Never in my life did I think I would meet someone as eccentric as Haruhi, but then Yasumi Watahashi—sorry, Kagemusha—sorry again, The Kagemusha—came into my life. She thinks just like Haruhi, she laughs just like Haruhi, she's as opinionated as Haruhi. Seriously, some days I feel like I'm just training with her big sister.
The results more than make up for it, though. The Kagemusha really knows her stuff. It's only been a month, but Haruhi and I have already started learning karate, wrestling, aikido, and Bartitsu. I still don't know why she's so insistent on that last one, but it's been fun learning all of that stuff, save for all the bruising, of course. Some of it's from training mishaps, but a lot of them are from The Kagemusha. Why is that, you ask?
"Because this doesn't end until you two can take me down!" The Kagemusha said as she blocked simultaneous punches from Midoriya and Haruhi. Thanks to the height difference, the two of them had to jump off the ground to try and hit her, and she used that to throw them right back onto the ground. "You might think that I'm tough, but—"
"Fouette!" Haruhi cut her off with a poorly executed roundhouse kick that The Kagemusha jumped over, resulting in Midoriya being the only one to get hit.
"Did I deserve that?" Midoriya asked. Haruhi shrugged her shoulders.
"What I was trying to say was that you might think that I'm tough, but in the grand scheme of things, I'm a pretty weak Hero," The Kagemusha said. "There are probably at least a dozen Heroes who can beat me one-handed in this prefecture, alone. You two are trying to be Quirkless Heroes; you have to be tougher than the toughies and smarter than the smarties to make that happen! If you can't beat someone as weak as me, then you don't have a chance!" The Kagemusha picked the two of them up and slammed their bodies into one another before dropping them onto the ground.
"'Weak' feels rather subjective here," Midoriya said.
"Yeah, well I'm the one doing the subjecting, so deal with it!"
"I don't think you're using that word correctly, The Kagemusha."
"Deal with that, too!" Sometimes, there was just no talking to her. "Actually, deal with that some other time. It's about time for you two to get home."
"Is it that late, already?" Haruhi asked, having a noticeably easier time of standing up than Midoriya. "Man, time just flies right on by when we're doing this. That must mean it's really getting the job done!"
"That's the plan. See you two tomorrow!" The Kagemusha bowed her head and, just as she always did, ran down the mountain before Midoriya and Haruhi had a chance to get their stuff together, vanishing from their eyesight in a matter of seconds.
"Suzumiya-san, where do you think The Kagemusha goes when she's done with us?" Midoriya asked.
"Well, she's a Hero, so she probably just goes out to fight crime," Haruhi said. "Yeah, busting heads, putting out the flames of injustice, smiling at the cheering crowds, that'll be us in a few years, just you wait." With how confidently Haruhi talked about it, it was hard to see it as anything but fact. "Hey, you wanna have dinner at my place?"
"W-What?"
"I mean, you look pretty winded right now, so I doubt you're looking forward to the bus and the train back to your place. Plus your mom has that video date with your dad and your sister is playing with that Mimimaru girl, right?"
"'Miyokichi'."
"Hey, I'm trying to save you from a lonely evening with no one but yourself for company, so don't test me!"
"Sorry, sorry. Yes, I'd love to come over for dinner. Thank you ever so much for the generous and gracious offer."
"You're overdoing it a little, but you're welcome." Midoriya felt just exhausted enough to let that slide.
The sun had almost completely set by the time Midoriya and Haruhi arrived at the Suzumiya household. In a rare change of pace, Mai had managed to finish her daily shoots early and was there to greet them when they arrived. Since Sakuta was still preparing dinner, he and Mai suggested that the two of them help out, but Haruhi insisted that Midoriya do her share to pay her back for generously inviting him over. By the time the ridiculousness of it all could be fully processed, Haruhi had already gone upstairs to take a shower.
Well, I don't mind helping out, so it's not that big a deal, Midoriya thought. It also helped that he had picked up a thing or two about cooking from watching Bakugou play house with his sister.
"Izuku, you can keep in the stems if you want, but I feel the need to say that those will give us diarrhea," Sakuta said. Midoriya quickly threw out the offending stems and hoped that it was something they could just ignore.
"I guess Watahashi-san didn't feel that poison control was a skill worth learning for a Hero in training," Mai said.
"You can't punch someone in the face with knowledge, after all," Midoriya said.
"That woman's always been kind of a nut. I think. I feel like I know her, but it feels like that thing where you just trick yourself into thinking that you're familiar with someone or something," Sakuta said.
"I'm pretty sure I did a magazine shoot with her. Probably an old one, though; I doubt I'd still have a copy lying around," Mai said. "Anyway, things are going well with her?"
"T-They're going well, I think. Suzumiya-san and I have been learning a lot from Watahashi-san. A lot of it is just how to take a punch from an adult, but I want to believe that it'll add up to something in the end," Midoriya said.
"That's the dream, I guess," Sakuta said. "Haruhi, if you're out of the shower, come down and help!"
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Haruhi said from upstairs. Soon after, the sound of Haruhi's feet echoed through the house and they caught sight of her coming down the stairs. However, it quickly became apparent that she wasn't walking downstairs on her own two feet, but on her own two hands.
"Suzumiya-san, you're really doing it! I can't believe it!" Midoriya said.
"So this isn't surprising to you?" Mai asked.
"Not at all. Suzumiya-san's been trying to perfect that since we first started training with Watahashi-san."
"The Kagemusha and I both agree that a Hero needs to be more dexterous than the average person, and what shows off dexterity better than this?" Haruhi asked. At some point, she had stopped doing a normal handstand and started standing alternating between which single hand she would be standing on.
"I'm not sure what I expected you two to be learning, but I don't think I considered anything like this. What about you, dear?" Mai asked.
"Izuku, next Saturday, the Suzumiya clan and some of its associates are going on a day trip to the beach," Sakuta said. Midoriya wondered if he knew how much of a non-sequitur that was. "A few times a year, Mai-san gets to bring people to a private beach owned by her production company. We won't have the place all to ourselves, but it won't be nearly as crowded as a regular beach, so there's that. Want to tag along?"
"Um, yeah. Sure," Midoriya said.
"Wait, what?" Haruhi asked. Somehow, she ended up losing enough of her concentration to lose her balance and fall over.
"Feel free to invite your mother and sister, too." His little sister would cry and beg to come along the second he said anything, so asking felt like a formality.
"Hey, hold on a minute!" Haruhi said as she picked herself up off the floor. "Dad, are you really just—"
"Just what?" Midoriya asked. Haruhi looked at him for only a second before turning away and heading for the kitchen counter.
"Forget it. It's fine, I guess." Haruhi helped Mai prepare some chicken, and Midoriya went back to the vegetables with Sakuta. There was something on Haruhi's mind, but Midoriya didn't know how to broach the subject without making her mad.
The only thing he had to go on was how she kept glancing at her father.
Time passed as slowly and as quickly as it often did, and the day of the beach trip arrived. The other people who would be joining them were Haruhi's three aunts; two of them would meet them at the beach, and while they waited for the third one to arrive at the Suzumiya house, Inko had tea with Sakuta and Mai while Midoriya and Haruhi played with Midoriya's sister.
"Now I've got you! Super Mega Plus Ultra Hyper Plus Ultra Love Cannon of Love! Plus Ultra!" Midoriya's sister said, pointing a stick she found outside at Haruhi as she made what she thought were laser sounds from her mouth.
"Ha! Nice try, Hero, but I already cast an Anti-Love Cannon of Love Barrier around myself!" Haruhi said, laughing maniacally as she did.
"No fair! I didn't hear you say a spell!"
"That's because I'm powerful enough to use magic without the need for incantations!"
"No! How do I beat you, then?!"
"By matching her cheat for cheat," Midoriya said as he stood against a wall while reading a book on the history of the salmon ladder.
"I'm not cheating!"
"Every time my sister tries to do something, you say that you're doing something that completely blocks it. How is that not cheating?"
"It's not cheating when you have the power to have whatever power you want."
"You're the last person who should have that kind of power."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"Stabbing time!" Midoriya's little sister ran up to Haruhi and poked her in the back with her stick. "This is a super magic sword that stabs anything I want it to and can't be blocked or negated by anything! Times infinity! Plus two!"
"Hey, that's cheating!"
Said the pot calling the kettle black, Midoriya thought. At that moment, the doorbell rang, and since Haruhi was preoccupied with matching wits with a six-year-old, he took it upon himself to open the door.
"Hey, how's it—wait, who are you?" The one who asked the question was a young girl in a sleeveless top and blonde hair tied into a ponytail. Part of him was happy, part of him was still confused trying to figure out who she was supposed to be.
"That's my line, maybe?" Midoriya asked.
"How? How is it your line when this is my cousin's house?" the girl asked.
"Cousin? Do you mean Suzumiya-san? That's weird, she said that her aunt was the only one coming by today." The girl stomped past Midoriya and into the house with an expression on her face that made it look like she wanted to stab someone. Said someone appeared to be Haruhi.
"Haruhi, how many times do I have to tell you not to call me your aunt?!"
"Kind of in the middle of something, Nodoka," Haruhi said while trying and failing to pry the stick out of the hands of Midoriya's little sister.
"I don't know what this is, but my thing is more important!"
"Doubtful." Midoriya's little sister managed to free her stick from Haruhi's grasp and jumped up and down in celebration. "Okay, what do you want, exactly?"
"I just told you! If you're going to tell people about me, tell them I'm your cousin!"
"I'm not going to do that because lying is wrong."
"If not that, then tell them I'm your beloved big sister who you wish to shower with affection and constantly please."
"I'm not going to do that because it just says a lot." Nodoka pouted with a red-dyed face.
"So this girl is your aunt, then?" Midoriya asked.
"Yep. Nodoka Tadamichi."
"But she's so young. She looks like she's the same age as us."
"Oh, oh, Deku-kun, I've seen this before!" Midoriya's little sister said. "She looks like a kid, but she's actually just super short and flat-chested!"
"That is not what's going on here; I'm only in the seventh grade, and besides, I still beat Haruhi in both of those things!" Nodoka said. Haruhi wordlessly pulled out Nodoka's scrunchie and threw it across the hall. "What the hell?!"
"Don't act like you didn't deserve it, Aunty."
"Aunty, Aunty, Aunty!" Midoriya's little sister with a laugh.
Oh, boy, Midoriya thought.
"Knock it off!" Nodoka said.
"Sorry Nodoka-san, but that's not happening," Midoriya said. "Once my sister hears someone be addressed by a nickname, she keeps at it until she hears a new nickname. Long story short, I'd like it if at least my sister didn't call me 'Deku'."
"Hey, that's way better than this! God, why did Dad have to get another woman pregnant when he was in his fifties? Sis was already almost thirty, and when you're divorced and your first kid is that old, that's when you stop adding to the family registry."
"So are you saying you hate being called an aunt so much that you wish you were never born?"
"Shut up! What even are you, anyway?"
"Hey, don't call my partner a 'what'!" Haruhi said.
"Partner? Oh, you must Midoriya, then. You know, from the way Haruhi's talked about you, I thought you'd have a more impressive jawline. Still, I guess I get what she's talking about." Nodoka had a smirk on her face that Midoriya neither liked nor understood.
"Midoriya, ignore that. Ignore Aunty's stupid words."
"Hey!"
"Aunty! Aunty! Aunty!" Midoriya's little sister cheered ad nauseum.
"And that's enough out of you!" Nodoka stomped her foot against the floor, and as she did, a pink mist shot out of her body that flew over the head of Midoriya's little sister. After a few seconds, she stopped her chanting and simply fell onto her butt with an angelic, glazed look over her face.
Nodoka Tadamichi! Quirk: Cooldown! Nodoka can emit a gaseous substance from her body that forces anyone who inhales it to be brought into a calm state of mind and lax state of being! Currently, Nodoka is only capable of using her Quirk on one person at a time, and the speed at which it takes effect—and eventually wears off—depends on the target's height, age, and weight! Also, please don't think too much about the ethical ramifications of her Quirk!
"Wow, that's an amazing Quirk, Nodoka-san!" Midoriya said. "Being able to force someone into an idle state of mind and being has a lot of practical applications. If you're trying to rescue civilians from a dangerous situation, you could use it to calm them down so they don't struggle too much, and you could even use it to get Villains to surrender peacefully. Actually, Quirks often develop over time, so I wouldn't be surprised if you could eventually use it to manipulate the entire emotional spectrum. You could make Villains too happy to want to keep committing crimes, so sad that they feel remorse for what they're doing, apathetic enough towards what they're doing that they stop caring and just—"
"Okay, where's the off button on you?" Nodoka asked.
"Yeah, there's no real control over that. Also, that girl is like a righteous gemstone to me, so please don't make a habit of drugging her," Haruhi said. That ended up being enough to snap Midoriya out of his state of mind.
"Don't say it like that. Aspiring Heroes like me don't drug people, you know," Nodoka said while flipping her hair. "Besides, she's fine. You're fine, right, kid?"
"The ceiling is so pretty," Midoriya's little sister said, her eyes still a little glazed over.
"Yeah, she's fine." If Midoriya wasn't busy thinking about the various applications for Nodoka's Quirk, he might have paid that more mind.
Not long after Nodoka showed up, the adults joined up with the children and Nodoka stopped arguing with Haruhi to give Mai a hug, her haughty personality immediately being discarded in favor of the persona of a girl who earnestly loves her sister; what Midoriya wouldn't give for his own sister to show him that level of admiration.
Moving on from that, the families shuffled into their respective cars and drove off for the beach. Haruhi had somehow worked her way into the Midoriya family's car, but as a result of both that and Haruhi's general personality, the ride didn't seem to take that long for Midoriya, and soon enough, they had arrived at their destination. Even though it was rather hot, just like Sakuta said, there weren't a lot of people at the beach, so they more or less had it to themselves. While Izuku took in the sights, Haruhi pulled on his arm as she shouted, "Hey, great to see you guys!"
"There's our favorite Haru-chan!" Haruhi let go of Midoriya as she was swept up into a hug by two brown-haired women, one of them—the one who had just spoken—having panda paws in place of human hands, and the other one having skin that looked like it was covered in a lacquer finish.
"Okay, a little tight there, Haruhi," said the woman with the lacquer finish body. "Okay, guess Sakuta wasn't lying when he said that you've been working out."
"It could also be that you're just really weak, Tomoe," said Sakuta as the rest of the group made their way over to Midoriya and Haruhi's location.
"Oh, shut up." Tomoe's tone was curt, but she spoke to Sakuta with a smile, nonetheless.
"Big brother! Mai-san! Nodoka-chan! Fourth and fifth people I don't know!" The woman with panda paws for hands let go of Haruhi and hugged those five—Inko and Midoriya's little sister included—and lifted them a sizeable distance off the ground.
"Wait, why did she call Sakuta-san her brother, but Tomoe-san didn't?" Midoriya asked.
"Because my dad is Aunt Kaede's brother; he's not related to Aunt Tomoe," Haruhi said.
"But aren't both of them your aunts? How can that be the case if he's only related to one of them? Tomoe-san doesn't look like your mom, so—" As Midoriya tried to figure out how everyone was related to one another, he noticed the gold ring on Kaede's finger, then he quickly took notice of how it was a perfect match for the one on Tomoe's finger. "Oh. O-Oh. Oh!"
"Little slow to the draw, I see," Tomoe said as Midoriya went red in the face. "Tomoe Suzumiya. Professional chef and happily married to that little panda Kaede over there."
"I love you too, sweetie!" Kaede said while still hugging the rest of the group.
"I-I'm Idzuku Midoriya—I mean Izuku Midoriya! It's-It's nice to meet you both!" Midoriya said while bowing repeatedly.
"This isn't gonna be a problem, is it?"
"No no no no no no!" Midoriya said while rapidly waving his arms. "I-I don't have a problem with that kind of stuff! I've just never really had any interactions with gay people or anyone else on that kind of spectrum before, so I just got caught off guard, that's all! I-I really don't have a problem with that, I swear!"
"Wait, but how is this new territory when you're friends with Haru-chan?" Kaede asked as she finally ended her massive hug. With that, Midoriya felt like his heart was ready to leap out of his chest.
"Yeah, I like girls. What'd you think all that stuff with Mirko was about?" Haruhi asked. "I mean, I like guys too, but still, learn to pay attention to your surroundings."
"R-Right. Right."
"Someone certainly looks relieved to hear that Haruhi still likes boys," Nodoka whispered in his ear from out of nowhere.
Midoriya was regretting agreeing to Sakuta's proposal.
"Okay, the kid's not homophobic. What a surprise. Let's move past this and hit the beach already," Sakuta said.
""Yay!"" Kaede shouted in tandem with Midoriya's little sister. Midoriya, of course, was more than happy to let the topic veer away from him.
"Listen Midoriya, just because we're at the beach doesn't mean we can completely slack off on our training. The second a Hero starts to slack off, their bodies turn to mush and all of their hard work becomes meaningless. We're with our families and the beach doesn't give as good an environment as what we're used to, so we'll have to make some adjustments, but don't expect to get through today without breaking a sweat!"
Midoriya had his eyes locked on Haruhi and took in every word she said with laser focus, far more than usual. Maybe it was because he was still trying to make up for the slight faux pas from before, or maybe it was because he was trying to figure out how he should react to the orange two-piece she was wearing. Whatever it was, his attention was solely on her—though if he had to choose, he'd want the former to be in play.
"That's a pretty bold suit you've got there," Nodoka said while wearing a frilly black and white swimsuit that exposed roughly the same amount of skin. Midoriya hoped she heard her hypocrisy. "What happened to that one-piece you'd always wear?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. This kind of outfit has been circulating through my wardrobe for years; at this point, it's like an old friend to me—"
"Haruhi, there's a piece of paper on your butt!" Before anyone could say anything, Midoriya's little sister ripped a price tag off of Haruhi's swimsuit and held it up for everyone to see.
"Wait, is this what you bought at that store in the mall yesterday? Why'd you buy a new swimsuit all of a sudden, and why did you yell at me when I tried to ask you what you bought?" Midoriya asked. Haruhi ripped the tag out of his little sister's hands and ripped it up into tiny pieces.
"None of your business, now stop being stupid, stupid!" Haruhi said.
Can't argue with that logic, I suppose, Midoriya thought.
"Don't worry Izuku, you're probably too young to worry about that kind of stuff, anyway," Inko said as she approached the children from behind.
I'll take your word on that.
"Hey, you're looking pretty good, Mrs. Midoriya. Have you been working out?" Haruhi asked.
"Oh no, I just haven't felt like eating as big portions as I used to, lately. Thank you for noticing, though," Inko said with a blush. Midoriya didn't think about until right then, but his mother had been eating less, lately. His sister was happy to have more food to eat at dinner and didn't think about it further than that, but he did have to wonder what brought about her change in diet.
"Sorry we kept you waiting!" Midoriya turned his head and saw the adults of the Suzumiya family making their way to the group. Just as Midoriya had predicted, the already beautiful Mai, Kaede, and Tomoe had their respective beauties further emphasized by the multicolored swimsuits they wore that highlighted how truly adult they all were; it was the cherry on top of the ice cream, for lack of a better comparison. He knew that staring at any of them for too long would give Haruhi just cause to chew him out—picking Mai would probably get him killed on the spot—but that surprisingly ended up not being a problem.
The reason being that the vast majority of his attention was directed at the three-lined scar adorning Sakuta's chest. It was an old-looking scar that ran diagonally across most of his chest, fashioned in a manner that looked like it was made by a large animal. He had never seen anything like it, and as such, he didn't know how to properly react to it.
"You're curious, aren't you?" Sakuta asked.
"N-No! I mean, maybe a little," Midoriya said with a hint of hesitation.
"I bet you're just dying to know right now." Midoriya nodded his head with a hint of hesitation. "Well, I can't tell you. Mai-san's cup size is knowledge that only she and I are privy to."
"What?"
"However, since you're embracing your blossoming youth, I will say that it's bigger than you might think, even if it already looks sizeable to the naked eye." Without a hint of hesitation, Mai stomped on Sakuta's foot. "You're usually better at making it hurt."
"I'm holding back for the kids," Mai said.
"What do you say we ditch them and go all out?"
"Don't worry; I'm gonna make sure we have plenty of time for all that and more."
"You two are gross. Stop being gross," Tomoe said.
"Seriously, Sakuta; that's my sister, for Pete's sake!" Nodoka said.
"Hey, she's just as bad as me," Sakuta said.
"Maybe not as bad, but still plenty bad, I'd say," Mai said.
"Tomo-chan, should I be bad, too?" Kaede asked. Tomoe's face went as red as it could with her complexion. Midoriya was regretting agreeing to Sakuta's proposal even more so.
"Okay, that's enough of this. Come on, let's go do something," Haruhi said, pulling Midoriya by the arm as the adults continued on in that manner. "You're so lucky your dad's always out of the country. You never have to come home to anyone engaging in that kind of illness."
"What illness?" Midoriya asked, finally not feeling too embarrassed to talk.
"Love, obviously. The emotion people call 'love' is nothing but a carnal desire leftover from our ape ancestors. It achieves nothing in the grand scheme of things, yet it's not something that we can ever fully suppress. The least a person can do is limit it to dating and the occasional intercourse, but my parents and aunts are just always going at it, like they don't even get how stupid they're being. It's just disgusting, you know?"
"I-Is it?" Midoriya looked back at the adults. He saw Sakuta and Mai trading barbs with smiles on their faces; he saw Kaede clinging to Tomoe's arm while Tomoe tried to contain herself. He then turned away from them and looked at Haruhi for a second before immediately redirecting his eyes towards the sand beneath his feet. "I-I don't know if I'd go that far if I'm being honest. I don't think I know that much about love, but I don't think it'd be all that bad with the right person?" Once again, Midoriya did what he could to not look at Haruhi.
"Typical answer from a typical person. That's fine, I guess. I've only ever met one person who understood what I was talking about, and as much as I like you, you and she are in completely different leagues."
"Well, that makes me feel better."
"Good to hear," Haruhi said with a smile.
Midoriya had fewer regrets about accepting Sakuta's proposal.
Just as Midoriya had feared, Haruhi kept to her word about making them keep training while at the beach. Haruhi made the two of them, among other things, do push-ups on the shoreline while waves crashed into them, hold their breath underwater for as long as possible, and have people bury them under incredible amounts of sand so they could forcibly break out of it. It was certainly draining, but it wasn't as tiring as the usual routine, especially since Haruhi did make time for fun stuff like building sandcastles with Midoriya's little sister, eating hot dogs, and looking for sea creatures on the ocean floor—that one wasn't as fun, and they only found sea cucumbers that ended up being thrown at Nodoka. A mixed bag of amusement and annoyance; it was exactly what Midoriya expected to get out of a beach trip with Haruhi.
As the afternoon carried on, Sakuta called the kids over from their own fun and convinced them to take part in some beach volleyball. Inko said that she didn't have any confidence in her athleticism so she decided to be the referee, thus allowing the teams of kids and adults to work out evenly.
"Let's go!" Kaede said. She tossed the ball into the air for the first serve, and it flew over to the other side of the court like a rocket. Midoriya immediately started thinking about the possibility of Kaede's Quirk actually giving her the proportional strength of a panda, and as he got caught up in that, he didn't do anything when Haruhi told him to go for the ball.
"I got it, I got it!" cried his little sister. However, it turned out that her interpretation of "getting it" involved her just standing still while the ball hit her in the face. "Yay!"
"Midoriya, get your sister's masochism under control!" Nodoka said.
"Don't use words like that when she's in earshot," Midoriya said.
"Both of you keep your eyes on the ball!" Haruhi shouted. Without realizing it, Kaede had produced another power serve, though Midoriya regained focus just in time to set up a successful receive.
"Nice receive!" Haruhi said in broken English. She hit the ball over the net as soon as it was in reach, but Sakuta was quick to send it right back at them. Nodoka took the receive, and the airborne ball was intercepted by Haruhi who passed it towards Midoriya. Midoriya jumped up to hit the ball and score his team a point. As he did, Mai, Kaede, and Tomoe all jumped up to block the attack.
T-T-Too many beach balls! Midoriya made the mistake of giving the three of them a cursory glance and was too distracted to give the ball a good hit, resulting in it bouncing harmlessly off of their hands and onto the sand. Midoriya fell with far less grace.
"Oh my God," Nodoka said with a hand against her face. Before Midoriya could get up, Haruhi ran over and started kicking him in his back.
"Get your head in the game already, Midoriya! I'm doing you a favor by not killing you for what you obviously need to die for, so you can at least not look like an idiot out there!" Haruhi said, each breath punctuated by a kick to the spine.
"How's it feel to get crushed by your old man? I bet it must sting like crazy," Sakuta said.
"You plan on actually trying to win today?" Tomoe asked.
"What are you doing? That's my daughter you're talking to." Tomoe glaring at Sakuta caught Midoriya's eye as he pulled himself out of the sand.
"Here it comes!" Kaede said as she launched another serve, that time directing it right at Midoriya's little sister. That time, the ball hit her head at an angle that sent it high into the air. The women on the adult's team looked ready to block, but Midoriya couldn't afford to get distracted again, so he put all of his strength into his legs and jumped as high and as fast as he could to intercept the ball seconds before the women could establish their defense. He hit the ball as hard as he could, and in the end, it sailed over their heads and hit the ground with what Midoriya interpreted as a triumphant thud.
"Yeah! That's more like it!" The second Midoriya hit the ground, Haruhi ran over and high fived him with a smile on her face. To his surprise, however, she was the only one smiling while everyone else just looked confused to various degrees.
"I-Izuku? C-Could you always do that?" Inko asked.
"Um, probably not?" Midoriya asked.
"What, do you think you guys are on Karasuno, or something?" Sakuta asked.
"You're only saying that because you're upset he got one over on us," Mai said.
"You tell 'em, sis!" Nodoka said. "But seriously though, what the hell was that?"
"The first step on the long road of us taking over the spotlight, that's what the hell that was!" Haruhi said. She picked up the ball, ran to the back of the court, and spiked the ball with enough strength and precision to immediately score them a point. "Yeah! Now we got this!"
The kids' team ended up losing by ten points.
Eventually, the day turned to night and the group moved to end the day by sitting around a bonfire. Everyone was going on about the day they just went through in a naturalistic recap save for Nodoka who, at some point, had fallen asleep against Mai's shoulder. Midoriya felt embarrassed whenever someone brought up the volleyball match, but he managed to power through it. The day ended up being a good day, and he couldn't remember why he felt any sort of apprehension earlier.
"Okay, so who here wants to know about my scar?" Sakuta's question made Midoriya remember the source of those feelings.
"W-Well, maybe. It seemed like it'd be awkward to ask you directly though, Sakuta-san," Inko said.
"W-What my mom said," Midoriya said.
"Yeah, that's exactly what I was going for," Sakuta said. "I would have just gone right into it, but it's—well, it's not really a super heavy topic at this point, but it still could have made things weird, so I just ignored the elephant in the room by turning things towards something with more universal appeal."
"Mai-san's body? Yeah, I think I get that," Kaede said. With a pout on her face, Tomoe grabbed onto one of Kaede's arms.
"Sakuta, I think you should get started before this loses what little endearment it has," Mai said.
"Right, right," Sakuta said. "This scar on my chest? Well, I guess you could say that this is one of the marks of a Hero." Midoriya, not understanding the statement, looked over at Haruhi for guidance, but she was just looking at her father with a face full of anxiety. Midoriya was left to puzzle through it on his own, and because of that, he came to a conclusion that left him feeling plenty stupid.
"O-Oh my God! You're you! I-I knew I recognized you from somewhere, and that's because you're you! The Youthful Hero, Buta Yarou!"
"Ever young and always adolescent, the Buta Yarou is here to save the day!" Kaede said while posing like she was a Super Sentai. "That was my brother's catchphrase back in the day."
"It should really stay in the past," Haruhi said.
"Hey, that kind of stuff was cool back in the day, and your old man was as cool as they come," Sakuta said.
"Can't be that cool if Midoriya didn't recognize you."
"That's only because he retired before I was born, but I still know a lot about him!" Midoriya said. "I mean, he had over one hundred crimes solved in his first year of duty, and he managed to go solo just at age twenty; that's the youngest anyone's ever done it, even younger than All Might! Oh, oh! Remember the time you single-handedly fought off the Curious Rejection Community just long enough for the police to arrive and provide backup?!"
"I was there for it, so yeah," Sakuta said.
"It was amazing! A lot of them managed to get away, but you still managed to put a lot of the high ranking members behind bars! Then there was the time you—wait, we're getting off track. We were talking about your scar, and—wait, Sakuta-san, is that why you retired? I know where you got that from, and it shouldn't have been life-threatening, right?"
"Let's start with a little backstory. It was a few years into Mai-san and mine's marriage, and for the first time, we were seriously considering starting a family." Midoriya caught sight of Haruhi kicking around some sand. "Both of us were doing work that kept us out of the house for most of the day, and we knew that that wouldn't be good for a kid, so one of us needed to stop working to take care of things during the day. The problem was that I was getting high up in the rankings at the time, Mai-san's acting was taking off, and neither of us could make a good enough case for why the other person should be the one who'd get to keep working. We were at a deadlock, but then the universe," Sakuta pointed a thumb at his scar, "took the decision out of our hands."
"That fight from twelve years ago with the Peerless Thief, Oji Harima."
"That's right. The bastard got me good with some crazy moves I'd never seen before and sent me straight to the hospital, with this scar being the only souvenir. As you said, the injury was never life-threatening, but for the first time in my life, I started to realize how dangerous being a Hero could be. A lot of people see it as just something you do to have a good time, but if you make one wrong move, you end up dead as a doornail."
"This is going exactly where I know it's going, isn't it?" Haruhi asked.
"Admittedly, your father and I didn't put a lot of stock in what you and Izuku were doing, but then we saw the way you were just casually walking around on your hands—plus there was that stuff at the volleyball match—and it became clear that you were both putting too much into this for us to just play it cool," Mai said.
"So that's why you wanted me to be here? So you could tell us that story and see how we'd react?" Midoriya asked. "I guess this makes sense. Suzumiya-san and I are serious about this, but that doesn't change the fact that we can get hurt if we go forward with this. I mean, Sakuta-san, you have a Quirk and you still got hurt pretty bad, but a Quirkless person would probably walk out of that same situation with far worse injuries, if they could even walk out at all."
"Deku-kun, don't say that!" his little sister said. "It doesn't matter that you're Quirkless! You and Haruhi just need to be the best Heroes around to make up for it, and there's no way that you can't do that!"
"Thanks, but—"
"Listen to your sister, Izuku," Inko said. "I spent too many years not supporting your dream, but now that I'm making up for it, I want to make it clear that you can't hesitate just because of a bunch of what-ifs. This is what you want to do, so you need to give it your all."
"That's nice to hear, but—"
"But nothing!" Haruhi said, stomping on the beach so loud that she woke up Nodoka. "Mom, Dad, Midoriya and I aren't going to fall for your scare tactics! You think we don't know that being a Hero is dangerous? Of course, we do; we're not idiots, you know! We know the risks, but we're still going to do it! The two of us are going to be at the top of the world, no matter the cost! All the world's a stage, and we're gonna be right at the center! This is what we want to do, and no matter what, we're going to do it! If you got a problem with that, take it up with someone who cares!"
Near the end of her speech, Haruhi put a hand on her hip and pointed up at the starry sky. With the bonfire burning brightly in front of her, it made her form look like it possessed a degree of radiance. The moment was tarnished when Mai walked over to Haruhi and rubbed her head with her ears, but the point still stood.
"Izuku, your thoughts?" Tomoe asked as Haruhi batted away her mother's ears.
"Um, well, basically everything they just said, which I was going to say if I wasn't always interrupted. Maybe not as forcefully as Suzumiya-san, but still pretty much everything I wanted to say," Midoriya said.
"In that case, today was a rousing success," Sakuta said. "I had a feeling you'd say something like, but my conscience needed me to actually hear it. Something a Hero needs just as much as power is resolve, and I'd say you two have plenty of that to spare. So long as you keep to that state of mind, you won't hear any complaints from us."
"We better not," Haruhi said, still trying to bat away her mother's ears. Midoriya knew that Haruhi wouldn't like him laughing at that, but he couldn't help it. The day had gone too well for him to do anything else.
Of course, the laughter quickly came to an end when he looked out on the water and saw something strange: a teenage girl in a school uniform with eyes as black as the massive amount of hair on her head. Despite it being so dark out, Midoriya was able to perfectly make her out. Somehow, she was standing atop the surface of the water like a ninja or a biblical figure, and if Midoriya was looking at her right, she was staring right at him.
Midoriya blinked, and right before he went to alert Haruhi, the girl was gone without a trace. Midoriya didn't think she was some sort of hallucination, but he still elected to not say anything about it.
There was no reason to ruin a good day with something he didn't even understand.
When I first met Sakuta-san and Tadamichi-san, I thought that they were just normal adults with a bit of a perverted side to them, but they've actually had to deal with some pretty heavy stuff. I guess you never really know a person until someone makes the effort. Either way, I'm glad they told me about that part of their lives. Not just because it's cool to know that Sakuta-san used to be a Hero—though that is really awesome—but because it's helping build on the idea that Haruhi and I aren't doing this alone, that the two of us have people backing us up in our corner. We're gonna need all the help we can get, and it's good that our parents are part of that.
I still want to know who that girl was supposed to be, though.
So two things happened in the time it took me to write this chapter. One, I had art commissioned for me by 8bitribbit on Tumblr, and two, the guidebook revealed that Sir Nighteye's real name is Mirai Sasaki. Sasaki. Interesting. Very interesting.
Anyway, until next time.