At the Yotsuba clan's New Year gathering, Miyuki Shiba was named the family's next head with Tatsuya Shiba announced as her fiancé, a pairing now public knowledge across the magic community. The Ichijou family immediately objects, proposing that Miyuki marry their own heir, Masaki Ichijou, instead. The quarrel carries into the Ten Master Clans selection conference in Hakone, the four-yearly assembly that decides which houses hold the title, until a magician detonates a suicide bomb at the venue and the clans turn to hunting whoever set it in motion.