After meeting with the league, she headed back to school grounds. She stopped by a convenience store on the way to grab an energy drink, and a snack. She had no time to cook a proper meal with her overloaded schedule, and the effects of her random snacking were starting to stack up. She decided flying would be faster, as long as Eraser didn't spot her, and munched on a rice ball while she flew the rest of the way. She landed just a little ways off from the gate, making her way to the pool facilities and changing quickly into a tank top and the UA-issued swim trunks. She stepped out to the pool, the sun gone from the horizon, and was greeted by a purple-haired Shinso.
"Water's gonna be cold," he waved at her and looked at the water with a look of distaste. He wore the same school-issue swim trunks, and a dark t-shirt. Senji chugged the rest of her energy drink, and tossed a bottle of tea toward her swimming buddy.
"Would be colder in the morning," she replied nonchalantly. The two did some stretches to warm up, then eased into the water. It was still a little chilly, despite the rising temperatures during the day.
"Wouldn't it make more sense to do this in the morning, still?," Shinso talked to distract himself while his body adjusted to the temperature change, and Senji happily obliged.
"On weekends, I guess. But my schedule's packed from morning til now."
"When do you even sleep?," Shinso asked with a mix of genuine concern and astonishment.
"You look more tired all the time than I feel," the girl retorted. She used some scales to form fin-like additions to her arms and legs, as well as webbing between her fingers. A special water form she reserved for exercising.
The two took deep breaths and plunged the rest of their bodies under the water at the same time. They swam some laps from end to end, Senji easily overtaking Shinso even without her scale-made enhancements. They stopped for a fifteen minute break, sitting near the edge and sipping on the tea Senji had brought earlier. Senji struck up a conversation, feeling around for more information she could use for training.
"So, your quirk. What was it again?"
"You should have seen it at the festival, yeah?"
"Hm, yeah. But that wasn't really a good way to look too hard at it," Senji struggled to recall specifics for his quirk.
"Brainwashing. It works if someone responds directly to something I say, but only when I want it to activate," Shinso offered the quick explanation. Senji thought for a few minutes, debating on testing it out or not.
"So, you gotta use your voice a lot? Sounds exhausting."
"I guess so, yeah."
"Do you do any sort of training for that? Breathing exercises or something," Senji pressed.
"Training, for my voice?," Shinso hadn't considered that before. It did make a lot of sense, though.
"Yeah. There's a lot of stuff you can do, and you'd want to be able to go for a long time without your throat getting sore. Like Eraser gets dry eye a lot, but he can't really train around that."
"He does?"
"Whoops, yeah," Senji realized she'd given out some pretty critical information, but shrugged it off.
"What kind of music do you listen to?," her next question threw him off.
"Music?"
"Yeah. I'm going somewhere with this I promise," she caught on to his confusion, and continued to explain. "Like, you could sing or do karaoke or something. I've heard it's good for breathing technique and working the vocal chords?"
"I…don't know about that one," Shinso ran a hand through his hair and glanced away, a little embarrassed by the thought of singing.
"That would be pretty embarrassing to just do out of nowhere, I guess," Senji scratched her own head, realizing what she'd implied. She thought for a while longer on it, Shinso getting up and doing some more stretches. She did the same.
"Karaoke by yourself would be pretty weird, too. I know Ectoplasm does it, but…nah. What if we work on it together?," she offered while climbing back into the cold water. Both of them shivered for a moment before adjusting. Shinso took some time during the rest of their laps to seriously consider it, resulting in a pretty quiet workout for the rest of their time. He asked her to wait for him when they split off to rinse and change.
"Was that too weird? [Man]," she thought aloud to herself while getting dressed.
"Katsuki…shit," she remembered another agreement, one to repay the study session before exams. She let out a loud groan, and slipped into her baggy shorts before heading out to meet up with Shinso. They walked through the darkened halls, Senji's tail flicking nervously from the ambience.
"So," Shinso started awkwardly. "I guess, we can go with your suggestion. When you have time."
"Oh," Senji hadn't expected him to agree to it, and cursed under her breath for a moment.
"Sounds good, I'll let you know when we start that. It'll probably take the place of some of the swim sessions. I can ask Jiro about some tips, so we don't mess up."
"What's with that, though," Shinso asked about her tail.
"Uhhh, that slips out sometimes?," she spoke a little too loudly, and Shinso definitely caught it.
"Nervous?," he teased her a little, and she punched his arm when her attempts at denying it failed.
The two parted ways at the gate, with Senji taking the leg route for today. She flicked through her phone on the train. There was an article with a blurry picture attached, about some Hawks fanatic jumping from rooftops. Senji recognized her blue feathers drifting down in one of the images and her breath caught in her throat.
"Ugh, people are too ready with their damn phones."