Chapter 103: Kai isn’t your boyfriend?!
"Hehe, I think so too! Even though I wasn't among the first, I think I did pretty well." Mina commented happily while raising her arms with excitement. At that moment, Jiro approached and added with a smile.
"Well, I'd say the training did us a lot of good."
"Jiro-san, I also saw that you did quite well." Momo said cheerfully, to which Mina nodded enthusiastically.
"Yeah, yeah, I saw it too! You did great against the robots, and the way you used your quirk to run was super cool."
"Hehe, thanks. Although I have to say, I still have a lot to master; I made many mistakes. But even so, I feel satisfied. I know that next year, when I manage to master everything I have on my plate, I'll do much better."
Jiro nodded with a smile as she looked at the amplifiers Kai had created on her forearms and boots. This not only allowed her to make powerful ranged attacks but also enabled her to move at high speed using sound as propulsion.
"By the way, Kaminari did pretty well too. Propelling himself using electromagnetism turned out to be more useful than I thought, although he's still an idiot and did worse than me." While looking at Kaminari in the distance, who was boasting in front of Kirishima, Jiro commented in a mocking tone, to which Mina added with a sharp and somewhat teasing look.
"Although it's true that the way Saito recommended improving your speed is similar, aren't you paying a lot of attention to Kaminari, Jiro?"
"What?! What makes you think that?! He's just an idiot that's fun to tease." Jiro immediately retorted defensively, looking genuinely offended, which only made the pair of girls laugh as they gazed at her with 'knowing' expressions.
"Hey, Yao Momo! You can't tease me with your boyfriend right there!" Jiro replied annoyed while pointing at the smiling Momo, who responded in a cheerful and casual tone.
"Fufufu, Kai isn't my boyfriend yet."
"What?! Kai isn't your boyfriend?!"
With surprised expressions on their faces, Jiro and Mina asked in unison, looking incredulously at Momo, who nodded casually as if it were something obvious, then asked somewhat confused.
"Of course he's not. We're still too young for that. Why are you so surprised?"
"But you're always together, you hug all the time, you even live together. No matter how you look at it, he seems like your boyfriend..." Mina commented, feeling somewhat incredulous, to which Momo nodded understandingly.
"Oh, it's because of that. Well, that's because we've been together since I can remember, so being by his side feels, how should I say... 'natural'?. Besides, it's not like we live just the two of us; there's also Oka-sama, Onee-chan, Nejire-nee-chan, and Aunt Yumiko."
"Somehow that sounds very romantic..." Jiro commented in a soft voice, to which Momo nodded happily.
"Hehe, now that you mention it, you're right."
"Yao Momo, by 'yet', do you mean you'll go out with Saito in the future?" Mina asked in a low voice while looking at Momo, who nodded again with a smile, then explained as if it were something very obvious.
"Of course. Kai will be my husband in the future. Even mom approves and supports me with that."
"...Your worldview makes me a little dizzy. The world of the rich is something else..." Jiro commented in a low voice while looking incredulously at Momo, who looked back somewhat confused. But at that moment, Mina asked with a bit of concern in her tone.
"...Yao Momo... Aren't you afraid that another girl might snatch Saito away from you by 'waiting until you're older'?"
"Snatch Kai away from me? What do you mean?" Momo asked back while tilting her head cutely, looking quite confused, to which Mina replied, looking even more worried about her friend's romantic future.
"I mean that another girl might get ahead of you and take Saito away with her."
"Oh, you don't need to worry about that. Kai would never leave me alone; he'll always be by my side." Momo responded with a smile full of confidence on her face, which caused Jiro to ask in a low voice, as she seriously doubted that her friend had understood what Mina was trying to say.
"Yao Momo, are you sure Saito won't end up 'marrying' someone else?"
"Eh? Kai marrying someone else?"
Just as Jiro expected, Momo asked back with a truly surprised expression, then turned to look for Kai. Momo found him not far from her, standing and playing with Salem, while a pink-haired girl with various bulky support equipment was talking to him full of excitement, and he responded from time to time.
"Kai marrying someone else...?"
With an expression between surprise and nervousness, Momo whispered the question again, quickly realizing that an unpleasant feeling seeped into her heart, filling her with panic. Before she knew it, she had run to Kai's side and taken one of his arms, then looked vigilantly at the pink-haired girl.
"Oh, you are..."
Seeing the girl who had suddenly grabbed Kai's arm, Hatsume Mei commented cheerfully, then tried with all her might to remember the name, at which point the blue-eyed boy replied while rolling his eyes
"Yaoyorozu Momo."
"Oh yeah, that's right! Yaoyorozu!"
Mei nodded energetically at Kai's comment, who could only roll his eyes again, although inside he was somewhat worried. After all, he had heard the girls' conversation, and the direction it took was somewhat problematic. But for now, it was better to play dumb until he could talk to the girls to decide how to handle it.
"You're the girl from the workshop." Momo commented suspiciously, to which Mei nodded energetically, then exclaimed loudly.
"That's me, Hatsume Mei, great inventor from Support Class H and collaborator with your family company!"
Hearing the girl, Momo turned to look at Kai with an inquisitive expression, to which the blue-eyed boy explained casually:
"She's talented, so I contacted the CIO (Chief Innovation Officer) to look at her work, and he liked it quite a bit. So now she receives significant funding from the company."
"I see..." Momo commented in a low voice, then looked at the smiling Mei, who was gazing at Kai with shining eyes.
"Saito, I managed to get special permission from the principal to take exams soon to validate the common subjects and be able to dedicate myself to working on my babies."
"My workshop is off-limits."
Knowing what Mei wanted, Kai quickly replied in a serious tone while looking directly into the curious eyes of the pink-haired girl, who smiled 'flirtatiously'—or at least what she imagined was flirtatious—then spoke with a soft voice.
"Saito... just a little won't hurt..."
The behavior of the pink-haired girl greatly annoyed Momo, who couldn't help but frown. But just as she was about to speak, Nemuri's voice resonated through the stadium speakers, announcing the end of the competition, as the last of the students had managed to enter the stadium.
"And so the race ends! Please, look at the results!"
With Nemuri's words, the holographic screen behind her changed to show the respective finishing positions of the students, with Kai and Momo tied for first place, Midoriya in second, Todoroki in third, and Bakugo in fourth. The top 20 positions were practically monopolized by Class 1-A, with Aoyama, the blond mock-aristocrat, being the only one from the class outside the top 20, finishing in 42nd place.
"The top 42 have earned the right to advance!! I'm sorry for the students who didn't make it, but don't worry—we've prepared other opportunities for you to shine. But for those who passed, now the real competition begins! From now on, all the press will be watching, so give it your all!!!"
Nemuri's announcement brought different expressions to the faces of the students, especially Bakugo, who had a face full of hatred. Meanwhile, Momo looked at Mei for a moment with a bit of wariness, somehow now much calmer, knowing that her outburst was exaggerated and a product of the panic of facing a new feeling. After all, her Kai would never be snatched away by some random girl, and she was completely sure of that.
Her confidence came from the fact that she knew Kai too well. Although he was very good with them, with others it was a completely different story. When he met someone new, he would naturally go on the defensive, which made him pragmatic, unpleasant, and even quite manipulative. So the barrier for him to open up to someone was extremely high—so much so that, in his entire life, she only knew of one person who had surpassed it, and that was Togata, a man. Moreover, Kai had never sought to start a relationship with anyone.
Therefore, thinking it over, although from now on, she should keep an eye on that pink-haired girl, the danger was minimal. If she had to be on guard against someone, it would be someone like Nejire, someone very close who had passed the barrier from the beginning. But that would be unnecessary; after all, they had reached an agreement a long time ago regarding that matter.
"Now here's the second game. I already know what it is, but what will it be? What will it be?" While Midnight spoke in a playful tone, the holographic screen behind her once again showed names changing at high speed, until she announced loudly.
"As I said, here it is!"
When she finished speaking, Nemuri pointed to the holographic screen behind her with an enchanting smile on her face, causing countless blushes among the students and spectators. At that moment, the holographic screen showed the name of the event: [Cavalry Battle], prompting Midnight to explain what it was about.
"Participants can form teams of two to four people. It's basically the same as a normal cavalry battle, but with the difference that each person will be assigned a value depending on the results of the last game!"
"In other words, each team is worth a different amount of points depending on who's in it!" Uraraka exclaimed with realization, to which Mina added cheerfully.
"I get it!!"
"You two, be quiet while I speak." Nemuri retorted with a slightly annoyed expression, causing the pair of girls to try to make themselves as small as possible. The beautiful heroine then resumed her explanation.
"Although you're right, the assigned points start from 5 for the last positions, so 42nd place is worth 5 points, 41st place is worth 10 points! And the points for first place are..." Nemuri made a dramatic pause, looking at Kai and Momo before announcing the result.
"Ten million! Since it's a tie, each one is worth five million points!! It's survival of the fittest, with real chances for the last to catch up to the first!!"
Upon hearing the exaggerated score, all the students turned to look at the pair of black-haired individuals with predatory eyes. No matter what place they had finished in, if they managed to defeat even one of them, it was almost a direct victory. But just at that moment, a terrifying pressure fell upon them like a mountain, as a voice that seemed to come from the very depths of hell resonated with a mocking tone.
"So you want to come after us? Interesting. I didn't know there were so many 'intrepid' souls unafraid of death here..."