Nobara rarely went to Internet Cafés even in her youth, mostly because she was raised in the countryside where people are more tightly-knit yet even then, those same people prefer to keep to themselves—there was little demand for such cafés when people have their own. Nobara lived in a tiny, tiny village, one that would not be recognized if mentioned out loud. The karaoke place was even outside of their town, and there was only one convenience store, one school, and one hospital there. And as much as Nobara is ashamed to admit to it, despite also claiming to be the biggest 'city girl' (as she would love to be), this is the first time Nobara enters an Internet Café, but of course, she is not unfamiliar of it. Fushiguro seems to have frequented here often with the way he moves familiarly despite being in a completely different world.
One thing that Nobara picks up after the few days that they arrived and 'adapted' in a way, is learning to observe with a single glance. Staring at someone so intently is considered more rude than it is normally due to how people here are more diverse-looking than the traditional dark-hair combo that an average Japanese person has, but of course, certain Jujutsu Sorcerers, due to the effect of their Techniques, appear much more different. (Example: Gojou Satoru and his striking white hair, and intimidatingly blue eyes. Another example: Panda-senpai and Inumaki-senpai. Appearance reflects ones affiliation most of the time, especially when they are talking about clans. The Zen'in are most known for their flat and dark hair. Nobara realizes that Fushiguro either has that messy hair because of his mother, or because of Gojou-sensei's influence.) Nobara dyed her hair, perhaps because it is as she says: a high school debut. Maybe.
The cashier, more humane looking than the person at the front desk, eyes them suspiciously when Fushiguro, with the Sugiyama couple's money, pays for a single cubicle for the Internet Café. The two of them, Fushiguro and Nobara, must seem like a couple in the cashier's eyes, your everyday high school or middle school couple who will be doing questionable things in the said cubicle. As if only proving this, the cashier utters, "Please clean up after yourselves," and Nobara is tempted to sock him in the face then and there but Fushiguro only nods, bowing shortly.
"Yes," he says and begins walking away.
Nobara, annoyed, manages to reign in the endless complaints raging in her head. She falls into step right behind Fushiguro, the hallways of cubicles cramped and the shoes being thrown askew on the floor. "Guess people are the same no matter what place we're in," she grunts. She nudges a shoe away from her path.
Fushiguro does not say anything. He only enters their designated cubicle, meant for only one person and still, painfully cramped. "I'm getting in first," Nobara immediately announces, earning a disgruntled look from Fushiguro. She slumps on one corner, pushing away a stray pillow and placing it under the table by their feet. Fushiguro follows suit and Nobara only realizes then how cramped the place is. "We smell exactly the same," she comments, irritated. She places a hand on Fushiguro's face to make him move away.
Her classmate does the same. "That's because it's the only shampoo in Sugiyama-san's house," he retorts. He moves forward while Nobara gets the back area of the cubicle. He stretches his arms as he faces the screen. "Do schools even check for our family registry?"
Nobara shrugs. "I'm pretty sure they don't. Let's just fake a school and our records," she peeks from Fushiguro's shoulder, "Somewhere far from here. Is saying we're from Hokkaido too flashy because it's too far up, or not?"
"Hokkaido is too suspicious."
"Hiroshima, then."
Fushiguro thinks for a moment. "Can you even fake a Hiroshima-ben?"
"You underestimate me, Fushiguro," Nobara points accusingly to his face, "I just have to use 'nō' and—and—'jarō', or something."
Fushiguro shakes his head. "We can just say we grew into the dialect in Tokyo—Musutafu," he corrects himself, breath stuttering in his throat, "Fine. Let's say we pick Hiroshima. Where in Hiroshima are we going to choose?"
Nobara thinks for a moment before she reaches out to type something on the keyboard. It takes her a quick look on the maps and the schools before she settles for a particular one. "Fuchu City is okay. And here, Fuchu Dairoku looks like a normal school, doesn't stand out, has a plain name. Nothing noteworthy, honestly," she turns her head, "And according to this, the only thing UA cares about is lack of disciplinary cases and—" She squints. "The results of the practical exams. Are we going to fight heroes, or something?"
She can tell that even Fushiguro is unfamiliar with this. The only way to get into Jujutsu High School is through connections and even then, there are no entrance exams. Nobara ended up there because of her Grandmother and Fushiguro because of the Zen'in Family and their Gojou-sensei. Of course, there is Itadori who did a quick test with Yaga-sensei but that was only to make sure he would not be taking advantage of Sukuna's powers, something that Nobara highly doubts the boy will even ever do. In addition to this, when Nobara was younger, she never had to go through entrance exams for middle school. Not when everyone in their small town went there in the first place.
"If we are, how will you go?" Fushiguro asks. His voice is hushed and low, as if doing his best to not sound unsure or worried. The only time he ever expresses this much is when they are in the verge of dying—surprisingly more than a handful of times, Nobara thinks in amusement.
Eyebrows furrowed, Nobara gapes. "I'm not incompetent, Fushigu—"
"That's not what I'm saying, idiot," Fushiguro heaves out a sigh and dodges Nobara's aggressive nudge, "I mean, your Cursed Technique is meant to exorcise curses, not in the same way Itadori or mine's work. It's meant to... deal more damage. If you use it against humans—" Ah. The biggest fear of each and ever sorcerer: finally getting to the point where it is unavoidable to kill a living being but, Nobara has gone past that. The Curse Brothers were never exorcised. They were killed. And while Nobara told Itadori that she was not as affected as he was, at the end, Nobara killed something, though a curse as they may appear, Nobara still killed something. Someone.
Nobara grins, digging her elbow against Fushiguro's side who narrowly avoids it. "Is Fushiguro-kyun worried about me?" She coos. She wiggles her finger right in front of Fushiguro's face but only receives an unamused look in return.
"I'm not joking around, Kugisaki," he murmurs, "We don't know exactly how Pro-Hero School works. We break each other's bones in training but that's Jujutsu, not—not—" He grimaces. "Hero... -ing."
He glares at Nobara when she snorts.
"I'll do the same thing I did with the guys from Kyoto. I have my hammer toy. It wouldn't be dealing as much damage as the real hammer. I can't say anything about concussions though," Nobara shrugs, "But look—" She changes the conversation topic smoothly. "UA isn't the only hero school available. Their rival is called Shiketsu but for some reason, UA's the only one with a livestreamed sports festival and..." She continues to read the article on screen. "Oh? That Candy Hero guy's going to be a teacher there."
Fushiguro leans forward. "The Maito Konpēto?"
"I saw him in an underwear magazine too. Number One Hero, Number One Underwear. Imagine Gojou-sensei advertising brands too: Number One Sorcerer, Number One Underwear." Nobara shudders in disgust.
In the official website of UA, it does not take them a while to find out the list of staffs, with all of them being Pro-Heroes. The classes are divided into four managements with different priorities in terms of studies, their priorities rather self-explanatory to their names: the Department of Heroes, Department of General Education, Department of Support, and the Department of Management. Unsurprisingly, the ones that get the most screentime from the previous videos of the sports festival online are those from the Department of Heroes, Class 1-A and Class 1-B. It is an unspoken fact that the Department of Supports do not really aim for the highest spots but instead, their simply want their machineries and trinkets to be shown to the public. There, the Pro-Heroes-in-training religiously aim for the highest spot in order to get apprenticeships from 'Agencies', which sounds simple enough, Nobara observes.
Fushiguro stops scrolling on the website when he reaches the staff members. "Is that... a bear?"
"That's," Nobara begins in disbelief, "a mouse. Look, his tail's long."
"No, he's definitely a bea—that's not the point. That's the principal."
Nobara pauses. "I mean, we have Tengen-sama. He's been alive for how many years? He's probably as old as the Owari Castle, or something. The paintings of him in the hallways make him look like a Curse," she mumbles, looking from one side to another as if she expects Yaga-sensei to show up and scold them for being rude to their greatest Barrier Master in history.
Fushiguro does this in Yaga-sensei's stead. "Don't talk like that to Tengen-sama. He's the reason why the school is still standing."
Deciding that speculating about the oddity of how Quirks work on both animals and humans are way above their league as of the moment, Fushiguro and Nobara simply continue scrolling through the list of staffs. Nobara grabs Fushiguro by the shoulder, pointing at one of the teachers, specifically the dark-haired one. "I've seen this guy when I was searching for stuff in the library. They call him an Underground Hero, or something—it's not anything official though. You can't really say you're going to be one. There's even a book about them. It was too long though," Nobara muses.
Underground Pro-Heroism and 'normal' Pro-Heroism was simply a term coined by the public. There are no official details about 'being an official Underground Pro-Hero', stating those exact words in your business card or something. A Pro-Hero will always be labeled as a 'Pro-Hero' and any association to those so-called 'status of being undeground' is a term used to address the Pro-Heroes who do not wish to be under the spotlight as much others are. Because of this, they have relative popularity with the government and a specific group in the population as they do not inflict as much damage as the 'Spotlight' Pro-Heroes. But at the end, 'underground' and 'above ground' Pro-Heroism is nothing but a social construct.
Nobara leans against the wall, already exhausted from hunching over the screen in a matter of a few minutes. "We still have a whole history to study if we're really going through the entrance exam," she sighs. But without any leads about Itadori, this is the best option they can use without putting a huge target to their backs. Actually approaching the police will expose their identity as... 'dimension travelers', or what not. If they try to look for the so-called 'Villains', they might step on a landmime and become an enemy of both the 'Villains' and the Pro-Heroes. This is the best option they can go with.
She sighs, again. Things would be easier if they were confident enough to go through this world and fight their way through but they are surrounded by civilians and people in spandex being advertised by underwear brands and candies.
She gathers herself. When she looks up, Fushiguro is already staring at her. There is an exchange between them, the same kind of exchange they had when Itadori 'died' with Fushiguro witnessing it happen before his eyes and Nobara stuck with a feeling of uselessness. An understanding. Empathy. Sympathy. A mutual, and unspoke decision. She grins. "Guess we're camping in the library again, aren't we?" She struggles to make a joke. She glances at the time, an hour almost up. She stands up and stretches her legs and her back. "You wanna leave early? Sugiyama-san and Yuriko-san will be worried if we come home too late."
Fushiguro opens his mouth as if he wants to say something but decides not to. Nobara puts a hand on his head and that is all she does. She knows better than to step in Fushiguro's circle, and Fushiguro knows better than to do the same with hers. This understanding is enough, is what Nobara thinks. There is nothing they need more than this silent companionship. She pulls Fushiguro up once she steps outside. His hand is cold, just as cold as hers. Whether it is because of the air-conditioning or not, Nobara does not care enough to find out. She tightens her grip around him and he does the same.
She lowers her head a little. The floor seems to be more interesting now than ever. Fushiguro helps her get a stable footing as she wears her shoes, a pair of old sneakers that was owned by the Sugiyama couples' kids from middle school. Men's shoes, but Nobara never cared for that. She even wears a gakuran to school. "You know, Itadori's probably alright. He always is," she convinces herself more than Fushiguro.
His hands become sweaty under her hold. Their hands almost slip but Nobara fears that if she lets go, Fushiguro will disappear to wherever Itadori is, or even worse, to where Itadori is not. Where neither of them can reach him, or a place where they cannot reach each other. They have nothing on Itadori. Not even a hint of a place where he can be.
Fushiguro reads her mind. "He can't stay dead. You really think he'll stay missing?" He scoffs.
"You have a point." Nobara lets Fushiguro use her to lean on as he wears his own shoes, this time, owned by Sugiyama-san while Nobara is saddled with the middle school clothes that their grandchildren have.
Just as they are about to begin moving, the owner of the cubicle next door suddenly steps out, blocking their way. Nobara is tempted to raise her eyebrows at this but purses her lip when she catches the sight of a bruised face and a gakuran gathered in an arm, along with a permanently glaring face. As if sensing her stare, the boy, just an inch or two taller than her, turns his glare to her.
Nobara, as a child, was never the passive type. In fact, she was often scolded by her peers and the adults around her that she was too aggressive and delinquent-like for her own good. Nobara picked more fights than she could afford and did not stop until her opponent was beaten to the ground, but that was when she was in elementary school, unlike Fushiguro who reached the peak of his delinquent phase when he was in junior high. But when this boy—purple all over whether it is because of his hair or his bruised face—began glaring at her, Nobara gets the temptation to give him more bruises.
But Fushiguro moves faster than her. He does not tower over the boy by much, only by a handful, but he seems so much bigger than this hunched middle schooler. "Do you need help?" He acts kinder than he likes to say he is. To be fair, Nobara thinks as she crosses her arms, Fushiguro has always been overly concerned for civilians like how Itadori related to Nobara about the day they first met, and the aftermaths of what happened. And, now that Nobara really thinks about it, Fushiguro was some sort of savior in his middle school, wasn't he? Going around beating delinquents black and blue so much that even to this day, his underclass men still respect him.
Seeing Fushiguro crunch his nose in worry reminds Nobara of this. (Despite being the one who can actually share feelings, Nobara is the least empathetic, isn't she?) The purple-haired boy scoots away. "I'm okay."
"You're—" Fushiguro stares at him. "—bruised."
"I'm okay."
Nobara rolls her eyes and decides to take matters in her own hands. The next thing they know, they are in a nearby park, tending to the boy's wounds.
...
His name is Shinsou Hitoshi. He was planning on camping out for the whole night in the internet café, or just enough days until all his wounds healed to not worry his parents which Nobara thinks is dumb. She, herself, was raised by her grandmother and she knows better to know that running away from your problems is only going to make the problem worse. Her grandmother's iron fist would dig into her skull and scold her until her ears bled, for god's sake.
Nobara does not know why they are even helping this guy. Making connections aside from the ones you truly need will only make things worse—their identities might be exposed and people might find out about the whole 'a Curse dragged us into an alternate dimension and now we are not only looking for a way to go home but also looking for our estranged friend who cannot be left alone'. But at the same time, when she had pulled Fushiguro to the side and tried to say that they cannot afford any more connections, Fushiguro corrected her: "We need them. We can't just show up out of nowhere. Someone other than Sugiyama-san and Yuriko-san needs to know about us. We need to establish ourselves as part of the society," to which Nobara complied begrudingly.
Nobara struggles to read Fushiguro this time. Is he doing this because he saw an opportunity to 'establish themselves as part of the society', as he says, or is it because Fushiguro is that kind person—as kind and caring as Itadori is, with only a different way of showing it. Nobara realizes that she is more like Gojou-sensei is this sense. Uncaring and self-centered. But she still does end up dabbing alcohol on this Shinsou Hitoshi's wounds.
He winces. "Be careful," Nobara glares at him, "Please."
Fushiguro comes back with a bottle of water, passing it to Shinsou. He glances at Shinsou's knuckles. "I think you broke your thumb. You need the hospital for that," Fushiguro comments.
"Really? I thought it was just dislocated. I was waiting for you to come back so you could set it back," Nobara wonders aloud.
Shinsou looks at them in disgust. He holds his own wrist, hissing when he moves his hand. "I'm not letting a bunch of strangers set a dislocated limb."
"It's just a thumb. And don't worry," Nobara snatches his hand away from him and pushes it to Fushiguro's direction. "Don't bite off your tongue—" The moment Fushiguro sets it back with impressive handiwork, truth to be told, Shinsou yelps, almost jumping out of his seat. He immediately waves his hand around as if it will help. "Next time, if you're going to punch someone, make sure your thumb is outside. And use your knuckles, not your fingers." Nobara would know. She spent her entire childhood breaking too many thumbs to count.
"And keep your arms close to your body," adds Fushiguro, "Don't aim for where the big bones are too. You're going to hurt yourself."
Right. Nobara realizes. This Shinsou Hitoshi is probably a middle school student at best, a year younger than the both of them, probably barely fifteen or just in the middle of fourteen years old. Nobara knows someone who looks like they are being bullied when she sees it. It reminds her of Saori. Saori who was the kindest to her. Saori who was ostracized by the village just because she appeared like someone from Tokyo, acted like someone from Tokyo, whose dialect is far from their own.
The world is the same no matter where they go. Just like Itadori's friend who he fondly calls Junpei, just like Maki-san with the Zen'in Family, just like Saori, just like now. With Shinsou Hitoshi. She crosses her arms, keeping quiet as she listens Shinsou hiss under his breath because of the dulling pain. "Middle schoolers are the worst," Nobara huffs, having encountered the worst kind of terrorizers when she was younger, "Does it have anything to do with your Quirk?"
She puts the pieces together quite easily. People hate what is different from them. Fushiguro and her struggled with those with mutant Quirks, Maki-san was ostracized because of her lack of Curse Energy, Inumaki-senpai's family was basically hunted down because of their powerful Curse Technique. It does not surprise that the object of people's distaste in this world is what is the most important for them: Quirks.
And Shinsou flinches. He pulls himself away from Fushiguro and Fushiguro lets him. "So what?" Shinsou grumbles.
Nobara has met a fare share of people with unique Curse Techniques but never enough for someone to actually be treated like this. If she lists it at the top of her head, the strangest Curse she has encountered is Panda-senpai. But aside from that, nothing much. Gojou-sensei's can be treated so powerful that it has become something terrifyingly strange. Nobara tries to tell Shinsou this. What made Saori happier, she remembers, is someone trying to help her and sympathize with her. Nobara struggles with this, truthfully.
She exhales, white smoke coming out of her mouth because of the cold. (Fushiguro's birthday is at December 22, wasn't it?) "We know someone who looks like a Panda. Well, he is a Panda," says Nobara hesitantly. How is anyone supposed to described Panda-senpai, anyway? "But he may as well be human because of how he acts. And he can also do thinks a gorilla can. So... I guess that's the strangest Cu—Quirk I've seen."
Fushiguro frowns. "I saw someone who can use his saliva as glue in the convenience store," he admits.
Affronted, Nobara sits back up. "Speaking of glue, can't Sugiyama-san sweat out glue? I was helping him with the laundry when he got stuck in the backyard. I honestly didn't know what to do," she cringes.
In an effort to alleviate the situation, Nobara continues going on and on about strange Quirks she has seen in this world. She makes use of her talkativity, how chatty she looks and seems to be, with snide comments about how Musutafu is strange, adding that Fushiguro and her came from the countryside before moving into a family friend's house, Sugiyama-san who lives with his wife. From the other side of the bench, Fushiguro dials Sugiyama-san's number to inform them that they will be 'home' a little later than usual.
It takes time but Shinsou eventually talks. His voice is soft and silent, a hand still gripping the one with a formerly dislocated thumb. "My Quirk's called Brainwashing," he admits, "Once you respond to me, I get to order you around. Brainwash you, in general. It's... a villainous Quirk."
Surprisingly, Fushiguro is the first to speak. "Have you ever done anything to hurt anyone with it?" He questions.
"Of course not!" Shinsou immediately replies.
Nobara grins, slinging an arm around the bench as she stretches her legs forward. "Well, there's no problem then," she shrugs, "We have this upperclass man in middle school with the same Quirk as you. But, the problem is that, he can't control his. Anything he says can be an order—or, brainwashing, like yours. So he limits his vocabulary and talks through ingredients instead." Ah. Nobara kind of misses the second years now. Her stomach clenches.
"Ingredients?" Shinsou looks confused.
"Shake," Nobara clarifies, "Okaka. He talks like that."
Shinsou can only probably do psychologically-influenced commands, basic ones that cannot order someone to 'explode' or 'die', unlike Inumaki-senpai's. It is why their whole family was targeted in the first place. Nobara glances at Fushiguro who stares at Shinsou gravely.
Ah, Nobara can't wait to find Itadori and go back home.
Nobara and Fushiguro end up in the front row seats of a villain attack in the middle of the day when they insisted to take care of the groceries for the Sugiyama couple who strangely continues to take them in. Yuriko-san gladly gave them the grocery list. Surprisingly, there are no strange fruits available, not even grotesque-looking ones like they expected because if there are mutated humans and animals around, why not food as well? Nobara is disappointed. A little. Just a little.
Of course, as if it is an age-old habit, Nobara makes Fushiguro carry everything. She likes to think that they have been doing this for ages. Which, technically, they have. Whenever Nobara goes out for shopping, she usually drags Itadori and Fushiguro with her, making them do all the carrying and even making them stand still as she hops from one clothing store to another. (Where the hell is Itadori anyway?) And when they finally finished grocery shopping, that is around the time when a monstrous 'villain' appeared out of nowhere, destroying everything in their path with little to no trouble.
Nobara knows that there are certain people with mutant Quirks but, really? The 'Villain' that may as well be a Curse Spirit, appears as some sort of octopus being with large tentacles sprouting from its small body. Absolutely stunned, Nobara just ends up getting dragged away Fushiguro, who pushes a grocery bag or two to her to lessen some of his weight. "You're not supposed to stand there!" Fushiguro shouts at her.
"There's an octopus monster-villain, or whatever! How can I not just stand there?!" Nobara shouts back.
"You're a sorcerer!"
"Octopus. Monster. Villain."
Nobara clicks her tongue. The lack of curse spirit activity had her leaving her weaponry back in the Sugiyama Household. She is stripped of her basic defenses and is stuck with only her bare hands. While her Curse Technique lets her have enhanced strength, definitely less than Itadori, however, Nobara is not as good with hand-to-hand combat. She should definitely have listened to her grandmother when she scolded her of getting too used to her hammer and nails. And as expected, Fushiguro begins running faster than her. That is until he stops on his tracks.
Nobara slams against his back and gathers some of the fallen groceries. "Why did you stop?" She grumbles.
Fushiguro huffs. "The Candy Guy," is all he says.
"Candy—" Nobara finds herself stopping too. Her hold on the bags is slipping but all she can do is stare as a large, hulking man jumps from the skies to a few meters behind him. "It's Number One Underwear."
"Number One Hero," Fushiguro ends the tagline.
Nobara has met many charismatic people. The type of person that would simply ooze strength as if they were always meant to do that. There is Gojou Satoru, the living god, as her grandmother calls him. There is Zen'in Maki who triumphs above them all even when she has no Curse Energy. There is Tengen-sama too.
And now, there is the Pro-Hero from the underwear brand and the candy packages.
All Might.
・ question of the chapter: who do you think will have an interesting dynamic with nobara and megumi in bnha?
ten people ten colors