Disclaimer: I do not own Mahouka Koukou No Rettousei nor do I own its characters. No money is being earned by writing this fic and all credit goes to its respective owners.

Limitless Contemplations

Time was never commiserative. No matter how powerful and highly regarded such an item or person was, time would soon come to change and replace whatever it could find. No one could defy it. No matter how much effort was put into preserving and changing something, time would swiftly consume everything, leaving no reminiscence of what had previously been there. Nothing could last forever at its wake.

For the Yotsubas, time was passing by too quickly. Even if they tried to avoid as many problematic situations as possible, the paragon of trouble just loved to follow a certain pair of siblings. With one of the two's protection being a major priority of the clan, the Yotsuba had to expend a lot of time and effort in ensuring their safety. It was only now that the calm had finally decided to come and return to them after the parasite incident and the constant hacking attempts of the USNA. However, because of all of these happenings, the Yotsubas had failed to foresee their later predicament.

It was already almost time to select their heir and the person who they were to continue the bloodline with.

While they did have a few to choose from, it was evident to all who was going to acquire the title. She possessed both the robust mind manipulation magic and magic calculation area endowed from their ancestors who formed the beginning of the Yotsuba clan. Though they did have a few others who similarly inherited both the mental interference and calculation area, their innate specialties had a bias to one side. For her, she was able to use both abilities successfully and equally. There was no one else within the Yotsuba that could match her. Not even in her limiter state.

To complement her skills, she was also born with immense beauty. With her countenance opting perfect symmetry and her body almost complete with its development towards an unimaginably perfect figure, Maya found it quite remarkable to how her friends were able to approach her. With all of that taken into account of, Maya was certain that Miyuki had already surpassed the others within the Ten Master clans in both terms of appearance and power. Conscious of that, securing a faultless consort for her to carry those feats to the future generation was made all the more essential. It was also due to this fact that Maya was obligated to be more selective with her choices.

Until now, the Yotsubas would simply pick a distant cousin within the clan to interlace with someone within the main branch. However, now that the clan's overall size had reduced significantly over the past few years, they no longer had anyone from any of their existing branches to call. Many had already been forced to lower down their standards of a suitor, and dilute their lines due to their small populace. Even with that said, resorting to such a method was not an option when dealing with the future head of the clan. There was the one son in the Kurobas; however, Maya had been long informed that they already prepared suitors for both of their children from within their many connections.

They were quite persistent it seemed, and to prove their worth, both their children bore very noteworthy magic abilities that well fit with the branch family's specialties. They were even fortunate enough to not be connected to any of the Ten Master Clans, and though they were part of the Hundred Families, not much was known about them, as they were also very small in size.

After reviewing all the other relatives from within the family who were around Miyuki's age, Maya was eventually made to accept that there was no one that could bring forth another formidable heir. With that, Maya was forced to choose someone from outside the clan's bloodline. Naturally, it had to be someone of status, and someone of high capability. Although, because of the family's well-known characteristic of remaining in secrecy, she also could not choose anyone who the public was well distinguished with. With this, the choices Maya were left with were made even more limited. In addition to this, unfortunately because the majority of magicians were teachers or part of the military, there was already hardly anyone who fit her basic requirements.

As painted nails incessantly came into contact with the wooden armrest, the sounds of tapping reverberated across the evidently pretentious room. Per usual, she kept herself within the confines of the main Yotsuba building. While the building was big enough to hold a whole bunch of people for a party, it was mostly empty, spare her and a few other loyal workers working underneath the clan. Here she liked to be left alone as she reviewed financial documents and reports regarding was happening in the outside world.

From under the long, wavy, and well-maintained hair, a pair of vibrant purple eyes gleamed. While every characteristic the woman bore expressed a person who was in her early twenties, she was, in reality double that age. It was only during this particular time where her contemplations were made problematic that her eyes had finally decided to illustrate how old she really was. This, nonetheless, only lasted for a second as the Queen of the Night quickly composed herself and returned herself back to her previous musings.

One by one, all the faces of various well-recognised men flashed into her mind, and one by one had their faces be soon been crossed out of her consideration. Amongst the many faces, she did not find one that had any inkling of the magic the clan bore. The others that did satisfy her requirements, nevertheless, were already part of the Ten Master Clans or in the Hundred Families.

She would absolutely not allow anyone of the Master Clans to go intermingle with the Yotsuba. Not again. It was too dangerous. They would only take advantage of Miyuki, forcibly replace her title with theirs and make it so that the Yotsuba had no one else to be their heir. Though they of the Yotsubas would never allow such a thing to happen, it was still possible just as how it was to kidnap one of their members a long time ago. It was much too troublesome for her and so Maya quickly got rid of the idea. Also, she did not want to share any of the information and connections the Yotsuba had obtained throughout the years with another family. After all, information was power. Now that she thought about it, it was probably due to the happenings of the past that had stimulated her relatively low, though not noticeable revulsion for those of the Master Clans.

She needed someone who would always be there, keep her safe and nurtured. Miyuki was to be kept safe and pure, with no harm ever befalling her. No danger was to get to her. If her spouse was to be someone who was never home because of work, there was a lot that could happen to her. Similarly to how snow shall forever be white as it falls, she shall remain just as pure. Though she did have her guardians to help enforce her safety, she must be well attended to by her husband to renew their bond and stabilise her mental state. If not, they would quickly separate just like how she and the head of the Saegusa did, with bits of information regarding the Yotsuba being compromised.

Maya was well informed on Miyuki's martial arts training from the notorious nijutsu-user, Kokonoe Yakumo. Looking into her progress with her training, Maya could also tell that it got her ready for just about any danger that may ever befall her. Despite this, Maya would display utter disagreement if Miyuki were to simply be left to security by her spouse. After all, the institutes that Maya's father had long penetrated into had also been said to have very high-level security, and yet they had been so easily obliterated by that one man. There was also the almost successful assassination of the idol, Sawamura Maki, to consider. She had read the report, and while she hated to admit it, if it were not for that child, she would have died during that time.

It was then that the slight sound of leather rubbing against leather could be heard as Maya had uncomfortably changed her position on the chair she was sitting on.

Shiba Tatsuya.

Her eyes narrowed at the atrocious name. That child was a failure, a defect magician. Why such a boy was born within the family, she did not know. His very existence was a sin, but they could not completely cut their connections with him. The most they could do was remove his right as a possible heir and have him take a role of a 'guardian'.

Though there was also the choice of disposing him in the streets and away from the family, it would be too dangerous. As a magician he was completely and utterly useless. As a soldier however, that was a completely different matter. If they had left him on his own, he would be quickly picked up by anybody to add to their battle strength. Nevertheless, if he were left to be a proper member of the Yotsuba, their name would be tarnished once the public were to realise how the Yotsuba had produced someone of such low magic capability. As a family well known for their prowess in magic, this was something that should never happen. That said, Maya could never understand why Miyuki would treat him with such admiration. That child was never supposed to be born. That child was a mistake, an inconsistency.

Even the appellation of 'guardian', was too much for that child. That child was not worthy of such a right. Especially to be the guardian of the clan's pride. Nevertheless, because of his other abilities and his too deep connection with the family, it was the only title and role that child was able to take on. While she was rather repugnant towards this fact, finding a better replacement than him was impossible. His ability to perpetually know where his master's location was despite their distance was also a feat indispensable to them. In addition to this, that child also possessed the greatest combat ability and skill in comparison to all of them. That child was a being that no one, not even the Yotsubas, wanted to aggravate. That child was a monster.

Though she had known this, she had nonetheless assigned another guardian to escort Miyuki, futilely believing that perhaps that child could be surpassed in ability and be finally disposed of. She knew it was an empty belief, yet just like a reporter trying to dig up a big scoop, she was just as tenacious.

Being part of the second generation of the Sakura series, Sakurai Minami possessed all the skills of the first generation and more. From the moment she was constructed, they of the Yotsuba had trained her in every aspect possible, hoping that it would be enough to surpass that child. Notwithstanding this, Maya as well as the rest of the family knew that it was vain from the beginning even when the first generation received no major censure. However with an unacceptable existence incessantly being beside their Snow Queen, Maya sought for that child's influence towards their future heir to cease. Already, their relationship was dangerously close to inseparable. Actually, it was possibly already so, albeit Maya refused to acknowledge this datum as well.

While Sakurai Minami was strong and completely under the command of the Yotsuba, she still lacked the knowledge, capability and connections that child had. She was much too inferior to that monster of a guardian. If that child had never existed, then Sakurai Minami would have been more than enough to protect Miyuki. That child had set the bar much too high.

That child was too dangerous. As bothersome as it was, his abilities was of the type that had easily won triumph over her Meteor Stream, which granted her the title as one of the strongest. His almost instantaneous ability to self-regenerate did not help at all either. That child was a demon dressed up as a human, with its only purpose being to tarnish the name of the Yotsuba with its very existence.

If not for his emotional disorder and his unwavering fidelity towards his master, that child would have destroyed the whole clan already. Again, this fact only emphasized how the Yotsuba had to do something to deal with him quickly. They needed to put that child under an even tighter leash. Already, sending that child to an education was too much of a luxury, even when it proved to be the best way to protect his master. What perturbed her even more was the fact that if it were not for her having yet to determine the family's next successor, that child would have no other reason to defeat and strip her title away. She was well aware of the power struggle that would ensue if she were defeated, and she strongly detested how such a inferier barrier was the only thing safeguarding her.

She had sought out various means of diminishing the influence that child had towards his master. Truth to be told, there was once a time where she had considered pairing him up with Ayako, seeing the compatibility between their abilities. However, what stopped her from finalising that plan, apart from the fact that the branch family had already them prepared for, was the obvious rivalry she had with Miyuki. Even without her directly witnessing their interactions, she had easily identified it during their meeting at the hotel. With that, if she were to send that child to the Kuroba, it would significantly weaken the bond between the main branch and the side branch when Miyuki were to take over.

If that child married back into the family, Maya was sure that Miyuki would not let the arrangement affect her as it would improve how that child were to be treated. Despite this being said, Maya knew well enough that she would still unconsciously avoid contact with the Kuroba. With the Kuroba's superior information collecting, it was imperative for the main branch to keep in close relations with the family. Also, with the Kuroba siblings already prepared for, this led the head of the Yotsuba back to the subject concerning Miyuki. While the side branch gave her some suggestions regarding her possible consorts, none of them seemed to be good enough in her mind.

She needed someone of equal interference strength and power as Miyuki's, but again she could not think of anyone except…

The sound of her nails tapping against the wood of her armrest became louder and more expedite. Why her thoughts trailed of to such a conclusion, she did not know. The thought was incongruous and irrational. Briefly, following the trail slightly further away from her current musings, she was reminded to how that child was given a direct shortcut into officially becoming part of the Ten Master Clans. The fact that it was to marry one of the Seagusas only did nothing good but aggravate Maya even more.

Silently she cursed how quickly and easily the others of the Ten Master Clans could pick anyone to produce future heirs. For the Yotsuba, it was more favourable to have fewer heirs and instead focus all combat and magic training to the ones they had, thus allowing for better security for all their members. While it had played a great role in strengthening the overall power of the family, it did not help at all in the long term.

With the lack of options she currently had, her mind started to aimlessly drift off to a certain foreign exchange student. From what she had gathered from the school records, she was second to Miyuki in terms of magic power and interference strength. How her figures were not as far away from Miyuki's made her worthy of the Yotsuba head's attention.

Angelina Kudou Sheilds.

That was the name of the blonde haired cerulean-eyed woman Maya had remembered her to be, though her better-known alias was Angie Sirus.

Due to the Yokohama incident, the Great Asian Alliance had sent her to investigate the Shiba siblings. While she was supposed to be an undercover agent, Maya had to question the USNA on their choice in subordinates. It had been obvious to everyone from the beginning that she was not at all the intel type, and it did not take that long to assemble info on her background as each of her sobriquets had a very ostentatious story behind them.

With that, Maya had been able to access various detailed reports on her battle with Miyuki, and meticulous documents on her abilities. Of course, the main purpose of these documents was to investigate the overall capabilities of the USNA. Considering how long she was able to hold out against the Yotsuba's future heir, Maya was rather impressed. Even when it ended with her crushing defeat, the fact that she was able to last for as long as she did was very commendable. Furthermore, because of having easy access to First High's regular test results, Maya had even found that she had also been able to beat Miyuki in casting speed, making her all the more acknowledgeable. Reviewing over all that she remembered about the foreigner, she then made a side note to emphasize their research on each of the USNA's military officers.

It was then Maya was reminded of who ended that particular battle. Swiftly she digressed herself back to her original train of thought, and opted to look into any of the family's foreign connections. Though traveling was strictly prohibited as to not influence the power balance between countries, Maya, as one of the world's strongest magicians, was able to personally establish a few connections overseas.

Yet still no face came into mind, however.

With her choices now at a zero, Maya felt a slight sense of unease creep into the back of her mind. Soon enough, she found herself looking into the people that both Miyuki and that child interacted with on a daily basis. The list of their connections quickly accumulated into her mind as she, in a similarly swift pace, started to go over each of them.

Fascinatingly enough, they all possessed an interesting background that made Maya impressed at their choice in people. Nevertheless, none of the two male members of their social group matched her requirements. As a result, she was yet again left with no one to pair their future successor with.

Similarly to before, one of them was part of the Hundred Families and specialised in the type of magic the Yotsubas had no interest in. As for the other one, he was a descendent of the Fortressed Series, which was known to genetically remodeling their adherents for strength similar to animals, but with the consequence of a large life shortage. Not at all did Maya have the desire for the rest of the Yotsuba line to be prone to a shorter lifespan, nor was she at all interested in such an experiment. With their already declining numbers, such a thing would do nothing but push the Yotsubas closer to their end. Hence, he too was quickly crossed out of her mind.

'Genetically modified…' were the words that suddenly floated into her mind.

Whilst the Yotsuba was mainly focused on the psychological side of things, they had still involved themselves in researching about genetics, albeit only for a short period of time. Before they had decided on using Outer-Systematic magic on that child, they had put all of their efforts in searching for a way to modify him genetically. To give a direction to their research, they had their research on the Sakura series as their base. As impossible as it sounded, they were all bent on doing it for the sake of clearing up their 'mistake' in the clan.

They were even really close to separating her sister from Shiba Tatsurou when they had first found out about their first son's lack of ability. They were too late, however, for Miya was already pregnant with another baby. If the baby were to be aborted, Miya would die before they could pair her up with another man due to her initial poor constitution.

Though they had been expecting for the worst, the family was blessed with a healthy daughter with the innate skill for magic, which transcended all of those in the clan.

With a substitute for that child being now prepared, even less effort was put into the research. Everything they had researched on did not lead to any favourable long-term outcome. Test subjects died early due to the body not being able to keep up to its modifications or of them slowly losing sanity. The only benefit they gained from these experiments was having all the information they had for the start of the second generation of the Sakura series being amplified significantly. Moving away from that, their most successful experiment only had the user's magic capability to be akin to one tenth of a normal magician's. In short, the research bore no fruit.

Also, with the Yotsubas not having a guardian ready for Miyuki at the time, their research period was shortened all the more. This, of course, was due to the unexpected second pregnancy of her sister. No guardian had ever been prepared for that child, and so they had no guardian to pass on to Miyuki. That child's inability to use magic became apparent to everyone before they were able to assign him one. This consequently led them to resorting to the operation, which, though it had a better outcome than their previous tests, nonetheless ended in a failure.

But wait.

As piles of information relating to their long time genetic research quickly assimilated in her mind, she finally found something of high relevance to her current conundrum.

Why hadn't they done it before? If they had, then Maya would not find herself planning for such a troublesome task now.

High recognition, autonomy, conformity, magic interference, strength, and supple with orders… they had that the whole time. While he may not have been of any use to them then, he would be of great use now. Never did Maya think until this day that he would actually be of any significant use.

Every desirable trait would be passed on to the next generation, with hardly any probability of a failure. Though the fact that he was incapable in meeting the Yotsuba's standard level of magic still remained, Miyuki's future reputation could easily conceal that truth. No one would dare doubt their future heir's decision over who she was betrothed to. With the Yotsuba's also already known for their secrecy, no individual should be surprised at not being able to uncover any information of Miyuki's consort. The public only needed to know what the family wanted them to know. Maya couldn't care less if he were to reveal himself as a Strategic-class magician just to show his worth as the Yotsuba head's husband.

With the century's advanced technology and their already great abundance of knowledge regarding genetic engineering, they could make it possible. How mankind was capable of doing such experiments decades ago even when technology was not as capable as it was currently just made the idea all the more achievable. Even if it did hold the possibility of damaging the entirety of the clan if not successfully developed, Maya was certain that they could overcome this hurdle easily.

Maya could not suppress the smile that tugged on the ends of her lips. The clan's crisis would finally be solved.

For a brief moment, the thought of money came to mind. Quickly, she crossed it out of her mind. It was an imprudent thought. She would not allow for anyone outside the family's reach to know about the fruits of their research. Sharing such information to the public would be detrimental. After all, there was the reason to why mass genetic engineering on humans did not start once the opportunity showed itself to take note of. After studying all the possibilities that may occur if they were to commence such an experiment, they had, and rather quickly, found that it would create discrimination between those who did and did not go through genetic enhancements. In addition to this, there was also the likelihood of creating a deleterious effect to the human gene pool. With that, she also had to make sure the clan were to not rely on this technique unless absolutely necessary. The Yotsubas would also have to hide underneath even more wraps, though Maya was not at all worried about this.

All she needed to do now was make the notion 'legitimate'. No one was to know that the clan had taken an interest toward incestuous relationships. No one was to know about the underlying relationship the family's future successor had with her spouse. It would be simple, a very easy task for them. With the clan's voluminous connections, getting the job done would only take a few weeks. Also, with the major barrier of creating a fiasco in the future generation being made redundant if their research were to be a complete success, there was not going to be any momentous opposition.

Now the only major problem would lie in the people who knew the siblings personally. Finding them would be problematic, especially with how they have been put under countless suspicion over the past few years after they entered high school. However, after they were all found, she was sure she could easily convince all of them to forget about their 'special' relationship. She had just found the best outcome. Nothing was going to stop her now. She needed to inaugurate their research immediately.

She was sure that Miyuki would also be pleased at her decision. After all, she could finally be together with her precious brother.

Sliding her fingers onto one of the many buttons laid out in front of her, Maya pressed the one that connected directly to the house butler. She had planned all of it out in her mind. First, she would strip the title of 'guardian' and 'defective' away from him and officially welcome him back into the family. He would be considered as their equal. With that, there will be no ill will going through the family. Even if some members of the family did not agree, she would not allow for any of it. It was the only way the Yotsuba could continue to be the least diluted group of magicians.

A knock could be heard before the door at the other end of the room was opened. Being the head butler of the household, there was no need for her permission if he was already announced for.

Without making a sound, the white haired man walked across the floor in a manner that well fit his role. "You called?" Hayama bowed, now at a fair distance before the head of the Yotsuba family.

Maya stared at the bowed man in front of her, eyes filled with authority and unwavering resolute as she allowed for him to raise his head.

Now meeting her gaze, Hayama stayed quiet as he obediently waited for his mistress' orders.

"Please connect me to the Shiba siblings," she said finally, ready to pass the news to them first and foremost.

END

AN: FINALLY FINISHED! This was a story that had sprung up randomly when I was thinking of any possible scenarios where Miyuki and Tatsuya could get together without using force. I hope you guys understand what was going on in this story. With how it was written, I could only give you guys hints because if I said her plans, it would be like Maya was talking deliriously to herself…

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