Shinsou's shoulders crept towards his ears as the whispers followed him down the hall. He didn't even know what they were saying but he didn't have to in order to guess. He'd heard it all before, villain, evil, psychopath, among other things. He kept walking and avoided making eye contact, doing his best to make it seem like lazy indifference rather than a defensive measure.
"You ask him!"
"Me? No, you do it!"
"Just go - oh no, he's looking over here!"
"Can I help you?" Shinsou asked, pausing and turning a tired glare upon the trio of girls who were whispering louder than the others. All three of them blanched when he addressed them. One of them opened her mouth reflexively, before snapping it shut as her eyes widened. Shinsou's glare went up a notch at the sight of it, causing several of them to squeak in alarm. Finally one stepped forward.
"Um, Shinsou-kun," she began, her voice shaking as she glanced back at the other two for reassurance. "Sensei n-noticed you forgot to, um, hand in your - your page listing what high school you want to go to. He, um, he asked us to get it f-from you."
Shinsou spent a long moment just looking at them, during which all three of them went slowly stiffer with fear before he sighed and dropped his backpack off his shoulders. He dug around in it, feeling the eyes of everyone around him watching their interaction. He pulled out a slightly wrinkled sheet of paper and held it out to them, slinging his bag back over a shoulder.
The three girls stared at it, almost shrinking back before he raised an eyebrow and waved it a little. The girl who had spoken jolted a little, before reaching out a trembling hand and taking it from him.
"Anything else?" he asked, suppressing a yawn. He'd been out until three in the morning again trying to catch sight of several of the nighttime heroes. They were less popular than the daytime ones - mostly underground heroes and specialized heroes instead of ones with flashy Quirks out for publicity - but Shinsou found that their styles were more varied and closer to what he could do himself as a future hero. It was time well-spent, but it left him exhausted afterward.
"N-no, that should be all," the girl said before her eyes trailed down to the page in her hand and widened. "You plan to go to Yuuei?!"
All sound in the immediate vicinity cut off, and Shinsou suppressed a sigh, sending a glare around the hall, causing most of the students gaping at him to look away hurriedly. The whispers started up again in spite of that though, and Shinsou had to resist the urge to roll his eyes.
Great. Thanks to the blabbermouth in front of him, he knew he'd be getting his stuff thrown around and getting shoulder checked a lot in the coming days. The bullies of the school had figured out a while ago that one of the only ways they could get to him without being Brainwashed was by staying silent and messing with him physically. Of course, in their school, they couldn't be as obvious as beating him up, so it was limited to damaged or destroyed possessions and things they could pass off as an accident.
"Yeah, I'm planning to go to Yuuei. What of it?"
"N-nothing!" the girl squeaked, after a moment where she was clearly at a loss about what to say. Sending a glance back at the other two with her, she turned back to him, eyes wide. "Um, I'm just going - going to go give this to sensei now."
The trio ran off and Shinsou sent a brief look upwards, hoping for the strength to deal with idiots. Turning, he made his way down the hallway again, sidestepping someone's pathetic attempt to trip him. Suppressing another yawn, Shinsou decided he couldn't wait for middle school to be over. It was going to be a long two more years.
Tears ran down Izumi's face as she held an ice pack over her eye. It didn't even hurt anymore, but her over-active tear ducts were a familiar thing to deal with, so she sat there almost impassively as her eyes cried.
Katsuki was hovering behind her, trying her best to seem uncaring and unaffected. She was failing though since she kept turning her glare on anyone who came too close to them, who stared too long at Izumi's crying, or onto Izumi herself whenever she lowered the ice pack.
"... Sorry," the blonde muttered out finally after the newest wave of tears fell. Katsuki's face was turned a little away from Izumi, but her red eyes kept flicking back towards the greenette with a hint of worry in them.
"Not your fault," Izumi immediately replied, having expected this at some point. "Even the trainer said so. I got distracted and lowered my guard, you didn't expect it, and I got a black eye. It happens, and it will teach me not to let it happen again."
Katsuki huffed. She didn't stop guarding Izumi against random people passing them, but her shoulders lost a bit of their tension at that. Glancing over at the small huddle nearby, Izumi followed her gaze.
Off to the side, the trainer, Katsuki's parents, and Izumi's mother were all chatting. The trainer had been required to call them to report the injury, even if it wasn't serious, and there had been a flood of concerned tears from Inko before Katsuki's parents had calmed her down, recognizing that it was just a black eye from an accident and no real harm was done.
"You're getting stronger," Katsuki commented, still staring at their parents. Izumi looked at her, beaming.
"Really? I thought maybe, but I wasn't sure. I thought I'd hit another wall," Izumi enthused. Katsuki glanced at her and nodded in confirmation, causing Izumi's tears to dry up fully in the wake of her elation.
Every so often over the past three years of training, she'd hit walls where for a long time her progress plateaued and she just wasn't getting any faster or stronger. It had discouraged her the first few times it had happened, wondering if she'd already peaked, but she'd stuck with it, and eventually she'd managed to push past those barriers to improve some more and simply took the slowed progress in stride knowing she'd gain ground quickly once it passed.
If she was being honest, Izumi was a little envious of Katsuki. The other girl didn't improve as fast as Izumi did, but she never seemed to hit walls either with her growth. It was slow but consistent ever since they started, and she had yet to hit a limit.
Studying her friend carefully, Izumi took in the muscled arms that were beginning to be pretty noticeable on her friend, as well as the defined jawline from burning through so much energy every week. She knew her own form was beginning to look similar, even if it wasn't as obvious since she tended to wear T-shirts rather than tanktops outside of school.
"You're getting stronger too," she noted, causing Katsuki to snort.
"Of course I am, I'm always getting stronger," she scoffed. Izumi rolled her eyes.
"That's not what I meant, Kicchan, and you know it. A few months ago and I could have avoided that hit even if I had been distracted and unprepared for it since I tend to be faster where you're stronger. You're getting better too."
There was a moment of silence after that as Katsuki rolled those words around in her mind before she looked at Izumi and nodded in agreement. The duo turned back to their parents, who all seemed much calmer now, and waited quietly.
"Do you think the kids at school will say anything about my black eye?" Izumi wondered aloud.
"Probably not," Katsuki says, tone a little disdainful as she continued. "Half of them think I secretly beat you up anyway, and that you just hang out with me because you're afraid of me and I make you."
"What?!" Izumi dropped her ice pack to stare at her friend incredulously. Even though Katsuki was obviously scornful of that idea, she hadn't missed the undertone of hurt in the other girl's voice. Katsuki may enjoy fighting and be rougher than the majority of the other students in their school, but she wasn't a brute, nor was she cruel. "Kicchan…"
"It's fine, I don't care what those idiots believe," the blonde interrupted, but Izumi's irritation was growing.
"Well I do, then. On both of our behalves." Izumi glared at the ground, her jaw clenching along with her fists as she thought about the other students talking about it enough that Katsuki had managed to overhear it. "You're my friend, and you'd never intentionally hurt me - shut up, you know this eye was an accident. If they can't see that, then they're - they're - I don't even have a word strong enough for it."
"Clearly I need to do better about teaching you swear words then, Izu," Katsuki smirked, but the undertone of insecure hurt had faded, and Izumi knew she'd understood what Izumi had been trying to say. "And put that ice back on your eye, idiot, do you want it to swell shut?"
"You brats ready to go home?" Mitsuki's voice broke into their conversation, and they both looked up. "Yikes, kiddo, you'll have quite the shiner there. Put that shitty ice bag back on it before it swells. We'll get you a better one at home when we get there."
Izumi smiled a little, raising the ice back up to her eye, amused by how similar the two Bakugou women were. Katsuki nudged her with her shoulder - almost sending her off the bench - knowing exactly where her thoughts had gone.
"Come on, kids, or we'll leave you behind," Masaru called from the doors to the gym. Izumi blinked in surprise, staring for a moment before her friend rolled her eyes. Katsuki grabbed Izumi's hand and dragged her to her feet, before pulling her along to where their parents were waiting, clearly impatient with the lack of response.
"Kicchan, I can walk. I bruised my eye, not my legs," Izumi protested at being pulled along, even as she adjusted her hand to hold Katsuki's better.
"Then prove it, dumbass," Katsuki said, glancing back with a raised eyebrow. "I'm not getting left to walk home because of you. You know the hag would do it too, just to annoy me."
"It's not that far, just a few blocks," Izumi grinned, though she did pick up the pace, knowing Mitsuki's sense of humor all too well. Katsuki snorted, showing her opinion on that. They made it out to the car in one piece, Izumi electing to ride with the Bakugous rather than walking with her mother since Inko had to go back to work soon and would be taking the train instead of going home.
Climbing into the car, she smiled a little, knowing that she and Katsuki were getting closer and closer to their goals every day, even with minor incidents like her eye. Katsuki met her eyes from where she was sitting, and as usual, knew exactly what she was thinking. Grinning her own feral grin, Katsuki held out a fist once Izumi was settled. Smiling back, Izumi bumped Katsuki's fist with her own.
"Use your fire, Shouko! You could have had a chance to beat me just then if you had just used your fire!"
Shouko tuned out her father's ranting, lifting a hand to ice a minor burn on her arm caused by their duel a few moments ago. It would be gone by morning, both due to her own Quirks getting stronger, and their family doctor's skill with burns.
"But no, instead you used your ice! You always use your ice, and it makes you too predictable. You'll never reach number one if that's all you do!"
Shouko's hair was a little singed around the edges since it was down like her father demanded and flying around her face annoyingly while they were fighting, getting in the way. Her father would likely have it trimmed within the next day or two to make it look better. The makeup over her eye was sticky from her sweat, but she couldn't touch it, as that would only rub it away faster and make her father angrier if he saw more of her scar.
"Honestly, your mother should have been kept separate from you much sooner. She's made you soft, Shouko, with all her pampering, and then she marred your face."
Fire licked at her fingernails, and she did her best to smother it before her father noticed and got too excited. She breathed deeply like her sister had taught her to whenever she got too angry. Shouko kept her face blank, trying not to show just how furious she felt inside at her father's words.
"I should have had her sent to that hospital ages ago, she's always been a little off. Regardless, you're now damaged because of her in more ways than one, and now you rely too much on her power as well -"
Fire curled its way up her arm, igniting as the rest of her torso lit up as well. It roared its way upward as she huffed out a breath of frost. Her father's feet froze to the floor, and her fire burned hot enough to singe his clothes as she glared at him in silence. A stray tendril of flame reached his arms and he gave a pained shout at the sensation. At the sound, Shouko realized what was happening and smothered the flames immediately.
"Yes, yes! That's it, use your flames! Where are you going? Get back here, Shouko, right now! You aren't done yet, get back here!"
She'd pay for her insolence later, Shouko knew, but she left the training room and slammed the door behind her anyway. She stalked down the hallway, brushing past Fuyumi who was pretending to read a book in the next room over - not that their father would know the difference - and was watching her walk past with a concerned expression.
"Shouko? Are you okay? What happened, what did he do?"
Shouko cast her an apologetic glance, but kept walking, unwilling to subject her sister to her anger and unable to stay near her father for long. She walked quickly up to her room, hating the fact that even in her anger she couldn't move anything but gracefully, years of training drilled into her. She slammed her door shut, locking it and moving to drag her dresser, vanity, and chair in front of the door as well. Anything less, and her father would just push right through it - though this combination proved to be successful at stopping him so far.
She stood in the middle of the room and tried to breathe. She closed her eyes and thought about her mother's face - her smile, her gentle hands, the warmth of her hugs, and the smell of her vanilla perfume. Everything that had been good before her father had ruined that too.
Eventually, her breathing was slow and steady again naturally, and she walked over to sit in the window seat to stare out over the grounds. She watched the clouds in the sky go by for the next hour, ignoring the heavy pounding on the door and the loud shouts from the hallway outside her room.
Momo gasped, head spinning as she looked at the creation her Quirk had made. It was a lopsided flashlight, and when she reached out to pick it up, it shattered in her hand. She groaned in frustration, dropping it as her brain whirled to figure out where she went wrong.
Maybe the plastic polymer was off? She'd have to check her chemistry text again to be sure. She was pretty sure she remembered it right, but since it didn't even hold up to her picking it up, clearly it wasn't. Maybe she forgot a methyl group somewhere on the chain. If it wasn't the polymer itself, maybe it was the structural form that was wrong, especially since the front end was lopsided.
Her stomach growled, but Momo ignored it and was about to try again when the door opened. One of her family's maids stood in the door, looking at an electronic pad in her hand until she looked up.
"Yaoyorozu-san! You shouldn't use your Quirk anymore without eating! Your parents specifically made sure we were all aware that you need to eat regularly throughout the day - even more if you are practicing with your Quirk."
Momo huffed, irritated at how much she needed to eat to do anything. It felt like she was eating constantly since her body was designed to turn food into fat, and it worked through meals really quickly. Her parents made sure that she had multiple packages of snacks with her at any given time, and each meal she ate was really large. That amount only increased when she burned through her fat stores - telling her body it needed to restore them and work through even more food.
"Okay. Is it time for dinner yet?" she asked, giving in with a sigh. The maid shook her head in response.
"No, your parents are having a late dinner today, since they're out at a business meeting. If you'd like, you can have some snacks, though," the maid offered, pulling out a large package of trail mix and a packet of chips. Momo took them from her and began eating. "I will have to ask that you don't use your Quirk any more today. You know your parents ordered us to stop you whenever you start to suffer from nutrition deficiencies."
Momo nodded glumly in response, sending a glance towards the broken flashlight on the table. She'd have to figure out the problem with it later, though it was really frustrating to not be able to keep working on developing her Quirk. How was she ever going to be a hero if she couldn't train her Quirk to make things she could actually use?
"Are we still going to the event on Saturday?" she asked quietly, crunching down on a handful of nuts, raisins, and candy.
"At the moment, yes. Todoroki-san has not announced otherwise, so the event is still happening. Would you like me to quietly ask around if his youngest daughter will be attending this one?"
"Yes please," Momo said, opening the pack of chips. She had only met the youngest Todoroki once, back when they were both seven. It had been six years since then, and either the young girl hadn't been to any events since then, or they simply hadn't been to the same ones. But she'd liked the quiet girl, even if she hadn't been very responsive, so Momo hoped she'd be coming to this one. It was rare to find someone her age at any of these events for 'society's elite', and it would be nice to see a friendly face.
"Alright, I'll see what I can do, Yaoyorozu-san," the maid said, bringing out another snack for her and passing it off, before bowing and stepping out of the room.
Momo sighed, opening the new snack and flopping back into a nearby chair looking at her broken flashlight mournfully. Oh well. She'd get in trouble with the staff and her parents if she kept trying to make it now, so she may as well let it be. But, that didn't mean she couldn't work on the other part of her Quirk - especially since without something to do she'd be bored on her own.
She reached out and dragged a nearby chemistry textbook over, and started reviewing the molecular structures of common materials, as well as figuring out what went wrong with her plastic polymer. If she couldn't use her Quirk, then she would do this.
Uraraka Ouichirou set down the heavy bags of cement with a heavy exhale, dragging his arm across his forehead. Putting his hands on his hips, he scanned the short pile of cement bags he'd made, counting them out.
"Hey dad," he called out, turning to the side. "I finished getting the cement! Do you need anything else?"
"No, you can go on home to finish your homework if you want!" his dad called back. Ouichirou sent him a thumbs up before walking out of the construction zone towards where everyone had stored their stuff. He quickly removed his coveralls and tossed on a clean jacket to hide the dust from the construction equipment on his clothes. He grabbed his back, waved goodbye to his dad, then started making his way to the train station.
As he walked, he took out a small bracelet with a ball on it and attached it to his wrist. Tucking that hand into his pocket, he activated his Quirk, feeling the ball become weightless and bump against his sleeve. Glancing down, Ouichirou made sure it wasn't visible - he wouldn't want to be caught using his Quirk in public - and seeing that it wasn't, he relaxed.
Ouichirou's stomach quietly turned over as he continued using his Quirk, but he gritted his teeth and pushed through it. He had to start being able to use it for longer periods of time if he ever hoped to be a hero and make enough money to help his family. Yuuei was coming up closer than one might think, and they only accepted the best of the best.
Glancing at his watch, Ouichirou yelped and began running. He dodged a few people, calling out hurried apologies and wincing at the angry expressions on a few people's faces, but he made it to the station right as the train arrived. He made it through the doors of the train just before they closed and collapsed into a nearby seat.
His stomach gave an uneasy churn, and Ouichirou realized he'd forgotten to release his Quirk until now. Checking his watch again, he realized he'd kept his Quirk going longer than he'd ever pushed it before, and hurriedly tapped his fingers together to cancel it, sighing in relief as the swirling in his stomach eased.
Catching his breath, he pulled out his phone and entered the new time into his Quirk log, where a list of times showed steady improvement over the last several months. Backing out of the notes app, he scrolled through feed on social media, liking the photos of kittens and aesthetically pleasing meals as he thought about more ways he could subtly train his Quirk.
Maybe he could find a way to practice with something bigger, so long as nobody could find him? Pausing, he thought about that for a moment more. He could definitely borrow some cement bags from his parents so that nothing would get damaged, and if it was out of the way enough, then he'd be fine.
Biting his lip, he considered that, before nodding decisively and pulling up a city map. There had to be somewhere nobody would notice flying fifty-kilogram bags of cement, right?