Magic.
When did it become modern technology rather than a product of legend and fairy tale?
The first verifiable record of its use dates back to AD 1999.
An incident in which a police officer possessing special abilities stopped a nuclear terror attack by an extremist group trying to realize their prophecy of human extinction was the first confirmed example of magic in modern times.
At the time, the strange power was referred to as a supernatural ability.
They believed it was a purely inherent ability, born of mutation, and that the techniques could not be shared, spread, or systematized.
They were mistaken.
As research on supernatural abilities advanced, both in the East and West, more and more people appeared on the public stage to talk about "magic."
Eventually, magic reproduced those once-supernatural powers.
Of course, talent was needed. But it was the same as possessing skill in the arts or sciences—only those with a high predisposition could achieve professional proficiency.
Supernatural abilities were systematized with magic, and magic became technology.
Those with supernatural abilities became known as magic technicians.
These magic technicians were powerful enough to force even nuclear weapons to yield to them. To nations, they were both weapons and power itself.
At the end of the twenty-first century, in 2095, the nations of the world still had not shown signs of unification. They now competed with each other in fostering magic technicians.
The National Magic University Affiliated First High School.
It is known for being the most advanced institute of magical studies, graduating the greatest number of students to the National Magic University each year.
At the same time, it is an elite school that produces the greatest number of skilled magic technicians, known as "magicians."
There is no official stance on equal-opportunity magical education. This country does not have the luxury of such indulgence.
And because of the glaring gap between those who can use magic and those who cannot, any kind of mediation is merely an optimistic ideal.
Those who are out-and-out believers in talent. Those who are almost cruel in their demand for actual skill.
That is the world of magic. Simply being accepted into this school marks students as elite.
And from the moment they enroll, there is already a difference between the honors students and the inferior.
Though they may all be equally new, they are not equal, even if they are brother and sister.
And now.
"Fuu."
Releasing what seemed to be a short sigh was a tall male with dark hair, blue eyes, and rather unimpressive looks.
Yet, that fact hadn't bothered him, nor did he care about his appearance.
Even in his current situation, he couldn't find the words to express himself.
Watching them from a few steps away—or perhaps just watching them—the siblings' eyes reflected a group of new students, split into two, glaring at each other in a volatile atmosphere.
One group was Miyuki's classmates, and the other group consisted of Mizuki, Erika, and Leo.
On the one hand, were people he had made friends with upon entering First High. He befriended them shortly after meeting them.
First High,
A National Magic University Affiliated High School located in Hachiōji, Tokyo, in Kantō.
It is an upper-level magic institution known to send over a hundred graduates who either enter the University of Magic or enroll in a Magic Technical Institute of Specialized Higher Training every year.
With First High being an elite school that churns out the largest number of excellent magicians and magic technicians,
such a school, despite how impressive it sounded, had its hierarchy divided into two.
Blooms and weeds.
Naturally as a reserve student, being a weed, people like him were mostly scorned by Blooms, those glorified first class students.
Even going home with his sister somehow wasn't acceptable to their standards.
'How truly troublesome.'
"Would you please just give up? Miyuki said she's going home with her brother. Strangers shouldn't be arguing with her about that."
One of the friends he'd made, a beautiful bespectacled female with shoulder-length black hair.
For her, it simply was unreasonable.
Stopping siblings from going home together just because her brother was a weed was pure stupidity in her opinion.
"Tsk, ahh mou, shut up already."
One of the esteemed blooms, a female who unfortunately saw him—Shiba Tatsuya—as a prestigious saint or something similar, said that.
Basically, two of his sister's classmates had been clinging to her as she waited for Tatsuya after school, and one had taken issue with him. Incidentally, that classmate was a girl.
Meanwhile, the male student, as one would expect, had remained silent initially, probably because he was worried about stares from others (or perhaps Miyuki's—his sister's).
But now, their restraint—or perhaps his common sense—had left.
"Miyuki isn't treating you like nuisances, is she? If you wanted to go home with her, you should just come along. What right do you have to tear the two of them apart?"
Unexpectedly, Mizuki, the black-haired, bespectacled girl, was the first to snap at the Course 1 students' irrational actions.
She kept her demeanor polite, but her logic was merciless as she delivered her oratory without taking even one step back from the Blooms she was addressing.
Yes, at first it was logical, but…"Tear us apart…?" murmured Tatsuya from a little distance.
He got the feeling that something was decidedly off.
"M-Mizuki must be misunderstanding something, right?"
After hearing her brother murmur, Miyuki started to get flustered for some reason.
"Miyuki… Why are you panicking?"
"Huh? No, I'm not flustered at all, am I?"
"And why are you keep asking questions?"
Glancing at the siblings central to this trouble as they moved into a rather confusing situation, their "extremely considerate" friends were getting increasingly heated.
"We have something to talk to her about!" That was Miyuki's male classmate.
"That's right! I'm sorry, Mr. Shiba, but we just need to borrow her for a bit!"
That was Miyuki's female classmate. Leo burst out laughing at their selfish complaints.
"Hah! Do that during your free period. They put time aside for stuff like that, you know."
Erika put on her best sarcastic face and tone and followed up.
"Why don't you get the person's consent beforehand if you have something to talk to them about? You can't just ignore Miyuki's wishes and have a big discussion with her. Those are the rules. You're in high school now—you know that, right?"
Erika's words and attitude were meant to make them angry.
It did just that—male student number one snapped.
"Shut up! People from other classes, and Weeds at that, shouldn't be messing with us Blooms!"
School rules forbade the use of the term "weed" on the grounds that it was discriminatory.
It was a rule in name more than in reality, but it still wasn't a term to be used where so many people were listening.
"Haah."
Tatsuya did the unbecoming, sighing silently, and then——
[DING!]
[Do you wish to explore the limits of science? Does science truly determine limits of magic or are you simply being shackled by this world. Do you want to explore the limits of what a power fantasy world can offer? If yes—]
[Join the All-World Alliance Guild]
[You have no refusal option :)]
'....'
Nothing. He had nothing to say. And while he did that, distracted for the slightest of moment.
The chaos around the school gate had already increased by a margin.
One of yhem, the male in front who seemed to be leading them had pulled out a gun. Though it looked like on, it was a CAD.
Casting Assistant Device.
A spell support processor that allows a magician to cast magic through high-speed processing.
The only students permitted to carry their CADs inside schoolwere the student council members and members of certain clubs.
Having one with you was one thing, but pointing it at a student was an entirely different thing.
"Tatsuya!"
(But what she called him here was Onii-sama.)
Before Miyuki had finished calling out, Tatsuya had already stuck out his right hand.
He reached out, though his hand wouldn't reach her from this distance.
But even before he could move…
"Eeegh!"
The one who shrieked was the Course 1 student jabbing the gun at Leo's face. His pistol-shaped CAD had been sent flying from his hand.
And before his eyes was Erika, smiling, having whipped out an extending police baton from somewhere.
There was no lingering waver or panic in her grin. But he'd known from the start there had been none of that, just by seeing her skillful alertness, which almost gave away her personality.
If the same thing happened a hundred more times, Erika would, without a doubt, smack the CAD out of the Course 1 student's hand with her baton every single time.
He could clearly see that ability in her.
Yet, even that didn't end well.
Erika, who had done this to make sure no one was armed, was now the target of another girl who pointed her hand at her.
The activation sequence had already begun. And naturally, Tatsuya had read everything at a glance.
Just as he was about to put a stop to it—
"What is going on here? Stop this at once! Attacking another person with magic outside of self-defense is not only against school rules but a criminal act!"
Recognizing the voice's owner, the female student trying to attack Erika and the others went pale with shock.
She staggered as another female student held her up from behind.
With the intervening woman was the student council president, Mayumi Saegusa.
Her expression, which was normally a smile—as far as Tatsuya knew—was still not very strict, even in this situation.
But the eyes of those who used magic saw the light of energized psions, and it was obviously far larger in scale than the light given off by average magicians.
It wrapped around her small body like a nimbus, giving her a sort of impenetrable majesty.
"You're all from 1-A and 1-E, right? I'll listen to what you have to say. Come with me."
The one who gave the order in a cold—well, it had to be—and hard voice was the female student standing next to Mayumi.
According to the student introductions during the entrance ceremony, she was the head of the disciplinary committee, a senior named Mari Watanabe.
Everybody there stiffened without a word, but Tatsuya, who was already beginning to be pestered by the futuristic-like panel in front of him, narrowed his eyes.
Then, with a composed gait, he took a step forward.
"I'm sorry. We let our horseplay go too far."
"Horseplay?" Mari's eyebrows pulled into a frown at the statement, which seemed abrupt.
"Yes. The Morisaki family is famous for its quick-drawing, so I wanted him to show us for future reference, but it was so lifelike and real that we accidentally reacted."
He knew he was bullshitting, but in a way, it was also a talent.
Naturally, Mari didn't believe him. Even going by the expression of the male who earlier drew his gun-type CAD at them.
"Then after that, why did the girl from 1-A execute an attack magic?"
"She was probably surprised. She's able to execute the activation process out of pure conditioned reflex—that's a Course 1 student for you."
His expression was totally serious, but his voice was completely transparent.
"Your friends were about to be attacked by magic. Are you still going to claim this was just horseplay?"
"You say attack, but all she was actually planning to activate was a bright magic flash to distract us. And it wasn't high enough level to cause blindness or impair our eyesight permanently, anyway."
Everyone gasped again. Her scornful smile turned into an expression of astonishment.
"Impressive… You seem to be able to read and understand expanded activation programs."
"My practical abilities are subpar, but analysis is a specialty of mine."
But Tatsuya summed up the abnormal ability as simply analysis, as if it didn't mean anything.
"…And deception is apparently another." Mari's stare was somewhere between an appraisal and a glare.
Only Miyuki stepped in front of her brother, as if to shield him from taking the brunt of it.
"As my brother said, this was really just a minor misunderstanding. We deeply apologize for getting our upperclassmen involved."
Without a scrap of artifice, she bowed deeply directly to Mari, who, taken aback, averted her eyes.
"Mari, isn't that enough? Tatsuya, this was really just a practical observation, right?"
Since when are we on a first-name basis? thought Tatsuya, but he couldn't let the lifeboat Mayumi offered him go unused.
As before, he nodded earnestly, and Mayumi gave a somehow proud smile—almost as if to say, "You owe me one."
"It certainly isn't against the rules for students to teach one another, but there are detailed restrictions on even executing magic. This is something taught in class during the first semester. I believe it would be best for now to refrain from any self-study that involves activating magic."
Her serious expression returned as she conferred her directive. Then Mari, as well, delivered her judgment, using carefully chosen words.
"…The president has spoken, so I won't question you this time. Make sure this doesn't happen again."
Without sparing a glance at the group of students, who were bitter enemies but all hastily straightening up and bowing to her together, Mari turned on her heel.
But she had taken only one step before she stopped and asked a question, her back still to them. "What is your name?"
Only her head was facing him, and her eyes were thin slits, their edges reflecting Tatsuya in them. "Tatsuya Shiba, from Class 1-E."
"I'll remember it." He was about to say, "Fine by me," out of reflex, but he caught himself and stopped himself from sighing.
Luckily, they escaped without much fuss.
On the way home, Tatsuya slowly processed everything, and learned some things.
The obvious thing was that he was the only one who could see it. And the other was likely that…