*I have footnotes on the bottom on things referring to Japanese culture and birthdates.*
The second term of the school year was well underway. The amount of classwork had given the students of class 1-A a plateful of stress especially the students who secured work studies and the two students who were taking extra lessons due to their failure on the hero licensing exam.
One student; however, had another problem looming over her head. Kyoka Jiro could not find a present for her best friend Momo Yaoyorozu's upcoming 16th birthday. Today was September 21st, two days away from Momo's birthday. Today was also the national holiday, Respect for the Aged Day; however, due to the school being in lockdown mode, students were not allowed to return home. To the students of U.A., today was a day off. Jiro used the free day to call upon the four other students who were part of Momo's study group to help her find a gift for her friend.
"What? I thought we agreed we weren't going to spend our day off studying like we did yesterday," Mina Ashido complained immediately upon walking into the room that they would usually study at.
"We're not," Jiro said, "I brought you guys to help me find a birthday gift for Yaomomo. It is this Wednesday."
"Why us?" Mashirao Ojiro asked.
"Well I thought that the study group should thank her in some way for always helping us. So do you guys have any gift ideas?" Jiro explained.
"Okay that makes sense but I don't have any ideas," Ojiro replied.
"Where is Yaomomo? Can't we just ask her if she wants anything? Although I suppose she can just buy it herself if she wants it because she is rolling in dough or she can use her quirk to create it," Hanta Sero said.
"I don't want to ask her; I want it to be a surprise. She's hanging outside with Toru so we have time to discuss her secret present," Jiro answered.
"Did Momo give you anything for your birthday?" Ashido asked.
"No, but my birthday was on the Kamino Incident. Yeah, it was a crazy day. I thought All Might was going to die. I didn't really get to celebrate my birthday with all the events happening after All Might's retirement," Jiro said.
"Not as crazy as my birthday," Ashido said. "My birthday was three days before yours. I thought all my friends were going to die in that forest."
"I guess I can't really complain about my birthday then," Sero said. "It was the first day of training camp. I spent my entire birthday in a forest full of monsters. Funny how our birthdays are all in one week."
"Oh yeah?" Kaminari exclaimed "I thought I was going to die on my birthday."
"What happened on your birthday?" Ojiro asked.
"I don't know. Jiro kept stabbing me," Kaminari said.
"Can we get back to talking about Yaomomo?" Jiro said.
"Wait hold on second, Jiro." Sero said "You punched me on my birthday too."
"Wait, why'd I do that?" Jiro said.
"For comparing Yaomomo's quirk to pooping."
"Oh yeah, I remember now."
"Wasn't that on the second day of training camp?" Ashido said.
"Was it? I can't remember; it was a very eventful week." Sero said.
"Wait what are we talking about?" Ojiro asked.
"It was the second day," Ashido said. "We were all eating the food we made after training and I was like 'Wow, you sure are starving Momo.' and then she was like 'My quirk transforms food into materials so the more I eat, the more I can make' and then Sero said 'Like how poop works' and then Kyoka punched him telling him to apologize."
"Wow, it's pretty impressive that you remember all that, Mina," Jiro said, especially considering you can't remember half of what we learned in class, Jiro thought.
"Kirishima kept punching me on my birthday too," Kaminari said.
"Oh, you're talking about Kirishima's infamous birthday punches. 'A punch for every year and an extra one for good luck.' He gave me those as well," Ojiro said.
"I didn't get those. He was too tired after the training exercises," Sero said.
"Aww man, lucky! The punches were so hard," Kaminari said.
"What? They weren't so bad. He didn't go that hard on us," Ojiro said.
"Yeah, maybe for you. I think he used his quirk on mine. I thought I was going to die." Kaminari said.
"You're so dramatic, Kaminari," Ashido snickered.
"How about we just punch Yaomomo for her birthday?" Sero suggested.
"We are not hurting Yaomomo!" Jiro said adamantly. "Any other ideas?"
"Hey I just realized Yaomomo's the youngest of us six and she's tutoring us. That's pretty ironic and I got Yaomomo to thank for helping me understand irony," Sero said.
"It's also ironic that we are talking about what gift to give our younger friend on the senior respecting holiday," Ojiro added.
"But we're not even talking about gifts," Jiro said.
"It's also pretty ironic that all of our birthdays are in the first half of the school year," Kaminari said.
"That's not even an example of irony," Jiro said. "What's ironic is how dumb you are even with all the help you're getting from the best of our class."
"It's ironic how you can't find a gift for your best friend by yourself." Kaminari retorted
The other four students were used to the constant arguments between Jiro and Kaminari as they all sit one desk apart from them in class and reacted indifferently to these put-downs.
"It sucks how Tsu and Ochaco have to work on a holiday." Ashido chimed in out of nowhere.
"I guess heroes don't get days off since villains don't take days off either" Sero said.
"And with All Might in retirement, they probably want a good amount of heroes on duty today," Ojiro said.
After this experience, Jiro received a new sense of appreciation for Momo, who was able to teach lessons without the entire group getting sidetracked every few seconds.
"Okay! If you guys have no more ideas, I'm going to head back to my room and see if I can come up with anything," Jiro said.
"Sorry Kyoka, I've got nothing. I wish I could come up with something so I can repay Momo for being a great friend and a tutor," Ashido said.
"Maybe you should go ask someone like Iida or Todoroki, they'll probably have some good insight," Kaminari suggested.
"Weren't you just saying that I shouldn't rely on the help of other people," Jiro said.
"I don't remember saying anything like that."
"Okay whatever, I'll give it a try. Thanks guys for your help," Jiro said.
When Jiro left the room, however, Kaminari followed her.
"Hey, can I come with you?" he said.
"Why?" asked Jiro.
"I don't have anything to do. Kirishima bailed on me; he said he had to go do some remedial classes for the days he missed due to his work-study."
"Remedial classes? You should join him then," Jiro teased. "Okay. This is Iida's room, right? Let's hope he has some good ideas."
Jiro knocked on the door. Iida opened the door after a short moment.
"Oh, hello Jiro and Kaminari! Is there something I can assist you with?" he asked.
"Hello! Sorry for interrupting what you were doing," Jiro started.
"No worries, just doing some light reading was all. What did you come here for?" Iida interjected.
"It's Yaomomo's birthday soon and I or, uh, we wanted to get her a gift for always helping us. Do you have any ideas?" Jiro said.
"Ahh, a gift. I know the perfect one. A book. Yes! What better gift than knowledge itself. A book that will further advance her scholarly endeavours."
"Yeah I don't think that's what we are looking for," Jiro said.
"What are you looking for?" Iida asked
"Something less lame," Kaminari said.
"What? That is absurd. Books are not lame at all. They say leaders are readers and I think that students and heroes alike should all try to incorporate reading into their daily lives. Even you, Kaminari. In fact, I'm sure Yaoyorozu would agree with me that books are one of mankind's greatest inventions, if not the best. Let me give you some more reason as to why books are the best."
Iida continued with a long rant on why books are essential and would be an excellent present.
"Okay! Sorry, we, um, got to go. Sorry. Thanks for the help though," Jiro said before Iida could finish his rant.
"Why'd you have to get aggravate him like that," Jiro scolded Kaminari
"Sorry about that. I'll talk less to Todoroki. I saw him in the lounge right before you called me to the study room."
"Okay, let's hope Todoroki has some good ideas," Jiro said
"I'm positive he'll have an idea," Kaminari said, "He always has ideas and I think he and Yaomomo are pretty close considering they both got in on recommendation and sit next to each other in class."
Jiro and Kaminari walk down to see Todoroki and Bakugo together working with laptops.
"Oh hey guys! I didn't expect to see you guys together. Has the provisional license training course made you guys friends?" Kaminari said.
"Not a chance," Bakugo said. "We have to work on this stupid slideshow presentation together for that stupid class. What do you want with me? I want to get this stupid thing finished."
"We're actually here to talk to Todoroki," Jiro said.
"Oh, what for?" Todoroki said.
"Um… well… I was wondering if you had any ideas for a fitting gift for Yaomomo?" Jiro said
"Hmmm… I don't know."
"Come on Todoroki, you're our final hope. We need to find a gift for her," Kaminari said.
"Why is this so important?"
"Because we need to thank her for all the things she did for us," Jiro said.
"Sorry, I got nothing right now."
"How about you give her a card with your thanks for her in it, then," Bakugo said.
"Wow, that's a pretty good idea," Jiro said. "Surprising that it came from you."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SURPRISING IT CAME FROM ME? I COME WITH GOOD IDEAS ALL THE TIME!" Bakugo shouted.
"Wow, how'd you come up with such a perfect gift so fast, Bakugo?" Kaminari asked.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN? It was the most obvious gift. A thank you card to thank someone that needs thanking. How'd you guys not manage to come up with it?"
"Maybe we just aren't as sweet as you," Todoroki said.
"SHUT UP! Go back to working on your slides, Icy-hot."
"Oh hey, there's the Bakugo I'm used to," Kaminari said.
"You two get out of here. I need to kill this stupid project today."
This will be a three-part short story. I'll post the next chapter next week on September 16th and the last chapter on Yaoyorozu's birthday.
*General school year schedule in Tokyo, Japan.
1st trimester April 8 – July 20
Summer vacation July 21- August 31
2nd trimester September 1 – December 24
Winter vacation December 25 – January 7
3rd trimester January 8 – March 24
Spring vacation March 25 – April 7
Respect for the Aged Day: On this holiday, people return home to visit and pay respect to the elders. Held on the third Monday of September.
Momo Yaoyorozu's birthday: September 23
Kyoka Jiro: August 1
Mina Ashido: July 29
Hanta Sero: July 27
Denki Kaminari: June 29
Mashirao Ojiro: May 28