Rule #24b: Compromise is inevitable

Before anyone knew it, September was over and October was upon them. As the air outside grew colder, the time was spent coming to terms with what had happened. Those students involved in the Hassaikai raid were escorted to Sir Nighteye's funeral alongside All Might & Aizawa-Sensei; both of whom looked rather dapper in their black suits (and for once All Might actually wore a suit that fitted him). It was a beautiful event with a field of flowers lain upon the altar and a sternly smiling image of Nighteye nestled between them. Toru and the others mostly kept to the row of chairs they had been bookended to by their teachers throughout the service; although All Might & Mirio (being the two people who knew him best) got up and choked through their goodbyes with stiff upper lips & flowing tears—even Midoriya said a few words!

Following that, they met up with their Work Studies' mentors who had attended as they shook hands and shared condolences. It was there, while Fatgum guzzled down hor dourves like they were going out of style and Snipe stood sneezing periodically into his mask next to the flowers, that it was decided the Work Studies programme would be put on hold for the time being. In turn, it was announced that Nighteye's sidekick, Centipeder, would take up the mantle of agency director with Bubble Girl at his side and together the two eagerly awaited the day Mirio would return to their ranks, even going so far as to promise him a place amongst them no matter his state.

As for Eri, they were told that she had eventually regained consciousness and recovered, but because she was still emotionally unstable leading her Quirk to lash out at any time, so the hospital had to take precautions in her recovery. Unfortunately this meant that she couldn't have visitors, a fact which greatly disappointed both of Nighteye's students as seen by their fallen expressions when they were told. But there was some other progress too which had them in high spirits once more; apparently the doctors had been able to discover that the horn on Eri's forehead (which seemed linked to her Rewind Quirk) shrank as her fever went down until it was but a nub against her skin which was a good sign.

Ugh! Toru silently groaned as leant back against one of the desks and waited for school to start. Her lids were drooping so far that she had practically fallen asleep on Sero's shoulder. I know the funeral was super early 'cause of school and stuff, but WHY?! I wanna sleep!

"Hey guys! C'mere!" Mina called as she placed her singing phone on a desk off to the side. Toru perked up as she woke up a little (she was getting better with the whole looking-at-pink-stuff thing). "Check this! I'm a break dancing queen!"

"Aw yeah!" Sero pumped his fist in the air while Mina spun around on the floor, her legs going every which way.

"Get it!" Toru clapped, amazed, as the pinkette danced, spun & performed moves that she slowly learning the names too thanks to all those Dancing for Delinquent classes.

"Check this breakdown!"

"Wow!"

"Check you out!"

"She's obviously practised extensively" Aoyama observed, hand on chin in a thinking pose.

"WHY'RE YOU WEARING SHORTS UNDERNEATH YOUR SKIRT?!" Mineta despaired upon noticing said garment.

"WHEN WILL YOU LEARN TO STOP BEING SUCH A PERVY CREEP?!" Toru spun on her heel in a fit of irritation and thumped her fists against the grape boy's head, hammering him down to the ground until he was barely more than chewed gum stuck to the floor. "Hmphf!"

"I bet Ashido's dancing skills will end up being super useful in hand-to-hand combat" Midoriya noted, taking out one of his many data notebooks and flipping through to the page on his pink classmate. "When it comes to a fight, she would have complete control over her entire body!"

"Oui, I can attest to that" Aoyama agreed, looking a little depressed. "She burnt through my cape in our first training match and then in the Sports Festival finals…I will never forget that!"

"Huh" The greenette hummed, ignoring the blonde's latter comments. "Maybe I should take up dancing too?"

"She could teach ya!" Kaminari butted in with a shit-eating grin. "Mina!"

"Aw yeah boi!" Mina sang, pausing for breath. "Let's see what moves ya got!"

"Um! Okay! Please show me how!" Midoriya blinked, a little taken aback at the sudden turn in conversation. He had just been musing aloud, not quite sure that he wanted to learn to dance.

"We'll start with something easy" Mina started, falling into a simple cross-step "Step forward & back and left & right whilst swinging both arms. Make sure you're staying loose!"

"…Sure?" Midoriya and Aoyama then fell into the most robotic dancing Toru had ever seen since her grandfather had done what he'd liked to call 'Dad Dancing'. It was embarrassing then and it was embarrassing now, nevertheless Toru had to swallow her giggles at the sight of it; their expressions just topped off the icing on the cake. "Think I've got it! Yup!"

Nope!

"This reminds me of how Sato's always baking stuff" Kaminari mused aloud as he watched the three, grin firmly in place. "It's a hobby, but also helps out with hero work. Man! So smart!—Speaking of! I bet yours is the same, Jiro!"

"What?" Jiro flushed, "I dunno…"

"C'me on! Your dorm room looks like a recording studio! One look and I could tell music is your whole life!"

"Drop it, moron! Forget about what you saw in there!"

Yeah dipshit, let it go! Toru bit her lip as she tried to contain her grin. Or she's gonna rip you a new one!

"Oh yeah, that's passion all right!" Kaminari continued on, clueless. "For real though, you should start a jam—eep!"

"Just shut it!" Jiro threatened, her earphone jack mere centimetres from the quivering blonde's nose. When it appeared that her threat had been received and understood, she stormed off back to her seat, leaving Kaminari cluelessly searching for answers in her wake. Momo just giggled into her hands as the clueless blonde turned to her like a lost puppy.

"TORU!" The classroom door suddenly slammed open behind her with so much force that it cut through the smatterings of conversation littered about.

"I DIDN'T DO IT!" Toru jumped up in surprise, saying the first thing that came to mind as she spun on her heel to find Hinata Li panting in the doorway with an armload of shoeboxes under one arm. Several bouts of laughter rose about her, making the invisible girl flush but she turned to focus on the neko boy in front of her. Thankfully it didn't take long for most of them to return to their conversations.

"Do what?" Hinata tilted his head in question, twins tails copying the movement of his ears as they flopped to the side.

"Hinata? What are you doing here?" Toru copied his action from across the room, replying to his question with one of her own.

"Oh!" He perked up, waving her over as he dumped all but one box to the ground at his feet. " C'me 'ere! C'me 'ere! The shoes finally came in!"

"Oh yes!" She did a little dance before racing across the classroom, dodging around surprised classmates and leap-frogged over a few of the desks that were in her way. "Lemme see! Lemme see!"

"Dearest Cinderella, I, the most talented engineer and designer of second year, present to you, your glass slippers!" He bowed dramatically, taking a knee (much to the squealing excitement of the girls) as she unboxed the shoes in question. They weren't actually glass slippers as the second year had teased, but in fact little strappy black heels that sat at three inches tall with a small stiletto heel.

"Ooh!" Mina's sparkling eyes peered over her shoulder, "Try 'em on! Try 'em on!"

"Okay! Okay!" Toru giggled as she easily toed off her school shoes before replacing them the dancing heels.

In the end it took a bit of finagling plus the use of the closest desk to wrangle the world's smallest buckle into cooperating until they were finally on. She wobbled only a little as she regained her bearings, now a whole three inches taller, but was fine soon enough.

"Wow, hey! We're the same height now!" Mina laughed as Toru elbow-checked her in the ribs.

"Ooh! These are so comfy!" Toru sighed as she jumped up & down and wandered up and down the aisles as she tested out the shoes.

"Why thank you!" Hinata bowed once more before he rose and tried to restack the remaining shoe boxes into his arms.

"What are the shoes for, Toru, ribbit?" Tsu asked as she leant over her desk to inspect the heels.

"Hm? Oh, they're for the dance concert we've got coming up—see ya Hinata—I could've sworn I told you that" She replied, waving goodbye to the neko boy as he left to find the next person.

"No, you didn't"

"Oh"

"I think you're thinking of us" Kirishima piped up, raising one of his hands and pointed towards Bakugou, Midoriya and Todoroki with the other. "When we went to the store for…girl stuff?"

"Oh—oh yeah!" Toru clapped her hands together as she remembered that day. Apparently a few of the boys did two as they suddenly became either ashen-faced like they were remembering a horror movie or flushed so red Toru feared they would pass out from heat exhaustion. "Anyway, it's still a couple of weeks away we're getting them now, so we can wear 'em in"

"Ooh! You're trained too?!" Mina sparkled, grabbing a hold of her wrists and spinning her around.

"I would't say trained—" Toru stumbled over her own feet as Mina's phone switched to something a little less punchy and a little more upbeat.

"—Dance with me!"

"Wah! Mina!"

The two girls spun and danced around the classroom, their limbs loose and giggles falling free as they just played fusion of hip hop and tango (really the only style Toru knew properly) created some sort of intimate dance that left several of their peers blushing bright red (read: Kaminari & Mineta) whilst others—like Iida—were left steaming in their seats. Their class rep, in particular, seemed to have lost his words even though he was clearly having some sort of aneurism as the two wove in and around each other, almost too wrapped up in each other, at least until their teacher arrived and chased them back to their seats with a tired glower.


With September finally rolling into October, there came the ever anticipated school festivals that were associated with the spooky Autumnal season. Sure, UA wasn't the first or the only school to ever do a big event like this, but every one of the students was still excited nonetheless. "It's coming" Aizawa-Sensei drawled from behind a juice box and encompassed by his trademark sleeping bag. "The school festival"

"NORMAL SCHOOL STUFF!" 1-A chorused, some even jumping from their seats.

"So awesome!"

"I love this time of year!"

"We gotta think of something cool to do!"

"Hold on, Aizawa-Sensei!" Kirishima jolted to his feet. "Are you sure this is okay?!"

"Zip it, Kirishima!" Kaminari hissed over his shoulder at the red head. "Don't you ruin this!"

"Think about it though! There are villains everywhere right now!"

"You're right, that's a reasonable point" Aizawa-Sensei interjected as he slowly zipped up his sleeping bag and readied himself for the end of lesson nap. "However, there are students here besides those in the Hero course. You get the spotlight every year at the Sports Fest, this for everyone else. The Support course, the General Studies course and don't forget the Business course students. This doesn't get as much attention as the Sports Fest, but it's still the yearly even they all look forward to. Many of your peers are feeling stressed out by the current conditions here at UA; especially the dorm system which had to be adopted because of the hero course"

"When you put it like that…" Kirishima dropped sheepishly back into his seat. "Guess it'd be pretty unfair to cancel it"

"Correct, so yeah, it's still on and hopefully everyone will enjoy it. Though unlike school festivals in the past, this one will only be open to UA students and staff with a few exceptions. You may not be the sole focus this time, but your class still needs to participate with some kind of original programming. You need to decide what you want to do today…"

And with that, Aizawa-Sensei was out for the count, happily snoring away in the corner he had chosen for himself. As such, Iida and Momo quickly took over the class proceedings with so much enthusiasm that Toru marvelled at how their teacher didn't even flinch. Probably too used to dealing with 'problem children' or Mic-Sensei. Toru mused as Iida bellowed.

"ALRIGHT! AS CLASS REPRESENTATIVE, IT IS MY DUTY TO FACILITATE THE PROCESS FROM HERE!" Iida snapped to attention. "I PROMISE I WILL DO MY VERY BEST! LET'S START! FIRST, WE WILL HAVE A QUICK BRAINSTORMING SESSION! IF ANYONE HAS AN IDEA, PLEASE RAISE YOUR HAND!"

"Ooh! Ooh!"

"Me! Me! Me!"

"Pick me! Pick me!"

"I got one!"

"Iida! Over here!"

He really shouldn't have said that. Toru thought as her classmates' hands rocketed into the air and the volume was kicked up a notch.

"I wasn't expecting such enthusiasm. Calm down now, we'll go one at a time" Iida blinked, a little overwhelmed by the response. "YES! YOU, KAMINARI!"

"A MAID CAFE!" Kaminari rocketed to his feet with a grin. "Seriously! Imagine it! Now imagine it again with more details! And if you imagine me in the center of the action…hoho! Yeah! I think we've already got a winner"

"Maids…it is good to serve others"

"THAT'S WAY TOO TAME!" Mineta wailed, hand in the air.

"MINETA!"

"A TOPLESS—"

"—Wanna help me tie this off?" Tsu turned to Sato as she hoisted Mineta into the air, bound and gagged like a pineta. Nobody batted an eye.

"I feel violated" Toru murmured to herself, "And not in a good way"

"There's a good way?" Midoriya tilted his head in confusion, having overheard the invisible girl. "What's the good way?"

"N-nothing!" Toru squeaked with a flush blooming across her cheeks as she resolutely stared down at the desk in front of her.

"A mochi shop!" Ochako suggested next, far more calm than the first two had been.

"Celebrating Japanese cuisine!" Iida cheered.

"An arm wrestling match!" Kirishima added his two cents before people just started calling out random things.

"So intense!"

"A fun house!"

"I don't what you mean, but it sounds interesting!"

"Crepes!"

"That'd be great for eating on the go!"

"Disco!"

"Sounds invigorating!"

"A hero quiz!"

"As I'd expect from you"

"The frog song and around!"

"How charming!"

"Maybe a petting zoo?"

"Also a suggestion!"

"Soba stall!"

"It is your favourite!"

"FIGHT TO THE DEATH!"

"Unexpected for a festival"

"A mad banquet of darkness"

"Ohoho!"

"A twinkling extravaganza!"

"Huh?"

"Maybe a skit?"

"Possibly. Right, anybody else?"

"A traditional cafe!"

"A dance routine!"

"Takiyaki shop!"

Eventually (with help from Momo) every single suggestion was written down on the board and everyone had calmed down enough to whittle the options down. Mineta was still tied up and hanging from the ceiling—they didn't trust him not to pipe up with another dirty comment. "Okay!" Iida clapped his hands, returning everyone's attention to the front of the room. "I think we've got something from everyone now"

"To begin with, let's cut some" Momo turned to the remote in her hands as she got rid of some of the options that were either too flimsy for a festival or over the top. "Anything inappropriate, impossible or confusing"

With most of the things struck from the list (including their own), the pair were met with some backlash that overtook the meeting. Toru blew out a sigh as she rested her head in her hands, well aware of how her classmates could go off on tangents; especially with normal school stuff like this. Like when choosing a class rep had taken up pretty much a whole day in of itself, instead of the ten minutes it should have. In the end, their complaints were brought to a halt by the chiming of the bell, waking Aizawa-Sensei from his impromptu nap.

"Eurgh! That was a highly unproductive meeting" Aizawa-Sensei yawned as he strode towards the door with sleeping bag draped over his shoulder. Toru was sure that the man was just going to sleep in the teacher's lounge anyway. "Decide what you'll do by tomorrow morning. If you don't we'll be doing my idea—an educational lecture"

"You mean, just a class?" The students chorused in confusion. Toru let her head collapse into her arms as she pictured the twenty of them lined up in neat rows as their perpetually tired teacher gave the school some random lecture.

"Who'd come see that?" Kaminari despaired.

"He's joking" Sero replied, "Right?"

"No way! We'll decide what we're gonna do by tonight!" Kirishima decreed.

"Yeah!"


Supplementary classes that evening were pretty quiet with only the five of them who participated in the Hassaikai raid plus Tokoyami who had been busy with his own work studies programme. Aizawa-Sensei appeared just as tired that evening as he usually did and their lessons went more or less the same. Save for a small moment when he revealed that Eri was asking after the greenette and Mirio ever since she had awoken. Apparently she had been beating herself up about the whole thing, feeling entirely way too much guilt for someone so young that the teachers were hoping if she got some closure, she would feel better. Nevertheless, Midoriya was just happy to be going to see her again—he'd lit up when Aizawa-Sensei had told them she was awake.

Upon arriving back at the dorms that night, they had been greeted with the rest of their classmates who had outright claimed to have decided on the class's assignment for the school festival, which admittedly was a weight off of Toru's back. With the added stress of her DFD class's presentation at the festival, she wasn't sure she could handle the embarrassment of sitting through one of Aizawa-Sensei's lectures in front of the whole school.

"Hey guys!" Kirishima waved as they returned from the latest—and last—supplementary class that evening.

"Sorry we're showing up so late!" Added Midoriya as he rubbed sheepishly at the back of his neck.

"We finally made up the classes we missed during our work studies" Ochako explained, panting a little from the rush over.

"But now we can help out for real!" Toru cheered, throwing her arms up in the air.

"Ribbit" Tsu agreed as they were then told what the class had decided on in their absence. Apparently the whole rave thing had been Todoroki's idea, which had come as a surprise to the invisible girl; she (like most others) hadn't really pegged the two-toned boy for that kind of thing. "…I see, so we've decided to go with rave-rock-club music for our performance?"

"Having Jiro on the bass and Yaoyorozu on the keyboard makes sense, for sure" Kirishima puzzled through it all. "But…"

"…Bakugou on the drums?" Ochako picked where the red head had left off. "It's kinda of, uh, how do I put it?"

"Shocking?" Toru suggested.

"YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH ME?!" Bakugou retorted to which the three former students furiously shook their heads whilst Toru just wore a shit-eating grin.

"Question" Tsu posed, "Who'll be singing? Isn't that most important thing?"

"Oh, well, we haven't figured that part out yet…" Replied Jiro.

"Huh? Doesn't it have to be you, Jiro?" Ochako puzzled.

"Uh…!"

"Lead singers get all the girls!" Mineta spouted more of his usual pervy nonsense, practically begging for a smack. "I could do it!"

"Just imagine the singing disco ball!" Aoyama twirled next to him. "Trés magnifique!"

"Guys! Not to brag, but I'm a pretty awesome singer" Kirishima nominated himself, with both thumbs pointed in his direction before breaking out into song. "Tough guy captains the ship standing tall~'cause you are manly~"

"Yeah, that's not the right genre" Ochako gently denied. Mineta all but yelled random gibberish into his makeshift microphone whilst Aoyama sounded like a cat being run over by a lawnmower.

"Toru!" Jiro turned desperately to the invisible girl beside her. "You sang at that wedding, right?"

"Uh yeah, not well" Toru admitted a little sheepishly as she thought back on the wedding in question. She had asked Jiro for a few pointers beforehand, and the song had gone well enough but it was no performance. She could kind of carry a tune, in the same way the Midoriya could kind of dance, if you squinted your eyes and tilted your head a bit. "That was more for posterity's sake more than anything. But Jiro! You're an awesome singer! When you were teaching us how to play instruments in your room, your singing was super cool! I know you'll bring the house down!"

"C'me on, it wasn't that great. Maybe we—"

"—Hey! Look! A mic!"

"We just laid our souls bare for them and they're ignoring us?!" Mineta whined. "Can Jiro really be that good? Ugh! I mean, c'me on!"

"Don't be shy! Show us those pipes! We wanna hear ya sing something!" Kirishima was far more supportive, despite his downtrodden expression saying otherwise.

There was a beat of silence as Jiro sucked in a deep breath, closed her eyes and then began to sing. Toru already knew that the girl could sing—she was the one that had shoved a microphone in her face and demanded that she demonstrate for the class—but hearing her voice again was something to behold. Looking around at her classmates, she watched as awe swept across their faces like a sea of tides and she could practically see the golden sparkles shining in their eyes as she sang.

"MY EARS ARE SO HAPPY!" Ochako cheered, both arms in the air and very close to whacking Midoriya in the face.

"SUCH A SULTRY VOICE!" Mina did a happy little dance.

"I TOLD YOU!" Chirped Toru, smugly.

"ALL RIGHT! I CALL IT A UNANIMOUS DECISION!" Iida grinned.

"Well…let's set that aside then" Jiro appeared a little put off at that. "Now! We need guitars; I'm thinking two"

"Ooh yeah! Pick me!" Kaminari's hand shot up into the air. "It's so cool to play instruments!"

"LET ME STRUM!" Mineta agreed.

"…I'd just break the strings" Kirishima hummed, bummed out.

"Don't you dare volunteer unless you're gonna kill it, dimwit!" Threatened Bakugou in his usual agro fashion.

"Yeah! I totally will!" The blonde smiled, not at all put off by Bakugou's attitude. "The guitar is the star of every rock band!"

"…Wah!" Mineta wailed as he carelessly tossed aside one of the guitars Jiro had laying around. "My fingers won't reach because of my character design!"

"I want to be on the dance crew!" Sato decreed.

"Me too!" Ojiro agreed, tail wagging in excitement. "I can move pretty well with my tail!"

"And I can use my tail to help with the special effects!" Sero added. All conversation was quickly cut short by a sudden and magnificent riff courtesy of Tokoyami who appeared to be way to into it. Toru could almost picture the sunset behind him.

"It's like that riff is speaking directly to my heart!" Kirishima wept.

"You can play?" Shoji breathed in awe. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I put down the axe when I was bested by the F chord" Tokoyami admitted a little sheepishly before turning to the weeping boy in the corner. "Mineta, if you can't play yourself, then I will strum for you as well"

"Do whatever you want dammit!" Mineta wailed into his knees, "This is so stupid! Let's just get this festival over with! I hope all your nails break off!"

"Mineta?" Mina called, throwing the boy a bone. Although, Toru wasn't sure why he deserved one with the way he was acting. "Will you be a part of the dance team if I can get a harem together?"

"The school festival can't come soon enough!"

And so when the clock struck one am, everything was finally locked down and roles decided. The band team consisted of Bakugou, Momo, Kaminari, Tokoyami and Jiro. The effects team was Koda, Kirishima, Sero, Aoyama and Todoroki; which left the remaining ten students to make up the dance team, led by Mina. With everyone so pumped up for the festival, Toru had to wonder if this could even be considered a compromise considering where they had started from. Best plans, and all that.