by Sato Tsutomu
The Shippou Family was one of the 18 replacement families that supported the Ten Master Clans. There was someone out there heavily influencing the son who would be inheriting that family. That existence was an unstable element that could not be ignored by the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion that saw magic as a critical element in national defense. Alternately, they had already obtained detailed information.
In regards to Tatsuya’s question, she gave off the two answers he was expecting.
“Because I am interested.”
However, accepting this answer literally was quite dangerous. This was not entirely a lie, but at the same, it was not the entire truth.
“Then, want to go looking with me? I just wanted to propose that.”
Still, her proposal was exactly what he was looking for.
“Specifically speaking, what do I do?”
“Leave observing his dwelling to me. I was hoping Tatsuya-kun could pay a visit to Shippou-kun’s supporter.”
“I was actually hoping you would make that arrangement…… But why?”
“Because based on our jurisdiction, we should not be interfering with affairs within the nation. If it’s Tatsuya-kun, then can’t you use the excuse of an upperclassman at school acting out of concern for an underclassman? However, even under those circumstances, it’s not like we can ask a student to do something dangerous like that.”
But I’m OK!? A retort like that never materialized in Tatsuya’s mind.
“I understand. If that’s the case please allow me to offer my services.”
“I will contact you immediately if we detect any movement. Then Miyuki, based on the above conversation, I will be borrowing Tatsuya for a little bit.”
Hearing Miyuki’s flabbergasted confirmation, Fujibayashi said her goodbyes to Minami as she hung up the phone.
Chapter 15
“Who betrayed us……?”
Zhou Gongjin furrowed his delicate eyebrows and skimmed over the report that was automatically changing pages. Creases were appearing between his eyebrows. It was very rare for him to display his displeasure to this degree.
Just now, the date had changed from April 26th to April 27th. However, this was beneath his notice right now. This showed how intently Zhou Gongjin was studying the report in his hands.
Zhou Gongjin halted the scrolling and lifted his gaze from the information terminal. After lightly letting out a breath, he reached for the wine glass on the table.
This was already the third time he reviewed this report and failed to find any errors in its contents. Although he didn’t sincerely think that anything was wrong in the report, he needed to call on the assistance of a little alcohol to dispel the exhaustion brought on through a renewed verification of this unpleasant business.
This report was an investigation report regarding the progression of public opinion. Within, there were the results of using illegal methods to influence the impression non-Magicians held in regards to Magicians.
The report, quite the thick stack of papers if printed, displayed the rise in negative attitudes towards Magicians since the end of the previous year. The situation had noticeably worsened in the current month, a clear sign that his work on the media was reaping rewards.
Yet, this result failed to hit the expected parameters and clearly fell short of the level in his calculations. It was true that First High’s self-demonstrative actions played an unexpected role in this, but that degree of irregularity should not have caused the deviation between the projected and real values.
“Even if we factored in Rozen’s intervention that still doesn’t explain this…… As expected, the reason is because there are publicity programs that have not followed our directives.”
On the screen, he opened the daily totals for criticisms leveled at Magicians by various news sources. There, it was clear that not all had followed orders. In other words, among the televised news industries responsible for pushing the agenda that naturally included television, there were opponents who broke the agreement.
“To think they would do something so foolish like breaking our contract…… Violence does not align with my interests, but……”
Zhou only engaged in dealings on the black market, where no legally binding contracts existed. That was why he had to personally ensure that contractual obligations were fulfilled. Even if it was only a verbal agreement, no, precisely because it was a verbal agreement, he needed to employ a few tricks of his own – rewarding those who upheld their end of the bargain and punishing those who did not.
“Speaking of which, we have already entertained the cousins of Mr. Sun’s nephew for half a year now…… It’s about time to ask him to do a few things for us.”
As for the traitors’ punishment, Zhou elected to ask a friend to lend his assistance.
◊ ◊ ◊
Friday, April 27th. Today, Takuma was absent from school.
He was still this year’s new student representative, thus making him quite a famous person among the Year 1 students. Many of his peers had heard about the incident that happened yesterday. With him absent the second day, all sorts of rumors flew through the floors of the Year 1 students.
—He huddled down at home after losing to the Saegusa siblings.
—No, no, he’s huddled at home because he was censured by the upperclassmen.
—While injured, the shock of the defeat caused him to shut himself at home.
—He won the match but had to take responsibility for causing the ruckus, so he chose to stay at home to reflect on his actions.
—In the end, he was sent home to do self-reflection as punishment, and now he’s home plotting his vengeance.
Among the rumors, the negative ones were in the majority, but some of them skirted close to the truth.
“Tatsuya Onii-sama. Takuma is also absent today.”
In light of this, after receiving Minami’s faithful report via e-mail about this, Tatsuya correctly surmised the reason behind this.
The truth of the matter and not the rumor was that Takuma had not been sent home to reflect as punishment. The (supposedly) correct portion of the rumors was that he was going to have a match with an upperclassman.
Known as magic exclusive to the Shippou Family, Million Edge was a Herd Control Magic that could be activated without a CAD. In essence, from the very beginning, the magic was a delayed sequence set in a state just short of activating and which used the caster’s psions as keys to unlock invocation. Setting aside the difficulty of Herd Control for the moment, the concept of using delayed magic to bypass the CAD process was not a rare phenomenon. For example, the “Magic Bullet Tathlum” wielded by the Kennedy Family in England was a magic founded on the same principles.
Million Edge’s uniqueness lay in the methods involved in creating the delayed state. Just short of activating, the technique was recorded down as incantations.
At first glance, this was the same method as replication techniques, but replication techniques required psions to flow into the incantations before constructing the Magic Sequence to achieve phenomenon alteration. In comparison to that, the Shippou Family’s magic was a conditionally activated delayed sequence that did not require a Magic Sequence. When facing an enemy, there was no need to allot time towards that process.
On the other hand, this required that the magic’s delayed sequence be recorded ahead of time. Replication only required the necessary information to construct the Magic Sequence, so even a machine could record the incantation. That was because it inherently shared the same properties as a CAD recording the Activation Sequence.
In addition, this record would be discarded after use. That was only natural given that it was a magic held prior to its invocation being released, which fundamentally differed with the “repeatedly usable magic record” that Tatsuya sought. In short, Million Edge was a sort of magic that required intense amount of preparation beforehand.
In order to prepare for tomorrow, Takuma should be hard at work prep
aring the activating medium for Million Edge. Since he was planning on winning the match tomorrow, he couldn’t be blamed for not coming to school today.
Speaking of which, the reason why Minami passed along Takuma’s movements was because Tatsuya had elected to join the investigation regarding Takuma’s supporters in the shadows. Minami was concerned that while Tatsuya was tied down during school, Takuma could be making contact with his supporters, but Tatsuya believed otherwise. Today was Friday. This was a time that even teenagers who were not magic high school students should be attending class. Even if he was not caught, wandering about on the streets would be awfully conspicuous. Plotting something nefarious (supposedly), Takuma would probably prefer to remain beneath the radar. Tatsuya believed that any contact with his shadowy support would be during the night. More importantly, Fujibayashi’s crew that was monitoring the situation would naturally contact them about any movements.
Thus, until night fell, Tatsuya played the part of the high school student intent on his studies.
◊ ◊ ◊
“The reprisal target is Sawamura Yoshio. He is the CEO of Culture Communication Network, or Culture Net for short.”
Zhou spoke to the young man sitting on the other side of the table, Robert Sun, as he put a leather briefcase on the table.
Robert opened the lid of the briefcase. Inside, he found an automatic pistol, a large dagger, plastic explosives with a wireless detonator, and a bronze ring.
“You want me to take care of that man?”
In response to Robert’s emotionless question, Zhou ruefully smiled and shook his head.
“That was the original plan, but unfortunately Sawamura Yoshio is in Paris on business.”
As he said this, Zhou handed a large, paperbound notebook to Robert.
Robert flipped through the rarely seen paperbound notebook at will. There, a picture of a young woman along with her Personal Data were found.
“So you picked the daughter as the substitute.”
“I think that will send the proper message across.”
Pah, Robert closed the paperbound notebook and turned his eyes back to the briefcase. His gaze was fixated on the bronze Antinite the ring was forged with.
“Does she have Magicians as bodyguards?”
“Wouldn’t call him a bodyguard, but someone usually by her side. Still a child, but he’s someone from the 18 Replacement Families.”
“Is that so?”
Robert’s mouth turned into a vicious smirk.
“Magicians created by the Japanese military……”
Strictly speaking, Robert’s understanding here was faulty. The Ten Master Clans and the 18 Replacement Families included within the 28 families were all Magicians created by the Magician Development Research Labs and not actually created by the military. However, Zhou had no plan to correct such a trivial detail. For Robert, Magicians from the Japanese military owed his family a debt in blood. Zhou wasn’t foolish enough to dash the man’s rarely found, but burning, motivation.
“The preparations are detailed within. Though I can only provide rings for two, firearms and knives can be found for any number.”
“That’s enough. Leave it to me.”
Zhou Gongjin smiled widely as he watched Robert Sun stand up with cellphone, briefcase, and notepad.
◊ ◊ ◊
After returning home, Tatsuya was engaged in a rare study session when he looked towards the ringing alarm clock on the corner of his desk. That was Fujibayashi’s signal. While he had not heard from her how she was observing the target, given that the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion was perpetually short on men, manpower was not a likely solution. More likely than not, she had invaded the personal identification program within the Street Observation System and was watching for Takuma to leave. If so, he was an accomplice to illegal use of public programs to invade privacy, but Tatsuya felt no guilt whatsoever. It wasn’t like they were peeking in on the household, Tatsuya rationalized.
Rather than setting morals aside, it would be more appropriate to say that sort of feeling never registered with Tatsuya as he stood from his chair. Of course, this was in order to rendezvous with Fujibayashi. After leaving Miyuki and Minami to watch the house and giving strict orders for them not to follow, Tatsuya got onto his beloved electric motorcycle.
Before the eyes of Tatsuya and company, Takuma’s silhouette vanished into a medium sized building filled with upper class condominiums. He remained unaware that he was being followed. At the very least, he took heed to avoid being tailed, but his ability to detect hidden presences was quite raw.
“Looks like the head of the Shippou Family chose not to send his son through military training.”
“We might call it military, but it really only covers training for intelligence operatives. Speaking of which, why is Captain Sanada here with Lieutenant Fujibayashi?”
Tatsuya parked the motorcycle at the train station and was currently sitting in the back seat of a large limousine where they were observing Takuma enter the apartment. Next to him, Fujibayashi had an information terminal the size of a small calculator on her lap while Sanada was in the driver’s seat manipulating the large touchpad.
“Talented but on rotten footing with the Ten Master Clans. Wouldn’t he be a perfect fit in our unit?”
Sanada turned his head from the driver’s seat to answer. Somewhat surprised, Tatsuya raised an eyebrow.
“Are you planning on inviting that guy into the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion?”
“Ara, is Tatsuya-kun against it? If you don’t like Shippou-kun, then I guess we will just have to abandon that idea.”
Tatsuya scowled in irritation at Fujibayashi’s words.
“What is this? You’re talking like I have the power to decide that.”
“After all, 'Special Lieutenant Ooguro Ryuuya' boasts the greatest firepower within our unit. We can hardly afford to ruin your mood.”
This was of course a joke on Fujibayashi’s part. Still, getting upset here would get him nowhere, Tatsuya’s instincts told him.
“……It’s not like I dislike Shippou. So long as he does not cause trouble, I do not care what he does. Those are my feelings on the matter.”
“So, you’re not the type who is interested in fostering disagreements?”
Tatsuya ignored Fujibayashi’s meaningless interjection.
“……So why did you lend your assistance for this investigation?”
Taking over for Fujibayashi, Sanada’s question was perfectly legitimate, so this time Tatsuya broke his silence.
“If the ones behind him are similar to the guys from Blanche from before, then even settling Shippou would only cause another problem child to appear.”
Halfway through Tatsuya’s words, Fujibayashi burst into laughter. She was probably thinking “Who is the real problem child here?” – Tatsuya didn’t mind that overly much.
“I see. Shippou-kun being naughty would actually be within acceptable parameters, but a second, third, or fourth would be dejecting.”
“Maybe not dejecting…… But that’s how it is.”
The voice that Tatsuya used to answer Sanada seemed to be laced with sighs.
“Ah, looks like they’re starting to talk, want to listen in?”
Fujibayashi asked Tatsuya with headphones over one ear. It appeared that the monitoring device planted on Takuma was beginning to catch his conversation with his “partner in the shadows”.
(Pretending to be a passerby, Fujibayashi planted the monitoring device on Takuma as she walked by him.)
“Yeah, please do.”
Hearing Tatsuya’s response, Fujibayashi laughed in delight as she switched the volume over to the car’s speakers.
◊ ◊ ◊
In general, Takuma usually wore a displeased expression. At least in Sawamura Maki’s eyes, Takuma was just that sort of young man. Even when he was talking about taking the top score on the entrance exam and becoming the new student representative, he n
ever wore an expression of someone in a “good mood”.
However, today his mood was even worse than usual. Although he was trying to adopt his usual expression, Maki saw right through him. There was no way he could fool a professional actress trained to fake expressions, not to mention this was Maki, who, along with her natural beauty, was also #1 among new actors for her “face” that could act out every emotion possible on the silver screen.
“Takuma. I haven’t dined yet today. Would you like to accompany me?”
If they cut right to the chase, she would probably have to listen to him complain until he had vented all his frustration. At present, Maki planned to use “dinner” as the means to buy some time for him to cool down.
“At this hour? Wouldn’t that harm your appearance?”
“That’s why it will only be a light one. It’s almost done, so I’ll go get it now.”
Maki mentally awarded Takuma bonus points for not saying something impolite like “get fat” and walked towards the dining room.
She brought some snacks with thinly cut strips of bread with ham, salmon, tomatoes, and avocados on top. The meal certainly looked light, but there was no guarantee that the calories were also light.
Takuma had already eaten dinner, but he still took part in the snacks Maki made without hesitation. He was still at a growing age, so there were no worries about any disposition towards growing chubby.
For the next five minutes or so, Takuma’s mouth was engaged in eating and drinking. In order to swallow the slightly salty snacks, Takuma was greedily consuming juice that he was unaware was tinged with alcohol. Nor did he notice the minute amount of sweet wine added into the snacks themselves.
When the “light meal” on the plates had just about been cleaned aside by Takuma, Maki used the voice of an “openhearted older sister” to strike a conversation with Takuma. (As a side note, this was when Fujibayashi switched over to the speakers.)