167 Nine Schools Competition starts

"Alright let's do this. All of you forty turds are to represent this school in the Nine School Competition. If you win you will be rewarded. Rewards may vary but I can say that I'll either upgrade or make you a new magic sequence if you do exceptionally well." Rei called out towards the forty students in the hall.

"OUHHHH!!!!!" They all cheered in excitement since they understood what it means for Rei to upgrade their magic and if they were lucky enough, gain a new magic. Especially since there were two examples being Yaiba and Harumi and some others.

Sitting in the front seat of the bus with Fey next to him, Rei kept his gaze outside the window.

Hearing some mumbles behind him, Rei glanced back and saw Harumi writing courage into her palm before eating it.

"Harumi, what are you doing?" Rei asked giving her a glance.

"Ah-ah? Oh, I'm just a little nervous." She replied.

"Don't worry Harumi Chan, I'm sure with the skills sensei taught us we can win easily." Yaiba replied with a smile.

In the months' time they had finally advanced onto first name standards.

"Ya little turd. If you didn't win easily, I would have kicked your ass so hard you would have gained amnesia." Rei replied with a smile as he gave Yaiba a glance.

"How is that even possible sensei, amnesia is caused by an impact to the brain thus damaging it. Kicking the rear wouldn't have the same effect." Yaiba said as laughed slightly.

"Hou~ you think I can't make a spell which transfers all of the kinetic force to your brain?" Rei retorted with a raised eyebrow.

"Surely sensei wouldn't think of wasting your talent on something so meagre right?" Yaiba asked with some hesitation.

"You overestimate me a bit too much. Here see, the sequence is already done." Rei said projecting a page worth of coding in the air.

"Holy shit!" Yaiba cried out in alarm as under Rei's tutoring, he has gained a rudimentary ability of understanding the sequences. What Rei just wrote down was no doubt something which will give him amnesia. The name for this sequence was 'Ass Breaker, Amnesia Giver'.

Harumi giggled seeing the interaction of Rei and Yaiba as it helped calm her down.

"Better?" Rei smiled as she nodded.

"Thank you sensei." She replied as Rei managed to break away her nervousness.

"Yaiba, you should learn how to calm her down as well. I'm not always going to be near both of you so you two should help each other out when you can." Rei smiled as Yaiba nodded.

"Don't worry sensei, I'll take care of her with all of my being!" He said giving his chest a hit from his fist to show his determination.

"I'm asking you to 'look after her' not 'ask her in laws for her hand in marriage'." Rei laughed as they both blushed. However, Yaiba didn't retract his statement making Rei smile even harder.

The trip didn't feel long as they soon arrived at the venue. However, by the time they reached it was already getting late.

"Hmm, just in time for the dinner party." Rei said as they made their way to the hall.

Murmurs could be heard as they received countless stares. There were quite a few who were curious of their identities since their uniforms held similarities to the First High School uniform but were coloured completely different.

However, that didn't take long to correct as their friends or people nearby started to inform them about the 'demon class of First High'.

Receiving these unfamiliar stares of awe, Harumi became nervous again as her body started to shake.

Rei only have Yaiba as glance as he gestured for him to man up.

Gritting his teeth, Yaiba brought up his courage as he reached out and held Harumi's hand.

Shocked at this, she quickly looked up and saw that he was looking away with a blush. She blushed as well but her shaking stopped.

'Master, they make a cute couple don't they?' Fey transmitted as Rei nodded.

'Maybe we should hold hands as well?' She asked with a grin.

'I'll hit you'

'I'm delighted.'

'I'll ignore you.'

'Yes tell me more~'

'...'

'Haa~ haaa~'

'Don't send your moans through the link!' Rei cried out hearing Fey's moans.

Forcefully blocking the link, Rei walked to the reception.

"First High School checking in, I hope we weren't late." Rei said as the receptionist nodded before tapping the keyboard a few times.

"The entirety of the 5th floor is for First High. The registration and CAD inspection will be held tomorrow. Dinner party is in am hour if there aren't any problems. We hope you enjoy your stay." She replied but Rei narrowed his eyes. He could see the codes unique to the Yotsuba family within her Eidos code.

'Yotsuba member.'

Not saying anything, Rei brought everyone upstairs.

Showing them to their rooms, Rei bumped into a staff who slid a piece of paper in his hand.

'Ah shit, here we go again.' Rei thought giving the piece of paper a glance.

-Meet me outside-

Rei only shrugged as he destroyed the note and fazed through the walls.

Landing lightly, Rei looked around.

Soon a figure in a wheelchair approached him.

"So it was you Miya." Rei said as it was Tatsuya's mother.

"Mn, nice to see you as well brother." She said politely.

Her purple hair was tied up into a bun as it revealed her flawless neck. Red iris' and a beauty spot under her right eye, she was exceptionally beautiful for some who is supposedly 43 this year as she would die next year when she was 44.

"You're thinking about how I look for my age aren't you." Miya said as she gave him a glance.

Rei shrugged neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

"So, what brings you here? Your body isn't fairing too well right now so you should be resting." Rei said as he helped her push her wheel chair. Strolling slightly, Rei waited for her to talk.

"You should know about the things I did to Tatsuya... I just want to ask while I have the chance... Can you help him out?" She said with some hesitation.

'Seems like her motherly instincts are still intact even though the magic diminished her other emotions.'

"What kind of help do you want from me? Make him more powerful? Weaker?" Rei asked purposefully leaving out emotional restrictions.

"Can you make him more humane? But if possible, still retain his powers. You know I want him to be able to use his abilities to their best but because of the limitation of dealing 150x the damage he healed, he has to keep his emotions dulled. I know you perfected your research on magic so please help him out if you can." Miya asked as Rei stared at her.

"And what about you?" Rei asked as she shook her head.

"You know about the things I've done. I just want to make sure that Tatsuya and Miyuki live a good life after I leave." She shook her head.

"Hmm sure, I should be able to let him keep his powers, there will have to be a limiter which should help reduce the damage taken. But I'll have to interact and study him a bit more to make a custom sequence to help him out." Rei nodded as Miya smiled and reached out for Rei's hand.

"Thank you brother."

"Mn, it was my intention anyways. But can you tell me why the clan hadn't put a lot of pressure on me yet? Anyone who holds the Yotsuba name is the clan head whilst those who aren't the clan head conceal their names with other surnames to misdirect outsiders. Theoretically, they should have placed more pressure on me since I kept the name. Even though I threatened them with publicising the sequences without restrictions, they shouldn't be this quiet." Rei asked as Miya sighed.

"Maya's holding them off. She is proving her worth as a Yotsuba member so they'll keep their paws off you for now. Though I doubt that'll last since you revealed to the world your mastery over the information plane. Haven't you realised the Yotsuba clan members in the venue already?" She asked as Rei nodded.

"Yeah, the receptionist was a clan member as well as some of the committee which I saw on the way. We have three on the roof looking at us and two eavesdropping on us. I've already concealed our conversation so they won't know, but I'm sure you've already took that into account." Rei said with a light smile.

"As always, your ability surprises me. Yes, I took a gamble knowing that you'll conceal our conversation." She smiled.

"I still have a dinner party to attend so I'll head off first. Take care of yourself sister and I can promise you that I'll look after Tatsuya." Rei said as she nodded.

"Take care brother." She said as Rei walked away.

'Thank god for the skill 'acting'. At least I can act my part in this world without any awkward behaviours.' Rei thought in relief.

The party was pretty simple as it was just an honorary speech and simplified down would be, 'Thank you for attending and I hope you do well in the competition.' There were really no need for a two almost three-hour long ceremony.

Leaving the party, Rei got everyone who were competing tomorrow into his room.

"First event tomorrow is the freshmen Speed Shooting qualifiers. Just make sure you can activate the sequence tomorrow and you should take first easily." Rei waved his hand dismissively.

"Second event is the Battle Board freshman qualifiers. Again, the sequence should make it quite easy for you to win. Some may say this is cheating but in that case then do you want to go traditional and use paddles? Do you think in a real-life situation a person would go 'Hey do you want to fight without the use of this revolutionary method that uses our talents?' No instead they'll say fuck you and shoot you with a flame bullet or some crap." Rei said as they nodded. They were quite used to Rei's attitude at this point having spent three months being taught by him.

"Alright, now that I've said what is needed y'all piss off and go to sleep." Rei said as they nodded.

Mayumi stayed behind as the rest left.

"What do you need?" Rei asked as he wanted to just relax.

"Can I use the Apollo System?" She asked as it was the sequence Rei developed for her as she was able to handle the requirements. While the rest of the students had automatic sequences that has slightly higher requirements than average, he had also developed several personal sequences. He needed to have specialised magic as well as automatized magic to leave his name in history after all.

"The Apollo System. Named after the Greek God of the Sun and Archery. It was supposed to be used for the finals but you want to unveil it in the preliminaries?" Rei raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, I wish to let them know what they're up against early on." She smiled as Rei nodded.

"Sure, I'll allow you to use the Apollo System and tell Mari to use the Poseidon System as well." Rei said after some thought.

"Show them why we're called the demon class." Rei smiled.

Mayumi nodded as she jogged off.

'Demon class, the class taught by the White Demon. If you enter as an ordinary human, you leave as a demon level genius of a specific field in magic.' Rei thought reciting the description people gave about his class.

Laying his body in bed, Rei drifted off to sleep.

Yet again he didn't dream of memories. Rei didn't know whether to be happy or not since he was curious as to what these memories mean. He had theories but no concrete proof.

Due to some procedures needing to be done early on, Rei woke up early to get the CAD's of the students competing checked.

Queuing up, Rei took the time to examine the CAD's of other schools.

Rei was able to see the codes and sequences stored due to his influence in the information plane and realised that there weren't many worthy inclusions in these CAD's.

'Heh, even if they leaked my codes they can't use it.' Rei thought as a small grin appeared on his face.

When it was his turn, Rei gave his CAD's to be checked. He could see them copying his codes and storing them.

A mischievous thought occurred as Rei decided that should they force the code to work it will break the CADs from the inside. Using Kamui without them realising, Rei tampered with the codes that were copied from his CADs.

Taking his CADs without hassle Rei didn't warn them about the consequences as it was their fault for trying to copy his codes secretly to begin with.

Sitting in the First High School staff seats for the Speed Shooting contest, Rei waited until it was Mayumi's turn.

"Next contestant! Saegusa Mayumi of the First High School Demon Class! Will she give us an exceptional performance? Let's give her a round of applause!" The commentator shouted as a wave of applause rang out. Mayumi smiled as she waved around the stadium before looking towards Rei.

Rei only nodded with a smile while she nodded back.

A count down begun as they could see her focused face.

Unlike the other contestants, she didn't aim her gun at the arena but instead held it loosely by her side.

The moment the countdown hit zero she flew into action.

Twirling the gun nimbly around her hand, Mayumi placed three complex neon orange magic circles around her before shooting high above the arena.

People were wondering if it was all an act until they saw the 'bullet' grow in size and brightness.

As if creating a small sun, the bullet illuminated the stadium.

"Fire!" Mayumi commanded as several beams shot out from the 'sun' before they started to split into multiple attacks eliminating all of the clay tiles. This caused her points to increased rapidly.

In the preliminaries, the points were calculated as how many tiles a contestant can shoot down within a five-minute period. Mayumi naturally got every tile the moment they shot out.

However, this was restrained by how fast they sent out the clay tiles as she would have increased her score a lot higher if they sent out the tiles faster.

"Saegusa Mayumi everyone! Scoring an ridiculous score of over 700 tiles shot down with such a radiant display. It is registered that her magic is called the Apollo System. A new creation by the Genius who understood the laws of magic. Yotsuba Rei!!!" The commentator roared out passionately as a wild applause rang out.

Mayumi bowed before walking off the stage.

"Good job." Rei complimented as Mayumi smiled.

"I was so nervous! If I were just a bit slower, I don't think I would have been able to draw up the magic sequences in time." She sighed in relief showing Rei the melted barrel of the CAD.

"The power behind the Apollo System is strong so the requirements of the magic caster and CAD is also strict." Rei replied examining the CAD and realised it couldn't be used again. The bullet fired out had scorched the insides of the CAD whilst melting the barrel.

As they were examining the CAD, the next contestant walked up with confidence as she also looked towards her staff. They gave her a thumbs up as she copied Mayumi's stance.

"Could it be?! Can it be possible for contestant Kishima Naru of Fifth High School to follow up in contestant Saegusa Mayumi's performance?!" The commentator shouted as everyone grew curious.

The shock generated by the Apollo System was still fresh as they were interested to see if anyone can replicate the sequence.

As the timer hit one, Naru copied Mayumi's movements as she attempted to draw the sequences.

However, her face changed when she realised nothing was happening. Frantically looking at her CAD which was being destroyed visibly she looked at her staff with horror.

Feeling several stares on him especially from Fifth High School, Rei gave a mocking grin and a middle finger.