An Evolving Relationship

While Watanabe Mari and Mibu Sayaka were still talking, Saegusa Mayumi had already quietly pulled Kudo Mitsunobu outside.

"Are you hurt?"

Saegusa Mayumi looked Kudo Mitsunobu up and down in the hallway.

"No, not at all."

"They were just a bunch of armed terrorists. There were barely any who could use magic. I wasn't going to get hurt by a threat like that."

Kudo Mitsunobu spoke lightly, but he was still happy to see how genuinely worried Saegusa Mayumi was about him.

"I see. I hope that's true."

"But..."

"You went with Jumonji, but you didn't call me. Were you two trying to leave me out?"

When Saegusa Mayumi brought it up, she pouted.

"Of course not! Doesn't the Student Council have lots of things that need you to take care of them? Jumonji-senpai and I were enough for something like that."

Kudo Mitsunobu poked Saegusa Mayumi's puffed-up cheek with his finger.

"Really? Somehow, your explanation doesn't quite satisfy me."

Saegusa Mayumi looked at Kudo Mitsunobu doubtfully. She pulled down the hand he was using to poke her cheek, then held his hand between both of hers.

Kudo Mitsunobu was startled by Saegusa Mayumi's sudden boldness, but he wasn't like those innocent guys who panicked whenever a girl looked at them.

He turned his hand over and clasped Saegusa Mayumi's small hands in his palm. "Then how about I put it another way?"

"For example, I didn't want you to be put in danger."

"That's not fair!"

Saegusa Mayumi felt as if her heart were about to leap out of her chest. She'd always scoffed at lines like that when she heard them in TV dramas.

But when the person she loved said them, was this what it felt like to have trouble breathing?

Chapter 33: An Evolving Relationship

The disturbance at the Japanese Blance branch had been resolved thanks to Kudo Mitsunobu's efforts. At the monthly meeting of the Ten Master Clans, the Ten Master Ancestors had also given his performance high praise.

Mibu Sayaka was discharged from the hospital after just three or four days. Thanks to Shiichi's confession, the First High students were also pardoned, receiving only a week's suspension that would not be recorded in their files.

Thanks to Saegusa Mayumi's efforts, reforms to the Course 2 Student system were implemented a week after the final exams.

The Course 2 Students now had hope that they could work their way up, while the Course 1 Students could no longer afford to be complacent, with people now chasing after them.

All in all, the atmosphere at school was quite good.

Although the two groups of students still couldn't get along particularly well, the tension between them had eased.

Normally, students would be on vacation after the final exams and wouldn't need to come to school, but plenty of them were still showing up.

It was all because of one event, known as the great festival of high school students.

The Nine Schools Competition.

That was why the school was still so lively, even though classes had let out for the holidays.

Most of those gathering there belonged to various clubs. After all, many of the school's athletic clubs had been established around the Nine Schools Competition's events.

Naturally, their facilities were quite similar to the venues used for the Nine Schools Competition, making it easier for students to maintain their competitive form while practicing at school.

The school swimming pool.

An emerald-green ball of psions hovered above the pool like a blazing sun.

The pool wasn't filled with water, of course. Instead, giant ice pillars, each one meter long and wide and about four meters high, stood in neat rows.

Several beams of light shot out from the emerald-green orb. Within seconds, the pillars in the pool were pierced through by the rays that split off from the orb.

The psion bullet seemed to have completed its task and disappeared into the air, leaving behind a battered pool riddled with holes.

"Here, have a sports drink."

Saegusa Mayumi, who had been waiting nearby, stood up from her seat, took a drink she'd prepared earlier out of her bag, and handed it to Kudo Mitsunobu.

"Thanks, Mayumi."

Kudo Mitsunobu took the drink and gulped down a couple of mouthfuls.

That was more or less how the two of them spent their time together. Whenever they were free, they would stay together and enjoy each other's company in private.

Of course, neither of them had yet said anything about their feelings.

"Is this the magic you said was almost complete at the Student Council the other day?"

Mayumi looked at the battered pool, secretly astonished.

She wasn't surprised by the power of Kudo Mitsunobu's magic. What amazed her was that he could maintain such an enormous mass of energy in a stable form without it collapsing.

"It still isn't good enough. The Atomic Rays that split off have lost too much penetrating power. It also takes too long to prepare, so I can't use it in actual combat yet."

Kudo Mitsunobu shook his head, still dissatisfied.

His Atomic Ray used acceleration and dispersion magic to manipulate electrons between their particle and wave states, then fire them as high-speed particle-wave cannons.

Its advantages were its tremendous speed and penetrating power when fired at full strength.

Piercing walls or thick steel plates was a given. Even barriers created by magicians were no exception. As Kudo Mitsunobu saw it, only the Jumonji House's Phalanx could withstand his Atomic Ray.

The drawback was that it was difficult to control. Even with Kudo Mitsunobu's computational ability, he could only stabilize its structure, not direct it freely.

Dragon Star Cluster was an ultra-A-class magic concept based on his A-class Atomic Ray and C-class Split Bullet.

But judging by the current results, it still fell within the realm of A-class magic. After all, if it couldn't reproduce the penetrating power of the Atomic Ray itself, there would be plenty of people who could withstand it.