Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 12 - Double Seven Chapter

by Sato Tsutomu

  The numerous variables behind Air Bullet included size of the bullet, degree of air compression, speed of the bullet as a fixed rate once incorporated into the Activation Sequence, direction of the shot, and farthest possible range, all subject to change depending on the amount dictated by the Magician. Although direction didn’t require verification with the naked eye, line of sight was publicly acknowledged to be the easier approach to aiming.

  This was why Takuma’s Air Bullets began firing towards a lower angle. A lengthy distance away from Izumi’s feet, one of the bullets along its trajectory was caught by the Zone Interference and released from its compressed state before impacting on the ground and rolling to Izumi’s feet.

  With a small shriek, Izumi’s body was shaken by the wind. The unexpected wind surge caused her to lose her balance. Seeing this, Takuma immediately realized his error. It was only now that he realized that the Zone Interference nullified the compression of the air and continuously applied acceleration, but did absolutely nothing to remove the kinetic energy of the air.

  The sphere of empty air that had been neutralized in mid-air expanded outwards in all directions. In short, the ones near the ground that were expanding met resistance from the ground which limited the expansion directions. The kinetic energy of the forward motion was incorporated into the air currents expanding downwards to turn into a surge of wind blowing towards his opponents.

  (In other words, I just have to keep shooting in directions that will only nullify the magic and not the attack itself!)

  Takuma formed 7 Air Bullets in the space in front of him. They were formed at the points of a hexagon with one of them in the center. The one in the center fired first, followed swiftly by the other 6 bullets with nary a lapse in time.

  The Shippou’s magic – magic devised by the 7th Research Lab was called Herd Control. Here, the term herd does not refer to a group of biological organisms, but instead referred to a group that was connected together without any rules. Multiple independent objects, or even phenomena, were manipulated together as if they were one body.

  More than just causing several hundred ice pellets to land, this Herd Control could also be used on techniques aimed at one target. For the eldest son of the Shippou Family, causing 7 Air Bullets to fire together was a piece of cake.

  The first bullet fell on Izumi’s Zone Interference and detonated. However, the expanding air was immediately surrounded by the following 6 bullets and pressed forward again. In the end, the Air Bullets gradually lowered the density of the air until wind shrapnel rushed towards Izumi.

  “Ah!?”

  Izumi did not call out because she was struck by the wind shrapnel, but cried out after being suddenly pushed to one side. The speed that Kasumi lunged at Izumi was obviously the result of magic. She must have altered the Move-Type Magic originally targeting Takuma to herself, ignoring the increased burden that the body brought on by the acceleration process of Move-Type Magic. This was the same even if it was her own magic, just as the side being pushed aside will also suffer the same harm. My chance has come, Takuma thought.

  Takuma clapped his hands in front of his chest. Within his area, the nature of sound altered. The sound of Takuma’s clapping was amplified in volume and the sound waves were gathered together before being released at Kasumi.

  Even if the Zone Interference nullified the magic, the amplified volume would remain unchanged. Even if the gathered sound waves would spread somewhat, there should still be enough sound to rival a concussion grenade detonating at close range striking towards Kasumi. That should be more than enough to render her unconscious, or at least that was the plan.

  Yet, Takuma’s sound wave attack was severed by the vacuum fault Izumi erected.

  Air had been sucked away by the vacuum fault. The rush of wind accompanying the cacophony made a mess of Kasumi and Izumi’s hair. Kasumi’s short locks were one thing, but Izumi’s longer tresses were left in a chaotic state, yet all she did was lightly comb a hand through her hair and all was well.

  “Kasumi-chan, are you OK?”

  Raising her torso slightly, Izumi asked Kasumi, who was still pressing down on top of her.

  “Thanks, Izumi. That was a close one just now.”

  Kasumi replied back as she shifted her body away from Izumi.

  Right now, Takuma continued to launch his attacks. Exchanging defensive duties, Kasumi and Izumi were barely able to hold him off.

  Nonetheless, neither of them betrayed any hint of unease on their faces.

  “We appear to have underestimated this guy.”

  “I don’t know about the term underestimate, but that appears to be the case.”

  “This will be bad if it continues on like this.”

  “However, you don’t plan on losing, do you?”

  “Of course. Izumi, we’re going to use that.”

  “Yeah, Kasumi-chan. Just like usual.”

  “I will shoot.”

  “I will raise.”

  “Counting down.”

  “Three.” “Two.” “One.”

  “Roles assigned!”

  Immediately after Kasumi shouted out, the force of the magic roaring towards Takuma spiked exponentially.

  Takuma immediately raised his phenomena interference strength around his back, head, and flanks. Detecting the harbinger of a hitherto incomparably powerful magic, Takuma channeled all of his offense into defense.

  He felt that the magic targeted air molecules while gathering and moving them – so this must be a magic that controlled the air currents, but he had no time to continue observing. Instinct told him to erect an all directional, sealed barrier and Takuma was able to finish his defensive barrier first only because the design of the Magic Sequence for this magic was far less complex than the magic Kasumi and Izumi were about to invoke.

  In the narrow framework of the classroom, a furious tornado began brewing. By the time the wind pressed down on top of his head and his entire body, the wind was everywhere around his back and sides. He was almost blown away along with the sealed barrier around him. With a barrier around him, the surface area impacted by the wind grew just as the pressure sustained would increase as well. Even with that being said, he couldn’t decrease the permeability or lower the size of the barrier. As a Magician, Takuma noticed that the level of nitrogen within the wind buffeting him had increased.

  This was a magic that raised the level of nitrogen in the air as well as magic that moved blocks of air around. A combination of Gather-Type and Move-Type Magic, “Nitrogen Storm”. A single breath of this air that was heavily deficient in oxygen would immediately render someone unconscious due to lack of oxygen. If he lowered the barrier to prevent being blown away by the turbulence, then he would immediately start running short of oxygen.

  Beneath Takuma’s feet where he furiously stamped to right himself, the sound of the pristinely bound book’s pages being blown furiously by the wind could be heard as the pages continuously flapped in the wind. The book itself had not been blown away because the wind from the magic only blew at a height above the knees. The pristinely bound book that Takuma carried was a particularly heavy tome. Takuma looked at the back of the book that was printed with the same geometric symbols from the first page to the last and decided to use his trump card.

  “This is…… Nitrogen Storm?”

  “Correct.”

  In the face of Miyuki’s both shocked and amazed question, Tatsuya gave a concise confirmation.

  “To be able to fluently wield such a high level magic, I guess I should say as expected of Saegusa-senpai’s younger sisters.”

  “Still a little rough around the edges, but impressive nonetheless.”

  On the level of neutralizing an opponent by using magic to induce a lack of oxygen, this magic probably belonged to the same category as Mayumi’s anti-personnel trump card “Dry Meteor”. Kasumi and Izumi probably devised this trump card due to Mayumi’s influence. Still, in terms of magic difficulty, Nitrogen Storm was far
more difficult than Dry Meteor. Though it was a hassle to gather a large amount of dry ice particles laced with carbon dioxide in the air beforehand, Nitrogen Storm required constant maintenance of the molecular composition in the air as well as careful control of the air currents, rendering this an extremely difficult magic.

  Kasumi and Izumi’s control of the air currents for Nitrogen Storm was far too coarse, which was why Tatsuya said “still a little rough around the edges”, but this was definitely a high level magic that could not be seen at the high school level.

  “So this is multiplicative magic…… No wonder people say that 'the Saegusa twins can only reveal their true strength when both are gathered together'.”

  Strictly speaking, until this point Kasumi and Izumi had been using fundamental magic and only resorted to high level magic when pressed into a tight spot. As the one responsible for attacking, Kasumi didn’t use this spell not because she was unwilling or she was going easy on her opponent, but because Nitrogen Storm was too difficult for Kasumi to use by herself.

  Saegusa Kasumi and Saegusa Izumi bore the name “Saegusa twins” because of the special connotation behind that name as well as the unique characteristic that only the two of them had. It is only through their complete cooperation that they are able to use high powered, and highly difficult, magic that either one of them would not be able to on their own.

  People who were not Magicians would think nothing of this, but this was an atypical phenomenon for Magicians. There existed large scale, high level magical techniques that relied on multiple Magicians casting the same spell. This was especially the case in Ancient Magic, though actual examples were quite few, but certainly not rare when it came to techniques passed down from generation to generation. However, this sort of magic ritual required chanting, worship, dance or similar mediums that used all 5 senses.

  When multiple Magicians use the same magic at the same time, Magic Power was not additive. In this situation, only the spell of the Magician with the greatest Magic Power would activate, while the Magic Power from other Magicians would actually interfere with phenomena alteration. Magical rituals conducted by multiple individuals required consensus among Magicians to not overlap their Magic Sequences in order to cast more complex or even gigantic Magic Sequences. Its major selling point or defining characteristic was allotting specific goals to each individual Magician, or even a task to be repeated over and over.

  Yet Kasumi and Izumi were able to increase their Magic Power simply by using normal magic through usual assistance from their CADs. In addition, the two of them were not components of a Magic Sequence, but combined to form a single, greater Magic Power.

  Kasumi loved to hurtle Magic Sequences at the target and Izumi gave it interference strength. Their Magic Power was multiplied rather than added together when casting magic. To be able to accomplish this, not only did their bodies have to contain the same hereditary genes, their mentality and unique magic calculation area had to be the same. Takuma might have determined that Kasumi was stronger in invocation speed and scale of design for Magic Sequences while Izumi was stronger in interference strength, that was actually a misunderstanding. The reason he was led to believe so was because that’s how Kasumi and Izumi wielded their magic, so the result would be the same even if they swapped roles.

  This was purely a coincidence that could not even be replicated through genetic medication. This was the secret behind the power of the “Saegusa twins”.

  Holding his breath and standing firm, Takuma fell to one knee and closed the book that was about to be blown to tatters by the wind. Immediately, Takuma once more opened the cover of the pristinely bound book. In that instant, every page within the book took to the skies like snowflakes fluttering in the wind.

  The book Takuma brought contained 720 pages of foldable B5 paper. The book was 182mm wide and 256mm long (standard B5 paper was 182mm by 257mm). Excluding the 2mm on each page covered by the book covers (where the book was bound), the rest of the page was cut into little squares that were 4mm by 4mm. At that size, every two pages (one sheet) contained 2880 pieces. At 720 pages or 360 sheets, there was a total of 1,036,800 pieces of paper.

  More than a million small paper squares flew along the turbulence like snowflakes towards the twins. Needless to say, those 4mm by 4mm squares weren’t just simple pieces of paper. Anyone who could capture those countless pieces of paper in their eyes could tell that those pieces of paper were not bending in the wind, like numerous thin, square-shaped blades with the hardiness of glass. At first glance, the million odd blades were dancing along without any organization whatsoever, but they were truly gathering around Kasumi and Izumi.

  Kasumi and Izumi, as well as Tatsuya and Miyuki, knew very well that all of these paper snowflakes were being manipulated by a man. They who knew the Shippou Family’s magic naturally knew what this magic was.

  One of the trump cards of the Shippou Family, “Million Edge”. A magic that used Herd Control to manipulate over a million pieces of paper that turned into sharp blades to eviscerate the foe.

  The twins continued to control Nitrogen Storm as they employed another magic. By slamming blocks of air with large amounts of oxygen into the paper snowflakes, they were using adiabatic compression to create heated wind that surpassed paper’s burning point to ignite the paper blades.

  This was an alternate form of “Heat Storm”. This was a type of magic that was another level higher than simply creating adiabatic compressed air blocks. They had activated this magic while Nitrogen Storm was ongoing, but this was still within the boundaries of their abilities right now. The main subject of the 3rd Research Lab was the control of multiple magics at the same time. The 3rd Research Lab originally intended to test the boundary of how many magics could be activated at the same time as well as raising that boundary as part of their Magician Augmentation Project. Among the Magician Development Labs, the 3rd Research Lab was a rarity in that they were open with their findings, allowing the 10th Research Lab to also benefit from this finding. For the Juumonji Family that had mastered Phalanx, this helped them incorporate more magic and resulted in the ability to use multiple magics. As for the Saegusa Family Magicians who moved to the 7th Research Lab, even if it was high level magic, using two or three of them at the same time was no difficult task.

  The tornado that disallowed any breathing devoured Takuma as the air that was heated above 500 degrees Celsius was about to burn the paper squares into a crisp.

  Bathed in the heat that surpassed their burning point, the million odd blades under Takuma’s will were protected by magic as they thirsted for Kasumi and Izumi’s blood.

  At this rate, Takuma would keel over due to oxygen deprivation and Kasumi and Izumi would be slashed to pieces by the countless blades that had not been burned up. It was readily apparent that the conclusion would leave both sides with permanent injuries.

  “That’s far enough!”

  Tatsuya moved his right arm.

  In his outstretched hand, a silver CAD flashed brilliantly. That was the pistol-shaped Specialized CAD, Silver Horn.

  Nitrogen Storm.

  Million Edge.

  Heat Storm.

  Their Magic Sequences were torn to shreds and a surge of psions scattered those broken remnants.

  As for Tatsuya’s voice declaring a halt to the match, who knew if that traveled to the consciousness of those three in battle?

  In the midst of the silence brought on by the disappearance of magic, regardless of whether it was Takuma, Kasumi, Izumi, no one could understand what had happened as they stood there in a daze. As for whether everyone present was clueless as to what happened – that was not the case. In a word, the only ones who stood there dumbly were the three participants of this match, the three Year 1 students.

  While Tomitsuka’s eyes had widened, he wasn’t wearing an expression of someone who had suffered a severe shock. Though there was some element of astonishment, it would be more appropriate to say that was an expression
of awe after realizing what had occurred. As for the other three, Miyuki, Honoka, and Shizuku all wore expressions that said “just as we expected from Tatsuya”.

  In reality, only Miyuki alone truly understood what had just happened here. Still, the three Year 1 students could not even comprehend the fact that “Tatsuya’s Counter Magic had just nullified the magics coming from Takuma, Kasumi, and Izumi in an instant”.

  “This match has resulted in both sides forfeiting the right to continue.”

  As the referee, Tatsuya pronounced his judgment. At this time, the Year 1 students finally recovered from their frozen status.

  “What the heck is going on!?”

  The first one to question Tatsuya was Kasumi.

  “I should have said this at the beginning of the match. Fatal strikes or attacks that cause irrecoverable damage to your opponent are strictly forbidden. If I judge the situation to be at risk, I will forcibly end the match.”

  “Then, the result of the match is?”

  Izumi was far more composed than her twin sibling, but her tone was harsher than usual as she asked her question.

  “Both sides have lost the right to continue, ergo both sides have lost.”

  This was not a draw, but a mutual defeat. Tatsuya intentionally said it this way to imply “there will not be another match”, but whether Izumi and company were able to understand the nuances remained unknown.

  “But, Shiba-senpai, I believe that Nitrogen Storm is different than Million Edge in that this is neither a fatal magic nor would it leave a lingering repercussion.”

  Izumi meant that “Wasn’t Shippou-kun the one who lost because he broke the rules?”, a detail that Takuma immediately picked up on. Takuma was about to reply immediately, but Tatsuya beat him to the punch.

  “Indeed, if the power is carefully controlled, then Nitrogen Storm will not leave any serious repercussions on your opponent. However, Izumi, you two did not have that fine level of control.”