Once all of them had finished showing Eri and Niseko-chan around U.A. and settled down at a table together, Izuku sighed softly. He'd been hoping that the pair of them would at least start to recover from what Chisaki – and the people of Deika, in Niseko-chan's case – had done to them, but neither of them had smiled even once during their tour. Kacchan had clearly noticed it, too, and it seemed like Togata-sempai had at least started piecing things together. It didn't seem like he'd had any personal experience with Deika, or the people who lived there.
That was kind of nice, but explaining things would be kind of involved.
"It's good to see that our special guests are having a good time," Principal Nedzu said, turning to smile over at the five of them, even as he was eating a big block of some kind of cheese. "With all of the preparations we've been making for the Festival, it's sure to make the both of them cheer with glee."
I hope so, Izuku mused, sighing as he looked over at the pair of them.
Eri and Niseko-chan… He didn't know exactly what it was that the pair of them had gone through, either in Deika or with Chisaki, but it was clear that it had had a profound effect on the both of them. Still, considering how determined Niseko-chan seemed to be to protect Eri – to look after her, and make sure that she was safe and happy so she could recover from whatever had actually happened to her – Izuku thought that Niseko-chan would at least have some chance to recover from the things that had happened to him. He just hoped Eri-chan would be able to find her own way to recovery, as well.
After he, Kacchan, and Togata-sempai had all finished their conversation with the principal and Midnight-sensei, Izuku sighed softly as he made his way back to 1-A's dorms to get some rest; he was a bit more emotionally exhausted than he'd been counting on, after everything that had happened.
Later in the week, once Izuku had found himself settling into a new kind of routine, working on not only on his Hero studies but also on his part of the choreographed dance-routine that Ashido-san and Jiro-san had worked on together, he found himself facing Ashido-san herself. She was wearing nearly the same kind of suit that Dad seemed to enjoy wearing so much, though Ashido-san was wearing a tie and sunglasses – neither of which Dad seemed to be interested in or impressed by – but Izuku still found himself more than a little amused to see that kind of thing.
"Ashido-san, I don't think your cosplay of my dad is quite on-point," he found himself saying, almost against his own will; he'd probably been spending entirely too much time around Dad and Tenko-nii, but the way Ashido-san burst out laughing made him feel at least a little better.
"No, no, that's not what I came here for!" Ashido-san laughed, grinning at him as she took off her sunglasses and incidentally made herself look just that much more like Dad. "You've been scouted by the Special Effects Team!"
"Huh?"
"Yeah!" Ashido-san exclaimed, grinning all the wider; she really did remind him more than a little of Dad, considering. "They wanted to have Aoyama fly around the room, once he transforms into a disco-ball! It'd be boring if he just hung there in the middle of the room, so we wanted you to fly him around! Yaomomo made a harness for you and everything, since you have those wings, and given the way you fight, you must have a few strength Quirks in there somewhere!"
"Mon ami, I hope you and I can make a dazzling display with our combined efforts!" Aoyama-san said, grinning widely at him as he made his way up to stand beside Ashido-san.
"I promised Eri and Niseko-chan that I'd be dancing, though," he said, chewing on his lower lip as he found himself thinking about just what he was going to do, considering the promise that he'd previously made. "Though, I guess if I started out dancing, then I wouldn't have lied to either of them," he muttered, then looked back up at Ashido-san with a smile. "Yeah, I guess that would be all right."
After that, Izuku found himself working alongside Kirishima-san, Shoto-kun, and Aoyama-san, each of them working on their own part of the special effects for the concert that class 1-A was putting on for the rest of U.A.
There were also the times that he got to spend with Dad and Uncle Toshi, not just in class but also those times when he'd get to work with Dad to get a handle on the Quirks he'd copied from the other members of his class. Uncle Toshi was clearly happy to help him in whatever way he could, and Izuku made sure to give the both of them lots of hugs. Time seemed to pass a lot more quickly, once Izuku and the group he had been reassigned to all started working on their part of the concert in earnest.
Izuku also found himself in more fittings, this time to have his costume altered to accommodate the wings he'd copied from Hayato-kun, and also for Ashido-san and Momo-san to work out a way to decorate his wings so they would both look good with the costumes that he and Aoyama-san would be wearing, and also wouldn't contrast too much considering the bright colors of the costume he was going to be wearing and the dark green of his wings.
"Wait!" he yelped, wings twitching almost involuntarily as he felt the tingling of Ashido-san's fingers as they ran over the top of his wings; right at the joint where all of his wing-bones met. "Those are sensitive!"
"Oh," Ashido-san said, and Izuku turned to see her with her hands pressed together and an expression on her face that looked entirely too much like Kacchan's for his peace of mind. "Are you ticklish, Midoriya?"
The sight of Ashido-san, fingers wriggling in the same way that Kacchan's did when he would teasingly threaten Izuku, prompted him to almost reflexively teleport to the other side of the room, wings retracting as he pulled Hayato-kun's Quirk back into his stockpile.
"Ashido-san, I don't think you should be teasing Izuku so much," Momo-san said, giving Ashido-san a reproving look as she clutched the measuring-tape she'd been holding since the three of them had all met up for this in the first place. "Especially not while we're working."
"Okay," Ashido-san said, folding her arms and giving Momo-san the same kind of pout that Tenko-nii had given Dad, back when the both of them were younger and his older brother would annoy him just for the sake of it; not that he didn't do that kind of thing now, but he at least tended to pout less.
Sighing as he called Hayato-kun's Quirk up from within his own All For One again, Izuku lightly flapped his wings, before holding them out so that Momo-san could begin taking measurements and probably comparing fabric swatches. That was something that Aunt Mitsuki talked about, when she was working on some outfit or other. He'd seen Kacchan modeling for Aunt Mitsuki a few times, though mostly under duress of one kind or another. Aunt Mitsuki could be really… persuasive, when she put her mind to it.
Later, on the night before their performance at the School Festival, Izuku found himself back in the gym again, wearing a simpler version of the harness that would allow him to carry Aoyama-san around while still being able to use his arms. Ashido-san had been really enthusiastic about helping the both of them to work on a dance routine that they could do in the air; something that would draw attention to the bright ribbons trailing from his wings. Ashido-san had suggested that he could wear some kind of makeup on his wings, but after every one of Ashido-san's attempts to use one of her brushes on him had ended up with him doubled over with laughter, Momo-san had offered to make the ribbons that he was going to be wearing with his costume.
As they all worked on their respective routines, Izuku launched himself up into the air, calling up Hayato-kun's Quirk; he'd been working to break himself of the habit of rolling his shoulders when he called up that particular Quirk, particularly since the idea for this particular show was to have the wings pop out of his back while he twirled, just before he took off into the air. Linking his harness to the one that Aoyama-san was wearing, Izuku smiled as he heard the cheering coming up from the rest of his classmates, then pushed the heady feeling of being cheered down so that he could focus on this next part. The sound of Hound Dog's voice, calling for him and Aoyama-san to land, and for all of class 1-A to clear out, prompted Izuku to sigh softly.
Withdrawing Hayato-kun's Quirk back into his stockpile, Izuku sighed again as he felt the wings retracting into his back.
Yawing as he fell in with the rest of his classmates as they made their way back to the 1-A dorms, Izuku smiled as he caught sight of Bambaa-chan making her way down the stairs to have dinner with all of them. Sure, it was kind of hard, keeping Bambaa-chan and Tsubasa-san from finding out what he and the rest of Class 1-A were going to be doing during their part of the School Festival. Of course, Bambaa-chan had been meeting with Tsubasa-san, probably over Class 1-C's project for the School Festival, so there was kind of an unspoken agreement between both of their classes not to pry into what the other class was trying to do.
Once they'd all finished dinner, and Bambaa-chan and Tsubasa-san had gone back to their part of the 1-A dorms, Izuku found himself drifting back towards Todoroki-san, Kirishima-san, and Aoyama-san. Todoroki-san and Kirishima-san had their own parts to play – Todoroki-san's ice, and Kirishima-san's Hardening, respectively – so he and Aoyama-san had settled down to talk about their own part of the concert. However, the first thing Izuku noticed was the rope that the pair of them had been using to harness one of them to the other.
"Wow, this is so frayed," he said, holding out the rope so both he and Aoyama-san could get a look at it.
"Mon dieu, we have been putting it through a lot," Aoyama-san said, looking down at the coil of well-used rope that Izuku had just set out on the table between them. Then he smiled. "It's a physical symbol of our growing relationship!"
He chuckled. "Yeah, I guess," nibbling at his lower lip. "Still, it'd be dangerous to keep using this rope for much longer," he said, narrowing his eyes as he considered what he could do about their current situation.
Maybe he could use Momo-san's Quirk to create a new rope, still, he didn't quite know what exactly the rope they were using was made of. It didn't quite feel like nylon, and there weren't any hardware stores that sold silk ropes; he didn't think they made ropes out of cotton- Yelping as he felt someone swat him on the back of the head, he turned to see Kacchan standing by the side of the table he and Aoyama-san had been standing around.
"Just go buy another one tomorrow, nerd," Kacchan said, looking at him in that way that suggested he'd been muttering again.
"Yeah, I guess I could go to that small hardware store near the base of the mountain," he said, nibbling lightly on the tip of his right pointer finger as he stopped searching for his copy of Momo-san's Quirk within his stockpile.
"Yeah, now go get some sleep, nerd," Kacchan said, rolling his eyes as he got behind Izuku and started shoving him in the direction of the stairs.
Izuku laughed. "I'm going, Kacchan, I'm going!"
~MHA~
Once she'd with classes for the day, Bombalurina made her way up to the group that'd been working to set up the haunted house that Class 1-C had decided to set up for their part of the School Festival.
/Okay, what was it you wanted me to do?/ she asked, settling down at the table with the five other members of her class; out of all of them, Hitoshi was really the only one she'd really managed to bond with.
The rest of them… Well, ever since Papa had revealed himself as Sensei, the nearly-tangible, indefinable separation that had existed between her and the rest of her fellow students in General Studies when they'd found out that she and Izu were siblings; adopted, yes, but that seemed to make as little impact on her classmates as it did on her family. Only, in the latter case it didn't seem like it was because they'd accepted her with no reservations.
Just the opposite, really.
Finding herself presented with a costume that looked like some kind of strange cross between a witch and an alien, as well as what looked like a few boxes of black dye, Bombalurina felt her ears twitching in annoyance.
/I've told you guys before that I'm sensitive to the scent of harsh chemicals before, haven't I?/ she asked, ears folding back as she turned her attention back to her fellow classmates.
They seemed to have forgotten, or else they hadn't been listening when she told them the first time, and so Bombalurina found herself explaining just how badly her sense of smell was affected by the harsh chemicals in most commercial dyes for the second time since all of them had met. It was kind of annoying, having to restate something that she'd already explained before, but once their conversation was over and done with Bombalurina at least knew she'd be able to tolerate the next batch of dye.
Apparently, the rest of class 1-C had decided to set up some kind of haunted house for their part of the School Festival, and they wanted her to play the part of an alien witch, along with the help of Toriko Tsubasa to make things float with her Levitation Quirk.
~MHA~
The next morning, once he'd had at least some time to rest from everything he and his class had been doing to set up the dance concert that he and the rest of class 1-A were just about finished getting ready for, Izuku looked up as he felt someone's hand on his right shoulder.
"You seem to have a lot on your mind, young man," the tall – everyone he met seemed to be tall; it was one of the things he hated most about being short – man with a beard and mustache that were a bit more silvery than the bright white of Dad's hair, said with an inviting, curious expression on his face. "Come, relax and have some tea with us."
"Uhm," he said, looking down to check the time on his phone, before turning back to the silver-haired man with a smile of his own. "It looks like I have enough time before I have to get to class," he said, smiling up at the man. "Thanks!"
As it turned out, the man who'd invited him to have tea was Danjuro Tobita-san – someone who'd come to be called the Hero Reporter, though there were also other people who called him the Reporter Hero, since there was no one else who had that particular title yet – and his assistant, Manami Aiba-san. The pair of them had been invited to film the School Festival, which Izuku hadn't quite expected, though considering the pair's comparative notoriety, Izuku kind of figured he should have. Still, it wasn't all that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, so Izuku decided not to think too much about it.
Kacchan would have laughed at him, if his old friend had been there.
"So, you too know the seduction of fine tea, do you young man?" Tobita-san – who really did seem serious about the whole tea thing; almost more serious than he was about making a name for himself with his Hero interviews, and he sounded really serious about that – asked, a smile on his face.
"Well, actually one of my friends served it to us last night," he said, looking down into his half-finished cup for a moment, before returning his attention to Tobita-san and his partner. "This is only the second time I've had it. It tastes really good, though," he said, seeing the expression on the man's face change to one of curiosity.
"Ah, so it's simply your presence at U.A. that has allowed you the chance to savor this fine brew," Tobita-san said, a smile on his face that seemed both curious and earnest at once.
"I guess," he said, smiling back; really, even Momo-san didn't seem to be quite as enthusiastic about tea as Tobita-san, and she'd been the most enthusiastic about tea of anyone in class 1-A.
Really, even Tsubasa-san from class 1-C didn't seem as interested in tea as Tobita-san.
"So, what are you and your class working on for the Festival?" Aiba-san asked, but before he could think of even a single thing to say in response, Tobita-san laughed cheerfully.
"My dear, that would entirely spoil the surprise!" Tobita-san said, grinning cheerfully at her. "Why, I recall my school days spent preparing for one social event or other, and the first thing any one of us learned was that the secrecy of our particular project was paramount," Tobita-san said, slapping his right palm with his left fist.
Izuku laughed softly. "Yeah, I think everyone would be happier if I didn't say anything about our project. I'm pretty sure you're both going to like it, though!"
"Indubitably!" Tobita-san said, a cheerful smile on his own face. "In any case, the footage of U.A.'s famous School Festival should be enough to finally allow me to outdo Sushi and his daily V-logs."
"Yeah!" Aiba-san exclaimed, bouncing in her seat. "And now, with you, All Might and the Symbol of Hope all there, we'll be sure to make even better ratings than even the interview Danjuro-kun got with just All Might!"
"You got an interview with All Might, Tobita-san?" he asked; Uncle Toshi hadn't told him about meeting either Tobita-san or Aiba-san, but then again Uncle Toshi didn't really tend to talk about the people who interviewed him.
He was more interested in talking about the people he helped, either while he was working on a case under his normal name, or the people he saved as All Might.
"Indeed, I did manage to find myself crossing paths with the Symbol of Peace himself," Tobita-san said, the smile on his face slowly becoming more rueful as he talked. "However, on that same day, another one of Sushi's videos appeared."
"I remember that one!" Aiba-san exclaimed, smiling. "One of the other kitties in the café had a litter of kittens. Oh, they were so cute!"
"Yes, Manami," Tobita-san said, turning to smile gently at Aiba-san. "And, while it was rather amusing to witness the Symbol of Peace himself outdone by bounding balls of fluff, I had hoped to gain higher ratings with at least one of my videos."
"Well, you are trying to compete with cat videos on the internet," he said, scratching his cheek and feeling more than a little awkward about the subject.
Aiba-san giggled, while Tobita-san's mouth twitched in a way that almost suggested that he was forcing himself not to laugh. "Yes, well, be that as it may, I do intend to be present for U.A.'s School Festival, to film it so that I might make at least some impact on those outside the world of Heroes."
He was just about to say something else, when the alarm on his phone – the one he'd set to make sure that he wouldn't be late getting back with the rope he'd have presumably bought during his trip – went off. At the same time, the sound of someone else's alarm going off, just as he was getting up out of the chair he'd been sitting in, drew Izuku's attention back to Tobita-san and Aiba-san as they started getting up from the table, too.
"Young man, as we are both headed to the same destination, do you wish to come along with us?" Tobita-san asked, holding out his right hand.
"Sure," he said, following the pair of them out of the little café.
Before he could even ask about what kind of Quirk Tobita-san had, he took a high step into the air, landing on something invisible that rebounded against their feet as the three of them landed on it. Calling up an enhanced-vision Quirk, Izuku looked down as the three of them bounced onto what seemed to be the same kind of invisible membrane that Tobita-san had created to boost the three of them into the air in the first place. It was a really interesting Quirk to observe in action, but the question of just how it worked still remained.
He'd have to remember to ask Tobita-san about it, once he and the rest of class 1-A had finished their concert.
~MHA~
Grinning widely – both since he was still in his Hero form, and also because he knew just who it was that was going to be coming soon – All Might watched as U.A.'s front gate opened.
"Mrs. Midoriya, is here!" he exclaimed, lifting Inko up off of the ground so that he could give her a firm kiss on her right cheek.
The sound of Inko laughing, as well as the brief glimpse of Hisashi out of the corner of his left eye, prompted All Might to set Inko back down on the ground. Grinning widely as he turned away, giving his old friends privacy so he wouldn't embarrass them. Or at least so that he wouldn't embarrass Inko, since Hisashi didn't seem to have the ability to feel embarrassment in the first place, All Might chuckled under his breath.
"Come on, Inko-chan," Hisashi said, and All Might turned back around, smiling at the sight of Inko tucked gently under Hisashi's left arm. "We don't want to miss Izuku and his classmates' performance."
Grin still firmly on his face as he helped Hisashi to escort Inko onto the grounds of U.A., All Might caught sight of Izuku making his way through the gates and onto the school grounds. He wondered what Izuku had been up to, after he'd requested to leave U.A.'s grounds from the morning. Still, he'd have the chance to find out that kind of thing later, after the School Festival had concluded and he could speak with Izuku in person again.
Falling into step with Hisashi and Inko, All Might found himself suddenly faced with someone – about the same height as young Mineta, in fact – pointing a camera at the three of them.
"Wow, I didn't know we'd have the chance to see you again so quickly!" the young lady – there was something familiar about her, but he couldn't quite think of what it might be; he didn't remember meeting her while he was working in either life – said, smiling up at him as she looked out from behind that pink camera of hers.
"All Might!" another, slightly more familiar voice called out to him, and All Might turned to see that the man standing in front of them did strike him as at least somewhat more recognizable.
"Tobita-san!" he said, grinning widely as he drew his work-persona around him again.
Sure, he didn't recall exactly when he and Tobita-san had met, but it was starting to seem like he was one of the many people who'd tried to interview him during the course of the many, many years he'd worked as a Pro Hero under the name All Might. Gently directing Tobita-san's attention away from Inko, All Might grinned wider as Hisashi took up the thread of the conversation that Tobita-san was attempting to start with them. As the four of them all continued on their way deeper into U.A.'s campus, with all of the festival stalls that had been set up by the second- and third-years, All Might found himself at last recalling the day he'd first met Tobita-san.
There had been an interview, but the funny thing was that Tabitha-chan – one of the cats that lived at the Hero Agency that Present Mic, Midnight, Eraser Head, and Loud Cloud had all formed together – had had a litter of kittens that same day, and hearing Tobita-san talk about it, the man had taken the higher ratings of Tabitha-chan's video than his own video rather personally; Tobita-san seemed the type to take a lot of things personally, really. In light of that, All Might tried his best to comfort Tobita-san and make him feel better.
He didn't know just how it was going, but between himself and Hisashi – and even Inko, comforting presence that she was in the life of pretty much everyone she met – they'd at least have a chance of making Tobita-san feel better about the video, and everything else that had happened since then.
~MHA~
When he'd gotten dressed for their concert, harness strapped and buckled on so that he would be able to carry Aoyama-san into the air when the time came, Izuku found himself grinning widely as Kacchan kicked them off with a rolling drumbeat. Following along with the choreography that Ashido-san had created, and all of them had worked on for so long, Izuku caught the signal and twirled. Calling up Hayato-kun's Quirk as he did that, Izuku grabbed Aoyama-san as he leaped into the air, hooking the two of them together as he swooped out above the crowd.
The cheers of the crowd he was currently flying over hit him then, like a wall of exuberant noise, and Izuku found himself laughing aloud. Twirling in the air, letting Aoyama-san fill the auditorium with the glittering light of his Navel Laser, Izuku saw someone else swinging out over the audience, someone who reached out their hand to him. Swinging his fellow classmate around, laughing with the sheer fun of everything that was going on all around them, Izuku felt the subtle prodding of one of the Quirks Dad used to keep tabs on the rest of the family.
Turning his wide, cheerful smile on Dad, he reached out for the man's offered right hand. Tangling their fingers together for a moment, Izuku smiled wider, laughing along with Dad even as the pair of them parted company. The glittering lights all around him, combined with the music that was still playing, made Izuku feel all the more giddy. Laughing, dancing in the air, Izuku almost didn't want the concert to end. It still did, of course, but the wish still remained.
Once Izuku and the rest of the people who'd been flying around – one of whom turned out to be Ochako-san; he could only hope that Kacchan and Tenko-nii would go at least a little easy on him, considering the concert they were both a part of and all – landed and took their bows with the rest of the class, Izuku allowed himself to breathe deeply for what felt like the first time since they'd all started. As their class made their way down from the stage, the cheering of the crowd muffled both by distance and the heavy stage-curtains that'd fallen once their performance had finished, Izuku pulled Hayato-kun's Quick back into his stockpile again, stretching and rolling his shoulders as his wings retracted into his back once again.
Falling into step with the rest of his fellow classmates as they made their way out of the auditorium, Izuku found himself walking right into Dad's arms. Laughing softly as he was wrapped in a hug, having seen Dad in the modified costume he'd ordered from Uncle Dave – the one that looked even more like Ten-sensei, even though the costume itself was done in shades of silver and white – he turned to smile at Bambaa-chan as she nudged him. The pair of them had been engulfed in the same, big hug from Dad.
Uncle Toshi had joined in, but the four of them were forced to separate not soon after that.
~MHA~
They'd let her have at least some time off, before she'd need to take her place in the haunted house that Class 1-C had put together for the School Festival, once Monoma had come over to chatter excitedly about the play that Class 1-B was going to put on. Though, given the subject – rather subjects – of the performance in question, Bombalurina couldn't quite help but make comparisons between the loose inspirations for Class 1-B's play, and the play she was watching.
The one thing that stuck in her mind was the sheer discrepancy between Tom Hanks' Jim Lovell, and Neito Monoma's interpretation of the character.
Once the play had concluded, Bombalurina filed out with the rest of the audience, meeting up with Toriko before Monoma could turn his attention to her, and heading off to the changing room so that she could get prepared to take her place in the haunted house that Class 1-C had been setting up and organizing. One of her fellow classmates – one she hadn't really interacted much with at all; one who seemed to be able to control liquids, if what she was seeing was any indication – gathered up a large blob of liquid dye as Bombalurina stripped down to her underclothes, wrapping a towel around her midsection as she settled down in the offered chair.
Tilting her head at Hitoshi, as her friend sat down in a nearby chair to have his own makeup prepared, Bombalurina purred softly even as she closed her eyes and felt the dye soaking into her fur.
~MHA~
After they'd finished up with not just the concert, but also the cleanup – something that Mineta-san seemed particularly eager to have done with – Izuku met up with Togata-sempai, Eri-chan, and Niseko-chan. The both of them seemed a lot happier than they had been before the concert, and Eri-chan was smiling widely as she held Niseko-chan's hand. Izuku was happy to see it, both since Eri-chan hadn't even known how to smile before the concert, and also because she'd been too afraid of her own Quirk to touch anything but Niseko-chan's clothes when he had first offered to hold her hand.
The four of them – Eri-chan's grandfather still had a lot of things he needed to do, to keep things with the Yakuza stable, so he had trusted him and Togata- sempai to look after Eri-chan and Niseko-chan – all began making their way in among the various festival stalls that their upperclassmen from the second and third years had set up, taking time to buy Eri-chan and Niseko-chan all kinds of sweets from the food stalls they encountered, while at the same time keeping an eye out for any stalls that might have candy apples for Eri-chan and Niseko-chan to try.
Sure, he had bought the ingredients to make a pair of candy apples, but Izuku was still curious to know if anyone was offering candy apples to begin with.
Kacchan and Kirishima-san, along with some of their classmates from classes 1-B and 1-C, were all running the obstacle race that had been set up by some of the second years, and once Izuku had found out that Bambaa-chan was inside the Haunted Maze that Class 1-C had set up, he'd broken away from Togata- sempai and the kids to go see it. It was kind of startling, but that was really more because of all the jump-scares and the darkness than because he found anything truly unsettling about the maze he was making his way through. The sight of Shinsou-san, dropping from the ceiling dressed as a zombie, startled him into jumping back.
As he pressed on, Izuku found himself chuckling under his breath; he really was being silly.
Once he'd managed to catch a glimpse of Bambaa-chan – near the end of the maze, dressed up as some kind of witch that also looked like an alien, too – Izuku waved. He knew she'd be able to see him, since whenever he got the chance to use the copy he'd made of her Quirk, he'd always notice how good she was at seeing in the dark, and how well she could see motion. Really, the only bad thing about looking out through Bambaa-chan's eyes was her terrible color-vision.
Making his way out of class 1-C's haunted maze, Izuku paused for a moment to check for the presence of Togata- sempai. Having previously marked his upperclassman with the copy of Beacon Dad had given him for one of his birthdays awhile ago, Izuku was quickly able to locate Togata- sempai. As well as Eri-chan and Niseko-chan.
As well as, surprisingly enough, Tobita-san.
"What's tea?" Eri-chan asked, clearly in response to some question that Tobita-san had just asked her, if the way he reacted was any indication.
"I've never had tea before," Niseko-chan said.
The look on Tobita-san's face was almost stricken, as what Eri and Niseko-chan had just said seemingly sunk in for him.
"Young man, I'm afraid that I must trouble you for some information," Tobita-san said, hurriedly gathering Eri and Niseko-chan up in his arms as he faced Togata-sempai. "Where might we be able to find a proper cup of tea?"
Izuku slammed both of his hands over his mouth, desperately trying to muffle his laughter after hearing that kind of ultimately silly declaration made so seriously. Following along in the air as Tobita-san bounded away, Eri and Niseko-chan firmly and securely in his arms, Izuku smiled as he heard Togata-sempai laughing. Once Togata-sempai had pointed out a stall offering tea, Tobita-san bounded back down to the ground, and Izuku pulled up a vision-enhancement Quirk so that he could see the elastic air-membranes that Tobita-san laid down to make his way back to the ground.
Landing just as Tobita-san had bounded to the ground, making for the stall that was serving tea, Izuku pulled Hayato-san's Quirk back into his stockpile. Smiling slightly as he heard Tobita-san talking with the students managing the stall serving tea.
"Do you think you could hurry? It's a tea-mergency," Togata-sempai said, grinning widely.
He and Tobita-san both laughed, as the six of them all settled down around a nearby table to have some tea and the food that they'd collected from around the stalls they'd passed by during their trip.
"This is really good!" Eri-chan said, laughing happily as she took a sip of her tea.
"Yeah, thanks," Niseko-chan said, smiling softly, then ducking his head as though he'd said something wrong.
Izuku didn't quite know why Niseko-chan was still reacting like that, since Eri-chan had seemed to have recovered from what Chisaki had done to her, or at least she looked happier. Still, living in Deika as a Quirkless person had clearly left its mark on him, and as Eri-chan reached out for his right hand, Izuku promised himself that he'd look in on the two of them whenever he could. Catching Togata-sempai's eye, the pair of them nodded to each other, making a silent promise that the pair of them would look after Eri and Niseko-chan as much as they could.
~MHA~
After she'd finished washing the last of the black dye out of her fur, Bombalurina stepped out of the shower and onto the pedal that would turn the hairdryer that'd been set up in her part of the bathroom. Once her fur was all nice and dry, she made her way over to the shelf that held the brushes that she used on her fur. Purring as Ochako made her own way into the room, Bombalurina thanked Ochako for her help. Once she and Ochako had finished brushing her fur down for the morning, Bombalurina left her shower room so she could get dressed for the day.
As she came down into the common room, the sight of five familiar-smelling people coming inside to be welcomed by the rest of Class 1-A drew her attention. Turning her ears toward the group, Bombalurina found that they were here to visit Izu; well, at least for a while, before they left in search of Papa. Really, it sounded like they'd only come to visit because Kota had insisted on it for long enough that they'd just given in. It was kind of sweet, when she thought about it.
~MHA~
Humming softly to himself as he prepared his newly redesigned costume, Hisashi turned at the familiar feel of one of his family members; he'd taken the precaution of marking each and every one of them with Beacon, just as soon as he'd been able to manage such a thing in a discreet fashion.
"The door's not locked," he called, testing out his visor once again; David-kun had programmed the device with so many different means of detecting different wavelengths of visible and non-visible light, and as yet Hisashi didn't know if he'd managed to test every one of them as yet.
"Here he is!" Toshi-kun shouted, holding his door open with the flourish that seemed habitual for him in his guise as All Might.
He was just about to ask who Toshi-kun had been talking to, when Kota-chan and his mother came into his room.
"Well, hello again, Kota-chan," he said, smiling as he leaned over the grinning form of the child whose parents had been one of the many beneficiaries of his mastery of the stacked Quirks that he'd come to call Panacea.
"Are you going to go to the Hero Billboard Charts?" Kota-chan asked, an almost owlish look of excitement on his face.
Hisashi laughed softly. "As soon as All Might gives me my ticket," he said, slanting a glance over at Toshi-kun. "Whoever was in charge of sending them apparently thought it would be simpler to send them to him, since the pair of us work together."
Toshi-kun was too much of a professional to drop his Heroic demeanor, but the way he wrinkled his nose once Kota-chan and his parents had taken their attention off of him let Hisashi know that his teasing had hit home. He and Kota-chan fell into a conversation about the way the Hero Public Safety Commission had decided to invite actual Heroes to a live Billboard Chart, rather than just publishing the new rankings online and in the various Hero magazines. He and Toshi-kun had spoken when their respective tickets had first arrived, speculating as to just why such a drastically different means of announcing the new rankings had been chosen to begin with.
In the end, the pair of them had agreed that it was likely because of both the resurgent Yakuza, as well as the way that Hisashi himself had taken his first steps into the public as Sensei.
Once their respective days at U.A. had ended, he and Toshi-kun made their way to the stadium that had been specially prepared for the Billboard Chart celebration; or rather, the quasi-celebration that had been set up for them all to attend.