The following two-day break, after the festivals were over, was something that every single student treasured. The rush of the sports festival was finally over, and they could rest in peace.
The first year's festival is always the biggest of the three festivals held. People came to watch the next generation, or that would be what they told people.
They actually came to see how the untrained teens would smash each other's faces in and hoped for blood. It held the most danger for the participants, and, by proxy, the most excitement for viewers.
All the upper years were mobilized to make sure the festival was ready, and as a result of that, they were exhausted.
The second-year hero course was exempt from the helping because they had to train for their festival the day after. The third-year hero course students, however, were not exempt, because they were 'too valuable' of a workforce.
How much they treasured the two-day break could have also been influenced by the 'Goddess' of the school, and how she ordered a tonne of food again. Well, it was the clone of the 'Goddess', but they didn't know.
The teachers were even more exhausted, mentally at least, compared to the student populace. They had weeks of paperwork and preparation before the festivals even began, had to do their assigned duties during the festival, and after the festival, they had a lengthy meeting to attend.
The only teachers who liked the festival were Midnight, All Might, Present Mic, Vlad King, and Nedzu.
Midnight and Present Mic liked it because they got to promote themselves some more, and had speaking roles. Vlad King likes watching his students in action, preferably beating his rival's class up. All Might liked the sportsmanship shown, and Nedzu liked watching humans beat each other up for his entertainment.
Every other teacher was neutral. didn't care, or disliked the festival.
Present Mic, however, found himself in an unfavorable situation as soon as the first year's festival ended. He didn't understand why, he only did his assigned role of hyping the audience up like any other year.
But, it seems as if he was in trouble for 'putting too much pressure on Melissa Shield' by constantly promoting her as the next All Might, that's how his boss worded it at least. Nedzu emphasized the point of not comparing the two again.
Present Mic had no idea why it was such a big deal, but his boss' next words terrified him.
"Sakuya has taken a vested interest in Melissa Shield and has taken her on as a pupil of sorts.
She did not take kindly to your comparison between Melissa and All Might. Melissa suffers from a lack of self-confidence and a case of imposter syndrome, and your words only worsened those conditions during the tournament, especially so when coupled with the public nature of the festival.
Just because I gave you the microphone to speak, it doesn't mean you can do so without consequence. Sakuya had to restrain herself from carving out your vocal cords on multiple occasions. So, for your own sake, Hizashi, watch your words in the future."
They still sent a shiver down his spine whenever he recalled them. There was a singular person you didn't want to be on the bad side of, and it was Sakuya Izayoi. She was a monster in human skin.
If she did decide to attack him, what was he supposed to do? Scream? That would only spur the sadistic woman on. Fight back? He wouldn't be able to do anything to her. His only option in that scenario would be to plead for his life, and hope that his desperation didn't spur her on further.
So, he now makes a conscious effort to never mention All Might, or Star and Stripe, around Melissa. Partly because he didn't want to worsen her mental health issues, but it was mostly so he wouldn't be killed.
The person of Present Mic's nightmares, however, was blissfully unaware of that meeting, and, subsequently, Present Mic's now heightened fear regarding her presence.
Instead of caring about why her Empathic Sensory quirk was picking up higher levels of fear from Present Mic, she went back to eating the baked treats her classmate made her.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(Sakuya POV)
'Ahh~! Investing in Sato's family has been the best thing to happen while at UA!'
His family made a hefty profit from the stand at the sports festival, and have had an increase in the number of customers at the stores.
Naturally, I got some of those profits sent directly to my account too. My cut of the profits didn't pay off the cost of the stand, but the increase in customers will eventually do so anyway, so I didn't care that much.
But, Sato decided to thank me once again for allowing his family to expand by baking me various delectable treats. Who was I to deny good food being given to me for free?
"Hahaha, I see you're enjoying it, Sakuya."
I swallowed the mouthful of cinnamon muffin, and after wiping my mouth for crumbs with a nearby napkin, I replied to Sato,
"Of course! I wouldn't have invested in you and your family if you made a bad product."
"Thanks again for that, I should be done with Kunou's treats soon enough."
"Oh~? And, just what is Kunou getting to eat?"
The little ball of fluff in my lap shuffled around a bit at the mention of her name, I began stroking her fur to calm her down. I didn't want her jumping up on the countertop.
"It's just some peanut butter dog biscuits. They should last for a while, so you can feed her one as a treat now and then."
I felt her soft ears twitch excitedly at the mention of future treats. After stifling a chuckle at the gluttonous fox in my lap, I spoke to the skilled chef in front of me once more,
"You're spoiling~ her, Sato."
He gave a slight chuckle of his own before replying,
"It's hard not to, she's just so cute. Where did you find her?"
"It was in an alternate timeline where humans didn't exist, and mythical beasts roamed the planet."
His whisking hand stilled for a moment, before going back to work, clearly a little surprised by my admission of an alternate timeline like that.
"So, she's… a mythical fox? Like, she'll be nine-tailed or something different?"
"Mhm! She would have her nine tails by now if I decided to use my quirk, but her sole tail is already time-consuming enough to brush and maintain. So, I decided against it for the time being."
"That's a shame… I would have liked to see her nine-tailed appearance."
He looked downtrodden, and Kunou seemed to be pleading with me to give her the other tails, but I didn't care.
There were already enough stray hairs being left with a singular tail, so I don't want to bother with nine tails worth of hair. She can get her extra tails on Eri's birthday because Eri will probably be the person most excited about the change.
I finished my rather pleasant meal in relative silence, with only the conversations of my classmate's in the background as they filed into the lounge area, preparing to go to homeroom.
After feeding one of the cooled-down biscuits to Kunou, I got up to wash my hands. While I was at the sink, I felt a body collide with my side. Knowing who it was, I hurried the washing and subsequent drying of my hands.
"Mama!"
I ruffled her hair with my hand and planted a kiss on her horn. She giggled before I noticed something. She needed to release some of her stockpiled energy soon. I addressed her, after deciding to have Fluffy-chan let her use her quirks on things during their lessons.
"Hello, sweetie, did you have fun with grandma Miha last night?"
"Mhm! We went shopping, I bought some new clothes, and then we got ice cream! Then, grandma told me lots of stories about you and mommy-"
"She did what now?"
"Stories!"
"What kind of stories, sweetie?"
"Like about how you cried when you made boobs-"
"Oh my god..."
I thought nobody was around for that! Damn sneaky maids, I just hope there were no pictures of that moment.
"How did you make boobs, mama? I asked grandma and grandpa, but they wouldn't tell me." she inquired with a tilt of her head.
"I made them out of snow, for a snowwoman during winter. You can ask Momo when it snows if you want to do it then, alright?"
"Okay!"
She was still in casual clothing, but I don't think Fluffy-chan cares that much about her wearing the uniform or not. But, she still needed her bag, which had all of her stationery and books in, so I portaled it over and strapped it on her.
"It's almost time for your lessons with Fluffy-chan, sweetie. Did you finish all of your homework?"
"Yep! I did it all~ by myself too!"
"Woah~! My baby is a genius, huh? I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree after all."
I opened another portal, linking the kitchen to Fluffy-chan's office, and sent her through. Kunou walked through the portal alongside Eri, seeing no problem with it, I let her do so. After putting the remaining dog biscuits in a tupperware container and storing them in the cupboard, I left to go to class.
Momo was waiting for me by the classroom door, it was sweet of her. We shared a quick kiss and a long hug, we soaked in each other's warmth for a minute.
We typically cuddled for a while after waking up, but Momo woke up earlier than usual and had to head to the reception area to receive Eri from Rappa, who escorted her into the building.
"Aww~, did you miss me that much?" she teased.
"Yep~!"
After a few more seconds, I broke the hug apart and we walked hand-in-hand to our seats. A scant few seconds later Homeless-san crawled through the open doorway in his sleeping bag.
After some quick shuffling, Homeless-san finally left his cocoon and stood behind the podium. He rooted around in his pocket dimension located in between his scarf's bindings before he pulled out a remote.
"Alright, you brats. Some things need to be said before we can get into today's homeroom lesson…"
"Oh god! Did I fail?"
"There was no test to fail Denki."
"Mineta has been transferred to general studies, for reasons I know, and you won't, which is why he isn't present in today's homeroom."
Before the class could celebrate this wonderful occasion, he spoke once more,
"The purple-haired brat has been replaced with another purple-haired brat. So, if you think about it, nothing noteworthy happened. Now, welcome your new classmate, Hitoshi Shinso."
And just like that, the insomniac appeared. He was being really awkward in the face of all the cheering, not knowing that most were cheering about Mineta being gone, instead of cheering for his presence.
"Did you have something to do with this?" Momo asked.
"Do you even need to ask?"
"Well, you did good this time."
"What do you mean 'this time'? I'm a saint, I only do good."
As the cheering died down, mainly due to Jiro getting a headache, Homeless-san spoke up again,
"Purple-haired brat, introduce yourself in ten words or less."
"Okay… I'm Hitoshi Shinso, an ex-general studies student."
"Good enough. Go sit in your seat, it's the one in front of the demon teen."
'Demon teen? Gotta say, doesn't have the same charm as problem child, but I'll have to make do with it.'
After making a mental note to mess with Homeless-san in the future, I locked eyes with Shinso.
Shinso obviously knew who he meant by demon teen, however, that didn't help the fact that he would need to go near me, a thing he was hesitant to do. I smirked at him and watched as his previously slow movements came to a standstill.
"Stop scaring him, dear, you can do that later."
"Okay~!"
He sat down, still rather hesitant in his movements. Homeless-san found how easily intimidated Shinso was rather amusing. He was probably thinking about mental training for him right now.
"Now that's done, listen up brats!"
After seeing he had most people's attention, not caring if he had mine or not, he clicked a button on his remote, and the screen behind him lit up, displaying the draft numbers. Momo had the 2nd highest, with Shoto having the highest.
I put that down to people not knowing what Momo's quirk was, meaning they had no idea what to train her in, or how to go about it.
"These are how many pro heroes want to draft you into their agency for a week, and train you on the field.
The numbers are usually lower than this because not many people want to train completely inexperienced people. The second and third years are when the numbers usually jump up to what you see now.
If you don't wish to choose from the pros who offered you an internship, there are 40 other heroes that the school has on standby who are willing to take a student or two. It's a first come first serve basis for those offers."
"Woah! Todoroki's the highest!"
"But, he didn't come first in the tournament."
"Most of them are probably from people who work with my father, or want to form a connection with him," Shoto explained for those curious.
"Shut up! Today's homeroom isn't just about sorting through your offers, it's about something very important to your hero careers-"
"Hero names!" Midnight finished while entering the room.
"Midnight will be helping you with your hero names. I can't, because I didn't even come up with my own hero name.
When you choose, make sure that it's something that will represent a version of you in the future accurately, and something that you will be proud of. If your name sucks, you won't get far in the hero rankings unless you are an All Might level powerhouse."
A stack of whiteboards and markers were passed down the seats, and everyone got to writing. I didn't care about my hero name at all, so I called my number 1 fan for their input. I pulled out my phone and dialed Manami. She worships the ground I walk on, so she's probably thought of what my potential hero name would be.
[[Sakuya-sama! What has blessed me enough to hear your divine voice today?]]
"Manami, what do you think my hero name should be?"
[[You're asking me?! Oh my god! Wait a minute, let me get my list up.]]
"Are you really letting her decide, dear?" Momo asked, curious about my action.
"Not decide, she will give me options. I will then run them by Eri, who will then choose."
I put the phone to my ear once again and was blasted with a constant stream of names.
[[-Chronoa, Aphrodite, Venus, Tempo-]]
"Thank you for your input, Manami, you can go back to your duties now."
I hung up shortly after, not even waiting for her reply. If I did, she would probably start reading another list of names, or start praising me once more. I dialed Eri's number and waited for her to pick up.
[[Mama?]]
"Hello, sweetie. I need you to do something for me, okay?"
[[Okay!]]
"What do you want my hero name to be? Do you want it to be Chronoa, Tempo, or something else?"
[[Hmmm… The first one!]]
"Thank you, sweetie, sorry for disturbing your lesson."
[[It's okay, we were playing monopoly anyway!]]
Before I could respond, I heard a quick shuffling with the phone hanging up soon after. I decided to ignore how my child was playing board games with Fluffy-chan for the sake of my sanity. I just hoped that she wins, so I can laugh at Fluffy-chan at a later date.
"Okay! Let's start presenting, if you're ready, come up to the podium!" Midnight announced to the class.
The names went as canon, but with a few changes courtesy of my intervention.
Aoyama no longer was allowed that war crime of a hero name, it was now Lux. It represents light, and the first half of the word luxury, something that was much more fitting.
Mina was allowed to keep Alien Queen, because I thought Pinky sounded way worse.
Iida called himself Ingenium, just like every other hero in his family before him did.
I decided to allow Shoto to have his name of 'Shoto', because if he called himself something like 'Freezerburn' with his deadpan tone, I would never be able to take him seriously.
I gave Bakugo his name of Dynamight, because he has a naming sense worse than my own. I thought that was impossible until he went up to the podium with King Explosion Murder.
Toru's canon name was vetoed in favor of the name Blindspot
Those were the only names that I bothered interfering with, the others were decent enough, except Sato's 'Sugarman'. But, if I said anything, he may not want to bake me any more treats, so I held off.
Toga chose the name Carmilla, which I wasn't surprised with in the slightest.
Melissa chose the name Aegis, which was a pretty neat name. It was the shield of Zeus, her surname is Shield, and she wants to protect the people. So, it all fit together pretty nicely.
Momo chose the name Genesis, which I didn't expect. I would have assumed she would have gone with Athena or even Hephaestus.
I, however, didn't bother walking to the podium, it was a waste of time. So, I lifted my board to the podium with Poltergeist. And, let people read what was written on the board. It said Chronoa.
After a few more minutes, the names were all picked and listed down. Homeless-san woke up from his power nap and took the list off of Midnight as she left.
"If you want to change your name, you have to go to Nedzu's office by the end of the day, because they will be filed for tonight. In other news, the next period is free for you. It's meant to be used to sift through your internship requests.
You will find all of your requests listed on the UA student app, the list should be in your inbox. If you've forgotten your log-in details, go to Power Loader and have him reset them for you.
For those of you that didn't receive any offers, there should be another separate list titled 'School Provided Internships' click on those and choose one."
After saying his piece, he left to deliver the list of names to his boss.
I didn't have to bother looking through my list, because I didn't have one. I was already a medical hero, so I didn't need to do any internships. I could, however, send out an internship request, and accept a student of my own to teach.
I initially planned to go with All Might during the internship period, but it might be better for me to just take a break for a bit. Step back from the action for a while.
The nomus will probably be released in Hosu still, mainly because that's where Melissa will be interning. AFO wouldn't miss this chance to build up a reputation for the OFA holder, so it will be all the more satisfying to tear it down during his fight. He enjoys playing with his 'food', so I don't doubt that he will release some low-level nomus for a test run.
I didn't need to be in Hosu for that, I already had copied the quirk factor I wanted from the nomu, namely the Tongue Web quirk.
"Are you even interning with anyone, dear?"
"I don't need to, I'm already a medical hero with experience in the field."
"Are you thinking about taking anybody on as a student?"
"Not really… The only person I would take on would be yourself, but you're interning with Nighteye this week for the Shie Hassaikai clean-up raid."
"Why don't you come with us on the raid? You already took care of two of the heavy hitters anyway."
"As fun as beating them up would be; which wouldn't be much as the stronger ones are taken care of already, I would like to just relax for this week. Maybe destroy a timeline or two while chilling on the couch, you know?"
"That's fair enough, you've done a lot lately, you deserve a little break. Just make sure to actually rest, otherwise, I will call Pestonya-san and she will force you to relax for the week."
I couldn't believe this, she pulled the Pestonya card, I was equally as happy as I was shocked.
Did she threaten me? Well, it was a kind-hearted threat, but it still counts! I was happy because she pulled out a threat, but shocked that she chose the correct threat to use in this situation.
It was a wonderful thing to hear.
"I will make sure to relax so~ much with Eri that you will be so~ jealous of us. You will be out beating up yakuza thugs, while Eri and I will be cuddling on the couch playing animal crossing with ice cream."
She broke out into an expression of sheer betrayal, before reeling her emotions back in with a cough,
"Do you think Sir would mind it if I didn't turn up?"
"You mean the person who would strap you to a tickle machine if you're 10 seconds late? Yes, he would."
"Dammnit..."
"Don't worry, I will make sure to send you pics."
"That makes it worse!"
Our back-and-forth was interrupted by the opening of the door, and the subsequent arrival of our next teacher, Lego-kun, aka, Cementoss.
"Hello, class. Take out your modern literature textbooks and turn to page 46, also, take out the book I handed to you last class. Shinso, I have a copy of the book on the desk for you. We will be discussing Lord of the Flies by William Golding today."
Just like that, my school life is back in the swing of things.
Creation is hard, cheer me up! Love the book? Review it!
Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Not much happens in here apart from hero names being chosen, which I hope are at least half-decent. Next are internships, and Sakuya's lazy relaxation sessions.
So, stay tuned~!