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    Chapter 9

    Japan time, 9:45 AM, August 4 th , 2097.

    Just over 30 minutes after the battle began, all of the American troops that landed on Miyakijima were annihilated.

    They weren’t annihilated in the sense that there were no survivors. After restraining the injured enemy soldiers, the [island] defense squad provided them with treatment, but all of the survivors were humans. Every single Parasite, without exception, was exterminated .

    There were also no Parasites who escaped destruction after leaving their physical body. Tatsuya didn’t overlook a single one of them.

    In this way, the ‘Battle on Miyakijima’ ended with the total victory of the Yotsuba family.

    Although it wasn’t an authorized operation and was treated formally as a ?rebellion of traitors?, it turned out that the USNA’s Armed Forces was no match against this group of civilian magicians in a head-to-head battle. This fact shook the military officials of each country (Japan included), and made the notorious ‘Yotsuba’ even more infamous throughout the world.

    However, this fact wasn’t the only thing that made the world tremble .

    “Onii-sama! No, Tatsuya-sama. Thank you for your hard work.”

    Tatsuya returned to the command room about five minutes after the battle had ended.

    Stopping just before embracing him, Miyuki rephrased her ?Onii-sama? to ?Tatsuya-sama? and welcomed him with a gracious bow… The staff here seemed to act as if they didn’t hear anything.

    “Miyuki, thank you too for your hard work.”

    Miyuki broke into a big smile in response to Tatsuya’s words about her hard work. This smile had the perfect balance of a sophisticated lady and pure maiden.

    “Thank you very much. Tatsuya-sama, are you injured?”

    At first glance , Tatsuya’s combat suit had no scratches. It got a little dusty, of course, but there were neither any traces of bleeding nor blood on him .

    “Everything is fine. I don’t even have a scratch on me .”

    “I am relieved to hear that.”

    Backing up her words, Miyuki stopped looking anxious about his health . She smiled charmingly once again and turned toward the main screen.

    “By the way, Tatsuya-sama, what should we do with that?”

    Miyuki’s eyes were pointing at the 3 split images showing the USNA warships that were stuck in ice. They were the destroyers ‘Hull’ & ‘Ross’, as well as the amphibious assault ship ‘Guam’.

    “At the end of the battle, Katsushige-san advised them to surrender. We’re waiting for the answer now. If the other party agrees, cancel ‘Glacial Age’.”

    “Understood.”

    “Command room, please connect me to Miyuki-san.”

    As if overhearing their conversation, Katsushige opened audio communication. There was no video feed, possibly because he used the transmitter in his combat suit while re-broadcasting the signal through the Mobile Base.

    Just in case, they looked at the additional screen showing the island, and saw Katsushige standing on the pier of the east coast . From there, only the Superstructure [29] of the  ‘Guam’ was partially visible offshore ,  but it seemed like Katsushige wanted to monitor the enemy’s movements with his own eyes.

    “Katsushige-san, did the American military respond?”

    The one who replied was Tatsuya, not Miyuki.

    “Tatsuya-kun, so you’ve already returned to the command room.”

    Katsushige expressed no complaints that the reply wasn’t from Miyuki.

    But before he could say a word, the ship’s Condition Monitoring System alert came on.

    “What happened!?”

    Clark raised his voice to shout over the piercing  howl of the siren.

    “It’s flooding! There are multiple cracks in the outer shell of the ship!”

    The voice of the sailor who answered was even louder and more hysterical than Clark’s.

    “Bulkheads emergency closure!”

    “No good, that won’t make it in time!”

    The CIC fell into a panic.

    “The cracks are expanding! The ship is breaking apart!”

    Immediately after the ominous scraping, Clark felt a great shaking and floating feeling.

    The chair he was sitting on was tilting.

    Clark realized that the ‘Guam’ was sinking.

    “……”

    He failed to vocalize anything because his thoughts were cut off there.

    Perhaps, he was fortunate.