It wasn't the group of First High students or the alumni who were most shaken when the glass-bottomed boat veered from its scheduled course. Instead, the shock hit the Great Asian Alliance defectors and Australian operatives lying in wait within their submarine.
"The boat has abandoned its planned route. It's circling back to the harbor via the western path. Orders, sir?"
Listening to the operator's report, Daniel Liu, the leader of the Great Asian Alliance defector group, felt a prickle of doubt. Why would they deviate now?
The plan had been the brainchild of Liu's closest aide: kidnap the students from the First National Magic University and Magic High—specifically the daughter of the Kitayama family. By framing it as a profit-driven kidnapping for ransom, they hoped to divert suspicion from their true objective. Simultaneously, it would serve to neutralize the Yotsuba family's magicians, preventing them from interfering with the primary operation scheduled for the 28th.
Liu himself hadn't been entirely keen on the idea, though he hadn't moved to stop it. Captain James J. Johnson of the Australian military had been the only one to voice a strenuous objection. In the end, a majority vote—bolstered by Liu's own indecisiveness—had set the plan in motion.
"...Follow them," Liu commanded. "But maintain a distance before moving in."
He wondered if their position had been compromised. Yet, the straight-line distance between the submarine and the boat was roughly one kilometer. While the submarine could easily track the boat, it should have been nearly impossible for those on the boat to detect a submerged vessel at that range.
Still, Liu prioritized the elimination of any variables that might jeopardize the mission. He ordered the pursuit.
Neither Liu nor James realized the truth: the reaper's scythe was already pressed against their throats.
◇ ◇ ◇
Yugen had no illusions about shaking them off with a simple course correction. While steering the vessel, he monitored the submarine's movements via the terminal at his side. They were tailing them, hovering at a calculated distance.
(I suppose their goal is the kidnapping... but is their pride really worth this much?)
To be blunt, Yugen found it hard to fathom what kind of "pride" remained in the nations of the Chinese continent—territories that had fractured and merged so often they had long since lost the cohesion of a single state. There was nothing wrong with a healthy rivalry, but when that competitive spirit curdled into twisted ideologies that harassed neighboring nations, they were nothing more than state-sponsored bandits.
Tatsuya entered the wheelhouse. He, too, had sensed the submarine. More accurately, he was likely reading the situation through the "marker" he had placed on James J. Johnson.
"Yugen, it looks like a submarine is tailing us."
"I've got eyes on them... I doubt they'd be bold enough to attack the island directly, but we can't risk civilian casualties. And it seems they aren't going to give us time to think it over."
Through Yugen's 'Osiris Sight' and Tatsuya's 'Elemental Sight,' both sensed the launch of a torpedo. In the original timeline, Mizuki would have handled this, but Yugen called out to Shizuku, who was standing nearby.
"Shizuku. Target thirty meters behind the boat, eighteen-degree downward angle toward the seabed. Fire 'Phonon Tears.'"
"On it."
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