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Tatsuya was currently in a predicament, and not a good one either. As someone who had combat trained since he could walk and murdered people since he was five, there were hardly many things that could even faze him a little. Even before he had lost his emotional capabilities due to the surgery, Tatsuya was not a particularly expressive person. However, right now he was on the verge of panicking.

Someone had almost caught him using his own eyes.

Tatsuya was well aware that Elemental Sight was not an actual superpower but just an enhanced state of sense that could theoretically be mastered with the right amount of skill and practice. However, in practice, no one, not even the best sensory magicians could do it. So, the fact that someone else was there in the vast Information Dimension was a little spooky. Thankfully, he had erased all traces he had left behind before the person could pinpoint his location. Yakumo might have taught Tatsuya his technique to hide from Elemental Sight purely because he was confident that Tatsuya couldn't work around it but it had ended up helping him in a weird situation. But the fact remained that he had left behind traces in the first place.

This was one of the things Tatsuya had to come to terms with in this new body. Due to the wider emotional spectrum than what he was used to, this new body was bringing out emotions that he hadn't needed to deal with. One could even say that he felt a little cocky. However, there was no use crying over spilled milk so he had to move on and deal with any issues in the future.

The next issue on his agenda was his lack of a CAD. Tatsuya's current parents were relatively well-off but they couldn't afford the overpriced CADs of this era.

Tatsuya could use magic easily without a CAD due to his conditioning. However, the process was really draining both mentally and in terms of Psion usage. As someone who had a lot of Psions to spare, especially now with Pledge gone, he could ignore the excessive Psion usage easily. But, as someone who liked to be as efficient as humanly possible, it was out of the question to not use CADs. That left him with two options, either create one himself or buy something with his own money.

The original body was not someone who needed a lot of money. His only notable hobby was reading up about magic from various magazines and journals available to the public. This, coupled with the fact that even the lowest-end CADs available to the public in this era were ridiculously overpriced, meant that he was left with no other option than to make one of his own. However, this was not going to be easy.

Anyone who had worked closely with Tatsuya in his previous life in any capacity as a Magic Engineer would tell you that he was not particularly good with the hardware aspect of CADs. However, this was not entirely true.

CADs or Cast Assistant Devices incorporated synthetic materials that converted Psion Signals into Electrical Signals which were then utilized to produce an Activation Sequence which was what most people call Magic. The degree of Psion usage by a CAD was completely dependent on the materials used for manufacturing it and the actual Activation Sequence. Tatsuya would not have been Mr. Silver without a near-perfect knowledge of both Hardware and software aspects of CADs.

What Tatsuya was actually bad at was building CADs for the use of the average magician. The fact that his Psion count was almost a thousand times that of an ordinary magician meant that Tatsuya genuinely struggled to identify when a CAD drew too much power. After all, a CAD that drew nothing more than a fraction of his psions could possibly use up almost the entirety of an ordinary Magician's Psion reserve. Only Ushiyama-san and Miyuki had been aware of this limitation.

When it came to making personal CADs, Tatsuya genuinely believed that he was just as good as Ushiyama or even better. After all, he had personally made the Silver Trident and already had plans for creating his own version of the Third Eye before he found himself in this world.

However, the CAD-making would have to wait since he had to attend school. He made a mental note to make a visit to some locations later.

The junior high that Tatsuya was enrolled in was pretty ordinary. There weren't any notable students in the school. Unlike his own time period, this was a time when the Ten Master Clans or even the Hundred Families had yet to begin sending their own children to public schools. Some of the more sociable clans like the Saegusa and the Kudou did but they were an exception. But those children were enrolled in a much more strategically safe location.

"Hey, Tatsuya. Did you see the news?" When Tatsuya entered his classroom, he was greeted by a boy. The person in question was one of the original body's friends. It wasn't as if they were best friends or anything but they were on good terms.

"What news?" Tatsuya asked.

"Look." The boy gave him a Virtual Data Console. Tatsuya looked into it and it turned out to be a news site. On the site, in large letters, it was written 'Yotsuba Daughter Almost Kidnapped. Japan To Cut Ties with Dahan'.

"Hmm." Tatsuya acknowledged with a small nod before moving to his own seat. The information had spread quicker than he anticipated although it made sense since the information lockdown installed by the Yotsuba after Dahan had yet to happen. The clan had been on a path to become more sociable under his former Grandfather's reign before his untimely demise in Dahan. 'It might be a good thing'. Tatsuya thought.

The entire class was discussing the news until the homeroom teacher came and even during the lunch and other breaks, most of the kids were focused on updates to the news. The Bill that was introduced in the Parliament on short notice had passed both the Houses with a clear majority and Japan had already diplomatically cut ties with Dahan. Tatsuya was aware that the Japanese Embassy in Dahan was in bed with Dahan but he left that part to the Yotsuba's information network.

The rest of the week passed by quickly and it was finally Saturday. After having breakfast with both of his parents, he made his way to the first location, a junkyard.

With the advent of magic, Global pollution has gone down by quite a margin. Although WWIII had a role in it, magic had undeniably made disposing of non-biodegradable wastes much easier. Even still, old concepts like the junkyard persisted through the years. Most people looking for CADs would not consider looking for one that was in the trash. After all, when it came to CADs, even being one generation behind could be lethal in actual combat situations. That said, Tatsuya had a trump card that no one else in history had.

When it came to Regrowth, his innate ability, the very few people who had any idea of how it worked were under the misconception that Tatsuya could only read information about an object for up to twenty-four hours. While this was certainly true for living creatures, this limit necessarily didn't apply to non-living beings like machines. Tatsuya was adamant about not letting this tidbit of information reach anyone else, not even Miyuki.

The human body is made up of 37.2 trillion cells and roughly 330 billion of them die each and every single day and get replaced. Although the effect of this on an actual human body was negligible, the same didn't apply when it came to Regrowth. When Tatsuya restores a person's body to a previous state, the information he has to go through involves the data for each and every single cell that had died between the period of casting regrowth and the restoration point. Within twenty-four hours, the information he needed to process became too large for even his brain to comprehend.

However, machines were different. They undergo very few changes at a molecular level in a day and almost all the changes they undergo are due to external influences like rust. This meant that the Eidos log for a machine was minuscule compared to a person. Tatsuya could easily restore a machine that was twenty years old to a pristine condition without many issues.

He paid a small fee to the junkyard's keeper for the purpose of taking whatever he found with him. Even in this day and age, the concept of dumpster diving lives on. Although, unlike most dumpster divers, Tatsuya had a clear idea of what he was there for.

Tatsuya had two targets in this particular junkyard. One was an old CAD tuner that was at least five years past its prime. Tatsuya specifically targeted this one because it was really close to the Tuner he had used for his own CAD, even if it was at least ten generations behind. The second was an actual CAD. It was a First-Generation Rosetta Series Generalized CAD produced by a German Engineering company called Starke Industries. Although the company would soon go bankrupt after the spectacular failure of their Fourth Generation CADs, the Rosetta was the best among all the junk that Tatsuya analyzed, even with its Induction Stone removed.

The Induction Stone was the catalyst which was the cornerstone for manufacturing a CAD and it varied from country to country and had different degrees of efficiency. Therefore, it was common practice to remove the Induction Stone from a CAD before it was thrown in the trash. This made his next target location all the more special.

After Tatsuya had made arrangements to transport the junk to his house, (He had already informed Mayuri about his endeavor and she had been supportive enough) Tatsuya made his way out of Tokyo entirely. His destination was another junkyard two hours away from the city by train. The object he wanted was another CAD, this time a Specialized one. However, what was special about this CAD was that it still had its Induction Stone intact, a grave mistake on the part of whoever was one in charge of the disposal but an opportunity for Tatsuya. It took him less than ten minutes to do what he came to do and then he was off.

Back in the Shiba Household.

"Honey, what is with this junk in the front yard?" Shiba Tatsumi had gone for a small session of golfing with his colleagues. When he returned, he saw an old machine in the front of his house which he could vaguely identify as a CAD Tuning Machine. Tatsumi was not a magician even though he did come from a small lineage of magicians. Two of his four siblings had been magicians so he knew what a CAD tuner was.

"Welcome back dear. That was bought by Tatsuya. He said he wanted to try and tune a CAD." Mayuri replied to her husband.

"But that thing doesn't look like it'll work. Are you sure that Tatsuya wasn't scammed by someone? I know that the boy likes magic but he has had no real experience with CADs or magic in his life." Tatsumi knew that his son liked to read about magic and CADs. As a father, he wanted to support his son's hobbies but his salary wasn't anywhere near enough to buy even a low-end CAD while supporting his family. Tatsuya was well aware of this and never made a fuss about it in his life which made both Tatsumi and Mayuri proud.

"No need to worry dear. Tatsuya said he got it from a junkyard. The junkyard's fees and transportation cost barely crossed 10000 yen." Mayuri said.

"But what will he do with such an old machine? It is pretty much useless and is already outdated by several generations."

"Honestly, I have no idea. You'll have to ask Tatsuya once he comes back." Mayuri replied.

"Dad, Mom, I am home". Greeting before entering the house was a previously foreign concept to Tatsuya. He had spent three-quarters of his previous life as nothing more than a glorified bodyguard. Even after Okinawa, when Miyuki had started to treat him like her actual brother, the Shiba household was still nothing more than a workplace for him. It wasn't after Miya's death that Tatsuya had an actual home to call his own.

"Welcome back, honey. Did you find what you were looking for?" Mayuri walked to the front of the house to greet her son accompanied by her husband. The initial guard she had shown when Tatsuya arrived here was gone. She most probably attributed his changes in mannerisms to her son hitting puberty. Tatsuya felt bad for the woman since her son was all but dead. He was just an impostor in his body.

"Tatsuya, what are you planning to do with that old machine? You know better than me that it is severely outdated and I'm pretty sure that it doesn't even work." Shiba Tatsumi was someone Tatsuya respected. The man was a good father and husband and that was more than enough. Then again, Tatsurou wasn't a good benchmark for fatherhood. The man did everything with the intention of keeping himself safe from the Yotsuba.

"Don't worry dad. I know what to do. I would like permission to use our basement to set it up."

"Sure." Tatsumi agreed.

Tatsuya immediately walked out of the house and carried the machine inside. Although it weighed over 600lb, it didn't look the part so he was able to avoid any suspicion on his parent's end. It took him just five minutes to get everything into the basement before going back upstairs.

After freshening up and having dinner, Tatsuya made his way to the basement. The first thing he had to do was to restore the machines and the CADs to working condition. The Rosetta was still not operable since the Induction Stone counted as a separate entity and couldn't be restored without any pieces of it with him. The Specialized CAD, however, had been restored to its prime, even if it was practically unusable for him. He carefully removed the Induction Stone.

Over the next few nights, Tatsuya spent most of his free time in the basement. He had purchased the necessary tools with the money that Tatsumi had provided him. The entirety of The Rosetta's body had been reworked to resemble his old Silver Trident. Tatsuya was not a good craftsman but he had more than enough leeway to perfect his craft without fear of failure. Once the Induction Stone was installed after polishing it to a ridiculous degree, the Silver Trident Mk 2 was finally complete.

The major difference between a Generalized CAD and a Specialized CAD is the storage capacity. A general model could store up to ninety-nine Activation Sequences while the Specialized model capped at nine. This meant that Generalized CAD was better for Magicians who could use multiple different families of magic. In his previous life, Tatsuya had always stuck to the Specialized CADs. After all, his Artificial Magic Calculation Area could hardly support higher-level spells that involved dozens of processes. However, he was currently not under such crippling handicaps, meaning he could make good use of a Generalized Device.

Once the physical body of the Trident was perfected, the next thing he had to do was to optimize the performance of the Tuner. This was far easier than the CAD since the Tuner's efficiency and performance were mainly dependent on the software installed in it and not the hardware. He did rework a few circuits to ensure maximum power efficiency but the lion's share of his work was in the software.

Tatsuya had to completely rework the Tuning program from the start including the OS, which was not easy, even for him. Although the code for everything was still in his head, he still had to physically add it to the machine. This took him three weeks to complete. The Tuner was calibrated to be as close to the ones he had in his old house as possible.

With the hardware portion done, all he had left to do was the software bits. An average Magic Engineer of his time would have taken at least an entire day to successfully program ninety-nine different Activation Sequences onto a CAD. For Tatsuya, this took two hours. He had even programmed The Deep and Beta Trident Sequences onto separate ROMs for any possible future uses. After all, there was a high chance for the Great Asian Alliance to make a move with the current political scenario.

"Are you done for the day Tatsuya?" Since it was once again a Saturday, his father was home. When Tatsuya had started to hole himself in the basement his parents had been really supportive of him. They even avoided entering the basement to disturb his work.

"I'm done". Tatsuya said.

With everything sorted, there was nothing else for him to do but wait. After all, unlike in his first life, he wasn't caught up in the center of all the action. Yet.

Sup everyone. Hope you liked the new chapter. Thanks for reading.