My words didn't entirely erase her doubts, which was understandable given she was here on official family business. All that could be seen across the street were closed curtains. While Tatsuya and I were one thing, Lina's detection of the gaze was a testament to her experience; it was no surprise that Miyuki and Minami couldn't see the observer.
However, in Miyuki's case, her training with me had allowed her to master the "Tenjin" magic style. Using a detection sequence to sense nearby intent, she seemed to realize someone was indeed there.
"Yugen-san, shall we capture them?"
"No. Even if we caught them now, we wouldn't get any useful information. We'll have to 'repay' them for this needless anxiety eventually, but it doesn't have to be today."
Even if I couldn't get them to talk, I could still extract their "history" (memory). I took Miyuki's right hand in my left and led her through the hotel's revolving doors.
Captain James J. Johnson, a combat magician of the Australian Army, watched the five of them—Yugen, Miyuki, Tatsuya, Lina, and Minami—enter the hotel from a room in the building across the street. Only after they disappeared did he allow himself to exhale. As he reached up to wipe his brow, he realized his palm was slick with cold sweat.
(That kid in the group... there's no doubt. He's the same brat we tried to capture years ago.)
The intel James had received from the Great Asian Alliance defectors hadn't included a photo. But as he staked out the target today, he saw a boy who looked—no, who was—identical to the one he and Jasmine had failed to track. His instincts, honed from that day, screamed the truth.
The Australian high command had been wary, knowing he was an associate of Gozo Kamizumi, but James had never imagined he would cross paths with him again.
(That feeling... I couldn't shake it no matter how hard I tried. It wasn't just tension. Was I... afraid?)
Currently, Australia followed a policy of isolationism—not just diplomatically, but militarily. They had no allies and participated in no joint exercises. However, that didn't mean soldiers like James lacked combat experience. Having successfully reversed desertification and greened their land, Australia was a completely self-sufficient nation that didn't need to rely on others. Consequently, they were constantly targeted by the intelligence agencies of expansionist nations, making shadow wars a daily occurrence.
Furthermore, "neutrality" didn't mean they were idle. They occasionally partnered with foreign armed groups for deniable, illegal operations. James was a specialist in clandestine activities, a veteran magician who had fought on the front lines of the secret world. He had crossed the threshold of death more than once and prided himself on his nerves of steel.
(He didn't just notice the surveillance. One of them had a gaze that felt like it pierced through my soul and grabbed my heart... like the eyes of the Grim Reaper. The name 'Untouchable' isn't just for show.)
—Do not lay a hand on the Yotsuba of Japan. To do so is to invite ruin.
This warning was whispered alongside the legendary feats of Gozo Kamizumi. It included rumors regarding the two heroes of the Third World War: Gozo Kamizumi and Chise Kagurazaka.
In the underworld, it was whispered with absolute gravity that the Great Asian Alliance had been forced into an unfavorable peace treaty only because they had provoked the Yotsuba. Many believed the Strategic-Class Magic that scorched the southern Korean Peninsula had been developed by the Yotsuba family.
Furthermore, rumors persisted that the magic that erased the Vladivostok naval port from the skies above Sado Island was a Strategic-Class spell developed by either the Kamizumi or Kagurazaka families—the houses that produced the two heroes. There were even unconfirmed reports that Igor Andreivitch Bezobrazov, one of the "Thirteen Apostles," had been in Vladivostok at the time and had fired the Strategic-Class Magic Tuman Bomba toward Sado Island.
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