Chapter 49:

(Sakuya POV)

I'm currently bored out of my mind.

Sure, there is an entire tower filled with robots where a team deathmatch scenario is taking place between my fellow students.

But, I can't get excited about it, especially after the first team's performance.

It was Team Monoma vs Team Shinso.

Shinso managed to use his brainwashing more subtly than I saw in canon material. He worded all of his commands as a form of conditioning, where when they awoke from the brainwashing they followed the previous command without knowing of being brainwashed.

It was far more discreet and less likely to have people spreading his quirk around, increasing his chances in the oncoming tournament.

He managed to form a team with Iida, Uraraka, and Tokoyami.

Tokoyami seemingly joined, at least from what I could tell, because they were "brothers of the abyss" or something. He didn't need brainwashing, because the bird wanted to be with his 'emo' brethren.

It was a team that would do decently well in this event. They had Tokoyami, and Iida, for offensive attacks. Uraraka would give them a form of mobility to climb to the upper floors easier. Shinso was there for the more PvP related aspect, which he did excellently against the loudmouth Monoma.

The second he entered the tower, Monoma was already trash-talking the 1-A students for, "Taking on lower trash", and how it meant that 1-B was obviously better because they didn't have to lower themselves to picking up general studies kids.

Yeah, Monoma managed to become the most hated person in the school within a few seconds.

General studies make up a large amount of the student populace in UA, and he was calling them trash, on live TV, in front of millions. It also didn't help that Shinso was one of the more respected first-year general studies students, due to his drive to become a hero.

They wanted to see him succeed where they had failed, more importantly, though, they wanted to watch Shinso beat the fuck out of Monoma. I never thought that a single person could receive so many insults from the student stands before this day.

Shinso gave them what they wanted.

He brainwashed Monoma into shooting his teammates, before shooting his own markers. This put his team in a dilemma. They had to shoot Monoma to survive this round, but they didn't want to deal with his whining after they did so.

It was the hardest problem the 1-B hero course students faced. They decided to shoot him after one of their teammate's markers were gradually getting taken out.

Shinso also took advantage of their dilemma and started shooting their markers himself while they were distracted. He managed to take out an entire person, and 1 marker of another, before they finished dealing with Monoma.

The remaining members of team Monoma were then in a shoot-off with Shinso for the rest of the 5 minutes.

I couldn't believe my eyes. It didn't matter if Shinso was taken out because he wasn't earning any points, to begin with!

This led to his team securing, practically, the entire tower's worth of points for themself.

His team came out of the tower with a respectable 445 points.

"What did you make of that team's performance? I think they did rather well, especially due to them not having an entire person able to earn points." Fluffy-chan asked.

"Hm?"

"I asked-"

"No, no, I heard you, I was just thinking of their performance already before you asked is all.

Shinso performed his role way better than he really had any right to do. He got really lucky with the Monoma matchup.

If it were anyone else, apart from Bakugou, his initial brainwashing wouldn't have worked as well as it did.

The teammates wouldn't have hesitated to 'kill' the brainwashed one, because they didn't have to fear the consequences of doing so; because everyone, apart from those two, could understand the situation in hindsight without lashing out.

Iida and Tokoyami did their jobs as the damage dealers well, being the main source of the points.

Uraraka's hit and run tactic with any rubble from the former two's battles was decent enough, and her starting boost allowed Tokoyami, and Iida, to reach the upper floors, where more points are, and it ended up being vital.

They all, however, didn't neglect to be wary around the robots and their lasers and came out without being hit a single time. The attackers also figured out their limits in terms of what pointers they could take on, and didn't take unnecessary risks."

After giving my views on their performance I looked over and was greeted with the sight of Fluffy-chan writing down my words in a notepad. Raising my eyebrow at his actions, I wondered why he was doing that.

'Is he writing this for my cult? Is this my cult's version of the bible being written?'

"... What are you doing?"

He didn't stop writing, nor look at me, when answering my query,

"I'm going to hand this to those students as a report on their performance during the event."

"Why?"

"Before I answer that; can I ask you a question of my own?"

"Mhm~! I don't mind, just don't ask about my-"

"Three sizes, kinks, or chocolate milk fridge password, got it."

"Tsk. I'm going to have to think of new things now."

"How do you think your classmates view you?" he asked.

I was stumped for a bit, I didn't really know how they viewed me in a deeper than surface-level way.

"A tough question, but I assume you will enlighten me despite my lack of answer anyway, so hit me with it. How DO they view me?"

"They all respect you-"

"Mineta doesn't know how to respect women." I interrupted.

"- as I was saying, they all respect you. Sure, some more than others, and others in different ways, but they all DO respect you, Sakuya.

They respect your achievements in life, your power, your intelligence that you rarely show to anyone, your attitude, your charisma, and your general demeanor.

They respect you and by proxy, your opinion, and more importantly, your praise."

I needed a moment to process this nonsense coming out of Fluffy-chan's mouth. I opened a portal into the fridge and grabbed two choccy milk bottles. After sending one over to Eri, I took a few sips of my own while digesting the information given to me.

"And my performance evaluations are meant to what? Enlighten them? Make them happy?"

"Ideally? Yes. It is also being given to them because I don't want to bother thinking of my own."

"Uwah~ What a lazy employee I have. Isn't the first day on the job meant to be used to impress me, your boss?"

"It must be the terrible upper management, I've seen them slacking and drinking unidentifiable liquids midway through the day. Their behavior must have rubbed off on me, I apologize."

"What an honest employee, I seem to have found."

"Honesty IS the best policy, after all."

"Nobody ever got rich being honest, so I never adopted that policy."

"What a money-hungry deceitful boss I have. Oh, woe is me!"

"If this boss wasn't money-hungry, she wouldn't be able to pay your wage, so, get to work!"

After our back-and-forth banter was seemingly over, we just started laughing. The staff that heard us laughing had a chill run down their spine, not knowing what may await them.

Standing up, I quickly stretched my legs to get some blood flowing through them. I then dusted and straightened out my shirt, cleaned any stains that may have appeared, and walked to the entrance with my choccy milk.

"I'll leave a clone with you, Fluffy-chan. I'm gonna go and sit with my family for the rest of the events."

With those as my parting words, I opened a portal, and stepped through; only after leaving a clone with Fluffy-chan as promised.

He may not have wanted to do the performance reviews, but, neither did I!

I was then in the much nicer, luxury VIP box. It had leather recliner chairs, compared to the hard stools of the teacher's box. All in all, it was a place to relax.

Too bad my clone also noticed it, it's passed out on the damn recliner!

After erasing the clone I managed to see that it didn't complete the police contracts yet, opting to go to sleep. It did do all its other duties, so there's that I guess.

My sudden appearance caught the room's attention or most of the occupants from what I could tell.

"Lady Sakuya!" all the maids snapped to attention upon seeing me.

"Good afternoon girls, how have you been liking the events so far?" I greeted with an elegant smile and gentle wave.

"It's been super fun!"

"I prefer the free alcohol!"

"They have been wonderful Lady Sakuya."

And many other similar replies came.

"Is that so? I'm glad to hear you have been enjoying yourself. Your well-being both physically, and mentally, are my utmost concern, so I'm glad that you are all relaxing well. Please, go back to whatever it was that you were doing, you are off-duty after all."

Walking further into the room, I seemingly caught an unexpected person's attention. The vigilante Knuckleduster, Iwao Oguro, was here with his family, and he was walking over to me.

I began rapidly sifting through my thoughts to make sense of this bizarre situation before finding that it was my main clone that hired him as head of security for the firm.

'I should really pay more attention to that clone's reports!'

"Lady Sakuya, your speech was certainly… attention-grabbing." Iwao started, his daughter was behind him, eyeing me curiously.

"Ufufufu~ I certainly hope it would have been, otherwise I would have failed in my goal."

As my eyes drifted off towards his family, his daughter in particular, who was now blushing in what I could only hope was embarrassment at being caught staring and nothing else, he noticed my gaze and took it as the time to introduce me to his family.

"Ah! My apologies for not introducing my family sooner, Lady Sakuya."

He signaled with his hands towards the homely looking dark-haired woman, who I could only assume to be his wife,

"This is my wonderful wife Hiroka Oguro!"

(A/N: The wife doesn't have a name, so that's her name now.)

"It's wonderful to finally see my miracle doctor, and the person who brought this family together once more, in person. Well, you were there in person when treating me, but it was a clone, so, it's not the same, y'know?" She began rambling towards the end.

"It's a pleasure to finally put a face to the name that your husband keeps praising non-stop. His descriptions of you weren't exaggerated at all, especially the ones detailing your beauty." I gave a cheeky wink, mainly in hopes of seeing Iwao's reaction.

"Oh my, you're much more of a charmer than your clone was, she simply teleported out after finishing my treatment."

"Lady Sakuya..."

"Yes, Iwao?" my innocent reply came.

"You already have a wife, stop flirting with mine."

I swore I saw a pang of hurt in his daughter's eyes. Thank god he shot down any chance she thought we had, it would have been awkward to do it myself.

"Oya~? Are you getting jealous of me, Iwao, is the ring on your finger not enough to keep the jealousy at bay? To think you would think so little of the sanctity that is marriage, how scandalous~," I teased.

"Don't worry, dear, I'm not into girls!" His wife's cheerful reply came.

"Are you blushin-"

"Anyway! This is my wonderful daughter, Tamao Oguro!"

"It's wonderful to meet you, Tamao-san. I think this might be the first time you're meeting any version of me, so I apologize if my interaction with your mother was awkward to sit through."

She reached out to my outstretched hand, a slight tint of pink in her cheeks, and shook it. I detached from the handshake upon realizing that it may not have been the best idea as soon as possible without it seeming weird.

"Y-Yeah, it's nice to meet you too.

Thanks for helping my dad not be a pain in the ass, I guess."

"Didn't you have something to ask Sakuya, Tamao?" Her mother urged.

'Oh god, please don't confess, please don't confess, please don't confes-'

"I do?" She said, acting dumb.

"Yes. Yes, you do, and this may be the last chance you ever get to say it." Her mother urged once more.

"Ugh! Alright!"

She turned to me, looked me dead in the eyes, which didn't help my train of thought, and began speaking,

"My old man said that you gave him an improved version of his quirk, and helped him when he needed it most. Do you think you can help me become a musician?

I've always wanted to be one, but my old man didn't like it, so I couldn't. You don't have to help if you don't want to! I understand that you're busy, much busier than me!"

I could only sigh in relief when this didn't end up being a love confession, that would have made me reverse time, and ignore Iwao.

"There's a lot to consider on my side of things.

What type of musician do you want to be? What genre do you want to play? Is it only you or is it a group of people? How serious are you about becoming a musician? What is your end goal? How much time can you dedicate to this new career you want?

I need you to answer all of those questions before I can give you a definite answer Tamao."

"I'm not sure what type I want to be, or what genre I want to play. I don't want to be restricted by things such as genres and types. It's just me, and I want to make music that I can be proud of and others enjoy. I can dedicate everything to this, whether it be time or willpower, I want to be able to play music professionally. Please help me in achieving that."

"To think that Iwao wanted such a passionate girl like you to give up on her dreams… What an assh-"

"Language, Young Miss!" Pestonya's voice rang out.

"What an overbearing parent." I 'corrected'.

"Better."

"I'll help you out, Tamao. Just not today, because I want to relax. I have too many plans in motion at the minute, and today is a rare day where all versions of me can rest. Ask your father to take you to the mansion whenever you are free, my clone will be there to help you out." I said before walking off.

I could make out the conversation they were having as soon as I left, though.

"There, was that so hard, Tamao?" her mother asked.

"No."

"Don't be so happy yet, Tamao, you still haven't seen the contract." Iwao's gruff voice came soon after.

"The contract couldn't be that bad, dear. Your contract was rather generous, after all." His wife reasoned.

"That's because she wasn't the one writing it. Tamao, Sakuya may seem nice, and at times she is, but she is a manipulator on levels I haven't even seen during my vigilante days."

"Huh?! What should I do then? I don't want to be tricked into a slave contract!"

"You stay calm, and have me with you when signing the contract. Whatever you do, though, never; waste her time, talk bad about her family, flirt with her, look her in the eyes for an extended period of time, be hurt around her outside of a medical setting. There's a lot you don't do around her, I'll give you a list later."

"What's wrong with being hurt around her?"

"She has one of the larger sadistic streaks I've seen, with a despair fetish to boot. I don't want to imagine what she would do to you upon seeing you in pain."

"Dear, are you sure you should be talking about your employer's daughter like this? What if she hears?"

"She can hear every word I said, she just doesn't care enough, can't you, Sakuya?"

"Indeed I can, stop pushing your luck Iwao. Otherwise, I will make your wife being on her deathbed, and your quirk being taken feel like a heavenly experience compared to what I will do to you if you keep spreading such information carelessly." I spoke telepathically into his mind.

There was no need to have my threats in the open anymore, after all. It would sour Tamao's, a potential moneymaker, view of me, and I couldn't have that.

"Indeed I can, Iwao. Please refrain from spreading such baseless rumors about myself, will you? I've had enough of those for one lifetime." I answered out loud.

"She's such a nice girl, dear. Perhaps all those years as a vigilante have affected your mental state more than I thought, should I book us a couple's therapy session? Or would you prefer to go on your own?" His wife said.

"Yeah, old man! Stop lying about her, you're probably just trying to scare me out of being a musician again!"

"H-Hahahaha, you caught this old man. I apologize, Lady Sakuya, I don't know what came over me."

"Perhaps it's the excessive paranoia finally kicking in from your vigilante stint, Iwao. I'll fund your couple therapy sessions with your wife, so you needn't thank me, I only want the best for my employees."

After that, I ignored their conversation. I already had gotten my point across to Iwao and secured my helpful image in the eyes of Tamao, and Hiroka, so there was no point in interfering any longer.

Heading over to the empty seat where my clone was previously sitting, I relaxed into it, releasing a blissful sigh as I did so. I was in between my mother, and Miha, Momo's mother.

"You sound tired, Sakuya, is everything alright? Did you not get enough sleep, or was today mentally taxing already?" My mother asked as she ran a hand through my hair.

"I am tired, very tired at that too. There have just been a lot of things on my mind lately, and I can finally rest now. Thanks for asking mom."

"You've been working far too hard for this family, Sakuya. Not only for the family too, but you've also been working hard in general.

I worry, Sakuya. I worry that you aren't properly enjoying yourself, like someone your age truly would. I worry that you are overworking yourself. I worry so much about you, more than you know.

It's not only me worrying. Miha, and Mitaka do too. The maids do as well, the same as the security guards.

So, please, take a break for once, for me, and if you can't do it for me, do it for them."

My eyes grew heavy, and tears welled in my eyes, I was so exhausted. Not physically, but mentally.

"... Where's Eri?" I asked before letting out a yawn.

"She's over here, dear. She took after your clone, and went to sleep too." I heard Miha answer from my right.

I turned over, and extended my arms, clearly wanting to hold my unicorn baby. I also wanted to make it so she didn't have to spend the entire festival with Eri clinging onto her shirt.

Making the decision for Miha, I used a mixture of Larceny and Telekinesis to lift her over to me. She did stir a bit at the lack of another person's body heat for a bit, before relaxing when she felt my own.

Before my eyes managed to shut themselves, I managed to portal over my duvet from my room above us. It landed on us, and I adjusted it a bit telekinetically so it wouldn't be uncomfortable before falling asleep.