When Tatsuya walked through the door of Café Einebrise near First High School, Miyuki and the gang were already there.
“Hey! Welcome, Tatsuya.”
“We’ve been waiting for you!”
Erika and Honoka spoke up at the same time. Tatsuya waved briefly and sat down between Miyuki and Honoka.
There were no other customers in the place. Before any alarm bells went off in Tatsuya’s head, Miyuki explained that she had reserved the place for the afternoon.
“Here you go, Tatsuya,” the owner said, placing a small glass pot of fresh cold brew on the counter. “On the house.”
Honoka and Shizuku quickly got to their feet. Honoka carried the pot, and Shizuku placed some cups on a tray and brought them to the table. Tatsuya thanked them.
“Let me know when you’re all done here,” the shop owner said before retreating to the back of the shop.
The moment Tatsuya entered Einebrise, he had sensed the anti-eavesdropping spell Mikihiko had cast. It was a warranted precaution. After all, Tatsuya had gone out of his way to gather them all here. Whatever he had to say must be important.
Turning toward the cup of coffee Honoka had poured for him, Tatsuya began, “Since the owner was kind enough to lend us his space, I’ll get straight to the point.”
His friends’ eyes and ears were completely focused on him as he announced, “Minoru Kudou has become a parasite.”
“What?”
“No way!”
“Seriously?!”
Mikihiko, Erika, and Leo all exclaimed at once. They were the only ones in the group—other than Tatsuya and Miyuki—who had met Minoru before.
“By Minoru Kudou, you mean the boy who represented Second High in the Thesis Competition?” Mizuki hesitated.
“That’s right.” Tatsuya nodded.
“But…why?” Erika asked, narrowing her eyes at Tatsuya.
Tatsuya had, of course, not done anything wrong. Erika was only narrowing her eyes to suppress her anxious surprise.
“Good question,” Tatsuya replied. “I’m not sure about the details. All I know is Minoru willingly gave up his humanity and became a parasite for a specific reason.”
“So are you going to tell us that specific reason?” Leo asked impatiently.
The intensity in his eyes was just as strong as Erika’s. Tatsuya could tell he was not about to tolerate any secrets.
But Leo’s glare didn’t change what Tatsuya was going to say. From the beginning, he had planned to explain how Minoru became a parasite. Within the scope he was allowed to disclose, of course.
“It has to do with the reason why Minami has been hospitalized,” he explained.
“I thought she was just physically injured,” Leo said.
“The truth is Minami’s magic-calculation region was seriously damaged,” Tatsuya said. “She will never fully recover.”
Everyone was speechless.
“The damage isn’t fatal now,” Tatsuya continued, “but casting high-level magic could make her symptoms worse.”
“How did that happen?!” Leo exclaimed, visibly shaken.
Minami was a member of the mountaineering club Leo led. After Tatsuya and Miyuki, he probably felt the closest to her of the group.
“I’m not going to go into that now,” Tatsuya responded carefully. “My reason for calling you here today has to do with something else.”
“Fine,” Leo said through clenched teeth. “And what would that be?”
He didn’t look happy about Tatsuya holding back information, but he tried to keep his cool.
“I needed to let you all know that Minoru turned himself into a parasite to test a method that might heal Minami,” Tatsuya said.
“Hold on,” Mikihiko interjected. “You mean, Minoru wants to treat Sakurai with a parasite and sacrificed himself as the test subject?”
“That’s what he told me.” Tatsuya shrugged.
“What an idiot,” Mikihiko murmured in a state of shock. “He must be insane.”
“He’s actually completely serious,” Tatsuya said.
“Then, is Minoru trying to kidnap Minami?” Erika asked, getting to Tatsuya’s point before he could get to it himself.
“Or wait!” Leo interjected. “He already tried, and you stopped him.”
“That’s right.” Tatsuya nodded. “I already fought him once.”
“And you’re afraid of losing the next battle,” Mikihiko predicted.
“I won’t die, but well…” Tatsuya paused before continuing. “It won’t be easy.”
Erika cut in, “So what you’re saying is, you might come out of the next fight unscathed, but you’re worried about failing to protect Minami.”
Tatsuya nodded. “Exactly. But there’s one more thing I need you to know. Erika, Leo, and Mikihiko—I believe Minoru might ask you to help him.”
“You mean, he might try to get us on his side?” Erika asked.
“Given that you’re the only ones I know connected to Minoru, besides the Saegusa sisters, it’s very likely,” Tatsuya explained.
“Now that you mention it…if you hadn’t talked to us today, I might have actually helped him,” Leo admitted.
“I might have, too,” Erika grudgingly agreed. “Especially if he said it was for Minami.”
“Minoru has already turned into a parasite, right? Unfortunately, it’s extremely difficult to tell the difference between a parasite and a human.” Mikihiko ruefully shook his head.
This last point especially seemed to hurt his pride as a practitioner of ancient magic. Mikihiko was better at telling the difference between different beings than Tatsuya could ever be, but he didn’t dare say it. Luckily, Tatsuya admitted it himself.
“Don’t worry,” Tatsuya said. “I couldn’t tell Minoru was a parasite until he told me. You might be more sensitive to parasites, Mikihiko, but we have to remember the Kudou family knows spells to disguise information entities. Minoru may have become a parasite, but he hasn’t lost his family’s magic.”
“I could never say my senses are better than yours, especially when it comes to your eyes,” Mikihiko replied modestly. “But I understand the need to be cautious around Minoru.”
“That’s all I needed to hear,” Tatsuya said.
A thoughtful look suddenly crossed Mikihiko’s face.
“By the way…”
“Yeah?” Tatsuya asked, interested in what he might say.
“Where did the parasite Minoru absorbed come from?”
“Did it infiltrate Japan from the States again?” Erika suggested.
“No”—Tatsuya shook his head—“it was a parasite we sealed away before. The Kudou family had one of the two that were taken.”
He hesitated before continuing.
“…Actually, you should also know, Lina is in Japan.”
“Really?!” Honoka gasped in surprise.
“Brother!” Miyuki yelped.
She was just as surprised as Honoka but for a completely different reason. Honoka was shocked to hear Lina was in town; Miyuki was appalled that he would reveal what was supposed to be a secret. Even though he was among friends, it was a huge risk.
In fact, she was so surprised that she referred to him like she used to instead of by name. Luckily, everyone else was too taken aback by the news to notice.
“Lina’s presence here has to do with a group of new parasites in the USNA,” Tatsuya continued.
“Parasites…in America?” Mikihiko managed to wrench out.
The other five were too stunned to speak.
“They aren’t connected with Minoru’s parasite,” Tatsuya explained. “But if they manage to make their way into Japan, they might team up with Minoru.”
“Is there a way to defeat parasites?” Mikihiko asked. “I’m happy to help if I can.”
“General Kudou will be helping us with his sealing magic,” Tatsuya said.
“By General Kudou, do you mean Sage?” Erika asked.
“But that’s Minoru’s grandfather,” Leo interjected.
Tatsuya didn’t think the Kudou family would be lenient with Minoru just because he was family. But he did consider the possibility that the family’s magic might not work on one of their own.
The Kudou family had spells for sealing parasites. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to create weapons like Parasidolls. However, Minoru was also a Kudou magician. That meant he would know the spells used to make Parasidolls. He was probably currently working on a way to escape from the very spells that bound him. He might already have countermeasures in place. That’s where Mikihiko came in.
“I don’t think one of the heads of the Ten Master Clans would betray us,” Tatsuya began. “That said, if things don’t go well, we might need to ask for your help, Mikihiko.”
“Please do,” Mikihiko replied firmly.
Ancient magic practitioners were experts when it came to dealing with demons. Mikihiko felt his duty calling.