Chapter 46 ~ Showing Off

Chapter 46 ~ Showing Off “Seriously... I’m a counselor, not an errand girl, okay?” “It was the master, Kokonoe-sensei, who asked you to transport that, you know? It’s not me.” Tatsuya replied to Ono Haruka with a grateful smile as he accepted the luggage she brought to him. “That’s right, Tatsuya. How could you let such a beauty do your errands for you?” Standing up from leaning on the central pillar of the Nine Schools Competition’s venue entrance gate, Yuuji approached Tatsuya and placed a hand on his shoulder with a teasing smile. “Hah...” Tatsuya let out a deep sigh as Yuuji winked at Haruka, causing her to blush. She clasped her hands in front of her and fidgeted, squeezing her breasts together. “If you’re not happy with errands, then perhaps you're not interested in a tax-free windfall?” Haruka snapped out of her embarrassment upon hearing Tatsuya’s words, and leaned in with a concerned expression. As an experienced “free agent” and informant, Haruka could tell what Tatsuya was alluding to. And that was exactly why she was concerned. “What do you want me to do...?” “Please find out where the No Head Dragon’s base is located.” Immediately, a gasp escaped her lips and she quickly tried to cover Tatsuya’s mouth before turning towards Yuuji. But to her surprise, he was simply standing there with his usual smile. “Eh...? T-T-Tsubakihara-kun...? D-Do you...” “Please forgive me for not telling you earlier, Ono-sensei. But please be assured. I’m tight-lipped and I’m also aware of... well, more than you think.” “...” Her widened eyes stared fixated upon him. Her mind, still processing the shock and his words. But soon, Haruka finally let out a tired sigh and shook her head. “Alright... But Shiba-kun, how did you know about No Head Dragon?” “I believe it’s a no-brainer to look into the identity of the enemy that means you harm.” Her eyes narrowed, looking at Tatsuya and Yuuji back and forth. “...What are you boys planning?” “Right now, I’m not planning anything. But since I would be uneasy not knowing the enemy’s whereabouts when it’s time to strike back...” “...What about you?” Haruka looked towards Yuuji. Her eyes still narrowed. But Yuuji replied calmly with a smile. After all, unlike Tatsuya, he won’t be lying. “I’m not planning on doing anything with it, Ono-sensei. Just like Tatsuya, I’m simply keeping it as an... insurance.” “...Alright. Give me a day.” “Thank you very much, Ono-sensei.” --------------------------------X-------------------------------- “Eh?! You’re going to use it?!” Surprised, Aika turned around to look at Yuuji, who was hugging her from behind while she sat on his lap. He was already wearing his full gear for the Monolith Code finals against the Third High School, except for the helmet which he put on the table a few distance away. He was just spending the time before the match with Aika in a private room in First High’s tent. “Yes. I’ve decided.” “Hm~ I see." "Do you think it's a bad idea?" "No~ It's just a bit of a shame that I can't debut it myself. But it's fine~ I'm sure it'd still be a sight to see~! Fufu~ Can’t wait to see the absolute dumbfounded faces on all of them~” Aika giggled. Now that Yuuji had decided to go all out, the Monolith Code Finals would be even more interesting than she thought! She’ll get to see her beloved darling kick ass!!! “But what’s gotten to you all of a sudden? I thought you’re just going to leave it to Tatsuya.” “I was. But...” Aika tilted her head, confused. Why was he averting his gaze away from her? And... was he blushing? It’s absolutely adorable, but why is he being embarrassed now? “...Promise you won’t laugh at me?” “Hm? No.” “...” Yuuji looked at her speechlessly. Wasn’t the answer supposed to be “yes”? In this moment, when your boyfriend is asking you not to laugh, the answer was supposed to be yes, right? Seeing his dumbfounded face, Aika burst into a laugh and turned around completely, straddling him face to face. “Ahahaha! There there~! You don’t have to be that surprised. I mean, of course I can’t promise that. I’ll laugh if it’s funny. But you don’t have to worry. Whatever it is, I'll still love you. Though I might scold you if it's something stupid.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into her chest, burying his face in her cleavage. “...” Hearing her words and being pulled into her embrace, Yuuji felt his entire body relaxing as her fragrance entered his nose. She smelled like jasmine flowers, and she’s soft and warm on top of that. His arms couldn’t help but wrap around her tighter as he buried his face deeper into her chest. “I... want to...” “Hm? What was that?” Aika loosened her hug around Yuuji, letting him lift his face slightly. He was still averting his gaze away from her with redly blushing cheeks. “Ah, geez! I’ll tell you, okay?! I... I wanted to look cool for you and Erika...” “Oh, is that it?” “Eh?” Silence fell in the room before Aika burst into laughter. “Ahhahahaha~! Is that really it? Awww~ Don’t worry, baby~ You’re already the coolest to us~! You’re the coolest, most handsome, most awesome man in all the world for us~!!!” “Ughh... I know you’ll react like this...” Aika continued to laugh as Yuuji slowly buried his blushing face back into her chest. “Did you think of this idea after seeing that crimson prince or whatever show off~?" "....Uhn." "I see~ But why are you so embarrassed about this? Isn’t it normal to want to look cool in front of your girlfriends? It’s not as childish as you think, you know? “... I guess. But now that I said it out loud, I can’t help but... cringe.” First High School vs. Third High School. On a clear sunny day, in the Open Field stage, Yuuji and Mikihiko stood in front of their team’s monolith with their cloak billowing in the wind. Mikihiko put up the hood and clutched onto his cloak, trying to hide as much of himself and his face out of embarrassment. “H-Hey, Tatsuya. D-Do we really need to wear this...? With Yuuji’s strategy, we wouldn’t need them, right?” Doing his final checks on his gear while standing in front of them, Tatsuya turned towards Mikihiko. “Yes. But it’d also serve as an insurance. If things don't go as planned, then we’ll have to do it the old way and use them to counter Cardinal George’s Invisible Bullet.” “Well, I guess that makes sense... But why is Yuuji the one wearing it instead of you.” “They’re still under the assumption that I will be the vanguard, so I want to make them believe it until the match starts. Yuuji will give it to me afterwards.” Yuuji giggled at Mikihiko, who was groaning in embarrassment. Wearing cloaks in this day and age did seem... tacky and cheesy. And he knew Aika and Erika would’ve been having a blast laughing at their get up now in their seats. “Just suck it up for a few minutes, Mikihiko. I’ll finish it quickly and you can take it off right after the match ends.” “Uugghh... Alright...” Meanwhile, upon seeing the monitor screen on the blimp that was flying above the arena and broadcasting the match, the Third High School team noticed their peculiar outfit. “It’s probably just a bluff, right?” “No, it’s not a bluf. They know about George... It might be a countermeasure against the Invisible Bullet.” Masaki deduced, given the nature of his close friend’s signature magic. “Certainly, that spell has no penetrating power. But it’s still not something that could be blocked by a simple piece of cloth. I don’t think they’d confront us with such a naive strategy.” Kichijouji Shinkurou, Geroge narrowed his eyes as he looked towards Yuuji and the others. A sense of uneasiness filled his heart when he saw Yuuji, who was standing relaxedly in between his two teammates. “Who would’ve thought they’d still have a secret weapon up his sleeves...” “Brooding over what we don’t understand isn’t going to get us anywhere. Besides, a piece of cloth like that is no threat to our victory.” The blaring sound of the horn resounded, signaling the start of the match. Immediately, Masaki fired a spell, creating a magic circle in the air just a few distance away from Yuuji and the others, ready to fire a bullet of compressed air powerful enough to leave craters on the ground. But in the next instant, the magic circle shattered as Tatsuya fired a bullet of compressed psion particles to forcibly blow away all of its activation sequence with Gram Demolition. With an unwavering smile, Masaki stepped forward and began making his way towards them. But after two steps, he froze with his eyes widened in shock. “What...?” “Eh...? What is he doing...?” Similarly, George, who was about to move and get into a flanking position, also froze when he saw it. From the distance, they could see Yuuji taking off his cloak, handing it to Tatsuya. Then, as Tatsuya wore the cloak, Yuuji activated a magic sequence, and they saw him begin to float. And in the next moment, Yuuji suddenly blasted off in unprecedented speed right towards them. “What?!” “He’s flying!” Gasps of shock and exclamations of surprise filled the entire arena the moment Yuuji suddenly launched and pierced through the air at tremendous speed. Every single spectator all stared at the monitor and arena with widened eyes and slackened jaws, dumbfounded. Including the patriarch of the Ten Master Clan. “Masaki!” “Tch!” Masaki pulled the trigger of his gun-shaped CAD, and this time, more than three magic circles that would shoot compressed bullets of air appeared in the air, ready to shoot down Yuuji, who was flying at tremendous speed with his body almost parallel to the ground and only about two meters away from the ground. But as if predicting their trajectory, Yuuji broke into sharp turns in mid air well before an air bullet could get even close to him and evaded every single one shot at him with shocking speed. “What?!” “George! Use your Invisible Bullet!” “A-Ah, yes!!!” George raised his hand and cast his signature spell Invisible Bullet. But to his horror, there was no effect that could be seen on Yuuji. “What? W-Why is he not affected by my Invisible Bullet?!” Invisible bullet was a spell that increased weight on a specific point in an instant, applying tremendous pressure on one point in an instant. It defined the effect force itself without having to define the entire phenomenon on the target, making it impossible for abilities that defend against rewriting Eidos, such as “Data Fortification”, to defend against it. But for Yuuji, who ruled the very concept of gravity and curvature of space, he was able to simply negate the effect by decreasing the effect of forces on him. In fact, this would be much easier for him to do than using Data Fortification magic to defend his eidos against the rewriting of data. He was never afraid of the Invisible Bullet. “Tch! Everyone, concentrate fire on him! Don’t let him come closer!!!” “Y-Yes!” Masaki began to shoot more Air Bullets while his teammate began launching massive pieces of earth that he ripped out of the ground around him. George gave up on using Invisible Bullets and also started trying to shoot blades of winds towards him. But not a single one managed to stop Yuuji’s advance. Some of their spells were countered by Tatsuya’s Gram Demolition that he shot from far away. And they were also forced to cancel one of their spells to evade a lightning strike Mikihiko cast upon them. But Yuuji managed to evade every single one they managed to cast, evading and maneuvering around every single projectile and spell launched at him as if he had known about them in advance and maintained his speed without any problems. Tatsuya’s “fly” spell he helped develop wasn’t meant to be used at the speed he’s using it now. It was a spell meant to simply give magicians air maneuverability in the battlefield. If used at such a high speed, the magician would suffer from one, tremendous magic exhaustion for continuously supplying psions at such a rapid rate, and two, the tremendous heat that would be generated as the magician’s body compressed the air ahead of them. The first prevented it from being used for an extended period of time. And the second forces the magician to create a wind barrier or something of the sort to protect themselves against the tremendous heat that would be generated, further using up their psions. But for those who possess tremendous amounts of psions like Yuuji and Tatsuya, they would be able to use it in such a manner. Especially Yuuji, since he could further curve the space around him to launch him even faster using the same principle as the Alcubierre warp drive. In just a few seconds, Yuuji covered hundreds of meters of distance and finally landed with a tremendous impact just a few distance away from Masaki, kicking up a cloud of dust and earth. And as the dust slowly dissipated, all three members of the Third High School could be seen beginning to float up a few meters into the air as Yuuji raised to his feet with his left hand raised in front of him. “Nngh! This is-!” “Arghh! I-I can’t get out of this!” “Let us go!” Masaki aimed his gun at Yuuji and pulled the trigger, creating five magic circles all around him, the most he could make without breaking the rule of over-firing. Yuuji did nothing, but when the compressed bullets of air shot towards him, all five suddenly hit an invisible barrier around him and was deflected, hitting the ground around him, each creating a crater. And before he could cast another spell, Masaki felt a tremendous force suddenly constricting his entire body, causing him to drop his gun. The other two also groaned in pain as they suffered from the same constriction, unable to access their CAD. And as all three members of the Third High School float helplessly in the air, Yuuji calmly made his way towards their monolith. He cast the special activation sequence to open up the monolith and calmly, carefully entered all 52 special characters into his CAD. The entire stadium burst into cheers and a deafening applause when Yuuji finished entering all 52 characters and took the victory for his school, all while the Crimson Prince and Cardinal George watched him do it from the air in horror.