Lina spoke to Tatsuya, who had gone so far as to injure himself to capture her, in an exasperated tone.
"...You really are reckless, Tatsuya."
"When you don't know where the enemy is, using non-directional attacks to flush them out is standard procedure, isn't it?"
"That is what people call indiscriminate attacks."
"You can interpret it that way if you like. Unfortunately, I cannot use Wide Area Magic. Well, please forgive me on the grounds that I was confident you would be able to defend against it without issue, Lina."
"I think saying that defeats the purpose if you end up getting hurt yourself, though."
"I couldn't have caught you otherwise."
"You wanted to catch me? If you're going to whisper sweet nothings, I'd prefer a more romantic approach."
Peering into the blue eyes behind the mask, Tatsuya smirked. He forced both of Lina's hands above her head and pinned them down with one hand. When he brought his free hand close to her mask, Lina flinched violently.
"...That hurts, Tatsuya."
"Unfortunately, I know the trick to that CAD. Now then..."
Tatsuya's hand reached for the mask. The moment his fingers touched it, Lina, who had turned her face away, screamed.
"Activate, Dancing Blades!"
(A voice-activated weapon device...? A device that activates a delayed spell sequence rather than an activation sequence. Interesting.)
While sensing the daggers rushing toward him at high speed, Tatsuya muttered in his mind. Since none were aimed at vital points, he wasn't particularly concerned about them.
(Come to think of it, all of Lina's attacks so far have been aimed at neutralization, not killing.)
By the time he thought this, the daggers had already reached Tatsuya's body—and the instant they touched him, they turned into fine sand and scattered.
"Corrosion... No, decomposition...?"
Ignoring Lina's surprise at his magic, Tatsuya proceeded to peel off the mask.
"You'll regret this, Tatsuya!"
"I'm already regretting plenty the moment the target I supposedly captured managed to escape."
While he was wrestling with Lina, the vampire had successfully fled. Even though he had insurance in place, he couldn't deny the sense of wasted effort.
He gently removed the surprisingly hard mask. Lina bit her lip and glared sharply at Tatsuya. In the next instant, a scream that sounded like silk tearing erupted from her lips.
"Someone! Someone help me!"
The scream of a girl seeking salvation from a rapist. And Tatsuya... looking not like a rapist, but rather staring at her impassioned performance with cold, dead eyes. At that moment, as if they had been waiting for Lina's scream as a signal, the sound of running footsteps approached. Turning his gaze, he saw four men wearing the cherry blossom emblem of the police approaching.
"Hands up and turn around!"
The man running from the front—dressed as a police officer—shouted while pointing a handgun. Tatsuya circled behind Lina and shoved her straight toward the man.
"Kyaa!"
Lina screamed as she flew into the man's chest. However, her expression was darker than when she had been pinned down by Tatsuya. As the uniformed man caught her, Tatsuya leaped over Lina's head, landed on the man's shoulders, and delivered a kick that smashed into the man's face, sending him flying.
"...What did you intend to do if he was a real police officer?"
"I'd like you to stop this farce soon, Angie Sirius."
To Lina, who asked in a tone of disbelief, Tatsuya answered flatly. At his reply, the air seemed to freeze with an audible snap.
"As long as you are cooperating with him, it makes no difference whether they are real or fake. Perhaps it was different a hundred years ago, but under the current penal code of this country, the crime of inducing foreign aggression stands even without the actual use of armed force. If you think disguising yourselves as police officers is enough to make us cower, you are sorely mistaken. Do not underestimate the resolve of us Japanese magicians."
The three remaining fake officers—excluding the one kicked down—looked to Lina's face, gauging the reaction of their Commander-in-Chief, Angelina Sirius.
Lina sighed, then bent her knees slightly and bowed politely to Tatsuya.
"My apologies. I certainly underestimated you. Hearing about it and seeing it are two very different things. As a fellow magician, I apologize."
Then, she brought her feet together, straightened her back, and brought her right hand to the side of her forehead. An unmistakable military salute. Tatsuya understood that earlier, she had spoken as an individual magician, and from here on, she was declaring her intent as the Commander-in-Chief of the USNA Military's Magician Unit.
"I am Major Angelina Sirius, Commander-in-Chief of Stars, the magician unit directly under the USNA Joint Chiefs of Staff. 'Angie Sirius' is the name I use when in disguise, so please continue to call me Lina as you have been. Now then, Tatsuya. Since you have learned my true face and identity, Stars must eliminate you. Had you remained ignorant behind the mask, there would have been plenty of ways to smooth this over. It is a pity."
The killing intent that had previously been wrapped in the wafer of courtesy was now laid bare, assaulting Tatsuya. Amidst the gale of bloodlust, Tatsuya smiled fearlessly.
"So that's what you meant by 'you'll regret this.'"
"If you had at least let yourself be deceived and captured, we could have resolved this without killing you."
"My bad. To think I let such thoughtful consideration go to waste."
"No, the decision to eliminate you is based on our own selfish convenience, so there is no need for you to apologize. You are free to resist."
Taking a combat knife passed from one of the fake officers in her right hand and a medium-sized handgun in her left...
"It really is a shame, Tatsuya. I rather liked you... Goodbye, Tatsuya."
Lina extended her left hand, aiming her CAD at Tatsuya. Tatsuya extended his right hand, aiming his CAD at Lina. Lina's subordinates surrounded Tatsuya from the left, right, and rear—but then...
"I won't let you do that, Lina!"
—A dignified voice shook the freezing midwinter air.
Surprise colored the azure eyes as Lina turned toward the voice. Perhaps to protect their superior who had exposed an opening, Lina's subordinates attacked Tatsuya simultaneously from three directions. A virtual area for "Molecular Divider" formed along the extension of their combat knife blades.
Tatsuya pulled the trigger of his CAD. The virtual area that reversed molecular binding force vanished, leaving only simple combat knives. slipping through the blades, Tatsuya broke through the encirclement. As he passed one of Lina's subordinates, the man clutched his stomach and collapsed.
"Tch!"
Lina's left hand turned toward Miyuki, who had interrupted her. The activation sequence Lina deployed was shattered by Tatsuya's Gram Demolition.
Before the man attacking Tatsuya could advance, a wall of cold air rose up, freezing anyone who stepped into it. A shadow crept silently behind the man who had come to an abrupt halt. Without a sound, the man fell unconscious. The remaining one was already lying prone on the ground.
(Author's Note)
Leaping over a person... As expected of Onii-sama.
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