Chapter 5: Practice Match
In the fourth training room of Crawford Magic Academy, the students of Class 2-C, where Shion Ichinose was enrolled, were conducting practice matches.
During these matches, students wore combat attire different from their usual uniforms.
These combat suits were imbued with anti-magic properties, serving as protective gear against magical attacks and reducing damage from direct hits.
The purpose of these practice matches in class wasn’t to defeat the opponent but to hone magical control techniques in a practical format.
As such, most students didn’t focus too strongly on winning or losing.
However, there was one boy in Class 2-C who was exceptionally fixated on the outcome – the aforementioned Shion Ichinose. But his obsession wasn’t with winning;
rather, he was fixated on losing, and more specifically, on how he lost.
His ideal was to use magic with full force, and then lose in a way that made his opponent think,
“Is he pretending to lose by deliberately holding back…?” It wasn’t about simply holding back and losing in an obvious manner.
His principle was to genuinely improve his magic in the practice match setting, while giving the impression that he had “lost on purpose.”
This was Shion Ichinose – a man who refused to compromise on either seriously engaging in practice matches to hone his magic or indulging in the fantasy of appearing to conceal his true abilities.
Currently, the training room Shion’s class was using had eight 10×15 meter fields for matches, separated by magically created barriers.
The practice matches took place within these cube-like spaces surrounded by magical force fields. Students not participating in matches would practice shooting magic at targets in the training room or observe ongoing matches while waiting for a field to become available.
At present, Shion was in the middle of a match, exchanging magical attacks with his opponent about ten meters away within one of these fields.
“Wind Cutter!”
Shion and his opponent cast the same spell simultaneously. The pale green wind blades collided midway between them, creating a gust of wind as they nullified each other.
“Fireball!”
Shion launched his next spell before his opponent could react.
Three fireballs emerged from the magic circle in front of him with a series of “poof” sounds.
“Gh! Flame Shield!”
Caught off guard, the opponent hastily created a barrier of flames in front, extinguishing Shion’s fireballs.
“Water Ball!”
Without missing a beat, Shion fired a water sphere about 40 centimeters in diameter, which rushed towards his opponent.
The opponent maintained the Flame Shield, dissipating the Water Ball.
As it evaporated, it made a loud hissing sound, and thick steam obscured the opponent’s view.
“Tch, Cyclone!”
Realizing that limited visibility was unfavorable, the opponent quickly conjured a wind to disperse the steam.
“!!”
As the view cleared, Shion was already pointing both hands towards his opponent.
The opponent prepared to counter Shion’s next spell but was struck by a strange sensation.
“(There’s no… magic circle…?)”
There was no magic circle deployed in front of Shion’s outstretched hands.
“(Is he out of breath already? If so, now’s my chance–)”
The opponent, seeing an opportunity, prepared to counterattack. But just then…
“!?”
The opponent abruptly halted the spell they were about to cast. They had noticed a magic circle forming on the ground beneath Shion’s right foot.
“(Those hands were a bluff…!!)”
“Azure Lightning -追衝シユテルメン (Tsuishō Shyuterumen)”
As Shion chanted, the magic circle on the ground around his right foot emitted a blue-white glow, and from it, a powerful lightning bolt raced towards the opponent, traveling along the ground.
“(This is bad…!!) — Ground Wall!”
Faced with the approaching lightning that crackled with intense plasma sounds, the opponent quickly crouched, placed their palm on the ground to deploy a magic circle, and raised a 1.5-meter-high earthen wall.
The lightning struck the earth wall, releasing a blinding light and a sound like shattering rock as it dispersed around the barrier.
With a final small “crack,” the lightning completely dissipated. The earth wall was left covered in cracks and crumbled to the ground, turning to sand.
As the opponent stood up and looked ahead through the rising dust, Shion had already launched four more fireballs towards them.
“Gah!! Aqua Vortex!!”
With magical energy running low, the opponent hurriedly poured their remaining power into a powerful spiral of water to counter the incoming fireballs.
“Haaaaah!!”
Certain this would be their final attack, the opponent channeled all their remaining magical energy into the spell.
The water vortex extinguished Shion’s four fireballs and rushed towards him.
Shion attempted to cast another spell, but before he could deploy a magic circle, he was blown away by the powerful water vortex and slammed against the wall behind him.
Shion then dropped to one knee and raised a hand slightly to signal his surrender, concluding the practice match with his defeat.
“Haa, haa… Thank you for the match,”
Shion’s opponent said, catching their breath as they approached Shion for the post-match greeting.
“Thank you as well,”
Shion replied, rising to his feet with a composed expression. However, this composure was just a front; Shion was utterly exhausted and on the verge of collapse.
“Haha, somehow you look more relaxed than me, the winner,”
Shion’s opponent said with a wry smile.
“Not at all. I’m completely worn out. It’s a struggle just to stand,”
Shion responded with absolute honesty to his opponent’s wry smile.
“…You don’t look like it though.”
“I’m just putting on a brave face.”
This was undoubtedly Shion’s true feelings. However, the stark honesty made it seem like a lie, which was exactly as Shion had calculated.
“I see… Well, if you say so, I guess that’s how it is,”
the opponent said, still not entirely convinced but seemingly accepting Shion’s words. “Anyway,” they continued,
“Shion, right? You’re pretty good with magic. When you ambushed me with that lightning spell from the ground, I thought I was done for.”
“You’re the one I can’t compete with. Even though I caught you completely off guard, you instantly countered with an elementally advantageous earth magic,” Shion replied.
“No, if you had cast your spell even a second earlier, I would have been finished for sure,”
the opponent insisted. Then, with a serious expression, they added, “…There’s something I’ve been wondering about.”
“At that moment, didn’t you seem unusually slow in casting your spell? Were you perhaps holding back on purpose…?”
Shion interrupted his opponent’s questioning.
“That’s not the case. …Casting magic from the feet is difficult. It inevitably takes more time.”
“…I see. That makes sense. Deploying a magic circle at your feet must be quite challenging and time-consuming.”
“Indeed.”
As Shion said, it’s generally easier to control magical energy when using the palms or magical tools as mediums. Deploying a magic circle from parts of the body other than the palms, like the feet, is somewhat more difficult.
However, Shion was actually capable of casting the “Azure Lightning – 追衝シユテルメン (Tsuishō Shyuterumen)” at a timing that would have been impossible for his opponent to counter.
But to avoid ending the match decisively, Shion had deliberately timed his spell to allow his opponent a chance to defend.
The student who had been Shion’s opponent was correct in their suspicion, but Shion had skillfully deflected it with a plausible excuse.
The opponent didn’t seem entirely convinced, but appeared to have accepted the explanation to some extent.
“Well, anyway, today’s match was a great learning experience. Looking forward to the next one!”
“Likewise. I look forward to it.”
With that, they shook hands firmly and left the match field.
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Afterwards, students took turns conducting practice matches in the training room fields until the class ended.
As the class concluded, Shion exited the training room. While walking down the hallway towards the changing room, reflecting on the practice match, he noticed his recent opponent walking ahead, conversing with a classmate.
“By the way, you had a match with that Ichinose guy today, right? How was it?”
Shion discreetly listened in on their conversation.
“Most of his spells weren’t that powerful, but he was pretty skilled with lightning magic and magical combat. I think he has a high battle IQ.”
“…Is that true? Isn’t he from a merchant family? He shouldn’t have any talent for magic.”
“How should I put it… His magical power did feel weak, but he used magic very creatively in combat, and he was incredibly strong. In a real fight, he might be the strongest in our class.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Then what about you, who beat him?”
“Well… He said it wasn’t the case, but I think he might have been holding back. He seemed pretty relaxed even after the match. I’m sure he wasn’t going all out.”
“…You’re overestimating him. There’s no way you, who was in Class B last year, would be inferior to someone from a merchant family.”
“Hmm… I hope you’re right. Haha…”
Shion, who had been listening to this exchange, found it to be exactly the kind of reaction he idealized – the impression that he might be concealing his true abilities.
The assessment that “it doesn’t seem like he was serious” could also be interpreted as “the extent of his abilities is unclear.” This was precisely the evaluation Shion desired.
Inwardly, he was ecstatic at this unexpected ideal scenario.
Suppressing the urge to break into a dance right there, Shion maintained his composure as he headed towards the changing room, keeping a slight distance from the two students ahead of him.
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