Yugen speculated that Tomokazu didn't push Mayumi forward because he feared the risks of the Saegusa family monopolizing the credit. In this era, most idols were 3D avatars; very few showed their real faces. Yuuki, whom Yugen met during the Leo incident, was one such idol who nearly got kidnapped by the mafia. (Off the record, Yugen had used that incident to pressure the Philippine government into wiping out the local syndicates).
To act publicly with one's real face—especially as a direct descendant of the Ten Master Clans—would skyrocket the risk of kidnapping or assassination. If they tried to push that risk onto Miyuki instead, Yugen couldn't believe it was Tomokazu's idea.
"It was almost certainly Koichi Saegusa's plan. Considering the difference in how he and Tomokazu perceive Miyuki, Koichi is the far more likely culprit. It makes sense if you consider he was trying to regain the face he lost during the Zhou Gongjin incident."
"But you've done a lot of media manipulation, haven't you? ...Wait, are you saying they're going to try and shame your prestige?"
"That depends on whether the Young Blood Conference even happens, and whether I or Tatsuya are even invited."
Diverging from the topic, they returned to the New USSR.
Bezobrazov and Kondratchenko had concluded their meeting, and movements around Moscow were becoming frantic. Units from the Black Sea base were confirmed to be heading toward Vladivostok via the New Siberian Railway. Furthermore, Bezobrazov himself showed signs of moving toward the Far East.
"Bezobrazov is moving to Vladivostok... His destination is the Far East Branch of the New Soviet Academy of Sciences. Calculating the travel time... he'll arrive the day before the entrance ceremony."
"The Thirteen Apostles entering Vladivostok on the day of the Magic University entrance ceremony... Didn't you shatter his magic already? Is he just being stubborn?"
"That was a byproduct. Having your magic broken and having its activation fail are two different things."
Yugen hadn't destroyed the magic sequence with Tatsuya's trademark Gram Dispersion. Instead, the phenomena-interference absorption effect built into Starlight Breaker had "consumed" the magic sequence. Because a massive amount of interference force had backflowed through the link to Bezobrazov himself, his perception would simply be: "The magic I activated was suddenly gone before I could even recognize why."
This insight came from Yakumo. When Yugen was training in Ancient Magic with the priest's help, Yakumo had tried to interfere with a defensive spell, only to have it "eaten." That was his honest assessment of the sensation.
Yugen had already disclosed all his Innate and Strategic-Class magic to Seria when she naturalized. Her only response at the time was to blur out, "I'll be your slave, Big Brother," which earned her an instinctive "Thor's Hammer" (a knuckles-to-the-temple grind) from Yugen.
"The Vladivostok military port isn't fully restored yet... but it looks like small cargo ships are loitering off the coast of Sado," Yugen noted.
"That's the Ichijou family's territory. Doesn't look like we'll have a turn."
"It'll be a win if Masaki can just blow them away."
Yugen had heard the details of the Sado invasion from Toya. The heads of the Ten Master Clans weren't informed until an emergency meeting held after the Zhou Gongjin affair. The reason it was kept private was that Toya was only there by chance and hadn't identified himself as a member of the Mutsuzuka family. Furthermore, because he had been growing his hair long like a girl at the time (his sister Atsuko had begged him with tears not to cut it), his report would have lacked credibility.
Because the enemy had opened fire without hesitation, Toya had responded by freezing their blood flow, killing them instantly. This was a secondary effect of his innate magic, Niflheim Flare. That was when he ran into Shinshirou Ichijou, leading to a misunderstanding.
However, the NSU never admitted to the Sado invasion. Since all identifying marks had been scrubbed, it couldn't be helped. As for the bodies? Yugen had seen to it that they were returned to the NSU—along with the full personal data (PD) of every single soldier.
Yugen had been heavily involved in that. Using the task as magic practice, he identified every corpse and used a prototype of what would later be called Invincible Cannon to drop the containers full of bodies right into the outskirts of Moscow. The resulting backlash from the soldiers' families had sparked massive riots.
"Looking at the Sado incident, they'll probably board and seize the ships... but this smells like a total trap, doesn't it?" Seria mused.
"I understand the proverb about 'the tiger's den,' but no matter how you look at it, it's a trap."
If they leaked the information that Bezobrazov was in Vladivostok, the Ichijou family would likely refrain from approaching the suspicious ships and switch to a policy of simply sinking them.
"The problem is, you and I are the only ones in this country who know the details of the Tuman Bomba. Even if we tell them Bezobrazov is in Vladivostok, the Ichijou family's pride probably won't let them sit idle against an opponent whose capabilities they don't understand."
The worst-case scenario at Sado had been avoided because Yugen had passed information through the Mitsuya and Kamiizumi families to the Ichijou. However, the "Crimson Prince," Masaki Ichijou, had suffered consecutive losses against Yugen during the Nine Schools Competition.
If he were just a scion of the Ichijou family, it wouldn't be an issue. But the fact that the "Crimson Prince," a man with actual combat experience, had lost to someone who officially had none, carried heavy weight. To reclaim their honor, the Ichijou family was highly likely to attempt a solo capture of the suspicious ships.
"It just looks like he's throwing a tantrum and self-destructing because Miyuki was 'taken' from him. But Miyuki gave him a proper rejection, didn't she?" Seria asked.
"Masaki isn't the type of guy to give up that easily."
He had been utterly defeated in a mock battle with Yugen and politely turned down by Miyuki. Yet, in communications with Shinshirou, the older man had sighed, complaining, "It looks like he still hasn't given up." He clearly hadn't moved on.
"If he ever tries to take Miyuki by force, I'll just have to hit him with a full-power 'Ora-Ora' beatdown."
"...If you did that, Big Brother, I feel like you'd punch right through him before he even had time to feel depressed."
"I'll try to avoid making it too gruesome... though beating someone to a pulp is inherently gruesome, I suppose."
According to Shinshirou, Masaki's sister Akane had recently asked her father, Gouki, about her feelings for Yugen. When Gouki tried to use that as leverage for Masaki's engagement proposal to Miyuki, it resulted in a massive New Year's fight. They made up that day, but once the engagement rankings were finalized, Akane dropped a bombshell: "I want to transfer to a middle school in Tokyo."
Ultimately, it was decided she would finish middle school in Kanazawa, but she refused to budge on attending First High for high school. Her mother, Midori, supported this, wanting her to attend her own alma mater, leaving Gouki speechless.
When Yugen heard that Masaki had muttered, "I can't believe she's going to a school where that guy is..." and promptly received a full-force slap from Akane, he and Shinshirou had shared a good laugh.
Lately, it feels like it's my fault Masaki is becoming a gag character. But I... (etc).
I tried to write a chapter about the NSU and Europe, but it ended up being all about the NSU. Dammit... anyway, I wrote a lot. I don't think there are any contradictions, probably.
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