Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 04 - Nine Schools Competition (II)

by Sato Tsutomu

  The reason behind the designs was to prevent midair collisions between players and it became an unwritten rule based on previous experience.

  The primary color that covered Miyuki was a deep magenta.

  A tiny shade off and this would be a helplessly coarse color, but Miyuki wore this with an aura of nobility.

  Neither did the cosmetics with UV protection take away from her elegance.

  Her fair and graceful form was still developing, but when she extended her slim limbs, this painted a glorious vision of her beautifully curved bosom and slender waist, all of this combining to give off intimate charm of a blooming flower rather than a sheer animal desire.

  No two ways about it, her beauty was breathtaking.

  No one was going to second anyone anything as they all leaped towards the targets. Among them all, only one person could be worthy of the term "floating".

  Miyuki captured everyone's gaze once more.

  If this match was judged by the beauty of dance alone, she was unquestionably First Place.

  Yet, as expected of the Official Division with its numerous aces, the Nine Schools Competition could not be underestimated.

  "Someone is actually leading against Miyuki-chan..."

  When the signal sounded to end the first round, Mizuki held her breath and seemed to expel out a series of "disbelieving" words.

  "The player from Second High who is first place... Even if she isn't a BS Magician, but plainly, she has refined the 'Leaping' spell into a specialized magic spell..."

  "Not just that. She also takes her trajectory into account and neatly obstructs Miyuki's path. Rather than calling her an expert in 'Leaping', she's more like an expert in 'Mirage Bat', right?"

  Mikihiko and Erika both shared Mizuki's shock while they offered their own opinions.

  "That's because the player from Second High was another favored candidate to take the crown alongside Watanabe-senpai..."

  "Can't say anything about being noticed after that conspicuous display. Also, the pride of the Year 3 students is on the line."

  Honoka and Shizuku, who were in the normal audience stands today, each expressed their agreement from different perspectives.

  "However, this is not the end."

  Leo's bright declaration seemed to blow the depressed air around them to the four corners of the earth.

  In the next round, Miyuki managed to make up for lost ground and exited the second round in First Place.

  However, her lead was slim. Miyuki still had strength within her, but her opponent appeared to be making adjustments for the third round as well.

  Victory was still uncertain.

  While it has been said that magic has become more constrained due to a limited number of combinations, for someone to be able to fight Miyuki to a standstill at the high school level surprised Tatsuya to no end.

  "This country is so small yet so broad at the same time..."

  Tatsuya muttered to himself in front of Miyuki, who was busy regulating her breathing.

  Instead of watching his sister, he directed his gaze towards Second High's box.

  ...Just then, someone suddenly yanked his sleeve.

  Looking down, he found Miyuki standing from her chair and watching him with eyes that shone with a brilliant glint.

  "—Onii-sama, may I use that?"

  Her eyes, her voice, and her slim fingers that clung to his sleeve sent the message, "I don't want to lose".

  She wasn't just a beautiful, adorable "doll". Tatsuya delighted in seeing her expression that carried such a powerful will.

  Her mouth naturally parted and her eyes narrowed slightly.

  "...Of course. All is as you will."

  He originally prepared that as the ace in the hole for the finals.

  Still, Tatsuya abandoned his original game plan and nodded his assent.

  "Eh? Miyuki's CAD has changed."

  Seeing Miyuki standing on the field of the final round, Erika was the first to notice the change.

  Until now, Miyuki held her usual smartphone-shaped CAD, yet now she wore a bracelet-shaped CAD on her right wrist.

  "But, she looks like she's holding a CAD in her left hand too..."

  Mikihiko also took a look. In their group of friends who were mystified by this turn of events, Honoka was the only one who nodded emphatically.

  "Yes... Miyuki wanted to try that long ago..."

  "That?"

  Hearing Shizuku's question, Honoka replied back with a longing expression that was mixed with frustration.

  "The secret weapon Tatsuya-kun prepared only for Miyuki. A secret weapon that Tatsuya-kun devised that only Miyuki can control. This will be a shocker... Definitely! Everyone present here, without a single exception!"

  What exactly is it — before Shizuku could make her inquiry, the signal sounded for the start of the third round.

  The bracelet on her right wrist was only the back up. The real one was the smartphone-shaped Specialized CAD held in her left hand.

  The simplistic command interface only contained the on and off buttons. Once the starting signal went off, Miyuki swiftly tapped the on switch.

  A tiny Activation Sequence started spreading out.

  The sequence never halted nor paused as it repeatedly began processing automatically.

  Following that, Miyuki's body started floating into the air.

  The player from Second High was directly in her path.

  Her trajectory would place her to Miyuki's lower left.

  Owing to her opponent's faster rising speed, Miyuki would end up crashing into her if she continued forward.

  Miyuki used her accelerated flying speed to avoid the collision.

  The audience raised a clamor after Miyuki eliminated the orb and slightly turned in place as she became still in midair.

  During her leap, she had applied additional Magic Power to accelerate again.

  The gasps from the audience only reflected their cursory understanding of the basics of magic.

  However, Miyuki paused briefly in the air then immediately proceeded towards the next target without landing. Once this scene was imprinted into their eyes, the cheers were shocked into silence.

  Two, three, four...

  The other players who had to continuously jump back and forth across the 10 meter height had no way of competing against Miyuki, who only had to move parallel to the earth.

  After she had seized the fifth point, the audience's frozen vocal cords finally started to thaw.

  "Flying-Type Magic...?"

  Some unidentified individual murmured aloud.

  Even the players could only stare in amazement as they gaped at the skies.

  With the players not even making any jumping or landing sounds, this soft grumble reverberated throughout the silent arena.

  With bat in hand, Miyuki's appearance took on that of an avenging angel of heaven, but never lost her grace and beauty.

  "Taurus Silver's...?"

  The whispering started a chain reaction,

  "Bullshit, how can that be..."

  "That was just released last month..."

  And quickly rippled through the crowd.

  "But that..."

  "No doubt about it, that's Flying-Type Magic..."

  Without a single exception, everyone's eyes were glued to the young lady dancing through the skies.

  In the skies, a fairy was waltzing over the lake.

  Her arms spread out to maintain her balance and her lovely legs swayed lightly to change her stance as if the spring breeze itself was her dancing partner.

  Actually flying through the skies was nothing short of revolutionizing modern magic, and no one was more appropriate to perform this miraculous feat said to be "impossible" than this beautiful young lady before them... Surpassing age, gender, and even the enmity, all were mesmerized by the young girl dancing through the sky.

  They were all touched by this magic that simply went beyond modern or ancient magic.

  By the ti
me the ending signal sounded, this spellbinding magic wasn't dispelled until the young lady landed before them.

  —In Mirage Bat's preliminary round, first arena, second match, Miyuki stormed into the finals by a dominating lead.

  ◇◇◇

  The audience finally recovered their wits when the players started leaving the arena.

  The players did not depart in sequence.

  At the end of the match, the players closest to the exit left first.

  Miyuki, who landed in the center of the lake, was the third out of the four people to leave.

  After extending a deep bow towards First High's supporters in the stands, Miyuki lightly leaped into the air and flew across the sky towards the exit like a figure skater gliding across the ice.

  Her graceful motions prompted a thunderous applause from the audience.

  In the stands, numerous individuals could be seen frantically typing away on their portable messaging terminals.

  Some were overly excited to the point that they sent scattered spittle as they shouted into the microphone; others had to repeatedly shout the same words over and over into the phone, yet still wound up with a headache because of the speaker on the other line; still others furiously ran their fingers through their hair as if mad while their fingers danced across the keyboard; there were others who jotted down their thoughts on erasable boards... All sorts of people used a myriad ways to convey their amazing experience to others who were not present.

  Among them, one strange, expressionless man was staring at the messages from the HMD. However, no one seemed to remark on his presence.

  ◇◇◇

  "Number 17 has reported in. The target from the second match has passed the preliminary round."

  "...It's the opponent who saw through Golden Electron Silkworms. This is the expected result... But things are looking grim."

  "Not just that. The target also used Flying-Type Magic!"

  "Bullshit, how can that be possible!?"

  "If the target is exhausted then we lucked out... Was that too optimistic?"

  "I don't think this is the time to quibble over the methods, right?"

  "I agree. One hundred deaths or so would be enough. The competition would be forced to end prematurely."

  "Once the competition ends, we would have to return the original bets. While there will be some loss, that's well within our limits."

  "Won't our customers balk at this? Setting aside the guys from our line of work, those weapon merchants will be a hassle. Those guys maintain close relationships with various governments around the globe."

  "It doesn't matter what excuse we give to the customers. Currently, rather than worrying about the merchants of death, we should be more concerned about the organization's purging."

  "Exactly... Will it be OK just leaving this to Number 17?"

  "People with only a modicum of ability are no match for a 'Generator'. Unfortunately, no weapons could be brought in, but Number 17 is a high speed model. Once the limiter is removed, that thing can easily kill anywhere between 100 and 200 people with its bare hands."

  "So we are all in accord...? Then remove the limiter."

  ◇◇◇

  Once the tide of enthusiasm ebbed, the man removed the CAD and slowly rose in a crowd that was slowly departing for other matches.

  The exposed eyes give off an "emotionless" impression.

  No, this wasn't a blank expression, wasn't this like he lacked emotions in the first place?

  It was an utterly lifeless "expression".

  Suddenly, the man's body started shaking.

  In a flash, he activated personal Speed-Type Magic.

  Before the Magicians around him could detect the charged magic aura, the man pounced towards the man who just passed by him.

  His outstretched fingers plunged downwards like claws towards the unprotected back.

  —Afterwards, the stage switched to the exterior of the observation deck without anyone being the wiser.

  By the time that man, "Generator" Number 17, had grasped the situation, he was only three meters off the ground.

  The first target he chose after receiving the kill order had managed to avoid his attack even though his back was facing him. Even if this was a full frontal assault, this reaction speed was not something mere human cognition could accomplish.

  Through personal Speed-Type Magic, Magicians could surpass the physical movement limits of flesh.

  Yet magical acceleration ultimately was only physical and not directly accelerating — biological reactions, signal relay for the nervous system, the brain's processing ability — the mental processing speed itself.

  Human senses surpassed physical motion, so it was possible to mentally control physical movements that have been accelerated beyond normal limits. However, the reverse was not true. In other words, Magicians were still biological organisms with upper limits. While magical acceleration had no glass ceiling in terms of magic, there was still a finite amount that the brain could command.

  In that case, his accelerated movements coupled with chemically enhanced mental processing abilities shouldn't be something that normal humans — even humans who could wield magic were ultimately mortal — should be able to handle.

  Yet the reality was that his stabbing forearm was caught and used as a fulcrum to throw Number 17 into the air using his downward force as added momentum.

  Just like he was doing a somersault over a horse, he went heads over heels in the air. During the instant he was upside down, a powerful force smashed Number 17 past the railing of the observation deck and sent him hurtling out of the arena.

  This was Move-Type Magic that intentionally omitted the accelerated processes.

  He was almost knocked unconscious by the blow and by the time he recovered his senses, he had nearly reached the end of the trajectory and was about to collide with the ground from a height of 20 meters.

  Normally, this situation called for an individual to huddle into a ball or flail about in a panic as they helplessly plummeted to the earth, but this man was a "Generator".

  He was a reconstructed individual — created through a combination of surgery and magically crafted medicinal herbs, hereby eradicating free will and emotions and completely controlling all thoughts and flushing all unnecessary thoughts that might obstruct magic activation.

  A biological weapon forged to wield magic in the heat of battle.

  A Magician re-purposed to be a tool for using magic, a "Generator".

  Terror and panic held no meaning to tools.

  Number 17 calmly — more like coldly applied Inertia Neutralization Magic.

  Casting deceleration right now would be like hitting the emergency brakes, but injuries would be unavoidable. Compared to that, reducing inertia could help mitigate some of the damage caused by the severe shock upon contact. This was the result of almost instantaneous calculation.

  The magical herb's effects not only adjusted personal consciousness, emotions and perception, they also improved physical mobility. By using the elasticity within his feet as well as the muscles within his thighs and arms, he completely absorbed the shock from his fall.

  "You were able to make it in time even under those conditions. You do have a few tricks up your sleeve."

  On all four limbs, Number 17 raised his face towards the source of the voice and found the man who had thrown him into the air.

  "Who are you? ...No, never mind. Not like you can answer anyways."

  Captain Yanagi of the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion let out a dismissive smile and peered down at Number 17, who was still crouched on the ground.

  "Your physical abilities can't be from magic alone. Are you an augmented human?"

  Seeing his opponent adopt a combat stance even after being flung over the railings from the height of a medium sized building, Yanagi's tone was laced with mockery and amazement alike.

  "Yanagi-kun was the one who said there's no need to answer. Also, the other guy probably do
esn't want to talk to a guy who also jumped from the same height but didn't need to use his hands to cushion himself, right?"

  Number 17 whirled around like a four legged carnivore.

  Having appeared sometime during this exchange, Captain Sanada Shigeru of the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion stood there as if to cut off his retreat.

  Despite this, if he actually chose to flee, Number 17 could still probably accomplish this with ease.

  In terms of sheer speed, "Generator" Number 17 surpassed the two men from the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion.

  However, the order Number 17 received was "massacre the spectators". For a "Generator" with no emotions and thoughts, the only thing that determined his actions were orders from the organization.

  In accordance with these orders, Number 17 once again pounced towards the "spectator" Yanagi.

  Before Number 17 could touch him, Yanagi raised his right hand.

  Even though Number 17 had the edge in speed, he chose to not avoid this hand.

  Number 17 lowered his center of gravity and charged as if being led, sending his head crashing into Yanagi's palm.

  Yanagi and Number 17 passed each other by a hair.

  Number 17 was flung back to his starting position without even touching a hair on Yanagi's body.

  "That was a rhetorical question. I was just talking to myself."

  Yanagi nonchalantly replied to Sanada.

  "Let's just leave it at that. However, that amazes me every time. Was that the application of 'Revolution' right there?"

  By predicting an opponent's application of force and combining physical techniques with magic to lure, amplify, and flip. That's how Yanagi used his favored technique to send Number 17 flying.

  "I've said this a lot of times, this isn't 'Revolution'. This is 'Return'. 'Revolution' is the spell, 'Return' relies on internal ki. There are also a few differences in practice. Originally, my approach was nothing more than an imitation anyways. A true 'Return' requires no magic."

  "Well, that's starting to infringe on the meaning of our existence. Should I inform the major?"