Chapter 20
Misaka rubbed her eyes as she woke up. The opening of the box was less interesting than she thought. All the effort she had put in, in the end seemed meaningless. Well, if it mattered, it had probably driven the Magicians away. She had broken something they had given to her after all.[t1]
She looked at the kitchen clock and cringed. She had only managed 4 hours of sleep and she was still feeling tired. She walked to the kitchen and started brewing some tea. While that was happening, she picked out a school uniform and got dressed. Walking out of her bedroom, she heard the familiar ding of the brewer. She produced a flask from one of the cupboards and poured the hot tea in it. That way she could bring it with her to school. Otherwise, she was sure she'd fall asleep in the middle of the day.
Following that, she picked up her bag and left the apartment. She was already late, so she didn't see a need to rush. The next train was coming in 5 minutes, and she was relatively close to the station. She arrived at the station and went to the ticket booth. Her monthly ticket had expired, and she had yet to reissue it. Eventually, some 2 minutes before the train arrived, she reached the counter. By the end of the procedure, she could already hear the train arriving, but she had managed to issue a yearly ticket. It meant that she wouldn't have to care about the issue of her ticket expiring any time soon.
The train arrived, and she immediately boarded it. Many people were still going to their workplace, and she had no intention of standing, packed up like sardines with a hundred other middle-aged people. She sat down at the nearest seat and waited for the train to depart. She took a sip of her tea and leaned on the window hoping to catch at least 10 minutes of sleep. She immediately fell asleep.
The public service announcement woke her up. They had reached the station near U.A and Misaka quickly disembarked. As she left the station behind her, she wondered how she'd justify her lateness. She'd never been this late before, so she didn't know what to expect. She guessed that detention was in the air for her, but she didn't really mind. The puzzle hadn't been great only as a thought exercise. By the end of it, she had felt her control over magnetism had become stronger. Not power wise, but precision wise. Attacks like manipulating blood, that she feared to use, in fear of them running amok, felt much safer to use.
She arrived at the front of the gates, only to find them closed. She briefly remembered a warning from Aizawa that the gate closed 10 minutes after classes had begun. She was not deterred by this though. There was no one behind the gates, and she quickly climbed over them with her power.
She took a glance at her phone clock and shrugged. The first hour of lessons had almost ended. Probably though they were talking with the teacher about the internships. They were going to be a major milestone in their pre-Pro Hero career, so knowing what to expect and what not was extremely important. They didn't want to embarrass themselves; or at least some didn't want to.[t2]
She entered the building just as the second period began and she hurried to the classroom. That period, they had modern literature with Cementoss. She was sure that Aizawa had informed the teachers what to do when she came, which was probably hand out detention, so she paid no mind to that.
It was her bad luck that Cementoss had already entered the class.
"Hello Misaka-san. How come you were late? Is everything alright? You look tired." Cementoss spoke in a calm and measured tone. He wasn't chastising her, but his tone was still a bit critical. Still, he showed concern about Misaka's lateness.
"No, no it wasn't anything serious. I had some trouble sleeping and waking up, and when I woke up it was a bit too late for me to grab the train I normally come with. You know how it is. A delay here, a delay there, the next train arrived a bit later than expected. I promise this won't happen again." Misaka sincerely apologized to Cementoss. She was highly regarded by the teachers and had a reputation for being a good student. She didn't want to ruin that.
"Ah, it's no problem. It's happened to me as well. Please, after school report to the teachers' office, okay. Now then, what was I saying…" Misaka went to her seat as Cementoss started his lesson again. She asked Uraraka, who was sitting close to her, what they'd done in the first period, but she had her suspicions proved, when she told her that they talked about when the internships will, what they must do, and generally what to expect.
The day passed by quickly after that, with lessons ending and starting. When the final bell rang, Misaka made her way to the teachers' office, only to find it empty. The teachers were probably ending their lessons as well, and some of them might even be tending to some of their Hero duties.
She sat down in a chair, took the last sip of her tea, and started thinking on the internships while waiting for a teacher to come.
They started right after the weekend, that meant in 2 days. With the object that the magicians had given her solved and no clues on the magician at the mall, she didn't have anything to occupy her time for the weekend. She had already researched Graviton, so that was out of the equation. One thing interested her though. The recent attacks in Hosu interested her and the Hero Killer seemed to be an interesting personality. She had tried to find out as much as she could about him, but he was always masked, and no one had managed to give a good description of him so far. What was known though was his hate of heroes.
From that Misaka already had a great clue about his identity. It was a simple equation. First his quirk. It was well recorded. When he tasted someone's blood, he was able to paralyze them for a set amount of time, depending on their blood type. And second his ideology. While a hate for society was a common characteristic of Villains, Stain's was not one of pure evil. He preached cleansing the corrupt society of Heroes and thrusting <
Him being constantly masked was surely a factor that contributed to him being hard to identify, but Misaka knew that and didn't bother with that.
Instead, she focused on something other. Some 10 years ago a manifesto started circulating around forums on the internet. While nowadays it was all but forgotten, it was passed around in most extreme routes.
The manifesto, titled <
Though Misaka said that, there were many key differences to their ideologies. For example, Stain called for the elimination of those <
That didn't really matter though. What mattered was the author of this manifesto. It was a Vigilante that went by the name Stendhal. Curious about this Vigilante she started searching about him. Curiously, little was known about him on the web, so she reluctantly joined of the forums that regarded his Manifesto as a holy book and started asking there. Even many of his little cult following didn't know who he really was. Only the administrator of the forum knew, and he gave up no information. Her patience had been running thin by then, and she resorted to more brutish methods, such as tracking him down. Quickly after that, she had all the information she needed to solve the riddle she had been presented with.
On one part, Stain, his quirk and ideology, and on the other part, Stendhal, his quirk and ideology. The info she had… extracted had proved invaluable in solving this problem. Of course, their ideology was the same but that didn't mean something. Stain might just be a fanboy. No, what revealed the connection was their quirk. She knew how Stains quirk worked, and apparently Stendhal's was similar. She guessed that it was the same though, given the uncertainty of the admin's voice. What made it even more evident was the timeframe. Stendhal disappeared about six years ago, heavily injured by a fight. A year later, Stain, with the distinct lack of a nose, made his appearance. From there on everything connected, and Misaka arrived at a conclusion. Stain was Stendhal. She was sure she'd be able to find a use for this information. Perhaps broker it or use it for shocking Stain when they inevitably clashed.
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The opening and closing of the door snapped Misaka out of her thoughts. She had spent 10 minutes quietly thinking on this issue and she had not felt the time passing.
"Misaka-san, hello." The one who had just entered the room was Aizawa. Her homeroom teacher sounded mad, and she could understand why. She was after all, the first person this year to be late to class without any extraordinary excuse.
"Hello, Aizawa-sensei. Sorry for being late. I ensure that it won't happen again." Misaka was apologetic. She was supposed to be a model student, so being late was not good.
"Yeah, I know, Cementoss told me. Anyways, it's just us two and the principal here. The other teachers have left for their own Heroic duties. And from what I gather, you're ahead in every class, so there isn't much I can have you do. I guess we can discuss about your internship?" Aizawa briefly pondered on what to do, as the normal tasks of detention were far too tedious for a single person to do, especially in a school as big as U.A. Instead, he opted on discussing about the internships with Misaka, as her choice had intrigued him. Many top Heroes like Endeavor had submitted offers for Misaka, but she had rejected them all, as she chose to intern under Graviton, who just made the cut of top 50.
"Ah, I see it must have surprised you, right? I do have a reason for it though."
"Oh, really now?" Eraserhead sounded intrigued by her words. "What is it?"
"Well, do you know how his quirk works?" Misaka started explaining her choice.
"I can't say I do." It was natural for her teacher to not know that. It wasn't as if it was something flashy.
"Well, he controls gravity. How he does it is particularly intriguing though. He uses magnetic fields!" Misaka started sounding excited because she really was. Getting the opportunity to be able to control gravity was far too exciting. Back in the closed curriculum of Academy City, she could never achieve something like that.
"Magnetic fields, huh? I can see where this is going." She was sure that Aizawa's knowledge of her quirk, and his own quick-witted mind led him to a quick conclusion.
"Yeah! And guess what? I control magnetic fields! So, I thought <
"I'd have thought the same really. However, do you think you have the ability to do that? Let me remind you that a lot of quirks are pseudo-scientific, just like this one could be. I would not want you to regret your choice." Aizawa's voice was filled with concern. He had many a time reiterated that the internships were a very important choice, so he'd naturally prefer if one of his students made a safe choice.
As Misaka opened her mouth to answer, the door suddenly opened and a bipedal amalgamation of what seemed to be many animals walked in the teachers' office.
"Ah, don't mind me Misaka-san, continue talking." The weird animal sat down on a chair and waited for Misaka to continue speaking.
"Hey, Mr. Principal can't you see you are making the girl confused? Introduce yourself first."
"Ah, of course. How could I forget? Am I a mouse? A Dog? A bear? My real identity is...THE PRINCIPAL!" Misaka was slightly surprised. It was well known that the principal was eccentric, but this was not really eccentric, if one ignored the little introduction. Of course, she knew not to judge a book by its cover, so she didn't allow herself to relax. Nezu had a reputation for his deviousness and tactical acumen after all.
"Nice to meet you Mr. Principal. As you can see, I was talking with Aizawa-sensei about my internship. Perhaps you could offer your opinion?" Misaka knew this was a bold request. However, she didn't hesitate.
"Of course, of course." Nezu nodded his head and started listening in earnest.
"So, as I was saying, I submitted my request to intern under Graviton. As you know, Graviton did graduate from U.A about 10 years ago, so he knows the internship process. Aside from that, I think I can imitate his ability to control gravity with my own quirk. However, Aizawa-sensei was showing some apprehension to that. What do you think?" Her choice of Graviton wasn't influenced just by his quirk or ranking. Him being a U.A graduate was something of a guarantee that the internship would be successful.
"Hmmm, Graviton huh? Certainly, his quirk is powerful, and he is a graduate of U.A. He is experienced with internships. However, why are you so sure of being able to copy his quirk?" Nezu seemed sceptical. He was already processing what he had heard and while copying a quirk was not unheard of, it was the direct result of a quirk-copying quirk. Copying a quirk just by using a quirk that belonged in a similar family of quirks was thought to be impossible.
"Naturally, otherwise I wouldn't make this decision. See?"
As Misaka said that she levitated her flask some inches above the ground, but quickly had to put it down as she was overexerting herself. She had levitated with gravity, a process that was still extremely unpolished and inefficient. She had tried her hardest to make it work on her own, but the process was so intricate that without guidance or someone to observe, she'd take years to master it and that at an unsatisfactory level.
"So, what you are seeking is guidance then? If so, I do think you're doing the correct thing. If that was all, I think I am going to go to office. Aizawa-sensei, I see no reason to keep her occupied. You're dismissed Misaka-san. Also, Aizawa-sensei, can you please come to my office?" Her detention had lasted hardly half an hour before she had already left for her apartment. She was expecting to leave later, but she didn't complain. She already knew what she'd do for the rest of the day.
What came first was contacting the contractors who'd helped build the A.A.A. Now that the existence of magicians was confirmed the A.A.A would be even more useful. While it's magic countering abilities were now almost non-existent from what she had observed, it was still far too useful of a tool to leave untapped. It was bad that it had been destroyed, but she had some improvements to make anyways.
With that in mind, she headed to a darker part of the area: Kamino Ward. It was an hour or so trip to there and she arrived at about 19:00. It was during these hours that the streets of Kamino started becoming full of Villains. Misaka was pretty sure that Kamino was the hotbed of many criminal syndicates, but as long as they didn't bother the residents here, she didn't bother with them. After all, they were her access to the black market, as much as she hated to admit it.
Navigating through the dark alleys of the Ward, she eventually arrived in front of an abandoned building. She opened a burner phone and dialled a number. Almost immediately the phone picked up.
"Yo, Giran. Are you available right now?"
"Tch, it's you again. Yes, I'm available, what do you want?" A hoarse, middle-aged voice that sounded irritated responded.
"It's better if I tell you from up close."
"Well, you know where to find me. I'll be waiting for you." The speaker sighed resignedly and closed the phone call.
After putting the burner phone down, she walked inside the building. The inside was the absolute antithesis of the outside. The dilapidated building was, inside, something akin to a gambling den and bar all together. The smell of smoke assaulted her nostrils, and she quickly left the floor, going up some stairs to the second floor.
She knocked on a door and it opened, revealing a glasses-wearing, middle aged man.
"So fast… Come in."
Misaka entered the room, carefully closing the door behind, and sat down on a comfy chair in front of a table.
The man sat down across her, on the opposite side of the table. He lit a cigarette and started talking.
"So, what do you want this time?"
"Not much. I just want you to contact with those people who provided me with materials. I'm in need of their assistance."
"Can't you do that yourself?"
"I would have if a certain somebody had given me their info. But you operate with confidentiality, don't you?" Truth be told, she had searched for the suppliers on the internet, but amazingly enough, there was no trace of them. With no other way to contact them, she inevitably contacted Giran, who'd first found them, or rather given her the ability to communicate with them.
"You know how this business works. Anyway, this is easy to do. Their payment will be up to you of course. When should I tell them to contact you?"
"As soon as they can. I don't have a lot of time to waste."
"Bossy as always. Will that be all?"
"Let me think about it… Hm, do you have any info on who attacked U.A?"
"I can't say much other than that they are a client of mine. Moving on, payment. So, for the first inquiry, that will be about 50 million Yen cash, and for the second one, I want information, most preferably on Stain."
"I will bring the money when I'm contacted by the material brokers. As for information on Stain, I happen to have some, though I don't know how useful it is."
"Hmm, reasonable. What about the info?"
"I know Stains former identity… Indeed, before he became a Villain, Stain was the Vigilante named Stendhal."
"Interesting. This is good information. Do you have anything else?"
"Nope."
"Ah, well. It's good enough for now. I'll be expecting my payment in the coming future."
"Yes, yes. Goodbye, pleasure doing business with you."
"Can't say the same."
With that, Misaka quickly left the building and started making her way to her apartment.