The following morning, Rumi popped off her pillow with newfound purpose—the twin-bell alarm clock barely phased her as she slammed her fist against it. Somehow, that seemed to turn it off. Leaping out of bed, she rushed to take a shower and get dressed so that she could walk to school with her ~new friend~ Hitoshi Shinsou.
Looking at herself in the mirror, she noticed her wide grin had returned. She paused, remembering how she had looked this way last month, until the monotony of being alive had reclaimed her. And then she pursed her lips with resolve and forced that shit way down, forgetting her self-awareness through sheer force-of-will.
Once at the foot of the stairs, her mom, Florence, walked over to her with her hands raised and a restless expression on her face. "Please be quieter, Rumi, Rob is sleeping," she chided, walking alongside her as she headed into the kitchen.
"Sorry," Rumi hissed under her breath, raising her shoulders and grimacing theatrically before grabbing herself a pop tart and easing it into the microwave. "…But isn't he always asleep right now?" she asked, opening the microwave door before the alarm could sound.
"Yes, but he got back late last night," Florence explained, the vagueness irking Rumi only slightly.
Without carrying on the conversation, Rumi sat down on the barstool and ate her breakfast in silence. Once she had finished the wholesome and complete breakfast, she picked up her bag and walked to the door. She turned around, saying, "Bye, Mom," with a quick wave. Florence returned the gesture as Rumi closed the door and began walking down the sidewalk once more.
As she walked down the familiar path, her aloof countenance settled on her features once more until she passed Hitoshi's front door—fortunately, she didn't have to knock for him because he was sitting on the porch. He looked up at her and waved once; she flashed him a wide grin, her excitement returning just as quickly as it had left. As the two walked, Hitoshi stayed silent, simply looking forward through half-lidded eyes as they headed to the bus stop. Rumi wanted desperately to say something, but small talk was generally frowned upon in situations like this—or so she'd heard.
However, Rumi didn't usually listen to "social queues" or "appealing to her audience," so she decided to say something anyway—or, perhaps more accurately, she decided to go in for the kill.
"You look like I haven't seen you in a year and you didn't sleep at all during that time," she stated, looking up at him with wide, clear eyes. When he looked back at her, she remembered why it usually served to "read the atmosphere" before speaking; he didn't even make a face, he just looked at her and it was enough to get the message across—or rather, the dark lines under his eyes got the message across. "So, um, could you just not sleep, or is this normal for you?"
"This is normal for me," he said, looking forward once more.
If their conversation yesterday hadn't gone so well, Rumi would've been inclined to think that she was bothering him; however, she figured that it was just a "seven in the morning" thing and not an "I want to break your spine in half" thing.
Then Rumi did the unthinkable: nothing. She did nothing but sit on the bus and then the train and play Galaga on her phone, their only interaction being his occasional glance at her score and a brief consolation when she died. Other than that, silence. Pure, unadulterated silence. But it would not last the whole day…
Once they had arrived on campus and walked into homeroom, Hitoshi turned to get to his desk—as per usual—but was interrupted when Rumi grazed his arm with her fist, smiled, and said, "see ya later," before walking to her desk and sitting down. He watched her with a contemplative expression before finally taking his seat.
At her desk, Rumi pulled out a notebook and a pencil and began her daily doodling ritual while waiting for Yasumi and Kinaru to arrive. They seemed to take forever this morning, or maybe Rumi was just worried about her earlier encounter? No—she wasn't about to let herself ruminate and doubt every action from the past hour, so she forced herself to forget her nerves and draw absentmindedly.
Finally, they decided to show themselves; as they walked in, Rumi grimaced at their exhausted demeanors as they fell into their seats. Turning in her chair, she asked them, "What happened? You two look awful…"
"Oh, nothing, except…" Kinaru droned, lacing his words with drama and theatrics, "I finished the Anima game and spent the whole night crying over the ending. It was awesome."
"Nice, nice," Rumi said, nodding before turning to Yasumi. "And how about you?"
"'Nochi woke me up at four A.M. and sent me pictures of puppies so he'd have a crying buddy," she explained, wiping her eyes on her sleeve before face-planting into the desk.
Kinaru shrugged. "You gotta do what you gotta do."
Rumi pursed her lips and watched them fester in their poor decisions before turning to face the front. At that moment, the door was thrown open with a flourish only capable at such an ungodly hour by someone with a liberal-arts flavored confidence. Mm, tastes like unemployment.
"Heeeeeeeello, students!" chimed their homeroom teacher, Miss Kora Lia, as she stepped inside. She was too happy for this early in the morning, her bubblegum-pink curls bouncing on her shoulders as she set her folders and papers on the desk. The students watched her vacantly. Turning to the chalkboard, she continued to talk in a bubbly fashion while she wrote the date in front of them—Friday April 22, 2016.
As she did so, one of her students, Kouji Sohai, leaned forward to his friend and whispered something that not even the kids next to them could decipher.
"What was that, Mister Sohai?" Miss Kora Lia asked, turning around swiftly with a wide grin stretched across her face. Kouji made eye contact with her, sitting stark still—the chalk in her fingers snapped. Holding eye contact as though challenging him, she effortlessly finished writing her statement on the board behind her with the piece in her hand.
Kora Lia—Quirk: Hindsight! She can see out of the back of her head, but no one is 100% sure how…
Everyone, having been thoroughly put in their place, sat silently as she began to speak, giving them information about upcoming events and assignments and lecturing them before the school day fully began.
The brief respite that lunch provided could never be enough to heal their mental wounds, and it also could never stop them from being overdramatic. As Rumi, Yasumi, and Kinaru walked towards their usual table to eat their meal, the drowsiness was damn-near tangible. Out of the corner of her drooping eyes, Rumi noticed something that knocked her from her stupor—her dear friend, Hitoshi Shinsou, was sitting alone at an uninhabited table. Her expression contorted as she glanced from Yasumi to Kinaru and back to Hitoshi; pursing her lips determinedly, she set down her plate beside Yasumi, uttered a quick "be right back," and speed-walked over to him.
Tapping the table, he looked up at her, halfway through a bite of udon-noodles. Yet again, he mumbled a wordless question of "what is it now?" while slurping loudly, maintaining eye-contact.
"Hey!" she said, fluttering her hand before jabbing her thumb behind her, "Wanna come sit with us?"
Once he finished dragging out the moment, he stood up and said, "Sure," while picking up his tray and following her.
"That must be his favorite word," she thought, not even entertaining the idea that she was annoying. If she was bothering him, he could just tell her.
"Hey, guys," Rumi began, taking her seat next to Yasumi, "I brought a friend to sit with us today," she said, gesturing up to Hitoshi as he stood in a collected manner.
Hitoshi looked at her sideways at the mention of the f-bomb, but he decided not to mention it. Instead, he said, "Yeah, I've been taken hostage and she won't leave me alone until we're friends."
Rumi cackled—almost too loudly—and slammed her fist against the table. "Geez, what a jokester!" she said through bouts of laughter. Upon realized that she was the only one who found it funny, she grew silent, shrugged, and asked, "What? Is something wrong?"
Kinaru gawked at her, leaning over the table to hiss, "Chouju, you do know who that is, right?"
Watching him with wide eyes and pursed lips, Kinaru finally figured out which dumbass had been bringing down the class average lately. "That's Shinsou Hitoshi, obviously." She gave Hitoshi a thumbs up, and he said nothing.
"Oh my god, do you seriously not know? Even Zenni knows!"
Yasumi shrugged, nearly face-planting into her meal from fatigue.
"No offense, but standing here is awkward—can I go now?" Hitoshi asked, looking directly at Rumi without any clear expression.
At that, her countenance fell, a wounded disposition etched into her features before she said, "No, wait—sit down, Shinsou," while pointing to the seat next to Kinaru. The two looked at each other before Kinaru wordlessly moved his plate closer to him and Hitoshi sat down, looking at the floor. "It's kind of rude to reject someone like that, 'Nochi," Rumi chided, brows furrowed. Kinaru simply exhaled intensely.
"Dude, you don't even know what you're talking about," he said, refusing to look at Hitoshi.
"Is this seriously because of my Quirk?" Hitoshi asked, looking directly at Kinaru with a blank expression.
He didn't say anything, but rather gripped his pants tightly and clinched his jaw shut.
"What about your Quirk?" Rumi asked Hitoshi, shrugging.
"Listen," Kinaru said, leaning over the table to point an accusatory finger at her, "I know you zone-out a lot, but you should at least remember your classmates' Quirks. Don't you want to be a Hero? You gotta keep up with this stuff, Chouju."
Hitoshi looked up, his interest piqued as he asked her, "You want to be a Hero?"
"Yeah, it's my dream," she admitted, running the chopsticks between her fingers. Shrugging, she said through a sheepish grin, "I know I'm unintimidating—to use your words—and my Quirk is kinda shitty, but sometimes… sometimes you can't choose what you want, you know?"
He blinked once. "Yeah, I guess so."
Finally, Kinaru whispered to Hitoshi, "Are you… not gonna use it on us?"
"I might on you."
"That's rude."
And with that, Kinaru's eyes glazed over and he looked at Hitoshi with a slack-jawed expression. Rumi nearly choked on her sip of water, but Yasumi did nothing except wake up.
"That's my Quirk that he was so worried about," Hitoshi deadpanned before Kinaru's eyes flashed back to normal with a jolt. "It only happens if I want it to, though, and I really wanted you to stop talking."
Rumi snorted with laughter, pressing her lips together to keep her from laughing too loudly before she mumbled, "Is your Quirk called Silence, Thot?"
At that, Hitoshi looked down, a weak smile forcing its way onto his lips as he tried to fight back against the chuckles rising in his throat. Beside her, Yasumi giggled and Kinaru stared at them in disbelief, cheeks flushed.
"I'm not a thot, Chouju!"
"Exactly what a thot would say, ho-bag," Yasumi muttered.
"Heh, nasty little slut~," Rumi taunted.
Hitoshi coughed beside them, gripping his knee under the table and avoiding eye-contact like his life depended on it.
"So!" Rumi suddenly said, turning her attention to Hitoshi again. "Since we know your Quirk, it's only fair if you know ours, too!" She seemed a little too excited. "This is Zenni Yasumi, and she can make people feel sad or whatever, but it works best when she's tired—"
"I have spores, basically," Yasumi interjected, "And the sleepy ones are the most potent, is what she's trying to say."
"—And Nochinochi Kinaru over there can go really fast, but he gets motion sickness so it's kind of useless—"
"It's called fast-forward and it hurts to use it too much," he corrected, his blush deepening on his puffed cheeks.
"—And I'm Chouju Rumi, in case you forgot. My hands secrete this weird paste-like thing, and when I look at someone using their Quirk then my goo takes on the properties of that Quirk. It also burns like hell if you get it in your eyes. Oh, and I need to be hydrated to use it. Oh, and—"
"That's enough, Chouju," Yasumi interrupted, patting Rumi on the shoulder. "He knows not to get in a fight with you and your god-tier Quirk."
With that, Kinaru's lips tugged down as he muttered, "Anima was a god-tier game," before clenching his fist on the table dramatically.
Hitoshi shrugged. "It was alright."
Kinaru turned his head slowly, looking at Hitoshi through narrowed eyes and with a newfound passion. "Did I hear that correctly?"
"Silence, thot."
At that, Rumi lost her shit and Hitoshi cracked a quick sideways-grin before hurriedly pushing that shit deep down. Beside him, Kinaru fumed and Yasumi simply ate in silence with puckered lips.
"Zenni, you should be on my side for this one," Kinaru blubbered, gesturing wildly and looking at her with pleading eyes.
"Well, when you woke me up at four in the morning to cry over the ending, you only sent me pictures of…" Yasumi paused, beginning to choke on her words. "Really… really…" She face-planted into the table. "Cute! Puppies!" she howled, tears spilling over her eyes as her fists banged against the table.
"They're going through a rough time," Rumi whispered to Hitoshi from across the table. Hitoshi looked at them out of the corner of his eye while taking a sip of water, but when he looked back at Rumi, he saw that she was watching her friends with a look of endearment, her fist pressed against her cheek as she smiled with half of her mouth. Quickly, Hitoshi looked away.
At the end of the day, Rumi was surprised to see that Hitoshi was willing to wait for her before leaving—maybe following people around incessantly was the best tactic for making friends after all!
As he stood over her desk silently, Rumi frantically stuffed her things back in her bag before throwing the thing over her shoulder haphazardly, nearly hitting Kouji Sohai as he passed behind her.
Flashing an apologetic grimace his way, she noticed he still seemed fazed by his encounter with Miss Kora Lia earlier—his lethargic expression was a dead-giveaway. Peeling her eyes off of him, she looked at Hitoshi and beamed as she said, "Well, we survived another day, huh?"
Hitoshi snorted, saying, "Yeah, unfortunately," while they walked out of the classroom and off the U.A. campus.
As the two began the trip back home, Rumi decided to keep quiet this go around—after all, she did force him to sit with her crackhead-friends earlier, and she could understand his desire for quiet after that encounter.
However, after a few minutes of silence, Hitoshi spoke up. "So, you want to be a hero?" he asked, eyes locked forward.
Rumi glanced at her feet before shifting her gaze ahead. "Yeah, I do. What about you?"
"I do too," he admitted, eyes downcast as they walked. "You said earlier that your Quirk is shit—don't do that again."
"Huh?"
"Don't degrade your Quirk," he said, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. "If you don't believe in your own abilities then why should anyone else?"
Rumi's eyes widened before she looked down at her open palm. "Shit, that's deep," she muttered. After a moment, she continued with, "Your Quirk is super cool, just saying."
"Thanks," he said, shoving his hands deep in his pockets. "It hasn't always been the best, but, it's mine nonetheless. You gotta work with you got."
"That's a very mature outlook on things," Rumi stated blankly, looking up at him. He glanced down and caught her eye briefly before looking askance and putting his hand on the back of his neck, grinning sheepishly. "I guess I'm a little naïve, thinking that I'll be able to be a hero even though I'm not in the Hero Course, but… if you think you can do it, then so do I!"
"Wait," he said, putting his hand down and gesturing, "Who said I was going to stay in General Studies?"
Rumi blinked incredulously.
"Oh my god, Chouju, your obliviousness is a Quirk unto itself," he sighed, putting his hand back in his pocket. "You do know what's coming up soon, right?"
"Of course I know!" But she did not know.
"The Sports Festival, Chouju, that's what's coming up." She tried not to look surprised as she nodded slowly to herself. "Look, if I do well enough, they might consider transferring me into the Hero Course."
"Oh, that's cool," Rumi mused. Furrowing her brows and scrunching her features, she looked up at him and asked, "I understand why you want in the Hero Course so bad, but… isn't it a little too late?"
"It'd be even worse to give up, you know," he deadpanned, looking away. "And I can't do that… I must keep trying. There's just no way I can stop, especially when I'm this close."
Rumi looked up at him, a hint of reverence in her eyes. "I respect that, Shinsou."
He said nothing for a moment. "Don't you want to get in too?"
"I mean, it'd be great, but… I'm not exactly," she trailed off, and when he looked at her she made bodybuilding poses, flexing to the best of her ability. "I just don't think I can compare with the kids in the class, especially after USJ deepening the divide in our skills," she admitted, crossing her arms. "Haven't you heard? Even the 1-B students are intimidated…"
"Oh? So you can pay attention sometimes," Hitoshi joked, nudging her shoulder. Rumi snorted, looking pointedly at her shoes. "Still, that's understandable. But, I think that trying despite that will really make a good impression."
Rumi nodded, thinking it over in her head. Once they were on the train, the two quieted down and sat next to each other while browsing their phones silently. Once they'd made it to their street, they walked back to their homes.
Hitoshi paused before his doorstep, Rumi following suite. "Well, good luck with your training," he said, watching her reaction.
"Training?"
"Well, I can't be the only one from General Studies who actually gives a shit about the Sports Festival, right?"
For once, Rumi was quiet as she watched him. Then she grinned, almost a little too much, and said, "Thanks, Shinsou—same to you!" before running off.
Well, there are worse ways to end a school week.