OwO What's this?! Another chapter within one week period after the last update?!

I'm on a roll lately. Behold the power of procrastination.

For the sake of this story, let's pretend that making potions doesn't have to use animal body parts and other miscellaneous items. Also, I decided to separate the festival into 3 days here. Opening day for 1st years, the 2nd day for 2nd years, and the closing day for 3rd years.

Alternate title for this chapter: Not the sports festival you're hoping for. It's almost like a filler chapter tbh, but this might be one of my favourite chapter.

No. 11 Brewing Trouble

"Is this big enough, Ryouka-san?"

Ryouka glanced at the voice of her classmate. Surrounded by the newly grown plants and flowers from her original world, the sweet smile Rakan gave her was a soothing sight to her sleep-deprived soul.

The ritual took her six hours to prepare and perform two nights before so she was exhausted both mentally and physically, but right after she was finished incidents after incidents began to appear one after another in the area surrounding Hosu, causing her to get called in for emergency treatments so she didn't get the chance to rest yet.

Still, it would be better for her to have the ingredients ready as soon as possible so that she could experiment on her recipe sooner, that was why she decided to mingle with plants instead of catching up on sleep at the moment. Thankfully it was Sunday, so after this was done she could go home and sleep all she want.

"Yeah, thank you, Rakan-kun," she nodded at the boy, grimacing a bit. "Only one row left for the Mandrake, huh…"

She really wasn't looking forward to this part. Mandrakes were usually a pain to deal with.

"Are you wearing the earmuffs I gave you?" Ryouka asked the boy and he nodded eagerly.

Rakan had been very enthusiastic for this project when Ryouka and the principal had approached him a few days ago, even though he wasn't told exactly why they need him to grow all these plants.

The boy was as always, eager to help. He was so pure that sometimes Ryouka got the urge to kidnap him somewhere safe where no Villain could touch him, but then Senroh, Tohji, Narushige-san would hunt her down. Or maybe they would help her. She couldn't tell anymore when it concerned the three of them and their attachment to Rakan.

Ryouka beckoned the boy closer to her and she pressed their foreheads together. She breathed out slowly, concentrating on the faint memories she had of the banshee-like plants from so long ago. Its shape, its colour, its voice, what it can do. She tried to recall as accurately as she could and transferred those memories into Rakan's mind.

Rakan was silent as she did it, his eyebrows scrunched up in concentration as he tried to grasp the information she was giving to him. Finally, she stopped the transfer and pulled away from him.

"Did you get that?" She asked him and he nodded his head.

"I think I know how to make it now," the boy said as he began to rummage his seed boxes to find the closest non-magical plant to a Mandrake that he had to use as the base before he used his Sanome Quirk to twist its genetic material into that of a Mandrake.

When she showed him her 'true' Quirk, Rakan was properly awed but also very accepting. He didn't push her for information, taking only what she was willing to share with him while promising her that he wouldn't divulge the information to anyone, not even to Senroh.

It was honestly very sweet. She was pretty sure that Senroh already knew anyway since he was probably observing Rakan at this very moment using his Quirk, but the sentiment was nice.

When the boy pulled a couple seed potatoes, Ryouka immediately casted a sound-cancelling spell on the entirety of the greenhouse so that no sound would leak past the glass of the greenhouse and adjusted her own earmuffs to make sure it was in place.

Encasing the seeds in his hands with a yellowish green glow, Rakan concentrated for a bit before he inserted the seeds several centimetres deep into the dirt and released his power to let the plants grow from seeds to a fully mature plant in less than a minute. Ryouka thought his Quirk was simply fascinating.

"There!" Rakan huffed proudly as he wiped his dirty hands on his apron.

Ryouka approached the plants and peered at it. The shape and the colour of the leaves were right, at the very least. Let's check on the other properties then. With her gloved hands, she grabbed a Mandrake on the base of its leaves and pulled it out with one smooth move.

Piercing shriek filled the air and Ryouka immediately shoved the plant back into the earth to silence it.

Okay, it was a Mandrake for sure.

She turned towards Rakan, who was looking very pale and clutching his head. Crap, did the earmuffs she gave him malfunctioned? Or was it because he was a muggle that the shriek affected him even through the protection? Well, whatever it was, he got hurt because of her.

She immediately went to his side to check on him.

"Rakan, how much does it hurt?" she asked him, gentle as she guide him to kneel so that he didn't fall. The poor boy was so in pain he didn't even heard her question as he clutched his head and whimpered pitifully.

"Sssh, I'll heal you, okay. Ease up a little," she whispered as she coaxed his mouth open. Ryouka didn't really want to kiss him—the boy was too pure, she didn't want to ruin what was probably his first kiss, but what can she do?

Oh right. Curaga.

Ryouka casted the spell upon him and—of course it didn't work properly. It reduced some of his whimpers, but he was still in obvious pain. She sighed.

She had observed from the previous worlds that for some reason normal healing magic didn't perform well with non-magical people, but she had hoped that because this world had Quirks it would count as magic, but apparently not.

Not having any other choice, she pressed their lips together and breathed out her Spring of Life into him. Within seconds, the boy pulled away, still reeling from the aftermath of his headache.

"Are you alright now?" Ryouka asked him and he nodded weakly.

"Yeah… I wasn't expecting that," Rakan said, smiling faintly, trying to make light of the situation, but Ryouka shook her head to rebut it.

"No, it was my fault. I didn't know if normal people would reach this way, I apologize," she told him.

Rakan stared at her for a moment before a wry smile graced his lips, knowing that he couldn't win this argument against her. He accepted her apology with a nod of his head and she helped him back to his feet.

"Thank you for helping me today, Rakan-kun. I'm sorry too for getting you hurt," Ryouka said as she spelled the boy's clothes clean with a wave of her hand.

Rakan shook his head. "It's fine! I'm having fun too!"

"Be as it may, you still helped me a lot. Expect Nedzu-sensei to call you in again for your payment, okay?" Ryouka patted his head with a small smile.

She had requested the principal to give both Rakan and Yaoyorozu payment for their help. It was a job after all, so it was only fair that they were paid—for their services and also for their privacy. Thankfully the mouse hybrid agreed easily.

Ryouka waved Rakan goodbye soon after that, but not before she extracted a promise from him to text her if there was any lingering side effects from the Mandrake's shriek.

She sighed.

Now, she could rest.

.

While the other students trained their body and ability during the two weeks that led to the U.A. Sports Festival, Ryouka sequestered herself inside her brand new lab and experimented on the potions whenever she could.

Recovery Girl had told her that she could choose to enter herself to the festival or not, but she choose not to.

The festival itself was not exactly mandatory, but U.A. Sports Festival was an important event for the students usually, since it was an opportunity for the students to show the skills they have to the Pro Heroes that came to watch as scouts. The purpose for this was so that they could be considered for an internship opportunity later by said Heroes.

Narushige-san also told her that the students from other departments were also enthusiastic about the sports festival because apparently if they claimed the top spot, they will earn the right to join the Class A Hero Course.

Ryouka was already interning as Recovery Girl's apprentice and she was already in Class A though so the whole point of the festival was moot for her.

Recovery Girl encouraged her to enter (for experience and because it would be fun, she said), but honestly it would be such a hassle, not to mention unfair to the other kids that wanted to make a name for themselves.

Not only that, she was just a weak, helpless healer. There were no way she could compete in such a brutal event, right? Right?

So with that excuse on her sleeves, she appealed to Thirteen and Recovery Girl to be excused from entering the festival. Both of them gave her a dubious look when she told them her excuse, but they agreed nonetheless.

Recovery Girl told her to help her with healing the participants though, which was icky, but at least she would be able to sit back and relax while she wait for a reckless student to go get themselves injured.

But well, the point of all that was, while the others were busy with festival preparation, she wasn't. Which was good, because she needed all the time she could have to reach her goal of healing All Might before the end of the year.

The potions took a week to make and the first batch she finished was, unsurprisingly, a complete failure. She suspected that messed up somewhere in the last three steps since the potions turned out a bright red instead of the lime green it was supposed to.

Keeping the sample on a crystal vial so she could compare results between batches later, she lazily stuck a sticker to mark the vial as batch no. 1 before she prepared the ingredients for the next batch.

Yaoyorozu was flustered and ecstatic when she asked for her help and gave her a lot of high quality materials for her to work with. Though the girl appeared mature (especially with those, um, assets of hers), in the end she was just a kid after all—eager to be useful, to be needed by others.

Ryouka thought the girl must not have many friends growing up. What a shame since the girl had a very nice and amicable personality. She definitely need more confidence in herself though.

Ryouka was distracted from her work by a knock from the small glass panel on the door. When she turned around, she saw All Might peeking through, a wrapped box of bento in his hand. Ryouka rolled her eyes when she saw his pose. What is he, a schoolgirl?

Quickly checking on the state of her potions and after making sure it was stable, she decided to take a break for a while and stepped out of the laboratory.

"Came to give me your blood?" Ryouka teased, making the Hero flinch and step back warily.

"I… I thought you took all you need last week?" he said, sweating as he gulped, trying to mask his apprehension and failing miserably.

Ryouka couldn't help it, she snorted.

Who knew the No. 1 Hero, the Unbeatable, the Symbol of Peace, was afraid of needles. The man literally got hurt every day, bleeding was the norm for him, but he was scared of being pricked by a small needle.

It was ridiculous.

"I'm kidding," she told him, thoroughly amused by his reaction. "Unless you're offering?"

The man immediately backed away.

Snorting, she took the boxed bento from his hand—it was prepared specially for her by Lunch Rush as part of her payment and smelled as delicious as always even through the box. Thanking All Might for delivering her meal, they walked towards the staff lounge to eat together with him and the other staffs.

Hound Dog growled his greeting when he saw her entering while Midnight winked at her. Cementoss smiled pleasantly in her direction and Present Mic shouted nonsensical English words at her. She waved at all of them before she picked a spot and opened the bento.

The delicious scents wafted into the air freely and she inhaled it with appreciation.

"How's your preparation for tomorrow?" All Might asked as she began to eat. Chewing the food in her mouth, she shrugged at him.

"Nothing much. Chiyo-sensei have given me the staff ID card and she said the temporary infirmary have been set up with all the things I'll need. I just need to show up tomorrow in my costume," Ryouka said after swallowing. "Thankfully I don't have to do that much. Chiyo-sensei will be away for the better part of the day to check on a recovering patient in the next town, but sometime after lunch she will be helping me with healing duty."

She only have to heal those with serious injuries and those who have a match afterwards too, which was great. Those with light injuries and those who have no other matches for the rest of the day were to wait for Recovery Girl to come back and heal them after she treat them with normal medical supplies.

"I heard about that. There are many cases where Heroes ended up heavily injured or dead lately, it's concerning," All Might nodded, looking grave.

"Must have been someone with a grudge against Heroes," Ryouka said, shrugging.

They finished eating quickly after that and since school was only half-day in preparation for the festival tomorrow, Ryouka decided to go home to rest so she could perform her best since it was bound to be nastily exhausting. Thank goodness the principal for dividing the first, second, and third year stages into three separate days so she wouldn't have too many patients to heal each day.

.

Ryouka's first impression of the notorious U.A. Sports Festival was that it was too grand for a mere school festival, there were too many people, and that it was loud as fu—

She stumbled, bumping into another body. And then another. And then another.

She stopped walking, her shoulders shaking with suppressed annoyance as another body bumped her from behind. It was barely 9 o'clock in the morning and she was already so done with this whole thing, and it was going to continue on like this for the next 3 whole days. Fucking great.

Taking a deep breath to control her temper, she made her way slowly to the snack stalls and ordered anything and everything she could get her hands on. She had a long day ahead of her and need the proper amount of snacks to keep her sane.

There was a slight screech from the speakers before she heard Present Mic's voice opening the festival enthusiastically. He greeted the audience and introduced the classes that were competing for the day before the voice was replaced by Midnight's as she called for the student representative to make the oath.

"I'm gonna take first place!" rang throughout the stage area and Ryouka rolled her eyes at the declaration. Very charming.

When Midnight started to explain the qualifiers, Ryouka urged the stall vendor to hurry up as she had to go back to the infirmary so she could be on standby in case something happened.

Back at her infirmary, she set her purchases on the table and relaxed back onto her chair, preparing herself to watch the festival and judge the kids from afar as she snacked on the various foods she bought.

When the race started and the kids trampled over each other to be the first, she slapped her face onto the palm of her hands and groaned loudly. They were really determined to give her something to do today, weren't they?

She had to say that the students from 1-A really stand out from the rest though. Especially Tacky. Todoroki was it? Very flashy. The Loudmouth wasn't half bad either.

She leaned closer to the TV monitor when she saw a glimpse of green hair at the corner of the screen. It was Midoriya, struggling to keep up with the others as he carried a metal plate on his back. Ryouka tilted her head, wondering why the boy was carrying something like that around when it only served to slow him down.

Everything was explained when he suddenly shot to the finish line by triggering the explosion from the land mines and using the plate to propel himself forwards though. Very reckless, but it did get him into first place. If he got injured from his recklessness she would smack his head with a chair before she would heal him though.

Ryouka cleaned her table from her snacks when someone knocked on the door and she mentally sighed, resigning herself for the onslaught of patients for her to treat.

Amongst the 220 first year students, only 160 of them decided to compete in the festival and only 42 of them could earn the right to advance to the next round. Thankfully amongst the 42 students that advanced only Aoyama from 1-A needed her treatment because of the setback from his own Quirk while the rest were only a little bruised.

The ones that didn't make it, though…

Ryouka sighed audibly as she finished wrapping the badly sprained ankle of a student. The boy had tripped during the very beginning of the 1st stage and tried to run until the goal with his sprained ankle and you know what? There was Plus Ultra, there was not knowing one's limit. This was definitely not the former.

She bid her 38th patient goodbye after scolding him and welcomed her 39th one with a resigned sigh.

Thankfully of all her patients that day, only one needed her to heal him with her Quirk because of his broken leg while the others were only simple flesh wounds that she could treat normally.

She glanced at the clock, seeing that it was only a little after 11, and glanced at the monitor where the cavalry battle was in full swing and fought the urge to massage her temples seeing how brutal these kids were to each other. Explosions and fire, electrocution, creating really sharp ice spikes everywhere… it would be a miracle if they didn't severely injure each other at the end of the stage.

She looked up from the monitor when she heard a knock from the door again. When the door opened though, it was Rakan and his entourage that greeted her, not another patient.

"Rakan-kun, everyone. What are you doing here?" Ryouka asked them, not expecting them.

Narushige-san smiled at her, looking a bit sheepish.

"Sorry to bother you when you're working, Ibuki, but Rakan and Tohji thought you would be bored being here by yourself so…" the long-haired man trailed off.

"Well, you're not wrong. Come on in if you want," Ryouka told them, gesturing them towards the spare seats that were meant for her patients. She rummaged the cabinet beside her desk and found what she was looking for—teacups.

She set the cups on the table and poured all of them some tea from her thermos and offered them the dorayaki she bought earlier. Narushige-san's Quirk, the rainbow-coloured snake that he named 'Kou' immediately launched himself at the snack with heart in his eyes.

"Delicious! Narushige, it's delicious!" Kou said, beaming at Narushige as he gobbled the cake up.

Ryouka smiled seeing his enthusiasm.

Kou was Narushige-san's Quirk. He was a really talkative and curious snake that could turn into a sword and apparently could cut anything that Narushige-san wants. She was told that when Narushige-san was born Kou was born alongside him, coiling around his tiny body protectively.

"I have more if you want it," Ryouka told the snake who immediately showered her with a flurry of 'thanks' and 'Ryou-chan's the best'. Narushige-san shot her an apologetic look for how his Quirk was behaving, but Ryouka didn't mind it. She found the snake really cute.

Once everyone was settled in, they watched the cavalry battle together through the screen. The boys all gave small commentaries, commending the first years for their creativity and sharing with her their own experiences during the festival last year.

Apparently the four of them had advanced to the third round, but Rakan was defeated by a boy from class B because he was a pacifist at heart and hesitated when he was fighting him. Senroh, who was his opponent in the next round, obliterated the boy mercilessly, of course. In the end the festival was won by Narushige-san though.

"Why are you in the Hero course though?" Ryouka asked Rakan, who flushed slightly in embarrassment.

"Well…" he paused, glancing at Senroh. "I was going to go to Support, see. I thought my Quirk would be useful to create some useful plants and fruits for the Heroes to bring into a fight, but when Chigusa found out that I wasn't going to the Hero course, he said he wanted to change to Support too."

Rakan huffed. "Obviously I couldn't let that happen. His talents belongs with the Hero course and he wants to be in the Hero course to begin with so I decided to go with him. I figured I could still make stuff even if I'm not in Support anyway."

Huh.

Ryouka nodded to acknowledge his explanation before glancing back towards the screen, where she saw Midoriya's group and Tacky's group were engaged in an intense showdown. She glanced back towards the four of them and her mind wandered.

Visions of her old friends began to overlap with the shape of the boys in front of her and she closed her eyes, trying to dispel the imagery. Being with them, talking to them, listening to their soft laughter and seeing their easy camaraderie with each other, couldn't help but reminded her of the past long gone.

She shook her head slightly.

No. She had to remember her promise.

She mustn't let herself be chained to the past.

"Ryouka-san?" A soft voice called out to her. "Are you alright?"

Ryouka opened her eyes again to see Rakan looking at her with concern. She smiled slightly and shook her head to reassure him that she was fine.

"It's nothing… I just realized that you and Rakan looked a bit similar," Ryouka said, blurting the first thing that came to her mind and the five of them glanced at each other. Probably not buying her words but were unsure if they should push or not.

In the end, they decided to play along with her.

"Oh… we never did tell you, didn't we?" Rakan said with a small smile. "Actually Narushige-san is my cousin."

Narushige-san nodded. "Shigeka-sama—I mean, my mother, is Rakan-kun's mother's cousin."*

"Really now?" Ryouka mused, peering at their faces closely. "Well, both of you gave off a really soothing presence, I suppose. Not to mention your beautiful faces. Must be shared in your family, huh?"

Her words caused both of their cheeks to flush bright red.

"Ryouka-san!" Rakan pouted when he saw the amusement in her expression.

"What? I'm telling the truth," Ryouka smiled, closing her eyes, pretending that she didn't know why they reacted that way. Senroh nodded at the boy, looking completely serious as he agreed with her words.

"It's true, Rakan. I think you're beau—"

Before he could finish his word Tohji immediately clamped a hand over his mouth and smiled menacingly at the black-haired man.

"Okay, you can stop there, Senroh," the blond said, while Kou immediately beamed at her.

"Right? Right?! My Narushige is the most beautiful person, right?!" The snake babbled happily and Narushige-san shushed him, blushing brightly in embarrassment.

Rakan smiled, sighing exasperatedly as everyone chattered between themselves. He decided to leave them be and he turned towards Ryouka again.

"Chigusa's related to me too. My dad is his dad's younger brother, but he married into my mom's family so our surname is different," Rakan continued to explain. "We were raised together by my grandpa though as his mom and dad died a long time ago. He became attached to me soon after he moved in with us."

Huh… so that was their relationship. She honestly thought that Senroh was madly in love with Rakan with how he acted around the boy.

She obsered how the black-haired man was looking at Rakan and winced.

Yeah, maybe her theory wasn't so far from the truth after all, she thought as she sipped her tea again.

"Do any of you have siblings?" Ryouka asked, trying to change the topic to something more family friendly. At the mention of siblings, Rakan's face brightened and he went to rattle about

"Yep! I have a twin brother, Rasetsu.* Most people called him Prince because his personality though," Rakan said, chuckling a little. "Narushige-san have a younger sister, Sae. She's in middle school right now and is aiming for U.A.'s Management course next year. Tohji have an older brother, Kazuhi, who owns a hero agency next town. We're all going to be interned there this year too. Chigusa's the only one who is an only child here."

Oh, now this was interesting.

"You have a twin?" Ryouka asked, curious. One Rakan was soothing enough, but two? "I kind of want to see you two together now…"

Kou shook his head at her sagely. "Prince's the complete opposite of Rakan though, I wouldn't recommend meeting him."

Ryouka raised an eyebrow. "Opposite?"

Tohji shuddered and wrapped his arms around himself.

"He's a little devil," he whispered lowly, earning himself a smack to the back of his head by Narushige-san, who huffed at his words.

"Don't listen to him," the long-haired boy said, scowling at the blond. "Rasetsu-kun just love to play pranks on unsuspecting people and Tohji often got the brunt of it when we were younger."

Sounds like a fun person, Ryouka thought before echoing it aloud.

"He is! And his Quirk is amazing too! His is a mutation between my family's traditional Quirk, Sanome, and Chigusa's family traditional Quirk, Ayame," Rakan gushed in excitement. "It's amazing. He can see far away and manipulate things like Chigusa and absorb energy from living beings too."

"Absorb energy from living beings?" Ryouka echoed, raising an eyebrow.

"Yep! Unlike my Quirk that gives energy to plants so they may grow, Setsu can take the energy from them," the Sanome user explained. "It's not limited to only plants though, that's why he isn't at school with us. He didn't want to accident ate up someone."

Rakan looked a little sad at that.

"That, and because the Prince loves to laze around at home," Kou quipped to lighten the mood. It worked and Rakan immediately pouted at the snake.

"He is not! He works with the police for reconnaissance work too sometimes!" The boy said, defending his brother's name.

"Yeah. Sometimes."

The five of them bickered again and Ryouka smiled slightly at the sight. It was endearing. She was glad she decided to befriend them.

Suddenly there were cheering from the speaker and they all looked at the TV to see that the four teams that will advance to the next stage have been decided. She heard Present Mic announcing the teams' name. Team Todoroki in 1st place, Team Bakugou in 2nd place, Team Shinsou in 3rd place, and in last place was Team Midoriya.

Ryouka peered closely at the monitor. It looked like no one had been seriously injured. Midnight would notice her too if someone needed her treatments, so she could probably leave to buy food after this since there was a one-hour lunch break for the competitors.

When she said she was going to grab some food, Rakan, Tohji, Kou and Narushige-san, and Chigusa all bid her goodbye because they were going to go meet their other friends after this too and Ryouka left after seeing them off.

She went out to the area outside the stage where they were selling the food. Being the clever girl that she was, she had ordered her meal and paid for it in advance in the morning so she could just grab it without having to stand in the lunch rush line this time.

Taking her large box of takoyaki, she went to find a secluded place to eat her meal in and found an empty corridor. Perfect. There was no people, and there were breeze and shade for her to enjoy her meal in.

She glanced at the really, really short skirt of her Hero costume and frowned. If she sat down on the floor with the damned outfit she would flash her underwear to everyone that happened to stumble there, so she casted a disillusionment charm on herself.

Just as she was about to eat though, two figures approached the hallway she was in and stopped right beside her spot. They were… Tacky and Midoriya?

"So… what do you want to talk about? The cafeteria will be really crowded if we don't hurry…" Midoriya trailed off, sounding unsure, before suddenly he perked up and sniffed the air around him.

"Wait, did you smell fish?" the green haired boy asked incredulously as he looked around.

"Fish?" Tacky echoed as he glanced around too.

That must be the katsuobushi in her takoyaki, Ryouka thought with a small wince. Don't mind me, don't notice me. I'm just a wall decoration, Ryouka chanted in her mind, shoving a ball of the takoyaki into her mouth as he watched Midoriya fidget uncomfortably under Tacky's severe glare.

Okay, maybe she was just being hard-headed now. She knew the boy's name was Todoroki, but Tacky's shorter, okay? Though… maybe she should call him Emo after this, with how much he was glaring at Midoriya.

"I was overwhelmed… so much that I broke my pledge," the two-tone haired boy began after they failed to find the source of the smell.

Ryouka observed them as she shoved another ball into her mouth. It seemed like she was getting the front seat view of the beginning of some teenage drama. Should she leave? She was still eating though…

Well, whatever. It wasn't her fault that they picked her eating spot to discuss their problem.

"Iida, Kaminari, Yaoyorozu, Tokoyami, and Uraraka... none of them felt it. At that last instant, I was the only one who felt that pressure. Only me, who had experienced All Might's full power up close," he continued as he raised his left arm towards his face and Ryouka rolled her eyes at his dramatics.

But… All Might again, huh, she mused silently. First Asui, and now Todoroki. Was her suspicion really true…?

Midoriya gulped nervously. "What… does that mean?"

"I felt something similar coming from you," the other boy said, his eyes piercing into Midoriya. Ryouka leaned forward, anticipating his next words.

"Midoriya… are you All Might's illegitimate child or something?" Todoroki asked him bluntly. At his question, Midoriya froze and Ryouka almost choked on her meal. She immediately swallowed to avoid actually choking on it and suppressed a cough.

Illegitimate child? Ryouka stared at Todoroki in disbelieve. What an… active… imagination.

"Well? Are you?" the boy pressed, demanding answer.

Midoriya stuttered, looking very flustered as he answered.

"Th-that's not it! I mean, even if I was, I would say I wasn't so I don't think you'd believe me, but that's not how it is…" he trailed off, sounding unsure. "In the first place, let me as you something… why do you think that about me…?"

She was curious too. Aside from their Quirks, they looked nothing alike. Well, Midoriya could have been taking after his mother, but…

Ryouka tried to imagine All Might siring a child with a woman and snorted lightly, not being able to picture it at all. The man was way too easy to fluster and awkward even only with an innocent kiss—doing something more than that? Outrageous!

"Since you said, 'that's not how it is,' that means there's a connection between you two that you can't talk about, right?" Todoroki answered the green haired boy as she was busy imagining All Might with a wife and kid. "Endeavor's my old man. I'm sure you know that he's been stuck as the number two hero since forever. If you have a connection to the number one hero, then I… have even more reason to beat you."

What's that got to do with Midoriya though? Ryouka thought as she chewed on another ball and suppressed a moan of appreciation at the taste. She must simply buy another one before the third stage begin. That vendor's takoyaki was probably the best she had ever eaten.

"My old man has a strong desire to rise in the world," Todoroki continued. "As a hero, he won a name for himself with crushing force. Because of that, the living legend, All Might, is a great eyesore to him. Since he couldn't surpass All Might, he moved onto his next plan."

Midoriya gulped. "What are you talking about, Todoroki-kun…? What are you trying to tell me?"

"You've heard of Quirk marriages, right?" Todoroki asked him in return.

"That thing that became a problem for the second and third generation after superpowers appeared—choosing a spouse based only on strengthening your own Quirk and passing it onto your children, forcing people into marriage. The old-fashioned way of thinking brought about by a lack of ethics," the boy explained to the stunned Midoriya.

Ryouka frowned at his words and put down her meal as a sour feeling settled in her chest, already predicting where he was going to bring this conversation to, but… Endeavor wasn't the friendliest human being, but he was still a Hero. Would he really do something like that?

She glanced at Todoroki's grave expression and wondered if she should leave discreetly. It was certainly too late after what she heard. She thought she was going to witness some juicy rivalry drama so she didn't go earlier, but she felt bad to eavesdrop on something this heavy of a topic.

Before she could act though, the boy continued.

"He is a man with both accomplishments and money. He won over my mother's relatives and got a hold of my mother's Quirk. He is trying to fulfil his own desire by raising me to be a hero to surpass All Might. It's so aggravating… I won't become the tool of a scum like that," he said, gritting his teeth in suppressed rage.

"In my memories, my mother is always crying," Todoroki continued coldly as he took his hand to cover his left eye. "'Your left side is unsightly,' my mother said as she poured boiling water on me."

Midoriya looked more horrified by each word he said, but he couldn't do anything but stand there and listen as his classmate dumped his thoughts onto him.

"Basically, I picked a fight with you to show him what I can do without using my shitty old man's Quirk…" Todoroki told him, before a fire entered his eyes and he glared at Midoriya again. "No… I'll reject him completely by winning first place without using it."

He uttered the vow with conviction before he lifted his back from the wall and started to walk away.

"I don't care if you can't tell me how you're connected to All Might. No matter what you are to All Might, I will rise above you with just my right side," Todoroki muttered. "Sorry for wasting your time."

Ryouka watched as Midoriya gritting his teeth in frustration and sighed. Well anyone would react that way after being told something like that so she didn't blame him. Before long though, Midoriya suddenly chased after Todoroki's retreating back and called out to him loudly.

"I…!" Midoriya yelled at the other boy, catching his attention again.

"I have always been supported by others. That was the case earlier, too. I am here because of the people who have supported me," Midoriya began softly, looking at his clenched hand. "Saving people with a fearless smile, the greatest hero—All Might… I want to be like him. In order to do that, I have to be strong enough to become number one."

He raised his head and stared back into Todoroki's eyes with determination in his eyes.

"My motivation might seem trivial compared to yours, but I can't lose, either. I have to live up to the hopes of those who supported me," Midoriya declared confidently. "The declaration of war you gave earlier—I'll return that. I will win against you."

They stared into each other's eyes and acknowledged each other's vows.

When they finally left, Ryouka dispelled her disillusionment charm and heaved a long sigh as she put her face onto the palm of her hands for the second time that day.

That… thatwas so heavy that it made her delicious food taste bad.

When she agreed to be All Might's healer, she didn't sign up to witness this kind of teenage angst and family drama okay. Why did they have to pick her eating spot for that kind of serious talk anyway? Ryouka grumbled inwardly as she shoved the last of her meal into her mouth.

But still… Endeavor, huh?

Ryouka narrowed her eyes darkly as she burned the empty takoyaki container.

…What a shitty human being.

No. 11 Brewing Trouble—End

*No I'm not giving myself honorific lol. If I remember correctly Narushige actually called her mother Shigeka-sama in canon because she's the head of the family and he's like a stranger to her. His family consists of all female and because he's the only male he was viewed as an ill-omen. It's sad :(

Also Prince canonly doesn't have a name. I choose the name Rasetsu (羅節) for him because of its connection to Rakan's name (羅貫).

I think the rest of the festival will be concluded next chapter, but don't expect it anytime soon. I will be pretty busy after this probably.