Howdy folks, how's it going?

Still in the process of getting used to only working on one fic, but I'd like to think it's working out for me.

Anyway, as always, shout out to Chaos Productions for his continued assistance.

And as always, I own neither BNHA nor WH40K.

Now, enjoy.

/

"Well, that was a thing." Mina commented, with an uncharacteristic but understandable tiredness to her usual, chipper tone.

It was the end of the Festival, and after all the ceremonies and time taken to check the stalls and festivities, the exhausted students of class 1-A were now making their way back to the dorm. The only ones not currently present in their group were Bakugou, Todoroki and Iida, none of whom anyone had seen since their disappearances during the day.

"Tell me about it," Tooru agreed, only the faint movement of her clothes indicating the accompanying nod. "And that was just the first one. We got two more waiting for us in the next couple of years. Makes you wonder just how much crazier things will get in the future, doesn't it?"

"I'd really rather not think about it…" Mineta muttered, looking more dead on his feet than any of them, and very pointedly walking on the opposite end of their group from Midoriya. And he wasn't the only one that what occasionally looking the green-haired boy's way, with various glances of bemusement, confusion, and some mild concern.

Not that Midoriya had even noticed. Even now, hours after being handed his medal, the boy was still proudly wearing it around his neck, occasionally looking down at it and grinning widely. This was probably the happiest Momo could recall seeing him be since back at USJ once he had realized they'd been surrounded by villains. She promptly tried to not think about that particular memory too much.

"By the way, did anyone hear anything about what's gonna happen now?" Sero inquired curiously, looking specifically in Momo's direction, probably due to her position as class president. "I mean, we all know how Aizawa-sensei can be, but even he wouldn't expect us to just show up to class bright and early tomorrow, right?" The boy paused, briefly considering his own words. "Or well, he probably would, but surely the rest of the faculty would step in, for once?"

"Honestly, I wasn't informed one way or the other." The pony-tailed girl replied, before pondering slightly. "One of Ectoplasm-sensei's clones did say that our presence was required at the dorm right about now, which was why I had us all meet up to get there, but that's about it."

"Oh, that's why?" Kirishima commented in realization, before concern briefly flashed across his face. "Shouldn't we try to get a hold of Bakugou, Todoroki and Iida one more time, then? If everyone got called for this, then they should be there too, right?"

"Well, I can't speak fer Stuffy or Frosty," Midoriya interjected, as the dorm building was looming at the other end of the courtyard they were currently crossing. "But I told ya before, knowin' Ol'Katsu, he'z prolly already back dere. Like as not spent dah day sulkin' in his room and… and…"

The whole group suddenly stopped, all heads turning to look at Midoriya with surprise, and no small amount of alarm, as the class's resident crazy suddenly stopped talking and stood still, staring ahead intently.

"Midoriya?" Momo inquired, understandably concerned as to what might have cause such behavior. "What's wrong?"

Midoriya did not reply, instead raising his head slightly and… sniffing at the air, once, twice. Making everyone else start looking at each other, bewildered. What in the…?

But again, the boy didn't really seem to register their reactions. Instead, an eager, happy grin bloomed on his face, not unlike the one he'd shown when All Might had handed out the medals, and with the same, puppy like excitement to match.

"Oh, zog yeah." He muttered, voice thick with a sudden want, and he started walked again, with all the speed and renewed sense of purpose of a man who'd just found an oasis in the middle of the desert.

Confused, and still slightly concerned, considering that prior precedent showed that things that made the boy react this way weren't necessarily good by any sane standard, Momo still hesitantly followed, and the rest of the group followed with her.

As they approached, the class president couldn't help but notice that the lights were on. And as they were just at the door, suddenly a thought sprang to mind.

Something was smelling good.

And that was all the consideration she had time to make before Midoriya kicked the (clearly and mercifully unlocked) door open, walking inside without hesitation. As Momo did the same, her eyes widened, as everything was made clear.

Waiting for them inside was a smiling Midoriya-san, and right beside her, in the lounge's large dinner table, was a veritable feast. All sorts of dishes, from Japanese to Western, from the entrees to the desserts, were arrayed before them, each and every one looking cooked to perfection, a multitude of delicious aromas flooding the room and her senses.

Momo was mortified to realize that the sudden growling that could be heard in the room was her own stomach, but fortunately for her the rest of the entering students were too caught up in the appetizing sight to notice, heck, most of them had their own stomachs contributing to the chorus.

It was only at the last moment that it registered to her that Midoriya-san wasn't alone, sitting at the sofa were Bakugou and Todoroki, the former with his usual constipated look of grumpiness, and the later looking somewhat uncomfortable in a nonplussed way.

"Surprise." Midoriya-san said once everyone was inside, looking particularly amused at everyone's faces. "I figured you all must be hungry after all the effort you made today, so I took the liberty of preparing a little celebration snack. A reward for all your hard work, if you will."

A little snack? Not even her family's in house chef would've been able to come up with such a staggering spread in so short a time, and that man had worked in some of the most famous restaurants the world over before they'd hired him. If she hadn't already seen it in action, Momo would have wondered whether the woman's quirk truly was minor telekinesis…

"Aaaawwwww, thankz, Mah. You'z dah best!" Midoriya cheered, earning a chuckle from his mother.

"And before anything else," She replied, stepping forward and hugging her son. "Congratulations, Izuku. I am so, so proud of you."

"Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh…" The green-haired boy groused with clear embarrassment, but didn't really make any effort to break free from the embrace. From him, it felt like a surprisingly human reaction, Momo couldn't help but think, and neither could the others considering all the amused looks now being thrown his way.

The most violent and combat-eager boy in the class, a total mama's boy. Go figure.

It was at this point that Kirishima broke off from staring at the feast and the family, turning his attention back towards the two teens in the couch.

"So this was where you guys were. Guess Midoriya was right about Bakugou." He said, earning him an aggravated growl from the ashen blond. "But how about you, Todoroki? Gotta admit, kinda surprised to see you here. You haven't been the most… social guy in the class so far."

"Well, after Recovery Girl saw me off, I was kind of intending to stay in my room for the night, pondering some things, and so was Bakugou, as I understood it. But Midoriya-san was having none of it, and despite our protests she insisted that we be here for this" Todoroki replied, giving the redhead a mild stare. "Midoriya-san can be… scarily persuasive, I have realized."

Bakugou gritted his teeth in a grimace, as if the mere notion of agreeing with the dual-haired teen was causing him physical pain.

"Really?" Kirishima couldn't help but ask dubiously. Scary was never a word he would have associated to the woman that had been all smiles and sunshine from the moment he met her…

"Think of it this way." The dual-haired boy retorted, looking back to the mother and son duo, still in an embrace. "She can reign him in."

"…Yeah, fair point, I guess." The shark-toothed teen conceded the point. Bakugou, if anything, looked even more aggravated by the whole thing.

"I don't see four-eyes around to have to deal with this crap…" He muttered lowly, although it didn't escape the other boys' notice how he too was throwing sneaky glances at all the food.

"Language, Katsuki." Midoriya-san chided lightly as she finally let go of her son, startling the explosive teen at being caught out, and her smile took a slight downturn. "As for Iida-kun… Unfortunately, he won't be here for the next couple of days. There's been a family emergency, though I am not privy to the details."

That drew Momo's attention, as well as that of most everybody present. It certainly explained his sudden absence from the tournament, but what could've possibly happened…?

"But on that note, while Aizawa-san cannot be here personally, I was asked to inform you of a few things. You kids have the next two days off, to rest and recover from the tournament. If you'd like, you can take that time to visit your families, just bring it up with the faculty tomorrow morning and it'll all be arranged. After that, when you get back to class it'll be time to pick out your internships." The woman, swiftly picking up on the concerned mood, continued, smiling as always. "And with that said, let's not let all of this food go cold, shall we? Please, dig in. You've earned it."

"Yeah!" Mina cheered, swiftly joined by Hagakure. "Time off and good grub! Three cheers for Mamadoriya!"

The others were swift to join in, beginning the festivities in earnest. They had, indeed, earned it.

/

The next day, while the kids were enjoying their respite, other people were working. Contrary to what some of the students might have thought, Aizawa would not have denied the children this time off, as much for his benefit as it was for theirs. These two days were perfect both to catch up on a bit more sleep than the average and to take care of the needed paperwork for what came next.

After the festival, the internships, the same old song and dance, and naturally, as the homeroom teachers, it fell upon both him and Kan to screen all the students' nominations. And honestly, things hadn't been going too bad. About the one anomaly had been the huge stack of nominations from the support tech companies, all addressed to one particular kid. Which was fair enough, considering the kind of things Midoriya could literally pull out of his pockets, but a) if the kid had wanted that kind of attention he'd have gone for the support course, b) Aizawa was busy enough attending to the hero nominations as it was, and c) he wasn't enough of an asshole to have Power Loader exposed to the trigger of his recent neurotic breakdowns, nor risk that happening to anyone else, so that pile was promptly put the side, bound for the shredder.

Sure, someone was bound to try to reach out to the kid eventually, but Aizawa saw no reason to facilitate that given how little they still understood of what exactly was the deal with Midoriya's quirk. That weird voice from the first day still echoed in the back of his mind at the thought…

It was then that one particular paper proved to be a good distraction for the hero's musings, making him double take to make sure he was seeing the name right.

"Everything alright, Aizawa?" Kan inquired, having swiftly noticed his colleague's uncharacteristic reaction.

Aizawa, for his part just stared at the paper for a little bit, before giving off a weary, annoyed sigh, and turning to one of the few other people currently at the office.

"All Might."

The number one hero, currently in his emaciated state a couple of desks away, had asked to be present for this process, ostensibly as part of his learning experience as a member of the staff and to provide what assistance might be needed, but Aizawa now had a sneaking suspicion that hadn't been the only reason.

"Yes?" The man replied simply, looking up from his own stack of papers.

"You wouldn't happen to have anything to do with this, would you?" The erasure hero inquired mildly, pushing the nomination towards the other man.

"Hm?" Was the reply, followed by a quick check. "Oh, yeah, I invited her to watch the Festival with me, and to send this if what she saw impressed her."

"…Of course." Aizawa replied resignedly, rubbing bridge of enough just to ward off the prospect of all the future headaches this would cause.

"Ok, I'm sorry, but what's the problem here?" Kan asked with open confusion, prompting All Might to push the paper his way. "…Oh, I see."

"Just to be clear, you are aware of the kind of attention it'll draw if this nomination makes the cut and the kid picks it, correct?" The Erasure hero asked, giving the number one hero his usual, unimpressed stare. But to his mild surprise, for once All Might didn't falter under it.

"Aizawa, I assure you, I have considered this very carefully." He said, suddenly very serious. "Young Midoriya has the right spirit, but he is going to need some very specific kinds of help to make it as a hero. And out of all the heroes available, I have little doubt that she is the best suited for the job. There are risks, I won't deny it, but considering who we are talking about? The pros far outweigh the cons."

For a few moments, there was only silence, as both teachers simply stared at each other. And for once, it was Aizawa who folded first, grudgingly acknowledging that there was a certain logic to it.

"Fine," He conceded. "I suppose there could be worse choices."

/

I will admit, there was not actually all that much going on in this chapter, but considering that next one 'll be coming in a couple'a weeks, I kinda hope that won't be so bad.

Also, in the previous chapter, some reviewers have expressed some confusion about the selection of students that made it to the podium. The logic that I was operating on for that was, yes, Todoroki and Hatsume were the winners of those spots, and everyone that was watching the thing knows it, but as was mentioned, both were incapacitated by their respective injuries, and thus were physically incapable of attending, and I figured that despite what happened in canon, which (as some other reviewers pointed out) while funny was also kinda weird, the faculty wouldn't actually chain injured students to the podium to force them to attend. But considering the whole spectacle angle of the event, it also wouldn't have made sense to just have Izuku alone in the podium, and so they instead resorted to going down the placement order to get people to stand in. A weird arrangement, perhaps, but the best that could have been managed in the heat of the moment, or at least that's what I was thinking.

Anyway, next time, the two days of rest end, and it'll be time for a rather significant event.

Cya all on the next one, stay safe and take care.