✦ ✦ ✦
A large whirlwind of air swirled above Minoru’s head, instantly compressing at room temperature. Instead of directing the air toward the light, Izumi released it downward. The descending airflow rapidly cooled via adiabatic expansion and struck the light.
This was Cold Storm. Izumi, inspired by Miyuki’s magic, had just recently mastered the chilling spell.
“Eek! That’s cold!” Kasumi squealed as a gust of icy wind blew in her face.
“Sorry!” Izumi apologized, trembling from both the cold and adrenaline.
She had only started practicing Cold Storm. Clearly, her version of the spell wasn’t completely effective at preventing an aftereffect.
“It’s fine,” Kasumi said. “Did it work?”
Izumi glanced at Minoru. The boy stood still, covered in a frost that shimmered under a magic light. He showed no signs of moving, but he also didn’t fall.
If Minoru had lost strength in his limbs, he shouldn’t be able to stay upright. Even if his entire body was rigid, it would normally be impossible to stay on his feet.
“One more time, Kasumi!” Izumi shouted.
Suddenly, Minoru began to transform. The frost on his hair, face, and clothes vanished in an instant, not even leaving his body damp. He extended his right arm toward the twins.
“Here goes nothing!” Kasumi yelled back.
She didn’t want a repeat of what had happened before. This time, she took the initiative, shooting a powerful nitrogen wind toward Minoru.
This was Nitrogen Storm—a spell that generated an extremely low-oxygen gale, so its target succumbed to hypoxia. Unfortunately, Minoru countered with a light shield, and the airflow from above neutralized Kasumi’s attack.
“”
Izumi saw Minoru’s lips move, but the raging winds made it hard to hear. At the same time, she had a feeling he said, “Now it’s my turn.”
She sensed an imminent spell in the air, and a faint breeze began to blow. She quickly cast a defensive shield.
Unfortunately, the wind stopped only at the surface of the shield and began to swirl within. The wind had not passed through Izumi’s magic barrier; it had pierced it. Not that this difference was particularly important. By the time Izumi and Kasumi felt the first gust, it was already too late.
Kasumi staggered and collapsed. Realizing she had been holding her breath this whole time, Izumi gulped for air and rushed to catch her sister. Moments later, Izumi’s consciousness, too, was swallowed by darkness.
✦ ✦ ✦
An invisible hand caught Kasumi and Izumi before they could tumble onto the pavement, and it gently laid them down on the ground.
It was Minoru’s magic that both stole the twins’ consciousness and caught them in midair. He achieved the latter action through a combination of movement-type magic to stop their fall and weighting-type magic to reduce their mass. The former action was completed with convergence-type magic to lower the surrounding concentration of oxygen—a technique similar in principle to the Nitrogen Storm the twins had used.
Instead of forcefully breaking through the sisters’ magic defenses, Minoru employed a technique he had learned from Gongjin Zhou. This involved using the same type of magic as his opponents to cause a misidentification between their spells. Minoru then manipulated the airflow to gently but forcibly direct an increased concentration of oxygen up into Kasumi’s and Izumi’s nostrils and down into their lungs.
The twins began coughing simultaneously as they started to breathe again. With their magic resistance weakened in their half-conscious state, Minoru used old illusion magic to lull them to sleep. Their eyes, which had just begun to open, slowly closed again. Their now steady and relaxed breathing signaled that they had entered a harmless deep and peaceful sleep.
Minoru let out a sigh of relief. Hurting Kasumi and Izumi was never his intention. He was even hesitant to aim an offensive spell at them in the first place. He knew why the Ten Master Clans wanted to capture or eliminate him, but he had no desire to fight them.
All he wanted was to save Minami. His plan was simple: confirm what Minami truly wanted. If she accepted his idea, he would turn her into a parasite, and they would find a quiet corner of the world to live together. If Minami wanted to return to the Yotsuba family, he would be willing to let her go. Regardless of what the Ten Master Clans might do or say afterward, Minoru believed that the Yotsuba family, with its power and influence, was more than capable of protecting one of their own.
Even when under attack, Minoru wanted to resolve things as peacefully as possible. The decision to fight Kasumi and Izumi, who he had known since childhood and was fairly close with, weighed heavily on him. He hated the thought of potentially causing them lasting harm. So he chose to neutralize them in the least painful way possible and took measures to administer first aid as quickly as he could. However, this didn’t absolve him of guilt. He knew his actions—no matter how carefully executed—wouldn’t erase the consequences.
Minoru felt a lingering sense of unease as he made his way to the hospital’s back entrance. No matter how awful it sounded, his objective was to kidnap Minami and take her from the hospital against her will. There would be no time for persuasion or explanations right now. If his calculations were right, enough time had already passed for Tatsuya to arrive at any moment.
As Minoru reached for the door, he suddenly drew his hand away and leaped backward. A bullet of dry ice shot where he had just been, followed by a voice above his head.
“Give up already, Minoru!”
Minoru looked up.
“Looks like my illusion has been broken,” he murmured to himself.
Mayumi was standing on the hospital roof looking down on him.