Maidens of Cygnus - Volume 4 - Chapter 3.2

The sun was going down, today’s events came to an end, and Marika boarded the minibus. Not everyone has gathered yet. Alisa stood right below Marika, who was sticking her head out the window. And was loathing that they had to come apart.

Then, Kitou finished the roll call for the last person and came to warn her to leave as they are departing.

“— Sensei, I’ll leave her to you.”

“I promise to drive safely and bring everyone home without issues.”

Alisa didn’t say anything unnecessary, but Kitou saw through what she was really thinking.

She didn’t dig her own grave, simply bowing and hiding her face as she replied with “Okay”.

As she lost sight of the bus and was going to return to the hotel, Alisa, just before turning around, was called by name from behind.

Alisa turned back. The one who called her was a First High girl, a first-year like her. Not just one, but three of them.

“Yeah, what is it?”

They’re members of the same delegation, so they’ve had plenty of opportunities to talk. Alisa asked what their business is in a friendly tone.

“Did Marika go back?”

“Yeah, she did... Why?”

Alisa asked back, not understanding the intent of the question.

The three girls looked at each other, with an expression that said they were hesitant to say it.

“...Umm, we were wondering whether or not Marika was called to meet the Student Council.”

After making eye contact, the same-year girl who was pushed into the role of questioner answered Alisa’s question while disguising her awkwardness with a forced smile.

“The Student Council? We weren’t told anything like that.”

“T-Then it’s fine.”

She said that, and the girls returned to the hotel in a jog as if they’re running away.

It was at this stage that Alisa finally felt she understood what the girls had been thinking. The three girls that were questioning Alisa were Ichika’s classmates. Perhaps they suspected that Ichika was being dropped from the team and Marika was called as her replacement.

Alisa didn’t particularly feel anything unpleasant towards them. Alisa believed that being worried about Ichika is what is expected from a friend.

Alisa is also worried about Ichika’s condition and thinks it’ll be a shock if she can’t participate in the matches because of it.

Alisa wouldn’t forgive them if they were to harass Marika by taking their anger out her, but that didn’t seem to be the case. They shouldn’t do anything strange if Ichika’s situation improves.

For both Marika’s and Ichika’s sakes, I don’t want a situation where a replacement becomes necessary...

Alisa thought that way.

◇ ◇ ◇

The events on the third day of the tournament were Pairs Speed Shooting and Pairs Crowd Ball.

The day that Hattori Hatsune and Hotta Kaho — Alisa’s and Hiyori’s senpai at the club — come on stage.

Truthfully, Hatsune’s pair were considered candidates to win, alongside Third High, despite both Third High girls being second-years. The decline of Crowd Ball club activities was not a phenomenon exclusive to First High and Third High. Far from it, those schools were the only ones with a fairly active female Crowd Ball Club.

Like other events, today’s two events (four, if male and female events are counted separately) also start with a qualifying league with three schools per group and the first of each group goes on to the final league. The pair of Hatsune&Kaho achieved two wins and 0 losses in the morning qualifiers and advanced to the final league safely.

“President, Hotta-senpai, congratulations on making it through.”

Sitting for lunch, Alisa and Hiyori once again congratulated them on going through the qualifiers. First’s High’s results for the morning were that both men’s Speed Shooting and women’s Crowd Ball went through to the final league. They couldn’t make it through the qualifiers in the other two events, unfortunately.

Though there wasn’t a mood that forced them to be ‘thoughtful’ of the male pair who didn’t make it. Encouragement for the final league was ingrained in Alisa’s and Hiyori’s celebration.

It was the same for the Speed Shooting members too.

After a fierce battle with Third High, the Hatsune&Kaho pair won women’s Crowd Ball. This is actually the only event First High has achieved first place in right now.

At dinner, celebrations and commendations were focused on Hatsune and Kaho. The men’s pair who didn’t make it through the qualifiers took the initiative to liven up the party.

However, looking at First High as a whole, there was a certain atmosphere they couldn’t get over.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Sorry to keep you waiting... Aki, you have a really complicated look on your face, what are you looking at?”

When Shiina returned to the room after taking a bath and leaving the bathroom, Aki was staring at a large tablet terminal with a serious expression. Shiina peeked at the screen from the side. Aki didn’t look uncomfortable with that.

“You’re looking at that again?”

What Aki was looking at was the results until today. Shiina was astonished because even before she went to take a long bath, Aki was already looking at them.

“It’s only the third day, you know?”

“I get that, but...”

Aki didn’t take her eyes off the tablet as she said that.

“I told you there’s no point in worrying over the rankings at this point. We’ve already considered this to some extent, didn’t we?”

At the end of the third day, First High stands in third. First place is Third High and second place is Seventh High.

“We knew that Seventh High was strong in Rowgun, right?”

“It was more than expected. Men’s and women’s Solo and Pairs, to think they would win all of them... I know they’re ‘Seventh High of the Seas’, but they still exceeded my expectations.”

Like Aki mentioned, Seventh High got back-to-back wins in Rower and Gunner, both on the first day in Pairs and the second day in Solo.

“They were surely just focusing on winning Rowgun, don’t you think?”

“They gave up on the overall win from the start?”

Aki asked in return, to which Shiina quickly nodded with a “Yeah”.

“Because the overall win requires team effort. I don’t think it’s wrong of them to consider putting more effort in a specific event that personally appeals to them. Particularly Rowgun, peculiar for being an aquatic competition, if they want to advance in that area, both the people participating and those around them would get hyped, wouldn’t they?”

“Are the students of Seventh High aiming to enter the navy?”

“For work on water, there’s also the water police and the coast guard.”

Shiina didn’t deny the ‘aiming for the Navy’ that Aki brought up. Also, the professions she brought up herself had the use of offensive magic as a prerequisite. Her looks give the impression of a fluffy cotton candy-like girl, but the values of the Ten Master Clans were firmly rooted inside her.

“...We still did well in Rowgun. We couldn’t win, but we got some points. And the difference in points to Third High didn’t increase.”

The points First High got from Rower and Gunner were the same as its biggest rival Third High. Both schools placed second in two events and third in one. Speaking of rankings, First High ranked fourth in women’s Pairs and Third High ranked fifth in men’s Pairs, but since points are not awarded for fourth place and below, with the exception of Mirage Bat, this didn’t influence the overall rankings.

“The Speed girls suddenly had face Third High in the qualifiers, so they had no choice but to give up due to unlucky draw. When the use of physical bullets was made mandatory, I knew it would be favorable for Third High, since they include guided shooting in their lessons.”

Third High’s curriculum is distinct in that it includes many practical skills for use in real combat. Among them is guided shooting, where physical bullets are shot out without using gunpowder or gas. This is a known fact in Magic High Schools.

“Our miscalculation was Ninth High. To think they wouldn’t just win men’s Crowd but also get second in both men’s and women’s Speed as well. It’s like Ninth High completely screwed us today.”

Aki’s hate-filled comment is an exaggeration, but it isn’t off the mark. The male pair in Crowd Ball was in the same league as Ninth High in the qualification round and they were defeated. The male pair in Speed Shooting lost not just to Third High but also Ninth High in the final league and had to resign themselves to third place. 

“Ninth High is doing their best this year, huh. Seems like they were just one step away from beating Third High’s Pillars Break male pair, who were the favorites to win... I guess there is something in particular they’re hoping for this year.”

Shiina sat on the bed and began drying her hair with a dryer. The latter part of her comment was difficult to understand because of the noise from the dryer, but Aki didn’t fail to hear it.

“Shiina, you’re have an idea of that ‘something’ is, right?”

“Eh?”

Shiina turned off the dryer and removed her earplugs. She has a very sharp sense of hearing and usually uses headphone-shaped earmuffs. However, the earmuffs become a hindrance when using a dryer, so she uses earplugs instead.

“Did you not hear about that ‘something’ from the people in your family?”

Shiina is the youngest daughter of the Mitsuya Family of the Ten Master Clans. Aki’s family is also in the Hundred Families, but it’s from a branch with a numberless surname and in many ways it is far inferior to Shiina’s family.

“Hmm, so you know about it too, Aki.”

Shiina placed the dryer on the bed and generated a warm breeze to dry her hair with magic. It’s easier for her to use a dryer, but magic for the warm breeze is quieter. She can dry her hair without using earplugs this way.

“You can do such skillful things...”

Aki praised her with an amazed voice. The warm breeze Shiina generated, while finely adjusting its strength and temperature, was blowing from multiple angles simultaneously. Shiina is able to use the techniques of the Mitsuya Family, developed in the Third Research Institute which chased after the limits of multicasting, even for everyday things like this.

“I guess. Anyway, about the reason Ninth High is so excited.”

Shiina effortlessly pushed away Aki’s digression and returned to the original topic.

“As I thought, they’re aiming for that ‘national defense reserve squad’?”

Aki, of course, didn’t care about the idle chatter either.

“I believe so. They’ve been quiet lately, but if the Great Asian Union were to attack, the mobilized troops would be the Kyushu ones, right? It appears that the Kumamoto division has been actively exchanging contacts recently.”

“Isn’t that blatant premature recruiting[11]!?”

“It doesn’t look like they’re being forceful, so... It isn’t a bad thing for students who want to go down that path, I suppose?”

“I wonder if that is the case...”

Aki couldn’t interpret it as positively as Shiina. At times like this, Aki feels ‘she really is from the Ten Master Clans...’ and truly experiences the difference between them.

◇ ◇ ◇

7th of August, the 4th day of the tournament. After today the main competition will be briefly paused and the tournament will switch to the newcomers event starting tomorrow. This is, so to speak, the final day of the first part of the Nine Schools Competition.

Today’s events are Solo Speed Shooting and Solo Crowd Ball. Those participating who are related to Alisa’s group are the Public Moral Committee Chief Aki in women’s Speed Shooting, Student Council President Shiina in women’s Crowd Ball and Treasurer Yaguruma Saburou in men’s Crowd Ball.

Marika also came to support Aki, who’s been somewhat taking care of her in the Public Morals Committee. By the way, the teacher driver/guide was Kitou, just like the day before yesterday. As she saw that, Alisa’s suspicions that ‘Kitou-sensei must have a special interest in Mina’ grew stronger.

Maybe because she thought about those kinds of things, the distance between Alisa and Marika was smaller than usual. Normally it was Marika who snuggled up to her more often — in the figurative sense, not in terms of distance — but today Alisa was the assertive one.

Of course, Marika wouldn’t have any objections either, and the two proceeded to the Speed Shooting venue huddling against each other in a way that would put a couple who is madly in love to shame. It’s probably because they’re both girls that nobody saw it as weird. There is no way this would be the case with two guys.

Solo Speed Shooting doesn’t have a qualification round, the rankings being determined with everyone’s scores. Competitors play once in the morning and once in the afternoon, and the competition uses the sum of the scores.

Another big difference from Pairs is that the types of magic to be used are fixed, Movement-Type Magic in the morning and Acceleration-Type Magic in the afternoon. Competitors can use magic on bullets up to three times. Interfering with the targets is forbidden.

Seating in the general audience stands, Alisa gave that explanation for Marika’s sake. There are also stands for people related to the competitor’s schools, but there was no doubt in Alisa’s mind that Kitou went there.

“...But Asha, are you okay with not watching the Crowd Ball match? Wouldn’t it be useful as reference?”

“I’ll go watch when Urabe-senpai’s turn ends.”

Aki is the third to play out of nine. The game lasts 10 minutes per person, so they don’t need to wait for that long until her turn comes. Indeed, about 30 minutes after Alisa and Marika sat down, Aki stood in the shooting spot.

Aki was in wait for the signal to start with the shoulder stock of the launcher put against her right shoulder in the low ready position.

“The key will be how much she can raise her score in this morning play.”

While staring at Aki, Alisa spoke as if talking to herself.

“Why?”

The volume was normal for a monologue, but Marika understood she was explaining to her. She then asked for the reason.

“The number of bullets that can be used is a total of 100 for two plays, and the number of targets to be shot in a single play is 300. It’s obvious that to get a high score you can’t miss the targets, but it’s imperative that each shot knocks down several targets. But it’s hard to aim at several targets with Acceleration-Type Magic.”

“And so the morning with Movement-Type is key, right.”

At the same time Marika understood, the play start buzzer rang.

The speed of the targets isn’t that fast. It takes several seconds to move across the effective range. Putting it in reverse, you have to decide the timing of the shot within those several seconds.

When the target was about to reach the center of the effective range, Aki shot the first bullet.

It was a hit. The target shattered.

With this year’s rule about using physical bullets, destroying the targets is not necessary. A machine judges whether or not it was hit. But considering the materials of the bullets and the targets, it’s harder to hit the target without destroying it.

The next target has not been fired yet. Aki abandoned the first bullet without reusing it.

The number of targets in a play is 300. The play time is 10 minutes, or 600 seconds. On average, a target will be shot every 2 seconds. However, there was an interval of roughly 10 seconds before the second target was fired. The firing of the targets is decided by a random number program, the intervals are inconsistent. Several targets may also be fired at the same time.

Those irregularities presented themselves immediately. A second had not even passed after the second target was fired when the third came out. The trajectories of the targets were very far from each other.

Right after the third target appeared, Aki shot her second bullet. The bullet shot through the second target and then changed its trajectory in an acute angle and hit the third.

“That was good!”

Alisa unintentionally spoke out.

“She only used magic once there, right!?”

Marika asked Alisa for confirmation with her voice revealing she was amazed.

“Yeah, she included the process for bending the trajectory when she fired!”

Alisa couldn’t contain her excitement either.

“Ah!”

But Aki’s chain did not stop there.

The bullet that destroyed the second target and bent down to go through the third target suddenly dropped to shoot through a target that was fired after that.

“Three birds with one stone! Amazing!”

Alisa let out an appropriate expression of admiration, even if incorrect in terms of its idiomatic meaning.

“I wonder if she calculated that from the start...”

Marika muttered with a tone that seemed to want to say ‘I don’t get it’.

Afterwards, Aki steadily earned points, using up 59 bullets, and ended the morning play with exactly 180 points.

◇ ◇ ◇

Right after Aki’s turn ended, Alisa and Marika moved to the Crowd Ball venue. They didn’t go to the competitor waiting room.

Though she used more than half the bullets, scoring three times the number of bullets used is a very good result. The chances of winning are high. — That said, there is still the afternoon match remaining and the full morning results aren’t yet established. They decided to go talk to her after the afternoon play was over.

It was a completely coincidental, but they arrived just in time for the start of Shiina’s match. Alisa and Marika rushed to the support seats for involved people.

“Alisa! Marika!”

They were called by Mei and they sat next to her. There was no special intention related to the positioning, with Alisa being in the middle of Mei and Marika.

“How did it go for Urabe-senpai?”

Mei asked Alisa.

“It was a good score. 180 points in 59 bullets.”

“41 bullets for the second half, huh? I feel it’s a bit too many bullets left, but it really is a good score.”

Mei listened to Alisa’s answer and broke into a smile.

“What about Yaguruma-senpai?”

Alisa was the one to ask this time. The schedule for the men’s Solo match overlapped with Aki’s play.

“He won. I was nervous when he lost the first set, but then he won three sets in a row.”

Men’s matches have 5 sets, first to 3 sets wins. The opposing school must have been excited when they took the first set.

“Nice going, Yaguruma-senpai.”

Marika said, her face popping forward from behind Alisa. Speaking truthfully, Yaguruma Saburou was anxious about making through the qualifiers. This is the first time he has participated in the Nine Schools Competition as a competitor. He was originally not very good at practical skills and when he enrolled he was a second course student as that system was still in place, and from the second year on he joined the magic engineering course, so he participated as a technician last year.

There was no comment to what Marika said.

Before anyone could reply with an agreement, or even a chide, Shiina’s match began.

The first set ended. The score was overwhelmingly in Shiina’s favor and she took the set.

“I knew it, the President’s Multicast is amazing.”

Alisa honestly commended her. Shiina handled the nine balls with nine magics.

“Couldn’t the President completely shutout her opponent if he wanted to?”

Marika asked whether she could prevent her opponent from scoring if she got serious.

“Maybe, it looked she would be able to. Maybe she’s not working too hard because she’s thinking about stamina allocation?”

Mei agreed with Marika’s conjecture.

“So she’s thinking not just about this match, but also the next one.”

“Yeah. I believe the President is thinking about the final league as well.”

“She’s just that motivated to win, huh? Just as expected from the Ten Master Clans.”

Marika said that innocently and then suddenly covered her mouth.

Marika ashamedly peeked at Alisa’s face, who shook her head with a smile that said ‘Don’t worry about it’.

“...About the President’s magic, it feels too good to be a normal Multicast.”

Marika, looking relieved, asked a new question.

Her question is pertinent. Shiina constantly had nine magics invoked, or put in standby in a state where she could invoke them immediately.

“That’s probably ‘Speedloader’.”

The question was answered by Alisa this time.

“Speedloader?”

That word seemed familiar to Marika. That’s why her head was all the more tilted.

“Is that the name of the magic?”

From the current context, Marika supposed that she wouldn’t be talking about a bullet reloading device for revolvers. — That there are also speedloaders for rifles and shotguns, Marika did not know.

“Rather than the name of the magic, maybe I’d say it’s the name of a magic operation technique. It’s a technique that the Mitsuya Family is good at, it allows keeping up to nine magics in standby ready to be activated and they are replenished right after they’re used. And it looks like the standby magic can both be all different types or the same type.”

The topic returned to the Ten Master Clans once more, but since Alisa looked unconcerned, Marika didn’t worry about it this time either.

“Heeh~”

With no needless worries, Marika honestly expressed her amazement.

“There are nine balls and she can use nine magics at the same time? Isn’t she invincible?”

“It depends on how long she can keep using Speedloader, but... As you said, Mina, as long as the President’s stamina holds out, she should be invincible.”

As Alisa made a merciless conclusion for the opponent, the second set started.

Ultimately, Shiina won two sets in a row in this match, winning her qualifying league with a 2-0 in the next match, and Saburou also got two victories and advanced to the final league with no problems.

◇ ◇ ◇

It was planned for Alisa’s lunch today that Marika would bring a bento she made and they would enjoy eating it together. After a light discussion, they decided to go to First High’s tent.

At lunch time, as Alisa and Marika went into the tent with Mei who was watching Crowd Ball with them, there was some uproar in there.

Alisa spotted her brother Yuuto and ran up to his side in a jog.

“What happened?”

She then asked for the reason behind the noisy atmosphere.

“Nothing that can be considered trouble. Two shocking things happened in women’s Speed Shooting.”

“Shocking things? What in the world...”

“Sit down. You two as well.”

Yuuto advised not just Alisa but also Mei and Marika to sit down and lightly sat down himself at the edge of the table. It’s bad manners, but for some reason it doesn’t look unsightly when he does it.

“Though I said it’s two things, one of them brought about the other.”

Yuuto said and furrowed his eyebrows. Looks like a story that even he cannot disregard.

Souma turned up right then.

“It began when the Ninth High Speed girl got an unexpectedly high score.”

Appearing to listen to the conversation, he stole Yuuto’s line.

“The tactics used were pretty brave too. In the first half alone, she used nearly 80 bullets and scored 250 points.”

“250 points!?”

Alisa and Marika shouted in unison. Aki’s 180 points should have been a decently high score, but this was a big difference.

“To be accurate, she used 77 bullets and scored 247 points.”

Even with the precise numbers amended, the situation didn’t change much.

“Though there is a difference in the number of remaining bullets, it’ll be rather difficult to reverse.”

“I don’t think it’s impossible.”

Alisa involuntarily argued, but she understood it was difficult.

“— That’s right. But the Third High member, seeing that in front of her eyes, she must have been unable to stay calm.”

Yuuto just sidestepped Alisa’s emotional objection and continued the discussion with composure.

“Did something happen to the Third High member?”

Alisa was agitated.

Maybe sensing something serious, Marika also fixed her eyes on Yuuto as if she were devouring him.

“The Third High competitor had to retire in the middle.”

Souma interjected once again.

“Eh?” “Retire!?” “No way...!”

Alisa, Marika, and Mei also vocalized their shock.

“She finished firing 50 bullets and while replacing the magazine she suddenly crouched.”

“And then... she retired?”

Souma nodded to Alisa’s question with a serious look on his face.

“It looked like she wanted to continue, but the Third High staff immediately declared her retirement.”

“I didn’t watch that scene, but I believe it was a sound decision.”

Souma agreed with Yuuto with “Yeah”.

“Izayoi-senpai, did you watch it?”

After nodding and replying “I saw it” to Mei’s question,

“It was the correct decision.”

Souma replied as such.

◇ ◇ ◇

This may be obvious, but Third High’s tent was even noisier than First High. A sorrowful mood was hanging in the air that wasn’t present in First High’s tent.

“I wonder if Takeda-senpai will be okay...”

Akane muttered, her voice unable to hide her worry. The ‘Takeda-senpai’ she mentioned was the third-year girl who withdrew in the middle of Speed Shooting.

“I heard the indisposition was a temporary thing. She’ll be alright.”

Hiromi comforted Akane. In Hiromi’s tone there was a feeling that she was trying to convince herself.

“The doctor’s opinion seems to be that she’ll recover in a week. Looks like it was a good thing she stopped right when the indisposition became apparent.”

“All thanks to Hatakeyama-senpai’s excellent decision.”

Samon praised the decision to withdraw by the technician in the story Tatsuki heard from an upperclassman. — Note that, in the past, Third High did not appoint full-time technicians and competitors adjusted CADs and planned strategies with fellow competitors, but they changed that policy after seeing the efforts of First High’s Shiba Tatsuya in 2095 and again in 2096.

“But it’s not like she just felt bad all of a sudden today, you know?”

Akane murmured a few words with a gloomy voice.

“You mean she was feeling the symptoms before?”

Tatsuki asked, to which Akane earnestly nodded.

“I wonder if everyone’s trying too hard so they meet expectations.”

Tatsuki felt uncomfortable with Akane’s comment that she appeared to be saying to herself.

“Akane-san, I thought you were willing to work hard for your family?”

“That is right.”

Tatsuki asked, Akane confirmed. But there were some signs of hesitation.

“...But I think ‘working hard’ and ‘forcing yourself’ are different things. And ‘forcing yourself’ is also different from ‘forcing yourself way too much’.”

“Drawing that line... is pretty difficult, isn’t it?”

Though he accepted Akane’s point of view, Tatsuki knit his brows and pointed out the difficulty of putting it in practice.

“It is said that you know yourself best, but I think they may be surprisingly wrong. Even if you don’t intend to push yourself too hard, you may in fact be working too hard.”

Samon agreed with Hiromi’s opinion with “You’re right”.

“Because we let our youth take its natural course and rush things. I think mentors are necessary to rein us in.”

And then Samon advocated for the necessity of mentors.

“You mean to say there is a limit to our independence... Should we be relying more on adults?”

Akane seemed to be asking that to herself.

“But adults are busy being adults. Even our teachers, we can’t get enough help from them.”

Tatsuki’s answer, however, was filled with meaning. There were hints of distrust towards adults in his reaction.