Tales of the Eight Thunder Gods: Shikoku's Stratagem Ch.4: False Conspirators: The Night the Chains Are Broken

Morning light spilled through the windows of the Seventh Unit dormitory. Wakura Yuki sat slumped in a corner of the training ground. Bandages wrapped both his hands, the blood seeping through staining the white cloth red. They were the marks of last night, when he'd kept driving his fists into the ground. More than the stinging of torn skin, it was the heavy mud pooled deep in his chest that kept his body from moving. The air was cold. That chill particular to autumn mornings, one that reached all the way into the lungs, seeped into his sweat-dried skin. "Yuki." A voice. He lifted his head, and there stood Shushu. The big red ribbon swayed, catching the morning light. Her amber eyes gazed at Yuki with worry. "You're not eating breakfast? I was waiting for you in the cafeteria." Yuki didn't answer. His throat was dry, and no voice came out. Shushu crouched down beside him. The bandage wrapped around her shoulder creaked faintly with her movement. The wound his fist had grazed yesterday. "...Does it hurt?" Yuki looked at her shoulder. His own hand had made that wound. The fact of it made something rise up from the pit of his stomach. "I'm sorry." "I keep telling you, it's not your fault." Shushu's voice trembled on the verge of tears. That was when it happened. From the direction of the dormitory entrance came the sound of multiple footsteps. Regulated, military-boot footsteps. Two people. And an unfamiliar, hard resonance to them. Shushu stood and looked toward the sound. Yuki dragged his heavy body upright as well. Kyoka came walking down the corridor. Behind her followed two women in the uniforms of the Magical Defense Corps headquarters. One wore glasses and carried a black envelope. The other had a baton at her hip and glared sharply at her surroundings. "Unit Commander, this way." The woman with glasses held out the envelope to Kyoka. Kyoka took it wordlessly and pulled out the contents. From where Yuki stood, he couldn't read the writing on the document. But he could see Kyoka's profile stiffening by the second. Her fingertips gripped the edge of the paper hard. The paper crinkled. "...What is the meaning of this?" Kyoka's voice was low, like biting into ice. "Regarding yesterday's rampage incident in the mid-layers of the magical city, headquarters has been conducting an investigation. As a result, a report and communication records have been submitted indicating that Wakura Yuki is a co-conspirator in league with the humanoid丑鬼." The woman with glasses continued in an emotionless voice. "Headquarters has accepted this and orders the Seventh Unit to surrender Wakura Yuki and for Unit Commander Uzen Kyoka to appear before them. Please come to headquarters by noon today." Shushu cried out as if struck. "Wait! Yuki isn't a conspirator! That was Shikoku's trap—" "Shushu, be quiet." With a single word from Kyoka, Shushu fell silent. She bit her lip and clenched her fists. Yuki felt as though the ground beneath his feet was crumbling away. Co-conspirator. In league with the humanoid丑鬼. That couldn't be. But yesterday's rampage had indeed happened through his own body. He had hurt his comrades. He had snapped Kyoka's chains. That fact, in whatever form, had reached headquarters. "Kyoka-san, I—" "You keep quiet." Kyoka didn't look at Yuki. Her gaze was fixed on the two from headquarters. "Understood. I'll report to headquarters by noon." "Kyoka-san!" Shushu clung to Kyoka's arm. "I'm coming too! Going alone is dangerous!" "I'll accompany her as well." At some point, Himari had appeared at the corner of the corridor. In her hand she gripped the shattered remains of a smartphone. The Seiun no Kokorozashi terminal. The one Yuki had smashed yesterday. Himari glanced at Yuki. In her eyes swirled anger and something deeper. "This is my responsibility as unit commander. I'll go alone." "But...!" "Shushu. You stay in the dorm. Himari too. That's an order." Kyoka's voice had a strength that brooked no argument. Yuki stepped forward. His legs were shaking. Even so, he had to say it. "Kyoka-san, please wait. I'll go. This happened because of me... I'll go explain." Kyoka slowly turned toward Yuki. Her eyes were cold as ice, just like last night. But deep within them, for just an instant, something wavered. "You wait here." Kyoka faintly shook the Mukyuu chains in her hand. The silver chains caught the morning light and stabbed at Yuki's eyes. "This is an order as unit commander. You are my slave, aren't you." Yuki couldn't say anything. The collar around his neck suddenly felt heavy. Kyoka turned her back and nodded to the two from headquarters. "Let's go." The three sets of footsteps receded down the corridor. Yuki stood rooted to the spot. Shushu took his hand. Her hand was small and warm. "Yuki... it's okay. Kyoka-san will surely come back." Yuki couldn't even nod at Shushu's words. Deep in his chest, something was slowly crumbling. —— Kyoka was heading alone toward the center of Kagari City. From the Seventh Unit dorm to Magical Defense Corps headquarters was a twenty-minute walk. Normally an uneventful route. But today the road looked different somehow. The city was quiet. Due to the magical city disaster, there were few people about even at this hour. The shutters of the old shopping street were closed, and the smell of garbage drifted from the back alleys. The sky was covered in thick clouds, and he couldn't even tell where the sun was. Kyoka organized her thoughts as she walked. The report and communication records. Those were obviously fabricated. There was no way Yuki was in league with the humanoid丑鬼. But the problem was that headquarters had accepted them. Someone was deliberately trying to frame Yuki. Shikoku of the Eight Thunder Gods. The woman's face surfaced in Kyoka's mind. Long purple-black hair. Dark violet eyes. A thin smile at the corner of her mouth that looked like a smile but wasn't smiling at all. "That one... is setting something in motion." Kyoka quickened her pace. About ten minutes to headquarters. Through the main street, across the old stone bridge. Beneath the bridge flowed a murky river. That was when it happened. A sense of wrongness ran through Kyoka's feet. From the seams of the stone paving, a faint light leaked. A purple-tinged distortion of space. A presence she recognized. "Oh no—" The instant Kyoka tried to leap back, the light at her feet exploded outward. Space warped. Complex patterns rose to the surface of the stone bridge. A teleportation array from Shikoku's space-manipulation ability. By the time Kyoka realized it was a trap, it was already too late. Her vision was swallowed by a vortex of purple and black. A sensation of her body being stretched as if torn apart. Her sense of up, down, left, and right vanished, and her equilibrium went wild. Kyoka gripped the Mukyuu chains. But the chains only cut through empty air, reaching nothing. "U... aah!" Kyoka's scream was sucked into the distortion of space and vanished. —— Shikoku observed the scene from a high vantage point in the mid-layers of the magical city. Through the distortion of space, she could see as clearly as if holding it in her hand the moment Kyoka was caught in the teleportation array. Her fingertips unconsciously toyed with a lock of her hair. "Just as calculated. Uzen Kyoka will always come alone. To protect her comrades, she'll disregard her own safety. That personality was clear from the data." A faint purple light drifted around Shikoku. Her space-manipulation ability was controlling the teleportation array from far away. "You overestimate this thing called human bonds. The heart that thinks of comrades isolates you. Ironic, isn't it." Kyoka's body was being sealed inside a cage of space. A prison of distorted space that Shikoku had created. It was a limbo where even the flow of time was ambiguous. Kyoka thrashed inside the cage. Swinging the Mukyuu chains, striking the walls, screaming. But her voice didn't reach outside the cage. Shikoku gazed steadily at the sight. "I wonder what color your despair is. How interesting." Shikoku's dark violet eyes shone white like lightning. —— It was about an hour later that Tenka came running into the Seventh Unit dormitory. "Shushu-chan!" Tenka spotted Shushu and Yuki sitting stunned in the cafeteria and approached them, out of breath. Her long silver-white hair was disheveled and clung to her shoulders. In her pale violet eyes floated a look of impatience. "Tenka-san...!" Shushu stood up. "Where's Kyoka-chan? Where is she?" "Kyoka-san went... to headquarters, alone..." Shushu explained this morning's events in a trembling voice. The summons. The suspicion of conspiracy. Kyoka going to report alone. The color drained from Tenka's face. "...How terrible. That girl went alone." Tenka touched her fingertip to the bracelet on her right wrist. Faint particles of light spilled from her fingertips. The power of Ameno Torimei, which manipulates space, began probing the distortions in the surrounding area. "Something's wrong. Kyoka-chan's presence has vanished from the direction of headquarters. Not only that—there's an unnatural spatial disturbance in the center of Kagari City—" Tenka's eyes flew wide open. "This is... Shikoku's doing. A spatial trap has been set." "Kyoka-san was... captured...?" Shushu's voice trembled. Yuki sat in the cafeteria chair, listening to the two of them. His fingertips trembled slightly on his knees. "I'll go after her. You all wait here." With that, Tenka turned on her heel. "Tenka-san, I'm coming too!" "No. Shikoku's space manipulation is the same type as my ability. If too many people go, we'll all be caught in her trap. It's easier to move alone." Tenka's voice had a strength that brooked no argument. But her eyes looked at Yuki for just a moment. "Yuki-kun. You're blaming yourself, I know, but right now, protect yourself. Kyoka-chan went to protect you." With only that, Tenka vanished from the spot using her space-manipulation ability. —— Tenka followed the distortions of space and jumped to the center of Kagari City. The old stone bridge. There, traces of Shikoku's spatial trap remained. From the seams of the stone paving, a faint purple light leaked. "Here it is." Tenka stood at the center of the bridge and spread both hands. Faint particles of light spilled from her fingertips, analyzing the distortion of space. "Shikoku's teleportation array... Kyoka-chan was sent from here to another space. But she should still be nearby. The spatial connection isn't completely severed." Tenka manipulated space to trace the remnants of Shikoku's teleportation array. Her Ameno Torimei was an ability to read and freely manipulate spatial distortions. Precisely because it was the same type as Shikoku's ability, she could follow the traces. But the moment she began tracing, Tenka noticed something wrong. The surrounding space was beginning to distort. The bridge's railing bent and warped, the clouds in the sky swirled. The ground undulated, and her vision twisted. "A spatial maze...! You intend to obstruct my tracking!" Tenka concentrated her ability to fix the space around her. But Shikoku's space manipulation exceeded her imagination. A voice came from beyond the bridge. "Izumo Tenka. So you're a space manipulator too. But unfortunately, I seem to be one step ahead." Tenka looked toward the voice. But there was no one there. Only the voice echoed from every part of the distorted space. "Shikoku...! Where did you take Kyoka-chan!" Tenka raised her voice. "Uzen Kyoka is in my spatial cage. Rest assured. For now, she's unharmed." Shikoku's voice was gentle as a lullaby. That gentleness was all the more eerie. "Don't toy with me! Release her right now!" Tenka released her ability as if to tear space apart. The distortion around her cleared

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Tales of the Eight Thunder Gods: Shikoku's Stratagem Episode 4: False Conspirators: The Night the Chains Are Broken