author's note iii. putting the main note up here this time haha. you know, i should have noted the side pairings in the first a/n BUT uh. *nervously sweats*. so y'all already know this is a tdmm mulan au, but there's also side kamijirou and kiribaku. there would also be side izuocha but i can't reasonably fit that into here. :c. how does jirou fit into this? well that's a this chapter thing. anyway prepare for the exploration of momo/jirou/kaminari/kirishima dynamics later on bc i'm excited for that. friends are important, guys.

anyway, thank you for reading! if you're new feel free to leave a follow/fave, and i would love it if you could drop a short review or smth if that's what you're into, and as always, have a greaaaat daaaay~~

Word Count: 3,152

Shoto Todoroki watched as his father discussed battle plans with the emperor's representative. As the son of the second-best general, it was expected of him to grow up to be as great of a commander as his father, nevermind the fact that he already had two older brothers who could have also done the job.

Well, it didn't particularly matter to Shoto anyway. He had always wanted to be in the army and become a great general, just not under the tutelage of his slimeball father without empathy.

"Shoto!" The boy hardly reacted despite how loud and sudden he was called, choosing instead to flick his gaze towards his father almost lazily. "I don't have time to train these low life peasants. They're only going to end up as cannon fodder, so I leave you in charge of their training. Present Mic will be here to assist you for the next few days, but don't rely on him. He's only here to collect conscription notices."

Endeavor gave his son a very long, hard look, but it was only met with a perfect poker face. With a scowl, the general continued his talking: "Since the emperor has recently informed us of the current location of the Huns, I shall be leaving with my army shortly. However, since the emperor also believes you to be too young to run a camp on your own—"

"A perfectly reasonable sentiment," Present Mic cut in. "He's only seventeen."

"Which is plenty old enough, considering his breeding," Endeavor argued, and though his face didn't show it, Shoto inwardly flinched.

"Anyway," Present Mic continued for Endeavor, "Emperor Nezu decided that you can't run this camp alone, so he has had someone selected to assist you. He felt that despite his belief of you being too young, you wouldn't appreciate working with someone too much older than you, so he's around your age."

Shoto nodded. He wouldn't have minded someone older than him, but he wouldn't be allowed to socialize with the soldiers-to-be as equals, and the chances of finding someone his age seemed low anyway. He appreciated the sentiment.

"His name is Katsuki Bakugou, and he will be arriving very soon. If I'm not gone by then, that is when I will leave."

Shoto watched as the two men got up. Present Mic left the tent, but Endeavor lingered for just a little bit longer, making his son uneasy.

"You'd better not disappoint me, Shoto. You weren't born to lose to some measly barbarians," the older man said.

Mic popped his head back into the tent. "Hey, did you notice that there's a fight going on out here?"

Momo still wasn't sure how it all happened. One minute, she walked into the camp. There had been a lot of gross burping, itching, and snorting coming from the men all around, but she didn't do anything about that. All she had done was bump into some random guy, and next thing she knew, she was in a warzone, and her head was the target.

"What's going on out here?" a loud voice boomed, and everybody froze.

Momo shook with fear, as she was surrounded by at least three muscly men whom, had they not been caught red-handed to be fighting, she was convinced would have pummeled her in that instant. She looked up, letting the hands that had been shielding her skull drop down to her side, and saw three different men approaching the mob.

One was enormous and way too muscular to be simply burly. He had a fire in his sharp, blue eyes that showed he meant business and a helmet tucked underneath his arm that showed he had power.

"That's General Endeavor," Uraraka whispered, but Momo had figured as much.

General Endeavor turned to the smallest of the three and said something before walking away. "Good luck… captain," was all she could catch.

"That must be his son," the tiny dragon continued, pressing herself up against Momo's neck as subtly as she could.

Momo watched the apparent son as he exchanged a few words with the tall, blond man. She flinched as he turned abruptly to face the men, but she got her first good look at the captain.

He was very pretty. Despite his mismatched blue and grey eyes, split red and white hair, and massive scar, he still had handsome features. And, Momo wryly thought, he's coming right at me.

Everybody thinned out so as to better address him. "He did it," someone said, pointing at Momo, and she gulped.

The captain peered at her with an unreadable expression. "What's your name, soldier?" he asked her, and the calmness his voice held sent a shiver down her spine.

"Uhh," Momo said, drawing a complete blank. She shot a look back at Uraraka in her hood, who furiously whispered, "Shoujo! Wait, no! Shoji!"

"Shoji's his name!" Momo hissed, resisting the urge to jerk her head in the direction of the aforementioned Shoji.

"I didn't ask for his name; I asked for yours," the captain calmly said, his steely gaze practically boring into her soul.

Momo gulped. "Sorry about that. My name is, uh…"

"Deku!" Uraraka squeaked, lunging to catch the cricket as he tried to hop onto Momo's shoulder.

"Shh!"

"Shh?" Though the captain didn't appear to be getting mad, he was definitely raising an eyebrow at her.

Panicking, Momo scanned her surroundings for something— anything— that might help her. When her eyes landed on the white half of the captain's hair, she blurted, "Haku!"

"You're sure about your name this time, Haku?" He stared intently at Momo, his voice as calm and even as ever.

She felt Uraraka hunker down in her hood with Deku. Thank goodness, Momo thought with relief as she nodded, hoping the heat she was feeling wasn't a blush. "Haku Yaoyorozu, at your service, sir!" She saluted the best she could.

The captain blinked at her in a rather catlike manner. "Captain Todoroki from now on will do," he told her.

"Yaoyorozu?" For the first time, the tall, blond man standing just a short distance away spoke up. "But the Yaoyorozu's son died years ago. Plus, I would've thought he'd be older than you are by a few years."

Momo gulped yet again. Her parents had always had trouble conceiving, and the one child they had before her, her brother, had been stillborn. And now, she was taking advantage of his fleeting existence, and the guilt gnawed at her belly. "I-I-I'm a late bloomer," she stammered. "The whole dying thing was, uh, well, there was this bad accident—"

Todoroki held up his hand to silence her. "It doesn't matter. You're here now. Turn in your conscription notice to Present Mic over there." He turned to the rest of the men, all of whom were trying their darndest to look like they hadn't been involved in a mass fight. "The rest of you, please stand at attention and give me your name when asked."

Momo couldn't look at anyone or anything but the ground as she gave the strange, blond man the scroll. He looked it over for what felt like forever, and she could hardly hear anything but the pounding in her chest. What if he knew? What if he knew? What if he kn—

"Looks good, Mr. Yaoyorozu," Present Mic said with a smile. He rolled the scroll up and stuck it into his pocket. "Welcome to the army."

Momo looked up, unable to believe the fact that she had actually passed.

"Please set up your living quarters as soon as possible. Training starts tomorrow at five in the morning, so please be ready by then," Mic instructed, and with a curt nod, he walked away.

She passed.

She was lucky, so, so lucky, that she had stumbled upon enough canvas and twine to scrounge together something resembling a tent.

She was just about finished when someone popped in from behind her.

"Hey, Haku, right?" they (he. The only person in the entire camp that was not a man was herself.) said.

Momo spun around, her heart racing from surprise, and found herself face-to-face with a man who would be just a few centimeters shorter than herself if his shocking red hair didn't stick out in all directions. He grinned at her to reveal a mouth full of razor sharp teeth, and she shied away when she noticed his eyes matched his hair.

"Y-yes," Momo said, realizing too late that she had both stammered and forgotten to disguise her voice. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Yes, this is he."

"Sorry we got off on the wrong foot earlier, with that fight and all," the stranger said. "I couldn't help myself. It seemed like a manly test of strength at the time, but I see now that you had no idea what you were doing. I just wanted to apologize." He spat into his hand and offered it to her. "The name's Eijirou Kirishima, but I'd prefer if you called me by my surname. There's a lot of honor behind it, and I'm proud to be carrying it."

Momo relaxed upon taking in the man's friendly and cheerful demeanor, so contrasting with his demonic appearance, but she couldn't help but to hesitate before shaking his hand. It was gross, after all.

"Just take it!" Uraraka hissed into her ear. "These are men, after all. You gotta act just like one, so nevermind the fact that he spat in it!"

Momo shook the other man's hand, giving him a pleasant smile. "I know you already saw me get singled out by the captain, but I'm Haku Yaoyorozu." She didn't actually say it to introduce herself, at least not to him. "Nice to meet you, Kirishima."

"You got this, Yaomomo," Uraraka quietly cheered, and Deku chirped in agreement.

Kirishima let go and glanced around. "Did you hear something?"

Momo mentally swore, but her companions took the hint and ducked. "…Nooo?" she said.

"Hmm. I must've been imagining things," the redhead said thoughtfully, then brightened up. "Hey! Let's go meet people!"

Momo blinked in surprise. She didn't expect this kind of thing coming from someone she just met, but at the same time, he was a nice guy. What did she have to lose?

Before she could agree, a young man with pale blond hair stormed into sight, muttering to himself like crazy with his hands stuffed inside in his pockets. Momo and Kirishima stared at him as he started to walk by them, but he stopped to glare right back at them.

"Tch, you look like a hairbrain," he muttered as he eyed Kirishima up and down. "Better not be as dumb as you look."

Momo froze, her heart racing with fear as he gave her a once-over as well, mumbling angrily all the while. Her stomach turned when he abruptly pointed straight at her.

"You! You're gonna be on bathroom duty tonight! Chop, chop, weakling!" he snapped, then stormed away without another word.

Both Momo and Kirishima watched the man storm off in silence. When he was out of sight, Momo glanced back at Kirishima, but he was still staring off at where the angry man had been with a strange expression on his face. "Uhhh…"

Kirishima blinked twice, then looked back at Momo with the bright grin back on his face. "Hmm. He was pretty handsome, wasn't he?"

Momo looked at him funny. Handsome wasn't exactly what she'd use to describe the explosively angry man they'd just met. Handsome was more like the captain, who didn't look like his eyebrows were making out on his forehead due to a perpetual scowl. (Though even then, the captain was more pretty than truly handsome.) "You're only saying that because he looked at the both of us decided you weren't going to be on outhouse duty tonight," she said as she crossed her arms.

Kirishima shrugged.. "I'd offer to help, but I'm pretty sure we'll all be getting our fair share of shovelling shit in time. Have fun cleaning out the potties."

"Thanks, Kirishima," she grumbled, and his smile faltered a bit.

"Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I get the feeling I'm gonna be called 'hairbrain' all the time for a really long time," he said.

Momo only sighed.

The daylight was fading when she finally got around to bathroom duty. She sighed once more, a shovel in hand, staring down the outhouse in front of her. It had been one day of camp. Heck, technically, it hadn't even been one day. Everyone had simply been assembling. How was it that already, it was this filthy.

"Man, this is going to suck so much," an unfamiliar voice said from right next to her, making her jump out of startlement.

Once she had regained herself, Momo looked to the source of the voice and despite the dying light, she found it to belong to one very short, rather androgynous looking person. They had boyish features to go with their tiny stature, making her wonder if this person was even old enough to be in the army, bluish-purple hair, and moody eyes that seemed to bore into her soul. The stranger stared intently back at her, and she once again had to remind herself that she was the only woman in camp.

"Oh, did I scare you?" he said. "Sorry about that. You're Haku, right? Got called out by the captain earlier today, I remember."

Momo nodded, feeling a little unnerved that so many people knew about her already.

"The name's Karma Jirou. Looks like we got stuck with cleaning the bathrooms together, so I really hope we get along, otherwise this is going to stink."

Momo stared at the stranger— Karma, apparently— wondering if he realized he had just made a pun.

Karma raised an eyebrow at her. "What, cat got your tongue? Or are you simply unsure of what to do next, because if that's the case, then boy have I got some news for you."

Momo blinked, readjusting her grip on the shovel. "Right. Of course. Clearing the waste out of the outhouses," she said, half to herself.

Karma looked at her almost suspiciously. "You're weird," he declared, then gave her a firm pat on the back. "Let's do this."

The two got along startlingly well. Then again, cleaning stalls with someone does call for a great deal of cooperation and trust, but at the end of it all, when the moon was just above the tops of some nearby trees, Momo was surprised at how quickly she had made friends. Not just with Karma, but with that Kirishima kid from earlier as well.

Karma and Momo exchanged exhausted looks once they finished. They smelled like shit, but then again, Momo wasn't sure what she had been expecting when it came to cleaning outhouses.

"Hey," Karma said after a pause. "I have something to tell you."

Momo blinked. "What?" she began, for that was startlingly soon, but the blue-haired boy held a finger to his lips.

He shifted his gaze around, scanning the area, before saying, "Not here. Follow me."

Bewildered, Momo obeyed, following him until they were all alone. There, beneath the tree that marked the outskirts of the camp, they stopped.

"My real name is Kyouka, not Karma," Jirou said, his voice rising considerably in pitch at the same time. "I'm like you, dressing as a man to join the army."

Momo's eyes widened. "How did you—"

"A lady never tells," Jirou said mysteriously, then giggled. "What's your real name, Haku?"

Momo lowered her gaze, completely stupefied by the extraordinary situation she was now in. To think, she went and joined the army, and on her first day, she was literally not only known by almost all the other recruits, but also found out by the one (or at least, she thought it was only one more) other girl in the entire camp. But at the very least, it seemed that Jirou was telling the truth. "Momo," she said.

"Momo," Jirou repeated. She looked thoughtful.

Momo looked at her. "Kyouka."

"Momo."

"Kyouka."

"Momo."

"Kyouka."

The girls looked at each other and grinned, the moon lighting up their faces.

"For real, though, Momo, I'm sorry about dogpiling on you with all the other men back when we first met. I had no idea how to act natural, so I just went with whatever was going on at the time."

Momo blinked. "You were part of that?" she asked as she struggled to remember.

"Well, if we're gonna pretend I didn't try to deck you in the face as a first impression, we can go with that, too. I'm just saying, I'm apologizing for it now," Kyouka stated.

"No, no, it's okay. I really had no idea what I was doing at the time, either."

There was a semi-awkward pause as neither girl could figure out what to say next.

"You know, it's kind of weird," Kyouka said as they started to walk back to their tents. "We've only known each other for a few hours, but we've already told each other secrets about ourselves that could get us killed if anyone else found out."

"Yeah, it's kind of like…" Momo snapped as she abruptly remembered something her mother and grandmother would sometimes chat about. "It's like we're kindred spirits* or something!"

Kyouka nodded slowly, the grin returning to her face. "Yeah, I get you."

"I have a sworn sisterhood back home," Momo said, thinking fondly of the girls with whom she grew up. Then she remembered the reason why she was able to escape unattached, and the warm, fuzzy feeling in her chest vanished. "Though, I suppose it's been dissolved now."

The girls stopped in front of Momo's tent. Jirou looked down, and in a low voice, she said, "You know, we don't have the time or resources to do a proper ceremony and contract, but I think we should become kindred spirits."

Momo blinked in surprise. Technically, becoming a kindred spirit with another girl required a lot of astrology lining up perfectly in order to be considered viable, hence why she had only a sisterhood back home. But she could feel a strong connection to Kyouka. "You know what? I think so too."

*kindred spirits was used here in place of laotong (老同), or literally "old-same", because tbh I feel like neither laotong or old-same really captures what I'm going for. "kindred spirits" is indeed taken from Anne of Green Gables, and I feel like that has the same aesthetic in that context as laotong. So yeah. That's just my way of localizing the term.

for those of you who have no idea what laotong is, that's pretty much just like two girls who have a v strong emotional connection pretty much getting emotionally married, since back in those days I guess husbands only married girls physically. Sworn sisterhoods were also apparently a similar thing in ancient china, and those involved multiple girls, but it was dissolved once all the girls got married. Laotongs remained in contact and in that kind of relationship for life. Yee. Apparently in a version of mulan in the sui tang romance, mulan had a warrior princess laotong and that sounds boss as hell. Wish I could read enough chinese to read sui tang romance myself cricricri. (someday, guys, someday.)

Anyway prepare to explore the intimate and emotional side of friendship with this because deep platonic bonds are important too.