"Hitoshi!" Ayumu ran up to Shinso who was waiting at the gate for her. Without missing a beat, she linked her arm through his and kept walking. "You wouldn't believe what happened in class today, it was insane."
Shinso sighed as he was dragged along, "What happened in class today?"
"Okay so, in All Might's class were broken up into groups and some of us were villains and some of us were heroes and we had to either defend this pretend weapon or catch it depending on who you were and Midoryia was on a team against Bakugo and at first Midoriya wasn't using his quirk, but then he did and he straight up broke his arm and he and Bakugo blew up the building. Midoryia's team ended up winning and it was honestly kind of sad when Bakugo came back in because he was like... in shock." Ayumu paused to take a breath. "But that's not all! Todoroki won the fight literally all by himself. He just froze the whole building and got to the weapon in like 10 seconds. It's just crazy how strong some of my classmates are. Mina was literally surfing on her acid."
"You know I don't know who any of those people are right?" Shinso reminded.
Ayumu thought about it for a second. "Well we've been in school for a few weeks. I thought you'd just recognize the names by now."
"How did you do in the training?"
Ayumu got quiet and mumbled something under her breath.
"What was that?"
"My team lost. After seeing how powerful everyone was I kind of psyched myself out. I definitely have a lot of training to do."
The two of them walked in silence as they made their way to Ayumu's house. Shinso thought about all of the things Ayumu had told him about her classmates. Meanwhile, Ayumu was trying to figure out how best to train her quirks.
"Hi mom!"
"Hello Mrs. Suzuki."
"Hi kids, do you want a snack?"
Ayumu's mom appeared in the doorway of the kitchen whipping her hands off onto her apron. Ayumu and Shinso stopped at the bottom of the steps. Mrs. Suzuki smiled brightly at the two. Her bright blue hair was tied up in a messy top bun and her shirt was splattered with stains that the apron hadn't been able to stop.
"No thanks, Mom, it's okay. We're going to go study in my room."
"Yeah, no thank you, Mrs. Suzuki."
Ayumu took the steps two at a time to get up the stairs while Shinso took his time walking up. The door was wide open when Shinso reached the room, Ayumu was already unpacking her books from her bag and placing them neatly on the desk that sat in the corner of the room. The blank stares from the plushies on the bed had always unnerved Shinso, but when he noticed they were gone it didn't make him feel any less uneasy.
He glanced toward her desk. The cork board behind it was still filled with pictures of Ayumu and Shinso. There were a few of her and her parents. He was glad to see some things in the room stayed the same.
"So I was thinking maybe you could help me memorize some of the hero laws? I have a test coming up on it and honestly I cannot get them to stick in my brain-"
"Have you been practicing Illusion?" Shinso cut her off, still staring at the empty space on the bed where the stuffed unicorn used to live.
Ayumu tensed before shrugging her shoulders, "Why would I do that? It's useless. My accuracy quirk is way more useful and it's way more natural for me to use that. Plus I designed my costume around it so that's going to be what I use."
"You can't just ignore it because it's hard to use."
Ayumu grabbed her hero manual and dropped herself onto her bed. "I definitely can. I've been doing it for nine years."
Shinso sat beside her on the bed and held out his hands. "It's all in your head. Just practice." When Ayumu hesitated he went on, "Let's do something simple. Try the beach, there's not much to that."
Ayumu inhaled deeply and took his hands in hers. She closed her eyes and exhaled. Slowly the walls of her room melted away. The smell of salt water washed over him and he could feel the cool breeze blow his hair back gently. In front of him the ocean began to materialize and the crashing of waves filled his was no longer sitting on Ayumu's bed but on a scratchy blanket on the sand.
Ayumu opened her eyes and looked around, squinting slightly against the sunlight. "You can see it too, right?"
Shinso nodded. "Okay, I'm going to let go of your hands. Just hold the scene in your mind." He gave her hands a reassuring squeeze and then let go.
Instantly, the sounds and the smell of the ocean dissipated and the scene around him became like a mist between where Shinso sat on the bed and the rest of Ayumu's room. He could tell by her far away look that she was still on the beach. He grabbed one of her hands again and the image became clearer, but still shimmered like a veil had been placed between Shinso and the image, the sounds of the ocean far away.
"Think harder. The sand, the waves..." Shinso tried to encourage.
Ayumu pulled her hand away from his and all at once they were both back in the room. Ayumu looked away embarrassed. "I told you I couldn't do it."
"You just need to keep practicing. Let's try again." Shinso reached out his hand again, but Ayumu put her hero manual into his palm.
"I really need to study, Hitoshi. Maybe we can practice later, but my head hurts."
Shinso handed her back her manual. "I'll get some medicine from your mom."
Shinso headed back down the stairs. was back in the kitchen adjusting the temperature of the oven. She caught sight of Shinso out of the corner of her eye and turned to him smiling. It always struck Shinso just how much Ayumu and her mother looked alike.
"Hitoshi, are you staying for dinner tonight?"
He shrugged, "I can ask, but do you have anything for headaches? Ayumu was-"
"Yes, this quirk does take some getting used to." She turned to the top cabinet and pulled down a bottle, "I'm just glad she's trying. I know she prefers her father's quirk. Was she able to hold it at all?"
Shinso shook his head and took the two pills from . "She's still working on it."
When Shinso got back up to the room, Ayumu was buried in her hero manual. Shinso pulled the book out from under her nose and handed her the pills. He flipped through the first few pages of the book. "Okay, what pages are you being tested on?"
