Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Calm
rie: Heyy are you guys alright? I saw what happened on the news
jirocks: yeah we're okay, not sure about midoriya though
broccoli: Yeah I'm okay! Don't need to worry about me, Rie-san!
Rie: Okay:( glad to hear man
pinky: sorry midoriya, this probably wouldn't have happened if we had stuck together as a group ;-;
broccoli: Nooo don't say that, I don't think anyone could have seen this coming
broccoli: we might have all been in danger if we stuck together
Tokoyami: better all of us together than for you to shoulder the burden alone, midoriya…
precious dude: yeah! We gotta look after each other
pinky: ^THIS
broccoli: You guys… thank you! But I wasn't alone! I'm grateful uraraka-san showed up when she did, who knew what would have happened otherwise…
Sparky Sparky Boom Man: tch
defying gravity: but I left you in the first place!
pinky: gurl that sounds misleading
defying gravity: N O
Class rep: All of you! I understand that we are all worried about Midoriya-kun, but it is late and we have school tomorrow! We must not become complacent about our studies even though our exams have formally finished! Go to bed this instance!
rie: yessir. good night you guys
pinky: NIGHTSS
broccoli: thanks for the reminder, Iida-kun!
Tokoyami: i can never sleep. But since you asked i will try.
precious dude: SEE YOU GUYS
Sparky Sparky Boom Man: ffs stop spamming
precious dude: ok
rie: ok
Tokoyami: ok
pinky: ok
defying gravity: ok
jirocks: ok
Sparky Sparky Boom Man: ... fucking bastards
Class rep: Bakugou-kun, stop with that vulgar language! it's unbecoming of Yuuei students!
Sparky Sparky Boom Man: fucking idiots*
precious dude: did blasty just? make a joke?
rie: … haha
broccoli: Kacchan?
Pikachu: Bakugou's vocab is as colourful as a hEckin' rainbow
jirocks: oi kaminari stop swearing
rie: Boi and you wonder why you can't get the ladies?*
jirocks: PFT where's the lie
Pikachu: HEY
Grape boy: he can't
Grape boy: but I can ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
.
(The class chat promptly fell silent at that interval. Nobody liked that.)
.
Lunchtime was over, and the Bakusquad was now shuffling to the hall for the final school assembly before their summer break finally began. Morie was shuffling alongside Jirou, trailing after the others who were walking up front.
Earlier on that week, Aizawa had addressed the run-in with Shigaraki at Kiyashi Ward, informing them of a last-minute change in their training camp location. The decision was met with an outroar of sorts, though Morie was still feeling uneasy about the incident that had happened to her classmates - to think that the villains may be targeting them, of all people.
Better safe than sorry. Her eyes flickered over to Jirou who was fiddling with her phone as she wondered what the reserved girl was up to.
"Oh, you're listening to Deep Dope?" The dark-haired girl asked, catching sight of the familiar album cover that was displayed on Jirou's phone. One of her earphone jacks were plugged in, and the girl was humming softly. Jirou's face flushed suddenly as she moved to hide her phone, stuffing it out of sight into her pocket.
"Yeah," the purple-haired girl responded. "It's my old man's band… it's a bit cheesy for me to be a fan, isn't it?"
"Woah," Morie blinked slowly. It was surreal knowing that her classmate's father started a band she first listened to years ago. "Not at all, man. I haven't heard a lot from them but their debut album was good. The drumming patterns and the guitar solos are so good! Your dad would be glad to know you like his work so much."
Jirou unplugged one of her earphone jacks, and was now fiddling with them. "I guess so - you listen to rock, Rie-san?"
"Yeah - more alternative though," the dak-eyed girl chuckled in reply. "You have any recommendations?"
"Cool - and yeah, of course!" Jirou smiled, and Morie's heart melted at the precious sight. "I'll send you some of my favorites, let me know what you think of them."
"Sure man, thanks!" She beamed back, just as Kaminari's yellow head whipped around from in front of them.
"Yo, Jirou! I wanna hear your favs too," his lips split into a smooth grin.
"You sure you can handle it, pop fan?" Jirou shot back, a corner of her lips quirking upwards. "Send me back some songs, too."
Seeing the exchange before her, Morie's hand shot out to cover her mouth as she pointedly looked away before the now-chattering duo saw her expression.
I hate to be that person, but these two have great chemistry. It's so cute.
As she turned away, however, her dark eyes caught sight of bright indigo hair a little ways in front of her and promptly widened owlishly.
Morie's small frame made it easy for her to slip through the crowd relatively unnoticed as she hurried over to the blue-haired figure out of instinct. Silent curses streamed through her mind about how fast the guy seemed to be walking - though perhaps she was just short.
"Yo, Shinsou!" The dark-haired girl called out, ignoring her inhibitions, and a grin flashed over her face as she did so. Chagrin was then evident on her features, however, as the boy in question came to a stop, head turned towards her in muted curiosity - so did the all-too-familiar-man who was shuffling a little ways beside him, his face covered by numerous strips of cloth.
Needless to say, she felt mortified. Aizawa's presence had gone completely unnoticed by her.
"Uh, hi, sorry, sensei!" Her hands clasped together as she sent the mildly disgruntled looking man an apologetic look. "I just need a moment."
Her homeroom teacher simply let out a sigh, shifting to lean against the wall. "Take your time," he nonchalantly took the chance to drop some eye drops into his strained bloodshot eyes, the tiny white bottle pinched between his fingers.
"Thanks, sensei!" Her lips lifted in a beam before she turned towards the taller boy. "Hey man! So I wanted to ask for your number."
Shinsou blinked.
"You didn't strike me as the direct sort, Minamoto," he responded dryly, dark eyes flickering with amusement. Morie rolled her eyes but failed to hide her laugh.
"You can put it that way," she shrugged, trying to hide her growing embarrassment. "I just wanted to stay in contact. You just seem like the type who would start ignoring me after a while."
The indigo-haired boy did not even bother denying her statement - the shit-eating grin that was spreading on his face (highly reminiscent of Aizawa's) told her that she had struck the nail on its head. He then extended a hand towards her. "Pass me your phone."
The brown-haired girl obliged, and moments later it was plopped back into her hand. She checked the contact - it was saved simply as Shinsou. Her dark eyes landed on his with a smile. "Thanks man - I'll message you later?"
"I don't text often," his shoulders raised themselves in a shrug. "But sure."
"See you around, then." The dark-haired girl sent him a wave, her dark eyes filled with mirth. Sending a quick bow towards Aizawa, the small girl quickly hurried off to relocate her classmates. Her dark eyes caught sight of a head of ash blonde hair and another head of bright red hair and it was out of instinct that she hurried towards the duo.
"Morie-chan! You're back!" Mina's voice called out to her some distance away. Morie turned, and upon spotting the pink-haired girl, immediately changed her course and headed towards her.
"Hey," she greeted softly, bumping her arm against Mina's. "What did I miss?"
"Nothing much, really! But we kinda got separated in the after lunch crowd - " She pointed out Sero, Kaminari and Jirou some distance behind them. Her mouth was rested in a pout, presumably from having to walk alone.
"You wanna go catch up with Kiri and Bakugou? They're up front," Morie pointed them out, and as Mina made a noise of agreement, she gently tugged her friend through the crowd and into the hall, where her pink-haired companion settled into the seat next to Kirishima.
"Yo!" The red-haired boy leaned forwards to glance at them. "Was wondering where you guys went."
"We got separated," Mina sighed exaggeratedly. "Do we save seats for the others?"
Mina's question proved unnecessary as Jirou, Sero and Kaminari suddenly appeared, and were scrambling towards the seats next to them. Likewise, students were now hurriedly streaming into the hall as the time for assembly was already near starting.
"I'm surprised Iida hasn't yelled at us yet," Morie could not help but remark out loud.
"He is now." Jirou pointed out. Her earphone jack lifted to point itself at the door, where Iida was now standing, hurrying students into the hall - regardless of whether they were Class 1-A or not.
A whistle escaped her. "Truly Plus Ultra."
Jirou almost let out a laugh, but stifled herself as a hush began to descend upon the students. Principal Nezu was ascending the steps of the stage now, looking tiny in comparison to the grandness of the hall. Morie moved to turn off her phone when memory struck her; swiftly, her fingers moved to typed up a message.
.
[Your contact 'Shinsou' was changed to 'lactose intolerant']
rie: Yo, it's me
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Her phone vibrated, and she was surprised with how quickly the indigo-haired boy had responded - did he not say that he wasn't a texter?
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lactose intolerant: hello, 'me'
rie: 'me'namoto, that is ;)
lactose intolerant: ... sigh
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Morie nearly scoffed out loud. Her dark eyes rolled themselves as she shoved her phone quickly back into her pocket (before she got whacked by Aizawa), nearly tuning out to Nezu's long-winded drabble on the stage. Her thoughts inevitably wandered as she thought of the approaching holidays.
Knowing Yuuei, training camp is going to be a special kind of hell, the dark-haired girl surmised.
.
And it was - she goddamn called it.
Class 1-A was now trudging out of the forest. Everyone was covered with cuts, grime and mud - lots and lots of mud, from the terrible earth monsters they have had to overcome. Uraraka had puked about three times. Mineta had soiled his pants. Kaminari had shocked himself into idiocy ages ago. It was a miracle that they were still standing on their feet.
Most of them, at least.
"As expected of Yuuei…" She heard the class president's voice drone out, filled with pure exhaustion.
"... they actually threw us off a cliff." Morie managed to bite out amidst her splitting headache. Her vision was spinning as she tottered about on her feet - using her quirk for nearly the whole day was the longest she had used it yet. She glanced at her companion (or tried to, what with her spinning vision). "Thanks man."
"Don't worry about it," Kirishima spoke from next to her - the good-natured boy had pretty much insisted that she use him as a crutch while she waited out her dizzy spells, even though he was evidently as sapped of energy as he looked. As they stepped out into the clearing, a groan escaped him. "I'm so hungry man, I'm gonna die."
"Same," her stomach let out a traitorous growl and for once, she was too tired to care if anyone had heard her. Next to them, Sero looked similarly drained - the black-haired boy was near his Tape limit and had began to suffer from pain around his elbows as well.
"'It'll only take three hours', they said," the Tape user grumbled. "Yeah, right."
"Sorry, that was how long we would have taken," Mandalay spoke, amusement evident in her tone. Morie had not even noticed the black-haired woman waiting for them to shuffle in.
"Ouch," the dark-haired girl spoke, though by this point in time her voice sounded like a rasp.
Really rubbing it into our faces, huh…
She lost her energy to speak, simply massaging the pressure points on her forehead in an attempt to ease the throbbing migraine that had hit her like a sack of bricks. It wasn't very helpful that the pain and nausea medications she had brought along were all stashed into her rucksack and luggage which were on the bus.
"Heh," the blond Hero she knew to be Pixiebob was talking. "We actually thought that you guys would take longer."
Morie sighed. Initially, the appearance of the Wild Wild Pussycats had excited her, since rescue agencies were now a growing rarity - her own mother's office had started off as a rescue agency but had diversified over the past few years. Clearly, she had barely gotten any time to fangirl about their sudden appearance since well, it ended with Pixiebob's powerful Landslide literally sweeping them towards a certain doom.
"You four." Bakugou, Todoroki, Midoriya and Iida were singled out without missing a beat. "I'm guessing your past experiences enabled you to react immediately."
A smile spread over the older blonde woman's features, before she abruptly pounced towards them.
Morie blinked.
"Gonna have fun three years from now! I'm marking them as mine!" The blonde flailed towards the four, seeming to be spitting at them.
"She's actually marking her scent," the dark-haired girl could not help but remark, not knowing if she should feel perplexed or amazed that something like this was happening in real life.
"Mandalay, I didn't know she was like that." Aizawa looked at the scene pointedly. Mandalay shook her head, glancing at her friend and sounding just a tad bit worried.
"Well, she's been worried about being a spinster forever…"
Honestly, as much as growing old with a bunch of cats did not seem that bad, that seemed like a valid (and relatable) concern. To put it plainly, most heroes were too busy to even think about romance, and even when they did, the statistics showed that most heroes married those who already had existing ties to the profession. And it made sense - it was hard for normal civilians to be able to accept the hectic lifestyles of heroes, such as in the case of doctors and nurses; heroes were also more likely to commit themselves to those who already understood the risks of their work.
A pained grunt broke her out of her thoughts, accompanied by Iida's loud screaming.
"Midoriyaaa!" The lively class president bellowed, hunching over in concern for his green-haired classmate who was currently shrivelled up on the ground in pain. "You, nephew! Why did you punch Midoriya in the junk!"
… my condolences, Midoriya.
The offending young boy was shooting them a death glare. "I refuse to hang out with a bunch of wannabe heroes."
A frown formed on her features, and she gently pulled away from Kirishima, stumbling forward slightly.
"Hey, kid- " She called out, managing to muster up her energy to shoot the young boy with the most severe look that she had. "Like us or not, you don't go around punching people like that. That's not cool."
Behind her, Kirishima made a noise of agreement. The black-haired boy (who she learnt later was called Kota) directed his glare at her and stormed away with a 'tch'.
There was something about that gesture which was eerily familiar.
"... cute kid," Bakugou snickered out loud then, a strange look of fondness on his features.
Speak of the devil.
"I don't know what scares me more," Morie commented off-handedly, looking on as Mr Spiky Hair somehow began to squabble with an unsuspecting Todoroki. "The fact that the kid is only five and an asshole, or the fact that Bakugou likes him."
"But kids are assholes." Sero made a face, and she wondered if the plain-faced Tape user was still hung up over the whole 'don't mind!' incident from the Sports Festival.
Kaminari chimed in, nodding with a grin. "That, and it's not exactly mutually exclusive, don't you think? Bakugou likes him because he's an asshole! Birds of a feather and all that, y'know."
The golden-haired Electricity user shot her finger guns before miming a 'mindblown' gesture. His antics sparked a good-humored eyeroll from Morie at his antics, which was mirrored by a nearby Jirou.
"BUZZ OFF! You match-throwing bastard!"
Unwittingly proving the yellow-eyed boy's point, Bakugou was off in the background barking at the dual-haired, poker-faced Todoroki, who responded nonplussedly with a short 'sorry'.
"Stop making a scene," Aizawa chided, and a hush settled over the class. "Drop your things off in your rooms and come down for dinner. Then you'll hit the showers and then it's bedtime. The real training starts tomorrow - hurry it up."
The small cosy accommodations reminded her so much of an actual school trip - the type where you travel around the country sightseeing - that amidst the physical exhaustion, Morie felt a twinge of what she could only describe as excitement. Giving her hands and face a quick wash, she decided against taking any of her migraine medications, instead popping in a few supplements (fish oil, which was apparently good for high blood pressure.)
Reluctantly, the dark-haired girl then extracted herself from her room - if it were not for her growling stomach, she would have simply collapsed into a futon right there and then.
The sight downstairs was amazing - the long cafeteria tables were completely decked out with food - she would be lying if she said she was not moved by the sight. Her dark eyes searched around the space, in search of her own class.
Interestingly, the Bakusquad seemed to have separated for today - Kirishima and the others were already heartily digging into the food (oh gosh, was he crying?) The dark-haired girl looked at the other table, where Ashido and Bakugou had seated, though not near each other - there was a space across Ashido next to Bakugou, however.
Morie stared at the space, feeling a muted sense of apprehension fill her.
Then she decided that she was too tired to care, for a moment of contemplation later, she filed towards the space and took a seat, calling out a soft greeting to her classmates, and sending a smile towards Tsuyu, who was similarly sitting down nearby as well.
"Morie-chwan!" Ashido called out from across her, black eyes seemingly teary. Her mouth was stuffed to the brim, and Morie couldn't help but giggle at the adorable girl. "This tastes sho gud!"
"It does smell pretty good," she hummed back in reply, clapping her hands together. "Thanks for the meal."
The hungry class was surprisingly quiet, with the exception of Kaminari and Kirishima - food was of course a top priority for them right now, considering they had not eaten anything in almost ten hours. Even the normally abrasive boy next to her was minding his own business, helping himself to the food around him without a word.
Did the Pussycats actually cook all this food for them? The dark-haired girl was feeling quite touched - there had to be at least forty students in this room alone. Granted, they did say that such a privilege would not occur again, but there was just something charming about eating home cooked food away from home. Morie hoped that that made sense - her brain felt thoroughly fried enough as it was.
Her eyes landed on a spicy stir-fried sliced pork dish that was located on Mina's left, near to where Aoyama was seated. Compared to everything else that seemed to be cooked clay-pot style or braised, it seemed that there was not more of the dish further down the table. Mulling it over for a bit, her hands reached out for a spare bowl as she scooped out a fair amount of the meat dish, before placing the bowl in front of the boy with ash blonde hair next to her.
"Hey," she said out loud. It was a vague memory, but Morie could remember Bakugou's meals always having an abundant amount of chilli or wasabi or togarashi powder; the same had applied for Mitsuki's cooking that time she went over for dinner. "You like spicy food, right?"
Mr Spiky Hair eyed the bowl full of spicy pork before him, red eyes narrowing slightly before shifting towards her. He let out a scoff, surprisingly setting down his chopsticks on his rice bowl instead of slamming it. "Oi, are you actually a goddamn stalker?"
… right, Bakugou did not usually react well when people tried to do nice things for him.
"Nah, just a hunch," she spoke, phrasing her words vaguely as she grew aware of Mina and Tsuyu tuning into their conversation with a poorly-concealed interest. "Your mom cooked all your favorite dishes last time, right? I almost died, my throat was burning."
"Pft, that shit wasn't even spicy," the ash blonde snickered. "The hell are you acting like that old hag now?"
"Who said I was mothering you?" She caught his eye and a corner of her lips curled upwards. "If you don't want it then just pass it down, dude."
He took a few moments to stop and glare at her.
Then with a vengeful swoop, Bakugou picked off several pieces of pork slices into his bowl, before shoving the rest of the meat towards Tsuyu and Iida sitting opposite him, the unsuspecting duo now having a look of amazement plastered on their faces.
Mr Spiky Hair was now shoving the meat slices into his mouth with a sort of hearty gusto. The dark-haired girl abandoned her attempt to hide her laugh, earning her a magnificent stink-eye.
"Shuddap!" The prickly boy barked out between mouthfuls of rice and meat, and Morie feigned innocence with a grin as she noted that just a little bit, Bakugou seemed embarrassed. She turned back to her food to hide her amusement, reaching out to try a bit of the spicy pork herself.
Shit, she coughed out as the the taste unrelentingly burned its way through her mouth. Did I just swallow the chilli paste?
… karma was truly a bitch.
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A/N:
*i love referencing stuff. kudos to you if you remember Morie's joke a lot of chapters ago.
tldr; we need to swap one purple headed boi for a better one. Training camp has also started. Bakugou will be bakugou. Rie acts like a Mom.
The training camp is really hard to write. Even after rereading it I still have no idea what happens at times. I thus ask for your forgiveness if I write anything that's blatantly incorrect/contradictory in the future.
I don't know, but as an Asian sometimes I feel that there is a cultural difference with my readers, who are mostly from America. As a guest very nicely stated, it seems illogical to have the characters cry for Rie after cutting her hair - and I honestly didn't think anyone would read into that scene that much as I wrote it mimicking how I imagined an anime would play out, a bit dramatised but sincere. I also wish to emphasise again that Rie at this point in time hardly has any feelings for Bakugou and that this is a slow burn. Her shyness and awkwardness around Bakugou can hardly be called feelings, which is what this guest seems to imply. I thank you for letting me know your thoughts but you were pretty rude about it. There were other reviews I think, but I don't really want to focus on them because I know I did try my best on this story and I don't feel the need to defend my writing, or my plot choices - there were so many choices that I want to explain but I never found the right time to do so.
I'm really sorry about the lack of updates - I haven't written in months, and after I saw the latest review from leiselburrowOWO, I just felt like I had to update this pre-written draft for this chapter. It was one of the last few edited drafts I have for this story and while this was not well proofread, I just wanted to post again. I still feel very attached to this story and I really want to see it through, but I don't think my current circumstances will let me.
I hope you all are doing well, and safe. I'm feeling more and more tired as the days go by, and I've just been feeling so inadequate. I'm afraid for my future, because being a student nurse in a pandemic and in the current state of the world makes me feel so hopeless. I wonder if my efforts will ever pay off and I've been feeling empty everyday, and I feel like I can't talk to anyone about it because I don't even understand what I'm feeling.
With that said, I wish for the best for all of you. I really have to thank all of you who are still sticking around, and I'm glad that this story made some of you all happy. If reading this could make you feel better, even if just a little, that's only good enough for me.
Thanks for reading, once again. Please stay safe.
- C
