Chapter 50: Deception

"You are eating a lot," Hatsume told Momo who was stuffing in as much food as possible, "I have to prepare myself for my match. I might need to make a lot of things,"

Hatsume nodded, "You know, we should collaborate sometime. With your unlimited supply and my inventing skills, we could be unstoppable!"

Momo nodded as she slurped the noodles, "We can try after the sports festival. At present, we are competitors,"

"Ah, don't worry. I don't plan to get to the next round anyway," Hatsume said cavalierly.

Momo put down her bowl with a questioning look, "Why not?"

Hatsume looked around them, looking for someone before leaning in and whispering, "Don't tell Monoma, but I offered to strap him with my equipment to show them off. He thinks it's because of sportsmanship, hah!"

Momo didn't look too impressed, "That's not very nice,"

Hatsume shrugged, "As you said, it's a competition. And as someone from the support department, I need to catch the eyes of the support companies. Don't worry, I'll let him win after,"

"But isn't that counter-intuitive too?" Shouto suddenly appeared from somewhere prompting Hatsume to yelp, "Where did you come from?"

Shouto shrugged and took a seat next to them, "If you get yourself knocked out now, the companies will think you are crazy. It's better to go as far as you can,"

Momo nodded, "Shouto is right. The further you get in this competition, the more attention you get. You should give it your best instead!"

Hatsume frowned, "But who would demonstrate my babies then?"

"You could," Momo replied, "Show them what you are made of!" she said determinedly as Shouto nodded beside her.

"Oh, that's me. Gotta go!" Momo hastily put down her food and ran as Mic called the third match. Meanwhile, Hatsume was in deep thought. Why shouldn't she go for the win? Did she not have trust in her equipment? Of course, she did. There was no one capable of competing with her babies!

Hatsume's resolve hardened as her eyes burned with passion, "I'm going to win this thing!"

"Well… that was embarrassing," Watanabe commented seeing the extremely short fight that had taken place. Izuku rolled his eyes at his cousin's immaturity but he couldn't really argue.

The fight had been decided in less than 10 seconds with Shiozaki releasing a mass of vines to trap Momo before she could create anything.

"This is getting embarrassing for class 1-A! Both of their vice reps have been taken out by 1-B students!" Mic added salt to injury.

"There will now be a short interlude to get rid of the vines!" Midnight announced, seeing the vines creeping across the stage. Even worse, Momo was still tangled in the vines, as if to humiliate her.

And so she was, Monoma started jeering at Momo, "Hah! You can't even escape some vines! Just shows how much better 1B is!" Monoma cackled.

"That bastard!" Watanabe said through gritted teeth. Izuku would have stopped him from advancing but Izuku didn't like what Monoma was saying and let Watanabe advance. But before he could get there, Kendo arrived on the scene and delivered swift retribution, "Sorry about that guys! He can be a bit much," she apologized as she dragged away his limp body.

"A bit is an understatement," Watanabe growled prompting Kaminari to chuckle, "Look who's talking,"

"MOMO!" Jiro yelled from the stands, "Just make some blades from your skin to cut through the vines!"

Momo blinked a few times before turning red with embarrassment. She did as Jiro suggested and was free instantly. She couldn't believe she hadn't thought of that. Embarrassed, and thoroughly humiliated by her performance, Momo left the stage with a drooping head as Midnight ushered her to Recovery Girl's office to check out the bruises resulting from the vines.

The class was silent for a while, feeling sorry for Momo when Kaminari broke the silence by clearing his throat loudly, "Well, there's no point in mulling over it like someone died, right?"

Hitoshi nodded solemnly, "Yup. Let's talk about how Watanabe lied to us about his quirk!"

"What?" Watanabe asked as the rest of his classmates burst out into laughter. Watanabe looked to his cousin for help but he looked just as clueless, indicating both of them were left out of the joke.

"Kaminari, what are they talking about?" Watanabe asked his best friend who stopped laughing and put on a mock, hurt expression, "I can't believe you'd lie to me, your best friend too," he wiped a fake tear.

"I did tell you how my quirk works! It's vision change!" Watanabe replied, agitated.

"Ah, there he goes lying again," Hitoshi replied with a shake of his head.

"There's no use hiding it anymore," Kirishima clutched Watanabe's arm with a grin, "We know your quirk is Erasure. Just like Aizawa-sensei!"

"Wh-what?" Watanabe looked confused.

"Really? I heard it was foresight like Nighteye," Kaminari added.

"No, no, it's erasure of the future!" Hitoshi chuckled.

Izuku looked astonished, "Watanabe! Is that true?"

"Of course not!" Watanabe burst, "That's not at all what my quirk does. Who the hell spread this!?" Watanabe demanded, catching on to the fact that his friends were joking.

"Nighteye did. The dumbass thinks you have foresight," Bakugou added.

Watanabe looked to the other students for confirmation and got a nod from each of them, "Ok, how does that even work?" Watanabe thought hard.

"Well, you did evade all the mines and obstacles in the first round," Jiro pointed out.

"Yeah, but was because of my X-ray!"

"They don't know that,"

Watanabe grumbled, "Ok fine. What about the erasure?" he asked.

"Remember how you shut off Tetsutetsu's arms momentarily?" Kirishima asked.

"Oh, crap…" Watanabe said as realization dawned upon him, "And I assume people mixed the two and made it into Erasure of the future or whatever bullshit you said?"

"Bingo! Here, have a cookie," Kaminari conjured from somewhere and threw at his unimpressed friend.

"Let's not be hasty. There might be something to it," Izuku pointed out, taking the joke a bit too seriously.

Watanabe looked at his cousin venomously, "Oh, don't you start!" he ordered, knowing Izuku could make a mountain out of this particular molehill.

Izuku laughed and held his up in defeat, "Just kidding,"

"Uhuh," Watanabe said, knowing that Izuku would analyze this new information in his mind regardless, "Well in one way, it is pretty good," Watanabe smirked.

"How so?" Hitoshi asked.

"Well, with my quirk, I have to go either undercover or rescue or maybe even both. If I can already fool people now, it will be much easier for me!" Watanabe grinned sadistically, "And since they think it's Erasure, I'll just turn my eyes red and make them think I'm erasing their quirks!" Watanabe laughed.

Kaminari and the other students instinctively stepped away from Watanabe's mad cackling.

Meanwhile, Shouto who had been watching the interaction with interest, walked up to Watanabe, "Are you Aizawa-sensei's secret love child?"

Watanabe stopped cackling and stared hard at Shouto. The rest of his classmates did the same, their mouths gaping, "How do you come to that conclusion!?" Kaminari asked Shouto.

"Well, both have eye quirks, and their eye color changes," Shouto shrugged.

"I…no Aizawa-sensei isn't my dad," Watanabe said, "That's my dad!" Watanabe pointed across the stadium to Ryuzen.

"Hmm, that means Nighteye is your father," Shouto replied.

Watanabe's mouth fell, "I just said that's my father!" he exclaimed.

"Foster father," Shouto corrected. This time Watanabe didn't reply and just stared at the sheer absurdity of his classmate. He turned to Izuku for help who cleared his throat, "Shouto," he said kindly, "How did you come to that conclusion?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Shouto asked his classmates, all of whom looked just as dumbfounded as Watanabe.

Shouto shook his head and began to explain, "Nighteye also has an eye quirk,"

"Yeah, so does Aizawa-sensei and we already know that's not the case," Kaminari replied. The joke was becoming a bit too ridiculous now.

Shouto put up his hand, "I know. But this has to do with the fact that All Might is Izuku's father!"

"WHAT!?" Izuku and all the students exclaimed at once as Watanabe facepalmed harder.

"Isn't it obvious? His quirk is similar to All Might's in its destructive power AND Izuku always meets with All Might during lunch!"

"So does Watanabe sometimes," Hitoshi wondered out loud.

"Ah, but that's the twist! Nighteye is Watanabe's father and All Might is Izuku's! Both of them left their families due to being heroes. That's how both of them know each other and you can see Izuku even got the green hair from Nighteye. His hair is slightly green too!" Shouto said.

The entirety of class 1-A sighed deeply.

Watanabe grabbed Shouto and started pinching him, "Ow! What are you doing?" Shouto yelped.

"Ok, so not under mind control," Watanabe said, "Are you hallucinating, maybe in a state of delirium?" Watanabe asked.

"I'm fine!"

Watanabe wasn't taking that answer and continued probing him, using his fingers to examine his eyes, "Hmm, no signs of concussion, but you surely must have had a hard knock in the cavalry battle,"

"I did not! I'm totally fine!" Shouto replied.

"Evidently not!"

"How not?"

"Because no one sane thinks of something that scatterbrained!" Watanabe said, "I'm not Nighteye's son and Izuku's isn't All Might's son either!"

Shouto didn't look convinced but nodded regardless. Watanabe huffed and sat down while Kaminari looked genuinely convinced that Izuku was All Might's son. Why else would he be training Izuku and his friends? And so, he ventured forth to ask Izuku but before he could even open his mouth, Izuku replied, "No, I'm not,"

"How do you know I was going to ask that?" Kaminari asked, bemused.

"Your face looked too serious," Izuku grinned.

"NO, I'M NOT GENETICALLY MODIFIED!" Watanabe suddenly shouted.

Ryuzen watched Watanabe laughing with his friends fondly. He was proud of his son. He knew he should go and congratulate him or talk to him but he had duties to attend to do. He had been ordered by higher-ups to keep an eye on Hawks and make sure he didn't do anything stupid.

The hero in question did not know that he was being followed and continued his path around UA's hallways, evidently searching for something.

Unbeknownst to both of them, they were being followed by a third person, Nedzu. The rat principal was only following Ryuzen since he was still suspicious of him, but now, he saw that Ryuzen was in fact following Hawks.

Nedzu could not understand why Ryuzen would be following Hawks. He knew Ryuzen was employed in the commission but he also knew that Hawks had been trained by the commission. There was no reason for Ryuzen to follow Hawks, unless, one of them happened to be good.

In Ryuzen's case, Nedzu didn't know what rank he held. Not everyone at the commission was evil, he was sure of that. There were desk jockeys, clerks, office workers, and so many more who did not know of what was happening behind their backs.

On the other hand, Hawks had been groomed by the hero commission since an early age. Aizawa had even found records of him being sent on undercover missions illegally. There were also instances of him being sent to capture or even kill agents. Not that Nedzu had proof of it, but there was no one else that could have done something like that.

The case seemed piled against Hawks but Ryuzen seemed very suspicious indeed. Though, Nedzu had no proof of that except Ryuzen had seemingly used Inko to get information out of her. Then again, it was information he should have known. But even if Nedzu accepted those points, there was still the problem that Ryuzen was trained enough to avoid Hawks knowing he was there. The only reason Nedzu could shadow them was that he also had access to the cameras.

This led Nedzu to his final, and what he felt, was the more probable observation. Hawks was still a hero, so it could just be that he was trying to fight back against the hero commission. It seemed unlikely that Hawks could forever be manipulated by the commission. He was no longer a kid and was bound to fight back. If that was the case, Hawks could have been given a mission to obtain information within UA and Ryuzen was ordered to make sure he completed the mission.

Nedzu hummed in thought. This observation did seem more appealing to him but he was faced with a conundrum. He only had one move left to deal with this. If he approached Hawks to coerce him on their side but he turned out to be wrong, the commission would know.

If Nedzu approached Ryuzen instead, thinking that he was good, but was, in fact, wrong, the commission would know again. Both of them could not be approached by him as at least one must be evil, considering their activities.

Lastly, if Nedzu went with the theory that both were evil, and let them run free, who knew how much information they could steal, and how many illegal activities they could commit. Ryuzen had already proven that he was trained when it came to stealth considering he evaded Hawks' suspicions, and Nedzu knew that Hawks was one of the hardest to sneak past.

Nedzu decided the best course of action would be to weed the current problem at hand first and then decide on his next course of action. So, he used a shortcut to get ahead of them and walked abruptly in front of Hawks with a smile, "Ah Hawks! Can I help you?"

The number 2 hero was taken in surprise and stuttered, "Ahh, P-principal Nedzu! How are you doing?"

"Wonderfully well. Although preparing for the festival has been hell," Nedzu replied good-naturedly. He observed Ryuzen fade away into the shadows out of the corner of his eyes.

Nedzu ignored that for now, "So, can I help you?"

"I was just looking for the washroom," Hawks excused.

"Well, it's not down here. This is restricted space for everyone except the staff," Nedzu pointed to a sign.

"Oh, I must have missed it. Where is the washroom then?" Hawks asked with an innocent smile. Nedzu simply pointed to another sign, showing the way. Hawks thanked the principal and went on his way.

Nedzu turned, and pretended to walk away but actually hid to see whether Ryuzen would follow Hawks. Nedzu waited for some time but did not see anything. He was about to step out when a voice behind, made him stiffen, "Ah, Principal Nedzu! I thought you were in the audience?" Ryuzen suddenly appeared.

"I was," Nedzu smiled back, "I just needed to check up on a few things. Can't be too safe you know?"

Ryuzen nodded, "I understand. I must apologize for coming down here, but all the washrooms on the upper floor are filled because of the interval. I had to come down to the staff washroom," Ryuzen rearranged Hawks' excuse into something more believable.

"Completely understandable," Nedzu smiled, although his panic rose, "I assume you are going back to watch the match now?"

"Yes, of course!" Ryuzen smiled and walked away. Once Ryuzen was out of sight, Nedzu rushed to the server room, to make sure nothing had been stolen in the time he had lost sight of Ryuzen.

The doors leading to the room were closed and Nedzu knew there was no way to obtain any information without breaking in. It seemed like Ryuzen really was just following Hawks.

Nedzu switched to the teacher's channel on his radio, "Ectoplasm, I need extra clones to secure the information room,"

"Copy that," Ectoplasm replied on the other side. Nedzu decided to wait for the clones to appear. He didn't trust Hawks to not try again. He pulled up the cameras on his tablet and saw that Ryuzen was already back in the box, and Hawks was sitting in the space, reserved for the pro-heroes.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMAN! Welcome back to the final round of the festival! We now have our fourth fight! Kaminari Denki vs Todoroki Shouto! Can Kaminari pull a double on father and son?" Mic's loud commentary reached Nedzu's sensitive ears. Nedzu chuckled, Yamada always knew how to rile up the contestants.

Nedzu really wanted to watch this match. It seemed like it would have a lot of potential but he had much more to think about, "It's not like I can assign the teachers to tail Hawks and Ryuzen. The only one with that capability is Aizawa or Snipe. Plus, there are more commission members we need to look after. Just because Hawks failed, doesn't mean they'll stop," Nedzu thought to himself, "I'll just have to keep an extra eye on them," Nedzu resigned to himself as the Ectoplasm clones appeared.

The clones gave a nod of respect to the principal. Nedzu smiled back and started to walk out when a loud noise, akin to a thunderbolt rocked the stadium. Nedzu nearly fell at the explosiveness of the sound, mixed with the shaking.

Nedzu ran outside, fearing that it was a villain attack. His fearful look was replaced with an interested grin. The match had gotten off to a tremendous start!

A/N: Well, that's the 50th chapter. Gotta say, never thought I'd get this far. Thank you to everyone reading and I'm excited to see what theories you guys might have for this chapter.

Lastly, as my sister pointed out, the story did go away from what the article promised but that's mainly because I couldn't balance the two. I also wanted to cover UA and the battle sim and USJ took far longer than expected. But, as soon as the festival is over, we're diving straight back into the things in the article! It's gonna get a bit serious.

Hope you have a good day and let me know if it's the right plan.