Jaku City

“You want me to do what?” John asked, surprised at the request. He took a step back to pause in their exercise.

“It’s just a couple of dance lessons. It’s been years since I’ve practiced and could use a refresher. It’s not like I’m asking you to be a geisha, or to learn the kagura. It’s just the waltz and maybe a bit of salsa and tango if you are up to it.” Yu replied.

The pair of them were squared up to each other, John kicking the shorter woman, this partner training supposedly toughening up his shins. She didn’t strike him back, her Quirk pushing her durability beyond what she could gain from striking him. She was on a break between sets of agility training Rumi had her running, letting her rest while John struck her. 

He wasn’t sure, but he thought Rumi was forcing them together so they’d have to interact. Whether this was so they would grow closer over time, or just so Yu could show him that she wasn’t going to hold a grudge against his harsh words, or something else, he didn’t know. He wasn’t using Scouter to find out either. He knew he would probably regret that, but reading Yu was hit or miss, which he was chalking up to her intellect. And reading Rumi was…

{Three hundred and seventy four, three hundred and seventy five… Will John miss one of those steaks in the fridge? Focus! Three hundred and seventy… crap, I lost count. Okay, to one thousand. One, Two, Three…}

…not always effective. 

The rabbit woman was busy doing some serious core exercises, her legs clamped to a chin-up bar and keeping her body horizontal while holding a couple of bricks John had dug out of the ground and stuck together. It was seriously insane watching her hold up that much weight while doing very slow crunches and twists. 

“Do you think it is really necessary?” He said. If he was honest, he was still not sold on even attending now, but a parcel had been delivered today that included a personal invitation from Hinata Takeyama, along with a tailored suit and shoes.  Even Rumi agreed that they should attend the ball, if for no other reason than not to slight the woman who was nominally the most powerful person in Japan. 

“I do. Listen, Rumi and Mei will be there as well. It’s just for a few hours on Sunday afternoon to brush off some dust. Then next Saturday, we can attend the ball, have a single dance, mingle for a bit, then leave. Well, after my mother thanks you anyway.”

“Will it really be that simple?”

“Probably not, but you can turn down any offers of marriage to the family, or just say you are considering your options. As I said before, she isn’t my grandmother; she is usually much more reasonable and has a great deal of patience.”

“Fine. Is it somewhere nearby, or do we need to fly to another part of Japan for classes?”

“The madame’s studio is over in Tokyo, so no need for another flight,” Yu replied, then looked up at him with a small smile. “Thank you, John.”

“Are you two done slacking off? Yu! Back outside and give me fifty rushes up and down the course. John, get up on the other bar and start doing some core training. You need more power, and you’re not going to get that standing around flappin’ your jowls.” Rumi hollered at them, still doing those insane crunches.

They both groaned slightly, then looked at each other and chuckled. If nothing else, Rumi was dedicated to making the pair of them as fit as she was.  

Unknown Laboratory

“Doctor, how are the preparations proceeding?” All For One asked as he stepped through the black liquid gate into the lab.

“We are up and running. It will be at least four weeks before any of the nomu here will be ready, preferably six to ensure they have enough time to stabilize. I’ve had Kurogiri running around to several morgues, acquiring new materials to be extracted. Our Russian partners have significantly added to that, with many of the cadaver’s Quirks relatively easy to use. How are your recruitment efforts?”

“Small for now, however, tomorrow we should have an influx of personnel. Implanting a new directive into the Hero Killer’s mind was difficult, but we are already seeing some dividends from that effort. Well, as long as he doesn’t get himself killed on his self-appointed quest to kill all those heroes.”

“Yes. Kurogiri will be on standby for that. Tomorrow will be an auspicious day for the new League of Villains Enterprise. Oh, speaking of, I have to begin setting up our next lab soon. Do we have the funds to pay for the next installment of equipment?”

“We will by Monday. Are you sure this is not too much work for you, doctor? We are not as young as we once were.”

“I will be fine, Master. These nomu are much easier to create than those in the main lab, with minimal supervision from me. Just don’t expect them to go toe to toe with a hero like All Might.”

“I don’t. Besides, he has hardly been seen since our attack on the U.S.J. Despite our losses there, at least we know that we have crippled him.”

“Very true. May chaos reign, Master.”

The two villains laughed.

The Next Day

Sports Festival Stadium

The rest of the evening went well. Yu did cook a meal of some sort while Mei was showing them some blueprints she whipped up while waiting for them to finish their nightly training. After they left, Rumi went back out on patrol for a couple of hours while John returned to the Dojo. When she returned, she had him practicing a bunch of different blocks and guards, striking him fairly hard, which forced him to run healing magic when he was cycling his mana throughout his body. 

Near midnight, they called it, going to bed together again. As much as Little John wanted some attention, John ignored it, exhausted from the mana drain and the beating he received. She sighed contentedly when he wrapped his arm around her again, and the pair of them fell asleep soon after.

They trained again in the morning, though this time he didn’t have to burn his mana excessively as she had him doing the sprinting through the line of tires she had lined up along the far side of the dojo and other agility exercises. Afterwards, they got dressed and headed to U.A. and the stadium. Rumi and Yu were acting as security today, while John was… supposed to enjoy the festival. 

For the first couple of hours, the four of them walked around together, enjoying the outdoor market and playing a few of the fair games. One of the games involved using air guns to hit a bunch of ducks, so after a test round, he started cleaning house. All three women ended up getting a giant plushie before the attendant asked them kindly to move on. He chuckled at that, then bought them all some ice cream to celebrate. 

Soon enough, it was time for the events to begin. Yu wished her daughter good luck, gave her a hug, and took the stuffed robot she wanted from the game. Mei snagged a hug from John and then from a surprised Rumi before darting off to the students’ start line, shouting that she was excited to show off all her babies to the business sponsors that were sure to be in the crowd. Shortly afterwards, John took his leave of the pair of heroes and entered through the stadium’s staff entrance.

He stopped in quickly at Recovery Girls’ infirmary to touch base with her before making his way up to the stands. The stadium’s main field was a large rectangular dirt patch surrounded by grass, with a small judges’ booth and a massive screen along one side. Most of the stands were full, though the one he was in was currently empty. He took a seat and waited for the show to start.

It didn’t take long before an announcer’s voice echoed through the stadium, hyping up the crowd. Midnight was introduced as she took the stage below the giant screen, wearing that… dominatrix outfit again. Shortly afterwards, the students from 1-A entered the field to the roar of the crowd, followed by the rest of the classes. He was questioning why the three business classes were supposed to compete against the heroes and even the general course students, but didn’t come up with a satisfactory answer. 

After a quick welcome, Midnight invited the first-place student in the entrance exams to the podium to recite the pledge, which… didn’t go well. Bakugo, one of 1-A’s more problematic students, said: “I just want to say, I’m going to win.” Causing many of the students and the crowd to boo him. The class rep, Tenya Ida, the guy with motor legs, started to yell at him for being disrespectful. John just noted that down for a follow-up soon.

Afterwards, Midnight explained the rules of the first event, which was ‘randomized’ on the screen, an obstacle course. He wasn’t sure whether the students were aware of it, but he knew from the staff briefing that everything had already been chosen weeks before his arrival in this world. And saying there were ‘rules’ was a bit of a stretch.

“The track is four kilometres around the outside of the stadium. I don’t want to restrain anyone, at least in this game, mmhmm,” She said, licking her lips seductively. “As long as you don’t leave the course, you’re free to do whatever your heart desires!” The crowds cheered, leading John to think that it was considered normal behaviour.

At Midnight’s signal, the contestants took their places, a countdown started, and she shouted: “Begin!”

The students took off, and all John could think of was that it looked like Black Friday shoppers trying to get into a retail store. Pure pandemonium. They all tried to push through the narrow gate, with a few of the faster ones breaking ahead, or, if their Quirk was mobility-based, moving above the crowd. He thought he saw Mei with her rocket boots shoot above the herd of students, so he cheered her on, turning his focus to the large screen once she was inside the gate.

The race was chaos. He could barely keep up with everything that was going on, from explosions to the course being turned into a skating rink. Then there was a giant ravine, where he was happy to see Mei easily cross, catching up with the leaders of the pack. Then, a wall of giant robots, which several of the students just dodged around. Momo unzipped her uniform, pulled out a giant artillery piece from her body, and started blowing them up, allowing the majority of the students to advance unimpeded.

That is pretty good teamwork despite this being an individual event. Note that for later too. 

The leaders reached the final part of the course, which was a literal minefield. He questioned the sanity of the Principal and his fellow instructors for doing something like this to students, but it seemed they were more than up for the task. Shoto, the student who was the hero Endevor’s son, was using ice to move across it, while Bakugo was causing explosions to keep himself mostly airborne. The two started to duke it out, allowing others to start to catch-

*BOOM, boom*

A large explosion blasted from the speakers, much louder than the single mines made, then was heard again as the actual sound reached the stadium. Midoriya, a short way behind the leaders, suddenly went flying past them, holding on to a piece of metal he must have ripped off one of the robots.

Did he just detonate a pile of mines? Then rode the explosion on a sheet of metal? Is that kid nuts?

Another explosion, and more fighting, and the race was over moments later. Midoriya had placed first.

Other students began to pile in. Somehow, Mei had fallen back to forty-first. She was still flying around, so something must have happened to delay her. Still, she was the only student from the engineering courses who made it into the next round, so he stood up and cheered for her. Somehow, she saw him and waved back to him. 

After a few more minutes, Midnight had the winners begin sorting themselves out into teams for something they called a cavalry battle. The students all had points assigned to their teams based on their place in the obstacle course, starting at a hundred points and increasing from there. For some reason, it was decided that Midoriya was worth ten million points.

That seems rather excessive… why did they paint that big a target on the first-place student?

Surprisingly, Mei joined Midoriya’s team and started outfitting them all with equipment she pulled from a chest she was dragging along with her. They were all given a headband with their team’s total points, the ‘rider’ needing to wear it, and the team needing to guard it from the other teams while trying to steal the others’.

The students who didn’t make the cut for this cavalry battle started to filter into the stands he was sitting in, making him think that he was probably seated in the wrong spot. He talked with a few of them, but most didn’t seem to care about losing the first event, already having come to the decision that this was for the hero course classes to show off.  

“My Quirk lets me quickly grow my fingernails a few centimetres. What am I going to do, scratch someone? They aren’t strong or anything, and hurts like hell when I break them. I’m here to study and get accepted into a good university, not to play games while trying to become a pro hero.” One girl said to him before rejoining her friends. 

After a few more conversations that followed a similar thread, John settled back down to watch the show. It was another huge ball of chaos, and he was unsure how no one was accidentally killed. Pillars of ice, explosions, laser bolts, the works. It was hard to follow the action as the teams jostled each other, but he did keep an eye on Mei’s team. It was hard not to since they were able to go airborne with her gadgets, avoiding the other teams for some time. 

In the end, they lost their headband, but managed to collect enough points to make it into the next event, which would begin after lunch. John stood up then and made his way down the stadium’s ground floor to congratulate the students on a great show. He didn’t see Mei anywhere, so he asked a few of her teammates where she had disappeared to. They hadn’t noticed she had separated from them, so John thanked them anyway and started to wander around.

After ten minutes, he found her, or rather, he found her and Yu talking in what looked to be some sort of waiting room, with a table and couch. He paused by the door, eavesdropping for a few moments.

“Do you want a sandwich, Mei?”

“Not right now, Mom. I need to finish this before our matches this afternoon. I have a brilliant plan to show off my babies, and I didn’t have time to prebuild them since I didn’t know who I was fighting against.” Mei replied, somehow converting the table into a workshop, including a welder and a bunch of metal for fabrication. John had no idea where she had stashed all this stuff, as she wasn’t carrying it around with them this morning.

Yu stood up from the couch, walked behind her daughter and gave her a hug. “Listen, I’m proud of you. Can I help with anything?”

“No, I can do this…- No wait, can you grab me those boosters from that case. I’m nearly done with this control mechanism, and want to start mounting parts on the frame next.”

“Sure.”

John stood there for a moment debating if he was interrupting or not, then stuck his head in. “Good Job, Mei! That was impressive this morning.”

“John! Thank you! I got a plan, and if it works out, I’ll be able to show off even more of my babies before retiring from my match without taking a scratch!” She replied, pausing her work to look up at him. She had a wide smile on her face, excited at the prospect of being in the spotlight.

“That’s good- wait, retire?”

“Yes. I don’t have the gear to be able to defeat the stronger Quirk users here. I could win against the guy I’m matched against, but I’m not here to show off my combat prowess, but the efficacy of my equipment. So… I may have said I would outfit my opponent with a bunch of goodies that he can keep as long as he lets me show off how effective they are first.”

“You are colluding to throw the match?”

“Hardly. He thinks it’s a fair match; I’m just positive I can display my skills and then forfeit the match when I’m done. It’s the perfect plan!”

“Well, be careful. Some of these kids are quite strong.”

“Of course! It’s going to be great!”

Yu gave him a smile, and he nodded to her, then took his leave, leaving them to their bonding time. He decided to go find Rumi and see if she wanted to eat lunch together.

As he was moving through the maze of hallways, a hand clamped down on his shoulder. Hard.

“Mr. Wayne. Can I have a word with you?” A deep voice said behind him.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep