It was a long and slow farewell between Mother, Tensei and I that morning. I had packed up everything I needed for class, for every imaginable scenario, that I could fit into the box limit. Mother tried not to cry, Tensei patted me on the back, and I was at last ready to step out the door and go to UA high as my new living quarters. I told myself that, at least.
About a five minute walk from school, built only three days ago, and inside the UA campus grounds, was a new system of multiple dormitory houses, all five stories high and housing one class each. Our instructors had spared no expense! Brown stone, hedges neatly trimmed outside, giant - giant to me - windows with lacing across, two huge sets of doors, a big "1A alliance" above them. Quite the formal setting.
This is my - no - our new home.
"Man, it's huge!" gasped Sato.
"We're lucky kids, that's for sure!" cheered Ashido.
Mr. Aizawa was standing outside to greet us, and he looked back to normal, hair loose and uncombed once again.
"First of all, Class A," he said, "What's more important than anything is that you have all gathered together again safely."
"Looks like everyone got permission, huh?" said Sero.
"It was a tough fight for me," sighed Hagakure.
"I suppose it would be, for most people," added Jirou.
"You two did suffer directly from the gas after all," said Ojiro.
Asui said, "The same goes for you, Sensei. I'm just relieved that you made it back here with us too. AFter watching that interview, I thought you might not be able to come back. I was really sad..."
Uraraka nodded. "Me too."
"It's surprising to me as well," Sensei admitted. "Well, a hell of a lot happened, that's for sure. Now then! I'm going to give you all a quick briefing in regards to the dorms. But before that, just one thing. It's true that the plan was for you to earn 'Temporary hero licenses' after the training camp. And that is still the goal."
Oh, right! Our provisional licenses to act as real heroes.
"Now that I think of it, I remember those!"
"So much was happening all at once that it completely slipped my mind..."
Sensei interrupted then and we fell silent. That was his 'pay attention' tone. "What I'm about to say is important, so listen up. Kirishima, Todoroki, Midoriya, Yaoyorozu, Iida. You five were 'on sight' - you took it upon yourselves to rescue Bakugou."
Many of our classmates looked shocked. I swallowed. I had no idea how Mr. Aizawa had found out - my best guess was that All Might had told him. What was coming next?
"From the look of things," Mr. Aizawa continued, "All of your classmates understand the weight of your behavior in deciding to go there. A lot of things have been pigeonholed in light of everything that happened, but I'll say this now. If it weren't for All Might's sudden retirement, with the exception of Bakugou, jirou and Hagakure, I would have expelled you all as punishment. For the five perpetrators I mentioned, it goes without saying, but the same punishment applies for the other twelve of you who were aware of their actions and did nothing to stop them. Regardless of the reason, the fact that you all betrayed our trust doesn't change. From now on, if you would all do me the favor of following the established procedures and acting accordingly, I would very much appreciate it. And it would certainly go a long way towards restoring my trust." With that, he turned away. "That is all. Now, let's head in with smiles on our faces and lots of energy."
Uh, could you maybe give us a minute? I don't think we can do that right now...
I am so sorry, sensei. I can''t believe what disgrace I've caused you, and the trouble we caused for UA. Even though I went only to protect Midoriya, to restrain him, and the others as well...I still broke the rules.
We all stood there for a minute or two in silence. Then all of a sudden Bakugou grabbed Kaminari, dragged him behind the bushes, and overloaded his quirk. When he pushed him out again, he was in his "stupid" mode.
Jirou burst out laughing really, really loud.
"What the - Bakugou, what're you - " said Sero.
While everyone started laughing at Kaminari, Bakugou stomped over to Kirishima and offered him what looked like some cash.
"Huh? Money? What the ehll is this? You're freaking me out!" Kirishima cried.
"Stop being so stingy and just take it!" Bakugou barked. "You're making me feel shitty about it!"
"AH - huh? Where did you hear about - " Kirishima started, but Bakugou whipped around.
"Who cares? Just keep being a dumbass like you always are," he spat back.
I wonder who told him? Midoriya, perhaps? He must have at some point confided in Bakugou about Kirishima buying those goggles. I supposed even Bakugou could be considerate, in his own way.
Jirou, meanwhile, was laughing like crazy. "I just can't, seeing Kaminari like this..."
"Sorry about that..." murmured Kirishima.
"Hey, everyone!" he shouted, louder this time. "I'm really sorry for everything! This may not excuse my actions, but tonight I'm treating you all to a barbecue with this money!"
"For real?" said Sero.
"Can you handle the shopping on your own?" Uraraka asked him.
He shrugged. "Sure - I guess - do you -"
"I could help!"
And Jirou kept on laughing. I felt the tension from what Mr. Aizawa had said flowing away, just a little.
With that, Mr. Aizawa opened the towering front doors of our new home.
"It's one class per building. Boys and girls are seperated by wing. The right wing is for the girls, and the boys' wing is on the left. However, the first floor is a common space."
We were standing inside of a great big living room, with columns in between the towering windows. A bunch of couches surrounded a table, and hte couches looked super comfy. There was a huge TV, and a big decorative bunch of flowers, and even paintings! This part was on a carpet, big and fuzzy and green that my feet almost sunk into as we stepped inside.
Where the carpet ended the dining room began - five tables with four chairs each, a big kitchen space, all facing big windows that faced out onto the lawn.
"The dining area, baths, and laundry facilities can be found here," Mr. Aizawa was saying while we looked around.
Ashido cried, "It's spacious! It's pretty! It's so new, and there's sofaaaaasss!"
"There's even a courtyard!" cried Sero. Nearby, Uraraka had practically fainted. "It's a freaking mansion!" she cried out.
"Uraraka!" I cried out, afraid she might hurt herself.
Mr. Aizawa led us upstairs for a tour of the bedroom floors - we had an elevator to get there, actually.
"Your rooms are on floors two and above. On each floor, there are two groups of four rooms; half for boys and half for girls, up to the fifth floor."
Even the hallways outside our rooms were pretty nice, with a big row of lights on top, mail slots and name tags, doors that unlocked with electronic keys, giant windows, thick carpets.
Mr. Aizawa opened the door of the first room on the second floor and showed us the dormitory space. It was a little cramped, but it had everything we'd need - bed, desk and desk chair, chest of drawers, even balconies of our own!
"You each have your own private room. Each room comes with an AC unit, a bathroom, a refrigerator, and a closet. It's quite a luxurious space, if you ask me," said Mr. Aizawa.
"There's even a veranda!" cried Midoriya, exploring it as we all followed him around.
"These rooms are about the size of my closet back home, but I'll manage," said Yaomomo, reminding me again how rich she is. And behind her, Uraraka swooned again. "I'm living in a mansion!" and Iida checked in on her again.
Mr. Aizawa handed us a map of our room spaces. "The allocation of rooms is just as you see it here. The luggage we had each of you send before hand has already been delivered to your rooms. For the time being, use today to get unpacked and arrange your rooms. Tomorrow, I'll give you an explanation of how things are going to operate from now on. That is all. You're dismissed!"
"Yes, sensei!" we all chorused, eager to get to unpacking.
I looked at the map. My room was on the third floor. I would be sharing my hallway with Ojiro, Koda, and Kaminari, while on the girls side were Jirou and Hagakure.
I got to unpacking, and did my best to keep my mind on my work. But once it was done, the inevitable memory of having disappointed my sensei returned. I headed out to join my classmates, hoping to just not have to concentrate on how poorly I had represented UA...
Kaminari was balancing on the edge of one of the sofas and chatting with Midoriya. "Whew! The circumstances might not have been pretty, but getting to live together like this is pretty exciting, don'tcha think?"
"I'm beat," grumbled Kirishima.
"Common living arrangements!" I mused. "This too is a form of training to raise our cooperative spirit and polish our discipline!"
"Take a chill pill, class rep," said Sero.
The girls of our class had joined us. "Are your rooms all set up, boys?" Ashido asked. Kaminari waved hello.
"Yep! Now we're just relaxin."
"So y'know," Ashido looked back at Uraraka and shared a grin. "We were all talking and we've got a suggestion! Let's have a best room design contest! How about it?"
Poor Midoriya, the first boy on the second floor, started flailing his arms around in a total panic. "Aah, no no way! Just wait a minute!" But he was swept along as we all rushed to the second floor and flung open his room.
As expected, All Might merchandise all over the room.
"It's All Might from top to bottom!" cried Uraraka. "A geek's room if I've ever seen one!"
Midoriya huddled up, looking humiliated, by the desk. "I really look up to him is all...a little embarssing..."
Behind me, I heard Kaminari mumbling, "Oh man - what have we gotten ourselves into?"
"But this could be kinda fun!" said Sero.
Our classmates seemed ready. It was time to put all their rooms on display. And hopefully calm down all this tension.