Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 03 - Nine Schools Competition (I) (45 page)

"Uh.
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Yeah."

"There's no need to worry on that account.
The risks from virtual terminal devices arise from the user's inexperience.
If used strictly for testing realistic conditions, then it's actually quite a valuable tool."

"I don't follow.
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Honoka's tone towards Tatsuya was very polite, but there were traces of Miyuki's influence mixed in.

"Magic is a skill that uses perception to temporarily alter reality.
Virtual terminal devices create illusions that people mistake for reality."

Tatsuya's explanations were always attentive and exhaustive, which possibly was a reflex on his part.

"The two of them share the distinction that they project an unnatural phenomenon into reality.
On the other hand, by experiencing the phenomenon through the virtual terminal device, there's no need to expend energy to rewrite reality, nor is there a risk for spell failure.
Herein also lies the risk for virtual terminal devices."

Tatsuya temporarily stopped at this point.

Because he felt that he was being overly loquacious.

However, his friends that were arrayed in front of him wore equal parts understanding and incomprehension on their faces, so he felt that his explanation wasn't detailed enough and plodded on.

"Virtual terminal devices would cause a Magician to hallucinate and believe that they can effortlessly alter reality with no consequence.
People incapable of using magic wouldn't run into this problem in the first place.
Skilled Magicians would be able to differentiate what they are capable of, but immature Magicians may confuse the difference between what they experienced in the virtual world with what they can actually accomplish and overestimate their abilities.

Once immature Magicians have become accustomed to altering reality without the concepts of hard work or failure, they become unable to reflect upon why they cannot use magic to successfully rewrite reality and lose the ability to think critically and the drive to do so.
Hence the popular belief that immature Magicians still studying magic experience harm from using virtual terminal devices."

Tatsuya paused again to survey his friends' faces.

Additional explanations were probably unnecessary, but he'd still conclude as a precaution.

"In other words, the problem lies in whether the user believes he or she has accomplished something they were previously unable to.
Utilizing virtual terminal devices to test the waters isn't a problem in and of itself.
That type of virtual experience actually benefits the planning phases for constructing Magic Sequences.
At the end of the day, it remains extremely challenging to pick out only the benefits, so I feel that a global ban on virtual terminal devices made perfect sense."

"Is that so.
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I actually learned a lot from that."

Tatsuya felt that Honoka's nodding was overly zealous and also believed he said too much.

Even if she heavily relied on him, he had no way of responding.
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Those were Tatsuya's heartfelt words.

The test for the prototype calculation device was set after dinner, using one of the outdoor combat training facilities on the outskirts of the Nine Schools Competition area.

Tatsuya didn't make the arrangements; Erika was the one who called on her connections.

Since arriving here, Erika seemed to be frivolously throwing around her family's influence in a self-destructive manner.

Did something happen that caused her mental landscape to change?

Speaking of which, Tatsuya recalled that something similar happened during the banquet.

Nevertheless, Tatsuya was powerless to act regardless of how worried he was.

His own emotions were only façades anyways.

It was probably better to look the other way and let an engineer's curiosity take first priority.
This was probably a more honest method to go about it.

Tatsuya convinced himself this way and once again warned himself against butting into other people's business.

"Leo, do you understand the mechanics?"

Next, he had to focus all his concentration on this test.

Even if this was something done during his leisurely time — even if this was an overly simplified way of applying modern magic — this still broke new ground for testing magic and calculation devices.

If an accident occurred due to his complacency, the one who would bear the brunt of it would be Leo and not Tatsuya.

"Uh, I think so.
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But, am I really going to do that?"

"That" likely referred to the demonstrated motions he saw within the HMD.

Likely was the wrong word to use, since that was the only possibility at this point.

"We're undergoing this test to find out."

"You're right."

This training facility was 30 minutes away from the hotel by foot.

This would pose no problems during the day, but it was night time now.

Likewise, city districts would be fine, but they were located in a military training facility in the mountains.

Miyuki and Erika stubbornly refused to cooperate, but were finally persuaded to remain at the hotel.

Despite this, Tatsuya still remained uneasy, so he called on Honoka to watch Miyuki and Mizuki to keep an eye on Erika.

Now, only Tatsuya and Leo were present.

"Let's begin."

"Got it."

Initially, they weren't going to use the slashing (more like striking) dummy.

Right now, they needed to verify the movements of the Weaponized Integrated CAD without performing any physical actions.

"Starting now."

Leo thumbed the activation button on the bottom of the hilt.

With a "clang" sound, a feathery touch crossed his fingers.

He wrapped his index finger around the trigger near the top of the handguard and started supplying psions.

Contrary to his physical impression, Leo's supply of psions wasn't explosive, but possessed an inexhaustible durability.
Correction, maybe that would be the most suitable description for his youthful and energetic side.

If a CAD was not calibrated for individual use, there would be practically no assistance in constructing Magic Sequences, so there was a small delay as the Activation Sequence was translated into the Magic Sequence.

Approximately 0.
6 seconds.

Even so, this was still much swifter than during practical skills class.

This might be caused by his personal expertise in this field of magic, or the outstanding performance from the CAD and Activation Sequence.

Regardless of which one it was or both at the same time, this detail remained unimportant.
What was important right now was to observe the activated magic in action and not the time necessary to activate aforementioned magic.

"Oh?"

Leo gasped, not because the magic was activating, but because the effects of inertia far exceeded his expectations.

"Haha, it's actually floating, how incredible!"

Leo revealed a childlike smile and swung the "sword" that had less than one half of the blade still attached.

The other half of the blade floating in midair mimicked his motion and swung in a similar arc.

"Three, two, one.
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"Whoa.
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Leo stopped upon hearing Tatsuya counting down.

"Zero."

With the end of the countdown, the blade swiftly reconnected with the "broken" blade and reformed into a complete "sword".

"Tatsuya, that was a complete success."

Leo was wearing a thoroughly delighted expression as he raised a thumb, whereas Tatsuya mirrored his gesture.

"Still, I'm impressed that you could come up with something like this.
Detaching the blade from the hilt, then using Fortifying Magic to solidify its position and 'shoot' out the blade.
I still can't believe I just did that.
Now I know Fortifying Magic can also operate by separating objects."

"That is because the core concept behind Fortifying Magic is stabilizing relative positions, and if you ignore all the stereotypes, you find that objects don't have to be physically connected to one another.
In addition, the operational form of this CAD is more like 'extension' rather than being 'shot out'.

The blade will only elongate in a linear fashion, since the middle segment is empty space."

"I never thought about that, I'll just treat this like a really~ long sword."

Just as Leo said, this weaponized calculation device wasn't like other long range system weapons that required additional energy to control, but was simply matching the motion of the blade while flying at a set distance until the magic lost effect.

"Speaking of which, why did the blade come back?
I didn't activate any other magic."

"Oh, that's simple.
That's an electric current reaction-type recall alloy, so it only separates the moment an electric current is applied to break the connection."

Leo nodded to signify his understanding, since this was a popular design in the modern era.

"So if a large force is applied during the state where magic isn't supplied, this could easily be broken."

"That's not a problem, we just have to store it in a scabbard when not in use, right?"

"That's true, shall we perform live tests on dummies?
Or test the fluctuations during separation?"

"Tatsuya, while this thing is separated, is the length adjustable?"

"That's not impossible, but exceedingly difficult.
Currently, the Activation Sequence tied to the activation button on the hilt is set as a constant, but that can be easily changed to a variable.
The challenge lies in that whenever the length needs to be adjusted, a new magic needs to overwrite the previous one."

"Is that the case?"

"If the return speed could be increased, then there's no need to concern ourselves with the changing distances in between.
After all, a real sword can't elongate itself halfway through the slashing motion."

"Yet Erika seems to be able to accomplish that feat.
What do you plan to do?"

"Well.
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Let's do a dummy test first."

"Got it."

Tatsuya manipulated a control mechanism that was slightly larger than a notepad and called up three man-sized straw dolls from the ground.

".
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Oldschool."

".
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I wonder whose hobby this is?'

Even though regenerating products had become mainstream in modern society, the oddly outdated design still prompted the two of them to exchange a helpless glance.

"Regardless.
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In terms of sheer specs, they'll do as slashing targets."

"Straw dolls don't have any "specs".
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But there's no other choice."