Chapter 35: Start of the Longest Winter
Hiraeth
Aurdel walked down the path ahead of him, there was an audible click each time the heel of his MJOLNIR's boots met the paved cobblestone. Eventually, after walking around a hundred feet, he stopped. There were eyes on him. Or, more specifically, the eyes of another Spartan. "Put the SPNKR down Randall, I'm here to talk."
There was a sound of rustling from the brush, as Randall stepped out of the bushes with the rocket launcher over his shoulder. He was also wearing his set of MJOLNIR Mark IV, battered, beaten and physically worn after over a decade of use and ad-hoc repairs. "Funny, that's just about the same thing that the ONI agents who were sent my way said. They were standing about five feet behind where you are now before I blew them into red chunks."
"If you're going to kill me, then I suggest you get it over with now. Because I'm not going to fight you," Aurdel pulled off his helmet.
"Aurdel?" Randall lowered his weapon, "But how are you… You're supposed to be dead. I saw your name in the-"
"Spartans never die, remember?" He said, letting out a sigh. Are you willing to hear me out?"
"Were you followed?"
"Obviously, but that's because right now they trust me less than they trust you."
"Funny how these things work out."
"Yeah."
Randall turned his back, waving him down the path. Before continuing on he motioned for the soldiers following him to halt, making sure that they didn't unintentionally provoke Randall. The two of them then began to walk down the path together. "When were you reintegrated into the program?"
"Three years ago. After my ship went down they pulled me alone out of the wreck, told me that I was too valuable of an asset to lose in a simple naval engagement. I didn't want any part of it, but it's impossible to say no to ONI."
"That's what you think. I've been saying no to them ever since they tried to pull me back to the UNSC."
"My circumstances were different, I couldn't afford to make the same decision." Eventually the two of them arrived at his house.
"Make yourself at home, you may as well be comfortable as we talk," Randall gestured towards a couch. "Don't worry, I reinforced the frame."
And so Aurdel sat down, resting his helmet on his lap. Eventually Randall sat down next to him after setting down the rocket launcher. They sat in silence for a moment. "We lost Daisy and Ralph last month, Sargasso was falling and they were supposed to get off the planet. They both died at the extraction point. John found them there."
"There are less and less of us every year."
"The war isn't showing any signs of slowing down or ending any time soon. There were only so many of us to begin with, and I'm only back because I was one of the salvageable ones. You should understand why they would want you back too."
Randall looked him in the eyes, "I'm not going back." Then he turned his head, as if ashamed of himself. "You, all the other Spartans, you're like family to me. But I can't go back. I've been gone too long, and my ties here are too deep now."
The look he'd seen in Randall's eyes, he knew what it was. Aurdel looked up towards the door to one of the connecting rooms, "How old is she?"
"A year old. Her mother died during childbirth, I've been raising her by myself ever since."
He looked down, "I'm sorry."
"Most people are, but that's besides the point. If I leave Natalie to rejoin the UNSC it means that there'll be no one to take care of her. Even if I did manage to find someone, I'd still have to worry about the risk of ONI kidnapping her like they did to us. That's not even accounting for the fact that the Covenant could come back at any time and try to glass the planet."
"I know, which is why ONI is giving up on trying to reintegrate you. Instead they're willing to make a deal with you."
"A deal?" Randall raised an eyebrow.
"ONI will leave you and your family alone for time immemorial, they won't ever try to recruit you or your daughter. But there's a set of caveats."
"It wouldn't be ONI if there wasn't."
He continued, "First, you would have to leave Vodin. They've already prepared arrangements for you to move into a home on Sedra."
"Sedra? That's on the opposite edge of human space."
"I know. Second, you would need to swear an oath of complete secrecy about the Spartan II program. The kidnapping, the training, the augmentations… All of it." Aurdel paused.
"Saving the worst for last?"
"The last caveat is… You would need to go through procedures augmentation reversal process, and hand over your suit of MJOLNI armorR." Randall looked at him, "Yeah, that's why I saved it for last."
"I can't do that." He stood up, like he was offended. "This armor, it's a part of me. It's a part of being a Spartan. I can't knowingly accept-"
"For the love of God man, think!" Aurdel stood up, grabbing him by the shoulders. "The reason why they sent me to talk with you instead of a strike team is because right now your situation is lighting a fire under the asses of everyone related to the Spartan-II program."
"What do you mean?"
"The Spartans, you and the others who were augmented, were supposed to go public back in twenty five twenty seven. But then Soren happened."
"Soren…" Randall tightened his fist.
"Soren's desertion put everything under the close scrutiny of ONI and Admiral Parangosky. Eventually everyone was cleared and no one was sacked, but now that you've reappeared and have shown that your actions were partly out of active desertion they're reviewing everyone in the program all over again."
"Won't it have the same result?"
"No, there's… Look, there's so much I can't tell you. But they're trying to replace us entirely." He let go of Randall, taking a step away.
"So, ONI is making me choose. Either I choose my family, my own flesh and blood, or I choose my identity as a Spartan, all of the people that I trained with."
"Yes."
"Funny how these things work out…" He echoed his words from earlier, "The others will judge me for this, won't they?"
"Maybe, maybe not. But if it helps you at all I'll stand by your decision. Regardless of what you choose. I know just how hard of a position you're in, and I don't intend to let ONI pull a fast one on you too."
Aurdel shot up from his bed in a cold sweat, hyperventilating before finally managing to calm himself down. He looked around, finding that he was still where he'd left himself the previous night. Once he was sure, he let out a sigh of relief. As if things weren't bad before with him experiencing past memories while he was using the robot body, they were now happening when he wasn't using it either. He ran a hand across his face. Had using that thing unintentionally crosswired and fused some of the neural pathways in his head? Or was he just losing grip on reality? There was no way to tell without an in-depth brain scan, something he had neither the equipment to do or trust to ask someone else to do.
Aurdel stood up from the bed, putting a hand on the empty suit of MJOLNIR that stood vigilant above him as he slept. Using Overhaul he was able to disassemble it and reassemble it back on top of himself in almost an instant without any problems. Or, so he thought. "Crap," he muttered under his breath, reflexively reaching for his back in pain. Somehow the section of the undersuit and armor that rested on top of his shoulder blades was too tight, something he couldn't quite understand. He hadn't changed any of the specifications of his suit, and he certainly wasn't growing anymore. Whatever, he'd just have to increase the spacing. He ran his hand over the back of the suit, adjusting it to be just right. After that he left his room.
"Oh, you sure are up early." Mirko was busy in the kitchen, making herself breakfast. She wore an apron on top of a casual set of clothes.
"I could say the same thing to you. I need to get to the school and handle some things, but you don't really have work hours that are set in stone."
She shrugged, "What can I say? Something decided that I would wake up this early, so I'm just going to stick with that decision."
"Sounds nice to be able to follow the actual natural rhythms of your body. I'm stuck chasing a certain amount of hours."
"It's always really been about the quality of sleep, not how long you sleep," she picked up the pan, sliding her eggs onto a plate. "Do you want me to make something? May as well have something since the pan is still hot."
"Can you cook a dozen eggs?" Mirko raised an eyebrow, "What, you think I'm joking? You of all people should know that you need to have sufficient protein to maintain muscle mass."
"I'll cook three eggs."
He shrugged, "Then I'll take three." She turned around, plucking the eggs from the carton before cracking them open and dropping them into the pan. "You know, it's been a long time since I've had someone else make a cooked meal for me."
"Too paranoid to eat someone else's food?"
"Actually, no. I've had quite a bit. Surprisingly the UNSC has a lot of decent cooks serving in the marines and the navy," he folded his arms, "The problem is that every soldier, usually depending on the service, has a specific diet. Ground pounders need meals that are light but calorie dense, flyboys essentially live on a liquid diet and the navy crews need carb dense meals with a lot of antioxidants."
"And which would you fall into?" She lifted the pan off the stove, plating the eggs.
"None of the above, which is exactly the problem," she walked over with both plates, and the two of them sat down at the dining room table. Thank God he'd reinforced the furniture. "I compared my diet with the other Spartans, and I found that the average Spartan, to maintain peak bodily form, needs around ten thousand calories. Active combat needs around twelve to thirteen thousand calories."
"Holy crap," Mirko looked astonished, "That's more than several olympic athletes. A breakfast like this-"
"Won't even put a dent in what I need? Yeah." As if to demonstrate his point, he practically scarfed down the three eggs.
"So what exactly do you eat?"
"MREs. Lots and lots of MREs."
She scoffed, "I don't know much about the military, and even I know that those things supposedly taste awful."
"Well, I have to tell you that for all the variety that they supposedly provide to soldiers they sure don't deliver when it comes to taste." He raised his fork, "After two decades of service and over eighty different MRE types you'd think that I'd hate the taste less, but all I managed to do was learn to tolerate some of the worst food known to man. There were times that I chose to literally chew on tree bark than eat what we were supposed to."
She laughed, digging into her own breakfast. "Seriously?"
"I'm not even kidding!" He put the fork down, "Back when I was still in training, our commanding officer was weaning us off the normal meals we were used to. Trying to get us adjusted to the 'Spartan diet.' So for one of our exercises, we practiced going on an 'extended deployment.' Effectively what that meant was dropping us in a mountain with minimal supplies, giving us tasks to complete and all the while he would be harassing us the entire time with his men. We were up there for over a week." He picked up his plate, continuing his story as he walked over to the kitchen sink. "Each time we had an exercise he would always give us some sort of disadvantage, as a sort of problem to solve. For this exercise the problem was the fact that he'd replaced half of our food and water supplies were completely inedible, meaning that on paper we didn't have enough to actually complete the mission."
"So you gave your food to someone else so they could have it?"
"No, I was immature and threw a fit about having to eat stuff that tastes like garbage. Then when my team got angry and asked what I'd eat instead I ripped a chunk of bark off the nearest tree and demonstrated."
"You're joking!"
"No, that's seriously what happened. At first I thought that I made my point, but in the middle of my night I ended up having a protein bar crammed down my throat and nearly choking. So for the rest of the exercise I just played nice and ate what everyone else did."
She finished her own eggs, "Did the bark at least taste good?"
He dropped his plate into the sink, rinsing it down. "It wasn't actually as bad as you might think. Reach has a unique species of tree native to the planet, one that has slightly softer wood inside, somewhat brittle bark and a nice sweet sap. It was like eating sweet chips, though you could tell you were eating wood after a while because you'd get the bark aftertaste and all the shreds in your teeth." His fond recollection was cut short as he was reminded of the reality of what had happened. Reach… "Well, it had trees like that anyways."
She picked up her plate, walking over to the sink. He meanwhile went back over to the table and picked up his helmet. "You know, it's nice to get a chance like this. To just sit down and talk. Hell, ever since I became a Hero I never really had any chance to connect. Just the family I keep in touch with." He narrowed his eyes at his helmet, looking at his face reflected in the visor. It was hard to describe just what he saw. "Hell, just being and to talk to and know you like this makes me wish I could talk with the people you mention in your stories. They sound like fun people."
With his back turned, she couldn't see his face. He took one last look in the visor before putting on the helmet. "Yeah. That'd be nice."
A Change in Spirit
As Aurdel walked into Class 1-A's dorm building, he found it to be completely abuzz with activity. Even so early in the morning. "Kaminari, close the window if you're done putting up the decorations outside! You're letting in the cold air and it's making Asui seize up!" Jiro shouted.
"Ah, my bad!" He shouted, quickly running over to shut the window. Once it was closed the heat quickly began trapping itself back in the room.
Aurdel stared out the window, watching the snowfall. As part of his training as a Spartan he'd learned to survive the harshest of climates. Chief among them were heavy blizzards. So for him weather like this wasn't worrying in itself. What was worrying was the fact that weather was happening in Japan… No, not just Japan. The fact that these kinds of weather conditions were happening at all in a subarctic climate was absurd, and he couldn't put a finger on why it was happening. "On my Earth, none of the winters were this bad. Not even in some of the more extreme regions of the globe. Is this really how bad winters in Japan usually are?"
Midoriya walked over to answer his question, "I never really paid it much attention or gave it any thought, but… No." Midoriya seemed to be thinking back, to try and make sense of it too. "I guess I didn't really notice it since each winter was only somewhat worse than the last one, but so far this winter has been much worse than anything when I was very young. Even compared to last year it's a big jump."
"Really…?" Curious, Aurdel decided to do a small investigation. Aurdel brought up his tacpad, using his visor to display the information in front of him. Quickly he gained access to a number of databases, both public and private, and began pouring over all of the information that he had at his fingertips. As he did he repeatedly looked for any sort of pattern, anything that might be able to explain the reason why the weather was experiencing such a drastic change from what he knew. What he thought was the most likely possibility was that of climate change, with chemicals being pumped into the atmosphere with reckless abandon for the consequences and drastically affecting Earth's ability to properly retain heat. But to his shock, this wasn't the case. As it turned out, on this Earth effective measures to reduce the onset of climate change had been put in place a long time ago. As even with the continued use of fossil fuels for production and regular consumer use, there seemingly hadn't been any significant increase in production or usage of those fuels. On top of that CO2 emissions hadn't seen any drastic increase or decrease either, instead remaining rather stable. That's not to say there likely wasn't some domino effect from those measures, these things always had one, but this wasn't the correct answer. The drastic change in global temperature and weather patterns was only relatively recent, with the first major signs beginning around thirteen years ago. Though there were some minor changes even before that.
With one avenue of investigation closed, he searched through the second most likely reason for the changing weather. Deliberate weather manipulation. Finding a way for humanity to conquer nature and manipulate weather is a tale as old as time, with some of the most prominent work occurring at the end of the nineteenth century with Nikola Tesla and then again at the tail end of twentieth and beginning of the twenty first century. And for something as drastic as the changes they were currently seeing, his suspicions fell on the usual suspects. Similar to the history of his own Earth, the United States had invested in weather manipulation for a long time. Here their previous attempts were failures, meaning that up until five years ago weather manipulation was officially abandoned by the US government. As for why the program was renewed, it was to counter the imminent famine that was approaching as swathes of farmland in the American Great Plains died and were left barren year after year. His second suspect was, quite obviously, China. Long competing with the United States in the fields of economics and science, the Chinese government had attempted to do what the Americans could not. And in a way, they had succeeded. Utilizing cloud seeding and other methods to induce heavier rainfall into parts of the country that normally did not see much rain, they were able to rapidly expand the amount of arable land available to centrally planned farming. As a result crop yields skyrocketed, the price of food went down and the country went through a small economic boom. But that was just for two years after the program started. The next year disaster struck, as following an accident with the cloud seeding software an overabundance of chemicals was deployed and resulted in the newly tilled farmland effectively being poisoned. The resulting famine led to the deaths of millions across the country, and the program was abandoned. For him this left only one primary suspect, India.
Similarly to China, the country had begun attempts at weather manipulation to increase crop yield and reduce its reliance on the import of foreign goods. This was done through the induction of artificial monsoons and the fertilization of lands that did not typically see the level of rainfall appropriate for farming. India saw similar initial results to China, but the rebounding effects were… Much different. Following several years of artificially induced rainfall, the Indian subcontinent underwent several years straight of extreme droughts that resulted in nearly thirty millions deaths as a result of starvation and thirst. If that weren't bad enough, when the several year long drought had finally ended it was followed up by one of the absolute worst monsoon seasons the subcontinent had ever seen. Record rainfalls were recorded, destroying swathes of what little farmland had managed to survive the droughts and causing massive levels of destruction through major flooding in urban centers. Once the weather had finally managed to reach stable levels once again, attempts by India to control the weather were completely abandoned. But with that final detail, it meant that he was out of likely suspects for his theory on weather manipulation. And without a suspect, that possibility was likely a bust.
"Mr. Aurdel, do you think that someone could be behind the drastic weather?" Midoriya asked.
"Of course there is. Something like this doesn't happen without deliberate action, or deliberate inaction at the very least." Aurdel kept on his search, checking any other possibilities. Was there a shift in the Earth's axis? No, according to his data it was still the there a dramatic thinning in the ozone layer? No, at least not overall. Certain areas of the globe had seen seemingly random periods of ozone depletion and restoration, but there was no indication that the overall-
"I think you misunderstood what I said," Midoriya clarified, "What I meant was… Could one person be responsible for it?"
The question broke the almost trance-like state he'd been put in, snapping back to reality. Right, even while being here he often forgot about just how much was different from the world that he'd known. "You think that someone with a weather manipulation quirk could be responsible for all this?"
"I'm not sure, since I don't really have any proof of it. But I don't think that it's a possibility that can be ruled out." Midoriya clutched the box filled with decorations in his hands, "There's a lot of people around the world, and with such a large number of people comes a large variety of quirks. I don't doubt that someone could be born with a quirk like that."
Aurdel cleared most of the data off of his visor, switching to weather projections for countries all across the globe. "I suppose you can't discount it, but I don't think it's the cause. The level of change is simply too prolonged and extreme. Not to mention the fact that these extreme conditions aren't isolated to Japan. Most of Asia, Europe and North America is seeing very low temperatures with high levels of snowfall. Even parts of the Middle East and North Africa that don't normally ever get any snow are getting it."
"But if it's not that then what could it be?"
He wiped the data off his visor, clearing his view. "I don't have an answer to give you, since I'm not sure myself. But I don't think it's anything you should be worried about."
"Hey, Mr. Aurdel!" Ashido ran over, "Can you lift me up so I can put decorations up on the wall?"
"Can't you use a ladder?"
"I went to ask the support course for one, but they'd already loaned all their ladders out to the other classes. Come on, it'll be quick!"
He sighed. "Alright, fine. But make sure it's quick. I want to grab some of the guys and find a tree to bring back so you can all decorate it."
Ashido jumped up onto his back, using the ridges on his armor like climbing holds and clambering on top of him. Once she'd finally made it up she stood on his shoulders, using the top of his armor's built in thrusters to get a little bit of additional height. "Why are you only taking the boys to get the christmas tree? Also, move a little bit over to the right."
He sidestepped a little bit to the right, holding onto Ashido's legs to make sure she didn't lose her balance and fall. "Because I know that if we end up bringing back the biggest tree we can, they won't complain."
Ashido lifted the ribbons, pinning them to the wall. Aurdel shuffled to the side to let her keep working. "Isn't that kind of-?"
"Before you finish that sentence, I want you to ask yourself whether or not what I said was actually wrong."
She pouted, "You're really back and forth, you know that? Sometimes you're saying and doing a lot of stuff that makes sense, then other times you make comments that only a grumpy old man with outdated opinions would say."
"That being your response just proves my point," he continued shifting to the right.
"But don't you work with Mirko?"
He sighed, "There's a difference."
"Which is?"
"Rumi is a grown adult," he turned, "Look, the point I'm trying to make is that it's easier to get work done with men because they naturally tend to complain less. It's just something naturally impressed into most boys from a young age, like bottling up everything you feel to avoid the off-chance of inconveniencing someone."
There was a momentary pause. "That's…Uh…"
"Keep in mind that I said most, because every once in a while you're going to have-"
"Get out of my way, there's a sight that I need to behold!" Mineta shouted, running towards them.
"...Exceptions. Case in point." He turned his head to the left slightly, "Sero!"
"I'm on it." Sero fired out a length of tape, quickly grabbing Mineta.
"You traitor! Seeing up a skirt is like a rite of passage in high school, you can't deny me this. Especially not when it's practically being handed out for free!"
"The only thing you'd be getting for free is an expulsion once you finally do something that crosses the line."
Overhaul sat at his desk with his hands folded. After getting his quirk restored, he'd gone back to those Villains to discuss what would be done moving forward. Initially he'd thought that he would be able to wrestle control of the League from the walking corpse that led them, but apparently in the time that he was gone the man had actually managed to grow a spine. They'd managed to find a sponsor for their work, and they'd been working hard to earn their keep. It gave them a greater deal of resources to work with, but sharing wasn't the Shie Hassaikai's strong suit. So for them… It would mean going back to their old ways. Overhaul motioned to Daitaian, "Send them in." Daitaian nodded, walking out the door to his office. Within a minute he'd returned with eight other men. Three were loyal to the Shie Hassaikai, five had chosen to turn tail and run the moment that they thought the authorities were onto them.
"Boss! You're really out of prison?!" One of the men exclaimed, startled. "We knew you would make it out eventually, but not so soon!"
"Is that right?"
"Of course! We would never even think of betraying you, you've done too much for us!"
"Maybe it's not something you would consider now, since I'm free. But you already abandoned the Shie Hassaikai when things got tough, and that is absolutely unacceptable." Overhaul stood up from his chair, the three loyalists kicked the five traitors to the ground. The man vigorously trying to defend himself was one of the Shie Hassaikai's more important local managers, running a number of shell companies and distribution routes in Northern Japan that ran into the Russian Far East. Overhaul had thought that he was one of his most loyal followers, but he was wrong. When the Heroes had come down on the clan he had burned all ties with the Shie Hassaikai, emptying the accounts he managed and fleeing with a number of his lieutenants into Siberia. A few loyal members of the Shie Hassaikai had managed to keep track of his whereabouts, allowing him to be brought in. No level of laying low or even facial reconstruction surgery could have saved him. The other four men were a mix of other less important local managers and enforcers, those who would monitor the day to day operations on the streets. Each of them had been valuable in their own way… But loyalty was not something he could afford to lack.
"You need to understand what our situations were like, boss! We didn't know what we were supposed to do! You were gone, your close advisors and men were gone and the police and Heroes were scouting out all our locations! If we tried to-"
"Do you really think that you would have been caught? Don't try to fool me with an emotional plea. I know how remote and hidden our operations in the far north were, along with all the men we had there to run counter-information against law enforcement. The fact of the matter is that they wouldn't have shut down our operations in the north had you not done anything."
"Please, boss. I'm begging for your forgiveness, boss!" The man pressed his head against the floor, bowing in apology. Overhaul walked out from behind his desk, moving next to the man. Here was one of his once trusted lieutenants, prostrating himself on the floor and begging for his life. A Yakuza man begging… In another world he may have received mercy, but here trust can only ever exist once until it is broken.
"Your actions will be forgotten." He perked his head up slightly, thinking he was about to receive forgiveness. "But so will the fact that you ever lived." Overhaul raised his foot and quickly brought it down on the man's neck, snapping it and killing him in an instant. The other four men looked up at him in horror. "Execute the others and hide their bodies in the sea, but make sure this one is found. I need a message to be sent to the rest of the traitors that may still be out there."
"No, wait, boss!" The men called out in fear as they were dragged back out of the room by his loyalists, pleading with him. Those who had betrayed the Shie Hassaikai, who had betrayed him, would receive no mercy.
"You don't want to bring in the others for personal punishment?"
"No, that would be a waste of time. One formerly powerful lieutenant is more than enough to send a message to the rest. No one, no matter how much influence they think they may have within the clan, is untouchable." He walked back over to the desk, sitting down again. "There is more important business that needs to be dealt with right now."
"Which is?"
"Do you remember that western cult I talked to you about? The one that's based out of Otheon."
"I do. They were trying to smuggle something into Japan from overseas, then they wanted it distributed to a number of locations across the country. You were hesitant to consider taking the job at the time, while the Old Man straight up refused to take any job offers from them."
"That's right. At the time I didn't want to take their offer because the price they were paying seemed like an incredible lowball, and they were unwilling to negotiate any raising of the price. The Old Man denied them because he said there was no amount of money that could clear his conscience of what they were likely planning. But now…"
"Did they send another to bring in their cargo?"
"They did, and they're offering nearly five times as much as they did back then. It's an outrageous deal that I don't believe we can afford to turn down." For one of the very few times in his life, Overhaul wasn't sure what to do. "We worked with them in the past to import large quantities of trigger and refining chemicals into Europe, but I don't trust them."
"It's reasonable not to trust them," Daitaian said, waving his hands as he elaborated, "They're a western doomsday cult predicated on theories that have no way to be proven in a book written by a scientist who has long since been lost track of. And though I know that their goal of eliminating quirks does line up with your own, I won't hesitate in pointing out the fact that they have no concrete image for the future. Destroying quirks is the only thing they have their eyes set on." He turned, "Though I suppose that in the end, that would work out for a group like ours."
"Someone needs to be alive to pick up the pieces afterwards, and it wouldn't hurt if that someone was us. Though it's a matter of whether or not their plans have the correct scope, or if they can even succeed."
"But if they're planning something this far from Otheon, they likely have operations planned out all across the rest of the globe. And if they manage to succeed in wiping out quirks, the Yakuza would be able to come out on top again. Just like it had in the past."
Overhaul tapped his finger together, giving the idea more thought. Helping these guys out could very well lead to Heroes putting even more pressure on them, but it could also help them in the long run. And sometimes one had to take risks to succeed. "Alright. Gather up some of the men, I want you to handle the delivery."
There was a momentary pause from Daitaian, who seemed to be suddenly deep in thought. Then he snapped out of it, "Alright boss." After that he left the room. Overhaul opened the laptop, switching to the chatroom he'd been talking with the client in. He sent his message, getting a response seconds later.
Flect-Turn's orders.
There was a soft crunching sound each time Aurdel took a step forward, compressing the snow underneath his boots as he walked. The boys of Class 1-A followed in his large footsteps. "Mr. Aurdel, are we really going to find a christmas tree in the forests around the campus?" Midoriya asked.
"I asked some of the other staff about it, and they said the school had a grove of fir trees on campus for biodiversity purposes. After that I got permission from Principal Nezu to take one of the trees."
"Why the hell don't we just order one?" Bakugo asked, "It's what I always did with my parents."
"Because it's three days before Christmas, so good luck finding a Christmas tree farm with any trees left. Much less one that can have the trees delivered in this kind of weather."
"Couldn't we at least wait until the snow lets up first? It's still coming down pretty hard," Kirishima said, using his arm to block the snow from directly blowing into his face.
"No, we can't," he emphasized, "It's supposed to keep snowing until the evening of Christmas Eve, and by that time it'll be too late to bring in the tree and have it decorated. Now quit your bellyaching and come on, the grove is only a little bit further ahead." Of all of the people he had with him, only Todoroki remained silent as they trudged through the snow. It was a sort of pensive quietness.
"Ah, there it is!" Midoriya pointed ahead.
"How the hell can you see that far ahead in all this god damned snow?!" Bakugo shouted.
"Alright, let's split up. Look for a tree that'll actually fit through the door. We can always make the tree shorter, but we can't exactly make it any thinner without ruining the general shape of the tree." The group soon began to split up, but before everyone left… "Todoroki, could you stay with me for a moment? There's something I need to talk to you about."
There were suspicious stares from the others for a moment, "Sure." After that, the others left.
For a moment they stood in silence. "I've been stalling with this for a while, but…"
"You wanted to apologize for the remark you made to Endeavor during the Billboard Charts."
It seemed like his intentions were incredibly apparent. "Yes."
Todoroki sighed, "You don't need to apologize for anything. Even if it was sort of like airing dirty laundry in public, he needed someone to put him in his place. I think you were the only one that could have done it."
"I see."
"He's even trying to talk me and the others more often now, to 're-embrace the family.'" He pulled his phone out of a pocket, displaying all the missed phone calls and unread text messages. Then he slipped it back in. "That's not to say I'm accepting him with open arms though, he still hasn't proven to me that he is actually capable of being a father. And I don't think him trying to be one out of spite will change that much."
"I suppose not," he looked up, "Though it's certainly better than what he did before."
"Yeah." Another moment of silence, "You know, I think you've acted more like an actual father than he has."
"Really?"
"Maybe it wasn't intentional, but yeah. Sure you can be similar, all those brutal as all hell training sessions are one thing. But I don't think he ever bothered to check if I was alright afterwards, or if he did something wrong he never bothered to apologize afterwards. Not that he thinks he ever made a mistake anyways."
"That sounds less like the building blocks specifically for a father, and more for a decent human being," he let out a sigh, "Though, I suppose one leads into the other."
"I also never got to do anything like this," Todoroki said, "My dad always sort of secluded me from my siblings to focus on my training, I never really participated in events or holidays. Even when I did it was usually minimal at most."
He clasped him on the shoulder, "Well it's just like with everyone else. So long as you're under my care I'll make sure to train you hard, but I'll also make sure to give you a fair chance to enjoy yourself."
"Thanks."
He pulled his hand off, "Now come on, I have a feeling that if we take any longer the others are going to give me an earful for being lazy."
David stared at the tools on his workbench, the exhaustion that he felt right now was greater than any other he'd ever known. He felt completely and utterly physically and mentally drained, working day in and day at the behest of his captors. There was absolutely nothing more he could give themes. Yet still, they sought to wring him for more. At first it seemed like simply fixing and reproducing the quirk amplification device was enough to sate them, but as time went on they began to make more and more demands. Overall size and weight reduction, increased amplification efficiency, reducing power use, allowing the device to be concealable, ensuring compatibility with other military hardware… These were just some of the many dizzying tasks they'd assigned him to complete, each one harder than the last due to the sheer number of changes he'd made increasing the fragility and instability of the device. At first he tried to come up with ways to escape, building improvised weapons to try and allow himself a chance to get out. But he'd been caught in the process, and given up once he realized that even if he managed to break out of his cell he would likely be recaptured minutes later. Next he'd tried to sabotage his own prototype, creating faults in them with the hopes that it would cause some catastrophic failure. But it had done nothing to dissuade their constant push to work him further. And so he'd simply resigned himself to waiting and working. The only thing he had left was the hope that if he stalled long enough, if he just waited, then somehow he would be saved. But the time had begun to blur together. Hours turned into days, days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. And not having seen the sun ever since his capture, he had absolutely no idea just how long he'd been captive.
He rubbed his eyes and put back on his glasses, ready to get back to work, when the door to the workshop suddenly opened. The sound of his personal warden's boots clicked as they hit the cold concrete floor. "Mr. Shield, it is good to see that you're awake. You have a long day ahead of you."
He wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead, looking up. "Colonel, I'm not sure how many more changes I can make to my quirk amplification device. It has become so different from the original design that if-"
"Silence, Mr. Shield. So that I may explain what is expected of you." He quickly hushed himself, not wanting to incur any wrath. "As of today, I am moving you into a similar but different project. Before today your work had been to make the quirk amplification device smaller and fit for mass production. But now… I ask you to make it bigger."
"Bigger?"
"I shall show you what I mean," the Colonel motioned to a nearby pair of armed guards, escorting them out of the room and down a number of hallways. David couldn't begin to imagine how large this facility was, or if other people were being held here like him. "The reason that I ask you to make it bigger is because this device is meant to serve as a tool for a single very important individual, one that needs the additional power to accomplish his mission."
"Who is this person?"
"All you are privy to know is that they are very important politically and militarily, as they serve as an enforcer for the will of the party." They stopped in front of a door and the Colonel pulled out a keycard, "Without this tool, he cannot do his job." Then, he opened the door.
"Is that… A fighter jet?"
"Indeed it is, the only one of its kind in the entire world. The reason the device must be larger is because it needs to be mounted to the inside of the plane." He ran his hand across the side of the jet, "It is a unique craft with a unique pilot, something like this will be difficult even for a man such as yourself."
He walked closer to the jet out of confusion, the armed guards allowing him to do so. "I'm not exactly sure if I'm correctly understanding what you're asking me to do… But, do you want me to build a quirk amplification device for a pilot? What use could a fighter pilot possibly have for their quirk while in a jet?"
"It is not for you to question the purpose of the tasks that I give to you."
"I- Of course," he quickly backed down from the line of questioning, the chance of angering the Colonel came with too many risks. If something happened to Melissa… "Will you be able to provide the design documents for the aircraft?"
"Yes, you will have the design documents to work with," the Colonel stepped away from the aircraft. "But know this Mr. Shield, there are many things with the design that we cannot allow to be changed. If anything were to be changed without my pre-approval… Well, then we would have a problem. And we don't want to have any problems, correct?"
"Of course, I won't make any changes without notifying you first."
"Good, then I expect some results from you very soon Mr. Shield. I will leave you to your work." After that the Colonel left the room with the guards, locking the door behind him and leaving him once again completely and utterly alone. He really didn't want to keep working for his captors, but he had absolutely no choice. No harm would come to his daughter, not if he could stop it. But still, if he could only somehow get out a message…
"Of course." An idea hit him, and he walked over to the aircraft. It was so obvious now, the solution to his problem was staring him right here in the face. Even if he couldn't somehow take this aircraft and use it to fly out of his prison, it could still be of use. After all, all military aircraft came equipped with radios and other communications equipment. If he could somehow get his hands on an additional transmitter, encode it with a specific message and then hide it inside the body of the aircraft, then he could get a message out the next time the aircraft flies.
He ran over to the table he'd been provided, the design documents for the aircraft scattered across the top. With an energy he hadn't had before he quickly began to scan through them, searching for any sort of nook or crevice where he could hide a transmitter inside of. And then, he could-
David stopped with his train of thought for a moment, staring in amazement as he continued looking over every detail of the aircraft. This was no simple fighter jet… This was something else. The first thing one might spot is its relatively large size, one that's completely out of the norm for something such as this. But there was more. Practically futuristic automatic targeting systems, a large laser 'cannon,' enough mounts with powerful enough engines to carry as much explosive tonnage as a bomber, hardpoints for various types of missiles, machine guns and autocannons, heavy EMP shielding, a stealth coating, some kind of directed energy weapon and… And just so much more. But there was one detail that made him step back for a moment, one he couldn't wrap his head around. It was the cockpit. The cockpit was too small for an average sized adult to pilot.
It was made to fit someone the size of a child.
Chapter 36: Another Side
Silent Night
With only a few days remaining before Christmas Eve and Christmas Day itself, Aurdel and all of the students of Class 1-A worked tirelessly to prepare the dorm building for the holidays. Each of them did their part, going at it day and night to make everything to the best of their ability and beyond. Ribbons, wreaths, bells and garland were strung across the many hallways of the dorm building, with holly, candles, dioramas, aluminum trees and fake snow filling the spaces in between. Dropping down from the ceiling was a mix of decorations, with hundreds of LED snowflakes and meticulously designed and craft paper snowflakes covered with glitter and other reflective material. When the main lights went off the room would be filled with glowing shapes, forming a sort of aurora that would change color as the lights did. But the crowning achievements of their labor was the one that had taken the most effort, and the one that served as the centerpiece for their celebration. The Christmas tree.
The tree was around fourteen feet tall and eight feet wide, taking up a massive space next to the large dining table that sat in the middle of the dorm room. He and the boys were barely able to squeeze the tree through the pair of open doors, working slowly and carefully to make sure that they didn't damage or destroy any of the branches. But no matter how much work it'd been to set it all up, it had absolutely been worth it. Glass, metal and ceramic ornaments, massive strings of light, wooden toys, mountains of tinsel, lines of foil garlands, gingerbread men, candy canes, charms and miles of string lights. When the lights went off in the room the tree stood out like no other, a monument to all of their hard work and their intentions to celebrate the holidays. But there was one thing that was much more important than all of the decorations, and that was the people who were celebrating.
"Merry Christmas!" All of Class 1-A was gathered in the main room, dressed head to toe in Santa outfits both green and red. Each and every one of them was filled with an excited spirit and surrounded by a happy glow, even those that were typically more reserved or those that didn't really act as kind were no exception. And frankly, it was infectious. He was no exception. And so rather than go against the mood, he joined in with them. Keeping his armor on, he draped a large red Santa outfit he'd made himself on top. Then he took off his helmet, keeping it at his side and he put on white beard and hair wig. After that he walked out from around the corner and into the main room.
"Guys, look! Mr. Aurdel is finally showing some of his face!" Ashido jumped out from nowhere, catching him off guard as she shouted to get everyone's attention.
"Hold on, it's not- " Before he could even give a response the class came practically barreling over, everyone wanting to get a look at him. "Look, I understand that I don't really show my face at all, but is it really that interesting to get a look?"
"Of course it is! We already told you that we have a betting pool for whoever can get the most details correct about your face. You should really see what some people think you look like online!"
He became exasperated, "I would really rather not be reminded of the kinds of things I see online about myself."
"Darn, he's got blue eyes and a small scar," Jiro scratched the back of neck, "That's a bad way to start off what I had for my bet."
He raised his hand, "Look, this isn't the time to be gawking at my face. It's Christmas Eve, you should be focusing on and celebrating that."
"Mr. Aurdel is right," Ida proclaimed, fixing his glasses, "Christmas is only once a year, and with all the time it took to prepare it would be a waste to not enjoy it!"
"Right, thanks for the food!" With that the class gathered backed around the large table in the center of the room, digging into the feast that they had in front of them. Dozens of plate covered with food littered the table, with cooked chickens, turkeys, hams and sausages, bowls of warm rice, potatoes and dumplings, large pots of stews, soups and chowders and trays covered with fresh bread, cookies, brownies, eclairs, cannolis, donuts, cakes and so much more.
"You know," Kaminari spoke with a leg of turkey in one hand and a cup with hot tea in the other, "It really stinks that after the break we all need to start our work studies. We're probably the busiest first years this school has ever seen."
"I can't really blame them for wanting us to get the experience, there's a lot of stuff going down. Besides, I don't have any issue with the extra work." Kirishima shrugged it off, "I'll be working with Fat Gum and Amajiki again, and hopefully that will give me the chance to make a new form that can truly be called unbreakable."
"Manual's agency is still open to the work study program, so I'll try to apply to hi maggain," Ida ate neatly with a knife and fork on his plate, contrasting the other boys who almost all tore into their food voraciously. "What about you Midoriya? Are you going to keep working at Sir Nighteye's agency?"
"I'm honestly not too sure," Midoriya said, taking a bite out of a cookie, "I did learn a lot while I was working with him, and it was a mostly okay experience, but after I had a conversation with Sir Nighteye the other day he didn't seem to think there was any way for him to accommodate the changes with my quirk. It's a shame since I wanted to see more of him and Mirio at work, but I was also thinking about working with Mr. Aurdel."
"About that, I'm not sure if me taking you is actually for the best."
"Why's that?"
Aurdel took a long sip of the hot tea. "While I do enjoy your company as much as everyone else's, the fact is that you need to have access to a wider pool of experience and knowledge. Since you're already my student that means you've already tapped into some of that knowledge, but I don't want it to become the sole source you have."
"I see…"
"Would you quit all this talk about hard work?!" Mineta interrupted, protesting their conversation. "You wanted us to enjoy Christmas, right? So stop talking about it! It's supposed to be a holy day of rest after all."
"You're right, so I hope we're not too late to join in." One of the two main doors opened.
"Trick or…! Treat?"
"You're thinking of Halloween, but you've got the right spirit."
"Ah, Eri!" Aizawa and Eri stepped in through the door, the latter wearing an outfit just like everyone in the class.
"Demons out! Demons in!" Eri scattered a handful of beans, not knowing that this was a custom from the wrong holiday. But seeing her dressed up and trying her hardest to fit in and have fun, it warmed his heart. A smile crept onto-
"Aha, I knew that she would be able to get him," Mirko pushed open the second door, revealing herself, Gentle and La Brava.
A little bit of embarrassment rose from him, he tried to quash it. "You're always just trying to push my buttons, huh?"
"If someone has the knowledge of how to do it, then they should do it. And that person may as well be me." She picked Eri, playing with her hair as she carried her over.
Midoriya was somewhat shocked, "I never would have thought that you would show up Gentle."
"Neither would I, but Ms. Mirko suggested that we come along. I graciously accepted since it gave me the chance to thank you."
"Deku, you know him?" Uraraka asked, she'd managed to weasel her way on the couch next to Midoriya.
Nervously he scratched the back of his head, "It's sort of a long story."
"I was still a Villain then, and I was trying to leave my mark on history by breaking into the festival and showing myself to the world. But Midoriya beat in a battle before I could accomplish my plan."
"I still think we could have gotten away with it if he hadn't been there," La Brava said.
"I'm not sure about that," Aurdel interrupted, putting down his cup, "I recently took a look at the program you were planning to use to get past the security system. And I can tell you now, that wouldn't have worked."
Mirko walked over to where Aurdel was, setting Eri down on his lap. She looked up, "I painted these eggs," and held up a handful of decorative Easter eggs.
"They look very nice, you do a good job with them." He gave her a pat on the head, she giggled and smiled.
"You two look really natural like that," Ashido commented, "Like father and daughter!"
"Really? Well, I have to say that sounds-" All of a sudden, Eri put aside the cluster of Easter eggs she was holding. Then she dove in and gave him a great big hug, "-nice." He was caught off guard by the gesture, as he kept herself close and pressed her head against him.
"Aw, that's so cute!" There was a gush from the crowd around them, with them likely enjoying how much he'd become embarrassed from the sudden.
Mirko leaned over the couch with a satisfied look, "Yep, just like father and daughter."
He let out a sigh as he returned the hug, holding Eri. "You know, I don't think I'm ever going to hear the end of this?"
She tilted her head, "You don't like it?"
"No, I do. It's just that I know when someone like me who tries to act tough all the time does something soft, they'll be made fun of to no end." He stood up, picking her up and lifting her above his head. "But I guess if it's to keep you happy, then, then I guess I can deal with the teasing!" Eri laughed and smiled as he raised her up high, and he did the same. "Now come on, there's plenty of food on the table. You're a growing girl and it means that you need to eat."
"What about sweets?"
"We have plenty of sweets for you to eat, you can take as many as you want." And with that, and with everyone there, the celebration could truly begin.
"…Deck the halls with boughs of folly! Fa, la, la, la, la-!"
"Oh my god, you guys are completely off key!" Jiro looked up from her guitar, absolutely astonished. "What happened to all that practice that we did for the school festival?!"
"What are you talking about? You were the one that did all the singing for the concert!" Kaminari shouted.
She became exasperated, "But you were all supposed to be backup singers too! Sure you weren't the main vocals that was being heard, but you still needed to sing at a certain key to reinforce what I was singing."
Ojiro scratched the back of his head, "I guess we were so busy with everything else that we really didn't have the time to keep practicing our singing."
"Well how are we supposed to sing carols if you guys can't match the key?"
Aurdel sat quietly with Eri, watching the others as she chewed on a brownie, when she suddenly looked up. "Can you sing?"
"Can I sing?" He pondered the thought, "Well, yes, but-"
"No way," Sero said, "You've got a deep voice, but there's no way you can sing."
"What do you mean? I have a larger vocal range than you think."
"Since when?!"
"How do you think I manage to get those robot dummies to mimic your voices?"
"Didn't you use vocal synthesizers?" Jiro asked.
"Well, yes, but I needed something for the synthesizers to form an effective template off of. And I couldn't exactly ask each of you individually to sit down for an hour and talk into a microphone."
"An hour?!"
"Yes, an hour. Though that doesn't account for all the time you spend doing warm ups to speak so long with an assumed voice. All in all I have around forty hours of audio recordings sitting on a hard drive."
"I wanna hear you sing!" Eri said, quickly latching onto him.
He gave a nervous laugh, "I'm not sure if that's a good idea."
"Come on, sing!" The class started to join in on pressuring.
"Look, I don't want to embarrass-!"
Aizawa put a hand on his shoulder, "It's only fair."
"What are you talking about?"
"You saw me embarrass myself when I was doing karaoke with Mic, then you left before you had the chance to do the same."
Mirko walked back into the room, holding Koda's pet rabbit in her arms. "Oh, was that what I interrupted?" He lowered his head a little. Crap. "In that case, I want to hear it."
He let out a sigh, "Looks like I don't really have a choice, huh?"
"Nope."
He racked his brain, trying to think of what he was supposed to sing. The last time he'd sing a Christmas carol was… Well, it'd been a while. But after a moment he made up his mind. He cleared his throat, and everyone waited with great anticipation for him to sing. Eri especially.
"Hark! The herald angels sing, 'Glory to the newborn King! Peace on Earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.' Joyful all 'ye nations rise! Join the triumph of the skies! With th' angelic host proclaim, 'Christ is born in Bethlehem.' Hark! The herald angels sing, 'Glory to the newborn King!'" He finished the first verse of the song, and looked around. "Well?"
"I mean it sounds great… But the carol you picked is kind of out there."
"What?" He must've had an incredible look of astonishment on his face.
"It's not that it's a bad song!" Jiro said, "It's just that nobody really sings stuff like that anymore. I doubt most people even know the lyrics to that song."
He stood up with Eri still in his hands, "It sounds like no one has an appreciation for the classics anymore."
She shrugged, "It's an old song, you can't really blame people for it falling out of fashion."
"An old song? But Deck the Halls is nearly just as old." She shrugged, "Well, now I feel terribly old."
"You're from the future, right?" Kaminari pointed out, "Why don't you sing something a carol that only you would know?"
"Evidently I did sing something that you guys didn't know," he shook his head, "The problem is that when I'm from, nobody bothers coming up with new Christmas carols anymore. It's just mostly the same old ones. And for the people that don't sing the carols, they just sing those same Christmas songs that keep getting a new cover by some celebrity every other decade. If not, they're just the same songs completely."
"Does that mean they're mostly the same songs that we have?" Ashido asked.
"Yes, plenty of them."
"Does that include…"
"Yes, that DOES include the song All I Want for Christmas. And no matter how many official complaints I put in with the UNSC's Recreation Corps, and no matter how many injunctions they receive, someone will always put the song on loop for at least two hours on Christmas Day. It's such a recurring problem that serving as a station engineer on Christmas Day became a serious occupational hazard."
"What's that mean?"
"That because someone continues to put a song that is used in psychological torture on the airwaves every Christmas, statistically five people are killed every year because some people are unwilling to simply turn off the radio for that time. I've even seen a satellite get blasted out of orbit because some navy boys couldn't keep a cool head."
"Seriously?!"
"You would not believe the incredible lengths that some people will go to instead of having a reasonable solution to a problem." He stopped walking, standing next to Mirko. "Now get back to singing, since you all had your chance to watch me make an embarrassment of yourself."
Mirko looked towards him. "Eh, I don't think it was that bad."
"Well, everyone's a critic until they have to do something themselves. How about you sing?"
"Nah, it's not my thing." She ran her hand across the back of the pet rabbit.
"So then, what exactly are you doing over there? Communicating with your people?"
She smirked, holding up the rabbit. "Family, actually, I'm sure you can see the resemblance." He shook his head as she laughed, something catching her eye. "Hey Eri, do you want to hold him?"
"Sure!" Eri opened her arms, ready to accept at Mirko walked over.
"Careful!" She'd nearly fallen out of his arms, "If you're going to take something like that in your arms you need to be careful. Here, I'll set you down." He put Eri back on the ground, letting her take the rabbit into her hands. She then scurried off, giggling as she stroked its hair. He then looked back. "What?" Everyone was staring at him, seemingly expectantly.
"Didn't you see it?"
"See what?" They pointed up, so he looked above his head and saw- "Now hold on, I've already been embarrassed once tonight. I don't need it to happen again."
"Oh come on, don't you know it's bad luck to refuse someone standing under the mistletoe?"
"It's supposed to be bad luck only if the lady refuses."
He raised his hands, "Alright, now look-"
"If it makes you feel better, then why don't we make it a challenge?"
He stopped, "A challenge?"
"Yeah, a challenge. We'll fight, and if I manage to beat you then you can't say no."
He thought for a moment, there was no way he could lose. "Alright, fine." And before he could get to ball up his hands into a fist, Mirko had already kicked off her boots and swung her leg. "Woah!"
"If you're going to fight, then take it outside," Aizawa dryly remarked.
"Nah, I got something specific planned to win." He put up his arms to block as she brought her legs against him, over and over. Striking him from both sides to keep him from pushing back with a response. He took a step back each time to try and get proper footing, but the loose carpet they'd put on the floor as part of the decorations wasn't doing him any favors. Eventually he did manage to throw her back, but the punches he threw she easily bobbed and weaved under. She knew how he fought too well. But the same could be said for him.
The next time she went in for a kick he moved his arm, wrapping it around her right leg and using the leverage to flip her onto the floor. As he dove to quickly try and out her in a hold she kicked with her left leg and struck him hard in the chest, pushing him back. She then managed to quickly spring back up from the floor, using the momentum to kick him again and push him even further back.
"Yeah! You can do it, Mirko!"
He turned his head towards his class for a moment, "Why are you cheering her on?!"
"Because it's more entertaining!"
He grit his teeth as Mirko leapt up, hitting him with an axe kick. "You know, you can't beat me in a straight fight with my armor on. So what exactly is your plan?"
"Something like… This!" Then she charged straight towards him, making a blatant attempt to tackle him. He was able to quickly respond, catching her mid-tackle and making the motions to throw her over his head when-
"Watch out, you're going to hit the tree!"
"Huh?" Aurdel hadn't been properly maintaining spatial awareness, as a result he hadn't noticed that Mirko was slowly pushing him in the direction of the Christmas tree. At the last second he pulled her back towards him and away from the tree, unintentionally giving her the momentum she needed. Mirko pivoted in the air, grabbed him by the shoulders and then pulled herself in. By the time the two of them hit the floor she had wrapped her legs around his neck, putting him in choke hold. He'd lost. "You know, even for me that's a dirty move to play,"
"Well, you should know that sometimes people have to play real dirty to get what they want."
"Yeah, I know." She leaned over, moved the wig a little and then planted a kiss on his forehead. "There, does that make up for it?"
His face was a little red, "Maybe, if it still didn't hurt."
"What, your pride?"
"No, my neck. You wrapped your legs around my neck and whipped me onto the ground at full force. In fact, I'm possible that I just left a hole in the floor." Mirko shrugged, and all he could do was let out a sigh in response.
A Change in Spirit
Aurdel laid down in the main room, resting his head on a pillow on one of the arm rests of the couch. He kept one hand on his head, aware what some of his students were bound to try. As he looked to the left he already saw one such attempt. "Don't even think about trying Ashido, you're not going to get this wig off of my head."
She quickly stood up, looking away and whistling. "Ah, I wasn't doing anything! I was just… standing here!"
"Yeah, right. And I'm actually Santa." He furrowed his eyebrow, "Look, all you see right now is all anyone is gonna see until I feel that it's the right moment."
"But that's no fun, you can't make people wait for something like that!" She quickly turned, "Mirko, can't you do it for us?! You're right there, and he really can't punish you for doing it!"
"Nah, I think I've had my fill of teasing for the day. You'll just have to wait some other time to get a look." She leaned against the couch with her arms folded, and a smug look on her face. "Besides, if you think you can bribe me to pull off the wig so I can see his face too then you're out of luck. I've already seen his full face."
"Seriously?!" She looked towards him.
"It wasn't done intentionally… But yes, Mirko has seen my full face."
"That's not fair at all!"
"Life isn't fair. You should find something else to complain about instead of not being able to see my face." Eri walked up to him, pulling on the red jacket he wore on top of his armor. "Is something wrong?"
"Um… Can we open the presents?"
"Sure," he quickly stood up from the couch, letting go of the hat and wig. Ashido quickly made an attempt at swiping it as he stood up, but missed. "Sero, can you set it up?"
"Right," Sero put down his plate and walked over to the Christmas tree. Then he fired off his tape, breaking it into sections and attaching one to each of the presents underneath. The kind of traditions they had for giving gifts in Japan was different from what he knew, but he'd encourage it all the same. "Alright, it's all ready!"
Everyone quickly gathered around the tree, each grabbing one of the strands of tape. "You all know what to do. On the count of three. One, two… Three!" Once he reached three, they all pulled on the strands of tape. Presents went flying across the room as everyone pulled with great force to avoid getting intertwined with someone else's. Everyone would receive a gift. And to say that there was a wide variety of the gifts received would be a vast understatement.
For example… "Yippee!"
"Don't throw them!" Ashido had received a set of dumbbells, something that anyone could have bought but still deeply reflected the person who'd gifted the item.
"Woah…" On the other hand, you had the give that Ida managed to pull out of the pile. Three bars of solid twenty four karat gold. Something like that didn't take long to realize who'd given the gift, as there were very few people who could afford to own gold bars, let alone give them away as a gift. Just like the other gifts it too was reflective of the giver, though with something like this it was hard to tell whether giving away gold to those of lower class could be considered genuine compassion or facetiousness. Ultimately he fell back on the former and didn't give it much thought.
However there were a few give that stood out from the others, mostly because of who they were given to. "This is-!" Perhaps the best in his mind were the gifts that Midoriya and Uraraka had received. Not necessarily because of the value of the gifts, but the people they'd received them from. Each other. Even though they'd probably deny it if you asked them, he knew that there were some mutual feelings between the two of them. You could tell from the way they acted. It was the sort of puppy love you would expect from kids as young as them. And while encouraging relationships wasn't exactly a requirement of his job, he couldn't discourage them if they occurred. Because while camaraderie is a strong thing that could help people get through things, often deeper relationships could do better. And if-
"Hey, look what I got!" Eri approached him, proudly presenting the gift that she'd managed to pull out of the pile.
"That's… Great! Why don't I hold on to it for a while? That way I can carry it back to your room later."
"Okay!" Quickly he took the large sword from her arms, putting it to the side. He actually had no idea how she'd managed to drag it out of the pile of the presents, since it was both much larger and heavier than her. But if that was her gift then he supposed that would stay her gift.
He walked over to Tokoyami, knowing that he was the one who'd put the gift in the pile. "Is the sword actually sharp?"
"A blade without an edge is like a toy without batteries, it is unusable without them."
"Ah, right." Safe to say, Eri wouldn't touch that sword for a long while.
Many hours would pass as their celebration went on. Words were spoken, good food was had, carols were sung and gifts were exchanged. Morning turned to afternoon, afternoon turned to evening and evening turned to late night. Soon enough it began to near midnight, meaning that the celebration was close to coming to an end. But before that happened there were a few things that he needed to do. He clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. "Since it's getting late, and you're all probably going to head off to bed. I wanted to take this chance to do two things. First, a chance to say a few words." He gestured towards his class, "To you all, I want you to know how much I appreciate you being my class. Working with all of you, even if it was originally just for the purpose of teaching you how to become Heroes, has given me more opportunities than I could have even imagined. And I'm truly thankful for that. That's why I've given all of you a gift. Though, I guess you could also call it a bribe."
"A bribe?" They became confused.
He rubbed the back of his neck, "Well, look. I'm very sure that as soon as you go home tomorrow, you're going to tell your family about all the stuff you've been doing. And, well, I figure that if I was anyone else I would have been thrown in prison by now. So please try to make it sound not as brutal as it has been. If they still feel angry after you try to play things down, I also wrote a personal apology to each of your families and attached them to your gifts to use."
"Can we use them as blackmail to get our grades up?" Mineta asked.
"Very funny, but no. I don't get blackmailed. And if you tried, I would just set your grades as low as possible."
"But how are you supposed to lower our grades if you get fired?"
"Look, all you need to know is that I have total control over the school's IT systems. Even if I get fired I could still manipulate every single bit of it."
"What's the second thing?" Midoriya asked.
"Well, I probably won't be able to celebrate New Years with you guys. Most likely I'll be busy. So I've organized a little something to make up for that ahead of time."
"What? You ordered some fireworks to set off?" Sero said.
"Something like that. Here, let's all go outside. It's better to show what you mean than to just say it." With that, everyone walked out of the dorm and onto the freshly fallen snow. The weather has cleared since earlier that day, the clouds having moved away to reveal a dark, wide open sky.
"Woah… All the other classes are waiting outside too. Just what do you have planned?"
"You'll see." Hatsume walked over, holding a remote control and large metal frame filled with fireworks in her hands. "Hatsume, is it all set up?"
"Yep! All programmed and ready to go, timed exactly the way you want it. I even added a little extra kick for the finale."
"It won't blow up on my back, will it?"
She shrugged, "I can't give you any guarantees, I was pretty tired when I was working on it."
He took the remote and rig, "I suppose then I'll just have to rely on my luck." After putting back on his helmet and sliding the rig onto his armor he synced up with the robotic body and took a deep breath. Then he began.
Aurdel activated the first fuses and then launched into the air using his thruster pack. He and the robotic body darted around the sky, using the colored trails of the firework in the rigs to draw shapes and patterns before launching them and allowing them to blow up once the fuse had nearly run out. Of the patterns they drew there were stars, faces, rings, hearts, Christmas trees and hearts. This went on for almost a minute straight before the show finally reached its climax. The two of them quickly began moving around the sky, turning at seemingly odd angles before proceeding in an entirely different direction. Soon enough the shape became clear. It was that of a rooster, the sign of the next year.
"Now to finish it…" He muttered as he finished the shape, quickly diving down. Then he and the robot body hovered in the air, lining up before moving forward to have the letters appear in the right order. Within seconds a message blazed across the sky in bold letters. 'MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR.' The message was allowed to hang in the sky for a few seconds, before suddenly over a hundred firework shells started launching rapid-fire from each of the rigs and into the sky. He and the robot swirled around, not having actually expected this and just trying to keep up a natural appearance. Eventually the fireworks all finished firing and Aurdel dropped back down to the ground.
Eri suddenly ran towards him, jumping up. "That was really cool!" He picked her up with one arm, using the other to take back off his helmet.
"I'm happy to hear that, it took a lot of work to set up."
Mirko walked over, "Seems to me like you're missing a pair of wings, flying like that."
Behind the fake beard and wig, he hid a smile. "You wouldn't believe how much EVA training and experience it takes to pull something like that off. Granted I feel like I've had my stomach and heart switch positions with how many sharp turns I pulled, and I'll probably be hearing explosions in my ears for the next week." He threw Eri a little bit up into the air, catching her as she came back down with a giggle. "Now, let's get you to bed."
Aurdel walked into Eri's room, carrying her in. He also dragged the sword she'd received as a present with him. "I really liked all the stuff that we did today," Eri said.
"I did too, it's always nice to celebrate with other people." He set her down, allowing her to scurry towards her closet. He then turned his head as she changed out of Santa outfit and into her pajamas.
"All the food was great, the decorations were so pretty and the fireworks were amazing! I hope we can all do it again."
"Don't worry. Next Christmas we'll be able to do it all again, and when it does we'll make it even bigger and better."
"Really?"
"Really." He turned around as he heard her run over to the bed, hopping up. "Now even though you're supposed to be going to bed, it sounds like you're still full of energy."
She nodded, "I'm still really excited after everything."
He crouched down next to the bed, running a hand through her hair as she sat there. "It's good that you're excited, but you've got to remember to save that energy for the next day. You don't want to use all of it up in one day."
"Okay." She laid down in the bed, pulling the covers up over herself.
"Oh, I forgot. There was something I wanted to give you."
"You have another present?" Aurdel reached under the bed, pulling out a box he'd hidden underneath it earlier. Then he handed it to her. "What is it?"
"Open it and find out," he gestured towards the box. Eri carefully began to take it apart, first taking off the ribbon before removing the wrapping paper. Then she had it open. And out of the box she pulled out a doll.
"This is…"
"Because of how busy I am, I don't get the chance to visit you as often as I'd like. So I wanted to make you something to show that even when it looks like I might have forgotten about you, I haven't. " The doll was modeled after him in his armor, modeled down to the last detail.
She squeezed it, "It's really soft."
"Then it sounds to me like you make it pretty accurate," Mirko stood by the door.
He looked back, "I'm getting a strong sense of déjà vu."
She walked forward, "Is it a bad one?"
"No, not really."
He looked back to Eri, who'd quickly taken the doll and clutched it as she lay in bed. "You know, I think it would help her if you sang."
"Would it really?" Eri nodded, "Alright, I'll sing then."
Mirko sat down at the foot of bed, resting her back. Aurdel then took a deep breath and both his eyes. "Come and rest your head you tired souls, rest your head for night has tolled. I know you want to play and have fun without end, but soon it will begin again. Because tomorrow will come and bring new light, and with it will be so many new sights. With birds that are chirping as they tale flight, soon it will begin again. Now silence your whispers and close your eyes, prepare yourself for the next days surprise. We'll all be together as we sing thrice, soon it will begin again. Soon it will begin again. Soon it will begin... Again." He exhaled. "So, how was-" He opened his eyes, stopping for for a moment. "Well. I guess I did good then." Both Eri and Mirko had fallen asleep as he'd sung, exhausted after a day of celebrations. Standing up, he gave Eri one last pat on the head before picking up Mirko and carrying her on his back. Then he turned off the lights and walked out of the room.
As he left the building he found himself walking through the campus in a beautiful silence, everyone else having already gone to bed given that it was past midnight now. He stopped for a moment, staring up through the clear sky at the stars above. Thinking.
"You know, I have to wonder sometimes… Just what's going on in your head?"
"Well for one, the thought that you were asleep."
Mirko looked up, just like he did. "I'm being serious. When you're working as a Hero you're mostly reserved, pounding Villains into the dirt and seemingly getting angry at anyone or anything that tries too hard to try and figure you out. But behind closed doors you're like an entirely different person. You helped your students with all of the set up, you celebrated with them, you joked, laughed, sang and played. You went above and beyond what anyone would have expected. In a way… You're a lot like them."
"I personally believe that the greatest gift you can give to anyone… is peace. Peace of heart, peace of home and peace of mind. When you're able to live in peace you're able to heal, grow and be happy. I want to make sure that the people around me have a chance to live in that peace."
"What about you?"
"What about me?"
"It's not possible for one person to shoulder the burdens of everyone else. And even if you try, what does that mean for you? Who's going to let you have peace?"
His eyes stayed on the stars, "I don't know."
There was silence for a moment. "Then I'll help you," he turned his head, "That's what partners are for, right?"
He smiled. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
After that he began to walk again, Mirko resting her head on his shoulder once again. There was a buzz at his side, he'd received a notification. But he ignored it. This moment, he hoped it would last forever.
He really hoped…