The Infinite Dimensions Starting from The Irregular at Magic High School

The students in the vehicle rose to their feet one after another, preparing to forcibly stop it with their own counter-magic.

"Idiots, stop!"

Mari immediately shouted, trying to stop them.

In a situation like this, one person using magic would actually be enough to solve the problem, but having so many spells erupt all at once was a serious issue.

All kinds of magic activated without the slightest order, each exerting its disorderly power to rewrite phenomena, acted on a single object in the same instant.

That would cause all the spells to clash with one another and trigger an even greater accident!

But by the time Mari tried to stop them, it was already too late.

Morisaki Shun, who excelled at fast-attack magic, had already activated his activation sequence, and the others were just about finished as well. There was no way to take them back.

On the burning vehicle, multicolored counter-magic began swirling around it.

The unforeseen disaster could no longer be avoided!

That was what Mari Watanabe, and even Katsuto Jumonji and Mayumi Saegusa, originally believed.

But just then, the counter-magic that was about to be completed, as well as the spells that had already been completed, suddenly scattered.

It was as if glass had been shattered by a stone.

Immediately afterward, the burning vehicle turned into a mist of molecular dust and vanished completely.

When they looked back, they saw Yotsuba Mahiro standing up, a jet-black handgun-shaped CAD in his hand. The psion light lingering around him made it clear that the magic just now had been activated by him.

And at that moment, having finished all of this, Mahiro calmly put the CAD back into his coat.

Seeing the crowd of dumbstruck students staring at him, he smiled faintly and said:

"No need to thank me. I just happened to do it."

"Mahiro-kun... what you used just now couldn't have been Cast Dismantling, could it?"

Mayumi asked in a quiet voice.

At this point, she had already witnessed far too many miracles from Mahiro, so no matter what she saw now, she would no longer be surprised.

Even if Yotsuba Mahiro suddenly used Strategic-Class Magic tomorrow and thereby rose to become the Fourteenth Apostle, she felt it would be perfectly normal.

It was as if there were no magic he could not use.

However, this time it was Mahiro's turn to be surprised. He exclaimed to Mayumi, "I didn't expect you to even know about Cast Dismantling, Senpai!"

Although the structure of Cast Dismantling was very simple, because it was non-systematic magic, not many people understood it.

In school, aside from Iruma Steel, only Shiba Tatsuya could use it.

"But unfortunately, what I used wasn't Cast Dismantling. It was Cast Jamming," Mahiro explained with a shrug.

Although the two spells' names differed by only one word, and both were non-systematic magic, their natures were worlds apart.

Cast Dismantling compressed a psion cluster into a mass and fired it directly at the target without passing through the information-body dimension, then detonated it, "destroying" the psion information body "attached" to the target that recorded magic, including activation sequences and magic sequences.

Although it was classified as magic, it was merely a psion bullet. Its structure did not include a magic sequence that altered phenomena.

Cast Jamming, on the other hand, exposed the information structure through the activation sequence, allowing the caster to read the activation sequence by observing it and erase it—in other words, decompose the magic sequence that constructed the spell into meaningless psion clusters.

Although Cast Dismantling was more convenient to use, when it came to which one had the stronger effect, it naturally could not compare to Cast Jamming.

After all, the latter was recognized as magic that could not reach the practical stage.

However, after hearing his explanation, Mayumi wanted to take back what she had thought before.

Her worldview had been overturned once again.

Especially after listening to Mahiro's explanation.

In other words, in that instant just now, Mahiro-kun had read nearly seven magic activation sequences and dismantled them all in one breath?!

"I can't believe you can do something to that extent..." Mayumi could not help but say with a wry smile.

It was a terror completely beyond comprehension.

Whoever became his opponent in the Nine Schools Competition could only pray for themselves. Even Masaki Ichijo from Third High would probably be no exception.

In response, Mahiro merely smiled and did not reply.

For this, he really had to thank the Fourth Laboratory and Shiba Tatsuya.

From the two of them, he had obtained the ability of Flash Casting, as well as a method to strengthen his magic calculation area.

His brain was like a grimoire that recorded every magic sequence and every piece of knowledge, allowing him to read them directly and even omit the time needed to construct a magic sequence, thereby achieving the ability to perform magic at high speed.

Combined with the Eidos Eye's ability to read information-body data, that was how he was able to do something so absurd.

Thus, the crisis passed without real danger.

And inside the vehicle, aside from a few "injured" students whose foreheads had been knocked red and swollen, only the sound of Watanabe-senpai lecturing her juniors remained.

As the first one to fire off magic in a panic, Chiyoda Kanon was now hunching her neck like a quail.

"Ugh, but I reacted the fastest. I just didn't think other people would use magic again..."

Kanon's excuse made Morisaki and Shizuku lower their heads in embarrassment.

Several others also wore awkward expressions.

Katsuto Jumonji and Mayumi Saegusa had already gone off to inspect the accident scene.

Since the vehicle had been dismantled, all that remained on the ground was a charred corpse burned beyond recognition.

Mahiro, sitting in the car, was also watching that corpse, but the look in his eyes was quite intriguing.

"Feels like... this wasn't an accident..."

After the accident, the police arrived very quickly.

Because they knew they were the victims and also a team participating in the Nine Schools Competition, clearing the scene and taking statements only took about thirty minutes before they were allowed through.

But because their departure had been delayed, and because of the accident they encountered on the road, it was not until afternoon that they arrived at their lodging—

A military hotel.

A hotel that was originally only for civilian officials on inspection tours, or foreign senior officers and their entourages attending international conferences, was made available during the Nine Schools Competition for students and school personnel to rent out and use.

That said, it was not exactly attentive down to the smallest detail.

It was a military facility after all, so there were no dedicated valets or greeters.

Normally, the base duty soldiers managing the place were responsible for those tasks, but the Nine Schools Competition was a high school tournament, so the students had to unload their own luggage.

The large machines on the engineering vehicle would be used directly in the vehicle, so there was no need to unload them. However, the small tools and CADs had to be taken to the rooms for fine-tuning, so they still had to be carried into the hotel by hand.

And Yotsuba Mahiro, despite being a temporary worker and a magic engineer brought in just to make up the numbers, still could not escape the fate of helping carry equipment.

"Ah, I'm dead, I'm dead tired..."

Mahiro complained as he stretched.

But when he reached the front of the hotel, he happened to run into Miyuki. She seemed to be saying something to Tatsuya.

"Yo, what are you two talking about? You look so happy." Mahiro stepped forward and teased them.

"...We are not."

She had originally looked quite happy to see him, but his sudden teasing made Miyuki's cheeks puff up slightly in dissatisfaction.

"My elder brother and I were only discussing the accident we encountered on the road earlier."

"Elder Brother said the incident just now might not have been an accident."

"Oh?"

He looked at Tatsuya, and Tatsuya nodded to him. "Yes. The way that car bounced was very unnatural. Although there are no traces left now, I think a small-scale spell was used at that moment, and it was cast instantly at the minimum output.

That is an advanced technique that prevents any residual psions from the magic sequence from being detected. The other party was likely a covert operative who had received professional training, but it feels a little wasteful for someone like that to be treated as a disposable pawn in a suicide attack."

"Oho, so you noticed too."

After hearing that, Mahiro looked at Tatsuya with a bit more respect.

"Could it be... Brother Mahiro, you noticed too?" Miyuki asked in surprise.

"It would've been hard not to." Mahiro spread his hands and said, "Using magic that blatantly—no matter how small the scale was, it was as obvious as lice on a bald man's head."

"Though I didn't manage to guess the other party's identity. According to what you said, Tatsuya, they're most likely terrorists again? Like [Blanche]?"

"No." Shiba Tatsuya shook his head. "They are probably of a higher level than Blanche."

"Tch."

Hearing that, Mahiro could not help clicking his tongue.

What a pain, one problem after another. It had only been a few months since the Blanche incident, and things had not even completely settled down yet, but now the Nine Schools Competition was being targeted too.

Was First High School Conan or something?

Why did trouble happen wherever they went?

"...So Brother Mahiro and Elder Brother had already noticed. Miyuki was the only one who knew nothing about all this and could not do anything..."

Miyuki was very dejected that she had not been able to help at all.

At the same time, she was so furious at the attackers' despicable actions that her shoulders trembled slightly.

A bunch of despicable cowards...

"Well, there's no helping that. Miyuki, you can only see the [present]. You have no way to peer back into the [past], so it's only normal you couldn't notice."

Mahiro placed his large hand on her head and gently stroked it, soothing her as he said, "And besides, with me and Tatsuya here, why do you need to feel sad over a little thing like this?"

Since they knew of the potential threat's existence, what they needed to do next was much simpler.

Since the other party's first attempt had failed, there would definitely be a second.

All they had to do was get the defenses ready and wait for the next attack.

Then they would grab it by its little tail, follow the trail, and wipe out that whole pack of trash!

However, as soon as they entered the hotel, they ran into another unexpected figure.

"Yahoo~"

It was Erika.

She was sitting on a sofa by the wall, waving this way. Her striking looks and fiery short hair made her especially eye-catching.

"Haven't seen you in a week. How've you been?"

"Not bad. Just a bit busy, with a little too much trouble on my hands."

As Mahiro grumbled, he plopped down beside her. Although Erika complained that it was hot and told him to sit farther away, she ultimately did not actually drive him off.

It seemed she had tacitly accepted this way of getting along.

Moreover, she was even more interested in the trouble Mahiro mentioned. That was the source of her amusement, so she took the initiative and asked:

"Did something happen to you on the way? You got here awfully late."

First High School was not exactly close to the Nine Schools Competition venue, but it was not the farthest away either.

Yet the other high schools had already arrived, and only they had shown up as late as this afternoon. Something must have happened.

Mahiro had no intention of hiding it either, and described to Erika what they had encountered on the road.

Including what he and Tatsuya had discovered, as well as their guesses.

However, after listening, the look Erika gave him was extremely subtle... or more precisely, it was aimed at First High School.

"Hey, hey, don't you think First High School is cursed? How do you guys end up attracting terrorists wherever you go?"