Rebirth

She enters the living room, having come down from working on some things with a silencing spell slipped over her so Yuki wouldn't hear her leave her room after she saw him go to his, “Mother, we need to talk.”

She looks up, brows furrowed slightly at her serious tone, “About?”

She gives her a flat look, “Yuki.” As her mother starts to shift her gaze away, clearly getting ready to avoid the major topic, she pushes on, “If you keep refusing to talk about it, you'll have no room to complain if Yuki continues to push me and I end up cutting him out of my life.”

Her mother's eyes go wide and she snaps her gaze back to her, “You wouldn't-!”

She tilts her head, “If he doesn't learn to at least respect my boundaries? He's very much careening headlong towards it without even considering the potential consequences of his actions.”

Her mother stares at her for a beat, then bitterly bites out, “What do you expect me to do about it? You've basically banned me from using mental manipulation magic on either of you, so it's not like I can just remove his feelings for you.”

She forces herself to take a calming breath rather than snap at her, “You could do like everyone else does when they find their child's behavior acceptable? Quit avoiding the conversation and sit him down and talk to him. If you truly want your children to have a sibling relationship, since I've already shut down that nonsense you originally had planned, you need to help me force Yuki to at least control himself, even if he adamantly refuses to even try to move on. You need to sit him down and talk to him, to help me get him to respect my boundaries. Otherwise, as I said, you'll have no right to say a word about it if he pushes me to the point I cut him out of my life because you have been studiously ignoring the problem instead of helping me with the mess you made.”

Her mother looks away sharply, and there's a beat of silence before she sighs, “Fine. I'll speak to him.”

She nods sharply, then turns to head back to her room, “Good.”

The topic ends there, and she heads back up. It's almost inevitable that she'll end up venting to her soulmates that it took the threat of what exactly she and Yuki were heading towards for her mother to finallydo something, and she's honestly starting to feel like a broken record at this point, but at least they don't mind.

Quite the contrary, they tend to get upset with her for not talking to them about her problems. Even if it's not something they can actually do something about, they absolutely prefer her at least vent to them to try to release some frustration and stress rather than letting it build quietly until it explodes on her.

The next day, she finds herself in the now tidy Disciplinary Committee headquarters at the meeting table as Watanabe gives something of a briefing, “Once again this year, the week of unbridled shenanigans is upon us. As the snagging of talented club members is a crucial task that directly influences the power map of each club as if they can perform well in the Nine Schools Competition or Thesis Competition, they can potentially get an increased budget as well receiving some special treatment for their club members, it is unfortunately not uncommon for the ensuing mad scramble to degrade into no holds barred fistfights and magic shootouts.”

She gives Watanabe a surprised look, “Magic shootout? It's against the school rules to carry CADs though unless you're on the Student Council, Disciplinary Committee, or Club Management Group isn't it?”

Watanabe nods, “In general yes, but clubs have special permission to carry them during club recruitment week so they can have demonstrations. There is a simple screening in place, but it’s more or less a free pass. Because of that, during this time, this place becomes a giant lawless zone full of chaos.” She sighs and gives her a tired look, “Mayumi thinks it's mainly because the school wants the clubs to score highly in the Nine Schools Competition, and is sure the school doesn't mind a few rules being broken as long as they raise the chances of recruiting more students.”

She shakes her head, “The faculty should be ashamed of themselves.”

Watanabe smiles, “Careful Shiba. I may like your attitude, but the school faculty certainly won't.” Then she glances at the other Disciplinary Committee members, “Luckily, this year we were able to replace all but one of our departing graduates in time. Let me introduce them to you. Stand up.”

She gets up with the other student joining the Disciplinary Committee, which from her understanding, as they have nine positions in total and a third each is elected by the Student Council, Club Management Group, and the faculty, they each pick one new student a year. As such, even though the faculty's original choice with Morisaki fell through, herself as the Student Council's choice as well as the Club Management Group choice had joined.

Watanabe gestures across the end of the table from Toshiko, “This is Tomitsuka Hagane(1) of class 1-B, and Shiba Toshiko of 1-E. They'll be joining the patrol detail right away.”

The older student she had been sitting beside makes a loose fist and points his thumb at her, “Are they gonna be of any use?”

Watanabe looks a little fed up already, “Don't worry, they're both competent.” She looks over the people at the table, “I've already observed Shiba's skills in person, and Juumonji himself vouches that Tomitsuka lives up to his name as a member of the Hundred Families. Does anyone have anything more to say?” There's a few moments of silence, “Fine. Then let's send you on your way. Mobilize!”

The other members of the Disciplinary Committee shoot to their feet at that and start to file out. Neither she nor Tomitsuka head out with them, having been asked to stay behind after the meeting by Watanabe before it started.

Once the rest are gone, she moves further down the table, “First off, let me give you these.” She sets two arm bands with the Disciplinary Committee emblem down, and two communicators on top of them and starts towards the door herself, “Also, about the CADs. Disciplinary Committee officers are permitted to carry CADs on the school grounds. There's no need to request anyone's permission to use them.” She's right before the door now, but pauses to turn to them with a serious expression, “But if you're found to have used them inappropriately, not only will you be relieved of your post, but you'll also be penalized severely by the general student body. So don't take this lightly.” Something seems to occur to her, and she turns more specifically towards her, “Ah. You're of course welcome to use the Committee's CADs as well for your little pseudo cast jamming trick.”

She nods and moves over to grab a couple. As she puts them on, Watanabe hums, “That's everything, so unless you have questions?”

Tomitsuka indicates he doesn't in the background and she lets him finish while she focuses on putting on the CADs before responding, “Neither do I Watanabe-senpai.”

Watanabe nods, “Then let's head out to patrol.”

She's moving down one of the walkways that booths for the clubs have been set up on either side of when she hears a familiar voice, “Uh, please let go of me now.”

Quick stepping to the turn off and looking down it towards where she heard the noise come from, she's entirely unsurprised to see Erika surrounded and looking incredibly uncomfortable. They seem to be from sports teams, given the uniforms and the numbers on back, but she has zero clue which sports they're for, just that there are three different uniforms.

Seeing them yank her around, she hits the record button on the terminal to turn on the camera on the top edge poking out of her pocket, as people surrounding Erika continue to babble cheerfully while yanking her around, “This girl is adorable!”

“Hey, want to join our club?”

“You'll definitely like our club bett-”

She cuts into the babbling sharply, “Hey! She has asked you to let her go repeatedly! Do you not understand the meaning of the word consent?” As if burned, probably at the implication, the girls around Erika quickly let go of her, and she scampers over to her quickly and ducks around her as she fixes her coat, which had been pulled off her shoulders in their yanking, “It's awfully funny, given you're all females, yet you of all people don't seem to understand the concept that no means no.”

More than a few of them flush deeply in mortification at the implication, and a bolder one tries to defend them, “It wasn't like that-!”

Her voice remains sharp as a sword, “It remains true regardless of the context. It's a matter of respecting people's boundaries, choices, and their freedom of autonomy. If anything, the fact you can't even respect those for a more minor issue leaves one… concerned about your ability to respect ‘no’ for bigger issues.”

One of the mortified girls lashes out at her, “A Weed like you should mind your own business!”

She gives her a deadpan look and points with her unoccupied hand at her armband, “Keeping the peace and stepping in to stop harassment is my business, seeing as I'm on the Disciplinary Committee.” Then she smiles, “But if we're going to use measurements like that, as members of the Ten Master Clans, Saegusa-senpai and Juumonji-senpai have the right to demand literally anything they want from you no matter how ludicrous and you can't say no, right? Even if it's, I don't know, murder everyone you care about just because I said so?” A heavy awkward silence settles over the 'recruiters' as they flush even more, “...Yeah, that's what I thought. Besides, you take such pride in being course one students in First High, yet you do not act with the manners that should come with when you act like dogs fighting over a piece of meat. Go back to your booths and talk to people who are actually interested."

As they scurry away in utter humiliation, she reaches up to click the button to turn the camera back off and turns to Erika, “You alright?”

Erika blinks rapidly, though she seems to have fixed her disheveled clothes while Toshiko was busy shaming them for their behavior, “Y-yeah. I- …Thanks for stepping in.”

She nods, “Do you need me to escort you for a bit after that scare?”

Erika flushes, and her voice goes uncharacteristically quiet, “Would you?”

She nods, “Yeah. Me and Tomitsuka weren't really given particular patrol routes or anything, since we just joined and Watanabe-senpai knew it was already going to be a lot just adjusting to that dealing with our first club recruitment week, so we can pretty much go wherever.”

Erika relaxes slightly, then takes a breath and seems to sort of force herself to get back to her usual cheerful self, “Okay! I was on my way to the gym to check out the kendo club and kenjutsu club exhibitions.”

She smiles and gestures down the path. Erika bounces up to her side and they set off.

She's holding back the critiques that want to come out as she watches the kendo exhibition. Centuries polishing her skill with a blade makes them want to bubble out, but she's fully aware how odd it could potentially sound. She glances over at Erika to see if she's enjoying herself, and is surprised to find she looks a bit down, “Not what you were expecting?”

Erika sighs, “No. It's so boring. Trying so hard to look good sparring, and then delivering a predetermined blow.” Erika must know a thing or two about swordsmanship as well to have spotted that, “This is no better than a staged sword fight!”

She hums, “That's to be expected though, given that with it being club week, things like this are set up to pull in as many recruits as possible. It's not surprising that they'd be angling more towards being showy.”

Erika sighs, “Yeah. Still-”

A sudden shout cuts her off and their attention is drawn to two groups that seem to be clashing, “Excuse me Erika.”

Then she starts quickly making her way over to and down the stairs even as she listens to the argument. First the female at the head of one of the groups, “There's still more than an hour before the kenjutsu club is up, Kirihara! Why can't you wait until then?”

Kirihara, from what the woman had called him, responds in an arrogant tone, “Not what I expected, Mibu. Since you can't put your abilities on display sparring with such a newbie, I just thought a little collaboration was in order.”

Mibu takes an angry step forward, “You're the one who forced him to challenge you!” She reaches the gathering crowd at that point and starts making her way towards the front, but as long as it stays verbal, she's not going to interfere. She does notice that Erika had followed her though, “Collaborate my foot!”

Kirihara -which she can't help but feel a bit strange about given that was her wife's last name in their previous life- smirks at Mibu, “But it was the kendo club who struck first.”

Mibu snaps at that, her voice raising, “Because you provoked us, Kirihara!”

Erika seems to find it amusing or something, “This is starting to get juicy, huh?”

She glances over, “You seem more invested than I'd expect. Do you know them or something?”

Erika murmurs out, “Well, not personally, but… The girl is Mibu Sayaka. The year before last, she was second place in the national junior high kendo tournament for girls. The guy is Kirihara Takeaki. The year before last, he won the Kanto region junior high kenjutsu tournament.” As Erika was talking the two had continued to argue, but as she finishes that part, the people around them quickly back up and they point their shinai at each other, and Erika adds on, “Whoops, looks like it's about to start!”

It seems ridiculous to her, but she had caught a formal challenge from Mibu that was in line with the kendo and kenjutsu club rules, so as long as they don't cross lines, there's little she can do.

Kirihara's voice is still practically dripping arrogance, “Don't you worry, Mibu. This is a kendo demonstration. I'll do you a favor and not use any magic.”

Mibu's face tightens, “You think you stand a chance against me with just sword skills? You, Kirihara, coming from the spell-dependent kenjutsu club, a match for a member of the kendo club where we focus solely on honing sword skills?”

Kirihara is smirking at her, “Focus solely on honing sword skills? Right. You're full of bluster, Mibu.” She reaches for her Disciplinary Committee terminal to turn on the camera poking out of the top of her pocket again as he speaks, only catching the last part, “I'll be happy to show you then. What it means to battle in a dimension beyond the limits of physical ability… The sword skills of kenjutsu!”

They both launch forward as he finishes, hitting each other at around the same time. Erika murmurs, “A draw?”

She immediately disagrees, “No, they hit each other at the same time, but the blows are wildly different. I'm surprised a swordsman like you didn't notice.”

Erika glances at her, but before she can say anything, Mibu speaks again, “If this was a real sword, you'd be fatally wounded.” She swipes his bokken away with her own, “As for me, your strike stopped short of the bone.” She isn't wrong. Kirihara had barely gotten the outer edge of her arm, while her own bokken had been stabbed into his chest before she knocked his away and down and lowered her own. Given how upset he looks, she feels like Mibu is entirely justified adding, “Accept your defeat like a good loser.”

There's a beat before Kirihara answers, “If it was a real sword? You disappoint me.” He smirks again, “Mibu, is that what you want? To fight with real swords? If that's the case, then I'll oblige you…” He pushes his sleeve back and starts pushing buttons on his forearm CAD, “I'll take you on with a real sword.”

Reading the magic sequence, she quickly recognizes one of the more popular ones, Sonic Blade, which is designed to vibrate objects in such a way so as to make practically whatever it’s applied to a cutting weapon. Seeing Kirihara launch forward, she activates Shukujihou and gets between them right as Kirihara is starting to swing as he gets into range, using the two bracelet CADs for her pseudo cast jamming to break the Sonic Blade spell, stepping to his side and tripping him up and pinning him to the ground with a knee to his back. As he tries to flail, she catches both hands and pulls them behind him to tightly hold onto both wrists with one hand.

He chokes in surprise, but she just reaches up to with her free hand to grab her Disciplinary Committee terminal and click the radio button, “This is Shiba, I've apprehended a member of the kenjutsu club in the gym for excessive use by virtue of activation of a Sonic Blade spell.”

Without missing a beat, Watanabe's voice responds, “Understood, I'm enroute. Hang tight.”

“Understood Watanabe-senpai.”

The other kenjutsu club members had been bristling and looked mad at her pinning Kirihara, but they'd stilled and gone pale when Watanabe's voice had responded to her radio call, and seem to disperse rather grudgingly. She glances over at Mibu, pausing on her a brief moment before she scans the rest of the Kendo club before she finally turns her attention back to Kirihara, who's gone rather still and pale himself.

It isn't very long at all before Watanabe is showing up, looking pissed. Clocking the guy she's got pinned immediately she starts shouting, “Kirihara! What is this I'm hearing about a Sonic Blade?!”

Kirihara tries to talk his way out of it quickly, “It's just a misunderstanding! I was using a spell yes, but Mibu and I were sparing and she okayed my use of magic! It wasn't-”

Watanabe cuts him off coldly, “The main reason I recruited Shiba to the Disciplinary Committee is because she proved she had the ability to read a spell just by the activation sequence.” He falls silent at that, seeming to pale even further, and Watanabe shakes her head as she moves forward, “Let him up Shiba. We'll take him in.”

She does exactly that, and it's probably just because Watanabe is there since no one really knows what she's capable of, but he doesn't try anything foolish even after he's on his feet. Before they head out though, she leans over to murmur in Watanabe's ear, covering her mouth against any lip reading, “We need to take some of the kendo club in as well. You can call it under the pretext of wanting to get their side of the story or whatever seems believable to you, but from the looks of things, some of them are under some sort of mental manipulation magic.”

Watanabe's breath hitches ever so slightly, and she murmurs back, “Are you certain?”

And she knows why she'd ask that, but she saw far too many cases of people under imperio from casters smart enough to have them avoid her wards or compulsion spells over the centuries in her previous life to mistake it. Not that she needed those signs, given that when she'd turned her attention to Mibu to check her for injuries, she'd taken notice of what her Elemental Sight was telling her about her, when before that she was habitually discarding the information on Mibu in general, “One hundred percent. I have no idea if it's extensive enough to get them to try to escape if they get an idea someone is onto it though, so it's probably best to take the whole kendo club in rather than singling anyone out.”

Watanabe nods gravely, and as she turns her gaze to the kendo club, she steps out of her personal space and back to Kirihara's side, like she's just making sure he doesn't pull anything. Watanabe raises her voice to speak to the kendo club at large as she does, “There are some complications to the situation, so I'm going to need the kendo club to come with us to answer questions. So it doesn't affect exhibitions, the kenjutsu club can take over an hour early and you'll get an hour from them some other time during the week as a trade off!”

The kendo club members murmur in confusion, but they don't protest, coming with them quietly. As they head off towards the main building, Watanabe types away at her mobile terminal. When they get there, Saegusa, Ichihara, and Juumonji are there with who was introduced as the principal during the entrance ceremony waiting for them presumably called by Watanabe.

Without hesitation, Ichihara steps forward as she gestures off to the side, “Will the members of the kendo club come with me and explain the incident please?”

They move off a bit and Saegusa looks after them in vague concern as Juumonji deploys both a sound proofing barrier and one that prevents lip reading, before looking back at her, “Now that Rin is distracting them, Mari said you had reason to believe some of them are under mental manipulation magic?”

She sighs and looks over at the kendo club as she leans into Saegusa's space a little to point, “Look at Mibu's eyes. You see the way they're focused, yet there's a subtle haze over the pupils? Now look at his,” She points to another kendo club member, “his eyes do not have that haze. Then if you turn your attention to the kendo club head, if the armband is any indication, you see how his eyes are worse than Mibu's, a little hazier, a little foggier? Those are-”

The principal sighs loudly, “You draw us all here for such flimsy evidence? That-!”

She cuts across him coldly, “How about you use a spell designed to pick up on mental manipulation before you shoot me down. You're already here, you may as well do your due diligence.”

He purses his lips, but sighs, “Fine. But I'm overriding the Student Council and Disciplinary Committee and removing you from your post for wasting everyone's time when it comes back clean.”

She snorts, “If the results are clean, sure.”

He grumbles as he casts a spell designed to look for traces of mind magics. And then he falls utterly silent, as a bubble surrounds them, and on the bubble, where they can see them through it, people like Mibu and the club head get splashed in red, noticeably darker on the kendo club head than Mibu, while others, like the one she said was clean, are covered in blue.

Everyone falls silent and she tilts her head at the principal, “Still think my evidence is flimsy?”

He opens and closes his mouth, face pale and Kirihara explodes, “It's about damn time you did something!” As they turn to him in surprise, he gives the principal a bitter look, “I made a report that Mibu was acting strange months ago and you brushed me off! I've been trying to provoke her in a way that she'd do something to get your attention,(2) but it took a fucking first year, a first year who spotted it in an instant, to actually get you to at least check.” He turns away bitterly, “If you wanna expel me for the Sonic Blade thing, fine. I know Mibu has the reflexes that she would've moved back fast enough that I'd wouldn't have done anything more than cut the front of her chest protection, but if that's what it took to get someone to look into it then it was damned worth it.”

Saegusa frowns at him, “You made a previous report?”

Kirihara snarls angrily, “February twenty-seventh! I came into the office after school ended for the day as I'd been told to after requesting a meeting in an email!” He points sharply at the principal, “You brushed me off! And I know, I know you have cameras in your office so don't deny it!”

As the principal flounders some more, she shakes her head and turns to Watanabe, who looks a little shaken, “Kirihara and what his punishment will be will need to be paused in light of that, assuming it affects the decision at all. We'll need to go over the entire student body to check, you realize?”

Watanabe's face tightens as fury takes over her expression, “Who in the hell is daring to target First High students?”

She shrugs, “That, I don't have the answer to.”

Saegusa peers at her, “...How did you even spot something as minor as that?”

She shakes her head, “I have an unusual amount of experience with mental manipulation magic and its effects is all.”

Juumonji seems to leave it at that as he turns to Watanabe, “We'll need to figure out how to organize checking over the student body as quickly as possible.”

Watanabe sighs, “Yeah.” Then she turns a dark eye on the surprisingly quiet Kirihara, who was watching Mibu in a strange mixture of misery and relief, likely at the fact someone had finally noticed what he'd tried to report, “The decision on what your punishment will be is temporarily put on hold in light of your claims of just trying to force attention onto the matter. The footage from Shiba's Disciplinary Committee terminal camera,” She glances at her and she nods to make it clear she'd recorded like she's supposed to, “will be reviewed in light of your claim that you weren't closing fast enough to actually hit her. How fast you were moving will be subject to scrutiny. Even then, once whatever mental manipulation magic on Mibu is broken, she will have the situation explained and be asked to weigh in, much like a victim of an attack will be asked if they want to press charges by the police. Do I make myself clear?”

Kirihara nods, “Yes Watanabe-senpai.”

She stares him down with a sharp gaze for a beat before nodding once, “Now if you'll excuse me, I have an absolute mess to start cleaning up.” She glances up at the principal, “Experts at breaking this sort of magic will need to be called in as soon as possible, so you likely need to get going as well.”

The man nods as he shakily runs a hand over his beard, “I know.” He mutters to himself as he starts to turn away, “Absolute mess indeed.”

In the end, it had been decided that the easiest way to do things when it came to scanning the students was to call all the students to go to the gym where the entrance ceremony took place, the same one used for announcements, and sort them by class to go through them in groups. The number of students that had been found under the magic was concerning, particularly amongst course two students.

Watanabe, Saegusa, and Juumonji had been utterly furious and keen to hunt the perpetrator down, but it had been even easier than they thought. As it turned out, the reason the kendo club head had much more extensive mind manipulation done to him was because the culprit was his step brother, and the moron had been so confident in his mental manipulation magic that he'd taken him to his base of operations. The police raid on the place had discovered he was in charge of a local branch of the international anti-magic terrorist organization Blanche. It had, of course, brought up the question of why they were targeting high school students, but some additional digging had uncovered that as well. Ironically enough given what they claimed to be, namely against magic, they'd been intending to use the students to break into the special browsing room and steal classified research from the Magic Universities that can be accessed from it.

Why they wanted it was still unknown, but that had apparently been the main goal of targeting First High students, namely from course two that had grievances due to the differences in treatment. The fact they were unhappy with things made them prime targets, creating an opening for the mental manipulation magic to coerce them to do things they wouldn't otherwise do.

Like stage a violent attack to take attention away from someone hitting the special browsing room.

Luckily for Kirihara, once Mibu's mental manipulation broke, she didn't even need the situation explained to her. She'd almost immediately started all but pleading for leniency for Kirihara. Unsurprisingly given he noticed the change in behavior, they were close. She wasn't even surprised when Mibu ran across her a few days later and hurried up to thank her for her help and she'd noticed them walking away after holding hands. She'd kinda figured there was something between them given the lengths Kirihara was willing to go to for her.

The entire affair had been explained to the student body in an assembly, and they'd also been given a brief seminar on a bunch of warning signs to look out for things like it, dangerous organizations, manipulation, the works.

It's why, at their now normal after school meetup location of Café Einebrise, she's not surprised in the slightest by Erika tossing her torso onto the table, “Man. What a crazy first couple weeks of school. First mental manipulation magic, then finding out that apparently an international anti-magic terrorist organization is behind it?” She turns her head to peer up at her, “By the way, my brother asked me to pass along some gratitude for uncovering the whole thing. The Chiba family has some pretty strong ties to the police, as I'm sure you know, but my brother is actually directly a detective.”

She hums, “All I did was spot the mind magics.”

Erika waves a hand, “Yeah, but it dominoed from there, and while even Aniki admits they didn't root out the entirety of the Japanese branch of Blanche, it still let them find them and deal a good blow as well as get some leads.”

She waves it off, “I really didn't have a whole lot to do with all that. It was at most like someone calling the police because of suspect activity.”

Erika straightens up with a frown, eyeing her, “Are you like, incapable of taking a compliment or something?”

Without missing a beat, Miho responds to her, “She is to some extent, but in this case it's more that she struggles to take credit for things.”

Erika makes an ‘ah’ expression. It's about that time that Sora grabs Hoshi's head, pulling her attention away from the bubbles she's been blowing into her drink with her straw, “Stop messing around and eat your food or I'll gut you like a fish.”

Leo squints at the two of them as Hoshi straightens up and starts eating at Sora's overprotective chastisement, “I don't get it. If you hate each other that much, why are you always basically glued at the hip?”

Hoshi laughs in amusement, “Good one Leo!” She rubs at the bottoms of her eyes like she's wiping tears of amusement away, even though there weren't any, “Whew, me and Sora, hate each other? That's probably the funniest joke I've heard. Anyway!” She turns to Sora, “I could go for some fish actually.”

Unsurprisingly, given how much he takes care of the three of them, Sora responds without missing a beat, “I'll make you fish later.” 

She's a bit baffled by the vaguely disturbed looks on their friends’ faces at that. She glances at Miho, but she looks equally confused. Was it something about how much he spoils her or something? The way the third world war had changed this universe, had changed society, the way he dotes on Hoshi has gotten some odd looks before, but after two weeks, she'd think they'd have gotten used to it.

Pushing past the weird air, she asks them all how they're adjusting to the school, a conversation they take to with gusto, likely out of eagerness to forget about the insanity that had occurred during the first two weeks.

After a while of just chatting and relaxing, the group breaks up to head their separate ways, and it's only after waving goodbye to the others and starting off that Miho glances over, “In light of how… interesting the first couple weeks of school were, I gotta ask. Are you just cursed? To constantly have trouble drawn to you or something? I was honestly looking forward to going to school with you, and you're hardly there a few days before something happens.”

Even as she mentally acknowledges the vagueness, undoubtedly at least in part due to the fact Yuki didn't know about their reincarnation, a thought flits across her mind, warm as a comforting soup at the fact she wasn't alone in the self indulgence of wanting to enjoy attending school with her soulmates, especially given Sora is nodding along on her other side. Back and to the left of her though, through her Elemental Sight, she sees Yuki's face become furious as he takes a deep breath, looking like he's gearing up to try to tear Miho a new one.

Before he can though, and without missing a beat in the conversation, she replies in an idle tone, “Probably. I do seem to be a magnet for trouble.”

A gusty breath rushes out of Yuki at her agreement. Not paying anymore attention to him than she is, Sora snorts before commenting in a dry tone, “Part of that is self-inflicted from the fact you can't help meddling whenever you get even a hint that there's something wrong.”

On her other side, Miho nods but adds, “Yeah, but even hints for things being wrong seem to drop into her lap more than is statistically likely.”

Hoshi giggles lightly from directly behind her, practically entirely to occupy the spot so Yuki can't take it as an alternative since Miho and Sora are each taking up one of her sides, “That's true! But she's still practically like a bloodhound on a scent when she gets those hints, so even if they come to her more than most, she's still totally responsible for being caught up in those troubles.”

Sora nods in agreement. Then he shakes himself with a smile, “Trouble magnetism aside, your birthday is coming up. Anything in particular you wanted to do or get Toshiko? Assuming it isn't derailed by more trouble anyway.”

She's absolutely aware of the way Yuki perks up with her Elemental Sight despite his poor attempts to hide it, and it makes her want to sigh at him. He praises her so much, yet he doesn't seem to be able to wrap his head around the idea she's known exactly what he was doing the first time he overheard this conversation and gotten her one of the few things she mentioned, which in and of itself was fine, but had picked the one thing on the list Sora had indicated he was probably going to pick? And it's happened every year since, despite the fact she never fails to call him out on it, asking him point-blank why he'd gotten what Sora had indicated he'd probably get her when they were talking about it.

She had also, without fail every time, given it back and suggested he return it and get a refund, utterly refusing to accept the gift he'd selected despite knowing full well Sora had basically already laid claim to being the one to get her that present from her list. She's also made it clear that she does not appreciate his attempts to upstage her boyfriend, and after the first year when he tried to twist things around and say Sora was copying him, she refused to even open Yuki's present until after she's met up with Miho, Sora, and Hoshi and gotten their presents.

Their mother had tried to protest the accusation that he was mimicking Sora the first year(3), but that was actually part of the reason she started meeting up with them before she opened the family presents. It was a bit harder for her to deny the accusation regarding Sora's gift, identical to Yuki's at least to some extent in that its always the same item if not design, despite the fact their mother knows full well Yuki orders them to be delivered and never breathes a word of the presents he's getting her. Ironically, in fear of anyone else pulling the same nonsense he's been doing with Sora.

She hums idly, “Honestly, I usually only start really thinking about it around the start of the month, since my birthday being on the twenty-fourth usually means there's plenty of time, but with everything going on… I honestly haven't given it much thought. Surprise me I guess. It's not like you don't know me well enough to make pretty educated guesswork on what I'd like.”

Sora nods, “Yeah, but we usually like asking in case there's anything in particular you're wanting. If you can't think of anything though,” He shrugs, “it's not a big deal since you aren't wrong about us knowing you well enough.”

Yuki deflates. Honestly, she's thought about purposely having these conversations out of his earshot or over text or something, but she'd decided a while ago that it wasn't her responsibility to try to prevent Yuki's shameless behavior. Not that he's learned the lesson on how it'll always backfire on him, given she's returned his copycat gifts every year without fail the past four years he's pulled that nonsense. The gifts he always gets as replacements have their own problems, since much like his behavior, such as when he tried to argue her onto the Student Council, he doesn't consider what she may actually want, just what he decides she deserves.

She isn't particularly fond of his gifts in general, but she always bites back the exasperated sigh that wants to come out at that, since even if she's not particularly fond of them since he doesn't actually put thought into what she may actually like, she'd rather not unintentionally push him to get what may very well be gifts of some sort of impropriety, and she also wants to discourage the copycat gifts. The best way to potentially achieve the latter is to make it clear she does not appreciate the copied gifts but doesn't mind the other gifts, so she can't really make it obvious she doesn't much appreciate the non-copied gifts. It's made her feel a bit bad more than once, since it makes her feel like a spoiled brat, but it's not really about the gifts, it's the sheer lack of thought given to them on what she may actually like.

She would genuinely prefer something worth a thousand yen(4) but with clear thought put into it over something worth one hundred thousand yen(4) but utterly thoughtless. If it wasn't for the fact that again, she didn't want to push him towards potentially improper gifts, if she'd thought it'd get anywhere in curbing his obsessive behavior if she pointed out to their mother that he was pulling the exact same thing with her that their father pulled with her mother, she'd absolutely be pointing it out to their mother and letting her ream him out. Yuki was certainly their fathers son though, in basically trying to buy her love like Tatsurou did with their mother, though he doesn't have access to as much money for his gift as their father did for his. 

She bites back a sigh just thinking of it. For all that he insists he loves her, it's probably more accurate to say he loves the idea of her he's built in his head, utterly ignoring the actual her. Normally, she'd probably consider that a good thing in a way, since she doesn't want him to be in love with her, but given the problems it brings with it, the way it makes him do things like trying to force her into the Student Council just to name one example, she's not totally sure if it's a good thing or not.

She's quite happy with the day so far. Her sixteenth birthday fell on a Saturday this year, but First High was actually the sort of school that didn't have Saturdays off. Given she was well ahead in classes though, which isn't surprising, and with nothing else to spend any study time on themselves making them ahead as well, she, her soulmates, and even Hoshi had taken the day off. Her soulmates had absolutely taken advantage of it, taking her out on a date after she'd had breakfast with her mother and Yuki. They'd gone back to Sora's place for lunch, since he'd been more in the mood to make her something instead of them going somewhere to eat, and that was when Hoshi joined them as it shifted away from a couple thing to a more general birthday celebration.

It'd been a great day, that was for sure.

Which was why she now found herself hovering on her own doorstep, taking a few more moments to enjoy the lingering feelings before her mood is almost inevitably soured.

With a sigh, she finally opens the door and enters. Given it's about dinner time, for all that she honestly would've preferred to stay to get more of Sora's cooking, she knows full well her mother would've thrown a fit, but it also means she's not surprised that after clearly hearing the door, Honami calls that they're in the dining room.

Heading that way, she's greeted with the fairly normal sight of Honami bustling around in the attached open plan kitchen finishing things up for dinner while her mother and Yuki sit at the dining table.

Her mother gives her a vaguely unhappy look, “You're a bit late. I was beginning to think you'd miss dinner.”

She raises an eyebrow, “And I got here before it, so I'm not late. Close to when it starts is entirely different then late.”

Hey mother sighs but drops it as she waves at one of the chairs. The one opposite Yuki on her other side specifically,  as she continues, “Come and sit down. Honami is almost done with dinner.”

She makes her way forward, as Yuki peers at their mother, “Are we doing presents before or after dinner?”

Their mother sighs lightly, “After dinner. Like we do every year.” She can't blame their mother for tacking that last part on, given that year after year, despite mounting evidence of how things will play out, he continues to ask. Their mother shakes her head in mild exasperation at Yuki before turning to her, “Did you have a good day?”

At least she knows to hold back the passive aggressive remarks on her choosing to spend her birthday with her partners instead of her and Yuki. She wouldn't even necessarily be against them coming over, and neither are they, but her mother has made it clear that she doesn't want the inevitable tension and Yuki to be upset so has long requested her not to bring them over when they started getting old enough that it was a little more doable for Miho, since unlike Sora her parents were not neglectful.

She'd agreed easily, even though it felt ridiculous and like their mother was catering to Yuki's primed love. It also didn't seem to occur to her at the time that it meant she'd be heading out on her birthday more consistently, instead of just when Miho could finagle the timing of slipping away to actually land on her birthday. She hadn't been very happy about it needless to say, but she'd only made passive aggressive remarks once, given when she'd bitterly asked when she was going to be back the next year and her response had been that whether it was before or after dinner depended on if she was going to be passive aggressive about her partners again. She'd tried to push, saying she was perfectly allowed to say things like that when they were pulling her daughter away on her birthday.

That had only resulted in her mother learning the hard way that it wasn't an idle threat when she'd warned her that it was dependent on her own behavior. Her mother had not been happy that she'd stayed out until after dinner, but she hadn't really been able to dispute that she'd done it to herself since she'd already made it clear she wasn't going to sit by and just take that nonsense regarding her partners. She'd been warned. She pushed that boundary anyway and had to live with the consequence.

Shaking the thoughts off, she tilts her head at her mother, “I did. It was quite lovely actually.”

Her mother's eyes tighten a little when Yuki stiffens in response, “That's good…”

She hums in agreement, weighing adding more as she's not obligated to tiptoe around setting Yuki off as well as the fact that she's genuinely starting to wonder if her mother pretending she's single around Yuki doesn't just make the situation with him worse in giving him a space to entertain his delusions. On the other hand, she doesn't want to give Yuki the chance to even attempt to taint her enjoyment of the day and would seriously like to have one day off dealing with his nonsense.

The choice is actually taken out of her hands, when her mother seems to muster herself as she draws herself up, “What did you do to celebrate?”

Yuki flinches slightly, but their mother gives him a sharp look.

Oh. Oh. Their mother had taken the discussion she'd forced seriously for once instead of ignoring things. Back when she thought she was dying, she'd expressed sadness in not getting to meet her partners, but then when she'd gotten healthier, she'd ended up banning them from the house to avoid upsetting Yuki, citing that he should have some space where he wasn't confronted with the information. Apparently though, while she probably wasn't anywhere near ready to let them come to the house, she'd decided that one of the changes she'd be making was to actually acknowledge her relationship in the house.

She's probably rather torn by the whole thing to be honest. On one hand, again, she had expressed interest in knowing her literal soulmates in the past, so there was probably a measure of happiness in finally being able to at least ask about them. In the other though, one of the reasons she'd eventually acknowledged Miya as her mother was because as messed up as some of the things she's pulled with her and Yuki are, and as much as she does not agree with them, ultimately she does genuinely love them and did those things in an attempt to make them happy, and Yuki certainly wasn't whenever her relationship is brought up.

She hums as she lets go of the thought, “Well, before that since I know you're used to different things as a Yotsuba, it wasn't anything glamorous or extravagant. Can't even call it fancy. And while some of that is because they just don't have Yotsuba levels of money, it's also because they know that while I wouldn't say no to something both expensive and thoughtful if they had the money, ultimately I care more about things being thoughtful than the price tag attached. Just wanted to start with that so you don't judge any of it negatively for being cheap.”

Her mother nods in understanding, and she smiles, both with gratitude at Honami as she sets plates in front of them, as well as from general happiness from the memories, “Well, for starters they took me to a cafè to grab a slice of cake. After that we went to a movie I've been wanting to watch, and once it was over we went to a park to just enjoy taking a walk together. Then we went back to Sora's house where he cooked a rather delicious lunch and it shifted away from a date as his sister joined us. I honestly spent the rest of the afternoon there, played some board and card games, but we mostly just relaxed and talked. Received calls from the other kids throughout the afternoon, since I’d told them my morning was busy but they all wanted to call to wish me a happy birthday. It was quite enjoyable overall.”

Her mother blinks a few times in surprise, then gives her a bemused smile, “Well, you aren't wrong that it's nowhere near what I'm used to, but if you enjoyed it…”

She nods with a smile, “I did. Honestly, it was the best and most relaxing day I've had in a while.”

Her mom hums as she takes a drink, only responding when she's done obviously, “That's all that really matters.”

She flashes her a smile and her mother almost hesitantly asks more. About the movie she'd seen, what Sora had made her for lunch, small talk mostly.

The dinner passes by faster than usual while she chats with her mother, who for once is refusing to let Yuki even start any of his nonsense. Some part of her does feel bad for Yuki, since it had been started by mental manipulation magic and when he was a fetus at that, but he adamantly refused to even try to move on, whether naturally or through their mother offering -offering not demanding or just doing it- to use mental manipulation magic to get rid of his romantic feelings for her. It was the only time before now that she'd even acknowledged the situation actually. Yuki had shot it down though.

Despite that, she just can't help but feel genuine relief in getting away from his constant pushing of lines and her boundaries without having to basically hide herself away in her room or get away from him in general.

Who knows.

Maybe their mother refusing to essentially give him a silent free pass from letting his behavior continue in the house without saying a word will make him back off.

She sets a listening spell that will essentially broadcast the noise to her over her room so she'll know if anyone knocks or anything, as well as another that will basically let her project her voice from around the area of her closet if she wants just in case before she apparates quietly from her room. Specifically, she heads to the Yotsuba Main House, bypassing the magic barrier entirely since it's not designed to notice her Calanthe magic in the slightest.

She has a very important mission today, one that comes up every year, three times a year in fact, though for different reasons. With a glance up with her Elemental Sight, she confirms Maya is already awake and in her office as she heads up.

This tradition of hers had started back when she was nine, having just felt like it was wrong to let it happen as things were looking to play out.

She doesn't even bother knocking before she enters, which Maya seems to have expected given her amused look, and was honestly fair since these yearly visits were one of the few things that she didn't knock for. The first time more because she was in a hurry not to get caught sneaking away by her mother, then afterwards, she and Maya had discussed it on the phone after the next quick visit the next year, and after she'd explained that she usually knocked because she genuinely respected Maya in general, Maya had all but demanded these specific visits be an exemption to her knocking.

She smiles back as she swiftly enters and makes her way forward, swinging around the desk to drop a kiss on Maya's forehead as she places the gift bag on her desk, “Happy Mother's Day.”

She was fully aware Maya wasn't her birth mother, and she'd never celebrated it with Maya before she moved out, but back when that first Mother's Day since she moved in with Miya was approaching, it had felt utterly wrong on a fundamental level to celebrate the day with Miya. It had taken her almost too long to realize why and still have enough time to get a card and present, but eventually it sunk in that it was because of Maya. Because she wasn't her birth mother, and mentally she was an adult, but Maya genuinely felt more like a mom to her then Miya, both at the time and even up to now. It had become a yearly tradition after that for her to slip away to quickly visit Maya and bring her a card and present, though she couldn't linger for an actual celebration without her mother potentially noticing and throwing a fit of her own, much like Yuki's fits about her romantic relationships.

It's why she'd barged in that first year, being in a rush to drop them off and determined to do it on Mother's Day itself rather than the day before, even if it meant she'd have to leave just as swiftly to avoid anyone realizing she wasn't at the Shiba house. Then turned around when she understood from the tempo of the house after she got back that she had more time then she'd thought and knocked the second year, leading to that phone call where she explained what the difference was. Maya had all but demanded she not bother for these visits though, since while she appreciated the respect in general, she was absolutely set on the fact that if she was coming to visit her as more like a daughter then she had no business knocking. Not for Mother's Day, nor the other two things along those lines that she slips away to visit for.

Those other visits being Maya's shared birthday with her mother and Christmas, since her previously Western life means it's more of a family holiday for her then a romantic holiday that it's seen more as in Japan. Maya had thankfully understood that when she'd explained, given she was fully aware of her reincarnation, and she'd respected it as well.

Maya smiles at the brushed kiss, “Thank you dear.” Then she sighs dramatically, “I suppose you'll have to leave to mitigate my sister noticing your disappearance as swiftly as usual?”

She smiles apologetically, “Sorry.”

Maya shakes her head and gives her a mischievous grin, “One of these years, I'll get to keep you for Mother's Day!”

She laughs back, “After I move out, certainly. Not sure if I could manage all day without drawing a tantrum, but Miya generally prefers later celebrations anyway. The only real problem now is household breakfast, lunch, and the fact I can't predict when anyone will come looking for me, since while we don't really do celebrations until later, they don't tend to like me ‘holing up in my room’ on Mother's Day. Once I'm not living with them, that won't be a problem though, so I'll easily be able to spend the majority of Mother's Day with you.” Then she frowns slightly, “Besides, you aren't the only one who's not happy with the current situation, given it feels like I'm hiding it away like a shameful secret when that's not-”

She blows out a sharp breath in frustration, and Maya smiles at her, “I know. I'm aware it's more a matter of trying to avoid sticky situations with my sister inevitably throwing a fit. Which is why as much as I hate it, you should get going.”

She drops another kiss to Maya's forehead, “Yeah.” Then she starts for the door as she waves over her shoulder, “Talk to you later!”

Maya calls back similarly as she hurries out. She hasn't heard anything through the spell, not any knocking or the like, nor has she had to basically hit the on switch on her voice projection spell to call out something to stall anyone, but it's better to be safe and get there before any problems come up.

Hopefully Maya likes her card and present.

She narrows her eyes at the principal, “What I'm hearing, Principal Momoyama, is that you feel like your pride is being attacked.” He bristles, “Why else would you care about the hypothetical of if I did tank my practical exams if not because you hate the idea of course two students that are capable of going head to head with course one students? It's not like I somehow cheated my way into course one and am taking up the limited teaching resources that they're given.”

He opens his mouth, but he can't seem to find a genuine complaint as to the situation. She shakes her head, “Perhaps, Principal Momoyama, rather than focusing on things like that you should look into working with relevant parties so less magicians are practically pressured into almost always going into things like the Defense Forces and Police and encourage more to go into education to better things overall.”

He frowns heavily at her, once again looking rather unhappy, but she hadn't actually said anything inherently rude or disrespectful. The only thing that could remotely be taken that way was when she mentioned his pride, and that had been speculation based on his own actions. Actions he couldn't even really defend.

He doesn't seem to find anything to say back and huffs, “Well, regardless of that, given it's more geared towards magic research, you may want to think of transferring to Fourth High as we discussed earlier. Other than that, you're dismissed Shiba.”

She nods politely and heads out, a bit surprised to find Miho, Sora, and Hoshi waiting with the rest of what's become their friend group. She closes the faculty door behind her before tilting her head at Sora, who's closest, “What are you all doing here?”

He shakes his head, and jerks his thumb at the others, “Mostly them being concerned about why you were called into the office.”

She snorts, “That? Nothing major. They were just confused how I took first place in the theoretical tests when there's that idea that if you lack practical skills you'll struggle with the theory, so they couldn't wrap their heads around the idea of a course two student scoring higher than course one students. As though the only real factor they pay attention to for figuring out who's in course one and who's in course two isn't just casting speed which is irrelevant to the theoreticals. Or, given that they didn't say anything when we were enrolled and only brought it up after the first semester(5) test results, it may be better to say that they were confused as to how I wasn't overtaken in scoring placement by any course one students.”

Erika gives her a surprised look, “You're kidding me!”

She shakes her head, “Nope. Accused me of purposely tanking my practicals and everything.”

They all give her astonished looks, and well, technically it wasn't her best, but she hadn't purposely scored low enough to end up in course two, even if she'll shamelessly admit to any that know the full truth in the first place that it absolutely worked in her favor given she ended up in Sora, Miho, and Hoshi's class.

Regardless, she hadn't purposely aimed for either course specifically. It was true she'd slowed her casting speed down, but that was just to control what most people would deem an inhuman casting speed, given the advantages she had. Primarily from Occlumency and the flash cast based on it, though she has noticed after being surrounded by kids still in the process of honing their magic skills -more normal kids then her emotionally adopted Yotsuba kids she'd taught Occlumency and stuff to and the genetically modified to try to be able to take her out if necessary Yuki- that her mastery of wandless and wordless magic from her previous life, while obviously not directly applicable in an entirely different magic system, had given her more… finesse and skill with magic manipulation in general.

Could she cast a spell from this universe without any medium or using Occlumency? Certainly not. But it did give her a noticeable edge.

As they start to chatter amongst themselves about it, she wonders how long it will be before First High does something about her overshadowing the course one students.