Chapter 3

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Very few people outside the Hero course looked forward to the Sports Festival. It was acknowledged as a venue for the future pros to demonstrate their capabilities and court internships and job offers. Savvy Support students seized the opportunity to do the same, targeting their performances towards the support companies more than the Pro Heroes. Most students were not yet in a position to mass produce or market their wares, so they were also looking for jobs.

For the vast majority of General Ed and Business students the Sports Festival was a waste of time at best, and an opportunity for public humiliation at worst. Every year there were a lucky few who either managed to make such a fantastic showing during the events that they were put on a list of possible promotions to the Hero course; or they were able to find an entrepreneurial niche and make some money serving the needs of the crowds. The UA staff even encourage that sort of commercial activity, though very few students were able to successfully compete for audience money with the established vendors who had won the various service contracts for the event.

Jack had been considering what he wanted out of the Festival. Radiant Innovations had a box every year where senior executives and engineers would attend to scout Support students. But Jack had never been invited to attend. He'd seldom even bothered to watch the media coverage so he had little emotional connection to the competition.

"You basically have two choices," Hinata said. "You can either blow it off and be lost in the mass of mediocrity, or you can decide to finally show your stuff. I know Mom has made you a Hero suit, though she never lets me watch you use it. But even in your normal suit you can do more tricks than half the Hero students can. You just have to commit to winning."

"I'm not sure why I'd want to 'show my stuff' as you ..." he replied, only to be cut off with a raised hand.

The young genius pointed out the window overlooking the inner courtyard. The estate was mostly built in a traditional Japanese style. The courtyard included a rock garden, a stream with a bridge, a grassy area with several cherry trees, and other decorative features. It was surrounded on three sides by the wings of the main house. Hinata was pointing to a young woman who was approaching what looked like a backpack half covered with a uniform jacket from Musashi Academy.

"Yes," Hinata urged quietly. "Come on. You can see I've been a bad girl. Just grab the stuff and come lecture me."

Jack silently shook his head. He didn't know what his sister had planned, but he was near certain of two things. First it was a nasty trap of some sort. Hinata had been at war with her nannies since she was five. She had managed to drive twenty-three of them away over the years, mostly in tears, though a few had required actual medical assistance. Yumi-chan was number twenty-four. She was surprisingly young, in her early twenties, and very good at her job. She treated both the troublesome genius and Jack, who only officially escaped her oversite when he started UA, as the mature individuals they usually showed themselves to be – except for Hinata's unrelenting pranking, of course.

The second thing Jack was certain of was that whatever trick his sister had planned with the backpack, Yumi was not going to fall for it. She had been avoiding, or effortlessly disarming, Hinata's pranks for almost seven months. That was the longest any nanny had managed to last by far. His sister assumed that the nanny's was the extent of her quirk, but Jack suspected there was more to it coming into play.

Yumi marched up to the pile of school affects with a smile on her face. When she reached them, instead of stopping to pick them up, she swiftly booted the schoolbag into the koi pond. The pack quickly erupted in a fountain of steaming noodles, which would have covered the caregiver if she had picked the bag up as Hinata had planned. The nanny just shook her head and watched the fish begin to feast on the sudden bounty. She turned and walked towards the house, Hinata's jacket neatly folded over one arm.

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