Chapter 41:

(A/N: Sorry for the late update. I think this is the longest the book went without being updated by yours truly, even the hiatus was shorter lol, but I did catch covid and it hit like a mofo. I'm still recovering, but I can write comfortably enough to the point it helps distract me from how much of a cripple I was. Hope you enjoy the chapter~! <3 )

As I was making my way through the long concrete corridors in search of the sacred ground, aka the cafeteria, I didn't forget to do my own responsibilities as a hero.

I couldn't just leave Nuggies in the tunnel, no, I had to move it as there was a no pets allowed rule. So, as the obedient law-abiding citizen, I am, I portalled him to my private building in UA.

I could have kept him if I hadn't already played the support animal card with Kunou. Minor oversight on my part in hindsight. Then again, I could cuddle with Kunou, I couldn't really cuddle with Nuggies. Technically I could, but I'm far too lazy to use a quirk to alter either mine or Nuggie's sizes to achieve optimal cuddles.

I also didn't forget to unfreeze Midnight either, her reaction on the monitors was hilarious. Her face morphed from confusion, surprise, shock, and when Lego-kun finally told her what I did? It turned into a mixture of despair at not being able to stop me, and annoyance at how the HPSC would probably be hounding her after this. She was UA's PR head after all.

She wanted to start the next event and get the ball rolling, but UA decided to try and do damage control for the time being. They cut to ads, began searching for any of their employees on the list, and tried to calm down the crowd.

There wasn't much needed in terms of calming down for those seated in the stadium. My final use of Weighted Words made it so they wouldn't riot. At most, they would be a bit peeved at the information, and minorly at the fact that the events were delayed too, before ultimately dealing with it at a later date.

There were some outliers, of course, they were mainly the heroes that were present inside of the stadium who appeared on the list. They were extremely frustrated. They came to the sports festival for a day off, yet the venue turned into their prison for the night.

Reporters and journalists all over Japan rapidly began checking the website that was listed in hopes of a huge story. It was the biggest chance for any of them to make a name for themselves in their lifetime, and they were determined to not let it slip by them.

Looking out the window of the winding corridor, I was delighted by what my media shitstorm caused. The reporters were trying to storm the building. Why was I delighted by this, you ask?

It was because none of the reporters that were deployed for the sports festival belonged to the IzaYao network. This would bring my family an opportunity to milk this for all it's worth, and I'm sure my mother knew it too.

My mother would extend an olive branch to those heroes who are desperately trying to explain their side of the story, to dig themselves out of the hole they now found themselves in.

We would be profiting from this scandal for the entire year. The HPSC wouldn't want to fire that many heroes and will try their best to keep this under wraps. Unfortunately, this wouldn't be able to happen. The HPSC was pressured into signing a very favorable contract for our family after the super-soldier recruitment fiasco a while back.

'What a great contract it is too~' I rejoiced at the memory of it.

We hold exclusive rights for any and all interviews that registered heroes undertake for the next 10 years. We could also call upon them to be interviewed at any time we wished, without having to pay an appearance fee to the HPSC or hero involved, we would only be required to send them a week's notice to the hero(es) and they would have to turn up and be on their best behavior for the set date.

It was a miracle of a contract that has been rolling in the cash for the past few years. That amount was about to triple, at the very minimum, by the end of this month.

They were so desperate for us not to cripple them completely with our threats of increased prices for materials, construction, and promotion, they were willing to sign anything. The way the stoic faces of the businessmen broke down into sheer desperation was an angelic sight for me.

I did leave some stuff out of the website, though. I left out Endeavor's charges. They were going to be posted the day before the initial court date, I want to let him think he's safe. It will only serve to make it all the sweeter when I watch it live on the couch, cuddling up with my family, eating some ice cream.

(A/N: What's your favorite ice cream flavor/combo? I personally don't know about my own, but I do fuck with coffee and also rum raisin ice cream.)

It will be a day to remember, that's for sure.

The pleasant smell of the cafeteria hit my nose, I knew I was in for a good time, it came into view soon after. It was identical to the one in the main building, the only difference being it only had two entrances/exits instead of the four in the main building.

The tempting aroma of the food grew stronger as I approached the serving area. I didn't get to eat breakfast today so this smell was growing too much for my poor gluttonous self. Saliva began building up in my mouth which I swallowed upon seeing Lunch Rush in action.

Whoever decided the hero rankings must be an idiot. They clearly overlooked the best hero ever, Lunch Rush! Their cooking can even save nigh-omnipotent beings such as myself! Lunch Rush is the only person in the world I would ever admit defeat to.

'Maybe Lunch Rush is actually Truck-kun in disguise? It would make sense, I've never seen their face before… and he does have a weird pipe coming out of him like Truck-kun has his exhaust pipe…' I theorized.

Luckily, I would be able to get my answer from the person themselves. At least, I hope I will be able to.

"Lunch Rush~!" I called out to the mysterious chef.

I caught his attention rather easily. He also stumbled mid pancake toss and somehow recovered perfectly, what a great hero. After letting out a sigh of relief he turned to me,

"Hello Sakuya, hungry after your speech?"

"You know it~! Did you like it?"

"Unfortunately, no, I wasn't able to hear it from here. I have no doubts that you caused some controversy. Care to fill me in on the details while I finish these up?" he asked, clearly knowing me all too well.

"Ehe… What are you talking about Lunch Rush? I would never~ do something like that, and on live TV too? How scandalous~"

He, obviously, didn't buy any of the shit I was saying.

"Alright, fine! I caused a media shitstorm which caused around 10%~ of the employed heroes for Japan at risk of losing their job."

"Oh~, and how did you go about doing that?"

"I may, or may not, have dug up all the dirt on heroes and placed it all on a perfectly accessible website. Don't worry, Lunch Rush, you have nothing to worry about. The only thing I could find on you was that you gave your mother food poisoning when you were 6, so you're safe." I explained, clearly ignoring how his body stiffened up at the mention of his 'failure'.

"So, what is your end goal for all of this? I would like to believe that you've done this for more than just the chaos it would cause."

"Of course I have a goal dummy. Sadly Fluffy-chan is listening in on this convo so I can't tell it to you."

My phone pinged soon after.

[Evil Rat Bestie: Astute observations, as always, Sakuya. I would like to know of this end goal of yours too, but it seems this humble 'Evil Rat' will have to wait. Maybe we aren't 'besties', as I was led to believe...]

'Is Fluffy-chan trying to guilt-trip me?'

[Evil Time Bestie: Thank you, Fluffy-chan. Nice try on the guilt-tripping. It may have worked if I had the puppy chimera eyes to go with it, but sadly you chose to do this over text instead of facetime.]

[Evil Rat Bestie: I see… Thank you for the input, it seems even with my quirk there are still some things I need to learn. I will leave you to enjoy your unadon now. P.S.I recommend the lemon strong zero with it.]

'How did he know what I was going to order?! Has he been taking notes-' my train of thought was interrupted by another ping.

[Evil Rat Bestie: Yes, I have. You are the most peculiar human I have seen, so I have taken the liberties to study you. I'm happy to hear the results of my observations were successful.]

[Evil Time Bestie: Fluffy-chan… Stop observing me like a nature documentary or I will turn you into a naked mole rat faster than All Might can say smash. P.S. Did you just recommend alcohol to a student btw? How scandalous of you~]

[Evil Rat Bestie: A student who is, if their word is to be believed, in their twenties. Yes, yes, I did. You will be thanking me later, if you can even string together coherent sentences by then that is.]

"Lunch rush, I'll be taking an extra-large unadon, some miso soup in a portable container, and two cans of lemon strong zero. If you could spare me another set of chopsticks too, that would be wonderful~."

I could only assume he was utterly bamboozled at my request. It's not every day that someone bluntly asks for alcohol from him, let alone a student. Then again, I was the student asking so he really should have expected it sooner or later.

"Sakuya, how old are you again?"

"Physically?"

"... I hate how you have to specify that, but yes."

"Physically I'm in my twenties~."

"Alright, just try and keep it discreet. I don't want thirsty students to start storming the place in search of what they assume to be lemonade."

I gave a lazy two-fingered salute before replying,

"Yes sir!"

He let out his umpteenth sigh and got to fixing up my order.

The steamed rice looked as if it was fresh out of the rice cooker with the amount of steam coming off of the grains.

The grilled eel already had me salivating before the lid was taken off of the container. I didn't get to see the miso soup as it was in a large metallic barrel.

He slid two ice-cold cans over to me along with a hot cup of what I could only assume to be the miso soup.

How I missed this alcohol, how long has it been since I was blackout drunk trying to forget my life?

Too bad I can't get drunk with the super-soldier serum in my body. I would have to manually turn it off alongside my edits to my body to truly experience it again, and I was too lazy for that.

I stored away all of my food items, apart from one can of strong zero, and started making my way to the teacher's box. I cracked open the cold beverage, the fizzle and citrus aroma hit my ears and nose respectively, and I took a sip.

'I wonder what Momo thought of my speech. She's probably super~ annoyed at me about the whole thing. I have no doubt she knows of my end goal, she will still hate my method though.

Luckily, Mineta's cheerleader scheme will net me a saucy opportunity to help relieve some of my wife's frustration. The little shit will finally be useful for something!'