Their Hero Academia – Chapter 24: Akaya Koda and the Garden of Friendships

Akaya Koda strolled across the U.A. campus, enjoying the mid-April sunshine. She wore a yellow sundress and a wide-brimmed hat, along with a pair of sandals. After an exhausting week, she was glad for the weekend. Rescue training at the USJ had been intense, even without the faux Villain attack on Thursday.

At the same time though, it had been fulfilling work, and work that her Quirk was well suited too. With her power to rapidly grow and control plant life (She disliked the term "controlled," though. She preferred to believe she was seeking their aid), she could shore up other structures, form ropes from vines, and even rapidly grow food when necessary. She disliked violence, always preferring to restrain rather than injure, something else her Quirk excelled at. Perhaps that was the best path for her to take. It would take long and careful thought and prayer before she could come to any truly satisfactory conclusion.

Her destination today, though, was the Community Garden. It had been established a few years ago at U.A. and was primarily tended to by students with an interesting in growing things, though some teachers would assign work there as detention duty. It wasn't especially large, but it did provide a measure of additional fresh fruits and vegetables to the dorms so that less had to be spent on groceries. Akaya enjoyed it immensely.

As she approached the garden, she saw that some of her friends were already there. Kentaro Fukui of Class 1-B gave her a friendly smile and wave. At nearly three meters tall and more than a meter wide, his Quirk, "Large", made him a formidable sight. But his features overall were not monstrous, with short cropped dark hair and cool grey eyes, he was simply… Large. It wasn't often that Akaya met someone who was bigger than she was, other than her own father, or Shoji and his father. She gave him a friendly wave in return.

"Good morning, Fukui," she said. "I trust you're well?"

He nodded. "Doing great, thanks," he said. For his size, his voice was surprisingly high pitched.

"Did you enjoy the USJ?" she asked.

"Eh…" Fukui rubbed the back of his head with an oversized hand. "I'm not really cut out for Rescue work. I'm okay at heavy lifting, but I'm more likely to bring something down."

Akaya nodded. "We all have our callings we are meant to attend. I am certain you will find yours."

"Akaya!" a buzzing voice called out. Chiasa Kamakiri of Class 1-B looked much like her father, Togaru Kamakiri, with a head something like a praying mantis and yellow-green skin. Her dark green hair, though, came from her mother, Setsuna Tokage. Her Quirk, Swarm, allowed her to split parts of her body into a swarm of smaller versions of herself linked by a hive mind and reform. "You're late!" She wagged a finger teasingly.

Akaya gave her a chagrinned smile. "My apologies, Chiasa. I am afraid I had to help defuse a situation in the dorm this morning before I could leave."

"What happened?"

"Kenta, Ojiro, and Sero upset Aoyama," she explained. "They were filming something—I am truthfully not certain of the details—and it ended with Aoyama setting his shirt on fire. He was understandably quite upset and became rather threatening towards them."

Something of an understatement, actually. She was one of the few who got along well enough with Aoyama, but she largely suspected that was because she was, cordial and unargumentative with him.

"Fortunately," she went on, "Tokoyami and I were able to calm them all down… but it was likely it would have escalated into further violence. We found the three of them trying to avoid being blasted by him by hanging from the ceiling by Sero's tape."

Chiasa laughed at that, clicking her mandibles together rapidly. "Your morning sounds more exciting than ours. Though I think Monoma's up to something. He was watching Kana, Midoriya, and Kirishima-Bakugo through binoculars when they came back from their morning run."

Akaya frowned. Shiro Monoma did tend to let the supposed "rivalry" between the classes get the better of him. Though that only applied to 1-A. From what she could tell, he had no problems with the Heroics Course students in 1-C. She counted Shiro as a friend, but there were times where he could cause trouble for everyone. And he did seem to have a particular itch for getting Kirishima-Bakugo riled up. "I shall let them know."

It was better to be forewarned and forearmed. Especially since it would likely prevent Kirishima-Bakugo from trying to kill him.

"I don't know what his problem is," Fukui said. "But I do know Tetsutetsu hitting him all the time like that can't be good for him."

"He deserves it," Chiasa said. "He just wants to stir things up for no reason."

Akaya was much less certain of the "no reason" part than Chiasa was, and even less so of the "deserves it" part. Granted, she did not live with him as she did, but she also considered herself to be closer to him than most. Shiro simply wished to succeed, something that was an uphill battle with his Quirk. His Quirk to imitate the actions of others—she knew he had poured over countless hours of videotape of Heroes like Eraserhead and Gunhead—was formidable under the right circumstances, but she also knew most wrote it off as inconsequential compared to flashier Quirks. Many had accused him of being capable of nothing more than Imitation, lacking the originality to make his copied skills useful. He wished to prove them all wrong.

History repeating itself. Shiro had often mentioned his father had suffered similarly. None of which was hers to reveal to those who did not know.

"We must all make our own way in the world," she said instead. "Some of our paths are simply stormier and more turbulent than others. He shows great loyalty to your class and wants you all to succeed."

That got another laugh from Chiasa. "Dunno how you stay so calm all the time, Akaya," she said. "Especially with the crazies you live with. Especially Mineta."

"It… can be trying," Akaya admitted. Her classmates and friends were good people. But they each carried their own baggage and their own eccentricities. "Faith helps."

"What's a Mineta?" Fukui asked, looking a bit befuddled.

"Someone you'll meet soon enough, I'm sure," Chiasa said. "When you do, you'll know."

The gardening was simple, but not easy work. There were plants to water, plant food to spread, weeds to pull, insects and other pests to send on their way, and even a certain amount of harvest to reap. The three of them had been joined by Shikha Mizuno, from Class 1-C, a doe-eyed young woman with pointed ears and large antlers growing out from her head. Her Quirk, Antlers, let her grow hers rapidly in varying lengths and shapes, even using them like a second set of limbs.

"It's hard to believe so many of the Hero students this year are second gen or more," Mizuno was saying, as she worked on weeding from around the vegetables. "Nobody in my class is. Kind of makes us all feel a little inadequate. You guys all must have a big leg up."

Akaya nodded. "To some extent. Our parents had much advice and training to offer us, but at the end of the day, there is only so much they could offer compared to this school. You will make up whatever gulf there is in time." It was true, however, that nearly all of the students in Class 1-A were the children of the infamous Class 1-A, and many of the students in Class 1-B were likewise the children of their contemporaries. Class 1-C, by contrast, had no second generation or greater Hero students to it.

"Besides," Fukui added, "not all of us in 1-B are second gen either. And 1-A's got one who isn't too, right, Koda?"

She nodded again. "Haimawari. He is quite skilled, though." And would be more so if he could shed the nervousness that dominated most of his actions. "But I expect you too, will have your chance to shine, Mizuno. Good things come to those who wait."

Mizuno frowned. "I guess," she said. "Wish I had your certainty."

"Get outta here, you!" a tiny voice rang out. Akaya looked down to see a dozen tiny Chiasa's (somehow all wearing tiny versions of her clothes, she couldn't begin to understand how that worked), chasing a slug from the garden. They corned the creature and lifted, running until they had carried it outside the garden's boundary. Satisfied, they returned to Chiasa, where they vanished and reformed into the fingers of her left hand.

Chiasa gave her fingers an experimental wiggle, then made a disgusted face. "Ugh, slime. Anybody got a towel?"

Fukui passed her own and received a nod of thanks. "That the last of it?" he asked.

"Enough before lunch, at least," Akaya said. "I think we've a bit more to do before we're done."

"Be easier if you just made everything grow, though," Fukui added.

She shook her head. "I try to only use my Quirk when necessary. I may stray at times, but this garden is meant to be enjoyed by everyone and I would not deprive them of that, nor alter the flow of nature on so large a scale."

Chiasa laughed at that. "I think you just like hard work," she said.

Akaya simply gave her a smile. "I do at that."

They decided to go to the Class 1-B dorm for lunch, since Chiasa had mentioned they had a lot of leftovers from the previous night. Their Common Room followed much the same layout as Class 1-A's, albeit flipped so that everything was on the opposite side. Told to help themselves to whatever was in the fridge, Akaya had fixed herself a small salad and sat down with the others to eat.

They'd also been joined by more of her Class 1-B friends. There was the shadow-skinned Chizue Kuroiro, dark daughter of Shihai Kuroiro and Reiko Yanagi, whose Quirk "Life" let her bring any drawing to life and thus always carried Tarot Cards. And they were also joined by Hekima Kodai, a quiet young man with pale blue hair, who was the son of Yui Kodai and her husband (who had taken her last name), who had an expanded version of his mother's Quirk and could both shrink and grow organic and inorganic objects. Kana Tetsutetsu also joined them, after pouring herself a protein shake.

She also spotted Shiro Monoma walking across the Common Room to the stairs. He seemed to be muttering to himself. "Yes, that should do it. The perfect time, the perfect place, she'll never know it was me…"

"Join us, Shiro?" she offered. His words concerned her. Perhaps she could intervene and prevent unnecessary hardship. She was not quite as good as, say, Asuka Tokoyami or Izumi Todoroki (though Todoroki's skills only really seemed to apply to Kirishima-Bakugo) at defusing conflicts, but Shiro was an old friend and would usually listen to her.

He stopped and shook his head. "I am afraid I have too much to do today, Akaya," he said.

"Surely you have time for a brief respite?" she asked, firmly, but not harshly.

He seemed to weigh his options, sighed, and grabbed himself food from the fridge before sitting down with the rest of them. She waited for him to have a few bites before she spoke again. "Chiasa tells me you were spying on my classmates," she said. "Not heroic behavior at all. I would know why."

Akaya was not, by nature, a confrontational person. But neither would she see trouble come after her classmates and friends, especially from someone she also considered a friend.

"What?" Kana spat, more annoyed and exasperated than surprised. "Do I have to go upside your head again, Shiro?"

"You raise an ill omen over us all," Chizue said, while Hekima just shook his head.

Shiro shot Chiasa a betrayed look, but she was having none of it. "You were spying on them, Monoma," she said. "You had binoculars and everything. It's creepy when Mineta does it and it's creepy when you do it."

Shiro turned a shade of pale. "It's… you see… I don't have to explain myself to any of you!"

Fukui fixed his gaze upon Shiro. "You're not being a perv, are you, Monoma?"

"What? No!"

"Then what?" Akaya prompted.

Shiro looked away, guiltily. "I would really rather not discuss this."

"Should I… should I go?" Mizuno asked. Her antlers were drooping slightly and the Class 1-C girl looked distinctly uncomfortable at all discussion going back and forth.

"I do not believe that will be necessary," Akaya said. "Shiro, do I have your promise this is not some scheme to make Midoriya or Kirishima-Bakugo look bad or otherwise try to prove your class's superiority by undermining mine?"

In spite of everyone's eyes being on him, Shiro managed to look her in the eye. "I promise you it is nothing negative," he said. "In this particular instance, anyway. What some of your classmates do to embarrass your class is not under my control."

That was, Akaya was forced to admit, probably as good an answer as she was going to get. "I will hold you to that," she said. "And I will be very cross if you break that promise."

"Ooooh," Chiasa teased, "don't make Akaya cross, Monoma! She might say things like "drat" and "shoot" and "fiddlesticks!'"

That got a laugh from everyone except for Mizuno and Fukui. Kana's was a pleasant sound, a full on laugh that had her holding her stomach. Chiasa's was a clacking, buzzing, sound, while Chizue's was more of a reserved chuckle hidden behind her hand. Hekima was giggling and even Monoma was trying not to laugh and failing. Akaya accepted it good naturedly. She was not an angry person and rarely raised her voice, so she did not begrudge the joke at her expense. No harm was meant, after all.

"I might even venture so far as a "darn,'" she added, which only got a further laugh, especially from Chiasa, who nearly doubled over.

Kana finally recovered from her laughing. "Don't worry," she said. "If he doesn't behave himself, you can count on me to give him a good smack."

Shiro looked offended by that. "You've really got to stop doing that!"

She fired back. "When you stop doing creepy or annoying stuff, I will!"

Akaya held up her hands. "Please, no fighting while we are eating."

Both muttered their apologies, and Kana switched lines of thought. "Speaking of your class, Akaya," she said, "you know the new kid in your class?"

"Haimawari?"

Kana nodded. "Yeah, him. Midoriya's mentioned him a few times, though Katsumi usually rolls her eyes. I saw him during the entrance exam and he was really impressive!"

"What about him?" Akaya asked.

Kana looked away, being surprisingly shy for a moment before she looked back. "Is he seeing anyone?"

Well, that was certainly not the question she was expecting. And judging from some of the reactions from the others, neither was anyone else.

"OooOoh," Chiasa teased, when she found her words "Kana's got a cruuush."

"I wouldn't have picked you for the crushing type," Chizue said. "Not that kind of crushing, anyway." Next to her, Fukui made a kissy-face.

Hekima blinked slowly. "I have no idea who that is."

Monoma just shook his head. "He's not exactly a heroic dynasty, Kana. You could do better."

Mizuno perked up, antlers waving rapidly in the air. "Oh! I know him! My family shops at his family's convenience store! We went to school together before U.A.! He's kind of a dork, but he's a really nice guy!"

That tracked with Akaya's assessment of Haimawari as well. More importantly, neither Todoroki, Tokoyami, nor Midoriya would be friends with someone who was unpleasant or dishonorable, so that further honed her assessment of him.

"As far as I know," Akaya replied, "he does not. But I cannot claim to have spoken to him for any great length of time, so my knowledge is incomplete. Midoriya, Tokoyami, or Todoroki would be better people to ask." Shota Shinso, of course, also spent time with them, but he was not especially observant about anything that did not involve Heroes.

Kana put her head on the tabletop. "If I ask Midoriya, Katsumi's going to find out and she'll never let me here the end of it."

"You don't think she'll find out anyway?" Shiro asked. "From what I understand of Class 1-A, the second anything vaguely romantic happens, it makes an appearance in the Ojiro girl's gossip show."

Mizuno clapped her hands together. "Oh, I love that show! And the other one she's in sometimes, with the guy who eats stuff!"

Fukui grinned. "Ooooh, I love that one too! The pink guy is super cute! I can't believe he already has a boyfriend!"

Akaya was not without passions of her own and had harbored many a childhood crush over the years, but the hurriedness of some of her friends and classmates to leap into relationships still often surprised her. Some of them more than others, of course. Mika Mineta let her passions rule her to the point of overriding her reason. On the other hand, she also tried very hard not to judge the actions of others. She had not walked in their shoes nor lived their lives. So she would not dissuade Kana from her path, nor any of the others.

"Iida and Sero seem very happy together so far," she told Fukui. "But how long this may last, would not begin to speculate."

"So you're saying I might have a chance?"

"It is not my place to say."

The large young man just shook his head. "You guys have known her longer. Is she always this cryptic?"

"I wouldn't say cryptic," Hekima said. "Chizue's cryptic. Akaya just doesn't like to make snap judgements."

"What about you, Akaya?" Chiasa asked, mischief in her eyes. "You crushing on anyone?"

"None at present," she said, then held up a hand to forestall any follow-up questions that she knew were coming. "My last major crush was when I was thirteen, on Tensei Iida. I can see now such would have been folly anyway, so there is no harm in not having acted upon it."

"Ooof," Chiasa said. "Too bad."

Akaya gave a little shrug. Some things were simply not meant to be. They were in charge of their own destinies, but in some cases, there were simply paths they were not meant to follow.

Kana resumed pounding her head on the table. "What am I gonna do?"

"If you like him," Akaya said, "then may I suggest boldness? It seems to have worked well for Sora Iida in beginning a relationship with Midoriya."

"Maybe," Kana said.

"As much as it pains me to suggest anything that might benefit someone in Class 1-A," Shiro said, "Akaya's right. You're too bold and tough not to just step up to the plate."

Kana nodded, seemingly satisfied with that. "All right then. I'll give it a shot."

Later, Akaya returned to the 1-A dorm, satisfied in a long day of hard work. They'd gotten a lot accomplished in the Community Garden and she was able to bring back a basket full of fresh vegetables with her. They'd be able to make good use of these over the next few days.

She wondered how much she should tell her classmates. Part of her wanted to warn Midoriya and Kirishima-Bakugo that Shiro was watching them, but she also had his promise that he meant no harm. She could, at least, respect Kana's privacy to approach Haimawari on her own terms, but the other bothered her. She did not like keeping secrets. Shiro had not asked her to keep it a secret, but to draw Kirishima-Bakugo's attention to him was absolutely to put him at risk. Kirishima-Bakugo's explosive temper was legendary enough as it was without adding more fuel to the fire.

Ultimately… if they asked, she would not lie. But she supposed she did not have to volunteer that information either. It was a lie of omission, but she felt she could live with it.

As she settled back into her dorm room, she felt her phone buzz with a text message.

Carefully, she withdrew her oversized phone from its pocket in her dress, meant to fit easily in the palm of her oversized hand. She unclipped the stylus (most capacitive screens did not work well with her rocky skin) to see who it was. It turned out to be from Shiro.

The text simply said, "See? No harm meant" and was followed by a photo attachment. Curious, she tapped the attachment with her stylus to open it. The attachment opened, revealing a rather intricately crafted origami crane situated in the middle of what appeared to be an origami explosion. She knew Shiro regularly studied various artists and crafters in order to acquire additional skills, but it was impressive work all the same. More so when she recognized what had to be little original flourishes he had added, since his Quirk relied upon imitation.

This, however, just raised further questions. Spying and origami did not typically go together. Just what was Shiro up to? Few explanations presented themselves and the ones that did were too mind boggling to consider for long.

Carefully, she texted back. I am going out on a limb by trusting you. Do not betray that.

Do not worry, Shiro texted. All will be well.

She could only pray that it would be.

Sero and Iida, Miroriya and the other Iida, Kana and Haimawari, and now whatever was going on here… Perhaps it was time she began to consider what she wanted, before it was too late.