(A/N:-This chapter is going to be an info dump, skip if you want to...)
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"Like hell it is!" (Mari)
"Sigh..." (Suzune/Katsuto/Erik)
***
The [Newcomer's Events] continued without any hiccups.
On the 5th day of the competition, first up was Eimi who had been preparing for the women's [Pillar Break] competition.
Tatsuya had been calibrating her CAD and noted that she had not slept last night.
After winning a tense first round, Eimi used the Sleeping Docks that Miyuki prepared for the former on Tatsuya's order; to recover from her exhaustion.
Now that she was asleep, Tatsuya turned his attention to Shizuku who was participating in the [Pillar Break]; wearing a kimono.
He continued to calibrate her CAD without wasting any time and didn't press for any answers from the woman.
---
At the pavilion, Mari, Mayumi, Katsuto, and Erik were watching the event, leaving an overloaded Suzune to work alone.
Now by no means did they force her to do all the work but Suzune could be stubborn sometimes.
So anyway... later that day on the field.
Shizuku used [Data Fortification] to protect her own pillars, and vibrated the ground at the opponent's pillar's resonant frequency to destroy them.
She was able to get a dub without much trouble; destroying all 12 of her opponent's pillars, while only losing one of her's in the process.
The whole arena cheered for her victory!
Finally, it was Miyuki's turn!
Isori, Kanon, Leo, Erika all joined Tatsuya within the pavilion as Miyuki took to the field.
Dressed in a [Miko costume], Miyuki's appearance caught the eyes of everyone present.
Upon hearing the start signal, Miyuki cast [Inferno]; enveloping her pillars with frost while burning her opponent's field.
After weakening her opponent's icicles, Miyuki simply shattered them by compressing and releasing air.
Once again, it was an easy dub for the [First-High].
---
At dinner that night, the first-year girls and Tatsuya were praised for their performance whereas Morisaki angrily left the dining halls.
So to congratulate their efforts.
Even, Masaki and George came to introduce themselves to Tatsuya, who was the engineer they considered responsible for much of First High's feats.
Tatsuya indicated that he knew of the [Crimson Prince], and furthermore, that he knew of George as [Cardinal George], a prodigy who discovered the [Cardinal Code] at the age of 13.
George claimed that he will never forget the name Shiba Tatsuya, who he feels is the most ingenious Technician since the advent of the [Nine School Competitions].
He even expressed a desire to be matched up against players supported by him.
Tatsuya humbly thanked the duo and went back to his room with his sister; after having finished his dinner.
---
After meeting up with Miyuki again, she told her brother that the prior conversation with Masaki and George was a declaration of war from their side.
They were obviously excited at the prospect of combating him and Kudou Minoru.
Hearing his sister's words, Tatsuya wondered whether they would see him as a rival, to which Miyuki scolded him, telling him not to undervalue himself.
After Miyuki's performance yesterday, it should be noted that a great many more people from the university were attending first hand.
---
Meanwhile, Honoka was participating in the finals of [Battle Board].
Due to her casting blinding magic during the prior round, all the participants were wearing shaded protective goggles.
During the race, the other participants' turns were wider and slower than necessary.
Taking advantage of the darkened vision of the other participants, she used illusion magic to make the shadows appear to be the edge of the waterway.
Mikihiko explained this to his friends as Sasaki explained it to Hattori and Kirihara.
With this, Honoka advanced to the finals.
---
After the morning rounds, Miyuki, Shizuku, and Eimi were called in by Mayumi.
The three of them monopolized the round-robin portion of [Pillar Break], and as such, they would be monopolizing the first, second, and third places for the event.
The [Competition Board] had proposed to simply not have the finals between the three, as [First High] would receive the same amount of points regardless.
While Eimi withdrew, Shizuku decided that she wanted to be matched against Miyuki.
So the committee agreed to their request.
---
When the starting signal was lit, Miyuki cast [Inferno], but Shizuku's pillars were protected by [Data Fortification].
Shizuku's attempts to use [Resonance] was also countered by Miyuki.
While outwardly a tie, Shizuku's [Data Fortification] did not prevent the heating of her pillars from the heated air.
Seeing that it was only a matter of time before she lost, Shizuku pulled out her final trump card, and cast [Phonon Maser] to directly attack Miyuki's pillar with a second CAD.
Surprised that Shizuku could dual-wield CADs, Miyuki faltered for a second, and for the first time, her Pillars were hit by a magic attack and began to melt.
However, Miyuki recovered almost instantly, and cast [Nilfheim ]on the whole field.
The sublimation of her own pillars stopped, and Shizuku's pillars were covered in a layer of nitrogen.
Upon the reactivation of [Inferno], the layer of nitrogen exploded, shattering Shizuku's pillars into tiny pieces.
After the match, Honoka comforted Shizuku, who was depressed that she was so overwhelmed.
Deciding to grab some tea, the two went to the cafeteria where they ran into Tatsuya and Miyuki.
The latter two comforted Shizuku and Miyuki praised Shizuku's ability to dual-wield CADs.
On the morning of the seventh day, Tatsuya was calibrating CADs for [Mirage Bat].
Subaru Satomi noted that the other schools were now keeping an eye on Tatsuya, who was quietly displeased about the attention.
After both Honoka and Subaru advanced to the finals, which was to be held at night, he went to rest in his room and thought about Masaki and George.
The former was a volunteer soldier when he was 13, and used the [Ichijou family magic], [Rupture], which vaporized fluids almost instantly, to fight enemy soldiers.
While using [Rupture] on the human body would infringe upon the rules, Tatsuya did not doubt that the [Crimson Prince] would have other trump cards.
Whereas the latter was a well-known rising star in [Theoretical Magic].
Tatsuya considered the combination of the two of them in the upcoming [Monolith Code] to be an invincible combination and pitied Morisaki and company.
After waking up shortly after noon, Tatsuya found out that Morisaki and the other two [Monolith Code] participants were heavily injured.
In their match against [Fourth High], their opponents preemptively used [Battering Ram] on the building that served as the starting location of First High, burying the 3 First High participants in rubble and injuring them.
At night, Tatsuya counseled Honoka and Subaru in the upcoming finals as he calibrated their CADs.
The two dominated the finals with the CADs Tatsuya calibrated.
A chance remark during the match made Azusa strongly suspect Tatsuya as being [Taurus Silver].
Immediately after [Mirage Bat], Tatsuya was called into the pavilion. Mayumi noted that if First High withdrew from Monolith Code, [Third High] would be first for newcomers' division.
As such, she wanted Tatsuya to participate as a replacement for Morisaki and the company.
Though not particularly happy, Tatsuya was not able to successfully back out and agreed to participate, choosing Leo and Mikihiko as the other two participants.
The older students had agreed with their president's course of actions while Katsuto and Erik didn't speak anything during the discussion.
They knew that even if Tatsuya's team defeated Masaki and George; they wouldn't be able to defeat Minoru and his team.
The latter was invincible under A-rank spells!
Heck! Even higher-ranking magicians couldn't put a dent in him [Natural Interference-Area].
With Tatsuya being suppressed and whatnot...it was impossible for the [First-High] to secure the first position in [Monolith Code].
So anyway, the three participants gathered later to discuss tactics!
Leo would be using the [Mini-Communicator] to defend the Monolith.
Tatsuya would be on the offense.
Mikihiko would be using [Ancient Magic] for support, ambushes, and guerrilla warfare.
Mikihiko, remembering Tatsuya's claim that his [Ancient Magic Sequences] were overly verbose, agreed to let Tatsuya reconfigure them.
Erik also offered a "pep talk" to Mikihiko and told him that he would be at his full power before he fights against Masaki and George.
With the assistance from "Baldy", Mizuki had managed to gain a nice grasp over her eyes.
And Erik was going to use his power to help Mikihiko.
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