A/N: I'm sure some of you were probably hoping that we'd get straight into the concert for this chapter, but...

Well, I seriously doubt you'll be able to complain about what I've got here, instead. Plus, you know, the concert will definitely be happening next chapter. And we'll even get a fan-favorite guest to appear.

More on that after the chapter!

P.S. I was planning on uploading some new artwork for this chapter and the next, but it turns out that I biffed the dimensions (oops). If you're interested in seeing Kurai in his festival outfit, go on over to my Instagram the_red_swordsman to check it out!

Preparations

"Out of the question, dude."

"Mina, be reasonable," Kurai groaned as he leaned back in his chair at his desk. "A lot of people are gonna be looking for reasons to gun us down as it is. Do you really think it'd be good for us if I'm one of the dancers, much less on center stage?" He had just put forth his idea to his girlfriend, who was in charge of the dance team, to have him moved to the special effects team.

She was not having it.

"Sweetie, as weird as it is to say it, Bakugo is right," Mina told him as she grabbed his hands and held them firmly from where she sat on his bed. "While it's good that we're gonna be doing this for the school, we gotta have fun while we're at it, too. If we don't, this thing is gonna go down in flames before it even gets started. I also like the idea of getting to dance in front of everyone with you. And I know we'll have a blast if you get up there and get down!"

He raised an eyebrow at her smiling face as he said, "The first day we went to school together, I nearly died of embarrassment from singing in front of our friends. Now you think I'm gonna have fun doing a dance number in front of hundreds of people, most of whom happen to hate me?"

"You will if you remember that you're doing it with your friends," she promised him cheerily. Her mood had improved greatly over the last week, likely due to the fact that all outright hostilities being directed at Kurai had finally stopped. The fact that it happened right after Monoma was blown up and subsequently had his license revoked was a 'coincidence' that no one brought up out loud, but still smiled about every now and again.

Kurai felt his resolve beginning to waver as she gave him a cute little smile, which she knew was his weakness. Even so, he decided to try one last time, saying, "If I go to the effects team, I can complement Aoyama's lasers with my powers, and I can run him back and forth across the support beams like Sero was talking about."

"His lasers can fizzle out- yours' keep going until they hit something and explode," Mina countered, her grin widening. "Mister Cementoss already had to fix the gym once, I don't think he'll thank us if we damage it again. Plus, Rose already volunteered to pull him along the roof with her Petal Burst, so they got that covered."

"You just love getting me out of my comfort zone, don't you?"

"Guilty as charged," she giggled. However, her eyes grew serious as she said, "You used to not care what people thought of you. Why're you starting to now?"

"I wouldn't care if it was just my reputation being damaged, but when it starts to affect my friends, then I have a hard time with it," Kurai sighed.

"Well, don't worry about us," Mina insisted. "We can handle a few punks throwing shade, got it? We're in this to stand by you, not behind you while you take on the whole world by yourself. You taught Izuku that, so don't start going back on your own ideals."

"…You're right," he finally conceded. "I need to let it go. Sorry for being a downer again."

"Forgiven and forgotten," she replied as she hopped up to her feet. "Now, come on. We gotta work on loosening you up during the routine- you're still too stiff when you're switching into sequence two."

"I thought there was just the one?"

"Dude, there's like five."

"What?!"

With three weeks to go until the school festival, the dance team students of 1-A were surprised by an unexpected visitor. "Hey, is that Togata?" Kurai asked as he pointed at a crouching figure that seemed to be trying to climb into the bushes. "What is he doing in there?" They were out in front of the dorms, trying to keep up with Mina's demands for the choreography.

"Hey guys!" the blond student grinned as he hopped out of the bushes and held out his hands to indicate a smaller person next to him. "I brought a peach for ya!"

"Eri!" the work study students exclaimed as Izuku and Kurai moved to greet the girl and Togata, who was being followed by Aizawa.

"Hi Deku, hi Kai," she replied as she held onto the strap of a purse hanging off her shoulder. She was clothed in a little red dress, and her hair had been trimmed since the boys had last seen her, giving her the appearance of any normal child out for a day with her family.

"Midoriya, Hikari," Aizawa said blandly. "Finally got permission from the principal. We're giving her a tour of UA today so she gets used to the place before she comes back for the festival." The two boys grinned and gave each other a high five, Kurai being careful to use his flesh limb to avoid injuring his friend.

"Hello there," Iida said with a kind smile and a small wave of his hand. "You must be Eri from the work study, right? It's very nice to meet you."

"Aw, what a cutie!" Mina said eagerly as she crouched down to be at eye level with the girl. "My name's Ashido, and I've heard a lot about you!"

Eri flinched and retreated behind Togata, who put a reassuring hand on her head as he gave her an encouraging smile. Meanwhile, Mina was looking bewildered as she stood up, so Kurai told her in a lowered tone, "Don't take it personally. She's pretty shy with new people."

"Oh, got it," Mina said with an apologetic look toward the child. She had temporarily forgotten that Eri was not used to having positive interactions with people in general, but now her hesitation to come near others made sense.

"I wanna show Eri as much of the school as possible, so she gets a better idea of what we do," Togata explained. "Midoriya, Hikari, you wanna come?"

"Yeah, of course!" Izuku said excitedly, while Kurai nodded a couple of times with a smile.

"Hey, dance team!" Kirishima's voice was preceded by the sound of the front doors opening, admitting him and the others on the effects team. "New idea!" Before he could tell them what that was, however, he noticed their guests, and his face lit up with delight. "Whoa, is that Eri?! Hey, kid!" He ran over to join the gathering, allowing the door to shut behind him. When he got close, however, he stopped himself and said, "Oh wait, we were never introduced, were we?"

As Eri looked at him with vague curiosity, Mina turned around and announced, "Let's break, guys! Need to refuel those muscles, cos we're gonna start working even harder when we get back!"

"Good grief, I'm gonna need to rebuild my arm tonight after all this practice," Kurai pretended to complain. "I don't think humans were meant to bend this way, much less robot arms."

"That arm is built to be more flexible than your real one, why are you complaining?"

"Because I-! You know what? No prosthetic, no opinion!"

After the boys had a chance to change into their school uniforms to walk on campus, they took Eri with them to the main building, where decorations were already being put up, and construction was underway for some of the stalls. They ran into some of Togata's friends from the senior classes, who offered them flyers which detailed their class project. Eri seemed intrigued by the props and bright colors, but she mostly kept quiet and was hanging on to one of the three students at any given time.

When they took a detour outside to check out some of the larger props being put together, they ran into a couple of kids from class 1-B, which immediately put Kurai on edge, though he did his best to keep his face neutral, for Eri's sake. Their meeting was by chance, as Tetsutetsu and two of his classmates had briefly lost their grip on a dragon head prop, which nearly ran into Eri, though she managed to evade it in time with a little yelp of surprise.

"Whoa, sorry about that!" the steely quirk-user exclaimed as he and his friends set the prop down. Didn't see ya- Oh, hey, it's Midoriya and Hikari from class 1-A!"

"Eri, are you okay?" Kurai asked the girl as he knelt next to her to examine her for any potential injuries, however light they might be.

"I thought it was that dragon lady again," she said blankly, which initially confused him, until he remembered a certain pro heroine.

"Oh, you mean Ryukyu," he chuckled, glad that she hadn't been injured.

"What'cha guys up to?" Tetsutetsu was asking Izuku.

"We're taking our friend on a tour of the school," the quirk inheritor answered as he indicated their guest.

"Whoa, do one of you guys have a kid?" asked another boy named Awase. His quirk allowed him to weld anything together, living or not, if Kurai's memory served.

"We're just looking out for her," Kurai answered as he glanced at the dragon head. "What's your class doing for the festival? Some kind of art exhibit?"

"We're actually putting on a play," Shishida, a student with beast-like hair and fangs responded. "It's some kind of amalgamation of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Romeo and Juliet. We're having to do some recasting because Monoma's not going to be able to participate, but we'll get it done."

"Did he recover from his accident?" Midoriya asked curiously.

"Yeah, but Mister Kan is pretty steamed at him, and he's not allowed to leave the dorm for two weeks," Tetsutetsu informed them. "Since he's not gonna be around and Kendo's doing her own thing, it's been tough, but we're gonna go plus ultra with it!"

"That's the spirit!" Togata told them.

"Wait, what's Kendo doing?" Kurai asked curiously, though he kept his expression guarded. He still wasn't sure if anyone in the other class harbored ill will toward him.

"She got sucked into doing the beauty pageant without meaning to," Awase answered as he bent over to pick up the prop that they had set down. "Honestly, we were surprised that Yaoyorozu wasn't a part of it."

"We didn't know that there was a beauty pageant," Izuku said as he shared a glance with his friend.

"It's too late to enter now, but you know who's really gunning to win this year?" Togata grinned at them.

"Who's that?"

"Come with me, and I'll show you!"

"We'll see ya later, 1-A," Awase grunted as he fused his hands to the prop, making it less likely to drop this time as the other boys helped him carry the load. "Me and a few of the others are looking forward to your concert. Oh, and Hikari?"

"Yeah?" the boy asked, his body tensing up a little more.

"I know it probably doesn't make a difference to you, but me and a few of the other guys tried to figure out how Monoma kept messing with your stuff so that we could stop him," the other student shrugged. "We couldn't prove it was him, and I know we're not technically supposed to know about what he's being punished for, but we do feel like he crossed a few lines. Sorry for what you went through because of him."

"It's not your fault," Kurai shrugged, feeling some of the tension leaving his body. "He'll get his just desserts, and that's good enough for me."

"Bye, guys!" Tetsutetsu said with a grin as he passed them by. "Come see our play! It's gonna be awesome!"

"We'll do our best!" Izuku promised while Kurai felt a little smile lift the corners of his mouth.

Togata took them to another part of UA that Kurai hadn't been to before, where they found a room full of outfits, accessories, a few third-year students, and-

"Give it up for the Big Three's best girl," Togata grinned as they watched Hado floating in front of a camera that Amajiki was working, dressed in a revealing blue outfit. "Last year's runner-up, this year's champ!"

"Hey, hey!" Hado called as she floated closer, much to Kurai and Izuku's apprehension. "What's Eri doing here? Why ya here, girl? Funsies?" Eri could only stare up at the floating girl, but at least she wasn't hiding behind Togata this time.

"Uh, hey, Hado!" Izuku said awkwardly while he and Kurai tried not to stare. "I was just wondering… You're so nice, and your quirk is amazing, and, well… Your body is really, uh… Bu… Bo…" He stumbled over his tongue, trying to figure out how to get himself out of a hole that he had quickly dug.

"He was gonna say balanced," Togata interjected, which led to Izuku breathing a huge sigh of relief.

Kurai smacked him upside the head as he muttered, "Don't let Ochaco catch you doing that."

"Ow, hey! You were doing it too!"

"Was not!"

"Hey, was he going somewhere with that?" Hado asked her friend, who shrugged helplessly in response.

"I just wanted to know…" Izuku said as he used his quirk to hold Kurai at arm's length. "If you have all of this going for you, how did you only make runner-up last year?"

"Oh yeah, listen to this, are you listening?" she asked as Kurai gave up on trying to grapple with his friend and resigned himself to scowling a bit at the other boy. "Every year I lose to the same girl- she's just too amazing! It's Kenranzaki from support class 3-G!"

"Not to mention that this year's competition is stacked," Amajiki said as he turned around from the camera, keeping his gaze lowered. "The girl from your year, Kendo, has an underground following thanks to that commercial that she did during her internship. Of course, Hado won't be holding back, but… Putting on a performance in front of all those people… it makes me nauseous just thinking about it!" He keeled over, grasping at his stomach.

Eri looked at him with concern, so Kurai put a smile on and told her, "Don't worry, he's not hurt. He just… scares easy."

"Oh."

"The only reason I first started doing this was because of Yuyu here," Hado said as she floated over by a girl with short red hair who was examining new outfits for her friend to try on. "But I got really into it, because it's actually a lot of fun!" Putting on a brighter smile, she added, "I really wanna crush it this year- it's my last chance to win!"

"You got this!" Togata told her, followed by the strongest nod that Kurai had ever seen Amajiki give.

Next on the list of places to visit was the support course studio, where there were several students working with loud tools on a half-dozen different projects. "I can't wait to see what the support course does!" Izuku shouted to be heard over a power saw. "I hear that their exhibits are always a highlight of the festival!"

"Mhmm, the school fest is the support course's time to shine!" Midoriya and Kurai both turned around and recoiled from a girl with pink hair who was covered in grease from head to toe. She looked familiar to Kurai, but he couldn't place her face.

"Hatsume?!" Izuku cried, which jogged Kurai's memory.

This is the girl that tried to recruit him during the tag battle, and when we turned her down, she went to Bakugo's team, he recalled as his gaze was drawn upward toward a big robot easily three times his height. Whoa.

Unlike the majority of the other hero course students, Kurai did not come to the support studio very often, as he preferred to maintain his equipment himself, and he had Akarui to design schematics for his gear that he could just email to Power Loader. He had been in the place before, but it was always an in-and-out affair, so he hadn't spent any time getting to know the students in the course. However, from the look and sound of things, Hatsume was one of the people that had worked on Izuku's costume in the past.

"So, you're covered in grease…" Izuku was saying as Kurai brought himself back into the moment.

"Well, duh," Hatsume laughed. "I don't exactly have time to waste bathing!"

"That's dedication," Togata commented.

"That's nasty," Kurai said at almost the same time, though Hatsume didn't seem to pay him any mind.

"We might have been able to show off a few items at the Sport's Festival, but this is our time to really stand out," Hatsume said as she looked up at the mech. "Our inventions will get the spotlight that they deserve, which means that I can pitch my ideas to companies and investors so I can really get going on my babies!"

"You got plenty of spotlight when you used one of my best friends as a walking advertisement!" Kurai protested.

"Wha-? Oh, glasses guy!" Hatsume grinned unnervingly. "Yeah, I totally forgot about all that, actually. It took Midoriya here reminding me a few times for me to keep it in my head!" Turning toward Izuku, she added, "How'd those iron soles work out in your boots? If you need anything else, please let me know!"

"They worked out great, thanks!" Izuku replied. He then gestured to Kurai and added, "Hikari here is actually the one that's been training me in hand-to-hand, so it was his idea to reinforce my gloves and shoes."

"Oh, yeah!" Hatsume exclaimed. "I remember him now! He came in first place at the festival! I didn't really pay much attention after I left the arena, but I did see your picture all over the news for a few days after!"

Kurai gave his friend a look that said, 'You trust this girl with your gear?'

Seeing it, Izuku explained, "Hatsume's one of the most dedicated people I've ever met. She probably knows about inventions and mechanics as much as I do about heroes!"

"Wait a sec!" Hatsume suddenly exclaimed as she shouldered past Togata to grab at Kurai's right arm. "I've never seen bio-tech like this before! It's not made by anyone I've studied- and I've studied everybody! Is this a custom piece?! Who's the designer?! Can you get him to look at my babies?!"

Kurai's face turned into a scowl of irritation, but before he could yell at the invasive girl, he remembered that there was wide-eyed child watching him, so he forced himself to calm down before he made his answer. "My brother designed it, and the Ingenium agency's private bio-mechanical engineer constructed it," he told her as he tried to escape her grip, but surprisingly, she would not be dislodged from looking at the metalwork up close. Letting some of his irritation spill into his voice, he then said, "Ingenium's agency is not scouting for mechanical talent at the moment, and my brother can't walk, so I doubt I can help you."

"Ooh, what's the power source?!" Hatsume demanded as she practically melded her face onto the arm. "I've never seen anything like it before! The wiring in between the plating almost looks like real veins and muscles identical to the human anatomy!"

"My quirk powers it, and get off!" Kurai grunted as he lifted Hatsume all the way off the ground, but she still would not let him go. Looking at Izuku, who seemed utterly bewildered by what was happening, he asked, "What do I do with this?!"

"I'd just ride it out," the other boy answered. "Not much stops her when she's curious about something."

Before Kurai could deliver a cutting remark, he noticed that Hatsume's machine was now shaking and starting to belch smoke. "Hey, is your robot supposed to do that?" he asked the girl that was practically undressing his arm with her eyes.

"Huh?" She looked over at the invention, let out a squawk of alarm, and shouted, "Uh oh, baby! Ack!" The head blew up, unleashing a cloud of black smoke, followed by the sounds of flickering flames.

"Oh, not again Hatsume!" another student shouted. "Fire! We got a fire! Where's the extinguisher?!"

"And that's our cue to go!" Kurai said as he scooped up Eri and carried her in his right arm as he and the other hero students quickly vacated the studio. As soon as they were out in the hallway, he asked her, "The smoke didn't get you?"

"No," she answered with a shake of her head. "It was loud in there."

"Yeah, just a bit," Kurai chuckled, glad to see that she was unharmed, and perhaps more importantly right now, not afraid of her surroundings. Another thought occurred to him in that moment, so he told her, "Hey, Eri? You know how I told you that I have a friend that might be able to teach you how to read?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well, he has to be at the hospital a lot, kind of like you, so he's going to start visiting you whenever he goes," Kurai told her, smiling at how Akarui had readily agreed to help Eri. He was lonely and bored, so even with his failing health, it was no surprise that he would be eager to have something to do. Apparently there were only so many ways that one could effortlessly rewrite the operating system on their computer or game consoles while one was depressed.

"What's his name?" Eri asked curiously as they started to make their way down to the cafeteria.

"His name is Akarui," Kurai answered her as they made their way down the stairs. "He's the smartest person I know, so I'm sure he'll be able to teach you how to read in no time at all."

"Who's Akarui?" Togata asked.

"He's Kurai's younger brother," Izuku answered. "His quirk makes him super smart, so he'll be perfect for the job."

"But wait, shouldn't he be in school when he's not in the hospital?"

Izuku hesitated at the question from the senior, looking to Kurai, who had suddenly gone grim about the mouth. "My brother can't walk or talk," he told Togata quietly. "He communicates with a program built into his wheelchair that talks out whatever he types. His quirk puts a strain on his mind in a way that it grew a tumor, and when he overused it to help save my life, he aggravated it to the point where it is now inhibiting his motor functions, and…" He fell silent, not really wanting to discuss death in front of Eri.

Fortunately, Togata got the unspoken message, and he sobered his face appropriately. "Sorry about that, man," he told the younger student. "Maybe when he comes to visit Eri, I can meet him too?"

"I'm sure he'd like that," Kurai said in a somewhat lighter tone. "He's been bored with nobody but my aunt and cousin for company all the time, other than his physical therapists."

"Kai?"

"Yes, Eri?"

"What's a brother?"

The little girl's question completely floored the boys. So far she had shown a pretty good grasp of how the world worked around her, with a few exceptions, but none of them could have expected something like this- though in hindsight, they really should have seen it coming. From what they knew, her father was dead, her mother had abandoned her, and clearly Chisaki hadn't taught her anything more than he felt was absolutely necessary. Given that he had viewed her as nothing more than tool to be weaponized, he probably hadn't bothered to teach her anything about family beyond what she had already known at the age of two.

All that in mind, it took Kurai a few moments to come up with an answer for Eri. "Well Eri, my mom and dad brought me into this world, and then they did the same thing with my brother a few years later," he told her. "So when two boys share the same parents, then that makes them brothers. If it were a girl that shared my parents with me, then they would be my sister. Does that make sense?" He cringed inwardly, hoping that he hadn't just screwed up this child's first description of siblings.

"…Actually, I don't know what a mom or dad is, either," she said in a small voice, which caused the boys to exchange another round of shocked looks.

"Well, Eri, a mom is the lady that takes care of you all the time!" Togata said in a cheerful tone, trying to dispel the feeling of disbelief that had settled upon them. "She'll tuck you in to bed, and read you stories, make you lots of yummy food, take care of you when you're feeling sick, and tell you how much she loves you, because she loves you!"

Eri blinked at him a few times before she said, "I thought you were talking about the ladies in the white uniforms at the hospital, but that's not it."

"No, sorry," Togata winced. "I guess it's kinda hard to explain in one go."

"What about a dad?"

"A dad is the man who takes care of you, but in a different way than your mom would," Kurai told her as he kept his eyes focused ahead of them. "My dad seldom told me that he loved me in as many words, but his actions always showed it. He worked hard to take care of my mom, my brother, and me, so that we would always have food and feel safe at home. He taught me important lessons about how to live life, and he helped me understand that I wanted to become a hero who protects the people around me." He hoped that Eri didn't see the tears building in the corners of his eyes, as he did not want to upset her with his own mood.

"So… a mom helps me feel better, and a dad keeps me safe?" Eri asked them, which brought a round of smiles to the boys, in spite of the frankly unnerving topic that they found themselves handling.

"Something like that," Izuku laughed as they entered the cafeteria.

"Oh… I think I get it."

"Good!" Togata said cheerfully. "Let's eat- I'm famished. How about you, Eri?"

Togata handled the rest of Eri's tour after lunch, as Izuku and Kurai still had to practice for the upcoming dance routine. After overhearing Midnight and the principal's conversation about tightened security and how even a false alarm could see to the whole event being shut down, they did their best to try and set aside the uneasiness that revelation put in their minds. Still, the thought remained unspoken between them that if such a thing could go wrong with them around, it probably would.

Once their practice sessions were over, Togata brought Eri around to say goodbye, promising that she would see everyone again in a few weeks. Aizawa came to pick them up with his usual stone face, as it was his job to escort the child back to the hospital campus.

As Eri was saying goodbye, Kurai and Izuku each took a turn receiving a hug from the shy girl before telling her that they couldn't wait to see her again. "Akarui will be in the hospital on Monday, so he'll go visit you, then," Kurai told her as he stepped back. "I might even be able to come and say 'hi' for a few minutes."

"Okay, that sounds nice," Eri said as Aizawa came to stand near to her.

"Come on, Eri," he said softly. "We need to get you back to the hospital."

"Okay, Dad," she said as she turned to go with him, only to see that he was suddenly frozen in place, a look of blank alarm on his face. As the silence around them grew, she realized that everyone around her had suddenly gone quiet as stone, all of the students looking at their teacher with their jaws hanging open.

Then he shook himself, grabbed the little girl's hand and led her away without another word, Togata following along with a big smile on his face.

The moment that they were out of sight, Kurai fell over laughing, clutching at his stomach as he howled with delight, prompting a chain reaction from his friends that ended with most of them laughing along with him, though no one else was physically unable to stand because of their merriment. Some, like Kaminari and Sero were crying with laughter, while others like Yaoyorozu and Sato were trying desperately to stifle their giggling. Even Todoroki and Koda looked like they were on the verge of breaking their normally taciturn expressions, and Kurai couldn't actually remember seeing his friend laugh out loud before.

"Check it out, we've got 'Dadzawa' in the house!" Yang laughed. Her classmates, for once, did not voice their objection to her joke, instead laughing even louder because they knew that if any of them ever spoke of this again, their teacher would give them detention for the rest of their lives. So they laughed and laughed until Kurai finally hurt himself and he needed Todoroki to make him some ice for the spasms in his abdomen.

That was totally worth it, he thought that night, still giggling at the unintended results of his lesson with Eri.

Ashid Queen: Dadzawa joke! YES!

Kai: This is... very odd.

Mataras: What, me actually being capable of putting out more than one feel-good chapter in a row?

Deku: It does seem somewhat out of character for you.

Mataras: Well then the next chapter's just gonna feel like the Twilight Zone for you guys.

Kai: Seriously?

Deku: What's the Twilight Zone?

Mataras: To sum it up as briefly as I possibly can, an acid trip from the late 1950's.

Ashid Queen: I find that offensive for multiple reasons.

Mataras: Do I seem like the kind who cares whether or not I offend people?

Ashid Queen: If what half of what Kurai has told me is true, it seems like you go out of your way to offend some people.

Mataras: Well, I can't make everybody happy, so I think it's best to focus on the people who have supported me for a long time. Balls to people who are going to hate on my work because it doesn't keep in line with what they want- I'm not changing the way I do things unless it's for people who have earned my respect and can present valid reasoning for me to do so.

Kai: Got any examples of when you did that? Seems like you're pretty set in your ways.

Mataras: Easily. As I mentioned previously, while the events that occurred last chapter were mostly my idea, their method of execution was pretty much at my wife's discretion. I honestly can't remember a lot of how it was originally going to play out because her version was just that much better and more thought out than mine was.

Ashid Queen: Aww, that's so cute!

Deku: Do you listen to anybody besides your wife? I mean, not that there's anything bad about listening to your wife! She seems really smart and nice and-!

Mataras: Chill, mate. I know what you meant- and yeah, my wife is the best.

Kai: Didn't you used to collaborate with your brothers on some ideas?

Mataras: Yeah, actually. Not for this story, since we've all long since moved out of my parent's house and we each have our own lives going on, which means whenever we do meet up, we usually discuss other things with our limited free time. But yeah, they definitely helped me out with some of my earlier projects.

Deku: What about somebody unrelated to you?

Mataras: Yes, there are a couple of people from whom I've sought advice concerning my actual novel.

Kai: How's that going, by the way?

Mataras: ...I don't wanna talk about it.

Kai: Huh. That bad, eh?

Deku: Next time- Smile!

Ashid Queen: This chapter sounds like it's gonna be worth it to Go Beyond!

Akarui: *Plus Ultra!*

Kai: When did you get here?!

Next time on Your Hero Academia: Unveiling...

*I still don't understand how you arranged this.*

Kurai grinned down at his brother as he said, "Don't worry about it. They already cleared a few other non-students to visit, so I doubt it was a huge deal for them to let you in."

*It wasn't a big deal to let in the other son of the traitor police superintendent?* Akarui asked him.

"…Okay, maybe there was a little bit of trouble, but they could hardly turn you away when the more likely traitor is a student," Kurai said as they passed through the gates of the campus. "Welcome to UA, brother mine." It was early morning, and the day of the school festival had finally arrived. Kurai had requested that his brother be allowed access to the campus for the day shortly after Eri's visit, and two days ago he had received confirmation from the principal that Akarui would be allowed to come, which led them to where they were now.

*It's a lot cooler in person than in the TV and news articles' highlights.* Akarui couldn't move his head very well, but his eyes flicked about, taking in the sights of the prestigious hero academy. *Where are we going, first?*

"To the dorms," his brother answered as he pointed to a side path that led away from the main building. "I've gotta get changed into my concert outfit, and some of my friends wanted to see you. I know Tenya is looking forward to having you watch the concert."

*I've got some equipment on me so that Tensei can watch it in real-time,* Akarui replied as he turned his wheelchair to follow his brother. *Shukin and Aunt Sakura, too. I know they wanted to come.*

Kurai raised an eyebrow before he said, "Getting you in was one thing- after all, you helped keep us alive during I-island, so the principal was more inclined to repay a favor. Getting two other civilians in is another matter." As they walked, he waved hello to a trio of second-year students on their way to the main building.

*Then who's going to walk around with me while you're busy getting ready?*