Magic competition "Cross Field". Simply put it is a sports competition that is very similar to Monolith Code. While Monolith Code usually consists of teams of three or five, Cross Field is usually one on one battles but there is no rule that says you can't form temporary teams either. Cross Field can have a few different settings, victory conditions can be to capture the enemy flag, occupy the area around a center flag for a certain period of time or a battle royale where the last one standing wins. This Cross Field game being held at First High is going to be a battle royale setting. Another difference between Monolith Code and Cross Field is that physical contact is allowed as long it doesn't lead to serious injuries. This is not an official game, so there is a certain degree of freedom allowed. Cross Field is usually held internally at each school, but sometimes the competition is shared between schools. ◇ ◇ ◇ The day after graduation, Tatsuya went to his classroom where Leo tells him that this years Cross Field will be held on Sunday and that Third High will be participating as well. Tatsuya was interested, he had heard that Cross Field was a mock battle for third year students that were graduating but this was the first time he heard that Third High was going to be the opponent. But since this event was going to be held in the exercise forest it would be difficult to watch. Erika joins in on the conversation and says that they should all join as well, she also mentions that Kirihara and Sawaki will be participating. After hearing this Mikihiko says that he would like to join as well. Erika says that Juumonji will be participating as well, and wonders how he will do against him this time. Mizuki asks Mikihiko if it is going to be dangerous, she was concerned about him. But she is reminded that this is a sporting event and that even if they get hurt a little bit it shouldn't be a problem. In the end Erika, Leo and Mikihiko ask Tatsuya to see if they can all participate in the event. Tatsuya says that he will ask Hattori but that they shouldn't expect much. After school, Tatsuya went to see Hattori at the club headquarters, Hattori is now the club activities leader and they would need his permission to participate in Cross Field. Surprisingly Hattori agrees and says that he was planning on asking some of the first year students anyway. His reasoning is that during the security training for the Thesis Competition, Juumonji may have traumatized some of the first year students that were supposed to participate in Cross Field. However, Hattori says that Erika will not be allowed to participate, this event is for men only just like Monolith Code and he can't make an exception for that. Hattori also says that Tatsuya will have to join as well as a condition for this, there have been several requests from the graduating students including Juumonji to have Tatsuya participate. Tatsuya agrees. ◇ ◇ ◇ Lunch time, the next day Tatsuya explains Hattori's decision to everyone, and as expected Erika is in a rotten mood. Honoka asks Tatsuya if they will be able to watch the event, and Tatsuya says that since it's being held in the forest there will be limited visibility. Erika asks what type of game is going to be played this year, and Tatsuya says that it is going to be a battle royale. In battle royale you are disqualified if the badge you wear on your uniform is taken, the winner is the last person standing or if time runs out the person who possesses the most badges at the end will be the winner. Leo asks if that will include the badges that were collected by the enemy, to which Tatsuya says yes. Mikihiko asks what will happen if your badge happens to fall off during a fight, and Tatsuya says that you will be disqualified but that he shouldn't have to worry because the badges are tightly secured. After their last class Tatsuya, Leo and Mikihiko discuss one final thing about this battle royale. With Third High participating this year, it will most likely start with First High vs Third High to try and give their own school the advantage. ◇ ◇ ◇ The next morning, Tatsuya is accompanied by Miyuki as they head to school. The team from Third High has already arrived and among them is Ichijou Masaki and Kichijouji Shinkurou. Tatsuya heads to the changing room where he sees Katsuto, Hattori, Leo and Mikihiko. Katsuto tells Tatsuya that he is looking forward to today and that he better not get disqualified until he has a chance to fight him. ◇ ◇ ◇ Today's event will take place in the artificial forest behind First High School, while there is a certain boundary they must stay in, there is also no judge or referee for this match. As the participants are lined up Third High is allowed to enter the forest first because they are visitors here, shortly after the participants from First High enter the forest as well. Tatsuya, Leo, and Mikihiko head towards the same side of the forest as they watch Juumonji walk straight towards the center. At the center of the forest is a wide open area. The reason for Third High participating in this year's Cross Field was due to the Nine Schools Competition and the Yokohama Incident. Third High wanted to face Katsuto one more time before they graduate from high school. ◇ ◇ ◇ As Tatsuya, Leo and Mikihiko enter the forest they are moving in a counter clockwise way. Cross Field's time limit is one hour, so there is some concern for magic fatigue. Mikihiko asks Tatsuya about the enemy, this time Mikihiko is not using his spirit magic to detect the enemy. Even though his spirit magic is harder to detect, it is still possible to be aware of the fluctuations of psions, so he left the detection to Tatsuya. Tatsuya says that the enemy has chosen a similar route, which is mirroring their own route. Tatsuya says that there is three people straight ahead and that one of them is Kichijouji Shinkurou. Leo and Mikihiko say that they don't want to get involved with Kichijouji just now and will take the other two. At that same time Kichijouji says to his two teammates that there are two enemies straight ahead and to proceed as planned. In this event Kichijouji isn't teamed up with Masaki because Masaki wants to face off against Katsuto. Kichijouji was detecting the magicians ahead of him but all of a sudden he lost track of them, and a voice greeted him from behind. "Shiba Tatsuya" On reflex Kichijouji pointed his right hand towards Tatsuya and prepared to fire Invisible Bullet but it was stopped shortly before he could release it due to Tatsuya's Gram Demolition. Kichijouji was surprised at the amount of psions that Tatsuya possesses, and attempted to run but suddenly lost consciousness. After defeating Kichijouji, Tatsuya started to head towards the center of the forest. Leo and Mikihiko joined him shortly afterwards, and they began to wonder who would be left by the time they get to the center of the forest. While they believed that Third High was strong, they didn't think that Katsuto would be defeated by them. They noticed that a magician was approaching them, and once again Leo and Mikihiko move on while Tatsuya deals with the on-coming magician. Tatsuya finds out that it is Ichijou Masaki and heads towards his position. Masaki didn't make a move and allowed Tatsuya to get close to him, he is wearing a general purpose type CAD instead of his specialized pistol type CAD. Masaki jumps up above Tatsuya and uses an air-type vacuum blade attack, Tatsuya dodges the attack and jumps towards Masaki. Tatsuya is using ninjutsu to move himself about in a way that Masaki can't predict, Masaki has completely lost sight of Tatsuya but that doesn't mean he can't predict where Tatsuya will show up. Masaki fires compressed air bullets in the direction he thinks Tatsuya will show up, and Tatsuya is forced to dodge yet again. Tatsuya quickly moves towards Masaki, but he is prepared and hold out his hand and snaps his fingers. It was the same attack that Tatsuya used against him in the Nine Schools Competition but on a much larger scale, Tatsuya tries his best to invalidate the magic but couldn't completely block it. Regardless his legs are still moving, and he is still headed towards Masaki. Tatsuya goes for a front tackle against Masaki, and Masaki drops his elbow into Tatsuya's neck. The damage to Tatsuya was not minimal but Masaki didn't think for a second that he had won. He operates his CAD but notices that Tatsuya is moving away from him, and just before he activates his magic he realizes that Tatsuya is holding something up in his hand. It was his badge that was once on his uniform, Masaki was so preoccupied with protecting himself that he didn't notice what Tatsuya's true aim was. Masaki lowers his CAD and yells at Tatsuya while throwing the badges that he had collected towards him. At this point Leo and Mikihiko both defeated the other Third High students and they made their way to the middle of the forest where Katsuto was waiting alone. They observed that Hattori, Kirihara and Sawaki were all sitting off to the side and didn't have their badges anymore. Katsuto says that they could all come at him at once if they preferred but Leo spoke up first and asks to face off against Tatsuya. Tatsuya and Leo begin to fight each other, it is a close combat hand to hand fight. While in the melee, Tatsuya reaches for Leo's chest but Leo prevents Tatsuya from reaching his badge. Afterwards Tatsuya moves to the side of Leo and wraps an arm around his neck and throws him to the ground. Leo rolls to the side and was able to recover. Tatsuya stands in front of Leo but isn't moving, without any premonition a wave of psions is sent from Tatsuya towards Leo. While this doesn't affect Leo, it distracted him enough to stop him from noticing that Tatsuya was now right in front of him. Tatsuya uses vibration magic at the end of his fist right above Leo's heart, which causes him paralysis, and after the waves spread to his head he suffers a slight concussion. Tatsuya pulls the badge from Leo's chest. Tatsuya turns to face Mikihiko and Katsuto, and Mikihiko says that he is sorry to make Juumonji wait longer but he would like to face Tatsuya next. Mikihiko is using his fan based CAD with ancient magic talismans built into it. Mikihiko uses wind based attacks against Tatsuya, and while ancient magic is supposedly inferior to modern magic due to activation speed, this attack by Mikihiko was not something that Tatsuya could easily stop. Tatsuya tried to dismantle this magic but was only able to cut it's power in half, so he braced himself to endure the air pressure coming towards him. Mikihiko then used another magic that caused the ground to shake, while also casting another wind based attack. Tatsuya flash casted a movement type magic to avoid the oncoming magic, and Mikihiko responded with a variant of Karura-en. Which is an Anti-Demon magic, specifically designed to counter things that were not information bodies, however this attack was modified for interpersonal purposes and is a spiritual interference magic. Tatsuya cancels his move-type magic and reaches out with his right hand to cast "Far Strike", this psion bullet completely disintegrates the spiritual flame. Tatsuya then rushes towards Mikihiko and reaches towards his chest. Mikihiko intercepts his attack but is hit by Tatsuya's other hand, which he flash casted weight-type magic to bring him down and was finally able to grab his badge. Tatsuya moves in front of Katsuto his last opponent. Katsuto says that his techniques are very impressive, especially since they don't use much magic. The techniques used by Tatsuya were body manipulation types that he learned from Yakumo. Tatsuya advanced towards Katsuto in a way that he couldn't follow, and Tatsuya prepared a vibration-type magic that he used against Hattori in his mock battle against him. But it was blocked by the psion wall that covered Katsuto's body. Tatsuya then tried to reach his hand towards Katsuto's chest but was once again blocked by barrier. Tatsuya was blown away by the offensive attack type Phalanx, and Katsuto was able to grab the badge off of Tatsuya's chest. ◇ ◇ ◇ At the end of the event, a barbecue was held for all the participants. Miyuki congratulates Tatsuya for his hard work along with Honoka, they also congratulate Masaki. Tatsuya, Mikihiko and Leo are all together when Katsuto approaches them. Tatsuya congratulates him on his victory, to which he says that he was grateful to see them all fight today. Katsuto asks Tatsuya if the movements that he used against him were magic or not. Tatsuya says that it was Ninjutsu, and Katsuto says that if it was a battle in which magic wasn't used that he wouldn't have won. Miyuki and Honoka were both overjoyed to have heard that but Tatsuya kept a bitter smile on his face. Tatsuya finally picked up his barbecue skewers and decided to enjoy this moment.