Friday, April 27th. Takuma Shippou did not show up for school. As the freshman class representative, he was a figure of considerable notoriety, and many of his peers were already well aware of the disturbance he had caused the previous day. His absence the following morning only served to set the rumor mill spinning at high speed across the first-year floor.
—He was beaten so badly by the Saegusa twins that he's bedridden.
—No, he's bedridden because the upperclassmen gave him a "proper" lesson in discipline.
—He isn't hurt, but he's a shut-in now because of the shock of losing the match.
—He actually won the match, but he's under voluntary house arrest to take responsibility for the scene he caused.
—He was slapped with a suspension and is currently at home plotting a coup against the seniors.
As is often the case with such things, the speculation was mostly rooted in malice. However, a few of the rumors did manage to graze the truth.
"Lord Tatsuya. Takuma Shippou is absent today."
Tatsuya had already deduced the fact—and the nearly exact reason for it—long before Minami's dutiful email arrived. It was a matter of fact, not mere conjecture, that Takuma had not been suspended. The only part of the rumors that held water was the suggestion that he was preparing for a rematch with the upperclassmen.
The Shippou family's signature technique, Million Edge, was a swarm-control magic that functioned without a CAD. In essence, it was a conditional-trigger, delayed-activation ritual where the spells were held in a standby state just prior to invocation, using the caster's own Psions as the key.
Minami had reported Takuma's movements because Tatsuya had committed to investigating the boy's backers. She was worried that Takuma might contact the mastermind while they were tied down at school, but Tatsuya considered her fears misplaced. It was Friday; even for those not enrolled in a Magic High School, teenagers were expected to be in class. Wandering the streets in broad daylight would be conspicuous, even if he wasn't picked up by truant officers. A boy like Takuma, who fancied himself a conspirator, would loathe attracting unwanted attention. Tatsuya calculated that any meeting with a benefactor would happen under the cover of night.
Furthermore, with Kyouko and her team on watch, any movement would be reported immediately. Until evening fell, Tatsuya decided to focus on his studies like any other ordinary high school student.
After returning home, Tatsuya was engaged in a rare session of reviewing his coursework when an alarm pinged at the edge of his desk. It was the signal from Kyouko. He hadn't asked what methods they were using for surveillance—the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion was short-staffed, so it was unlikely to be a physical tail. They were likely tapping into the city's street camera facial recognition systems to track Takuma's departure.
If that were the case, Tatsuya was technically an accomplice to a privacy violation involving the unauthorized use of public systems. However, he felt not a shred of guilt. It wasn't that he had set his morals aside; it was that he didn't consider them at all as he stood up from his chair. He had to meet Kyouko.
"Onii-sama, I shall accompany you," Miyuki stated.
"Lord Tatsuya, I will go as well," Minami added.
"No. Both of you stay here. I don't intend to be out late."
He gave them their orders, his sharp gaze silently commanding them not to follow, and then mounted his electric bike.
After a brief ride, Tatsuya met up with Kyouko and began tailing Takuma. The boy eventually disappeared into a mid-rise building in a luxury apartment district. Takuma showed no signs of realizing he was being followed. He had made a token effort to check if anyone was watching, but to Tatsuya's eyes, his amateurish movements were painfully obvious.
"It seems the head of the Shippou house hasn't seen fit to give his son any military training," Kyouko remarked.
"Technically, that would fall under intelligence or counter-espionage training," Tatsuya replied. He had parked his bike at the station and was now in the back seat of a large sedan, keeping watch on the apartment. Next to him, Kyouko sat with a tablet-sized terminal on her lap, while Major Sanada sat in the front seat, operating a larger device. "By the way, why is Major Sanada here alongside Second Lieutenant Fujibayashi?"
"Well, if he's talented and has a chip on his shoulder regarding the Ten Master Clans, he'd be a perfect fit for our unit," Sanada replied, looking back from the front seat.
Tatsuya raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. "Are you planning to scout him for the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion?"
"Oh? Would you dislike that, Tatsuya-kun?" Kyouko teased. "If you really can't stand the boy, I suppose we'll just have to give up on the idea."
"Why do you speak as if I have the final say in the matter?"
"Because, you see, 'Special Officer Ooguro' is our unit's greatest asset. We can't very well go upsetting him, now can we?"
It was clearly one of Kyouko's jokes. Tatsuya sensed instinctively that getting defensive would only lead to a headache.
"...It's not that I dislike Shippou," he muttered. "To be honest, as long as he doesn't come meddling in my affairs, I couldn't care less about him."
"Ah, the 'opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference' approach?" Kyouko chirped.
"Then why are you cooperating with this investigation?" Sanada asked, picking up the thread.
It was a fair question, so Tatsuya didn't remain silent. "If the people behind him are anything like Blanche, then even if we shut Shippou up, the next 'problem child' will just pop up in his place."
"And who exactly is the 'problem child' here?" Kyouko asked with a stifled giggle, but Tatsuya ignored her.
"I see," Sanada concluded. "If it's just Takuma Shippou acting out, it's within tolerable limits. But if a second, third, and fourth follow in his wake, it becomes a nuisance."
"It's more than just a nuisance... but yes, that's the gist of it," Tatsuya replied, his voice tinged with a faint sigh.
"Is it really okay to ignore me like that? Oh—wait. It looks like the conversation is starting. Want to listen?"
Kyouko, who had been speaking while keeping an earbud in, turned to Tatsuya. It seemed the wiretap she had planted on Takuma was picking up his conversation with the "mastermind."
"Yes, please."
"Then lean in a little closer..."
"Fujibayashi-kun, I'd like to hear as well," Sanada interrupted.
Kyouko had been smiling as she prepared to offer the other earbud to Tatsuya, but at Sanada's intervention, she reluctantly switched the audio output to the car's speakers instead.
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