Just over a week after the Gala, Izuku made a decision.
He wanted to get Shoko something, to remind them of what they'd promised each other and of everything they'd been through.
Izuku didn't know what he wanted to get her at first, so he went to Mina for advice.
The pink-haired girl started hopping with excitement once he'd explained.
"Oh, I know the perfect thing!" she told him, "It's an old-fashioned thing some couples used to do, it fits you two so well!"
She whispered it in his ear, and Izuku broke out into a silly grin.
It was perfect.
Now, Izuku just had to find an excuse to go into Musutafu to buy them. With how much time he and Shoko spent together, it was hard to keep his plan a surprise.
Luckily, Mina and Uraraka came through for him yet again, happily inviting Shoko to train with them one Saturday. She accepted, leaving Izuku with a four-hour window to go downtown and get her surprise.
He made it to Kobayashi Mall with plenty of time to spare, and started looking for the right store.
Unfortunately, he ran into an old enemy.
Izuku went rigid as a hand draped itself around his shoulders.
"Well, well, well," a deceptively relaxed voice drawled, "if it isn't Izuku Midoriya! How have you been?"
Izuku finally processed who it was, and he lowered his guard, slightly .
"Touya," Izuku said, "can you not do this right now? I'm kind of busy."
The black-haired man replied, "Oh, come on! What good is a reputation as a feared ex-villain if I can't use it to scare people once in a while?"
Izuku said exasperatedly, "Sorry, but I can't really talk right now, I'm getting something for Shoko."
"Well, that's convenient, because I wanted to talk to you about her," the lost Todoroki sibling replied.
Suspiciously, Izuku asked, "What about her?"
"She told me what you and her said to Endeavor at the Hero Gala," Touya explained.
Izuku wasn't really sure what to expect.
He supposed that Touya sticking out his fist for Izuku to bump was the best outcome.
"You, my friend, are a true hero," Touya said as Izuku gave in and bumped his fist, "anyone who calls Endeavor a "fucking disgrace" is alright in my book."
Izuku smiled and responded, "It's what he is. I also told him that he'd get a ten-second head start if he tried to hurt Shoko ever again."
Touya grinned. "You're more merciful than me, I guess. I would've given him five," he said.
"So, does this mean that we're cool now?" Izuku asked.
"Mostly. I'm still going to kill you painfully if you break my sister's heart," Touya replied, "I'll just feel a little bit bad about it now."
Izuku thought that was fair.
"So," Touya asked as Izuku started to walk again, "what are you getting for Shoko? Because if it's condoms or something, I'm leaving before I get traumatized by that mental image."
Izuku blushed. "No, nothing like that, just something from here," he replied, stopping in front of the jewelry store.
Touya grinned. "Invite me to the wedding, then," he said, "I'd love to scare some baby heroes."
Izuku would have protested that it wasn't an engagement ring he was buying, but he didn't think that would stop Touya.
Besides, Izuku knew that he would be buying just that for Shoko some day.
Izuku didn't spend long in the jewelry store in the end; he knew what he wanted, after all. The owner even had a metal-shaping quirk to add the personal touches Izuku requested.
Izuku knew that Shoko wouldn't want something really fancy or expensive. The fact that it was coming from him would be good enough for her.
When he walked back into the dorms, he had just enough time to get up to their room and put the box on the nightstand before Shoko came inside.
"What do you have there, Izuku?" she asked as she came up to kiss him in greeting.
Izuku replied, "I've got a present for you, Shoko."
"Oh?" she asked, "what is it?"
Izuku didn't reply; instead, he asked, "Shoko, do you trust me?"
She looked at him strangely, because of course she trusted him.
After everything they'd been through, she would trust him with anything.
So she said, "Yes, Izuku, I do."
Her boyfriend said, "Then close your eyes for a second, okay?"
She did, and she heard a box creak open. Then, she felt Izuku take her left hand, and slip something cold onto her ring finger.
When Izuku said, "Okay, you can open your eyes now, Shoko," she already had them halfway there.
Her eyes widened as she saw the ring .
It was a simple band of gleaming bronze, but as she looked closer, she could see her name and Izuku's etched into the surface, wrapping around the outside in an endless loop.
Her breath hitched. "I-Izuku? What is this?" she asked.
He smiled gently as he explained, "It's called a promise ring. It's meant as a sort of...declaration of intent, I suppose. For us, I want it to be a reminder of what we've decided together. Someday, I will marry you, Shoko Todoroki. I know that now. After everything we've been through, it could never be anyone but you. Do...do you like it?"
"Are you okay with this?" his eyes asked.
Shoko put her hand over her mouth as tears began to well up in her eyes. She saw that he was wearing one, too, on his left hand, identical to hers in every way.
She hugged him, tears of happiness falling freely as she declared, "I love it, Izuku. Thank you. "
It had never felt as immediate, as real, whenever she'd thought about the future as it felt right now.
For the first time, Shoko really, truly understood.
She was going to marry Izuku Midoriya.
Someday, whether it came soon or in a year, after UA, Shoko was going to walk down an aisle with the boy she loved waiting for her at the end of it.
That was the promise this ring represented for her; the promise that one day, it would be a wedding band.
Shoko reached up and pulled Izuku by his face down to her level, so she could kiss him more fiercely and possessively than she ever had before.
That made her want to have sex with him again, so she started to tug hungrily at Izuku's clothes as she pushed him backwards onto the bed, already moaning as his hands started to track downward towards her ass.
Then, they heard a loud cough from the doorway.
"I hate to interrupt, but could you two hold off doing the horizontal tango for five damn minutes?" a voice asked dryly.
Shoko spun around, a little annoyed about getting denied her Izuku again.
"Mina, what do you want?" she asked testily, as Izuku looked up hazily from the bed.
Sure enough, the pink girl was leaning in the open doorway, wiggling her eyebrows in amusement, along with Uraraka, who looked more fondly exasperated than anything else.
"Well, we were coming up here to tell you guys that it's time for lunch," Mina said, "but instead, we got quite the eyeful, it seems."
Shoko put her hands on her hips as she said, "Well, I'm fucking him right now, so if you don't want more of an eyeful, I'd suggest you leave."
Uraraka's eyes widened, and she turned to walk away as Shoko focused her attention back on her very handsome boyfriend.
Mina also began to leave, but before she did, she said, "Remember, I've got three thousand yen on you getting pregnant before third year! Don't mess this up for me!" as she closed the door.
Shoko paused, making eye contact with Izuku as they processed Mina's words.
"The implications of that are…" Shoko began.
"Terrifying? Yeah," Izuku finished.
They silently agreed not to think too hard about Mina's bet.
Then, Shoko said, "Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah, I was doing this."
She ripped off her workout top and athletic bra, sighing with relief as her chest finally stopped being compressed.
Then, she leapt on Izuku.
If they were going to be married, Shoko wanted to get even more of a taste of what it would be like to be with Izuku for the rest of her life.
A Time Skip Is Here!
For the last few months of second year, Shoko felt like she was living in a dream.
Her father was silent; not a word came from him about marriage, training, or anything.
He didn't even make a peep as Shoko's mother finally left the hospital and officially separated from him, using the threat of publicizing her divorce to keep Endeavor's lawyers firmly quiet.
The tradeoff of settling the way she did was that she wasn't able to claim any of his money, but then, Rei didn't care. She wanted to be free, and she didn't want anything that came from him , anyway.
Shoko wasn't sure exactly how or why Rei, Fuyumi, and Touya had moved into an apartment in Musutafu, not far from UA, but judging from Nezu's satisfied grin, she had her suspicions.
Shoko was in heaven. Classes continued as they always had, she had no fear of what her father might do, her family was safe, and, of course, she had Izuku.
Boy, did she ever have Izuku.
Shoko thought that they spent most of their free time together nowadays, whether with their friends, on dates, or in bed.
After a life of isolation, Shoko couldn't get enough of just having him there; he reminded her of how far she'd come, and where she wanted her future to go.
Her heart still fluttered whenever she glanced at her promise ring, which had made the girls of Class A shriek in glee as they examined it. Hagakure had declared it the most romantic thing she'd ever seen, and Shoko agreed.
The end of their second year was coming up soon; Shoko didn't want to think about what that might cause.
Sure, she and Izuku would be fine. Their homes were close enough that they could spend almost every day together, even if it was only a few hours at a time.
But Shoko didn't know if being outside of UA's protection might change the unsteady ceasefire she and her father seemed to have settled into.
Hell, she didn't know if she would have to stay with him over the summer or not.
Shoko got the feeling that her dream would be under threat soon, from the same place her dreams had been threatened by all her life.
But now that she'd had a taste of it, she'd fight tooth and nail to protect it.
She wouldn't give Izuku up, no matter what.
But Shoko hadn't gotten her stubbornness from nowhere, and someone else was planning to make a desperate gamble for their goals.
In his agency office overlooking the Tokyo skyline, Endeavor was waiting for the man he'd chosen for Shoko, rather than that pathetic, insolent, arrogant-
"Mr. Todoroki, Sora Geretsuna is here to see you now," buzzed the intercom from his secretary.
Pressing a button on his desk, he said, "Thank you. Send him up."
A few minutes later, Geretsuna walked into his office. Bowing politely, the young man said, "Hello, Mr. Todoroki. It's good to see you."
Enji returned the greeting, then said, "Come with me, Geretsuna. We have much to discuss."
As he followed the flame hero, Geretsuna asked, "About Shoko, sir?"
"Indeed," Enji said, "and about how you are going to marry her, as soon as possible."
At last, they reached Enji's private lounge, sitting down as a serving man brought them tea.
"So, I heard correctly, then? You're moving up the date of the wedding? May I inquire as to why?" the younger man asked.
Enji nodded. "I am," he confirmed, "because of what happened at the Hero Gala several months ago."
Geretsuna suppressed a smirk as he replied, "I heard about that. You got surprised by Shoko and her boyfriend, and now they're the darlings of all of Japan. Heck, some of my American friends have even heard of them. The foolish masses always love a good teen romance, don't they?"
Enji nodded. He began, "I will freely admit that they caught me off guard at the Gala, and took advantage of my surprise. It seems that Shoko paid more attention in my media manipulation lessons than I originally assumed. And yes, they are currently a favored topic of hero tabloids. Unfortunately, my hands were tied for a period following that debacle, and my unstable wife used it to feign sanity and successfully escape her confinement in a mental hospital. I would have easily seen her returned via legal means, but those bastards at UA have been shielding her from me. I swear, one of these days that damn rat will get what's coming to him. But that is unimportant for the moment. For now, we must discuss Shoko and her... dalliances. You told me you encountered Izuku Midoriya when you had that meeting with Shoko, correct? What was your impression of the boy? Is he bribable? Perhaps he could be blackmailed or intimidated?"
Geretsuna's eyes twitched, as though he was trying to clear them of something uncomfortable. Then, he responded, "From what I saw, he seemed to be weak-willed and easily overruled. He doesn't strike me as very assertive or strong, as even when he had me at a disadvantage, he did nothing and let others respond for him. I've seen his type before, guys who can't exhibit real masculinity, so they pretend to be sensitive and understanding to get girls instead of taking what they want, like girls want them to. If I had to say, I'd bet that either Shoko is dating him because she feels bad for him, or else she feels threatened by real men, so she is dating him to prove her own superiority. Either way, I'm confident I can woo her away from him given a little time."
"As distasteful as ever," Enji thought, "but he is useful, and that is what matters."
Enji nodded. "If Midoriya is as you say, then your task should be even easier," he said.
"What is my task, anyway?" Geretsuna asked, leaning forwards in his chair.
Enji replied, "It is simple: UA's term ends in one week. At that time, Shoko will have to stay with me for the duration of the two-month break. This will be our best opportunity ever; she will be alone, separated from Midoriya and her weak siblings."
Geretsuna nodded in understanding, and Enji continued, "I want you to pick Shoko up from UA. She may resist or be unwilling to return with you, but you should do everything and anything to convince her, aside from physical force. Leaving aside the fact that we don't want her injured, as long as you do not instigate aggressive behavior, she cannot attack you without creating an incident I can use against her."
Geretsuna asked, "What do I do once she's in the car?"
"Explain that I have paid for you two to go on a week-long vacation in the south of Japan," Enji responded, "which I have. That should give you ample time to "woo" her, correct?"
Geretsuna grinned. "A nice, fancy vacation spot? Private beach, spa treatment, the works? Oh, yes. I'll have her eating out of my hand in no time," he said.
Enji ignored the grandstanding, and simply said, "Good, and perhaps the week alone with you will help her accept the fact that she is not destined for love, not if she wants to be the greatest hero. As soon as you return, I will arrange things so that the marriage will be officially recorded. At that point, we can keep Shoko separate from Midoriya until he gives up, believing that she has rejected him, and we can announce a whirlwind romance ending in a blissful marriage for the both of you."
Geretsuna's smile got even wider, as he imagined finally having Shoko like he'd been promised.
Then, Geretsuna said, "You know, you should be pretty grateful I'm doing this as for the price I am."
Enji raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" he asked in a low, dangerous voice.
Geretsuna stretched out on the chair, slouching as he said, "Well, she was already damaged goods, right? With the whole scar and everything. And now, with all the stuff they said in that interview, I'd imagine she's used goods, too...I'm just saying, I'm already been a good son-in-law, and Shoko ain't even married to me yet!"
Enji sighed. "I will keep your... generosity... in mind," he said in a tone that reminded Geretsuna who was actually in charge here.
Then, Enji dismissed him with a wave of his hand, saying, "Now go, and do not return until you have Shoko with you, willing to marry you."
Geretsuna nodded and walked out of the room. As he did so, a slimy grin crept across his face.
Oh, he was looking forward to getting his revenge.
"Izuku Midoriya, I'm coming for you," he thought, "and your precious little girlfriend will be mine."