ting ranges.

If the eight who had advanced to the tournament proper were all from different schools the semis could have been resolved in four simultaneous games, but at the presence of competitors from the same school, the games had to be adjusted so as to not overlap (there is no competition between entrants of the same school during the semis.)

That being said, compared to conducting the semis one by one on a single range, the interval between each game was rather short. As three of First High's women's team had advanced to the semis, the engineers were kept very busy.

"......Tatsuya-san, is everything alright?"

Being last in turn, Shizuku reflexively spoke up when Tatsuya rushed in as she sat in the waiting room (although since she was in a tent, it couldn't strictly be called a 'room').

Maybe it was a trick of the mind, but it seemed to her that he was also slightly out of breath.

"It's fine."

With that short answer, Tatsuya began a final check of the CAD.

As Shizuku looked on — or rather stared — he rapidly scrolled through the monitor of the adjustment device ensuring there were no abnormalities, before finally meeting Shizuku's eye.

"I think you already know, but this is a totally different model from the ones used in the preliminaries. There's almost no time now, but if there's even the slightest discomfort, I'll re-adjust it as much as possible so please feel free to tell me anything."

Taking the CAD from Tatsuya, Shizuku took a stance and after repeatedly pulling the trigger with her finger two, three times, she put the CAD down.

"There's nothing of the sort. Rather, it fits so well it's almost frightening."

"I see."

She didn't thump her chest or anything, but at Tatsuya's relieved look, Shizuku's expression filled with fighting spirit.

"The other two won didn't they?"

"Yeah."

The other two, referred to her teammates who had already gone.

Those two who had along with Shizuku advanced to the finals tournament, seemed to have cinched a win in the semi finals as well.

"It's fine."

Once again, Tatsuya used the same words, but with a different meaning.

"If Shizuku performs as usual, you'll definitely win."

"Of course."

At that Shizuku gave a brief, yet far more vigorous than usual nod.

"Tatsuya-san has already made all the arrangements I need for victory, so all that's left is for me to take it."

"That's the spirit."

Without challenging her early declaration of success, Tatsuya saw her off with a smile.

? ? ?

"It's finally Shizuku-san's turn."

"Hey hey, if even Mizuki is nervous how should I cope?"

"But aren't you all excited as well Erika-chan? If Shizuku-san wins here, three of the final best four will be from our school!"

"Aren't you a bit too nervous regardless? Shizuku is definitely going to win after all."

At that confident affirmation, mingled with a teasing remark from Miyuki to 'take a deep breath and calm down', Mizuki obediently cleared her mind and inhaled.

"......I wonder if this also counts as a sort of promise."

"......I guess even Mizuki-san can be playful at times."

Rather than as a result of the deep breathing, but more from not wanting to cause Miyuki and Honoka any more worry, Mizuki finally regained her composure.

"I wonder what kind of twist we'll see this time."

Hearing Mikihiko's voice bearing a hint of excitement, Erika made a 'huh?' expression.

"Good point. What will jump out this time, I can't even begin to guess."

The one who actually responded aloud was Leo.

"His mind is almost like a jack-in-the-box."

"You can talk."

For Mikihiko to look forward to and show interest in magic was something Erika hadn't seen for a long time.

Whether this change had been brought about simply by watching the competition with others, she couldn't say. Perhaps without her knowing, something had happened between Tatsuya and Mikihiko...... without voicing anything aloud, Erika pondered such things. "Eh? That's......"

Breaking her out of her train of thought and back to reality was a querulous voice.

"What is it?"

"That CAD.....?"

Mikihiko's gaze was fixed on the CAD Shizuku held under her arm by a strap.

That rifle shaped CAD at first glance, with the exception of the strap, was no different from the CAD the other contestants were using. But the area of the gun where ammunition would normally be stored was thicker than the others.

Mikihiko's school traditionally didn't place much emphasis on CADs. They still mainly utilized magic activated by charms. But ever since the accident last year, Mikihiko had obsessively been studying up on modern magic technology.

To compensate for what he had lost.

The result of that had been evident in his test results.

Mikihiko had considerably more confidence in CADs than comparable modern mages.

If his eyes weren’t mistaken.

"Is that...... a general purpose CAD?"

"Eh, you're kidding?"

"Yeah, well, it is."

"I've never heard of a general CAD shaped like a rifle before. Firstly, isn't combining auxiliary sighting systems into a general system technically impossible?"

It was only natural that Leo, Mizuki, and Erika would ask one question after another.

But Mikihiko simply shook his head with confidence.

"The arrangement of the body portion just above the trigger of the CAD is without a doubt FLT's general purpose 'Centaur' series. The Centaur series is a type which doesn't have any interfaces on the main body and can be used without any external input devices, but the connector has had a grip and auxiliary aim assist system attached."

"You really know your stuff."

Miyuki's words as she turned around and grinned confirmed Mikihiko's observations.

"Eh? Then, that is?"

"You're right Erika. That's specially handcrafted by Onii-sama. It was specifically made to incorporate auxiliary aiming systems into a general purpose CAD."

At Miyuki's proud words, the knowledge that the CAD was a special made-to-order model, Erika was rendered speechless at the amount of effort that must have taken.

"I don't think I could feel any more surprised but...... just what is it all for?"

"Of course, for the match."

Honoka's brief answer was not near enough to satisfy Leo's, and the other three's questions.

But no subsequent explanation followed through.

As if by common consent, the six of them faced forwards. The signal for the start of the match began to light up.

? ? ?

Red and white clay targets danced in the sky.

Shizuku's targets were the red ones.

The three red targets that twisted through the air and entered the scoring zone, flew together towards the centre and shattered.

"Movement system...... no, that's wrong. Convergence system?"

In the tent used by each school as a headquarters, large monitors covering every aspect of the competitions gave full view of the matches underway.

Both Suzune and Mayumi were watching Shizuku's match on the monitor with their full attention.

"Correct."

This time, all red targets which entered the scoring area were being drawn into the middle and destroyed.

"That's the magic used in the qualifiers isn't it?"

"Yes. It's a continuous invocation of convergence magic and vibration magic."

Two of the white targets collided and broke apart.

The opponent from Second High was using an orthodox tactic of targeting the clay itself using movement magic, and turning it into a bullet to hit other targets.

Although orthodox, its effectiveness had been amply demonstrated by past performances.

But from the outset, the majority of the targets being removed from around the outer area were white.

Since most of those had been hit around the outer edge, the problem lay not in the technical ability of the contestant but rather...

"I get that the area of effect is able to recognize the targets on a macro level and enhance the density of red targets in the centre via convergence, whilst displacing the white targets from that centre but......"

The basic form of Convergence Magic works by defining existing space via the Magic Ritual, then taking that defined 'data' and selectively manipulating it via designated coordinates using that same Magic Ritual.

For example, Mayumi's magic which utilizes dry ice to make bullets and send them flying, in order to create a sufficient number of bullets, initially also uses Convergence Magic to gather carbon dioxide.

In this case, carbon dioxide is collected in one place while other gases are pushed aside, but this does not mean a high density mass of carbon dioxide is made, as the CO2 rather flows through designated coordinates whilst other gases are drawn out.

In the same manner, Shizuku's magic replaced carbon dioxide with red targets.

A special zone — in this case, the centre of the scoring area — was set up as a 'space where red targets are gathered' by that Systematic Convergence Magic.

More specifically a square space 20 meters per side, comfortably covering the entire scoring area and more, was magically altered to become a 'space with a high density of red clay targets in the centre.'

The volume of that area is huge, but as the total number of clay targets at any one time is small, there isn't a large burden on the operator. What is modified isn't the space itself, but rather the distribution of clay targets within that space.

The modification of data via the Magic Ritual results in red targets being drawn to the centre of the area, while white targets are repelled. The targets the Second High contestant directly controlled weren’t affected by such minor interference, but the targets the Second High student tried to hit, due to not receiving any magic from her, had their trajectories changed by Shizuku's magic and as a result, white targets began to be missed.

The rules of the Speed Shooting tournament finals state that as long as you do not directly attack your opponent, interference is allowed. But as the clay targets fly for only short irregular periods, it's very hard to block your opponent and shoot your own targets at the same time.

There were many cases when vacillating between sniping and interfering resulted in self destruction, but as Shizuku's Systematic Convergence Magic flawlessly linked disturbing the opponent and destroying one's own targets, it was a very skillful strategy.

While few, there are some examples of this strategy being used in the past, all of which shared one effect. As strong interference strength is needed, the strategy involves the selection of an appropriate contestant. Therefore while the window of opportunity is small, Mayumi had also firmly studied this tactic.

So what Mayumi was asking concerning this magic was not that in itself.

"But then, how is she able to turn on and off the Systematic Vibration Magic at the end?"

If multiple targets flew together, they would shatter as is.

If a red target was alone however, vibration magic was used to destroy it.

It had been configured as a single magic, so for her to be able to independently trigger the Systematic Vibration Magic to destroy targets was peculiar.

"I wonder if it's been scheduled that multiple targets would fly together before the Vibration Magic has a chance to trigger?"

Mayumi's tone as she reasoned to herself said that not even she believed it.

There's no merit to applying such a time difference.

"Pres, I did say it was 'continuous invocation of Systematic Convergence Magic and Systematic Vibration Magic' didn't I?"

With a sly smile, Suzune corrected Mayumi's misunderstanding. Mayumi immediately understood the meaning of those words. And upon reflection, immediately cried a rebuttal.

"No way! The systems in a specialized CAD should only be able to store one single Activation Sequence!?"

"Your doubts are well founded, except that's not a specialized CAD, but a general one."

Suzune's answer only brought Mayumi still more confusion.

"That's impossible! The hardware, OS and architecture between specialized and general CADs are totally different.

And auxiliary aiming devices are subsystems which only fit within the architecture of a specialized CAD.

Connecting an auxiliary aiming device to the body of a general CAD is technically impossible isn't it?"

Mayumi's stressful speech gradually settled down, but from the blush of her cheeks it was still possible to glimpse her raw excitement.

Suzune's smile, now calm and mature, turned into something to soothe her companion.

"I thought so too. But, I guess it really is possible. This isn't something original to Shiba-kun, but was announced in Germany a year ago."

"......one year ago, isn't that pretty much state of the art?"

"It's best if you're not surprised simply by this much, Pres. He's being real coy about it, but Shiba-kun has something even more cutting edge in store."

"Hahh...... Well, if it's confidential it can't be helped. But for him to tell Rin-chan about it and not me is a bit of a shock."

"The Pres is a contestant. I'm sure he simply didn't want to upset you."

"I guess...... if I had known about a technique like this in advance, I certainly might have become a bit agitated."

As their eyes returned to the monitor, the scores of both players and the remaining time were displayed onscreen.

With the clock ticking down, victory had already been decided.

? ? ?

(30 seconds remaining)

Having been repeatedly training these past two weeks, practicing over and over, she was now able to measure exactly the flow of the 5 minutes of the competition.

The moment red clay flew into the blue sphere projected by her goggles, Shizuku triggered her CAD.

The target shattered.

The competition allows the use of the protective goggles to double as a sighting aid. In fact, the number of competitors who don't do so are rare. (The case of players like Mayumi who have their own sights aside.) However, rather than aiming directly at the target, Shizuku's functioned as a HMD (head mount display) in order to distinguish space. Or rather, it should be called Tatsuya's.

As with all the unorthodox techniques Tatsuya had proposed, Shizuku had also been puzzled with this at first. However, possibly because she had no actual competition experience, she fortunately didn't take any time to get used to it. Once she was comfortable, it matched her more perfectly than any other equipment or techniques than she would have believed.

Anyway, it was easy.

There was almost no stress associated with the normal use of magic. Shizuku herself was aware that her weakness was fine control.

That was why she had requested her CAD engineers to add features that assist in the smoothing of detailed settings.

Even at the expense of speed, her aim was to ensure that her CAD would be able to output power at a reliable level.

She was confident her own ability could compensate for the speed of processing.

However Tatsuya's Sequences made detailed settings unnecessary.

Rather than making up for her shortcomings, the concept was to maximize her advantages.

The intent capitalized on her processing power to continuously trigger a Sequence at high speeds, and her capacity to build large Magic Rituals.

The result was the CAD she now held in her hand.

She had been surprised at his being able to connect an auxiliary aiming system to a general type CAD, but she had been even more surprised at the Activation Sequence speed.

In terms of processing speed, general CADs lose out to specialized ones.

This was not so much common sense, but rather a matter of structure.

General and specialized CADs differ both in their hardware and software.

The difference between them, between a dedicated processor and general processor, is similar to the difference between a dedicated supercomputer and a general one.

Comparing CPU performance in terms of speed, a generic type will never be the equal of a specialized type. This difference in level can usually be felt clearly.

And yet — this CAD demonstrated speed no less to that of a specialized CAD.

(5 more seconds)

—A target came flying. —She pulled the trigger. —Magic activated.

—And the target shattered.

This processing speed, even when compared with the specialized CAD used during the preliminaries, showed almost no difference.

Tatsuya had said the trick was because 'it was limited to only two Sequences'.

Since it had been designed exclusively for the competition, he was able to use a trick that would not be viable for daily use.

Shizuku could not understand the detailed theory. She didn't think it necessary.

Magic was a tool.

The CAD was also a tool.

A tool just needs to be usable.

Any more than that, could be left to the experts.

The last two targets weren't shattered by the 'Air Mine', but by Loop Cast Convergence magic.

"Perfect."

Confirming her performance aloud, Shizuku gave a smile of triumph.

? ? ?

Noon.

Inside First High School's tent, a jubilant atmosphere filled the air. "That was brilliant, Tatsuya-kun! What an amazing achievement!"

Having been patted and slapped on the back countless times, Tatsuya was growing tired. Just as Mayumi's slender figure suggested there was no actual pain involved, but her persistence was certainly wearying.

"......Pres, please calm down a little."

Making eye contact with Suzune in a plea for assistance, she immediately began to remonstrate with Mayumi.

Quite the dependable senpai — if not for the fact that she had gone along until being asked for help, making her feel rather more like a 'partner in crime'.

"Ah, I'm sorry."

Perhaps having too much fun and finally coming to her senses, Mayumi immediately stopped the slapping. ......but it didn't seem like she intended to let him go anytime soon.

"Still, that was truly astounding! We took all first, second and third places!"

"......the winner, runner-up and third place are all contestants, not me."

"Of course Kitayama-san, Akechi-san, and Takigawa-san were also amazing! Everyone did so well!"

At the Student Council President's broad smile, the 1st Year women's Speed Shooting team bowed in unison with a happy 'thank you'.

"But at the same time, your own achievements are no less. They were without a doubt spectacular."

Although without Mayumi's sheer energy, Mari also joined in the praise with a good natured face.

"Uh, thank you very much."

"It's not like this is a contest. As the engineer who significantly contributed to our contestants' monopoly of all the placings, you should have your share of the recognition."

At Mari's words, Shizuku and the others nodded deeply. "I couldn't believe it myself."

"My magic suddenly became so good, it was like an illusion." Unlike Shizuku, the other two added their own comments. Shizuku simply nodded as if everything was a matter of course.

"Especially concerning the magic Kitayama-san used, there has been an approach from the Universities to officially adopt it into the 'Index'."

However, at Suzune's words Mayumi's eyes widened, Mari was lost for words and Shizuku stiffened.

The official name of the Index is the 'National Magic University Compiled?Magic Encyclopedia?Index of True Names'.

For a magic to have its proper name recorded in the encyclopedia the National Magic Universities are creating, in this context, means the magic would not be considered a subset of any existing magic, but officially recognized by the Universities as an entirely new branch of magic.

To researchers engaged in the development of magic in Japan, this was the one single honor they all strove for.

However—

"I see. Then, please submit Kitayama-san as the developer's name."

"What!? No way!"

At Tatsuya's utter lack of interest, Shizuku drew close in a hurry. "That was Tatsuya-san's original magic!"

"......It's normal for the developer name of a new magic to be registered as the name of the first user is it not?"

Distancing himself from Shizuku's pleas, Tatsuya replied with no tension.

"Hm......excessive humility is also unpleasant you know?"

At Mari's chiding, accompanied by a slightly chilling glance, Tatsuya simply shook his head reluctantly.

"It's not humility."

"Then what is it?"

"I just don't want the shame of having my name registered as the developer of a magic I can't even use."

Certainly, if one is known as the developer of a new type of magic, they are often asked for demonstrations.

If one is 'unable to use' a magic they developed themselves, suspicions would arise that maybe the magic was actually developed by others.

Tatsuya's reason was not unjustifiable, but......

"......Just how then did you manage to confirm the operative readiness of a magic you can't use?"

Building up a magic by theory alone is surpassingly non-standard but, even if it were possible, to let another use a magic that was not tested and verified as functional was the work of a mad scientist who ignored all the risks, and it was extremely immoral.

"It's not like I can't use it at all. It's just that it would take me far too much time to set up, to the point it's not really at the level you could say I can truly 'use' it."

"Well well, Mari, Tatsuya-kun, let's not quarrel over such a thing now."

Seeing Mari preparing more ammunition to throw at Tatsuya's comeback, Mayumi intervened between the two.

"We're finally back to a good start. Tatsuya-kun, please help the other competitors just as much."

As Mayumi tapped his shoulder with a smile, Tatsuya gave a modest bow.

? ? ?

The performance of First High School’s women's Speed Shooting team had created a stir in the other schools.

There was an enthusiastic feeling of 'we can win this year' throughout the Nine Schools Tournament, especially Third High School, who thought of the accident in the women's Battle Board 'we feel bad for them, but this is a chance!' — While such thoughts may seem excessive, they were shared amongst the others.

"So Masaki, First High's performance, you don't think it was due to the personal skill of those girls themselves?"

Of the twenty people gathered — all the 1st Years of the Third High School Newcomer’s Battle contestants —

"It has to be said, the magical power of the winner, that Kitayama girl, is astounding. I'm sure she would have won either way. But the other two, I don't feel were anything special. If the results had been decided by magical power alone, I'm sure they wouldn't have gone so far as to claim second and third place as well."

"Not to mention that the advantage in Battle Board lies with us this year, seeing how I think First High only has one 1st Year in it with a particularly high level."

The results of the Battle Board so far had seen the two guys from Third High School both qualify, and of the two girls they sent forth one had qualified. By contrast only one of the men from the three First High School sent qualified, and the one girl they sent qualified too.

"It's as Jouji says. We don't lose out in terms of the quality of our contestants. If that's so, there must be some other factor."

"Ichijou-kun, Kichijouji-kun......what do you think it is?"

At the question from the girl who had lost to First High in the semifinals of the Speed Shooting, both Ichijou and Kichijouji made eye contact, confirming their suspicions.

"It's probably, their engineer." Kichijouji responded out loud.

"The engineer for their women's Speed Shooting team is probably quite the ace."

"I concur. Jouji, the device that winner girl used...... did you notice?"

"Yeah...... that was a general purpose wasn't it."

Kichijouji's answer, aside from the two of them, made a considerable impact on the other Third High 1st Years.

"No way......I mean, it had auxiliary sights attached right?"

"That's right! I've never heard of a general purpose device shaped like a rifle either!"

"That's true. Whichever maker's catalogue you look through, you'd never find anything like that would you?"

At the objections being raised, Ichijou remained somber.

"......certainly, something like that has never commercially appeared.

However, examples of general devices with integrated sighting aids do indeed exist."

"You gotta be kidding......"

At Ichijou's words, stunned voices floated through the air.

In fact a strong air of disbelief permeated throughout, until Kichijouji came out with his own support.

"It's new technology, only just announced in Dusseldorf last summer."

"Just last summer!? That's freakin' state of the art!"

"Yeah, I didn't know either until I looked into it for this thing."

"Not even Ichijou knew, there's no way we would......"

An uncomfortable silence followed. Surprise, anxiety, doubt......and awe.

"......Kichijouji-kun sure knows a lot though. As expected of our brain."

The words of that female competitor were intended to loosen up the heavy atmosphere.

But Kichijouji remained unmoved.

"Sure......but, the prototype unveiled in Dusseldorf was not meant to be a practical model. The operation was sluggish, accuracy was low

— from a technical standpoint it was simply an experiment that had been cast aside."

Kichijouji knotted his brow as he replied, his voice bitter.

"The device the winner First High's Kitayama-san used however fully combined the strengths of the speed and accuracy of a specialized type with the versatility of a general type. If that was all the work of one engineer......that's not the level of a high school student anymore. It's almost monstrous."

"Masaki, for you to describe someone that far......"

"It's physically impossible for a single engineer to be responsible for every competitor though......"

"Competitions that guy is responsible for in the future are likely to be beastly. It's very likely our devices will be handicapped by at least two or three generations."

At Kichijouji's ominous speculation, silence reigned amongst the gathered teammates.

? ? ?

Tatsuya, who was at this moment receiving such unjust treatment from the athletes in their rival schools without any knowledge (obviously) after finishing a late lunch proceeded to the girls' Battle Board course.

Planned for the afternoon were the fourth to sixth races.

Honoka would appear in the sixth. If he only needed to keep his appointment with her, there should be no need to come so early.

"Ah, Shiba-kun, what's the matter?"

At the sight of him accompanied by Miyuki and Shizuku, Azusa tilted her head. Her posture was so similar to a squirrel holding a nut that despite his melancholic mood, he couldn't help but twitch a smile.

At his careless chuckle he consciously tried to tighten his lips, but there wasn't enough tension. In resignation, he relaxed.

"......You were making fun of me just now weren't you?"

"Not at all. I was just impressed by Nakajou-senpai's diligence."

"......You really are making fun of me aren't you?"

Being glared at with those half-lidded eyes so much like a child sulking forced Tatsuya to look away to hold back his laughter.

"......It's fine, I don't care."

Azusa kept glaring at him for a while, then with a sigh, muttered to herself.

This was probably something she went through every day. Somehow, her figure also exuded an air of melancholy. Leaving her like that would make one feel terrible.

"—I really wasn't making fun of you."

"......Really?"

"Really."

"Really really?"

"Really."

Being looked at with suspicion — due to the height difference, straight up — by Azusa, Tatsuya showed a strong front.

Seeing that proud bearing, Azusa finally seemed to relent (was she fooled?) and smiled.

"Alright. Because I believe in Tatsuya-kun."

Saying so as she laughed at him, she drifted over to his side. Tatsuya knew without even looking.

The image of Miyuki's eyebrows rising floated into his mind. (Ooh boy......)

It seemed his sister would be in a pretty bad mood tonight as well, he sighed to himself — although he couldn't resent her for it, it did pain him a little inside.

—That aside.

"So, what's the matter? There's still two -->>

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