Rebirth

She tilts her head. Inevitably, if the volcano doesn't go completely dead, the magma will eat through the portion she'd hardened to push the pressure towards the other two. It wasn't a massive problem, even later it shouldn't be, since it should be as simple as checking on it every now and then. It would probably require Elemental Sight, but…

An idea occurs to her and she tugs out her mobile terminal, opening up the necessary program and starting to type quickly without hesitation. It honestly shouldn't be that complicated of a spell especially since she's replicating and enhancing an already existing technology in a spell, so she already knows the way it needs to work, she just needs to write out the sequence to do it, so it shouldn't take that long.

She's hardly been typing for a few seconds before Miya is hurrying up to her side, “What was that rumble? What did you do?!”

She absently tilts her head in her direction without looking away from her terminal or pausing her typing, “You've been having me watch Yuki cast Niflheim for days now. I'm perfectly familiar with its sequence now. I just cast it in the magma chamber to at worst try to delay the eruption, but preferably redirect the pressure to the other two. The best case scenario I was hoping for is that it would cause the pressure to equalize between them and delay an eruption, and even potentially slowly let off said pressure from steam vents and the like itself without any eruption. My second best case scenario was what I got instead."

"Namely that the pressure and the eruption it was causing was diverted to the eastern volcano out of the two, since while there aren't any facilities near either, that one's lava spill is basically a straight shot to the ocean. I don't know if it was already starting to wake up and build pressure or if the blockage from hardened magma was weaker over there or what, but as an unintended side effect, it caused the eruption to happen immediately instead of in an hour. The rumbling was from it going off.”

There's a dead silence for a few moments before Miya asks in faint disbelief, “You… redirected a volcanic eruption?”

She hums idly, “Yeah. There shouldn't be any danger, but it'd probably be safer to evacuate just in case anyway.”

Miya sighs, “Yeah… yeah, that's probably the smartest course of action.”

The evacuation helicopter they had been loaded onto only had Yanagi on board with them. As he was in control of the flight magic powering it and also in charge of flying it in case that failed, it really was just them.

After a few beats of silence, real silence since ambient noise from the helicopter flying is filtered out, Yanagi glances at her, “Miss Shiba… Does your experiment have anything to do with the volcano eruption happening early? And where it wasn't supposed to happen at that? You don't have to answer. It's more for my curiosity than anything.”

She's still typing away at her mobile terminal at speed, “The aim of the experiment was to redirect it to one of the other volcanoes. Setting it off early was an unintended side effect.” she tilts her head, “But if there are any recording devices in the helicopter, I need you to turn them off for now. Also, I need you to call Kazama since it's mostly him I'm looking to talk to.”

Without hesitation, Yanagi pulls out his mobile terminal and starts manipulating it, and she tilts her head in Miya's direction, “Mother, given my intentions and the fact Maya will undoubtedly want to negotiate secrecy with the military, it'll be easiest if she hears for herself what I say, so you should call her. Also, Yuki can I borrow your mobile terminal please?”

Yuki is perfectly enthusiastic, “Of course Onee-sama!”

Miya is rather idle in comparison, “I'm already doing s- Hello Hayama, please put Maya on the phone. ...Hello as well Maya. Toshiko is about to break some secrets to a handful of military, and she figures since you'll want to talk to them to make sure it's kept need-to-know, it'll be easiest if you just hear what she says yourself instead of getting the news later.”

Yanagi waits patiently for her to finish, then holds his terminal towards Toshiko on video call mode showing Kazama, who nods in greeting, “Hello again Toshiko. I've been told you asked Yanagi to call me because you needed to talk to me?”

She nods even as she continues typing on her terminal with one hand, “Yes, but it is technically a Yotsuba secret, and I'm sure Maya will want to negotiate a need to know within the military, so are you alone?”

Kazama nods again from what she can see in her peripheral, “I am.”

In response, she holds up Yuki's mobile terminal displaying a video call with her Mihana robot. Kazama and Yanagi both jolt, “Tōkōkuro Mihana?!”

From the call, Mihana tilts her head, “Yes and no. I am the face associated with that name to those who know it to begin with, but technically-”

She sends a mental signal and Mihana’s face plating opens up, showing she's a robot, then her real body continues, “Mihana’ is a Humanoid Home Helper that I control remotely with magic. Magic which I haven't shared even with the Yotsuba so there's no point asking for the record. Anyway, an AI deals with micromanaging things like making it seem like she's breathing or walking to a destination. But if you talk to Mihana, you're actually talking to me.”

After giving them a few beats to take in Mihana, she ends the call and hands the mobile terminal back to Yuki as she continues, “The reason I'm not looking up, sorry about that by the way, is because I'm currently developing a spell that will help scan below ground, similar to ground penetrating radar but better. It should make it easier to monitor things like volcanoes and get more heads up on when they're going to erupt.”

“If there's a nearby volcano that it's safe to do so like here, you could then have another magician do something similar to what I did to redirect the eruption to the other volcano. If that's not an option, when you see the pressure rising in a way that indicates it'll erupt in the next few weeks, you could do something like drill down nearby and have magicians excavate -using magic from a distance- into the volcano's underground network, and if that itself doesn't cause the pressure to move that way and start going up the shaft you drilled, then you would have somewhere to use magic to redirect it safely to.”

“Given disaster prevention is within the preview of the Defense Force and it would require magicians which are mostly assigned to the 101st, I wanted to get in touch with you to give you heads up so you guys can start preparing. Looking for magicians good at the necessary magic and the like. Given it's not a combat related job, you wouldn't even need to take from the 101st's combat forces nor would they need to be good at combat. Just make them support personnel instead of combat personnel and you should be golden.”

She shakes her head, “Anyway, I don't think this will be too complicated, especially since similar technology already exists so it's more a matter of translating it into a spell and enhancing it, so it should be done anywhere between a few hours to a few days. If it's more complicated then I'm thinking, it'll take a few months but that'll just give you more time to get started on getting everything in order. After I am done, we'll have to run some tests to make sure everything is working right, and unless you want to view the testing, I can get back in touch and send the magic sequence then.”

Kazama shakes his head, “Oh don't worry about not looking up, you're working on something vitally important to the safety of Japan. And I'd actually like to view the testing if you don't mind.”

She tilts her head towards Miya, who sighs, “Given you've already told them about you and Mihana and they can probably work out related things themselves, barring maybe Ushiyama, that's fine.”

Kazama's voice turns curious, “Ushiyama?”

She shrugs, “When I first published Loop Cast, Tōkōkuro Mihana was just me, but like I said when you showed me Sanada's lab, I may be working to improve but right now I'm not great at hardware, so when I started working at FLT's 3rd Division, I started working with Ushiyama on that aspect of things like the Black Series CADs.(1) Nowadays, if you ask anyone in the know, he's the Tōkōkuro to my Mihana.”

Kazama makes an understanding noise, “I see. I was going to ask if you just wanted to do the testing at a military base, but if that's the case, I assume you'd want to do it at FLT in case the magic needs any particular hardware.”

She nods, “Precisely. Anyway, I'm sure you and Maya need to speak about the secrecy of what I told you and Yanagi, so I'll speak to you later. When I need to check if the testing time we're setting up works with your schedule at the latest.”

Kazama nods again, “Sounds like a plan Toshiko. I'll speak to you later.”

The call ends, and so does Miya’s with Maya, and Yanagi slowly lowers his phone, “...If you're Tōkōkuro Mihana and you're only thirteen... doesn't that mean you were only six when you invented Loop Casting?”

She nods with a smile and pops the p, “Yup.”

Yanagi is quiet for a beat, “...You're utterly brilliant.”

She hums idly, “No, not- Ah, I don't usually don't think so, but I suppose in conjunction with my age…”

Yanagi shakes his head with a vaguely amused smile, “You're too modest.”

The evacuation order had been lifted within a day, and she, Miya, and Yuki were staying overnight at the airport lounge. 

Having needed a bit of a break from the new magic sequence, even though it should absolutely be done by tomorrow at this point, she was rewriting the magic sequence for Niflheim a little more extensively. Mostly it was just the tweaks smoothing out inefficiencies she'd dealt with before casting at the magma chamber, but due to the near disaster that had happened with Yuki’s last attempt to use it she was also changing it a little. She was basically just adding a bit to it to restore the state of gas molecules in the air at the end of the spell. It wouldn't undo all of the spells work, since it only affects the air, so anything frozen would stay frozen. It's just to prevent it from going out of control due to the sudden cold spot the caster creates and the inevitable chaos as things try to naturally equalize.

Miya and Yuki were watching her work in interest. She honestly doesn't know why. Yuki was probably just watching due to his obsession, and she supposes theoretically Miya could be more watching the sequence coding she was doing than her, though she wasn't entirely certain on that. Miya's gaze doesn't seem like it's directed at her terminal though why else she'd be looking, she doesn't know.

It honestly makes her a little uncomfortable, but she ignores it as best she can.

After the confirmation that there would be no impact to the safety of the prisoners after the eruption on the eastern region of the island, that night the prisoners were returned to their prisons.

A small lifeboat is floating south of the island at sea. Not a rubber boat, but a boat made of fiberglass. Inside it are two magicians, who are what she and Yanagi are out here for. They seem to be having some sort of discussion as she and Yanagi quietly fly behind them, observing them but not making their move yet, since they want to see if they had a better plan than just trying to row away.

She stirs, then murmurs to Yanagi, “It wasn't a strange coincidence. That small sub is about to surface.”

He nods and they both move down towards them as the sub breaks the surface. Hovering over the water, she calls out, “Trying to escape by submarine is rather cliché.”

Practically in response, bubbles start to come up as the ballast tanks prepare for the sub to dive back down, the occupants fully willing to abandon the escapees. Before they can though, Yanagi uses magic to blow the hatch clean off, making it suicide to submerge since it can no longer dive without flooding.

She shakes her head, “Chou and Rin, isn't it? You know breaking out of prison is a felony, don't you? Are you going to come back quietly, or do I need to make you come back?”

The two don't turn towards them or respond, just dive out of the boat, to try to swim towards the sub. She has no clue what their game plan is, but it doesn't really matter. She just creates shield walls in a cube around both them and the sub even as she Decomposes it, leaving the crew of the small submersible suddenly floundering in the water.

Yanagi shakes his head, voice calm, “You're all under arrest. For you two escapees, you'll be going back to prison with added charges of prison break. For the crew of the sub, you're under arrest for invading Japanese waters and attempted aiding and abetting the escape of criminals.”

When he's done, she adds additional one way shields that block sight and sound around the previous shields and directs the whole cube out of the water and to follow her as they start to fly back to shore.

Yanagi glances at her as they fly, “You know… I gotta admit, after learning what family you're from, I was honestly expecting you'd be more ruthless.”

Her tone is mild as milk when she responds, “Please do not insult me by comparing me to the majority of my family.” Yanagi breaks into laughter at that, and she flashes him a grin before continuing, “If it had been necessary to protect people actively in danger, I wouldn't have hesitated to kill them, but with the current situation being what it was, it would be more of an execution than a reasonable death from taking out active threats.”

He nods, wholeheartedly agreeing with her, “Oh most certainly, it's just…. Not what most expect from someone from the Yotsuba family.” He hesitates a bit, “You don't have to answer if you don't want, but… why do you stay with the Yotsuba if you're so at odds with most of them?” 

Her eyes drift, “That…” She sighs, “Honestly it's mostly for the kids in my generation. I couldn't bear the thought of leaving them to the poison of the older generation. Before that occurred to me, I actually thought about abandoning them when I was six, before I invented Loop Casting, and maybe trading information on the Yotsuba to the Juumonji or something for them taking me in or at least setting me up or something, since out of the 10 Master Clans, they seemed to line up with my morals best from what I know about them."

Yanagi's brows furrow, “...A child shouldn't have to be responsible for other children.”

She shrugs, “Maybe so, but no one else was going to, so…”

Yanagi sighs, “No, I guess there weren't many options, huh?”

She shakes her head, “Nope. And now I'm basically the emotionally adoptive mom to my cousins, even the older ones.”

Yanagi gives her an odd and mildly amused look, “Support and guidance I can get, but isn't mom incorrect? Especially for the older ones.”

She looks up at him, voice deadpan, “Here's a riddle for you. I teach a select group of children morals and life lessons. I help them through their troubles. I soothe them when they're upset. I am the one they come to excited to show me their test results when they did well just because they want to make me proud. I am also the one who tells their birth parents to fight me if they take issue with the morals I teach them and the guidance I give. What am I?”

Yanagi laughs lightly into his fist, “Mom it is.”

She grumbles, “And anyone who wants to take my kids can fight me.”

Before he turns his face away in a poor attempt to hide his amusement, she sees him lightly biting his tongue.

She's mildly surprised when she gets an email from Kazama, letting her know that Special Officer ‘Obara Ryumi’(2), the name she'd picked as her military code name, was now attached to the newly formed 101st after both Kazama and Yanagi, who had been promoted to Captain, had given strong recommendations.

If she, as a Special Officer, was going to be assigned to anyone, the 101st was undoubtedly the best call, given she respects Kazama, who was in command of the 101st, and she wasn't joking before about how the military would inevitably have problems if they tried to put her under the command of someone she didn't respect.

The understanding was that they could call on her for anything from support to military aid, and they'd drawn up a time table of how much time a week they could take up before they needed to compensate her, undoubtedly from her mentioning to Kazama that she didn't mind being called on for free on principle, but if they were going to eat up a lot of her time and pull her away from whatever she was trying to do then it was a slightly different story. In return, she also had access to requesting aid from the 101st as well as the ability to request access to military assets.

After reading the entire thing over, she inputs her fingerprint for the bio-data signature to her understanding and agreement to the terms, since Kazama had made it clear in the email that if there was something she took issue with then she absolute could respond to look into renegotiating things so they're both happier with them.

After she emails it back with her fingerprint, she also attaches a request to be granted access to a Magatama relic so she can study it with her Elemental Sight.

Kazama doesn't hesitate to respond and let her know that he'll look into acquiring the transfer of one to the 101st's care temporarily and the necessary permissions.

She smiles as she leans back. She's still been rather stumped on how to store magic sequences to develop something herself, but if she can get her hands on a Magatama relic…. She tilts her head back to gaze at the ceiling as her mind already begins to shift her plans around. She'd started trying to come up with backup plans given how little progress she'd made towards magic sequence storage, but if she can actually examine a Magatama relic and work it out… She can revert back to her main plan. Even more, she may be able to develop the magic sequence storage earlier than expected and shift around the timing on things.

She can't be too hasty and count on it coming earlier than expected, but there's nothing stopping her from drawing up an alternative to the plan if it does come about earlier then she was initially planning.

It takes everything in her not to start cackling when she sees Miya, Honami, and Yuki's baffled and confused faces at the news report. Inevitably, the talk around it going around collecting dead satellites and using them as resources had only gotten more and more traction as it kept doing it, even after it seemed to finish up building onto itself. Though, she did very much notice that Japan didn't admit that she straight up told them that she, and therefore the satellite, were technically Japanese. She was a citizen after all, and while they had no claim to its ownership, at the moment anyway, they did technically originate from Japan.

Funnily enough, the Great Asian Union, the GAU as it was abbreviated, and the New Soviet Union, or the NSU, which her brain honestly still struggles to wrap itself around how either managed to come out on top locally in the WW3 given just how weak China and Russia had been revealed to be around the same time in her original universe. She had initially thought maybe they were just inherently different from the versions of those countries in said universe, but given the way the war had started off on such a bad foot for them…

Well, she genuinely doesn't understand how they made that turn around. The only possibility that made a lick of sense to her is that as the war dragged on, the smaller counties around them got taxed and were too tapped out after a certain point and ended up absorbed as a result. She shoves her brain off of the almost standard confused mental rabbit hole for her when it comes up(3). Her original funny thought was on the sheer humor in the fact that the GAU and NSU were known to do so much shady crap so often that it was easy as all hell for Japan to basically shrug when asked about how close to its shores it was launched from and just say that for all they knew, it was something the GAU and NSU did, since they had as few answers as anyone else.

That was sort of a lie, but not totally. They knew that the person who launched it claimed to be Japanese, but that was the only thing they knew that the rest of the world didn't, and if it ever came out, they could easily brush it off by saying they questioned her heads up messages’ authenticity.

Even funnier though was Miya and Yuki's sheer confusion which has only grown the more and more that was released about it. This one though… this one takes the cake hands down. She'd honestly originally fretted about whether there was enough space debris to work with, but she needn't have bothered, which had quickly been revealed in a quick online search. There were literally thousands of tons of it up there. She'd contemplated whether or not to snatch it all up, a sort of multiple birds with one stone kinda thing in that. For one, it'd get the hazard out of the way, since while the various governments have gotten better at adjusting where they'd end up falling out of their previous orbits and crashing, there were… definitely still occasionally deaths and damage. Mostly in more rural areas, but that doesn't make them acceptable, just less of a tragedy since it limits the amount of death and destruction compared to hitting a large city.

When she'd first learned that, she'd immediately understood that there weren't as many limits on what she could have Rowena make as she'd initially thought. It slowed the project that was for down somewhat of course. But she'd gone through with the decision anyway, approving Rowena's most ambitious design and told her to snatch everything else as well. If nothing else, it's not like it wouldn't have the storage space as it was processed down into compact materials, and anything subpar altered as needed to bring it up to acceptable standards.

The news that Honami, Miya, Yuki were dumbfounded by today though… was the live footage of her satellite approaching the final piece of space debris. Everything else, everything, after it pulled that on board to start processing, would all be live satellites.

She wasn't too surprised, and was actually satisfied, by the fact that the various governments of the world were already poised to write a ‘new’ law that whenever a satellite went dead from here on out it was still their's, since it meant they would have to carefully monitor and control where they crashed back down. No more tragedies on that front. Which was also why they wrote a ‘new’ law instead of revoking the old one shirking their claim to old satellites, since if they did that, then there was still the hefty bill of backpay they would all owe.

She watches mildly as the orbital platform Rowena has built with the 3D printers and drones to assemble the parts onto it opens its hatch, letting out drones to get behind the defunct satellite and start pushing it back towards the opening.

As the doors close behind the satellite, there's a beat of unnecessarily solemn silence from the news broadcast before the commentators start talking about how with it being taken into the ‘Rouge satellite’ and with everything else in space being a live satellite, there was no longer any space debris around earth. As they start discussing the hopes of there being a brighter future now that the hazard the debris made is gone and what the ‘Rouge satellite’ would do now, she reaches out for Rowena mentally, <Anything else that's slipped my mind?>

Rowena responds immediately, <Negative Creator. Onto phase two?>

She holds back the urge to nod, not wanting the others to question what she was nodding at, <Just to double check, the teleportation gate on board is functioning?>

Rowena doesn't hesitate, <Affirmative Creator.>

She tucks her smile behind her coffee cup, <Then yes. Nothing has come up requiring putting it off.>

Rowena's mental voice becomes rather satisfied, <Understood Creator. Shifting to phase two.>

On the TV, she watches as the orbital platform begins to pull away, drawing the attention of the newscasters. There's a beat of silence before one of them asks in confusion, “Where is it going?”

The other shrugs, “No idea. I suppose we'll have to wait and find out.” Then a wary grin spreads over their face, “Considering we were just speculating about this being the start of a more hopeful future though, I find myself wondering if our comments will age well or not.”

The other newscaster looks down, “I suppose so…”

She leans back, mind already moving back to working on later aspects of the plan. She still has time, so there isn't particularly a rush, but she'd like it done sooner rather than later.

So, here's the thing. Her Occlumency means she's fast at casting in general, but particularly without a CAD. Inhumanly fast by this universe's standards. Which means that when she had to take the casting speed test for First High, she had to actively throttle her own casting speed and manually slow herself down. Problem is, it hadn't really occurred to her before, so she hadn't practiced in trying to control just how much she slowed her casting speed down by all that much before the entrance exam.

Which is why for all she passed, she was placed in course two. It seems like such an inefficient way to do things, and it's turned her attention from the bigger picture in all the things she's been developing for her plan, with occasional developmental detours to work on specific things like general or disaster aid that the military had requested.

She can get why the focus was on getting as many well trained magicians as possible as quickly as possible during WW3, and even for the immediate aftermath as they recovered, but she does not get why Japan hasn't stopped basically funneling magicians into things like the military and police and maybe do things like encourage some of them to pursuing studies in education to increase how many magician teachers there are? Instead of making excuses about not having enough of them and shuffling half of the accepted students in three of the nine high schools into practically just being online students since they don't have actual teachers. She can't decide if it's better or worse that the remaining six magic high schools don't even have course twos. On one hand, it means each of them can only accept one hundred students a year instead of two hundred, but on the other, at least they aren't damn near neglecting half of their students.

It's absolutely something she intends to start pressuring them on, to stop basically forcing magicians into jobs that in some way or another have to do with combat and start diverting to things like education or even just things like general non-combat focused research.

Her frustration at yet another way this universe was completely messed up is probably why she was somewhat… shorter with Yuki than usual, “Onee-sama! I cannot accept this! For you of all people to be in course two-!”

She sighs sharply, “Yuki!” He flinches, and she slips her eyes closed and counts to three mentally as she tries to force herself to be more patient despite her general frustration, “You know full well why I didn't make it into course one. Kicking up a fuss is very much unappreciated.”

Yuki looks down, “I apologize Onee-sama. I let the pride I feel for what my Onee-sama is capable of win over my common sense.”

She glances away, “I understand that, but you really need to work on controlling yourself better.”

Yuki nods glumly, knowing full well she's both right in general given it draws attention to her placement in course two and potentially has people questioning why her own brother thinks she shouldn't be, potentially tipping them off to the fact she's hiding things, as well as the more hidden undercurrent reminder. She had, in fact, had to sit Yuki down and have a blunt conversation with him even after he heard her discussing things with Miya. It hadn't been pleasant in any meaning of the word, but she'd laid down clear boundaries on the fact that while she was fine with them having a sibling relationship, if he tried to push for more, all he'd get was her pulling away herself or pushing him away.

She bites back a sigh. By and large, Yuki has been good about it, and they've built up a bit of a sibling relationship. He does slip up sometimes. Mostly in crowding her physically, which was one of the boundaries she set purely because it made her uncomfortable, not because she generally minds too much when people get close, but because whenever he gets too close he always has an obsessive gleam in his eyes. Though he did sometimes slip up in other ways, the majority of his slip ups happened physically.

She shakes her head at his glum expression, “Just focus on getting ready for your speech as the representative of the first year students.”

He fixes his expression, but she can tell he's still a bit down, “Of course Onee-sama. What will you be doing in the meantime?”

She shrugs, “I don't have anything I need to do to prepare, so I'll undoubtedly just go and kill some time with Sora, Miho, and Hoshi while we wait for the entrance ceremony start time to be closer.”

Yuki twitches slightly, both at the reminder of her partners and of Sora's sister. She's never told Yuki about her reincarnation, and she's made it utterly clear to those that do know that she's not comfortable with him knowing, not because she thinks he can use it against her in some way, he's much like Miya in those regards, but because she knows full well his obsession will lead to a meltdown at the idea that she'd lived an entire life without him, as well as the fact her partners were her full on spouses in everything but this universe's laws. But his priming born obsession means he's always hated Sora and Miho and what they are to her. He doesn't like Hoshi either, jealous of the close relationship she has with her, particularly since he doesn't know why. Doesn't know that she was her husband's sister and as a result, her sister in law in everything but the eyes of this world's government.

While they don't really care what he thinks of them, feeling vague pity for him but otherwise not thinking or feeling anything in particular towards Yuki, she had made one of those boundaries she'd laid out for him be her intolerance of him speaking ill of them. Honestly, he should be grateful towards them. She'd have cut him out of her life just on that alone, not wanting people who hated her soulmates and her sister in law in her life, but they had outright argued with her to give him more of a chance, since it wasn't really his fault in general given it was a result of his priming.

He doesn't even know that though, as such, she's not surprised that it twitches and isn't very genuine when he smiles at her, “I see. I'm glad Onee-sama won't be sitting around bored with nothing to do while you wait.”

She hums idly, “You should get going. It's getting rather close to when they asked you to be there to start preparing.”

He nods, “Of course Onee-sama. I'll see you after.”

She gives another vague hum, and knowing full well he struggles to walk away from her, she turns to leave herself instead of waiting for him to.

As she gets to the other three who were waiting a bit away, both as a matter of what privacy she and Yuki can get out in the open in the school and also because they just didn't want to have anything to do with whatever he was pitching a fit about now, Hoshi glances behind them. Then she turns to them with a vaguely disturbed expression, “Just so we’re clear, while I can't see it happening since I don't have priming and we have a fairly healthy relationship, that boy has instilled a deep seated terror of me crossing lines with Sora, and if that ever happens for whatever reason, I absolutely expect you all to sit my ass down and make it clear, and if that fails, to beat some sense into me. Well before I get to that point at that.”

She presses her lips together to try to hold back her amused grin, even as Sora glances back as well, “Honestly? May not be the younger sibling myself, but as the boy between us, I can't say he doesn't freak me out as well so that's fair.”

Hoshi snorts and quick steps to be in front of him to start walking backwards, “Difference is, brother mine, you have your soulmates you're already obsessed with as a natural deterrent against things turning that way for you. I don't.”

Sora tilts his head, “I suppose that's true enough.”

Miho looks at her in bemusement, “I mean, I can't see it ever happening, but I can understand why Yuki may freak you out at the possibility and if need be, I'm more than happy to give you a talking to about it. But I don't think I could ‘beat some sense into you’ even if I was comfortable with it.”

She snorts, “Don't worry Hoshi. Even if these two can't or won't, I'll give you a proper beating if necessary.” She flicks a look up at the bemused Sora, “And you aren't allowed to go overprotective big brother mode and try to stop me and complain.”

Hoshi bounces back to her free side and hugs her arm with both of her own, “Knew I could count on you! And what she said Sora! No interfering from you!”

He holds his hands up in an amused surrender, “I won't, I won't. That's between you two. Particularly since you just made that agreement right in front of me.”

She reaches across her body with her free hand to pat at Hoshi's hair, “Well, there you go. If things ever take a turn, Miho will give you a talking to, and if that fails, I'll beat some sense back into you.”

Miho leans forward from where she's walking on Sora's other side to give them a flat look, “You two jump to violence far too easily.”

Hoshi shrugs, “We all do, Sora as well, if anything, as far as our group goes, you're too slow to take the violent option.”

Miho rolls her eyes as she leans back, then points, “There's a bench over there we can sit on while we wait.”

Sora shrugs, “Sounds good to me.”

Hoshi lets go of her after the three of them settle on the bench, holding up her mobile terminal with the map pulled up, “Well, I've always been a lot better with a mental map then a physical one, so I'm gonna wander around a bit to get a firmer sense of the layout.”

Sora nods, then casually calls out as she starts walking away, “Don't embarrass me or I'll have to kill you!”

Without missing a beat, Hoshi calls back over her shoulder, “Yeah, yeah. Don't do anything I wouldn't do, or I'll kill you and/or laugh at you instead of bailing you out of jail! I'll meet you in front of where they're doing the entrance ceremony half an hour before it starts! Don't be late or I'll electrocute you!”

She shakes her head, and Miho looks at Sora with vague exasperation, “Would it kill you two if you said ‘be careful’ or make plans to meet up in a normal way?”

She snorts, “No, but I'm surprised you haven't worked out why they started acting that way on your own.”

Miho gives her a baffled look, “Pardon?”

Sora shrugs, “Not long after the… problems with Tommy were dealt with,” She's not surprised at the wording since they know full well better than to speak openly about their reincarnation, “Bai realized that she thought the height of entertainment was annoying me or just generally being a little shit. It was, unsurprisingly given that's what she was aiming for, annoying but also nice in a way, since she did go from losing her emotions entirely to thinking annoying me, her brother that she'd lost all feeling for prior, is the height of entertainment, and then it just kinda… escalated from there.”

She hums as she glances at a message Maya had just sent about her first official day of First High, even though it was technically just the entrance ceremony and getting their ID cards. As she types out a response she says to Miho absently, “It's their weird version of a sibling love language now.”

Miho sighs in exasperation and turns the topic to the vague plan to go on a date after the initial rush of starting First High and getting everything in order fades. A couple of students going by make disparaging comments on the fact that ‘Weeds’, the derogatory term for course two students, are on the school grounds so early, but they're completely ignored. It seems to make more than a few of them mad, but given the ones that do are the ones who had been speaking louder than would've been totally natural with their conversation partner right by them assumably purely to make sure they can hear their comments, it's not that surprising that they'd get pissy at being ignored.

They'd honestly been expecting it though. She had the issue with overcompensating in pulling her casting speed back into normal territory, Sora, as well as Hoshi for that matter, did of course see the value of speed but both valued versatility and various combat applications far more, and Miho, while never bad at it, had never had a high proficiency with magic, so all four of them had ended up in course two.

When there's about forty minutes before the start of the ceremony, they head off to meet up with Hoshi, then quickly find seats. She's sitting at the end of their group, so it's not surprising that the question is directed at her when another girl asks, “Um, are these seats taken?”

Turning, she sees a girl wearing glasses, which given the advancements of eye correction are far more likely specialty glasses for oversensitivity to magic which wasn't rare in and of itself but was rare in needing outside aid, standing off to the side with a couple other girls. She smiles at her, “Not at all. Help yourselves.”

She smiles back shyly, “Thanks.” As they settle, she gives her a shy look before she can turn back to the others, “Er. I'm Shibata Mizuki. Nice to meet you.”

She smiles at her, “Shiba Toshiko, likewise.”

From Mizuki's other side, another of the girls leans forward to grin around her, “I'm Chiba Erika! Nice to meet you Shiba!”

Her smile turns a little bemused at her enthusiasm, “It's nice to meet you as well. I suppose if we're introducing ourselves I should introduce my companions. This is Yasuda Miho,” Her wife in all but local law leans around her to wave with a smile, “And the Amano twins Sora,” Her husband glances away from his hissed conversation with his sister, “And Hoshi.” The woman in question leans around her brother to turn the ‘I'm being a little shit’ grin on them briefly, “Don't mind them, they spend more time bickering than not.”

Erika snorts as Mizuki tries to hide a little giggle in the side of a fist. She'd originally thought the girls wanted four seats because they're some sort of friend group, but given the way the other two don't even glance over, her initial assumption is likely wrong.

She and her group do, however, start chatting with Mizuki and Erika while they wait for the ceremony to start. Mizuki seems a little shy and Erika quite mischievous as well as enthusiastic, but they seem like good kids in general. Mizuki's shyness does draw a thing of concern from her, wondering if it's just how she is naturally, which is perfectly acceptable of course, or if it's something else, but given how tense and evasive she seems when Miho idly comments on how it's a little unusual to see someone with glasses nowadays, it's probably just from that.

Hopefully it's just due to some self-consciousness rather than due to a history of bullying or something. Very few do, though she's not self righteous enough to claim that there aren't some assholes out there -racists and elitists and the like- that could do with some bullying of their own, but Mizuki really does seem like a good kid and certainly doesn't seem like the sort to low-key deserve it.

After the entrance ceremony and them being issued their IDs, and learning that by pure dumb luck they were all in the same class(4), she's not really surprised when the other two girls that had shown up with Mizuki and Erika walk off without a word. It practically confirms that they weren't actually with them, then gets actually confirmed when Hoshi questions it in confusion. That leads to Erika explaining that Mizuki had memorized enough of the map to know where to go since AR terminals are banned from the school, but the other three hadn't gotten it down firmly enough and had gotten lost, so she'd kinda collected them while she was getting a firmer idea of the school layout.

After they realize they're in the same class and the other two leave, Erika turns to them, “What should we do? Go take a look at our homeroom as well?”

She glances at the other three and Miho tilts her head, “It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to get a firm idea of where it is if nothing else.”

She nods, “That's a good plan. I do need to wait for Yuki though, since originally we said we'd meet up after the ceremony.”

Mizuki peers at her curiously, “Yuki as in freshmen representative Shiba Yuki? I thought you may be related.”

She nods, figuring Mizuki probably worked that out from the magic she can see since if there's one thing this universe has a bit more firmly in common with her original one, it's that families tend to have something very similar to family magic signatures, with the only real differences between the nature of the signatures she can see being from the differences in the magic itself. That being said, while she's not necessarily right as to her ocular magic sensitivity, it's rude to reveal personal information about others, so she avoids commenting on it.

As such, she just smiles at her, “I'm surprised you spotted it. Shiba isn't exactly a rare name, and people don't tend to think we look very similar.”

Erika glances between them in surprise, “No kidding. I never would've guessed it myself. Are you two twins or something? Since you're in the same year and all.”

She shakes her head, “Not at all. I was just born not long after the cut off for a school year while my brother was born not long before it. If I was born twenty-three days before or he was born seven days later, we would've been in two different school years.”

Erika shakes her head, then laughs, “Before Mizuki said something, I was about to say that if you've got a brother they must be cute, but I gotta admit, I wasn't expecting something on that level.”

She shrugs, “So I've heard. To be honest, maybe it's just because he's my brother, but I've never seen what the big deal is.”

Erika gives her a surprised look, “Ehh?! I mean, I can get why you wouldn't be attracted to him, but you do have eyes! You can't even see it from a purely objective point of view?” She shakes her head, and Erika doesn't even give her the chance to say anything, “For real?! But he's practically the definition of pretty boy!”

She shrugs again, but once again before she can speak, Hoshi pipes up, “That's kind of the whole problem.” Seeing Erika and Mizuki's confusion, she shrugs and jerks her thumb towards Sora, “My brother is her boyfriend, which should give you a decent idea of the kind of guy she finds attractive. Don't know how you would describe him, but pretty boy he is not.”

Erika and Mizuki gain looks of understanding, but before anyone can say anything more, Yuki approaches a whole group with him which he slips away from as they pull to a stop and he keeps going until he's right in front of her, “Onee-sama, sorry to keep you waiting.”

He hides it much better nowadays, but again, she used to serve on the Wizengamot surrounded by nobles who had been taught to control their expression since birth and had decades to hone that skill, so she can read that he's as irritated as usual. Originally, she thought it was just a natural reaction to having praised heaped on him and gathering admirers wherever he went, but after a couple times catching him flick her glances when people were complimenting him and only getting annoyed when she didn't react in any way, she'd realized it was more of a mixture of not really wanting compliments that aren't from her, as well as the fact she never agreed nor got irritated when they did. The last one tends to be what actually irritates her about the situation, because she's had discussions with him about it, multiple in fact, having to remind him a couple times when they were younger. Yet he still gets annoyed by it like he's waiting for his girlfriend to get upset at other women heaping attention onto him or something.

She doesn't feel like dealing with it, particularly given it never really achieves anything, so she just ignores it, “That was quick.”

He smiles, but there's both irritation as well as a sharp edge to it, “It didn't take as long as I was expecting to finish up. Making friends already though? You certainly move fast.”

She gives him a look, silently chastising him for being jealous of others having her attention again, even as she glances over at them, “This is Shibata Mizuki and Chiba Erika. They ended up sitting next to me when they were finding seats for the entrance ceremony and as it turns out, we're in the same class.”

Yuki looks away in response to her silent rebuke, “I see.”

Feeling the need to remind him he has no particular claim to her, she adds, “Funny coincidence, so are Sora, Miho, and Hoshi. I mean, there are only three course two classes, but it's certainly fortuitous that all four of us ended up in the same one.”

One of the people who had been following Yuki, an upperclassmen from the looks of her, smiles, “I assume from the use of first names that you're friends? How lucky to end up with all of you in the same class!”

She smiles at her, “Very much so.”

The upperclassmen laughs lightly, “Ah! But where are my manners? I'm Student Council President Saegusa Mayumi.”

She nods her head, “Shiba Toshiko.”

Saegusa seems to get excited about that, “I thought you might be if you're siblings with Yuki here! You're the one with the highest score, even setting a record, on the theoretical part of the entrance exams!” She smiles at her brightly, “It's nice to know my suspicion that the highest scores in both the practicals and theoretical halves both having the last name Shiba wasn't a coincidence! Your family is quite talented!”

She dips her head again, “Thank you.”

Before she can say anything else, Yuki, who's acknowledgement of the reprimand hadn't lasted long since she can already see he's getting jealous again of someone having her attention, something she's reaching the end of her patience on, interrupts her small conversation with Saegusa, “Onee-sama, did you want to head out now, or…?”

Wanting a bit of space before she snaps at him, she smiles, “Actually, we held off on going because I'd already made plans to meet you here, but we were thinking of finding our classroom first, just to make sure we know where it is tomorrow. I was going to ask you to just tag along while we found it real quick, but I can only imagine that if the Student Council President is here then she had something she wanted to discuss with you?”

Saegusa smiles, “I did actually!”

She turns back to Yuki, “Then we'll split up briefly while you speak to Saegusa-senpai and I head over with my classmates to get a firm idea of where our class is real quick and just meet back up in about twenty minutes?”

She'd thrown the last question towards Saegusa, who laughs lightly, “That's plenty of time to get the basics covered, especially since I'm sure Yuki will need time to think!” Then Saegusa shakes her head a little bemused, “It's not like we have an appointment with Yuki, so I was about to suggest we catch up with him tomorrow, but that works out rather well! Especially since while we'll undoubtedly still need to see each other later, Yuki will have more time to think it over!”

She nods, then turns to Yuki, who was trying hard to hide how sullen he is, “Alright then. You'll stay with Saegusa and find out what she was wanting to talk about while we head over for a more solid sense of where our classroom is and we'll meet back up in about twenty minutes.”

Yuki nods, doing his best to hide how dejected he is, “Of course Onee-sama.”

She lifts her hand, not seeing the point in giving a verbal farewell of some sort when they'll see each other so soon, immediately heading off with the other five. There's a few beats of silence before Mizuki peers up at her cautiously, “Shiba… Are you sure that was a good idea? I didn't intend, and I don't think Erika did either, to cause any issues between you and your brother…”

She sighs, “You didn't. That was more of an extension of a long standing problem. One I can basically guarantee you that you wouldn't want the details on even if I wanted to get into it given we're practically strangers.”

Erika leans forward to peer around Mizuki at her, “Well, I guess it's good we didn't start anything unintentionally, but that kinda came out of nowhere to be honest.”

She shrugs, “Short version? He gets jealous of literally anyone having a crumb of my attention.”

Erika straight up, “Ah. So a total siscon. Fair enough.”

She sighs again, “Particularly since you don't even know a tenth of it.”

Erika snickers, but the conversation turns away there as they start idly chatting about their classes that will be officially starting the next day. They swing by the classroom, but basically immediately head back out. Having a better idea of where they are, it's slightly faster getting back to where she was supposed to meet with Yuki then it was to get to the classroom to begin with, and he's already waiting when they get there, looking even less happy but on his own this time.

When they meet back up, Erika glances around, “You guys up to going to get something to drink and a bite?”

She smiles as she glances at the others, “Sounds good to me. You guys?” They all murmur agreements of their own, happily for most of them, sullen and moody for Yuki, and she turns back, “Well that settles that then. Have anywhere in mind?”

Erika grins, “There's a nice cake shop cafe thing nearby.”

She gives her a bemused look, “You can't remember where the entrance ceremony is being held without aid from your mobile terminal but remember a cake cafe?”

Erika nods confidently, “Of course! It's important, isn't it?”

She shakes her head in amusement, “You have strange priorities, but lead the way.”

Erika pouts at her a little for the priority comment, but starts off and they trail with, chatting all the while.