Volume 8, Untouchable — The Nightmare of 2062

The eldest daughter of the Yotsuba Clan, Yotsuba Miya, gazed at the western sky from the window of her own room with her childish face clouded. She is currently twelve years old. She just became a middle school student this April, yet the anguish on her face is unsuited for her age.

She is fretting about her younger twin sister, whose whereabouts are unknown, Yotsuba Maya. Three days before, she was kidnapped by anonymous perpetrators in Taipei when she was visiting as part of a cultural exchange program sponsored by the Asian branch of the International Magic Federation. That this was not a disappearance due to unknown reasons, but rather, a violent abduction, was obvious to anyone. Because Saegusa Kouichi, who was visiting Taipei with Maya, is suffering from lacerations and broken bones in his right hand and right leg and the loss of his right eye due to his battle during the kidnapping.

Kouichi's condition is still worrisome. After all, Kouichi is not only her younger sister's boyfriend, but also her fiancé. Rather than Kouichi, who was severely injured while escaping the abductor's grasp, her worries were naturally more concentrated on Maya, who the kidnappers had made off with. To be honest, she was gripped more by feelings of anger and bitterness toward Kouichi than feelings of worry. He brazenly returned alone from his cowardice while her sister was taken away.

She understood that it was not Kouichi's fault. To require such a thing from a mere fourteen-year old boy was cruel and, from looking at the situation, the criminals placed more importance on Maya. It could be said that Kouichi got entangled in Maya's kidnapping and was left with one eye for all eternity. Nevertheless, she was not at an age where reason could overcome emotion. Since the identity of the abductors had not been attained yet, it was all she could do to keep her anger from bursting free.

Unexpectedly, she felt a fuss in the corridor. Quicker than a knock could be made, Miya turned toward the door.

"Pardon me."

The voice of Maya's personal maid trembled with such violence as it passed through the door — it seemed like she was shrieking. These past three days, panicked voices and excited voices could be heard throughout the mansion, but there was something a little different about this tone compared to the others — something like hope was mixed in it.

"Please enter."

As a reply, Miya opened the door in the twinkling of an eye. Even so, she did not do anything as vulgar as rushing into the crowd of servants employed by the

Yotsuba family in the room. Before crossing the frame of the doorway, she vigorously shook her body. Still, impatience could not be kept off her face and her feelings of impatience returned at the same time.

"Maya-sama has been rescued!"

Upon hearing those words, Miya's mind went blank. Miya could not remember what she did after that. When she became aware of herself again, she was approaching the head of the Yotsuba Family, her father, Yotsuba Genzou.

"Otou-sama! I have been told that Maya has been found; is it true!?"

In the conference room that the family elders use for meetings, Miya interrogated her father under the intent gazes of the aunts, uncles, and other elder relatives.

"It's true. I have just received word from Juuzou."

"From Oji-sama of the Kuroba?"

As she heard that, an expression of pure relief arose on Miya's face. Kuroba is the branch family in charge of supervising the intelligence division of the Yotsuba Clan. Kuroba Juuzou, in addition to being the head of that branch family, is Genzou's brother in law. If word had come from Juuzou, then there could be no room for doubt.

Even so, Miya soon found a reason to feel indignant, and once again she confronted her father.

"Why was I not informed!"

"I don't understand what you mean. Didn't I just inform you as soon as possible?"

"Do not try to fool me please! I have been told that Maya was rescued today, which means that as of yesterday at the very latest, you probably knew the criminal's true identity! Why did you not tell me this!?"

"Because telling you would be meaningless."

"Wha...!?"

"Telling you would've been meaningless. Or do you believe that you would've been able to help save Maya?"

"I would have..."

Miya snapped her mouth shut with regret. Certainly, she was still a child; Miya understood that herself. Even if she had been told where Maya was being held, she could have done nothing. Nevertheless due to her blood ties, she felt that she should have been told the whereabouts of her younger sister, right? A whirlpool of bile swirled within Miya's heart.

"I believed not telling you was for the best."

However with her father's next words, the bile was pushed aside by a premonition of dark clouds on the horizon.

"Although I do not wish to tell you this, Miya, brace yourself."

It seemed like he had something awful to relate to her. Something terrible had happened to Maya. Miya's heart was no longer trembling from a premonition but from a conviction. An impulse to cover her ears assailed Miya's heart but, as her father told her to, she girded her nerves and prepared herself for her father's next words.

"Maya was found in Quanzhou." (A city in China) "Dahan's..." (Great Han's)

Dahan is a portion of the southern half of China that, after the world was beset by a firestorm of outbreaks of warfare, was quickly able to break away and establish itself as an independent nation. The Great Asian Alliance has been dominating the northern part of China continent and the Korean peninsula since two years before, and has taken possession of Tsushima half a year ago. Since then Japan and Dahan, although not formal allies, had shared a common enemy in the Great Asian Alliance and had cooperated militarily.

"Maya had been imprisoned in a research laboratory placed in Quanzhou that is a subdivision of the Kunlunfang Institute."

Miya's face quickly paled. Kunlunfang Institute is Dahan's magician development group. The evil rumors of that place would not die any more than the ones about The Fourth Institute which the Yotsuba are now the actual masters of, but are entirely different. The content of those rumors with regards to females is so bad that Miya could not bear to hear them fully.

"Maya is suffering from deep wounds. The damage to her body is also severe, but I am more worried about the wounds to her spirit..."

The tone of Genzou's voice, which until then had been level while he spoke, went wild. Sounds similar to teeth grinding in anger and cries of pain were mixed in his words. A rage that could not be appeased by teeth grinding, a sorrow that howling in pain would not abate.

That prompted in Miya the feeling that the worst was yet to come. "Maya has been used as a human guinea pig for experimentation."

"How terrible!?"

"It was an experiment in magician manufacturing. It was not merely a scientific experiment. The truth is—"

"That's enough!"

No matter how prepared she had decided to be, any more than this would be unbearable for Miya. To hear any more of what happened to her younger sister would be too much.

She glared at her father with eyes full of tears. Miya widened her eyes and let tears flow from both eyes.

From both of her father's hands, blood was flowing from his own fingernails which he was digging into his own flesh.

Miya averted her face. After she did so, she saw her uncle's face. Fury swirled in her uncle's eyes. She looked at the opposite side. The people who are cousin to her father housed raging hatred in their pupils.

"Miya, there is something only you can do."

"—Yes."

Miya took numerous deep breaths to calm herself. Everyone is outraged on her younger sister's behalf. It was a minor balm, but it allowed herself to recover her sanity.

"Maya is locked inside herself. While her eyes are open, she does not respond to anyone's voice. She does nothing out of her own will, she does not even respond when we treat her wounds."

Miya firmly ground her back molars. She did so to hold back the urge to scream.

"Miya, take away everything she felt for the past three days from Maya's mind with your magic."

Miya closed her eyes and took one huge deep breath.

"If it is something that can be done, I believe it is something I too wish to do."

Miya's voice was flat with little emotion in it. By crushing her feelings, Miya was finally able to voice a reply.

"But, my magic is manipulation of the structure of self. There is no way to take away memories by changing the structure of self."

She had no power to take away memories.

"Not take away her memories. If she was aware that her memories were taken, I doubt she could maintain her sanity. What we would have in our midst would be like a ticking bomb that could go off at any time."

Genzou also understood that Miya could not wipe out memories. Still, he ordered her to do it.

"Don't take away the memories, separate the feelings from the memories. The memories of things people have done themselves naturally have emotions attached to them. Reconstruct 'the experiential memories' into 'informational memories'."

Don't take away the memory, take away the sense of reality from it.

"But Otou-sama, I cannot do such a precise operation. Although I could transmute all 'the experiential memories' Maya possesses into 'informational memories', reconstructing only those three days into 'informational memories'... manipulating 'memory' in such a way is something that is impossible for me."

Miya looked away as she answered. The rightness of what her father ordered, Miya understood with an acuity beyond that of a child. For that reason, her inability to do so with her power vexed her.

"Then change all of Maya's 'experiences' into 'information'."

"But that!?"

Miya stared at her father with disbelieving eyes. Nevertheless, Genzou did not flinch even a little from the utmost censure he received from his daughter.

"Miya, I understand your feelings. I myself am aware of the regret and guilt I will feel by taking away Maya's recollections. Even so, the way things are, Maya's spirit will definitely be destroyed."

"..."

"Tomorrow Maya will arrive at this mansion. Look at the Maya who has returned to us, Miya, and decide. No matter what your decision is, I will bear all the responsibility."

Miya bowed without a word and left her father's presence.

In the conference room Miya left, Genzou remained there surrounded by the gazes of the clan who remained.

Everyone gave Genzou a nod of approval.

"Our adversary is the central administrative institute of Dahan's magic research. Unlike the single Fourth Institute which we are the product of, it has numerous research laboratories, so the first problem is the difference in numbers."

Genzou began with their definite disadvantages. Before Asia's dissolution into North and South, the Kunlunfang Institute had been the nexus of all modern magic research on the continent. With the Kunlunfang Institute attached to Dahan, the Great Asian Alliance had lost almost all of its expertise in modern magic. For that reason, Dahan could stand toe to toe with the Great Asian Alliance despite its inferior resources. It could be said that the Kunlunfang Institute is the nucleus of Dahan's military power.

"Even so, I cannot let the savagery directed at us to pass. Although we are weapons, we are not slaves. And I refuse to be livestock. We, ourselves, are the masters of the laboratory that produced us."

As Genzou stopped speaking, all that were there again gave a nod of approval.

"This is a personal grudge. I am the parent of a daughter who has been defiled; this is my vengeance in order to cleanse my bitterness. Nevertheless, that is not all it is. I wish to show my mettle to the foolish 'Nation' who treats magicians like domesticated livestock."

"Genzou-dono."

The one who opened his mouth was the eldest of his generation of those assembled there, Genzou's uncle.

"I do not consider this matter as Maya's personal tragedy. With this incident, our entire clan of Yotsuba has been insulted right now; our honor has been sullied."

"Itoko-dono."

His female cousin, who was younger than him by a decade, was the next one who wished to orate.

"I, too, have a daughter; therefore, I too do not think of this as someone else's business. My daughter is not even old enough to go to school, but when I think of my child's future, I cannot overlook this meaningless tragedy."

"We are weapons and assassins."

A voice rang out from near the lowest ranks.

"For us to make an appeal to humanity would probably be a fool's errand. No matter how selfish it is, make no mistake; those who dare to attack us can mock us from the depths of hell. But, you know that, don't you!"

The gazes from the others contained understanding and approval.

"Command us, our Master! Grant to me a part in your honored daughter's revenge!"

"Restrain yourself, Genzou-dono."

That voice exploded from next to Genzou.

"A novice like you will end up dying a dog's death. Aniue, first give me, your younger brother, your orders. I will show those ruffians of Asia hell."

"Genzou-dono, our feelings are the same as yours."

"Everyone who had anything to do with Maya's abduction must die."

"The magicians of Asia who acted as pawns for the rapist will be annihilated."

"Please leave our government to me. I will silence those who chant about diplomacy and military cooperation."

Genzou made a deep bow to all that had assembled in this place. Then, he raised his head to proclaim.

"The enemy is the Kunlunfang institute and the Dahan government. We will eradicate our enemies with the full power of the Yotsuba."

###

"... Maya... Maya."

The voice is calling me. I feel as if I haven't heard this voice in a really long time, but for some reason I did not feel as if I have been longing to hear the voice.

I open my eyes. The hospital room looked familiar, and if my memory is correct, that face belongs to my elder twin sister.

"Nee-san... this place is the treatment room in the Fourth Institute?"

At the first word from Maya's mouth, Miya relaxed and, at the same time, her face became tearful.

"That's correct, Maya. How do you feel? You don't have a headache or anything like that, do you?"

Upon being questioned by her elder sister, Maya's expression became suspicious. "I don't have... a headache. Both my mind and my memory are clear."

As Maya spoke the words "my memory," Miya's face looked troubled.

Miya looked at Maya with fearful eyes, and Maya gazed back up at her with a face of amazement.

"Nee-san, I... have been raped."

Maya related this blandly and Miya averted her eyes.

"And my body has been messed with all over. Even the inside of my body has been disturbed. There is no place in my entire body that has not been fouled."

Miya struck her knees with both hands with a slapping sound. As if she was afraid that her body would get up off the stool and run away, and was restraining it from doing so.

"I remember all of it. Despite that, why, I wonder? It feels somewhat unreal. Like I am merely watching a movie, thinking things like horrible or pitiful even though it all happened to me."

Miya could not raise her eyes. "Nee-san."

Maya did not take her eyes off her elder sister. "What was done to me? Nee-san."

"...Your memory has been transmuted."

Perhaps she was finally resigned to the task, so Miya began to speak while gazing downward.

"Within the persona, there are various processes used to store memory. The memory of an individual person is not a single unit. Given that, the process for storing your own experiences and the way knowledge gained from texts and images accumulates into memory storage differ in form."

"To me, this cannot be anything but conjecture, however... if Nee-san says so."

Within the Yotsuba clan, this magic is Miya's unique gift, self structure manipulation. Miya, who was able to change the structure of self, could sense how a self is structured. No one other than she could understand it, but it was certain that she understood it.

"I cannot peek inside the contents. What memory is stored where is something I cannot know. What is known to me is whether a stored memory is 'experience' or 'knowledge' only."

"...And so?"

At this stage, Maya had a vague idea about what her elder sister wanted to say. Nevertheless, she was going to make Miya say it.

"Maya, I do not know what you experienced. But, I knew that your spirit would remain broken if I did not use magic. Therefore I—"

"Therefore Nee-san?"

Miya hesitated to speak. Because voicing it was unendurable. Even so, Maya demanded her sister tell her what her sister had done in her own words.

"...Your 'experiences' have been changed to 'knowledge'. The memory storage of experience has been transmuted into memory storage of knowledge... the shape of your memory has been reconfigured."

"I see..."

Maya whispered only those words. There were no words denouncing Miya.

Miya timidly raised her head and Maya faced the opposite wall. "All that I have been until now has become simple data."

Her younger sister's words pierced Miya's core.

"My delights, my tempers, the moments of enjoyment, the moments of sorrow; all of them have become data..."

Despite what she heard, Miya could not make her escape from this place.

"Certainly, the memory of what was done to me was too much for me to bear. In that condition, my spirit was dead."

"Maya..."

"Therefore, before the memory of that rape could kill me, my elder sister killed me."

"Uh!?"

Miya grasped for air.

Maya was casting her eyes at Miya again.

"That's what happened, right? A person is formed by their experiences. There is who I was, and there is who I am now."

Miya tried to avert her eyes. Nevertheless, Maya's stare would not allow that.

"Experience being changed to mere knowledge means that my past has changed to data. All that was within me of who I was until yesterday has vanished except for the me that remains."

Maya's gaze punctured deeply into Miya's heart.

"The me I was until yesterday has been killed by my own elder sister."

Miya stood up from the stool. Turned on her heel and ran for the door as fast as she could go.

To flee from Maya's presence.

It was not something that could be apologized for. It was also not something one would be thanked for. They could not even share tears over it.

—The chance to restore the bond between these two people that had been severed on this day would not come for all eternity.

###

Half a year has passed since then. Day by day, the nightmare continues for the Kunlunfang Institute and the Dahan government.

In the course of a single night, all the employees and magicians attached to a laboratory would be strangled.

A military base would suddenly break out in fighting between fellow soldiers, with the last man standing shooting himself in the head and dying.

The building the government's military liaison agency was moving into collapsed when one of their own military aircraft plunged into it. There were no survivors.

There were also administrative facilities for research where everyone in the building suffocated due to lack of oxygen. There was also awareness of incidents where everyone was stabbed to death. Politicians who were aware of the outbreak of the incidents traveled incognito for a secret assembly; that day, a rare congregation of Dahan's leadership took place.

There was absolutely no clue to who the culprits were. Among the incidents, there certainly existed cases wherein the culprit had been killed, but no corpses remained. Traces of the culprits vanished without exception.

Without a doubt, it was a nightmare.

Exactly half a year from the first mysterious event, the nightmare revealed its form at last.

All the subdivisions and branch offices were quashed; all that remained was the main headquarters of the Kunlunfang Institute. The fortifications solidified by Dahan's magicians were invaded by three magicians.

A mere three people. Against the three hundred stationed at the Kunlunfang Institute. Formerly, Dahan's magic regiment had boasted a breadth of three thousand; death and desertion had reduced it until it was a mere tenth of what it was.

"My name is Yotsuba Genzou."

The magicians guarding the main entrance were slain in the twinkling of an eye by the man in the prime of his life who introduced himself in Japanese.

The researchers and magicians assembled at the main branch, as well as the authorities finding shelter there, watched Genzou enter their view on the screen as one.

"In order to cleanse ourselves from our hatred of you, all of you will die. This is revenge for the future you took from my daughter."

While Genzou spoke, he slashed a knife toward the camera.

The five thousand people who saw the image simultaneously patted their necks as a vision of their own heads being lopped off assaulted them, then sighed in relief as they found their heads still attached. When they timidly returned their gazes to the screen, there was no one there.

The research focus of the Fourth Institute that birthed the Yotsuba clan was "the endowment and improvement of magical abilities given by the mind's structure for the usage of mind manipulation magic." In order to fulfill this purpose, The Fourth Institute first gathered people whose lineage predisposed them to have mind manipulation power.

Among these people, some individuals were transformed into genuine super powered beings, while others remained no more than mere illusionist tricksters who could do no more than create heat haze like mirages. The magicians with strong mind manipulation abilities were picked out, strengthened, and had the primary field of their magic calculation area directly modified. That was the Fourth Institute's accepted procedure for magician development.

The "Yotsuba" produced as a result inevitably descended from two types of magician lineages. One were those born with a mind manipulation ability that was strengthened. The other were those whose magic calculation areas were warped by a strong power. These two heritages stood side by side and mixed to form the "Yotsuba". Even those who shared the same blood displayed the two traits randomly. For example, Miya inherited the traits of the former, and 'Mind

Structure Manipulation' is a form of mind manipulation magic that only she can use; Maya represented the latter, as she did not have any form of mind manipulation magic, but instead acquired a distinctive power from birth.

The three who have now infiltrated the Kunlunfang Institute each use a strong unique mind manipulation magic.

One was a user of human cognizance fixation magic. His magic used the five senses as a medium in order to get someone to "fixate on something," which is what could be called planting a fixed idea. The time period this continued was 9 minutes. For example, he would do so to a witness who spotted a concealed person in a certain place. It did not matter if it was with the naked eye or through a camera; it did not matter if it was one person or a thousand. The information from the vision, "I see him," allowed him to transmit his magic through any medium for nine minutes so no one doubted that "he has not moved from the shadow of that place." Even though he leisurely left the shadow and crossed their line of sight, those trapped by his magic were caught up in the idea that he was hiding.

Even if a loud alarm rang, they would not connect that sound to him.

The other one was a user of magic that controlled a person's will. The longest this could continue was one minute; the number of targeted individuals was seven people at the most, and the effect range was twelve meters. That he could not command the self infliction of wounds to those whose mind manipulation power exceeded his own was another limitation, but however temporary it was, when they fell under his technique, his victims inevitably could not resist his commands. In order to send commands, psion waves transmitted the general idea. It could overcome thick walls to work, and the barrier of language was also no problem. He took control from 10 seconds to 1 minute. Since the victims would reliably execute only a single command and there had been 2 examples recorded outside of Japan, the name of "One Command" had been stuck on this magic.

The pairing of these two's magic easily resulted in their infiltration into the facility turned fortress. They purposely let themselves be caught by surveillance cameras and soon let an image of them fleeing be displayed. By doing so, the three infiltrators were giving the impression that aside from Genzou, the infiltrators had left the facility and were outside. And "One Command" was used on the guards who passed through the front door to order them to throw open the doors. Of course, once the guards opened the doors, they were finished. Suggestion was repeatedly used for disposal. The two of them had a time limit of 9 minutes to reach their target location, the guard control room, a limit which was a struggle for the pair to make.

Next, the pair commenced their work. Due to their possession of powerful mental manipulation magic abilities, they did not possess more than the ordinary physical phenomenon manipulating magic from their four genetic lineages. While advancing upon the magicians defending the laboratory for nine minutes wore down their magic, it was certain that whether their enemies were many or few, mere words would not deceive them.

They directly wrote into the brains — to be accurate, they transmitted electrical signals to the brain which gave the mind data directly — using a manual to completely turn off the facility's security system.

That was, without a doubt, close timing. There was only ten seconds remaining until the pair's operational deadline. A group of over ten Dahan Magicians, all with gleaming metal bands on their heads, came to attack them. For a few minutes, there was a fierce fight and magical attack exchange — then the control room became unusable due to the extreme heat and the blast from the explosion.

Genzou became aware of his allies' self-destruction from the fact that the security system was down, which he knew due to crossing two places where the barriers had been released. In order to leave no evidence nor genetic samples, their flesh had been engraved beforehand with conditionally activated magic that self- immolated their bodies. The activation of the cast magic was perceived by Genzou's magic sense.

(...Sorry.)

Within his heart, Genzou apologized with one brief word. This battle, as he himself proclaimed, started with his own personal grudge. Nevertheless, his clan members accompanied him on his vengeance out of their own free will. Therefore apologizing for their sacrifice might be mocking their determination. —Even though he understood that, Genzou could not stop apologizing to his allies, who went to their deaths.

With this, the number of casualties to the Yotsuba clan from the feud they had started was twenty-nine. This was about half the number of Yotsuba who practice combat magic.

In contrast, the number of enemy magicians who had died added up to roughly three thousand five hundred. Each one that they had lost was balanced by about 120 times in enemies they had slaughtered, Yotsuba magicians did not go down easily. Genzou was determined that he would keep the balance sheets as they were.

Unlike his thoughts, his body did not stop. The director of the Kunlunfang Institute. He was today's target. Genzou was running down the corridor with the silenced alarm system to the inner sanctum. And anyone standing in Genzou's way, magician or not, would lose their life to the blade he flourished. Although he should not be aware of it, Genzou felt his magic calculation area overheat as he gradually approached his limits. If this continued, he was probably going to burn out his mind. Even so, there was no way he was going to stop now.

Facing the last door, Genzou did not stop his feet; without pausing, he accelerated. The inside of the room was swollen with signs of magic.

There were probably four people whose magic rivaled his own. The director of the institute and his fellows. As Genzou faced his true desired foes, the magic of those who guarded them prepared to attack him.

Nevertheless, their magic was never completed. Genzou's magic was faster.

The abilities of the four magician's an-->>

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