Chapter Seven: Dropping Bombs


When the time came to receive their hero costumes, to say that Morie was excited was an understatement.

Weeks ago, when the time had come to submit their costume design along with their application to U.A, her costume design had been what she was the most enthusiastic about.

Yes, her priorities had been perfectly in place. Her mother still saw reason to chide her right up to this day.

(No regrets.)

Complete with watercolors, she vaguely remembered nitpicking over the smallest of details, such as how her helmet in her costume and how the devices she had incorporated into her design had to stimulate specific pressure points, how there had to be a hole in each finger of her glove and holes in the soles of her combat boots, or even how her vest had to be able to be buckled at the front (not even including how she had requested for the said vests to have hidden compartments for first aid supplies and emergency medicine).

If that wasn't enough, Morie even specified the type of material she wanted her costume to be made of. In other words, her costume design either made the lives of those in charge of the creation process extremely easy or it gave them utmost hell.

With the amount of details that she had put into the design, she had doubted that they would be able to adhere to most of her requests, but much to her surprise, not only did they meet all her demands, they even made it better. Sometimes, the capabilities of technology just blew her mind.

The practicality of her former costume had made her decide to sacrifice on its aesthetic appeal, resulting in a boring design, bluntly put. However, the company had taken their own spin on her design: the pressure-point stimulating devices that were to be placed on her neck, arms, and legs respectively took the form of classy black bands, and they had improved her design for her boots by incorporating a sort of permeable and water-proof material where the holes she had requested for were located.

The quality of her costume had come out well, too- her colour scheme which mainly included black, shades of sapphire and pale blue- looked shiny and vivid when it had looked dull in her design, and the functionality of her costume had been maximised to its very peak. Hell, they even included an expandable first-aid kit, small tools and tablets of medicine in her hidden vest compartments!

Buckling the front of her vest and pulling the visor of her helmet over her eyes, she experimented with her usual manipulation of pressure while wearing her new gloves, intently scrutinising the cool marbles which hovered around her fingertips. Making the air pressure to increase at a point, she watched as the marbles in her hands spun accordingly, seemingly unaffected by her new gloves in the least. Beaming, she let the marbles fall down into the palm of her hand before she stepped out into the training grounds, utterly impressed by the way her costume had turned out.

The overall colour scheme hadn't clashed with the colour of her long dark hair like she thought it would, and as she secured her long hair in a ponytail, it gave her a (deceptively) elegant visage.

"Woah, looking good, Rie-san!" A voice exclaimed.

Turning around, Morie pulled up her visor and grinned.

"Thanks." She stated, flushing slightly at the compliment, before cheekily flashing a peace sign at her red-haired classmate. "You look good too- your costume has got to be the epitome of manliness!"

And Morie was not exaggerating- Kirishima was practically shirtless in his costume, and one could not argue that he certainly looked the part of a hero, what with his bright eyes and inspiring grin. However, she could barely bring herself to look at him for more than two seconds from her own feelings of embarrassment and disgust towards herself.

(Briefly wondering if she was a pervert for noticing that Kirishima was bloody ripped, she blandly corrected herself that no, she just had eyes.)

Well, at least she had not been reduced to a blushing mess.

Curiosity bubbled within her, and as Morie looked around, she couldn't help but notice that Kirishima was not the only one who looked good in his new costume. In fact, all of the Class 1-A members had costumes which brought out their respective charms. Now, she wasn't one for self-praise, but the costumes made them look fucking badass, for the lack of a better word.

She hated to admit it, but as a tiny observation, even Bakugou Katsuki of all people looked more striking than usual in his costume. While every else's costume made them look fittingly approachable as a hero, Bakugou's costume, with its sharp shades of black, orange and forest green, made him look intimidating. Powerful, even. It brought out a unique flair that was further showed off by the overall intimidating look he went for, coupled with his wide, confident grin.

Morie realised that she had been staring at him throughout All Might's speech, immersed within her own train of thoughts, and hastily she turned away before she could be accused of staring at the short-fused boy. Turning back to All Might, she took in his wide grin and listened silently to make up for her lapse of attention. Once the random groupings for that day's exercise was determined, the Number One Hero spread his arms and fixed upon them that wide, awe-inspiring grin.

"PLUS ULTRA! Let the training now commence!"

(For a moment, it felt utterly surreal that they were actually Heroes-in-training, and as the excitement rose contagiously, a smile curled up on her lips.)


.

"So."

"So," Mashirao furrowed his eyes. His tail flicked about him pensively as he waited for her to speak.

"We're up against Todoroki and Shouji. Todoroki seems to have a sort of ice-manipulation quirk and Shouji can switch out those arms of his for body parts? At least from what I noticed from their performance in the physical tests yesterday." Morie noted, rambling off on her thoughts. "To form a plan, we're going to have to know the strengths and limits for both of our quirks. I'll go first," she added quickly at Mashirao's mildly uncomfortable expression.

"I don't know if my quirk is easily recognisable, but it's called Pressure. I can sense atoms and molecules for up to five metres, and change the pressure of whatever I sense. To a limited extent, this lets me create wind and manipulate air somewhat." She explained, awkwardly trailing off because she really had no idea what else to say.

"I can use my tail as an extension of myself and I specialise in close combat," Mashirao stated helpfully when it was his turn to talk. She considered that, nodding as she thought about their options.

"Firstly, we don't know how powerful that guy's ice abilities are. For all we know, he could just freeze the entire building." Chuckling at that ridiculous idea, (no way that could happen, right?) she continued on. "We shouldn't split up so far- maybe one of us can stand in the corridor outside this room and the other can stay here to guard the missile."

"You can stay here, then." Mashirao suggested. "You can keep them away with your pressure, right?"

Morie hummed in thought.

"Yup, sounds good," she stated, quickly adding an afterthought, "If it seems like they're going to trap you at all, run back here and we can hold them off together, no?"

"Sounds like a plan." He agreed, and the new partners exchanged glances. Their mutual desire to win came in the form of a wordless agreement, something which made her smile.

She chuckled at that. "Let's win this, Mashirao."

"Yeah," a small smile appeared his features just for a moment as he got up and began to head out. "Let's do our best."

.

Morie was crouched alone in the room, her hand pressed to the concrete. Her eyes widened as she detected major pressure changes- air pressure on the walls of the building were increasing at an alarming rate, but yet the vibrations in the walls were decreasing...

It couldn't be-

"Mashirao, come back! He's freezing the entire building!" She cried out into her communication device, a slight panic taking over her.

In a patter of footsteps, Mashirao reappeared at the door. "What should we do now?"

Morie breathed in heavily, considering their options.

The pressure was still steadily increasing, meaning that Todoroki was drawing nearer and nearer. The air was buzzing now from the high pressure, and her eyes widened. Then she connected the dots, and something clicked in her mind as she flexed her fingers slowly.

"Okay," she stated once the last piece of her haphazardly put-together plan cluttered into place. "Hey, don't worry, he just gave as an advantage. I think. Here's an idea..."

.

Todoroki Shouto walked on calmly, his footsteps echoing against the frozen floors. The entirety of the building, inside and out, was encased in a deadly yet beautiful blue.

Just that morning, he had gotten into a mild disagreement with his father. It was nothing major, but it was enough to put him in a foul mood for the rest of the morning. As a result, he was more than determined to turn out victorious in this Battle Trial without a hitch, to prove his shitty old man wrong.

For one thing, he was absolutely certain that both of his opponents were frozen and unable to move. From what Shouji had told him, one of them had been with the device while the other had been outside in the building somewhere, probably on guard or planning to ambush them.

As the dual-haired boy entered the room with the nuclear device, his suspicions were confirmed as he spotted Mashirao Ojiro frozen and unable to move metres away from the device. For some reason, however, the ground he stepped on was mostly devoid of ice- and entire area in front of the entrance of the room only had specks of ice on it. He didn't think much of it, however- the missile was safely frozen over, and that was the only thing that mattered in the end.

His target was right before him, and as Todoroki stepped past Mashirao, he addressed him, feeling just a bit of pity for the other boy for his helplessness.

"Don't try to break out of the ice. Your skin will come right off, and you wouldn't be able to fight well." He stated curtly.

All he got in reply was a narrow-eyed stare, and in the silence, Todoroki turned away and continued to walk forward, footsteps echoing against the concrete, only stopping when he was directly in front of the missile. Raising a hand, he made to touch the nuclear device, only to realise that for some obscure reason, he could not.

A strange, invisible force pushed against his fingertips as he tried to touch the device. It repelled against his touch persistently and his eyes narrowed. He thought of Mashirao's unusually calm demeanour and the unfrozen floor across the room.

This setup... it could only be -

- a trap.

His realisation came too late, however, as the force around the the nuclear device increased with a manic intensity, and he was suddenly blasted off his feet away from the device.

"Mashirao!" A voice cried out, and his eyes widened by a fraction as Mashirao was suddenly before him, looking perfectly fine as he aimed a flurry of kicks and punches at him, forcing him further away from the device. Todoroki dodged the white and swirling capture tape he held in his hands and slid backwards out of the way. Raising a hand, he made to use his quirk immediately, fully intending to freeze Mashirao where he stood.

His hand halted, however, when a voice spoke up, evidently directed at him.

"I've put up a barrier of high pressure around you, so I don't recommend you do that, Todoroki." The source of the voice was made clear as a figure stepped out from behind the nuclear device. He immediately recognised her as Mashirao's partner-which surprised him, because according to Shouji, they had apparently split up. "Assuming you don't want to get shredded, of course."

Indeed, Todoroki was acutely aware of the force which now surrounded him as the dark-haired girl commented off-handedly. As he shifted on the spot, his eyes darted around the invisible barrier, as if searching for a way out.

Minamoto had pulled up her visor. The girl in question had dark brown hair tied up in a ponytail, giving her a proper and calm appearance as her dark eyes scrutinised him detachedly. As she briefly met his eyes, he realised that there was something about her which rubbed him the wrong way- or maybe it was just the faint sense of familiarity that was bothering him. The mystery was solved as he examined her eyes- dark, almond-shaped, and almost calculating.

She shifted slightly in her stance, and the revelation hit him that she was waiting to see what he would do, anticipating his response to her threat. In return, Todoroki narrowed his eyes and called her bluff.

Willing ice to burst out from his hand, brilliant ice spheres now erupted through the room, effectively breaking through the barrier that had been swirling into place around him. There was a sort of satisfaction in noticing the slight break in the girl's composure as he stepped forward, free to take action as he saw fit.

"I was afraid you'd do that," Minamoto commented, frowning. Any traces of panic were now gone, and Todoroki narrowed his eyes.

If she was planning to unnerve him with how composed she was, it was not working.

"What do we do, Minamoto-san?" Mashirao called from the other side of the room.

"I don't know," Minamoto admitted, though she slipped on the visor on her helmet, and her eyes could not longer be seen. "Fight on your grounds, I guess."

Mashirao remained silent at that rather cryptic statement, though he quickly launched into action. Todoroki suddenly found a barrage of kicks and punches, and he pulled up his arms to shield from the blows. Jumping up, his view was momentarily blocked by the other boy as the recommended student backed away, reaching out a hand to send ice to engulf the boy before him. But with a flick of his tail, Mashirao propelled himself over Todoroki, and a gigantic wall of ice glimmered where the blond boy stood mere seconds ago.

There was suddenly a transmission from Shouji, which he picked up.

"Todoroki, I heard what was going on, but the door's blocked- I can't get through."

The dual-haired boy frowned at that. Hadn't the door been open earlier? What could have-

Todoroki froze at the sight of ice engulfing the wall as understanding dawned on him at once. He could make out the distinct outline of the doorway in the ice as distant splintering sounds could be heard- presumably Shouji trying to pry away at the door.

Once more, he had been tricked, and he was not the least bit happy about it. Ice suddenly engulfed the entire room from his touch as he ruthlessly let it spread everywhere, not even sparing an inch of wall or ground- after all, there was nothing they could do if they couldn't move, right?

Walking over to the missile, Todoroki raised his hand once more to touch the missile, only to frown as the pressure around the object persistently remained, much like a particularly annoying thorn that would not leave his side. Then, there was a 'crack!' as ice broke and erupted behind him, and he made out the outline of Minamoto staggering towards him, stubbornly refusing to admit defeat.

Her spirit was admirable, that was for certain. But right now, she was in the way of his victory.

Willing more ice to gather around his hand, he balled his hand into a fist and punched through the invisible barrier with renewed force, making contact with the nuclear missile at last.

However, even in face of victory, Todoroki was very much unfazed- he existed for the sole reason of defeating All Might, after all. Wasn't it the least he could do to ensure that he won each and every battle he faced?

.


"Ah," Morie sighed, shaking off the frost around her arms as she shivered. Todoroki's onslaught had been merciless, and she hadn't been able to put up a barrier of high pressure around herself in time.

"We lost. You alright, Mashirao?"

"Yeah," the boy in question responded, looking just a tad bit disappointed.

"Your feet didn't get frozen, did they?" She asked, remembering that she had formed a small barrier over his feet so that ice could freeze over him indirectly. "I was sorta worried that I wasn't covering you properly- my control isn't all there yet."

"Just a bit, on the sole of my right foot," Mashirao responded. "It feels fine though- don't worry about it."

"Ah," she sighed, looking guilty. "I have some bandages, if you want."

"Thank you. I appreciate your offer."

As Mashirao said that, Morie grew quiet as she contemplated why they lost- no, that was to be expected- after all, they had been up against two people with incredibly strong quirks. She couldn't help but feel responsible for the loss, however- if she had enforced the barrier around the missile more, raised the pressure by a bit, would Todoroki have been able to break through it all the same?

After all, his ice had given her a large advantage: the low temperature had resulted in high pressures throughout the building, which had in turn expanded her range by a vast extent. With that reason, she had been able to shut the door to the room with the opening Mashirao had given her, increasing pressure in the room so that the door would be forced to close (much like how the valves in the heart worked). The reason why he had been able to break through her shield of high air pressure around the missile was because of the additional ice on his hand, which was surrounded with greater pressure than that of the shield.

Was it possible that he had figured out her quirk? If so, she had certainly taken it for granted that no one would be able to figure it out easily.

I'm too used to people thinking I don't have a quirk, in that case. It's giving me a false sense of security.

As they all made to get out of the building in silence, Morie caught sight of the dual-haired boy, before addressing him as she smiled lightly.

"That was a good match, Todoroki," she stated amiably. "Out of curiousity, what made you coat your hand with ice as you punched the barrier?"

The boy's expression was indifferent as he walked on, not even sparing her a glance.

"Instinct," he responded curtly, and she sweatdropped at that- so he was just being lucky? Seriously?

Morie muttered lowly at that.

"I see," she sighed in resignment. "Congratulations on the win."

"Thanks... but no thanks," the dual-haired boy stated, his tone sounding impossibly flat.

As his voice filled increasingly with condescension, his strangely-coloured eyes bored into hers, seemingly with distaste- though she had no idea what she had done to warrant his cold attitude towards her. "You're the daughter of Coriolis, the Wind Hero, aren't you? Holder of the Number Three rank and a rival to my old man, Endeavour."

What the hell? How-

Stiffening, her eyes darted towards him. The fact that her mother was ranked among the top Five Pro Heroes was not widely known- like Aizawa, her mother had opted to stay away from the media as much as possible, though even with her efforts, her flashy Wind quirk still drew much attention to herself. Her appearances in media were rare, and her mother was much like an urban legend among Pro Heroes- only a few people knew of her mother's true identity, with speculation spreading like wildfire up to this very day.

(Morie had to be thankful, of course, that she was viewed as Rie, your average teenager, and not Coriolis' daughter. For a moment, she felt sorry for the boy before her, who had had unwanted spotlight on him the very moment he was born.)

He must have sensed her alarm, for his eyes emotionlessly flickered over to hers. She wondered if he gained a sort of sick satisfaction in provoking her and rubbing her loss in her face.

"It seems that the difference in abilities between our parents has also been extended to us," he stated callously, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Oh, was this guy pushing his fucking limits.

Currently, she inwardly seethed at the implications that he was making about her Mom- that Minamoto Fū, the strongest woman she knew, was lesser than Endeavour in any way- she had worked for her rank, for goodness' sake! Or that her mother was desperate to claim Endeavour's rank; or that Todoroki himself was better than her, just because he had been born with a ridiculously powerful quirk while her own quirk gave her guaranteed headaches from simply trying to use it.

("Be the better person bethe betterpersonbethebetterpersonbe- ")

"Your father is the one who makes everything a competition out of everything, Todoroki," Morie replied evenly, forcing herself to calm down as ugly and foreign hostility brimmed within her. But somehow, she managed to stay calm as she continued on. "My mom is fucking amazing, and I am aware that I can't live up to her. I know that. But the difference in our abilities stays between us- so please leave my mom and your father out of this."

That wasn't so bad- she said 'please', after all. She was not getting more polite with him than that.

The silence between them was tense, and in that instant, there was nothing she would have liked to do better than to just walk away; preferably like a badass walking away from the explosion scene.

That didn't happen, though.

Eyes meeting hers coldly, Todoroki Shouto was the one turned and walked away, leaving her in the lurch, and she stared after him, her fingers still tingling in silent fury. But then confusion made itself evident in her wide, panicked eyes, and shakily, she wrung her hands together with a sigh.

How?

How had he figured it out?


.

Earphones on, Morie, now significantly calmer, was finalising the details of her commission. Occasionally, she referred to her list of colours that she had on hand, but otherwise she was frowning in deep concentration.

Drawing always proved to be a great distraction when she was feeling particularly troubled. In spite of that, she was having more difficulty today- her strokes were uneven, and her hand was more shaky than usual; the results more often than not unsatisfactory.

(She blamed this on that certain asshole with heterochromatic eyes and dual hair colours.)

Her calm exterior failed to hide the fact that her usual patience had diminished, resulting in her scribbles being more furious than usual.

"Excuse me, you are Minamoto-san, right?"

She looked up to see a girl with long black hair tied up with in a ponytail, the same girl who she had seen in the morning. Her irritation faded somewhat as it replaced itself with curiosity.

Politely, Morie pulled out her earphones and hastily covered up her work. Then her eyebrows furrowed and examined the girl more closely.

Wasn't this the girl who had faithfully answered All Might's questions and dished out constructive criticism during their training?

Or rather, what the hell was a recommended student talking to somebody like her for? Morie hadn't bothered to talk with anyone outside her friend group (other than Todoroki who roasted her for being the least bit sportsmanlike), and she doubted that her customary poker-face in class was very welcoming.

"Y-yeah. You would be Yaoyorozu Momo-san, right?" She responded, feeling intimidated by the said girl's air of cool confidence.

"That would be correct," the girl replied, and much to Morie's relief a small smile appeared on the other girl's features. "Forgive me for the intrusion, but I was curious as to what your quirk is. Would it be some sort of air manipulation quirk, by any chance?"

Ah, she must be curious about the battle trial I had with Mashirao against the asshole and Shouji.

Morie sought out the words she always used when explaining her quirk. "Sort of. I can manipulate pressure, so to an extent I can manipulate the movement of air as well."

A new sort of understanding flashed across Momo's eyes at that, as if a theory she had been harbouring had just been confirmed. But then the girl's eyes widened, and her face cocked to the side slowly as if she was deep in contemplation.

"You must have a powerful quirk, Morie-san," the girl commented. "You were able to manipulate the pressure in the whole building, weren't you? I am deeply surprised that you are not a recommended student."

Her cheeks flushed pink and she straightened up, clearly not expecting to receive such a high level of praise.

Well, there was no better time than now to clear up the misconceptions about her quirk. She grudgingly admitted that Pressure was handy, and strong in some ways, but it was certainly not in the same league as Todoroki, Bakugou, her cousin, or even Momo herself.

Sometimes, an irrational feeling of shame would flood over her at the thought that she was supposed to be the daughter of the Number Three Ranked Hero, despite the fact that neither of her parents cared that she wasn't exceptionally talented or strong. 'It's stupid that you feel this way,' as she often told herself.

(But she still did. She couldn't help it, and she hated it.)

At that, Morie let out a sigh.

"Truth to be told, Yaoyorozu-san, the reason I could control the pressure in the whole building was only because Todoroki froze the entire building- creating high pressure throughout the enclosed building that made the atoms in the air more easy to detect. It was pure luck on my part that he did not know what my quirk was, or else he wouldn't have done that. Furthermore, he had been separated from Shouji, but still Mashirao and I were barely able to capture him without resorting to tricks- though he still broke out regardless. But I digressed," she stated apologetically, and abruptly she recalled Momo's own critique of her battle and flushed in embarrassment at the memory.

"... I see. That certainly makes sense," Yaoyorozu stated, before she stood up and bowed. "Thank you for entertaining my queries, Minamoto-san."

"Ah, no need to be so formal, Yaoyorozu-san," she stated, feeling flustered at how utterly proper the girl was. Out of habit, she nearly blurted out 'Call me Rie!', but she quickly stopped herself- Yaoyorozu may not be comfortable with that, even if she herself was. "And you're welcome."

The other girl's eyes softened, and she straightened up from her chair and got up to leave.

As she walked away, Morie was left brimming with silent admiration. Yaoyorozu's analysis of the battle trials, notably the first match, which had featured a match between Midoriya and Bakugou (or as Uraraka elegantly put it, 'the fated battle between men!'), clearly displayed her intelligence and insight. It came as no surprise that someone like her was one of the four recommended students to Yuuei.

It was then did the memory of her recent, shameful loss to Todoroki Shouto, of all people, made something heavy settle within her, and she found her anger spiking every time she so much as caught a glimpse of his face out of the corner of her eye.

("Breathe in, breathe out. Count to ten. That's right, don't deck the little shit in his goddamned face.")

At times like this, having self-control did pay off after all.

Silently reviewing the battles that day, the first match flickered to mind; Morie's eyes darted over to Midoriya's empty seat, and subsequently the rampant blonde himself. He sat in his own corner, quiet and brooding as no one so much as attempted to converse with him for fear of being on the receiving end of his explosive temper.

Back then, at the surveillance room, all they could see were the both of them fighting it out. If there had been sound in the video footage, there was no doubt that they would have heard a lot of screaming, along with a lot of swearing and explosions. Lots and lots of explosions.

One did not simply forget the way Bakugou Katsuki blew off the side of a building.

Wincing at that, she suddenly found herself looking back to the first time the met- or rather, the time she had came across his name in Midoriya's Hero notebook, and how she hadn't recognised it back then. Now that she thought of how complicated the history between to do had to be, she thought that maybe, just maybe, this loss would be of some good to the blonde-haired boy, and make him face reality before it was too late.

She quickly turned back to her sketchbook and put her earphones back on- the whole Bakugou/Midoriya feud going on was frankly none of her business, and honestly all she could and should do was wait for the two to settle their differences.

"You're going home already, Bakugou-kun?" Uraraka's voice was loud over the guitar riff that was playing in her ear.

"Eh? But Midoriya hasn't come back yet!" That was Kirishima, who sounded pretty incredulous. At this point, Morie pulled off her earphones and glanced at the ongoing scene- an action mirrored by many of the others in class.

At the interruption, Bakugou stopped in his steps. His hands were tucked in his pockets, as he stared down his classmates from the corners of his crimson eyes.

"Out of my fucking way- I'm going home."

The spiky-haired boy threatened, before pushing open the door and stalking off without another word.

He was out of sight within moments.

"Seriously, that guy!" Kirishima looked positively befuddled as he walked over to her. "Can you believe him, Rie-san? First the unmanly way he fought Midoriya, and now he just left like that!"

So Bakugou had the ability to make Kirishima of all people disgruntled, even if only a little. That was impressive, though understandable- they were practically polar opposites after all.

"Calm down, Kirishima." She petted him on the shoulder, before staring out the open class door. "He and Midoriya have some messed up history, so it's better for us to not jump to conclusions about him."

('Still, he's a lot more pleasant than Todoroki right now,' she mentally grumbled.)

"Now that you put it that way," Kirishima stated slowly. "I guess that was sorta harsh of me, wasn't it? Still sucks that he did that, though."

"Yeah," she smiled, glancing up as the door swung open again, only to see a curly-haired boy to be standing where the door once was. "Oh, Midoriya's back."

Kirishima let out a small 'yeah, it is him!' before he excitably joined the welcome party situated at the door. The meek boy looked pleasantly surprised (and somewhat overwhelmed) by the warm welcome he go, and in turn, Morie stowed her supplies back into her bag and made her way over to the door as well.

(... she could have sworn that there weren't so many people at the doorstep thirty seconds ago.)

"Hello, Midoriya. Feeling better?" She asked, smiling at the curly-haired boy. He certainly did look better, other than the thick bandages his hands were subjected to. A stab of sympathy shot through her- of course someone like Midoriya, of all people, had to be subject to such terrible drawbacks from his quirk.

"Recovery Girl did a number on me and I feel a lot better now," the green-haired boy stated with a quivery smile. "Thank you for the concern, Rie-san!"

Morie waved it off, simply glad that the sweet boy was alright.

"Ah, Deku-kun's out!" Uraraka cheered as she entered the class once more, a stack of books in her hands, unintentionally ignoring Kaminari (and his shameless advances) as she rushed towards him, eyes shining.

Midoriya sent her a small smile, green eyes looking around the class almost worriedly.

"Where's Kacchan?" He questioned, a tiny frown appearing on his features.

"We tried to stop him from leaving," Uraraka responded sadly. Upon hearing that, the boy's eyes widened at that as he immediately excused himself and dashed off- in pursuit of Bakugou, probably. Morie glanced out the window intently, taking in the two familiar figures who were now in the middle of the courtyard.

Why does this look like a confession scene? Her mind pointed out.

"To the window!"

Uraraka exclaimed cheerfully as she, Mina and Tsuyu swarmed over to the side of the class immediately, practically pressing their faces against the glass as they spied on the ongoing conversation. It was a 'fated battle between men!', as Uraraka repeatedly and solemnly dubbed it, though it looked like the two were shouting at each other rather than battling. Or even talking, for that matter.

Correction, it looked more like Bakugou one-sidedly shouting at Midoriya. That sounded better.

Stepping over moments later, her gaze briefly flitted towards the smaller figure of Midoriya, before frowning as she took in the retreating figure of Bakugou wiping at his face with his sleeve. Her eyes widened at the sight, and disbelief coursed through her veins.

Ah... he's crying?

It seemed that even Bakugou- strong, standoffish and impossibly talented had a human side to him. People dealt with failure in different ways- and it looked like he was possibly learning how to cope for the first time.

For some reason, the scene unraveling before them was oddly touching, and Morie found herself turning away as she silently plugged in her earphones once more, her chest feeling lighter than it had mere moments ago.

She ended up confiding the events of the day to Ren, and she stared at the messages that she got from her when she got home, laughing softly as she read through them.

.

BAEREN: about the other guy

BAEREN: idk some people are nice but they get into pissy moods a lot don't worry about it too much

BAEREN: ah and also

BAEREN: people have different sides to them

BAEREN: that neighbour of yours included

BAEREN: so cheer up bro ;-;

.

... Ren was an angel.

.


A/N:

I have a soft spot for Mashirao, so hey! Here's a fight which they actually get to fight! I rewrote this chapter several times and if I'm not wrong there was a version in which they beat Todoroki, but I scrapped that because it was too unrealistic.

And I am absolutely terrified that Morie will be considered a Mary-sue because her mother is the third-ranked Hero. There was a tiny hint in the earlier chapters but I decided to drop the bomb in this chapter, because currently in the manga the third-ranking hero has not been disclosed. There's still a lot of backstory to Morie's family, which will be revealed in the future ;)

On the other hand, remember that side-series I mentioned a few chapters ago? It's up now, under the name of Kerosene Hearts. Do check it out and leave some feedback so I know what you like.

What are your thoughts on this chapter?