Chapter 24: Wishful Thinking

Hisashi watched the man in front of him. He took a moment to smell the air with his quirk deactivated. He always knew his quirks' own heat caused the dust in the air around him to burn - no real difference in smell though, just felt like something was missing. He knew he wouldn't have to wait too long for his quirk to return, Eraserhead wasn't attacking him any time soon. It always went like this when he met with Pro Heroes.

They invade his space, they do something to show off their quirk so they feel safe, and then he reminds them that if they were the reason he was in town they wouldn't have gotten to the door. He would give Eraserhead credit however, the man was sticking to his guns longer than most.

Eraserheads quirk deactivated and Hisashi could feel the room heat up for a split second before the man reactivated it. Hisashi waved his hand. "Relax, the room is going to be warmer when I'm this absolutely livid."

Before Eraserhead could respond to the comment, Hisashi continued. "First, I learn that my daughter resembles a zombie from some monster girl ecchi manga, next, I discover multiple attempts at kidnapping her - one villain managing to make the attempt during a class at U.A. and escape." Hisashi said as he held his chopsticks tightly. "And now, I find my own wife being used against me by her teachers, or did you think I wouldn't realize she took me to our old apartment when she's been living in the U.A. dorms for protection?"

"How-"

"You're hardly the only professional in the room. Also, while you made a considerable effort to make the apartment look lived in - even stocking my preferred brand of cup ramen - you failed to realize completely removing every speck of dust is a bit too much. Some of it would have settled by the time she got back from the airport with me in tow, even if she'd finished just in time to hop into the car." Hisashi said, tapping his nose. There was a pause, and then he pointed at the couch. "Also, wrong brand furnishings, the company behind that couch in particular uses a pleather that is remarkably flammable. I could still sneeze and turn this room into an inferno without the dust."

Hisashi then placed a hand on his chin. "Though, telling her to head to the local supermarket first so we could pick up a few groceries, as well as snacks for the festival, was a nice touch to explain the nearly empty fridge." He said as he made a show of wiggling his nose as if he was about to sneeze. That just resulted in Eraserhead's eyes lighting up with his own quirk. "Relax, I have better control than that."

Eraserhead stared for a bit before deactivating his quirk as Hisashi dug into his pockets. He pulled out a small bottle and placed it on the table. Eraserhead looked at the man with mild irritation. "What is that?"

"You prefer this brand in particular right? You have good tastes in medicine by the way, I almost couldn't find any dirt on this company." Hisashi said as his hand left the bottle of eyedrops, leaving it on Eraserheads side of the table. "Given the damage you withstood at the USJ, I can't imagine being in my presence is doing any good for your dry eye... "

Eraserhead stared at the bottle of eyedrops as if it was a bomb, already trying to figure out when Hisashi could have bought them. Realization crawled up his spine as Hisashi's own eyes glowed the color of smoldering coals, as if ready to ignite with the right breeze. "You were wishing you'd remembered to bring some, right?"

"Is this the part where we counterattack!?" Setsuna half screamed as the actions of Katsuki and Monoma's teams changed the dynamic of the battlefield. Now it was nearly every tank team for themselves. With the addition of quirks, the fight had become something out of a videogame or weird dream.

Setsuna was reasonably certain that hitting Ibara's tank would be impossible through the dome of vines, but Nigengeki was making a very strong attempt at it. She was fairly certain he was using his quirk Twin Impact to give the shells an extra boost just before they landed - Meanwhile Osore was hopping from her tank into the tank of a nearby competitor, forcing their aim off before jumping back to hers to fire a shot. The resulting retreat just put her in an even better position to shoot her target, given the teal color she assumed it was Itsuka's.

The landscape of the match was pure chaos too - Neito and Shoto were going head to head with the same quirk, launching glaciers at each other. Shoto had finer control of the ice, but Neito had no qualms about using the fire half of Shoto's quirk. The fact that that alone was enough to give Neito an advantage seemed to be infuriating Shoto to the point of dropping form and practicality for sheer overwhelming force. Katsuki and Manga had been trading blows but now seemed to be trying to catch the other off-guard by shooting low and creating smokescreens of dust and colored smoke.

Fumikage's Dark Shadow was a lot more defense oriented. With Fumikage able to hide in the dark, Dark Shadow could withstand a shell, regenerate quickly, and go back out into the light of day to hammer nearby tanks or absorb additional shells. Pony on the other hand was unleashing hell with her horns. Remote control ammo capable of wreaking havoc by jamming themselves into main guns or treads - Juzo was being forced to actually climb out and soften the horns so they could shoot through them.

"Because we should really start taking people down before they go back to attacking us, they're figuring out their stride!"

Izuku nodded to herself as she listened to Setsuna. She went up to the hatch and opened it, popping her head out to see what Setsuna was seeing. A grin split the zombie girls face as she saw Monoma and Shoto's battle starting to limit the movement of nearby tanks as they had to navigate the forming glaciers and avoid toppling ones when Monoma started melting through certain ones for an opening. "Aim for the tanks trying to escape the maze of ice those two are forming! They won't have room to avoid our shots and even if we miss, we'll probably crack the ice and drop it on them anyway!"

"You heard her! Closest gap at ten o'clock, range two hundred feet!"

As the tanks main gun turned and angled up to hit that range, Setsuna sent one of her eyes towards the gaps in the mess of glaciers, watching for tanks to start making their way out. "Load shell, fire on my mark!"

She could hear them loading a shell into the main gun as she watched a tank - which looked like Shihai's tank - barreling out of the way of the ice. The tank was dark in color, and a cursory flyby of the main gun's barrel showed her Shihai's head was inside of it. With Shihai in control of all the moving parts of the tank… they'd have a quicker than average reaction time, and smoother synchronization of movement since he could effectively act as gunner, pilot, and assist in reloading.

Made her wonder what the rest of his team was doing in there.

"Fire!"

Her team's gunner fired just as Shihai's tank reached the gap, resulting in the tank popping into the line of fire just as the shell reached the said gap. There was a burst of green smoke and a shockwave that sent her eyeball flying back, but it was a successful shot from the looks of it. As she regained control of her eye again she saw another smoke cloud - this one electric blue.

"Two Team Six and Team Nine both lose a tank! You'd think these guys would have a harder time figuring out a tank?"

"Some students, yes, but there are simple instructions in the tanks. It also helps that they're simplified controls."

"Simplified my ass, there's six pedals! Why are there six pedals when it can only go four directions!?" Kikaiko said as he drove the tank forward. "Where the hell are the instructions regarding that!?"

Yui rolled her eyes from the turret control station. "Three over three, top forward, bottom reverse, center pedals go straight, left and right pedals turn. We went over these designs last week in class."

"I - oh, right."

"Cannon is loaded!"

Izuku nodded as she continued to watch the battlefield. Ibara seemed to realize focusing on defense wasn't going to help as the number of tanks started to drop - resulting in her vines breaking from her shell and digging into the ground.

Nigengeki seemed confused, then shocked as his tank lurched. Vines had encased the treads from underneath and were working their way up the turret. Nigengeki gestured for another shot only for Ibara's tank to fire first, slamming into his tank with a burst of forest green. Another call for a team losing a tank. "Alright, start heading towards the ice. Everyone has mobility over us so we need to force them to give up mobility to chase us down!"

"Won't the ice trap us!?"

Izuku shook her head. "The fire is causing the ice to weaken, but it's about to get put out. Shoto is going to win - and then he won't think to check the ice he already made for survivors."

'This… filth!' Shoto was something beyond angry. At first he understood his opponent - faced with any quirk on the field, his at the very least was the easiest to weaponize - though why Mineta had willingly sacrificed himself to set it up didn't make any sense to him. His understanding gave way to rage when the copycat proceeded to use his fathers flames to melt his ice.

A part of him slowly put together who the copycat was. His little scene with Izuku was very well known around Class 1-A. It seemed he hadn't learned his lesson about boundaries. If he was in his right mind, Shoto might have admitted the boy had no way of knowing.

Shoto wasn't in his right mind though, Shoto was far from it.

It didn't help that he'd only just gotten free of Mineta's hairballs forcing him to the top of his own tank. It'd hurt to freeze them until they while still on his skin, but he'd gotten free. He knew exactly how he was going to end this though, there'd be no recovery for their tank.

"Load and hold. I'm going to guarantee a kill shot."

"As if you can Class A!" Neito said, laughing as his team fired another round. Ice deflected the shot and - as expected, Neito melted the ice.

"Shell loaded!"

Shoto used his ice to manipulate the turret controls, lining up his barrel with Neito's. He then used his hand to create a wave of ice to hide a tube of ice connecting their main guns. Neito, unaware of the real threat, simply tried to melt the larger ice wave "Shoot now!"

The round fired into the tank barrel, the ice guiding it perfectly. Ice blue smoke plumed from within the tank and emergency escape hatches opened up to aerate the tank faster.

"Wha - you - !"

"You got too used to using just your arms because I was." Shoto decided to brag a bit, to let him know where he went wrong. "Maybe if you hadn't been focusing on my fathers fire, you'd have realized I can form ice from my entire right side."

"Both of Team Eight tanks are down - Team Eight is Disqualified! Seems ambushing Team 2 just isn't enough when faced with a quirk like that!"

"Shoto has a unique advantage in this event. While the act of riding or even driving a tank or escort vehicle might limit most peoples options quirk-wise, his quirk provides an extra means of defense and offense due to its range and versatility"

"Hell yeah, we got an entire team on our own!" One of his teammates said from below. Shoto tensed a bit, that was a good point… and it meant they couldn't rest yet. They'd just taken out two tanks - which meant his team was likely the highest on the board.

"Move, now, we need to regroup with Manga."

"Wha? What do you-"

"We just took the leading spot for points which means -" Shoto formed a wave of ice, stopping a shell from hitting his tank. "We just became public enemy number one."

He retracted his ice within the tank. Allowing another teammate to retake control of the turret as yet another drove the tank forward and around the mess of icebergs they made.

'On top of that, if he followed my instructions, he's currently putting pressure on Katsuki.' Shoto thought to himself as they headed towards the other half of their teams last known location. 'Which pits two explosive capable combatants in the same area, everyone else should be trying to keep their distance, giving us a clearer shot.'

As his tank cleared the ice however, he realized two issues with getting said clear shot. Dust and smoke filled the area where he could hear them fighting. He needed to figure out where his next target was hiding and -

There was a trio of whistles as a glowing something launched from one cloud to another, releasing a loud bang and ordinary smoke.

"Talk about timing - Manga of Team 2 downed by Katsuki Bakugo right at half time. You know, I expected him to have difficulty with using his quirk in a tank… pretty sure his tanks turret wasn't locked in that direction."

"Ordinarily, maybe. However Katsuki is something of a natural in combat, and has a particular expertise when it comes to his quirk. End result is that despite his quirks lack of obvious range, he's already thought of and worked on a solution."

Shoto could feel his teeth grinding. That was a problem. If the copycat proved anything using his fire, it was that just icing over a tank wouldn't cut it with Katsuki - he'd break through with his explosion quirk.

And because he could launch shots like that, outmaneuvering him wasn't an option either. He acted as a faster, just as dangerous primary gun. If he could keep the pressure on him maybe they could keep him on the defensive, but that could change quickly depending on the actual primary guns.

Shoto needed a better plan. He began surveying the rest of the arena to see what sort of strategies, if any, the others were using.

"Hey Dark Muppet!"

"What did you-..."

Shoto blinked as Dark Shadow, the quirk of Tokoyami, stopped short of punching one of Izuku's friends, the tired looking one. He looked almost surprised, then smiled before giving an order in a quieter, calmer voice. Low enough that Shoto couldn't hear it - but the results were self explanatory.

Dark Shadow practically threw itself at another tank - giving Hitoshi's team the opening they needed to land a shot center mass on Fumikage's tank. Violet smoke burst from the tanks outer walls, signaling its defeat. The tank being assaulted by Dark Shadow opened one of its hatches - a pair of horns flying out to push back the mind controlled quirk. At first Shoto wanted to take advantage of the distraction Dark Shadow was creating, but that changed when a storm of horns proceeded to literally begin nailing the quirk to the ground. He could defend against such a quirk, but his tanks movement would be limited afterwards - easy prey.

He needed to deal with bigger threats first, before his tank could be crippled by his own quirk. All that was left was Izuku and her partners larger tank - which he'd lost sight on - as well as Katsuki, The source of those horns, a tank he hadn't seen any quirks out of yet, and Katsukis partner - who was using vines to try and form a mix of offense and defense. She'd be a problem if he let her continue, but her vines gave him an idea after what he'd done with Neito.

"8'oclock, we're going after her."

"But she -"

"Is going to give us the opening we need to take her down." Shoto said, "Plus it will get us back the points we lost when Manga was beaten with interest."

"High risk, higher reward." Someone else in the tank said in what Shoto assumed was agreement. "What's the plan?"

"When she sends her vines, I'll freeze them. With the ice following her vines -"

"It will reach her tank and spread to the denser vines, locking her in place while the ice around us is still thin and fragile!"

Did he just interrupt him? So that's what it felt like.

"Yes… and I apologize for my previous interruptions, your point is made."

There was a wave of laughter from his team as they started to zero in on the tank led by Katsuki's partner, getting her attention.

"Now, let's win."

"I admit, I was confused on what this would showcase. I still am, but I'm caring less and less." Hisashi said as he relaxed back into his couch. Inko was still unconscious, and he was a few seconds away from getting a handful of smelling salts to rouse her - she'd likely cause some level of damage if she woke up after their daughter won. "I mean, I'm sure most of the audience think it was Nedzu's attempt at creating an environment where the less powerful students could show off, only for the powerful hero students under the amazing hero teachers to show how clever they are - but we know the reality, there is no outsmarting Nedzu. He knew exactly who would shine, regardless of the stated purpose of giving everyone a fair chance."

Eraserhead dropped his hands from his face, no longer putting pressure on the inner corners of his eyes and opened them. The eyedrops were working wonders already for his dry eye. "No-one ever knows what Nedzu is thinking, even more so when it comes to the students, and I don't get paid enough to ask."

"None of us get paid enough for what we do." Hisashi said as he opened one of his suitcases, pulling a wooden box from it. Eraserhead watched carefully as the man with his muscles tensed and ready to react. The box slid open, revealing four cigars. "Heroes, Policemen, even people like me. Anyone who says otherwise is either lying about the pay or lying about the job."

As Hisashi picked out a cigar, Eraserhead decided to pose a question. "Speaking of work and pay, why go mercenary? You aren't trying to escape home - that much is clear. You haven't used the distance to break things off and sent money home constantly." Eraserhead said, declining the offered cigar box as he spoke. "And based on how you've acted with Inko thus far, the love is genuine. So why leave for years at a time, why avoid Japanese work when you could get better pay working local for the Public Safety Commission, and be with your family."

"You don't get paid enough to know that." Hisashi said as he fished out a v-cutter and offered a cigar to the underground hero. Eraserhead shook his head and the box was shut and stowed in the suitcase. "But since I know you'll do your own digging - something I can appreciate - I will say this much. Even if I'd be with them more often, I'd struggle to look them in the eyes if I worked here."

"What makes you say that?"

"Look into Lady Nagant, if you don't value your license or life." Hisashi said as he put a crown cut into the cigar, before lighting it with a wisp of flame from his lips. He took a draw from the cigar before speaking again, letting the smoke leave with his words. "Keep an eye on Hawks if you do. Now let's talk about something else. I hate talking about work when I'm finally away from it enough to actually come home."

Eraserhead nodded in understanding. He could get more answers himself now, so he could afford to compromise there. "Any subjects safe for home?"

"... I heard U.A. was invaded, you were injured pretty badly from the sounds of things."

Eraserhead raised an eyebrow. "What happened to not talking about work?"

Hisashi shook his head. "Oh, I'm not talking shop with that comment. That was a father noting and appreciating the lengths you went to to protect his daughter and her friends." Hisashi said, taking his phone out of his pocket. Since he'd arrived he had fifteen new emails, ten times the text messages, and someone had forcibly placed an appointment notice in his schedule. "The part where I bring work into it is when I ask you what you and those kids fought, but I won't do that, because I hate talking about work when I come home."

Another drag of his cigar, this time letting the smoke rest in his mouth for a bit before he pushed out a few rings. "No, I'm more curious about your headcount. Must have bagged quite a lot of idiots before the real monsters came out." Hosashi said as he rolled the ash off the tip of the cigar, letting the cherry glow openly. "Although I suppose the kids did too - remarkable really, that they're this strong already."

Eraserhead rolled his neck, getting a loud pop once he found the right angle. "They have potential, otherwise I wouldn't teach them. What's your point?"

Hisashi brought the cigar back to his lips. "Just seems amazing to me. They thought of everything - right tool, right job, right place all the way through. They hacked the security, they had the schedule, they had you and the kids isolated, surrounded, and for the kids in unfamiliar terrain… just to flounder at the end? Hell of a comeback." Hisashi said before he began to pull smoke into his mouth, letting it rest for a bot so Eraserhead could think on his statement. "Even if the goal was stated to be to break the pillar of peace, it seems really ironic that a plan that went off so well ended up doing the reverse - showing that All-Might was forging new heroes able to take the reins."

Hisashi pushed out a ring of smoke. "And the leaders of that invasion, one braindead, the other a man child with some decent analytics but nowhere near patient or sane enough to plan that thoroughly…" He continued as Eraserhead took out his phone. "Almost makes you wonder if he really knew what he was doing, you know? Oh don't send that to Nedzu, he's already thought about it."

Eraserhead stopped mid-text to look up at Hisashi. "If he has, he hasn't mentioned it."

Hisashi laughed. "Of course he hasn't, you haven't asked." He said as he began to run his hand over Inko's head, stroking her hair. He wondered for a bit if she was pretending given that she usually woke up faster than this. He looked at her relaxed face with a smile as wide as it was gentle, she knew his profession and how he talked with heroes - it was wholly possible she was letting him do what he did by playing unconscious so Eraserhead wouldn't try to change the subject. Still, the round might end soon and he didn't want either of them to miss their little girl proving just how amazing she was. "Like you said, you don't get paid enough - right?"

He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and felt Inko start to wake up. The fought back a grin as she snuggled closer to him as she brought herself back up to a sitting position. "Feel better dear? Oh, someone dropped by while you were sleeping."

Inko looked over at Eraserhead, then gave him a half-hearted thump on the chest. "Why wouldn't you wake me up? I'm sorry I wasn't awake to greet you."

Eraserhead sighed and shook his head. "It's alright, I can understand being a bit anxious with how the festival has been playing out. That Nedzu decided to add tank battles caught us all off-guard too."

Hisashi slid an arm around his wife's shoulders and tapped her arm. "Let's not miss another moment." He said as he refocused on the live feed of the festival, his wife nodding against his shoulder and watching with him.

"Truly, a more hellish quirk I can't imagine." Ibara said as she tried to hold off another blast of ice with her vines. The boy hadn't used his fire yet, but that made little difference when the ice was leaving her vines immobile and brittle - as if he was summoning the deepest circle of hell to do his bidding. "We must hold strong, does anyone have any ideas!?"

"I knew I should have made Baby 7734 capable of higher temperatures! If I'd built it to my original specs we could totally blast tunnels through his ice!"

One of the general studies students held up a hand. "Um… I think they're locked onto us now."

Mei looked away from her invention - an expandable bladeless fan with a heating coil. Originally it was designed to create super-heated air to melt through things like snow, ice, even metal if need be - but she was told she wasn't allowed to bring something that hot into the festival, something about third degree burns. The other kids had explosions, how was that not just as bad!? "What makes you say that, Baby 5420 should be jamming their targeting systems!"

"Because I'm looking down their main turret gu-"

"EVASIVE ACTION!" Mei grabbed both throttles and slammed her feet into the reverse pedal just before a loud boom range through the cabin. There was another sound of shattering ice and Ibara winced, rubbing her scalp. "You okay up there!?"

"I - I'll be alright, but we need a plan to counter attack - where is Katsuki?" Ibara asked as she grew more vines to try and hold off the coming ice. They were being overwhelmed and needed back-up. There was a lurch, and then the tank stopped moving entirely. "What, what just happened!?"

"Um… we have a problem." The same general studies student said as he pointed out of the viewing slit. Mei looked out with him as Ibara risked sticking her head out from the hatch to view what was happening around them. Ibara's eyes went wide as she looked around and saw the issue. Her vines, frozen into large clumps the closer they were to the tank, had formed a sort of reinforced ice block all around them - they were stuck in place by the remnants of her own quirk.

"I… I'm sorry." Ibara said as she came down from the hatch, just for a couple of the other students to pull her into a hug. "W-what-"

"We totally kicked ass - not your fault he decided to chase after us!"

Mei shrugged as she leaned over one of the tank shells. "And even if it is, we still got to show a lot of my babies - plus we can still go down swinging!" She said, strapping a device to it. "Load this one next!"

"Right!"

Ibara watched the others load the next shot and wiped her tears from her face, waiting for Mei to move back to the turret controls. The cannon turned slowly as she waited for everyone to be ready - it looked like their opponent was ready to fire as well. "Everyone. Thank you for this opportunity, and I regret I can't lead you further - now, let's open the way forward for everyone else!"

"Target Locked!" Mei said as Ibara pointed forward through the view slit.

"Fire!"

Shoto formed a shield of ice as Ibara's tank fired its last shot, his own shot slamming into them and causing white flags to shoot out of the sides. Rather than stop the attack however, the brightly glowing shell seemed unperturbed by his ice and drilled through it. He braced for impact and the shell delivered, rocking his tank to the side and nearly triggering the flags to pop out. "The hell was that!?" One of his teammates demanded as they got the tank back under control. Shoto looked over the sides from the hatch and winced, the outer hull of the tank was scorched something fierce at the impact site. "What the actual fuck was that!?"

"I… don't know." Shoto said as they started to go in reverse to reassess the situation. One of their treads was already moving slower than the rest just from that hit. Shoto cursed under his breath - they weren't out of the game but they weren't getting any further any time soon. They'd need to play defensively until the round was over. It wasn't like they'd lose at this point anyway, their scores were certainly high enough. Still, he wanted to go even higher. "However, the damage is obvious, we need to stall for time.

"No kidding, all we can do is spin in circles!"

Shoto clenched his fists and jaw in frustration, maybe if he iced the other tread it'd even out and they could keep going. Before he could make the attempt there was a series of explosions, followed by an electronic horn louder than any of the tanks. The board shifted to show a set of four zeroes - time was up.

"And that's time, good thing too - this was getting crazy!"

"Not to worry though, despite how bad some of the shots these tanks were built for this sort of crazy - between live feeds so we could verify no students were harmed by the jarring movement and numerous interior design features to soften student to interior impacts, all of the students are fine."

"Is that… did they replace Eraserhead with Snipe for the commentary?"

"Must have been called in for something."

"When did they switch!?"

Elsewhere, Izuku and Setsuna were the first out of their tank, followed by the rest of their team. Izuku looked at the ice around them in awe. "Wow… think Shoto could help with Christmas events as a Pro in the future?"

"Let's keep focused on the next event…" Setsuna said as her head popped off and started to float up to get a better look at the screen. She bit back a tsk at the sight of the scoreboard.

"Despite losing teammates in their assaults, Teams Two and Six take the lead tonight with first and second place, with our biggest tank, team twelve steady in third!"

"The other four teams also lost their partners Mic, those being teams one, twenty, nineteen, and three. Giving us an initial set of seven teams to make it to the final round."

"At least we're in the top three I guess."

"Unfortunately, while I might find a bit of luck in the number seven - 'specially as I'm counting my shots - it's a weird number to play a tournament around."

"Which brings us back to all those points you all fought for! Now that you have 'em, you get a choice as to whether or not to buy back your teammates into the running!"

Setsuna floated back down to her celebrating team. "We made it!" Izuku shouted as she ran up to Setsuna. The greenette grinned and the two swept each other up one armed hugs as their other arms pumped into the air.

"Pick your friends, figure out who's still in the game, and prepare for the final round during this brief intermission! Also, if your tank took a hard hit - you all know who you are - head into the medical center for a quick evaluation."

"An intermission?"

Izuku nodded to the general education student who voiced the question. "U.A. always has an intermission between the second and third events, so the students can cool down and so the staff can check for less obvious injuries like concussions." Izuku said as she broke from Setsuna… or rather, as she walked away and Setsuna's left arm, shoulder, neck, and head continued to hang onto her as it split from her body. "It also helps to plan for the tournament now that they know who will be participating."

"So, who's participating?" Setsuna asked from her spot across Izuku's shoulders. "I mean, I know I'm participating and I assume you are Izuku - but you guys earned your shot too, so who wants in?"

The team was quiet as they looked back and forth. Eventually, Yui raised her hand. "I wish to utilize the tournament to test my latest designs."

"I'd be up for that too. It'd be a good chance to show how my quirk interfaces with tech." Kikaiko said as he grinned and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "If no-one else wants the spot… assuming we have enough points for two spots."

Eraserhead let out a relieved sigh as he watched the festival with Inko and Hisashi. "Snipe's a good pick, the commenters box gives him a good vantage point - and he's serious enough to keep things straight when Mic gets too into it." He says as Hisashi nodded.

"Does he ever explain why he never picks up anything with a higher caliber - or at least more options for ammunition?" Hisashi asks, getting a huff from Eraserhead.

"Something about the inner workings of his revolver and its size let him classify it as support gear - similar to Midnight laws were changed as a result of his equipment, but he was able to more or less get away with it even after the crackdown."

Eraserhead leaned his head back to let a few droplets fall into his eyes. Hisashi Midoriya was an odd person - though for reasons that'd normally make a person normal. He had a loving wife that he loved just as much, a daughter he clearly cared deeply for, an overseas job to support them, a bad habit or two based on the smoking. All normal.

But he's a Cleaner. He's an international mercenary, a private investigator, and a corporate spy all mixed into one very dangerous job. His quirk was both known and unknown. Cleaners had the bare minimum of their quirks recorded officially - gives them plausible deniability when they need to go against the playbook to get answers.

Hisashi's quirk is Fire Breathing, but the way he acted made it seem as if he'd produced a kind of eyedrops based on Eraserheads desire for one - a desire he didn't physically or verbally show. It reminded him of one of his students - but without the glittering glow or exposed skin. How did Fire Breathing enable that? He also blew out very little smoke for how large the cigar was and the drags he took - was he absorbing the smoke for something?

"Looks like they're going on intermission. I'll get a pot of tea started - and some wagashi!"

Hisashi leaned in and nuzzled Inko's neck, getting a startled jump and a blushing smile from his wife. "That sounds lovely, it's been a while since I had proper tea, let alone wagashi!" Hisashi said before breaking into a belly laugh as she gave a mild swat at the man's shoulder.

"We have a guest!"

"Sorry, sorry, Europe is a bit more open to PDA, seeing it around as much as I have might have rubbed off on me a bit."

Inko gave a smirk and stood up, walking away with a bit of a mild sway. "Well behave, or I won't be held accountable for what happens next."

Eraserhead choked on his jelly pouch, earning another laugh from Hisashi. He shook his head and cleared his windpipe as Inko started preparing the cooking space. "So… thoughts on your daughter getting third place?"

"Pretty good, all things considered. Curious how long before she and that teammate of hers start referring to each other as sisters." Hisashi said as he blew out his dying cigar. The remaining ashes were flicked into a pile forming for the prior rolls of the cigar. Hisashi put his hands over it, cupped them, and blew into an opening he'd left at the top of his cupped hands. He pulled his hands back to show the ashes had disappeared. "Neat trick huh? Makes cleaning up from this horrid habit of mine a breeze."

"You know it's bad but you still do it." Eraserhead said, giving a mild glare at home. Another weird gimmick of his quirk no doubt. "Why do it?"

"This coming from the man who refuses to eat anything other than nutritional jelly. I do it because it keeps me sharp."

"You seemingly ingest ash and smoke, you can breathe fire and read minds, you can make things out of thin air - just what exactly is your quirk?" Eraserhead asked as he leaned slightly closer. Hisashi was quiet, then slowly let out a chuckle, followed by a laugh. "What's so funny."

"I can't read minds, not really." Hisashi said as he started to glow, looking at Inko with a relaxed, adoring gaze. He loved how she knew - how she always knew exactly what to do. "It's more like certain kinds of thoughts tend to share themselves with me, and I go from there."

Eraserhead felt himself relax a bit as Hisashi's eyes glowed a soft green. At least it was full mind reading - that was too dangerous to keep quiet about, even in Hisashi's line of work. He frowned slightly as he realized something. "That doesn't explain anything."

"No, but nothing else you said needs to be officialized, not in my line of work."

Eraserhead felt the urge to punch the man but held back - no need for violence. They were, technically, all on the same team. He heard Inko start up the stove and decided to let the smell of mochi and green tea reach him. It was good quality from the smell of it - not quite the Golden Tips Imperial his rich student or Nezu prefer, but still better than anything premade.

Honestly, that stuff was too rich for his blood and he was more of a coffee person besides.

He let his eyes drift to what she was doing. She put hot water into the teapot, preheating it as she brought the heat up slowly for a normal pot. The water never boiled, she just got it up to temp before emptying the teapot and putting the tea leaves and new heated water into the pot to steep.

"Never understood that part. Granted, I usually just cold brew coffee overnight." Eraserhead commented as he watched what seemed like an overthinking of tea brewing happen in front of him. Nezu did the same thing, though he also used an egg timer.

Hisashi let out a sigh, it almost sounded wistful. "If you preheat the pot using hot water beforehand, when the tea or coffee goes to brew the pot won't take as much heat from the water. Works to let the flavor come out that much better."

Eraserhead turned back to Hisashi, who was watching his wife work and almost seemed like he was holding himself back from joining her. He didn't expect such a… strong relationship between the two, no matter what Inko had said prior. Well, at least he didn't have to worry about their family dynamic - Izuku had loving parents at the least, that was obvious.

Now he just needed to make sure one of them didn't go full vigilante.

"You sound like you haven't had anyone do that in Europe."

Hisashi made a face. "They prefer espresso with milk and english breakfast, a red tea. Admittedly, despite being the source of the stuff, England at least takes the proper care and ceremony when preparing and steeping their pots. Different kind of ceremony, but the parts that effect the flavor are still there."

"Not a fan?"

"Red tea is a bit too strong to enjoy with wagashi or anything that isn't either a buttery pastry or chocolate."

Eraserhead nodded his agreement, mentally noting he should bring some with him next time as payback for getting the spicy flavored jellies. Inko brought out the pot of tea and a plate of assorted wagashi to go with it. Had it already been three minutes? Maybe he was getting too lax.

Still, it'd be rude to leave just as the tea was broken out.

Hisashi and Inko shared a look before she cuddled up next to him again, hoping things would stay relatively calm.

"Four hundred and fifty!?" Katsuki shouted as he looked at the instruction pamphlet. Mei laughed as Katsuki wadded up the instructions and threw them into a nearby trash can while Ibara shook her head. That meant they had enough points for two people in her tank to enter the tournament itself. All together not bad, not everyone wanted to be part of the tournament. At the same time, it was a small number - especially considering how close to a third person they were.

"So, who's entering with me?"

"Not it!"

Ibara whipped her head around, flinching at the pain it caused her very tender scalp as what was left of her vines swung from the speed. Mei… didn't want to join the tournament? "I thought you wanted to turn it into a commercial for your equipment?" Ibara asked, was she really about to give that up? She didn't think the support student would make that kind of sacrifice to be honest.

Yasashi held up a pair of gauntlets as Mei beamed. "Oh, I still am, but imagine how much better it'll look when it's not me who knows the gear inside and out, but general education students who are showing 'anyone' can make use of it because the interface is that intuitive!"

Ibara sighed as she realized it wasn't selflessness, but efficiency driving her decision to stay out of the tournament. "So… aside from myself, who else from my tank wants to buy into the tournament?"

Meanwhile in Team Two's planning room, Shoto grimaced at the pamphlet. They had enough points for Manga to get back into the fight as well as two other people. The question was did anyone else want to join the tournament? No-one had spoken up after Manga had read off the rules for those in the beaten tanks to re-enter for the tournament. Chances were that most of the other teams of not all of them would focus on returning their hero students to the tournament - he had to prepare for that.

"Does anyone aside from myself and Manga want to fight in the tournament?"

There was silence, and one of the students from the general education course raised a hand. "I'm not asking to join in, but… are we all going to be on the same team in the tournament? I feel like team fights are probably out of the question…"

Shoto blinked, he hadn't thought about that.

He looked at Manga, who was staring at him in turn. It was wholly possible they'd end up facing each other - as well as anyone else - without the support of the rest of their teams from here on out. Shoto let out a sigh as he started rethinking his approaches towards his other classmates.

With Team Twenty

"Damn it, you guys are the best! Come here!"

Hitoshi rolled his eyes as Rikido pulled him into a bear hug. They had just enough points to bring the big guy back in for the tournament proper - and the rest of his tanks crew agreed it should be him. He was a bit blubbery about it, and Hitoshi decided it'd be easier to just deal with it the way he deals with a certain zombie's hugs - relax, tense the core just enough to support the spine, wait it out.

Soon enough, the big guy pulled back.

"That's it, where's the kitchen - we need cookies damn it, celebration cookies for everyone!"

Hitoshi fought back a grin as the rest of their team cheered, following the guy as he went to go find Lunch Rush. "I'll catch up, save a couple would you?". He said as the team filed out. Once they were gone Hitoshi let himself drop onto one of the benches. He relaxed, letting how tired he was getting show with no-one around to see it. His head hurt after controlling Dark Shadow, if just a temporary jack in was this hard he legitimately believed Fumikages claims about the lack of control were real. He started wondering if people with sufficient willpower actually had a resistance to his quirk, and if they did… how come he hadn't struggled like this with his friends?

Hitoshi shook the thought off as it came, wincing at how it made his head hurt even more. It was probably the whole sentient quirk thing that caused the backlash, had to be.

No way Izuku was lacking in sheer willpower.

There was a crackling sound, and he looked over to the break room television to see Osore climbing out of it. She walked up to him and sat down beside him. She was still, completely so. He threw an arm over her shoulders anyway. She'd wanted to win too after all.

A/N

... AAAAAAH!

Issues left me stranded away from this for way longer than I would have liked - to the point of me not really being sure where I wanted this battle to go or how to really put it to words. So, we brought in Plan B - Hisashi Time.

Hopefully the interation between the three of them makes up for the lack of tankexplosions.