The size of them is slightly larger than that of a letter-size paper. They aren't very thick.

  Compared to the hands holding them, they are each about the width of a finger.

  There are two stone tablets, each held by one of the pair. Perhaps they are heavier than they appear. One is white, while the other is black. From where they were standing, in the shadows of the trees, it was difficult to discern the smallest shades of color.

  Haruka turned up the sensitivity of her directional microphone. Beside her, Louis with an earbud in one ear was similarly fiddling with the volume.

  […This is it. Good job.]

  They heard Laura commending one of the people who had dug out the black stone tablet after she received it.

  Haruka and Louis exchanged looks. It seemed that FAIR had found what they were after.

  [And what should we do with this one?]

  The excavator holding the white stone tablet gestured it forward and asked Laura.

  Haruka and Louis brought their attention back to listening in.

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  […I'm still not sure. Let's bring it along and examine it just in case.]

  With that, Laura motioned for them to leave.

  "How do you want to proceed now?"

  Haruka asked Louis.

  "I think we should leave with what we have for now."

  She then added this. It was her judgment that she had fulfilled the request, having gotten enough evidence to call the job done.

  "Miss Fields, could you please deliver the data of the evidence to headquarters?"

  Haruka had no objections to the instruction.

  "What are you planning to do next, Mister?"

  She just couldn't shake the bad feeling that he was about to scare out a snake by poking at the brush. He himself doesn't mind if he gets bitten. However, he also didn't want anyone else to get caught up in it.

  "I can't let FAIR have that black stone tablet. It's just a gut feeling, but I'm sure of it."

  "…Are you going to try to take it away from them?"

  "Let's split up here. You should go to headquarters quickly."

  Not answering the question in this case was a clear affirmation.

  The words "That's reckless" threatened to escape from Haruka's mouth.

  "Okay. Take care, mister."

  But she ultimately didn't say it.

  Haruka quickly left the scene.

  As soon as she went behind the shadows of the trees, Louis couldn't feel even a hint of Haruka's presence.

  ◇ ◇ ◇

  Laura, who is carrying the black stone tablet herself, with a member holding the white stone tablet right behind her, was feeling a mix of excitement and impatience as they headed for the open land where their self-propelled car is parked.

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  She kept her expression and demeanor calm as usual. So, at least to the members of the digging team, she seemed calm and collected. But, secretly in her heart, she was beginning to feel frustrated with the discrepancy between her desire to bring back what had been uncovered as soon as possible and how fast, or rather, how slow, her pace is.

  Mt. Shasta is a famous tourist destination, but unlike other mountains it has been left for the most part untouched by people.

  This area is situated off from both the tourist routes and the mountain hiking trails, which means that there are no well-maintained trails. The trail that Laura and the others are on right now was created as a result of their frequent visits. Because it is not a maintained trail, the ground is not level, and the undergrowth has not been completely cleared, so it is necessary to pay close attention to whether there is anything underfoot.

  They're walking on a mountain trail, which inherently makes it more difficult to walk as quickly as they would otherwise on level ground. And on top of that, the conditions on this trail are terrible. To make matters worse, what they have in their hands is weighing them down a bit. Therefore, they naturally couldn't advance as quickly as they wished Normally, this wouldn't trouble Laura so much. But now, she had just obtained a treasure, a "Guru's Stone Tablet," which is more valuable than any sacred relic, and her mind was occupied with the desire to deliver it as soon as possible to Rocky Dean, the leader of FAIR, who took her as his lover.

  Was that desire out of loyalty or love? Or perhaps something else entirely?

  In fact, Laura herself is not sure. However, within her, the desire to devote herself to Dean comes first.

  If she were to give a name to this emotion, the word "obsession" might fill the role.

  Obsession narrows one's perspective.

  Perhaps it was because of this that she was late in noticing the signs that someone was stalking them, which is something she would normally have detected much earlier.

  ◇ ◇ ◇

  Ono Haruka was once a disciple of Kokonoe Yakumo.

  Not as one of Yakumo's monastic disciples, but as a ninjutsu user, a ninjutsu disciple, in other words. Although Yakumo himself prefers to be referred to as a "Shinobi" in the old-fashioned sense of the word.

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  Haruka came to become his disciple after an incident where her superpower — the unique ability that she, as a BS Magician possesses, which "completely erases her presence and makes her imperceptible to others" — went haywire, and Yakumo took notice and offered her a helping hand.

  So, the initial reason she became Yakumo's disciple was to learn how to control her special ability, which came to be known as "Perfect Concealment." Nevertheless, Yakumo is a ninja. It was inevitable that she would learn ninja techniques one way or another, however, Haruka was not only taught how to control her superpower, but also in the ways of classical martial arts.

  It was not her goal to become a ninja, but instead to gain the skills needed to control her superpower.

  Yakumo respected this and kept her martial arts training at a reasonable level. Only that it was "reasonable" by Yakumo's standards. By the time she left Yakumo's guidance, she had acquired the physical aptitude of a soldier from a scout unit.

  She relies almost exclusively on her superpower to become "imperceptible" when sneaking around or tracking people in the city. But once she's away from the city, in the mountains and forests, her ninja training comes in handy. This is why Haruka has shown better results in the last few days than Louis, who was trained by his father, a veteran security guard (a mercenary, essentially) who works for a private military company.10

  Given that background, it was no surprise that Haruka made it down the mountain much faster than FAIR's team and found a place where she could get access to a regular phone signal.

  "…Hello, Miss Gagnon. This is Detective Fields."

  As soon as the other side picked up the call, Haruka started talking on her own.

  Regardless, they are having a videophone call, so she knows who she's talking to by recognizing their face, but she still said her name because that's called business courtesy.

  [Hello. This is Gagnon. Did something happen?]

  "Yes. I called because I believe the situation is urgent."

  On the screen, Charlotte prompted her to "Go on" as her complexion changed.

  "FAIR managed to get their hands on the artifact they were after. We have it on video."

  [I see. Good work.]

  10 PMC: Private Military Company

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  "But Mr. Roux insisted on trying to take the artifact from them, so we had to split up in the mountains."

  Charlotte's expression grew increasingly tense.

  [So, Louis is currently…]

  "Yes. He is chasing after FAIR and may have already entered into conflict with them."

  [Thanks for the heads up. Miss Fields, please come back as soon as you can with the video evidence.]

  Charlotte followed without pause, without hiding the urgency in her tone.

  "Understood."

  She had no intention of coming to the rescue in the first place, so Haruka had no objection to her instructions.

  ◇ ◇ ◇

  (The game is not over until you leave the forest and get into the car.) This is what Louis thought to himself as he chased after Laura and her group under the cover of the trees.

  His magic is "Doppelgänger." It creates a kind of duplicate, a simulacrum11 of himself, with illusory offensive power. While its main use is to create the illusion of an attack and inflict damage, it is not impossible to give the simulacrum physical interference power as well.

  Due to the problem of Louis' own magical power, the physical output that can be given to the simulacrum of himself is less than the arm strength of the average adult male. But that should be enough to carry away the stone tablet in Laura's arms. The simulacrum itself has no mass, so it can move at a reasonable speed.

  That leaves one problem: Laura is a witch. As one, her magical perception is very high.

  There is also the fact that witches excel in the art of attacking the main body of a person through a magical connection.

  If he could find an opening, he would be able to take the stone tablet.

  But, as a witch, it may be easier for her to track down Louis' simulacrum, that is his duplicate, than his blood and flesh counterpart. And it's also possible that, at the 11 Kasei-tai 84

  moment if his true self were to touch the stone tablet, Laura could attack him via the stone tablet that she herself had been in contact with.

  It has been less than a month since their previous encounter, when Louis tasted bitter defeat at the hands of Laura. It happened at that time, he was hit by her witch's magic through his fleeing duplicate.

  (…Wouldn't I have a better chance against that witch if I used my own body rather than

  "Doppelgänger's" duplicate?)

  The idea incidentally popped into Louis's mind.

  Louis felt that it might be a surprisingly good idea.

  In other words, what if he were to flip things around, have the duplicate act as the decoy while the main body takes the stone slab?

  Although he would be thrusting himself in the midst of more than a dozen enemies —

  thirteen, including Laura, to be precise — he could manage the disadvantage by using his duplicate as a diversion to somehow split them up.

  (—Let's go with this.)

  His intuition was increasingly warning him that he shouldn't let them bring back that stone tablet. He was prepared to take some risks.

  With that in mind, Louis resolved himself.

  ◇ ◇ ◇

  "Charlee, have you had any luck getting in touch with Louis yet?!"

  At FEHR headquarters in Vancouver, the leader, Lena, was unusually unnerved.

  "Negative. It seems that he turned off the mobile signal on his device."

  Even Charlotte could not hide her uneasiness. They lost their composure after a phone call from Ono Haruka, a.k.a. Luca Fields, who alerted them to an unplanned action that Louis Roux had taken.

  "And I told him not to overdo it…"

  She was understandably apprehensive in sending Louis back for a similar job to the one in which he had been injured by Laura Simon's magic. So, right before he was about to leave again, Lena repeatedly stressed to him "not to overdo it."

  "I'll contact Miss Fields. Let's make an additional request for her to stop Louis."

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  "…No, that is not possible. When we asked for her to allow Louis to accompany her, we agreed to her condition that if things were to become dangerous that she could escape on her own. To ask her to turn back now would be a breach of our contract."

  Charlotte put forth a distressed suggestion, but Lena didn't go along with it.

  "Yes, you're right…"

  Charlotte admitted her mistake. She was ashamed that she had suggested a breach of contract when she herself is a lawyer.

  But they couldn't just sit back and do nothing. What Louis is trying to do is just too risky.

  Lena is much more concerned about it than Charlotte is, evident by how pale her face has become.

  "—Lena, how about asking Mr. Tookami to help us?"

  "Ryousuke?"

  Lena's eyes, which had been filled with anxiety, now have a mix of surprise.

  "His skill in close combat is one of the best we have. Especially in terms of defense, he can use his exceptional ability to counter both physical and magical attacks. Under the current circumstances, I think he's the best suited out of all members to rescue Louis."

  "But even if we ask him to go, it would take time…"

  "Yes, it would take almost half a day by self-propelled car. In that case, let's rent a small-sized plane. I know of a light aircraft that we can borrow, and I'm sure it will be ready in no time."

  Charlotte's suggestion made Lena think twice. This time, she didn't dismiss the suggestion immediately.

  "But we'll need a lot of luck to find Louis before it's too late…"

  Charlotte mumbled the "before it's too late" part.

  However, whatever she was trying to say was not lost on Lena.

  "—I'll take care of that."

  The heightened sense of urgency fueled Lena's decision.

  Charlotte knew immediately what Lena meant by "I'll take care of that."

  "Lena, that's dangerous! You can't send your astral body to where a 'witch' is, the risk is too great."

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  Charlotte then hurriedly attempted to stop Lena. It's a common belief that witches are more adept at attacking the mental body than the physical body. While the astral body is not the spirit itself, it is richly defined by characteristics of the spiritual body. Therefore, any damage to the astral body would directly translate to the spirit.

  "No. The situation that Louis is in is much more dangerous."

  But Lena shook her head with her eyes conveying a strong glint of resolution.

  Seeing the expression on her face, Charlotte had to give up trying to dissuade her.

  "Now it remains to be seen whether or not Ryousuke will agree to help us…"

  Lena muttered gloomily,

  "I think we'll have no problem on that point."

  To which Charlotte dismissed her concern as unnecessary, with an oddly calm expression on her face.

  "If it's you asking, Lena, I'm positive that Mr. Tookami will say yes immediately without a second thought."

  She then said this right after.

  With a slightly puzzled expression, Lena reached for the switch on her videophone.

  Fixed landlines have mostly lost their place to mobile phones for quite some time, but with the spread of the videophones, they have regained their preeminence.

  Selecting Ryousuke's name from the list of contacts on the display, Lena brought her finger atop of it.

  ◇ ◇ ◇

  After what happened yesterday, both Mayumi and Mari chose to hole up in the hotel for the day. They had their meals at the hotel's restaurant and by room service.

  This left Ryousuke with a whole day free to do his own thing. Since he is well acquainted with the area, he would have no trouble being alone. He really wanted to meet with Lena, but he has already caught the attention of the police who now have their eyes on him, so he refrained from doing so.

  Although he is a victim in this case, Ryousuke knows that the police here are very sensitive to crimes related to magicians. He knows that the police here are just as nervous, if not more so, not only about crimes committed by magicians, but also about crimes committed against them.

  87

  It was five years ago. At the time the flames of anti-magicism12 were first kindled on the East Coast in the former USA territory. Whether he was in the wrong place at the wrong time or in the right place at the right time, the mayor of Vancouver at the time was a rather frank and outspoken radical humanitarian.

  He always openly and with the utmost vehemence denounced the Anti-Magic Movement as a violation of human rights and declared himself opposed to the humanist groups that were at the center of the Anti-Magic Movement. So, in a sense, he openly challenged the prevailing "sentiment" of the time.

  The Anti-Magic Movement naturally took issue with him. Protests that bordered on terrorism were rampant in Vancouver.

  But the mayor refused to budge in any way. He thoroughly contested the Anti-Magic Movement, and he was committed to protect the human rights of magicians equally with those of non-magicians. It was due to the mayor's political stance that Lena chose Vancouver as the place for FEHR's headquarters.

  On the other hand, he has also severely cracked down on crimes committed by magicians. As in a show of his political belief that "magicians are just as human as anyone else," the mayor was highly reticent of being seen as favoring magicians.

  Consequently, the police adopted a strict approach to crimes in which magicians were involved, whether as perpetrators or victims.

  Even with the change in mayors, this policy has been maintained. Part of it has to do with the fact that the unauthorized use of magic in public spaces is treated much more harshly here than in any other municipality.

  When Ryousuke was still oblivious about this, at the time he was still earnest in his university studies here, he once used magic to catch a purse snatcher he happened to witness. The magic itself was not one that launches a projectile, rather, it was a magic that wraps a barrier around his body, that is to say "Reactive Armor." Given it was in response to the purse snatcher pulling out a gun on him, it would've been justified self-defense straight away in any other municipality in America.

  But the police in this city are different. Although he has never been sent to a detention facility, he did have to spend a few days going to and from the police station to prove he was acting in self-defense. It was then, in fact, when he and FEHR — that is when he and Lena crossed paths, when they came to his support. In that sense, it wasn't all that bad of an experience for him.

  12 A distinctive philosophy or political ideology that opposes the use of magic and the existence of magicians.

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  Nevertheless, the incident was enough to instill in Ryousuke a reluctance towards the Vancouver municipal police and any potential problems that come with them. It might come as no surprise that this is why he had become overly cautious of them.