Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 01 - Enrollment Chapter (I)

by Sato Tsutomu

  "If you attach CADs on both your arms, then the Psion interference would make both of them unusable. You didn’t even know that did you? All you were thinking about was looking cool. Since you can’t use any decent spells, I guess you have to do these sneaky little things to get by just so you don’t look stupid."

  "Is that supposed to be advice? You seem pretty confident, Morisaki."

  "Ha! I’m different from you people. I was caught off guard the other day, but that won’t happen next time. I’ll show you the difference in our levels."

  How naïve of him to assume that there will always be a "next time"…

  ◇◇◇

  Even though he had a meeting with Erika, she wasn’t in front of the classroom when Tatsuya came.

  Oh well…

  Tatsuya let out a sigh, a habit he acquired since the beginning of school, and brought up the LPS in his mobile terminal.

  There was a red dot slowly moving on the school map. At least she was kind enough to not turn off her mobile device. She doesn’t seem that far away.

  It was only supposed to be a precautionary measure though…

  She’s completely relying on him to seek her out. He zoomed in on her location and started walking towards it.

  Tents covered one school ground to another; it almost made this place look like a fair with street vendors.

  "Seems like there’s a festival going on here…"

  Erika said to herself. But when she realized that, she started laughing at herself.

  She had a habit of talking to herself, but from the beginning of this school year, she hid that habit.

  Unusual that I’m by myself, huh… It looks like you really don’t understand me that well Tatsuya-kun.

  She was silently talking to him — the boy whom she broke her promise with.

  During middle school, actually even in elementary school, she spent most of her time alone. It’s not like she hated people or anything like that. She had a pleasant attitude and she could easily get along with anyone. She just becomes negligent towards relationships quickly.

  She just can’t be with anyone 24 hours a day. Her good friends called her cold and that she acted like a whimsical cat. Others said that she acts high and mighty. There were many boys who wanted to have a relationship with her, but none ever lasted. She went around freely, not being tied down by any promises.

  That was her motto.

  …Well, it WAS my motto… but lately I’ve been acting a bit weird.

  Looking at it from a 3rd person’s perspective, it almost seems like she was stalking him, Erika thought to herself. This was the first time that I promised to meet up and go around with someone. It had only been a week so I could get bored of this like always, but at the same time, I was thinking that this might be different.

  "Erika~"

  10 minutes after the promised time. From just past the school entrance within school grounds, Tatsuya was calling out Erika’s name.

  He found me quicker than I expected, she thought.

  "…Sorry."

  He showed a painful expression on his face for a moment, but then he bowed his head down.

  "…So you’re going to apologize."

  Erika wasn’t expecting this, so she was stupefied.

  "I’m sorry for being 10 minutes late for our meeting time. But, being late and not being at the promised location are two different things."

  "Ack… sorry."

  It was a strange expression, but Erika was unable to counter the smile on his serious face.

  "…Say Tatsuya, don’t people say that you have a bad personality?"

  "No, that’s unthinkable. No one has ever complained about my personality. They have said that I was a bad person though."

  "That’s the same thing! Wait, that’s even worse!"

  "Oh wait, that’s wrong. Not a bad person but an evil person."

  "That’s even worse!"

  "I was even called a demon by some people."

  "Ok, I’ve had enough!"

  As Erika was panting, Tatsuya started acting like a pondering philosopher.

  "You seem tired. Are you okay?"

  "…Tatsuya. People mentioned that you have a bad personality, didn’t they?"

  "Well as a matter of fact they did."

  "…So you’re just going to ignore the entire conversation we just had?"

  Erika just drooped her head from fatigue.

  ◇◇◇

  It took a little effort recovering her mood, but Tatsuya was able to continue his patrol before people around them started ridiculing them.

  But 5 minutes into it, Tatsuya wanted to go home.

  He had underestimated things. Even though he heard that things were a bit "rowdy", he still thought it would be within the bounds of a normal high school club recruitment fair. But in reality, it was nowhere near that.

  Hm, I see why they need people to police this place, but I don’t think even 10 people are going to be enough.

  The mass tents covering the grounds were filled with people. Across the wall of people, Erika was captured and letting out some kind of scream. Even though she had high agility, she still wasn’t able to push her way through the crowd. Well, it doesn't sound too convincing coming from Tatsuya who decided to look on from a distance.

  It did not necessarily mean that Tatsuya had more agility; it was just that people targeted her rather than him. Tatsuya had an average height and looks, and at first glance he seemed a bit plain. On top of that, he was also a Weed so people paid no attention to him.

  In Erika’s case, she was beautiful. Miyuki is the type of fragile beauty that made people hesitate reaching their hand out to, but Erika is the type of beauty that, even though people know they would be burned somewhat, they would still try to grasp her.

  Basically, what happened was that the club solicitations bombarded her. The fact that she was a Course 2 student didn’t help her at all (or as Erika puts it, it was useless). They were probably trying to make her join as a mascot figure, something that didn’t require the use of magic. So everything around her turned into chaos.

  Tatsuya couldn’t see what was going on through the line of people (he guessed that they were probably, at worst, only grabbing her arm, holding on to her, or even groping her). The atmosphere quickly turned murderous as this went on to a point where Tatsuya could no longer ignore it.

  Tatsuya only went ahead of her because he assumed that she would be able to fight her way through. A person would need a lot of training to restrain someone like Erika. He remembered how she was able to quickly flick the CAD out of Morisaki’s hands, and that move was not something that could be obtained in a year or so. Because of that, Tatsuya had confidence in her abilities.

  The ones who actually surrounded Erika were all female upperclassmen. It seemed like the males were not insolent enough to go around touching a girl’s body. He assumed that she would be able to break past girls who were only a year older than her, but that seemed to put her at a disadvantage. Erika was hesitant in using any violence.

  Just when Tatsuya thought about saving her, it occurred.

  "Hey, wait, where are you touching me? S... Stop…!"

  He started hearing cries of help from Erika. It looks like playtime is over.

  Tatsuya quickly engaged the CAD on his left arm. When the magic formulated, he kicked the ground and made it shake slightly. Physically, the vibrations he made from the shock weren’t visible, but he used magic to manipulate the vibrations he made and directed them towards the crowd.

  The vibrations weren’t enough to make a person unconscious. Tatsuya didn’t have the physical strength or the magic capability to make a vibration that large. But the vibrations did make everyone lose their sense of balance.

  As he pushed forward in the crowd everyone who was touched by Tatsuya fell over. After pushing a number of people over, both boys and girls, he was able to get to the center and break through the upperclassmen. Tatsuya then grabbed Erika’s hand and said "Run".
He pulled her hand and made his way out of the crowd.

  After slipping through the crowd like a magician, Tatsuya was able to run to a remote location between the buildings. After letting go of her hand and turning around, he finally realized the mess she was in. Her hair was messed up, her new uniform was wrinkled, her top was undone, and her necktie was in her hand since it had fallen off.

  Tatsuya, by pure coincidence, was able to see the skin underneath her uniform as she frantically tried to fix herself.

  "Don’t look!"

  Even though she was looking down, she was able to tell by the way Tatsuya’s feet were turning towards her. When she got back up to yell at him, his face was already turned the other direction.

  "…Did you see?"

  He could easily imagine her red face.

  "…"

  But Tatsuya was unable to give her an answer.

  He should say that he didn’t see. That would be the smart thing to do.

  But the slightly sunburned skin, her white breast, and her slim body. Even the beige-colored undergarments were all etched in his memory.

  "Did. You. See?!"

  It seemed like she was done dressing since he could no longer hear any rustling of clothes. At the same time, he understood that he didn’t have any more time to think based on the tone of her voice.

  Well, in that case I should be punched in the face then, he thought. Even though it wasn’t his fault, he should at least show some sincerity being the guy and all.

  —And so, after briefly escaping from reality, he turned around (now that he thought about it, he’s not completely innocent since he left her in the crowd in the first place).

  Thankfully she was actually done dressing up. If she wasn’t, then it would’ve probably made things much worse.

  Tatsuya was relieved in seeing her fully buttoned up with the neck tie woven tightly. But then Tatsuya thought, if she hadn’t loosened her neck tie and unbuttoned the top button in the first place, it wouldn’t have gotten so bad.

  "Sorry, I saw."

  But he did not dare say that. After seeing her red face and lines of tears that were left on her eyes, he couldn’t say anything.

  Erika glared at Tatsuya from below. She started becoming red again and clenched her fists, probably from remembering the shame she just suffered.

  "...Idiot!"

  She didn’t use her hands, but instead kicked him in the shin. But then, after she did that, she quickly turned around and walked away.

  Tatsuya silently followed her.

  Tatsuya couldn’t see her face, but he could tell it was filled with tears.

  He trained his shin so it can withstand a full-blown attack from a wooden sword.

  Her flexible shoes with no protection to the toes probably felt much more pain than he did. But, if he tried to say anything regarding that, she would probably just lash out again.

  All he could do was pretend not to notice the unnatural way she walked.

  ◇◇◇

  Even though tents were popped up all over school, it was only on the school grounds outside. Inside the buildings, there were demonstrations going on within the various club rooms.

  And also here in the gymnasium.

  The two made their way into the 2nd gymnasium, also known as the "Arena", where the Kendo club was performing.

  —By the way, at this point Erika had long cooled her head. She already knew that she was blaming him for something that he didn’t do. It also helped that he didn’t make any excuses toward her. Yet, she already started unbuttoning her top button and loosened her neck tie because "it was getting hot". She seemed to already be forgetting what she had gone through.

  The two looked down on the arena by the corridor at the Kendo club’s demonstrations.

  "Oh… even though it’s a Magic school, there’s a Kendo club."

  Erika nonchalantly said.

  "Isn’t it common to have a Kendo club at a school?"

  Tatsuya nonchalantly answered. But then Erika started staring at his face.

  "…Is there something wrong?"

  "…That’s unexpected."

  "What is?"

  "I didn’t know that there was something Tatsuya-kun didn’t know. Anybody who’s had martial arts training already knows about this."

  Tatsuya started to worry after listening to her.

  "Do I look like a person who acts like he knows everything?"

  "Ah, no, that’s not it. It’s just that you have that aura that you know everything."

  "Aura you say… I’m the same year as you remember? Oh well, putting that aside, why is having a Kendo club so special?"

  "Oh, right, you’re the same year as me… when you put it that way it’s kind of strange… ahhhh, anyway, Kendo right? If you’re aiming to become a Magician, Kendo isn’t something you do at a high school level. What Magicians typically use are magical sword skills based off from "Kenjutsu" and not "Kendo". You probably take Kendo up to elementary school to get the fundamentals of Kenjutsu, but during middle school, those who want to become Magicians already go to Kenjutsu instead.

  "Is that right… I thought Kendo and Kenjutsu were the same thing."

  "Wow, that’s really unexpected."

  After hearing Tatsuya say that, she really was surprised.

  "Even though you seem like you have so much martial arts experience… ah, I know!"

  "What?"

  Tatsuya was surprised by Erika’s sudden outburst.

  Well, he wasn’t the only one who was surprised. But Erika just ignored all that and just kept on making faces like "I got it" and "Everything makes sense now".

  "Hey Tatsuya, you’re assuming that all martial arts are combined with magic right? Not only martial arts but fighting spirits and things like that; you assume that magic is used to supplement the body when it moves around right?"

  "Isn’t it obvious? Muscle isn’t the only thing that makes the body move."

  From Tatsuya’s point of view, what Erika said was obvious to him, but Erika only seemed to nod with some kind of understanding.

  "Well, for Tatsuya it may be obvious. But in normal competitions that’s not the case."

  "I see."

  It was a roundabout way of saying it, but Tatsuya was now aware how his common sense was slightly off from hers.

  "Putting that aside, why don’t we just quietly watch the performance now?"

  This time it was Tatsuya’s turn to make Erika aware. When she followed his subtle glances, she saw that everybody was looking towards her. After letting out a nervous laugh, she became a quiet spectator.

  The practice rounds shown by the regulars were in full force. Especially what caught everyone’s eyes was the performance by a female 2nd Year student.

  She wasn’t large or anything; she had around the same body structure as Erika, but she was fighting on par with a man twice her size.

  Not just strength, but she was using graceful skills to parry her opponent’s attacks. She looked like she had some leeway.

  She had a certain beauty in the way she fought the practice rounds. All the spectators had their eyes on her.

  But there was an exception right here. Right after she defeated her opponent theatrically and bowed her head, Tatsuya heard a snort from beside him.

  "It seems like you didn’t enjoy it."

  "Huh? Well, yeah…"

  She didn’t realize that the statement was directed towards her so there was a slight pause in the answer.

  "…It’s so boring watching this though. She’s fighting with an opponent that has a much lower skill level than her, so she’s able to show off like that. Instead of a fight, it seems more like a rehearsal."

  "Well, you are right regarding that, but…"

  Tatsuya’s face let out a natural smile.

  "It’s a performance to promote their club remember? There are always pro martial artists who do showy moves to demonstrate live combat, but you can’t really show live combat to normal people. Live combat in mart
ial arts is basically trying to kill one another."

  "…You’re so cool-headed, aren’t you."

  "It’s just a difference of opinion."

  Erika looked away with an irritated face.

  But this is the facial expression she uses when she acts like she’s angry. She’s probably more angry towards the people who use martial arts as a flashy show than what it’s really supposed to be and finds those people dishonest.

  Even if Tatsuya puts those feelings into words, it would probably irritate her even further.

  He doubted that she would just jump into the fight, but he knew that she would do something similar to that. As Tatsuya was about to lead Erika away, something caught his attention.

  Just as the two were leaving the spectator corridor and about to exit the building, he started hearing a commotion. It seemed like someone was arguing.

  When he looked to his side, Erika was looking up at him. Her eyes were brimming with curiosity.

  The first one to dart off towards the commotion was Erika, while she grabbed Tatsuya’s sleeve.

  Tatsuya was essentially being dragged to the middle of the commotion.

  As the two pushed past the crowd (the only reason no one really got angry was because Erika smiled at them as she pushed on by), they saw a swordsman and a swordswoman confronting each other.

  The girl was the same girl who just participated in the practice round (or rehearsal as Erika puts it). Her chest plate was still on, but her helmet was off. She was a beautiful girl with semi-long black hair. She seemed perfect as an advertisement for the new student recruits with her looks and her skill.

  "Tatsuya, do you like those types of girls?"

  "No, you’re much prettier Erika."

  "…I’m not going to fall for that monotone voice of yours."

  Even though she was glaring at him, her face was subtly red.

  "Sorry, I’m not used to it."