Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 10 - Visitor Chapter (II)

by Sato Tsutomu

  This time, Miyuki let out a sigh at Lina's half naked body that was emerging from underneath her uniform.

  "Lina, your figure is so nice. I am envious."

  There was no trace of timidity as she spoke, Miyuki was also only wearing her underwear.

  "Is that sarcasm? In what way does Miyuki have reason to be envious of me?"

  As she spoke, Lina, with her hands on her hips in an imposing pose, peered intently all over Miyuki's semi-nude body and got in Miyuki's face.

  "After all, your hips and bottom are just the right proportions and extremely sexy. You're not thin, but extremely fit, Lina."

  Miyuki reached out with her right hand and patted the narrowest part of Lina's waist. It was completely without lust, from a certain point of view; it was an innocent touch. Even though Lina knew that the touch was not accompanied by any lesbian lust, it was hard for her to retain her self-possession. The sound of someone swallowing their saliva could be heard here and there in the changing room; the scene probably threatened people's peace of mind even if they were only looking at it.

  Of course, Lina was too busy to worry about the spectators.

  "Mi-Miyuki, you..."

  As she spoke, Lina reached out her hand. However, she hesitated just before she touched Miyuki's bare skin and drew her hand back.

  "There aren't really any spots where you're too thin — your very womanly body makes me so jealous."

  Miyuki sent a devilish little smile towards Lina, who couldn't handle being stared at and was turning red, and released her hand from Lina's hip.

  Just then, a loud crash rang out behind Miyuki.

  Miyuki turned around; Lina moved her eyes.

  There they found that Honoka had lost the use of her legs and was clinging to her locker.

  Somehow, Miyuki surveyed the area and became aware that her classmates had paused partway through changing their clothes and were now averting their red faces in an unladylike manner. Normally, Miyuki ignored anyone staring at her, so she had not been aware until now that they had drawn everyone's attention.

  "…Why don't we change quickly."

  In response to Miyuki's proposal,

  "Yes."

  Lina, who felt the same, nodded as well as she spoke her reply.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  Immediately after school, the capricious ambience flourished. During instruction, the students had probably practiced self-restraint. And now it seemed that they couldn't hold back any longer; scenes full of pain and pleasure that made you want to throw cold water on them unfurled here and there across the campus.

  The situations varied.

  For example, among his circle of friends, a slightly too potent scene of chocolate gifting unfurled between a betrothed couple, whose match was approved by themselves as well as by their parents. Apparently Kanon, the Public Morals Chief, invaded the Student Council Room, and used a smiling face to apply pressure on Isori, the Treasurer, to eat all of the homemade drops of chocolate in the nearly overflowing stenciled ornamental box the size of a female student's bento box.

  For the next example, let's take the case of a certain shy but strong willed girl. Apparently, she had politely and solemnly disregarded her status as a second course student to overcome the lofty threshold of the first course classroom, in order to present her beribboned package with her face red and eyes cast down to a male student wide eyed with surprise when he received the gift, and even now looked like he was ready to dance for joy. So it was for people like the Kendo and Kenjutsu couple.

  For today only, the students of First High were not 'magicians to be', but 'high school students' rejoicing in their youth.

  Those who couldn't get into the festive atmosphere wanted to avert their eyes.

  "Oh, Tatsuya, you're on patrol duty today."

  A voice called out to him from a table with a look that didn't bother concealing the owner's boredom and search for amusement, sealing Tatsuya's fate by making it impossible for him to ignore this sight.

  "All of the upperclassmen seem to have previous commitments, so it's just the first years today, Morisaki and I."

  Normally, the thought that he had a compatriot would have probably made him feel a little better. However, since even now Morisaki had not dropped his unfriendly attitude, his arrival would only change his mood slightly.

  "That's quite a tactful way of saying that they unloaded their duties on you and left."

  "I did not intend to be that blunt."

  The resignation in his voice was quite the opposite of the high pitched laughter made in response to it.

  "By the way, Tatsuya-kun."

  Perhaps she had enough of laughing for a while, thought Tatsuya when Mayumi called out to him. —For some reason he avoided looking at the seat across from her.

  "Could I have a little bit of your time."

  "That would not be a problem, but before that..."

  As he spoke, Tatsuya cast his eyes on the upperclassman who had fallen prostrated on the side of the table across from Mayumi.

  "What on earth happened here?"

  The spot they currently were in was in a corner of the cafeteria, a line of partitions cordoning the meeting spaces in this area.

  Since they had no roofs and no ceilings, the sound of conversation carried.

  Still, the fact that it wasn't a quiet private space probably made it feel more secure than if it was.

  The high popularity was actually only among the third years in the first course; it was rare for an underclassman to set foot here unless accompanied by a third year. Incidentally, Tatsuya also had not used it yet.

  As for why he was here now,

  "There shouldn't be any poisonous substances inside the school. What on earth did Club Management Group Leader Hattori eat?"

  In the middle of his patrol of the school grounds, he had stopped by the café to quench his thirst when the sound of an extremely painful moan entered his ears, so he checked out that situation first.

  "No. Well… not poison. Of course."

  He soon realized who the culprit was.

  After all, directly in front of Hattori, Mayumi sat with a perplexed look on her face.

  Her slightly puzzled bearing could be called strange.

  Even now, her gaze was inviting him to partake her hospitality.

  "…Shiba…"

  Tatsuya was still deciding on how to deal with the situation when Hattori, who still looked like he was about to faint, called out to him in a hoarse voice.

  "…water…"

  It was the voice of a traveler who had used up all his strength in front of an oasis.

  "Just a moment."

  Only the request was clear.

  For an instant, he debated between getting mineral water and going to the water cooler, but he chose the water cooler since it was closer. He placed one of the water cooler cups full of cold water on the table.

  Hattori clumsily grasped at the cup, sluggishly got his limbs moving, and aimed the cup in the vicinity of his mouth as he listed from side to side and guzzled it down in one gulp with a grimace.

  He kept his eyes closed, slowly gathering himself; the clock ticked ninety-seconds off before Hattori opened his eyes again and gave a deep sigh.

  "—Shiba, my thanks."

  What could have really happened. The duel they had had in April had not made them enemies, but even now you could not call Hattori's and Tatsuya's relationship friendly.

  Tatsuya did not harbor any grudge on his end.

  Nor did Hattori carry any malice or hostility, although people do not always recognize the emotions they hold, but even so, the docility with which he was thanking Tatsuya created an unsuppressable sense of wrongness.

  "…Are you okay?"

  "…Hm, I'm okay now."

  To prove his words, Hattori stood upright.

  —The feeling that he was straining himself was undeniable.

  "It is just a matter of time. Since no special problems should arise, you shouldn't wo
rry about me. Well then, Presi-, no I mean Saegusa-senpai, I will be off."

  Hattori politely bowed in Mayumi's direction and straightened his spine.

  Wow, that is probably one big bluff, thought Tatsuya as he watched him.

  "Umm, for the time being could you give me a moment?"

  Mayumi directed Tatsuya into the chair, her smile laced with fake innocence.

  The reason for Hattori's weirdness was unmistakably her; that she was trying to pretend otherwise was obvious, but he could see that it would be rude to expose her when Hattori himself was covering up for her.

  Consequentially, Tatsuya forgot act one as Hattori wished him to.

  Since he certainly didn't have anything that he had to do, Tatsuya nodded an "Understood" in response; however,

  "Ah, he's here! Subaru, over here!"

  The lively voice kept him from continuing.

  The nimble galloping feet made a pitter-patter sound as they rushed to him.

  They soon made it to Tatsuya's side and took what was probably their first look at the inside of the partition.

  A sound like the squeal of brakes arose from the momentum as the voice's owner stopped.

  "Pre-President..."

  "Hey, Eimi, it's not president, it's Saegusa-senpai, right?"

  A quick flick to the head, "Ouch!", sweetly settled Eimi down; Subaru avoided looking at Eimi's upturned gaze of protest and bowed deeply to Mayumi.

  "I have no excuse that I can give you for the commotion just now."

  The suggestive tone made Mayumi twitch around her eyes.

  "It was not much of a commotion, so please do not bother worrying about it, Satomi-san."

  The one who composed her face and answered so coldly was Mayumi.

  To a normal underclassman, the words, the tone and the gaze would all be withering.

  Currently, Eimi had stiffened slightly.

  "Is that so? We will finish our errand quickly."

  Nonetheless, Subaru was extremely determined.

  As she calmly exchanged words, she handed the bag (a cloth bag to be exact) in her hand to Tatsuya.

  "Will you please accept this from us?"

  "…Satomi-san. Today, you're like you're in a high class play."

  "I don't know what I've done to deserve it, but Eimi and I were chosen as representatives. As you might expect, we are, to be honest, slightly embarrassed to do this."

  If you looked closely, her cheeks were slightly red.

  Saying that she was embarrassed did not seem to be a lie.

  "In that case, is it alright for me to ask who you are representing?"

  He had a fair idea of how she would answer, but in order to buy himself some time to prepare, Tatsuya ventured a question.

  "Most of our fellow members of the Nine Schools Competition first year girls team… well it's a thank you."

  Subaru's choice of words was unusual but the definition was the same.

  In short, courtesy chocolate, right.

  Nevertheless, to receive it from the entire team was an unanticipated bounty.

  "Ah, even though I said my fellow members, I did not include Honoka or Miyuki."

  Now that she was no longer petrified, Eimi on the other hand did not look all that embarrassed. After all she did not originally have a very timid personality, plus she was probably (it was often said about her) fairly naïve about male-female relationships. In Eimi's case, she probably had too many other things to worry about.

  "Since those two would probably wish to pass theirs themselves."

  "If we interfered with that, they'd probably get angry."

  "You could call it a replacement, but we included Shizuku instead. We'll call or email to tell her about her inclusion later."

  "Well, see you later. President, no I mean, Saegusa-senpai, excuse us."

  No one interrupted their goodbye.

  After overwhelming Mayumi and Tatsuya with their whirlwind conversation, Subaru and Eimi departed.

  "…What's the expression, it's good to be young?"

  Perhaps the lively intruders had thrown her off her game, as the emotions Mayumi was radiating felt a little out of focus.

  Of course, Tatsuya made no move to step into the minefield he saw lain out in front of him.

  He silently took his place on the chair that Hattori had occupied a little while ago.

  Simultaneously, Tatsuya reflexively lowered his eyebrows.

  "Something wrong?"

  "No, there's a slight smell… someone probably spilled coffee."

  Was the strong odor assaulting his nose coming from coffee beans or cocoa beans. The cleaning robot was supposed to have a deodorizing mechanism, but… it could have deliberately cleaned it by hand.

  —Tatsuya mused on one side of the table,

  "Really? I hadn't noticed."

  While Mayumi, who knew the truth, pretended she didn't know on the other side.

  Naturally, calling her on it would be meaningless, however.

  "More importantly, here."

  After all, the same scent was drifting up from the box Mayumi presented as she spoke.

  Of course, Tatsuya was aware of the scent. The thing that had dealt Hattori that damage was undoubtedly this, Tatsuya perceived. Tatsuya had intended to forget what he had seen a little while ago, but it seemed that Mayumi would not let it go.

  "…This is?"

  Considering the shape, the way it was wrapped and what day today was, it was obvious what the thing was, but even so, he couldn't help asking.

  "Oh my, isn't it exactly what you think it is?"

  Underneath the statement, voice and expression that all professed surprise, Mayumi was enjoying herself immensely.

  "…Thank you."

  Unfortunately, he did not have an excuse to refuse it.

  If it weren't for the scene just now, he might have gotten by with the cliché "I dont like sweets," but that did not have any persuasive power after he just accepted a large quantity of chocolate from Subaru and her friends.

  There was nothing he could do, so Tatsuya accepted Mayumi's chocolate.

  It was very big.

  From how it felt in his hand, it had five times the weight of commercial grade chocolate.

  That allowed Tatsuya to take a rough guess that she had used high quality materials for what she was plotting. When and where did I earn your enmity, he thought, but he did not have a single clue to her motive; however,

  "Hey, taste it."

  He had anticipated this sort of statement from Mayumi.

  "Right now?"

  "Yes. I want to hear your impressions."

  He did not say, why didn't you end your experiment with Hattori-senpai.

  That saying anything like that was futile was obvious.

  She probably wanted to see what kind of face he made right before her eyes.

  I didn't know she could be so childish… as he thought so, Tatsuya began to unwrap it.

  (Well, it's okay.)

  There was a little something he wanted to ask Mayumi about just now. Because she was close to taking the university examinations she was preparing for, her time was limited and he had felt awkward about bothering her; however, if she intended to take the time to use him as a toy then he probably shouldn't worry about it.

  "Then since there is a small matter I want to consult you about, may we change the location?"

  He did not want ordinary people to overhear the discussion. Naturally, that was not the only reason he wanted to change the location. Even Tatsuya worried a little about his reputation. Collapsing from eating chocolate could never be called dishonorable, but he did think it was the type of embarrassment that people would bring up forever.

  "It would be bad if we're overheard."

  It seemed that Mayumi quickly understood one of his reasons.

  The smile disappeared from her face. The transformation was so abrupt that he almost heard a ping when her expression changed.

  "Yes."

  "…Understo
od. Follow me."

  She spent the time before she replied looking at the information terminal of her phone making arrangements. Perhaps she had pinpointed an empty classroom. A normal student wouldn't have been able to do it, but it wouldn't be strange if this upperclassman could do it.

  Tatsuya took the box he had been given with him when he got up to pursue Mayumi, who had stood up from her seat.

  He felt the gazes of well over ten people, but he had already decided not to worry about things that nothing could be done about.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  Mayumi used a disposable key code downloaded through her phone terminal to open the door to the room, which was one of the lounges used for interviews with guardians and merchants. It was not as formal as a reception room, but it still felt awkward to be using it as students.

  It wasn't as if he never thought of asking if it were really okay to use the room, but it was probably too late to ask now since she had already downloaded the key code. There was a completely automatic tea server in place, so she had chosen a room that they could eat and drink in.

  "Is black tea okay?"

  "No, you needn't bother with it."

  "Don't make me lose face as a lady."

  Once she went to the length of saying that, there was nothing he could do but accept the tea.

  Despite the fact that it was completely automatic, she did not use the paper cups that were dispensed. She placed tea cups underneath the selection spout and made the effort to make a place setting, complete with matching saucers.

  Mayumi seemed to really enjoy the process.

  "Here, please have some."

  "Thank you."

  From the moment he took his first polite sip from the cup, he corrected his seating posture.

  Almost automatically, Mayumi also straightened her spine as she sat down.

  "The subject you wanted to discuss, is it the 'Parasite'?"

  The one who fired the first shot was Mayumi.

  Perhaps she had also wanted to discuss the subject with Tatsuya.

  "Yes, the information has not been released by the media, but is the damage calming down?"

  Not only the media, but the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion's information routes had also abruptly stopped relaying damage reports.