The sound of dragged footsteps echoed softly over the wet asphalt. Inside the narrow alley, sunlight had no chance whatsoever of reaching the ground surface. Pinched between the walls, a tall yet exceedingly thin man was walking with a sluggish gait.
The figure wore layered clothing, all black. He had on a dull white medical mask covering the lower half of his face, and a dark hoodie with its hood pulled deep forward, completely concealing most of his identifying features. His appearance looked extremely filthy and unkempt. His clothes smelled of dust, sweat, and that distinct metallic odor, as if he hadn't bathed or tasted clean water for weeks on end.
Only the sound of his shoes scraping against the asphalt could be heard echoing faintly in that place.
Suddenly, while walking, his steps became unsteady. His balance faltered, and he was forced to throw himself sideways, leaning heavily against the cold wall to support what little strength remained.
Kruuuyuuk.
From inside his stomach, a loud growl of hunger pierced the silence between the two walls.
The thin man slowly raised his trembling hand, then pulled his mask down until it hung at his chin. Revealing his actual face clearly from behind the shadows. Though his cheeks were very gaunt, adorned with street dust, and his lips looked pale and cracked from dehydration, anyone who caught a glimpse would think that his jaw and nose structure were rather handsome.
"Damn it," he hissed hoarsely, staring blankly at the puddle of dirty water below his shoes. "Why does my life have to end so pathetically like this?"
The man's teeth ground together as he replayed the memory of his escape. Surviving like a wild dog. Running from hero chases every day... Hiding like a rat.
"All of this is because of that young man!"
With his remaining strength and anger that suddenly erupted, he clenched his right fist, wrapped in a thin glove, and punched the wall beside him. His fist wasn't strong enough to shatter brick, but it was enough to vent the boiling frustration in his chest.
A heavy breath was then exhaled long from his dry mouth, as if releasing an invisible burden. Realizing that anger wouldn't fill his empty stomach. Slowly, he pulled the top of his mask back up, covering his face as before, and tugged his hoodie hood deep again.
Slowly and limply, he pushed his body away from the wall, beginning to drag his feet again, walking toward the end of the alley, toward where sunlight fell upon the main road sidewalk.
Arriving at the open end of the alley, sunlight immediately bathed his body. The light was so blinding to his retinas. He tilted his head upward while keeping his eyes tightly shut, feeling the unfamiliar warmth. His hand rose to protect his sensitive eyelids.
As soon as his eyes began to adjust, he turned his face away from the sun and lowered his hand, looking around at the asphalt road before him.
His eyes behind the shadow of the hood suddenly widened.
"So empty around here," he murmured in disbelief. "Is something happening in this city?"
The man pulled the edge of his hood even further down, ensuring his identity was truly hidden from the view of anyone who might be around. With cautious steps, he began walking out of the alley, stepping onto the concrete sidewalk, continuously turning his head to survey the quiet residential complex.
His brow furrowed, and he narrowed his watchful eyes, trying to recall the landscape of these streets. Wait a second... Have I ever come and walked around this residential area before?
The farther he walked along the sidewalk, passing tightly closed house fences, he began to find that this area felt very familiar in his mind. The road layout, the power poles, the small turn up ahead... a feeling of déjà vu suddenly crept up his neck. This was a road he had visited before.
From any angle, this complex's main road and sidewalk felt far too quiet even for a normal morning. There was only the sound of tree leaves rustling in the wind and the sound of his own footsteps echoing.
At this moment, while his mind was filled with bewilderment, his stomach sounded off again, even louder.
The black-clothed man lowered his gaze, staring at his own flat stomach with a mournful look.
This is a golden opportunity, he whispered with a thin smile behind his medical mask.
His Adam's apple moved slowly. He swallowed hard, his tongue licking his dry lips, imagining food he might be able to find. Then he gripped his own stomach tightly, trying to suppress the hunger that felt as though it were wringing his insides.
Then, he lifted his face again and stared straight down the road ahead. His previously tired gaze had now transformed into something more focused and sharp, like a bird of prey. His vision locked onto a two-story house with a fairly spacious yard, located not far from where his shoes stood.
He set off, quickening his pace along the sidewalk, heading straight toward the seemingly empty house.
…
In the middle of the U.A. stadium expanse, a white cloth crown clung to Fuse's forehead, the white headband with red text reading ten million points securely tied in place, standing with an extremely casual posture.
He slowly rotated his neck, staring straight at the line of other teams who were now standing in a circle, their gazes fixed intently on him. Their eyes radiated dense hostility, a very clear combined intent: to swarm and forcibly snatch that headband from his head.
Yet facing those dozens of murderous glares, Fuse maintained his exact same demeanor as always. His face radiated absolute calm and that infuriating smile of arrogance. He didn't feel threatened in the slightest, even though this situation was extremely stressful for his team members standing around him.
His teammates were Minoru Mineta, Mashirao Ojiro, and Mezo Shoji. The three of them stood supporting Fuse atop the horse formation, their faces drenched in sweat as they felt the killing intent from the enemy teams.
In truth, Fuse had no special, logical, or tactical reason for recruiting those three as his pawns for the horse formation. It all happened purely by coincidence; they just happened to be standing nearby and hadn't found a single friend to join with when time was nearly up. As for Ojiro's case, Fuse personally just wanted to save the tailed young man. He remembered very clearly from the original story that if he didn't recruit him, Ojiro would inevitably end up miserably, affected by the mind manipulation of that purple-haired student from the neighboring class.
When the tension reached its peak, Ojiro, whose sweat dripped down his forehead from bearing the load, slightly tilted his head up to look at Fuse above him and asked with a doubtful voice.
"Fuse... So, what's our action plan against all of them?"
Shoji, the many-armed young man standing sturdy in front, also responded to Ojiro's question. Compared to Mineta and Ojiro, only Shoji still maintained a fairly calm demeanor despite the enemy encirclement.
"You must already have a very clever escape plan in your head, Class Rep. I think now is the most appropriate time for you to share the details of that tactic with us, your horses," Shoji pressed in his deep voice.
Mineta, who was clinging fearfully to Fuse's back, hearing the question, immediately nodded with extremely panicky, rapid movements that made his head bob back and forth. He very much agreed and needed an instant plan to survive.
Hearing the strategy requests from his three followers, Fuse, who had been casually scanning the positions of enemy team lines, slowly lowered his face and looked away. He gazed down at his teammates below with a very flat, bored expression from his throne.
"Tactical plan?" Fuse asked, his voice completely calm without a single tremor of panic. "We don't need stupid, time-wasting things like that. Our main objective is simply to evade and stay ahead. Just do your best with your physical abilities. Relax, don't panic excessively. As long as I'm up here, I guarantee that not a single person will be able to touch or defeat this team."
He tilted his head slightly, smiling arrogantly down at Ojiro. "You need to remember, your physical presence here is nothing more than footholds to complement my movements."
"W-WHAT?!" Mineta and Ojiro shouted simultaneously, their voices piercing with shock and feeling deceived.
Both their mouths fell wide open, their jaws seemingly dropping at the words coming from their team captain's mouth. Except for Shoji, who, though most of his face was tightly covered by his cloth mask, somehow had suspected from the beginning and resigned himself to the fact that this narcissistic class rep would inevitably give such an infuriating and uncooperative answer.
As for that arrogant statement, honestly, Fuse wasn't lying to them at all. From the very beginning, he had never bothered to rack his brain thinking of even a single mature defensive tactical plan to handle this encirclement situation.
For him, why strain his brain? Besides, was there even a first-year participant on this field whose power could touch him?
Thinking about the reality of how strong he was, Fuse unconsciously grinned wide to himself atop the horse formation.
At this moment, the signal that the Human Cavalry Battle had begun suddenly rang out, shrieking high!
Instantly, the ground vibrated. All enemy teams without preamble immediately shifted their leg formations and sprinted forward at full speed, targeting and swarming straight toward Fuse's position in the center.
The team running and approaching him extremely fast from the front was Katsuki Bakugo's team!
The spiky blond young man led in front, his red eyes blazing with fury, while his other team members bore the weight of his body.
Seeing the enemy coming like a bull, Fuse looked down at Bakugo and smiled provocatively, challenging his opponent's nerve. "Hoo? Choosing to face me directly head-on from the start? A very bold and stupid choice."
"So what do we do now, Fuse?!" Shoji asked from below, his voice slightly urgent.
Fuse fell silent for a moment, looking at the enemy team line, then changed his expression, disappointed by their easily predictable movements, and let out a long sigh.
"Just keep running away from them. Ignore the barking dog," Fuse ordered in a casual voice.
Without much protest, obeying Fuse's absolute command, Shoji immediately used his powerful leg strength and moved quickly, pivoting their position toward the side of the field.
The four of them ran with all their might, carrying Fuse's team away, fleeing from the collision course with Bakugo's team.
"Oi, you bastard! Stop and get back here, you coward!" Bakugo shouted extremely loudly from behind, his fist striking the air as he looked incredibly frustrated that his attack missed because his target fled.
However, Fuse didn't respond to the tantrum at all, he didn't even bother to look toward the voice. He just kept staring straight ahead along their running path, letting his red hair blow in the wind.
At this moment, his confident smile, which had briefly faded, bloomed anew on his face.
Ahead of their path, from who knows where, the team led by Shoto Todoroki had appeared, blocking their escape route. Todoroki's face looked extremely cold and calculating.
At this moment, sharp ice walls suddenly sprang up from the ground, shooting upward like ice pillars trying to block and obstruct Fuse's team's movement.
But thanks to Shoji's leg strength and reflexes, Fuse's team managed to leap and evade the ice trap, swerving to avoid the danger, though they did so with slightly labored breathing.
"What's our next move, Fuse?!" Mineta shouted with a trembling voice. Since the very first second of this brutal match began, the short boy had done nothing but hug Fuse's back tightly with his eyes shut, being nothing but a panicking burden.
Hearing his subordinate's panic, Fuse narrowed both eyes and shouted down at him in a snapping tone.
"What's next? What's next?! Good grief, can't you all just shut your mouths and be quiet?!"
"What plan do you keep asking about?!" Fuse grumbled.
"Figure out the basic tactics yourselves! Use your initiative on the field. You all have brains in your heads, don't you?!" Fuse scolded angrily.
"Please don't make me feel exhausted from having to think about coordinating your footsteps! I really don't need to consider detailed things like that. Because even without a genius plan, I know for certain I can still secure our victory. If you truly don't trust me... then prove that you yourselves are heroes worthy of being here! Think like heroes when you're cornered!"
Fuse took a long breath, glaring sharply at his three friends below. "I absolutely don't need dead weight who can only resign themselves and wait for orders from a leader like me to pave an escape route for you."
"The world isn't that kind to you," Fuse closed with his sharp philosophy.
Hearing that scolding and the harsh lecture that struck at their pride, all three froze stiff. Their tongues went numb.
Mineta, feeling terrified of being reprimanded, chose not to speak again and only squeezed his embrace around Fuse's back even tighter.
Ojiro, who took the position of guarding the defense at the back, though his face was covered in cold sweat from constant movement... just listened quietly to the class rep's lecture with calm. On the contrary, after absorbing and processing Fuse's piercing words, Ojiro's breathing actually became more regular and he felt much calmer, his brain started working to find independent defensive solutions.
At this moment, Shoji, who took the role of the driving motor in front, immediately pushed off with his feet. He directly changed direction and moved nimbly to evade the ice walls from Todoroki's team that tried to trap them again, and he performed that dangerous maneuver purely without waiting for verbal orders or signals from Fuse above.
Although they had to run while dodging the many sharp ice walls and pillars that kept emerging from the ground, trying to catch their feet and block their path... relying on survival instinct combined with Ojiro's powerful physical tail strikes to destroy the obstructing ice, the two of them finally managed to break free from Todoroki's encirclement.
Seeing his subordinates starting to use their brains and physical abilities, Fuse felt very satisfied with their increasingly independent initiative.
While Shoji continued directing his team's footsteps, running fast toward an area that was still empty, somehow, the team led by Izuku Midoriya suddenly appeared and stood blocking right in front of their running path.
Midoriya's eyes stared sharply at Fuse. It seemed that, with his analytical mind, the green-haired young man had already read their movements and deliberately waited for this moment, predicting the point where Fuse's team would eventually pass through this location!
Blocked, Fuse's team's running momentum suddenly stopped dead in the middle of the field.
Meanwhile, while Fuse's team was forced to stop by Midoriya's blockade up front, from another corner of the field, the teams from the neighboring classes that had been targeting the ten million points from the start also immediately ran closer, intending to exploit their lapse to ambush from behind!
Seeing enemies closing in from various directions, Shoji broke into a cold sweat, maintaining his horse stance.
As for Ojiro, whose breathing had grown heavy, it was abundantly clear that the physical energy of both of them had already been drained considerably from having to constantly run back and forth carrying the weight of Fuse's and Mineta's bodies to avoid the ice attacks.
Realizing they were now cornered and couldn't run anymore, Fuse could only let out a long, slow sigh from his position above.
"Listen. Let's use the simplest analogy of natural law. If you imagine that I'm currently an ordinary citizen who happens to be badly injured on the street, and those dozens of students chasing and surrounding me with hungry faces are a gang of criminals after the valuables in my pocket..."
Fuse spread his right hand in a calm gesture. "As true heroes, you should try to avoid direct bloody confrontation with them. Do everything and use your brains so we can get out of a physical fight."
"But then," Fuse breathed in, shifting his tone to something more casual and arrogant. "I suppose it would be too excessive and very unfair if I, as the king, just stayed quiet and kept ordering you to push your remaining physical limits to keep running and dodging."
Fuse grinned sharply, his eyes locking onto Midoriya, a dozen meters ahead. "Starting from this second, this is my part."
Fuse raised his left hand into the air. He quickly rubbed, then snapped his middle finger and thumb together with tremendous force.
A loud click sound rang out clearly over the field's noise.
At this moment, suddenly, from every direction, long iron pieces, nails, and steel plates floated closer from the distance, flying and orbiting, dancing among them and the enemy teams.
But this time, something was stuck firmly to the surface of those iron pieces.
They were dozens of sticky balls the size of a fist, colored purple.
They were all sticky balls produced by Minoru Mineta's quirk!
Pop Off!
Instantly, the irons with the purple balls attached sped toward the shoes and lower body parts of all of Fuse's teammates, and the sticky balls adhered tightly and merged with their uniforms.
Seeing the irons with those strange objects attached immediately stick to their bodies, Ojiro and Shoji felt very confused.
But both of them chose to stay silent, not asking many questions or physically resisting the irons. Because for some reason, their instincts as a team told them that Fuse was planning something and executing a secret trick to overcome this encirclement problem!
Meanwhile, Mineta, who had been whiny earlier, just stayed silent.
Before this cavalry event began and when they had just formed their team, Mineta had already been informed in detail about what tactic Fuse would execute during this event.
Therefore, for the sake of the plan, Mineta had been forced to work hard to attach a great many of his quirk's sticky balls onto the iron plate fragments belonging to Fuse beforehand, as their form of team cooperation.
If that could be called a plan, then yes.
But did Fuse acknowledge it as a plan? Not at all.
Besides, Fuse didn't have a plan at all.
That was merely a backup.
At this moment, when Fuse confirmed that all the purple-balled irons had firmly attached to the body parts of all his team members as anchor hooks, all four of their bodies suddenly floated upward into the sky, lifted away from the ground of the field!
All the other teams, including Midoriya, Todoroki, and Bakugo, could only tilt their heads back with eyes wide as saucers, staring straight up at the sky in disbelief.
The blazing sunlight was instantly blocked by the shadow of all four of them now hovering motionless in the air, blocking the light and leaving a large dark shadow over the field for the teams below.
Having escaped the encirclement and flying in the sky, Fuse spread both arms wide in the air. He took a deep breath, as if feeling very free from the shackles of gravity and earthly dust, then closed his eyes to enjoy the rush of wind.
"BASTARD, YOU COWARD!!!"
At this moment, a scream full of hatred suddenly split the sky. Bakugo, who had been holding in his anger to the brim from feeling toyed with, immediately took extreme action.
Disregarding safety, he activated his massive explosions. He pushed off his feet and leaped high into the air, then used continuous explosions from his palm quirk to propel his body flying through the air like a rocket, intending to chase Fuse's team floating casually in the sky!
However, using his magnetic field radar, Fuse's team, whose movements were now fully controlled by the pull of Fuse's iron quirk attached to their clothes, immediately swerved and evaded the explosion strikes with very easy and smooth aerial movements.
But Bakugo kept controlling the direction of his explosions, turning in the air, and continued trying with all his might to reach and grab Fuse's collar from behind.
Unfortunately, in the end, all his aerial capture attempts were still easily dodged by Fuse like a game of chasing the wind.
Seeing Bakugo, whose breathing was growing ragged as he chased him in the air, Fuse turned and smiled provocatively with a condescending expression.
"What's wrong? Do you want to compete over how long you can keep firing your explosions and stay in the air against me?" Fuse taunted from his throne.
Hearing the jeer, Bakugo's anger grew even more intense, yet he remained silent and kept pumping his palms, attacking with blind explosions.
While this aerial dance was happening, the air temperature around them suddenly plummeted, freezing to the bone.
And Fuse, who was now bored and no longer interested in playing chase with Bakugo in the sky, slowly turned his head to look downward.
He found that from the ground, ice pillars were emerging, and extremely sharp ice fragments began spinning wildly around Todoroki's team's standing position below.
The moment he saw that, instead of feeling threatened, Fuse grinned wide again, welcoming the incoming danger.
At this moment, a very large and tall ice pillar suddenly appeared and shot up from the ground, and Todoroki's horse team, now riding atop the ice pillar's peak as a foothold, immediately glided swiftly upward toward the altitude in the air where Fuse was.
On another side, right behind the speed of Todoroki's ice team, Izuku Midoriya and his team also immediately took advantage of the ice path that had been created. They ran and leaped up the ice pillar slope to follow and climb, intent on fiercely catching and seizing Fuse's red headband.
In the blink of an eye, the aerial escape strategy had shifted. Now Fuse's team had been caught up to and surrounded by enemies from all directions, both from the ground and from various sides in the air.
But instead of panicking and fearing this highly disadvantageous situation, Fuse unconsciously smiled happily instead.
He smiled at the blue sky, as if right now he was a lead actor performing a climax scene, the happiest person in the world because he'd gotten the main spotlight.
…
Inside a fairly comfortable and cool family living room.
In the center of the room, two adults sat side by side on a plush sofa. Before them was a fairly large television screen glowing brightly, broadcasting a live sports event, accompanied by the rumbling sound of the TV speakers heard very clearly.
They were none other than Fuse's parents. His mother, Sakura, and his father, Isamu.
Sakura, Fuse's mother, sat with an unsettled posture. She hugged a long bolster pillow tightly in her lap. Her hand trembled slightly each time her eyes stared sharply at the TV screen displaying the live broadcast of her son.
Repeatedly, because she couldn't bear the tension on screen, she lifted the bolster and covered her own face, then peeked back through the gap at the end of the pillow.
The camera on the television screen was dramatically zoomed in, showing Fuse's team formation in the air, now under pressure, surrounded, and bombarded with attacks from the other teams on all sides.
Seeing her son being attacked in that scene, Sakura instantly tightened her grip on the bolster even more. Her heart pounded fast. Worried.
"Oh, Honey..." Sakura murmured, her voice slightly trembling. "How is this... Fuse, our boy... will he survive all those kids' attacks?" Her tone was laden with very real maternal worry.
She occasionally lifted the bolster again, hiding part of her face behind the pillow because she couldn't stand watching when Todoroki's giant ice nearly hit her son.
Beside her, Isamu turned and looked at his wife from the side. Seeing his wife's extremely anxious behavior, Isamu fell silent for a few seconds, and then unconsciously, a very calm smile formed on his face.
He raised one hand, gently stroking his wife's shoulder to calm her. Then he spoke in a steady, reassuring tone. "Calm down, Sakura. Don't worry too much. Our boy... he'll be just fine."
Isamu withdrew his hand from his wife's shoulder, then turned his neck to look back at the glowing TV screen. He lifted his chin slightly while pointing at the glass screen, which at this very moment was precisely zooming in and clearly showing Fuse's face, who was instead smiling very arrogantly in the middle of the enemy encirclement.
"Look at that extremely annoying confident smile on his face yourself," Isamu said with a faint smile, his eyes catching every detail of his son's character on screen. "Based on our experience as his parents, how could a child with pride as high as the sky lose, right after displaying an expression that looks down on all his opponents like that?"
Isamu shook his head slowly, a contained chuckle in his throat. "This child of ours truly has no manners at all in front of the television screen. Very embarrassing. It seems... later when he comes home, we need to give him a proper talking-to about decency and etiquette."
After saying that threatening line, Isamu unconsciously gave a small laugh, his shoulders shaking slightly.
Hearing her husband's logical analysis and seeing Isamu's expression that was instead laughing, Sakura lowered the bolster from her face. She stared blankly at her husband's side profile in silence for several seconds. Her mind processed Isamu's words, which also held truth.
Then, the tension in Sakura's shoulders began to loosen, and finally a sweet smile bloomed on her face. It was a calming maternal smile, showing that deep in her heart, she actually very much agreed and was of the same mind as her husband's statement.
Letting go softly, Isamu returned his sharp gaze to Fuse's figure moving nimbly on the television screen. A sincere, proud smile of a father bloomed anew on his face.
"Besides, Sakura... compared to anyone out there, or whatever hero is judging... we are his parents, and we of all people have known from the very beginning that our boy truly possesses strength of that caliber."
Isamu met his wife's eyes. "As his parents who raised him, we both must always place full trust in our child's abilities. We must convince our hearts that he can certainly endure and overcome any obstacle, no matter how difficult."
Isamu looked back at the screen. "I'm sure, even though he's under perplexing pressure, at this very moment... deep in his heart, Fuse would feel very happy if he knew he could receive and hold such immense trust from us, his parents."
Isamu then fell silent for a moment. His eyes narrowed as he studied Fuse's face on screen in more detail, as if searching for a hidden clue.
"But... looking at it more closely," Isamu continued in a lighter, curious tone.
"His mood there... is clearly in very good condition and a happy mood. Perhaps because lately, these past few weeks, he's been leaving the house from dawn till night very often? Could he be regularly meeting his friends? Or... could it be, he's in love and meeting his girlfriend?"
Isamu touched his chin, thinking like a detective. "In his entire life, I've never seen him invite a single female friend over or pursue a romantic relationship with anyone. I've never even asked him directly about romance. Maybe, as his mother... you secretly know something about this matter, Sakura?"
Sakura, sitting beside him, only listened to her husband's rambling in silence, then she smiled amusedly and shook her head slowly to indicate she knew nothing.
Seeing his wife's head shake, Isamu sighed softly and turned his face away, staring at the empty wall.
"Hah... as a grown man who was once a teenage boy himself," Isamu said in a philosophical tone, "just from a passing glance at the sparkle in his eyes and the expression on Fuse's face, I can immediately tell. He's clearly very happy about something outside of hero business."
Isamu nodded with certainty. "A man's instinct and experience never lie."
Sakura gazed softly at her husband's side profile, which now wore a nostalgic smile reminiscing about his own youth, and she simply stayed quiet, not uttering a single word to ruin the moment.
Then, Sakura slowly turned her face back and focused on the television screen again.
However, at this moment, while the living room atmosphere was very warm, Sakura's eyes suddenly widened. She abruptly remembered something. A statement from her son, from a few weeks ago.
Sakura quickly turned her head and looked back at her husband's face with a slightly panicked expression.
"Honey... did you lock the front door properly today?" Sakura asked in a somewhat hurried voice.
Hearing that sudden and unexpected question, Isamu fell silent for a moment. He tried to recall, then slowly shook his head with a confused face.
"Not yet... Ah! I'll go to the front and lock it real quick then." Isamu nodded. Then, he rose from the comfortable sofa and walked away, leaving the living room.
The atmosphere in the family living room instantly became quiet as Isamu left. Only the sound of his heavy footsteps walking slowly away through the house corridor could be heard, and the noisy television spectators echoing from the distance of the living room.
Arriving in the somewhat dim corridor, Isamu stood before the main entrance door. He extended his right hand, reached for the iron key hanging in the keyhole, and was just about to turn it to lock.
But in the split second before his fingers gave the clicking turn to the lock...
Isamu suddenly stopped his movement. He spun his body around extremely fast. His eyes instantly widened in shock.
From the direction of the living room he had just left, he heard very clearly a loud, shrieking scream from his wife, Sakura!
Instantly, terror gripped his heart. Without bothering to finish locking the house door, Isamu immediately ran, his feet pounding in panic down the long corridor, sprinting fast toward the living room where his wife was.
"SAKURA! WHAT'S WRONG?! WHAT HAPPENED?!" Isamu shouted with a pale face as he arrived at the living room entrance.
He ran up to his wife, who was standing in front of the sofa.
Seeing her husband arrive in a panic, Sakura, whose face was covered in tears, immediately turned to him.
She jogged over, directly grabbed both of her husband's shoulders tightly, then shook his large body back and forth repeatedly with strong force. Crying, she pointed at the television.
Realizing his panicked question wasn't being answered with words at all, Isamu finally shifted his gaze and stared straight at the television screen.
At first he was startled by what he saw. But it didn't take long for an extraordinary relief to flood his chest. The sincere, proud smile of a father on his face slowly bloomed again, wider than before.
Isamu laughed softly. "Hahaha... Didn't I tell you from the beginning?"
The brightly glowing television screen was showing another Class 1-A team, Todoroki, Midoriya, and Bakugo, standing exhausted and panting, out of breath on the field.
Meanwhile, right in the center of the field... stood the figure of Fuse, looking arrogant and untouched.
He stood upright with traces of sweat on his face, where on his forehead, a white headband with red text reading ten million points still remained tied firmly, fluttering in the stadium wind.
Their son had just won the battle!
…
At the end of the empty entrance corridor, the iron doorknob of the main front door suddenly turned slowly and soundlessly.
Then, the door was pushed open from outside with a very soft creaking of its hinges.
Sunlight from the yard outside began seeping in through the gap of the slowly opening door, illuminating the dust motes floating in the air of the somewhat dim corridor. The light entered, shining on the wooden floor of the house corridor.
However, the beam of light coming through the door gap suddenly vanished, blocked from the outside. Leaving a long, dense shadow of someone standing on the threshold of the entrance.
It was the shadow of a figure who appeared to be very tall and thin.
…
A/N: Actually I intended to write 3 chapters the week before last, but because I was too busy with real-life matters, I could only write 1 chapter. I'm sorry. As compensation, this Monday I'll try to write 2 chapters, followed by 1 chapter in the same week. By the way, I deliberately made this chapter not focus on the match, because well... the outcome was predictable anyway. Anyway, enjoy.