Being at the height of winter, it was not unusual for the sun to go down early in the afternoon. Still, a few shards of sunlight slipped through the trees when he entered the front of the residence. He knew there would be none by the time he left.

He had planned to spend a quiet evening with his wife and then go to bed. Now that a large portion of the family's business activities were in his hands, he rarely liked staying out late anymore. Monday would soon be here and there were many meetings he had to at least look like he was awake for.

Still, when the "owner" of those businesses calls you in late on a Sunday afternoon, you don't say no to him, even if he is your father.

Especially because he IS your father.

As this was his former and future home, he had no need to have servants walk him in. After arriving at the designated internal doorway he didn't bother to knock. He pushed the handle and walked right in.

Since this was the entrance to his father's personal suite of rooms within the residence, some might call this bold for a son to do. Yet this was not the first time he had been called here in his life and it certainly wouldn't be the last time either. Formality served neither man now inside this room.

"Hello son."

From the other side of the sitting room that was his father's personal "living room", the man in question was buried behind the back of a plush reading chair facing towards the expansive windows that looked out on the property's even more expansive grounds. This wasn't even "family only" space. The family never gathered here to congregate or watch movies or play games. This was his father's personal private space. When you came here, you were truly in the lair of the beast. Only truly important family members and colleagues ever saw this room.

"Hello father."

His reply came as he proceeded further into the room. He moved past the tables and couches to occupy the identical chair beside his father's with a small table between them. A short glass with brown liquid and a few cubes of ice in it caught his eye.

As he sat his father spoke again.

"Care for a drink?"

"Thanks, I think I do."

These words grabbed the immediate attention of the room's HAR unit and in a few seconds another glass of brown liquid with ice cubes descended from the mechanical arm in the ceiling. The residence's central HAR computer was long accustomed to his personal preferences and could recognize his voice instantly. From habit and repetition, it "guessed" the drink he wanted.

As he took a sip of the Kentucky Bourbon, his father made an inquiry.

"How's your brother?"

This was supposed to be just an icebreaker. He knew it instantly, yet it would turn into a full blown conversation of its own anyway. Their father undoubtedly got a daily report about Koujirou's activities just as he got one on their sisters and himself. The man was an information otaku, especially about his own children.

It was not unusual for his brother and their father to not actually see each other for weeks at a time. Kouji was a grad student at the National Magic University working towards a doctorate in magic theory, and when he wasn't at the university he was either tinkering around or sleeping at the site of the supposedly closed Seventh Magic Research Institute.

Technically his brother still lived here in the residence, but he couldn't recall the last time seeing his brother here outside of an official family function.

"He's fine father."

A simple reply for a seemingly simple question.

It was true that since the front company that now "covers" the former Seventh Institute was one of his responsibilities, he had probably seen his brother many times since their father had last spoke in person with him.

"Unfortunate that he couldn't be torn away from his… 'work' to join us for New Year's."

Tomokazu took another swig of his drink to buy time to find the right way to respond. When he removed it from his mouth again, he decided honesty was best. In this situation he was "lecturing to Buddha" in the first place.

"He finds your wife difficult to deal with Father."

A partial truth, to be sure.

Saegusa Kouichi rarely took his sunglasses off in front of other people but they sat there on the table between them this evening. His sharp and emotionally cold left eye wasn't completely unlike the silver and mechanically cold right one that now both cut towards his eldest son.

"We all do, that's not a good excuse for his absence."

The perturbed expression disappeared as his father's eyes drifted back to the huge window before them.

"He could have at least made an appearance for the girls' sake."

Their father's current wife is the mother of their younger sisters. To say the dynamic between them and their mother was different than with her step-children would seem a normal thing to say in a mixed family. Yet in this family it was an unusually extreme dynamic.

She had blown into their lives only weeks after they had lost…her.

Like a Typhoon she disrupted everything, at the worst possible time in their lives. She made no pretenses at trying to be their "new mother" and both had been glad for that at least. They kept the east wing of the mansion and she set up shop in the west wing. The two sides avoided each other like plague. It was hard for them not to resent her, and sadly early on it had clouded their relationships with their sisters as well.

That had improved relatively quickly though, and not the least cause of that was that woman's sudden retreat from all of their daily lives.

You had to give the woman credit, she picked up quickly that she wasn't going to find much happiness for herself in these walls. The twins were still little when she and father made "arrangements" for her supposedly bad health. This of course required her to live in the more "arid" climate of east coast Australia. She now travels extensively and shows up when required and the exorbitant bills she generates still get paid on time.

One such event she rarely skipped was the Saegusa New Year's Gala. Everyone in Japan who had any connection to the Ten Master Clans; be they magicians, corporate tycoons, bureaucrats, or especially politicians; had to make the annual pilgrimage to be seen and photographed around the "first family" of Japanese magic. The social butterfly couldn't help being there and trying to be the center of attention as the "hostess", despite not directly participating in the actual work of planning for this event in over a decade. The true hostess duties fell to her eldest daughter, though Tomokazu's own wife was taking on more of those tasks every year.

"At least her 'bodyguard' stayed back at the hotel this year."

Dragging the muscle-bound "bodyguard" the family had nicknamed "Blondie" around the event the year before had felt like a deliberate attempt to publicly embarrass their father. If so, it had failed, only her own daughters seemed to have been put off by it. Father even seemed amused by her antics, to a point. Sometime early in the second half of the event she had been discreetly bundled off into a vehicle and tucked securely back into her hotel room.

The girls of course loved their vivacious mother, and missed her terribly; but eventually her ways would wear on even them. They loved to see their mother, but only in small doses. After a few days, they were glad to see her leave again too. She had more or less volunteered to leave them to their father's care, and as a result her not being active in their daily lives was what the girls were now used to.

She blew in for birthdays and similar holidays just like the typhoon she was; and then just as quickly she blew away back to Australia or Europe with her blonde and blue-eyed bodyguard. She was put up at a luxury hotel when she stayed in town and her "bodyguard", who was only two years older than Tomokazu himself, never apparently needed a separate hotel room.

And father gladly and uncomplainingly paid for her extravagant "lifestyle" fully, just to keep her out of his hair and out of the way.

"Somethings are truly priceless."

He hoped the rim of his glass covered his smirk as he drank again.

"We both know my wife is not his issue."

Now Tomokazu's smirk vanished, because his father was well aware of the other side of the partial truth from before.

Being the son of Saegusa Kouichi wasn't an easy thing. No one knew that better than his heir.

"Noblesse Oblige. From those that much are given, even more is expected."

There was no doubt in any of their minds that Kouichi loved them. Yet there was always that subtle hint around the edges that interpersonal love between a father and his children wasn't the driving force in their father's concern for them.

Saegusa, a family name that when read literally by separate Kanji means "Seven Grass". Sometimes with their "coach", it felt like "team" was much more important than the individual. Team Saegusa was always Kouichi's first priority. His children couldn't help but feel he never fully focused on them because of that.

And of course there was….. "them".

Those people, and more specifically….

….THAT woman.

It had tainted everything around them their entire lives and years before.

Another beautiful woman with a gorgeous smile and a flowing head of hair drifted across his mind.

The boys had been so young when she… "left" them.

The raised voices of the servants and their rushing feet going up and down the halls on that horrible night so many years ago were just as vivid in his mind as if they were happening again right now.

The smell of her perfume wafted across his mind again. The softness of her skin as she kissed him goodnight.

The tears he heard her cry behind her locked door. Then later the tears of Koujirou that never seemed to stop. In some ways it felt like his little brother's tears had still not stopped. He had been changed forever by that night. A happy and cheerful little boy tried desperately to withdraw from the world entirely after that night.

That was the night of the tragic "accident", but he knew the real truth of that night.

"She finally….gave up."

Even to this day the pain of that night haunted his brother and forced him to withdraw from his family. He knew, though he rarely admitted to himself, it had affected him profoundly too. The only difference between the brothers was how their individual personalities reacted to that terrible night.

Their father never shed a tear for the mother of his sons. Not one drop.

"And that damn cold metallic eye."

He turned to see that same cold metal eye looking out the windows again.

"Let's not dwell on the past father."

His conciliatory words drew his father's attention to him once again. He wished his father could truly embrace that advice in its full meaning. That was because he had finally come to the point where he himself understood and accepted the man he called father's true nature, and motivations.

Saegusa Kouichi was a man who lived his entire life inside a singular moment.

A moment that had subsequently defined and colored his entire life for him.

The son desperately hoped one day his father could leave that moment in the past truly behind him.

They had never spoke about it to each other. To his knowledge the man had never spoke about it to anyone. Tomokazu first heard about it in the whispers of servants in the hallways of the residence. That drove him to research it on his own. There, in old news articles, he saw his father's "real" face for the first time, the face of a terrified teenager, and finally began to understand.

….Taipei.

"I'll speak with him and let him know he's expected for the next family event."

Kouichi nodded at his son's words, then took a sip from his own glass. Tomokazu followed suit, and they sat there staring out the window at the darkening world beyond.

Of course, the brothers drew closer to the girls after their own mother left them.

Who understood better what it was like to be motherless than their brothers. There had been many a teary night when the twins would sneak into his room and fall asleep crying, one sleeping on each arm.

Mayumi had been the strong one though. He never saw a single tear from her. Still, she too had needed the occasional attention session after everyone else was asleep too.

And their mother was only a phone call away. He knew he shouldn't be jealous of that, but he was.

His eyes fell on his father's profile again.

"And we resented you the most."

Tomokazu had stayed resentful up to the point he himself fell in love for the first and only time. His father had been surprisingly lax about the choice of future mother to the Saegusa main house. Perhaps his own rough experiences had mollified his normal obstinacy in at least that one area.

In the end, Tomokazu had managed to find a woman on his own that complimented him in every way and also pleased "Team Saegusa's" "coach".

"Your brother needs to marry."

Not the first time Tomokazu had heard this complaint from his father's mouth. Tomokazu couldn't help but twist his own mouth up in response though.

"Well it's better than hearing 'where are my grandkids already?'….again."

It wasn't as if his wife and he were not trying. He absently thought that had his father not called him here tonight he could be working on those grandkids for him right now.

"Such advice coming from you would seem disingenuous to Koujirou."

His father's eyes cut again towards him, but there was no rebuke in those eyes.

"I'm aware. That's why you'll tell him instead. I acknowledge my own faults in that area. Can he say the same for his own faults?"

The reality was that Saegusa Kouichi was worried for his younger son's future, but he also was worried for "Team" Saegusa's future at the same time. Their father had been treating Tomokazu as a full grown man since the marriage. Even if he still watched after him as a child, he never demonstrated that in private since then. He seemed to feel the same way about his younger son too.

"I cannot speak for him in this regard."

Kouichi smirked at his elder son's reply then.

"Why not? He loves no one better than you."

True enough, the death of their mother had made Koujirou completely reliant on Tomokazu well into his teens. Even now his first turn for advice was to Tomokazu. They had both been young when she left, but Kouji had been barely a toddler. Even today Tomokazu could remember significantly more about their mother than Kouji, but it was Kouji that was still the most bitter about it.

"Because he's never been in love with a woman before."

He withdrew into his own world of study and magic, choosing to interact with professionals and not his peers. Hard to get dates, even with the Saegusa name, if you hide away.

Kouji's bitterness was directed squarely at their father.

"Because he couldn't love mother."

She desperately wanted to be loved by Kouichi of the Saegusa. She went into the marriage with hope in her heart. She was the new wife of the formerly most eligible bachelor in all of Japan. Handsome despite the eye, powerful, graceful, suave even. Saegusa Kouichi had been the apple of every magically talented girl's eye since he was a little boy.

But like their poor mother, and maybe the girls' mother after her, they didn't understand the rules of the game going in. They didn't know the deck was stacked against them from the start. They had no idea that a living "phantom" haunted the halls of Saegusa Kouichi's heart.

"THAT woman."

At least in the first marriage, certainly not the second one, their father had went in with youthful hope too. But that hope was that the shadow that hung over him since he was fourteen could finally be lifted.

Tomokazu didn't understand till he was in love himself, and that's why Kouji still couldn't forgive or even sympathize with their father.

Their father had went through all the motions. Candlelight dinners, romantic gifts, getaways to secret hideaways for the weekend or a week or two.

He tried to make it work. He tried to cover his pain with smiles and kind words.

Their mother had been too sensitive to her husband's heart. She could feel his pain, and she could feel he didn't love her enough, not the way a woman should be loved by her man. She was someone he cared for, and someone he wanted to protect; but in the end their mother realized that the rightful place in a husband's heart where only the love for his wife should reside had been fully occupied long before she ever met him. A place in Saegusa Kouichi that she could never touch, despite having the best right to do so. A darkness that hung over him and that he himself seemed incapable of expelling.

A darkness that he….loved.

She wanted to be the wife he wanted and desired, but in the end it hadn't been enough for her to only really be the matron of a great house.

The phantom in their father's heart had taken her will to live from her, and even the love and desperate needs of her two boys couldn't keep her in this world.

"There's enough blame to go around."

As a boy he too resented their father, for living, when it had been something in himself that had become the "cancer" that killed their mother's will to live. As a child he didn't know the details, but instinct and intuition told the boys it was their father who was the cause. It was only as a man he had come to understand that their father was handicapped when it came to loving women.

Saegusa Kouichi's definition of the perfect woman had been tainted by his own pain and shame.

Tomokazu also came to understand that suicide was an inheritably selfish act.

Despite their flaws, he still loved both his parents deeply. He only wished Kouji could also realize that one day. His own life had been much better since he had accepted his father for who he really was. He wanted his brother to find the same peace he had found in that.

"I'll show him the list again."

The list was a list of eligible women from prominent magic families that were available for marriage. It might seem archaic, but it was the quickest way to find a bride, and the quickest way to enhance magic power for the nation.

Luckily their father had let Tomokazu prune out the ones that wouldn't suit Kouji's nature. All the ones still on the list were also pursuing advanced degrees in magic research.

One of Mayumi's friends came to mind, though she might be too young. She's very serious natured and would suit Kouji well. But two rumors about her might disqualify her. One was that she was from an "Extra" family. Sadly such things still mattered at the social level of the Saegusa. The other said she was already involved. Asking Mayumi directly could clear up both issues, but with Kouji not "ready" yet, that would be invasive at this point, and might lead to false assumptions.

When they had first went over the list there had been a woman more Kouji's age that stood out to Tomokazu. She was very pretty, smart, and apparently eligible; but for some reason he wouldn't verbalize, their father had insisted she be removed.

"What was her name? Tsukiba? Tsukuba?"

He couldn't remember, but she had been pretty enough that had he still been single he would have arranged a date with her. Her family apparently didn't have enough pedigree to qualify for Saegusa material, but if he had liked her he would have fought for her. He wasn't sure Kouji had the "steel" within him to fight for the woman he loved though. Then he thought he might be selling his brother short.

There was also the slightly older granddaughter of Elder Kudou. Truly a woman who could never be forgotten! The surprisingly still unmarried beauty Fujibayashi Kyouko. She had been on Tomokazu's own short list of potential brides, but having actually met that woman many times during their childhoods and teen years, she'd be way too much work for poor Kouji to handle.

"Hell, she was too much work for me to take on."

Plus there were rumors her work with the Ministry of Defense was now the top priority for her. A career woman wasn't the kind of wife the Saegusa were after for the heir to their "throne".

"Good, the sooner he settles down the better, for everyone."

Having broken his train of thoughts, Tomokazu smirked a bit at his father.

"Don't get your hopes up father. There won't be much traction there till after he gets his doctorate."

Kouichi sighed absently towards this comment.

"He doesn't need a doctorate. He's going to get the lab no matter what."

Once his studious nature was plain for all to see, their father had immediately planned to have Koujirou lead the Seventh Institute. Already having their careers mapped before them, their father saw little value in advance degrees for his sons. Being the head of a corporate conglomerate didn't require anything beyond a simple business degree to earn the minimal collegial respect, but the head of a major research institute…..

"He wants to be worthy of heading the lab in his own right."

The look of skepticism on Kouichi's face spoke volumes towards his thinking on the subject.

"He already is worthy, he is a product of that lab himself. He is Saegusa, which is all he needs to be worthy."

"Team Saegusa strikes yet again?"

Tomokazu hid his smirk behind a sip of Bourbon before speaking again.

"And the respect of his colleagues? What of that?"

Kouichi practically laughed this time.

"He has no colleagues. He would command, they would obey. He is Saegusa."

Now Tomokazu sighed in mild frustration. Their father had a great deal of the old feudal Daimyou in his personality for sure. It was time to get off this topic.

"Well father, it will be best to let him finish anyway."

Kouichi looked out into the almost dark night beyond the window.

"I realize as much, why do you think I keep paying for that expensive education of his?"

It was a rhetorical question, and an empty complaint. Money was no object to the Saegusa.

Tomokazu added in some hope for his father.

"Perhaps he'll meet an acceptable woman at the lab beforehand on his own?"

Now a pure look of skepticism seeped over his father's visage.

"Not buried inside a lab twenty-four hours a day, every day. He's met all the women that work there already and hasn't latched on to one yet."

Saegusa Kouichi never raised his voice, about anything, but those who knew him well could tell the subtle signs that he was becoming irritated. Tomokazu was also getting frustrated. His brother's personal life wasn't really his affair, and since it always led to dredging up painful memories it was best to move on.

"Surely you didn't call me here to discuss Koujirou, father?"

He realized more of his own frustrations had seeped into his words than he had intended to show. His father tactfully pretended to ignore it though.

"Of course not. Let's have another drink."

It wasn't a request, but Tomokazu accepted it anyway without complaint. He only now noticed his own glass had been drained of its fluids. They both placed their glasses back on the table and two mechanical arms descended to retrieve them. Seconds later those mechanical arms returned with new glasses, liquid contents now restored. Once the arms were gone into the ceiling again, both men retrieved their new glasses and took a sip.

It was now that Tomokazu realized that his father's eyes had been mostly concentrating on the darkening world beyond the window of this room for the entire time he had been here.

Seeing the most prominent new feature of that view, even in the less than half-light of the almost ended day, he had to work hard to not sigh in frustration.

"Father, please tell me you haven't been sitting here all evening brooding at….THAT."

There was no doubt what "THAT" was referring to.

All his life his father had warned the boys, and later their sisters, about trying to go into that place on the hill behind their residence property.

The Saegusa compound was several times larger than St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. There was literally a whole world to explore inside the safety of their well defended walls; but there was something about that completely walled up forest on the hillside behind the house that magnetically drew them to it.

Even as a young magician he could feel the powerful defensive magics surrounding the place. On occasion when he got near that high stone wall he could feel the presence of…..something…watching him.

To his great frustration, he never found a way into that "magical" forest inside the walls. To his equal consternation the guards and household servants often found him trying. The result was stern lectures from the man seated beside him now, and a lack of normal privileges for a certain period of time.

Being more sensitive to magic, Koujirou had always shown fear and would refuse to go near the walls. Mayumi and the twins would also head up there from time to time, but not nearly as often as he himself had. For Tomokazu, the mystery of the "walled forest" was a major presence of his childhood, and a distraction from his pain as well.

As he matured and the world began to center more on school and girls, the mystery on the hillside faded into something that just was. It was there, but his desire to solve that mystery was ebbed away with time and other distractions.

But the man who had always warned him of it, had never lost his own intense interests in the magically guarded property or even more so, it's elusive owners.

The sudden construction of a grand mansion on that property had stirred the sleeping hornets' nest of his father's interest into a full swam these past few months.

The glowing lights of the new and large home on top of the hill overlooking their whole estate now filled the entire right side of the windows they both looked through.

Still, despite even employing the resources of the Self Defense Forces Third Counter-Intelligence Division to try to find the mystery owners, their identity still remained elusive after all these decades.

Even Tomokazu reluctantly had to acknowledge his father's concerns about it seemed to be well justified now.

There were very few "organizations" in the entire world who could secretly purchase a piece of prominent real estate, hold it and hide it and its owners' identities secret for decades, encase it in magic defenses that obscure every attempt, from satellites to magic spells, to breach it, and then build a massive house on it and prevent even the real name of the construction company building it from leaking out.

There were few organizations in this world that could do such a thing. There were fewer still that might risk the wrath of the Saegusa Family to do it. Yet there was only one "organization" that might have motive to actually do it.

He shuddered to think of the only potential new neighbors that made any sense. He was even more concerned at how his father would react to them.

"Display front video 01051453."

Instead of replying directly to his son's mildly chiding inquiry, Kouichi gave instructions to the HAR.

On the wall to their left, on the other side of his father, a hidden video screen came to life. A multi-screen video played the images of a dark colored high end luxury vehicle traversing the boulevard in front of the residence. The vehicle was shown from multiple angles approaching and then retreating from the camera angles down the road.

Tomokazu could tell that it was heading up the hill towards were a new entrance for that old high stone wall was located. Still, the road continued past that entrance back down the other side of the hill and into the neighborhood beyond again.

Though a gated community, that didn't prevent those inside the neighborhood from touring even grander houses than their own, and until this new residence was built the Saegusa residence had been the number one target of this vehicular gawking.

"OK, a car drove past the gates. That's not so unusual."

The style of vehicle also indicated that it was a resident out on a Sunday drive, or just heading towards a friend's home on the other side of the hill. Perhaps heading to the neighborhood golf club where despite the weather, indoor pursuits could also be had.

"Display front video 01051734."

Again the same car, again shown approaching and then leaving, but this time down the hill.

"Alright father, I'll take the bait. What's so special about this vehicle?"

He could see nothing inherently wrong with it, despite his father seeming to think otherwise.

"Zoom in on the driver, all screens."

At his father's words, the camera angles all zoomed in.

"Well…..admittedly that's odd."

There was some visual effect obscuring the driver's features entirely. Since it was very difficult to make out what was causing the distortion, magic seemed a good source for the interference.

"But….not unheard of. We use similar techniques and we are far from the only magician families in this neighborhood."

Kouichi indulgently nodded at his son's assertion.

"That is certainly true."

Then he turned to look at his son with a sympathetic eye.

"You of course know the first three residences on the road past this property up there?"

He indicated with his index finger towards the new mansion on top of the hill. The next three properties down the other side of this hill were owned by his father's own first cousins.

"I can show you the video from their front gates that show this same car never going past them if you like."

Tomokazu again suppressed a sigh from leaking out.

"OK, let's assume they are the owners, or at least friends or employees of the owners. Now what?"

His father smiled slightly at him.

"See anything odd in this image?"

At his father's words the HAR, apparently pre-programmed to do so, stopped the image playback and showed a front and rear shot of the vehicle.

Tomokazu examined it for a moment. The rear windows were heavily tinted so he couldn't see any potential additional passengers. Otherwise everything was normal for a car.

Seeing this confusion on his son's face, his father's smile decreased slightly in mild frustration.

"Perhaps something odd for a car that has magic in place to obscure its driver's facial features?"

And as his father became slightly more frustrated with his son's obtuseness, sudden realization struck his son.

"The license plates?"

They were completely visible.

"The license plates."

The number was completely readable in both images.

Tomokazu smirked at this.

"Certainly they are dummy plates, or you already know the owner's identity?"

Waiting for the confirmation, he watched as his father took a languid sip of his drink before speaking again.

"Display vehicle owner."

The HAR obeyed his command and the image of a man appeared beside notes on him.

"SHII-BA-RA TAT-SU-ROU."

Tomokazu pronounced the name phonetically. He then turned back to his father.

"Obviously a business alias, what's the story behind this man?"

He knew his father already had the answer and was wanting to get Tomokazu to find it for himself as a "teaching moment" exercise. In no mood to play along with his father's educational "games" he directed the question to his father in an intent fashion.

"Look at his work info son."

Tomokazu managed not to roll his eyes as he looked back at the video. Then his eyes widened slightly when he saw the company name he worked for, and the job title.

"Ah! Now have I peeked your interest?"

His father smiled knowingly at his slightly surprised son.

The man with the business alias of Shiibara Tatsurou, the man who's car was taking a tour of their neighborhood and apparently stopping in at their new mystery neighbors' new home; was the Vice President in charge of Technology Development at…..

"…Four Leaves Technology?"

"Ah! The plot thickens."

His father had theatric tendencies at times. This instance of theatrics was very appropriate, though.

It was an open secret among the Ten Master Clans that FLT was a major front company for….

"…THAT woman."

Again the shadow that hung over all their lives, the shadow of a woman who was once a tragic little girl, hung over them like a thunderstorm about to break into a deluge.

Tomokazu's eyes involuntarily drifted back out the massive windows and up to the well-lit mansion on the hill beyond.

"Needless to say, Shiibara-san does not currently own a home in our neighborhood and has not received a pass to visit someone here. When we questioned the neighborhood security company, their guards that day suddenly were reassigned. Now we can't locate them at all and the security company suddenly lost all records of these "temp" hires. The security gate camera's only show what we can see on our own cameras. Obscured passengers, unobscured license plates."

Now his father uncharacteristically chuckled.

Seeing his son's stunned face, he composed himself again and smiled indulgently.

"She's taunting us son, on purpose."

He wanted to deny his father's assumption on principle, but it was looking "too coincidental" to be a coincidence at all.

There was really only one organization with the resources and motivation to do all these things and thumb their nose at the Saegusa the whole time.

The Yotsuba.

And THAT woman, the leader of that most dreaded of "families".

And the shadow that resided in his father's heart. The shadow that "killed" their mother.

Maya.

A simple name spelled with the kanji literally meaning "Dark Night", who has darkened the lives of Saegusa Kouichi and all that touch him since that horrid day in 2062.

"Father, we can't…."

"Don't worry son. I have a plan already."

Tomokazu had to work to suppress the concern from showing across his face. A quick swig of his drink helped to cover his expression and matching thoughts.

"That's exactly what concerns me, father."

The tangled "waltz" these two have been dancing with each other since that horrid day just increased in tempo. It was already bad enough that she now had a "son", but now she'd be their neighbor too.

It was bait his father couldn't ignore. Every part of Tomokazu screamed this was a trap.

It didn't help his father was already overly interested in his younger twin sisters' enigmatic sempais. Now this very week the boy had been publically declared the son of Yotsuba Maya.

Who very much wasn't supposed to be capable of reproduction.

Whose supposed lack of reproductive ability had put a final nail in the engagement she shared with his father so many years ago.

And had set the whole course of their lives off the rails so many years ago.

And now, she had a son.

And now the previously smoldering fire had jet fuel poured all over it.

"Have you ever seen this man before?"

His father's sudden words pulled him out of the deep "rabbit hole" of dark thoughts he had been inching down just then.

"Um….no."

Looking back at the picture of Shiibara Tatsarou, it was a man who seemed not too different from his own father. A shade or two lighter hair, slightly bulkier build, but still trim. Young looking for his age, but signs of age approaching around the eyes and mouth. A typical, none-descript, middle-aged business man.

Nothing made him seem overly familiar to Tomokazu.

"Don't feel bad, at your age you shouldn't know a thing about him."

Kouichi turned his own eyes toward the image of the man.

"I didn't remember him at first either."

Then he turned his eyes back towards his son.

"Then I had our people run a facial recognition profile on him. You know what they found?"

Tomokazu shook his head at this.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing before the age of twenty five."

Tomokazu furrowed his brows at this. This country was famous for its multi-layered governmental bureaucracy. It was impossible for a "native" to have zero images of his face on file with the government from his youth, and government files where their researchers would have looked first.

Every child in this nation is photographed every year in school. Preschools normally do so before that. Driver's licenses, other forms of ID. It is literally impossible for anyone in Japan to function in society without some form of picture of them being taken and stored on file somewhere.

"How….."

Even if he had been dropped off at age twenty five by an alien starship, there was no way he could have become a VP of Japan's CAD technology leader without previous records.

Unless the secret owners of that CAD firm cleaned his records.

"Easy, when you have the resources."

His father's words struck home.

"And a government willing to cooperate."

Now his father furrowed his brows.

"But not finding anything on him before age twenty five only made the sense that I knew this face even more intense for me."

Now he smiled at his son.

"They say that anything put out on the network stays forever."

His smirk turned downright conspiratorial.

"But print, nothing beats the printed word for preservation of information."

He reached down towards the second platform of the table between them and handed his son a sheaf of browning old printer paper.

"Took me three hours digging through my childhood boxes to find that. Your grandfather was unusually insistent on my learning all I could about magic by my own research. Every day I was tasked to find one thing interesting in the magical world and tell my parents about it at dinner."

That seemed oddly familiar to Tomokazu, a similar ritual had occurred with his grandfather and himself before the former's passing. His father then continued that tradition.

He now looked at the printed output of a web page news article from more than three decades in the past as he listened to his father.

"We weren't allowed electronics at the dinner table, so I printed it off for reference. I remember this one was particularly interesting because it was about a boy about my own age who had become something of a minor celebrity in the magic world."

Looking down at the picture with the article, Tomokazu felt the young boy in the picture had a familiar look to him.

"Of course the headline tells you the special item about that young man."

Tomokazu read the headline and byline.

[Young magician has highest psion count in the known world: Interest from various sources has turned his world upside down, in a good way]

Still Tomokazu was confused.

"But….psion count has no direct effect on magical talent."

His father nodded his understanding towards his son's confusion.

"And supposedly it still doesn't."

The way his father said that statement made Tomokazu believe Kouichi didn't agree with the world's magic science community's general consensus on the current value of high psion count.

"With the incredibly sudden change in general scientific consensus related to psion count value over three decades ago this young magician, who to this day still has the highest psion count on record, descended back into the obscurity from which he had arisen."

Another sip of Bourbon was followed by another statement.

"How convenient."

Again, Tomokazu was puzzled.

"Convenient for whom, father?"

His father smirked without looking at him, then he raised his glass towards the window in salute towards the well-lit mansion on top of the hill behind them.

"Those that would benefit from easier control of a high psion count resource, of course. Those that would and could get respected scientists around the world to change their minds, with Mental Interference magic. Eisaku-dono was a truly worthy adversary."

Such an effort, even for the Yotsuba, seemed impossible to fathom.

"Father, the Yotsuba are powerful, but every magic scientist around the world?"

Kouichi nodded at his son's understandable skepticism.

"Perhaps you're right son. While you have that in hand, read the boy's name."

He knew this was a setup and his eyes confirmed it. Still, it made those eyes go slightly rounder in response.

"They…they didn't even…."

His father smiled sympathetically towards his mildly stunned son's disbelief.

"They didn't change his name for the business alias hardly at all. Didn't even change his given name."

Now Tomokazu could only stare stunned eyed at his father's mild chuckle.

"They're not even trying to hide it, at least not now."

He shook his head and then continued.

"Want to take a guess who had a 99% facial recognition match with the boy in that picture in your hands?"

Both their eyes drifted towards the wall where the image of FLT Vice President Shiibara Tatsurou, the magician with the highest recorded psion count, was still shown.

"Guess who else's picture came up with a 73% facial match to that photo in your hand."

Tomokazu knew enough about the facial recognition software the Saegusa used to know anything north of 66% was prime candidates for close family members.

Suddenly a very familiar image popped up beside the one of the man known as Shiibara Tatsurou. It was an image that most everyone, at least in the world's magic community, had become used to seeing since New Year's Day.

"….damn."

The young man didn't look too much like the middle aged man beside him, but there was just enough similarity to make the family connection obvious when seen side by side.

"The youthful image of that man as a boy produced the facial recognition hit for that student. Apparently father and son look less alike as they age. But look who that young student actually favors."

The image of a familiar woman popped up on the other side of the student's face. The display indicated a 77% facial relationship match.

That was the face of THAT woman, Yotsuba Maya.

"So….he is her son after all."

Tomokazu's statement was a verification of the public facts released just that very week.

"Hardly."

His father's reply indicated his deeply seated doubts about the veracity of the public facts.

"Since he could just as easily and much more likely be the child of her sister with the same face."

Like his own younger sisters, Yotsuba Maya had a twin, Miya.

"But…"

Tomokazu couldn't help but speak forth at this juncture.

"…..that would make his fiancée his…"

"His actual full-blood sister, yes."

Tomokazu had to have had a truly stunned face for his father to reply to him in the fashion he was using.

"They have lived their lives so far as brother and sister. Is it so hard to believe they actually are siblings?"

"But…..to marry siblings to each other….even the Yotsuba…."

"It's a tactic on Maya's part."

Tomokazu looked at his father with amazement on his face.

"But…..how can they ever go back to being siblings after all this public recognition of their cousin status and engagement?"

Kouichi smiled at his son's naivety.

"And they'll stay cousins, at least publically. She'll find some reason to end their engagement once she achieves her goal."

Tomokazu blinked randomly to try to regain his thoughts before asking the next question to his father.

"What possible goal could that woman have to claim her nephew as her son and then engage him to his own sister?"

Kouichi smirked knowingly at this question.

"What else could it be but control?"

Tomokazu's dumbfounded expression continued.

"Control…..of….."

"The boy of course."

Seeing his son's perplexed expression Kouichi elaborated on his point.

"He is supposedly the son of the head of the Yotsuba Family herself. So why is he not the heir instead of his new fiancée?"

Seeing his son didn't have an answer for that question, he continued.

"We already know he's not a typical course two student. Far from it in fact."

Tomokazu had in the last month been brought up to speed on the observations and information his father had been collecting on the Shiba siblings for the previous two years. There was no way these two, especially the boy, were what they claimed to be. Learning they were Yotsuba certainly cleared up a lot of the mystery behind them, and matched what his father had already strongly suspected.

"So…..you think she has arranged this situation to keep him under her control?"

The father nodded to the son after taking another pull on his glass.

"He's the most valuable piece on Maya's chessboard. He's their trump card. But he is highly intelligent and has demonstrated an independent streak. Engaging him to the future Yotsuba leader, and a person he cares deeply for, increases Maya's control of him while keeping him and his 'fiancée' both under her control."

If half what they now suspected about Shiba Tatsuya was even remotely true, then "trump card" was a gross understatement of his value.

"Elder Kodou certainly wouldn't be as interested in him as he is if he was just another typical magician, right?"

Tomokazu's statement was well understood inside this room. Every time Saegusa agents got too close to the truth about the Shiba siblings someone or something would get in their way. Certain government agencies and officials, certain members of the Self Defense Forces, and "secret" elements that now certainly were Yotsuba or their agents would always find a way to thwart the Saegusa efforts.

But all the signs pointed to the fact that the Shiba siblings, especially the brother, were extraordinary.

The takedown of the Blanche terrorist cell after the attack of First High in April of 2095.

The thwarting of the No Head Dragon Crime Syndicate's attempts to interfere in the Nine Schools Competition that Summer.

The Incident at Yokohama during the Thesis Competition.

His father had already been "on the scent" well before then.

The Vampire/Parasite/STARS issues that winter.

The thwarting of the Anti-GAA Hardline Faction's attempt to test "tamed" parasite/robots as combat weapons during the 2096 Nine Schools Competitions.

And even more telling for Tomokazu, the fact Mayumi went straight to Tatsuya to investigate what happened to Nakura in Nara.

Where he subsequently teamed up with the Crimson Prince and Elder Kudou's grandson to take down the man that had manipulated the earlier events, Zhou Gong Gin.

Now…..he was a Yotsuba….and HER son.

Shiba Tatsuya…..the supposed course two student. He was the common denominator in every single one of these events.

He was most certainly NOT who they wanted everyone to think he was.

Every step of the way in trying to learn more about that boy, Saegusa agents would find Kodou agents also on the same path. There was even strong evidence Elder Kodou himself had been behind the parasite/robot tests at the 2096 Nine Schools Competition. His own father now believes the Elder's motivations behind that event were just to test Shiba Tatsuya himself.

The man still known as the Patriarch of Japanese Modern Magic was just as interested in Shiba Tatsuya as their father. That spoke volumes in support of his own father's suspicions about the boy.

"Do you know what the Yokohama Incident and the attack on Okinawa has in common?"

His father's words drew his attention again.

"Other than the obvious? That both were Great Asian Alliance attacks on our nation and both ended in the same stunning fashion?"

Kouichi nodded absently to his son's questions.

The "Great Boom".

The military and government excuses for elimination of the GAA's attack fleet off Okinawa in a blinding ball of energy five and a half years ago had rang hollow even then. An explosion that matched even the most powerful of atomic weapons with no radiation or environmental contamination was beyond the science of the modern world to achieve.

A powerful new strategic magic was the only realistic answer.

But the government and the SDF had vehemently denied it at the time. The Saegusa, investigating on their own and in concert with the other Ten Master Clans, found an impenetrable wall of government blockage before them at every turn.

Then three years later, the government didn't even bother to deny it anymore. All questions after the second and significantly more powerful usage of the "Great Boom" met with silence from the government. Now they wanted Japan's enemies to fear their new asset.

The Scorched Halloween, the closing act of the Yokohama Incursion.

To say the Great Asian Alliance paid dearly for their second attack on this nation in half a decade was the undeniable truth.

One third of the GAA Navy was gone in a flash.

The entire southwestern end of the Korean Peninsula was a disaster zone.

Estimates indicate two entire GAA Army Corps worth of soldiers died with their attack fleet.

And even more importantly, the GAA's only known strategic class magician, Lie Yunde, the so-called "Heavenly General", had perished with them in that blinding light. That was a secret that only the government and the Clans Conference knew of.

To say that the GAA had been neutered in that very moment was no exaggeration. Estimates currently being projected suggested that the GAA would need fifteen to twenty years for their military to recover its pre-Scorched Halloween strength.

And if they couldn't find another strategic class magician hiding in their populace…..

"….they have literally been reduced to a second class power in a single night."

Despite waylaying the GAA, the conclusive second appearance of the rumored new strategic class magic, and a particularly powerful one, had been enough to increase tensions with the USNA to the point that STARS high commander and strategic class magician in her own right, Angie Sirius, had secretly been deployed to Japan to investigate the matter in person.

Plus the USNA wasn't the only previous "friendly" world power now snooping around Japan trying to learn the identity of the new strategic class magician. The New Soviet Union, Great Britain, The Indo-Persian Union, The Western European Union; all were deploying assets to Japan to snoop around these days.

The Matter-to-Energy Conversion Strategic Class Magician.

There was strong evidence that Sirius had been sent here to not only identify the Matter/Energy SC Magician, but to eliminate them.

Tomokazu didn't know what scared him more.

That Sirius herself, the USNA's most valuable asset, had been deployed to a foreign power to kill their new Strategic Magician.

Or that she had apparently failed.

"The other thing they had in common….."

His father looked very pleased with himself as he spoke.

"….the Shibas."

Tomokazu already knew that both siblings had fought beside Mayumi and their classmates and had helped defeat the GAA forces. He also knew that Shiba Tatsuya apparently was a secret member of the 101 Independent Magic Equipped Battalion under the command of Ancient Magician and Southeast Asia Conflict veteran Lieutenant Colonel Kazama Harunobu. A formidable magician in his own right, and no friend of the Ten Master Clans; along with his patron, Major General Saeki Hiromi, the so-called "Silver Fox", herself considered the leader of the SDF's "Anti-Ten Master Clans" faction.

And he was also a student of the far-famed Shinobi Kokonoe Yakumo. Another "interesting" connection for young Tatsuya.

A simple high school student, this "boy" was not, even by the high standards of the Yotsuba.

But this was the first time for him hearing of the fact that the Shibas were on Okinawa that August of 2092.

"We have proof father?"

"Display Kodou 514."

His father's command to the HAR replaced Tatsuya, Maya, and Tatsurou's images with a grainy but understandable image of a stately woman and two pre-teen children, a boy and a girl. They looked about the same age, but even if the boy had been unremarkable looking; the beautiful little girl was unmistakably the younger version of the far-famed "Bishoujo of First High".

That girl was clearly a younger Shiba Miyuki, and the woman…

"But…I thought she was already dead by then."

That was Yotsuba Maya's face, but no one would ever mistake that woman on the image for Yotsuba Maya.

His father swished his remaining Bourbon around to the clink of the ice cubes as he stared into the glass.

"We also thought she never had children. We can't even verify if she is dead now, though their press release claims so. Either way Miya's children seem to be in her sister's care. The father is remarried and seems to have minimal contact with them."

Tomokazu had another question.

"And this was taken on Okinawa in August 2092?"

"About a week before."

Tomokazu shook his head before asking another question.

"Surely they suppressed this though? How did we get this image of them?"

"They" of course referred to the Yotsuba. They wouldn't bother hiding Yotsuba Miya and her family so well if they had planned to let closed circuit cameras expose their secret. They just weren't that sloppy. The apparent proof of their prowess and thoroughness in information control was just on the hill above them at that very moment.

"It's not a closed circuit camera. It's grainy because it's a zoomed in aspect of an image from a personal camera. Don't ask me how the Elder got his hands on it."

"The Elder?"

Tomokazu spoke in shock. His father replied mildly.

"That old trickster has known about them for years now, and he has hid it from all of us that entire time."

"All of us" meant the Ten Master Clans. The fact that the Mistress of Lithe has children would have been important news among the Clans Conference had it been known. Its "controlled" revelation to them this week was causing quite the stir among the top magicians in this nation at that very moment.

"How did…."

Kouichi slowly nodded as he replied to his stunned son.

"Very carefully son."

As Tomokazu furrowed his brows at his seemingly nonplussed father, Kouichi elaborated further.

"And secretly. The Kodou don't seem to know we successfully infiltrated their classified servers."

Now Tomokazu was truly shocked by his father's words.

"Or the Elder simply doesn't care that we broke into his private servers. He may even have let us find it for his own reasons. Even I couldn't believe our people cracked his private servers, since you know he had that granddaughter of his test it out thoroughly."

Having a granddaughter with the skills of someone who had earned the nickname "Electron Sorceress", one would expect Kodou Retsu to have a nearly unbreakable network system.

"You just can't ever tell with that crafty old man."

Tomokazu suspected his father was right to think Elder Kodou had "allowed" them breach of his network. Fujibayashi was too good at her specialty to allow her grandfather's servers to be infiltrated.

Of course he never questioned why his father had directed their specialists to target the Kodou's information systems. This was how "the game" was played, and since the very beginning. His father and his former sensei had very different personalities, motivations, and outlooks; but they knew that outside of the super locked down Yotsuba, that of the other Ten Master Clans, each other would have the most "interesting" things to hide. In that way they were very similar. They both loved having and controlling information.

If the Saegusa breeched the Kodou Elder's own personal server, it was most likely because the Elder "allowed" it. He clearly had his own motives that were important to know for the Saegusa as well.

Yet his father continued on with his own original focus.

"Display comparative analysis findings of current image."

The HAR obeyed Kouichi's commands and a set of points over the body joints were displayed against the grainy image of the boy in the background of that vacation photo from 2092. Lines connecting the points soon filled in as well. Soon numbers began filling in on the side of the image. Measurements of the estimated distances between those lines.

"Display comparative analysis findings of image Alpha 456."

Another image displayed beside the original. It too was grainy and even from a farther distance.

But as the points, lines, and numbers filled in, Tomokazu realized he was familiar with the image already. A long distance shot of SDF forces repulsing the invaders at Okinawa back into the sea. This image got a lot of play for a few hours on that fateful day, and then was mysteriously never seen in public again.

The dots, lines, and data were filling in on one figure. A very short combat suit clad soldier standing fearlessly in front of the SDF forces.

Tomokazu blinked with yet another stunned expression.

"The Boy in Black?"

His head whipped around as he asked an additional question.

"You think Shiba Tatsuya is the Boy in Black?"

Kouichi continued to look on the two images as he replied.

"I don't think it son."

The numbers on the second image stopped compiling. As the two sets of numbers were compared and proved to Tomokazu's doubting eyes to be identical in every figure, his father finished his statement by turning a knowing smile on his son. Both the real and metallic eyes seeming to "smile" with delight.

"I know it."

Tomokazu shook his head.

"Father, this means nothing. The image of Shiba Tatsuya in Okinawa is from at least fifteen meters from the camera's focal point. You can barely tell it even is him. The image of the Boy in Black, even from much better equipment, is still from nearly several kilometers away. Just because they have similar builds, and with these poor quality images that's all the comparison software can do, doesn't mean that they are the same person."

His father seemed to consider his statement, then nodded to it.

"You're right of course son. We'd need better proof to draw a conclusion."

Kouichi then turned back to the wall monitor.

"Display dual comparison sequence two."

Above the two previous images, the image of Shiba Tatsuya from the 2095 Thesis Competition was displayed beside an image of a flying magician dual wielding silver gun shaped CADs. The combat suit that covered that combatant was a new type introduced by the unit Shiba Tatsuya was suspected to belong to, the 101 Independent Magic Equipped Battalion.

The comparison had been run on these two images shortly after the Yokohama Incident. Having seen it before, Tomokazu knew it was in fact Shiba Tatsuya as well.

"Run growth analysis on images of Shiba Tatsuya."

The computer crunched the numbers comparing the younger Tatsuya to his older self. When complete it was given new orders.

"Run growth analysis on the other two images."

More numbers flew across the side of the screen.

"Compare the two growth analysis data and provide comparison results."

As the figures solidified one after another, Tomokazu could feel his father's "satisfaction" growing.

One after another, growth comparison figures trickled in. Comparisons of height, shoulders, waist, head measurements; one after another solidified and displayed numbers that all started with a zero and usually had several points to the right of the period with zeros there too.

Tomokazu knew that his father's obsession with the Yotsuba had found dangerous proof as each number dropped into place.

Just to add a final nail in the coffin…

"Display probability statistic that these two individuals are the same person."

The figure displayed between all four images was "99.675".

Silence hung in the air between them as father watched son intently to see his reaction. After what felt like an eternity to Tomokazu, he finally was able to formulate more words.

"He…"

Tomokazu didn't want to say the words, but he knew he must now.

"….he's….too dangerous to….leave alone."

Without a hint of satisfaction at converting his son to a "believer" now, Kouichi nodded his agreement

"Um…indeed."

Kouichi seemed suddenly lost in his own thoughts.

"But if Maya is willing to go this far to control him that means two things."

A slight smile graced his father's profile.

"One, he does not wished to be controlled, at least by his new mother at any rate."

A grimace developed across his father's face.

"Two, he's so valuable to her she WILL go so far as to engage him to his own sister to control him."

Then his father turned to face him again.

"And that brings us back to the father, Shiba Tatsurou. The world's highest psion count record holder."

Tomokazu watched as his father's mind began to spin.

"If psion count truly meant nothing to magic ability, as all the publicly acknowledged experts now agree, then why go to the trouble to arrange a marriage by subterfuge for the woman that was supposed to be the next head of the Yotsuba family with a man with no apparent extraordinary gift for magic? Why hide this man after erasing his existence? Why hide the children of this union?"

Tomokazu didn't like a single thing about where all this information was pointing.

"Then…you're saying this is all a conspiracy by the Yotsuba to create a….."super" magician?"

"I am saying it is now, obviously, a conspiracy by the Yotsuba to obtain genetics they thought superior to make "superior" magicians. I don't even think someone as diabolical as Yotsuba Eisaku or his nieces could have predicted…..HIM."

His father indicated with his eyes and a head nod toward the images of Shiba Tatsuya.

"I think they wanted to corner the market on superior talents and did so, to qualitatively increase their power where they could not achieve it quantitatively. The sister alone is proof of this."

The smirk then returned to his father's face.

"But I have to imagine that the brother's unique powers surprised even them."

After a pause to take another drink, Kouichi continued on.

"Tell me son, what is that magic he's using there?"

The image of the Boy in Black went back to video footage. It appeared that a dome of disintegrated enemy bullets and projectiles were falling around the boy as he calmly walked forward.

"It has to be what we have thought it is since we first saw it….decomposition."

His father laughed.

"Indeed, but to call THAT magic "decomposition" is to compare fleas to whales."

Hard eyes accompanied the smile his father turned to him next.

"Tell me son, if you had that level of decomposition ability and I had Shiba Tatsurou's super high psion count to give to you, what potential 'ultimate' form of decomposition do you think you'd be capable of?"

"There's no evidence Shiba Tatsuya's psion count…."

"Please, such things can, with training and 'other' things can be masked and controlled. The girl is also superbly talented and has a high psion count, and there's no way she has undergone the rigorous training that 'boy' has."

Tomokazu's last attempt to refute the evidence had been feeble and died under the glare of his father's gaze.

"Shiba Tatsuya is the only realistic candidate to be the matter to energy conversion strategic class magician. No one else, even the sister, comes nearly as close as he does to meeting all the criteria. With all the evidence presented, why else would the Yotsuba not make HIM their future head?"

Tomokazu understood his father's point. Strategic class magicians, far above the normal lot of even other types of superb magicians, where considered national treasures. The only other SC magician in Japan, Itsuwa Mio, was a virtual prisoner to the government's will. There was no way a SC magician would ever be allowed to head one of the Ten Master Clans. The government wouldn't tolerate such a concentration of power in one person's hands.

This was the only realistic reason for Maya to exclude her own apparently super powered son from the clan leadership.

Thus defeated, Tomokazu took a deep gulp of his bourbon and pinched the bridge of his nose before finding his words again.

"So father….how do we stop them?"

He knew Kouichi had at least the inkling of a plan to interfere with the Yotsuba's intentions.

"Gouki-san has already provided me with the opening we need."

Tomokazu was briefly lost before remembering that that very week the Ichigou had issued a formal complaint to the Clan Conference about the Shibas engagement.

"It seems that young Masaki-kun has fallen in love with Shiba Miyuki. Something I'm sure every young man who meets her naturally does, but with that famous Ichigou stubborn streak and two superb advantages, he has a real chance to gum up Maya's plans."

Not understanding his father's words, Tomokazu asked a one word question.

"…advantages?"

It was well know even to them that the sister was an extreme bro-con of the first magnitude. Psychological analysis of the available information seemed to indicate the sister would welcome a marriage to her own brother.

"First, he's one of the few young magicians to actually think he is worthy of such a jewel as Miyuki-san. Secondly and more importantly, his even more stubborn father thinks cousin marriage will damage magician power and has set his path to opposing the marriage at all costs. Gouki has all but volunteered to make our case for us."

Tomokazu had to admire his father's tenacity and willingness to pursue intrigue to its logical conclusions.

"You have already spoken with Ichigou-dono about this?"

The answer matched his expectations

"I offered our support, and told him we'd make an offer of our own in support of his proposition."

"Offer of our own….you don't mean…"

"We have three bright jewels of our own, and I would put any of them up beside Shiba Miyuki with confidence and pride."

Tomokazu smirked at these words

"And you have discussed this with my sisters?"

"On the day of the announcement. They each had interesting reactions to my suggestion of marriage to young Tatsuya, but it was Mayumi that seemed the best choice."

Now Tomokazu was surprised. Mayumi was, by her nature, the least likely to play along with "Raccoon Dad's" schemes, especially about marriage. Mayumi had purposefully dragged along the Itsuwa heir for a couple of years now just to show their father her willpower to resist.

"Mayumi? How did she indicate that to you father?"

Still disbelieving, Tomokazu's smirk was still plastered on his face.

"She alone seemed unsurprised to learn they were Yotsuba, then she alone went quiet and sullen when she learned they were to marry each other. Then when I inquired each of their interest in him as a man, she alone blushed and became flustered. And she alone didn't turn the idea down."

This didn't sound like the strong willed imouto Tomokazu knew.

"I have long suspected that Mayumi's interest in Tatsuya was more than a concerned sempai, but before now the possibility that the number one daughter of the Saegusa would marry an unknown family's son, and a younger course two student, probably kept her from formulating those thoughts in her mind."

Indeed, as a daughter of the Saegusa, she'd naturally know such things were an impediment. She wasn't an irrational person who believed "love" triumphed over all. As a Saegusa, how could any of them be that naive?

"But once she invited him into her hotel room in Nara, all doubts of her true feelings were eliminated."

That bombshell from his father nearly caused whiplash.

"WHAT?"

It was all Tomokazu could do to keep from leaping out of his chair.

"Relax son, she was apparently somewhat inebriated at the time."

"How does THAT make it better?"

To his stunned son's amazement he had apparently entertained his father with his reaction. The grin on Kouichi's face now seemed far too out of place for the conversation they were having.

"He was apparently a perfect gentleman. He didn't stay in her room long enough to do anything but put her in the bed and leave."

Tomokazu still couldn't believe Mayumi, even drunk, would invite a man into her room. Then his father hit him with another stunner.

"It's unfortunate really. If he had impregnated her all of this would be academic at this point."

Tomokazu no longer had the words to express himself.

"Let's have another drink son."

All he could do was nod to this proposal. He certainly felt the need for another drink.

Once the HAR delivered the two new drinks his father laughed mildly and began to speak again.

"They're up there right now, or at least he is."

They both looked at the glowing lights of what they now just assumed was the Yotsuba's new Tokyo residence.

"The same car came back today with a motorcycle leading the way. The comparison software immediately identified the rider as Shiba Tatsuya based off of the earlier image analysis."

Now the look Tmokazu sent towards the mansion on the hill held even more concern and dread.

"If nothing else, all of these actions by HER indicate that that young man wants a way out from under his 'mother's' thumb. We'll provide him with the most convenient escape route possible."

Tomokazu didn't want to say aloud that even someone as amazing as his sister might not prove capable of prying Tatsuya from his own gorgeous sister, even with the Ichigou working the other side. His father's "plan" required Maya to feel enough pressure from the entire Ten Master Clans to willingly give up control of potentially the most powerful magician in history. That seemed nearly far-fetch in Tomokazu's mind.

"Then she will be deprived of her most powerful asset, restoring the balance."

Tomokazu took another long swig of his bourbon to try to drown out all his doubts. His father's plan was risky but it very well could succeed if everything lined up perfectly.

"…..and then what?"

Numerous bad things flew through his mind as he watched his father smirk at the mansion on the hill above their property with a tiny glint of madness showing in his one good eye. All the things Tomokazu could imagine as conclusions to this new dance between his father and the woman he obsessed over, hated, and probably still loved; even those that ended in a Saegusa "victory", seemed to have Pyric aspects and results hanging all over them. Yotsuba Maya wasn't the type to take a loss well, especially to her former fiancé.

Shiba Tatsuya, to Saegusa Tomokazu's mind, was a Pandora's Box; and the idea of his beloved imouto being the one to open that box made him want to retch up the contents of his stomach. He dedicate to himself in his heart that no matter what his father wanted, he'd do anything he could to protect his sister.

"How did it come to this?"

That thought was dominating Tatsuya's mind at the moment. His mind wouldn't allow him to process how he had been maneuvered into this impasse. True, his opponent was skilled at subtle manipulation, but he had never thought he'd be forced into a no win situation like this.

His choices had finally been narrowed down to only "bad" and "worse". As a pragmatist he naturally chose the "bad" option when his last hope of escape had vanished. "Worse" would have been to abandon the field, the terrible results of which bore no need to even consider.

Directly across from him was the one opponent that he dreaded facing the most, because he could never hope to defeat her. She simply had his number, from the very first time they ever met.

On the other side of the huge bathing tub inside the family suite in the new Yotsuba Tokyo residence, his ultimate opponent alternated between happy smiles and bashful blushing. Every time he got up the courage to look at Miyuki, her shy, smiling face would avert eye contact with him till his eyes drifted off her again.

Not for the first time Tatsuya thought how odd it was that she had finally got him into a bath with her only to look away bashfully from him.

Truth was he too was bashful under her gaze as well. It was only that he was better at hiding it. Unlike Miyuki, Tatsuya had to be "talked into" bathing together. Even now, his eyes were having a difficult time avoiding her supple pink skin, or the graceful curve of her neck, shoulder, and bosom.

Her sad and terrible disposition after being forced from their home had persisted on arrival, forcing Tatsuya to try to find ways to mollify her mood. Finally, when all attempts by him had failed to rectify her sadness, he had abandoned logic and dangerously asked her what would make her happy again.

That was when she sprung the trap.

"I'd really like to take that bath together, Onii-sama."

And having promised her anything she desired, now he was truly ensnared.

It never occurred to him that had Miyuki been a much naughtier young woman, he may be facing a task much more intimate than a bath together. Miyuki was too ladylike for any thoughts like that, at least in Tatsuya's mind.

Still, here he was, sitting across the spacious multi-person tub from…her.

Her soft pink skin and delicate curves trying to pull his eyeballs towards them. Her bashful happiness the perfect blend of innocence and provocation.

"But she is clearly happy with the results."

And that was his ultimate goal, Miyuki's happiness. His own awkwardness in this moment was buried behind his sense of duty to her.

Fortunately for Tatsuya, Miyuki did agree to certain conditions to this bathing exercise.

For one thing the bath had copious amounts of bubbles in it. Nothing below the waistline was easily visible, and both sat low enough in the water where their chests where also covered, for the most part.

Also, Tatsuya had been prepared to back out entirely and accept the negative consequences of that action, if Miyuki couldn't accept his next condition; but she proved surprisingly supportive of the idea of wearing their bathing suits in the bath. Clearly she wasn't as ready for this event as her bold words earlier that week had indicated. Tatsuya found solace in the fact that Miyuki was still bashful about such things with him. Knowing the full depths of her romantic feelings for him now, it was reassuring to see her still bashful and still applying her own "brakes" now that the barrier of their sibling relationship was all but gone.

His final condition before entering a bath together, unlike the previous two, had met with an icy reception from Miyuki. She didn't voice her opposition, but it was clear from her facial expression she was unhappy with his proposal when he made it.

That "condition" also very much wished not to be here at the moment.

Minami, sitting off to Miyuki's left side, was so low in the water that her chin was submerged and bubbles lapped at her cheeks, lips, and nose. If she could have transformed herself into a submarine she would have clearly "dived deep" and not arose until the tub was drained.

She didn't want to be here, plainly; and despite showing nothing but Ojou-sama grace and charm, no one present was in doubt of Miyuki's desire to have bathed alone with Tatsuya. Still, her presence provided Tatsuya with a certain level of "comfort" that allowed him to relax enough to enjoy the bath with Miyuki. Yet in another way her presence only multiplied an already existing discomfort for him as well.

Luckily Tatsuya had been the third party to enter the bath, well after the two females had strategically lowered their most feminine parts below water level. Tatsuya had seen both in their underwear already, Miyuki on numerous occasions; but the bathing suits they chose for this activity probably would not have been their choice to wear on a public beach. They left little to the imagination. It was hard enough not to stare at the feminine perfection that is Miyuki, but an unintentional errant eye towards Minami's budding womanhood could result in a sudden and severe case of frostbite.

It didn't help that Minami's bodily development made her look even more like Honami every day either. As a boy, Honami had been Tatsuya's definition of what a woman should look like. Miyuki had now far exceeded Honami's beauty and sex appeal, but seeing her "cousin" turning into Honami before his eyes was somewhat disturbing to him. Sudden memories of a certain summer vacation trip to the Kitayama Family's private island resort and all the visual temptations around him then almost caused him to involuntarily blush.

Still, Miyuki was plainly happy now, and that was all that mattered to Tatsuya.

Tomorrow, they would face their teachers, classmates, and friends for the first time as publically acknowledged members of the dreaded Yotsuba Family of the Ten Master Clans. It would also be their first time as an engaged couple in public as well. Though he suspected certain things to happen tomorrow, he only had his intuition and experience to rely on as indicators of how certain individuals and groups of people at First High would react. He realized that it would be difficult for him, but even more so for Miyuki.

He would do anything to protect her from them and their prejudicial stares and words.

It was only then, with Miyuki's cheeks inflamed and smile threatening to reach her earlobes that he realized he had been staring intently at her this entire time.

"….Onii-sama"

She almost covered her gorgeous smile with her hand in her happy shyness.

"….is everything….ok?"

Smiling even more at himself than at her beautiful and graceful features, Tatsuya couldn't help but crack a wry smile back at her.

"Yes Miyuki, everything is perfect."

Now she earnestly covered her mouth with her right hand, and despite the beaming smile and glowing eyes, moister seemed to form in the corners of her eyes.

Tatsuya wondered absentmindedly what it was like to be so happy that you could cry about it, never once considering that he truly was contented himself in this moment with…her.

Lost for a moment in their own little world together they didn't see the third party in the room withering under the radiating power of their love for one another. Minami sank down even further into the water, wishing intently that she had gills.