Semifinals, First Match: Cindy vs. Yulia

Before the first match of the semifinals, Cindy Whiteglass sat with a blanket draped over her shoulders, staring at a report whose title was nothing short of terrifying.

Indoor had even clenched a fist to drive the point home, and the rest of her staff had been beaming as if the whole thing delighted them. The memory surfaced, and Cindy snorted before she could stop herself.

"Idiots."

They really were idiots. A match that might be over in ten seconds, and the entire department had put their heads together for eight hours. Faced with sincerity like that, even she could no longer bring herself to click her tongue.

They grinned bright as lamps at her face, gone scarlet, and teased her without mercy. A hot sting climbed Cindy's nose. She set the report down and scrubbed her face furiously into the blanket.

"Once Academia's over and the year-end books are closed, that's the end of me and those damned idiots."

She muttered it, flung the blanket aside, and picked the report back up.

"Can't embarrass them."

She was reading Down with Yulia Edfolk! for the fifth time, and the contents came down to this.

First: Yulia would be thinking ahead to her final against Herbena, only two days off. She would try to spend as little mana as possible in this match and keep her strength in reserve, which meant Cindy might actually have an opening.

Second was the strategy itself, built around Blast Charge, the hardest-hitting spell Cindy could currently cast. Blast Charge planted a bomb at a chosen point, so placement was everything, and so was forcing the opponent onto the right path. Yulia's usual style was static and reactive. While she spent ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the opening feeling the match out, Cindy would move her feet and lay the charges in advance. The moment Yulia started to move, Cindy would lure her—force her, if she could—and burn through as much of her mana as possible. Once the charges began to blow, Yulia would surely wrap herself in water-attribute magic, and that was when the ace would finish it.

It wasn't a fantasy. It was the best match Cindy could put together, and she made up her mind to run it exactly as written. Herbena, who had pored over the report beside her, nodded as if to say it wasn't bad.

She had just finished tracing the plan one last time when Aurora's bright voice began to carry in from outside.

"Still. It'd be nice if I won."

Now and then she let the words out, but only ever as a joke. This time a little sincerity had slipped in with them.

That was when Danvers of the Planning Department, overseeing the conduct of the matches, opened the waiting-room door and offered her a bow.

"Chief Cindy. It's time for you to enter."

"Right. Shall we?"

The two of them started up toward the arena. Cindy glanced back at Danvers and lifted one corner of her mouth.

"Deputy Danvers."

"Yes, Chief."

"Once I'm out of the student council, you planning to drop the manners with me?"

"Probably."

"Come on. That's a little cold, isn't it? I was the Chief."

"Then I'll still call you Chief."

"What, like, 'Chief Cindy! Did you finish the assignment?' That what you mean?"

"That does sound strange."

"Casual's better, then."

"You seem like you'll miss it. You could just stay on the student council next year."

"Tell me to drop dead instead."

Danvers let out a short breath of a laugh, and by then they were already at the arena.

"I just go straight up, yeah?"

"Yes."

"Cheer for me a little."

"I'll do my best."

Cindy snorted a smile at her, waved, and climbed. Danvers watched her back, drew a long sigh, and turned her steps toward her mistress, who would have to fight the next match.

A premise is the judgment on which a conclusion rests. For the conclusion to come out right, the premise has to be right.

Unfortunately for Cindy, every premise she and the Finance Department had taken as obvious was already sliding off course.

The match began, and Yulia—who by all rights should have stayed where she was—latched ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠onto her at once. Cindy was so startled she nearly fainted. She threw flight magic and body-enhancement magic one after the other, spending everything on opening the distance.

If she catches me, I'm dead!

About three minutes in, Yulia finally closed to a single step, and an indigo magic circle flared in her right hand.

Cindy heard the chant and twisted. The blow slipped through the exact gap she had opened and struck the arena wall with a boom, cracking it as if a giant mace had been driven home. She swept a hand down her chest in relief and used the breath to widen the gap again on flight magic.

"Chief! Your style has changed far too much!"

"This might be my retirement match, so I'm going to try everything I've got!"

"I'll take that as an honor!"

"But your stamina—something's wrong with it, senior...?!"

"Exercise happens to be my hobby!"

They ran and flew in every direction at once, and in the stands eyes and heads whipped after them until the whole crowd seemed dizzy.

"Gah!"

"Shit."

Yulia cast, and Cindy answered with acrobatic flight, slipping the spells as they came. The match was nothing like what anyone had expected, and the murmur in the stands swelled.

"No—Senior Yulia's the type ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who stands in the middle and fires. She's strange today."

"She changed her style. She must have decided there's no other way she'll ever beat Herbena."

"Then why use it on Senior Cindy...?"

"Still, it's fun to watch. I always thought Senior Yulia's matches got boring sometimes."

On the opposite side of the arena, in the Finance Department's seats, Cindy's deputy Indoor had both arms locked around his head.

"This is a total bust, isn't it? She changed the strategy just like that?"

A staffer beside him shook his head, firm, and pushed his glasses up.

"It might not be so bad."

"Why?"

"Use a strategy you haven't practiced, and mistakes come out."

"You think?"

"Look. Even now the Chief isn't taking a clean hit."

"Hmm."

"If anything, movement like that might let Blast Charge land. No need to drag her onto it the hard way."

"True. Whatever else she is, the Chief can calculate."

The boy with the glasses was right. Cindy wasn't being hit, and while Yulia hounded her at a furious acceleration she was drawing that path in her head and thinking past it.

She looks under-practiced, I'll give her that. First I pull the path outward...

Cindy dropped onto one of the spots she had already marked, planted a Blast Charge, and then—just as Herbena had told her—flung magic circles out in a wild spray.

Five more I can still plant. Assume the first one hits no matter what—

The footsteps behind her stopped dead.

Cindy flinched and halted, turning toward Yulia. Somewhere in the chase Yulia had already stopped, and she was measuring the line Cindy meant to run.

"What? Since when—!"

She never finished. Yulia's indigo circle flashed.

Cindy threw herself forward in a long dive. A tearing shriek split the air, and about twenty centimeters above her head a long, straight scar opened, as clean as if a famed blade had carved it.

"If that had hit, half my mana would've burned."

She got up muttering, brushing herself off. Yulia, watching, smiled.

"Your sense really is excellent, Cindy. The place a hit would land is narrow, so—haah—you threw yourself at the ground, didn't you? Haah—"

"My sense is—haah—great, right? Looks like you're tired. Good thing I'm a Commoner. I ran my ass off ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠when I was little. Haaah—"

"That was the same for me!"

Yulia caught her breath and came at Cindy in a straight line. Cindy decided this was the moment. She set her weight hard through both feet and put everything into schooling her face.

Now!

She kicked off and leapt. Below her, Yulia's eyes lit indigo as they tracked her up. Cindy, hanging in the air, clenched her fist.

The blast was loud enough to rock a battlefield. Every eye and mouth in the arena fell open.

"Did I get her?"

Cindy glanced back—and Yulia was already there, wearing a sinister little smile, having chased her all the way up to her chin.

"Huh?"

"Blast Charge, is it? I thought it was odd, the way you kept throwing magic circles."

Cindy had no time to answer. An indigo circle lit at the tips of Yulia's feet.

Yulia seized her by the ankle and shattered the flight circle under her feet.

"Nooo!"

Yulia hurled her downward. Rather than spray more magic, she opened a little distance and dropped after her in a clean descent.

Cindy did not give up.

Before I kiss the dirt, rebuild the flight magic and pull her onto a charge—no. Better to fall that way from the start!

A graceful sky-blue circle bloomed in the empty air, forming at last only about five meters above the ground.

Got it!

She spread her hand for the Blast Charge, checked where Yulia was, and could only laugh once, empty. Yulia had stopped seconds ago and was simply looking at her. Infuriatingly, she hung just short of the spell's range, hands gathered neatly before her.

"...Hell of a shitty way to fight a match."

The mutter left her with the weight of helplessness, and an indigo circle formed beneath her feet. Tremendous pressure bore down, as if something meant to crush her from above.

Still wrapped in what remained of her flight magic, Cindy was dragged to the earth. Both knees drove into the floor, and spiderweb cracks raced out around her. Over that circle a second one overlapped and began to glow with a sinister light. A low rumble rolled through the arena. The sky flashed.

"This is—!"

The words had barely left her when an indigo bolt of lightning struck Cindy dead-on.

Most of the people watching lurched to their feet, clutched their heads, and spilled out cries of awe.

"Two top-tier spells?"

"That's Herbena-class."

"Not a shred of mercy. Truly. Wow..."

A little later the smoke thinned, and what met their eyes was Cindy with her right arm still raised. Yulia landed in the arena and looked at her. A defensive spell had been raised along that arm, but pale-blue mana was drawing itself across the skin, the telltale of a runaway.

"Stings."

Even as she said it, Cindy spat onto the floor, and the spit was threaded with blood. Pity entered Yulia's gaze.

"Chief Cindy. That's enough."

The moment the words landed, Cindy's open right hand snapped shut.

Bang—boom—boom—BOOM. The charges she had planted went off all over the arena, one after another, exactly like fireworks. Yulia had already allowed for that much. In an instant she wrapped herself in a barrier of water.

"You really never can let a grudge go, can you."

The smoke that had shot into the sky began, little by little, to settle. Yulia started carefully toward the shadow of Cindy, who was somehow still on her feet.

In that instant, something flashed and came flying.