Title: The Quietest Voice Speaks Loudest
Author: JoeHundredaire
Rating: PG-13/FR15
Disclaimer: With a myriad of writers, artists, and editors, actual rights are a nightmare when you go near a comic book universe. Suffice it to say that Marvel Entertainment LLC owns all of the property printed in their comics, along with the television and movie adaptations of said same property. Compared to that, the ownership of My Hero Academia is relatively simple: the entire thing belongs to Kōhei Horikoshi. Not mine, don't sue, and so forth and so on.
Summary: "You think you're going to be the number one hero, Seikun? Sure you can defeat villains, but how are you going to reassure the public after? You can't even talk!"
Joe's Note: Given the critical and ratings failure of the Inhumans TV series, I'm not entirely surprised that we've only seen one crossover with the Inhuman corner of Marvel's vast property out of the thousands of stories on this site. It lasted one chapter and was never touched again. Hopefully, interest willing, this story will last longer than his. This is a bit of a test chapter to see what reactions I get to the premise. If y'all like it? I have ideas. If nobody goes? I've still got my print of this story's Izuku and Himiko signed by Justin Briner and Leah Clark hanging on my wall, so I won't lose much sleep over it. Good or bad, though, toss me a review. The hit counting mechanism on this site sucks balls and I like having some indication that someone out there actually clicked on this link.
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Howard, Jade, Alexander, Tibor, Alonsis2, Daniel, Clark, Adrien, erlking, ridillin, Haematite, Charles, Jacky, Edward, Andrew, Roofcrawler, Wil, PbookR, Samuel, Mikey, Beverly, Daniel, Charles, Crygon20, Subtle, Christopher, Stephen, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Joseph, Jason, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Marc, Ziryo, Chris, George, Koby, William, Devin, JJbelle, David, Gavin, TheTenthAncestor, Lookshy, Mauday, John, Roman, Warren, and Jess for sponsoring me on Patre0n, and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.

"You guys are all third years now. It's time to start thinking seriously about your futures. I would hand out these career forms... I assume you all want to be heroes!" As the class erupted into eighteen simultaneous displays of varying - but unimpressive - quirks, the teacher tapped the side of his nose as he leaned forward. "Yes, you all have wonderful quirks. But you know that it's against the rules to use them in school."

Bakugo Katsumi waited for the hubbub to die down a little before leaning back and kicking her feet up on top of her desk, crossing her legs as an afterthought. Let them look. As if any of these extras would have the balls to say - much less do - anything about any attraction they might have felt towards her. "Sensei! Don't lump me in with these extras! As if I had anything like their crappy quirks."

As one, all but one of her classmates began to boo her. "Get over yourself, Bakugo!"

Get over herself? She absolutely would not. Katsumi absolutely adored her quirk: the perfect fusion and evolution of her mother's ability to secrete glycerin from her skin and her father's quirk of producing acidic, combustive sweat. Her resulting quirk - Explosion - was breathtakingly powerful and she'd put hours and hours of questionably legal effort into fine tuning her control over it. No, she would not get over herself compared to the guy who could pop out his eyeballs or the girl who could ignite just her hand into a small flame. She was destined for the top.

Her classmates? Would never again be lucky enough to breathe the same air as someone as close to greatness as herself. Scowling, Katsumi let her red eyes sweep over the classroom as explosions crackled at her palms, cowing them all into submission. "Shut up! Extras should act like extras! You guys would be lucky to end up as sidekicks to some busted D-lister when you grow up. Not like me. I'll be going somewhere with my life."

The teacher cleared his throat, making a general shushing motion before offering Katsumi a strained smile. "Ah, Bakugo. We've known for years now that you intend to go to U.A. High School."

"That national school? The cutoff score this year is seventy-nine, right?"

"I hear they barely accept anyone."

"Ah, the chattering of stupid extras." Kicking her legs down off the desk, Katsumi hopped up and used a pair of precisely controlled explosions from her palms to launch herself up to stand on the desk. "I aced the mock exam! I'm one of the only people in this school with the stuff for U.A. High. Together, we'll even surpass All Might and become the best heroes out there! Not to mention that we'll be one of the richest families in Japan!"

That made the teacher clear his throat again, this time with a more awkward smile on his face. "Yes, that's right. You and your... partners... will likely all be applying for U.A. High School together, won't you? Including... Midoriya."

Muttering immediately sprung up in the room as everyone turned to look at the silent boy in the back row. Standing over a hundred and eighty centimeters tall and weighing in at a hundred and fifteen kilograms of muscle, Midoriya Izuku cut an imposing figure as it was. His emotionless face and complete silence only added to that aura. The slender metal tuning fork emerging from the middle of his forehead erased any doubts about whether or not he had a quirk, even if he'd never been seen in public using it. Even in the halls of the notoriously lax Aldera Junior High School. Never the less, at least one classmate was brave enough to scoff in his direction. "Midoriya? What's he going to do, stare a villain to death? Give it flowers?"

"Yeah. You can't get into a hero school with just good grades. You have to have a good quirk, too."

"What even is his quirk? I've been in classes with him for years and I've never seen it."

"I would assume just something with his voice and that he was too pathetic to control it, but we've all seen him do that stupid present trick with his girlfriends and so I don't even know."

"Maybe he has two quirks?"

"Nobody has two quirks, you idiot."

"Maybe Midoriya does. His voice and then... or maybe his voice generates something somehow and he can't control that but he can control it with his hands and that's how he makes those things he gives Bakugo appear?"

That last one was closer than Katsumi had ever expected one of her lame classmates to get to the truth. A truth that was honestly even cooler than anyone she'd ever met had ever suspected, if you asked her. But that truth was for Izuku to decide to share. Through her, obviously, but it wasn't her secret to divulge of her own volition. And so instead she just sneered the class into submission again before turning to face Izuku, crouching down on her desk as she cocked her head to the side. "It's funny because they don't even have the right point to make. Oh, nobody who knows is worried about your quirk being good enough to get you into U.A. with me and Medusa. They should be asking... how high are you going to rank? You think you're going to be the number one hero, Seikun? Sure you can defeat villains, but how are you going to reassure the public after? You can't even talk!"

They'd had this discussion dozens of times over the year, at first back when she was convinced that she'd manage to outrank him someday - her as the new All Might, and him as the replacement for the stoic yet competent Endeavor - and now when she wanted to tease him that he'd be dragging the popularity of their future hero team down. Because that was their poorly kept secret at this point: they were aiming for the top together. After all, the Wild, Wild Pussycats charted together as the number thirty-two 'hero' in the country. Self-identifying groups were ranked as a group. They weren't aiming to be the number one, two, and three heroes in some combination. They'd stand together... all the way at the top.

Izuku raised an eyebrow in response, smirking faintly as he unwound his body from the too small desk that he was sitting at and rose to his full height. He towered over her by a full twenty centimeters most days, slightly less today because her shoes had slight heels on them. It was kind of hot, honestly. He could also benchpress her these days without even tapping into his quirk, which was even hotter. Making his way over to her, he offered her a hand and helped her down off the desk with that same faint smirk. Then he raised his hands and began to sign, and she dutifully translated for her less educated peers. 'This coming from the girl whose plan is to blow up every villain she meets so hard that they can't get back up? How's that going to reassure people?'

The rest of the class began to murmur in agreement until she popped off a few scattered explosions and shot them a quelling look. Also, this was why she preferred having their girlfriend in their class. Having to voice both sides of a discussion routinely left her feeling like she was essentially arguing with herself... which was fucking weird. "The rest of you really need to learn JSL one of these days. Some of you have had ten years with him and still can't understand shit." Even their teachers generally didn't know JSL, which was fucking pathetic. What were they going to do when they had a genuinely hard of hearing student in one of their classes? Turning back to Izuku, she stuck out her tongue at him. "I'll have you know that blowing up villains in and of itself is reassuring. They'll be reassured because there's no threat anymore. Which..." Realization dawned and she scowled at him. "That's the same thing you're going to do, isn't it? Fuck."

Wrapping an arm around her waist, Izuku brought his fingers up and then snapped them, his personal mnemonic for focusing the unknown particles that he could generate into transfiguring the air into a construct. A rose with petals the exact same shade of pink as the dyed tips of her hair appeared and he gently tucked it behind her ear. This time, instead of signing, his voice drifted directly into her head. 'Why don't we both just focus on being the best heroes we can be and leave the public relations aspect to our girlfriend?'

"Mmm, I guess. Medusa needs to make herself useful somehow." That comment was accompanied by a teasing smile; if there was one thing that Izuku didn't tolerate in the least, it was any sign of genuine antipathy between his girlfriends. Mostly because he was adamant that he wasn't going to be a harem anime protagonist; if the girls couldn't get along with each other, he wouldn't keep either of them around. It had forced her to broaden her horizons a bit - she was very gyaru while their girlfriend was very... not - but over the summer they'd started finding a happy medium on their dates. "Speaking of which, you saw in the group chat that she was an airhead and forgot to bring lunch again today, right?"

Continually surprising to her, the practically signature 'tch' noise that she liked to make to express herself evidently didn't require the use of one's vocal cords because Izuku was able to make it without sending her flying backwards. What were the odds that anyone still knew Morse code and would be able to understand Izuku if she taught it to him? Turning his head, the verdette nodded in the direction of where his backpack sat on the floor next to his desk. 'Even if you were willing to share, I wouldn't ask you to. What you put into your body half the time should be classified as a war crime. No, I brought an extra bento for her. Again. If you wanted to be cute some time too, you could text me early enough that you've 'forgotten' your lunch and I could make you a bento too.'

Bringing her hands up to her chest, Katsumi let out a gasp of mock offense. "My mother's cooking is wonderful. It's not my fault that you have the spice tolerance of an Englishman. And excuse me?" Twisting her wrist in a very specific way, the homemade dispensers that she'd made dropped some granules of lithium salt into her palms as she raised her arms over her hand and fired off a pair of brilliantly pink explosions. "I'm already plenty fucking cute!"

"Bakugo. Midoriya. You're staying after to clean... that." The teacher wearily gestured up at the ceiling, which now had a deep rosy residue clinging to it from her explosions. Yeah, this was why she generally stuck to smaller - and naturally colored - explosions indoors. Even when she didn't manage to set half the world on fire, cleanup was a bitch. And her mother made her do it herself every single time, too. "Now if everyone could get back in their seats... Midoriya, Bakugo, we wish you both luck with the exams next February. However, it is currently April and you all have ten months of classes to get through and pass before then. After all, it would be fairly embarrassing to get accepted to a prestigious high school only to fail to graduate from junior high, wouldn't it?"

Katsumi let out a soft huff, leaning up to steal a quick kiss from Izuku before making her way back over to her seat. Which... had no pink residue because she'd been smart enough to fire at the ceiling this time. So she wouldn't be stuck sitting in it all day and scrubbing her uniform when she got home.

Nice.

"Midoriya? I was wondering if you were busy this weekend?"

From her spot leaning against the locker next to Izuku's, Katsumi let out a huff before pushing off the wall to peer around Izuku at the new arrival. Her eyes raked up and down over the girl curiously before ultimately dismissing her and leaning back against the locker. Being as thirsty as she was, Katsumi was familiar with most of the girls in their year at this point, and had dismissed almost all of them as potential partners. The girl was thoroughly average both in looks and in term of her quirk, which was... some sort of small scale water manipulation if Katsumi remembered correctly. It coordinated well with her blue hair but it was definitely extra material. Izuku tended to be considerably less discriminating in his taste in partners, though, and so Katsumi found herself looking up at him curiously in search of an answer.

Eyes wandered up and down over the girl whose name Katsumi couldn't even be bothered to remember, Izuku raised his hands and signed a response. 'What did you have in mind?'

Much to Katsumi's surprise, she didn't even have to translate before the extra was shrugging in response. Had this girl actually put the effort into learning even cursory JSL so that she could flirt with her boyfriend? The blonde's estimation of the blunette rose a point. A singular, solitary point, but a point nonetheless. "Everyone knows that you're always with one of your girlfriends, so I planned ahead. Obviously you wouldn't really be able to join in, but I was thinking that I could take you and Toga to karaoke."

'Ironic as it is, I do like karaoke. And your taste in music is probably closer to Himiko's than Katsumi's.' Izuku reached out to ruffle Katsumi's hair playfully, making her scowl as she reached up to run her fingers through her blonde spikes. 'Most girls try to make plans for just the two of us, Seisuigo. I appreciate you making the effort to include at least one of my partners.'

Seisuigo. Well now she knew at least the girl's last name. Katsumi was reasonably certain that she'd forget even that by the time they got home; she was great with faces, terrible with names. Seisuigo brought her hands up in surrender before looking over at Katsumi. "I do not know enough sign language to keep up with him. Can you give me a hand?"

"He was complimenting you for having the foresight to make plans for the two of us." A lock of blonde hair curled itself around Seisuigo's shoulders as Toga Himiko draped herself along Seisuigo's right side. "Most girls don't accept the reality of our polyamory and try to just date him, which inevitably leads to failure. We've been here for years. We're not going anywhere."

Seisuigo offered Himiko a bright smile. "Oh no, I'm absolutely aware of the fact that you and Bakugo are dating him, Toga. I mean, I assume literally the entire school knows at this point; you're not shy about it. But no, I have absolutely no problem with the fact that he has two girlfriends. I was just trying to hedge my bets by asking for a first date with the one that I think I'd get along better with. Sort of... ease my way into the polyamory situation."

Letting out a scoff, Katsumi crossed her arms over her chest as she stared the blunette down. "And you don't think that you'd have fun on a date with me?"

The question elicited a bright blush from Seisuigo and a rapid shake of her head. "I'm sure you're great and all, Bakugo, but... you have a bit of a reputation. I'm not ready to lose my virginity in a public bathroom."

As Izuku quaked with silent laughter and Himiko burst into loud peals of laughter, Katsumi scowled and looked away from the blushing girl. "That happened one time."

"Yes, and then we had the opposite problem of usual because Dendono tried to date you and only you for the better part of two months." Himiko shook her head in amusement before turning to Seisuigo. "Where were you thinking of taking us, cutie?"

Still blushing faintly, Seisuigo reached down to where her phone was clipped to the waistband of her skirt. It had seemed like such an old man thing to Katsumi when she first saw it but was turning out to be more practical than she'd thought. "I actually have a membership at Karaoke Kan. I could splurge for Big Echo if you want something a little more upscale?"

Himiko shook her head as she stared down at Seisuigo's phone. "Do we really strike you as the type to care about fancy things? We're dating Katsumi after all." Hey! "I usually go to Karaoke Ban Ban with my friends, so this will be a nice treat for me. Do you want to split costs? You take us to karaoke in the afternoon, and then we'll take you to dinner afterward?"

Reaching up, Seisuigo brushed her fingers against the lock of hair still wrapped around her upper body before offering Himiko a nod. "That sounds like a lot of fun. And then if this goes well, maybe we can make plans to go to Big Echo as a quartet." Looking over at Katsumi, she had the audacity to smirk faintly. "I'm sure their bathrooms are top quality."

"That was one time!"