Tatsuya didn’t use the Aircar to travel to Einebrise. After driving it from Miyaki Island, he parked it in his apartment’s garage and took public transportation to First High’s nearest station. That meant he needed to grab a cabinet once the meeting with his friends was over.
Neither Tatsuya nor Miyuki said much during the cabinet ride home. They, of course, had to be wary of eavesdroppers because of their position, but that wasn’t the main reason for their silence. A heavy tension from the conversation at Einebrise lingered over their heads.
They broke their unusual silence only once they were back at their apartment. Miyuki lightheartedly talked about events at school, and Tatsuya shared his thoughts on the Aircar. By the time Miyuki begged to go for a drive, they were back to their usual selves.
Unfortunately, their mood was soon shattered again by the sound of an incoming visiphone call. The problem wasn’t just the call itself but its purpose.
“Let me get this straight,” Tatsuya began. “You want us to capture Angie Sirius and hand her over to the National Defense Force?”
“You don’t have to put it like that,” Kazama said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I’m just saying the National Defense Force cannot allow a civilian organization to harbor a foreign military officer like Major Sirius.”
“That’s reasonable,” Tatsuya replied. “But why are you telling me something so obvious?”
“Tatsuya, we know you are harboring Major Sirius,” Kazama said. “The Yotsuba family told us themselves.”
There is no need to play dumb, he seemed to say with his eyes. But Tatsuya remained stubborn.
“Then, send your request to the Yotsuba main house,” he said, neither refuting nor affirming Kazama’s statement.
Kazama glared angrily at Tatsuya’s lack of cooperation.
“Specialist Ooguro,” he said sternly, as if chastising a younger friend. “Your standing in the Yotsuba family may have improved, but the contract between the National Defense Force and the Yotsuba family concerning you still stands.”
Tatsuya stared back at the screen in silence.
“In other words,” Kazama continued, “except when it comes to your protective duties toward Miyuki Shiba, you must always prioritize National Defense Force orders.”
“Colonel,” Tatsuya finally said, “I think you’re misunderstanding the contract.”
“What?” Kazama sputtered in shock.
All emotion faded from Tatsuya’s voice.
“You’re right about the contract saying that—besides Miyuki’s protection—the National Defense Force’s command takes priority,” he said. “But there is no agreement that I have to actually obey that command.”
“Are you defying military orders?” Kazama glared.
“Not at all.” Tatsuya shook his head. “My status as Specialist gave the National Defense Force a convenient excuse to use me. But the oath I took under military command five years ago in Okinawa was only effective during that time.”
“…Tatsuya,” Kazama said, his patience running thin, “the National Defense Force does not permit a civilian to harbor Major Angie Sirius. You need to understand that.”
“I’m not hiding Major Sirius,” Tatsuya maintained. “If you think the Yotsuba family is, why don’t you ask them to hand her over?”
The conversation may have ended there, but this didn’t mean Kazama and Tatsuya had cut ties. They were both too keenly aware of how much their relationship was worth.
✦ ✦ ✦
Tatsuya and Miyuki’s new apartment had been constructed as part of the Yotsuba family’s Tokyo headquarters. The building contained both residential spaces and various facilities that enabled headquarters activities. One of these facilities was a basement designed for magic training.
On this evening, the training room was completely empty. The lack of trainees was not only because it was late. Tatsuya had also reserved the room by leveraging his semi-facetious title as the Yotsuba head’s son.
He had mentioned to Miyuki and Minami about asking Maya to teach him how to seal away parasites. But deep down, he was skeptical about his ability to master the technique. Though his standing within the Yotsuba family may have improved, he still could not effectively use ordinary spells other than Dismantle and Regenerate. Even his artificial magic-calculation region could only mimic low-power magic.
Still, Tatsuya could not completely dismiss his own potential. The limitations he experienced applied only to modern magic, which involved altering events. Traditionally, magic encompassed not only event-altering spells but also techniques for manipulating psions themselves. When it came to psion manipulation, Tatsuya could rival—perhaps even surpass—the strongest magicians.
Parasites were made of pushion information bodies. Though Tatsuya couldn’t directly manipulate pushions, parasites were also known to envelop themselves in psions. They then became inactive once they lost this psion “cloak.” Psions embodied both will and thought and served as bridges between the physical and the psychological realms. In other words, they conveyed commands from the mind to the body and transmitted the body’s information back to the mind.
Psions could interfere with the mind, which was made of pushions. Psion-based magic sequences could even activate mental interference magic, which fell outside the typical magic systems. Clearly, psions and pushion information bodies could interact.
Since parasites were pushion bodies, Tatsuya wondered whether typeless magic could seal or capture them. Simply bombarding a parasite with psions would only repel it, inflicting damage but not enough to destroy it. Tatsuya knew this from personal experience. When he previously cast Program Demolition on a parasite that had detached from its host, the spell merely drove it away. Even his Piercing Psion Bullet, designed to damage parasites inside their human hosts, could only weaken but not completely demolish them.
I can’t come up with a solution, Tatsuya thought.
This evening, he tried spells with chains, ropes, and nets, but they all felt wrong. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing.
If only I could practice with an actual parasite, he mused.
As far as Tatsuya knew, both the Yotsuba and the Kudou families had genuine parasites. The Yotsuba family’s specimen was sealed in the First High training forest, while the Kudou family’s had been cultivated for Parasidolls. Although borrowing one of these parasites wasn’t an option, the families might have allowed Tatsuya to use one for practice if he went directly to the heads of family.
However, Tatsuya could start practicing only after he had figured out how to manipulate psions. Asking to borrow a parasite without a clear plan would be a waste of time for both him and the families.
Then it hit him, Maybe I should ask Master Yakumo about it.
Tatsuya didn’t like to make himself indebted to Yakumo, but the situation left him no choice. He decided to visit Ninefold Temple the next morning.
✦ ✦ ✦
On the morning of Tuesday, June 25, Tatsuya visited Yakumo’s temple for the first time in a while. He hadn’t told Yakumo he was coming, so he wasn’t about to get angry if the priest wasn’t in. But he wasn’t expecting the welcome party that awaited him.