The Anti-Air Command Room was located five armored doors deep. It had no windows, nor were any of its walls directly exposed to the outside. The floor was roughly the size of four school classrooms, divided into a small hall where about thirty operators sat facing consoles in three rows, and eight mezzanine private rooms that jutted out from the walls towards a large screen in the hall.
We were led into one of the private rooms with a glass front.
"I don't detect any wiretaps or surveillance cameras. It seems to be a room for high-ranking officers and Ministry of Defense officials on inspection. And that glass panel at the front isn't just ordinary glass. The Metropolitan Police Department has similar ones. It can display any video being monitored in this command room."
I had no idea how she investigated it, and to me, it looked like plain glass, but if Sakurai-san said so, it must be true.
"Mother, there's something I'd like to ask you."
While Sakurai-san was operating a console, looking at a desktop monitor, I decided to bravely ask Mother about what had happened earlier.
"Brother just now said that the only thing he 'presently' considers precious is me... When I asked why it was 'considers precious' instead of just 'precious,' he told me to ask you... Also, what does 'presently' mean?"
"Oh, so Tatsuya said something like that."
Mother, who had been listening to my questions with a frown, murmured this with a hint of boredom.
"It might be about time I told you."
And she said something similar to Brother. Sensing a significant secret there, I tensed up with anticipation.
"But before that... Miyuki-san, stop calling Tatsuya 'Brother.' It can't be helped when there are others listening, but you shouldn't treat Tatsuya as your brother when only members of the Yotsuba are present. You are to succeed Maya and become the head of the Yotsuba, so being seen as admiring and depending on such a defective product as a brother could become a major disadvantage for you."
"How can you say that…! To call your own child a defective product!"
I couldn't help but lash out at Mother, forgetting all restraint.
"I find it regrettable too, but it's a fact, so it can't be helped."
"That's not true! Brother helped me with his powers!"
"You mean what happened just now? Yes, well, he has to be able to do at least that much... because that's all he can do."
To my utmost protest, Mother replied in a voice more coldly detached than I had ever heard. It was a tone utterly resigned.
"If Tatsuya said it's something I should tell you, then I don't mind. Well, where shall I begin..."
Suddenly, the full-wall window changed the scene it displayed. Sakurai-san had finished her operation and projected the new image. I looked at Sakurai-san. She was silently watching us—Mother and me.
It was clear, without having to ask, that she had no intention of interjecting. It was also clear that she knew many things I didn't.
"Tatsuya was born defective as a magician."
Mother looked as if she were gazing into the distant past.
"I can't say I don't feel responsible for only being able to bear him that way, but it's a fact that Tatsuya harbors an incurable defect as a magician. Tatsuya was born capable of using only two types of 'magic': decomposing information bodies and reconstructing information bodies. Within the scope of these two concepts, he seems capable of inventing and utilizing various techniques, but Tatsuya can only ever do these two things. He cannot alter information bodies, which is the true essence of a magician. Magic is the art of altering information bodies to change phenomena. No matter how subtle the change, magic is transforming one thing into another. But Tatsuya cannot do that. All he can do is break information bodies into pieces and rebuild them into their original forms. That is not magic in its true sense. Born without the talent to use magic in the true sense—to transform information bodies into something different—he is unmistakably a defective product as a magician. Well, we were saved by his reconstruction ability, but strictly speaking, that power isn't 'magic.'"
I couldn't think of any words to refute her. I just thought: if that isn't magic, then what should that power be called? If it should be called by a name other than 'magic,' wouldn't it be nothing short of a 'miracle'?
"But we, the Yotsuba, are magicians who hold a place among the Ten Master Clans, and if one isn't a magician, one cannot be a Yotsuba. A child who cannot use magic cannot live as a Yotsuba. So, seven years ago, we—Maya and I—decided to perform a certain surgery on him. —Though, that wasn't the only motive for that experiment... and Maya opposed it until the very end."
An experiment? Mother performed one on Brother?
"The Artificial Magician Project. A project to implant an artificial magic calculation area into the consciousness of a non-magician to grant them a magician's abilities. As a result of performing that mental modification surgery on Tatsuya, a defect occurred in his emotions."
Artificial Magician Project. The words echoed ominously in my ears. And I tilted my head at what Mother said.
(Mental modification surgery? A defect in his emotions?)
"No, 'impulses' might be a more accurate word than 'emotions.' Intense anger, profound sorrow, fierce jealousy, resentment, hatred, excessive appetite, extreme sexual desire, blind romantic love... though some of this seems to remain. In exchange for losing such 'self-forgetting' impulses, with the clear exception of one remaining, Tatsuya gained the power to wield magic. Unfortunately, the performance of the artificial magic calculation area is significantly inferior to a congenital magic calculation area, so he ultimately only proved useful as a Guardian."
I thought, "No way." I thought, "That can't be."
"That 'surgery'... you performed it, Mother?"
I couldn't help but ask, even as the thought formed.
"Who else could have done it but me?"
A magic calculation area isn't merely an organ in the cerebrum; it is, in essence, a function of the spirit. To add an artificial magic calculation area means to alter the structure of the spirit. That is impossible without Mother's unique magic, 'Spiritual Structure Interference.'
"...Why would you do such a thing?"
"I've already explained the reason. More importantly, let me answer what you wanted to know."
(Ah, so that's it...)
I understood now. I realized. That Brother wasn't the only one who had lost a part of their emotions in that experiment.
Whether it was a side effect of magic, or guilt, or some other psychological effect, I didn't know, but for the first time, I felt terror towards 'magic.' Towards 'magic' that could change a person's heart so cruelly.
Miyuki's conclusion is that as a side effect, she (Mother) became unable to love her son.
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