Rental Magica Volume 1: Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - <Night> of the Magician

1

Itsuki was in the sky.

"Owowowowow--!"

"President, hold onto the broom with your butt or your knees. I told you it would hurt if you slacken!" Honami, who was sitting in front of him, warned in a cold voice. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get himself straight.

"E, even if you say that, the broom is digging in between my legs... owow!"

Itsuki grabbed onto Honami's slender back, pressed his knees together tightly, and screamed.

He was on a broom.

He had been seated on the back of Honami's broom and taken away into the sky. Some might envy his position, but such a thought didn't cross Itsuki's mind for even a nanosecond.

"It's because your nerves are so sensitive from not exercising."

Trying to regain his posture, Itsuki was met with those frank words.

"It can't be helped. I've never practiced riding on a broom," he responded sullenly.

"Ah."

"Wh, what?"

"That's the first time you've talked back."

Honami chuckled.

Feeling a little awkward, Itsuki hesitated to speak.

"It's fine. You won't mature without that sort of thing. However, you should save it for now. --Look over there."

She pointed straight at the ground.

Below the pointing nail of her supple, quivering finger was the sprawling expanse of the goblin factory.

"... gh."

"Do you understand? Hey."

Honami asked again to Itsuki, who had swallowed his breath.

"... Y, yeah. It's swirling."

At the center of the factory, a mass of spell power was swirling like a typhoon. When he had seen it from the ground, he had only noticed that the factory had changed appearance, but if he looked from this point, he could understand more clearly.

Honami nodded and continued.

"That is the beginning of... a <Night>."

"<Night>?"

"Basically, it's a storm of spell power that runs ley lines. It's because spell power is an easily alterable form of energy. What controls that altercation is magic, but--if you just leave it there, it'll quickly turn into something strange. This is spell wave pollution. It's best to think about a <Night> as an incredibly huge version of this spell wave pollution."

Itsuki blinked at Honami's words.

"Spell wave... pollution?"

"Take a look."

The girl pointed with her oak staff.

At about the same time, the spell power changed even further.

--First, a smokestack was twisted.

As it bent flexibly like fired glass, the concrete of the factory became transparent. A white wave boiled up from the empty ground overrun by weeds, and with a crashing roar, the entire grounds of the factory was washed away by a huge wave of water.

It was only about a hundred square meters, but--it truly was a black ocean.

"The mountain... into an ocean...?!"

"It's because this mountain used to be a seafloor. It's 'remembering' that time. Recurrence is a popular phenomenon for <Night>s, though this one's kinda small."

Pushing up her pointed hat, Honami narrowed her eyes.

Itsuki remained in a shocked state.

He still couldn't believe the scene he was looking down upon. With a snap, he opened his eye wide, remembering something.

"That's right... what about Mikan-chan?"

In a flurry, he looked down.

Then, he dropped his jaw again.

At the surface around Mikan, who was waving her arms around--the water had receded in a circle of space about eight meters in diameter. It was an unnatural space that seemed like it had been cut out of the air.

{We're fine down here!}

"Huh?"

Suddenly, he heard Nekoyashiki's voice from behind him. Immediately after, he turned to see a white cat holding on to his shoulder.

"B, Byakko-kun?"

It was Nekoyashiki's cherished, pure-white kitten. Through some sort of contrivance, whenever a "Meorw" came from its throat, Nekoyashiki's voice could be heard at the same time.

{Ahaha. I had him cling to your back at the beginning, but didn't you notice? Were you surprised? Did I scare you?}

"I, I didn't realize it..."

At Itsuki's astonishment, Byakko-kun puffed up with pride. Up in the sky on a broom like that, he was indeed a cat, but also a handy tool.

{Rather than 'shikigami,' this could be called 'shikineko.' --Right. We're fine over here thanks to Mikan-san's spirit barrier.}

"Mikan-chan's?"

{Yes, yes. The special magic ability of Shintou is entirely to purify uncleanliness with <misogi>, after all. If Mikan-san overlaps her spell power, then even smack dab in the middle of spell wave pollution, we can get a perfectly sealed paradise. Thanks to her, I can completely focus on Byakko-kun,} Nekoyashiki--or rather, Byakko-kun speaking with Nekoyashiki's voice, said, waving around his vast stock of knowledge.

"Special magic ability?"

{Yes, I told you a bit about it earlier. Magical arts are all used to manipulate spell power. So, depending on the method of manipulation used, certain specialties and weaknesses arise. For Mikan-san's Shintou, there's the spirit barrier, and for my Onmyoudou, there's shikigami--these things are beyond the control of a familiar. These kinds of things are special magic abilites.}

Skillfully bending his forelegs, Byakko-kun managed to bow.

"Oh, I see. Like how you said one could specialize in summoning magic."

{Yes, like that. Even so, there are of course loopholes, and personal differences exist as well, so it's not absolute. Eventually, though, whatever the magical art, practitioners of magic all end up in similar positions--}

"Nekoyashiki-san, you're talking too much."

{Oh, excuse me.}

"... I was planning to explain all that to him," the girl sighed so quietly that no one else could hear. She then changed the subject, asking something else. "So, have you found the core of this <Night>?"

{Ah, just now I tried to divine it, but it didn't work out. The density of the spell power is too high compared to the scope, so I'm working on it. If I we don't get close enough then we won't be able to recognize it.}

"The core of the <Night>?" Itsuki asked.

"I told you earlier, right? That this is natural magic."

"Oh, yeah."

"That's why..."

{That is to say, if there's magic and spell wave pollution, then there's a core that is manipulating spell power. Whether with curses, or ceremonies, or magic circles, or with seals--whatever, it could be anything. The method to dispel it would be the same, so it would naturally be prudent for us to locate the core fastest and destroy it. It would be quite a chore even without <Goetia> around.}

"Hey, Nekoyashiki-san!"

Honami became deep red and turned around.

{Oh, sorry about that. When I'm asked something, I end up wanting to explain it to the end. Ahaha.}

The girl snorted slightly, glaring at the joyfully laughing white cat.

Then,

"So, did you understand all of that?" she asked Itsuki.

"Ah... y, yeah. Generally."

"I see."

Honami stared at his face for a moment, but then finally turned forward.

"Oh, that's right. If we... fail to dispel the <Night>, what happens then?"

"It's just like a storm. Until the <Night> ends, it'll continue to rampage violently. Just like the name says, they pretty much disappear in the morning, though in certain nasty situations they can wipe out a whole region, similar to what happened to the Tungus."

"..."

Ignoring Itsuki, who was at a loss for words, Honami gently ran her finger across the broom.

"Nekoyashiki-san. I'm going to approach the <Night>, so tell me a route with little spell wave pollution."

{Yes, yes. I'll use katatagae. If we go by the flow of today's stars and ley lines... we should enter from the south south west side...}

Nekoyashiki's voice flowed through.

Following his directions, the broom took a nosedive toward the water's surface.

*

"Sustaining a Shintou ooharai barrier, using Onmyoudou katatagae to confirm a route, and then having Honami use Celtic magic to search... how inefficient," Adilisia sighed at the edge of the phantom sea as the waves pummeled the shore.

"Allocating different roles to several types of magic is nothing but a loss of spell power, time, and ability."

One of the apprentices behind her nodded.

"Not to mention, they cannot support each other with differing magical abilities. Why are they even a magical group? It pains me to try to understand them," she said in a vexed manner. She turned around.

The preparations were already finished.

On the ground behind her, a large, purified paper was placed, with the sanctified names beginning in EHYEH and ending in LEVANAH written on it, along with a magic circle and several triangles and stars of David.

"Begin."

At the girl's words, the apprentices who were on standby began to chant.

"... I do invocate and conjure thee."

"... I do invocate and conjure thee."

All members whispering the same words, they grasped the "pentagrams of Solomon" to their chests.

"... I do strongly command thee, by Beralanensis, Baldachiensis, Paumachia, and Apologle Sedes: by the most Powerful Princes, Genii, Lichide, and Ministers of the Tartarean Abode: and by the Chief Prince of the Seat of Apologia in the Ninth Legion--"

Monotonously, they continued on, speaking nothing but the long spell. Conjuring up images of snakes and spirals, the words slowly flowed out, and acted as if to arrest the stars in the night sky.

Finally.

Within the magic circle, a white ether body floated lightly.

"I will show you how <Goetia> does things, Honami."

Adilisia raised her lips.

Her golden hair fluttering in the moonlight, the girl proudly chanted.

"Respond to my order, Shax! Great Marquis supporting thirty armies!"