Volume 4 - CH 9(4/6)
Taking into consideration that there were three rounds, each lasting 15 minutes at a time, this was the longest event in the Nine Schools Competition. Including the five minute breaks spaced between, the event could last approximately one hour. Compared to Icicle Destruction and Monolith Code that had no time restrictions, this was an especially long duration.
Also, during the match itself, the players had to use sustainable magic and continuously leap into the air. The stress placed on the players themselves easily rivaled that of a marathon.
And to top it all off, there were two matches in one day alone.
In terms of physical stamina, this was a more punishing event than Crowd Ball or Monolith Code.
With the players' exhaustion in mind, there was a large interval for resting between the preliminary and elimination rounds, which could be said to be a unique feature of this event.
The first match was set at 8 AM. With two arenas going at the same time, the preliminaries would be finished around noon.
The elimination round would start at 7 PM. This was the only night time event in the entire Nine Schools Competition.
Some may question why the Nine Schools Competition forced the preliminary and elimination rounds into one day rather than splitting them across two days. There was, of course, a method to the madness.
Mirage Bat was an event that involved swinging a bat towards the orb- shaped holograms (Strictly speaking, they were three dimensional orb images. Modern imaging techniques technically possessed fundamental differences with holograms). In other words, the player had to identify the illusion floating ten meters off the ground while still grounded, otherwise there was no way to complete the event. This event was not suited to be conducted under the burning sun. Hence an airship was deployed during the third match to avoid letting the sun interfere with the event.
Mirage Bat was designed to be conducted during night time.
In order to avoid letting the players' bodies cover the projecting lights, the 3D projector was set atop the cylindrical light towers that surrounded the arena. From this alone, one could fully understand this was intended to be a night event.
? ? ?
After the end of the second match — as expected, both Honoka and Subaru advanced — Tatsuya was headed back to his room to take a quick nap.
The two players had already returned to their rooms and were sound asleep.
In this event, restoring lost stamina was absolutely critical.
As the technician, Tatsuya didn't need to rest physically, but this was a good opportunity to relax his nerves. He toyed with the idea of using the Sleeping Docks, but elected to yield that to the players first and returned to his room, pulled the curtains, and lay on the bed.
Right now, the third match of Mirage Bat was progressing. He was very fortunate to be assigned the first and second matches. Even though it was only one more hour, this hour had a huge impact on refreshing himself mentally and physically.
He also wished that Miyuki's Official Division preliminary was early as well, but that was out of his hands. Tatsuya abandoned that thought after taking into account how meaningless that consideration was.
His physical body wasn't tired, so he didn't have to force himself to sleep, but allowed his mind to wander.
As he lay on the bed with his eyes closed, Tatsuya thought back to the scene from yesterday morning.
Ichijou Masaki and Kichijouji Shinkurou — while they were of the same age as he was, they were both prodigies that were renowned in the world of magic.
Ichijou Masaki — Three years ago, when the Great Asian Alliance invaded Okinawa, the New Soviet Union also took military action on Sado, where the young man of a mere 13 years volunteered for the front lines and, alongside the current head of the Ichijou Family, Ichijou Gouki, used "Rupture" to annihilate many enemy soldiers. He was a Magician who possessed live combat experience.
While the scale of the battle was quite small (to this day, the New Soviet Union denies their connection with the militants that invaded Sado), he was awarded the title "the Crimson Prince of the Ichijou Family" for his exploits. (Here, "Crimson" praised him for the fact that "he was bathed in blood and fought to the last" rather than being a derogatory "bloodthirsty" label.)
Kichijouji Shinkurou — A genius Magician that identified the "Cardinal Code", which had only existed in theory, at age 13. Based on his surname Kichijouji and the "Cardinal Code" he discovered, he was given the title "Cardinal George" and was held to be one of the rising stars behind theoretical Magic Sequences who were known throughout the field.
The fact that both of them registered at the same school in the same cohort was a coincidence that bordered on criminal.
For the two of them to team up during Monolith Code was already an invincible combination, at least for the Newcomers Division.
Morisaki and company deserved to be pitied. Tatsuya viewed things that were not connected to him more mercifully.
If only there was some way to close the gap.
("Rupture" is a magic that possesses A-Rank destructive power......
Maybe.)
The Ichijou Family's far-famed ability "Rupture" was a Dispersal- Systematic Magic that vaporized all fluids within the target's body.
Once the fluids from a biological target were vaporized, the body would tear apart.
For internal combustible machines, once the fuel evaporated, the car would immediately explode. This was also the case for battery liquid. Even if there were no flammable liquids on board, there was still engine oil, lubricants, coolant. There was practically no machine that didn't use some sort of fluid. Thus, as long as "Rupture" was activated, the Ichijous could destroy any machine at will.
This was the perfect magic for both anti-personnel and anti-armor combat. "Rupture" was designed solely for military use, so naturally it infringed upon the rules for Monolith Code.
(That being said, he is still the next head of house for one of the Ten Master Clans and possesses the proud title "Crimson Prince", so he wouldn't just rely on "Rupture" as his trump card...... Speaking of which...)
He shifted his thoughts from two people who signed up for Monolith Code and declared war in front of him to the Monolith Code event itself.
He didn't have to devote all his energy into creating countermeasures for Third High yet.
Right now, First High's second match was about to start.
(They already took the first match and the second match is against the lowly Fourth High. Even they can't screw this up that bad......
)
Tatsuya's eyes remained closed as he surrendered to his drowsiness and drifted off to sleep.
? ? ?
Tatsuya woke up shortly after noon and headed for the competition area, only to find the area covered by a rattled atmosphere.
Scratch that, it was a complete state of panic that enveloped the pavilions.
First High's pavilion was the center of it all. "Onii-sama!"
The moment he stepped into the pavilion, Miyuki ran over to him as if this was a predetermined event. Shizuku was right alongside her.
"Miyuki......
Shizuku too, weren't you two with Erika's group?"
According to the plan, before Honoka got up — she had to prepare for the finals around 5 PM — Miyuki and Shizuku should have been watching Monolith Code with Erika and the others.
Yet, the two of them were here, which implied that......
"What's going on? Did something happen during Monolith Code?"
Without waiting for an answer, Tatsuya immediately followed up with another question.
There was no reason to ask if something had occurred, the very mood testified that an incident occurred.
Tatsuya had an inkling that this was likely worse than he had feared. "Yes, there was an accident, but......"
"Miyuki, that was no accident!"
As Miyuki hesitated to speak, Shizuku forcefully overrode her words as she interrupted.
"That was intentionally overkill. It was blatantly against the rules."
Although she kept a tight rein on her tone, Shizuku's eyes betrayed her fury.
"Shizuku...... This is not the best time to make wild accusations. We don't have proof that Fourth High intentionally did this."
"Indeed, Kitayama-san."
Behind them, Mayumi interjected into the conversation.
"It is hard to imagine that this was purely an accident...... Even so, we cannot jump to the conclusion that this was premeditated. If we hurtle suspicions around blindly, some people who do not know any better may assume that's the truth."
This may be a little impolite, but that was certainly a worthy argument from the upperclassman leadership.
As he saw Shizuku reflect upon that gentle reprimand, Tatsuya also thought, "The President does have a few tricks up her sleeve".
......Unfortunately, Mayumi immediately squinted at him from the side.
"......Is there a problem?"
"......You were just thinking something impolite, weren't you?"
(H-how sharp......!)
Tatsuya faltered slightly at how adeptly she saw through him.
Still, when he stood there, his life experiences belied his actual physical appearance.
"No, I was just thinking, as expected of the Student Council President......"
He wore a mask of honesty and feigned that he was being unjustly suspected in order to carefully gauge her reaction.
"......Is that so?"
While her eyes remained suspicious, Mayumi reined herself in at least. Not only was she unable to find any chinks in Tatsuya's acting, she also felt this wasn't the right time to pursue this issue.
"Then, what's our injury situation?"
"So you realized from the conversation alone that Morisaki-kun and the others are injured......"
Mayumi sighed, her expression had "what a troublesome issue" written all over her face.
"......They are seriously injured. The event was held in an urban setting and they were crushed beneath the rubble from a ruined building that crumbled when the attacks from 'Battering Ram' struck."
"......If used against people in closed environments, the magic
"Battering Ram" rates as A-rank in destructive power. This is on a completely different level than the danger encountered during Battle Board and is a blatant violation of the rules."
The "Battering Ram" that the two were speaking of was also known as "Point Burst", which was a magic developed through PK research. This magic functions by rewriting the Eidos of the target object and applying a massive Weight-Type Magic on a single point. When used against buildings, the target requirement was usually a wall or the ceiling, or at least a "single surface" that was separated from any pillars and also required a colossal magic capacity as well as high interference strength.
If simply destroying a building was the goal, it was more efficient to use Move-Type Magic and sling a hammer around. In comparison, "Battering Ram" was a highly demanding magic that, besides BS Magicians, was not something that could be casually treated like a toy.
"Agreed...... Even if they were wearing military-use protective equipment, that's not going to help against tons of rocks and dirt falling on top of you. Thanks to the protective helmets and the observers casting Light Weight Magic in time, disaster was averted......
The three of them have undergone magic healing, but even then this will take two weeks. They are confined to bed for the next three days."
Still, Mayumi avoided making a judgment on whether the accident was truly intentional and subtly altered the direction of the conversation.
"......It's more serious than I imagined."
Tatsuya could sympathize with Mayumi's stance on not voicing an opinion and thus avoiding the need to pursue the issue.
"Indeed. This may be a little rash, but once I saw the magic healers going, that was a horrible sight."
Just as she said, this was a somewhat harsh opinion regarding the injured members.
At any rate, the fact that Mayumi faltered so badly was also a clear indication that she was probably not on guard against Tatsuya.
"Wait, I'm still unclear on this point. Were all three in the same building?"
This may not have been a matter Tatsuya needed to worry about, but in Monolith Code, the typical strategy called for either one person on the attack and two on the defense or vice versa. Tatsuya had a hard time figuring out what situation would call for all three members of the team to be struck down by the same attack.
"They immediately suffered a surprise attack once the match was under way. It wasn't that they couldn't find anyone before the start signal, but it was that they didn't have a chance to. Setting aside 'Battering Ram' for now, there's no question that jumping the gun is a clear violation of the rules."
The one who answered was the fuming Shizuku.
"I see......
In that case, then the board will be busy too."
"Because they weren't able to prevent it......
Right?"
Seeing Tatsuya grin evilly, Miyuki tilted her head as she asked in confusion.
Miyuki was too sincere and honest to comprehend Tatsuya's twisted line of logic.
"This isn't anything too important. Rather, setting an easily destructible ruin as the starting location was one of the key causes of this accident — we'll call it an accident for now. The board may elect to scrap Monolith Code from the Newcomers Division altogether."
"......That's also true."
Miyuki nodded in profound agreement to Tatsuya's reasoning. At this time, Mayumi jumped back in.
"There are indeed calls for a halt to this. However, the ending result is that the preliminaries are still going on for all the schools besides us and Fourth High. The worst case scenario is that our school will be treated as withdrawn from the second round of the preliminaries."
Hearing Mayumi's words, it was Tatsuya's turn to turn his head.
"What do you mean worst case scenario? The players are unable to compete any longer, so aside from withdrawing, I don't see any other options......"
"On this point, Juumonji-kun is currently negotiating with the board."
"Really......"
After the commencement of the Nine Schools Competition, changing players was forbidden. In other words, since the other side violated the rules, they were going to request an exception?
Even so, the Monolith Code team members consisted of the 1st Year male students with the top three magic technical scores. Even if they found replacements, victory remained elusive. Rather than looking for replacements, a better option would be an unorthodox request to remove the scores from Monolith Code from the aggregate score. Behind these vague responses, Tatsuya made this consideration.
Naturally, Mayumi had no idea what dark plots were running through
Tatsuya's mind.
"—Tatsuya-kun, I wish to speak with you."
Mayumi's voice contained coquettish overtones. She must be thoroughly unnerved by this chain of accidents and was subconsciously looking for something or someone to rely on.
At practically the same time, his sister fixed a burning gaze on Tatsuya. He really wanted to dig a hole and hide as he thought “I didn't do it, don't glare at me, why aren't you glaring at Mayumi?”. But there was no way he would be caught dead saying that.
"Can you come with me for a moment?"
Does this mean she was worried about other people overhearing their private conversation?
The burning gaze doubled in intensity, but Tatsuya feigned ignorance as he followed right behind Mayumi.
? ? ?
Although they were inside the pavilion with a wall separating them from the outside, it was only made of cloth after all. From this perspective, this served as a poor sound barrier.
Yet, this was the realm of magic that reversed the laws of reality. Mayumi slowly built up a magical barrier that prevented their voices from traveling outside.
"Quite the perfect sound barrier."
"Really......? Hm hm, thank you."
Mayumi sat down with a slightly embarrassed expression while Tatsuya also pulled up a chair and sat.
"Then, let's cut to the chase......"
"Very well."
"............"
Even though Mayumi claimed time was of the essence, she refrained from speaking. Since the two of them alone would arouse all sorts of problems, Tatsuya finally opened up.
"You suspect that this accident is also related to the previous sabotage incident?"
"......Yes. On that topic, I would like to hear Tatsuya-kun's opinion.
Tatsuya-kun mentioned before that Mari's incident had a high probability of the CAD being tampered with, right?"
Mayumi finally worked up the courage to ask, to which Tatsuya nodded and replied: "Yes."
"If they were using the same tactic this time, that would fully explain Fourth High's actions...... How do you think we should go about proving this?"
"Our only option is to catch them red handed, all other options are not viable."
"Can't we...... Borrow Fourth High's CADs and look them over?"
"This would be fine if traces of the rewritten Activation Sequence remained
...... But given the ominous silence from the already disqualified Seventh High, this seems unlikely."
"Really......"
Mayumi's gaze dropped down to her ten interlaced fingers on the table top.
Tatsuya watched her pose and considered that he caused her some disappointment here. Mayumi didn't raise her eyes and continued asking.
"......If this played out according to Tatsuya-kun's assumptions and our school is the subject of sabotage...... What do you think the motive is?
Vengeance? Revenge for the incident in spring?"
So that's the real item that Mayumi was concerned about, Tatsuya thought.
Tatsuya possessed the intelligence in his hands to dispel this concern. He knew that this situation was not caused by remnants of "Blanche", the terrorist organization that they shattered, or any related organizations. If he revealed everything that he knew, he would be able to alleviate Mayumi's anxiety.
Yet, whether revealing everything was truly the best choice, he hesitated briefly over this decision.
"......This is unrelated to the incident in spring."
Finally, Tatsuya elected to play one card from his hand. "Eh? What makes you say that?"
Mayumi quickly raised her head and asked back, her voice betraying her hopes and prayers that he had some basis for saying so.
Tatsuya possessed the power to realize that hope. At the same time, he was denied the option of laying everything out on the table.
"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 before 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 Subar-->>