On the afternoon of the second day of high school, after classes ended, the student council gathered outside of one of the combat training rooms.

When they see Tatsuya and Miyuki walking towards them, both parties wave to each other and the student council members walk into the training room.

But when Tatsuya walks through the door, an alarm starts beeping.

"Do you have your own CAD on you? You can only use school-issued standard CADs in here for safety reasons," Suzune, the treasurer, says.

Miyuki shuts off her unique phone-shaped CAD, while Tatsuya touches the side of his forehead.

Tatsuya's left eyeball becomes completely black, but he walks through the training room doors with no problem.

"What's wrong with your eye, Tatsuya?" A-chan asks, seemingly terrified.

"My eye is an artificial eye and a specialized CAD. Sorry, my eye looks like this if I turn it off."

"Are you going to be okay against Hattori without it?" Miyuki asks, concerned.

"I think I'll be fine."

But Miyuki knew it was far from fine. Without God's Eye, Tatsuya could barely be considered a magic technician. Tatsuya's incredibly slow casting speed, which is only bypassed by having God's eye connected directly to Tatsuya's brain, means that any spells that Tatsuya activates would not finish activation until many seconds later. Also God's Eye's ability to read opponent's activation sequences could not be used, another huge disadvantage for Tatsuya.

Suzune hands Tatsuya a standard issue CAD that are provided in the training rooms. He slips the empty cylinder shaped device through his hands and secures it on his right arm. Hattori prepares his own CAD on his right arm.

"Alright then! Let's first go over the rules," Suzune shouts as Hattori and Tatsuya take stage facing each other near the center of the room. Miyuki, Mayumi, A-chan, Mari and Suzune stand on one side with a protective magical barrier separating them from the combatants.

"The first person to knock the other person out wins. Any lethal or permanently damaging spells used will result in automatic disqualification. I will be the referee and any decisions that I make are final and non-negotiable. I reserve the right to stop the match at any point for any reason. Do either of you have any questions?"

"No."

"No."

"Then best of luck to both of you and. . ."

Even though Hattori acts arrogant, he is no fool and would not want to underestimate his opponent, especially one that Mayumi, someone he respects, praises so highly.

Hattori had spent the previous day researching his opponent and planning out his attack. Based on the entrance exam scores, Hattori knew that Tatsuya is incredibly smart and has a wide knowledge of almost all types of magic.

Tatsuya's one weakness was his slow casting speed. While most magic technicians that make it into an elite high school can cast spells in under a second, Tatsuya averaged 7.6 seconds to cast a spell during the entrance exam. This was the weakness that Hattori knew he had to capitalize on.

Hattori's plan was to rush Tatsuya down with speed. Hattori's own cast speed is at 0.09 seconds, one of the fastest in the school. When the battle begins, none of Tatsuya's spells would activate for the first 7 or so seconds, so as long as Hattori bombarded Tatsuya with enough spells that he wouldn't be able to dodge, Hattori would win.

"Begin!"

Hattori immediately executes his plan. He launches Full-Circle Knockback, a gravitation-type spell that pushes everything around the caster away, as well as Wide-Area Shock, an emission-type spell that electrocutes the entire room.

Hattori knew that even though these two spells are weak and easy to be avoided with other spells, Tatsuya would not be able to activate any spells in time and since both spells cover the entire room, physically dodging them without magic is also impossible.

Yet as soon as the duel began, Tatsuya simply ran straight at Hattori, without even trying to activate any spells. Despite Hattori's 0.09 second cast speed, he still needs a second or so to input the number code for the desired activation sequence on the number pad of his CAD.

So by the time Hattori has finished inputting his two spells and his spells activate, Tatsuya is already directly in front of Hattori, using the momentum of his sprint to push Hattori.

As Hattori's spells are activating, Tatsuya is already standing where Hattori was, while Hattori is flying backwards due to Tatsuya's impact.

Hattori had not expected such quick aggression from Tatsuya. Nor did he account for the fact that because Tatsuya is now standing where Hattori's spells were cast, Tatsuya actually would not get hit by either spell. The two spells cover the entire room except for where the caster is standing so that the caster himself would not get hit.

Even worse, now Hattori is in the impact zone for his own spells. Full-Circle Knockback pushes Hattori into the wall of the training room and his Wide-Area shock electrocutes him.

As Hattori is recovering from the damage, Tatsuya finally uses his CAD to input a spell.

Hattori quickly activates multiple Air Bullet spells, a convergence and acceleration-type spell that fires compressed air in a target direction. He targets where Tatsuya is standing and to the right and left of him so that if Tatsuya tries to dodge to the side, he'd get hit.

But once again Tatsuya simply runs straight towards Hattori.

Hattori would not fall for the same trick twice. Activating Accelerated Fist, Hattori throws an empowered punch in front of him, so that if Tatsuya tries to run into Hattori again, Hattori would trade an empowered punch for Tatsuya's non-magic punch.

Tatsuya, however, does not run directly into Hattori as he did the first time, but instead slides to Hattori's right side, avoiding the Accelerated Fist. Tatsuya transitions from his slide directly into a low sweep with his leg, knocking Hattori off balance.

As Hattori is falling, he reaches for his CAD with his left hand. Tatsuya is faster though, grabbing Hattori's right arm where his CAD is to prevent him from using it.

Hattori has a lot of experience with one-on-one dueling. Grabbing your opponent's arm with the CAD is a very common tactic when duels become close combat, so Hattori is able to handle the situation almost instinctively.

As soon as Hattori hits the ground due to Tatsuya's sweep, he pushes his feet to perform a cartwheel, all while Tatsuya is grabbing onto his right arm.

This forces Tatsuya to let go, otherwise he would twist his arm.

As Hattori lands however, Tatsuya grabs Hattori's other arm and turns so that his back is facing Hattori.

Tatsuya pulls Hattori's arm forward so that the rest of Hattori's body is on Tatsuya's back. Then Tatsuya flips Hattori over his back and smashes him onto the ground.

As Hattori bounces slightly off the ground due to the impact, his face still stunned at how fast Tatsuya's physical actions are, a giant bolt of electricity lands exactly on the spot where Hattori is, knocking him out.

That bolt of electricity is from Tatsuya's Concentrated Shock that he activated earlier.

With that, the duel had ended.

Everyone watching was still shocked at the conclusion of the battle, before Suzune finally came to her senses and announced,

"The winner is Shiba Tatsuya!"

Suzune drops the barrier separating the combatants from the others. Suzune and Mari rush to check on the unconscious Hattori, while Miyuki runs to hug his older brother, tears flying out of her eyes.

Mayumi and A-chan simply stand there, still stunned by the insane battle that had just taken place.

"Well," Mari looks at Tatsuya after making sure Hattori was fine, "I guess you pass. Welcome to the Disciplinary Committee."

"How did you do all that?" Hattori wakes up, grabbing his forehead and speaking weakly. "How did you predict my moves over and over?"

"Not to mention," Mayumi finally speaks up, "You did it using one spell. Can you explain it for all of us?"

"Well, my actions were not as predictive as you may think. At the beginning of the fight, I knew I couldn't use any spells quickly enough to counter whatever Hattori would throw at me, so the only logical option was to charge him."

Taking a sip of water that Miyuki gave to him, Tatsuya continues, "It was sheer luck that me charging him would allow me to dodge his attacks while he himself would be hit by them. Then I activated Concentrated Shock on a specific location, an attack I knew would knock him out if it connected. I also knew the spell would finish activation about seven seconds later so the remainder of the duel was all about trying to immobilize Hattori on the position where I targeted with my Concentrated Shock."

"And you're physical movements? They are so incredibly fast, precise, and powerful," Hattori says.

"I've always trained my body physically, perhaps to make up for my inherent weaknesses in using magic."

With a smile, Mayumi notes, talking to herself, "I'm almost scared to think what you're capable of with your artificial eye."

Tatsuya reaches out his hand. Hattori, who has mostly recovered and is trying to stand up, grabs Tatsuya's hand and gets pulled onto his feet. The two shake hands.

With that, Tatsuya has officially become a member of the Disciplinary Committee, the first course 2 student at that.

The date is April 13, 2095. This is the morning of the Wednesday of the second week of school.

Tatsuya has been on the Disciplinary Committee for almost a week now, yet not too much has happened in that time.

For the most part, the only "disciplinary action" that Tatsuya has taken is breaking up small fights or disagreements between course 1 and course 2 students.

Most of the first-year students are busy getting used to the school schedule and workload, while most of the upperclassmen have been preparing for the big event today: the school's activities fair.

Instead of having classes today, all of the clubs set up stations for students to explore. Every student in the school either helps out with their club's station, or walks around trying to find a club to join.

Inside the Disciplinary Committee's office, Mari is standing at the head of a long table, while a dozen or so students, including Tatsuya, sit around the table, listening to Mari.

"Today, as you all know, is the activities fair. There will be a lot of students walking around and interacting with each other, so there are a lot of opportunities for conflict and misconduct. All of you in the Disciplinary Committee are tasked with maintaining order throughout the entire day."

Passing around a box, Mari continues, "Everyone take a communication device from this box. This device will allow all of you to be in contact with each other at all times. I hope you all have looked at the specific patrol paths assigned to you. Because today is special, you are authorized to use your CADs throughout the entire day if you see conflict. Now let's go make this activities fair great!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Everyone on the Disciplinary Committee shout in unison.

Tatsuya confirms his patrol route from his screen, and walks out of the room with everyone else.

He walks out onto the courtyard, surprised to see how many students are already there, setting up their stations, even though the current time is earlier than when school normally starts.

Everyone seems so excited. Perhaps I should find a club to join too. I wonder if Miyuki has thought about joining a club.

"Hey," Tatsuya hears from behind him. He turns to see Mayumi waving at him. "I haven't seen you in a while, how's it going?"

"Fine. Just about to start patrolling for the activities fair. Aren't you supposed to be in a student council meeting right now?"

"Yeah. . . we're almost done though. The rest of them are just finishing up with finalizing the budgets for all of the clubs, so I thought I'd get some fresh air."

"You seem stressed. Are you alright?"

"Yeah. . . maybe a little stressed."

"If it helps, you can tell me about it."

"No, it's no big deal."

"If you say so."

"Well," Mayumi sighs, "I still remember standing here, two years ago, attending the activities fair for the first time as a freshman. I can remember it like it was yesterday.

And now, this is the last year I'll ever attend the activities fair. I'll be graduating at the end of this year! And before long, I'll be an adult. Time is passing by so fast.

Lately, my family has been pushing me to take more responsibility within the family too."

"As the heir to the Saegusa family?"

"Oh you knew."

"Who doesn't?"

"I guess you're right. My father wants me to play a bigger role in the ten master clans so that I'll be prepared to become the head of the Saegusa family. It's a lot of work, and it's not very fun interacting with the old people of the ten master clans.

This is on top of preparing to get into a magic university. Sometimes I hate being a member of the ten masters clan. If I get into anything less than a top university, I'll be considered a failure. . . And there's work to be done for the student council. . . and. . ."

Without saying another word, Tatsuya gently puts his hand on Mayumi's head, and pulls her into his chest.

"Tatsuya. . . what are you doing? People are watching. . ."

"You worry too much. Just close your eyes and take a few deep breaths."

Mayumi stops resisting, and does as Tatsuya says, closing her eyes and taking deep breaths in and out. All the meanwhile, the students all around the courtyard have stopped what they were doing to stare at these two.

Tatsuya could feel Mayumi's muscles relax within his arms.

"Better?"

"Yeah, thanks."

"This is what I do when my little sister gets overly stressed."

"You know. . ." Mayumi finally says, her head still resting on Tatsuya's chest and her eyes closed. "Even though you have a girl within your arms, I can hear your heartbeat and it hasn't gotten faster, not even by a little bit. I remember watching you fight Hattori too. The entire fight you were calm as can be. How do you do it?"

"To tell you the truth, I can't feel any other way. I can't feel emotions."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It's a long story."

"I'm listening."

"When I was young, I couldn't use magic at all. The scientists working for my parents concluded that even though I have a large storage of psions, I physically could not energize them and so the psions couldn't be used."

(Note to reader: think of it as Tatsuya having a large mana pool, but he has no mana and he has no way to regen mana)

"So I underwent an experimental surgery that would channel my emotions into energizing my psions. And the side effect is that I can no longer feel emotions, for the most part."

"That's so. . . sad. Along with having that artificial eye of yours, your life story is really weird. . ."

"You don't believe me?"

"Your story is almost as weird as your perpetual calmness, so I think I do believe you."

Tatsuya lets go of Mayumi now that she's feeling better and takes a step back.

Mayumi looks around, blushing, as everyone else in the courtyard looks away and gets back to work, "I should get back to the student council meeting. They're probably waiting for me."

Mayumi walks back towards the building, but before she walks through the doors, she pauses and turns back towards Tatsuya and asks, "Was it worth it for you? Was it worth it to sacrifice your emotions to be able to use magic?"

"I don't know. I don't think I'll ever know what worth comes out of magic. But I'll never regret my decision to be able to use magic."

Mayumi nods, smiling to herself as she disappears into the building.

Tatsuya turns to face the courtyard, once again starting his patrol.

"Hey," Tatsuya hears from behind him. He turns around to see Miyuki waving at him.

"Don't 'hey' me. I know you heard everything."

"And saw."

"You know, Mayumi is a lot like you."

"Really? She's definitely not your sister."

"She acts all strong-willed, but deep down she's actually quite vulnerable."

"So you took advantage of her vulnerability?"

"No, I was just trying to help."

"Regardless," Miyuki says, while running ahead of Tatsuya and turning around, "I approve."

"Of what?"

"You know what. Oh! I'll be right back. I'm going to go find Shizuku and Honoka."

Miyuki skips off, leaving Tatsuya alone once again.

Tatsuya walks through the courtyard and into the school building. Even classrooms are used as club stations.

Not before long, Tatsuya sees Erika, Mizuki, Leo, and Mikihiko walking down the hallway.

Of course, Erika is the first to speak.

"Tatsuya! We're checking out all of the clubs. Come join us!"

"Sorry, but I can't. I'm on patrol duty."

"Oh. . . then how about we patrol with you!"

"I'm not sure that's allowed. . ."

"Well then. . . how about we coincidentally happen to walk the same path you're walking?"

"Fine whatever."

Mizuki, happy that Tatsuya will join them, asks, "Where's your sister?"

"She said she was going to find her friends. She's probably in the courtyard."

The group walks into the courtyard, just as Miyuki is leading Shizuku and Honoka there too.

Tatsuya introduces the two parties to each other, "Guys, meet Shizuku and Honoka. Shizuku and Honoka, meet Erika, Mizuki, Leo, and Mikihiko."

"Ooh, blooms. How scary," is how Erika breaks the ice.

"Couldn't care less," is how Shizuku ends the conversation.

"So my patrol path starts from here, goes through those doors, and then straight into the gymnasium. Let's start with that." Tatsuya points to doors on one side of the courtyard.

With that, the large group begins their exploration of the clubs offered at the school.

"Rocketry club!" Leo exclaims, "I remember participating in that club back in middle school."

"Don't you need to be smart to do that sort of stuff?" Erika snickers.

"How dumb. . . why do I even talk to you."

"Well, tell us about it then," Honoka says, examining the little rockets on display.

"Like most clubs, rocketry clubs have been around for centuries. But nowadays, it's all about using limited amounts of magic in order to launch rockets as high into the air as possible."

"So it's more about finding the most efficient or creative ways to use magic, instead of simply who can use more magic," Tatsuya analyses.

"Exactly, and that's what made the club fun."

Erika still has to jump in, "I'm surprised. I didn't imagine someone like you, you know, with all your muscles and whatnot, being so interested in something like this. That's pretty cool."

"Thanks?" Leo hesitantly replies, unsure if he just got insulted or complimented.

At the next station, the group sees a humanoid-shaped robot, with blond hair that stops at her neck and dressed in a maid outfit. The robot smiles and waves to the group. This grabs the attention of Mikihiko.

"Welcome to the Robotics club!" the club representative says.

"Did you guys build this robot?" Mikihiko asks.

"Her name is Pixie. And this is the work of many, many classes of students. We mostly just focus on upgrading her."

Leo is curious about the robot too, "So what kinds of things can she do?"

The club representative looks at Pixie and nods, so Pixie looks at the group and speaks.

"Hello, I am Pixie. Nice to meet you. I am based off of the commercial Humanoid Home Helper robots, so I can do everything those robots can do. I've been programmed with more functionality to help around the school as well."

"And as you can see," the club representative adds, "we've worked a lot on making Pixie's dialogue sound more natural and human."

Mikihiko asks, "Do you think you could ever make a robot that's just like a human?"

"We don't know. I want to hope that it can exist and that some day, someone will figure out a way to make robots truly conscious. With magic, perhaps you'd need an extremely complex combination of activation sequences to achieve such a feat."

"Cool. Keep up the good work!" Mikihiko says as the group moves on.

The group walks through the doors into the school building, surprised to find a lot of people crowded in this hallway.

Mizuki wonders, "Why are there so many people here?"

"This," Erika realizes, "is where all of the clubs for the events of the Nine Schools Competition are."

The Nine Schools Competition is the annual high school competition held near the beginning of every year, where all nine of the National Magic University Affiliated high schools from around Japan come together to compete in many different events.

The events are all physical and magic based, similar to an Olympics with magic. This event is televised and watched by all of Japan and is one of the biggest sporting events during the year. There is a wide range of events, from track and field to swimming. But the biggest and most watched events are by far the one-on-one duel tournament, and the five-vs-five capture the flag tournament.

Every event has separate tournaments for the freshman and the upperclassmen. Also, each event has their own designated club that you have to join in order to participate at the event.

"Are any of you participating in any of the Nine Schools Competition events?" Mizuki asks.

"Well," Miyuki answers, "All of the course 1 students got to choose events to be in during the first week of school, before everyone else gets to choose during this activities fair. So I've already signed up for the one-on-one dueling tournament."

"And I'm doing the shooting event," Shizuku adds.

Leo says, "Wow, so you can, like, shoot a gun and everything already?"

"Yes. So watch yourself, or I might just shoot you. Also we don't use guns, we shoot with specialized gun-shaped CADs."

Looking over at the remaining bloom in the group that hasn't spoken, Tatsuya asks, "And what about you Honoka?"

"I didn't choose an event. Shizuku has trained for competitive shooting since she was young, but I've had no training with any of the events. I might not participate in any of these events."

"I'm sure we can find something for you," Tatsuya comforts her.

As the group walks through the classrooms, they see Hattori working in one of them.

Hattori greets the group as they walk in, "Welcome! This is the one-on-one dueling tournament club."

"Of course you're in the solo dueling tournament!" Miyuki says.

"Yes, well I would advertise that I'm undefeated in dueling, but thanks to your brother, that is now no longer true.

Tatsuya, have you considered joining the dueling tournament? With your skills, you definitely have a chance at winning it all for the freshman tournament."

"I would consider it, but my sister is already in it, and I would hate to have to fight her."

Hattori raises an eyebrow, "Are you telling me that she's even stronger than you?"

"Without a doubt," Tatsuya says, looking over at his sister, who is blushing slightly and shaking her head.

"Perhaps then," Hattori suggests, "You can consider the five-vs-five capture the flag tournament for all of you guys. A little secret for all of you, the freshman team was supposed to have Morisaki as the captain, but due to his fight, he is no longer allowed to participate. And since he was the captain, his whole team decided to drop out. The club for capture the flag have been quite desperate to find a group of five to replace them, but it's rare to find a group of five freshmen that work well with each other."

Wow, Tatsuya thinks, despite all the discrimination between the blooms and the weeds in this school, Morisaki is actually getting punished quite hard for his discriminatory actions.

"Yes! I want to do this!" Erika shouts, already running towards the door before Hattori even finished talking.

And so the rest of the group all follow Erika into the next door classroom where the capture the flag club is.

Erika immediately talks to the club representatives, "So I heard you guys are looking for a freshman team?"

One of the club representatives smiles in delight, "Yes! We would love for five of you to participate."

"Even though we're all weeds?" Tatsuya asks, surprised at the lack of discrimination.

"Well, first of all, word of you defeating the undefeatable Hattori has already spread all around school, so I don't think you're a normal weed. Second of all, we'd much rather have a team of people who know one another, rather than a group of talented blooms that don't know each other well."

"Yes," the second representative adds, "teamwork is much more important than individual ability. And lastly, rumor has it that the famed Ichijou Masaki of the Ichijou family is going to be on Third High's freshman team. So we aren't winning regardless of who participates."

Ichijou Masaki gained his fame for his involvement in the defense of Japan against a major attack from the Great Asian Union three years ago. He, along with the rest of the Ichijou family, is known for their devastating massive area-of-effect spells. Masaki is the heir of the Ichijou family.

The first club representative asks, "So which five of you are actually going to participate?"

Erika immediately replies, "How about. . . me, Tatsuya, Mizuki, Leo, and Honoka?"

Leo looks confused as to who Erika would pick him, while Tatsuya asks, "What about Mikihiko? Are you just going to ignore him?"

"It's better this way," Mikihiko quietly says.

"Have you seen this boy?" Erika grabs Mikihiko and starts squeezing his arms, "He's all bone and skin. He can't handle this."

Tatsuya sighs, "If you're okay with this, Mikihiko."

After writing down their names, the club rep looks up and says, "It's official then. We have practice right after school on Mondays and Thursdays, starting next week. See you guys there!"

The group leaves the classroom, everyone quite excited about participating in the Nine Schools Competition.

Tatsuya checks his tablet for his patrol path once again, "Now I'm supposed to patrol towards the gymnasium."

Walking into the giant gymnasium, students are everywhere with multiple club stations set up. But all eyes are focused on the center of the gymnasium, where two students, a boy and a girl, with shinai (kendo swords) stand facing each other. The boy has a flower emblem on his shoulder, while the girl does not.

"How dare you mock me?" the girl shouts angrily.

"If you think you're so good, then fight me!" the boy shouts back.

Tatsuya leans over to Erika and whispers, "Do you know these two?"

"Yes, they are both quite famous in the sword fighting world. That girl is Mibu Sayaka. She's won every junior women's kendo tournament that she has attended. The boy is Kirihara Takeaki. He's won multiple men's kenjutsu tournaments and usually places in the top five of every tournament he enters."

Kendo is the sport of pure swordsmanship, having been relatively unchanged for the past century. Kenjutsu, on the other hand, is a new sport that developed with magic. It combines swordsmanship with magic, using specialized sword-shaped CADs as their weapon.

"I think I need to take disciplinary action here before the fight breaks out," Tatsuya whispers to Erika as he starts to move towards the center of the gymnasium.

"No," Erika says in a serious tone while grabbing Tatsuya's arm, "Let this fight happen. There's honor on the line."

Having never heard Erika so serious before, Tatsuya backs off.

Sayaka and Kirihara take their positions within the arena that is marked off on the ground in the center of the gymnasium. They both bow to each other and crouch, holding their swords up towards each other.

The two fighters stand, and in a blind of an eye, the fight has begun.