The Irregular at Magic High

Chapter 20

He returned their greeting and shook Koutarou's hand. For some reason, the hand wasn't released. (!) "Juumonji is from the Club Management Group. You can refer to him as Group Leader Juumonji." 

Was it just to tell me that? You could've told me that after you released my hand. (!) "I'm up next. Please refer to me by my family name Sawaki." Upon feeling pressure on his hand, Tatsuya's consciousness was pulled back to reality.

His grip strength had increased to the point where you could hear the movement, Tatsuya was surprised to find. This school had excellent students, and not just solely in the magic department. 

"Don't call me by my name." 

That appeared to be the warning. There was no need for such a roundabout warning, as Tatsuya was not in the habit of referring to upperclassmen by name, but since Sawaki took time to specifically mention this, he should respond as well. 

"I'll remember that." At the same time these words were spoken, his right hand was released. Upon seeing Tatsuya's physical skills, Koutarou's surprise surpassed Sawaki's own. 

"Ho, that's quite impressive. Sawaki's grip strength is at least in the triple digits." 

"...I think that hardly qualifies as normal physical abilities, even for Magicians."

Tatsuya pretended not to know, giving only a light response. He was probably going to get along quite well with these two -- Tatsuya thought.

When compared to traditional auxiliary equipment such as magic staves, tomes, or talismans, CADs possessed superior invocation speed, refinement, complexity, and were capable of executing large scale magics. They were the definitive auxiliary equipment in the modern age. That being said, they weren't universally superior in all categories when compared to traditional auxiliary equipment. Due to the precise nature of CADs, when compared to traditional auxiliary equipment, maintenance required additional effort. This was especially the case when dealing with the compatibility between the user's Psion wave motions and the Receive-Release System. CAD utilized the Psions released by Magicians as raw materials (it may be more appropriate to describe it as the ink for paintings), directed towards the Activation Sequence in the Psion Information Aide, where Magicians then use their own physical bodies as a conductor for reading the Activation Sequence before plugging the result into the magic design. Depending on the quality of CAD maintenance, this could influence the speed of magic invocation anywhere between 50-100%. In other words, Psions are particles of thought or consciousness made concrete. Their manifestation can be extremely diverse. 

For every hundred people there would be a hundred different types, and a thousand users would create a thousand types. Every individual has a unique Psion wave motion, so if the CAD wasn't finely tuned to their specific use, the user would encounter difficulty managing the exchange of Psions. Besides that, there are many essential points that lead to a custom fit CAD. These would fall under the purview of the Magic Artificers charged with CAD maintenance, and the reason why exceptionally skilled Magic Artificers were seen as coveted treasures. In addition, the fluctuations of Psion wave motions reflect the growth of the physical body, such as changes as a result of age, and are subsequently affected. In fact, these fluctuations could change daily. Thus, the ideal situation would call for daily maintenance based on the user's physical status, but CAD maintenance requires equipment that is extremely expensive. 

Generally, only the military, police, central government, first class research institutes, famous schools, and well-financed major corporations possess the power and funding for CAD maintenance equipment and related trained personnel, an impossible scenario for small to mid-sized companies or personal use. Magicians in the latter categories resort to using Magic Machine Customization Stores once a month, or Mechanical Service Stores once or twice for scheduled check-ups. First High was also considered to be one of the country's premiere schools, and thus naturally possessed special facilities for student use. It was a common sight to see students or faculty undergoing CAD maintenance on campus.