Disclaimer: I don't own anything
Mount Wutai. Qingshui, Shanxi Province, The Great Asian Alliance.
It had been a week since Tatsuya had his meeting with his grandfather in Chiba. Currently, he was in what was formerly considered to be China, in pursuit of the origins of the jade that had been given to him.
To be honest, he had been chasing leads about its origin for the past week all across Japan. His grandfather had been blissfully unaware of the details about the jade and his great-grandfather had been dead for quite some time now so the only cue he had was the Chinese inscription in the box that contained. Since China, or should he say, The Great Asian Alliance was too big to go in without any plan, he had to improvise a little.
This led to him donning his Maheshwara avatar and visiting a few Buddhist monasteries across Japan in search of a clue. Since the monks in there were largely unconcerned with the outside world, they didn't ask many questions about his appearance. The lead he was looking for was provided to him by an old monk in an old monastery in Mt Fuji who told him that the inscription was from Mount Wutai.
This brought him to his current situation where he was standing outside the biggest monastery in the area. After ensuring that he was sufficiently hidden using 'Charade', Tatsuya made his way inside.
"Who might you be?" A rather young monk, with a shaved head and all, asked him as he entered the monastery in Traditional Chinese.
"I apologize for the disturbance but I was informed that an item that I recently came into the possession of, was from here. I just wanted to know more about it." Tatsuya was fluent in more than thirty different languages, Chinese being one of them, so he could answer the question easily.
"Could you please show me the item in question?" Tatsuya could see that the young monk was not completely satisfied by his answer but Tatsuya showed the box containing the jade to the young monk.
"I am sorry but I do not recognize this box. Please wait here while I contact one of my superiors who might know more about this." The Young monk gave a bow before going back inside the monastery, leaving him alone.
After a while, the young monk came back looking frantic.
"The Abbot has asked for you. Please come with me." The young monk asked.
While Tatsuya was not a religious person, even he knew that the Abbott was the highest authority in any monastery. Therefore, the fact that he was now granted an audience with the highest authority right off the bat was surprising.
Tatsuya quietly followed the young monk through the monastery. He could hear countless monks chanting Sutras inside various rooms as well as various children training, no doubt to become the next generation of monks.
After walking for a while, Tatsuya and the young monk reached the innermost part of the monastery where a lone old man who looked like he was well over a hundred years of age was sitting on a dais. One look from the Abbott was enough for the young monk to excuse himself from the room.
"Could you please show me that box that you have there?" The old monk said in a grandfatherly voice. What shocked Tatsuya however, was the fact that he was speaking fluent Japanese.
Tatsuya carefully passed the box containing the Jade to the old monk without saying a word.
"Ah yes! The Emperor's Jade. The fact that you have brought this to me must mean that Ryuunosuke's family did indeed give birth to a dragon amongst them, isn't it, Shiba Tatsuya-kun?" The old monk asked with humor in his voice. Tatsuya however, was shocked to say the least. After he had created and perfected 'Charade', this was the first time that anyone had ever managed to guess his identity.
"How?!" He asked while trying to contain the shock in his voice.
"When you have lived for as long as I have, you tend to pick up a few things here and there. Also, your family and I go way back to the time of your Great Grandfather so I tend to keep an eye out on whatever is happening there." The old monk explained. "You might not know this but I have been watching you closely after you showed such tremendous promise when it comes to magic."
"But how did you see through my identity?" Tatsuya was curious.
"I didn't. I was aware of the fact that Gennosuke had transferred the Emperor's Jade to you last week through some contacts. The fact that a strange gentleman brought the same Jade to my temple within a week seemed like too much of a coincidence." He added.
"Might I ask you how you know my family?" While Tatsuya wanted to know more about the Jade, the old monk's story seemed interesting.
"While you might not know this before WWIII happened and the GAA was formed, Japan and China used to have a decent relationship. Some of the monks here were transferred to Japan as a sort of cultural exchange program. I was one such monk and I met your grandfather while I was staying in a temple in Chiba. We hit it off rather quickly and became close friends. The jade you just showed me was a gift that I gave him before I had to return to China due to escalations in tensions between the two nations.
"Might I ask you about the origin of this specific piece of jade?" Tatsuya enquired.
"Sure. This particular piece is called The Emperor's Jade. It can be considered to be a relic from the old days. They say it was formed from a piece of the Jade Palace that had fallen to Earth as a result of a fight between immortals. I personally believe that they mined this from the foothills of Mt Tai near the Dragon Vein. What do you see in this to the point that you crossed the ocean to get here?" The old monk asked.
"Grandpa told me that Great Grandpa had told him that this thing could change the history of the magical world in the right hands. He wasn't exaggerating when he said that. I simply wanted to see if I could get my hands on some more jade of similar nature." Tatsuya answered truthfully.
"I see. I will not ask. However, you might have more luck trying to find more near the Dragon Vein." The old monk said as he handed over the box to Tatsuya.
"Thank you. Before I leave, might I ask for your name?"
"I have long given up on my name. I go by Abbott now. But if you are curious, I used to be called Long Aotian a long time ago." The old monk said.
"Thank you. Let us hope that we will see each other again in the future." Tatsuya wished before leaving the temple and opening a portal to Mt Tai.
Mt Tai was widely considered to be one of the most culturally important locations across the entirety of the Great Asian Alliance. The mountain, located near the city of Tai'an was the highest peak in the entirety of the Shangdong Province and was considered to be one of China's Five Sacred Mountains. Currently, Tatsuya was standing near the foothills of the mountain in a market that contained items that he was looking for.
Originally, Tatsuya wanted to mine the jade he wanted, himself but he quickly abandoned the idea once he realized that the entirety of the mountain's jade deposit was already being mined by one group or the other. Most of these were put up for auction in bulk so Tatsuya could avoid making trouble. He had currently adjusted 'Charade' to make it so that he looked like an ordinary Chinese youngster instead of his usual blurred appearance.
Now, most people would question whether he had the money required for the operation and if he was being honest, he initially didn't. However, Tatsuya had done something that he usually avoided doing and robbed a few large banks to gain enough money. Tatsuya usually avoided such lawless behavior in Japan since it could eventually be traced back to him but he did not have this problem in the GAA since the jade he planned on buying was virtually untraceable.
It took Tatsuya less than a second to analyze the content of raw jade across the entire market as well as within the mountain. From his analysis, the Jade that he could make use of, called the Emperor's Jade, was really rare and within the entire mountain range, only fifty-four kilograms of the stuff was available. At least a third of that was still unmined so he had to find a way to gain it as well.
Tatsuya was not someone who had much interest in luxury purchases and as such, he wasn't well aware of the price of jade. However, a quick market tour taught him that jade could be purchased for anything from 200 Yuan per gram to 50000 Yuan per gram based on visible quality. Tatsuya had almost Three Hundred million Yuan of stolen fund with him which meant that on average, he needed to buy a gram for nearly 5600 Yuan per gram, a tall task but not completely undoable.
"Welcome customer, please take a good look at my wares. These are the highest quality jade in this entire market taken directly from near the Dragon Vein." With his gameplan set, Tatsuya made his way to his first stop which had roughly three kilograms of the stuff that he was looking for. After acting like he was looking at everything in the shop for a while, Tatsuya finally picked up the chunks that he wanted which together, weighed thirty kilograms.
"Let's see. That is a lot of jade that you are purchasing. Since the customer is such a generous one, I will give you some face and sell it for 400 Yuan per gram. Is that okay with you?" As far as the shopkeeper knew, the stuff that Tatsuya was purchasing was considered to be third-grade jade that could only be used for low-quality jewelry. Therefore, the price he quoted was more than fair enough for him to make a profit while giving the young man in front of him, a gap to make some profit of his own. The fact that he was making such huge purchases probably meant that he was a rich man and offending such people was bad for business.
"Of course." The amount quoted to him was much lower than what he could pay so Tatsuya agreed readily. It wasn't like he was losing money anyway.
"Would you like to get it cut, sir?" The shopkeeper asked to which Tatsuya said no before taking out a briefcase that contained the 12 million Yuan needed. This was accomplished by utilizing Decomposition to form what essentially was a pocket dimension where he could keep stuff that he carried around him. The shopkeeper, who was knowledgeable about magic, chalked the weird scene to magic before counting the money and handing over the jade to Tatsuya.
The Emperor's Jade that Tatsuya was after was considered to be the single most expensive variation of jade in the world. At almost 700k Yuan per gram, the shopkeeper was blissfully unaware that he just sent away a potential 2.1 billion Yuan payday.
Tatsuya's daylight robbery of jade shops continued for a while until he was finally done with all the shops in the market. All he had left was to mine the remaining himself which was far easier to accomplish than he expected. The permission to mine was obtained easily for a lump sum payment of one million for an hour which was more than enough for him. He directly made his way to the cave where he knew the jade was and using Decomposition in the bedrock, made quick work of the jade before leaving not even staying the full hour. With everything completed, Tatsuya quickly entered a deserted alleyway and teleported back home after returning whatever was left of the cash that he had stolen. The fact that his little expedition would net him the reputation as the world's greatest phantom thief, was something Tatsuya was completely unaware of at the time.
"Oh! you're back, Tatsuya? I thought you were staying at your grandparent's house for a little while longer." After he had carefully stored his new collection away, Tatsuya entered his home and was greeted by his mother.
"I was planning to do that Mom but the school asked me to help out with the magic tournament."
"I hope you will be careful Tatsuya. I don't think we could handle it if something were to happen to you." Mayuri was worried to say the least. When her son had announced that he was going to participate in a magic fighting tournament where children from the Ten Master Clans participated, Mayuri, understandably had a miniature heart attack. After all, her son had been as far removed from violence as one could get from when he was a little baby. It took Tatsuya assuring her that it was nothing more than a school-level battle for her to finally calm down.
"Are you sure that you don't want your dad to buy you a new CAD, honey? I know that you dislike using that gun-shaped CAD of yours outside and the one that we bought you is not very good."
"Don't worry mom. I reworked the one that you bought me to perform better." Tatsuya was not lying. Although the CAD that his dad had bought him was considered to be the lowest of low-end, it didn't take Tatsuya much work to re-spec it to the required levels without anyone noticing.
If anyone asked him, Tatsuya would say that when it came to combat, utilizing actual combat spells was something that he sucked at massively in his previous life. After all, his innate MCA did not allow him to use any attack spell lower than Decomposition, which was considered to be A-Rank in lethality and his artificial MCA did not allow him to use any spell greater than D-Rank in combat efficiency. Therefore, when he started a new life, the first thing he did was to try out some actual useful spells in C and B-Rank. Tatsuya could say without a doubt that as he was, he was fully set to face and beat every single student of First High in magic competition with the exception of Maya and Miya to an extent.
As for the Yotsuba twins, not even he could beat them without revealing his hands. Maya was too good and Miya was too smart with her spells for that to happen.
Since it was summer vacation for the students, First High was empty as he made his way through the school building. As he told his mom, Tatsuya had been asked by the National Magic University personally to help in the implementation of the new combat system. As a consequence, he was supposed to chair a meeting between the representatives of the students of the Nine Magic High Schools today to alleviate any doubt about the system. While he considered it to be troublesome, Tatsuya was not in a position to be able to refuse the request.
As he reached the Conference Room, he was greeted by a few familiar faces as well as many unfamiliar faces.
"Tatsuya-kun!" With no respect for decorum, Maya came over to where he stood and gave him a hug before taking place beside him, instantly altering the mood in the room. As someone who had been trained in noticing hostility, Tatsuya immediately noticed that Saegusa Koichi, the Student Council President of Second High, immediately turned hostile to him, no doubt regarding his perceived proximity to Maya.
"Since everyone is already here. Let us start this meeting. I am under the assumption that everyone present here is familiar with each other due to your family relations so I will simply introduce myself. My name is Shiba Tatsuya and I serve as the student Council President of First High School." Tatsuya did not apologize for being late since he wasn't late. After all, the meeting was scheduled for 10 AM and it was only 9:50 right now.
The next half an hour was spent with him explaining the details of the entire Tournament to the other students who asked a few questions here and there. For the most part, they were extremely cooperative which was a relief since aside from him, all the other Student Representatives were from either the Ten Master Clans or The Sixteen Families.
"Does anyone have any doubts?" Tatsuya asked, having completed his presentation. Seeing that no one raised their hands or made any points, Tatsuya continued, "The University has informed me that the entire thing can be completed during the week just before summer vacation ends. The registration for the tournament will continue for one more week before closing so please inform your students to join as soon as possible. We have made refreshments available for all of you so please take a look before taking your leave."
After he said this, the room became noisier and soon some of the members started walking towards the break room. Although they were members of the Numbered Families, they were still children, after all.
Soon, only four people were left in the room.
"Miya-san, Maya-san, I believe Saegusa-dono has something to say to me. Could I trouble you to go ahead?" Tatsuya, having seen the expression of the Saegusa heir, asked politely.
Reading the atmosphere in the room, the twins made their way out, leaving him behind with the young Saegusa.
"Is there something that you want to tell me?" Tatsuya asked. "After all, you have been staring at me for quite some time now, Saegusa-dono."
"What is your relationship with Maya?!" The young heir all but screamed this.
"I believe that we can be considered friends." Tatsuya was not an idiot. He spent way too much time with Maya in and out of school for them to be not considered friends.
"I don't care what you are, but stay the hell away from my Maya." There was a hint of madness in his eyes. He did not even look at Tatsuya afterward and made his way out.
'All things considered, that went relatively well.' Tatsuya thought to himself.
Little did he know, that things were only getting started.
That's for today. On a positive note, my neck is better now since I visited a local chiropractor who helped out a lot. So I can now type without many issues.
I recently started an Oregairu fic that if anyone is interested in, give a read. aside from that, there isn't much to say about this chapter except that it is for building up future plots.
Anyways, read and review as always and point out any flaws that you might come across.
See Ya.