"Whoa, so you like, got to do villain clean up!? I'm so jealous!" Mina Ashido leaned over her classmate's desk, unable to contain her excitement.
"Yeah, but really it was just guiding the hostages and giving logistical support, I didn't do any fighting or anything" Kyoka reflexively twirled her jack with her finger as she responded to class 1-A's resident pink ball of energy.
"But still, that sounds so cool!"
Kyoka scanned the room, only half-paying attention to the conversation. She watched as the various members of class 1-A discussed their week spent working with pros, and letting out a small chuckle upon seeing that Bakugo apparently spent his week at a hair salon rather than with a hero, before her eyes caught the green brush of hair she'd been looking for.
Midoriya was standing at the back of the classroom, he and Iida seem to have congregated around Todoroki's desk, presumably talking about what they'd experienced during the week.
'I guess that makes sense, yeah…' Kyoka thought, watching his arms wave about as he spoke. A hand on her shoulder jostled her attention back to the group, turning to the raven-haired girl who had just joined them.
"Daydreaming?" Momo said, smiling mischievously at the rocker.
"U-uh, yeah, I guess I'm still a bit tired from last week, so my mind is wandering, s-sorry." Kyoka scratched the back of her head sheepishly, hoping her cheeks didn't betray her again. She narrowed her eyes in annoyance at the tall girl, who only responded by continuing to smile back.
"So Yaomomo, how did your internship go?" Mina asked, seemingly unaware of the silent exchange.
Momo's face twisted with nervousness as she stepped back from the desk they were gathered around. "Oh, you know, it was pretty standard. Nothing too exciting happened."
Kyoka stood up and made her way over next to her best friend, flashing a devilish grin, "Come on, don't you want to tell them about your debu— mmph mmhm!" A hand suddenly slapped itself over her mouth.
"NO! No I do not, nothing interesting happened, nothing!" Momo cut in, glaring at her friend with a panicked look in her eyes. Kyoka couldn't help but chuckle as she pulled her friend's hand off her mouth.
"Fine, fine." she said, leaning in as she smiled, adding "you can't hide it forever, y'know."
"You're one to talk." the tall girl retorted, effectively shutting down Kyoka's teasing.
"C'mon Momo, tell us! What happened?" Mina tried to pull the information out of her. But before either Kyoka or Momo could respond, another voice drew the class's attention.
"Now, if you wanna talk about the ones who really changed, it was those three!" Denki Kaminari announced, motioning towards Midoriya, Iida and Todoroki.
Kyoka tensed up, knowing exactly what he meant. She tuned out the conversation as she looked toward Midoriya, who was clearly uncomfortable with the topic at hand.
'Midoriya… What was it like? Why were you even there?" she thought, before her electric friend began speaking again.
"He's scary, yeah. But did you see him in that weird video? Stain's a pretty evil villain, but, like, super tenacious. He's almost kinda cool, don't you guys thi— AGH!" The blond fell to the floor, shaking as a pair of jacks exited his ears, returning to their contemptuous owner.
"What the hell Chargedolt!? Don't you know what that psycho tried to do!? Maybe you should try using your brain before speaking, idiot!" the violette fumed, she couldn't believe Kaminari would actually go and say something like that!
It took her a moment to realize that the class had fallen silent, most of them staring down at Kaminari, who was too disoriented to stand. Two people, however, were looking at her: Momo, who looked almost… impressed? And another, who made her heart skip a beat.
Midoriya was staring at her, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly agape. Was he horrified? Did he think she was some kind of psycho for attacking their classmate?
"U-uh… s-sorry about that…" she managed to sheepishly say, before taking a step towards the greenette. "I'm glad you're okay, Midoriya— a-all of you."
Midoriya's face didn't change as Kyoka then quickly spun on her heels and walked back to her desk. 'Shit. Why did I do that?' she thought as she sat down, trying to act like nothing had just happened while continuing to curse herself.
Thankfully, before anyone could approach her about it, the door slid open and their teacher, Aizawa, walked in.
"Alright everyone, settle down. Class is starting. And Kaminari," he said, drearily looking up from the podium in front of him.
"Get off the floor."
– –
'Interesting…'
The rest of the morning proceeded as usual, with everyone settling back into their routine. And while Momo was glad to be doing something productive again, something else in class was catching her attention. Or rather, someone.
A certain green patch of hair two seats in front of her. Most days Midoriya would hardly move during class, his head always stuck in his notes. But today, she saw him occasionally look up from them, not towards the teacher or the board, but towards... Kyoka?
'Wait, he's looking at Kyoka? Her outburst before class must've really stuck with him.' She could tell he wasn't used to being subtle about this kind of thing. If she weren't buried in her own mortification, even Kyoka might've been able to see him doing it.
'Well this isn't exactly what I had in mind, but you got his attention, I suppose.'
Momo looked back over to her friend. Kyoka was hunched over her desk, elbows tucked tightly into her sides as her head seemed to be perfectly parallel to the desk. She was probably wishing she had Toru's quirk right now.
'That could be a problem though… No way she'd be willing to talk to him more if she's convinced herself he hated that… Maybe I'll just have to ask him myself.' She thought as a mischievous grin grew on her face.
– –
As she approached the cafeteria, Momo quickly scanned the crowd, searching for her target. 'This would be a lot easier if he were a bit talle—'
"Yaomomo?"
"Huh?" She gave a brief glance at the violette next to her before returning her eyes to the crowd.
"What are you doing?" her friend asked, while trying to walk on her tip-toes to see what she was missing.
"Oh, nothing, just..." as she spoke, she spotted him getting into the lunch line, "Ah! Thinking of what I want for lunch! I'm going to run ahead to make sure they don't run out before I arrive. I'll meet you at the usual spot, okay?"
"What? Uh… yeah, sure!" She heard the rocker shout to her in response as she wove through the crowd, quickly heading in the same direction she saw him go: to the line for katsudon.
"Ah, hello Midoriya." She said, feigning surprise. She'd made it. In front of her in line, greenette jumped slightly upon hearing his name.
"H-huh!? O-oh, hello Yaoyorozu." He seemed to relax a bit after seeing it was her, but his shoulders still held a lot of tension.
"Is the school's katsudon good? I haven't had the opportunity to try it yet, but I had a craving today." she asked, figuring it would be better to lead into the conversation.
The boy next to her smiled, "Yes, it's great! It's no match for my mom's, but I still have it all the time!"
"Fantastic," she smiled back, "I look forward to finally trying it!"
They turned back to the line as it continued to move forward, reaching the serving station.
"So…" Momo began, "How are you holding up? I know you had quite a week last week." She was genuinely curious about this, Midoriya was hard to get a read on at the best of times, if something was really bugging him, she could only imagine he'd lock that up tighter.
"Oh no, I'm fine, really!" he smiled nervously, before beginning to pick at his fingers, "I mean it's trueIgotattackedbytheHeroKiller, andthatinthesamelocationtherewasanattackbyNomu... B-but everything turned out fine in the end! U-uh, Endeavor saved us, yeah!" capping off his rambling with a nervous chuckle.
"Al...right…" Momo said, slightly taken aback as they began to make their way through the line.
'Seriously, how does he do that?'
"If you're sure, just know that you have friends who are here to help if you need it." She smiled, "And uh, I'd like to apologize for what Kaminari was saying in class this morning, I'm sure he meant well, he just…"
Midoriya interrupted, "It's alright, I-I know he didn't mean anything by it. Besides, Jiro stopped him before he could really say anything."
Bingo.
"Oh yes, I definitely wasn't expecting that from Kyoka, at least not for her to be so—"
"Cool…"
Midoriya's voice was barely a whisper, but Momo heard him perfectly.
"Huh? What was that?"
Midoriya's eyes widened, "N-nothing! I-I was just gonna say I appreciate that she stopped Kaminari, c-considering what happened to Iida's brother. A-anywayIshouldprobablygetgoing, itwasnicetalkingwithyoutellJiroIsaidhi—" he slapped his hand over his mouth, a look of panic on his face as he spun around and bolted off.
Momo stood there for a moment, bewildered. 'How is he the bravest person I've ever met, and the most cowardly? I guess Midoriya does tend to exceed expectations in that way...'
She smirked as she began walking out towards her usual table, 'But more importantly, I got exactly what I was looking for.'
As she sat down next to Kyoka, the punk rocker quirked her brow at the food on her tray.
"Katsudon? That's not something they usually run out of, is it?"
"Huh?" Momo said before quickly remembering her excuse for slipping away, "Oh, well I wasn't too sure myself, but I didn't want to take any chances." Looking around the table, she noticed it was much emptier than usual, "Where's everyone else?"
Kyoka stared at her friend, as though she were dissecting what Momo had said, before shrugging and turning back to her food. Her jack then pointed off to another table.
"Kaminari's over with Bakugo and Kirishima. I think he's scared of what I might do to him if he sits here," she said, punctuated by a devilish smirk on her face, "Not sure about Mina, might still be in line."
Following the jack, the raven-haired girl spotted the electric boy, seemingly trying to hide himself behind Kirishima. She chuckled, "I suppose that makes sense, you did give him quite a jolt this morning."
"He was going way too far, had it coming." the violette said, not removing her focus from eating.
"True, though I don't exactly agree with your methods..." Momo said as she started on her food. It wasn't a meal she ate often, but she had to admit Lunch Rush's katsudon was quite delicious, she could see why Midoriya got it so often.
"Oh, by the way," she said, her attention still focused on her meal, "Midoriya says hi."
The sound of Kyoka's gasp was cut short by violent coughing as she choked on her food. Momo let out a guilty chuckle as she patted her friend on the back, attempting to help.
"W-what!?" was all the rocker managed to get out as her coughing fit subsided, turning to her friend with confusion staining her face.
"I ran into him while waiting in line, turns out he's a big fan of katsudon," the raven-haired girl said, taking another bite, "and I can see why, this is fantastic."
Kyoka said nothing at this, simply continuing to stare at her friend in bewilderment, her face now tinted red.
"He was telling me that he really appreciated you shutting down Kaminari the way you did."
After a moment, the violette's eyes narrowed slightly as her face twisted in disbelief, "Yeah right, I'm sure he was just trying to be nice about it..." she said, poking at her food dejectedly.
"I don't know about that," Momo said between bites of food, "he's the one who brought it up in the first place." She saw her friend's jacks perk up at this, "He seemed to think it was pretty cool." She finished, remembering what he'd said under his breath.
Kyoka's eyes widened as she turned towards the tall girl, "R-really?"
Momo nodded, "Mmhmm, I don't think he was expecting anyone to stand up for them when things took a turn."
"Oh thank god," the rocker exhaled, laying her head face down on the table. "I was sure he'd think I was crazy after that…"
"I can't say it's what I had in mind, but you certainly know how to make an impression." Momo teased, "however, I don't think Midoriya would ever be upset that you stood up for him."
"I know…" Kyoka acquiesced, adjusting herself to face her friend, "It's just… not the image I wanted him to have of me, y'know?"
Momo quirked her brow, "And what image did you want him to have? The quiet girl who never interacts with him?" she inquired in a half-teasing, half-serious tone.
The violette glared at her, before leaning back in her seat and pouting, "Yeah yeah…"
The raven-haired girl smiled in triumph as she took in another mouthful of food, before Kyoka spoke up again, "Did he… really say I was cool?" she asked, twirling her jack around her finger.
Momo nodded, accompanied by a muffled "Mmhmm," as she swallowed, then adding, "his word, not mine."
The rocker remained silent, but a smile had graced her lips as her blush deepened. Momo could see that her free jack had begun to wriggle at the confirmation.
'Now you just have to talk to him.'
– –
"I wonder what kind of rescue training we'll be doing," Momo wondered aloud, surveying the area as the class stepped off the bus, "This location doesn't seem very suited for that type of training."
After lunch, everyone suited up and made their way to Training Ground Gamma for hero basic training. The massive labyrinth of piping and construction equipment was apparently going to be used for rescue training.
"I dunno, maybe it'll be more of a search and rescue situation? This place is hard to navigate even with a map." the violette next to her suggested, looking out at the industrial jungle ahead of them.
The taller girl put her hand to her chin, "True, there would be situations where search and rescue would take place outside of disaster areas, perhaps—"
She cut herself off as she saw something green in her periphery. "Ah, hello again Midoriya!"
Both the green-clad boy walking past and the violette next to her jumped as she called out to him. Kyoka's head jerked in his direction, wide-eyed at who was just invited to their conversation, before frantically returning her gaze ahead of them. Momo giggled at her friend fidgeting with one of her jacks as she tried her best to look natural.
"Ah!" Midoriya yelped, before turning to face the two girls, his movements were almost robotic as he gave a small wave, "O-oh, hey Yaoyorozu, J-Jiro…"
"I must say, you were 100% right about the katsudon! It was absolutely delicious, I can see why you get it so often!" Momo exclaimed, not wanting to scare him away by bringing up anything too intense.
"You shoulda seen her, she scarfed that thing down so fast I wasn't sure if she took time to breathe." Momo turned her head in surprise to see the lovestruck violette with a smug grin on her face.
'Wait, what?' The raven-haired girl was mostly just confused, 'she can barely handle him being mentioned in conversation, how is she so… herself right now?'
"Hey!" was all she said to her giggling friend, regardless of friend's unusual calmness, what she said was still embarrassing.
Momo turned back around when she heard a nervous chuckle, "W-well, I'm just glad you enjoyed it!" Midoriya said. He was still nervously fidgeting with his hands, but his shoulders seemed to relax a little.
"U-Um…" Kyoka timidly began, causing the other two to look in her direction, "by the way, Midoriya, I just wanted to say I uh… I like what you've done to your costume. The darker color scheme really s-suits you" Momo could see her face had begun to take on a red hue.
'Ah, so you're only fine when you're teasing me? I see how it is.'
"This new style does suit you, Midoriya, what brought on the change?"
"O-oh really? Th-thanks," he blushed as he began nervously scratching the back of his head, "I didn't actually intend for any changes to be made, but the support course felt they could improve the design, and I didn't find out until I was already at my internship, heh… O-oh, b-but I'm glad people still like it! The most important thing about my costume is that it conveys what I am, a hero who will save people with a smile."
He began as timid and embarrassed, but by the time he'd finished talking, his head was up, his back was straight, and he was speaking with all the confidence of a pro. They had seen this a few times before, but it still surprised Momo whenever this side of the boy showed itself.
"Y-yeah, but," Kyoka began, the raven-haired girl catching her once again twirling a jack around her finger, her face still subtly tinted red, "it's also important that you like your costume, dude. I-I mean, if you're walking around in a costume you aren't comfortable in, you're probably not going to perform at your best, y'know? Our costume's tech is designed to work with our abilities, so it only makes sense that the rest of the costume reflects you as well."
Momo nodded, "She makes a good point you know. Your costume is essentially your work uniform, so you should make sure it's comfortable. So Midoriya, do you like your new costume?" She asked as they stopped at the foot of the steps leading to their destination.
"Hmm… A costume that reflects me, huh?" Midoriya put his hand to his chin as he looked off into the distance. "I guess I'd never thought of it like that. You've given me a lot to think about, thank you." He said as he turned back to the girls with a smile.
"S-sure thing Midoriya. Anyway, we should probably head up, it looks like we lagged behind a bit; I can hear pretty much everyone else up there." The rocker said, her jack pointing towards the stairs ahead of them.
"Yea— oh, wait! Jiro! I have one more thing I want to say!" Midoriya said. Momo was surprised when the boy suddenly bowed in front of them, which gave Kyoka quite a start as she turned back to face him.
"Yeah? Wha— ah!?" she exclaimed, taking a step back as her eyes widened, something only seen by Momo.
"Thank you for this morning!" Midoriya said, his head still lowered, "for stopping Kaminari, I mean. While I can't say what he said didn't hold some truth, hearing it out loud just… thank you."
Momo felt very out of place being a part of this, seeing Kyoka practically frozen in place at the declaration, eyes still wide, and face just a little bit redder than before. After a moment, she gave the violette a gentle shake to break her out of her stupor, and motioned for her to say something.
"U-uh, yeah, n-no problem Midoriya, he was being an insensitive idiot and I just couldn't take it, y'know? Be-esides, helping people is what heroes do, right?"
Midoriya looked up at her friend, with a wide closed-eye smile, "Right!" he agreed, "well, let's head up!" he continued before turning and making his way up the stairs.
Momo looked at the still slightly bewildered rocker next to her. "Well I can't say that's where I expected this conversation to go… But at least now you've heard it straight from Midoriya himself." She smiled at her friend as she patted her on the back, "Come along, we should head up too so we aren't late."
Up the stairs was a large platform, reminiscent of a concert stage. Their classmates had already congregated into their usual groups while waiting for their teacher to arrive. While looking around, Momo noticed Kyoka was looking off to the far side of the platform. She followed her line of sight to find Midoriya, now talking to Uraraka and Iida. She was about to suggest to the violette that they join them, but was interrupted by an energetic voice.
"Yaomomo! Kyoka! Over here!" The duo turned to see their pink friend Mina, with a nervous looking Kaminari next to her giving a small wave, "Sorry I wasn't at lunch today, I had to— what're you two looking at?" She interrupted herself, squinting in the direction the two had been looking.
"Oh, nothing. Just wondering what sort of rescue training we could be doing out here." The raven-haired girl quickly deflected.
"Are you sure? I did see you two walking with Midori on the way over, what's going on there, huh?" Mina grinned, leaning forward and looking back and forth between the two girls.
Momo couldn't help but roll her eyes, "Really, Mina? Will you ever give this up? We ran into him on the way here and started a conversation, that doesn't mean one of us has to be in love with him." she scoffed, fully aware of the irony of her statement as she looked towards Kyoka, playing with one of her jacks in an effort to seem uninterested in the topic.
"Y-yeah, he's got a new costume, we were asking about it is all." the violette added.
Mina squinted at the two girls, "A likely story…" she said, not breaking eye contact.
"Yeah!" Kaminari finally chimed in, "I mean, I've never seen you get worked up like you did for Midoriya this morning, Jiro."
'Oh no, this isn't going to end well, is it?'
Kyoka's eyes snapped towards the electric blond, narrowing in irritation, "Shut it Chargedolt, you aren't off the hook yet," she growled, "for saying a psychopath who tried to kill hi— three of our classmates was cool. To their faces." Momo was pretty sure she was the only one who heard the rocker correct herself, the others were too frightened.
Kaminari shrunk. "Okay okay, point taken. I'm sorry, please don't hurt me?" he whimpered as he slowly backed away.
While Kyoka was staring down the blond, Momo glanced at Mina. The pink girl's expression wasn't so much a shocked one, like she expected, but more intrigued. Did she catch Kyoka's slip-up too?
Luckily, someone approached the platform, seemingly interrupting Mina's train of thought.
"Hello! I am here!" They heard as the tall, golden-haired man made his way up the stairs in an uncharacteristically calm manner.
"... That was… Unusually subdued for All Might…" Momo said, the others around her nodded in agreement.
"It's been a while students! I hope your week learning alongside the pros proved fruitful!" All Might continued, scanning over the various members of the class, "But the work of a hero is never finished, and the same can be said of heroes-in-training! Today we have Rescue Training!"
"Excuse me sir!" Iida's hand shot up, "If we're doing rescue training, would the USJ not be a more suitable location!?"
"Ah, that would be the case for disaster rescue! But here in Field Gamma you'll be tasked with locating the person in distress and then rescuing them." the towering man explained,"But! To make this a bit more interesting, you'll be put into four groups of five, and you'll have to race to find your target!"
"Search and rescue, just like you said, good call Kyoka!" Momo turned to her friend, only to see that she wasn't really paying attention, instead looking distantly toward the other side of the group gathered around All Might. Following her eyes she was met with Midoriya, his face beaming as he listened intently to the number one hero.
'Even though he sees him in class every day, Midoriya just can't hold himself together around All Might, can he?'
She decided to let the violette be, turning her own attention back to All Might, who was in the middle of explaining the rules of the day's training. The class would be split into groups, at least partially based on their strengths, and would be challenged to locate and reach All Might before the other four. The first group up consisted of Sero, Ojiro, Ashido, Iida, and…
"Midoriya?"
"That's odd…"
Momo turned as the rocker finished her thought, her brow raised in confusion.
"I mean," the violette continued, "everyone else in this group specializes in mobility. That kinda puts Midoriya at a disadvantage, you know?"
"I know," the raven-haired girl replied, a playful smile growing on her face as she took a seat on the floor of the platform, "I just didn't expect you to be the one to point out his chances."
"W-well I just mean he's more focused on power, a-and with the drawbacks of his quirk, it just doesn't seem fair to put him in this group." Kyoka sputtered out, her jacks mimicking a pair of arms frantically waving in front of her face as her arms helped lower her down next to her friend.
Momo chuckled at the outburst as she turned back to the large screen displaying the first group as they prepared. She couldn't exactly disagree with the violette's words though, she'd been thinking it herself; Midoriya would be fighting quite an uphill battle with the opponents he's up against. And it sounded like the rest of the class were having similar thoughts.
"My money's on Sero!"
"Hey, don't go counting Ojiro out!"
"I think it'll be Ashido, 'cause she's got a super athletic body!"
"Even if he's still recovering, I think Iida's got this one."
"Deku'll come in dead last."
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kyoka wince at that last comment before softly speaking.
"He can still win, no doubt he'll have some sort of plan to deal with this." she said, tucking one leg into her chest with her arms.
Momo looked over to give her friend a smile, but paused for a moment when she saw the look of determination on the rocker's face, staring up at the screen. Her expression held confidence, but her eyes had a ripple of worry going through them. It felt almost like she was trying to will an idea to appear in Midoriya's head.
"Well, if Midoriya excels at anything, it's surprising people, so we'll just have to see." Momo smiled, turning her attention toward the screen.
"Ready…"
"START!"
An air horn went off, and the contestants bolted. Each making their way through the field as one would expect. Iida using his immense speed to dash across straight lines of piping. Ojiro leaping and swinging with his tail, treating the concrete jungle as though it were an actual jungle. Mina had gotten quite creative, using her acid to surf along piping and cling to the walls, climbing through the labyrinth. In the clear lead however, Sero's quirk allowed him to launch himself over top of the industrial equipment, giving him a clear line of sight to his target, then using the various structures to maintain the momentum he'd generated.
'This is playing out about how I'd expected, Sero has a clear advantage in this type of environment, but...' Momo thought to herself as she watched the other students racing to catch up with the Taping hero, one thing was missing though…
'Where is Midoriya?' Looking at the various panels on the screen, none of them showed the green-clad hero. 'He couldn't be so far behind that they aren't bothering to film him, could he?'
She quickly glanced over to Kyoka, who was intensely staring at the screen, as though she was waiting for the reveal that the boy had already won.
As Momo turned her attention back to the screen, she caught what looked like a flash of green streaking across it, immediately followed by a look of pure shock on Sero's face, directed at something just ahead of him.
The camera then panned ahead to reveal the source of his surprise: Midoriya. Enveloped in green electricity as he flew through the air, his face had an intense look as he was propelled forward, leaping from place to place faster than any of the other competitors, and… doing so with all of his limbs intact.
Momo stared wide-eyed at the screen, rendered speechless by the unexpected development. She wondered what Kyoka's reaction would be, and as though reading her mind, Momo heard a voice beside her.
"Wow…"