Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 03 - Nine Schools Competition (I) (43 page)

Tatsuya was quite interested in Isori's wry smile and response.

Tatsuya was accompanying Mayumi all through the morning, so of course he missed the first round in the morning.

He only knew that Kanon claimed the first round using the least amount of time possible.

That being said, while the match time was very short, quite a few of her own icicles had fallen

"It's starting."

Shizuku's soft voice prompted Tatsuya to direct his gaze back towards the arena.

With the shrill sound of the starting whistle, the earth groaned.

"Mine Genesis."

This was no Mine Field, this was Mine Genesis.

The scene before Tatsuya's eyes forced him to speak its name.

Versatility and speed were the crowning advantages of Modern Magic.
Nonetheless, Magicians are also human, so there are fields where they specialize at or are not adept at.

Since magic talent is inherited, blood relations within a family naturally share similar aptitudes towards magic fields.

The Yotsuba Family, with each family member excelling in a unique area, was a notable exception.

Within influential families, besides everyone's individual names, family members that share a notable skill usually share a second name as well — almost like a special title.

Some of the more famous ones include the Juumonji Family's "Phalanx".

The Ichijou Family's "Rupture".

The Saegusa Family did not have a system that they did not excel at, so they were ironically referred to as "Omnipotent".

The Chiba Family was known as "Magic Swordsman" — this title referred more to their skills and techniques than any unique talent the family possessed, but was still used to refer to this family as a whole.

The Chiyoda Family was known as "Mine Genesis".

The Magicians of the Chiyoda Family specialized in using Long Range Solid Matter Oscillation Systematic Magic, particularly when it comes to using Earthshaker magic.

Dirt, rock, sand, cement, all materials were irrelevant.

A powerful oscillation could be applied as long as the solid matter was recognized as the "Earth's surface".
This was the true face of the Chiyoda Family's specialty "Mine Creation", with the Chiyoda Family's title derived from "Mine Creator" = "Mine Genesis".

The opposing field suffered vertical vibrations that ran perpendicular to the epicenter, with two icicles collapsing each time.

Her opponent tried to counter with Move-Type Magic "Compulsory Arrest" in an effort to stifle any motion on part of the object, but "Mine Genesis" continued switching targets at a speed that her opponent was unable to match, so by the time five of her twelve pillars had collapsed, her opponent abandoned all pretense of defense and concentrated solely on the attack.

"Huh?"

"What?"

"?"

Tatsuya and the others all expressed their astonishment in different ways, whereas Isori smiled wryly from the side.

As he watched the pillars on his side collapse without any resistance, he shook his head helplessly.

"Should I commend Kanon for going all out or criticize her for being overly reckless.
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Her methodology revolves around going for the jugular before she gets KO'ed."

"No, well.
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I hardly feel that this is the wrong tactic."

Her opponent had switched from defense to offense, and her resistance was suitably lowered.

By the time the number of pillars left on her side dipped to six, Kanon had already collapsed every pillar in her opponent's territory.

"Victory!"

Kanon smiled widely as she flashed a victory signal while descending from the platform.

The target of her smile was, of course, Isori.

Isori's face plainly said "what am I going to do with you", but he was wearing the same smile.

"How should I describe this.
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"Match made in heaven?"

Miyuki was reluctant to voice her opinion, but Shizuku had no such compunctions.

"You two should say that they understand one another perfectly."

Hearing the two of them, Tatsuya smiled wryly for a completely different reason.

Still, Tatsuya also acknowledged that they were a "match made in heaven".

The two of them had a lot of synergy.

The player and the auxiliary, even though they didn't step onto the stage together, the two of them were in the fight as one.

Yet — Tatsuya thought.

If they were a pair with so much synergy, would Isori be able to fulfill his duties to the utmost when paired with other players?

There were 40 players and only 8 technicians.

On average, each technician was responsible for five players.

Tatsuya was in charge of the 1st Year Women's Team, but that was still six people, seven if you counted the the impromptu addition in the morning.

Once they forged an intense emotional bond with one individual player, could they put forth their all with the other players?

Tatsuya was also facing that quandary.

Would he really go all in for Shizuku or Honoka the same way he would for Miyuki?

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Shiba-kun, what's up?"

"No, it's nothing."

It's not like he could actually ask Isori something like "Do you work so hard for every player?"
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Tatsuya replied back in a completely inane and normal manner to muddle through Isori's question.

After securing advancement to the third round, Kanon and company — with Tatsuya, Miyuki and Shizuku in tow — returned to the pavilion in high spirits, only to frown at the dour atmosphere suffusing the camp.

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What happened?"

Isori asked Suzune, who was probably the only one who maintained her usual attitude.

Suzune turned around to reveal an even more blank emotion than normal.

"The Men's 'Crowd ball' event didn't perform as expected — we're recalculating the odds right now."

The standings in the Nine Schools Competition were determined by the aggregate score from each event.

First Place received 50 points, Second Place received 30 points, and Third Place received 20 points.

Fourth Place finishes in "Speed Shooting", "Battle Board", and "Mirage Bat" netted 10 points.
"Crowd Ball" and "Icicle Destruction" only awarded points to the top three, so the three teams that are eliminated in the third round each receive 5 points.

For "Monolith Code", First Place would receive 100 points, Second Place receives 60 points, and Third Place only gets 40 points, which makes it the single largest event in terms of points.

Half the points from the Newcomers Division would be added into the total.

This was the score breakdown for the Nine Schools Competition.

Anyone not in the top four or six would receive no points, so even if First Place was out of the question, taking Second through Fourth place was still valuable in scoring points to contest the overall victor.
According to this breakdown, advancing as many players in as many contests as possible to the single elimination or duel phases was one of the keys to victory.

"Not performed as expected means.
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"The players were eliminated during the first, second, and third rounds."

Isori asked with trepidation while the voice that answered him was quite indifferent by comparison.

"While we held onto next year's right to compete, this result was thoroughly unexpected."

The voice was largely indifferent likely because the person being questioned was struck heavily by the news.

Compared to the other events, the Men's "Crowd Ball" lineup was certainly lacking in firepower.

Regardless of the fact they didn't possess an ace like the Women's "Speed Shooting", "Crowd Ball", and "Battle Board" or the upcoming Men's "Icicle Destruction" who was "assured of victory", they still should possess enough talent to compete for First Place.

"The Newcomers Division is a little harder to estimate, but based on our current lead, if the Women's "Battle Board", Men's "Icicle Destruction" as well as "Mirage Bat" and "Monolith Code" all seize First Place, we're still in the clear."

A 2nd Year student from the tactical advisory team made the report.

Tatsuya, who was just listening as a bystander, felt that this threshold was a little high.

Including both the Men's and Women's contests, they wanted to claim First Place in four of the six remaining events in the Official Division.

Katsuto and Mari could be relied on to win the gold in their respective events, but based on these calculations, if any accident were to occur, they ran the risk of morale reaching a breaking point.

Still — this wasn't something that Tatsuya had to concern himself with.

He was probably overstepping his boundaries by worrying about these things.

Compared to the points, Tatsuya personally was more mindful about something else.

Kirihara was participating in the Men's "Crowd Ball" event.

Certainly, Kirihara had a reckless side to him, but he also possessed a strong sense of duty.

He wouldn't be depressed because of this turnout, would he.
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After the day's events had drawn to a close, Tatsuya found Kirihara near the hotel's rest area close to dusk.

Outwardly, he looked perfectly normal.

Sayaka was sitting next to Kirihara.

Kirihara was working hard to keep up a cheerful appearance, but Tatsuya could tell at a glance that he was forcing a smile.

"Kirihara-senpai, thanks for your hard work."

"Ho, so it's Shiba."

Of course, Tatsuya could have chosen to pass by the rest area without saying a word, but he didn't do so.

"I was taken out early in the second round, and quite badly at that."

He was definitely putting on a strong front, but he recovered faster than Tatsuya suspected.

Maybe athletes were more accustomed to victory and defeat and were more resilient when it came to dealing with the bitterness of defeat.

Tatsuya always lost when he was trading blows with his master so he didn't have any real "competitive" experience, and could only rely on logic to explain this.

Tatsuya was unable to judge whether this was an appropriate moment to offer words of comfort, so he elected to speak the truth.

"Senpai was unlucky to draw Third High's ace that was favored to win the event in the second round and only lost by a grand total of eight points after losing three out of five matches.
This favored player was exhausted from the long struggle with senpai and was promptly eliminated in the third round, so this was a Pyrrhic victory for him as well."

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Man, you're one blunt guy."

Tatsuya never bothered to sugarcoat the defeat and delivered a cold analysis that didn't smack of comfort, but Kirihara wasn't angry.

"You never thought that I would be depressed?"

Kirihara's tone and expression were more teasing than anything else.

"I did, but I couldn't think of any consolation."

The scene was dead silent for a few seconds.