And that makes four.
And this marks the end of my bulk run of chapters.
Author's notes at the bottom.
The main entrance was a long row of heavy steel doors, at least eight from Izuku's count. Upon their approach three slid open as though reacting to their presence, each threshold large enough to drive a car through. The first day students hesitated for only a moment, still wary from earlier events.
The passage they entered was a short one. Even so the outside light faded off quickly, the space falling to darkness a few meters in. The trio's pace slowed to a crawl as they stepped into the shadows.
Almost instantly the group was overcome by a veil of small, glittering lights, the sight not so dissimilar to stars twinkling against the night sky. Izuku could make out the rough outline of large, circular room as he studied the space. His musings were broken by a sudden gasp from Minetta, drawing Midoriya's sight downward. A violet glow encircled their feet, like a spotlight radiating from the floor. As Minoru jumped in shock at the sight, the glow followed beneath him.
"Well, this certainly makes me feel special," Hagakure joked as she paced across the floor, her own circle of light following dutifully.
Before Izuku could start to theorize, the room bloomed in warm hues of amethyst. As the once dark walls were overtaken in purple radiance, Midoriya confirmed the massive, domed structure of the space. Following the curved walls upwards, Izuku beheld a wide, hanging walkway on the far side of the room, a winding staircase at either end of the overhang hugging the walls as they descended. Beneath that lay a dark alcove, a chest high counter formed seamlessly from the polished stone of the structure separating the main floor from the space beyond.
'Maybe a front desk of some sort,' was the best purpose the boy could assign to such an area.
"That's pretty..."
Midoriya had not paid much mind to the silence that persisted. Hearing Hagakure's voice again seemed to sharply emphasis both her and Minetta's lack of input for the past few moments. But rather than look to his new classmates, the boy turned a swift gaze upward, as though urged by silent demand.
From the peak of the dome, plunging down through the hall's violet glow, was a near pearlescent stalactite. The formation was like that of a spearhead, its size at least that of a steel shipping container. The blade-like growth appeared comprised of thousands of smaller crystals, running parallel towards the ground. Coupled with their pure form, it evoked the image of a meteor shower, frozen midway in its trail across the sky.
The hero-hopeful had to agree with Tooru, it was pretty.
"Hello there!"
Izuku jolted at the sudden greeting, Minetta's form colliding with his leg as the smaller boy jumped into him. Behind the counter beneath the raised walkway was a person. At least the students believed it to be a person, all they could make out through the shadows of the alcove was a set of eyes and a toothy grin. All of which were glowing a harsh yellow. It did sound like a woman speaking.
"Hello," Hagakure returned, shaking her blue sleeve in a happy wave. Minoru muttered something about girls who recover too fast as he descended from his companion's leg. Midoriya did his best to relax but something kept him on edge. He supposed suspicions would run high when dealing with some nondescript shadow person.
"You kids might wanna get a move on, the first day charge can be a little hectic." The speaker slid her eyes and mouth shut, her telltale glow outlining the slits. The features rotated with a short jerk, indicating a quick cocking of the head. Was she trying to be cute?
The sound of several steel bulkheads sliding open behind them drew the group's attention. Barely a moment passed before the first dozen freshmen eagerly skipped into the large entrance. Some of the more energetic ones began gawking at the immense space, spinning in circles and hopping about as they took in the high ceiling and the crystal centerpiece. A few noticed the purple "spotlights" beneath their feet and started dashing to and fro to see if they could loose them.
Izuku hardly had a moment to process the ongoing horseplay before again he felt Minetta's small frame latch onto his body, the boy quickly scampering up the greenette's torso before clutching onto his shoulders. This was Midoriya's only warning before the main body of the student horde crashed against him like a syrupy tidal wave. In spite of its relatively slow motion, the mass of young humanity quickly overcame the two boys, carrying them several meters across the room.
The nervous fanboy did his best to navigate the flow, one arm working to keep his balance as the other clasped onto Minoru's wrist, keeping the miniature teen from being torn away in the sluggish chaos. The heavy flow of foot traffic took a sudden turn towards the alcove beneath the overhang, the uninformed likely noticing the "help desk receptionist." Midoriya was spun and jerked as people began to push passed at an increasing pace.
A strong grip took hold of the boy's free arm, the one not holding on to Minetta. "Found you," Hagakure's voice called, "Come on!" Izuku only got a glimpse of the girl's blue sleeve before he and his passenger were whisked through the crowd. Tooru's headless blouse ducked and weaved through the thinning masses, working in the opposite direction of the horde. Her pair of friends were close behind, Midoriya doing his best to match the invisible girl's sharp cuts and swift movements. It was all he could do not to be dragged across the floor; Hagakure's grip was damn near unbreakable, the girl clearly boasted a lot more strength than expected.
In a scant few seconds the trio broke through the storm, now on the edge of the room just beside the row of entrance doors. Midoriya braced himself against the curved wall, miniature violet spotlights blooming under his palms. Minetta quickly adopted a similar pose, having climbed up to stand astride Izuku's shoulders. Tooru's disembodied uniform slid into frame from the left, leaning against the wall just beside the two boys.
"You guys okay? Things got pretty out of control back there."
Izuku could feel Minoru's vigorous nods of affirmation, the small teen's entire form quaking under his harsh movements. The green haired youth turned a shaky look over his shoulder, towards the still surging sea of first years. The familiar purple glow which emanated from the floor was now a bulbous, shifting blob of light, every bit the churning mass that the crowd of teens above had become.
"Please tell me we don't have to go back into that," Minetta pleaded with a single breath. Izuku gulped at the notion.
Tooru responded with a dismissive snort. "Naw, we're all in the same class so all we gotta do is make our way upstairs."
"You just wanna wonder off in this dark tower with no kind of guidance other than 'we need to go up'?"
The invisible girl reached up to pet Minoru's orbs, the boy confused as to whether he should feel enthused or insulted by the display. "Aw, don't worry about it munchkin, I already know the way."
Midoriya perked up at this, "You've been here before, Hagakure?"
"Well duh, had to scope things out before committing myself. They let fresh prospects tour the place on weekends before semester starts, I figured I'd take advantage of that."
Humming to himself, the fanboy continued, "When you say it like that, it makes me feel like I've been pretty thoughtless about all this. It's great that you thought ahead to scout out our classroom." Minetta nodded along, gaze cast down in a show of humility. Hagakure continued to pat his orbs.
"Oh this was before I'd even agreed to study here, I didn't even know what floor I'd be on, let alone which class. I just memorized a chunk of the layout and some room numbers, best I could do on short notice."
Izuku felt his jaw ready to drop, settling for staring wide-eyed at their transparent classmate. His purple headed ride-along fixed her with an incredulous look, left eyelid twitching. The boys were quickly coming to the conclusion that Tooru might just be a rather scary person.
The girl in question ignored the boys' distress, tugging on Midoriya's sleeve. "Come on, let's skirt the room and get up the stairs before the mob starts to disperse. Be easier to get around without the halls getting clogged up." Too stricken to resist, Izuku followed along as Hagakure began humming some kind of… "stealth theme." Minetta had reached a hand up to pet his own spheres, somewhat missing the attention.
"That was really impressive back there."
The invisible girl turned to her green haired friend, cocking her upper body in a show of curiosity. Minetta, who had scampered a few steps in front of the two, started walking backwards to join the conversation.
Midoriya elaborated, "The way you got us through the crowd, it looked effortless for you! If you weren't there, Minetta and I'd still be getting crushed and trampled right now."
Minoru got excited and continued the praise, "Yeah! You cut through that horde so fast, like a poop on a good day!"
There was a brief instance the boy was afforded to realize what he'd just spat out, his face paling considerably. Izuku slapped a palm over his own mouth, staring very much in the opposite direction of his friends, the embarrassment he felt on Minoru's behalf reaching critical levels. The whole time Tooru was fucking howling with laughter, all attempts to collect herself met with spectacular failure.
A near minute passed before the visibly challenged girl regained some level of control, snatching up Midoriya's sleeve before she started towards their miniature classmate. "Whoo – hee-hee – that was pretty great, thanks for that one."
Minetta stirred slightly from his position down on all fours, face almost pressed against the ground. The boy reanimated in an instant when Hagakure swept a hand through his orbs, shooting to his feet with sunshine in his soul and hope in his eyes. Izuku, following behind the invisible girl, shook his head in passing.
The trio fell in step as they strode deeper into the corridor, Hagakure between the two boys as she was directing the group. At a four way intersection, the girl's arm shot across Midoriya's front, diverting them down the right hall. That familiar violet glow followed beneath them, the intensity enough to light the entire passage for a few paces to the front and back.
"It really isn't that special."
Izuku and Minetta blinked, turning to their female friend with puzzled expressions. As far as they could tell, she continued facing forward.
"What you guys were talking about earlier, it's really nothing big. Just comes with the territory of," Tooru's arms sprang up, bending inwards and gesturing towards the space occupied by her head with swirling motions, "this. People don't always notice someone who isn't all there, so I pick up the slack by staying super aware of everything else. Only so many times you can get knocked into walls and down stairs before you start to adapt. Nothing special."
The boys could only stare, Hagakure now striding forward with her arms clasped behind her lower back. Neither could bring themselves to comment so the group proceeded in silence, trekking through the gently curving passage. Izuku found himself lost in thought, staring towards the top-right corner of the hallway. He watched as the advancing purple light overtook the gem-spotted ebony of the structure's walls. It was a somewhat mesmerizing sight.
All stopped as a sudden, deep chime echoed through the halls. The familiar four tones, a brief pause between the two pairs, were a mainstay of any student's day. The awkward tension among the group turned numb as the teens faced each other in silent question. Then the second set of four notes began and Minoru slammed his palms into both sides of his head.
"That's the warning chime!"
Izuku froze for only a second, pausing for reality to set itself in. It was all the time needed for Minoru and Tooru to get a substantial head start, the invisible girl keeping the lead despite the smaller boy's considerable legwork. A swift bark of, "Come on," from Hagakure dragged Midoriya into a dead sprint, eating up the distance between his classmates and himself in scant moments.
The corridor ahead continued curving to the left as they proceeded. In fact, the bend seemed to be getting more severe, an added incline further impeding their progress. At this point Minetta and Izuku began overtaking their transparent guide, the miniature teen leaping up the slope with the deft skill of a mountain goat.
"Just keep going," Hagakure called as Izuku passed, "there'll be a gap on the right soon, that passage leads to our classroom!" Eyes ahead, the boy gave a sharp nod, continuing his forward charge.
A heavy smack and a cry of pain from Minetta some distance ahead broke Midoriya's pace slightly. It was enough for Tooru to dart forward, one hand snatching the hero-hopeful by the back of his shirt. The greenette slid to a stop just in time, his forward foot thumping against a sudden obstacle.
The space before Izuku's eyes was engulfed in shining fuchsia. He took a second to realize he was bare centimeters from a wall. As his eyes trailed upwards and the bright glow faded to glitter-specked ebony, the boy saw that it was not a wall standing before him, but a slope. One with a remarkably severe angle. Gazing upwards into the darkness, Midoriya could just make out the lip of the incline well over a dozen meters above.
Minetta was laid out to the side, rolling back and forth on the ground with both palms pressed against his face. "What the hell is this!? Who designs a school like this!?"
Pulling back a few steps with Midoriya in tow, Tooru turned to the struggling boy. "Sorry about that, really! That caught me by surprise too – this… this shouldn't be here."
Izuku hummed in confusion, the invisible girl turning back to the sharp slope in front of them. He imagined her gaze to be scrutinizing. "When I came through here before, there was a staircase. Not even a big one, four jumps and I cleared the top. I know we didn't get turned around..."
A look to the left and right reveled no alternatives, they were effectively at a dead end. Izuku turned back the way they came, "Maybe we should try to back track?"
Hagakure crossed her arms in an "X" pattern, "It looks like this hallway is pretty remote, we might end up having to go around half the building and we only have a few minutes now."
Izuku was starting to sweat, it wouldn't look good to be late on their first day in a new school. Hagakure's cuff sat poised before her shirt collar, likely holding her chin in the standard thinker's pose. Minoru, for whatever reason, was crouched at the base of the slope, scanning up and down as though trying to gauge something.
"It's a test. Did you really think hero school would be normal?"
Midoriya jumped at the sudden voice, even with the speaker being so monotone. The hero-hopeful hadn't noticed this girl's approach at all, a sentiment Minetta shared as the boy shot forward in shock, smacking his head into the gradient again. Tooru merely tilted her stance, not at all surprised.
The girl approaching from behind was dressed in Aozora blue, her black hair cut in precise angles around her face and reaching down to the small of her back. Her discerning eyes were dark, deep as the blackest void. Her overall demeanor could be summed up in a single word: unamused.
Without further comment she strode forward, shrugging to adjust the violet straps of her backpack. Stepping passed Izuku and Tooru, the group of friends were drawn to a rummaging movement beneath the serious girl's shirt. The bottom buttons flicked free as a quarto of massive spider legs spread free of their confines, earning a high pitched whine from Minetta who slammed back first against the bottom of the incline, right in the girl's path.
The four arachnid limbs shot into the floor all around the prone boy with several sharp 'thmps!' effectively pinning Minetta in place. Midoriya felt the urge to intervene, but the spider girl was already in motion, her unnatural appendages launching her up the angled passage. The purple glow followed her rapid ascent of the slope, lighting the entire hallway in passing. Izuku readjusted his estimated length of the passage to around twenty meters as the girl disappeared over the top of the ramp, clearing the obstacle in seconds.
"Arachnoid appendages… seems simple but I'll bet they're really versatile. Between the sheer speed displayed and the average weight of your typical high school girl, those extra limbs must have a lot of strength behind them for her to travel so fast. And she seemed so confident in just charging straight up, she must have a good amount of practice scaling tall structures – buildings, maybe? Even if public quirk use is technically illegal… Maybe there's another aspect of her quirk related to her senses, heightened touch or something? And why only four spider legs? I guess combined with her normal limbs..."
Midoriya locked up in shock, too surprised to react beyond freezing as the ghostly digit pressed over his lips like the latch of a suitcase. Hagakure began in a playful whisper, "Sweetie, I think we're going to have to work on your ability to stay… 'present' in times like these."
Izuku did his best to level a flat look at the empty space over the girl's collar. The effect was sadly lost with the crimson blush burning across his features. Tooru responded with an audible grin – literally making the sheen sound – as she stepped back and turned to the rising hallway.
"Anyways, any thoughts on how we get passed this?"
The greenette grasped his chin, "Well, I suppose we could-"
Tooru's sleeve darted towards his face, stopping just before his eyes. Midoriya could almost feel the single finger she was no doubt holding up as she said, "One thought at a time now, okay?" This time, the boy's lack of humor was far more apparent, Hagakure turning away with an innocent round of whistling.
A sudden pop drew the pair's attention. Minetta, silent up until now, stood with his arm outstretched, pressing one of his detached orbs onto the rising length of hallway. The taller duo watched in half fascination, half disgust as a fresh grape bulged into formation atop the smaller boy's scalp.
"I can just climb it. If either of you has a rope or something, maybe I can tie it to something and lower it down."
If not for the fact that no sane person brought climbing rope to their first day of high school, it would have been an acceptable plan. Izuku sunk his hands into his pockets as he continued to analyze the situation.
At once he found his solution.
Withdrawing his right hand, the hero-hopeful retrieved an entire box's worth of tissues. His mother had been very excitable that morning – he'd never imagined how beneficial her tendencies would turn out to be.
The looks he was receiving from Minetta and Hagakure – at least Izuku assumed she was giving him one – were less then assuring. Already a short ways up the slope, clinging to a few of his sticky balls, Minoru flatly stated, "That's… an awful lot of tissues there, Midoriya."
Izuku responded by digging his free hand into his other pocket, the venture returning a second stack of napkins which doubled his original haul. Minetta's pupils drained deeper into the whites of his ever bulging eyes, an action further accelerated when the taller boy began rummaging through his back pocket for a presumable third batch of tissue.
"Okay," Hagakure popped, invisible palms snatching up the greenette's thankfully tissue-less appendage. "What exactly is the point of all these!?"
"My mom was very worried this morning."
The frank, casual delivery, as though all were explained in that one statement, smashed Tooru's mental power switch with reckless zeal, prompting a full conscious reboot. Minoru fared a bit better, cutting off a howl of laughter into a drawn out, humming rush of air which sounded a bit like a tiny elephant.
Throwing in a few chuckles of his own – mostly to get over the awkward displays of his new classmates – Izuku voiced his plan. "Anyway, if Minetta climbs up, I can follow behind him and use these tissues to cover up his balls-"
Minoru snorted at the word "balls."
Midoriya ignored the lack of maturity and finished, "that way I won't get stuck to them."
The tiny teen flashed his fellow highschoolers a thumbs up, not trusting his ability to keep a straight face if he turned around. "S-sounds like a plan, Midoriya," he said, beginning his sticky climb. For someone with Minoru's physique, he scaled that slope with practiced ease. Where he got said practice… was perhaps best left unanswered.
Izuku placed the first batch of napkins atop the lower orbs, making sure to layer and completely cover the adhesive surface. Heaven's forbid they experience some sort of mishap and either Hagakure or himself end up glued to the floor for the next few hours. Speaking of the hard-to-see young woman…
"Alright Hagakure, I'll head up first and secure the hand holds. If you just follow up behind me-"
A shrill yelp tore free of the boy's throat as a sudden weight pressed against his back, a single blue sleeve wrapping around his neck. A see-through palm closed around the collection of tissues, relieving Izuku of his precious supplies.
"It'll be easier if we do it like this, Midori." Tooru's voice was right over his ear, "You do the climbing and I'll make sure to cover the hand holds. Symbi-ology, you know?"
"Midori" could barely wheeze out a response, his observant mind far too concerned with the feel of his new friend's bust squished against the solid mass of his back. Izuku concluded with stark certainty that, transparent or not, Hagakure was a young lady well into her development. Minetta could only stare, his sticky ascent coming to a sudden halt.
The tiny teen's mood wasn't helped by the invisible girl's follow up comment of, "And as a bonus, there's a nice, soft girl clinging to you!" Minetta could almost feel Tooru's gaze shift on to him in spite of his inability to see her, the brief pause in dialogue concluded with, "A girl with a nice smell, right Minetti?"
"Minetti" turned, resuming his climb. There was an obvious sense of jealousy, annoyance that Midoriya was going to be pressed up against one of the female persuasion for any amount of time whilst he was left out. But for some curious reason… he couldn't help but feel relieved at the turn of events. And further beneath that, a bubbling fear began to ebb away, as though knowing he had just dodged the hungry gaze of a predator.
He may have gotten up that corridor a fair bit faster than expected.
Okay, building chapter here. Figuratively and literally.
Aozora itself has a... nature to it. The structure itself is already very irregular what with the strange geography, material makeup, sentient underlighting... Its a place that doesn't seem designed to be an institute of learning which is a relevant nod towards its true purpose and origins. There's a bit to this place as we'll learn with time.
Our core trio get a good amount of banter and character building. Tooru is our stand out this time around: I figured one of the inconveniences of invisibility was... well, not being perceived by people. When you're living in a major urban center, constantly jockeying for space amongst the hordes, that's a recipe for being tossed around. Being hyper aware of her surroundings and an expert in navigating crowds is a necessity for her, furthering on Midoriya's musings from last chapter about how having a quirk (Hagakure's in particular) isn't a universal plus.
Spider-girl is pretty much a direct rip of Keito, a minor villain from Rosario Vampire. At least in terms of overall design, mostly the whole growing-spider-legs-from-her-belly thing. The first of a few OC student characters we're obligated to see. I'll say right now that we won't be dealing with a full class of twenty - it's just too many personalities for me to differentiate or even care about let alone direct screen time to. That said, there will be some major original characters so the moderate number I do include I hopefully can bring to life convincingly.
So this is gonna be the end of updates for a while. I've got it outlined on my profile page the update "schedule" I have for the foreseeable future, so you likely won't see any activity from me until December. It's also not guaranteed - and indeed is rather doubtful - that the next thing I post will even pertain to this story as I've got a few little projects scattered across multiple fandoms that I'm stockpiling entries for.
For the time being, we'll be putting a pin in this one.