Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 10 - Visitor Chapter (II) Page 13

  Honoka wiped the tears out of her eyes in confusion as she steadily opened her eyes and clumsily smiled.

  "Uh, um, I never thought… Uh, Tatsuya-san, is it alright if I opened it?"

  "Of course."

  Honoka stared at the present she took out of the bag as if afraid that it would cease to exist.

  "…Honoka, don't you have to get to class soon?"

  Until Tatsuya spoke to her, Honoka had kept standing stock still.

  Tatsuya had paid attention to make certain no one eavesdropped or spied upon them. That being said, he had not gone as far as using Elemental Sight. He did not risk the damage of the discovery of a highly confidential skill for Valentine's Day.

  However — Tatsuya should have used Elemental Sight.

  Certainly, there were no signs of an eavesdropper. Since until just before now, that thing had not possessed consciousness.

  Within a nook in the garage built on the grounds of First High, that thing that was slumbering within the doll without a heart was stirred awake by a wave that resembled the one that had drawn that thing into this world.

  The word awake might invite slight misconceptions.

  Bathed in a strong pure thought that resembled a prayer, a new self sprouted in that thing.

  Reconstructed the self is probably a more accurate way of saying it.

  Within that thing residing inside the doll with no will of its own, a consciousness was born.

  A consciousness resided in the doll.

  When Honoka arrived at the class room, as soon as she put her things down she rushed into the restroom.

  Dragging along Miyuki who had arrived slightly before her.

  Her goal was not the private stall but the mirror in front of it.

  She impatiently took off the bands that tied up her hair, then in a complete change, she carefully collected her hair.

  And used the pair of bands she had just received from Tatsuya as a finishing touch. The bands were of a simple design with two small balls hanging down from the closure. However, even though the design was uncomplicated, it didn't mean that it was made from cheap materials. Not only was the loop for tying the hair rubber, a covering had been molded on to the loop, and the form of the silver colored closure had thin claws grasping balls that were spheres of highly pure crystal.

  Rather than being a decoration, crystal was recognized in modern times as a valuable medium that assisted magic (as it was said to effectively enhance the directionality of thought waves). As Magic High School students, the girls naturally had a deep interest in such minerals, and Honoka understood its value. She would have been very happy with a present from Tatsuya even if the balls had been cheap glass, make no mistake, so she was deeply moved.

  "Hey, Miyuki, how do they look? Is it strange? Do they suit me?"

  Honoka questioned, with slight unease, the hair ornaments held in both hands.

  Miyuki answered seriously with no trace of amusement or disgust.

  "Be at ease Honoka, they suit you quite well."

  "…Really?"

  "It's the truth. There's no way Onii-sama could possibly choose an unsuitable gift."

  Honoka nodded, blushing in response to Miyuki's words.

  With her head in the clouds, Honoka did not notice that Miyuki's voice had an aura of someone reading a script.

  After parting from Honoka during the short distance to his own classroom, Tatsuya battled the feelings of self-hatred that welled up in him. The feelings of guilt caused by the actions that seemed to deceive the girl and the regret for making his sister an accomplice to that caused pain in his heart like that of a gradually widening cavity in a tooth.

  To tell the truth, the hair ornament he'd given Honoka had been chosen by Miyuki.

  If that was all it was, he would let it go as "the end justifies the means." It wouldn't change the fact that it was a 'present from Tatsuya', and it was definitely not necessary to disappoint Honoka.

  However, the reason for preparing the present was not such an innocent one as that.

  Tatsuya could comprehend just how thoroughly the gift he gave in thanks for the chocolate she gave him had unfortunately inundated her consciousness. The matter of giving and receiving Valentine's chocolate naturally invokes the images of 'feelings' being exchanged, of the relationship of two people being bound by a 'promise'; it is truly completely to be expected that such things would float to the surface of her mind.

  That was the reason he prepared a return gift on this day; Honoka's reactions completely met Tatsuya's calculations.

  Tatsuya had trifled with Honoka's affections.

  He had resigned himself to accept the guilt a long time ago.

  He couldn't do anything about the fact that he was a brute who couldn't comprehend human emotions, and even if he used social graces to deal with that or possibly even to receive retribution, he thought of it as reaping what he'd sown (if you didn't call it resignation but noncompliance, it would be completely correct).

  However, even knowing his sister would never contradict something he had decided on, in order to postpone the inevitable, he made use of his sister in a makeshift ploy and he could not help but feel regret.

  —The fact that he could think this way was proof that he was not as wicked as he thought himself to be; however, unfortunately, there was no adult around Tatsuya to tell him that.

  "Hey, did something happen this morning — you look worn out."

  He had probably not gained control of his emotions soon enough. Those words came at him the moment he entered the classroom.

  Tatsuya raised his hand to also greet Leo, who had raised one of his hands while straddling his chair.

  "You, on the other hand, look pretty healthy for someone who just got out of the hospital yesterday."

  "Hey, you two, the a.m. greeting is 'Good Morning'."

  With a laugh that said "there's no help for you two," Mikihiko came over to take part in the conversation.

  "Ah, good morning Mikihiko."

  "Yo."

  Tatsuya obediently returned the morning greeting. Leo persevered in keeping to his own personal style — there was probably no deep meaning to this.

  "Good morning. Leo, you look very much as you were."

  When he said "as you were," Mikihiko meant "as usual," but,

  "Right, the doctor really didn't want me to leave the hospital, but since I was too healthy, he couldn't do anything about it."

  Maybe Leo understood and maybe he didn't, but he responded with an exact explanation as a reply.

  According to that first medical examination, he should have stayed in the hospital for at least a month; that the doctor was quite skeptical about a rejuvenation power defying common sense was unavoidable, he thought.

  However, since the doctor couldn't see anything wrong and the patient wanted to leave the hospital, the doctor could not detain him in the hospital room. For that reason, Leo came back to school today.

  "Um, Tatsuya, did you have a fight with your sister this morning?"

  "Impossible."

  The statement was not Tatsuya's, but Mikihiko's.

  He wasn't fully satisfied with the snap judgment, but he couldn't decide on an excuse that wouldn't lead to misunderstandings.

  "Isn't it more likely that he's tired of the spectacle? Today's Valentine's Day."

  Leo gave a big nod of agreement. That also grated on Tatsuya's nerves, but getting angry over it here would, unfortunately, get him bogged down in the subject.

  "Those who have not decided on someone do not get caught up in the spectacle. Mizuki. You're late."

  Tatsuya forcibly and very stupidly tried to use Mizuki, who had just entered the classroom, to blatantly change the subject.

  "No, I just stopped by the clubroom for a bit. Good morning, Yoshida-kun, Leo-kun."

  To be frank, Mikihiko looked regretful at the change of topic, but being completely unaware of that was one of Mizuki's idiosyncrasies.

  "Leo-kun, you're resuming sch
ool today. You've gotten well quicker then I thought you would, great."

  The truth was that Leo left the hospital yesterday and came to school today; last week, when they visited him in the hospital, they had heard the details of his condition, so naturally Mizuki was also aware of it.

  Therefore, if it was true, the statements just now were bizarre, but Tatsuya, Mikihiko,

  "Oh, thank you, for visiting me so often,"

  and Leo himself, continued smiling.

  As soon as Mizuki arrived at her seat, she passed a small, palm-sized box to each of the three of boys. Her attitude was truly light; she did not put on airs, she did not appear nervous, and she did not appear embarrassed in the least.

  It was the face of someone taking part in an annual tradition.

  One of the boys looked a little miffed about that, but since the other two received the impression that the person in question intended to endure it with a poker face, they said nothing.

  The sympathy of warriors.

  Incidentally, that person was not Leo.

  However, he was gazing at the small box he received as if it was something amazing.

  Apparently, this was the first time he had received chocolate on Valentine's Day from someone other than a relative.

  That was fairly unusual, but they had no way of knowing what kind of student he'd been in his middle school years, so neither Tatsuya nor Mikihiko voiced their amazement.

  Erika, who had just entered the classroom, interjected herself into the conversation.

  "I thought you got out of the hospital real fast; so you were after the chocolate."

  "There's no way that could possibly be true! Stop screwing around, you simpleton!"

  Not simply retorting, Leo kicked his chair as he stood up.

  "Ooh, could I have hit a bulls-eye?"

  It was an absolutely adequate explanation for the extreme reaction, if it were looked at with those suspicions in mind. —If forced to come up with an explanation, however. If viewed literally, the sound Leo was unleashing, "Gununununu," was a composite made from grinding his back teeth and growling. However, Tatsuya had been thinking it was the forerunner of retribution and was unable to leave things alone, so he threw his friend a lifeline and spoke to Erika.

  "Good morning, Erika. You're late today."

  Erika turned her entire body to respond to Tatsuya.

  "Good morning, Tatsuya-kun."

  Naturally, dropping the matter left Leo at a loose end.

  "February the fourteenth, it's awful every year. Because we have a large number of guys."

  Obviously, Erika preferred honestly grumbling over toying with Leo, and it appeared that her mind had shifted in that direction.

  "If I don't give them any, it won't be just one or two who sulk like spoiled children, and that's not limited to the very skilled ones, so I can't ignore any of them; it's just awful."

  She repeated awful twice, probably because her true feelings were that strong on the subject.

  "Wouldn't it be better if you only gave to the ones who wanted it?"

  "If I did that, there would be guys who would make a fuss over my playing favorites. And this is the only thing they're united on. Usually, the guys don't know the meaning of the word 'harmony'."

  Erika was fed up to the bottom of her soul.

  "Under the pretext of amity between the trainees, my old man puts up money for it; I really wish he would use it to buy us some female students instead."

  The look on her face made Tatsuya feel like he should pretend to feel sympathetic.

  "That really sounds like hard work."

  "That's sure true! I'm so tired of it… It would be so much better if Valentine's Day and the like ceased to exist."

  It seemed like stress was bursting out of her as she talked. Erika's indignation was real and extreme.

  "It must be great at Miki's place."

  At times like this, some people ran amok, striking at people near them to release their stress.

  "Aren't most of your disciples female?"

  The target she chose this time was Mikihiko.

  "Every year, don't you take your pick?"

  "Yoshida-kun… is that true?"

  Mizuki did not really understand why she had said that herself.

  Or rather, she was not conscious of that reason.

  And on Mikihiko's side also, for some reason he did not consider probing why; he received more damage from that one line from Mizuki than Erika's needling.

  "That's not true!"

  Out of reflex, he responded with an answer.

  If you considered the background a little, then you could quickly make a reasoned response that would take care of the various aspects of the conversation; however, that might be a little difficult for a teenager to do.

  "In general, it would be ridiculous to undertake our discipline holding that frivolous attitude."

  Even so, this outburst was quite foolish.

  "Backtalk, huh. So why do you want to call my dojo frivolous?"

  "Uh, no, I didn't mean to say that…"

  "Then what did you mean?"

  As Mikihiko began to burst out in cold sweat, Erika steadily glared in his direction and Mizuki looked at both of them with a similar stare for some reason, Tatsuya and Leo exchanged wry smiles.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  The curriculum of Magic High Schools was the same as a normal high school, with the addition of the study of magic. The modern education system supported a policy of advancing to specialized subjects in quick stages which was not limited to Magic High Schools. In practice, that meant there were 'Literary Arts High Schools', 'Science High Schools', 'Fine Arts High Schools', and 'Sports High Schools' to develop students with talents in specialized fields important to the education system. The curriculum of specialized high schools differed from normal high schools because part of the institutionalized integrated doctrine of education at a high school had been removed and the specialized educational subjects were jam packed. Nevertheless, it was said that even in comparison to other specialized high schools, there was even less give in the curriculum of Magic High Schools.

  Consequently, Magic High Schools' students were industrious. While they were in the middle of lessons, they hardly ever gossiped, daydreamed or wasted their time in other ways, like playing. It was unfortunate, but it should probably be said that this practice was followed more by second course students than first course students at First High School. This was probably more due to their fear of being left behind than their fighting spirit to conquer adversity.

  However, even here there were exceptions. Apart from the practical skills of magic, time had been set aside for normal physical education, wherein even the tense atmosphere loosened. Especially today, somehow no one could concentrate on their schoolwork from the morning onward on a day like February the fourteenth; the unpredictable ambience wafting throughout the day was that prominent.

  Changing out of the female school uniforms took more labor than changing out of the male school uniforms. This was not limited to First High School alone, and was probably the same for every school. In the first place, the issue was not limited to uniforms. A portion of the advocates to abolish sexism demanded that there should be a cultural change to unisex attire and the like, but the majority of males and females did not wish to do so.

  In the short break period before P.E. class, the atmosphere in the changing room was always saturated with busyness. Everyone was in a great hurry as they took off their clothes carefully, put them on a hanger in their lockers and then changed into their gym uniforms. More bio-keyed lockers had been prepared than there were people to use them, and they had to register the vein pattern of the user each and every time, so that also took up time.

  That being said, by February, even the first years were used to it, so while their hands moved briskly, they could chat with their classmates using the locker next to them and also feel less ill at ease(?) with the underwear clad bodies of their classmates. The
changing room was a degree noisier than usual today.

  By this time of year, the locker positions were generally decided. Miyuki, as usual, was changing in front of her locker in the middle of the right wall. The one to her left was Honoka's and the one on her right was the one used by Shizuku; however, Class A had less members taking instruction than usual lately. Nevertheless, today Lina had come to take the place on Miyuki's right.

  "Oh, Lina. Is your usual spot occupied?"

  Miyuki asked this question as she finished stowing away her CAD and information terminal in a locker cubby. The locker Lina usually used was near the door. At first, all the Class A girls thought she would use Shizuku's locker, but Lina had chosen an open locker near the door where there weren't a lot of people. When Miyuki talked to Tatsuya about it, he had said "She probably chose a place she can make a quick escape from" and she had thought, "I see." There was no proof that Tatsuya's guess was correct. It could certainly be said that this was the first time Lina changed her clothes beside Miyuki.

  "That's not the reason."

  Miyuki did not ask what the reason was. She did not have any interest in the answer and had been busy taking off her jacket as Lina spoke.

  Nonetheless, perhaps because she thought her answer just now was too unfriendly, Lina, of her own free will, added to her answer while stripping off her jacket as well.

  "Everyone's asking who I am going to give chocolate to… I know no one's doing it out of meanness, but I've gotten a little sick of it."

  "Everyone is wondering about it. Since you are so pretty, Lina."

  Miyuki said that with a serious look while taking off her necktie; Lina puffed up her cheeks in frustration.

  "Then why do I have to suffer a barrage of questions from you Mi…yuki."

  The instant Miyuki extracted her bare right shoulder from the dress portion of her uniform, Lina had cut off her response mid-sentence. Lina's eyes were glued to this not very extraordinary deed and her tongue no longer functioned properly.

  "Huh? I wonder if it's because I lack sex appeal."

  Miyuki's remarks had made Lina irritable for some reason and she didn't know why. Lina was not aware that she was energetically stripping off her dress in a competitive fashion.