by Sato Tsutomu
"The day before commencement...... No, the date had already changed. At any rate, the night before the opening ceremony, several miscreants sought to infiltrate the dorms. There were a total of three, each equipped with firearms."
"......That's the first I've heard of this!"
"That's because a gag order has been issued. By pure coincidence, I was on station when this occurred and may have supplied some assistance...... I also have some passing familiarity with their background. The ones who struck at this year's Nine Schools Competition appear to be a criminal organization out of Hong Kong."
The classified portions were filled in with a few white lies.
Mayumi didn't suspect his words at all.
"This time may have been coincidental...... But please refrain from such dangerous behavior in the future."
"If pressed for an answer, I feel that I'm always getting dragged into things."
Mayumi gazed suspiciously at Tatsuya shrugging his shoulders. But, as she quickly realized, this wasn't the time for that.
"OK...... Haven't you been asked to keep this under wraps? Thank you for telling me."
"In return, please don't let this spread."
"I know. I promise."
Mayumi raised her right hand as if she were solemnly swearing a vow.
At this perfectly natural yet mischievous action, Tatsuya almost burst into laughter.
"......Even though I know I shouldn't say this but I still want to say, I feel a lot more relaxed."
"......Indeed, those words cannot be heard anywhere else."
"No worries. I only say that in front of Tatsuya."
Keh, how should he interpret that? Tatsuya agonized over that point.
Don't tell me that she was linking this back to the "trustworthy little brother" line from several days ago?
As usual, Mayumi's thought pattern remained a complete mystery to Tatsuya.
◇◇◇
"What's the situation?"
"Just as planned. First High will have to withdraw from Monolith Code."
Yokohama, China Street, the highest floor in some hotel. Five men were seated around a round table with tea sets in a large room chiefly decorated in red and gold.
On the wall, there were images of a dragon in flight sewn with gold thread.
"Monolith Code is the single most valuable event. Even though the Newcomers Division is only worth half the points from the Official Division, this is still a major blow."
The men nodded with smiles plastered on their faces. However, their pallor was terrible and every one of their smiles was forced.
◇◇◇
Afterwards, Mayumi requested: "In order to avoid panic from spreading throughout the 1st Year female students, I'm counting on your support." Tatsuya remained in the pavilion...... Except he had no clue how to accomplish this.
He felt that it was the duty of the female upperclassmen to care for the mental status of their female underclassmen.
He deeply regretted his lackadaisical acceptance of this charge, so while he wore an expression that claimed "nothing had happened", he devoted himself thoroughly to CAD calibration for the upcoming events.
That was all he did, but for some reason, he became surrounded by the 1st Year female players.
This may simply be because Miyuki, who was one of the leaders of the 1st Year female players, stuck to him like glue. Initially, Tatsuya thought this was the case but unfortunately, he was not dull enough to believe this without question.
Their eyes were actually focused entirely on him.
These were not flirtatious looks. He was not narcissistic enough to misinterpret that, nor was he wilted enough to be able to not notice them.
At the same time, he was slightly bemused as to the exact meaning behind them — that was the only area where he was slow in.
Completely besieged by these silent gazes, this was an irritating condition to work under, but it's not like he could shoo them away either.
He refrained from engaging in conversation not because he was hindered by them. Lacking any other options, he elected to ignore them and adopt his usual procedure of silently continuing his work.
An eternally unchanging appearance.
An eternally enduring object.
He had no idea what value this possessed.
For someone who had always labored under restrictive conditions and was well aware of the intermittent nature of the world like Tatsuya, few things were truly eternal.
Even so, the young ladies quieted down gradually as they watched him work as if nothing had happened. All of this Miyuki beheld with her own eyes as she nodded in place of her brother and revealed a satisfied smile.
The greatest beneficiary from his normalcy — or even feigned normalcy — and its ensuing effect, was actually Honoka.
Initially, after hearing the "incident" surrounding Morisaki and the others, her face had turned completely pale. Yet, after watching Tatsuya plug away and attend the tactical meeting as if nothing had occurred, she gradually settled down as well.
The change was so complete that now Tatsuya was the uneasy one.
"There are no strategic adjustments from the preliminary round. In the end, Mirage Bat is a test of stamina."
Still, even if he felt uneasy, there was nothing he could do at this point.
The match was about to begin. He was pressed for time at the moment, so he could only table his unease and focus his concentration on the battle ahead.
"Avoid getting into a battle of attrition. The only thing you need to do is calmly make any necessary adjustments."
Under Tatsuya's watching gaze, Subaru nodded in an exaggerated fashion.
"Honoka, don't expend energy on excess techniques. Just as we practiced, there are fakes created from illusion magic that serve to waste your stamina."
Forewarned, it was Honoka's turn to nod.
"The only thing the two of you should be thinking is how to release your specialties to the fullest. Don't worry, know that we already own First and Second place right here."
At Tatsuya's daring proclamation of victory, both of them nodded in delight.
◇◇◇
While it was the height of summer, the longest days had already passed.
By 7 PM, the sun had long since set and the blue sky had been replaced by the hanging stars.
The surface of the lake reflected the overhanging starlight, causing the entire scene to flash brilliantly.
Among the stars, six young ladies stood on several raised pillars.
The thin uniforms that traced their figures did not include any amazing accessories or designs, but over the shimmering waves, they gave off an almost fey like aura. —That's why there were a lot of male fans flooding the stands.
Mirage Bat used special bats to strike away at the projections that floated 10 meters above the ground, with the highest total determining the victor.
While they said strike, in reality there was no sense of impact nor did the orbs shatter into pieces.
The reason behind this was because the bats in the players' hands would interact with the CAD and release a signal at the same location as the projections. Once they overlapped, the orb projections would automatically terminate upon registering the impacting signal and add the score to the striking player's column.
Winning this event required two skills.
The ability to swiftly leap to the same height as the floating projections.
And the ability to even more hastily locate each and every orb's location.
Of the two, it was the second that could be easily and unexpectedly overlooked. Since nothing was faster than light, immediately taking off after verifying the projection location was usually the swiftest choice. But — there were a few exceptions.
There were a few milliseconds of delay before the projection materialized in the air. If someone could detect the oscillations of the light waves even an instant earlier, they would be able to move towards the location of the light waves b
efore the orb had even formed.
Honoka was extremely adept at reading light waves – strictly speaking, the subtle changes in the Eidos of the light waves. This gave her a tremendous advantage during the elimination round.
The instant before the red orb materialized, Honoka had already activated her magic.
The other players could only watch helplessly as she seized the initiative.
The next orb materialized.
The color was blue. That color was lit for the longest time, so they were the easiest points to score.
Five players started their Activation Sequences.
The first into the air was Subaru.
Everyone started their Activation Sequence at the same time, but the first two to finish them were the players from First High.
Compared to the players in the event, it was the technicians on the outer perimeter that were furious at this outcome.
Since the difference was so splendidly displayed before their eyes, they were forced to admit the cause was the differences in CAD performance.
Since every school had an upper ceiling in terms of machinery, there was no significant difference in hardware capability.
Thus, the only difference lay in software performance.
In other words, the strength of the technician.
"Damn it! How can he fit such a complicated action into such a tiny Activation Sequence!"
Someone choked out in the back. They were probably using a Kirlian filter (a filter that could bring the psion density and activity into the visible spectrum) to take pictures of Honoka and Subaru activating and processing (from the start of the Activation Sequence to the beginning of the processing phase).
They leaped straight into the air — completely ignoring the effects of gravitational deceleration — towards the projections, stopped at the orbs, then immediately returned along the same axis after scoring the point and landed after expending all inertia.
Throughout this chain of movements, regardless of whether it was Honoka or Subaru, they never manipulated the CAD once. In other words, everything from the player leaping into the sky thanks to the Activation Sequence onward was completely written into the CAD.
The smaller the Activation Sequence, the faster the processing speed.
Likewise, the less Activation Sequences that needed to be processed, the less strain was placed on the player as well.
They were using the minimal Magic Power to accomplish phenomenon rewriting at the fastest possible speed.
"It's as if we're up against Taurus Silver himself out here!"
No one knew who made that comment in the ensuing ruckus.
"A-chan, what's wrong......?"
Azusa turned around to find Mayumi studying her strangely. Studying the wide-eyed, petrified her.
"No...... It's nothing."
Seeing Azusa curl into a ball, Mayumi replied with an "Is that so?", and turned back to observing the contest.
Azusa's reaction was well within the normal boundaries of her behavior, so there probably wasn't anything to it.
However, what was different was that something other than her usual embarrassment currently captured her heart.
(......As if, we're up against "Taurus Silver"?)
Somewhere, someone made that complaint.
Mixed into the middle of all the shrieks of delight and dismay, for some reason these particular words wormed their way into Azusa's ears.
(That fully manual Activation Sequence adjustment...... Connecting the main systems from the Generalized model to the subsystems of the Specialized model is the current cutting edge research...... The ability to use Loop Cast on Generalized CADs...... "Inferno"...... "Phonon Maser"...... "Niflheim"...... Every one of these are high class magics that have never had their Activation Sequences published......)
For someone who was also aiming to become a Magic Artificer, Azusa started thinking back on each "tour de force" that shocked the crowd time and time again.
(As if? We're up against Taurus Silver?
No, that...... If it wasn't Taurus Silver himself, this is simply impossible......)
— I wonder how shocking it would be if he turned out to be a Japanese teenager like us —
Suddenly, his voice rang out through Azusa's memories.
"......What's the matter? If you're not feeling well, go take a break!"
"No, really, it's nothing......"
Mayumi's anxious and concerned gaze was drawn towards Azusa who had suddenly leapt out of her seat. Yet, Azusa was beyond caring at this point.
The words that clearly rang out from her recollection. Maybe, that wasn't a guess at all......
(How is it possible? How is it possible how is it possible? How is it possible how is it possible how is it possible how is it possible?)
Those words occupied all of Azusa's consciousness.
Far away from those troubled thoughts, two of her underclassmen raced out to a dominating lead to greet the end of the first session.
◇◇◇
In the end, Mirage Bat for the Newcomers Division turned out just as Tatsuya predicted, with Honoka and Subaru in sole possession of First and Second Place. Immediately after the end of the match, Tatsuya was summoned to the conference room without any opportunity to partake in the fruits of victory.
Inside, the upperclassmen waiting for Tatsuya were wholly unlike his (female) peers who were delirious with joy, upperclassmen who were the utter masters of their emotions and hid them beneath solemn expressions.
Mayumi, Mari, Katsuto, Suzune, Hattori, Azusa.
Everyone from high command in First High was present.
In addition, Kirihara and Isori were also on the flanks.
Given that team members just suffered serious injuries, it was only natural that they could not appear delighted, but even so their expressions were a little stiff — as if dreading what was coming next. Especially Hattori, who apparently was at wit's end about what expression to adopt, so he chose to form a mask with his own face, with a thoroughly ill at ease expression.
This could not turn out well, so Tatsuya mentally fortified himself.
"Good work. Thanks to you, we obtained a far better result than any we could've hoped for."
Mayumi used a normal — more like official — choice of words.
Before she said this, Tatsuya's keen senses picked up how she and Katsuto exchanged a glance in a blink of an eye.
"That's all thanks to the players' diligence."
Tatsuya also replied back in a vague fashion. He hadn't felt this sort of tense atmosphere since he first enrolled here.
"Of course, credit is due to Mitsui-san and Satomi-san as well as all the other students who tirelessly trained to achieve this result.
However, everyone acknowledges that Tatsuya-kun's contribution is nothing short of outstanding.
We didn't suffer a single setback in any of the three events you were responsible for...... In terms of points, the fact that we are guaranteed at least Second Place in the Newcomers Division is all thanks to Tatsuya-kun."
"......Thank you very much."
Tatsuya executed a short and prudent bow.
They kept their eyes from matching as they waited for the other person to speak. Yet, Mayumi didn't cut to the chase.
Tatsuya slowly raised his eyes to find Mayumi using her eyes to stop Katsuto.
There appeared to be something difficult to speak of that Katsuto wanted to clarify.
What was it that warranted such a level of indecision?
Finally noticing that Tatsuya was intently watching her, Mayumi seemed to cave and briefly shut her eyes.
"As I said earlier, even if we withdrew from Monolith Code, we are still guaranteed Second Place in the Newcomers Division. Right now, there's a 50 point difference between First High and Third High. If Third High takes Second Place or higher in Monolith Code, they would take First Place overall in the Newcomers Division. We would retain First Place if they only achieve Third Place or below."
This way, there wouldn't be a huge gap in the rankings for the Newcomers Division, which was Tatsuya's objective all along for the combined score.
So what were they so anxious about?
Also, why was he summoned in the first place?
Tatsuya was also starting to fret now.
"Before the Newcomers Division, didn't we assume this would be enough......"
Mayumi could already detect his growing displeasure from his voice. In the midst of her suppressed expression, there were hints of a slightly harried look. What came out was an anxious, frantic voice.
"Since we've come so far,"
Even so, she wasn't settling down to re-examine the situation, but rushing for the finish line.
At this point, Tatsuya finally realized what they were going to ask of him.
"We wish to charge for First Place overall in the Newcomers Division."
At some point, Mayumi's tone had reverted to her normal level.
"Are you aware that Third High is dispatching Ichijou Masaki and Kichijouji Shinkurou for Monolith Code?"
At Mayumi's question, Tatsuya replied with a succinct "Yes".
"Exactly...... Setting aside Ichijou-kun for the moment, Tatsuya-kun may know more about the details surrounding Kichijouji-kun. With those two teaming up, the chances of them being upset in the elimination round is extremely remote. If we withdraw from Monolith Code, our chances of triumphing in the Newcomers Division vanish as well."
So, they wanted him—
"So Tatsuya-kun...... May we rely on you to replace Morisaki-kun and the others in Monolith Code?"
—The "thing" that Mayumi wanted him to do coincided exactly with what Tatsuya surmised.
"......May I ask two questions?"
"Of course, what is it?"
He was already 90% certain, but this was a good opportunity to verify things, Tatsuya thought.
"There are still two matches in the preliminary round that have been extended until tomorrow, correct?"
"Yes, you're right. Owing to this, tomorrow's schedule will change as well."