AMELIA IN WONDERLAND

On a clear summer day near the end of August 2095…

A girl, conspicuously dressed in a green military-style button-down adorned with many pockets and a miniskirt, waited for her friends at the gate of an amusement park, her prominent ruby-like hair fluttering in the breeze.

Today was one of the last remaining days of summer vacation, and she was going to spend it while having fun at this amusement park with her fellow classmates, whom she didn’t normally have the chance to hang out with because they were in different clubs.

Maybe I’m a little too early…

It was thirty minutes before they were supposed to meet. That would be fine if she were on a date with a member of the opposite sex, but maybe it really was too early for going out with her female friends. (However, her assumption about the opposite sex was all show, since she didn’t have any such experience yet.)

The reason she’d come here so early was partially thanks to an unexpected long-distance phone call this morning.

Eimi found herself dragged from the world of dreams by the ringtone of the videophone she had brought into her bedroom. The digital clock showed that it was five in the morning.

What a bother, she thought before looking at the message window and seeing it was from her English grandmother. She was the aunt of the current head of the Goldie family, renowned in England for its modern magic, and the number two woman within the family in terms of authority.

Eimi’s eyes snapped open.

Her parents’ skill at staying asleep was larger than life: They wouldn’t wake before a specified time even if someone crashed a truck into the house. It was an unwritten rule of the Akechi family that Eimi would be the one to handle early calls and visitors, since she didn’t use a sound-sleeper, a device that helped people get restful sleep.

“…It’s been quite a long time, Auntie.” Eimi didn’t say good morning. “I haven’t dressed myself yet, so please exccuse me for being voice-only.”

“Good morning, Amelia.”

She’s at least somewhat aware of the time difference, thought Eimi. During the summer, there were eight hours between here and England, which made it nine in the evening there. She had probably waited until the last possible moment to call in consideration of the difference…though Eimi honestly wished she’d waited another hour.

“I hear it’s very hot there. How have you been feeling lately? You were never a very fit person.”

If you know I’m not big and strong, then let me sleep a little longer, thought Eimi sincerely. She didn’t say that, though, of course. “I’m doing fine, Auntie. The heat wave has softened a lot over the past few days.”

This wasn’t polite small talk, nor was it her trying to allay the worries of an elderly woman. The heat had been fierce and exhausting the week previous, growing much more comfortable this week. Summer seemed to be on its way out.

“Is that so? You mustn’t push yourself too much, Amelia.”

“I know. Thank you, Auntie,” she replied politely as she tilted her head in confusion. What on earth had her grandmother called her for?

“I myself have actually decided to avoid the heat and wait for autumn in our mountain villa in Switzerland. I would very much like you to come as well, Amelia.”

Her aunt had gotten to the point right as Eimi started to get suspicious, as though she could sense it. All Eimi could do was repeat it. “…You want me to go to Switzerland?”

“Yes. Amelia, it’s been a long time since we were able to sit down and have a nice conversation.”

“I very much want to learn more from you, Auntie, but…” But she couldn’t. The second school term would start in a little over a week. Eimi tried to explain that and politely refuse, but her aunt wouldn’t be so easily persuaded.

“There are wonderful academies for magic in Switzerland, too, if that’s what worries you. Why not study abroad there for half a year? I can talk to your current school about it for you.”

When she added that she was even an old friend of the principal at the National Magic University, Eimi started to panic. It wasn’t strange at all for her aunt to have acquaintances in the upper echelons of Japan’s magic society. In a world where long overseas stays by magicians were strictly controlled, students of magic high schools virtually never attended study abroad programs—at least, Eimi had never heard of it. Her aunt, however, might have been able to make this happen.

If things continued like this, Eimi would be forced to study abroad against her will.

She managed to win a compromise with her aunt through application of logic and emotion, thus preserving the status quo. But after the phone call was done, she felt not relief, but confusion—or rather, suspicion.

She was the grandchild of a daughter who had married into another family, currently living in Japan, but her aunt had almost never meddled in her life before. Her aunt was always strict with manners whenever Eimi went to her home to play, but she also spoiled her niece and let her do whatever she wanted.

Until now, anyway.

She had to have had some reason to come up with this so suddenly.

Eimi didn’t have a clue as to what it was, though, and in her endless worrying about it, she failed to go back to sleep, which is how she ended up with too much time on her hands and left the house early.

“Amy!”

At the sound of her name, she turned to see a girl—their sponsor for today—waving her hand.

“Sakura!” She waved back, then trotted over to her.

The girl, who wore a gothic Lolita–styled (key word being styled) one-piece, was named Akaha Sakurakouji. Though the characters for her first name, meaning “red leaf,” were more commonly read “Momiji,” hers was instead a more literal “Akaha.”

On the day the two classmates met…

Eimi: “What characters do you use to write ‘Akaha’?”

Akaha: “It’s ‘red leaf.’ You write it like ‘Momiji’ and pronounce it ‘Akaha.’”

Eimi: “Oh! You have cherry blossoms and red leaves. What a flowery name.”

Akaha: “Both are destined for a short life before death, though.”

Eimi: “Aha! The beauty of wabi-sabi , huh?”

Akaha: “You don’t look like you have much to do with wabi-sabi. You’re very pretty and colorful.”

After that conversation, they both gave a hollow laugh. That was how they became friends, though—destiny worked in strange ways.

“Sakura, did you and Subaru come together?”

“Eh-heh-heh…”

Eimi hadn’t meant anything in particular by the question, but Akaha laughed, indicating the answer.

Wait, is that what she’s into? Eimi made a note of that in her grade book—unbeknownst to Akaha, of course. But with the person next to her brought into focus, she revised her thoughts. Maybe I do understand a little.

At first glance, it was a pretty boy wearing a summer suit. A pair of fake bottom-rimmed eyeglasses only strengthened the boyish image.

But in actuality, it was a boyish-looking girl from their class.

Eimi had gotten to know Subaru Satomi after they’d been teammates during the Nine School Competition. They hadn’t been friends for very long, but they’d already gotten to the point where they were comfortable enough having conversations like, “Subaru, can you come with me so boys don’t try to hit on me?” “I would be delighted to escort you, my lady.”

It warrants adding that during the conversation, they were not so much smiling as smirking.

“What’s wrong, Amy?” asked Subaru, looking over Eimi’s face as she let her imagination run wild.

Eimi’s heart almost skipped a beat seeing how handsome Subaru looked, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to let that show. Instead, she shook her head shortly and replied, “Nothing.”

“Really?”

Subaru’s responding grin got on her nerves, so she thought about pressing the issue. On the other hand, reacting like that would probably make things more embarrassing for everyone. So instead, she tried her best to pretend that she hadn’t noticed it.

“That’s good. Well, then, let’s go inside.”

Objectively speaking, Eimi’s attempt to feign ignorance wasn’t a very good one, but Subaru pushed that aside. She knew when to drop it; it was one of her more charming characteristics. Charming for a girl, anyway, though Subaru would have definitely been against that idea.

Not to say Eimi didn’t have any questions as to what in the world “that” was and why it was “good,” but Eimi had no objections to Subaru’s objective of not wasting any time. “You’re right,” she said, her voice springing. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been to an amusement park.”

But for some reason, Akaha interrupted her: “A theme park,” she corrected, sounding unhappy.

“Huh?”

“It’s a theme park. Wonderland isn’t an amusement park—it’s a theme park.”

Akaha was enough of a regular here to be given complimentary tickets, and she seemed to be quite particular about this amusement park—or rather, theme park. “Sorry, sorry,” said Eimi. “Yeah, Wonderland’s a theme park, huh?”

How could it possibly matter what I call it? was what she was actually thinking. But on the other hand, it didn’t matter, so there was no need to make trouble about it, which was why she had immediately corrected herself. Still, it was hard to prevent her tone and attitude from coming off as dismissive. The levity didn’t seem to please Akaha very much, and she turned a squinting glare on Eimi. She and Subaru had already gone off toward the gate, though, so Akaha quickly followed them in a rush.

The three continued to mess around as they skipped the lines, went in through the invitee gate, and got lost in Wonderland.

Wonderland was a magic-themed amusement facility. Whether for that reason or something else, the attractions and hedges in the park were placed in a labyrinthine pattern. Plus, all the attractions were trick houses of one variety or another. Once you entered the park, the layout made it hard to get back out even if you went past all the attractions in order without stopping. One didn’t so much enter the park as one wandered in and got lost.

And now one girl had actually lost track of where she was.

“Come on! I get that using an LPS would spoil the fun, but why on earth can’t I use the GPS?!” complained Eimi into her portable terminal. She and the other two had been to three attractions so far. But now, for some reason, she seemed to have lost sight of them.

“What did you expect? That’s their selling point.” Subaru was the one she was venting to.

“But they’re blocking signals! That’s going too far!”

“It’ll be okay. Do you see any signs nearby?”

Even Eimi’s irritation calmed slightly at Subaru’s response; she was always gentle, and was noted for knowing how to handle girls well (despite being one herself). “I’ve been looking for one for a while…but I don’t even see any guides, much less signs.”

“Hmm…? Well, if it really gets bad, you can shoot off a firework and we’ll use my magic to come to you.”

Subaru’s magic of choice was Leap. In addition, she possessed an innate skill called Awareness Block, which made her hard to notice. (Her regularly theatrical behavior was apparently a reaction to nobody paying attention to her anymore.)

Her Awareness Block wasn’t at the same level as the stealth of Haruka Ono, a counselor at First High and secret part-time operative for Public Safety. Still, it was a cinch for her to float along through the air in secret, without being noticed, while everyone else was absorbed in their own fun.

On the other hand, Eimi’s own specialty magic was a type of movement magic people called bombardment magic (purely a nickname)—spells to move large masses quickly and over a short distance. During the Ice Pillars Break event of the Nine School Competition, it gave her a power technique: She had used her own ice pillars as wrecking balls, bowling them into the enemy’s pillars to mow them down. By compressing a cloud of air instead of a heavy bullet and firing it upward, she could easily create a cracking sound on par with fireworks going off.

“You can’t, Subaru. If you use magic for a reason like that, they’ll make us take guidance lectures.” However, Akaha rejected Subaru’s plan after cutting into their call with her own terminal.

The law placed a numerous restrictions on magic usage. If they used it simply to locate a lost friend, they’d almost certainly cause trouble for the police.

“…I suppose you’re right. Amy, can you see the Tower of Sages from there?”

The Tower of Sages was the symbolic attraction of Wonderland, and the highest structure in the park. “Yep…just barely,” replied Eimi, looking all around and spotting the tip of the tower, which resembled a white stone construction beyond all the hedges.

“Then let’s meet up there.”

“Okay, got it.”

After hanging up, Eimi cast a dangerous glare at the tower as though it were revenge against her parents—though perhaps it was not that dangerous. But it was at least on par with revenge against a misbehaving pet.

Subaru thought of something as she stared intently at the portable information terminal’s voice communication unit; its in-call light now off.

That obviously caused her companion doubt. “What’s wrong, Subaru?” asked Akaha, her tone an even split between curiosity and worry.

Subaru smiled, a little bit awkwardly. “Well, just thinking… I wonder why Amy got separated from us.”

“Because she can’t ever sit still?”

“W-Well, I mean…” stammered Subaru at the blunt answer. “A few minutes is one thing, you know? I was just thinking it’s weird we didn’t notice it until we lost track of each other.”

“Hmm… Maybe she has no sense of direction.”

“…Okay, Sakura. While I’d love to ask you both what you think about each other, this isn’t the time.” Subaru shook her head to drive off a sigh, then made her tone a little more serious. “Leaving that aside, she’s never been bad with directions. She’s part of the hunting club. Plus, people see her as very skilled, even for a freshman. Indoor shooting contests would be one thing, but you have to have a sense of direction when you’re out hunting birds and animals in the wild.”

Subaru’s indication finally made Akaha consider the possibility that Eimi might not have simply gotten lost.

“Also, this park is made for children. It might be constructed like a maze, but you shouldn’t actually get completely lost, with no idea where your friends are or any signs or guides in sight.”

“…You might have a point. This park does pride itself on handling these situations.”

The two exchanged serious glances. “Anyway, let’s go,” suggested Subaru before heading for the Tower of Sages.

Unlike her friends, now steadily making their way to the meeting place while filled with deep misgivings, Eimi hadn’t made any progress toward their destination. Frustration had taken over again. She couldn’t think about anything else.

Like before, she could still make out the top of the tower, so she hadn’t lost track of her direction. But whenever she tried to head that way, she wound up in dead ends. Then a forced right turn, then detours going all over the place.

In Subaru’s estimation, Eimi wasn’t bad with direction—but that was her being more than a little modest. Eimi, in fact, had a very sharp, well-honed sense of direction. That, combined with her ability to grasp the geography of a place, was telling her she’d been wandering around in circles for a while.

She could see it, but she couldn’t get near it. She understood the situation, but she couldn’t break out. That only made her many times angrier. Once she’d lost count of how many of the annoying thorny walls she came to, her patience ran out. The hedge in front of her, made of thorny wild roses, would be painful to push through even for a man. A girl forcing her way past it was pretty much impossible.

But Eimi wasn’t just any girl.

I’ll chop it down…! Now thoroughly angry, Eimi reached into her pocket—pocket-shaped hole, anyway—for the holster wrapped around her thigh and brought out a thin and slender portable terminal CAD. Her weapon of choice was a shotgun-shaped CAD, but she obviously couldn’t walk around town with it on. This substitute was more than enough to get rid of a stationary obstacle.

Though these were normally used with one hand, she used two for it as she expanded an activation sequence.

“Hold on! Akechi, are you insane?”

But then, as if on cue, a voice addressed her from behind. It shocked her in much the same way a bucket of ice water would if it were dumped on her head. The magic program she was trying to construct fizzled out midway through.

Caught red-handed in the act of unlawful magic usage.

Technically it was only attempted usage, but given how far along in the process she was, any magician could see what she was trying to do. The chances of getting off easy were slim. The worst part, according to her cornered thoughts, was that they knew who she was.

Her back felt so tight against the wall, metaphorically speaking, that she didn’t even consider that the speaker could have been an acquaintance. And if they were, they would probably pretend they hadn’t seen if she pleaded.

Eimi turned around slowly and nervously, and then froze in bafflement. She hadn’t expected this at all.

The one who had called out to her was a clown of small stature. (Small for a man, anyway, but still taller than Eimi.)

Circuses frequently had a clown come out between acts to do tricks for the audience, so it wasn’t strange for Wonderland, with its magical theme, to have a staff member dressed like one.

This clown, however, didn’t wear the baggy clothing one would expect. His right side was black, and his left side was white. He wore a shirt, whose right sleeve had irregular horizontal stripes in black and white, and left sleeve had thin vertical stripes, also in black and white. His pants were black on the right and white on the left. His waistcoat, meanwhile, was white on the right half and black on the left half on the front, with the colors swapped on the back.

It was a strange outfit. On his right hand, he wore a white glove, and on the other a black one. On his head, instead of the expected brimless clown hat, there was a wide-brimmed silk hat with horizontal stripes (also in white and black). Then, beneath the silk hat, was a fabricated expression made of black and white. No, it was a false face entirely—a mask. The white material on the right depicted a sad face in black, and the black material on the left showed a smiling face in white.

The particularly eerie feeling the getup gave off wasn’t clown-like, but rather…

“…A phantom?” she said, reminded of a different, but still famous, stage play character.

“Huh? Akechi, what?”

She recognized that casual speech, though, and she immediately snapped back to reality. “…Is that you, Tomitsuka?”

“Yep. It is I, Tomitsuka.”

Underneath the mask was a face she knew well—that of Hagane Tomitsuka, Class 1-B, of the National Magic University’s Affiliated First High School. Her classmate.

“Why are you wearing that?” she asked, eyes wide.

“It’s a side gig,” answered Hagane, mask rustling as he put it back on.

“A part-time job? Why?”

It wasn’t as though First High forbade students from having part-time jobs. She meant the question as, “Why are you working as an amusement park staff member when that’s the kind of thing normal students do?”

Hagane Tomitsuka was both a magic student and a Course 1 student at First High. Furthermore, he was an honors student ranked fifth in their grade in both practical magic and theory, and ranked fourth in their grade in overall academics. The magic he was skilled at wasn’t suitable for him to be considered for competitions, so he hadn’t been chosen for this year’s Nine School Competition. But with his magic martial arts, a form of empty-handed close combat with magic woven into it, and his small stature, he was rumored to be one of the most prominently skilled students even as a freshman. Eimi couldn’t judge whether being prominent at First High was amazing or not from an outside viewpoint, but she had no doubts as to the excellence of this magician (in-training).

Those who possessed superior magic abilities, even if they were only fledglings or up-and-comers, never bothered themselves with short-term employment. For magicians, there were always recruitment opportunities for jobs that only someone with magical talent could do. The majority of them had better terms than normal jobs, too. The pay made by host staff at this amusement park was outside the scope of her imagination, but it couldn’t possibly be higher than payment given to magicians.

“It’s family related.”

“…Oh, I see.”

Now that she heard his reason, it made sense.

The Tomitsuka were one of the Hundred Families. Even among the Hundred Families his family boasted prominent talents, and they were also counted among the distinguished and wealthy magician families in the country. He must have meant the Tomitsuka family had invested in the company managing this amusement park, or the parent real estate firm that owned it. He was probably working part-time on the park staff so he could deal with magic-related trouble.

—Which meant Eimi had a few things to say to him.

“Hey, Tomitsuka, don’t you think this is all going a little too far?!”

“…What is?” Hagane flinched away, confused at Eimi’s sudden threatening attitude as she pointed at the hedge, her voice irritated.

“The gimmick with these hedges! I don’t know what kind of magical space you’re trying to make here, but don’t you think it’s a little cruel to move them around so people can’t get anywhere?! I’ve been walking around the same area for a long time now!”

After hearing what she had to say, Hagane’s mind reset to a blank slate. He didn’t understand what she was talking about. “Wait, Akechi. Wonderland doesn’t have any gimmicks like that.”

“Huh?” Eimi had expected an excuse, but now she gaped at Hagane’s answer.

“Of course not. The design concept for this place is just to have a mazelike layout, not be an actual maze. Making guests lost and frustrated is actually a bad thing. I mean, if they couldn’t get anywhere, they wouldn’t get to the attractions, and the park would lose money.”

“What? …But…”

“Guests aren’t supposed to come into this area in the first place. It’s being expanded right now. Even the staff doesn’t come here much during the day. How on earth did you get lost in here?”

Eimi was steadily becoming more and more panicked as she heard all these unexpected details, but she managed to move her hands and tongue. “How…? I came from that way.” She pointed at the thorny hedge she’d just been about to dispatch.

“Huh?”

“I said, I came from that direction! That hedge wasn’t there before!”

“…You serious?”

“Totally serious! I’m confident in my geographic senses, you know.”

Hagane saw how serious Eimi’s expression was, and his eyes, visible through his mask, suddenly sharpened. He gave the hedge a close stare, then sniffed.

A moving hedge made of thorny wild roses. As far as Hagane knew, the park had no moving-obstacle gimmicks. Considering what he’d gleaned from other people’s conversations, even electricity hadn’t been routed to this area yet. If this was something mechanical, it shouldn’t have been able to move.

Just to be sure, he took out his information terminal and looked at the test status of this new addition to the park—and found that, indeed, nothing here was operational.

Which meant this hedge couldn’t have been here—shouldn’t have been here.

“…Akechi, I’ll allow it. Do what you were doing before.”

“I… What?” Eimi’s reply was only natural; Hagane’s advice, or rather, his order, was too sudden for her.

“I don’t mind, so get rid of it,” he said, pausing. “The hedges here are made of species without thorns, selectively bred. This is a park, after all. We don’t want guests to get hurt from accidentally running into them. And I don’t think I remember a hedge being here anyway.”

“Hmm.” Eimi knew what he was getting at, so she began to re-expand the activation sequence for the spell that had misfired earlier. “Then here goes nothing… You’re taking responsibility for this!”

After pushing the responsibility onto Hagane, she activated the spell.

Exploder: a spell in the movement family. The spell struck all objects in its effective range, sending them away an equal distance from where the spell was targeted—essentially in a spherical pattern. It could be used against obstacles like wreckages and barricades, which were made up of many smaller objects, but was ineffective against solid singular structures like walls or boulders. But by perceiving each wild rose leaf as a single object and widening the effective area, Exploder caused an explosion in the middle of the bush. The leaves were pulled apart, with their stems being pulled out along with them. In the end, it left a gaping hole in the middle of the hedge.

Eimi nodded, satisfied, and went to climb through the hole she’d made.

“Wait!”

But she was stopped by her classmate’s voice.

“What?” she asked, peeved that her initial joy at finally getting out of the endless loop had been dampened.

“I thought so…” But Hagane stared carefully at the wall of thorns with the hole in it, not seeming to notice her displeasure (though his expression was invisible behind the mask).

“What? Come on, what’s the problem?” Her tone of voice slightly lowered, while its volume slightly rose.

This time Hagane did notice the aura of dark clouds around her threatening to storm. He answered hastily. “Look, Akechi. This hedge doesn’t have any roots. And there’s no shelf to support the stems.”

“…Now that you mention it…” Thorny hedges were something Eimi was more familiar with, having stayed numerous times (though never for long) in Britain. Half-vine shrubs like wild roses couldn’t grow that tall without something to support them. It wasn’t possible to create a hedge over six feet tall like this.

“That’s right, Akechi. This wall is supported by magic!” said Hagane, thrusting his right arm through the hole Eimi had created.

A moment later, the stems, which had been pushed away and scattered, latched on to his arm. They weren’t just wrapping around it—they were eating into it. The stems’ thick thorns were like fangs, and ate into his black-and-white-sleeved arm. Or at least, they would have.

“That’s all?”

But what ended up being bitten off was the magic responsible for the vines’ movement. A shock wave radiated out from his right arm, sending the wild roses in the wall scattering all over.

“…What was that?” All Eimi saw come out of his arm were psi-waves. But psions couldn’t directly interact with physical matter. You weren’t supposed to be able to blow up something physical with psionic waves.

“What do you mean? It was just a movement spell. I just made psi-waves permeate where they were touching me, drove away the stasis spell holding the wall up, and activated Explosion.”

Explosion was a spell that accelerated all objects in its area of effect away from the point of impact at the same acceleration—it was just like Exploder, except in the acceleration family rather than the movement family. Basically, as soon as the thorny stems touched his arm, Hagane must have used a typeless spell to destroy the spell supporting the wall, then gave the stems outward-facing acceleration to remove the thorns before they ripped his shirt.

“Program Demolition…?” murmured Eimi, taken by surprise and in awe. Program Demolition was a typeless spell that forcibly canceled other spells, using pressure from psionic waves. There were almost no magicians who could use it.

But Hagane, his expression pained (though still covered by the mask), shook his head. “No, unfortunately… I can’t send out enough psions unless I’m physically touching it.”

Oh, that reminds me, thought Eimi, remembering his nickname.

She’d heard him sometimes called Range Zero. In addition to being a jab at his ineptitude at ranged magic, it was also a term of respect, since he could exhibit unrivaled strength from close quarters. When she heard that he had a code name separate from the alias his family already had, she had wondered why. He hadn’t done anything particularly noteworthy.

This made sense to her, though. If he could lay one finger on his target, he could cancel any protective anti-magic, then clean up with an attack spell while his opponent was defenseless. Actually, he could just send some dense psionic-wave motion into someone’s body to throw their biological wave motion into disarray. Then you wouldn’t even be able to stand.

“…Well, leaving my magic aside for the moment…” said Hagane, awkwardly averting his gaze (though his face was… Okay, no need to repeat it again), possibly misunderstanding Eimi’s silence for something else. His voice came out a muffled mutter thanks to the mask. “We have guests. They’re looking for you, aren’t they?”

Either their plan was to come out now, or they saw their chance when their fake wall was destroyed, because a group of men in black clothing, black sunglasses, and black hats appeared around the two of them.

“Men in black?”

“They don’t use disguises like that, though.”

Neither Eimi’s utter amazement nor Hagane’s relaxed tone fit the heightening sense of tension around them. Perhaps it was an effort to dampen the newcomers’ enthusiasm.

But if that were the case, the attempt failed miserably.

The men shuffled in closer.

The amused air clinging to Hagane evaporated. For some reason, Eimi put the CAD she was holding back into her skirt.

As Hagane was stricken by how weird that seemed, he put a hand to his mask—but not to remove it. Instead, he pushed it firmly onto his face.

She immediately knew why. When the mask pressed down, it strengthened its curvature to fit to his face, making the eyeholes wider and allowing him greater vision.

“What might you be looking for?” asked Hagane in a polite tone, perhaps giving a bit of staff-like consideration toward the possibility of a misunderstanding.

But he hadn’t been hoping for an answer at all. One of the cardinal rules of creating fear in horror movies was silence. It was the same for combat.

Counting the numbers, hiding identities, blocking escape routes, and applying silent pressure—and then, when the enemy was exhausted, entering negotiations. The men in black had loyally followed the manual up until the part where they blocked off the escape routes.

“Madam Goldie.”

However, contrary to Hagane’s expectations, one of the men spoke, his tone cordial—not using Miss, but the old-fashioned Madam.

“We have no intention of harming you.”

The man spoke to Eimi in English, but Hagane didn’t have any trouble conversing in the language, either.

“There is simply something we’d like to get from you. We don’t expect it to be free, of course. In exchange, we will prepare for you that which you will need most in the future.”

“I find myself having difficulty understanding.” Her English, spoken as Amelia, was stiffer and more formal than the Japanese she spoke as Eimi, and perhaps because of that, it sounded oddly refined to the point of resembling a different person’s. Perhaps it was appropriate; she was a member of the famed Goldie family, despite being from a collateral line.

“I do apologize. Allow me to do away with the indirect language.”

The man’s tone was as polite as it had been before. But the ring of suited men closed in around Eimi and Hagane just a little bit more, pressuring them.

“Madam Goldie, we want you to teach us the Magic Bullet Tathlum technique. In exchange, we shall fend off any assassins that may come for you in the future.”

Hagane had thought their goal was simply to kidnap her for ransom. But the conversation had ballooned into something larger than he’d expected, so he lost the chance to get a word in—and perhaps to take any action as well.

When Eimi answered the man in black, she did so stiffly, but firmly. “That spell is the secret of the Goldie family. Only those acknowledged as members of the main line are permitted to be given instruction regarding it. Do you think that I, living in Japan and far away from the main family, would have been taught the Magic Bullet Tathlum?”

Yes. The Magic Bullet Tathlum was said to be the Goldie family’s trump card; the family had originally been a clan that passed down old magic teachings, but when modern magic saw its sudden rise, they mastered it, too, ascending to one of the cornerstone authorities of modern magic in England. The spell was actually old magic rearranged into a modern spell, and nobody knew anything about it other than that it used physical bullets.

At least, Hagane and the Tomitsuka family hadn’t acquired any more information than that.

“We do not think that—we know it.”

But from the man’s response, Hagane guessed that his female classmate had indeed been taught the secrets of the Magic Bullet Tathlum. When he thought about it, he felt his head fill up with an irresistible curiosity that he couldn’t control.

“We know from certain avenues that you have been instructed on the Magic Bullet Tathlum, Madam Goldie.”

On the other hand, Eimi had nearly finished mentally putting together the background of this act.

It was true—her grandmother had taught her the spell. But only those of the Goldie family inner circle would have known about that. She’d never used the Magic Bullet Tathlum outside the Goldie family, but even if she’d been seen by an outsider practicing the spell, they wouldn’t know that it was the Magic Bullet Tathlum.

The reason the spell was secret lay in its activation sequence. Normally, the only thing a magician could perceive was the result of the magic, or the result about to appear. If they only looked at the event alteration’s result, a person wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between it and a regular movement spell.

If they knew she’d been taught the Magic Bullet Tathlum in spite of that, it could only mean…

Conflict within the family… I guess that’s why Grandma would suddenly come out with something like that…

It wasn’t right on the heels of yesterday—it was actually just this morning. Things were developing so quickly that Eimi wanted to laugh, even though it involved her.

“Will you accept? Our statement that others will appear and threaten your safety is also a confirmed fact. Excuse us for saying this, but your parents are normal magicians; their strength alone will not ensure your safety.”

And if I refuse, they’ll turn into those people who are going to threaten my safety. Is that it?

Eimi sighed. “Why do you want this spell in particular?”

It pained her to get Hagane involved in this—after all, he was just a classmate.

“Well, I suppose I do know the answer.”

But as long as these men had no intention of returning her without payment, regardless of how this played out…

“That spell is the symbol of the Goldie main family.”

…if she was going to have to give up on a peaceful resolution…

“Even those born into the main family aren’t counted as members of it unless they can use the spell.”

…then Eimi would steel herself for this.

“And you, of course, cannot claim succession.”

A moment after Eimi made that declaration, there was an outpouring of murderous intent from the men surrounding them.

“You’re like an open book,” she said more roughly, switching to Japanese and preparing herself for action.

“You will not cooperate with us?” The man switched to Japanese as well. “What a shame. Secure Miss Goldie. Give her a few bruises if you need to. Get rid of the kid.”

At his signal, glints of steel shone from out of the men’s sleeves all at once. Slender throwing daggers appeared in their hands. It wasn’t in accordance with the style of Wonderland, of course, but they did have spring mechanisms in their cuffs for their knife cases.

Daggers could be used for both close combat and throwing, but the weight of the ones they had was in their tips, meaning they were for throwing. Surrounding them and throwing their daggers all at once was an effective tactic against magicians.

But before the daggers could soar into the air, their encirclement broke apart.

“Get rid of me? Don’t decide something so callous on your own.”

Before the men in black could throw their daggers, the monotone clown drove into their encirclement like a wedge.

Did he close in so quickly the eyes couldn’t follow?—No, he didn’t. He was fast, but with a bit of training, anyone could reach the normal running speed he used to close the distance. Instead, he’d moved while the men’s leader was still talking. The clown simply hadn’t let himself be noticed—like a ghost hiding in the shadows.

Hagane, wearing his mask, touched one of the men’s chests with his palm. It honestly did only look like a light touch.

But the man soared thirty feet back through the air before slamming into the pavement.

The monochrome hues spun.

Light changed for darkness, and the sudden shift from black and white blurred his outline.

Hagane’s knife hand struck the next man in the shoulder and an ominous crack rang out. He hadn’t brought the hand down on his shoulder—he’d just touched it a little. Just ran it along the shoulder.

Nevertheless, it nearly broke the man’s upper arm as he held his dagger.

The leader let out a shout of surprise. “Magic arts?!”

The term was an abbreviation of magic martial arts. Magic martial arts was a form of empty-handed combat with magic woven into it. One of its fundamental techniques was to use contact magic, with the activation point set as the point of contact. It eliminated the need to input a position variable.

In response to the leader’s voice, the other men moved to hem in Hagane, dropping into ready stances.

Hagane grinned audaciously at the men, who were now careful—now serious. “Sirs, this area is not yet open for business,” he said, theatrically putting his right hand to his chest, left hand out sideways, and right foot behind his left. “I’m terribly sorry, but I must ask you to leave for the day.” He bowed dramatically. “Or would you like me to escort you out…to a police box?”

His deferential tone was provocative. One man sidled up behind Hagane and attacked. Yet, charging out alone created a hole in the circle.

That was what Hagane wanted. He moved in time with his adversary, turning aside to evade the strike while simultaneously stepping toward him.

The man in black wasn’t an amateur, either. He held his throwing dagger in an overhand grip and stabbed it downward. Not toward the head—that would be easy to dodge. Instead, the man aimed for the center of Hagane’s body, the solar plexus.

But the flickering and fluttering of white and black threw his aim off. After evading the mistimed thrust with a light step, Hagane’s fist punched into the man’s jaw. This wasn’t magic in the real sense but a magic trick—an illusion to fool the eyes. His magical dance was not one that could be learned in a single day; it was an experienced one that utilized the whole body. His bizarre outfit wasn’t just his theme park staff member costume. It was battle gear made with real combat in mind. The attention of the men in black, including their leader, turned to Hagane.

That gave Eimi a chance she couldn’t pass up. She ran her hands over the pockets dotting her utilitarian jacket, but she didn’t bring out her information terminal CAD. Instead, when she brought her hands up in front of her, they were holding playing cards in a fan shape.

She casually swung her hands to either side. The cards flew from them, dancing into the air. Some went straight, while others twisted and traveled in an arc. They sped along faster than the eye could see, penetrating the bodies of the men in black, one after another.

Splatters of fresh blood.

Nobody sustained life-threatening wounds, but nobody got off lightly, either.

“Satisfied?” said Eimi in Japanese to the leader of the men in black—as she looked at the gushing blood calmly, like it was nothing more than a flipped-over container of tomato juice. “That was the Magic Bullet Tathlum you wished to see so badly. Of course, you won’t figure it all out just by seeing it.”

“Impossible… The Magic Bullet Tathlum was supposed to use round shells…”

The man probably didn’t realize he was responding to her Japanese in English, either. His intense pain kept him from feeling out of place.

Well, considering he was the only one left standing, maybe he deserved to be called their leader. Eimi wasn’t impressed, though. Nor was she interested. “…You didn’t even know that? Gee, maybe I actually said too much.” Her eyes wandered restlessly from side to side, a reflection of her worrying about how to cover up what had just happened. The most likely course she considered was letting them know she’d just used the Magic Bullet Tathlum in failure. She got ahead of herself because she thought it would be fine either way since they already knew about it in the first place, and that had been what caused her mistake.

Then, she either gave up or turned defiant, because her clouded expression quickly changed to a strong, bright one.

“Umm, that’s not quite right. Everyone has their own style of what to use for the Tathlum. Using shells… That must have been my great-uncle who passed away two years ago, right? Yeah, I think he had a grandson two years younger than me. He’s my second cousin, so I’ve never met him. Would he happen to be your employer?”

She put a hand on her waist, then made the fingers on her other hand into a circle and brought it to her eye, as if to brag about how good a detective she was. She must have decided to keep her momentum up and have her own way here, but unfortunately, the man she was talking to was less than amused.

“……”

In fact, he didn’t even respond.

“Uhh, Akechi?” said Hagane a little reservedly as Eimi waited for the man to answer.

“Mm?”

“He’s unconscious.”

“Huh?” Eimi, who hadn’t been bothered by the sight of blood, approached the man in a fluster. “Hey, wait! If you’re gonna pass out, you could at least do it after you answer me!”

“And I’m telling you that’s absurd.”

She stepped in to give the silenced man a slap to the face, but Hagane ran over to stop her. If she was actually going to hit him, he thought he needed to hold her back (because any additional attacks could lead to a homicide). However, when she didn’t hit him, he sighed in relief.

“Oh… T-Tomitsuka?” stammered Eimi, suddenly sounding meek, looking up to Hagane.

He stood next to her, his expression—though he was wearing a mask (the rest omitted)—was one of exasperation. She’s a different person than just a minute ago, he thought.

He was kind of scared leaving her like that, though, so he decided to throw her a raft.

“What is it, Akechi?”

“Umm…I’m sorry for involving you in this!” she said, hastily bowing her head in apology.

“What, that’s all?” he replied, as if the wind had been taken out of his sails. “I know it’s a part-time job, but I’m still a member of the security staff patrolling Wonderland. If a kidnapping was about to happen in the park, you wouldn’t be able to make me to let it slide. Besides, letting that many intruders into the park in the first place is clearly our fault, so don’t worry about it.”

Eimi’s expression cleared up instantly. Hagane had to crack a pained smile at how calculated her attitude was.

With the tension gone, though, he slipped and said more than he should have. “Besides, you showed me something unusual,” he mused. “So, that was the Magic Bullet Tathlum. A ranged spell, where you put a delayed, conditionally activated spell on whatever you use as bullets. The movement spell activates just from you throwing them…

“I don’t know how long the delayed spell can last exactly, but when an enemy appears, you don’t have to use your CAD or construct a magic program. You can fire one shot, rapid fire, or scattershot—whatever you want… I see, I see. Definitely a technique suitable for being called the trump card of the famed Goldie family.”

Hagane noticed the change in the mood only after he’d finished getting carried away with his rambling.

“…You figured it out just by seeing it one time? I guess I should have expected as much from a direct descendant of the Tomitsuka, one of the strongest of the Hundred Families.”

“Huh? Um, Akechi?”

“…That’s really too bad. We were finally friends, too.”

“Huh? What? Why are you using past tense?”

“Tomitsuka, let me tell you something good.”

Warning alarms blared incessantly in the back of Hagane’s mind. But for some reason, his feet wouldn’t move. They were glued to the ground. “Err, what is it…?”

“Secret techniques—they’re called secret techniques because they need to be kept secret.”

“Ahh! Wait, wait, hold on!” he cried, frantically waving his arms as he watched Eimi fan out more cards in her right hand. Not only that, but he quickly took off his hat and removed his mask. “I won’t tell anyone! I’ll keep it a secret! Look at my face! Does this look like the face of a liar?!”

He apparently took the mask off because he wanted to use that line.

As he promptly began groveling before her, Eimi felt her tension wane significantly, then felt difficulty in carrying on like that. “…Geez, it’s fine. I got to see an interesting dance anyway.”

“Ah, ahh…” This time, Hagane groaned, knees still on the ground.

That voice was all Eimi needed to know he didn’t want other people knowing about that magic trick. He’d probably devised the technique by himself as a last resort. That made things easy.

“Then we’ll both keep it a secret!” said Eimi, crouching down to look him in the eye (with her legs closed, of course, so he couldn’t see up her miniskirt).

Hagane grinned, embarrassed, and nodded.

“Oh, I almost forgot!” As though she’d been appeased, Eimi suddenly and forcefully stood up and brought her CAD out from her skirt.

What could it be? thought Hagane as he saw a spell activate.

Its effects manifested as light, heat, and a smell. The cards stuck in the bodies of the men wearing black burned up, scorching the wounds and turning to ash. “Evidence destroyed, bleeding stopped. Now, then, Mr. Part-Timer,” she said, suddenly sounding ruffled.

“Wh-what is it…?” he replied, naturally cautious.

Unfortunately, quite often in this world, just being cautious wasn’t enough to do anything.

“Helping injured people on park grounds is the staff’s job, right? And if those injured people happened to be carrying illegal weapons, reporting that to the police is also the staff’s job, right?”

“Akechi…are you leaving this whole mess for me to clean up?”

“No, I would never! But look—I’m a guest here today, you know? My friends are waiting for me, too.”

“…That isn’t fair.”

Eimi was unconcerned by the bitter, hateful glare that followed. “Anyway, now that that’s over with, I’ll see you at school, Tomitsuka!”

She waved, then ran off. Hagane watched as she left, his sullen expression slowly changing into a dry grin, until it finally gave way to a heavy sigh.

Upon finally meeting back up with Subaru and Akaha, they sat on a park bench together, gnawing at crepes they’d gotten instead of lunch. Eimi watched a staff member wearing a horizontally striped shirt and pants pass by them, and asked, to nobody in particular, “If this is Wonderland, how come there aren’t any rabbits…?”

“Look…you know that would probably be copyright infringement.”

“Hm? Amy, did you want bunny boys to wait on you or something?”

“No! Geez… We came all the way to a wonderland. I was just thinking maybe the staff should be wearing more wonderland-y outfits.”

“Wonderland-y?”

“Hmm… Yeah, like a street magician in a Venetian mask.” A certain monotone clown had come to Eimi’s mind, one that looked similar to certain wounded people. But she figured that would make children cry as soon as they saw him, so she searched her brain for something with a similar impression.

“Oh, that might be good.”

“Mmhmm, I think so, too. It would make things interesting.”

As they enjoyed talk of meaningless wardrobe changes every time a staff member walked by, Eimi was privately thinking to herself, Maybe a bunny-boy outfit would be good on Tomitsuka—an idea Hagane would find endlessly sinister.