The stormy night passed.
It hadn’t been a minor incident, even as a joke, but to the outside world it was brushed off as a light attack and a battle that had caused a security program malfunction.
Since there had been quite a few people at the party, they were offered compensation and asked to keep quiet.
With no casualties, it was at least relatively easy to settle.
As for who had dealt with the villain, it was explained that All Might had stepped in and handled everything himself.
It was too much of a burden for the event organizers, for All Might, and even for the Class A students who had actually been in the fight to reveal that fifteen- and sixteen-year-olds had actively joined the battle.
All Might seemed regretful that he had ended up taking all the credit by accident, and he apologized to the kids, but the still-innocent students mostly accepted the outcome without complaint.
In fact, they were more than satisfied that they could stay in top-class accommodations for the rest of their visit and use every service at I-Expo for free.
They also liked the fact that they had earned the right to attend I-Expo for the rest of their lives.
That is, most of them did.
Except for Kirishima.
"You expect me to just let them get away with it after those old bastards fought with their lives on the line?"
In the car heading to school with Ashido, Kirishima ground his teeth.
If they were to treat it like a mercenary contract, then based on their achievements, two hundred million yen each would have been the bare minimum.
Of course, everyone’s contribution had been different, but considering the scale of the incident, that was the least they should have received.
But Kirishima also had something to be dissatisfied about regarding Johannes’s leniency, so he couldn’t exactly push for monetary compensation.
There was also the matter of image management for his future hero career.
Once again, he felt that he needed someone who could move on his behalf.
"Still angry? Eijiro is usually pretty broad-minded, but for some reason he really holds grudges."
"You have to calculate a person’s worth properly. I don’t care about anything else, but if someone lowballs another man’s life, you should shove a gun in his mouth and haggle over what his own life is worth."
"Wow, you really sound like a bad guy."
"I’d prefer you call me the guardian of fair trade, not a bad guy."
Thanks to that, the matter of finding an agency, which he had been taking a little leisurely, was handled as soon as he returned home.
Of course, since he had a trustworthy acquaintance and an agency with strong influence, there was no need to gather information himself.
It had been three days since he and Mirko, who had even come personally because her cherished junior was signing a contract, negotiated the terms and finally signed the paperwork.
She hadn’t even hesitated to threaten the agency president on Kirishima’s behalf, and thanks to that, he was able to secure a contract so good it was hard to believe it was a rookie deal.
One of the results was the car with a driver that he was now riding in comfortably with Ashido.
"Haha. Our president still seems to have a headache from that guardian of fair trade. He said he got taken for a sucker."
At the driver-manager’s words as he turned the wheel, Kirishima grinned and replied, "Well, it wasn’t exactly fair trade. Still, since it was my first contract, I did give them a deal that was a little too good for me. In a few years, they’ll probably want to bow to me and thank me for signing under these terms."
"You really never lose, do you? The president was speechless the day you came in to sign."
"Still, there won’t be any backstabbing, so please tell him we should keep things amicable. Well, if Haruto hyung goes independent later on, I’ll think about going with him. But before that, you’ll have to treat me well enough to make me consider it."
Haruto quietly laughed at Kirishima’s words, spoken as if he were already certain to become a big name.
In truth, there was no need to say certain, because his ability was already that of a big name.
Japan placed many institutional restrictions on minors trying to make a mark, so he had only appeared in the media a few times, but if this had been a lawless land without order, he might already have been leading a massive warlord faction.
He brushed away the pointless thought that had suddenly come to mind and spoke about the progress of the matter Kirishima had asked him to handle.
"Anyway, let’s talk about that when I go independent. More importantly, it looks like it’ll be difficult to take in Paulus for now."
"Hmm? Is it because he’s not active anymore?"
"Yeah. We’re a company first and foremost. It’s hard to jump into something that won’t make a profit. If you ask us for help, we can move in that direction, but we can’t officially register Mr. Paulus as one of our affiliated heroes. He’s not a hero right now, he’s a former hero, right? And if we were to take money from him and work for him, that would be a different line of business altogether."
"I see. That makes sense too. Well, there’s still plenty of time before the old man comes over, so let’s think about it later."
Kirishima accepted Haruto’s explanation and changed the subject.
There was still some time before Paulus finished settling his affairs in Germany and came to Japan.
Unlike Samat, he had no foundation in the country at all, but he did have a wide network in Germany.
And his combat ability was beyond question.
Kirishima smiled at the thought of bringing him into the Hall of War.
"Eijiro. What are you thinking about? You look really sneaky."
"Sneaky? I’m a man who doesn’t even know how to make that kind of face."
"I don’t think that’s true..."
While the two of them bickered over something trivial, the car had already reached the front of the school.
As Kirishima got out, he said to Haruto, "I’ll probably be at school until five, so please make yourself comfortable until then. It’s a shame outsiders can’t come in."
"Well, with the way things are right now, of course that’d be difficult. How many times have you run into villains by now? More than three, I’d say."
"Haha. I guess the god of war is watching over me."
Counting only since he had enrolled, it was exactly four times.
If he counted his whole life, there had been two more.
"Then we’ll be off. See you later, big brother."
"Yeah. Have a good training session."
"No matter how I think about it, this feels less like training and more like they called us out to have fun. I don’t think that stiff Midoriya would do something like that, though..."
Kirishima tilted his head as he thought about the message from Midoriya.
It was believable enough that someone might suddenly suggest training at the pool, but if the sender was Midoriya, it was completely unlike him.
Someone must have put him up to it.
"Well, I’ll know when I get there. I have a rough idea, though..."
"Of what?"
"No, nothing."
Kirishima headed for the pool with Ashido, who punched his arm and called him ridiculous.
After changing into swimwear in the locker room, he found the other boys who had arrived first.
"Yo! Kirishima! You’re a little late."
"Ah, sorry. Mina caused an incident."
After eating at Kirishima’s house as usual, Ashido had suddenly decided that today she would do the dishes for once and ended up breaking three plates, which had delayed them quite a bit.
Kirishima pressed a hand to his forehead, feeling a headache coming on even though he hadn’t been hit, and saw Kaminari and Sho looking utterly defeated.
Across from them, the girls were doing warm-ups.
Of course, their swimsuits were the school-issued ones.
At a glance, Kirishima understood the situation and let out a sigh.
"So it was you guys after all..."
"Kaminari! Sho! Let’s build up our stamina at school! What a wonderful suggestion!"
Just then, Iida, who had no sense of timing whatsoever and whose eyes when looking at people were pure to the point of absurdity, approached the two of them.
"I was impressed! Come now! Let us all work up a sweat together!"
Watching Iida return with the two terrified boys tucked under his arms, Kirishima briefly wondered whether he truly had no awareness of the situation or whether he was doing it on purpose.
From Kirishima’s point of view, since he absolutely refused to rub skin with naked men unless it was a life-or-death situation, Iida seemed at least half deliberate no matter how he looked at it.
So while the girls played ball in the pool, the boys all exercised together in a grueling workout.
The time passed under the blazing sun, with hot sweat pouring down their bodies.
Kirishima watched the kids resting for a moment while doing handstand push-ups on one finger.
Like it or not, the ones who would stand at the center of the storm were undoubtedly elites who had few peers in their age group.
But since when did villains politely check your age before charging in?
In the end, these kids would need to obtain strength that transcended age.
"If it were easy, nobody would have to suffer for it..."
"What? Eijiro’s suffering?"
"Of course I’m suffering, but who do you think is responsible for that?"
"Wow! There’s someone who makes Eijiro suffer? Who is it?"
"No, never mind."
Kirishima straightened up and answered.
With nearly forty centimeters of height difference between them, looking down at her from right in front only showed the top of Ashido’s head.
He rubbed her pink hair roughly, as if venting his usual grudge over her constant troublemaking, and said, "Are the girls taking a break too?"
"Yep! We’ve been playing ever since we got to the pool! Everyone’s a little tired."
Then Bakugo’s voice rang out from the other side.
As always, the brat who was desperate to tear Midoriya apart was once again going on about a match or something.
Kirishima sighed and wondered when that wild animal would ever learn how to be human.
Come to think of it, the source of everything that exhausted him was all around him.
"Hmm. Thinking about it, just training would be a little boring."
Then Iida, who had been talking with Midoriya nearby, reacted to Bakugo’s words.
He proposed an impromptu race, and everyone agreed.
For the boys-only race, Kirishima withdrew at once.
"Huh? Kirishima isn’t joining?"
"If I joined, I’d just win automatically. Wouldn’t it be enough to use [Demon Form] and just walk over there?"
"Hmm. That’s true too. Very well. Then you shall be the referee!"
"Sure."
Kirishima readily agreed to Iida’s suggestion and watched the boys bustling about.
After shuffling around to form teams, they soon stood at the pool’s starting blocks.
The moment Yaoyorozu blew the whistle, the students in the preliminary race dove into the water.
Except for Bakugo.
He simply blasted over the surface with his Explosion and flew across it.
Since they had been told they could use their Quirks, it was only natural, but the result still felt oddly off.
"Wasn’t this supposed to be a swimming race?"
Kirishima watched Bakugo shouting at Sero and Sho, who were pointing that out, and briefly wondered whether this was really how it was supposed to go.
But once Quirks were allowed, that too made sense.
After he judged it acceptable, the rest of the competition quickly moved beyond the bounds of ordinary swimming.
While Sero and Aoyama got tangled up and eliminated after flying with their respective Quirks, Todoroki froze the floor and slid across it.
He leapt down from the ice pillar he had raised with practiced ease and watched the next group as if it were only natural.
In the next preliminary heat, Iida and Midoriya were locked in a close race.
Iida skimming over the water with the engines in his calves and Midoriya simply swimming faster with Full Cowl came down to a razor-thin margin.
The winner was Midoriya.
"Well, then. The final will be Bakugo, Todoroki, and Midoriya, the winners of each group. That works, right?"
"Good. Hey, Half-and-Half! Do your best! Don’t use only half your power like you did at the sports festival—come at me with everything you’ve got!"
Todoroki nodded without saying anything.
It had already been several months since he had finally found his mother and begun to loosen the old shackles around his heart, and now he no longer held back the flames on his left side.
Nothing could stop him.
"Understood."
"Same goes for you! Damn Deku!"
"Got it, Kacchan."
The three of them agreed to give it their all and took their places at the starting line.
The watching students burst into cheers for the people they supported.
"Sweep them all away, Bakugo! Just don’t kill anyone!"
"Don’t lose either, Todoroki!"
"Go, Deku!"
Amid the overlapping voices, the three of them each devised their own strategy for victory while remaining appropriately tense.
'I’ll break out in one shot.'
Bakugo muttered as he sparked a small explosion in his palm.
Beside him, Todoroki and Midoriya were also making their own plans.
"Ready!"
Iida shouted the signal and immediately blew the whistle.
The three of them kicked off the ground with solemn force.
And then plunged straight into the water.
"What?"
"Did their Quirks disappear?"
As the flustered students began to murmur, Aizawa’s voice came from behind them.
"It’s 5:00 p.m.! The pool’s usage time has just ended. Hurry up and go home."
"Aw, come on, Sensei!"
"It was just getting good!"
"What did you say?"
"Nothing!"
The students who had been protesting immediately flattened themselves under Aizawa’s red-eyed glare.
In the end, the little midsummer swimming tournament ended without a winner.
Kirishima didn’t bother hiding his disappointment as he watched the students heading back to the changing room.
They were still young after all.
After everything they had been through, it wouldn’t have been strange for their personalities to twist badly, and yet they were still bright. That was admirable.
As the incident at I-Island had shown, they were brave too.
But from his experience, the brave and the righteous were always the first to die.
It was the slightly underhanded ones who survived and climbed to the top.
And if they still wanted to remain brave and righteous, there was only one way.
They had to become stronger.
The upcoming forest training camp would become a field of opportunity for the kids.
Kirishima narrowed his eyes at the noisy students.
The blazing summer day faded away with his thoughts once again drifting elsewhere.
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