Chapter 17 - Before the Festival

The next day, school was once again opened for kids to attend. Hiroto, still feeling slightly depressed from yesterday's shenanigans, was laying on top of his table while Tenya addressed the class.

"Hey, what's up with him?" Eijiro asked, pointing towards Hiroto.

"I guess he must still be thinking about the attack the other day," Mina answered him, looking a bit worried.

"I'm sure he'll be fine, these sort of things take time," Kaminari said.

Walking through the door, Aizawa appeared. Contrary to how injured he was in the original anime, he wasn't wrapped up in bandages like a mummy this time around. Only his arm and some other minor bruises were tended to.

"You're back already?!" The class exclaimed.

"My injuries aren't that bad, but enough about that. We have more important things to talk about." Aizawa said, standing behind his desk at the front of the class.

"We need to get you all ready for the sports festival,��� Aizawa said.

"The sports festival?!" Some people cried out.

"But, we were just attacked a few days ago. Is it safe to still hold the sports festival?" Uraraka asked.

"That's precisely why we're doing it. If we canceled the sports festival, it would make us look weak towards people who would want to scheme and plot against us. However, by holding the festival, we can show everyone that we're not a simple school that can be stunted by the likes of Villains." Aizawa explained.

He then went on to explain the significance of the sports festival, saying how it has become the biggest event in all of Japan. It is also an event where the country's top Heroes can come to scout out a student's potential in being a Hero.

While they were discussing, Hiroto thought to himself, 'The sports festival, huh? There's going to be a bunch of Heroes scouting us out. I don't really want to join an organization, but I won't have a choice because of the internship program that comes after this. Maybe I can ask All Might for a favor, or something.'

"Ah, Moriyama, here's what you requested," Aizawa said, tossing him a sealed box.

"You changed your costume?" Mina asked him.

"Well, didn't Todoroki do the same?" Eijiro said, with Todoroki nodding.

"Not really a costume change, just something I wanted to try out on the side," Hiroto said, opening the box to reveal a red hoodie. Exactly like the one he would usually wear at home.

"You asked for a hoodie?" Eijiro asked with a stupefied expression.

Hiroto nodded and said, "You can't ever be ready and in costume when a Villain attacks. So having more resistant everyday clothing just in case of an attack is quite handy."

"Sensei, I would like to request something from the support department!" Todoroki suddenly said with a straight face.

"You know, that's not a bad idea," Mina said, also requesting for some more resistant everyday clothing.

"Hey, if you guys are gonna do it don't leave me out!" Eijiro said, going up to Aizawa.

Soon, the rest of the class caught on to what Hiroto had requested and did the same. Aizawa massaged his head and said, "Do you guys think the support department is a place you can just order whatever you want from, for your own convenience?"

The class stayed quiet for a moment, before replying, "Yes."

"*sigh* Fine, but do it at the end of class and leave it on the table. I can't believe this got so out of hand.

By the end of class, everyone had already requested for more resistant civilian clothing to wear. That day was marked down as a strange event in the support department, as they were suddenly flooded by 20 strange requests at once from the same class.

......

After class ended and lunch began, Hiroto was on his way towards the canteen followed along by some people.

"Psst."

"Huh, who's that?" Mina asked, turning around to see All Might peeking from around the corner and beckoning towards Hiroto.

"Ignore him and just keep walking," Hiroto said.

"Wait, young Moriyama! I need to discuss something with you, so would you come and have your lunch with me in the staff room? Please?" All Might asked him.

"Sure, but I don't have my lunch with me, since I always eat at the canteen," Hiroto replied.

Todoroki then took out a bag from nowhere and opened it up, asking Hiroto, "What flavor do you like most?"

"Hm? Well, I guess spicy seafood…" Hiroto answered.

"Oh, nice. I'll repay you with some cup ramen later, thanks." Hiroto said as he took food from Todoroki and left with All Might.

Eijiro peeked to see what was inside Todoroki's bag, and almost died laughing when he saw it was packed full of different flavors of cup ramen.

When Hiroto reached the staff restroom, he saw Izuku already sitting inside.

"Ah, Hiroto! Were you also called in by All Might?" He asked.

"Yup, although I have a feeling about what All Might wants to talk about," Hiroto said as he started to boil some water in the corner with a kettle.

"Sorry to bring you two in, but I have some important matters to discuss with boys." all Might said in his powered down form.

*slurp*

"So, what is it about?" Hiroto asked, slurping his noodles.

"Well, first off I need to thank Moriyama properly for his performance against the Villains. Thanks to him, I didn't need to push myself further than needed." All Might said, bowing towards Hiroto slightly in gratitude.

"Well then, would you say that this counts as a favor?" Hiroto asked suddenly.

"Uh, I guess if you want? But, what sort of favor would you like?" All Might asked him.

"I'll ask you later, *slurp* just continue with what you wanted to talk about first," Hiroto said.

All Might nodded and said, "We need to talk about the sports festival. Young Midoriya, as it stands you still can't adjust to the One For All. So what are we gonna do about it?"

Izuku looked down into his ŀȧp, and said, "I'm not sure. Whenever I use the power you gave me, it always backfires and damages me. However, I do feel that it is getting slightly better."

As the two continued talking, Hiroto zoned out and thought to himself, 'Since there are two weeks till the sports festival, that means I have some free time in between. Everyone's going to be training for it, I guess I'll do some training of my own... By expanding my 'Literature Knowledge''

At the end of his thought, he listened in on the conversation once again, with All Might telling Izuku that he doesn't have much time left to stand as the Symbol of Peace anymore.

"The U.A. sports festival is a big event that the whole country will be taking note of! This is where you will come in and announce yourself as the "All Might" of the next generation, the Symbol's offspring egg! You, Izuku Midorya, have arrived!"

*cough cough* "Sorry to rain on your parade there, but at his current state, it's going to be absolutely impossible." Hiroto said.

"He's right…" Izuku said, looking at his hands.

"For now, that is." Hiroto then added but was too tired to continue that long conversation and switched topics. Turning to All Might, he said, "I'll let you two talk, I'm leaving."

Before All Might could react, Hiroto already escaped the room and was in the hallway. Walking down it, he looked out the window and thought to himself.

'The Symbol of Peace? When people find out how strong I am, how would they react? Would they be afraid? Happy? Or expectant?'

Shaking his head, the light shone down on Hiroto's head as he walked down the hallway. 'There's 2 weeks before the sports festival. After that, is the internship program. I really don't want to join an organization though. I'll have to talk to the hamster and All Might about it.'

As Hiroto was deep in thought, he shook his head and said," There's something more important to do before that."

With the light shining down on his head, he said, "The limited-time manga sale today!"

The rest of the day progressed as usual, with Hiroto attending the rest of the afternoon classes until school ended, finally freeing him.

However, before he was able to leave there was a little incident appearing in front of their class. A large group of students were gathered outside of class 1-A, blocking their exit.

"What's going on?!" Uraraka exclaimed.

"They're scoping out the competition. Tsk, they just want to see the people who came through the Villain attack." Katsuki said as he stared at the people blocking their way. "It's pointless to try, so why don't you just fuċk off, ya goddamn mob."

Then, someone's voice came out of the crowd of people, "I never knew that you guys would be so arrogant. Are all the kids enrolled at the department of Heroics this way?"

"Aaahh?!" Katsuki scowled, starting to get riled up.

Before the boy with the messy indigo-colored hair, Shinso, could continue, someone's voice interrupted them.

"Hey, can you guys get out of the way? There's a big manga sale going on, and I don't want to be late for it."