Inko Midoriya groaned. The older woman was clutching her head, where a truly astounding hangover was beating her brain senseless.
There wasn't really much to do about that right now though, other than drinking more water. She had gone through two cauldrons of miso soup and drank through 3 full bottles of water so far this morning, and the pain was still there. Thankfully David was kind enough to hand her a bottle he had filled from the spring without any prompting.
"Thanks."
"No problem." The American chuckled and popped open one of his own drink for today, a soda.
She knew he would much rather have preferred some German beer, but alas, such was the price of having to ferry around people in cars.
God knows she wasn't in form to drive at the moment. Not with this insane pain in her skull.
It had been quite some time since Inko had just gone to town with her gal pals and drunk herself into oblivion.
Not since her college days, so, so long ago now.
Still, there were times when celebrating was in order, and the news she had gotten last night certainly was one such occasion. That said, it had also meant she'd had to ask David to both pick her and her girlfriends up after the partying, and to drive her home, and to drive her baby to school the day after.
He had done so with no complaints. The man had always been a dear, in all the years Inko knew him. Of course, if he wasn't, he never would have crossed the pond with Hisashi and left their old… Unsavory lives behind.
After driving Izuku, he'd headed over to their home to watch the sports festival together with her.
It was weird. She and Izuku had always had a tradition of watching the sports festival together each year.
It had always brought a smile to his face to watch them, and in turn, she had always been so happy every time he smiled at seeing the competition between superpowered teenagers.
It had always been a strictly family affair. Now she was watching it with an old friend instead. It felt weird. Awkward.
What felt even more awkward was seeing her baby on TV alongside all the rest. He stood like a black blotch of paint in a sky compared to the rest, given he wore a gym uniform that had been dyed black by the alien.
The camera crews didn't focus much on him, but she still didn't have much problem picking up the look of awkward determination on his adorable, precious face. It reminded her of nothing as much as when Hisashi was about to meet her parents for the first time.
"Seems they're finally starting." David noted, in a tone that screamed "Get on with it already.".
"Oh, they still have the Athlete's Oath first."
"... And that is?"
Oh right, he wasn't Japanese. They didn't have these kinds of things in America. Either that, or he hadn't seen a school tournament before.
"It's a… Hnng… Ceremonial thing. They have a student representative say a short speech before the event officially starts."
The student in question was Uraraka Ochako, one of Izuku's closer friends. She didn't really know much about her beyond the name, but she seemed a nice enough girl. About the only thing that had made her do a double-take was her arms, which she had rolled up enough that both arms were mostly visible, and it was easy to see that Uraraka had been hitting the gym a lot in recent times.
"So, that's the powerhouse eh?"
"That's what Izuku says anyway."
"Man, she's RIPPED."
David scratched his chin in contemplation.
"You said the pink girl was also Izuku's friend?"
"Ashido-san? Yeah, she is."
"And she's also pretty well built… Think he might have a type?"
Inko stared at him with a blank look on her face, before blood flushed to her cheeks.
"Y-Y-You think he-My baby has-Oh my God does he?"
She hadn't even considered that! Did her son have a type? Strong, powerful women? Oh God, she'd never even considered that! As she flushed, a bolt of pain burst through her skull, making her flinch.
David laughed.
"Eh, who knows. Guess we'll have to wait and see."
An awkward pause followed as Inko had her face buried in her hands, watching Izuku's friend through her fingers.
When Adam said something again, it was with quite a bit more serious tone than before.
"So, any plans for when you'll tell Izuku? He should know. Hisashi is his dad after all."
"I… We were planning on waiting until summer. It's still months away yet before it happens in any case."
"We. So you've talked with Hisashi about it then?"
"Of course I have! It's just that… Well, I don't really wanna tell him, then have something happen and the whole thing collapses one month from now."
She had had that happened before.
They had made plans, then the whims of fate had thrown all their plans to the winds.
Such was the way of things when you were poor, and unimportant in society. One single catastrophe could upend everything, and you had to remake your entire life in the wake of it.
---
Uraraka's speech as the school's representative for this year was kinda lackluster, but it could have been so much worse.
A shiver went down his spine as Izuku wondered how he'd have done if he had been the one who had been chosen to hold an impromptu speech.
Probably just stood there in complete frozen silence most likely.
The moment she was done, the teacher overseeing the festival this year immediately took charge again.
The teacher in question was their modern Arts teacher Kayama Nemuri, better known by her hero name Midnight.
Of all the teachers of Yuei, she was probably the most Infamous, having single-handedly made the government change regulations about how much material a costume had to cover for any hero who didn't have a quirk that made the regulation impossible to work with.
The reason for this had been her original costume, which had literally just been a coat, a thick belt to hide her nether, and a two-pouch bandolier covering her breasts, alongside boots, gloves, glasses, and a choker.
It had probably been the most scandalous outfit ever actually used by a hero in Japan and had led to the government clamping down on the previously very loose costume regulation.
Nowadays, you needed to be someone like Hagakure to be allowed to wear such a revealing outfit.
Not that Midnight's current costume was much better. In fact, it was just as scandalous, though it did follow the new rules.
More to the point, under a very scandalous leotard/corset, she wore a thin, skin-colored piece of fabric, that essentially made her look completely naked, except it didn't show her nipples.
All in all, Izuku couldn't imagine anyone who embodied the epithet "The R-Rated Hero" better than Midnight did. She was an exhibitionist to her core, and beyond that, she was probably the most energetic of Yuei's staff, only behind Present Mic.
Practically the moment Uraraka was finished with her speech and stepping down from the podium, she began explaining the first event with a crack of a short, multi-tailed whip to punctuate that it was now time to listen.
"NOW THEN, WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY! LET'S! GET! THIS! STARTED!!!"
Behind her, a massive holographic screen popped up.
"THESE ARE THE QUALIFIERS! IT'S AT THIS STAGE THAT SO MANY YOUNG, DEFENCELESS, HELPLESS STUDENTS ARE SENT HOME CRYING EVERY YEAR! AND THE FATEFUL FIRST OF EVENT OF THIS YEAR IS…. THIS!!!"
With another snap of the whip, she motioned towards the hologram, where words now appeared.
Namely, the words "Obstacle Course."
-Oh so just a race then. Great, we should dominate this, no problem.-
Mina, who stood at Izuku's side, evidently felt the same.
"A race! Sweet! We'll dominate this so hard, right Midori?"
"Ye-Yeah."
...
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