Rebirth

She heads up to Maya’s office, having received a message asking her to come up, and after knocking and being cleared to enter, she immediately feels a bit of weariness at the sight of a displeased Maya and a satisfied Miya.

She eyes them, “Maya(1), what did you call me here for?”

It seems to perk her up a little that she greets her and basically ignores Miya. Miya doesn't look as pleased by it though and cuts in before Maya can reply, “We have finally sorted out some… issues surrounding your reinstatement to the family. As should have happened when you were, you will be moving in with me.” She flicks a Look at Maya, who bristles, “Your mother.”

She raises an eyebrow, “That depends.”

Miya raises an eyebrow, “I am your mother, and as you have pointed out before, that makes me your legal guardian. It is not debatable.”

She snorts, “Yes, but you are beholden to Maya as the Family Head and while I don't know what you were debating before, I'm sure she would be more than pleased to reevaluate the situation if I disagree with the arrangement, particularly given the bad blood between myself and the Yotsuba in general.”

Maya smiles and happily nods, but leans back, apparently more than willing to let them take over the conversion. Miya looks a bit peeved, and sighs, “Fine. So what does it depend on then?”

She shrugs, “Well, for starters, that you don't interfere with me going out to see some friends of mine periodically, or my biweekly meetups with the- other kids.” She'd almost forgotten that Miya wasn't in the know in her reincarnation and would find it odd if she just called them ‘the kids’ when she herself was physically in the middle of the other four age wise. Thankfully she doesn't seem to notice the odd tiny pause in her words, “For another, you'd have to give me your word you won't try to use your mental manipulation magic on me again. I can fend it off just fine, but it's unbelievably disrespectful. And that's without even bringing up the lines it crosses to think you have the right to try to dictate my own mind to me. Also, I don't know if you have them, but you aren't allowed to put cameras in my room.”

She flinches slightly at the second to last part, then her brows furrow, “Hold on. Biweekly meetups? Why has Yuki not been invited if your generation has been doing that?” Then her eyes widen, “Wait, is that why they got a bit hostile towards him before pulling back to just cold? Have you poisoned them against him?”

She shakes her head, “Your generation is responsible for that actually. All I did was tell them the truth. And then I was the one who reminded them that it wasn't his fault that they've been feeding him all that nonsense and got them to stop being hostile to him. Them just being cold is the best you're going to get from them for the time being, given that I can't exactly disagree with the fact that if they were able to look past the things their parents and the rest of the older generation told them about me when it became clear they were lying, then he has no excuse.” She shrugs, “Which is also why he hasn't been invited to any of them. They don't want him there, and while I personally don't care about his opinion of me and wouldn't mind if he came, they have the right to make their own choice that they care and would mind.”

Miya looks a little unhappy, “I don't understand why you would be willing to get them to stop being hostile but not get them to be fine with inviting him given they clearly listen to you.”

She resists the urge to roll her eyes, “Because all I did to get them to stop was to point out that we'd never actually met before, so the entirety of his opinion on me is based on what the older generation has told him, and I honestly don't care what he thinks of me.” Another slight flinch, presumably at the fact the ‘life long companion’ she made for her wasn't a companion at all, “But I respect the fact they don't like him, because they have the right to form personal opinions. Particularly since while I don't care, it's perfectly natural to have a negative opinion on someone who has such a poor view on someone you care about.”

She purses her lips, “He's your family.”

She raises an eyebrow, “He's a relative, not family. They're usually used interchangeably but they hold vastly different actual meanings.”

Miya does not look happy at that, but she drops it, “I suppose. If that's all, I should see no problem then, since I have no intention to interfere, try to use mental manipulation magic on you, and while we do have cameras in general, we don't put them in the people's rooms to begin with.”

She shrugs, “Alright then. I suppose it's fine then.” Maya looks unhappy again, and she smiles lightly at her, “Oh, don't make that face Maya. Since we meet up at the main house, I'll be by to see you plenty before and after the meetups.”

Maya smiles, “That's true enough I suppose.” Then she makes a somewhat dramatic sigh, “Still, I can't say I'm happy about you moving out. You'd better call me frequently. I'll be very cross if the only time I hear from you is when you come to the main house to meet the other kids.”

The last part is said in a fairly demanding tone and she chuckles, “Of course Maya.”

Miya looks torn. She can only make an educated guess, but presumably it's between the fact she ‘won’ and Toshiko will be moving in with her and at the fact she currently has a better relationship with Maya then Miya. She'll just have to learn to live with it. There are some things the Yotsuba do that she doesn't agree with, and Maya has been trying to clean up the family's act, but changes like that take time.

And since that was the major problem she had with Maya since she is the Head of the Yotsuba and while she knows that the branches have some measure of independence in the areas of their work, the intelligence gathering for the Kuroba for instance which she doesn't have a problem with in general and she even has probably looser standards of what's okay than the than the average person given the whole ex-assassin soulmate thing, they do report to her and are obligated to follow her orders, so their behavior does reflect on her and their sins somewhat her own.

She's trying to fix things though, and moving more slowly to fundamentally change how they operate instead of just giving them orders to change and leaving them to figure out how to keep doing their jobs but comply with her orders at the same time and potentially selecting an even worse avenue of action.

It's more than enough for her for now.

Now. The question becomes how in the world she's going to navigate Miya's house with an outwardly cold but internally adoring mother, a father that is inconsistent on whether he's actually present in their lives and home or not and sees her as a monster, and a younger brother who's been systematically poisoned to look down on and hate her for basically his entire life.

It's an even harder fight not to sigh then the one not to roll her eyes earlier had been.

She looks around in curiosity, never having been inside her mother's home understandably.

Given what she's picked up about him, she's actually surprised to see her father sitting on the couch when they enter the living room, having assumed he'd be off with his poorly hidden mistress as he was more often than not.

She isn't the only one surprised, but Miya seems outright displeased if the slight narrowing of her eyes is any indication, “Why are you here?”

Her father purses his lips, “It's my house as well. Or have you forgotten who's name is on the deed?”

She huffs, “Only because it would've been suspicious if my husband bought a house right after our marriage and I didn't move in. And you haven't really been here for over two weeks. It's not unexpected that I'd question it.”

Her father pushes out a heavy breath through his nose, “How could I not come see if you were really bringing her here? When I told you that I didn't want her in my house around my son.”

Miya raises an eyebrow, “And I told you that I was perfectly fine with moving myself and my son out in that case. Given you protested that, I assumed you would rather we stay here instead.”

Her father, or maybe she should just call him by his name since he clearly doesn't see her as his child, explodes at that, “I protested my wife and son moving out of our house! That doesn't mean I agreed to her being here! You misunderstood what I said!”

Miya gives him a scornful look, “No. You misunderstood what your options were and therefore what you were actually wanting. Whether my daughter was coming to live with me was never up for debate. Your only options were to accept she'd be coming here, or that Yuki and I were leaving. Us staying and Toshiko not moving in was never on the table. If you'd prefer to change your choice, we can be out within a few days. Make your choice.”

Tatsurou sputters a bit, staring at her mother with wide eyes. She'd been vaguely aware he was there, but had hardly taken note of Yuki until he throws her a dirty look as he crosses his arms angrily, “Look what you've done.”

Miya snaps her gaze to him, “Yuki!”

She raises an eyebrow, understanding that he's a child and unsurprisingly upset and not even completely surprised that he was blaming her given the argument did start about her, even though she had nothing to do with it, but honestly surprised anyway given he's always grown up with his parents having a poor relationship, and that's being kind.

That being said, this is likely the first time he's seen them argue. She shakes her head, “I have nothing to do with this. Miya was the one who got Maya to agree with me moving out of the main house and in with her.”

Yuki gives their mother a betrayed look, and Tatsurou snaps, “Miya! Why would you insist on bringing your little monster here?!”

Her mother narrows her eyes at him, “Maya reinstated my daughter to the family. Of course I would insist she lives with me.”

She tilts her head and gives him an amused look, “Also, given that the Yotsuba by and large have mental magic and even among those who have a different skill, they're generally nothing like my own, with the only one remotely similar being Ayako's, who's magic is more similar in execution than anything, since she just equalizes everything in the target area, that's not very accurate. Given that the Yotsuba have never exhibited magics close to my own, arguably it can only have originated from an outside influence of genetics manifesting in an unprecedented way, with the bestcase scenario being that it's from said outside influence's genetics meeting the Yotsuba's in particular. In other words, if I'm anyone's‘monster’, I'm your monsterfather.”

He gets a horrified look, “Particularly when one takes into account how much magic my abilities take Mr Highest Recorded Psion Count in the World. Before me anyway, even if you still hold the public record since my Psion count has never been revealed.”

He sputters, horrified and looking sick to his stomach for a moment or two, then weakly tries to refute it, “Y-Yuki-”

She slips her hands into her pockets in boredom, “Is a genetically modified magician who's magic was very carefully cultivated into exactly what he has now as a sloppy attempt to be a counter to me in case it was ever needed. It's an incredible ability in general, don't get me wrong. But for its original purpose? It's nothing more than a failed attempt to make a shackle for me, and if necessary, a sword to strike me down. That's the only reason he was conceived to begin with actually, even though in my opinion they lost the right to dictate his life to him once he was born.”

Yuki looks floored, which vaguely surprises her given she kind of assumed that with all the poison they were feeding him towards her, she figured that they had also fed him lines about it being his duty to stop her of necessity or something. Before anything else can be said Honami, who she'd seen lingering out of regular line of sight for a little bit with her Elemental Sight likely unsure about intruding on the argument, finally musters herself and enters.

She looks at her first, “Given you indicated you'd prefer to put your stuff away yourself, I haven't touched their contents but I've finished moving your bags to your new room Lady Toshiko.” Then she turns to Miya, “Would you like me to stay, or would you prefer I go and make some tea?”

Which was basically her way of asking if she wanted her to remain on hand or not. She doesn't know Honami well enough to know if the reasoning for the tea was just something as straightforward as getting her tea in general and/or to help her calm her temper or if it was also her basically asking if Miya would prefer privacy.

Before she can answer, Toshiko starts for the doorway, “I'm going to go get a look at my room and start unpacking.”

Miya glances over to nod before flicking a glance at Yuki, “Go to your room Yuki.” She turns back to Tatsurou, her gaze becoming coldly furious, “Your father and I need to have a talk it seems.”

Yuki mutters out his understanding, and he'd probably sound surly, if he didn't sound shaken from the earlier revelations. She may not be close to him or have any particular feelings towards him, neither positive nor negative, but she feels a bit bad for the kid. It's a lot to learn all at once, and they aren't exactly small things.

Finding out you're a genetically engineered magician, or even just a genetically engineered person in general, and that you were created that way to serve as a shackle and weapon if necessary can't be easy.

He had to know though. And in her opinion it's better to get the raw truth than whatever twisted poison the majority of the Yotsuba may have tried to feed him, since while she can't know for sure what they would've told him of course, she'd bet money the raw truth is better for his overall mental health then whatever they would've told him.

She still feels a little bad though, even if she was actually talking to Tatsurou and it just came up, rather than him specifically and just telling him it for no reason.

She turns quickly and practically throws her arms around the now familiar male voice that says her name in a questioning tone. She can't help it. Not after going so long in her previous life without them and then having to wait so long to meet them in person in this life, even if it was relatively a blink in comparison to her old one. Their physical ages had complicated things an awful lot. She was genuinely starting to be terrified it'd take years, as in until they were teenagers or close to it before they could meet up in person.

She pulls back to get her first proper look at him in person instead of over a video call even as she absently tosses out a wandless silencing spell so no one can overhear them, “Sora! It's so nice to finally meet in person.”

He tightens the hold that had loosened so she could lean back just a bit, “I know what you mean.”

She wasn't surprised Hoshi wasn't trailing after him, since while she was eager to see her sister-in-law in everything but the law of this universe, she'd made it clear before that she wanted to let them all have their first in person meeting to themselves.

They sit back down on the bench she had been waiting on as they talk a bit excitedly at finally meeting up in this life, and she honestly can't say how long it is before she feels someone enter the radius of her silencing spell, looking over to find Miho approaching with a smile.

She quickly shoots to her feet to all but launch herself at her in a hug. The other two laugh, slightly amused but completely understanding of her eagerness, especially since they hug fairly enthusiastically themselves when she separates from Miho. In fairness, after spending so much of her life as Calanthe without them, it wasn't surprising that she'd be even more keen then them. Not to say that they weren't eager as well, it just wasn't to the same degree.

Then she cancels her silencing spell and applies a muffliato as they head off to the nearby cafe they had agreed to go to for lunch, having only met at the park to make it easier to find each other then in the potentially busy streets.

After they settle and get their orders in, she switches back to a one way silencing spell, unconcerned about it drawing any attention in and of itself, given that magic to make soundproof barriers does exist in this world. She also adds a spell that'll interfere with people's ability to read their lips by making their mouths appear blurry from the perspective of anyone outside of the spells bubble just to be safe, equally uncaring about its subtlety since similar things also exist here so no one would really think anything of either if they notice.

Once it's up, Miho gives them a slightly concerned look, “As much as it would be weird given we've already had a relationship, I honestly gotta admit that the fact the block hasn't kicked back on concerns me a bit. Because none of us are pedophiles so it's certainly not going to be an issue anytime soon, but the closer we get to seventeen… we don't have the block in place keeping us from noticing the other two are becoming attractive.”

She shakes her head, “It is back on actually. I can see it with my Elemental Sight, it's just acting differently than what we're used to. Namely, it seems to be letting us see each other as romantic partners and just blocking our capacity to start seeing each other as potential sexual partners later when we're in that particularly bad spot after puberty hits and we start feeling those kinds of desires again and the others are between getting old enough and close enough to what we'll look like when we're seventeen, such as a month from our birthday, but not actually seventeen that we might struggle with it. It's only a theory, but I'd say it's probably because romantic attraction is really attraction to the mind and personality, and for us, those are already over seventeen.”(2)

Sora tilts his head in interest, “That… makes an awful lot of sense actually. And is also pretty relieving. I've been wondering what on earth we were supposed to do either way if it was on or off. Because yes, it being on would be appropriate to keep us from being tempted to cross that line when we're practically seventeen and that's exactly how we're going to look unless something drastic happens anyway but would still very much be crossing a line. On the other hand, it would've felt weird and almost like a betrayal if we couldn't even see each other as even romantic partners.”

Miho hums, “I personally don't feel like it would be a betrayal, but I can see where you're coming from. It's a moot point anyway thankfully.”

She hums, “Mm. While it's good in general both morally and legally, it does seem a bit weird from a conceptual standpoint not to be attracted to people I was married to and very much had a physical relationship with though, not gonna lie.”

Sora snorts, “Tell me about it. Is it good and understandable? Yes. Does it feel a little weird? ...Also yes.”

Miho nods, “Yeah, it is strange to think about, but it's only a matter of time, so it's not a big deal.”

Sora shrugs, “Oh I know. It's just gonna feel particularly strange when we're teenagers and going through the hormonal period and given our soulmate bond and previous marriage, if anyone should have our interest it should be each other, and yet the block will stop that. Again, not that it's a bad thing just… it's gonna feel really weird not to be attracted to my soulmates, especially after the decades of marriage...”

She nods, “Mm. I know what you're talking about. I mean, when I was a hormonal teenager last time, obviously we didn't have a relationship, but since the block was only one way, I still felt attracted, but this time…”

Sora hums, then he laughs lightly. At Miho's questioning look, he shakes his head, “No, I was just thinking about how much of a pain it is going to be to be going through teenage hormones with no real way to… blow off steam, as it were, since even if I did have some sort of option that wouldn't be pedophilia on someone's part, I have zero intention to cheat on you two.”

Miho gives him a bemused smile, “Of course. What's funny about that though?”

He grins, “You realize that given the circumstances around our ages and what that's going to mean for us, anyone who knows is probably going to find it weird when we're older that all three of us are gonna end up being virgins through the majority of our teenage years? And willingly at that since we're in a relationship and if they for one reason or another know about our virginity, there's no way they wouldn't know we're together.”

Miho tilts her head thoughtfully, then her lips start twitching, “People are probably going to think we're the kind of people who don't believe in sex before marriage, aren't they?”

She tucks her mouth behind her tea cup, “If our virginity or lack thereof ever comes out, they'll undoubtedly be even more confused when we stop being virgins, not after marriage, but after we're seventeen.”

Sora snorts, “Yeah. And probably even more confused that you two aren't but I am since my being the youngest means I'll have to wait a bit longer than you two.”

Miho furrows her brows, “No they wouldn't, because since we were all born in the same year, even when the block for me and Toshiko ends towards each other, I'd prefer to wait until you're seventeen as well. If for no other reason than I'd feel bad that the block ended for us and we were able to be a couple physically as well as romantically with each other but not you.”

Sora shakes his head, “No, it's fine. Any upset I'd feel would just be at the fact my block towards you two would be gone, but I still have to wait until the reverse is true. I wouldn't be upset in the slightest with you two just for experiencing that aspect of our relationship after it becomes available to you.”

She shakes her head, “No, I kinda agree with Miho. It may not upset you, but I wouldn't like the idea of enjoying it while simultaneously being unable to even look at my husband in that capacity. I mean, I could get it if it was, I don't know, over a year or whatever and not a matter of months, but with so little time to just be patient…”

Sora gets a bemused look but seems to drop the minor disagreement of whether they'd wait for him or not, “We aren't married in this life dear.”

She snorts, “Just because the government of this world isn't aware of it does not make you two any less of my husband and wife.”

Miho nods in agreement, “I concur. I'm surprised you look at it like that to be honest.”

Sora laughs lightly, “I wasn't saying we're not married in general, just not in this life yet.”

Miho hums, “Well, that's true. It's just a statement of fact so there's no arguing that.”

Sora laughs a little more, but her attention is suddenly pulled away by a car pulling to a stop nearby, one of those ones with a screen inside, which has its windows down and the volume high enough for her to not only hear it but snag her attention. She has no idea what site they're connected to, but they're watching something about how overpopulation is rapidly approaching(3) and the stages of how the repercussions will progress. She doesn't hear a whole lot of it before traffic moves and the car pulls away, but she tilts her head thoughtfully as she mulls over the problem.

Her attention is suddenly yanked back to her soulmates by a finger stopping inches from her face, and when she turns she finds a peeved Sora giving her a stern look beside a surly Miho, who quietly nods as he speaks, “No. No. You get that look off your face right now Missy! It is not your responsibility to deal with it!”

Miho nods vigorously when he's done, immediately jumping in, “Exactly! Leave it to the various governments and other official institutions!”

She tilts her head, “Solutions to such problems come from all sorts of people, and it's not uncommon for the people who come up with such solutions to just join organizations with power just to be able to have access to the resources necessary to implement their ideas. Problems like that are everyone's problem. Finding a solution is similarly everyone's problem, because if the people with ideas to deal with such problems never acted on them in some capacity or another and just left it to governments and the like, well, they wouldn't have the people capable of coming up with such solutions.”

Sora groans and drops his head on the table, and Miho reaches over to give him a consoling pat, “There's nothing to be done Sora. She's already invested. There's no talking her out of it now.”

She bristles slightly, “Like I said, if everyone just continued on and said ‘not my problem, leave it to those in charge’ or something, the people they're expecting to come up with solutions wouldn't have anyone to propose said solutions.”

Sora lifts his head enough to give her a tired look, “I get that, but why does it have to be you?”

She gives him an odd look, “It doesn't necessarily have to be me that comes up with solutions,” They both perk up slightly, looking hopeful for some reason, but for equally unknown reasons that hope pops like a bubble at her next words, “but the same logic of everyone ignoring it to leave it to others applies to ‘why is it my job’ too. Because again, if everyone said similar things, then those with the ability to come up with solutions would all be leaving it to someone else to step up.”

Miho sighs and Sora groans as he tilts his head back down to press his forehead to the table. She really doesn't get why they're being so dramatic.

Regardless, she hasn't really thought about it since between the Statute of Secrecy being voided when she was a baby and the Contractors, solutions had been found before she was even a century old. And the Contractors had very much been invited to help given that they may not usually have had a vested interest in most things but certainly had one in the entire planet potentially devolving into either an apocalypse or a dystopia. Since their logic knew full well some of them may end up at the top but most knew a lot of them would inevitably die in the ensuing fight for survival and/or domination since obviously in such a conflict more had to lose than not and their logic made them unwilling to roll the dice on which side of that statistic they'd land on, the majority of them had been very cooperative in finding and helping build solutions.

None of the tricks they used there existed here though, so what was the solution?

It was definitely something to think about.

She's a bit bemused at Miya, currently sitting in front of her looking a bit irritated, “Shouldn't you be resting at home?”

Miya’s eyes narrow in a minute twitch, “Normally yes. However, of course I'm going to come try to find out what’s going on that mydaughter's little biweekly meeting turned into her staying at the main house for a few days.”

She tilts her head, “I told you in the message that I was teaching the other kids the start of something.”

Specifically Yuuka had figured out how to translate the usage of Occlumency to work with this world's magic, so she and the kids were all staying for a few days while she gave them a crash course on the basics to practice so she can see just how they're progressing and give them more advice on improving or what they're doing wrong during their regular meetups.

Miya glances away, “Which you won't tell me what it's about.”

She shrugs, “It's just between us for the time being, given I still don't trust the Yotsuba in general, and they haven't exactly given me reason to either.”

Miya raises an eyebrow, “It isn't entirely just between you if you're teaching them in the main house.”

She gives her a bemused smile, “You mean because Maya is always watching me through the cameras? And I do mean constantly, not just periodically like that time I asked her to come down to the meeting I was having with the kids through one?” Miya's eyes widen a bit, apparently not having expected her to know. Through her Elemental Sight, she sees Maya suck her tea down the wrong pipe and spill it on her dress. She shakes her head with a bit of a smile, “While I doubt it's for the same reasons, it's not like I'm not constantly watching her through my Elemental Sight as well.”

After saying that, she uses Regrowth on Maya, putting her body back to before her tea went down the wrong pipe, and her dress back to before it was spilled on it. Maya and Hayama's eyes widen, then Maya starts laughing before saying fondly, “Thank you dear.”

She uses Decomposition on the casing of a pen and its ink reservoir sitting on some blank paper in case Maya needs to write something down physically in a rush, spilling it's ink out over it before using Regrowth on the pen, reservoir, and most of the ink, leaving behind the spill in a configuration that writes out, “You're welcome Maya. ^‿^”

Miya opens and closes her mouth, then sets it in a firm line, “You are playing with fire Toshiko. Maya is insane. You need to keep your distance from her.”

She picks up the teacup Suzuki -who didn't go with her to the Shiba house obviously since there was no reason to have a maid around when Honami was already present, but is always assigned to her when she comes to the main house- sets in front of her, murmuring out her thanks as she does. She lifts it for a sip, “I've come to the conclusion she isn't actually.”

Then she takes her drink, ignoring Miya's wide eyed stare and Maya and Hayama's surprise up in Maya's office. When she lowers her cup, she gazes at the liquid thoughtfully for a moment before deciding that between the fact she can absolutely handle Miya, and the possibility of her making things unnecessarily difficult is practically nonexistent, she'd rather just spell things out for her before lifting her gaze, “Normally I wouldn't tell you this, but there's not exactly much you can do with the information one way or another, and it's honestly probably more of a hassle at this point to keep trying to hide it… Maya never told you about Calanthe.”

It isn't a question, and Miya only seems to grow more confused and aggravated, “I've never heard the name, no. Why is this Calanthe important?”

Waiting until Suzuki has left, she casts an invisibility spell on herself, using the same trick with the kids of not applying one to her cup to leave it floating. Then she ends it and uses transfiguration on a chair nearby to turn it into a dog briefly and directing it over to Miya to rub and lick at her hand since physical alteration is impossible as things currently stand in this world. That's also why after turning the chair back, she partly transforms into her Dragon Animagus form, pulling out her wings and unfolding one and stretching it to brush against Miya, who lifts a shaky hand to brush over it, practically recoiling away from the touch like she had with the dog, which makes it very clear it's very much a physical thing.

She looks up in utter confusion, a lot of what she thought she knew shattered, and Toshiko transforms her wings back out of existence, “Calanthe Potter-Black was my previous self in a different universe before for reasons unknown I was reincarnated here. There was magic in that world too, but the rules were… much different. But, here's the thing. A person who loses all of their current capacity for emotion and seems to turn into a monster in most people's eyes. Later relearning how to feel emotions in a much more limited capacity which makes them more intense.”

Miya gives her a confused look, “I don't need a description of Maya. I was there for it all.”

She smiles, “I wasn't describing Maya actually.” Miya's eyes go wide, and given the way she was still viewing Maya office with Elemental Sight she knows she's not the only one, “In my original world, there was an event known as the Gate Advent. Two regions of the world suddenly went… very strange.”

“Everyone in them disappeared without a trace, and later if you happened to go there, you could be walking down the street and suddenly find yourself walking along the side of a building even as it seemed to be raining up towards your head from the windows you're walking on. Then a few feet later, you could be upside-down on the ceiling of a parking lot while cars float around as though gravity took a vacation locally even as they could range from in perfect condition like it hadn't even been five minutes since the event which saw them abandoned to watching them decay in seconds only to suddenly be brand new again. And if you kept walking, you could just as suddenly and without warning find yourself back on normal ground like it was all just a fever dream. They were places where the natural laws of the rest of the world just seemed kind of optional and rather whimsical on how and where they applied.”

She looks off to the side, “Funnily enough, it wasn't actually the most important part of the Gate Advent. When they appeared, a bunch of people started becoming people they called Contractors and Dolls. The latter seemed to become empty programmable husks who gained the ability to send out something mostly invisible known as a specter through a specific medium, such as water or glass or the like, and see and hear through it like it was their physical body. It wasn't entirely accurate that they were empty husks though. I knew one once who started remembering her life before she became a Doll and regained the ability to ignore orders.”

Miya looks like she's torn between being enraptured by the tale and wanting to ask what it's about, but she'll get there if she's just a bit more patient, “The only people who could see specters were other Dolls and Contractors. The latter of which were non-magical people who suddenly lost all their emotions but gained a power at the same time. Much like the understanding of Dolls wasn't totally accurate, that one wasn't either. They lost some emotional capacity, and the seeming lack of emotions was mostly their brain's pausing the rest entirely while they… recalibrated, I suppose you could say. If one lived long enough and had something around that meant something to them, they'd start to relearn how to use the emotional capacity they had left.”

She looks back with a shrug, “My original world had soulmates as a fact rather than a trope in fiction and mine were reborn as well. One of them made an offhand comment about how Maya reminded him of a Contractor, which got me thinking. To be perfectly honest, while she obviously isn't a Contractor who essentially subconsciously traded emotion for power, she's practically a Contractor in every other way. Even the way she responded that earned her those infamous nicknames of hers… Contractors, unless they find something to help them relearn emotions, are beings of pure logic. Yes, she left quite a trail of bodies behind her, but every last one of them was a foreign agent in some way.”

“Given she'd just been kidnapped and… violated not long before, the logical conclusion to come to is to make it clear it won't happen again, and the best way to do that is to target aforementioned agents given the message it would send. The report I dug up when investigating which had Maya's vaguely confused response to being confronted on what she was doing by the Yotsuba cinches the conclusion that Maya is practically a Contractor in my opinion.”

Then she gets a bemused look, “In fairness, I think I'd already started viewing her as similar to a Contractor even before I started consciously thinking about it, given how quickly I took to looking at her in a more favorable light and had a more friendly approach to her without even realizing it. But considering my understanding of the situation, it does feel a bit odd to be the thing that someone who's practically a Contractor latched on to, given once they do they tend to get… intense, shall we say, about whatever they connected with.” She nods her head to the side, “Or well, odd to be the thing someone like a standard Contractor latched onto.”

Miya has a stunned expression, looking like her whole world just got upended, and an almost absent tone, “Standard Contractor?”

She waves a hand a bit dismissively, “Long story about one of my soulmates’ younger sister being a Contractor and passing her power to him without making him go through loss of emotions.”

That seems to pull Miya from her stunned stupor and she looks like she wants to ask questions so bad, but she lets it go as her brows furrow before she suddenly gives her a hard look, “That's why you suddenly changed.” It isn't a question, but she nods anyway, and Miya’s eyes harden as she all but demands, “Does that mean you essentially killed my actual daughter's mind?”

She snorts, “It's funny that you and Maya are so at odds but what happened to the Toshiko you knew was the first question you both asked.” Miya's eyes go a bit wide at the idea of the commonality between them, but she continues, “But as I told Maya previously, I asked myself a lot of questions as well. Was I Calanthe and I essentially took over Toshiko's body? Was I Toshiko and somehow inherited Calanthe memories and power and all that? After a lot of thought as well as taking into account other factors, I came to the conclusion that the Toshiko you knew before my memories came back to me was essentially my subconscious when she was a baby, that had started to grow into something of a copy of my consciousness, though with some differences due to changes in our childhoods. As far as I can tell, the Toshiko you knew before was basically just merged with the conscience of Calanthe.”

Miya had relaxed as she explained, and at the end she gazes down at her tea thoughtfully, “I see…”

She hums, “Anyway, there's a type of mental defense from my old world that I told them about, since the kids know about my reincarnation as well, and recently Yuuka, being someone who's inherent magic is mental magic, figured out how to translate it into this world's magic, so I'm giving them the lessons on how to get started and how to practice it. That's all. I don't know what exactly you thought was going on, but given how mad you seemed to be when you arrived, I assume you thought it was something else entirely.”

Miya looks away, but doesn't say anything directly in response to that. After a few beats of silence, she steps a bit to the side topic wise, “I respect that you and Yuki have been kept apart up until now and don't have a good relationship, and also that the current strained feelings between you isn't your fault and you aren't obligated to fix it when it was never your fault things are the way they are, but you don't even put any effort into trying to repair your relationship.” She seems to grow a little bitter, “Unlike with the other kids. They undoubtedly were just as taught as he was to dislike you, but you went out of your way to clear things up with them.”

She tilts her head, “Not really? I just called Ayako to my room to help her with her magic and the others kinda showed up on their own. Things sort of just naturally progressed that way.” She drops her gaze to look thoughtfully at her tea, “Besides… To be honest, I'm rather hesitant to reach out to Yuki. I got rid of your original mental manipulation magic, but using it on him as a fetus practically embedded priming into his brain similarly to a need, like for air and food. It's practically a landmine, and I'm frankly hesitant to approach him out of concern of possibly setting it off.”

She looks off to the side, “It will end in nothing but heartbreak for him. I wouldn't have entertained the sort of relationship you tried to set up between us to begin with, but certainly not with my soulmates having reincarnated as well.” She turns back to Miya, ignoring her slightly furrowed eyebrows, “I won't entertain that sort of relationship with anyone but them with them around, and most likely even if they weren't.”

Miya watches her for a few moments, her brows dipping a smidge lower, “...I struggle to believe you would've been alone your entire life if they weren't here, but I sincerely hope they're from families with prestige. The Yotsuba would never tolerate the relationship if they aren't. They'd probably be more inclined to assassinate them just to get them out of the way.”

She snorts, “You know, the magic of my old world worked very differently. Up until you hit magical majority at seventeen, you aged at a normal rate, but afterwards, your aging slowed depending on how powerful you were. The average magical aged about half as slowly. I was powerful enough that I didn't die of old age until I was just shy of four hundred and ninety-nine. My soulmates were more around the average. I was physically still only thirty three at the second death of my two soulmates to old age. I lived for well over three hundred years without them. I was never even mildly interested in having another relationship, though there was certainly more than one person who tried to initiate a relationship with me.”

Miya's eyes go huge, and she's not the only one from what she's seeing through her Elemental Sight. She only gives them a moment to take that in, “So no, I very much would've died a single virgin if they weren't here.” She glances away, “What's a hundred more years really. And teenage hormones certainly wouldn't have gotten the better of me. I was the youngest of us by a decade or more depending on which soulmate we’re talking about, and the soulmate bond outright blocked anything romantic or sexual developing between soulmates with more than a years age gap when the younger is a minor. Well, sorta. It was one way, so even though I was fully aware they couldn't return my feelings yet, it never stopped me from rejecting anyone who asked for no other reason than they weren't them.”

Then she looks back at Miya, leaning towards her as her eyes narrow slightly, “But while you can't tell them about my reincarnation, and they wouldn't even believe you if you tried, I'd suggest you do your best to dissuade the Yotsuba from trying to do anything to them. Because they are very much not from even the Hundred Families, much less higher, but here's a relevant piece of info for you. I once incinerated the people in twelve separate bases of the opposing side of a civil war in less than a day -and had only left them alone before so as to do the job thoroughly when it came to rooting them out- just because they hospitalized one of my soulmates and he was going to die if a solution wasn't found. Luckily for them, I found a solution, but if I was willing to do that over the possibility of one of them dying, what do you think I'd have done if their attempt to kill him had succeeded?”

Miya isn't even breathing, eyes incredibly wide, and she leans back into her former position, then gets a bemused smile, “I suppose in a way, me being reincarnated to the ‘Untouchable’ Yotsuba was fitting, given they earned that nickname in response to what happened to Maya.”

She tilts her head, “For the record, if it made me snap enough to override the knowledge that innocent people who had nothing to do with it would also be victims of it, that would be the thing to push me over the edge to become the very monster the Yotsuba feared the day I was born. Even in the unlikely event it didn't though, I would end up reminding the world why the Yotsuba are called the Untouchables. Except anyone who had anything to do with that plan, particularly any of the Yotsuba who planned it or took part, would play the part of Dahan in that remixed repeat rendition of the performance.”

Miya's brow furrows, “You may be reincarnated, but you are still physically a child, and one that has been fairly sheltered from this world and the Yotsuba, you couldn't possibly-”

She cuts her off and starts rattling off every asset of even mild importance for the Yotsuba, unknowingly taken from the minds of various Yotsuba who viewed her with hostility and hatred, since if they're so okay  with mind magics being used on enemies, they don't get to complain about their ‘demon’ using it on them whenever it wants.

A bead of sweat trails down Miya's face when she's done and she smiles, “I'm the Yotsuba and they're my Maya in this situation. If you care about the fates of those who would be inclined to hatch such plots, I'd suggest you do everything you can to keep them from volunteering to be the party to follow in Dahan's footsteps.” She tilts her head, “Are we clear?”

Miya smiles a bit tensely, “Crystal.”

She nods, “Good.”

Miya sips her tea in silence for a moment before shaking the mood off, “I assume this is who you've been heading out to meet up with whenever you leave but aren't coming here to meet the kids?”

She hums in agreement, “Of course. The name I selected to act as my alias for Loop Casting and anything else I made was picked specifically to get their attention, so it wasn't hard to find each other.”

Miya nods in understanding, “So when will you be bringing them by the house? I would like to meet people who mean so much to my daughter after all and I likely won't live long enough to actually see the relationship or for them to become my in-laws.”

She chuckles, “Well, Sora has pretty neglectful parents who really only had him out of the social expectation of magicians, so it's never hard for him to get away despite his age, but Miho struggles a bit more. So it's hard to say really. Also, technically you'd probably see the relationship, since while we know the block turned back on -and aren't pedophiles to begin with- when it came to a physical relationship, assumably because our minds are all over seventeen and that's the main aspect for romantic relationships, it's left that aspect off.”

She smiles a little in bemusement, “So, technically they're already my partners, since as far as any of us are concerned, while this universe and its laws don't know we're married, none of us consider our marriage over or on pause just because of such meager reasons as us dying and being reborn someplace that doesn't know better.”

Miya huffs a small laugh, then gives her an amused smile, “You know, when most people don't believe in ‘till death do us part’ it's not usually because they're on the end of the scale that they don't consider even death a parting or ending.”

She smiles back, “How unloyal of them to let something as miniscule as death part them.”

Miya laughs lowly again at that, tinged in more than a little disbelief.

So here's the thing. There's a theory, known as Cardinal Code Hypothesis, that says there are sixteen fundamental magic sequences from the Four Great Systems and eight major types of modern systematic magic. The theory goes that any magic can be recreated via combinations of them.

It's an absolute lie given there are plenty of things that can't be recreated with just that, but that doesn't inherently mean that the Cardinal Codes are useless. Most modern magic, as it currently functions, essentially just recreates the endstate you're looking for. Magic from the Cardinal Codes lets you use the forces it would take to get to that point to begin with fundamentally. For instance, if someone casts a magic like Inferno, the spell functions by essentially taking away the higher energy, the heat, of one defined area and shifts it to another, the zone for Inferno itself. However, with a Cardinal Code based magic, one could easily just increase the energy, the heat in other words, in the region of the Inferno itself without having to take it from another region.

So was the theory correct? No. But that didn't mean Cardinal Codes were useless. And funnily enough, they were not hard to figure out when you have Elemental Sight with the sort of precision she does.(4) She wasn't about to publish them, if nothing else, it would practically reveal her Element Sight and she had an agreement with Maya not to reveal things unless necessary. That didn't mean she wouldn't use them though. Which is why, for all that she may only be eight, close to nine but not quite there yet, Tōkōkuro Mihana had recently published flying magic. It was one step of many towards her end goal, and she wasn't quite pleased about the pacing, but she was willing to let it go for now given a lot of that time was spent refining her knowledge of this world's magic so she could actually do things like that.

There was still a lot of work to do to reach her end goal, and she was already gearing up for another part of it on the side. She'd actually initially thought that aspect would undoubtedly take years of buildup, and that she'd need to go to Maya about it, especially since… well, in her initial plan, she was pretty sure she couldn't even do it without her help, both from the Yotsuba's bank account as well as the strings and recourse they can pull if they even could accomplish it to begin with, even on as small a scale as she can get away with.

With her new plan though… she doesn't need any of that. She'll just tell them later when it starts panning out, since the salary she'd secured via her Tōkōkuro Mihana work at FTL completely covered the cost of what she needed in the beginning of her new plan entirely on its own.

In the meantime, Rowena was studying up on things she'd need to know for her part. As an AI, it didn't take long for her to do her initial study, but she was very determined to make sure she got everything right, so she's been using the Trunk when Toshiko didn't need it to basically run simulations just to make sure she has everything correct. Rowena has more than enough time since there's still an aspect she needs to finish before Rowena can start, but that's nearing completion anyway. Unless something goes very, very wrong, her investigation into having signals be sent into the information dimension by the transmitter and pulled back out by the receiver should be done by the end of the year.

There are other considerations. The problem of magic for starters. She has figured out ambient magic in this world of course, but she's still working on storing the magic sequences so a magician doesn't need to be on hand to cast. She doesn't need that for the initial stage since the magic calculation area, which Rowena doesn't possess, basically just handles all the calculations of the magic subconsciously. Any calculations needed for mass, speed, volume, and all that. Rowena may not have a magic calculation area which can do it subconsciously but given she's an AI? She can just do it all manually once she was given the ability to manipulate this world's magic.

Faster than magicians can cast at that. So Rowena doesn't need a magic sequence storage device, but other aspects of her plan will need it since she can't leave it all to Rowena. It would circumvent part of her plan for one. It also just wouldn't be fair to Rowena to keep piling more and more duties on her.

One step at a time though. She has time. She doesn't need to do it all at once.

Miya is staring at everything in confusion before she turns to her, “I… am suddenly much more appreciative of the fact you had all of this sent to somewhere for an employee to collect and bring to the main house, even if it means you've been spending more time than usual at the main house recently, but… what do you need all of this for?”

She tilts her head, “It's just a personal project at the moment. If it starts working out it'll be more public in… ehh, it'll probably take about a decade?” Miya's brows furrow and she turns back to her work, “You don't need to worry about me spending the majority of my time at the main house for that long. I said it'd go public in about a decade if it starts to get where I'm wanting it to go. This section of work will only take a couple months. I think. Assuming there aren't any problems that cause delays.”

Miya kinda stares at her, “...Alright then. I'll give you two months to come here as frequently as you have been to work at the pace you are. If it does get delayed though, you'll have to space out your work to scale back on how frequently you're here.”

She shrugs, “Fair enough I suppose.”

She casts the flying type magic on herself, absolutely delighted at how much less magic it takes now. She had recently found a ‘diamond in the rough’ named Ushiyama who was a freaking genius at hardware at FLT who had kinda been languishing in obscurity before that because he butted heads with his bosses when he was first starting so they didn't really give him the chance to show his genius as some sort of petty retaliation. Her mother had very quickly fired said former boss when Miya found out the situation after she'd scouted him for the team she was starting to put together as she shifted from general work to having her own division when her invention of flying magic after having already come up with Loop Casting made it clear it wasn't a one off stroke of genius.

Ushiyama has absolutely since become the Tōkōkuro to her Mihana. Since he'd optimized the magic drain on the spell with the hardware, it's gone from possible but a bit difficult to utilize given how quickly it would tire someone to significantly more usable. Well, for most people anyway. She didn't have any problems with the magic drain to begin with. Doesn't mean she's not happy with it.

Shaking off the marvel she feels at how much less magic it uses, she casts a levitation charm on the massive crate she'd stored it in so she can basically drag it with her, then an invisibility spell on it and herself so no one sees them passing and heads off at speed for the ocean. It takes a bit even with her flying magic just to reach the coast, but she keeps going until she's well past the border to International waters according to Rowena.

Once she's sure she's far enough out that there isn't any question about whether she's in Japan's waters or International waters, she stops them both and opens the crate to reveal the small -at least in comparison to regular ones- rocket inside. It didn't need a whole lot of room for what its job was, so it was about the size of one and a half of those school buses America had when she was a child in her previous life end to end, and maybe two of them thick.

There had been an attempt in the past to use magic to launch a rocket which had killed the magicians due to their magic calculation areas overclocking because they just… couldn't handle the changing parameters as they left Earth's gravity, but she had no such issue.

There was a reason she wasn't able to start this step until she was finished with the live communication by having the signals sent into, travel through, then get retrieved from the information dimension.

Namely, Rowena was going to be handling all of that, since while she was still a good bit away from recreating true teleportation in this world by sending physical matter through the informal dimension briefly, she has worked out sending data like from Rowena's connection or even just terminal call signals through it. She didn't have a magic calculation area to begin with and had to do all of said calculations manually, but it was perfectly within her capabilities as an AI to not just do them, but do them quickly, and so was continuously adjusting as it gets further from Earth's gravity or other such influences to the parameters.

Once she has the rocket upright, mostly just to save Rowena the trouble of maneuvering it, and knowing Rowena can hear her fine through her headset, she calls out, “You got it, or do I need to hold the levitation a bit more?”

Rowena answers back without hesitation, “I've got it Creator.”

Once she's sure of that, she releases her hold on it as well as its invisibility spell and drifts back a little, not particularly concerned about distance given it doesn't have rockets, but just to be safe. Rowena kicks the gravity control flying magic on it into more than a hover as soon as she's got a bit of distance just in case things go wrong, 

She'd sent an anonymous message to who she felt needed to get it warning them about the launch and the fact it was not a weapon, that she was sending the message as a courtesy to keep them from freaking out, and it was only happening in international waters instead of on Japan itself -where she was from- because she didn't want to deal with the inevitable five or however long years of cutting through the red tape and all that given it has nothing to do with Japan at the moment, but even so, she's not surprised to see a missile enter the range of her Elemental Sight heading towards it.

Nor, after Rowena uses the second more generalized gravity control magic she'd invented to crush it, the handful more. They're dealt with just as easily as Rowena keeps the rocket climbing until it's well out of any of her sight, normal or Elemental.

Once it is, she turns and heads back towards the island with the now empty but still invisible crate, not concerned about being spotted given she never removed her own invisibly either.

Rowena's target was the space debris, of which there had been some international fuckery a couple decades back from countries trying to dodge any responsibility for space debris that had resulted in an international forum voting through an international law that once a satellite ceased to function that it no longer belonged to whoever shot it up to begin with.

The decision had come around in wake of a particularly bad bit of a lot of space debris of crap that had been launched during WW3 and which didn't have where it was supposed to land planned out and then practically forgotten about -which meant no attempts to adjust their path and therefore where they'd land had been made- later losing orbit and not only causing unbelievable amounts of damage, but even killing people. More than one of which was actually kind of important by sheer dumb luck that a sizable piece had broken off of one and sunk a particularly notable ship with multiple people such people.

It wasn't just important government officials either, though there was more than one of those, it was also more than a couple people who were just suspiciously well connected who's living families had raised hell. The whole thing had been a migraine inducing mess, not only for the unlucky country, but also for the questions on why those people were together on a ship in the middle of nowhere. Considering just how much debris various countries had sent up that were once satellites, it was probably one of the fastest international agreements that had been reached, just from countries wanting to cover their own asses by making it international law that it basically wasn't theirs or their problem when they were done with it.

It was messed up in general, but she was absolutely going to take full advantage of it. She couldn't be sure all of the materials were up to snuff, but that's why she also included the ability to process the materials rather than just use them so that if it has the ingredients it needs, it can just make better materials.

Her part of the rocket section of the plan was over now. It was entirely up to Rowena to make proper use of space debris from all the dead satellites and the like at this point, and she'd only rejoin that part of the plan later.