Chapter 47
Everyone in Tokyo knows of the future-seeing mage's extraordinary, tireless efforts.
Not only has the future-seeing mage predicted disasters and monster appearances, but also unknown threats that would have been unimaginable before the world's collapse.
There have even been cases like the Mushroom Pandemic, where, despite taking measures openly, the future-seeing mage was unfortunately unable to prevent all the damage.
To begin with, there have also been cases like the Iruma Coup and the Great Beast's landing, which the future-seeing mage completely failed to foresee.
On the other hand, there have been many cases where major disasters that were supposed to occur were completely prevented without incident, such as the birth of a murderous cult, wars between quarreling witches, the formation of Class A monster colonies, and the autonomous uprising of the Sazareishi Witch's golems.
Everyone living in Tokyo holds the future-seeing mage in high regard.
Yet no one besides the future-seeing mage could possibly understand everything the mage had truly accomplished.
That future-seeing mage had been especially busy since the start of the new year.
Of course, the mage was always extremely busy, but in addition to the predictions required to smoothly issue a new currency, resume compulsory education, and establish a trade-based economic sphere, two major, clearly visible threats had appeared, and dealing with them had proved difficult.
Of the two great threats awaiting Tokyo in the future, one was the growing number of Class A monsters carrying Black Gremlins.
This anomaly had first been confirmed during the campaign to defeat Daidarabocchi, and it was known to be worsening with the passage of time.
Class A monsters that learned Time Acceleration magic through Black Gremlins generated inside their bodies were a threat. Even monsters that had previously been defeated without difficulty became harder to kill under Time Acceleration, or caused greater damage even when defeated, and witches could be injured.
With healing magic undiscovered and medical care far from adequate, injuries to witches were devastating.
The number of Class A monsters using Time Acceleration would gradually increase.
Before long, the rate of injuries among witches would rise, forcing them to go out on missions while still wounded.
Going out despite an injury would lead to serious injuries.
And serious injuries would lead to death.
This situation would progress too quickly for mage training and combat drills to make up the difference.
If nothing were done, Tokyo's Witches' Assembly, whose numbers were already declining year by year, would inevitably suffer even more vacancies. The Eyeball Witch, who managed the largest territory and was a friend of the future-seeing mage, would be the first to die when the demands on her response capability became overwhelming.
To prevent that, the future-seeing mage was pushing forward with weapons development.
If ordinary people could use weapons to deal with Class A monsters that only witches and mages could currently handle, the situation would become considerably easier.
The future-seeing mage had commissioned the Gremlin Engineering Department at the university to research wands, traps, and bombs capable of working against Class A monsters.
Professor Handa of the Gremlin Engineering Department was both capable and practical. Soon after receiving the request, the professor abandoned a magical approach and proposed establishing a nitroglycerin production system.
It was extremely difficult for ordinary people to launch magical attacks effective against Class A monsters. At present, even using Monster Tongs together with the Blood Wand Vampire could not inflict an effective blow.
But chemistry could.
Not all chemical technology from the previous era had died.
Even among the chemical technologies said to have regressed two hundred years with the loss of electricity and to have no hope of further progress, there were techniques that could still be used.
Nitroglycerin, the main ingredient in dynamite, the famous bomb, was a proven weapon that had wreaked havoc in the wars of the previous civilization. Calculations suggested that it would be questionable against Class A-2 monsters and above, but that it could deal an effective blow to Class A-3 monsters.
Professor Handa had been working with surviving chemists on bomb production, despite it presumably being outside the professor's specialty, and had succeeded in manufacturing nitroglycerin on a laboratory scale. A report had come in saying that they had begun studying the structure of highly lethal dynamite bombs and theoretically designing a mass-production system possible at the current level of civilization.
All they could do was pray that weapons development would be completed before the witches' ability to respond became overwhelmed by the growing ferocity of Class A monsters.
To be honest, the future-seeing mage would have preferred to commission the mysterious genius craftsman 0933 to mass-produce powerful wands, sealing bullets, and the like.
However, the Blue Witch, who had been entrusted with negotiating with 0933, was reluctant to distribute powerful weapons that would destroy the balance of power.
Moreover, whenever anyone tried to pressure 0933, 0933 disappeared and cut off all contact.
They could not force the difficult genius craftsman to develop weapons.
0933 had already made contributions to humanity far greater than anyone could reasonably ask, and apparently had an extreme aversion to social activity. If forcing the unwilling 0933 to work only caused 0933 to disappear, then unfortunately it would be better for 0933 to remain uninvolved in dealing with the growing ferocity of Class A monsters.
If they could successfully deliver Black Gremlins, which vanished with the passage of time, to 0933, 0933 seemed happy to analyze them, so that was where they had to place their hopes.
The anomaly that looked like monster evolution was terrifying, but what seemed most ominous to the future-seeing mage was the appearance, about six months later, of Class A monsters that began to “migrate.”
Some of the Class A monsters carrying Black Gremlins would begin a great migration eastward across the sea.
Those that could swim would swim, and those that could fly would fly. Those that could do neither would be carried by other species of monsters capable of swimming or flying across the sea.
Basically, monsters only formed groups with members of their own species. The Department of Monster Studies at the Magic University had confirmed cases of monsters of different species forming a certain degree of symbiotic relationship, but there were no known cases of them displaying behavior suggestive of unified command.
The sight of Class A monsters of different species beginning to migrate one after another as though they had coordinated with one another was deeply ominous and unsettling.
At first glance, this “migration” was a blessing.
The abnormal Class A monsters tormenting survivor communities across the country would cross the sea and disappear to the east. If everyone could survive the crisis, peace would await them, though there would be casualties.
But the reason for the migration was unknown.
If the monsters that disappeared eastward never returned, that would be fine.
But what if, like migratory birds, they bred in the lands where they migrated, increased in number and strength, and then returned?
What if they caused something in the lands they migrated to, and the resulting damage spread as far as Japan?
No one could know what kind of catastrophic damage a group of powerful Class A monsters might cause.
The future-seeing mage's predictions had limits.
It was unknown what would happen as a result of the migration—or whether anything would happen at all.
Given a little more time, the future would draw closer, making it easier to see what awaited them. The mage could only fervently pray that by the time the future became visible, it would not already be too late.
The threat posed by Class A monsters was serious, but the future-seeing mage had foreseen another threat as well.
It was the Arataki Group.
The Arataki Group was a large survivor community based in Kyushu. About five months earlier, it had launched a lightning attack to occupy and subdue the Biwa Lake Accord, only recently incorporating it into its own sphere of influence.
Its grasp was reaching Tokyo as well.
As far as the future-seeing mage was concerned, if the Arataki Group would provide good governance, the mage would gladly hand over all of Tokyo's political and economic affairs. That would let the mage set down the unbearably heavy burden on their shoulders and enjoy the long-awaited slow life in the countryside.
But unfortunately, the Arataki Group's governance appeared to be atrocious.
The Arataki Group would first contact the Setagaya Witch. If that contact were allowed, Setagaya Ward would be consumed by a dangerous, addictive drug, and public safety would deteriorate rapidly. Its political and economic systems would collapse, order would be lost, and it would become a dangerous lawless zone where violence held sway.
Then, using Setagaya as a foothold, the Arataki Group would rapidly spread devastation throughout Tokyo.
The identities of the Arataki Group's members were unknown. All that was known was that there were at least two of them. The details of the drug were also unknown.
The Setagaya Witch regarded mages and witches as sacred and had a tendency toward elitism, so it was easy to understand the danger that the witch might sympathize with the Arataki Group's policy of oppressing the powerless.
But it was impossible to understand why even witches who seemed likely to resist the Arataki Group's tyranny would meekly obey.
The Arataki Group apparently believed that the Setagaya Witch would be easy to win over—and they were probably right—and even when the future-seeing mage repeatedly interfered, it continued insisting on contacting the Setagaya Witch for about a month.
However, about a week ago, the future in which they attempted to make contact stopped appearing.
What appeared in its place was a future in which the Blue Witch stormed into the Witches' Assembly shouting.
Apparently, Cuanos had been stolen by someone.
Judging from the circumstances before and after, the one who had stolen—or attempted to steal—Cuanos was probably the Arataki Group. The group had likely changed its strategy after realizing that winning over the Setagaya Witch was impossible. Stealing a magic wand from the Blue Witch was not something just anyone could do. The culprit was certainly a witch or mage.
However, the future-seeing mage could not see the Cuanos thief's appearance, so the possibility that some other incident had coincided by chance with the Arataki Group's scheme could not be ruled out.
The future-seeing mage had once acted on uncertain information as though it were fact, based on a future the mage had seen, and then been forced to clean up the mess by the Vampire Mage, who had reprimanded the mage.
The future-seeing mage limited the warning to telling the Blue Witch that someone was trying to steal Cuanos.
The warning worked.
The day on which Cuanos was supposed to be stolen passed without incident.
If Cuanos fell into the hands of the Arataki Group, there was a high possibility that the witches would be swept away all at once by magic strengthened to an abnormal degree. It could never be allowed to happen.
However, thanks to the warning, the already highly cautious Blue Witch was on full alert, every nerve taut. Even the future-seeing mage would have found it impossible to steal from the Blue Witch in that state.
The future-seeing mage took a brief respite from dealing with the Arataki Group, then spent the next several days concentrating on seeing the future of the Class A monster anomaly.
The Class A monster problem and the Arataki Group were both deeply troubling.
But magic power was limited, and the reverse flow of magic placed a burden on the brain. The mage could not observe both problems thoroughly.
The future-seeing mage considered the Class A monster problem more dangerous than the Arataki Group problem.
Bluffs worked on the Arataki Group, but not on monsters.
The future-seeing mage publicly claimed to be able to see the future, and in fact performed astonishing feats based on future-seeing magic.
However, the mage kept the details of the ability secret. It was meant to serve as a deterrent.
If the details of the limitations and effects of future-seeing became widely known, people with malicious intentions would inevitably try to outwit it.
In fact, before the coup, when the Iruma Mage was pretending to be a good person, the mage had tried to investigate future-seeing magic. Failing to foresee the coup had been the future-seeing mage's own mistake: the mage had believed the Iruma Mage to be an ally and carelessly told the mage all about the magic's details.
The future-seeing mage would not make the same mistake again.
Other than the Iruma Mage, who was already dead, the future-seeing mage had told no one the details of the magic.
That had considerably suppressed crime and other incidents.
If it was not conceit, the reason the Zombie Witch was quietly holed up, indulging in a corpse-loving, necrophilic reverse harem while millions of zombies crowded her territory, was also the deterrent provided by future-seeing magic.
The Setagaya Witch, for one, watched the future-seeing mage's expression quite openly and often asked whether the witch's governance looked acceptable from the perspective of future-seeing.
The Arataki Group probably also knew of the future-seeing mage through the Dragon Witch—there was no way the Dragon Witch had not told them—and was likely excessively wary because it overestimated future-seeing magic.
But Class A monsters had no caution whatsoever.
They were simply strong.
They just kept growing stronger and increasing in threat level.
The uncertainty of the situation was another threat.
Since indirect tactics did not work, it was only natural for the future-seeing mage to decide to observe the future concerning Class A monsters more broadly and more deeply.
After several days of using future-seeing to track one of the Class A-3 monsters the mage had deliberately left alive instead of exterminating,
Now, what had happened with the Arataki Group?
The future-seeing mage was working in the Bunkyo Ward Office when the mage saw a future connected to the Arataki Group and was left aghast.
Bunkyo Ward had been reduced to a vacant lot.
This was not a future in which it was gradually reduced to a vacant lot over many days. It was going to happen within a single day.
The future-seeing mage's expression changed drastically.
A nuclear bomb? A Class A-1 monster? No, it was the Arataki Group's doing.
After performing future-seeing several more times in succession, the mage learned that the Arataki Group apparently intended to eliminate the future-seeing mage along with all of Bunkyo Ward, then invade Tokyo from multiple directions.
"Is this an emergency?"
As the future-seeing mage leaned on the desk, sweating coldly and agonizing over the situation, the female secretary standing beside the mage asked tersely, her face tense.
The future-seeing mage nodded gravely.
"Call the communications team. I'll search for a future that avoids the emergency if at all possible, but we will probably have to declare a state of emergency."
"Understood. Guards! Call five people from the communications team immediately! At least one of them must know shorthand!"
As the future-seeing mage heard the sound of running footsteps fading away with an affirmative reply, the mage selected the futures that needed to be seen.
If something was going to happen within a day, there was little time to spare. This was less a problem of magic power than of time and the strain on the brain. Even though a prediction of something minor within a day was not especially taxing, precisely limiting its contents and using the magic repeatedly within a short period would cause severe brain damage.
The mage had to limit the visions to only the futures that were truly necessary. What should be seen, and what should be left unseen?
The mage agonized over it for only about a minute. The communications team soon arrived, formed a line, and raised their writing implements while rigid with tension, so the future-seeing mage smiled and told them to relax.
"Don't worry. Difficulties are bearing down on us, but the future is bright. I will make it bright. It is enough if you all do your jobs as well as you can."
"My today ends. A signpost for your tomorrow."
The future-seeing mage began the predictions.
The mage examined the scenes seen in the future and issued instructions.
"The Eyeball Witch, the Night Witch, the Tobacco Witch, and the one from Hachioji... No, damn it, she's gone. Call the three I just named here. If you can, call the Spider Witch as well. Mention the Vampire Mage's name and tell the Spider Witch that the witch can keep the witch's appearance hidden, then do whatever you can to persuade the witch."
"An Eyeball Familiar is connected to all three of them. We'll do it immediately. We'll send a messenger to the Spider Witch at once."
"Leave it to me. At some point during daylight today, the Arataki Group will attack this place. Tell everyone to stay together, keep watch on the surroundings, and work together to deal with them. There is a possibility that Bunkyo Ward will be reduced to a vacant lot. Urge them to exercise the utmost caution. That's the first instruction."
"Understood. Shimizu-san, please handle it."
"Understood. I'll use the fastest messenger available. Is that all right?"
"Fine. Hurry."
One member of the communications team bowed and hurried away with a memo in hand.
The future-seeing mage continued making predictions one after another.
"My today ends. A signpost for your tomorrow. ...Warn the Dragon Witch. Around noon, a witch from the Arataki Group will come from the direction of the Saitama Prefecture border."
"My today ends. A signpost for your tomorrow... The witch coming to the Dragon Witch is carrying a magic stone. The Dragon Witch can defeat this opponent. This is less for the Dragon Witch than for the deputy, Zaizen-san, but ask Zaizen-san to incite the Dragon Witch to fight as much as possible. It would be bad if that district fell. That's the second instruction."
"I'll make that order explicit. Should we send mages to support her?"
"No, we don't have enough people. They'll have to manage on their own. I'll begin the third instruction. My today ends. A signpost for your tomorrow. ...!? ...My today ends. A signpost for your tomorrow. ...My today ends. A signpost for your tomorrow. Ah, no good. This won't make it in time. Damn it!"
"My today ends. A signpost for your tomorrow. My today ends. A signpost for your tomorrow. ...I'll look a little farther. My today ends. A signpost for your tomorrow. Good, here it is. Send a messenger to the Blue Witch. There is a witch watching the Blue Witch from the roof of an abandoned gas station south of Ome City, near the city boundary. She is a woman with a tattoo on her shoulder. Ask the Blue Witch to deal with her, then hurry to Bunkyo Ward and join the others."
"Understood. We'll relay an Eyeball Familiar from the nearest mage and send the messenger."
"Please do. Why doesn't she carry a direct Familiar with her? Damn it! ...No, sorry. I'm losing my composure. That's all for the third instruction. I'll begin the fourth."
As the future-seeing mage repeatedly cast magic, the mage felt profoundly grateful to 0933.
If the mage had been empty-handed without 0933's custom wand, the mage would have needed to use two or three predictions to learn what a single one could reveal because of insufficient output.
The anti-backflow mechanism was also so valuable it brought tears to the mage's eyes. Even after seeing one day ahead seven times in succession, the mage's mind remained clear. Without it, the brain would already have been damaged and speech would have become slurred.
Taking an hour-long break would make things much easier.
But because of that hour-long break, Tokyo might be occupied by outlaws and descend into a lawless end-times world.
Each prediction made here and now was worth its weight in gold.
The future-seeing mage, continuing to cast spell after spell while receiving the full benefit of the world's greatest wandmaker's custom-made masterpiece, finally found it difficult to chant the spells after exceeding thirty predictions.
Blood dripped from the mage's nose, and the mage's vision wavered.
The mage thought tears were flowing, only to realize they were blood.
The future-seeing mage cast another spell while nearly losing track of what the mage was doing.
"My today ends. A signpost for your tomorrow. ...The Arataki Group... everyone has magic stones. Strong. Be careful. Why are there so many...? Oh, right. They took them from the Biwa Lake Accord?"
"That's enough. Future-seeing-sama, evacuate immediately!"
Supported by the secretary, the future-seeing mage realized several seconds later that the mage had nearly collapsed.
The secretary tried to lay the mage down on a stretcher that had somehow been prepared in the office.
"Future-seeing-sama, please, no more. You'll die! At least rest once!"
"No... I can't... Not yet... Just one more...! Boil, my blood!"
The future-seeing mage cast a self-enhancement spell for its stimulating effect.
Self-enhancement magic temporarily increased physical ability while also producing mild excitement. While this effect lasted, the caster would not lose consciousness even if magic power reached zero or the brain suffered severe damage.
The future-seeing mage gently but firmly pushed aside the secretary's hand as the secretary sobbed uncontrollably and tried to cover the mage's mouth, then chanted the spell for one final prediction.
"My today ends. A signpost for your tomorrow. ...Uh, ah... teacher, professor... tell them not to die. The university. Stay alive. It's all right. I'll save you. I'll definitely save you..."
After that, the future-seeing mage could no longer form words.
Barely able to speak, the future-seeing mage was somehow loaded onto the stretcher by the distraught secretary and hurried to the evacuation site.
The future-seeing mage kept mumbling and sucking on the secretary's finger all the way to the evacuation site. At the end, the mage exhaled a slack breath along with unintelligible sounds like an infant's babbling, then lost consciousness.
And two hours after the future-seeing mage lost consciousness,
The Arataki Group's surprise assault on the Tokyo Witches' Assembly, whose preparations were still incomplete, began.