Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 01 - Enrollment Chapter (I) Read online

  "Hasn't Miyuki treated you guys well enough already? If she wanted to go with you, she would have said so. What right do you have to try and tear those two apart?"

  The one who had lashed out first at the unreasonable behavior of the first course students was, surprisingly, Mizuki.

  While maintaining her polite demeanor, she slammed into them mercilessly.

  Even now as Mizuki argued against the first course student, her eloquence didn't give an inch.

  Yes, everything had started out perfectly logically, but...

  "I have to admit though, to say that they're trying to tear us apart..."

  Tatsuya muttered under his breath. He distinctly felt that something was shifting rather decisively.

  "Mi-Mizuki, aren't you misunderstanding something?"

  Hearing her brother's murmurs, Miyuki for some reason asked in a hurry.

  "Miyuki... you seem kinda rushed?"

  "Eh? No, I'm no such thing?"

  "And also kinda forceful?"

  Initially glancing at the siblings with the too good relationship in confusion, their friends full of compassion, began to heat up more and more.

  "We've asked her!"

  That was one of Miyuki's male classmates.

  "That's right! We're sorry for Shiba-san, but we just want a little more time!"

  That was one of Miyuki's female classmates.

  At their selfishness, Leo gave a hearty laugh.

  "Ha! That's just being self supporting (self-justifying). Find a better time for it."

  Erika also retorted with a smile and edged sarcasm.

  "If you really had asked, maybe you would've had her consent from the start?

  You've ignored Miyuki's intentions and didn't consult her or anything. There're rules for that. You're high school students already, don't you know anything?"

  Erika's words and attitude, designed to purposely offend the other party, as expected, affected one male student in particular.

  "Shut up! Another class, much less Weeds, has no right to interfere in matters concerning us Blooms!"

  Due to it's discriminatory nature, use of the word 'Weed' is prohibited by school regulations. It is a rule still gradually being learned, but even so it's not exactly a word to be used in this context with so many people listening.

  The one who reacted to this rant head-on was, whether to say unexpected or to be expected (probably 'to be expected' really), was again Mizuki.

  "We are all the same freshmen. You guys are Blooms, but right now just how are you any better than us?"

  It wasn't particularly loud, but Mizuki's voice rang out through the schoolyard.

  "...Well."

  Thing's are going to get pretty bad, Tatsuya thought, while sighing under his breath.

  His murmur was drowned out by the angry howls of the first course students, and only Miyuki who was beside him heard.

  "...If you want to know just how much better, I can show you."

  Although Mizuki's claim was legitimate according to school regulations, at the same time, it was refuted by the school system.

  "Hah, interesting! By all means, show us!"

  At the first course student's threat, Leo responded aggressively. Having come to this, no outcome other than 'tit for tat' could be expected.

  The right lay with Mizuki.

  Because they understood that full well, those complacent with the current system, both staff and students alike, stood aside.

  Though there had been a clear violation of the rules here, the vast majority would ignore their situation and pretend to have seen nothing.

  Even if the violation was not only of the school rules, but the law itself.

  "Then I will!"

  The only ones allowed to carry CAD in the school are senior members of the student council and certain committee members.

  The use of magic off campus is tightly regulated by law.

  However, the mere possession of CAD off campus is not restricted.

  There would be no point.

  CAD are currently indispensable tools for magicians, but they are not essential for the use of magic. Magic can be used even without CAD. Therefore, the law does not restrict the mere possession of CAD.

  The procedure for students who possess CAD is to leave them at the office before classes start, and to pick them up upon returning home.

  So it's not surprising for students to have CAD on the way back from school.

  "A specialized CAD?"

  However, if they're directed at fellow students, then it becomes a situation, no, an emergency.

  Especially if the aimed CAD is an attack power emphasizing specialized type.

  The two types of CAD are general and specialized. The general type placing a larger burden on the user but capable of a wide range of up to 99 activation sequences, while the specialized type is only able to contain up to nine activation sequences but possesses subsystems able to reduce the load on the user, making it possible to invoke magic faster.

  By it's nature, aggressive combat type magic sequences are generally stored in specialized CAD.

  To the BGM of screaming onlookers, the 'muzzle' of that specialized CAD, shaped like a small handgun, was thrust at Leo.

  That student wasn't just spouting lip service.

  The finesse with which he drew his CAD, along with the speed with which he took aim, were the movements of someone accustomed to fights between magicians.

  A large portion of magic is dependent on talent.

  At the same time, that means lineage plays a vital role.

  There are many first course students who enter school with excellent results not as a result of studying magic at school but because of parents, family business, possibly even gaining combat experience from there.

  "Onii-sama!"

  Even before Miyuki had finished her cry, Tatsuya's right hand stretched out.

  There was no way he could reach, but he reached anyway. Was it meaningful, or was it just a meaningless reflexive action.

  Whatever it was, in this case, nothing came of it.

  That was because—

  "Eek!"

  That scream came from the first course student aiming his CAD.

  The handgun CAD had been knocked from his hand.

  Before their eyes, casually swinging a baton that had suddenly appeared from somewhere, in a relaxed manner, Erika was smiling. There was no trembling or hastiness in that smile. Just by looking at that confident alertness, you could tell there was no such thing from the beginning. If the same situation had occurred 100 times, the first course student's CAD would have gone flying 100 times. That was a certainty.

  "At this distance, the body moves faster."

  "I agree, but you were planning on whacking my hand as well, weren't you?"

  The one replying as Erika relaxed her guard and triumphantly explained was Leo, whose hands were frozen in the midst of a grab for the other's CAD.

  "A~ra, I wouldn't do something like that."

  "Don't laugh it off so unnaturally like that!"

  As Erika put the back of the hand holding the baton to her mouth and gave off an 'ohohohoho', her deceptive laughter hiding her real intentions, Leo was nearing the end of his patience.

  "I'm serious. Whether you were going to engage or not, I can tell from your stance.

  You seem like an idiot, but your arm speaks otherwise,"

  "...Are you making fun of me? You're making fun of me right to my face?"

  "That's why I said you look like an idiot right?"

  Forgetting the 'enemy' before them, as the two engaged in another comical confrontation, not only Miyuki and Tatsuya were taken aback but everyone else as well, but the one who recovered fastest was Miyuki's classmate who was facing them.

  It wasn't the male student whose specialized CAD had been knocked away, it was the female student behind who was running her fingers across her bracelet shaped general CAD.

  The inbuilt system started up, and began an activation
sequence.

  The activation sequence is a blueprint of magic, a program that directs the construction of a magic ritual.

  After expansion, the expanded activation sequence is read by the magic processing area of the subconscious and variables such as coordinates, output, and duration are inputted, the result is inserted alongside the activation sequence and gives rise to the completed magic ritual.

  This complete magic ritual is taken from the operations area of the subconscious and transferred to the lowest level of the conscious, the 'root', from the area between the conscious and the subconscious, the 'gate', whereupon it can be projected upon the outside world, as the magic ritual projects and targets 'information events' — in the study of modern magic, these are named 'Eidos' from Greek philosophy, and refers to the event where the information of the target is temporarily overwritten.

  Information is associated with events.

  If the information is rewritten, the event will be rewritten.

  As the nature of phenomena is written in Psions, modifications to these will result in real world events being temporarily modified as well.

  This is the magic system under the use of CAD.

  The speed with which Psions are written is the processing power of magic, the scale to which they can be built is the capacity of magic, and the strength with which magic rituals can rewrite the Eidos is interference strength. Currently, these three comprehensively are called magic power.

  Even the blueprint for the magic ritual, the activation sequence, is a type of Psion. However, the activation sequence alone cannot affect reality.

  The Psions processed by the user would simply scramble then return.

  Broadly speaking, this is the function of CADs, to take the Psions initially provided by the activation sequence, and form them into Psions the magician can use to rewrite phenomena: the magic ritual.

  Specialized CAD are often shaped in the form of guns because using the auxiliary aiming systems incorporated in the area corresponding to the barrel, coordinate data is input at the moment the activation sequence is initiated, and in order to reduce the calculation load on the user, Psions aren't emitted from the muzzle.

  From magician to CAD, then CAD back to magician.

  If this flow of Psions is disrupted, then magic dependent on CADs will no longer work.

  For example, if during calculation or expansion a load of Psions are fired from outside, the Psion pattern of the activation ritual will be scrambled, disallowing the building of an effective magic ritual and erasing the magic.

  Like now.

  "Stop right there! Using attack magic on others for any reason other than self-defense is not just a violation of school rules, it's a criminal offense!"

  The expanding activation sequence of the female student was shattered by a bullet of Psions.

  Releasing a Psion bullet, while in itself the simplest form of magic, requires extremely precise control in order to destroy just the activation sequence and avoid any extraneous damage, and shows superb skill on the part of the user.

  Upon recognizing the owner of that voice, the female student who was intent on attacking Erika and company became pale, and not as a result of the magic. She fell into another female student, and they collapsed.

  The one who gave the warning, and had fired the Psion bullet, was the Student Council president, Saegusa Mayumi.

  Her — as far as Tatsuya had seen — ever-smiling face, even now, did not have much severity in it.

  However in the eyes of someone capable in magic, her small figure was wrapped in an aura of Psion light far beyond that of ordinary mages, giving her an inviolable air of dignity.

  "You are students from 1A and 1E aren't you.

  I will hear you out. Please come along."

  A hard, even cold voice, came from the girl next to Mayumi. According to the introduction of the Student Council during the entrance ceremony she was the 3rd year Public Moral Chief, Watanabe Mari.

  Mari's CAD held an already deployed and expanded activation sequence.

  It was not difficult to imagine what any form of resistance here would lead to.

  Leo, Mizuki, and Miyuki's classmates, without a word, stiffened up.

  Moving not out of rebellion, stepping up next to his classmates frozen by the atmosphere, without a trace of haughtiness or pride, neither downcast nor timid, Tatsuya walked with an even measured gait, followed by Miyuki, to stand before Mari.

  Mari cast a quizzical glance at these first years who had suddenly come striding up.

  To Mari, these two had not seemed like involved parties.

  Tatsuya took her gaze without flinching, and stopped a respectable distance from her.

  "We're sorry, the prank went too far."

  "Prank?"

  At those unexpected words, Mari's eyebrows arched up.

  "Yes.

  Morisaki's quick-draw is famed, so I asked him to give a demonstration for future reference, but it became too lifelike and got out of hand."

  The student who had confronted Leo with his CAD opened his eyes wide with surprise.

  While the other first years were at a loss for words, Mari glanced at the baton in Erika's hand, the pistol shaped device lying on the ground, then after giving the two students who had tried to illegally use their CADs a bloodcurdling look, turned back to Tatsuya with a cold smile.

  "Then why did that girl from 1A try to use attack magic?"

  "She was taken by surprise. Being able to start up activation processes as a conditioned reflex is truly worthy of a first course student."

  His expression as he answered was deadpan, although his voice was somewhat shameless.

  "Your friends were about to be attacked by magic, but you still insist it was a prank?"

  "Even if you call it an attack, all she intended to fire was a flash of blinding magic. It wasn't on a level where it could have caused blindness or impairment."

  Again, there was a collective intake of breath.

  The sneer turned into admiration.

  "Hoou... it seems you're somehow able to read the activation sequence before it's deployed."

  The activation ritual is a large block of data for building a magic ritual.

  Mages can intuitively guess what kind of effect the ritual would have.

  By looking at how the magic ritual would interfere with the Eidos, and what parts wouldn't be affected, it's possible to read and attempt a guess at the effect the magic ritual would have.

  However the activation sequence alone is simply a chunk of data, representing a massive amount of information, and even the magician deploying it can only dynamically interact with it in the subconscious.

  Therefore, the act of reading the activation sequence requires the enumeration of endless strings of image data, then reproducing an image from those in your head.

  Normally, such things cannot be done in the consciousness.

  "I'm no good at practicals, but I'm confident in my analyses."

  As if it was nothing, Tatsuya dismissed that insane skill with the one word, 'analyses'.

  "...Your misinformation skills are also quite something."

  Her look was something in between an appraisal and a glare.

  The person who stepped up to protect her brother bearing the brunt of the investigation, Miyuki, came forward.

  "As my brother said, this was all really just a misunderstanding.

  We are very sorry for bothering you all, senpai."

  Without the slightest deceit, she gave a deep bow, and as if the miasma was dispelled Mari looked away.

  "Mari, it's fine already.

  Tatsuya-kun, that really was just a demonstration right?"

  When did she start calling him by name, Tatsuya thought, but he couldn't refuse the timely help from Mayumi.

  As he nodded with the same deadpan expression he had used up to now, Mayumi gave a somewhat triumphant — it was like she was saying 'loan~' — looking smile.

  "It is not prohibited fo
r students to teach each other, but in terms of exercising magic, you are prohibited from executing it.

  This is taught in the first semester in the classroom.

  In terms of self studying the exercise of magic, it's probably best to refrain."

  Returning to her grave look after Mayumi finished her inspirational speech, Mari also gave a word on the matter.

  "...Since the President has said so, I will refrain this time. I don't want there to be a second time."

  Without looking like bitter enemies, together they straightened and gave a bow, Mari turned around.

  But after one step, she stopped and asked a question with her back to them.

  "Your name?"

  As her head turned, Tatsuya's appearance was reflected in her long narrow eyes.

  "First year class E, Shiba Tatsuya."

  "I'll remember that."

  Holding back his tongue just before he almost instinctively let slip a 'no problem', Tatsuya swallowed a sigh.

  ◇◇◇

  "...Don't think I owe you anything."

  After the officials had gone out of sight, the one who had acted first, in other words the first course student who Tatsuya had protected, glared at Tatsuya and said as much in the same thorny voice.

  Tatsuya's expression had a rather 'ah man' look to it.

  All his friends had a face similar to his.

  Relieved that this normally needlessly excited character wouldn't play up here at least, Tatsuya returned the gaze of the course A student who suddenly grew a spine.

  "I don't think that at all, so don't worry.

  What got you off wasn't my glib tongue but rather Miyuki's sincerity."

  "I came along because even though Onii-sama is good at talking people down, he has problems convincing them."

  "Indeed."

  His artificial look of reproach faded, replaced by a wry smile.

  "...My name is Morisaki Shun. As you thought, I am of the Morisaki house."

  Seeing the warm banter between the siblings, his hostility faded somewhat, and he gave his name.

  "I'm just saying it's not really that much of a big deal.

  I've seen plenty of practical examples in visual materials."

  "Ah, now that you mention it, I think I've seen them before too."

  "You only just remembered it now didn't you. As I thought, Tatsuya's on a different level to you."