Editing Kaze no Stigma:Volume4 Chapter 2 (section)

=== Part 2 ===


Utsumi slowly stopped after reaching the rear garden - a place that should also be called the delinquents' spot.

Putting two meters of distance between them, Nanase confronted him.

Clearly led on, Utsumi couldn't clearly open him mouth to talk. It seems he wanted to look composed but his eyes and fingertips moved nervously. It was obvious he was getting impatient.

On the other hand while Nanase's eyes were fixed on Utsumi's, she was still. Although she wanted to urge the conversation, she didn't break the ice and with a chilly look she observed the other party.

"Y- you know why I called you right?"

Finally approaching the limit of patience, Utsumi restlessly started the conversation.

With an indifferent bearing Nanase shrugged her shoulders. 

"Who knows..."

" - tch, d- do you want the same fate as the tennis club women? Your fate is in my hand!"

"How terrible."

Answering in a quiet tone, uninterested, she looked down on Utsumi.

"So, when are you going to ask the main question?"

"Y- you...!"

Seeing that Nanase doesn't respond ''the right way'' Utsumi's originally limited reasoning was on the verge of snapping apart. 

His temple blood vessels pulsated with a fairly dangerous impression.

"Look at this!"

As if a transparent ball was held between his hands, he straightened his bad posture. To one that resembled the firing <<Ki>> technique from games and manga.

"KURARARARARA - Ahhhhhhh!"

Letting out a ten odd seconds scream, together with his spineless yell he pushed out both hands. Doing so, something invisible gushed out from between his palms and ran past Nanase's side.

Bakiii!

Behind her the sound of something breaking could be heard. 

Looking over her shoulder, a tree trunk larger than her waist had just been broken from inside.

It seems it was smashed by Utsumi's Kame Hame Ha just now.

" - wow."

Nanase let out a whisper of admiration. Feeling empowered from it, Utsumi shouted triumphantly.

"What do you think of my power? This is not all, my real power is ''<<Curse>>''! I can make you ill from far away and even kill you! Did you know? The laws of this country can't punish spell curses. Even if they catch me at the crime scenes the police won't find any proof!"

"............."

Nanase didn't say anything. She wasn't particularly surprised. She knew about it from yesterday's lecture.

"Wa hya hya hya hya hya hya hya hya hya!"

Perceived that silence in some way, Utsumi laughed with a clearly aberrant voice. He laughed and laughed and rolled about with laughter and glared at Nanase with a crazed expression.

"That's why you can't but feel brittle in front of me! You cannot help but become self-conscious about your own pettiness and pitifully beg for forgiveness! Right?"

Around Utsumi small explosions resounded one after another. His hair fluttered with no wind and the grass beneath his feet was tore off and fluttered in space.

His <<Ki>> was running wild. That was a phenomenon produced by the disorderly emission of <<Ki>> that he couldn't control but Nanase doesn't know that.

With a cold, transparent look she quietly gazed at Utsumi's disgraceful behavior as if it was an interesting but meaningless exhibition.

"So, I'll ask of you once! But even without asking the answer is obvious! Be my slave Nanase!"

"I refuse."

The timing of her answer gave a cross-counter feeling as if hitting the side of his face at the peak of pride.

Not understanding what she said, Utsumi's eyes became round with an idiotic expression.

"Wh- what?"

"I said I refuse.", Nanase repeated most indifferent.

"Don't be conceited. Even if you obtained a somewhat useful power, your own value doesn't change. You weren't an asshole because you had no power. Because your character is vile you're still an asshole. Come again after you start thinking about that."

"Y- yo- youu..."

His small body shaking, Utsumi stood rock-still. Because of too much anger he couldn't speak. Because he obtained a great power, a power greater that anyone else's he was a great being.

That's why, because of her own powerlessness, Nanase wouldn't refuse him. She couldn't help but accept the honor of being his slave with tears of happiness.

That - That -

"Did you finished talking? Then we're done here. Class is starting."

Without even thinking how much disrespect she was committing, Nanase spoke carelessly.

He couldn't forgive her.

He must punish her.

He must put her in her place.

"Wait!", Utsumi called out in a low tone the back facing the classroom. He showed killing intent for that face, bothersome turning around.

For the second time he took the <<Ki>> throwing position. 

He had absolute confidence in the wave of power swelling in the space between his palms. A mass of <<Ki>> was growing between them. 

An invisible destructive energy, whose existence could only be recognized by the small distortion in the space around it.

Nobody can oppose that power. It cannot be judged by the law. 

- Therefore, no matter what he does it is fine 

- if it cannot be imprisoned in the frame of law and common sense, anything is fine 

"''...a somewhat useful power...?'' - wrong, that's so wrong! This power makes me different from the mediocrity you belong to, it's the proof I am a chosen one!"

Nanase was silent. But it was clear from her unfeeling eyes that she didn't admit not even a part of Utsumi's reasoning.

"This is your last chance! Obey me Nanase! Or else - "

"Just try it."

".....................tch!!"

That one word made Utsumi loose the last part of his reason. Raising a voiceless scream, he pulled his hands to his right, one leg bent in front, the other extended behind and took a step forward - 

"Too slow." 

While following his standard movement, Nanase finished her preparation.

She picked the aim of the things she was holding and pressed the button. The electrical terminal sent out by the spring recoil instantly touched Utsumi's shoulder and the ten thousand volt current poured into newbie magician's body via wires.

"GAAH!?"

His large body quivering, Utsumi fell down like a puppet whose strings have been cut.

"Wa- wa- wa- what are you - ?"

Looking down on Utsumi who was unable to articulate his words, Nanase showed him what was in her hand.

"It's called electric gun. It's like a stun gun with long range capabilities."

But because it can be concealed in the hand it's something for either self protection or surprise attacks. A disposable, one shot weapon. And illegal. 

Yesterday when they planned it all Yukari handed it to her but didn't ask how she got it. Too scared.

"Guu.....uuu....un...unfair...."

"It only means that modern science is more helpful than mud-smelling witchcraft"

Lightly retorting to Utsumi's feeble grunt she took out another one from the pocket of her blazer. Without hesitation she aimed for his head and shot.

"........Uu!"

The obese body fell heavily and then it was silent. It seem he lost consciousness from this round.

She stared fixedly at the inert body for another ten seconds. And after another ten seconds, confident he won't move Nanase let out a long breath or relief.

"....It went unexpectedly well."

"Huh, was it unexpected?"

At her unconscious murmur she heard a reply full of smiles.

Confused, Nanase slowly turned her head.

"Did you come?"

"Well of course, if by any chance..."

With brusque words, the girl appearing from the shade of the school building nodded while smiling. 

It was Nanase's close friend, Kannagi Ayano. Yukari too was standing next to her.

"Good job."

" - Ah, I'm worn out.", Nanase replied tiredly at the rewarding remark.

It was a match not quite good for the heart, she had assumed a poker face in front of Utsumi but in her heart she was coldly sweating.

No matter how well thought the plan was, an ordinary person shouldn't pick a fight with a magician. Something like that is a job for a sword or hand-to-hand fighting household and has nothing to do with a member of the track and field club.

"Was there really no danger? I felt like walking on tightrope."

"Some degree of danger is unavoidable, right? Because it wasn't me there."

Ayano had absolutely nothing to do with this ''incident''. 

So no matter how foolish ecstasy made him, if she were to suddenly cross-examine him, he would have gotten suspicions.

So Nanase - the girl he was aiming for was the only one who could contact him with no suspicions, have him confess his crime and be able to make him ostentatiously display his power.

"Beside, I told you yesterday right? Sorcery in general is not such an absolute thing. Such a freshly made magician can be defeated by an amateur if taken by surprise."

To say it frankly sorcery was a craft that changed reality according to one's will. So to force out of the body such a will nothing else could be done except the magic.

In short, the great majority of people could adapt to such a thing.

Just by remembering the score, music doesn't burst out. The way of turning knowledge into craft needs more than learning by rote<ref>Memorization technique based on repetition.</ref>.

No matter how mighty a power you acquired, an amateur couldn't all of a sudden become a top-class magician.

The composition of a technique, its development, its activation - without separately validating such acts, to turn an assembly line product into mastery - a three days space was excessively short.

"You can aim for than gap. It's simple.", Ayano declared simply yesterday, when she was requested for magic counter-measures.

''"It has nothing to do with the strength or type of one's power. For example, except Utsumi's magic, even if he has the capability of a direct attack, there's no need to be afraid. If he's attack range is less than three meters, you are absolutely faster."''

Magic was not absolute. Nor almighty. If you fought against it without fear, it could be opposed with intelligence and effort.





"Well, it went good so it's fine. It all turned out well in the end or something."

As if she earned it, Yukari forced her way between them. But then, she was the one who outlined the plan.

How to calmly make Utsumi lose it? - Lecturing her even on the most insignificant details on how to effectively provoke him, going as far as to give her dangerous self-protection tools it's unknown if this girl had capabilities of mediation or maybe the natural virtue of not raising antipathy.

".......true.", releasing her discomfort together with the long breath, Nanase bowed her head to them. 

"It's all your merit I was able to catch Utsumi without getting hurt. Thank you."

"You're welcome.", Yukari smiled sweetly receiving Nanase's thanks.


"Well, this is what I do.", Ayano lightly shrugged her shoulders.

"Leave the rest to me. I'll do something about the cursed girls."

Ayano herself couldn't do anything to remove the curse directly. The Kannagi technique was specialized to fight directly with Youma and was not suited for such sensitive work.

If it were Ayano's father or her uncle Genma they could burn only the curse without hurting the body but she didn't want to make such a big deal of it and request something like that from them, who were retired.

There was, yet, no need to do it.

Because she knew a more user-friendly practitioner.

''I think a public servant should extensively work for the sake of civilians.''

Thinking that if she were to say such a thing in front of that person she would get cursed, she walked to the school building.

The helper she called had already arrived.

Followed behind by two subordinates, the person waiting in front of the school building noticed Ayano and called out to her, waiving her hand cheerfully.

"Hi, Ayano-chan!"

Tachibana Kirika the Chief of the Special Investigation Unit greeted Ayano, smiling with all her face.