by Sato Tsutomu
"Speaking of which, it's almost time for the Nine Schools Competition, right?"
Leo probably recalled what Shizuku was saying earlier, to which Tatsuya nodded at his inquiry.
"Miyuki is already complaining. There are a lot of things to account for, including vehicles, tools, and uniforms."
"Isn't Miyuki-chan also participating in the competition? That sounds tough."
Mizuki wasn't being overly polite, but she was honestly concerned on Miyuki's behalf.
"However, Miyuki should be able to cruise during the newcomers' competition, so the preparation work should be more intensive."
Erika replied in a manner that half supported and half refuted the earlier sentiment.
"Don't be overconfident. The scion of the Ichijou Family started attending Third High this year."
Shizuku's objection was a little off the mark. The official and newcomers competitions in the Nine Schools Competition were separated by gender, so there was no way Miyuki would go against the young master from the Ichijou Family.
That being said, no one intentionally retorted at this.
"Is that so......"
"You say Ichijou, as in Ichijou from the Ten Master Clans?"
From their heartfelt expressions of surprise, this appeared to be the first time Erika and Leo found out that someone in their year was descended from the Ten Master Clans. Mizuki didn't seem too astounded, maybe she knew something about the "scion of the Ichijou Family".
"That might be a tough opponent. That being said, Shizuku you sure know a lot."
"Shizuku is a die hard fan of 'Monolith Code', so she watches the Nine Schools Competition every year, right?"
Honoka, who knew Shizuku as well as she knew herself, answered Erika's question.
"......Hm, yeah."
Hearing Honoka answer for her, the normally expressionless Shizuku nodded in slight embarrassment. Honoka owed Tatsuya a favor, so it wasn't surprising for her to be interested in Tatsuya. However, Shizuku was different; she only knew Tatsuya because her best friend Honoka was interested in him, as well as the fact that he was Miyuki's older brother. Initially, Shizuku had only commented from the periphery, but gradually she had lowered her guard and started expressing herself openly.
"Now that you mention it, besides the All-Japanese and the International University Intramural, 'Monolith Code' can only be seen at the Nine Schools Competition."
Standing diagonally across from the embarrassed Shizuku, Tatsuya nodded upon hearing Honoka's answer, wearing an expression that signified that he understood that sentiment.
Nine Schools Competition was an inter-school competition between high schools affiliated with magic universities. In other words, it was an internal competition that happened to be open for public viewing.
That was because the Nine Schools Competition was one of the few stages that provided magic competition as entertainment.
Every year, a total of 1200 students entered their first year at the nine magic high schools.
In comparison, there were anywhere between 1200 and 1500 young men and women of age 15 every year who developed enough magic talent to be accepted.
In other words, for the youths that manifested magic talent, if they aimed to become Magicians or Magic Artificers, almost every single one of them would enter one of the nine magic high schools.
So the magic competitions at the high school level, besides kenjutsu, martial arts, and a few others, were completely monopolized by the nine magic high schools.
In order to allow the general public to better understand and become invested in magic competitions, as well as to further society's acknowledgement of magic, the Nine Schools Competition had become one of the few major events to propagate these ideas.
"Our toughest opponent this year is going to be Third High, right?"
"Probably."
Knowing this to be Shizuku's area of expertise, Erika specifically asked for her opinion. In response, Shizuku simply nodded happily.
"And this year you're not in the audience, but one of the contestants, right?"
Shizuku was Second Place in technical skills for their year; so even if the official roster hadn't been publicized yet, Shizuku was like Miyuki in that they were guaranteed to be selected.
"Yeah......"
Hearing Mizuki's question, Shizuku quietly nodded in response, her face illuminated with motivation.
◇◇◇
After finals were over, Tatsuya spent almost every afternoon in the HQ of the Public Morals Committee.
Immediately after summer vacation, the election for the new Student Council President would be held.
After a new President was elected, a new Public Morals Committee would be selected, along with its new corresponding Chief based on the new elections.
According to tradition...... More like according to bad habits, there had never been a smooth transfer between Chiefs of the Committee. More often than not, the unorganized activities record and current members were tossed to the incoming Chief to handle.
That being said, when Mari took over as Chief during her first year, there was no problem with the transfer the following year. However, the 2nd Year students in her Public Morals Committee had insufficient experience, so Mari wished to minimize the confusion during the transfer of power between Chiefs.
—Regarding all the documents necessary for the transfer, Mari tossed that responsibility to Tatsuya.
"I'm starting to think I'm a goody two-shoes......"
"A goody two-shoes that's bad to the core? I think this dual nature of yours is quite interesting."
"............"
This comment was overly pertinent, rendering Tatsuya unable to reply.
"However, this time I'm very grateful for your good side, since without your help, we would only be repeating past disasters."
Mari comforted him in this way probably because she felt a little guilty seeing Tatsuya silently plugging away at his work.
Yet, Tatsuya did not possess split personalities, nor was he merely helping to organize the material. He was the only one organizing the materials.
These words achieved no comforting effect whatsoever.
"Even so, you've started preparing for the transfer very early?"
Tatsuya asked a piercing question without stopping his hands from their work.
The documents he was preparing would be completed in a week.
If no further input of additional details was needed, this would create a two month buffer zone.
Also, there was no guarantee that major events or incidents would not occur during this time period.
This wasn't the type of material that should be created as soon as possible.
"Once we start preparing for the Nine Schools Competition, we won't have the time to compile this. There's a mountain of things to do, from verifying the roster, training, adjusting equipment, gathering and analyzing data, to devising strategies."
All these things had nothing to do with Tatsuya.
"......When is the Nine Schools Competition going to be held?"
That being said, cutting off the conversation here would be awkward, so Tatsuya focused all his attention back onto data organization as he asked this.
"Ten days, from August 3rd to the 12th."
"That's quite a long time."
"Hm? You've never seen it?"
"Yes, since I've always been busy with errands during summer vacations."
Tatsuya's answer thoroughly confounded Mari.
"But according to Mayumi, your little sister goes to see it every year, to the point that she even remembers what events we competed in......"
Tatsuya almost burst out laughing.
"No, it's not like we're attached at the hip 365 days a year...... Occasionally we move separately as well."
"Eh? ......No, that's true. It's just that whenever we see the two of you, it's like you're always with each other."
"Speaking of which, we're usually on our own at school."
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After Tatsuya objectively pointed this out, even if Mari's expression revealed her incomprehension, she nevertheless still accepted it.
"If that's the case, no wonder you were completely lost when I started talking about the preparations for the Nine Schools Competition."
"Yes, to be honest, I don't even know what competitions are being held. I only know about 'Monolith Code' and 'Mirage Bat'."
While it was true that he was multitasking between making conversation and creating the data files, this only served as a refresher for Tatsuya. And for Mari, who was currently idle — or more like the one who didn't want to do anything — this was a good way to pass the time, so Tatsuya was more talkative than usual.
"That's because those two are the most famous......"
Mari tilted her head, as if she didn't know where to start. She held her fist before her mouth, as if she were about to cough (but didn't actually make the coughing sound).
"The contests in the Nine Schools Competition focus on the events in athletic magic contests that require more Magic Power."
"This I know."
Tatsuya replied without stopping his fingers from working.
"In the past, they would change the events every competition, but recent years have seen the same contests every year.
There are six contests: 'Monolith Code', 'Mirage Bat', 'Icicle Destruction', 'Speed Shooting', 'Crowd Ball', and 'Battle Board'.
Kenjutsu, Chinese magic martial arts and other combat related contests, as well as athletic competitions like gymnastics and basketball are held at a different event."
"Doesn't 'Crowd Ball' and 'Battle Board' rely heavily on physical abilities?"
"Yes. Magicians are only human, so there's no reason to undervalue physical capabilities. Even in 1 on 1 duels between Magicians, there are cases where the individual with the superior physical abilities has emerged victorious. I'm sure I don't need to elaborate on this point."
"That's true."
Tatsuya knew this very well, so his agreement with Mari's words was truly heartfelt.
"Of the six contests, only 'Monolith Code' is a team event, the other five are solo acts."
"Isn't 'Crowd Ball' a two man show?"
"This is where the Nine Schools Competition gets evil. In order to emphasize the importance of Magic Power, this contest has a solo performance rule. I have a booklet that summarizes the rules, want to take a look?"
"Sure, I'll take a look later."
Tatsuya stopped typing and accepted a small booklet from Mari.
"Huh, a hard copy. How strange."
"Anything related to the Nine Schools Competition wouldn't be surprising. Virtual terminals would hurt the Magic Power's conceptual foundation. On the other hand, besides Magicians, there are very few people that actually use substantial terminal devices, and the number of Magicians using virtual terminals has also increased."
"I see, so that's why the Nine Schools Competition uses hard copies instead of terminal devices."
"Eh? So Tatsuya-kun prefers the usage of virtual terminals?"
She probably heard the critical elements in Tatsuya's undertone.
With Mari's normally brash manner and her amusing tendency to be "poor at organizing", it was easy to forget that she was a very perceptive individual.
Tatsuya took this under consideration and selected his words — without stopping his typing motions — more prudently.
"There is some basis that virtual terminals negatively impact Magicians that have not reached maturity. Especially for students under twenty that are still developing their power, I think they should avoid using virtual models. But for adult Magicians whose Magic Power has been fully developed, I don't feel that there's any reason to stop them from using virtual models."
"......That's another way to look at it. Forcing adults to abandon the efficiency gained from virtual models simply because it poses harm to children seems a little overkill."
There was a brief lull in the conversation. Tatsuya was busy reviewing the information he inputted on the screen, so he had no way of discerning Mari's current expression, but he guessed that she would be considering his earlier comment.
No matter how ridiculously she usually acted, there was no way for her to disguise her inner sense of righteousness.
For some reason, that fact caused Tatsuya to smile a bit.
"......We've drifted off topic."
Mari seemed to have arrived at some conclusion of her own before she turned the conversation back to the Nine Schools Competition without any forewarning.
"The competition is separated into the Official and Newcomer Divisions, each requiring 10 men and women, for a grand total of 40. Only 1st Year students may participate in the Newcomer Division while the Official Division has no restrictions. That being said, each contestant may perform only in two contests, so no 1st Year student has ever competed in the Official Division. Even if it wasn't in the rules, there's no way for 1st Year students to stand up against the firepower of a 2nd or 3rd Year student.
Until last year, the Newcomers Division was not separated by gender, but from this year onward, both the Official and Newcomers Division will be. Also until last year, no 1st Year female student had to compete in multiple contests, but that may be unavoidable this year."
Mari's words were out of concern for Miyuki, which was obvious without naming her aloud.
Continuously participating in magic competitions was extremely taxing on the female body. Even though Miyuki had undergone training beyond that of a normal person, her physical stature was by nature more feeble. It would probably be best that he provided as much aid as he could, Tatsuya thought.
"Of the six contests, four are not gender specific. 'Monolith Code' is men only and 'Mirage Bat' is women only...... Since 'Monolith Code' is the only event where live combat is guaranteed, it's not surprising that the event is men only."
Mari might have been saying this, but her facial expression clearly didn't agree.
According to the information Tatsuya gathered from the Public Moral Committee, Mari's magic specialized in anti-personnel combat, so she must have resented being excluded from this particular event.
"The maximum number of participants per contest is three from each school, with men and women calculated separately. So including the Official and Newcomers Division, 5 men and women have to select two of the five events while the other five can participate only in one.
As for deciding who competes in which events, that is based on whether skilled contestants should only focus on emerging victorious in one event, or maximizing profit by applying for two events; and then there is considering where the opposing aces will go, and who they will go up against...... Since this is a team-based competition, all of these details are very important."
"Of course."
"Besides the contestants, the Nine Schools Competition allows each school to bring four people as tactical advisers, but not every school takes advantage of this option. Our school always brings the maximum amount of personnel each year, but schools such as Third High opt to waive the tactical support when competing, relying solely on their contestants to decide their tactics."
"Yet, ironically, they are our toughest opponent."
"We've only lost to them twice, once three years ago and the other time seven years ago. The Nine Arts Competition switched to a summer format ten years ago. Since then, there have been 9 competitions. Our school was the champion 5 times, Third High twice, and Second High and Ninth High have each won once."
"I believe this year's goal is for a three-peat?"
"That's right. For us 3rd Year students, securing the championship is the true victory."
Currently, the 3rd Year students at First High were known collectively as "the strongest era".
Saegusa Mayumi, Juumonji Katsuto, Watanabe Mari.
Two of them were directly connected to the Ten Master Clans, while the third possessed similar talent.
Just the fact that all three of t
hem were in the same year at the same school was an amazing coincidence. In addition, the campus also boasted several students that were qualified for Rank A in high school (they were unable to obtain their licenses due to limited experience, but their raw ability alone was sufficient for their ranking based on international standards).
Even before the official roster for the Nine Schools Competition had been announced, First High was already seen as the favorite to repeat as champions.
Even if the underground gamblers were using the Nine Schools Competition as a setting, no one was taking odds for First High — that's how overwhelmingly powerful their group was.
"I hear that if everything goes according to plan, our school's victory is a foregone conclusion?"
"Probably. There are no concerns on the contestants' end. Even taking the Newcomers Division into consideration, as long as there's no major mishap, we should win off the points from the Official Division. If there were any real concerns, I'd say it would be engineers."
"Engineers? You mean people responsible for CAD maintenance?"
"Exactly, except the official term from the Nine Schools Competition is Technicians. The CADs used at the Nine Schools Competition must be universally adaptable, so only models that fit the criteria are allowed. On the other hand, there are only restrictions on the hardware itself, there are no restrictions on software. How well individual CADs can be synchronized to the appropriate contestant and whether the maintenance can bring out the contestant's maximum potential are absolutely decisive in determining victory."
How fast an Activation Sequence initializes was entirely reliant on the CAD's hardware, but the efficiency of Magic Sequences was heavily influenced by the design of the CAD's software. Given that a single second could spell the difference between victory and defeat in athletic competitions, a properly devised software program was of vital importance.
By no means did this imply that the more intricate the design was or the more processes that were used, the better the software becomes. Software that surpassed the processing power would cause more harm than good by obstructing the hardware itself.