[53] Overflow (3)
"Hahaha! The latest issue of the picture book! You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this!"
Shirone's face flushed as he glanced at the picture book. The cover was far from a masterpiece. A woman's nude torso was drawn from neck to thighs, and along the binding the words "Female Anatomy Study Group" were printed.
"What on earth is that weird book?"
"Ahaha. You don't know? This, my friend, is a picture book. A privilege only a few at the Magic Academy get to enjoy."
Iruki added.
"In short, it's an unproductive pastime for people with nothing better to do. Kekekeke!"
"Picture book" was student slang for a bound collection of semi-nude drawings of women.
Of course it wasn't an official publication; it was an obscene booklet put out by students majoring in art who formed a team.
The publisher called themselves the Female Anatomy Study Group—an unofficial club. Still, among students it had become wildly popular. Beyond simple semi-nudes, they drew people from the Magic Academy itself.
Female students, female teachers, and sometimes male students or male teachers—anyone affiliated with the school could be their model, and that was giving the administration a headache.
The school periodically confiscated their publications, but the group was a loose network and elusive; the core members remained unknown. Rumor had it the group's leader was a graduating student, but nothing was confirmed.
After hearing the explanation, Shirone wore a blank expression. In some ways, the Study Group was doing far worse things than Iruki or Nade ever had.
"So Iruki, you actually look at stuff like this? That's surprising."
Iruki didn't look away from the chessboard as he twirled his fingers.
"It's simple information gathering. The Female Anatomy Study Group is good at collecting all sorts of rumors and tidbits."
Nade flipped to the back of the picture book. As Iruki had said, detailed notes were attached.
The subjects' family backgrounds and trivial personal details were recorded down to the smallest point—more work than a mere hobby.
Their insistence on semi-nudes was also a trick to cleverly skirt the citizen laws of Creas city. Even so, the positions were obscene; to an outsider it had nothing to do with art.
Nade clicked through the pages, exclaiming.
"Wow! This month's insane! Iruki, can I tear out page seven?"
"Be my guest. I've already stored the information in my head."
Shirone stared at Nade in a daze. What on earth did he plan to do with a torn-out page?
"You guys don't study at all…."
Nade burst into laughter. It was probably the first time he'd seen something like this—an exemplary student like Shirone joining the gang of delinquents at the Supernatural Psychical Science Research Club.
"Shirone. You'll get used to it soon. Once you're here you'll find more fun than classes. After a little while you'll see it's never a loss."
Nade's smiling face abruptly hardened as he turned a page. He glanced at Shirone and said quietly.
"Hey, Shirone. Don't be shocked."
"What is it this time? Is there anything left to shock me with?"
"No, it's just—Amy seonbae appears in this picture book."
"What? Give it here!"
Shirone snatched the book. An embarrassing image filled an entire page—so realistic it could have been a photograph.
"Shirone, don't get the wrong idea. Tell me—how similar is the picture to the real thing? I've always wondered."
"Similar? How could it be similar! And how would I possibly know that!"
Iruki shrugged and snickered.
"Can't you tell by Shirone's personality? It doesn't even look like they're actually dating. Honestly, he probably hasn't even held hands yet, right?"
"Hmph. Mind your own business. Don't meddle in other people's love lives."
Shirone went back to the book. Putting personal feelings aside, the skill was impressive. The drawings felt alive on the paper.
Even someone who didn't know the models could see the talent. But why use it for something like this?
Shirone tore the page out. That Amy would appear in such a book made him genuinely uncomfortable.
"Uuuuu…."
He couldn't bear to look, and as he ripped the sheet, Nade clutched his stomach and exploded into laughter.
"Puhahaha! What are you doing? Don't be so sensitive. It's all imagination except the face. Nobody actually saw her."
Shirone glared. Imagined or real, Amy had fought alongside the Black Magisher. If he could, he'd find the Female Anatomy Study Group and dismantle it.
"Anyway, stop looking at this book. If you're not going to study, at least do something productive. You're officially a club—are you just going to sit around all day?"
Realizing that studying here was hopeless, Shirone decided to find something he could do with his friends.
"How about looking at Nade's inventions? The patent list of Nade the know-it-all."
"Oh, right! I haven't shown Shirone yet."
Nade dove under the table again. Curious what was hidden among the junk, Shirone bent over and peered in. Surprisingly, a safe had been concealed.
"Tada! What do you think, Shirone? Want to see?"
Shirone blinked blankly. Nade's hands were empty, but if you looked closely there was a shimmer of distorted scenery along a certain boundary.
"No way…?"
"Haha! This is an invisibility cloak!"
He'd read about invisibility cloaks in books—devices that use electrical power to refract light and create the illusion of transparency—but this was the first time he'd actually seen one.
"You seriously made this? Yourself?"
Shirone could hardly believe it. He wasn't an expert in magical engineering, but he knew how valuable an invisibility cloak could be.
Electrical magic not only had combat applications but enormous industrial value.
Electric mages usually specialize in the illusion branch of magic that creates phantoms rather than pure lightning. The top illusion spell would be invisibility, and invisibility magic produces the same effect as an invisibility cloak.
Although Nade's device wasn't an original invention in the deepest sense, being able to reproduce and manufacture an invisibility cloak showed engineering skill on par with professionals.
"My dream is to be a magical engineer. Of course, compared to the expensive cloaks on the market, this is pretty shabby. The material is low-grade and the charging technique is weak, so it only works for an hour after you inject power. But it's decent, right?"
Nade draped the cloak over himself, and his figure faded away. The cloak's quality depends on how well it refracts light. If the refractive index drops below 95 percent, you can't really call it transparent—so a one percent difference divides technical skill. With Nade's current ability he couldn't reach 100 percent, but the transparency effect was undeniably functional.
A faint outline showed when Nade moved. When standing still, however, it was almost impossible to detect someone unless you watched very carefully.
Shirone was full of wonder. Making magical items sold commercially required not only magical knowledge but alchemical expertise as well.
"Amazing. If you'd put that effort into studying, your grades would probably be much better."
"Hahaha! Maybe. But I'm happiest when I'm making things, not learning. I've got more than this—look."
Nade pulled more things from the safe: a miniature carriage powered by electricity, holographic visions that appeared when illustrations were placed on crystal plates. There were also flashbangs and smoke grenades incorporating Iruki's ideas, though they lagged behind Nade's main patents.
Watching Nade enthusiastically introduce his creations, Shirone realized it wasn't a waste of talent. In his field, Nade was ahead of his peers.
"The power unit on this carriage spins at… huh?"
Nade, babbling on, suddenly looked up as the room shook. The tremor worsened, and the chess pieces toppled across the board.
Iruki dashed out to check the corridor and returned immediately. His face showed urgency as if he'd realized something.
"Damn! A teacher's here! Quick, put the stuff away!"
"What? What happened?"
There was no time to explain. Nade expertly hid the picture book and shoved the club's unofficial operating funds and contraband—smoke grenades and the like—back into the safe. Once the rule-breaking items were dealt with, he dragged a flustered Shirone onto the sofa and shouted.
"Shirone! Sit here! It's an inspection!"
The Istas device began to power up. The red warning lights blinking in the corridor signaled that the warehouse housing the club would be summoned to the first floor soon.
"A teacher's coming? But if I sit here—shouldn't I go greet them?"
As Shirone tried to stand, Nade pushed him back down onto the sofa.
"No. Act as if nothing's wrong. If they catch a picture book or smoke grenades, it won't end with a reprimand."
"O-okay."
Shirone used his characteristic mental discipline to calm himself. The chill in his expression was enough to make his friends speechless even amid the panic. Prepared for a skirmish, they waited for the Istas to materialize on the ground floor.
* * *
"Ugh, irritating."
Shiina massaged her throbbing temples. The Istas took at least three minutes to drag a warehouse up to the first floor. That was more than enough time to flee or hide the scene.
In the past some teachers had stormed the club without powering the Istas. They spent over an hour wandering the building and still failed to find the lab.
Members, however, came and went freely. The method was obvious: analyze the cube's movement patterns centered on the lab to deduce the path.
Istas had been commercialized as a magical storage, but the manufacturer still refused to release the blueprints. Someone twenty years ago had solved that problem and turned it into the club's concealment technique—an outrageous situation from the teachers' perspective.
Shiina folded her arms and shifted her legs until the Istas' form reached completion. Three minutes felt excruciatingly long.
"The more I think about it, the angrier I get. How did they find a pattern the teachers couldn't? And if they have that talent, why don't they use it constructively? What are we supposed to do about these clubs?"
Clubs operating in the shadows were problematic for that reason. If they were merely doing bad things, the school could control them. But their intellectual capability often exceeded the school's authority.
Even the Supernatural Psychical Science Research Club was made up of kids sharp enough to toy with troublemakers like the Black Magisher if they wanted.
"What was Shirone thinking joining them? Even with an Immortal Function, how could these kids help him? And signing up here will wreck his performance assessments."
Shirone was ordinary at school but sharp and alert in the club—Nade, who showed brilliance in engineering; Iruki, a Class Five problem child who inherited the Servant Syndrome ability and skipped classes whenever bored; and now Shirone, the school's top model student. No matter how she thought about it, they didn't seem to fit—yet somehow they clustered tightly.
"Talent attracts talent, maybe. Admittedly, Nade and Iruki are the kind of peers he could match with, but still…."