Irregular at Magic High School: The Black Dragon

Chapter 8: Nine Schools Competition I

7-12-2095

Cosmos Household

Late Evening

Jonasan was in the living room by himself, Kurisu had gone to bed earlier. Jonasan was finishing up an AAR (After Action Review) of Blanche's attempted invasion of First High when the front window, which overlooked the city, lit up. Glancing up from his work, Jonasan could see several glowing balls appear over the Kokonoe Temple, which was the source of the light came from. As he watched, Jonasan could barely make out a figure above the temple, swatting the glowing lights. Several of the lights were extinguished before there was a small pause then two more vanished before the lights faded out entirely.

"Hmm... Ninjutsu, Ancient Magic, Demonfire perhaps." Jonasan mused. "A student training? But why would they vanish like that?"

A pause.

"Wait a minute." Jonasan quickly referenced his calendar program. "Ah, that. So, Mirage Bat then. It's the old man and one of the Shiba's then. Miyuki most likely."

On the calendar, there was a date typed in bold. Nine Schools Competition.

Jonasan mused for a few minutes before sending a message to one of their scouts, the betting market should have opened by now...

...

Student Council HQ

The next day

Kurisu and Jonasan were in the student council room as Mayumi was explaining the Nine Schools Competition.

"For the nine Magic University Affiliated High Schools around the country, the Nine Schools Competition is a high-profile event." Mayumi explained.

Azusa, who was working on something on her tablet looked up.

"The essay contest held in the fall is research-oriented, while during the Nine Schools Competition held in the summer, each school goes head-to-head in sports-type magic contests. Of course, since the school's honor is on the line, the contestants are chosen based on merit."

"So, the student council is taking the lead preparing for it, right?" Miyuki asked.

"Yes. As far as selecting our athletes, thanks to Juumonji's help, we've managed to finalize our roster, but..." Mayumi trailed off before looking at the two Cosmos. "Are you two sure that you don't want to compete?"

"As much as we'd like to, we were both given a firm no by our guardians." Kurisu said.

This was no lie. When Juumonji approached them about participating in a few of the events, they knew that they had to run it past Death and Time first. Both of their answers were a solid no, both citing the fact that the two tended to use their abilities when they got too into something.

"We will still be attending but we can't participate. Perhaps next year." Jonasan said while getting the sinking feeling that the three Fates had other plans in store for them.

Mayumi frowned at the statement but gave no response to it before continuing on, tapping her chopsticks against the table. "The other problem we have is choosing engineers. I mean the technical staff."

"You're still short on engineers, then?" Mari asked.

"Yes." Mayumi said with a depressed look on her face. "The third-year class is particularly skewed towards practical skills. As for the second years, we do have A-chan and Isori... but..."

Azusa had a happy expression on her face when Mayumi said that.

"Kei Isori, huh? I'd say he's more of a pure theorist, and not too adept at fine-tuning, right?" Mari asked.