Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 12 - Double Seven Chapter Read online

  Completely the opposite of the utterly revolting voice, the phrases and tone emitted by the corpse were both modern and commonplace. This proved that the one speaking through the corpse’s mouth was no spirit but a living, breathing human being.

  “It is as the Great One has surmised.”

  Zhou respectfully bowed. Though the corpse doll had no gift of sight, it was still able to convey the atmosphere here. At the very least, Zhou’s attitude was not supplicating.

  “Their mission was merely complementary. The project with the media is proceeding smoothly.”

  “What is your progress?”

  “Approximately 40% with televised media and 30% with the press.”

  “Once you reach 50% with the televised media, begin operations at once. Continue until the politicians beholden to the voters are forced to act.”

  “As you command.”

  Zhou bowed deeply and the doll emitted a satisfied aura.

  The will-o-the-wisp in the empty eye sockets flickered out.

  By the time the young man raised his head, the doll had closed its eyes.

  Zhou rose to his feet and remained facing the doll as he backed out of the basement. After closing the door behind his back, the young man finally sighed in relief now that the doll was no longer in sight. Even Ancient Magic users from the mainland who specialized in Ghostwalker like Zhou had nothing to do with Zombification; speaking to a corpse was always a grotesque experience no matter how many times he did it.

  (Well…… I suppose that is a vessel that befits a malicious spirit who carries a grudge against the Great Han.)

  However insulting to his leader, Zhou’s private ruminations failed to detract from his devilish smile in the slightest.

  Chapter 5

  AD 2096, April 6, the first day of the new school year. Tatsuya and Miyuki went to school, Minami stayed home. The cliché phrase “it’s been a while”, didn’t fit, because they had occasionally gone to school for Student Council meetings during spring break.

  After today and tomorrow, the two siblings would no longer be alone on the path to and from school. Perhaps because she was conscious of that, Miyuki glued herself to Tatsuya during the short commute from the station even more than usual. From afar or even from close by, their point-blank nearness gave off the illusion that they were walking arm and arm.

  From the start, these siblings had become pretty well known among the magic high school students, whose numbers could not be called small. At this time, almost no student did not know of the relationship of the elder brother and his younger sister. The ‘conventional people’ who raised their eyebrows at the impropriety of relatives who acted more like lovers were not just one or two. It was not a surprise that there were no brave souls (or possibly boorish people) calling out to them to take them to task, but the number of people who directed shocked eyes at them was not small.

  Naturally, such a thing — being surrounded by those stares — did not make Miyuki anxious at all. For her, people who could not face her and speak up were only riffraff. Even under normal circumstances, it could be said that she accumulated a lot of looks, so the times she wasn’t being looked at were fewer. For Miyuki, other people’s stares were too numerous to be bothered about.

  On the other hand, there was no way Tatsuya could “not let the gazes of others bother him” like his sister.

  He served as his sister’s guard. He defended his sister from all malicious intent. This was his assigned duty and, simultaneously, a privilege he would not let others take from him. Tatsuya could not ignore any ill will directed against Miyuki.

  This was not particularly difficult. Because the trifling ill will was directed at Tatsuya himself, no one was able to direct it against Miyuki.

  It was hard to aim a negative eye at Miyuki. For example, even those who felt jealous of Miyuki had difficulty aiming their jealousy. Her looks and talent were too luminous; jealously sent against her became a sort of graciousness. Due to the difficulty of directing malicious intent against Miyuki, a strong will was needed to do it.

  Thus, if Tatsuya was aware of it, it was never a mere fluke.

  Paired with a strong will, the stare was neither distinctly hostile nor friendly. The look being aimed at Miyuki was of an unusual type. Especially, from the opposite sex, it was even less understandable.

  Tatsuya was familiar with the boy’s face. He had not met him face to face, but he had seen the 3D image that had come with the profile. The boy was one year younger than him, the freshman representative—

  (—That is certainly the eldest son of the Shippou Clan.)

  Unconsciously, his brow furrowed, but Tatsuya deliberately kept his expression from changing. Tatsuya vigilantly kept himself from displaying oversensitivity, but perhaps because he was aware of the intermittent glances Tatsuya sent his way, Takuma averted his face and disappeared into an alley entrance.

  “Onii-sama?”

  Immediately afterward, Miyuki spoke to him in a doubtful voice. She keenly perceived that a fraction of her brother’s mind had slipped away from her. Even though she could ignore the gazes of the riffraff, she couldn’t ignore Tatsuya’s gaze.

  Tatsuya shook his head to tell Miyuki “it’s nothing”, turned around in response to a greeting of “morning” and raised his hand.

  Erika, followed by Leo, Honoka, Shizuku, Mizuki, and Mikihiko were in a mass. It wasn’t unusual for all of them to be together after school, but it had been a while since they had all been together on the way to school. Especially Shizuku, who hadn’t come to school with them since before the end of last year, because she had been studying abroad.

  Seeing as at last their final member had returned, the faces were all the same, but some of them were wearing a design on their uniforms different than what they had until last month, when they were first years.

  On Tatsuya’s breast, there was now an emblem of an eight petal flower surrounded by a gear.

  The same embroidered design was on Mizuki’s blazer.

  And on the left side of Mikihiko’s chest, there was the eight petal icon of First High School.

  “Mikihiko, how does it feel to wear the uniform of the first course?”

  “Don’t mock me, Tatsuya.”

  Mikihiko answered Tatsuya’s broadly grinning teasing congratulations with a pained but smug smile. They had known that Mikihiko would be transferring to the first course since last month; however, this was the first time they each got to look at each other in their new uniforms.

  “How about you, Tatsuya, how does the new blazer feel?”

  “Even though you called it new, it only looks that way.”

  Mikihiko’s remark had also referred to the fact that the magic engineering course was a new course. Only the name denoted what it was and instruction for the brand new course hadn’t even started yet. Well, not just instruction but everything about the new course would start from today. At any rate, until the day it actually started not even the class lineup was clear; indeed, the feeling of not enough preparations having been made was incontrovertible. The remark about only the appearance being changed was also a joke but it was not without foundation.

  “Ooh, cynical.”

  However, Tatsuya had a serene, or rather a “it doesn’t really matter”, attitude about it, contrary to his friends' expectations it seemed. With Tatsuya's personality, they hadn’t expected him to show great joy about the class separation, but they had imagined he would be a little buoyant.

  “Re-al-ly, Mizuki was fairly slack-jawed.”

  After Leo, Erika rang out her discontent. She made a sidelong glare of disappointment, but as her opponent was Tatsuya, the dart of her glare passed on right through to the other side.

  “I… I was not slack-jawed!”

  Mizuki protested without thinking. She hadn’t intended to pay heed to her second course friends (in short, Erika and Leo). But she couldn’t conceal the embarrassed happiness on her face that Erika had pointed out.

  “It’s a
ll right not to over do it.”

  And as Erika’s mischievous smile showed there was undoubtedly no need for Mizuki to be worried about their feelings.

  The Magical Engineering Course classroom in the main school building was in the middle of the classrooms on the side on the third floor. Class E. In short, the room right above the one Tatsuya and Mizuki had been going to until last month.

  By the way, Erika and Leo were both in class F. When they found out their assigned homeroom from the school’s wireless, the pair had blatantly displayed their distaste. Perhaps their attitude was genuine, or maybe they were concealing their real feelings out of embarrassment… only the people themselves knew and, in any case, it didn’t really matter either way to Tatsuya. Though, Mizuki and Honoka were deeply interested.

  When Tatsuya entered the classroom, the seats were about half occupied. The five rows of five were the same as last year; the Japanese phonetic order of the seating was also the same as when they were first years. However, did the A I U E O lined up on the sides without regard to gender have a special meaning or was it merely a whim?

  After wasting less than a second on solving the meaningless puzzle, Tatsuya went to his own seat. The first row from the hallway, second seat from the front. Like the previous year, Mizuki was in the seat next to him. Well, this had no special meaning since in Japanese phonetics, they were Shi-ba and Shi-ba-ta.

  “Mizuki is next to Tatsuya this year too, huh. Maybe I should've attempted to change classes as well?”

  The one who grumbled the unnecessary joke without caring whether anyone heard it was Erika, who had both her arms on the rail of a wide open window.

  “Surely, that’s not needed. You’re in the class next door.”

  Leo, who was peering at the face of Erika, who was thrusting her body out the window, followed up with a remark that, contrary to its contents, was spoken in a regretful tone.

  “That’s right. Even though we're in different classes, it’s not particularly inconvenient.”

  One year before, this scene would have become an exchange of abusive language, but Erika didn’t follow up with an inflammatory remark or tit for tat. That change was a little amusing to Tatsuya, as that behavior (on the surface at least) indicated agreement with Leo’s words without looking at him even a little.

  “Since intruding on another class isn’t forbidden.”

  “Only taking instruction in another class is.”

  Mizuki promptly showed her agreement with Tatsuya’s statement; she probably thought she could divert Erika. Of course, although she looked wild, Erika had almost never escaped from instruction. Tatsuya was the clear winner in number of times leaving the classroom during instruction.

  “That’s also true.”

  Perhaps, Erika no longer remembered placing any objections. She readily nodded her assent to Mizuki’s words.

  “Nevertheless… there are a lot of unfamiliar faces.”

  Erika murmured that as she looked around the room, changing her train of thought. The ostensibly sociable Erika remembered the faces and names of almost all one hundred of the second course students in their year. In short, ‘the unfamiliar faces’ were former first course students.

  “Ah, now that you’ve mentioned it… it does seem a little unexpected.”

  The number of students inside the classroom had considerably increased as it got closer to the start of instruction, and two thirds of the seats were now filled. That was confirmed by examining the group, and the genuinely sociable Leo, in a voice soaked in surprise as his words suggested, exhibited his agreement.

  The pair — no, although she hadn’t piped up to agree with Erika’s statement, Mizuki should be included — the trio had believed that most of the people who would want to transfer into the new Magic Engineering course would probably be second course students. They hadn’t thought that the extremely proud first course students would choose to share a classroom with second course students.

  For Tatsuya, although the first course transfers were surprising, it was a trifling matter, so even though he could certainly understand why Erika and the rest had thought that way, he hadn’t broken in with any special comment.

  “By the way.”

  Erika wasn’t fixated on this topic either. Besides, there was something she was more interested in.

  “Tatsuya, you’re being glared at a lot.”

  Erika’s remark was affirmed by Tatsuya displaying a slight shrug of his shoulders. Even before she pointed it out, he had been aware that he was on the receiving end of a fixed glare of hatred. And he had already grasped whose glare it was. As for why he was being glared at, since he couldn’t really understand, it might weigh on his mind. Nevertheless, he confirmed that he had more reasons to hate her than she had to hate him. Since merely being looked at didn’t cause actual harm, Tatsuya planned to leave it alone, but it seemed like for Erika, it wasn’t something she could ignore. Her disagreeable voice showed what was going on in the back of her mind.

  “She caused all that trouble in so many ways; I wonder if she still hasn’t acknowledged that it was all her own temper tantrum.”

  “Even if she knows it was a temper tantrum, she probably can’t just replace all those emotions quickly.”

  “Quickly… it’s already been half a year.”

  “Only half a year.”

  As Erika answered him thus, Tatsuya directed his eyes fleetingly to the origin of the stare, which was off to the side behind him. Flustered, Hirakawa Chiaki, who had been glowering at him in hatred, averted her eyes. Immediately afterward — perhaps she was mad at herself for showing cowardice — she scowled at him with a grim look in her eye.

  That attitude of Chiaki’s grated against Erika’s nerves even more. Naturally Erika, who had seen the brave display of introspection by Sayaka, who had been deceived into becoming part of a terrorist group after the incident, had trouble making up her mind about Chiaki’s behavior, since with the excuse of avenging a misplaced grudge, Chiaki had knowingly become a cat’s paw of foreign spies and even now hadn’t apologized to Tatsuya once. On the other hand, Erika, who didn’t have any problem picking fights, did want to go after Chiaki herself, but there was a chance that doing so would cause Tatsuya trouble instead. Besides, Erika felt that Chiaki’s impudent actions just now meant she was ‘trying to pick a fight.‘

  A sharp light resided in both of Erika’s eyes. Her eyes did not narrow; to the contrary, both of her eyes were open with the corners of her eyes raised. Although Erika’s beautiful face had a catlike air about it, it was tinged with a ferocity that brought a tiger or leopard to mind. Her appearance even aroused some slight desire to appreciate her aesthetically in Tatsuya; however, if he let this situation go on, he was guaranteed to be embroiled in a whirlpool of trouble. Tatsuya considered the cost of being an onlooker a little too expensive.

  “Erika, it’s useless to speak to her.”

  Erika turned her sullen face to Tatsuya. A weak willed man would’ve immediately prostrated himself and apologized energetically, but unfortunately Tatsuya didn’t have any such laudableness (?).

  “I’ll put out the sparks I let fall myself. That is, if the other side has the nerve to fan the spark into a flame.”

  Tatsuya smiled cruelly. Seeing nothing friendly in that look, Erika calmed down. Perhaps it was an indication that she was showing her regret by trying to conceal her embarrassed smile.

  At that point, a voice intervened with good timing and changed the mood.

  “Can I bother you for a bit?”

  Tatsuya turned around to the voice that called out to him from right behind him. A male student, who had just entered the classroom with an amiable smile, was standing there.

  “Is this the first time we’ve properly greeted each other? I am Tomitsuka Hagane. Nice to meet you, Shiba-kun.”

  “That’s right, I know your name, but essentially this might be ‘the first meeting’. Shiba Tatsuya. Nice to meet you, Tomitsuka.”

  While gr
asping the offered hand in return, Tatsuya answered in his usual tone. To be truthful, wasn’t shaking hands a little over the top for a self-introduction between fellow classmates, Tatsuya thought, but he didn’t reveal his feelings. Tatsuya’s surprise over Tomitsuka being here also didn’t show on his face.

  Nonetheless, Tatsuya’s friends didn’t have a poker face like Tatsuya’s. For example, Mizuki fixedly stared at Tomitsuka, who had sat down right behind Tatsuya, and when she came back to herself, her face turned red. She was probably embarrassed over her own bad manners. Mizuki spoke to Tomitsuka with an embarrassed grin.

  “Tomitsuka-kun, nice to meet you. I am Shibata Mizuki. Pleased to meet you.”

  “I am pleased to meet you too.”

  Tomitsuka’s friendly smile rid Mizuki of her embarrassed grin. Watching what was somewhat a normal high school exchange at last released the other two from their petrified state.

  “How unexpected… for the fifth-ranked Tomitsuka to join the Magic Engineering course.”

  As her words implied, the awkward words Erika directed to someone were full of surprise.

  That was understandable. As Erika said, Tomitsuka was a top class honor student who was ranked fifth in the combined scores of the final exams at the end of their last school year (the top of the overall scores were 1st place Miyuki, 2nd place Honoka, 3rd place a male student by the name of Igara Sousuke, 4th place Akechi Eimi; Shizuku didn’t make the list because she was studying abroad). With such a satisfactory record as a first course student, there didn’t seem to be any need to switch to the magic engineering course. —As far as those with objective eyes could see.

  “Are you Chiba-san? As someone who is also from the Hundred Families, I think you might be aware Chiba-san, but my family specializes more in combat than in emergency aid, and I… have a problem with my practical skills.”

  A question hadn’t been exactly addressed to him, but Tomitsuka answered Erika while directing a slightly pained face at her. Thus, Erika (and Leo as well) recalled the gossip about the other name associated with Tomitsuka.