“Yeah… Staying in a level 3 zone for a while is pretty dangerous.”
“I wanna go home, take a bath, and go to sleep…”
“Oh, that reminds me. Yuria, didn’t Research and Development send you a summons?”
“Oh…yeah, you’re right.”
“You should probably go sooner rather than later. They’re pretty stubbornly persistent.”
“Huh? Uh, sure, I guess.”
Having finished our work, we were on our way back to the city as usual when Lieutenant Bates gave me some advice. “Persistent,” he called them… I wasn’t totally sure what that meant, but I did remember that they wanted to talk to me about weapons, or something. I decided to head over there before taking my bath.
Research and Development is a department focused on creating weapons to counter the Twilight. They also research and create magic. Combat ability isn’t particularly important for working there. All one needs is the skills and brains for developing new technology.
“Excuse me…” I said, entering the R&D building.
Their building was towards the south of the base, on the opposite side of the Twilight MTF in the north. They were a fair ways apart — more than I was expecting — but I walked here nonetheless.
Looking inside, I saw a lot of different people milling about. Some of them were conducting magical experiments while others seemed to be developing weapons. The building was divided into rooms, separating the offices for doing desk work from the experiment rooms.
“Oh, you must be Yuria. I’ve heard of you.”
“Oh… Hello. My name is Yuria Curtis.”
“I’m the person in charge around here. My name is Abby Dein. Feel free to call me Dr. Abby.”
“Understood.”
“Perfect,” she said, smiling. This woman seemed to be the head of this department. She had long, brown hair tied back in a neat ponytail and glasses. Her height was about the same as mine. I wasn’t sure how old she was, but she seemed surprisingly young.
“Now then… You’re the new S-Rank, and you fight with a knife, yes?”
“Yes. Well, more accurately…”
“I know. It’s a kind of Illusion Magic, no? A twist on the spell Invisible; you use it to create an illusion in the shape of a katana. Invisible Blade, as you called it. Of course, it’s already been registered as your spell.”
“Ah…so that’s what they needed my signature for back then.”
Shortly after I joined the military, I was asked to sign some documents to officially register Invisible Blade in the Spell Registry.
“I took a quick look at it… It’s quite an interesting spell. You can freely change its shape and length at will. Plus, as long as you have an origin point for each blade, you can create multiple blades at once. How many can you make, at most?”
“As I am right now… I could create about 12 full-sized blades simultaneously.”
“Your ten fingers, and… your legs? So 12?”
“Yes. That’s correct.”
“I see…”
She was taking notes as I explained.
“How do you turn it on and off? How long can you keep it active?”
“I can turn it on and off at will. Once deactivated, there’s almost no delay until it can be reactivated. Less than a second, I’d say. As for the duration… I’ve kept it up for 3 hours, at most. I’ve never tested it, but I believe that if I reduced the spell’s output with only two blades… I could probably keep it running for about five hours.”
“I see… Can I check something?”
“Huh? Sure.”
She held her hand on my head. I stood quietly, and a second later, she began to take more notes.
“Hm… I see, Stage 5… No, no, this is more than that. It’s impossible to measure. Hmm, your magicule1 capacity is also incredibly high.”
“Um… You can measure that?”
“It’s my Extra. Officially, it’s called Decoding Sense. I can roughly determine the magicule capacity of a target, even without touching it. With physical contact, I can get an exact amount. As for you… If we arbitrarily consider an average human’s maximum capacity to be about 100, yours is around 300, or so. Three times the average maximum, that is.”
“Huh? That’s… Wait, I’m over the maximum?”
“It’s fairly common among the S-Ranks to have far more magicules than physically possible. It’s probably a side effect — a rather harmful one — of Twilight Syndrome. Anyway, this should be perfect for you. I’ve already tested them out, too,” she said, handing me a pair of knives. “I created two of these just for you. Its name is Multiple Knife. Do you see the tiny spikes on them?”
“Yes… Wait, can those-“
“You can use these as origins for Invisible Blade, no?”
“I’ll give it a try.”
The Multiple Knife —at first glance, it was just a regular knife, just like the one I used all the time. But taking a closer look, they were covered with tiny spikes. Using the spikes as origins, I activated an extra-fine version of Invisible Blade. It worked — all of the spikes now had Invisible Blade extending from them.
“…I did it. Also, these seem to conduct magicules quite well.”
“Ah, they’re made from pretty nice materials, you see. The metal in those knives conducts magicules well. Anyway, did you manage to activate it?”
“Yes.”
“Then please pierce this wood with it, as a test,” she said, offering me a piece of wood. I promptly pierced and activated Invisible Blade, creating countless tiny holes in it.
“Ooh… Seeing it in action really is impressive.”
“I’m surprised, too, Dr. I’d never given that much thought to the ways I could use various origins with my magic. This gives me quite a few more options in combat.”
“What’s important is making sure your opponent doesn’t notice those spikes. Your Invisible Blade is, obviously, invisible… That alone is quite the advantage. But if you can also create multiple blades at once, well, there’s no reason not to take that advantage, too. I’m glad this went well.”
“Thank you very much for this.”
“Making those things is quite the involved process. There’s no chance of mass-producing these. You’ll have to deal with only having two for now.”
“No… This is more than enough. Really, thank you so much.”
“Man, I was wondering what kind of magic the new S-Rank would use, but I wasn’t expecting you to be this crazy powerful. Personally, developing these weapons was quite worthwhile for my own research.”
“…Haha…”
People were overestimating me again… But that aside, this Multiple Knife seemed quite useful. Until now, I’d only used my whole knife as an origin, but from now on I could use these tiny spikes for Invisible Blade, too. They might not be very good for cutting, but they’d certainly be useful for piercing. Creating several-metre-long invisible projections off the countless spikes on this knife would give me an incredible advantage in close combat.
Perhaps because of the recent attack, my Twilight Syndrome seemed to be progressing faster. Thanks to that — or, rather, because of that — my aptitude for magic has increased dramatically. My physical abilities have increased, too, though my body has drifted quite far away from humanity in many ways. And, on top of all of that, I’ve gotten this weapon.
I was unbeatable, now… was something I wouldn’t quite say, but I couldn’t imagine losing in close combat.
“Alright. From now on, please report your thoughts on the weapon and your analysis of its performance every time you enter combat.”
“…Huh?”
“We need good feedback. That thing’s still a prototype. As you use it, we’ll tailor its performance to your specifications, with your feedback.”
“That’s true, but… every time I enter combat? Isn’t that a bit much?”
“What are you talking about? We need your feedback every time. That’s an order. I’m a Colonel, by the way. You’re a Major, right? Consider this an order from your superior officer. Do it.”
“…Yes ma’am…”
I was suddenly reminded of Lieutenant Bates’ words: “They’re pretty stubbornly persistent.”
I’d eventually learn, against my will, exactly what he meant… but that’s a story for another day.