Chapter 87 - 087: Nah...

The next day Arthur is seen in the preparations room for contestants who participate in speed shooting, there is Tatsuya who checking Arthur's CAD and there is another person in this room. In the entire newcomer's division from First High School Arthur is the only male Athlete who has Tatsuya as his technician.

Normally there is no one present except the athletes and technician in this room, but that is not the case for Mayumi who come for questioning Arthur.

"Say, what are you doing behind my back?"

"Please be more specific, Mayumi-senpai. I do a lot of things behind your back such as sleep, toilet, eat-"

"You know that's not what I mean" Mayumi use a stern face when she is eyeing Arthur "Yesterday when I say about Mari situation and my proposal to change another person for being replaced by Miyuki and Emilia there is no one who gives me answer and I can tell they didn't have intentions to forfeiting their right to participate, but today they come and say I can decide who will be replaced and they won't mind it if it can make we secure first place and second place for Mirage Bat"

"They have a very admirable sense"

"So there must be something happened and you're the one who makes it happen right? Because there is just you and me who know about this plan"

"Well... I just ask the doctor to wrap Mari's head with some extra bandage and gips her left foot, and then I tell Abby to bring her to the place where the original contestants for the Mirage Bat and then Mari and they accidentally met there"

"You make Mari look pitiful and make their heart soft... I didn't know you're a bad person who will manipulate with other person feelings and heart"

"It's not like you didn't do it too Mayumi-senpai, Let's see, do you need me to spell your victim's name?"

"How about your preparation? You must stay in your best condition because speed shooting will be held only in one day"

"Please, at least you need to put some effort if you want to change the topic of conversation. Well, there is nothing challenging except for Cardinal George in this competition"

"Good, at least you need to have that much confidence in yourself, then how about we discuss something in the break time? I want to hear about the results of Tatsuya-kun analysis about Mari's accident"

"Well, then we will discuss it later. Here is your CAD, try it. If there is something that makes you uncomfortable just tell me, I will try to adjust it as much as I can" Tatsuya stand up and giving Arthur a general type CAD

"General type? Why?" Mayumi didn't understand why Tatsuya gives Arthur a general type CAD rather than a specialized type CAD

"This just for formality, I and Tatsuya just want to experiment something in this preliminary phase"

"Being confident is good but being overconfident is not something I want to see"

"You didn't need to worry, after all in the first place he didn't need to use CAD if he wants to use magic and his speed is slightly better than someone who is using CAD, we use this CAD because of rule and just like what Arthur's say, we just want to experiment something"

"If you two insist doing it then I will see what you two want to try, See you later Arthur, Tatsuya-kun"

Mayumi turns away and leaving Arthur and Tatsuya in the room when Arthur is feeling sure there is no one except he and Tatsuya, Arthur has a serious expression on his face.

"Tatsuya, are you have secret information?"

"Such as?" Tatsuya replied is short and accurate as usual, even if it will make other people feel confused it didn't include Arthur.

"Maybe there is some criminal who wants to try infiltrated the hotel?"

"No, there is no such thing"

"Are you tell me the truth? You didn't hide it from me because of Kazama tell you to didn't divulge it?"

"It's true I meet with him last night, but there is nothing happening around the hotel, are you suspicious there is someone who infiltrated the hotel and tempered Mari's CAD? Even if such a thing can happen but I think that's impossible because this hotel is own by the military"

'As I thought there is no such a thing happened, No Head Dragon is an international criminal organization. They won't stupid enough to infiltrated this hotel with such clothes like in the anime and bringing a gun on top of that. They're gambling in this competition so they will try to make it like an accident like in Mari's case, if they use a harsh approach like infiltrated the hotel then their costumers will take their money and their business in the underground can be said as over literally'

"Are you still doubting me?" Seeing Arthur who didn't say anything, Tatsuya though Arthur didn't believe what he says.

"Hmm? Ah, no. I'm thinking about another thing. You need to go to Shizuku place, right? You can go now, don't worry there will be nothing wrong with this CAD"

"Then I will go now, I will come again when you're in the final phase"

"Thanks for your hard work"

➡️➡️➡️

The preliminary phase of speed shooting for newcomers division is over, Arthur and Morisaki Shun from First High success enter the final phase and for the female part, all of the three representatives also successfully enter the final phase.

At the meeting room, there is Mayumi, Mari, Echidna, Arthur, and Tatsuya with Isori and Kanon.

"So from your investigation, what happened to me is not pure accidents but something that set up by unknown people?" Mari speaks normally without any other reaction, but Kanon who is the one pushing her wheelchair to this room place her hand on Mari's shoulder.

"It was impossible for someone chosen as representative for Nine Schools Competition makes an amateur mistake like that, there must be something wrong with her CAD"

"But, Tatsuya-kun. The staff of competition already check the CAD used by Seventh High athletes after Second High technician want to know it was a deliberate attempt or not but the staff didn't find anything wrong with the CAD"

"That's where this case turns to be a tricky one... seeing the disqualified Seventh High silence it means they can't find anything from the remaining of the rewritten activation sequence"

"Echidna-sensei, I'm sorry if it was slightly rude. But from my understanding, you're capable enough to alter the water, why you didn't use such magic to save Mari-senpai?" Kanon tighten her grip on the wheelchair

"Kanon, you can't doubt Echidna-sensei" Isori place his hand on her shoulder and want to make her calm

"It's fine, you're worried about her didn't you? I didn't feel offended about it so you didn't need to worry" Echidna smile and put down her teacup "From my perspective at that time, with how Mari react at that time there will be no damage or even injuries if it was going well, so I didn't interfere in case I hinder Mari using her magic and that's also what the security staff of competition thinks. And for altering the water it will disrupt Mari's magic too because my magic over the water body is greater than her magic so he same accident will happen but I will be the one who responsible for it. So the best thing I can do is use speed type magic and weight type magic and reduce the impact Mari will receive from the crash"

"Kanon you can't blame Echidna-sensei, she is doing her best to save me and I'm lucky enough just receive psychical injury" Mari as the victim of this accident know it well more than anyone here, if Echidna didn't interfere there is high possibility she need to stop becoming a combatant or even stop being a magician. "Thank you for your help, Echidna-sensei"

"You didn't need to say that to me, because I need to apologize to you because I can't make a proper judgment previously. If I interfere immediately than you can still compete in this competition, this accident made me realize I need to learn a lot of magic aside from battle oriented magic"

"You just want to use this opportunity to stay longer in the library, right?" Arthur didn't think Echidna will say something so humble like that so he can guess there must be another motive behind her word

"Just eight hours a day is not enough for me to quench my thirst for knowledge! Your magic is the result of the knowledge I gather, you must increase my chance to learn new knowledge for at least sixteen hours a day!" Echidna protest at Arthur because he always drags her out of the library if she stays there more than her work time.

Everyone here is known Echidna never leaves the library and she always focuses to read a lot of books there. There is no one who dares to bother her, there is even a special order from principal Momoyama.

'If the school didn't in a dangerous situation, there is no one who permits to bother her. And she didn't need to do anything like work paper, her job is the safety of the library and the school'

So, because of that order Echidna is treat as School Protector rather than a staff of the school. And of course, she accepts this type of job gladly.

"Speaking of magic, Arthur, I just see you're using active air mine like what Shizuku use in the preliminary phase. I thought you will use different magic when I heard you talk about it with Tatsuya"

"That's because I want to try it when I compete against Cardinal George in the final phase, so for now Tatsuya recommend me just using Active Air Mine"

"You seems very confident" even if she didn't want to say it, Mayumi can't deny the fact that if there is no one who in the First High who can compete against him in term of magic control and speed of activation magic.

"Of course I'm confident in myself. Then I need to go now, just wait, I will come back as the winner of speed shooting"