The walk to school the following week was a pleasant one as Natsumi thought back on the events of the week prior. Her internship with Hawks had started out pretty shaky and disappointing, the Number Three Hero having blatantly expressed that he had no interest in taking part molding the younger generations of Heroes. He had admitted that he basically sent in his request for her and Tokoyami so he could satiate his own curious mind and learn more about the League of Villains.
Her lips pulled back into a frown at the thought, she had felt so humiliated and angry over the admission made by the flighty blonde. Thankfully, I am a master negotiator, her lips twitched into a small smirk.
After the night of the Nomu attack, the rest of the internship had passed without much incident. She and Tokoyami would train from morning to late afternoon, then in the evening Hawks would come and collect the two for a patrol around the city.
Her control over water had gotten a little better with all the practice she was getting, it still was absolutely nowhere near the level of control she had over her ice, but she was getting there and she was proud of herself nonetheless.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket and she quickly dug it out, her lips tugged into a grin as she stared down at her lockscreen. On the last day of the internship she had asked Hawks if she could take a picture of him for her obsessed friend, instead of allowing her to take a quick snap of him he had quickly pulled her and Tokoyami to him, using one of his arms to snap a selfie of all three.
The picture depicted a mildly surprised Tokoyami who's eyes were a little wide, Hawks in the middle with a big cheesy grin and his arms slung around the shoulders of his interns to keep them in place and pressed up against him. Natsumi was on the right side, her cheek smushed up against the Winged Hero's with a bright grin of her own.
It was probably her favorite photo that she had even been in and had immediately become the lock screen on her phone.
Natsumi tapped her phone's password in to unlock it and read the text message she had just received, rolling her eyes.
Mina: Hey girl~! Can't wait to hear allllll about your time with Hawks! You better spill all those juicy little details girl, I'm serious! You owe me since you never sent me that pic I asked for D:
The ivory haired teen let out a quiet laugh, she had decided she'd show her friend the photo in person so she could see her expression. Natsumi enjoyed keeping Mina waiting in suspense, barely giving her any details about what was happening while she was away on her internship other than what she divulged in the group chat—which wasn't much to begin with.
She made it to Yūei shortly after, exchanging her boots for her school shoes at her locker before making her way up to her classroom. Natsumi was eager to see her classmates again, it had been a long week away and, while she didn't want to admit it out loud, she had dearly missed each and every one of them. Even Mineta, though admittedly not as much as the rest of the class.
Once making it to class, Natsumi slid into her seat and turned towards the aisle to face her seat mate, a pleasant smile pulling at her lips, "I see you made it back in one piece."
He quirked a brow, tilting his head towards her with a slight upturn of his lips, "I could say the same about you."
She let out a quiet huff, rolling her eyes, "You act as if all I do is get into trouble."
Todoroki scoffed in a teasing manner, "Don't you, though?"
"Todoroki Shouto, you wound me with your hurtful words." Natsumi let out a gasp, placing her hand over her heart.
"Should've thought about that before you became the resident troublemaker."
"Whoa, whoa. Wait a minute here. Have you forgotten about Midoriya-kun, because he tends to get himself involved with way more shit than I do." At the mention of his name, the mossy haired freckled boy glanced up from his conversation with Ochako and Iida and offered the ivory haired girl a smile before turning back to his friends.
"That's debatable." Todoroki smirked.
She narrowed her eyes, "Why you little—"
The sound of Ashido squealing excitedly caused Natsumi to pause and glance over to the pink haired girl who was fawning over the rest of the girls in their class. A bright grin split Ashido's lips a part, "What~?! You got to fight villains? I'm so jealous!"
Jirou frowned, absently twirling one of her ear-jacks around her index finger, "I just helped people evacuate and did logistical support, so I didn't do any actual fighting."
Ashido laid her palms flat against Tsu's desk and leaned forward, "It's still really cool, though!"
Tsu tapped her index finger against her lips as she thought back on her own internship, "All I did was train and go on patrols, too. Though, there was that one time when we caught smugglers from a neighboring country."
Ashido and Jirou's eyes simultaneously widened at the implication of their sweet friend going up against real life bad guys out on the open sea.
"That's crazy!" Jirou stared at her frog-like friend incredulously.
Tsu turned in her seat, a curious smile playing on her lips, "What about you, Ochako-chan? How was your week?"
The brunette stared off into the distance, as if she were in a trance, while slowly punching the air, "It was very informative."
"Ochako-chan has awakened, huh?" Tsu tilted her head.
"She went to that battle hero's agency, didn't she?" Jirou wondered out loud.
Natsumi perked up, deciding to interject right then and there, her lips pulled back into a competitive grin, "We should spar sometime, I'd love to see all the fun new tricks you learned under Gunhead!"
"Think you can handle these guns?" Ochako giggled, flexing her arms to show off her newly forming arm muscles.
Kaminari quirked a brow, his bottom seated against his desk top while his legs hung over the sides, despite Iida's scolding against such behavior, "That's a pretty big change for just one week…"
Mineta sat atop the desk in front of the blonde, his body turned sideways to make conversing easier on the two, "Change? That's not it, Kaminari." Suddenly the boy's demeanor did a complete 180 from the jovial, teasing expression he had previously donned to one of abject horror as he anxiously chewed on the skin around his finger nails all the while mumbling, "Women are all demons. They're just hiding their true personalities."
"What the hell did you see at Mt. Lady's?!" Kaminari's eyes widened as he took in the change in his friend's countenance. In an effort to lighten the mood, he reached forward and pulled Mineta's hand away from his mouth to keep him from biting his nails, "I was kinda fawned over and had a really good time to be honest with you. But, the ones that changed the most, or at least went through the most were you guys, right?" He glanced over right as Midoriya and Iida crowded around Todoroki's desk to talk to him. The three boys in question peered up at him with varying expressions of unease.
"That's right!" Sero chimed in, "You guys went against the Hero Killer!"
"I'm glad you guys made it out alive, seriously." Kirishima smiled softly.
Suddenly, nearly everyone in the class began to crowd around the three boys, all sharing curious looks. It was Satou who spoke next, arms crossed over his chest as he leaned forward, "I heard it was Endeavor who came to your rescue, right?"
"That's amazing! As expected of the Number Two hero!" Hagakure gushed appreciatively.
Todoroki bit the inside of his cheek, silently fighting back the urge to correct his classmates and reveal the truth of that fateful encounter to them. But the memory of their conversation with the Chief of Police replayed in his mind. His gaze fell to his desk top in quiet resignation before he brought his stare back up to peer at his curious classmates, "Yeah. He saved us."
Kaminari then tilted his head towards the girl sitting beside Todoroki, "I also heard that Natsu-chan and Tokoyami fought some pretty tough foes too, almost identical to that one from USJ! Man, I'm definitely not jealous of you guys, I'm glad my internship was relatively easy-going."
Natsumi exchanged a glance with Tokoyami from across the room, before turning back to the expectant stares of her classmates, automatically feeling uneasy as their attention now turned to her thanks to Kaminari.
"Yeah, those Nomu were no joke." She laughed quietly, doing her best to hide her discomfort, "We're just lucky that Hawks and the other Pros were there."
"What?! Don't downplay our part in the fight! We totally kicked ass." Dark Shadow peered out of his hiding spot, placing his shadowed hands upon his hips as he called her out.
Tokoyami massaged his temples with his fingers, letting out an exasperated sigh as he quietly fought with Dark Shadow over the matter. The two bickered back and forth for a couple of minutes before the creature let out an overdramatic huff and disappeared once more.
"I saw on the new that the Hero Killer Stain was connected with the League of Villains, which means that both attacks weren't a mere coincidence." Ojiro brought up, he tapped his index finger against his chin as he began to speak his thoughts, "Though, I just can't seem to figure out the connection between Hosu and Fukuoka. I get why they choice Hosu, that was because of Stain and his pattern of attack, but what was the significance in choosing to attack Fukuoka, a city on the opposite end of the country?"
"I know, right? I'll never understand the reasoning behind villain attacks." Hagakure sighed, "Though, the thought of Stain working with the League of Villains has my mind jumping back to the USJ attack. I just keep imagining how much scarier it would've been if he had been there." She shuddered at the thought, her voice wavering.
Kaminari stepped forward, one hand shoved deep into his pants pocket while he waved the other around for emphasis, "He is scary, but did you guys see the video?"
Ojiro tilted his head, "Video? You mean the one of the hero killer?"
"Yeah! Seeing that, you can really see how he's single-minded and pretty tenacious when it comes to defending his own ideals. Doesn't it almost make you think he's cool?" The electrifying blonde cocked his head, raising a curious brow at his classmates.
"Kaminari-kun!" Midoriya whispered harshly, worrying his lip while sliding his gaze, not so subtly, over to Iida who was standing beside him.
Catching on to the warning, Kaminari faltered, bringing his hand up to cover his mouth as if to prevent anymore unintentionally offensive words from spilling out, "Oh, Iida—sorry!"
Iida shook his head, quietly tearing his eyes away from the frantic and apologetic stare of Kaminari. Slowly, he brought his left arm out in front of his chest, eyes locked on his clenched fist, "No, it's fine. It's true that he was tenacious and it's easy to see how people could find him to be cool. But he chose to purge the world of Heroes as a result of his beliefs. No matter what he thinks, that part is definitely wrong. In order to keep anyone else from turning out like me, I will once again walk the path to becoming a Hero!" He ended his speech with a flourish, a determined fire burning passionately behind his dark eyes.
Those closest to him began to cheer and offer praise, moved by his powerful speech. Iida waved away their apologies for momentarily finding the hero killer to be cool, the bespectacled boy then strongly urged his classmates to return to their previous conversations and prepare for class to commence soon.
Kirishima and Sero suddenly pushed themselves away from their seats with a burst of energy that should have been illegal at such an early hour of the day. They crowded around the doorframe, laughing hysterically at the figure who had yet to make it fully into the room for the rest of the class to see what was causing the two boys to lose their minds.
"S-seriously, Bakugou!?" Sero was in tears, unable to keep his voice steady as the words tumbled out in a hysterical stutter.
"W-what h-happened, bro?" Kirishima was also having a hard time keeping it together, his lips spread apart in a wide, toothy grin as tears freely fell from the corners of his eyes.
An irritated snarl rumbled from deep within the chest of the blonde pushing his way through the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest, carmine eyes narrowed in a glare, "Stop laughing! My hair's gotten used to being styled this way, I can't get it to go back even after washing it."
As Bakugou stomped farther inside, the rest of the class got a good look at his new hair style, many of them doing their best to contain their amused giggles while some could not contain themselves. Bakugou's normally wild and unkempt head of ash blonde spikes had been tamed, brushed and slicked down with gel and hair product.
"Oh my god. Happy birthday to me!" Natsumi choked on her own laughter, quickly digging through her bag to pull out her phone, holding it up and snapping several photos of Bakugou in rapid succession.
Todoroki tore his eyes away from the scene at the front of the room, glancing over at his seat mate, "It's your birthday?"
She grinned, tilting her head over her shoulder at him, "Close enough."
Carmine eyes snapped up, meeting amused ruby red. A growl ripped through his throat as he stalked forward, "You got a death wish, princess? You better delete those."
A loud bark of laughter escaped her, nimble fingers typed quickly against her digital keyboard for a moment before she looked up at the fuming blonde, a taunting smirk pulling at her lips. Moments later several 'dings' and loud vibrations were heard around the classroom, half of the class reached for their phones out of curiosity while the rest of the students kept their eyes trained on the two hotheads.
Kaminari was the first to check his phone, immediately falling out of his seat in a fit of giggles, "Thanks Natsu-chan! This is going to be my new wallpaper!" He flashed the photo of Bakugou to those who were sitting closest to him, his lips pulled back into a wide grin.
"I'll fucking kill you!" He growled, launching himself forward.
Natsumi couldn't control her own bouts of laughter as she leapt up from her seat, her feet planted firmly against her chair as she leaned back as far as she could without completely toppling over herself. Bakugou leaned forward across her desk, his fingers stretching to snatch her phone from her, intent on smashing it despite the fact that the damage was already done and the entire class already had a copy of his embarrassing photo. But, he was angry and petty and would stop at nothing to get her back.
She knew she wouldn't be able to hold out for too long, being that his body was much longer than her's was and all he had to do was just lean a little more towards her and he'd have her right where he needed her to be. Natsumi couldn't pull back any farther without falling completely out of her seat, her back was already bent at an uncomfortable angle over the back of her chair and hovering in the air.
His lips twisted into a feral smirk as his fingers curled around her wrist, the one that held the cell phone just out of his reach, "You lose, snowflake."
The smaller teen let out a surprised yelp from the contact, she unintentionally scooted backwards to attempt to put some distance between the two of them, only to realize that there was nothing behind her to hold her body up. A loud screech tumbled past her parted lips as she fell backwards, Bakugou still clutching tightly to her wrist was pulled along for the ride.
Time seemed to stop altogether as the two fell unceremoniously to the floor behind her desk, all chatter and noise around them abruptly ended, all eyes were now focused on the two teens.
Natsumi grunted from the impact of her back hitting the tiled floor, her eyes wide as she stared up at the explosive blonde straddling her, his hand still firmly wrapped around her wrist and holding it above her head, restraining her. Bakugou also donned a surprised look in place of his usual angry scowl, the gears in his head slowly turning, coming back to life after a few quiet, tense moments of silence where the two teens just stared up at each other in shocked horror.
It was the click of photo being taken that finally snapped the two out of their horrified trance.
"Oi, Dunce-Face, I'll fucking kill you." Bakugou growled, shooting the electrifying blonde a seething glare.
Kaminari's lips pulled back into a cheeky grin, "Sorry, dude. But I needed to commemorate the moment."
Bakugou was back to his feet in a flash, his previous goal of smashing Natsumi's phone pushed to the far side of his mind, "Commemorate what, volts for brains?"
Ashido giggled and sing-songed, "The day you fell in love with Natsu-chan~!"
Natsumi pulled herself to her feet and blanched at the thought, making an exaggerated gagging noise, before turning her gaze towards her pink friend. A disappointed pout tugged her bottom lip forward, "Mina-chan I thought we were friends, why have you betrayed me?"
The pink haired teen frowned, "Oh, don't be like that Natsu-chan, you know I love you! Consider this payback for not getting me a cute pic of Hawks!"
The ivory haired teen groaned, begrudgingly holding out her phone and showing the other girl her lock screen.
Ashido's eyes widened and she emitted a high-pitched squeal, fingers darted out to grasp the phone and pull it towards herself so she could examine every detail of the photo of Hawks, Natsumi, and Tokoyami.
"Girl this is so damn cute, I can't handle it!"
Natsumi rolled her eyes, "Glad you think so." Though she was still sore about the fact that Mina had plotted against her to goad Kaminari into taking that embarrassing photo of her and Bakugou.
Kaminari let out a nervous chuckle, golden eyes focused on the angry blonde quietly seething on the other side of the room. The two boys stared at each other, as if daring the other to make a move first. Kaminari's fingers slowly rose from his side, intent on doing exactly what Natsumi had done earlier and send the incriminating photo to the group chat to immortalize it. However, as soon as Bakugou saw the movement he was leaping into action, sliding across desk tops while Kaminari let out a horrified screech and took off to keep his distance.
In that moment of seething anger, Bakugou's ash blonde hair popped back up into place, though he took no noticed to it as his fingertips crackled with angry sparks. He was in no mood to take shit from anyone today, not that he ever was, but his temper was already shortened over the past week from his joke of an internship.
"Oh shit! His hair responded to his explosive anger!" Sero brought a palm up to his face to attempt to stifle his laughter, tears freely rolling down his cheeks.
Kaminari snorted, dancing out of the angry blonde's grasp once more before dashing farther away, remaining just out of reach.
"Everyone please get back to your seats, class will be starting momentarily!" Iida reprimanded firmly, karate chopping the air like he typically did when he was trying to emphasize his words and get the point across.
"Shut it, four eyes." Bakugou growled, tiny explosions popping off against his outstretched fingertips, one of the sparks jumped a foot from his hand and landed on Kaminari's blazer, sizzling upon contact. The electrifying blonde let out a small shriek, quickly turning his attention away from the ash blonde to pat down his uniform to prevent it from getting ruined. It was during that moment of distraction that Bakugou was able to make his move, his hands lashed out, fingers curling around the collar of Kaminari's blazer, roughly yanking the boy towards him so they were face to face.
"H-hey, Bakubro, it was j-just a j-joke." Kaminari stuttered through his fear, eyes warily darting down to Bakugou's hands, noting the sweat glistening along his fingers. Kaminari hoped that the other boy had enough restraint not to use his quirk at such close range, but then again, this is Bakugou we're talking about…fuck, I'm going to need a new uniform after this, aren't I?
"You kids are too rambunctious this early in the morning." Aizawa drawled as he shuffled into the classroom, his back hunched over slightly as a clear sign of his own exhaustion, "Bakugou, put Kaminari down and both of you return to your seats, if I catch either of you fighting again in my classroom I will not hesitate to suspend you both."
Bakugou clicked his tongue in annoyance, glancing over his shoulder at their homeroom teacher before slowly lowering the blonde in his grasp back to his feet but not before giving the boy one final shove for good measure. Kaminari ducked his head and scrambled back to his desk, plopping down with a quiet thud while Bakugou stalked back over to his own seat with a scowl.
Class resumed as normal from that moment forward, Aizawa commanded their attention from the moment he entered the room and no one was brave enough to step one toe out of line now that he was there. All chatter ceased for the time being, picking back up again between class changes and during lunch time.
It wasn't until the very end of the day when the hype over being back at Yūei after a week away really began to build up once more. After being told to change into their Hero costumes and meet up at Ground Gamma for Basic Hero Training, the excitement was barely contained, even Natsumi was eager to show everyone what she had learned while away.
All Might stood before the group of Heroes in Training, his hands resting against his hips as he flashed them his trademark grin, "Alright, I am here! Long time no see, boys and girls! For Hero Basic Training today we'll be doing a rescue training race! I'm sure all of you are eager and raring to go after being away from each other for a whole week, so put all of your newly acquired skills to the test and show us what you've learned during your internships!"
Iida's hand was immediately in the air, straight and unwavering, he spoke before All Might had the chance to call upon him, "If we're doing rescue training then shouldn't we be doing it at USJ?"
The Symbol of Peace was ready for this question, leaning forward with a wide grin, "That place is for training for disasters. Do you remember what I said earlier?" Without giving the kids time to react or answer, he chuckled, "The keyword was 'race', which is why we are here at Ground Gamma; a dense area filled with factories laid out in an intricate labyrinth. You'll break up into three groups of five and one group of six and go through the training one group at a time. When I send out a distress signal from somewhere inside, you'll all start at once from the outskirts of the city! This is a race to see who will rescue me first!"
He drew in a breath, allowing his words to settle in over the students before he continued, his eyes immediately finding the narrowed carmine gaze of Bakugou in the crowd, "Of course, you'll have to keep damage to the buildings to an absolute minimum."
Bakugou scowled, turning his head away with an annoyed click of his tongue, muttering, "Don't point at me!"
Lots were chosen once again to decide who would be on what team to make things fair to all participants. The first team consisted of Midoriya, Iida, Ojiro, Natsumi, Ashido, and Sero who all took their respective places around the outer edges of the map, far enough away from each other so that they couldn't sabotage the start of the race for anyone.
Natsumi found herself positioned atop a steel platform overlooking the industrial jungle stretched out before her. It was the perfect vantage point and she knew it would be easy to maneuver across the metal piping with her ice, the victory was practically her's already.
She crouched down, fingers curling and uncurling at her sides impatiently as All Might counted down from ten. Once he finished his count down, he cried out 'Start!' and suddenly Natsumi was off, tearing across the rooftops of metal factories, using her ice to speed across steel pipes towards the center of the cityscape.
From where she was, she could see the tell-tale signs of some of her other classmates also taking to the rooftops, no doubt realizing that that was the quickest and most efficient way to rush through the metal maze.
Ahead of her on her left Sero was swinging through the air like Spider-Man, using his tape to latch onto pipes and building outcrops to propel himself forward. Her lips downturned into a frown, this was a race after all and if she planned on winning then she'd need to get herself ahead of him.
Natsumi found a particularly long and slanted metal pipe that seemed to span across the industrial wasteland from one end to the other. That'll work. It was angled downward with twists and turns in various directions, ice burst from the bottoms of her feet, catapulting her several feet in the air to align herself better with the pipe. As she came back down, she used the frozen particles to propel her forward, her feet sliding against the metal tubing. With the pipe having a downward slant, the momentum was far greater than if she had continued sliding along the rooftops and she found herself catching up to and passing Sero quickly.
"Huh? Argh, Natsu-chan get back here!" Sero called out, gritting his teeth in frustration as she passed him.
Natsumi grinned, glancing back over her shoulder briefly to stick her tongue out tauntingly at the boy, which only further riled him up. Sero let out an annoyed huff within his mask, he was already going as fast as he physically could.
Out of nowhere a blur of green electricity fizzled into existence on the rooftop beside her and she momentarily had to squint her eyes against the brightness of the sparks. When her vision cleared she stared slack jawed at Midoriya's form leaping and bounding across the rooftops at such an incredible speed that she had to pinch herself to make sure she was really seeing what she was seeing.
When did he get so fast? His bones aren't breaking! He's moving just like Bakugou, oh man I bet he's absolutely fuming right now! She found herself distracted by her thoughts and during the brief moment of her mind's preoccupation Midoriya was able to push himself ahead of her and Sero.
The distance that the boy had put between them in just a few short seconds was astounding and left Natsumi openly gaping at his retreating form. A low growl tore through her throat at the thought of not reaching All Might first. Her victory was slowly slipping further and further away from her when just moments ago it had been right in her grasp.
The ivory haired teen channeled her inner strength into her feet, feeling the buildup of rime coat the spiked bottoms of her boots before using the slick ice to propel her forward. She leapt from the pipe that she had been gliding on, free falling several feet before maneuvering herself closer to the wall of the factory to her left. She stretched her legs out, feeling the iron wall beneath her feet, she was able to stabilize her descent quickly by creating more ice beneath her boots, using that as an anchor to keep her body attached to the side of the building. Once her grip on the smooth building's wall was established, Natsumi began running at full force with the help of her ice to give her an extra boost.
"She's running sideways along the wall! Has…has she always been able to do that?" Ochako tilted her head curiously as she watched her classmates on the television screen chase after their victory.
It was a trick that she had been working on the last couple of days of her internship with Hawks, when she realized that she needed a better way of keeping up with him when he took to the skies.
Midoriya glanced back over his shoulder the moment he felt the temperature around him drop and he knew that that could only mean one thing…."N-Natsu-chan!"
She was closing in on him, a competitive grin stretching her lips back, "Surprise!"
"New move?" Midoriya's eyes widened, watching as she sped up alongside him as he bounded across a metal pipe. In the moment that it took for him to glance over to observe her movements, his foot slipped as it made contact with the pipe beneath him and he let out a startled yelp as he tumbled over the side and fell towards the ground below.
Natsumi fought over whether she should be concerned for her friend or if she should continue towards the objective. In the end, she decided that she should continue onward and claim her victory now that the leading contender was out of the race.
At the center of the arena stood All Might in all his glory, beaming brightly, hands placed upon his hips in his signature stance that exuded confidence. She grinned, he was so close, just a few yards away now. She outstretched her hand towards him in an attempt to bring herself just that much closer to the Hero, his booming laughter ringing across the field.
"Not so fast, Natsu-chan!" Sero chuckled, his tape shooting out towards All Might, as he sidled up beside her, his feet pounding against the pavement. Suddenly it was an all out race between the two, their brows creased in determination, jaws clenched.
"Oh no you don't, sticky boy." She called out, pulling more water molecules from the surrounding air to use as ammunition against her opponent. She shot one hand out towards Sero, tiny balls of ice shot out towards him, pelting against his helmet and making him wince.
"Hey! Not fair!" Taking a page out of her book, he shot a sticky line of tape out towards her, it wrapped around her arms, pinning them against her torso.
Natsumi let out a startled shriek and began to lose balance from not being able to use her arms as a counterweight. She was able to quickly right herself, though, and continued forward despite how awkward it was to run without the use of her arms.
The two cleared the distance between themselves and All Might in a matter of seconds, both leaping towards the towering Hero and colliding against his chest simultaneously. The combined weight of the two students wasn't even enough to knock the man off kilter, he simply wrapped one imposing arm around each student to keep them steady, while letting out a loud, amused chuckle.
"Well done, you two! I'd say it was a photo finish ending in a tie!" All Might declared, "Though Young Kurosawa and Young Sero finished with a tie, I'd say that you all have gotten a lot better at using your Quirks since the beginning of the year! Keep up this momentum and start preparing for your final exam! I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that each and every one of you will pass with flying colors!" He addressed the last part to the entire class.
A tie!? She groaned, hanging her head dejectedly at the thought, those were the only words she had taken away from the Number One Hero's spiel.
Sero laughed, taking his helmet off and flashing the ivory haired teen a wide grin as All Might set them both back on their feet, "That was fun."
She struggled against the sticky binding wrapped around her torso for a moment before glancing up and catching the amused stare of her classmate, "Little help here?"
He chuckled, nodding his head and shuffling towards her to help her remove the tape keeping her arms pinned to her sides. Once she was free of her sticky confines, she stretched her arms above her head and wiggled her fingers to help chase away the numbness that had begun to set in when her limbs had started to fall asleep from disuse.
The rest of her classmates involved in the first race pulled up shortly after, breathing heavily and congratulating Sero and Natsumi for their tied victory, subsequently rubbing salt in Natsumi's metaphoric wound.
She joined the rest of her classmates, ready to watch the remaining matches, still feeling a little annoyed that she hadn't been able to come out on top.
"Those were some pretty impressive moves, Natsu-chan!" Ochako beamed, bouncing over to her side.
Natsumi let out a quiet huff, "Not impressive enough to win me first place."
"You were close, though." Todoroki sidled up beside her, raising an eyebrow at her, "You were all giving it your best and it showed. You should be proud of your victory, even if it was a shared one."
She let out a contemplative hum, eyes darting between the eagerly nodding brunette beside her and the solemn, but supportive, dual-color haired boy on the other side of her. With a resigned sigh, she tilted her head slightly, the corners of her lips tipping into a small smile, "Yeah, I suppose you're both right. I was being a little too hard on myself."
"You always are." Todoroki shrugged his shoulders, peering down at her, "You really have come a long way. I remember when you could barely run a mile before getting winded."
Natsumi's jaw dropped at his comment, "I can't believe you just brought that up…how dare you!"
He smirked, "You're not denying it, though."
Her cheeks tinged a light pink and she turned her head away from him with an indignant pout, "Well, no, but you still didn't have to bring it up."
Ochako started laughing, wrapping her arms around herself in an attempt to quell the bubbling amusement inside her, "I-I can't g-get over how c-cute you t-two are, ohmygod." She began to wheeze from how hard she was laughing, causing the two teens next to her to turn in her direction and stare at her in concern.
"C-cute?" Natsumi sputtered, her cheeks growing darker in color.
"I don't understand." Todoroki frowned, "Kurosawa are you alright? You look flushed did you overexert yourself during the training exercise?"
Ochako shot her friend a cheeky grin, "Yeah, Natsu-chan, you're looking a little red in the face. Maybe Todoroki-kun should escort you to see Recovery Girl."
"Absolutely not." Natsumi rolled her eyes before narrowing them at her friend, "I never thought dear, sweet Ochako-chan would end up betraying me like this."
The brunette shrugged her shoulders, giggling, "Oh hush, you had it coming after all the times you've literally pushed me towards—ah—" Her eyes momentarily landed on Todoroki before peeling them away and frantically whispering to Natsumi,"—you know who."
Todoroki quirked a curious brow and tilted his head, "Are you sure you don't want to see Recovery Girl? You look feverish, is it from your Quirk's drawback?"
The ivory haired teen shot her friend an annoyed look, only to be met with another amused grin from the brunette, before turning towards the concerned boy next to her, "Ah, no, I'm fine. Thanks for the offer though, I think I'll live."
He didn't look convinced but was wise enough to drop the subject. The three turned their attention to All Might who announced the next team.
Natsumi stretched her arms high above her head, humming appreciatively once she heard a loud pop and the tightness in her shoulders had receded from the action. School had ended over half an hour ago and she found herself waiting idly by the forest that surrounded Yūei. She had changed into her gym uniform and placed her school bag by a boulder jutting out of the ground.
The sound of leaves crunching beneath boots and twigs snapping pulled her attention towards the entrance of the forest, her skin prickling in anticipation of who it could be venturing towards her.
"Sorry I'm late, Aizawa-sensei wanted to talk to me." Shinsou stepped out of the shadows the trees were casting, his hand brought up to rub at the back of his neck awkwardly.
Natsumi relaxed, feeling silly for having been on guard in the first place when she was the one who had asked Shinsou to meet her in the woods from the get go.
"No big deal, I wasn't waiting long." She shrugged, taking a step towards the boy, "Are you still training with him?"
He nodded, "Yeah, we're going to be continuing my training five days a week. I figured that the two days he doesn't do anything with me I can train with you."
Her eyes widened, "Whoa, whoa. So, you're planning on training seven days a week? Every week? Without a break in between? You do realize how idiotic that is, right? There's a reason Aizawa-sensei gave you two days off—its so you don't overwork yourself."
Shinsou shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, peering down at her, "No pain, no gain, am I right?"
"You're gonna be gainin' a whole lot of pain if you put your body through that nonstop training schedule." Natsumi narrowed her eyes up at him, "I'll do one day with you—I literally cannot condone you overworkin' those noodle arms of yours like that."
One well-manicured indigo eyebrow rose high above the other at her comment, "I think I should be the one who decides what I can and can't handle in this situation. Either you help me on the days Aizawa isn't, or I do it myself. Either way I plan on training the full seven days of the week, it's your choice whether you want to be present or not."
She squinted her eyes up at him in irritation, abruptly bringing her arms up to cross them over her chest while tapping her foot against the soft earth beneath her. She was agitated and the smug smirk that Shinsou was shooting in her direction was making her blood boil. He had her. He knew that she was too nice to just walk away from him now, especially with the threat of him working by himself hanging in the air. It could be dangerous to train alone, especially someone who was inexperienced and didn't exactly know what he was doing when it came to strength and cardio training.
"Well?" He asked, almost impatiently.
Natsumi let out an annoyed growl, "Fine. But if your body can't handle it then you have to take at least one day off. I'm serious, if Aizawa-sensei finds out that you're not doing this properly and overworking yourself he's not only going to punish you but he'll come after me too and I am not about to get put on house-arrest or cleaning duty or whatever for the rest of the year because of you."
Shinsou chuckled, holding up his hands defensively, "Alright, alright. Don't worry, Aizawa-sensei won't find out."
"He better not." She threatened with a glare, "Alright, we're wasting too much time. You ready?"
"Wait, let me just…" He mumbled, shrugging off his backpack and kneeling on the ground beside it, he dug through it until he found what he was looking for. With a triumphant tug, he pulled out a long, light grey roll of material, swiftly wrapping it loosely around his neck before standing before her once more.
Natsumi quirked an amused eyebrow, cocking her hip to the side and leaning forward slightly to get a better look, "Did you steal Aizawa-sensei's capture weapon…?"
His brows furrowed at the implication and he scrunched up his nose indignantly, "Absolutely not, you think I could even get close enough to him to swipe it off his shoulders? You're dumber than I thought, Kurosawa."
"You dare insult the girl who is going out of her way to help train you behind her teacher's back?" She shot back, crimson eyes narrowed.
He leaned back on the balls of his feet, running his thin, nimble fingers through his unruly lilac locks, "Fine, I'm sorry for insinuating that you were dumb." Indigo met crimson, his lips perked up at the corners, "You happy?"
She shot a harsh stream of air from her nose before nodding her head, "Yes, very much so."
The two teens started warming up by doing a variety of stretches, most of which Shinsou had been shown by Aizawa during his week of training, so he was able to catch on pretty quickly to the routine she was demonstrating. Natsumi was curious to see what he had learned during the week with her homeroom teacher so that she could determine what he needed to work on the most.
For the most part, she knew that the days that she would be training with Shinsou would more than likely be spent in the gym working on strength or cardio to better help him prepare for the tougher exercises that Aizawa would be putting him through. But she needed to see what she was working with, which was why they were going to spar today to see how much help he needed.
"So, you actually know how to use that thing?" Her head tilted curiously at the indigo eyed boy who was fumbling with the capture weapon wrapped around his neck. It was sort of comical, the amount of material sitting heavily upon his shoulders, weighing his movements down—it was clear to her that he wasn't yet used to it.
Shinsou chuckled nervously, peeling his eyes away from his support item to meet her amused gaze, "Not exactly. It came in a few days ago from the support company, Aizawa-sensei has started teaching me how to use it, it's not as easy as he makes it seem."
"Oh?" Natsumi grinned, "Show me."
He furrowed his brows at her command, watching as she got into a defensive position, her eyes urging him to make a move. Shinsou shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his mind running through various scenarios on how to beat her—he knew he was horrendously outmatched. But, he had to try, right?
Sliding one foot forward, readying himself as he had seen Aizawa do many times during their sparring matches over the last week, he reached up, feeling his fingers curl around the thick material of his capture weapon. Truth was, he still had no idea how to properly use the damn thing, Aizawa had admitted to him that it had taken him five years to really get a handle on how to use it—and Shinsou had only been practicing with his for five days. He shook his head to clear away his thoughts, strands of unruly lilac hair falling into his eyes from the action.
"You just gonna stand there all day, or you gonna come at me?" Natsumi's voice was taunting, her eyes crinkling at the corners in a teasing manner as she watched him get lost in his thoughts. He must be trying to come up with a strategy.
Shinsou narrowed his eyes, kicking up a spray of loose soil as he made his move, bursting forward with a speed that he knew wouldn't last considering how low his stamina currently was, but he was hoping it would be enough to give him the upper hand.
Natsumi stood still, feet firmly planted against the forest floor as she scrutinized his form, watching closely how he moved sloppily towards her, his breathing already ragged. At the last moment he yanked a long strip of his scarf from around his neck, pulling it taut in his grip, his eyes narrowed and focused solely on the ivory haired girl standing several feet away from him.
She was prepared to dash out of the way of his attack, she bent her knees slightly in preparation of her escape but…the moment never came.
As Shinsou thrust his hand forward, slinging the strip of material towards the girl in an attempt to capture her, he misjudged the amount of force needed to manipulate the weapon. Instead of shooting forward and wrapping around Natsumi, it only flew a couple of feet before hitting the ground. Shinsou, unable to stop his own momentum in time, stumbled over the support item and fell forward with the weapon unwinding from around his shoulders and wrapping around his body.
Natsumi straightened up from her semi-crouched position, laughter bubbling from deep within her at seeing the lilac haired boy all tangled up in his own support item, "Holy shit, Shinsou we have a lot to work on."
He wiggled on the ground in front of her, attempting to pry the scarf from around his arms while muttering various curses at his own predicament. Shinsou eventually heaved a loud sigh and ceased his struggling, tired indigo eyes rose to meet amused crimson staring down at him, "A little help, Kurosawa?"
She chuckled, stepping over his entangled body and walking in the opposite direction, "You got yourself into this mess, you can get yourself out of it."
Oh boy, I don't even know why it felt like this chapter took me forever, but it really did. Sometimes I just stumble over how I want to end a chapter and then it takes me a million years to just write it out. Anyway, I'm really excited about next chapter—it's something that I've been wanting to write for months, it's just gonna be a cute chapter, nothing too crazy, but I'm excite nonetheless lmao! Anywayyy~! THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who reviewed, seriously you guys are what keep pushing me forward to finish this story. Please continue to send me your thoughts, I love reading everything that you have to say!
TheVulcanNara – Omg. Thank you SO much for taking the time to write such a long and beautiful review, seriously, it made me so excited to read that I had to sit down and respond to it the day you sent it in while everything was still fresh on my mind lmao. So, I have a notebook where I have each chapter outlined (well to an extent), and originally I had Natsumi interning with an original character, had the entire internship planned out and written out basically. But then I started catching up on the manga and I ended up falling in love with Hawks and I completely scrapped the original concept last minute to have her intern with him—and I'm glad that I did because of the current arc in the manga and I have big things planned for her and Hawks later on.
It's funny that you mention that you can see her and Bakugou having a friends with benefits type relationship because that was something I had originally wanted to do. I was going to have them share their first kiss during the time when she was suspended from school and he was visiting her but I just couldn't write out the interaction organically so I never included it. But I had a whole thing planned out how they had this fwb relationship in secrecy and then it ended up coming to light during a game of Truth or Dare after they move into the dorms and boyyy was Todoroki going to be pissed. In my head though it has happened and they do have that type of relationship, but that will likely never make it into the story at this point lol so I guess it is just an AU of this story at this point. But, I definitely do see them as sharing that brother/sister type bond where they just love to get under each other's skin, start fights, and insult each other but at the end of the day they truly do care about each other.
As for who she's going to end up with—I'm like 90% sure it's going to be Todoroki, but I mean that could always change, especially if people end up really liking Shinsou. But as for right now I promise I don't plan on rushing anything. In my head I have the story planned out up to the current manga arc and she's not with anyone yet—though, that could always change when it actually comes time for me to write future chapters so who knows what's going to happen at this point. I have a lot of the story planned out but, as I mentioned, half the time I end up scrapping ideas at the last minute and making changes so lol! But, I definitely plan on their being a ton of cute, fluffy scenes between her and the boys, but it's going to be a long time before there's any actual romance lol. Todoroki is oblivious to feelings so, it would take him a 100 years to even realize that he actually likes her anyway. Shinsou is a little less oblivious, but he's also stubborn. Anyway, this has turned into a long winded response and I'm going to stop now but ahhh, seriously thank you so much, I loved hearing your thoughts! Also, thank you for giving me an excuse to talk about some of the things that I had originally intended to happen in the story.
Aspiring Author (guest) – Thank you so much for taking the time to send me a review! That would seriously make me so incredibly happy if you wanted to send me fanart! If you don't have an account here you can always email me at thuston1018 at yahoo dot com that would probably be the easiest way to send things my way. Either way, thank you so much, I'm so happy that you like my story enough to want to draw the characters :3
Adhara Snow – I have never been super attached to Tokoyami and I was kind of dreading having to write him, I almost wimped out and decided to change the internships around and have it just be Natsumi interning with Hawks without Tokoyami. But I'm glad that I kept him there because I was able to have her bond with him and Dark Shadow and I feel like she and Tokoyami could both stand to have more friends in their lives lol.
Bbymojo – Ahh, I seriously love the twins. Their views are (a little? Lol) skewed and they maybe don't always handle things correctly, but they're trying in their own way. I can't wait for them to start appearing more in future chapters, they love her so much they just…kind of bad at showing it lmao.
A little Shinsou and Natsumi training together at the end, there will be more in depth training with these two to come later on—boy is crazy for wanting to train nonstop without a day to rest though. But, he's determined to get into the Hero course so I can't really say that I blame him but damn, I'm sure his body is going to be aching after Aizawa and Natsumi are done with him lol!
ShinigamiReiko – AHHH IM SORRY I CAN'T HELP MYSELF! I love Bakugou too! But oh man, I need to stop, can't have you guys thinking she's a hoe trying to win the hearts of ALL the boys out here. She and Bakugou definitely have a special type of relationship though, they've got that love-hate thing going on that makes things so much fun lol. Thank you so much for your support, I'm so happy that you like the story 😊