Volume 13, Chapter 6

August 5th. The 2096 Nine Schools Competition was finally starting. Not only had the events changed this year, but various procedures had as well.

First for [Ice Pillars Break] and [Shield Down], there were three separate group preliminaries each involving nine contestants (or nine pairs) who competed three times (three sets), with the winners of each bracket coming together for the finals. [Rower and Gunner] would be decided by each pair making one run, with their score being based on number of targets hit and the amount of time taken.

The event with the least rule changes, [Mirage Bat], also had 27 contestants with three qualifiers from each school. The fixed four competitors per set had been changed to three rounds with four competitors and three rounds with five. Which set a competitor would go into would be decided by lottery. Usage of sustained flight was restricted to one minute bursts. This meant that competitors were required to land within one minute.

[Monolith Code] was changed from its irregular tournament format of qualifying league then finals to a round-robin league spanning two days. Using five stages four matches could be staged at a time, meaning a school's eight matches would take place over 10 rounds. [Monolith Code] competitors therefore compete in their eight matches on the 9th and 10th, then on the last day of the tournament compete in [Steeple Chase Cross Country] on the 11th. A heavy physical and mental burden was to be expected.

The first day featured the men's and women's qualifiers for [Ice Pillars Break], as well as [Rower and Gunner].

"If the competition times had overlapped, it would be quite problematic for you, Isori-sempai."

"It seems that's a needless worry now though."

Early in the morning inside the First High tent, Tatsuya coughed in relief. Isori answered with a smile. They were studying the game schedule for the day.

There were nine matches each of qualifiers for both men and women. This was half the number of last year, so each pair would only compete twice a day. The burden on players for this event had been greatly reduced.

While there had been two courts for both men and women up until last year, this year only one court was available to both. This meant that while the overall schedule density had not changed, a margin was freed up in each school's schedule.

Tatsuya breathed a sigh of relief after finding out that Eimi's race and Shizuku's bout would not overlap.

Tatsuya was responsible for Shizuku's CAD in [Ice Pillars Break], and Eimi's CAD in [Rower and Gunner]. He had been strongly solicited by both, but if Eimi's race and Shizuku's and Kanon's match had clashed, he would have had to leave Shizuku's and Kanon's follow-up to Isori.

Besides, both [Pillars Break] and [Rower Gun] (the contraction for Rower and Gunner) had very little for the technical staff to do during the event. The only events requiring CAD exchange and fine-tuning during the match were [Shield Break] with two rounds, and [Mirage Bat] over three periods. Therefore even leaving a pair to one technician was technically not an issue, but Tatsuya did not like the idea of leaving his responsibilities to someone else. If it had come to that, he would have been quite ashamed.

The match schedule had Eimi in the first race of the morning, and Shizuku in the fourth and seventh matches. There was no overlap.

"Then, I'll be going to the [Rower Gun] course."

"Good luck. With Shiba-kun, I'm sure there's no need for worry." With a sunny smile that was wasted on guys, Isori saw Tatsuya off.

Next to the starting point were three doors provided for players and staff; Tatsuya entered the first one. There was nobody inside. That being said, there was still half an hour before the race began. The technical staff had to begin their work, but there was still time for the competitors.

"Good morning!"

Immediately after that thought came to mind, he was greeted by the spirited voice of Azusa.

"Morning, Shiba-kun!"

Faster than he could return the greeting, Eimi poked out from behind. Caught a bit on the back foot, Tatsuya nonetheless replied in order.

"Good morning, President. Eimi, you came together?"

'Together' referred to the third year student who had entered with her. Due to her quiet personality she simply bowed to Tatsuya, and Tatsuya for his part did likewise.

"Yeah, we had breakfast together. Did you have to wait?"

Eimi asked Tatsuya, although she didn't seem overly concerned.

It would only have troubled Tatsuya if she were, so he just shook his head normally.

"No, not at all."

"That's great!"

Clapping her hands together, Eimi grinned. Although it would have seemed sly by anyone else, it suited Eimi perfectly well.

"Then let's get the CAD adjustment started." As Tatsuya spoke to Eimi,

"Let's go over there." Azusa spoke to her player.

The results of that first day were Eimi's pair in first place, and the men's [Rower Gun] team in third. The Shizuku-Kanon pair qualified for the finals, with the men's [Ice Pillars Break] team also comfortably making it through.

"Eimi, nicely done. Your shooting was almost perfect."

"Thanks, Subaru. I was pretty shocked myself."

Similar bright voices swirled around at dinner, but there was no feeling of an easy win.

"Seventh High doing so well was unexpected."

The executives — Azusa, Hattori, Isori, Kanon, Tatsuya and Miyuki — were gathered in a corner in order not to disrupt the mood, and evaluated the results of the first day frankly.

"We got third for men's and first for women's. They got first for men's and second for women's."

At Azusa's words, Hattori glanced at the results for the day. Taking those into account, they were in second place. And the [Rower and Gunner] solo event tomorrow was the one First High had struggled the most with.

"They are truly [Seventh High of the Seas]. I don't think we lost out in terms of accuracy, but their proficiency was amazing."

As Isori spoke heavily, Hattori went on in a careful tone.

"If Seventh High claims first place in the solos tomorrow, it may be advantageous later."

"Because their point difference will be closer to Third High?"

"It's something I'm reluctant about myself."

Placing second in the men's and third in the women's division, Third High had earned 60 points. First High was ahead by 20 points. Although they had the lead, the prevailing thought was 'this won't last'. This was because they had no confidence whatsoever in the solos tomorrow.

"......Maybe it would have been best for Shiba-kun to be in charge of the [Rower

Gun] solo after all? If it were him, whoever we send out would be able to win."

That sudden remark was from Kanon. Well, the theory was somewhat sound, but it was still pure recklessness to say the least.

A chilling pressure descended upon the executive gathering. Kanon reflexively went on the defensive, but Tatsuya suppressed Miyuki while Isori did the same for Kanon and a confrontation was avoided.

"......Changing engineers now is impossible. And even if it weren't, there's no guarantee that I could salvage the situation."

At the first point everyone — even Kanon — had to nod their head in agreement, but she seemed rather suspicious about the second. That was because the victory of the women's pair today was clearly owed to the superlative accuracy and efficiency of their magic shooting.

"It was my feeling while watching today that the first trial round had a significant impact on performance. I'm sure having those pairs give advice would achieve the same effect."

Although that was certainly a sound argument, it was obvious that Tatsuya was changing the topic. However, no one protested this time.

? ? ?

It was an open secret that Miyuki was staying in Tatsuya's room, the implications of which were varied and questionable. Because of that, he could no longer just camp in his room like he did last year.

Of course he couldn't stay in the cafeteria or lobby talking forever either. To make matters worse, the hotel was full, so the number of supporters from each school who could stay there was just 20. The rest had to be based outside. Lingering for too long would draw chilly looks.

The spot Tatsuya's group chose for their talk was beside the CAD adjustment work vehicle.

"......It somehow feels like a camp."

"Camping at a hotel?"

Honoka's impression was tsukkomi'd by Shizuku. "That's why it's weird, don't you think?"

"You're right."

The exchange however ended somehow with Honoka's victory.

They were sitting in collapsible chairs for camping. Before them was a foldable camping table. Overhead an awning tent was stretched from the roof of a camper- van.

The work vehicle used by the technical staff of First High was a camper-van with an over-cab. Given that they only had a small wagon last year, it was a remarkable improvement — almost a luxury. Indeed the students of other schools had been wide-eyed at First High's work vehicle.

One may have thought that the mastermind behind this ridiculousness was clear, but it was actually Miyuki. Last year she had been outraged her beloved brother had been forced to travel in such a piece of junk, and even one year later this dissatisfaction had not subsided — rather, she had forcefully pushed through a decision to improve the conditions for the technical staff. Miyuki had intended for FLT (in other words their father) to foot the bill, but in the end she had been unable to turn down the kindness of Shizuku's father.

Even while doing so, she had pressed for a seat on the bus for him to sit together with as well; Miyuki was rather selfish when it came to her brother. Well, in the end it had not been Tatsuya's transport environment which improved but that of the rest of the technical staff, so maybe she was actually being fair after all.

—Although, that had only been an afterthought. "Here, coffee."

"Ah, thanks."

This conversation was not between Miyuki and Tatsuya. Although very reluctantly on Miyuki's part, it was Pixie who served coffee to Tatsuya. Not just Tatsuya, Pixie was handing out coffee to everyone.

"......Thank you."

"............"

Neither Miyuki nor Minami hid their displeasure. However Pixie was systematically integrated with the camper-van kitchen. There was nothing for the two of them to do here.

"Oh, thanks."

Kent thanked Pixie as naturally as if speaking to another human. He was Tatsuya's assistant this 9SC, having won his position admirably.

"Mizuki, Erika isn't actually unwell is she?"

Perhaps to distract herself from her mood, Miyuki questioned Mizuki on the matter they had heard earlier.

There were eight people here: Tatsuya, Miyuki, Honoka, Shizuku, Mikihiko, Mizuki, Minami, and Kent. Pixie, technically not a person, served as their waitress.

"No...... Eri-chan said she has something to take care of."

It was late at night, and there were few students still out and about. That being said, it wasn't just First High that had parked next to the wall for their technical staff to perform CAD adjustment; the engineers of other schools had been passing by and staring at the impromptu tea gathering for some time. By tomorrow this tea party would probably be known by the other contestants of First High. In that case, the number of participants would definitely go up for tomorrow night.

In fact Tatsuya and Miyuki were the only ones here who had not been called either directly or indirectly. The two had of course invited Leo and Erika as well. However, there was no sign of either of them.

"Leo said he would come......"

Mikihiko spoke as if apologizing. He had invited Leo over a voice communicator; he hadn't actually been in the same room with him. It thus couldn't be helped that he was unaware of Leo's movements, but Mikihiko was the sort of person who felt the need to apologize for that sort of thing.

"Um, about Saijou-sempai, I saw him on the way here."

Someone unexpectedly provided information. The one who spoke was Kent, smiling at Tatsuya (both Honoka and Miyuki sitting on either side of him tensed, although he remained facing forwards.) He had been working here since after dinner, so had rushed back to his room when it was tea time to take a shower.

"He was stopped by the Japanese branch director of Rozen."

"Rozen?"

Tatsuya's quizzical remark was due to the preliminary information heard from Mikihiko.

When he turned to glance at Mikihiko, Mikihiko returned the same questioning look.

"Yes, that man was without a doubt Ernst Rozen."

Tatsuya and Mikihiko's eye contact lasted for only a moment; Tatsuya's eyes were back on Kent immediately.

Kent appeared to be unaware of the exchange, and answered Tatsuya with a smile like a puppy running up, tail wagging.

"Saijou-sempai looked like he was quite troubled." Immediately after Kent spoke,

"What about me?"

As if waiting for the right timing, Leo entered on cue.

Kent hadn't exactly been gossiping, but he was unable to escape the awkwardness of such banter about his sempai.

"He was talking about how he saw you in the lobby with Ernst Rozen."

Before that could manifest, Tatsuya stepped in to talk to Leo.

"Ah, ahhh...... well. That took a while. Sorry about that."

"It's not a problem. This isn't some formal gathering anyway."

As Kent had felt, it seemed Rozen's talk with Leo had not been pleasant. Not prepared to pry any further than that, Tatsuya offered Leo a seat.

The tea party adjourned at 10pm. Mikihiko, Leo, and Kent (technically a man) escorted Shizuku, Honoka and Mizuki back. Miyuki and Minami remained, ostensibly to help clean up.

That Miyuki and Tatsuya were staying together in the same room was an open secret. That being said, Miyuki didn't have the courage to be seen going back to Tatsuya's room by Honoka and the others. She was not yet that bold. On Honoka's side, she likewise didn't want to see Miyuki and Tatsuya happily disappearing behind a door together. Miyuki was remaining there for both their sakes. — Minami's reason for staying behind actually was to clean up, her 'maid mission sense' being particularly high.

Minami's pride was fully satisfied. This was because Pixie had been called to work on Tatsuya's behest, and did not participate in the clean-up.

Pixie was sitting on a camping chair under Tatsuya's gaze. She had closed her eyes, and was blocking her ears with both hands. A 3H body received audio input not only from the ears, and even if she closed her eyelids the optical sensors would still be capable of visualizing her surroundings. Cutting off external information could be accomplished just by shutting down the sensors anyway, so this was technically pointless behavior. The reason for Pixie undertaking such human actions was that she was exercising her non-mechanical senses.

"How is it? Can you detect anything?"

"I cannot sense any of my brethren."

Pixie answered Tatsuya, who was standing before her, with active telepathy. Immediately after the tea party ended, the Parasite infused within the female robot had been directed by Tatsuya to search for the Parasite Dolls.

According to the intel from the Kuroba, Parasite Dolls were essentially the same thing as Pixie. They were likely attempts by the Kudou, who knew of Pixie, to duplicate her. That was Tatsuya's thought anyway. Of course, their bodies were not for something like housework, they were no doubt made for battle. But considering their feminine rather than masculine forms, it was evident they had Pixie in mind.

The Parasites could sense their fellows. Not only those occupying a human host, but those in human hosts and those in mechanical hosts could sense each other as proven by the incident in February. Even if each party was now in mechanical hosts, the mutual detection should still hold true.

The reason Pixie couldn't sense the Parasite Dolls was because they were in a state they couldn't be traced, Tatsuya thought. There was no way the actual Parasites within the machines would be unable to sense each other. It was also not unthinkable that perhaps the Kudou had simply not brought the Parasite Dolls there yet.

(Perhaps they're dormant. Pretty cautious of them......)

Tatsuya had heard from Pixie that an inactive individual was harder to sense. Were the Kudou engineers aware of that as well? What he had ascertained that night anyway was that searching for the Parasite Dolls storage location like this would be difficult, at least until they became active.

When Minami came to stand next to Tatsuya, the clean-up had all been completed. There was nothing more — nothing productive to be gained from continuing.

Tatsuya ordered Pixie to lock up the vehicle and enter a suspended state, before returning to the hotel with Miyuki and Minami.

? ? ?

August 6th, the second day of the 9SC.

The summer morning dawned fast. Even so, the sky at the moment was dark, and had only begun to be tinged with blue. At that middling time, Miyuki was in a dim room sitting at the side of a bed. She was watching the sleeping face of her beloved brother.

No doubt many would have been surprised if they knew, but Tatsuya slept soundly. Miyuki had left the room dark, but turning on the lights wouldn't have woken him. Even someone in the same room making noise wouldn't have woken him.

As many would agree with, regardless of the depth of his sleep Tatsuya was a good riser. He would always reliably awake at the time he set for himself. There was no need for an alarm. His biological clock was very accurate. Furthermore, he would still react to any malice or ill-will when asleep. Even if someone sneaked up quieter than the sound of a needle falling, had they the intent to harm him or Miyuki he would immediately awaken. That being said, if someone came close enough even without any ill intent, Tatsuya's awareness would still open his eyes.

That boundary distance varied according to time and circumstance. Sometimes he wouldn't awake until close enough to breath on him; other times as soon as someone entered the room. Miyuki thought Tatsuya probably set the boundary himself before he went to sleep.

She guessed that the reason she could get so close was that Tatsuya had fallen asleep before he had set anything.

In this situation where they slept in the same room, the range wherein she would normally move about after waking up should have been set outside the boundary. Yet even after bringing a chair to sit beside him, he showed no signs of waking.

She was not confident about how much further she could get. If she moved closer by even just 10cm, he might wake up. Or she may be able to snuggle up beside him without him opening an eye.

Miyuki wanted to know.

How much closer could she get to her brother? What was a distance he would consider with her present?

(Just how far would Onii-sama allow me go......)

Miyuki suddenly felt a chill. That thought beating within her, however, did not cool. Even in midsummer, the temperature before dawn was cold, and she was in nothing but a nightgown. If she remained as she was, naturally her body would cool down.

At this point Miyuki's awareness began to wander in a strange direction. (I wonder if Onii-sama is cold?)

In fact, this was the first time Miyuki had spent a night together with Tatsuya in the same room. Last night — or rather the evening the day before yesterday — she had been so elated she'd simply dropped asleep at some point like a switch being thrown. She'd slept soundly until morning. From yesterday night to this morning, however, she'd been so acutely aware of Tatsuya sleeping next to her that she had awoken countless times. To top it off, even though it wasn't yet fully dawn, here she was at her brother's bedside almost like a stalker. The lack of sleep was beginning to melt Miyuki's self-control.

As if in a fever, Miyuki reached out to Tatsuya. Although it appeared to be a deliberate act, her consciousness was vague; the foremost thought once on her mind, 'he might wake up', no longer present.

Fortunately, Tatsuya did not open his eyes. His forehead was cool against her palm.

(Cold......)

Thinking clearly why that was so — Tatsuya's body avoided useless metabolism and was cooler to begin with, while Miyuki's temperature was higher due to the lack of sleep. Miyuki's thinking however—

(Oh no......I have to warm him)

—had already short-circuited.

(Umm, skin contact is better for situations like these......was it?)

That was more something for times of emergency.

Such a thought, which had her head been functioning properly would no doubt have caused her to overheat, had at some point been fixed under the pretext of 'nursing' in Miyuki's mind.

(......I guess stripping is no good after all......)

It seemed a modicum of shame was left to her yet. Completely forgetting about waking him, Miyuki gently snuggled up next to Tatsuya.

(Onii-sama, let Miyuki warm you......)

Already on the border between wakefulness and sleep, Miyuki descended into dreamland while holding on to Tatsuya.

Confirming that Miyuki's breathing had evened out, Tatsuya opened his closed eyes.

(She's finally asleep......)

Gently lifting Miyuki's arm off his chest, Tatsuya slipped out of bed. He had actually been awake when Miyuki stretched out her arm towards him. However, his sister had been in some strange mood (he could tell even without looking), so he had ascertained her condition while pretending to be asleep.

[[Fortunately]], he was not overcome by sexual desire even with such a peerless beauty sharing the same bed with him. That did not mean he had not felt anything at all however, and when he thought of sleeping together with his similarly aged sister he couldn't help but feel embarrassed. The pleasant sensation of Miyuki's soft body increased the embarrassment several times over. He could no longer sleep any further.

That being said, his sister was competing today, and he couldn't wake her. Tatsuya didn't know just when Miyuki had woken up, but there was at least time to sleep a little longer.

Tatsuya dressed roughly without making a sound. Stroking Miyuki's hair and thinking 'sleep well', Tatsuya breathed in the early morning air and quietly left the room.

? ? ?

"Good morning."

"Ah, good morning ... ... ?"

Azusa had tilted her neck as she replied back to Tatsuya and Miyuki, who had entered the HQ tent bringing in breakfast sandwiches. And for this, the greeting ended up unfinished.

Miyuki, always trailing behind Tatsuya, looked strangely, no, very embarrassed. From Azusa's view the distance between them was a bit -- basically about 30 cm -- further apart than usual. And Miyuki's eyes were a bit red at the corners and were slightly directed downwards.

Today, Miyuki would play in the preliminaries for [Ice Pillars Break] solo category. The tactics of First High, aiming for the overall championships, called for grabbing the championship in the Girls' [Ice Pillars Break]. Computing the events where the maximum number of points was obtainable, and avert crashing out of preliminaries even if the worst were to happen -- that was what the prudent Azusa was thinking. In Miyuki's case, they couldn't foresee her losing this event, but now she was giving off a tinge of anxiety.

"What happened?"

Azusa was asking that because she couldn't shake off that vague feeling of worry. "What, you ask?"

Asked in return with a forced tone by Tatsuya, she was shut out from asking any more questions.

? ? ?

Results-wise, Miyuki stormed past the preliminaries with a wide lead. Things got a little scary for the boys, but they safely advanced past preliminaries. And as First High executives had dreaded, both boys and girls ended in an ignominious fourth in [Rower and Gunner] solos, gaining no points.

As for the other schools, Seventh High won both boys and girls with 100pts; with 200pts total, they were on the forefront for the 2nd straight day. Third High got 2nd place at both; with 120pts total, they'd slipped past First High for 2nd place overall. Considering the events from tomorrow onward, they could quickly upset Seventh High -- that was what Third High should have been thinking. It should have been a good start for Third High.

However, the dinner scene at Third High was definitely not totally joyous. The second years gathered in a corner were suffused with a heavy atmosphere. The source of their dark clouds was the [Rower and Gunner]'s solo player Kichijouji, who was unable to grab the championship.

"Kichijouji, even 2nd place isn't that bad. Don't let it weigh you down."

"Yeah. I was 2nd place once, but I paid no heed to that."

There were even third years, having finished eating and heading for trailer clean- up, cheering him up as they passed by with not much visible effect.

"Who could have seen that Seventh High would pull something like that off......?"

Until then he had been at ease, but the unexpectedly frustrating grumble escaped from Kichijouji's silent mutterings. If it weren't for the tableware before him, he would have been falling forward.

He was shocked not because he was defeated that easily, but because of how he was defeated. For someone like Kichijouji, who relied on ingenuity, tactical defeats were an even bigger blow than ability defeats. And he felt today's defeat was not due to ability, but tactics.

"No use griping about it."

Those were easy-to-say words, more comforting for all the complaints and grumblings than just falling into dead silence. The second years surrounding Kichijouji were saying this to him at the critical moment.

"That's right, using the rules to abandon all shooting is unorthodox."

Seventh High's tactic was simple and unexpected -- targets hit by mechanical spray-firing were a bonus, and so their magic power was diverted into board control, intent on shortening the time. Rower and Gunner rules stipulated that the fastest team's time be divided by the number of hits from the team with the most hits to calculate the time per hit. This value was multiplied by the hit count and the resulting product was subtracted from the running time to get the time difference. The team with the smallest time difference would then be chosen as the champion. This meant if the time difference was small the team with the most hits had the advantage; conversely, if there was no big difference in the hit count, the team with the fastest time had the advantage.

Incidentally for the Boy's solo event, Third High's Kichijouji had the most hits. This meant that from the results of precision firing and spray-firing, the time difference was too big. A result where brute-forcing won over seeking accuracy was something Kichijouji couldn't comprehend.

"For the pair event, all teams focused on their hit counts."

"In truth, that was where First High's girls trumped over Seventh High."

"Seventh High might have been blessed with an unexpectedly lucky shot. It has happened before in competitions. Don't you think so, Masaki?"

The second year boys, in search for a consensus, brought the story to Masaki. There, all who were consoling Kichijouji, noticed something strange.

Looking back, up to now Masaki hadn't said even one comforting word to Kichijouji. On the contrary, he hadn't said a thing since dinner had started. He'd been eating all right, but he gave the impression that his mind was focused on a totally different matter.

"Masaki?"

"Hm? True, the strongest doesn't always win, but today's victory will affect

Seventh High negatively. First High might have lost to them, but they'll catch up. Looking at it objectively, I believe it's far from bad. It was within their calculations."

It seemed he'd been following them, but for some reason the unnatural feeling couldn't be shaken off. Both male and female classmates surrounding Kichijouji, in spite of gender, looked at each other.

"I see ... you're right. First High will catch up."

"Our final objective is the overall championship. We have our work cut out for us starting tomorrow."

"Dwelling on today's results is not the best action, you said? I understand, Masaki."

However, it seemed that Kichijouji got over his shock due to Masaki's words. On that note the dinner was concluded, and no one bothered asking about Masaki's unnatural behavior.

Today's night tea party was scheduled because at the start various work, including CAD tuning, was coming to an end. Tomorrow morning would be [Shield Down] for the Boy's pair, and the afternoon would be the finals for [Ice Pillars Break] for the Girl's pa-->>

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