Ch 168: Getting arrested, and making a call from prison.

The sleek, blue, AI-driven electric car parked in the garage, and its passenger smoothly exited the vehicle.

He was a tall, Japanese young man with short black hair and piercing blue eyes, handsome and with an athletic build. He wore a black business suit with a dark gray shirt and black tie.

Tatsuya Shiba, also known (by a very select few at the Four Leaves Technology company) as Mr Silver, one half of the mysterious and legendary Taurus Silver, also known (by even fewer people in the military) as Special Lieutenant Ryuuya Ooguro, also known by soldiers of the Great Asian Union as Mahesvara, the Demon of Okinawa (although those weren't aware of his identity), smiled softly as the door connecting the garage to the rest of the house opened.

"Welcome back, Onii-sama." smiled Miyuki Shiba. With her long, silky smooth black hair, ice blue eyes and elegant demeanor, Tatsuya's sister was the epitome of a Yamato Nadeshiko, the idealized Japanese woman. She wore a white turtleneck, black skirt, and a pink apron.

"I'm back, Miyuki." replied Tatsuya as he removed the vest of his costume and entered the house.

"How is Ushiyama-san?"

"He is doing rather well, although a tad depressed by an incident. One of the new employees turned out to be a spy for another company, and he blames himself for accepting his candidacy. Nothing of importance was stolen, though."

"I am glad to hear it. As long as your identity wasn't leaked… If it was, that spy…"

The ambient temperature started to drop at a quick pace as Miyuki was mentally visiting retribution to an imaginary figure.

"Miyuki." firmly said Tatsuya. Miyuki snapped out of her delusion, and the frigid air instantly returned to its previous temperature.

"Ah, Onii-sama." apologetically said Miyuki with a lowered her, and Tatsuya patted her once with a tolerant smile. It wasn't the first time his adorable sister started losing control of her magic whenever someone offered even the tiniest slight to her big brother. It happened so often that he didn't mind anymore.

"What are you cooking?"

"Shoot!" exclaimed Miyuki as she immediately dashed to the kitchen.

Tatsuya followed and found her frantically stirring the content of a pot.

"…It hasn't started to burn, thankfully. It is curry, Onii-sama." smiled Miyuki.

"I am looking forward to it."

Miyuki smiled, but she also took the pot out of the electric stove and removed her apron.

"Onii-sama, just a few minutes ago, Kazama-san tried to contact us for something important, but not critically urgent. He asked for both of us to be present, for some reason. I didn't ask you to hurry back because you were already on your way."

Tatsuya frowned. Captain Harunobu Kazama was his direct superior in the army.

"Then we shouldn't make him wait."

Tatsuya pressed a button on the wall, and metal blinds descended, covering the windows. under the house, a suite of low-powered jammers and anti-surveillance devices activated.

Tatsuya turned on the giant flat screen occupying part of the living room's eastern wall, and the siblings sat on the sofa facing it.

After manipulating the remote for a moment, the screen was divided in two. On the left was Captain Kazama, leader of the 101st Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion, a middle-aged man with black eyes and short brown hair, wearing his white officer uniform. On the right was Lieutenant Kyouko Fujibayashi, also known as the Electron Sorceress, wearing a yellow sundress.

"Ah, Tatsuya-kun. Thank you for calling us back so quickly." said the Captain.

"Hello, Kazama-san, Kyouko-san." nodded Tatsuya.

"How are you doing, Tatsuya-kun, Miyuki?" smiled Kyouko.

"We are doing fine, thank you for asking. Our admission to First High had been processed, and we passed the tests."

"I am glad to hear it." smiled Kazama. "Sorry to interrupt your daily routine, but a very strange incident occurred earlier this morning, and both of your names were mentioned."

"An incident?"

Kazama nodded, and a video appeared, taking up half the screen. It was from a street security camera, showing a busy city street. Tatsuya and Miyuki didn't see anything strange at first, until there was a sudden flash of light, and two young women stood where there hadn't been anyone previously, dressed in identical strange black and orange outfits. One had very long black hair styled in a ponytail, and the other had dark-gray hair in twin tails, but Tatsuya couldn't discern much more due to the distance between them and the camera.

They were looking around curiously, paying particular attention to the cars going up and down the streets, as well as the civilians who were warily looking at them and putting some distance between them. Two police officers in the distance were seen jogging toward them.

The two women didn't do anything until the police officers caught up to them and they started talking.

The street camera didn't have a microphone, but from what Tatsuya could deduce from the body language of the women and the cops, the two women were asked for their ID cards and couldn't produce them. The situation seemed to be escalating, with the gray-haired girl getting visibly frustrated and stomping her feet, when one of the police officers reached for his handcuffs, then for the right arm of the angry girl.

Two seconds later, the police officer was on the ground, with both of his arms handcuffed behind his back.

Tatsuya's eyes narrowed, as the girl had incapacitated the cop with the ease and fluidity of an experienced martial artist. He wasn't positive she was a magician, as the speed she had demonstrated was something a well-trained civilian could achieve, but it seemed likely.

The other cop had stepped back and reached for his gun, but the girl with long black hair had almost instantly closed the distance and seized his gun first, removing the ammo clip before handing the gun back to the cop, speaking to him with apparent urgency. Tatsuya assumed she was trying to defuse the situation. Her prior movement speed clearly identified her as a magician.

The cop on the ground also was deprived of his gun as he yelled at the girl with gray hair, and the weapon was also emptied before being handed over to the still standing cop.

The two girls spoke to each other for a few minutes, also asking a few questions to the police officers who had calmed down a little. Meanwhile, more police officers were reaching the scene, and eventually, the two women willingly entered one of the police cars. The video stopped.

"What do you think about it so far, Tatsuya-kun?" asked the Captain.

"Both are martial artists, at least one of them is a magician. The one with twin tails is short-tempered, and both lack identification papers. I do not recognize their outfits. Their sudden appearance is worrying. Has another nation achieved teleportation magic? Maybe this is a test that went wrong, and they emerged at the wrong location? That is assuming the footage hasn't been tampered with."

There was one magician of the Yotsuba family who possessed a short-range movement ability akin to teleportation, but Tatsuya could tell at a glance that this wasn't what had been used to make the two young women appear in the street.

"I am going over it, but I do not see any sign of alteration or interference so far." said Kyouko.

"Moving on…" said Kazama. "…the two women have introduced themselves as Akeno Himejima, that's the calm one, and Rin Tohsaka, that's the short-fused one. They claim to be visitors from another 'timeline', a sort of parallel world where another Japan exists, and a kind of ancient magic called Magecraft is practiced by secret organizations, and where the year is 2016. We do not have the testimonies of the police officers yet."

"Captain, if I may ask, how do this relate to us?" asked Miyuki when Kazama paused.

"I am coming to that part. The two women were placed in temporary detention while we decide what to do with them. Not in holding cells for common suspects, but on those for important magicians. They had been searched for electronics or magical devices. What you are going to hear now has been collected via a laser microphone pointed at one of the windows. The sound quality leaves much to be desired, but that is enough to be comprehensible."

Tatsuya and Miyuki both nodded, and another window appeared under Kazama's picture, showing an audio graph.

"Hi, Noah!"

"I'd like to say I'm doing just fine, but the situation has gone bonkers already. I'm currently in another timeline, sitting in a glorified prison cell. Rin is in another cell not far away."

"Yes, we can speak freely, I'm not an idiot. There were a few microphones, and something under the bed that I couldn't identify. I assume it was done with their local equivalent of Magecraft. I burnt them all away. That's kind of rude, spying on a young woman, don't you think?"

Tatsuya could hear the girl chuckle.

"Well, things have gone off the rails completely. That piece of excrement Lev made his move only hours after I last called you. Our arrival must have spooked him. Noah, I'm sorry to ask, but I'll need for you to revive Olga-Marie, please."

Tatsuya froze for a moment. Revive? Had he heard correctly?

"Yeah, the bastard had planted a bomb in her very room. Also one in the Control room, and another in the fusion reactor. There are five other dead beside Olga-Marie. Da Vinci has done some emergency repairs, and the reactor is back online, although at a reduced output."

"Yes. Once you are done, I will use that second Ticket Lilith-sama gave me as a reward to bring her over, once I return from this timeline. Having her back will do a lot of good for everyone's morale. I think Lilith-sama knew something like this might happen. She had advised me to not use it thoughtlessly."

"Anyway, back to the current mess. Alaya and Gaia appeared in Chaldea, requesting our help. Even Type: Moon sent an avatar. According to them, Lev and those behind him have managed to perform a world-wide ritual, using the leylines against the world itself, and fracturing the surface into dozens of fragments. Gaia is in a coma and just barely surviving… I suppose having parts of one's true body blown to bits does that to a person. Even a world spirit."

"That, was bad enough. Worse, according to Alaya, the world's fragments are being slowly pulled through the dimensional walls toward other timelines. The fragments, as well as the living beings on them, are in a strange state of quantum flux currently, both existing and not existing at the same time, and in a state of temporal stasis. If we manage to collect all the fragments and put the world back together, it will be as if nothing had happened, from humanity's perspective, and Gaia should recover."

"Yes, Chaldea and a big chunk of Antarctica is an exception. And that's only because Type: Moon is using most of its power to stop us from slipping into that undefined quantum state."

"Yes, the reason Rin and I are sitting in prison cells right now? Aside from Rin being Rin and having a short temper with cops?"

"No, she actually went easy on them and they only got a bruised ego. I did mention the world's fragments were being pulled toward other timelines. They are being pulled by something. Or someone. We are here to find whatever or whoever is doing it and destroy it. Then, the fragment will naturally drift back toward its original dimension."

"We still have a few years to manage it before the first fragment impacts the closest timeline. Alaya thinks we have ample time to recover all the fragments, as long as we keep sending teams to let her search five or more timelines at any given time, and act quickly with the pullers once we find them.

"If we fail… well, imagine a chunk of planetary crust the size of, say, Alaska, suddenly materializing in the same volume of space where the local Alaska is already present."

"Yes, cataclysmic doesn't begin to cover it. the impacted world would most likely return to being a giant ball of lava."

Tatsuya frowned as Miyuki gasped, her eyes wide.

"…No worries about that. Alaya assured us that she will be able to home in on the pullers. However, since we have sent teams on six different timelines as the first wave, and she is severely diminished currently, she warned us that it might take her weeks or months to find them. All we have to do is be present in those timelines, with her using us as her antennas of sort, until she picks up the scent. And she will gain in experience over time, so the process should be quicker later-on."

"Yes, Rin and I, Asuka and Scathach, Chisato and Sakura and Darkness, Genos and Miwa, Gudako and Mash and Bell."

"Yes, I did send Darkness. I didn't want for her to feel abandoned once again, really. Hopefully, Chisato and Sakura will keep her from doing something too outrageous. Besides, she has grown to be somewhat decent in battle. She's still a hardcore masochist, but she can now keep it in private. Most of the time. Huge improvement there."

"Since the reactor isn't back up to its full capacity, and the Sheba Lens modified by Type: Moon needs of lot of power, we're not sending many Servants yet. Heroic Spirits require more juice to cross over, according to Da Vinci. That will change eventually, once the reactor is fully repaired and we find ways to increase our power budget. Meanwhile, I'd like your help to identify the current timeline if possible. The changes made to Sheba now allows for travel along the trajectories of the world fragments, but we're going in blind.

"We can still communicate with those staying behind in Chaldea, though. I'll do that once we're done."

"Hum, let me see... This world is obviously more advanced than our Japan, but not to the point where we wouldn't be able to recognize and use the technology. I don't think there's any space navy yet, or Gundams. IA-driven cars, solar panels everywhere, that kind of things. I am so going to take a few samples as souvenirs. There is some kind of computer in this cell, with the keyboard being similar to a smartphone's screen."

"The year is 2095, so about eighty years ahead of us. I have browsed the internet for their equivalent of Wikipedia, and the world has been mostly divided into a dozen large nations. Japan is about the only first-world country that didn't swallow some of its neighbors during the third world war. World population is about 300 million, talk about a steep decline. The idiots waged war against each other for a whole twenty years. It's a miracle nuclear weapons weren't used massively. And there are many references about magicians, but only in a military or educational context."

"…Let me check… Yes, there are indeed nine magic high schools in Japan. Why am I not surprised that you know about that one, too… Wait, Lilith-sama just gave us a mission to keep us busy… Rin and I are to join one of those high-schools and participate in two events called the Nine Schools Competition, and the Thesis competition. What can you tell me about those?"

There was a long pause, and Tatsuya glanced at her sister. That was a lot to take in, and almost certainly a complete fabrication. He couldn't figure out why two spies would come up with something so convoluted and fantastical.

"…Ok, so we aren't meant to win prizes, but to crush that criminal organization. What about that Thesis Competition?"

Another long pause.

"…Why is it always the Chinese… I see a pattern there. But what you're describing isn't just a border skirmish anymore. Will it trigger another war?"

"…Mahesvara?"

"…Okay, don't make the Shiba siblings angry under any circumstances, I'll make sure to stress that point to Rin."

Tatsuya now understood why the Captain had contacted him. Whoever this Noah was, he knew government secrets. And now, this Akeno did, too. Something would need to be done about it. Tatsuya's identity as a Strategic-Class magician was top-secret. The other nations knew that a large-scale explosion had destroyed an invading GAU flotilla in Okinawa four years ago, but they hadn't been able to identify the magician who had done this, as far as the Japanese military was aware. And they wanted to keep it that way.

"Miyuki." said Tatsuya as he felt the air grow cold.

"I'm sorry, Onii-sama." muttered Miyuki.

Tatsuya smiled to her briefly, and they focused back on the audio that was still playing.

"…Untouchables?" another long pause. When Akeno spoke again, she sounded angry. "Those monsters! Doing that to your own child, are those Yotsuba demented? Should we crush them too?" another pause. "...Fine, we won't get involved with them. As long as they don't start crap with us. If they do, by the time Rin and I are done, there will be an empty spot among the Ten Families."

"…Ah, I didn't tell you. Type: Moon doesn't only help us with keeping Chaldea functioning. It also has granted us permission to summon more Heroic Spirits, and we can choose them. Only, it takes a lot of power to perform the summoning, especially from another timeline, and it will increase the energy drain of bringing us all back once we're done, so we won't do it recklessly. But, if necessary, I won't mind adding a few more comrades to our cause."

"…Yes, we won't act recklessly. Lilith-sama let us appear right in the middle of a city without providing us with a false identity, so the course of action is obvious. We'll negotiate with their government for permission to integrate their magic high schools. It's going to be a give and take relationship. We'll give them some of our techniques, although nothing truly critical they might use against us. Then Alaya will find the source of the pulling, we'll deal with it, and we'll return to Chaldea. And since you know about this timeline, I assume you have a list of people you'd like for me to bring back with us. Maybe Miyuki for a start?"

Miyuki flinched, and the air started growing cold again.

"I see. Fine, if she cares about her Onii-sama so much, it would be a shame to separate them. Although, if I were in her brother's shoes, I would want her to go, if only to grant her immortality. That's not an opportunity that comes often. But then, maybe take Tatsuya-kun with us as well? And do you think we could heal the damage that was done to him?"

Tatsuya was growing numb. First resurrection, and now immortality? This was all a bunch of nonsense, but it made no sense for Akeno and the person she was talking to, to troll out secret information this way. And threatening the Yotsuba family, who had earned the 'Untouchables' nickname… Did they have a death wish?

"… fine, we won't approach Miyuki and her brother about this. At least not until we've grown close enough that they won't try to kill me on the spot just for giving them a choice. Assuming we meet them at all. Maybe just before we leave this world. Who else? Surely a few pretty girls have caught your eye."

"…The Electron Sorceress?"

Tatsuya blinked and looked at the Lieutenant's image on the screen, and she shrugged with a smile. From her lack of surprise, he concluded that she had already listened to the recording.

"…That's going to be hard enough to find opportunities to meet the Lieutenant. Even more with this one. I can't exactly go to Miyuki and say 'Hey, Miyuki, remember that female bodyguard that died protecting your big brother four years ago? Please tell me her name. Why? Because my boyfriend wants to give her a second chance at life, and he needs her full name to do it, preferably with a picture as well.' That wouldn't go over vey well." chuckled Akeno. "So, who else? Please give me easier capture targets."

Miyuki got emotional as she remembered the person in question. Honami Sakurai, an artificial magician specialized in barriers, had accompanied her as her bodyguard for years, and they had been close. She had died from overusing her magic, protecting Tatsuya from a heavy shell and missile bombardment as he focused on activating the magic spell that destroyed the enemy warships.

"…Ok, she already sounds more reasonable. What does this girl Honoka has for her? ...Light element?"

"…I see. Anyone else?"

"I asked for easy targets, and you give me a foreign strategic magician. How dangerous is this Angie Sirius?"

Tatsuya wasn't even reacting anymore, but listened even more carefully. Any information on Strategic Magicians, no matter how dubious the source, was worth listening to. He would of course require confirmation later to give it any credibility.

"…Like Ravel, huh. I look forward to meeting her. Her flying knifes will be easy to counter with Hard Light Arsenal, and her signature move is unidirectional. We'll just have to make sure not to get hit. With Shunpo, it shouldn't be hard to knock her out. That other thing with creating mirrors is trickier, but by the time I meet her, I should have developed a counter-measure."

"Same for just about any Strategic Magician, from the little you told me. Most of them outclass us in raw power, but power isn't everything in a fight. Even their dependency on those Casting Assistant Devices is a weakness that could be exploited. They are likely hardened against EMPs, but that hardening has to have limits, and you know about my nicknames."

"…Yes. We'll give diplomacy a chance and play nice, negotiate with the government, and get a deal. We will all profit, and leave in good terms once the source of the pulling is dealt with. If they try something stupid like wanting to dissect us or something, Rin and I will fly over to America or Europe and propose them a deal. Surely they'd be interested in learning about Magecraft, or maybe we could teach them a few primordial runes. I can also create a bunch of magic items and let them analyze them to their heart's content. That's the plan for now."

"Yes. We'll be careful. Say Hi to Mom for me and tell her I miss her. Love you, bye."

The recording stopped.

"After this call, Akeno called another person named Romani, who judging from their conversation is from this Chaldea place." said captain Kazama. "The recording didn't tell us anything new, aside from her not mentioning her previous call at all, or any information she had learned from it. And that is all we have at the moment."

"…That is a lot to take in, Kazama-san. But the vast majority of it sound like utter nonsense. I can't discern their objective." sighed Tatsuya.

"I think the same. And so do most of the chain of command. And yet, we cannot quite disprove those claims, outrageous as they are, and this Noah clearly knows too much. So we are going to treat this seriously. The president decided to send a diplomat to talk to those young women."

"Should I eliminate them instead?" suggested Tatsuya.

"No. Killing them wouldn't make Noah disappear, and since one of them is his lover, we do not wish to provoke the retaliation of an unknown third party. Once we learn more about him and his capabilities, we might revisit that option."

"I understand. I assume then that we are going to play nice with them as well, until we know more."

"Yes. If all they want is to enroll in one of our high schools for a while, that is acceptable. We will keep an eye on them to make sure they don't gossip about what they should not and take additional precautions to secure any truly sensitive data on the campuses. And we will insist on getting a few samples of what they say they have to offer before we do anything, to verify some of their claims. If they truly can give us some verifiable benefits, we will consider more seriously their more outlandish claims about coming from another world and an incoming catastrophe, as well as a possible intervention from the GAU in the Thesis Competition, and that criminal organization they mentioned."

"Could you send me a recording of those conversations? I wish to go over them several times." asked Tatsuya. There was so much to dig into. And after this conversation was done, he would take his two favorite CADs to his workshop in the basement, and work on finding ways to increase their protection against EMPs, just in case.