Masao stood staring blankly at a wall with Oswald leaning against him and Smith standing off to the side fiddling with the end of her shirt, in a few seconds the three of them would be raised to the center of the field and get their medals for placing in the festival, something that was a bit odd when he thought about it just a bit.
He was a born and raised South Sider being in the hero course of the most elite school in the continent and here he was waiting for the staff to show him off as the first-place winner, who could have ever thought he would be here of all places? He certainly had not and was quite sure he would be involved with crime or one of the numerous gangs in the South Side at this point.
Tilting his head back he wondered how much Midoriya-San was freaking out right now over his victory, the boy was most definitely crying his eyes out over his success though he wondered if Midoriya-San would scold him for being tased in the first round if he found out he had not gone see Recovery Girl right away.
He was brought out of his thoughts the podium started rising and Oswald straightened up to stand on the second place one with Smith quickly moving to the third place one, the light blinded him for a second but it cleared up and he saw the crowd cheering for them and his tail flicked from the minor annoyance, Masao took a deep breath tried his best not to get too spaced out as he waited for the whole ceremony to be over and accepted the medal from Master-Sensei when the time came.
Thankfully, it was over soon, and he and Oswald rejoined their friends near the student exit and found Iguchi-San and Kaori waiting alongside them "Ani-Chan!" Kaori cried once she spotted him and she managed to escape Iguchi-San's arms then bolted for him, kneeling he did not even flinch when Kaori attached herself to his face and stood up again careful not to move too quickly.
Kaori giggled when he thrilled and started trying to hum along with him enjoying being up so high and she had no sense of why a fall from so high would be so dangerous for her "Oh my gosh this is so cute, my heart can't take it!" Hado squealed covering her face with her hands, Haya gently pats Hado's shoulder with a sweat-drop.
Togata was smiling and was holding back a chuckle and Masao could spot a tiny smile on Sunny's face from where he peeked out from behind the blonde, Iguchi-San however sighed "Imouto-Chan." Iguchi-San muttered under his breath as he shook his head but was ultimately fond of the little moment with his own little thrill being faintly heard.
Oswald however made a gagging noise after a minute "You guys are going to give me cavities." The Pinkette groaned sticking his tongue out and Kaori blinked "But aren't you made of candy, how could you get cavities?" Kaori questioned confused "Yeah but I still have real teeth kid, I have to brush them just like you." Oswald told her and Kaori gave a soft "Oh." In reply.
"So um, what should we do now? You know, to celebrate Miyake-San winning the festival." Haya asked looking a bit unsure though Kaori immediately jumped on it "Yes! We have to have a party for Ani-Chan." Kaori agreed, Masao gave a thoughtful hum and took Kaori off his snout so she would not fall when he spoke "I think we have three days off so it should be okay to relax some." Masao said getting his permission making Hado cheer.
"Yay! Ooh what should we do? Maybe we can all go to an arcade or maybe we can find an open amusement park?" Hado suggested, Masao huffed "Too expensive Hado-San." Masao shot down and Oswald scoffed "Yeah and in case you haven't noticed our big gummy lizard here ain't user-friendly for most things, we should probably do something that won't exclude the main man himself." the pinkette pointed out.
"Right! So, um... maybe the beach? No, no we don't have our swimsuits. Oh, I got it! We can have a pizza party at your place Miyake-Chan!" Hado decided, Masao hemmed and hawed then he nodded "That should be fine." he confirmed "Yes!" Hado shouted fists in the air "Lead the way Miyake-Chan! To your house." she quickly added bouncing in place, clearly excited to go over to one of her friends' houses, though now that he thought of it, he could not remember any of them going over to the others houses other than Sunny apparently living with Togata.
"I live in an apartment in Yaizu." Masao corrected as he began walking off to the station leading his friends "Pff, doesn't matter, we're going to your place!" Hado blew off "You guys' mind if we stop for some taffy? I want to regrow my arm at some point." Oswald asked waving his arm stump "No, it will only take a moment to grab some at the shop by my stop." Masao replied and Kaori perked up "Can I get some candied fruit skins for Ani-Chan?" his sister begged, and Masao glanced at Iguchi who shook his head "No Kaori, I won't have enough money to get you any candy after I buy taffy for Oswald-San." Masao explained and Kaori looked sad at that but just nodded "I understand Ani-Chan, Ozzie-Chan needs his arm." Kaori told him holding back a pout.
It didn't take long for the group of eight to get to the apartment but after the stop at the specialty candy shop, he saw one of two things happen to his friends and family, his classmates barring Oswald seemed to grow more anxious as they got to Yaizu and saw the more desolate the scenery was becoming, though it wasn't anywhere near as bad as the South Side so he doesn't know why they were so riled up. Iguchi-San on the other hand looked like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders as he spotted one of the local gangs.
Oswald was indifferent-ish having seen the South Side every time he went to visit his mom and aunt, Kaori on the other hand did not change at all still too young to understand the difference between the two as anything other than ascetic.
Things got a bit better as we got to the apartment complex he had been living in since the start of the term, the landlord (a woman that looked like a doll with a stitched-shut mouth) was re-painting a part of the building and waved when she saw them, he heard Sunny's choked croak when he saw the woman and a couple of his friends were remarkably pale, Masao could understand why Sunny was anxious but he didn't know why the others were, Kaori freely waved back to the woman and Iguchi-San waved back too.
Ignoring the small incident Masao led them to his second-floor apartment and let them inside, he didn't have much and most of the furniture came with the apartment Midoriya-San gave him, the only things he brought with him were his books, clothes, and bought himself a bed big enough for him to sleep comfortably on "Settle in, I'll find a place that delivers pizza, what does everyone want?" Masao asked moving out of the way so the other seven could come in.
"Oh, I want pizza with sardines and pineapple!" Hado exclaimed before she switched focus to look all around the apartment "Um, anything with mushrooms will be fine for me Miyake-San." Haya told him then went to stop Hado from breaking something "Sunny and I will share a pepperoni pizza." Togata said coaxing Sunny over to the couch with Oswald not that far behind them "I'll take whatever's left so don't bother getting me anything." the pinkette piped in before plopping down behind Sunny and throwing his freshly re-grown arm over Sunny's shoulders and causing Sunny to turn bright red.
Masao nodded and walked into the bedroom to make the call since he already knew what Iguchi-San and Kaori would want and only needed to spend a few minutes to find a place that would serve all the things his friends wanted, after confirming the order he returned the living room after he changed out of his uniform "Oh wow!" Hado said when she saw him and his friends were all various shades of red, Masao tilted his head confused by their reactions "I know right! Igu-Chan is the only other person I've met who is fully covered in scales like Ani-Chan." Kaori replied as Masao laid down on the carpet to sunbathe on his belly by the window.
"Oh, that's why he's shirtless." Haya commented and Iguchi-San groaned "I am sorry Haya-San, reptilian-quirked people like to sunbathe in natural light when we can because it feels so much better than a sunlamp and the more 'skin' exposed the better. It can be, jarring if you've never seen it before and clothes can tug on our scales so much that becomes uncomfortable so we prefer to go without when we can." Iguchi-San told them, Masao blinked and stared at Iguchi-San wondering why he felt the need to explain something like that then dismissed it and closed his eyes to enjoy how warm the sun was making him.
A half-hour later almost everyone seemed to be relaxed and he had Kaori sitting on his back so she could play pattycake with Hado when there was a knock on the door Iguchi-San went to answer the door, on the other side was a tall scarecrow made out of burlap holding a stack of five boxes of pizzas "Thank you, Martin." Masao said taking the boxes and offering up some money to Martin with his tail, Martin smiled revealing a row of croaked teeth "Mom said she'll have someone out to inspect the apartments next Monday, so make sure it's ready to view." Martin replied in his scraggly voice and gave a lazy wave before he stalked off.
"Oh, was that Marty? I think we met when he came by the technical school to check out the courses there, he was into programming if I remember correctly." Iguchi-San asked to help him with the boxes and Masao nodded "He's mentioned that he was thinking of going next year after he gets more money together." Masao answered setting the pizzas down on the table then he noticed his friends were a bit on edge "Is something wrong?" Masao questioned and Togata opened his mouth but closed it having trouble producing words.
Oswald rolled his eyes with a groan "We aren't as used to people who look like they could be a part of a horror movie franchise Miyake." Oswald told him getting a look from Haya and Togata while Sunny shamefully buried his face in his hands "Oz you can't just say something like that." Haya hissed at Oswald, and Masao gave a thrill "No offense taken Oswald-San." Masao told them as he went through the boxes to find the small pizza he got for Kaori "I understand, Ozzie-Chan. Everyone outside the South Side looks super weird." Kaori said empathically.
"S-south S-s-side!?" Sunny croaked and Masao blinked "Yes, that's where the rest of my family lives, we've lived there all my life." Masao confirmed before he found the right pizza and offered a slice, Kaori cheered and scrambled over to him, Masao picked her up with his tail and began feeding her "Wait there are actually people living in the South Side? Like for real? I thought the government condemned that place and the only people there were criminals for their shady business." Hado questioned.
Since he was busy Iguchi-San took over "It was, about seventy years ago. People started living there again ten years later and have been ever since and yes, we have an apartment there. There are plenty of people living normal lives there, Hado-San, we just have to be careful about not getting wrapped up in with any criminals." Iguchi-San explained to them.
"Oh, cool! Do they have shops there or do you have to leave the district? Is there any train or bus stops there? And where did Miyake-Chan go to school?" Hado said peppering Iguchi-San with questions and Iguchi-Chan leaned back away from her since she was getting awfully close to his face "Well um, we do have some shops in the district, but we have to leave the district to get most things since no one would deliver to anywhere i-in the district. We d-don't have any public transportation for the same reason, and I think M-Masao-San went to Shiritsu-" Iguchi-San tried to answer but was cut off as he fell off his chair with short reptilian cry since Hado had not backed off.
"Oh, I'm sorry Igu-Chan!" Hado cried jumping to help Iguchi-San up "It's fine Hado-San." Iguchi-San replied running a hand through his hair as he awkwardly tried to shake it all off, taking pity on his brother Oswald stretched out his arm and wrapped it around Hado's waist and tugged her to sit with him "For fucks sake Hado take a chill pill and chew your cud." Oswald told her before he stuffed one of his locks of hair into her mouth, Hado on her end just sat down and began chewing on the taffy in her mouth.
"Is the fact I'm a South Sider that weird?" Masao inquired as he kept feeding Kaori who was too preoccupied with her pizza to pay any attention to the conversation "Nope, just a bit of culture clash between locals." Oswald told him shrugging his shoulders then tugged Sunny closer to him "Right Jiki?" Oswald asked and Sunny froze up "U-um, I, uh... Yes?" Sunny squeaked clearly panicked from being put on the spot "See? Now can we just eat?" Oswald requested clearly done with the whole drama.
"Yeah, it's not like where you're from is super important," Togata said reaching for one of the boxes to help disburse the food and Masao nodded before turning his attention to Kaori.