Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 05 - Summer Holiday Chapter Page 9

  “Sorry, sorry, yeah, Wonderland is a theme park.”

  While Eimi felt there was little difference in either label, that very same feeling meant there was no need to stir things up. Eimi was soon correcting herself to use theme park instead of amusement park. Nevertheless, the irreverent tone and manner of the two did not go unnoticed and with half-lidded eyes Akaha regarded the them with displeasure, but with Subaru and Eimi proceeding through the gate she hurriedly chased after their backs.

  With that amusing mood, the two went through the gates without having to queue and lost themselves in Wonderland.

  Friendship, Trust, and the Dubious Lolicon

  Third High School, which is affiliated with the National Magic University, is located outside Kanazawa City in the Ishikawa Prefecture. Because of the wide scale shift of district lines under the current district system, it is properly called the "former Ishikawa Prefecture," but people, including the mass media, normally refer to former prefectures and their capitals by their old names. Probably out of habit. It could be that "Ishikawa Prefecture" is also used instead of "The Domain of Kaga" or "The Country of Noto" because "it’s what we’re used to".

  It's not really important.

  In the reference room of Third High School, located outside Kanazawa City in the Ishikawa Prefecture, Kichijouji Shinkurou stopped working so diligently on his manuscript and did a gigantic stretch. He might be on the brink of ruining it by trying to improve it, so he took off the headset for the brain wave assistant interface and once again made a big arch with his back.

  He’d been working longer than he’d thought; it would probably be best to make that posture again. The sound of bones cracking back into place continued; the feel of small aches and pains made Kichijouji scowl.

  Since he was taking a break from writing for now, he turned his face away. There was no window in the reference room since it might potentially be used to inspect the highly confidential documents, but, perhaps for refreshing purpose, on the side of a wall in the small private room was a window-emulating display that switched between different landscapes. The ‘landscape’ he could see from this private room was of a grove of trees deep in the mountains wavering in a gentle wind; Kichijouji was fond of this scene.

  What he’d been working on was the manuscript he would use for his presentation for "The National High School Magic Theory Thesis Competition sponsored by the Japanese Magic Association" at the end of October. Kichijouji was a world renowned magic researcher as well a first year high school student, so he’d been chosen as a member of Third High School’s representatives. His personal preparations had begun before summer vacation, but ever since the Nine Schools Competition had ended, he had become overzealous about writing his manuscript — even he himself felt so.

  He was also aware of the reason.

  It was the rivalry he felt with that boy he met at the Nine Schools Competition, Shiba Tatsuya.

  Until the Nine Schools Competition, Kichijouji had never felt that he was inferior to anyone around his own age in Magic Theory. In fact, he had almost no memories of ever feeling rivalry with anyone. Aside from the practical side of Magic, the realm outside of magic theory, in terms of owners of brains equal to his own which discovered the "Cardinal Code", Kichijouji prided himself on being the only one in his age group whose brain was at this level not only within the country, but even if taking the worldwide viewpoint.

  And, he was not being conceited. In the world of the study of magic, there were currently new scientific findings being announced day by day, but scientific findings that equaled the "Cardinal Code" were no more than once a year at the most. Kichijouji Shinkurou’s achievement was that rare and valuable.

  However, his vanity had been crushed a number of times in the last Nine Schools Competition. At least, Kichijouji himself felt so.

  The theoretical is accompanied by the practical, for the first time that had meaning. In the world of magic research, this was a widely supported way of thinking; in this country especially, the concept was common sense and a widely diffused premise.

  Kichijouji also considered that a natural idea. Magical theory in the end is something for the purpose of using technical skills called magic; a theory that can not be put into practice is ridiculous. If the study of magic is to promote learning, then sooner or later it might advance to include the study of logical concepts to explain reality that were purely mental constructs. However, the modern study of magic was not at that level.

  And, in regards to the way theory is useful for practice, the technique demonstrated by that guy, First High School First Year — Shiba Tatsuya, had carved a sense of defeat into Kichijouji’s heart. Not just knowledge, not just technique, but the power of the two unified to make him actually feel that the sum was greater than the parts.

  That left Kichijouji immensely aggravated.

  Knowledge and technique were the cornerstones of his self-confidence. He who could never win against "them" in power was so useful to "them" that he was an utter necessity, and another person could not outperform him. Therefore, Kichijouji pledged to himself that he would redeem himself from his loss during the Nine Schools Competition at the Thesis Competition. He considered victory over First High School at the Thesis Competition to be the shortest route to regaining his self confidence, which he needed to do.

  For that reason, directly after the Nine Schools Competition was over, he spent almost every day confined in this reference room working hard composing his presentation speech.

  Speaking of the aftermath of the Nine Schools Competition.

  —Ichijou’s state of mind seemed a little off—

  That phrase fell into Kichijouji’s ears some days rarely, some days frequently.

  He made no objection to calling Masaki’s condition as off. Kichijouji himself thought so. He was also aware that it was not just his imagination. After all, Kichijouji knew the reason Masaki was "off".

  (…Despite that, there isn’t really anything I can do)

  Kichijouji probably could not be attacked for not being a "true friend". After all, Masaki was afflicted with a disease that had from old been called "a sickness no doctor can cure" and "not soothed by hot springs therapy".

  Kichijouji accepted it. Ichijou Masaki was suffering from "Love Sickness".

  "Shiba Miyuki"

  That was the name of the one Masaki had fallen for.

  It was inconceivable that the next head of that Ichijou clan could be tormented by love troubles — but he was. Masaki with his brains, good looks and pedigree was the type that did not have to do anything to have a pack of girls after him; the reason for his torment was not anything like him being a neophyte, a complete prude, or a sexual deviant or anything like that — there really was no reason for him not to confess his feelings and end his torment of unrequited love, Kichijouji thought.

  Even he himself couldn’t keep his heart from beating faster when he recalled that girl’s image.

  The girl was that lovely. Not like a flesh and blood person, if someone said she was the fantasy of a teenage boy transformed into a three dimensional image by super science, he could just about believe it. Even without relying on a photo, his brain could revive her clear image; once or twice, he had gotten the feeling that she was some sort of dream or product of some wild delusion.

  Since even he who had no feelings of affection toward her was in this state, Masaki who had fallen in love with her probably couldn’t help becoming more distracted than was usual for him.

  In his case, she was an unreachable goal that inspire feelings of awe. Thanks to that (probably), the matter ended without inciting hopeless feelings of unrequited love; however, in Masaki’s case, in part due to the potential of actually getting her, the illness had become unnecessarily severe.

  The name of Shiba Miyuki had special meaning for Kichijouji above and beyond that of being the subject of Masaki’s unrequited love.

  She was Shiba Tatsuya’s younger sister.

  The young
er sister of the guy he held animosity for held his friend’s heart.

  The inner workings Kichijouji’s heart were more complex than he knew.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  "George."

  The sun was almost completely past the western horizon with just an edge was passing through when Kichijouji turned around towards the voice that called him just as he was leaving school.

  "Masaki."

  Even without turning around, he had recognized him by voice alone. Before he could turn around, the owner of the name he spoke caught up to him mid-turn.

  "You’re already leaving, right? If that’s so, let’s go together."

  "Sure, if you're fine with it."

  Kichijouji’s remark was another words for "you won't go out of your way".

  Almost every day, Kichijouji returned directly to the school dormitory. In contrast, Masaki made numerous detours hither and thither on his way home. These were not all recreational (though a lot of times he was just playing around), as the number of times that the eldest son of the Ichijou clan had to run around on family business were not few.

  "Oh, today I don’t really have anything special to do. ...All right. George, it’s been awhile so let’s visit my house."

  "Wouldn’t there be a problem if I just dropping in without warning?"

  To his friend’s sudden suggestion, Kichijouji presented a common sense response. However, Masaki lightly laughed it away.

  "Don’t say anything to imply that we’re not close. Besides, if it's you, that family of mine will always give a warm welcome."

  "Really? Got it. I’ll drop in."

  Masaki invited Kichijouji, who lived alone, out of friendship without any guile. However, Kichijouji had reasons for why he could not freely accept the Ichijou family’s good will.

  In the first place, he did not have any reason to dislike visiting Masaki’s family. Since Masaki was going straight home and he did not need to worry about interfering with any business he had on the way, Kichijouji displayed no real hesitation when he nodded his acceptance of Masaki’s invitation.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  Masaki’s house was a mere thirty minute walk from school. Commuting to school did not take thirty minutes; walking took thirty minutes. Naturally, the fact that Third High School and the Ichijou mansion were within walking distance of each other was a simple coincidence. There was no background detail like the school being useful to the Ichijou clan or the principal working for them, no matter what was whispered in places. In the first place, Third High School, like the other magic high schools, was a national high school affiliated with the National Magic University. Deciding the placement of high schools was in the jurisdiction of government offices; the Ten Master Clans were ostensibly private citizens so affecting the planning was not within the Ichijou clan’s reach. —The Ten Master Clans would also not use their influence in a matter like this.

  The thirty minute route took Masaki and Kichijouji twenty-five minutes without hurrying. With the season’s long day already past, the twilight sky was dipped in purple for a while. Since Kichijouji thought that the members of the Ichijou family would not be home yet, he was a little surprised to be hailed as he passed through the gate into the garden.

  "Ah, Shinkurou-kun, welcome."

  The cheerful voice speaking to him had the high pitched soprano of a child.

  "Akane-chan, hello, pardon me."

  The one who greeted Kichijouji with a smile was Masaki’s younger sister, Ichijou Akane. Akane was a sixth year elementary student, but Masaki also had another sister younger than her. Kichijouji had not had many chances to talk to that sister who was a third year elementary student, but Akane had attached herself to him long ago, so whenever he visited the Ichijou residence, she would always pop in to see him at least once whether she was there when he arrived or not. He did not know how serious she was, but she had said "I will become Shinkurou-kun’s bride someday".

  The first time he heard this statement, Kichijouji was not all that old; by the third time, he was puzzled. When she first proclaimed her intentions to him two years before, Akane was still a fourth year elementary student at that time and all she was to him was Masaki’s younger sister who would grow to be a vivacious beauty in the future. Kichijouji himself was a second year middle school student at the time; proposals of marriage and the like did not seem all that real to him. On the other hand, he did not hate Akane for any reason and since he felt indebted to the Ichijou family, he could not treat her coldly, so Kichijouji at that time was at a complete loss on how to handle it.

  He had not received such a clear "confession of love" in about a year, but Akane had teetered on the edges in her words. Kichijouji no longer felt bewildered about the situation, so she might have gradually breached his defenses. Kichijouji himself was unaware of this, however.

  Well, since Masaki would not accept getting into any situation that made him look like he should receive the slur of lolicon (by that he meant Masaki wouldn’t accept anyone going after his sister while she was still a child), even if the outer gate of the castle had been raised, it was up to Masaki to decide when to raise the inner gate.

  It seemed like she was just about to leave for practice, so he parted from Akane there. That being said, since Kichijouji probably couldn’t leave until after he dined with them for supper, he would probably meet her again later on.

  The master of the house, Ichijou Gouki — Masaki’s father, the head of the Ichijou Clan — had not yet returned home. In order to support their position as leaders in the magician community and their personal military potential, the Ten Master Clans and the additional eighteen families managed, and sometimes invested, the assets they had been endowed with to an extent that was not very well known. There were cases of some of them officially being at the "local bigwig" level while unofficially controlling an international corporation effectively (one corporation owned another corporation which owned another corporation…), but the Ichijou clan’s interests were not that widespread. An undersea mining company was the official Ichijou family business. If no irregular situation occurred, Kichijouji knew Gouki would probably return in time for the evening meal.

  On the other hand, Masaki’s mother was a housewife, but she was absent as well. She was probably out shopping. This was an era where everyday items and food as well could be supplied by online shopping, but women who wanted to look at the actual goods were numerous, especially among the lady of the manor class. Kichijouji felt it wasn’t all that different from online shopping as the goods were still delivered instead of being brought by the shoppers when they went home, but that might be only be the male point of view.

  The Ichijou mansion was a grand residence roughly ten times the scale of an average separated house residence, but did not employ a lot of live-in maids and other type of servants. When the clan gathered, or when it hosted guests related to the society of magicians, and on similar occasions, they hire people from friendly local inns and restaurants. The garden needed specialized skills which were satisfied by periodically calling on a landscape gardener. In contrast to the families like the Saegusa and Itsuwa, who were fellow Ten Master Clans and surrounded themselves with a large number of servants, they operated under the policy of "if a machine could do it, then a machine would do it" and extensively used home automation.

  Today, there were no special guests expected. Since there was no need to be polite to anyone in the unpopulated hallway, the two male high school students went straight to Masaki’s room.

  Masaki’s room was, if you use traditional measurements, a six tatami western style room which is not considered an especially big room by conventional wisdom. But, in accordance with the upper class modern architectural style, the bed, closet and other furnishings could be stored within the wall and accessed by a wall mural, guaranteeing that even a six tatami room would have plenty of space.

  Completely at home in his friend’s room, Kichijouji stowed the bed away, drew out the counter stool style tabl
e from the opposing wall using the mural, and put his butt down on one of the chairs that came with the table.

  Masaki took two nice and cold glasses of blended tea from the small refrigerator within his room. One was placed in front of Kichijouji, the other remained in his hand as he sat down on the opposite side from Kichijouji.

  "George, what state is the manuscript in?"

  "Thank you for your concern, Masaki. It’s all good."

  Kichijouji answered the seated Masaki’s inquiry, modestly concealing the confidence in his smiling face.

  "How about you, Masaki? The gossip I’ve been hearing says that you’ve been doing some reckless things."

  Kichijouji had heard a large amount of hearsay about Masaki’s activities after the Nine Schools Competition, especially about Masaki’s extremely difficult training regimen. He could understand Masaki’s motive. Like Kichijouji, who felt defeated by Shiba Tatsuya in CAD application and tuning, Masaki probably felt bitter over the defeat in Monolith Code and wanted payback.

  "Not so bad. And I’m probably not going to see immediate results."

  "That might be true."

  Masaki’s voice was carefully casual as he responded to Kichijouji’s question about his mental condition. He was more volatile than expected, but he wasn’t feeling the gloomy implacability he had worried about. Relieved on that point, Kichijouji agreed in a light tone.

  ◊ ◊ ◊

  Immediately after the electronic ping rang, Masaki let loose a groan from his core.

  "George… it’s time."

  "But this is the last one? Is using up time in the middle stage really okay?"

  Kichijouji asked for confirmation over their monitors that were placed back to back and Masaki gave a weak nod.

  Both screens suspended the real time battle simulation game. It looked like a still shot of a cityscape where all time and movement had frozen and Masaki switched the image to a bird’s eye view. In that way, he could see how much the monitor encroached on Masaki’s attention. Kichijouji felt like smiling at this friend’s indomitable spirit that was earnestly agonizing over this activity, he consciously keeping his face loose and unsmiling. Naturally, this wasn’t necessary. Since clearly with his eyes so fixated on the monitor, Masaki did not have any ability to pay attention to anything else.