Ties that Bind

by Mirrond

All Might left his home that evening hoping to find a successor. Instead he found his old lover (that he thought died years ago), discovered that he has a son, offered him his quirk... and adopted a few additional children. After all, the best answer to All for One being a stepfather to your son is becoming a stepfather to his children, right? [Dadmight or Dad for One? Yes.]

14. Chapter 13: School Festival Part One

PLPanda - I wholeheartedly agree!

Yomunot - It does, doesn't it? And he probably homebrewed a grim urban fantasy setting under the name City of Ominous Darkness or something like that. And yes, that's literally what he did at one of my not-yet-written fanfics.

SmokyGhoul - I'm doing my best, sir! :D

The Archivist of Nyx - You are absolutely correct. Izuku is turning into All Might and Nedzu (or, perhaps, All Might, Nedzu and All for One) wearing a trenchcoat and that's absolutely terrifying. And yes, Momo is following in his footsteps when it comes to Nedzuification. Also happy birthday (if a bit late)!

Miholca - Thank you! But be aware that I'm also publishing a third fanfic, Dead on Arrival :P

Detrametal - Atsuhiro achieves peak comedy during the chapter 14 of this story, let me tell you that much. And yes, I'm also looking forward to Tokoyami and Dark Shadow meeting Aiko xD

Crimextar06 - I wouldn't expect him to actually battle the HPSC openly. Remember, he is prettty much All Might and Nedzu wearing a trenchcoat. With a slight addition of All for One. He can do a lot of damage without being seen :v

DeadlyDepression - Thank you!

Raw666 - Let's just say that the number of Demon Children will grow. And so will the number of Problem Children.

Pipblitz Brother of the Season - Thank you! And please, be aware that I have two more fanfics here, Cure to Evil and Dead on Arrival ;)

(***)

The first round of the school festival was, of course, the obstacle race. The first obstacle was the narrow gate which - despite the fierce attempts of the General Education Course students to stop it - was scaled the fastest by the Hero Course Students.

It wasn't even a fight, really. The strong quirks did offer the distinct advantage, even despite the Izuku-issued reforms letting the General Education students bring support items with them. How could a simple wall stop Yoarashi from simply flying over it?

Midoriya, similarly, half-jumped and half-climbed it, while Katsuki flew over it with his explosions. Todoroki simply froze the ground (and some feet) and slid through, taking advantage of the people around him being immobilized to slide forward.

Eraserhead was calmly observing the events, ignoring the Present Mic commentary. Then he noticed something. And chuckled menacingly.

"What happened, mummy-man?" Present Mic asked, with the stadium (unfortunately) hearing him. So he has to reply to this.

"Looks like the General Education Course decided to work together." Eraserhead says, against himself. On the screen he sees two Gen Ed coursers tripping Nirengeki Shoda of 1-B class and immediately restraining him on the ground, while using a support item to bind his legs and arms. Another one, with a quirk to make his body act like a mirror, is casually repelling Aoyama's Navel Laser while getting close to melee. With what looks like a riot baton. "To crush as many Hero Course students as possible."

It's Ayako Nakahara's plan, isn't it? It just sounds like something she would do, really. Especially with how many Hero Course students find their powerful quirks countered with some support items and 'weak' quirks.

Having a quirk allowing you to detect at a distance and roughly understand the workings of a quirk of others is a wonderful thing for a tactician. The reason why Eraserhead is going to make her a hero, even if she is far from being a fighter (yet).

The all-out brawl at the beginning ends up with seven Hero Course students taken out of the fight. With 1-A losing Hagakure, Aoyama and Koda (while 1-B loses Shoda, Kaibara, Kamakiri, Bondo, Rin and, almost, Shiozaki and Komori). Eraserhead is winning with Vlad King by one point.

(***)

The second real obstacle is the Robo Inferno (reformed). There are no Zero-Pointers this year, since that was clearly going too far. Instead, all that the students encounter are One-Pointers mark 2. Modified by the Power Loader to better fit the new school festival system.

They are slower and there is a clear shut-down button in front of them that has to be touched to get them deactivated for twenty seconds. They are also programmed to respond to the quirks that would normally not work on robots - so, for example, if Midnight was a student and she unleashed her cloud of sleeping gas, they would 'pretend' to fall asleep.

To take the changes into account and keep everything balanced, they are also supposed to not be destroyed. After all, they are pretending to be villains, and this is a hero school. Breaking a villain into pieces is hardly a go-to method of dealing with them. Arresting them, in the meantime…

Once again, the powerhouses simply ignore the obstacle. Midoriya actually uses some of the robots as stepping stones to leap past them. Katsuki flies over them with his explosions. Yoarashi flies over them without explosions. Todoroki slides between them after freezing half of them in place.

Eraserhead is about to feel happy with the majority of this year's powerhouses being in his team, when Mieko Eto - the Rehab Course student of class 1-B - starts warping her classmates to the other side of the Robo Inferno.

Well, shit. Vlad King is going to be insufferable about this stunt, isn't he?

Present Mic has his own share of laughs about several more Hero Course students falling to the Gen Eds, who act less like competitors and more like a pursuing army. Whoever gets sandwiched between the rampaging robots and them is down for the count.

Sero is taken down by a kid whose quirks let him freeze objects in place for something like two seconds, rendering his attempt to immobilize him with a tape a fatal mistake. The 1-B class warp is slow, resulting in Kodai and Fukidashi having to pull a rearguard action that actually ends up with them being defeated by a crowd of students.

Four to Six.

If you excluded the six Rehab Course students participating, the Gen Ed Course has taken down one in four hero students participating. Ayako certainly decided to add further arguments to her manifesto.

(***)

The third hurdle is the Fall. The gaping abyss (with an incredible amount of well-covered security measures) with numerous ropes above it. Supposed to test the mobility of the students.

Honestly speaking, Eraserhead has no idea why the school bothers to test that. Once again, Yoarashi just flies over it - he barely touched the ground ever since the start of the race (and seems to be shouting something about how incredibly passionate this race is). Katsuki does the same, but with explosions and angry shouts. Todoroki slides through the ropes after freezing them and making them slightly wider.

Midoriya doesn't even seem to use this quirk, instead he is pretty much running through the ropes like he was born doing this. Even Present Mic is taken aback by the sense of balance and the agility, and ends up asking his co-commentator if Midoriya is doing that with a quirk.

Eraserhead can hear gasps on the audience when they hear that no, Midoriya is just this agile. Frankly speaking, Aizawa wonders who trained him himself. Was it Inko Midoriya? Who exactly was she, if the answer was yes?

Asui, Iida and some steampunk looking girl from the Support Course pick up the pace as well. The rest seems to be struggling slightly. Even the warp quirk user, who is trying to puzzle up another warp, but is clearly winded by the first one. Worst of all, the 1-A (who, in general, is proceeding forward faster) has caught up with the 1-B class by the time the Fall started.

Then the pursuit group from the Gen Ed Course appears. With lots of Hero Course kids still on the ropes. Eraserhead is happy that his face is covered because no one sees his grin when they start pulling out airsoft guns and begin to snipe the Hero Course students down into the Fall - and thus, disqualification.

Ayako Nakahara, you beautiful monster.

The Fall isn't a fight as much as it's a massacre of the Hero Course. 1-A loses Kaminari, Sato, Kirishima, Shoji and Mineta. 1-B loses Awase, Kuroiro, Komori, Tsunotori and Tetsutetsu. 25% casualties among the non-Rehab Hero Course students raise to 50%.

The good news is that the sniping routine makes the Gen Ed Course students spend so much time before trying to cross the Fall that the remaining Hero Coursers safely disengage. Then again, they eliminated so many of the Heroes that whatever the next stage of the tournament will be, a lot of Gen Eds will get to participate.

"WHAT AN UNEXPECTED OUTCOME!" Present Mic yells into the microphone. "HERO COURSES WERE SLAUGHTERED BY OUR GENERAL EDUCATION KIDS! WAY TO SHOW THEM YOUR WORTH, LITTLE LISTENERS! Any commentary on this, mummyman?!" He suddenly turns his head to Aizawa, who would have preferred to be kept out of this.

Ugh.

"The General Education Courses decided to work together to prove to us that even a weak quirk can achieve a lot with good training, a decent plan and some support items." Eraserhead decides to speak his mind. "Sure, none of them can expect to one day fight supervillains solo, but neither I nor them seem to have a problem with understanding that with good teamwork they can make for good heroes. And they are doing their best to show that truth to the world."

There is loud cheering in the stadium. Everyone loves a good underdog story, don't they?

Compared to the Fall, the Minefield is practically a cakewalk with next to nothing interesting happening. Save for the really heated fight for the first place. And Midoriya doing some crazy gymnastic routine between the mines, that Aizawa would attribute to him trying to show-off if it wasn't, well, Midoriya.

(***)

"And now, the Obstacle Race results!" Midnight announces, and the image on the screen changes.

1. Inasa Yoarashi (Hero Course [A])

2. Shoto Todoroki (Hero Course [A]

3. Bakugou Katsuki (Rehab Course [A])

4. Izuku Midoriya (Hero Course [A])

5. Ibara Shiozaki (Hero Course [B])

6. Juzo Honnenuki (Hero Course [B])

7. Tenko Shimura (Rehab Course [A])

8. Tenya Iida (Hero Course [A])

9. Miyuki Tagawa (Rehab Course [B])

10. Mieko Eto (Rehab Course [B])

11. Yoshihiro Maki (Rehab Course [B])

12. Tokoyami Fumikage (Hero Course [A])

13. Ojiro Mashirao (Hero Course [A])

14. Tsuyu Asui (Hero Course [A])

15. Uraraka Ochako (Hero Course [A])

16. Momo Yaoyorozu (Hero Course [A])

17. Kyoka Jirou (Hero Course [A])

18. Ashido Mina (Hero Course [A])

19. Itsuka Kendo (Hero Course [B])

20. Jurota Shishido (Hero Course [B])

21. Neito Monoma (Hero Course [B])

22. Amaya Uyemura (Rehab Course [B])

23. Mei Hatsume (Support Course)

24. Setsuna Tokage (Hero Course [B])

25. Kosei Tsuburaba (Hero Course [B])

26. Reiko Yanagi (Hero Course [B])

The remaining sixteen slots are all taken by General Education students. Including Ayako Nakahara at place thirty-first. The second stage of the school festival is going to be the Human Cavalry Battle.

Inasa absolutely beams at the announcement that he is now worth ten million points and shouts to everyone to come at him at their leisure. All Might is the absolute opposite of surprised at that development.

He is slightly more surprised when the teams start being formed and Tsuyu Asui approaches Inasa. Together with, apparently, Tenko?

Why is Yagi Toshinori getting worried?

In the end Tenko Shimura, Tsuyu Asui and Inasa Yoarashi form a single team, and Yagi has absolutely no idea how it's supposed to work. Especially as they are clearly giving the team's headband to Shimura.

In the meantime his son picks Uraraka, the Support Course girl (after hearing the tales, All Might expected her to go for the highest scoring person, why did she pick Izuku?) and Tokoyami. Todoroki picks Tenya, Momo and Kyoka. Bakugou ends up in a team with Ojiro, Ashido and one Rehab Course from Class B (namely, Amaya Uyemura).

1-A has quite an odd line-up, then again, it was thoroughly massacred during the first round, so any line-up will (by definition) be an odd one. The kids are scraping the barrel.

The battle starts. All Might coughs out a mouthful of blood when Inasa immediately takes off, Tenko piggybacking him and Tsuyu practically hanging off his back. Inasa seems to be shouting something alongside 'CATCH ME IF YOU CAN'.

Then he realizes that Tenko is mostly hiding behind Inasa (at a distance from the ground that makes him hard to accurately target), while Tsuyu is using her tongue to either deflect the attackers trying to take off after them or try to steal headbands in the passing. Letting Inasa focus on the flying bit.

Whose idea it was?!

(***)

Few minutes in, it becomes obvious that things aren't going alongside the plan - it doesn't even matter whom you consider, literally no one's plan works as intended. Maybe save for Inasa, who is still laughing at people and taunting them from above.

1-B was clearly planning to focus on dismantling class 1-A (Eraserhead is 99% sure that it was that Monoma kid who planned it, he heard about him enough). Unfortunately for the 1-B, it was slaughtered during the first round. So it has the same problem with improvised team-ups.

Worst of all, the General Ed Course students were still there. And were still out for hero blood. Ayako had the exact same plan as Monoma did - namely, 'have our class cooperate in order to take down our enemies together'. But she didn't expect the 1-B to do the same.

While 1-A lacked a similar decision, they had some of the real powerhouses on the field. All of that resulted in a chaotic melee-a-trois between the Gen Ed, the 1-B class and whatever 1-A team happened to be nearby.

With the former two occasionally cooperating to mess-up the 1-A, as Bakugou discovered when Team Nakahara and Team Monoma teamed-up on the fly to steal his headband. They immediately came to blows over it - it changed hands three times, before returning to a clearly livid Bakugou after the other Rehab Courser in his group grew tired of it, told his teammates to hold their breath and discharged enough poisonous gas from his body to make Monoma team sluggish for a crucial few seconds.

Ayako Nakahara and her team take a bite, too, stealing remaining Monoma's headbands before fleeing from clearly enraged Monoma. Who seems to be personally offended by being taken down by a Gen Ed coursers instead of his fated archenemies of Class A.

In the very same time, Todoroki seemed to have given up on everything save for one single thing - getting Midoriya's headband. The battle was incredibly fierce, but both sides were clearly smart enough to not be surprised by anyone else trying to take a bite at them.

Finally the last seconds of the fight come. Todoroki decides to take a plunge, using Tenya's super move to give his team a sudden power-up in speed.

They almost manage to grab the headband of clearly surprised Midoriya, when suddenly his team is enveloped in a thick smokescreen. This is enough to throw the attackers off-guard, and Todoroki's team fails to grab the headband.

(***)

"Oh, what was that?" Inko asks, clearly surprised by the development. "One of that support girl tools?"

"I… don't know, actually?" Yagi replies. He can see his son's team emerging from the smokescreen, and they clearly look dumbfounded by what just happened. They can see Mei Hatsume shaking her head, clearly an answer to some question that was asked while still in the smokescreen.

"Uncle Yoichi is being a dummy." Aiko suddenly interjects. "He did it." Her parents look at her in surprise. Yagi thinks that he knows all of his children's uncles and aunties at this point, and he never heard of Yoichi before.

"Who is uncle Yoichi?" Inko asks, and Yagi understands that he isn't the only one surprised by Aiko's words.

"A dummy." Aiko replies, clearly disinterested. "He is giving me candies and I like him, but he is still a big dummy. You can't see him, because he is invisible. We normally hang out when you aren't at home."

The eyes of Yagi and Inko meet over their kids and for a short time, the stadium around them doesn't exist. What on Earth did they miss?! Is some creep stalking their children when they aren't there?!

"Where is uncle Yoichi now?" Yagi decides to be the interrogator in this.

"He is living in Izunichan's quirk, just as he lived in yours." Aiko replies and Yagi blinks a few times in a surprised realization. "He says that he is my father's brother. He looks similar to the pictures that mom showed me, just younger and smaller. Like older Asa-nichan, actually." She sighs. "And now Auntie Nana and Uncle En are shouting at him. Dummies. All of them."

Yagi almost chokes on blood when he figures out that he mistook the legendary First Holder of the One for All for a potential child molester. Then he almost does it again when he realizes that Nana is living in One for All. And then he does it one more time because he realizes that En's quirk was Smokescreen and he suddenly understands what is the 'One for All's Final Form'.

He might really need a blood transfusion before the festival ends.

(***)

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Nana shouts at the First Holder in the deepest recesses of One for All. En is right behind her, and Lariat not far behind him.

"I mean, he was about to lose!" Yoichi tries to defend himself. "Then he would fall out of the competition and then Aiko would be sad!"

"You're an idiot." En announces with the face of Eraserhead. "You do realize that if Izuku finds out that he won thanks to outside… well, inside help, he is going to be a pain-in-the-ass about it? He literally gave the Gen Eds the idea for the Hero Course Crush just to give them a sensible fighting chance and a shot at becoming heroes, and then told Nakahara to go after his class too because anything else wouldn't be fair! How do you think he is going to react to a ghost living in his quirk helping him win despite not being a registered part of the competition? Meaning that nobody could be prepared for him in any way?"

"Err…" Yoichi starts thinking. And he doesn't like the results.

"Aiko is going to kill us all." Lariat mumbles in the background. On the other side of the stadium, a young girl tilts her head a bit, thinks about something for a few seconds, and then faintly nods to herself.

(***)

Midnight announces the results of the Human Cavalry Battle event.

1st. Place: Team Shimura [Inasa Yoarashi, Tenko Shimura, Tsuyu Asui]

2nd. Place: Team Todoroki [Todoroki Shouto, Tenya Iida, Momo Yaoyorozu, Kyoka Jirou]

3rd. Place: Team Midoriya [Izuku Midoriya, Uraraka Ochaco, Mei Hatsume, Fumikage Tokoyami]

4th. Place: Team Katsuki [Bakugou Katsuki, Ashido Mina, Ojiro Mashirao, Amaya Uyemura]

5th Place: Team Monoma [Neito Monoma, Miyuki Tagawa, Ibara Shiozaki, Yoshihiro Maki]

Eraserhead has no idea why Nedzu made a last minute change to let the first five teams (instead of first four) go through to the third round. It will make quarterfinals (and so on) rather awkward in numeration.

There are 19 participants left in the game, so the team leader of the team that placed sixth - namely, Ayako Nakahara, because of course that's her) gets added to the roster. Eraserhead is 99% certain that Nedzu made a last-minute change to the participants number to let Nakahara show her mettle as well.

Gen Eds lost the second round. But, frankly speaking, they managed to take most of the 1-B with them. Honnenuki was a recommended student, but he still was done in. Eto, the warp quirk user, becomes the first Rehab Course student to be defeated. Kendo, Shishido, Tokage, Tsuburaba and Yanagi are out too.

Vlad King is probably simultaneously fuming and hoping for Monoma to save the honor of his class. Because otherwise, he is going to end up losing the bet and will owe Eraserhead a lot of coffee.

Midnight announces the match-ups of the first round (before announcing that it's time for a break to let the participants catch some breath).

1. Izuku Midoriya vs. Amaya Uyemura

2. Todoroki Shouto vs. Kyoka Jirou

3. Ibara Shiozaki vs. Ashido Mina

4. Inasa Yoarashi vs. Ojiro Mashirao

5. Tenko Shimura vs. Momo Yaoyorozu

6. Tenya Iida vs. Mei Hatsume

7. Fumikage Tokoyami vs. Ayako Nakahara

8. Uraraka Ochaco vs. Bakugou Katsuki

9. Tsuyu Asui vs. Yoshihiro Maki

10. Neito Monoma vs. Miyuki Tagawa

(***)

"I'm kinda surprised about the tactic you used, Inasa." Uraraka asks as the 1-A students are exiting the stadium. "I expected you to go after everyone to gather all the headbands for yourself."

Kyoka Jirou expected the same, really.

"THAT WAS MY ORIGINAL PLAN, YES!" Inasa replies. "BUT LOSING TO MIDORIYA IN THE BATTLE TRIAL MADE ME REALIZE THAT THERE IS MORE THAN ONE WAY OF WINNING! I FOCUSED ON MAKING MY TEAM WIN THE BATTLE SAFELY. I'M GOING TO GO ALL OUT IN THE NEXT STAGE TO MAKE UP FOR IT!"

Ojirou shivers a bit. He, like Kyoka, clearly realizes what being paired with the class powerhouses (both of them clearly pumped up) means for them. Still, they are going to do their best.

"Speaking about Midoriya… did someone see him?" Tenya asks. "I expected him to accompany us."

"I think Todoroki took him for some talk." Uraraka replies. "He looked super serious about it. It's probably about their fight."

Is it about the fire? Or the smokescreen? It was quite an odd moment. Todoroki looked like he saw a ghost after the fire spark happened. Midoriya looked similarly shocked about the sudden smoke burst.

Kyoka is aware that she enjoys spying on people with her quirk. She also realizes that, technically, this might have been on the verge of villainy, especially when she did that before becoming a hero trainee. But she really, really enjoys that.

She isn't using the knowledge she obtained that way for anything. She isn't exactly a gossiping sort. The secrets she learns are safe with her, and she considers obtaining them to be a sort of a quirk training.

With a side dish of vigilantism. She might have put forward a few anonymous tips about the small crime plans that she overheard in the past. And she did tell one of her teachers that one of her classmates was mumbling to themselves things indicating that they are planning a suicide.

It was resolved safely - with some proper mental help, and the teacher did agree to not mention to anyone how he learned of the problem. She did technically agree not to do that anymore, but...

Kyoka likes learning things. Sometimes it's kinda funny.

So when she hears about Midoriya and Todoroki having a secret talk, she decides to listen to them. Maybe it's a love confession, maybe she will learn about something useful for her soon-to-be fight with Todoroki? Who knows.

So she connects her ears with the wall. And singles out the right voices.

"... made me break my vow." Todoroki is saying. "No one else nearby felt it. But I did. Might be because I witnessed All Might fighting the Noumu with his full power in front of me."

What? What is this about?

"So… uhm… what is it about?" Izuku repeats her thoughts verbatim. "What are you trying to say?"

"That what I felt from you was something similar." Todoroki replies. "Are you All Might's secret love child?"

Oh my God. Kyoka imagines him stating that with a deadpan face to equal his deadpan voice and holy shit, this is hilarious. What made Endeavor's son appear to such a hilarious conclusion?!

All Might is the most popular person in the country. How could he possibly hope to hide something like that from his fans? She knows how crazy they can be, after all her father is one of them. Hell, she is one of them, just less than her dad!

And then there is a part where Midoriya clearly doesn't resemble All Might at all.

She braces herself for some hilarious (and startled) rebuke from Midoriya.

"Yes." Izuku replies and Kyoka freezes, because she can feel his heartbeat from here and there is no hesitation in it. No dishonesty. "Yes, I am."

What? Kyoka is staring down the corridor she is in, trying to figure out what she was just hearing. There was something wrong with her ears or something like that, yes? Probably from the strain of using her quirk during the...

"... I expected you to deny it." Todoroki promptly states.

"My mom prefers to keep the press away from her and her home." Izuku replies. "Besides, if villains found out that All Might is secretly married, they might have tried to go after his family. And I… I want to achieve everything by my own hands. I'm going to tell the world that I'm his son the day I graduate and become a hero officially." There is a second or two pause after that. "I'm not going to lie to my classmates when they ask me about it, but… please don't tell anyone."

"I won't." Todoroki replies and Jirou seconds him. "But that means that I have to defeat you even more."

"Why?" Midoriya asks and Kyoka braces herself because she suspects that this talk is going to get downhill from this point.

(oh if only she knew)

(***)

Next chapter could as well be described as 'Izuku Midoriya has a bad day'. Like he had on that beach with Thunderbolt. And yes, he runs into Endeavor.

Tbh, Izuku should be wearing two clubs around, one titled Consequences and one titled Friendship. That would sum up his character interactions with others pretty well.

Also, save for Uyemura (you should figure out who he is from what he did to Monoma team during the cavalry battle) other 1-B Rehab Coursers are OCs from my Cure to Evil fanfic (all three are members of the League of Villains there). Who exactly? Time will tell :P