Chapter 25:

In a dark room during the dead of night, tears were unknowingly being shed.

The person crying? Momo Yaoyorozu.

The reason for her tears was unknown to every other party, but her, and even she couldn't tell anyone because she was asleep.

The sound of crying awoke one of the other occupants sleeping in the room, a small child with snow-white hair.

As she began waking up, she swiped her hands on her face to check if the one crying was her.

She was the person that usually cried at night; nightmares of her daddy disappearing still haunt her, so the discovery that it wasn't her was quite shocking.

Looking around, she tried to identify the source of the noise, not having any luck due to her being stuck in the bosom of a silver-haired woman she knows as her mama.

"Mphmpphhh!"

Her cry for help received no response at all; her mama's 'stupid boobs' muffled any attempts at speaking.

All those times she's been called unicorn has now given her some inspiration during her time of need. The child began headbutting the 'stupid boobs' with her ultimate weapon, her horn.

The results were immediate.

(Sakuya POV)

Sharp stabbing pain in my chest woke me up, along with the sound of tears.

Using my quirk, I knew it was currently 2:15 am.

Groaning to myself as the presumably crying Eri forcefully awoke me, I sat up against the headboard and pulled her onto my lap.

Looking down at her, I was confused.

'She's not crying, then who i-'

My eyes darted over to Momo; tears were running down her cheeks, her uncomfortable mumbling and sleeptalking was a sight I didn't wish to see, nor let Eri see.

I sat Eri to my side and slowly pulled Momo into my lap gently, making sure to keep her tear-stained face looking away from Eri.

"Eri, sweetie, could you go and get three glasses of water for me, please?"

"Mhm!"

As she waddled off to the kitchen to grab the glasses of water, I began gently waking Momo up. I ran my hand through her long hair and wiped her tears away before speaking,

"Babe… Babe..."

She eventually woke up. A shrill shriek accompanied the opening of her eyes. I didn't let that shriek escape the room for a multitude of reasons.

She probably didn't want anyone to hear it, didn't want to worry other people as they would inevitably come over, and would rather be alone for the moment.

I was willing to grant two of those three wishes. The final wish was something I would never allow in a situation like this.

Her eyes had a mixture of hope and fear present in them upon seeing me holding her in my arms. As I affectionately cuddle her close to me, I peered into her eyes and asked,

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She immediately tensed up at my question and averted her gaze before mumbling out a negative response,

"No..."

"Well, I'm not gonna force you to talk about it if you don't wish to. When you do, though? I will be right here by your side and ready to listen..."

As she began to sink into my touch, an internal struggle still raging inside her, I slowed down time outside of the room to give her more time until Eri came back to resolve her internal problems.

We cuddled in comfortable silence for minutes on end until she was ready.

Steeling her resolve, Momo looked up at me with balled up hands tightly gripping her nightgown and asked,

"Sakuya, will you ever l-leave me?"

"Never."

"W-what if you find someone else, someone better, prettier?"

"It would be impossible. Nobody could ever replace your spot in my heart."

"But with your lifespan, you would get bored with me eventually..."

"Momo, my dearest wife. I've looked into our future together, and I can say with all the resolve that my heart can muster that I will never, and I mean never, sacrifice what I saw for anything in the world."

She didn't reply, but the happy smile was all the answer I needed. The kiss we shared after I finished speaking was also a major factor in determining her feelings.

I made time return to normal outside of the room. Eri returned with the glasses of cold water soon after.

We sipped them, and after making sure that all of the empty glasses were deposited safely on the bedside table, I accelerated their perception of time so they would fall asleep quicker before resuming them when they fell into their respective slumber. I joined them shortly after.

---------------------

The next morning I awoke to the smell of breakfast being cooked. After getting washed and dressed, I made my way down to the kitchen area where people were eating.

Seeing that I forgot to do my hair, Mina got excited and asked,

"Saku-chan~ can I do your hair?"

"Sure, just don't be too rough as I'm trying to eat."

As she ran off to get her hair maintenance equipment, I began eating the omelet Tsuyu prepared for me. It was silky and had a smooth mouthfeel as it melted in my mouth. The filling was a sumptuous Italian cheese and spinach mixture that was to die for.

'I may just be tired, but this is probably the best omelet I have ever eaten.'

While I was happily eating away, Mina came over and started on my hair. She was more excited than normal at the prospect of finally getting to do someone else's hair, especially mine.

'Does she have a hair fetish? Oh well, food for thought.'

I kept hearing her content sighs as she played with my hair; I tried my best to ignore her and continued to play on my phone.

The peaceful silence that my tired brain longed for was soon interrupted by the walking bundle of anger issues.

'He must've seen that Eri wasn't here and wanted to vent.' I idly mused.

He marched over to where me, Mina, and Toga are with the weird walk he does before pointing at us and shouting in our faces,

"Don't think that the scores yesterday mean anything, Silver-hair! You, Ponytail, and Half-and-Half are all going to be stepping stones for me. I WILL be the number one hero!"

"..."

"..."

"Oh, you're done with your incessant barking already, Bakugou?"

"What did you say?!"

"Why do you insist on calling everyone by nicknames Bakugou? Is it because you lack the mental capacity to remember their actual names, or is it some weird twisted way you cope with your narcissism and superiority complex?"

He could only growl in response to my questions. Deciding to continue pressing on with the matters at hand, I asked,

"Do you truly believe that you are much better than everyone else in the class to the point you get to give out degrading nicknames like 'shitty hair' to Kirishima and 'Dunce face' to Kaminari? You must have been raised terribly if that is the case."

"What did you say about my mother?!"

"I said nothing of your mother, Mitsuki Bakugou. I only said that you weren't raised well. If you are inferring that I was talking about your mother, then that's on you.

Your quirk is the ability to make explosions, right?"

After getting a grunt of affirmation, I continued with my rant,

"What a great quirk for fighting villains-"

"Damn right it is. It's gonna get me to the top!"

"-but complete garbage in every other aspect of being a hero. What is your explosion going to do during a rescue mission? Not much apart from help digging through debris.

The most prominent rescue mission that heroes will find themselves in is burning buildings due to many fire quirk users.

What are you going to do in that situation with your entire body secreting nitroglycerin? Nothing apart from making the entire situation worse, maybe even flatten the entire building on the survivors.

Hell, it might even set off the civilians and make them go through panic attacks when they hear them, not that your behavior or general demeanor is any better than the loud and violent explosions."

The discovery that his quirk wasn't the best suited for hero work was shocking to the young, explosive pomeranian; he was never told anything but praise regarding his quirk, so his reaction wasn't surprising.

"You have so many things to think about fixing before you could ever even compete for the number one position that All Might, the symbol of peace, has held for countless decades.

Your attitude towards the quirkless of society. Your anger issues. Your demeanor and the way you present yourself. The connections and relationships with your future colleagues. Your superiority complex and egoistic attitudes affecting your daily life.

That's all the things you need to work on before even daring to say to mine and everyone else's faces that we would be stepping stones for you, that we aren't worth your time, and that you will become the number one hero.

Until you fix those, you don't stand a single chance in hell at becoming the number one hero."

I leaned closer to his ears and whispered in a low enough tone so that only Jiro would have a chance of listening to it,

"You see, Kacchan~, I know a lot about you, more than you probably know about yourself. Definitely more than UA knows, because if they knew what I did, you wouldn't have even been accepted into this school.

We wouldn't want your hero career to take a 'swan dive off of the roof' before it started, would we?"

His eyes widening in fear, countless scenario's played out in his head about what would happen if his dirty laundry was aired to the most influential hero school.

He would be expelled on the spot, and other schools wouldn't dare to pick him up as the risks in doing so wouldn't be worth it if UA went public with his actions. The only saving grace that would prevent him from going to prison would be that he was a child when committing most acts.

It was terrifying to him. His entire hero career rested in the hands of someone that probably doesn't like him all that much. What's worse was that the person knew that.

"..."

"Answer me, Bakugou."

"No..."

"I do expect you to apologize to Midoriya when you see him next time. I don't mind if you just drop him a letter or a note, as I know that it would probably be too hard to say it in person.

If you ever wish for help regarding how to change and utilize your quirk better, I will be more than happy to help you out.

You may think I hate you or that I dislike you, that isn't true. I'm not too fond of all of the wasted potential I see inside of you, Bakugou, that you can't access due to your actions.

Today we have combat training with All Might, something I'm sure that you're looking forward to. Show both him and myself that you are a person deserving of his place in the rankings."

I knew it would be a slow process for the explosive teen, but it was a necessary one. Was it for the sake of the future hero society? Not entirely.

It was for my precious peace and quiet that I hold so dear to me. I couldn't have him shouting and blasting off explosions in the mornings all the time, and it would piss me off!

So yes, I am manipulating the loud ash-blonde, but who could blame me? He's even louder compared to the show! Is it so much to ask for a peaceful morning? I don't think it is.

Bakugou settled down and sat in silence for the remainder of the morning, much to the onlooker's surprise. He was probably thinking over his entire life choices. I did turn his entire world upside down, after all.

Thankfully, I managed to hold back from telling him that there was absolutely zero chance of him being the number one hero as soon as Melissa adapts to her quirk and If I decide to go for it.

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The rest of the day was relatively normal for the majority of it.

The morning classes were like any other school with math, literature, science, history, etc.

The afternoon was when the hero-related courses rolled around. They included any physical-related classes and battles that may take place, political studies, social studies, first aid/medical studies, heroic laws, etc.

The members of class 1-A had all been sitting in their classroom relatively peacefully.

They were even joined by another student in Eri, who was happily sitting on my lap the entire time.

Everyone just adored the little girl with her adoring everyone else back.

The only two she didn't like were the explosive boy who was "too loud", and the perverse grape-haired man who she scowled at whenever she could. She said she didn't know why she hated the little grape man, but it felt right.

I was proud of her instincts for coming this far from training.

As we were waiting in the room, I heard the familiar voice of the banana-haired hero coming from outside.