Chapter 3: A Train Ride Home

"Wow, she was...quite adamant about you not breaking any more limbs," Kyouka was torn between laughing at her new green-haired friend, comforting him after his near-death experience at the hands of an old woman, or somewhere in the middle. She opted for the last option. To be fair to Midoriya, there was something to be said about someone like Recovery Girl, famous for healing people across Japan and being such a kind individual, repeatedly smacking a person on the head with her cane with such immense force for someone at her size. It must have been terrifying for Midoriya, who tried to nurse the bruise on his head.

"I don't think Recovery Girl likes me all that much," Midoriya lamented as he lightly rubbed at the spot where she hit him with her cane. Unexpectedly, his reaction got an amused laugh from Kyouka.

"Give it time," she said in a hopeful manner after calming down a bit. "As long as you don't break a limb, she won't have a reason to smack you around her office. Am I right?"

She saw Midoriya rub the back of his head, "You're…You're not wrong there."

Currently, the two first-year students were walking down the stairs to the ground floor. They had only spent about fifteen minutes inside Recovery Girl's office. It meant they didn't have to worry about missing their train since there was still plenty of time before it left the station for each of their stops along the way.

"I have to ask…why do you break a limb whenever you use your quirk?" Kyouka had seen many abilities over the years. U.A High was no different. She's met people with durable skin, capable of producing acid from their body, and even explosive sweat being the latest one on the list. On the other hand, she's never encountered someone who had possessed such enormous strength but broke their body each time.

She already heard from Mr. Responsible (Iida) about how Midoriya destroyed the zero-pointer in such a dramatic fashion during the entrance exam. It was a shock to hear someone, especially a guy like Midoriya, bring down the gigantic robot. Apparently, he broke his arm and legs in the process as well.

"I…I didn't use my quirk for the first time…until the entrance exam," he softly muttered. "For a long time…I actually thought I was…"

Kyouka nearly tripped down the stairs after hearing the first few words out of his mouth. She paused for a moment and turned to her left, staring at her new green-haired friend in shock, preventing him from whatever he was about to say next. "Can you repeat that first part? Did you just say you've never used your quirk until the entrance exam?"

"Y-Yes."

"Holy shit."

It was hard to imagine someone like Midoriya, a regular-looking guy, possessing the ability to take down a robot as big as a building with a single strike. However, she recalled the hero vs villain training exercise and the earth-shattering conclusion to that day. She pointed one of her earjacks at him, "Can I just say you are probably the single craziest person I've ever met. How have you never used your quirk until the entrance exam? That...sounds pretty impossible."

"Well, I…I actually thought I was…"

Before he could finish his sentence, the young boy closed his mouth, and a small frown formed on his face. He lightly shook his head and awkwardly smiled at her. "Forget it."

"No, you were going to say something. What was it?"

"It was nothing. Just something…dumb."

The solemn tone behind his words caught Kyouka off-guard. She realized his answer must have been personal, considering it involved his quirk. Personally, she was never one for subtly and preferred the direct method. This didn't mean, however, she couldn't tell when people were uncomfortable with a certain topic or question by their behavior. It was perfectly normal for anyone to react like Midoriya was right now, and Kyouka didn't want to risk making things awkward so soon after she said they were friends.

"Don't sweat it," she said to him. "You don't gotta say anything. That's just me being nosy."

He raised his head and looked at her – surprise etched on his face – as he spoke up. "W-What?"

"Dude, I can hear your heart rate beating like a drum."

Immediately, Midoriya blushed in embarrassment before scratching his cheek. "S-Sorry. I…I never really talked about…well…myself before."

"No need to be sorry," Kyouka tried to sound as friendly as possible with him. Yet, it was pretty hard to miss the uncertain look on his face. "If you aren't comfortable talking about it, I'm not gonna get mad at you or anything. That would make me look like an ass, and the last thing I want to do is be a bad friend."

For a moment, silence filled the stairwell as neither student said anything.

In Kyouka's mind, she started to slightly panic at the realization of her words. 'Crap, I think I might've gone a little overboard with my words.'

She didn't need to wait long for a response as a very small smile appeared on Midoriya's face, which manage to calm Kyouka down.

"Thank you…I-I really appreciate hearing those words. That…That means a lot to me what you said."

Kyouka couldn't but slightly blush at the teary smile on his face. She cleared her throat and had to fight back against the urge to tap her earjacks together, sparing her from any further embarrassment. "As I said, we're friends."

The awkward atmosphere from earlier seems to have dissipated with that brief exchange of words between each other…

"Anyway," she said, catching his attention. "Let's get going. I'm hoping we can grab a seat on the train before it fills up."

Earlier, Kyouka's reasoning for talking to Midoriya stemmed from concern. She remembered the look of dread on his face during class after being voted as the class president, and no one seems to have noticed him acting in such a way. Not even people like Iida or Uraraka. It was strange to her. Their brief exchange of words from the past minutes started to make her realize Midoriya was a bit more interesting than she originally thought.

The first few days of school definitely hinted at the possibility, but Kyouka was a lot more confident to safely admit it.

"Um...Jirou?"

"Yeah?"

"A-Are you coming?"

At that moment, Kyouka's violet eyes met his bright, green emerald eyes. She broke out of her thoughts and nodded, "Huh-uh. I was just thinking about some stuff."

"Oh," Midoriya seemed unsure of what to say and merely kept quiet.

Kyouka noticed his reaction and took a few steps until they were standing next to each other again. She let out a chuckle, "In fact, I think we have a very important discussion awaiting us."

He tilted his head in confusion, "We do?"

"Yup," she replied with a slight smirk. "It's time we discuss your musical taste."

The two first-year students continued walking down the stairs, heading for the exit on the ground floor. However, neither student noticed they were being watched by a rather tall and skinny man with blonde hair as well as sunken eyes. The man was peaking around the corner, unable to hide his surprise as he focused on Izuku.

(X)

Izuku was afraid to admit his slight indulgence in daydreaming. He fantasied about having a very useful quirk – or any to be honest – capable of helping people, having close friends (even a lover), and inspiring hope in those around him. Recently, some of his dreams seemed possible after All Might – his childhood idol – brought him under his wing. The past year felt more like a fever dream than anything else. Besides his dream to become a hero, Izuku never imagined befriending a girl – quite a pretty one at that – within the first few days of starting high school. It was becoming very difficult for him to keep his heart rate in check as he sat next to Jirou on the train.

The worst part was knowing the pretty purple-haired girl could hear his heartbeat with her quirk, which will make things awkward if she asked about it.

'Girls weren't exactly...my area of expertise.'

During middle school, Izuku could safely say he was quite unpopular with girls. Most never gave him the time of day or bothered with his existence like everyone else. Sure, he's had a few minor crushes here and there, but they were ultimately pointless as those girls wouldn't be interested in a quirkless person. He's accepted the reality of his situation, as painful as felt to think.

Then, Jirou came along and blew that mindset to pieces within the first few days.

"I'm...I'm not exactly the most knowledgeable person about music," he felt somewhat embarrassed to admit, especially after hearing Jirou talk for the past few minutes since getting on the train and sitting down next to each other (another thing he never imagined happening). "I like to stick to whatever...you know...sounds good to me."

It was odd for Izuku to talk about his taste in music or anything about himself. No real favorite bands or singers like most people did. Outside of his piss-poor childhood, Izuku didn't really have all that many friends growing up to talk about such things with. No one was willing to listen. His words tended to fall deaf ears, and Izuku was forced to deal with being alone. It made for lots of lonely nights at home, forced to realize the world was always going to be against him.

The only saving grace was his mother. Even if he was quirkless, she still loved him and continued to raise him as her only son. Things might've gotten rough over the years, especially before getting One for All from All Might.

Life seems to be changing quite a bit for him.

"Like what?"

Izuku was unsure of how to answer the question from Jirou. He thought for a moment before giving her a response, "I-I don't know. I...I never really keep track of their names or anything when I listen on my phone. For me, it's whatever...sounds good...I guess?"

"Music ain't your thing, is it?"

He thought about his answer for a moment, thinking back to his time growing up. 'She's not too far off the mark. I mean, music was just something...not my favorite thing as a kid.'

"You're not wrong," Izuku stopped speaking for a moment. He felt hesitant to mention anything related to his past, especially considering what happened to him as a kid. "Music...never interested me all that much when I was younger. My mother enjoys it a lot more than me, and it was pretty hard to avoid that at home."

Izuku chose to go with the bare minimum. His mother was one of the few positive things in life, and he refused to mention anything more personal to Jirou. They hardly knew each other. A few days couldn't erase the past fifteen years of misery and suffering he went through before U.A High. Still, Izuku didn't want to squander an opportunity to make a new friend in Jirou.

"Ah, that makes sense," she said in understanding. A moment later, the purple-haired girl decided to go ahead with another question. "So what does interest someone like yourself?"

"N-Nothing," he quickly answered. "It's...It's more boring than you might think."

A flush of embarrassment rose to his cheeks as he tried to remain as calm as possible. Things were bad enough since he was sitting next to Jirou on the train but his answer seems to have earned a reaction from her.

"Oh really?"

His limited experience with girls was starting to bite him in the ass, and looks like things were about to get worse for him.

"I-I don't know," he said with uncertainty in his voice as his head looked down at the ground while a small frown could be seen on his face. "Like I said, I...I don't usually talk about myself around others."

It felt like an eternity before Jirou responded to his words, "Midoriya, I'm not going to force you to talk or anything. Not everyone is comfortable with talking about themselves. Hell, I wasn't sure about even bringing up the whole music thing. I may love that stuff, but that's just me."

Izuku raised his head and looked at her, which prompted Jirou to continue speaking. "I get it, dude. We just met a few days ago. Anyone would be hesitant to mention anything about themselves, but believe me when I say this; I'm not gonna laugh, make fun of you, or pretend to care. Personally, I'm ain't the biggest fan of those kinds of people, and I sure as heck don't ever want be labeled as one."

"You're very...honest."

Those were his observations from the past few days about the purple-haired girl. She didn't hesitate to say whatever seem to be on her mind, and Izuku was used to a certain ash-blonde teen always making his stance clear towards him. It was kind of refreshing to be something positive for once.

"Better to be honest than lie to someone," she shrugged her shoulders. "I am being serious though. You don't have to worry about me judging or anything."

Izuku opened his mouth for a moment before closing it. A thought came to mind, 'Jirou has been honest with me. It's only fair if I say something.'

He gathered some courage and started with a small topic, "I...I like learning about people's quirks."

"That makes sense," Jirou recalled his mutterings during the training exercise. "You seemed interested to hear about my quirk. You do that with everyone then?"

A slight blush could be seen on Izuku's face as he scratched his cheek. He decided to ask a question on his mind, "Do I have to answer that?"

"Is it gonna be weird?"

"...Uh, I think it depends on you."

"Come on," she rolled her eyes at him. "I'm sure I probably bored you to death with music. I think you get a chance to talk about your hobbies to me."

Izuku decided to take a small leap of faith. He's already made a few friends with Iida and Uraraka, but he really hasn't gotten a chance to know them all that well. The same couldn't be said as Jirou seemed pretty intent on talking to him for whatever odd reason. If she was willing to hear him talk about stuff like quirks, despite fearing she might be bored by the topic. His tendencies to mutter and go overboard with this kind of stuff was pretty well-documented, and Izuku wasn't oblivious to this.

"Alright, I hope I don't bore you too much with this stuff," Izuku took a deep breath before diving into a topic that interested him since being a child. For the first time in years, someone was actually going to listen to him. There was a part of him almost...relieved by the opportunity to talk about every single thought that's been on his mind for years.

...Thus began a long and confusing conversation for Jirou as she began her new friendship with the boy named Izuku Midoriya.

I'm back…

Yeah, March was a bit messy for me. Work picked up, writer's block, and dealt with some stuff in my life. Nothing serious, but I had to take care of it.

As for the latest chapter, Izuku and Kyouka got to talk to each other. I know it's slow. Believe me, I wouldn't mind jumping to their whole relationship stuff but you gotta lay the foundation down for the long run. Like I said, not a lot happens. Hope you guys can understand that.

Other than that, I have a few things planned out in my mind for down the road. I mean, the USJ arc is literally around the corner so don't worry. Things will start rolling soon.

Plus, my brain already has an idea for a story centered around Izuku & Kyouka. My only hint is Izuku will be doing a lot of ripping and tearing.