(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.

Even if you don't have an account, reviews would be and are much appreciated! They keep me motivated to write and to do so better~

Chapter 6: 9SC(2)

(August 2nd, evening)

Honami sighed in boredom as she looked at the clock, which displayed the current time as 6:30 pm. As she glanced around the empty living room, she couldn't find anything to occupy her time.

Although Tatsuya and Miyuki had only been gone just over a day, Honami had already exhausted everything she could do from her daily routine. The dishes had been washed after her light dinner, the clothing freshly laundered, the floors vacuumed and the rooms made spotless.

She had even done some moderately intensive physical and magical training in the empty basement of their home. Despite having gone through 108* kata moves several times, it just wasn't quite as satisfying as a sparring with a physical opponent. She had considered going to Kyuuchouji Temple to train with Yakumo as she had done with Tatsuya on occasion. However, monks or not, she didn't find the idea of being around a bunch of sweaty, reclusive, bald guys very appealing when she was alone. Especially that unscrupulous head monk…

Afterwards, Honami worked on improving her already high Magic Power. Specifically, she had been working to ensure the processing speed of her barrier magics were as fast as she could make them. She had to ensure that when push came to shove she would be fast enough to defend Tatsuya and Miyuki from surprise high speed attacks, whether they were magical in nature or from high-caliber firearms.

Although Honami had a few barrier magics implanted into her mind to allow her to Flash Cast them in an instant, they were hampered by being limited to defending a very small zone with only a moderately powerful barrier.

Depending on the nature and scale of the attack, she may be required to erect a sturdier barrier at a moment's notice. With that possibility in mind, she had been working to improve her processing speed with her most powerful barrier magic: "Aegis"**, a spell developed by the Yotsuba family for use by the Sakura series. To date, only Honami had been able to make the spell of practical use. However that was partly due to Tatsuya making adjustments to the Activation Sequence to decrease Psion consumption and developing a dedicated CAD for her magic. Such improvements greatly reduced the enormous strain the magic placed on the user when invoked on powerful or numerous targets.

It was on days like this - rare as they were - that Honami missed her career as an SP in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Although she had gone in knowing the job was only to make her more competent at guarding the now deceased Miya Yotsuba, Honami found it to be gratifying. It was a line of work compatible with someone as combat-oriented as Honami and it got her away from the suffocating Yotsuba main house. She had even become well respected and liked in the department, to the extent that her abrupt departure was greatly opposed.

That said, she much preferred being the parent of the Shibas. While police work scratched an itch of hers, childrearing satisfied a deep-seated need Honami felt to raise her own family. It was a bit morbid, but Honami was almost glad Miya was out of the picture. It gave her the opportunity to live this life without the distraction of protecting her. Just being around Miyuki and (especially) Tatsuya was comforting for her in a way she couldn't easily explain.

"I guess this is what having a family is like," she thought to herself while smiling.

Just as she was considering going to bed early out of boredom, the video phone in the living room suddenly began ringing. Recognizing the number, Honami quickly made sure her attire was presentable before answering.

After answering the call, the screen showed a mature, red-eyed beauty possessing long locks of luscious black hair ending in curls. And then there were her… assets; "large" didn't quite do them justice. And then there was her enchantingly attractive face, one sure to drive coherent thoughts out of the mind of many a person. Maya Yotsuba was a sight to behold whether one was a man or a woman.

"Ah Honami-san, good evening. I hope you are well~"

Bowing deeply, Honami answered formally "I am in good health, Mistress. Thank you for your concern. If you wish to speak with Miyuki-sama or Tatsuya-kun, they have left for the Nine Schools Competition."

Maya seemed to find Honami amusing for some reason, though Honami chose not to dwell it. It was difficult to be around Miya's sister without feeling like a rat in her maze. Her renown as "Hyperion" and the only known member of the feared Yotsuba Family left no doubt as to why she saw the world from a god's-eye perch.***

"I'm well aware that Miyuki-chan and Tatsuya-san have already gone to the competition site," she said with a smile.

"No Honami, I called to pass along information. I'm sure Tatsuya relayed to you Major Kazama's warning about criminal syndicate activity in the area of the competition. However, our own intelligence network has picked up more detailed intel."

As Maya said that, an indicator on the screen flashed to alert that a compressed file had been delivered over the secure connection. Maya waited briefly to allow Honami to glance over the contents before resuming. The documents contained, among other things, photos taken of rough-looking individuals - mostly large, muscular men clothed in nondescript outfits and with an apparent fondness for sunglasses - and brief summaries of their identities and recent movements.

"As you can see, characters like these are there for insurance should things not go the way their group desires. Their employers… no that's not the right word… their owners are members of a Hong Kong based magic criminal syndicate known as 'No Head Dragon'. They deal in human and drug trafficking, production and sale of Sorcery Boosters, high-stakes gambling; the works."

Smirking, Maya continued, "And given they're hanging around a popular magic competition it's not hard to imagine what their M.O. is, is it?"

"Am I to travel to the competition site, Mistress? I was under the impression that the military, part of the 101 no less, would be present to deal with any potential incidents."

Although Honami seemed to be arguing against attending, she was quite hopeful she could go cheer on her kids. She knew Maya was well aware of the presence of Kazama's troops, yet she was handing Honami data concerning this group regardless.

"Right on both counts. Kazama has an adequate number of personnel to deal with the armed criminals. However, given Miyuki and Tatsuya are involved, First High is certain to upset this group's projected earnings. Faced with huge losses, 'No Head Dragon' is sure to take more drastic measures to minimize the hit to their finances."

Maya paused to take a sip of her tea, and then smiled almost mischievously. "And while I have no doubts about Tatsuya's capabilities, I'd rather be safe and send you as well rather than risk the well-being of one of the succession candidates. These concoctions of theirs are nasty pieces of work."

Dropping into another bow, Honami responded "I will defend them with my life, Mistress."

Though Honami missed it due to her bow, Maya almost looked gleeful at Honami's slip up.

"Oh, defend 'them' you say? How interesting. Honami, I was under the impression that you were only Miyuki's Guardian, not Tatsuya's~"

Honami's eyes widened for a split second due to her error. Honami was aware Maya could recall her to the main house if she felt Honami was not doing her duty, although there was no guarantee Miyuki would assent to Maya's command in this case. After her relationship with Tatsuya improved, Miyuki wasn't quite as easy to bend to the family's will as she had been before. And as she was one of Miyuki's Guardians, Honami's fate was ultimately Miyuki's to decide, not Maya's.

Honami did her best to keep her features relaxed and responded in a conciliatory tone, "I misspoke, Mistress. I will ensure Miyuki is unharmed."

Maya giggled briefly before answering in a condescending tone, "Oh lighten up Honami. I'm well aware that you wish to go see your 'son'." She almost spat that last word in disgust. "Just don't delude yourself that he returns your feelings. My sister's work was flawless, you'll only waste time pining after a connection that can't exist between the two of you. Miyuki's safety takes priority over that fantasy."

After taking another sip of her tea, she stated, "After you review the files Hayama sent you, head to the competition venue immediately. I've contacted the 101, they will handle your accommodations while on the base."

After inclining her head in agreement, Maya bid her good evening.

Honami exhaled loudly after Maya's image disappeared from the screen.

"She's such a b-… uhg. And what does she know. She barely speaks to Tatsuya, she hardly knows him at all. She hasn't seen how he is when he opens up. I know he loves me as much as I love him…"

At that thought, she smiled as the memories of their times together flashed before her mind's eye. She grinned at how little know-it-all Maya knew about her closeness with Tatsuya. Excitement built up within her when she realized she'd get to go in person to see Miyuki compete and observe Tatsuya's engineering skills take the competition by storm.

Honami transferred the files to her portable terminal and familiarized herself with her targets and their potential abilities as she relaxed on the living room sofa.

"Hm, given their bulky builds they're likely close combat specialists. That's pretty much required since bringing unauthorized weapons onto a military base is a death sentence" she muttered in a serious tone.

As she read further into the detailed report, she was surprised just how much information there was. "Modified humans, eh? High in speed and brute strength, but lacking in the free will department… damn Generators, they're freaky." She almost shivered; given she was a modified human of a sort, it was a natural reaction. She was sure Tatsuya would find them personally disturbing as well, so she hoped she could intercept them in his place should Maya prediction come true. The transferred files indicated that 2 of these Generators had been sent to watch the Nine Schools Competition for their masters.

After having studied the documents for some time and memorizing the identities of her targets, she looked at the time and noticed it was nearly 7:00 pm now.

"Damn, I'd better get packing!"

After she tossed a number of her favorite sets of summer wear outfits into a midsized suitcase, Honami quickly made her way to the Shiba residence's seldom used electric sedan.

"Hehe, I bet those 2 will be surprised to see me," Honami thought with smirk on her face. Honami couldn't decide if she should go with the embarrassing parent routine or just be their quiet support. On second thought, she realized seeing their reactions would be much more entertaining. And it would give her the opportunity to meet the siblings' friends since they hadn't invited any over to the house yet.

Since Miyuki would probably react like a normal teenage girl to such attention, Honami figured it would be more fun to tease the usually subdued Tatsuya in front of his friends.

Putting one of her hands over her mouth in amusement, Honami thought "Hopefully I can also do my performance near Ms. Saegusa to get the best results from Captain Stoic, hehehe~"

At that thought, Honami began the 2 hour drive to the competition site with a grin on her face.

(Several hours later, NSC Grounds, midnight)

Major Kazama had detected bloodlust from several sources out on the grounds as he took a nighttime stroll.

"Intruders? If so, they must be planning something deadly to have risked infiltrating a military base," Kazama thought seriously.

The intruders were quite far from Kazama's position, so he took off in a sprint despite the formal military attire he was dressed in.

As Kazama drew nearer to the source of the emanated bloodlust, he detected 2 further individuals who were intercepting 3 armed individuals. Noticing that one of the defenders was Tatsuya, Kazama judged that the situation was under control and so decided to mask his presence to observe the situation.

By casting "Null Step" - the reverse Oscillation-type Magic favored by his sensei - Kazama dampened the sound of his footfall to undetectable levels by having the magic decrease the momentum of the air molecules carrying the sound. And by extending the target of the magic to the sound of his breathing, he was completely silent to even the most trained ear.

With the help of Tatsuya's "Partial Mist Dispersion", the other male student's "Thunder Spawn" left the armed intruders lying unconscious on the ground due to the electricity expelled from the talismans he used for his Ancient Magic.

"Hm, probably the Yoshida heir if his magic is any indication," Kazama mused. "Still, if Tatsuya hadn't been there I doubt his magic would have activated in time to stop them."

Tatsuya was scolding the Yoshida heir for his foolishness and his disparagement of himself.

"Tatsuya, you just wouldn't understand it."

"Mikihiko, you're concerned with your activation speed, right?"

"H-how did you... Erika!"

Tatsuya shook his head. "Erika did not tell me. I knew because normally you would have been fast enough to have struck these gunman first, but there are redundancies in your technique which slow the activation speed."

Practically yelling, Mikihiko said "This is Yoshida Family magic, refined across generations. We didn't refuse all the refinements of Modern Magic, so how can you claim to know it to be deficient after seeing it once?!"

Shrugging, Tatsuya said, "Hm, you probably won't believe me but I know because I can analyze any Activation Sequence I perceive as well as inspect the Magic Sequence itself. That's how I can see that your technique is intentionally designed to obfuscate the nature of the underlying spell."

Mikihiko's eyes widened at Tatsuya correctly understanding an aspect of the magic he had cast. As the two wrapped up their conversation and the Yoshida heir went to call for security, Kazama stopped hiding his presence and spoke to Tatsuya in an amused tone.

"My my, Special Lieutenant. You do seem to enjoy telling it like it is."

Tatsuya eyed Kazama and said "Ah, Major Kazama. Figures you'd sit back hidden while I do half the work."

Kazama chuckled at the young man's forthrightness. "It seems you're validating my words. It's odd, I thought you'd be indifferent to anything besides your sister, yet you seemed quite intent on getting your friend to deal with his underlying inadequacies. Sympathy because of your own situation, perhaps?"

"Eh, I'd say I've long since moved beyond those kinds of problems, Major. Besides, I can care about other people too."

"Hn, well then I believe not all is as your family head told us. You seem to exceed what she told us you were capable of feeling."

Tatsuya raised an eyebrow at Kazama in confusion. "I don't think anything I said tonight warrants such a fantastical conclusion, sir."

"So he really cannot see it himself, interesting. It seems Miss Sakurai was onto something when she described how he behaved around her. This bears watching," he thought. "Still, we'll know for sure tomorrow when she has fun at his expense.

"Sorry for keeping you, Special Lieutenant. I'll handle this situation with the Commanding Officer of the base. Go and prepare for the competition.

After saluting Kazama, Tatsuya walked off toward the hotel to retire for the night having not seen the smirk Kazama was bearing as he wished he could see the fun unfold the next day.

(Next day, Day 1 of the NSC)

The Nine Schools Competition was well known to be a popular competition. Over the ten days of the competition, more than 100,000 people would show up, though most days only around 10,000 were present. However, the online audience easily exceeded a million viewers.

The current event, Speed Shooting, proved to be especially popular. Many of the front seats had been taken because of interested teenage boys in particular.

"Onii-san, the President is taking to the field," Miyuki said.

Erika spoke up, saying "Well that explains all the testosterone taking all the best seats…"

Tatsuya replied with "I see quite a few women up front as well. Mayumi must have broad appeal."

Erika smirked at Tatsuya knowingly; Tatsuya ignored the look.

"Some people use the President as the subject for doujins, in fact," Mizuki said.

Everyone stared at Mizuki because of that comment. Even Tatsuya looked a bit shocked. But because he wasn't the emotive type, it was a little hard to distinguish from his usual expression. Mizuki blushed in embarrassment at all the attention and tried to deflect away all questions regarding how she knew of such things.

While the crowd had been quite lively up to now, when the sign indicating the Speed Shooting event was about to start, everyone became silent.

Mayumi had stepped to her platform in front of the play field. She wore a slick, silvery, skintight suit along with green earmuffs to suppress the loud sounds of the competition. Her rifle-type CAD was at the ready.

At the sound of the starting signal, Mayumi and her opponent began to execute their magics at the target discs being shot out.

Mayumi was firing high-speed ice projectiles at her targets with flawless precision, destroying her targets like it was going out of fashion. Although it wasn't the finals, the speed of the targets was considerable, surprising Tatsuya given how effortless Mayumi seemed to find and hit them.

Thanks to his "Elemental Sight", Tatsuya realized Mayumi was using her own sensory magic to locate each of the targets, making blasting them a cinch.

As quick as the match had begun, it had ended with clear dominance on Mayumi's part. Her opponent had barely hit 50 out of her 100 targets whereas Mayumi had achieved a flawless victory by hitting every target that was sent her way.

"W-wow, that was incredible. The President didn't miss a single time," Honoka said in awe.

Leo agreed, saying "Her Magic Power really is enormous. She didn't have any issue casting that ice projectile magic 100 times…"

Tatsuya felt the strange urge to correct the record. "Mayumi was using a variant of 'Hale Particles'. Given Mayumi's first-class Magic Power and the efficiency of the magic she was using, she could have invoked it 1,000 times if she chose to."

"I wonder how she was able to find all of her targets so easily at those speeds? Some of them were hidden behind other targets," Shizuku asked. Given Shizuku would be participating in Speed Shooting for the Newcomer's Division, she was likely looking for an edge.

Erika, for reasons unbeknownst to Tatsuya, decided on follow-up, asking, "Yeah Tatsuya-kun, tell us how the President did it."

"I'm surprised no one else noticed." Tatsuya eyed Mizuki for confirmation; the girl shook her head 'no'.

"Mayumi was using her sensory magic 'Multi-Scope' to locate all of the target discs. Multi-Scope can see through and around physical obstacles. She uses this magic quite… frequently. That's why such an event is rather easy for someone with her astounding magical ability." Tatsuya didn't elaborate on Mayumi's usage of Multi-Scope in other occasions; he didn't quite know what to make of it.

Because Tatsuya was usually highly critical about anything relating to magic, his unrestrained praise of Mayumi made some present rather jealous. If he had paid closer attention, he would have seen Miyuki eyeing the President with considerable jealousy, despite Tatsuya having praised Miyuki similarly in the past.

Erika lept on her unsuspecting prey. "Wow Tatsuya, you are so… intimately familiar with Mayumi-senpai. Could it be that Tatsuya is into older women?"

"Hm, perhaps I'll answer that question once you or Leo get the nerve to ask each other out."

That snappy response knocked Erika for a loop long enough for Tatsuya to excuse himself. Leo sputtered a rebuttal Tatsuya didn't bother to acknowledge.

Looking down towards the field, Tatsuya noticed Mayumi waving in his direction. After returning a wave to her, he noticed Erika was grinning at him again.

"Why is she so troublesome…" he questioned as he began to exit the stands to go to the stands used to watch the Battle Board event.

Little did Tatsuya know that a certain purpled-haired woman, hidden behind a hat and sunglasses, had watched the entire exchange from a few rows behind his group.

Grinning, the woman said "I think it's time for my entrance~"

Honami left the Speed Shooting stands from a different exit than Tatsuya did. Because Tatsuya left first, he entered the next arena a short time before his friends were able to catch up.

Noticing this, Honami took off her hat and sunglasses. "Bingo, I got action!"

Honami intercepted Tatsuya in the hallway of the next set of stands...

Erika, Leo, Miyuki and the rest of their friends followed Tatsuya to watch Mari's Battle Board match. However, they were a ways behind Tatsuya since he left so abruptly.

As Erika drew nearer the entryway she saw Tatsuya enter, she noticed a woman with neck-length purple hair walk in behind Tatsuya and call out loudly, "Taaaaaatsuyaaaaa~"

Tatsuya froze at the sound of her voice, whether from fear or surprise Erika didn't know.

The two began to talk at quieter volume, so Erika couldn't quite make out what they were saying to each other from the wall she was hiding behind.

"Erika, what are you doing hiding there?" Mizuki called out from behind her as the rest of the group caught up.

"Guys, shh, Tatsuya was chatted up by some woman. She's pretty cute, hehe."

Leo seemed surprised and said "Woah woah, lemme see." Miyuki seemed curious as well.

As the group peeked their heads out around the wall, the motherly-looking woman began to kiss Tatsuya's forehead and gave Tatsuya a strong hug.

To the shock of the group, Tatsuya's face burned bright red.

Erika nearly laughed aloud and said "So that guy can actually blush. I guess he really does have a thing for older women. Mayumi-senpai will be sooo disappointed though."

Miyuki actually giggled at the sight, surprising the group given how possessive she was with Tatsuya being around other women.

"You've all misread the situation. I could bail Onii-san out, but he's earned this."

"Oh Tatsuya-kun, I've missed you," The Shibas's mother said before kissed him on the forehead again.

"Come on, we're in public mom…"

Jumping back, the woman said in faux offended voice "Can it be? Are you ashamed of me? Am I too old to associate with you, or meet your friends? You're so cruel, Tatsuya-kun. I thought we were close…"

Erika looked at Miyuki and asked "Wait, that's your mom?" After Miyuki nodded her head, Erika responded "Oh I like her. She's merciless with Tatsuya. He doesn't seem to be able to weather her assault. I've got to learn her secret."

Speaking up, the boy said in a panicked voice "Oi oi, I'm not ashamed of you, of course we're close. Y-you just surprised me is all, Okaa-san."

"Weeeell, if that's the case you should introduce me to your friends at the end of the hall there. They seem pretty confused about what's going on here~"

Tatsuya looked in direction the mother was pointing and groaned. Both of them could see Erika grinning as if Christmas had come early, as well as the faces of his classmates and sister all trying to hold back their laughter.

Erika was the first to falter, her laughter cascading down the hallway. "The mighty Tatsuya Shiba laid low by his mother. I'll compose a eulogy."

As the group stepped forward to meet them, the Erika introduced herself first.

"Hello Ms. Shiba, I'm Erika Chiba. It's nice to meet you! And might I say, while you did a good job with Miyuki here, Tatsuya-kun requires some fine tuning. Might I suggest a software patch to add emotions?"

Laughing at Erika's forthrightness, Honami responded "I'll take that under advisement." Honami considered correcting her that she wasn't "Ms. Shiba", but it was too much effort. Besides, she liked to think of herself as such anyway. "Hello everyone, I'm Honami. It's nice to finally meet you all! Tatsuya and Miyuki have told me much about you."

After the rest of the Shibas's friends introduced themselves to Honami, Erika said, "Well Tatsuya, you're in the clear on this one."

Tatsuya looked bewildered, so he said "What do you mean?"

"Weeell, when I saw a pretty woman older than you kissing and hugging you, I thought my earlier assessment of you was correct. But since it was just your mom, I suppose you're only into a particular girl older than you."

"Erika, please refrain from throwing around these baseless accusations." Tatsuya said. Though he tried to mask it, Erika could tell he was slightly flustered based on the minute hitch in his voice. It seemed that when Honami was around, Tatsuya couldn't seem to hide his emotions as well.

"Oooh what's the story behind that, Erika?" Honami asked with a smug look on her face.

"Hehe, I'd be glad to inform you Ms. Shiba~"

Tatsuya groaned again and ran out of the hallway to hide his flustered expression, dragging Honami along with him.

Mayumi was initially annoyed by what she had seen, but that quickly turned to confusion.

She had wanted to talk to Tatsuya after her match. After spotting him in the crowd thanks to her sensory magic, they waved at each other. But then he had strangely left the arena, causing her to follow after she quickly changed back into her normal competition uniform.

After searching for him again using Multi-Scope, she saw an older woman kissing his forehead and being generally quite close to him. Initially, she was almost distraught but that quickly changed to confusion when she saw Tatsuya's friends join him. They didn't seem to find the 2 scandalous; they even seemed to be fighting back laughter.

"Hm, who is she?" Mayumi thought. Because the woman didn't really resemble Tatsuya, Mayumi assumed she wasn't his mother.

Trying to mentally prepare herself, Mayumi stop casting Multi-Scope to clear her mind of distractions.

As Mayumi took to the field for the next round of Speed Shooting, she searched the stands for Tatsuya again and wasn't disappointed, as she spotted him watching her closely.

Giving him a wink (which many of the boy's watching mistook as aimed at them), Mayumi turned back to the field to prepare for her match.

After the preliminary round of Speed Shooting, the event became a direct match up between opponents. The 2 would share a playfield in which their respective colored discs would be fired. The victor would be determined by the one who first destroyed 100 of their color of disc. This naturally meant that destroying your opponent's discs helped your opponent win.

As the starting buzzer rang, Mayumi activated her spell, "Magic Shooter".

In the head-to-head round of Speed Shooting, the competition was largely one of Interference Strength. Most competitors used either Oscillation-type Magic or Move-type Magic to destroy the discs directly or to cause the discs to collide with each other.

Because the contestants would inevitably try to cast their respective magics in the same location during the course of the match, the contest would eventually come down to who had the higher Interference Strength to execute magic.

Mayumi had foregone that sort of confrontation, despite having the edge in such a match up. She had chosen to go with "Magic Shooter", which fired ice projectiles to destroy her red discs. By foregoing directly targeting her discs with magic, Mayumi avoided the issue of Interference Strength completely, making it a contest of accuracy and speed alone. Up to now, she had gone with the tactic of blasting her targets the instant they were fired onto the field. And by firing her ice particles from below the discs, she was able to avoid hitting her opponent's white discs.

"Let's see how Ta-kun likes this!" she thought.

With a flurry of spellcasting, Mayumi quickly destroyed a number of discs she had allowed to be fired onto the field. This quickly ended the match. Her opponent must have thought Mayumi had begun to slip from excessive magic use, only to have the match end decisively. She had barely destroyed 30 discs when Mayumi won, netting First High the victory in the match.

As her opponent lay on her knees cursing her crushing defeat and the crowd cheered loudly, Mayumi turned back to the crowd to wave at Tatsuya again. When he returned her wave again, she noticed the purpled-haired woman from before sitting next to him, seemingly trying to stifle laughter.

"I need to get to the bottom of this," she said in a huff.

After changing back into her normal attire, she found Tatsuya and his friends milling about outside the stands.

"Ta-kun, what did you think~?"

Turning to Mayumi with a smirk, he replied "Well, I think you decided to show off a bit. Is such behavior befitting a member of the 10 Master Clans, Mayumi?"

Smirking in return, she said "Showing off? Moi? No no, I think Ta-kun's eyesight needs to evaluated. I simply followed through on my strategy."

"Well, your Magic Power in speed and precision sniping is among the best in the world, so I'm not surprised you won so handily."

"Oh you flatterer~" she said with a hand on her cheek.

The woman from before jumped into the conversation, saving Mayumi from having to look too interested in the women around Tatsuya.

"Hm, 'Ta-kun'? Oh my Tatsuya, getting pet names from all the girls are we?" She softly elbowed Tatsuya in the ribs to punctuate her verbal jab.

"Ta-kun, shouldn't you introduce me to your lady friend?" Mayumi said, trying to keep her nerve intact.

"Ah, my mistake. This is my mother, Honami."

Mayumi failed to hold back her deep sigh of relief at that revelation.

"It's nice to meet you Honami-san."

"Likewise Miss Saegusa. I've… heard a lot about you." She eyed Tatsuya briefly with a smirk.

"Good things, I hope."

Giggling, Tatsuya's mother replied "Oh something like that." Tatsuya elbowed her back to get her to stop talking.

Mayumi had no idea what that was supposed to mean.

Before she could respond, Miyuki spoke up "Onii-san, don't you and Okaa-san have somewhere to be?"

Tatsuya looked down at his watch and said "Ah, you're right. We shouldn't keep them waiting." And with that, Tatsuya left while dragging his giggling mother along with him.

Mayumi turned to Miyuki and asked, "What was that all about?"

Responding somewhat stiffly, Miyuki said "Oh they had some lunch engagement with one of Okaa-san's military acquaintances."

Erika seemed interested. "Oooh, was your mother in in the military Miyuki?"

Miyuki shook her head. "No, she used to be an SP in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, but she has a few military friends she likes to keep up with. They came to watch the competition, so she thought she'd catch up with them over lunch."

(Next day, August 4th)

As Mayumi performed her warm-up stretches before her Crowd Ball event, she was feeling a bit adventurous. Smiling to herself mischievously, she decided to have a bit of fun.

"Tatsuya-kun, would you mind giving me a hand with my stretches?"

"Sure thing," the boy in question responded simply.

With her legs spread outwards, Tatsuya began pressing Mayumi down from behind her so that her chest was touching the ground.

"Enjoying the show, Ta-kun~?" she thought to her to herself.

After proceeding to stretch herself a few more times, Mayumi held out her hand to Tatsuya. Initially, he didn't understand her unasked question. She raised an eyebrow and pouted slightly to communicate her dissatisfaction.

Getting the hint, the boy grabbed her hand and began to pull Mayumi to her feet.

"Now's my chance, teehee~" she thought to herself.

As she was raised to her feet, Mayumi "tripped" and fell into Tatsuya's arms.

"Woah, watch it!" he said in surprised as he caught Mayumi with his arms around her back.

Her head having been buried into Tatsuya's well-toned chest because of her "accident", Mayumi looked up at his face blushing.

"Sorry about that, Ta-kun. Thanks for the catch~" she said with a wink.

"A-ah, right,", he said as he let her go, his cheeks slightly pink at the close contact.

"Ohoho, is that a blush I see?" she teased.

"Excuse me President, I must be attending to some of the other contestants," he said with suspicious haste.

Suddenly a gift was dropped from the heavens, as Rika Izumi walked by and responded "There's no need, Shiba. I'm handling the other girls so you can continue assisting Saegusa."

Tatsuya briefly had an expression resembling a cornered mouse, causing Mayumi to giggle.

Although Mayumi was performing very well at Crowd Ball, she was feeling a little uncomfortable. Despite feeling closer to Tatsuya, she had felt a strange sensation.

Throughout her matches, she had the odd feeling she was under abnormal observation. As if her entire being were being scrutinized. The source of the disturbance was clearly Tatsuya from what she could tell, but none of the other girls he had worked with reported such a phenomenon.

Eventually, she grew used to it only for it to go away as she returned to talk to him.

"At some point I need to ask him about that. It was quite odd," she thought nervously. She doubted he would tell her, seeing as he had already spilled the beans about his Decomposition magic.

Then it occurred to her. "Is he using some kind of sensory magic to get back at me from before? Why that little… and he called me a stalker. Hmph." She pouted a bit at the hypocrisy.

Despite their respective sensory magics, neither Tatsuya nor Mayumi had detected the steeled blue eyes that had been watching them from afar for a couple of hours.

As Miyuki walked off to watch one of the Monolith Code matches, she spoke in an upset voice, "Those two… are they actually together?!"

Miyuki couldn't get the images of Mayumi and Tatsuya hugging out of her mind.

"Onii-san, we are going to talk about this! You can't be with her, you're supposed to be with me!" she said angrily, almost in tears.

* 108 (and it's divisors like 54) has significance, especially to Buddhists who are practicing their karate kata.

**"Aegis" was Zeus's shield, created by the goddess Athena. As for the magic itself, it's the magic Honami used to block the barrage of flaming missiles launched at Tatsuya in the canon version of the events of Okinawa. The magic that killed her to cast. I figured it would be cool to give it a fitting name (A Greek one, referencing a shield) while not requiring Honami to die if she wanted to cast the magic against powerful attacks in this fic. What can I say, Honami missed my favorite character to write. xD

***Hyperion (meaning "The High-One") was a Titan in Greek mythology. He was known as "The Lord of Light" and "Titan of the East". Given all the Greek and divinity references in Mahouka, especially in the Yotsuba, I thought it was a missed opportunity by Satou to not make this Maya's epithet. After all, Maya's unique magic is an unblockable light magic, "Meteor Stream" (hence "Lord of Light") and she lives in Japan (hence "Titan of the East"). Other Greek references in Yotsuba was her sister Miya, who was known as the "Mistress of the Lethe" and Miyuki's unique magic "Cocytus". Not to mention Tatsuya's epithet "Mahesvara" after the deity in Hinduism.

(A/N): Hey, I hoped you enjoyed the chapter! Please drop me a review if you liked it or if you think it could have improvements.

Btw, I started a Naruto fanfic a few days ago called "The Ties That Bind". Hopefully these 2 fics don't interfere with each other time wise. I'm nearly done with the 2nd chapter of that fic, so I think I can juggle the 2 by publishing them on different weeks. Go read it if you're interested.

Thanks for reading!