Chapter 9
AD 2096, April 14th, Saturday night. The name on top said this was the home of Shiba Tatsurou; actually this was the home of Tatsuya and Miyuki which was welcoming strange guests.
"This is Tatsuya-niisan's house?"
Ayako smilingly nodded yes to her younger brother who was standing at the entrance asking 'Isn't this too ordinary?' with his gaze.
"It's not as if I don't understand why you would ask that, but this is certainly it."
While these siblings were confirming it, the word ordinary was not a word readily applied to Tatsuya and his sister. An old western mansion in the middle of nowhere or a secret laboratory surrounded by high fences would be a much more appropriate place for him to live, and both siblings felt that was where he should live.
However, Ayako had received the map data directly from Hayama. There was no way it was false. While Fumiya controlled his feelings of disbelief, he pressed the gate post call bell.
“Yes, whom may I say is calling?”
The response was in a voice neither sibling had heard before. The Kuroba siblings had last heard the voices of Tatsuya and his sister on January 3rd of this year when the pair visited the main house to do the New Year’s greeting. A full three months had passed but the siblings were confident that they would recognize the voices of Tatsuya and Miyuki.
“I am Kuroba Fumiya. I believe this is Shiba Tatsuya’s residence.”
Even so, the unknown voice did not make Fumiya pause and he gave his name as well as stating his errand. Some time passed until the next response, probably to ascertain what Tatsuya’s wishes were. Since this was an unexpected visit without prior communication, it was fortunate that they apparently hadn’t missed Tatsuya, thought Fumiya letting out a sigh of relief.
“Please enter.”
The motor made a faint sound as the front gate unlocked. Fumiya pushed the gate with arabesque scrollwork. And then faster than he stepped on to the grounds, the front door opened. Within it a young girl in a black dress and a white apron appeared and directed a deep bow to the pair.
The siblings were led to the living room where only Tatsuya was waiting for them.
“Fumiya, Ayako-chan, it’s been a while.”
They didn’t take offense over being greeted by Tatsuya who remained seated. Ayako seated herself directly across from Tatsuya. —Without being encouraged to sit.
“Nee-san!”
Fumiya properly remained standing politely and rebuked his sister’s rudeness, but Ayako listened to it as if it had nothing to do with her.
No, it was not as if she was ignoring him. Immediately after Ayako sat down, she politely placed both hands on top of her skirt, looked straight ahead and bowed.
“Tatsuya-san, it’s been so long since we’ve called on you. Please forgive us for the impoliteness of not taking the time to make an appointment with you beforehand.”
“It is not necessary to bother about such a thing. We’re second cousins, no, fellow kinsmen, furthermore fellow high school students. There’s no need for appointments for a visit between high school students who are relatives.”
“Thank you for your generosity. …Fumiya-san, what are doing? Quickly greet Tatsuya as well.”
It was a somewhat insolent excuse. Nonetheless, Fumiya with his fundamentally serious nature was unable to ignore his own wrongdoing.
“Fumiya, you sit too. Such formality will make it impossible to talk.”
Tatsuya smiled as he spoke those words to Fumiya who was standing stock still with emotions he did not understand. Upon Tatsuya urging him to sit, Fumiya somehow regained his calm and sat down next to Ayako as he was told to.
“Tatsuya-niisan, it’s been a while.”
Fumiya simply bowed his head. However, this was not due to his being reserved with Tatsuya or him looking down at Tatsuya or anything like that. Fumiya was simply nervous over meeting his second cousin that he respected and hadn’t seen in about three months.
At nearly the same time as that, Miyuki and Minami entered the living room. Miyuki was empty handed but Minami carried a tray with tea for four.
“Ayako-san, Fumiya-kun, please have some tea.”
Clad in a flare skirt that hit below the knee and prettily made up, Miyuki sat down next to Tatsuya. Miyuki, who had been wearing her usual at home attire, changed into her outside clothes to face their sudden guests.
“Miyuki-oneesama, pardon our intrusion.”
Undaunted by Miyuki, Ayako deliberately stood up and politely bowed. Her classical wide flowing dress fluttered elegantly with her movements. His elder sister’s display of her competitive spirit caused Fumiya to look away with a ‘my head hurts’ look on his face (by the way, Fumiya was dressed in normal male clothing and wasn’t wearing a wig). Tatsuya watched the pair with amused eyes.
Just as Ayako sat down again, Minami placed the tea on the table.
“Please forgive us for coming so late at night…, but, tomorrow morning, we have to be back in Hamamatsu.”
Fumiya broke the ice with his introductory remarks, at last calming the atmosphere.
“The hour is not so late that it can be called late at night.”
Actually, the said late hour was just about after dinner would be finished. Nevertheless, the pair’s late night visit did not feel troublesome. Fumiya and Ayako were the relatives closest to Tatsuya and Miyuki in age, and some of the very few relatives that they knew were not their enemies.
“Come to think of it, I haven’t said it yet. Congratulations for getting into Fourth High School.”
“With the abilities of you two, it’s a natural outcome, though. Congratulations, Ayako-san, Fumiya-kun.”
Taking her cue from Tatsuya’s remarks, Miyuki offered her congratulations. It was well past the announcement of the exam results and it had been about a week since the admissions ceremony, but it had been about three months since they had direct contact.
“Thank you. Tatsuya-san, Miyuki-oneesama.”
“Actually, I considered going to First High School, but-”
Ayako-san offered her thanks, and Fumiya followed after his sister with a pained smile that had more pain than smile.
“I was told that it wasn’t good for too many of us to be in one place.” (Fumiya)
“You made a request to Oba-sama?”
Ayako nodded in response to Miyuki’s question.
“We didn’t receive a reply from the honored clan leader directly, though.”
“Her instructions were passed to father by Hayama-san, give up on First High School.”
Whatever she actually felt, Ayako’s face did not show any upset about it at all, but Fumiya appeared to regret it deeply.
“If Oba-ue forbade it, nothing can be done.”
Tatsuya responded with a tone of generalized sympathy to comfort Fumiya and then casually changed the subject.
“By the way, why are you in Tokyo, today? Aren’t you in charge of work in the Kanto region, Fumiya?”
When the word ‘work’ exited Tatsuya’s mouth, Fumiya sat up like he remembered something.
“Actually, I have something to tell Tatsuya-niisan and Miyuki-san.”
As he spoke his eyes flickered to Minami who was standing behind Miyuki awaiting her command.
“Don’t worry about Minami.”
Tatsuya answered the question in that gaze.
“This girl is Sakurai Minami. Miyuki’s Guardian.”
Both Ayako and Fumiya showed naked surprise at Tatsuya’s added explanation.
“Eh, but Miyuki-san...”
“Tatsuya-san, did you quit being Miyuki onee-sama's Guardian?”
Tatsuya smiled and shook his head to Ayako’s question which she had suddenly interrupted Fumiya to make.
“No, nothing like that. Oba-ue is probably considering various possibilities.”
“So that’s the way it is?”
Ayako examined Minami meaningfully, but Minami kept her eyes cast down and didn’t show any special response.
“Understood. So there should be no problem with the girl staying.”
Before the mood could become awkward, Fumiya resumed his explanation with an “Actually…”.
“Currently, foreign anti-magician forces have been doing some kind of mass media operation.”
Hearing those words, Miyuki just made an “Oh, my!” by widening her eyes slightly.
“From where?”
Tatsuya on the other hand did not show any surprise. At least, no changes could be seen from the outside.
“USNA’s ‘Humanism Agitators’.”
Humanism has arbitrarily decided that magic is an unnatural power for humans, so the movement advocates the expulsion of magicians because it is part of their faith that heaven (or maybe God) has dictated that humans should only live with the natural abilities they have been granted.
“The so-called Humanism Agitators have already infiltrated the nation a long time ago or is that a different group?”
Humanism had widespread influence on the east coast of the North American continent, and even now the number of sympathizers within Japan could not be ignored.
“No, I think they are fundamentally the same. I don’t believe that they have entered a new phase.”
Tatsuya had grasped the ‘foundation’ of Humanism from a certain information source. He had not informed them, but the Yotsuba high command should also have a grasp on who was pulling Humanism’s strings.
“So an anti-magician campaign using the media?”
Of course, he wasn’t asking about that. That would be a confession that he was concealing information himself. Tatsuya switched his mind back to the matter presented in front of his eyes.
“It’s not just the media. Diet members who are part of the opposition party are also secretly taking part.”
Prompted by Tatsuya’s question, Fumiya supplemented his own words.
“On the grounds of defending magicians’ human rights, they are going to first criticize the use of magic in military affairs. Next, they will use the fact that forty percent of the graduates of the national magic university join the military as the basis to spin the fantasy that the magic education system and the military are colluding with each other, and in the third phase of what I recently learned is their plan, they will target First High School which sends the most graduates to the national magic university with an appeal, ‘Save the children from being used by the military’.”
Fumiya wet his throat with tea after his long explanation. When he looked up again, Tatsuya was giving him a look of praise.
The Kuroba family was a branch family of the Yotsuba clan that gathered intelligence. They did not limit themselves to magical means; they used a variety of information gathering methods such as wiretapping, hacking, and traditional human investigation. However, no matter how capable the people and equipment they are paired with, if you did not manage them well then you could not expose a plan concealed within isolated events. By not confining himself to events that already happened, Fumiya had proven that he had mastered how to use the power of the Kuroba organization.
“Fumiya, you have done well to uncover this much, it’s impressive.”
“Um, no… Thank you, Niisan.”
Fumiya who had spoken so much without stopping once had become temporarily incoherent. If you looked closely, you could see his face getting red. If you looked that closely it might seem as if Fumiya had somewhat unusual inclinations, but that would be a misunderstanding. Fumiya was simply happy.
“Fumiya really likes Tatsuya-san.”
Nevertheless, right now Fumiya was with someone who was in the mood to tease him about it even though she understood that.
“Neesan! Don’t say things that can be misconstrued!”
“Oh my, I’m mistaken? You don’t like Tatsuya-san?”
“The way Neesan was putting it had a different meaning!”
“Hmm? I wonder what meaning you heard.”
“That was…”
The thoughts of the trio watching the playful siblings — Tatsuya, Miyuki, and Minami — were in agreement on the point that ‘the twins sure get along well’, but the looks they displayed all showed different emotions: Tatsuya’s smile had a bitterness to it, Miyuki’s was amused and Minami’s face was apathetic.
Ayako and Fumiya gave them more details after they informed them about the propaganda war First High School was facing then went to a hotel within the city. In the end, they did not reveal their information sources or their information gathering methods, but such things were closely held secrets. Tatsuya did not intend to criticize them for not being ‘open’. He did not recommend to the pair ‘It’s late so you should stay here tonight’ more than once, so they were both guilty of that.
Besides, even though they had heard nothing about the means or sources for acquiring the information, they understood. Fumiya’s details had included that Saegusa Koichi and Kudou Retsu were conspiring to do something.
Fumiya’s and Ayako’s intelligence gathering abilities were unmistakably impressive and the abilities of the Kuroba organization were probably the most preeminent in the Yotsuba clan. However, the head of the Saegusa clan was not someone they could easily put a tail on. If their opponent was Mayumi then even Ayako might have done it somehow, but Saegusa Koichi was still too much of an adversary for Fumiya and Ayako to take on. Perhaps, this could be intelligence their aunt procured by her unknown method.
—Tatsuya pondered that in bed in his own room lying with his hands folded behind his head on his pillow.
Believing that he might be dancing on the palm of Yotsuba Maya’s hand was not a pleasant feeling, but there was no way he could ignore this. With First High School facing an attack from the media and the politicians under the influence of the anti-magicians in the near future of only a few weeks to less than a month away, knowing was more beneficial than not knowing. While he had these unsatisfactory thoughts, Tatsuya constructed a plan on how they must respond to this.
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