Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

Chapter 6

August 1 st .

No one in Japan (whether it be the government, the military, or even the Ten Master Clans) was aware of the looming threat.

The topic of the phone call Miyuki received this sultry afternoon was something very peaceful.

“Huh? To hold a Nine Schools Competition? By yourself?”

In early May, the Nine Schools Competition event was cancelled for this year because the magic that was developed by Tatsuya and used by Shizuku at the Competition , ‘Active Air Mine’ , was later used by guerillas as a large-scale weapon of slaughter. Followed by the series of military incidents involving magicians, the question of the Competition  resumption wasn’t even considered. Additionally, it’s been rumored that the Competition is to be abolished altogether.

So to suddenly hold the Competition at only the initiative of magic high school students – Miyuki’s surprise was reasonable.

“It’s not going to be the full Nine Schools Competition, just ‘Monolith Code’ matches.”

Honoka heard this too from Igarashi, the Club Management Group leader, when she came into the school library to access additional reference material in preparation of the university entrance examination.

“ It’s kinda sad without exchanging friendly matches between the nine schools  like the usual Nine Schools Competition – this topic  has been hyped among all of the Club Management Group leaders of each school. First High is taking the lead for the preparations.”

“Quite a good guy, that’s pretty much Igarashi-kun.”

The angle of the image on the monitor suddenly changed and displayed Honoka’s feet.

Next there was a panicking voice: “uwa uwaa” heard from the speakers, the monitor went blank and a melody for waiting on hold started playing.

Tatsuya and Miyuki looked at each other. For them it wasn’t hard to imagine what happened. Very likely, Honoka bumped her head against the camera when bowing down. Miyuki’s room had a video phone with a monitor that had an integrated camera, but a common compact mobile video phone model had a separate, adjustable camera. [It could be assumed that Honoka had the latter of the two models .]

The video phone returned to the call state after about 10 seconds.

“…I’m really sorry…”

The monitor displayed the stooping Honoka with a tear-stained face.

“I have heard the story. It’ll be difficult to finish  until the end of the month.”

Tatsuya thought that awkward attempts to comfort her would be counterproductive, so he immediately talked about the main issue.

“If we had a longer timeline, it would be possible to gather private sponsors, but since there’s only one month left before the Matches the most plausible optionis is having military cooperation.”

“Military cooperation? But how…?”

Honoka, whose attention was luckily distracted from her disgraceful behavior, asked with a tilted head. Judging by the expression on her face, they had seemingly reached the same conclusion as Tatsuya,  but they’d failed to find a concrete plan to do it, and reached a deadlock.

“We asked almost all of the alumni who joined the military, but they all refused due to the lack of time.”

“The graduates are required to be  ready for dispatching as combat magicians. They  may want to ‘lend a helping hand’  to the current students, but have no free time.”

Despite the fact that the New Soviet Union’s invasion was repelled, the NSU only lost a fraction of its naval power. Compared to the Great Asian Union, which lost 30% of their entire fleet in one attack at the end of October 2095, it was really an insignificant amount. Now, when their alliance with the USNA is unstable, the Self-Defense Forces personnel looking after the border should stay in combat readiness for another NSU invasion.

“Hmm, right… The deceased His Excellency Kudou was always looking forward to the Nine Schools Competition every year. If you ask the military’s Public Relations Department to hold memorial Inter-School Matches in his memory, they’ll probably at least help with preparing the venue.”

“I see! I think that’s a very nice idea!”

From the monitor, it seemed Honoka leaned forward suddenly …No, she actually got her face closer to the camera.

Tatsuya was almost taken aback by her eyes filled with glittering light, but he maintained a poker face while adding this line:

“There’s no other choice but to collect the accommodation and transportation expenses from donations – I’ll ask FLT for some assistance.”

“I understand. I’ll tell that to Igarashi-kun.”

After nodding cheerfully, Honoka suddenly began fidgeting.

“Uhm, Tatsuya-san. Actually, we’ve all planned to go to Shizuku’s villa the day after tomorrow. So, if it doesn’t bother you, can we drop by there on the way…?”

“No, it won’t be a bother.”

Miyuki broke into the conversation right after Tatsuya nodded in assent.

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