Rebirth

She looks away from where she'd been watching Sora and Hoshi bicker in amusement with Miho as Erika settles on the edge of her desk, “Morning. Hey, did you see yesterday's news?”

She feels a flicker of irritation. Not at Erika specifically, though she supposes her family does vaguely have ties to it. Anyway, she was irritated with the police. Yesterday, news had broken about a string of seven murder victims. The police didn't even know the cause of death, not because it was an unknown poison or semantics of some sort. The only thing physically wrong with the victims was that they were all missing about ten percent of their blood. Considering you have to lose about half to die of blood loss, that can't be the cause of death. But while she understands not wanting to cause panic, people deserve to have warning that there's a serial killer loose that they need to be careful of.

Erika clocks her unhappy expression, “Whoa, you went dark there. Do… Do you know one of the victims?”

She shakes her head, “No. I'm just not pleased with the fact it took the police this long to release a statement. Murders happen of course, and serial killers exist, but there's a line between being careful not to cause panic and giving people warning that they need to be more careful than usual in a certain area. I feel like they're on the wrong side of that line.”

Erika sighs, “You aren't the only one. I feel like they sat on it too long as well. Especially since they didn't even release it willingly but because of a leak to a news site online and they wanted to make sure it wasn't twisted and blown out of proportion and made people panic.”

She hums, “Anyway, even as a nickname, it seems a bit silly to be calling it a ‘vampire’ attack, because I'm pretty sure if vampires were real they'd be taking much more than ten percent of a victim's blood.”

Erika seems to regain her cheer, "Right?! And also, ‘vampire’ is singular, but it’s impossible that it would be done by a single criminal, right? Is it a professional organized crime? My vote is that it is an illegal organization dealing in organs and blood.”

She shakes her head, “It wouldn't make sense to only take ten percent in that case though. And also, why not take the organs while they're at it if they deal in that kind of thing already?”

Erika hums, “That's true. But it does go right back to square one. If not for that, why take the blood?”

She shrugs, “Well…” She's trying to find a way to word the things she knows about the power that can be in blood she learned in her previous life before eventually settling on, “Maybe something to do with some sort of magic. I feel like I've vaguely read about certain more obscure and archaic Ancient Magics.”

Mikihiko hums as he walks up, “That's definitely a possibility. I feel like I may have read about something like that myself, but it's old-old if so. Really, the more important question is how rather than why. The why can be helpful to authorities for psychology to try to find the killer of course, but the how can be helpful to anyone. Depending on what it is, it could potentially help people spot the killer and know they're in danger easier.”

She nods, “That's absolutely true. There's also just the fact that people tend to be more scared of the unknown. There's a healthy amount of fear that can keep people on their toes and make them more mindful of their surroundings of course, but if you go beyond that, and the unknown is unfortunately good at driving people to it, then it can often be more detrimental than helpful.”

There's nods all around at that.

Erika hums, “So what do you think the cause of death is? The news just speculated some sort of ‘occult’ or something like that.”

She snorts, “A hundred years ago, magic itself was considered ‘occult’ so that's really not saying much.” She sighs, “There's also far too many things it could be, so it doesn't really feel worth speculating on to me.”

Sora nods in agreement, “It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack.”

Erika, “Yeah, but there's no harm in speculating, now is there?”

The kids start doing exactly that, and Sora, Hoshi, and Miho certainly take part, but she's honestly more focused on mulling over the current and potentially future victims and how to put a stop to it to pay more than absent attention.

At lunch, she tilts her head at Honoka as she comes up, “No Lina?”

Honoka shrugs lightly as she sits, “She's not here today. Apparently she had some family business to attend to?”

She hums in acknowledgement, and Erika pipes up, "Speaking of that, is Shizuku doing well?”

She's a bit bemused at the change in topic, but technically Lina and Shizuku are connected, if only in that they took each other's places for the exchange program. Honoka smiles, "Yeah, she seems to be doing well. She also said the lessons are not that difficult. However, she said that she was surprised that class discussion forms including teachers still remain.”

Mizuki tilts her head, "Then, maybe Lina is perplexed as well in various ways, right?"

Yuki is smiling, but it's a devious smile, "That really doesn’t look like it.”

She's not sure if the weird smile is because he's enjoying that Lina isn't very good at espionage or what, but even if it has nothing to do with pushing her boundaries, given the way it potentially endangers others to flirt with potentially revealing Lina, it makes her want to grab her spray bottle from her bag. It's a shame that the fact she'd already just established it was for when he was pushing boundaries means she can't really use it on him. Even if he'd kinda deserve it right now. 

Thankfully, no one notices, probably too distracted by what Honoka adds, "We spoke on the phone a little yesterday as well, but Shizuku was also surprised at the news of the 'Vampire event'. Somehow, a similar incident seems to have happened in America as well, she said.”

Erika blurts out in surprise, “Eeeh! Is that true?"

Honoka nods quickly with wider eyes, "I also asked Shizuku the same thing. It seems to take place not in the West Coast where Shizuku is, but in the central area in the southern part of Dallas."

It surprises her quite a bit. Given Maya's warning, she's been monitoring news regarding the USNA pretty closely, and yet, “It’s the first time I heard of this…”

Honoka shrugs, "Even on the other side, it seems that they have a tolerably working information restriction. Shizuku also said that it was not from the news that she heard it, but from a well-informed student who happened to be a former exchange student. Which confused me at first since its been a decade, but apparently he's actually a college student and he took a few years off before he started, so.”(1)

She hums, “If they've kept it out of the news, then it makes sense we haven't heard of it. Still, depending on the timeline, it definitely points to either a group working in multiple countries simultaneously, or that even if that's not where they originated from, that the perpetrator or perpetrators came here from the USNA.”

There's nods and murmurs of agreement before the kids start pressing Honoka for more information.

She turns it over in her mind. What was in Japan that had driven whoever was doing this here? Or, perhaps, what were they fleeing? Was it a simple matter of law enforcement closing in?

She's still biting back the anger that's been burning beneath the surface all day, ever since the text this morning telling her that Leo was in the hospital and it was arguably entirely Detective Toshikazu's fault because he'd pulled Leo into investigating the ‘vampire’ attacks. It had landed Leo in the hospital. Which is where they were now, looking to visit him.

After getting the room number for Leo, they start towards the elevator when Erika's voice suddenly calls out, “Everyone is here now.”

She turns in surprise, “You're still here Erika?”

She feels it's a valid question. She'd gotten the text about Leo this morning, Erika had taken the day off of school to be here, and by now the sun was starting to get pretty low.

Erika huffs, “It’s not like I’ve been here all day. I returned home once today and came back about an hour ago. I guessed that you would bring everyone about this time.”

It's unbelievably obvious as a lie, but no one has the heart to call Erika out on it. She gets into the elevator with them, and there's a few beats of quiet before Mizuki pipes up softly, “Erika, is Leo-kun going to be okay..?”

Erika hums, “Don’t worry, Mizuki. Didn’t I mention in the text message? His life’s not in danger.”

There's more silence after that, and it's not really broken until Erika knocks on Leo's door and a young woman's voice calls out, “Ah, come in.”

Erika opens the door, answering before the rest of them even really see much, “Kaya, excuse us.” Erika glances at them and adds, “This is Saijou Kaya, Leo’s older sister.”

She'd kinda been thinking there was a relation, since other than being about four or five years older, blonde instead of brunette, and female, she looks strikingly similar to Leo. After a bit of talk, mostly asking about what the doctors have said about Leo even though he's sitting up and seems fine visually -though she can absolutely tell he's faking it given what her Elemental Sight is telling her about the trembling he's suppressing from reaching a visible level, as well as just from her experience as a Noble making the exhaustion he was hiding horribly obvious to her-, Kaya grabs the vase of flowers and excuses herself to give them some privacy.

Mizuki gazes after her, “What a gentle older sister.”

From the conflicted expression Leo gets at that, the situation is a bit more complicated, but he didn't exactly seem unhappy that his sister was visiting, so there's likely not Mikihiko kinds of family problems. And unless there is, she's not going to go digging into Leo’s family's dirty laundry.

She's pretty sure she's not the only one to pick up on it, but no one else seems inclined to pry either, nor does anyone protest Leo shifting the subject, “Man, this sucks. I can’t believe you guys are seeing me in such a state.”

Sora hums, “You don't seem injured at a glance. Is it something more internal?”

Leo sighs, “That’s where I don’t understand…” His expression makes it clear that he didn't mean ‘I don't understand how I could lose’ but rather genuine confusion, “At the moment of contact, I suddenly felt like I lost all my strength. I mustered my will to deliver one last attack, to which the perpetrator fled, while I was keeled over on the ground until Erika’s older brother found me.”

Hoshi tilts her head, “Poison?”

But Leo shakes his head, “Well, no matter where they looked, there’s no sign of laceration or puncture on my body. Nor are there any foreign elements in my blood.”

Mikihiko seems particularly troubled, “Did you see their features?”

Leo drops his gaze to his lap, “Well, I did see something. They wore a hat, long overcoat with carbon armor underneath, and a mask. There was no way to tell facial features or physique, but…”

The cop in her would never let something like that pass Miho without question, “But?”

Leo shrugs, “I got the feeling that it was a woman.”

Mikihiko's eyes go wide, “…A woman has the strength to go toe-to-toe with Leo?”

Erika fires back without missing a beat, “That’s hardly unheard of. With the right medication, even an elementary girl can strangle an adult male.”

Mikihiko nods lightly, “That’s true… but...”

Leo furrows her brows, “But?”

Mikihiko shakes his head, “There’s also the possibility that you weren’t up against a human being in the first place.”

Now it's Erika’s turn to get wide eyed, “Eh? Miki… Are you telling me you buy into that stuff like vampires?”

Seemingly more habitually than anything, Mikihiko says back in a light tone, “My name is Mikihiko.”

She waves it off, “You think you know what's going on Mikihiko? If it's something more to do with Ancient Magic it makes sense the police have little clue what's happening, but if so, then what is it?”

Mikihiko hesitates momentarily before he gathers himself and confidently announces, “I think there’s a chance that Leo ran into a ‘Parasite.”

She asks back immediately, “Is that a literal term in this case or a nickname Ancient Magicians gave it?”

Mikihiko makes a ‘so-so’ gesture with his hand, “A little bit of both.” Then he shakes himself and starts explaining properly, “Paranormal Parasites, aka Parasite. In the modern age where the existence and might of magic have been publicized, modern magic is not the only area seeking international cooperation. Ancient Magic can’t remain stagnant either, so globalization is unavoidable. Heirs of Ancient Magic have hosted many international conferences centered in England, aiming to standardize terms and concepts and refine them.”

Mikihiko tilts his head, “Parasite is also one of the acknowledged terms. Monsters, evil spirits, djinns, demons, of all the various entities in the different countries, we call the magical beings that infest human beings and turn them into inhuman creatures as Parasites. Even if Ancient Magic has become globalized, that still doesn’t change the fact that they keep their secrets to themselves, so it’s not surprising that everyone here with a modern magic background doesn’t know about it.”

Honoka murmurs fearfully, “I can’t believe the monsters and djinns actually exist…”

She glances over at her and tries to comfort her quickly, “A hundred years ago, people would've said the same about magic and probably had their own fears due to the unknown. If they're already known by Ancient Magicians though, there's undoubtedly already ways to deal with them.”

Mikihiko nods firmly, “There are.” Then he turns to Leo in concern, “Leo, can I examine your spectral form?”

Leo gives him a confused look, which she can't blame him for since she's never heard the term either, “Spectral form?”

Mikihiko starts gesturing vaguely as he explains, “Spectral form refers to the information body that is shaped like the physical body, except that it links the physical flesh with your spirit. The key to the spectral form is life, or life force. Monsters that devour the flesh and blood of man are rumored to prey on the life force that is taken with the flesh.”

Erika purses her lips, “In other words, while vampires suck blood, what they’re really looking to do is sucking away the life force?”

Mikihiko nods, “Vampires drink blood and ghouls consume flesh, but since they weren’t material beings in the first place, they should only be interested in life force. At least, if what the elders in Ancient Magic told me is to be believed.”

She narrows her eyes, “So the blood loss is just a side effect? But if that's the case, how did they get to Leo’s life force with just a touch.”

Mikihiko's own brows furrow, “I'm not sure. But if I can examine Leo’s spectral form, I think I may be able to find something. At the very least, it would confirm that it is the loss of life force that's the problem. …Honestly speaking, I was never convinced that this vampire incident was caused by normal human beings. It always seemed like something more than just serial homicides, and not just because there was no trace of blood being sucked out. My instincts as an Ancient Magic user tells me this, except I have no proof. Precisely because it was only my gut feeling, so I never told everyone about Parasites. However, now even Leo has been attacked.”

Leo cuts into Mikihiko’s self recriminating words with certainty, “Go ahead Mikihiko.”

Mikihiko searches his face, “…Are you sure?”

Leo nods firmly, “Yeah. Actually, it’s more like I’m requesting you do so. There’s no way to respond if we don’t understand the cause.”

The way Leo speaks laces an undercurrent of forgiveness towards Mikihiko not bringing it up since he had no proof of what was going on, and more obviously an unquestionable trust. Mikihiko’s expression trembles slightly at that, still unsurprisingly having issues with people having faith in his abilities even after taking a leap of faith in believing in himself during the Yokohama incident and catching his cousin which she was still so proud of him for, but he leans down to dig into the bag he'd set down at some point.

He takes a bit to set things up and as he does she asks if it's essentially just the Pushion Eidos in the information dimension and after he sort of confirms that it kind of is, files the information away as she starts trying to see it in the data she's reading from Leo. She assumes it's due to the ‘vampire’ attack, but that… ‘membrane’ you could call it -that no one has ever been able to name for her but seems like the Pushion Eidos wrapped around the Psion Eidos and she's never really thought about previously- around Leo's Eidos has been disrupted rather heavily. While she's busy with that, Mikihiko finishes setting up and the next thing she knows he's standing by Leo with his talismans fanned out in front of him.

Whatever he's reading seems to surprise him, and after a beat he murmurs out, “How should I say this… While Toshiko is also in a league of her own from what I've vaguely registered without trying to read her Spectral form…”

She blinks rapidly and points at herself, “Eh? Me? I'm not…”

She's firmly ignored by… Well, everyone as Mikihiko continues, “Leo, are you really human..?”

Leo seems to try to laugh it off, but he can't quite seem to do it right when Mikihiko’s voice is so earnest if his tone when he replies is any indication, “Hey, how polite of you.”

Mikihiko shakes his head, “No, but… How are you still up and about? The average Magician wouldn't be able to hold themselves up if so much life force was devoured.”

She tilts her head, “You can detect how much is missing?”

Mikihiko tilts his head, “The spectral form and the physical body possess the same shape. Since the capacity size is a given, the original amount of life force compared to the current level is more or less detectable.” Mikihiko squints at whatever he's seeing before giving Leo another look, “Currently at Leo’s life force level, forget even crawling, the average person wouldn’t even be able to remain conscious. To be able to sit up and still converse like this, his physical capability must be astounding.”

It could be considered an insensitive comment to remark on Leo's physical capability given he's descended from a magician genetically modified to raise physical prowess, but Leo doesn't take it poorly, probably because of Mikihiko’s earnest tone, so he's just smiling as he quips, “Probably. My body is specially designed for that sort of thing. At any rate, right now I feel powerless because that masked woman ate my life force. Is that how it goes?”

“I think so, but..”

Miho tilts her head, “But?”

Mikihiko looks down, “…Since this was during combat and they have the ability to consume life force on contact, there should be no reason to suck blood. I have no idea how they can take blood without leaving any wounds but… Why is this Parasite wasting additional time and energy doing something extraneous like sucking blood?”

She looks out the window, “The only answer is that the life force they get from it isn't their primary goal.”

Mikihiko nods slowly, then glances at Erika, “I'm sorry it wasn't that helpful for your brother, since I'm sure you'll tell him.”

Erika waves it off, “Don't be ridiculous. Now we know what we're dealing with. Why they're after blood is important of course, but just knowing it's seriously not humans lets him know to approach the situation differently. It also tells him he should consult an Ancient Magician on how to take them down.”

Mikihiko sighs as he starts gathering his things, “Well, if nothing else, you need to pass on that they should avoid lethality with them. The body dying won't kill the Parasite; They'll just move on and take over someone else. Actually, it's best not to trap them in any way that doesn't affect Pushions and subsequently seals them. They've been known to essentially self destruct the body with magic to escape, so he may wanna recruit an Ancient Magician to seal them if he doesn't have some sort of modern technique.”

Erika’s face tightens, her voice flat, “Yeah. Consultations like that.”

She peers at Mikihiko, brow furrowed. Detective Toshikazu had already recruited Leo. She has a bad feeling Mikihiko is about to be dragged into things as well.

She sighs as she settles down after finishing her spar with Yakumo. Given he's not technically allowed to teach her things, he tends to pass along teaching in a rather… roundabout way. Partly just letting her watch him use his own magic during spars, partly by having her overcome it. Today was one of those days, though she wasn't fully successful. In fairness, it was the first time he'd used the technique on her.

Yakumo comes out of the sliding door behind her after ducking in to instruct some of his disciples to make tea, “Whew, scary, scary.”

She furrows her brow, “What?”

Yakumo gives her one of those mysterious smiles, “Hm, I didn’t think you would be able to break through Mirage Cloak.”

She shakes her head, “I didn't. Not fully anyway. I was still off on your actual position.”

Yakumo chuckles, “And you only just saw it for the first time today. You really are too humble sometimes, you know?”

She waves it off, then shifts the subject slightly, “So that technique is called Mirage Cloak, huh? Unless I'm mistaken, it isn't a normal illusion.”

Yakumo sighs, “So you did see it.” But despite his sighing, he isn't hiding the fact he's actually very pleased, most likely never intending to actually hide it and it was just him putting on dramatic airs, “Your ability to read an opponent’s technique may be a threat to your enemies, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a way to take advantage of this.”

She accepts the tea a disciple hands her with a thankful nod, assumably something they'd already started on given the speed they came out with it, “And that illusion does so?”

Yakumo takes a sip of his own tea before replying, “Mirage Cloak was a technique originally designed to shield against eyes that are not of this world. As for its design… Well, you go ahead and ponder on your own. If it’s you, you should be able to grasp it in an instant.”

Her gaze sharpens. Yakumo often seems like he's going on random tangents and his timing is lucky at best. He isn't and it isn't luck. He knows a lot about things going on after all, she gazes down in her tea, “Eyes not of this world’ huh? Like a Paranormal Parasite's for instance?”

Yakumo smiles, eyes gleaming, “Ah, yes. That's a perfect example. Our enemies are not restricted to just humans. It isn’t that rare for some of them to strike a bargain with forces beyond this world.”

She hums, “Is there a difference in how you're defining encounters? I was actually speaking about this with Mikihiko not long ago and he said they only happen about once every ten generations.”

Yakumo hums, “Mikihiko’s words are correct, but at the same time, imperfect. Is this what you’re referring to? Actual run-ins with bona fide spirits are extremely rare, but incursions because someone else provided the impetus are not that infrequent, am I right?”

She looks up at his pinning gaze above his careful smile, “Ah, so the difference is in beings like them crossing over or falling into our world naturally compared to someone pulling them in or the like.”

Yakumo nods, “Quite.”

Taking into account the way the timing lines up with other occurrences… she wonders who in the USNA called for the Parasites or let them in on accident. Because while it's possible the USNA dedicated as much personnel as they did just to try to take down the Magician behind Material Burst, if they had a secondary mission of cleaning up their mess covertly…

Someone sure messed up over there, that's for sure.

It wasn't hard to get into contact with Shizuku through Honoka when the hours were lined up well for them both. She'd been understandably surprised and concerned about the news regarding Leo, which Honoka hadn't passed on yet given the time difference and that it happened just the day before, but she'd been perfectly willing to look into the previous ‘vampire’ incidents in the USNA to see if they could get any sort of information from that angle. She's actually sitting at home later that night when she suddenly gets a text from Mikihiko.

She moves so quickly the second she's done reading it, she damn near seems to apparate down to the garage and onto her motorcycle to leave, even though she knows full well she hadn't.

How could she not after Mikihiko sends her a message that he and Erika have joined the hunt, and the Ancient Magic he's using to track down the Parasite is saying they're getting close?

She feels impatient as she drives towards the location Mikihiko had sent with the message, and she could damn near scream in frustration anytime she hits a red light or something else stops her, but once she gets to the area Mikihiko had given her, it isn't hard to figure out where they went. Not with the way there's practically a storm of magic nearby, and she can read that part of it belongs to Mikihiko and Erika.

She watches as they tangle with some woman under some sort of illusion spell that seems to be affecting even her Eidos somehow, but she can't really bring herself to care about that right now, nor the fact that it's clearly Lina clashing with Erika from the magic signature. She's far more focused on Mikihiko and what she can only assume is one of these Parasites going at it. She can only feel utter relief at the fact she'd made a specialized CAD for Mikihiko, a iron fan with Ancient Magic engravings connected to a wrist band style bracelet that stores Ancient Magic activation sequences and had already given it to him given a head on battle with something the USNA had deployed Angie Sirius for was bound to be fast paced.

She watches as he makes damn good use of it as he uses some sort of combo spell of gravity nullification and inertia canceling to avoid a few physical blows. Watches as he ends up breaking what looks like a walking stick covered in writing on the Parasite's arm. Watches as he jumps back from another swing and throws a knife before he lands, presumably probing for information given the knowing look he gets when it hits the Parasite's barrier and bounces before he starts casting again and launches an electrical spell at her. Watches as the Parasite clutches her head howling as the electricity dances around her. Watches the phenomenon of it being within a ball of electricity even though she's seen Mikihiko use that spell and it's only supposed to be a single strike. But unlike Mikihiko watching visually in confusion she can see the Parasite using Modern Magic to gather the electricity Mikihiko produced, and thankfully Mikihiko realizes what the Parasite is doing and dodges before it can hit him with the first attack of weaker electricity that launches from the hands it flings out at him.

The Parasite starts gathering a ball of electricity at that point, and from Mikihiko’s horrified expression, he won't be able to dodge this time, but she's there now, so it's easy to use Decomposition on the Parasite's spell.

If Lina really is here to assassinate her as well as clean up the USNA's mess, it makes sense that after a beat once she clocks her that she starts to try to cast at her, but it's not hard to use Gram Demolition on her spell and before she can even try to call up another to absolutely smother the area in her Psions. It's something she rarely uses since her ridiculously high Psion count is one of those things the Yotsuba would rather she didn't reveal, they even tried to force her to let Touka, Yuuka's mother, use her unique magic Pledge between her and Yuki. Partly for the very reason that it busies Psions which lowers the amount a person appears to have, but also because they wanted her to be physically incapable of using Material Burst without approval. Too bad for them a benefit of the things she learned in her previous life, both in general magic control and finer magic control like with wandless wordless magic, meant she was perfectly capable of adjusting her perceived Psion count manually. And while she didn't generally need Material Burst, she would never allow the Yotsuba any control of her abilities.

Regardless, she lets that iron control stop holding the majority of her Psions down in such a way others can't perceive them and switch to actively blanketing the area, seeping into everything and not quite cast jamming on its own, but making it hard to alter any phenomenon in the area. Given that even Yuki struggles to overcome it with his interference strength and Lina has proven time and again she can't match him at that, it effectively neutralizes her as a threat. It certainly frees her up to turn her attention to the Parasite that had started to turn and run as she used Gram Demolition on Lina's spell, boxing it in with multiple shields.

The Parasite immediately starts trying to activate magic to tear them down, but its interference strength is even weaker than Lina's. She's well aware she's speaking in the previously dubbed ‘Dragon voice’ and that it's all but dripping with her fury at the Parasite almost killing her emotionally adopted son, “I didn't say you could go. Not after the things you've done and certainly not after you almost killed Mikihiko.”

Though she seems a smidge out of breath, Erika can't seem to help but quip at that, “Uh-oh. She's using the Mom voice. You're in troouublllee. ”

Ignoring the snickering Erika and the slightly blushing Mikihiko, who still gets a bit flustered when she gets overprotective of him, she cinches in the shields enough to be able to force the Parasite to turn to her for an easier time of reading it, “Now, let's see what you're after, hmm?”

Then, careful to pull her Occlumency shields tight, she launches a Legilimency at it. Almost immediately she feels that it has something of a hive mind with others, and they immediately launch themselves into trying to tear down her Occlumency shields. There's not much point, while she can feel that they're strong in general, strong enough they'd even be capable of overcoming her mother, they were weak in the face of over four centuries of honed Occlumency.

That being said, it does result in a violent clash of Pushions, and a beat later she hears Mikihiko start to say, “Pushion storm! We need to get out of here before-!”

Then he cuts off. At least verbally anyway, as she feels the way the ‘Pushion storm’ sweeps over him, Erika, and Lina and drags them into the mental clash, where the rest of his sentence plays out, a little too late, <we get caught up in it! Damn it! Too late!>

She's not about to let them get caught in the crossfire of the mental battle though, not even Lina, so she quickly sweeps their minds closer and throws up another Occlumency barrier around them. Not letting them into her own, but also not letting them potentially fall under attack, not even just from stray attacks.

Mikihiko's surprise washes over the mental connection they've been dragged into, <This-! How-?!>

She sends the mental equivalent of an absent but soothing hand running over his hair, <Don't worry about it.> Then she turns her attention back to the Parasites, still fighting hard against her shields and reaches out and catches their minds like snatching a ball of of the air, <Now, like I said, let's see what you're after.>

That's the only warning they get before she starts shifting through their linked minds, utterly ignoring their feeble attempts to push her out and away as she plucks threads of thought and memory from them with expertise. Eventually she can feel her face harden in the physical world even as she finds herself squeezing the Parasites minds, <You claim to just be after survival, but then you turn around and kill twenty-four people,> And Merlin could she kill someone for hiding how bad it was and the police continuing to sit on it instead of putting out some sort of warning even as the deaths climbed into the double digits and then the twenties, <just trying to make more of you. Uncaring that you killed person after person in your quest with each failure. You are not just after survival. And you have lost any chance of mercy with your actions and choices and the impact on innocent people.>

She ignores as the tangle of voices starts to protest and plead. The Parasites are technically little more than independent information bodies. Unfortunately for them, she's very good at disrupting such things, practically built for it. It makes it all too easy to use Decomposition on the structure of their Eidos, causing all of them to practically fall apart and dissolve as she piggybacks on the hive mind connection and works her way back to the one she was physically in front of. Curiosily, it happens in a rather… unplanned manner though. Namely, the moment that strange ‘membrane’ around the Eidos proper is disrupted, they basically dissipate on their own.(2)

When she's done, the Pushion storm fades away quickly on its own and the Parasite in front of her slumps into her shields and when she releases them, falls over the rest of the way on its own. She tilts her head at it, “I thought as much. You all killed your hosts mentally when you took them over.”

Mikihiko tilts his head at it, “A vegetative state then?”

She nods, “Mm.” Then she glances over at Erika, “You can put your sword away.” She glances towards the direction Lina had fled somewhat frantically the moment the Pushion storm had let go of her, “She's long gone.” Then she shakes herself even as she pulls out her mobile terminal to request a couple cars at the edge of the park from an app with one hand while using Regrowth on Erika’s torn up clothes with the other since while she was wearing some sort of armor under them that keeps the damaged clothes from revealing anything indecent its likely still embarrassing, “Are you two alright?”

Erika looks down at her newly prepared clothes, brows slightly furrowed, “I'm alright, but…”

She looks up as she slips her mobile terminal away and climbs off her bike while taking off her helmet and sets it on her seat to start pushing it while they walk, “The thing about me feeling the damage myself I assume?” Erika nods and she cracks a smile, “That's a side effect of reading Eidos data, which would include the pain the being the Eidos is for went through, but if you're incapable of feeling pain…”

Erika’s face clears up and she turns to Mikihiko, “What about you Mikihiko?”

His brows furrow even as he smiles a little while absently shifting the other half of his broken walking stick or whatever the magic object was called that he'd collected to the hand with the half it'd been holding already while she was on her terminal and fixing Erika’s clothes, which she absently Regrowths for him to potentially save him work in making another, “I'm fine, though I wouldn't be if you hadn't shown up when you did.”

Erika suddenly straightens, “Ah! Actually, how did you show up right when we needed you?”

From the way Mikihiko’s expression suddenly flickers, she's pretty sure he didn't tell Erika about letting her know, and she feels a flicker of amusement. She's not about to throw Mikihiko to the wolv- Erika though, “Who knows. Mysteries of the universe. Maybe I'm just semi-omniscient.”

Erika swipes at her with her sheath, which she easily leans her head out of the way of, “Be real!”

She tilts her head back, “Is anything actually real? For all we know, the universe is actually just a book and we're background characters who are living out a briefly mentioned backstory to someone, or maybe even something.”

Erika swipes at her again as she rolls her eyes before heading over to the cars she idly pointed at while talking, looking with a slightly irritated expression after tossing her sheath into the back of the car, “Goodnight Toshiko! Thanks for the save or whatever!”

Then she finishes climbing in and closes the door, looking a little huffy. Mikihiko laughs lightly, then looks at her sheepishly, “Sorry about that.”

She shakes her head, “Don't worry about it.”

His smiles turns shy, “Thanks for covering for me though.”

She reaches out to ruffle his hair, “Always.” Then she shoves his head forward towards the car a few feet away lightly enough that he only takes a couple steps, “Now get out of here. Go get some rest brat. I already set it up so they'll charge me for your rides.”

He laughs as he fixes his hair, “Yeah, yeah.” He looks over after he opens the door and half climbs in, “Erika’s gonna be mad after she realizes you're being charged though, I hope you know, but thanks!”

Then he finishes climbing in and closes the door hurriedly to cut off her waving away his thanks, looking for all the world like he was a gleeful kid who won something with that maneuver. She calls after him in amusement, “Brat!”

Shaking her head, she scoops up the helmet she'd set on the seat while she pushed her bike, putting it on as she climbs on before turning the bike back on and leaving.

After she gets back home, she calls Maya on her personal terminal after settling in front of it at her desk. Maya answers the call looking a bit worried, “Toshiko. It's not like you to call so late.”

She hums, “I just had a run in with the Parasites I told you about as well as who I'm pretty sure was Angie Sirius.” At Maya's alarmed look, she waves her hand down like she's asking someone to sit, “I'm perfectly fine. The Parasite issue is dealt with, they were killing people in the course of trying to make more of them, so there was no reason for mercy. Anyway, I was more calling because I wanted to check something and it's been bothering me since the Parasites were dealt with and I had more time to think about it.”

Maya relaxes, her expression gaining a bit of amusement, “Somehow, I'm not surprised it only took one encounter with you for the Parasite problem to be done with, especially if their reasoning was so despicable.” She takes a sip of tea, “So what were you wanting to know dear?”

She shrugs, “You learned with Mother under Elder Kudou right?” Maya nods, “Obviously they wouldn't have taught you their signature spell, but did you happen to learn anything about their magic Parade during that?”

Maya hums, “I picked up a few things, sure, but unless I know the question, I don't know if what I'm aware of is any help.”

She hums, “Angie,” She refuses to call her Sirius, that name holds far too much meaning to her, “if it really was Angie Sirius, had something strange going on with her Eidos. Namely, it was vaguely in her shape but even I couldn't read anything else from it. At least, not data wise. I absolutely recognized her magic signature and she is not supposed to look anything like that. There's always the possibility of illusions of course, but the problem is the way it influenced even her Eidos.”

Maya furrows her brows, “That-... I'm surprised it's capable of that, but I'm still not hearing the question?”

She nods, “That was more establishing information. I have a hypothesis and I wanted to run it by you and see if it works or runs counter to things you know. Honestly, the only thing that makes sense to me is a version of data fortification that alters the perceived data somehow, whether visually in the physical world or the Eidos in the information dimension.”

Maya's eyes go wide, “That-! …Actually, that… makes an awful lot of sense… it certainly doesn't run counter to anything I learned at least. Which, even if you didn't recognize the magic signature, basically confirms that Angelina Kudou Shields is Angie Sirius, doesn't it? Because I heard that sensei's younger brother that went to America, who Angelina Kudou Shields is related to, was even better at Parade then sensei.”

She nods, “Mm. It does bring up a potential problem if I was given reason to attack her directly with Decomposition.” At Maya's raised eyebrow, she gives her a bemused look, “I have to use it on an object's Eidos. If the only Eidos I can see is a false Eidos... Well, maybe I can tear Parade down with the first Decomposition, but if it's layered and she's fast at replenishing them…”

Maya's brows furrow, “You may not be able to affect her actual Eidos.”

She hums, “Not that it's a huge problem. I have far more than Decomposition I can use if it comes down to it.”

Maya's brows remain furrowed, “Still. Be careful Toshiko.”

She nods, “I will. It is getting late though, so goodnight Maya.”

Maya smiles lightly, though she still looks troubled, “Goodnight Toshiko.”

She's sitting on the couch after dinner the next day when her mobile terminal lights up. Checking it, she quickly gets up and heads for the garage again even as she texts back an acknowledgement and her thanks. It was hard not to, when the message is from Yakumo and reads, “The stars have shifted. They're going to prod and perhaps destroy rather than search and investigate.”

It's almost a guarantee to be a fight if they have, and it's not something she wants around either her house or in busy areas, so her best bet to keep it from dragging other people into it is to go to a larger park.

As she heads over to her bike after reaching the garage and having finished texting back Yakumo, she sends off a quick message to the group chat with Sora, Miho, and Hoshi. Then she shoves her mobile terminal into her pocket and turns on her bike to leave.

As she's driving, she gets a notification which is pulled up on the screen inside of her helmet as one of the few things with the authorization to display. It's basically just a message demanding to know where she is from Sora though, so he can give her backup. Thankfully, her helmet has a built in mic and a speech to text option, so it's easy to let him know what park she's heading to.

After she gets there she checks with her Elemental Sight that there's no one else here while she settles on a bench. For the most part there isn't, but she does notice Sora hiding around in full Reaper gear and using his Polyjuice bracelet. She's curious as to how he got there so quickly, but a quick glance at his Eidos log shows that he apparated. She hadn't done that herself because she was concerned about them not realizing she'd left, but Sora had no such limiters on him.

Not knowing how long they have until their guests show up and knowing better to expose him, she doesn't call out to him. He undoubtedly knows she's aware he's around anyway. Seeing fake police officers who she knows are fake start coming in through four separate gates, Lina with one of the groups, she Decomposes a brief message into the wood of the tree Sora was hiding in the branches of, “3 each coming from North-northeast, east-southeast, west-southwest, north-northwest which also has Lina.”

He looks it over then nods and starts off, and as soon as he's moving and she knows he saw the message, she Regrowths it out of existence while she gets up, casually stretching. A knife comes flying towards her, but she easily uses Mist Dispersion on it, as well as the cluster of four that follow up. Really, in comparison to bullets, knives, even knives with acceleration magic, aren't hard in the slightest. They are followed up with bullets as the redhead that is Lina's Angie Sirius illusion comes running down the path carrying some sort of large metal device in the shape of a lowercase t in her other hand. She tilts her head idly, as she deals with the bullets and then the gun, and feeling a bit mischievous given she looks so serious, she uses some magic to trip her up. Not a full Calanthe magic tripping jinx, since she doesn't want the beam of light, but just some Psion manipulation.

She snorts at the way Lina's cheeks burn as she stumbles to catch herself, “Why so serious Lina?”

Lina furrows those fake red eyebrows, “It's Angie.”

She ignores the statement, “You know Lina, from what I've seen, military service really doesn't suit you.”

Lina growls and hefts the metal device to be pointing at her, and seeing her start to turn heavy metals into plasma, she uses an Occlumency cast on its interior to make an incredibly small scale Niflheim. Plasma is, after all, just a high energy state of matter, cool the molecules down robbing it of energy… Well, it stops being plasma, and with Niflheim designed to be a wide area of effect spell, limit it down to such a confined space but still with the same power output and it really doesn't struggle even with something like plasma. She does her best to make it so the cold won't radiate out into the metal so Lina won't realize how fast she casted and may think she just hid it.

Those false red eyebrows furrow in confusion after a minute and look down at her weapon. Niflheim is cooling it to such a degree that when she wiggles it a little, solids in the form of metal sand come out the end. She hums, “Having some performance issues Lina?” She's teasing her on purpose to get her to stop acting like a soldier and try to get her to act like the kid she is, so she has to bite back the quip on how that's usually a guy problem and switch gears, ”What's wrong Lina, having some stage fright?”

She throws the metal device on the ground, and she has to quickly cast Regrowth to put it back to the state from before the temperature change so it doesn't either potentially break from the cold or bend due to the heat, even as Lina draws a knife and charges, “Quit calling me Lina!”

She easily uses Mist Dispersion on the knife and swings Lina's momentum, swiftly getting her pinned down, “Why? That's your preferred name, isn't it? Under that Parade spell I mean.”

Lina squirms hard, and another knife that she'd had lying in the bushes gets moved with magic and comes down towards her back, but it's turned to dust like all the others. Cheerful and mischievous, she snatches the mask off quickly, then holds it to her face as she tilts it and her head back and forth. Lina suddenly lets out a scream, and she looks down at her in amusement, “Was that the signal to those fake police officers? Too bad they're already unconscious, right?”

She glances over her shoulder at the last part and Sora drops down from the branches, “Yeah, just knocked out.” With her Elemental Sight, she can see his lips twitch under his mask, “Do you just have a thing for trying on other people's masks? I mean, you tried mine on after you made the updated version and now you're trying on Lina's.”

She shakes her head as she drops it next to Lina's head, “No, I was just curious if it causes any issues like digging in or anything since Lina was so moody.”

He chuckles, and ohhh everytime he has reason to use his Polyjuice bracelet she inevitably ends up with a fluttering heart. She loves him as Sora of course, but she missed him as Hei for so long… even tiny things like his chuckle inevitably has her heart skipping beats, same with his voice, “You sure that's not just a side effect of her being a teenager?"

She snaps her fingers, “Oh! That may be it!” She looks down at Lina, “Are you actually secretly a moody teen under the friendliness, Lina?”

Lina kicks her feet, “Get off of me!”

She laughs, accepting Hei- Sora's hand and letting him lift her casually, “I mean, you were the one who attacked me so you don't have much room to get mad, but sure, if you want.” She brushes herself off as Lina rolls to her feet quickly, “If you ever wanna get out of the military, hit me up. Anyway, night Lina!”

She waves over her shoulder as she turns to leave. Behind her, Sora calls back, “Your men are unconscious about sixty meters(3) that way.” Given he's currently disguised, he very much doesn't indicate familiarity, "Goodnight miss Shields.”

She looks over her shoulder as Lina calls after her, utterly confused, “Aren't- Aren't you going to question me?”

She smiles faintly, “About what? The Parasites the USNA brought to our world with its micro black hole experiment? The fact you were investigating them and told to kill me because the USNA has become utterly convinced I'm the Magician called Mahesvara?”

Lina's jaw drops, but in fairness, she has zero way of knowing that she'd gotten the information on the black hole experiment from the Parasites minds and Sora, who had learned Legitimacy at some point in their previous lives, had easy gotten more intel from the minds of the people he knocked out and passed it along with some Legitimacy, or maybe at this point it'd be better to call it telepathy. Regardless, he'd gotten quite a lot of intel on the USNA's operations from them, with the one that currently held value being that as it turned out, the USNA wasn't actually dead set on killing her. That was their last resort actually, since apparently they'd prefer to either entice her to come to the USNA willingly or kidnap and brainwash her if that failed.

She laughs at her gobsmacked expression, repeating herself, “Goodnight Lina! Get some sleep, since either the USNA is gonna make excuses on your sudden withdrawal and you're going to have a flight tomorrow, or they're going to want to investigate more and you'll have school tomorrow.”

After he escorts her to her motorcycle and she gets her helmet on, she looks up at Sora, though given he's in disguise she knows better than to call him by his current name, “Thanks for the backup, and goodnight Hei.”

She picks up the smile under his mask with his Elemental Sight, but given they've already established her relationship with Sora and Miho along with said disguise, he doesn't kiss her goodnight like he usually would, “Anytime Toshiko, and goodnight.”

Then she turns her bike on to leave.

She's looking over the progress report from Rowena. On the current step of the plan, Rowena was about sixty percent complete. After that, they would move to some preliminary set up, and then they'd just be waiting for the last bit for things to get into position since if everything goes as planned, they should be wrapped up about a month before things are lined up correctly.

It means there's about a year and a half left all told. Once that's done, they'll shift to the final phase. Or well, final phase of preparations she should say.

From there, she'll have to shift to recruitment for what all the setup is for, but theoretically it should help with… well, multiple birds with one stone in all fairness.

Regardless, Rowena's report makes it clear the whole thing is chugging along at a pretty good clip, so unless things go really wrong, the setup will be complete and the beginning stages of what it's all for should already have begun by the time she graduates First High.

She leans back as she contemplates other issues in this universe. The project should also help to some extent with the societal issues, particularly of the Magician vs Non-magician variety, but it probably wouldn't help as much as she'd really like.

She does have a paper she already wrote on the differences, or really lack thereof since it's only in development of magic calculation area and magic amount avaliable between the two, but… if she just up and dropped it, there'd likely be pushback on its validity. Really, the best way to handle it is to get people to ask for it and run with a line that she didn't release it because she was concerned the world wasn't ready for it since it would back up said validity in the form of her knowing it's true but choosing not to release it for a reason. How to go about getting people to ask, no demand she release it though?

She's mulling it over as she absently scrolls her emails, protected by Rowena of course, to make sure she hasn't forgotten anything when she comes across an update on major things going on that Rowena has found after she took the plunge and had her hack into Echelon III via the Sages’ backdoor.

At first, a scowl takes over her face and she once more toys with the idea of exposing what they're gearing up to do in a few years. The thought is like striking a match as an idea suddenly ignites and she straightens sharply. Without hesitation, she reaches for Rowena telepathically, <Rowena, how much magic has the Trunk managed to build up and store in the years since I tweaked its design and included the ability to build up a significantly larger magic reserve?>

Rowena answers immediately, <A substantial amount Creator. It's only at seventy percent capacity, but given how… extensive the storage you gave it is, that's in and of itself quite telling on the amount it's built up. May I ask why?>

A slow grin spreads over her face, <I had an idea…>