"Twenty times?"
"Something's not right!"
"Definitely not right!"
The three girls each offered a comment as they analyzed it.
"If it simply increased your mass, even if you couldn't get up, you shouldn't have been unable to say a single word."
Suzune Ichihara rewound the video and pointed to the image of Hanzou Gyoubushoujou Hattori opening his mouth without making a sound.
"..."
The corners of Hanzou Gyoubushoujou Hattori's mouth twitched.
Is it really okay to keep beating a dead horse right in front of me?
Grumbling was one thing, and thinking it was another. He certainly wasn't going to say it aloud.
"At the time, both my legs had suffered comminuted fractures, I had internal bleeding, and the enormous strain on my body left me unable to make a sound. Just opening my mouth took every bit of strength I had."
As he spoke, the now clearheaded Hanzou Gyoubushoujou Hattori also began to sense that something was wrong.
"A mere twentyfold increase in weight couldn't do all that!"
Mayumi Saegusa murmured.
"Yes!"
Azusa Nakajo also looked at the screen and nodded in agreement with Mayumi Saegusa.
"So that's where the problem lies!"
Suzune Ichihara took out a notebook and began writing something down.
"Vice president, tell us what you felt back then again. Think back carefully, and try not to leave anything out or get anything wrong."
Suzune Ichihara looked at Hanzou Gyoubushoujou Hattori as she spoke.
"I remember suddenly having trouble breathing. My raised arm dropped rapidly out of my control, and my body couldn't support itself anymore. I collapsed in an instant. Then came intense pain, followed by a powerful wave of dizziness. My mind seemed to grow a little hazy. My internal organs felt as if they'd been viciously struck with a huge iron hammer. I felt the urge to cough up blood, but when I opened my mouth, nothing came out."
Hanzou Gyoubushoujou Hattori frowned as he earnestly recalled what had happened.
"It wasn't that you wanted to cough up blood but couldn't. The blood was affected by the magic and remained trapped inside your body. It couldn't come out at all."
Suzune Ichihara carefully took notes while analyzing it.
"Yes, that must be it."
Hanzou Gyoubushoujou Hattori nodded.
"But don't you find it strange?"
Azusa Nakajo interjected.
"If it was purely gravity magic, you shouldn't have suffered such serious injuries, vice president!"
"Much less have been completely unable to resist!"
Azusa Nakajo continued her analysis.
"True!"
Hanzou Gyoubushoujou Hattori nodded. He had been so shaken at the time that he couldn't think clearly. Now that he considered it carefully, there had probably been more to it than the gravity magic he had seen.
"What we can say for certain is that he definitely activated other magic, but we don't know what it was. Or rather, it was a kind of magic we've never seen before!"
Mayumi Saegusa murmured as she watched the footage.
"Never seen before?"
"Are you saying he created that magic himself?"
Hanzou Gyoubushoujou Hattori exclaimed.
"Yes, that's the only possibility."
Suzune Ichihara agreed with that view as well.
"Besides, don't you think he activated his magic far too quickly?"
"So quickly that it was unreasonable!"
Mayumi Saegusa pointed at Chiba Yeyou in the footage with a serious expression.
"Could he have gotten a head start?"
Suzune Ichihara tried to find a reasonable explanation.
"Impossible!"
Hearing Suzune Ichihara's analysis, Hanzou Gyoubushoujou Hattori immediately shook his head.
"I was watching the coin and Chiba Yeyou with my full attention. If he'd activated his magic early, I would've sensed the Psions, but I didn't. I can testify to that!"
"Even if he could easily conceal his Psion fluctuations, he wouldn't have bothered doing that. I distinctly sensed his Psion fluctuations when he activated his magic."
Hanzou Gyoubushoujou Hattori was certain Chiba Yeyou hadn't broken the rules. A loss was a loss. He wasn't so pathetic that he would deny it.
Hearing that, the three girls fell silent again.
"Also, the healing magic he used afterward is quite interesting. It's worth studying."
Seeing that they couldn't work out anything else, Suzune Ichihara skipped ahead to the scene where Chiba Yeyou treated Hanzou Gyoubushoujou Hattori.
Chiba Yeyou raised his hand, and a blue light flashed. The pain on Hanzou Gyoubushoujou Hattori's face in the video disappeared, leaving only a blank stare. Clearly, his severely injured body had fully recovered.
"Yes, that must be original magic too!"
The smile on Mayumi Saegusa's face grew wider.
Man, you've truly aroused my curiosity!
"From the looks of it, this magic should be fairly high-level. At least A-rank."
"After all, the vice president's physical condition at the time was downright terrible."
"Even the school's healing teacher would've needed to put in some effort."
Azusa Nakajo spoke as she looked at the blue light on Chiba Yeyou's fingertip in the paused footage.
"A-rank?"
Suzune Ichihara murmured.
The Thesis Competition would come after the Nine Schools Competition.
A genius who can independently develop new magic might give me some new ideas.
I have to get him to help me!
As it happens, he owes me a favor.
At that thought, a faint smile appeared on Suzune Ichihara's lips.
Bang!
The student council room's door opened again, and a girl with short black hair walked in.
"What are you all doing?"
The girl looked curiously at the group gathered together.
"Huh?"
"What's this?"
"Pfft!"
"Is that Hanzou Gyoubushoujou Hattori?"
The girl finally saw Hanzou Gyoubushoujou Hattori lying on the ground on the screen.
Although she was a little shocked, she also considered it normal. Every year, a few monsters enrolled. Hanzou Gyoubushoujou Hattori, for example, was the monster of their year.
Now someone else knows...
Forget it. Whatever!
As long as you're happy!
Hanzou Gyoubushoujou Hattori thought numbly.
"Mari, have you finished everything over there?"
Mayumi Saegusa asked in surprise.
She remembered that Mari Watanabe had far more to do than they did here.
"How could I have?"
"I'm here to ask you for people!"
Mari Watanabe found a seat and sat down.
"By the way, who's this guy?"
"Hmm?"
"Why does he look a little familiar?"
The longer Mari Watanabe looked at him, the more she felt she had seen him somewhere before.
Where exactly have I seen him?
Mari Watanabe happened to glance at Mayumi Saegusa.
Oh!
It's him!
"So it's him!"
As she spoke, Mari Watanabe stood up, rewound the video, and watched the entire sequence. Her expression grew increasingly grave.
"Here's our analysis!"
Suzune Ichihara handed over her notebook.
Mari Watanabe read it through, then said, "You missed something. Don't forget, he wasn't using a CAD!"
Mari Watanabe delivered those words with a thoroughly serious expression.
As those words fell, the room instantly went silent.
"This guy is terrifying!"
Hanzou Gyoubushoujou Hattori sighed, sounding rather moved.
In any case, he had been beaten into submission and no longer cared. Just those two-no, possibly three-original spells Chiba Yeyou had shown were beyond his ability to counter.
Who knew how much else the guy was hiding?
"Besides, although he said it was twenty times gravity, from what I can see, the pressure you endured was at least thirty times as much!"
Mari Watanabe looked at Hanzou Gyoubushoujou Hattori as she spoke.
"We know all that, but what does it tell us?"
"We all know he used other magic, but we can't identify it!"
"It isn't magic within the system at all."
Azusa Nakajo said helplessly.
"But we can analyze what kind of magic he used!"
Mari Watanabe chuckled.
"Hmm?"
"Mari, is that true?"
Mayumi Saegusa's eyes lit up. No matter how she had analyzed it earlier, nothing had made sense.
"Of course!"
Mari Watanabe said confidently.
"On the surface, it looked like the vice president simply fell down, and that was all. But that wasn't actually the case."
"Tell me, if he manipulated something to collide with the vice president, wouldn't that effectively increase the pressure he experienced?"
Mari Watanabe looked at the others as she asked.
"Well..."
The four exchanged glances.
That's right!
Why hadn't they thought of that?
"Earth's gravity!"
With that reminder from Mari Watanabe, all four immediately realized it and spoke in unison.
"No wonder the floor suddenly felt so hard, like a hammer hitting me!"
Hanzou Gyoubushoujou Hattori said in realization.
"This person..."
"I want him!"
Before Mayumi Saegusa could finish, Mari Watanabe directly demanded him.
"You're going a little too far!"
Mayumi Saegusa flashed a little devil's smile.
"Madam president, save that bewitching face of yours for our junior Chiba Yeyou!"
"You might even bag yourself a young husband~"
Mari Watanabe teased.
"You little...!"
"Don't you already have... Mmph, mmph, mmph..."
Seeing Mayumi Saegusa begin to run her mouth, Mari Watanabe hurriedly covered it.
The three beside them immediately entered melon-eating mode.
Go on, go on! Give us the details!
Ding!
It was the sound signaling the end of school.
"Wait, did we spend the whole afternoon doing nothing?"
The sudden sound snapped Mayumi Saegusa out of it.
"That does seem to be the case..."
Azusa Nakajo said slowly.
"You can't quite say that. There's this, too!"
Suzune Ichihara waved the notebook in her hand.
"Hmph!"
"It's all his fault!"
"Come on, let's go head him off!"
"Let's drag him back here to do our grunt work!"
Mayumi Saegusa was about to rush outside as she spoke.
Suddenly, she stopped short, as though she had thought of something, then turned to everyone present and asked, "Now, if I invite him to join the student council as a member, none of you have any objections, right?"
"None!"
"I agree!"
"We have to recruit someone that talented!"
"Once you've recruited him, lend him to me for a few days!"
Those were the respective answers of Hanzou Gyoubushoujou Hattori, who had been beaten into submission; Azusa Nakajo, who had been stunned; Suzune Ichihara, who was somewhat expectant; and Mari Watanabe, who had come to press someone into service.
"Then come with me and drag him back!"