Chapter Text
Moving through the halls of U.A. once again felt like a nice return after everything that had happened over the past few days…
Or rather, it almost did.
As I took a turn to the left, the relative quietness compared to the prior days felt extremely palpable, with all of us hero students supposed to be at home after the Gamma Ambush, name courtesy of Amajiki, chill, fellow anxiety ball individual-
The other courses remained studying, however, as an explosion coming from the Support Lab confirmed as such. Though thankfully, it was a rather silent one given where exactly it was in the building.
Standing firmly in front of me was the door to Nedzu’s office, in all of its wooden brown-ish glory.
I’d normally be nervous in such a position, especially given that he is the principal of the school, but given the circ*mstances as to why I was called in, I had nothing to worry about.
“An interview…?” I questioned, my gaze following Mika along as she sat down on the living room’s couch beside me.
She nodded, showing me her phone’s call history briefly, where a recent short call was at the top of the list. “Basically, it appears the principal along with a police officer will be at the school asking regarding recent events, likely about the attack itself.”
“Phew,” Kyoutoku said, walking as he hid a few seemingly random boxes out of view. “Almost got me worrying that our daughter had gotten in trouble for a second!”
“...Why would you expect that?” I asked, narrowing my eyes as I saw him bring even more obscured boxes. “I’ve done nothing.”
“Because as a father, one must hope for the best while preparing for the worst, Kyouka!” he shouted as he went outside, presumably to grab even more boxes for whatever reason.
Crossing my arms, I let myself fully rest on the couch as I leaned back. “It hasn’t even been a full week of class...”
Mika sighed, placing a hand on my shoulder as we both heard him curse outside after, presumably, one of the boxes fell to either the ground, or his foot… yikes either way. “Let him be himself, he’ll be out of the overly prideful stitch as he gets used to you being at U.A..”
I turned to her, noticing the warm smile on her face. “And if he doesn’t?”
“Then I suppose it’ll keep piling up.”
Getting a hold on the door’s handle, I let myself breathe for a moment, pushing aside any and mostly all worries and anxieties I had…
After all, I only had to sit down and be honest.
As I entered, I was greeted by Nedzu’s voice. “Ah, Ms. Jirou! It’s quite wonderful to see you, even under these circ*mstances.” He looked quite like himself, with his white fur and suit looking as if nothing stressful had happened lately.
“Thank you, it's nice to see you too-” I started, feeling a little unsure in regards to how I should behave around him. “I was called for an interview thing, right?”
Unlike the sophisticated rat in the room, over at the chair beside him sat a very haggard and exhausted detective, his long tan coat being the one thing that helped me identify who he was. “With me, yes,” he answered, holding his hand out for me to shake.
“My name is Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi, with the Mustafu Police Department,” he continued. “We were hoping to ask you some questions about the recent attack on your class?”
I nodded, shaking his hand a little more shyly than I would’ve liked to before sitting down in front of the pair. “I see… I'm honestly still processing it a little personally,” I admitted, crossing my legs together. “I'd be glad to answer anything though.”
‘Well, anything as long as it doesn’t have much to do with her .’
“Wonderful!” Nedzu exclaimed, glancing over to his partner in law. “Detective Tsukauchi, if you’d please?”
He nodded, taking out a rather small tape recorder looking thing and bringing it closer to himself. “This is an official record by Detective Tsukauchi on April 19, 2256 in the Principal’s Office at U.A. High School,” he stated, moving the device closer to me as he requested, “Miss, can you please state your name?”
‘...Should I even bother?’
I froze for a moment, unsure of which name I should let come out of my mouth- In the end however, hers won the race. “…Kyouka Jirou.”
The moment my gaze landed back on Nedzu, I couldn’t help but let out a nervous chuckle, remembering a specific thing I had heard a few days ago. “Eijirou told you everything, right? Eijirou Kirishima, I mean.”
With his mouth it’s not like anyone in this room wouldn’t be caught up with all the reincarnation business.
“He did indeed,” Nedzu replied, sporting what I interpreted to be a soft smile- although I couldn’t tell much from his facial features given all his, you know, ratness. “Is there another name you would prefer for us to refer to you by?”
I merely shook my head. “Just using hers is fine, makes stuff less complicated, though my chosen name is Nei, pretty much.” No use in letting myself get comfortable like that.
“Then Ms. Jirou,” Tsukauchi started, his tone remaining gentle but noticeably worn out. “Can you tell me one truth and one lie, please, for the purpose of calibrating my quirk?”
I blinked, genuinely a little surprised by his request. “Oh, sure. Uh…”
‘He has a quirk here?’
Opting not to dwell too much into it, I spewed out the first truth and lie that came up in my head. “The sky is blue and Nedzu is a cat? Does that work or should I say something else?”
“That works, Ms. Jirou,” he confirmed, not showing any visible signs of a quirk’s activation as he moved on to the next part of the interview. “Now, for the first question: what is the name of your quirk or quirks?”
“The quirk I have is called Earphone Jack.” I waved one of them at him, showing them off. “No others though, thankfully,” I didn’t like the idea of going brain dead.
He took a mental note of that, with again, no signs of a quirk- considering that he didn’t have one in canon, was he just making it up?
‘That’d be funny-’
Interrupting my thoughts, he continued. “Now, please describe to me, to the best of your abilities, the events of the attack upon your class three days ago.”
“Alright, alright…” I muttered, rubbing my hands together and taking a quiet breath as I began to tell my side of the incident. “Let's see, the day started with Ms. Aizawa telling us to go get prepared at the changing rooms before leading us to Gym Gamma…”
As I recounted everything that had happened, the memories flowed less akin to that of a quiet river, and more similarly to a torrential rain-
Which is to say, that it was difficult to truly look back on them without wincing at certain parts, whether they were the injuries that I had received and caused on her , or how frightened- scared , I felt at the start.
I kept myself talking in what essentially was auto-pilot, just recounting what had occurred without much emotion, ignoring certain specific details, like…
“-Iida Tenya was there too, dashing in and stuff. He and two students from Class 1-B alongside me held both of the villains off until All Might arrived with the other pro’s,” I explained, keeping a hold on the bandages wrapped around her left wrist.
I simply didn’t mention how I had actually felt amidst all of it, because frankly, did it matter?
“That's about it…” I concluded, watching Tsukauchi nod as he continued on to the next question.
“Did you only fight those villains during the attack?” He asked, in reference to both the pair I encountered initially, and the Nomu later on.
“Yeah, there were other grunts and stuff around the area from what I was able to hear, but I never faced them.” It was such a noisy place.
Following up on it, he placed a hand on his chin. “Did you recognize any of these villains from before the attack?”
I shook my head. “Only the Nomu and the one with the camouflage, chameleon, whatever quirk, both were shown in the show, though just as minor antagonists.”
“And you didn’t recognize them from anywhere else?”
“No, should I…?” I questioned, only for him to shake his head in response, bringing up a small notebook out of his pocket.
“That was just to confirm,” he clarified, glancing down at the object in his hands. “Now, I’m going to give a list of names; please audibly respond with yes if you have met the person before Wednesday, either online or digitally, or no if you have not met the person before.”
He began naming off each person in that list, going down from people like Shigaraki all the way to even Aoyama- with someone like Oboro Shirakumo surprisingly being mentioned as well.
…They were going with some deep cuts for the interview, weren’t they?
“Are those all?” I asked, leaning forward in my seat as I waited for an answer.
“Those are all the names, yes; a few more questions, though, Ms. Jirou.”
‘...This feels endless.’
“Alright, alright,” I nodded.
Going straight for the big questions, he spoke up again. “Are you a member of the League of Villains?”
“No.”
“Are you in contact with any members of the League of Villains or people you believe might be members of the League of Villains?”
“No-”
Interrupting myself, I moved a hand up to my chin, remembering a specific thing from the morning of the attack. “Though, actually… Shigaraki mentioned something about a ‘guide NPC’, along with a thing about us knowing his ‘battle maps’ early.”
I glanced up at both of them, my expression puzzled as I continued to say, “I hadn’t thought about it much because of the whole warping thing right after but, so I guess I might’ve actually been?”
“I don’t know who it could be though,” I admitted, not being able to really picture anybody in particular, not any of the reincarnations or the canonical cast.
Even the wackier people didn’t seem stupid enough to try and contact the league- there wasn’t any point in siding with the literal worst of the worst in all of this.
“…That is very useful information,” Tsukauchi blinked. “Thank you, Ms. Jirou.”
“It’s nothing-” I muttered, rubbing the back of my head a little embarrassed from rambling on a tangent. “You’re a detective, you probably already had that figured out…”
“Any little clues help, I’ve found,” he commented, which was fair, I guess. “Speaking of: is there any more information you possess that you feel is useful for this investigation?”
I briefly frowned, not really coming up with much else to say. “I don’t think so, sorry, but, if I were to remember or find out about something, is there any way in particular I should contact either of you?”
Nedzu perked up just then, exclaiming that, “My door is always open to students, Ms. Nei!”
Her eye twitched ever so slightly at that.
“And if you stop by the precinct they’ll be able to contact me as well,” Tsukauchi added, putting away his tape recorder. “Thank you for coming in; that will be all that we need from you today.”
I waved it off, standing up from my seat. “It’s nothing, I’m glad to at least be able to help in some way.”
“Anything you do while acting as a hero, Ms. Nei, is helpful in some way,” the rat told me, the usage of my name feeling ever so slightly… indecent? He just shouldn’t be doing it! “Enjoy the rest of your weekend!”
Getting a hold of the door’s handle, I turned to both of them, seeing both his and the tired detective’s gazes. “Thank you, I’ll try to!”
[Kirishima Eijirou added Kendo Itsuka, Yanagi Emily, Yanagi Reiko, and Yaoyorozu Momo to the chat.]
[Kirishima Eijirou]: Hey, so, ah- just found out that, um, SIs can disappear.
[Kirishima Eijirou]: Also, related, Ashido’s no longer a SI
[Jirou Kyouka]: …The f*ck is that supposed to mean?
[Amajiki Tamaki]: 😐
[Jirou Kyouka]: Genuinely, WHAT?
[Kirishima Eijirou]: Yeah, uh, I was talking with Ashido in the hospital.
[Kirishima Eijirou]: You know how she missed a few days of school?
[Kirishima Eijirou]: And as it turns out, she missed school cause she was in a coma.
[Kirishima Eijirou]: When she woke up, no more SI.
[Kendo Itsuka]: That’s extremely worrying.
[Amajiki Tamaki]: *Insert shocked pikachu face*
[Jirou Kyouka]: Amajiki, the hell is wrong with you
[Amajiki Tamaki]: I just woke up.
[Jirou Kyouka]: Whatever- So she is just her canon self now? Just Mina?
[Kirishima Eijirou]: Exactly. Apparently she remembers the past few days but not any metaknowledge? Like she remembers being at the lunchroom meeting, but not why she was saying the stuff she was saying.
[Kirishima Eijirou]: It’s apparently a bit weird.
[Amajiki Tamaki]: What is the extent of her memory loss?
[Jirou Kyouka]: Did she know why it happened?
[Kirishima Eijirou]: I got kicked out pretty quick by the doctors but like I said- anything in this universe is still there but anything else isn’t, even if she remembered stuff in this universe. And nobody’s sure why it happened, apparently, just that it did.
[Kendo Itsuka]: So she still at least knows the future through the lunchroom meeting?
[Kirishima Eijirou]: Yeah, and she remembers like writing stuff down, but not why she was writing it down.
[Yaoyorozu Momo]: So you’re saying that all of you who came to this world can just as easily go from it?
[Kirishima Eijirou]: I wouldn’t say that until we know how to replicate it- as it is, it’s more than likely dangerous (hence the coma part) and no guarantee it doesn’t just send our extra souls into a cosmic blender.
[Kirishima Eijirou]: Plus, unless we get more cases, it could only work on amalgamated folks like me and Ashido- no idea how it would interact with haunted people or people without any memories.
[Amajiki Tamaki]: The next step in reincarnation, you think? Samsara and all that?
[Kendo Itsuka]: Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t there some requirements for that? I don’t think it happens just randomly.
[Yaoyorozu Momo]: This is all rather disorientating, it won’t just happen to any of you will it?
…I stared at that last message for longer than I probably should’ve.
It was the morning after yesterday, Sunday at 8 AM. I had woken up just a few minutes earlier from a noise downstairs, apparently Kyoutoku had dropped another one of his ominous boxes, but he was quick to yell out that he was okay as to not alarm either Mika or me-
Grumbling, I sat on her bed as I rubbed her eyes, my gaze still glued to the screen like it had been since the conversation started.
New messages came and went beneath it, but I couldn’t care less about them, not at that moment.
“It won’t just happen to any of you, will it,” I repeated out loud, putting her phone away as I stood up, walking towards her closet to take a quick look in the mirror. “...Couldn’t it have just happened to me too?”
With the distinct sound-wave looking highlights in her hair shining under the sun’s light, I brushed it all into place, purple strands moving from side to side at points as I undid the mess it had become overnight.
‘It was because of a coma for Mina…’
I glanced back at her bed, just sighing while I tidied it up, putting the sheets as they should be with a frown.
‘...All I had to do was not wake up.’
I couldn’t even do that right.
How did people usually fall into comas anyway? Injuries? Medication?
Was there even a way I could force that, without harming her more?
As questions continued to crash into my mind, my hand grasped her left wrist, with fingers meeting a scar’s tissue, rather than the wrapping of the bandages from before.
Just how did this all work?
…The scar itself wasn’t too bad, with it barely going a quarter up the outside of her forearm in the form of a V shape of sorts, the overall silhouette being a print of both of the Nomu’s claws that managed to pierce through the amplifier and its holster.
It was still a reminder of how I had screwed up, though.
Starting to hear some commotion downstairs, I grabbed a hold of one of her wristbands out of a drawer, putting it over the scar and beginning to make my way out of her room.
I didn’t want to see it, and a part of me told me that neither of her parents wished to either.
As soon as I placed a foot downstairs, I could tell something was… a little off.
Mika sat with her legs crossed on the couch in front of Kyoutoku, who had seemingly brought one of the chairs from the dining table all the way across the room, and deliberately placed it so his mountain of boxes would stay behind him, for convenience's sake, maybe?
“What’s going on…?” I murmured, watching as her father gestured for me to come in.
Mika turned to me, her expression hidden behind her glasses. “That’s something I’d like to know as well, you haven’t been quite clear regarding all of those-” interrupting her, he stomped his foot against the floor.
“I know this last week has been rather rough, difficult, trying even,” he began, his collected tone catching me by surprise as I sat beside Mika. “So, being the kind man that I am-”
“Get to the point,” I grumbled, my ear jacks grinding against each other as I rubbed my eyes. “It’s eight o’ clock on a weekend, you don’t get the right to be dramatic…!”
Before he almost threw the papers he was apparently reading this all from, Mika patted my shoulder reassuringly, sighing. “It’s alright, dear, go on, though make it quick.”
“...I guess the graphs are out of the window, then,” he muttered, throwing away a few while sorting through them on his own. He had a presentation ready!? “Where was I?- Right! Being the respectable husband and father that I am, I devised a plan to make sure that all of you, my precious family, and I, could have some more relaxing and fun things to do.”
I barely nodded, sort of following along?
“And taking a look at our savings, I gasped in realization, oh, of course, Kyoutoku, you hell of a man, you could get tickets to a concert! Kyouka will love that!” he explained, before beginning to count with his fingers. “So first, I checked- and sure enough, there was one relatively soon, so as the second thing I did, I contacted a certain, fellow friend of mine in business to cheat past the gacha…!” he sported a smug grin all the way until that last comment, dropping to a bit of a frown.
“And after getting kindly told to f*ck off-”
I didn’t even have to face her mother to feel her glare at that word in particular being used in her house.
“ Screw off!- I went for the next best thing!” He held a finger up, creating his own dramatic pause before his reveal to us. “Tabletop games!”
‘Huh?’
“Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite pick which one we should play,” he confessed, all while my brain simply remained stuck on his prior sentence, like, what? “So, uh, we need to play every game at least once!”
“How many did you purchase?” Mika asked incredulously, only for him to awkwardly chuckle in response.
“...All of them?” he tried to shrug off, his hand reaching back for one of the boxes behind him.
“What- What does that mean?” I leaned to the side, with the true colossal size of the pile of boxes being revealed to my vision- And all of those are supposed to be?-
“It means that, uh, you all better like UNO.”
“DAD!-”
“ Dear. ”
“There were too many editions, alright!?” he shouted, trying to defend himself while holding two entirely separate versions of the game on each hand.
“Did you have to buy both the regular and underwater one though!?” I yelled, already seeing more and more distinct variants behind him.
It was like an endless mountain of financial ruin.
He crossed his arms with a pout. “...You never know when your daughter might bring a friend with a water quirk.”
“I would’ve mentioned that if it was the case!” Did anyone at U.A. even have one of those!?
…Odd predicament aside, it certainly made for quite a few entertaining weeks at home together.
Wait, what?
[Tokage Setsuna]: What the fckns are you guys talking about at eight in the goddamm morning????]
[Tokage Setsuna]: Okay just finished back reading.
[Tokage Setsuna]: What the f*ck.
‘Let’s see… Notebooks?’
Walking along with the crowd of other U.A. students, I quickly took a peek inside my backpack, putting it back into its rightful place on my back after the expected sight that was in it.
‘Check.’
With a nagging feeling in the back of my mind still remaining present after that, I could only raise an eyebrow and continue down my list of possible reasons as to why it just didn’t go away .
‘Uniform?’
Making sure that my red tie was at the very least presentable once again, I ended up looking myself all over, finding the school’s uniform to be, in fact, what I was wearing, blazer and all.
‘Check…’
I frowned, continuing my walk as I tried to put together what exactly felt off about that morning’s commute. A part of me was sure I was missing something rather important, but I just couldn’t picture what.
‘... Her phone?’
Merely tapping my pockets proved that to also be where it should be.
So what the heck was it?
Before I could begin muttering to myself any more, I heard her name being called out from a distance, coming all the way over from the main building, oddly enough.
“Kyouka!”
Rushing through the crowd walking in the opposite direction to him, a red headed blur dashed in my direction-
“Eijirou…?”
Jogging whatever distance was left between us, he asked. “How’s it going?”
“Did-” I stuttered, my face twisting in ever so slight confusion. “Were you already at the building?”
“Well, yeah, I had that meeting with Amajiki, Itsuka, and Nedzu,” he reminded me, causing me to just point towards the building.
“…So you ran all the way here,” I said, moving my finger towards myself. “Just to talk with me?”
Wasn’t that a bit of a waste of time?
He shrugged, grinning not that widely. “We’ve got to walk to school together! It’s tradition!”
“Even after the attack?” I asked.
“I mean, do you not want to walk to school with me?” he immediately proceeded to extremely overdramatically pout, his eyes looking like god damned flashlights with how bright they were-
“I never said so!-”
He grinned, beginning to walk back to the school as he spun back around. “Then there’s no problem, is there?”
“That’s- fair, yeah.” Was that how Yaomomo felt back in the meeting?
I followed him, twirling an ear jack around my finger. “To answer your question, though, I guess it’s going fine?”
“Glad to hear it!” he exclaimed. “Everything went fine with your talk with the good detective and everything?”
“Yup, yup, it was both quick and kinda endless though, not sure how that was possible.”
“Hah, fair enough. Glad it worked out well for you.” He pushed the entrance’s door open, letting me walk through as he followed from behind. “You ready to get back to school again? See Ms. Aizawa and everyone?”
“…Why are you specifying Ms. Aizawa?” I questioned, only to see him wink and stick his tongue out in response.
“Eijirou-”
Vanishing from his spot faster than I could even see him, he started sprinting towards the darned classroom!
“Eijirou! ” I called out, chasing after him despite all the odd looks from the students around us.
Catching up to him just as he entered the classroom, I chose to simply sit down on my own seat as I kept my eyes locked on his smug grin.
‘What does he know?’
Pulling out my material for the first class onto my desk, I took a quick glance at the rest of the room, and sure enough…
Aizawa wasn’t there, nowhere to be found.
Glaring daggers at Eijirou, the bell rang, and with it, so came our teacher in question, still looking quite like herself all things considered.
At least she wasn’t cosplaying a mummy like at this point in canon.
“Welcome back, class,” she dryly spoke, moving herself to the front of the whiteboard, facing the entirety of 1-A with an almost corpse-like stare, contrasting her rather casual gaze from before...
As I almost snapped at Eijirou for joking about something like that , Kaminari spoke up from his side of the class. “You sound a lot more dead inside than last time, Ms. Aizawa.”
“Before we get started, there is one announcement I need to go over,” she began, ignoring his and other greetings from a few students. “I am no longer sharing my body or memories with a second person. Which means that things are going to get back to normal in here,” she smiled, resembling absolutely nothing with the person we had met just a week ago.
Another one.
“And just like that, any chance this would be like university has ceased to exist…” Franco groaned, leaning back on his seat with a frown.
Another reincarnation was already gone.
Just like that.
“Well, sh*t. Wait…” Interrupting himself, Kaminari raised his hands to the ceiling, celebrating to himself. “Competence is back!-” His grin morphed into a mortified expression, leaving a quiet silence that Aizawa was not afraid to fill in.
“No, Kaminari, I haven’t forgotten the sand,” she told him.
“Damn, wanted to get my revenge one day…” he pouted, letting his head fall against his desk. “It's not the same now.”
“Well, welcome back Aizawa, I suppose,” Midoriya shrugged.
“I have something I’d like to say too, Ms. Aizawa,” Ojiro said, raising his hand in…
…In an actually well mannered gesture.
With a nod from our teacher, he stood up, raising his voice for everyone to hear across the room. “You have my deepest apologies if he did anything to offend or insult any of you over the past few weeks. I’m sorry.”
‘You- You’ve got to be kidding me.’
“Damn, he was my favorite,” Sato quietly confessed, gaining an odd look from Fallia.
“How?-”
Shaking his head as he struggled to follow the situation, Kaminari asked, “…Wait- who else is gone?”
“I am no longer a ‘SI’ as well,” Shouji revealed from his seat.
I stayed frozen, letting the overall conversation continue to play out on its own as it bounced back and forth between various of the remaining reincarnations, their voices turning mostly into incoherent babbles and rambles.
“That’s… four, so far? sh*t.”
“…Are you f*cking serious?”
“Well, now I wonder what the criteria for losing your SI status is…”
“Could it be something in your original world?”
“Do all of you not want to go back?”
“I can’t speak for the others, but as much as I’m starting to slowly get used to it here, I’d honestly take the first opportunity to go back.”
“I died. Not much to go back to, at this point.”
…Why?
“I feel like we need to calm down, right? There’s still other things we need to do and worry about.”
Why was I still here, among them…
Claiming her spot?
Loudly declaring that I wanted to be a hero like she was?
“Exactly. For example, you guys have another trial coming up: the U.A. Sports Festival is on the horizon, as I’m sure you’re no doubt aware,” Aizawa informed us, much to the other’s surprise.
“Ooh boy, Tournament arc time…” Kaminari groaned, sinking into his seat.
“Ooh boy, Tournament arc time!” Sato cheered.
“Exciting!” Ashido grinned, bouncing on her seat with energy. “ Ooh, ooh, are the events going to be the same as in the manga?”
Ignoring her entirely, Aizawa continued, “As you all are aware, this is the time for you to show your abilities. All of Japan’s top pros are watching for new talent, and after the attack all eyes will be on you and Class 1-B in particular.”
Looking up from his desk, Kaminari sighed, “I’m tempted to ask if I could pass, but everybody we’d need to worry about probably knows about what I could do anyways, might as well give the people a show.”
“But Kaminari, what about villains we haven't fought yet?” Iida pointed out, only for Eijirou to chime in with his usual look on things.
“The principles are still the same as canon, Iida,” he noted. “Sure, we show off our quirks, but it tells people that We Are Here. We tell them that just because we got attacked doesn’t mean that we’ll hide away. Plus Ultra and all that.”
“What Kirishima said,” Kaminari agreed, turning to look at Iida. “Plus, we know about them as well. Unless a different card shows up, the playing field is still in our favor for threats like the MLA or movie canon characters if they show up.”
“For f*ck’s sake, guys, it’s a tournament arc! Please stop worrying and just have some fun,” Sato complained-
“Nuh uh,” Fallia eloquently protested.
“f*ck you mean, Nuh uh?!” Sato snapped, causing our teacher to simply sigh.
“Regardless, the Festival is going to be taking place two weeks from Wednesday,” she pointed out, quieting down the bickering between the two.
“We have time, at least,” Kaminari commented.
“And don’t worry- we’ll be running you ragged during that time. We’ve lost two days of school, after all,” she added, grinning in an honestly terrifying way. “We need to make up that time somehow.”
Shyly raising his hand, Eijirou tried to ask, “Is this a good time-”
“Go ahead, Kirishima,” she nodded, letting him jog his way up to the front of the classroom beside her.
“So! Speaking of training!” he began, catching the attention of anyone who still wasn’t paying the situation any mind up to that point. “Me and a few other folks- Kyouka and Yaoyorozu among them, plus some 1-B kids and Tamaki Amajiki of the Big Three- came up with a bit of a plan to get some extra training in.”
Hearing her name, I only managed to hide my face by letting it hit the darned desk in embarrassment as I muttered, “Why’d you have to drag me into this…”
“We’ll be meeting in Gym Gamma after Heroics today if anyone wants to drop on by-” He continued, completely ignoring my quiet words. “Should be a combo study/sparring group. We’d love to have you guys if you can make it!”
He grinned, looking at our teacher as he rushed back to his seat. “Alright, that’s it from me. Back to you, Ms. Aizawa!”
Raising his voice again, Sato asked, “Actually, a quick question for Aizawa. Do you want to go by Ms. or Mr.?”
“I don’t care.” She blankly stared at him, entirely indifferent towards the topic, apparently. “Call me whichever.”
As the bell rang, the class nodded at her words. “That’s all for today. Class is dismissed.”
Rather nonchalant, Kaminari got up from his seat, walking past each and every desk on his way as he made his way to the nearest window, opening it with a swift hand.
“Kaminari, do you have a safety rope or climbing harness?” Aizawa questioned unamused.
“Do a flip!” Sato called out, causing Franco to snort as our electric classmate looked down through the window.
“There’s a bush, a few places to climb down, and if I break an arm it’s an excuse to get out of class and take a nap,” he pointed out, gaining a nod from the sugar guy himself.
“All the same, I’m contractually obligated to tell you not to do that until at least your third year,” Aizawa sighed, saying what was a rather concerning sentence as soon I thought about it a bit further- “Close the window.”
“Alright,” he nodded, climbing out of the window and closing it from the other side. “See you all next class, I’m going to sleep in the bushes for a few minutes to collect my thoughts.”
Was this just a bit he liked doing?
“…Kaminari, we have five minutes until Japanese,” Eijirou pointed out.
“I won’t be late, don’t worry,” he assured him, beginning to move ever so slightly out of view for the rest of the class. “I’ll arrive when I’m meant to.”
And just like that, he climbed down, fully disappearing from everyone’s sights.
…I could’ve sworn I heard either a yell or someone’s screech after that from afar, but it very well could’ve been just from any other class.
Maybe 1-B.
“…I’m not paid enough for this,” Aizawa grumbled.
“Have you even tried asking for a raise?” Franco asked, which was both a fair and also mocking question-
Surprisingly, Iida spoke up next. “Is there a place I can go scream real quick without bothering anyone?”
Did- Did the whole window thing bother him that much or were we all that desensitized to it all?
“Actually, I know of a really nice broom closet down the east hallway towards the cafeteria,” Sato added. “Great place to scream without bothering anyone.”
“…So that’s why the Gen-Ed students think it’s haunted,” Ojiro realized.
I blankly stared at the two.
‘Wasn’t that just the storage closet with all the roombas?’
Training, training…
Training was the sort of thing that sounded easier in conversation rather than when you were about to do it.
I buttoned up my gym uniform, keeping a simple black wristband on my left hand as I had resorted to whenever I wasn’t wearing any sleeves. I didn’t want anyone to point the scar out.
I had stuff- scratch that, I had tons of stuff to work and improve on, I knew that!
But where could I even begin?
Range was something I definitely needed to get better at, regardless of what I was using to aim with in the first place.
‘I should be able to just hit the same target even if it’s with the boots of a half beaten down speaker.’
…But, as my lack of any support items implied, I couldn’t really work on that during this period in particular. The Sports Festival just didn’t allow for those, so no point in going around carrying the small extra weight.
So, close quarters it was.
I definitely had a track record with that…
Entering Gym Gamma for the sparring group thing along with Yaomomo, I spotted all of the big three, along with Yanagi, Tokage, Kendo and Eijirou, with everyone but those last three wearing their gym outfits as well.
It just wasn’t a good one.
“-Glad you guys could come help!” Eijirou called out to everyone in the building, turning to us briefly as he noticed our presence.
“Heya…” I waved, trying to not bring too much attention with so many people already here.
‘Just how many others were going to join, anyway? A few of 1-A and 1-B?’
“Wouldn’t miss it, Eijirou,” Kendo said, moving closer to him with a smile. “You’ve got any plans for us?”
“Yeah, I figured that we’d split everyone into groups based on their interests, but, ah-” he stopped himself, taking a second to glance as some members of our classes started to arrive as well. “Guess I’ll be explaining that on the fly in a little.”
“Oh, James,” Yaomomo called out, placing a hand on her chest as she walked up to him. “Can I speak to you for a moment?”
“Sure thing! Let’s step over here-” He answered, before turning away from her for just a second. “Itsuka, mind telling everyone that we’ll start in a minute?”
She gave him a thumbs up. “Sure thing! OI, EVERYONE! WE’LL GET STARTED IN A FEW MINUTES ONCE EVERYONE’S ARRIVED!”
While I normally would have complained from that feeling way too loud- There was a bigger thing going on.
People just kept arriving- Too many people.
It wasn’t necessarily crowded given the size of the gym, but god did it make it difficult to feel comfortable saying anything.
So taking all of that into consideration, both Ashido going around getting people’s contact information for a group chat, and Eijirou stepping out and spreading his arms wide to catch everyone’s attention really felt like impressive feats in comparison to how mundane they actually were-
Props of neither of them being socially anxious or introverted, I guessed.
“Welcome, everyone! Glad you guys could make it to this whole shebang!” he greeted, gaining a fair range of various reactions back.
“Bold of you to assume I have anything better to do right now,” Franco responded.
“I don’t know why I showed up, in all honesty…” Kaminari sighed, looking around the crowd before locking his head down to the floor. “Regret may be seeping in.”
‘Wasn’t that a mood?’
A series of other greetings came by, each being from a different person than the last.
“Hey,” Monoma waved with Iida mimicking his gesture as well.
“Good day, ribbit.”
“Yep, regret. Lots of regret is seeping in…” Kaminari backed out from the crowd, shrinking into himself ever so slightly. “This is a lot of people.”
Monoma raised his hand, looking quite like his regular self as Rin had mentioned back at the hospital. “So how is this gonna work?””
Pointing at him, Eijirou began to unravel the setup of this meetup. “Excellent question! This whole deal was thought up by me and my lovely co-conspirators here.” He gestured to everyone next to him, along with some of us in the crowd, including myself.
‘Stop!- Stop making me relevant in these things!’
“The idea is that we'll all be working with each other and any mentors that can come in- thanks for showing, Hado, Togata, Ms. Aizawa, Vlad King, Ectoplasm- to improve our skills in various fields!” He elaborated, nodding briefly at each person he mentioned. “At least for today, I figured we could break into smaller groups to focus on some big stuff; I’ll be taking a group with me and seeing if we can focus on close quarters sparring, assuming you can supervise us, Ms. Aizawa?”
She silently nodded, letting him continue on. “Amajiki, I was hoping you could take a group and kind of focus on narrowing down options for versatile quirks and quick decision making? Like choosing what the best option is in a fight or something.”
“I’ve got it,” he replied.
…Remembering how anxious he seemed back at the start of Friday’s meeting, I wondered how difficult those few words were for him to say out loud.
“Togata, I was hoping I could entice you to work on mobility with people through like tag or something?” Eijirou asked him.
“You got it!” Mirio nodded, giving him an enthusiastic thumbs up.
With my friend’s gaze landing on the last of the big three, he asked one more thing. “And Hado, I was wondering if I could get you to help the ranged quirk folks get some practice in with that?”
“Mm-hmm! Leave it to me!” she replied, bobbing up and down in excitement.
She was like a shining light contrasting against all the quiet or straight up socially anxious shadowy people in the gym.
As everyone began sorting themselves out, I rubbed my eyes, walking over to Eijirou to join the close combat group after a brief moment.
And god damn was she bright.
A few others followed along as well, making him grin in excitement, maybe? “Jeez, we’ve got a lot of folks. Glad to see everyone!” Eijirou greeted. “Ms. Aizawa- maybe we break into pairs to spar and each of us can correct our partner’s form and any issues we notice?”
“Sounds fine to me,” she replied.
“Sweet!” he exclaimed, pulling out his phone as he unlocked it. “Lemme grab a random number generator and we’ll get grooving!”
The resulting match ups for everyone ended up being a little… unfair, from a quick glance.
Hagakure with Iida, Tokage with Shinsou, Midoriya with Tsuburaba (no idea what his quirk was off the top of my head-) and lastly…
Me against Ojiro, again.
I sighed, catching Iida’s attention beside me.
“Hey, Jirou, you okay?” he asked.
I waved it off, trying to discern any concern. “I’m fine, I’m fine, just… an unfortunate rematch, I guess.”
An ear jack jabbed the side of my head as I moved a hand up to my chin, with all my focus nailing down on one singular question.
‘What the actual f*ck am I gonna do against him?’
Everyone moved into their own sections in our area of the gym, leaving all of us to fend off by ourselves against our sparring partners.
Ojiro stood a fair distance across me, sporting his martial arts stance as his tail rested against the cold floor. “Are you ready to get started?”
Raising one of my arms, I extended my left jack all the way to my wrist, preparing to aim right at him-
Only to chuckle awkwardly as I was merely poking my wristband, with the amplifier’s port or the item as a whole, nowhere to be found.
‘...No support items.’
I shifted to an awkward stance, my upper limbs falling to the side carelessly as I just… didn’t have a clue what to do with them.
“…Y-Yeah, sure,” I replied to him, watching as he prepared himself in a much more confident stance, with each subtle movement appearing carefully crafted and thought through even as he easily shifted into them.
That, that was experience.
Feeling my arms getting shaky, I shut my eyes closed, muttering to a volume only I could hear, “f*cking hell.”
Experience not from a causing incident, like I had obtained from the ambush…
Snapping my eyes open, I lunged forwards at him, each step going by faster than the last as I pulled my arm back for a direct punch, not dissimilar to how I had approached the Nomu.
But from a place of hardwork and understanding, something taught.
He simply stepped to the side, avoiding the blow and pushing my fist downwards with not even an amused look. “That was… really sloppy,” he commented as I stumbled in place. “Try not to telegraph your moves so much.”
Catching my footing, I frowned as I turned to look at him. “And how do I even do that?”
“Winding your fist back like that as you charge in, for example, is a bad idea,” he explained, the entire thing sounding like second nature to him. “You want to cover that sort of thing with a feint.”
“Do it like this,” he continued, moving forwards before throwing a much steadier punch of his own at the air, his leg moving to push more weight into the motion itself. “I think. I’m not very good at boxing.”
I blankly stared at him. “…That was boxing?”
“Yeah, sort of,” he shrugged. “I’m better at karate and jujutsu- more acrobatic stuff.”
“I see?-” I mumbled, walking around him to try and take in more of his form. “I honestly don’t really have any clue about this sort of thing.”
“That’s okay. Here, follow what I do,” he told me, repeating his move from earlier but much slower, letting me notice the way his arms and shoulders moved to make the feint itself. “Now you try it.”
“Like this?” I asked, sloppily mimicking his arms’ movement.
‘Ah, right, he moved his leg too-’
“Kinda. Move your foot in a little bit-” He pushed her foot with his tail, positioning it ever so slightly farther away from me. “Like that.”
One of my ear jacks twitched from his touch, but I shook it off as I followed his instructions. “So the motion is more like this…?” Repeating it, I struck the air with just a little more confidence. “I’m not sure if I’m getting it right.”
“That’s closer,” he commented.
We continued to practice in silence, with me trying to follow his movements to the best of my ability. I couldn’t say I wasn’t getting frustrated, but at least it did feel like I was getting better at it.
Just had to swing a little bit, and then actually go for it-
“I’m sorry if he did anything to you,” he suddenly said, snapping me out of my focus.
I paused, dropping into a more casual pose as I turned to him. “What?”
His prior confidence shattered as he elaborated, looking down to the ground. “The, uh- the other guy. The “SI”. You’ve been really on edge and- sorry.”
‘He noticed?’
“No, no- that’s my bad there… I’m sorry,” I apologized, taking a deep breath. I’ve been a little on edge, yeah- But just because an asshole did some things as you doesn’t make it right for me to act like this either.”
He was just a classmate, wasn’t he?
“Let’s start this whole thing again-” I held my hand out for him, waiting for him to shake it. “The name’s Kyouka, Kyouka Jirou.”
He nodded, that wave of insecurity that washed over him vanishing as he shook my hand. “Mashirao Ojiro, nice to meet you.”
He was still learning too.
Taking a few steps back, a faint smile grew on me as I noticed the lack of twitching on either jack. “See? No edge now!” Trying to mimic his movements again, I could only get myself to frown. “Ugh, genuinely, how does that feint thing work?”
“Oh, tuck your elbows in a little bit more- they’re coming out too much,” he added.
I extended my arm again, making sure to position my foot as well as I slowed down for him to see it all. “How exactly?”
“Like- they’re swinging too wide. Makes you easier to hit,” he explained, gesturing with his own elbow briefly. “You want them to be poking out less.”
“I think I sort of get what you mean?” I said, trying again with a bit of better results.
Just a bit though.
“Yeah, more like that-” He nodded. “Try to get used to it, it’ll only get easier from there.”
I gave him a quick thumbs up, attempting the motion once more by his side.
We kept going with the same cycle for a while, with him giving me tips and advice after almost every try I did.
It was… nice, honestly, it was much easier to learn when I wasn’t being threatened by the person alongside me-
It was only halfway through a swing that I realized how that applied to both the villains, and Ojiro’s reincarnation, along with the odd detail that, well, her right arm was sort of hurting.
Sort of.
I hadn’t paid it much mind after taking off the bandages on both of them, especially given the more noticeable scar on its left counterpart, but after enough effort was placed onto it, it was clear that it wasn’t fully recovered yet.
And so I turned to look at him, beginning to explain the situation in the best way I allowed myself to.
“You’re stopping?” He asked, brushing off some sweat from his forehead.
“Yeah, I wanted to do a little more but I shouldn’t force myself too much yet-” I told him, stretching the sore spot in my elbow. “Better to be safe than sorry, you know?”
“I understand,” He nodded. “We could always practice a little more once you’re feeling better…?”
“Sure, sure,” I told him, waving at him as I began walking away from the close combat group. “Talk to you later!”
…Standing by myself in a deserted corner, I couldn’t help but realize that, well, I didn’t know much of what I could do on my own.
Tapping both my jacks against one another, I began going through some ideas as their clicking drew out all the surrounding noise and grunts.
Anything too straining was a no-go, I might as well would’ve been asking to get an arm broken again if I went down that route…
I considered going with the versatility guys, given that Amajiki was leading them around he could probably come up with something? He definitely had to have used sensory stuff given his quirk at least once.
But, well-
After giving them all a quick glance, I wasn’t able to muster up the energy to interrupt whatever discussion they were having, it’d be too jerky.
So back to the drawing board I was.
Ranged still wasn’t an option…
Tap.
Ironically enough, I was able to eavesdrop something about a stealth group- but I couldn’t even see where they were.
The jerks were doing too much of a good job.
Tap, tap.
I didn’t even bother turning to the quirk control bunch, I had no idea what I could learn there.
Tap, tap, tap.
“Maybe I should just leave early?” I sighed, beginning to walk away as I looked back to Eijirou’s group.
He seemed to be having some sparring thing with Kendo? It looked somewhat fun, if I was willing to overlook how intensely those two seemed to be going at it.
Side stepping a falling rock from their fight that almost fell on my head from behind, my gaze never moved away from Eijirou’s ever present grin-
I blinked, my brow frowning as I glanced down at the pebble on the ground.
How did I notice it?
I never even looked at it-
Tap.
My eyes widened in realization as I let go of the pair of jacks. “Ooh…”
Echolocation, that was a thing she could do.
My mind flashed back to that first night after the ambush, where despite how dark it was, I had managed to catch my footing after a while, guiding myself not just by how little light there was, but also the consistent noise each of my steps made-
I had been doing that the whole time…!
More excited than I’ll ever be willing to admit, I plugged a jack into the ground, piercing through it as if it was butter.
…Hopefully no one would notice the tiny hole later, though.
“Let’s see,” I muttered, narrowing my eyes as I stared at the floor. “How did she do it?”
My memories of her arsenal weren’t the best, that much was proven with how long I took to remember her one ultimate move- And it was proven even more by the fact that I couldn’t quite nail down if she had used any others beyond just Distortion.
But, but, but!
With enough digging around, I eventually recalled a singular scene where she utilized it, it was during the Joint Training shenanigans!
She struggled to make out the opposing team’s positions because of a ton of noise screwing with her vibrations in that encounter.
And while sure, that was an issue I’d also have to try and overcome later…
I smirked, beginning to push out vibrations through my ear jack and into the depths of the ground.
Knowing how she did it was already the starting point that I needed.
Sending vibrations through the ground, I was starting to form a smidge of a picture of what was beyond my peripheral vision, although it wasn’t like how I had imagined it to work at first.
Rather than a clear image of each object and obstacle, all I was able to sense was an idea of their placement, a faint clue of their size and a bit of their shape-
Being able to hear everything else obviously helped a little, but I still wasn’t anywhere near used to it, not to the point of benefiting from it in a fight, at least.
I could barely even make out the presence of someone that was just walking over to me from behind, it was that spotty-
“Hm…?” I blinked, unplugging my jack and turning to see whoever it was, spotting a friendly face in return. “Oh, Yaomomo!”
The raven haired girl stayed put in place, showing a tired smile as she spoke. “Hello… Sorry, I hope I’m not disturbing you, I was just curious what you were up to?”
“It’s fine, it’s fine,” I began, walking up to her as I fiddled with my wristband. “I was just trying to get a handle on a sort of echolocation thing?- I remembered she could do it with her vibrations and stuff, but I still don’t really get it.”
“Fascinating…” she nodded. “It’s definitely a handy technique to use, clever of you to employ it yourself.”
“It’s nothing- I just have to be able to use it, right?” I replied, scratching the back of my head as I looked down at the ground. “Otherwise I’m just still not that much…”
As I took a hold of my sore arm, the two of us fell into a quiet pause.
I could feel her gaze looking down on me, maybe it was a caring look, a judging stare or just a worried glance- but I couldn’t bring my eyes to even see which one it was for myself.
“…Are you doing alright?” she inquired, causing me to glance back up. “I’m sorry, I didn’t have a chance to ask you the other day when we saw one another.”
“I’m holding up fine- Just been a little all over the place, I guess,” I admitted, not meeting her eyes again for just a moment.
The other reincarnations vanishing like they did just felt like such a bitter joke.
“What about you, though?” I asked, watching her move her hand against her abdomen as she answered…
“Oh, I’m fine. No need for concern, a little exhausted and a bit unsettled but that isn’t anything some tea won’t fix,” she told me.
…Wasn’t that where the big wound was?
At- At least it didn’t seem to be bothering her too much.
Realizing that I was pretty much staring, I pushed my gaze somewhere else, landing back on her eyes.
She didn’t look like she had even broken a sweat, though.
Was she still in recovery, even now?
“…Are you sure?” I insisted.
“Well naturally it was a tad alarming, hearing everything James said fly out the window in a matter of moments,” she explained, calm and collected in her tone. “But I assure you, you can count on me.”
I nodded, choosing to drop the topic. “I’m glad then… You can count on me too, though, if you ever need anything.”
She let go of the area in question, placing her hand on her hips. “Ah, well thank you…” she paused. “The Sports Festival will be a nice palette cleanser at least? Something to push all of this to one side for the time being.”
“I hope so…” I murmured.” But for that, I better get going with this whole training thing- I only really got to defend myself in the forest thanks to my gear and…” I brought up my left wrist, showing her the air that my amplifiers should be occupying. “That’s not really an option there.”
“Yes. Of course, apologies for interrupting you,” she sighed, her face saddening for the slightest of moments. “I hope your training goes well.”
I raised an eyebrow as she began walking away, wondering why-
‘The scar.’
Bringing up her left wrist to myself, I just sighed.
‘She saw it, duh.’
Great way to hide it, idiot-
She stopped half way through her walk, looking back over her shoulder. “…It is good to see you alright, Kyouka.”
Smiling, I waved her off as she left. “It’s good to see you alright too.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t this count as playing with marked cards?” I asked her parents, leaning on the living room couch’s arm as I stared into our mess of a deck.
After realizing how long it’d take to go through each and every individual game on the pile he bought, Kyoutoku proposed the idea of ‘mixing them up’ together, which meant shuffling all the editions of the same game into one or two sessions so we wouldn’t have to deal with too many repeats…
“I mean, can you see what I got in my hand?” Kyoutoku chuckled, placing down a red plus two picturing a frustrated Endeavor in its artwork over a regular card of the same color. “I’d say it’s pretty fool proof!”
I looked down at my hand of cards, narrowing my eyes as I struggled to pick between the four of them.
‘...Did they ever mention which house rules they played with?’
Opting to respond with the same card he had used, I replied, “I don’t have to, you have a terrible poker face.”
His eyes widened in slight worry, sweat dripping off the side of his face as we both turned to witness what Mika would play.
Did she have a draw card too?
“I have to agree with her, dear,” she began, sporting a polite yet terrifying smile as she slowly performed her move. “You’ve never been subdued in your reactions.”
He began gripping his cards tightly, almost folding one of them in anticipation. “C’mon now!- If you had something good you would’ve used it earlier!” He dramatically pointed at her. “You’re bluffing!”
She placed her card onto the table, moving it closer and closer to the pile at the center as slowly as she possibly could.
“I…” I gasped. “I don’t think she is.”
“No, no! I only have two cards, finally!” He cried out, begging to his wife almost on his knees. “Don’t you dare!”
Silently, Mika turned the card over, revealing what it truly was-
“That’s- That’s not even from this game,” I stuttered, watching Kyoutoku’s face shift into utter shock.
Mika shrugged, holding back a chuckle. “It must’ve gotten caught as we sorted them, not that it makes a difference now.”
The card was a handwritten piece of paper, that in fancy handwriting simply said…
“You can’t just write down ‘No, dear, I win’ and expect that to work! We have rules in this house!” Kyoutoku ranted, causing her to simply shake her head side to side.
“I didn’t ‘just write’ that, glance below that, under your thumb,” she instructed.
“Uhuh…” lifting his thumb off the note, his eyes widened as Mika placed down her actual card.
“It says ‘uno’,” she pointed out, showing off her almost empty hand before gesturing to the pile on the table. “And you’ve ought to grab… six cards now? Is that correct, Kyouka?”
“Eight actually,” I coughed. “That’s- You used a plus four.”
“Oh, that’s right,” she nodded.
Dropping his hand of cards to the ground, Kyoutoku sighed dramatically. “This shouldn’t be called a family game, it’s darned disrespectful!”
“Don’t blame it , you bought it!” I replied, glancing back at her mother. “...What color are you setting it to?”
She hummed, smiling completely satisfied with herself. “Green.”
I glanced down at my own cards, not even bothering to pick up a new one as I dropped them just like her father did. “Screw you.”
“You were right, Kyouka, I shouldn’t blame the inanimate objects,” he began. “I should blame your mother!”
Picking up all the cards and putting them back in their box, Mika politely bowed to us, walking back upstairs seeming incredibly proud of herself.
I turned to Kyoutoku, both of us having been ruined and humiliated over the course of just a few turns.
“...”
“Do you wanna play another round?” he asked.
“Sure.”
Ruffling my hair, he took a hold of the box himself. “That’s my daughter!”
As he prepared to shuffle the deck once again, that last sentence shifted and twisted, its meaning remaining the same despite the many times it regurgitated in my mind, just like the cards in his hand did.
I was a few things, but…
“Jirou Kyouka, right?”
… Her wasn’t one of them.
Shrugging, I answered to her name anyway. “Yup, that is me…”
“I’m happy I have the right person, then!” Hound Dog expressed, satisfied with my response as I sat down on one of the many bean bags spread across the room. “Now, to get started, there’s one question I always ask people when they come to my office: why do you think that you’re here?”
Why? Because that damned rat is a snitch.
“Uh, because of the attack?” I replied instead, making sure I didn’t sink too much into the bag so as to avoid the incident from last time. “I thought it was a follow up thing on it.”
That was what I was told anyway.
As a way to check up on everyone’s mental welfare, Nedzu mandated an obligatory session with Hound Dog, who apparently was a therapist, who knew, not unlike the interview from back in Saturday’s morning.
Only this time, it was a Tuesday afternoon, and instead of a tape recorder, the person asking the questions was fidgeting with a stress ball across the room.
…And it was somehow more intimidating.
“That’s the legal reason, yes,” he nodded, taking a break from the ball to look at me more directly. “I meant more personally.”
“Well, then it’s still because of the attack…? That’s the reason why I’m here,” I repeated, taking a moment to sigh as I added, “Though, I guess making sure that I’m alright is not a bad thing either.”
‘It’s still therapy despite everything, so, might as well try to get something out of it.’
“Are you doing alright?”
I felt myself sink into the bean bag ever so slightly just with that question alone.
“…I don’t know? I’ve been worse at least,” I answered, as honestly as I could without coming across as if I had too many issues.
It might’ve been therapy, but I was still wearing her U.A. uniform at the end of the day…
I couldn’t just let her career be affected if I turned out to be too sad or something.
“Why don’t you walk me past the past few days,” he began, already bringing up a whole can of worms with a single sentence. “Have you been feeling out of the ordinary at all?”
Define ‘ordinary’.
Regardless, I proceeded to recall a few things anyway. “I was, uh, a little out of it after the attack went down I guess, then again after I visited a few classmates in the hospital, so I think so? Nothing that bad though.”
Nothing.
“This is all rather disorientating, it won’t just happen to any of you will it?”
At all.
He smiled, taking a hold of the ball as he placed it on the floor beside him. “I’m glad to hear that you’re doing okay. Are you still feeling a little out of it, so to speak?”
“I don’t think so? With all the stuff going on surrounding training and some things at home I haven’t really focused on anything else,” nothing I could talk about anyway.
“That’s good to hear, but make sure to take some time for yourself-” he advised, “after a traumatic event it can be very tempting for heroes to bury themselves in work, but that often just means they’re bottling up their emotions for later.”
“That’s… fair, yeah, I just- I try not to think about much of that beyond a few things,” I muttered.
“Everyone processes at their own pace- there’s nothing to feel ashamed of there, of course,” he explained. “If you do find yourself developing unhealthy coping mechanisms or similar things, my door is always open.”
“That’s good to know…” I nodded, before asking shyly, “what would you consider an unhealthy mechanism though…?”
“Well, not dwelling on the topic is healthy, but avoiding it too much can be dangerous. If you find yourself developing some unhealthy habits-”
Such as?
“-Like skipping school, not doing homework- then that may be a cause for alarm,” he continued, my attention shifting away from his words and voice for the slightest of moments.
I tugged the sleeves of my uniform nervously, letting what he had said sink in as I realized that, well-
My previous life was filled with those kinds of habits, causes for alarms.
Whether it was those two he had mentioned, or other sorts of things like skipping meals every so often- it just made me ask myself…
‘Was I okay?’
The canine hero kept on talking however, and eventually, my focus drifted back onto him.
“Heroes like you with sensory quirks are also particularly predisposed towards falling into paranoia after traumatic incidents, which can also be extremely unhealthy for your mental wellbeing,” he warned me.
“…I think I’ve done a decent job avoiding the last thing at the very least-” I guessed, only managing to recall the time I looked for Hagakure’s room as anything close to that, “Not to say that I have been skipping school or stuff!- But yeah, no paranoia up here, thankfully.”
“That’s good to hear,” he nodded. “I did want to talk to you about one more thing, other than the attack; you’ve been reasonably open about being one of the students that came from another world. Are you adjusting to that okay?”
‘Take a guess.’
Looking down, I bit my lip as I struggled to even come up with an answer that I felt was appropriate, only managing to utter something after a minute.
“I’d be lying if I said that it hasn’t been hard, but I definitely could be worse,” I began, letting myself fidget as I poked a spot of the bean bag with an ear jack. “I think I just got lucky, in a sense.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Lucky?”
“Yeah, lucky. I’m not sure that if under anyone else’s shoes I would be as put together as I am right now- any of their lives,” I shifted in place, crossing my legs as I continued to say, “I could’ve been just one of those villains that attacked, you know?- I got lucky , and that’s without counting how I didn’t get as injured as others.”
It was luck that I didn’t reincarnate as someone who I’d just be uncomfortable being.
It was luck that made it so I didn’t end up as any of the villains in that forest.
It was a twisted sense of luck that let me even be her and meet everyone else.
So that was why-
“It wasn’t just luck that carried you through, Jirou. It was a combination of luck and your own skill- don’t fall into the trap of discounting the part that you played during the attack. But once again, I’m glad to hear that you’re processing the events in what seems like a relatively healthy way.”
I didn’t believe a single word that came out of his mouth at that moment.
“I mean, anyone could’ve done what I did if they were placed in her shoes- But yeah, just thanks,” I said back.
“I don’t think just anyone could have, Jirou,” he told me. “You did well.”
“…Thanks,” I murmured, begrudgingly taking his word just a little bit.
“I believe that’s all I really wanted to talk to you about today- is there anything that’s been bothering you lately besides the attack?” he asked.
“Well… I guess it’s sort of related to the attack still,” I started, taking the opportunity to at least talk about it. “Before getting onto the bus, I ended up staying behind to try and see if I could find any of my classmates, I was just worried about them- but, then once I saw them, they were obviously more than just a little beat up.”
Who would've guessed.
“I’ve been trying not to think about it- about the image of both of them, but it’s- it’s just hard and that’s so stupid because it was my decision to see them in the first place,” I vented, my conversation with Yaomomo from earlier remaining fresh in my mind with each passing word.
I still couldn’t help but picture her wound.
“Have you seen your classmates since the attack as they’ve recovered?”
I nodded. “Yeah, saw both of them right before the weekend and during class.”
“That’s good, and it means I get to prescribe one of my favorite things,” he commented, reaching out and doing some scribbles on his clipboard, ripping off a piece of paper before handing it over to me.
It read…
“Spend time with your friends.”
I glanced up to him with an incredulous look on my face. “…Really?”
“Yep. Really,” he nodded, seeming very proud of himself. “The more time you spend with them, the more that those memories of them injured will fade. And, beyond that, it’s healthy to socialize and not dwell on dark thoughts.”
“If you say so…” I sighed. “Do I get to keep the paper?”
“Of course,” he replied. “Any other things to discuss today?”
Shoving the ‘prescription’ into my blazer’s pocket, I stood up from the comfort of the bean bag. “Beyond her dad’s reckless financial expenses regarding a series of board games? Not really- I’m still baffled by that.”
He laughed. “I’d help if I could but I’m a therapist, not a miracle worker. Have a nice day, Jirou, and remember that my door is always open.”
“Thank you- I’ll keep it in mind.”
While I didn’t keep his offer in mind much, I certainly did remember the one thing he gave me.
Mainly because I forgot to take it out of my pocket.
Slamming down the ‘prescription’ on Eijirou’s desk the next day, I couldn’t help but look away as he curiously picked up the piece of paper.
“…This just says for you to spend time with your friends,” he noted, with most of the class starting to leave the classroom.
Tapping my jacks against one another, I nodded. “Yeah, so…”
I could immediately feel the grin on his face without even glancing over at him-
“I am more than happy to oblige!” He stood up from his seat, excitement pouring out of him in every way it possibly could. “We want to gather up anyone else?”
I shrugged. “Either way’s fine-”
“Eenie, meenie, miney…” Scratching his head, he glanced around whoever was left in the room, spotting our soon to be kidnapped classmates. “Yaoyorozu! Bakugou! Shinsou! You guys doing anything today?”
Oh, god.
Startled and confused, Shinsou looked up from his desk. “Uh… No?”
“Absolutely not,” Franco answered, having a kind of nostalgic look on his face? I couldn’t tell if it was just him or the Kacchan-ness, really.
Yaomomo looked over to us, holding onto her bag as she answered, “Well actually I intended to-”
Poking Eijirou’s shoulder with an ear jack, I stuttered, “D-Did you have to do that?”
“Great! You guys are coming to hang out with us. Doctor’s orders,” he declared, ignoring me and tapping onto Hound Dog’s note for everyone to see.
Blinking with his mouth wide open, Shinsou ultimately sighed, leaving Yaomomo to fill in the silence as she leaned forward and squinted reading the note.
“Spend time with friends..?” she read out loud.
Eijirou gave them both a thumbs up. “Yep!”
Groaning, I buried my face into my hands- regret creeping in from how quickly it had all escalated out of proportion.
It was just supposed to be a quick hang out thing…!
As we all walked down the hallways of U.A., Eijirou brought up a bit of an icebreaker, trying to keep the mood lively and friendly-
Even if a few didn’t quite get what he meant…
“I still don’t understand the hypothetical question…” Yaomomo sighed as we all walked through U.A.’s halls. “What's the context for choosing between frogs and toads?”
Eijirou snapped his fingers. “Exactly.”
“In other words, yes,” I answered, lifting a finger with a smug smile on my face.
Before the conversation could go down any other rabbit hole, a pair from the support course passed in front of us, one of them dragging the one I actually knew across the floor by the arm-
“Hatsume, I told you, Power Loader needs to air out the smoke and you need some fresh air!” she complained, her dark haired and ponytail look cluing me into who she was, thankfully.
“But- but- I have a gas mask?” Hatsume questioned, continuing to be dragged by Furasu Maina, whose name I hoped I remembered right from the manga.
“No!” Noticing us, she let go off the pink haired girl’s arm, standing around awkwardly for a moment. “…Oh, hey, everyone.”
“Hi-” I greeted, before pointing down at Hatsume as I interrupted myself. “Is… is she okay?”
“Karmic retribution,” Shinsou muttered, spite filling his voice.
She almost immediately sprung back up, her yellow eyes glowing under the hall’s lights as she answered my question. “I’m fine, Earphones! How’re you? Need any babies?”
Before I could even say anything else, I glanced over to my right, seeing Eijirou grin widely only for him to be elbowed by Shinsou.
“Don’t you-”
…Eijirou only grinned even wider than before.
“Hey, look alive, gang! Mall ho!” Eijirou shouted, pointing not at the mall in question, but rather at an entirely different direction.
“…Eijirou, the mall is literally right there,” I sighed, watching him upturn his nose dramatically as everyone else watched.
“Well, I have thought it over, and I have decided to be a trendsetter,” he declared, much to Shinsou’s annoyance, who just groaned in the background…
“A trendsetter… at pointing in the wrong direction?” I repeated.
“Exactly!” He exclaimed, snapping his fingers. “I think it’ll really catch on!”
He was too much of a goober sometimes...
I shook my head, opting to ignore a small mutter from Franco as Yaomomo walked up to the front of the group.
“So, where does everyone want to visit first?” she asked, waiting for anyone’s answer.
“Honestly, couldn’t care less,” Franco shrugged, with Shinsou nodding in agreement.
“Same here.”
“If nobody suggests anything I’m choosing the carousel,” Eijirou added, noticeably exciting Hatsume as her eyebrows perked up-
“She,” Furasu began, gesturing towards her support course classmate, “needs food, if we can find a restaurant or something.”
Looking around the group as a whole with an unreadable expression on her face, Yaomomo eventually turned to me. “…Kyouka? Do you have a choice?”
“Maybe like an arcade…?” I proposed, moving a hand up to my chin. “It’s not like I have a lot of money on me for anything else either.”
I had emergency money… and that was about it.
“I’d be down with that!” Eijirou grinned. “Maybe we can grab like a to-go ramen or something for Hatsume on the way?”
“That works, yeah,” Furasu nodded, much to Hatsume’s dismay.
“I don’t need-” Hatsume attempted to protest.
“When was the last time you ate?” Furasu interrupted, only for the other girl to smile proudly.
“Around noon!” she answered.
My previous life was filled with those kinds of habits, causes for alarms.
Whether it was those two he had mentioned, or other sorts of things like skipping meals every so often-
Interjecting the conversation, I turned to her, crossing my arms as I asked, “Noon of what day?”
She took a step back nervously, hesitating to answer. “…Monday.”
Franco blinked in realization. “…It’s Wednesday.”
Yes, it was.
Hatsume simply rubbed the back of her neck bashfully. “Hee-hee.”
Silently, I tightly wrapped an ear jack around her wrist, turning to face Eijirou. “Where’s that to-go ramen thing again?” I asked.
“Ah- I think I see something down that way?” he said, pointing down the hall we just so happened to be in.
I glanced over to Yaomomo, beginning to walk forwards as I kept my hold on Hatsume’s arm. “I got my choice then.”
She put the phone she had used to guide us to the mall back into her pocket, nodding as she started to follow my lead. “Excellent.”
“Woo! Ramen!” Eijirou shouted, much in contrast to Shinsou’s mood.
“Joy, talking to people,” he countered, matching the pace of everyone’s footsteps.
“I’m just happy you people dilute Hatsume’s… Hatsumeness,” Furasu sighed, to which I raised an eyebrow in response.
“I don’t get what you mean…?” I questioned, my gaze briefly landing on Hatsume as I made sure to wrap my jack just a bit tighter.
She seemed just like usual, even if not as excited over her inventions as she was when in the support lab.
“I’m not having to actively drag her physically to the cafeteria,” Furasu pointed out. “That’s something right there.”
“I mean, if you want that slice of home I could drag you ,” Eijirou offered, making her physically cringe.
“…I think I’m good, thanks.”
Eijirou shrugged. “I offered!”
The improvised trip to the nearby mall quickly sprung out into almost visiting every nook and cranny of the building, with the more than needed stop at the ramen stand being our first detour in our hang out.
I sat down right next to Hatsume, watching over her to make sure she didn’t try running away or anything like her classmate had mentioned.
In the end though, that wasn’t really something I had to worry about, as she pointed down at a particular item on the menu, which frankly, was simply terrifying.
I didn’t even care about the calories it had, it just looked disgusting.
“That one!”
Dragging her wrist around to a much healthier and cheaper option, I said, “ That one .”
She blinked, only to grin happily as she saw what I picked. “That one!”
…I wasn’t going to complain about it being easy but, really?
Over at the other side of the stand, Eijirou leaned on the counter with a grin. “So, what’s the least spicy ramen on your menu?”
“The least spicy?” Yaomomo questioned, already having picked her dish.
“I have a delicate palate,” he brought up, prompting Franco to mirror his earlier action.
“I’ll take the spiciest one,” the blond reincarnation requested, smirking quite smugly.
Ignoring the chaos around her, Furasu clarified to the employee, “No bean sprouts, chicken, or beef in mine, please.”
“…Can I just have a normal bowl of ramen?” Shinsou pleaded.
Stopping by the arcade like I had said, we spread around the entire thing almost immediately, with me getting a chance to sigh in silence upon realizing that, of course, they didn’t have any actual games I would recognise.
Sure, it was a different world- but that didn’t mean I didn’t wanna have a try at playing something not out in the west…
At last, defeated and deflated, I went to tap Hatsume’s shoulder, watching her win on one of the crane machines of the place. “Hatsume, we’ve got to-”
Before I could even finish my sentence, she handed me over a doll from the machine, grinning. “Here!”
“Thank you-”
Unlike Eijirou, her grin didn’t seem nearly as… his? Toothy…? It felt different, warmer, if that made any real sense-
Nudging me on the shoulder, I turned around to see him handing me over his own doll. “I mean, if we’re doing this-”
Holding both things on each of my arms, I blankly stared at him. “…Really?”
As I noticed a few bright blue and pink sparkles around the corner of my eye, Yaomomo handed me a doll as well, with it looking clearly different from the ones inside the machines.
“…Did you make that?-”
Joining the apparent trend that was going on, Franco gave me his as well, shrugging in the process.
Struggling to hold each doll at the same time, I tried to wave the whole bit off with my ear jacks. “You guys don’t have to-”
Silently wrapping his doll with one of my jacks, Shinsou blankly stared at me.
“…”
And so I stared at him too.
“…”
Eventually, I sighed. “…What is wrong with you people?”
“We love too much,” Eijirou replied.
“I was gonna say that cranes are overrated, but that works too,” Franco commented, leading the way out of this cursed place.
“The cranes are your new form of therapy,” Shinsou added.
Shrinking back my ear jack and shuffling all the dolls in my hands properly, I muttered, “I don’t even have the space for any of these.” Where was I gonna put them, along with the guitars?
Eijirou padded me on the back. “Throwing out valuable documents to make space for the crane machine dolls is your new form of therapy.”
I didn’t quite get why, but at some point, we ended up entering a department store inside of the mall- I walked along with Eijirou at the clothing section, watching him stare at a particular article of clothing with a hint of wonder in his eyes.
It was a top hat.
“…Don’t,” I warned him, glaring at him before he had the chance to pout.
“But-”
“It’s not worth it,” I told him, leading him away from it. “How would that even fit with your hair, really?-”
Feeling a tug on one of my ear jacks, I turned to see Hatsume’s excited smile- her yellow eyes no longer glowing thanks to the light hitting them, but rather from the sheer energy emanating from deep within her.
Accepting my fate, I tried to wave at Eijirou before being dragged by Hatsume-
“Look!” she shouted, leading us both to the electronics side of the store’s shelves. “Each of these- that’s a baby idea right there, sitting and waiting to be made!~”
I nodded along, hearing her audibly say some words and terms, even if I didn’t understand even a lick of them.
Listening to everyone from afar, I first managed to hear Shinsou’s voice.
“And they’re off,” he commented.
Eijirou shouted for everyone, including other customers, to hear, “Have fun!”
Also doing the same, was Franco- “Use protection!”
What did he think we were doing here!?
“Did- did you hear that?” I asked Hatsume, turning to her rather bashfully.
“Oh?” taking a pause in her baby listing, she shrugged. “It’s not bad advice, Earphones! You’ve ought to protect your eyes.”
Of course she didn’t get it.
Going on ahead, Eijirou exited the mall before anyone else, the sun setting dramatically behind him as he turned around to us. “Hey, glad you guys all could make it! That was really fun!”
Frowning, Shinsou grumbled, “If draining my social battery means fun, then sure.”
“Amen to that,” Furasu nodded.
Yaomomo took a few extra steps ahead of the group, checking her phone before saying, “I should be going, it’s rather late and I need to get some studying done.”
Beside me, however, Hatsume seemed to be more than a little worked up- “So! Many! Baby ideas!” she shouted, vibrating in place.
Furasu winced, looking at her friend. “Yeah, no, you’re not getting in the lab tonight.” She blinked, glancing over at me. “Jirou, which train do you take?” Hm?
“Just the Ginza line, it passes right next to-”
Interrupting me, she asked, “Awesome. What’s your number?”
I blinked. “What?” Why?
Being the helpful friend that he is, Eijirou walked over to her, bringing out his phone. “Ah, here, I gotcha-”
“Awesome.” She then proceeded to shove Hatsume at me, forcing me to grab her as she began walking away. “Can you make sure she makes it home safely and doesn’t just break away and go to U.A.? Thanks.”
“What?- Wait!” I called out, trying to keep a hold on the still vibrating inventor-
“Sorry, I’ve got to get home-” She didn’t look sorry in the slightest. “See you guys later!” she yelled, jogging away into the distance as I was left to process the situation-
Eijirou waved her off. “Bye, Furasu!”
“E-Eijirou, what the hell?” I asked, trying my best to glare at him despite the awkward circ*mstances.
“Hm? What’d I do?” He questioned- WHAT DIDN’T HE DO?
He escalated this hang out to begin with!
I raised a finger, ready to answer him- only to shake my head in defeat. “Just- never mind.”
He simply shrugged, turning to everyone else as I tried to keep a hold on the vibrating Hatsume. “Anybody else heading home on the Yaveen Line?” he asked.
Raising a hand, Shinsou looked down at the ground in despair. “…I am.”
Eijirou grinned. “Awesome! Yaoyorozu, Bakugou?”
“Sorry to disappoint, but no,” Franco replied, shaking his head.
“I’ve got my own transportation arranged, speaking of which I’d better be going,” Yaomomo explained, waving everyone off. “Have a pleasant evening all.”
“Have a nice night!” Eijirou shouted after her. “And yeah, I guess we’d all better make like a banana and split. See you tomorrow, Kyouka, Hatsume, Bakugou!”
“Aight!” Franco nodded-
“S-See ya!” I waved off, with Hatsume remaining silent for the moment.
With Eijirou and Shinsou staying behind, I began making my way to the nearest train station along with Hatsume, keeping a jack wrapped around her wrist as we both walked away from the group.
Better safe than sorry, really.
Having lucked out with a seat on the train ride for the both of us, I shoved her phone into my pocket, sighing as I turned to look at Hatsume. “Your stop is already getting close by, do you prefer if I walk over with you?”
She, somehow , remained vibrating just like before, her face static as she remained muted in silence.
I tilted my head to the side. “Why are you…?”
She suddenly turned to look at me, her eyes wide as she shouted with a big grin on her face, “Do you remember the top hat from the store!?-”
“Sshh!- We’re in a public line, don’t be loud…!” I told her, already hearing complaining murmurs from other passengers on the train.
Noticeably a little deflated, she whispered with a smile, “But, why? ”
“‘Cause it’s rude, I don’t know-” I shrugged, keeping a lower volume as well. “I’m not from here…”
I shifted in my seat, leaning closer to her. “What were you going to talk about though?”
“What else than about a baby of course!” she grinned, making sure she wasn’t actively yelling this time around. “So, top hat, Number First, propulsion on the sides and boom , extra flight speed for his flying baby!”
‘Would- Would that even work?’
I paled at the mental image of how that’d even function. “Wouldn’t something like that risk his hair going off or something? What if he snaps his neck?” I asked, horrified at both the picture of a bald Eijirou and a dead one!
“Psh, he is as hard as he wants to be!” she waved it off, not finding it concerning at all. “He’d be more than just fine…! Though if anything happens he can surely pull off the bald look!”
I winced, imagining hairless Eijirou again . “…I think his grin wouldn’t hit quite the same.”
Her eyes widened. “He didn’t tell me he bit people!- Oh~ Could his teeth harden too for an extra crunch?”
… What have I done?
Blood drained from my face as she snapped her fingers, beginning to rant as she looked away. “Instead of just a top hat baby, I could make something for his jaw too, make his bites stronger and faster!- The Jaw Topping Hardening baby!-”
Turning back to me, she leaned in as close as she physically could- her gaze meeting with the one that I had borrowed. “Earphones, Earphones! What do you think?”
“I- I think…” Feeling all the blood that had drained away come back in full force, I glanced away from her, my eyes landing on the city past the window as I mumbled, “I think that’s a cool idea but you should definitely talk to him first to see if he’d be okay with it…!”
She continued smiling. “Hm, should I…?”
“Y-Yes, yes you totally should!” I bashfully answered, sighing in relief as she leaned back, giving us some much needed distance back.
“Got it, Earphones!” She moved a hand up to her chin, thinking for the briefest of moments. “Then, how about this other idea? A crane baby that beats the game for you on its own!”
I glanced down at the pile of dolls sitting on my lap, all thankfully shoved into a bag rather than all out on their own like before, petting the one at the top. “Doesn’t that beat the point of it?”
They all earned these.
She decidedly shook her head. “Those machines are mischievous, evil and mean inventions, they’re made to take your money! So I’ll make something for you so you can always get a prize- just like if I was there winning them for you!”
I huffed. “I could still get one myself eventually…”
“So, for when I’m not able to be there, you totally should have something like it! Get all the prizes you want!” she added.
“Wouldn’t that mean that I’m still getting them just thanks to you?” I asked, only to watch her nod rapidly at my question.
“Exactly!”
My eyes widened. “…I- I see-”
Before I could say anything else, the train began slowing down, stopping in place at the station.
Hatsume blinked. “Oh, this is my stop!”
Getting up from her seat, she waved at me, grinning the whole time as she left “See you later, Earphones!~ Thanks for the help!”
I stayed frozen for a second, managing to wave back at her at the last moment. “It- It’s nothing…!”
Sooner rather than later, the train sped back up again, leaving me alone with my thoughts as the sun continued to darken behind me.
I toyed with the doll she had gotten for me, smiling faintly at it.
…It had been a fun trip, all things considered.
And I only had all of them to thank for it.
I left the bag with all the dolls on the couch, looking up at Kyoutoku as I asked, “...Do you have any idea where to put these?”
He almost shrugged- only to blink on the spot as he seemed to get a clue on what to do. “Well, my dear Kyouka- What a better place to put them than…!”
He grabbed each and every single one of them, placing them down on top of a different board game box on the shelf. “Than as the final touches for the living room decor!”
“That… That looks way too over the top,” I said, walking over to him.
“It has its charm!” He pointed out defensively. “Besides, it’s not every day that you get to brag about your daughter getting all the fun gifts from her friends!”
I shook my head, chuckling a little. “I told you, it was a bit they all did.”
“And you still kept the prizes! That’s more than just a bit there, Kyouka.”
I looked back up at the shelf, smiling for a brief moment before shrugging. “Maybe…”
The remaining days leading up to the Sports Festival all merged together into a blur with each passing hour, with sweat being poured into every possible attempt at training-
Interrupting my practice with my jacks, I walked over to an odd group composed of Eijirou, Mina and Tetsutetsu of all people, asking the former, “...What are you doing?”
Eijirou grinned, sitting up from the floor and rubbing his head. “We're trying to make the manliest chest bump possible!”
“What?”
Running in, Hatsume held a duplicate of Eijirou’s support item over her head. “It's finished!”
Wasn’t that the one that propulsed him?
I turned to Eijirou again, shaking my head. “No.”
His eyes remained locked to me, even as his arms stretched out almost grabbing the baby in question. “But…”
“Absolutely not,” I decided, shaking my head slowly.
Tetsutetsu merely sagged all the way across the gym. “Aw…”
-If that counted as training…
Along with other, more unrelated activities.
I touched the water with my toes, “Why, exactly, do you have a pool?” I called, watching as from the other end of it, Kendo jumped straight into it, splashing the other girls, those being Yanagi, Tokage and Mina, in the process.
I, myself, stayed out of the water, having deliberately not brought any swim wear to the hang out- I couldn’t even bring myself to imagine trying to wear anything like that.
“Came with the house!” Eijirou answered, causing everyone to turn around to witness his rather ridiculous get up.
He was sporting a pair of bright red trunks, two inflatable water wings on his arms, a life jacket and some oversized swim goggles on his arms-
Tokage and Mina burst into laughter, with the pink girl coming out of the water to walk closer to him. “Kirishima, what are you wearing?” she asked.
Holding back my laughter, I watched as Eijirou tried to cross his arms, somehow looking even goofier in the process. “I want you to think long and hard about what my quirk is.”
“And you never learned to swim?” Kendo asked, trying to hide a smile.
He answered simply, “Fun fact: I panic when trying to swim.”
“So?” I questioned, crossing my arms.
“When I panic, I subconsciously activate my quirk,” he explained, causing everyone to audibly, ‘ooh,’ in realization.
“Yeah, hence the gear,” he said, gesturing at himself as a whole. “This stuff is buoyant enough that I’m not taking a one way trip to the bottom.”
Mina paused. “Why are you even getting in the pool in the first place, then?”
“My quirk does have one advantage, you see,” Eijirou grinned, looking much more mischievous than he ever did before.
“Hm?”
Tokage, noticing the same look as I did, splashed Mina and winked at him.
“Hey!” the pink-skinned girl called, turning to glare at Tokage as Eijirou sprinted forward, pushing her back into the pool as he jumped high into the sky.
“Kirishima, what the f-” Mina shouted as she resurfaced.
He, the absolute menace, the red haired madman that he was, hardened mid air.
“Ah,” Mina blinked. “I see. My revenge will be swift and vicious.”
“CANNONBALL!” he shouted-
As the water splashed everyone, even me who wasn’t even in it , I remained forever thankful that I at least wasn’t wearing anything too special-
I didn’t have to be her to know that she would’ve killed me if I did.
With just one day left before the massive event started, I knocked on the support’s lab door, hoping to propose some upgrades for when the Sports Festival was over and dealt with.
I wasn’t particularly sure on how that was going to shape up, but I did have at least one goal in mind.
Making it to at least just the second round.
The same as she had done-
Taking the sound of an explosion on the other side of the door as a cue to walk in, I swinged it open, closing it behind me as I walked through the dust cloud formed by whatever Hatsume had been up to.
I glanced around the lab for a moment, noticing a few more students than I had seen last time- they all seemed to be wrapping things up for the day, and as my gaze landed on Hatsume, it looked like she was the only one not doing that.
Smiling, I tried nudging her in the shoulder, just to get her attention.
What I wasn’t expecting, was for her to simply snap into my direction as I did that-
“Earphones!- Good to see you!” she greeted, putting aside whatever invention she was working on for the moment and bringing her goggles up to her forehead. “How are you?- You’ve got any babies in mind? I can already see the ideas oozing from ya!”
“It’s something simple- I just thought about maybe adding an extra speaker to the tips of my boots?” I explained, bringing my foot up briefly as I gestured to her the placement I had in mind. “I sorta used them to kick one of the villains back during the attack- and I thought maybe that’d work better if I wanted to keep doing that?”
If I got that down right, maybe I could kick villains around like footballs like I did against the Nomu!-
She deflated slightly, nodding all the same though. “That’s really easy but, c’mon…! Don’t you have any bigger ideas up there? More complex babies!”
“I prefer to keep it simple-” I blinked, interrupting myself. “Though, maybe we could try brainstorming some stuff later…?” At worst, it wasn’t like she could make her ear jacks explode-
Could she?
“Yes!-” Hatsume turned around, getting a hold of my arm as she moved to rummage through a pile of seemingly random stuff. “Does tomorrow work for ya? We could even test any of them with Number First at Gym Gamma!”
I tilted my head to the side. “Isn’t tomorrow the Sports Festival?-”
“No it isn’t!” she denied, finally finding what appeared to be a beaten up diary of sorts, rapidly sorting through its pages as she landed on the current date, showing it to me. “See? What does it say?”
“It… it says that it is,” I deadpanned.
She slowly turned the notebook around, looking at it herself with a petrified expression.
Furasu raised an eyebrow, walking over to the pair of us. “Didn’t Kirishima remind you of it a few weeks ago?” she asked, closing the diary for Hatsume and placing it down on the nearest surface.
The pink haired inventor stayed silent, keeping a hold of my arm as we both walked back to her desk.
“S-So! Earphones!”
I gulped, already seeing the gears turning inside her head. “Y-Yeah?”
She turned to me with a forced smile. “I’ll tweak the babies-” she let go of my arm, proceeding to quickly mess around with the nearest invention in her vicinity. “You try ‘em out and see if they don’t blow up!”
I blinked, being handed over what looked to be Eijirou’s jetpack thing. “Wait, did you not make anything for the event?-”
She looked away in either embarrassment, shame, or both of those things- “It doesn’t matter! I’m making them now anyway!”
Chuckling, Furasu began leaving along with a few other students in the room. “Have fun, you two, bye!”
‘Did- Did she set me up again!?’
Waving her friend off for a second, Hatsume turned to me again, gesturing to the item in my arms. “C’mon, Earphones! We don’t have all day! Try it!”
“Isn’t it made for a hardened Eijirou, though?-”
“It shouldn’t be now!”
“Shouldn’t!?”
She helped me to put the darned thing on, even if it was against my wishes.
“We’ll find out in just a sec! Ready?”
I shook my head side to side as quickly as I could. “No!-”
“Too bad!”
“... How did you arrive so late today?” asked Kyoutoku, moving his piece across the board after rolling his dice. “You said you were just checking up on some hero equipment thing!”
Hiding my face behind one of my crane machine dolls, I barely managed to pay attention to the game as I tried to ignore the ever so annoyingly present blush on my cheeks. “Just… You know?”
“Kyouka, my daughter, I don’t know-” His brow frowned, glancing down at the location his piece had landed, Mika’s property. “C’mon!- Couldn’t it have been the one right after!?”
Already taking her paper money out of Kyoutoku’s depleting pile, Mika nodded. “It could have been, but it was not.”
As Kyoutoku faced his bankruptcy and stormed off, she turned to me with a wicked teasing smile. “I believe I might know what she meant, though.”
“...No, no you don’t,” I whispered, moving my doll even closer to my face as I simply moved my piece to the next tile.
“Oh?” Her smile remained as teasing as before, with her glasses shining under the living room’s lights as she also took her earnings from my money. “Do you want to bet on it?”
I sighed, giving up just like her father had. “No, no I don’t…”
“Tell us what occurred earlier then,” she told me, with Kyoutoku appearing behind her back as he returned from his detour to rage alone over a board game.
“Ugh…” Extending my pair of ear jacks, I wrapped them around another one of the dolls to bury my face in both of them. “I got used like a guinea pig to test out some support items after reminding her that the sports festival was tomorrow.”
While Kyoutoku wasn’t able to make out my muffled words, Mika certainly did, as she simply asked, “And who was her, hm?”
“You don’t need this information!” I snapped-
“Of course we do!” Kyoutoku countered, smirking as he brought up his microphone from nowhere. “We’re your parents!”
“No…!” I whimpered, laughing before I began telling them exactly all that had happened.
The times before the Sports Festival were definitely an eventful bunch- but as the night came to an end and the sun rose for the next day, it was no longer time for preparations, as not just other reincarnations were going to watch our own performances, but now Japan as a whole-
So, how was I going to present myself to that ever changing world?
