The Successor Ch. 70 (My Hero Academia) (Patreon)

A/N: The Sports Festival ends but there's someone who's not done with Izuku quite yet~

-x-X-x-

“… There’s no need for that. You’ve already earned the one-on-one training, Katsumi.”

God, he was getting soft wasn’t he? That was really the only explanation for this. He was going soft, even with Katsumi Bakugou of all people.

Speaking of which… the explosive blonde blinks stupidly for a second before scowling.

“What?! But that doesn’t even make sense!”

Izuku raises an eyebrow.

“Doesn’t it? You’ve made it further than Shouko did. Sure, you didn’t necessarily beat her outright in a match, but that’s not your fault. You still beat her as far as the overall Sports Festival is concerned by making it to the Finals.”

“O-Only because I didn’t have to face you so early like she did!”

Sighing, Izuku rubs a hand over his face. Why was Katsumi so insistent on arguing against herself?

“You said it yourself. This new deal you want to make leaves the decision completely in my hands, right? Well consider the decision made. I’ll give you some one-on-one training after the Sports Festival is finally over.”

“But I-urk!”

His patience finally snapping, Izuku’s hand closes around Katsumi’s throat. He doesn’t grip down too harshly, but he does grip down hard enough to block her words as she chokes a little bit.

“Man, you really want me to knock you up, huh?”

Katsumi’s eyes are wide and she trembles in his grasp… but not entirely out of fear. There’s a fair amount of arousal there as well. Izuku snorts derisively. In the end… this was kind of his fault, wasn’t it?

“I’m not going to impregnate you any time soon, Katsumi. What I said before… that was just a joke. If you want me to knock you up, you’re going to have to earn it by not only excelling here in UA, but also by being the best Pro Hero you can be once we graduate. Got it?”

The blonde jerkily nods to him, so Izuku releases his hold on her neck and steps back. For a moment there’s silence, and then she speaks up again in a quiet tone.

“If it was all just a joke, why are you giving me the one-on-one training at all?”

Tilting his head to the side, Izuku considers his childhood friend turned adolescent bully for a long moment. She’s come a long way, he realizes. Who knew that fucking her mother in front of her and then fucking and humiliating her would have such a positive impact on Katsumi as a person? Huffing in amusement at his own thoughts, Izuku just rolls his eyes.

“Because you earned it, Katsumi. Now let’s go out there and have a fight, shall we? No strings attached, no deals. I just want you to give it your best. Show off for the crowd, come at me with everything you’ve got, alright?”

There’s a moment of hesitation on Katsumi’s end, but then determination fills her eyes and spreads throughout her entire being and Izuku knows he has her.

“Right.”

As they part ways, going to their separate waiting rooms for the scant amount of time before the fight is due to begin, Izuku feels like he made the right call here. He realizes now that he wasn’t going to get Katsumi’s all from her with his previous ultimatum. She was just that kind of woman. However, now that he’d dramatically shifted the goalposts from ‘impress me or get knocked up’ to ‘impress me and get knocked up down the road’, it seemed likely that she was going to be a lot easier to manipulate.

Training with her one-on-one wouldn’t even be that much of a hassle either, really. The bad blood he’d once had towards Katsumi had slowly ebbed away; he’s finally starting to realize. Probably around the time he started fucking her mother. And fucking Katsumi herself had only served to further drain his anger and raw dislike for the blonde bully. In the end, Izuku had a hard time staying mad at women he was routinely fucking. He was just that kind of man, he supposed.

The final match is called and he leaves his waiting room, entering the arena at the same time as Katsumi. Midnight says some things to get the crowd all riled up, but truthfully Izuku is focused purely on Katsumi as the two of them finally take the center stage.

Funny, in a shonen anime, this would be a big pivotal point in Izuku’s ‘character development’, wouldn’t it? Him rising above all of Katsumi’s bullying to become the strongest there was, only to finally face his former bully on a big almost international stage like this one. Except reality was rarely akin to fiction. Facts were, this was just another fight for him. Didn’t mean he wasn’t going to win it though.

“Ready? BEGIN!”

As Midnight gives the go ahead, both he and Katsumi burst forward at the same time. With a look of concentration on her face, the explosive blonde comes at him as hard and fast as her Quirk allows her to, using explosions to propel herself across the arena. Izuku just kicks off the ground, but easily manages to match her speed as they meet in the middle.

It would be wrong to say that the following fight is evenly matched. Katsumi gives it her all, of course. No longer weighed down by deals, and having finally received confirmation that Izuku isn’t going to knock her up until after the start of a successful career as a Pro Hero, it’s obvious that her mind has settled and she’s found purpose where before she’d been somewhat adrift.

Meanwhile, Izuku gives a calculated amount of effort on his end. Just past the point he’s shown so far in terms of strength and speed. Showing growth, showing progression to all of those watching both in the stands and at home. It’s nowhere near his full strength… but it’s still overwhelming for poor Katsumi.

She gives a good showing, at least. Izuku didn’t exactly set out to make sure of that, but Katsumi’s own pride and clarity of mind allows her to give as good as she possibly can in their ensuing battle. However, even her best barely fazes him as he is right now. And in the end, her best isn’t good enough to cause him to so much as stumble, let alone beat him.

Izuku dismantles her, for lack of a better word. Sure, he could have knocked her out of bounds and won that way, but when he tries early on, Katsumi manages to catch herself with her explosions, using them to stay in the air and never touch the ground outside of the arena. Admiring her determination, Izuku gives her what she seems to want… and utterly destroys her in the ring instead.

The end result is an exhausted Katsumi barely even able to keep her eyes open as she tries to throw a weak-ass punch into Izuku’s chest before collapsing to her knees. After over thirty minutes of fighting, a lifetime when it comes to a match like this, Katsumi isn’t just at the end of her rope, she’s gassed out completely.

Even her Quirk is barely managing to produce more than tiny firecracker-esque explosions as she wavers, her head struggling not to droop as she kneels before him.

Crossing his arms over his chest, Izuku looks to Midnight… who nods after a moment longer.

“Katsumi Bakugou is unable to continue! Izuku Midoriya wins and is your First Place Victor for this year’s Sports Festival!”

The crowd goes wild, cheering madly as Izuku just snorts and reaches down, grabbing Katsumi by the shoulders and pulling her up to her feet. As she sways, having to lean against him for support, he helps her out of the arena so they can get some water, vitamins, and maybe an energy drink in her before the closing ceremonies reach the award section and the two of them are needed back on stage.

-x-X-x-

The Award Ceremony is what it is. Izuku takes First, Katsumi takes Second, and by dint of losing to the two of them in the Semi-Finals, Itsuka and Momo take a joint Third Place. Mirko herself comes out and gives them their medals, probably because three out of the four victors are from her class and probably because she’s still a huge hit among the general audience, even while she’s on sabbatical from Pro Hero Work.

It's a big deal for everyone, Izuku is pretty sure… and to be fair, it’s a big deal for him as well. A rather large feather in his cap, another chapter in his story. But part of him can’t help but feel a little exhausted by the end of it. Between dealing with Shouko and Endeavor, as well as Katsumi… Izuku kind of feels like he almost needs a break of some sort.

However, before he can slip out and find some peace and quiet to truly figure out what he needs… Izuku finds himself confronted one final time.

“Hm. You ignored my invitation earlier, Midoriya.”

Turning, Izuku regards Nemuri Kayama, aka the R-Rated Hero Midnight, silently. She stands there leaning against the wall of the hallway, her arms crossed under her substantial bust as she looks at him curiously.

“I’m not used to being denied, you know.”

Denied. Invitation. It would seem Izuku was completely right about Midnight’s wink being an offer to follow her. Only, he hadn’t followed her. Instead, he’d let himself get drawn into that whole mess with Shouko and her weird dad. Sighing, Izuku runs a hand through the back of his head sheepishly.

“Yeah… in hindsight, I should have blown off the other stuff that came up and just went to find you.”

Midnight’s eyes light up at that, her curiosity clearly piqued by ‘the other stuff’. Pushing off of the wall, she saunters up to Izuku with her hands on her hips and her eyes narrowed playfully.

“Oh? Do you think I’ll forgive you just because you say you’re sorry?”

Izuku narrows his own eyes at that. Midnight’s persona was unabashedly playful and fun… when she wasn’t fighting crime. However, it was important to note that she played a dominatrix when she WAS fighting crime… so really, he didn’t actually know what sort of woman she was in bed. When it came to criminals, to say Midnight was ‘hard on crime’ would be an understatement. Did that translate to how she acted in the bedroom as well though? Because admittedly… Izuku wasn’t into that sort of thing.

“… I don’t recall saying sorry in the first place, Teach.”

Midnight blinks at his backtalk, clearly a little surprised by it. Then, she grins coyly.

“Oh? So you’re not apologizing for leaving a pretty gal waiting, Midoriya? Quite the bad boy.”

Izuku just shakes his head, speaking bluntly.

“Had more important things to do. Won’t apologize for that. I am free now though.”

Even if Midnight had a sadistic attitude while fighting criminals, she still had that playful attitude outside of crime-fighting. On top of that, her costume literally came with the cuffs from a broken pair of handcuffs around her wrists. So Izuku wasn’t willing to reject her completely. There was still a chance here that ‘sadistic dominatrix’ wasn’t all Midnight was.

“Hmph. Free now, he says. And what if I’m not free, Midoriya? What if I’m no longer available? Maybe you’ve missed your shot.”

Scoffing, Izuku doesn’t point out that she wouldn’t be waiting for him in the hall if he’d really missed his shot. Instead, he just offers Midnight a confident smirk.

“That’s fine. I’ve got plenty of others vying for my attention. If you’re busy or needed elsewhere, Teach… you should feel free to head out.”

Midnight’s eyes widen at his blunt dismissal and he can immediately tell that it only serves to excite her further. His Quirk-enhanced senses pick up her arousal as the cinnamon scent fills the air, making it obvious that she wants him. All Izuku needs to figure out is how badly she wants him, and whether they’re actually compatible or not.

“You really are a bad boy, aren’t you Midoriya? I’ve heard rumors…”

She murmurs that last part, but Izuku still hears her. Smirking at her, hands in his pockets, the young man just shrugs.

“I’m simply not the kind of man who backs down from a challenge, Midnight. That’s all. So why don’t you go ahead and tell me exactly what you want from me, yeah?”

Rather than answer his blunt question with some bluntness of her own, Midnight smirks and reaches out, walking her fingers across his chest.

“… You’re not even winded, are you Midoriya?”

Izuku narrows his eyes further at that, prompting Midnight to giggle.

“I noticed it rather early on in the Tournament. I’m sure others did as well despite your efforts to hide your true stamina. But you were sandbagging, weren’t you? And not just in the First Event. Not just in the Second Event. You were sandbagging all the way through to the final battle. Poor Bakugou… I hear she’s quite the competitive sort. How would she feel, knowing her opponent didn’t even have to give it his all to exhaust her?”

Was Midnight threatening him with revealing his true strength to Katsumi or something? No, upon further review, it didn’t sound like she was. Not really. Still, just on the off chance that she was…

“She knows already.”

That gets Midnight’s eyes to widen again as she takes in the double meaning behind Izuku’s words. After a beat, Midnight’s grin turns positively wolfish as she licks her lips again just like earlier.

“Fuck.”

Izuku just grins at the loaded one-word response and tilts his head to the side, deciding to just go for it.

“Your place or mine?”

Midnight, positively purring as she leans in close and all but drapes herself over him, brings her lips to his ear and makes her desire known.

“Mine.”

Hers it is then. This should be fun.