October 27, Saturday. With the Thesis Competition occurring the next day, First High’s representatives and support team, including security, set off for Kyoto that afternoon. First High’s presentation would be sixth, starting at 1:40 PM, so if they’d chosen to depart the morning of, they would certainly still make it. But on years when the competition was held in Kyoto, First High traditionally stayed over the night before.

In a large bus and a truck carrying the presentation’s experimental apparatus, they headed for an exclusive terminal. They first traveled to a certain station on the outskirts of Kyoto in a car-train (a high-speed train capable of holding both vehicles and passengers with luggage), then went from there to a hotel in Kyoto.

The C.R. Hotel in which First High always stayed tended to be too posh for high school students, but traditions once ingrained were difficult to change. None of the students ever complained they wanted a lower-grade hotel, either, so things had remained the same for a long time.

“We’re heeere!”

The first one who got off the bus was Kanon, who had been enjoying the bus trip with Isori. Her hopes of doing so for last year’s Nines had been dashed, and she was certainly making up for it this time. She should have gotten her revenge at this year’s competition; maybe she was the sort of person who became obsessed with something if it had failed to go her way even once.

The last one to alight was Izumi. Miyuki, as student council president, was actually supposed to be the one making sure everyone got off the bus with all their property intact, but Izumi had volunteered for the job, insisting it was too far below Miyuki’s station.

In exchange, Miyuki handled their hotel check-in. Tatsuya and Honoka split the job of passing out the room keys.

And so, the students of First High scattered to their assigned rooms.

The rooms they were staying in were twins, cheaper than the Japanese-style ones. Tatsuya’s roommate ended up being Mikihiko. Noncoincidentally, of course—they’d meant for that.

“Mikihiko, can you handle things now?”

“Sure thing. I’m disappointed I can’t come along, though.”

“I couldn’t ask that much of you. And there’s the information disclosure problem. More importantly…”

“What’s up, Tatsuya?” he wondered, as Tatsuya began to struggle with his words.

“…Nothing. I want you to take care of everyone from school. I doubt anything will happen, but it’s best to be vigilant.”

“Yeah, I get that.”

What Tatsuya had almost done was point out that Mizuki was here, too. The art club had been heavily involved in creating the experimental apparatus this year, and they’d been prioritized as members of their support team, with her among them. He’d been wondering if Mikihiko was thinking about her.

But in the end, he hadn’t said any of that, deciding it was none of his business. He figured it wasn’t the kind of thing an outsider should meddle with.

“I might be out pretty late. I’ll tell you if it seems like I won’t be back.”

“All right. Be careful.”

Hiding his holster and his favored handgun-shaped CAD, the Silver Horn, tucked inside his blouson, Tatsuya raised a hand in response and left the room.

The first place Tatsuya headed was a smaller, less conspicuous hotel than the C.R. Hotel, where the First High students were staying. It was one which the Kuroba family frequently used for work.

“Hello, Tatsuya.”

“We’ve been expecting you.”

In the lobby, Fumiya and Ayako, respectively, had been waiting for him.

“Sorry for having you come all this way.”

“Don’t be,” Fumiya encouraged. “We were the ones who brought this matter to you in the first place.”

“Well, let’s not stand around talking. Why don’t you have a seat, Tatsuya?” Ayako added. She led him to the sofa, and after having him settle in and taking her own seat across the table from him, Fumiya brought drinks.

Tatsuya was about to ask if it was okay to drink beverages here, before spotting a 3H wiping down another table. Actually, that type of machine was a business model called a Humanoid Servant or, more frequently, a Servanoid. Deciding it wouldn’t pose any issues, Tatsuya eagerly accepted the drink.

Ayako deployed a soundproof field. No alarms went off at the unlawful usage of magic. It seemed this hotel wasn’t simply a place the Kuroba family frequented, as he’d heard, but one which had been modified to perfectly serve the Kurobas’—the Yotsubas’ needs.

“And that’s that. Tatsuya, everything has been arranged at your request.”

“We’ve gotten the same kind of model of motorcycle as the kind you usually use. It’s parked in the parking lot.”

“And as for clothing, we’ve arranged knife-proof and bulletproof articles, if you would care to change.”

“There are boots, gloves, and helmets all ready to be used for combat as well.”

“You’ve certainly spared no expense…”

Tatsuya nearly broke out into a laugh at their efforts, which far exceeded his expectations. Of course, he realized they were doing so out of earnest concern for him, so he didn’t actually laugh.

“Thanks. I’ll make use of all of them.”

Fumiya and Ayako offered sincerely happy-looking smiles at his words.

“Then I’ll show you to your room.”

Ayako put down her half-finished cup of tea and stood up. Fumiya rose without finishing his drink, too, so Tatsuya followed suit.

The outfit they’d brought for him fit to his body so well that it was a little creepy. He was extremely curious as to where they’d gotten his sizes from, but somehow, he got the feeling he was better off not asking that question, so he didn’t.

“How much have we narrowed it down?”

Tatsuya was asking about Gongjin Zhou’s hiding place, needless to say.

He’d given the information he’d gotten on Monday to the Kuroba family through Hayama. They’d been using it to search for the man this past week.

“We’ve almost pinpointed him.”

“I see—fine work as always from the Kuroba,” Tatsuya said. “And?”

Fumiya hesitated slightly. “Well, it’s hard to believe, but…”

“There is almost no doubt that he is being sheltered at the JGDF’s Uji Resupply Base Number Two,” Ayako answered in his place, since he was indeed having trouble saying it.

Tatsuya didn’t say but that’s ridiculous. “I see. Makes sense he was hard to find, then,” he noted, moving to the communication console.

“Fumiya.”

“Yes, sir!”

Addressed by an almost chillingly stoic voice, Fumiya gave back his reply more formally than he needed to.

Tatsuya’s voice was proof that his emotions had reached a limit. As someone unable to experience emotions any stronger than a certain amount, the moment his anger reached that threshold, he would express only emotionless intent to others.

The JDF unit’s traitorous act went beyond what he could tolerate. Ever since Miyuki had been shot by a rebel soldier in Okinawa, he had almost zero tolerance for betrayal.

A blade of ice glitters when unsheathed, went the saying. The expression referred to how a well-sharpened and polished Japanese katana glowed in a cold, eerie manner. And it tended to fit Tatsuya when he lost himself to anger.

“Can I communicate with the outside?”

“Just a moment.”

Fumiya reached out from his side and input a security code on the keyboard.

At his prompt, Tatsuya sat down in front of the console.

Tatsuya entered a complicated code. After waiting about five seconds, a female officer appeared on the monitor.

“Tatsuya, what’s going on?”

The code Tatsuya had input was the emergency call code assigned to Fujibayashi from the Independent Magic Battalion.

“Lieutenant, I am currently in Kyoto.”

“I see…”

With just that, understanding came over her face.

“Have you found him?”

Fujibayashi gave a resigned sigh at his question, which he’d purposely omitted words from.

“We have a good idea where Gongjin Zhou is hiding.”

Tatsuya hadn’t only told Hayama about the intel he’d gotten from Kiyomizu-dera and the Traditionalists in Arashiyama—he’d told her, too. Even for the JDF, Gongjin Zhou was a very dangerous criminal who had brought a foreign military force here. They didn’t need Tatsuya to ask them to look for him. And Tatsuya had intended to take advantage of that.

“Where is he?”

Fujibayashi offered a bitter look at his curt question.

“…Military police are planning to mobilize. Please don’t intervene, Specialist Ooguro.”

“You can’t apply special officer regulations to this. Ms. Fujibayashi, where is Gongjin Zhou? Please answer me as a relative of the Kudou family, which promised me their cooperation.”

“…Inside the JGDF Uji Resupply Base Number Two. Tatsuya, please, just leave the rest of this to the JDF. Even if it is you, if they find out you illegally entered the base, we’ll all be in a lot of trouble.”

“Understood. Good-bye.”

“Tatsuya?!”

Without clarifying what he “understood,” Tatsuya ended the call. Not only that, he used the console to lock down the circuit.

Turning around, he nodded to his cousins, who were watching their conversation wide-eyed from behind him. “I have confirmation now. What’s the plan?”

Gathering himself, Fumiya answered, “We begin the operation at sunset and infiltrate the base.”

“What’s our entry route?”

“We’ll be marching in through several gates and not doing anything like jumping over fences,” Ayako stated.

“Of course, we’ll station people outside the gates, too, in case the target flees the complex.”

“Would have liked more people…” Muttering, Tatsuya stood up. “Fumiya, Ayako, I’m going to grab a little more combat power. He might not have time to meet us on-site, but when the time comes, I’ll charge in, too.”

“All right. Communications won’t work from now on.”

“Be careful, Tatsuya.”

“I want both of you to keep your wits about you, got it?”

“Yes.”

“Of course.”

Nodding at their replies, Tatsuya headed for the parking lot, where the motorcycle they’d gotten was waiting.

He knew instantly which bike was his. With his key pointing an arrow toward it, there was no way to mistake it.

The western sky was already getting red. There wasn’t much time left until the operation began. Still riding the bike, he used voice input to operate the wireless interface of the information terminal built into his helmet to call Masaki Ichijou’s phone number.

“Shiba? What’s going on?”

It seemed Masaki found it surprising to get a call from him. If Tatsuya had gotten a sudden call from Masaki, he might have had the same reaction. And Tatsuya knew this going in, so he decided to be direct.

“Ichijou, we’ve narrowed down where Gongjin Zhou is hiding.”

“Really?!”

“Really. Where are you right now?”

“Near Kamigamo Shrine.”

He’s here, like I thought. He’d heard Third High planned to go to the Thesis Competition and go home the same day, but with Masaki having come the week before to scout things out, Tatsuya figured he’d have to arrive the day before the competition.

“I’ll be waiting at the Uji Futagozuka Park’s southwest entrance until five PM.”

“Five?! Got it. I’ll get there in time.”

Masaki was probably about to say there wasn’t enough time. But he seemed to immediately comprehend what Tatsuya meant by specifying a time. He rudely hung up the call, doubtless because he’d sprung into action right away.

As an enemy, he’d be a nuisance, but he was a reliable ally. Tatsuya appreciated people who were quick to understand things.

I should hurry, too.

It would be pathetic if he was late after calling Masaki outside like that, so he brought his motorcycle onto the highway.

In one room of the JGDF Uji Resupply Base Number Two, Gongjin Zhou, whom Tatsuya and the others were searching for, had finished his preparations to depart.

“Mr. Zhou, are you leaving already?”

An officer in his thirties, standing next to the door with his back straight, addressed Zhou in a reluctant voice.

“Captain Hatae, it pains me to part as well, but it seems they’ve sniffed this place out.”

“Really? That’s unfortunate. We would never let any so-called magician upstarts saying they’re from the Ten Master Clans lay a finger on you as long as you’re in this base.”

Captain Hatae was both a GAA appeasement advocate and a soldier with a tendency to admire Chinese ancient magicians and adhere to the idea that modern magicians were upstarts without even a century of history behind them. He had bought into Gongjin Zhou’s insistence that he hadn’t been involved in the Yokohama Incident—or tricked into doing so, rather, and now sheltered Zhou out of a sense of justice, seeing the Kuroba’s pursuit as the personal vendetta of modern magicians.

“There is nothing to be done about it. General Kudou is there, after all.”

Zhou smiled thinly. The smile suited his chiseled features well.

Captain Hatae bit his lip. Gongjin Zhou was right—if HQ instructed him to abide by an investigation order, Hatae, who was only a company commander, couldn’t dispute it. And former general Retsu Kudou naturally held enough sway to quash any resistance he may have had to an investigation based in official procedure.

“I had wanted to learn many more things about the hermit arts…”

“I am still no more than a fledgling Taoist myself. I lack the experience to see even a path to corpse liberation, much less to the winged emergence. It would be presumptuous of me to pretend to expound the arts to another person…”

With his usual excuse, Zhou gently refused Hatae’s request.

Captain Hatae changed the subject, not seeming visibly offended. “When will you depart?”

“I believe I shall take my leave this evening.”

“As the investigation is scheduled to begin early tomorrow morning, that would probably be wisest, but…”

“I am grateful simply that you found information on this surprise inspection with no written notice,” said Zhou, lowering his head.

Hatae offered an even more apologetic expression. “However, the gate is locked at night.”

“I can manage that, at least, on my own.” Zhou smiled confidently; his face reminded Hatae of what magic the man specialized in.

“Yes, you can, can’t you? At least allow me to prepare a car for you. It will be a personal belonging, not a military vehicle, but I doubt you will be followed in it.”

All public vehicles, not just military ones, had tracking devices to prevent theft. There were ways to fool the devices, but using a privately owned vehicle would be more certain.

“I truly thank you for doing so much for me,” offered Zhou, bowing his head politely.

As Tatsuya was leaning against the motorcycle borrowed from Fumiya, he spotted a red motorcycle coming his way after fifteen minutes of waiting.

He really likes red, huh?

He said that to himself offhandedly. Third High’s school color was red, so maybe it was an expression of love for his school. It couldn’t have been deliberately to match his nickname.

“Sorry to make you wait.”

Getting off the bike and taking off his helmet, Masaki spoke up to Tatsuya in that way.

“No, it’s still ten minutes before the time I said. More than enough time for the mission.”

It was currently 4:50 PM. The sun would set at 5:10, so they still had plenty of time.

“How are we doing this?”

At least, enough time to explain the mission’s details to Masaki.

“That’s where Gongjin Zhou is thought to be hiding,” Tatsuya said, pointing southward.

In that direction was a JDF base.

Masaki couldn’t immediately fathom what Tatsuya’s gesture meant. But after a few seconds, he realized what he meant by “that,” and his eyes widened.

“Wait, inside a JDF base?!”

“The JGDF Uji Resupply Base Number Two. It’s highly likely Zhou is hiding out in there.”

“…Are you certain?”

“It’s a possibility. We’ll be going in to see if it’s true.”

“We’re going inside the base?!”

Masaki’s face had gone past Is this guy serious? to Is this guy insane?

But for Tatsuya, trespassing into restricted JDF areas and crossing blades with JDF forces were both things he’d experienced before. He had no reason to balk at either of them at this point.

“A certain group of magicians are mobilizing in secret to capture him.”

“Separate from the military police, you mean?”

“Yeah. It’s not an official operation.”

Masaki correctly realized that implied it was an illegal operation.

“They’ll be sneaking into the base through several gates soon.”

“From the gates? …Oh—exotype magic users, then?”

Tatsuya nodded at Masaki’s question.

Masaki then had a guess as to who this “certain group of magicians mobilizing in secret” was.

A band of magicians specializing in exotype magic that would go against the JDF. Masaki could only think of one possibility. “Shiba, are you—”

“I’m separate from them.” But before the question could take form, Tatsuya cleanly cut it down. “It’s almost time. I’ll jump the fence and infiltrate the base. What will you do, Ichijou?”

Masaki couldn’t answer immediately. Trespassing on JDF property was clearly an illegal act. He hadn’t yet reached Tatsuya’s level where he could put his law-abiding spirit to rest whenever the situation called for it.

His parents would probably tell him to prioritize his duty to Ten Master Clans over his morals as a citizen. His father, especially, might have done more than give him a push on the back: He might have kicked him in the ass if he saw him dithering like this.

The issue was his position as a Third High student. With the Thesis Competition so close at hand, if he got into a scuffle with the police, and not for a petty crime but for a serious offense on top of that, they’d probably have to withdraw from the competition. The shock that would deal to Third High’s students, whether they were seniors, juniors, or freshmen, was certain to be a major one. And he would agonize over wasting all his friends’ efforts.

…But I’m part of a Clan.

The time Masaki actually spent hesitating was only a few seconds.

“…I’ll come. This wouldn’t have happened if that man hadn’t tricked me last year. I can’t turn away.”

Tatsuya threw a glance at the information terminal set up on his motorcycle handlebars. “The operation starts in five minutes. Let’s go, Ichijou.”

“Right.”

At the same time, the two of them put on their helmets, got on their motorcycles, and sped off.

Meanwhile, on the east side of the Uji Bridge, right next to the Byoudou-in—a temple famous for its Phoenix Hall’s exquisitely beautiful atmosphere—a car was parked.

“Thank you. I’ll call you when I’m done, so could you just wait somewhere nearby?”

The one who said that to the driver and then exited the car was a young man, beautiful enough to make you doubt your eyes.

A passerby who just happened to be there at the time gazed at him as though possessed. Given the time of day, with the sun just moments from setting, Minoru radiated a nearly divine aura.

A man in late middle age walked up to him from behind. He wasn’t exactly large in frame, but it was obvious his body was thoroughly trained, and one could tell without explanation he was the young man’s bodyguard.

“Lord Minoru, shall you be waiting here?”

“That’s right.”

His tone of voice was one accustomed to using people, clearly different from the one he’d directed toward Tatsuya and the others.

“If Zhou successfully escapes the encirclement, he will need to flee here. Should that happen, I’ll need to slow him down.”

“But if he needs to cross the Uji River, there’s a bridge in Ooshima as well.”

The bodyguard expressed his doubts cautiously. He wasn’t nitpicking his master’s viewpoint—he was just afraid their work would be in vain. If the suspect fled along a different route, it would be a waste of effort for Minoru, who had forced himself outside like this despite the fact that he was still recovering.

“Yes, but that’s only a highway. If he goes onto the highway for a time, his escape options will be limited. To make the best use of Qimen Dunjia, he needs the freedom to move in any direction. He won’t use the highway.”

“Isn’t it also possible he’ll flee east…?”

“Mount Takemine is to the east. Considering his escape route thus far, he favors populated areas to mountainous ones. Probably because that’s the kind of technique Qimen Dunjia is.”

“However—”

“Enough already.” As his bodyguard tried to offer even further worries, Minoru aggressively cut him off. “Are you saying my deductions are wrong?”

The bodyguard fell silent. But not out of reserve toward his master’s family. The air drifting from Minoru’s body was so cool, so clear that it had knitted his mouth shut.

“It’s time. Begin the operation.”

“Yes, right away, young one.”

Answering that way was a man who was still wearing sunglasses despite the sun having set, after which a light smacking sound came from the back of his head.

“You moron, it’s young lady! He’s dressed up in—”

“Be quiet!” Fumiya, who had become “Yami,” cut off the argument between the men in sunglasses. “This is no time for banter! Begin the operation!”

“Yes, sir.”

The men in sunglasses all dropped to one knee in a bow, then blended into the twilight sky like a mirage.

“Geez… These are supposed to be the best illusion users the Kuroba have…?”

After Fumiya pressed on one of his temples and moaned to himself, Ayako, disguised as “Yoru,” approached from behind and offered words of consolation. “Yami, you’ll just have to ignore it when you give them commands. Personality issues are totally separate from competence. You wouldn’t want an incompetent subordinate whose heart is in the right place—you’d want one who could get the job done even if they have a bad personality, right?”

“Well, yeah, but…”

“Anyway, Yami, it’s started.”

A loud alarm went off inside the base. Their men would never have fudged things up like that. They had a lot of character blemishes, but their abilities were good enough that Fumiya had to acknowledge them.

“I wonder if that’s Tatsuya.”

“Yes, he’s probably busy playing decoy for us. Perhaps he plans to drive our prey from the north to the south.”

“Why would he do something that dangerous?”

“Because he’s confident. Confident he can make it through any situation, no matter how perilous it becomes. That’s why he always voluntarily takes on the most dangerous missions.”

“…Yeah.”

“What would really be inexcusable is if we were to let his efforts go to waste. We must make sure we pin down Gongjin Zhou.”

“I know.”

Behind Fumiya waited a small passenger vehicle that was painted indigo. It wasn’t their normal car, of course. It was a special-order robotic car—a chassis as solid as a tank, and an engine that rivaled racing machines.

The alarms went off in JGDF Uji Resupply Base Number Two. Not only that, but more than a few gunshots could be heard.

“What’s happening?!” Captain Hatae yelled from outside the room.

The face of the subordinate waiting outside paled. “Intruders in the base! Two insurgents! Both appear to be magicians!”

“What?!”

Hatae’s shock was certainly no exaggeration. Even just one magician was a powerful combat force. You couldn’t draw broad conclusions since each individual magician’s abilities differed greatly, but it was said that the average combat strength of a magician belonging to the military rivaled an entire company of normal soldiers. A more powerful one could be a combat force on the scale of a battalion.

And there were two. Furthermore, not ones who were secretly trying to sneak into the base, but ones who were storming in through the front door—they couldn’t possibly be below average.

“Give me a sitrep!”

“The insurgents are destroying resupply material as they make their way here. We’re responding, but they won’t stop!”

Gongjin Zhou, who hadn’t even looked up at the emergency alarm as he was packing his things, clicked his bag shut and quietly stood up. “This will do.”

“Huh? Mr. Zhou, what are you…?”

“This is a good opportunity. You all, eliminate the intruders. Using this base’s full capabilities against them.”

As soon as Zhou said that, a shudder ran through Hatae and his subordinate as though they’d been electrically shocked.

That wasn’t a disturbance localized to this room. The same thing happened to every soul in the company Hatae commanded.

“Captain, I will take you up on your offer and borrow your car. The key?”

With stilted motions, Hatae held the key for the car.

“Now, what are you doing? You must take care of the intruders. Any blackguards who would trespass on a base must be thoroughly wiped out, so that not even a fragment of their corpse remains, or the military will lose its prestige.”

“Yes. This is a challenge to the JDF’s honor. How dare they look down on us. Wipe them out.”

“Yes, sir.”

His tone, in contrast to his words, was dispassionate.

And on the necks of Hatae and his subordinate as they turned on their heels and left the room was a marking resembling a spider bite.

The two who had intruded on the base were still wearing full-face motorcycle helmets, but just in case, Tatsuya searched out all the surveillance cameras and dismantled them.

Of course, the out-of-sight surveillance cameras were not the only things he was dismantling.

“What is that spell?!”

“No time for that.”

Tatsuya coldly spurned the question. Since they were being careful not to use names, their conversation continued to get more unfriendly.

“I’ve never heard of a spell like that!”

Maybe it couldn’t be helped that Masaki shouted that. This was the first time he was seeing Tatsuya’s dismantling.

Wherever Tatsuya pointed his CAD, weapons of all kinds fell to pieces and scattered to the floor. The guns broke into their component parts. Vehicles first lost their wheels, then their doors, and then all the plugs would come out of the inside, eventually reducing even the engine to its constituent pieces.

“You’re taking too long with the fuel.”

“This isn’t easy, you know!”

Masaki was doing his best to not ignite the leaked fuel. First, he vaporized the hydrogen storage liquid by using convergence magic to decompose the hydrogen gas. Then he shaped it into a sphere, making the hydrogen gas itself into a hydrogen balloon, then jetting that up into the air, which didn’t contain the heat of fire. The difficulty of the spell itself aside, its processes were far more complicated than the dismantling Tatsuya was doing.

“I’m sure making things blow up isn’t the only thing you’re good at.”

“I know that!”

Masaki was following Tatsuya’s instructions even while complaining because he’d decided this technique was, for him, going to be useful in the future as well. Using magic to vaporize only fuel, then using convergence magic to separate it from the resulting heat and venting it up into the air… With this method, he could disable armored weapons without accidentally killing anyone. It was a much more versatile attack spell than Burst for certain.

As they were wrecking any weapons they came across, the gunfire coming at them suddenly grew more severe. The bullets also changed from disabling rubber bullets to live ammunition.

Masaki instantly put up an anti-matter barrier. Tatsuya secretly used an area-mounted dismantling spell to make up for the parts he couldn’t completely cover. They split left and right, jumping behind cover.

“They shot at us!”

“Live bullets. Looks like they’re being manipulated, too. Same as those ancient magicians.”

Understanding dawned on Masaki’s face.

The crazed magicians who had come at them with self-immolation attacks, one step away from blowing themselves up, at Arashiyama: They had been controlled by a Chinese immortalist hidden in the brush.

With a roar, a tank appeared from behind the building. And not only the one, either—there were four, in combat formation.

“Now they’re bringing out tanks?!”

“What a farce. It’s like they want infighting.”

They were smaller varieties, classified for use in urban combat, but it was a massive excess of force for two pedestrians. Still, depending on how you thought about it, you could say it wasn’t enough for two magicians.

And in this case, it was the latter.

“We’re going straight through. Don’t blow them up.”

“You’re asking…ugh, fine!”

Masaki was about to say You’re asking the impossible, but when the turrets wheeled around to point at them, he seemed to realize complaining wouldn’t work.

The caterpillar treads, along with the wheels inside, popped off at the same time. The cannons fell, and the turrets went out of alignment. The armor plating broke apart all at once.

It happened at the same time for all four tanks.

The fuel leaked out of their engines.

Before it could ignite, it vaporized and ascended into the sky, dissipating and mixing into the atmosphere.

“Nice work.”

“Compliments from you don’t mean much.”

Tatsuya offered a mean-spirited grin at Masaki’s sullen attitude. “Want me to tell Miyuki to compliment you instead?”

“D-don’t be an asshole! This isn’t the time for that!” It frightened Masaki to an amusing degree. “Anyway, let’s get going! We can’t let Zhou esc—there he is!”

“What?”

Tatsuya directed his “vision” toward where Masaki was looking.

He didn’t ask if he was certain. Masaki had confronted Gongjin Zhou face-to-face before; he’d never mistake someone he’d met in such a unique, impression-leaving situation.

Gongjin Zhou was riding a gunmetal sedan headed for the south gate. Just as planned—driven out of the base in such a way that he wouldn’t raise flags in any of the monitoring equipment stationed all over the base.

What is this…?

Tatsuya detected something he remembered, an anomaly, within Zhou’s eidos. Not something originating with his—but something that had wormed its way into him.

A bee sting… I won’t let your death be in vain.

Tatsuya swore a convenient vow to a dead person, a stranger he’d only met once.

“Gongjin Zhou is approaching this south gate,” Fumiya stated.

“Maybe he sensed our family building up at the other gates. As expected of a magician who broke through a Kuroba net and escaped,” Ayako responded dryly.

“I would hope he did.”

Fumiya sat in the rear seat of the robotic car. Ayako slipped in next to him.

At the same time, the gunmetal sedan Gongjin Zhou was in burst out of the south gate.

“Follow him!”

“Yes, young ma—or rather, young lady.”

“Doesn’t matter! Get moving!”

Though they were called robotic cars, they needed an emergency driver to operate them outside the public transportation system. After yelling at the leader of the sunglasses-wearing men, chosen to be that driver, Fumiya made him pursue Gongjin Zhou’s car.

I don’t have a good feeling about this…

As the car traveled south, Gongjin Zhou felt as though something was slowly squeezing him—something he’d never felt before.

Looking only at the results, he’d escaped the enemy’s grasp by a hairbreadth once more. He was nonplussed by the persistence of the Kuroba—or rather, the Yotsuba—but he was used to the constant pursuit, despite the changes in difficulty from day to day. For the last decade, he’d been leading a stable life in Chinatown, but for three decades before that, he was always on the run, having to hide out every day.

Whoops… I’m still only twenty-four now.

That’s what it said on his identification. He’d purchased it from a shop in Chinatown, but that was four years ago as well, and he remembered the documents submitted at the time said his age was twenty.

Ages, just like names, are no more than labels for us.

Perhaps because his thoughts were elsewhere, Gongjin Zhou didn’t notice the figure standing on the road blocking the car’s progress until the car’s collision prevention system kicked in.

Zhou was about to beep the horn, but then uncharacteristically, he paled.

He’d just seen the boy’s face.

Beautiful, fair, otherworldly features.

Zhou himself boasted an elegant handsomeness, but this young man was far beyond that.

But this wasn’t the first time he’d ever seen this pretty boy.

He knew who it was: One of the very few magicians he had it in his mind to be highly cautious around.

“Minoru Kudou! Why are you here?!”

He’d learned of the young man’s true abilities when he’d sent his pawns after him in Nara. Zhou disengaged the collision prevention system and tried to drive forward anyway.

Minoru’s right hand came up toward the car.

Sparks flew inside the hood.

Just before the engine exploded, Zhou leaped out of the car.

He felt a terrible chill in his spine. He’d never experienced one like it up against Mitsugu Kuroba or Saburou Nakura.

Minoru Kudou hadn’t shown a moment’s hesitation in blowing up the car. He also didn’t have a moment’s hesitation getting pedestrians and cars driving in the other direction mixed up in it.

Pedestrians were certainly around. And other cars were definitely passing through. This young man hadn’t spared even a thought for any of them right from the start

That callousness clashed with his unrealistic beauty, making him look not like a man, but like a demon.

Zhou removed a command-tile from his inside pocket and aimed it at Minoru. Instead of a composite form, he called out an imaginary beast right from the start. His gut told him the way to deal with this young man was to only use his best, most lethal attacks.

A black unicorn burst out of the command-tile, charging toward Minoru at a blinding speed.

Humans couldn’t react to that speed. Minoru couldn’t avoid the charge, and the black beast’s horn pierced Minoru’s body—and passed straight through.

“Parade, is it?!”

Zhou knew this spell—it was the Kudou family’s secret technique. It overwrote not just one’s figure, form, and position, but also the positional information stored in one’s eidos—the ultimate camouflage spell.

He changed his escape plans. He couldn’t break Parade. That single attack had made him understand that.

Minoru reached his right hand toward Zhou.

A flash of electricity appeared one meter to the right of him, on the road, then disappeared.

Minoru tilted his head. The gesture had none of the fleshy movement of a human—it was more like an angel. His expression, too—smiling with an utter lack of compassion—was also just like an angel’s.

Electric flashes burst up from either side of Zhou.

Minoru wasn’t missing. Zhou’s Qimen Dunjia was throwing off his aim.

However, Zhou was the one feeling dread. He thought he’d veered Minoru’s sense of direction by 90 degrees. But in actuality, Minoru’s eyes were still on him, and his aim wasn’t off by any more than 30 degrees.

He summoned every shadow beast he could from his command-tile.

At the same time, he took out a black handkerchief and spread it out in front of him.

The shadow beasts all passed right through Minoru.

The black handkerchief fell to the road.

Minoru glanced downstream along the Uji River, then flashed an innocent smile.

His eyes could see eidos, and he hadn’t lost sight of Zhou’s shadow—not his figure, but his eidos’ shadow—as he fled.

Gongjin Zhou had fled down the Uji River at a speed of forty to fifty kilometers per hour. It was a Taoist technique famous for appearing in Water Margin called Divine Movement.

It was taking him back toward the base, but on the way there was a highway bridge. He’d go underneath it and cross to the other bank.

But suddenly, a girl appeared in his way. She hadn’t jumped out from the roadside—she’d abruptly appeared out of thin air.

“Quasi-Teleportation?!”

One of the parasites he’d led here had known the same spell. But it hadn’t allowed that person to appear out of the blue, without any forewarning like this.

The bob-cut girl, the hem of her jumper dress fluttering, thrust out with knuckle-dusters.

Her fists weren’t in range.

Nevertheless, Zhou felt such terrible pain in his right leg that he could no longer stand.

He immediately unfurled a white handkerchief.

The handkerchief rolled out, big enough to completely cover him.

In its shadow, Zhou stabbed himself in a pressure point with a needle to cut off the feeling in his right leg. The intense pain continued, but he shut it out of his mind, telling himself it was no more than an illusion.

Then he took his last command-tile, which he’d brought as a backup, out of his pocket.

When the cloth blocking his vision fell away, the bob-cut girl was no longer in front of him.

Instead, standing there was a young man with cool features aiming a red handgun CAD at him.

“Masaki Ichijou…!”

“It’s been a while, Gongjin Zhou. You sure made a fool out of me back then.”

Zhou tried to jump into the Uji River.

But the water’s surface exploded, blocking him, spraying water everywhere.

“Entering the water when faced with the Ichijou family’s Burst is the same as charging into a pile of bombs.”

The voice came from behind him. He turned around.

“Tatsuya Shiba…”

Zhou used everything he had on Qimen Dunjia. And then he’d tried to slip past Tatsuya.

But Tatsuya’s flattened hand met him on the way. Zhou knew it had the sharpness of a magical sword that could cleave steel, so he was forced to backstep using the leg he had no feeling in.

Tatsuya and Masaki once again had him in a pincer.

“Why won’t my Qimen Dunjia technique work?”

Even at this stage, Zhou was wearing a smile.

Was it a bluff, or was he truly relaxed? Masaki couldn’t decide what his true feelings were.

Tatsuya didn’t care what his true feelings were, however. “Qimen Dunjia is brilliant. I’d heard it lost its effects at point-blank range, but… Your technique definitely worked. I couldn’t tell you were trying to pass by me.”

“…Then I don’t understand. Do you mean to say your attack was a fluke?”

Tatsuya’s lips twisted.

His smile wasn’t as handsome as Zhou’s, but the essence of it was the same as his.

An empty smile, devoid of emotion.

“I didn’t know where you were. But I did know exactly how the blood of Saburou Nakura inside you was moving.”

Zhou’s eyes widened.

Masaki got the feeling he’d just seen, for the first time, a raw emotion from this age-unknown Taoist.

“Saburou Nakura’s blood… From back then?”

“Did he stab you with a needle made of blood or something? Still, two weeks in, the foreign body inside you should have disappeared. He must have put a lot of willpower into it.”

“Willpower, is it? I’d thought modern magic theory had discarded factors like that.”

“No matter how you try to explain something away, if something exists, it exists. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”

“No, there are things that exist but do not—things that are null and yet still exist.”

Tatsuya aimed his silver CAD at Gongjin Zhou. “Save your lecturing for your jail cell, please. Though, we may not give you much time for it.”

“Then I will be killed regardless?”

“I’m not your executioner.”

“Meaning there’s no point in begging for my life.”

Tatsuya didn’t give any further answers. “As long as Saburou Nakura’s blood remains, you cannot escape me.”

That was Tatsuya’s ultimatum.

“This is it, then…” Gongjin Zhou heaved a sigh.

A moment later, he jumped at Masaki.

The Divine Movement technique didn’t use leg strength to run. Even without feeling in his leg, as long as it was still attached, he could trigger the spell.

Masaki wouldn’t have known how it worked.

But his reaction was the by-the-book kind for cases like this. It would be dishonest to say it worked out for him out of sheer coincidence.

The moment Zhou jumped, Masaki had pulled his red CAD’s trigger.

With almost zero delay, magic activated: Burst.

Not to vaporize all the blood in his body, but an improved version that vaporized blood locally.

Both of Gongjin Zhou’s calves burst from within.

His Divine Movement was broken, and he fell onto the road.

“Yes, this is it.”

His CAD still at the ready, Masaki urged him to surrender.

Zhou immediately got up. Maybe his dignity couldn’t suffer lying there in such an unsightly way.

“It does look like it’s over.”

Slowly, he stood up, even though he shouldn’t have been able to use anything from the knee down.

With almost ghostly movements—

“But none of you are capable of capturing me.”

—Zhou smirked.

A smile like a mask.

“I will never perish. Even should I die, I shall continue to exist!”

“Ichijou, back off!”

Tatsuya shouted and leaped backward.

Ichijou put distance between him and Zhou in the same way.

A moment later,

all the blood spurted out of Zhou’s body,

and the red blood turned into a red flame.

“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha…”

Within the scorching flames: loud, lingering laughter,

continuing until the fires disappeared.

When they did, not even bones were left.

“Is Gongjin Zhou really dead?” Masaki muttered, but only after twilight had shifted to night and the stars had begun to glimmer.

“He hasn’t escaped. Those flames definitely snuffed out his life.”

Tatsuya wasn’t looking at Masaki’s face. His eyes were directed up at the Uji River.

“Oh.” Masaki looked off vaguely in the same direction, nodding.

He didn’t ask for the reason why he knew that.

“Is the Yokohama Incident cleanup finally over now?”

“Yeah.”

“Good… Things were looking shaky.”

“What things?”

Tatsuya turned around to Masaki. Even he didn’t understand what he’d just said.

Masaki, too, looked toward Tatsuya. “Never thought he’d hijack the JDF and bring out tanks. We were on the verge of seeing infighting.”

“The magical shoot-out was almost a spectacle, and it happened right in the city. They already have one foot in that door.”

Masaki laughed at Tatsuya’s annoyingly serious answer. “In that case, they’ll have to fix things up quickly and quell the unrest before it spreads, and then we’ll all live happily ever after.”

“I guess you could say that.”

Tatsuya, too, laughed out loud.

Their laughing voices melted into the forlorn autumn wind and vanished.

When Tatsuya went back to the hotel to return the motorcycle, Fumiya and Ayako were already there.

“Well done, Tatsuya,” said Ayako.

“Same goes to the two of you,” he complimented. “That was some great teamwork, as usual. We stopped him thanks to you.”

The two of them looked away bashfully. Without looking into his eyes—doubtless in part to hide her embarrassment—Ayako asked, “By the way, Tatsuya, how did you know where that man was? We were chasing him in the car, and we still lost sight of him.”

“Suffice it to say, a certain magician’s vengefulness chased that man even after death.”

“Ah?” She made a look like she didn’t know what he meant. Fumiya stopped looking down and tilted his head, too.

“I still don’t know how it happened that way. Once I know more, I’ll tell you.”

Tatsuya entered a double room, where the rooms were separated with a sliding door. It was the room where the clothes had been waiting for him when he’d first arrived.

He left the door open as he was getting changed and spoke to Fumiya. “Fumiya, could you report to Hayama that the mission’s complete? There’s a few others I need to follow up with.”

“Yes, it’s nothing. You can leave it to me.”

Now finished changing, Tatsuya came out. “Thanks,” he said in place of a good-bye, leaving the hotel behind him.