Chapter 8
It's the fourth day of the tournament.
There's a break before the finals, five days from now, and the fight between the 1st Years in the Newcomer's Battle will take place in the meanwhile.
So far the results stand with First High being at number one with 320 points, Third High being at number two with 225 points, and the positions of third place and below being a wild free-for-all between the other schools. The difference between first and second place is a massive 95 points. However, the battle is such that even that point difference could potentially be reversed if Third High is able to win the Newcomer's Battle by a large margin, which for them is not impossible. Conversely, even if First High doesn't manage to win, yet they avoid a huge difference in points, final victory would still be theirs.
The aim for every school is overall victory, but in this case, as only half the points gained from the Newcomer's Battle will be added to the overall ranking, to the competing 1st Years what they are fighting for in the Newcomer's Battle is their own glory. The spirit in these matches is in no way inferior to the finals themselves.
The order is the same as the finals.
Today's events are Speed Shooting (Qualifier, Finals) and Battle Board (Qualifier).
They differ from the finals in that the schedule for Speed Shooting includes the women's event in the morning and men's in the afternoon, with everything being finished in one stretch (the reason being that the Speed Shooting finals is carried out straight after the opening ceremony, and there's no way to finish everything by the morning.)
Not just Speed Shooting, but CAD adjustment cannot be carried out in the middle of any event, so the major work of fine tuning whilst listening to the contestants' specifications is done by the engineers in between matches.
That's why engineers are basically always around the players they're responsible for during the match. In order to ensure as much as possible that contestants from the same school in the same competition are not competing at the same time, the Convention Committee have made numerous adjustments to the timetable.
However, in events like Crowd Ball where many matches would occur in a day, overlaps can't be helped, and engineers would often be paired as a duo of main and sub.
This can occur even in the same competition, and one engineer cannot be responsible for another match occurring at the same time.
Even if that match ostensibly occurs at an unrelated time.
"Honoka is in the last race huh......"
"Yes! It's in the afternoon, so it doesn't clash with the women's Speed Shooting!"
Honoka, grinning earnestly while subtly emitting an overbearing pressure, made Tatsuya relive the heat of being popular.
Tatsuya was responsible for the women's Speed Shooting, women's Icicle Destruction, and Mirage Bat.
He didn’t get himself assigned to that host of women's events because he was a womanizer, but because there was a strong backlash against him from the men's 1st Year division.
Not only that, but he was in high demand amongst some of the women's 1st Year contingent.
For example Miyuki, Honoka, Miyuki and Honoka, Miyuki and......in other words, those two had appealed rather earnestly.
But here lay a problem.
Miyuki's sheer magic power was most suited for the competition Icicle Destruction.
Both her classmates and the council knew full well her proficiency in slowing down vibrations. When all is said and done, cooling magic is pretty much second nature to her.
Miyuki's participation in Icicle Destruction was decided, as well as in Mirage Bat as the star athlete and ace of the women's team — the problem was what Honoka would participate in.
In terms of First High’s practical results, in first place was Shiba Miyuki, second was Kitayama Shizuku, third was Morisaki Shun, and fourth was Mitsui Honoka. Therefore amongst the 1st Year female students Honoka ranked right alongside both Miyuki and Shizuku in practical excellence, but in truth her skills were not particularly suited for a sporting magic competition.
Her specialization in magical illusions involving manipulating light was impressive, but Shizuku's ability in high output vibration and acceleration was more suitable for Icicle Destruction.
It was a given from the start that Tatsuya would be responsible for Miyuki. Not even the seniors were foolish enough to try and challenge that.
So in order to be looked after by Tatsuya, it's most reliable to get into the same competitions as Miyuki, but for the number one, number two and number three top players to appear in the same competition is not a very sound strategy. ......or rather, it's impossible.
Therefore it would fall to a competition which does not overlap, but unfortunately, Shizuku was also more suited for Speed Shooting. The competition had initially called for contestants to enter in their field of expertise, so you could say she had little hope of being considered from the start.
Following that train of thought, it was decided that Honoka would compete in Battle Board and Mirage Bat. (The organizers had at first floated the idea of Battle Board and Crowd Ball, but due to her own wishes and the vocal support of her friends, she was able to get into one event with Miyuki.) ......In a situation like this, with her line "the events won't clash", just what is Honoka really trying to say, Tatsuya wondered.
But even if the time was compatible, from a team perspective, changing the engineer responsible at this late stage was impossible.
And even if today was alright, on the sixth day — the third day in terms of the Newcomer's Battle — no one could guarantee that there wouldn’t be an overlap between Icicle Destruction and Battle Board.
Honoka too should have been well aware of that, but......
It seemed that Miyuki was not about to come to his rescue today. Faced with Honoka on one side and his sister on the other, each with a different motive, Tatsuya sighed and came out with a bifurcated response.
"......I'd like to maintain your CAD in truth, but that's not possible, so I'll watch your race at the least."
"Really? It's a promise!"
Someone gave a small ominous laugh. Tatsuya knew more than well whose voice that was, but his consciousness chose to pretend he didn't.
From an outsider's perspective, maybe he really was a 'womanizer'...... probably.
Although the parties involved would never think of it as 'trivial', from the perspective of the main story, this was just a side episode.
When the curtains rise, one must be absolutely focused.
With the final checks complete, Tatsuya handed over the dedicated Speed Shooting CAD shaped like an elongated rifle, and confirmed its condition with Shizuku.
The CAD absorbs psions from the magician, which the Psion Information Aide transmits into the Activation Sequence. If a problem occurs in this process, no matter how well the other parts are serviced, it's pointless.
If the problem occurs with the hardware it has to be replaced with a spare device, and if the problem lies in the software it has to be reworked on the fly.
"Nn...... perfect. It feels better than my own."
As both her face and voice were rather deadpan, after initially being paired with Shizuku, Tatsuya had sometimes been confused as to whether she was serious or not; but now he was pretty much used to it.
Basically, she doesn't lie.
In the worst case, she would simply remain silent.
"Tatsuya-san, you won't consider being hired?"
However, in cases like these, he still can't get used to whether she's serious or joking.
"If you're in a position to joke like this right before the match, you'll be just fine."
"It wasn't a joke."
"......"
By the way, what she was saying had the meaning of "formally signing on a contract to perform CAD maintenance".
Shizuku had asked him "won't you be hired" more than 10 times already. Considering her personality, Tatsuya had thought it a long running gag, but now it seemed that wasn't the case.
"It won't be an exclusive contract so you don't have to worry."
In order to make references for CAD arrangements, Tatsuya had taken her CAD in hand and adjusted it.
Before that, the one who had maintained Shizuku's CAD was a famous engineer who could be ranked amongst the top five in the country.
Or rather than Shizuku, it would be more accurate to say the Kitayama house.
When Tatsuya had first heard he was not surprised, but then again Shizuku's family were 'extremely rich' after all.
In the first place, the mages of the Kitayama house did not hold the same prestige as the Ten Master Houses or the 100 Families.
Shizuku's mother, a magician, had fallen in love with her millionaire father at first sight, and after much strife they were finally married, at which, the paternal lineage turned up no mages — her young brother having some measure of practical ability but not enough for true magic.
Whether because of those circumstances, in contrast there was Shizuku — her raw magic potential being extraordinary.
Shizuku's addiction to Monolith Code could be said to stem from her father's financial prowess, being able to tour the country seeing magic competitions every year.
"......I think I've said this numerous times, but that would require me to have a license wouldn't it?"
When Tatsuya did not respond, Shizuku had presented him with a down payment and contract fees which even considering his position as part of Taurus Silver and the considerable income that came with it, was an unprecedented sum.
If he had been just a normal student, that dazzling amount would have made his eyes water.
But although doing this as part of a school event meant he received no compensation, it would have been different if he took it as a real job with remuneration. It's not illegal to work without a license, but in the eyes of the world, he would be seen as a 'fake'.
"I understand."
As always, Shizuku gave a dutiful nod.
But whether she truly understood was doubtful.
What it was for Shizuku only she herself knew, but for Tatsuya it was a conversation that significantly lowered tension in the moments before the match.
Well, whatever the effect, as long as nothing adverse happened it'd be nice.
They had gone through strategic meetings many times before.
For Shizuku, Tatsuya had devised a CAD and a secret plan to go along with it. (The début of the 'plan' was meant to be in the finals of the tournament, but still.)
"You're up, Shizuku."
"Yeah."
There was only one thing to say in this moment before her time.
"Alright, do your best!"
"Yeah, I will!"
It was simple, but that was also a strategy of last resort.
"Is this seat available?"
"Ah, Miyuki. It's fine. Go right ahead."
In truth that question had been asked to the sitting girls by various people for a while, but unlike the one asking now all had various ulterior motives (if you don't mind sitting between Leo and Mikihiko!). In this rather menacing way, Erika had scared off countless lying chick cruisers and kept the seat vacant.
The order in which they sat was Mikihiko, Mizuki, Honoka, vacant, Erika, Leo. They had left Miyuki's seat in the middle because if they were not on guard some unknown shady character might approach from either side. At first Erika had been reluctant to sit next to Leo, but at Mizuki's subtle argument that Leo and Honoka were not only in different classes but hardly knew each other, she had been finally persuaded. That incident almost but not quite resembled the nowadays rare event called a catfight.
Before Miyuki had come, the four excluding Honoka had been looking over the schedule of the Newcomer's Battle, and were holding a pamphlet intended for the audience (Honoka was a contestant so she had no need to recheck at this point).
After looking up to greet Miyuki, Mizuki returned to looking at the pamphlet, but not before noticing Honoka's faint expression.
"......Honoka-san, are you prepared?"
"It's fine. My race is in the afternoon."
Honoka answered Mizuki with a slightly forced smile.
Miyuki replied to that in an incredulous tone.
"Ho-no-ka. If you're this nervous before the match, you'll be in big trouble later you know?"
"Uu, I know but......"
"You'll be fine, Honoka. Onii-sama said so as well didn't he?"
"Ye, yeah......"
"You came to see this to take your mind off your race didn't you? For now, let's cheer Shizuku on."
"......yeah, you're right."
From her rather exaggerated nod, it was evident she wasn't totally relaxed. That serious-to-a-fault way of thinking was a strong point of her personality, so you could almost say it was unavoidable tension.
"......um, did I say something unnecessary?"
At Mizuki's follow-up, devoid of malice, Honoka simply lowered her face.
A bit away from those 1st Years, or rather their boisterous play, the 3rd Year trio Student Council and Public Morals Committee chiefs were gathered.
"Mari, is it alright for you not to sleep?"
"I'm not sick. As long as I don't have to fight I'll be fine. More than that, Mayumi, is it alright for you to be away from your duties?"
"It's fine. It's not like I'm kilometers away, and if anything comes up I can be informed instantly."
Saying so, Mayumi brushed away the hair hanging over her cheek.
That act revealed the receiver in her ear for voice communications.
"Still, if it were just Mayumi it would be business as usual, but for Ichihara to be away as well makes me wonder."
"No problem. It seems I've been forced off duty today."
"......your jokes are hard to understand as ever, Ichihara."
At that tongue in cheek answer, Mari was suspicious for a moment if there was any dissatisfaction at that supplanting of their staff role.
Of course, she knew full well that wasn't the case.
Suzune bore overall responsibility for the operations staff (although there are only four people in that capacity), but individual strategic planning followed division of labor. The greatest responsibility was divided, with male staff going over strategies for the men's matches and female staff going over strategies for the women's matches.
Today's competition was the women's Speed Shooting contest, under the charge of Suzune.
—But, this was an event which didn't allow for fine strategies in the first place, being largely dependent on technical ability. It wouldn't be far off the mark to even say brute force. Any staff involvement would merely detail the selection of magic to match the characteristics of the competitor, and the setting of the CAD to suit, but...
...this was a region which overlapped the work of the technical staff.
Furthermore for the 1st Year women's Speed Shooting, the CAD magic selection, settings and all, Tatsuya handled everything from planning to execution.
That being said, Suzune had been aware of the plan and approved it from the start.
She wasn't the type to be put on the back foot by something of this level.
"Now then...... come to think of it, this will be the first time I see something he's engineered used in a combat capacity."
At Mari's words brimming with curiosity, Mayumi also looked over at the arena with interest.
"That's true. During my time, he was a great help. I'm looking forward to seeing how a CAD he's adjusted from the start will perform."
"Starting with Kitayama-san, it seems he's become very popular with the team."
Suzune's words held no exaggeration.
Initially amongst First High's 1st Year women's team, with the exception of Miyuki, Honoka and Shizuku, Tatsuya being in the same year, and furthermore a Course 2 student, seemed to provoke an almost allergic reaction from the other members when it came to giving him their CAD for adjustment.
But after a few practices with the CADs he calibrated, any such negative feelings completely vanished.
Perhaps it'd be more suitable to call that change of heart 'being blown away'.
"It seems that today there are also a few contestants who have brought their own CADs."
At Suzune's words, Mari made a sound of surprise.
"Hey hey...... wouldn't that cause problems in the match?"
"That's just another sign of Shiba-kun's amazing control. It seems he'll service them after the match is over."
Service refers to the adjustment of the CAD.
The contestants using Tatsuya's competition adjusted CADs were even bringing him their personal CADs to adjust. Furthermore, rather than just one or two, it was more like the entire female 1st Year team.
"His fans seem to be steadily increasing."
"The good natures of people come out in the strangest of places."
Both Mayumi and Mari, exchanging a glance, shared a small chuckle.
If Tatsuya himself had been faced with Mayumi's remark 'his fans are increasing', he would have vehemently denied it.
In fact, during social events, he went out of his way to avoid women (or so he felt).
Needless to say however, he didn't possess any such 'divine ears'.
His attention was focused solely on the shooting range Shizuku now stood at.
He did not possess 'eyes' like Mizuki.
He did however have the power to analyze data structures.
The data structures he himself had written and programmed into the CAD were all in his head.
If she put her hands even slightly together, while he could not perceive the 'hand' he could predict the 'result'.
Shizuku took her stance.
The lights on the start ramp began to light up.
(It seems this time it’s alright.)
There was no evidence of the tampering which had caused problems such as in Mari's case, Tatsuya thought, yet he didn't divert his 'eye'.
The moment all the lights came on, a clay target flew into the air.
And the moment it entered the scoring area, it was blown apart.
The next target was shattered in the middle of the area.
Next, two were simultaneously destroyed at either end.
A sigh rose from the audience. If one looked closely, Miyuki and the others were also sighing in relief at this brilliantly smooth start, letting out the breath they had been holding.
Shizuku's eyes didn't deviate for a second.
She simply gazed straight ahead, almost as if not looking at the targets.
"Uwah, amazing!"
In contrast to Erika's simple admiration,
"......is the Magic Activation Zone set for the entire area?"
Mizuki asked Miyuki and Honoka rather doubtfully.
"That's correct. Shizuku is able to tag all solids that enter the area with magic vibratory waves, destroying the target. By generating compression waves inside the target, it undergoes repeated partial expansion and contraction. If this rapid heating and cooling is repeated, it's only logical that even solid rock would weaken and collapse."
"To be precise, she sets numerous epicenters within the scoring area, which generate the virtual waves that give rise to the vibratory waves within the targets. Rather than directly applying the waves to the targets with magic, she has set up an area which causes the phenomena of applying such waves to the targets. The moment the waves from the epicenter come into contact with such a target, the virtual waves become real waves within the target and affect it in reality."
As Honoka and Miyuki carried out their polite commentary whilst their eyes remained fixed on the shooting range, Mizuki simply nodded.
"......is the mechanism involved."
Whether by chance or necessity, the 3rd Year trio was also having the same conversation at the same time.
"As you know, the effective scoring area in Speed Shooting is a cube of 15 meter proportions set in the air. Shiba-kun's Activation Sequence sets another cube within this which is 10 meters on each side, with the vertices and the center, nine points in total, being designated as epicenters."
The one who had first made that explanation was Tatsuya. Suzune had been shown the plan.
"Each point is labeled with a number, and when that number is entered into the live Activation Sequence, virtual waves spread from that point.
The reach of the waves is six meters. In other words the moment the magic is activated, all targets within a six meter radius from the epicenter will be destroyed."
"......it rather feels like it's using unnecessary force...... is Kitayama alright with those settings?"
"Although it has to be said that Kitayama-san is better known for her power than her precision......"
At Mari's pause, Suzune was wearing her typical cool poker face. But within her eyes, the shadow of a sympathetic laugh could be found.
"The aim of this magic is not to compensate for accuracy, but rather to increase speed at the expense of accuracy."
"......In other words, you're implying that a more pinpoint aiming solution is possible right? Please elaborate?"
"The feature of this magic is that it is coordinated by numbers."
Returning her gaze to the 1st Year before them, Suzune began her explanation to Mayumi's question. Her fluent reply was probably because she had gotten an answer after earlier asking the exact same thing.
"In Speed Shooting, the position of the contestants and the distance, direction and size of the scoring area is always the same. In other words the focal points necessary in this magic to set the virtual cube in relation to the distance, and viewing angle of the player, are constants.
Therefore there is no need to enter variable coordinates separately each time, but instead you can simply input into the Activation Sequence the number you desire and instantly invoke the magic. For this rough degree of aim, using the auxiliary aiming systems built into the CAD, it's possible for the optimal point to be automatically picked out.
Furthermore, this magic doesn't require changes in duration or power either. There isn't any need. In truth, they're treated as constants by the Activation Sequence. The contestant, just by selecting a point with the aid of the CAD without needing to think of any other variables, can simply pull the virtual trigger and end up destroying the target."
The shoot was approaching the end.
Not a single target had been missed.
"Since there's no need to physically interface with the controls, merely invoking the magic will fully realize the potential of effect. I do believe the continuous Activation utilizes Multicast as well."
The shoot drew to a close.
Final result, perfect.
"The proper name of the magic is 'Active Air Mine'. It seems to be a Shiba-kun original. Well, all the numerous elements jammed in make the final Activation Sequence quite a beast, but Kitayama-san's formidable magic power makes up for it."
"......it's pretty much the exact opposite of Mayumi's magic isn't it?"
"......coming up with a sequence like this is quite something."
Mayumi's voice held not so much admiration as outright amazement.
"Still...... it's rather intriguing."
On the other hand, Mari's voice was filled with interest.
"In battle the relative position between you and your opponents will by no means remain the same, so from the view of marksman magic it's not quite combat worthy, but...... if instead of setting the cube in the air, you center it as a sphere around yourself, wouldn't it serve very admirably in all directions as an active shield?"
"The problem is activation duration. If you set it too short the timing will be difficult, but too long and you risk yourself being caught in the area of effect."
Despite these issues presented by Mayumi, Mari's enthusiasm didn't dampen in the slightest.
"That will be up to the operator's skill. As you said, if you're able to gauge the timing you can set the duration to be short no problem. ......alright, immediately after this I'm going to nab him and install it by tonight."
"......try not to cause any problems for the competitors."
Mayumi's voice as she responded was now 100% amazement.
"Good work."
As Shizuku returned from the shooting range, Tatsuya offered up words of praise along with a towel. The engineer isn't the manager so there's no need for him to have a towel handy, but he wasn't one to fall for such petty pride.
"It was somewhat anticlimactic."
She wasn't blustering in any way — it seemed she really felt so.
Whilst wiping the sweat from her brow, Shizuku had a slightly dissatisfied look.
Still at the same time, her joy was plain to see (it wasn't like she was trying to hide it or anything anyway.)
The qualifying score needed for the Newcomer's Battle was around 80% each year.
Because it was impossible to score any higher than what she had gotten, regardless of the borderline she would obviously advance to the finals.
"I don't think anything went through the blind spots, as expected; they didn't try such obstinate unsporting things."
The magic Shizuku had used did not cover the entire scoring area. The area around the outer edges could be considered blind spots.
However, as seen from the performance of the machine launching the clay targets, there were no last minute changes to the trajectory of the targets. If a target had not passed right through the scoring area, the entire shoot would have to be redone out of issues of fairness, a blunder on the part of the tournament committee. Due to the nature of the competition, that was a risk they didn’t need.
They had made a strategy covering even that eventuality so it wasn't particularly a big concern, but not having to rely on that backup was something to be relieved about after all.
"Tatsuya-san, you worry too much. To try for that they'd have to deliberately probe for the blind spots, something too high level for the Newcomer's Battle."
Shizuku's words were only right.
Tatsuya put such things out of his mind, and switched to Shizuku's perspective.
"At first we'll go according to plan. But from the quarterfinals on will be match format. I'll service your CAD in the morning, so be sure to let me take a look."
"Got it."
The format between the qualifier and finals is different. The qualifier is to see how many of the 100 clay targets you can destroy in five minutes, a test of the speed and reliability of your magic. In the finals however, it's a test to see which player can destroy the most targets being fired into the same area. The factors of speed and reliability are joined by raw power and the ability to overcome interference from your opponents. As per the nature of this competition, the magic you normally use will also change accordingly.
Depending on the type of magic to be used, it's not uncommon to change the specialized CADs used for the competition themselves.
Tatsuya was now making preparations for the next contestants — for the next match that would follow, and the one after that.
Shizuku went alone to the storage tent to fetch the CADs used for the tournament finals.
"All three of them qualified huh......"
Back in the tent which served as the headquarters of First High, Mayumi went over the results of the Speed Shooting preliminaries.
Whilst looking, Mayumi gave a small soliloquy.
"Maybe the 1st Year girls this year are just of a special level?"
Eight names had qualified for the finals from a preliminary of twenty four.
Three of those eight names were from the same school, having made it through to the finals of the Newcomer's Battle, an unprecedented number.
"Mari, won't you give up your pretense?"
Mayumi's remarks were normally followed by a tsukkomi by Mari, but this time she simply shrugged in silence.
Her pose seemed to suggest futility.
"I wonder how the Battle Board will turn out."
At Mayumi's question, Suzune deliberately took out her terminal and checked. ('Deliberately' in the sense that she knew in her head already.)
"The men's team missed the cut even after the second race, while the women's qualified after the first."
"The men are down to one last guy huh. On the girls' side, Mitsui-san's in the last race and is certain to make it through the prelims...... it seems A-chan has been working hard."
As Mayumi muttered to herself,
"We may want to devote a bit more time to technical skills on our side as well."
Looking over the same report card from his own terminal, Katsuto responded in disgust.
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