Ninefold Temple wasn’t too far from Tatsuya’s Chofu residence. He could have jogged there if he’d felt like it. But under the circumstances, he decided to use his flying bike, Wingless. Instead of ordinary motorcycle gear, he wore the Yotsuba-made flying combat outfit, the Freed Suit. Once he arrived at the temple, he removed his helmet and hung it on his left arm. He hadn’t brought his usual specialized CAD, but the Freed Suit was equipped with a fully thought-operated CAD.
After he passed through the mountain gate, there was surprisingly no sign of the usual chaotic sparring disciples. In fact, it was as if all human life had vanished. Just as Tatsuya wondered if he had been mistaken in thinking it wouldn’t matter if no one was around, he was attacked.
His attacker was something intangible, like the very essence of hostility itself. Before he could figure out what it was, Tatsuya countered with a torrent of psions. The torrent immediately repelled the entity with a psion structure of similarly high density.
Is this the independent information entity known as a familiar? Or a naturally occurring demon? Tatsuya wondered.
Yotsuba family ancient magic practitioners who had trained him had spoken of rare cases in which large-scale and high-density psion formations could spontaneously generate independent information entities. Typically, these entities merely stored information and couldn’t influence events. However, when the amount of information and psions they contained surpassed a certain threshold, they began to affect events on their own. The ancients referred to these entities as gods or demons, feared them, and developed elemental and summoning magic to harness their powers.
Tatsuya’s blast sent the independent information entity flying, but it reversed its direction and attacked again. At this point, two things were clear. First, the entity was a wind type. Second, someone was controlling it.
Is Master Yakumo behind this? Tatsuya thought.
Either way, the entity’s hostility was too intense. In fact, its attack was so powerful that a direct hit could potentially be fatal.
To eliminate the immediate threat, Tatsuya started to cast Program Demolition. But he quickly canceled the spell. It wasn’t because he thought Yakumo was behind the attack. He just decided to use a different spell—an unclassified magic technique that compressed psions into a netlike formation.
The shape that he ultimately created was not a true net, but a thin, far-reaching psion membrane that resembled a large furoshiki cloth. Naturally, no real furoshiki cloth was three meters wide, but its job was similarly to wrap and contain the incoming spirit.
Unfortunately, Tatsuya’s “furoshiki net” was quickly torn apart. The freed spirit then transformed itself into a wind blade, which flew at Tatsuya again.
Tatsuya dodged the attack by leaping to the side. When he rolled to the ground, he noticed blood dripping from his left arm. A severe cut had ripped the skin near his shoulder. Despite his attempt to evade the attack, he had not been completely successful.
This invisible blade of air clearly went far beyond Tatsuya’s usual training intensity. If he hadn’t been wearing the Freed Suit, which was equipped with ballistic, shock-resistant, and cut-resistant features, his left arm might have been completely severed.
Luckily, Tatsuya could cast Regenerate. The damage to the suit along with the bloodstain disappeared instantly, as if they had never even happened.
If he were facing a human magician, the shock from Tatsuya’s quick recovery might have created an opening for him. The wind spirit, however, didn’t stop attacking. It could have been programmed to continue attacking no matter what, or the magician controlling it was aware of Tatsuya’s abilities. Either way, the assault was relentless.
Once again, the wind blade flew forward. Tatsuya thrust out his right hand, casting a psion shield. This high-density shield slammed the wind spirit away. The high-pressure blade burst into an explosive gust that pushed Tatsuya backward. Luckily, a mere gust of wind wasn’t enough to damage the Freed Suit.
Tatsuya’s psions gathered around the wind spirit, forming a cloud substantial enough to encompass a large passenger car. The psions then compressed into a crystal-ball-like sphere the size of Tatsuya’s palm. The wind spirit lay within it, unable to escape.
Tatsuya sighed with relief. He then glanced around his feet, searching for the helmet he had dropped when the spirit had attacked. In this brief moment of distraction, the psion sphere began to swell with explosive internal pressure.
Reacting quickly, Tatsuya threw the sphere into the air with his right hand. Then, using the recoil from his own movement, he forcefully thrust his left hand upward. The psion sphere burst apart, causing the wind spirit to explode along with it.
The resulting shock wave collided with his Program Demolition spell in a violent clash above him, sending rippling psion waves across the temple grounds.
“Wow, that was a close one.”
A shadowed figure suddenly appeared in the center of the deserted grounds applauding. It was Yakumo Kokonoe—the temple’s resident priest, renowned ninjutsu master, and the very person Tatsuya had come to seek advice from.
“You know,” he said, “you could have completed your sealing sphere if you had focused just a little harder.”
“Good morning, Master,” Tatsuya greeted him.
“Good morning, Tatsuya,” Yakumo responded.
“So what exactly is a sealing sphere?”
Tatsuya spoke as if his battle with Yakumo’s wind attack had never happened. A wry smile spread across Yakumo’s lips.
“It’s what you tried to create just now. I know you came here to learn how to seal away parasites.”
“So you heard about Minoru,” Tatsuya said grimly.
“That’s not all,” Yakumo said. “I also heard about the USNA parasites. It sounds like an even worse case than the last time.”
“It is,” Tatsuya confirmed. “That’s why I came to ask you to teach me how to seal parasites.”
“Now, why would I ever do that?”
Yakumo’s provocative response was the type that could make someone explode with anger, depending on who they were. Tatsuya, however, just accepted it at face value.
“Oh,” he said.
Although he called Yakumo “Master,” he wasn’t actually the ninjutsu practitioner’s disciple. Tatsuya used that title only because Yakumo was kind enough to let him. In fact, the high schooler didn’t even need formal magic teaching. But that didn’t mean Yakumo refused to share his knowledge.
“You don’t need me to teach you that,” Yakumo said. “That sealing sphere just now was excellent. I would never have thought it was your first time making it.”
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