Mangahero18: Great chapter, though it feels kinda clipped at the end.
Re: Well to be fair, what would've happened next would've just been Midnight-sensei chewing him out in front of the others for show, while secretly congratulating him on a fight well fought, and also teasing him for his "springtime of youth"; something that could easily be covered next-chapter on the way to school when everyone asks why he came home late.
LoamyCoffee: Mei & Tsuyu for Genki? I love it!
Good talk for the students, and it makes sense sadly that if Pros want to get higher in the rankings that they would patrol the more populated and well known areas. Double date time~ Genki speaks truth about brands.
And he's trying to get Izuku to talk.
And in comes the local Pro and Villain. Fantastic job~
Genki taking care of business. You keep making me so excited for what's happening.
Re: The deeper worldbuilding in MHA that you can find in FanFiction has always been really fun, which is why I go the extra mile to make the world as much a "character" as its people. The double date was also so it didn't seem like Tsuyu and Genki were "moving too fast" in their quote/unquote "relationship", since it kinda started with Tsu hearing him speak candidly. As for the fight, glad you liked it, and I love exploiting the loophole about Improper Quirk Use, in the narrative sense~
You can't penalize a really tall guy in basketball for being really tall~
OmniIBIBUltraInstinctGodzilla: I saw the pairing tags are Genki, Tsuyu and Mei now. Not opposed to it.
A sad truth regarding the hero rankings here.
A bad timing with Mr Pig just after Genki was asking Izuku about the Sludge Villain.
Genki takes down the Villain, but not without collateral damage, which was inevitable with dynamites involved.
Re: That's one hell of a PenName… As for updating the Tags, now that there's certain character exchange among them, it felt like it was appropriate to earmark it that way; of course, there's nothing "official" between them quite yet. The "journey" is meant to be as much fun as the "destination".
Yeah… All the shit that's happening in My Hero Academia, is because flaws like that kept piling up that no-one thought to address because of a lackadaisical "eh, we'll do it later" attitude. All Might being the "Superman" of his country and causing most Villains to go to ground, caused a sharp decrease in the quality of Heroes, making the HPSC give half the Provisionary License Testees their license, thus filling the industry with lackluster Heroes, and the stigmatization of certain Quirks and archetypes created most of the Villains out there today. "Villains aren't born; they're created."
Hell, if there were "Blood Cafe"s in My Hero Academia like there were in Daily Life with a Monster Girl, all the blood-sucking Heteromorphs and Vampires (leeches, lamprey, mosquitos, etc.) would have a "safe space" and never become Villains in the first place because they can indulge their biological urges without being judged for something beyond their control.
Well, Genki is living in the area now, so he's naturally curious.
To be fair, Genki didn't personally break anything. His "ball tag" might've caused a Trigger-boosted Villain to put his head through a wall, but that was more like self-defense because there were already casualties.
Having the phone, hand, and selfie stick appear before him was a poke at the stupid shit people do for selfies that gets them killed. Because there is no fucking way people wouldn't do stupid shit like that in a world where Hero v Villain fights are treated like spectator shows you see at amusement parks~
*MHA*
"Excuse me, can I have a minute of your time?"
The four Yuuei students looking over their shoulders, saw Todoroki approaching them, a serious expression on his normally-stoic face.
"Todoroki-san?" Izuku blinked, Ochako and Tsuyu blinking curiously.
"Genki, if it's alright with you, can I have a minute of your time?"
" . . . Sure," Genki shrugged. "You three go on without me, I'll catch up in a few."
Tsuyu, Ochako, and Izuku blinked at the sudden exclusion, but simply waved as they forged on ahead, leaving the sons of the former and current No.2 Heroes to their own devices on that stretch of road.
"So, you wanted something from me?" Genki asked as Todoroki fell into a sedate pace beside him.
" . . . How much do you know about my father?" Todoroki asked after a brief silence.
"Oof, loaded question…" Genki hummed. "Well, I guess the fastest way to answer that question, was with another question."
"Which is…?"
"Who do you think your mom was talking to that fateful night, all those years ago?" he asked turning up his chin, head tilted ever-so-slightly to the side.
"What... do you mean?" the son of Endeavor asked, a chill going up his spine, his scar tingling.
"Here, this might clear it up," Genki said pulling something up on his phone. "When my mom found out you and I were going to be classmates, she asked me to throw a line, see what caught. It's just a real coincidence that the whole 'big reveal' the other day was such a great segue into what she wanted."
"Which was…?" Todoroki asked before Genki held up his phone, a photograph on the screen.
On it were two young women in the Yuuei school uniform, shoulders thrown and posing for a selfie. One of them was undeniably Genki's mother, Megumi, and she didn't look like she'd aged a day compared to how she looked at the Sports Festival. Standing next to her and grinning like a loon was-
"Mom…?" Todoroki blinked, shocked by both the fact he was getting to see her so-young, and that apparently she was a "selfie person".
"That's right. Turns out our mothers were friends from back in middle school before their Yuuei days," Genki answered. "Your mother might've gone into the Business Course even though she had such a powerful Quirk, but she and my mother were friends for years and years before they were pulled apart."
"But… why would she talk to your mother about… everything?"
"Well, who else was she going to call in her hour of need?" Genki asked rolling his eyes. "The quote/unquote 'family' that sold her off to be breeding stock for a man who only cared about her because of her Ice Quirk?" he asked making exaggerated air quotes.
"Well when you phrase it like that, it makes a lot more sense…" Todoroki hummed begrudgingly. He'd never been told about his maternal grandparents, but given what his own father did, he wouldn't put it past 'people' to be that disgusting. "You mentioned your mom asked you to throw a line. Why was that?"
"Ohhh~ Now that you and I know one another...~ I wanna ask you a favor."
Todoroki for his part raised an eyebrow, but was willing to indulge his peer's mother through her appointed intermediary.
*MHA*
A couple of days later…
"This is never going to work," Todoroki groaned as he rubbed his face.
"Oh? What makes you say that?" Genki's mother questioned as they walked to the train station.
"All you did was put on your old uniform. There's no way the front desk won't notice."
"Why? Does it not fit anymore?" the teenage-sized mother asked as she spun around, skirt flaring out over her long stockings.
"It does, but that's hardly the point," he answered, though reluctant to admit that if he didn't know she were Genki's mother, he'd have mistaken her for his sister, or maybe a cousin. This, idly had him wondering in the back of his head if Genki were always going to resemble a teenager, or if there was enough of his father in him that he actually would mature past his pubescent years.
"Don't worry, my undercover skills from Yuuei aren't that rusty."
"Undercover skills…?"
A moment later she mounted a pair of coke bottle glasses upon the bridge of her nose, magnifying her expressive brown eyes to incredible size, and then drawing a few freckles onto her face.
'There is literally no way this is going to work…' Todoroki thought as he palmed his face.
*MHA*
"Oh, is this one of your friends from Yuuei?" the receptionist questioned as he and the disguised Megumi approached the front desk of the mental hospital.
"Something… like that…" the dual Quirk-user returned through clenched teeth, trying to maintain a straight face while Megumi simply smirked at him behind her hand. 'Even though it's happening right in front of me, I still, literally, can not believe, that this worked…' he thought to himself, girding himself to recite the cover story that would allegedly get his tagalong into the heart of the building. "She's a member of the Business Course like my mother was at Yuuei, and I told her she could interview Rei for a school assignment. I hope that's okay."
"Well, it's a little irregular… but as long as you vouch for her, I don't think anyone will really mind," the woman admitted as she signed him in. "You two go on ahead, and have a nice visit."
"We will."
"Oh, and Todoroki-kun," the receptionist whispered as the glasses-clad girl walked toward the elevators. "Your friend's a real cutie. You should ask her out~"
Were this an anime, the backdrop would've gone dark and dominated by a lightning strike while Todoroki was frozen in place.
Since real life wasn't an anime however, he was able to school his expression by clenching his molars together, though could do nothing to hide the dusting of pink on his cheeks.
"Todo-kun, what's wrong? You break a shoelace or something?" Megumi asked blinking her magnified eyes expressively, an innocent lilt to her tone.
'I'm just going to pretend I didn't hear that…' Todoroki thought as he turned away from the receptionist.
*MHA*
'Are her 'undercover skills' from Yuuei really still that sharp... or is everyone around us just a bunch of idiots?' Todoroki thought as no-one, absolutely no-one, gave the two of them, Megumi in particular, a second glance. 'I never once contemplated that going undercover was something you'd learn at Yuuei, but if this is what comes from it…'
"Todo-kun, we there yet?" Megumi asked, voice still in its elevated pitch as she played the part of a schoolmate.
"Oh, um, yes, we're almost there," Todoroki answered as they arrived at the corner room on the top floor with the best view. 'Honestly, though, we've passed dozens of doctors and nurses on the way up here, and no-one's stopped us even once…' he thought to himself as he opened the door. "Mother?"
"Shoto…?" Rei blinked, looking up from her book. "I'm surprised to see you again so soon."
"Er, yes, well, I have a surprise for you today."
"A surprise? Like what?"
Megumi sliding into the room behind him and closing the door, Rei blinked at the pigtailed girl's appearance before her eyes went wide, even before the brunette removed her coke bottle glasses and carried herself like a grown woman.
"Megumi-chan…!" Rei gasped, hands going to her mouth. "You… You haven't aged a day…!" she sobbed, even as a broad smile pulled at her face.
"And you've never looked more lovely…" Megumi returned, tears running down her own as well.
Rei stepping out of her bed, Megumi meeting her halfway, the two friends quickly evolved into a sobbing mess as they held one another. Todoroki, feeling like he were intruding but unable to step outside without rousing suspicion, chose to stand in a corner and tune out what to them was meant to be a private moment.
*AHA*
"Megumi-chan…" Rei smiled once she'd gotten most of that outburst out of her system. "I never thought I'd ever see you again…!"
"Yes, well, maybe our baby boys meeting up in the same class was a stroke of fate~" Megumi grinned, glasses held in her lap. "Even if the test with the robots was a little skewed..."
"So the two of you really were classmates," Todoroki hummed, his mother the happiest he'd been in all of his visits. "I assume the reason you were never able to visit was because-"
"Because of Fire-Pubes, yes," Megumi huffed brusquely, Rei doing nothing to countermand the sentiment while Shoto sputtered at the nickname. "It'd be pretty bad for Enji's rep if people found out he was running his own little 'Lebensborn' under everyone's noses. Pretty it up as much as you want, but 'Eugenics' is still Eugenics."
"I won't deny that," Todoroki nodded. "Still, what're the odds that the sons of the former and current No.2 Hero would ever become… friends…?" he hummed, realizing that was what he and Genki had become. They might not've had the heart-to-heart that he and Midoriya had, but for someone else to have lived in the shadow of the 'silver crown'… He wouldn't have done something like this for just anyone.
"I'd always wanted you and Genki-kun to meet up, have a little play date… But unfortunately things didn't play out like I would've hoped…" Rei hummed morosely.
"Yes, well… The two of us can hang out together now. 'Make up for lost time'," her son returned, realizing how much Megumi's presence back in her life meant to her. "Still… I'm not sure if this ruse will work twice."
"Maybe not specifically… but if you were to add me to the list of acceptable visitors…~" Megumi trailed off with a conspiratorial smile.
"That reminds me, how did you sneak her past the front desk?" Rei asked as she peered through the coke bottle glasses, which were in fact prescription.
"Megumi-san… pretended to be a Business Course student interviewing you for a school project," Todoroki answered.
"Awww… That's so sweet~" Rei smiled. "Still…" she said before tugging on the woman's cheeks with a cross look and pulling them taut. "Some girls just have all the luck, don't they? We're the same age, and yet you can still pass for a teenager. You still fit your old uniform and everything…!"
"Hate the game, not the player~" Megumi said as she slipped out of Rei's grip, the woman making a face at the oil now on her fingers.
'Mothers are scary…' Todoroki thought as the two went from sad to happy to angry and around the block again at the drop of a hat. 'Still… I'm glad I could bring this smile to my mother's face like this. I'll have to give Genki my thanks at the next occasion.'
*MHA*
AN:
When I was writing Genki's mother from Arachnid in as a cameo, a mistranslation on my end was that from the Wiki, surnames are listed first and then given, whereas in the MHA Wiki, it's the opposite (with Romanji included separately). For that purpose, "Oki" would've been her surname before getting married, with "Megumi" being her given name, just like how Fuji Alice would be "Alice Fuji" in the Western naming style of 'surname last'…
But yeah, given both Genki and Todoroki are sons of a previous and current No.2 Hero, it only seemed fitting that their mothers would know one another, at least from a narrative standpoint. It was always going to be the plan that Megumi knew Todoroki's mother, Rei (though I would've gone with "Yuki", "Yuki-hime" to her friends before she was given one in the Canon…), but a recent idea allowed me to work a Segue into the previous chapter where Genki and Todoroki got to have a serious chat with one another without any further elaboration to distract from the then-current plot.
Canonically, Rei was talking to her mother before scalding Shoto, but since I'm flushing out the worldbuilding a bit, given the context, it made sense for Rei to talk to anyone other than her mother about her woes. And honestly, it seems a little sad that Rei had no-one else in her life to talk to beyond the family that sold her out to her abusive husband, children notwithstanding.
This one's a little short, but the next one will have more of our favorite Vigilante, now-Pro Hero, Koichi Haimawari aka "The Crawler". Hope to see you then!
GO BEYOND!
EXCELSIOR!