(A/N): Changes between the events, characters and world mechanics in this fic from the canon are largely intentional. Otherwise, I try to keep things working the same as they do in canon Mahouka.
Chapter 2: Wasted
[A.D. 2092, April]
"Honami-san, we're home!" came a cheerful feminine voice from the just opened front door.
Excited, Honami rushed to the front door as the boy and girl walked in.
"How was your first day?" The teens seemed to be smiling, though Miyuki's appeared somewhat strained.
"Oh it was great! First High's campus is quite nice." Miyuki's voice was almost falsely cheerful.
In his usual reserved manner, Tatsuya said "We met some interesting characters for sure. And Miyuki's speech was fantastic, naturally."
Miyuki blushed a bit at his honest praise. "Still, Onii-san's accomplishments were devalued. They made him a Course 2-"
"Miyuki, we've been through this. It doesn't matter."
Accepting his light reprimand, she let out a brief sigh and nodded her head. Honami couldn't help but smirk at how their relationship had changed since Miya died.
Although Honami and Miya had a nice enough relationship as far as Yotsuba Guardians went, she always found Miya's treatment of Tatsuya awful. Miyuki hadn't been much better frankly. She had treated him as an afterthought at best and a nuisance at worst. Miyuki certainly never let Tatsuya scold her for her misdeeds and selfishness in their younger days.
Because Honami was owned by the Yotsuba family, she was never allowed kids of her own. Yet, she and Tatsuya had nearly always been as if they were mother and child. She took care of Tatsuya when he was hurt and refused to use Regrowth as a form of penance. She taught him how to act in public, how to quickly detect threats to his sister and even how to fight a little… though he quickly surpassed her. Tatsuya seemed to have a greater emotional capacity around her and she swelled with pride at drawing them out of him.
After Miya died, the Yotsuba designated Honami Sakurai to act as the surrogate mother of the Shiba siblings. Because their father - Tatsurou Shiba - was remarried he became estranged from his children, namely Miyuki. Honami took to her new role as if born to do it.
Pointing at his uniform's emblemless shoulder and smiling, she stated "Well you'll just have to show them this doesn't define you. You're more than the constraints they put on you."
Genuinely grinning, Tatsuya embraced Honami which left Miyuki looking a bit jealous. Nipping the impending ice age in the butt, Honami quickly returned the hug and said "OK, let's get ready for dinner you two! I made curry~"
"Hai, Honami-san!" The promise of her favorite food caused Miyuki's mood to rebound in a flash. The young girl dashed into the kitchen.
"Too easy," thought Honami, giving Tatsuya an impish smile. The boy shook his head at her manipulations and followed after his sister.
(Next day, 2nd day of school)
As the Shiba siblings were walking to school, a certain redhead spotted them from across the street.
As she ran over to greet them, Erika called out "Tatsuya-san, Miyuki-san!"
"Good morning, Erika". Tatsuya responded in his usual formal tone.
"This guy doesn't miss a beat, does he?" she said to herself.
"It's nice to see you again, Erika. What are you doing here?" The girl's response was polite, if a bit stiff. Erika still couldn't believe how beautiful this girl was.
"Did I do something to upset her?" Erika thought. Putting that aside, she responded "Well this the path I take to school. It's a public sidewalk, ya know?"
"You're quite straightforward. Most people get flustered around me and cave." Smiling kindly, she continued "We'll get along well I'm sure."
"Phew. That worked out." She thought as she breathed out a sigh.
Turning her attention to the brother, she thought he was decent looking, but not overly so like Miyuki. Still, his flawless posture and commanding gaze gave off an air of authority unbefitting his age.
"I wonder what the story is there?"
Before she could say anything to Tatsuya, he spoke up. "I'm going to walk Miyuki to her class Erika. I'll see you in a bit."
"Eh?" Erika hadn't realized they had already made it to First High, having been lost in thought for a short time.
Before she got her bearings, the two had already walked off towards Miyuki's classroom. Because Erika and Tatsuya scored low on their practical exams, they were placed in class 1-E. But given Miyuki's outstanding score on all the portions of the exams, she was placed in class 1-A.
"Well, he definitely doesn't know how to treat women not named 'Miyuki'..."
As Tatsuya began registering for classes he caught the attention of his fellow classmates for using the keyboard. It was seen as antiquated at the end of the 21st century.
"My my, you're going a breakneck speeds there buddy" a new voice intruded.
As he looked at the source, the unknown, brown-haired boy rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "That was out of the blue, sorry. It's just odd to see strict keyboard use. The name is Leonhart Saijou*, but you can call me Leo. I specialize in Fortifying Magic. What sort of magic do you specialize in, Mr...?"
"Shiba, Tatsuya Shiba," he replied simply. "My practical magical ability is quite low so I have no real specialities to speak of. However, I only ever intended to become a Magic Engineer so it's no big loss as far as I'm concerned."
Speaking up for the first time, Mizuki said "I too am interested in becoming a Magic Engineer, Shiba-kun."
"Well you do seem like the type, Tatsuya-kun. You're obviously a smart guy" the boy said with a grin.
"Well that makes one of you", Erika interjected.
Annoyed, Leo pointed at Erika and asked "Tatsuya, who is this guy?"
Erika furrowed her brow in annoyance. "Are you really going to call me a guy right out the gate? Jerk."
"What goes around comes around lady."
"Are they serious?" Tatsuya thought. They were bickering like a couple. "This is almost cliché, you two. Maybe just admit you're attracted to each other and get this over with. A dragged out romance is only interesting in fiction."
"Eh?! Don't be stupid Tatsuya!"
"What?! Tatsuya come on, she's only slightly good looking. Don't lump us together…"
The two quieted in embarrassment, which was Tatsuya's plan all along, allowing him to complete his classwork in quiet.
Because of the intermittent peace in the world, an outbreak of war could occur with little warning. The role of magicians as living weapons was firmly settled with their deployment in World War 3 and the discovery of Strategic-Class Magic. Because some magic could rival nuclear arms in terms of output without the associated radiation, magic was nearing the point where it may eclipse traditional arms altogether.
This left Magic High Schools in an unfair, yet understandable position. Because magicians were to be weapons, magic education prioritized expedient and practical results before equality. This even extended to the availability of teachers, leaving Course 2 students to work on their own while Course 1 students monopolized the instructors.
This did not bother Tatsuya, however. Because he was already a working Magic Engineer, his only interest in attending school was to be near Miyuki and to have access to otherwise restricted magic research. Lacking instructors allowed him to finish his coursework very quickly and make progress toward his chief goal.
After pulling up cutting edge research relating to Flying-Type Magic, Tatsuya had become engrossed in a report on the results of a recent English experiment on the subject.
"`Actualizing Generalized Flying-Type Magic via Post-Event Zone Interference`. Hmm…" The experiment was a bust and it was clear early in the report that the researchers made a conceptual error in their understanding of Counter Magic and phenomenon rewriting.
The roadblock to realizing Flying-Type Magic for general use was that to change directions in mid-air, the magician has to deploy a new Magic Sequence with greater Interference Strength than the previous sequence. This led to an obvious bottleneck where the required Interference Strength to maintain the magic quickly exceeded what the magician was capable of. This caused the magician to fall out of the sky after ten phenomenon rewrites.
The researchers were attempting to circumvent this problem by using Counter Magic to destroy the previous Magic Sequences and thus prevent the Interference bottleneck. Their error was that Magic Sequences can only be used on Information Bodies, not on other Magic Sequences. If another magic has the same target, both spells will be present in the Information Body but only the magic with the higher Interference Strength will actually rewrite phenomena in the physical world.
This holds even for Zone Interference magic, so either way ever increasing Interference Strength was required unless one could destroy the Magic Sequence itself. In essence, Counter Magic would only be a solution for Generalized Flying-Type Magic if one could reliably cast Non-Systematic Counter Magic such as Gram Demolition repeatedly. But this had the same problem of requiring the magician to destroy increasingly stronger Magic Sequences, which would be a problem even for Tatsuya to maintain. Not to mention it demanded a spell that already had precious few practitioners. It could hardly be considered a generalization of Flying-Type Magic.
Before he could investigate other research ventures, the bell signaling the end of class rang. Sighing, he set off for lunch with his classmates and friends.
"I hope Miyuki is having a more fruitful time in her class…"
Although the coursework was fairly easy for her, Miyuki had enjoyed her classes at First High so far. She even found herself befriending a couple of her classmates, Shizuku and Honoka. However, the arrogance of most of her fellow Course 1 students was aggravating. Their placement left them with a ridiculous superiority complex, despite most of them lacking any experience using their abilities in real-world situations like her brother.
Spotting her brother in the lunchroom, Miyuki called out "Onii-san!"
"It's good to see you Miyuki" he responded with a smile.
"Miyuki, you can sit next to me!" Erika said excitedly.
Leo seemed a bit stunned to see her at their table. "And who is this?" he asked confusedly.
"My name is Miyuki Shiba."
"Tatsuya, you never mentioned you had a sister. Man, I thought we were friends…"
"Leo, we barely had time to speak in class so we're not especially strong friends yet, right?"
"Get your jaw of the ground, Leo. She's out of your league." Erika pulled no punches. Leo glared at her.
Before her fellow freshman could continue their banter, a voice called out "Shiba-san, there's no need to sit with them."
"Yea, don't lower yourself by hanging around a bunch of Weeds."
"Blooms should stick together."
"Come eat lunch with us Shiba-san."
And there it was. They knew nothing about her brother and his classmates, yet because of the results of a few exams thought themselves so far above them that they used banned terms like "Blooms" and "Weeds". The first speaker, Morisaki Shun, seemed particularly consumed by this nonsense.
"I'll sit with whoever I please. If you're all so superior, you'll be just fine without me." Her icy tone and annoyed expression left no doubt they wouldn't convince her.
Her brother stood up and said "I'm already finished eating Miyuki. I'll see you after school." As he left, their new friends bid her farewell and left with him.
Miyuki was even more annoyed that those twerps ruined her time with Tatsuya, leaving her with a somewhat rigid expression the rest of the day.
As Tatsuya was leaving First High with Miyuki and his friends in tow, they were accosted by the Course 1 students from before.
"Shiba-san, can we have a word with you? Alone?" Morisaki just didn't know when to quit.
Mizuki seemed to have had enough of him as well, responding "Why do you think you can just split Tatsuya and Miyuki apart? They're brother and sister!"
"Mizuki, w-what are you insinuating about Onii-san and I?!" The Course 2 students all stared at her, causing her to blush harder than she already was.
"We just want to talk to her!"
"You Weeds need to learn your place. You're just reserves, second-rate magicians!"
Leo and Erika looked pissed and were likely to escalate the situation, and Tatsuya-noticed one of the Course 1 girls was readying magic to stop everyone from fighting. Although Tatsuya detected the presence of someone familiar coming to calm the situation, he chose to handle it himself.
"Morisaki Shun." As he stepped forward, his is authoritative voice commanded everyone's attention, including that of the two onlookers.
"What do you want?" Morisaki sneered.
"Did you not understand Miyuki's words at lunch? Or are you suggesting my sister is incapable of deciding with whom she spends her time?" Tatsuya's tone was laced with anger at the idea that someone would treat Miyuki as a fool.
"N-no. But there's no need for her to lower her standing by associating with you and your ilk. She doesn't understand, it will only hurt her down the line."
"As you are questioning Miyuki's mental faculties, I have no choice but to show you how little you understand. I challenge you to a simulated battle, tomorrow after school ends." Tatsuya's gaze never left Morisaki's eyes, making the latter uncomfortable.
"Fine, I accept your challenge, Weed. Once Shiba-san sees how wide the gap between us is, she'll understand why this needed to be done."
As Morisaki took off with a huff, most of his fellow Course 1 students left with him. However, 2 stayed behind which elicited a sigh of relief from Miyuki.
"T-Tatsuya-senpai, I apologize for the behavior of my classmates." The brown-haired girl seemed nervous for some reason. If Tatsuya wasn't so emotionally inept, he might have realized the reason behind her nervousness.
"It's no big deal, you aren't responsible for their childish behavior. Also, there's no need for 'senpai'. We're both freshman after all."
The other - a gray-haired girl wearing a similar expression as Tatsuya - spoke up this time. "We should have spoken up. Those guys have their heads up their asses. I'm Shizuku Kitayama". She gave a slight bow as introduced herself.
The other girl seemed embarrassed that she hadn't introduced herself yet. "My name is Honoka Mitsui."
"Pleased to meet the both of you. My name is Tatsuya Shiba." He was surprised to see a child of the Kitayama family. Ushio Kitayama was a well known financial giant, while his wife Benio was a famous magician in her own right.
"Tatsuya, why did step in like that?" Shizuku asked.
After pausing for a moment, he responded "The situation was escalating rather quickly over something so ridiculous." He then eyed Honoka and continued "Not to mention I didn't want anyone to get in serious trouble for illegally using magic. You may have only been using a Flash spell, but you would still have run afoul of the law."
Honoka hung her head in shame and nodded.
"And as I said, I find it irksome that they would suggest Miyuki is incapable of picking who to associate with. This duel gives me the opportunity to set them straight."
Before Tatsuya and the others left, Honoka spoke up. "Tatsuya-kun… could I walk with you and your friends?"
Everyone else could see Honoka was interested in Tatsuya. But Tatsuya, well, he didn't. So he was confused as to why Miyuki seemed to be a little annoyed at Honoka when he nodded his head in response to the girl's question.
A girl of average height with dark, neck-length hair had been observing the interactions from afar with Mayumi.
"Well this year's crop seems to have some interesting types. These Course 2 students seem like they can stand up to those enamored with their own 'superiority'. I wonder how tall, dark and handsome knew what spell that girl was going to use?"
"Indeed. I'm glad Tatsuya-kun was able to defuse the situation before things went south." Mayumi sighed in relief. "Not sure about the spell though, he must have been guessing."
"Oh, you're on a first name basis with him already Mayumi? My my, he must be an interesting one. Though the height difference might make things a bit awkward if you start dating him." She smirked, as it wasn't often Mayumi got a taste of her own medicine.
"Mari, what are you trying to say?!" Mayumi's face went red at the teasing.
"Nothing much really. You just couldn't keep your eyes off him, could you?"
"I was just looking in that general direction. Maybe I should inform Naotsugu that you seem to be interested in younger men after all." Mayumi knew she was hitting below the belt, but then again she wasn't always the most mature senior at school.
"Pfft, Shu knows how you are", she responded dismissively. "Still, we should watch the match they're having tomorrow. It could be interesting… for more than one reason." She winked at Mayumi.
"Hmph. Fine. But I'm only going because you suggested it." Mayumi stomped off in annoyance.
"Yep, things will definitely be interesting this year." Smiling, Mari took off after her friend.
(The next school day, lunchtime)
As Tatsuya and Miyuki were invited to have lunch with the Student Council, they were nearing the Student Council office. Tatsuya wondered what they wanted.
He was sure they intended to ask Miyuki to join them because of her stellar performance on the entrance exams, but that didn't explain the request for his presence. Knocking and announcing their arrival, he opened the door.
"Tatsuya-kun, Miyuki-chan, I'm glad you both made it."
"Of course Mayumi-senpai."
"President." He inclined his head.
"T-Tatsuyaaaaaa..." Mayumi was pouting at his referring to her by her title.
Tatsuya's lack of reaction caused the girl sitting to Mayumi's left to giggle. After introducing the Shiba siblings to the members of the Student council and Mari - the head of the Public Morals Committee - Mayumi took the opportunity to bring up the reason for Miyuki's invitation.
"Miyuki-chan, would you be interested in joining the Student Council? It's traditional for the student with the highest entrance scores to join as the Freshman Representative."
Miyuki glanced at Tatsuya questioningly. He smiled and shook his head encouragingly… which she took as permission to get her way.
"I'll accept if you would consider my brother as well!"
"Oi, Miyuki come on-"
"Onii-san took the top spot in the written exams, he's much more deserving of this than I." Miyuki ignored Tatsuya's interruption, to his annoyance.
Suzune spoke up, saying "That can't be done I'm afraid. The restriction of Student Council positions to Course 1 students isn't just a student dogma. It's a regulation and can only be changed through vote by the Student body. The President would have to introduce such a motion herself at the end of the semester." Tatsuya was glad for Suzune's blunt and thorough response. He had no aspirations to join them in the first place, it would only detract from his research time.
Deflated, Miyuki responded "Forgive me for my outburst, Mayumi-senpai. I'd be honored to accept your invitation to join the council."
"It's no trouble Miyuki. Rin-chan is just a bit… blunt at times."
Looking at Mayumi, Tatsuya stated "You know it's odd that you refer to Ichihara-senpai as 'Rin-chan', right? It's not a very good nickname."
Suzune almost looked grateful that someone else was finally fighting for her right to use her actual name. Mari began to chuckle at Tatsuya's own bluntness.
"Eh? W-w-who asked you, Ta-kun."
Tatsuya just stared at her blankly. "No."
"Sorry Ta-kun, I'm not talking to right now." She turned her head away childishly.
Tatsuya sighed in defeat. Though he expected Miyuki to be annoyed on his behalf, she seemed to be suppressing giggles herself, along with Azusa. He didn't know what he did to deserve this.
As the lunch period was nearing its end, Mari decided to ask a question she'd been wanting answered.
"Tatsuya-san, why did you challenge Morisaki Shun to a simulated battle?"
Briefly glancing at Mayumi before answering, Tatsuya observed "So you two were watching yesterday. Well, I believe I explained myself then. I won't allow such insinuations about Miyuki go unchallenged."
Rejoining the conversation, Mayumi asked in a worried tone "Is that really all, Tatsuya-kun?"
Raising an eyebrow, he responded "This isn't about getting payback on Course 1 students, I've no interest in something so pointless."
"Do you think you can win?"
"I'm confident in my abilities", he said without hesitation.
Mari smiled, "Well I think we should all attend and see if you can back up that confidence."
"If you wish."
Clapping her hands together, Mayumi concluded the get-together. "Well thank you for your time Miyuki-chan and Ta-kun. We'll be sure to stop by and watch the simulated battle this afternoon. See you then~"
Sighing at the silly nickname Mayumi had given him, Tatsuya stood with Miyuki and bade his seniors goodbye.
(An hour after school ended, a First High Battle Simulation room)
Mayumi was a little nervous about the upcoming match. Though Tatsuya showed no hesitation as he walked into the battle simulation room, she couldn't ignore his very poor score on the practical entrance exams.
Hattori had thought attending was a waste of time, yet had come so as to follow Mayumi. Mayumi has no interest in him, poor guy.
"This will be over in a flash President, you'll see. This guy is a fool if he thinks he can overcome Morisaki-san in combat."
Looking at Morisaki Shun, she couldn't ignore that he scored far higher than Tatsuya had on the practical, earning the 3rd best Technical Skills score of his class. However, his instigation of the earlier altercation with several Course 2 students convinced her that the Student Council should oppose the faculty recommendation that he join the Public Morals Committee. He would be counterproductive in changing the adversarial relationship between the Course 1 and 2 students.
As Morisaki and Tatsuya lined up opposite each other on the fight area, Mari stood up to announce the rules of engagement.
"Spells which cause injuries beyond sprains are disallowed. The same goes with physical blows. I will decide if the match has ended and use force to stop it if need be."
Both participants nodded in understanding. Mayumi noted Morisaki's dismissive gaze lingering on Tatsuya, annoying her. To his credit, Tatsuya retained his usual stoic expression.
Mayumi knew that the Morisaki family (one of the Hundred Families) could use high-level skills such as "Drawless" to cast a prepared magic without actually drawing and aiming their pistol-type CADs. This gave him a clear advantage over Tatsuya in terms of casting speed, in addition to Tatsuya's already low practical ability.
Glancing at Miyuki briefly, she saw Miyuki didn't appear anxious for her brother at all. If anything, she seemed to think the battle had a foregone conclusion as well.
"I wonder what sort of abilities Tatsuya-kun has?" she thought.
Mari announced "On my mark… Begin!"
Morisaki began to apply his "Drawless" skill. In an instant Tatsuya disappeared at high speed and Morisaki collapsed to the ground, shocking everyone save for Miyuki.
"T-the winner is Tatsuya Shiba." Mari said.
"There's no way a Weed could defeat Morisaki-san! He must have deployed a Self-Acceleration spell prior to the match." Hattori was pissed.
Mari responded brusquely, "You have some nerve using that word in front of me, Hattori Gyoubushoujo Hanzou."
Miyuki glared at him "That's ridiculous Hattori-senai. Did you see Onii-san cast such a spell? Was his body moving beyond normal speeds beforehand?"
"B-but he must have cheated somehow. You saw his speed, there's no way a We- Course 2 student could win so quickly otherwise!"
Mayumi was intrigued herself. "Ta-kun, how did you manage that? And why was Morisaki-san knocked out?"
"The speed was purely physical, an application of ninjutsu training. I am a student of Yakumo Kokonoe after all."
Everyone was surprised at his statement, especially Mari. Yakumo Kokonoe is considered an authority on Ancient Magic the world over and is one of the strongest combat magicians around.
Rin brought up the second matter. "But how did Morisaki end up like this? Was that also a ninjutsu technique?"
Mayumi piped up "It only looked like he emitted Psion waves to me."
"You're right Mayumi, I only release Psion waves. Morisaki was wasted."
"Ah, compound waves via Loop Casting right? The interaction with unexpected Psion waves caused a response akin to violent sea sickness." At his confirmation, she continued, "Still, Loop Casting is designed to allow continuous invocations of the same spell, that shouldn't have rendered him unconscious..."
Rin's eyes widened in realization. "Unless you defined the number of vibrations, their strength and duration as variables for the Loop Cast system and set all the waves to hit converge at Morisaki's location… If you're calculation speed is so high how can your practical score have been so low?"
Giving a wry smile that Mayumi was beginning to find funny, he responded "Multi-variable calculations are not scored on the practical exams. Magic Power is internationally determined by Interference Strength, invocation speed and the scale of the Magic Sequence. By those standards I am quite weak. However, that doesn't entail that I would be helpless against the Basic Single System Movement-Type Magic Morisaki was about to use."
Mari and Mayumi's eyes both widened slightly. Mayumi began to suspect that Tatsuya wasn't just guessing when he stated that the brown-haired girl was casting a Flash spell the day prior.
"It's looks like A-chan was right. You are phenomenal in your own way." Mayumi was happily surprised by the turn of events. She felt a scary aura coming from Miyuki for a moment before everyone's attention was drawn by the sound of Morisaki standing shakily.
Before anyone could help him, he stormed out of the room while muttering "I lost… and to a damn Weed… how did he know what spell I was casting?"
Miyuki looked at Hattori pointedly. "Don't think I've forgotten the disrespect you payed Onii-san. You'd best apologize now or face him in a simulated battle yourself."
"H-hai Shiba-san." He turned toward Tatsuya, inclined his head ever so slightly and muttered an apology. Tatsuya inclined his head in return after which Hattori slipped out the room in embarrassment.
"U-um, Shiba-san? That CAD is a Silver Horn, right?" He nodded in response.
Mayumi turned to Azusa.
"Silver Horn? You mean the customized CADs produced by the renowned magic engineer, Taurus Silver?" Mayumi was surprised Tatsuya had such a device, much less the second one in his briefcase.
"That's the one! A cutting edge product produced by Mr. Silver of Four-Leaves Technology!" Azusa was in awe of the device. It was unsurprising since she is an aspiring Magic Engineer herself.
"How did you get them Shiba-san? And are those customized Silver Horns? They don't look like the standard models. Did you get to meet Taurus Silver himself?!" Azusa had a starstruck expression; she could keep up this routine all day, especially if Tatsuya actually saw Silver. Even Tatsuya would be no match for her Fangirling Technique.
"A-chan, let's not scare away Ta-kun. He's rather shy after all." Tatsuya stared at Mayumi with a face that said "Really?", to which she just winked, causing a small bead of sweat to appear on his face.
"Alright, we've spent enough time dilly-dallying here. We should leave for the day", Mari announced. After the Shiba siblings left, Mari walked with Mayumi and Azusa out of the battle simulation room.
"This was a pleasant surprise. At least now we know who will and won't make good additions to the Public Morals Committee." Mari said with a wide grin.
"You noticed too, huh?"
Nodding her head, she continued "Unless I'm mistaken, I'm confident Tatsuya can read the Activation Sequence of a spell in an instant. It seems impossible, but Morisaki himself confirmed the accuracy of Tatsuya's statement."
Mayumi raised her hand to her mouth and said teasingly, "You plan on using Ta-kun as intimidation don't you? Troublemakers are sure to be more cautious when they realize he can accurately report the spells they use."
"Hey, it'll make my job easier. And since Course 2 students aren't restricted from joining the Public Morals Committee, maybe he can help ease tensions there as well", she said with a shrug.
Mayumi turned to Azusa. "You seemed pretty surprised Ta-kun had those Silver Horns, A-chan."
"Well yeah, they're supposed to be custom built by Taurus Silver personally. And add in the hefty fee, the special procedure one has to undergo at FLT and the long waiting list… anyone would be shocked to see those CADs. I really wonder if Shiba-san got to meet the man himself?" Azusa almost looked like she would hunt down Tatsuya to learn the truth if they didn't change the subject.
"Now that we know Morisaki is a bust for the PMC, I have an alternate candidate in mind." Mari was thinking the same thing as Mayumi.
"Oh, who is it?"
"Shizuku Kitayama" she said with a sly smile.
(A/N): Phew. Glad I finally got this out. I didn't plan on a week between the first 2 chapters, but life just gets in the way sometimes, ya know? And speaking of life, I didn't have time to get this checked over for feedback and suggestions by my previous help. I'm expecting to be really busy this weekend (9/23-9/24) and I really just wanted to get this out. So I apologize for any and spelling, grammar and consistency errors.
Still, it ended up exactly where in the story I intended and at about the length I wanted (around 4500 words I believe). In canon Mahouka (SPOILERS for anime-only viewers), Shizuku joins the Public Morals Committee in their 2nd year after Tatsuya takes a position in the Student Council. I felt she would have been a better fit than Shun Morisaki. Morisaki (like his many in his family) has been a bodyguard, but he lacked the proper temperament to join the PMC at the beginning of the story imo. Knowing how to diffuse a situation is also a needed skill. Shizuku is just a better character and stronger magician than crusty-ass Morisaki, LMAO.
I hope you enjoyed this. Thanks to Neb (aka YbKWzNEB) of the Mahouka Wiki Discord for the idea of Mayumi's nickname for Tatsuya. Review it and tell if you think I need to improve in some areas. I'm sure there are plenty of such areas. There was a fair bit of exposition and technical stuff about magic this chapter. I don't know how much other people like that in their Mahouka fanfics. 😅
And if you enjoyed it, you can tell me that too. It does make it easier to write if I know some people are enjoying it. And I thank those who gave me positive and constructive feedback on Chapter 1. Have a good day/night!