Chapter Forty
The closing ceremony took a bit longer than just handing out awards, mostly due to the time involved in clearing everyone out, and, while my wounds were still slowly healing because of my Regen, it did nothing for my fatigue. Thankfully, we were able to walk down off the pillars and join the others, Mina moving next to me and subtly giving me something to lean against.
Eventually, though, we were allowed to enter the colosseum's inner halls, and I stumbled, my girlfriend quickly catching me. "Denki!" she yelped, getting the attention of the others, as I started to cycle One-for-All.
Strength returned to my limbs, and my head cleared a little, and I realized I should've done that the second I was out of sight. Dumbass, I chastised myself, but I was just focused on moving forward, and had forgotten everything else.
"I'm fine," I told her, standing, sparking slightly. "I'm just stupid tired."
Mei gave me a once over, nodding, and peeling off to head back to the Support Course area, while Momo and Mina both looked doubtful, and stayed near me until they had to head to the girl's locker room.
Returning to my own locker, it was a bit harder than I expected to get changed, but soon enough we were all back in class 1-A. Some of my classmates, like Mineta and Jiro, looked bored, others, like Kirishima and Sato, looked tired, but attentive. Todoroki was introspective, as was, surprisingly, Bakugo. I mean, he was scowling, but I think he just had resting dick-face, so that didn't mean anything. Midoriya, despite his faded bruises and wrapped limbs, looked on cloud-fucking-nine.
To be honest, the boy deserved it.
Sitting, propping my chin up with my arms and trying my damndest not to fall asleep again, I still jumped a little when the door opened, and Aizawa walked in. He stood at his podium, regarding us all. "Not bad," he mused. "Some of you need to learn to temper yourself a little. You'll have the first two days off next week, to recuperate. Given you performance, I'm sure some of you will receive recruitment offers from the Pros. We'll look over the draft forms and make some decisions when you return. Get some rest. You all still have a lot of training ahead of you."
The class' "Yes, Sir," was serious, and I joined in, even as I wondered if this meeting could've just been an email.
After Aizawa walked out, I knew it was.
The sun was setting by the time we got home, Mina helping support me when, getting glares, I had to draw down on OfA lest someone make a big deal about 'unlicensed power use' or some bullshit. Ironically, riding the electrical wires was safer in that respect, as while I was using my Quirk, I wasn't doing it in front of everyone else, and, more than that, wasn't staying in front of the same people as I did so.
Technically, the low-level PDA of having Mina with me was also something we were getting disapproving looks over, but those people could go get fucked, as I wasn't actually committing a crime.
It was almost a relief when the train finally pulled into the station, and I could pull on my power a little more, walking, with my girlfriend's help, down familiar streets. It was only when we were almost there that I noticed that I was sparking on her, blinking as I asked if she was okay with that.
"It's fine," she smiled. "Just tingly, in a good way. I'd've said something if it hurt, Sparky."
"Oh, good," I sighed, my thoughts thick and unwieldy, as we turned onto my street, focused on getting home, but also enjoying the feel of Mina beside me.
Finally, we were in front of my house, and she hesitated. "I should go," she started to say, pulling away a little, but stopped as I held her for a moment.
"Do you have to?" I asked, looking down at her.
She hesitated, before smiling. "I guess I could say hi," she agreed, helping me to the door, accepting the key I handed her.
Taking off our shoes, I could hear my mother call, "Denki? Is that you?"
"Mina too," I replied, and the quick beat of footsteps came down the hall as mom rounded the corner, her smile wide as she lunged forward, arms stretching as she brought us both to her in a tight hug.
"Mom, air," I wheezed, reflexively spiking OfA to survive.
Thankfully, sweet, blessed air was mine once more, as she let go, dragging us both deeper inside, calling out, "Sugu! Denki's home!"
"I heard," he called back, as we turned the corner, seeing he was at the table, with his laptop in front of him, ever-present fruit bowl moved to the side. His calm gaze looked me over, weighing me, before a slight smile spread across placid features. "A long way from throwing sparks in the quarry."
"But I couldn't've gotten this far without that," I replied, looking over to my girlfriend, who I wrapped an arm around, "Or without the help I got from Mina."
The girl blushed fuchsia, but didn't pull away. "You helped me too, Denki."
My father nodded. "And you were impressive as well."
"Oh, you were both great!" Mom cheered, steering us to seats at the table. "But you both looked like you got hurt? Are you alright?" she demanded, looking concerned.
"We're fine," Mina reassured her. "Recovery Girl's amazing, just makes you exhausted. I was fine, but Denki. . ."
"Took a nap, and I'm still wiped," I said, quickly adding before the question could be asked. "Healed up, just sore." I glanced over to Mina. "Probably would've fallen asleep on the train without her."
Mom smiled at the girl beside me. "Thank you so much for making sure our little Den-den made it home."
" Den-den?" Mina asked, giving me a look as she tried not to laugh.
I couldn't help but groan. "Mom, you haven't called me that since I was five."
"And you haven't needed help getting home since you were five," she noted, with an odd tone to her voice.
"Hideko," my father stated, just a little warningly. "We talked about this. He's going to be a hero. That means he might get hurt."
"There's being hurt, and there's that, Sugu," she argued, before shaking her head, and turning to me. "I'm sorry, it's, just, I worry."
I wanted to promise her that I wouldn't get hurt like that again, but even if I didn't know what was coming, my very job meant that would still be a lie. "I'll be careful," I said instead, seeing her doubts. "Fighting my classmates, I knew they wouldn't try to really hurt me. Even if things could get a bit crazy, they were prepared. Against others, I won't be so careless."
"And if that's not enough? If that's-" she asked, frowning, startled slightly as my father, lifting a hand, shot a single electrified finger forward, piercing through an apple cleanly with little more than a wet crack. Lifting it over his palm, the rest of his fingers flickering as they sliced into the fruit, dropping it into four roughly sliced quarters, which he caught with piercing tendrils of lightning, all but one dropped down onto the plate beside him.
The last he bit into, expression bland, but his message was clear:
What you could do to fruit, you could just as easily do to people.
"Dad and I... we talked about that too," I told my mother, who nodded, moving over to give me a hug.
Pulling back, she turned to Mina, "And that goes for you too, young lady! If it comes down to that, do what you need to!"
The girl, having sat silent, jumped a little, almost forgetting she was even here. "I, I will," she promised, getting a hug from my mother, before mom hurried back to the kitchen to keep cooking.
"How come you never said you could do that, Sparky?" my girlfriend asked warily, glancing at the half-cut, half-torn pieces of fruit.
I shrugged, "Because I'm not that good." I turned a finger to lightning, which she watched carefully, but when I tried to spear an apple of my own, it only bit in a little, not piercing through. Pulling back and shifting my arm fully, I could spear it, but when I retracted the limb the apple cracked in half on the larger impaling protrusion, and I had to quickly shoot forward another electrified hand to catch the pieces. "Spears, I've got, but not anything like he can," I revealed, nodding towards my father.
"At your age, neither could I," the man noted, turning to Mina. "Are you staying for dinner?"
She winced starting to get up, "No, I really should get going. I was just, you know, making sure he got home safe."
My father nodded, "Admirable."
Turning to her, I smiled, "What are you doing tomorrow?" She shrugged, so I asked, "Want to go to the festival together?"
The look she gave me was incredulous, then considering, then humorous. "Why not. It'll be nice to see everything from the other side."
Waiting for Mina by the entrance to the school's fairgrounds, the colosseum dead center of the area, I was still a little sore. Not tired, a solid twelve hours of sleep had fixed that, having dropped straight into bed after dinner, but every part of me was aware of what I'd done to it yesterday, though even that'd started to lessen on the train-ride over.
"Sparky!" I heard, turning just in time to get bowled over by Mina, shifting forms for a second to catch us both. "I thought you might not come!"
"I said I would," I frowned, unsure.
"Yeah, but you were totes out of it," she said, grabbing my hand and dragging me over to some of the stalls. "We've got an hour 'fore the first event, and I want to try all the food!"
While not quite achieving that goal, we were both stuffed when we headed to our seats, automatically getting tickets for the main event by being students, which was nice. Sitting down, we were surprised to not only see Midoriya there, but Shoji, Tokoyami, and Momo as well, the last of whom looked cheerily up at us.
"Oh hello!" she smiled, and Mina, giving me a considering look, took the seat listed on my ticket, making me take hers, sandwiching me between them. "Are you here to watch the festival as well?"
"Nah, we're just here for the food," Mina teased, leaning back in her seat.
The other girl blushed, "Ah, that was a silly question, wasn't it. I'm surprised to see you, Denki," she said, looking over me, before blushing again.
"Regeneration," I shrugged, unable to say more as Present Mic started to announce the start of the second-year tournament. The entire thing was going to start with a much larger, more involved version of the king-of-the-mountain event from the recreational games. Everyone was getting a meter that recorded how close they were to the top, giving them more points, faster, the nearer they got to the summit. However, the points for those up top would be reduced by a set rate if there were others up there with them for longer than a few seconds each. On top of that, there were additionally hidden objects on each of the five mountains that, if found, were also worth points.
Settling in to watch them, it was fascinating, the powers people had being used in interesting ways, but despite being a year more experienced, they were just. . . lacking. No, that wasn't fair, it was just that there was no one participating that was in the 'dear-freaking-god' levels of power that the top of our class possessed. To put it another way, I was watching a tournament made of people like Sato, and Sero, and Shoji, without any Bakugo's, Todoroki's, and certainly without any Midoriya's.
Interestingly, the holographic projectors in the stadium turned on after everyone left the stadium to go to the arena, showing enormous screens, split into five windows, one per mountain, so we didn't have to all squint at the smaller displays along the top of the arena, since no-one was there. "Did they do that with us?" I asked.
"Yeah," an older student in the row behind us replied. "Waited until you were all gone, then turned it off when you got close."
"Huh, thanks," I nodded, turning back to watch the show.
After several minutes of mass melee, with Midoriya muttering up a storm, Momo leaned over to me, murmuring, "It wasn't just our events."
Shooting her a questioning look at the seemingly nonsensical statement, she motioned towards one display, where five students were holding a mountaintop, three of whom were using what looked almost like a crew-serviced machinegun, only it was firing pellets that seemed to explode, but instead of damaging their targets, they just blasted back whomever they hit away. The other two students were working with them, one who was controlling an amorphous white substance she was using to block attacks, while the other, a guy with eye lasers, was using his Quirk to push people back, the beams having physical force. A guy wielding whips made of fire cut his way through the material, and dodged the beams, only for lasers to make a hard-right turn, bouncing off nothing at all, and slam the attacker in the side, making him stumble just long enough to get blasted off the mountain by the trio of Support students.
However, those five were the only ones that worked together, everyone else very much on their own, and it showed.
Turning back to the student behind us, who had to be a third-year, given that all the second years were competing, I asked, "Tomorrow, are you going to be teaming up with someone?"
The boy, who looked normal, smiled down at me. "You'll find out tomorrow. Some of my classmates are, though."
"But, isn't it an individual event?" Momo asked, glancing back to him.
"How do Hero Agencies work?" he asked in return. "Now, stop botherin' me, I want to see if fire-girl makes it."
Looking at the screens, a girl with flame-red hair was charging up a mountain, tongues of incandescence flickering up from her arms and legs. From her side a guy lashed out at her with metallic tendrils, and she jumped, but it wasn't enough. However, instead of wrapping around her, her flesh turned to crimson flame at the point of impact, the cords passing through her as she charged up unimpeded.
A fire version of Electrobody? I wondered, not having nearly the fine control level of control needed to do as she did. Only, why is she running normally?
It turned out, that's because she couldn't use her flames to move like I did, not having the larger transformational ability my father possessed. She made it to the top, only to get caught by a stone hand, created by the girl on summit of that mountain. The king, or queen in this case, of that hill was forming canons from the earth itself, firing rocks at anyone who got close, but was only able to keep a few constructs up at a time, the others crumbling to dust as soon as her attention shifted to a new creation.
She knew it, though, and as the hand started to crumble, a canon formed and blasted the fire-girl off, who, while she turned her mid-section to flame, couldn't do anything about the blast of earth formed by the stone cannonball hitting the crumbling stone hand, a shotgun blast of earth shoving her off towards the padded floor far below.
However, that still left the question of what the guy meant about Hero Agencies.
From what I could tell, both from Denki's memories and my own reading, Hero Agencies varied pretty widely in composition, a number of them solo-affairs, but the vast majority possessing one well known Hero, like Endeavor, Hawks, or Best Jeanist, and then a number of 'sidekicks' who did a good deal of the work that was attributed to the main hero, when it was really done by the 'X' Hero Agency, which the public took to be synonymous with Hero 'X' themselves.
Now that I thought about it, there were certain parallels here.
Of the three heroes working the Support Course designed cannon, it wasn't the shooter who was standing directly on the metal plate that housed that mountain's transceiver, but the one who'd set up the gun, and who was making sure it stayed working, the third person on it serving as spotter, with a pistol of their own to take down anyone who'd made it past floating-crème girl and eye-laser boy.
That meant that, while all of them were gaining points, it was the one who'd actually made the gun that was going to come in first among them, like the main Hero in an agency. And even then, the points they were receiving were less than if they'd just taken it for themselves. However, if they took the mountain, and held it, that should be enough to get them to the next round.
That said, all it would take was one of them stabbing the others in the back to gain enough points to surpass the others, and it was interesting to watch, to see if they'd do the right thing to win, or the right thing to be a Hero.
More than the larger competition, as the minutes ticked by, that was what I was waiting for. It'd be easy to justify, as this was a competition, and no one was going to get actually hurt if they did so. Hell, It'd be the smart thing to do, right at the end, to gain that much of an edge, when, in the next match, they could progress without an issue, maybe even without having to worry about the others gunning for them, if things were that close.
But they didn't.
They held.
"And that's the end of the First Round!" Present Mic announced, as the buzzer sounded.
As everyone filed back into the stadium, the giant screens disappearing, Midnight announced the winners.
The team didn't come in first, or even in the top ten or twenty, but in the mid-thirties, less than a dozen spots between them and failure.
"Son of a bitch," I swore quietly, shaking my head, getting an inquiring look from Mina, and a slightly disapproving one from Momo. "They never said how much of a reduction you got for sharing the hill," I explained. "I wasn't sure the team was going to make it."
"If they hadn't set up quickly, or lost the hill, they would've," Midoriya added from several seats over, hands still bandaged, looking at us from over his notebook. "They never could've held it on their own, but maybe they could've held it with less people, meaning less of a divide, but then mutter mutter mutter mutter," he continued on, making notes.
The second game was a capture the flag affair with ten different teams and flags for each contestant. More than that, more flags were dropped in as things continued, and the entire thing was... different. The people who got in did the opposite of what we'd done in the cavalry battle, namely not moving around, as they had to defend designated 'safe' spots they were forced to drop the flags off at, where others could go after them, but were only able to grab a single flag at a time per person, starting with the last one put inside.
Of course every team immediately front-loaded their flags highest to lowest, but once things started utter chaos descended, teams having to try and split up into offense and defense. The smaller teams were, paradoxically, safer, as the others focused on the larger teams with more starting flags, unable to see the point totals, having to rely on listening to Present Mic's commentary to find out who was doing the best.
Unfortunately, the team from the first round didn't make it past this one, able to defend their own reserve, but not attack effectively enough to gather more flags, and laser-eyes was on a different team altogether.
Taking advantage of the break to swing by the food stalls we'd missed the first time, I was rather surprised when two Pros came up and talked to us.
"You did well yesterday," A guy in a blue costume with wooden accents said, his name escaping me. "I've made an internship offer, if you're interested."
His companion, Mt. Lady, grinned at Mina, "And I sent one in for you too! Hope to see you later!"
Mina froze for a moment, before smiling. "Really? That's super cool! I look forward to seeing it."
"Along with the others," I added, smiling as well. "We're not allowed to see them for a few more days, and Eraserhead said he'll go over them with us."
The wood-guy nodded understandingly, while Mt. Lady pouted, giving us an over the shoulder wave as she walked away. Once they were out of earshot, Mina turned to me asking, "Do you think I should-"
" No," I cut her off. "I've actually heard of her, and what I heard wasn't exactly good. Not villainous," I added at my girlfriend's worried look. "Just... not taking things seriously. And I'll probably say no to Woody's, 'cause he's so new."
That and I was hoping to see if I could net myself another power during these internships. Even at a low level, like the one I'd picked up from Nomu. If I could foster and grow it, it'd give me tangible progress, and hopefully let me start to catch up to the ever-increasing gulf between me and the protagonists of this world, but that required the original user to be very skilled with it to absorb it fast enough.
Thankfully, I didn't have to worry about that now, and we got back to having fun at the festival.
Lastly came a tournament, with large arenas, different terrain constructed within for each fight by Cementoss, chosen randomly, and the winner, a guy who created a thirty-foot sphere around himself where he could mess with the direction of kinetic force, won only by the fact that, whenever he was about to moved out of the ring, he just threw himself back in, and the other fighters didn't take advantage of the fact that he had to move everything in the same direction.
I was pretty sure Midoriya could take him.
Soon enough, it was over, and both Mina and I, after saying goodbye to Momo, swung by our lockers to pick up our bags, my girlfriend having asked that I bring a full change of clothes.
As we boarded the train, but she had us get off well before our stop, the area being one we'd gone to several times before, my suspicions were confirmed.
"Is this going to be a thing with us?" I asked, as she led me to a familiar hotel.
She blushed, and shrugged, "Would it be a bad thing if it was?"
"Nope," I grinned, glad I both had a good allowance, and didn't spend it on anything except dates nowadays. Hotel rooms were not cheap.
Soon enough it was just the two of us, Mina grinning as she pushed me down on the bed, taking my shirt off herself as she carefully checked me for any traces of my injuries, and found none.
"So, doc, am I gonna live?" I questioned, getting a snort of laughter and a slap on my chest.
"Ass," she smiled. "So, you pick up any new Quirks?" she asked. "It's so weird that you can do that bee-tee-dubs."
Frowning, I tried to mentally feel myself out for anything new, before shaking my head. "It doesn't work that fast, Mina."
"But you picked up healing after just a little bit," she argued.
I had to shrug. "No idea why, this doesn't come with a manual. And, that guy had a ton of it. He regrew half his body in a few seconds. I heal bruises in minutes. Bit of a difference. Besides," I said, reaching over to her and starting to unbutton her shirt. "We can talk about this later. Now, it's been far too long since we've done this."
Mina laughed. "It's been a week, Sparky."
"I'm glad we agree," I smiled, leaning in to kiss her, which, smiling, she returned.
Neither of us were in any particular hurry, so we took our time, just enjoying being with each other. Unlike the first time, there wasn't the hurried passion of near death, or the coming together after a fight of the second, we were just... together. A great end to a great day.
Taking a break, and ordering room service, we lazily ate, her in my lap, having plopped down with a challenging look, spoiled when I pulled her in for a kiss as she pleasingly twisted against me. Finding myself rising to the situation, again, she laughed, pressing herself against me, before turning back to our food.
Resisting the urge to either toss her on the bed and go another round, or lift her up slightly to see if we could just do both, I held her to me with one hand, that wandered just enough to get her attention, while grabbing my own food with the other.
"So, about Momo," she commented, and I froze, and felt like I hardened a bit more, though that could've just been my imagination.
"Not the topic I thought you'd be thinking of, 'specially like this," I replied, reaching up and tweaking a nipple, and making her shiver as she laughed.
Leaning back against me, she looked up, smiling. "I don't know, she is kind of cute. Besides," she jerked her hips around me. "Somebody likes the topic."
"Somebody's not gonna finish dinner if she keeps it up," I shot back thrusting a little in return. "And I wonder why I'm like that?"
Mina giggled, grabbing another bite, holding the dumpling between her teeth as she looked at me. Rolling my eyes, I craned my head to bite it in half, enjoying it as she ate the rest. "So, Momo," she said again. "You and her up on that pedestal."
I shrugged, "Luck of the draw. If you and her had switched starting positions in the tournament, you would've been up there with me instead of her. Or you and her, if we'd swapped."
My girlfriend's eyebrows knit together cutely. "You don't think you could've beat him?"
"Todoroki's kind of in a category of his own, along with Midoriya. And maybe Bakugo," I added.
"Really? Angry McSplodeypants?" she questioned.
Again, I shrugged. "Not as sure about that one, but it's a possibility. He's a decent fighter, even if he's kind of a dick. If I got hands on him, I win. If I couldn't, he probably would."
She thought about it, and shrugged. "Well, you're his friend. You'd know."
"What?" I asked, surprised and confused, "No I'm not!"
"But you get along," Mina argued. "And you did the entire 'tough love' thing after he got whammied. Just keep it platonic, honey. He's not my type," she teased, reaching up to pat my cheek, laughing at my disbelieving expression.
Shaking my head, I firmly stated. "No. No, no, and hell no."
She grinned, laughing as she leaned against me, which once again distracted me, re-awakening my flagging self, which, thankfully, had been in full agreement with me about the way the conversation had gone. "Soooooooooo, Momo. Any plans?"
"Nope," I answered easily. "You have any?"
" Maaaaybe," she smiled.
I started to reach over for food, but stopped at that. " Mina," I warned. " What are you planning?"
She laughed again. "Nothin' right now, Sparky. Just... sounding her out, a little. Speaking of which, what about your side-chick?"
"... Who?" I asked, thoroughly confused. "I'm not with anyone but you. You know that, so... wait, do you mean Mei?" I questioned, getting a 'Yes!' as she laughed. "Mina, she doesn't like me that way. Hell, as far as I know she's asexual. The only 'babies' she's interested in making with me are her inventions."
At my girlfriend's skeptical look, I opened my hands in a 'I don't know' gesture. "Like, I might be wrong, but if she is, she's been really subtle about it. And, um, if you've met Mei, you know that she doesn't do subtle. Besides, she knows I'm with you, and I'm pretty sure she isn't the type that'd do anything to hurt that. Hell, if she was, I wouldn't be her friend."
"So," she grinned, backing her ass up into me. "You're saying your not," hump, "interested," hump, "at all?" hump hump.
Eye twitching, I stared down at her, trying to look unamused, but failing. "I'm saying I haven't considered it, nor would I ever push you aside for her."
Mina rolled her eyes, slowly lifting herself as she whined, "Spaaaarky," before dropping back down into my lap, flesh slick with the distinct feeling of her weakest acid, which she liked to use as lube. "I'm Teaaaaasing." And again, twice as slick.
"Oh?" Turning an arm to lightning, I moved the tray off the bed. "Well in that case you're being very naughty. And do you know what naughty girls get?"
"Spankings?" she questioned, batting her eyelashes.
With a twist, I dumped her out of my lap, causing her to land on her hands and knees on the bed. A swift slap to her perfect pink ass made her yelp, even as, moving behind her, she moaned in anticipation. Leaning over her, I murmured in her ear.
"And more."
AN: Next three chapters are up on !