Chapter Text
Momo stepped up to the stage at HeroCon, aware of her dress glittering in the stage lights. It was well fitted to her body, the size tag cut out by the designer at her request. She had to remind herself that she was at a healthy weight, that it was important for her to work that she maintain it, but god if her mother’s constant checking of size tags didn't eat at her this late into life.
She took the podium, and carefully read her speech off of the cue cards she had prepared with a publicist just that morning, announcing the launch of her own agency later that month. The office space was in downtown Tokyo, and it took a little bribing and dropping the family name to get it, but she refused to feel bad for using her family connections. Anyone else would do the same, she'd seen it endlessly growing up, having dinners with her mother's business partners, sitting at the long table and going to bed early.
God knows her mother had effected her in more than just negative ways. She had to be the best, long nights studying at UA have transitioned to long days of patrolling and long nights of double checking all the paperwork her agent had sent her, insisting that she wouldnt sign anything she hadnt read herself, even if it meant losing her free time.
Momo was going to be the CEO and the main spotlight hero, she had a few sidekicks she’d be recruiting from UA’s graduating class, all young ladies with promising skills, all who made it to the final round of their sports festival, and she had a contract with Mei Hatsume for their support gear. While it wasn't unusual for high ranking heroes to start agencies, it was rare for them to lead them, often leaving that to the business graduates of UA rather than take over themself, but Momo had made it this far with just an agent and a rapid rotation of publicists until she found one who would really work with her.
The agency was starting with a skeleton crew, but Momo was sure that wouldnt be the case forever, in a few years the rookies starting as sidekicks would evolve into heroes of their own, a point of pride for any longrunning agency, and they would rank high in the agency rankings and pull in new heroes based on their merit alone.
Momo left the stage to general applause, the next speaker taking the stage. She made her way to the desert bar, seeing Uraraka standing by, picking at a small dish of half melted ice cream. She took a moment to appreciate the outfit, a pink button up with wide legged navy pants, matching suspenders and a sportcoat that sat over her shoulders. It was a good look, the buttons were even the same style as the ones on her hero costume, and the shoes were a recent sneaker collab. Momo wobbled self consciously in her heels.
“Hey Uraraka” Momo said, picking up a flute of champagne from the tray. “You look good.” She smiled. Momo was careful to keep her eyes on the other woman's face, as much as she wanted to do the traditional look over a friend's outfit she feared they had fallen out of the closer friendship since graduation. Maybe if she had Mina’s boldness she’d be able to, but Momo had too many formal etiquette lessons under her belt to be able to.
“Hey!” Uraraka smiled. “Good speech! I’m excited to see your agency when you start it” Uraraka’s posture was relaxed, if Momo recalled correctly all of Uraraka’s PR events had been earlier in the week leading up to heroescon, since most rescue heroes did not attend events like this. Uraraka always tried to make the effort to come though because their class tended to do a big group dinner during the weekend.
“It's been most of my time recently so i’m proud to get it off the ground. Busy year for you too right? How's 8th place on the rescue boards treating you?” Momo asked, absentmindedly pulling a gold bracelet out of her leg where her dress split into a tasteful leg slit. It was just costume jewellery, so she didn't feel too bad about making it herself, and it was one of her favourite fidgets at big parties.
“It's pretty good! I don’t know if I’ll maintain it in the new year, working with Thirteen gave me a big boost in numbers, I’m going to take it easier this year with Thirteen retiring, I might join them on their retirement tour. “ Uraraka gushed. “It was such a big opportunity, and it opened a lot of doors for me. The Wild Wild Pussycats sent me a job offer but I don't know if I'm willing to be that far out of the city for so long. “
“Well I’ve found my solo career to be very rewarding. I’m surprised you're working with so many groups since it seems like most of our class has had breakout careers. I suppose rescue is different in that way,” Momo said, turning out slightly to face the rest of her class, almost missing the annoyance across Uraraka’s face. Momo had learned her passive aggressive tactics from the best after all, and if her classmate wanted to push her successes on what was supposed to be Momo’s night? Well two can play that game. “I do hope you come around once the agency is set up, I’d love to be able to give you the tour”
Uraraka drank the last of her ice cream, throwing the plastic cup out into the nearby trash can. “I’ll be sure to visit.” She said, a smile on her face but not in her voice before walking back to her table.
Momo smiled, check mate. She stood on the sidelines of the event as her former classmates mingled. Most of them had advanced in their careers together, Kirishima and Bakugo were in the same agency and often patrolled together, Kaminari and Jirou both worked at present mics agency. Even Shinsou and Shoji collaborated frequently on stealth missions. Momo sometimes, privately thought she might have missed out on making those big friendships, on having someone she could confide to, to bear the burden with.
Momo refused to use the connections of her classmates, several of them were without agency at the moment and Momo wouldn't doubt that they’d be more than happy to join hers, at least while she got started as the Agency’s spotlight heroes, but Momo wanted to do it herself, to go beyond, plus ultra. That mantra had gotten her this far, from her ranking at 15 on the boards the year before, a number she was sure would go up with her decision to start an agency.
Momo had analyzed the agency rankings, she wasnt expecting that to skyrocket too high, maybe to 30 in the first year, if only due to her own hero ranking. This was the next step in Momo's career, the natural next step in any heros career.