Joe's Note: This chapter wasn't hard to adapt from the original content despite the fact that it was a dinner between Carol, Yu, and Momo because... well, I have other people in Carol's life in this iteration. Given how the last few chapters have gone, I don't suppose it's any surprise that Himiko is pulling companion duty in this chapter. Seeing as how it'll come up in this chapter, and I always like to give credit where credit is due? The idea of 'quirk instability' is shamelessly cribbed from The Undead Schoolgirl: Dead Pulse by Wickerbot. Honestly, though? It really makes sense and falls in line with my own thoughts when I first watched My Hero Academia. Namely that while Izuku's behavior makes a certain degree of sense due to over a decade of outright abuse and bullying by almost everyone around him, there has to be something outright wrong with some - nay, most - of his classmates to explain why they behave the way they do. Well, beyond 'the creator put about as much thought into the side characters as J.K. Rowling did and so they're all one-dimensional anime tropes', that is.
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Howard, Jade, Alexander, Tibor, Alonsis2, Daniel, Clark, Adrien, erlking, ridillin, Haematite, Charles, Jacky, Edward, Andrew, Roofcrawler, Wil, PbookR, Samuel, Mikey, Beverly, Daniel, Charles, Crygon20, Subtle, Christopher, Stephen, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Joseph, Jason, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Marc, Ziryo, Chris, George, Koby, William, Devin, JJbelle, David, Gavin, TheTenthAncestor, Lookshy, Mauday, John, Roman, Warren, and Jess for sponsoring me on Patre0n, and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

The first thing that Carol noticed when she arrived at RyuGin was that she was just on the cusp of being underdressed for the occasion. While the red, blue, and gold dress that she was wearing - a present from a designer who was attempting to woo her into promoting a new line of women's clothes patterned after her costume - was tasteful enough, it was just barely fancy enough for the setting based on what she was seeing of the other patrons waiting to be seated. Thank God that she'd actually bothered to dress up, she mused, instead of showing up in her normal 'going out to eat' outfit of jeans and a t-shirt.

The second thing that Carol noticed was that Himiko looked somewhere between adorable and gorgeous in the Starforce-colored variant of her dress that the designer had made based on the secondary color scheme that she'd begrudgingly adopted for night operations.

The third thing that Carol noticed was that Yaoyorozu was even more stacked than she'd initially appeared when wearing her school uniform. If more than a handful was a waste - a mentality that Carol didn't agree with at all, mind you - then God had been especially wasteful when it came to Yaoyorozu. Damn. That was the kind of cleavage that a girl could get capsized trying to motorboat.

What a way to go, though.

Doing her best to banish her inappropriate thoughts - and thankfully succeeding at least to some degree - Carol took Himiko by the hand and led the smaller blonde over to where Yaoyorozu was patiently waiting for them near the maître d'hôtel. Offering the black-haired teen a grin, she nodded her head in Himiko's direction. "I managed to bargain her down to just dressing like me. She wanted to actually come as me tonight but I thought that might get a little confusing for you since you're not used to her."

Yaoyorozu mostly looked confused as she mouthed the words 'come as me' to herself, but she quickly shook herself and turned to nod at the maître d'hôtel, who offered them a subdued smile before gesturing past him toward the restaurant proper. "If you'd be so kind as to follow me?"

Following behind obediently as the maître d'hôtel led them into the restaurant, Carol found herself caught between wanting to watch Yaoyorozu's swaying hips and investigating who else was dining at the elite restaurant that evening. She ended up settling for the former after a brief attempt at the latter; if there were any other heroes in attendance at the moment, they were ranked below the top fifty and she didn't recognize them. Apart from heroes, she was admittedly rather culturally ignorant and so she had no idea who was currently popular and why. She could be surrounded by this world's musical or acting royalty at the moment... and she'd never know it. Giving it up as a bad job, she decided to settle for keeping her eyes fixed on Yaoyorozu's posterior... right up until Himiko cuffed her shoulder none too gently. "Why don't you ever look at me like that?"

"Himiko, you literally climb all over me naked. I look at your body like that all the time." Carol chuckled softly as Himiko nibbled on her lower lip thoughtfully with her elongated canines, reaching up to rub the spot between the blonde's twin buns fondly. "Besides, I'd say that I'm taken not dead but I'm not even taken right now. There's nothing wrong with me looking at pretty girls."

Lower lip jutting out, Himiko pouted up at her cutely. "But what if I want you to look at just me like that?"

Carol raised an eyebrow, not entirely sure where the sentiment was coming from. She was well aware that Himiko was somewhere between idolatry and a crush when it came to her, but she honestly couldn't think of anything that she'd done that could be construed as leading the girl on. At the same time, given that Himiko was one of her most trusted companions - and one of the ones that she could conceivably openly date without attracting unwanted scrutiny - maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing to... narrow her gaze a bit in the future?

Before she could ponder that any further, Yaoyorozu arrived in front of their table and offered their host a shallow bow before pulling out her own chair and taking a seat. "For the record, I am your guest for the evening and you should have been courteous enough to offer to seat me. Seeing as how you didn't... let's continue and hope your behavior improves from here." Blushing faintly, Carol and Himiko quickly took seats on the opposite side of the table, Carol making a point of pulling out Himiko's chair for her and then pushing it back in. "Also, our interactions will go much smoother if in the future, you could refrain from discussing me like I'm a piece of meat at the market. With behavior like that, I'm going to assume that your quirk instability class is in the neighborhood of a five, possibly a six? Either that, or you're just spectacularly impolite and socially inept."

Carol raised an eyebrow at the question, not entirely sure how to respond to an inquiry that was completely outside of her knowledge base, while Himiko let out a faintly scandalized gasp as her blush darkened, burying her face in Carol's shoulder. "Eh? Carol, she's being too forward. I don't know how to react."

"Considering the two of you were discussing my body like I was an object to be acquired and admired, miss, I don't think I'm the one who's being too forward here." Yaoyorozu shot a challenging look at the pair of them, causing Himiko to whine and rub her face against Carol's shoulder more intensely. The dark-haired girl waited as the maître d'hôtel placed three sheets of paper on the table and departed before clearing her throat. "I've decided to likewise dispense with pleasantries at this point, seeing as how you've been nothing but crude and far too forward with me so far. Which I'll admit that I find perplexing, seeing as how we're ostensibly here so that you can convince me to enter into some form a partnership with you so that you can harness my ability to produce that extraterrestrial metal that's apparently so valuable to you."

"First of all, in my defense, you come from a much more formal and polite culture than I do. Forgive me for having some growing pains when it comes to fitting in around here." Granted, the worst of her 'crudeness' and 'forwardness' were her younger body's hormones causing her mouth to work faster than her brain on occasion, but Carol was actively working on that. She'd managed to keep from sharing what she knew were inappropriate thoughts about the girl's body, at least until Himiko had called her on her obvious appreciation of Yaoyorozu's form. Small victories, yeah? "Second of all, what's a quirk instability class? Because Himiko obviously knows what you're talking about but I can't really answer that question if I have no idea what you're talking about."

Staring at her in disbelief, Yaoyorozu opened her mouth to respond only to be brought up short and sit there staring at Carol instead. Finally, after nearly a minute, the dark-haired girl shook her head slowly. "I've heard the interviews, of course, but I thought they were all some sort of elaborate hoax. You really are an alien among us, aren't you?" Carol raised an eyebrow before nodding slowly; what did that have to do with Yaoyorozu's initial question or her own request for clarification? "Quirk instability classes are an intrinsic part of our culture. They define how much your quirk influences your thought patterns, and how that affects your ability to interact normally in society. We normally get assigned our initial class when our quirk first manifests and we undergo quirk counseling to understand the intricacies of our new powers. As our powers - and our control of them - mature over time, that value can change for better or worse. I assumed that something about your overwhelming power caused you to be too arrogant and forward."

Leaning up a bit, Himiko rested her chin on Carol's shoulder as she brushed her lips against the taller blonde's ear. "That Bakugou asshole that Midoriya talks about is probably a five or a six. Since his entire body is built to create and harness his explosions, his quirk instability means that he probably has a hard time comprehending how much damage he's doing to other people when he uses his quirk on them. The lower your number, the more functional you are by society's standards. Anything seven or higher, you go on a government watch list and get assigned a monitor."

Letting out a soft noise of comprehension, Carol looked from Himiko to Yaoyorozu and then back as her own eyebrows slowly rose. "The more you know, I guess? Now you've got me curious, though. What's your quirk instability class? You seem pretty functional by society's standards... more functional than me, at least in Japanese society. You're a little too into my blood sometimes but..."

"I still don't really feel comfortable discussing something this personal with a complete stranger, but since the two of you seem to insist..." Himiko opened her mouth wide, tongue flicking over one of her fangs to draw Carol's attention to them. "I'm currently a seven. Before we met, I had a degree of hemophilia and some self-identity issues because of how my quirk works and what it lets me do. That's why my classmates don't like me; it's not just my quirk, it's what my instability factor pushes me to do. Not many people were comfortable with someone else wanting to be them, especially with what was involved." Himiko worried her fingers against each other as she peered up at Carol bashfully. "I'm getting better now that I have you around. I might even get downgraded to a six or a five at my next evaluation because I don't want to be just anybody else anymore, just you."

Carol grinned at that, bringing her hand up to rub between Himiko's buns fondly as she rubbed her cheek against the smaller girl's forehead. "Glad to hear it. As for my own quirk instability class, Yaoyorozu... I don't have one for obvious reasons. Mostly because I don't have a quirk. I'm registered as having one because the alternative was trying to explain how I was a quirkless hero with powers... but I've never done quirk counseling or anything like that. So no rating on your handy dandy little mental evaluation scale. Sorry. Doesn't mean I'm necessarily normal, mind you, but that's not what you asked. Now that we've shown you ours... turnabout seems like fair play. What's your class?"

Various emotions flitted over Momo's face before settling on a more nonplussed expression than Carol had been expecting given that they were discussing what was evidently a societally taboo subject. "I've been holding steady at a four for the past few years. Mostly because I don't see anything wrong with using my powers to circumvent the traditional economic system." Furrowing her brow, she brought her hands together and then drew them apart, her palms crackling with power as she created a golden bracelet studded with what Carol could only assume were rubies and sapphires. The entire thing complimented her dress spectacularly, and so the blonde wasn't at all surprised when Momo offered it to her after a moment's hesitation. "If I want something, I can just make it for myself rather than needing to obtain it through more traditional channels. Considering that apart from living things, my only limit is that I have to know the molecular composition of what I want and be able to picture it clearly, the government finds that... concerning."

"So what I'm hearing is that if I want a purse but can't afford it, you're the girl to talk to?" Carol chuckled at the exasperated look her question earned her, waving her hand dismissively before lowering it back down to the table so she could slide the bracelet on and clasp it. "I'm kidding. I'm not a very materialistic person and between All Might and my sidekick pay, I've got everything I need and most of what I want."

Momo nodded in approval at that before eyeing Carol shrewdly. "Except for when it comes to your mystery metal, it would appear. Which brings me to another question: heroes are supposed to be selfless and giving, but I'm not entirely sure that covers using my powers to enrich you. Why exactly should I help you create more of... does this metal have a name? I'm getting tired of referring to it as 'your extraterrestrial metal' or the like."

Nodding, Carol reached down and slipped her hand into the small but functional purse that she'd decided to carry for the evening, pulling out a thin sheaf of paper. Smoothing the sheets out on the table, she turned them to face Momo. "The word you're looking for is 'vibranium'. And you should help me because you'd be getting something out of it too. I got my hands on the costume designs that you submitted to U.A. High. Allow me to submit the counterproposal that I'd like you to send in tomorrow morning."

Hesitantly picking up the papers, Momo glanced from them to Carol and back. "You've seen my costume design already?"

Carol just shrugged innocently in response. "I'm All Might's student. Sidekick. Successor. Some or all of the above. I have access to a lot of things that the average person doesn't."

"You want to have them make me a bodysuit out of a woven blend of Dyneema, your vibranium, and... my own hair?" Momo's face cycled through expressions as she deciphered Carol's barely legible handwriting, going from thoughtful to uncertain to faintly disgusted. Looking up from the paper she was holding, Momo furrowed her brows. "My hair?"

Nodding, Carol used her hands to pantomime something growing. "Ever wonder how Mount Lady doesn't grow out of her costume when she height multiplies? Nine times out of ten, when you incorporate your own DNA into your costume, your quirk recognizes it as part of your own body. So Yu's costume grows with her because it's infused with her DNA and your costume-"

Momo's eyes went wide as she realized where Carol was going with her thought process. "I wouldn't need to have exposed skin to produce my creations, they would be able to pass cleanly through my bodysuit without being obstructed and tearing the garment. That's brilliant." Glancing back down at the paper, she frowned again. "It's very... black... though. Dark and foreboding generally isn't something a hero considers to be an acceptable costume."

"They only make Dyneema in white and black, and I figured that trying to keep a white suit clean while being heroic would be exhausting." Carol reached out, flipping through the pages that Momo was holding before gently tugging the next to last sheet out and placing it on top. "If I ever give up my Starforce armor, I was considering a design something like this. Do you think you can make colored Dyneema a reality? Because then that'd open up a lot of options for both of our costumes."

Eyes sparkling with excitement as they bounced back and forth between the drawing and Carol, Momo grinned widely. "A challenge. I haven't faced one of those in quite some time. I'll try my hand at creating red Dyneema for both our sakes... after we finish our meal. My parents have made it quite clear that it's impolite to create things at the dinner table."

Carol nodded in acceptance before looking down at the papers that the maître d'hôtel had left behind. "I'm not the best at reading Japanese yet, but this seems more like a list of dishes than a menu?"

"RyuGin is considered the quintessential kaiseki experience here in Tokyo. That list is the details of the courses that we'll be experiencing tonight, most of them made of seasonal ingredients that are locally sourced."

"Wait, what? I'm going to have to wait through all these courses to find out if my idea will work?"

"And I intend to savor my food."