The Irregular at Magic High School, Vol. 11: Visitor Arc, Part III

A haze hung over Miyuki’s eyes.

As she looked upon her brother with a floating, passionate gaze, he realized his own mistake.

But now that he’d said it, he couldn’t take it back.

Actually, even if he’d succeeded in retracting the sentiment, he couldn’t have changed the situation.

…Well, I guess it’s better than her asking about every little thing, he decided to himself, somewhat out of avoidance.

Without any other means to go home, Lina arrived back at her apartment complex after the date had already changed. It had taken her quite a long time as well. Her only consolation was that the sun hadn’t come up yet.

Every last one of her armaments had been stripped from her, but for some reason, the Brionac remained in her hand, so she didn’t feel hopelessly in danger.

But her information terminal, even her spare one, had been taken away, so she couldn’t call for a car to come pick her up.

Since she only ever used digital currency, she never carried a wallet with her. Besides, she didn’t have any personal possessions on her anyway to avoid the risk a mid-mission search would present. Thanks to that, she couldn’t use any twenty-four-hour public transportation, and she’d had to go back to where she lived unaided.

Not only had her specialized CAD been taken but her multipurpose CAD had been, too, meaning she couldn’t use flight magic or speed-running magic as she wished. When she finally spotted her apartment building after a sporadic series of jumping spell assemblies, she almost broke out in tears. If any of her acquaintances had seen her like that, she might have turned the Brionac on them out of pure reflexive shame.

Thanks to the biometric identification security system, she didn’t have trouble getting into her apartment.

But as she breathed a sigh of relief, she felt an irresistible anger well up within her.

What the hell do you have against me, Tatsuya?!

Objectively speaking, there were piles and piles of reasons Tatsuya might resent her. However, this was her emotions at work.

Still, her training as a soldier had endowed her with the ability to remember what she needed to do right now despite all that. So she opened a transmission line to the command center.

But no matter how many times she called, she got no response.

A cold sweat formed on her spine. She shook her head vehemently, trying to drive off the ominous premonition.

Using a spare portable terminal, she called the command center again. Her last ray of hope was that their transmission functions were down—but even that was finally dashed by the unending stream of call tones.

She had to come to terms with the fact that something had happened to the colonel and the others.

Lina quickly equipped her CAD and other armaments, then dragged her worn body out onto the veranda and fluttered into the night sky.

Her destination was the building that housed the secret command center inside.

It would only be after an hour, after she’d finished a thorough search, that she’d learn nobody was there waiting for her.

The next morning.

Print and video media both frothed at the news that a small USNA Navy–affiliated vessel cruising in Japan’s offshore territory had begun drifting because of engine trouble and was secured by the JMDF.

For some reason, a high-ranking military attaché at the USNA’s Tokyo embassy had been aboard the ship, but that wouldn’t be reported.

On the same day, a beautiful transfer student at First High was absent from school for a second day due to health problems.