Kōhaku
by yuuThe staging area was bustling, not just with staffers but with up and coming pro heroes loitering around behind the scenes. Izuku was itching to take notes and start talking to the ones he didn’t know very well but Endeavor, his former mentor, had pretty much forbidden him from bringing any notebooks and “bothering other sidekicks and heroes from their tasks tonight.” Which was hard! Everyone was an accomplished hero — they had to, to be on this stage — but this television special was a rare chance for Izuku to interact with his peers who were in other cities without a crisis!
He was just about to ask Mr. Smith about one of his latest takedowns when Jirou came to the front, a small smirk on her lips. “All right, listen up!” she yelled, voice ringing loud and cutting off all side conversations. “You’re here today for New Year’s Kōhaku Hero Gassen! This year, we’ll be doing a special 30 under 30 — thirty pros and up and coming sidekicks ringing in the New Year playing games and hopefully not making fools of yourselves.” She goes through the basic rundown of the event: the two senior pros will become captains of the Red and White Teams and the rest of them will be sorted by lottery box on live television. Then they’ll get a short commercial break to break into sub-teams to handle the various tasks thought up by the audience. Before the age of quirks, Kōhaku was a musical television special, a battle of the sexes showcasing their talents and judged by fans watching both in the studio and at home but as heroes began entering into the limelight with the current hero system, New Years Kōhaku started to become more like a Sports Day, where various pros from throughout Japan could be showcased.
Honestly, it was an amazing chance to be featured on the show — All Might was on for a record 28 times during his years as a pro and after his retirement — and Izuku was going to use it to show off the Hero Deku!
…And if he also really enjoyed watching his boyfriend in a dashing suit based on his hero one… well… Uncle Masaru did amazing work, why wouldn’t he enjoy the view? He looked down at his own suit — a dark green that was nearly black with accents reminiscent of his gauntlets — and smiled; this was going to be an amazing New Year’s Eve!
Lights brightened and one of the techs started the countdown as they went live. The moment the cameras started, musical fanfare blasted around the heroes and Jirou smiled at the camera, arm extended to showcase the pros behind her. “Good evening Japan! Welcome to the 83rd Annual New Year’s Kōhaku Hero Gassen! I’m your host — Earphone Jack — and it’s now time to introduce you to our team captains!”
The camera panned towards the side of the concert hall, “For our special 30 Under 30 event this year, we have captain of the Red Team, the Wing Hero: Hawks!” There was an appropriate amount of applause for the current #2 hero. “And our White Team captain, Mt. Lady!” Despite being the highest ranking hero in the studio — not for long, if Katsuki had his say — the roar of applause for Mt. Lady seemed to eclipse Hawks’s.
“Now, for the rest of our guests: come on up and draw your team!”
The other heroes came towards the large box sitting on a dais on center stage, reaching in to pull out one of the balls within as Present Mic, who was acting as one of the assistant moderators for his former student, called their hero names. Izuku paid attention so he didn’t miss his cue when he was introduced, and gave a bemused look at the white ball in his hand before heading towards Mt. Lady’s side of the hall. Todoroki was next sorted into the Red Team, and it took a few more names before Kacchan got placed into White Team with him. Izuku gave his boyfriend a small smile before turning back towards the audience and cameras, making sure to wave for the small section of dedicated Deku fans. Jirou continued speaking to the audience, explaining the rules, timing it just right so when the last hero had chosen their team, she finished.
“And there you have it! Our two teams shall be back right after this short break to start with our first event — The Sing Off!” Jirou’s voice rang out. The moments the cameras were no longer broadcasting, the hall erupted into low voices, the teams starting to huddle together to strategize.
“Ugh,” Grand, Shindo Yo, groused from his left, standing to his own hero partner and fellow Ketsubutsu alum Turtle Neck, “no way we’re going to win when we have the disaster duo on our team.”
Todoroki from the other side of the room looked up as his voice carried over. “Really? That so-called Disaster Duo just opened their own pro agency and poached over 10% of the pros here to join them.”
Before the older pro could retort, his fiancé pulled him into the huddle, much to everyone else’s amusement.
“I doubt they’ll be able to destroy the grand hall the way they did downtown unless there’s a large scale villain attack like last week,” Mt. Lady said with a laugh, “although if any villain was stupid enough to attack us, with so many heroes here, well, that’s on them.” With a clap, she grinned at her juniors, “Now, how are we going to split up so we can win?”
With the teams loosely set, Izuku sat back and watched from the sidelines as his friends and co-workers competed in the other two events, cheering them on as they did well and commiserating as the Red Team did better. It was just past 10:30 when Jirou switched to the last team segment: the Late Night Quiz. It was always the final challenge since it allowed the most flexibility and the staff could easily shorten or lengthen it based on how much time the other two challenges left, so long as they finished by a quarter to midnight to give enough time to announce the winners and get everyone ready to sing the ending theme song and count down the new year. It was, in Izuku’s opinion, the best challenge suited for him and his near encyclopedic hero otaku knowledge.
The White Team consisted of Izuku himself, along with Shindo, Shiozaki, Mora, and Kacchan — Yaoyorozu was switched out of the quiz team when the second challenge was announced as an eating contest — while the Red Team sent out its last five team members: Iida, Todoroki, Tokage, Makabe, …and Hawks.
He was muttering under his breath when Kacchan lightly bumped their shoulders. “Hey nerd, you got this, no one here is as much as a fanboy as you,” he murmured, voice low, fanning against his ear. Izuku blushed, pulling away a bit even as he smiled.
“Yeah, yeah, I got this,” Izuku felt more at ease with himself thanks to that small bit of contact, taking his place on the podium with the rest of their team.
“Anyone got any encouraging words?” Shindo asked, as the twenty second countdown began before the start of the segment.
“Yeah,” Kacchan, brimming with the easy confidence he had created with two decades of working his way to the top, “we kill those fuckers with our knowledge and show them our team reigns supreme!” This got a shake of a head from Shiozaki, but Shindo gave a hearty laugh and Mora chuckled.
Then Present Mic was giving the cue and cameras were rolling. One of the other heroes who was moderating introduced the teams, laying down the basic rules of Late Night Quiz for the viewers. With Red Team on one side of the hall and White Team on the other and a large projection screen in the middle of the audience to display the questions, the game started.
For Red Team, the plan was to be conservative in their approach, making sure they knew the answer before buzzing in. White Team, on the other hand, was the opposite. Izuku and Katsuki had been working together ever since that fateful internship in their first year, plus their years of knowing one another growing up. Katsuki knew which questions Izuku excelled at, quick hands buzzing in as soon as a question on heroics stats or trivia displayed on the screen, before the moderators had a chance to ask it in full, sure in the fact that Izuku would be right in tune and able to answer. For questions that were not heroics related, Izuku might have faltered but Kacchan, even if he was a sudden switch onto the quiz team, was intelligent in his own right and, even better, knew his teammates, still buzzing in if he thought one of them would be able to answer. It led to an overwhelming victory and no lost points due to wrong answers. From the other side of the hall, Hawks looked like he was laughing in denial that his team would lose on speed that badly, while Todoroki, who had made the mistake of going with his friends to quiz nights at bars in the past, just shook his head in fond exasperation.
With a flourish of her mic, Jirou addressed their audience. “And with this the competition is over! The White Team has pulled ahead with an impressive score of 23 points to the Red Team’s 7! Now we’ll be going on a break and once we’re back, we’ll get your — yes your! — votes from throughout the night to crown the team most enjoyed by our viewers! If you haven’t made yourself heard, hurry up because you’re running out of time!”
After the Sing Off, the Eating Contest, and the Late Night Quiz, there was a brief wait for the final data to come in from viewers across Japan and tabulate the points behind the scenes. Both teams were sitting on their respective sides of the hall, talking quietly amongst themselves. Izuku was doing his level best to not curl up in his boyfriend’s lap, muttering to himself and wondering if there was anything else he could have done to net more likes and votes from viewers at home. Kacchan’s hand, hidden between the two of them, clasped his own, giving it a comforting squeeze, but it wasn’t enough to get him out of a mutter storm, hopefully too low for the audience to pick up.
A sheaf of papers fwapped Izuku on top of his head, breaking up the downward spiral of his thoughts. “How about you stop that,” Shindo said with a laugh, Nakagame at his arm. “No need to stress when you did everything right — you and the blond exploder carried our quiz team. Between that and the victory of our eating contest team, the only things we gotta worry about is the sign off and whether we were amusing enough for people to vote us favorite overall.”
“Hey at least I did something for my sub unit — you were just a pretty face standing there while your juniors answered question after question!” Nakagame ribbed, jabbing the man in his side with a smile.
The levity helped a lot, a reminder that, in the end, the show was all in good fun.
Soon enough the broadcast started up again, Jirou taking center stage with a red and white envelope in hand. “I’ve got the results right now! I’ve got to say, this year’s Annual New Year’s Kōhaku Hero Gassen has been a real treat! For most of us, it’s our first one, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see many of you in the years ahead!” With some fanfare, Jirou slid a finger beneath the seal, opening it even as she started to explain the various points both teams accumulated throughout the night. “And our winners are…” She pulled out the winning color from the envelope, “White Team, led by Mt. Lady!”
The moment the announcement was made, confetti started falling from the ceiling, so white it almost looked like the snow that was accumulating outside at that moment. There was good natured congratulations and ribbing from friends on the other team, before Jirou started making motions to wrap it up so they could get to the finale of the night. All thirty heroes, plus the hero moderators who helped put on the program, sang Hotaru no Hikari to the tune of the western folk song Auld Lang Syne. The last notes drifted off as the three minute countdown began. Various heroes started promoting various things they were involved with from family initiatives to new products, but soon enough, everyone was buzzing with excitement as they counted down the final seconds of the year.
As the clock wound down to the final seconds and white confetti continued to fall, Izuku felt familiar arms grab at his middle, pulling him towards Katsuki. Izuku giggled, wrapping his arms around Katsuki’s neck to come closer. The fact that they were in a crowd of their co-workers, recorded and watched by nearly every household in Japan, didn’t matter at that moment. Around them, other heroes were yelling “ZERO” and “Happy New Year!”, but Izuku was more preoccupied with the pair of warm lips against his own as Katsuki swooped down to kiss him.
“Happy New Year, nerd,” Katsuki said against his lips, still holding the other hero against his body in a warm hug.
There was hollering in the background, shouts of excitement, even as Izuku looked up at his boyfriend with a jubilant smile. “Happy New Year Kacchan!”
“And that’s how heroes DynaMight and Deku reveal to Japan that they were more than just business partners,” Todoroki stated drolly from the side, clapping lightly.
Kacchan cursed at him, but only mildly because both their PR manager and Jirou had made it very clear he wasn’t supposed to use his normal vulgar language on the broadcast. He might have tried to go after him, but Izuku instead pulled him down for another kiss, which was met with even more applause from their friends.