The first time she set foot onto this campus for entrance exams, she thought it was unnecessarily big, and now that she returned as a student, she still stood by her initial impression. While walking through the halls, Kamiko couldn't help but notice how tall the ceiling was. After quirks started developing, a lot of architectures had to accommodate people of all sorts of needs, which included mutation quirks which drastically changed the average human height.
Kamiko arrived at class 1-C, her new class. Her parents gave her an earful before coming here, telling her that she needs to find a way to transfer to the hero course as soon as possible, but Kamiko took a good look at the classroom door. "I'm going to stay here," she muttered as she slid the door open.
Inside the classroom was a group of teenagers, all with the same excitement in their eyes as they greeted and introduced themselves to each other. When Kamiko walked in, a group of girls and boys greeted her and asked for her name.
Kamiko smiled politely at them, but she couldn't help but feel like an outcast already. She could tell by the look in their eyes, just how happy they are to get into their dream school, and the slight hint of disappointment that they couldn't make it into the hero course. Each and every single one of them, made it suffocating for her to even breathe.
Amongst the group of students introducing themselves to each other, was a boy with messy purple hair and dark under eyes. He was immediately drawn to the silver haired girl in front of him, not because of her looks, but because of the aura that radiated off of her. Though she always kept a smile on her face, there was this loneliness in her eyes. Even though it was his first time meeting her, his heart ached for her because he immediately knew they were the same. "Hey, my name is Shinsou Hitoshi," he walked up to her and introduced himself. The girl looked up at him. She was much shorter than him, but considered a normal height for a girl her age.
Her eyes softened at him as her lips curled upward. "Iki Kamiko. Nice to meet you!"
After class started, the teacher made everyone stand up one by one in their seating orders to introduce themselves, much like a normal high school. Well, it was to be expected since they were in the normal course, so they'd be treated as normal high school students. Students stood up one by one, saying their names, likes and dislikes, and dreams for the future. It was to be expected that despite being in the normal course, most people in class still want to be a hero.
Finally, it was Kamiko's turn. She stood up from her seat, and all eyes were on her. "My name is Iki Kamiko. I like manga, anime, and spicy food. I don't like people who are bossy," she said.
"Dreams for the future?" asked the teacher.
"I want to be a manga artist," Kamiko answered. The class silenced, for she's the first person to who aspires to be something that's not along the line of hero work. Kamiko's eyes trailed downward. She can already see the look in their eyes, like she's some sort of alien. Not again... She thought.
"That's cool," a voice suddenly breaks the silence. Kamiko's eyes widened as her head shot towards the direction of the voice. The purple haired boy from before smiled at her. "You must really like to draw huh."
"Y-Yeah..." Kamiko muttered in response, the corners of her lips tugging upward. After the morning classes were over, the students headed for the cafeteria. As they were heading out, Kamiko walked up to Shinsou. "Um, Shinsou-kun..."
Shinsou stopped, he looked down at the silver haired girl. "Just Hitoshi is fine."
Kamiko smiled gratefully at him. "Thank you, for this morning... It was awkward. And you can just call me Miko," she said.
"It was nothing." Shinsou rubbed the back of his neck as his eyes peered sideways. A slight blush crept up his cheeks, for he wasn't used to getting thanked like this.
Kamiko raised a brow at him. "Why do you keep rubbing your neck like that? Did you hurt it or something?"
"Huh? No, I don't think so..." Shinsou has never noticed it before, but now that she mentioned it, he does tend to rub the back of his neck quite often.
The silver haired girl crossed her arm. "You also have some serious dark circle under your eyes. Lemme guess, you have trouble sleeping?"
"How do you know?"
"And your neck aches a lot?"
"Uhhhh..." This was starting to get creepy for Shinsou. "Yeah."
"You probably need to adjust your pillow. It's either too soft or too hard. My dad had that problem, and he's been sleeping better ever since he changed to memory foam," Kamiko said.
Shinsou's eyes widened. Kamiko only just met him, and she already noticed his neck pains and deduced the cause. For someone who has no intention of becoming a hero, she was unusually perceptive. "Thanks, I'll take note of that," Shinsou replied with a grateful smile.
The two of them headed for the cafeteria along with the rest of the students.
At lunch, Kamiko sat with Shinsou and a group of their classmates from class 1-C. As they were eating, one of the students decided to talk about quirks, and everyone started sharing what they can do with their quirks. Kamiko kept quiet, hoping that staying silent would make her invisible. It's not like there's anything to be ashamed of, but she's had enough of the whole "You're quirk is so powerful you should be a hero" talk. She knew that eventually they're going to find out about her quirk, but she would rather deal with those talk later.
"Shinsou what's your quirk?" asked a girl with blonde hair.
Shinsou looked at the girl nervously. Kamiko noticed the hesitation in his eyes, and a brow perked up with interest. Shinsou glanced at Kamiko for a second before turning back to the others, who were staring at the purple haired boy intently.
"It's brainwash," Shinsou said while rubbing the back of his neck again.
Silence drew out between the teenagers for a few seconds, until Kamiko hummed, "Hehh, that sounds like something you'd find on a villain in a typical shounen manga."
Oh god, Shinsou thought. He was ready for the next lines. "Don't use your quirk on us okay?" The words he often heard in middle school still stuck with him till this day.
"But that's way too cliche. If I were to write a shounen manga, I'd make the protagonist someone with a brainwash quirk! It's so badass!"
Shinsou's eyes widened as he turned to the girl next to her. After her quick exclamation she wwnt back to eating her food, almost as if she never said such a thing.
"Yeah! That's so cool! I bet it's so useful against villains!" a boy jumped up and agreed.
"I know right! You can just tell them to turn handcuff themselves and they'd do it!" said another. One by one, everyone in their table started to hype up Shinsou's quirk. Many of them saying how it's such a shame Shinsou isn't in the hero course.
Shinsou could only chuckle and thank them, but his eyes keep peering at the girl eating her food and reading manga on her phone quietly. She didn't notice, but his eyes were full of gratitude.
After school, Shinsou asked Kamiko if she would like to walk home together. "I'm planning on stopping by the manga store... So I don't know if you wanna go with me..." Kamiko replied nervously. Most people don't like going to the manga store because they don't want to be seen as an otaku. Kamiko doesn't really care since she is an otaku, but back in middle school none of her friends were willing to go with her, so she always went alone.
"That's fine with me, I was gonna ask you for some manga recommendations anyways," said Shinsou.
"Really?!" Kamiko gasped, eyes so wide they could pop out of her sockets.
"Yeah, if you're okay with it..."
...
Shinsou stared at the pile of manga on the ground, knocked over by his cats. Mikan and Senbei continued to tackle each other and run around the rooms playing tag. He let out a long sigh as he bent down to stack them back up. He should really get a book shelf to put these in. Some of them were old, from high school, and some are new. As he organized the comics into neat piles, he started recalling how he and Kamiko became friends.
If it weren't for her, he wouldn't be so hooked on reading manga. He's not as hardcore as her when it comes to these things, but he has a few series he's super passionate about and has been buying the books since high school.
As he finished stacking up the finished manga, he pushed them to the side of the room, hoping the wall would help stabilize them just a little bit. Suddenly he felt a buzz in his pocket and he took out his phone.
They're so cute! OMG I wish I could come over and pet them!
It was a text from Kamiko. Shinsou's lips curled upward as his eyes softened at the message. Looks like she got his text earlier.
Shinsou quickly typed his reply and sent her some more pictures. Even after all these years of not seeing each other, there's no doubt that Kamiko will remain as one of his best friends.
Meanwhile Kamiko was laying on her bed, cooing at the pictures of Shinsou's cats. Bakugou walked out of the bathroom, wiping his dripping hair with a towel. When he heard the strange noise he raised a brow at the woman. "Hey, the fuck are you squealing for?" he demanded.
"Katsuki come here! Take a look at Hitoshi's cats!" Kamiko waved her hand, gesturing for him to come over. Bakugou's brows twitched at the mentioning of the purple haired man, but he walked over to her bed and laid down next to her, looking up at the phone screen.
"So?" he asked when he saw a picture of two furry felines. "They're just cats."
"Aren't they adorable? This is Mikan, Hitoshi and I found him behind the dorms of UA in our first year," Kamiko pointed to the orange cat in the picture. Bakugou's eyes trailed from the phone to Kamiko's face, taking in her smile and excitement as she told him how she and Shinsou caught the cat.
If only he had known sooner. If only he knew back then just how amazing this woman is, just how hard he'd end up falling for her, then maybe he'd be a part of those precious memories of hers as well. "And then, I told Hitoshi-"
"Kamiko," Bakugou cut her off mid-sentence. The woman stopped, eyes wide, because he only calls her by her name when he's about to-
Bakugou put her phone down with one hand as the other snaked under her head, pulling her to him. He closed his eyes and pressed his lips against hers.
Bakugou doesn't feel regret, ever. He always stood by every single one of his decisions, having no remorse for any of his bad decisions. Now, there was a tiny hint of regret. He regretted not being there sooner, not falling for her sooner. Just knowing that they could have done this since high school makes his blood boil. All those years he wasted, he was determined to make it up.
...
Day 2 of high school and Kamiko was already slacking off. Shinsou saw Kamiko pull out her manga from inside her desk to secretly read during class, and after school was over, instead of heading home like everyone else, she found a quiet place on the grass, behind one of those statues at the front gate and just sat there and read.
Time was going by, and before she knew it the sun was starting to go down. "I guess I should start heading home now," Kamiko muttered when she noticed that it was getting a little difficult to see.
Just as she was about to get up, however, she heard a loud voice yell, "I'm just getting started! You hear?! Here I will become number one!"
What? Kamiko froze. It sounded like someone's arguing. Now is probably a bad time to get out of her hiding spot.
"You won't beat me again, bastard!" the person said again, but the sound was fading off into a distance. Kamiko poked her head out from behind the statue to find a boy with curly green hair standing at the center of the brick built walkway. Then she looked towards the school exit to find a blonde boy walking away. What was that all about? she wondered.
