Chapter 49: Regularly Scheduled Programming
Summary: A bit of slice of life between Arcs...
Warning: Chapters 47-49 were all posted back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss one!
Chapter 49: Regularly Scheduled Programming
"And then she yeeted the villain's prostate!"
Izumi whined and sunk into her seat as most of Group A snickered or snorted at Jirou's description of how she'd dealt with Wolfram. She should never have explained what she'd actually done. Then she wouldn't have gotten chewed out by the PR people, or be suffering the embarrassment of that description as she and Momo joined the majority of the class in the Group A dorms. She gave a begging looked toward Momo, who only smirked back…but 2B had her back! Her Quirk and oldest friend was smirking too, but she also proceeded to distract everyone by bringing out the box she'd brought along with them. They'd come to reassure everyone they were alright right after the events of I-Island, but 2B had decided to use this chance for something else as well.
Numerous eyes tracked the motion curiously. Not everyone was here. Like Momo and Izumi, Iida still lived off campus and hadn't joined them today. Yuga had similarly refused to use the dorm system, though in his case no one knew why, and Bakugo was technically in the building but not interested in socializing. He'd been on I-Island and already knew the basics of what had happened anyway. The rest of Group A had all filtered into the dorm's common room to meet with Izumi and Momo two days after I-Island ended, all of them having returned since the various summer programs were due to start the next day. Not everyone was going to the same camp, so the rest of their group had suckered Momo into agreeing to meet up and tell everyone about I-Island. Momo had, of course, simply pouted in Izumi's general direction and any resistance to the idea of socializing had collapsed.
Thankfully, Izumi had also reminded 2B of something recently completed, that she was sure would distract everyone. The need to stay summoned for this was the reason that 2B was here in her larger physical platform, the one that looked roughly fourteen instead of eight and usually stayed at the Midoriya penthouse. That had thrown everyone a bit, even if 2B's desire not to be swarmed as a cute doll by Mina and Toru had ultimately failed as the two proved to be just as interested in 'adorable teenaged 2B.' The cute, quiet huff 2B had let out at that, along with her deadpan exasperated expression, hadn't exactly helped. Nor had the fact that 2B liked hugs too much to actually try and get them out of her personal bubble. For the moment, thankfully, everyone had gotten used to it and was looking at the box the Quirk/Android woman was…pulling out a figurine of a costumed Jirou from?
Everyone straightened up, looking on with wide eyes as similar figures were produced for each member of the Group. The moment she placed the last one, there was jostling and pushing as everyone tried to get a better look, only for the issue to be solved by 2B pushing Mina's into her hands. With that tacit approval to handle them, everyone quickly grabbed their figures and returned to where they'd been sitting, gushing over them quietly as they did. Mina, predictably, was the one to turn that quiet gushing into something else.
"These are amazing! Where did they come from?!"
She glanced confusedly between 2B and Momo, pointing at the latter.
"I mean, if Momo had made them, she would have been the one to hand them out! Right? So…"
Surprisingly, it was Kaminari that pointed out a small detail that immediately caught more interest.
"No way! These are official Pascal Ltd figures! Look, they have the holographic logo and everything! And the materials are spot on! I doubt Momo would counterfeit that…"
He was looking at the bottom of the foot of his figure, and his words caused everyone else to quickly do the same. There were more exclamations as everyone else found the same trademark and official seal, proving they were from the current premium supplier of hero figurines in Japan. There was an outpouring of more confused questions, until Momo cut them off with an answer, pointing to a slightly blushing 2B.
"It's because Pascal Ltd is owned and operated by 2B. She created the company from scratch as a hobby."
Everyone paused in mid examination, turning to stare at 2B, who was both looking proud and slightly blushing. Kaminari proved his bonafides as a collector by being the first to speak after that surprise reveal.
"Wait! 2B is the mystery owner that no one has ever been able to get an interview with?!"
Several sets of confused eyes, from those less up on the market for such things, turned to him. Faced with the questioning looked, he shrugged.
"I got into collecting a bit when I was younger, and Pascal Ltd is considered a serious mystery! All of a sudden, about 6 years ago, they started releasing these absolutely incredible quality figures. No one had ever heard of them, but the models were so good that they quickly became serious collectables. Particularly since the model runs were pretty limited at first. The fact that no one could figure out who owned the company just doubled down on the mystery! A lot of heroes like using them, too, as Pascal Ltd is a not-for-profit that donates most of its portion of the profits to various children's charities."
Momo giggled as 2B looked away from the questioning faces. She took pity on the Android and explained for her.
"Izumi's mother, Inko, insisted on 2B having hobbies. When they were younger, one of the ones that 2B found she actually liked was making figurines like these. Something about being sort of a cross between art and an engineering challenge appealed to her, I think. She'd made quite a few for Izumi by the time I met them…and I was blown away by the quality of them when I first saw them. When I had to pound the basics of business into Izumi because of the Hero Scouter, 2B learned as well…and decided to make Pascal Ltd. Technically, Izumi and her mother own it, since property law for sentient Quirks is basically a series of confused question marks. But the entire thing is really 2B's work."
The room rapidly descended into chaos as 2B was swarmed by their excited classmates, who wanted to know everything…
... ...
As they left the dorms an hour later, 2B was extremely pleased with how much Izumi and Momo's classmates had loved her surprise. She had warned them, of course, that these were only proof-of-concept prototypes, as they hadn't signed any contracts with Pascal Ltd. Several of them had immediately jumped on that and asked if that was a thing they could do, and she'd given them all packets of information on what that entailed. Said packet included a warning that licensing through Pascal Ltd was considerably less profitable than some of her competitors, because of the charitable nature of her model. The Heroes did have options to make a profit, but it would be less than with other companies. They were also unlikely to see a large run or a lot of sales for them before they got fully licensed. Though if they interned with major heroes that also had deals with her company, that could actually change, as there had been a few deals for mixed Mentor/Intern sets over the years.
She didn't know if any of them would take her company up on an agreement, and it didn't really matter. Just seeing their smiles as they were told they got to keep the prototypes was more than enough to make her happy. Happy, and a little sad too. No one but Izumi knew the complete story of why she'd made the company. Somewhere, out there, she hoped that the Pascal she had known was happy that his name made children smile…
... ... ... ...
A/N: This is where I mention that this and my other works have a Page. Currently, chapters 50-58 (roughly 21,000 additional words) are already up in early access! Not to mention there are early access chapters of my other stories amounting to roughly another 20-40k words at any given time. If you're enjoying this story, please consider tossing a bit of support my way? But, as always with my fanfiction, nothing is permanently paywalled! So if you don't want to/can't support me, just wait for the early access to end and you can read it here ;-).