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Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 19 - Master Clans Conference (III) - Chapter 14.2




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Taking his leave from the Chiba Family, Yakumo had been sent off by Jouichirou and his top pupil. Now, they were in the station wagon, and Yakumo turned to Tatsuya in the passenger seat, speaking to him with a sly grin.

“I thought your cheeks would be a little bit redder.”

“Erika would never be convinced if I deliberately let her hit me.”

“I see. She’s got the blood of a warrior, even if she is a woman.”

Yakumo produced a villainous laugh, "kukuku…" to himself for a while.

“So, what shall we do for the rest of the day?”

He asked Tatsuya.

“I’m going to go back home for now, and then report to the Main House.”

“In person? Not by phone?”

“Yes, I’m going to take my scolding bravely.”

“I don’t think there’s anything to scold you for, though…”

Toudou Aoba, the Sponsor for the Yotsuba Family, had explicitly requested Yakumo to “watch over Shiba Tatsuya so that he does not go too far.” Given yesterday’s events, Yakumo’s top priority was to intervene and keep Tatsuya and Miyuki from attracting any more attention from the USNA, but this too was likely within the scope of Toudou’s request.

As it were, the situation had been handled in a manner that conformed to the Sponsor’s intentions, so there was nothing to assign blame for.

However, Tatsuya wasn’t aware of that. Even if he knew of Toudou Aoba’s existence, he wasn’t acquainted with him. Tatsuya didn’t even know what his face looked like.

Yakumo couldn’t help his words from coming across as evasive.

“Honestly, I don’t think Oba-ue is really that worried about it, but formalities are important for things like this.”

“So you’re putting up the appearance of going to apologize in person, huh. You’re struggling too, aren’t you?”

Tatsuya responded only with a bitter smile. Tatsuya reflexively thought “I am struggling, compared to Yakumo,” but he had the good judgment to not stir up trouble by saying that.

“Not going to report to Kazama-kun?”

“I’m putting all my effort into my visit to the Main House today, so I’ll speak with him tomorrow.”

“I see. Well, good work.”

After that, they didn’t talk about anything in particular, and Tatsuya was dropped off in front of his house.

 

Tatsuya had told Yakumo that he was going to the Main House, but the place he was now heading to was actually the Kanto Branch of the Magic Association, in Yokohama. Upon calling the Main House in advance of his visit, he had been told that Maya was at the Magic Association, and he was to go there instead.

Leaving Minami in charge of the house while they were out, Tatsuya headed towards the Yokohama Bay Hills Tower with Miyuki, Fumiya, and Ayako in tow. That said, Tatsuya did not want to bring anyone else along, but the three had insisted (mainly Miyuki) and Tatsuya was unable to say no.

Having arrived at the Magic Association’s Kanto Branch, the four of them were escorted to the office’s most luxurious reception room.

Somehow, although Kouichi, Katsuto, and Shippou Takumi had come to have an online conference at the Kanto Branch, Maya had won the right to use this reception room by claiming ‘ladies first.’

“Well, looks like everyone’s all here. Welcome.”

The four of them were guided into the room where Maya greeted them, Tatsuya first. As she sat on the sofa, Hayama stood immediately at her back in his usual manner.

Before he could be offered a chair, Tatsuya stood before Maya and bowed deeply.

“Mother.”

Aware of the fact that he was in the Magic Association, Tatsuya initiated conversation with Maya in a manner that outwardly emphasized their familial relationship.

“Please allow me to sincerely apologize that the recent mission ended in failure.”

Maya received Tatsuya’s apology with a smile.

“I already heard the full details of yesterday’s events. I don’t think that there was much you could have done about it, so I think it would be best that you don’t concern yourself with it too much, Tatsuya.”

“Thank you very much.”

Tatsuya bowed once, and that should have been the end of it ?? but Tatsuya knew things were not quite so simple.

“While it is unfortunate that you were unable to recover Gu Jie’s corpse… are you absolutely certain that he died?”

“Yes.”

Maya had told him not to concern himself too much, but what was she trying to say now?

Tatsuya concealed his wariness with a firm nod.

“I wonder, how did you confirm that it was Gu Jie’s body? There might be people who would want to know about that, so just to be sure, I’d like to ask in advance.”

There was no particular reason to be secretive about this.

“Based on the lesson we learned from when Zhou Gongjin mislead us with Ghost Walker, I developed a magic for tracking.”

“Despite that, up until yesterday you had quite some difficulty locating him.”

Tatsuya wondered if perhaps Maya was thinking that he had somehow been cutting corners.

“The usage conditions are limited, and during yesterday’s mission, I was finally able to deploy it.”

In a certain sense he had definitely been cutting corners. However, that was because he had a more important mission. This was not an excuse; Tatsuya truly felt this way in his heart, and so there was no guilt at all in his voice as he stated this.

“Conditions? What conditions?”

This, however, was a question he could not answer. No matter how hard he could try, Tatsuya could not detach himself enough to say, “I can’t use it unless I’m holding Miyuki.”

“…It has to do with my senses, so it’s difficult for me to explain.”

Tatsuya gave a hazy response, fully aware of how suspicious it was.

“My, how unusual. Well, that’s fine. Some things are just like that.”

Maya grinned as though amused. She was looking straight past Tatsuya, at the blushing face of Miyuki who was standing off to the side behind him.


She might have realized Tatsuya’s ‘secret condition’ just from looking at Miyuki’s facial expression.

“I wonder if I can ask you one more question.”

“What would that be?”

Maya had clearly been enjoying pressuring Tatsuya up until now.

But now, Maya’s smile became like a blade of icy steel.

“Was Toshikazu Chiba truly that difficult for you to handle?”

“…What do you mean by ‘that difficult’? He was certainly a tough opponent.”

“Well, it seems to me that you had quite a bit of trouble with an opponent that had no offensive options aside from melee combat.

Furthermore, this opponent not have his specialized weapon device, thus rendering Tatsuya-san unable to demonstrate his real ability.”

Tatsuya felt a cold sweat on his back.

It was a matter of fact that if Tatsuya had not been needlessly emotionally attached to Toshikazu, he could have more quickly dispatched with him. He wouldn’t have wasted so much time if he had not been led astray by his curiosity.

If it were pointed out that Tatsuya’s actions had allowed Gu Jie to escape, it would be difficult for Tatsuya to totally deny this.

“He may have been unable to utilize his full strength, but Toshikazu Chiba’s corpse was found to have a technique implemented on it by Gu Jie that temporarily augmented his magical power. This is merely a conjecture, but I don’t believe that there were any mistakes.”

Tatsuya had no intention of reporting this, but he let it slip in order to dodge the question.

“Temporarily augmented his magical power?”

Maya’s gaze had turned sharp.

“The Sorcery Boosters used by No Head Dragon were developed based on Gu Jie’s corpse manipulation techniques… I wonder if it’s a similar technique.”

Tatsuya realized his mistake, but he could no longer feign ignorance.

“Not quite, I think. I didn’t see anything resembling the necessary external device.”

“Then what do you think it was?”

“…If we assume that something like ‘life energy’ exists, I believe that it could be a type of technique that involves extracting that energy by killing the target, pulling the energy in the corpse, then converting that energy in order to gain control over the Psions.”

“Hmm, life energy… How interesting. That particular type of magic is activated by carving into the corpse’s heart, which is why you got rid of Chiba Toshikazu’s heart, right Tatsuya-san?”

“??Yes, I’m afraid that’s exactly why.”

“Perhaps that magic was not observed at Kamakura because you had destroyed the hearts of the ‘generators’ in advance, I wonder.”

“That may be the case.”

Tatsuya hadn’t even realized that possibility, but when Maya pointed it out, it certainly seemed likely.

“A Sorcery Booster is a magical device made by processing a human brain. What you encountered, Tatsuya, was a magic amplification technique that used the target’s heart as a medium. Our research on this magic has been entirely focused on the mental aspect, but perhaps the key to understanding this magic actually lies in the physical body…”

An enigmatic flash of light crossed Maya’s eyes like a glint in the eyes of a mad scientist.

‘Please don’t tell me you’re going to experiment on human bodies…’

Tatsuya thought to himself, like a silent prayer.

As though his prayer was answered, or perhaps because she realized she was acting suspiciously, Maya suddenly reverted to her normal demeanor.

“Oh my, excuse me. I didn’t even realize. Tatsuya-san, Miyuki-san, Fumiya-san, Ayako-san please have a seat.”

Maya gestured for them to sit, and then spoke to Hayama without turning around.

“Hayama-san, please prepare tea for Tatsuya-san and his guests.”

“Understood.”

Hayama, who had been standing as still as a statue up until now, spoke respectfully as he gave a short bow.

While Tatsuya was being interrogated by Maya, the other three had found it difficult to even breathe.

With the tension between the two finally gone, Miyuki and the others were finally able to feel lively again, while sipping the tea served to them by Hayama.

But it was too early to totally let their guard down.

“I believe you’re already aware, but there’s an online conference between family heads soon.”

There was nothing unusual about that, by itself. It was something that not only Tatsuya, but the other three had already realized.

Online Master Clans Conferences’ were how the Ten Master Clans communicated, and there were two methods of attending: connecting remotely to the conference from one’s own home, or actually venturing out to the nearest Magic Association. The Kyoto Headquarters was conveniently located for the Ichijou Family and Futatsugi Family, and although Tohoku, Shikoku, and Kyushu lacked anything quite as nice as the Kanto Branch Office. However, they did have branch offices that were usable for online conferences.

It was possible that Kouichi and Katsuto were meeting just to settle yesterday’s affairs. However, if Shippou Takumi was visiting as well, it was only natural to assume that this was a special meeting of family heads.

“Once Mitsuya-dono is here, we can go ahead and get started with the conference.”

“Have any questions unrelated to the disposal of Gu Jie arisen?”

Maya gave a seemingly deliberate sigh in response to Tatsuya’s inquiry.

“Anti-magic activities are becoming more extreme. Up until now, what we observed have been extremist citizens unfairly attacking magicians, and we thought that if we left it alone, it would go away, but…”

Maya gave Tatsuya a fleeting glance.

“The organization attacking magicians is a suborganization of that “Blanche,” and although they are a radical organization that loathes magicians, they have been utilizing magic… for outside observers, this might have looked like an internal conflict among magicians. If seen from the viewpoint that normal citizens might get dragged into the conflict, it severely damages our image as magicians.”

Tatsuya almost groaned without realizing it.

What Maya was saying was unmistakably correct. The day before yesterday, Tatsuya had to take care of some Egalite remnants near the First High School.

That man was not a magician; he was nothing more than a relay point for magic.

But Tatsuya couldn’t prove that, and it was nearly impossible to explain.

The death of Gu Jie had brought a conclusion to the Hakone Terror Incident.

But the seeds of malice that he had sown were now beginning to sprout, and soon, they would bear new fruit.

(Continued in the next chapter “Prologue of Disturbance”)

 





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