When John stepped outside of the school, he expected Yu to be at the gate, or maybe at the train station waiting for him. What he didn’t expect was a large, sleek, black helicopter idling on the front lawn of U.A. High School, with half a dozen men in black suits waiting for him. 

“You ready, John?” Yu asked, walking up to him in a nicely cut white dress with purple trim. Her shoulders and arms were bare, and a small, diamond-shaped opening showed off a bit of her cleavage; otherwise, it was a very classy outfit. It almost looked like…

“Good afternoon, Yu. Ready as I will ever be. That dress looks beautiful on you. Is it the same cut as your sisters’?” John asked, realizing where he had seen it before. Other than the trim and the much larger bust to accommodate Yu’s breasts, it appeared to be the same dress that was under her sister’s armour.

“You noticed?” She said, apparently not expecting him to recognize it. “Yes, though the fabric is a little different to accommodate my Quirk. We are trying to figure out if we can get a ferrous metal to expand like this fabric now, so I can wear armour over it, though that part isn’t going as well.”

“Well, it looks good on you. So, where are we going that needed a helicopter?”

“Sapporo. Don’t worry, Rumi knows you won’t be back until late. She is out hunting the Hero Killer with Endevor and a few of the other top ten heroes anyway.” She said, taking his arm as they walked towards the waiting aircraft.

“Umm, where is that?” He asked, not overly worried about Rumi. She didn’t train with him every night anyway, as she still had a job to do.

“About nine hundred kilometres north of here, in the ancestral land of the Takeyama family.” 

“Jesus, am I underdressed for meeting your mother?”

“If you were meeting my mother, we would have taken a fifteen-minute walk. No, you are meeting someone equally as important.”

“Who?”

“Sakura Takeyama, our family’s armourer and tailor.” She said, then looked up at him with her magenta eyes, “She is also my Grandmother.”

Hun?

The flight took nearly two hours, the helicopter moving at speeds similar to what the Pelican could do in the atmosphere, from what he could tell. Yu kept John engaged for almost the whole flight, explaining some history of the Hokkaido region of Japan and some of her family history, which he thought should be a national secret. 

From his memories, Quirks first appeared in the mid-1900s, over a hundred and fifty years ago. It turns out that is not true; in fact, Quirks have been around for over thirty thousand years. Yu’s Great Great Great Grandfather was over thirty-one thousand years old when he died, having witnessed the rise and fall of multiple civilizations during his long life. With his dying breath, he absorbed his soul into the mythical Godslayer sword and was still living on as a spirit even today. 

Her mother, Hinata, was well over seven hundred and ran everything within the Takeyama domain with a velvet glove. She had fought a major conflict with her sister at one point in the past, and ended up locking her soul away with one of the many abilities her Quirk gave her. 

“So are you telling me you’re not in your twenties, but actually around five hundred?” John quipped, still having no idea why he was even on this flight, other than Yu had asked, nor why she was telling him all of this.

“No, I’m twenty-two. You see, we don’t get our long lives from our Quirks, but from a special fruit my Great, Great, Great Grandfather made with his fabrication Quirk. The heads of the household are the only ones who get to eat one of them, which was supposed to be my sister until she died in battle. Until recently, my mother had not decided whether I would take over the household or if she would have another child instead. I think… I think I have you to thank for that.”

“Me? What did I do?”

“You made me realize there was more to life than social media posts. I was already starting to understand how it was negatively affecting my image, but your harsh words gave me the kick I needed to stop. So, please, even if you think it was minor, thank you, John.”

“You’re welcome, darling. Now… not to sound ungrateful for this trip, but why in the world are we flying halfway across Japan to meet your Grandmother?”

She turned pale, even paler than her white skin already was. “Oh gods, I forgot to ask you. I was so focused on this meeting and the ball, I forgot to even ask you. John, I want… no, I need you to take me out…” She stammered.  

“Excuse me? You want me to take you out?”

“Yes! No! I mean. I don’t know what I mean, you know. I just-” She continued to babble incoherently, getting more flustered by the second for some reason.

John activated his Quirk, then grasped her hands. They felt soft, but were currently covered in sweat. “Listen to my voice. It’s going to be okay. Just listen to the sound of my voice and think about what you want me to do. You said something about a ball. Is that something you want me to take you to?”

She nodded vigorously, apparently not trusting her voice.

“Okay. So, is this something to do with your family?”

She nodded again.

“Okay. Do you want me to accept your invitation?”

“Please. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to be sorry. I would love to attend a ball with you, Yu.”

I’d rather have Rumi beat me senseless, but I won’t let her know that. This is obviously important to her… why didn’t I activate Scouter yet?

{Thank god. I didn’t want to have to explain to my mother why I didn’t bring him… why am I so damn nervous about him meeting my family? Mom said she wouldn’t try to marry me to him, that it was just a date so she could thank him for saving Mei… why do I feel sad about that? Why isn’t he saying anything? He is just staring at me. Is there something in my nose? Wait, he did say something! Why am I not saying anything! Get a grip, Yu!}

John nearly burst out laughing, listening to her thoughts. Instead, he smiled reassuringly at her. “So we need to go see your grandmother because she is going to what? Make me a suit?”

“Well… she will be supervising the suit being made, but she made the request to meet you. Listen, about my grandmother. She can be rather… intense. Not to mention, she… she doesn’t like me very much. And, she isn’t alive.”

“Umm, what?”

“Just be calm and respectful when you meet her, okay.”

“No problem, darling.”

She continued to stare at him for a few minutes in silence, still holding his hands, before she spoke again. “Nothing seems to ruffle you about this, yet you went off on me when I tried to get you to buy me a drink. You didn’t even question it when I told you my mother is over seven hundred years old, and my grandmother isn’t alive. Are you sure you don’t hate me?”

“Will you stop it with that already? I don’t hate you; I just didn’t like how you approached me in the bar or the attitude you showed afterward. As for why I’m unbothered by this, I literally have a sister who can snap her fingers and have god-like powers. She could probably use her quirk and say, New Order. I want everyone in the world to live forever, and it would happen.

The fact that she uses it as she does is a bone of contention between us. I hate when people just want to be in the spotlight to satisfy their own hubris… I may have taken a little of that out on you, so I’m sorry.”  John replied, realizing now why he had treated Yu like that from the beginning. It was this body’s memories of his sister, stacked on top of his own disdain for people who want to be the center of attention at all costs, that were annoying him.

“No, you’re right. I was just being a selfish, self-centred bitch who was more interested in hero work for the fame than in stopping villains. I need to learn from Rumi how to do it for the right reasons. Did you know, she doesn’t even have a social media presence, yet made it to the number five hero in Japan? She has a huge fanbase that made a Mirko-sighting account, and she wasn’t even aware of it. That is what I should be aspiring to be.” 

“Well, that sounds like a much better outlook to me. Now, I’m curious. Why are you sharing all your family secrets with me?”

“I wasn’t planning on it, but… John, I suspect my family will try to get you to marry me. I’m not necessarily against that, as they had arranged for me to meet several suitors at this ball. Now, all talk of those suitors has stopped, and you are the hot topic for some reason. I know you saved Mei, which I’m eternally grateful for, but I didn’t expect… this. I just want you to go into this with your eyes open, and with as much information as I can give you.”

“Wait? They were arranging a marriage for you? Isn’t that illegal?” He asked, now positive he was about to step on a landmine.

About to? I already stepped on it, and it’s in the middle of exploding.

“Hah, illegal? Maybe for normal families, but with the Takeyamas, it’s expected. I’ve known this was coming since I was a little girl, because they want to keep strong Quirks within the bloodline. I just don’t know why they are interested in you all of a sudden. Your Quirk isn’t powerful like your sister’s, so unless they were hoping it was just recessive in you and it comes out in our children, it doesn’t make much sense.”

He was suddenly reminded of a small thing Saeko said to him about Saya’s mother wanting Saya to get closer to him so they could include his ‘Magic’ blood into their bloodline for the good of their family. 

How would they know about that, though? I only used my magic as Twilight Knight, not as myself. Unless Mei wasn’t able to delete the recordings in time, and they now know about me, I’m not sure how- the sword.

He started to sweat a bit. That sword knew about his other weapon, so it wasn’t that far of a leap in logic that it learned even more about him when he wielded it. He felt like he was being backed into a corner now with his secrets exposed.

He shook his head a bit. It wasn’t ideal, but they didn’t turn him in to the authorities, so they must have a plan for him. He just wasn’t sure what it was.

“John, are you okay. Your hands just got sweaty and started to turn pale. Is the thought of marrying me so distasteful?” Yu asked, misreading John’s concerns.

“No. Now that I have gotten to know you a little more, you seem like a wonderful woman with a good head on your shoulders. What I don’t like is the idea of forcing you into a loveless marriage based on Quirk powers.”

“It’s way more common in Japan than you think. You need look no further than Endevor. He has one official wife and six other wives, all in an attempt to create offspring who have both his Quirk and another Quirk that can counter his Quirk’s weaknesses. Once Shoto was born, he stopped siring more children as the kid has both powerful fire and ice quirks.”

“Wait, you have harems in this world?” 

“It is less common in the Western nations, but is fairly common in the East. Did you not know that?”

“I did not. I’m sorry for my outburst, it just caught me off guard. I’ve always wanted my relationships to revolve around love and respect.”

“Well… I respect you already, John, and if this is my family’s master plan, I won’t go against it. Mei seems to adore you already, so I would be willing to put the effort in to get to know you better, and maybe something more would blossom.” She sighed, then leaned on his chest. “I’m sorry you got dragged into this, and that I didn’t warn you sooner. Just things have been thrown at me rapid-fire since the museum, and the only time I seem to get a break is when I’m training with you and Rumi. And something about your touch made me feel really… well, let’s not get into that. Just please consider it if they ask. I’ll be a good wife for you, I promise.”

John just blinked down at the top of Yu’s head, having no clue where any of this came from. He felt like he’d been hit by a truck again. Still, she seemed like a good girl who was trying to make the best out of an odd situation. He wrapped his arms around her, giving her a hug. “Listen, let’s not jump to conclusions yet. I’m happy to get to know you better, but only if that is what you want, not just because your family wants it. I’m not exactly a young man anymore, you know.”

“You could have fooled me. You’re determined, honest, heroic, not to mention you have the body of a demigod for someone your age. A girl could do a lot worse than someone like you for their arranged marriage. It could have been some fat slob whom they wanted me to marry just because they had a powerful Quirk they wanted added to the bloodline. You are also kind, thinking of my needs over the fact that my family might be trying to force me on you. You have all the qualities a girl could love. I just hope I’m worthy of you.”

John felt his resolve start to melt a little bit at her heartfelt words, now unsure if he would immediately turn down their offer if it came up. Still, he had other priorities in this world now, training and growing stronger. He and Rumi were also growing closer, the rabbit woman offering him the odd kiss now and again as they trained. He wasn’t sure if she would accept him and Yu being together, and he didn’t want to lose his training partner because of an overbearing family trying to force a marriage on him. Sure, they probably had great combat instructors in the family he could use instead, but it was the principle of the thing.

“You’re worthy of anybody. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” He said while rubbing her back. “Just keep your self-respect, and you’ll do fine.”

He held Yu in his arms for the remainder of the flight, wondering how big a minefield he actually found himself landing in, and if he would even be able to dig his way out.  

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep