Family Business

Chapter 45 - Finals

Tomura and Dabi shared a look as the final match was about to start before the latter grinned and pulled out the notebook he'd begun keeping in his pocket since becoming Inko's pupil. "Taking all bets, who's everyone rooting for? I'm betting on Izumi kicking Sho's ass, much as I love my little bro she's way better trained than he is."

Fuyumi abstained from betting while Natsuo put his money on Shouto.

The Midoriyas and yakuza, unsurprisingly, backed Izumi as well.

And upon a bit of prompting the bluenette villain rolled his eyes at his fiance and bet "Izumi will win by default after almost losing because your brother will forfeit to spite Endeavor."

Dabi and his siblings laughed at that, hysterically, but doubted it would actually happen... No matter how much the idea of Shouto doing something so petty and spiteful amused them it wasn't like him to actually do it. At least not in public like this.

The fight starts, Izumi barely dodging Shouto's attacks. Narrowly escaping being frozen solid or burnt by what looks like pure luck with grace due to her training and getting a few good hits in on the dual quirked teen... But despite her preventing a loss and keeping up stamina-wise it's clear that the greenette is making little to no progress in actually beating her opponent.

One who's managing to box her into a corner.

One who, with one lucky shot of ice or fire, was about to win the match.

.

.

.

And then Endeavor cheers for "His masterpiece" to stop screwing around and finish this, prove his superiority to his quirkless opponent. The bicolored teen glares, burn covered blue eye twitching as well as his raised right hand before he raises said hand skyward and drawls "I forfeit. I've reached my limit for using my quirk safely, have been straddling it for a while now actually, so I'm quitting before I do any serious damage. A school event isn't worth quirk exhaustion and temperature burns all over."

While the judges called the match and commended Shouto for knowing his limits and knowing when to fall back the group of villains, yakuza, vigilantes, and family members turned to fix the decay user with surprise. Tomura had won the bet.

"How?" Natsuo asked in a mixture of awe and disbelief, earning a fond "I knew that your old man wouldn't be able to resist saying something to piss Shouto off. And I may not have known your brother long, but I know he goes out of his way to fuck Endeavor over whenever he can. That and he, of all Izumi's school friends, has the thinnest skin when it comes to comments about her."

Shrugging the red eyed villain finishes "All those things together made this result the most likely, statistically speaking... Plus I thought it would be the most fun outcome too."

When Eraserhead comments over the speakers, supporting Midnight in praising the half hot - half cold boy with a dry "In my experience most pros could stand to learn a thing or two from you about knowing when to fall back, far too many damage themselves or others irreparably to win fights alone rather than ask for help. Even when MOST of them have sidekicks or fellow heroes on scene with them anyways."

The way the Underground hero stares at the number one and two heroes pointedly does not escape the group, making All For One choke on his laughter and many others in the stands to chuckle.

From his place in the teacher's stands, eyes fixed on his healed nemesis, All Might winces. He can hear the ancient super villain laughing with ease and is mortified. Especially when he hears the man yell after calming down a bit "Hey Eraserhead! You're the best!"

Several people in the stands, especially civilians and sidekicks, join in on cheering the announcer. Mic, hearing this, coos "Aww, see Eraser. I told you they'd love you as an announcer! You should guest star in my broadcasts more often!"

"I'll pass thanks."

-

The pair tied for third place, Bakugou and Tokoyami, are battling it out below for the bronze medal when Iida's phone goes off. He excuses himself to take the call, spotting his mother on the caller ID, with a promise from Ochako to fill him in when he gets back.

What the navy haired teen hears horrifies him however, sending him racing to the hospital and completely uncaring of something a frivolous as which of his classmates won third place in a school competition.

Tensei is in the hospital, having been attacked by the Hero Killer Stain.

His brother was hurt.

-

As they stood on the winning platform, slowly being raised into the sun, Fumikage sighs in relief. He has a fair number of star-shaped burns wrapped on his torso from his fight against Bakugou, which hurts, but he won.

He beat Bakugou.

Broke his nose after tanking a blast directly to the chest in order to get close even, dazing him enough for Dark Shadow to throw him out of bounds.

Getting a medal from All Might is a good feeling, though the hug is both unnecessary and painful with how it aggravates his wrapped burns. But the pain is totally worth it when Shouto, after the ceremony's over, comes up to him and begins fretting over his injuries. No one outside his parents has ever worried for him like this before and he loves that the boy he's developed feelings for is the one doing so.

It makes his feathers puff up and heart flutter to see a boy that's usually so emotionally contained so openly emotional... over him.

Izumi taps him on the shoulder, drawing the bird-headed teen's attention, and asks "My family, Shouto's, and a few of our other friends were planning on going out to celebrate after the Festival... Do you want to join? If you're not busy I mean."

"I can join. My parents are both away on business right now, so our celebration will be after they've come back in a couple days."

He definitely didn't agree to make Shouto happy. The way his heterochromatic eyes had pleaded with him in his peripheral vision had no impact in his choice whatsoever. And he most certainly wasn't blushing under his feathers at the excited little squeal the taller boy clinging to his arm did at his answer.

Not at all.

Judging by the way Izumi, Setsuno, and Shinsou look at him as he allows Shouto to drag him over to his siblings they believe his cool act as much as Fumikage himself does. Ochako and Akumu, as they join the actually fairly large group to leave, seem to be just as good at reading the shadow quirked boy's avian features as the others. And they're all just as unbothered by his appearance and spooky quirk as Izumi and Shouto are.

This... this is nice.

As he watches the group leave with his nemesis, who's doting over Midoriya-shoujo like any other proud father would when he's not ruffling the tall blue haired young man's long wavy hair or paying fond attention to what's clearly Midoriya-shoujo's mother, the Symbol of Piece's brain breaks just a little bit more. He follows from a distance, looking for any sign that the 200 year old super villain is up to no good.

The blonde hero isn't sure how to feel when, after watching the group for pretty much the entire day since noticing All For One, he hasn't seen the man act anything less than a loving father and spouse; proud of his children and their fiances.

As he leaves Toshinori is unaware of the man in question watching his withered civilian form with a raised brow before rolling his eyes and refocusing on enjoying himself with his family. Let All Might work himself up trying to find out his secret dastardly schemes, it's not like he'll find any.

Hisashi is retired after all, focusing more on his family and legal businesses these days.