Chapter 12:

12 — Sorry, Mom. Your Son Became a Terrorist (07)

How the Hell Did I End Up in This Mess?!

I never cared about being popular.

Not even once.

Maybe it was because of my influences, but even in college I always avoided drawing attention so I wouldn't bring unnecessary trouble onto myself.

Even when things didn't go as planned, I made a point of fixing everything as fast as I could. For me, that was the formula for survival. It was what an ordinary person needed to do to live in a world full of mages.

Live like an ordinary person.

Ordinary... huh?

Well... maybe not that ordinary.

Setting the last few days aside, the closest I'd come to death was when I joined one of my grandfather's crazy experiments.

He was the kind of eccentric who thought he could change the world if he was crazy enough; who believed his actions could someday tip the balance between science and magic.

Maybe he was on some hallucinogen, I don't know. No sane person would drag their ten-year-old grandson into those things, but whenever he could, he dragged me into his so-called experiments and projects.

—That's how, after a miscalculation in his formula, the whole house blew up...

It's been ten years since that day.

Ten years, and I can still remember the feeling of standing between life and death.

The feeling of losing something important.

Piiiii———

After going through that, I guess I developed a certain resistance to those sensations.

Standing one step away from the edge, my instincts sharpened. It wasn't some amazing spider-sense or anything, but I knew with absolute clarity I shouldn't stay there.

Everything pointed to the fact that as soon as I could get up, I should run.

I knew I only needed to care about my own life and nothing else.

I knew.

But.

However...

"MINAMI-SAN! GET DOWN!"

…I couldn't stand to see someone die in front of me.

Bam!

The fire beam passed by my head and lit up the whole corridor.

There was no warning. No preparation.

The moment I saw that red flash, I screamed.

I thought if I could warn her, Minami-san wouldn't get hurt.

I thought I could save her if I was fast enough, but…

I couldn't do anything.

"What?!"

The heat wave destroyed the walls.

The blast threw everything into the air. Doors hovered in front of me. Wood, concrete, glass, fire extinguishers… nothing resisted the fire magic. After the blast the whole world fell silent.

"..."

I was airborne.

And Minami-san flew beside me until she slammed into the railing.

The last thing I saw was her body swallowed by the flames.

I was about to scream, but was interrupted by a hard blow.

My back hit the wall and flames flooded the floor. I could feel every particle of my arm melting in the fire.

"Ah… ah…"

When I finally fell to the ground, I thought I'd never be able to get up again. The pain in my legs was unbearable, my knees twisted, but miraculously they weren't broken.

With the little strength I could muster, I crawled toward what seemed to be Minami-san, a few meters away.

She was…

"M-Minami-san?"

As I called her name I heard the sound of footsteps echoing through the corridor of fire.

I didn't know how real any of it was, or whether my senses were betraying me. The buzzing earlier had been so strong that it still resonated in my auditory canal.

The shrill sound came from the left.

That was odd.

Something wasn't right.

Not just the buzzing.

All the sounds, noises… even my thoughts.

Everything was coming from the left.

Could it be…?

Ah…

That was it…

I was deaf in one ear. The frequency earlier had destroyed my right eardrum.

"You idiot. W-why… why didn't you run?"

Minami-san's voice came out with great difficulty.

Seeing her like that, I didn't know how to answer. The only thing that came to mind was the truth.

"I didn't have time to run."

"Tch. You should've at least tried to pretend you cared about me."

"Minami-san…"

A moment ago we had been standing and arguing.

And now she lay on the floor with the left side of her body completely burned.

"Your body…"

"Even now you're having perverted thoughts about me?"

"Ha… ha."

"Cough! Kobami Haruki… I told you I hate that look. Just keep being the idiot you were before. Don't stare at me like I'm already dead."

"B-but."

"No buts! Stop that and concentrate on the enemy. This isn't a time for jokes."

When she said that, the sound from before grew even stronger.

It was getting closer.

The answer to the footsteps came faster than I expected.

As I turned, a tall figure emerged through the black smoke.

"Oops! My bad. If my aim had been a little better, you two could've been making out in paradise by now, right? My apologies."

I didn't need two ears to know that bastard was our enemy.

"But hey… as a courtesy for my mistake, I'll let you continue your loving farewell. Ah! I was going to say you could even go further and do 'that' if you wanted, but pfft… with her body like that, I guess it won't happen, huh?"

With another step, I saw a white-haired man standing there. He wore flip-flops, an orange tank top and shorts. From his posture, his build, and his clothes, nothing about him looked like security.

So… who the hell was this lunatic and why did he attack us?

"Oh? What's with that look, eh… Rat-san?"

Fear—no, something far deeper than that:

Dread.

The more I stood in front of him, the more I felt I needed to flee. My leg muscles throbbed. I couldn't go far like that.

If I lifted Minami-san in my arms, maybe…

Maybe I could get to Ichika-san and Ken.

But… could I really pull that off with just one arm?

"These eyes…? Ah. Now I get it. You're wondering why I'm dressed like this, right? Well… today's my day off. I just came back from the beach. You can tell from the tan, haha." he said, knocking sand off his flip-flops.

"It might sound like a lie, but I was with some chicks until just now. Not that I'm bragging or anything, I'm terrible at that. But today things were going right; I even got their contacts. Then, just when I thought something might happen, I remembered I had to drop off a report at the agency next door. What rotten timing, huh?"

"Uh…?"

"I dropped it off and, just as I was leaving, I saw you guys breaking into the institute."

"Y-you."

"I'll be honest, I almost ignored it out of laziness, but then I thought: you know how it is, right? This whole good-conduct thing to become a licensed mage is bureaucratic. If there's a chance to farm some points, you can't ignore it. Nothing personal."

Is this guy from the agency?

This bastard who nearly killed us…

He's here to represent justice?

"But you, Rat-san? Tell me about you... why not introduce yourself?"

Same as with Lakas…

Why are they all like this?

Why… every single one of them?

"Y-you lunatic. If you came to arrest us, why did you shoot like that?!"

I couldn't hide my anger and shouted.

"Oi! You scared me, you asshole. I thought you were going to attack me, haha! What did you mean by that?"

"You… aren't you supposed to capture us alive? Aren't you part of the National Mage Agency?"

"Alive? Wait. You serious? Pft! Haha."

While he laughed with scorn, I felt a faint tug at my jacket sleeve.

"Don't be stupid, Kobami Haruki. He has no intention of letting us go— Ugggh!"

"Minami-san, you can't move like that!"

"Shut up and answer me. Is your communicator still working?"

"I don't know. I lost it when we were thrown."

"That's bad. We need to find it and warn the others. As you can see, there's nothing left of mine."

"Warn the others?! What are you talking about? The mission failed. We need to get you to a hospital before it's too late! If we stay here we'll—"

"The mission only fails when we're dead."

What?

How can she say that in this state?

Don't you understand? Death is the end of everything.

"Listen. I only have mana to use this once. So use this chance to find the communicator and warn Ichika-senpai."

"No! Calm down! What do you want me to do?! I—"

"『Unique Magic: Lapse』"

"—aaaaaaa"

The last syllable of my sentence froze in the air. My vocal cords kept vibrating but I couldn't stop the sound. I felt I could move, but when I sent the command to my body, nothing happened. The electrical impulses left my brain and froze halfway.

Fwooon.

Four, five, nine, maybe ten white circles appeared in front of me.

The magic patterns manifested along the entire corridor.

Minami-san's wounded body began to glow. Her red eyes turned white, and once again, I heard the ticking.

Whole.

Destroyed.

Whole.

Bones, ligaments, muscles, tissues…

Every cell in her body began to explode. No, they began to spin, like an endless cycle of flesh and bone disassembling and reassembling.

The spiral of energy rotated counterclockwise; rebuilding everything until her figure was complete in front of me.

"—aaaaa!"

The sound of my last syllable still vibrated, but now I could hear it with both ears.

My arm reappeared as if it had never been carbonized.

Immediately after that, I felt blood return to my body. The blocked commands now ran through my nervous system.

I blacked out.

And then…

"—aaaa I don't get it."

My sentence finally ended.

It was one of the worst sensations I'd ever had in my life, but both Minami-san and I returned to the state we were in before the impact.

"Hah."

A unique magic is the signature of a mage. I'd heard of various effects and ways it could interfere with the physical world, but I still couldn't believe my eyes.

The scene remained destroyed, but the two of us were whole, without the slightest wound.

"Haha…"

I laughed again, not just from nervousness but from relief.

Before, all I could think was how to get away from her and the others, but now I was genuinely happy to see her alive. Happy to see her scornful smile again. Happy to be able to move both my arms.

"Cough! H-how long are you just going to stand there, you idiot? Hurry! We have to find the communicator before the magic's effect ends."

When she coughed, red fluid dripped from her mouth. A strand of hair fell to the floor along with the blood. Only then did I realize:

I was wrong.

Completely wrong.

I'd been mistaken in thinking she was fine.

Even after the reconstruction, her eyes were dull. It wasn't just about mana. It wasn't only physical exhaustion. If she kept pushing, she would die.

"Minami-san, we have to get you out of here."

Side effects my ass.

This went beyond anything I knew.

Screw the communicator.

We had to get the hell out before it was too late.

"Temporal magic? How cute."