Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Mahouka.
Chapter 7
"And First High wins!"
The booming voice was drowned out by the cheers coming from further along the stands. Glancing over at the sea of white and green uniformed students, Masaki couldn't help the smirk that spread across his face. George would definitely take the newcomer's division Speed Shooting, and then First High wouldn't be cheering as loudly.
Granted, he had to force down his excitement at watching Mayumi participate. He hadn't expected her to be as skilled as she turned out to be, and the fact that this was while she was tired made it even more interesting. Her competition had consistently been on her tail at the start of each round, but she soon took the lead and held it by a fair margin.
It was a disappointing loss for Third High, but Masaki was entranced by the way that Mayumi kept up the pressure. Her casting speed was ridiculous, and he doubted that anyone could match her speed. Maybe George could, he was renowned among his classmates for his speedy casting, but even then Masaki wasn't totally sure. Granted, it would be an interesting competition to watch nonetheless. George refused to give in no matter who he faced.
"Having doubts about going along with her plan?" his friend teased from beside him.
Directing a glare at his friend, Masaki knew that his eyes would indicate his distaste for the joke. Not that George had done anything particularly wrong, or would care all that much. Masaki just wasn't comfortable with the idea of the information getting out. Not that he would be too surprised if members of the Ten Master Clans didn't already know. Information like this didn't stay secret for very long after all.
"Don't say anything too loudly," he hissed. "We don't need the rest of the school knowing."
"Knowing what?"
A perky female voice cut into Masaki's words, causing him to bristle at the sound. Out of all the members of his "fan club," she was probably the worst. Turning slowly to give her a pleasant smile, not the he would show anything else to a classmate, he waited for her to take the recently opened seat.
"Katsura-senpai, Ichijou and I were discussing the talent shown by First High's representative in the Speed Shooting competition," George said.
And this was another of his friend's skills, Masaki reflected; twisting the truth so that a new story could be pulled out, without outright lying.
"I'm ashamed to admit it, but it's true," he said, agreeing with George. "She managed to outshine our best and brightest today."
Katsura visibly bristled at Masaki's words, and the teen feared that she may actually do something crazy. He'd heard some of the stories about what other girls had suffered when he was less indifferent to them than usual, but he had thought that the school lines would prevent her from starting an incident between the two schools.
"I can see why you wouldn't want the rest of the school to know that," she said.
A forced grin was upon her face as she spoke and Masaki had to fight back a sigh. The girl was definitely crazier than he had thought.
"Katsura-senpai, need I remind you that we are to keep all conflicts between contestants to the games themselves," George spoke up, preventing the girl from saying anything. "You and I don't want to have to get Yatsushiro-senpai involved, do we?"
Katsura stopped cold, a look of horror spreading across her face, before she schooled herself into a fairly indifferent position.
"There's no need for Yatsushiro-san's involvement. Don't worry; I won't do anything that could reflect badly on the school."
Running a hand through her medium length cyan hair, she stood up and started to move away. Mumblings about making sure that no one took her precious Ichijou could be discerned by the two males as she made her exit – creeping out Masaki and amusing George.
"You sure do attract the strange ones, don't you?" George teased.
"Shut it lolicon," Masaki growled, turning his attention back to the arena.
George blushed violently, but managed to chuckle as he watched his friend. Things would be getting interesting in the next few months.
Masaki didn't notice his friend's reaction, as he was too busy watching the awards ceremony. Mayumi was beaming at the crowds, her smile infectious, as she went to receive her award.
She truly was a professional celebrity. Even though his father hadn't given him much information about her before he left home, he was warned to be very wary of that trait. The contract bound them together, but she could easily twist things in her favour: his father's words.
Sighing, he felt a pit in his stomach. Maybe he should have turned her down, but it was too late now. He wouldn't go back on his word after giving it, so he'd just have to ride out the wave that stemmed from whatever Mayumi had planned. For all he knew, maybe it would work out.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mayumi was ecstatic. Even with the inhibition of everything that had happened to her in the past day, she had still managed to take first place in the Speed Shooting competition; and by a large margin. Standing up on the podium, she felt just as much of a rush here as she did when she was competing.
Barely listening to the congratulatory speech, Mayumi's mind shifted to the topic of getting Tatsuya's attention. She had no doubt that he had watched her match, something that she could be assured of even with his tendency to seem disinterested with almost everything around him. But she was unsure of how she would go about getting him to focus solely on her.
With Miyuki on the verge of starting her first events, and Tatsuya needing to prepare for his work as a technician, she was certain that he would be unable to spare any attention for anyone else soon enough. The fact that he was already difficult to hold the attention of didn't make her any more confident in her path. But she had to try.
Dismissed from the podium, Mayumi made her way out of the arena. Practically skipping, she headed towards the First High tent. With the event done for the day, there would be a debriefing. And at that debriefing, all the participants and technicians would be there. It was a perfect opportunity to speak to Tatsuya.
As she moved along the path, she found her thoughts drifting to her plan's shortcomings. Although she was generally confident in herself, Tatsuya was the first male to make her doubt her appeal. She knew that she was oddly proportioned for her size, but she had made it work for her. However, Tatsuya didn't seem to be lured in by that.
Instead, he seemed to require something more. And while she wasn't afraid of her skill to provide more, she felt that she lacked whatever specifics it was that he was looking for. Tatsuya seemed to be more comfortable with talking with his classmates, than he did with her. Every time that they talked he seemed to become distracted, or distant; even though he would show her the utmost respect. Getting past that would be her biggest struggle. She needed him to let her inside, and she needed to figure out a way to do that.
Her only options that she could find revolved around asking Miyuki herself. But that wasn't appealing. Not when she suspected that there was more to Miyuki's love for her brother than that of a sibling. So, she was going to have to just wing it and hope that her natural charm would win out. After all, there were no such things as love potions; at least, none that she could bring herself to use.
"Excuse me; I think we need to have a little talk."
The haughty female voice tore Mayumi out of her thoughts. Looking towards the speaker, her eyes narrowed as she discerned the woman as a Third High student. Standing up straighter, Mayumi attempted to move past the girl, but was stopped as she got in her way. Taking a closer look at her, she sighed in frustration. Standing before her was one of Third High's aces, Katsura Mamiko. This girl was one of the more promising second years, the year before she managed to take first place in crowd ball and battle board, and was now part of the main competition.
"Katsura-san, what can I do for you?" she asked politely.
The girl glowered at her, not saying a word, but Mayumi could feel the frustration radiating off of her. It seemed as if she was going to say something, but couldn't work up the nerve to say it.
"What have you said to our Crimson Prince?" she finally asked.
Mayumi jolted slightly at Katsura's words. Thinking that the girl had discovered that she was betrothed to the Third High boy, she settled down when the girl started ranting about her magical skill.
"I'll beat you for sure tomorrow," she finished.
Letting out a breath she didn't remember holding, Mayumi grinned pleasantly at the girl. A challenge was something she could deal with. Having to figure out what she was getting at about Masaki was a different topic entirely.
"We'll see about that tomorrow," Mayumi replied evenly.
Hands on her hips, Katsura glared at her.
"Yes we will. But that doesn't change the fact that you haven't answered my question," she said. "What did you say to Ichijou?"
Mayumi stepped backwards. She was caught. Despite her attempts to end the conversation, she was unable to get out of it. Katsura was unwilling to let it go and Mayumi was struggling to figure out what she should say to get the girl off her back.
"If you can beat her tomorrow, she'll tell you," another female voice said.
Mayumi glared at Mari as she walked towards the two. Although she loved her friend, there were moments where she wanted to strangle her.
"I accept," Katsura declared. "Tomorrow, I will show you that Third High is superior and that whatever you said to Ichijou is meaningless when compared to me."
Mari's face paled at Katsura's words, but Mayumi started to feel relieved. The girl was certain that she had said something to Masaki, but wasn't sure what exactly it was. And it seemed that she was one of his fangirls. That made it even easier.
"I'll gladly go against you," Mayumi finally said; speaking up for the first time since Mari had shown up.
Katsura nodded before turning and walking off; her movements looking ridiculous as she attempted to remain dignified. Mayumi placed her hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh as the girl left, but Mari was unable to manage the same. Laughter burst from her as she watched the girl, causing Katsura to stiffen suddenly and move more rigidly.
"Mari, you shouldn't do that," Mayumi hissed to her friend, still trying to stifle her laughter.
"But she's so funny. Remember during the newcomer's battle board last year?" Mari hissed back. "She definitely left an impression on the audience then."
Mayumi shook her head in amusement at the thought, but soon enough her frustration with Mari returned as Katsura disappeared from sight.
"Why did you volunteer me for that challenge?" she asked.
"Well, I thought it would get the girl off of your back," Mari answered. "And it would give you even more incentive to win your crowd ball competition tomorrow."
"By putting such confidential information at risk?" Mayumi hissed.
"Apparently," Mari said with a nervous grin. "To be honest, I didn't really think that through."
"Not at all," Mayumi agreed. "Just know that I'll remember this. And your precious Naotsugu may be finding out some… special things about you very soon."
Mari had the decency to blush at the implications.
"Yes president," she joked, ducking her head to avoid letting her blush be visible for long.
Glaring at her friend, Mayumi strode past her; heading towards the tents where she could change back into her uniform. There was still plenty that needed to be done before the day was over.
End Chapter 7
A/N: Well that took a lot longer to write then I expected. However, it is now done and ready to push the story forward immensely. Especially since we're now getting to the first major interaction between Tatsuya and Mayumi during the Nine Schools Competition, and I'll be building up what makes this story different with the next chapter as well. I don't want to just ape every event from canon (but with a slight spin on it), so the next few chapters should be a lot easier to write. Also, if anyone is really skilled in tennis, and wouldn't mind explaining a couple of things to me, I'd greatly appreciate that, as, if I'm remembering correctly, crowd ball comes across as a mix of squash (in the preliminaries) and tennis.
Well that was long, but I do hope this chapter was worth it, and that the next will be written sooner rather than later (a strong possibility now that I don't work five days a week). So, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and will look forward to the next release. Until then,
Merchant Prince
