Chapter 10

And so the day of the public debate came. Half of all the students in the school gathered in the lecture hall.

“There’s more here than I thought.”

“More than anyone predicted, I think.”

“To think our school has so many students with free time… Perhaps we need to propose a strengthening of the school’s curriculum.”

“That joke wasn’t funny, Ichihara…”

In order, those were Miyuki’s, Tatsuya’s, Suzune’s, and Mari’s words. They were watching the scene from the stage wing. Mayumi stood a little bit away, waiting with Hattori. In the other wing were four seniors from the coalition, also waiting, under the watchful eyes of a disciplinary committee member. Sayaka was not among them.

“I wonder if they have others waiting somewhere else to use actual force…” muttered Mari, as if to herself. Only “as if”—it was clear she wasn’t talking to herself.

“Agreed,” muttered Tatsuya, understanding this fact. He was thinking the same thing.

He gave a quick look over the venue. The Course 1 students and Course 2 students were split about fifty-fifty. Leaving Suzune’s joke aside, they hadn’t thought so many students—not only Course 2, but Course 1 as well—were interested in this problem. Among them they identified about ten students as coalition members. And even among them, the members who had occupied the broadcasting room were nowhere to be seen.

“I don’t know what they plan on doing…but we can’t make the first move anyway.”

That, too, was better left unsaid. The other side always had the initiative—all this side could do was wait for them to act.

“Nonaggressive security sounds good in theory, but…”

“Chairwoman Watanabe, please don’t assume they will use force… It’s beginning.”

Mari had been about to argue against something—or rather, gripe about it—but she directed her gaze to the stage at Suzune’s statement.

The debate, in the form of a panel discussion, naturally began like this:

“Student Council President, we have a question regarding budget distribution among clubs this autumn. According to the data we’ve gathered, competitive magic clubs with high ratios of Course 1 students are clearly given more of the budget than non-competitive magic clubs with high ratios of Course 2 students. This is evidence that preferential treatment of Course 1 students is not only prevalent in classes, but even in extracurricular activities, is it not?! President, if you really have equal treatment between Course 1 and Course 2 students in mind, then this unfair budget needs to be corrected immediately.”

“Per-club budget distribution is decided upon by a council made up of every club president and based on budget ideas that take membership numbers and actual achievements into account. The reason it looks like competitive magic clubs are receiving more handsome budgets is largely a reflection of their intramural competition achievements. In addition, even nonmagic competitive clubs that have reached national levels of excellence like the legball team are given a budget just as high as competitive magic clubs. I believe this graph speaks for itself. The conclusion that Course 1 students are given preferential treatment when it comes to budget distribution is a mistaken one.”

In this way, the flow reached a point where Mayumi, as representative of the student council, argued against the coalition’s questions and demands.

Still, it wasn’t as though the coalition had any concrete demands anyway. They only brought up budget distribution and said it should be done equally—they didn’t have any demands as to which clubs, how much, or what portion of the budget should be added to theirs.

In the first place, it looked to Tatsuya like they’d been lured into this and dragged out here.

“Course 2 students are discriminated against in every way possible by Course 1 students. Aren’t you just trying to deflect everyone from that fact?!”

“You stated in every way possible, but what, in particular, might you be referring to? As I’ve already explained, usage of our facilities and distribution of supplies is conducted on an equal basis from Class A all the way to Class H.”

And their slogan, which would have been effective in the context of an agitated audience, was no more than empty idealism on stage. With Mayumi making her arguments using concrete examples and numbers that left no room for interpretation, their unsubstantial slogan stood no chance.

Before long, the debate had begun to turn into a speech for Mayumi instead.

“…I will not deny that there are those among the students who have the prejudice that the coalition has pointed out. However, this is a result of fixated senses of superiority and inferiority. It’s created from the defensive instinct the privileged have—that their privilege will be encroached upon. It is wholly different from institutional discrimination.

“The terms Bloom and Weed are forbidden from use by the school, the student council, and the disciplinary officers, but unfortunately, many students use them anyway.

“However, the problem is not only that Course 1 students call themselves Blooms and decide to condescendingly call Course 2 students Weeds. Even Course 2 students scorn themselves as Weeds and accept it in resignation. It is a very sad tendency, and it exists.”

A few people hooted, but nobody made an open argument.

The coalition had run out of arguments against Mayumi, who was concealing a coquettish, devilish smile, delivering an impassioned speech with a dignified expression and an imposing attitude.

“This wall in our minds is the real problem. Course 1 and Course 2 exist, clear as day, as part of the school system. However, this is due to there being a national shortage of teachers, which is not something that will be solved very soon. Either they give insufficient education to all, or give sufficient education to some. There is certainly a discrimination inherent in that.

“And there is nothing we can do about it. It’s a regulation we need to accept as students of this school if we are to study here. But other than that point, there is no systematic discrimination. This may come as a surprise to some of you, but the curriculum for Course 1 and Course 2 students is exactly the same. There may be differences in how fast they progress, but it uses the same lectures and practices.”

That was a surprise to both Tatsuya and Mayumi. He couldn’t help but mutter “Huh…” under his breath, and she silently agreed with that sentiment. Suzune’s mouth broke into a smile at seeing them.

“Even for extracurricular activities, the club committee and the student council assign facility usage as equally as we can. I won’t deny that we do give preferential treatment to clubs with more members over those with less. However, that is a decision made because we can’t ignore either individual opportunity or club-based opportunity. We do not and will not systematically prioritize magic-based extracurricular activities.

“Earlier, a member of the coalition mentioned that magic-based clubs were being given a heftier portion of the budget. He was correct in his conclusion, but I have already showed with a graph that the distribution is a result of their actual achievements being considered.

“Every issue aside from the teaching one can be explained through something other than the division between Course 1 and Course 2. I believe you now understand that there are rational, logical grounds for them. It is the wall in our minds that is the problem—our willingness to blame it on the Course 1/Course 2 division despite understanding there is another cause, which then distances Course 1 and Course 2 students from each other.”

A few people hooted again. This time, though, some of the hoots were in agreement. The coalition supporters were jeering, but the voices coming from the cluster of Course 2 students present telling the coalition to shut up clearly displayed a shift in the way things were going.

“As the student council president, I am not satisfied with the current state of affairs. This mental wall can even incite hostility in school sometimes, so I’ve begun to want to solve this problem somehow. However, the solution must not be something that creates a new kind of prejudice. Even if Course 2 students were being discriminated against, reverse discrimination against Course 1 students is no solution. That cannot be permitted even as a temporary solution.

“Both Course 1 and Course 2 students belong to this school, and these are the only three years any of us will have as students here.”

Applause broke out. There weren’t enough people clapping to describe it as the entire audience applauding, but it was certainly not sparse. Among those clapping their hands, there was no division between Blooms and Weeds.

The wave of applause receded and silence came over the room. Both Course 1 and Course 2 students, both those who had clapped and those who had not, were staring fixedly at Mayumi up at the podium, eagerly awaiting her next words with bated breath.

The coalition panelists, on the same stage as her, glared at her, frustrated.

“I believe the only two things permitted to us are to remove the systematic discrimination and to not engage in reverse discrimination. This is an excellent opportunity, so I’d like it if you could all listen to my hopes.

“In all honesty, there is one last piece of the system that discriminates between Course 1 and Course 2 students in the student council—and that is the restriction on naming officers to non–student council groups. In the current system, all officer positions besides those in the student council must be nominated from Course 1 students. This rule is only part of the general assembly of the student council when a new student council president is elected, and we can change it. I plan to abolish this regulation during the assembly when I leave office. It will be my final job as student council president.”

There was a stir. The students forgot to even hoot and jeer, and began whispering amongst themselves—to their fronts and backs, to their lefts and rights. Mayumi waited silently until the commotion died down naturally. “I’ve only been in this position for about half a year, so this commitment may sound premature. But we can’t force people to change their minds, and we must not try. That’s why I plan on tackling these reforms as much as I can using other means.”

The entire lecture hall exploded into applause.

There was no shortage of cheers resembling those a fan club might give an idol, but it was clear that both Course 1 and Course 2 students supported not what the coalition had expressed, but what Mayumi had stated.

Mayumi was preaching about the upheaval of mental discrimination.

The actions of the coalition had certainly been the opportunity that allowed them to start on a path toward getting rid of discrimination. However, it was exactly the opposite of the kind of change they wanted. Reformist groups, even after accomplishing their goal, would gradually become unsatisfied with just that.

They were too caught up in achieving their goals using the methods they had imagined. The result was that this was unsatisfactory not so much to the coalition members but to those backing them.

—And besides, the masterminds who had incited Sayaka behind the scenes weren’t planning to end things here, anyway.

Suddenly, an explosion rattled the windows of the lecture hall, and the students, letting themselves be engrossed in one action—their applause—awoke from their collective reverie.

The deployed disciplinary officers acted immediately.

With the kind of unified movements that seemed unbelievable since they hadn’t gone through any kind of training, they restrained each marked coalition member.

A window shattered and a spindle-shaped object came flying in.

As the grenade hit the floor, it began spewing white smoke, but the smoke didn’t scatter—instead, the grenade and the smoke all vanished back out the window, as if it were a videodisc being played backward.

Tatsuya looked over, praise in his eyes, and Hattori looked away from him, irritated. Mayumi couldn’t help but giggle when she saw them.

Mari was facing the exit, her arm extended. Several intruders wearing gas masks all fell over as though they’d tripped on a stair and stopped moving.

The predicted assault had come with unexpected, extreme methods like explosives and chemical weapons, but as planned, it was quickly being put down. The panic in the room seemed like it would settle before being triggered.

“I’m going to check on the practicum building.”

“I’ll go with you, Tatsuya!”

“Be careful!” shouted Mari after the siblings as they headed for the area they’d heard the first explosion coming from.

Because magic high schools taught practical applications of magic, magicians were permanently stationed there as teachers. And with First High, seen as the highest magic high school, the teachers were all first-rate magicians as well. The school had the power to independently force out a small military group from a lesser nation. Of course, they might have accounted for the possibility of outside attackers, but they hadn’t predicted that it would happen. In a place where nobody felt there would be an impending crisis, there was no real sense of caution.

The practicum building had easily surrendered control to the invading attackers belonging to the external faction. Its walls were scorched and its windows were in shards. The explosion Tatsuya had heard must have been a miniaturized explosive incendiary. The flames from it were still burning along one wall, and there were two teachers working on putting it out.

“The hell’s going on here?” demanded Leo, who was engaged in a fierce, prolonged battle to guard those teachers when he got a glimpse of Tatsuya.

Miyuki’s hands gracefully danced. With one hand she manipulated her portable terminal CAD. The psionic information bodies expanded, constructed, and were executed in the blink of an eye. The sparkling of magic, which only magic users—magicians and magic engineers—could see with the naked eye.

Three men surrounding Leo flew away all at once. They were dressed like electricians, and were clearly neither students nor faculty. They flew back with such force it looked like they’d stepped on a land mine, but Leo, in the middle of it all, wasn’t affected at all. That pinpoint targeting was the biggest strong point of magic.

“Terrorists have infiltrated the school!” explained Tatsuya, very simply and cutting out the details, as Miyuki was talking to the teachers about something.

“Sounds pretty dangerous!” That was all it took to convince Leo—Tatsuya knew he was the understanding sort from that overtime practice.

What was important right now was that there were enemies who needed to be eliminated.

“Leo, your broom! …Oh, reinforcements are here?”

Then, from the other direction where the office was, came Erika. She slowed her pace upon seeing Tatsuya and Miyuki there.

“Don’t worry! You made it in time.”

“Why would I worry? You wouldn’t die even if they killed you!”

“What was that?! …Actually, there’s no time to fool around. Just give me my CAD already—hey, don’t throw it!”

CADs were delicate instruments, but they were also built with the premise of usage in tough environments in mind. They wouldn’t break just from falling on a soft-coat path. Erika knew that, which is why she threw it to him, so she naturally ignored Leo’s protest…though she probably would have ignored it even if it could have broken.

“Is this yours, Tatsuya? Or Miyuki’s?” asked Erika simply, gazing at the moaning invaders crawling along the ground without even a hint of sympathy.

“Miyuki’s. I’m not efficient enough for one of these.”

“It’s mine. I cannot bother my brother with dealing with these lowlifes.”

Tatsuya’s answer and Miyuki’s, having come up beside him, were spoken at the same time.

“Right, right, what beautiful sibling love… So these guys, I can wipe ’em out, no questions asked, right?”

“No need for mercy as long as they’re not students,” Tatsuya answered, completely and thoroughly ignoring her wisecrack, glancing subtly away from her.

Erika grinned happily. “Hee-hee—and here I thought high school would be way more boring!”

“Whoa, scary. You sure are warlike, you know.”

“You be quiet.”

Erika had brought her right hand halfway up, but even she seemed to be cautious of hitting him with her specially-made baton.

“By the way, what were you two doing in the practicum building at a time like this?”

If they didn’t have detention or make-up classes, the practicum building wasn’t somewhere students had anything to do after school. He hadn’t meant to ask it in a teasing, vengeful way—it was a casual question.

“Huh? Um, well, I mean—huh.”

“Um, yes, well, that is—hmm?”

Their being so unsettled was something he didn’t expect.

“…What were you doing alone together?” he asked in a suspiciously serious tone of voice.

“Alone together?!” Erika’s tone was so disturbed it was funny.

“That isn’t it!” Leo’s tone could have been called a scream. “I was just in there practicing! She came later!”

“I came here to practice, but this annoying guy was hogging the damn thing!”

“Did you just call me annoying?!”

“Uhh, okay, I understand. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

The reality wasn’t actually that interesting, but their reaction had been well worth it.

His mind switched gears. “Did you see any other invaders?” he asked seriously, though not suspiciously this time.

“I was protecting the teachers on the other side, but they’re really good—they’re mostly all taken care of,” responded Erika, as though her previous fluster had never happened, in neither a serious nor light tone, but a calm one.

Leo was quick to change gears, too. “This may sound weird coming from me, but they’re really third-rate magicians. Even three-on-one they couldn’t put up any magic.” He spoke as if it didn’t matter, but taking on three people at once was no easy task in the first place.

This classmate of his seemed to be capable of more than he gave him credit for.

“Erika, is the office safe?” asked Miyuki.

Erika nodded. “They were quick to respond over there. By the time I arrived, the teachers had already tied up the invaders. There are a lot of valuables in there, after all.”

Tatsuya found himself stuck on something she’d just said. He understood the office being a target of attack because of how many valuables were kept inside. But all that was in the practicum building were old CADs from previous generations. If there was any value to be found, it was the heat-resistant, vibration-resistant, shock-resistant building itself, which got away with just a few burns to its exterior after being hit with a grenade. If it had been destroyed, classes would have been obstructed for at least a month, but in the end, this was all that happened. If there were any other places where the school’s administration would be hampered due to destructive activities, it would be where important equipment, materials, and documents were stored, since they couldn’t resupply them immediately…

“…The lab building and the library!”

“Then was this a diversion? I did not expect such a broad scope. Could the resistance holding down the debate have been a diversion in itself?”

Tatsuya shook his head at the question Miyuki offered. “No, I think they were serious about it. I wonder if the coalition was just being used.” He didn’t use a word like unfortunately that would have shown pity toward them. That would be rude to those who were seriously clamoring for the elimination of discrimination.

“Anyway, the question is what we do now.”

They had three choices: split up into two groups, go to the lab building, or go to the library.

“They’re after the library.”

Their decision was brought to them in the form of information.

“Ms. Ono?”

Low-heeled shoes, a slim-fitting pantsuit, and a lustrous sweater under a jacket. Her outfit today was completely different from the other day—it was meant for moving around in. The shine on her sweater probably came from metallic fibers with anti-bullet and anti-blade effects. Even her expression was drawn in severity. The air she gave off was like another person’s.

“Their main force has already gotten into the library. Mibu is there, as well.”

The three others looked at Tatsuya, confused. He stared right back at Haruka, though. Less than a second passed. “May I ask you for an explanation once this is over, ma’am?”

“I’d like to decline, but that won’t be enough. May I ask you one thing in exchange?”

“What is it, ma’am?”

Haruka displayed vacillation, but she didn’t get caught up on her words and waste time. “I’m asking you this as Haruka Ono, a counselor. I want you to give Mibu a chance. She’s been worried since last year about the gap between her worth as a kendo athlete and as a Course 2 student. I talked to her several times…but I don’t think I was enough. She ended up going along with them, so—”

“That’s naive, ma’am.” Her request was likely founded in an earnest awareness of her duties, but Tatsuya discarded it without mercy. “Let’s go, Miyuki.”

“Yes.”

“Hey, Tatsuya!” Leo called after him.

And then, to a friend he couldn’t discard, he gave one piece of advice. “If you have pity when you can’t afford it, you’re not the only one who gets hurt.”

He didn’t have time to say any more—and that was clear as he ran off.

Close skirmishes had unfolded in front of the library.

Aside from CADs, the attackers were also carrying knives and throwing weapons. There seemed to be a few students among them, but most were outsiders—invaders. The receiving end of the attack, composed mostly of seniors, had no CADs but had overwhelmingly superior magic power. The skill it took to go toe-to-toe with magic and without a CAD against weapon-wielding enemies marked them as fledgling magicians with hopeful futures. (And not so much fledglings as star rookies, they were.)

No sooner had Leo seen it than he dove in. Loosing a scream of “Panzeeeer!” he charged into the fray. There was meaning in his roar.

“Voice recognition? He gets more unique every day…”

“Tatsuya, was he just expanding and constructing a program at the same time?”

“Yeah, sequential expansion. It was all the rage a decade ago.”

“Boy, even his magic is outdated…”

Fortunately, Erika’s talking behind his back (?)—after having ignored the fact that the sealing magic she used was a technique of the past now—didn’t make it to the fighting Leo. With his bulky, wide CAD that covered his forearm like a gauntlet, he stopped a cudgel being brought down at him and delivered a return punch.

I see. The CAD doubles as body armor, so I understand why it uses voice recognition—it doesn’t need any moving parts or exposed sensors. Still, though…

“I’m surprised it hasn’t broken on him yet,” Erika remarked.

“He’s using hardening magic on the CAD itself, too. Hardening magic works by confining the relative coordinates of particles to a tight area. However strong the impact is, as long as the relative coordinates between pieces don’t go out of alignment, it can’t be broken as long as its exterior remains intact.”

“So he can use it as violently as he wants, huh? Fitting magic for a guy like that.”

Erika and the others, trading comments for sneering, went around the melee toward the entrance. Leo, despite it, began a rampage, like he was trying to blow off steam. With his hands both covered by black gloves, he shattered the pellets and icicles flying toward him and went on smashing the shafts of metal and carbon resin. Sometimes sparks would fly. There were probably stun batons mixed in. There were thrusting knives he couldn’t quite avoid, and some spring-loaded darts hidden in the enemies’ sleeves firing at him to try and surprise him. None of them penetrated his white-and-green blazer.

“Is he hardening everything he’s wearing? It’s like he’s covered in a full suit of plate armor.”

The man himself had been unhesitating in declaring this his specialty. He’d clearly meant it.

By using a method of sequential expansion so he could both expand an activation program and construct and execute a magic program at the same time, Leo’s hardening magic was being continuously updated.

The terrorists might have been armed, but they were still fresh, hairless amateurs in terms of how well trained they were. They wouldn’t be able to pierce his armor. And his fists—they should have been punching with nothing but physical power, but the movement and acceleration spells he was using granted them exceptional destructive force. That kind of combat potential could be used right this instant in the military, as long as it was a close-combat skirmish where usage of firearms was restricted.

“Leo, we’re going on ahead!”

“Got it! I’ll hold ’em!”

Tatsuya left the area to Leo.

It was deathly silent inside the library. If Haruka was to be believed, then the attackers hadn’t been repelled—the ones who went to intercept them had been blocked off. Nonfaculty police officers were normally stationed in the library, but it seemed like they’d been pacified already. Their competence was on another level, as might be expected from their “main force.”

Tatsuya temporarily hid in a large closet beside the entrance, then expanded his awareness and searched for life signs. Not for indications of presence, but life signs.

Modern magic was a method of interfering with eidos, the information that accompanied events and the bodies that were one and the same with life. Everyone who used modern magic was conscious of individual eidos within the Idea—the information body belonging to the world itself, and the “information” platform containing all eidos had come to be called by a term from ancient Greek. But they were only conscious of eidos. There were few who could tell them apart. In exchange for normal magic talent, Tatsuya possessed a special, efficient perceptual ability that allowed him to distinguish individual eidos within the Idea.

“Four in the special viewing room on the second floor, two at the bottom of the staircase, and two more at the top…”

“Wow. With you around, there’d be no point in an ambush. I definitely wouldn’t want to get on your bad side in a real battle.”

“What could they be doing in the special viewing room?” asked Miyuki.

“For a hacking attempt, this is too docile. They’re probably trying to steal classified information owned by the Magic University,” speculated Tatsuya. “You can access private documents barred from the general public from the special viewing room.”

Erika looked disappointed.

“Erika, you look like you’ve been let down,” prodded Miyuki.

The girl took the opportunity to give her signature exaggerated shrug. “I’m not! It’s just…a rebellion at school, youthful energies running rampant… I was kind of excited for it. But now that we know it’s just some normal spy operation… I guess I just want my hopes and dreams back, you know what I mean?”

“Don’t ask me. And you’d have been better off not having those dreams to begin with.”

“But you just answered me!”

Tatsuya grunted, unable to argue with her. Miyuki hastily backed him up. “We must hurry to the special viewing room. Shall I perform an ambush?”

“No way, I’m gonna steal your thunder this time!” sang Erika before leaping out without waiting for a response like a burglar who’d just stolen a role in a play.

Without a sound or a hint, she urgently slid toward the stairs. Her baton, CAD embedded in its hilt, was already expanded.

The enemies had been waiting for an ambush opportunity, but instead they were assaulted. She brought down her baton, and as soon as they were struck, they toppled over backward.

Erika had taken down two enemies in an instant. It was a fully refined hand-to-hand combat technique, in stark contrast to Leo’s wild fighting style.

At the sounds of their allies falling, the personnel lying in wait at the top of the stairs finally noticed she was there. One began to dash down the stairs, and behind him, the other began expanding an activation program. But in a flash of psions, the program shattered. The magician stood there, dazed, his magic having been negated. Tatsuya noticed the man stiffen up unnaturally, and a moment later he lost his balance and tumbled down the stairs.

“Oops…” grunted his little sister cutely.

“No problem,” he responded curtly, returning his handgun-shaped CAD to his shoulder holster.

People who stand on two feet do so by unconsciously making minor adjustments to their center of gravity. If your body’s movements were suddenly decelerated and forced to stop, you wouldn’t be able to stay standing. They’d known that much, but Miyuki hadn’t predicted the man would fall down the stairs.

Well, it doesn’t look like he’s broken his neck. He was part of all this violence, so he would have gone into this knowing he could get two or three ribs broken and maybe a concussion. That’s what he meant by “no problem.”

On the other hand, the second ambushing trooper came at Erika with not so much a knife as a real blade you wouldn’t go wrong in calling a short sword.

He knew his face. He was the male student who had gone up against Sayaka as part of the kendo club’s exhibition. Tatsuya could see a white wristband lined with blue and red on the right wrist he was using to try and break Erika’s posture. It seemed as though the kendo club had been the first ones corrupted.

“Crap. Tatsuya…I need to…go easy…on students…right?”

Her question, spoken through a clash of locked swords, trembled slightly. The difference in physical strength born from their height disparity was affecting both of them, placing them in a stalemate.

“You don’t need to force yourself to go easy on them,” said Tatsuya, stepping toward them.

“No help needed here! No sir!” she said, stopping him. “I think this one’s good enough for me to get serious.”

She instantly upped the pressure she was applying, then let it go a moment later. Parrying her opponent had reversed their positions. She waved for them to keep on going. “Leave this to me!”

“All right.”

The male student placed himself into a half-stance, on guard against a pincer attack. But the student didn’t exist for Tatsuya or Miyuki anymore. Tatsuya launched himself off the floor with force. Miyuki launched herself off the floor with grace. Tatsuya’s body bounced off the wall…and Miyuki’s danced through the air. They landed on the upper floor at the same time.

Erika whistled in admiration as they left her and the dazed coalition student there and headed for the end of the hallway, where the special viewing room was.

Sayaka watched the work being done before her eyes with a complicated mind-set. Her allies, members of Blanche, were hacking into the only terminal in school that could access the secret documents—books and materials containing the very latest in magic research.

It was over half a year ago now that the boys’ captain, Tsukasa, had mediated for her to be placed here. For some reason, Tsukasa didn’t take her to Égalité, of which he was a member, but to Blanche instead. Sayaka hadn’t intended to spread her own activities outside of school in the first place. She wasn’t willing to even come close to getting involved with the law. Meeting them was part of her obligation toward Tsukasa, to whom she was indebted.

Tsukasa’s older brother, who they said was the representative of Blanche’s branch in Japan, had taught her a few things. Even now that she had started to think magic-based discrimination wasn’t a problem that could be solved just by staying within school, her own focus of concern was the discrimination against Course 2 students.

She had actually wanted to participate in the debate. It wasn’t enough for her to feel strongly about it; she wished to make her voice heard. Tsukasa had convinced her that this would be a more suitable position for her, though, so she couldn’t decline.

What am I doing? she thought. They’d taken a key without permission, and taken part in hacking… Was this what she wanted? As she felt her thoughts beginning to move in a forbidden direction, she quickly returned her attention to the mission in front of her.

But they were supposed to be trying to abolish magic-based discrimination. Why did they need cutting-edge magic research materials for that? Tsukasa’s older brother had told her that publicizing the research results of magic schools would be the first step toward abolishing discrimination.

But I don’t really think letting people who can’t use magic see magical theory would mean anything…

The question that had been pestering her came to mind again. Magic studies had no use for those who couldn’t use magic. Magical theory was practical in a certain sense, too, so it didn’t have any of the spiritual nature of religion. If there was anybody who wanted to reap the fruits of cutting-edge magic research, then wouldn’t it be those who wanted to use magic…?

No, I’m sure there is research hidden in there that will benefit those who can’t use magic, too…

It was a hypothesis created to satisfy herself. An answer she had been led to believe. But no matter how many times she repeated it to herself, she was never fully convinced.

“…Great, it’s open.”

There was a slight stir. Someone hastily produced a solid cube for recording data. Sayaka thought she saw a clear sign of greed cross her allies’—cross the men’s faces, and turned her eyes away. Toward the door.

So she was the first one who noticed it. “The door!” she shrieked, causing the remaining members to whip around to look. They watched as the door was cut into a square, then fell into the room.

“Absurd!”

The surprised shout could have been called restrained, given the reality.

Stable, solid objects were not easily affected by eidos. The door was constructed from composite armor that could withstand a hit from an antitank rocket. Magic could destroy it—but to do that, whether by weighting, vibration, or dissolution, the magic program would need to be gigantic. It would require one of those processes to be layered upon itself many times. This instantaneous, quiet destruction should have been impossible.

As the men stood there frozen in both thought and action at the outrageous display, the memory cube at the one’s fingertips shattered. Then, the portable terminal they were using to hack in with fell apart like its manufacturing process had just been swiftly reversed. The signal from the connected device suddenly broke off, and the viewing terminal locked itself.

“Corporate spies, I presume? Consider your schemes officially ruined,” said a familiar voice, declaring the end in an indifferent tone. Tatsuya held a shining, silvery, handgun-shaped specialized CAD. Gracefully sticking behind him was a slender person with her portable terminal at the ready.

Neither of the siblings’ expressions bore any excitement whatsoever, and it almost made her forget they were in the middle of committing a crime.

“Shiba…” whispered Sayaka. She saw a right arm come up beside her.

Not in surrender—her ally was pointing a live gun at his underclassmen. The man was not a student of First High. He wasn’t even a student at all. Their leader, Tsukasa’s older brother, had directed them to bring this man with them. The carefully selected team member now looked hostile and ready to kill. Sayaka screamed silently. She controlled it so her voice didn’t come out. Her hands didn’t move. The realization that her ally was a killer scared her out of her wits.

But he didn’t shoot. No bullet, capable of such easy death, came out. Instead, he crumpled to the floor, then writhed in such intense pain he couldn’t even shout. His right hand still held the handgun. No, the handgun was glued to his hand; it was swelling up and turning purple.

“Please stop this foolish behavior. Do not think for a moment that I will overlook any malice directed toward my brother.” The girl’s tone was quiet, polite…and dignified.

She was so utterly different. Sayaka knew she couldn’t stand up to her no matter what she did. Hers was a voice that froze any rebellious thoughts in their tracks just by speaking.

Next, Sayaka’s paralyzed ears heard Tatsuya’s cruel words. “Mibu, this is reality.”

“Huh…?”

“An equal world, one where everyone is treated as good as everyone else. Such a thing is impossible. If there were a fair world where ability and aptitude were ignored, it would be a world in which everyone was treated equally coldly. You understand, though, don’t you, Mibu? Nobody can grant that kind of equality. It only exists as a sweet, convenient lie used for deceit.”

Sayaka’s unfocused eyes became focused then. Her underclassmen watched her directly, their eyes expressionless, but that slight hint of emotion deep inside them…

“Mibu, you’ve been used to steal the Magic University’s private technology. This is the reality—the one you’ve been given by someone else, and the ideal that sounded so good.”

Was it pity?

“Why?! Why did it turn out like this?” As soon as she felt that, some emotion she didn’t really understand exploded out of her. “Was it wrong to try and get rid of discrimination? Was it wrong to want equality?! There’s obviously discrimination out there, isn’t there?! I’m not just imagining it. I didn’t just imagine all the ridicule. The insulting stares. I heard the voices making fun of me! Was it wrong for me to try and get rid of that? Aren’t you the same? You’ve always been compared to your perfect little sister next to you, haven’t you? And you’re being insulted unfairly! Everyone looks down on you, don’t they?”

Her shouting was her heart’s lamentation. It was a scream from deep in her heart. But it didn’t make it to Tatsuya’s heart. It didn’t evoke sympathy. Everything she’d just said was the simple truth, and he accepted all of it without a second thought. The only things that registered in his mind were the definitions of her shouted words and the fact that she was shouting. He only saw that there was a girl here, wailing.

The light of pity Sayaka had seen was no more than something created by her own pity toward herself. She had hurled her words at the young man, but they hadn’t reached his heart—instead, they came back to her own.

“I do not look down on my brother.” It was a quiet voice. But in Miyuki’s voice was an emotion to silence Sayaka’s grief: anger. “Even if everyone else in the world slanders my brother, abuses him, and despises him, I will never change in my respect and affection for him.”

“…You…” Sayaka was speechless. Miyuki’s oath was so striking that it didn’t only cut off her words, either, but her thoughts and feelings as well.

“My respect and affection have nothing to do with magic power. At the very least, the magic power the world seems to find so important is much stronger in me than it is in my brother. However, that fact holds no sway over my feelings for him. None of my feelings for him will be changed in the slightest because of something like that. Because I know that it’s only one part of who he is.”

“……”

“Everyone looks down on my brother? That is the unforgivable insult. There are certainly ignorant people who scorn my brother. But just as much as they scorn him—or maybe even more—there are people who understand how wonderful he is. Mibu, you are a pitiful person.”

“What was that?” Her voice was loud—but without strength. It was devoid of feeling and emotion.

“Wasn’t there anyone who acknowledged you? Has magic always been the only thing you’ve been measured by? No, I don’t think that’s true. I know at least one person who doesn’t think that way. Do you know who I’m talking about?”

“……”

“My brother has acknowledged you. Both your skills with the sword and your appearance.”

“…But those are just superficial things!”

“They are indeed just superficial things. But they are still a part of you. They’re your charm. They’re who you are, are they not?”

“……”

“Of course they’re superficial. This is only the fourth time you’ve directly talked to my brother, after the two times in the cafeteria and the one time at the broadcast room. Only four times. What are you expecting from someone you just met?”

“Well, I…”

“In the end, the one most prejudiced against you is you. You are the one who looks down on yourself more than anybody as a failure and a Weed.”

She couldn’t argue. She couldn’t even think about arguing. Miyuki’s indication was such a shock that her mind went white.

And when people stop thinking…

…they abandon their own will.

After discarding the shed skin of one’s own will, the whispers of the devil sneak in. No, in this case, the whispers of the puppeteer.

“Mibu, use your ring!” A man had been hiding, cowardly, behind a sixteen-year-old girl. That man gave a shout—almost a scream, in fact—and he swung his arm down toward the floor.

There was a soft crack and white smoke. At the same time, an inaudible yet stinging noise spread through the room. It was psionic noise. It was waves of Cast Jamming interfering with magic execution.

She heard three footsteps inside the smoke. Tatsuya stuck out his hand twice. Palm strikes, inside the smoke. His eyes were closed. There were two dull splats and two thuds on the floor.

“Miyuki, stop,” came an instruction during the spare moment that came after.

The magic program Miyuki had been constructing immediately changed into something else. The wind whipped around, sucking in the white smoke. It was all compressed down to the size of a ping-pong ball, then imprisoned by dry ice that had appeared in midair, and fell to the floor.

Now that the room was visible again, she saw the three men lying prone. One man rolled around in intense pain from frostbite, and the other two had fainted, bruises on their faces.

“Tatsuya, was it all right not to arrest Mibu?” asked Miyuki, confused—but in no way guessing that he had an ulterior motive. Her suspicions of his relationships with women was no more than a silly, childish form of communication between siblings. She was well aware that Tatsuya wouldn’t entertain that sort of personal feeling.

“I don’t doubt your skills, but with as little visibility as we had, things could have turned out with an unexpected surprise. You don’t need to take any risks—Erika will take care of Mibu for us.”

If she chose the shortest route to the exit, she would have to bump into Erika, who was waiting back on the first floor. And from how the girl looked, she didn’t seem to have enough mental capacity to take the long way around.

“I don’t think there is any reason for Erika to get so zealous about it…”

“Not unless her opponent is Mibu.”

Miyuki didn’t really know why people got so hung up on specific enemies. To her, battle was something to be avoided first—and if that didn’t work, won at all costs. It was the same no matter who she was fighting. Whoever they were, it didn’t change the fact that they were an enemy. She only knew that there were people who were specific about who they fought, and that was all.

“I see. Erika will be fine, I expect.”

So she left the girl to Erika, then decided to help her brother arrest the terrorist thieves.

Sayaka’s actions were essentially reflexive. She’d been given the ring of antinite as a last resort in case she needed to escape. She was being educated in the usage of magic, so she knew the properties and limitations of Cast Jamming. In fact, she was more knowledgeable than most magicians at its application.

This ring didn’t have the strength to defeat a magician. Cast Jamming could only disrupt magic—its only use was to avoid magic-based attacks. She couldn’t beat that freshman with it.

She’d never seen such adept technique before. The freshman’s martial prowess was now burned into her mind.

When she’d been given the ring, her leader had emphasized many times that she should use the ring to escape. That vision was burned into her eyes, and the words carved into her ears, and they were controlling her limbs.

There were sounds of things hitting the floor behind her. There was nobody following her. She knew they meant her allies had been defeated. But with her thoughts paralyzed, she never realized she had the choice to go back and help them. She just followed what the manual said to do in case of failure—to return to the relay base belonging to a certain organization outside school. Dominated by that unreasonable but compulsive idea, she ran through the hallway and dashed down the stairs.

And there she stopped.

“Hello, there! Nice to meet you!”

A single female student—by the way she introduced herself, she was probably a freshman—was standing in her way, her hands joined behind her back, smiling in a friendly way.

“…Who are you?” she asked with clear caution in her voice.

But the freshman didn’t change her cheerful expression. “I’m Erika Chiba from Class 1-E. I would just like to make sure that you are the runner-up in the national middle school girls’ kendo tournament the year before last—Sayaka Mibu, correct?”

She found herself hit with a shock that she didn’t understand. Somewhere in the shadows of her mind, somewhere in her heart where she couldn’t see, she felt a pain, like she’d been struck with a shinai. “…Is there something wrong with that?” she asked in return, hiding the shock and her pain.

“No, not at all. Nothing wrong with it. I just wanted to make sure.”

Erika was still standing with her hands folded behind her.

But there were no openings. Her body was slender, so it was far from blocking off the hallway, but Sayaka couldn’t see an opening for her to slip by. And…those hands she hid behind her back—were they empty?

Was she holding anything?

“…I’m in a hurry. Could you let me through, please?” She couldn’t feel anyone pursuing her from behind. But he probably snuck up on people perfectly silently every day before breakfast. Sayaka clamped down on her impatience and spoke to Erika as calmly as she could.

—Of course, she also knew there was zero probability she’d be able to just walk on by.

“Where could you be going?”

“It’s got nothing to do with you.”

“So…you don’t intend to answer?”

“That’s right.”

“I suppose negotiations have failed,” declared Erika, seeming to enjoy this. It was a silly way of making her point, but Sayaka was fully aware the girl was never going to let her through anyway.

Sayaka quickly looked to her left and right. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a weapon. She had her CAD, but if she used magic, she would give up the only advantage she had—the Cast Jamming.

In her peripheral vision she saw a silver rod roll her way. It was one of the stun batons her allies had brought with them. Its reach was a little short, but it was a worthy substitute for what she was familiar with.

Slowly, imperceptibly, she dropped her weight.

She gathered her body’s strength in her feet…and instantly leaped forward, rolling to pick up the baton. Then, without a moment’s delay, she came up and pointed at the female student blocking her way.

Erika watched her, wondering what she was doing. “You don’t need to hurry. I would have given you time to pick up a weapon…”

Sayaka’s face flushed red. She cast a sharp glare at Erika to try and cover up her awkwardness and embarrassment at what was essentially a one-woman comedy act. “Move out of the way, or you’re going to get hurt!”

“And now I have a proper reason to defend myself,” she muttered, seeming to be no longer interested. “Not that I was going to use that as an excuse anyway.”

She brought her hands out in front of her. In her right hand was an extending police baton, and in the other was a wakizashi with an actual blade. She tossed the weapon in her left hand aside.

“All right, then shall we begin?” she asked, bringing her right hand in front of her.

Sayaka assumed a stance again, with her weapon in front and her left hand supporting her right. She had a two-handed middle stance, while Erika stood in a one-handed half-stance.

It began suddenly, without any pre-match crossing of swords or shouts.

As soon as Erika saw her move, her baton flew toward Sayaka’s neck. She immediately raised her own hands. With the defensive reflexes built into her body, she barely managed to stop the attack—and a moment later, her opponent had spun around behind her.

“A self-acceleration spell…?” she muttered. Erika didn’t answer. “…The same as Watanabe?” Those words, however, caused Erika to stop. It was only momentary, but it was enough to turn things around.

When she went to take another step, an irritating noise on the floor stopped her foot. It was psionic noise, and she wasn’t hearing it with her ears. Erika scowled, and Sayaka became the attacker.

She delivered a flurry of blows without leaving any time to breathe. Face, face, hands, torso, diagonal, upward, face, reverse diagonal… Her sword skills bore witness to the fact that she was not only well-versed in kendo as a sport, but in the old-fashioned ways, too.

She attacked like a flame. As fast as the wind, as quiet as the forest, as daring as fire, and immovable as the mountain, as the saying went. Her attacks were like a conflagration.

At some point, the psionic noise disappeared. She’d known that would happen. Cast Jamming worked by injecting psions into antinite. If you stopped the psion injection, it would stop emitting noise. The noise inside the room, too, eventually decayed and terminated. There was no way for Sayaka to maintain the Cast Jamming, since she was currently pouring everything into her sword attacks. It wasn’t good enough to let her remain in a state to use magic, and it couldn’t keep up with the speed of her sharp and fierce magic-weaved attacks.

And yet Erika still didn’t try to use magic. Was she being pressured too much to build a magic program? Erika was a Course 2 student who struggled with compilation. Her CAD, however, was a specialized one with an emphasis on speed, and she was an expert at using this specific shape of CAD. And even under the effects of Cast Jamming, the supply of psions to her sealing spells was stable.

If she pushed herself off and got away, she should be able to activate the magic she specialized in. It didn’t look like Sayaka was pressuring her enough that she couldn’t get away. Her attacks were like a conflagration—but on the other hand, they were just as reckless and frantic.

Erika was handling them, blocking them, never moving more than she needed to. There was no impatience in her eyes. There was no disturbance in her breathing.

The first one to be disrupted was Sayaka, tiring from her attacks. The tables turned in the blink of an eye as the attacker and defender swapped places. One scraped past the other’s finishing strike. As Sayaka stood there stiff as a pole, Erika flashed her own weapon across and knocked hers to the side. Her attack had been aimed at its base, and the stun baton, more fragile in construction than a wooden sword or a truncheon, bent.

“……” Sayaka stared down without fear at the police baton that was now in her face. A strong fighting spirit was in her eyes.

“Pick it up,” demanded Erika without moving her weapon.

“……” Sayaka didn’t understand what she was talking about, and couldn’t answer.

“Pick up that wakizashi and show me everything you have. I’ll crush the illusion of that woman chaining you down.”

Despite the police baton in her face, Sayaka bent down. She picked up the wakizashi Erika had tossed aside before, then took up a stance again. But then, for some reason, she broke her stance and added her left hand to her right.

The brass ring on her right middle finger shone. She removed it and threw it to the floor. “I won’t rely on that dumb thing. I’ll defeat your technique with my own power.”

Sayaka took off her blazer. Beneath the blazer of the First High girl’s uniform was a sleeveless one-piece. Her arms were now exposed from the shoulder down—everything below her shoulders had gained freedom.

Then she turned the blade over. Striking someone with the dull edge ignored the construction of a katana, and she ran the risk of breaking it in vain. She took this stance despite the risk, showing her hesitation to kill and her discontent at having to dull her blade.

“I can tell,” she said, taking such a stance and facing Erika. “Your skills—you’re from the same school as Watanabe.”

“My skills are a little bit different from that woman’s.”

They each exchanged short sentences, but from then on, silence ruled.

The silence gave way to tension, and tension to strain.

The very moment that strain crested, Erika vanished.

There was an instant crossing of blades. A high-pitched metallic sound rang out.

Erika’s strike had been difficult even to observe, accelerated by magic as it was—but Sayaka stopped the blow. Stopped a single stroke.

And then the wakizashi fell from her hands. A moment later, she dropped to a knee, holding her right arm.

“I do apologize. I might have broken the bone.”

“…It does feel cracked. It’s fine. That means you couldn’t hold back.”

“Yeah. And you can be proud of that. You forced a daughter of the Chiba to fight seriously.”

“Oh… So you’re from the Chiba family?”

“Actually, yeah. And Mari Watanabe is one of our pupils. She’s in the register—but I’m a master, and I know the secrets. So in pure sword skills, I’m better than her.”

Sayaka smiled a little at that. A fleeting, carefree smile. “I see… Hey, this is a little selfish of me, but would you mind calling a stretcher? I kind of feel…a…little dizzy…”

After those words came out, she collapsed to the floor. Erika carefully sat her body up and held her. As she lay there unconscious, she whispered, “It’s all right. Your kind underclassman will accept the honor of carrying you.”

“You want me to carry Mibu?”

Tatsuya asked the obvious question, but Erika nodded, not timid at all. “It’s okay! She’s not that heavy.”

“That’s not the problem…”

“You have a perfect reason for carrying a cute girl around. You should be happy!”

“That’s not something I would get happy about… Wait, no, that’s not the problem, either…”

“…You know, it’s occurred to me before. Tatsuya, are you not interested in girls? You have those interests?”

“Those as in what?”

“Like, you’re gay?”

“Of course not! Anyway, that’s not the problem.” Fighting a building sense of futility, he attempted a logical explanation that Erika would have to understand—though at this point, he could feel himself growing resigned. “We could just call for a stretcher. Why do I need to carry her?”

Miyuki just giggled.

“Because it would make Mibu happy, obviously.”

Tatsuya found himself suddenly unsure of how to respond. With her being so unreasonable with him, persuading her with logic would be difficult, to say the least. In fact, he was at a loss for words.

“Why not, Tatsuya?” prodded Miyuki. “It may not be a race against time, but it cannot hurt to get her healed as soon as possible. I believe you carrying her there would be the fastest solution. Besides, you’re making no progress here, are you? This is Erika we’re talking about.”

“Hey, Mizuki, what was that supposed to mean?”

“Sheesh, you’re right. Guess I have no choice.”

“Hey, Tatsuya, what’s with the follow-up attack? Two-against-one is how cowards do things!”

“Oh, my, and here I was trying to take your side, Erika.”

“No way! Lies, all of it!”

As though the pleasant (?) conversation between the noisy, loud Erika and the coolly reflecting Miyuki were his BGM, Tatsuya gently picked Sayaka up. He made sure not to jolt her around and disturb her.

“Huh. Yeah. You’re really something, Tatsuya.”

He didn’t know what Erika was so impressed with, but she nodded to herself a few times. Getting involved with that would probably take a long time, so he just started walking.

Sayaka’s face, in its unconsciousness, resembled a state of sound sleep.

After discovering via the monitoring function in his portable information terminal that the squad that had infiltrated the library had been captured, the captain of the boys’ kendo team, Tsukasa, knew that the next step would be to contact the leader of Blanche in Japan, his older brother, and ask for further instructions. And as quickly as possible.

He was his older brother from another marriage, so they were stepbrothers, but right now he trusted him more than his actual parents.

He felt like he hadn’t been happy at all with the second marriage, but at some point he’d come to and realized he was fine with it.

Directly after trying to consciously think about when that happened, his thoughts vanished into white noise. He realized he was spacing out for a moment (in internal time, at least), then shook his head, telling himself this wasn’t the time or the place. It was too dangerous to use wireless communications on school grounds. They wouldn’t be monitoring it or anything, so there shouldn’t be anything about sending a normal message that needed to bother him, but this was an emergency situation. He’d be safer assuming all transmissions outside the school, whether through landlines or not, would be under observation.

Tsukasa hadn’t thought leaving school would present an issue. Despite it being an emergency, it wasn’t as though the country were at war, with itself or otherwise. There would be no gun fighting when he stepped out of school. They’d be strictly checking any outsiders before they entered, but they wouldn’t obstruct a student from returning home.

Or so he’d determined—but unfortunately, he found his expectations betrayed.

“Is that Tsukasa from the kendo club? Goin’ home already?”

As he was going to the main school gate openly, so as to not draw suspicion, a voice stopped him from behind. It wasn’t a friend of his, but he did know the person. He turned around to see another senior standing there—one for whom the expression “scraggy” fit like a glove. The person wasn’t tall, but he had a solid physique, all muscle and no fat.

On his arm was a disciplinary officer arm band. “Tatsumi… Well, with everything that’s happening, clubs are canceled for today, right? I thought I’d get myself on home.” Appearing agitated would be careless and foolish, Tsukasa told himself, managing to respond in a calm voice.

“Right. Well, that’s true. It really isn’t a good time for club activities, is it?”

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll see you…” later. Tsukasa didn’t get a chance to say the rest of it.

“Oh, one second. There’s something I want to ask.”

His heart leaped into his throat. “Me?” he replied, somehow hiding his surprise and making the best confused look that he could.

“Yeah, you, Tsukasa.” Tatsumi’s voice made Tsukasa more anxious. He felt like his tone implied that he knew everything. “Our chairwoman has this really unenviable skill, you see,” he began, seemingly without any context—though it did nothing to lessen Tsukasa’s caution. “She can use air currents to combine all sorts of fragrances. One of the things she can make is a truth serum, without even using anything illegal.”

Tsukasa desperately bit back a shriek that was dangerously close to coming out. It was futile, though.

“You don’t need to pretend everything’s fine, Tsukasa. You know it as well as I do. Word’s out—word that you’re the one who guided them here.”

Without another word, Tsukasa spun on his heel.

He might have been a Course 2 student lacking in magical ability, but perhaps as a result of his kendo training, he was confident with high-speed-movement magic. Though Tatsumi looked slow-witted, he was the best speed fighter among the seniors—but in a long-distance race, Tsukasa should have had an advantage.

So he thought, but his plan was ruined before he even took a second step.

“Tsukasa! I’m going to have to ask you to come with me, sir!”

An annoyingly assertive voice—or, more accurately, the voice’s owner—stepped in front of him to block his way.

“Sawaki… Why are you two all the way out here?” His voice rose in a groan. All the commotion was happening in front of the library. Why would the disciplinary committee’s big guns be here, of all places? It wasn’t strange for Tsukasa to wonder about that.

“You didn’t notice? We’ve been watching you all day. We got some help from a certain person who has remote viewing abilities. You didn’t give yourself away at all, so we thought maybe we were wrong, but in the end, we saw you trying to run away.”

As Tsukasa listened to Tatsumi talk happily behind him, he decided to force his way through. He’d have to go through Sawaki. With the situation he was in, going back on campus would be suicidal. But though Sawaki was only a sophomore, he was the school ace of magic martial arts, the term for magic-based close combat. Without a weapon, Tsukasa didn’t stand a chance—at least, not in a fair fight.

Tsukasa pulled out the wristband around his right hand. Under it was a thin, narrow bracelet of brass—an antinite bracelet. He triggered its Cast Jamming. He knew that scattering jamming waves with the two of them there was the same as declaring he was their ally. But he couldn’t afford to think past this situation right now. He needed to cut his way through this disaster and contact his brother. This was the somewhat obsessive, unreasonable thought that controlled his actions.

Sawaki grimaced as Tsukasa turned to him and charged. Magic martial arts were purely magical techniques to supplement one’s physical body and grant powerful combat abilities. In a situation where he couldn’t use magic, then even without a weapon, Tsukasa’s skills as a kendo practitioner, which weren’t based in magic at all, should have prevailed. That’s what he believed as he attacked Sawaki with a bare-handed chop.

It was easily parried. There was a hard impact to his side—Sawaki’s elbow was buried in his abdomen. He crumpled to the ground.

“You misunderstand, Tsukasa,” said Tatsumi lowly and sympathetically as he looked down at him. “Sawaki’s way above average even without magic. A lot of people make that mistake. But when you think about it, unless you can perform without magic, you won’t be able to do much just by layering magic on top.”

Tsukasa moaned in pain, unable to reply. Sawaki silently tied him up.

In the nurse’s office, Sayaka’s questioning began.

Her right arm was still healing, and at first the school doctor tried to stop them from exciting her too much, but Sayaka had wanted to talk about everything now.

The student leaders of the school were all present at the questioning—Mayumi, Mari, and Katsuto. Kinoe Tsukasa, believed to be the mastermind, had been arrested, and the mayhem outside had, for the most part, calmed down, but they still didn’t know any of the specifics. The outside invaders had been arrested and were being watched over by the faculty, who were going to give them over to the police. The student council president, club committee chairman, and disciplinary committee chairwoman, in their positions as students, couldn’t get involved. On the other hand, Tsukasa wasn’t yet in a state where he could be interrogated. Given the fact that their only source of information at the moment was being able to ask for details about the incident from Sayaka, it wasn’t strange that the three of them had all gathered here.

Sayaka’s story began from when she was drawn into her allies’ circle.

About how last year, she had been spoken to by Tsukasa almost immediately after enrolling. About how the kendo club already had more than a few members who sympathized with Tsukasa at the time. About how it wasn’t just the kendo club—they were holding thought education posing as an autonomous student magic practice circle. They had built up a foothold from inside First High over a longer span of time than the administration had imagined, and that fact surprised Mayumi and the others.

The one most shocked by Sayaka’s story must have been Mari. She was shocked by something different from Mayumi and Katsuto, though.

“Sorry, I don’t really have a clue…” Erika shot a thorny stare at the bewildered Mari, but she didn’t have the mental leeway at the moment to notice it. “Is that true, Mibu?” she asked, confusion pouring from her voice.

Sayaka looked down, but not for more than a second. When she brought her face back up, she nodded, looking deflated. Then she replied in an equally deflated tone, “Now that I think about it, I was probably letting my title of kendo belle from middle school go to my head. So when I saw Watanabe’s brilliant magic sword skills during an exhibition they put on to draw in new kenjutsu club members and asked you for instruction, it was a big shock how coldly you treated me… I figured you hadn’t listened to me because I was a Course 2 student, and I got really down.”

“Wait… Wait a second. The recruitment week last year, right? When I was roasting those rash people in the kenjutsu club? I remember that. I didn’t forget about how you asked me to be your practice partner. I didn’t treat you coldly or anything, though,” she said, cocking her head in real confusion.

“People who say hurtful things don’t usually know they’re doing it, you know,” objected Erika, her voice cynical.

Tatsuya stopped her, though. “Erika, be quiet for a moment.”

“What? You’re gonna take her side, is that it?”

“I said just be quiet for a moment. We can listen to comments and criticisms after her story is over.”

Erika made a glum face at having had the door slammed in her face, but quieted down nonetheless.

After a brief silence, Sayaka, who seemed like she was struggling, argued, “You said I wouldn’t even be a match for you, and that I should find someone who would be better for me… And to be told that by an upperclassman I looked up to right after entering high school, it was just…”

“Wait… No, wait. You misunderstood, Mibu.”

“Huh?”

“If I recall correctly, this is what I said: ‘I’m sorry, but with my skills, I can’t possibly be a match for you. I would just be wasting your time. You should practice with someone who can match your skills.’ …Am I wrong?”

“Uh, well… Now…now that I think of it…”

“Besides, I would never tell you that you were no match for me. Your sword skills have always been better, ever since then.”

Sayaka just stared at her with a vacant expression. Meanwhile, Mayumi asked Mari a question. “Wait a second, Mari. Then you declined to be Mibu’s partner because she was stronger?”

“That’s right. I might be better if we let magic into the argument, but…my sword skills are built around the principle of using them together with magic. They deal with how to move your body and use your weapon in a way that maximizes how effective your magic is. There’s no reason I could match Mibu, trained purely in the way of the sword.”

“Then…that was all…a misunderstanding on my part…?”

An uncomfortable silence crept into the nurse’s office and slowly expanded.

“I must…I must seem like an idiot… I misunderstood you…and looked down on myself…and hated you for it… I let a whole year go to waste…”

Only Sayaka’s sobbing could be heard.

Tatsuya was the one to break the silence. “I don’t believe that it was a waste.”

“…Shiba?”

He peered straight into her eyes as she brought her face up, then continued, his voice polite and understanding. “When Erika saw your skills, she said this: that the kendo belle she knew, who won second place in the middle school nationals, was so much stronger she was like a different person. Strength gained from hatred and bitterness may be a sad form of power, but they’re your own skills that you acquired yourself, and no one else. You weren’t obsessed with your bitterness, and you didn’t lose yourself to lamentation. This year, you’ve greatly polished your skills of your own accord, so I believe it this year wasn’t a waste at all.”

“……”

“There are many different opportunities for people to become strong. You can’t count the reasons for hard work in the hundreds or thousands. I think you only let the days of effort go to waste when you reject the effort, the time, and the results.”

“Shiba…” Sayaka’s eyes, looking up at Tatsuya, were flooded with tears. But behind them, she smiled. “Shiba, I have a request.”

“What is it?”

“Could you come a little closer?”

“…Like this?”

“One more step.”

“All right…”

The mood changed to one of relief.

But that…

“Okay, now please…”

…soon changed…

“…don’t move from there.”

…to one of surprise when Sayaka grasped Tatsuya’s clothes tightly and buried her face in his chest and began to sob. Her sobbing quickly transformed as, clinging to his chest, she began to cry loudly.

As everyone present exchanged shaken glances, Tatsuya silently put her hands on her slender shoulders. Miyuki saw this and lowered her eyes.

After finally regaining her calm, Sayaka was able to speak regarding Blanche, the organization backing the coalition.

“It’s just as you thought, Tatsuya,” noted Miyuki.

“It was such a likely option that it’s not interesting at all…”

“That’s how reality is, Chairwoman. The problem now is…” The conversation was about to be derailed, but Tatsuya got it back on track with an especially uninteresting precept. “Where are they right now?” he said, as though their future course of action had already been decided.

“…Tatsuya, do you actually plan on having a battle with them?” asked Mayumi hesitantly.

“I don’t believe that would be the right way to put it. I’m not going to have a battle with them—I’m going to crush them,” said Tatsuya simply, nodding and adding to how extreme he was being.

Mari was the one to immediately protest. “It’s too dangerous! This is way out of the league of a student!” She was always on the front lines when it came to dealing with problems, albeit school-related ones, but it was essentially a matter of course that she’d be sensitive to the danger.

“I’m against it as well. We should leave incidents not related to school to the police,” said Mayumi, shaking her head, also with a strict expression. However…

“Then do you plan on sending Mibu to family court for attempted robbery?”

Their faces stiffened up at his words—they were at a loss.

“I see. Police intervention wouldn’t be the best thing,” said Katsuto. But we can’t just leave them be. They might cause a similar incident in the future. But know this, Shiba.” His glaring eyes pierced Tatsuya’s own. “These are terrorists. Your life could be at risk should you be careless. Neither Saegusa, nor Watanabe, nor I can order a student of this school to put their life on the line.”

“No, of course you can’t,” answered Tatsuya fluidly in the face of his stare. “I never planned on asking the disciplinary or club committees to help me in the first place.”

“…You want to go alone?”

“I would, if at all possible.”

“I will come,” came the voice of his little sister without a moment’s delay, causing a dry grin to come over his face.

“I’m coming, too!”

“And me.”

Erika and Leo both expressed their own wishes to participate.

“Shiba, if you’re doing this for me, then please, can’t you stop this?” said Sayaka hastily, trying to stop them. “Why don’t we leave it to the police like the president said? I’ll be fine. I did something wrong, and I should be punished. If anything were to happen to any of you, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”

Tatsuya turned back with an expression unsuitable for answering the girl’s sincerity. “I’m not doing this for you, Mibu,” he said coldly and pointedly. Sayaka quieted, her face betraying her shock. “My living space has become a target for terrorism. I’m already a related party. I will eliminate everything that tries to harm Miyuki’s and my daily lives. This is, for me, of the utmost importance.”

He wasn’t pretending to be the evil one so that Sayaka wouldn’t have to feel any burden, either. Even those who didn’t know him as well as Miyuki—Leo, Erika, Mayumi, and Mari—all grasped what he was really saying.

His gaze, like a glistening sword, made them understand.

It wasn’t anger or a desire for battle—it was Tatsuya’s confidence, or perhaps his determination, to speak of a future in which the terrorist threat had already been eliminated. Even Katsuto found himself unable to speak.

“But Tatsuya, how will we pinpoint Blanche’s location?” asked Miyuki amid the silence. “I am sure they have vacated the temporary position Mibu knows of, and it doesn’t seem that they have left any substantial clues.” Only she spoke to her brother like she normally would.

“You’re right. That goes for Tsukasa, too. Though it’s not necessarily that they didn’t leave clues—more like they never placed any to begin with.”

“Then…?” prompted Miyuki, interested in why her brother didn’t seem perplexed at all, despite saying they had nothing to go on.

“If we don’t know something, we just need to ask someone who does.”

“…Someone knows?”

“Anyone in mind, Tatsuya?”

Tatsuya shrugged off Erika’s and Leo’s questions and remained silent as the door to the room opened.

“Miss Ono?” said Mayumi.

In through the door came Haruka, giving a vaguely worried smile and wearing a pantsuit. “…I suppose I was naive to think I could completely conceal myself from Yakumo’s treasured student…” she remarked openly, referring to Tatsuya, grinning drily.

He kept his face expressionless, but his voice in reply was subtly amazed. “You weren’t trying to hide yourself at all. If you keep lying like that, ma’am, soon we won’t even know how you really feel.”

“I’ll be more careful.” Tatsuya invited her over and Haruka approached the bedside. She crouched down and locked eyes with Sayaka, who was sitting in bed. “It looks like you’ll be all right.”

“Miss Ono…”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t help you.” Sayaka shook her head at that. Haruka placed a hand on her shoulder, then stared intently into her eyes for a few moments before retreating from the bed.

“Wait. You know where these Blanche guys are, Haru?”

One might have expected the person who spoke to have said, “Who are you?” That didn’t happen. Instead there came an unusual nickname Tatsuya had never heard that didn’t fit the speaker at all.

“‘Haru’?”

“Huh? Tatsuya, you didn’t know?”

He probably thought it was a natural question, but upon being asked about it, Tatsuya faltered for a moment, unsure of how to reply.

“Everyone in class calls her that, ya know. Haru says she doesn’t mind, either!”

“Not everyone! Only some of the boys in class call her that. Don’t let him fool you, Tatsuya!”

“R-right…” The tension in the air lessened completely at this unexpected skit. But then he thought this might be better than people getting too tense for no good reason—of course, that was probably just so he could convince himself. “—Anyway, Miss Ono—”

“You can call me Haru, too.”

“—Miss Ono, ma’am. Now that we’re out of options, you can’t feign ignorance anymore, can you?”

“You’re no fun.”

“……”

“…Ahem.” Perhaps thinking her blank stare at Tatsuya unskillful now matter how one looked at it, she cleared her throat—this, too, was acted more than done seriously—and she adjusted her position. “Could you take out a map? That would be faster.”

Tatsuya silently brought out his information terminal. He unfolded the screen and called up his map application. Haruka took her terminal out as well, one quite a bit more dainty and stylish than his own, and turned on its light communication function.

His map booted up and displayed a marker at the position it had been sent from hers.

“…That’s basically right across town!”

“…Are they making fun of us?”

As implied from Leo’s and Erika’s indignant responses, it wouldn’t even take an hour to walk there.

Tatsuya magnified the map and changed the information display. The marker indicated an abandoned bio-fuel factory built in a hilly area on the outskirts of town.

“…The factory was abandoned after it was discovered to be a front for environmental terrorists and they ran away overnight,” he read aloud from the attached data.

“So they came crawling back while the authorities wouldn’t realize it?”

“Meaning the groups are related?” Mari had phrased it as a question, but he could tell from her expression that she felt the same as Mayumi.

“If they left it as it was, then I suppose they didn’t bring any deadly poisons with them,” noted Katsuto.

“Yes. Our own investigations have not turned up any biochemical weapons,” nodded Haruka.

“A car would be faster.”

“Will we be detected with magic?”

“We’d be detected anyway. They’re waiting for us to come to them, after all.”

Tatsuya hadn’t said he was a related party just because he was enrolled at the attacked First High. The terrorists had attempted to steal private magic technology. That meant they must have been after his own techniques, too. Kinoe Tsukasa attacking him was probably a test to gauge how effective they were. That was Tatsuya’s reasoning.

“Straight in through the front door?”

“That would be the best way to catch them off-guard.”

Tatsuya was one thing, but even Miyuki spoke belligerently, as though it came naturally to her, as they decided on their plan of attack.

Katsuto indicated his agreement with them. “Yes, that’s an appropriate plan. I’ll provide the car.”

“Huh? Juumonji, are you going, too?” asked Mayumi—Tatsuya had been thinking the same thing.

Katsuto didn’t look like the sort to stand on the front lines alone and not let subordinates participate. “As a member of the Juumonji, one of the Ten Master Clans, it is my natural duty. But above that, I cannot close my eyes to this situation as a student of First High. I can’t leave everything to the underclassmen.”

“…Then—”

“Saegusa, you’re not going.”

“Mayumi, the student council president needs to be here right now.”

“…All right, fine,” she said, nodding grudgingly to the two-pronged persuasion. “But you can’t leave either, Mari. There might still be remnants in the school. What will we do if the disciplinary chairwoman isn’t here?”

This time it was Mari’s turn to nod grudgingly.

After watching the two female students’ staring contest (?) Katsuto looked at Tatsuya. “Shiba, are you going now? It may turn into a night battle at this rate.”

“It won’t take that much time. I’ll wrap things up before the sun sets.”

“I see.” Perhaps he felt something from Tatsuya’s attitude then, because Katsuto didn’t ask any more than that. He simply said, “I’ll get the car,” and left the nurse’s office.

“I know the chairman and president are from the Ten Master Clans…but who is Haru, anyway?” asked Leo, though everyone else had intentionally avoided asking it.

Tatsuya shelved the question. “We’ll talk about that later. Let’s go!” Then he left the nurse’s office behind, with Miyuki, then Leo and Erika in his wake.

The car was a large off-roader, and in its passenger seat was an additional member of their team.

“Yo, my man, Shiba!”

“Kirihara…”

“Man, you never get surprised.”

“…No, I’m actually quite surprised.” At how you referred to me, he thought, thinking better than saying it.

“Anyway, my man, I’m gettin’ in on this, too.”

“Go right ahead.”

Tatsuya had no idea what was going through Kirihara’s mind to make him suggest any of this, but there was no time to press him with questions. He just got into the off-roader, followed by his little sister and friends.