Hello, ITalkToSky here.
I am very sorry for the lag in the update even if my finals were over. I lost the data for the chapter 51 that I started a while back, so I kind of lost my motivation to rewrite everything up once again. Also, I am stuck with this crappy PC too. But enough with that, let's move on to the next chapter.
Another reason that this chapter got delayed is because I have a lot of problem writing the next chapter. I will tell right now that the next chapter will be the start of the next phase. It will be the chapter that will determine how the people in the organization will act from that point on. I currently am trying to create a critical mass, a situation where they have to either go big or go home. Seeing that they are from Gensokyo, they will definitely go big.
The next chapter will be the diverging point of my story, so pardon the slow update even if I am done with my exam.
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The Third Day of Nine School Competition
The day started rather normally. However, by the great higher power of Gensokyo, there shall be no mundane day for the denizens of fantasy, or so Lunaire said. In this case, Lunaire was right. The duo youkai magicians were watching the battle board events from the confine of First High booth. Mari was competing on that day, but the two did not see the need to be present personally on the arena.
On the side note, the two never even entered the venue for battle board personally. It was too sunny and crowded for them. Besides, they didn't really like the event too much either for being too confined in two dimensions. There were ups and downs, but the event was more or less confined to the water ways.
Still, today was quite special. On the first sharp curve, instead of decelerating, the Seventh High girl accelerated. It might simply be a new turning technique she had in plan, but her wide-eyes and panic stricken face didn't say so. In the next split second that she tried to turn, her boar slipped from her feet, leaving the poor girl careening through the air. Fortunately or unfortunately, the one slightly ahead of her was Watanabe Mari. Knowing her personality, Mari would not leave the girl alone, which would undoubtedly result in grievous injury on the Seventh High part. Therefore, Mari did the most sensible thing and tried to catch the flying girl. It didn't go as plan to say the least as both went slamming onto the railing of the waterway.
"And it was going so well…"
"Don't say it."
"Alright, Alice. It looks like some children are being naughty today."
The mental conversation between the two went unheard in the clamor of the First High preparation tent. Their voices were rather calm in contrast to their upperclassmen, even though they just witnessed Mari crashing. The girl should be fine. She might smash onto the railing with a girl squished on her, but she should get off with only some fractures.
On the side note, they were rather desensitized to impact injury. Compared to Reimu's Ascension Kick, this was nothing. Both Alice and Lunaire had the displeasure of tasting them before, so they wouldn't bat an eyelid. They clearly forgot that if a normal people were to take them head on, they would most likely snap their necks and well on their way to say hi to a Yama. They could not be blame as there was no way that such techniques would be employed against normal people.
While the surrounding was busy finding heads and tails, Lunaire and Alice had finished deducing the cause of the so called accident. They felt sorry for her, but with people clamoring to tend to her wounds, they found that there was better use for their ability.
"It's thrice already."
"They apparently need to be taught a lesson." Alice mused dangerously, glaring at the nonexistent enemy. While she wasn't particularly close with Mari, they were on better term than mere acquaintance.
"Absolutely. The question is how we go about doing that." Still seated, Lunaire scratched his head awkwardly. "I will admit that I was rather lenient with my run-in with them many nights before. I didn't bother checking up on their background. This is just too much. That flaming car, those intruders and now this..." Crossing his arms, Lunaire shook his head. Even with such lukewarm reaction, his blue eyes gleamed with morbid delight that would not be out of place on a cat.
"It doesn't matter. We can start now."
"I am sure that my…associate will know something useful."
At Lunaire's mention, Alice's face darkened visibly. At first she didn't know the nuance hidden in his word, so she wouldn't show any reaction. However, after learning that he was pointing toward his contacts in the underworld, it was not strange for her to pull faces. For the past many years, she still found misgiving about concerning themselves with the dirty little side. It was undeniable though that they owed a lot of success through their less transparent connections.
"…"
"I know Alice. But if there is any way that we will get to the bottom of this, it is this one." Lunaire ushered Alice out of her seat. Earlier vigor thoroughly quenched, his moment was rather languid. "We should make ourselves scare. Let's go."
The blond and silver inconspicuously made their way toward the exit of the tent, as inconspicuous as their bright hair allowed at least. Apparently, that wasn't enough.
"Wait!" The two turned, recognizing the person calling them out. Her usual saccharine voice was replaced by grim tone, but they could still recognize the voice of their student council president.
"Yes, president?" Alice answered. Mayumi would retort by asking her to call her by her name, but held back due to the seriousness of the situation.
"Alice, Lunaire, did you see that?" Her ruby eyes narrowed, Mayumi gestured lightly toward the monitor.
"If by that you meant what happened to Watanabe-senpai, then yes. We saw that along with everyone." The answer was diplomatically plain, belying no emotion beneath the surface. "We felt…sorry that such an unfortunate…accident happened." The blond did take the effort to give the hint to their petite president.
"What do you think?" Mayumi took a glance at their faces. The hint wasn't lost with her. "I think that it is very fishy. From the way that the student from Seventh high accelerated where they should have slowed down." Mayumi paused. "There is also the part where Mari shouldn't have failed to receive the Seventh High girl. All of it added up to be far too unlikely to be coincidence."
"Because it is not a coincidence." Lunaire said, rolling his eyes.
"I found that the Seventh High of the wave wouldn't deserve their title if they could only produce official contestant that made such amateurish mistake." Alice elaborated coldly. "Furthermore, if you looked closely at Watanabe-senpai's board, the water below it dipped."
"If you ask me, the water doesn't dip like that, not normally." Lunaire continued confidently. While it might sound foolish to confirm the foul play from observing only the water surface, especially only once, Lunaire and Alice were rather sure as they were more sensitive than any could have imagined. They didn't confirm their thought by using direct remote observation magic to investigate the accident scene itself, but their intuition and large flat screen monitor were more than enough.
"We can all agree that there is definitely something else at play, but what? The security measures are…"
"…tighter than a miser's purse, I know prez. But, ahem…" Lunaire cleared his throat and presented his most infuriating grin yet. "When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. There are ways, prez."
"You speak as if you two already have an idea. Mind sharing?" Mayumi breezed through and ignored Lunaire's attempt to drop a quote.
"There are a lot of ways actually, so we are not really sure which. But, if we were to fathom a guess, spirit magic would be a good way to go." Alice answered.
"Spirit magic?"
"Yes, have you heard of it?"
"Yes, but I only know the cursory details." Mayumi chewed on her lips. "I think it is a branch of ancient magic that utilizes the free information bodies, dubbed spirits, as a medium to alter the phenomena, right? However, why do you think it is the spirit magic at work?"
"If you know more ins and outs of that system, then you will think the same. In short, spirit magic offers the closest to the delayed or remotely triggered magic." The boy sighed and turned away. "Now, we can't help you with everything or else you won't be thinking. We need a good variety of viewpoint, so do you own research. If that is it, then…" Lunaire trailed off and began to walk off, leaving the young president to her thought.
A gasp escaped from Mizuki's lips as she witnessed the train wreck in the battle board course. In a way, it was rather impressive as that was all the reaction pulled from her. After Mari crashed onto the railing, the little girl immediately pulled her glasses down to get a better look at the situation. It was simply the habit she had left over from the days when she couldn't control her eyes.
Mizuki no longer wore her prescribed glasses. In the first place, she only needed it to correct her eyes that were over sensitive to pushion emission. However, with her current near complete control of her eyes, she switched the lens to simple glass. The reason was simply because she preferred the aesthetic and totally was not because the people at the scarlet mansion liked it.
Mentally activating her eyes, Mizuki squinted. Her view brighten momentarily as she adjusted her eyes against the background spiritual light of other audience members. Scanning her eyes from side to side, not neglecting any details, Mizuki caught sight of the unnatural cluster of light in the water way. It was unnatural as no one could see the squirming blue light in the waterway at all even if it was rather eye-catching. The light was not static and was in the process of dissipating into nothingness. It was unmistakably a spirit bodies.
Very despicable, Mizuki thought. She wasn't stupid, so that was all the needed evidence for her to conclude that there was outside interference. Specifically, it was through the spirit magic that the modern magic community was painfully uninformed about. Maybe it was due to its convoluted nature or the hubris of modern magicians, not many were aware of the nature and the potential of the variety of ancient magic in existence. Like many others, spirit magic was considered obsolete and not worthy of researching. Most would rather think that modern magic is superior and improved upon every single aspects of ancient magic.
The irony was that the unconventional nature of spirit magic allowed it to elude all monitoring devices and even magicians' observation. Interfering with the competition that was under extreme surveillance was unthinkable for modern magic, but not the spirit magic. Unlike psion emission, normal magician and event specialized instruments cannot readily detect pushion bodies that composed the spirits after all.
Mizuki grinded her molar as the agitated emotions in the arena started to affect her, so she turned her eyes off. Even while distracted, Mizuki still retained excellent grasp of the people around her. Noticing Erika besides her trying to stand up, Mizuki's arm reached and tugged her back to her seat.
"Stay here. We don't need to add to the chaos." Mizuki chided sharply, making Erika stared at her in shock.
The bespectacled girl noticed another presence standing up, but made no move to stop him. Tatsuya could easily handle the situation, so she refrained from saying anything and simply listened.
"I'll go take a look, you guys stay here. Thanks Mizuki." Tatsuya glanced quickly to Mizuki before weaving his way through the crowd toward the waterway.
"Wait Mizuki, why did you let that guy go?" Erika stare at the black-haired girl, puzzled.
"He seemed more than capable of handling the situation. Look at him go." Mizuki gestured lightly to Tatsuya's retreating figures. Other could only admire the ease in which he weaved his way through the dense crowds that didn't slow him down one bit. "He should be of help."
The offhand comment earned Mizuki the glare from Miyuki. The gesture didn't contain any malice or discontent, but leaned more toward wariness. The more Miyuki interacted with the timid girl, the more she realized that the girl was hidden something beneath the fluffy veil. She knew too much, was too bold, too decisive and too sharp. While Miyuki never care about anyone's background in detail, she couldn't help but suspect that Mizuki's origin was extraordinary.
As far as Miyuki could tell, the girl already saw through that Tatsuya was not an ordinary student. The girl didn't hesitate to leave the task of a medic to her brother. She must have seen through that Tatsuya had the skill set. The rest of their group was rather clueless, so Mizuki who could see that was definitely not normal. That begged the question of how far could this girl actually see. It was not as if Miyuki could ask her straight up.
Later in the evening
Following the suspicion of foul play, Tatsuya gathered the footage of the competition to his room for further analysis. The more he watched the moments from different angles, the more he was sure that there was third party interference. In an exercise of initiative, Tatsuya reached out to one of his senior in the technician group that was available, Isori Kei. It went without saying that Chiyoda Kanon could not bear to be without her fiancé, so she tagged along as well. But, even with extra pair of eyes, Tatsuya's analysis and conclusion was immovable.
At that moment, another knocking came. Looking to Tatsuya, Miyuki only moved to open the door after receiving a nod from her dearest brother. She returned with two classmates in tow.
"Tatsuya-san we came over as you have asked."
"Sorry for calling the two of you all the way over here."
"Allow me to introduce you. These two are my classmates Yoshida Mikihiko and Shibata Mizuki. I think you two know these two are Isori-senpai and Chiyoda-senpai from the second year."
Following the introduction, Mikihiko tensed up a little from the sudden meeting with his senior, while Mizuki reacted cordially. After short greetings, questioning looks except from Mizuki were directed toward Tatsuya.
"I asked the two of them to come and identify our culprit." The vague sentence eluded the understanding of most, except for Mizuki's who widened her eyes slightly.
Tatsuya continued with his explanation. "We are now examining the possibility that Watanabe-senpai's incident was caused by malicious interference from an outside party." Pulling up the recording, Tatsuya narrated along. "As Watanabe-senpai was losing her balance, an unnatural dip appeared on the water surface, which disrupted the timing for her Inertial Neutralization Magic and forced her to collide with the railing. This was almost certainly caused by magic casted from within the water. Isori-senpai and I came to this conclusion because it is strictly impossible to cast the magic from outside with all the security in place and delayed magic is also unlikely as the contestants in the round before Mari should have noticed something." Like a well-oiled machine, Tatsuya unilaterally handed down the information.
Modern magic has spell with delayed activation. However, it is required for the spell to be recorded onto the object, which highlighted the object like neon paint in the night club for the magicians who looked hard enough. However, no one noticed anything.
"The only possible explanation is that something hidden in the water cast the magic…" Mikihiko eyed Tatsuya strangely when he said so. "But having a magician submerged in the water sounded ridiculous, so rather than someone…something in the water casted the magic in the waterway."
Isori and Kanon glanced at one another, mirroring each other's confusion. However, Isori look changed to the one of recognition.
"It is not even a question. This is the work of spirit magic." All the occupants in the room stared at the petite girl unblinkingly. Only Tatsuya watched her with the eyes of expectation without any hint of surprise. Inwardly, he had the feeling that Mizuki already had the whole story.
Observant and armed with special eyes and exceptionally sharp mind, Tatsuya held almost no doubt. Demonstrated many times in more than one incident, Tatsuya regarded Mizuki as someone who was more than met the eyes.
"Spirit magic manipulates free pushion information bodies as mediums to invoke change in the material world. The pushion spirit can be triggered remotely and a menace to detect by regular magicians. In short, an almost untraceable and undetectable mine can be set, ready to go at any moment notice."
"Such thing is possible? I am not very well versed in the area, but there is a possibility to be found in this line of thought." Kei mused.
"Yes, Shibata-san is correct. Spirit magic is capable of the feats she spoke about, which matched well with our current situation." Mikihiko released the breath he was holding as he spoke. "If the spirit was planted beforehand, a dip in the water surface can be made on demand."
"Hmm, Mikihiko, when you say beforehand, how long are we talking about?" Tatsuya inquired.
"Quite some time. If it is me, I think I can manage with around half a month of preparation with free access to the arena."
"Do they need to infiltrate the arena again after the preparation is complete to arm their trap?"
"There is no need. If the preparation is complete, they could either trigger the previously set spirit or simply send one in through the surveyed ley line when needed." Mikihiko answered grimly. Unnoticed by anyone, Mizuki's eyes twitched in surprise slightly at the mention of ley line. "But even if they managed to accomplish that, there is almost no power to speak of. Spirits are empowered by the user's emotions and will, so if it was set even a few hours prior, the power left would be capable of only practical jokes."
"You are correct, but…the little dip in the water was all it takes to down Watanabe-senpai in that situation, was it not?" Another impassive voice from Mizuki surprised the crews. "Besides, I also took of my glasses quick enough to catch a glimpse of a cluster of pushion in the water." That was the final nail in the coffin.
"Yoshida is an expert on spirit magic and Shibata is especially sensitive to pushion light, which lend credibility to this hypothesis."
"Shibata-san, you saw the pushion in the waterway?" Mikihiko asked tentatively, even if he knew the answer full well.
"Yes, but I only saw it when it was almost completely dispersed. However, it was similar to the spirit with similar color as the ones you used when I stumbled across you."
"Then those were definitely water spirit. That's one mystery solved." Mikihiko groaned and squeezed his temple. "But that doesn't explain such an amateurish approach. This stunt would not have done anything at all if the player from Seventh High didn't happen to lose control at the exact time."
"With the preparation put in, it is not too outlandish for that accident to be engineered too, don't you think? Tatsuya-san, can you please run the recording from the start again."
Without waiting for her to finish, Tatsuya was already rewinding the recording to the beginning. The scene played out on the monitor featured Mari gliding on her board, closely followed by the Seventh High student. They approached the first corner, prompting Mari to slow down according to the textbook.
"As you can see, the accident happened at the first sharp turn of the course where all players should slow down. But the Seventh High girl continued to accelerate. If it was an earnest mistake, then she had no place being in this competition." Mizuki tapped the screen as the girl in question was propelled out in a burst of speed. "That only leaves one point of error, the CAD itself."
"If you were to swap out deceleration sequence for an acceleration sequence, then such an accident is unavoidable. It was not hard to guess that Watanabe-senpai and the Seventh High contestant to be neck to neck from last year result, so I can easily set this up to take out two favored candidates in one strike." Tatsuya continued to provide the next pieces of the puzzle, seemingly more convinced the more he thought.
Tatsuya mused back to what Mizuki said to him the night before. Her special method of manually confirming the type of activation sequence would prevent this exact way of sabotage. It seemed almost more than simple coincidence that Mizuki mentioned it before the accident. However, he did not doubt that Mizuki had no part in the sabotage. It must be one of the astronomical coincidence, he thought.
"Shiba-kun, this sounds both reasonable and terrifying. All you said is totally possible, but who, how and when could they implement this plan. Unless there is some huge conspiracy beneath all of this, there is no way." Kanon's voice trembled as the vestige of security in the competition peeled away. "They need access to the venue and also the opportunity to tamper with the Seventh High CAD to pull this off."
"Unless there is a traitor in the Seventh High's technician team…" Kei mumbled.
"I found that to be quite unlikely. With proper preparation like this, it is unlikely that they will stop here. Therefore, it will be quite inefficient if they only planted traitor in the Seventh High only as they would only be able to tamper with one player. On the flipside, planting traitors into every school is hardly practical." Everyone turned to Mizuki and waited for her next words. Over the past few minutes, this girl managed to fill in the large part of their understanding, so they figured that she had more to contribute. "The most efficient way to gain access to the venue and be able to tamper the CAD of all school is to plant mole in the committee itself."
"That is preposterous." Miyuki gasped.
"No, I can only come to such conclusion as well." Tatsuya stopped his sister.
"…But Onii-sama, assuming that there is a mole on the committee, how and when would they tamper with the CADs? Each school jealously guards their own…"
"I believe Mizuki also suspected this. All CADs are guaranteed to leave each school's control and be turned over to the committee for inspection."
"Ah!" The collective gasped at the realization. The whole theory just became almost undeniable and the weight of fighting in the dark against the foes in the committee just became apparent.
"Still, we still have no clue about their methods." Tatsuya leveled his eyes to Mizuki. "Mizuki, do you think that you can recognize it if you see it?"
The sound of hitched breath went unheard by all, except Tatsuya. Mizuki clenched her fists. She had done it now, she thought. Her topaz eyes searched the boy for any hint of intention, which she found none.
For Tatsuya to go out of his way to ask further for her help, it was most likely that he recognize her abilities. Normally, this wouldn't mean bad things. However, Tatsuya was a high profile character. Getting the attention of high profile character would not bode well for her.
Mizuki knew about Tatsuya's secret identity. She had proven herself to be tightlipped and vital enough that the organization saw no need to withhold the information from her. It could be said that she was surprise that her friend was powerful magician from the crucible of Okinawa, but she didn't overreact. While she didn't treat him any differently, he went up high in her threat list because of his connection with Yotsuba. Not just any connection, but he was apparently related to the main house.
She wasn't a spy, so she felt no need to ingratiate herself with Tatsuya. However, ignoring him completely from the equation was no longer an option, because by the time she knew, she could no longer cut their friendship. In fact, if she were simply to cut their ties, it would draw more of his suspicion. This meant that her only option was to remain inconspicuous. Doing everything well, but never put full effort was her modus operandi.
Sadly, well enough in Mizuki deteriorating common sense was sufficient to draw the attention. After all, being the student of multiple unfathomable existences demanded that her definition of hard work to be revised. Without even showing all her cards, she was already impressive in her own right. Her intelligence and resourcefulness were many cuts above average students.
Mizuki had no choice. Tatsuya asked and she certainly heard the request. She couldn't pretend it didn't happen. If she declined now in front of her peers and upperclassmen, then Tatsuya would know that she had something to hide. If he didn't already know, that is. Not to mention, the ire of her schoolmate and the lost in trust would make her days harsher.
She could simply say that she wouldn't be able to identify the technique, but knowing Tatsuya's personality, he would drag her in anyway just to increase the odds of detecting anything. No matter what she said, her only sensible choice was to assist in the investigation. All she had to do was to hold back naturally, whatever that meant.
"I am not sure, but there is merit in trying." Vague but supportive answer left her lips.
"That is already a great help. I will have to rely on you." Tatsuya thanked her diplomatically. He made sure to bring up Mizuki to the higher echelon of the competition team. Her help would certainly be invaluable.
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And there you go.
That was quite an unnaturally long chapter. I don't think that it is enough to make up for lost time, but please take it as my heartfelt apology for my absence.
I just can't seem to get the wording right for the next chapter. It is just the minor type of writer block. I know what I want, but not how to get there.
If you have something that can help me, any comment or encouragement, please leave a review. Thank you very much for supporting me since the beginning.
I sounded like I am shutting down or going into hiatus, didn't I. But no, I am not going into hiatus or rewriting this anytime soon, so be relieved.
