Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 03 - Nine Schools Competition (I) (15 page)

Miyuki swiftly glanced downwards, then swallowed hard.

The chair that was supposed to be beneath him — was gone.

Tatsuya's right leg was crossed over his left and his right elbow was directly perpendicular atop the right knee, like he was stretching the upper half of his body forward.
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As he sat in mid air.

"I also wanted Miyuki to test out this calculation device."

Tatsuya maintained this position as he slid towards Miyuki until he was roughly an arm's length away before stopping.
He then uncrossed his legs and straightened his feet much like how he would rise from a chair.

With this series of motions, his physical body naturally returned to earth

".
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Flying-Type Magic.
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Sustained Gravity-Control Type Magic has been completed!"

She was only distracted for a split second.

Miyuki nearly pounced on her brother as she seized his hand in joy.

"Onii-sama, congratulations!"

This was one of the magics that Tatsuya had been researching for some time.

Among the Four Great Systemic and the Eight Major Types of magic, the first category is the "Speed/Mass" System.

This was morphed out of the simplest of Super Powers, commonly acknowledged to be most basic magic in modern systemic magic.

That being said, while Flying-Type Magic is theoretically possible under the Speed/Mass Systems — Sustained Gravity-Control Magic, even though the basic proposal existed since the early days of modern magic, it was never successfully developed in official channels before this day.

Today during lunch, Flying-Type Magic was the subject of considerable debate.
Modern magic's general consensus was that while the theory was sound, the practical application was impossible.

Even so, another cornerstone of modern magic laws was overturned before Miyuki's eyes.

"Once again Onii-sama has turned the impossible possible!
To be able to witness this turning point in history, and the fact that the person who accomplished this towering achievement is my elder brother, I am extremely proud to be called your sister!"

Her hands tightly clasping Tatsuya's right hand, Miyuki looked ready to throw her arms around him, while Tatsuya gently covered his sister's hands with his left.

"Thank you, Miyuki.
Although they didn't intend to use it solely towards flying, Ancient Magic has already reached this level of flying capability, but today we took another big step towards realizing the goal."

"The flying abilities of Ancient Magic can only be used by a small minority of Magicians and are a unique ability that depends on the subject, right?
However, isn't Onii-sama's Flying-Type Magic usable by anyone with sufficient Magic Power?"

"At present, I have set that as the first objective.
I hope Miyuki will help me test this."

"Delighted to!"

Miyuki's eyes shone as she nodded quickly.

After listening to the instructions, Miyuki looked towards the newly maintained CAD in her left hand.

Just like Miyuki's regular CAD, this was a model shaped like a mobile terminal.

However, the dimensions were much smaller than Miyuki's originally tiny model and could be comfortably obscured within her slender palm.

The only similarity was the overall shape of the mobile terminal model.

This CAD was a Specialised Calculation Device.

Miyuki wasn't familiar with Specialized models, but the operation was simple enough.

There was only a power switch and, once activated, the CAD would automatically absorb psions from the user in order to continuously fuel the Activation Sequence until the power was exhausted.
On some level, this was a fairly barbaric item.

However, the psion consumption rate for the device had been lowered to the absolute minimum.

The purpose behind the design was to minimize the stress placed on the user.

"Begin test."

Her throat quivered slightly from the overwhelming nervousness she felt.

The fact that her hand wasn't trembling was enough for Miyuki to want to congratulate herself.

Even if the test failed, Onii-sama wouldn't blame her.

Rather, Onii-sama would likely redesign the "Flying Calculation Device" from scratch.

She refused to allow her own inadequacies to increase her brother's burden.

Miyuki thumbed the CAD's power switch.

She knew without looking that the calculation device was currently absorbing her body's psions.

Even so, the amount was small enough that she had to pay extra attention to detect it.

It was only at a slightly elevated level compared to the normal loss of excess psions.

By the time she realized this, the Activation Sequence had already been stored into the Magic Calculation Area.

Though she was forewarned by Tatsuya's instructions, the tiny scale of the Activation Sequence still caught her by surprise.

With Miyuki's technical ability, she was able to execute dozens of copies of the same Activation Sequence with ease.

Even if the scale was tiny, every critical detail was recorded within.

Miyuki felt that this was an Activation Sequence completely stripped of anything unnecessary to boost efficiency to the max.

The variables were inputted into the Activation Sequence, beginning Magic Sequence construction.

Generally, Magicians wouldn't pay attention to these phases.

Magicians would typically use language formulas or images to properly formulate the desired phenomenon change, and then dive into the subconsciousness.

The Magic Calculation Area's job was to transform the imagined reality into data for the Magic Sequence.
The "variables" in the Activation Sequence refer to the portions that must be created from the Magician's imagination.

Magicians can feel the Activation Sequences that have been absorbed into their physical body, just as they are able to sense the Magic Sequence being constructed within them.
However, the construction process for Magic Sequences is partially involuntary and is not subject to conscious interference.

If this wasn't the case, based on human limits of understanding and comprehension of data, there would be no way to create Information Bodies capable of influencing reality.

Miyuki imaged herself floating to the ceiling's height.

All of a sudden, the bounds of gravity disappeared.

Her five senses lost touch with her environment as if her body had phased out of reality, causing Miyuki to panic slightly.

That being said, Miyuki's soul was filled with a delight that far exceeded that paltry sense of panic.

She never knew flying was such a liberating experience.

She was almost envious of the astronauts that strode across the stars with 80% of this feeling.

She also pitied them for having to wear cumbersome space suits in order to enjoy such pleasure.

Miyuki earnestly wished to leave this narrow basement and freely soar through the skies.

"How is it?
Is the Loop System too stressful?"

Her brother's voice quickly pulled Miyuki's mind back to earth.

Miyuki was terribly embarrassed that she was engrossed in the pleasure of flight during such a critical experiment.

Even so, this wasn't the time for self-loathing.

Miyuki, you have to step up — Miyuki mentally scolded herself before answering her brother's question.

"No problems whatsoever.
There are no headaches or sense of exhaustion."

"Excellent.
Next is gradual parallel motion, get used to slowly accelerating yourself, then fly as you please."

"Understood."

Miyuki followed her brother's instructions and imagined herself slowly floating parallel to the ground.

The tiny Activation Sequence automatically spread out and copied itself, constructing the Magic Sequence that changed the direction of gravity to parallel motion.

The design behind Flying-Type Magic revolved around using the Loop System to continuously invoke magic.

According to this process, as long as new conceptual ideas are not introduced into the Calculation Area, the variables would continuously mirror the original values.

With the Activation Sequence added into the self-replicating Non-Systematic Magic data near the final stages of the Magic Sequence construction process and allowing the Activation Sequence to be applied to the Magic Calculation Area, even if the CAD is not being operated, the same Magic Sequence can still be invoked — using the Loop System, that is.
Thus, the same Activation Sequence, construction of the Magic Sequence, and the data variables can be endlessly plugged in.
This is the truth behind Flying-Type Magic.

Taurus Silver's magnum opus — "Loop System", was the perfect complement to the Flight Calculation Device that Tatsuya invented.

"Is the magic disjointed?"

"Not at all.
As expected of Onii-sama, the timing is simply perfect."

The key to this system lies in recording the exact times the magic activates.

Humans are unsuited for such precise number management, so machines were absolutely necessary to fill this gap.

If the design stubbornly refused to take anything besides magic into account, then the system would be simply impossible.

Miyuki continued to follow Tatsuya's directions and incrementally raised the spiraling speed.

She used the limited space within the basement to the maximum extent.
She turned, maneuvered, and flipped as she danced in the air.

The softly floating skirt and long, silky hair followed the outstretched body to display absolutely beautiful curves.

At some point, Tatsuya forgot to objectively analyze the situation and simply stood there mesmerized at the wholly unexpected fairy dance.

Four Leaves Technology (the literal translation is "Four Leaves Technology", but the official company records and brand name intentionally used only "Four Leaves") — often shortened to FLT, had a CAD development center situated in the boondocks, nearly two hours away from Tatsuya's house by public transit (it was only one and a half hours by electric bike, but they chose to use public transit because of the rain).
Tatsuya had long since familiarized himself with this route and, precisely because he was overly familiar, the long and arduous ride only served to irritate him.

"Miyuki.
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"Yes, Onii-sama, what is it?"

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Never mind, I apologize.
It was nothing."

"Huh.
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Unlike the labs near the main corporate headquarters, whenever Tatsuya came to this lab, Miyuki usually tagged along as well, so she was probably just as familiar with this route.
But despite the dismal weather, her outlook remained much like they were on a picnic, causing Tatsuya to inquire to the reason behind that.

The reason he cut himself short after starting to ask was because when Tatsuya thought about it, he felt that this was a rather odd question.

Of course, Miyuki was quite confused, but her sunny disposition quickly returned, to the point that she was almost humming in joy.

However, the two of them had already entered the research lab, so she didn't actually make any sounds.

This was the hub for all corporate related technical research, the veritable beating heart of FLT itself, with all the security that accompanied it.
Not only were there cameras watching every angle, the number of deployed security personnel was also astounding.

Even so, no one halted Tatsuya and Miyuki.

They didn't even bother to check in at the counter before walking down the window-less corridors that led to the deepest part of the facility.

Finally, the two of them arrived at a room with one wall that was covered in windows from the ceiling to the floor.

On the other side of the windows, a deep chasm extended nearly half a floor beneath the earth that was large enough to house a hangar.

Across this open space was another room with the same observation area.

This was the CAD testing center.

Over a dozen engineers and researchers were bustling about the office debating or manipulating various measuring devices.