by Tsutomu Sato
Panicked, Hattori looked right and left. Then he was rocked by a violent “wave” from the side.
Three of them hit him in sequence.
Each separate wave overlapped inside his body, forming a giant undulation, and took his consciousness away.
The victor was decided in the blink of an eye.
The term insta-kill was extremely appropriate—the match hadn’t lasted five seconds.
On the other end of Tatsuya’s pointed CAD’s muzzle was Hattori, collapsed in a heap.
“…The winner is Tatsuya Shiba.” Mari was actually hesitant in announcing the result.
There was no joy on the victor’s face. He looked like he had just done what he needed to, without any emotion.
He gave a light bow and headed for the desk his CAD case was on. He wasn’t trying to strike a pose. It was clear he had no interest whatsoever in his victory.
“Wait,” Mari called out to stop him from behind. “Those movements… Did you expand a self-accelerating technique beforehand?”
At her question, Mayumi, Suzune, and Azusa reflected on the duel they’d just seen. At the same time the signal for the duel came out, Tatsuya’s body had moved right in front of Hattori. And in the next moment, his body was in a few meters to Hattori’s right side. It was so fast it looked like teleportation—a movement a physical human body should have been incapable of making.
“I believe you’re in the best position to know otherwise.” But this was as Tatsuya said.
As the referee, Mari had been keenly watching for any false starts activating their CADs. She had also theorized the presence of another, hidden CAD in addition to the one she saw, and had closely observed the flow of psions.
“It’s just that…”
“It wasn’t magic. It was a physical technique, plain and simple.”
“I can vouch for him. That’s the martial art my brother uses. He receives guidance from a ninjutsu user named Yakumo Kokonoe.”
Mari caught her breath.
She excelled in interpersonal combat, and she knew the name Yakumo Kokonoe quite well. Even Mayumi and Suzune, who didn’t know of Yakumo as well as Mari did, couldn’t conceal their surprise at how profound the old arts were, and how they allowed one to achieve movement on the level of magically assisted action using purely physical techniques.
Of course, they weren’t only surprised.
Mayumi offered a new question, from the point of view of someone studying magic.
“Then was the magic you used to attack ninjutsu as well? All I could see was you looking like you fired a wave of just psions, and nothing else.” Nevertheless, her voice and word choice were stiff and formal, possibly because of the amazement that she couldn’t conceal.
It was bad manners for magicians to pry into how exclusive techniques used by other magicians worked. But Mayumi, who could easily fire psionic bullets as her own special magic, couldn’t seem to suppress her interest in the mechanisms used by Tatsuya’s attack, which appeared to have used psions—particles without a physical function—as a weapon, to damage Hattori.
“It isn’t ninjutsu, but you’re correct that it was a psionic wave. It was a basic vibration-type spell. I only made psionic waves.”
“But that doesn’t explain why Hanzou went down…”
“He got sick.”
“Sick? From what, exactly?”
Taking care not to appear exasperated with the confused Mayumi, Tatsuya flatly continued his explanation. “Magicians can detect psions in the same way as visible light rays and audible sound waves. This is an indispensable skill for actually using magic. However, as a side effect, magicians exposed to unanticipated psionic waves actually feel like their bodies are jolting around. That was what he felt, and it had an effect on his physical body. It’s the same mechanism as in hypnotism, where if you suggest a person got sunburned, actual blisters appear on them. In this case, because of that rocking sensation, he essentially came down with a bad case of seasickness.”
“I don’t believe it… Magicians are exposed to psionic waves all the time. He should be used to them. Typeless magic goes without saying, but even activation and magic programs are types of psionic waves. So how on earth did you create a wave strong enough to cause a magician to lose his footing…?”
The one to answer Mayumi’s question was Suzune. “I see. Constructive interference.”
“Rin?” Even the sagacious Mayumi couldn’t understand what she meant from only that.
Of course, Suzune’s explanation wasn’t finished. “He created three psionic waves with different frequencies, set it up so that the three waves would combine right where Hattori was standing, and produced a strong, triangular wave. I’m impressed you can do such precise calculations.”
“You’re very perceptive, Ichihara.”
Suzune was struck dumb by Tatsuya’s calculation abilities, but Tatsuya thought to himself that she was more amazing for being able to realize that after seeing it only once.
But it seemed that Suzune’s actual question led elsewhere. “Still, how did you activate three magic waves in such a short period of time? With that level of throughput, your practical evaluation shouldn’t have been so low.”
Tatsuya couldn’t help but give a wry smile at being told outright that he had poor grades.
Instead, Azusa, who had been repeatedly glancing at Tatsuya’s hands unsteadily for a while now, timidly suggested an answer. “Umm, could your CAD be the Silver Horn?”
“Silver Horn? Silver—you mean the mysterious, genius magic engineer, Taurus Silver?”
Asked by Mayumi, Azusa’s expression immediately brightened. Azusa, sometimes teased as a “device nerd,” merrily began to speak.
“That’s right! The miraculous CAD engineer who works for Four Leaves Technology, whose real name, appearance, and profile are all shrouded in mystery! The genius programmer, the first in the world to implement the Loop Cast System!
“Oh, the Loop Cast System is, well. Normally, your activation program is erased every time you activate magic, and in order to execute the same technique again, the activation program needs to be reexpanded from the CAD, but loop casting is an activation program where you add the ability to take the activation program during the final phase and make a copy of it in your magic calculation region, which lets the magician keep activating the same magic for as far as their calculative capacities can handle it, which was all supposed to be possible in theory for a long time, but they could never quite distribute the calculative ability well enough to handle both the execution of the magic and the duplication of the activation program, so—”
“Okay, okay! We know what loop casting is.”
“Is that so…? Anyway, the Silver Horn is the name of a specialized CAD model that was fully customized by Taurus Silver! Obviously it’s optimized for loop casting, and even its ability to activate magic smoothly with the minimum amount of magic power received high reviews, and in particular, it’s superpopular among the police! So much so that despite being a model currently in production, it’s been featured in tons of premium deals! And that one is a limited-edition model where the gun barrel is longer than a normal Silver Horn, isn’t it? Where on earth did you get that?”
“Ah-chan, calm down a little, okay?”
Her chest was rising and falling heavily—had she run out of breath?—and her eyes were heart-shaped as she gazed at Tatsuya’s hands. If Mayumi hadn’t chided her, she might have gotten so close that she would have pressed her face against it.
On the other hand, Mayumi’s head tilted again with a new question. “But, Rin, that’s still strange, isn’t it? His CAD may be highly efficient and optimized for loop casting, but loop casting in the first place, it’s…”
Suzune tilted her own head as well when this subject was broached instead of nodding. “Yes, it is odd. Loop casting is purely used to activate the same exact magic more than once. He may have used vibration magic all three times, but loop casting automatically keeps cr
eating whatever the magician sets up. It couldn’t have created multiple waves with the differing frequencies needed for that constructive interference. You can probably create different frequency waves in sequence required for the interference with the same activation program if you made the part that determines the frequency into a variable, but if you had to make that into a variable along with the coordinates, intensity, and duration… Are you telling me you pulled all that off?”
This time, Suzune had stumbled on her words for real. Tatsuya casually shrugged off her gaze. “Multiple variables aren’t part of evaluating processing speed, or calculation scope, or interference intensity, after all.” Mayumi and Mari stared at him fixedly, and Tatsuya answered them by bragging with the same uninterested tone of voice as before.
“…One’s evaluation of magical power during the practical exam is decided by the speed at which he activates the magic, the scope of the magic program, and the intensity with which he overwrites the target information. I see—I guess this is another example of tests not measuring someone’s true abilities…”
The groaned answer to Tatsuya’s cynical words came from Hattori, who had sat up on the floor.
“Hanzou, are you all right?” Mayumi bent over a bit and leaned forward and looked at him.
“I’m okay!” Hattori hastily stood up, as if to get away from her suddenly close face.
“I’m sure. You were awake the whole time, after all.” Hattori’s words couldn’t have been spoken if he hadn’t heard what the girls had been talking about. Mayumi straightened back up and nodded, convinced.
Hattori replied to her, “No, I actually wasn’t conscious at first!” His face went red, and he urgently began explaining himself again. “Even after I woke back up, everything was hazy… I only got control of my body back just now!”
He looked very—how to put it?—Tatsuya could easily predict what kind of emotion he was feeling.
“Is that so…? Nevertheless, you seem to have understood everything we’ve been talking about.”
“… I mean, even though it was hazy, it still got to my ears, I guess…”
And it seemed Mayumi herself was fully aware of the emotions Hattori directed at her.
Is she evil?
But there was something out of place between the image evoked by the word evil and the atmosphere she gave off, so Tatsuya stopped thinking about it. He had also realized it didn’t really matter all that much. He got back to what he’d been doing before Mari stopped him.
…Though it was nothing that exaggerated—he was just putting his CAD back in the case. He pretended not to notice Azusa’s wishful staring at his hands. And he ignored his sister’s gaze as she tried to help him.
Because Miyuki wasn’t very good with machines.
She wasn’t completely averse to technology or anything, but because his CAD was tuned very specifically, it wasn’t something a normal high school student would be able to deal with. (On the other hand, CADs given only the most minor of adjustments, like the practical ones used in school, wouldn’t let Tatsuya fully display his skill.) Even if Miyuki helped, the truth was she would only end up making it take longer.
As Tatsuya was rummaging around, resetting the security and exchanging the cartridge, he heard footsteps and felt a presence approach him from behind. It looked like his excuses were over. He didn’t mind leaving what he was doing until later, but he still didn’t turn around.
“Shiba…”
“Yes?” answered Miyuki in an evasive tenor.
There were only two males in this room, and one was Tatsuya. Even if his tone of voice made him sound like a different person, there was no mistaking who was talking.
“About before, well… I said some rude things, like you having favoritism.”
And there was no doubt about who the voice was speaking to, either.
“No, my eyes were what were clouded. I hope you can forgive me.”
“No, I said some pretty cheeky things. Please forgive me.”
He knew even over his back that he was bowing very deeply.
Tatsuya locked his case shut, smirking at Miyuki’s adult behavior. Just who was the older sibling here, anyway?
Then, he deliberately turned around.
Hattori’s face betrayed a momentary falter, but he immediately regained his self-assured expression.
Was this breather in preparation of making a truce or a herald of a rematch?
Those possibilities both disappeared without being realized. In the end, Hattori and Tatsuya simply glared at each other, and the former turned on his heel.
He sensed that Miyuki beside him was a little miffed, so he gently patted her shoulder.
She would be working with Hattori in the student council from today on, so it wouldn’t do her any good to let this leave a bad taste in her mouth. As if Miyuki understood his intent, she quickly calmed down.
“Let’s go back to the student council room,” suggested Mayumi. With that, everyone present began to move.
As Suzune, Azusa, and Hattori followed behind her, Mayumi looked like she wanted to complain about something.
Mari was behind them. When she realized Tatsuya was looking at her, she shrugged to him without letting the other four see.
After Tatsuya gave his CAD back to the office, he came back to the student council room. As soon as he got there, Mari suddenly latched on to his arm.
Miyuki, being taught how to use the workstation along the wall by Azusa, looked to him and raised her eyebrows. He tried to send her a I couldn’t do anything about it message with his eyes…but he doubted whether she understood it. He might have had a momentary lapse as he forced his body not to give its automatic reaction of throwing Mari off of him, but the girl still seemed to have quite a high level of martial ability.
“Okay, a whole bunch of unplanned things happened, but let’s get to the committee room. That was the original plan, after all.”
Without regard for Tatsuya’s inner thoughts (which were mostly ones of bewilderment), Mari pulled his arm along.
After seeing Tatsuya make an uncooperative face, Miyuki finally returned her eyes to the terminal—albeit reluctantly.
Hattori hadn’t looked up from what he was doing even once since Tatsuya entered the room. It seemed like he had come to terms with his emotions and had decided on ignoring him. That was something Tatsuya was grateful for as well.
Mayumi was thoughtlessly waving to him with only her hand. What did she want to do—or say…? She was probably the most baffling person he had met here.
But that, too, was something for later. He struggled (well, pretended to struggle) to get his arm out of Mari’s, then obediently followed her.
There was a direct staircase down to the disciplinary committee headquarters in the back of the room, where there would normally be an emergency escape.
Are they ignoring fire safety regulations? thought Tatsuya, but despite the students being just that—in training, magicians in the making—there still wasn’t much point in adhering to fire laws in a place filled with superior magicians. One could get rid of fire by using vibration and deceleration magic, and smoke could be eliminated with binding/movement compound magic. In reality, large-scale fires in superskyscrapers were one of the most spectacular arenas for magicians.
He changed his mind—he supposed he could let it slide as long as it wasn’t an elevator.
He followed her through the back door and set foot into the headquarters. Mari indicated the chairs in front of a long table.
“It’s a bit of a mess, but you can sit wherever you like.”
A bit?
Certainly, it wasn’t so messy that you couldn’t move across the floor or couldn’t sit down because of things piled up on the chairs.
But having just come from the extremely neat and tidy student council room, he couldn’t help but feel a bit of resistance to calling this “a bit messy.”
Documents, books, portable terminals, CADs—things of all kinds were
burying the surface of the long desk table. There was a chair pulled halfway out, so he strolled over that way and took a seat.
“The disciplinary committee is like an all-male household. I keep telling them pretty strictly to keep everything in order here, but…”
“If nobody’s here, then it’s not going to get clean.” Tatsuya’s remark could be taken as sarcasm or comfort—Mari’s eyebrow twitched.
“…Well, patrolling school grounds is our main job. We can’t help the room being empty.”
The two of them were currently the only ones in there. The disciplinary committee had nine members, but this deserted room seemed like it could fit twice that. It made the mess amplify the sense of chaos in the room. Of course, Tatsuya wasn’t paying attention to the state of affairs of the room as a whole, but the various items all over the table.
“Either way, Chairwoman, can I clean these things up?”
“What…?” Tatsuya’s sudden request caused Mari to raise an eyebrow in surprise.
—Contrary to his expectations, she seemed to be the dramatic type.
“As someone striving to be a magic engineer, it’s difficult for me to endure seeing CADs in such a disorderly state. And it looks like there are terminals here that have been left in hibernation.” Still, though, it didn’t change Tatsuya’s response.
“A magic engineer? Even though you have personal combat skills like that?” Mari seriously seemed confused by what he said.
The duel before ended pretty simply and easily, but high-level personal combat skills that could be described as “insane” had been used during it.
“With my talents, I wouldn’t be able to get any more than a Class C license, no matter how much I struggled.”
However, when Mari tried to argue against his masochistic answer, which he gave like it was none of his concern, she was astonished to find that she couldn’t find the words to do it with.
In many countries, magicians were managed with a license system. Many of those places had introduced a national standard of license issuing, and this country was one of them. Whether for employment at a corporation, in a public office, or for starting your own business, a certain license was required to do jobs depending on their difficulty. It was set up so that those with higher-ranked licenses would be paid higher rewards. There were five levels in the international licensing system, from A to E. Being chosen for a license was based on one’s speed, scale, and level of interference of constructing and executing magic programs, just like the practical skills evaluation in schools. In fact, the schools’ skills evaluation standards were created to be in alignment with the international license evaluation standards.