Tokoyami and Kirishima had left, escorted by officers to their homes, while Todoroki, Bakugo, and Midoriya stayed to accompany Mei and her family until things calmed down.
Nezu and Vlad King had also left after a brief interrogation by the Principal, in which those involved detailed everything that happened from the moment the flames knocked down the door.
Unlike the first time, the encounter with the Villains almost turned into a unilateral beating.
Todoroki overwhelmed the masked man on his own, allowing Midoriya and Tokoyami to take Mei's parents away. For their part, Bakugo and Kirishima suffered some setbacks with the oily fat man, keeping him away from Dabi at all times.
And Dabi was in for an ungrateful surprise when he faced the one he himself had once called a walking faucet. Mei didn't bother to hold back, as she wasn't in the mood to play the young prospect who barely surpasses the villain.
She unleashed a real Tsunami against the man, draining a gigantic amount of water and her own chakra to create more, letting the idiot evaporate a portion for her to then use that steam against him.
The result was a gut-wrenching scream from Dabi, trapped in the middle of a thick, scorching cloud of steam. Mei couldn't even witness the final result, as at one point the screams stopped and Dabi disappeared from the scene almost as quickly as he arrived.
Knowing what was happening, Mei leaped towards the oily fat man with the intention of breaking something on him before he left, but the dark portal swallowed him before she could intervene.
Shortly after, Todoroki returned with a slightly unsatisfied expression, narrating exactly the same thing on his end.
—Damn Half-and-Half! Couldn't you have encased him in a friggin' glacier like you did with Sero!? I doubt the Portal could swallow the whole damn iceberg!— Bakugo had complained.
Mei had to agree with the blonde, much to Todoroki's embarrassment.
Now the trio watched the kunoichi with complicated expressions as she comforted her grieving mother alongside her unexpectedly calm father.
Especially Bakugo. He didn't take his eyes off Mei as his mind analyzed everything that had happened since classes began in the Hero Course.
Beyond the disgust he felt for the girl, Bakugo finally realized the enormous gap between himself and the Terumi siblings.
One was able to handle a dangerous pyromaniac on her own, whose flames were nothing to envy compared to those of the Half-and-Half idiot. The other even participated in an Operation with Professionals, one whose result they didn't know beyond the fact that Tetsumaru was fine and Sero was rescued.
And Bakugo himself? He barely saw any action, forced to stay behind while others shone and performed great feats.
He even stooped so low as to be "protected" by Terumi Mei, who deceived them and lured them to her home to prevent them from doing anything rash.
It was humiliating. It was so humiliating that Bakugo couldn't even explode with anger.
Beside him, Midoriya was thinking about other matters, but also related to his current situation.
For the successor of All Might, all of this was demotivating. He hadn't made adequate use of the Quirk that was transmitted to him, the most powerful of its kind.
His friends were mastering their abilities, others were receiving the trust of UA and the Professionals, and he was only watching in silence and helplessness.
Did All Might no longer trust him? After all, he hadn't opposed Tetsumaru's participation, but when he tried to get involved, he was met with a resounding NO.
Midoriya's spirits completely plummeted.
For Todoroki, things were going in a stranger direction.
Like Bakugo, he didn't take his eyes off Mei, but his reasons completely differed from the blonde's.
His heart began to speed up when he admired the girl who had surpassed him in the Sports Festival Tournament, who dared to challenge his father, Japan's second Professional Hero, in his own office.
A girl who seemed kind on the outside, but then proved to be distant, indifferent to many things, and yet, acted to protect them. To protect him.
Todoroki didn't feel betrayed by Mei's deception, not at all. He took the kunoichi's warnings seriously the night they asked for her help and she refused.
He didn't agree, but he could understand her. And that was something new for the boy.
Mei was strong-willed, in his eyes. Physically dominant, her decisions were firm, her beliefs unwavering. She was unique, and that attracted Todoroki more than he wanted to admit.
—Should I invite her to...?— he murmured without realizing it, which immediately drew the attention of the other two.
Bakugo looked at him with a confused expression at first, before his eyes became bloodshot and the veins pulsed on his forehead. Midoriya was simply surprised, opening his mouth like a fish out of water.
Completely oblivious to the situation of her classmates, Mei was patting Sakura on the head and calming her like a child, completely reversing the roles while in her mind she cursed the idiot Tetsumaru, who hadn't called his distressed mother even once.
Where Tetsumaru got that disdain for phones was something Mei didn't know, but she swore she would fix that problem as soon as he returned.
At the same time, she discreetly looked over her shoulder at the weirdos who still hadn't gone back to their caves, feeling and tolerating their intense gazes for too long.
Were they that angry at her for deceiving them and preventing them from messing up their future with a monumental blunder? Well, she didn't care much for the other two, but she wouldn't allow the protagonist to get into situations so out of his control.
At least, that's what she thought at first, but then she remembered that Bakugo was technically the co-protagonist, so his presence was also necessary.
Afterward, she convinced herself that the entire Class 1-A was important for some future power-up, so she contacted all the imbeciles who planned to stick their noses into a Professional Heroes operation.
She did it so as not to mess with the plot too much—a plot she now completely ignored—nothing more, nothing less. These characters didn't matter to her, just as she had told Tetsumaru. No one was valuable enough to Mei, besides her stupid other half.
—M-Mei, hasn't Tet-Tetsumaru called yet?— Sakura asked with teary eyes, clinging to the kunoichi with a pleading look.
She took the woman's cheeks in her hands and kissed her forehead to reassure her, whispering tenderly:
—Not yet, Mom. He's busy with other matters, but he'll call you soon. I'll take care of it.
Then she allowed her father to take her inside the house, whose entrance had been smashed to pieces again.
Mei sighed internally, pulling out her phone and starting to furiously type, sending Tetsumaru a string of curses and threats that she would carry out if the bastard didn't reply soon.
*********************************
—Kid, that was some good work you did there!— Traffic Warden congratulated Tetsumaru, who was catching his breath alone, sitting on a pile of rubble in the middle of the street.
—Thanks— the black-haired boy nodded, turning in the man's direction and trying not to react to the sight of him without his helmet.
The man, about thirty years old, smiled in camaraderie and sat beside him, exposing a dense and unexpectedly well-groomed mustache between his nose and his upper lip.
Tetsumaru couldn't help but compare him to the mustachioed swordsman from One Punch Man. He was utterly identical, except that this one wasn't a swordsman.
Both silently contemplated the devastated space that resulted from the battle between All Might and All For One. The day was exhausting for all of them.
—I think you have a bright future, kid— Traffic Warden said suddenly, smiling with a touch of sadness in his eyes. —At your age, I never could have done half of what you did today.
Tetsumaru didn't reply. There wasn't much he could say that wouldn't sound condescending or make it seem like he felt sorry for the man.
But Warden kept talking, so the shinobi listened.
—I want to apologize on behalf of my partner and friend, Claw Bolt. I know her treatment towards you was dismissive, but she is a good person and an exemplary Hero— Traffic Warden said sincerely, turning towards Tetsumaru and slightly bowing his head.
—You don't have to worry about such matters— Tetsumaru dismissed the issue, wondering internally who the hell this Claw Bolt was.
Traffic Warden smiled and nodded, standing up and hiding his unnecessarily striking mustache under his helmet. Then he seemed to remember something and searched through his waist bag, pulling out an object familiar to Tetsumaru.
—Heavens, I almost forgot! Here, kid. I think this is your phone— he said, handing the device to the bewildered shinobi.
Tetsumaru took it with a slightly confused expression, wondering internally when he had dropped it.
—Well, I think that's all for now. I hope to see you again sometime, Tetsumaru-Kun. If you can, stop by my agency sometime. You'll always be welcome there— the Hero said goodbye.
—...Just Tetsumaru...— the shinobi muttered, his forehead beaded with sweat as he noticed the number of missed messages and calls left by Mei and his mother.
The ones sent by his other half were particularly terrifying.