A/N: HEY GUYS GUESS WHOSE BACK IT'S ME I'M ALIVE.
Also this is the official sequel to Get Well Soon, so read that (and Observance) if you haven't already.
The provisional license exam had come and gone.
Almost everyone in Class A passed, her included. It was tough doing it as first years grouped with second and third, but they all managed to get past the first round. And the two who failed the second were going to take remedial lessons (and definitely going to pass, because it was Bakugou and Todoroki, for crying out loud).
So they celebrated accordingly. Instead of cooking or eating whatever was in the fridge, they ordered pizza and chowed down. Sero threw on a movie. Satou whipped up some desserts. Everyone chatted and talked about the test and what they were going to do with their licenses now that they had them. An outside observer probably would've thought it was just a written test, with all the energy they still had.
But after an hour or two they began to trickle out. Some of them wanted to call their parents and friends outside U.A.. Others just reached the end of their second wind. The more polite stayed to clean up and put away their leftovers before heading to bed. And after the movie ended, the last remaining few got up and trudged upstairs, leaving the common area empty.
And the minuted ticked by. Everyone was back in their rooms, including Jirou. She was in her pajamas, laying on her bed and scrolling through Facebook. Her body was exhausted, but her mind hadn't caught up; so she went to her go-to time-waster. It was either that or study; and she knew what she didn't want to be doing right now.
So, phone it was.
Said phone was specially designed to have two audio jacks in it, and she had a lobe stuck in each one. The music playing didn't completely drown out the surrounding noise, but it was loud enough that she could at least ignore it. Given how it was the middle of the night, and that everyone was in bed, and that everyone the building was a teenager, there were definitely certain things that would go on that she did not need to know about. And she'd like to keep it that way.
If there was one thing she missed about living with her folks, it was the healthy layer of sound insulation in every wall and floor of the house. There was obviously the padding behind the drywall and soundboards under the floors in the dorms that let everyone live together without having to hear each other's every move, but there weren't any measures to stop her from hearing those things. U.A. knew how far her quirk reached ever since told everyone about All Might's sickness, and the buildings were only put up a few weeks ago. So it was pretty weird that they'd leave it so open: They were able to soundproof certain areas of the school now, so why not just build that soundproofing directly into the dorms as a whole?
Heck, why not just put it in her room?
There was also the fact that she was on the third floor with no one underneath her, and in the closest room to the elevator. Someone had to be the one staying in that room, obviously. And all the rooms could have just been randomly assigned. But if it was, it'd be a real coincidence that room to the one person who could hear a stranger sneak in on the first floor. Especially since it would let her take less time to get there than any of the other girls.
But, there were no intruders. And hopefully there would never be any intruders. U.A. had some of the best security in the entire country: If someone even tried to pass through the front gates they'd get chomped by the doors. And there was probably some measure to stop anyone who tried to scale or jump over the wall circling the campus. Even with the spike in crime, her and the other students were safer than ever.
Man, why was she thinking like that? Must've been the fatigue. Pretty sure she wasn't the only one whose mind went to weird places when she needed sleep.
Anyway, the only things she ever heard were the sounds of everyone's daily routines. On her side, none of the girls made much noise – something she really appreciated. Hagakure would chat with her friends from middle school. Tsuyu would check in on her siblings. Ashido would play video games (instead of studying, which made her grades no surprise). Nothing to worry about.
And the boys weren't much different. Iida would study. Kouda would play with his rabbit. Tokoyami would read or talk with his quirk. Mineta would... well... she wasn't sure, actually; his dorm was a weird dead zone and any sound that came from it was extremely muffled. She wondered what the heck he could possibly be doing in there that would have that effect.
Er- best not to think too hard about it.
But regardless, the fact of the matter is that she could listen in on pretty much everything that happened in the building if she really wanted to. And she had to take her own precautions to not hear something she shouldn't by accident. Which was kinda ridiculous considering where they were.
Also rude. They weren't in the main school building. They were home. They should be able to let their guards down without having to worry about someone potentially listening in on their every move and conversation. Kaminari was still the only one who knew just how far her hearing extended (kinda surprising, actually, given how much of a chatterbox he was), and even he didn't know she could hear them all there. She told him before the training camp incident that there were certain areas of the school she couldn't hear anymore; he probably assumed the dorms were the same way now. And she wasn't going to tell him otherwise if she could help it.
She glanced at the time. She should really stop thinking. It was already 23:27. They had to get up for the start of the new semester tomorrow and she was already gonna be tired. Better not make it any worse.
So she put the phone up on the headboard shelf.
She'd already taken a headcount, and no one left the building after.
Everyone was accounted for.
There was nothing to worry about.
She could go to sleep now.
She squeezed her eyes shut, and drifted off in a sea of melodies.
She wasn't sure how much later it was when she woke up.
Or why, for that matter. Jirou wasn't the heaviest sleeper, but she was used to the sounds people would make throughout the night. Her brain would filter it out with the rest of the ambient noise. You'd think the extra fatigue from the license exam would have her out cold.
But she wasn't. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. Her phone was still playing. She unplugged her jacks and pressed them to the wall. There had to be something out of the ordinary.
And there they were: footsteps on the first floor.
That would do it. Everyone was supposed to be on the second floor or above this late at night. They had their own bathroom. They had their own fridge. Not to mention they (her included) were all exhausted from the test today There was no reason for anyone to be down there now.
And based on the gait, their owner was... Bakugou?
...
What?
Why?
Had she missed something earlier? She vaguely remembered him sounding annoyed, but that was Bakugou – he was always annoyed, angry, irritated, or some other adjective in that general area (even if it was a little different different than normal). But she'd paid attention to the movie and conversations she was having over anyone else's. So if there was something else wrong, she didn't know about it.
The steps stopped at the front entrance. He opened it and left, shutting the door behind him.
He went down the cement steps outside, and sat on the bench next to them.
So he wanted some fresh air? Okay. Cool. Kinda weird (seeing as they all had a balcony they could easily use that for), but not the worst thing he could do.
The ding of the elevator grabbed her attention. Another pair of footsteps stepped out onto the first floor.
They belonged to... Midoriya?
Okay, now that was two people who were down there for no reason.
Midoriya walked out and shut the door behind him. He descended the steps as well, but didn't sit next Bakugou. Instead, Bakugou got up, and they began to walk away from the dorm.
What the hell?!
Jirou threw herself off the bed and stumbled out the door to her balcony, almost knocking over her drum set in the process.
Bakugou and Midoriya headed towards the main building. And a few moments later they passed behind the trees. She couldn't see them at that angle. They were out of her line of sight.
But she could hear them, at least.
"Kacchan...! How far are we going?" There wasn't anyone else outside, so it wasn't hard to make out Midoriya's voice in the open air. "We're not supposed to be out at night."
Bakugou didn't say anything.
"Hey." Midoriya tried to get his attention again.
Bakugou didn't respond.
Midoriya didn't say anything else.
Jirou considered yelling out at them and asking what the heck was going on. There had to be a reason for it. Even though they weren't sticklers for the rules, it was common sense not to just wander around in the middle of the night, even if they were staying on campus. They had a curfew – no late night strolls allowed. Couldn't they wait until tomorrow?
Actually- where were they going?
They weren't in her field of view anymore, but she could at least hear the general direction they were headed in based on their footsteps. Though that wasn't going to work once they got far-enough away. They weren't in the main building; this was open air. She wouldn't be able to sit back and passively listen in on what was going on – after a certain distance she wouldn't be able to make out what they were saying; a little more, and no more footsteps; a little more, and a light breeze would be all it took to render them essentially invisible.
So what, should she follow them? Kind of extreme; but being on the third floor would let her jump down without hurting herself, given their fall training. She could follow them out of sight easy with no one else on campus walking around. She'd have to actively stalk them, which would mean she'd have to risk getting caught by a security robots patrolling campus.
Hah. What was she, a secret agent? That would never work.
On the other hand, she could just stay at the front of the dorm building. With no one else outside and the walkways being connected, she could easily plug into the cement and follow their movements wherever they went, even if she couldn't hear what they said.
But what would even be the point? It wasn't like they were going to leave campus (she hoped – the front gate would probably stop them).
And whatever the reason was they left the dorms – to talk or train or fight or whatever; it was something so private that they would risk getting in trouble just to have no one else around. It'd probably be for the best that they didn't have anyone spying on them.
She leaned against the railing. A small breeze passed through. It felt nice, but she wasn't sure why she didn't just go back inside.
Explosions began to sound off in the distance. Probably from Bakugou. If she was right, they were at one of the training grounds – but all she could say for certain was that they weren't in or around the main building. Also that they were fighting. Because why else would Bakugou be letting explosions loose in the middle of the night.
But that scuffle wasn't what put her on edge moments later.
It was that another person left the dorms.
She honed in on the person's footsteps, but the muffling from the dirt and the echo between the buildings made it hard to tell who they came from. It was probably an adult, and probably headed to the same place Midoriya and Bakugou were at. Because they were off fighting in the dead of night outside the dorms for some reason. Which was a stupid move seeing as how there was, y'know, security (probably what tipped off the adult in the first place).
Her money was on the teacher being Aizawa-sensei. He was the homeroom teacher, so it had to be him. And if there was any chance she was gonna run over there and warn them, there wasn't anymore. Sorry guys, but she wasn't gonna risk getting caught in-person too.
Should she call one of their phones? Did they even have them? Would they answer even if they did? They seemed a bit preoccupied at the moment. And that's not even getting into the fact that whatever they were doing was private-enough to warrant going halfway across campus. And they probably didn't want anyone to know.
Especially since the likelihood that it was just Bakugou being mad that Midoriya got a license was next to nothing. He hadn't been that petty for a long time. And the more she thought about it, there more obvious it was that something had changed with him since the Kamino incident. He yelled less. He kept his anger under control. He didn't even relish his wins too much anymore. He just trained and trained and trained as if he were desperate to get stronger.
It wasn't hard to imagine why.
Midoriya was different too, but in a more subtle way that was hard to explain. He was always dedicated to getting stronger, but now there was a more frantic edge to him when he trained. And a small creeping air of anxiety hung around him. There was no more Symbol of Peace. Midoriya was too young to immediately take his place. But he was trying to get their as fast as he could, and it wasn't hard to see when you knew what to look for.
And fighting one of the strongest kids in class would be one of the best ways to do that, right?
But wasn't Bakugou was the one to call Midoriya out?
That's why Midoriya asked where they were going.
But wouldn't that mean...?
No.
She squeezed the rail.
She clenched her teeth.
This wasn't her business.
It wasn't her problem.
It would be for the best if she just went back inside and pretended she never heard anything.
And she was about to do just that when the adult's silhouette came into view.
Light from the streetlamp quickly revealed who it was.
…
All Might?
She lowered her head just below the top of the railing, and peered through the small space between it and the wall underneath.
Her brows furrowed.
This had to mean something.
All Might shouldn't be the one to go out and discipline them. It was the homeroom teacher's job. That's what the rules said. Iida read them out to everyone their first night together.
Aizawa-sensei was supposed to be the one going out there.
But he wasn't.
It was All Might.
Midoriya's mentor.
They were mentor and successor.
Now there was Bakugou.
But why Bakugou? Bakugou didn't have anything to do with this.
Sure, they were childhood friends. But he was adamant about Midoriya being quirkless.
So that meant he didn't know anything, right?
Then why was All Might going out there?
She wanted to go down and talk to him. She wanted ask what the hell was going on. This wasn't normal. Fights in the middle of the night weren't normal. Going to the other side of campus for no reason wasn't normal. Getting retrieved by someone who wasn't your homeroom teacher wasn't normal.
None of this normal.
Yet here they were.
And she wanted to know why.
But the conversation she and All Might had before flashed through her memory.
She promised she wouldn't listen around anymore, and she'd already broken her word more times than she could count since then. She kept scouting. She kept listening in on conversations. She just hadn't gotten caught.
So what would happen if she talked to him now-
All Might stopped.
Jirou's breath hitched.
He looked back in her direction.
She ducked.
The balcony was a part of her room, so she wasn't out 'past curfew'. But that didn't mean it was good to just stay up all night. Especially when they had that exam. Especially when the next semester was going to start in a matter of hours.
If she was lucky, that would be the only scolding she'd get.
Because All Might wasn't stupid.
He'd be able to put two and two together.
And they both knew she wasn't a part of this.
And they both knew it should stay that way.
She just hoped to god he didn't see her.
.
.
.
She heard footsteps. All Might had begun walking again.
Jirou let out a huge sigh of relief, and lifted her head back over the rail just in time to see him disappear into the trees like the other two did. He went down the same path towards the main building. It probably wouldn't take him too long to get there.
She used one arm as a pillow and let the other dangle out in front of her.
She could still hear the small echo of explosions.
Minutes passed. They continued on.
And then they stopped.
Well it was gonna have to at some point.
Either they finished their fight, or All Might stopped them. But regardless, it was over.
So they were going to come back.
And they'd probably see her before she saw them.
So she should make herself scarce while she still had the chance.
So she got up.
The small rush of adrenaline wore off.
She yawned.
She should go back to bed already.
So she went back inside.
And she slid the door shut behind her.
Jirou had just about fallen asleep again when the front door opened.
She unplugged one of her jacks from the phone and listened in. Only two people entered: Midoriya and Bakugou. Their steps were a lot heavier than when they left, but it was unmistakably them. All Might must've gone back to the teacher's dorm.
They made a beeline for the elevator, not stopping to do anything else on the way. Whatever they needed to leave the dorms to do, it looked like it got finished. They didn't say anything as they got onto the elevator.
Midoriya got off with a "Goodnight, Kacchan". Bakugou didn't say anything in return, but got off himself two floors later.
They both entered their respective rooms. They both got in their respective beds.
The dorm building returned to its most quiet state: Nothing but the sound of AC and everyone's snoring.
No one had entered or left besides Midoriya and Bakugou.
So now everyone was inside and accounted for. All the others were sound asleep. No one else was going to enter. No one else was going to leave.
It was a small weight off her chest she didn't even know she had, though she wasn't sure why it would be there in the first place. U.A. was probably the safest place in the country they could be right now. Even if someone decided to run laps around the outer ring of campus or sit just inside the gate for hours on end, there was no chance any villain would attack them.
The only kind of trouble they could get in was the kind they caused themselves.
And Jirou was okay with that.
–
It was the start of the next semester. Classes were gonna start up again like normal.
Midoriya and Bakugou were under house arrest. The story was that they fought for some reason, and they were caught by one of the patrol bots on campus. So now they had to spend the next couple days inside cleaning the common areas.
Fair enough. It could've been worse.
They still had minor scuffs and bruises too, though they weren't allowed to go to see Recovery Girl unless there was an emergency. Sucked to be them, though the others still wondered why they would feel the need to fight right after they had a big exam. Because of that, they'd have to miss the first few days of classes. Way to go, guys. A+ planning right there.
But it did seem to be for the best. Both Midoriya and Bakugou seemed to have a weight off their chests now. And it looks like that fight did the trick. Could it have been resolved without violence? Maybe. But there was nothing they could do about it now.
Jirou yawned. How the heck were those two were still so energetic? She didn't even fight and she was still bushed.
Everyone else (her included) went to the opening ceremony at Ground Beta. They ran in to Class B and some of the gen ed kids on the way, but nothing out of the ordinary happened; though Sero pointed out that Shinsou guy Midoriya fought in the tournament seemed different. Jirou wasn't surprised seeing as how the guy was getting one-on-one training from Aizawa-sensei of all people (she vaguely wondered how many other people knew about that).
The assembly went on like normal too. All the students stood still and silent as the principal spoke (while trying not to fall asleep, as far as Jirou was concerned).
Well- except Kaminari, who puffed the hair on the end of Ojiro's tail for some reason. The sound made her grimace – it was annoying, not to mention it was clearly making Ojiro uncomfortable. Plus they were supposed to be listening to the principal's speech (not that she could distract herself even if she wanted to).
Jirou gave him a look to cut it out. Now really wasn't the time.
Kaminari glared back.
The fluffing intensified.
God dammit.
But the speech soon ended. There was a mention of internships, which she was curious about (though it seemed to just be something they'd be doing next year). Then Hound Dog-sensei made a whole ton of growling noises as a speech of his own. Class B's homeroom teacher translated it. It was about an 'incident between two students' the night before.
Man, they were really making an example of Midoriya and Bakugou, weren't they. Didn't look like the other classes had any idea it was them, though. That was good.
And with the assembly over, they were released to head single-file to their classrooms. It was a few minutes before Class A got the chance to go. And when it was finally their turn, they passed by All Might and No. 13.
Most everyone gave their teachers a small glance in passing. Jirou let hers linger a little too long.
It was hard to believe that form really was permanent. With all his muscles gone, he looked almost like a skeleton. Most people seemed to think that his condition was a result of the Kamino fight, and apparently a few of her classmates had even asked if he was going to come out of retirement 'when he got better'. Jirou was surprised that he'd been able to keep the fact that he'd been that way for the whole school year (if not longer) hush hush.
All Might coughed. A small trail of blood escaped the corner of his mouth. He quickly wiped it away. He'd been careful to never look sick it in front of them before the incident. Now he still avoided it, but there would be covered coughs once in awhile when he thought no one was looking.
She turned her head to pay attention to whatever was in front of her. She shouldn't stare.
Kaminari looked over his shoulder and glared back at her, but didn't say anything.
It wasn't surprising: They hadn't spoken much since they all moved in the dorms together, and even then it was only when they were in a group. But while they didn't talk anymore, they had enough sense to not complain when they had assigned chores or work together in class exercises. Jirou was afraid that even a peep of argument could devolve into one of them spilling something they shouldn't. For all she knew, he felt the same way.
And they were pretty good at it as far as she was concerned: The airs of amiability they put up made it so as far as anyone knew, they were still chummy and that conversation back in the hospital hadn't happened at all.
But Kaminari was still mad, and no amount of forced cheeriness was going to hide it from her.
And it sucked. Jirou did still consider him her friend, and it didn't seem like he hated her. But he was still stuck on her knowing that something was up with All Might ahead of time; and he seemed to get that bugging her for info on the subject wasn't going to get anywhere. But the silent treatment wasn't going to work either.
She wondered how long he was gonna keep it up before finally letting it go.
Seriously, even if she wanted to, what was she even supposed to say? 'Hey Kaminari guess what All Might's gonna die and there's nothing we can do about it oh and also he gave his quirk to Midoriya don't ask how it's possible just roll with it'? No. She didn't have enough hours in a day to explain just how stupid of an idea that was. Plus it wouldn't even accomplish anything beyond stressing him out since, again, there wasn't anything anyone could do about it.
Not to mention she hadn't even told Midoriya what she knew – y'know, the guy who was at the center of all this. He got the quirk, he was the successor, and he was gonna have to deal with whatever 'being a successor' entailed after they all graduated (if not sooner). If she was going to spill to anyone, it would be him.
And she wasn't going to. It wasn't her place to do so.
Besides, they all lived on campus now, which was probably the safest place they could be. No villains, no kidnappings, no nothing. Midoriya didn't have to know, Kaminari didn't have to know, and the latter would have to deal with it.
Because things were going to be normal from now on, right?
The next morning was like any of the others.
Present Mic was teaching English. Jirou was making an effort to actually take notes. They were learning new grammar points to start off the new semester, and just because she had a knack for language didn't mean she could zone out. The tests themselves with all their weird terms were terrible. And she needed to remember what they meant and how they could change the meaning of a sentence with word order, as much as she hated learning by rote.
Well, she was trying; but her mind kept darting off to random areas of the school.
Class was going on, regardless of the department. And the morning lessons were pretty much the same for each department, if not in the same order. There wasn't really much of a point in listening on other classes' unless she really felt like it (though she had to say, the support department's math teacher made things really easy to understand; her lit notes wound up containing a few completely unrelated sample problems because of it). Sometimes kids would chat in the bathrooms or the halls, but generally she had to wait until the breaks between classes to actually hear anything new.
Instead she subconsciously honed in on the teachers and staff passing through the halls, but even they were mixed bags. After the school staff had learned 'a student' was capable of listening in on their conversations, they were careful with what they said outside the soundproofed areas at first. Nothing about grades, lessons, or other students.
Though after a few weeks, it was like they never heard it in the first place for most of them. Sure, there were certain subjects that teachers only talked about in the break room anyway (since even without Jirou listening, there was a chance that a passing student in the hall could overhear them), but small talk about their families, pets, and the like were all fair game.
Though sometimes they didn't bother waiting until they were somewhere 'safe'. Jirou was okay with that-
All Might's phone rang.
He was headed to the nurse's office from the staff room, which seemed to be a daily occurrence at this point. It was the same route he always used, and the ringtone gave him away if nothing else. Though it was weird he got a call. Anyone who needed him in school knew where he'd be, and it wasn't like he got fan-calls or the like ever. So who could it be?
He fished the phone out of his pocket and swiped the screen.
"Ah- Good morning, Tsukauchi." Huh. Tsukauchi was the detective that took everyone's statements after the USJ incident, right? Why would he be calling? "Any news?"
And it looked like All Might kept in touch with him, given that question.
All Might didn't make any attempt to get in the nurse's office before continuing. Jirou wondered if he forgot about her ability, or if maybe he just trusted her not to listen around the main building anymore.
A small pang of guilt in her twisted at that, but she didn't make any effort to focus on something else.
"We believe we've found a lead on the location of one of All-for-One's facilities. I have people looking into it as we speak."
All-for-One... That was the guy All Might fought during the Kamino tragedy.
He was in prison. It was all over the news and everything.
So why were they still investigating him? Obviously he wasn't an average villain (All Might's retirement said it all), but 'multiple facilities'? What was he, Lex Luthor? The only other people she could think of that worked to that scale were the yakuza, and even then it was only rumors.
"Any word on...?" All Might's voice didn't crack, but there was a distinct wariness in it that said he wouldn't be happy with either possibly answer.
"There's been some reported sightings of his associates, but nothing of Shigaraki himself."
Shigaraki?
She remembered that name from the USJ incident too. And that time he 'talked' to Midoriya at the mall. Him and All-for-One being connected made sense, now that she thought about it. And it explained those fluid-filled tanks Yaoyorozu mentioned seeing in one of the buildings when her group went to rescue Bakugou. Though it was weird that All Might was keeping tabs on the rest on his gang now that their leader was gone. Didn't organizations like that usually fall apart pretty quick after the kingpin got arrested?
"What about Gran Torino?"
Who?
"He's out following a lead of his own at the moment. I can take a message, if you want."
Okay so Gran Torino was one of the good guys. Probably a hero by the sound of it. She'd have to look him up later. Maybe during break.
"No, that's alright. Just give him my regards the next time you see him."
They talked for a few more minutes after that. All Might asked after Tsukauchi's department – they were all doing well, though the paperwork following the increase in crime was a nightmare. Tsukauchi asked after Midoriya (okay, so that was another person in on the All Might's Successor Conspiracy™; good to know; she should start making a list) and how All Might was doing in his retirement: All Might assured him that both he and Midoriya were doing fine, and even mentioned how proud he was that almost all the first-years managed to get their hero licenses.
It was an overall pleasant conversation. Listening in on it made Jirou feel one part calm relief, one part interest, and five parts shredding guilt for not even trying to keep her promise.
The two adults said their goodbyes. All Might ended the call with a tap. A minute later and he was in the nurse's office.
Jirou looked down at her paper. She'd stopped taking notes awhile ago.
She looked up at the board. Present Mic was already erasing it.
Great.
She grimaced. She'd have to ask someone for their notes later. Probably Yaoyorozu – she never asked why Jirou would occasionally miss whole chunks of the class notes. And she was so good at tutoring that Jirou was sure that she could come straight to U.A. as a teacher if heroing didn't work out for her (as much as Jirou didn't like thinking like that)
But regardless, there was something way more concerning on her mind now: If All Might was retired, still keeping tabs with the police on that investigation, and even getting calls from a police officer himself...
What else was there?
The next day came with the end of Midoriya's house arrest. He'd come back more energetic than ever. Maybe all that time with Bakugou rubbed off on him; he was ready to power back into their lessons and catch up so fast he might as well have never fallen behind in the first place.
And with that came with an introduction of the top 3 seniors in their school. Which was supposed to be an introduction to internships. Except instead of just talking about internships, it just wound up being a class-wide match against Togata-senpai that ended in him handing all their asses to them on a silver platter.
Fun times.
Jirou's stomach still stung; her lobes too: She actually didn't know they could stretch that far, which made it all the harder to untie them after that battle (not that Kaminari was any help; jerk). She'd have to keep that in mind for the future, plus how squishy she still seemed to be compared to everyone else (she wasn't in outright pain, but she would've gone to Recovery Girl after they were let out had anyone else decided to as well).
But it was okay. She'd probably be fine tomorrow. All she had to do was sleep it off.
Which was why she was in bed while the other girls talked about internships on the first floor.
Man. Internships.
She could probably do one if she really wanted to, but she was still on the fence about it. On one hand, she'd get to do more hands-on stuff than what she did during her field training; Destegoro really drilled in the importance of getting stronger into her, but he never let her do anything dangerous (though it was still harder than anything she did in class). On the other, she had two more years to do it. And it wasn't even mandatory. Plus she'd still have to keep up with school work. And she liked having Sundays off.
But lack of free time aside, her hero office still probably wouldn't expect her to get her hands too dirty if she went back to them (being a kid and all), but wouldn't she just get in the way if she couldn't even do that? Destegoro said heroes had practice and train constantly, but here she was just sitting on her bed doing nothing. And she pretty much never did any extra training outside of class unless there was some kind of test or event coming up.
And honestly, it was beginning to show.
Because how could she expect to do her job right if she couldn't even take a few punches and getting her ears yanked? Togata-senpai was as strong as some pro heroes and she was still a freshman, so it made sense for them to have that big of a difference in strength. But there was always a chance that the villains she'd run into would be just as strong. And she wasn't sure she'd be able to take down even those thugs from USJ on her own, much less anyone more high-profile.
And what if someone got hurt because of that? Or worse?
...
Ugh.
This wasn't getting her anywhere.
At this rate, she was gonna start thinking in circles and just stress herself out.
What she needed was sleep.
If she couldn't even do that, she might as well distract herself until she got tired.
She grabbed her phone and swiped it open. Nothing a little mindless scrolling couldn't help.
But then she heard an unfamiliar voice.
"Huh? Internship?! Who the heck is this?!"
It came from a cellphone on the second floor, most likely from Midoriya's room. It sounded like an old guy.
She really should've just ignored it, or at least forced herself to listen to music off her phone instead. But there was something about new voices in a sea of ones she knew that practically forced her eavesdrop out of habit. (Hagakure would probably freak out if she knew all the things Jirou had heard her talk about with her friends those first few nights in the dorms.)
"I was, well... wondering if you'd take me on, Gran Torino."
That name again.
"You never write, you never call. Guess you're too much of a big shot now, huh, kid?!" What was this guy, Midoriya's granddad? But he never mentioned being related to any heroes. Plus he was calling him by his hero name. Scratch that it was dumb for her to even consider it.
"Anyway, sorry. I'm working on a case. Can't help you out." That one the cop was talking to All Might about, right? Guess Midoriya didn't know anything about it.
Gran Torino continued.
"Yeah, I see how it is! You weren't scouted by anyone but me after the sports festival. You may be next in line, but you're still just a baby!"
Another successor line dropped. So this Gran Torino guy was in on it too. Just how many people were there?
"It's exactly because I'm inexperienced that I'll do whatever it takes to be the top hero." Midoriya was the successor, so it was obvious his end goal was to reach All Might's level.
Everyone in class wanted to make it big to some degree, but only Bakugou made a point of saying he was gonna make it to the top. Jirou vaguely wondered how much of Midoriya's goal to get that far was his own, and how much of it was because of the shoes he had to fill.
"No need to get all dramatic when stating the obvious." Gran Torino ended that sentence with a chuckle.
"If that's all it's about, why not have a chat with your mentor?" All Might would be the best option, wouldn't he. "He's supposedly giving it all as an educator, nowadays."
"But Aizawa-sensei told us to use out connections from the sports festival to..."
"Which is all well and good for those who've got 'em." Ouch. That had to sting. "All Might can open all sorts of doors for you." She almost expected him to leave Midoriya at that before he continued:
"Like with his former sidekick..."
Sidekick...?
He did have one a while ago, didn't he – back when Jirou was still in elementary school. He was called Sir... something. He didn't spend too much time in the limelight; and she didn't remember him getting any merch either, which was pretty weird considering whose sidekick he was.
But they split up years ago, didn't they? A few kids talked about it the day the news broke. And it was covered in all the tabloids. But after that, he completely dropped off the radar. And made no attempt to get back on.
And it was pretty weird that this old guy was the one to suggest the idea, rather that All Might himself. If Sir Whatshisface was really able to give him an internship why didn't he just do it before when they had that field training?
Did they even keep in touch? All Might wasn't the type to bad-mouth people, but he hadn't mentioned Sir once throughout the entire school year.
Actually- for being the greatest hero in Japan, he really didn't share too many stories in general. Once in awhile he'd give them a small anecdote about a time where he had an experience similar to the exercise they were learning about, but that was it. Never any of the big stuff, though.
So why would Midoriya only get his sidekick as an option now?
And the way he said it so casually – who was this guy? All Might mentioned him before. Midoriya had field training with him.
Gran Torino... That was his name, right? She opened up a new tab in her browser and typed it in. The results were all about some old movie with the same name. Nothing about the hero himself. No website or anything. Adding 'hero' to the query didn't help; that just got her info on the movie plot. Adding '-movie' didn't either; that gave her a bunch of restaurants, pictures of cars, and archived band sites from over a hundred years ago.
She grimaced.
It was going to be a long night.
The next day was by all accounts normal: Normal classes. Normal lessons. Normal break-time conversations too (though she didn't have anyone to share the school gossip with anymore). Everything fell back into routine in the new semester without any real trouble.
People trickled down to the cafeteria when the clock struck 12:30. Class A was no exception. Aoyama would usually waltz out first (being the closest to the door), and everyone else would follow at their leisure. Some would head out on their own after putting their stuff away. Others would wait for a friend or two and leave as a group. There wasn't really any rush to get down there ASAP, so it could be a couple minutes before everyone cleared out.
Jirou herself was usually one of the last ones to go. There wasn't any real reason – she just took a few extra seconds to put her stuff away and wasn't in any particular rush to stuff her face. Although now she usually left with Yaoyorozu, the latter often getting questions from a classmate or two about the lessons they had that morning. Today was no different; everyone followed their normal routine.
Though there was one exception.
Midoriya usually left with Iida, Todoroki, and maybe Uraraka; but he told them not to wait up for him this time.
He'd been antsy all morning. And then he made a beeline for the staff room. It wasn't hard to put two and two together and figure it was because of that phone conversation yesterday. His pace said it all, and so did the way he shut the door behind him.
Jirou let her focus linger around that area. It was lunch time. The teachers needed to eat too. She knew some just ate their lunch in the staff room, but others would go down to the cafeteria with the students.
And Ectoplasm did just that a minute later: He opened the door just long-enough to let her hear All Might ask where Midoriya had hear Sir Nighteye's name, though it was really muffled by the rest of the sound insulation.
And then he shut it, leaving Jirou pretty much right where she started.
Her gaze was only half focused as she and Yaoyorozu finally entered the cafeteria. Those extra couple minutes they spent in the classroom let the lines get long. A few kids like Tsuyu made their own lunch, but most of them would wait and grab one of the options the school offered; and Jirou was no exception.
So she let her body operate on autopilot and followed Yaoyorozu to the ramen line. Another couple minutes passed. No one else left the staff room. And all the noise around her now was threatening to break her concentration. Or at least give her one hell of a headache.
Lunch was probably her least-favorite part of the day, to be honest. The whole school crammed onto the first floor for it, which meant hundreds of conversations in the same room reverberating off the walls all at once. And yet she could barely make any out individually. The irony was not lost on her.
And with the passing time, more kids had their food and started conversations as they sat at the lunch tables. She furrowed her brows as the room got louder. It was hard-enough to keep an ear on an actual person with all this noise – a silent space was near impossible. Heck, the only reason she still had a fix on that one location was that she'd kept most of her mental energy on it; though at this point she wasn't even sure if she'd be able to make anything out if the door did open again.
Well, there was only one way to find out-
"Jirou-san? Are you feeling alright?"
God dammit.
She snapped back to reality. Yaoyorozu's voice had a edge of concern to it. Jirou must've had her resting bitch face on without realizing it again.
"Oh yeah I'm fine." She slapped on a sheepish smile over it, like she wasn't totally just stalking one of her classmates around the building. "Just thinking about some stuff. No biggie."
Wait. No. She didn't mean to say it like that.
"Would you like to talk about it?"
"Nah it's no big deal." Jirou scratched the back of her head. "Just trying to make sense outta that English class earlier. We're learning all those new grammar bits, y'know?"
And she just tried to use her best subject as an excuse. Real smooth.
Man, today was just great, wasn't it. She needed to get some food in her stomach and fast.
"We are learning quite a lot, aren't we." Yaoyorozu nodded and crossed her arms. Jirou's screw-up seemed to fly right over her head. Good. "Are there some points you're having trouble understanding?"
"I'm good. I'm good." Jirou shrugged. "I think I'll get it soon-enough. I just gotta memorize it all first."
She really didn't like lying, but there weren't really any other options right now.
"That's good." Yaoyorozu smiled. She didn't seem to notice. "Though if you change your mind, I'd be happy to study with you again."
"Duly noted. And I might just take you up on that offer later."
The line moved quick as usual. They got their food and moved to a pair of empty seats near the window. The places where people sat for lunch never completely set, but after a semester everyone had a general area they preferred. Yaoyorozu was one of the kids who tended to float to different tables, and Jirou followed her in turn.
Satou was at the table of the day, as well as a trio of kids Jirou was pretty sure were in the business department. There was some conversation about some power point Class 1-J had to do, about the logistics of running a hero office. Satou nodded that the seats were free – he'd probably have said it if he didn't have a mouthful of rice.
So they took them. Yaoyorozu jumped in on the bizkid conversation as soon as she had an idea of what was going on. They seemed happy to explain the the little things she didn't know about. Satou was lost, though Yaoyorozu's questions seemed to help a little. Jirou focused on her food – or that's at least what she hoped it looked like.
Try as she might, she couldn't latch back onto that thread she had earlier; there was so much noise in the cafeteria that she couldn't even focus on the hallways just outside it. She might've been able to if she hadn't been interrupted, but clawing her way back would probably be impossible without looking like she was about to murder someone.
Maybe she could if she'd sat right next to the exit, but it was too late for that.
So she slurped her ramen, and waited for the hour to end.
The rest of the day passed without anything else happening.
Most everyone went straight back to the dorms after the last class let out (Jirou was no exception), and the last few made it back in time for dinner. Then they dispersed to get their baths out of the way.
And after that, Jirou found herself in Uraraka's room with the rest of the girls. Everyone had math homework to do, and Jirou asked if Yaoyorozu was still up for tutoring while they were all bathing, which led to Ashido asking (begging) to let her come too, which turned into Hagakure asking as well, which turned into the other two getting roped in to make it a girls' night.
And since Uraraka's room was the least-cluttered out of all of theirs, the majority decided it would be the best one to use. Thankfully she didn't seem to mind not having a say in the matter.
The plan was to get their stuff done before chatting and whatnot. As fun as it would be to just sit around and put it off, that would just mean staying up later. Which meant less sleep altogether. And even if they weren't doing anything too tiring tomorrow, they were still winded from today.
So aside from the occasional question tossed around, the only sounds coming from them were breathing, pencil scratching, and the turning of textbook pages.
And Jirou wasn't any different. Normally she'd listen to music to drown out the surrounding noise, but something studying in a group let her not need to. The noises immediately around her were what she unconsciously paid attention to. Whatever the boys were doing was just background noise. She could tell there were a few conversations, but nothing was being said that caught her attention; so it all just got filtered out.
But it didn't do anything to affect her thoughts, which kept distracting her. Again.
Midoriya had run to the staff room (not weird). He was even more antsy after he got back from lunch (also not weird, given that it was Midoriya). But then he went to the nap room with Togata-senpai after class let out, and All Might had gotten there before them (okay kinda weird). Jirou didn't stick around to listen in on them, though; said room was another dead zone.
(She vaguely wondered at the time if she'd be able to hear anything if she plugged her jacks into the door.)
(It also occurred to her that she was getting kind of creepy about it.)
(Good thing no one in the school had a mind-reading quirk.)
But when Midoriya back to the dorms, he was in a noticeably better mood. It didn't take much to put two and two together and figure out he got the job: An internship with All Might's former sidekick, Sir Nighteye. Given yesterday's talk, she'd be surprised if it was anyone but him.
Which made sense. He was the successor, so he was going to be raised and treated like one. Learning from the people closest to his mentor was probably the best thing he could do. Especially since they were one ones that knew the most about his quirk. And that would let him grow as fast as he could.
Because there was a void in the world of heroes now.
That was because All Might had retired.
Which meant there was no "symbol of peace" to deter crime anymore.
The guy who was the kingpin of that whole Villain Alliance nonsense was in prison.
But Shigaraki was still free.
And the Villain Alliance still existed.
And the police were still investigating them.
To the point that All Might kept in contact with one of the officers and got updates on it.
And the hero Midoriya had done his field training with was investigating it too.
So now Midoriya was going to be interning under the only sidekick All Might ever had.
But the Villain Alliance was still a threat.
U.A. could very well get attacked again.
And that's why they kept all the students on campus as much as possible – it was the safest thing they could do.
Though they weren't in any immediate danger, to the point that no one was gonna escort Bakugou and Todoroki to their supplemental lessons. And while none of the other kids were supposed to leave during the weekdays willy nilly, the weekends were fair game so long as they told someone where they were going (and told a teacher if they weren't going to be in the surrounding area at all).
Jirou twirled a pencil between her fingers. There were a ton of gaps in her knowledge, but it couldn't be helped. She'd already decided not to go to Midoriya about it. He didn't even know about All Might's health failing. It'd stand to reason that he wouldn't know anymore than she did. And asking him about it might end in her telling him things he wasn't supposed to know yet.
And that was the worst part, really. Jirou was just a regular student with no real stake in whatever crazy conspiracy was going on. She shouldn't know any of this. Not even the teachers did. The only people on campus with more info than her were Recovery Girl and the principal. And it's not like she could just waltz into their respective offices and start asking questions about things even Mr. Successor himself wasn't aware of.
She glanced at the girls around her. Talking to her classmates would just drag them into something way over all their heads that the couldn't even do anything about. And even assuming they would all keep their lips sealed, how the hell were they supposed to prepare for something like this? Form some kind of League of Heroes™ and hope for the best? When it wasn't even a guarantee Shigaraki and his gang would rise to prominence again?
And what about All Might? He lied to her before, and doing it again was the best outcome she could expect. But she was sure if he told anyone, she'd wind up on some kind of list and be considered extra baggage for sticking her nose where it didn't belong. Because while she wasn't a useless and weak (at least, she hoped so), all it would take was one slip-up to ruin everything.
Same thing would probably happen if she went to the police. Plus she'd be interrogated and they might even think she was a villain. Or her parents too. And then if the tabloids got in on it they could say goodbye to their musical careers. God why would she even think of doing that.
Sir Nighteye too. What was she supposed to do, stalk Midoriya there and demand to get interned too? Even if somehow the stars aligned and that worked, what was she supposed to do about other people in that hero office asking questions? And how the heck was she supposed to keep up with the workload and school? There was no way she'd be able to do that.
And more importantly, there was no way she'd be able to ask any of them about that.
But what if about...
"Ah- Are you having difficulty with a problem, Jirou-san?"
Yaoyorozu snapped her out of that line of thought. Jirou looked down. She'd stopped moving her pencil mid-equation.
"Oh no sorry." Jirou slapped on a sheepish smile. "I just kinda spaced out. My bad."
She really needed to stop doing that.
And she needed to get her work done.
So she could get back to her room.
Because there was there was something else she had to check.
She got back to doing her homework, and ignored the growing pit in her stomach.
Jirou missed having Saturdays off.
But that's what you got when going to U.A., especially when you were in the hero department. They had 6 classes when the others only had to go to 4. Lucky.
Thankfully the teachers were nice enough not to assign a ton of homework on that day. After all, Sunday was their day to rest up; no one wanted to have to deal with burnout, especially when they were just freshmen. And that meant they were home free after they got out on Saturday.
So clearly lazing around in bed was the best way to use that free time.
And that's just what Jirou was doing.
The girls had already finished taking their baths. Most of the guys were done or just about done with theirs. No one made too much noise; everyone got the bath time horsing around out of their systems weeks ago. A few of them made calls their parents (Jirou had just finished one with hers).
No one had any plans to do anything tonight, even if it was the weekend. Sero was gonna pop a movie in the common area TV at 21:00, and anyone could join in if they wanted to – but that was about it. His normal crew would definitely be there. Oftentimes more than a few of their other classmates were there too – Jirou included. She on the fence about doing it this time, though. She had to get up early tomorrow.
The elevator dinged as Midoriya and Mineta got off together. They usually got off together. Probably because they lived on the same floor.
But before either of them could enter their dorms, Mineta stopped in front of his door and asked Midoriya a question:
"Oh yeah- You goin' to Yaomomo's study party tomorrow?"
There'd already been a class-wide text sent out about it, but there wasn't any pressure to RSVP. A few of the guys had caught wind of the girls' study session last night and decided they wanted in on that, so they asked (begged) Yaoyorozu to let them study with her. A few more heard about it, and at that point she figured she might as well invite everyone.
"Ah- sorry. I'm going off-campus tomorrow."
"Why?" Mineta leaned against his door. "You got some kinda hot date I don't know about?"
"No! Nothing like that!" Jirou could practically see Midoriya flailing arms. "I'm gonna be doing an internship."
Yep.
"Say what?! You're actually doing that?"
"Well... I gotta to get all the experience I can, y'know?"
"Not with the guy you went with before, I hope." Mineta huffed with exasperation. "I worry about you, you know."
"I don't think I'll have to worry about anything like running into Stain again, if that's what you mean." Midoriya chuckled, though he clearly didn't wanna go through that again. "But yeah I'm interning with someone else."
"Good." A few joints crackled as Mineta stretched his arms. "Not gonna lie, though. I'm kinda jealous."
"Couldn't you ask Mt. Lady to take you back?"
"Ugh. Don't remind me." Even a couple months later, he'd never said what had actually happened to him during his field training. Though the general consensus was that he probably deserved it.
"Well, there's always next year, right?"
"I guess. That's what everyone else's thinking."
A few more exchanges and their conversation was over. They went in their respective rooms. The elevator went back down to pick up Satou and Sero.
Jirou stuck her jacks in her phone.
Pretty much everyone in class had considered getting an internship. They'd already gotten their licenses, so it was the logical next step.
But as far as she could tell, most of them weren't going to.
And she was no exception. It was pretty much unheard of for first years to do internships – usually it was just their field training and that's it. Doing an internship meant working on top of a full course load, with no breaks in between. Seniors would have a tough time balancing them; freshmen even moreso.
Plus Aizawa said to use the contacts they all made at the sports festival, but she only had the hero she chose from that roster. Not making it to the final tournament would do that. Her parents could probably hook her up with someone good if she asked (assuming Destegoro wouldn't take her back in), but taking the easy way out wouldn't help her at all in the long run. If anything, she'd just get babied and it'd turn into a glorified field training exercise. So why bother.
Sigh.
She really shouldn't think like that. It wasn't going to get her anywhere.
She wasn't gonna do an internship and that was that. She wasn't ready for it and didn't really care too much. So why bother?
There was always next year. She could do it next year.
Not like anything was gonna happen before that.
...
And it was too late to call Destegoro, anyway.
...
And she had plans tomorrow.
…
Screw it.
She swung he legs off her bed.
It was gonna be a bit before the movie started, but she could hang out with everyone else in the meantime.
It was finally Sunday.
It was generally a time to laze and recharge, but not everyone was staying on campus. Bakugou and Todoroki left together early to go to those supplementary lessons they had. Midoriya dashed out a little while later to go to his internship. None of them were gonna have any days off for a while. Brutal.
Beyond those obvious three, there were a few others she wasn't sure about. Uraraka and Kirishima usually didn't get up that early.
And then there was Jirou herself.
As far as she was concerned, days off were days to sleep in. No reason not to when there was nothing she had to do, and living in the dorms meant there wasn't unless they'd planned it beforehand (which no one had, thank god). Sure, there was usually homework; but that could wait. If she was tired and she could help it, she'd spend an extra hour or three all comfy and snug under the covers. And she wouldn't have to think about anything else, which was pretty great.
But, sadly, today was not one of those days. She had stuff to do and she couldn't do it while laying like a lump. The blaring of the cell phone's alarm in her ear was the sign to roll out of bed and get up, as much as she wanted to hit snooze.
So she did a few stretches and threw on something casual yet presentable: Just some black shorts and a purple top. Something she could hit the town with, but versatile enough that she could go talk to someone or even just lounge around the house in – not that it was a big deal what she wore today; she doubted anyone would actually care, and her U.A. wardrobe was pretty casual. It probably wouldn't get her any comments or misread intentions.
Then she grabbed her phone off the bed and swiped it open to her email – she'd messaged Aizawa-sensei before she went to bed last night to say she was going home for the day. A simple 'okay' sat in her inbox with no other questions, so she was in the clear there. If things went south, and least no one could place any blame on him for what he knew.
Then she moved onto her texts. There was one more person she had to tell.
Yo prez fyi I'm gonna be at my parents' place til tomorrow
He didn't hover over everyone's shoulder, but Iida was usually the first to notice if someone was missing. She noticed he'd always take a quiet headcount during dinner, and ask where any missing persons were if it wasn't something they all knew about beforehand (like that time Tokoyami got stuck on the school roof). No reason to make him worry if she could help it.
Her phone buzzed a few seconds later.
Thank you, Jirou-kun. Have a safe trip.
And after him, there wasn't anyone else she needed to tell. She already called her parents last night, so no need to text them or anything before she got home. As far as they knew, she was going to be 'going out with friends' and coming home that evening. Hopefully Mom didn't notice anything off about her voice. She was good at catching things like that, but didn't say anything. Jirou didn't know whether to feel relieved or guilty at that. Because she really didn't like lying to them.
She grabbed her bag before she could trail down that line of thought any further and left the room. The first floor was a quick elevator ride away, and she got off just as Kirishima and Tokoyami were about to get on the one for the boys' side.
"Hey Jirou!" Kirishima gave a small wave. Tokoyami gave a small nod.
"Hey guys." She gave him and Tokoyami a small wave in return. Those two got on their elevator while she headed into the common area.
The first floor was almost empty. Most everyone was still in their rooms: Some asleep, some awake – Tsuyu and Uraraka were the only ones together in one, though. She vaguely wondered what they were up to, but she knew she shouldn't pry.
But in the common area itself, there were only two others. Mineta sat at one of the tables with a bowl of cereal. Kaminari sat across from him with a juice box, scrolling through his phone with his free hand.
Mineta looked up at her.
"Hey Jirou, you're coming to Yaomomo's study party, right?"
"Oh uh- not this time, sorry." The sudden question stopped her in her tracks, but she was careful not to let it change her expression. "I got plans." She caught herself before she added any unnecessary info. No need to try and sound suspicious first thing in the morning.
"What, you're going for an internship too?" Haha. No.
"Nah, just going back to my parents house." She chose not to point out annoyance in his tone. Just how many people did he think were going for them? "I was helping them out with a project before – might as well finish up my part while I still have the time."
Well, sorta. She did help her parents with their music occasionally. And they'd probably have a jam session at some point when she was with them. It just wasn't the only other thing she would be doing. Which no one else had to know. Because there were way too many ways that could go wrong.
Also, way to add an unnecessary explanation right after concluding that was a bad idea. She mentally facepalmed. Way to go, her.
"'Kay. See you tomorrow." Mineta just shrugged and lazily waved his spoon at her. They weren't really friends, and didn't talk too much. He wasn't going to press the issue.
So she was in the clear there. Good.
"See ya." She gave a small wave back and glanced at Kaminari.
He gave her a flat look in return.
But he didn't say anything, thankfully. They hadn't truly spoken one-on-one since he visited her in the hospital, and it looked like he wasn't gonna try and break that streak now. Instead he just sat with his arms crossed. Which she wasn't going to ask about. Because she had plans and the train wasn't gonna wait for her.
Though even if she wasn't busy, she wasn't going to be the one to try and start a conversation if he was going to keep being so moody whenever she was around.
So instead she walked to the exit without saying anything more, and pretended that she didn't feel his eyes follow her out the front door.
And she pretended she didn't hear the morse tapped out behind her:
L-I-A-R.
It didn't take too long to get to the train station.
She made the trek every day back when she commuted; and she already missed it, to be honest. The weather was nice and the sky clear. The air was warm, but not muggy like it was a month ago. Even if she was alone, she could just doze off and let her body go on autopilot without a care in the world. Maybe grab some coffee and a bagel if she felt like it. She hadn't eaten anything before she left the dorms. There was a Starbucks a few blocks down; she could stop by and grab something on the way.
By all accounts it could just be another lazy weekend. The town itself had a lot to do in it – she could just wander around and go home after if she really wanted to. The mall was freakin' huge, and she could window shop in it alone for hours – especially since she hadn't done that since she went with everyone else when they were stocking up on stuff pre-training camp.
Or she could go back to the dorm, grab her acoustic guitar, and busk in a nearby park. Or she could wander and try and find some interesting new place she hadn't been before. Or she could camp villain hotspots and watch heroes do their thing. A whole day could be filled with plenty of new things leftover. All she had to do was go anywhere but the station.
But she didn't.
She walked up the steps and headed inside. Most people used their phones to get on the train now. It was easy enough to hold it over the sensor at the ticket gate going in, and then doing it again on the way out: It would automatically charge the ticket to her account, which was obviously a lot quicker than going through this whole process. She could just leave this machine and call it a day.
The downside was that if she used her phone to get in, or even used her card to buy the ticket, the charge on her account would always both the starting point and destination. Her parents were chill and didn't touch her finances beyond giving her an allowance, but she had to play it safe. It was bad-enough that she lied to them about where she was going – she didn't want to know what would happen if they found out what she was doing.
She looked at the map above the ticket machine. There were multiple different lines running through the station, including both the one used to get home and the one to Yamanashi. They weren't in completely opposite directions. She'd take the Chuo line to get to her destination. And the Fuefuki line would let her go straight home after she was done. Easy as pie.
She tapped the "purchase ticket" button on the right side of the screen, then tapped the other buttons as needed: More than 1490¥. 1850¥. Die a little inside (not a button). She hadn't done this in awhile; usually she just showed her phone and passing through in a few seconds. The last time was because she left her phone at home and it was either use this machine or be late for class; and she knew which option would get her in trouble.
This ticket cost around the same as it would've cost to go straight home without a JR account – a little less, actually. All she had to do now was put in the cash to pay for it.
She fished her wallet out of her bag, but paused as she took out the change. Nothing was forcing her to do this. She could just go back and start over. Or she could even cancel the transaction entirely and use her phone to get through and go home and everyone would be none the wiser. Maybe she could call some friends from middle school and hang out. That would make a lot more sense. She would at least know what she was doing then. And she could go about her day like she wasn't just enacting the most least-thought-out plan ever.
But she didn't.
She stuck in the cash to pay. A small paper ticket popped out. Her change dropped into the well below it. She grabbed both.
The card had the date, origin station, and ticket price on it. All correct. The change was the right amount and went right back in her wallet. And as far as she knew, she hadn't forgotten anything. And it wasn't like she could go back now that she'd paid.
So she headed straight to the turnstile.
The ticket went in the slot. The little arrow in front of it lit up. She passed through and grabbed the ticket on the other side. Now it was just a matter of getting to the right platform. Just follow the arrows. The station was pretty big, but it shouldn't be too hard to find.
Though to be fair, she didn't have to take that train. The line that would take her home went through this station too. She could go on that one instead and use one of the fare adjustment machines after and be just fine.
Her parents wouldn't mind her coming home early. If anything, they'd probably be happy to spend more time with their little girl (as much as she hated it when they called her that). They could have jam session or go see a movie or even just talk about school and what it's like living on her own so far away from them and it would be fine. There wouldn't be anything wrong with that. Heck, it might even be better since it would mean she hadn't blatantly lied to everyone.
But she didn't.
She went down the stairs. A sign hung above the designated platform, the time of arrival displayed on the LED screen. She made it with plenty of time to spare. And there was next to no chance that the train was going to be late (unless a there was a hero fight in the way or someone threw themselves in front of it). She just had to wait.
And as she waited, she texted a girl from middle school she knew that had an apartment in Yamanashi. Maybe they could hang out after Jirou finished her business or something. Socializing was always fun, and the girl was fairly down-to-earth like her – she wasn't the type to make a big deal out of being friends with someone going to U.A.. They could just chill and window shop around the Aeon Mall and grab lunch or something.
After that she just scrolled through her phone. She browsed a random news article. Some guy with a water quirk was apparently using it to poach an endangered species of fish in Fukuoka. The Luminescent Hero Nightlight caught him in the act and apprehended him with little resistance (aside from taking a fish to the face, said fish promptly being released back into the lake). Another was on the reconstruction efforts in Kamino. Another on the spike in crime following All Might's retirement. But nothing on any major incidents or disasters.
She checked the time. The train home would be arriving in a few minutes. She could walk over to its platform wait for it instead. It wouldn't take too long. She could make it if she really wanted to.
There wasn't anything stopping her: The girl hadn't responded yet. She wasn't Iida, so it would make sense for her to take more than a few minutes. Jirou could just say that something came up or that she had some plan she forgot about. It'd be a dick move, but at least there wasn't anything set in stone yet. She could just cancel and bail and go home. Or hell, she could just go back to campus and cut her losses and forget she ever had this stupid idea.
But she didn't.
The train rolled up on time. The doors opened and people began filing off. It would be a few seconds before she could get on, but thankfully neither the train nor the station itself seemed to busy. She slipped her phone into her pocket.
Passengers stopped exiting. The people on the platform with her started entering. She went with them, and sat in one of the empty seats in the middle of the car. There were few-enough people that no one had to stand if they didn't want to. A man pulled out a book and began to read. A few others took out their phones and began browsing.
No one started any conversations, which was normal. Jirou took out her phone again. No response.
Her free hand clenched at her knee.
It wasn't too late to get off.
She could leave and make a mad dash for the other platform.
And maybe she could still make it.
Her parents would be fine with it.
The girl never responded.
Jirou didn't have to do this.
She still had time.
She could still stop it.
She could still leave.
What was she even thinking this was the worst idea she'd ever had.
She had to go.
She had to leave.
She had to
had to
had to
HAD TO
HAD TO.
...
But she didn't.
And the doors closed.
It was the weekend, but lots of hero offices were still open.
She could only hope that this guy's was too. A vague map to it was the only thing she could find – no hours or even a phone number. And even then it was in a single archived thread on an obscure, hole-in-the-wall hero forum discussing All Might's 'final battle' right after it happened, rather than anything official. And even then it was just a guy talking about some dude he saw that looked just like him going in and out of a certain building. Not even having a website was unheard of these days. Not having a google-able office address or even a phone number even moreso.
But even if the office was closed, there would at least be a sheet listing when he'd be in, right? She could just write down those numbers and find a time that worked for her. Or call. Or just send an email if that was on it. Time wasn't of the essence. He'd still be there later.
Though that was assuming it was even the right place. And that it was even an office. And that he'd even be there at all.
…
God, what was she doing?
It was too late to go straight back to her parents' house. She got a response to her invitation. She and the girl were set to meet at the mall, and she wasn't just going to up and cancel when she was already all the way out there. That wasn't the kind of dick move she'd pull on someone without a real good reason.
Well, she could just turn back at go to the mall early.
And find something to do.
Get a latte and some lunch.
Go to a bookstore.
Window-shop.
Try on clothes.
Anything.
And waste more time on those instead of doing anything productive.
She'd already doomed her one day off that week to being over an hour away from her family, classmates, and anyone else she was really close with. Why not just dick around and do whatever?
It wasn't like anyone would know her original plan if she went off and did something else instead.
But she didn't.
She arrived at her destination.
...At least, that's what the map on her phone said. What stood in front of her was a dilapidated four-story building that looked like it hadn't been used in years.
She looked at her phone, then back at the building, then back at her phone, then back at the building.
…
What?
Was this really the right place? The map said it was, but the state of the structure said otherwise. The welcome sign over the doors was tilted. Only a few windows had a complete set of glass panes. Heck, the entire thing had construction blockades surrounding it aside from the front door itself. All that stuff made it stand out from the much cleaner buildings surrounding it. This wasn't even a bad neighborhood – shouldn't there be some zoning ordinance for this kind of thing?
She couldn't imagine an actual hero office being located in there. Even the ones that were struggling put in enough maintenance to keep their buildings welcoming to the general public. This just screamed 'crack den full of squatters that refuse to pay rent'. It was hard to believe anyone legit would operate in this amount of disrepair.
But... well... this was it. She had no other lead. She only had one map to a single place, and this was it. If it wasn't the right one, she'd have hit a dead end.
An ounce of relief crept along the pit in her stomach among the annoyance. If there was nothing here, there was nothing more she could do. If there was nothing more she could do, she could resign herself to doing nothing and at least have an excuse for it, which is what she should've done in the first place. She had nothing to do with it. It wasn't her business. She could keep telling herself that and it would be true. Because all she could do was sit on the side and do nothing.
But if this was the right place...
If her gut was right...
...
She'd... play it by ear.
There was a lone piece of paper taped to the right of the double doors, and from a distance it looked to be the contact info she hoped for. But upon closer inspection it looked to just be some flier for some local event that happened months ago. And she reeeeeeally doubted the contact info on it was what she was looking for. Though it was kinda weird seeing that much age on the paper – usually people took them down as soon as they noticed them.
Also she could see graffiti now that she was beyond those outside borders. And that obviously wasn't gonna help. Beyond maybe giving the indications that no one was in there. Because removing spray paint was just a matter of cleaning it or painting over it. At a glance it was "obviously" abandoned.
But inside the building itself? There was the buzz of electricity, the hum of a microwave, and various noises coming from a single person inside. She'd pressed a jack against the door before she'd realized it; even without going directly inside, it wasn't hard to tell that it wasn't a normal hero office (if the state of the exterior wasn't enough of an indication).
But the important thing was that someone was there.
So should she just charge in then?
…
Yeah no that was a terrible idea.
She glanced around. There wasn't a doorbell or anything she could ring.
She'd have to knock then.
So she did. The door creaked slightly.
A minute passed. No one came.
"Hello?"
No answer.
…
Would taking a little look hurt?
She wrapped her fingers around the door handle. Maybe it would be fine if she just pushed it a little and peeked. No one would notice, right? There wasn't even a latch. She could probably just pretend it was the wind or something no harm no foul.
And she was just about to try when footsteps came towards the door.
She jumped back.
The door cracked open a few moments later. In the opened space was a little old man in a hero costume.
"Hah? Who're you?"
A little old senile man in a hero costume, from the looks of it. He seemed entirely harmless standing in front of her like that. Like he was wearing that suit just for kicks.
But he did resemble the guy she saw in that Kamino footage. And there weren't too many old timer heroes with bright yellow scarves out there.
Well, only one way to know for sure.
"Gran Torino?"
He stared for a moment.
"Wat? I'm not a girl."
Okay. So it was him.
"Oh no- My name's Kyouka Jirou."
"And what, yer' here to sell cookies?" He tilted his head to the side. "I'm more of a taiyaki man, myself!"
A grain of apprehension leaked into his voice.
Jirou shook her head.
"No, I'm here because I go to U.A. with Midoriya."
He blinked. She continued.
"Fluffy green hair? Freckles? Yea big?" She shook her hand flat a few centimeters above her head. "You know, the guy who had field training with you?"
His eyes narrowed, and his tone changed in an instant.
"I already told the kid I wasn't taking him in again." He glared. "So whaddaya want."
Warning bells went off in her head. The guy may have acted like a senile old fart not even two minutes ago, but a chill she hadn't felt since the USJ incident ran down her spine.
"If... it's not too much trouble," she broke eye contact and looked to the side, but it didn't make her feel any less sick to her stomach, "I'd like to ask a few questions about him."
"Ask'im yerself."
She probably should've, but she didn't. And she wasn't going to. Midoriya didn't want anyone to know about his quirk. All Might didn't want him to know about Shigaraki's investigation. And yet Jirou knew about both while the former two remained unaware.
And she was going to keep it that way. They all lived on campus together. They all had to see each other every day. All those secrets were secrets for a reason. They weren't shared for a reason. And Jirou was no exception to that 'don't tell anyone' rule. At best, her telling them what she knew would end in getting told to stay out of it for her own good – at worst it would make them paranoid, which could impact their judgment at the worst possible moment and end in someone getting killed if the gravity of all this was as big as she imagined.
Going to any of the other U.A. staff was a terrible idea for the same reason (on top of Recovery Girl and the principal seemingly being the only others who knew about the successor bit): The teachers definitely knew about All Might's true form, but there had to be a reason they were being kept out of the loop. Going to the police would be even worse; All Might may have a friend in there, but that didn't mean the whole department knew.
That's why going to someone in the loop, but off-campus and away from the authorities was the best idea – it was the only one that had a decent chance of turning out okay for everyone involved. Gran Torino already knew about All Might and Midoriya being his successor, so he obviously knew not to tell anyone. And since they were alone and there was no one else there, there was no way anyone else could listen in on their conversation. And if he decided not to share anything, that would be it. No awkwardness with All Might or Midoriya, no interrogation by the police. She could just go about her day after and pretend nothing happened.
At least, that's what her logic dictated at the time.
Now she wasn't so sure.
Actually, she really wasn't sure.
Seriously, this guy didn't know her.
He just knew she somehow managed to find him. When it was clear he didn't want to be found.
And now she was asking questions about a kid that trained under him when said kid lived in the same building as her.
Why wouldn't that be taken as suspicious?
...
But he was giving her an out, right?
She could leave.
She could do something else.
Anything else.
Screw her instincts.
She wasn't a part of this.
She wasn't supposed to be a part of this.
Trying to act like she was would hurt more than it could ever help.
Why couldn't she just get that?!
All she had to do was go.
Just go.
Just go.
Just go
just go justgo
justgojustgojustgojustgo
justgojustgojustgojustgojustgojustgojustgojustgojustgojustgojustgoJUSTGO.
GO.
She clenched her fist.
"...It's about his quirk."
JUST GO.
Gran Torino's voice gained an extra edge to it.
"And?"
DON'T DO THIS.
She gulped.
"And... how he got it."
…
..
.
Time stopped.
.
Gran Torino's expression didn't change.
.
But his eyes alone threatened to slice her in two.
.
Jirou tried to stay still.
.
But her heart was ready to burst.
.
He knew.
.
There wasn't anything she could say to take that back.
.
So now what?
.
He didn't say anything.
.
Neither did she.
.
They were at a standstill.
.
She didn't know what to do.
.
She didn't know what she could do.
.
But what little reason she had left in her told her to leave.
.
Just go.
.
RUN.
.
She took a step back.
.
The tension in the air vanished all at once.
Gran Torino sighed and took a step back himself.
"Come in."
He opened the door the rest of the way. Jirou hesitated before going inside.
Huh.
That was weird.
The room didn't look a thing like she expected.
Actually, it looked more like-
The door slammed shut behind her.
She whipped back.
A cold pit dropped in her stomach.
Gran Torino's eyes locked with hers.
"Alright, kid. What do you know."
A/N: To... BE CONTINUED!
Help I got too into research and made up a new rail line to make things work.
Though one neat thing I did realize is that there's no shinkansen line that goes North-South from Yamanashi into Shizuoka (or vice versa) even though Deku said it took 45 minutes to get to Gran Torino's place using one. Now it's 4 in the morning and I'm wondering about changes in the MHA verse's rail system.
I also didn't mean for it to turn into a fic following canon from her perspective, but I guess that's what I get for taking so long haha.