by Sato Tsutomu
"Earlier, I made a rude comment concerning your favoritism."
There was also no mistake in who the speaker of the voice was talking to.
"I was the one whose judgment was clouded. Please forgive me."
"I also spoke too arrogantly. Please forgive me."
Who bowed deeply to the other one, Tatsuya was also perfectly aware despite his back facing them.
Sometimes it was hard to tell who was the older and more mature sibling, Tatsuya pursed his lips and locked the CAD case.
He slowly turned around.
For a second, Hattori revealed a cowed expression, but quickly returned to a tougher stance.
During that split second of peace, was it preparation for reconciliation, or the harbinger for a rematch.
Before either possibility could occur, the moment disappeared.
In the end, Hattori only met Tatsuya's gaze briefly, before turning around.
Feeling the burning fury emanate from beside him, Tatsuya only lightly patted Miyuki on the shoulder.
They were going to work together in the same Student Council from now onwards, so leaving behind any bad blood would only hurt Miyuki.
As if Tatsuya's thoughts were telepathically transferred over, Miyuki quickly mastered herself.
"Let's head back to the Student Council Room!"
At Mayumi's words, every member began to move.
Behind Suzune, Azusa, and Hattori, Mayumi's face revealed a look that said "It can't be helped".
Following that, Mari became aware of Tatsuya's gaze, and shrugged as if she didn't want the other four to notice.
◇◇◇
After placing the CAD back into the workroom, Tatsuya returned to the Student Council Room, where Mari immediately grabbed his wrist.
Miyuki, who was being tutored by Azusa near the terminal on the wall, raised an eyebrow at this, while Tatsuya could only signal through his eyes that this couldn't be helped... Although, Tatsuya harbored doubts as to whether she could understand this.
He forcibly suppressed his subconscious urge to throw the other person aside; though come to speak of it, to be able to capture her target in such a narrow window, Mari's physical abilities must be quite impressive as well.
"While a lot of unexpected events occurred, let's go with the original plan and head to the Public Moral Committee HQ!"
As if not caring about Tatsuya's (largely confused) mental concerns, Mari dragged him away by the arm.
Miyuki finally noticed Tatsuya's confused expression, and redirected her gaze back to the terminal. Albeit, with great difficulty.
Hattori never raised his head since Tatsuya entered the Student Council Room.
It looks like he's trying to ignore everything in that direction, which was probably his greatest concession from an emotional standpoint. For this, Tatsuya was extremely thankful.
Mayumi hastily batted her hand. Exactly what that was for, or what meaning it was trying to convey... Among the people that Tatsuya had already met, she's probably the hardest one to understand.
That should probably be tabled for a later date.
After much difficulty (largely persuasion), Tatsuya was able to free his wrist, and obediently followed Mari.
In the room's farthest corner, in a spot where there would normally be a fire escape, there was instead a staircase leading to the Public Moral Committee HQ.
Are we ignoring fire safety standards?
Tatsuya ruminated on this, but even if the students are learning on the job, or even brand new, as long as there were excellent Magicians on hand the lack of firefighting equipment should not be a problem. Simply using vibration or speed magics were enough to put out a fire, then use a combination of Gather-Move Smoke Magic to expel it. In truth, large scale fires in tall skyscrapers were another area that Magicians could display their skills.
Given that the lack of an elevator was within the boundaries of fire safety, the rest can be forgiven, Tatsuya thought.
In regards to Tatsuya, who was right on her heels through the door into headquarters, Mari pointed towards the chairs next to the table, and said:
"It's a little bit of a mess; you can rest there for a second."
So this only qualifies as a little. That being said, it's not like there's no place to put your foot down, or all the chairs are covered with luggage. It's probably because they just came from the neat and tidy Student Council Room, so this image is especially jarring, but that's as much as can be expected.
Books, portable terminals, and even CADs, all sorts of items covered the table. Tatsuya slightly cleared out a space on one of the half-pulled out chairs beside the table.
"The Public Moral Committee Room is like a bachelor's home. Even though I've told them to pick up after themselves time and time again, there's still no one who listens..."
"It can't be helped when no one is around."
Not knowing if Tatsuya's comment was out of mockery or comfort, Mari wrinkled her brow upon hearing this.
"...Our primary objective is patrolling school grounds. The state of affairs within HQ couldn't be helped."
Presently, there were only two people in the room. The Public Moral Committee consisted of nine people, but the space within the room could accommodate a group of people many times greater than the current roster. Within this space, the idle atmosphere and dispersed items only served to increase the sense of uncleanliness.
What drew Tatsuya's attention was, aside from the obvious messiness of the room, were the cluttered objects on the table.
"Even so, Chief, is it OK if I tidied up a bit?"
"What..."
At Tatsuya's sudden proposal, Mari raised an eyebrow in surprise. —Surprise was well within a senpai's acting repertoire. (!)
"For someone aiming to be a Magic Artificer, I can't stand it when I see CADs scattered around like this. I have the same stance towards abandoned or disabled terminals."
Because of this, Tatsuya's priorities in task management have changed.
"Aiming to be a Magic Artificer? Even with that level of anti-personnel combat capability?"
At Tatsuya's words, Mari earnestly tilted her head a bit. From the recent contest, despite the brief time that elapsed, the level of anti-personnel combat was superb.
"No matter how hard I try, my abilities at best can get me to a C-Rank License."
But, just as if he was discussing someone else's affairs, Tatsuya mildly used a self-depreciating comment to counter Mari; Mari was too astonished to find any words to rebut that.
In most countries, Magicians operated under the licensing system. The system was based on international standards, of which this country was not an exception. It doesn't matter if you work for the corporations, the government, or even open a private practice, the difficulty and need both reflect upon the level of licensure. Magicians with higher licensing levels received a higher level of compensation; this was the rule of society.
International licenses have 5 levels between A and E.
Selection and ranking are based on Magic Sequence design and usage speeds, scale, and interference strength, which were the exact same scales used in high school technical skills testing. In other words, the educational technical skills grading scale was designed to naturally lead into international licensing standards.
There is a separate, special set of standards for law enforcement and the military, but at the end of the day, those standards are for "law enforcement" or "military types", and not designed to measure Magicians.
"...So, it's OK if I clean up this area?"
"Ah? Hm, I'll help too. We can talk while we work."
Mari hurriedly stood up, probably because she's the type that naturally looks after other people.
Or maybe it was because just sitting there watching Tatsuya toil away at the piles of books was simply rude.
While both of them worked at similar speeds, when compared to the empty space in front of Tatsuya, the pile in front of Mari did not decrease in size, and
the surface of the table still wasn't visible.
Tatsuya gave it a brief glance.
And let out a small sigh.
Mari stopped her hands in a clear sign of surrender.
"Sorry, I'm really bad at this type of work."
She might bear the biggest responsibility for the state of the room, Tatsuya thought.
That only remained in his thoughts and was not verbalized, given that he was a mature adult, maybe.
"Speaking of which, you're quite familiar with those."
"What are you referring to?"
"The book categories. I thought you were just going to put them somewhere else, but I didn't expect you to sort them by subject."
"...Excuse me, sitting on the table is a little..."
In a sudden change of attitude, Mari sat down on the table in the open area that Tatsuya cleared away, looking at the disorganized pile of books. Her dress was directly touching Tatsuya's wrist. The cloth subtly covered the thigh area, leading to a charming pair of slim legs. Even if the flesh was completely covered, the outline left nothing to imagination, thus rendering that position a terrible distraction to mental health.
"Ah, sorry."
Needless to say, Mari's voice did not show a trace of apologetic tone. —Any intentional response would only bring about the reverse effect, thus proving the idiom, silence is golden.
He dug out the bookcase from the pile of books, and placed them properly on the shelves. In this day and age, both paper-based books and bookshelves were considered rarities.
Not to mention that they were magical texts.
"In terms of why we scouted you — on this matter, we went over this earlier. It is to properly adjudicate cases of improper magic usage, and to improve the perception of Course 2 students."
"I remember, but I think that this tactic may cause considerable backlash... May I take a look at this book?"
After sorting the books, the terminals still needed work. After asking Mari for permission to examine the data, to which Mari nodded in agreement, Tatsuya restored the terminal to working order, cut the power, shifted the terminal to storage mode, and gathered the parts in one area.
"Why do you think that way?"
"Even though we never mentioned this aloud, but if an underclassman was apprehended by someone of equal standing, this should naturally lead to negative reactions."
He left the seat, and began searching the cabinets by the wall.
After placing the terminal within an empty cabinet, he heard a completely irresponsible comment "That's true" coming from behind him.
"But at the same time, 1st Year students would welcome this change. Haven't your fellow students talked about this?"
"Yes..."
After sorting the terminals, he looked towards other cabinets.
"I think that if a Course 1 student took over, the negative reaction would outnumber the welcoming reaction."
After locating the target, Tatsuya straightened himself, rotated his shoulders before taking off his jacket and rolling up his sleeves.
"Resentment is likely inevitable. But for newly enrolled Course 1 students, they might not have been exposed to the differential thinking long enough to become prejudiced, right?"
"Who knows?"
The object that Tatsuya carefully removed from the cabinet, looked to be a CAD case.
"Just yesterday I ran into the 'I don't acknowledge you' declaration."
After wrapping the grounded protector around his sleeveless wrist, he reached his hand towards the pile of CADs.
"Thank goodness you carry even this type of equipment... Was that person Morisaki?"
"This, is quite convenient... You know him too?"
"The teachers recommended him to join the committee."
"Eh?"
The hand that was examining the CAD status faltered slightly.
He hastily picked up the CAD that fell to the ground.
"So even you can be surprised."
"Of course."
In response to Mari's laughter, Tatsuya's response was colored by his sighing tone.
If only there was a way to undercut all this antagonism.
"Due to yesterday's ruckus, there are grounds for withdrawing the recommendation, which was what I planned to do, but yesterday's event had nothing to do with you."
"I was involved as well."
"Well then, if we were able to recruit you, it would be much harder to reject him."
"Why not simply take neither of us, what do you think?"
"Do you dislike it?"
Upon receiving such a direct question, Tatsuya stopped the work of his hands.
Temporarily, he put the CAD back into the box, and raised his head.
Mari was sitting on the table looking downwards at Tatsuya's face without a smile on her face.
Her slender and delicate gaze seemed to see right through Tatsuya.
"...To tell the truth, I find it very troublesome."
"Hm... And?"
"Despite thinking that it's troublesome, I don't plan on backing out at this point."
Mari's face once more revealed her delighted smirk.
Her devilish expression seemed to have increased her beauty two-fold.
"Senpai is the type of person who hates trouble too..."
"You're also the type who likes to cut corners."
Alas, Tatsuya could only confess that she won that round.
◇◇◇
"...This is the Public Moral Committee HQ, right?"
That was Mayumi's first question after descending the stairs.
"That was quite the unexpected greeting."
"What, this is all because of you, Mari. No matter how many times Rin-chan reminds you or how much A-chan begs you, you still haven't cleaned up the place."
"I object to your hurtful and inaccurate description of the situation, Mayumi! It's not that I don't want to clean up, but that I haven't started yet!"
"As a woman, you should pay more attention to this."
Mayumi narrowed her eyes as she squinted at Mari, who hurriedly turned around.
"It's not like I don't want to... Ah, that."
Upon seeing Tatsuya busily examining a terminal's internal condition after removing the protective cover, Mayumi displayed an understanding expression as she nodded.
"So it's because he's been put to good use already."
"Meh, just so."
Mari's back was still facing Mayumi as she replied, just as Tatsuya closed the protective cover and turned around.
"Chief, the inspections are complete. The damaged parts have already been replaced; there should be no more problems."
"Good work."
Mari nodded quickly, but maybe he was reading too much into it, because Tatsuya thought he could see sweat beads on Mari's temple.
Cold sweat.
"Eh... So you address Mari as Chief, which means we have successfully recruited you."
"I thought I never had the right to refuse in the first place..."
Tatsuya didn't even look at Mayumi's teasing expression, and deadpanned his response.
Mayumi looked like she disapproved of Tatsuya's attitude. She placed one hand on her hips, raised the other forefinger, directed her most displeased gaze towards him as she was about to unleash her most exaggerated attitude to voice her objection.
"Tatsuya-kun, isn't your response to your older sister simply too rude?"
...In short, the way Tatsuya framed his response was because he didn't have an older sister. If he admitted this aloud, Tatsuya felt that the situation would only grow worse, so he did not verbalize it.
No matter where it started or where it ended, it was so archetypal that no real response was possible.
If anything, Mayumi's attitude towards him was overly casual, Tatsuya thought to himself.
He had entered this type of situation with similar impressions in the past, and managed to sidestep the issue every time. This time however, Tatsuya somehow felt that he was unable to
do so.
"President, just in case, I want to clarify one thing with you."
"Hm, what is it?"
"We met for the first time just before the enrollment ceremony, right?"
It goes without saying that meeting for the first time might constitute an overly familiar attitude, not to mention all the additional meanings behind those words, as Mayumi's eyes widened upon hearing them. However, they quickly reverted to their normal size and narrowed even more, to the point that her expression could only be described as "wicked".
Tatsuya finally realized what a terrible move he made.
Just before, Mari had a very similar facial expression, now that Tatsuya thought about it. So, this must be what people mean by birds of a feather flock together, Tatsuya thought as he wished he could escape reality.
"Is this how it is... Ho ho ho ho ho."
Tiny devil, would be a perfectly appropriate description for that smiling face.
"Tatsuya-kun thinks that we've met before, right? And the day of the enrollment ceremony must be our fateful reunion!"
"No, wait, President?"
Exactly why are tensions rising so quickly.
"A long time ago we might have met once. Then, thrust apart by cruel fate, only to be united by destiny once more!"
If this was really reveling in those words, she would be a dangerous person. But if she was acting this entire sequence out while purposefully allowing everyone else to know she's acting, there's something terribly wrong with that kind of personality.
"...Unfortunately, that was undoubtedly our first meeting."
"...I thought so too."
"I say, I say, unless you really got those fateful meeting vibes?"
Mayumi clasped her hands in front of her chest and pressed her face closer towards Tatsuya. —She looks very excited. But in reality she's fooling around. This suits her quite well... Truly, a terrible personality.
"...Sorry, why are you so happy about this?"
Even if he used a question to answer a question, he wouldn't receive an answer.
The only thing he received was that gaze filled with expectations.
She is an "S", Tatsuya jotted down in his mental notebook.
Seizing the opportunity, Tatsuya replied.