Editing Mahou Sensou:Volume 1 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 7===

Before they could see the person, they heard them.

“This game of tag is finished.”

It was a cold, low voice.

Next to Takeshi, Mui's body pitched and trembled.

“Nii-san.”

At Mui’s words, Takeshi turned towards her with a puzzled expression.

“Nii-san?”

Because of the backlight, Takeshi could not see the face of the opponent and only the silhouette of the man was visible.

The figure was a slender man. If that was all, then one would think of him as the type that could be found anywhere.

However, there was an abnormality.

From the man’s hand departed something that was similar to shining smoke.

A gas which was a pale light blue color like the sky on a clear, sunny day was drifting from both his hands.

“Come over here.”

A man came into the room.

Abruptly, Mui grabbed onto Takeshi’s Kendo Gi.

Because of her excessive use of force, the uniform was being stretched in opposite directions and nearly fell off his shoulder.

“I DON’T WANT TO.”

There was a discrepancy between her voice and speech, despite being frail.

Furthermore, the man’s shadow kept on drawing nearer.

“Nii-san, I beg you……return to your true self.”

Mui cast her eyes downward.

Rather than talking to the man, it was directed towards the floor.

“……Nii-san, you’re not a <Trailer>”

Takeshi could only see the top of Mui's head because she was looking down, the man who was standing in the doorway alternated his gaze between the two.

The man finally replied back.

“How many times I have to tell you? I am not your oni.”<ref>Brother.</ref>

Mui raised her head as if it was repelled and cried.

“Nii-san! I am your......cherished............”

However, her voice gradually went towards the floor.

“<Trailer> overwrote your memory. Why won’t you believe me?  My words, you must have sensed a little something in them.”

The man had no intention to reply.

“Tsuganashi, this person continues to be noisy.”

A different voice came from behind.

Another dark shadow stood in the hallway on the other side of the door.

It was a petite and slender shadow.

As the shadow approached Mui's brother, Tsuganashi, it looked even smaller.
[[File:Mahou Sensou pg 59.jpg|thumbnail]]

For a moment, Takeshi thought the youth was a middle school student.

It was a bony physique with a little roundness, they wore a plain khaki parka and light blue knee length shorts, and their hair was fluffy and in a short cut style.

It was understood she was a girl because of her big eyes and higher pitch of voice.

Her big and wide eyes opened wider as she looked at Mui and Takeshi and then laughed.

However, there was a sneer mixed in with her laughter.

"Let's quickly finish this and head back. It's difficult with color in this close of a proximity."

Saying these words, the girl held onto Tsuganashi’s arm, when Mui saw this her expression distorted.

At the same time, two other men were approaching in the hallway.

Mui immediately interposed herself in between and pulled out her gun.

Scowling, Tsuganashi said some dangerous words.

“It can’t be helped. We'll have to take her with force.”

“Understood.”

“Ok-aay!”

“All right.”

Three people in succession acknowledged his instruction.

Takeshi could not completely grasp all of his surrounding situation.

What was clear, however, was that these people intended to use force to take Mui.

The youth with black hair was Mui’s brother, the other three, who the heck were they?

Then, a familiar looking shining smoke was released from all four people right before their eyes.

The young man known as Tsuganashi, was definitely Mui’s brother, he gave that kind of feeling.

Wet black hair, white skin, and eyes that were similar to Mui’s.

However, you wouldn’t understand why the extent of his attention was so cruel in regards to Mui.

No matter how you look at it, his eyes are not the kind of eyes that you use to look at your younger sister.

Suddenly, for a minute, Takeshi thought about his brother Gekkou.

In Gekkou’s eyes, Takeshi wondered if he saw him in the same way?

No, the eyes of that guy……

The glare from his eyes was tinged with heat and seethed with hatred. 

In this way he was cold and heartless.

Four people entered the school infirmary, at the back, a handsome man with a good physique closed the door behind him.

Mui pulled Takeshi and together they retreated to the back of the room.

One of the two men behind Mui’s brother was tall and lanky with drooping eyes, he had bad taste in clothing and was wearing a shirt with a green amoeba drawn on it. 

Then there was a question of the last person. He didn’t seem to be too old, but no matter how you looked at it he definitely was not a student in school.

His clothes consisted of a black tank top and similar black straight jeans, he was just a little bit taller than Takeshi.

His arms and chest had thick muscles, Takeshi understood that the man must have done some form of martial arts.

He had piercing eyes and when he smiled his mouth became distorted.

If anyone saw his appearance standing before a convenience store, it would be a most unpleasant meeting and they would want to leave as quickly as possible.

Takeshi did not understand the situation, it would be abnormal if he could.

At first nothing could be seen hanging from the man’s waist.

The leather belt worn around his waist looked normal, however, there was a scabbard affixed with a sword sheathed.

Takeshi had seen a real sword several times before, whether it was fake or genuine, there was a hilt protruding from the sheath.

After he saw those, it was without a doubt a genuine sword. 

Furthermore it was not a Japanese sword, the width of the scabbard’s curvature was wide, a trait of a Western sword.

Mui’s brother also wore a similar belt on his waist, the difference was that a narrow sword was hung from there instead.

And then, what made Takeshi the most uneasy was that there were four people who produced light smoke.

Mui produced the same smoke and they all had a different color.

The shoulder bag which was hung on the girl’s shoulder, the sword which was hung on the handsome man’s waist, and the last person who carried an attaché case, each one of them released a different colored shining gas, Green, White, and Red.

Mui’s brother released a shining gas that was pale blue in color from the white gloves on his hands.

Next to him, Mui’s face had reached a state that went beyond pale.

Her hand grabbed Takeshi’s sleeve, right now she needed to calm down and control her feelings, she opened her mouth to say something but no words would come out and remained silent.

Takeshi perceived that Mui had become scared.

Tsuganashi was Mui’s brother, yet he declared he would take her by force.

In other words, they are her enemies.

Next to the confused Takeshi, Mui was simply staring straight at her brother.

There might be a chance of victory against four people, she wasn’t stupid, and right now her top priority was to escape from here with Takeshi.

However, Takeshi had considered something else.

Before Mui could take any action, Takeshi pulled her forcibly behind him.

“Hey, what!?”

Surprised by Takehsi, Mui’s hand was being pulled by him as he started to run to the window in the back.

“Don’t argue with me.”

Immediately, Mui understood Takeshi’s intention.

The door was not an option with them standing there, so his intention was to escape through the window.

The infirmary was on the first floor, so it would be easy to escape through the window.

However, Mui knew that it wouldn’t be that easy.

Sure enough, Tsuganashi drew his saber from the scabbard and turned the edge towards them.

Takeshi did not see him.

However, the moment he touched the window with his hand to open it, a sharp pain like electricity ran through his fingertips.

He immediately let go, but the tip of his middle finger and index finger on his right hand was red.

“Look!” Mui told Takeshi.

It was then that Takeshi noticed it for the first time.

The outer edges of the window frame had been covered in a thick ice.

“Wh, what is going on?”

Because he touched the ice, he felt a freezing pain.

Unlike Takeshi who was trembling, Mui turned around and faced them.

“Nii-san, if you make a mistake you will risk losing your power!”

Three out of the four people were laughing.

Tsuganshi did not laugh and replied back as he sheathed his Saber.

“I was not attacking, I was trapping.”

While Mui was exchanging words with them, Takeshi just stared at the window stunned.

Strange shining smoke from the gun as well as the sword, he somehow understood to this extent.

However, this was clearly different.

This was impossible.

Takeshi turned away from the window and gazed at the men and woman of the four people with a look of awe.

“Y, you......what the heck did you just do?”

It was obvious that the voice he finally mustered was trembling.

“I’ll call someone!!”

Even though it was pitiful, Takeshi thought this much was necessary.

Takeshi thought that even if he did call out at this time nobody would immediately appear, for the time being he had no choice but to maintain the bluff at all costs.

“Tsuganashi, let me handle this.”

The man from before with evil eyes and a good physique stepped forward.

“If I capture that man over there then Aiba Mui will surely not run away.”

He was holding the pommel of the sword hung at his waist.

“That’s fine, but don’t use magic.” 

Takeshi heard Tsuganashi tell the man.

―Magic? I have a feeling that’s what he just said.

―Was it my imagination?

Certainly the window’s appearance was abnormal.

Just a little while ago it was a normal window.

Even so, Takeshi thought that there was a logical reason for it.

Science was a more realistic explanation.

However, there was not a single person who could answer Takeshi’s question.

On the contrary, there was no use in trying to repeatedly stab at the questions. 

It’s the same even now.

Among the four people the man with piercing eyes talked the most, he was permitted to take action, he squeezed the handle of his sword as he moved towards the middle of the room with Takeshi in his line of sight.

Takeshi had to do something to distract the man’s attention and search for another way to escape.

At that moment, the sun reflected off of a cleaning tool that was left out.

There was no time to ponder on it.

Moving several steps to the side, Takeshi grabbed the broom that was leaning against the wall.

Using his foot, he broke off the straw part of the broom forcibly and was left with just the handle.

He wielded it seriously to ensure there were no obstructions to his body.

Having done that, the broom became a long rod shaped weapon.

“I don’t know what the circumstances are, but no matter how I look it you people are bad guys.”

The moment Takeshi’s posture changed into a stance, the man no longer saw it as a broom but a weapon.

“…………”

“…………”

Takeshi and the man glared at each other, his expression remained undisturbed, but there was an interest showing in his eyes for the first time.

He smiled broadly.

“Humph, how interesting.”

The man laughed as his expression became more brutal.

Mui who was next to Takeshi, watched him become more uneasy when she suddenly hit upon an idea and said:

“Can you stall and give me a little bit of time? I am going to try and open the window.”

Though the ice had completely covered the window, Mui thought that it was still possible so she would somehow figure it out one way or another, Takeshi could only nod his head in agreement.

It was already too late anyways, the man had drawn his sword and was energetically approaching.

Takeshi could see an ominous glint reflected off the drawn sword.

Truly there was a difference from a Japanese sword, you could see it was a thick double edged blade meant to be used as a tool to kill a human and not to just strike them.

You could see it was an absurdly large sword, just measuring it with the eyes it must have weighed at least 2 Kilos, yet the man was only using one hand.

He had a vision of receiving a heavy overhead blow, immediately after that the broom made bishitsu sound and split.

There was no question what would happen when iron and bamboo clashed.

Oddly enough, it didn’t split in half.

To understand, receive and stop it was fortunate, Takeshi shuffled his legs and retreated backwards.

Immediately the man took aim halfway up and thrust.

Parrying it diagonally, even though the sword was longer than the broom Takeshi thrust at the opponent’s side with all his might.

However, it was not very effective and all it did was stagger him a little.

“Hmm, isn’t that nice.”

“It’s unusual to see Oigami pressured.”

He heard some prefatory words from the other man in the door who was his friend turned spectator.

His fury was ignited when he was hit with the broom.

He didn’t really have any intention of slashing, however his hand was hit to alter the trajectory of his attack.

Morever, Takeshi noticed this change however it appeared that Oigami’s friend did not.

“Eat this!!”

Oigami took a large step forward and thrust his sword towards Takeshi.

Takeshi firmly gripped the handle of the broom stick.

Then, he closely watched the trajectory of the sword.

When handle hit the tip, an intense roar similar to a lightning strike resounded.

“Wh……at……”

The man’s expression from earlier turned into one of shock, Takeshi’s hand had not let go of the broom.

There was portion that was split and curved on both sides, but where the broom had pierced the edge a silver color shined.

“Damn you, what the hell did you do?!”

The man tried to shake his sword loose, however it was firmly caught in between and could not be removed.

Takeshi stepped back and searched around to see if he could find something else he could use as a weapon, but of course, it’s never that convenient.

He looked over at Mui, she had shot her gun towards the window.

However, the gunshot you would hear on a TV never occurred.

A vivid yellow color was shot from the muzzle, it hit the window but barely even dented the ice.

It looked like it had barely even come close.

Takeshi threw away broom he had into the trash, he then went back to where he got the broom from and pulled out a mop.

Unlike the broom, part of the handle was made out of plastic.

He couldn’t expect much from the durability of the plastic but it was a situation where he could not leisurely complain.

Takeshi turned around from the locker and in no time used the mop handle to catch the edge of the sword.

The man who had come up right behind him was using all his strength to lean forward and put pressure on Takeshi from above.

They were close enough where they felt each other’s heavy breathing across their face.

The man was not thinking about going easy, immediately after he drew back and once more used all his strength to strike.

In the next moment a confusing scene filled Takeshi’s mind, he moved his hands on the mop to a point where he received and avoided the man’s strike.

However, Takeshi knew that it was already too late.

It would have been easy to avoid if he could twist his stance.

At that moment, another scene was shown.

This time Takeshi was influenced to believe it.

Although Takeshi was able to avoid the previous thrust, the handle of the mop had a split on the section where he hit the back of the man’s hand.

Before Takeshi heard the man groan, he discarded the mop he was holding onto.

The man was no longer armed, the sword which he had let go was falling to the floor.

Takeshi had quickly picked up the heavy sword, he then shouted to Mui.

Takeshi had seen what he had to do.

“Mui, lower your head!!”

Mui looked back when she heard Takeshi’s voice.

The when she saw the sword in Takeshi’s hand she reflexively crouched down.

Takeshi threw the sword towards the window that had been frozen.

It shattered the ice and glass, all the pieces came crashing down like an avalanche, immediately after Mui jumped onto the frame.

The two of them jumped out of the window into the summer day like it was a different world, Takeshi looked back as he continued to run.

☆☆☆