The Infinite Dimensions Starting from The Irregular at Magic High School

Hearing Suzune's analysis, Mayumi could not help propping her cheek in regret and sighing softly.

She had reached the same conclusion at first.

But personally, if possible, she very much hoped Kitayama could win.

"This time, it should finally make you take things a little seriously, Miyuki."

Mahiro leaned against the wall beside the competitors' passage, watching the girl in the distance.

Over the past few days, Miyuki had seemed rather distracted, even during her matches.

So he wanted to use Shizuku to knock some sense into that foolish cousin of his.

At the same time.

The match began.

As the lamp posts on both sides of the field lit up and their lights shifted continuously, the very instant they became the signal flare—

Both sides cast magic at the same time.

A surging heat wave struck Shizuku's position.

Miyuki's strategy was the same as before: use powerful magic like Inferno of Ice and Flame, along with her immense magical power, to crush her opponent head-on.

Even though Shizuku had released Information Reinforcement to prevent temperature changes, the ice pillars still faintly showed signs of melting.

It was like boiling a frog in warm water.

It was not obvious, but if this continued, defeat would only be a matter of time.

Refusing to be outdone, Shizuku relied on her own excellent magical affinity for resonance destruction and used the vibration-system magic—"Earth Tremor."

Miyuki's position was struck by Earth Tremor.

However, that vibration was suppressed before it could trigger resonance.

It was area magic that restrained the vibration and movement of her entire position, its magical power even spreading across the ground and underground.

The two blocked each other's magic while reaching out with the claws that rewrote phenomena toward the ice pillars in the enemy camp.

It was an offense and defense that only connoisseurs could understand, one that made experts click their tongues in admiration, seemingly dead even.

However, the two people involved did not think so.

I can't break them... As expected of Miyuki!

Even though her Earth Tremor was frantically attacking the ice pillars, the damage it caused was far less than the heat wave sweeping through her own field.

"In that case!"

Under Miyuki's stunned gaze, Shizuku suddenly canceled her resonance magic. Instead, a beam of hot light shot out from the CAD on her wrist!

At the same time, the hot ray produced through high-frequency vibration split into four during flight, piercing through half of the ice pillars in Miyuki's position.

"It's actually the Phonon Maser after Mahiro's improvements!"

Whether it was the spectators outside the field or Miyuki herself, everyone was shocked, so much so that Miyuki's heart wavered for an instant.

If that was the case—

Ice Fog Domain!

A serious glint appeared in Miyuki's eyes.

The Inferno of Ice and Flame she had just released instantly stopped. Immediately afterward, an extreme cold, so frigid it seemed to have reached absolute zero, swept across the field.

The ice pillars that had clearly just been melted halfway by the Phonon Maser froze again in an instant.

Even the ice pillars on the opposite field were strengthened along with them.

Sure enough, it's just as Mahiro predicted.

Shizuku was not surprised in the slightest.

Because before the match began, Mahiro had already told her about the magic Miyuki excelled at.

But to be honest, neither Ice Fog Domain nor Inferno of Ice and Flame was what Miyuki was best at.

She had inherited Yotsuba Miya's bloodline, and even her title; the magic she was best at was the River of Lamentation, which could freeze the mind and even the soul!

The Ice Fog Domain she was skilled in was more like a derivative offshoot of River of Lamentation.

Although the two were completely different according to magical classifications, in Yotsuba Mahiro's personal classification, they were the same, both belonging to freezing-type magic.

Then next, Miyuki will definitely release Inferno of Ice and Flame again!

First came extreme heat, then extreme cold, then extreme heat once more.

The several-hundredfold thermal expansion and contraction produced through instantaneous temperature conversion was enough to shatter all the ice pillars in an instant.

So Shizuku knew very well that whether she could win would depend on this next step!

Sure enough, the instant Ice Fog Domain ended, Miyuki pressed her CAD again and released Inferno of Ice and Flame, and its effect far surpassed the previous one!

But the instant that magic sequence appeared, Shizuku slipped her left hand, the one wearing the CAD, into her right sleeve.

The hand she pulled out was gripping a specialized handgun-shaped Casting Assistant Device.

She aimed the muzzle at the Inferno of Ice and Flame that was about to be released and pulled the CAD's trigger with her left hand.

Crack!

The sound of shattering glass echoed across the arena.

The Inferno of Ice and Flame that had been on the verge of completion was erased in an instant.

"...That was Cast Jamming?!!!"

When Mayumi saw the transmitted footage, she immediately slapped both hands on the table and cried out in shock.

Even Mari could not help exclaiming, "What kind of demon realm is this place...?"

She had originally thought Yotsuba Mahiro was the only one capable of using that move. She never expected Kitayama, their junior, to have learned it too.

And most importantly, from the start of the match until now, not a single spell the two of them had used was below A-rank!

Since when had A-rank magic become this easy to master?

But the one most shocked was Miyuki, who was facing her as an opponent.

She had never expected Shizuku not only to learn how to dual-wield CADs, but also to be able to unleash Cast Jamming. Especially in the instant Shizuku pulled the trigger, Miyuki felt as if the person standing there was not Shizuku at all.

It was her cousin, Yotsuba Mahiro!

That made her fall into a momentary daze.

And the opening she inadvertently exposed was seized by Kitayama Shizuku.

She activated "Earth Tremor" once more!

The ice pillars that had been frozen by the low temperatures of the Ice Fog Domain were extremely fragile just from being exposed to room-temperature air. Under the summer sunlight, they would have cracked apart even if nothing had been done to them.

Let alone now, when they were being struck by "Earth Tremor" and its intense resonance.

On Miyuki's side, the cracks across the surfaces of the ice pillars gradually widened, and without exception, they all collapsed in an instant.

Shattered ice fragments splashed against Miyuki's cold, pale face, slowly bringing her back to her senses.

She reached up and gently touched the dampness on her cheek, then lowered her head to look at the melting ice crystals on her fingertips. Her two cherry-colored lips trembled slightly.

As if in a trance, she murmured to herself:

"...I lost."

The match was declared over.

"Mahiro, I won!"

"Mm, congratulations, Shizuku. I saw it. It was a wonderful match."

Just as he had before the battle began, after it ended, Mahiro once again gently stroked Kitayama Shizuku's beautiful hair.

And although the girl's face remained expressionless, this time he could clearly feel the joy coming from the bottom of her heart.

But immediately after, Shizuku blinked her lead-gray eyes and looked at him.

She took the initiative to step back two paces, putting some distance between them.

"What's wrong?"

"I think you should go check on Miyuki. Something seems off about her," Shizuku said in a completely flat tone.

However.

Hearing Shizuku say that left him somewhat surprised instead.

He had not expected this seemingly emotionless girl to have so keenly noticed Miyuki's abnormal state.

By the time he found Miyuki, it was already evening, near dusk.

The setting sun on the horizon dyed the burning clouds crimson, then shone through the hotel's floor-to-ceiling windows into the room, tinting everything with a layer of orange-red.

And Miyuki was standing before the floor-to-ceiling windows, staring blankly at Mount Fuji in the distance beneath the setting sun.

The snow on Mount Fuji was lit up until it looked just like her flushed, cold-white skin.

"Congratulations on winning second place?"

"...Brother Mahiro, did you come here specially to make fun of me?" Miyuki said resentfully as she gazed at the horizon.

"Of course not."

Mahiro shrugged and came to Miyuki's side, accompanying her as they admired the evening dusk together.

"I only came to see how my poor little sister Miyuki was doing, whether she'd been so badly shocked that she couldn't recover. Then, when I saw Tatsuya wasn't by your side, I thought I might as well comfort you."

"Is that so... But Miyuki thinks Brother Mahiro is so unfair."

Miyuki puffed out her cheeks slightly and turned her head as if sulking, gazing at him. "Although Miyuki can understand what Brother Mahiro did, no matter what, Miyuki still thinks you went too far."

First there was the Multiple Casting "Phonon Maser," then there was "Cast Jamming," and in the final strategy, it was obvious that her own actions had all been within Shizuku's expectations.

"You wouldn't expect Miyuki to believe Mahiro had nothing to do with this, would you?"

"Ahaha, you found me out?"

Unless she were an idiot, there was no way she wouldn't notice.

And clearly, Miyuki was not.

"But you can't blame me for this, can you? You've been distracted these past few days, Miyuki, even during your matches. So I borrowed Shizuku for a little wake-up call."

"As a magician, acting like that makes you pretty unqualified, you know."

Mahiro turned the tables and started lecturing Miyuki instead.

But what he said was true. Ever since Maya had arrived, Miyuki had been off her game—

Against Cast Jamming of Shizuku's level, Miyuki should originally have been able to handle it with ease. Even if her spell formula was disrupted, she should have been able to restore it immediately.

But the result had been completely different.

Perhaps after he left that day, Maya had said something else to Miyuki, leading her to end up like this.

And Miyuki did not argue back either. She only lowered her head slightly, looking as though she had accepted the lesson.

"You're right, Mahiro. Miyuki understands too. It's just that lately... Miyuki has run into something a little troubling."

"What's bothering you? Can you tell me? Let me have a laugh too."

"No way."

Miyuki glared at him in a huff, but soon calmed down again and looked out at the distant mountains once more.

"It's not really anything serious, actually. And Miyuki has already figured it out..."

"Mahiro, can Miyuki borrow your chest to lean on for a while? Just like before."

Faced with Miyuki's request, Mahiro said nothing. He only silently reached out and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and Miyuki naturally leaned against his chest.

She felt that familiar warmth, and heard that strong, steady heartbeat.