At First High's headquarters, the rookie Speed Shooting results arrive.
"All three advanced to the quarterfinals?" Mayumi says.
"Are this year's first-year girls just that good?" Mori muses.
Only eight of twenty-four prelim competitors reach the finals. Three from the same school is rare, making Mori's comment understandable. But First High's leaders know it's not just individual skill.
"Stop playing dumb, Mori," Mayumi teases.
Mori shrugs, feigning surrender, and shifts topics. "How's Battle Board?"
Rin checks her terminal. "Men's two races done, both eliminated. Women's one race, advanced."
"One more men's race. Honoka's afternoon race should secure a spot. A-chan's doing well too," Mayumi murmurs.
Katsuto, reviewing the same scores, adds bitterly, "We need to focus more on training technicians."
Speed Shooting quarterfinals use four ranges. If all eight finalists were from different schools, matches would run simultaneously, but with First High's three, schedules adjust to avoid overlap. This makes engineers, like Tatsuya, incredibly busy.
"You okay, Tatsuya-san?" Shizuku asks, noting his fatigue.
"Fine," he replies, starting CAD checks. "This is different from the prelims. Tell me if anything feels off. I'll adjust as much as I can."
"No issues. Feels too perfect," Shizuku says.
"Good."
Sensing his relief, Shizuku's expression sharpens with determination. "The others won, right?"
"Yeah."
Her teammates both reached the semifinals. "You'll win too, just do your usual," Tatsuya says, patting her head. He'd hesitated after last time, but Shizuku begged him to continue when Miyuki's absent.
"Of course! You set me up for victory, Tatsuya-san. All I need to do is win!" she declares.
"That's the spirit." He pats her head again and sends her off.
The match is a one-sided rout—Shizuku dominates.
"Was that Movement-type? No, Convergence-type?" Mayumi ponders, watching the monitor.
"Correct," Rin confirms as a clay shatters in the scoring zone.
"Same spell as the prelims?" Mayumi asks.
"Yes, sequential Convergence and Vibration magic," Rin replies.
The Second High opponent uses standard tactics but keeps missing central targets, hitting outer ones fine. Mayumi senses a cause beyond skill. "She's recognizing clays macroscopically, using Convergence magic to cluster red clays centrally, pushing white ones out. But with multiple targets, is it timed so Vibration activates before collisions?"
Her uncertain tone betrays her doubt—such timing offers no benefit.
"I said 'sequential Convergence and Vibration magic,'" Rin corrects with a sly smile.
Mayumi catches on, shocked. "No way! Specialized CADs only store sequences of the same type!"
"It's not specialized—it's general-purpose," Rin clarifies.
Mayumi's confusion deepens. "Impossible! General and specialized CADs have different hardware, OS, and architecture. The aiming assist is built for specialized systems. Connecting it to a general-purpose CAD is technically unfeasible!"
Her excitement fades as Rin's calm smile softens. "I thought so too, but it's possible. Not Tatsuya's invention—Germany unveiled it a year ago."
"Barely cutting-edge," Mayumi mutters.
"Don't be too shocked, President. Tatsuya's got even wilder tech under wraps," Rin teases.
Mayumi pouts. "He tells you but not me? Does he like you more, Rin-chan?"
"What?" Rin blinks.
"Nothing!" Mayumi backtracks, flustered.
"You're a competitor, President. He probably didn't want to unsettle you," Rin soothes.
"True, this would've thrown me off," Mayumi admits, sighing as she glances at the monitor's time and score.
"She's untouchable," she says.
"Kitayama's skill, plus Tatsuya's tech—no first-year can match that," Rin agrees.
They watch, pitying the opponent but quietly celebrating First High's triumph.
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