After mailing Koutarou that she believed that the series of kidnappings was done by Darkness Rainbow, Maki continued searching for clues.
Darkness Rainbow magicians carried advanced magical tools with them. There was of course their cane to exercise magic, and then there was their outfits enchanted with protective magic, but they also used many magical drugs and charms. In the cases that they didn't want to stand out, they also needed to conceal the magical power leaking out from those tools. Doing that would make them have to move while concealing magical power, which would leave an unnatural lack of natural magical power in their wake. Maki was following that trail, chasing after the culprit.
Maki left the riverbed and headed towards the suburbs of Kitsushouharukaze city. She was walking in an area that had been developed as a resort area in the 80's and 90's but once the economic bubble burst companies went bankrupt or discontinued their development one after another. As a result, a modern ghost town appeared. It was the remnants of someone's grand dreams.
“...If this caster had been a little better at information type spells, I wouldn't have been able to follow this trail...”
If the magical power used to conceal the magical power leaking from the user and their tools was weaker than what it was concealing, some faint traces would remain. At the same time, if it was too much an unnecessary amount of the surrounding area's magical power would be erased. The only case when that didn't happen was when the magical powers were perfectly matched. In those cases, only the traces of the user and their tools would be erased, having no effect on the surrounding magical power. However, controlling that was incredibly difficult. The only one that could do that in Darkness Rainbow, was Dark Green, who specialized in information type magic. Fortunately, the magician Maki was following wasn't as good at information type magic as Maki was. As a result, she was just barely able to follow the trail.
“The kidnapper was definitely not Dark Green. If it was Purple or Blue, the trail would have been slimmer and I would lose them on the way. Which leaves Yellow, Orange and Crimson. Amongst them, the worst at information type magic is...”
By comparing her own skills with magic to Darkness Rainbow's skill with magic, Maki figured out who kidnapped the children.
“...I see, so she's here...”
Having figured out who the culprit was Maki stopped in place and smiled sadly. That person was the only person that she might call friend in Darkness Rainbow. While she was selfish, she was honest.
“That's right. Long time no see, Maki”
“Crimson...”
Dark Crimson. She wore a very dark red colored outfit and gave off an active impression. She suddenly appeared in front of Maki, sharing the same sad smile Maki did. The atmosphere around the two standing face to face in an uninhabited alley was as melancholic as the ghost town around them.