Howdy, folks, how's it going?
Not much to say here, but there will some notes on the bottom for anyone interested.
As always, shout out to Chaos Productions for his assistance and input.
And as always, I own neither WH 40K nor BNHA.
Now, enjoy.
/
"Have you ever had that feeling, that there's something that it seems like you should know, something that should make sense, but when you try to figure it out, it annoyingly stays just out of reach?" Kaina inquired, her expression pensive, even perhaps a little bit frustrated.
"I'd say that's one of those things that everyone's felt at one point or another in their lives, I suppose?" Toshinori replied, sounding rather perplexed by the sudden statement. "What brought this on?"
"It's just…" The heroine started, then hesitated, unsure on how to put it. "It's the kid. The more I look at him, all oddness aside, the more I get the feeling that he's… familiar somehow, but try as I might I just can't quite put my finger on it… Do you have any idea why that might be, Midoriya-san?"
"I can't really say I do, Tsutsumi-san." The boy's mother replied with a mild shake of her head, although her expression seemed oddly amused. "I do know that my son is a very big fan of yours, but I wasn't aware of any other connections."
"Hhhhmm…" The woman hummed in thought, before shrugging. "Ah, well, I'm sure it'll come to me eventually. Anyway, should we get to the food stands? It's probably gonna get pretty crowded, pretty fast."
She tried not to sound too apprehensive at the prospect, but apparently Toshinori saw right through her.
"No need to go face the crowds, Kaina-kun." The lanky man said, pulling a couple of paper sheets from a compartment by the side of his seat, which Kaina quickly noticed were menus. "Food delivery is part of the services provided for the VIP booths."
"Uh, nifty." She commented, inwardly rather relieved, but regardless she made to get up. "You guys can go ahead and order something. Anything, really, I'm not picky. Meanwhile, gotta go find me the ladies' room…"
/
Needless to say, Shouto was in a foul mood as he traversed the hallways of the stadium. That he was still traversing them didn't help in improving said mood in the slightest. Seriously, who built this place? It almost felt like it was designed for people to get lost…
And this inevitably left the boy alone with his thoughts, which inevitably lead back to his conversation with Midoriya, which inevitably soured his mood even further.
What right did that guy have to criticize Shouto? What did he know? He wasn't the one who had to put up with hellish training almost as far back as he could remember, he wasn't the one who's own mother scarred for life, he wasn't…
It was at that point that he notice how the air around him had been getting progressively chillier, and with a shake of his head he fought done the rising anger, which, now that he took a moment to think, seemed really uncharacteristic of him. Had Midoriya truly pressed his buttons that much…?
"Ah, there you are. I have been looking for you."
A voice suddenly cut through the boy's musings. A stern, pitiless, and familiar voice.
Shouto's head snapped to the side, and sure enough, there stood the unmistakable, flame-bearded figure of his father, Endeavour. Just about the absolute last person he wanted to see right now, or any other time for that matter…
"What do you want?" The boy grunted impatiently, throwing the man an icy glare.
"I taught you better than to disrespect your elders like that, Shouto." Endeavor replied sternly with a disapproving frown.
"Apologies, what do you want, sir?" The boy retorted, his usually unexpressive demeanour thick with sarcasm. This made the number 2 hero's near perpetual frown deepen, to his son's slight satisfaction.
"This petulance of yours does not impress anyone, Shouto." The man stated, having the gal to take a scolding tone. "For how much longer will this pointless rebellion of yours go on?"
"Pointless rebellion?" Shouto all but snarled, his whole posture tensing up defiantly.
"Your lack of respect is one thing, your lack of effort is quite another. Your performance so far in this tournament has been downright pathetic." The man continued, his eyes, as always, staring as if they were piercing through Shouto rather than looking at him. "Someone with the skills and power that I know you have should have been dominating the competition straight from the start. Instead, not only did you let this… Midoriya boy make a fool out of you during the race, but you also then allied with him rather than crush him during the second round. You clearly are not taking this as seriously as it deserves to be taken, if you think you can coast on by without your fire."
Normally, the scathing words wouldn't have done much more than mildly annoy Shouto. Years of having this kind of rhetoric forced upon him had made him develop some rather thick skin when it came to his father's ideas. But coming so soon after his talk with Midoriya, something unpleasant bubbled in the boy's gut.
"I am taking this very seriously." He said through gritted teeth. "It just should have been clear to you by now that I am focusing on what I know is best rather than what you want. I will prove, once and for all, that I don't need you, your power, or any of your "advice"."
"Foolish bravado, boy, and this is precisely why it is pointless." Endeavor replied, with a certainty to his voice that had Shouto's skin crawling. "You may have had enough luck to get by so far, but sooner or later, you will have to give it all that you have, Shouto. If not in this tournament, later on in the field, with actual lives on the line if you mess up. I don't need to see anything proven, boy, I don't even need to do anything one way or another, you embracing what I gave you is inevitable."
"Wow, I see that fatherhood didn't turn you into any less of an asshole."
…
…
…
Shouto was man enough to admit that the sudden, unexpected and downright outrageous intrusion into the conversation startled him something fierce.
Heck, even Endeavor's eyes widened briefly, before turning towards the other end of the corridor and narrowing in a rather displeased frown. The boy also turned curiously, to see a woman standing there, in simple civilian clothes, hair a dark bluish purple with vivid pink streaks that the All Might brand cap failed to contain, standing there with a hand on her hip, an unimpressed look on her face.
"You." His father grunted, clearly recognizing whoever this was and not really happy about it.
"Yep, me." The woman replied casually. "And really, Enji, one would think a hero of your standing wouldn't have so many insecurities to force upon their own children, wouldn't you say?"
…Shouto decided then and there that he liked this woman.
"U.A.'s standards must surely be slipping," Endeavor scoffed, ignoring the obvious provocation. "If they allowed a disgrace to heroes like you into school grounds."
"Yeah, well, at least this disgrace to heroes didn't hide her fuck-ups behind a tidal wave of lawyers and NDAs." The woman replied with a careless shrug.
…Shouto decided then and there that he really liked this woman. Was she a hero? She did seem vaguely familiar… He had half a mind to ask her for an autograph, just to stick it to his father even more.
And going by the way the number 2 hero's flames flared in clear aggravation, the woman had struck a nerve.
"What goes on within my family is of no concern to the likes of you." Endeavor grunted. "One would think security would have escorted a hazard like you from the premises already."
Now it was the woman's turn to scoff.
"Oh, please, I'm here on All Might's invitation, and with Nezu's approval, Enji, by any metric I am more qualified to be around children than you ever were. Which should really make you think." She replied, completely unbothered by the increasingly more annoyed hero, before bringing up a phone with a flick of her wrist. "In fact, why don't I call the Big Guy himself and see what he thinks? I do have him on speed dial, and I believe he had some questions he wanted to ask you…"
…
…
…
Shouto blinked, blinked again, and then blinked some more, his mind momentarily unable to process the sheer daring on display. Was this what people meant when they said someone had balls, metaphorically speaking?
He decided then and there that this was his third favorite woman ever.
Endeavor, for his part, again refused to rise to the bait, his scowl deepening into a sour expression akin to someone sucking on a lemon, and he grumbled in frustration something that sounded oddly like 'what was that fool thinking?'.
"Prepare yourself, Shouto. The tournament will start soon. Then you will see I am right." The man eventually said, looking quite done with this whole thing, throwing a distasteful glare towards the woman. "And don't interact with the rabble."
With that, the number 2 hero about turned and disappeared into a side corridor. Leaving a downright confused Shout behind to blink owlishly and look at the woman.
"…Are you a hero?" He asked, for lack of anything else that he could actually to say.
"Eh, still a matter of debate in some circles. And either way, I am technically off the clock." The woman shrugged, then looked down at him with a considering look.
"It might not be my place to say this, kid, but for all that he's a dick-shaped bag of dicks, your old man's right on one thing. You won't go far in this line of work without giving it your all." Then she too turned around and walked away. "Best of luck in the tournament, you got some heavy competition, from what I saw. Now, where the hell's that bathroom?"
And then she was gone, leaving behind a rather confused and pensive Shouto.
/
"Ah, Tsutsumi-san, at last." Inko greeted cheerily, even as she was putting a spread of take away on a table before their seats. "I was beginning to worry something had happened."
"Eh, I did bump into an arse, yeah, but mostly what kept me was actually finding the damn place." Kaina commented as she moved over, glancing over what was available. "Seriously though, who designed this stadium? It's a damn labyrinth out there."
"Probably Nezu." Toshinori sighed wearily. "It'd be just like him to make navigating this place as annoying as possible without being actively dangerous or malicious…"
Unknown to all three of the booth's occupants, in his own observation room, from where he could oversee the developments on the entire stadium, the principal of U.A. felt that familiar stab of sadistic glee that he usually got when he knew people were being inconvenienced by his designs, and promptly rewarded himself with a cackle and a spot of tea.
/
Finding venues to annoy people in petty but overall harmless ways like this sounds to me like the kind Nezu would love doing, no?
So, not much action to be had this chapter, and I do apologize for the lack of Izuku, but to be honest the goal here was to provide some more context to make people wonder about Nagant's situation. All will be explained in due time.
Also, I really appreciate all the people that have been updating this fic's page on TVTropes (Wow, I hadn't even noticed it now has a YMMV page until just a little bit before posting this), you all are great, but I do feel the need to point out that there should be a "Z" on the "plus" of the title.
Anyway, next time, we should be actually getting back in the action, with an opening round that puts green against green. Should be something to see.
But before that, we'll have the next update to Through the Eternities, so look forward to that.
Cya all on the next one, stay safe and take care.