Rule #19c: Image is everything

Leaves burnt golden and trees bore their skeletal branches as November neared its end and the Hassaikai kids were pulled aside after school one day by Aizawa-Sensei. It was in one of the plushie-decorated nap offices (spaces set aside for personal use and usually where their teacher could be found napping) that they were confronted with the image of Nejire braiding Eri's hair upon the couch. The albino in question wore the most adorable blue dress & booties, but the hideous sequinned cat sweater she wore overtop was an absolute eyesore (clearly Aizawa's doing—the man was a cat fiend).

From the head of the coffee table, Tamaki watched the pair with a fond smile on his lips even as he struggled against the confinements of the tangerine bean bag he had fallen into with limbs all akimbo. Mirio, who despite having lost the use of his Quirk, was bouncing around the office like an excitable puppy who kept bumping into things and then there was their homeroom teacher who watched over his students with his usual tired air, but strangely no sign of his yellow sleeping bag to be seen.

"Eri's coming to live at UA" Aizawa-Sensei drawled as he closed the door behind his first years and Eri waved shyly to the greenette at the front of the pack who bore glistening eyes & a massive grin.

"I THOUGHT IT'D BE FOREVER UNTIL I SAW HER AGAIN!" Midoriya wept. His classmates quickly (and wisely) side-stepped the miniature waterfalls that suddenly sprung from his eyes and trickled to the floor at his feet, least they got caught in the splash zone.

So emotional! Toru huffed as she scrunched up her face in disgust at the feeling of wet socks squelching in her shoes. Are we sure his Quirk isn't crying?

"Hey!" Kirishima greeted with a wave and a sharp-toothed grin as he bent to crouch in front of the shy albino.

"I'm so happy to see you again!" Ochako beamed over his shoulder, as the others gathered around the redhead. Midoriya remained where he was standing next to their teacher, only now he stood cradled in Mirio's arms and stained his shirt with his tears & snot. He soon moved on from crying over Eri to apologising profusely to the blonde.

"Welcome home!" Toru added from Kirishima's left. Over her shoulder Tamaki was trying his damnedest to extract himself from the bean bag and was sorely losing.

"You remind me of my little sister, ribbit" Tsu croaked from where she leant over the back of the couch as Nejire tied off the braid with a neon pink ribbon. "So cute!"

"Gee, thank you so much!" Eri replied cutely, turning her head ever so slightly to glance back at the frog-girl before her gaze danced back to the others waiting in front of her.

"How—how is this even possible?" Midoriya sniffled as he cleaned himself with the spotted handkerchief that had been thrust into his hands. The haphazard monogrammed letters embroidered in the corner of the square was the only thing connecting it to Aizawa—well, that and the cat patterned material.

"We couldn't very well make her stay at the hospital forever" Aizawa-Sensei sassed, scrunching up his nose in disgust at the greenette's display even as he mopped himself up.

Eventually, Tamaki—all ruffled & bedraggled—was able to disentangle himself from the bean bag before he was pulled to his feet with a little help from Mirio, before Aizawa shooed them back outside for a more serious conversation, leaving Nejire & Eri to themselves for the time being. The first years chucked farewells over their shoulders as they followed after their seniors with Midoriya just barely keeping the tears from escaping once more as he closed the door behind them. Which was all in vain in the end, when Aizawa began to explain what was going on.

"…From what we can tell, Eri was abandoned by her parents" Aizawa-Sensei intoned over the muffled sniffles and hissed intakes of air. "We know that the head of the Hassaikai is her blood relative, but he's been in a coma for a while now. Something which was worsened by the actions taken during the raid"

Ouch. Toru winced as the latter half was directed at her. She still felt bad about that. Sure, the guy might've been the head of the local Yakuza gang, but that didn't mean she had the right to play with his life like that.

"So she was nowhere else to go"

"But that's not all" Mirio piped up as Toru wallowed in her guilt. He was far more subdued than before as he pulled himself up to his full height. "Aizawa-Sensei may have mentioned this already, but the docs figured out Eri's horn is where her Quirk is released from"

"Yeah" Kirishima hummed. "He said it had gotten smaller, so it should be fine"

"True, it had, but it's slowly started to get bigger again"

"Meaning, in order to keep an eye on her power…?" Ochako trailed off.

"Exactly" Aizawa-Sensei nodded as he answered the unasked question. "So, that's why we're going to let her live here instead of putting her into the system. We'll set up a room for her in the teacher's dorm. Hopefully she'll be happy & we can help her find a way to harness her tremendous power. This is only our first step, though, clearly it's a long road"

"Sounds like it's gonna be a whole lotta work for you" Tsu bluntly stated.

"That's where I come in!" Mirio's hand shot up into the air with some that same enthusiasm from before as he struck a pose. Aizawa shot the blonde an irritated look as he leant away from the limb, looking very much like an annoyed cat. "I'm on a temp leave from school right now and I'm super buddy-buddy with our little Eri! So I'm helping out! I know you guys are majorly busy, but I'm hoping you guys will stop by and say hi?"

"Of course we will!" The first years chorused with Midoriya still sounding a little hoarse from his sudden bout of crying.

"If Eri's Quirk becomes usable and she learns how to control it, then I bet we'll have our invincible man back in no time" Tamaki added softly, placing a reassuring hand on the blonde's shoulder.

"Man! That'd be awesome right? Guess we'll see though" Mirio smiled in reply as his hands came up to rest behind his head. But even then, Toru could see the hope and relief swimming in his features—it was hard losing something that had been a part of you for so long.

"Sorry to be asking for help already" Aizawa-Sensei then turned to the pair of third years beside him. "But can you get her settled in?"

"Roger sir!" Mirio saluted whilst Tamaki just shyly nodded his head. "We'll play some board games!"

"Do you mind if we join you?" Midoriya asked hopefully.

"I do" Aizawa-Sensei refuted, turning to the disappointed boy and his confused classmates. "Go back to the dorms, you have visitors"

Visitors? Toru hummed. I wonder who it could be?

"They'll be here soon"


Back at the first year's dormitory that evening, where uniforms were exchanged for comfy clothes & snacks were wrestled from their packets into bowls as they settled in for the evening and awaited their aforementioned mysterious guests. There was also the Japanese Hero Billboard Charts to look forward to and (mostly) their reason for gathering together to watch the proceedings on TV. The Japanese Hero Billboard Charts was an award show that ranked the country's heroes in power, popularity and community service twice every year—once in the beginning & once at the end. It would be the first one since All Might's retirement, however, leaving the number one spot open. Consequently, it was also the first show in decades that would have the heroes there. Typically, it was all just computer graphics with the occasional interview from the budding or the top ten heroes plus civilians gushing over their favourites.

Toru wandered back from the kitchen where Momo had left the day's tea—Armando's Peach & Passionfruit Punch—with Kuro's fluffy brush tail poking out of the front pouch of her cat hoodie and the hems of her yellow flannel pyjama pants brushing against the carpet, picking up static. She could feel the tops of her rainbow thigh high socks rolling down already but she didn't bother to stop and readjust them; mostly because she didn't want to spill either tea or cat onto the carpet.

"Achoo!" Tokoyami paused in his journey to the couch to sneeze.

"Uh oh! I hope you're not getting sick!" Ochako commented as she cradled her own cup of tea in her hands.

"I am quite well. My mucus membranes are merely doing their job"

"Er…what?"

"Or someone's talking about you!" Kaminari teased, sparing a glance up towards the bird boy from where he had been giggling with Momo over something. "Like the ones who showed for Yaoyorozu at the concert"

"Don't you make fun of them Kaminari!" Momo chastised, "I'm lucky to have them!"

"Tokoyami's probably had fans for a while now" Ochako piped up. "He did his work study with Hawks, so I bet he has some serious street cred!"

"No, likely not" Tokoyami refuted. "Everything moved too fast there"

KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Our guests have arrived!" Iida chirped, standing to attention at the sound. "Let's welcome them!"

"Your feline fantasies are here!"

"Allow us to lend a helping paw!"

"Champions serving up justice!"

"Purr~fectly cute cat-like heroes!"

"We're the Wild Wild Pussycats!" The quartet burst into the room dressed in their casual clothes and baring gifts for the students. Just as it was odd to see teachers outside of school, it was equally as odd to see the heroes out of the costumes. Their trademarked greeting didn't really help matters, particularly as a broody-looking Kota peered out from between the quartet as if they were framing him.

"How unexpected!" Iida beamed. "Glad to see you!"

"It seems our little kittens are doing well!" Pixie Bob purred as some of the students ran to greet them.

"I couldn't protect you back then. I apologise" Tiger then turned to Bakugou (and in turn, Toru) who stood subdued off in the corner. Toru quietly watched from where she had perched herself on the armrest of the closest couch as the usually brusque blonde quietly brushed off the apology despite being seemingly relieved that the heroes were alright.

"We're all doing pretty good, right?" Jiro smiled.

"Cat paw buns! They bought cat paw buns!" Tsu, Mina & Ochako cheered, raising the confection in the air as they celebrated.

"Make yourself at home" Shoji offered as he gestured to the coffee table laden with snacks.

"No, thank you" Mandalay politely refused. "We can't stay long"

"We need to visit Class B too" Tiger explained.

Toru smiled fondly with fingers sifting through the fur of the fluff ball in her pouch as she watched the interactions between the heroes & her classmates play out. It didn't take long for Midoriya to spot the small brooding boy and like a bee to pollen, shot forward to grasp his little hand in his. Toru mused on the greenette's affinity for small children as she watched him pump the boy's hand up & down whilst expressing his best wishes. There was even a precious moment where Mandalay called attention to the boy's choice in footwear which sent him all aflutter in a panic. For someone who had vehemently declared his hatred for heroes, he sure did appear to look up to Midoriya a lot.

"It's great to see you, but why're you here?" Sato brought over a tray of tea which he offered to Ragdoll & Pixie Bob wearing one of the many joke aprons that he had been gifted for his birthday. This one was bright pink and read: THAT'S NOT BURNT, THAT'S FLAVOUR!

"Just to let you know we're back in business" Pixie Bob replied, once again politely refusing the offering.

"Seriously?" Iida blinked in disbelief.

"Congratulations!" Momo was far more receptive towards the idea. "That's wonderful!"

"Are you back at work too then, Ragdoll?" Midoriya asked of the feline heroine. "I know you took time off when your Quirk got stolen, so…"

"Still powerless!" Ragdoll chirped, seemingly far too upbeat about the whole thing. "I'll be working behind the scenes to support the other three in the field. Just call me the office cat!"

"We've received a report from Tartarus Prison recently" Pixie Bob went on. "All For One has offered to return her Quirk to her, but only if he's released. The thing is, they still don't know how many powers he has. He could be hiding some dangerous Quirks, which unfortunately means the smartest way to contain him is to not let him use any abilities"

"So why choose this moment to go back into action?" Momo pestered. "If you don't mind me asking"

"This will be announced later, but it's our spot on the Japanese Hero Billboard Charts" Mandalay replied. "Y'see we're ranked 411th this term!"

"Wow, last time you guys came in at 32nd!" Said Midoriya.

"So it's cause your rank went down!" Kirishima perked up in realisation, "That makes sense!"

"No, silly! Isn't it weird that we're still in the triple digits even though we haven't done any hero work?" Ragdoll beamed, sounding deceptively happy about the whole thing.

"Huh?"

"It's due to our approval rating!" Tiger explained. "That number gave us a big boost!"

"There are people waiting for us to return" Pixie Bob continued smugly.

"No way we could just stay on the sidelines!" Ragdoll chirped.

"So you're doing it for your fans?" Kirishima summed up before he began to furiously wipe at the tears gathering in his eyes. "You're so manly Wild Wild Pussycats!"

"Dude" Kaminari deadpanned. "Cool it"

"I kinda forgot they haven't announced the results for the second half of the year yet" Mina hummed as she clung to the confections gifted to them by the heroes. She was clearly fighting the urge to tear into the goodies.

"And so much has happened" Tokoyami added.

"A Chart without All Might? That's so strange!" Ojiro replied. "I can't imagine what it'd even look like!"


Not long after Kota & the Wild Wild Pussycats left UA with well-wishes from the students as they moved onto Class B, Toru found herself snuggled in between Todoroki & Mina as they and a few of their classmates that hadn't dispersed back to their rooms, sat down to watch the Japanese Hero Billboard Charts being broadcasted live on TV. Kuro squirmed around in her hoodie as the cat tried to resituate himself into a more comfortable spot close to Todoroki's fire side & the snack bowl perched on her knee.

"…It's the first Charts since Kamino when All Might, the Symbol of Peace, was forced into early retirement" The hostess beamed into the camera with pearly whites shining beneath the lights and the stage beyond, "You can feel the excitement folks! This is an important moment in the history of heroes! In the past, Pros didn't come up on stage during the announcements, but today we see something new! Here we go!"

"Number ten! Dropping down one rank from the last chart, the Dragon Hero: RYUKYU!" Spotlights illuminated the stage as the blonde walked tall and waved to the roaring crowd in thanks.

"Woo! Yes!" Ochako cheered from the floor, her hands shooting up into the air as she cheered for her mentor like the woman could hear her through the television.

"Number ten! Let's go!" Tsu chimed in as her tongue lashed out to swipe up a handful of popcorn and M & M's from the bowl on the coffee table.

"Number nine has also slipped in rank but won't be defeated! The Equipped Hero: YOROI MUSHA and number eight is from the Clean & Shiny commercial! It's everyone's favourite Laundry Hero: WASH!"

Wash popped to life up on the stage as Yoroi trudged up the stairs, moving slowly beneath the layers of his heavy armour. "…Number seven, in a HUGE leap up the charts it's KAMUI WOODS!"

"Woohoo! Yes!" Sero cheered for his mentor, strips of tape flowed like streamers from his elbows and attached themselves to whatever was unlucky enough to be in his close vicinity. Including a certain fiery blonde who sat squashed between his friends.

"OI! SOY SAUCE!" Bakugou snarled as he tried to disentangle himself from the tape glued to himself and the TV. "WATCH WHAT YOU'RE DOING, YOU EXTRA!"

"Sorry man" Sero chuckled sheepishly as a loud ripping sound was heard followed by a not-so-manly squeal that had Mina collapsing into relentless giggles.

"…Number six! From the Orthodox School of Manliness comes a regular in the top ten! It's the Shield Hero: CRUST!"

"Is he…crying?" Toru leant forward as if that would help her get a better view.

"So manly!" Kirishima pumped his fists in the air and tears gleamed in his own eyes.

"Number five! This bunny's spirit is infectious! The Rabbit Hero: MIRUKO!"

"Woo! Yes! Get it girl!" Mineta drooled over the bunny hero's close-up; eyes particularly drawn to her thunder thighs, bust and cocky smirk. "You can jump me any day! Ack—!"

No one even flinched any more when Mineta ate carpet soon after his distasteful comments. Honestly, it was a wonder he hadn't been reprimanded for them sooner. But. Toru supposed. UA's probably got more pressing issues to deal with than a pervy little shit who's brain-to-mouth filter doesn't work. Pity.

"Check out the HUGE mysterious increase in number four's resolved cases! It's the Ninja Hero: EDGESHOT!"

"This time, those heroes involved with the Kamino incident have all seen their approval ratings go up!" Chirped the newscaster in the brief lapse of quiet from the hostess. Stats flitted across the screen showing what she was talking about in colour-coded bars & numbers. Predictably, Midoriya started excitedly muttering to himself over this, but without one of his infamous notebooks on hand, he was forced to take invisible notes. Toru was amused to notice that his forefingers danced back and forth as if he were still writing them down.

"…He's currently on hiatus but still ranked highly! With the number one approval rating this round, it's the Fibre Hero: BEST JEANIST!" This time, instead of the hero in question prancing upon the stage, a small montage of Jeanist's latest antics were played for all to see.

"Hey look, Bakubro!" Kirishima knocked shoulders with the blonde next to him. "It's your hero!"

"He's not my hero, Shitty Hair!" Bakugou snapped back, although the blonde did appear slightly satisfied in seeing his mentor up there in the top three despite his hiatus.

"…Number two! He does things his own way! Which is how he reached the top of the Charts with lightning speed! It's the Winged Hero: HAWKS!"

"Oooh! 'Yami!" Mina squealed as the handsome hero popped onto the screen. "Aren't you proud?"

"The eager bird gets the worm" Tokoyami replied stoically as he puffed up in pride at seeing his mentor up on the stage.

"I thought it was the early bird…?" Toru murmured confusedly as their attention turned back to the screen in time for the final name to be called. This time, the lights dimmed dramatically as the final hero was called, pulling on far more theatrics for this one than any of the others.

"…Finally, he's been the temporary number one but today he'll officially inherit the sacred spot! After all this time, it's the Flame Hero: ENDEAVOR!"

Next to her, Toru felt more than saw Todoroki stiffen up slightly (or at least grow a little tense) at the mention of his father in the coveted number one spot, which confused her slightly. She knew that Endeavor was a bit of an asshole (at least from the brief first impression during the internships) but this kind of reaction was still odd. Todoroki never really talked about his home life—didn't talk much actually—aside from his daddy issues, dreams & aspirations.

Still she brushed it off as she rose from the couch with a small but satisfying crack of her bones as she made her way back to her bedroom, serenaded by a few goodnights from her peers. Following the initial presentation of the top ten heroes and their thank you speeches, the show had sort of just dwindled off into the newscasters interviewing the public to see who they thought was the hottest up & coming and who was the public's favourite and so on. Not exactly her cup of tea, so it was off to bed with a jaw-cracking yawn.