Rebirth

As she starts getting close to where the Onna Airborne was going to make their push, she looks up at Kazama, “You may wanna remind your men that while I can undo any injuries, I cannot undo death, so they can't be careless.” She gives him a serious look, “I can do something about a bullet to the heart if they're within my range since that's not instant death, but even a bullet to the brain is beyond me.”

He nods grimly and barks out his own half order half warning not to let her abilities go to their heads and let them think they're invincible.

It's not even ten minutes later that they're in the thick of things, pushing back the invaders hard. If anything, it would be more difficult to drag it out, given she was not only using Decomposition on enemy after enemy, dropping one with each gesture from from her right hand, but she was also Decomposing any bullet that they actually manage to fire towards her when they realize she's the biggest threat there if they get an opportunity to shoot.

From her left hand, each movement initiated Regrowth on one of her injured allies. Kazama seems to realize how much she's juggling within the first five minutes, and has some of the soldiers better at defensive magic fall back to cast shields around her so she can stop having to deal with the bullets.

In other circumstances, they'd probably be a bit peeved at having to protect her rather than their fellow soldiers, but given what she's doing, if anything, they seem somewhat honored at being entrusted with the task of keeping her safe. In fairness, she was healing their fellow soldiers nonstop as well as taking out the enemies that were threatening them, so it's not that surprising.

Captain Kazama himself as well as Sanada were sticking close to her side, seeming to take it as their duty to act as her final line of defense.

She flicks a look at Kazama, “Thanks. It was getting harder to keep on top of all of the bullets the more they realized I was the one turning them to dust without letting my Regrowth use on the soldiers slip up.”

He nods, “I figured as much, given you were disintegrating or whatever you wanna call it fewer and fewer enemies. Honestly, I was starting to get concerned you were at risk of overclocking.”

She shakes her head, “It was just the number of targets for one or the other of my abilities. I'm not even at fifty percent usage of the magic calculation area in charge of my born specializations, but with so many different things to focus on…”

He nods, “Just leave dealing with any of the bullets they manage to fire at you to us and focus on destroying the enemies and healing the soldiers. We won't let a single round through, now will we men?!”

That last part gets a rather fervent agreement, and she chooses to trust that they know what they're doing and starts ignoring the guns fired at her. Every now and then, a lucky shot will break through a shield, but it's easy to use Regrowth on whoever was holding that shield before they can even start to fall due to the hit. The only time she uses Decomposition on any bullets at that point is on ones that are on a trajectory to score a headshot on someone on her side if they land.

In time, and with other forces driving in the sides towards them, they push them all the way back to the water's edge. It was still more of a one sided slaughter than a real battle, but the fact it seems to be missing most of the characteristics that one would expect in one -the explosions, the blood, the bodies- seems to make it difficult to comprehend for the enemies as they just keep fighting, seemingly without even thinking to try to retreat.

There wasn't even really noise, since the enemy had been decimated enough that she'd told the people that had been shielding her priorly that there were few enough things to juggle that it was more efficient for them to shield their fellows just in case something slipped by her and had subsequent taken over dealing with any bullets fired at them. It was the only noise on the battlefield, given that her allies had even stopped firing themselves at this point, seeming to have realized that at this point, it was more of a waste of ammo since she'd get to whoever they were shooting at in time and were mostly there as backup to prevent things from getting more complicated by her potentially being surrounded, and to secure anyone who has the sense to surrender. If anyone would actually have the sense to do so anyway.

Their command finally tries to order a retreat. She supposes the lack of the characteristic of a normal battle hadn't totally numbed them to what was happening, given they practically start fighting over who gets to climb into the amphibious assault craft first, but she's not about to let the morally corrupt cowards just turn tail and run, so with a sweep of her right hand, she disintegrates the landing craft.

More than one of them scramble away as though it's some sort of virus that will spread to them, even as they glance hurriedly between where they had been and her, while the others just kinda whip towards her with wide eyes.

She tilts her head, then says in fluent Chinese, “Given that you've finally realized the futility of fighting,” One of the men in the Onna Airborne that speaks Chinese and has been trying to call for them to surrender up until now quicksteps over to Kazama and starts murmuring the translation in his ear, “I suppose this is when I give you the option of surrender or death.”

She lifts her right hand vaguely as she said it, threat clear, and it seems to be the straw that breaks the camel's back given they start just hurling their weapons into the water, as hurried as if they were hot metal that was burning them without even waiting for the okay from their commander, and throw their hands up.

She glances up at Kazama who steps forward and starts ordering his men through sorting through them and securing them. She doesn't drop her hand though as she observes, and Sanada flicks a look at her, “You can relax now Miss Toshiko.”

She shakes his head, “You never know when someone's going to showcase just how stupid they are. So not until they're in cuffs.”

He nods, “I don't think there's much chance of that, but fair enough.”

They aren't trying to keep their voices down, and other than Kazama's commands, it's actually pretty quiet. It seems to be enough to make their voices carry, and honestly, just the way the Onna Airborne relaxes just a smidge more at the reassurance that she was watching and had their backs in case of any funny business makes it perfectly worth refusing to fully stand down for a bit longer in her opinion.

As things start to really get into motion and Kazama steps back to stand beside her and keep watch while his men work through the captives, a communications officer hurries up, “Message from HQ! A detachment of the enemy fleet is approaching from Aguni! Two high speed cruisers, and four destroyers! It's too late for interception! Their artillery is estimated to come into range in 20 minutes! We have to get away from the coast as fast as possible!”

Kazama turns grim, "Get me a communicator.”

“Sir!”

The surrendered forces, apparently understanding Japanese, seem to hold their breaths collectively and turn to their commander, but he gives no indication of resisting and no one makes a break for it. 

She listens idly as Kazama speaks into the communicator, "This is Kazama. Could some torpedo boats… No anti-ship aircraft are available either? What shall we do with the POWs then? ...Understood.” Handing the communicator back, Kazama takes a deep breath and gives the Onna Airborne a firm look, "In 20 minutes time, this area will fall within range of enemy guns! All units take charge of the prisoners, and evacuate inland!”

She frowns, “There isn't time for that, especially without transport, and that's before even taking into account the POWs.”

Kazama gives her a grim look, “There's no other choice, now is there?”

She flicks a look at the POWs, then draws one of the CADs Sanada had loaned her to look over, which the man seems to recognize and asks before she can use, “Is that one of my CADs?”

She glances back, “Yeah, my own is currently out of commission because I was going to finish up some software work I started last night this morning. I had them on me because I was going to bring them by today, and given the circumstances, I figured you wouldn't mind me borrowing them a little…”

He flashes her a smile, “No, not in the slightest. I was just a little thrown.”

She nods, then casts a soundproofing barrier spell as well as one to blur out their lips so no one can read them around the three of them, not bothering to chase Sanada away since she has no idea if there's some sort of lock down on his creations that needs his approval to remove.

She pauses at what she's about to reveal, then sighs, “Bring me that CAD, the sniper equipped with range extending sequences, that Sanada showed me in his lab and I can sink them all before they're even in firing range.”

Kazama opens and closes his mouth a couple times before he seems to find his voice, “Beg pardon? How could you possibly…”

Then she turns back to Kazama, “I'm going to start by asking you this. If you know full well how to throw a dart, but have never seen a dartboard and just had the idea of the bullseye explained to you, you wouldn't struggle to hit it, would you?”

He blinks, “Well, no. If you already know how to throw a dart and aim it…”

She nods, “It's relevant because it's a similar situation here. I've never used Decomposition in this manner, but I know where to aim it, having the proverbial bullseye explained to me.” Some of his confusion clears up as he understands why she brought something so odd up, “You are familiar with the concept of mass being energy at its most basic I assume? E=MC squared and all that?” He nods again, “I wasn't overstating my abilities when I said I can Decompose anything I can see, visually or with Elemental Sight. One of the uses of Decomposition is to Decompose mass down into energy in an instant.”

He makes a choking noise and Sanada’s eyes blow wide, “That-!”

She shrugs and looks away, “I was hoping I'd never have to use it, but essentially I'm technically capable of setting off any matter as a non-radioactive nuclear explosion. That's also why I need Sanada’s long range CAD though, since it's… not exactly magic you wanna use from anywhere close by.”

Sanada chews his lip, “I… I don't know if it has the range to destroy them before they get into their firing range though…”

She flicks him a humorless smile, “I still don't know how you guys rustled up an armor suit in my size and on such short notice at that, but these are all equipped with Tōkōkuro Mihana’s flight devices.”

Kazama's looks surprised, “Well, yes, I was honestly forgetting that since the Onna Airborne haven't gotten particularly familiar with it and it probably would've caused more problems than helped, so we weren't using it, but how do you know that? And if you're spotted…”

She glances away, “I'm very familiar with Tōkōkuro Mihana’s work. It was more a recognition at a glance sort of thing. And I have magic to deal with the possibility of them detecting me or anyone with me when if necessary.”

Of course she was capable of recognizing her own work, but she wasn't kidding about being willing to help the military in various ways, and after she and Ushiyama had put out the flight devices, they'd been contracted to design the very suits they were now wearing, though she doesn't explain that to them. That just seems to puzzle them even more, but Kazama shakes himself, “We're getting distracted. Lieutenant Sanada, go retrieve your long range CAD.”

As Sanada starts to salute, she adds, “You guys also need to issue a tsunami warning. Since I've never used it before, I can't entirely gauge with absolutely certainty how to make sure the detonation doesn't trigger one.”

They nod firmly, and only once that's done does she bring the barrier down, and now that he's sure there's nothing else, Sanada activates the flight device on his suit and tears off even as Kazama changes up his orders to just focus on finishing up getting the prisoners secured quickly and getting off the beach and to higher ground to avoid the potential tsunami that may be incoming as soon as possible.

He doesn't mention in the slightest that she may cause the tsunami, just that it may be occurring, which honestly only makes the prisoners pale even more. She hadn't even though they could physically get any more cooperative, but apparently the dual threats of her and a tsunami potentially hitting soon that they need to get away from manages to muster the thought to be impossible from them.

He sends them off less than a minute before Sanada comes back with the long range CAD, though he doesn't touch down, just hovers for a moment, face uncertain before he glances at Kazama, “Sir, we… We aren't going to just let a middle schooler take off all on her own to deal with this, are we?”

Kazama gives him a firm look, “I had absolutely zero intention of having her go entirely alone. Even if you ignore everything else, given the burden she's shouldering, it would be criminallyneglectful of me not to make sure she has backup if she needs it.”

Sanada’s face becomes relieved as he lands and passes the CAD to her, which she immediately starts working on, before he turns to Kazama and snaps into a salute, “Sir, I would like to request to go with and serve as potential backup for the two of you as well!”

Kazama nods, “Permission granted Lieutenant Sanada.” Then he turns his gaze to her and grows confused, “What are you doing?”

She can't blame him, given she's pulled the bullets out of the clip and is Decomposing and Regrowing them, “Distance doesn't really matter in the information dimension in the sense we're used to in the physical world, but the further away something is in the physical world, the more data you have to shift through in the information dimension to find something. I'm basically coating them with my Psions by doing this though, which makes them a kind of beacon I won't be able to lose or struggle to pinpoint, at least until it dissipates.” She slides the clip back into place and turns her gaze to them to see their expressions start to gain understanding, “In simple terms, it's like making them a flare at night. Really hard to miss.”

Kazama nods, “That makes an awful lot of sense. I'm a bit embarrassed I didn't think about it myself in retrospect.”

She flashes him a smile, then she turns to the ocean, “...I should probably do a test shot to know what the range is first though.”

She glances at Kazama with a questioning look, and getting the hint, he nods, “Permission granted Special Officer.”

As she brings the sniper up, she can't help but feel a flicker of bemusement. She'd told the Captain she couldn't see herself joining the military because of her personality and she'd absolutely meant it, and yet, she'd been given that rank before they went out. It didn't mean she was fully in the military, the rank had basically been created for when civilians needed to be mobilized to avoid all the issues of them not officially being enlisted. It was essentially exactly half of what she had said she was willing and suited to do for the military, that is, the half about being called upon when necessary.

Shaking the thought off, she focuses on the CAD part and the modifications she'd made on the fly to improve its range extending capabilities, activating them and surprising Sanada with the obvious changes to the spellwork which she'd managed to do by altering the coding, using various Decomposition and Regrowths. Since there weren't enough lines of code, in some cases she takes advantage of the fact some experimenting had revealed that while it does nothing if done to the physical world, when applied to digital information it makes the system glitch out and duplicate it if she uses Regrowth on a line but Decomposes her Regrowth getting rid of its current state simultaneously. It doesn't work in the physical world, but digitally it causes a glitch, having both versions existing simultaneously which makes a more permanent duplicate. It easily gives her more coding to be able to modify.

Finishing up the spell, she fires over the water. Tilting her head, she lowers the muzzle out of her firing stance as she tracts it with Elemental Sight.

After a beat, she nods, “Alright, I know the range I'm working with now. Plenty far enough away from the blast too.” She turns to the older men, “If I use a different angle rather than fire head on, I'm confident I can do it at twenty kilometers.”

Kazama and Sanada both nod, determination taking over their faces, even as the Captain gives her a humorless smile, “Then it's good we can go to them. That's within their firing range, and we certainly don't want them getting close enough to fire on the island.”

She nods in agreement, “Do we radio them to give them a chance to surrender first, or...?”

Kazama sighs, “There's not much point to be honest. Since they have no idea what we're doing, they'd just think it's some sort of bluff, and given the circumstances, I'm not comfortable with potentially tipping them off to our presence anyway.”

She nods again, then flicks a bit of magic at all three of them to hide them from digital detection and then a powerful notice me not before keying them into each others spells so they have no problems, having done it in that order so they'd get a taste of her magic themselves, then she activates her flight device, and the other two follow suit before they start to head towards their destination, “Given this isn't exactly something we'll want to be… particularly near, please let me know when we're approaching twenty kilometers so we can be as far as possible.”

Sanada hums in agreement, which she can really only hear over the wind of them rushing towards the enemy fleet because of their helmets reducing the noise of it and the com link between them, “I got the data from HQ pulled up on my visor. I'll let you know.”

She nods as she murmurs her thanks, and their flight gains a sort of partly determined, partly grim silence for a while before Sanada breaks it when he speaks up again, “We're approaching twenty kilometers!”

She pulls to an abrupt stop, causing the other two to have to turn back to her when they inevitably kept going a little further at her stopping without warning. Kazama tilts his head, “Special Officer?”

She lifts the rifle device out of her more lax resting position and readies herself, “While I have confidence in my spellwork hiding us, it's always better to be safe rather than sorry, and to cut down on the time between them entering range, me firing, and when I'll set my magic off, it's better if I'm already ready and let them come that last little bit into my range. Speaking of, Sanada, can you forward the info on their positioning to me?”

Sanada doesn’t hesitate to start doing it, and it pops up inside her visor a moment later. Kazama nods even as this all happens, “Ah. That's a good point. It should limit how long they'll potentially have to see through your spells and start firing on us as well.”

She nods, getting herself ready, and since she doesn't have that much time, she leaves calculating the precise angle of firing to get all of the incoming boats in one fell swoop at maximum range to Rowena, utilizing the intel Sanada had forwarded to her visor. She even has her calculate exactly how long is the bare minimum of reaction time before she can pull the trigger so the bullet will reach its destination at the same time the detachment is pulling into position. When she's calculated it all, Rowena displays a line on the angle she needs to lift the gun to as well as a timer counting down to when she needs to fire.

She adjusts until she's lined up with the red line which changes to green to indicate she's lined up correctly, then just holds her position as she watches the timer count down.

The moment the red timer switches to green and a ‘Go!’ flashes over it, she pulls the trigger.

She quickly switches from holding it in both hands to just one as she lifts her right towards the bullet even as she tracks it, waiting for it to be in position based on the optimal location information Rowena has pulled up on her visor. There's a heavy beat, the brief moments between when she's committed to the action and the proverbial guillotine drops as the bullet moves as breathtaking speeds given the addition from the acceleration magic before the bullet gets to where it's supposed to be -or where Rowena undoubtedly added in her reaction time and it's at the point she's told she needs to act for it to be in the correct position- and she uses the ability her family had dubbed Material Burst for the first time in her life.

They don't have to worry about potentially damaging their eyes from the light given the visors automatically keep the light level filtering through at a consistent level, so she stares at it in a mixture of sorrow at the fact she had to use it, that they didn't get a chance to surrender, and a potentially misplaced sense of satisfaction that such immoral monsters that think its okay to fire on civilians and children have been dealt with.

She sighs as she turns back to Kazama and Sanada, “It'll probably take a few moments for the static to clear from the satellite feed. I'd prefer to stay just to make sure it's been dealt with properly if it's alright with you Sir.”

Kazama nods, “It would be wiser to confirm.” Then he stares at her a few moments before turning away, “I'm sorry you were put in a position to have to use something like that.”

She hums a bit tiredly, “You and me both, but I'd rather have to do it then to stand back and let an unknown amount of people die.”

Kazama nods in agreement and a solemn silence envelopes them as they settle in to wait.

She feels unbelievably tired at the joint funeral service for the victims of the attack two days ago. Yuki is standing solemnly next to her, though Miya and Honami seem a bit more stoic. She wonders idly if they just have better control of themselves, or if the Yotsuba have stripped them of their ability to care.

The entire thing just fills her with sorrow, each name on the temporary sign that will inevitably be replaced with a permanent monument feeling like a personal failure, even though she realistically knows it isn't. It doesn't stop her from feeling that way though.

They reach the front of the line to place their respects and as she lays the flowers she brought down she can't hold back a murmured, “I'm sorry I couldn't save you…”

Yuki peers up at her, “Onee-sama? You had other things to prioritize and even you can't be everywhere at once.”

She closes her eyes, forcibly reminding herself that for one thing, he's not even a teenager yet, and for another, the priming going off means he basically worships the ground she walks on and thinks she can do no wrong. To an outsider, Yuki undoubtedly sounds like he's just being reasonable, but… Yuki could be fairly… callous in her opinion. She blames it on the way the Yotsuba focused on him so much, probably unintentionally driving in the basis of their ideals, even with the fact he'd shrugged off their poison regarding her specifically.

She couldn't say how much of it was their mother's priming, but it all accumulates and comes together in him treating her saving innocent people or not as less of a moral duty, and more of an honor on the part of those that are saved.

She takes a deep breath as they move away to let others behind them come up, “No, I can't be everywhere at once, but there is a moral obligation to do one's best to save the innocent, and those with moral fiber inevitably feel failure at those they could not. Of course I feel guilty for those I failed, particularly for those who are children like you.”

Yuki's face darkens a little, presumably at her wording making it clear, as she's been doing sort of on purpose for the past couple of days, that her saving him had nothing to do with him specifically but was more a product of what he was, namely someone she would currently deem an innocent since he hasn't crossed lines yet -though she honestly doesn't have faith in his ability to stay an innocent- and an innocent child at that.

She supposes some people may find her cruel for making that clear, but he and his priming and recent obsession made it feel like she had little to no options since she wanted to draw the line clearly to him, but she was still trying to figure out how to approach the topic. Especially since she's not entirely sure he even realizes he's in love with her, and if he isn't, it may very well just confuse him even more.

But also… maybe she was a little cruel, because Yuki genuinely didn't mean anything more to her as things currently stand. He was little more than an innocent child that happened to be related to her rather than family or anything else.

She sighs quietly again.

She jolts slightly at Miya’s voice piping up suddenly from her door, “I'm surprised you didn't say anything to me… but then again, from that surprise, it seems like you genuinely didn't know I was here?”

She sighs tiredly, “I was practicing with my Element Sight earlier and have a headache from it, so I have it's range pulled back to the minimum I can get it to of about half a meter radius around me.”

Miya hums as she walks in, looking over the relic research she's been admittedly hyperfocusing on just to have something to do so she doesn't go mad from the Yotsuba lock down that's keeping her from contacting her soulmates and has been for the past week.

There's a beat of silence before Miya suddenly speaks up, disapproval clear in her tone, “You've been pulling away from Yuki.”

She snorts, “That's because I'm still trying to figure out if he's even aware that the priming you put in him when you intended for us to get married in the future finally got him and he's in love with me, and if so, how to explain to him gently that he's better off trying to move past it.”

Miya sounds rather displeased, “Is it really necessary to even bring it up in the first place? Laws and social expectations should-”

She huffs, “Maybe with a little bit of time to let go of it on his own, but with the way he's been getting lately, I've absolutely been thinking that it's a boundary I have to make clear. And it's better if it's made perfectly clear as early as possible that it's better for him if he just moves on so he doesn't hold out false hope, since regardless of whether the question is ‘can I’ or ‘will I’ when it comes to returning his feelings, the answer is a resounding no.”

The tiny sucked in breath lets her know that she may not have to have that conversation, even though it's far from how she wanted to break it to him. Something that's confirmed when she reluctantly expands her Elemental Sight range again and sees Yuki, hands covering his mouth, tears in his eyes, pressed tight to the wall next to her open door.

She sighs again as she turns away tiredly as she retracts her Elemental Sight, “It's entirely on your head for setting him up for heartbreak. If all he wanted was a normal sibling relationship, that would be fine, but we both know that's not what's happening. And as things currently stand, I'm not comfortable with even that since it may encourage that primed ‘love.”

She studiously ignores the almost inaudible patter of rushing feet as well as Miya looking away with a bitter expression before she turns and leaves.

She's listening to the arguing in irritation. It's getting closer to two weeks since Okinawa and the Yotsuba recalling all of its members and going into lockdown and they really weren't any closer to any sort of ‘solution’ to the close call. 

The lights flicker out for less than ten seconds, but even as the Yotsuba seem to freak out, she's not concerned, quite the contrary, a grin immediately takes over her formerly irritated expression given she's perfectly familiar with the hum in the air.

It's that which drives her to climb to her feet casually, though there's no point moving until they're back on and she knows where he's going to pop up.

When they do, she doesn't hesitate to turn her widening grin at him, not having to move at all since he appeared right next to her when the lights came back on. Before she can say anything, Ayako lets out something of an aborted yelp and she glances over to find her staring in fear at the mask, “Don't look at its eyes.” Then she turns back to Sora, “You didn't have to come you know.”

Sora, in his full Hei gear, temporarily magically resized for his currently smaller form -which makes her stupidly glad she'd included that in its capabilities, even if it was more of a ‘what if he gets shrunk down/de-aged by a contractor ability/magic?’ thing at the time since a standard spell temporarily cast either wouldn't work or potentially damage it-, snorts in vague amusement, “Yeah, I kinda did. Miho was freaking out because you were out of touch.”

Her smile fades a little, “Sorry about that, after Okinawa, the Yotsuba recalled everyone and basically went into lock down for the time being while they,” She lifts her hands to make quotation marks while she speaks the quoted word sarcastically, “discuss’ how to deal with the close call of members of the Yotsuba almost getting caught up in a surprise attack.”

He shakes his head, “Which I suppose I can sort of understand.” Then his tone becomes amused, “But that's why I'm here, because you aren't allowed to disappear off the face of the earth for almost two weeks with no warning or explanation and subsequently Miho basically demanded that I check on you and storm the proverbial gates to get you out if I had to.”

Osamu, noticeably a bit shaky, undoubtedly at someone slipping into the so ‘hidden and impenetrable’ Yotsuba village, manages enough bluster to sneer out, “Like a single man, a mere boy at that if your height is any indication, could take on the Yotsuba and walk away the victor.”

She can hear the mean grin in his voice as he all but purrs out like the big kitty panther he is at heart, “I can't?” The lights flicker off for another second, and when they come back on, they can all see the icicles that had climbed up from the floor to stop less than an inch away from practically every throat in the room, with the only exceptions being the kids in general and adults she was fond of, “Are you sure about that?” You could easily make out a pin hitting the floor in the quiet as the icicles inch that little bit closer, “Sure enough to bet your life?”

She snorts and elbows him in the side, “Quit toying with them. I swear you're like a cat playing with mice.”

He snickers, “They started it.”

Maya chuckles lightly, “Should I take it that this is the Sora I've heard so much about?”

She turns with a smile, “Yup!”

Yuki looks a little troubled, “And Sora is…?”

She laughs, “My boyfriend!” Yuki flinches ever so slightly at that, “It's not open polygamy, but we do have another shared partner in our girlfriend Miho.” She gives the gaping Yotsuba a bit of a mean grin as she purrs out in what Hei had once deemed her ‘Dragon voice’, “My boyfriend who may not be capable of Decomposition and the like, but arguably is just as dangerous as me in general for the record.”

She wasn't even really lying about that. BK-201's power was, as Bai had figured out right before she got rid of the Heaven's Gate, not electricity exactly, but molecular manipulation. So while he didn't have Decomposition, he could theoretically do a lot of its most dangerous applications as well. Mitsugu gives her an angry look, “In which case, I assume you're how he knows where the Yotsuba village is?”

Sora snorts, “Don't flatter yourself. The only thing Toshiko did was confirm where this little hidden village of yours was. Miho and I had already figured it out. And no, I'm not telling you how.”

She chuckles, “Not that I have any shame about telling them if I had. They already know this as well as why, but I have more loyalty to Sora and Miho than I do even the kids and the like.” She shakes her head as she turns back to Sora, “Anyway. The Obeisance?”

He shrugs, “Hoshi is napping.”

She hums in understanding, but doesn't get to say anything before Maya pipes up, “Well, even if good reasons are given to keep the lock down mostly in place a while longer, I suppose the communication jamming in the barriers borders should be stopped. There's no reason to call threats upon oneself unnecessarily.”

Sora snorts, “Might be the smart play if you're not going to let Toshiko leave periodically to call and let me and Miho know she's fine, yeah.” He shakes his head, then uses the function she'd built into his mask mostly to let him eat if he couldn't take it off to have the section around his mouth melt up into the rest and leans over to give her a chaste kiss. As his mask settles back into its normal form, he sweeps his gaze over the Yotsuba, “Anyway, I was just here to check to make sure Toshiko was fine and bust her out and extract a river of blood of vengeance if necessary, so my business here is done. Your security is garbage though, just so you know.”

Then the lights flicker back out and he's gone like a breath in the wind when they turn back on.

She giggles, both in amusement at his antics like his parting shot, as well as the attempted hidden fear on the majority of the assholes among the Yotsuba's faces. She feels a little bad for the nervousness of some of the more tolerable Yotsuba though and waves her hand down like she's casually telling someone to sit, “Oh relax. Sora isn't a danger to either innocents or people who treat me, our girlfriend, and his sister well.”

And it is satisfying to see some of the more hostile Yotsuba and uppity servants pale at the implied threat even as the ones who know damn well that it doesn't apply to them, yet hadn't realized they weren't in danger yet like the kids and Maya and Hayama, relax at the reassurance.

It is a crying shame though. On one hand, again she isn't a pedophile and wouldn't anyway but it's nice to have the reassurance that something that used to get her going a bit won't affect her. On the other, she very much used to enjoy and found Hei being an absolute threat to whoever he decided deserved it a bit of a turn on.

Well, given the Yotsuba are stubborn enough that she sometimes wonders if certain members of them are even capable of realizing they were wrong, there's bound to be plenty of opportunities to admire it, whether purely non-sexually or not so innocently when they're older.

Something to look forward to after Sora's seventeen birthday.

She sighs a bit tiredly as she eyes the island out of the window while they wait for the car Honami had ordered to arrive. Miya had delicately requested that she come with to help with Yuki's attempts to get a better handle on the Niflheim spell at Miyaki Island, quickly adding that that they weren't going for the usual reason Yotsuba use Miyaki for training, but just because there are a few administration things she needs to go and do in person. She'd simply decided it was a good time for some training, given how isolated Yuki would be given the danger of the spell if he loses control, particularly given his usual training grounds have been unavailable for a decent chunk of time and will continue to be for a while.

He's been struggling with the spell, so Miya was hoping she'd be willing to come with and watch with her Elemental Sight to potentially spot whatever problem he was having. She'd reiterated that it has nothing to do with Miyaki Islands… usual use.

Miyaki was practically brand new for an island, at least from the viewpoint of the age of most landmasses. It was less than two hundred kilometers from Tokyo, and was less than a century old, but she couldn't help but feel a bit of sorrow over the blood it's been soaked in for the majority of its life.

The island was owned by the Yotsuba, but had a prison on the western end under the jurisdiction of the Defense Forces on it, though even under their jurisdiction, the Yotsuba were the ones who actually did most of the managing of it. The prison houses any magician criminals, both foreign agents as well as locals, that the Defense Forces deem too dangerous to be anywhere near civilians, hence why they're isolated away with a strip of the ocean between them.

The problem is, the prison's potential escapees are essentially treated as training to get real life combat experience as well as make sure any ‘trainees’, whether Yotsuba by blood or their servants, won't freeze up when it comes time to take a life. To try to escape Miyaki prison is to sign up for an execution as well as waive any right to surrender. And sometimes those escapees are practically coerced into making an escape attempt.

Given that the world as a whole, and even Japan specifically, for all they have a facade of secure civility are actually still fairly unstable even after almost three decades since World War three officially ended, she can kinda see why. She understands the reasoning for it, and depending on the crimes of the person in question, she can even agree with it on principle that if they've crossed certain lines, they can at least be useful in making sure upcoming generations are capable of handling themselves and doing what's necessary. That being said, she does not agree with it by pure virtue of the fact they put any criminal they deem too dangerous in there, so the crime does not always warrant such treatment.

However, on yet another angle of it, given how little the general people of this world care about someone's age if they're a magician, it's arguably the safest way for the kids to get life saving experience before they almost inevitably see real combat.

She'll be the first to admit the entire thing makes her bitter, and enraged, and more than a little depressed even before taking into account her vague sorrow at what the majority of the island's history has been steeped in.

She's actually refused to take part in it on those grounds, which had actually led to a whole meeting with Maya and most of the branch family heads. Osamu had been their spokesperson when they all but demanded she participate in the training, sneering at her thinking it was a weakness towards killing people. That had actually taken place before the Okinawa attack and she'd ended up killing a lot of people. Which probably only made Osamu even more nervous, given when he'd been the spokesperson harassing her and accusing her of being unable to take a life, she'd calmly told them that she could take a life and offered to prove she could kill someone by killing him. Since he seemed to be volunteering and all that.

They'd dropped the complaint as quickly as if it was a lit coal and never brought it up again. Maya had barely held in her amusement until they were gone before bursting into gales of laughter.

She does her best to shake her sour thoughts off as their car arrives. She was already here, she wasn't on Miyaki to kill anyone, and there wasn't really anything she could do about things regarding the prisoners.

There wasn't a whole lot of point in lingering on it and putting herself in a foul mood.

After having been deposited into rooms in the building for higher ups, they head out to get in the practice Yuki was here for.

She watches him try to cast more idly than anything, spotting the problem immediately. She stirs after his first attempt, “Yuki.” He turns to her quickly, “The issue you're having with the magic is that you aren't clearly defining the boundaries, which in turn is leading to a failure to activate.”

Miya sighs slightly, “Yes, that would certainly do it, wouldn't it? No wonder it's been failing to activate…”

She hums, and Yuki fiddles with his CAD before his voice comes out, quiet and a bit embarrassed, “Onee-sama…”

He falters there, and it takes everything in her not to sigh. She's overheard Miya ask him before about his seeming embarrassment, and he's insisted it's because he's only just seen past the lies the Yotsuba had fed him about her and started cultivating a sibling relationship with her. It was theoretically believable, but in all honesty, given the conversation she knows he overheard, she's pretty sure it's actually embarrassment at calling the girl he's in love with ‘sister’.

After a beat, Yuki musters himself and continues, “Then, Onee-sama, what do you suggest I do to get better at it?”

She hums as she looks away while thinking, “In the immediate? Just be aware of where you're going wrong. I'll try to think of another way to help sort out the issue.”

Yuki nods, “Okay Onee-sama.”

She enters Miya’s rooms when they're supposed to meet up again for more of Yuki's practice, her and Yuki having been left to tend to anything they need to do like homework or if there's nothing in particular they need to do then to just relax in their rooms and read or something while Miya saw to the reason she'd needed to come to the island to begin with.

She strides over to Yuki to hold out the virtual reality headset. He gives her a puzzled look, “Onee-sama?”

She can understand why he'd be so confused. Virtual terminal devices are well known to sometimes have adverse effects on magicians, but that was less anything to do with AR or VR itself actually affecting their brains or something in some way, and more due to the fact they can be realistic enough that it's difficult to tell it apart from reality. In turn, because of how easy and effortless the magic in their games and the like is, magician children who go beyond what they're actually capable of in real life, when said abilities they actually have in real life inevitably fail to match up, can end up viewing it as a personal failure, unable to reflect on where their own magic falls short, subsequently losing the drive to improve.

She shrugs, “The only program on this virtual reality terminal is one that will display a three dimensional cube. I thought that perhaps you could use it as an aid to get used to imagining the boundary parameters of the spell, and once you are, it'd be easier to take it away and you would have a clear idea of what to imagine.”

Miya, who had been a bit tense when she saw the VR terminal, relaxes at the explanation, then hums thoughtfully, “That's not a bad idea in general actually… But what if Yuki becomes reliant on it?”

She shakes her head, “I wasn't suggesting he cast with it continuously until he's mastered the Niflheim spell. Just a few times to make sure that's his only problem and to get used to what he needs to imagine, then take it away and only have him use it again as something of a… refresher, or reminder of what he needs to imagine is all.”

Miya hums thoughtfully, and there's a few beats of silence while she thinks before she straightens, “If there's no intention to let him use it too much and potentially become reliant on it, I see no drawbacks. Very well, we'll try this with today's practice.”

It's been a full day since she thought to let Yuki try the VR terminal to try to help him get used to what he's supposed to be imagining. Miya had let him keep it for a while as he practiced Niflheim itself, but she's not surprised when she suddenly speaks up, “Yuki.”

He turns, “Mother?”

She holds her hand out, “Your only real issue at this point is the boundaries of the spell.” She'd spoken to her about it last night, so that wasn't guesswork on her part, “Please give me the terminal and try casting without it.”

Yuki suddenly falters, but reluctantly takes it off and hands it over before turning away to try again as he takes a deep breath. His hand is shaking a bit as he extends it to cast, CAD clenched tight in it, and he almost fails the spell, but at practically the last second it scrapes into a functional form and is successfully cast.

Yuki drops his hand with a rough out breath, then turns to her, “Onee-sama? You… have Elemental Sight, right? Why did it… almost fail? What was I doing wrong?”

She shakes her head, “It's not so much a matter of doing something wrong. As far as I can see, it's just that since you haven't gotten used to it, your mind was so focused on setting the target parameters that your interference strength took a hit. That's all.” She looks away lazily as she cards her fingers through her bangs, “It's more a matter of you know the problem you've been having now, so your mind is hyperfocusing on it. It's just a matter of practice at this point.”

Yuki looks down, “Oh, okay.”

Miya smiles at him ever so slightly, “Try again Yuki. You've done it once successfully without the VR terminal. You just need to get used to it.”

He nods and turns to cast once more. But mere seconds after invoking it, she sees his control over the spell snap and throws an immediate Decomposition at what's left of the rapidly disappearing magic even as she simultaneously uses Regrowth on the local air to rewind it from its frozen state back to when it was normal temperature. It all happens fast enough that there's little more than a frigid breeze for a split second.

She frowns lightly at where Niflheim had almost rampaged out of control. Strictly speaking, the magic sequence of Niflheim itself would disappear, and was already in the process of disappearing like any magic sequence would if the caster loses their grip on it. The problem was that because Niflheim plummeted the temperature within the boundaries of the spell, even if the spell itself disappeared, the freezing cold air wouldn't and would rush out as it tries to equalize with the rest of the air.

Miya lets out a shaky breath, “That… could've been bad.” She looks over at her, “Good job at responding immediately.”

Yuki is staring at her silently, seemingly torn between being embarrassed at losing control of the spell to begin with and awe, presumably at how quickly she handled the problem given it's the only thing that makes sense.

She sighs tiredly at the look in his eyes. She was only making sure they didn't die or something from a spell gone out of control. She had not been trying to make things even more difficult for him to move on by increasing his unhealthy obsession with her.

You can't win them all, that's for sure.

As they get back to Miya’s room, Toshiko can't help but sigh. The entire way back, Yuki's awe towards her has been fading away in the face of a creeping depression at the mistake he made. She's been holding her tongue the entire way back, hoping Miya will actually act like a mother and step in to comfort him, but she hasn't.

Nor does it appear to be a matter of waiting until they're back to her rooms, given the first thing she does is frown in disappointment at Yuki. Stepping in before Miya can say anything, she turns her head to Yuki as she barely holds back another sigh, “Cheer up Yuki.” He looks up uncertainly, his expression seeming to be torn between his depression at failing and in front of her of all people if the glances out of the corner of his eye towards her as his depression wracked up higher and higher on the way back is any indication, and the fact that his activated priming makes him want to take everything she says as practically gospel, “The fact you lost control of the spell doesn't really reflect on nor say anything about you. It may be simple in theory, but Niflheim is actually a fairly advanced spell, and you aren't even a teenager yet.”

As Yuku looks down with furrowed brows, she flicks a look towards Miya, who had started to open her mouth, staring her down as she finishes, “If it reflects on anyone, it's on those who push you to try to master such advanced magic so young.”

Miya closes her mouth, which she'd undoubtedly had opened on a chastisement, as she looks away.

The conversation drifts to Yuki's recent magical attempts from there and how he can improve. It makes Yuki's mood bounce back, and while she's generally glad he isn't so depressed, the way he looks at her makes her uncomfortable.

The conversation breaks off as an alarm signals an imminent volcanic eruption.

Without hesitation, she moves to contact whoever is in charge. The moment he answers the embedded terminal's call she starts speaking, “This is Shiba Toshiko calling.”

He's just as no nonsense at the moment as she is, “Lieutenant Yanagi Muraji, the first garrison’s commanding officer.”

She nods, “Is that a false alarm?”

He huffs out a gusty breath, and she just hears him mutter, “I wish.” Then his voice regains a normal volume, “Negative ma'am. There is genuine danger of an eruption. Please evacuate immediately.”

She purses her lips, “I have to ask, was there some sort of failure in the monitoring equipment? This seems rather sudden.”

He sighs, “Unknown ma'am. The magma pressure just suddenly began to spike and kept rising forty minutes ago. Thereafter the pressure has not dropped, and just a moment ago, it reached the alert level.”

She bites back a curse, “Do we have a timeframe on it?”

Yanagi has zero hesitation in his voice, “An hour at the earliest.”

She purses her lips, “That means there's too little time to evacuate everyone.”

Yanagi sounds frustrated at that, “It will be difficult to evacuate everyone including the prisoners, yes.”

She looks down thoughtfully, mind whirling through the possibilities before she settles on a course of action and immediately uses Occlumency to bring up the relevant Activation Sequence and start rewriting it, which shouldn't take too long since it's not a complete overhaul or anything, “Lieutenant Yanagi, I understand that we're on the priority list of evacuees, but there's something I need to do and I need at least twenty minutes for it.”

He sounds a little anxious at that, “Ma'am… Very well, I can't force you to evacuate immediately. Let us know when you're done so we can evacuate you. But what are you even doing if I may ask?”

She nods sharply even though he can't see it, “That… I suppose you can say there's an experiment I need to run under the current conditions.”

Yanagi seems a bit uncertain, but kudos to him, he doesn't let it break his stride, “If you can keep to the timeframe you mentioned it should be fine. Do you require a car or something?”

She shakes her head habitually, “No, it'll be conducted near the lodging. I'll be in touch shortly to let you know I'm ready to evacuate.”

“Understood ma'am. Good luck.”

The call ends at that point, and without even a glance at the other two, she turns and starts to rush out. She's barely aware of Miya and Yuki scrambling to try to keep up rather than just letting her do what she needs to do.

Miya calls after her, “Toshiko! What on earth are you-! We need to evacuate now!”

She doesn't even glance back, “You're more than welcome to, there's something I need to do first.”

As they hurry after her, Yuki, who she can see through her Elemental Sight is biting his bottom lip, “The timing of the volcano's pressure rising, you don't think that… my losing control of my spell had anything to do with it, do you?”

She shakes her head, “That's extremely doubtful, given it was only out of control for a split second.”

Yuki nods as his face relaxes, “Okay.”

Getting outside, she moves away from the exit a bit, more in case anyone needs to use it than anything else, then turns her Elemental Sight towards following the volcano shaft down until she's pinpointed the magma chamber.

Once she's got a lock on it, she uses Occlumency to hand off the modified activation sequence for Niflheim she'd started rewriting as she spoke to Yanagi and finished on the way down. Niflheim doesn't target just air, it cools anything it's used on.

Which is precisely why she uses her Elemental Sight to target it into the magma chamber itself, the boundary parameter purposely set so that when it inevitably hardens the magma, it'll not only cap off the volcano there, but it's at a slope that makes the pressure want to move through the volcanic tunnel network towards one of the other two sleeping volcanoes on the uninhabited side of the island. The first time she'd heard about them, her immediate reaction had been to wonder why on earth the prison had been placed near the only active volcano of the three, but that was entirely because the other two had only recently calmed down and had actually been much worse back when they'd been building the prison. And while there were talks of potentially moving the facilities over there, they can't predict when the volcanoes will wake back up, and if they start to do it only for them to become active again, there would be a lot of money sunk into it with little to nothing to show.

Double checking her work and crossing her fingers that having the pressure forced towards the other two will cause it to at best equalize and at worst set off one of the ones nowhere near anyone, she activates the rewritten Niflheim sequence.

She watches with her Elemental Sight with baited breath as the magma hardens and the pressure starts to get forced into the network between the three as it is now the path of least resistance.

As she watches it rush away, she realizes from the direction that it's actually fairly blocked off from one of the volcanoes. Not entirely mind, just that it was far from the path of least resistance, and much like water, magma and thermal pressure will go towards that naturally. She's relieved to see that it isn't the eastern volcano that's blocked off, since if one of them has to go off, that one is absolutely the best choice, given the landscape of the volcano and the island means it basically flows directly towards and into the ocean.

As an entirely unintended side effect though, the hour Yanagi had told her they had vanishes in a heartbeat as the eastern volcano immediately erupts, despite the fact it wasn't anything like being cooled by water in the magma chamber when she initially redirected it, so the pressure shouldn't have increased from any steam or anything.

She drops her hand even as she braces herself against the faint shakes and rumbles from the eastern volcano's eruption.

Crisis averted. That's enough for her for now.