Battle Board’s preliminary stage was slated for today and after lunch — only the fourth through sixth rounds were left. After deciding to watch the semifinals and finals for Speed Shooting, Tatsuya bid farewell to his friends.
He returned to the hotel and walked towards the rooms reserved for higher-ranking officers. This is to fulfill the promise he made to Kazama last night.
Kazama held the rank of major, but his experiences and the unique nature of the troops under his command granted him treatment above his official rank. In this suite that was normally restricted to colonels and higher, Kazama was enjoying a quick break with the officer cadre while enjoying the tea and snacks ordered from room service.
"So you're here, come, sit."
Tatsuya was brought into the room by the soldiers on duty (not soldiers from this base, but under Kazama's direct command) and even though Kazama extended a cordial invitation for him to be seated, Tatsuya hesitated upon seeing who the officers were.
Tatsuya's rank "Special Lieutenant" was not a "commissioned officer" but "a non-commissioned officer recognized as a soldier by international standards" (presently, this country's battalions no longer possessed the "associate officer" system). Soldiers that were not restricted by the military's ranking system but still maintained the right to participate on the front lines could only be found in the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion's command structure during active duty. However, even without a built-in ranking system, everyone present was still a superior officer and, more importantly, an elder, so he couldn't casually accept such an invitation.
"Tatsuya, today we're not treating you as 'Strategic-Class Magician Special Lieutenant Ooguro Ryuuya', but as our good friend 'Shiba Tatsuya', so being too formal would only be inconvenient."
"It's also difficult to converse with you standing all the time, so why don't you take a seat?"
At this time, the two officers at the table also motioned for Tatsuya to sit.
"Captain Sanada, Captain Yanagi...... Understood, pardon my interruption."
Friendship that transcended age prompted Tatsuya to abandon his overly formal attitude to avoid being impolite. After a round of greetings, he sat directly across from Kazama.
They were seated at a round table.
The afternoon tea time for the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion was for them to relax and unwind.
Even though Tatsuya's seat was closest to the door, the adults still welcomed him as one of them.
"First of all, long time no see. I know we shouldn't use tea cups for this, but cheers."
"Second Lieutenant Fujibayashi, thank you."
The female officer serving as Kazama's adjutant — more like secretary — handed him a tea cup, which Tatsuya accepted on a small plate while signaling with his eyes.
Today, she was in casual clothes rather than in uniform, which gave off the aura of "a young secretary from a major corporation".
Not just her, but everyone was in suits or casual garb where the shirts didn't match the jacket.
"In reality, we met earlier, but let's cut Fujibayashi some slack."
"Dr. Yamanaka, you don't need to force yourself."
"No, I'm not that unsociable to ruin the moment when we raise cups to celebrate our reunion."
"......The doctor's just looking for a reason to pour some brandy into the teacups, right?"
"The situation demands alcohol."
"Really...... I thought 'doctors not treating themselves' meant something else entirely......"
The one who leisurely replied to Captain Yanagi's confusion was doctor and first class healer — Combat Medic Yamanaka.
Including Kazama, there were 5 people in total who shook their heads in exasperation, which were all the officers from the Independent Magic-Equipped Battalion who greeted Tatsuya.
"Captain Yanagi, Second Lieutenant Fujibayashi, it's been a while. Captain Sanada, thanks for your recent support."
Tatsuya started off with greeting the two he hadn't seen for some time, then finished with thanking Captain Sanada who assisted him at the base last month.
"No, I'm the one who should be thanking you. Only you are capable of handling 'Third Eye's' long range precision targeting system."
"That's because that CAD was originally designed for this one to use...... Speaking of which, Doctor Yamanaka, I haven't received the examination results from last time."
"......Tatsuya, am I the only one being treated differently?"
"Doctor...... I don't think anyone could view a doctor who directly asked for permission to conduct human experimentation in a positive light."
Fujibayashi retorted at Yamanaka's words.
Yamanaka deliberately turned his head to one side.
Laughter suffused the round table.
Though they claimed that it had been a while, in reality it's not like they haven't seen each other for years.
Yanagi was the one who had been absent the longest at approximately six months, while Sanada and Yamanaka were last seen about a month ago.
The topic naturally turned to a sit rep where they conversed about the criminal organization that may seek to act during the Nine Schools Competition.
Just as they had discussed over the phone, the malefactors from last night were part of "No-Head Dragon". Unfortunately, they still had no information regarding the group's intent and goals. That being said, any one of the five people here (especially Yamanaka) could easily obtain results if they were in charge of interrogations, but currently they didn't want to proactively join the investigation.
"Still, that was quite the show you put on last night, or were you prepared ahead of time?"
"The Major overestimates this one's abilities, this one only caught wind of their presence while out on a stroll."
"That late?"
"Because CAD maintenance ran over time."
Owing to their similar age, the one Tatsuya spoke with the most in this group was of course Second Lieutenant Fujibayashi. Thanks to her military training, she possessed a magnificent figure that most people dared not to look at too openly, yet her amicable attitude and mundane wardrobe and make up allowed Tatsuya to comfortably converse with her.
"No wonder you're participating as a member of the technician team. Do your teammates know about 'Silver'?"
"Negative, that remains a secret."
Tatsuya shook his head as he replied to Yamanaka's question.
"Given the class difference, am I the only one who thinks that you serving as a CAD engineer in a high school contest constitutes cheating?"
"Captain Sanada, Tatsuya is a bona fide high school student."
Sanada grinned as he brought up a legitimate complaint. Fujibayashi smiled as well as she deflected Sanada's comment and turned back to Tatsuya.
"Why didn't you enter as a participant? I think that you would enjoy considerable success with your flash cast abilities. If necessary, even excluding 'Material Burst', you at least have 'Mist Dispersal' to fall back on."
"No, not only are both 'Material Burst' and 'Mist Dispersal' classified, their destructive power also exceeds the limits set by the competition. In addition, 'Material Burst' is only accessible with 'Third Eye'."
"But you brought the 'Trident' along, right?"
"That's also against the rules, specifically the ones regarding competition-use CADs. Furthermore, flash cast is one of the Yotsuba Family's secret techniques."
Tatsuya smiled wryly as he refuted Fujibayashi's suggestion.
Immediately afterwards, Yanagi continued in a helpless tone:
"Fujibayashi...... You're actually suggesting we use Strategic-level 'Disintegration' Magic — 'Material Burst' in a high school competition. I'm calling shenanigans."
"I also don't believe that there will be an opportunity to use 'Material Burst' in the Nine Schools Competition. However, in last year's competition, the scion of the Juumonji Family used 'Phalanx' and the young lady from the Saegusa Family cast 'Magic Shooter', so I don't think using 'Mist Dispersal' is out of bounds."
"Fujibayashi-san, the Juumonji Family's 'Phalanx' ability is defensive magic, so there's no destructive power involved. Likewise, the greatest advantage in the Saegusa Family's 'Magic Shooter' is its sheer flexibility in force applied, so its destructive power also varies. On the other hand, 'Mist Dispersal' is indisputably an A-rank magic in destructive power that is able to reduce an object down to its molecular level, so they cannot be compared side by side."
"Aha, Captain Sanada, didn't you know? Destructive power is only measured in the events of the Nine Schools Competition that could affect the players themselves, so Speed Shooting and Icicle Destruction are not within its jurisdiction. Interestingly enough, the handbook that emphasizes safety first glosses over this point."
The Nine Schools Competition was changed to the current format 10 years ago. Of all the people present who had participated in the Nine Schools Competition, the only who had fought under the current rules was Fujibayashi, who assisted Second High in claiming the crown in her year.
Just as the two of them were about to embark upon a heated debate regarding their specialties, Kazama halted them in their tracks.
"Regardless, we cannot reveal any magic that constitutes a military secret before so many witnesses, so there's no point in discussing this, is there?"
Kazama intervened in his subordinates' debate like a man fighting off a headache.
Suddenly, his face assumed an emotionless mask as he turned on Tatsuya in a voice like cold steel:
"Speaking of which, Tatsuya, you understand that if you are called upon to serve as a participant......"
"Major, this one understands. If forced into a situation where 'Mist Dispersal' must be deployed, this one will choose to forfeit and accept his defeat."
Even with the sword still in its scabbard, Tatsuya could still tell the difference between real blades and bokkens. At any rate, seeing Kazama's serious attitude with a merciless blade lurking behind him, there was no way Tatsuya could misread Kazama's intention.
Kazama and Tatsuya both learned from the same master and there was a definite bond of friendship between the two. Yet, their mutual apprenticeship and friendship were not the first priority in Kazama's mind. If necessary, Kazama would abandon Tatsuya without any hesitation, and Tatsuya would do likewise.
"......However, this one cannot imagine any situation where he would be forced to participate as a player."
"That's a mental block. So long as you understand the situation."
Among everyone else's laughter, Kazama and Tatsuya fixed each other with an intense look and ended the conversation.
As the saying goes, "only God knows", but even with this in mind, Tatsuya's perspective was the more logical possibility. Both of them were of one mind on that point.
Nevertheless, neither Kazama nor Tatsuya were completely confident in Tatsuya's assessment of his own predicament.
"Tatsuya-kun, over here, over here!"
This was the competition location for the Women's Speed Shooting event. After bidding farewell to Kazama's group and leaving their tea break, Tatsuya returned to find the stands bereft of spare seats. As he searched through the crowd for his friends, Erika found him first and called out to him.
"The Elite Eight must be that popular."
Tatsuya waded through the crowds and sat down next to Erika.
"That's because the President is on next — the other rounds don't have nearly as many spectators."
Tatsuya's words were only his private thoughts murmured aloud, but Miyuki, who was comfortably installed on Tatsuya's other side, politely responded.
This time, the sitting order was like this: Miyuki sat behind Leo, Mizuki was behind Erika, Honoka behind Tatsuya, and Shizuku behind Miyuki.
"Honoka, am I in your way?"
Tatsuya had hit a growth spurt since entering high school and was now nearly 180 cm (178 cm to be precise), and even with the difference in seating height, he was still worried that he was completely eclipsing Honoka's view.
However, Honoka grinned as she shook her head at Tatsuya, who had turned around to ask.
"Is that so...... By the way, where's Mikihiko?"
"He said he wasn't feeling well, so he went back to his room to rest."
As Erika replied to Tatsuya's inquiry, her expression clearly added a "how useless" afterthought.
"He's likely affected by anxiety. I would probably faint if I wasn't wearing my glasses."
Mizuki spoke on Mikihiko's behalf.
No wonder, Tatsuya thought, this is a natural side effect for those who deal with acute senses.
He was highly interested in their respective emotional states, but opted to leave it be for now.
The instant Mayumi appeared on the shooting platform, a storm of cheers shook the observation area.
The screens placed around the observation deck flashed the words "Silence Please", causing the cheers to die out immediately.
With the absence of any sound, the anxiety level spiked.
Tatsuya pitied her opponent a little.
Regardless of the competition, when facing a superstar, there was always added stress and anxiety.
Maybe he was concerned on the opponent's behalf.
As if completely tuning out the spectators' cheers, Mayumi flicked the safety off for the rifle-shaped CAD and prepared herself for the match.
The tournament used lights to signal the start of the match.
From the Elite Eight onwards, the contest format resorted to duels. A hundred red targets and a hundred white targets were fired into the air and the victor was decided by who destroyed more of their designated target.
Actually, so long as no targets were shot forth by the machine, the round hadn't started yet.
Even so, for Speed Shooting players, the five signal lights remained the horn that sounded the commencement.
The first light flashed.
The lights gradually increased. Once they hit the peak, porcelain discs began filling the sky.
The white discs danced through the sky.
Mayumi's target color was red.
The red-tinted targets all shattered the moment they entered firing range.
"Impressive......"
Tatsuya privately agreed with the sighs coming from behind him.
It was truly impressive.
From a strategic perspective, this wasn't the most efficient method.
By taking down your own targets, your opponent wouldn't have to worry about accidentally gifting you points. The opponent could fire at any target they could see.
However, Mayumi's overwhelming power rendered this tactic moot.
"Eh?"
Honoka let out a gasp.
Shizuku made no noise, but from her breathing patterns, she was no less astounded.
"The 'Magic Shooter'...... Is even faster than last year."
Tatsuya's eyes were locked onto the flying discs and nodded at Miyuki's words.
For red discs obscured by the white discs in the sky, the ice particles shot through them "from below".
They weren't homing projectiles, as no one would test their luck with such inefficient magics.
This long range magic was attacking the red discs with ice particles from locations that were not obstructed by white discs.
She wasn't creating magic bullets, but shooting them — hence the name "Magic Shooter".
There were many magic abilities that could affect targets at long range.
In the Speed Shooting contest, Mayumi's use of bullets to snipe the target was actually the exception. Mainstream tactics involved casting Oscillation-Type Magic on the discs themselves to shatter them, or applying Move-Type Magic to have the discs collide into one another. Magic is not hampered by physical obstacles, so discs that are usually obscured from sight don't actually require a special skill to destroy.
In that case, why was the so-called "Magic Shooter" who specialized in using magic bullets from long distances deployed in this contest? What was her advantage?
The answer was that this magic allowed the user to strike from the blind spots outside of her opponent's casting range.
For example, assume that both players are using Oscillation-Type Magic on the discs in the same Speed Shooting round.
When the red and white discs are in close proximity, the two magics may interfere with one another and cause an unpredictable result – such as fizzling altogether or releasing ultrasonic shock waves.
When casting magic in the same general vicinity as other Magicians on the same long distance targets, one must carefully select the firing position and then apply strong interference.
The duel format for Speed Shooting was originally designed to test magic invocation speed and Magic Power, but with Mayumi sniping the targets from beyond her opponent's firing range, she effectively created a pocket of space where she was casting magic without interference.
Her opponent naturally enjoyed the same advantage.
In that case, the duel was decided solely on speed and precision targeting.
In terms of speed and precision targeting, Mayumi's Magic Power ranked among the foremost in the world.
High school students simply couldn't compare.
The first day's round of "Speed Shooting" went as everyone predicted, with Mayumi earning a crushing victory in the Women's Division and the Men's Division also securing First Place.
"Congratulations, President!"
Mayumi smiled widely as she nodded to accept Azusa's praise.
"Thank you, Mari also advanced into the semifinals."
She shifted her gaze to the side.
"Currently, everything is going according to plan."
In her line of sight, Mari nodded in response.
As the night deepened, after catching a bite and some time in the bath, the only thing left was proper rest to restore what was lost during the day, so the female members (including the Public Morals Committee Chief) all congregated in Mayumi's room.
The first day's events were over and Mayumi still had to compete tomorrow, so they could save the official celebrations until after they seized the crown. Presently, they only raised cups of juice to celebrate.
The reason only women were present was because of time constraints. Still, it wasn't like they were planning on a pajama party, so even if men were present it wouldn't be an issue.
Given that, the reason why only women were present was because –
"It got tense for a bit, but Hattori managed to pull through."
Just as Mari's lifeless words implied, victory for the Men's Division was not assured. "Speed Shooting" secured First Place as predicted, but the "Battle Board" preliminaries turned out to be a hard fought contest.
"Seems like the CAD wasn't properly adjusted for him. After the round, Kinoshita-senpai and I were both working on it, but......"
"It wasn't finished."
Hearing Azusa's words, Suzune examined the maintenance reports from all members from her terminal.
"Kinoshita's skills aren't bad......"
"Alas, they're not exceptional either."
Mayumi stuck up in Kinoshita's defense, but could only smile bitterly at Mari's direct analysis. Still, Azusa felt that this assessment was overly critical.
"Well...... I don't think Kinoshita-senpai is at fault here. I feel that Hattori-kun's been out of sorts since arriving here."
"What I'm about to say may be harsh, but it is also up to the technician to take the player's mental status into account."
Yet, Mari swiftly rejected this defense.
"That may be true...... But......"
Mari was right in that this was the technician's duty, but the player also had a responsibility towards their own mental preparation.
Azusa thought of this, but kept it to herself.
"OK, Mari. Stop picking on A-chan."
Mari's logic regarding players and Azusa's logic regarding technicians weren't right or wrong, but frankly parallel to one another. This required the leadership to intervene.
"Fortunately, Hattori-kun doesn't have to compete tomorrow, so it's up to the two of them to work it out...... Still, now the question becomes what are we going to do with the players Kinoshita-kun is responsible for tomorrow?"
"Kinoshita-kun is the secondary technician for the Women's 'Crowd Ball'. Since he is the backup, I think that we'll still be OK without him."
"Yeah...... With Izumi there, I think we'll be OK......"
"Isn't leaving everything to Izumi too risky? There are six locations for Crowd Ball and two people appearing at the same location in the first round, and three people advance during the first round, then all three are in the second round at the same time. While Mayumi can cover for herself, this scenario naturally assumes the two others require CAD maintenance. Even if there is a larger interval between rounds, we still wouldn't have enough time based on our initial estimates. Wasn't that the whole point for having assistant technicians in the first place?"
Suzune supported Mayumi's decision but Mari looked reluctant. Her protest was born of the profound understanding of the importance of CAD maintenance and not disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing, but bringing up a valid argument for debate. Assigning shorthanded personnel was just such a difficult task.
"Why don't we pull the Men's assistant technician, Ishida, over to double as the Women's assistant technician?"
The Women's competition was in the morning while the Men's competition was in the afternoon, so Suzune's suggestion was valid from a scheduling point of view, but Mayumi vetoed it.
"If he had to perform maintenance during the morning and afternoon, that's too heavy of a workload for Ishida-kun. 'Crowd Ball' is the event with the highest number of rounds on that day."
"Then, can we call on Shiba-kun, who has no players scheduled for events for the next two days?"
After a brief moment of consideration, Mayumi nodded in agreement towards Suzune's proposal.
"......That might be for the best. Then, Miyuki-chan, can you alert Tatsuya-kun for us?"
"Of course."
Miyuki smiled as she nodded her head to accept Mayumi's request.
For Miyuki, any opportunity for her Onii-sama to shine was more than welcome.
"......No wonder you visited at this hour."
Although they were siblings, this wasn't the time for young ladies to visit rooms belonging to those of the opposite gender.
Tatsuya waved Miyuki to sit on the bed and helplessly murmured.
"......Did I inconvenience you, Onii-sama?"
Miyuki fidgeted as she watched Tatsuya nervously.
"No, thank you for notifying me, but......"
Until now, so long as Miyuki had that particular look in her eyes, Tatsuya never took a hard line with her.
"Even at a hotel, this isn't the time for young women to leave their rooms by themselves, right? Also, there's been a few incidents lately, so suspicious individuals may be lurking in the corridors."
At the very least, this was a military facility, so the security was much more intense than first class civilian hotels.
Miyuki felt that this was an exaggeration, but was very pleased that Tatsuya was worried about her.
"Yes, Onii-sama, I apologize."
"I'm pretty sure there's something wrong with smiling and apologizing at the same time......"
Tatsuya complained as he also smiled. Rather than calling his earlier words a scolding, they didn't even qualify as complaints. On top of that, Tatsuya dearly loved Miyuki, so he would never harshly reprimand his little sister.
"At any rate, thank you for letting me know, I'll escort you back to your room."
Tatsuya rose from his chair but Miyuki frantically stood up and waved her hands.
"No, I can go back by myself. Isn't Onii-sama busy right now? I've already interrupted your work, so I shouldn't take up any more of your time......"
"While I was in the middle of something, this was more for leisure than anything else, so don't worry about it."
Tatsuya closed the lid of the notepad terminal as if he wanted to avoid letting his sister see it.
"But, wasn't that a CAD code?"
Miyuki wasn't fluent with hardware, but under Tatsuya's influence, she had a decent grasp of software specifications.
She was unable to fully decipher the meaning with just one glance, but based on the serial numbers and coding language, she could identify the code for Activation Sequences.
"This little thing isn't related to the competition itself, so there's no problem if I set it aside for now. Also, the code itself is more like a toy than anything else."
"A...... toy?"
"I came up with a new idea for a close combat weapon, but there's almost no practical value in it besides shocking the opponent a little. Even if I completed it, there's no market for it."
"If that's the case, it still qualifies as pioneering new magic, right? I don't think Onii-sama's inventions are pointless."
"Probably reserved for entertainment purposes...... Anyways, this isn't particularly important, so there's no rush to finish. You are, of course, 'first priority'."
"Oh dear...... Really, Onii-sama, you actually said that I'm 'more important'......"
(Wha?)
Seeing his sister clasp her face in both hands and lower her head, Tatsuya plainly felt something odd had occurred.
Apparently, his earlier words had gone in a completely mystifying direction.
(She got the literal meaning right, but somewhere a fatal language error must have occurred......)
This confusion could not be dispelled immediately, but Tatsuya still snapped out of it faster than Miyuki.
"......Let's head out."
"Yes, Onii-sama...... And...... Miyuki is the same as Onii-sama."
"Meaning......?"
"Miyuki also sees Onii-sama as the most important person."
"............"
Looks like his sister was still out of it — he hoped.
Right now, Tatsuya clung onto that belief.
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