A waterspout erupted offshore. The enemy's test firing of naval artillery. Tatsuya, Kazama, and Sanada now said nothing. The enemy's precise position was displayed on their visors. Wind direction, wind speed, and other variables affecting the firing were shown as a string of numbers.
Tatsuya aimed the armed device. Ballistic trajectory firing—an aiming posture that prioritized distance, relying on chance for a hit. Considering the bullet's flight time and drop, the enemy was already within range.
Tatsuya activated his virtual area magic and, consecutively, pulled the trigger four times. Each of the four shots involved a slight movement of the muzzle, fired to compensate for aiming errors due to wind.
However, ballistic firing of this kind had virtually no initial aiming to begin with. No matter how much luck was on their side, the bullets would at best fall near the enemy ships. And, from the outset, that was perfectly fine.
Tatsuya tracked the movement of the four bullets in his mind. More accurately, he tracked the information of the bullets, visible in the informational dimension through his conscious and unconscious realms. Bullets he had decomposed and reconfigured with his own hands, with his unique magic. Their structural information could not be lost, no matter how far they traveled. Tatsuya caught the "information" of one of the four bullets falling directly above the center of the enemy fleet.
Tatsuya was entirely focused on tracking the bullets. Kazama and Sanada kept their distance so as not to interfere with Tatsuya, who was attempting to cast some large-scale magic.
Thus, there was no choice but for the two of them to deal with the situation, which was both expected and predicted, using their own magic. The enemy had already test-fired. The next volley would be corrected artillery fire. Bombs fired on a lower trajectory than Tatsuya's bullets assailed them sooner than his bullets could reach.
Kazama, a practitioner of ancient magic, did not possess high, or rather, possessed low, anti-object interference power. Sanada, whose essence was that of a magical engineer rather than a magician, had high anti-object interference power itself but lacked the speed to keep up. At this rate, they would reach their limit before Tatsuya could destroy the enemy fleet.
"I'll provide support!"
Amidst the bombs raining down, a figure on a motorcycle cut through. Tatsuya, concentrating his mind on the magic to annihilate the enemy fleet, heard that voice and felt a corner of his heart register surprise and relief.
Surprise at Honami leaving her mistress's side. Relief at being able to concentrate on his spell under her protection.
The "Sakura" series of Modified Magicians. Their characteristic was powerful anti-object and heat-resistant defensive magic.
While they couldn't use highly technical magic like the rumored "Phalanx" of the Juumonji family, the sheer defensive power of their individual anti-object and heat-resistant spells was top-class among domestic magicians. Sakurai Honami, even among them, had displayed outstanding performance since girlhood. It was for this reason that she was chosen as the sole bodyguard for the precious magician capable of mental structure interference magic.
Shells on a direct course were batted down into the sea. No shells reached the land. Magic to cancel kinetic energy was activating hundreds of meters away, one after another. While observing this with his naked eye, Tatsuya recognized with his mind's eye that his bullets had reached just above the enemy fleet. Tatsuya thrust out his right hand, pointed west, and powerfully opened his palm.
The bullets decomposed into energy.
It was the moment when the mass decomposition magic, "Material Burst," was first used in actual combat.
A flash erupted beyond the horizon. The clouds covering the sky reflected the white light. The western horizon gleamed brightly, though it was far from sunset. A roar thundered. No one present mistook it for distant thunder. It was the sound of all fuel and explosives detonating simultaneously, without time for chain reactions. The artillery ceased, and an eerie tremor spread.
"Tsunami! Evacuate!"
Kazama shouted, and abruptly scooping up Honami, who had collapsed weakly, he began to run frantically. Sanada, astride his motorcycle, pulled up alongside Kazama, who was sprinting as if flying. Tatsuya was seated on the tandem seat.
Kazama, still holding Honami, jumped and, with an acrobatic maneuver, stood on the handlebars. The military motorcycle, powered by its immense horsepower, powerfully sped away, carrying a weight clearly exceeding its capacity.
With the storm beyond the horizon subsiding and the waves receding, Tatsuya knelt on the high ground. Before him lay the weakly supine figure of Honami.
"...It's alright, Tatsuya-kun. This is, after all, my lifespan."
Seeing Tatsuya, tormented by the helplessness of being unable to save a life, suffering from emotions he should have lost, Honami offered a weak, unclouded smile.
"It's not your fault, Tatsuya-kun. We Modified Magicians could reach the end of our lifespan at any time."
That's not true, Tatsuya wanted to say. While the lifespan of Modified Magicians was indeed unstable compared to ordinary people, her weakening was clearly due to the burden of continuously casting powerful magic in a short time. Even for the "Sakura" series, deflecting continuous naval gunfire was too great a strain.
However, Honami did not wish for Tatsuya to voice it. Tatsuya thought so and gritted his teeth.
"It's truly not your fault, Tatsuya-kun. I was burdened with the role of a shield even before I was born, and today I've fulfilled that role. And I fulfilled it not because someone ordered me to, but by my own will."
Tatsuya tried to activate "Regeneration" but immediately realized it was futile. While he could rewind the time of matter, reversing the clock of life was impossible with his power.
"Stop, won't you?"
Perhaps mistaking his intention, Honami whispered this to Tatsuya in a coaxing voice and a smile.
"I, who never had a single freedom to choose how I lived, was able to choose where I would die, by myself. I have no intention of missing this chance. I can die not as a tool created by humans, but as a human being."
Tatsuya had never dreamt that she harbored such darkness in her heart. But to his own surprise, there was no astonishment.
"Hey, kiss me, one last time."
Nodding to Honami's wish, Tatsuya pressed his lips against hers. Perhaps satisfied by this act, Honami closed her eyelids with a relieved expression, and her breathing stopped.
Sanada, standing nearby, chanted sutras. Kazama's hand rested on Tatsuya's shoulder. With his hand still on Tatsuya's shoulder, Tatsuya stood up. No tears fell from his eyes.
From Tatsuya's heart, the emotion of sadness had strangely vanished. Hearing Sakurai Honami's "last words," he was convinced that there was no need for him to be sad. —That the ability to erase sadness through conviction, that was the abnormality, Tatsuya at this time did not understand.
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