In the speeding vehicle that was automatically directing itself, Sayuri felt an exhaustive pressure pound down on her like twice the weight of gravity.
If she had to say something, it would be a regretful "I still did it......"
After reaching the managerial level, she thought that she had already become accustomed to wheeling and dealing. However, she still heaved a depressed sigh at her headstrong and impulsive behavior.
In principle, the young man was by all rights her son, but every time she was before him she found it hard to maintain her composure.
She was perfectly well aware of the reason behind this.
Because he was the son of her rival.
Paired with an engineer's ability and achievements.
Complete with unreadable eyes and unfathomable emotions.
Under his eyes, she wasn't seen as a human being, but simply a specimen under a microscope and relegated to the status of an item.
Just the way he viewed his own role as a tool, but Sayuri was unaware of that.
What she did know was that this contract demanded his cooperation, but her own impatience had made this significantly more difficult. Silently, she redirected her gaze out the window and heaved a heavy sigh.
As she raised her eyes, she noticed that traffic had strangely decreased.
She hadn't seen any cars coming from the opposite direction since a while back,
And even though this was a residential sector, the hour wasn't too late yet.
Her inner frustration was submerged by a trace of unease.
She called up the screen for traffic information. The display informed her that other cars had been rerouted along a different path to avoid a stalled vehicle on the road.
Which was a legitimate reason in its own right, letting Sayuri let out a breath of relief.
Chasing Sayuri's vehicle through traffic on a large electric motorcycle, Tatsuya also noticed the drop in traffic.
The message he received through the headset in his helmet was the same information Sayuri saw on her display.
Nevertheless, Tatsuya did not find any benign news within.
The information that cars were rerouted due to a stalled vehicle wasn't suspicious in its own right.
Tatsuya had seen first hand exactly how difficult it was to infiltrate the traffic control system when he saw Sanada and Fujibayashi hacking into the system on the scene.
Still, Tatsuya wasn't optimistic enough to believe every single car was diverted from the road that led from Tatsuya's house to the station. That sort of thing only happened when multiple cars were stalled on the road.
It wasn't particularly difficult to identify vehicle locations within the control system.
Especially since commuter vehicles available for public transportation continuously broadcast signals to prevent thieves from using them as escape tools.
Likewise, identifying the signal wasn't any sort of classified secret.
Since he left the house, Tatsuya was already homing in on Sayuri's vehicle.
Finally catching sight of his stepmother's car, he also discovered another manually operated vehicle independent of traffic control that was tailing her.
A shrill alarm sounded from the vehicle's display.
The display informed her that a manually operated vehicle was closing in.
Yet, Sayuri wasn't overly concerned.
Even in this age, there still existed people who took pleasure in driving themselves.
As an engineer, she was aware that drivers could modify their cars to be independent of the traffic control system's influence.
Thus, she paid little heed to the car closing in from behind.
As such, Sayuri leaned back into her seat and switched off the piercing alarm.
Seeing the black manually operated car pick up speed, Tatsuya stepped on the gas as well. In terms of acceleration, Tatsuya's motorcycle had the edge.
Still, based on proximity and respective speed, the black manually operated car would reach Sayuri's vehicle first.
In reaction to the manually operated car that suddenly closed in instead of passing by, Sayuri's car activated its collision avoidance system.
Near her car that came to an emergency stop, two men descended from the manually operated car.
This was an overly brazen action along the streets with wireless surveillance systems. However, given the situation, the suspects were probably illegal aliens, since normal citizens and immigrants would immediately be identified from their images.
Tatsuya raised the lights to the max and pointed them at the two men trying to break open the car door.
Descending from the motorcycle with the lights still on, Tatsuya rushed towards the men.
Tatsuya pulled out the CAD in his chest pocket with his right hand while the men covered their faces to avert the light. A second later, one man used a pistol while the other sent his fists flying towards Tatsuya.
Under the light from the motorcycle, the man's fist wore a bronze ring that glimmered lightly on one finger.
From the ring, a shrill psionic noise could be heard.
This was magic interference waves known as "Cast Jamming" coming from the "Antinite".
One of them focused on nullifying enemy magic while the other used the gun to finish off the enemy.
Of course, if their opponent was any run of the mill Magician.
The muzzle was aimed at Tatsuya. The target was the heart, at a range where evasion was altogether impossible, and a clear killing intent could be felt.
Yet the man failed to squeeze the trigger.
Before he could do so, Tatsuya already hit the trigger on his CAD.
The pistol collapsed into pieces in the man's hands.
One of the men, or maybe even both of them, started yelling in excitement, but given the distance, he wasn't sure what they were saying. He could only hear the term "Cast Jamming", which likely signified their surprise that "Cast Jamming" had no effect, or maybe they were expressing their astonishment that the pistol was shattered despite the presence of magic interference waves.
Still, regardless of how it was, that was no longer Tatsuya's concern. Even if he was hindered in an unexpected way, his actions would not change. Tatsuya once more pulled the trigger.
The man who once held the gun let out a cry of pain and fell to the ground. He pressed his thigh and began rolling on the ground.
Next, the man with the ring pressed his shoulder. He couldn't contain his moans of pain and doubled over as he broke out into a cold sweat before losing consciousness. Since he was pierced by a force resembling tiny needles that annihilated skin, flesh, blood vessels, nerves, and bones, the sudden pain must have overcome his ability to stay conscious.
Decomposition Magic — Mist Dispersion could decompose any human body part.
So where on the human body would a piercing attack generate enough shock to surpass a man's consciousness?
Where must the attack land to cut off feeling from the four limbs?
Indifferent to whether it was his own flesh or that of others, Tatsuya was extremely knowledgeable on the matter.
He slipped around the two men on the ground and approached the black, manually operated vehicle.
Tatsuya kept his CAD aimed at the car, but didn't pull the trigger.
Hydrogen fueled cars contained the fuel in compressed states, so carelessly attacking would trigger a gigantic explosion. Of course, normally there are protocols to avoid ignition, but it was a fact that some chose to remove the safety features to create suicide attacks.
If Miyuki was present then there was no need to worry about an explosion, but unfortunately she was minding the house. The right side of the road was covered by a wide expanse of the river, but the left side was filled with residential buildings. Taking the nearby households into account, Tatsuya judged that he couldn't force the issue.
Strictly speaking, this decision was overly negligent.
Suddenly, killing intent mushroomed forth above him from the right.
Tatsuya took evasive action on reflex.
There wasn't even a hint of hesitation in his motion.
Even so, he could not avoid the bullet that flew at supersonic speed.
He felt a burning pain in his breast,
Where the bullet had pierced through his left breast.
The impact from the bullet caused his body to fly through the air.
The enemy's sniping attack was incredibly accurate.
Even if he avoided a fatal attack, the blow still pierced his lung.
Given how late he heard the gunshot, the attack must have been made from an extreme distance. If Tatsuya hadn't taken evasive action, the bullet would have pierced his heart.
Conservatively speaking, this was an incredibly skilled sniper.
Tatsuya used the inertia from the falling motion to roll and take cover behind Sayuri's car.
The wound from the attack had already healed itself. Normally, even fatal injuries would disappear in a flash so long as his magic was active.
Still, that did not mean he could not feel pain.
The extreme pain from the impact of the bullet as well as the bullet leaving his body still threw Tatsuya into a cold sweat.
However, this was not the time to focus on something like that.
Tatsuya needed to pinpoint his attacker's position.
Given the direction and angle of the attack as well as the placement of the surrounding buildings that could serve as obstacles, the sniper's location was probably one of the industrial buildings from across the river.
Roughly 1000 meters from his current position.
Taking into consideration that the bullet could easily penetrate the human body and open such a tiny hole, the weapon was probably using sabot rounds.
The car's exterior was made of synthetic wood, so this wasn't going to last very long as a cover.
The trickier part came from the fact that the sniper wasn't using magic.
No matter what sort of magic was used, there would be a trace of magic left behind that Tatsuya could use to swiftly ascertain his opponent's location.
However, if his opponent was strictly sticking to shooting, this distance made it much harder for him to rely on Elemental Sight.
The two men who had collapsed on the ground lightly floated in the air.
The car door on the black vehicle opened and rudely sucked their bodies inside.
It was a simple act to nullify the Move-Type Magic that was recovering the two men, but right now removing the sniper's threat was higher priority.
He re-examined the data from the bullet that went through his body.
Tatsuya ran data analysis again and went over the bullet data again.
Bodily fluids.
Physical resistance.
Effects from the wind.
Gravity.
Air compression at the time of the shot.
The variables from the bullet were compressed into a single message and returned to Tatsuya.
He identified the target's information at the time of attack.
Tatsuya turned back the clock and read the bullet's trajectory, the sniper's information and the very memory of the "world".
From present into the past.
Then,
From past into present.
Using the sniper's firing point as the origin, he searched the myriad, transient data within the "world" of the information dimension for the desired target.
Within his mind, Tatsuya locked in on the sniper's Eidos — separating that particular one from the masses the same way he always did.
He also knew that his opponent was aiming here and preparing to fire again.
The second shot hadn't arrived because the sniper was reloading and changing the armor penetration rounds used earlier to rounds that could penetrate objects that the enemy was taking cover behind, hence the huge delay.
Tatsuya saw through this because he held every scrap of data about this sniper in the palm of his hand.
He had to say he was quite fortunate.
As he thought this, Tatsuya activated the magic to completely decompose the human body.
Ten minutes after the black car fled, Tatsuya judged that there was no further danger and stood up from behind the car.
Peeking into the car's interior, he found Sayuri had already fainted. Since the car hadn't activated after all this time, which was perfectly predictable, there was no need for concern.
Her body was surrounded by air bags on all sides, which served as a buffer all around her. This was an excellent example of the safety features kicking in to prevent the driver's body from suffering physical injury, as this arrangement could protect them from any type of shock.
In that case, she likely fainted due to the mental shock from this event.
At any rate, she was someone connected to the Yotsuba Family, so she should be able to endure some degree of incidents. Yet her current predicament looked just like an average person, right? Tatsuya couldn't help but ruminate on this.
Once the reusable air bags were tucked away, the automatic vehicle restarted itself.
Covering the slowly moving vehicle from behind, Tatsuya followed on his motorcycle.
By the time they reached the station, Sayuri had already regained consciousness. Her face was a little pale, but she displayed no sign of panic. Of course, Tatsuya was riding a motorcycle behind her during the entire trip, so he had no idea what expression was on her face anyway. After seeing her to the station, Sayuri forced Tatsuya to accept the box that contained the Magatama. Tatsuya felt that Sayuri's stubborn and relentless appearance exemplified her personality perfectly.
After Sayuri left, Tatsuya headed directly for the phone after returning home. He didn't use a mobile phone at the station for fear of eavesdroppers.
"Don't worry about the cameras on route. We've already started taking steps."
"Thank you very much, Major."
The phone was a direct line to the HQ of the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion.
As someone who was forced to conceal his identity as one of the primary combatants for the Yotsuba Family within the Ten Master Clans as well as his alias as a Special Lieutenant within the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion, the first order of business for Tatsuya was to ensure that his identity wasn't exposed by the cameras.
Tatsuya straightened and saluted Kazama's image on the display.
"Still, I must say that our opponents are behaving quite recklessly. Even though this isn't the heart of the city, they still fired within the city proper."
"While I cannot deny that I was overly careless, I must admit that our opponents are quite skilled."
"They did not use magic, correct?"
"Affirmative."
Using magic to guide the bullet trajectory undoubtedly would cause a side effect from phenomenon rewriting.
Likewise, using sensory enhancement magic would also reveal their location due to the psion waves.
So long as they used magic, there was no way to hide themselves from Tatsuya.
Kazama was well aware of Tatsuya's capabilities.
"Yes, during nocturnal conditions and only relying on a scope, they still successfully sniped from nearly a kilometer out."
Kazama was glancing downwards on the screen, likely looking at the map for the sniper's location. Tatsuya didn't completely understand all the nuances regarding sniping; Kazama was much more familiar with the details. Seems like Kazama had found some sort of clue that Tatsuya hadn't discovered, so even though he hadn't seen it, he could grasp the details just from Tatsuya's report.
"There are a limited number of organizations around the world that can dispatch snipers of this quality. We might actually narrow this down rather quickly."
"Then we're relying on you."
Offense was the greatest defense, referring to the concept that by rendering an opponent powerless, one would remove the threat of attack. Since they had already crossed blades once, so long as neither side presses forward, a peaceful solution was not impossible for Tatsuya.
"Hm? Give me a second. ......There's a new report coming in. We've found the car."
Even though the black car had covered its license plate, this degree of subterfuge could not fool the cameras along the streets set for defensive purposes. So long as they knew when and where the vehicle passed by, unique features could always be identified.
"Since the investigation has already begun, how about letting it start from this end?"
"As you wish."
At Kazama's question of verification, Tatsuya immediately nodded in response.
Tatsuya didn't quibble over details like whether he had to personally capture his escaped opponents.
Owing to the unexpected live action sequence, dinner was slightly later than usual. Still, Miyuki didn't seem irritated in the slightest as she pranced around in a pink apron with frills as she prepared dinner.
"That apron......?"
"You noticed?"
Hearing the words that slipped from his mouth, Miyuki smiled and turned her head.
The apron Miyuki was wearing was simplistic but adult in its design.
While Tatsuya didn't know whether this was merely a young lady's interest, this was the first time he beheld such a fantastically adorable apron.
"This was what you just bought today?"
Before splitting at the station, Miyuki had been pulled into a store catering to young women by Mizuki and Erika.
Tatsuya lounged on the chair as he waited for them, only to have them appear much sooner than expected. When asked what they bought, Erika only said that it was a "secret", so he didn't receive a real answer.
"Mizuki said she needed a new apron so I bought one as well. This doesn't look strange on me, does it?"
Since this was considerably different than her usual fashion, Miyuki watched Tatsuya with worried eyes.
Though it was a simple matter to pass on a compliment, Tatsuya took this opportunity to seriously evaluate his sister's attire.
Given that the apron's length was the same as her skirt, it gave off the impression that she was wearing a single dress.
And a mini-skirt apron to boot.
The two straps looped over the shoulders and crossed over the back along with a wide strap tied around the waist with an adorable butterfly knot, complete with a pair of thighs charmingly exposed from the bottom.
Definitely not a getup that can be shown to anyone else, Tatsuya thought.
"It suits you perfectly. In fact, I plan on putting you in a glass display case for personal perusal."
He realized that his choice of words was slightly odd.
"Onii-sama's ideas are just a smidgen strange."
Just listening to her words might sound like she was surprised, but her expression clearly signified that she was trying to hide her embarrassment.
Still, Tatsuya didn't point this out to Miyuki and merely smiled as he picked up the chopsticks.
After dinner, the two siblings moved from the dinner table to the living room. After setting down a cup of coffee on the table before the sofa Tatsuya was occupying, Miyuki left her cup on the table and sat beside her brother.
"Speaking of which, why did that person visit us today? Did she bring a specimen for Magic Sequence storage?"
After finding a spot to sit, Miyuki sat with her legs closed and placed her hands on top of one another over them as she asked Tatsuya with eyes brimming with curiosity.
"She wanted to find out if Magic Sequence storage was possible."
Since this was an expected question, Tatsuya already prepared an answer.
"Asking for help, just like before."
Not like he was relying on half truths to muddle through this.
"Still, this job may be a little more interesting."
"Has the contract already been accepted?"
Miyuki's question was just going through the motions, she had already understood through her brother's earlier words that this task was unavoidable.
"Given that the specimen is sitting right here, seems likely."
Tatsuya's gaze shifted to one corner of the table.
The jewel box that Sayuri brought sat there innocuously.
Sayuri forced Tatsuya to hold onto the box in fear of further enemy attack.
"So this is the specimen? Does it possess the power to store Magic Sequences?"
What is it? At the wordless inquiry, Tatsuya opened the box.
"A relic of the Magatama-class."
Keeping an eye on Miyuki, Tatsuya unveiled the item's true identity.
Her hands flew to her face as Miyuki stared wide-eyed at Tatsuya.
"Why does that woman have something like this?"
"It was a request from the military. I believe they asked us to replicate this."
"That's ridiculous."
While Miyuki didn't have the same depth of understanding as Tatsuya regarding how outrageous the replication of relics was, she still understood that this was a preposterous request.
Magic Sequences influenced the Eidos of an object in order to temporarily rewrite the information surrounding the object based on the conditions described within the Magic Sequence — this was magic. For example, an orb that is outwardly red contains an Eidos that "primarily reflected red light" and is "circularly shaped". If a Magic Sequence containing the condition "primarily reflecting blue light" influenced the Eidos, then the orb would turn blue. Since the Magic Sequence overwrote the Eidos on the object, the conditions within the Magic Sequence would temporarily replace the characteristics of the object. This effect would persist until the conditions from the Magic Sequence fades away.
Though the Magic Sequence occupied a central role in the invocation of magic, using magic to preserve Magic Sequences remained impossible.
Still, if the item itself possessed the ability to replicate the effects from the altered phenomenon and the Magic Sequence could be replicated, then the effects from magic would persist ad infinitum. In other words, copying the altered phenomenon and the Magic Sequence would become possible.
Which would preserve the characteristics of the Magic Sequence as well as the characteristics of the magical effects.
Logically speaking, if Magic Sequences that changed the temperature could be preserved, then high temperatures measuring in the hundreds of degrees or cold temperatures that were dozens of degrees below zero could be achieved without any input. Likewise, replication of Speed Magic that was preserved could create actual perpetual motion machines.
"Just possessing the ability to store Magic Sequences alone is insufficient to replace Magicians, since the Magic Sequences stored within these devices can only be activated through magic. While I have little stake in replicating the Magatama itself, if this item is truly able to store Magic Sequences, then understanding that process becomes absolutely integral."
"If it's Onii-sama, then anything is possible."
At some point, Miyuki scooted over until she was directly next to Tatsuya and laid her head against Tatsuya's shoulder. She gently reassured Tatsuya, who sat there with a chilly expression on his face as he spoke.
Miyuki's policy demanded that she did everything within her power to cover all the household chores that pertained to Tatsuya without leaving them to machinery, but even she wasn't such a stickler that she washed the dishes herself.
She was still a student, with her own pile of mandatory assignments, so some level of compromise was unavoidable.
The plates and utensils from dinner were left to the HAR to dispose of as Miyuki began her homework.
Despite being known as a magic high school, all other subjects besides magic were not mandatory.
There were no regular tests, but daily homework was highly emphasized.
Today, her homework assignment was mathematics. Strictly speaking, this was not one of her strong suits.
Stuck on a question that bedeviled her from the beginning, Miyuki allowed her attention to drift from the screen before her.
This was the age where the man-machine interface could easily process these problems, so no one save for mathematical researchers would actually work out problems by themselves. Yet, mathematical logic powerfully aided the development and formation of new magic, hence her brother had stringent instructions regarding this subject, and so cutting corners was not an option.
Miyuki heaved a bored "Whew".
At times like these, she envied her omnipotent brother.
Maybe I should ask Onii-sama to teach me, she idly thought before frantically shaking her head furiously.
Right now, Tatsuya was probably deep into analyzing that relic.
Her very presence alone bound Tatsuya's freedom, so she definitely couldn't bother him anymore, Miyuki thought.
The sole reason Tatsuya entered First High was because Miyuki enrolled in First High, at least this was how Miyuki interpreted the situation.
A diploma from a magic high school was a prerequisite for attending the National Magic University, but there were always exceptions; especially, talented individuals who might have discovered a "Cardinal Code" would immediately qualify for the examination process even without a magic high school diploma. So long as Tatsuya wished to do so, he would immediately obtain that right and simply passing the examination would not trouble him in the slightest.
Miyuki knew that her brother's goal lay in the graduate level research programs within the magic universities, so the life of a high school student was actually a considerable detour for him.
The reason Tatsuya was forced to do so was because he was Miyuki's guardian.
The guardians of the Yotsuba Family bore the duty of preserving their primary's life even at the cost of their own. This title came from the combat slaves that once rescued a young woman from the Yotsuba Family from enemy attack and were responsible for preserving the Yotsuba bloodline.
On the surface, this mission differed little from ordinary bodyguards, but temporarily hired bodyguards were fundamentally different from guardians. While the Yotsuba guardians were not selected from birth, once selected, their term was for life. Though they were the same as bodyguards in that they served for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, guardians did not possess the right to resign from their duties. Since guardians were only relieved when their primary was released from protection, to this day, without exception, Yotsuba guardians had done their duty until the day they died.
Tatsuya possessed a certain degree of freedom by virtue of the fact that he could still protect his primary even away from the house. Magic was not restricted by physical distance or obstacles. There was no telepathic connection between the two, but Tatsuya was able to unconsciously monitor Miyuki's surroundings through his "Idea Identification Vision". In other words, it may be more accurate to say that he had cast magic to keep an eye on her.
Nevertheless, even Tatsuya wasn't able to use magic while sleeping.
Even if distance was no hindrance, their everyday lives needed to synchronize to some degree.
During holidays and long vacations, Miyuki could still match Tatsuya's activities, but in school Tatsuya had to link with Miyuki, so they had to accommodate the high school schedule. Also, though magic wasn't affected by physical distance, a closer proximity made it far easier to react to possible danger.
However, in the end, all of these were only true under the condition that Miyuki does not dismiss Tatsuya from his duties as a guardian.
Once Miyuki would dismiss Tatsuya, surely another guardian, likely of the same age and gender, would be dispatched to her. Even if the number of Magicians was limited, Miyuki was still one of the more promising candidates for the next head of the Yotsuba Family.
Of course, Miyuki hoped to retain Tatsuya as her guardian for reasons that went beyond her own stubbornness.
Within the Yotsuba Family, a guardian's mission held the highest priority.
While serving as Miyuki's guardian, he wouldn't be assigned any meaningless tasks. Nor would he receive any dirty jobs.
Even their father and his new wife couldn't press the issue on the surface.
They could not insist that Tatsuya help them in their work.
Even with all these considerations in mind, she still wished for her brother to attend the same school she did — the bottom line was that she herself was unable to separate herself from that dependence on her brother, something that Miyuki was aware of.
Again, Miyuki heaved a deep sigh.
Her frazzled mind was incapable of deciphering the answer, just as she was unable to solve the homework question before her.
Actually, even if she didn't need him to guide her through every step, all she needed to do was ask her brother for help. By the time Miyuki thought of this, 30 minutes had already passed.
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