Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 03 - Nine Schools Competition (I) (4 page)

While it was true that he was multitasking between making conversation and creating the data files, this only served as a refresher for Tatsuya.
And for Mari, who was currently idle — or more like the one who didn't want to do anything — this was a good way to pass the time, so Tatsuya was more talkative than usual.

"That's because those two are the most famous.
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Mari tilted her head, as if she didn't know where to start.
She held her fist before her mouth, as if she were about to cough (but didn't actually make the coughing sound).

"The contests in the Nine Schools Competition focus on the events in athletic magic contests that require more Magic Power."

"This I know."

Tatsuya replied without stopping his fingers from working.

"In the past, they would change the events every competition, but recent years have seen the same contests every year.

There are six contests:
'Monolith Code', 'Mirage Bat', 'Icicle Destruction', 'Speed Shooting', 'Crowd Ball', and 'Battle Board'.

Kenjutsu, Chinese magic martial arts and other combat related contests, as well as athletic competitions like gymnastics and basketball are held at a different event."

"Doesn't 'Crowd Ball' and 'Battle Board' rely heavily on physical abilities?"

"Yes.
Magicians are only human, so there's no reason to undervalue physical capabilities.
Even in 1 on 1 duels between Magicians, there are cases where the individual with the superior physical abilities has emerged victorious.
I'm sure I don't need to elaborate on this point."

"That's true."

Tatsuya knew this very well, so his agreement with Mari's words was truly heartfelt.

"Of the six contests, only 'Monolith Code' is a team event, the other five are solo acts."

"Isn't 'Crowd Ball' a two man show?"

"This is where the Nine Schools Competition gets evil.
In order to emphasize the importance of Magic Power, this contest has a solo performance rule.
I have a booklet that summarizes the rules, want to take a look?"

"Sure, I'll take a look later."

Tatsuya stopped typing and accepted a small booklet from Mari.

"Huh, a hard copy.
How strange."

"Anything related to the Nine Schools Competition wouldn't be surprising.
Virtual terminals would hurt the Magic Power's conceptual foundation.
On the other hand, besides Magicians, there are very few people that actually use substantial terminal devices, and the number of Magicians using virtual terminals has also increased."

"I see, so that's why the Nine Schools Competition uses hard copies instead of terminal devices."

"Eh?
So Tatsuya-kun prefers the usage of virtual terminals?"

She probably heard the critical elements in Tatsuya's undertone.

With Mari's normally brash manner and her amusing tendency to be "poor at organizing", it was easy to forget that she was a very perceptive individual.

Tatsuya took this under consideration and selected his words — without stopping his typing motions — more prudently.

"There is some basis that virtual terminals negatively impact Magicians that have not reached maturity.
Especially for students under twenty that are still developing their power, I think they should avoid using virtual models.
But for adult Magicians whose Magic Power has been fully developed, I don't feel that there's any reason to stop them from using virtual models."

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That's another way to look at it.
Forcing adults to abandon the efficiency gained from virtual models simply because it poses harm to children seems a little overkill."

There was a brief lull in the conversation.
Tatsuya was busy reviewing the information he inputted on the screen, so he had no way of discerning Mari's current expression, but he guessed that she would be considering his earlier comment.

No matter how ridiculously she usually acted, there was no way for her to disguise her inner sense of righteousness.

For some reason, that fact caused Tatsuya to smile a bit.

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We've drifted off topic."

Mari seemed to have arrived at some conclusion of her own before she turned the conversation back to the Nine Schools Competition without any forewarning.

"The competition is separated into the Official and Newcomer Divisions, each requiring 10 men and women, for a grand total of 40.
Only 1st Year students may participate in the Newcomer Division while the Official Division has no restrictions.
That being said, each contestant may perform only in two contests, so no 1st Year student has ever competed in the Official Division.
Even if it wasn't in the rules, there's no way for 1st Year students to stand up against the firepower of a 2nd or 3rd Year student.

Until last year, the Newcomers Division was not separated by gender, but from this year onward, both the Official and Newcomers Division will be.
Also until last year, no 1st Year female student had to compete in multiple contests, but that may be unavoidable this year."

Mari's words were out of concern for Miyuki, which was obvious without naming her aloud.

Continuously participating in magic competitions was extremely taxing on the female body.
Even though Miyuki had undergone training beyond that of a normal person, her physical stature was by nature more feeble.
It would probably be best that he provided as much aid as he could, Tatsuya thought.

"Of the six contests, four are not gender specific.
'Monolith Code' is men only and 'Mirage Bat' is women only.
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Since 'Monolith Code' is the only event where live combat is guaranteed, it's not surprising that the event is men only."

Mari might have been saying this, but her facial expression clearly didn't agree.

According to the information Tatsuya gathered from the Public Moral Committee, Mari's magic specialized in anti-personnel combat, so she must have resented being excluded from this particular event.

"The maximum number of participants per contest is three from each school, with men and women calculated separately.
So including the Official and Newcomers Division, 5 men and women have to select two of the five events while the other five can participate only in one.

As for deciding who competes in which events, that is based on whether skilled contestants should only focus on emerging victorious in one event, or maximizing profit by applying for two events; and then there is considering where the opposing aces will go, and who they will go up against.
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Since this is a team-based competition, all of these details are very important."

"Of course."

"Besides the contestants, the Nine Schools Competition allows each school to bring four people as tactical advisers, but not every school takes advantage of this option.
Our school always brings the maximum amount of personnel each year, but schools such as Third High opt to waive the tactical support when competing, relying solely on their contestants to decide their tactics."

"Yet, ironically, they are our toughest opponent."

"We've only lost to them twice, once three years ago and the other time seven years ago.
The Nine Arts Competition switched to a summer format ten years ago.
Since then, there have been 9 competitions.
Our school was the champion 5 times, Third High twice, and Second High and Ninth High have each won once."

"I believe this year's goal is for a three-peat?"

"That's right.
For us 3rd Year students, securing the championship is the true victory."

Currently, the 3rd Year students at First High were known collectively as "the strongest era".

Saegusa Mayumi, Juumonji Katsuto, Watanabe Mari.

Two of them were directly connected to the Ten Master Clans, while the third possessed similar talent.

Just the fact that all three of them were in the same year at the same school was an amazing coincidence.
In addition, the campus also boasted several students that were qualified for Rank A in high school (they were unable to obtain their licenses due to limited experience, but their raw ability alone was sufficient for their ranking based on international standards).

Even before the official roster for the Nine Schools Competition had been announced, First High was already seen as the favorite to repeat as champions.

Even if the underground gamblers were using the Nine Schools Competition as a setting, no one was taking odds for First High — that's how overwhelmingly powerful their group was.

"I hear that if everything goes according to plan, our school's victory is a foregone conclusion?"

"Probably.
There are no concerns on the contestants' end.
Even taking the Newcomers Division into consideration, as long as there's no major mishap, we should win off the points from the Official Division.
If there were any real concerns, I'd say it would be engineers."

"Engineers?
You mean people responsible for CAD maintenance?"

"Exactly, except the official term from the Nine Schools Competition is Technicians.
The CADs used at the Nine Schools Competition must be universally adaptable, so only models that fit the criteria are allowed.
On the other hand, there are only restrictions on the hardware itself, there are no restrictions on software.
How well individual CADs can be synchronized to the appropriate contestant and whether the maintenance can bring out the contestant's maximum potential are absolutely decisive in determining victory."

How fast an Activation Sequence initializes was entirely reliant on the CAD's hardware, but the efficiency of Magic Sequences was heavily influenced by the design of the CAD's software.
Given that a single second could spell the difference between victory and defeat in athletic competitions, a properly devised software program was of vital importance.

By no means did this imply that the more intricate the design was or the more processes that were used, the better the software becomes.
Software that surpassed the processing power would cause more harm than good by obstructing the hardware itself.

Given that there was a glass ceiling for hardware, the selection and allocation of software became even more important.

Tatsuya believed that, under these conditions, the competition results could change dramatically based on the engineers' skills.

"Right now, there's a dearth of talented engineers in 3rd Year when compared to qualified contestants.
Mayumi and Juumonji are capable of maintaining their own CADs so they won't have problems during the competition, but.
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In other words, Mari did not excel in this category.

Tatsuya accurately read the inference behind Mari's vague words but, precisely because he understood, he chose to say nothing.

He allowed his attention to drift away from Mari's small talk and focus back onto the data files.

Improvements in central control of public transit had led to the complete overhaul of the trolley system, with trolley cars becoming the primary source of public transportation within the city proper.
The cars on the tracks were completely controlled by a central operating room in order to ensure safety, ease of access, and the ability to combat the high volume demanded.

On the other hand, the advancement of the public transportation system had not proceeded as planned.
The program for connecting all the highways had already been inputted into the system, but most of the normal roads and expressways within city limits were still controlled by the city and had not reached a national level.

In comparison, the AI for driver assistance had improved dramatically.

As long as they hadn't been illegally modified, modern cars were incapable of causing accidents even if they tried (Katsuto's car was able to directly impact Blanche's HQ because that was a military model).

Vehicles exported to other nations also possessed the same AI system, allowing smaller countries to also benefit from this system even though they didn't have the capability to develop it themselves, which in turn lowered the frequency of accidents even further.
From an international standpoint, individual control systems trumped central control systems.