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The Yotsuba Main House.
The Yotsuba was currently holding a meeting. The fact that the entirety of the clan's fighting forces was present in a single room spoke volumes about the seriousness of the meeting.
The Yotsuba had always been a small clan when compared to some of the other clans in the Ten Master Clans or even among The Hundred Families. However, they had always boasted the highest concentration of high-quality magicians in the country. This was one of the main reasons why they had never lost their spot in the Ten Master Clans. Excluding the children, there were less than thirty combat magicians in the entire Yotsuba family.
"Since Juuzou is already here, it is about time that we started the meeting." Genzou addressed his family members. "I don't think any of us need to be told that this meeting is about Dahan. Eisaku, please brief the others on the exact situation." Genzou instructed his brother.
"As some of you already know, the situation isn't looking good. We had expected to cripple at least forty percent of Dahan's economy with our little bill in the parliament. We had not expected that the Great Asian Alliance would step up behind Dahan in this critical juncture, especially since they are already fighting on two different fronts." Eisaku explained.
Japan was largely able to escape the negative effects of WWIII after the initial attacks. Due to the fact that the island nation was hard to launch a ground offense on. Air raids were pretty much obsolete due to the ground defense being far easier with magic. Although the Great Asian Alliance had once tried to launch an operation against Japan, it was quickly scrapped due to its fight with the New Soviet Union.
"They are arming the military of Dahan with Naval Vessels and the general atmosphere in the country is overwhelmingly negative towards us. They are under the belief that our actions were a bit too extreme."
"Extreme?! They tried to kidnap one of ours. What did they expect us to do? Send her to them with a smile on our face?" Motosuke was the most temperamental among the Yotsuba siblings and it showed.
"I did not say that. However, the fact remains that we essentially cut all diplomatic ties with them over what they claim to be a 'failed kidnapping attempt by a group of extremists who has nothing to do with the Government of Dahan', their words, not mine." Eisaku said. "There have been murmurings among even our own people that we jumped the gun. If things escalate to war, which is looking highly likely, it might serve as a tool against us."
"If it comes to war, we will protect our land with the last of our breath like we have always done." Motosuke was the only one among the Yotsuba who had actively served in the army. He had fought many battles in foreign lands.
"We will take care of the matter in due time. I just wanted to make sure that all of know about the current situation. Now, Juuzou, do we have any lead on Maya's mysterious benefactor?" Genzou said.
"I am sorry Toushu-sama but we haven't been able to find anyone that matches the description. We have investigated all the magicians across Tokyo and even the surrounding towns for potential Decomposition users. Although we did find six people who can use Decomposition, none of them are proficient enough to do what Maya and Ayame-sama have claimed this person can do." Juuzou replied.
"I have been unsuccessful on my end as well. Our 'friend' has completely erased his trace from my eyes. I have checked across the entirety of Tokyo in the past month and he isn't here."
"What if the person we are looking for isn't a resident of Tokyo?" Yume asked. "After all, if that person can use magic from more than 1200 miles away, he could have come to Tokyo specifically to throw any potential pursuers off." She added.
"I have the same doubt". Eisaku said.
"I suppose, we might need to expand the scope of the search". Genzou said.
"I am of the opinion that we stop this investigation of ours for now." Yasuyou spoke. "With a potential war on our doorsteps, we can't afford to waste any of our resources." She added.
"I agree with Yasuyou-sama on this one." Juuzou said. "Our resources are currently spread too thin for a nationwide search."
"I have no objections to this." Eisaku said.
"I do but now is not the right time. We need to be prepared." Motosuke added.
If someone asked Miya what she would have liked to be if she wasn't born as the heiress to the Yotsuba, she would answer without any hesitation that she would have liked to become a CAD Engineer. In Miya's opinion, she was Maya was more suitable for the role of the heir. Maya had a natural charisma to her that charmed lesser people and made them do her bidding. This would have been really useful for a future leader. Yet her family insisted on keeping Miya as the heir and she obeyed.
When she heard that Maya was almost kidnapped, she was shocked at first. Her shock then gave way to fear. The treatment of captured foreign magicians, especially female ones, was something that was disgusting to even think about. Maya would definitely break if she was subjected to it. She had hounded her father for more information but he was helpless as well. When the news arrived, that Maya had safely returned home with the aid of an unknown magician, she felt relieved and a bit curious at the same time.
As someone who was genuinely interested in the theoretical side of magic, Miya was probably the only one in the family besides Eisaku who realized how utterly impossible Teleportation magic was. If someone was able to reliably use it, the demands for such a person would be enough to start a few wars on their own. After all, even with magic, wars still relied a lot on terrain advantage. Miya was genuinely curious about meeting a person capable of pulling off such a feat.
In Miya's opinion, Maya had changed a lot since the incident. Maya was never a person who slacked in training but she was not one that would go out of her way to train either. That had changed. Maya nowadays trained every single day under the supervision of Motosuke-jii to the point of exhaustion. The fact that she was helpless against an enemy caused some emotional damage to her. (Miya was of the opinion that Maya wasn't at fault. The opponents had carefully prepared a trap and even used lots of Antinite and Maya was only twelve.)
"That is enough." Miya said to her sister. They were currently in the family workshop.
Miya was in charge of tuning most of the family's CADs except for Eisaku who tuned his own CAD himself. Even at the young age of twelve, Miya could say with utmost honesty that she was one of the best in the country when it came to tuning CADs. Right now, Maya was lying in a bed-type measurement device used for tuning while Miya took the necessary measurements.
"What do you want to change this time?" Miya asked Maya who walked off the machine and towards her. This was the fourth time this month alone that Maya had requested a change in her CAD settings.
"I need more speed. The CAD isn't building Activation Sequences as fast as I know I can make them." Maya complained.
"I don't there is anything I can do to help you. This CAD of yours is the highest-end product available even for our family and is already being pushed to its very limit. Your average Activation time across the board is 0.6 seconds. Even A-ranked magicians can't always get that speed. Unless we get some better hardware in the future, it just isn't possible." Miya said.
"But that person could use magic faster. At least that's what my gut feeling is telling me." Maya said. Between the sisters, they had started to call Maya's mysterious benefactor 'That person'.
"If they can do it, their CAD is probably more advanced than ours". Miya said. Miya took pride in her work when it came to designing Activation Sequences. It was highly unlikely that even a professional CAD Engineer could build a better Activation Sequence than her.
"Well, I'm off to train Onee-chan. Would you like to join me?" Maya asked playfully which Miya declined.
A month had passed since Tatsuya had rebuilt his CAD. Since it was all but guaranteed that war was coming, he had been busy devising two new spells that would help him in the fight. Tatsuya was well aware of the fact that his interference is the main reason for the current predicament. After all, in his timeline, the Yotsuba decimated Dahan to the point where they had no way to fight even after the GAA had absorbed them. Dahan was so utterly ruined that it took the GAA more than two decades to get the place back on its feet.
Contrary to general belief, Tatsuya did not enjoy fighting. This might seem ironic coming from a person whose kill count was near five digits but the fact of the matter is that he did not have any particular interest in fighting. However, he was also not the type of person to go out of his way to avoid a fight. He was well aware that he would interfere in the coming fight. After all, running from a fight was not his thing.
As he was planning the potential outcomes of the fight, he had a realization. Tatsuya was currently not a Yotsuba. In fact, his parents were bona fide civilians. This meant that he could not deal with the military like he did in his previous life.
Tatsuya might have only been a guardian in the family but the fact that he was related to the Yotsuba had served as an excellent bargaining chip when it came to negotiating his position as a Special Officer despite being a Strategic-class Magician. Right now, he did not have that luxury. While Tatsuya was more than good enough to deal with the army, making his identity public would put his parents at risk.
This meant that he needed some way to conceal his identity from any possible eyes. He had eventually stumbled upon a possibility that eventually was made into a spell.
When Yakumo had taught Tatsuya his concealment spell, he came to the realization that interfering with the Eidos by minuscule alterations of information instead of forced erasure worked way better for a camouflage spell. This had put him in a direction of trying to alter the Information bodies to a point where he could create a second entity within his own person that would completely mask his real self, even from the Elemental Sight. His newfound capacity to use actual magic was really helpful in designing the spell from scratch. Tatsuya had almost no knowledge about Sensory Systematic Type magic aside from the basics. So, it took him a lot of trial and error to finally produce a usable magic.
He named his new spell 'Charade'. It worked by creating a new entity that hid his real body from any probing eyes. It even came with the extra benefit of giving him an additional benefit of evading magic cast on his person. Due to the fact that the new entity affected both visual as well as Information bodies, an average magician wouldn't even be able to tell that they were being fooled.
The fact that this spell was essentially the same as the Kudou Clan's 'Parade' was something that Tatsuya was wholly unaware of.
Time passed and soon the news that everyone was dreading arrived.
Dahan had officially declared war on Japan. Experts predicted that the outcome of this battle would decide the world order after WWIII which was on the verge of ending. Alarms had been sent across the nation of Japan and all the capable magicians in the country had been ordered to mobilize. Dahan had sent a large fleet across the East China Sea with the help of the GAA and the battle would surely be bloody.
What no one knew was the fact that the world was about to witness the rise of a new Demon. One that would change the concept of war forever.
It's a shorter chapter yes. Next chapter is going to be the war so it will be bigger.
A quick shoutout to fencer29 about the info on WWIII. I edited the previous chapter accordingly.
Anyways I hope ya'll enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you in the next chapter.
P.S: The daily update was stopped because work started on Monday. The new updates will have a day or two in between.