Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
A couple that will go down in legend
Chapter twenty-two: Carney Chaos, part one
Artemis Norio, one of the new students of U.A. high school's class 1-B, was reading a newspaper as he was sitting down, contently humming to himself. Suddenly, and without warning, the door leading to where Artemis was sitting down was thrown open, startling the exoskeletoned boy of 1-B as Monoma, the blonde hysteric holler monkey of class 1-B and something of a sempai to Artemis (it wasn't Artemis's idea, mind you) came barging in.
"Damn it, man!" Artemis snapped in an annoyed tone as he lowered his newspaper so that it covered his lap; zooming out a bit, one would be able to see that Artemis was sitting on the toilet, with his pants and underwear down around his ankles. Luckily, the newspaper that Artemis was reading was covering anything that shouldn't be seen. "Why did you just barge in without knocking," Artemis snapped at Monoma, "And at the worst possible time?!"
"As a new member of 1-B, you need to know that it is the solemn duty of our class to show up those oafish glory hounds in 1-A whenever and wherever the opportunity arises," Monoma said to the exoskeletoned boy, who just continued to look on with a dry, unamused look on his face, "And such an opportunity has indeed arisen for us! We of 1-B shall soon put 1-A in their place, once and for all!"
Arching a wry eyebrow at Monoma, Artemis said in a dry manner, "You know, you could have waited to tell me this later while I wasn't in the middle of bleeding the lizard. Seriously, I was already pissing, so there was no need for you to scare the piss out of me by barging in while I was on the crapper." Gripping the sides of his newspaper, Artemis said, "Now could you please leave and allow me to take a piss in peace? I'll meet up with you and the rest of the class later." Looking down at his newspaper, Artemis remarked, "The funnies aren't going to read themselves."
Shrugging indifferently, Monoma complied and left, thankfully remembering to close the door to the bathroom stall that Artemis was using.
Later that day, some of the students in 1-A were gathered in the school library. The group consisted of Izuku, his friends Uraraka, Tenya and Todoroki, and two of 1-A's newest members, those being Shinso and Sakaki. 1-B was not the only class to get new students, as 1-A got five new members as well; Shinso was already a U.A. student that was going to get into the hero course anyway but got in early due to a drastically increased need for as many heroes on hand as possible, and Sakaki had transferred into U.A. from her old school Vulcan High, who have a less than stellar relationship with the top hero high school of Japan.
As the six students were going over a bunch of stuff related to something that their class had planned, a smartphone that was lying on the table next to Sakaki went off. The fat cat girl picked it up and answered the text she got. "…Oh, Tsuyu and Habuko got the colored poster boards that we need to make signs with, and they need some help getting everything to the classroom," Sakaki said. She got up and told everyone, "Sorry, but I've got to go help the girls. I'll catch up with you all later."
Everyone else at the table understood and said goodbye to Sakaki. To the surprise of Izuku, Uraraka, Tenya and Todoroki, Sakaki leaned close to Shinso, kissed him on the lips, and then turned to leave. After Sakaki had left, the others at the table all turned to their new classmate to ask what all of that was about. "Oh, that," Shinso began, "Yeah, we pretty much hit it off a few minutes or so after Sakaki first came up to me, back during that tournament between U.A. and her old school. We've actually been dating ever since that tournament ended." Crossing his arms over his chest, the brainwasher said, "I still want to know what she sees in me, though. I mean, I've never been one to get female attention, and most would assume that I would control a girl to get her to like me, which is wrong and before you ask no, I'll never do it."
With a shrug, Todoroki said, "What I would like to know is what Ms. Joke sees in Aizawa-sensei, given how often she flirts with him." Gesturing to Shinso, Todoroki said, "Maybe you and your father have a lot in common what with how girls have a tendency to inexplicably flirt with the both of you."
"…Aizawa-sensei isn't my father," Shinso corrected dryly.
"It's something that comes with Todoroki being Todoroki," Tenya explained to the brainwasher, "But we're getting side-tracked here." To the rest of the group at the table, the 1-A class rep said, "We need to come up with what we'll do as a group for the upcoming school festival. This is a much more important one than the last festival, as we were told by Aizawa-sensei that students from Azu-Daioh High will be allowed to visit and take part in the festivities. As for what activity that the class as a whole will do, we'll vote on it in class later."
Gesturing to the group to get their attention, Shinso said, "I was thinking that we can just hand out little grab bags of candy or whatever to the visiting students."
Nodding in agreement, Izuku said, "That sounds like a good idea, Shinso."
"Hey wait," Uraraka began, "Will parents be allowed to come onto the grounds as well?"
Todoroki let out a resigned sigh. "…Unfortunately, yes," the half-n-half boy confirmed, "I learned of that when Aizawa-sensei was talking the matter over with Sekijiro-sensei." Giving another resigned sigh, Todoroki added, "…Right while my father was talking to them. As such, he said that he intends to come."
"You should be happy that at least one parent of yours is coming," Uraraka said to her classmate, "Both of mine are going to be busy in that time-frame due to the fact that their construction company has gotten a lot more contracts as of late."
Turning to regard Uraraka, Izuku said with a happy look, "Oh yeah, you and your folks are doing a lot better now because we all did that commercial for your parents' construction company." With a nod, Izuku continued, "I'm glad that we were able to do as much as we did."
Uraraka, given how she was being talked to by Izuku and the fact that he was saying, in some way, that he was glad to be of help to her, right away began to light up red like a shiny holiday ornament. "Oh, umm, well, a lot of you guys helped with the commercial," the gravity girl said, clearly a bit embarrassed that the green-haired cinnamon roll was talking to her in such a nice and friendly manner.
"You know," Shinso remarked, "Having someone like Endeavor, who is the current number one pro hero, at the festival would be a great deterrent to keep criminals and villains away from students, both those of U.A. and those visiting from Azu-Daioh High to check out the festival that we're throwing on." Turning to regard Todoroki, Shinso said, "You shouldn't be so mad that your old man is coming."
Todoroki decided to let the matter go. Sure, the half-n-half boy still held a lot of resentment towards his father, and he doubt that he would ever truly let go of every last offence. But he had to admit that Endeavor was showing incredible signs of improving overall as a person; as much as he wanted to, Todoroki couldn't see his father as wholly horrible anymore. Mostly, yes, but not wholly overall.
After Todoroki decided to put what resentment he still held towards his father off to the side, the group proceeded to get into the swing of things when it came to discussing what the five of them and Sakaki (their group was made of six students total, and not every group of 1-A students had the same number of members) would do as a group. Some of them even wrote down some ideas of what to suggest when it came to voting on what 1-A can do as a whole for the festival.
Over in the 1-B classroom, Sekijiro was out as he had to handle a few other last-minute details, so the twenty-five members of the class were left to their own devices. Over near his desk, Akuma Giratina found a red spiral bound notebook on the floor. Curious, he picked it up and flipped it over to look at the front; it was a covered with stickers in the likeness of, surprisingly enough, Kirishima from class 1-A. What struck Akuma as odd was the sticker of Kirishima's head in the middle, surrounded by a ring of small pink heart-shaped stickers.
"…Isn't he the guy who defeated me in the match for third place back during the tournament?" Akuma said aloud to himself as he looked at the front cover of the notebook. As Akuma held that notebook, his classmates Yosetsu and Shihai came walking over. Noticing the boys, Akuma showed them the cover of the notebook he picked up and said, "What do you two make of this notebook I found on the floor near my desk? It certainly ain't mine, that's for sure."
Looking at the cover of the notebook, Yosetsu said after a few seconds of observation, "My guess is that someone ordered that sticker sheet set from the Kirishma merchandise section of the Fat Gum agency merchandise catalogue," Yosetsu explained, "Both Kirishma and Tamaki-sempai got lines of merchandise after their first tenure as interns under the pro hero Fat Gum. I was told that Fat Gum personally makes sure that Kirishima and Tamaki-sempai get any and all profits made from merchandise in their respective likenesses that his agency sells."
"Does that sticker sheet include a page of little pink heart stickers?" the Satanist of U.A. asked, arching a wry eyebrow.
Yosetsu crossed his arms over his chest as he gently shook his head. "…No, I'm pretty sure that it doesn't," Yosetsu replied. Shrugging indifferently, Akuma took the notebook he found to the front of the classroom and dropped it into the lost and found bin up there. After doing so, Akuma returned to his desk right before Itsuka came into the classroom. With the return of the 1-B class rep, all twenty-five students in the class were now in the room.
Clapping a few times to get everyone's attention, Itsuka said, "Everyone, I need you all to stay at your desks for the vote on what we as a class can do for the upcoming festival. It would get a bit chaotic if you all remained milling about the classroom while we're trying to organize the vote." Complying with their class rep, the other twenty-four students of 1-B all returned to their desks. Seeing everyone was seated, Itsuka nodded once and said, "Good." Picking up a piece of chalk to write on the board with, Itsuka began, "Now, who here has any ideas on what we can do?"
"A barbecue?" Pony said as she raised a hand.
"Oh, that actually sounds like a good idea," the class 1-B rep said as she wrote Pony's idea down on the board. A few more suggestions went up on the board, such as Reiko suggesting a fortune teller like attraction, Kinoko offering a café idea, and Tetsutetsu offering a sort of mini carnival attraction with games such as whack-a-mole and that 'hit the bell with the hammer' thing, which he was insistent on including as it was a test of strength.
After she finished writing down the first ten ideas or so that her classmates offered, Itsuka said, "Are there any more ideas?"
Raising a hand, Ibara said as she stood up, "I firmly believe that we should set up a prayer group for people to join and give thanks to God and to ask for his blessing."
"Wouldn't that set Akuma on fire if he was so much as ten feet away from it?" Kosei asked, a curious look on his face. The satanic hero-in-training had to admit that his classmate made a funny joke, and chuckled appropriately to it.
Getting up from his desk, Monoma said as he walked up to the front of the classroom where Itsuka was standing, "I have what should be the obvious choice for us to do for the festival!"
Face palming, Artemis muttered to himself, "Oh for fuck's sake, not this gremlin again…"
Setting up a laptop so that it would play a slideshow on the projector screen that was pulled down, Monoma said as he plugged a flash drive into the laptop, "I have prepared a slide show that will educate those who watch in on the evils of each individual member of class 1-A, as well as that conceited class as a whole!"
Itsuka rolled her eyes at Monoma, once again, trying to spread anti-class 1-A propaganda, something that she was in no mood for, especially since she doesn't want the five new students in the class to get the wrong idea of their schoolmates in Aizawa's homeroom. The first slide was a white slide with '1-A: HOW YOU CAN PROTECT YOURSELF FROM BEING FOOLED' in big bold black letters.
Gesturing to his classmates, Monoma began, "As most of us know, those glory hounds in 1-A act like they run the place. It is up to us, the good folks here in 1-B, to keep them from being a bad role model, especially to the new students here." Gesturing to where Akuma, Artemis, Kurama, Goukazaru and Omono all sat in the back of the classroom, Monoma said, "Boys, don't let any of those conceited buffoons in 1-A pull the wool over your eyes! All of them are all out to make U.A. look like a circus!"
"What, is making U.A. look like a circus supposed to be your job?" Artemis asked, drawing some laughter from most of the other students in class.
Growling with mild annoyance, the hysteric holler monkey of 1-B said, "I am telling you all that 1-A is not to be trusted! That class is the devil incarnate!"
"No, the devil incarnate is sitting in class with us right over there," Ibara said to Monoma while pointing at Akuma.
"Okay, Nun Girl, I have to admit that was a good one," Akuma remarked with a mildly amused smirk on his face as he chuckled a bit.
As Ibara sat back down while muttering about how she wasn't actually making a joke, Monoma said once things settled down enough, "You guys, this is serious! We are all that stands in the way of those 1-A cretans trampling the good name of U.A. into the dirt! Surly none of you would let such an offence happen without fighting back!"
"You know, I personally don't see what's wrong with any of those guys in the other class," Kurama remarked as he crossed his arms over his chest while his nine tails swished about slowly as he gave Monoma a questioning look.
"Yeah, and some of us are actually good pals with the guys over in 1-A," Tetsutetsu said, "Like how me and Kirishima are pretty chill with each other, and our bud Juzo is in cahoots with both Midoriya and Shinso, the latter having been thrown into the class recently." The softening quirk boy nodded in agreement with what Tetsutetsu was saying.
Sighing in a mildly resigned tone, Monoma said, "You guys really need to be corrected on the horror that is class 1-A, it seems. I suppose that makes it as good of a time as any to begin the slideshow to educate people better!"
The rest of 1-B groaned a bit as their hysteric classmate was going to start the slideshow anyway. As some of the students rolled their eyes at their classmate's hate-filled anti-class 1-A triad, Pony and Reiko were both surprised when Kinoko got their attention. "Psst, hey girls," the mushroom girl said in a hushed whisper so as to not get snapped at by Monoma, "Have either of you seen my red spiral bound notebook?"
Over in the classroom for class 1-A, Tenya stood at the front of the classroom leading the class discussion, as Aizawa was out at the moment handling some other business. "Now then, we ought to get down to nominating and voting for ideas on what we as a whole class can do for the upcoming festival where students from Azu-Daioh High will be visiting U.A. to take part in the festivities," the class 1-A rep said.
"How about romantic horse-drawn carriage rides in the snow?" Todoroki suggested as he raised a hand. Noticing a few confused looks that he was getting Todoroki explained, "It would be the prefect way for couples to have a great time together. And don't worry about the snow; I can very easily make as much as needed."
Gesturing to Todoroki, Izuku asked, "Where will we get the carriage, though? And the horses?"
Standing up, Yaoyorozu said, "My family owns a few horses, and we also have a carriage that should suit the idea well enough." Turning to look at Todoroki, the rich girl said with a very confused look on her face, "But even I would like to know why you, of all people, would suggest something like romantic horse-drawn carriage rides in the snow."
With the straightest face he had ever given anyone, the dual natured-quirk boy said, "I will not apologize for wanting to do what I can to secure Reiko's affections. And I'm certain that I'm not the only guy here who would like to get closer to a girl that he has feelings for."
Bakugo opened his mouth as he raised his right index finger, looking like he was going to object. But he stopped before he got even one word out, nodded his head a bit and said, "Half-n-half has a point. I'm still trying to get Pony to like me, and I bet she'd like going on a ride like that."
"You and Todoroki are lucky to have girls that you're both working hard to win over, Baku-bro," Kirishima remarked. With an embarrassed chuckle, the red-haired hardening quirk boy said, "I don't really see myself as the kind of guy that any girl would want to give going out with a try, so I don't think my romance life will be all that successful."
After a bit more talking about the idea, class 1-A as a whole ended up agreeing that the 'romantic horse-drawn carriage rides in the snow' idea was the best one of the lot; a few other ideas were suggested in the process, but they were all shot down. Especially the one Mineta came up with where the girls of 1-A would do a bikini modeling contest, which was shot down with righteous fury, much to Mineta's surprise.
Turning to face where Kaminari sat, Mineta said, "Kaminari, man, you've got to back me up on this one. This is girls in bikinis that we're talking about, here!"
The electric quirk user, with a dry and unamused look on his face, looked at Mineta as he crossed his arms over his chest. "…I'm still upset with you, man," Kaminari remarked. The infamous pervert slumped in defeat, and after the last two or so ideas were suggested, class 1-A as a whole ended up voting for Todoroki's romantic horse-drawn carriage rides in the snow idea, with all of the girls in the class finding the idea to be particularly appealing.
The two would-be killers were surprised by their luck; they feared that, when caught while on their job over in that Royal Woods place over in Michigan in the United States, they would be very royally screwed over, especially after they had been extradited back to Japan. However, once the plane carrying them landed in a runway at a less notable Japanese airport (the people running the case wanted to maintain a low profile for numerous reasons), the plane was surprised besieged by villains.
"We're being attacked!" one of the pilots exclaimed into a radio to communicate with someone for help, "We're being-ACK!" The pilot never got to finish what he was saying when he and his co-pilot were both killed when villains came up behind them and slit their throats. As the gashes in the throats of the two pilots sprayed a warm, life-giving crimson, Toga and Spinner, the two villains that killed the pilots, allowed the dead bodies to fall over onto the control panel for the plane in the cockpit.
Looking at the spray of blood on the control panel, Toga could not help but squeal with sadistic, deranged delight. "Ooh, it looks so pretty," the psychotic high school girl said, blushing as she looked at the blood coating the control panel in the cockpit.
Gently shaking his head at his fellow villain's antics, Spinner simply wiped his hinting knife he used to kill the pilot that he killed on said pilot's right sleeve. "You need to stay on point, Toga," the lizard man villain scolded, "Remember, we're currently on a mission to recover the two mercenaries hired by the benefactor that's secretly funneling funds to our cause." Sheathing his hunting knife, Spinner continued, "Given how low our current funds are, we cannot afford to dilly-dally around while we're on the-"
"Found them," a male voice called out to Spinner and Toga, making them both turn to see their fellow villain Dabi entering the cockpit, followed by the two mercenaries that were captured back in Royal Woods and extradited back to Japan. Gesturing to the two mercenaries, Dabi said, "Now that we got them, I suggest that the lot of us make ourselves like hockey equipment and get the puck out of here."
"Thanks for the save," the first mercenary said as he and the second mercenary followed the trio of villains out of the landed plane, off of the runway and far away from that airport, "I swear, we had no idea that a simple job to knock off some brown-haired girl on a field trip with her class over in Royal Woods would have been such a nightmare."
Nodding in understanding, Dabi remarked, "I can't blame you two for failing a job over in that chaotic realm of pandemonium. I mean, when Toga, Spinner, Giran and I were over in Royal Woods working with a local rich guy that ended up betraying us in the end, Toga, Spinner and I ended up having to go up against frigg'in shinobi from one of the elemental nations. The lot of us were lucky to get out of that mess as unscaved as we did." Gently shaking his head, the blue flame villain continued, "I'd…rather not go back to Royal Woods anytime soon."
"Luckily for us, our latest job only had us rescue the two of you from transport by the people that extradited you," Spinner said, "We also have to get you back to meet with the benefactor that's helping us with funding, because your target's back here in Japan, whoever he or she is."
"It's a she," the second mercenary confirmed with a nod, "A female student from U.A. High School named Ochaco Uraraka."
Since the group was still currently running, the guys were all surprised when Toga suddenly skidded to a stop. Looking at the two mercenaries, the psychotic school girl said, "You guys are trying to kill Gravity Girl?"
Gesturing to Toga, the second mercenary explained, "The boss wants her dead to send a message to her folks. You see, the Urarakas have a construction company that recently got out a commercial that had an ensemble cast of pro heroes take part in it. Due to that, a whole lot of people have been using the Uraraka's company rather than any of the construction companies under the boss's thumb. As a result, the boss's monopoly on the business was disrupted."
Nodding in agreement, the first mercenary went on, "The boss wants to send the Urarakas a message, to teach them better than to have disrupted one of his monopolies. Thus, he hired me and my partner here to track down and kill their brat."
"So you guys are aiming to kill a high school girl…" Spinner said as he crossed his arms over his chest, giving both of the mercenaries a rather dry, mildly unamused look, "…Because your boss wants to send the parents of said girl a message because he didn't like how their construction company disrupted his monopoly on the industry." Gently shaking his head, the lizard man villain remarked, "Yeah, that doesn't sound like a killing that I would be interested in doing at all, regardless of the offered pay. It doesn't sound like it aligns with the ideology of Stain at all."
"…Yeah, I'm going to have to go with Spinner on this one," Dabi said, "I have no problem with killing pro heroes, as well as anyone who gets in my way bad enough, but I have to draw the line at a job like what the benefactor is having the two of you do."
Shrugging, the first mercenary said, "Fair enough." Turning to look at Toga, the first mercenary asked, "What about you?"
Toga, with a troubled, unsure look on her face, gently shook her head. "…Sure, she's one of the girls I have to compete with in order to get my Izu-kun to like me," Toga said, "But she's still a friend of mine. I'm not sure if I can bring myself to kill her just because her parents pissed off some rich guy."
"You're a villain," the second mercenary said, his tone sounding dry, "And yet you're friends with a hero-in-training."
Jerking a thumb at the psychotic school girl, Spinner explained to the mercenaries, "Toga here is a bit coo-coo in the coconut, if you catch my drift." Dabi, with his arms crossed over his chest, simply nodded in agreement with Spinner.
Once he was done nodding in agreement with his lizard man friend, Dabi stepped forward a step towards the mercenaries. "…Look, although you guys aren't members of the Front," the blue flame villain began, "The whole lot of us here still draw income from the same benefactor. As such, it would be best if we helped one another out when need be."
The two mercenaries both arched eyebrows at Dabi, with the second one saying, "I thought that you three wouldn't help us kill the Uraraka girl."
Gently shaking his head, Dabi said, "That's not what I meant." Gesturing to the mercenaries, Dabi explained, "The hero high school that the Uraraka girl goes to, U.A., is going to have some sort of school festival coming up, and students from one of the regular public high schools, that Azu-Daioh High place, will be coming onto U.A. grounds to take part in the festivities. Toga, Spinner and I were going to go there ourselves undercover to do a bit of recon." Letting out a resigned sigh, Dabi said, "The most I'd be willing to do to help you guys is leave the door open so you can get in. After that, you're on your own when it comes to killing the Uraraka girl, and if you fail to get her then it's not my fault."
The two mercenaries turned to face each other, then after looking at one another in silence for a few seconds, turned back to face Dabi. "…Yeah, that sounds fair," the first mercenary replied, "We were going to bring a few more of the boys working under the boss's employ to help with tracking down and killing the Uraraka girl, so you leaving the door open for us like you say will be all the help we'd probably ask for."
"Just leave me, Toga and Spinner out of it, because we have our own job to take care of during that festival at U.A.," Dabi said, "Oh, and one more thing." Leaning slightly closer to the two mercenaries, the blue flame villain said, "There is this one boy who is a student over at U.A. by the name of Shoto Todoroki. He has a burn mark over part of his face, and his hair is red on one side and white on the other."
Leaning just a smidge closer to the mercenaries, Dabi growled, "Do NOT do anything to Todoroki. He's a person of interest to me." The pair of mercenaries got the message that Dabi was telling them loud and clear; they understood that if they were to harm the boy that Dabi had just described to them, then their lives might be forfeit as far as the blue flame villain cared.
Just a little bit more nervous than he was previously, the first mercenary said, "Don't worry. The lads and I just have to get in, kill the Uraraka girl, take a picture to prove to the boss that we did it and then get the hell out of dodge. Our boss will also hear about it through the news when something like that happens at a high school festival." Dabi straightened himself out a bit as he gave off a smirk.
"…Fine by me," Dabi replied.
TO BE CONTINUED…
END, CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Author's notes;
Well this mini arc has certain gotten off to an interesting start. A few things were being done by the students of U.A. in preparation for the school festival where they will be visited by students from Azu-Daioh High, which is the high school that the monster students from Yokai Academy transferred to when they had to vacate the grounds of their school. Things are shaping up to be a wonderful experience for the teenagers, U.A. and Azu-Daioh alike.
…Even so, there are villainous forces that are plotting in the background to do a number of vile deeds, with one such group being the would-be killers from class 1-A's field trip back in the previous arc. And they are still aiming to carry out the job their 'boss' gave them to track down and kill Uraraka. To make matters worse, the two mercenaries are going to be bringing 'some of the lads' with them this time, so as to have a higher chance of success.
However, not only did a total of ten new students get placed into 1-A and 1-B (with each class getting five), but a lot of the students that are visiting from Azu-Daioh High will include a lot of the monster students from Yokai Academy. Will the new hero course students at U.A. and the visiting monster students from Azu-Daioh High be enough to help turn things in Uraraka's favor over the next few chapters? The only way to know for sure is to stay tuned.
As a side note, Dabi, Spinner and Toga really did go to Royal Woods for a job; the events in question are covered in 'We must protect the Runestone!', one of my BNHA/Loud House cross stories. Both 'Runestone' and the other BNHA/Loud House cross story, 'The quirks that come with living in Royal Woods', gives context to a LOT of the events that either have taken place already or are going to be taking place in this story. Think of those two as supplementary material to the BNHA story setting that I'm trying to work on here. There will be other supplementary material coming out in the times to come, so there's that to look forward to.
