The morning at the Mitsuya estate was quiet. Yugen, as usual, was in the underground training hall, honing his magic control when a call came through his earpiece. The voice belonged to Gen, his brother.
"Yugen, sorry to interrupt your training, but could you come to the study?" Gen's tone was measured but urgent.
"…Alright. I'll need a few minutes, though," Yugen replied.
"I figured as much," Gen said.
Gen rarely disrupted Yugen's training, so the call piqued his curiosity. Three possibilities came to mind, but he decided to hear Gen out first. Using magic to tidy his appearance, Yugen headed to the study.
Knocking before entering, he found Gen alone. Normally, Shiro, a servant, would be present, but his absence suggested the topic was sensitive—even for the Yaguruma family. Yugen stepped inside, his guard up.
"Sorry for dragging you away at a time like this," Gen began, "but I thought you needed to hear this."
"Given the security risks of communication, it's a fair call," Yugen said. "So, what's happened?"
Gen hesitated. "Even I can't wrap my head around it."
Yugen tilted his head. For someone like Gen—a top-tier mage with unique experiences—to admit that was unsettling. Sensing the gravity, Gen gestured to the sofa, and they sat to discuss calmly.
"I got a call from First High," Gen said. "The 3H-Type P94 reactivated from suspend mode earlier than its scheduled maintenance—around 5 a.m."
At first, they suspected external interference and attempted a shutdown via external programs, but P94—"Pixie"—rejected all commands. It had accessed the school's student database, and only cutting its wireless connection forced it back into suspend mode.
That much could fit within the original story's framework, but Gen's next words were the real shock.
"According to Professor Hanraku's investigation, Pixie has developed mechanisms it wasn't designed to have. Specifically, its frame has physically transformed."
"…What?" Yugen blinked, stunned.
The findings were preliminary, but Pixie's core frame had been radically altered, rendering standard manuals useless. Fortunately, the operating programs remained unchanged, and Pixie's existing mechanisms still functioned. Parasites were known to manipulate organic matter, like rewiring brain cells, but they had no documented ability to affect inorganic materials. Pixie, untouched by Yugen's hands, was a complete enigma. Despite studying 3H systems as a precaution against the original story's events, Yugen was at a loss.
"Talk alone won't solve this," Yugen said. "I'll need to see it myself to make any judgment."
"I'm counting on you," Gen replied. "When it comes to hardware, few in the world can match you."
The most likely theory was that Ceria's influence on Lina, who was unaware of her own impact, caused the transformation. Yugen's barrier magic might have catalyzed Pixie's change, but that was just speculation for now.
"I need to ask," Gen said cautiously, "could this be tied to the recent Parasite incident at school?"
"With 'Alice' in play, it's possible," Yugen said. "Thankfully, it's only surfaced in the USNA and here, so it's still manageable. But this change? It's beyond modern magic's scope."
Pixie's Parasite awakening was expected, driven by Honoka's psion waves. But Lina's interference, combined with Yugen's barrier magic for Ceria, had triggered an unprecedented physical restructuring of an inorganic frame. Yugen couldn't help but want to clutch his head.
As expected, the news spread like wildfire through First High. The curiosity of Magic High School students, always eager for gossip, made it inevitable. Yugen found himself dragged into the fray, while Tatsuya was pulled away by another classmate.
"Gojuri-senpai, what's the situation?" Yugen asked, approaching the senior.
"Well, Yugen-kun," Gojuri said, "we heard from Professor Hanraku, but no clear conclusions yet."
A 3H (Humanoid Home Helper) wielding magic was terrifying, even to non-magic students. A humanoid robot smiling wasn't inherently strange—magic engineers often lagged in pure mechanical tech, despite using CADs. A wry thought, but beside the point.
"They observed psion emissions from P94's body—its electronic brain," Gojuri explained. "Right after, an error sound came from the skeletal frame, but it was brief."
That error likely tied to the frame's transformation Gen mentioned. Analyzing what caused it was critical. If reincarnators influenced Parasites, it might explain "Alice" and other anomalies.
Gojuri confirmed Pixie was maintaining suspend mode per commands. Tatsuya, the most knowledgeable among them, was tasked with examining Pixie's electronic brain. He turned to Yugen.
"Yugen, can you help? You're the most versed in ancient magic here."
"I'm not stingy with my skills," Yugen said, "but we should call in a few others, too."
Azusa secured permission to use the maintenance room, which meant skipping classes—a stroke of luck, Yugen thought, though he wasn't sure if he should be relieved. Unlike the fitting room for routine CAD adjustments, the maintenance room, used for detailed tweaks and minor modifications, saw little traffic.
Inside were Tatsuya and other Second Course students, Yugen, Toya, Sana, Himeri, Azusa, and Kei. Kanon had dashed to the cafeteria with Miyuki and others, while Hattori kept out unwanted spectators. During lunch break, Tatsuya and Yugen munched on hot sandwiches while listening to Gojuri's briefing.
February 15, 5 a.m.
Pixie's self-diagnostic program, set to activate at 7 a.m., started two hours early due to a scheduled update. The update completed without issue, but Pixie began communicating with the school's database. Suspecting malware, the server issued a forced shutdown, but Pixie ignored all commands. Only cutting database access returned it to suspend mode.
During its abnormal activity, surveillance cameras recorded Pixie smiling faintly and, for a brief moment, glowing softly.
"It was like… it was waiting for something, almost eagerly," Gojuri said.
While listening, Yugen tapped away at his foldable private terminal, meticulously reviewing Pixie's programs. To onlookers, it was just a wall of text, but the terminal, linked to "Kaleidoscope," boasted supercomputer-level processing via magical tech. A method Yugen devised for training unique magic discreetly, it proved invaluable for hardware analysis.
Tatsuya spoke up as Yugen paused. "Yugen, any findings?"
"This might sound like a joke," Yugen said gravely, "but take it seriously."
Given Yugen's reputation, no one doubted his sincerity. Tatsuya, representing the group, urged him to continue.
"Pixie's skeletal frame has changed drastically, despite its programs remaining nearly identical," Yugen explained. "The closest match is FLT's next-generation medical skeletal frame, still in development."
"What…?" Tatsuya's voice betrayed his shock.
Yugen's "Osiris Sight" had confirmed the Parasite within Pixie, and Alice's advice suggested it was unlikely to attack instinctively. The frame's transformation mirrored FLT's cutting-edge designs, which Yugen had helped develop. His barrier magic, set for Ceria, likely allowed Pixie to access his data, triggering the change.
"Anyway," Yugen continued, "there's no program mismatch causing errors. We'll need to activate the electronic brain and 'see' it to know more."
"Got it," Tatsuya said. "You've got your hands full, huh?"
The mention of Miyuki was a private understanding between them. Tatsuya, wearing an admin card, initiated Pixie's activation. Despite prior interactions during the thesis competition, Tatsuya lacked full control over Pixie. As it verified his admin rights, its behavior shifted.
Instead of focusing on the card, Pixie's gaze locked onto Tatsuya's face. A small voice emerged.
"Found you."
Pixie stepped off its pedestal and leapt toward Tatsuya with startling grace. Kanon and the others, just back from the cafeteria, witnessed the scene.
"Tatsuya, I'm sorry," Yugen said, half-teasing. "You're under stress, huh? You could've told me, and I'd have helped."
"Onii-sama, you have those tastes…?" Miyuki added, feigning shock. "No, I don't mind at all."
"Both of you, stop it," Tatsuya groaned, reining them in.
Yugen and Miyuki's synchronized teasing, honed by Miyuki's Shinonome-ryu training, was almost theatrical. Azusa's mediation calmed the chaos, and Pixie, under Tatsuya's influence rather than admin commands, returned to its pedestal.
Mizuki examined Pixie's internal state. It should've only reflected Honoka's psion waves, but she hesitated.
"I can confirm it copied Honoka-san's thoughts," Mizuki said, "but there's someone else's, too… I'm sorry, Tatsuya-san, I can't tell more."
"That's already impressive," Tatsuya reassured.
Yugen, using "Osiris Sight" again, confirmed Pixie had also absorbed Lina's psion waves.
"That question is understandable," Pixie's voice interjected, as if reading his thoughts.
Copying two sets of psion waves was explainable, but the skeletal frame's transformation defied logic. What startled Yugen most was Pixie's tone—tinged with a thoughtful depth absent in the original story.
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