Seeing the corpses strewn everywhere, Mayumi took a deep breath.
Though her little heart was still pounding, the bloody stench lingering at her nose was awful, and her face had gone unnaturally pale, in the end she still held her breath and chased after him.
"D-don't come any closer, you monster!!!"
"Heh heh..."
"...Have you pissed yourself yet?"
"...Have you prayed to God yet?"
"...Are you mentally prepared to tremble in the corner of the room and beg for your life?"
"Because I'm coming to kill you now."
Tsukasa Hajime ran ahead, while Mahiro slowly pursued him from behind.
Along with that chilling laugh, the unhurried sound of footsteps echoed through the empty corridor.
Even the sound of gravel being crushed underfoot was exceptionally clear.
Until a great door blocked his path.
"Are you hiding in there?"
Eidos Eye, activate!
An arc of light flashed through Mahiro's eyes, and as if he were seeing through the door, he could clearly make out the people inside.
Nearly fifty armed personnel, every submachine gun muzzle aimed at the door.
And hiding at the very center of the crowd was their leader, Tsukasa Hajime.
Seeing this, Mahiro thought of a brand-new way to play.
[Information-body analysis, beginning—] [Individual information-body analysis complete.] [Loading magic sequence—complete.] ["Nihility"—activate!]
That was only from Yotsuba Mahiro's perspective.
As for Tsukasa Hajime's perspective.
That demon-like laughter and those footsteps had been chasing him from behind the entire time, until he hid inside the room, buried himself among the crowd, and sealed the door shut.
Only then did the footsteps and laughter vanish, stopping before the door.
As long as the door opened, bullets would greet him head-on and execute that demon on the spot!
That was how it should have been.
But in the next second.
Everyone around him disappeared.
It was not a figure of speech. They had genuinely disappeared!
As if some force had violently torn them apart and erased them, bursting them into masses of dust and mist, as though they had been disassembled!
Immediately after, the temperature inside the room began to climb.
"H-hot, it's so hot! What is this?!"
He looked down and saw faint, wavering waves of heat rising from the floor!
In moments, the entire room had already turned into a scorching hell beyond any summer heat!
"T-this is the USNA Thirteen Apostles' Sirius's 'Muspelheim'?!"
"Oh-ho. Didn't expect you to know your stuff, trash."
Yotsuba Mahiro decomposed the gas into plasma, then forcibly separated the cations and electrons, thereby creating a high-energy electromagnetic field!
The entire room had already become a blazing cage!
As the temperature kept rising, shouts continuously came from within.
They changed from initial wails to pleas for mercy, then to screams, gradually weakening until there was no sound left.
The light and heat it released melted the ceiling and floor, and melted through the tightly shut door!
Erika and Yuki, who had already taken position behind another door and were waiting at every moment for the enemy to run out, along with Mayumi, who had just hurried over to regroup with Mahiro.
They watched helplessly as the door melted before their eyes.
Immediately after, a powerful wave of heat rushed toward them head-on.
Even from several meters away, they could feel that terrifying heat, enough to burn everything to ash!
And when they looked inside, there was no trace of the enemy left. It had become a molten cavern flowing with scorching lava.
"What terrifying magical power..."
This was not the thought of one person, but the awed cry in everyone's heart.
The Japanese branch of the anti-magic organization Blanche had been completely destroyed.
By the time the Metropolitan Police arrived, their faces had turned ashen.
The abandoned biofuel plant had already become a field of ruins, with traces of residual magic everywhere.
Rather than handling a terrorist organization, they looked more like they had come to clean up the mess.
What shocked them even more was that all of this had been done by students of First High School!
Although it had been for the purpose of wiping out an illegal organization, killing with magic without a license was undoubtedly a provocation against judicial authority—an open slap in their faces.
As agreed beforehand, Yotsuba Mahiro took full responsibility alone.
But when faced with the person in charge who came to question him, all he did was drop one line—
"My name is Yotsuba Mahiro. I'm Maya Yotsuba's son. If you have anything to say, go talk to my mom directly."
He was so forceful that Mayumi did not even get the chance to help explain.
The police officers froze on the spot, speechless. They did not even bring up arresting him or carrying out a routine inquiry again.
After all, the power of the Ten Master Clans stood above their judicial institutions.
Although the organization had existed for less than a century, and even its family rankings could change, its authority was still considerable.
The members of the Ten Master Clans did not participate in politics, but their influence had long since seeped into the military and every judicial institution, standing at the very front and using magical power to solidify this nation.
Not to mention, Yotsuba Mahiro belonged to the Yotsuba, a family within the Ten Master Clans that was practically on the verge of dominating all the others.
Go and provoke Maya Yotsuba?
That would undoubtedly be courting death.
"Is that boy really a student at your school?"
The listless-looking police officer, Chiba Toshikazu, scratched his hair in distress as he turned to the red-haired beauty beside him—his younger sister, Erika—for confirmation.
"Ahaha..." Erika laughed awkwardly. "Although sometimes I get the same feeling as you do, Toshikazu, he really is my classmate. He's also a pretty good person."
"A good person who used A-rank lethal magic and wiped out an entire terrorist organization by himself?"
"If you fuss too much over the details, you'll turn into an idiot, Toshikazu. Besides, those people brought it on themselves in the first place."
Chiba Toshikazu's rhetorical question was mercilessly mocked by his younger sister, leaving him rather helpless.
Erika was right. Those people had indeed brought it on themselves. The problem was that this had already gone far beyond the scope of what a student should be capable of.
And most importantly—
"Erika, aren't you going to explain to me why you were here?"
"I only came to help, and I didn't even help much... I finally got to come out for once, but in the end, I didn't even get to touch a single terrorist."
Erika muttered softly, half teasing and half complaining.
One could only say that she truly was the young lady raised by Chiba Dojo. She was filled from head to toe with violent tendencies, without the slightest trace of a proper lady.
As her eldest brother, Chiba Toshikazu could only feel deeply helpless about that.
With that, the Blanche incident could be considered over.
Under the interference of the Saegusa, Jumonji, and Yotsuba families, aside from Tsukasa, who had been the mastermind and was sent to prison, no one else was held accountable.
As for the death of the Japanese branch leader Tsukasa Hajime, along with the lack of evidence caused by Yotsuba Mahiro and Erika keeping silent, Sayaka was also spared punishment.
Just like the handling of the Alliance, she was given a practically meaningless disciplinary action.
As for the damage inside the school, whether it had been caused by students or by something else, all of it was pushed onto the terrorists.
Even equipment that had fallen into disrepair over the years was all blamed on the terrorist organization.
It was more or less like a robber who stole one million, only for the news the next day to say he had stolen one billion.
However, Sayaka was currently hospitalized for treatment.
A hairline fracture in the arm was something modern medicine could heal in minutes.
But the trauma to her mind was still difficult to cure.
So, under the pretext of an injured forearm, Sayaka requested a period of leave from school and remained in the hospital for observation.
They needed to confirm whether there were any lingering aftereffects from the mental manipulation.
During this time, the Student Council, the Public Morals Committee, and the Club Federation were all busy reorganizing affairs within the school.
And just like that, Mahiro, as someone with nothing particular to do, became completely idle.
Every day after school, whenever he had nothing to do, he would run to the hospital to visit Sayaka. After all the coming and going, the two of them also grew closer and closer.
On the surface, everything was developing in a positive direction—
At least, that was how it was for Yotsuba Mahiro.
However, while the Blanche incident was hardly worth mentioning to Japan's magical world—not even qualifying as rotten fish and shrimp—it still stirred up quite a bit of trouble.
It officially brought the name "Yotsuba Mahiro" into the sights of the Ten Master Clans, the Eighteen Assistant Houses, and the Hundred Families.
The ripples it caused struck the Yotsuba Family first and foremost.
And at that moment, inside the Yotsuba main house.
Hayama stood in attendance at her side.
Maya sat beside the floor-to-ceiling window, dressed like a noblewoman, reading the news that had popped up on her terminal. The vivid color of her lips had imprinted itself on the wall of the white teacup, and an unreadable smile curved at the corner of her mouth.
"Heehee. In just one short month, that child really has caused quite a stir."
"Is it all right to simply leave him be like this?"
"It's fine." Maya took a light sip of black tea. "Let that child do whatever he wants. This... is rather interesting in its own way."
"But Lady Maya, if this continues unchecked, I fear he will cause even greater trouble. And the way he is smearing your reputation outside..."
"I already said so, Hayama."
Maya spoke, cutting him off, and raised her head to look at the old butler who had served the Yotsuba Family for many years. In the teacup filled with black tea, a fleeting shooting star flashed past.
"What that child said is, in truth, more or less fact. As his mother, I did indeed abandon him and shut him away in the Fourth Laboratory for so many years. It is only natural that he would harbor resentment. And not equipping him with a magic machine was indeed rather unreasonable... Still, hearing my adorable child say such things about me outside does make me, as his mother, somewhat sad..."
As always, she was brimming with the desire to perform, and that especially heartbroken, almost tearful look of hers made it even harder to tell what was true and what was false.
But those words seemed to be spoken to Hayama, and yet they also seemed to be spoken for her own ears.
She gently set down the teacup and continued, "Hayama, inform Shiba Tatsurou. Have him complete the CAD as soon as possible. Then have the observer we selected earlier bring this gift to Mahiro."
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