TheGreatBubbaJ - Please do not torture me with that
SwordoftheGods - You're getting the remaining Warlords now. And the scarily funny chapter is the next one :P Consider this an advanced warning.
Jpx0999 - Hypothermia is legendary when burns are involved, despite being a being of ice. Trust me, it gets better, although not quite soon.
Detrametal - As stated above, Hypothermia really levelled up the creative inconvenience skills.
Shahryar - :V
Chaoscontrol85 - That would be utterly insane and would certainly earn Todoroki a life-long feud with Hypothermia :P
(***)
Kashiko Sekigai shows up next. With her glasses, she gives him the class president vibes, to a much greater degree than even Saiko Intelli.
Her outfit is another dress, but significantly less lavish than what Intelli had.
She is accompanied by three people. One of them is short and slightly overweight (apparently, the name's Dadan Tadan), one is tall and smiles like Monoma, meaning that Izuku kind of wants to punch him (Romero Fujimi), and the last one is a girl with snake-like eyes (Habuko Mongoose).
If Todoroki's earlier summary was to be trusted, the first one was a mage of the Primordial of Fire (with specialization in explosions), the second one was a follower of the Ancient of Filth, while the last one was into the Archon of Life. And, apparently, a big fan of reptiles.
Huh.
"So, Izuku Midoriya." Sekigai says as she approaches. "I must say that it's quite reassuring to no longer be the weakest among the Warlords."
"Don't get too used to this." Midoriya replies calmly, but with a faint smile on his face. "I'm planning to aim for the top."
Words cost little.
"Wow, aren't you the ambitious one?" Fujimi decides to cut in.
Izuku ignores him, looking at Sekigai. He doesn't really have a plan, he just thinks that the look on Romero's face is pissing him off. A lot. So he acts accordingly.
"So, your goal is maintaining your title after this?" Sekigai asks, ignoring Romero too. Was this some sort of a test, or…
"Why not?" Izuku asks back. He remembers what Todoroki told him about her position, so he might as well roll with it. "I'm in a comfortable position. The Special Exclusion Zone is a hard place to attack. Once I develop my zone a little, I should have a lot of things to trade. And we both know that by the time I amass enough firepower to be able to threaten other cabals significantly, most of the current Warlords will probably graduate already."
"Playing a long game, then." Sekigai gives him an appraising look. "I assume that you're being quite open about it to me, because Todoroki explained my position to you and you're hoping for an alliance."
That sounds like a logical thing to do… but c'mon. Izuku played so many RPGs, plotted so many tabletop campaigns, was a player in so many high-quality campaigns of others… he can spot a threat.
"No, not really." Izuku replies. Judging from the faint raise of one of her brows, she found that surprising. "I'm not established enough as of now to risk establishing an alliance with anyone. I'd be permanently at risk of becoming dependent on you. And you can't be a Warlord properly when you're dependent on someone. Instead, well, all I need from you is some… good will during these negotiations" Izuku smiles lightly. "And some self-interest that the Initiates appear to have in spades."
The best part of the current situation?
They can't do shit to him if he doesn't let them.
It's something that Izuku realized literally just now, a random thought that occurred to him out of nowhere. A flash of inspiration that surprised even him.
Overlook is nigh-self-sufficient.
He has the necessary housing. He has Tokage's cabal to work for him - and the same skills that Komori and Shiozaki used for harvesting alchemical plants can be used to set up basic farming. He even has a lake to fish in.
Power might be an issue, but if it'll become one, Izuku will just use a much more carefully crafted amount of leftover points to create a (probably haunted) coal mine. Then he just has to inflame Kacchan's competitiveness - probably make a contest of 'who mines more coal' with him and, say, Kirishima?.
The only real problem would be Toga and her desire for human flesh. But he was almost certain that it could be alleviated with proper positioning of the warpgates, to allow Toga to hunt elsewhere outside of the Warlord's eyes.
Or, well, he could use her love for him and her food stores running dry to, potentially, persuade her into deciding to abandon ghoulishness and take Aiko's lifeline. He would prefer to avoid it - not like he thinks ghouls are alright, he just doesn't want to pressure her so much.
With the whole charm thing going on, it would really feel like him being a dick. And it all being a really insidious mind control.
He'd have at least two to three months to build-up skills and train himself properly in Overlook (not to mention, the rest of his cabal members) before he'd be forced to start recruiting in order to amass the firepower needed to combat the blood hornet hive.
There was a chance that some of the Warlords would have graduated already, if Todoroki's words were to be trusted, at least Intelli and Yaoyorozu were nearing the end of their Black Course curriculum.
This would have opened up options.
It also gives him a somewhat surprising feeling of safety.
"Interesting." Sekigai comments dryly. "You're clearly not whom I expected. Then again, Shoto is there. And we all know how much he… loves his father and his unending demands."
Oh, that's what she's implying. That Midoriya is being Todoroki's puppet, something to achieve as much as he potentially could from his time at the UA while avoiding fulfilling his father's expectations.
There is only a single thing he can do to repel such an accusation. Namely, throw the about-to-explode grenade at someone else, for them to worry about it.
"Shoto, care to comment on that?" Izuku asks. Todoroki glances at him, before sighing loudly and looking at Sekigai.
"I assure you, Kashiko, that Midoriya's the actual ruler of the cabal." Todoroki announces calmly. "First of all, this is way too much chaos for me. Second of all, I'm way too asocial to be able to do things like this for an extended period of time, while Midoriya is clearly excelling at it, although I have no idea how or why. Third of all, I have way too much fun being the walking exposition dispenser while observing the truly fresh perspective on the world of magic they have and all the mayhem it brings to even consider reining them in. Finally, they are talented enough that I'm actually interested in seeing how far they go."
"... how interested?" Sekigai asks, her eyes narrowing down on him.
"Bakugou kissed my sister." Todoroki replies calmly. "On the lips. And Midoriya's charisma is potent enough to persuade his own stalker to a threesome."
Sekigai froze. It probably took all her willpower and training in social events to not stare at him slackjawed. Even Tsukiko Okuda didn't expect this plot twist, the news about Fuyumi Todoroki getting herself a boyfriend clearly didn't reach her ears.
"I…" Bakugou says slowly, drawing out every letter. "... actually enjoy my privacy, Library Freak."
"Not Library Freak." Todoroki glances at him. "It's brother-in-law, Bakugou."
"This is going to get incredibly weird sooner or later, and you know why, Library Freak." Bakugou replies.
"I admit that you proceeding to kiss my cousin right after kissing my sister, and on the lips again, does imply a complicated relationship between you and my extended family." Todoroki casually unleashes another bomb on Sekigai. "However, it doesn't get 'incredibly weird' unless you also kiss my mother. On the lips."
Midoriya is so fucking done with this. Kashiko Sekigai starts looking like she is seriously regretting some of her life choices. Like whatever spawned this line of talk. Coincidentally, so does Midoriya.
"For as much as becoming your cousin-in-law, brother-in-law and a stepfather would be a power move and a mighty way of asserting my dominance over you, Library Freak, I genuinely think that I've become enough of an ivy growing on your family tree as it is." Bakugou replies. Surprisingly calmly and eloquently, is he trying so hard for Fuyumi?
"We've been here for about an hour." Midoriya replies, actually venomously at that. Rare for him. "Is expecting you to act like normal human beings for more than an hour too much? I've come planning to do something important today, and…"
"Hi, I'm something important!" Toga announces with a wry smile. That immediately falls flat when she sees the look Izuku gives her. "... I misread the mood. Sorry for that, Izucchan."
Izuku can practically feel the gears in Sekigai's head turning. And the Warlord realizing who was the third end of the threesome that Todoroki mentioned.
Looks like the school - or at least a big chunk of it - is going to discover that Midoriya Izuku is having sex with a cannibalistic serial killer. Which, to be honest, he is doing, and fully consensually.
Then again, Toga is unbelievably hot, the sex is mindblowingly awesome, and she has a separate fridge in their kitchen that Izuku does his best not to open.
Midoriya really feels like he is stretching the 'out of sight, out of mind' beyond reason or logic with this, but…
Time to either embrace or deny the image.
"Ancient of Desire." He states flatly to Sekigai. Let her think he is a mage of that school. "Mistakes were made. Such as expecting Shoto to be serious about something for more than ten seconds."
"You wanted the public confirmation that I'm following you, not the other way around." Todoroki shrugs. "It was publicly confirmed. You're welcome, boss."
Izuku sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. He isn't sure in which world doing whatever you want implies following someone else, but…
"Can we just pretend that none of this happened?" He asks Sekigai. Who finally wakes up from the revelations-induced stupor.
"What sort of magic did you learn to charm supernatural entities so well?" She says, staring at him from behind her glasses with maybe slight horror. And a lot of shock. Izuku doesn't answer. "It has to be incredibly potent, that's for sure."
"The type that permits me to be a tiny bit ambitious." Midoriya calmly replies. "While also making my daily life rather chaotic. Shoto enjoys the soap opera so much that he decided to follow me around. So, does that clear the questions concerning my leadership of the cabal?" He decides to ask again.
Sekigai blinks at him.
"Mostly, yes." She admits. "On the other hand, you know that it doesn't exactly make me like your existence more?"
Huh? Oh.
"Is it because you do not want a chaotic Fifth Warlord, simply due to the word 'chaotic' implying the tendency to cause chaos, chaos risking a serious clash between the Warlords and you being in the middle between the other three?" Izuku asks.
"Yes." Sekigai nods. Is he reading her correctly? He thinks she didn't expect him to figure it out so quickly.
"Chaotic doesn't mean stupid." Midoriya decides to salvage what he can. "I'm not interested in any fights starting, at all. If anything, I'd gladly focus on developing my Zone, rather than expanding outwards, for as long as my playground isn't endangered by anyone and I don't have to follow the orders of others. Please, remember that fact."
"I plan to." Sekigai nods. "I'm not one to quote memes, but… we'll be watching your career with great interest."
Less than five minutes later, she is chatting with Monoma's group on the other end of the hall. It's clearly almost the start of the Summit, as Intelli is in the hallways before the chained door as well, in the corner, eyeing the whole room quietly.
Izuku barely noticed it, but the chained door is now guarded by no one else than Aizawa-sensei. He is even wearing a suit. He also looks like he hates that fact.
Nice.
Izuku still wants to go home, cuddle with Ochako and Himichan, and go to sleep.
He also wants to tell a lot of nasty things to Shoto, Kacchan and Toga. Uraraka is the only one that'll be spared from his wrath. But that's for later.
Yaoyorozu arrives a moment later.
Phew.
He knew her three sizes and breast cup from Shoto, so he expected a lot, and to be honest, he got even more. Momo Yaoyorozu had a body that most models and actresses would kill to obtain.
And also, a rather glorious flowing robe, black to match her hair and with long sleeves. Interesting.
She is flanked by her own sidekicks. A yellow-haired young man (Kaminari Denki), who is apparently a potent melee fighter, boosted further by his thunder magic. A black-haired and rather petite young woman (Kyoka Jirou), sound mage, which made her a useful early warning system. And, finally, a tall young man with a rather official look on his face (Tenya Iida), who was apparently another follower of the Archon of War.
And a stickler for the rules.
Apparently somewhat of an Initiate noble himself, just less so than Yaoyorozu.
Izuku sighs internally when Yaoyorozu's eyes spot him and the whole group almost seamlessly moves towards him.
Great. That's just what he wanted to happen right before the Summit.
"Midoriya Izuku, the newest of the UA Four, my bad, Five Warlords." Yaoyorozu appraises him from his feet all the way up to the top of his head. "A most surprising development, I must say."
"I guess there aren't enough agoraphobic Candidates to form a cabal capable of taking the Labyrinth for themselves, then." Midoriya deadpans. He, honestly, has no idea why the underground Exclusion Zone wasn't claimed by anyone. "It's nice to meet you, Miss Yaoyorozu. Todoroki told me a lot about you."
"Oh, something nice, I presume?" Momo asks, her eyes drifting to Todoroki.
What is Izuku supposed to answer? 'Your three sizes, breast cup and fetishes that he learned thanks to you sending him your nudes'? Yeah, nope. Nope.
They already have a complicated relationship, he isn't going to make it worse.
"Yes." Izuku replies. He is… not exactly wrong about it? Aside from the kinks part… to be honest, it makes treating her seriously a bit harder than he expected.
Then she just stares at him. Is she waiting for him to do something? Why are the others not doing anything? Oh, right, butting in is considered to be a bad thing when Warlords are meeting, unless Warlords make them do it.
Sigh.
"So, what's it going to be?" Izuku eventually asks. It's getting too awkward. "Intelli tried to ignore me, but ended up apologizing. Monoma tried to threaten me, but ended up not getting what he wanted. As for Sekigai… well, she is probably going to have nightmares from what happened." He looks at Yaoyorozu through his glasses. "What are you going to try to do?"
"You…" She replies slowly. "... stole Tokage from me."
Really?
"She was the one who decided to petition me for protection." Midoriya replies. "How's that stealing?"
"Saiko Intelli has the Frozen Palace, and the cold one mercenaries." Yaoyorozu replies coldly, actually towering over him a little.. "Neito Monoma has, I give him that, probably the best fighters out of all Warlords, especially as a group. I have artificers and alchemists. Kashiko Sekigai is the one and only outlier, not having enough time to develop her specialty." Her eyes narrow down. "I do not enjoy someone chipping at my specialty."
"Well then…" Izuku replies. "... maybe you should have treated your underlings better? I vaguely remember hearing Tokage saying that she prefers to risk it with me than to economically prostitute herself for you. Sounds like a lot of bad blood."
Something was wrong.
Izuku wasn't exactly sure what. But there was something just not right in the scene. Yaoyorozu was playing some game, and Izuku had no idea what it was.
"So it's my fault now?" Yaoyorozu replies.
"Does someone have to be at fault here?" Izuku replies. "Setsuna Tokage saw an opportunity and decided to seize it. I thought that being an initiate is in big part about seizing the opportunities."
"You don't expect the one that you seized the opportunities from to like you for it, now, don't you?" Yaoyorozu replies. Yepyep, Izuku's 'something's not right' sense is tingling. But what's causing this reaction?
"Let's consider this affair…" Midoriya replies calmly. "... to be a form of payback for me chasing off Geten before he caused too much damage to your assets. Especially as I was visiting one of your subsidiaries in your territory, only to be attacked by one of your enemies that your cabalites failed to stop."
It was quite a fuck-up on her end and… wait. It can't be that, right?
"Miss Yaoyorozu…" Midoriya says calmly right before Yaoyorozu opens her mouth to reply.. "... I've just developed a certain degree of… suspicion. I'm just torn over whether I should consider this to be a declaration of war and whether I should involve Aizawa-sensei or not. And, probably, have you at least slightly humiliated in front of other Warlords, while at it."
Judging from the look on her face (although she is VERY good at pretending), she didn't expect it. To Izuku's surprise, Todoroki glances at him with an unspoken 'wtf are you talking about'. He didn't realize?
Honestly, he has no idea if he is right, so he is to a big degree winging it and praying that his hunch is correct.
"What exactly…" Yaoyorozu's eyes' narrow. "... are you talking about?"
"Jirou is a sound mage, and I learned what exactly she's capable of from Todoroki." Midoriya replies. "I also couldn't help but notice that she is standing slightly to the side, her left ear towards me… in just the right position for Aizawa-sensei to not see said ear." The eyes of him and Yaoyorozu meet. "Is she using some hearing amplification magic on her left ear to hear my heartbeat and act as a living lie detector while you subtly probe me about various topics connected to my cabal, Miss Yaoyorozu? Starting from our work relationship with Tokage?"
Todoroki, for all his stoicism and skills, actually does appear surprised by it, glancing at Midoriya for a second before looking at Jirou. Who, clearly, froze, before glancing back at them.
Iida looks like he bit a sour lemon all of a sudden.
"We've been using this trick for months…" Yaoyorozu replies, ignoring Iida's reaction completely. "... and you're the first person to realize it. I should have figured out that the person that made Shoto follow them around is someone special, their length of time being an initiate be damned."
Hopefully she doesn't ask how he figured it out. Because if she expects some grand story, she'll be miserably disappointed. He just had a random hunch connecting Jirou's magic to some character in a superhero anime he once watched while bored.
Dumb, but hey. It worked. Somehow, clearly enough, even Shoto 'I'm an All-Knowing Veteran' Todoroki didn't realize that she was doing it. For months. Which, to be honest, begets another question.
Whether she knows that Shoto's playing her and the others like the cheap romantically-involved kazoos that they all are to him. Todoroki's probably asking himself the same question right now.
"So, what are you going to do about that discovery?" Yaoyorozu asks. Despite being caught at violating the rules of the Summit, she doesn't seem to mind it at all.
"Well, I could call Aizawa here." Midoriya replies, while glancing at the teacher in question. Aizawa was looking at him, probably waiting to be called. He was as much of a veteran as an Initiate could be - of course he realized. He just deemed it a good enough deception, and was probably going to give Yaoyorozu additional points for pulling it off successfully.
It was just one more special exercise for the Warlords and their little cliques.
The faculty was playing the role of SPSC mediators. They would respond to direct attacks and mind controls. Spying? That was responded to purely on the 'if the victims calls the perpetrator out' basis.
Besides, a meeting of magical world Big Names without at least some spying? Perish the thought!
"... but I think that what you're really worried about is Intelli and the rest realizing you could do that." Midoriya then adds. "So how about this - I saw and heard nothing, and in exchange we let bygones be bygones."
"Very well." Yaoyorozu decided to grab the lifeline. "The issues of Tokage's cabal changing their allegiance and my loss of monopoly on the field of non-sanctioned alchemical trade is officially forgotten."
"And so is Geten's affair." Midoriya replies. "I'm really interested in establishing a, well, perhaps not friendly but at least non-hostile relationship with you and the others. Consider this a gesture of goodwill. Naturally…" He then adds after a second. "... my goodwill is dependent entirely on whether you'll try the same thing on me ever again." He is certainly NOT telling her that Monoma might have a mole in her cabal after this stunt.
Damn, this is nerve wracking.
(***)
"... I have questions." Todoroki announces quietly as Yaoyorozu departs to talk with Sekigai, Jirou clearly using her trick again.
"Don't have them." Midoriya replies. "The way I figured it out is really underwhelming."
"That was one of the questions, not all of them." Todoroki replies. "You're starting to terrify me with how skillfully you're playing it out. At this point it almost feels like we won't be needing my plan, even if we most likely will."
Midoriya sighs.
"Everyone here's larping as some high class villainous mastermind." Midoriya then replies calmly. "They are good, very good, but this is still massively oversimplified, in terms of etiquette alone, to how I'd imagine a true noble meeting to look like. If it's that much, I can do it."
"It's less about etiquette, and more about you matching their wits." Todoroki replies. "Then again, seeing how much of a brilliant tactician you clearly are, I really shouldn't doubt the existence of your wits, just of your ability to use them without causing small natural disasters for reasons beyond my cognition."
Sigh.
"I'd ask some variant of 'when was the last time I've caused a natural disaster', but not only would it be raising the flags but also we're still in the middle of cleaning up after the last one." Midoriya replies, while observing Yaoyorozu's subtle act of subterfuge. "Too early for the next one."
"Now that's raising flags." Bakugou groans. "Also, before you ask Library Freak, Deku's a fucking actor. Role-player and shit, they almost grabbed him for the theater club in Rozaryu before the accident. He is just fucking pretending to be a confident mastermind, but since the Warlords are of his age and probably less skillful at larping than he is, it works."
Todoroki looks at him weirdly for a few seconds, before sighing loudly.
"I actually considered the option that you were somewhat influenced by your sister's… learning capabilities, and that's why you were reading the Warlords so well." Todoroki replies, while glancing at Yaoyorozu's back. "But I guess that the mundane explanations are sometimes a thing, even when you're involved."
Five minutes later, the doors are opened, and they are invited inside. The negotiations are starting.