James collapsed into the sand next to the police hut. Fighting off interdimensional invasions was hard work. He looked over at the captured enemy soldiers. Three of them were sitting in the sand, staring morosely at the ground. The other two were unconscious. Both of them looked like they had been beaten to death, but they were still breathing.

  James and Mitsue had managed to capture their assignment without injuring him too badly. Suki had strolled up with her prisoner as if they were best friends. Harue had needed to drag her target— James didn’t want to say victim— but he had regained consciousness fairly quickly. He was bleeding from a few shallow cuts, but he didn’t look that badly off… unless you looked in his eyes.

  Midoriko had taken charge after the fight, ordering Mitsue to secure the prisoners with the cable ties he happened to have handy. She was on the phone to… someone, when the police showed up. Then the shouting began.

  James had stayed well clear of that. He called Professor Toei. It had taken longer to explain what happened and convince his teacher that he was telling the truth than it had for him to show up. He was just in the hotel just across the boardwalk, after all.

  James wasn’t entirely sure if Professor Toei had been convinced, or if he had realised that if one of the students he was responsible for was high on psychedelic drugs and hallucinating, that was a mess he would have to clean up in person.

  Once he arrived, he proved a calming influence on the discussion that Midoriko was having with the police. In that he removed Midoriko from the discussion. Now she was resuming her interrupted conversation.

  “I know you don’t normally work the Okinawa suits, but that’s where I am right now!”

  A pause.

  “I didn’t plan it because I was ambushed! Of course, I’m still alive. Look, Toei-sensei is working this end with the beat cops, so just support his people, yeah?”

  She hung up with an offended snort and looked over at James. He scrambled to his feet. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be guarding the prisoners—the police were right there— but he should probably look more alert in front of the head of the PMC.

  Which Midoriko was, right now. Despite still wearing a bikini and making her sword disappear, her demeanour had changed completely. There wasn’t the slightest hint of the girl who had been having fun on her holiday.

  “Asako-kun can be an ass, sometimes,” she huffed.

  James thought back to the one time he’d met the student council vice-president and privately agreed. Aloud, he just asked, “Shibasaki-san is the one responsible for… keeping things quiet?”

  Midoriko grunted in confirmation. “They’ll come up with some story,” she said. “We kept it contained, so it shouldn’t be too hard.”

  She looked over to where Professor Toei was finishing up with the police. The conversation finished with them all bowing to each other, and Professor Toei turned and approached Midoriko. He looked unhappy.

  Midoriko bowed.

  “I apologise for the trouble my actions have caused you, Toei-sensei.”

  “As well you should,” the professor said grumpily. He returned the bow perfunctorily. “My contacts are in the military; there is a limit to how much pull I can exert with the police of an overseas prefecture.”

  Midoriko bowed again. “I’ve informed Shibasaki-san of the situation and asked her to help however she can.”

  “That might make things easier,” Professor Toei admitted. “Honestly, I expected trouble on this trip, but I didn’t expect to get dragged into your business.”

  “It is troubling,” Midoriko agreed. “My greatest concern is how they knew I would be here. Unfortunately, the soldiers were not entrusted with the source of their intelligence.”

  “First thing you asked, eh?” Professor Toei said thoughtfully. Midoriko’s gaze flickered over to Suki, who had given her that information. “I’ll go over my people, see if we can find a mole. I wouldn’t have expected your enemies to have penetrated my organisation, though.”

  “Perhaps they saw our working relationship as a way to get to me,” Midoriko said softly. “Or, perhaps the leak lies elsewhere. Shibasaki-san will investigate. Ah, and speaking of our working relationship, I have to prevail on you for some additional transportation.”

  Professor Toei sighed. “For the blue guys?”

  “Indeed. Shibasaki-san thinks that we can keep them on the island without too much danger. With their technology confiscated and their magic sealed, they don’t pose much of a threat.”

  “If you say so.” Professor Toei looked over the group, who gave him surly stares in return. “I can’t get the police to take them anywhere. If Shibasaki-san can get them to Naha Airbase, I can arrange something.”

  “I’ll let her know. And about that technology… would you like to take charge of it?”

  Professor Toei brightened. “I don’t have much use for it, but the Army is always interested in more advanced toys to poke at. That will help me a lot. Thank you.”

  “Um, Professor?” Suki cut in. “Is that a good idea, to give governments more advanced technology?”

  “I wouldn’t worry about it,” the professor dismissed. “This stuff is so advanced, the military doesn’t have the knowledge or the magical ability to handle reconstructing it. By the time they get anywhere with it, the raw data will have leaked to other nations.”

  “Saying that every other government is going to get it is hardly reassuring.”

  Professor Toei shrugged. “This kind of thing happens all the time,” he said. “Where do you think Frames come from?”

  “But—”

  “It’s fine, Suki-san,” Midoriko cut her off. “I’ll make sure that nothing dangerous is included.”

  “And with that,” Professor Toei said firmly, “It’s probably time for you all to go back to your hotel rooms. You’ve had enough excitement for one day. Or one week.”

  “There’s no such thing!” Harue protested. “The night is young and the clubs are just starting to open!”

  “The clubs are all age-restricted,” Professor Toei pointed out. “You’ll have to wait five years.”

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  Harue rolled her eyes. “As if that’s gonna stop me. Come on, you guys! Who wants to go out dancing?”

  “No,” the professor stated flatly. “I’m imposing a curfew. Back to your hotel rooms and get some rest.”

  “Fiiiine,” Harue complained, rolling her eyes. From the look on her face, James got the impression that she was just going to sneak out once Professor Toei left them to their own devices.

  From the heavy sigh the professor made as he led them back to the hotel, he had the same thought.

  * * *

  They flew back on the afternoon of the next day. They had spent the morning on the beach, which James was still feeling happy about. Swimming with Suki was everything he could have hoped for, and from the strangled noises that Mitsue made from time to time, the other two girls were providing a visual feast. James only had eyes for Suki, however.

  Harue, uncharacteristically, bought a newspaper at the airport and read it while they waited for the flight.

  “Why a newspaper?” James asked. “Don’t you have enough reading material on your phone?”

  “Some things you want a souvenir of,” Harue said, grinning smugly. She showed the paper to James and tapped a headline.

  James grimaced. He could read Japanese newspapers, but the closely spaced text gave him headaches. Still, one headline was easy enough.

  “Tsukimi Reina impostor causes riot at Naha club,” he read aloud and groaned. “That was you, wasn’t it?”

  “Of course!” Harue crowed. “You should have come, it was a great time,” she told the other girls.

  “I would have liked to go dancing with James,” Suki said wistfully. “But there would have been too many pictures on social media. Master would be sure to notice.”

  “I’m relieved not to have been asked,” Mitsue said. “Who is Tsukimi Reina-san, anyway?”

  “She’s a movie star—a very popular one,” Midoriko said. “Kuzahana-san, I can’t approve of underage drinking.”

  Harue laughed. “Don’t worry about that. The last thing I want to do when pulling off a con like that is get drunk.”

  “It cannot have been easy, escaping a riot without revealing your powers,” Mitsue agreed. Harue winked at him. “Why do it, then?”

  “It was fun! I had a blast, I danced with a heap of guys who thought they had a shot with the famous Tsukimi-sama. If the riot hadn’t started, they probably would have started fighting over me.”

  “What gave you away?” Mitsue asked.

  “Nothing! I was perfect. But my appearance blew up on social media. The real Tsukimi Reina was in Tokyo, and once she started posting about it, the gig was up.”

  “And so a riot started,” Midoriko stated disapprovingly. “I can’t condone such irresponsibility. People could have died.”

  “No deaths, according to this,” Harue said. It might have been James’s imagination, but he thought she might sound disappointed. “Some injuries, but that’s just Saturday night.”

  “Don’t treat this so lightly,” Midoriko insisted. “You—”

  “It gave them something to write about, didn’t it?” Harue asked. “There’s nothing in here about blue-skinned alien cosplayers, so I think I might have helped your girl out, don’t you think?”

  “Perhaps,” Midoriko admitted with a scowl. She might have continued the discussion, but their flight was called, and they had to move out.

  The flight back was uneventful. They all chatted amongst themselves while Professor Toei did his best to ignore them. James was relieved to see that Mitsue and Midoriko were interacting relatively normally. Normal wasn’t great; Mitsue had always been a bit reticent in the presence of the older girl. That hadn’t changed, but neither had Midoriko’s demeanour. James had been worried things would become awkward, but it seemed that Midoriko was used to taking unwanted confessions in her stride.

  Everything was fine as they got off the plane and headed for the shuttle bus that would take them to the military base where their helicopter was waiting. Professor Toei hadn’t elaborated on how their alien prisoners would make it back, but James had gathered that they were travelling the whole way on a heavily guarded military transport.

  They were walking down a featureless airport corridor when Harue spoke up.

  “That’s weird, is there—”

  A fully armoured warrior crashed through the wall, straight at James.

  For a moment that seemed to last for an eternity, James gaped at the figure charging towards him. His attacker was dressed in armour made from some reddish-gold metal that James didn’t recognise. Small plates of the metal covered his arms and torso, segmented like the scales of a dragon. He had a conical metal helmet with more plates hanging off the sides and a carved snarling face for a visor. His sword was strangely shaped, wider at the tip, and glowing gold, flecked with red. It was coming at James very quickly.

  James jerked into motion. His sword appeared out of nowhere, and he barely got the blade up in time, blocking the vicious attack. The power of the blow forced him back, stumbling and almost falling.

  “Assume your stance!” Midoriko barked, and for a moment, James was back at the dojo, remembering all the times his senpai had corrected his footwork with painful taps from the back of her sword. Even as he parried more ferocious blows, his feet seemed to find themselves and restore his footing.

  “Good. Now, strike!”

  James lunged forward and executed what he thought was a passable kesa-giri, given that he didn’t have the right type of sword. At least Midoriko didn’t complain. Instead, it was James who swore, as not only was his strike parried, but his opponent was suddenly engulfed in blue lightning.

  “No, Konoe-san!” Midoriko yelled. “Don’t interfere.”

  “Are you crazy?” Professor Toei exploded. “Interfere! Everyone, take him down!”

  While the lightning didn’t seem to harm the armoured figure, it did cause him to pause his attacks, giving James a chance to glance around and check on everyone else. Suki was standing back with a worried look on her face. Harue was next to her, looking entirely unconcerned. Kana was frowning, upset at the lack of damage from her lightning attack.

  Mitsue was nowhere to be seen, which was generally the case right before he struck. Midoriko had made her sword appear, but it was still in its scabbard.

  “I don’t know who this felon is, or why he is attacking you,” Midoriko said, “But he makes for an interesting test, to showcase what you’ve learned.”

  The man snarled wordlessly and charged forward to attack. James didn’t complain. This was par for the course. He could hear Professor Toei calling his military contacts, but James knew that this fight would be over before they arrived. One way or the other.

  The man’s attacks were relentless. He was stronger than James, even with the additional strength that his armour granted. It was all James could do to hold back the continuous flurry of blows. The attacker's strength forced James back. Slowly, step by step, he was forced to give ground.

  That was fine, though. James was forced back down the corridor, not against one of the walls. He wasn’t protecting anything other than himself, and he had tens of metres of corridor behind him.

  And his sword had started glowing.

  It normally glowed, at least a little bit. Something about the man, or perhaps his sword, was causing James’s blade to glow more than it normally did. Each blow that James parried kindled a bit more light. As the strikes came thick and fast, so too did the light from his blade swell.

  It didn’t do anything, as far as James could see. He didn’t feel stronger or faster. But it seemed to alarm the man he was fighting. His attacks became even more frenzied. A strike got past his guard, glancing off James’s jade armour. Then another.

  “Remember your training!” Midoriko’s voice rang out. “Don’t let him overwhelm you!”

  The training. All those endless drills. His enemy wasn’t using kenjutsu; he wasn’t making the same attacks that James had drilled on, but every attack was similar to one of them. And that meant that they were just bad kenjutsu attacks.

  He let himself move in response, without thinking. He parried an overhand chop with tsubame-gaeshi, flowing into a reverse diagonal slash upward that forced the enemy to dodge backwards. The glare from the sword as it swept past his enemy's face made the man hiss with pain.

  The man didn’t let that stop him. He regained his balance and countered with a straight thrust forward. James used suri-age to slide the blade upwards, leaving the man open. Now it was James’s turn to thrust with tsuki, straight at his enemy's heart. He dodged to the side, but that just meant James could swing to the side with a yoko-giri, which slammed into the man’s side. The armour stopped it, but he was sent stumbling.

  The counter-strike was wild and off balance, and James blocked it easily with uke-nagashi. By now, his blade was glowing so brightly he was having trouble looking at it. It was like he was fighting with a lightsaber, but he felt no heat. Nor did it cut through the opposing blade, although the gold and red aura of his opponent's blade did flare up and flicker whenever they clashed.

  James brought his sword down in kiri-oroshi. Somehow, the man got his sword in the way. Light flared from both swords, and the attacker screamed with rage or fear. The light expanded to cover the man as his armour also flared up with gold and crimson fire.

  Something like an explosion pushed James back. Fire engulfed him, but his armour kept the heat at bay. His enemy was pushed back further, slamming into the wall. As the fire dissipated into nothing, James could see that the armour was gone, and the man was not moving.