The moment Tatsuya's words hung in the air, a flash of murderous intent ignited in Marte's eyes. With a flick of his right hand, a knife slid from his sleeve. A thin cord trailed from the hilt, suggesting it wasn't a simple blade but a specialized device with some hidden gimmick. The other Parasites followed suit, drawing their own weapons. Tatsuya watched them, his eyes narrowing with a chilling indifference.
"How predictable. Let me be equally transparent: drop your weapons and surrender. Do that, and I can promise you the comfortable life of a pampered lab animal."
"You... human dog!" Marte screamed, his voice thick with loathing and resentment.
Once a Parasite seizes control of a human host, it becomes enslaved by that host's strongest desires. It was a Möbius loop of control—the parasite ruling the body, while the body's subconscious ruled the parasite.
Without the deployment of a single activation sequence, the signs of magic began to manifest. As expected, the Parasites required neither CADs nor incantations to rewrite reality.
However, Tatsuya was much the same.
Before the Parasite's magic could even take shape, Tatsuya's "Decomposition" struck, dismantling the information structures required to alter the world. This was his "Gram Dispersion"—the ultimate predator of all magic. It was a supernatural ability that directly decomposed information bodies, and it proved just as lethal against the sorcery of non-humans.
The exchange was silent, devoid of light or sound. But because Marte had committed himself to an offensive stance predicated on his magic working, the sudden cancellation left him paralyzed. Tatsuya did not miss the opening.
Three sharp cracks echoed as Tatsuya shot through the joints of Marte's limbs. The man collapsed onto the pavement. Even with a Parasite dwelling within, the fundamental structure of the human body remained unchanged. They could ignore the pain, but they could not move limbs once the tendons had been severed.
Tatsuya leveled his empty left hand at the fallen Parasite. If he destroyed the physical body, the entity would simply fly off in search of a new host. Even if Miyuki froze it, they often self-destructed to escape. Since they didn't need activation sequences, they could likely still use magic even while immobilized. To truly neutralize a Parasite, one had to strike the spiritual information body directly.
He gathered a mass of Psions in his palm. He had no objective proof this would work, but Tatsuya felt no hesitation. If this failed, his only choice would be to bring in a practitioner of ancient magic who specialized in sealing. Hesitation now would be as useless as it was dangerous. Channeled by a singular thought of Rejection, Tatsuya thrust his hand forward.
A hardened, condensed shell of Psions slammed into the Parasite's chest.
He aimed for the heart, not the brain. This was a strategy he had developed with Yakumo, based on data from Pixie. These entities didn't possess physical organs; they possessed the human spirit. While a strike anywhere would theoretically work, it was logical to target the heart—the pump that sent fuel to every cell and the organ most deeply tied to the "rhythm" of life.
"Onii-sama!"
Tatsuya didn't have the luxury of observing the effects of his Psion shell. At Miyuki's desperate cry, his attention snapped toward his sister and the others.
He turned to see Miyuki holding her own; she had immobilized her opponent by freezing their clothes rather than their flesh and was suppressing their magic with a Zone Interference field. But beyond her, Honoka was being driven back by a Parasite wielding wire-guided blades, with Pixie acting as a living shield to take the hits.
"Honoka!"
"I-I'm okay!" Honoka shouted back, her voice strained but fierce.
She refused to be a burden. That singular, burning resolve manifested as a brilliant light in her eyes—and echoed in the crystal of her hair ornament.
Tatsuya felt a sudden, violent spike in Psion waves. It wasn't the steady buildup of a magic sequence, but an explosion of raw thought-energy. It was a direct interference of the will, unrefined and savage.
Suddenly, a massive psychic shockwave erupted from Pixie. Because it lacked precise control, the sheer force of the reality-warping power caused even Miyuki's Interference field to waver.
Tatsuya fired a second Psion shell into the Parasite Miyuki had been fighting. Neither he nor Miyuki spared a glance for the writhing entities. Their eyes were on the source of that raw power.
In the center of the clearing stood Pixie, guarding a dazed Honoka who had been momentarily stunned by the massive Psion discharge. It was "Psychokinesis"—a pure, mechanical alteration of kinetic energy. The Parasite they had been facing had been blown completely out of sight.
"Incredible..." Tatsuya murmured.
"Simply amazing..." Miyuki whispered in agreement.
Inside the monitoring room, Kyoko Fujibayashi sat speechless. The sound of amused, low chuckling from behind finally broke her trance.
"...Well. That was an unexpectedly fascinating show," the elder Kudou said, clearing his throat as his granddaughter turned her chair to give him a look of silent reproach.
"That final Psychokinesis blast... it came from the 3H unit, didn't it? I've never heard of a robot capable of using psychic powers."
"Neither have I," Kyoko replied stiffly. "With our current level of technology, it should be impossible."
"Indeed. Machine alone cannot replicate psychic or magical phenomena. Which means there is an element dwelling within that 3H that is not mechanical. A ghost in the machine... I had heard reports of the Parasites, but I hadn't heard of this."
"We haven't received a formal report on it either. I only know of it from overhearing private conversations."
"Now, now." Kudou Retsu waved a hand to placate her. "Kyoko, I'm not scolding you. I'm no longer in a position to demand such things. I simply find it... intriguing. To think a humanoid robot could be used in such a way..."
Kyoko's professional mask slipped for a moment. As she looked at her grandfather, she saw a shadow of ambition in his eyes that she hadn't seen in years.
"Grandfather... what are you thinking?"
"Nothing much. Just a new toy to consider. There's no need for that worried face."
He spoke the words to reassure her, but his expression was no longer that of a doting grandfather. It was the face of a master strategist, a magician who had survived a lifetime of war.
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