As far as Erika knew, there were three forces taking organized action against the Vampire Incidents that continued to claim victims throughout the metropolis.
The first was the police authorities. Their main force was the Metropolitan Police Department, bolstered by the National Police Agency's Broad-Area Special Response Team (commonly known as the Japanese FBI) and the Public Security Bureau, which also fell under the NPA.
The second was an investigative team formed by the Ten Master Clans, led by the Saegusa family with the Juumonji family following their lead. Backed by the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, they were a semi-public, semi-private force cooperating partially with the police—though in this unique power dynamic, the "private" sector held more authority than the "public" one.
And the third was a private retaliation squad organized by the Chiba family with the assistance of the prestigious Yoshida family of Ancient Magic. In other words: Erika and her group.
"I still think we should have cooperated with the seniors on this..."
Mikihiko, who had been hastily appointed as a collaborator following an informal—yet official—request from the Chiba family to the Yoshida family, asked this question for exactly the tenth time since yesterday. The person he was addressing was, needless to say, his partner in this affair: Erika.
"The police have full access to the city's security systems, including street cameras, yet they still haven't caught a tail."
"Even if we have to rely on manpower, I think it's better to have coordination than none at all."
"That is exactly why I'm asking for your cooperation."
"No, I meant not just us, but..."
Mikihiko was accompanying Erika not as a guide, but as a dowser—a path-diviner.
"I really don't think wandering around blindly is going to get us anywhere..."
"Miki, which way?"
Erika stopped at a crossroads and turned around, completely ignoring Mikihiko's grumbling monologue. I wish she'd ask a little more frequently, Mikihiko sighed internally, as he planted his three-shaku staff onto the pavement.
Incidentally, regarding the nickname "Miki": ever since Lina had set it as his default name, he had given up resisting. He no longer offered any rebuttal when Erika used the affectionate moniker.
"This way..."
Seeing the staff fall to the right of the intersection, Erika immediately turned her feet in the direction it pointed. She didn't wait for Mikihiko; she didn't even look back.
Mikihiko picked up his staff with a wry smile and chased after her.
(Just in case...)
Mikihiko pulled his information terminal from his pocket. The communication function was set to Signal Mode—a setting that broadcasted an identification signal to notify registered group terminals of his location. After confirming it was active, he returned it to his pocket.
(We're close...)
Sensing they were nearing their target, Mikihiko took the terminal out once more. He pulled up the group list for the signal notification. He added one new recipient from his address book, and then, finally putting the terminal away for good, he stepped up to walk side-by-side with Erika.
A long coat with a cape, and a hat pulled low over his eyes. Beneath the hat, a mask made of gray fabric depicting a black bat concealed the upper half of his face. Charles Sullivan, formerly designated with the Stars satellite-class code Deimos Second, was fleeing for his life, utilizing every ounce of his newly acquired physical abilities.
But no matter how much power he mustered, he could not escape. The one chasing him was not a hunter of stardust, but the executioner bearing the code of the brightest star in the night sky.
A masked magician with red hair and golden eyes pursued Sullivan. Lina, disguised as Angie Sirius, repeatedly bombarded him with Psion noise. Each time she did, her own sensory perception of Sullivan would vanish, but the Psion radar on the mobile base—disguised as a TV relay van—kept a rock-solid lock on Sullivan's location.
『Commander, take a right at the next corner.』
"Claire, Rachel, circle around to Sullivan's front."
Lina issued orders into her comms. "Claire" was the alias for Hunter Q, and "Rachel" for Hunter R. Disliking the use of codes, Lina had assigned them these names for convenience; they were not their real names. Although "Claire" technically started with a C rather than a Q, it was merely a placeholder, so neither Lina nor the operative saw it as an issue.
Signs of magical combat erupted twenty or thirty meters ahead. For Lina, this distance was already within striking range. She had completely grasped Sullivan's position.
Although it was nearly midnight, the streets were not entirely devoid of eyes. But such concerns were outside her consideration the moment she began a high-speed chase moving as fast as a motorbike. Furthermore, Lina's weapon was a matte-black dagger, designed not to stand out even in daylight. She threw the dagger without any attempt to hide the motion.
Sullivan perceived the blade flying toward him at the very last second. Even with the physical prowess of a vampire, he had no time to dodge. However, now that Sullivan had regained his psychic abilities, his specialty—Object Interference—could still make it in time.
Judging this to be true, Sullivan focused on the dagger. A hunter, currently in combat, charged toward his exposed back. Let them kill each other, he willed, but his trajectory-refraction spell failed to interfere even slightly with Lina's movement spell. The difference in their event interference strength was simply too vast.
Realizing his power wouldn't work, Sullivan instinctively threw up his right arm, only for Lina's dagger to bury itself deep into the limb. Sullivan's body went rigid. In that moment, Hunter R's combat knife gouged his back. For an ordinary human, it would have been a fatal wound.
But Sullivan swung his arm in a horizontal arc, knocking R away while she still gripped the knife. Into this opening stepped the masked magician. Golden eyes peered from behind the mask, piercing through Sullivan. Lina stopped and drew her handgun.
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning was fired at Lina from the shadows of the street trees. It was a perfect ambush; neither Q, nor R, nor even Lina had noticed it. However, the lightning merely flashed—it never reached Lina's body. The Zone Interference Lina had reflexively deployed nullified the vampire's magic completely.
(I'm sorry, Sullivan.)
Lina's finger pulled the trigger. The information-reinforced bullet ignored all defenses and destroyed Sullivan's heart.
(I won't let you escape.)
Without pausing to bask in the afterglow of her victory, Lina dashed off again. Her eyes were fixed on the retreating back of the vampire who had fired the lightning.
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