A Summer Festival (II)

A boy in a regular middle-school uniform with a a bowl-cut hair walked next to a man in a suit down a tunnel.

"Sensei, I sense something down there." The boy with the bowl-cut said blankly in a soft voice.

"Have no fear, Mob," The man in the suit said to the now named Mob, "as the 'Greatest Psychic of the 21st Century,' I have no fear for some unknown ghost haunting these tunnels." He said confidently, taking out a container of supermarket salt. "With my exorcism salt, nothing in this world stands a chance of beating me, Reigen Arataka!"

But inside, Reigen was already spooked by the tunnel's creepy appearance. 'If worse comes to worse,' he thought, giving his free laborer/pupil a look, 'I'll just have Mob handle it.'

Suddenly, a fog started form, thickening as the air around them got colder. Reigen shivered as Mob just watched the scene protected by his psychic energy.

The fog started swirling in front of the duo, forming a miniature tornado inside the tunnel while emitting a pale blue light. Then they both heard a hallowed voice speak form the fog tornado.

"Oh, I have guess at such a late hour? It's quite rude of me not to introduce myself as host." The tornado stopped, revealing a skinny man with a scissors for arms and a fish head covered in blue aura. "I am the one, the only, SCISSOR FISH!" The figure shouted, making several poses.

Reigen just scoffed at the sight of the spirit bragging. 'Please, even I can take this guy. This'll be like stealing candy from a baby.' Cracking his knuckles, Reigen got into his pose. He gave a chuckle as he looked down on the blue spirit. "I'll have you know that what I'm about to do next is my signature move. I hope you can survive this."

Scissor Fish looked confused as to why these two humans weren't scared by him yet while Mob looked at his mentor in awe.

"Here I go: SALT SPLASH!" Reigen shouted, his hands a blur as they threw a handful of salt with each throw. Within seconds, the bag of salt was gone.

The blue spirit screamed, it's fish mouth opening and closing as the salt got into its eyes and gills. "Ahhh!" For the moment, Scissor Fish thought he would be exorcised before he realized something. "Wait, is this just regular grocery store salt?" He asked, seeing that it did no real damage. He took some salt on his shoulder to taste it. "It is!"

Angered by the fake-psychic, the fog started to churn around the spirit as the ground vibrated by the amount of energy it was releasing. "I'm done playing games with you!" Taking out a strange fruit from its pocket, Scissor Fish looked at two condescendingly. "With this, no one can beat me now!"

But the man in the suit spoke up. "Mob, time to clean up the mess."

"Yes, sensei." With his hand raised, Mob was suddenly covered in psychic energy as he gripped down on the spirit, causing it to explode blue gel-like substances as it died. Using his powers, he brought the strange fruit to his hands.

Mob recognized this fruit. Taking out his phone, dialed a number that immediately picked up. "Hello Taishi-san? I found one of the meat fruits I saw from the meeting."

While Mob was talking on the phone, Reigen was busy looting the body of the spirit. "Mission accomplished! We found the old lady's purse!"

Seeing his sensei talk to him, he quickly decided to end the call. "Sorry, I'll bring it in next meeting. I'm kinda busy right now with work. Bye."

Curious, Reigen looked at Mob's phone. "Who were you talking to?"

"Oh, some people from my club."

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They both walked around looking for food when he heard a familiar voice shout.

"Hachi-shonen!" *burp* "Over here!" The voice shouted, each word slurred. Turning around, both he and Nagatoro saw an old man with a flushed face waving vigorously at them with a sake bottle in one hand. Next to the old man was Charanko, busy taking orders for popcorn kernels by himself.

Tilting her slightly, she looked at him as she pointed at Bang, who was drunk. "Do you know that grandpa, senpai?"

Sighing, he decided he might as well stop by and check on the old man. "Yes, I do. Let's go saw what he wants."

Nagatoro was curious how her senpai knew the white-haired man.

"Who" *hiccup* "is this?" The old man asked.

Bowing, she greeted herself. "Hello, I'm Hayacchi Nagatoro. It's nice to meet you."

The elderly man stroked his chin as he looked her over. "I'm Bang. The owner of the Flowing Rock Dojo in the western part of Hayama." He then pulled out of business card from his pocket and handed it to her. Taking the card, she gave it a quick once-over and saw that it only had a brief description as a martial arts dojo along with a phone number and address. "Feel free to stop by" *burp* "if you want to try your hand." Bang said, sitting back down on his chair to take another sip form his bottle

"Thanks for the invitation?" She said. "How do you know senpai?" She asked.

"Oh, he sometimes comes to train at the dojo. He has soooo much potential. If only had just spent more time traaaaining." Bang said while his head moved slowly side to side.

Senpai next to her shot Bang a concerned look as he looked down at the bottle in his hand. "Don't you think you had enough for tonight?"

But the old man just waved his hand. "I heard you already. Don't worry, it just for tonight. It has been so long since we had a new member..." Bang said longingly, as if in deep memory.

But Naoto recognized Bang's classic guilt-trip technique. No wonder Bang was drinking saki, he wanted to make an unsuspecting person join out of pity! But before he could stop the old man's machinations, Nagatoro had already spoke up.

"Don't worry, gramps, I'll join your dojo and become the best student you ever had." She stated proudly, giving the Bang a thumbs up.

He saw the unfocused eyes of Bang sharpen as they shined in success. Throwing the bottle away, his seemingly drunk appearance before all but disappeared. "Oh, I'll hold you to that. Meet me next Saturday at the dojo. I'm looking forward to what you can do." With his hands behind his back, he started to walk away from the booth. "Charanko, I'm heading home first."

After receiving a nod from his disciple, he gave the two duped teenagers before disappearing into the crowd.

"..."

"..."

"...Senpai, why do you know so many weird people."

"...I don't know."

As they stood there, Nagatoro felt her stomach rumble.

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Walking next to him, Nagatoro was ripping pieces of cotton candy before throwing it up to catch with her mouth. He himself had bought some type of meatball covered in sauce.

Catching the cotton candy thrown upward with her tongue, she laughed at her action.

"Mine!" She said gleefully, snatching one of his meatballs away to snack on. Chewing on the meatball, he saw her grab a piece of cotton candy, motioning him to catch it with his mouth.

'It's like...' He thought.

"Catch!" Nagatoro said, throwing another piece of the fluffy candy up. He managed to catch it before starting let it dissolve in his mouth. He looked down at her as he swallowed his candy down.

'Like...'

"It's like a date, huh, senpai?"

"A d-date?" Feeling his face grow hot, he looked away. "That's for people who've gone through the proper procedures first. First you want to spend time more time confirming you have the same values in common. Then you have to show interest in some form such as a bold act or gesture of affection that I c-certaintly never shown you. Then there is the age, mindset, gender, sexual-orientation, favorite food, things to do-" Lost in his thoughts, he continued to mutter and mutter. Soon, the Nagatoro and the people nearby looked strangely at the boy muttering, as if thinking, 'What is wrong with that boy?'

He then felt someone smack his shoulder.

"Geez, calm down there." Nagatoro said, before giggling. "Just kidding." She then patted his head. "I'll never go on a date with you, senpai." Now furiously rubbing his hair.

"Can you stop that?" He whined, referring to her touching his head. He could feel them drawing the gazes of other because of it.

Stopping, Nagatoro gave him a coy smile. "While we're at it, why don't we try holding hands?" She offered him her hand.

At that moment, Nagatoro felt anxiety grow inside as her eyes began to slightly waver, blushing at how bold she was. But before her senpai could do anything, fireworks boomed in the skies above. They both turned to watch multiple bursts of colors brighten the sky.

"The fireworks already starting!" Nagatoro exlaimed. Seeing him distracted, she took this chance to take the lead.

"Come on, senpai. We're going to miss the fireworks!" She said, holding his hands as she dragged him closer to the fireworks.

"Wait, slow down!" He warned, as they bobbed and weaved through the crowd of people. But his words fell on deaf ears.

"The fireworks here are great! They blast off the big ones one after another."

"Uh, yeah, I know." He said. "I've seen it before."

"When would you have seen it?" She asked, still excitedly dragging him along.

"When I was in middle school?" He said, trying to remember the last time he saw the fireworks. Crime was still prevalent at the time in the surrounding cities, so he forgone some festivals to have more time for hero work.

"That's such a long time ago. What are you a recluse?" Nagatoro asked.

"That's not nice, Nagatoro!" He said back.

As they both approached the firework viewing venue, they soon realized that it was jammed-pack full of people along with a line that stretched far away from the seeing platform.

"It's so crowded." Nagatoro said next time as they too waited in line.

Looking over the shoulder of the person in front of him, he gave a brief glance at the line. "The line hasn't budged at all."

Thinking back, he remembered that he encountered this same problem as well. 'What did I do last time?' He asked himself. Looking around the forest, he found a familiar old dirt path that lead deeper into the forest.

"Nagatoro, this way." He said, pointing to the dirt path to the side. Suddenly the line in front of them started to move.

"Hey, the line's moving, better hurry up before the fireworks ends." Someone said behind them. Then line behind them started to move.

Without thinking, he grabbed Nagatoro by her hand, pulling the girl out of the line before she could get swept away by the tides of people rushing to get a premium view of the fireworks.

"This way," he said, leading the girl by her hand. Behind him, the tanned girl stayed quiet, trailing behind him as they trekked through the forest.

While Nagatoro wanted to tease her senpai for being so bold as to bring a girl in the middle of the forest by themselves, she herself was still blushing by holding his hand.

"Here." He said, finally letting go of her hand to point over the railing. In the sky before them bright explosions of myriad colors painted the night sky. The image captivated her attention as she awed at the wonderful view.

"I just remembered watching the fireworks here last time." He spoke up, looking at the fireworks.

Finally back to her senses, she sneaked glances at her senpai before smiling mischievously. "You know, senpai," she began, "is it really a good idea to drag a girl into darkness on a date?" Nudging him suggestively while raising one eyebrow.

"Wh-What?" He asked, caught off-guard by the sudden question. "That wasn't my intent," he said, trying to establish that that was not his intentions at all.

But her smile just got wider as she tried to cover it with one hand. "You dragged me by force, too." She feigned a shiver before resorting to patting his hair. "Were you about to do something sleezy?"

He just sighed as he continued to look at the sky.

"Sleezy! Sleezy! You're so sleezy for a virgin!" Nagatoro repeated.

Seeing that it wouldn't end anytime soon, he answered her. "Sleezy? Like what?"

Stopping, Nagatoro fumbled with incoherent words as she fished for a reason. "S-Something sleezy, as in... something sleezy." She said, scratching her cheek.

But he pushed further. "Details?"

Now feeling cornered, the girl looked anywhere but her senpai. "You know what I mean." Feeling her face grow redder from embarrassment.

"Do I?" He asked again. "In specific words, please." Seeing her physically rake her mind for answers, he knew that he managed to secure a victory this time He might be able to have a tease-less night after all!

"Like..." Feeling frustrated, Nagatoro decided that actions must be taken. "Like throwing your arms around me by force." She said walking right up to his face. She gave him a determined look as she did so.

Something inside reacted the provocation. Before his mind could register his actions, his arms were wrapped around Nagatoro's waist pulling her up to his chest. Simultaneously, both realized what they were doing, but unwillingly to back down. "Like this?" He asked, his words daring her to do more.

"And..." She said, now blushing beet-red while her eyes began to slightly become unfocused. "K-Kissing me and s-stuff!" She said, there face millimeters apart. As they stared each other in the eyes, their lips moved closer and closer as they unconsciously puckered their them.

But a bright explosion from a pink, heart-shaped firework illuminated the forest around them. For a couple of seconds, it from both of the corners of their eyes they could see multiple couples behind trees, holding each other and kissing. Seeing couples openly kiss each other from behind the trees made both him and Nagatoro blush. They both looked at the couples, then at each other before suddenly feeling conscious of how close they were to each other. They quickly let go of the other, looking away as they blushed heavily.

Backing away slowly from the couples, they soon turned tail and ran back down the dirt path.

After stopping far enough away, they back against individual trees while looking up at the fireworks. He glanced at Nagatoro before quickly looking back down at his feet, the scene of him almost kissing her racing through his mind. Nagatoro did the same, fiddling with her fingers as she sneaked peeks at him.

After the fireworks concluded, they walked home.

Next to him, Nagatoro had both hands behind her head as she walked. "Man, I wish I could have worn my yukata to the festival."

His mind conjured an image of Nagatoro in a yukata. That would've been nice "Yeah."

Another thing that popped up in his mind as they walked down the street was Nagatoro words from earlier. That if he wanted to ask someone out, he should just do it. Steeling his nerves, he handed her the plushie in his hands. "Here."

Looking down at his hands, Nagatoro saw that he was handing her the cat plushie he won earlier.

"I know you handed your squid plushie earlier so that you could win, so I thought you should deserve something in exchange." He said, looking down slightly.

Silently, she took the plushie from his hands before putting it to her face. She smiled. "Thanks, senpai. I'll cherish this."

"Also." He said, gaining the girl's attention again. "L-Let's... come back next year" He finished with a nervous smile at the shorter girl.

Nagatoro blushed momentarily before giving him a smile. "You better wear your yukata too, senpai."

"S-Sure." He replied, giving the girl an unconfident smile.

Getting closer, Nagatoro had an idea. "Why don't we have matching yukatas next time?"

"M-Matching yukatas?!" His mind made an image of him and Nagatoro wearing matching yukatas while making a heart-sign with their hands. The scene made him blush.

"Hahaha. Silly senpai." Nagatoro said, disrupting him from his thoughts. "I was just kidding." Now she was patting his head with her hands. "Who ever wear matching yukatas with you?"

Jumping back, she covered her face with her hands as she shivered exaggeratedly. "Gross! No way!" Her laughter echoed throughout the night.

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"*Yawn* I shouldn't have stayed up so late last night." Wearing his hoodie over his school uniform, he stretched his arms. Today was the first day of the term. Though this evolved form of [One for All] - which he dubbed the [One], play on words of [One for All] and [All for One] - gave him passive increase in his regular physque, three hours of sleep was not one of his brightest ideas. But with summer festivals came a spike of crime from would-be criminals who wanted to strike during a holiday.

"I guess I'll go up to Tokyo again." He said, covering his mouth as he yawned again. 'Hmm, I visited Minato ward last time...? Maybe I should try Shinjuku next...?' He thought.

He jumped in place as he heard a loud, banshee-like voice shout. "Again?! Didn't you get asked out last week, too?"

Turning to the direction of the sound, he walked closer to what was the commotion. 'That voice...'

"I did."

"So, who was it?"

In the distance, he could make out the familiar group of girls.

"Hoshino-kun form Class 3."

It was Nagatoro and her friends.

"Isn't that Aoi-chans boyfriend?"

But he noticed there another girl too. 'Wait, wasn't that the girl that initially picked up my manga?' Seeing that enjoying themselves at the tables, he saw no need to stay and longer and proceeded to continue on his way.

"Hey!" That didn't sound like a girl? Having a bad feeling about them, he decided to do something. Briskly walking away, he made sure his keys were in his pockets.

Over at the gazebo, the two boys smiled at the weary group of girls. "'Sup.'" The tanned blond girl greeted.

One of the boys sat down close to Yoshi, which caused her to scoot away from the boy and closer to Gamou.

"Damn, I'm so tired." The brown haired boy said, getting comfortable on the bench.

The other boy with light brown hair sat right next to Nagatoro. This caused her to gain an annoyed look as she scooted away from the older boy.

The blond girl just smiled at the scene of her friends being uncomfortable. "Sheesh, are you trying to gain sympathy already?"

"Seriously, though," The boy next to Nagatoro began, "we get worked so hard."

"You guys aren't evening showing up to your club meetings." Nagatoro said with annoyance laced into her words.

The boy only laughed at her words. "Yeah, the president was about to snap."

The other boy added his thoughts about the president. "Damn, that president's scary." Shaking his head, the boy next to Yoshi put both of his hands up. "No thanks."

The boy next to Nagatoro turned to her with a smile. "Say, Hayacchi, want to hang out?"

Giving the boy a straight face, she declined. "I think I'll pass."

The boy leaned closer to the girl, not taking the no for an answer. "Come on, I'll make it real fun." But she only grimaced, having to deal with this idiot.

"Hey," the boy across the table asked, "want me to come along if you don't want to go one-on-one? We'll make it a double date." He then turned to Yoshi. "Wanna join, Yoshi?"

Yoshi, speechless, didn't respond, looking back and forth among her friends for help. Luckily, Sakura, the tanned blond, butted in. Raising her hand, she said, "Me! I wouldn't mind going."

The boy next to Nagatoro put an arm around said girl, giving a confident grin. "Sweet, it's settled." Nagatoro, on the other hand, was internal seething at the boy touching her, giving him a look as if he was an idiot.

Grabbing the arm around her shoulder, Nagatoro pulled it off before pushing the boy away. "No, I'm not going."

But the boy was persistent. Leaning closer to Nagatoro, he tried to convince her to join. "Come one. We're just sitting around babbling. Let's go."

Seeing her silent, he pushed on. "We can decide where to go once we're at the station."

*Beep* *Beep*

The group turned around at the sound of the noise. On the street was a red pickup truck, the driver honking the horns. The window rolled down to show Hachioji sitting in the driver seat.

"Huh? Who's that?"

"Wait, isn't he too young to drive?"

The boy got out of his car as he walked towards the gazebo. Gamou, while surprised, recognized the boy. Smiling, she waved at him. "Hey, it's paisen. 'Sup?"

Yoshi, finally realizing it was senpai, also greeted him. "Yo." Sakura and Nagatoro were quiet, not expecting another person to come.

"Wait, you know this kid?" One of the boys asked. The other turned to the newcomer. "What do you want?"

Ignoring the boys, he turned to Nagatoro. "Let's..."

"Let's...?" One of the boys echoed.

Making sure to be firm this time, he said clearly, "Let's go."

"What?" The boy asked out loud. Looking at the other boy across the table, they both giggled at how ridiculous the other boy sounded. But before they could continue insulting the dude, Nagatoro stood up.

"Let's go home, senpai." Looking at the others around her, she put on her backpack as she moved her legs over the bench seat. "Bye."

Nagatoro then turned to walk to her senpai. "Let's go, senpai."

Surprised at how abrupt she agreed to his proposal, he only nodded. "Y-Yeah."

Seeing her friend start to leave, Gamou smiled before shouldering her bag. "All right, let's go."

Yoshi looked happy at the opportunity to leave also stood up and followed Gamou. "Huh? Okay."

Seeing her friends begin to leave, Sakura quickly packed up before leaving as well. "What? Wait up!"

The boys were left standing at the benches, watching as all the girls got into the car before driving off.

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While driving down the road, he gave a look to Nagatoro, who was in the shotgun seat before looking into the review mirror to glance at the girls in the back. After they had calmed down after realizing that he could drive(giving the excuse that this was his dad's car), they had finally calmed down. "Are you sure about just leaving them behind?"

He saw that Gamou was busy taking pictures selfies on her phone. Yoshi was playing with the fans and AC controls in the back as Sakura was playing with the windows, rolling it up and down. Nagatoro was controlling the radio as she sometimes watched him drive.

"Why not? They're annoying." Gamou spoke up from behind. "Annoying!" Yoshi echoed, turning the fans up as she stuck her tongue out.

Looking at the back of her senpai's head, Gamou smiled as she spoke. "I didn't expect that from you, though, paisen." Hitting the seat in front of, she caused it to shake, annoying Nagatoro who was in the seat. "And I didn't expect you have a car either!"

Nodding, Yoshi agreed. "Paisen!"

Slightly blushing, he felt bashful. "Gee, thanks." Feeling someone's gaze, he saw through the mirror that the tanned blond was looking at him.

Suddenly her face lit up. "I remember now! You're the manga senpai!"

Crossing her arms, Nagatoro leaned back into her seat as she nodded proudly. "He draws really pervy manga."

Giggling, the tanned blond moved slightly back as she smiled. "Ew!"

Feeling that the girl was getting the wrong idea, he corrected Nagatoro. "I draw manga sometimes, but it's not h-hentai or anything."

From her seat, she patted his head. "You don't need to lie, Hentai Manga Sensei."

Joining in on teasing their senpai, Gamou chimed in. "That's so gross, Hentai Manga Sensei."

Yoshi gave him double finger guns. "Totally gross."

Looking at him, Sakura said, "You have such a weird vibe."

Still patting his head as he was driving, Nagatoro agreed. "Right? Hentai manga aura. It's oozing out of this puffball here."

"Stop it," he complained. "It's dangerous to distract the driver."

"Puffball!" Yoshi shouted.

Grinning, Gamou looked at Sakura. "He's going to put you into a hentai manga, Sakura."

"Oh, no!" Sakura said.

"Look out for the Hentai manga vibes," Nagatoro warned again, STILL patting his hair.

They continued to tease him throughout the car ride. 'I really don't fit in with them.'

______________________________________

(10 years after the defeat of All for One)

A white-haired girl walked up the stone stairways, taking in the sight of the light shining down from the tree canopies above.

The birds chirped in the air as several leaves fell, swaying slightly as they reached the ground. The girl stopped in front of a tomb with a statue.

Putting down the flowers, she stood there in silence. Looking up at the statue's face, she saw the statue's perpetual face of defiance as one arm was raised.

"Hi, Mr. Deku. I came to visit again." Eri said, still looking up at the statue of Izuku Midoriya. She contemplated her words for a moment before speaking again. "I'm a third year now at UA, can you believe that? I made a whole bunch of friends that I cherish. Friends like the ones you made when you were in high school. Speaking of your friends, Mr. Bakugo moved up to number one hero, but he got kicked back down because his popularity polls were worse than Mr. Todoroki's... did you know Kota made his hero name Mezeku...?"

Eri continued to talk and talk and talk until she could not think of anything else to say. The world had changed drastically since the war ended. No longer were there a Hero Commission, instead Heroes' were elected by heroes into office. Yaoyorozu became the president with Iida as the secretary. Kaminari and Jiro had moved to the British Isles to preform hero/celebrity work. The rest split up, doing Hero work around the world. Todoroki was currently busy creating ice-caps in Antarctica.

Stretching her legs a little bit, Eri noticed how the previously bright afternoon sun was almost about to set. She looked at the plaque at the bottom of the statue before smiling. "Goodbye, Mr. Deku. I'll visit next month as usual." With that she walked away and down the stone stairs. At the bottom, a car was already waiting. The window rolled down to reveal Aizawa. Eri got in the car, watching the pleasant fall foliage as they drove by the trees.

The evening breeze spread throughout the plants below, making the carpet of grass move in waves, almost as if it were a green ocean.

At the feet of the statue, the plaque had a quote that read, "I know I'm hurt but if I can still move at all. Then I can't just sit still. I have to reach out and do something."

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