Their Hero Academia – Chapter Four: Katsumi Kirishima-Bakugo and the Adjustments of Dorm Life

Nodding slightly to herself, Katsumi set the family photo on her desk. Taken during her little brother's last birthday, she could just make out the banner in the background. There was Papa, grinning and mugging for the camera with his arm around Dad, who was doing his best not to look too grumpy. Dad never was one for overt displays of affection, at least, not where other people could see. She stood to their left, smiling in a way few people could get her to, though her family were absolutely some of those people. And there was Taishiro, his dark hair done up in spikes like Papa, grinning so broadly she thought his head was going to split in half.

She'd never tell the little ball of sunshine/brat, but she was already missing him something fierce.

Her dorm room was about the size of her room at home and for the most part, decorated similarly. Heavy Metal posters adorned one wall, a dart board another, and a punching bag hung from the ceiling in the far corner. She'd been too tired from moving in last night to finish setting up and she had to admit, it felt good to have it all done.

With the first floor given over to common areas, the sixteen of them were spread over the remaining four floors, making for plenty of space between eight boys and eight girls. Toshi, Shinso, one of the Jetsets (she knew their names, but their buttons were just too easy not to push), and the Newb occupied the second floor. Good. Toshi… Well, Toshi she could deal with. She'd grown up knowing him, more than some of the others. On a good day, she considered him a friend.

But Shinso was sugary enough to give you diabetes and Iida set her off whether he was in rules mode or inventor mode. And the Newb… she just didn't like his face. At least Toshi, Shinso, and the Newb could nerd it up. Maybe they'd make Iida crazy.

The third floor held Mineta and Kaminari, along with Koda and Tokoyami. The latter two were in for hell. Koda, at least, she felt sympathetic for. Tokoyami would make the mistake of trying to "mom" Mineta and Kaminari and would be in for no end of grief because of it. The two of them were thick as thieves and always up to something. She was just glad it wasn't her down there. She was absolutely certain she'd have come to blows with Mineta before any time at all. Probably still would, but at least there was a floor between them for now.

At least the horned-girl had given up trying to hit on her after Katsumi had had a conversation with her that had involved a very vivid description of what she would put where and ending with a theoretical trip to the glue factory. A little fear of being exploded did wonders.

The fourth floor was Sato, Sero, Aoyama, and Shoji. The first two were going to be trouble, she knew that, even before they'd pulled that damn fool stunt at lunch. Shoji would probably just ignore them and she honestly couldn't recall if she'd ever said ten words to the sparkling Aoyama. As long as Sato and Sero didn't interrupt her sleep or when she was studying, she really didn't care.

And on the fifth floor, there was herself, Izzy, and Ojiro. Ojiro was tolerable enough, if only in small doses. The invisible chick was a gossip, both of the celebrity kind and the lives of her friends and people she knew. Not Katsumi's style at all. Not to mention she had one hell of an annoying laugh. She supposed, though, when you were invisible, you tried to take up as much space as possible in other ways.

And Izzy… Well, she ranked up there with Toshi for people who bugged her the least. And given the choice between the two, she'd pick Izzy. She's go as far as to call Izzy her best friend. Certainly, she never set her off like just about everyone did sooner or later.

Wait. That was just three. Who else was there? Oh. Right. The other Jetset. She was trying to forget that, pretend it was all a bad nightmare. But given the persistent noise from the next room over, that wasn't happening. It hadn't been a consistent noise, but every now and then, she would hear the sounds of Iida's jet engines firing, or her yelping, or what sounded like someone banging into the walls at ceiling height.

How. Could. One. Person. Make. So. Much. NOISE?! It was worse than when Toshi had had to chase his grandfather off.

Papa would suggest taking a deep breath and counting to ten. Dad would suggest going over there and settling things personally. So she was going to woman up and deal with it.

Stomping out of her room, she made a sharp turn to the right and pounded on Iida's door. "What the hell is going on in there?! Do I have to break down this door to get you to shut the hell up?"

The door must not have been locked, because her pounding caused it to swing open. She didn't know what she was expecting when she went inside, but Iida hanging from the ceiling by several thick straps was not it. The room itself was a complete mess, every wall covered in blueprints and nearly every available surface covered in engineering books or tools.

The blue-haired girl gave her something of a sheepish grin. She and her brother were not especially good with boundaries, but apparently, they did have some sense of shame.

"Katsumi! I can explain! I know that there are restrictions against noise after eight p.m., but surely by average, my volume level was far below…"

Katsumi's annoyed expression must have been enough to put her off her game for once, because she actually shut up. "What the hell are you doing?" Katsumi demanded.

"I was attempting to arrange a something so that I might sleep while suspended from the ceiling! Unfortunately, I was not able to make the modifications correctly and became rather entangled."

Well, count that as one of the most absolutely stupid things she had ever heard, and she'd listened to Toshi and Shinso ramble on and on about Heroes and Quirks for hours on end. She should have walked away right then and left the jet-powered alleged genius to her entrapment. That was what she should have done. However, almost against her will, she felt her mouth forming words.

"Why?"

She instantly wished she could have taken the words back. In spite of her curiosity, she was certain there was no answer to the question that wouldn't be impossibly stupid.

Iida actually managed to look embarrassed for a moment, something she didn't think was possible. "I… I have difficulty sleeping on my back," she said, "because of my engines."

All right, that made sense, more or less. But that still didn't explain the nonsense. Fortunately (or perhaps not), more explanation was forthcoming.

"My brother does too, but he can sleep on his stomach." Her hands reached up to touch her rather generous chest. "That is… also problematic for me. I can sleep on my side, of course, but then I cannot roll over easily in the night."

It was turning into a night for unexpected answers. Sure, there were plenty of Quirks that gave physical alterations that made certain aspects of life challenging for some people, but Iida seemed to have drawn a particularly bad combination of Quirk and normal physical characteristics.

"That," Katsumi found herself saying, "that fucking sucks, Iida. What do you usually do?"

"I mostly just get used to it. I have trained myself to be able to sleep without much movement… but I was imagining the possibilities and decided to take matters into my own hands!"

Katsumi fought the urge to facepalm. She wasn't exactly sorry she asked, but how could someone that smart be that dumb at the same time. She shook her head. "You're really pretty entangled there, aren't you?"

"In attempting to escape, I may have made things worse, rather than better."

"Is everything all right in here?"

Katsumi looked to the doorway and saw Izzy standing there, looking concerned, along with a floating bathrobe and a pair of bunny slippers that had to be Ojiro.

The bathrobe pointed towards Iida. "Didn't know you were into that kind of thing, girl!"

Katsumi felt her face redden at the accusation and felt her blood boil. Her hands curled into tight fists. "What…?! I'm not… she's not…! Don't think I can't kick your ass just because I can't see it, Ojiro!"

Unfortunately, Ojiro only seemed to find the threats funny, because she began laughing, nearly bending over double. "Oh.. ha ha ha… you should… you should have seen your face!"

"Please, Katsumi," Izzy said, holding up a hand before she could mount any further threats to the invisible girl, "I am certain Ojiro did not mean it."

She turned to look at Ojiro. "Right?" she asked. Her tone of voice made it clear she wasn't really asking a question.

Ojiro quickly tried to compose herself. "Uh… yeah, right. Sorry."

"Thank you," Izzy said. "Perhaps if we all work together, we can get Sora down?"

Dammit, she never could say no to Izzy.

It took longer than she would have thought to disentangle Iida; by the time they had finished, it had gotten late and classes would likely be just as unforgiving, if not more so, than they had been today. Katsumi had told Iida girl if she ever tried anything like that again, she would definitely not be coming to her rescue. And then Izzy reminded her that as classmates and friends, they should all be willing to help each other.

And what was she supposed to say to that?!

They'd left Sora in her room and Ojiro had headed back to hers, leaving Katsumi alone in the hallway with Izzy, whose room was across from hers.

Izzy paused before the door to her room. "I'm impressed, Katsumi," she said.

Katsumi shrugged. "Why's that?"

"You only tried to start three fights today. That's a new low."

"Three and a half. I was ready to let Sora have it before she told me why she was doing it."

Izzy smiled and Katsumi felt her heart flutter in her chest for a moment. "Still a new record then. I'm proud of you."

Katsumi shook her head. "Not promising that's gonna keep happening, Izzy. Somebody's gonna set me off sooner or later. And then… well, somebody's gonna go boom."

Definitely not her fault so many people made her so mad, right? Papa did always say losing her temper wasn't Wo-Manly, but Dad always said sometimes, you just had to punch someone. Contradictory advice had, in truth, made up most of her experiences. It was a wonder she didn't get into more fights as it was.

"I trust that you will try then," Izzy said, as she opened her door and stepped inside her room. "Good night, Katsumi."

"Good night, Izzy."

Katsumi returned to her own room, quickly changing and plopping down on her bed. The conversation replayed itself over in her head. Was she really so bad that three and a half near fights was a record?

Yeah. Okay. I'll try. For you, Izzy.