"Will Yotsuba-kun kill him?" Honoka asked worriedly at the gruesome scene.
"He won't," Shizuku shook her head confidently. "Yotsuba-kun should know his limits."
"Ha! And here I thought you were something special. Pathetic."
Mahiro's sinister chuckle made Shizuku and Honoka exchange uneasy glances.
Well... now she wasn't so sure.
Especially when Mahiro grabbed Morisaki's head, yanked it up, then smashed it down again like cracking an egg.
The brutality became unbearable to watch.
Within moments, Morisaki Shun's face was a bloody mess, several teeth missing.
Tension radiated outward from the scene.
While Morisaki Shun's friends glared at Mahiro with fearful hostility, other spectators remained silent.
"Y-you... what joke is this! J-just a family reject... bottom of the class... so what if you know martial arts!"
Even his threats lacked conviction now.
His would-be allies stood rooted to the spot, unable to move.
That they remained standing at all showed remarkable courage.
When Mahiro simply glanced their way after this outburst, they nearly collapsed in terror.
An absolute demon!
"Stop this!"
"Mahiro-kouhai, please stop! Any more and you'll kill him!"
Two female voices rang out.
The one calling him "kouhai" was unmistakably Saegusa Mayumi.
The warning came from the tall, short-haired senpai beside her—Watanabe Mari.
Perhaps not the introduction she'd envisioned, as Mari regarded him with... icy professionalism.
"Yotsuba Mahiro, correct? I'm Watanabe Mari. As disciplinary committee chair, I'm placing you under custody!"
With authority figures present, Mahiro ceased his assault.
But custody?
"My apologies—which school regulation have I violated?"
"Naturally, using magic to attack others outside of self-defense isn't just a violation of school rules—it's outright criminal behavior!"
Mari reprimanded, placing her hand on the CAD at her wrist.
If Mahiro attempted to resist, she wouldn't hesitate to activate her startup sequence and suppress the situation on the spot.
But Mahiro's response was completely unexpected.
"Oh, in that case, I can't go with you because I didn't use magic at all, so it doesn't count as a violation."
"What?!"
Mari frowned in displeasure. "You beat someone up like that, and you're saying you didn't use magic?!"
Under Mayumi's high praise, she had initially held a favorable impression of Mahiro.
But now...
If this was the kind of person he was, she would have to reconsider whether to recruit him into the Disciplinary Committee.
"Of course." Mahiro clapped his hands dismissively. "It was pure martial arts. The students around us can all vouch for me."
"And Mayumi-senpai should be able to confirm it too. Senpai just handed me the CAD this morning, and it hasn't even been adjusted yet. How could I possibly cast magic with it?"
Hearing him drag her into this, Mayumi couldn't help but smile wryly. Still, she stepped forward to explain:
"That's right, Mari. Mahiro-kun just received his CAD this morning. We were planning to adjust it after school, and Azusa-chan has been waiting in the student council room for a long time already."
After speaking, Mayumi glanced at Mahiro with a smile that seemed to say, "You owe me one."
"Is that really the case?"
Hearing her best friend step in to smooth things over, Mari furrowed her brows slightly. She looked between the victim and the perpetrator before asking:
"What if it was CAD-less spellcasting?"
That was right—CADs were merely tools to assist magicians in casting spells, much like wands.
But even without this tool, highly skilled magicians could still read activation sequences directly from their minds, achieving wandless spellcasting.
"That's even more impossible, idiot. The Morisaki family is famous for their rapid-cast magic."
The one who spoke was Erika. Though Watanabe Mari was her senior, she showed no deference—only faint sarcasm and hostility.
At this, Mari could no longer muster any rebuttal.
After all, the idea of someone surpassing the Morisaki family's rapid-cast magic with CAD-less spellcasting was clearly unrealistic.
The matter was hastily concluded, with no one receiving punishment. Morisaki Shun was carried to the infirmary by several people.
Meanwhile, Mahiro was still taken to the student council room.
But not for reprimand—it was for CAD adjustments.
"Mahiro-kun, let me introduce you. This is the head of the Disciplinary Committee, Watanabe Mari."
Inside the student council room, Mayumi enthusiastically introduced the two remaining people in the room.
"Hello, Watanabe-senpai. I'm Yotsuba Mahiro from Class 1-A. I apologize for the trouble earlier."
"Mhm, I know you. Mayumi has told me a lot about you. But don't misunderstand—I wasn't targeting you earlier. Just doing my job, so don't take it to heart."
Seeing that they seemed to have reconciled, Mayumi then approached a petite girl, patted her head, and introduced her with a mischievous grin:
"Next, this is Nakajou Azusa, the student council secretary—also known as Azusa-chan."
She was even smaller than Mayumi-senpai, with a doll-like face that made her look almost like an elementary schooler.
"President... please, don't call me 'Azusa-chan' in front of my junior! I have my dignity as a senpai too!"
Her voice was soft and sweet, and her small hands waved up and down in protest.
Though it might not have been intentional on her part, her slightly upturned, moist eyes made her look like she was pouting to the point of tears.
So adorable—one punch would probably make her cry for ages.
Rather than a senior, she seemed more suited to the title of mascot. Just standing there gave people the urge to tease her.
However, Mahiro wasn't mean-spirited enough to bully an elementary schooler, so he greeted her politely instead:
"Nice to meet you, Nakajou-senpai. I'll be in your care from now on."
"Ah, hello, Yotsuba-kun!"
Nakajou Azusa, on the other hand, seemed genuinely delighted to receive such respectful treatment from a junior for the first time. Her delicate face was practically glowing with satisfaction and happiness.
So easy to read.
Definitely a mascot.
"Well then, without further ado, Azusa-chan, please help Mahiro-kun adjust his CAD."
"Y-yes, President! Leave it to me."
As the two seniors carried on their conversation, Mahiro interjected, "No need. I'll handle it myself."
"Huh?"
Mayumi was visibly taken aback by his words and couldn't help but ask, "Mahiro-kun, you know how to adjust a CAD?"
"Ah, well, I've learned a bit from my landlord. Just lend me the equipment, and I'll take care of it."
After all, unlike Shiba Tatsuya, he didn't have a private workshop at home.
Adjusting a CAD was actually a simple process—it involved organizing the activation sequences stored inside the CAD and rearranging them according to personal preferences.
For example, the general-purpose model Mayumi had given him could store up to 99 activation sequences.
He just needed to tidy them up, delete any unnecessary spells, and then overwrite the user's precision parameters.
For him, this was already second nature.
However, the skill he displayed left the three seniors utterly stunned.
"Ah…"
Inside the workshop, Nakajou Azusa let out a sound unbefitting of a refined young lady when she saw the screen Mahiro was operating.
Mayumi and Mari also covered their mouths tightly, barely managing to suppress their reactions.
Mari wasn't skilled in this kind of technical work, so she had no idea what he was doing—she just knew it looked impressive.
As the heiress of the Saegusa family, Mayumi had systematically learned how to calibrate a CAD and usually did it herself.
But this method before her eyes was something she had never seen before.
He pulled out all the source code and recompiled it from scratch.
The screen didn't display the expected measurement charts but instead showed countless lines of rapidly scrolling strings.
Only sporadic numbers were barely visible, and their eyes couldn't even keep up with the speed of the scrolling text.
Even if Mayumi didn't understand the meaning of the source code, she could still grasp just how extraordinary Mahiro's skills were.
Meanwhile, Azusa-chan stared unblinkingly at the screen, afraid she might miss a single detail if she so much as blinked.
The same thought crossed all three of their minds—
Wait, he's actually this skilled?