While the mutiny among the Stars was happening in the USNA, emergency repairs were being conducted on Bezobrazov’s large Argan CAD in the New Soviet Union.
“How is it going?” Bezobrazov asked.
“Doctor!” one of the workers exclaimed in surprise, spinning around.
Being a scholar and an aristocrat, Bezobrazov rarely showed his face at greasy repair sites like this one.
“The repairs will be finished by the end of the day. We would be honored if you could give it a test run tomorrow,” the worker said.
Bezobrazov was a government official akin to a military general, hence the worker’s overly tense and formal tone. In other words, Bezobrazov wielded a fair amount of authority and influence in his country.
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Bezobrazov replied. “What time do you want me to stop by?”
He had never wielded power or arrogance over ordinary people, especially technicians who didn’t hold any official position. This wasn’t because he was a man of high moral character; he simply couldn’t care less about those beneath him.
“We should be ready for you as early as tomorrow morning!” the worker confirmed.
“All right. I’ll be here at nine thirty.”
“We’ll be waiting.”
Bezobrazov bade farewell to supervisors and technicians alike before leaving the maintenance facility. His rare visit was primarily because of the urgency he felt to use Argan again, but it was also driven by the humiliation he had suffered at Tatsuya’s hands.
He had been so confident that the surprise Tuman Bomba attack would be a success. Yet he had failed to assassinate Tatsuya despite his use of Igroks, Tuman Bomba’s special biological amplifier. Not only had he failed, but both Igroks used in the attack had been annihilated, and Argan had been rendered unusable. If it weren’t for the Igroks, Bezobrazov’s confidence would have probably been his end.
The New Soviet scientist had never failed as a strategic magician before. In the intense but small-scale battle against the USNA across the Berlin Strait, he had even managed to exterminate the previous Stars commander, William Sirius, with Tuman Bomba. His failure in the most recent mission felt like a terrible loss. He wanted nothing more but to resume operations as soon as possible to redeem himself from this humiliation.
✦ ✦ ✦
It was raining in Tokyo on the morning of Thursday, June 20. The area around First High in Hachioji was soaked from the steady rain.
Since it was the rainy season, the gloominess was inevitable. Most students seemed to take it in stride, but Tatsuya spent the morning on high alert. He only vaguely responded to Mizuki’s curious looks, making no effort to conceal his anxiety.
Tokyo had been experiencing less precipitation than usual this year. While the first half of the month saw plenty of rain, it had been a while since there had been such continuous rain since morning. The recent intermittent rain didn’t necessarily signal a break in the rainy season, but there had been fewer rainy days than average.
This didn’t bother Tatsuya. In fact, he welcomed the absence of rain. He wasn’t fond of rain to begin with, but he was particularly weary of it since returning from Izu. It had been raining the day he was targeted by strategic magic. A day of continuous light rain with no wind provided optimal weather conditions for Tuman Bomba.
This day, too, there was almost no wind. Tatsuya speculated if Bezobrazov were going to make a move, it would be today. Bezobrazov hadn’t given up. Tatsuya was certain of that. The magicians he had eradicated eleven days ago weren’t Bezobrazov, but he had a feeling they weren’t completely unrelated.
It was possible that Bezobrazov was not the only wielder of Tuman Bomba. The New Soviet Union could be producing spare magicians for him. Even among the publicly known Thirteen Apostles, there were two strategic magicians in the USNA who wielded Leviathan, one in the UK and one in Germany who could cast Ozone Circle, and two in the Indo-Persian Federation who were proficient in Agni Downburst.
It wasn’t uncommon for magicians to share strategic-magic programs. Because of the spells’ immense destructive power, magicians with potential from the same country were actively taught how to wield them. In Tuman Bomba’s case, however, Tatsuya felt that its activation was closely linked to Bezobrazov.
The two magicians Tatsuya had destroyed in the Izu Highlands had exactly the same genetic material. While they could be identical twins, Tatsuya suspected they were clones. There were distortions in their information structure that were more unnatural—or even more artificial—than were usually found in engineered bodies.
At the time of the attack, Tatsuya believed that Bezobrazov was Tuman Bomba’s caster and the two female magicians were merely his tools. He later remembered, however, that Raymond Clark knew he could cast Material Burst. It was highly likely that Clark had conveyed this information to the New Soviet Union.
Tatsuya concluded that the attack on the villa in Izu was the result of the New Soviet Union’s decision to completely neutralize his strategic magic, specifically his use of Material Burst. In fact, he believed that they had decided to eliminate him because he was a strategic-class magician.
Tatsuya had told Miyuki about his worries earlier that morning. He had also instructed Pixie, who had been reconnected to the First High system, to be on maximum alert. Then, just three minutes before the end of the last morning class, as Class 3-E was quietly studying on their terminals, Tatsuya sensed signs of an incoming attack.
✦ ✦ ✦
Bezobrazov sat in the operator’s seat of his large Argan CAD, which had just undergone a series of minor modifications. It was midafternoon where he was and morning in Japan. The clocks in the coastal regions of the New Soviet Union were an hour ahead of Japan Standard Time. Though it was lunchtime for Bezobrazov, he paid no attention to the dining table and focused solely on the operation at hand.
Taking lessons from the previous encounter, Argan was improved to withstand Tatsuya’s decomposition spell by using Igrok’s molecular bond neutralization magic. This time, the New Siberian Railroad train car connected to Argan was also parked on the outskirts of Ussuriysk, north of Vladivostok rather than on the outskirts of Vladivostok itself, to avoid being targeted with the same geographic information as before.
Another change from the last battle was that Bezobrazov had brought in five Igroks this time rather than two. In other words, all the remaining Igroks were being deployed for this operation. Two would be used for activation, one would serve as an emergency firewall, and the last two were spares.
Bezobrazov had not put this much effort into his attack on the Stars. This alone proved his deep investment in this avenging mission. In the last battle with Tatsuya, he had ultimately tumbled out of the train car in fear of Tatsuya’s retaliation. The memory of that moment gnawed at Bezobrazov’s pride. He had to redress that humiliation as soon as possible.
He realized that doing nothing would make him go mad. The only way to forget the dreadful humiliation he suffered was to kill Tatsuya Shiba. This obsession had now taken root in Bezobrazov’s consciousness.
He brought up the data from the intelligence department on his console. According to the coordinates, Tatsuya was currently at First High. Bezobrazov couldn’t fathom what someone with the intellect to plan a fusion reactor plant could learn from high school. It seemed like a waste of time.
Academics aside, the fact that Tatsuya was inside First High posed a problem. The school’s sturdily reinforced concrete buildings would be difficult to destroy with shock waves. They were made of high-strength materials developed during World War III, making them all the more resilient. Even breaking the glass windows wouldn’t cause much damage.
Then again, Tuman Bomba wasn’t suited for moving targets, and satellite imagery revealed Tatsuya’s home building to be even sturdier than the school. Bezobrazov decided to shatter First High’s windows with shock waves, allow the mist from the rain to infiltrate the school’s interior, and trigger explosions from within. He retrieved this plan from his storage and began to prepare.
Bezobrazov’s chair was slowly drawn into Argan’s internal cavity. The strategic magician operated the switches on the console like a music conductor with his baton. Igroks served as his performers as they prepared to play a symphony of ruin and slaughter.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Master, magical activity detected two hundred meters directly above First High,” Pixie warned telepathically.
Tatsuya had already suggested activating Chain Cast, which replicated magic programs to trigger a series of spells with a shortened delay. He stood up and drew a large handgun-shaped CAD from his pocket.
Class was still in session, but he ignored his startled and whispering classmates. He then looked up at the ceiling and aimed his Silver Horn Custom Trident CAD directly above his head. There was no hesitation in his movements. Timing it perfectly to the second, he pulled Trident’s trigger.