𝐃𝐄𝐈𝐓𝐘 || ᵇ.ᵏᵃᵗˢᵘᵏⁱ

XXXI

for this chapter— Korean is normal, Japanese is italics

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"Are you ready?" Jungwon asked as Aeri braided her high ponytail. She was dressed in her hero suit, her dagger holsters already secured around her hips and her thigh. Her two katanas and her broadsword leaned up against the wall by her vanity.

"Yeah, I think so." Aeri nodded. She was nervous—to be expected—and to make matters worse, the match was being held at SHA's outdoor training facility in the centre of the school gardens so that Jiho, Jieun and Jungwon could watch and still attend school.

The majority of her family were going, even her great grandmother, and Aeri imagined that there would be quite a few Hae clan members attending too, so both families combined plus almost a thousand students and teachers and whoever was watching it televised—Aeri was more nervous about the sheer volume of people watching rather than the fight itself.

"Careful of her quirk, she can heat things up real quick and you might not be able to hold onto your daggers for long."

Aeri hummed. "I have a plan for that," she ran a finger across the hilts of her moonstone daggers, "Moonstone stays relatively cool no matter what so I'm leaving the gold daggers here and using moonstone and the ones with the black wrapped hilts so my hands don't get burnt."

"You could always use her quirk against her, let her heat your shurikens and then burn and stab her simultaneously." Jungwon took a seat at the end of her bed.

"Dalnim and I have something bigger planned," Aeri turned to him with a wild, wolfish grin. "She wants to put her gaudy sister in her place—her words not mine—and let her know that she can't let there be so much conflict in the Hae family and also be the best."

"And what exactly do you have planned?"

"We're going to cause an eclipse."

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A crowd was already forming as Aeri stretched at the outdoor facility. Some were her family members; her brothers had made the journey with her. But students and press reporters with special access stood a safe distance away from her chatting animatedly as they waited for the match to start.

Hae Yeongju had yet to arrive. Whether she had a reason for her lateness or she was being cocky, Aeri didn't know, but under no circumstances would she let it throw her off. Yeongju already had the advantage of it being daytime, that's where Dalnim got the idea to force a solar eclipse.

Aeri was sceptical at first, not wanting to be the reason for something going wrong astronomically and scientifically with the positions of the planets, however, Dalnim assured her that it wouldn't affect a thing and everything would return to normal as soon as the eclipse was over, so Aeri agreed.

"Aeri!" Someone yelled from across the field. If the voice hadn't been familiar, she wouldn't have bothered looking up. Hyunjin forced his way through the crowd unapologetically, dragging Amajiki by the arm. Aeri smiled and jogged over to greet them, clomping them both into a long hug.

"The cameras..." Amajiki mumbled nervously, glancing at the reporters from over Aeri's head.

"They aren't rolling, my opponent isn't even here yet," Aeri said with a smile. "Thank you for coming, I know you two are busy with your new jobs."

"We brought someone else with us, he's taking a phone call right now but he'll be here in a second. Don't get your hopes up though, it isn't Katsuki." Hyunjin broke away from the hug and waved to Jinyoung, Jungwon and Hyoseop who were gaping and him and Amajiki, obviously having no idea they were coming.

"Go stand with the others, the rest of the family will arrive soon."

"You've got this, show them how hard you've trained." Hyunjin gripped Aeri's shoulders, his smile never faltering as he gave his pep talk. "Keep an eye out for any dirty tricks."

Aeri nodded and ushered her brother and Amajiki over to where her other brothers were waiting for them. She watched as they took turns embracing the couple with a smile and then looked forward once more, gasping when she saw who was limping towards her.

"Dad!" She rejoiced. She ran towards him but then paused, not wanting to topple him when he was still slightly unsteady with his prosthetic leg. Aizawa smiled and opened his arms for her to fall into, wrapping one around her shoulders when she did just that. He held the other one in Jungwon's direction, motioning for him to come over too.

"I told the press to come so you could watch it from home, how come you're here?" Aeri asked, groaning when Jungwon slammed into her back, eager to hug his father. She planted her feet on the ground and kept their dad upright, scowling at her twin. If Aizawa fell then the twins would go with him.

"Should I leave?" Aizawa chuckled. He pressed a kiss to the crown of Aeri's head and then to Jungwon's. He brushed his hair away from his face and pulled away from the hug. "There's a lot of people here, did your agent do some advertising or something?"

"No, this isn't officially a public event. It's the families, press, staff and students, no civilians," Aeri said. "You need a pass to get in."

"When does this thing start anyway?" Jungwon questioned.

"It's supposed to start in three minutes," Aeri stared up at the clock tower on SHA's main building. It was 9:27 AM. "Hae Yeongju was supposed to be here at nine..."

"I'll check the news, something might have come up." Aizawa pulled out his phone, scrolling through Naver to see if the Hae family was being held up somewhere. "It doesn't seem like there's anything going on in Seoul right now, they're probably just late."

"So annoying," Aeri grumbled. "I'm gonna finish stretching now, she'll probably turn up any minute now."

"Okay, we'll wait with your brothers over there," Aizawa kissed her head once more and then walked away with Jungwon. Aeri smiled and began strapping her swords to her body, making sure the harnesses were secure.

There were heavy footsteps and then two people stopped before her, panting heavily.

"Sorry we're late," Jiho puffed, bracing his hands on his knees. "Mother was taking her sweet time getting ready, talking about looking good for the cameras or whatever."

"We also had to take Jia to school," Jieun added. "She's coming now."

"It doesn't look good to the press if she's late." Aeri pointed out. "No matter how glammed up she got for the cameras, the reporters will say that she was late to a fight when she was the one who set the time."

"We tried to tell her that." Jiho sighed. "She didn't care."

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