At the entrance to the living room, Miyuki was watching her brother sitting on the sofa after he had changed into casual clothes with worried eyes.
On the way home from school, Tatsuya seemed to be thinking about something. Still, this was just Miyuki’s personal feelings on the matter as Tatsuya’s attitude was no different than usual. He would respond any time he was asked. Not only would he respond when prompted, he also asked Minami for her thoughts on school life as well as whether today’s events were circulating among the Year 1 students.
However, despite everything appearing to be normal, Tatsuya was unquestionably troubled by something, Miyuki sincerely believed that. This was not whether she had observation skills, but the idea that her brother was troubled by something was passed to her heart.
This might be what they call a heart-to-heart connection.
Miyuki strongly felt that this was a recent development. At times she felt like this was telepathy, and at other times she didn’t. No matter what the truth behind this feeling was, Miyuki was overjoyed at this turnout. Just being able to feel connected to her brother’s heart filled Miyuki with happiness.
For Miyuki, to be able to detect her brother’s troubles was something to be cheerful about. However, precisely because of this, Miyuki paid extra heed to what Tatsuya was troubled about. Since she knew that her brother was upset, there was no way Miyuki would pretend to be oblivious.
“Onii-sama.”
In the end, Miyuki elected to ask him directly. Even if their hearts were connected, this wasn’t telepathy, so there was no way to read each other’s thoughts. Yet, even if she did have the power of telepathy, the idea of reading her brother’s thoughts was so preposterous to Miyuki that she would never do this. Even if there was something she could accomplish with her power, she could not serve as her brother’s strength if she did not know what to do. (As a side note, in the 21st century, research has proven that telepathy can only read superficial thoughts that had been converted into words.)
After receiving her brother’s permission, Miyuki sat directly across from Tatsuya and questioned Tatsuya with a quibbling expression on her face (that she was unaware of).
“Onii-sama, is something on your mind?”
Even if this was a direct strike, this sort of questioning was probably a little too direct. Even Tatsuya looked at his sister with a dumbfounded expression, though that might be precisely the reason why he didn’t try to muddy the issue.
“I’m just a little concerned about the circumstances surrounding Shippou.”
“……Onii-sama. If you ever feel that you’re unable to forgive his insolence, please let me know.”
“Wait, wait, Miyuki. Don’t be so hasty.”
Seeing the malicious glint flashing in the depths of Miyuki’s eyes that bordered on killing intent, Tatsuya frantically waved his hand left and right.
“Though it is true that guys’ attitude is very rude, I don’t mind in the slightest. Furthermore, when it comes to taking attitude with our elders, I’m in no position to say anything.”
“Nothing of the sort. Onii-sama is always the model of impeccable behavior.”
Although Tatsuya knew that this sort of response from Miyuki was practically reflex now, he wasn’t going to debate this point now.
“What concerns me is why Shippou is pushing himself so hard. Refusing to join the Student Council, tangling with the Saegusa Family, even willing to antagonize upperclassmen.”
“Isn’t this because he never thinks about anything?”
Hearing his sister’s fiery opinion, Tatsuya couldn’t help but laugh even though he knew that she was being serious.
“No, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Shippou has a powerful drive to elevate himself. Seeing him, I feel that he’s not someone who would be hung up about not being part of the Ten Master Clans.”
“……But if that’s the case then this doesn’t make sense. Normally, people would want to get into the Student Council to forge relationships.”
“I also think that would be normal.”
Miyuki seemed to have a revelation as she covered a corner of her mouth with one hand.
“Then, do you mean there’s something abnormal in the background? Is that what Onii-sama believes?”
“Well, that may be the case……”
Just as Tatsuya was hesitant about speaking, Minami stepped into the living room accompanied by a verbalized “Excuse me”.
In her hands, she held a tray holding several coffee mugs.
Seeing this, Miyuki wore an “Oh no” expression. Miyuki darted a malevolent expression at Minami, but Minami naturally averted her gaze as if she had not seen it.
“I brought the coffee.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Though Tatsuya was aware of the ongoing visual hostilities, he made no foolish venture to proactively intercede on this subject.
“That’s right, I also wanted to hear Minami’s opinion on this. Could you please take a seat?”
The reason Tatsuya said this was not because Minami was better than Miyuki at speculation.
Miyuki had been too heavily influenced by Tatsuya’s cognitive style. Her perspective on anything would share Tatsuya’s inclination on the subject. Tatsuya highly regarded this as a method to fill in the gaps of his own analysis, but now he wanted to hear the opinion from another perspective.
“Very well.”
Despite saying this, Minami failed to sit down and remained standing by the table side. In her, Tatsuya saw a rigid adherence to professionalism, so he didn’t waste any time pressing the issue.
“Minami, what is your impression of Shippou Takuma?”
“He is a foolish person who is unable to discern his own worth.”
Minami’s reply contained no trace of hesitation.
Across from Minami, Miyuki nodded her head with enthusiasm. Seeing this from the corner of his eye, Tatsuya reflected that “he asked the question poorly” and treated the ensuing headache as a misconception (not that it was really a physical headache anyways).
“—And the reason why you think this is?”
Tatsuya opted to listen to her rationale first.
In regards to this question, Minami again made no hesitation before answering.
“He’s like a mad dog. He bites while completely disregarding the difference in his opponent’s strength or the stakes. That sort of universal attacking stance is almost like he believes that he’s the strongest or he must be the strongest.”
Minami appeared to be quite outraged with Takuma as she atypically invested a lot of words to describe her opinion.
“Must be the strongest, eh……”
Though he had no way of telling how deeply Minami had thought of this, Tatsuya felt that her line of thinking might unexpectedly be the right one.
“So who is the one responsible for inciting him so?”
Tatsuya’s question was directed to neither Miyuki nor Minami. This was only to help organize his own thinking much like talking to oneself, but Miyuki misunderstood him.
“Incite…… Is it the educational policy of the Shippou Family? Like the eldest son of the Shippou Family must be stronger than anyone…… Or something like that.”
Strictly speaking, Miyuki’s hypothesis was more in line with the Yotsuba’s modus operandi. However, the three people present had so long been immersed in the Yotsuba doctrine that they remained unaware of this detail.
“No, I heard rumors that the head of the Shippou Family, Shippou Takumi, has a personality that is prudent enough to be called a little cowardly. If this is the Shippou Family’s policy, then even ignoring their true feelings for the moment, they should be a little more focused on self-preservation.”
“Tatsuya Onii-sama. I believe that rather than saying that Shippou Takuma has been incited onward, it may be more appropriate to say that this is the result of showering him with flattery.”
Miyuki was the one who reacted to Minami’s phrase.
“So there’s someone who doesn’t share Shippou-kun’s interests and is trying to use him?”
“I haven’t thought much on this level…… But I think what Miyuki Onee-sama said is correct.”
Next to where Miyuki was nodding in agreement with Minami’s words, Tatsuya also nodded internally. A crueler way of assessing Takuma was that he was being played for a fool. That was the sentence that came from Tatsuya’s heart when he thought about the series of events Takuma instigated.
“Definitely something to be concerned about. So what is their goal…… Maybe we should investigate?”
“Are you going to ask sensei?”
Miyuki asked if they were going to call on Yakumo, then,
“Need to send a line to Kuroba-sama?”
Minami proposed activating the Kuroba,
“No.”
To which Tatsuya shook his head to both ideas.
“I do not want to bother sensei over such a vague topic, nor can we ask for Oba-sama’s assistance. That being said, going solo is……”
Tatsuya shook his head as if to dispel the cobwebs.
“Leaving him alone gives me a bad premonition…… There’s nothing I can do, we can only wait and see for the moment.”
Though this was a very passive conclusion, Tatsuya could not think of any other alternative. If an act of violence occurred in front of him then he alone would be sufficient to handle it, but investigations required time and manpower. This was another case altogether with a hacker of Sanada or Fujibayashi’s skills, but right now he did not possess such abilities. Tatsuya honestly decided to give up, but……
The god (devil?) of trouble appeared to have chosen him to be their herald.
Just as Tatsuya finished his coffee and rose to his feet, the telephone rang. Checking the caller ID displayed on the monitor, Tatsuya furrowed his eyebrows in surprise. The one who called was Fujibayashi Kyouko.
“Hello, this is Shiba.”
Cooperating with his response, the monitor in the living room began to function like a video call in action.
“Tatsuya-kun, good evening. It shouldn’t be time for dinner yet. Do you have time to talk right now?”
“Yes, that’s no problem.”
As he replied back, Tatsuya signaled towards the other two next to him.
“Ah, both Miyuki and Minami-chan are welcome to listen in.”
That was normally the signal for the two of them to leave, but Fujibayashi acted first to have them stay. Was she trying to drag the two of them in, Tatsuya’s might be overthinking this, but he was alarmed at how knowledgeable Fujibayashi’s tone was when talking about Minami.
“In reality, this is in regards to the ruckus caused by the eldest son of the Shippou Family today.”
“Please wait a moment.”
Tatsuya interrupted Fujibayashi mid-sentence. The important news she was talking about was not something that he could just honestly accept from her without questioning.
“How do you know about this? Unlike the selection for the Nine Schools Competition, this wasn’t publicized at all. Don’t tell me you sent an agent to infiltrate First High?”
Hearing Tatsuya’s question, Fujibayashi’s expression was that of someone trying hard not to laugh.
“Looks like I should give her a reward. After all, Tatsuya-kun hasn’t noticed that he’s under observation.”
“Observing me, eh……”
Tatsuya wore a slightly darkened expression as he asked this.
“Hm~, actually a little different. Not observing you, but observing the people around you. Looks like she has faithfully adhered to the orders not to observe you or Miyuki. That’s probably why she has escaped Tatsuya-kun’s notice until now.”
“Why…… No, because I’m a Strategic-class Magician, right?”
“Why of course, isn’t that obvious? How could the military just leave a Strategic-class Magician all defenseless like that?”
Completely free of guilt, Fujibayashi readily admitted to checking in on him.
“Let’s just assume I asked who it is.”
“Of course, there’s no way I can tell you.”
Tatsuya sighed and gave up pursuing this subject. Originally, Tatsuya wasn’t exactly a member of the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion with no strings attached. In addition, regardless of whether they were companions, he could understand the logic behind taking heed of a Strategic-class Magician’s movements.
“I understand…… So, what about Shippou?”
Seeing Tatsuya setting aside this conversation and wearing an expression as if the conversation up to this point had never happened, Fujibayashi adopted the same expression she wore when this phone call began.
“I’m just thinking, you wouldn’t happen to want to know who’s their support, would you?”
Just as before, she said a phrase that hinted that she overheard everything Tatsuya and company had just been discussing.
“…...Why would you think that?”
However, even against Fujibayashi, Tatsuya wasn’t so lax that he missed the bugs planted in his own house. And even if his house had been tapped, Fujibayashi and her commander wouldn’t be so stupid as to allow Tatsuya to catch wind of this.
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.
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