A longer chapter! Hurrah! I enjoyed writing about characters I've grown to love so much, and hope I've done them justice. This is just a taste, of course; Chiyo's perceptions are pretty thin considering the time frame she's in (or rather, forgotten about). Thank you to the follows, favorites, and reviews!
Can't tell if they're impressed or if I'm about to be arrested.
Five sets of eyes stared holes through my skull. My body shriveled under their gazes like a raisin. I recognized most of them from various television interviews and magazine articles- especially the larger-than-life, golden-haired Symbol of Peace himself, All Might. Currently he stood like a giant beacon of doom, ready to smash any threat into little bite-size pieces of konpeito.
That current threat happened to be me.
"Miss Tsutomi, reporting for her interview at approximately eleven-hundred hours!" The boy with glasses- the class rep, Iida- shouted in an authoritative manner. The clover-haired boy and gravity girl gave a stout nod on either side of us, as Iida still had hold of my biceps. Had he really used a mobile quirk to get us here so quickly? I cleared my throat, raising a particularly pale hand in greeting.
"Hello there, I am Chiyo Tsutomi. I believe I have an interview scheduled?"
Twenty minutes earlier
The parking lot was already reverberating with heat from the asphalt, infusing the odor of freshly-mown grass with the asinine scent of new tar. My pores felt exposed as I unscrewed the cap of my third water bottle and downed half its contents in one go. My outfit looked pretty great for having been equitable to a prune just hours before, and I'd placated the thick hair trailing down my back with a heavy-duty straightener and some bobby pins. The skirt was a tad snug which I tallied to water weight (like I always did) as I journeyed on towards the ominous security checkpoint I could already tell would be a pain.
UA had a prestigious reputation, certainly, and was not unknown to enemies and rejects from the program; the security was a necessity in the face of villainy and dejected parents alike. The biggest issue I'd face during student-teaching was a screaming, fist-shaking parent who didn't believe little Skipping Suzuki deserved to fail based on her absences.
When you miss over sixty days of a semester to hang out at the arcade, though, that tends to happen.
A visitor badge was pinned to the front of my blazer to assure every passerby could recognize my un-belonging presence. I considered pulling my hair over the laminated tag but couldn't justify my reasoning for doing such a thing. I paused, a little curious over the matter, and took in the scenery around me.
The grounds were expansive, especially considering the school's in-city location. Trees lined the sidewalks, the grass well-manicured, and flowers bloomed on every corner, as if the lawn maintenance all possessed horticultural quirks. Wait, could they?
The air smelled better here. Fresher. I inhaled with new lungs and for the first time felt a little less nervous and more or less hopeful.
I'd applied for this job on a whim. The inquiry was easy enough to bullshit, and UA was relatively close to my residence. I'd been banking on my loan grace period for too long and knew I'd need some sort of revenue better than a local block's video store to pay the bills after too long. It was time to put that once-so-coveted teaching license to good use.
Sure, I'd shied away from the whole hero scene pretty much my entire life, but maybe it was time for a new perspective.
"DAMN IT MINETA, GET BACK HERE. YOU. ARE. DEAD."
Then again, maybe it was for the best if I'd just stayed and became manager of the video store instead of dabbling into a school like this.
A panicked, crying child with bubbling purple hair was flailing wildly and streaking along in my direction, a glimmering piece of cloth in one of his small fists. A feral teenager charged after him with a mouth full of rage and eyes of pure loathing. I felt the blood streaming out of the small boy's nose before actually seeing it. Alarm sprang through my chest. Was he attacked by the larger student?
The wildling suddenly lunged, hand extended.
"DIE."
It seemed more of a command than anything. I snatched the small boy out of the way on reflex but missed his skin, instead tossing him aside by the weird object he'd been clinging to. My other hand interlocked between the aggressor's own fingers. Something was leaking out of him. Without thinking, I repelled the liquid back into his hand. A small popping resulted and the boy yelped, falling to his knees in a writhe. I held tight to his hand, caught between intrigue in what must be his quirk and what I assumed I should feel, such as scorn for student-on-student violence. Did he seep some sort of explosive material? Gasoline, perhaps? But how would it ignite?
"Using your quirk outside of training is a serious violation," I commented with little malice. I was still interested in his quirk and didn't want to scare him out of telling me about it, even if I did have to play bad cop. "Especially if used against a defenseless child."
The blonde boy snorted. "Child? Take a look at what's in your hand, lady, and try and tell me again that little mongrel is a child."
I became suddenly aware of the continuous tugging my right hand had been experiencing all the while. That child, whom I now noticed wore a UA uniform, had been furtively trying to pull free the item in question from my grip ever since the danger had subsided. He let go, paling, when I set my gaze on him.
They were made of cream silk and lace, wrinkled from an excessively tight grip and just slightly damp from the boy's sweaty palms.
Panties.
".Wh...What?"
I could've heard a pin drop from seventy miles away, the purple-balled boy was so still. I squinted.
"What," I muttered again, noticing a group of students moving quickly towards us. A red-faced girl darkened to a deep plum upon seeing what was clutched in my hand. "What kind of school is this?"
"Sick little bastard," Blondie spat, though already his breath had slowed to a crawl. I looked between the two, baffled.
I never attended UA, sure, but these were antics of a school with far less prestige.
These...These kids are going to be tomorrow's heroes?
"Minoru Mineta! You are in multiple violations of school code and public decency! You dare call yourself a student of the most noble hero program in the country, and yet have stooped so low as to become a panty thief-"
"It's not like she was wearing them!" The small one shouted. My brain couldn't even process the situation evolving in front of me. The purple balls of his head bounced with every move as he angrily defended himself. "They fell out of her bag, what was I supposed to do?!"
"You are seriously the worst, Minoru," The blushing girl spoke this time. Simple deduction told me these were probably hers. I quickly lowered my hand and gaze on the perpetrator, face blank.
"You're telling me you are part of the hero program and stole a pair of underwear from your own classmate? Not even a rival class's, or something?"
"Not really the point I'd be trying to make," Blondie muttered. He'd risen to a sitting position, pacified and sullen. Apparently this was a shock to everyone, as the interest fell from the pervert- Minoru Mineta- to us.
"Whoa, Bakugo! You're actually sitting still!" The students wandered closer, scrutinizing. The young brunette leaned over, glimmering with curiosity "I don't think I've ever seen you so calm before!"
"Yeah so what?" He- Bakugo?- spit out in a tired voice. I allowed the smallest of smirks. Unbeknownst to him, my quirk had been slowly regulating his blood flow to put him in this calmed state.
Kind of hard to throw a tantrum when your heart isn't pumping above 70 beats a minute.
The girl looked at our conjoined hands. She then stage whispered to the others; "I think she's the one controlling him,"
"No one controls me! I-" Bakugo fell forward with a sigh. "Just forget it."
"Oh, hey! Who are you?"
The green-haired boy was the first to notice I was an unknown person in this equation. His smile was easy and friendly; would he be my favorite student if I took this job? At least he didn't show any perverse tendencies...yet.
I released the calmed Bakugo and turned my attention to the group, giving a small, polite bow.
"I'm Chiyo Tsutomi."
"Pleased to meet you! I'm Izuku Midoriya, but you'll hear people call me Deku. That's Uraraka-" The panty victim, then. "-and this is Tenya Iida, he's our class rep," At his introduction the bespectacled boy promptly offered his hand. I'd barely reached out when his firm grip took my hand and violently shook it. Lively bunch, aren't we?
Deku's eyes wavered on Bakugo, hesitant. "You've already met Kacchan, or Katsuki Bakugo, and Minoru Mineta."
"Ah, yes. Bubble boy," I fixed my gaze on him once more. The little troll was caught between fear and stubborn valiance from his lingerie endeavor. A slow, warm smiled wrapped around my features and a glimmer of hope sparked his eyes.
"Mineta?" I asked.
"Er, yeah?"
I leaned down to better view him, smile still pristine. "If you ever attempt a stunt like this again, I'll drown you."
I could practically see his butt pucker.
"Here, sorry about all this," I turned to the single girl of the group, arm extended with the underwear as a sort of peace offering. Quick as a light she took and stashed them away, a hint of her blush returning.
And, I noted, a creeping pink waltzing across Deku and Bakugo's faces as well. What's that about, I wonder?
"So Ms. Tsutomi, what are you here for?"
"Hm?" Four sets of eyes inquired after me and my mind drew a blank. A creaking skittered across the grounds and we turned in unison, watching as the nearby clock tower's slender hand shifted to the twelve.
"Eleven o'clock," I mused. An itch tickled my scalp. "Why is that ringing a bell?"
"Er, because that's what clocks do?" Uraraka questioned.
"I guess I never thought about why it's specifically a bell," Iida mused.
"Oh," I slapped my cheek and reality slapped me right back. "Oh, oh no. I have an interview- I had an interview, starting at eleven," The clock struck my fate down like a fallen heroine, destined for loserdom. Did I just go home? Who would ever hire someone who couldn't do something so simple as to even show up on time? Mom is going to kill me.
"Which building?" Iida's glasses gleamed with his demanding question. I blinked.
"Building 2B, second floor. There's no way I can make it-"
Deku was rubbing his chin, suddenly alienated in his own miasma of mutterings.
"That's less than a quarter mile away. If we used Iida's speed coupled with Uraraka's gravity control- we could both hold on to her and Iida to maintain the balance- Even then, we may not be fast enough, of course with a blast from Kacchan we could clear the outside distance in an instant-"
"Is...he okay?" I asked, hesitant to interrupt the one-sided conversation.
Uraraka gave a simple nod. "He does this kind of thing all the time."
"It could work," Deku said, loud enough for us to hear. He hammered a fist into the palm of his hand. "We have only seconds, but I believe if we work together, we can get you to that interview."
A thundering erupted in my chest, hope swelling like the tide. The students shared a glance, nodded in unison.
"I caught the majority of your muttered plan, Midoriya, and I concur! If we all hold on to Miss Tsutomi, we should be able to deliver her to her destination," Iida agreed, already on the move. Hands grasped my biceps from behind and I tensed, suddenly unsure.
"Wait, what's going on here? I don't even know what your quirk is, this doesn't seem very safe-"
"Uraraka!" Iida commanded over my protests. A tight grip strangled my left arm and a lighter one to the right, Midoriya's face a mix of apology and determination.
"This will work, please trust us,"
My head shook, panic rising. "I'm sorry, I'm sure you're great students, but I-"
"Bakugo!" This kid was seriously something else with the interruptions. If -by the grace of all things holy- I did make it to this interview and incredibly landed the job, Iida and I would be having a nice heart to heart chat very quickly. "Are you in?"
From psychopathic raging to mollified, Bakugo now wore an unreadable expression of annoyance and boredom. I presumed this was probably his natural face.
Very surprisingly, a smirk pulled a corner of his mouth up, turning his face into a new mixture of pleased malice. He stood, dusting his pants off.
"I guess she did threaten that pervert-bastard, and I hate owing people one," Came his cool answer.
Owing people one? I thought, panic quelled for a moment at the thought of having stopped a panty-snatching little perv as Bakugo owing me one.
Speaking of which, bubble-boy still hadn't moved, frozen in place since my little threat. I wondered for a moment if I'd went too far.
Then I recalled he'd snatched a pair of panties from a classmate. I immediately felt less ashamed.
The clock struck its final note, and four students braced themselves against me. I felt their blood rushing through their bodies and my stomach curdled, the milk and oatmeal I'd had for breakfast threatening to spew out of their original entry point.
"Ready?" Deku asked.
"On my mark," Iida directed.
"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" Bakugo roared. "NOW!"
So, I thought, perhaps for the last time.
So this is how I die, at the teenaged hands of hopeful heroes.
