"Stare."
Silence."Stare."
Silence."Stare."
I groaned and closed my notebook. I whipped my head towards my neighbor and glared daggers at her. She had been staring at me since I came into class this morning. What was her deal?!
My glare had no effect and she continued to stare at me. "Is there something you want or are you just staring at me for no reason?"
"Yeah."
"Which one is it?"
She shrugged and I was left with nothing. No reason for her staring. No answer to my question. Nothing. Every conversation I had with her gave me a headache.
I decided to ignore her and turned to face the front of the classroom. The person who sat in front of me was grinning like an idiot at me. He had blonde hair with black lightning bolt shaped strokes. His golden eyes had a mischievous glint in them.
"You need something?" I asked him, a bit of anger tinged on the edge of my voice. What was with that grin?
"Your name is Shimura right?"
"Yes. Is that all?"
"Geez you're acting like you don't want to talk with me."
"I'm not acting." I said with a serious tone.
"So cold." He put his fist over his chest like he was shot. His gaze shifted beside me towards Yamazaki. "You know she's staring at you right?"
I nodded with a defeated look on my face and he laughed.
"Why the look? A bit shy around the ladies?" He asked with an impish grin.
I suddenly formed a devious plan in my head and I asked him for his name. His expression never changed, as though he thought I was trying to change the subject. "Denki Kaminari. Nice try but my question still stands."
I looked over at Yamazaki and motioned towards Kaminari. "Hey Yamazaki. Have you met Kaminari yet?" Her bored gaze moved towards Kaminari and her flat expression still didn't change. She looked at him for a few seconds before looking back to me. Her facial expression never changed as she pointed towards him.
"He looks dumb." She said flatly.
That's exactly what I expected from you Yamazaki. Thank you.
I laughed as he fell over in his desk. He got back up with a hurt look on his face. "I understand now, Shimura."
"Its no prob, Kaminari. It's just nice to know that she doesn't just treat me like that."
"So what's the story behind the staring?"
I was about to say that I didn't know before Yamazaki spoke up. "Shimura is my first."
Kaminari's brain imploded at that moment. I choked on air and I waved my hands in front of myself. "I-I-I haven't done anything like that." I turned towards Yamazaki. "What are you talking about?!"
"Shimura-kun is my first boyfriend." She said flatly.
"Since when?!" I realized we were making a scene in the back of the classroom, and the rest of the class was staring at us. I lowered my voice. "Since when?"
"Yesterday at lunch, we became friends. You're the first boy who has ever been my friend."
My heartbeat slowed down as I realized what she was talking about. She just thought I was a friend and didn't word it correctly. Now that I thought about it, I should have known that's what she meant. I doubt Yamazaki would ever have any interest in romance.
Still, it's nice to have a friend, even if she's kind of strange.
I sighed. "
A look flashed through her eyes, it was something I'd never seen before. Curiosity? Hope? Gas? I couldn't tell what it was since it disappeared as soon as it appeared. "You found my note right?"
I nodded and pulled out my phone. I scrolled down to her contact and showed her name in my phone. The shadow of a grin appeared on her face (a sight that was sort of cute) before quickly going back to her flat expression. "No emoticons?"
"Geez! You don't give me a break do ya?" I said before I put a cat face beside her name. I showed it to her and she nodded like she approved of it. I put my phone away and put the side of my head in the palm of my hand. "You were cute for a second there. You should smile more often."
She turned away from me towards her notebook and started to scribble something. Maybe she just remembered something and needed to write it down.
I turned back towards Kaminari and saw that he was slumped in his desk. If this were an anime, steam would be coming from the sides of his head. I knocked on the top of his head. "Hey, get up."
He shook his head and sat up. He saw me and looked at me in awe. "You've already managed to get with one of the babes in our class. All the way." He bowed. "You must teach me your methods, Sensei."
"Listen closely, Kaminari." I grabbed his shoulders and looked him in the eyes. I explained the entire situation and he had an amused look on his face.
"So you've been friend zoned, eh? It's a sad thing Shimura. I'll keep you in my thoughts and hope that you can climb out of that trap."
I sweatdropped. "Are girls all that you think about?"
"Only eighty percent of the time I'm thinking about girls." He said with a smug grin, like he was bragging.
"Is it just me or is that something you shouldn't brag about?"
He laughed. "Y'know Shimura you just might do."
I hated to ask. "Do for what?"
"To become my apprentice in the ways of getting women." He struck a ridiculous pose with his arms.
"You were just asking to be my student! What kind of 180 is that!?"
Little did I know that this indiotic conversation would spark a lifelong friendship with one of the most hopeless guys I'd ever met.
The rest of the day went by rather uneventfully, until Foundational Hero Studies Class. "I am here!" A muscular blonde haired man in a suit yelled as he walked through the door.
"All Might?!"
"Wow! It's All Might!"
"Thats UA for ya. Having the elite teach the new elite heroes."
All Might gave a hearty laugh. "Yes it is I students! Fear not for I am here to teach you!" He pulled a remote from his suit and pressed a button. Multiple slides came out of the side of the room with our names on each individual one. "Your hero costumes are in there. They say that the costume makes the hero, I hope you prove that theory true. Put them on and meet my in the practice yard where you were yesterday."
My heartbeat was fast as I grabbed my costume and ran to the locker room. I had been waiting for this forever and I couldn't wait. I threw on my costume and looked in the mirror at myself.
I was in a suit of dark green plate armor that had the appearance of a traditional samurai armor. A small, dark green, metal mask came up over my nose, leaving my eyes and hair exposed. My katana was sheathed inside of the scabbard at my side. I pulled it from the scabbard. I sweatdropped when I saw that the blade was wood. I could understand the reason, I mean I had never used a sword before (I couldn't afford kendo lessons) and I would probably play around with it and cut an arm of or something (which wouldn't even be that bad since I could grow it back.)
Behind me I heard a snicker, I turned around to see Bakugo in his costume. I couldn't explain the appearance of his costume if I wanted to except for the grenade like gauntlets on his wrists. They looked ridiculous but I was sure they had some sort of function. Maybe they blew his arms off. I had no idea.
"I wouldn't be laughing if I were you. Even if it's wood, I still have a weapon in my hand."
He crossed his arms and sneered. "I'm not scared of you. I don't think you even know how to use that thing."
I rolled my eyes and turned my back to walk away from him. "Oi!" He growled from behind me.
"What?!" I snapped back, never looking back to face him.
"Don't get in my way, extra. I will become the number one. No matter what."
I chuckled and faced him with a determined look on my face. "I'm not here to be the best of the best. I'm here to save people. Not like you would understand though."
I shook my head and gave him a look of disgust. "You were probably popular due to your quirk and everyone probably told you that you'd be the best of the best. Your the total opposite of what I went through, not that you would understand."
"I have no delusions of being the best person here but I will be the best hero I can be. Remember that next time you say you're the best." He said nothing back, I had left him speechless. I turned my back to him and walked out.
From the practice field, All Might led us to a building in one of the mock cities and started to split us up into teams. I ended up with Yamazaki but there were an uneven number of teams so All Might had to think of a way for us to be tested. He sat there for a few minutes trying to think of something before I spoke up. "Sensei, just have us 1v1 or put each of us on another team and make it a 3v3."
He scratched his chin before he jumped up and exclaimed. "I know. I'll put each of you on a team and have two three person teams."
That's exactly what I just said.
I turned to Yamazaki. She was wearing some sort of black spandex body suit. It had a hood that was hanging behind her head. Maybe it was to hide her hair? It was a simple costume and I was so curious about the hood I almost didn't register what I saw when I glanced at her body. By all accounts she was flawless: modest bust, a fit body, and a nice waist. In that moment I realized one thing, the school uniforms hid the girl's figures from us guys. How unfair is this world?!
I'm starting to sound like Kaminari. I listened to twenty minutes of him going on about girls, no wonder I'm like this.
I averted my eyes from what was clearly in front of me, smiled, and rubbed the back of my neck. "I'm sorry. It seems like we'll be fighting eachother instead of with eachother."
She shook her head. "No, it's a good opportunity."
That's about what I expected. Two days and I'd already given up on ever getting a straight answer from this girl. I decided to ignore it. "Same to you."
"Here are your assigned groups!" All Might pushed two students towards each of us. On my side was Uraraka and Midoriya and on Yamazaki's side was Bakugo and Iida. This was going to be an interesting battle.
The rules were simple. One team was heroes, the others were villains. The goal of the heroes was to touch the paper mache bomb or tie up the villains with tape. The goal of the villains was to keep the heroes away from the bomb until time was up or tie up the heroes.
I was on the hero team and was currently outside of the building stretching my arms and legs. Midoriya was currently muttering to himself, something about Bakugo coming straight for him and formulating a plan. Uraraka was staring at the building with a concentrated look. Her hero costume was a skin tight body suit, which did very little to hide her nice figure. I had to force myself to look away, I couldn't be distracted at a time like this. This test was important and I needed to concentrate.
"The heroes can now enter the building!" All Might yelled into the earpieces we were all wearing. "Good luck everyone! Plus Ultra!"
We ran into the building and were immediately ambushed by Bakugo. "Come here Deku, you bastard! Show me that quirk of yours!" He yelled as explosions propelled him forwards.
"I knew this would happen." He muttered before turning to us. "You guys go ahead! I'll keep him busy down here. You just go upstairs and find the bomb." We both nodded and Midoriya put up his fists and got into a fighting stance.
Uraraka and I ran up the stairs and went to checking the rooms within the building. I could hear explosions going off below and the building was shaking. Hopefully Midoriya could handle Bakugo. I poked my head into a room that looked empty and a foot narrowly missed my face. "Holy Crap!" I yelled as I jumped backwards into the wall of the hallway.
Yamazaki dropped down from the ceiling and removed her hood. Her hair came cascading down, a sight that I would've thought was beautiful, if she didn't nearly kick my head into the hall.
"I missed. That's never happened before." She said in what I guessed was a surprised tone. It was hard to tell since there wasn't much of a difference from her usual tone.
That sounded scary as hell. "What do you mean you've never missed before?! And how were you hanging onto the ceiling?!"
"My quirk is called Wild Cat." She said flatly as the tips of her fingers turned to claws. She started to list what her quirk does. "Claws, heightened senses, increased agility and flexibility, and lighter bones for increased stealth capabilities. My heightened senses, partnered with my martial arts training make my sneak attacks full proof."
She stared down at her claws. "How come I missed that attack?"
"I guess I got lucky." I chuckled. "Wish I would've asked about your quirk before now. I would've been more careful."
I rushed at her and tried to grab her arm. My hand almost grasped her arm then she gripped onto my arm. A glint flashed in her eyes and she flipped me over her head. She slammed me onto my back and knocked the breath out of me.
She's so fast. I didn't even see what she did. She wasn't bluffing about having martial arts training.
She put her foot on my chest and pressed down to pin me in that position. "I was expecting more." Her flat tone had a hint of disappointment in it.
Don't underestimate me Yamazaki! I may not have any training like you, but I have the pain of all I've gone through. I'm not going to be put out of commission so easily.
She started to bend down to bind me with capture tape. She let her foot up slightly and I immediately pushed her legs out from under her. She realized what I was doing and she jumped back away from me. I had superior strength compared to her and she knew if I got a grip on her, she would be finished. I heard Midoriya and Uraraka talking in my ear, but I ignored them and focused on Yamazaki.
I rushed at her, trying to grab her. She nimbly dodged my hands and continued to hit me with fast counter attacks as she flipped away. It was no good, I needed to get her completely on offense if I'm going to get her. I rushed and made a reckless grab for her again, hoping to bait her into a stronger counter attack. She flipped back and her foot came up to hit me in the chest.
I grinned as I dodged beside her foot and she kept coming towards me. She came just close enough for me to grab her arm and pull her closer. Her eyes widened as my fingers grazed her arm, before I felt a sharp blow hit the back of my neck. I fell down face first onto the floor and laid there, defeated.
At that moment, the building shook violently and wind started to blow through the building. Light flooded through a hole the ceiling and concrete started to fall through the hole. My brain couldn't process what happened for a second, before my brain landed on the only explanation of the hole.
Midoriya.
"Bomb retrieved!" I heard Uraraka squeal in my ear. I sighed with relief and got up off the ground. We had won.
I groaned and turned onto my back. "Jeez, Yamazaki. Did you have to hit so hard?"
"I was a villain." She said in a flat tone. I looked over to see her collapsed on the floor a few feet away. All that dodging must've made her pretty tired.
"Point taken." I put my arm over my eyes, putting me in complete darkness. "Still, I never thought that you would be trained that well. How did you even hit me in the neck back there?"
"Flexibility. It's the first thing any martial artist trains themselves in."
"Well it's a nice trick."
I started to get up and muttered so only I could hear. "If only I had money. I could learn at a dojo and become a much more formidable opponent."
Her face appeared suddenly over my face stopping me in my tracks. Her nose was inches away from mine. "What the-"
"Meet me at the gate after school. Sensei told me to bring strong people to him if they needed training."
My face started to burn. I knew she was just following her teachers instructions to tell me (albeit in such a personal space invading way) but I really wasn't used to anyone being in such close proximity to me, unless I was in a fight. "Uh okay? I guess?"
After two train rides and a short walk, we arrived at a small rundown brick building with a sign that said dojo over the door. Yamazaki kept walking past it and towards the door of the two story building beside it. I could see an assortment of baked goods in the windows that made up the front of the building. I guessed it was a bakery.
I pointed back towards the dojo. "Um, isn't this the dojo?"
She turned towards me and nodded her head. "Yeah. I want to say hi to my parents first." She pointed towards the sign next to the door of the bakery which read "Yamazaki's Baked Goods."
I should've looked around before asking. I looked like a complete idiot. "Okay, lead the way then."
We walked through the door and she yelled into the bakery. "I'm home!"
A tall man, that I guessed was Ami's father, came through the door in the back of the bakery. He was bald with a well groomed brown beard covering his face. He was rather muscular and looked more like a boxer or athlete than someone who would be running a bakery. Other than his out of place build, he looked completely ordinary. He had a huge grin on his face as he saw Ami.
"Welcome back! Have a good day at-" He stopped talking as soon as he saw me and his eye started twitching. I immediately started to worry for my safety and felt my heart rate accelerate.
"Is Ami home?" I heard a feminine voice say from behind him. A small girl with white cat ears and black hair came from behind the man. She was almost identical to Ami, expect for the color of her hair, ears, and her being a few inches shorter than Ami.
Maybe she's Yamazaki's little sister?
Her smile was warm and made me feel safer than when she wasn't here. Their dad didn't seem as scary since she came in. "Ami's home and she brought home a friend. That's great!"
I bowed to them. "Nice to meet you, my name is Kenta Shimura."
"Nice to meet you, Shimura-kun. I'm Tomoko Yamazaki and this is my husband."
"Shouhei Yamazaki." The bearded man replied stiffly. They both bowed and I stared at them in confusion.
She giggled. "I'm not as young as I look, if that's what you're thinking."
Mr. Yamazaki's brow furrowed. "And I'm not as old as I look, but you weren't thinking that were you."
Geez this dude is scary.
Ami decided at this point to speak up and save me. "Is uncle home?"
Mr. Yamazaki stroked his beard and nodded. "I've heard crashes from the dojo for about an hour now so he should be back." He looked at me and a sadistic grin came across his face. "Be sure to knock before you open the door, last time I opened the door without knocking I ended up with a metal rod being surgically imbedded in my leg."
I gulped. I couldn't tell if he was trying to intimidate me or if he was really serious. I didn't want to find out either way. "Thank you for the warning, sir."
Yamazaki led me into the back of the shop, through a large kitchen with multiple ovens, and to a door with a huge sign that read "KNOCK!!!"
He wasn't just intimidating me, you need to knock or your life will be in danger! What sort of guy is this uncle?!
Yamazaki completely ignored the sign and opened the door. Did she not care about her safety or was she confident that she could take on whatever attacked her? She walked a couple steps in before dodging something, which looked like a blur to me. I poked my head in and saw Yamazaki dodging and flipping as the blur continued to attack her. Suddenly Yamazaki was thrown back and she fell on the ground. I saw the blur slow down until it became a man. The man's black hair was in a buzz cut and he had no facial hair. He had blue eyes that seemed murky and were seemingly staring at nothing. My mind immediately came to the conclusion that he was blind. He started to talk to Yamazaki. "You managed to dodge for almost thirty seconds that time. Keep that up and you'll get to thirty-one in no time."
His head turned my way and he clicked his tongue a couple times. He stayed still for a second before rushing at me. Of course all I could see was a blur, fearing for my life, I activated my quirk and moved to the side. I felt the wind from the blow fly past my head. I could see him a bit more clearly now but he was still super fast. He continued to throw blows at me and I continued to dodge for a few more seconds until his leg came up and hit me in the side.
I could tell that he had held back his strength as I fell backwards onto my back. He stopped moving and stared at me. "Seven seconds on the first go. You've got a pretty good quirk and a good eye if you were able to dodge for that long. You've got potential but I have one question for you."
He made two finger guns and pointed them into the empty air. "Someone you love and a random stranger are held at gunpoint by a villain. As a hero, it would be your duty to put the safety of civilians above your own feelings. Who would you save?"
This question felt like every choice you made was wrong there had to be some answer. I looked over to Yamazaki and she was staring at me, waiting for what my answer would be. I thought about it and I didn't want anyone to die. I wanted to save everyone and keep everyone safe. Nobody deserves to lose someone they care about, I learned that the hard way.
I pushed myself off the ground and dusted my pants off. I looked at Yamazaki's uncle and rushed at him with my fists balled up. "I'd find a way to save both of them!"
He grinned and became a blur again. This time I was trying to hit him while he was dodging. He continued to dodge my hits for twenty straight minutes until I fell onto the floor gasping for air. He slowed down and kneeled down so he was face to face with me. "You'll never be able to save both of them with your skill." He stood up and offered his hand. "But with my training combined your quirk, you might just have a chance to save them both. That is, if you can keep up with me?"
I took his hand and nodded. "Of course, Sensei. I'll try my best."
"That's what I expect from all of my students. Our session today is over, I'm headed over to see if muscle for brains is making dinner."
I could hear Mr. Yamazaki yelling from next door. "I heard that, you blind bastard!"
Sensei laughed and opened the door to the kitchen. "Come on now! That's no way to talk to the disabled!" He yelled as he walked through the door.
I turned to Yamazaki and rubbed the back of my neck. "This was fun but I've gotta go on home." I grabbed my bag and started to open the door of the dojo. "Have a nice evening."
"You sure you don't want to have dinner with us?" She said with a sad look in her eyes. Maybe she really wanted to have me over for dinner? If I had told Sister Gertrude about me going someplace this evening it would've been a different story, but at this point she would be chewing me out enough for not coming straight home.
I shook my head. "They're probably worried about me so I should get going. See you tomorrow, Ami-chan."
She smiled after I said her name. I hadn't ever seen her smile before, but now that I had it was a sight I wanted to see more. She looked even more beautiful when she smiled. She waved goodbye and I walked out of the dojo.
I didn't know what was up with me but there was one thing I did know. As I stared at the orange sunset, knowing that it was only the second most beautiful thing I had seen that day.
A/N: I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far. This story has ten favorites and fourteen follows so it makes me feel good to have that much feedback. If you guys find anything wrong with my writing be sure to tell me about it so I can fix it.
