Elmo was, in his opinion, very reasonably nervous about being tapped to go to the Burrow, even with his cousin Raijin coming along with him.
He wasn't sure why he, out of all of his cousins, uncles, aunts, and siblings, was chosen to go in his grandpa's place to the burrow.
Sure he had finally graduated and had more time but he had no idea why he was going to speak on their family's behalf.
The burrow was to have the heads of each branch of the extended family to discuss trade, the collective information was pooled and the earnings of the year.
And frankly he wasn't sure why out of all the kids he was being picked, being a mouth-piece for the family to outsiders was one thing but to argue with the other members of the family who'd been in the game since before his father was born? that was a whole other game he had never played before.
Having to wear formal robes instead of his normal attire (since apparently he was required to wear them,) was also uncomfortable, he was way more used to his jeans and button ups.
Looking over to Raijin Elmo couldn't help mentally cursing the fact his cousin didn't also have to be wearing robes.
"Keep scowling like that and you ain't going to find a partner puppet boy." Raijin commented, despite not taking his eyes off his phone for the last half-hour while Elmo had been getting 'dolled' up by another one of their cousins.
Elmo huffed ears flicking from his agitation and he scowled "Single by choice actually snowball, and at least I don't have to worry about my exes turning full predator on my tail." Elmo spat back.
Raijin rolled his eyes "Yeah, yeah, like I'm the only one in this family who enjoys being kinky." Raijin scoffed back.
Elmo raised a brow "Oh, so if I looked at your phone right now I wouldn't find you scrolling through a feed about your current boy toy? Keigo was it?" Elmo pressed, feigning casualty as he did.
Raijin's ear flicked and he tsked "It's called researching your target puppet, a real tragedy to the family name if you'd never learned that." Raijin countered stand-offish.
Elmo smirked back "And just what can you learn from those thirst post accounts, like 'Hot-wings~XxX69' you can't from Deku-Sensei notes on him?" Elmo asked, poorly acting innocent as he did.
Elmo caught Raijin's ears try to shoot up in surprise but the man forced them to remain at their causal position and his cousin's eyes shooting daggers at him.
*That's what I thought.* Elmo said mentally patting himself on the back and puffing up a little from the victory.
"No secrets with a family like ours cousin~ Do try to remember that." Elmo commented, more than a touch smug.
However Raijin threw a shit-eating grin back at him.
"Oh, is that right? Then should I tell Umeko the good news about her future brother-in-law? Course I didn't take you for being into younger guys but you and Deku sure look cozy at this cafe." Raijin said showing off his phone, revealing a picture of him and Midoriya together at the on campus cafe before he graduated.
Elmo's ears flew back and he immediately leaned down into his cousin's face "Do not ever suggest I'd fuck a teenager again or I swear to god-" Elmo hissed seething until Raijin placed his hand directly on his chest to push him back a step.
"Hey, the jab was below the belt, I got it. No more sex jokes and we don't bring it up again?" Raijin offered and Elmo huffed crossing his arms and turning away.
"Fine." Elmo spat, still very riled up from the insinuation he'd ever be interested in Midoriya like that.
He might be attracted to intelligent people, which Midoriya was and quite legal for him to date with two-toes laws being what they were, but the kid was a geeky brother in his mind, and that made the idea of dating him a whole another layer of fucked up in his mind.
Wasn't today just the best? First he had to go to the burrow to represent the family and now he was accused of liking underage kids? Could this day get any worse?
A cousin, a distant one he couldn't remember the name of, popped her head into the room they both were in "Hey, Bella is here, time for you two to go." the woman said before leaving as soon as she appeared.
Elmo sighed and adjusted his stance to a more proper one and walked out of the room with Raijin in tow behind him, outside in the hall was one of the tallest member of the family Elmo had ever seen.
Not counting her ears she was at least five feet eight inches, maybe six feet if you counted her short ears as well.
"Ah you must be Elmo, and Raijin, a pleasure as always to see you." Bella greeted with a bow of her head "I see you're ready to go, so let's not waste time and get you to the burrow." Bella told them then before Elmo could ask what they were going to do to get there Bella grabbed them by the shoulders.
Then he was falling and almost fell on his bottom if the firm grip on his shoulder didn't keep him up right, though once his head stopped spinning he had to bring his hand up to cover his mouth and keep his dry heaving from turning into more than that.
"I see you haven't fixed your turnabout issue Bella, do work on it or I'll make sure to eat something real foul next time we meet." Raijin hissed at the woman.
"Whatever you say Raijin, the others are waiting for you both." Bella commented though he couldn't tell from where she was even with his excellent hearing.
"I'm serious Belladonna, Sardine oil, pineapple juice and shrimp will be all over you." Raijin promised before grabbing him by the arm and pushing him forward "Come on kid, got to meet up with the other Asia based heads of the family." Raijin told Elmo.
Elmo needed a few more moments to correct his vision and see the dirt tunnels they were in "Where... ?" He tried to ask.
"The burrow ain't a real place, it's a quirk space." Raijin said.
Elmo's eyes glimmered at that fact, Midoriya talked about this with him once.
Spaces that were made by quirks were fascinating.
Midoriya said the people weren't actually making the space, just had a connection with it through their quirk and could send others to it.
Said they were most likely pocket dimensions they had influence over.
"No you can't tell him, family asset or not he ain't family and the burrow is strictly a family matter." Raijin scolded him and Elmo huffed pushing off of his cousin to walk on his own.
Elmo wasn't thinking of telling Midoriya about the burrow, he knew better than to do that, he just had a bit more interest in this breed of quirks since it was basically inter-dimensional travel.
Continuing on for another minute until they found a door with the collective Asian territories on the door, Elmo had to stare at it for a moment because the door was just kind of there, in the wall of dirt.
Going inside Elmo was faced with multiple faces he didn't fully recognize, some of the people he had heard of before, the head of the family in China was very hard to miss, as was Mongolia's since the two were... 'discussing' rather loudly.
*If this is just the Asian branches, just how many people am I going to have to see today? No wonder this takes at least three days to short out... * Elmo thought his ears sagging for a moment.
Then he was spotted by another of the heads and they cleared their throat "I believe everyone is here now, we should talk before going out to the meeting hall." they stated motioning to him with their ears.
A majority of the room fell silent as they turned to him, something that made his nerves shoot through the roof as he tried to keep up a calm facade.
"Raijin I recognize, but who is this in Ambrogio's place?" Davva, head of China inquired, walking up to him and looking down at him.
Of course, she'd have to ask something that would make him sound more childish, he was already the youngest person in the room and his name didn't scream maturity, which would make getting them to take him seriously even harder.
"I am Elmo Vespa, his grandson. Grandfather chose me to represent him." Elmo answered, unwaveringly meeting her eyes.
The corner of Davva's mouth curled up "Hm, I see." she replied dismissively before turning around and settling to sit at the large oval-shaped table in the middle of the room "Come, sit everyone. There is much we must discuss, many changes have come about this year." Davva commented.
Elmo's nose crinkled from being dismissed so quickly, but didn't let his irritation show beyond that and instead merely took his own seat at the table.
"As I'm sure you know, there has been a big boom in requests for professional grade quirk analysis in the last couple of years, currently speaking though we only have one place to export it from." Davva said and eyes again fell to Elmo.
"We've been able to keep things in house so far but the other continents are starting to ask for some for their high paying clients, which will open the market in those countries and create even more demand, however as we are already struggling to meet the current demands now." Davva continued on to explain, absentmindedly waving one of her hands.
Elmo nodded at that remark, Midoriya could make around two hundred a day in between the rest of his work so long as he could see some footage of the person using their quirk.
It would've felt like an unreal number if all the quirk science Midoriya told him hadn't stuck in his brain.
A lot of it was just watching really and logically deductions, it greatly helped when quirks were easy to group together, water quirks normally followed similar paths and once you've seen one you've seen them all.
Midoriya would scowl if he actually said that to him but analysis really did have that kind of methodology to it.
"Given the profitability of this, we must consider expanding on this resource." Davva told them and one of the other heads spoke up.
"Recruitment wouldn't be all that difficult, plenty of grad-students looking for work post college and would be-" the man said but Elmo tsked, loudly interrupted him.
"Post-grads and students aren't going to cut it, a majority of colleges that do teach Quirk theory are taught by people who half-assed the course and the professionals working in the field definitely aren't earning their government bonus." Elmo spat.
He'd become jaded to most professionals by proxy through Midoriya, to be fair though he'd been elected to sniff out more quirk counseling talent since he was so close to Midoriya and knew more about quirk science because of it.
And he'd call most of the people he saw hack-jobs at best, and Japan was considered the most progressive place in the world when it came to quirk science.
The man clearly didn't appreciate being cut off by someone half his age but they'd only get a lot of negativity and squish the market if they gave out fake information.
"Oh? Just what would you suggest then Elmo?" Davva questioned, weaving her fingers together and resting her chin on them.
Elmo allowed one of his ears to flick from annoyance "I've already gathered a large library of quirk science textbooks which we can use to educate our kids and other members, form small sects solely devoted to analysis." Elmo answered.
"That will keep people from overwhelming the others with their requests, but people still develop their own niche, so for more money they could get a specialist in a certain area of quirk science. The family will profit overall and we can also use them to devise ways to take down specific people based on their quirks, a fact which can easily be done." Elmo elaborated.
Not to mention that they'd keep it all in house.
Midoriya, as good to the family as he had been was a rarity, and Elmo personally wouldn't trust most outsiders with their business.
Davva stared at him and Elmo met her eyes unwaveringly.
"We'll put both ideas forward and let the other heads pick the one they will do." Davva conceded before moving on to discussing something else, Elmo somewhat checked out admittedly.
Elmo hadn't quite won that but his opinion had been respected, which was a lot more than expected for his first debate.
However, if the next three days were going to be like that then Elmo was just going to hate every second of it.