He vaguely remembers the shock, quickly followed by relief.
Alive.
He was alive.
Everything would be alright.
The sensation of falling is more prominent; the gentle darkness of the void wrapping its arms around him, embracing him, pulling him. His shell-shocked features, smoothing, assured. He allows a small smile onto his face, the ends of his mouth barely turning up. But he smiled nonetheless. It was a good feeling.
I'm sorry everyone…I've failed.
"...Shiba Miyuki, eh….."
The comment caused George to turn a curious eye towards his friend.
"It's quite rare for Masaki to show interest in the ladies, isn't it?"
The collective mutter of the other students expressed their agreement towards George's observation.
"Now that you mention it, that's quite right."
"With Ichijou's merits, usually the females are the one approaching him, so he's usually not the pursuing one, right?"
"You have no idea how many people are jealous of this fellow."
Despite the buzz of conversation, both around him, directed at him and about him, Masaki remained silent. That face was familiar.
The banquet room seemed to pulse with energy; whether it be from the nervous excitement for the competition the next day or the awkward, yet fun, mingling of teenagers in pockets of fives and sixes, meeting other students from all over the islands, chatting and flirting with their new found fellow magic technicians.
Of course, there are exceptions to every rule.
"Aaaand there goes another one. Don't you think she's being a little too harsh...maybe?"
Touko turned to Shiori, who maintained her straight face, impassive as always; however she could tell her friend was slightly amused at some of the male student's feeble attempts.
"You know how she can be...especially once she finds out you're not a member of the Hundred Families."
Turning to the side, Shiori frowned slightly. She didn't know what caused her friend to only associate with other Numbered families, but despite how she seemed to come off to other people, she was a true friend. She lost count of the number of times they had stayed up late into the night just talking.
She saw Airi glaring down another boy, who retreated quickly. This was going to be a long night for her. Her eyes turned away and scanned the room and settled on what seemed to be the center of attention for the entire room.
Huffing, Airi turned back to Touko and Shiori. She grabbed a drink off a nearby tray and sipped from the glass.
Most of her time at the banquet had been spent dealing with male advances; since she would be considered beautiful by most standards, her presence had drawn the attention of a few boys. Shiori, despite giving off an aura of aloofness, had a certain measure of grace and could be easily described as pretty; Touko, while appearing more childlike than her two other friends, also had a certain measure of cuteness that would be noticed. The three of them together had attracted a certain amount of unwanted attention.
"They just don't seem to get the message...anything interesting happen while I was warding off overenthusiastic, hormone-driven males?"
Shiori glanced back at Airi before answering. She had rebuffed her share of boys, albeit in a slightly more gentle manner. She preferred the silence, and took to watching people around the room.
"Nothing much...except for over there," she replied, nodding towards the opposite corner of the room.
"Hm?"
Airi turned to look at what was causing the bustle Shiori had pointed out. Her breath caught in her throat. The girl's gaze swiveled around and their eyes locked. She had to be most beautiful girl she had ever seen. A quick glance in Masaki's direction, and she could tell that he had been caught by that mesmerizing face and petite figure. A true feat, to capture the attention of that one. Airi turned back to the girl, who seemed to in conversation with a classmate. She wasn't sure, but she could have sworn they'd met before...
Shiori drew alongside Airi.
"She's captivated the hearts of the entire room, one could almost call it magic."
"...Do you know who she is?"
"Shiba Miyuki. Class 1-A, First High School. Astounding practical skills, even if you compare her to the best alumni of First High School. She'll be competing in Ice Pillars Break and Mirage Bat."
"Mirage Bat? So you'll be competing with her Airi."
"...I'm going to talk to her."
Without waiting on her friends, Airi strode purposefully through the center of the room, carving a path through the crowd. She had to know who she was. Given that Airi was an acknowledged beauty herself, this caused a slight stir in the atmosphere. Sensing an approach, the girl in the First High uniform turned her head slightly; realizing Airi's is intent, the students who had been conversing with the girl moved silently off in different directions.
"Hello, I don't believe we've met before. I'm is Isshiki Airi, Third High School. I look forward to being in your care."
Shiori pulled up silently. "Kanou Shiori. I also look forward to being in your care."
Touko fairly bounced up to her. "Hi! I'm Tsukushiin Touko!"
The girl smiled politely and dipped her head into a bow.
"I am Shiba Miyuki. I too look forward to being in your care."
Shiba? Not a numbered family or any side family that I can think of. Still, there's something about her…
"There's something familiar about you; tell me, have we met before? I swear I would have remembered a girl such as yourself. Shiba..."
Miyuki tilted her head slightly.
"I fear not. I too, believe I would have remembered if I'd ever met you."
"Hm...So, Shiba-san what events will you be competing in? Or are you an Engineer? Though I can't imagine someone that radiates such an aura wouldn't be an athlete."
"You guessed correctly. I'll be participating in Ice Pillars Break and Mirage Bat."
"Oh? Mirage Bat? I look forward to matching your skill."
Airi extended a hand out to Miyuki.
"I hope to have a good match. Best of luck, Shiba-san."
Miyuki reached out to grasp Airi's hand.
"Best of luck to you as well, Isshiki-san."
Airi wiped the sweat away with a towel she had borrowed from the hotel front desk. Closing her eyes, she put her back to the wall and slid down to a sitting position. She reached for the water bottle she had brought with her, but her hands grasped epty air. Cracking open her right eye, she spied a familiar face holding the bottle out to her.
"You know, there is such thing as over preparing."
Glaring up at Masaki, she took the bottle and downed a few gulps.
"Shut up and help me stretch."
Wordlessly, Masaki complied with her request. The two remained in silence for a good ten minutes. When she was finished, Masaki pulled her to her feet and the two returned to the third floor from the underground indoor track.
"...Shiori and Touko not with you?"
"They decided to turn in early. And about that over preparedness, I need to keep up my stamina; both Crowd Ball and Mirage Bat can be physically taxing if you're not careful."
The silence returned to the hallway, and since it was fairly late at night, the situation was slightly awkward.
"So...I saw that Shiba Miyuki girl caught your attention."
Blushing slightly and raising a quizzical eyebrow, Masaki turned his eyes towards Airi; catching her own look, he turned back to look straight ahead.
"...Maybe...But what makes you bring that up? I saw you talked with her a bit."
"A bit...she doesn't have a Number."
Airi seemed to punctuate the word 'Number'. Masaki knew a bit about her thing about people without numbers.
"Well, that doesn't mean anything. George says she's pretty good. Not all people without Numbers are second class, just as not all Course 2 students are any worse that Course 1 students."
The two maintained their straight faces.
"You seem awfully defensive, Prince. You're not actually smitten with her already, right?"
"Why do you care?" Masaki countered, slightly irritated, "What makes you such a great judge of character? George doesn't have a Number, and he's fine."
"You just met her and know nothing about her," Airi fired back, "What makes her so special?"
A frosty atmosphere had built up between the two. The handsome young man and the striking beauty beside him seemed the perfect couple, except for the annoyed look on their faces. To the outside observer, the two figures striding down the hallway could have been mistaken for a couple that had fighting. Masaki had decided to stop talking and instead simply walked beside her. She wondered why he didn't just up and leave her; she had been slightly annoyed, and some of it had translated into her words. What made her broach this topic anyway? She had no say in Masaki's choice of females; but deep down, part of her knew why.
The elevator to the third floor arrived and the two got out. At the fork to the boys and girls wings of the building, Airi made up her mind. Before she could get a word out after turning to apologize, Masaki spoke first.
"Sorry about that. Didn't mean to get annoyed like that."
Airi paused, but managed to keep the surprise out of her face.
"I should be apologizing as well, I didn't mean to push you."
Masaki smiled.
"I guess we're good then. Good night, Airi."
He turned to head back to the room he shared with George, but Airi called out.
"What were you doing in the basement gym anyway?"
He answered, turning his head ever so slightly, but his body remained facing forward.
"Why else? I was checking up on you. Mizuo-senpai said I might find you there. I saw you leaving during the banquet."
"O-Oh. Ok."
There was a slight sensation of butterflies in her stomach.
"Well...Thanks. Good night, Prince."
August 6, 2095; First Day of Newcomers Division
"They've increased security"
Masaki swept his eyes around the Speed Shooting stadium. George continued scrolling through the terminal, brows furrowed in concentration.
"...hmm?"
"I said they've increased security. Ever since that accident involving First and Seventh, more officials are posted around the event venues."
He shook his head.
"I guess it's well warranted; another event like that would not reflect well on the Magic Association. And as much as I would like to say that knocking one of First's "Triumvirate" out of the games is going to give Saho-senpai the advantage, and the rest of the Battle Board rounds as well, it's still I pity we couldn't face them in a fair match..."
...and it's also the first time the games have seen outside interference in a long time. Have the officials been getting lax?
"What's passed is passed, we'll capitalize on every advantage we get, and besides, we don't need to worry about the Official Division," George took his eyes off the code on the terminal screen to look up at Masaki, "just the Rookie events. That's what we're here for." His eyes dropped back down to the terminal. "Which school is going right now?"
Masaki threw a glance back onto the field.
"Fifth," grunted Masaki.
"Opinion?"
"Power is about average, looks like she's using some sort of convergence-type spell, causing the clays to be drawn towards each other, shattering them in groups. Reaction time is pretty good. No contest for Shiori in terms of ability."
George made some mental notes should she happen to be one of Shiori's opponents in the tournament round.
Masaki spoke up again.
"Hey, should you really be over here with me? I mean it doesn't take two to scout out the opposition and you are also their technician. I can handle things on this end."
"It's fine. You know I trust you to do this, but there's really nothing more I can do at this point. Besides, Airi is with her."
"If you say so."
Masaki turned back to the field; the Fifth High girl was done. His eyes went to the scoreboard. Ninety-two out of one hundred; not bad, but usually all six finalists had scores in the upper nineties, so the odds Shiori actually would go against her were slim. In Speed shooting, every single clay counted. He pulled out his own terminal and found the competition line-up. His eyes went down the list to the next competitor. First High School. Finally. He read the name listed besides the school.
"Kitayama Shizuku. The name sounds familiar…"
"I believe you are thinking about the Kitayama group," George answered without looking up. "She's the daughter of the CEO; her mother was pretty well known for her expertise in oscillation-type magic, but her father's side has no magic background. Still, she was one of the top scorers in First High's entrance exam."
Masaki looked back towards the podium where she was taking the stage. She appeared to be rather fragile and mundane-looking, but one could never judge just by appearances.
"Let's see what you're capable of, First."
The girl lifted her CAD to her shoulders.
The horn began counting down; with the last sound, the girl activated the magic, the airspace before her flashing with psion use as the activation sequence initiated.
That's quite a large scale spell.
Then the clays began firing, shattering immediately upon entering the scoring space.
Impressive...the entire scoring space is her magic activation zone. Also I've never seen that spell before. Vibration?
"Hey George, this is one you have to see."
His friend closed his terminal and joined him and the window. The two simply watched in silence as Kitayama Shizuku finished her preliminary round.
"A perfect score."
The corners of Masaki's lips curled into a smile.
I expect nothing less First. Show us your power!
"Are you nervous?"
"You know I'm not."
Airi looked back up at the monitor; they did have to give credit to First High. The Kitayama girl was walking off the podium, and her score flashed up on the board again.
"Quite the performance, don't you think?"
"It was an efficient strategy. But we'll see if she has what it takes in the elimination rounds."
Shiori checked over her CAD on more time.
"By nature of her magic, it's easy if she is just out to destroy as many clays as she can. But in the versus rounds, two players are on the field, and double the amount of clays. However, she can't just destroy everything in sight, or she would be destroying both hers and her opponents targets. She has to differentiate between her own targets and her opponents targets, something that spell can't do."
Satisfied with her final preparations, she stood up.
"She posses high destructive capability, but that's not all that it takes to win Speed Shooting."
"THIRD HIGH, KANOU SHIORI"
Adjusting her goggles, she hefted her CAD to her shoulder. Like her opponent before her, it was rifle-shaped. The foghorns sounded the countdown.
I will show you that brute force is not the only option in this game.
"~Ah! Ai-ri! Over here!~"
Airi caught the almost musical tinkle of Touko's voice over the hub of the crowd. She looked towards the direction of the sound; the petite girl was waving her arms from the front row of the Third High section.
"Thank you Touko."
"So? How is she? Is she ready?"
Sitting down, she crossed her arms and legs.
"Hey, give me some time to catch my breath! So many questions!" huffed Airi
She let a small smile creep onto her face.
"She's ready. That spell was designed just for her and this event."
"Oooh, I can't wait to see it in action. It's been three months since you, Shinkuro-kun and Shiori-chan have been working on this right?"
"Yeah," Airi turned back towards the lone figure on the podium. "Time to see the fruits of our labor."
Clays began firing as the countdown finished, but Shiori didn't activate her magic until there were at least five clays suspended in the air. The slight delay didn't seem to slow her down even a little thought, and once the first clay chattered, it seemed that all the rest followed suit almost instantly.
"Shiori-chan seems to be doing good, but I don't see anything really special about that spell."
"The spell that she's using is incredibly difficult and requires a high level of concentration."
Airi began answering, but didn't move her eyes from the field.
"Other than the first clay, she isn't using anything other a simple combination of Movement and Speed type magic. The real challenge is directing the vector in the right direction."
"Movement and Speed? But what is she using it on?"
Airi let allowed a smile to grace her face.
"She's using it on the shards of the broken clays."
"Huh? The shards…"
"The first clay was broken with a basic vibration spell, which is easy enough for someone of Shiori's caliber. The key to the second spell - the one she's using right now, are the broken shards of the first clay. The direction they fly is by nature, not random; their paths are affected by the application of her original vibration spell. Her second spell simply takes advantage of that fact, and applies speed and movement magic in the appropriate direction. In this case, she directs them into the path of the other clays, then starts the process all over again."
"Wow...it's much more complicated than it looks."
"Indeed. This spell requires a strong sense of space and a foundation in vector algebra. Shiori can pull it off because she has the computing power to do it. She has to make countless calculations a second just to direct a single shard in the right direction, and she's not doing it just for one shard, but she can be controlling up to five at the same time. The name of the spell is 'Shatter Chain'"
Touko turned back to the field. Now that she looked more closely, she could see small magic sequences activating at seemingly arbitrary points in the airspace, but she knew those were the shards being shot through the air.
What concentration…
The last clay shattered and the buzzer sounded. On the scoreboard, the number of broken clays flashed and all a low buzz arose from the crowd.
"Another perfect score!"
"As expected from Third High."
"Who do you think is better, Kitayama or Kanou?"
"Who knows? I hope they face each other in the elimination rounds though!"
"What do you think about her, Shizuku?"
A group of First High students observed the round from the observation deck above the field.
"She will be a challenging opponent."
Shizuku's deadpanned voice held a tint of admiration.
"What about you Tatsuya? What do you think?"
Impressive choice of spell. Third High's strategist is certainly good. Even if I had the ability to use 'Shatter Chain', such a high level of computing power may be beyond even my reach.
"First High will take this event for sure."
...I think.
"Shi-o-ri-chan! Congratulations on making it to the semi-finals!"
Alongside Airi and Touko, who had swamped her with a hug, George and Masaki had joined them after coming down from the observation room.
"Indeed, that was a spectacular performance," Masaki intoned.
Shiori shook her head.
"No, it's thanks to all of you for helping me that I was able to pull that off, especially Kichijouji-kun."
"It's nothing, just doing my job as your engineer. Anyway, how did you feel during the match? Any discomfort with the CAD or the sequence?
"No, everything is just fine."
"In that case, there's nothing to do but rest up. Your semi-finals match is with…"
"Shizuku, how does the CAD feel? It's a completely different model from the one you used in the preliminaries. There's almost no time, but if there's the slightest discomfort, I'll readjust it as much as possible, so feel free to tell me anything."
Aiming the CAD and pulling the trigger a few times, she lowered her arms and hugged the CAD to her body.
"There's nothing of the sort. Rather, it feels so comfortable it's almost frightening."
"I see. Then there's nothing else to be done."
Tatsuya glanced up at the clock.
"Well, it's almost time. You should start heading over to the waiting area. Good luck Shizuku; if you perform as always, you'll definitely win."
She gave a brief but more vigorous nod than usual.
"You've made all the preparations for victory, so now all I need to do is take it."
Shiori strode confidently through the tunnel leading outside to the podium. Turning the corner, she came face to face with her opponent for the next match. The two stopped and simply stared at each other, sizing their adversary up.
"...Kitayama Shizuku."
"Kanou Shiori...I won't lose to you."
A small, solemn smile came upon Shiori's face.
"Neither will I."
Shizuku answered with her own, barely noticeable smile.
Turning away from each other, the two exited the tunnel side by side to the deafening roar of the crowd.
"Under the rules of Speed Shooting, as long as you do not directly interfere with your opponent, you can do whatever you want. That means being able to interfere with your opponent's clays. You know what that means, right?"
George folded his arms across his chest and turned back to Shiori.
"Because of its large area of effect, in order to use that spell, she'll have to use a modified version, one that includes a convergence sequence in it. She'll tag her clays, to draw them into an epicenter, and then detonate. As a side effect of it, your clays will be pushed out from the epicenter, which will be both a positive and a negative externality."
The two competitors mounted the podium, Shiori on the right and Shizuku on the left. Before lowering her goggles, she glanced one last time at her adversary.
My clays will be pushed nearer the edges; it's a good thing because I don't have to worry as much about differentiating my clays from hers, but because she'll be moving them, I have to focus on where they'll be. It's a reaction game from here on out.
She pulled down her goggles and hefted the CAD to her shoulders. The first horn sounded and the range blossomed to life as Shizuku activated her spell. Shiori readied her own spell, the muzzle of her CAD blazed with the invocation of her own activation sequence.
The last horn sounded and clays began firing.
As expected, First High had modified the code and added a convergence sequence into the mix. Red clays tended inwards while her own white clays seemed to stay in the periphery.
Simple.
She activated 'Shatter Chain' and several of her clays exploded.
The spectators in the stands watched mesmerized at Shizuku's raw magic power and Shiori's finesse and accurate shots.
Mitsui Honoka and Shiba Miyuki watched solemnly from the First High section.
"Shizuku is trailing…"
Miyuki cast a glance towards the scoreboard.
-32 to 31-
"It's a close gap. It's still anyone's match."
High above, Shiba Tatsuya observed the contest, clipboard in hand.
Third High is still managing to maintain a lead. That girl has incredible powers of concentration and calculation. Still, while maintaining that level of concentration is impressive, one small misstep can destroy everything…
-57 to 54-
"The gaps widened."
Masaki nodded.
"If she can maintain her current level, she'll win this match."
But there's something...off...no...she's using a completely different spell from the preliminaries! Its a convergence sequence that causes the clays to shatter upon impact of each other...but there are some clays that didn't enter that radius of convergence, and yet she still managed to destroy them. That should be impossible, unless…!
Clays shot into the field and were promptly destroyed. While there was a point gap, it was very slim, neither contestant giving ground.
Shiori targeted one of the shards from a broken disc. Calculating the trajectory of the new target as well as the disc, she released her magic. The shard flew straight for the target disc.
And the target promptly moved.
No way! That should have struck unless…! She threw it off course with her convergence magic?
A quick survey of the field showed that her opponent had made a mistake as well, with one disc too far out to be subject to the convergence. It was alright if both had made a mistake, the point gap would still be there.
Shizuku's stray clay shattered.
What! How? It's too far out! Did she use a different spell? But that's not possible with a specialized CAD! Don't tell me that's…
"A general-purpose CAD," Masaki said.
George mumbled in response. "I can't believe First managed to pull that one off... they completely blindsided us. A strategy like that...they can use multiple spells and have access to the auxiliary sightings of a specialized CAD."
"Kitayama is using two different sequences. When there is a cluster of discs, she uses the convergence sequence to smash the clays together. For stray clays, a simple vibration spell is enough."
Masaki crossed his arms.
"Truly an impressive feat, not just for Kitayama herself, but the engineer as well. This isn't going to go over well for Shiori. Her magic requires intense concentration. A single miss, while it won't do much in terms of score, will affect her mentally."
Shiori grit her teeth.
Focus!
She knew she had lost her edge in this competition, but she could still win.
She aimed the current shard…
and missed again.
...WHAT A FAILURE…
Shiori involuntarily stiffened.
Nononono not this! Anything but this!
Her shadows had come back.
...WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WOULD ACCOMPLISH...
Darkness creeped into the edges of her vision and she felt them curl around her legs. After all this time, she thought they had left for good.
Another miss.
Not this. Not THEM.
Another miss.
"...no…"
Shiori let out an involuntary whisper.
The final clay was fired and the ending buzzer went off.
Final score: 92 to 96, First High victory.