Doll

Early the next morning, Soujuurou Shizuki woke up in his rented room.

He rubbed his head, seized by a sudden emptiness, as though he had forgotten something extremely important—yet instinctively felt it was no big deal.

"I should talk to the boss... and quit. The pachinko parlor, I mean."

Soujuurou instinctively believed his poor condition was caused by working three jobs. The pachinko parlor paid well, but it was simply too far from where he lived. Going back and forth drained far too much of his energy.

Having thought it through, the boy nodded to himself as if he had convinced himself, then sprang out of bed, walked over, and called the manager of the pachinko parlor.

That night, Aoko swung a leg over her beloved Interceptor and sped down the highways of Misaki Town.

The biting November night wind stung her skin, but it had no effect on Aoko.

The magecraft she had cast on Soujuurou Shizuki had originally been nothing more than insurance to keep him away from herself and Touko. Yet she had not expected so-called "historical inertia" to be so powerful. Even though Soujuurou had only met Touko for the first time the previous night, he had still been dragged into this.

This version of Aoko had no interest in some discarded product abandoned by an assassin organization, nor did she possess the somewhat excessive sense of justice the Aoko from the original timeline had.

So, after activating the magecraft buried within Soujuurou once more, she erased his related memories and planted the suggestion that he should quit the pachinko parlor.

As for whether the poor classmate from the mountains had lost a lucrative part-time job, that fell well outside Aoko's concerns.

Take care of yourself, boy.

The motorcycle was fast, and Aoko soon arrived at the target park. According to the information she had remotely made Soujuurou steal from Touko the previous night, the attack that woman had arranged would take place tonight at one of the leylines' nodes in this area, destroying the barrier set up by the Aozaki family.

Touko... no wonder she had racked up so much debt in the original timeline and was always short of money.

The grand barrier was an important asset of the Aozaki family, yet she could destroy it without hesitation. It was obvious that when this woman went mad, she spent money like water.

"An older sister who doesn't know how to run a household needs to be taught a lesson."

After parking her motorcycle, Aoko took off her helmet and entered the park.

Thick clouds blotted out the starlight. Even the howling gale could not disperse the heavy darkness shrouding the park.

A clock tower stood at the center of the park, its overlapping hands pointing to midnight. I should just rest at home tomorrow, Aoko thought. No matter what, adequate sleep was essential.

She stepped forward. A vast magecraft field, glowing with azure magical energy, spread from beneath Aoko's feet in crackling arcs of electricity. Violent magical power surged forth, brutally tearing apart the enemy's carefully arranged concealment magecraft.

The oppressive atmosphere blanketing the park was shattered in an instant, forcing certain enemies hidden behind the curtain into view.

They were several strangely shaped dolls, somewhat resembling the mannequins used to display clothes in department stores. But Aoko's common sense told her that no mannequin would have six arms, much less a head connected to another head whose features bore some resemblance to hers.

"What terrible taste, Touko."

Aoko muttered her complaint, but as she watched the dolls rush toward her on insect-like limbs, she did not immediately make a move.

The nearest doll extended one of its arms like a spear and viciously thrust it at Aoko's face.

But just before it could touch her, it struck an insurmountable barrier and stopped. It was Aoko's shield spell.

Aoko stretched out her hand and seized the doll that looked so much like her. A fierce burst of lightning erupted, and after its many limbs flailed wildly for two seconds, they fell still. Its vital structure had already been charred to cinders by Aoko's lightning claw.

Casually tossing the "charred corpse" aside, Aoko looked up. The remaining three dolls had clearly seen how she dealt with their kind. They immediately halted their advance, spread out, and surrounded Aoko from three different directions.

All three dolls raised the arms positioned at their waists. With the sound of mechanisms turning, curved blades hidden within those arms extended outward. Then, shifting their positions as they moved, they charged at her at high speed.

Aoko judged the distance and her enemies' speed as both hands flew through casting gestures.

First... Endure Elements.

A flash of spiritual light passed over her, successfully applying a spell from the abjuration school that did not quite fit the current situation. Without stopping, she activated the countless magical circuits throughout her body. As her magical energy began to circulate, Aoko's figure seemed to grow slightly wavering.

By then, the three dolls were only five or six meters away from Aoko. Yet she still stood in place casting, with no intention of dodging at all.

Just as the person hidden behind the scenes wondered what Aoko was doing, she completed her spell. She raised her right foot, then stomped sharply against the ground. A spherical shockwave centered on Aoko instantly burst outward.

Within a circular area roughly ten meters in radius around Aoko, the ground was covered in ice in the blink of an eye. The three dolls were first knocked back a short distance by the shockwave, then instantly frozen by the cold effect of Aoko's evocation spell. Their movements stopped, and they toppled to the ground.

Aoko turned in place, surveying the results of her work. Then she took a notebook from her jacket pocket, pulled out a pen, and began writing in it.

"Endure Elements... basic temperature-control magecraft from Engineering... precisely countered a third-circle Ice Burst... experiment successful."

After finishing her notes, Aoko walked over to inspect the dolls she had destroyed one by one. After picking through them, she found the most intact one, summoned an unseen servant with a wave of her hand, and had it tie the doll to the back of her motorcycle.

Aoko snapped her fingers, summoning blue flames out of thin air to burn the remains of the other dolls to ashes.

She looked up at the damaged barrier stone atop the central clock tower and frowned. Then she took out a new one from her waist pouch, sent it up with Mage Hand, and replaced the original barrier stone.

"Destroying family property, disrupting my rest, and even sending underlings to attack the head of the family... heh heh, I've written it all down!" Aoko muttered to herself. "Once I catch you, I'll make sure to teach you a proper lesson!"

After restarting the barrier at the leyline node, Aoko returned to her motorcycle and climbed aboard.

She gave the park one last look, then twisted the throttle and left without the slightest hesitation.

Even Touko would not stoop so low as to destroy the barrier here again, would she?