12 Chapter 11

Well... This took some time. Exam Season came up and I had to study and after that it was Christmas. I basically had an unfinished draft for around a month. But I finally got round to writing... so expect slower release rates for a while, because I still have to study for some more exams. FML

After the cavalry battle had ended Midoriya along with Todoroki had gone off somewhere. Misaka had seen them leave together and had decided not to follow them, even if it looked to be important. It would be improper, and it was not like she needed to know everything that her classmates were doing.

With the lunch break over, the participants were returning.

"I know you're all excited for the final event and I have good news for you! As is customary for sports festivals, we have prepared recreational activities for all participants! We even have cheerleaders from America!"

The shouting of Present Mic. reminded the girls of 1-A of a lie they almost fell for. Indeed, before the break was over, they were approached by Mineta.

"Girl's, you have to be part of the cheerleading squad~"

"Huh?!... Nobody told us."

"Well, it's Mr. Aizawa's orders."

Misaka and Yaoyorozu, who were hanging out together, were the first ones he informed. Still, knowing the short boys perverted nature, Misaka doubted the validity of his words. With that in mind she started grilling him, questioning where he asked, how he found Aizawa and many more. When she saw him draw blanks, she pushed harder?

Eventually, and with all the girls of 1-A, Mineta had to admit to his lies. That was how one of the biggest possible humiliations of the year, for Misaka at least, did not happen.

With the activities coming to an end and the students returning to the arena, Present Mic. resumed his job as a pundit.

"The final battle! A series of exciting 1 on 1 battles between the students of the 4 teams that passed!"

"Whoa. It's like last years'."

Midnight had walked to the middle of the stage carrying a box that had "LOTS" written in it. "The matchups will be decided by lots. Only after that will the festivities begin. It's up to you whether you participate in the fun. Good? Okay, now let's start with the first-place team."

A hand slowly shot up. "Um... Excuse me... I'd like to drop out." The voice belonged to the tailed member of 1-A Mashirao Ojiro.

"Wha... Ojiro, why?!"

A flustered Ojiro responded. "Well, I have no memory of the cavalry battle. It's probably because of his quirk and while I know that this is a great opportunity to get noticed, I don't think it's fair for the others."

"Don't think about it so hard! Show what you are made of in the matches!"

"This is about my pride girls. It's just not right."

His other teammate raised his hand as well.

"I too can't remember anything. I want to withdraw as well."

"These guys are so manly!"

"What a strange turn of events! I wonder what the referee will decide here."

The R-Rated Hero Midnight, picked up her whip and she said her opinion swung it, creating a loud crack sound.

"How naive... I like it! They have officially withdrawn! They will be replaced by the fifth team..."

The leader of the fifth team refused the honors saying instead "I think it should be them. We didn't even do anything. They were giving it their all until the end. Team Tetsutetsu I mean."

"Y... You guys, thank you so much!"

"So be it. With that we are back to 16 competitors. Now come up and draw the lots."

After a small process the lots were drawn, and the matchups decided. Misaka would be fighting against Yaoyorozu. It would be a hard matchup, but she was ready to face her.

"Great! For now, it's time to enjoy the festivities. We will see you in a little bit, viewers from home!"

Misaka had to prepare for the fight, to find a way to defeat the girl with the Creation quirk. After quick thinking of about five minutes, she had decided on a tactic. That tactic would be to simply rush her. She was sure that she was much faster than the girl and she could make her surrender or knock her out with one move.

With that out of the way she decided to go relax for the remaining time.

"And the arena is done! Thanks, Cementoss! Are you guys ready?!" With the arena's construction over and the recreational activities having stopped, Present Mic. started the commentary. "It's time for the event you were all waiting for! The one-on-one tournament! The proving ground for any young Hero in training! The time for you to showcase your best skills!"

The crowds cheering could be heard all over, lighting a competitive fire in the participants soul.

"It's time for the first match! The excellent Izuku Midoriya of 1-A who came first in the cavalry battle goes against... the still unproven Hitoshi Shinso from the General Studies!

The rules are simple. Knocking your opponent out of the ring, immobilizing them or making them surrender! Fight dirty if you must and, remember, good old Recovery Girl is in the sidelines waiting to heal you! Of course, going for the kill is forbidden, after all a Hero never kills.

Let's get started! Readyyyyyyyy! Start!"

Right off the bat, Midoriya dashed, clearly upset about something that was said in the arena, before suddenly coming to a halt.

"What's this! Midoriya's frozen in place, not even twitching! Could this be Shinso's quirk?! What a powerful quirk!"

"That's why the entrance exam is irrational. Look at their stats. With the format of the practical exam, his quirk was useless in it."

"Thank you for the analysis, Eraserhead! Back to the match, and oooh what's this?! Midoriya is walking out of the ring!"

Mere footsteps now away from the out of bounds line and with Shinso having a gloating look on his face, a gust of wind, along with a bone crack, signaled that Midoryia had gotten back control of his body.

"What! How? You shouldn't have control of your body. What did you do?"

Shinso received no answer other than a shove. However, he didn't let that faze him. Engaging in close combat he tripped Midoriya, but just as he was about to throw him to the ground, he found himself on the receiving end of a throw.

With a resounding slam he fell down and heard a whistle.

"Shinso is out of bounds! Midoriya moves on to the second Round!"

Midnight's shout signaled the ending of the match.

"What an eventful start! Let me hear a cheer for your competitors!"

Thunderous applause resounded through the stadium with Present Mic's urging and as the defeated and crest fallen Shinso walked out of stage he heard shouting coming from the stands.

"You did amazing Shinso!"

"Yeah, you made us proud!"

It was the General Studies kids who were supporting Shinso with all their might. And even if he was knocked out in the first round, they didn't let that stop them from cheering him on, making the other spectators cheer for him as well, some criticizing U.A for such a strong student being in the General Studies course.

After a short break it was time for the second round.

"The wait is over! It's time for the second round. Your contestants for this round are… Shoto Todoroki of the Hero Course and… Hanta Sero of the Hero Course as well!

Ready?! Start!"

Immediately Sero threw tape from his strips binding Todoroki and trying to push him off the arena. However, it would all be for naught. Reaching dangerously close to being pushed out of bounds, Todoroki counterattacked. Immediately a humongous ray of ice shot out of his hands, trapping Hanta and reaching the stands, a hair length away from the crowd.

"Sero… can you move?" Even Midnight wasn't safe from the attack, being half covered in ice.

"What do you think?"

"Sero is immobilized!"

The crowd couldn't help but feel pity for Sero, who faced such an overwhelming defeat, as slow clapping and shouts of "Good try!" sounded in the arena.

"Shoto moves on to the second Round!" and with that shout from Midnight the round was over.

In the stands' heated discussion was going on about Shoto's strength that even when the third match was going on, little attention was paid to it, only from Present Mic, who was commentating, and some students, Misaka included.

Misaka was surprised, to say the least, at the display of power, but was still sure that she would be able to take him down with minimal effort. She was now paying attention in the fight of Kaminari, hoping to see the kid with the electrical powers win, if only for his quirk which reminded her of her power.

"It's already over! Shiozaki advances to the next round."

Disappointingly though, the match ended in mere seconds as Shiozaki with her Vine quirk tying a short-circuited Kaminari.

The crowd had started paying attention again as the next contestants walked out to the arena. They were Ida, who curiously enough was wearing Support Gear, and Mei Hatsume, her former teammate for the cavalry race from the Support Department.

"START!" With some bargaining from Hatsume, Ida was allowed to use support gear and the match started.

"What speed!" A loud voice cut through Present Mic's commentating. That voice belonged to Hatsume. A microphone was attached to her headset, her speech being heard in all the stadium.

And even as she was dodging Ida's attacks, her advertising ploy continued, shocking on viewers, commentators and even Ida himself who was lamenting the fact that he was being used for advertising purposes. Finally, after a 10-minute-long fight, Mei coolly walked out of the arena, leaving a panting and shouting Ida to take the win.

Somewhere in the middle of the match, a weird feeling had come over Misaka. She ignored it, but as the match ended, the feeling was stronger than ever.

"Misaka-san are you okay? You're trembling…" A concerned Uraraka pointed out something that she hadn't even noticed.

'What? I didn't even notice it.' "Ah, thank you Uraraka-san. It must be nerves." She was sure Uraraka would spot the lie, but as she tried remembering whether she had felt something similar ever before, she drew blanks.

"Want to come with me to the prep room to relax a little bit? I was on my way there."

"Thank you, but you have to prepare. I'll just take a walk."

"Whatever you say Misaka-san, I'm sure you can take care of yourself."

With that they parted ways and Misaka left the grounds, to relax a little. Unfortunately, she only had about an hour to calm down before her match with Yaoyorozu.

She decided to walk out of the arena, from all the noise and commotion. However, as she went outside the feeling intensified, her fingers trembling uncontrollably and a weird pressure in her chest rising as well.

The pressure in her chest revealed the reason for what was happening. It was weird for her to tremble. It wasn't cold and it wasn't from fear of something or someone. She faintly remembered that the familiar symptoms had only shown up one or two times before, prior to her coming to this world, only when she had faced Sprengel after that fateful day.

A gut instinct warned her about something fishy happening and if there was Magic here, she had to investigate. After all, it might be her only chance to establish contact with Magicians and her chance to see whether the strength of Magicians matched the one's she was familiar with.

She wandered around the area trying to find the magicians and she spotted a place that was strangely devoid of people in a small range. She was sure that if her trembling wasn't stronger than before, she would skip the place, it's very nature driving away other people.

She walked towards the place and within a few meters of walking she heard two distinct voices. As she tried to go closer to hear the conversation however, she kicked a metal can alerting the persons to her location.

"Wait! Did you hear that?" The first voice, female if she heard correctly, asked the other whether she had been heard.

"Hear… what exactly? You must be hearing things. No one can enter this field." Another voice responded, a male one at that.

"How can you be so sure about that? I'm going to check it out."

"Ah, well whatever, do what you want."

Misaka quickly hid herself, observing the movements of the girl through her radar sense, waiting for an ambush.

The girl came closer, revealing her characteristics. She looked to be around Misaka's age with turquoise blue bangs covering one of her eyes and wearing a smart casual outfit.

Misaka waited for the perfect moment to strike. The girl, not having found anything turned back. Misaka sensed the opportunity, detached herself from the steel pole she was hiding, and before the girl could react, put her into a chokehold.

"Ughhh…What?! Let me go!" The girl was panicking and thrashing around, clearly startled by Misaka's attack. Unfortunately for the girl, Misaka's enhanced strength was more than enough to bring her to her knees and quell any thought of resistance.

Misaka realized the advantage she held in this situation. With a simple move, the girl would have said her last goodbyes to the world. For that reason, she felt confident in escaping a battle unscathed. After all, her ally was unlikely to target her when she had a hostage.

"Hey, you. Come here or I'll kill her!"

It was a simple way to force the other one to come to her, but it proved to be effective. Almost immediately after her shout the boy had arrived. He was tall, with characteristics very similar to the girl, to the point one would call them brother and sister. If she'd call the first one an Imouto then this one would surely be an Ikemen straight out of Shoujo Manga.

"Let the girl down!"

The boy's shout was expected. But Misaka would not give in so easily.

"Why? You can't hurt me if you care about the girl. All I want is to ask some questions."

She knew she was walking a fine line. The boy was a Magician and if he was strong, she didn't know if she could handle him without the A.A.A that was away from her now. It was a calculated risk. Either a) the boy attacked and put the girl in danger or b) the boy let Misaka interrogate him.

"Ughhhh… fine. I guess you're right. What do you want?" With that the first problem was resolved.

Misaka silently exhaled a sigh of relief, the surrender calming her down. She remembered the questionnaire for Magicians she had prepared, but also remembered the time. She only had about 20 minutes. Finding the Magicians had taken her quite a while and she had to go back as well.

"Alright. First question: Are you two Magicians?" It was a question she had already answered herself but getting confirmation was important.

"Wha…! No, that's just nonsense." The widening of both pairs of eyes and the grunts of surprise all but confirmed it, but she wanted to establish superiority.

"I can tell if you're lying, so you shouldn't lie."

After a long period of silence, as if the boy was measuring his words he began to speak. "Darn… Yes, okay we are Magicians. At least the girl is. I am just a normal quirk user, who just so happens to work with her. How the hell do you even know about Magic?" The puzzled boy gave an answer clearly careful of not lying but revealing as little information as possible. For Misaka though this was more than enough. It revealed the possible organizations and confirmed the nature of the powers of the pair.

"You don't ask, you answer. Got it?" The boy gulped intimated by her shout and glare.

"Who do you work for?" This was the next question one solely aimed at helping her finding a target.

"I… I can't tell you that!" Ikemen-kun, as she called him in her brain was scared, but didn't reveal the information she wanted.

"Are you sure about that?" As she said that she tightened her chokehold on the girl, who was now struggling to breathe. The girl looked ready to pass out and the boy took notice of that.

"Stop! Relax the chokehold… I'll tell you what you want."

"That's what I want to hear." She relaxed the chokehold and Imouto-chan, the name she had given to the girl, took many rushed, deep breaths.

"We work for a government agency. The Peacekeeping Bureau for Magic and Quirks, PBMQ for short. Satisfied with that?"

Now it was Misaka's turn to be surprised. She had scoured the servers of the government and the Commission for any mention of magic but had found nothing. She thought that perhaps they were uninvolved, but this turned that theory on its head. For it to have evaded her scans it must have been very well guarded. The only way she could see that happening though was Magic.

"Weird… I haven't heard of you."

"Yeah, after all we are supposed to be a hidden agency. Of course, you'd find nothing about us."

She put that matter aside for now and asked her third and final question. The time of the fight was inching ever so closer. "Then… What is Magic?" It was a simple question, but it was the most important one. Learning the ins and outs of Magic would doubtlessly be useful.

"I don't know very well… The girl knows better than me so ask her about that."

"Huh… How come? Aren't you working in a Magic organization? I thought you'd know about this."

"I don't. I'm a quirk user who just recently joined the agency, and even then, only the Magicians, like the girl, can tell you the details about it."

"You… joined the agency recently? How did you do that?" Sure, she could let the girl free and ask her about Magic, but she didn't know if she'd attack and so far, the boy had been docile which meant that his quirk was either too destructive or not for offense. She didn't want to risk losing a valuable source of information. She had ways to track them so it would be easy to find them again.

"They just knocked on my door and invited me for my supposedly useful quirk and I thought Well, better than sitting and wasting away at school. It's been like a week since then… It's been a very exciting week that's for sure."

"Hm, well that's enough… for now." With that she lightly shocked both, just enough to knock them out. They'd probably wake up in an hour or two, long enough for her to have hopefully left the arena. She faintly heard Present Mic scream about the ending of the previous match, the one between Yuga and Mina. It appeared as if the matches ended earlier than she expected.

She organized what she learnt from the interrogation and mentally noted it down. She wondered if the boy was like Touma. Suddenly wrapped up in the world of magic because he houses an incredible power. She scoffed at the idea. If Ikemen-kun was like Touma he'd have fought her. But the second part of her thought, intrigued her. What could such a power be in this quirk filled world? It wasn't something like Imagine Breaker that was for sure.

She cleared her head of such thoughts and walked to the arena. It was her time to fight.

"Now then! The moment you've all been waiting for! The previously #1 ranked student Misaka Mikoto vs Momo Yaoyorozu, who is now in contention for the #1 spot. Who will win?"

(The Black Lightning from earlier chapters has been retconned. It was a bad idea I didn't like.)