Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 03 - Nine Schools Competition (I)

by Sato Tsutomu

  As Tatsuya re-examined his "beauty" at close range, he got the distinct impression that one shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

  They were still on stage, so the conversation ended there.

  However, even for a slower individual like Tatsuya, to be able to find one shining light of friendliness in this murky ocean of negativity was enough to lessen the gloomy emotions welling up in his heart.

  As he felt his depression lighten, he had the excess energy to survey the audience.

  Since there wasn't any assigned seating in the audience, the student body naturally split into two, with the Course 1 students in front and the Course 2 students in the rear.

  That being said, a few outsiders had managed to infiltrate the front half.

  They probably detected Tatsuya's gaze.

  Erika vigorously waved at him from her seat in the third row from the front, which was close enough to be called front row seating.

  Tatsuya was thoroughly astounded by this.

  Taking a closer look, Mizuki sat next to Erika, with Leo on her other side and Mikihiko occupying Leo's other flank. Even the faces behind them were all familiar.

  In sheer defiance of the disapproving looks sent their way by the surrounding Course 1 students, First Year Class E stormed the front of seating and claimed a section for themselves.

  As Tatsuya was drawn to their courageous actions, Miyuki arrived in front of him with a small cart before her.

  Of the 40 contestants, 4 tactical advisors, 8 technicians and removing the master of ceremonies and assistant, there were a total of 50 people on stage. Forty-nine of them had already received their medals.

  Last, but not least, it was finally the 50th person's turn.

  In other words, Tatsuya was up next.

  Mayumi loudly proclaimed his name.

  Was Tatsuya over thinking too much, or did she place extra emphasis on his name?

  Tatsuya stepped forward to acknowledge the announcement.

  Miyuki revealed a brilliant, melting smile — enough to cause Tatsuya to be worried about his sister's mental status — and stood before Tatsuya.

  Miyuki clipped the medal onto Tatsuya's jacket.

  At the same time, thunderous applause broke forth.

  There was no need for any visual confirmation.

  It was Erika and Leo leading the rest of his classmates in applause.

  To Mayumi and Miyuki, who were responsible for directing the ceremony, this was an unplanned for ruckus.

  However, just as the First Year Course 1 students were about to hush the clapping......

  Mayumi and Miyuki seized the initiative to start clapping from the wings of the stage.

  After introducing the last representative, the entire assembly started applauding.

  This perfectly coincided with the applause for the entire team, which spread throughout the auditorium.

  ◇◇◇

  After the conclusion of the colors ceremony, the entire campus was completely focused on preparing for the Nine Schools Competition.

  With the events they would be participating in settled, Miyuki spent every day practicing with Shizuka and Honoka until the last second before the campus closed.

  Tatsuya needed to perform CAD maintenance at the same time he was assisting Miyuki with her tasks, so he was also occupied until late in the day.

  Both Erika and Leo were affiliated with athletic clubs, so they were also drafted to help deal with the myriad tasks that needed doing.

  Mizuki was the only one in the literary clubs, so this week she usually waited by herself for everyone else to finish.

  Last week's colors ceremony filled her with anxiety.

  Even though there was no assigned seating, it still took a lot of courage to disregard that unspoken rule.

  There was no way she could do that alone, though the situation was more like if Erika hadn't been there, none of their classmates would've taken the plunge either.

  Mizuki acknowledged her own introverted and cowering personality, so she was doubly impressed by and envious of her friend.

  (But why was Erika striving so hard like that......?)

  Mizuki was forcibly dragged along by Erika into participating.

  Of course, she wanted to support Tatsuya as well, but reflecting on the situation, she would be more than satisfied with applauding from the rear.

  Erika was inclined towards reckless behavior, so her ulterior motive may also be to taunt the Course 1 students.

  At the same time, Erika was a flighty individual that usually didn't think things through.

  In Mizuki's eyes, she was someone who loved to get in on the action, but rarely was the source of any troublesome business. This could be easily explained if it only involved her best friends like Mizuki, but to be motivated enough to involve all of their classmates, this didn't seem to fit a practical joker's state of mind.

  (So Erika is really like that towards Tatsuya...... Right......?)

  From Mizuki's perspective, the male who hit it off the best with Erika was Leo.

  Erika also had an extensive back story with Mikihiko, who took Third Place in the Theoretical portion of their exams.

  But Mizuki felt that Erika held something special for Tatsuya that weighed far differently than the others.

  For some reason, Mizuki refused to assign this feeling Erika had a specific definition in her mind.

  She arrived at the school entrance less than 5 minutes ago.

  The time was too short for her to claim that she was tired of waiting.

  However, this was more than enough time to jolt her thinking.

  Without any conscious effort, an assortment of things flowed through Mizuki's mind.

  This situation would perfectly fit the criteria for being distracted.

  And so, with her sense unfocused towards any single point, she spread her senses outward and detected a foreign wavelength.

  Mizuki pondered this for exactly one second.

  Then she made up her mind to remove her glasses.

  Instantly, a tidal wave of flowing colors came rushing in.

  Her vision was filled with colorful lights from a myriad of shades.

  Mizuki temporarily sustained the pain in her eyes brought on by the excess stimulation.

  For her, the act of removing her glasses was like walking from pitch darkness into the sun's radiant rays.

  The things she usually avoided looking at suddenly became visible.

  The surplus data gave her a rudderless feeling as her ocular nerves and brain were overloaded by processing all this information.

  If this happened to the average person, they might've been knocked unconscious by this information deluge, but for her, this was "another world" that had been by her side since birth.

  Even people that were suddenly exposed before the powerful rays of the sun swiftly adapted after a short period of time.

  For people with dark pupils suitable for intense light, this time would be even shorter.

  All Mizuki had to do was blink two or three times and her eyes adjusted to be able to see a psion light several dozen times stronger than what the average Magician perceives as well as the pushion light that average Magicians couldn't even identify.

  Mizuki cautiously replaced her glasses into the carrying case, then directed her gaze towards the odd vibration from earlier.

  She swiftly found the frequency that allowed her to penetrate the anti-spirit light lens.

  The pushion signal that possessed a wavering but regular beat like breathing.

  Now, even the source of the light could be easily seen.

  Mizuki advanced towards the Technical Skills Building where the vibration originated from as if drawn to it.

  The closer she got to the Technical Skills Building, the more she felt the seeping cold air in the surrounding environment.

  This was the middle of summer, and even if the setting sun was partially blocked by the neighboring hills and cut a horizon that was not altogether "curved",
the temperature was still more than high enough to be sweating.

  This was an illusion.

  "Something" was pretending to be cold air, tucked within the folds of the warm summer air.

  This "something" seemed to order Mizuki to turn back.

  Like threatening her to desist her advance.

  However, her feet did not come to a halt.

  Logic demanded that she turn back, but Mizuki was a member of the magic community and destined to walk side by side with magic, so Mizuki's instincts instructed her to use her pair of "eyes" to ascertain what this something was.

  There were very few people in the Technical Skills Building, so there were no sounds of friction or loud laughter.

  The overhead lights on the ceiling maintained a degree of brightness that made for comfortable browsing of tiny letters.

  Just as usual.

  No, this was a school for magic instruction and this was the Technical Skills Building frequented by many individuals.

  If an incident had occurred, it couldn't have gone unnoticed by the instructors and upperclassmen.

  In comparison to ordinary high schools, magic high schools had no place for ghost stories or urban legends.

  Since no alarm was triggered, that meant that the unusual situation that Mizuki detected was the product of magic.

  Otherwise — the true spiritual manifestation that could not be detected by modern magic.

  An ominous feeling wrapped around her heart and caused her back to quiver, but Mizuki pressed forward as if being herded in or dragged in without her control.

  As Mizuki was led upstairs, she noticed a faint, pleasant smell lingering in the air.

  She had encountered this fragrance during Magic Medicine class.

  The fragrance was a combination of many incense woods that produced a sedative effect.

  She pursed the pulse towards the medicine labs.

  The irregular pushion lights seemed to be caused by a certain student's magical experiment.

  After verifying that this wasn't a true spiritual manifestation, Mizuki let out a sigh of relief.

  And so, the sense of curiosity that was lurking behind her wall of unease peeked its head out.

  One of the fundamental lessons first taught in Magic Technical Skills class is that one must never intrude on another person's magic experiment site without permission. Unannounced guests run the risk of accidentally triggering the magic area and may even cause the magic to spontaneously burst out of control. The school has repeatedly reminded them that it is extremely dangerous and foolish for Magicians-in-training — such as new students like them — to barge into magic experiments unannounced.

  However, the current Mizuki had completely forgotten that warning.

  Mizuki's misdirected sense of caution prompted her to surreptitiously sneak over and nudge a small crack in the door.

  She meticulously avoided making any noise and peeked into the room's interior from the crack.

  In that instant—

  Mizuki was barely able to swallow her scream of terror.

  No, rather than being one of terror, it was simply a scream of surprise.

  Inside the medicine lab, there were many blue, sky blue, and dark blue orbs dancing through the air.

  Each orb had an independent "strength" and "consciousness".

  Mizuki knew through "visual confirmation" that all things in the natural order possessed differing strengths that did not tilt towards any particular direction, but maintained a constant state of flux. Mizuki was quite familiar with scenes of "strength"-based natural phenomena that congregated as floating orbs. In her "eyes", the myriad details of the world were similar to the pushion flow that the human consciousness released.

  However, this was the first time Mizuki felt that the floating congregates possessed a "consciousness".

  (Spirits......?)

  Is this what they call spirits — she thought.

  Mizuki was deeply moved by this, enough to abandon all other thoughts.

  And the person who summoned these spirits was—

  "Yoshida-kun......?"

  Completely abandoning any caution whatsoever, Mizuki softly murmured.

  This was an entirely subconscious action.

  Even so, the one whose name was called was no pushover.

  Especially because he was situated in a private location where no one would pass by and the fact that someone witnessed his secret "magic".

  "Who's there!"

  A completely reflexive inquiry.

  His words were laced with the fury of being discovered, causing the "consciousness" in the "orbs" to react.

  "Ah!"

  As the orbs swarmed forward, Mizuki screamed and clenched her eyes shut.

  Simultaneously, a "strong gust" approached from her flank, forcing her to duck down.

  But this was a flow of psions that would neither disturb a hair nor rustle her dress.

  The gust swept back the swarming orbs and protected Mizuki, but she had no way of knowing with her eyes closed.

  Trembling with trepidation, Mizuki slowly opened her eyes to find Mikihiko hatefully glaring at Tatsuya, who calmly accepted this gaze without expression.

  "......Mikihiko, relax, I don't want to throw down with you here."

  At Tatsuya's sudden appearance, Mizuki could only stare with wide eyes from her kneeling position. Before her, Tatsuya had two empty hands raised before him.

  This was universal for both Magicians and mundanes, a sign that the person in question did not wish to fight.

  Mikihiko revealed a thoroughly astounded expression and his enmity vanished at the same moment, as if it had never appeared in the first place.

  This quickly dispelled the tense atmosphere. Mizuki finally shed her frozen posture and rose with a crestfallen Mikihiko in front of her.

  "......Tatsuya, my apologies, I didn't mean to do that."

  Mikihiko looked like a lost child without a home.

  All of a sudden, Mizuki felt the urge to "comfort him", but was anxious because she couldn't find the appropriate words.

  Fortunately, they managed to avoid the awkward period of silence.

  "I don't mind, so put your mind at ease. At the end of the day, it was Mizuki's fault for disrupting the caster's concentration during the magic invocation phase."

  "Eh? Me?"

  Mizuki hurriedly turned around only to find Tatsuya mischievously smirking at her and quickly realized that he wasn't really scolding her.

  "No, it's not her fault."

  However, Mikihiko didn't see it that way.

  When he rejected Tatsuya's comment, he spoke in a fairly rapid manner.

  This was probably because Tatsuya's comment hit too close to home, causing him to panic slightly.

  "It is only because of my own inadequacy that I would become frantic at just being called by name...... Also, I'm sorry I forgot something very important. Thanks, Tatsuya. Thanks to you, I didn't accidentally hurt Shibata-san."

  "She would be fine even if I didn't do anything. Just then, that was Spirit Magic right?"

  Mikihiko nodded at Tatsuya's question, but hesitated for some reason.

  "Based on the Buddhist spirits of heaven and earth, our family calls it 'Divine Earth Magic'."

  Even so, Mikihiko stuck by his guns, probably because this was a non-negotiable point for Magicians.

  Spirit Magic is a type of Ancient Magic which uses independent Information Bodies commonly called "spirits" to interact with other Information Bodies. Magic studies often refers to this magic as "Spirit Magic", but also shortens spirits to SB (Spiritual Being), but users generally refer to them as "spirits".

  "I don't have the ability to identify spirits, but I do know that you're the one controlling the rite. On top of that, Mizuki actually managed to bypass the dispersal ward, so it would be fairly difficult for her not to surprise you."

  "How did you know about the ward...... Oh right, Tatsuya also studied Ancient Magic, so you would know if a rite
is effective or not...... Looks like you are truly out...... No, you've surpassed the limits of my knowledge."

  "You can go ahead and say 'outrageous'."

  Tatsuya spoke in a teasing manner, to which Mikihiko replied with a wry smile — the tense corners of his mouth relaxed.

  "At any rate...... No matter how much you don't want other people to see you, I think that setting a ward within the school labs also qualifies as an outrageous action."

  "True."

  Their combined laughter completely erased the previously tense atmosphere.

  "Just now, were you using summoning magic on natural spirits? This is the first time I've seen it."

  "......Hiding anything at this point is fruitless. Tatsuya is correct, I was using water spirits to practice summoning magic."

  Mikihiko gathered the burning incense wood from the table stove and answered Tatsuya.

  Beside him, Mizuki was using a cleaning cloth to wipe away the ashes that stuck to the tabletop.

  Of course, Mikihiko wanted to politely decline this gesture, but Mizuki's diligence proved particularly stubborn on this point.

  "Water spirits...... Unfortunately, I only know that they are the congregations of pushions...... Mizuki, what did you see?"

  "Eh? Ah, me too, the only thing I saw were blue-colored orbs."

  Hearing Tatsuya's question, Mizuki made a vague smile and shook her hands in a wavy manner before her.

  Because Mizuki was still holding the wet cleaning rag in her hand as she did this, a small portion of the murky water splashed onto Mikihiko's face, but she was wholly unaware because the question caught her completely off-guard.

  As Mikihiko himself...... he also seemed unaware.

  His eyes were wide open as his expression tensed.

  "Colored......? You can see differences in color......?"

  "That, uh...... Yes."

  Mizuki didn't understand why Mikihiko wore (from Mizuki's perspective) a terrified expression, so she answered back in a quavering voice.

  "For example...... blue, sky blue, or dark blue...... Ah!"

  Mizuki didn't dare to look Mikihiko in the eye, so she didn't stare directly at him as she replied. However, she let out a small cry upon noticing the small droplets of water on Mikihiko's face.