Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 12 - Double Seven Chapter

by Sato Tsutomu

  After getting hit by Tatsuya’s Decomposition Magic, the men reacted with surprising speed.

  The two men standing to the left and right of Tatsuya swung their fists. On their middle finger, they each wore a bronze ring that shone with light. Immediately, the interior of the flying ship was suffused with psion noise. That was the sign of Cast Jamming brought on by Antinite vibrations.

  Two men on the inside brandished daggers as they closed in on Tatsuya across the wobbly deck.

  Tatsuya squeezed the finger around the CAD’s trigger twice.

  Immediately after the magic that decomposed information structure wiped out the noise from Cast Jamming, all five miscreants fell to the deck with holes in their two legs.

  However, the situation was not finished. Tatsuya saw that the man in the center had his left hand tightly clasped around something before he fell.

  After being flung through the open door in the flying ship, Tatsuya fell through the sky.

  In the next instant, a flash erupted with the sound of an explosion as the flying ship was covered in flames.

  Tatsuya knew that falling down from such a height was no joke, but right now there was something far more pressing than his safety. There would be a major accident if that flying ship crashed onto the streets outside the apartments.

  Amid the buffeting wind, Tatsuya turned his body around and pointed the CAD Trident at the flying ship with a broken balloon.

  Falling from the sky, he activated Mist Dispersal.

  Seeing the remnants of the flying ship fade away into dust, Tatsuya remembered to use inertia control magic. Immediately, Tatsuya felt a powerful impact strike his back.

  The place where Tatsuya fell was the rooftop of a building that did not belong to Maki’s apartment. The height of the building lowered the distance of the fall, partial activation of inertia control magic coming into effect and the glider on his back served as a buffering cushion. All three factors combined to prevent Tatsuya from suffering a full body fracture. Still, if not for “Restoration” activating, Tatsuya would probably have spent the rest of his life without ever getting to his feet again.

  “Tatsuya-kun, what the hell just happened!?”

  Even Fujibayashi’s voice coming across the intercom had turned frantic.

  “I’m not sure. However, I think we’ll find some clues at the television company. That flying ship appeared to have been hijacked.”

  Tatsuya’s unhappy voice also added that “though it might not be a hijacking and that the television company was their accomplice” before he erased any trace of his fall and stood up on the roof.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  The news that the attack on Sawamura Maki that Robert Sun was responsible for had failed quickly reached the ears of Zhou Gongjin. If this operation had succeeded, then the subordinate responsible for passing along the pictures of a daughter completely savaged beyond all recognition to the unfortunate father would have reported this to Zhou.

  (To completely erase an enflamed flying ship as it fell from the sky…… The only one who could do something like this......)

  Unfortunately, no pictures were taken. There was nothing that could be gleamed from his subordinate’s report, but based on the piece of information about the ship disappearing from the sky, Zhou correctly inferred the identity of the man who interfered with their operation.

  (……Damn him. It’s that man again.)

  Though they knew of him, all they knew about him was the figure of him wearing a helmet to cover his face along with names like “Demon Right” and “Mahesvara”.

  During the “Yokohama Incident”, the invasion force he had provided assistance to had also suffered terribly at the hands of this unknown Magician. The tremendous resistance coming from “Mahesvara” was literally one of the major reasons why the invasion plan failed.

  The losses incurred by the Great Asian Alliance during the Yokohama Incident weren’t exactly a loss for Zhou. Originally, he had hoped that the Japanese and Great Asian Alliance forces would bleed each other dry. The Japanese forces winning there ran counter to his expectations, but the weakening of the Great Alliance went according to his wishes on some level.

  However, this time Zhou couldn’t just laugh it off so easily.

  (Looks like there is a need to uncover who he is.)

  As Zhou thought along these lines, he also felt that it was time for a change in direction in regards to the media operation currently ongoing.

  (In the end, the Master’s true feelings on the matter are to have his revenge against the people responsible for bringing out Great Han...... The real target is not such a vague organization like “Japanese Magicians”, but that clan in particular.)

  And Zhou had an inkling as to who among those in power bore special interest towards “that clan”.

  (Though this isn’t something outrageous like driving a wedge between the two, this might be worth trying.)

  Zhou looked at a wine glass that didn’t have a beak as he began to plot in his mind.

  Chapter 16

  Saturday, April 28th, 3pm sharp.

  Under Hattori’s guidance, Tomitsuka and Takuma found themselves in Practice Room #3 at the appointed hour.

  Hattori was the referee for this match. Possibly out of curiosity regarding the casual relationship or simply a natural turn of events, Tatsuya was also present for Takuma’s match as a witness.

  Still, from Tatsuya’s perspective, Takuma seemed to be free of any lingering side effects, both physically and mentally. The actress must have wrapped things up quite well on her end. Yet, at the same time, it was only reasonable to assume she had not formally “broken off” from him. For now, Tatsuya believed that additional observation was necessary.

  Others present included Miyuki from the Student Council, Sawaki and Mikihiko from the Public Moral Committee, Kirihara from the Club Activities Group as well as other elites. Kirihara even brought his wooden sword and had received permission to bring his CAD.

  They were here to forcibly intervene if necessary.

  That was because this match carried a few special rules. To be precise, special exceptions like “unrestricted use of Million Edge” were added into the rules. In regards to Million Edge, usage would be permitted regardless of how powerful the spell became. Intervention into the match would only occur when the opponent would blatantly suffer injuries as a result. Nevertheless, the one who proposed this ruling was Tomitsuka, Takuma’s opponent for this match.

  It was possible that Tomitsuka had a trick up his sleeve to completely neutralize Million Edge. Highly put out, Takuma had also rationalized along those lines. This was practically saying that the Shippou Family’s trump card was worthless. Still, this match was the result of Takuma protesting his defeat via disqualification, with the reason being his use of Million Edge. Hence Takuma welcomed the current rules with open arms and had no cause for complaint.

  Currently, Tomitsuka and Takuma stood facing another across a broad stretch of space.

  Today, Takuma also wore the uniform designed for outdoor exercises.

  On the other hand, Tomitsuka wore the uniform for the Magic Martial Arts Club. The top half contained a long tunic without buttons that had padding around the forearms while the bottom half had pads around the knees as well as loose pants that only tightened around the ankles. On his feet, he wore soft sneakers used during fighting competitions. With protective gloves over both hands, all 8 fingers besides the two thumbs were wearing thick rings that served as the Specialized CAD input devices for the Magic Martial Arts Club. Each ring corresponded to one button and when the fingers moved (pressed by the thumb) or psions gathered around his fingertips, the signal for the Activation Sequence selected by his fingertips would be passed through the glove to the connecting CAD around his wrist. In other words, Tomitsuka had prepared himself very seriously.

  Standing between the two of them, Hattori reviewed the rules. Not that there was anything in particular he had to explain as this was just a fo
rmality.

  Quieting the two, Hattori raised his hand.

  Tense anxiety suddenly spiked here. Everyone present could feel the furious clash of nonphysical waves, not psion waves, between Tomitsuka and Takuma.

  Tomitsuka slightly fell into a crouch. Takuma placed his right hand on the book serving as his medium that was being carried in his left hand.

  Besides the two in question, no one moved a muscle or emitted a sound. In the utter silence of the classroom, even Hattori breathing deeply in could be heard.

  “Begin!”

  Hattori’s voice shattered the stillness and quiet.

  The first one to move was Takuma.

  Or rather, Tomitsuka neglected to act.

  Takuma opened his “book” and used the fingers on his right hand to pinch several dozen pages. Takuma proceeded to rip those pages to shreds. Scratch that, in the process of applying force, he was turning the pages into paper snowflakes.

  There were approximately 80,000 paper blades that measured 4cm by 4cm. Rather than choosing to unleash Million Edge in its entirety, Takuma chose the finesse strategy and only wielded a small portion of his blades.

  In response, Tomitsuka remained motionless as he watched the paper squares gradually close in on him. Based on his posture, he appeared to be gathering power. That appeared to be an accurate assessment.

  The white paper squares dipped and soared as they advanced, like four giant snakes crawling through the clouds. The targets for their fangs were the left and right arms along with both legs. Takuma planned to first damage Tomitsuka’s limbs to immobilize him.

  The current of paper drew closer to Tomitsuka as the paper snowflakes decreased in length and grew in density. The attack stalled briefly before immediately picking up speed. The storm of paper blades wrapped around Tomitsuka’s limbs with the intent of shredding his flesh.

  At the same moment.

  Tomitsuka’s entire body flashed with an explosive psion light. Amid that blinding light, the paper blades faded back to being normal paper. All 80,000 paper squares lost their magic power to float in mid-air before returning to true paper snowflakes and falling to the ground.

  Sawaki, Kirihara, Mikihiko and company couldn’t help but raise an arm to block the light. Tatsuya, Miyuki, and Hattori all narrowed their eyes.

  They knew exactly what that light signified.

  “Was that Gram Demolition……?”

  Mikihiko murmured in an astounded voice.

  “So someone other than Tatsuya is able to use that in our school……? And someone in the same grade level at that……?”

  Gram Demolition was perceived to be a rare ability that only a few users had access to. This wasn’t Mikihiko jumping to conclusions, as this was both the truth and general consensus. He could hardly be blamed for his shock that there were two such individuals at the same school in the same year.

  “To be precise, I believe the term Contact-Type should be added before that phrase.”

  Miyuki was the one who supplemented Mikihiko’s words.

  “You are exactly right! As expected of Shiba-san, to be so knowledgeable on the subject!”

  Sawaki nodded overtly when he heard her words.

  “Speaking of which, Tomitsuka seems exceptionally fired up today.”

  As his senior from the Club Activities Group, Sawaki knew that Tomitsuka would use what Miyuki termed “Contact-Type Gram Demolition”. This technique neutralized any magic that came into contact with his body. For a spell like Million Edge that used magic to continuously alter phenomena in order to convert plain paper into blades dancing in the wind, this was practically its nemesis.

  Sawaki understood very well that Tomitsuka proposed these rules because he had complete confidence in himself. Sawaki himself was wary against Tomitsuka’s Gram Demolition, but today Tomitsuka seemed even more vibrant than usual. This fact brought considerable joy to Sawaki. —As such, Sawaki also had a youthful aspect to him as well.

  However, unlike the upperclassmen in attendance, Takuma had no time to feel impressed. He knew very well the meaning behind that earlier exchange: Million Edge was useless against Tomitsuka.

  He only needed one attack to understand that.

  (—No, it’s true that direct assaults are useless! But two days ago, I just learned that different applications of the same magic will achieve differing results!)

  Tomitsuka’s eyes were pinned on him as Takuma bolstered his own confidence. Currently, there were openings all over Takuma. If Tomitsuka intended to, he could end the match in an instant. However, that would be pointless, as Tomitsuka knew that he couldn’t finish this match in such a simple manner.

  Finally, Takuma adopted a new pose. In response, Tomitsuka also raised the psions’ activity level. Takuma’s hand pretended to flip the pages as it surreptitiously stretched towards the CAD on his wrist.

  The magic he activated was Air Bullet. Takuma sent seven Air Bullets shooting towards Tomitsuka at high speeds.

  Without waiting to see the result, Takuma activated the next magic. Takuma never even considered that Air Bullets alone could defeat Tomitsuka. This attack only served as a smokescreen. Takuma used personal Acceleration Magic to loop around to Tomitsuka’s flank.

  Yet, Tomitsuka was already waiting for Takuma at his intended destination.

  “Kuh, oof!”

  He directly took the combination of a heavy punch and a left hook. Unable to keep his feet, Takuma fell to the floor. It was only out of sheer obstinacy that he still clung to the book that served as his medium. Takuma called upon his fighting spirit to dispel his blurred vision as he searched for Tomitsuka’s figure.

  Tomitsuka didn’t follow up on his attack as he looked downwards at Takuma. Normally, this nice guy’s face seemed a tad childish, but it now wore a derisive expression as he looked upon him like one looks upon a mad dog — looking at him. In Takuma’s eyes, that was the current situation.

  The sudden flare of heightened emotions surpassed his fear for the moment. One knee on the ground, Takuma used his left hand to flip through the book.

  The first attack on Tomitsuka contained twice as many paper squares as the previous assault. This time the squares weren’t split into four groups but gathered into one swarm. The greater the number of the “herd” in Herd Control, the lower the interference strength. By gathering the Magic Power from all four portions into one, Takuma was going to challenge Tomitsuka’s Gram Demolition directly.

  —Which was actually a feint, as the true blow was the next attack that was activated a moment later.

  Bathed in the light released by Tomitsuka, 16,000 paper squares turned into paper snowflakes and fell to the floor.

  As if bursting through the clouds, the 20,000 paper blades that were released after a moment’s delay roared towards Tomitsuka’s feet like a tornado.

  Got him, Takuma thought. Gram Demolition was an ability that released a massive amount of psions at a time. Not only were they released, pressure sufficient to blow away a Magic Sequence was also required. There was no way he could use this repeatedly in such a short time.

  However, Takuma’s theory was in error. The moment that he realized that this was wishful thinking instead of a theory was quite a long time from now.

  Twenty thousand blades were rendered into 20,000 paper scraps the instant they came into contact with Tomitsuka’s body.

  In regards to Takuma, who had just gotten back to his feet, Tomitsuka bestowed upon him the deciding blow of the match.

  “That’s enough. The victor is Tomitsuka.”

  After Hattori announced the winner’s name, Tomitsuka bowed slightly.

  Afterwards, he fell to one knee next to Takuma lying prone on the floor.

  “Shippou, are you awake?”

  Takuma groaned in what seemed like considerable pain, signifying his conscious state. That was because Tomitsuka intentionally struck him in such a manner and all went according to his plan.

  “Thank you.”

  After coug
hing a few times, Takuma finally answered the question.

  “Then, go ahead and sit against the wall to rest a while.”

  “—Got it.”

  Overcome by the magnitude of his defeat, Takuma obeyed Tomitsuka’s instructions without comprehending the reason behind them. Clutching the area around his abdomen where he had been struck, he tottered and staggered to the wall opposite from where the witnesses stood. Leaning against the wall, Takuma gradually slid to the floor.

  After verifying that Takuma had reached that side, Tomitsuka walked towards Tatsuya.

  “……What is it?”

  After Tatsuya’s question, the hitherto taciturn Tomitsuka finally opened his mouth.

  “Shiba-kun, I wish for a match against you!”

  Drawing back to survey this article that was so difficult to verbalize, Tatsuya tilted his head and thought “Why?”.

  Surrounded by an array of shocked looks, Tomitsuka uneasily averted his eyes. Still, as if making the decision to cross the Rubicon — that might be an exaggeration, he wore the determined look of someone about to take a bungee jump as he endured Tatsuya’s gaze.

  “I want Shippou to witness your power!”

  Tomitsuka watched Tatsuya with burning eyes. In his mind, he must have envisioned Tatsuya resonating with his manly display and nodding in affirmation. However, this only deepened Tatsuya’s befuddlement.

  “I’m not sure I understand what you are talking about?”

  The moment he told him so, Tomitsuka became slightly harried in a rather fascinating manner.

  “That, well, was kind of out of the blue. In other words……”

  “Would it be possible for Shippou to see a match between people of outstanding caliber?”

  The one who took over the explanations from the panicking Tomitsuka was Hattori. —Still, just these words alone were insufficient to dispel Tatsuya’s mystification.

  “In order to show him a match between people of sufficient caliber, wouldn’t a match between Chairman Hattori and Sawaki-senpai be more appropriate?”