Shouto received the bronze medal, and looked out over the cheering crowd. Zuko would be so jealous. Uraraka walked to the podium, and was given the silver. She shone with happiness, but Shouto could see there was something wrong. Then, Bakugou was brought out. Emphasis on brought.
"Oh, no." Uraraka whispered. Bakugou had been restrained to the podium, and muzzled. He was twisting, his face contorted in anger.
"Well, this is a bit much." All Might said. Frick this. Todoroki hopped off his podium, and shattered the chains with ice. Bakugou ripped off his muzzle, and glared at the crowd.
"YOU SEE THIS? I won your stupid festival. I wasn't supposed to win; Uraraka was. But that's not the [bleeping] problem. The problem is that this--this [bleeping] ceremony, it's to show off who's the strongest. And whether that's Uraraka or I--you don't make them weak! You don't set them up on a pedestal to be looked down on, but to be looked up to! What was done to me--you know what that [bleeping] shows? It shows that no matter how powerful your heroes are, they can always be chained down. So [bleep] this. Uraraka, you win by default; I [bleeping] quit." Shouto watched in amazement as Bakugou tossed the gold medal over his shoulder, and stalked away. There was a moment of silence. Well, if no one else was going to do it...
"I don't know about you, but that was the best speech I've ever heard." Shouto said, and threw his medal to Uraraka in turn, following Bakugou. It's what Zuko would do; the most dramatic and awkward thing possible.
"HalfnHalf, the [bleep] are you doing?" Bakugou asked him, in the tunnel beneath the stadium.
"Being a supportive friend." Shouto replied.
"You won your medal fair and square." Bakugou protested.
"Not really. I had outside help." Shouto said, as there was no way he could have learned lightningbending without Zuko.
"Hah. That's what I thought, with whatever the [bleep] that explosion was. And the water--since when could you create water? Also, that absorb-and-shoot-back lightning thing. You need to teach me those." Bakugou said.
"You won't be able to make water, with your quirk, but I could see the combustion bending happening, easy, and maybe even the lightning redirection? You kind of have firebending." Shouto said.
Kirishima and Denki ran up to them.
"Dude. Bro. That was so manly! You just told them the truth they couldn't see themselves. You are amazing!" Kirishima said, trying to hug Bakugou.
"Stupid Hair. Shoo." Bakugou said, but let Kirishima hug him anyway.
"You really feel that way about it all?" Denki asked, and Shouto remembered how he and Zuko had discovered the true UA traitor: a technical mistake.
"Wanna go hang out with the rest of the Bakusquad?" Kirishima asked. The...what?
"The WHAT?" Bakugou asked. The Bakusquad consisted of Sero, Kirishima, Denki, Ashido as well as Bakugou himself, and apparently, Shouto, since he'd somehow ended up as Denki's best friend. It was all Zuko's fault.
"Shouto's part of both squads." Ashido pointed out.
"Both squads?" Shouto asked.
"Yeah! We should meet up with the Izusquad. Go out for ice cream together." she offered. The Izusquad was Izuku (of course) Tsu, Uraraka, Tenya, Himiko, Shinsou, and apparently, Shouto. (Why did Zuko have to make friends with everyone?) However...
"Where are the Iidas? They just disappeared halfway through." Uraraka remembered. Shouto didn't know, but he noticed Bakugou looked extremely guarded. He wondered what that was about.
The two squads met up at the mall, and ice cream was only the beginning of their adventures that afternoon. Shouto was wandering through a random store when he ran into Tokoyami and Kouda.
"You guys are here too?" he asked. Kouda pointed towards the pet store.
"I viewed those of my kin who have no souls to light their darkness." Tokoyami said.
"[He looked at the birds," Kouda signed.
"I have a second soul who only shows himself in shadow." Tokoyami told Shouto.
"Okay? I know that." he replied.
"You have a second soul who only shows himself on Tuesdays. Fear not; Kouda and I vow to hold our voices, even should the world fall apart in ashes and smoke." Tokoyami said.
"Wha--how'd you know?" Shouto asked.
"[The beasts can smell such changes," Kouda signed.
"Dark Shadow is a spirit from a world too far away to fathom, and he recognizes those who carry experience impossible without aid from somewhere beyond what is known." Tokoyami said.
"Wait, Dark Shadow can see if someone has connections to another world?" At the other's assent, he continued.
"Have you...met anyone else who has?" he then asked.
"[Katsuki has magic powers]." Kouda signed as Tokoyami said the same.
"Oh yeah...he said he was visiting another world." Shouto realized.
"He does not visit the same one as you; Dark Shadow has noted four separate traces, and they are not of faraway planets that are, but of worlds that could have been." Tokoyami said.
"What?" Shouto asked.
"[Different realities]." Kouda signed. Then, Shouto noticed something.
"That's--that's the hand guy from the USJ. And he's holding Izuku hostage." he said, watching the otherwise nondescript man in a hoodie sitting next to his green-haired friend. Shouto had learned from Zuko to always memorize an enemy's body language as well as their appearance, in case you met them in disguise. The villain was talking about something emphatically, waving his hand not holding Izuku through the air. How could Shouto separate them without giving the villain an opening to disentegrate Izuku?
"[If Bakugou was here, he could just explode them apart]." Kouda signed. Aha! Shouto slammed his hands together, sending a bolt of compressed energy at the bench the two were sitting on.
Izuku was trying his best not to die when Shigaraki was knocked off of him with a massive explosion. Izuku crashed into the wall, and as people screamed and ran away, he saw Shigaraki, whose sweater was on fire, disappear into a purple mist portal.
"Are you okay?" Tokoyami asked. Izuku turned around, to see three of his friends. The other ones were running over as well, coming to find the source of the explosion.
"What happened?" Kacchan asked him. Wait...
"You weren't here, who exploded the bench?" Izuku asked.
"I can do that now." Shouto told him. Huh. Shouto had been able to do a whole lot of interesting things, lately.
After everything had been sorted out, the group of friends decided to go to a restaurant for dinner, to calm down after first the adrenaline of the Sports Festival, then the villain attack. They recounted some of their favorite parts, from the events that day.
"Oh, it was awesome! Shouto just like, grabbed the electricity, spun in midair, and kicked it back at me. Where are you coming up with all these amazing ideas?" Denki asked, and Shouto smiled.
"That's for me to know, and you to wonder." he replied. He trusted his friend, but didn't feel ready to tell him about Zuko, yet. Shouto loved having friends; he watched Ashido tell a joke to Tsu, watched Kirishima practically hang off Katsuki (and Katsuki letting him), watched Izuku and Shinsou argue about quirks, watched Uraraka and Sero take turns trying beat each other's high score on a game, and finally, he talked with Denki about every subject the two could think of. He hadn't had anything like this for...well, ever. He loved Fuyumi and Natsuo, of course, but Fuyumi was twelve years older and Natsuo had his own apartment. Zuko was his friend, of course, but they'd never actually talked. (Zuko had been working on a trans-spatial radio, but that had been destroyed when Zhao blew up his ship.) He was glad Zuko had integrated him into these friend groups, now.
"Life is awesome." he said.
"It really is." Denki replied.
The next day was a Tuesday, and Zuko, having just restored his honor and returned to the Fire Nation, was not in a good mood. He'd left a detailed description of what had happened for Shouto, who would be surprised to wake up back in the palace. He was sure he'd done the right thing, so why did he feel so angry? That day, they were choosing their hero names, and internships. Shouto wanted to just choose 'Shouto', for his, which was stupid. He also wanted to go to Endeavor's agency, which was even more stupid. Zuko was going to ignore Shouto's guidelines.
"He's going to hate me for this." he said.
"Who is? And for what?" Shinsou asked.
"Just...something," Zuko replied, thinking. He'd figured out the deal with the Iidas, however. Their older brother, the hero Ingenium, had gotten attacked, and paralyzed from the waist down, by Hero Killer Stain. Denki had said something terribly stupid, as usual, but had apologized for it immediately after. The two had been agitated all day.
"My hero name is Ingenium. I am going to carry on my brother's legacy." Tenya told Midnight, who approved it solemnly.
"I choose Wraith; the nightmare hero. The bad guys won't know what bit them." Himiko said.
"You mean hit?' Midnight asked. Himiko grinned.
"Nope!"
"King Explosion Murder." said Katsuki.
"No." Midnight said.
"I am Dekiru, the persistent hero; I will do whatever it takes to improve the world." Izuku said.
"Lord Explosion Murder?" Katsuki asked. Midnight vetoed it.
Ojiro chose Tailman, which...okay. Ashido was Alien Queen, Sero was Cellophane, and Uraraka was Uravity, which Zuko considered to be pretty neat. Katsuki eventually came up with Dynamight. Anyway...Shouto, as a hero name, was not an option. 'The Blue Spirit,' was, technically, Zuko's vigilante name, and so also not an option.
"Chargebolt!" Denki said. Maybe he could pick 'Firelord'. Heh. But not really. No, Shouto needed a cool name. How about...
"My hero name will be Coldsun." Zuko said. Denki gave him a thumbs up. Shouto would like it...after he stopped yelling. Then, he signed up for Hawks' agency, grinning madly the whole time.
"What's got you feeling so happy?" Jiro asked him.
"I am going to be so angry about choosing this agency, and this hero name, tomorrow." he said.
"So why are you picking them?" she asked.
"Because. It's hilarious." Zuko replied.
Notes:
Shouto and Denki are such great friends!
:) :) :) :) :)