Enrollment Arc, Part II

by Tsutomu Sato

  “Yeah, you’re right. I’ll see you…” later. Tsukasa didn’t get a chance to say the rest of it.

  “Oh, one second. There’s something I want to ask.”

  His heart leaped into his throat. “Me?” he replied, somehow hiding his surprise and making the best confused look that he could.

  “Yeah, you, Tsukasa.” Tatsumi’s voice made Tsukasa more anxious. He felt like his tone implied that he knew everything. “Our chairwoman has this really unenviable skill, you see,” he began, seemingly without any context—though it did nothing to lessen Tsukasa’s caution. “She can use air currents to combine all sorts of fragrances. One of the things she can make is a truth serum, without even using anything illegal.”

  Tsukasa desperately bit back a shriek that was dangerously close to coming out. It was futile, though.

  “You don’t need to pretend everything’s fine, Tsukasa. You know it as well as I do. Word’s out—word that you’re the one who guided them here.”

  Without another word, Tsukasa spun on his heel.

  He might have been a Course 2 student lacking in magical ability, but perhaps as a result of his kendo training, he was confident with high-speed-movement magic. Though Tatsumi looked slow-witted, he was the best speed fighter among the seniors—but in a long-distance race, Tsukasa should have had an advantage.

  So he thought, but his plan was ruined before he even took a second step.

  “Tsukasa! I’m going to have to ask you to come with me, sir!”

  An annoyingly assertive voice—or, more accurately, the voice’s owner—stepped in front of him to block his way.

  “Sawaki… Why are you two all the way out here?” His voice rose in a groan. All the commotion was happening in front of the library. Why would the disciplinary committee’s big guns be here, of all places? It wasn’t strange for Tsukasa to wonder about that.

  “You didn’t notice? We’ve been watching you all day. We got some help from a certain person who has remote viewing abilities. You didn’t give yourself away at all, so we thought maybe we were wrong, but in the end, we saw you trying to run away.”

  As Tsukasa listened to Tatsumi talk happily behind him, he decided to force his way through. He’d have to go through Sawaki. With the situation he was in, going back on campus would be suicidal. But though Sawaki was only a sophomore, he was the school ace of magic martial arts, the term for magic-based close combat. Without a weapon, Tsukasa didn’t stand a chance—at least, not in a fair fight.

  Tsukasa pulled out the wristband around his right hand. Under it was a thin, narrow bracelet of brass—an antinite bracelet. He triggered its Cast Jamming. He knew that scattering jamming waves with the two of them there was the same as declaring he was their ally. But he couldn’t afford to think past this situation right now. He needed to cut his way through this disaster and contact his brother. This was the somewhat obsessive, unreasonable thought that controlled his actions.

  Sawaki grimaced as Tsukasa turned to him and charged. Magic martial arts were purely magical techniques to supplement one’s physical body and grant powerful combat abilities. In a situation where he couldn’t use magic, then even without a weapon, Tsukasa’s skills as a kendo practitioner, which weren’t based in magic at all, should have prevailed. That’s what he believed as he attacked Sawaki with a bare-handed chop.

  It was easily parried. There was a hard impact to his side—Sawaki’s elbow was buried in his abdomen. He crumpled to the ground.

  “You misunderstand, Tsukasa,” said Tatsumi lowly and sympathetically as he looked down at him. “Sawaki’s way above average even without magic. A lot of people make that mistake. But when you think about it, unless you can perform without magic, you won’t be able to do much just by layering magic on top.”

  Tsukasa moaned in pain, unable to reply. Sawaki silently tied him up.

  In the nurse’s office, Sayaka’s questioning began.

  Her right arm was still healing, and at first the school doctor tried to stop them from exciting her too much, but Sayaka had wanted to talk about everything now.

  The student leaders of the school were all present at the questioning—Mayumi, Mari, and Katsuto. Kinoe Tsukasa, believed to be the mastermind, had been arrested, and the mayhem outside had, for the most part, calmed down, but they still didn’t know any of the specifics. The outside invaders had been arrested and were being watched over by the faculty, who were going to give them over to the police. The student council president, club committee chairman, and disciplinary committee chairwoman, in their positions as students, couldn’t get involved. On the other hand, Tsukasa wasn’t yet in a state where he could be interrogated. Given the fact that their only source of information at the moment was being able to ask for details about the incident from Sayaka, it wasn’t strange that the three of them had all gathered here.

  Sayaka’s story began from when she was drawn into her allies’ circle.

  About how last year, she had been spoken to by Tsukasa almost immediately after enrolling. About how the kendo club already had more than a few members who sympathized with Tsukasa at the time. About how it wasn’t just the kendo club—they were holding thought education posing as an autonomous student magic practice circle. They had built up a foothold from inside First High over a longer span of time than the administration had imagined, and that fact surprised Mayumi and the others.

  The one most shocked by Sayaka’s story must have been Mari. She was shocked by something different from Mayumi and Katsuto, though.

  “Sorry, I don’t really have a clue…” Erika shot a thorny stare at the bewildered Mari, but she didn’t have the mental leeway at the moment to notice it. “Is that true, Mibu?” she asked, confusion pouring from her voice.

  Sayaka looked down, but not for more than a second. When she brought her face back up, she nodded, looking deflated. Then she replied in an equally deflated tone, “Now that I think about it, I was probably letting my title of kendo belle from middle school go to my head. So when I saw Watanabe’s brilliant magic sword skills during an exhibition they put on to draw in new kenjutsu club members and asked you for instruction, it was a big shock how coldly you treated me… I figured you hadn’t listened to me because I was a Course 2 student, and I got really down.”

  “Wait… Wait a second. The recruitment week last year, right? When I was roasting those rash people in the kenjutsu club? I remember that. I didn’t forget about how you asked me to be your practice partner. I didn’t treat you coldly or anything, though,” she said, cocking her head in real confusion.

  “People who say hurtful things don’t usually know they’re doing it, you know,” objected Erika, her voice cynical.

  Tatsuya stopped her, though. “Erika, be quiet for a moment.”

  “What? You’re gonna take her side, is that it?”

  “I said just be quiet for a moment. We can listen to comments and criticisms after her story is over.”

  Erika made a glum face at having had the door slammed in her face, but quieted down nonetheless.

  After a brief silence, Sayaka, who seemed like she was struggling, argued, “You said I wouldn’t even be a match for you, and that I should find someone who would be better for me… And to be told that by an upperclassman I looked up to right after entering high school, it was just…”

  “Wait… No, wait. You misunderstood, Mibu.”

  “Huh?”

  “If I recall correctly, this is what I said: ‘I’m sorry, but with my skills, I can’t possibly be a match for you. I would just be wasting your time. You should practice with someone who can match your skills.’ …Am I wrong?”

  “Uh, well… Now…now that I think of it…”

  “Besides, I would never tell you that you were no match for me. Your sword skills have always been better, ever since then.”

  Sayaka just stared at her with a vacant expression. Meanwhile, Mayumi asked Mari a question. “Wait a second, Mari. Then you declined to be Mibu’s partner because
she was stronger?”

  “That’s right. I might be better if we let magic into the argument, but…my sword skills are built around the principle of using them together with magic. They deal with how to move your body and use your weapon in a way that maximizes how effective your magic is. There’s no reason I could match Mibu, trained purely in the way of the sword.”

  “Then…that was all…a misunderstanding on my part…?”

  An uncomfortable silence crept into the nurse’s office and slowly expanded.

  “I must…I must seem like an idiot… I misunderstood you…and looked down on myself…and hated you for it… I let a whole year go to waste…”

  Only Sayaka’s sobbing could be heard.

  Tatsuya was the one to break the silence. “I don’t believe that it was a waste.”

  “…Shiba?”

  He peered straight into her eyes as she brought her face up, then continued, his voice polite and understanding. “When Erika saw your skills, she said this: that the kendo belle she knew, who won second place in the middle school nationals, was so much stronger she was like a different person. Strength gained from hatred and bitterness may be a sad form of power, but they’re your own skills that you acquired yourself, and no one else. You weren’t obsessed with your bitterness, and you didn’t lose yourself to lamentation. This year, you’ve greatly polished your skills of your own accord, so I believe it this year wasn’t a waste at all.”

  “……”

  “There are many different opportunities for people to become strong. You can’t count the reasons for hard work in the hundreds or thousands. I think you only let the days of effort go to waste when you reject the effort, the time, and the results.”

  “Shiba…” Sayaka’s eyes, looking up at Tatsuya, were flooded with tears. But behind them, she smiled. “Shiba, I have a request.”

  “What is it?”

  “Could you come a little closer?”

  “…Like this?”

  “One more step.”

  “All right…”

  The mood changed to one of relief.

  But that…

  “Okay, now please…”

  …soon changed…

  “…don’t move from there.”

  …to one of surprise when Sayaka grasped Tatsuya’s clothes tightly and buried her face in his chest and began to sob. Her sobbing quickly transformed as, clinging to his chest, she began to cry loudly.

  As everyone present exchanged shaken glances, Tatsuya silently put her hands on her slender shoulders. Miyuki saw this and lowered her eyes.

  After finally regaining her calm, Sayaka was able to speak regarding Blanche, the organization backing the coalition.

  “It’s just as you thought, Tatsuya,” noted Miyuki.

  “It was such a likely option that it’s not interesting at all…”

  “That’s how reality is, Chairwoman. The problem now is…” The conversation was about to be derailed, but Tatsuya got it back on track with an especially uninteresting precept. “Where are they right now?” he said, as though their future course of action had already been decided.

  “…Tatsuya, do you actually plan on having a battle with them?” asked Mayumi hesitantly.

  “I don’t believe that would be the right way to put it. I’m not going to have a battle with them—I’m going to crush them,” said Tatsuya simply, nodding and adding to how extreme he was being.

  Mari was the one to immediately protest. “It’s too dangerous! This is way out of the league of a student!” She was always on the front lines when it came to dealing with problems, albeit school-related ones, but it was essentially a matter of course that she’d be sensitive to the danger.

  “I’m against it as well. We should leave incidents not related to school to the police,” said Mayumi, shaking her head, also with a strict expression. However…

  “Then do you plan on sending Mibu to family court for attempted robbery?”

  Their faces stiffened up at his words—they were at a loss.

  “I see. Police intervention wouldn’t be the best thing,” said Katsuto. But we can’t just leave them be. They might cause a similar incident in the future. But know this, Shiba.” His glaring eyes pierced Tatsuya’s own. “These are terrorists. Your life could be at risk should you be careless. Neither Saegusa, nor Watanabe, nor I can order a student of this school to put their life on the line.”

  “No, of course you can’t,” answered Tatsuya fluidly in the face of his stare. “I never planned on asking the disciplinary or club committees to help me in the first place.”

  “…You want to go alone?”

  “I would, if at all possible.”

  “I will come,” came the voice of his little sister without a moment’s delay, causing a dry grin to come over his face.

  “I’m coming, too!”

  “And me.”

  Erika and Leo both expressed their own wishes to participate.

  “Shiba, if you’re doing this for me, then please, can’t you stop this?” said Sayaka hastily, trying to stop them. “Why don’t we leave it to the police like the president said? I’ll be fine. I did something wrong, and I should be punished. If anything were to happen to any of you, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”

  Tatsuya turned back with an expression unsuitable for answering the girl’s sincerity. “I’m not doing this for you, Mibu,” he said coldly and pointedly. Sayaka quieted, her face betraying her shock. “My living space has become a target for terrorism. I’m already a related party. I will eliminate everything that tries to harm Miyuki’s and my daily lives. This is, for me, of the utmost importance.”

  He wasn’t pretending to be the evil one so that Sayaka wouldn’t have to feel any burden, either. Even those who didn’t know him as well as Miyuki—Leo, Erika, Mayumi, and Mari—all grasped what he was really saying.

  His gaze, like a glistening sword, made them understand.

  It wasn’t anger or a desire for battle—it was Tatsuya’s confidence, or perhaps his determination, to speak of a future in which the terrorist threat had already been eliminated. Even Katsuto found himself unable to speak.

  “But Tatsuya, how will we pinpoint Blanche’s location?” asked Miyuki amid the silence. “I am sure they have vacated the temporary position Mibu knows of, and it doesn’t seem that they have left any substantial clues.” Only she spoke to her brother like she normally would.

  “You’re right. That goes for Tsukasa, too. Though it’s not necessarily that they didn’t leave clues—more like they never placed any to begin with.”

  “Then…?” prompted Miyuki, interested in why her brother didn’t seem perplexed at all, despite saying they had nothing to go on.

  “If we don’t know something, we just need to ask someone who does.”

  “…Someone knows?”

  “Anyone in mind, Tatsuya?”

  Tatsuya shrugged off Erika’s and Leo’s questions and remained silent as the door to the room opened.

  “Miss Ono?” said Mayumi.

  In through the door came Haruka, giving a vaguely worried smile and wearing a pantsuit. “…I suppose I was naive to think I could completely conceal myself from Yakumo’s treasured student…” she remarked openly, referring to Tatsuya, grinning drily.

  He kept his face expressionless, but his voice in reply was subtly amazed. “You weren’t trying to hide yourself at all. If you keep lying like that, ma’am, soon we won’t even know how you really feel.”

  “I’ll be more careful.” Tatsuya invited her over and Haruka approached the bedside. She crouched down and locked eyes with Sayaka, who was sitting in bed. “It looks like you’ll be all right.”

  “Miss Ono…”

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you.” Sayaka shook her head at that. Haruka placed a hand on her shoulder, then stared intently into her eyes for a few moments before retreating from the bed.

  “Wait. You know where these Blanche guys are, Haru?”

 
One might have expected the person who spoke to have said, “Who are you?” That didn’t happen. Instead there came an unusual nickname Tatsuya had never heard that didn’t fit the speaker at all.

  “‘Haru’?”

  “Huh? Tatsuya, you didn’t know?”

  He probably thought it was a natural question, but upon being asked about it, Tatsuya faltered for a moment, unsure of how to reply.

  “Everyone in class calls her that, ya know. Haru says she doesn’t mind, either!”

  “Not everyone! Only some of the boys in class call her that. Don’t let him fool you, Tatsuya!”

  “R-right…” The tension in the air lessened completely at this unexpected skit. But then he thought this might be better than people getting too tense for no good reason—of course, that was probably just so he could convince himself. “—Anyway, Miss Ono—”

  “You can call me Haru, too.”

  “—Miss Ono, ma’am. Now that we’re out of options, you can’t feign ignorance anymore, can you?”

  “You’re no fun.”

  “……”

  “…Ahem.” Perhaps thinking her blank stare at Tatsuya unskillful now matter how one looked at it, she cleared her throat—this, too, was acted more than done seriously—and she adjusted her position. “Could you take out a map? That would be faster.”

  Tatsuya silently brought out his information terminal. He unfolded the screen and called up his map application. Haruka took her terminal out as well, one quite a bit more dainty and stylish than his own, and turned on its light communication function.

  His map booted up and displayed a marker at the position it had been sent from hers.

  “…That’s basically right across town!”

  “…Are they making fun of us?”

  As implied from Leo’s and Erika’s indignant responses, it wouldn’t even take an hour to walk there.

  Tatsuya magnified the map and changed the information display. The marker indicated an abandoned bio-fuel factory built in a hilly area on the outskirts of town.

  “…The factory was abandoned after it was discovered to be a front for environmental terrorists and they ran away overnight,” he read aloud from the attached data.