The Early Start:
Serendipity:
The occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.
Midoriya Masuyo finds herself staring in faint horror at the large clump of bright red gum, cinnamon, Ka-chan's favorite, like the one I had given him earlier today, the one he asked for, stuck in the strands of her messy, wavy, and dark green hair.
It is in the worst possible place, awkwardly high on her head, close to her scalp. The red gum is tangled completely with several strands, as she had panicked wildly when she had felt the wet thing hit her. Shaking her head rapidly in when she had thought it was something of a more disgusting nature. Even her poor ribbon, yellow, limited edition All Might hair accessory, and a gift from her father, made of real silk, was tangled with the wad of gum. It's going to have to be cut out, she thinks, chest starting to heave as she stares at it, it's going to be like I'm a boy. She eyes her hair, long past her shoulders in various shades of dark green, curling just underneath her ribs, and knows that she will lose it all. It's one of the few bits of herself that Masoyu really likes, because its soft and shiny. Ka-chan even has a habit of playing with the ends of it and had even been doing it earlier in class, as he was behind her in class.
The familiar heat of the tears are starting, almost itchy, and her chest heaves faster. Always crying always such a crybaby, Deku. She sees her own expression in the mirror, the reflection of her horror as her pale and freckled skin starts to turn pink, her mouth trembling in a tight white line as she tries to not to cry. But little sounds escape, little huffs of pain that she barely suppress.
Mama is going to be so upset.
Her tears do start to fall, however, when she hears the giggles, and the squeak of indoor shoes shuffling from the other stalls inside of the girl's bathroom. She doesn't turn around, but watches from the mirror, realizing that there is four set of shoes in the stall that had been right next to her's. They followed me right after class ended. She had felt the clump hit her head, more tossed over the side of the toilet stall wall when she had stood up from the toilet after she had finished zipping up her skirt. She sniffs, resisting the urge to whip at the tears at the corner of her eyes and washes her trembling hands. She picks up her school bag, glad that she had taken it from the classroom, and hurriedly leaves the girl's bathroom.
She can't stop the heavier flow of tears falling from her eyes as the giggles get louder and louder as she starts to run, leather backpack clutched to her chest.
The noise follows her even as she dashes away, the squeal of the rubber soles of their indoor shoes, the shrieks of vicious laughter. But Masoyu is good- too used to running away and turning people around in the school that she has memorized the layout of. She holds the various charms of her leather backpack, all heroes and limited edition, close together to prevent any nose. She sprints carefully on the balls of her feet to avoid her own shoes from squeaking. It takes her fifteen minutes, but she manages to loop around the front of the school. Losing the girls chasing her with relative ease, Masoyu eases her sprint into a careful jog and then into a brisk walk.
She tip-toes to the entrance of the school, to make a quick escape. She makes her way to her locker, tears still falling from her eyes, before she shoves off her indoor shoes and shoves on her own bright red sneakers. Her fingertips are trembling as she ties the laces, and she constantly is looking over her should just in case the girls chasing her notice that she had given them the slip.
When she makes it to the entrance, she realizes her one flaw in her plan to make her way home and make up an excuse to her mother over the gum in her hair.
Ka-chan.
He, like he does every day, is standing at the entrance, waiting for her, to walk home because they have been neighbors since they were infants. He's always waiting for me to catch up. He looks frustrated, backpack strap over his shoulder, frowning, his foot tapping. Little sparks are across his fingertips, hands constantly moving in his mood. Impatient as he always is, pretending to be in a bad mood, as always.
Masoyu sniffs, a startled hiccup escaping her, hesitating for a fraction of a second before she makes a decision. She quickly goes to the side exit of the school, remembering that on the right side of their elementary school, a large tree is right next to the fence around the campus. She could climb it, drop over the fence and make her way home without problems, without a scene. She digs in her skirt pocket for her phone, many charms clinking together and sends him some excuse:
Deku-Chan 3 Heroes: Stopping by the market for dinner on the way home, sorry if you waited for me! It's my turn to make dinner and were out of soy sauce!
(ಥ﹏ಥ)
His reply is quick and irritated:
KING-EXPLOSION-MURDER-WILL-F CK-U-UP: Idiot, you should have fucking told me, ya damn nerd. (ಠ益ಠ ) I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR TWENTY MINUTES. Get me those shrimp-wasabi chips.
Deku-Chan 3 Heroes: ༼ つ ಥ_ಥ ༽つ Sorry! I'll get you two bags chips, Ka-chan! I promise!
KING-EXPLOSION-MURDER-WILL-F CK-U-UP: You better. See you tomorrow, loser.
Deku-Chan 3 Heroes: See you tomorrow, Ka-chan. (ღ˘⌣˘ღ)
Climbing a tall tree when your crying is hard, but Masoyu thinks that she has much too much practice with it. She remembers where to put her foot, where to reach, and despite the blurred vision, she is on the top of the wall in less than three minutes. Her hands are rubbed raw by the rough bark, and she scraps the back of her calf sliding down the brick wall, but she is over the fence, landing softly with bent knees. Ka-chan would never be the wiser of what the girls in their class had done, beyond seeing my hair tomorrow, and I can make any excuse about that. Masoyu just stands for a moment, in the shadow of the tree, tears starting to slow, before she takes a deep breath, shakes her head, slaps her cheeks with both hands, and turns to go to the store. I need to get those chips for Ka-chan.
She is making up excuses in her head, sniffling, rubbing at her eyes, to try and reassure her mother that she is going to like short hair when she accidentally bumps into someone.
She squeaks, as she falls to the ground, and the opposite of her, he moans, something that is like the sound of a kicked dog, high and keen. It is done in obvious pain, a high, devastating sound that sounds foreign coming from what is a grown man. Eyes wide, Masoyu stares in horror as the man on the ground across from her, who starts to cough. It is spittle, vividly red, much darker than the bright shade of her sneakers, and the man, in obvious pain because of her, cannot even lift a hand to cover his mouth. He is too busy pressing his hands to his side, eyes squeezed shut as the man dribbles blood and breathes rapidly through his mouth.
His is a thin man- frightfully so, skin tight over a tall frame, withered, down in such a way that even without the blood flying from his mouth, Masoyu would have assumed he was sick. He looked like a skeleton with just skin over his bones, nose pointed, cutting cheekbones that looked unbalanced with his sharp chin, eyes a brilliant shade of blue, sunken in shadows of his orbital sockets. To make it even worse he is covered in bandages, from head to toe, white, bright against whatever amount of his tan skin that isn't black and blue. Which because of her is now turning a frightful shade of green.
Like when most things upset her, Masoyu starts to cry.
It isn't the pretty type of crying, its so close to a wail, her frightened sobs, snot leaking and her hands, scrapped and covered in dirt, coming up to cover her mouth in horror. Thin, scarily large hands, so big that the can easily curl around the entirety of Mason's face if they so wanted to, flutter uselessly around her. As she cries, she is stunned to see the hurt man leans forward, blood still dripping from his mouth, eyes, she realizes, through her blurry tears, are such a pretty color, grow wide in the shadows of his eye-sockets.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! I didn't mean to knock you down, I'm sorry-" said the man, and his voice was deep, powerfully so, strange from a man that was so thin. It washed over her in a gentle cadence, not quite sweet, but trying to be reassuring in its softness, pitched in a way that sounded remarkably unstrained for being knocked into by a nine-year-old.
But it only made Masoyu cry harder because I hurt him and he's trying to make her feel better.
"I-I'm sorry- I hurt you-" she sobs, quietly, stuttering, eyes wide, "I-I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry-"
The man frowned with his mouth hanging slightly open, his large overbite showing that his teeth are big and really white. Much to her distress, those straight teeth are coated with a thin film of red. The frown looked unpracticed- as if this slightly frightening looking man had little reason to frown. It pulled oddly at his face, making him almost frightening. She watches, blinking rapidly, as a bit of blood leaked through those large teeth. The man seems not to notice, or so, despite how recent his injuries seemed, already used to it, for he pays it no mind.
"It's okay," his voice stays that calm, gentle cadence, "It's okay, you didn't hurt me. It's okay, young lady."
"I'm sorry-"
Masoyu hiccups, shaking disbelief, watching as the skeletal man pats around the pockets of his green cargo pants. Making a noise of triumph, he takes out a large, pristine napkin, with a flourish. He then is moving toward, small, but brilliant eyes focused on her. He presses the soft, cotton handkerchief gently at the corner of her eyes. Despite the largeness of his hands, despite the fact that he had obviously been hurt by her knocking at him, and that his fingertips are trembling, his touch is infinitely gentle as he swipes at her eyes. He even presses it to her nose, and after a fraction of a second, with the man's pointed look, Masoyu blows her nose.
"You didn't hurt me," he reassures, again, "So cheer up, young lady."
Miserable, Masoyu takes the handkerchief into her hand when he presses it into it. She is sniffing and blinking at the remains of tears into her eyes. She looks up at the man, who is so tall, even kneeling on his knees as he is. She looks at the blood, still, at the corner of his mouth- he hadn't even bothered to wipe it away.
"I did hurt you," she counters, twisting the handkerchief between her hands, "And I'm sorry."
The man just stares at her, blond brows lifting slightly at her reassurance. The man lets out a sigh.
"No apologies needed, young lady."
He gives her a smile, and it looks awkward because he has enormous teeth that look odd against the sharp cut of his jaw, the sunken nature of his cheeks. But it's a nice smile, to Masoyu, something familiar to it, even if Masoyu is sure that she has never met the man in her life. And somehow, she can't help but smile back, a little twitch of her lips, but she smiles nonetheless.
"There, girls are prettier when they smile. And you have a nice smile."
Masoyu giggles, shaking her head in denial.
"Now, I must ask, young lady, are you aware that you have an enormous wad of cinnamon gum in your hair?" the question is hesitant, that lovely smile fading.
The man reaches out gently, touches the large wad of the red cinnamon flavored gum. His fingertips, broad and very warm, are pressing against her scalp as he looks over her head, twisting it from side to side. Examining the offending gum from every angle. She blinked up at him, this frightfully tall, gaunt man as he bent forward onto his knees, gingerly, careful not to move his upper body at all, but moving nonetheless to pull at the gum. It hardly moves at the gentle tug, but he does not stop. His fingers so big and long, were careful, meticulously threading through her dark green hair.
"You might have to cut it. It seems to be tangled with as many strands as possible, and your- your hair ribbon-"
"I panicked when it hit my head, I wasn't expecting it."
The man raised a scraggly blond brow. His eyes, small, thin light points of blue stared down at her. Hooded, and surrounded by deep, purple bruises, his eyes seemed to x-ray her.
"Did someone throw this at you?"
Masoyu presses her mouth into a thin line before she gives a sharp shake of her head. The man sighs, and she thinks he doesn't believe her, but he makes no comment on it.
"I'm going to try to get it out. But you still might have to cut it. It seems to be pretty in there."
Masoyu suppresses a sniff. But she sighs slightly.
"Mama is going to be so sad. She likes braiding my hair…"
The man blinked those small eyes, looking sad but impossibly bright. He is still trying to get the gum out.
"Don't you care about the fact that your hair is going to be so short because of what someone did?"
She blinked back at him.
"I like my long hair. But Mama is the one who loves it. It's mother-daughter bonding time. I would hate to take that from her."
The man stared at her, his lips twitching into that clumsy, lovely smile. It makes his almost scary sharp face softer, and something in Masoyu relaxes immediately at the sight of that smile. Like before, she cannot help but smile back, unable to shake the feeling that she has seen that smile somewhere.
"Hmm. Give me a minute."
The man continued to unstick her hair from the gum, humming in that deep voice of his before after what seemed like forever the large wad of gum sat in his even larger palm, almost the size of a baseball. It had a few stray hairs, and her scalp where it had sat felt really gross, but she wouldn't have to cut off her hair.
"T-t-thank you!"
Again, like when most things that touch her, she burst into tears. The man lifted his hands in a wild swinging, surrounding gesture.
"Whoa, I didn't mean to make you cry again-"
"I cry at everything," she sobbed, whipping furiously at her eyes, "Thank you, Mister."
"Don't forget to wash your hair tonight, extra well, okay? And be careful to clean the ribbon, that's an expensive gift."
He stands, in a gesture that is like a goodbye, and Masoyu copies him. She bows deeply in thanks, beaming, eyes still full of tears. Then she leaves, the man doing the same, going in opposite directions. Masoyu, despite the bad turn of her day, feels light, a small skip to her step as she made her way to the market.
AN:
Masoyu: Benefit to the World. I thought of being Izuka or Izumi but decided against it in the end.
My need to write this story in the first place was because of my discontent with the way Female Midoriya was being treated in fanfiction. There is a lot of good fanfictions out there with female Midoriya, but I was bothered by the fact that a lot of them hardly factored in Midoriya's change in gender. Copying and pasting every dialogue, every story beat with a few spattering of romantic ships thrown in to change up some aspects of the story. Now, I'm not going to go into the can of worms that is the homophobic trope of changing someone's gender for the comfort of the shipper. Rather instead, I wanted to confront the fact that being female would change so many things. I'm the first to say that a female can do whatever the fuck she wants, the same way that a male can, but that a female would also be treated differently no matter her own actions, and would have an initial different mindset than a male, whether she be a cis-female or a trans-female. The society that is the world of the My Hero Academia, is based on the highly structured and gendered skewed culture that is the country of Japan. My interest lies in portraying that structure in light of the other Female Midoriya fics seemed to ignore. This is not a critique on gender boundaries of Japan, but rather an acknowledgment of a different culture that I kept trying to see in other fanfictions but never found.
Happy Reading,
Moon Witch '96