"Dammit, Take-chan, don't you know what time it is…?" Kuroko grumbled, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she walked into the kitchen with nothing but a button-up and her panties on. "It isn't even sun-up yet."
"The sun rose twenty minutes ago," I huffed back as I made everyone's bento for the day, plus my own.
"Semantics…" she grumbled as she got her first look at me. "Already in your school uniform?"
"Well, it is what you typically wear when you go to school."
The Damoto Junior High spring uniform for boys was black pants, a white button-up shirt, sensible shoes, an unadorned black blazer, and a black tie to match. Damoto was a little more free-form when it came to uniforms, just a little bit, so while the tie wasn't mandatory, I at-the-least wanted to make a good first impression on my teachers.
Even though I was soft-spoken in my past life, blending into the background, now that I wasn't PDD-NOS anymore, I was feeling a lot more confident about putting myself out there and making some lifelong friends.
And it totally wasn't because I wanted Hitomi to dote on me. Not in the slightest.
"Well… just be careful on your way to school, alright?" Kuroko asked, coming up to me and embracing me from behind. "You're a part of Mon Squad, whether you're a Hero or not, so if you're ever in trouble, you know who to call," she said in a motherly tone as she ruffled my hair. "If we're free to pick you up from school, we'll give you a call, okay?"
"Don't go out of your way on my account," I said as a ding went off to the side. "Coffee's done."
"Oh, you're just the sweetest little darling, aren't you~?" she cooed as she strode toward her morning elixir, my head snapping to the side.
It was a waste of breath telling her to put pants on in the morning, but that didn't mean I was going to give Doppel any ammo.
Just like in Prey, you never knew where that shapeshifting troll could be hiding…
*AHA*
The Mon Squad Apartments and the Manaka household were in opposite directions from Damoto Junior High, meaning if I wanted to see Hitomi bright and early, I'd have to go "all the way across town" before doubling back to school. Thankfully, with all the working out I'd been doing to shrug off my frailty from my time in the vegetable patch, I was able to do just that; my Support Bike helped me make the trip in a timely fashion.
What I hadn't taken into consideration, was that Hitomi would've left for school even before her sister as a member of the school faculty.
I blame the leggy coffee addict for this mental lapse…
"Sorry, but Hitomi left for school already," Mitsumi replied as she pulled a bike of her own out to the curb.
"Ah, well, that's fine," I returned, trying to not let the disappointment show on my face. "Um… What's with the hachimaki?" I asked pointing to the 'helmet scarf' around her forehead. It looked like about every "Study Session Headband" seen in every high school anime in the history of ever.
"It helps me suppress 'Top-chan' in the mornings," she replied as we made our way to school. "She isn't exactly a morning person," she whispered conspiratorially.
"Having multiple people living in your head… Sounds like its own kind of hell."
Zany Namekian shenanigans from DragonBall Z Abridged notwithstanding, having more than one person living in your head was its own kind of hell. Even if the head in question had the bandwidth for "two people", to never have a moment's privacy, some "ghost in the shell" in the back of your mind you could never get rid of... For better or worse, that wasn't the sort of thing I had to deal with as an "Isekai Protagonist".
Here's hoping it stayed that way… For better or worse...
"It isn't so bad. 'Mii-chan' gets lots of discounts around town~" Mitsumi smiled. "Of course, that also means 'Top-chan' can get me into her own brand of trouble…"
"That… sounds really dangerous…" I hummed, realizing Mitsumi's trick with the headband went both ways.
"Don't worry. If 'Top-chan' pulls anything, the police know what to do," Mitsumi replied. "Of course, with all those trophies I won, it's usually better to let a Hero give 'Top-chan' her spankings."
"Trophies? For what?"
"Martial arts."
"Huh. Didn't think people cared about that sort of thing anymore."
I mean, people didn't even care for common courtesy anymore, sooo…
"Quirks aren't always king. Some of the 'Underground Heroes' are super-strong because of technique instead of raw stopping power. Vigilantes too."
"Don't I know it…"
Even with his [Training Weights] on, Stendhal was able to toe-to-toe against what were contextually Quirk-augmented super-humans with nothing but melee weaponry. Most of the time it was hardly a contest, and even if they survived his ambush strike, it'd just be drawing out the inevitable.
"I might have to take him up on those lessons he offered…" I hummed, idly hoping that Stendhal would only use his powers for good. Or what passed for "good" in the current world order...
"Who?"
"A friend of a friend," I replied, Damoto Junior High coming up a few minutes later; the front gate looked like about every front gate seen in every high school anime in the history of ever.
Swinging around a four-armed man in a white lab coat, the cigarette in his mouth setting a bad example for anyone and everyone that passed by him, Mitsumi and I coasted through the school courtyard and into the Churinjo, my Support Bike a stark contrast to the civilian models surrounding us.
"Takei-kun, what's wrong?" Mitsumi asked as we locked our bikes.
"Hm. Thought I saw something…" I said looking over my shoulder, eyes squinted.
There wasn't a "lensing effect" like a Yautja's cloaking field, but I felt, or rather, "felt", like something was there, watching me.
If there really was someone there, and their Quirk was like the Shroud of Shadows from Xiaolin Showdown, it might've hidden them from sight, but I could still hear them breathing, as well as the scuffing on their shoes.
However, even though I couldn't see them with my eyes, I didn't feel any sort of malice from them; not like the nutty professor who wanted to vivisect me like a science lab frog. As such, I wouldn't draw attention to it since there weren't police or Heroes around with Support Items on the hunt for a fugitive.
At least not until panties started going missing, assuming it was a dude.
Then again, girls were just-as-capable of stealing panties and/or boxers as guys, so…
"Come on, let's get going to orientation," Mitsumi urged.
"Yeah, sure…"
*Hon-Hon-Hon*Honk-Honk*Hon-Hon-Hon*Honk-Honk!*
"TAKEI-KUUUUUN!" a familiar voice from an equally-familiar black van called out.
"Oh god! It's every middle schooler's worst nightmare!"
Doting parents with cameras…!
"Okay just this once I'll let 'Top-chan' take over," Mitsumi said lowering her headband from her third eye.
"Mitsumi, are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Oh, hell no," 'Top-chan' said seeing Kuma come around the side of the school gate with a camera in paw. "I ain't gettin' involved in this shit!" she said putting the headband back over Mitsumi's third eye, self-suppressing and leaving Mitsumi to their family's tender mercies.
"…Crap!" the girl's core personality swore. "Takei-kun, this is a noble sacrifice you're makIIING!" she yelped as a hand clamped on her wrist.
"No way. If I die, you die with me."
*AHA*
Admittedly… not as bad as it could've been.
Sure, Mitsumi had the utter hell embarrassed out of her when Kuma and Hitomi posed her next to the school's signboard with their camera on a tripod, but there was real family love in there even if she was beginning to care what her peers thought of her.
As for me… Thankfully, they showed up in their pantsuits instead of their Hero Costumes. If they'd done that, I'd never hear the end of it from my potential Hero-worshiping peers.
Manako stood on my right with a small smile on her face, and to my pleasant surprise, her bangs had been cut away a little more than when I had first met her; just above her eyebrows, making this probably the first photo her mono-eye wasn't half-lidded. Zombina was on my left, a fanged grin on her face and an arm around my shoulders. Doppel, ever the exhibitionist, looked wildly uncomfortable in an actual pantsuit that wasn't made with her prehensile polymorphic hair as she stood next to Manako in her "Chocolate Loli" form. Kuroko was off to Zombina's left, an arm going behind the revenant's back to rest on my shoulder. Last but certainly not least, Tio had taken a knee so she'd fit within the frame and was enveloping all of us in a giant hug, the sweetest, sappiest smile I'd ever seen on her face.
After that I had a one-on-one with Hitomi, whom my feelings were strongest for even after all this time. With the way she rested her hands on my shoulders and the moistening of her mono-eye, anyone without context were assume this were a picture of a mother/son duo.
All in all, Mitsumi might've been blowing the whole thing out of proportion, but thankfully the Mon Squad's jobs and the entrance ceremony for Damoto, put everything on a time crunch and we were able to start school quickly.
*AHA*
Getting to see Hitomi up there with the rest of the school staff was very reassuring, though at the same time, it really cheesed me off when I "felt" more than saw all the guys, and several girls, ogling my former nurse like a piece of meat.
Apart from that, maybe I was just seeing things, but the principal looked like Picard from Star Trek, while one of the gym teachers resembled a slightly-obese Chewbaka from Star Wars in a tracksuit. Given how Quirks could make you look like "anything", I supposed it was inevitable that I'd run into someone resembling a pop culture icon from the 21st century; or at least any pop culture icon in this universe with an equivalent parallel to my own.
Of course, given that Star Wars and Star Trek were over two-hundred years old by now, and had likely undergone countless reboots, revivals, side-stories, "What If...?"s, and so-on, even if I pointed out their "uncanny resemblance" to anyone, it's unlikely anyone would get the reference. And there was nothing worse than having your pop culture references fall flat.
Huh... This must be how Archer felt all the time when no-one got his witty one-liners.
*AHA*
Second seat from the back with windows on the left side.
If this is Kami's sense of humor, I'm not laughing.
Damoto Junior High Class 1-A looked like about every class ever seen in every high school anime in the history of ever; it really didn't merit further describing than that. If it weren't for the occasional student fiddling about with their Quirk, or just being Heteromorphs in general, it'd pass for a perfectly ordinary pre-Paranormality classroom.
There was a boy with elf-like ears, a kid with lizard skin on the back of his neck, a cat-like boy, a steel-haired guy with shark teeth, a red-head with a side ponytail, a little guy with an inappropriately-shaped haircut, the sole black kid in a sea of white faces with a perfectly spherical afro that was boon or bane to whoever sat directly behind them, a girl with sutures around her body parts like Zombina, a red-haired girl with twin-tails and papery hands, a teeny tiny girl, a giant girl, a girl with a giant goldfish for a head. All sorts of body types, really.
It felt a little weird giving the cute girls in their all-black sailor uniforms a once-over, but since I was starting over from scratch-
. . .
"YOU! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO LEFT ME TO DIE!"
"CHEEP?!" a familiar tawny-haired girl with white wings chirped, eyes wide as she spotted me.
Suffice it to say, our altercation would've drawn a whole lot more attention if our homeroom teacher hadn't come in at that exact moment.
*AHA*
Classes at Damoto Junior High covered the usual subjects (in accordance with the Japanese Public Education System); Japanese language, social studies, mathematics, science, a foreign language elective (almost always English), music, fine arts, health and physical education, and industrial arts or homemaking. Not necessarily in that order, mind you.
I had of course gone through both middle and high school prior to "reincarnating" prior to my higher education, but a part of me was eager to see if my catchup and the "notes" that Takehiko Tokei "One-Point-Oh" left behind would prepare me for what was to come.
I was still pissed at chicken-girl, but apart from that primary outburst in homeroom, I decided to put it in the back of my mind as I got acquainted with my desk-neighbors.
I utterly refused to be a wallflower with the second chance laid out before me like this.
"So, what was this about that winged girl leaving you to 'die', exactly?" the class bishounen, Wakatsuki Naruki, inquired over his shoulder. Between his auburn hair, pretty face, and eye-catching-ness, if his Quirk was something like [Handsome], I wouldn't be surprised.
"It's a long story."
"Well, we've got all of middle school to get acquainted, so why not start now?" my desk neighbor to the right inquired.
Wakatsuki's own friend, Taiyo Togami, was rather plain-looking in comparison with dark hair, rectangular glasses, and pointed ears. Based on how they came into school together and how-casual they were with one another, I suspected them to be "childhood friends" from back when Waktsuki was more "plain-looking".
"Well… It all started when I was out grocery shopping one day…"
*AHA*
By the time I had finished regaling them with the tale of how I met the police chief's daughter, Naruki, Togami, and I were all on a first-name basis with phone numbers exchanged. I felt like such was a major accomplishment, given how-hard it had been for me to make friends in my previous incarnation with a "Permanent De-Buff".
"You know… you look familiar, but I can't quite place you…" the bishounen hummed thoughtfully.
"Maybe I just have one of those faces?"
"Nah, it's definitely the hair," Togami hummed, his tapered ears flicking a little. "Hey wait, I recognize you now!"
"Keep it to yourself, please. I don't want that being what people know me for…"
"That's fair," Naruki nodded. "I know all too well what it's like being known for one thing and one thing only."
"Thank you…"
"So what's your Quirk, if you don't mind me asking?" Togami inquired.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, your Quirks' like mine, right?" he asked tugging at a tapered ear.
"What do you-" I asked brushing my hair behind my ear, stopping short as I felt a tapering of my upper ear that had not been there a week ago.
"Huh, guess you're a late bloomer," Naruki hummed in light of my surprised expression. "Any idea how long they'll get?"
"Hopefully not too long…" I said tracing the points of my ears with my fingers; not quite like Link's from Legend of Zelda, closer Spock's from Star Trek but still coming up short.
I had no idea why my ears were elongating even though I was allegedly "Quirk Factor: Negative", but at least I didn't have to worry about the stigma of being "Quirkless".
Not that the stripes in my hair wouldn't have done the same thing, mind you…
"KYAAAAAAH! A HAND!"
Just when I thought I'd have a normal first day of school.
Or was this sort of thing "the new normal"…?
Hmmmmmm.
"Alright, everyone, calm down. Calm down," I said trying to be the 'adult' in the room. "I'm sure it's just someone's idea of a practical joke. And a really tasteless one at that," I said holding up the offending limb by its middle finger.
Huh. Slightly warm. Weird...
"Ah, no, that's my bad," the suture-patterned girl from before giggled, tongue poking out the corner of her mouth as she held up her forearm's cross-section. Getting a better look at her, I saw that the hair on the right side of her head was a shocking ashy white compared to the black hair on the left, a round button-style hairclip with a zombie-like face standing out on her temple, and making her silver-colored eyes really pop.
"What happened to you?" I blinked giving her suture marks a once-over; from what I could see, the major amputation points were her left wrist, her right forearm closer to the elbow, her neck, and on each thigh with her right leg's higher than the other. Anything else was hidden by her uniform and even I knew better than to ask outright.
"Oh, you know. I died last summer," she waved off like it was no big deal.
"Oh, did a Villain get you too?" I asked before I could really stop myself.
"Nah, freak tornado and falling glass," she hummed, waving her stump about. " . . . Wait, what happened to you then?" she blinked, eyeing me over as if seeing me for the first time.
"Villain attack. I spent a year in the vegetable patch, if you catch my meaning."
If this girl's Quirk Factor was "Posthumous Activation-Type" like Zombina's, then maybe that was why I could be so-open with this girl? Because she'd died and come back too?
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," she hummed, a little less upbeat than before. "Well, my Quirk, [Undying Girl], lets me fix myself, but even I have my limits," she said holding out her stump and intact arm. "Sometimes they pop off, but it's pretty handy to have it this way," she said making a show of twisting her head around, her neck sutures stretching, but not breaking; of course, that didn't stop the kids around her from wigging out slightly if not averting their eyes. "I consider myself pretty lucky that I'm still alive after all that's happened to me! You should too."
"Wasn't really 'luck' in my case. I just had a really dedicated nurse that talked to me every day, pulled me back from the brink," I replied in a somber tone.
"It's nice to mee you. I'm Fujimi Yomi. And you?"
"Takehiko Tokei."
"It's nice meeting you, but I should probably head up to the nurse's office," she said as the teacher came in.
"Just stay where you are, I'll patch you back up."
At this, Fujimi could only tilt her head as I began to root through my schoolbag.
*AHA*
"So… Why're you the one sewing me up instead of the nurse?" the "Undying Girl" inquired.
"Manaka-sensei can't thread a needle to save her life, and she's really bad with gore," I said frankly, about halfway done re-attaching her severed forearm.
She was right-handed, so this wasn't exactly something that could wait. Or at least that's what we told our teacher when I brought out the curved needle, surgical thread, and needle nose pliers.
"Well… You seem to have a steady hand at this."
"I've had plenty of practice. You aren't the first zombie girl I've patched back up."
And wasn't that a sentence…
"Oooooh~"
"Don't make this weird. I'm still the one with the needle and thread."
"Takehiko-kun, is there something you'd like to share with the rest of the class?" our teacher asked brusquely.
"Just telling my patient she needs to turn her arm over so I can suture the other side."
"Ah…" he nodded looking at the tools in my hands, realizing this was a valid excuse in present circumstance.
Once our teacher had turned back around and returned to the lecture, I got back to my thankless task.
"Hey."
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for not freaking out~" Fujimi smiled at me.
"Don't worry. I'm sure we'll all get used to this eventually…" I sighed as I closed the loop and snipped the thread. "There. All done. Don't go losing it again, alright, Fujimi?" I asked as I closed my emergency suture kit.
"Please, call me Yomi-chan!" the zombie girl saluted, her other hand popping off. "Whoops."
"Sit on the other side…" I sighed, re-opening my emergency suture kit, those around us averting their eye as Fujimi waved her left stump about.
*AHA*
"Noticed you getting pretty close with Fujimi-san last-period," Togami hummed. "She your type~?"
"Like I said, I didn't want Manaka-sensei being troubled with suture work and/or gore," I returned.
"Ah, you're no fun. Naruki's not interested in girls either."
"That's not…"
"If you are into dudes… I'm one-hundred percent not gay."
"I-I'm not into dudes!" Naruki squeaked.
"And all the girls in the public education system are grateful for that," Togami hummed, Naruki causing middle school girls to swoon in his wake like every harem protagonist in every high school anime in the history of ever.
My theory that Naruki's Quirk was [Handsome], or even [Handsomeness], was not completely unfounded.
As long as he didn't act like Marvel's Starfox, I wouldn't have to call the cops on him.
"Takei-kuuuuun!"
"Hm? AH!" I yelped as the busty Kaminaga ran up to me, smothering me in a hug.
"Mouuuu…! What happened to that cute hairstyle I gave you?" Otome pouted at my hair, worn down.
"I wanted to make a good impression on my teachers…" I returned, idly realizing that now I, or rather, we, were the center of attention. "Gelling it up didn't seem like the best move."
"Hrmmmm…" the woman pouted cutely. "Well, the next time you want your hair treated, you just come to your onee-sama, alright?"
"Y-Yeah… I will…" I answered as she ruffled my hair, her prehensile tendrils caressing my body as she walked on by, turning heads from both genders in her wake as she departed our company.
" . . . Dude!" Togami cried out once the busty teacher had turned the corner. "You never told me you rolled like that!" he whined, ears fluttering.
"I don't- Oh never mind…" I sighed rubbing my face, realizing there was no perfect middle ground between anonymity, and whatever eye-turning power Naruki seemed to have.
Not for me, anyway...
*AHA*
"So Kaminaga-sensei and Manaka-sensei are friends from their previous jobs?"
"Yes, Togami. It's almost as though I didn't just finish explaining it to you…" I said as the three of us ate at our lunches, Naruki's swarm of fangirls offering him the finest pieces of their own bento like offerings before a Greek deity.
There was a line and everything.
"Earlier, what was this about a Villain attack?" Naruki inquired.
"Just life giving me the middle finger. I don't try to dwell on it," I said scratching at my chest.
"Tokei, if you need someone to talk to, we're here for you," he said reaching across the table. His right hand laid atop mine with a feather-light touch, I glanced down at it before turning my eyes back to him, the bishounen having the decency to blush and snatch his right hand away with his left after I gave him my "resting bitch face".
"I appreciate the sentiment…" I said feeling the hateful gazes of horny teenage girls on my back, and also on my front, "but I have a head shrink for that. You don't need to worry about me."
"Ah, that's good…" Naruki said bashfully. "Villain attacks… They're rare, but not unheard of around here…"
"The hardest part are the empty seats…" Togami hummed, probably thinking about elementary school.
"Well, thankfully we're in the nicer part of town, so…" I hummed, stopping myself before I could right and truly jinx us.
Given the universe was literally unravelling around us at certain locations, Murphy's Law being a tangible law of physics wasn't impossible to believe.
"So… What did it look like?"
"What did what look like?"
"You know… The Rift," Naruki whispered after leaning in close. "There's pictures and descriptions online, but no-one can seem to agree what they look like."
" . . . It looked 'wrong'. That's all I can really describe," I shrugged.
"Still, that was really nuts what you did back there…" Togami hummed.
"It was just adrenaline. Nothing special about that."
"Hey, is it really true what they're saying? That you're going to Yuuei?"
"They? Who is 'they'?" I asked incredulously, realizing that everyone's ears had perked up at the name, their eyes now pointed at me.
"You know… People," Naruki waved off. "That was your ojii-san you were with, right? At the maid café?"
"And how would you know about that?"
"Togami's friend's cousin works there."
Well, nice to know the domino mask does nothing to obscure my identity…!
"How about we change the subject. Lunch is almost over and Naruki still has plenty more offerings to go."
"G-Girls, please…" the pretty boy waved his hands as the throng of girls became more-insistent, Togami huffing in slight jealousy while I couldn't really care less.
*AHA*
Before I knew it, the day had ended...
"Geez, what're you carrying in that thing? Bricks?" Naruki asked at the *thump* that sounded as I shouldered my schoolbag.
"No," I trailed off. " . . . Survival gear."
"What, you paranoid the end of the world's going to happen?"
"In my lifetime, yes; yes I am," I replied to Togami's question without any on my face.
"Oh…" the two of them blinked. "Well, better to be prepared, I guess," Naruki hummed.
"So, what're you doing after school?" Togami asked.
"My guardians might swing by to pick me up, but if they don't, I might get my ten kilometers in."
"Oh, you work out?" Naruki asked.
"I've been attacked by Villains three times on non-sequential occasions. You tell me," I said in a deadpan.
By the looks on their faces, the two of them were trying to figure out whether I was joking or not.
"Hm. Well, see you tomorrow," Togami hummed after an awkward moment.
"Yeah, we should hang out this weekend," Naruki nodded.
"Sounds good," I replied, seeing them off.
Social awkwardness and medical suturing aside, today actually turned out pretty well.
*AHA*
"You really didn't have to do this," Hitomi said as I helped her prep for tomorrow, the school almost completely empty, the sun creeping toward the horizon visible through the infirmary windows.
"But I wanted to," I replied. " . . . I think I made some friends today."
"You did? That's wonderful!" she beamed, mono-eye pink with excitement.
"Yeah… except Kaminaga made a big show of letting everyone know she knew me…"
"Ah… same here…" Hitomi trailed off with a half-lidded stare off to the side.
"Sometimes I wonder what would happen if she and Kayama got put in the same room together."
"Y-You're too young to be thinking thoughts like that!" Hitomi stuttered.
"I'm pretty sure that ship has sailed."
In more ways than one…
"Um, well…" she said nervously as she reached out to me.
"I can think of plenty of hentai that start out just like this~"
"AHHH! Where did you come from!?" Hitomi squealed as a green-haired… woman(?), stepped out from behind one of the curtains. In contrast to Hitomi's "Labcoat of Science & Medicine", they were wearing a pink "Sexy Nurse" outfit that I wasn't entirely certain was legal for them to wear unless the principal or someone on the board of education had greenlit it.
Given how much people stared at fake boobs on the internet even though it was the 23rd century, it wouldn't surprise me.
"And you are...?"
"Itsuki Midori. From one vegetable to another," the androgynous-looking person greeted with an extended hand. "You can call me Midori~"
"Nice to meet you too…" I hummed, catching a whiff of… chlorophyll? They definitely smelled plant-like, and given my birthday pancakes had strawberries grown from a person with a Quirk despite the season, I wasn't really surprised. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Is it about the outfit?"
"Yes."
"It's a long story~"
"Hey, you do you," I shrugged, not needing any further explanation than that.
'Back then' and now, I didn't disparage people based on how they chose to self-identify. Being accused of being non-hetero just because I didn't talk about boobs and/or sex for hours straight with the other hormone-obsessed guys, that I took offense to. But I didn't treat other people identifying as something other than their born gender with disrespect just-because.
If they were a complete asshole on the other hand...~
" . . . So I don't have someone bitch at me later about using the wrong pronoun, how do you want to be addressed?"
With that short hair and flat chest, Midori looked a little like a cross dresser.
"Oh, I have both a 'pistil' and a 'stamen', so either pronoun is fine," Midori waved off. "As for me, I put 'Gender Unknown' on government forms," they said teasingly lifting at the hem of their outfit.
"Ah… Good to know…" I hummed as I politely averted my eyes. "And what the hell was that about a hentai?"
"Well, when the setting sun hits you two juuust right in the school infirmary-"
"You do realize I'm twelve, right?"
"Rule 34."
"Oh god dammit...!"
*AHA*
"Well, Midori-san was certainly… interesting," I said as I escorted Hitomi home that afternoon.
"Y-Yeah… They're a little pervy, but Itsuki-kun's a good person," Hitomi nodded, the long tail of her coat folded under her seat.
It took a great deal of willpower not to stare at those legs…
"Sooo... Is the school principal some kind of pervert, orrr...?"
"Oh, Itsuki-kun's outfit was Ken-chan's fault," Hitomi sighed.
"Ken... Do you mean Tatara-sensei, from science class?"
"Yes, him," Hitomi nodded.
"Oh, so he's the pervert then."
"Er, well, there's more to it than that..."
"I'm sure there is," I said to her half-lidded, sidelong stare.
" . . . I'm glad you're making friends. I really am," Hitomi smiled.
"Thank you. None of this would've been possible without you."
By appearances, Hitomi had the good grace to not countermand my statement, since everything from me getting out of the vegetable patch, to my new home with the Mon Squad, as well as my re-enrollment in the public education system was only possible because of her.
" . . . I hear you patched up Fujimi-chan for me."
"Ah, yeah, I didn't want you to have to deal with that because... Well, you know..."
"You should be enjoying your school life. Not worrying about little old me."
"I mean, aversion to gore notwithstanding, it's also really hard to thread a needle without depth perception."
"Oof, go straight for the heart, why don't ya?"
After seeing Hitomi safely home, I considered my first day at Damoto Chugakko a rousing success.
*AHA*
AN:
I'll try not to bore you all to death with the nerdy minutiae of the Japanese public education system, but a middle school setting prior to Yuuei is important as an "establishing shot". I mean, that's where we first saw Izuku and Katsuki, and that shit has followed them.
Plus, this is the MHAverse. Shit can get really weird before high school, and there's plenty of room for "Action" amidst the "Slice-of-Life" genre~
Not to mention, the litany of Cameo characters will stop things from being too boring~