attitude was friendlier toward this private he’d just met than toward his own family.

My mother knitted her eyebrows. She clearly didn’t appreciate his rude attitude. That had to be it—she couldn’t have been offended by my brother acting more unreserved with a stranger than his kin, right?

Perhaps noticing Mother’s unhappy expression, and perhaps noticing Miss Sakurai’s irritation, Private Higaki put aside his overfamiliar attitude and saluted to us with the stiff formality expected of a soldier.

“I’ve arrived to pick you up on Captain Kazama’s orders!” barked the private, more forcefully than he needed to.

Miss Sakurai seemed slightly nonplussed at that. “Good work,” she answered. “Please lead us there.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Private Higaki didn’t seem to mind at all.

…Honestly, even I understood that they wished he’d be a little more cognizant of the fact that bringing us to the base was more important at the moment.

The roads overflowing with evacuating citizens, the sirens of cars stuck in traffic jams, shouts and cries of people blending together into a melting pot—that was not the scene we saw.

The island was deathly quiet. The only ones traveling the roads were dark military vehicles. It felt more like martial law had been declared rather than an enemy attacking—though, of course, I’d only seen either of those on video recordings, so I didn’t know what it was really like.

After our ride in the JDF communications car, we made it safely to the base without being stopped for inspection or exposed to an enemy attack.

At the time, it was an hour after hostilities commenced. Despite the perfect surprise attack from an unknown nation, the maritime force and air force were holding the enemy off at the water’s edge. Still, we had no way of knowing what it was like beyond the island, except for believing what the JDF made public.

What did come as a surprise was that we weren’t the only civilians evacuating to the base. Close to a hundred people looked like they were escaping there.

Even in our room, there were another five civilians besides us waiting to be shown into the underground shelter. Not that it was any of my business, but was inviting so many unrelated, useless people into the base a good idea? If it came to it, we—myself included—might end up having to fight.

I couldn’t rely on only Miss Sakurai. We needed her to protect Mother, who looked a little pained even just sitting on the sofa, since she wasn’t fully recovered yet. I’d had no firsthand experience in battle before today, but my combat magic skills had been certified to be no weaker than adult magicians’. That certification came from Miss Sakurai, too, so I could trust it.

Still, that didn’t serve to erase my unease. I quietly glanced at the seat next to me. My brother was sitting there. Normally, he’d be standing behind me or beside me, but we were sitting next to each other now so we wouldn’t make a scene.

He had the two handguns—err, CADs—hidden in his inside pocket, ready to use at any time.

He couldn’t have had any firsthand experience, either, but unlike me, he’d been through several fights to the death. And he’d killed no small number of people. Plenty more than five or ten. I hadn’t been there to see it with my own eyes, but he gained nothing from lying to me about something like that, so it must have been the truth.

As if to prove his experience, he remained unperturbed. He didn’t glance around or fidget in his seat. Looking at him eased my anxiety, just a little.

One more time, I thought, stealing another glance at the side of his face.

For some reason, our eyes met at exactly that moment.

Huh? What? Wait. Why?

“It’ll be okay, Miyuki.”

…! Just like he promised three days ago, he called me Miyuki. And not like then, either, when he pretended to be nice—there was real kindness in his voice, albeit not very much.

“I’m right here for you.”

…That’s against the rules…!

I didn’t know what sort of face to make.

I didn’t know what face I was making right now.

Come on! This is just misattribution of an intense emotion! A haunted house! Stockholm syndrome… Well, that’s a little different, but I’m just confused! How dare he so indiscreetly make a move on his actual sister and at a time like this!

I know he isn’t trying to do that at all, and that just makes me even more mad!

I glared at him.

Then suddenly, he rose from his seat.

Huh? Did I look that scary?

…But in reality, there was a sudden development close at hand—one that wouldn’t allow me to have any more peace-drunken thoughts. And soon, I’d learn what it was.

My brother wasn’t the only one who stood up abruptly. A moment later, Miss Sakurai kicked out of her seat.

The other people we didn’t know who were here looked surprised and a little frightened of him and Miss Sakurai.

“Tatsuya, that was…”

“You heard it, too, Miss Sakurai?”

“Then, they were gunshots…!”

“Not just gunshots, either—fully automatics, probably assault rifles.”

…What? Did that mean the enemy got here to attack us? But why? Weren’t we inside a JDF base?

“Can you tell what’s happening?” asked Miss Sakurai.

“No, not from here…” he replied. “The walls in this room seem to have magic-blocking properties.”

“Yes… It seems an old-style barrier spell has been used. Not only on this room—this entire building is apparently covered by a spell that blocks magical probing.”

“I don’t believe it will be a problem to use magic inside this room, though.”

Miss Sakurai agreed with my brother. I hadn’t even realized…

“Hey, a-are you two magicians?” a man sitting a few paces away from my brother and Miss Sakurai suddenly said. He was a man in his golden age, with high social standing from the looks of it, clothes well tailored. The cluster sitting there must have been his family.

“Yes, why?” answered Miss Sakurai, voice dubious at the abrupt question.

Then the man continued like this, his attitude overbearing, though I thought most of it was a front: “Then, go and see what’s happening.”

…What? He was speaking to them just like servants.

You sicken me…!

“…We aren’t base personnel,” replied Miss Sakurai, also angry.

We could play innocent as much as we needed to, but she must have thought we had no obligation to do so when it came to someone with who we had no relationship or connection, or even concern over the interests of.

But Miss Sakurai’s reasonable assertion had no effect on this man: “And what does that matter?” he demanded. “You’re magicians, aren’t you?”

“As I said, we’re—”

This man wasn’t even trying to listen to what she was saying. “Isn’t it your natural duty to serve people?”

…! How is there still someone who can say that with a straight face…? And to a magician’s face, at that…!

“Are you being serious?” Miss Sakurai’s voice was just as menacing as my thoughts. Her eyes were probably even harsher.

Even the man seemed to flinch, but his railing did not stop. “M-magicians were just things made to serve people, right? It shouldn’t matter if you’re in the military or not.”

My anger and shock were so strong that I had no words. The man’s words were something that should never be said. But it was undoubtedly part of the truth, something that more than a few non-magicians still believed in.

“I see. We may be constructed existences…”

The one who argued in my place was my brother, who had been leaving the man to Miss Sakurai until then. In a voice from which I could sense no anger or agitation—a cynical voice, derision bared.

“…but we have no duty to serve you.”

“What?!”

“Magicians serve public welfare and order in human society. A person we’ve never seen before has no right to demand us to serve.”

Serving public welfare and order in human society was a section of the International Magic Association Charter. The phrase was well-known among non-magicians. This man must have heard of it, too, of course.

Which explained his reaction. “Y-you impertinent child!” he yelled at my brother, red-faced and trembling with rage.

When I looked up at my brother’s eyes, they were filled with scorn and pity.

“Give me a break…” he said. “You’re a mature adult. Doesn’t it embarrass you to be acting like this in front of children?”

Though he used the same word, child, it meant something entirely different. The man, whose name we didn’t even know, gave a start and turned around to his family.

They were all looking up at him. Even his children, with their childlike scrupulousness, did so with gazes of contempt.

My brother sent a parting attack at the shaking man’s back. “And you seem to be misunderstanding something… In this country, over eighty percent of magician descent is from bloodline crossing and growth of latent ability. Even including partial treatment, biologically constructed magicians are only twenty percent of the whole.”

“Tatsuya,” said Mother, calling my brother’s name with an indolent voice as she stayed resting on the sofa. It reined in the situation; though, of course, I didn’t think she intended to do so.

My brother’s gaze left the quivering man’s back. “What is it?”

“Go check on what’s happening outside.”

Mother delivered a forthright instruction, sounding almost indifferent, like she always did.

But unusually, my brother expressed disapproval. “…My lady, without knowing the situation, I can’t ignore the possibility that harm will come here,” he argued. “With my current skills, I can’t protect Miyuki from afar—”

“Miyuki?” interrupted Mother with a cold voice, and with an equally cold gaze, she narrowed her eyes. “Tatsuya, please remember your place.”

Only her choice of words was kind; her tone sent a chill down my spine. He’d called me by name because I’d asked him to. But after hearing Mother’s soft yet imperious voice, I wasn’t even willing to defend him.

“…My apologies,” said my brother simply, not arguing any further.

“…Tatsuya, I’ll handle things here,” said Miss Sakurai from the side, interceding in the uncomfortable atmosphere.

Mother seemed like she’d lost interest. She looked away from him.

“Understood. I’ll go see what’s happening.” He gave a bow to Mother’s averted face and left the room.

The family of that man, who was looking at us with scared eyes, didn’t even spare a glance at my brother or mother.

I heard a sound from outside like a firecracker.

Obviously, they weren’t having a festival or anything of the sort. The gunshots were now such that even my ears could pick them out.

And gunshots weren’t the only thing that approached. Several sets of footsteps came near and stopped outside the door.

Miss Sakurai moved in front of Mother and me. She’d charged her CAD bracelet with enough psions to expand an activation sequence, but it was difficult to maintain a state like this—where you could use one immediately—for so long. Miss Sakurai’s technique was incredible as always.

Her back was the only thing I could see from where I was, but she was probably glaring sharply at the door.

“Excuse us! Private First Class Kinjou of the Second Paratrooper Division!”

I could feel Miss Sakurai’s tension loosen slightly, but she stayed on her guard. I felt relieved at hearing the voice from outside, too. It looked like the soldiers on the base had come to meet us.

Outside the opened door were four young soldiers. They all looked like second-generation Leftover Blood, but I didn’t particularly care. That was just the character of this base.

They were holding hot machine guns; they must have run here for us while trading gunfire with the enemy.

“We’ll show you to the underground shelter. Please come with us.”

I expected him to say as much, but I couldn’t help hesitating. If we left the room now, we’d be separated from my brother.

“I’m sorry,” said Miss Sakurai to Private Kinjou before I could, “but one of us has gone outside to see what’s happening.”

As expected, the private frowned and expressed disapproval. “Part of the enemy has already pushed deep inside the base. It’s too dangerous to remain here.”

To an extent, that too was the expected answer.

But Mother’s remark was wholly unexpected. “Then, please take those people over there first,” she said. “I will not leave my son out there.”

Miss Sakurai and I silently exchanged glances. When you thought about it, her insistence was only natural. But we couldn’t expunge a sense that something was wrong.

“Ma’am, I…”

“You said your name was Kinjou, right?” pressed the man who had been watching us. “You heard what they said. Lead us there first and leave them here if you have to.”

The four soldiers, faces stern, looked at one another and began to discuss this in hushed tones.

Miss Sakurai used the moment to make a suggestion to Mother in a low voice. “I don’t believe it would be difficult for Tatsuya to find us if he asked Captain Kazama.”

“I’m not exactly worried about Tatsuya,” whispered Mother in reply. “That was just for show.”

That was Mother’s reply, whispered in response. I desperately tried to stop my shaking knees. How could Mother be so cold…?

“Then…?”

“Call it intuition.”

“Intuition, my lady?”

“Yes. My gut tells me we shouldn’t trust these people.”

Immediately, Miss Sakurai went on full alert again.

I, too, forgot my knees were shaking.

We weren’t talking about a regular hunch. This was Mother’s intuition, as someone once feared as the Mistress of Lethe.

Mother’s magic of specialty wasn’t perception or prescience—it was mental interference. But those who used magic related to the mind tended to have such high intuitive perception that some theories even said they were closely linked to the Akashic Record… Though there were exceptions like me, too.

That was when the group of four finished their discussion.

“I’m sorry, but we cannot leave you all in this room,” said Kinjou. “We will take responsibility for guiding the other one there, so please come with us.”

They were speaking as politely as before. But why did their attitudes sound threatening now? Was it just my bias talking now?

“Wait, Dick!”

A new person appeared to grant this scene a rapid development.

Private Kinjou suddenly shot at the voice—which belonged to Private Higaki.

There were no windows in the wall facing the hallway, so I couldn’t see, but I knew it was Private Higaki. And Private Kinjou had fired his machine gun in that direction.

I heard cries—from that man’s family.

Private Kinjou’s comrades pointed their guns into the room.

Miss Sakurai expanded her activation sequence—but then a noise, like nails on glass, went through our heads, blocking her from constructing a magigram.

Were these psi-waves? Cast Jamming?!

I covered my ears and looked at them. One of the four had a brass-colored ring on his hand.

And behind Miss Sakurai, Mother was clutching her chest and leaning over!

This wasn’t good…!

Mother always had an oversensitivity to psions. To add to that, her overuse of them in her youth had taken its toll, and recently, her resistance to psi-waves had lowered noticeably.

The psi-waves from their Cast Jamming are having a bad effect on her physically, too. I have to stop it!

“Dick! Al! Mark! Ben! Why?!”

I heard Private Higaki’s angry cry through the palms covering my ears. Thank goodness the bullet didn’t hit him…

“Why are you betraying the military?!”

“Why are you putting Japan first, Joe?!” yelled back Private Kinjou between their single shots— I didn’t know you could fire single shots with a machine gun, I thought inanely.

“Are you insane, Dick?! Japan is our homeland!”

“And how did Japan treat us?! We volunteered for the forces, but no matter how much we work, we’re still nothing but Leftover Blood! How long will they treat us like damned outsiders?!”

“You’re wrong! Dick, you’re being closed-minded! One of our parents was an outsider. These people have lived here for generations. It’s no wonder they treat us like outsiders! But the forces! Our unit! Our officers and fellow soldiers all treat us as comrades in arms! They accepted us as friends, damn it!”

“That’s because you’re a magician, Joe! You’re worth using—of course they’d brownnose you!”

“Is that what you have to say, Dick? You’re so mad about them treating us like outsiders because we’re Leftover Blood, and you’re saying I’m not part of that just because I’m a magician? Weren’t we friends, Dick?!”

The gunshots stopped. And with it, the psi-waves from the Cast Jamming weakened.

This was my chance!

Judging by its instability, the one using antinite was a non-magician without a magic-calculation region. His psion capacity might have been slightly large, but he was just a normal person who couldn’t control it. If he thought he could stop me, candidate for next head of the Yotsuba, he was gravely mistaken!

I wouldn’t use my CAD. I couldn’t waste time starting it up. Which meant there was only one spell I could use:

The mental interference magic I had inherited from Mother. It wasn’t mental construction interference like her magic was, but it was still a spell you used on someone’s mind.

The spell would freeze it.

I aimed just for him, the one with the antinite, so I wouldn’t catch the unrelated people in it…

…and activated my mental freezing spell, Cocytus.

The Cast Jamming stopped. I knew he was now in stasis.

This was the third person I’d stopped.

I hadn’t killed them, but they would never thaw. They would never move again from this stasis, which made it the same as death.

I clenched my teeth to endure the guilt.

Because of that, I wasted valuable time with inactivity. What happened next was a reasonable punishment brought on by my own naïveté.

There was more than one of them. And they were pointing their guns this way.

All at once, they pulled their triggers as Miss Sakurai activated her spell. The magic program Miss Sakurai constructed fizzled before it had any effect.

A spray of machine-gun fire punched holes in me, Mother, and Miss Sakurai.

The places I was shot…

They didn’t hurt.

They were hot.

But my whole body…

…was cold.

I could feel my life slipping away with the blood flowing out.

I’m going to die…

I thought I’d have more remorse or attachment when I died, but I thought about surprisingly little. If I had one regret, it was that I wanted to properly apologize to him.

Without me here, he could have been more normal.

He could have been free.

I’m sorry.

I’m really, really sorry, Tat—

“Miyuki!”

I thought I was hearing things. I’d been thinking about my brother, so I figured I’d made a voice for him in my head at just the right time.

After all, he would never call my name with such emotion, with such desperation in his voice.

He wouldn’t try to keep me here.

I struggled to open my eyes. I saw a sky covered in clouds, the walls disappearing, dead insurgents, and my brother, holding his left hand toward me.

Something came out of his left hand. Something overwhelming.

It easily penetrated the Information Boost wall covering my body, which was on the verge of a regret-filled death, and flowed inside me.

Then my brother’s “mind” folded over my body. That was the only way I could describe it. He read in everything about my body and rebuilt all of it. My body, my self, began to be remade.

By my brother’s will and by his strength.

It was too tremendous, too precise, too bold and delicate to call it magic.

No. This is magic. True magic, worthy of the name.

I thought I saw the Reaper growing distant. Very frustrated with nothing it could do. That was no more than an illusion, of course. But the soul ferryman in that illusion seemed very human, and I couldn’t help but let out a mad chuckle. When I did, I didn’t taste blood coming up my throat or anything of the sort.

“Miyuki, are you all right?!”

When my vision cleared, it was filled with the worried face of my brother. It was the first time I’d ever seen such raw emotion in him.

“Tatsuya…”

For some reason, his name left my lips easily. I didn’t choke on it, nor did I feel any compunction.

“Thank goodness…!”

I might have been more disturbed.

I might have been more flustered.

Because he was holding me, embracing me, tightly and firmly.

But I felt something then, and maybe it was brazen of me.

…I felt that this was the natural way of things. That Tatsuya’s arms were where I belonged.

So when he released me from the embrace, I reflexively grabbed his jacket hem.

He looked back at me, eyes wide, then narrowed them and rumpled my hair.

“Ah…”

I wonder how he interpreted the sound I accidentally made.

He smiled a little awkwardly, and then looked away in embarrassment—before his face hardened. It turned into an impassive mask—though not in the sense of emotional vacancy but rather a fully focused, expressionless face. Seen from the side, he looked like he was desperately trying to recall something.

He was looking toward Mother and Miss Sakurai, whose lives were both about to be extinguished.

“Tatsuya!”

Without answering my call, probably focused so far that he couldn’t, he pulled out a CAD with his left hand.

I could see an unbelievable amount of psions energizing inside him. He was constructing a container of psionic information bodies that could store a vast amount of data.

His index finger pulled the CAD’s trigger.

It looked like Mother’s body was sucked into his left hand.

Of course, that was an illusion.

I didn’t know what he did or how, but I knew what had happened—though I was only able to make an accurate guess because he’d done it to me already.

Tatsuya had copied all the information making up Mother’s body into his own magic-calculation region, processed it, and then overwrote her body’s information with it.

Her gunshot wounds vanished. The bloodstains moistening her clothes and scattered about the floor disappeared.

As Mother’s body fell forward, I ran over to her in a flurry and caught her. She sounded pained, but she was still breathing.

It was the same as before she’d been shot… No, this was… He made it so she had never been shot in the first place?

Brother pointed his left hand’s CAD at Miss Sakurai.

He finished preparing the psion information bodies far more smoothly and swiftly than he had with Mother.

He’s clearly getting used to it…? In just three tries, he’s perfecting this super-advanced spell of completely restoring someone’s body?!

As my body trembled in awe, my mind saw it as a natural thing.

After all, he’s my dear brother

My chest swelled with pride.

I no longer cared about how foolish my ignorance had been.

Miss Sakurai stared at her own body with a look of disbelief.

Mother’s consciousness hadn’t returned yet, but her breathing was stable. We were told by an army doctor who’d run to us that she wasn’t unconscious, just sleeping. I sighed in relief.

“I’m sorry. Letting those rebels through was entirely our fault. I know nothing I can do will absolve us, but if you have any requests, please tell us. We will do anything we can for you as the National Defense Force.”

And next to me, Tatsuya and Captain Kazama were standing opposite each other. Captain Kazama bowed in apology, and Tatsuya said he needn’t worry about it.

The reason Tatsuya had just barely made it to the scene was apparently because he’d borrowed Captain Kazama and Lieutenant Sanada’s help. Also, those rebels seemed to be planning on kidnapping us and holding us hostage, so looking at the end result, Private Higaki’s arrival had saved us from that dark situation—of course, their actual target had been that other man, and it seemed we’d actually only been in the wrong place at the wrong time. The man was an important official in the military industry, and he and his family were all being kept safe in another room. In other words, we almost died for being in the same room as him. Still, thanks to Mr. Higaki buying us time, Tatsuya made it—and that, too, was the undeniable truth.

But if not for that spell he’d used, Mother, Miss Sakurai, and I would all have been dead for certain.

I couldn’t emotionally overlook it just like that.

“First, would you please explain the situation in detail?” I asked.

I had no intention of demanding anything for myself, of course. I felt guilty for it, but I wasn’t about to let Miss Sakurai interrupt, either. Even if Mother had been awake, I would have made sure she stayed silent.

Because this was Tatsuya’s privilege and his alone.

“Are they from the Great Asian Alliance?”

“We have no proof, but there isn’t any doubt.”

“The story about holding the enemy off at the waterside was a lie, correct?”

“Yes. The enemy submarine landing force has already landed on the shore northwest of Nago City.”

…Did that mean the submarine back then was doing a preliminary investigation?

“The enemy has seized control over the waters near the Kerama Islands as well. Our personnel movement in certain places has been obstructed by the activities of guerrillas in contact with the enemy from Naha to Nago.”

…The situation was worse than I’d imagined.

“But it’s no cause for concern. There were never many guerrillas in the first place. We’ve already suppressed eighty percent of them. We should also clean up the insurgents from within the military soon,” the captain said.

“They’ve already accomplished their goal of securing a landing point, so they’ve outlived their usefulness anyway. They can use all the disposable pieces they want; the Great Asian Alliance is always bragging about having too many people, so I wouldn’t think that it hurt them whatsoever,” Tatsuya pointed out flatly. Captain Kazama made a bitter face. “Next, I’d like you to secure a safe location for my mother, sister, and Miss Sakurai. If possible, somewhere safer than the shelter.”

“…We’ll keep them safe in the aerial defense command room. The armor in there is twice as strong as the shelter’s.”

…I was baffled. How could a command room where soldiers hole up in have stronger defenses than an evacuation shelter for civilians? But maybe that was just how military bases were.

“Finally,” said Tatsuya, “I’d like to borrow an armored suit and a complete set of infantry armaments. I won’t be able to return any consumables, of course.”

“…Why?” asked the captain.

I couldn’t help thinking his request strange, too. Why, Tatsuya? And why did you not include yourself among the list of people you wanted to guarantee safety for?

Trying to gauge his true intent, I gazed into his eyes, then gasped.

In his eyes…

It was something hotter than infuriation.

Raging blue hellfire.

“They laid a hand on Miyuki. I must make them pay the price.”

As everyone who heard him had the blood drain from their faces, one person maintained his expression: Captain Kazama, who could only be called courageous.

“You plan on going alone?”

“What I’m trying to do isn’t a military action. It’s personal revenge.”

“I still don’t particularly mind. Humans are incapable of fighting unlinked to emotions. Even if fighting for revenge, there’s no problem as long as you control it.”

Tatsuya’s and Captain Kazama’s eyes met.

No—they were staring each other down.

“I can’t acknowledge the slaughter of noncombatants or anyone who’s surrendered, but I’m sure you don’t intend to do that.”

“I don’t plan on giving them time to surrender.”

“That’s fine. Our mission has been to rebuff or annihilate the invading forces. We don’t need to issue a surrender warning.”

Captain Kazama’s expression was decisive in a different way than Brother’s but every bit as strong as his.

“Tatsuya Shiba, we will add you to our line of battle.”

Tatsuya’s face didn’t change at all. “I will not be following the army’s orders. What I need to protect is different from what you need to protect. But our enemy is the same—the invaders—and if we are like-minded in our goal of wiping them out, I’ll fight side by side with you.”

He was like a steel blade, forged by a legendary smith—cold, sharp, surrounded by an awe-inspiring air—and I simply watched him, enraptured.

“Very well. Sanada, lend him an armored suit and a set of infantry gear! The paratroopers will sortie in ten minutes!”

“Miss Sakurai, my mother and sister are in your hands,” said Tatsuya, standing stock-still, before he followed after Lieutenant Sanada.

He looked toward me then with a faint smile on his face, and that certainly was no illusion.

“My lady, is this really all right?” Miss Sakurai asked me hesitatingly as I watched Tatsuya leave.

“Is what all right?”

It seemed like my ability to think wouldn’t work the same way as it had before, as though it had nodded off to sleep or escaped from the battle.

“Tatsuya may be very skilled, but this is a war he’s going to… and the very front lines, at that. Wouldn’t jumping in like that be too dangerous?”

“!”

Miss Sakurai’s whispered voice sounded to me like an incredibly loud alarm clock going off in my ears.

She was right! Why was I so calmly watching him go? Tatsuya was trying to dive headfirst into a war!

“Miyuki?!” called out Miss Sakurai as I started to run away.

But only her voice came after me. She couldn’t leave Mother by herself.

I’m sorry, I said in silent apology. It pained me to leave Mother in her hands when she was all alone, but stopping Tatsuya was more important!

With that one thought in my mind, I moved my feet. Thankfully, Tatsuya hadn’t made it very far, and I caught up to him without losing my way.

“Tatsuya!”

I thought for a moment, feared that maybe he wouldn’t turn around, but my concern was clearly groundless. He said a few words to Lieutenant Sanada, who was taking the lead, then stopped and turned around. The lieutenant waited a few paces away. I thought he was probably giving us some space.

“Miyuki, what’s the matter?”

When he called me that so very naturally, his voice completely casual, I felt as though something had touched my heart—but now wasn’t the time to bask in it.

“Tatsuya, I…”

I tried to say, Please don’t go, but all of a sudden, I began to think of something I shouldn’t have; that line was exactly what a heroine might say to a lover in a clichéd romantic comedy film (or novel or comic book)—and within the subgenre of forbidden sibling love, no less.

“Miyuki?” He looked at me dubiously when I suddenly lost my words. My cheeks were probably the color of ripe apples.

“…P-please don’t go.” But I still had to say it. I had to stop him. “Please don’t fight the enemy army. It’s too dangerous. I don’t think you need to put yourself in danger like that.”

I said it…! I was filled with a sense of accomplishment, that it would be fine now. Not a fiber of my being thought he would shake his head and disagree with what I’d said.

“You’re right—I don’t need to. I’m not going because I need to—I’m going because I want to, Miyuki.”

That was why his answer shocked me. It was a shock both to be rejected and to hear him speak as though he wished to kill. But my body didn’t try to pull away from Tatsuya; instead, my hand grabbed his jacket.

He gave an awkward smile as he looked down at my hand, then put his hand on top of it.

“Like I said, I’m going to pay them back for hurting you.” He looked into my eyes, his face troubled. “Not for your sake. So that I feel better about it.”

Even though he said that, in his eyes…

“If I don’t, I’ll never get over it.”

I felt like his eyes were saying it was for me…

“The only thing that really feels important to me is you, Miyuki.”

And that wasn’t a lie.

“I’m sorry for being a selfish brother.”

It wasn’t a presumption.

He gently removed my hand, and with the confusion and doubt still on my face, he smiled at me.

My face was probably as bright red as a fully ripened tomato.

But right away, I frowned, noting something odd about Tatsuya’s words.

I feel important to him…?

He didn’t say I was important to him—but that I felt important to him. Maybe that was just a different way of putting it and didn’t mean anything…but for some reason, it stuck in my mind.

The words had rushed out unconsciously and weren’t even really a question. Brother gave a dry grin, as though he were unsure of what to do.

His face was smiling, yet at the same time, it seemed like it was weeping. He wasn’t actually crying, of course, and I’d never seen him look sad enough to shed tears in the first place. But without a reason, I felt like the topic was a sad one for him.

So I apologized. “I’m very sorry!” I said. I couldn’t possibly make him any sadder than this, I thought, quickly and vigorously bowing.

A youth’s delicate hand parted my long hair and slid across my cheek. Though delicate, his hand was far bigger than my own, and firm and strong.

I let his hand move my face and looked up at him. He hadn’t used his strength, but I couldn’t possibly go against it. Before I could even think that disobeying would be absurd, my body had followed his intent.

“Well…it’s a good time for you to learn. I would have liked to keep it from you if I could, but…as long as you’re Mom’s daughter and her niece, I don’t think we can get away with that.”

Tatsuya’s words were directed at me, but he wasn’t saying them to me—it sounded like he was letting himself hear them.

“Tatsuya?”

“There’s no time right now, and I don’t think you should hear this from me. Go and have Mom tell you about it—the answer to the question you have right now.”

“Ask Mother…?” I simply parroted his words back, with no time to have doubts about them, and he gave me another smile, this one a strong, reliable one.

“Don’t worry, Miyuki. You’re the only one I feel is important to me. I’ll keep protecting you in the future, so I’ll return unharmed.”

He wasn’t lying. These weren’t empty words to make me feel better.

“I’ll be fine.”

His smile withdrew, and his face tightened into an unwavering expression.

As if to say it was the absolute truth.

“There is nothing that can truly hurt me.”

That was why I believed him—that there wasn’t a person anywhere in the world that could harm him.

Tatsuya took his hand from my cheek and moved it to my head, then rubbed my hair.

As I put my own hand to my now somewhat messed-up hair, he smiled a third time, then ran off in Lieutenant Sanada’s direction.

This time, he headed onto the battlefield for real.

They spoke of the air defense command room, but I had no way of knowing where that was, of course. Aside from returning to that room, with its outer and inner walls both gone, I had no other choice.

Come to think of it, why had that room’s walls disappeared? From what Miss Sakurai and Tatsuya were saying, someone had set a barrier spell to block magic, so I thought it unlikely they’d been destroyed by magic. But the cuts in the wall were so clean that it seemed impossible without it.

Telling myself they’d never leave me behind but still a little uneasy, I returned to the room I was in before at a trot.

Ah…

“I apologize for making you wait.”

Mother came to greet me. First, I apologized.

She may have needed to recover her strength, but we couldn’t go there with her on a stretcher, so it was obvious they’d do something to wake her up.

I bowed my head in apology, not to avoid her being angry with me for leaving her behind due to a selfish decision and making her wait as a result but because I was truly sorry.

“You needn’t apologize, Miyuki. Tatsuya was being selfish, and you went to bring him back, right?” answered Mother with a smile.

Oh… She was pretty angry…

“And where is Tatsuya? He doesn’t seem to be here.”

“Well, that is… My brother said he would work with the army to drive off the enemies.”

“Your brother?” Mother frowned dubiously.

Maybe I shouldn’t have said that, I thought reflexively, but I didn’t consider correcting myself. Mother couldn’t criticize me for it, either.

Instead, she heaved a sigh. “So selfish… The child really is defective.”

Her words didn’t only sound detached—she was detached.

Not resigned but forsaking.

I didn’t have to ask who the child was.

Instead of righteous indignation, I felt a chill.

At how his own mother could be so frivolous toward her own child.

“Well, that’s fine. He did fairly well earlier, so I’ll let him do as he wishes… I’m sorry for the wait. Please show us there,” said Mother to the soldier waiting there to guide us to the command room.

No, it wasn’t just “fairly well.”

I’m alive, Mother is alive, thanks to Tatsuya.

And yet I found myself unable to object to her evaluation.

The air defense command room was past five armored doors.

It had no windows—in fact, it had no walls facing the outside. The place was about the size of four school classrooms together. Inside was a small hall, consisting of about thirty operators sitting at three rows of consoles, with eight mezzanine-level rooms jutting out from the wall toward the big screen in the hall.

We were let into one of those rooms, which had glass panes in the front.

“I don’t see any listening devices or surveillance cameras,” Miss Sakurai told Mother; she’d been checking the room. “This looks like a viewing room for high-ranking officers and Ministry of Defense staff.”

I don’t know how she checked it, but we could trust her results. That meant we could discuss secret matters in this room.

“The glass in front isn’t ordinary glass, either. They had the same kind at the MPD. It can display any images you like from what’s being monitored in this command room,” she continued, starting to manipulate the console while watching the monitor on the table.

“Mother, I have something I’d like you to tell me.” Meanwhile, I decided to gather my courage and ask Mother about before. “Earlier, Brother said that I was the only one who felt important to him… When I asked him why he said ‘felt important’ rather than ‘is important,’ he told me to have you explain…”

Mother frowned as she listened to my question. “I see. He said that, did he?” she snapped, unamused. “I suppose it would be a good time to tell you.”

And now, here she had said the same thing as my brother. I sensed an important secret, and it set me on edge.

“But before that… Miyuki, I want you to stop calling him your brother out loud. Some things are necessary when others can hear, but when only the Yotsuba are present, you shouldn’t treat him as your brother.”

Mother’s tone wasn’t firm—she scolded me as if the truth were self-evident.

“After all, you’ll follow in Maya’s footsteps to become the head of the Yotsuba. If people see you having an attachment to him, being dependent on such a flawed brother, it could be a big disadvantage for you.”

“How can you say that…?!” I unintentionally forgot about any reservation and lashed out at her. I’d been tense, listening in earnest, which made it all the more difficult for me to let even her words slip past. “How can you call your own son ‘flawed’?!”

“I regret it as well, but it’s the truth, so I can do no more.”

“That isn’t true! His strength saved me!”

“You mean before? Yes, I should expect him to do at least that much… That’s all the child can do, after all.” Mother answered my determined argument in a more apathetic voice than I thought I’d ever heard from her. Her tone revealed that she had utterly given up on him. “If Tatsuya said that I should talk to you about it, then I don’t mind. Where to start…?”

As Mother thought, the wall-sized window suddenly changed its picture. From the command room, with operators bustling about, to a bird’s-eye view of the ground. It showed Tatsuya, having just descended from the air.

I looked over at Miss Sakurai, who had probably put that up for us. She silently watched, observing Mother and me. It was clear, without needing to ask, that she had no intention of interrupting.

And it was clear that she knew many things I didn’t.

…Mother didn’t bother to look at the screen with my brother on it.

“Tatsuya was born as a defective magician.”

Mother wasn’t looking at me, either.

“That isn’t to say I feel no responsibility for being unable to give birth to him in a better way, but the fact is that Tatsuya possesses a flaw that makes him a failure as a magician.”

But that didn’t mean she had closed her eyes.

“Tatsuya can only use the two types of magic that he was born with: dismantling eidos and reconstructing eidos. He seems to be able to work out a variety of skills with them, as long as it stays within those conditions, but no matter how hard he tries, those two things are all he can do. He cannot alter eidos—the fundamental characteristic of a magician.”

Mother’s gaze conveyed nothing.

“Magic is a technique for altering information bodies. That’s how events are altered. No matter how minute the change, altering one thing into another is the definition of magic. Tatsuya can’t do that. He can only break those information bodies apart and remake them in a former state. That isn’t the actual meaning of the word. He was born without the talent to truly use magic: changing information bodies into something else. If he isn’t a defective magician, what is he?”

Mother was probably peering into her own heart…

“Well, his reconstructive abilities saved us, but strictly speaking, that power isn’t magic.”

I couldn’t find the words to argue.

But I did think this:

If that wasn’t magic, what should that power be called?

If it was worthy of a name other than magic, wouldn’t that make it no less than a miracle?

“But the Yotsuba are magicians and part of the Ten Master Clans. You can’t be a member of this family if you’re not a magician. The child can’t use magic, so he can’t be a member of the Yotsuba. That’s why we—Maya and I—performed a certain surgery on the child seven years ago. Of course, that wasn’t the only reason for the experiment, but…”

Experiment? Mother had experimented on him?

“The Artificial Magician Plan. A project to implant an artificial magic-calculation region into a non-magician who doesn’t have one, thus giving them the abilities of a magician.”

The Artificial Magician Plan. The name rang ominously in my ears.

“As a result of the mental modification surgery, Tatsuya experienced a loss of emotion.”

Mental modification surgery? Loss of emotion?

“Well, I suppose the term impulse is more fitting than emotion. Strong anger, deep sadness, fierce envy, enmity, hatred, voracious appetite, over-presence of libido, blind emotions of love. In exchange for losing, with one exception, those sorts of self-forgetting impulses, he gained the power to control magic.”

I can’t…

“But unfortunately, his artificial magic-calculation region’s capabilities were strikingly inferior to natural-born ones, and in the end, we couldn’t use him as anything more than a Guardian.”

I can’t believe it, I thought.

That can’t be true, I thought.

“Mother…were you the one who did that surgery?”

Even thinking that, I couldn’t help but ask the question.

On the big window, it showed Tatsuya, surrounded by adults bigger than he was, making contact with the enemy’s landing forces.

“Who else but me could?”

I wanted her to deny it. But my wish wasn’t granted.

I knew it was true.

The magic-calculation region wasn’t an organ that resided in your brain—it was, so to speak, a function of your mind. To append an artificial magic-calculation region was to alter a person’s mental makeup. And that was impossible, except with Mother’s magic—her mental construction interference.

“…How could you…?”

“I’ve already explained why. Now, I’ll answer the question you wanted the answer to.”

…Oh, I see…

I already knew.

I had realized it before.

Tatsuya wasn’t the only one who had lost part of his emotions during the experiment.

Whether it was caused by a magical side effect or a sense of guilt or other mental activity, I didn’t know, but…

For the first time, I was scared of magic.

I felt fear for the magic that could so cruelly change a person’s heart.

On the screen, Tatsuya was pointing a CAD that looked just like a large handgun at the enemy soldiers. Where his gaze landed, the soldiers began to turn to dust, one after another.

“The only exception, the only thing he didn’t lose… That is the answer.”

Please stop.

“The only impulse left within him is sibling love.”

Please, Mother, stop.

“The emotion to love his sister—you—and protect her.”

I don’t want to hear any more.

“That’s the only real emotion he still has.”

But I would never be allowed to close my ears to this. I covered my mouth with my hands in an unconscious act. Maybe it was a conditioned reflex. I didn’t actually need to do it. But the shock was so severe that I couldn’t even cry out.

“Tatsuya knows himself very well,” she continued. “That’s what he meant by feeling that you are important to him. He only recognizes me as his mother; the natural love inherent in the concept doesn’t exist. The only thing his mind can consider precious is you, Miyuki. Even before, he saved me only because I was there. Or perhaps because he decided you would be sad if I had died.”

“Mother…did you choose this on purpose?”

I was the one asking, but it sounded like someone else was talking. It almost felt like a me who wasn’t me was moving my body and making me ask.

“Well, not exactly. He ended up having room for only one impulse because of his capacity problems, and I decided it should be love for you. After all, he’ll be with you longer than he’ll be with me.”

“Did you tell my br— Tell him that?”

“I explained it to him, of course. You know how he is—practical to a fault. He wouldn’t worry about something trivial like not having love for his parents.”

When she said that…

…I thought I saw just a hint of something.

Of a mother’s agony for being unable to love her child.

“Is there anything else you’d like to ask?”

“No… Thank you.”

Part of me felt like I shouldn’t have asked. Another part felt like it was a good thing I had. A past too harsh to look at directly, a hard truth—but the present and future, which I couldn’t turn away from.

On the screen, it showed Tatsuya, advancing at a fixed rate as though through an uninhabited wasteland. No bullets or artillery fire reached him.

A tank—or something like it—aiming its turret at him vanished, along with the operator inside.

He walked onward, pace unchanged.

But the soldiers accompanying him didn’t have as easy a time. They hopped from cover to cover, firing guns and magic as they ran, so they wouldn’t lag behind him.

Oh! One of the soldiers was shot. The battlefield shown through the aerial camera was almost like the events of a movie.

On the screen, at which I gazed without receiving that much of a shock, Tatsuya had the CAD he gripped in his left hand pointed at the soldier.

When did he do that? I had no time to wonder about it. A moment later, the soldier was running across the screen as though nothing had happened.

Enemy turrets erupted in flame.

They didn’t hit Tatsuya.

He turned his right hand.

The enemy vanished, almost like special effects in a movie.

An allied soldier fell.

He turned his left hand.

With just that, the fallen soldier rose as though nothing had happened.

Even for me, someone more deeply intimate with the concept of magic than others, even many magicians, the image displayed on the screen felt unreal, like a film.

But that was the irrepressible impression of an onlooker.

For the soldiers fighting alongside my brother, he was an unanticipated stroke of fortune. The battle was like something out of a dream, where if they were injured, even fatally, they would be healed right away.

And for the enemy forces facing him, he was an unexpected disaster. The battle was a nightmare, where enemies they thought they’d neutralized got back up, and they were vanishing without even leaving corpses behind.

Tatsuya, now a malevolent deity, strode through the battlefield.

Simply to retaliate against them for shooting me.

Because that was his fate ever since seven years ago, when he was six years old.

How could I ever repay him?

What could I give him in return?

Because even my life was a gift from Tatsuya.