Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 03 - Nine Schools Competition (I) (39 page)

"Kinoshita-kun is the secondary technician for the Women's 'Crowd Ball'.
Since he is the backup, I think that we'll still be OK without him."

"Yeah.
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With Izumi there, I think we'll be OK.
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"Isn't leaving everything to Izumi too risky?
There are six locations for Crowd Ball and two people appearing at the same location in the first round, and three people advance during the first round, then all three are in the second round at the same time.
While Mayumi can cover for herself, this scenario naturally assumes the two others require CAD maintenance.
Even if there is a larger interval between rounds, we still wouldn't have enough time based on our initial estimates.
Wasn't that the whole point for having assistant technicians in the first place?"

Suzune supported Mayumi's decision but Mari looked reluctant.
Her protest was born of the profound understanding of the importance of CAD maintenance and not disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing, but bringing up a valid argument for debate.
Assigning shorthanded personnel was just such a difficult task.

"Why don't we pull the Men's assistant technician, Ishida, over to double as the Women's assistant technician?"

The Women's competition was in the morning while the Men's competition was in the afternoon, so Suzune's suggestion was valid from a scheduling point of view, but Mayumi vetoed it.

"If he had to perform maintenance during the morning and afternoon, that's too heavy of a workload for Ishida-kun.
'Crowd Ball' is the event with the highest number of rounds on that day."

"Then, can we call on Shiba-kun, who has no players scheduled for events for the next two days?"

After a brief moment of consideration, Mayumi nodded in agreement towards Suzune's proposal.

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That might be for the best.
Then, Miyuki-chan, can you alert Tatsuya-kun for us?"

"Of course."

Miyuki smiled as she nodded her head to accept Mayumi's request.

For Miyuki, any opportunity for her Onii-sama to shine was more than welcome.

".
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No wonder you visited at this hour."

Although they were siblings, this wasn't the time for young ladies to visit rooms belonging to those of the opposite gender.

Tatsuya waved Miyuki to sit on the bed and helplessly murmured.

".
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Did I inconvenience you, Onii-sama?"

Miyuki fidgeted as she watched Tatsuya nervously.

"No, thank you for notifying me, but.
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Until now, so long as Miyuki had that particular look in her eyes, Tatsuya never took a hard line with her.

"Even at a hotel, this isn't the time for young women to leave their rooms by themselves, right?
Also, there's been a few incidents lately, so suspicious individuals may be lurking in the corridors."

At the very least, this was a military facility, so the security was much more intense than first class civilian hotels.

Miyuki felt that this was an exaggeration, but was very pleased that Tatsuya was worried about her.

"Yes, Onii-sama, I apologize."

"I'm pretty sure there's something wrong with smiling and apologizing at the same time.
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Tatsuya complained as he also smiled.
Rather than calling his earlier words a scolding, they didn't even qualify as complaints.
On top of that, Tatsuya dearly loved Miyuki, so he would never harshly reprimand his little sister.

"At any rate, thank you for letting me know, I'll escort you back to your room."

Tatsuya rose from his chair but Miyuki frantically stood up and waved her hands.

"No, I can go back by myself.
Isn't Onii-sama busy right now?
I've already interrupted your work, so I shouldn't take up any more of your time.
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"While I was in the middle of something, this was more for leisure than anything else, so don't worry about it."

Tatsuya closed the lid of the notepad terminal as if he wanted to avoid letting his sister see it.

"But, wasn't that a CAD code?"

Miyuki wasn't fluent with hardware, but under Tatsuya's influence, she had a decent grasp of software specifications.

She was unable to fully decipher the meaning with just one glance, but based on the serial numbers and coding language, she could identify the code for Activation Sequences.

"This little thing isn't related to the competition itself, so there's no problem if I set it aside for now.
Also, the code itself is more like a toy than anything else."

"A.
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toy?"

"I came up with a new idea for a close combat weapon, but there's almost no practical value in it besides shocking the opponent a little.
Even if I completed it, there's no market for it."

"If that's the case, it still qualifies as pioneering new magic, right?
I don't think Onii-sama's inventions are pointless."

"Probably reserved for entertainment purposes.
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Anyways, this isn't particularly important, so there's no rush to finish.
You are, of course, 'first priority'."

"Oh dear.
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Really, Onii-sama, you actually said that I'm 'more important'.
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(Wha?
)

Seeing his sister clasp her face in both hands and lower her head, Tatsuya plainly felt something odd had occurred.

Apparently, his earlier words had gone in a completely mystifying direction.

(She got the literal meaning right, but somewhere a fatal language error must have occurred.
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This confusion could not be dispelled immediately, but Tatsuya still snapped out of it faster than Miyuki.

".
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Let's head out."

"Yes, Onii-sama.
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And.
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Miyuki is the same as Onii-sama."

"Meaning.
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?"

"Miyuki also sees Onii-sama as the most important person."

".
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Looks like his sister was still out of it — he hoped.

Right now, Tatsuya clung onto that belief.

The second day of the Nine Schools Competition.

Wearing the jacket of the technician team, Tatsuya stood near First High's pavilion in the competition area.

Since the colors ceremony, this was the second time he wore this jacket (only participants were present for the opening ceremony).

Including the suit he wore for the meet and greet, and this jacket, he was unable to dispel that uncomfortable feeling.

Still, Tatsuya knew that this was mandatory, so he had to get accustomed to this.

"What is it?
In a bad mood?"

"No, it's nothing.
Why would you think so, President?"

Tatsuya solemnly replied to Mayumi's question, but was inwardly flustered.

Tatsuya believed that his poker face was flawless, but was he really so easy to read?

"Hm~ I wonder why?"

"Hold on, you shouldn't be asking such a vague question either.
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Tatsuya felt powerless, but only mentally.

Looks like the reason wasn't because he was telegraphing his feelings or that his breathing patterns gave him away.

However, Mayumi being able to pinpoint Tatsuya's thoughts without any warning was far more terrifying and almost threatening.

"Ignoring that for the moment, is there anything you need, President?"

Tatsuya set aside this matter for now — not like he could do anything even if he was concerned — and inquired why Mayumi sought him out before the contest began.

"Just checking on your status.
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Did you memorize all the data?"

The decision to appoint Tatsuya as the assistant technician for the Women's "Crowd Ball" was made on the spot last night, so in order for Tatsuya to adequately adjust the players' CADs, he had to hurriedly memorize every player's psion specifications.

"Yes, I did."

"Everyone's?"

"Yes, I did."

After Tatsuya repeated the exact same, brief statement twice, Mayumi stared at him with her eyes wide in shock.

"This might seem like hindsight.
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But Tatsuya-kun is amazing.
You don't happen to have instantaneous recall or photographic memory, do you?"

"Compared to you, I rather have a more typical Magic Power."

"From a student's perspective, that's an impossible luxury."

Obviously, Mayumi was guaranteed a spot in the magic universities without taking the entrance exams, but she still said this.

—Accompanied by her using both hands to rub her puffed up cheeks.

".
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"Hm?
What's wrong?"

Tatsuya started massaging his temples using his thumb and index finger while Mayumi slightly tilted her head to one side.

"President, are you.
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Never mind."

"?"

Tatsuya originally wanted to say "Are you actually this way and not acting?"
, but forcibly swallowed those words — which was a wise decision.

".
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Isn't the contest about to start?"

"Indeed, let's go."

"Ah?"

"I said, let's go?"

".
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Yeah, you're right."

CAD calibration was forbidden while the contest was ongoing, but calibration might be necessary immediately after the round was over.

That's why it was perfectly natural for the technician to follow the contestant around rather than waiting by the pavilion — even so, there was no need to proceed into the court at the same time, but Tatsuya walked alongside Mayumi the entire way.

"Miyuki-chan is at the observation deck?"

This was the first thing she said as they walked together.

"She went to watch 'Icicle Destruction'."

Mayumi's question didn't cause Tatsuya to think "Why do you ask?"
, but rather "It’s this question again?"
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"So.
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The two of you actually act independently sometimes."

Tatsuya was careful to keep his expression neutral and not allow his displeasure to show at this answer, whereas Mayumi nodded in an expressive manner.

Tatsuya felt somewhat miserable.

".
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In your eyes, are we attached at the hip?"