[569] Reaction and Response (1)
Alpheas School of Magic. Third Logistics Warehouse.
Shirone's team of six, up since dawn, gathered at the entrance to the grounds where Istas could be seen.
Even with the senior-year evaluations underway, pride plus promised personal rewards and stakes meant nobody had skipped.
"Everyone's probably nervous, but focus on the match for now."
They were all ready.
"The match period is seven days. If we scrimmage for a day, we can roughly gauge their abilities. We'll worry about the rest afterward."
After Neyd's opening, Amy asked, "Strategy?"
Iruki spoke up. "It's impossible to control six allies in response to six opponents. For now it's a scouting fight. But the master card must not be taken."
Shirone added, "We decided that forfeiting outside the arena counts as a loss, so make sure the battlefield boundaries are clear."
Sabina asked, "Still, we should decide the first scramble, right? White, black, or random?"
Shirone said, "The allied team will all choose random. If someone picks white (○) at stage one and the opponent also picks white, it's a draw. If you pick black (●), you'll be put at a disadvantage for two hours."
Dorothy added, "From the second round you also have to think about team composition. Even if two random cards (ⓡⓡ) are opened, the chance of drawing Heresy (●●) is one in four. Since there are six of us, at least one of us should catch a Heresy."
Shirone summarized, "The most important thing at the start is not to miss the scramble. Depending on the coordinates you could end up in a bad spot."
"I can know the opponents' locations."
Dorothy deployed a Spirit Zone. Iruki asked, "Jonner, right? How far can you expand it?"
"If I drop the density completely, maximum diameter is one kilometer. But then it can barely tell humans from nonliving objects."
Even Jonner was in the manipulation field—an area where precision mattered more than sheer size.
"For reference, when I manipulate Hicari, her Spirit Zone is about fifty meters in diameter. Thought I should mention it."
That meant Hicari couldn't be manipulated unless the precision could shrink a one-kilometer zone down to fifty meters.
Switching to sniper mode, Dorothy rotated a line-shaped Spirit Zone and began searching for the enemies. Unlike Amy, who could spin dozens of times a second, it took Dorothy a full twenty minutes just to sweep 360 degrees.
But turning a one-kilometer Spirit Zone into a line-form was something only Jonner could do.
"The allied team has Sonar's Hershi. Their scouting will inevitably be faster than ours."
While Iruki mulled that over, Dorothy said, "There are six gathered seven kilometers to the east."
"Then we'll go the opposite direction. We have to secure the first scramble. The more test subjects, the better."
"How do we track each other's positions?"
"Scrambles summon every two hours, and by checking the cards collected you can estimate general positions."
Sabina licked her lips.
'I wish Dante had joined too.'
A communications mage would've been ideal, but expecting one without someone of Cage-level power was asking too much.
"All right. Let's go."
When the six teleported in unison, flares gathered in the sky and scattered in all directions.
Scramble Royal standby timer: ten minutes.
* * *
'Maybe about three minutes left.'
Arriving at the start coordinate, Shirone ran through his rune sequence to calm his nerves.
He might have to use Sibulsang Pokmae right away, so it was better to have the sequence partially up.
'Primary goal is to collect the nearest scramble. But depending on the situation I might have to run far.'
Then Ruru's voice pierced his mind like an electric signal.
"The Scramble Royal has begun."
Shirone's eyes flashed.
He thumbed through the summoned master card and a screen with coordinates appeared.
Exactly twelve coordinates were recorded in XYZ format.
Imagining a map in his head, he quickly input all twelve coordinates and pulled images from them, then checked the closest location.
'X-271, Y-373, Z-8. Toward Training Ground Nine.'
Once the destination was set his body moved automatically and the information he'd fed began to analyze itself in his head.
'A circle a bit warped to the right. But distribution is close to average.'
He couldn't guarantee the scrambles would be called fairly next round. If there was an underlying rule, Iruki could probably find the equation in about three days.
Shirone checked the master card and blinked as two coordinates vanished almost simultaneously.
'They already collected some?'
Landing at the safest point teleportation allowed, he ran toward the coordinate while checking the master card again.
'Five.'
Out of twelve, five coordinates had already been erased.
'And it hasn't even been five minutes. Human probability, huh.'
He flipped the screen: beside Iruki, Amy, Hershi, and Anchale's names was the ⓡ (random card) mark.
'As expected, they all chose random.'
Anxiety spiked when he noticed another coordinate vanish.
"Damn it!"
Shirone shoved off the ground and teleported; a fierce flare curved as he burst out of the dense forest.
* * *
"This concludes the morning evaluation of person-to-person combat. Enjoy your lunch and we'll see you this afternoon."
Binder raised his hand.
"What happens to those who didn't participate today?"
He was a genius with a perfect theoretical score of 100, but strong senior-year rivals had pushed him down to twenty-sixth place.
Especially since his opponent this morning had been the formidable Anchale, he'd almost given up.
Department head Collie entered the combat training ground and said, "If you skip until the afternoon you forfeit."
A few students brightened.
'Please don't come back.'
Eleven students had skipped the morning evaluation. If things stayed that way, most of them would get three points by default.
"Fermi, do you know anything?"
Collie asked, but Fermi shrugged. "Why are you asking me?"
Collie knew two members of the Golden Coin Wheel hadn't shown up, but feigning ignorance felt wrong.
'Participation in the senior-year evaluation is up to the students. In this case it will be recorded as absence…'
"Maybe they ate something bad yesterday? Maybe they all got food poisoning, hahaha."
Richard from Alchemy chuckled, shoulders shaking.
"Go have lunch."
With that Collie turned and headed for the principal's office.
'Scramble Royal, huh.'
* * *
"Found it."
Shirone spotted a scramble the size of a fist, glowing, hanging in a tree at the edge of the training ground.
'Remaining coordinates…'
After the initial rapid disappearance of coordinates, collection had stalled and four coordinates remained.
'If I collect this, three left. At first they choose random. But before that I need to check—'
When he grabbed the orb of light it turned into a pure card.
-Once a scramble is collected, it cannot be transferred to other participants.
Shirone thought, 'Random!'
There was no immediate response, and after one second the pure card turned into a random card as the rules dictated.
"So it won't work after all."
He couldn't arbitrarily choose random while it was in the pure state.
In fact the card automatically transformed if he just held it, but that was an important detail to Shirone.
If he could choose the random card at will, he could use Sibulsang Pokmae to revert it to pure.
'I confirmed that. Next is turning an opened card back into random.'
Just as he was pulling up the sequence to unleash Sibulsang Pokmae, a voice rang in his head.
"All scrambles have been collected and destroyed. Time until next summoning: one hour, thirty-eight minutes, twelve seconds."
Shirone postponed the experiment and checked the master card.
"Phew, thank goodness."
His teammates each had a card and, as agreed beforehand, had all chosen random.
Shirone then checked the allied team's collection status.
'They're all random too—huh?'
All five names showed ⓡ, but next to Eden's name was ○ (white card).
'He chose white. The strongest at stage one. But it'll flip in an hour and a half, right?'
A thought flashed.
'Could it be…?'
Before he finished thinking, someone stepped out of the rustling bushes.
"We finally meet."
A murderous light ignited in Shirone's eyes.
"Kaden."
Kaden of the Cross Star let his family weapon, the cross-sword, hang low. He must have collected scrambles quickly and come looking only for Shirone; he scraped the ground with the tip of his blade as he approached.
"So you chose random. My card's random too."
Even if both were random, the dangerous one was Shirone—he hadn't opened his yet.
'Kaden must have opened his immediately upon collecting. He'd have no reason to keep a random card.'
Shirone still had steps to test Sibulsang Pokmae, so he needed a little breathing room.
'Should I open it now? But then I'd have to wait over an hour for the next experiment. If Kang hits me while it's open, what happens to an opened card?'
Would it open automatically, or be reshuffled? That could be another experiment, he thought, when Kaden said the unexpected.
"You think I'll call Kang?"
"..."
"It's the first card anyway. It doesn't mean much. That's why I came for you. Regardless of the cards, I can beat you up."
Kaden raised his sword and pointed it at Shirone.
"Let's hit each other a bit first."
Shirone willingly took Kaden's provocation—he was angry too.
"I told you."
Kaden's nose creased as he inspected the photon cannons floating around Shirone.
At a glance, the photon compression was nothing like before.
"You won't be forgiven if you interfere with me."
The Photon Cannon flashed and leapt forward, and Kaden blurred, stepping to the right.
'Incredibly fast. A schema?'
Kaden's movement, as if rails had been laid on the ground, skirted the training ground and made it hard to track by eye.
"Uooooo!"
He swung the cross-sword recklessly, but every trajectory was decisively lethal.
'Berserk!'
Kaden took the hit from the light barrier and ground his teeth, lifting his head.
Sixteen red dots had already marked his face.
"Homing Photon Cannon."
"Gah!"
A flash arced like a hook, and Kaden tried to sprint with swallowlike speed, but he couldn't escape the Seeker's tracking.
"Shirone—!"
He planted his feet and, grinding his teeth, a crimson energy blossomed and condensed into the shape of a cross.
The talent gained by sacrificing one's fate was the most effective means to reach a goal.
"Shironeee!"
Kaden roared and swung his sword; with loud slaps the Homing Photon Cannons ricocheted in all directions.
Each deflection pushed his legs back by a meter, and after bouncing off all sixteen, he stood twenty meters farther than where he'd started.
"Krrrgh!"
Kaden grimaced through the shock and glared at Shirone.
'Monstrous power. So this is the Photon Cannon.'
The cross-sword's blade reflected light, but the mass of the impact felt as if the bones in his fingers would crush.
'How dare you touch Maya—! My muse!'
Thoughts of Maya shot through Kaden's mind; he bared the whites of his eyes and gripped his sword tighter.
"I'll kill you!"