Maidens of Cygnus - Volume 5 - Chapter 6.1

Chapter 6 – Regional Preliminaries

The Martial Magic Arts National Tournament. As the name implies, it a tournament to decide Japan’s Magic Arts champion.

Being at least 15 years old as of the 31st of December and a resident of Japan are the requirements to participate. Nationality and, of course, whether you’re a magician or not, neither of them matter. The tournament has four divisions, men and women under 18 years of age and men and women of unrestricted age. Tournament-style qualification rounds are in accordance with the prefecture reorganization of 2097, being held in Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Hokuriku, Tokai, Kinki, Chugoku, Shikoku, and Kyushu, with the top four of each moving on to the main tournament.

— Prior to 2096, the tournament’s qualification round was done according to the prefecture borders of the time, and the tournament was cancelled in 2097 due to the impact of the tense international situation.

There is nothing like seeds, the bout pairings are entirely decided by drawing lots. The tournament table is decided by the 36 participants in each division gathering to draw lots, and the champion of each division is decided without taking into consideration the advantages and disadvantages in the number of bouts fought. The tournament is all down to luck and ability.

The tournament is held in late August every year. This year, the qualification rounds will be held all over the country simultaneously on Sunday, 23rd of August, with the main event scheduled for the Sunday of the week after, on the 30th of August.

◇ ◇ ◇

August 22nd, the day before the regional preliminaries.

Despite having bouts tomorrow, Marika was working hard, practicing in First High’s second small gymnasium. She wasn’t wearing the Magic Arts competition outfit, but the shirt with short sleeves and spats from her gym uniform. The shirt was soaking wet with sweat and had gotten heavy.

She had no sparring partners. Despite all the sweat, she hadn’t moved for a while.

Marika was intensely wrinkling her brows. Was she looking pale from lack of oxygen due to excessive mental concentration?

Marika was practicing magic.

“Mina, you better stop soon! The competition is tomorrow, you know!?”

Unable to just watch and do nothing, Alisa raised her voice.

Maybe her voice broke Marika’s concentration, as she sank to the floor.

Flustered, Alisa rushed over in a jog.

Not just Alisa, Chika and other senpai also approached with worried expressions.

Each of them in succession asked her if she was okay.

“Marika, get up already.”

Chika told Marika, with an authoritative tone. She had an expression that said she couldn’t overlook it any longer.

“Understood...”

Marika, who had some awareness that she was working a little too hard, didn’t go against the Club President’s words.

After Marika took a shower, Alisa advised her “You should take a break” and they went together to the café of the school cafeteria. Both the cafeteria and the café are closed for business during the summer holiday, but the space is open for students. The vending machines are working too. About 80% of the seats were occupied by students who have already finished their club activities like Marika and students who were still wearing their club uniforms.

“Mina, what were you doing so desperately back there? If it was fortification magic, weren’t you saying you got the hang of it yesterday?”

They secured seats and, after preparing drinks for the two of them, Alisa questioned her. She knew Marika was trying to activate some kind of magic by watching nearby, but the skill to read what kind of magic it was is something Alisa does not have.

“...I was able to fortify my clothes, so I thought about moving to the next step.”

Was she feeling guilty over making her worry? Marika confessed while huddling her body closer together.

“What were you thinking!?”

Sure enough, Alisa got mad.

“It’s impossible to learn so many new magics one after another!”

“But I felt like I could...”

While pulling her neck in, Marika protested.

“It was like, an amazingly easy to understand Activation Sequence.”

“Easy to understand!? That kind of incomprehensible magic!?”

As the volume of Alisa’s voice went up, Marika looked increasingly more like a turtle.

Though the two seem to be talking about things that are the exact opposite of one another, they are discussing the same magic. Also, it’s not like their claims were contradictory either.

An Activation Sequence that can complete a Magic Sequence with consistent logic, no waste nor deficit, and a minimum of work. That is what Marika called ‘easy to understand’.

However, what part of the complete Magic Sequence did what, that couldn’t be understood at all. The system is impossible to understand and only the effects of the Magic Sequence could barely be predicted. That is what Alisa described as ‘incomprehensible’.

The magic goes by the name ‘Bodily Forging’. There is also a ‘forgery’ meaning of forging, so that nuance may also be included.

Incidentally, a magic called ‘Forging’ has been known for some time. It’s not magic that refines metal, it’s magic that increases the elasticity of a solid object. It is primarily used on hand tools. Instead of increasing the strength of the material, the tool is given a priori the property to automatically return to its original shape after bending or denting.

It’s not an automatic repair, it’s something that simply increases the degree at which it returns to normal. It has no repairing effect on things that are already broken. It is said to have been named with the persistence of forged items in mind.

This magic that Shiba Tatsuya created, as it shares part of its name with ‘Forging’, didn’t appear to be completely unrelated. But no matter how the Activation Sequence is read, no common points can be found. No, in the first place, if it is like Leo and Erika described it, ‘Bodily Forging’ is fortification magic applied to one’s own body. In that sense, it’s natural that it wouldn’t have any common point with magic that makes tools harder to break.

“Ah, they’re here. Alisa, Marika!”

The two turned around when they were called by name.

Mei gently waved her hand as she walked up to their table. On one hand she had a drink, and on the other she was holding a large tablet terminal.

“I’ve been looking for you. You finished practicing earlier than I expected.”

“Ah, sorry. I should have contacted you.”

While shaking her head to Alisa’s apology, saying “Don’t worry about it”, Mei sat next to Marika, diagonally opposite to Alisa.

“Did you find anything?”

Marika moved to the seat next to Alisa and asked without preface. Her voice was filled with expectation.

“My brother said it might be some kind of medical magic.”

Without showing confusion at Marika’s undeniably abrupt question, Mei immediately replied.

What Marika asked Mei about was the true form of ‘Bodily Forging’, which had become a popular topic recently. Properly speaking, it is not necessary to make the ‘true form’ into an issue, since she was given the Activation Sequence for the body fortification magic and an explanation. However, they couldn’t leave the magic they couldn’t comprehend, from what sort of logic, to in what way it ‘fortifies’, remain incomprehensible. More than the person who received it herself, Alisa felt a strong reluctance to let her dear Marika use magic that is in such a disagreeable state.

Therefore, they approached Mei, who always got a different look in her eyes when it comes to Shiba Tatsuya, for help. When they caught her during her club activities and requested her cooperation, she nodded immediately.

Alisa thought that, deep down, Mei was simple-minded, but she is probably wrong. Unpublished magic and, above that, an Activation Sequence written by Shiba Tatsuya. There is no doubt any Magic Artificer or person aiming to be one that wouldn’t jump at the opportunity would be in the minority.

“Your brother took a look at it? Wasn’t he busy with family work?”

Alisa showed she was more surprised about the preceding ‘My brother said’ over the contents of the reply. Mei’s brother, Isori Kei, is currently a third year at the Magic University, but he’s already known for his excellence at engravement magic. Not as a student with a promising future, as an excellent engineer. He has also handled a few large engravement magic structures, and Alisa remembers Mei grumbling that his schedule was packed with family work during the university’s summer break.

“Once I said whose Activation Sequence it was, he abandoned his work and jumped right in.”

Mei shrugged her shoulders and slowly shook her head left and right. However, the corners of her mouth were turned up with some pride.

Though being charmed by ‘Shiba Tatsuya’s Activation Sequence’ by itself did not make the Isori siblings weird. This is the general trend in the Japanese Magic Artificer industry in the present day.

“What do you mean with medical magic? Isn’t it fortification magic?”

Next to Alisa who was looking dumbfounded, Marika interjected. No, this is the main topic, so it was Alisa who interjected just before?

“The effect type is medical, but the logic that forms its basis appears to be fortification magic.”

“What does that mean?”

Marika wasn’t the only one who couldn’t understand. By her side, Alisa also had large question marks floating above her head.

“The essence of fortification magic is that it fixes the relative positions of the parts. You know this, right?”

“Yeah. I was told the other day at the training camp. Wait, weren’t you there too, Mei?”

“I’m building up to the topic.”

Mei set Marika’s retort aside with a nonchalant expression. Then, following her own setup, she began the quiz.

“Now, what do you think happens when it is applied to the human body?”

“No idea.”

Marika immediately held out the white flag.

“What about you, Alisa?”

Alisa also quickly shook her head sideways.

It’s not that they found it bothersome to think about. Ever since the day before yesterday, ‘fortification magic that acts upon the human body’ is a theme they have thought about thoroughly, and after discussing it among the two of them, in the end their conclusion was ‘no idea’.

“Applying the definition of the magic, fortification magic that affects the human body is magic that fixes the relative positions of parts of the body. Now, when it comes to fortification magic, what are the parts of the body?”

Mei stopped talking for a bit but then ceased the pompous act.

“The answer is cells.”

“Then, magic that fortifies the human body is magic that fixes the relative positions of the cells?”

Marika, with a tone of someone who half doubted it, looked to confirm it.

“That’s right.”

“But if you do that, can you maintain the processes that keep you alive?”

Alisa promptly objected.

As long as the body is alive, it is constantly moving. An easy to understand example is a heartbeat. Blood vessels too, they expand and contract due to blood flow, and each time you breathe, the lungs move as well.

Alisa didn’t know how restrictive ‘fixing the relative positions of the cells’ would be, but she wondered whether doing such a thing wouldn’t immediately stop life functions.

“It would be hard if everything is stopped, wouldn’t it? It would be a state similar to cardiopulmonary arrest, so you could survive if it’s a few dozens of seconds, but anything over a minute and I reckon you’ll suffer brain damage.”

“So, even if I can use body fortification magic, it will be for one minute at most?”

“It wouldn’t be practical if life processes stopped entirely before time’s up. That’s why it appears there’s some really complex conditions established for body fortification magic. To the extent that without very high aptitude for it, you won’t be able to activate it.”

“Is that so...”

Marika was discouraged when she heard she needed to be especially suited for it. But Mei’s story didn’t end there.

“But he solved that difficulty of use! What magnificent wisdom! I cannot describe it as anything other than magnificent!”

“...wisdom...?”

“That doesn’t seem like the right word for a case like this...”

The retorts from Marika and Alisa did not reach Mei’s ears, as she was losing her self-control. But after saying what she wanted to say and coming to her senses, Mei coughed unnaturally while looking embarrassed.

“...That is to say, because the number of people suited for the body fortification magic is limited, and even for those who are activating it is a heavy burden, he rearranged it into normal magic with a high degree of difficulty.”

“...So you mean it is difficult, but it can be activated even without being especially suited for it?”

After digesting Mei’s remarks for a little, Alisa threw a question at her to confirm it.

“Yes. That is what ‘Bodily Forging’ is. My brother said there is an unknown process included in the Magic Sequence, but no harmful side effects could be found so he gave it his seal of approval.”

“Unknown process?”

Even if approved, there was a phrase that Alisa could not ignore.

“It’s a magic process whose pattern doesn’t fit into any of the four systems and eight types, though he couldn’t find a matching pattern in ancient magic either.”

“Is that really safe...?”

“My brother took the process out and tried to execute it, but nothing happened.”

Frustration briefly appeared in Mei’s expression. As expected, she must also be unable to accept that it remains ‘unknown’.

“You mean it’s a pointless process?”

“No.”

Mei replied to Alisa’s question with a firm denial.

“As an experiment, he tried to execute an Activation Sequence with the description corresponding to this process removed, but no valid Magic Sequence was constructed.“

“And once you put it back in, the magic activated?”

Mei nodded, and Alisa knit her brows and crossed her arms.

“So in the end what kind of magic was activated?”

While Alisa pondered, Marika at her side asked that. Her concern was on the effect rather than the magic’s system.

“Neither me nor my brother could fully activate it, but... It seemed like magic that, once activated, makes it so effects received from outside the body never happened.”

“Makes it so it never happened?”

“Perhaps I should say that it’s magic that after activated, repairs any damage to the body to the state it was in at the point of activation. It returns the state of the cells back to the moment the magic was activated. I could say that it’s magic that, rather than continuously fixing the relative position of the cells, it fixes them in that position after the fact.”

“So that’s why it’s both medical magic and fortification magic...”

Mei nodded to Alisa’s comment,

“So you’re invulnerable while the magic is active?”

And she hurriedly shook her head to Marika’s.

“You can’t activate it for any longer than a very short amount of time. The longest would be about three seconds.”

“Three seconds, huuh...”

After the statement Mei appended, Marika gazed towards the empty sky and pondered.

“This is all I’ve learned from one night. Excuse me for my lack of ability.”

“No, it was very helpful. In any case, it won’t harm Mina, right?”

Mei was wallowing in regret, and Alisa asked her again to make sure.

“That I can guarantee.”

Getting a firm promise, Alisa breathed a sigh of relief.

“Anyway, I’ll try looking into it a bit more.”

“Okay, thank you. Sorry about this.”

“No need to say sorry. I should be the one thanking you for giving me such valuable research material.”

Mei stood up with a smile that felt like a mad scientist’s.

“Well then, if I find anything, I’ll contact you. You too Marika, see you later.”

“— Yeah. Thanks, Mei.”

Waving her hand to Marika, who had returned from her own world, Mei left the scene.

◇ ◇ ◇

The rain that started at 4pm stopped about two hours later. The stars are now spread all over the sky.

“Looks like tomorrow will be sunny.”

“Yeah. Though it seems it will be unstable for a while because of a typhoon.”

From the kitchen, Alisa talked to Marika, who was watching television at the dining table and replied back.

This is Marika’s house. For Marika to take it easy until tomorrow’s regional preliminaries, Alisa is making dinner for her.

“I reeaally don’t want it to rain on the day of the national tournament...”

Marika complained while looking at the meteorological information.

“Hey now. You have to get through tomorrow first, right?”

Alisa reproved Marika, who was concerning herself with the weather conditions a week from now, by telling her that she should focus on the qualifications.

“The bouts are randomized so it’s very possible you’ll have to face your Club President before the quarterfinals, you know.”

The qualifications will be in single-elimination tournament format and those who place in the top four of each division will be able to go to the national tournament. If she loses in the quarterfinals, she won’t be able to move onward to the main event.

“Then I’ll win. Absolutely, no matter what it takes.”

“Then you shouldn’t be worrying about the weather right now, right?”

“...Yeah, you’re right.”

Marika nodded with a face that showed she was a little sorry and changed the channel.

“Thank you for the meal. It was delicious!”

“I’m sorry that it’s not much.”

Marika smiled pleasantly, to which Alisa returned a natural smile, collected the kitchenware, and brought them to the kitchen. Alisa also felt she was pampering Marika too much by doing everything for her, but she made an excuse for herself that ‘tonight is special’.

Alisa placed the kitchenware in the automatic washer and then went to take a peek at the bathroom.

“Minaa, the bath is ready.”

She checked the water temperature with her own hand, just to make sure, and then urged Marika to get in.

“Okaay.”

Marika went into the changing room. Coming out to the narrow corridor in her place, Alisa pressed the switch on the cleaning robot.

Cooking, cleaning, bath preparation. Though household chores are highly automated, last century’s families with dominating husbands were something like this. Nevertheless, Alisa seems to be quite enjoying it. Perhaps she has the talent to ‘make people useless’.

After switching with Marika and taking a bath herself, Alisa put on her pajamas. She plans to sleep over in this house tonight.

Once she started up the washing machine and left the changing room, she found Marika motionlessly sitting on her bed. A hairdryer was lying in front of her. Her hair still looked wet.

“What’s the matter, Mina!? You’re going to catch a cold!”

Alisa quickly walked up to Marika, who was looking up with an expression that looked like she had only just woken up from a dream.

“Sorry... I was in a daze, for some reason.”

Marika smiled weakly. Her exhaustion was being revealed in that smile.

“Geez! This is because you strained yourself that much.”

Looking angry, Alisa took the dryer into her hand. She went around to Marika’s back as she stayed still. Delaying it for herself, Alisa used the dryer on Marika’s hair.

“Thank you.”

Marika partly closed her eyes, seemingly feeling good.

Alisa, in contrast with the careful use of her hands, was knitting her brows with a stern look.

“I told you so. Will you be okay tomorrow in this kind of state?”

“After one night’s sleep, I’ll be just fiine.”

Marika replied with a sluggish tone, unusual for her. Her eyelids closed and she looked like she would doze off at any moment.

“The skin care... You haven’t done it yet, have you?”

“I did it properly when I got off the baath.”

“Aah, geez!”

Speaking like she was tearing her hair off — she didn’t actually do it — Alisa took a night cream container out of a dresser drawer. That was because it was clear Marika had done nothing but the skin care she does in the wash basin.

Alisa took the cream into her own palm and smeared it on Marika’s face and hands.

Marika laughed like she was being tickled.

Alisa, naturally, couldn’t hide her frustration. Even so, she never got rough with her hands.

“Okay, it’s done! Now go to sleep!”

Alisa forced Marika into the bed, covered her with the bedsheet, and then returned to the changing room with the dryer.

One she finished drying her hair and doing her pre-bed skin care, Alisa returned to the side of the bed.

The light was still on, but Marika was peacefully sleeping.

“You really are pushing yourself...”

Although it is the day before the competition, the reason Marika kept working until she became like this was to learn the magic her two senpai, Erika and Leo, taught her as soon as possible.

Even when Alisa urged her to take care of herself, ‘They went through the trouble of teaching me’, Marika said, unwilling to stop. To Alisa, rather than impatient, she seemed like she was bound by a sense of duty.

Even though there’s no need for her to worry about that, Alisa thought.

But she understands that it is in her best friend’s nature that she must try her hardest.

Alisa quietly got on the bed so as to not wake Marika up.

“...Asha, thank you.”

At the same time as Alisa laid down, Marika murmured with an unclear tone.

Alisa, surprised, peeked at Marika’s face.

Marika seemed to be sleeping pleasantly.

She was sleeping talking.

Alisa chuckled, and as she said “Good night”, she turned off the lights in the room.