"Hello? Anyone still here?"

Tora hesitantly entered the workshop. There probably wasn't anyone here anymore. School was out. Everyone had gone home, but then why was the door still open?

"Hello?"

His second, louder call-out was answered by the a clattering of glass, some stumbling and then a door on his right slamming open, revealing a slightly dishevelled, pale girl with lime green hair tied in a lazy bun and eyes that shimmered rainbow colours in the fluorescent light of the room. She looked older than him. A second year, maybe third year student?

"Hi! Wait… You're not from the Support course." She started mumbling to herself. "You look pretty buff, but that does not preclude anything. Plenty of buff guys in the General course looking to get in the Hero course. Higher concentration of sodium does suggest sweating and trace amounts of lactic acid, so recent physical activity?…"

Should he interrupt her? Would she even hear him?

"Aha!"

She jumped up. Making Tora jump in response

"You're from the Hero course! You probably want to make adjustments to your Hero suit."

"Um… Yeah?" Tora wasn't sure what to think of this girl. Shouldn't there be a teacher keeping an eye on her? "I got a filled-in form here. No design specifics. I mostly need it to be functional. The design company can make it look how they want."

"Great! Lemme just grab the folder and I'll give it to teach' tomorrow."

She swiped the form out of Tora's hand and walked over to a cabinet with an odd sway in her step, as if she was avoiding invisible tennis balls.

"Are you alright?"

"Hmmm?" The girl looked up from checking the form. "Of course I'm fine. I wouldn't be working still if I felt sick. I'm not that much of a workaholic." She laughed.

"Oh… Ok… Good. I just saw you walking and I thought… Nevermind."

"No worries," she waved it off, "I get that a lot. It's got to do with my Quirk."

"Oh really? Interesting."

The Support girl continued glancing over the file while she talked.

"Yeah, it's a handy one though, especially in my field."

She paused for a second while she looked at the top of the form.

"Hang on. Saotama Tora? Are you Saotama Tora from 1-A?"

"Yes, ma'am. Is something wrong?"

She dropped the folder, ran up to him and vigorously shook his hands.

"No! Not at all! I just never got to thank you, so thank you!"

"You're welcome? But why?"

This visit to the Support course was quickly becoming more than Tora bargained for. He was aware that the Support students could be eccentric. So were they in the Hero course, but this was getting a bit much.

"Huh? He never told you about me?"

"Who?"

"Hmmm, guess not. Sit down, lemme tell you!"

She pulled Tora to one of the desks and sat him down in a chair.

"I should probably start by introducing myself." she slapped herself on the forehead. "I completely forgot that. Too focused on work, sorry. Anyway! I'm Bunseki Chuui, I'm a third year in the Support course and I work with your classmate Kumodoku." She smiled expectantly when she revealed his name.

"You work with Kumo? Why did he never mention this? What do you two work on?"

Bunseki shrugged. "It's not his style. You know how he is. He's helping me with my finals project actually. He does get his own benefit out of it, but he's a good kid. He'd be helping me regardless."

That did sound like Kumodoku. He looked scary, but he had a heart of gold and definitely opened up after Tora had his talk with him.

"I'm working on special gas filters to help emergency responders and Heroes work in dangerous environments like burning buildings or chemical facilities. Lugging big heavy gas canisters around limits movement and tires you out quicker, so I wanna make small, easy-to-use filters to replace those and both Kumodoku's and my Quirk are perfect for that."

"Does your Quirk also involve gasses?"

"Oh yeah! Forgot to tell you that too. Sorry! Again… My Quirk shows me the chemical composition of any gas. So for example, when you arrived here, you were breathing out slightly more carbon dioxide than most people, so I can tell you either ran here or have exercised before you came here."

"Wow. That sounds amazing."

"It's pretty cool, but it also has its downsides. I can't turn it off for example, so I see these compositions all the freaking time." She emphasized her point by waving away the air in front of her

"Oh… that does sound inconvenient… Wait, is that why you walked that way?"

"You're perceptive." She awkwardly laughed and rubbed the back of her head, averting her eyes. "Yeah… The air isn't completely uniform, so you have these pockets with slightly more nitrogen or whatever in them. It's not bad for you or anything, but I see them anyway. It's kinda like when a floor tile is a slightly different colour. It doesn't do anything, but it bothers you anyway."

"Huh, that makes a lot of sense actually."

"I'm glad you understand." She was back to smiling, but let out a little gasp when she glanced at the clock. "I've been keeping you here for far too long! You still need to get home. I'll give your form to Mister Kurafuto first thing in the morning."

Tora jumped out of his chair. Kaira was probably waiting for him to make dinner.

"Thanks, I'll see you around and I'll tell Kumo that you said hi."

Tora was happy. He met someone new, was looking forward to his new suit and Kumodoku had made friend outside of class. Things were looking up for everyone.

Teiden was standing on the corner, occasionally looking at his cellphone.

Things had being going well between Kikai and him. Though she still couldn't finish a sentence without stuttering, she had warmed up to him. She joined him at lunch by herself and had once even asked him to join her on the roof to spend some time by themselves.

Her father hadn't allowed her to go and have some fun after school, but they'd found somewhat of a solution. They'd meet up at the trainstation and walk the last bit to school together. The walk was always pleasant and laughs were often had, but Teiden couldn't shake the feeling that there was still some distance between them. Literally. She never got closer to him. She did seem to try and sway towards him occasionally, but she always corrected herself.

"Hi Denkyuu."

Teiden jumped with a start. Next to him stood his plain, brown-haired crush, a gentle smile adorned her face. He had been so lost in thought he hadn't heard her approach.

"D-did I scare you?"

"Nah, just kinda thinking to myself." he said while waving it off. "Shall we?"

Kikai nodded enthusiastically.

The walk was quieter than usual. Kikai was clearly thinking about something, but Teiden knew better than to pry. Then again, she would never want to bother him with her problems. Asking her wouldn't hurt, right. She was so difficult to read…

"Umm, Denkyuu? You can suppress your Quirk, right?"

"Huh? Oh! Yeah, I can. Takes some effort though."

"Could you try it for a moment? I-I want to test something."

Teiden closed his eyes. Turning off the electric field his Quirk created took a lot of concentration and effort. Like flexing every muscle in his body all at once. He often had to do that as well for some reason. But it worked. He could feel the electric field that surrounded him receding. Kikai better hurry. He wasn't sure how long he could hold it in.

He almost lost focus when he felt it. Something carefully and tenderly grabbed his hand. It intertwined its fingers with his and softly squeezed.

Kikai's hand was cold, like touching a metal pole, but it filled Teiden with warmth. If only he could enjoy it fully, without straining himself so much.

"I-I know how you feel… The frustration… I-I've wanted to do this for a while, but I think our Quirks don't really like each other… E-Every time I-I get closer to you, it started h-hurting. B-But at least now we know why."

Kikai smiled, genuinely, maybe for the first time.

"That's… That's great… But can you let go of my hand? I… I don't know how long I can keep this up."

"Oh! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Kikai immediately let go and took a step back.

Teiden let go of the breath he had been holding in and let his Quirk flow free again.

"I'm sorry… I just really wanted to…"

"Hey, it's okay. I wanted it too. I just… I didn't think it was our Quirks. But, that just means I have even more of a reason to get my Quirk under control." Teiden smiled at her and gave a confident thumbs up. "I promise you I'll be able to fully control it without effort and then we can do what we want."

His enthusiasm was contagious. Kikai felt the corners of her mouth curl up. She nodded and smiled. "And I'll be cheering you on and doing what I can to be stronger too!"

This sucked!

Kaira sat at her desk brooding.

Everyone around her was happy. Tsuchi was, as always, laughing and fooling around, Denkyuu was exceptionally chipper today and even Kikai was looking less withdrawn and more optimistic. And yet, here she was still no closer to confessing her feelings than before.

Even worse, it was looking like she had a competition.

Tobuga and Tora were talking class rep stuff, but more was going on. She was laughing at just about everything he said and she was touching him, putting her hand on top of his. She was definitely trying to closer to him

"Have you heard the news?! I'm so happy for them!"

Tsuchioru came bounding next to Kaira. Her smile wavered when she saw her scowl and followed her gaze. The lessened smile now turned to something devious.

"Are you getting jealous?" she teased.

"I'm gonna have to do something about this," Kaira gritted her teeth, "I'm not gonna lose him to her."

"So you're finally gonna confess to him?" Tsuchioru sounded almost desperately hopeful.

"I'm gonna have a talk with her and I'll straighten this right out…"

"That sounds ominous. Why does that sound ominous?!"

I live!
Sorry about the hiatus. Things have been hectic. I guess that happens in this time when you work in the medical sector, but I managed to squeeze some time in to keep writing.
So to put my whole, like, 10 followers at ease. I have not abandoned this story, just a bit slower on working on it, because of personal reasons