Chapter Ten: Mind-Blowing
.
"Where are we going again?"
Kaminari wondered aloud. Behind them, metres away, Kirishima and Sero chatted on, not a care in the world. A little ways in front of the duo, a pink and lively Mina Ashido (who decided to tag along at the last minute) skipped, letting out little cheers of 'yippee!' as the bright, imp-like grin didn't disappear from her face for even a moment.
"To be honest, you bunch should have asked me that before you started to follow me." Morie responded at last, feeling just a tad bit weirded out by being so blatantly followed by her school mates.
She had just let slip that she had been planning on going somewhere after school that day- just to take a break from the preparation of the Sports Festival a bit. But her slip of the tongue had somehow resulted in her gaining this band of adorable stalkers.
"Geez, we want to surprise ourselves. Just let us," Kaminari shrugged.
Feeling somewhat exasperated, Morie strode onward, turning the next corner. Then she stopped and waited for them to follow. It would be on her if they got themselves lost in her home district, after all. The moment she spotted them walking out of the turn, confirming that they did not somehow lose their way, she continued walking onward, suppressing a sigh as she did so.
So much for reaching home quickly to touch up on her commission. Yesterday, she had woken up in the infirmary shortly before getting chewed out by the small, sweet, and surprisingly intimidating Recovery Girl. Her memory was somewhat hazy at the moment, so she had no idea at all how she ended up there in the first place.
Sure, the Sports Festival was coming up, but it wasn't like she could do any quirk training after just recovering from a faint the day before. The thing about Pressure was that being exposed to high pressures for too long messed up her own blood pressure- the result was migraines, dizzy spells and often she ended up throwing faints.
"Rie-san!"
She tensed up but considerably relaxed when she recognised the voice to be Kirishima's. Pausing in her footsteps, a series of quick shuffles ensued and she turned to catch sight of Kirishima, his hand over his neck and a grin on his face. "Hey man, come walk with us!"
"The faster I get my stuff, the less time time you all will waste on me," was the blunt answer and she wondered why she could hear Kaminari facepalming in the background.
It was Sero who spoke, fixing his black eyes onto her plainly. "We wouldn't have followed you if we didn't want to kill time," he pointed out and a small pink tint flushed over Morie's cheeks.
"Oh."
There was a moment of silence, and inwardly she squirmed awkwardly.
"Okay then." She stated somewhat meekly.
Falling into step beside Kirishima, she felt someone ruffle her hair with a small fawn (Mina, probably) before she allowed a smile to crack over her features, though somewhat unsurely.
"You are so cuteee," Mina squealed, eyeing her with those shiny eyes of hers. "Just you wait, one day I'll steal you away to have lunch with the girls, heh!"
"Uh," she spoke dumbly, not sure as to how she should react, though she quickly snapped herself out of her slightly bewildered state to focus on the pink-skinned girl, before shyly breaking out into a wide smile. "Sure. That'd be nice."
The others suddenly began to coo over her and she squirmed uncomfortably as she suddenly felt like she was being treated like a particularly fluffy cat. Then her face glowed a vivid red and she squirmed from their clutches, breaking away before hurriedly leading them into her favourite shop of all time.
"A stationery shop?"
Kaminari pondered out loud, a small frown of befuddlement on his features.
"No- it's an art supply shop."
Morie corrected rather softly, though her lips were already curling up in silent appreciation as she headed towards a corner of the shop and easily retrieved a bottle of paint coating, before she picked out a new liner brush and hurried towards the counter. Behind her, the group were wandering about in the shop, with varying looks of awe across their faces. Kirishima, for one, was particularly interested in the small section of the shop were styrofoam busts were located.
Setting her chosen items on the desk of the counter, she fished out her membership card and a few notes.
"Good afternoon, Rose-san." Morie's head bowed. The familiar lady looked at her, a small beam on her shiny features before she expertly tugged out a plastic bag from her arm and began to help pack her items.
"Glad to see you back again, Morie-chan." The woman chuckled. "Is that a Yuuei uniform I see?"
"Yeah," she smiled in reply, and the woman continued on, her expression swelling with pride. "My son goes there too, you know? First in our family to go into Hero business."
Morie blinked as she stowed away her purchase in her bag. That was certainly interesting. Rose had a son? She certainly didn't look like she was that aged, though she did admittedly have those stern, motherly vibes about her.
Glancing up at the woman, she then spoke, straightening up as she did so. "Your son? What's his name?"
"Well," a new, yet familiar voice interjected evenly. "That would be me."
She turned around and gaped at Sero who was now standing behind her, and was looking slightly embarrassed as he faced the woman behind the counter.
"... hey, mom," he greeted cordially, and her jaw dropped. The older woman's eyes crinkled as her smile widened at the sight of the black-haired boy.
"Hey, son." Rose replied, reaching out a hand to beckon her son forward for a hug. "School is going well, I hope?"
"Yeah, it's okay," Sero half-shrugged. "We had training today."
Morie's eyes darted in between them, from Rose's plastic bag quirk to Sero's tape quirk, the plain, unassuming look to their expressions, and the fact of how strangely familiar Sero had seemed to appear when she first met the guy.
It finally sunk in a few moments later.
'Holy shit,' she screamed silently at the utterly curious coincidence and the fact that she certainly had not realised it before. This put her (possibly non-existent) observational skills to complete shame. 'Woah what were the odds whaaat how could you not have noticed you idiot this is nothing short of mindblowing- '
"Um," Sero's voice rang out somewhat uncomfortably as he prodded her side lightly. "Minamoto, you alright?"
.
"That was awkward," Kirishima remarked offhandedly with a little whistle as she walked the group back to the station, still unable to get over the fact that she has been acquainted with Mama Sero for what- at least three years now? And not once this year did she question why Sero's plain-ish features resembled Rose's so much.
The red-haired boy peered into her face then, waving his hand around a little before turning to face Sero at her outward lack of reaction. "Dude, I think you broke her."
Then a splash of bright pink entered her vision as Mina leaned in, dark, sparkly eyes focusing on her and fingers wiggling about with a promise that she was about to do something shewould not like at all.
"Morie-chaaan," the Acid user called out in a singsong tone, before proceeding to mush her cheeks, but that was not all- shortly afterwards she began to brutally pull at them. Naturally Morie flailed backwards at the assault, cheeks now a burning (and painful) red as she attempted to squirm out of the Mina's grasp.
"Arghlemmegostopthat- " She continued to squirm uncomfortably, cheeks mushed together and all, and the pink-skinned girl finally relented as she laid off her face. She rubbed her hands over her now sore cheeks and softly grumbled out. "Ouch, thanks."
Morie blew a few strands away from her face, her hair having been messed up from the Assault, stuck in a feeling that was located somewhere between exasperated and cranky. Cheeks still red and tired from the mushy-treatment, she turned and rejoined Kirishima's side in a flash.
"I should try that some time," the boy let out a hum, and the most horrifying thing in that statement was that it seemed like he was completely and utterly serious about it, what with that small gleam to his bright eyes and the fact that he was grinning more widely than usual. Without skipping a beat, she scowled.
"Please don't," came the immediate reply as she scooted away by a few steps just for good measure.
Kaminari chose this moment point to interrupt, gesturing towards a row of shops next to the station. "Is that a chicken karaage shop?"
"Hm?" Morie stopped in her tracks for a moment to glance over at the shop in question, eyebrows knitted for a few seconds before she relaxed. "Yeah, it is. It used to be pretty famous- why, are you hungry?"
The expression on Kaminari's face (coupled with a few suspicious, splitting stomach rumbles) did the answering for her as she couldn't help but chuckle softly at that as she fidgeted around with a stray marble in her pocket. It was somewhat on an impulse did she walk over to the stall, bringing out her new earnings from a small commission from just last week and eyeing the tantalising-looking pieces of fried chicken thoughtfully.
Coming back with a bag containing a few sticks of chicken karaage and a lighter wallet, she averted her eyes and passed the bag around, clearing her throat awkwardly.
"The Sports Festival is coming up, so it's actually pretty bad to be eating this- so just one stick a person, okay?" Morie murmured, almost feeling embarrassed by herself.
(Oh, how she felt like a nagging mom in that moment.)
"Thankyouthankyouthankyou- "
The sparkling eyes of the group made her heart melt and she looked off to the side, casually waving off their shiny, emotional expressions.
(What, were they tearing up?
... well, food did tend to be extremely emotion-inducing.)
"Don't worry about it." She emphasised, before silently thinking about what a shitty friend she would be if she had just dumped them at the station without having them enjoying themselves a little- she did feel responsible for them since they were in her home district.
Kirishima looked predictably about the cry from happiness- and no, she was not exaggerating. Morie could nearly hear him talking about how 'eating meat was the embodiment of being a true man!' or something along those lines, perhaps.
"Rie-san, you're not having any?" He asked between mouthfuls of steaming hot karaage- somehow the sight of her classmates stuffing their mouths ravenously were adorable to her. She shook her head at the question, easily playing it off.
"Nah, I'm not that hungry." (Thank goodness her stomach didn't grumble then.) "And it's bad for my quirk, anyway, so I don't think I'll risk it."
She conveniently didn't mention that she couldn't have gotten one more even if she wanted to, because the art supplies had effectively put a dent into her wallet and she definitely could not spend more for the day if she wanted to have some spare money in her pocket at all.
Kirishima didn't question her, only muttering another 'thank you' as he bit down and munched on another piece of karaage happily.
"Woah."
Kaminari spoke up suddenly in between mouthfuls of chicken, yellow eyes trained on something in the direction of the train station. He blinked a few times, as if disbelieving something, before his mouth fell open.
"Isn't that Bakugou? What's he doing here?"
(And alas, it was.)
At that mention, she looked up, taking in the sight of a slouched figure with ash-blond hair and earphones right away. He was walking away from the station, away from them, but it was undeniably him.
"Oh, it is!" Kirishima straightened up, a grin curling into his lips almost instantaneously. A split second was all it took to realise what Kirishima meant to do, and Morie sputtered in her attempt to stop him.
"Wait, h-hold on a mo- "
But it was too late.
"- OI, BLASTY!"
For a moment, Morie prayed to any gods who were listening that Bakugou would not be able to hear him over the music in his earphones, presumably something loud and angry, just like him.
(She wasn't so lucky, however.)
Remember how she mentioned earlier that Kirishima's sincerity could penetrate anything? Because apparently, not only could it break through to Bakugou's cold, cold heart, but it could also break through the loud blare of music in earphones.
Promptly, Bakugou stopped in his footsteps and he turned around, a disgruntled look fresh on his features.
He squinted in their direction, red eyes narrowed, and she could swear that she nearly choked when her eyes met his for the most fleeting of moments- and the whole of yesterday's events came flooding back into her mind with perfect, HD-worthy quality, igniting a burning sensation from her cheeks which definitely did not come from Mina's relentless face-mushing.
Quirk training. Flying. Falling. Crashing. Breaking a leg (quite literally). Bakugou, being angry; or more specifically 'who the fuck do you think you are?' Bakugou. Fainting. Waking up to Recovery Girl who told her off and commented about somebody who was pissed off.
... ah.
"What are you doing here, man? Weren't you still at school?"
Kirishima stated incredulously, eyes brimming with undisguised curiosity.
"What, can't I go home?" Bakugou scrunched up his face at that, mild irritation flickering over his features.
"But isn't this where Morie-chan stays?"
Mina stated in confusion, and Morie sighed, running a hair through her short locks of hair as her eyes periodically darted over to Bakugou and away from him. She ended up muttering 'same neighbourhood,' in response, leaving out the fact that he lived next door, deciding that Mina would probably take the news the wrong way a.k.a comparing it to a shoujo manga trope.
Kirishima had now taken to going over to talking to him, accompanied by Sero, and Morie didn't share the same enthusiasm. Heck, there was no way in hell she was going to go talk to him right after he nearly bit her head off for offering help, of all things!
Eyes still fixed on her irritable neighbour, she let out a weary sigh. Bakugou Katsuki was a troublesome guy- one who seemed to pop up everywhere she went.
It was then did Recovery Girl's words flash across her mind, and a(nother) revelation chose that moment to hit her like a sack of heavy bricks.
... wait a minute.
Don't tell me he was the one who brought me to Recovery Girl?
.
rie: Omg
rie: Ren
BAEREN: sup
rie: Please save me.
BAEREN: um
BAEREN: is it the spiky dude ;;
rie: I guess?
BAEREN: ah
BAEREN: i knew it
BAEREN: so.
BAEREN: what did he do this time?
.
A/N:
*Chicken karaage- a type of Japanese fried chicken.
So I experimented with this chapter with a new, less draggy writing style and I hope it's easier to read.
Also, awkward Morie is awkward. Angry Bakugou is angry. You get the gist.
You guys have been really supportive and I'm really grateful for that, so thank you :3
Reviews are very much welcomed!
