Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 05 - Summer Holiday Chapter

by Sato Tsutomu

  When he saw Mayumi’s face coloring faintly with red, Tatsuya thought “That face is only going to make this mess bigger!” But under the circumstances where he was unwillingly being kept under constant observation, there was no way he could make that kind of condemnation.

  The impasse was broken when cold words were tossed from the stage.

  “That is all you want to say?”

  Without anyone noticing, (probably just now) Miyuki had stood.

  A cold haughty glare was piercing the upperclassman’s face.

  Even from the back of the stage, no, it was more like it was due to the fact that it was coming from the stage depths; her expression clearly possessed a queen-like dignity that was merely checking for a short answer; the lips of the gossip-mongering upperclassman were sewn shut by it.

  (Magic… wasn’t invoked)

  The very first thing Tatsuya did was check and see if Miyuki had lost control of her magic.

  This pressure wasn’t magic.

  Without invoking any magic, Miyuki was radiating the freezing chill that robbed a body of its ability to move freely as in the depths of the worst of winter; even Tatsuya felt it.

  “I judge that the outburst just now was an attempt to cloud the issue by vicious personal slander. Therefore, in accordance with my authority as an aide to the person in charge of keeping these proceedings on track, I order you to leave; if you have an objection to this, then you must provide a foundation for your allegation that President Saegusa holds special feelings for a particular Year One student.”

  “That is…”

  Naturally, Asano faltered.

  From the beginning, Mayumi having special feelings for Tatsuya came from the realm of speculation; that that was the motive for the current proposal was mere slander. Even Asano, herself, was aware of this.

  Miyuki’s eyes were coldly fixated on the paralyzed Asano.

  There was no magic in those eyes, they were only able to contain disdain, it seemed as if that stare was able to freeze an adversary’s heart.

  And it really paralyzed the agitator who was involving her older brother in slander, so her adversary was in a condition where she couldn’t move even a finger.

  It wasn’t authority, rank, social class… or experience in society; those things could not really belong to a high school student. This was really a situation where the word “Dignity” can be used; it sounded so glorious.

  “—I am making a correction. There is no need for you to leave. To be correct, please discontinue your questioning of this matter and return to your seat, Asano-senpai.”

  The one who at last moved to take control was the person in charge of proceedings, Hattori. “At last”… well in short, he too had been overwhelmed by the pressure Miyuki was still exuding.

  Miyuki bowed elegantly and returned to her chair; Asano was in no condition to give even a single word in reply and awkwardly returned to her seat.

  In the end, the opposition group’s hindrance had finished with a misfire.

  Afterwards, a carefree mood that wouldn’t even permit heckling permeated the lecture hall, gradually (or possibly anticlimactically), people voted electronically and the annulment of the eligibility requirement for Student Council officers was approved by a majority.

  And it was finally time for Azusa’s campaign speech.

  Since there was only a single candidate, it was more like a declaration of the candidate’s convictions speech, but a formal, no, a vote of confidence would be held (moreover the ballots would be actual paper ballots as opposed to electronic voting). Her face mixed with enthusiasm and tension, Azusa approached the podium. As she made her quick bow, applause broke out.

  Here and there, whistles and cheers blended together, but they soon stopped as Azusa begun her speech.

  Tatsuya and Miyuki were unable to understand since they paid little attention to the entertainment industry, but the cute and feminine type of song and dance girl who performed on stage had widespread fan appeal among males.

  Tatsuya was still unaware of why, but without regard to her excellent grades in theory and practical skills, without bragging even a little, the modest and friendly Azusa whose face and figure were also modest and friendly throughout the school had a reputation as “an easily befriended idol”, similar but slightly different than Mayumi’s.

  Surprisingly (but putting it this way might be unfair to Azusa), she presented her “politics” and “policies” eloquently. The fundamentals had been inherited from the current Student Council’s views; he was able to see a strong high school student-ish inclination toward idealism, but generally she leaned to the conservative end. —Occasionally, she would strangely pepper her speech with cheers like “Go for it” and “You can do it;” well, we all probably have eccentricities.

  The storm broke out when she referred to the officers of the next Student Council.

  “—I will defer that decision until the day to make the appointments; I intend to appoint highly capable people without regard to whether they are Course One or Course Two students.”

  “That Course Two student~?”

  “Azusa-chan likes the young and untamed type~”

  The comments were truly only low level jeers. From the beginning, they were only a vulgar way for the repressed opposition group to spew out their unabated and still smoldering dissatisfaction. Possibly, they subconsciously calculated that a counterattack against Azusa was more likely to be ignored.

  But, their calculations were incredibly off.

  Certainly, Azusa said nothing about the insults directed at her.

  “Who said that just now!” “For making fun of Nakajou-san that way!” “If you have something to say do it in front of us!” “Get the cowards!”

  …Under the circumstances, she didn’t have time to say anything when the big uproar began.

  In the middle of the gathering, squabbling blossomed.

  The jeering opposition group and Azusa’s nearby fans became involved in a scuffle.

  “Please quiet down! Return to your seats!”

  “Silence please!”

  “Settle down, everyone!”

  Miyuki, Hattori, and Mayumi raised their voices multiple times, but the enraged students weren’t able to hear them.

  The area where the scuffling was going on was gradually increasing.

  The jeers, too, were gradually becoming less endurable.

  Absolutely no skills were being used; the clump looked like squabbling children, but just plunging in would only result in being caught in the game of oshikuramanjuu[19].

  It would be easy if you didn’t have to care about injuring anyone; however… while the difficulties of controlling the situation were making his head ache, Tatsuya made eye contact with Sawaki and Tatsumi and decided to prepare to make the plunge.

  But, the decision was too late.

  They were making insinuations about Tatsuya and Azusa’s relationship; the moment an exceedingly vulgar jeer emitted from the mouth of one of the opposition group, a girl’s shrill voice took command of the disturbance.

  “Calm down!”

  She wasn’t screeching but there had been an illusion of loudness to the voice.

  The voice was not loud but, the strength of the voice made an impact on the minds of those engaged in the fracas.

  Reflexively, the students eyes turned, the next instant their eyes reflexively closed, while blinking their eyes they once again begun to raise them toward the stage.

  On stage, a blizzard of Psion light was running wild.

  Violent rage was infringing on the world.

  Modern magic was changing the world by projecting a false vision through an information body.

  It wasn’t possible for magic to be invoked without an intention to guide its form.

  Despite that, the chaos caused by wildly running emotions could enact that chaos on the world.

  Such was the strength of the intervention power to negate common knowledge.

  In thi
s situation, no one could tell when the lecture hall was going to be smashed by ice.

  Mayumi, Hattori, Suzune, and Azusa simultaneously extended hands holding out CADs upon the Queen of that World of Ice—Miyuki—to bring her under control.

  —Nevertheless, the magic battle between fellow members of the Student Council in that terrible situation was fortuitously avoided at the last second.

  Instantaneously, the back of a male student standing upon the stage obscured the girl’s passion from the students' field of vision.

  The boy's hands were placed on both of the girl’s shoulders and the world that had been engulfed in the girl’s power and repainted looked as if it was being repressed.

  What the two people said to each other or whether they conversed with their eyes alone without words could not be understood from off the stage.

  Nonetheless, from the time the boy released the girl from his hands until they left the stage the gazes of the entire student body, First Years, Second Years, and Third Years locked (?) on the two of them as if they were nailed there.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  Afterwards, it was as if cold water had been thrown over everyone and order was completely restored to the gathering.

  Even the jeerers were viewed like they were just rude people emboldened by a concert-like atmosphere.

  The campaign speech portion solemnly disintegrated, and the students lined up to cast their ballots like tame sheep.

  The ballots results would be posted the next morning after Third Years under the pay of the Student Council had finished their count.

  Those results—

  “Congratulations A-chan.”

  “Nakajou, congratulations.”

  “Congratulations, Nakajou-san.”

  —Even without hearing the voices congratulating her first thing in the morning, Azusa was elected Student Council President.

  “…Shiba-san, I think it’s better if you don’t pay it any attention, since the ballot doesn’t affect anything.”

  “Too bad, Tatsuya-kun.”

  While listening to the sympathetic voice of Suzune and, unable to keep from showing how amusing she found it, voice of Mari, the siblings with matching pained faces read the vote tabulation report.

  In total, there were 554 ballots.

  The number of legitimate votes was 173 ballots.

  The tabulation of the ballots contents…

  “…These are the results.”

  “Shiba: 220, Nakajou: 173, Tatsuya-kun: 161…”

  “…Wait a minute. The ballots of the large number of people who miswrote the name shouldn’t be recognized in the count…”

  While crying out 'I want to pretend this doesn’t exist' without words, Miyuki calmly made an objection.

  “Why are ‘The Queen’, ‘Her Majesty, the Queen’ and ‘The Snow Queen’ all being counted as votes for me?”

  Miyuki cried this out in a tearful voice.

  “Because on other ballots ‘Queen Miyuki’, ‘Her Majesty, Queen Shiba Miyuki’, ‘Snow Queen Miyuki’ and the like were written… there was no other way to interpret them.”

  Listening to the apologetic voice of Suzune soothe her, there was no way Miyuki couldn’t understand.

  “What do they mean by that? Do they think I have some sort of perverted inclinations[20]?”

  “…No, I believe that they definitely don’t mean anything like that. After seeing you look like that, I don’t believe anyone would have the nerve…”

  As if she had lost an inner battle, her body actually slumped as Mari contradicted her in a confused manner.

  “Hey, am I that appalling? Is my demeanor really that intolerable?”

  Miyuki’s tone had changed into a genuine wail.

  “…Miyuki-san, calm down. After all, no one thinks that.”

  Mayumi was trying with all her might to make her voice sound soothing so that she could somehow calm Miyuki’s mood, but it had almost no effect.

  “Lend me the ballots! I’ll find whoever wrote them!”

  “That’s absurd… in the first place, how would you do that?”

  Somebody murmured this obvious flaw in her plan, but in this case, it was utterly futile.

  Miyuki turned her entire body towards Tatsuya, her eyes clouded all at once.

  “Onii-sama…”

  With a needy look in her eyes, just as Miyuki was about to release her tears and snuggle against him, Tatsuya temporarily shelved his own disturbance.

  “Do not ask for the impossible, Miyuki. Since this is a secret ballot, investigating who voted for whom is a serious violation of the rules.”

  He patted her head without any trace of embarrassment and admonished her as if she were a small child.

  “But… but…”

  Not having a clue of what else to do, Tatsuya gently embraced his little sister who was sobbing her eyes out.

  “It’s okay.”

  His mouth neared the vicinity of his sister’s ear

  “After all, you are not a Queen.”

  And with a deeply gentle voice,

  “No matter how anyone else views you, to me you are a cute princess.”

  Tatsuya made that vow.

  “Onii-sama…”

  The sound of crying gradually ended, simultaneously it looked as if the anger and frustration were also ending, and as potential Armageddon was soothed away, everyone relaxed their tense posture.

  Nevertheless, they were soon in an entirely different kind of awkward situation.

  Although she stopped crying, Miyuki showed no sign of leaving Tatsuya’s arms.

  Rather, her head and cheek were shockingly pressed against Tatsuya’s chest; the aura around them was so sweet that they were all suffering from heartburn.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  For the noon recess that day, the siblings, Tatsuya and Miyuki, did not show their faces in the Student Council room.

  Not only did Miyuki cry in front of her senpai, she let herself be seen being embraced and comforted, so it was only natural that she was too embarrassed to come; as the seemingly unembarrassed Tatsuya had already informed them so, Mayumi and the rest were unworried.

  Azusa was being honored with a celebration by her fellow second years so her seat was empty.

  Suzune as usual didn’t come unless she had something to do, so she didn’t appear.

  And today, unusually, Katsuto came to the Student Council room.

  “Here it is.”

  When the meal came to an end, Mayumi took out tea for Katsuto.

  Katsuto made a silent toast and raised his teacup to his mouth.

  “So, why are you here today, Juumonji?"

  Although they were both guests, Mari—maybe because she couldn’t hold back any more—behaved as if they were in her own headquarters and questioned him; Katsuto gave a “no reason” type of answer.

  “Perhaps, because today is for Saegusa her true retirement day. This is the last time I can come to see her in Student Council President mode.”

  “I see, you came to thank Mayumi for her service or something.”

  “Oh, Juumonji-kun, thank you,”

  “Ah, you're welcome.”

  While smiling smugly, the two of them coordinated an attack (a verbal assault?) which Katsuto solemnly rebuffed.

  “…So that’s it. I thought Tatsuya-kun resembled someone; he responds to these things just like Juumonji-kun.”

  “Shiba?”

  'We’re alike?' Katsuto asked with a glance; Mari shrugged. Even though superficially their response was similar, Mari believed that Tatsuya’s were intentional and Katsuto’s were spontaneous, so her assessment was that their taciturnity was the only similarity.

  “Speaking of Shiba, how do you think it went yesterday…”

  Perhaps she believed that she couldn’t throw him off through body language alone, Mari attempted to make a swift change of topic.

  “It was okay… But there was no need for us to worry.”

  However, maybe because the top
ic on both of their minds, both Mayumi and Katsuto leaped over Mari’s choice and directed the conversation to the topic of their choice.

  “I was too low to be able to really see what was going on, but did Shiba restrain his sister, just like it seemed to me?”

  “Yes. Her outpouring of power and his suppression ability were unbelievable.”

  It was just the way Katsuto said it was. The truth of what was going on couldn’t be discerned by those facing the stage; only those like Mayumi who were on the stage were able to clearly see what happened.

  Possibly, it was a practical application of “Gram Demolition”. A structure of Psions instantly displayed—without having to work it into an information body with Eidos, Psions themselves were the product of molded External Systematic Magic—in the form of an aura. A large amount of Psions wrapped around her running wild in a chaotic manner; that overwhelming power was compressed and poured back into Miyuki’s body.

  Psions were not something exuded from someone’s body, but the body was the medium used for Emission or Absorption. The activation sequence formation used by CADs was an example of similar modeling.

  Tatsuya had taken the Psions Miyuki had scattered around and, without any cooperation from her, poured them back “inside”.

  “It doesn’t matter how good someone is at External Systematic Magic, it doesn’t matter if they are blood relations, can someone really manipulate someone else’s Psions that easily? At that time they were completely out of Miyuki’s own control; that’s another matter for consideration, but…”

  These were a list of Mayumi’s concerns.

  “Wasn’t that one of his ancient magic techniques? I think that there is an ‘Art of the Sage’ that is excellent for controlling Psions…”

  Mari put forth her guesswork as an answer; however,

  “No, no matter how well an ancient magic technique is mastered, it takes time to put it in motion. The Art of the Sage you’re talking about is an extremely time consuming system of magic.”

  Katsuto indirectly refuted Mari’s guess with a “that doesn’t explain everything” type of answer.

  “Even looking at his sister’s power, as I expected, I think their genetic makeup cannot be ignored…”