The Irregular at Magic High School: Mayumi Route

Volume 40: World War 4: Part 3

The rain was heavy as Kyouko's blood dripped down the floor.

Liu had managed to escape from the blast, just barely hanging onto life, but none of them cared. Right now, they were mourning.

<><><>

A day had passed and Tatsuya had woken up in a small abandoned building, quite far from where their fight had taken place.

"Angie? What..."

He looked around and realized that Kyouko was missing, "Kyouko! Where is-"

"She's gone. Liu killed her. Hell, we're all just barely hanging onto life."

From the looks of it, too much time had passed for his Regrowth to have any effect. He had no idea what to say; he didn't know what to do. Someone who was always with him, accompanying him in so many missions was now gone.

"Eh? Kyouko... She's."

"Gone-"

"I see..."

He wanted to cry; Tatsuya wanted to mourn.

But that wasn't possible right now. He could tell from the state of everyone around him; that they were pushed to their very limits.

"So what do we do from here?"

Masaki spoke out, pressed against a wall. "The entire nation is on the lookout for us and we've lost most of our communications-"

He was interrupted by Tatsuya's fist punching into the wall. He took a deep breath, calmed himself down, and spoke, "Our only mission now is to get back... No, for this, let's split up into two groups. I'll stay here alone while you all get back to Japan."

"But-"

"There's still things I need to do here, plus, we can't return yet having lost this much, can we? I'll help you all get back, so once you do, bring backup."

"Are you sure? Tatsuya. We're all heavily underequipped after those fights back there. None of our battle suits are functioning anymore."

"I've been through enough of these sorts of missions, it's fine-"

"But-"

"I'm fine!"

He punched the wall again in anger. This was the first time he'd ever been defeated so overwhelmingly. He couldn't even protect Kyouko, a person he'd spent so long with. It was crushing.

But with that rage, he felt like he had to show his worth.

"Okay."

Angie walked up to him, "You're far stronger than any of us, I can admit that, but you're still just Tatsuya... Make it back safely, okay?"

He nodded.

"I'll be fine. I'm not dying here, I promise."

After all, I've got people waiting for me back home... Mayumi. Miyuki... I can't let any of them down. There's too much that I still need to do!

"Alright then, we'll bring back up to you as soon as we can."

<><><>

Back at the sight of their last fight, Liu had just woken up. While it was true that Liu had won the fight, Tatsuya hadn't realized how close their battle was.

Just standing up for her was difficult.

Her vision was blurry and she had an enormous headache.

"Hahaha!"