Tsuchimikado Motoharu ran towards a gate leading outside of Academy City.
The pouring rain showed no sign of letting up, covered up the moonlight, made it difficult to listen for other sounds, and even erased the scents of the surrounding area. The soaking landscape was enough to drastically raise the odds of death in a nighttime battle.
(Most of the city's functions have been knocked out. We're lucky there has been no rioting or looting.)
As Tsuchimikado muttered that silently in his heart, he carefully monitored his surroundings without slowing down.
Anti-Skill and Judgment who handled the law and order of the city had been almost entirely wiped out. It seemed some of the members were still active, but it was not enough to cover the entire city. If someone noticed the city was paralyzed, store registers and shelves would be attacked and stolen from in no time.
The only reason that had yet to happen was that Academy City's last trains and buses were set at the same time as the citywide curfew. This meant most of the people in the city had not noticed the abnormal situation and most of the students would be knocked unconscious by the unidentified attack before they did notice.
An attack.
More specifically, an attack from the magic side.
That word made Tsuchimikado Motoharu clench his teeth.
However, he kept his thoughts as uniform as possible in a combat situation, so it did not show itself as an obvious wave of emotion.
(God's Right Seat, hm? I've heard of them, but I never thought they would go this far.)
As Tsuchimikado ran through the silent city, he was actually impressed.
He was a skilled magician.
And yet he was unable to analyze what sort of spell was being used despite the magical attack being on such a large scale. He was completely baffled.
(But there has to be more than the one Aleister mentioned. There has to be a group somewhere. If they enter the city while it's paralyzed like this, the city is done for.)
It was truly bizarre that a combat unit had not entered along with the member of God's Right Seat. However, that might simply have been an issue of numbers. If a group of 10,000 was waiting outside, they would be forced to engage the 2.3 million residents of the city in battle if they had entered right away. But if God's Right Seat entered first and wore down Academy City's ability to fight, the invasion unit would lose much fewer members.
The number of the enemy force was unknown.
How they were positioned outside of Academy City was unknown.
(But there aren't enough of them to head in straight away.)
Academy City had 2.3 million people. If the Roman Catholic Church had sent in 10 million people, they would not need to wait outside. The initial attack by Vento would have been unnecessary. They would have tried to conquer the city with brute strength. (Of course, Academy City's psychic powers and advanced weaponry meant their strength could not be calculated out simply from the number of people, but Tsuchimikado doubted the Roman Catholic Church truly understood that.)
It was possible the number of enemies in wait was relatively small.
Their numbers would only be enough to "clean up" within the silenced city after Vento's attack.
(Even so, I doubt it's a group I can handle alone.)
Tsuchimikado Motoharu did not seek to annihilate the enemy.
He would not allow the invasion unit to enter Academy City until the city had begun to function once more. That was his condition for victory. Not Aleister's, but Tsuchimikado Motoharu's own. His only option was to leave Vento to someone else.
But holding back an unknown number of enemies when he had no idea when the city would recover was more or less a suicide mission.
(I can't get any help from the normal forces. And the others like me have other business to deal with.)
He had no comrades who could help him.
He had no special weapon or magic that could resolve the situation.
However…
(Maika is in the city.)
He thought of his younger sister who had no connection to the world of magic and simply wished to be a maid.
That was all it took to give him the resolution to fight.
(I can betray anyone and everything else, but I will never betray her.)
Tsuchimikado Motoharu slipped through the Third Gate which had lost all defensive ability and left Academy City.
He was a magician who had mastered Onmyoudou.
He was an esper with a useless power.
And he had a single goal.
He would protect the world of the one precious to him.