Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 05 - Summer Holiday Chapter

by Sato Tsutomu

  —Her height, well after all, she did stop growing in her third year of middle school, but her little sisters also had petite bodies; there was nothing to be done but resign herself to her genetic heritage.

  A sha-bum sound arose; Mayumi stretched her arms and legs out of the hot water.

  —She was often told at boutiques and beauty salons that her limbs were quite long for someone as small in stature as she.

  Arms and legs were returned to the bath; her hand brushed her breast gently.

  —Her chest was also called large in proportion to height; no matter what type of clothes she wore, there was never tightness at the waist.

  —She was quite sexy, even if that was only her own opinion.

  —But when she faced ‘Her’, no matter how well she thought of herself, her confidence in herself wavered.

  In her own mind, she always referred to the girl by the pronoun ‘Her or She’; in the realm of her unconscious mind, the proper noun of ‘Shiba Miyuki’ transformed.

  —Until she met Her, she had never seen a girl so beautiful.

  —Even Her arms and legs; so slim, so slender, so fine without looking unhealthy.

  —Her waist, too, rested on that fine edge; Her chest and breast areas were full of feminine curves.

  —Most of all, the number of perfectly symmetrical features was overwhelming. In the first place, even though internal organs in general are arranged symmetrically, no matter how perfectly symmetrical a person’s body is, her appearance will not likewise be symmetrical.

  Even so, compared to non-magicians, the number of magicians with highly symmetrical bodies is higher. Aside from personal appearance, there is an easily seen tendency for people who have a strong disposition for magic to have a highly symmetrical bone structure; Mayumi was well aware of this knowledge.

  —For that reason, there are times when Mayumi doubts that She was a flesh and blood person.

  —Or even see Her as a girl like herself.

  —Mayumi believed that the boy who was Her elder brother was unfortunately unable to see any other girl as anything but a poor copy of Her.

  —Her elder brother.

  Mayumi, once again, sighed without realizing it.

  —He was to the point that it made Mayumi doubt that they were actually related by blood, ordinary in his exterior.

  —There was nothing particularly wrong with him.

  —However, he was at the most, only ‘so-so’.

  Mayumi submerged herself in the bathtub up to her nose. The water started foaming as her breath turned into bubbles. Did the air in the bubbles come from sighing or breathing, even Mayumi didn’t know.

  —Nevertheless, his interior was far from ordinary.

  —Rather than calling it superior, non-standard fit better.

  —Through lots of time and labor, scholars around the world took their accumulated knowledge, bundled it up, and constructed the current rating system for magicians.

  —His existence questioned the validity of that system.

  —Even by rounding up, he was only C-rank by international standards.

  —In spite of that, all the actual results that she and others had seen for themselves exceeded those of an A-rank magician.

  She lifted her face out of the bath, took a deep breath. She exhaled twice, thrice; Mayumi lightly laughed.

  —The Staff Room should be racking their brains.

  —What, with a system that stood for decades was being fundamentally challenged, and the plan to create both a ‘Magic’ and ‘Magic Engineering Department’ as well, the status quo of the staff room was being heavily shaken.

  Mayumi gave a wry smile as she shook her head from side to side.

  —Nevertheless, his existence was impossible.

  —If only his intelligence and knowledge were superior, he wouldn’t be able to cause this much confusion.

  —A first year high school student capable of using a high level anti-magic which had almost no practitioners.

  —After being hit with magic that should cause critical wounds to his body, he calmly resumed fighting.

  —The smashing of the terrorist group, she had heard was actually done by his power alone.

  —His ability to use magic and his ability to fight with magic were too uneven.

  —No, even if only his knowledge were considered, it could be argued that some alterations to the curriculum should be made?

  The hot water was warm enough. In spite of that, Mayumi’s body shivered as if from cold. While she knew the chill she felt wasn’t radiating from her skin, Mayumi submerged her body deeply in the bathtub.

  —Today, when she introduced him to Nakura, she didn’t tell him, but it was a type of test.

  —A test to see if he realized what the name “Na-Ku-Ra” meant.

  —At the time she spoke the name, Nakura, for one moment—and really it was only for one brief moment—turmoil ran through his eyes; it was only due to focusing her complete and total powers of observation on him that allowed her to not miss it.

  —He was aware of the meaning of “Na-Ku-Ra”.

  —Only people like Juumonji and herself, who were well versed in the “darkness” of modern magic, would know the meaning.

  —An ordinary magician, he was not.

  —A magician from some negligible family, he was not.

  —”Shi-Ba” Tatsuya. Shi, a pronunciation of the kanji[18] that meant chief; Ba, a pronunciation of the kanji that meant leaves. Shi, a syllable that could also mean four; Ba, leaves. Yotsu, a pronunciation of the kanji that meant four; Ba, leaves. Yotsuba.

  —Could it be, could he also be, could he possibly be an “Extra”.

  Her brain on fire, Mayumi considered it.

  Chapter 4

  Since morning, the school grounds had been covered by a buoyant atmosphere.

  Today, no classes would be held in the afternoon; the Student Body General Meeting, the Campaign Speeches, and the election were being held instead.

  In modern high schools, where individual classes almost never assembled, this was a very big event.

  Not only that, in this Student Body General Meeting, a proposal to make a major alteration to the system of student government was supposed to be made.

  As a matter of fact, since before summer vacation, a conflict between the proponent group and the opposition group had been brewing under the surface of school life.

  Whether it was due to the current president Saegusa Mayumi’s popularity, the difficulty of publicly opposing the proposal, or the influence of the actions of the Second Course team in the Monolith Code event at the newcomers tournament, in terms of numbers, the proponent group was overwhelming. However, in response to that, the opposition group had grown more obstinate. People who examined the current state of affairs felt that there was a violent undertone; this made the mood of the school rife with unrest.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  “Everyone here? This is the final check for station deployment.”

  After morning classes finished, all the members of the Public Moral Committee assembled at committee headquarters.

  Since they worked in shifts and most of them operated solo, having all the committee members together was rare. The Student Body General Meeting was one of the few times all members would be out in force.

  “In general, the committee will be stationed inside of the lecture hall. Outside the lecture hall, the automated surveillance cameras will be used. We are here to help the student government.”

  The entire force of the Public Moral Committee was nine people. Since this was all that was available to police the 560 members of the student body accumulated in the meeting room, they didn’t have any guards to spare for handling the exterior. Still, even if they did have enough people, dealing with villainous intruders wasn’t part of their job.

  “Chiyoda and I are at the main entrance; at the side entrance, Tatsumi and Morisaki…”

  While listening to Mari’s directions, Tatsuya thought she‘
s “unusually intense”. Instead of using feminine speech, she’s sounding quite boyish. Well, for the Public Moral Committee, this was a rare opportunity to assemble.

  “Sawaki is on the upper part of the platform, Shiba is on the lower part; that’s all.”

  Mari barked out the members’ names and posts in order to confirm them.

  His own station was the stage wing.

  In case the official on stage was attacked, or as it was called, “got jumped”, he and Sawaki were the so-called last line of defense… but Tatsuya didn’t really have to worry about that.

  After yesterday’s walk with Mayumi, he understood. No student at First High School would be reckless enough to harm Mayumi. What he meant was that it was reckless to try to harm Mayumi at First High School, and every male upperclassman would make sure everyone knew it…

  “Everyone, quickly man your post. Shiba, stay for a bit.”

  When it was just the two of them, Mari reverted to her usual way of speaking.

  “Make it quick; Tatsuya-kun, how did it go yesterday?”

  He didn’t need to ask her to explain what she was asking about.

  “Attacked, three times.”

  Mari’s face quickly froze.

  “I was.”

  However, as she heard his following words, her expression only showed “Huh?”

  “No, it seems I’ve been gazing at the president a little too warmly.”

  “…Don’t worry about the time; just give me an explanation?”

  “To be brief, they seemed to be members of her fan club.”

  As she heard Tatsuya's calm words of explanation, her face changed to comprehension.

  “In short, misplaced jealousy.”

  “You would think it would be obvious that it was not that kind of situation since Miyuki was with us.”

  Remembering yesterday’s events, (an emotional) wave of fatigue rolled over him. At least, that’s the way it felt to Tatsuya.

  “Well, only activate your CADs; don’t put the thought of doing something more tangible out of your head, but if you do something stupid, you will incur more than just the president’s wrath.”

  “Got it…”

  “In that condition, if we are caught in a crossfire, we might be unable to interfere… Because if the president receives a single blow, I see a problem occurring if we try to gang up on someone.”

  Even fanatics didn’t want to die in vain. Suicide bombers carried out their plans in order to take their enemies (and their allies) with them. Snipers did not plan to strike from places they could be spotted, or at places that were known to be protected by bulletproof glass.

  The two of them felt stupid for worrying over nothing, and shared relieved smiles.

  …After all that, Tatsuya’s enthusiasm for his work approached zero level.

  With the belief that he had been taking things so seriously that he had been seeing shadows, he took his place—standing at the side of the stage beside the stairs for the main event.

  When he thought about it, it was obvious that it was only a matter of a high school government election. Even if the prestige of “Student Council President” had any real meaning, the titles of ‘vice president’, ‘secretary’ and the like carried no real meaning after graduation.

  In the First High School’s system, if the Student Council President willed it, there could be two vice presidents or four secretaries; Course 2 students not being part of the Student Council wasn't a matter of honor, it was only a matter of pride.

  And when it came down to it, it was a pretty petty form of pride.

  (His view of the matter had been negatively influenced by “the outside world”…)

  For the sake of ideals, for the sake of money, for the sake of honor, for the sake of pride… in the world Tatsuya was deeply immersed in, it was comparatively easy to exchange human life for these things; he had taken things too seriously when they were discussing and evaluating the danger and had forgotten the difference in the “Stage” before his eyes. He felt he had been viewing things in a way unrelated to reality, just as if he had been watching a movie.

  “…For the above reason, I propose to dissolve the limitation concerning who can become a member of the Student Council.”

  As Mayumi’s explanation of the legislation finished, a hand was suddenly raised from the third years’ row.

  Tatsuya had no recollection of this First Course female student (in short, she had not participated in the Nine Schools Competition; she didn’t have enough power to be chosen as a member of the team) who stood at the questioner‘s podium.

  Because modern parabolic microphones have the potential to pick up everyday conversation from 50 meters away, it wasn‘t going a little overboard to install a questioner‘s podium.

  That small instrument and the big instrument that worked with it were going to gradually take away Tatsuya's sense of how the world should work.

  “…This public position… sound argument…”

  The words of the questioner, a part of the so-called opposition party, were intermittently failing to reach his ear.

  Naturally, he wasn’t wearing earplugs; he unconsciously filtered the speech to only allow words that might induce trouble to enter his consciousness.

  “The real issue is whether there is a need to change the system? In short, are there any Course Two students suitable to be part of the Student Council?”

  Tatsuya scowled at the questions with clear aims. (There was nothing in the questions themselves that would make a speaker feel that they had to conceal their face from outsiders.)

  It was a piece of undisguised good luck. Tatsuya thought that Mayumi answered the questions seriously; he didn’t know what she was thinking or if she was thinking but she answered them.

  “Today, I will resign from the post of Student Council President. Accordingly, I cannot appoint new people to the Student Council and so I haven’t thought about who could be appointed.”

  “However, you can pressure the next Student Council President into appointing the Course Two student of your own choice?”

  (“your own choice” was used…)

  Tatsuya felt the expression was extremely suggestive.

  “I am not thinking of becoming a hidden empress.”

  She gave a slight high pitched giggle as she made her minor jest.

  “The right of appointing the next Student Council’s members is one of the powers of the next Student Council President. I have no intention of countermanding any of the next Student Council President’s authority.”

  “You mean the next Student Council President who you wish to surround with Course Two students; you mean you haven’t put forth this change in our system at this time with that intention?”

  A stir arose in the lecture hall at the poison laced words. It seemed that Tatsuya wasn’t the only one thinking “Hey, now!”

  “Quiet, please.”

  The icy voice that called out the order was from Miyuki who was helping to keep the program on track.

  Since President Mayumi, as the person who raised the issue, was standing in order to handle questions, Hattori was momentarily in charge of keeping things moving and Miyuki was employed as his assistant. (By the way, officially, the speaker could not take a break for food or drink during the Student Body General Assembly.)

  “…The answer to that question is ‘no‘. The reason I am advocating the proposal at this time is because this is the only chance to do so. Because I consider it to be the responsibility of the Student Council President to ensure that any enmity among their Kouhai is fully doused and will not erupt into flames.”

  Deep in Tatsuya’s heart, a sense of wonder emerged. No matter what, this noble face never seems to be seen outside of an arena like this one.

  “The truth of the matter is that the inability of Course Two students to become officers of the Student Council is not a source of antagonism.”

  On the other hand, the questioner—whose name was Asano—Tatsuya
thought, was becoming more intractable.

  “It is not a matter of whether or not there is a candidate, Asano-san. The system reveals the way an organization thinks. The system does not allow Course Two students to become officers of the Student Council; it says that it doesn’t matter how much power an individual Course Two student has, that individual cannot become an officer of the Student Council. This can be interpreted as a declaration from the Student Council that it believes Course Two students are not worthy of the privilege of becoming officers of the Student Council. That is being mistaken for elitism.”

  She had put a lot of effort into making that presentation, Tatsuya thought, as the President was wrapped in applause.

  It wasn’t coming entirely from the rows of Course Two students.

  “This is a subterfuge.”

  No matter how thickheaded a person was, they would not be able to keep themselves unaware that the atmosphere that coated the lecture hall was against them. In the midst of this, she was still at it; I suppose it’s unsurprising that Asano’s words have started having a hysterical edge to them.

  “Isn’t it because you, President, have a Course Two student you want to place on the Student Council, that you want the qualification annulled! Isn’t your true motive to give someone preferential treatment!”

  There was a feeling of desperation to the voices that cried “That’s right” sporadically, but they were immediately drowned by a storm of booing. The storm thrust large waves of discontent against the questioner’s podium.

  “President Saegusa! Isn’t your true intent to put that first year student on the Student Council?”

  The finger of the hysterically wailing Asano pointed at Tatsuya.

  “I know it’s true. You even went as far as the station with him on your way home, yesterday!”

  This was probably hopelessness, an outburst of despair.

  Asano’s face crumpled.

  Nevertheless, those words unexpectedly showed a major result.

  The storm of booing instantly abated.

  The eyes of the entire student population were going back and forth between Mayumi and Tatsuya.