We arrived at the Tohno Mansion about twenty minutes later, where we were cordially received by the servants of the same mansion.
My three companions and inhabitants of this mansion enter as if nothing, but I cannot feel the same comfort. It was a very long eight years for me.
But I already made a decision...
If Makihisa asks me to stay here, I will definitely decline.
I'm not going to change the precious memories that I created with Aoko-san, Touko-san and everyone else I know. And if you have any complaints, you can always talk to my tutor about that. I will have to remind Makihisa that he signed the papers to hand over my guardianship to the Aozaki Family.
Although insecure, I decided to follow the others with constant steps, to avoid falling too far behind them. With my hands in my pockets, I make sure I'm not vulnerable to anyone around me.
When you are in a place where you have not been for too long, it is normal to feel a little insecure.
─Welcome, Shiki-sama. ─. The servants said, each time, as we walked.
I spent returning the greetings with only gestures, since I do not remember any of the servants to call them by their names.
I think right now we're heading towards the family dining room or something. I do not know how to orient myself well in this place.
I only remember the locations, it's not like I can perfectly remember every detail after eight years.
─Nii-san, anything you want you can ask for it. So don't be ashamed, okay? This is your family after all and the family helps each other. ─. Akiha comments to me smiling.
...
I guess that's okay.
I have no qualms about asking for something, after all.
Without stopping for a minute, we arrived at what, as I believed, is the family dining room.
For reasons of politeness and principle, I take the lead of the servants to offer Akiha a seat, she happily accepts.
?
I look around my surroundings and realize that I lost sight of Kohaku-san and Hisui-san.
Hey?
─Hey, Akiha. Where did Kohaku-san and Hisui-san go?
Taking my own seat, closest to Akiha so as not to feel discomfort, I ask my little sister about it.
She, with a hint of doubt on her face, asks me:
─Didn't they tell you they were servants too? They disappear into the hallway before I know it myself, and I almost always don't see them until the next day when we have to go to school.
Ah...
Wow, that's a surprise, as I feared.
It seems that I won't be able to see Kohaku-san or Hisui-san until tomorrow either. But hey, I hope you have good luck in your work.
Apparently, the servants of the Tohno Mansion went to look for the head of the family, since Makihisa Tohno enters the dining room minutes after we arrive.
His face is the same, stoic and frightening to those who look at him, only that she has a few wrinkles and white sections of hair from old age. But essentially, my father remains the same in appearance.
The only problem I have with him and the only reason I hadn't come to this mansion for the last eight years was mainly because of his personality. He had what we know as [Multiple Personality], but I think that now, with the proper medicine and treatment, he has managed to recover.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have called me and right now he would be having dinner with Touko-san and then watching a bad 80s movie with her.
But hey, I guess every crazy to the world of him.
─Shiki, my son! Welcome you back to our home. Just look at yourself, you've grown a lot. You look just like I was expecting you.
When Makihisa sits down, she starts chattering. It's a bit annoying, but him speaking makes me realize there is a seat to fill at the table.
─Are we waiting for someone? ─. I ask, since the empty seat draws my attention too much.
Makihisa seems to form what I think is a smile.
He responds by saying:
─She is someone you know very well, Shiki. Only someone like that could sit at this table.
─That's right, Shiki-kun.
!
When the voice of the one person who shouldn't be here enters my ears along with the smell of Mevius cigarettes penetrating deep into my nose, I realize that there is something wrong here.
Dressing like an executive while she's carrying a pair of the [Mystic Eye Killer] just like me. After getting rid of the [Sealing Designation] and all the [Executors] who came after this red-haired woman, they gave her special permission to act on behalf of the [Association] as long as she does not harm the secret of [Magic].
There is only one person I know who smokes Mevius and calls me "Shiki-kun" as well.
In surprise, I get up from my seat and exclaim:
─Touko-san! Hey, but do you know my father?
I couldn't help asking him.
Effectively. Touko-san smiles when I recognize her and takes the empty seat at the table.
She, without any problem, returns the question to me:
─Do you remember the gift for your fourteenth birthday? ─. She asks me to remind me.
Hey?
Oh yeah. How to forget it?
─A trip to London where because of you I could have died repeatedly if Aoko-san had not been there, of course I remember it perfectly.
Sure enough, that was before the [Sealing Designation] was stripped from her name and put back into the [Association] as a normal [Magecraft] user. If we hadn't gone with Aoko-san, many times I should have used the [Mystic Eyes of Death Perception] to protect myself from those who attempted against my life.
That is by far the worst memory I have about the holidays. We even had [Lord El-Melloi II] fight [Blue] that time, where we ended up winning by a gigantic margin.
─Nii-san on the brink of death?! What has he done at your urging, Touko?! I'm fine that you made my brother a [Spellcaster], but that's it!
Akiha's reaction to it... is out of place for me.
Mm? I think I should take Touko-san by the shoulder and ask her a question that just popped into my head. I make sure to move away to a distance where my father and sister cannot hear us speak.
─Touko-san... How much know them?
─Not worry. I only told them about the adventures we had and how great you were on all those occasions, although I did not tell them anything about your relationship with Shiki-chan or the [Mystic Eyes of Death Perception], they know that you became a user of [Magecraft] lower level, but up to there.
Oh, okay. That means you left out the most fundamental parts of all the problems we've been involved in so far.
Although I think it would have been a problem for the Aozaki sisters if Touko-san had made mention that I have a relationship with the head of the Ryougi Family, the lack of content that implies not mentioning my [Mystic Eyes of Death Perception] has probably caused Touko-san to assign more work to Aoko-san than she did.
Yeah, that's the only thing I can think of to cover up the times I used [Mystic Eyes of Death Perception] to deal with our problems.
In fact, we were spared a lot of problems on the basis of that, since most of the [Magicians] know the problem that they deserve. Designated under the [Noble Colors System] they are awarded the [Rainbow] apart from being categorized as a [Divine Spirit Class] among the [Mystic Eyes], the mere existence of these causes fear even to the best magic users.
When it was revealed that there were two users of the [Mystic Eyes of Death Perception], it was when Ryougi-san and I had more than just problems, since just like with Touko-san, we had to take care of [Executors] who were coming for us.
Just to be clear, they tried to kill me first, so I had to kill them before they hurt me or my acquaintances. Ryougi-san understood that and also fought by my side to protect what he cares about. I can comment that it was a great bloodbath.
Yes, [Executors]. They were going to kill us. It turns out that even if any of us go blind, we will still be able to see [Lines] in our world. The [Mystic Eyes of Death Perception] function is an ability that "allows to see" something that "normally" could not be seen, and this is the [Death of an Existence].
I don't think I have fully explained it.
The ability to perceive the death of a being or object depends entirely upon the user's perception of death. The brain and the [Mystic Eyes] work as a set, so having different [Specs] allows for great differences in the users' abilities to perceive death.
They show the death of things, the weak points where everything is most easily broken and the imperfection in everything that will break down one day. They can be said to see the fate of all things, seeing the future, allowing them to see death. While there is a difference as to when a person or object will [End], it is certain that they will all arrive at that point because death is not something that "arrives," but rather is something already contained within an object at its creation and certainly bound to happen as part of the [Principle of Causality].
From seeing what is obvious to the [Principle of Causality], we can anticipate the [Death of an Existence] that is predestined from the [Origin] of it. The amount of [Lines] we look at depends on the [Complexity] of the objectives.
A human being has a countable number of lines in geometric shapes, on the other hand, if we speak of a [Familiar], either in physical or spiritual form, it could still be "killed" with the use of our ability.
A limitation of the ability is: To kill something with the eyes requires the user to actually strike the target, so those physically above the user will easily be able to avoid them with little worry. For another part different than me, Ryougi-san works off of the notion of killing what she perceives as alive, so while she claims to be able to kill God "as long as it's alive", she can do nothing to God because "God is not alive or dead ".
They are acquired through a near-death experience, gained by being immersed in "death."
While I specializes in killing living things. Unlike Ryougi-san, I am not suited in the aspect of recognizing "concepts" because I was only "submerged in death". I can perceive the death of concrete physical existeces, allowing me to kill people, animals, locks, walls, and even part of the planet itself in the form of killing "nature" in a specific area. I cannot see lines on things that are unable to be killed or destroyed in the current world because the standard for me, as a human, is based on the limits of the people of my era. That was at the beginning, but after the experience I accumulated under Aoko-san's tutelage, I learned to overcome those limitations in my ability in order to see [Death] even in places where there shouldn't be any.
From the development of the skill by the influence of Aoko-san and Touko-san, as long as I administer an appropriate amount of [Magic Energy] to my [Magic Circuits], I can easily remove the contradictory limitation that Ryougi-san has, to define [God] as a being that is [Alive] and therefore can be "killed" by my [Mystic Eyes of Death Perception].
I think that's enough of a mental explanation.
Which by the way, to mention all this, I used the dangerous trick that Kiritsugu-san taught me, which is known as [Time Alter], which is a magical technique that alters what is known as [Cognitive Acceleration], which is more or less, the perception of others about my [Time].
It is one of the few magic tricks that I know, and its use is not recommended unless it is for annoying situations. In fact, I have to apply [Self-Hypnosis] to use it, which increases what I have to do to evoke said [Spell] by one step.
I can't use it for too long, but it was more than enough to explain all of this to you.