Ah, foreign food. It's great to have some variation every once in a while, else the taste would dull. I might not be in the preferred course, but I can't be dissatisfied with this. Money well spent.
Shinso brought his food plate to the forward and was immediately given what he came for. The lunch put on the tray was put into wider bowls, with a properly crafted knife and fork on the side of it. Spaghetti Carbonara, an Italian pasta that had its birth after the second world war.
After that was done, he walked on over to the next counter and picked his drink. He settled for water above all else, if you want to stay hydrated there's no reason to go for something completely unhealthy. Shinso himself thought his decision was funny, since he had only recently started exercising for the sports festival.
He put the glass down on the food tray and started walking towards the seats. His eyes were weary, but still, he felt like he could feel everyone around him. Honestly, he also felt a little paranoid. None of them would like his quirk, he could tell.
There was a very soft rustling sound, and a soft feeling of something touching Shinso. Nobody accidentally ran into him, that feeling was a touch. Sharp, yet so sudden and delicate.
"Hello!" Maribel Hearn greeted her acquaintance, who was very surprised by her reappearance and turned ever so slowly, not wanting to spill out the pasta on his tray. "I'm back."
"Wh-whe... Weren't you in the hospital?" He asked with a surprised expression. He wasn't going jumping because of her stealthy antics.
"I was and got better. How it happened is not something I understand myself." Maribel said, her visage turned curious as she held her food tray in one hand while placing a finger to her chin.
Shinso didn't know exactly why she did so, but it was only an unconscious thought in his mind. It definitely got his attention. "Well, it's fine either way. That's what matters the most." He spoke, cold as usual. Even if he wasn't seeking friends at the academy, admitting it to her felt somewhat inappropriate. It only felt natural to appear friendly.
Maribel gave him a warm smile and then continued talking. "Well, I'm just in more trouble ever since I got back. The media wants me. The principal wants me, the teachers want me... The other students are probably eager to tell everyone that they saw me, too." She waved her hand in the general direction of the seats. Shinso briefly turned his eyes to the seats, where many people shot them glances every once in a while. "Good thing very few people outside this school recognize me, or else I'd be swarmed by the media like the entrance was last week."
"Did you say the principal wanted you?"
"Yup. Something about maintaining the reputation of the school. I can tell you more about it sometime after lunch." Maribel gleefully expressed. She seemed to relish in conversation from his perspective, how inviting.
"Well, I'll see you then." Shinso tilted his head to the side and formed his lips into a barely visible smile.
"Same. Bye!" The blonde said and waved her hand at him, then letting it fall gently from chest height down next to her waist again. Hearn then began strutting away towards the tables.
...Maintaining the reputation of the school?
"By the way, Merry-san. Why did Aizawa-sensei take you away after the lesson?" The ever curious Izuku Midoriya asked his classmate. The girl had a frown hidden behind her face. She didn't like people who tried to nose their way into her business without her allowing them to do so. Perhaps this was a somewhat irrational and enlarged reaction from what a person normally would feel, most likely in part due to the bad experience with her dreams. It's only natural you don't want to be seen as some villain with a backstory already in the making. She would be embarrassed if it was ever brought up. In Maribel's thoughts, all of this was good enough a reason to gain mastery over conversation and make it bend to her will. Both that and understanding herself and her dreams are what made psychology into an on-off hobby for her, she owned quite a few books on the matter.
But sometimes the other person can make things easier. This was what Maribel wanted to talk about anyway, but not so soon. She'd just get straight to the point. Her eyes darted to the three who sat around her, Iida, Uraraka, Midoriya. "The principal wanted to see me so we could go over some things related to U.S.J."
Maribel was ready for a followup in case nobody brought anything else to the conversation, but Izuku proved curious again. Maribel could see in the eyes of her other classmates that they wondered, too. "...The principal? If it's U.S.J, I guess that makes sense... What'd you talk about?"
The blonde felt happy the moment someone did exactly what she wanted with minimal input from herself. She raised her arm up to chest height and immediately explained. "Because the mass media has been attacking the school almost nonstop for its inability to stop me from coming to harm, they wanted me to make them look better. I'm the central figure."
Ochaco decided to stop eating for a second and comment. "That's how media's always been, praising the first second and trashing the other. Pretty sure they just chase money."
Maribel shrugged. "That's pretty much what the principal told me. To make the school look better, he told me that I should aim for the top in the festival. That way, I'll demonstrate I wasn't helpless and that the villains at U.S.J were out of our scope as students. Nobody but All Might could've defeated that thing, after all. It may as well have been an unfortunate accident. Along with this, it's an excellent opportunity to display what I've learned from my troubles." She somewhat seriously explained, gently waving her arm in rhythm with her words to garner their full attention, something which garnered great success. Hearn lowered her arms and put her right hand over her face. "Honestly, it's all so much. I just want to relax a little after recovering..."
The boundary girl felt a hand on her shoulder and removed the hand from her face to look at Iida. Tenya swallowed the food in his mouth and started talking. "You've got two weeks, Maribel-san." He pronounced her name properly and without the nickname, so she couldn't help but smile. "You're the fastest in our class on the short run. Ran for as long as I could on the same distance. Threw the ball further than everyone but Uraraka-san. You saved Aizawa-sensei and kept up with him in a team battle, too, and almost succeeded where he failed. You're an inspiration to the class, you know. Don't stress, you're already one of the greatest."
I am?Maribel thought, she hadn't talked the large lot, so she hadn't noticed yet.
Everything from his masculine jawline, to his earnest expression captured her. So she couldn't help but feel happy. "Thanks. I really mean it." She looked over to the rest of them. "Is there any way any of you could help me with all of this?"
The blonde's words came naturally, and she wasn't plotting her words at this point. She said what she wanted to say, but in this conversation she definitely knew they would all try their hardest. The festival was an opportunity after all, one that no one wanted to miss. Maribel understood, that's why the point of it wasn't to turn people to her side. It was a seed of doubt, did they want to aim for the ultimate glory or would they throw it away for her and the school's sake? Making your friends open to favors was important, you needed to connect with them and make them understand your reasons. For her, the situation was a perfect storm to do this. What mattered wasn't the outcome at the moment. It was merely they grasped the reality of the situation. Was it manipulation? In a sense, but there was no reason to think ill of it. Helping the school could be seen as a benefit to them.
Ochaco turned her brown iris' to meet Maribel's golden. She was a little bubbly as she began talking. "I'm sure that's everyone's going to try try their best, but if the principal wants you to help the school with your performance, I'll help you."
Pleased was what Maribel was, finding herself with an innocent smile.
"If it's like you say, then I can't say no to helping you." Tenya pushed his glasses back into place and moved his hand from the shoulder and onto the table.
Maribel's smile grew to its apex, something that almost anyone would probably say looked very cute. Her eyes drifted to the last person sitting there at the moment. Izuku Midoriya. His eyes had gone to the table, where he muttered lowly to himself. She placed one of her hands on the table and tapped a finger against it.
Just then, he lifts his face up. This time he looked stern, something she hadn't seen on his face before. "To rise to the top is the goal here. We will have to compete. Show the world that we are here for them! I won't slow down to let someone get past me..." He said, full of both self-confidence and a weird sense of leadership. Slowly draining her smile away from her face. His voice suddenly mellowed out a little. "...B-but that doesn't mean we can't help you!"
With a poker face, she dulled her reaction. It didn't matter all that much. His words throwing a sliver of doubt might make them start thinking differently of the situation but it didn't get rid of the potential. In the end, it'll probably make all of this easier for her. Her face lit up again, perfectly replicating the smile from before. Then she'd bow, just a little. "Thank you."
I think I'm gonna go buy some soda on the way home. That'll freshen me up. Maribel thought as she picked up her backpack. For once, she was pretty happy. In the morning, she expected everyone to be clingy. Almost exactly like it was in junior high at the last year. Her appearance, her quirk, the stuff she could do. Anyone would want a friend like that. Someone who could be a hero. Contacts and personal relationships made society, and those who had the best would have it best.
Maybe they pulled me out of it... The images of Iida, Uraraka and Midoriya came into her thoughts. It was a fun experience to talk to them. It cheered her up a little if she was going to be honest with herself. That said, she didn't like how Midoriya acted at times, he just stands out in a way she doesn't like. Her mind continued drifting to the miscellaneous thoughts of the day, she helped some of her classmates with English after the teacher's presentation was over. Reached out to Momo for help with math, oh, Momo. Maribel wanted to talk to her some more, she acts a bit like a rich girl, not that there was anything wrong with that.
She began walking out of the class room, she had thought about trying to catch Momo before she could go and tell her about her troubles. Maribel figured they were friendly enough for her to understand. Unlike, for example, trying to get Bakugo on her side.
Ectoplasm, the math teacher, passed Maribel and stopped right outside the doorway for a moment and conversed with the familiar voice of Eraser Head. This prompted Maribel to look outside.
"Oi. Merry-san. I need to talk to you." The stoic voice of the teacher, Aizawa, called out to her just as she was about to leave the classroom. Ectoplasm and her classmates left faster than she could notice, but if Aizawa wanted anything from her, it had to be important.
He walked inside the room and closed the door behind him. "Firstly, the principal would like it if you could conduct an interview for the press tomorrow. He wanted you to be prepared for it and will brief you on what you can and can't say before it's scheduled."
"Ah- I'll just have to do it..." She shrugged, not so happy about the prospect.
Their homeroom teacher walked on over to the digital black board and opened one of the drawers found at the teacher's desk. His hand searched through a couple of documents before pulling out a letter and handed it to Maribel. "Your costume was partially destroyed during the attack on U.S.J and needs replacing. So we're offering you the chance to redesign it before a new one is produced with new specifications in regards to your quirk and so forth. The company under contract should remain the same unless something drastic changes. Most of all..." Aizawa explained, shutting the drawer and staring her in her golden eyes. "I'm giving you some advice on how to make it better."
"Uhuh. How come you're giving me advice on the costume, though?" Maribel took the letter and read the outside. It spelled Clothing Allowance in Japanese. Before Maribel started her first day in school, she submitted a design that was largely about her own fashion. It did focus on some things, like ease of movement, mitigating her nausea. Maribel herself had noticed that making use of a skirt like that also gave her the ability to concealed her movement more easily. Building into unpredictability, a great strength of her quirk in combat.
Aizawa placed a hand on the table as he spoke. "After you were carried to the hospital, I was given the opportunity to the design a look over. Come over here." He pulled open another drawer and a blank paper in the process. He swiftly located a pen and started drawing. Maribel stood by his side at the desk. "When you started making use of that new super move of yours back at U.S.J... What do you call it?"
"I call it Double Boundary and Charming Double Boundary respectively." Maribel shed a tear of sweat from her forehead.
"Right. Well, your Double Boundary managed to blow away quite a few villains and didn't even have any severe effect on yourself... Tell me, how bad are your stamina issues now? Recovery Girl told me that you've been undergoing some sort of quirk training." Eraser Head asked, he began to draw the sole of a shoe, probably part of the design.
Maribel thought for a second, bringing her thumb and index finger to her chin. "There really isn't a single person who gets the intricacies of my quirk." Except for maybe Renko. "Two different forms of stamina exist with my quirk. When I badly manipulate the boundaries or manipulate them too much in some cases, they become fuzzy and it becomes harder to focus on them. I doubt there's anything a costume or lens can do to solve that. That's why I've technique."
"Then the other form of stamina must be your own." He replied, quite simply. He kept sketching very roughly.
"Well, by the..." Maribel remembered the shock of the blow that took her down and found a chill down her spine. "Ah-... Ahem. At U.S.J I approached my limit by the end of it, since I remember the taste of blood in my mouth. Whenever I am too demanding with what I'm doing, I get nauseous. It can be the Double Boundary, trying to cross too much of a distance at once or making too many gaps in a short time. There's a relatively quick recovery time, but it's a death sentence in a serious battle. If I decide to go beyond, it starts hurting from deep within and I start bleeding from the mouth. I've only recently started noticing that, though. Compared to the test you did, I'd say I've improved marginally."
Aizawa began writing next to the sketch of the sole. "Pro heroes that are faced with difficult odds tend to find themselves cornered eventually, once their quirk runs out of steam. Sustaining an entire battle without slowing down is good performance for a quirk, exactly like you did. But would you say you could've kept going after you sent Shigaraki flying?"
Oh, his name was Shigaraki, I forgot. Maribel quickly looked over the writing on the paper. Something about grip. She looked back to Aizawa and thought of a reply. "It wouldn't have taken much out of me to attack that walking garbage sack like I did when I first entered the fight. With the chance to react, it would've gone down again. Comparing this all to All Might's simulated battle, I held out much longer."
"I'm glad to hear that. It sounds like you've improved somewhat. The battle you had during All Might's class was a playground scuffle in comparison to the one at U.S.J, it's easy to make the distinction. So you're more capable now you were before, that's for sure. Anyway, look here." Aizawa finished writing the details of the first change in design. "In order not to make missteps while using your quirk, I'm replacing your normally flat soles with ones that are made to grip hard. If you can hold a still position, you'll have an easier time focusing on attacking, even when you do it through one of your gaps. When fighting, I want you to have ample of time to understand the enemy rather than recklessly tossing yourself into close range. Your quirk works exactly for those kinds of situations."
"Mhm." Maribel nodded. "I'd like to say I get stronger when my quirk is focused. Focusing on attack power could be good."
"I was getting to that. With your quirk, attacking with kicks becomes incredibly easy, so attaching heavier soles and tips to your shoes would help you with that." Aizawa drew some circles around the areas he specified. "This could work." He smiled as if he was trying to make a joke. His demeanor returned to normal the instant thereafter. "I remember you broke that villain's nose when we fought together, so obviously your upper body strength isn't too bad when your quirk is focused. If you want to further increase your attack power, isn't it logical to request a weapon?"
"I guess. What kind of weapon would suit me, though? I don't want to make someone bleed out. Cutting deep sounds like a bad idea." The blonde thought. She waved her hand in front of her a little and thought a little.
The teacher sat and looked at her for a moment, with an uninterested expression, but there was something below that exterior. "You could be like the police and make use of a baton, or something like it. Although, given how you've been wanting to style yourself, maybe you'd like a substitute."
"Give me a moment to think about it." Maribel requested and put her thumb and index finger to her chin, closing her eyes. A short ranged weapon could undoubtedly move faster than a big one, but what she needed wasn't speed. She wanted a variable option, one that could repel an opponent that's too close and one that could seriously sting when attacking with. What'd work? Maybe it could have more purposes, like concealment. Hiding a gap in an umbrella sounded interesting in her head.
Her thoughts wandered, Aizawa sketched, a minute went by.
"What about an umbrella or parasol of sorts?"
"You have the strangest ideas."
I'm thinking I'll keep the preparations for the tournament to one and a half chapters more of similar or longer length. Next chapter will definitely be longer than this one if I'm going to cram most of the stuff I want into it.
By the way, Aizawa came to her with advice because Nezu asked him to get closer to his student. This is so she'd be more inclined to take his help the next day. He could easily just have taken her to the principal and gone over the basic stuff there and leave her to figure out the costume herself.