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

  Range Zero, a distance range of zero, was his nickname; while it was a title of honor implying the manifestation of matchless strength at zero distance, simultaneously it was an insult that said he could not do distance magic. Actually, it wasn’t that he couldn’t use it at all; however, there was no quibbling over the fact that Tomitsuka had a problem with long distance aiming which he himself recognized.

  From the side, Tatsuya sent a lifeline to Erika, who was lost at sea and unable to find words to answer him with.

  “Everyone has strengths and weaknesses.”

  Was he comforting him or needling him, to this questionable lifeline,

  “It sounds persuasive when Tatsuya said it.”

  With an earnest voice, Leo broke into the pause.

  Tomitsuka’s ‘bitter smile’ changed into a ‘sarcastic smile’.

  “I found you, Tomitsuka-kun!”

  Immediately afterward, his complex tangle of emotions was blown away by the cheerful voice that thrust into the classroom of second year class E.

  “Akechi-san!?”

  In front of the sight of Tomitsuka, who hurriedly turned around, ‘Amy’ — that is, Akechi Eimi — was noisily trotting to him from the classroom’s rear entrance. Due to the fact that she was an athlete in last summer’s Nine Schools competition, she was also an acquaintance of Tatsuya.

  There was a large number of high-pitched clicking sounds as the framework of Tomitsuka’s desk brought her to a halt; her hand was raised like she was trying to throw a ball through a hoop in some fashion and her whole face was smiling.

  “Morning, Tomitsuka-kun.”

  It was as if a ‘!’ and a ‘♪’ dancing were at the end of her words, so energetic was her greeting. Although they both had carefree personalities, Eimi was different from Erika whose joyfulness was concealing the wounds in her heart — Eimi was joyful to the core. She was the valuable type that made those watching her feel that the worries they were moping over were foolish. Despite the scene just now, due to Eimi’s arrival, all awkward feelings had been wiped from the atmosphere.

  “Ah, yes. Morning, Akechi-san.”

  Tomitsuka was drawn by the charm of that energy. No, the feeling given off by the look on his face was not ‘Eimi is charming Tomitsuka’; ‘Eimi is overwhelming Tomitsuka’ seemed closer to being correct.

  “Shiba-kun, morning.”

  “Morning, Amy. Come to think of it, Amy and Tomitsuka were in the same class last year.”

  “That’s right. You’re well informed?”

  “It’s a minor thing.”

  Tatsuya sent a smile drained of energy at the wide-eyed Eimi.

  “Amy, this girl is Shibata Mizuki. This is Chiba Erika. The one over there is Saijou Leonhart. The three of them were my classmates last year.”

  Mizuki and the others shouldn’t have had any interaction with Eimi. And Tatsuya’s hypothesis was not off the mark.

  “Nice to meet you. I am Akechi Eimi. Call me Amy.”

  Tatsuya had introduced the three simply (carelessly?) and Eimi had readily introduced herself in return.

  “O.K., Amy. It’s all right if you call me Erika.”

  The one who immediately responded was, naturally, Erika.

  “Please call me Leo.”

  “Nice to meet you, Akechi-san.”

  Leo followed with a (supplementary) self introduction and Mizuki bobbed her head. As she did so, for some reason Eimi puffed out her red cheeks in dissatisfaction.

  “Amy.”

  “Eh?”

  “Didn’t I tell you to call me Amy?”

  Mizuki could not understand what she’d done to make Eimi angry and her eyes showed guilt and innocence. If you looked at it objectively, Eimi’s insistence was nearly irrational, but cases where force triumphed over reason had been observed repeatedly in the world. Anyway, Erika and Leo were dumbfounded since they didn’t know what kind of girl Eimi was, and Tatsuya, who somewhat knew her, was not showing any intention of intervening for some reason. And the other person who knew her, Tomitsuka, appeared to be merely impatient and reluctant to intervene.

  “Umm… nice to meet you, Amy. It would be fine if you addressed me as Mizuki.”

  In the end, although she was puzzled, Mizuki gave in.

  “Yes. Nice to meet you, Mizuki.”

  At once, Eimi smiled openly. The smile was more foolishly naïve than pleasant; it had the effect of making people slightly doubt that the selfish manner of speaking she used had really taken place.

  Satisfied, Eimi nodded and pivoted her body to turn towards Tomitsuka.

  “Now, it’s Tomitsuka’s turn.”

  “Uhh?”

  Why had the conversation turned to himself? What the heck did she mean by his turn? Tomitsuka was completely dumbfounded by this too rapid turn of events.

  “Amy.”

  Eimi once again voiced her nickname.

  Tomitsuka still didn’t understand what Eimi was demanding from him. The puzzled Tomitsuka looked right and left and became aware that Tatsuya was enduring the scene with a smile.

  Tomitsuka asked for help from Tatsuya by eye contact. Tatsuya constructed a sober expression to answer Tomitsuka’s 911 call.

  “You don’t like being called Akechi-san, right?”

  Tatsuya’s hypothesis was on the mark it seemed, as Eimi nodded yes-yes.

  “Don’t you want Tomitsuka to also call you by your nickname?”

  Eimi’s sullen display with Mizuki had foreshadowed this. Well, Tatsuya had already expected this development so he hadn’t said anything during the previous episode.

  On the other hand, Tomitsuka’s face started to flow with cold sweat.

  “Eh, umm, Akechi-san, you called me ‘Tomitsuka-kun’ and…”

  “Oh? So it would be all right if I called you ‘Hagane-kun’?”

  So that’s it ~ you should have said so earlier ~ Eimi said with her eyes while she leaned toward Tomitsuka, peering up at his face with both arms behind her back, holding her hands together. Tomitsuka was clearly flustered to anyone’s eyes. The lukewarm eyes of Tatsuya and the others went to Tomitsuka, who was leaning backwards with an even stiffer face.

  “No, um, that isn’t exactly what I wanted to say… Ah!”

  Tomitsuka was desperately trying to avoid meeting the eyes of Eimi, who was blissfully staring at him, and he deliberately stood up and raised his voice when he caught a stare flowing at him from two seats away.

  “Akechi-san, let’s have this talk next time.”

  Evading Eimi, who had blocked off half his field of vision by leaning forward, Tomitsuka walked toward the seat of the girl that had been looking at him.

  “Is that you, Hirakawa-san? You’re in this class as well?”

  Tatsuya and the others were just barely able to catch Tomitsuka’s voice from where they were. They weren’t able to catch Chiaki’s diffidently whispered words of reply at all.

  “Amy, is it all right not to follow him?”

  Erika spoke to Eimi, who looked sullen about being abruptly left behind, in a purposely low tone.

  “Do you think there’s nothing you can do now but retreat…?”

  Was this the whisper of a devil tempting a human heart into sin, or was it the voice of an angel to someone facing a hard road. —Of course, it wasn’t such a grandiose thing; it was simply nothing more than the utterance of an imp egging on her fellow schoolmate, but the effect was instantaneous. Eimi nodded with a determined look and rapidly went after Tomitsuka.

  “…You are one scary female.”

  To Leo, who was not quipping but whispering it in a somber tone,

  “This way is more constructive, right?”

  Erika answered with a broad grin.

  “Certainly, this is an extremely interesting development.”

  A bit of surprise mixed into the shocked look Mizuki gave to Tatsuya, who was looking at the gazes of undisguised curiosity that onlookers directed at the three of them, Tomitsuka, Eimi, and Chiaki, which he just
pointed out.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  The youthful drama of which Tomitsuka was the lead actor (or perhaps the prey) was taken care of by the ringing of the bell. After Eimi left the Class E classroom at a lively trot, Erika and Leo went to the Class F classroom.

  Afterwards, there was no ceremony for the first time all the students were assembled for instruction. The stance of the school was that getting the information needed was an individual responsibility. From now on, this class would have a teacher in charge of their practical skills (just like classes A-D in the first course). Over half the class considered not even displaying the name of the teacher until the actual day it started to be pretty over the top, but Tatsuya was part of the minority who didn’t think so.

  It probably hadn’t been decided til the last minute — if Tatsuya’s supposition was completely accurate.

  After all, if the number of magicians qualified to be teachers hadn’t been inadequate, then half the students that they had the capacity for at First, Second, and Third high schools wouldn’t be placed in a lower caste.

  Taking the dearth of personnel into consideration, the teacher in charge of Class E’s practical skills instruction would be a fairly eccentric individual for a magician educator and might not be much of a teacher, Tatsuya predicted. For example, very elderly or perhaps the opposite, fairly young. If all the instructor was going to do was teach practical engineering skills, then the teacher would not need to have a great deal of skill as a magician, so the possibility that they might dispatch a researcher without any qualifications as a teacher was also within Tatsuya’s expectations.

  However, thirty seconds after instruction was to have started, a practical skills teacher stood in front of the entire second year class E who did not meet Tatsuya’s expectations. It also seemed like the teacher was not what the other students imagined either, as a small commotion ran through the classroom.

  The one who appeared was a woman in her forties.

  Of course, that alone wouldn’t strike anyone as unusual. There were clearly more male instructors in magic high schools, but female ones weren’t all that unusual. The surprise came from the woman’s looks.

  Her hair was blonde. The color of her eyes were blue. Her skin color white. Her body was tall and her legs were long from this and her other physical traits; it was clear from looking at her that the woman was a Caucasian of Nordic descent.

  “I am Jennifer Smith (sumisu).”

  She gave her name in the style of English speaking countries and her full name was an English one.

  “I am originally from Boston, but I became a naturalized citizen eighteen years ago.”

  However, these words melted the majority of their doubts. If that much time had passed since she had been naturalized, then there must be no worries on the security front. Normally, the patriotism of naturalized citizens (toward the nation that naturalized them) was required to be firmer than that of the citizens born in a nation. If they did not display more loyalty to their new country than to their former country, then their naturalization wouldn’t be recognized. In the case of a magic researcher with many chances to connect with national secrets, this is especially true. There was still the question of why she would throw away her nationality to become a naturalized Japanese citizen when the USNA was not only the wealthiest nation in modern era, but also had the most cutting edge magic techniques, but to Tatsuya that was comparatively unimportant.

  “Until the end of the last school year, I was a professor at the National Magic University, but from this school year on, the main school has placed the instruction in magic engineering for this class in my hands. I look forward to working with you.”

  She is in the same situation as Tsuzura-sensei, Tatsuya thought. Tsuzura’s back-story was that his too independent mind had caused his downfall. What could be the circumstances in Smith-sensei’s case? —Tatsuya considered that hypothesizing she was a troublemaker was both rude and arbitrary.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  They had to register for electives by the end of first period, but from the second period on they immediately started on the regular curriculum; it was now the noon break.

  Tatsuya arrived at the Student Council room.

  He was, from now on, a Student Council Vice President. Tatsuya had transferred from the Public Morals Committee to the Student Council due to a secret(?) agreement between Azusa and Kanon; however, this was the result implemented by completely ignoring Tatsuya’s own will. Since he didn’t have any lingering attachment to the Public Morals Committee and he didn’t object to joining the Student Council, Tatsuya hadn’t put up any resistance, but if, for example, Tatsuya had made a show of resisting, then he probably would have been persuaded after all. —Not by Azusa, but by Miyuki. Perhaps, Tatsuya didn’t try to resist because he understood that.

  Whatever was going on in the background, First High School’s new regime for the AD 2096 new school year was safely launched. The Public Morals committee had also added new members. Mikihiko had been approved as Tatsuya’s successor under the recommendation system by the Student Council. From the clubs, Shizuku was chosen to supplement the lack of members brought by the end of the last school year. Today was the first day of the new school year and in the Student Council room, the roster of Azusa, Kanon, Isori, Tatsuya, Miyuki, Honoka, Shizuku and Mikihiko, in the spirit of a 'welcome new members' party, were holding a luncheon.

  The student council meeting table was a little cramped for eight people. Perhaps Kanon thought that was a good excuse for totally gluing herself to Isori. While the pair’s passionate — Isori looked a little uncomfortable — scene seemed to embarrass Azusa and Mikihiko, Tatsuya and Shizuku were poker faced, Honoka seemed somewhat envious and Miyuki looked at the scene with a smile; lunchtime proceeded harmoniously.

  By the way, while Honoka wanted to take Kanon’s lead and glue herself to Tatsuya because it was cramped, with Miyuki’s standard attitude unbroken she couldn’t muster the determination.

  After the meal ended, each of the eight received a tea cup or a coffee cup according to their preferences. The one waiting on them was the 3H-P94, Pixie. The girl-shaped robot was originally on loan to the Robot Research Club; however, due to various circumstances, especially because Pixie itself wished it, from today on it became something for Tatsuya to use in the Student Council room.

  The topic of their first lunchtime conversation was the new Magical Engineering Course’s unique choice of professor. However, close to halfway through the noon break, their interest turned to the imminent admissions ceremony.

  “Is there another rehearsal after school today?”

  Mikihiko, who had not been involved in the preparations for the admissions ceremony, asked, politely conscious of the presence of the upperclassman,

  “It’s more of a business meeting than a rehearsal. There are only two formal rehearsals — one during spring break, and one immediately before the ceremony. And since we’re only practicing the program, we won’t be reading the formal address.”

  Miyuki replied in her default polite tone for speaking to male students.

  “Last year as well?”

  “Yes.”

  Miyuki, who had made the formal address last year, replied to Shizuku’s follow up question also.

  “Eh, really? It did not look that way at all.”

  Kanon’s response displayed her surprise in a way that looked slightly exaggerated. Naturally, for that reason, the person herself immediately spoke up.

  “Our turns were pretty tough… because it’s hard work, I thought we’d hold many rehearsals.”

  “At any rate, it was rough…”

  As was her apparent habit, Kanon belatedly cut off her words just after she committed a verbal gaffe. Azusa, who had been employed as the freshmen representative the year before last, was timidly sinking into a deep depression.

  “Well, well. Nakajou-san was nervous. That’s not particularly unusual.”

  Isori quickly followed up aft
er his betrothed’s error on one side,

  “Of course, Miyuki not getting stage fright was not all that peculiar.”

  And Tatsuya followed up after Isori to prevent Miyuki from taking it the wrong way.

  “Dear me, Onii-sama. Even I was nervous.”

  Miyuki’s timing was not very natural when she spoke from her place next to Tatsuya, with both hands clasped on her thighs. In that state, she leaned her upper body to peek up at her elder brother’s face. While making a pained smile at his sister’s expression with slightly puffed cheeks, Tatsuya lightly caressed Miyuki’s hair, making her return her head to the original distance. Miyuki let out a small “Ah…” and sent a bashful smile to Tatsuya. Shizuku jabbed Honoka, whose face had frozen in an “Aargh”, with her elbow in her flank, and Kanon, who was closely sticking to Isori, looked innocent and unaware of her own inappropriateness.

  In the confused atmosphere, Mikihiko deliberately coughed to return things to normal. And Tatsuya spoke to Mikihiko, whose face showed the effects of his effort to cough as if nothing had happened.

  “Actually, neither Miyuki or myself has met this year’s freshmen representative face to face yet.”

  “That’s because the school takes the lead in preparations for incoming freshmen.”

  Upon taking note of Tatsuya’s words, Isori, who was more cognizant of the details than he, entered explanation mode.

  “Even though the student’s autonomy is respected, an event like the admissions ceremony, which has many distinguished guests attending, is of course another matter. Nonetheless, the Student Council handles the preparations on the current students' side.”

  “Are you saying… that the incoming freshmen aren’t yet students of our school?”

  “No, Mikihiko, that’s absurd.”

  Without reservation, Tatsuya used a one-liner to deal with Mikihiko’s meaningless words. The trace of envy that could be seen in Isori’s eyes over their easy relationship with each other was surely only an illusion, of course.

  “We don’t know the real reason. So this is only a hypothesis to us.”