Two more well-received rounds and they were released from their responsibilities. Having successfully completed their commitment for the festival with impressed remarks from Mr. Aizawa, they quickly cleaned up anything that couldn't wait til the next day and ran off to change into their regular clothes. The jeans and panda sweatshirt felt lush on Kairi's body after wearing the uncomfortably clingy dress for several hours. Grateful to be wearing shoes she could move in, she hummed quietly as she removed every pin from the top of her head. The blue strip fell back in place and her core purred at the soothing familiarity. Shaking her hair loose, the curls still remained and she simply shrugged at remaining make-up around her eyes. There was something exciting about her appearance even if she usually didn't wear so much, and she left it. Finally, after being one of the last to leave the locker room, she met up with her friends and walked alongside them down the hall.
"Excuse me, Kairi, where did Lady Thorncott go?" Uraraka greeted happily. "She seems to have disappeared!"
"Hardy har!" Kairi snorted, rolling her eyes at the cheesy remark.
"Why don't we get some food first?" suggested Izuku, and the others seemed to be in agreement.
"That seems as if it went well for the most part!" Iida declared proudly. "Good job to the amazing effort you all put in!"
"What was happening in the middle there?" Momo thought to ask, peering around Yuga to ask Kairi. She stiffened and turned her gaaze away, focusing on the long hall ahead of them. The silence offered no answers, so Shoto stepped in.
"One of the guests said something that upset her," he said. "That's all."
"I just hate it when parents treat their children as if they're nothing but figures for them to play with. Doesn't matter how much money you make," she grumbled. Shoto pursed his lips.
"Some parents just shouldn't be parents, ribbit," Tsu acknowledged, patting Kairi's back. She turned to smile her thanks at Tsu, just as they left the school entrance and the courtyard opened to a row of various food vendors and booths featuring games. Deciding the shake off the incident, the group gathered around neighboring food stalls and tried an assortment of dumplings and meat skewers, noodle bowls, desserts, and rice rolls. Kairi was halfway through a chicken skewer when Momo jerked her towards a ring toss booth, begging her to try her hand at it.
"You seriously want me to do this?" she half-laughed, smiling through her doubt. The rings hung loosely from her fingers as she stared at them incredulously.
"Come on, you're good at angles and physics!" she urged, pleading.
"Yeah, when it comes to me, myself, and I!" she scoffed. "Because I can predict myself but not a plastic ring that's going to catch on this slight wind!"
"Just see what happens!" She rolled her eyes and flung the first ring. It bounced off the neck of a side bottle and almost decapitated the stuffed bear hanging from the top of the booth. After displaying her best "I told you so" expression, she continued – one ring fell in between bottles, and the third one impressively bounced off five before landing at her feet.
"Yep, you're pretty terrible," Shoto smirked, rolling his eyes. He leaned forward and grabbed the rings from the booth attendee. With assured flair, he tossed each ring one by one – and each ring landed around a bottle neck in a perfect straight line. Kairi blinked, awe freezing her. Still proudly grinning, he pointed to one of the plush animals hanging down, and the booth manager gave him a new cuddly green friend.
"Okay, you clearly cheated," she accused, placing her hands firmly against her hips.
"Takes a cheater to know a cheater, right, Lady Thorncott?" Kairi gasped, staring wildly.
"Does that mean you admit to cheating?!"
"You'll have to do your own investigation, I suppose." Winking uncharacteristically, he moved along, seeking out the next booths. Kairi slammed her foot against the ground before running after him as the group continued along, seeking for their next destination. Uraraka pointed to something up ahead and Izuku nodded, the two of them moving farther down the path.
"We're going to go on ahead!" Izuku called behind them, waving to the group. "We want to see what's further on." Uraraka pulled on his arm and he followed, a dopey wide smile stretching across his face.
"How long do you think it will be before she's captivated in his embrace?" Yuga whispered, keeping his voice low so only Momo and Kairi could hear it. Momo reddened and eyes widened the size of her shocked round lips. Kairi rolled her eyes again but couldn't keep the mischievous smile from growing.
"By the way, here," Shoto said, passing the green plush to Kairi. "I know you like stuffed animals. I have no need for it.'
Her chest swelled, pattering and thundering unpredictably with the otherwise simple gesture. Passing over the animal into her hands tickled through her skin and flowed up her arms. Heat streamed over her cheeks, her heart spinning with euphoria. Startled eyes met with his soft ones – but there was a flicker of mischief in them, followed by a devilish grin. A smile that while it was meant to be playful, stopped her soul.
Then she looked down at the plush animal in her hands and was about ready to toss it away.
It was a goddamn teddy bear.
"You picked this one on purpose!" she accused, throwing it back at him.
"Hey, don't reject my gift!" he laughed, cowering under her attack. Their friends surrounding them created an orchestra with the cacophany of their laughter. Kairi shook her head. Shoto gently picked up the bear again and turned it back over. "Truly though, go ahead and keep it. It doesn't quite fit with my style." She warmed again and clutched it close to her chest.
"Look!" Iida gasped excitedly, pointing to a large banner that listed a schedule for each room and booth. "There's a random trivia game happening in 1-C this year, and it starts in fifteen minutes!" Kairi attempted a grin, joining in with the half-hearted fake exclamations. He huffed and folded his arms in front of his chest. "Yes, I know not a single one of you are enthusiastic but I think it's fascinating! I think I'm going to try and see if I can win it!"
"Good luck," Kairi offered, hugging the neck of the teddy bear.
"I suppose, I should go and make sure he actually has some competition to go up against," Momo said with a cheeky smile. She waved to the diminishing group as she ran to catch up with Iida. Shoto and Kairi were left alone with Yuga and Tsu.
"Looks like there were two maid cafes and one butler café this year," Tsu said. "That's less than there were last year."
"Guess we all know where Mineta decided to spend his time," Kairi groaned, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "Ooh! 3-B is putting on a small play and it starts soon!"
"Oooh, the theatre! What a marvelous choice!" Yuga said, posing as much dramatics in his response as he possibly could manage. "What play is it?"
"A Hero's Dilemma," Tsu read. "Isn't that the classic tragedy from about two hundred years ago?"
"Where he has to choose between the love of his life and saving a whole town?" Kairi nodded. "It's quite painful, yeah. The second act is really heart-wrenching. I've never seen the actual play but I remember when we had to read it in Literature last year and the terrible film adaptation with the strange ending."
"It was tragique in a rather different way," Yuga bemoaned.
"I would be interested in seeing that. It will be nice to just sit down for an hour. We've been on our feet since early this morning, ribbit," Tsu said.
"Agreed. I think we could all relax for a bit," Shoto said. "Then, to 3-B."
"That is unless, you two had something you would rather do by yourselves?" Yuga offered, looking expectantly between the two of them with wriest of smiles. Perplexed, Kairi's brow wrinkled in its center. There was a knowing gaze in Yuga, but she couldn't translate it. Instead, she looked over at Shoto, then back to her other friend, shrugging her shoulders. Shoto, however, had been a bright pink.
"N-no, we're fine, I think. This is what we want to do."
"Was there something you would rather do?" Kairi asked honestly.
"Ribbit...," Tsu groaned, shaking her head. "The play is fine." Together, the four of them remained close and weaved through the trail back towards the school. Clattering their conversations together, they ascended the steps to the correct floor and found 3-B's room was almost brimming with attendees. Finding four spots in the center, they weaved their way in. Before the curtain rise, nearly every chair had been filled. It seemed to be a rather popular attraction for the school. Lights lowered in the room and the hushed talk fell silent. As the half-practiced music chimed, that was when Kairi had become aware to the intensity of Shoto's body heat pressing against her own shoulder. She gulped, forcing weighted breaths to not appear too heavy as her abdomen rolled with pulsing anxiety. Her skin bit at her, hairs along her arm tickled with rising apprehension. Thanks to her, the tension in the room rose as the emotion on stage rose. Thankfully, perhaps they wouldn't notice the change in atmosphere was because of her, and instead would attribute it to the show.
It was hard to focus on the plot, even though she knew it. In order to cram as many people in as possible, the chairs were pushed close together and it had forced her to squish up against Shoto. Yuga was sitting on the other side of, but his touch didn't burn like Shoto's did. Any movement would cause her insides to rile and wail, so she remained stiff. The back of her hand unintentionally brushed against the pants on his thigh and she kept her right hand clinging to the bear he had given her. Obviously, he had given her the bear because it had become a little joke between them – if they sold funnels, he would have given her that. It was a silly joke that friends shared. There was no other meaning behind it, of course. And she liked stuffed animals. Friends do that, she said to herself again.
Despite how little she focused, the play moved on quickly anyway. They had attempted to abridge a usual two and a half hour play into one hour and act one was already finished, which meant they removed some of the more emotional aspects of the show. Act one ended with the hero choosing to let his love die because he believed the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few. Act two, however, was him trying to deal with the aftermath of it all and if he had made the right decision, and debating if it was something he should do again. And of course, as most recent productions did, the hero was modeled after a young All Might.
Thankfully, the soft hum of Kairi's phone snapped her from her distracted thinking. Desperate for something to turn away her thoughts, she fished it out, seeing a message from moment – and it halted every frantic rush that was currently playing in her. Momo had sent her a very startling message.
I don't know if it means anything, but it's interesting at the very least. Iida and I just finished a round (he won, but BY A HAIR) and I overheard something pretty diabolical. Some guy here was talking about QuirKey and how he thought about being a test subject. Iida and I both heard him say he pulled out of it because he didn't like some of the fine print, but before he finished the process he went through some potential quirk matches for him. He said that there was one that he wished he could have tried because of all the possibilities it could have of getting others to listen to him (I'm unsure if he meant this in a negative way.) He said it was emotional manipulation by one's own emotions. -Momo
Kairi immediately jagged Shoto in the side to get his attention, and then passed over the phone to him. As he read through the long text, his eyes slowly grew.
"This is beginning to be suspicious..." he said lowly against her ear. She shuddered, feeling a shot of tingles crawl down her spine. "Wasn't the first subject a girl with ice powers?"
"And the second had explosions..." Kairi said.
"This morning that woman talked about a quirk that was like Momo's, and then..."
"Emotional manipulation." The play was gone from their minds completely. A new message blinked across Kairi's screen, expressing the same thing they were thinking.
Don't these quirks sound like ours? -Momo
Shoto nodded and gestured. Kairi turned and leaned over to Yuga.
"I think we're going to enjoy the rest of the festival alone," she told them quietly.
"Oh?" Yuga said, followed by an assuming smile. "Have fun then!"
"We'll catch up with you later then," Tsu agreed, and moved ther legs so the two of them could slip out. Kairi apologized as they hurried past and they slipped from the room. The door behind them slowly closed itself and the two of them quickened their pace through the hallway.
"So, what are we doing about this?" Shoto asked as they hurried past a crowd. The hallways were becoming increasingly more crowded as the day wore on. Kairi flipped inside at the sight of bodies pushing past them. She gulped and shook her head. Focus, don't worry about the people.
"Why do all these quirks sound like ours?" Kairi questioned allowed, typing furiously against the screen on her phone. "Am I being paranoid?"
"Class 2-A has been renown for having some remarkable quirks. UA is one of the best hero schools, it doesn't surprise me they would scout us out," Shoto explained.
"But how? Have they just studied us and somehow replicated that?"
"If that's the case, they're not doing anything wrong," Shoto sighed. "But even so, I still question the ethics and the science of what they are doing. And what are the potential consequences?" Kairi scrolled through the list, scoffing at finding nothing. A person brushed beside her, shoving her into a wall. She hissed as her form clamped, stiffening from the surprise closeness. Instinctively, Shoto shot out his arm and clung to her tightly, catching her before she stumbled. Fire rose through her currents, shooting up to her neck. She reddened and quickly turned away.
"I... there's nothing... I can't find anything! I mean, my searching abilities are limited to social media pages for QuirKey and web searches, I don't have the resources my dad has!" she blurted. Desperation throttled her spirit. Mind furiously moved on and padded firstly, darting in and out of every crevice in her thoughts.
"Could he? Maybe we could ask him." She shook her head.
"He already checked them out. If I ask him again he would say I'm just being paranoid." She tapped at another user's page, groaning when there was nothing. "Is this all a big coincidence? I don't want someone to have my quirk or have the access to it but I have never heard of anyone having one like mine. If somehow... Or that is to say... So if they... um..." Her sentences were growing disconnected as she continued to zip. The spaces couldn't fill. Holes and blackness broke away every ounce of sense and while everything was a messy whirlwind, all that could be felt was the throb of panic in her brain. Her chest tightened and she gulped for air. Shaking, Kairi stumbled in her steps. Shoto gripped her arm, helping her stand.
Then everything burst as she fell on one picture on one account. Hidden beneath everything else, and hiding under the small follower account, was one user. Tweets were few and replies even less. Most were retweets regarding QuirKey Industries and people's excitement for the project. But the picture was of a man in a white coat. A kind man with greying hair and young eyes.
The same man who had administered her the mandatory vaccine several months prior.
ARCH TIME! I've been planning this arch since like the story's conception so I am very very excited!