U2 Akiyama - Touhou: Antinomy of Common Flowers - Sheep Sleep Parade

Maribel was afloat in space. Stars littered the sky, strings of red energy overlaid across all of creation. Before her sat a mysterious creature, the human mind would instantly recognize it as a person, but not Maribel. Hearn felt a sinister presence from this woman. She bore dark blue hair, deep blue eyes and an unusual black and white garb. It reminded her of a sleeping garb. A peculiar tail hung from behind her and an oversized red night cap adorned her head.

"I see you're having an experience." The youkai stated plainly, leaning towards her. Maribel spun around, but this creature did not. How can I hear her? This is space, furthermore... How is she remaining in place?

Maribel's eyes darted to the strange grid that covered every dimension and then quickly tore her eyes off, thinking that looking at it for too long would disorientate her. "I haven't seen somebody come into this place with their physical body for a while. Tell me, how did you get here?" The creature began to question.

"A-aha. Well, I went through a d-door in my last dream and... drifted a bit, then I awoke." The boundary girl said nervously, Maribel tried to orient herself in the orbital environment to no avail. Wiggling her arms, swinging them around, nothing worked. This made no sense to her, she could breathe air, but not herself move in it. Soon she would spin around her axis, and the youkai disappeared from her sight.

There was a pause, the woman then opened her mouth. "So you didn't come here willingly, and you say you're dreaming right now?" The creature asked her curiously, inching closer without Maribel's awareness.

"Well... I wouldn't call this a 'real' dream... Uh, I have these every once in a while, you see!" Maribel said as nervously as before, spinning over her axis to face the woman again. She wore black and white apparel with a red and white night cap, a little reminiscent of that of a hero. Her eyes were strange, reminding her of her own eyes when she uses her quirk.

"Abnormal dreams are your normal? Hmm..." The woman thought, her mouth contorted into something more alike that of a cat, which gave Maribel a surprise. "Similar things have happened before, but not for youkai." She edged a little closer and smiled, raising her eyebrows to form a smug look.

Maribel felt the spiritual presence of the woman as she came closer. It was a mysterious and frightening feeling, but since she wasn't dreaming like she usually did, she felt like she had control over the situation. She said I didn't feel like a human, calling me youkai... I'll just run with it. The student had to think up a cover. "As a youkai, I create gaps in reality and hide in them." Maribel smiled innocently. "I woke up here again by manipulating the boundary between my dream self and me." She explained as best she could.

"That would mean your dream self is in the real world right now, correct?" The woman asked Maribel with an expression that quickly turned stern.

Greeting her with submission, Maribel admitted "I've got no idea." and shrugged, a drop of sweat running down her face as she had no idea what a 'dream self' was. The woman would grab hold of Maribel's shoulder and keep her still for a few moments. Then she let go, forcing her rotation to stop by bleeding off her velocity. Her hand let go, and she straightened out. She was a few centimeters taller than Maribel, but Hearn was still growing.

"I'll give you a warning, don't do that if your dream self is in the dream world. It will weaken the boundary between the dream and real world if you do it too much." She warned Maribel with a hint of aggression in her voice, causing a slight whimper from the heroine. The woman's face then softened, she let her mouth hang a tiny bit agape as she told Maribel; "But if your dream self isn't in the dream world, it should be fine."

"I'll remember that." She would mumble, trying to keep her expression as innocent as ever, no frowning, no nothing.

"While youkai don't commonly lose their sense of self in dreams, I wouldn't advise staying here for long." The woman would let out a deep breath. "My name is Doremy Sweet, ruler of this part of the dream world. I am a baku." Doremy Sweet would then tell Maribel Hearn with some politeness.

"Hmm... Oh..." The heroine had an idea. "When I awoke, I was wondering where I ended up. You say this is the dream world? Is this where all... 'Normal' dreams end up?" Hearn would ask of the baku.

"To best explain would be to show you around, show you the dreams. This your intention, is it now?" Doremy raised her left eyebrow as she looked at Maribel, staring at her with a supremely taunting expression, despite her curious tone.

"I suppose it is." Maribel admitted, although it wasn't her entirely true. "Will you allow it?"

"Hmm... Hmm? Hmm." Doremy balanced her chin against the tip of her finger, rolled her eyes and then set them back on the gap youkai. "Fine, but obey my rules."

Song End

Her mind brought only silence and thoughts, whatever melodies she usually thought of, she could not hear.

The sun entered through the blinds in her room and woke her up. Maribel wasn't all that drowsy today, despite having a 'real' dream. It was a fresh experience for her. She threw off her bed sheet and shot up onto her feet, stretching a little. "Wha.." She mumbled, looking around for a clock, she went over to her side table and took her phone. Putting it out of sleep, the interface lit up, telling her the time.

6:00

Is it really that early? I'm not even tired. She thought.

Putting on her clothes, she made her way downstairs and got herself some breakfast. Produced herself some bread, laced it with butter and then put on some cheese and ham on top of that. To drink, she simply got herself some orange juice. She ate slowly, finishing after some 20 minutes, most of which she spent browsing the internet on her phone. At one point she started looking over some incidents concerning particularly destructive villains. Mostly out of curiosity, thinking it'd be a tiny opportunity to see how you're supposed to deal with them. "That's the loud kid, right? Bakugo." Maribel spoke to herself lowly as she eyed an old article, it was a little bit over ten months old.

All Might stops sludge villain!

Earlier today, the #1 Hero All Might showed up to stop a villain using a quirk to turn himself into sludge from hurting two young boys. The first victim was under danger of having his body stolen by the villain and the second victim rushed out to save him, but was retaliated against. Just then, All Might arrived and defused the situation by knocking the villain unconscious.

Read More!
-

The picture accompanying the headline showcased All Might before the mess, next to him was Bakugo. Maribel loaded the recorded film footage of the incident. A boy ran out from the crowd, right at the sludge villain, and threw his backpack at the villain in an attempt to stun him. After reeling momentarily, the villain retaliated, only to be blown away by All Might. Leaving Bakugo and who she now recognized as Izuku in his grip. He let them down onto the ground and turned to face the camera, letting the other heroes go forth and clean up the mess. The video would then stop. I wonder why he didn't use his quirk... Must've wanted to limit collateral I guess. I'm confused, though, why's Bakugo so pissy about Izuku after he tried saving him? Maribel's thoughts drifted on. Regarding that quirk. He had to improvise on yesterday's test, so he didn't know how to focus it all into his finger yet, or something like that. He also gets hurt when he uses it, hmm.

"You're awake early today." Maribel's father stated as he came into the kitchen. They had some small talk while he prepared his own breakfast.

"Yeah, it feels super weird. I'm even rested. Oh well..." She commented and shrugged. Maribel put her feet to the wooden floor and walked out of the kitchen. "I'll be at my room until I leave for school." She looked back and then went upstairs, hearing the approval of her father thereafter.

Maribel dropped onto a chair in the classroom and leaned against the table. Until everyone else arrived. First was Tenya. "Ah, Merry?!" He yelled in surprise and then cleared his throat. "You're here really early, impressive!" Tenya reacted to her unexpected presence. His face contorted into an unremarkable smile, but it did so much to lighten the mood, Maribel took notice of these things.

"I just so happened to have a good morning today." Maribel told him straight after stretching a little and looking him in the eye, returning a smile. "Are you used to arriving early?" She'd ask playfully and was quickly given a nod in response. He went to his seat and more students started to arrive, second was the girl from yesterday with the pony tail. Maribel got up on her feet and walked over to her. "Seeing through Aizawa's deception yesterday like that was pretty cool. My name is Maribel Hearn, but you can just call me Merry." Maribel said and would hold her hand out for a handshake.

The black haired girl looked at her for a moment, took her hand, shook and replied. "Momo Yaoyorozu. Those records you set were pretty amazing." It was all sunshine right now. Maribel snickered and looked away with some embarrassment, scratching her chin. "Thanks." The boundary girl gave her a nod before venturing back to her seat. Back during junior high she used to be showered with attention due to her rare quirk. She used it as an opportunity to get to know the class really well. Otherwise never engaging in her popularity to any extreme extent. She still didn't really want to befriend anyone and kept herself mostly to Renko and the odd meeting of classmates.

As the minutes went by, more students came to class. Izuku, Ochaco, Bakugo and others would arrive. Chatter would start going around the class room.

"Your name was Bakugo, right?" Maribel greeted the ash blond boy before her with a rather innocent tone. She raised her head a little, letting her own blond hair fall onto the sides of her face. Her expression was friendly in an attempt to open him up.

"Hmm?" He looked over his shoulder, despite his usual demeanor, her soft smile seemed to soften him just a little bit.

"I saw an old news article featuring you earlier today." Maribel said, he responded with a light groan and was about to say something. "I was just wondering w-why, uh..." She tried finding her words.

"Go on." He would growl at her.

Hearn would frown and continue with what she was saying. "Why are you so angry about Izuku-san after that? It's not like he accomplished anything." She would tilt her head a few degrees to her right, looking into his eyes.

"That stupid shit makes it seem like he did so much, but he did absolutely nothing. All Might was the one doing everything he wished he could do! Being around him with that stupid attitude of his is just insulting." Bakugo replied honestly with some contempt, though it seems that her 'agreement' in his uselessness had made Bakugo take a tiny liking to her. She understood this, and that her wording might've been a little off, but it doesn't matter. She didn't think Izuku had done much to help the situation other than recklessly endanger himself.

"I understan-" The boundary girl was about to say, but whimpered in some form of disappointment as Bakugo interrupted her.

"And don't bring up that incident ever again, got that?!" Katsuki barked at her and then sat his feet on the table, leaning back and waiting for class to start.

"I get it! Don't be so angry about it, jeez." She pleaded back at him. Her upper lip was slightly raised, and she wrinkled her nose, showing some disgust as she gave him a last glance. Rolling her eyes, she dismissed the conversation from her mind and waited for the class to start, fixating her eyes on the entrance to the classroom. It was supposed to be English class soon.

A smirk would manifest upon her face. Stars appeared in her eyes, this was a chance!

The English lesson was extremely easy for Maribel. With the exception of Tenya, Izuku and Momo, nobody, in particular, seemed to be anywhere near as capable as her. People asked her for help, and she performed very well and easily so. She got an opportunity to talk a little here and there with the rest of the class, but she didn't get many names.

The rest of the day just slipped past her, the introduction to modern literature wasn't all that interesting, even if Maribel read many books. She was more interested in the stuff upcoming next week. Last was mathematics, which went pretty poorly for her, telling her that she should take some time learning from Renko again.

Maribel entered the mess hall and got herself some food on her lunch plate. She got some eyes from the boys as she walked around, looking for someone to sit next to. Despite some subtle offers, she preferred sitting close to people she knew. She'd find Tenya soon enough, but he was surrounded by others and there was no place to sit next to him. Her search continued, until she found Momo.

"Can I sit with you?" Maribel asked, looking at Momo as she sat down by one of the tables.

Momo swallowed what she was chewing and said "Sure." Prompting Maribel to sit down next to her and placing her food down on the table right thereafter.

"So what's the next lesson? I haven't memorized the curriculum just yet." Maribel asked and started to eat.

"It's foundational hero studies." Yaoyorozu answered plainly and then continued eating. Then they were silent for a minute or two as they kept eating.

A girl shorter than either of them, someone Hearn remembered as a member of their class, came up to them and placed her food down on the other end of the table. Then she sat down in front of them. Her dark purple eyes locked with Maribel's golden ones. "I haven't talked to you before, my name's Kyoka Jiro." She introduced herself with little enthusiasm.

"I'm Maribel Hearn, but please call me Merry, it's easier that way." The boundary girl introduced herself.

"What's the next lesson?" Kyoka asked nobody in particular as she began filling her stomach for the day.

"Foundational hero studies." Maribel was very quick with eating today, so she had already ate most of her meal.

"Ah okay." She would respond. This feels so embarrassing, what should I even talk about with them? These people feel so alien to me.

They continued eating for some time until Kyoka finished her meal before them. "We could talk about our quirks." She proposed, a look of boredom strewn across her face.

Momo swallowed and replied with "Couldn't hurt."

"Earphone Jack lets me listen through objects and if there's any speaker around, I can plug my heartbeat into the damn thing. Well, that's not very useful in combat without some serious power in those speakers, but I have other things for that. I can swing them around hard enough to knock you out."

"That sounds simple, not that it's a bad thing." Maribel commented, she wished her quirk was that simple.

"It's easier to know and master yourself if you have less to keep track of, after all. So, what about you, Merry?" Momo cut out a piece of meat from her dish and held it up to her mouth, waiting for Maribel to answer.

"Well, ah..." She thought a bit. "My quirk is the very opposite of straightforward. I manipulate and see boundaries by using my emitter quirk, Boundary Manipulation." Maribel explained while leaning her chin on her fist. I've always thought that name was tame, but it's descriptive enough, all it needs to be.

"I saw you zip across the entire field yesterday. What boundary did you manipulate to do that?" Kyoka scratched her ear and looked at Maribel with a curious look.

"Space, or the boundary between places." Maribel responded passively. "It's the second most basic thing I can do, probably what I'm best at doing right now. It can do more, but I tend to get nauseous when I push it." She continued. She was lying about it to some extent, not wanting to be given a lot of credit. Manipulating the border between dreams- or you and your dream self, as the baku called it, is useful in its own way. "Nausea goes away at night for some reason... Whenever I use it, my iris turn purple, which means that I'm observing the boundaries."

"That's a pretty strange one, can't say I've ever heard about someone with a quirk like that." Momo commented, a tiny frown forming on her face, one Maribel couldn't see. Then she ate the piece of meat held close to her mouth.

"It's a little mystical. I can scare people by looking them in the eyes when it's active. Don't even seem to come naturally to them." Maribel explained with some disappointment.

"Then you could scare villains, no?" Momo would offer some advice and run her eyes across them all.

"Now that I think about it, yeah." Maribel smirked and straightened herself out, letting her slightly buxom figure shine, forming frown on Kyoka's face as a result. She then continued speaking. "As far as combat goes, I suppose it's versatile, I crushed a ton of bots back at the entrance exam by closing the gap on them." and retained her apathetic expression. Then she took the opportunity to eat the remains of her lunch with the fork in her right hand.

"Sounds brutal." Kyoka commented on the latter, her expression softening. "I wouldn't want to chop off any limbs though, how do you think you'll deal with that against actual people?"

Maribel shrugged. "Maybe I'll soften and just use them as chains or something."

"Mine's lets me create objects through my skin. Weapons, armor, most things you can think of." Momo in the midst of the conversation, having just finished eating.

"I feel so left out with my quirk being all weird compared to everyone else's." Maribel stared down at her food and contorted her face into one of annoyance.

"Hey, standing out like that might make your name popular among heroes, you wouldn't want that." Kyoka said ironically. They giggled a little and then went back to their meals. Within a few minutes, they left their plates and made their way through the mess hall to the classroom of 1-A.

Hearn walked past Bakugo, who's expression spoke of mild irriation. She then sat down and waited for class to start. There didn't seem to be much cohesion in class until a dominating voice entered the classroom. "I AM..."

Maribel looked to the door with curiosity as a massive man came through, he was easily recognizable, even to someone who wasn't very obsessed with heroism like Maribel.

All Might.

"...COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!" He shouted, quickly making his way behind the desk.

"This class is foundational hero studies!" He said, posing a little and giving his trademarked smile to the class. Maribel thought it was funny and started to snicker. "We'll be building your hero foundations through a set of trials! So, let's start right here and now!" He picked up a flat tablet on the desk, flipped it around and showcased it to the class.

BATTLE

"The Trial of Battle!" All Might announced.

Immediately many the boys cheered, Bakugo in particular almost jumped out of his seat. ...Really? I hope it won't hurt more than those robots.

"And to go with your first battle... We've readied the gear we had you draft to match your quirks!" All Might gestured to the wall, containers were pushed by pistons out as if on command. Their gear was numbered from one to 20.

More rounds of amazement came from the class, they were excited about their costumes, including the boundary girl. Maribel stood up and went to retrieve it, having to wade through some of her classmates to do so.

"Check where you're going, I'm down here, too!" A particularly rowdy and short boy shouted at her.

"Oh, sorry, sorry!" Maribel would look down and apologize to the small classmate, raising her hands a little defensively and looking surprised. Can't these people just learn to check if it's suitable to move yet or not?! ...I shouldn't be getting this irritated. Maribel would sigh and after some waiting, she calmed herself and reached out for her bag, number 18. Then strolling back to her seat.

All Might made a proud stance and then announced "The garb you bring into battle is vitally important, boys and girls! Get changed, and we'll be ready to go! We gather at grounds B!"

Maribel sat undisturbed for most of the bus ride. Waiting for them to arrive, and when they did she immediately bolted for the changing room. Mostly uncaring of everyone else.

The girls started to unpack their gear in the changing room. Their costumes were mostly utility based, but those which needed not utility got to supplant it with style. Maribel in particular wanted something simple that could still account, for her, few drawbacks.

Aside from nausea, overabundance of options and a lack of experience, Maribel's quirk didn't have too many faults, none that she could find, anyway. An added bonus of these lack of requirements the costume had to fill was also a relative freedom in its design. Accounting for production costs, she sought to make it visually simple and cheap to repair so she wouldn't have to stick around with a replacement for too long.

Removing it from the bag, she got her first look at it. The color scheme was eye catching and the design inspired a more civilian lifestyle, despite the flair. The color scheme was eye catching and the design inspired a more civilian lifestyle, despite the flair. It caught the eye of other classmates due to the unusual choice in garb, it was not a jumpsuit with large utility apparel, no. This was a stylistic choice of hers. She wanted to look mystical and out of place, just like she felt about her quirk. Without some of the flair however, it wasn't too unlike something she would wear just to be fashionable. Another factor in the design was a little appreciation for the old times.

Her costume consisted of four distinct parts and some accessories. Their fabrics used material techniques to do away with dirt and smears. The first part was a pure white blouse that was bound together by buttons and had a tight collar. The shoulders were puffy and 'bottlenecked' by a pair of crimson ribbons tied to face away from her. Its sleeves were otherwise tight, ending at her wrists with a small set of stylistic frills. It reached down a little past her midsection and wasn't particularly tight down there, no.

The second part was a pure white skirt that reached down past her knees, it was sizable and allowed for movement, despite forming itself completely around her legs. Around her waist was a larger ribbon woven into the dress itself, that would then be tied.

The third part was a combination of tights and shoes. Harboring a futuristic look brought on by being segmented as to move with the body more smoothly. On the upper side of her shoes, it looked as simple as the base of her outfit aside from being colored a dark grey. The underside was colored even darker and were designed to handle uneven environments, such as forest, rubble or the like. It tightly stuck to her skin, yet bent like it was a part of her body.

And finally, she had a tabard-like wear that she would put atop all of this. Colored primarily purple and secondarily black by the edges. She could put it on by opening it with a zipper, allowing her to close it around the base of her neck. It would reach down a little past her waist, ending abruptly. The purple cloth subtly reflected light cast upon it.

Maribel Hearn had removed the school uniform and was just starting to get herself fitted with the blouse. Once she had unbuttoned it and put it on, Maribel put on the leggings. Initially, this gave her the look of an extremely unusual looking office worker, but once she got the skirt on, her aura was far more modest. Not unlike that of a country girl, although given a modern flare. After this she brought her surcoat onto herself, opening it and then closing it around the base of her neck. When it was into place, she shut it using a locking mechanism for the zipper. Finally, she would tie the ribbon around her waist and the surcoat, the knot being at her back.

The accessories, as she liked calling them, included smaller variants of pressure-point stimulants around the wrist and neck area. They would counteract the largest drawback of her quirk. Nausea, headaches and such. The one she placed around her neck was designed as a choker, while the one for her wrists were a little thicker than bracelets. Knowledge about the effectiveness of their function wasn't her expertise. However her recent improvements in handling nausea and such might make any lite variants appropriate due to the increasingly greater lack of support required. Unlocking them, she slipped them onto the rest of her outfit. The last piece of wear she had was a mob cap and a pair of sunglasses to hide her eyes. Mob caps were one her favorite types of head wear, something she usually only alternated for summer hats during the summer. It was good at keeping the hair out of her eyes, so she wouldn't have to brush it aside, a convenience. All she did was put it on, pitch it back a little and tie the ribbon so that it would stay on a bit harder. She took the sunglasses with her, but did not put them on. They were just for concealing the activation of her ability.

And there we go... Maribel would look around for a mirror and go up to it, carefully inspecting herself. Finding satisfaction, she wanted to ask the other classmates.

"Does this look alright?" Hearn approached Momo while she was still changing into her hero attire, which consisted of a very revealing bodysuit, probably to compliment her quirk. Maribel found it a little too inappropriate herself, but said nothing of it.

Momo shot her a glance for a second or two. "Not an ordinary hero outfit. I'd say it looks good on you." Then she continued putting on her outfit. The next part was a belt.

"I don't have many requirements, my quirk seem to work with my mind, after all." Maribel excused, putting a finger up to her head and poking herself as to express it all comes from her head.

"Wouldn't moving with a skirt be harder than with a jumpsuit or such?" A frog-faced girl approached.

The boundary girl gave her a five second long stare as she felt some slight discomfort before replying. "Nah. With my quirk I don't really need to be quick on my feet. And even if I did, this particular skirt is a little roomy."

"Well, you did top a lot of those tests." Ochaco bounced up behind Maribel. "Hey, you have these kinds of things too." She poked at the choker on Maribel's neck before feeling the similar devices on her arms. "Though, these are smaller than mine." Maribel turned a little and looked on with an unchanging expression of passivity.

"My nausea has gotten better, so I thought that I didn't need any of the heavy stuff. But I guess you do." The sage-looking blonde would lightly knock on the gauntlets covering Ochaco's lower arms. Then she caught sight of the large devices covering their legs. "Do those things cushion falls or something?" Maribel snickered. "They look like they came from a video game."

Ochaco snickered in turn and responding. "They actually do!" Prompting Maribel to laugh a little as she ran a hand over her face.

Momo got up after having put on her costume. "We should be heading out now."

"I never got your name, by the way. I am Maribel Hearn, but just call me Merry. It's easier to pronounce." Maribel calmed herself before asking the frog-faced girl from earlier who hadn't really moved away just yet.

"Tsuyu Asui. Pleased to meet you... Kero." Tsuyu Asui would introduce herself with neutral demeanor. They then grouped up and began to walk out.

"Hey, hey! Wait for me." Kyoka equipped her gloves before catching up to everyone else.

Thus, they would exit the girl's changing room and march out. Their walk would lead them up to the boys, who they would then exit the facility with. What laid before their eyes was a street and All Might himself.