Volume 12, Chapter 6

April 8th, the morning of the first day of school for First High School, which was attached to the National Magic University.

Today, there were no ill mannered stares lying in wait for them on the route to school; all three of them, Tatsuya, Miyuki and Minami arrived at First High School two hours before the admissions ceremony. It goes without saying that commuting to school at this hour was in order to make preparations for the entrance ceremony. The three of them went straight to the site of their first appointment, the auditorium’s preparation room. Minami was bothered by the fact that she, herself, was an outsider, but since she had not acquired much experience escorting Miyuki, Tatsuya had forced her to accompany them.

Isori and Honoka were already gathered in the prep room. “Good morning, Tatsuya-san! Morning, Miyuki!” “Morning, Shiba-kun. Right on time.”

As Miyuki and Honoka exchanged greetings, Isori spoke to Tatsuya to their side.

“Good morning. You’re early, Isori-senpai.”

“It’s my nature. If I don’t come early, I can’t stay calm.”

After he smilingly answered Tatsuya’s greeting, Isori’s eyes went to Minami, who was waiting behind Miyuki.

“By the way, who is that girl? A new student?” “Of course, Minami.”

“Yes, Tatsuya-niisama.”

“Niisama? Shiba-kun, do you have a younger sister other than Miyuki- san?”

In a sense, Isori had given him just the question he wanted. “No, my cousin.”

Tatsuya replied with the lie he had prepared before hand.

“Minami, this is Isori-senpai.”

“Nice to meet you, Isori-senpai, I am Sakurai Minami. Thank you for the care you have always given to Tatsuya-niisama and Miyuki-neesama.”

The overly polite speech Minami provided to greet Isori at Tatsuya’s direction did not cause Isori to display any feelings of unease.

“Nice to meet you, Minami-san.” “I’m very honored to meet you.”

Just as Minami once again sent a polite nicety towards Isori, Azusa, Kanon and the first year representative, Shippou Takuma, entered. (By the way, Kanon had already made one round of checking the guest chairs.)

“Good morning.. could it be that I’m the last one?” “Good morning, President. You are precisely on time.”

Miyuki replied to Azusa, who had asked that question with a slightly surprised look, with a smile. Actually, she was three minutes late, but Miyuki’s smiling face carried the intimation that any further apologies would not be allowed.

“Good morning, Isori-senpai, Shiba-senpai.”

After getting Azusa to swallow the apologetic complaints they expected from her, Takuma stepped forward from behind her and spoke to first Isori, then Tatsuya.

“Morning, Shippou-kun.”

He made a silent bow to Isori’s reply and then turned around to face Miyuki and Honoka.

“Shiba-senpai, Mitsui-senpai, good morning. Please take care of me, today.”

Could he be nervous? Compared to the attitude Takuma hit them with the day before yesterday, the change was laudable.

“Good morning, Shippou-kun. Please give it your all today.”

However, Miyuki was not a gentle girl who could be moved by something like that. Her smile was magnificent, her tone was gentle. The perfect face of a lady in what was known as an impeccable social mask. Only

Takuma’s attitude had changed; he had not apologized for his rude manner the other day. Miyuki did not intend to make any concessions from her side as long as he didn’t make any apologies to her elder brother.

Azusa and Isori looked confused by the smile so formal that no one could complain about it. With nothing to indicate ill intentions, they could not rebuke Miyuki. On the other hand, they could not let the uncomfortable mood that had started to spread simply be. Azusa requested help from Tatsuya with her puzzled eyes.

“Since all of us are here, let’s go over the order of the ceremony first.”

However, Tatsuya’s only answer to that was to continue speaking as if nothing was wrong.

“That’s right, we shouldn’t waste time.”

Without a moment’s delay, Kanon provided supportive agreement. She too had probably decided that they needed to forcefully gloss over this scene.

“Then, starting with the arrangements for thirty minutes before the admissions ceremony. The guiding of guests is Miyuki’s charge, the reception room is Honoka’s..”

This was originally Azusa’s duty, but Tatsuya was not concerned with that as he continued with the rehearsal arrangements. It wasn’t right for Minami to be in this place, but no one pointed it out and it was completely forgotten.

And the rehearsal immediately before the ceremony proceeded safely in the strained atmosphere that did not allow them the luxury of feeling pressured by the imminence of the actual event. Azusa and the others breathed a sigh of relief as it finished; in spite of the entrance ceremony starting in thirty minutes, they were very relaxed or rather they were in an exhausted state. Tatsuya thought they were letting their attention wander a little too much, but it wasn’t Tatsuya’s job to point that out. Besides, it was better than getting too worked up beforehand that they were useless when the main event started. Reconsidering things, Tatsuya set about his own work.

“I’m going to guide the new students.” “Oh; take care, Oniisama.”

“Ah, thank you for your work.”

As Miyuki and Azusa saw him off from the side of the stage and Minami bowed a silent goodbye, Tatsuya departed the auditorium.

His duty before the ceremony was to guide students who didn’t know where the event was. Last year, when Tatsuya met Mayumi, it was because she was assigned with the same job. When he heard that at the end of March when the jobs were assigned, Tatsuya hadn’t felt it was a suitable job for the student council president, who had important duties just before the actual ceremony. However, he had now reconsidered and he thought it might have been an excuse to go outside and relieve her tension.

There was no way he himself was tense to that extent. Nevertheless, he was aware of a slight sense of freedom. Perhaps this was only natural, to be more at ease outside in the wind instead of inside preparing for a formal ceremony. Maybe, he resembled Mayumi on this point.

Possibly, because he was thinking about that stuff, “Ah, Tatsuya-kun.”

“Saegusa-senpai? Good morning.”

Soon after he ventured in to the front yard, he unexpectedly met with Mayumi.

“Saying.. it’s been a while would be strange. Are you the new student guide?”

“Ah, yes.”

“So as planned, you joined the Student Council.”

The student assigned the task of guiding new students wouldn’t be anyone other than a member of the student council. The Public Morals Committee members were also patrolling in order to police the grounds, and temporary officials were also making the rounds. Thus, she shouldn’t be able to conclude that he was an officer of the Student Council just from his answer, but Tatsuya did not say anything to refute the happily giggling Mayumi at all. He had, in fact, joined the Student Council, and another matter had caught his attention.

It did not really need saying, but Mayumi had graduated from First High School last month. Therefore, she wasn’t wearing a uniform; this too was only natural. However, it probably couldn’t be called ‘expected’ for her to be here in attire that looked very mature.

This was not the first time Tatsuya had seen Mayumi in non-uniform clothing. Last summer, when they departed for the Nine Schools Competition, he had seen her in a fairly spectacular summer dress. However, at the time, although she had been showing more skin, he hadn’t felt like he was seeing a different person.

However, the Mayumi who was now clad in a feminine suit seemed older and a different person than she had been last month. The frills from her blouse were arranged in her chest area, she had a short jacket, and she also had on a tight skirt which did not give off an impression completely different than that of a high school girl. Could it be because of her deep red high heel pumps? Could it be because she had augmented her coloring with light makeup? Could it be because she had exchanged her large hair ribbon that held back her hair for an amber colored barrette? Perhaps, everything from the top on down created the effect and more than anything else, Mayumi had gone up one more rung of the ladder to adulthood.

“Not even a month has passed since graduation, but ..for some reason, you don’t recognize me, Tatsuya-kun.”

While Tatsuya had been thinking about those things, Mayumi herself on the other hand had claimed ‘that he didn’t recognize her’ and penetrated the — what can probably be called inevitable — hole in his defenses.

“That may be true.”

Mayumi smiled warmly at Tatsuya, who had just barely managed to reply.

“Eh. That uniform.. it’s the Magic Engineering Course one, right? It’s different from last year’s.”

“I think my uniform is the only thing that’s changed.”

His comment wasn’t to hide his embarrassment — it was his actual opinion. That was what he really thought, but,

“No, I think you may not be aware of it yourself, but last year when we first met in this same season, the Tatsuya-kun who was wearing the Second

Course uniform had a completely different look than the present Tatsuya- kun. Compared to last year, you look more at ease.”

Tatsuya did not dispute the claim Mayumi was making because he could not dispute them.

The fact was that he himself was not aware of it. That he was not self- aware was the truth.

To put it plainly, he had a bit of an inferiority complex about ordinary things.

“I concede. I do not understand my own self.”

Tatsuya bravely raised a white flag. This was not merely lip service. ‘Even though you try to understand yourself, you really can’t’ had been a bit of ancestral wisdom that had been around forever; he thought from his heart that this was the reason for his admission of defeat. However, seeing Mayumi just throw out her chest in triumph, a seed of rebellion sprouted within Tatsuya.

“You called it failing to recognize you, but I think Senpai has changed way more than me.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. You’re completely a university student. You look very mature.” “Re-really? It’s just barely past the entrance ceremony.”

She spoke as if to deny Tatsuya’s impression, but Mayumi’s not at all displeased look and bashful manner were obvious. (By the way, the university admissions ceremony was on April 6th.)

“Yes. From that barrette in your hair to those grown up pumps, they suit you very well. Like you’re another person.”

“Teehee, really.. you say.”

Mayumi was no longer trying to conceal anything, but she looked like she came to a sudden realization when her smile cracked and her face abruptly hardened.

“Tatsuya-kun.. what do you mean by that..?”

No, it was not like she came to a realization. Evidently, Mayumi had realized something,

“Do you mean I rely more on them?”

“To make myself look different, more mature?” She herself was being made fun of by Tatsuya.

“In short, you want to say I used to look childish..?” “You’re over-thinking this.”

Naturally, Tatsuya was not so weak willed to easily acknowledge his own misdeeds(?). Faced with Mayumi glaring up at him with upturned eyes, he made his face look sober and honest and answered with a voice that matched that face.

“I have never thought even one time that Saegusa-senpai’s face or figure was childish.”

“Face.. figure..”

It seemed like Mayumi had received some kind of shock. Looking at her objectively, only her height was short; her face and figure were not childish. Anyone would say her face was the cute type, but it was not ‘childish’ and her voluptuous proportions could be called extremely mature for her age.

Nevertheless, apparently Mayumi had a hidden complex about — she wasn’t really all that short — her height. Disregarding Tatsuya’s denial, she was probably interpreting his words in the worst way.

“Is something wrong?” “No, I’m fine.”

As she answered Tatsuya’s words — in which she didn’t hear all that much concern — in a confident tone that was half bluffing, Mayumi was once again glaring up at him.

“So Tatsuya-kun, what did you mean by a different person?” “It doesn’t really have a deep meaning. It’s a common phrase.”

The persistently questioning Mayumi made Tatsuya feel like ‘he had failed.’ This was not a topic he intended to speak on at length. He didn’t intend to make light of Mayumi, but he could not have her occupy all his time. —Come to think of it, why had Mayumi come to her alma mater, thought Tatsuya at last.

“Really? I don’t think so.”

Mayumi made a straight forward appraisal. The ‘upturned stare’ transformed into ‘a scowl at point blank range’. Mayumi herself probably wasn’t conscious of it, but a spectator would mistake it for unwanted closeness.

“No, really. ..By the way, Senpai, why are you here today?”

Mayumi displayed an ’ah’ look and a ‘Hey, you!’ in a shrill angry voice reached his ear at nearly the same time.

“Get away from Onee-chan! You skirt-chaser!”

At first, Tatsuya did not understand that those words were directed at himself. Because the label of ‘skirt-chaser’ was completely unwarranted. However, he saw that the petite girl that matched the shrill voice was coming down the path between the rows of cherry trees directly at him, and he became aware that apparently, this situation — the difference in the heights between Tatsuya and Mayumi had concealed what was actually going on — had been mistaken for something else.

“Kasumi-chan!?”

On the other hand, from the word, ‘Onee-chan,’ and the distinctive voice, Mayumi had understood that the remark was aimed at them. Mayumi turned toward the girl who was running to them and immediately looked back in Tatsuya’s direction and vigorously took one step backwards. Clearly flustered, perhaps she had some kind of clue of how the girl had misunderstood the situation.

Tatsuya knew the girl called ‘Kasumi-chan’ was Mayumi’s younger sister even without looking at the new student registry. If her cordial relationship with her male kouhai was misunderstood by her younger sister, then it was only natural for her to be flustered, thought Tatsuya. However, he felt that her response seemed to be a little too energetic.

His momentary concern did not turn into a needless anxiety. It was probably the high heels that lead to the disaster. No, Mayumi should have had many chances to attend formal parties, so it probably wasn’t that she was unused to shoes with high heels. So she had probably been careless with her footing when she moved unexpectedly.

Before Mayumi had tripped and fallen, Tatsuya had calmly considered the possibility. Completely from a bystander’s point of view. If he could of just kept looking and be done with it then, he probably would have accepted the label of ‘heartless’ without complaint, but as usual he was not so lacking in human feeling.

Mayumi, who had stumbled, was swiftly supported by Tatsuya. He had grabbed Mayumi’s shoulders with both hands. He did not grasp her hip area in an overly familiar manner and of course he did not insolently accidentally touch her breasts.

“Ah, thank you..”

Therefore, Mayumi thanking him while looking embarrassed was simply because she was bothered by falling when there was nothing to trip over.

However, it seemed Mayumi’s sister didn’t think so. “I said get away from her, right!”

Immediately after she screamed that. Mayumi’s sister — Kasumi’s body gently floated up. The petite body accelerated mid-air without forming a parabolic line, floating in a straight line with a knee protruding out to attack Tatsuya’s face.

Tatsuya stopped that knee with one hand. He did not block it with his forearm — he caught it in his palm. Being high in the air adding to the power, the shock went up and the inertia fled to the ground.

Mayumi looked up at the spectacle with her eyes so open that they were perfect circles, but Kasumi was even more surprised than her sister. It was better than being blocked or knocked down, and if it was a ballet lift, it would have been praised exultantly. As her movement conditions were forcibly altered, Kasumi’s Acceleration and Movement-type combination magic lost its effect.

Without the assistance of magic, the one knee above the palm posture was an unstable stance. As one should expect, Kasumi’s balance was destroyed. Her petite body tilted violently.

Before she tipped over completely, Tatsuya released the body he caught by one leg and lowered his hand.

“Whoa!”

The shriek she raised could not be called very cute, as Kasumi fell in a pitched forward posture. If she made contact with the soft coat of the pavement of the front yard in this manner, then even if she didn’t hit her head, she would probably be wounded on her palms and knees enough to cause bleeding. As a look for attending the entrance ceremony, it could be called a very pitiful one. That would be a very tough trial for a girl who had just barely become a high school student.

In order to prevent this tragedy, Tatsuya would have to catch Kasumi’s body as it fell — which he did not. The reason was not that he didn’t have enough time to react. His cold eyes pursued the process of the girl who had just become his kouhai falling down. The knowledge that she was Mayumi’s sister did not have any significant impact on his decision making process. Although the attack had failed, the fact that the girl had launched an attack on him was more important and significant to Tatsuya. Besides, if he had caught this girl’s body as she fell, he would have shown the other girl a hole in his defenses.

“Ah!?”

Tatsuya understood from observation why the girl raised her voice hysterically.

A Magic Sequence had pasted itself to the girl’s body. Her falling speed slowed. A protective barrier of data fortification protected the girl’s body so that neither the EIDOS or the skin were damaged. Normally, this phenomenon wouldn’t occur unless the magician applied the magic to his own body, but a third party had cast it.

As Kasumi landed gently undamaged, almost at the same time, Tatsuya made a big leap backward. Three meters in front of the space he vacated, a girl, who aside from her hair style looked exactly like Kasumi, with the same face and body type, rushed over to Kasumi, who was on both her knees.

“Kasumi-chan, are you okay!?” “Izumi, you saved me. Thanks.”

Side by side, they really were like two peas in a pod. Even a person unaware of their background information would probably conclude from looking at them that they were identical twins. Of course, Tatsuya knew the pair were indeed twins.

Saegusa Kasumi and Saegusa Izumi. Within the Numbered, the sisters were known, without irony or whimsy, as ’The Saegusa Twins.’

Even though their faces were identical, their auras differed greatly. From looking at Kasumi, who was emitting signs of aggression with her curl-less hair cut in a short hairstyle, she was probably very sports oriented; possibly she was some kind of martial arts practitioner. On the other hand, Izumi, who was clothed in a graceful, gentle aura, had straight hair cut to give her bangs reaching her eyebrows and hair that touched her shoulders evenly; perhaps she was a bookworm, as she looked like she might be an indoor type of girl. From her words just now as well as her tone and expression, he knew she was flustered, but somehow she did not seem all that nervous. —At least on the surface. However, Tatsuya felt that this was the one he should be more wary of.

It was somewhat rude for Tatsuya to stare at someone when it was their first meeting, but they were all doing it. They all had blatant looks in their eyes but Tatsuya’s was indeed the most temperate.

“Izumi, this guy is strong for a playboy.” “Uh, umm, Kasumi-chan?”

Certainly, there was a clear difference between their mental states; although the probing looks they sent at him were the same, the flame of hostility was only burning in Kasumi’s pupils.

“Calming down a little would be..” Izumi was gently stroking Kasumi.

“My intuition is screaming. This guy, he’s not ordinary.” Nonetheless, Kasumi was not listening to her advice. She glared up at

Tatsuya on her knees, shifting her left sleeve and exposing her CAD. “Izumi, we’re doing that.”

As she said that, Kasumi ran her fingers down the console of her CAD. She was using magic without authorization. Clearly an illegal act. Moreover, for the second time. Even bearing in mind it was directed at himself, it was not something he could turn a blind eye to. She was a new student getting ready for the entrance ceremony, but having said that, there was no way he couldn’t arrest her.

In an instant, Tatsuya made that decision; fortunately, before he could act upon it, the illegal act of magic ended up being a mere attempt.

“Settle down!”

Mayumi, who had until then been too paralyzed to do anything about the situation, let her fist fall on top of Kasumi’s head.

“..”

Kasumi did not cry out but from the way she held her head; despite how she was trying to make it appear, that probably really hurt.

“..Onee-chan, why did you do that?”

“That’s my line! Kasumi-chan, you, why did you do that!?”

Mayumi had both hands on her hips as she looked down at Kasumi, who was looking up at her sister’s face with teary eyes. She was really incensed. Right away, Kasumi’s agitated mind was cooled by her sister’s threatening attitude, the color of her face changing from red to white.

“I’ve told you over and over again, ‘The unauthorized use of magic is a crime!’ To do this on the very day you entered high school.. What on earth were you thinking!?”

Tatsuya watched, completely dumbfounded, as Mayumi talked on and on in a voice that was half an octave higher than usual. Seeing her flustered was not an unfamiliar sight. Nevertheless, this was the first time he’d seen her in a frenzy. This honest straightforwardness was not something he could have imagined from her, so different was it from the usual enigmatic smiling fa?ade she used to conceal her real intentions.

On the other hand, Kasumi, who was being drenched in the display of rage, had not abandoned her resistance, although she had curled herself up. Because they were family? Or could it possibly be because she was used to it.

“Bu, but, that guy was doing something indecent to Onee-chan..” The counterattack was certainly effective.

“Wha.. in, indecent!?”

She did do some damage to her opponent in a sense.

“We were not doing anything like that! What were you thinking!?”

If you looked at the big picture though, all she had done was add fuel to the fire.

“After all that you said about you two being fine looking around before the doors opened without me sticking with you like you two were children, Kasumi-chan, you did this!? You didn’t cause anyone else problems like you did just now, right!?”

I see, that was the reason, thought Tatsuya. Mayumi came here because she was escorting her sisters to the admissions ceremony instead of their busy parents.

“Onee-sama, that is absurd.”

The one who disputed the reprimand of Mayumi’s that had taken the form of a question was not Kasumi, whose body had begun quivering, but Izumi, who was snuggled next to her.

“Aside from Kasumi-chan’s mistake just now, we have not done anything to cause problems for other people.”

“I see.. Izumi-chan, should I believe you?” “I promise, there are no discrepancies.”

Izumi’s polite tone was a bit too polite as she proclaimed their innocence, which seemed to restore Mayumi’s equanimity somewhat.

“Understood. ..Tatsuya-kun, please forgive us!”

After seeing the affirmative in Izumi’s eyes, Mayumi turned to Tatsuya and bowed deeply.

“My little sister did something outrageous. Kasumi-chan, you apologize to Tatsuya-kun as well!”

Perhaps she understood how serious her sister was; whatever she was feeling in her heart, Kasumi-chan wasn’t displaying that defiant manner any more.

“I cannot excuse my behavior.”

She lined up next to Mayumi and bravely lowered her head.

“I too offer my apologies. Shiba-senpai, please pardon Kasumi-chan’s rudeness somehow.”

Kasumi was not the only interested party; Izumi followed up after her elder sister.

Receiving a simultaneous apology from the three beautiful girls — no, one beautiful woman and two beautiful girls — made him feel ill at ease. Miraculously, there had been no witnesses to the use of power a little while ago, but now for some reason or other, he felt many suspicious gazes on them from here and there. If people mistakenly thought he was bullying the girls or something, then the damage of the aftermath would be worse than Kasumi’s flying knee kick.

“Please raise your heads. No harm has been done, so please don’t worry about it.”

Is what he said, but ‘please don’t do this for my sake’ was closer to what Tatsuya meant. In order to escape from the gazes of the gradually increasing onlookers, he wanted to get away from this place as soon as possible. However, ‘don’t worry about it anymore’ was not a pretense.

That was something Mayumi probably understood also. When she raised her head, she had a relieved look on her face. However, that look was soon replaced by a guilty one.

“Ah, umm, Tatsuya-kun.”

“What is it?” In response to her mood, which was somewhat strange for some reason, Tatsuya put his mind on alert.

“I know that.. the incident just now is supposed to be reported to the staff room, but,”

As she faced Tatsuya, Mayumi closed her eyes an put both her hands together.

“Please! For my sake, won’t you overlook this, please!?” Oh, that’s it, Tatsuya did not mutter this out loud.

“I do not intend to make a big deal out of something as minor as this.”

Actually, if ‘something as minor as this’ was a problem, he didn’t know how many times he and Miyuki would have been placed in protective custody. ‘I don’t want this talked about either’ was Tatsuya’s honest feeling.

“Thank you, Tatsuya-kun!”

So, he was troubled by the abundance of emotion. Besides...

“No, she intended to barely miss me from the start.”

That flying knee kick had been what is known as a bluff. If she had been attacking him earnestly, Tatsuya wouldn’t have made such a gentle response.

Kasumi had planned for the combination Acceleration and Movement magic she had applied to herself to be caught by the other magic she linked to it when her knee was thirty centimeters from Tatsuya’s face, so rapid deceleration would be cast at the distance of ten centimeters when she would halt mid air. If she hadn’t done so, not even Tatsuya would have grasped her knee with one hand. No matter how much he had been trained, stopping a person who weighed forty kilograms and was accelerating at fifteen meters per second was impossible. Because he knew the point where the rapid deceleration started and the point where it was to halt, directly before the stopping point, he had literally forced termination by putting his hand there.

“Ha.. I’ve come to expect that from you, Tatsuya-kun.”

As a look of astonishment and a mutter of “How the..” came from Kasumi on her side, Mayumi nodded yes-yes with an impressed look on her face. For Mayumi, abnormalities like this from Tatsuya had become a normal thing.

“Senpai, I have the job of new student guidance, so I must go. The event site is already open.”

To forestall Mayumi, who looked like she was going to say something unnecessary, Tatsuya made this announcement and quit the scene without waiting for a reply.

“Pixie.”

After separating from the Saegusa sisters, in a place where there were few people, Tatsuya put a vocal transmission unit near his mouth.

(Yes, Master.)

The voice that replied in a soft whisper was an active form of telepathy. This was the response of ‘Pixie’ who was in the ‘3HType P-94.’

“Erase all the Psion sensor data from the records, from right now to ten minutes before now, for the area in front of the front yard entrance to the auditorium.”

(As you wish.)

It seemed that Mayumi had carelessly forgotten, but Kasumi’s use of magic without authorization could not be concealed merely by Tatsuya’s silence. Everywhere inside the school grounds was covered with sensors to observe magic activity; aside from the exception of periods like the new club member invitation week, the unauthorized use of magic would be recorded by the sensors.

(Erasure completed.)

Naturally, Tatsuya had not gotten Pixie moved to the Student Council room simply to wait on tables. Since she was originally a housekeeping robot, he had let her do what she-->>

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