Days after the shock of the event changes, the lineup for the Nine Schools Competition was nearly finalized. Riri's intel played a significant role in this.
On July 7, a Saturday, practice with the new team began. With first-semester exams three days away, the athletes were eager to familiarize themselves with the new events.
First up was a Shield Down solo match between Erika and Yume. Erika, whose high self-acceleration was further enhanced by Yugen's teachings, faced Yume, who excelled at granting lightning-fast speed via Tenjin magic. The result? A spectacle where only shockwaves from clashing shields were visible from the start.
Watching this, Hattori muttered, "Is this really a high school match?"—a sentiment anyone would share.
"Ugh! I was this close!" Erika exclaimed.
"Nah, if I hadn't shifted gears, you'd have blasted me off, Erika-cchi," Yume replied.
In the end, Yume knocked Erika out of the ring, but she called it a "razor-thin" victory, genuinely admitting she could've lost. Meanwhile, Sayaka and Chikura, watching, broke out in cold sweats.
On the men's side, Sawaki and Leo faced Kirihara and Juusatsu. Though Leo was selected for the Ice Pillars Break pair, today's schedule prioritized women's practice, so Tatsuya requested his participation.
(If Leo hadn't agreed, I'd have stepped in… but I can't afford to make Miyuki grumpy.)
Yugen's Phase Shift Armor boasted top-tier defensive power among hardening magic, making him invincible in Shield Down. Considering his Mirror Force display against Riri, finding a way to beat him seemed nearly impossible.
Yugen, however, wasn't there. He was at First High's dedicated training facility for women's Ice Pillars Break practice. Miyuki, having her head patted by Yugen, puffed her cheeks slightly, her face flushed.
"…What's with that defensive technique?" Miyuki asked.
"I knew you'd use Inferno, so… don't sulk," Yugen said.
"I'm not sulking. I'm just not convinced," Miyuki replied.
(That's sulking, isn't it?) Kanon thought, inwardly rolling her eyes.
Initially, Miyuki faced Kanon and Shizuku's pair, but interference from their magic deployment zones led to Miyuki's five consecutive wins. Realizing this wasn't helping her practice, Yugen, fresh from adjusting Roar and Gunner, was tapped to step in.
Coincidentally, both were last year's rookie Ice Pillars Break champions and a well-known couple at school. Izumi, competing in the rookie event, watched excitedly.
Recalling Yugen's pattern from last year, Miyuki used Inferno to melt his ice pillars instantly. Yugen countered by deploying Mirror Force to envelop his pillars, isolating them from the surrounding air. Miyuki switched to compressed air magic, but couldn't breach Mirror Force's defense, which surpassed Phalanx. Even Overdrive Inferno seemed futile. Then, Yugen's Meteor Light Fall shattered all of Miyuki's pillars.
Yugen's complete victory left Miyuki clinging to him, sulking. And so, here they were.
"I can't create new magic like Onii-sama or Yugen-san," Miyuki said.
"That's normal, Miyuki… Shizuku, any ideas?" Yugen asked.
"That's your responsibility, Yugen. Good luck," Shizuku said.
"Talk about throwing me under the bus," Yugen grumbled.
Izumi, meanwhile, gushed, "As expected of Yugen-nii-sama! Even the Crimson Prince wouldn't stand a chance!" Her boundless admiration for Yugen was something he wished would tone down.
"Didn't think last year's words would come true," Kanon said.
"Chiyoda-senpai… Oh, right, senpai. I've got a prototype vibration magic. Want to try it?" Yugen offered.
He operated his terminal, showing Kanon the activation sequence. Miyuki, Shizuku, and Izumi also saw it, and Kanon couldn't help but ask.
"Is this a variation of our family's Minefield?" she asked.
"It's closer to Resonance Break than Minefield, but the base is similar. What do you think?" Yugen replied.
"Sure, I want to test everything before the main event. Kei told me about your magic," Kanon said.
The sixth mock battle between Miyuki and Kanon-Shizuku began. By now, it was less about tactics and more a psychological duel. Miyuki won again, but the pair's performance had improved dramatically.
"For Miyuki-senpai to be pushed to her last two pillars…" Izumi said.
"Using Minefield in such a small deployment zone is incredible. Shizuku's Phonon Tears is amazing too," Kanon added.
"Only Yugen or Tatsuya-san could tune it, though. But…" Shizuku trailed off.
They glanced at Miyuki, who clung to Yugen, not hiding her displeasure. Shizuku, recalling similar scenes from last year's competition, felt a pang of envy but held back.
"Yugen-san, give me a new magic," Miyuki said.
"Alright. And when we have time, want to go shopping together?" Yugen offered.
"It's a promise," Miyuki replied.
Satisfied, Miyuki let go but stayed close. Kanon, who had once egged her on, smirked. During a break, Shizuku moved beside Yugen.
"By the way, Yugen, what magic are you using this year?" she asked.
"Honestly, I'm still deciding," Yugen said.
"You're unsure?" Miyuki asked.
Since Miyuki was his opponent, he used Mirror Force and Meteor Light Fall, but this year's context differed. No longer representing the former Ten Master Clans, he had to showcase magic as a Guardian.
"If it's about shocking the opponent, Invisible Bullet would be most effective, but it'd just be a rehash," Yugen said.
The reason was simple: he and Tatsuya agreed to provide Invisible Bullet-based compound techniques to Eimi, Toya, and Ceria for Roar and Gunner. Eimi's was a scattershot variant, while Toya and Ceria's were tuned to their magical aptitudes, making Yugen's use of it redundant.
"Plus, Shoma's likely in Pillars Break, so… maybe that one," Yugen said.
Operating his CAD, Yugen generated ice pillars instantly and cast a magic between the opponent's pillars. A magic formula appeared near the center, rapidly duplicating to envelop the opponent's side, vaporizing the pillars into a massive cloud of steam. Not only did it reset the pillars to their pre-match state, but it vaporized all the opponent's pillars simultaneously. Kanon's jaw dropped, Shizuku looked intrigued, and Miyuki beamed as if it were her own achievement. Izumi's reaction was similar, so no need to elaborate.
"Alright, that was impromptu, but no issues?" Yugen asked.
"Yugen-kun, I've never heard of a technique that duplicates magic formulas," Kanon said.
"You mean Zero Ocean Blast?" Yugen replied.
In the original story, Shoma's strategic magic Ocean Blast combined the Ichijo family's Explosion with Chain Cast, the core of Tuman Bomba. However, Explosion required liquid to be effective, and Chain Cast had flaws, needing large-scale computers for full power—defective, in Yugen's view.
Using data from his mock battle with Takuma, Yugen developed a combat-ready Chain Cast variant, naming it Linkage Cast. Unlike Chain Cast, which built formulas within formulas and replicated them on the target's Eidos, creating vulnerabilities if the initial formula was broken, Linkage Cast used a ring-shaped formula around the main one to input variables automatically, controlling activation speed for chained or simultaneous casting at the user's discretion. By integrating Scanning Cast into the ring formula, it drastically reduced processing demands on the main formula.
No practical means existed to destroy the projected formulas at designated coordinates. The technique used Tenjin magic's Suiton Ruten, with the first formula serving as a mere "marker" for targeting. The main formula blended into multiple deployed formulas, including for concealment, unfolding in a billionth of a second—beyond human perception. Given current CAD precision, only Yugen could wield it.
Combined with Linkage Cast, Shokan, an enhanced version of Explosion, was a phase-shift sublimation magic that vibrated solids from multiple directions, rapidly heating and converting them to gas. Usable on solids and liquids, it was classified as a "phase-shift sublimation magic," named Zero Ocean Blast to avoid Explosion's liquid dependency. Yugen tuned its variables for low power, but at full strength, it could vaporize the New Soviet Union's permafrost instantly. While strategic-grade, he had no plans to use it at maximum output unless foreign entities targeted him.
"The technique itself was something I'd been thinking about, but the computational scale limits it to me for now," Yugen said.
"I knew Onee-san was extraordinary, but you're on another level, Yugen-kun," Kanon said.
"I'll take it as a compliment. Chiyoda-senpai, Shizuku, want me to coach your practice?" Yugen offered.
"Can we take you up on that?" Kanon asked.
Yugen coached Kanon and Shizuku to synchronize their magic, and Miyuki and Izumi requested coaching too, which he accepted readily. This eased Tatsuya's burden and served as Yugen's practice, so he dropped further doubts. However, Tatsuya, having seen Zero Ocean Blast, had questions.
"Duplicating formulas with formulas… Possible, but isn't the burden heavy?" Tatsuya asked.
"It was a rough draft on a whim. I know it needs refining… but the core came from the Halloween incident," Yugen replied.
Tatsuya knew Yugen had faced Bezobrazov (not directly) during the Halloween incident, overpowering Tuman Bomba with Starlight Breaker. He deduced the new magic used similar tech. While Tatsuya assumed large CADs were needed, Yugen's ability to bypass that marked him as surpassing the Twelve Apostles, the world's recognized strategic magicians.
"And… Miyuki's being selfish again," Tatsuya said.
"It's fine. I'm partly responsible, and her Overdrive Inferno from last year's finals was a rushed job," Yugen replied.
Last year, Yugen granted Miyuki's request despite his rookie event duties, tuning Overdrive Inferno to stay close to Inferno's power. He had ideas for vibration-deceleration and extreme-freezing magic, Miyuki's specialties, and planned to share some. Her request was merely a convenient opportunity.
"Only you'd call a highly refined sequence 'rushed,'" Tatsuya said.
"It's the truth," Yugen replied.
Yugen aimed to wrap up Nine Schools preparations early to address two potential issues and attend a completion ceremony for the Tokyo Offshore Tower. A 2000-meter hyperbuilding in Tokyo Bay, it supported next-gen radio standards alongside the roles of Tokyo Tower and Skytree. With 360 above-ground and 36 underground floors, it used cutting-edge seismic tech from FLT, including gyro drive shafts and hydraulic dampers designed by Yugen based on past-life science.
Rumors (unconfirmed) suggested a radical pro-magician group planned to infiltrate the tower for a terrorist act—an original-timeline anomaly. Yugen sighed inwardly at this added complication.
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