While Ayami was still fawning over her new body, the joyous occasion was interrupted all too soon and she was faced with her next challenge.
It was time to face Yavin Middle once again, but now she couldn't just shrink down and make herself small so people would ignore her. While some would ignore the drastic changes, she was worried about the reactions of those who wouldn't.
"...I don't know if to expect more of the usual laughter and whispers behind my back, or if things will change. Even if they do…the odds are it will be for the worse, at least Kacchan already knows and won't get in my face about it." she thought as she went through her morning routine.
A quick breakfast later, she headed out the door to face the music. Rather than wearing her old oversized and ill-fitting uniform, Ayami was dressed in an oversized hoodie and shorts.
"With these on, it should be harder to recognize me before I reach the nurse's office and can change into my new uniform."
As she was getting off of the train stop a few blocks away from the school, Ayami covered her face with her hood. The walk to the front gates felt far too short, as she hurried her way past other students and into the building. She heard confused voices behind her as she hastily walked through the halls, seemingly having not been recognized by anyone.
At last, she reached the nurse's office and rushed inside, closing the door behind her with the urgency of someone being pursued. Letting out a deep sigh, Ayami continued into the room.
"Nurse Tsumiki? It's Ayami, my mother said you had a new uniform ready for me?" she said, spooking the nurse who was somehow preoccupied enough to have not heard her entrance.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't even notice you came in. Yes yes, your uniform is hanging in the cupboard on your right." the school's resident nurse spoke in her usual anxious tone. "You can change behind the privacy screen, I'll lock the door in the meantime."
Ayami opened the cupboard and grabbed her uniform and removed the hanger, placing it back before shutting it and moving the privacy screen to shield her from the view of the room. She removed her clothing and placed it into her backpack before changing.
Despite having worn the girl's uniform for a long while, putting it on now came with a spark of gender euphoria, feeling like it finally fit for the first time. Opening the privacy curtains, Ayami thanked Nurse Tsumiki and left her office to get to class before the bell rang.
Unfortunately, she now lacked the moderate protection and anonymity her hoodie had given her on her way in. As she made her way up the stairs and to her homeroom the dreaded whispers started pouring in, though with an entirely different vibe than they usually did.
"But…they don't recognize me? I know the changes are incredible, but am I really so different that they think I am someone entirely new?".
Ayami shook her head clear of the thoughts and continued down the halls until she reached the room with only a couple of minutes to spare before class.
She opened the door and stepped through the threshold, the eyes of the few dozen students all falling upon her with mixed reactions. Most looked confused at who they thought was a new student, a few boys gazed at her in ways that made her uncomfortable, while Kacchan simply raised one eyebrow at her new appearance before rolling his eyes and ignoring her. It was only after she took her seat that those looks were replaced by recognition and others with disgust.
"Ugh you damn nerd, Yoshimi, now these extras are gonna be annoying all fucking day," Katsuki muttered from in front of her.
She was thankful that Kacchan's seat was in front of hers and he couldn't see her rolling her eyes at this grumbling.
It took a while after their teacher entered the room for him to notice her new form, his eyes scanning each student as he took attendance and settling on her with a narrowed gaze.
"Midoriya…absent I see," he said to himself, but loud enough for the whole room to hear. The sound of held-in laughter and snickering came in response, clearly the teacher was trying to rile her up.
"Excuse me sir, but I am right here," Ayami spoke up in defiance of her teacher's bullshit mistreatment.
"Ah, please forgive me, you look so…different I could hardly tell," he replied sarcastically.
"Sounds different too."
"Freak had to step its game up huh?"
"Not like anyone here is fooled, we all know who that is."
Multiple students began discussing her as if she wasn't present before thankfully the teacher regained control and moved on to classwork.
—-
After an unbearably long day, classes were finally over.
As she was packing her things up to leave, a hand slammed itself on her desk. Looking up, Ayami was surprised to not see Kacchan, rather it was the two guys that followed him around all the time.
Kemuri Hashiga, Quirk: Big Bite, a transformation type that allows the user to grow large sharp teeth and gives him super-human bite force.
Nagai Tesaki, Quirk: Digit Extension, another transformation type which simply allows the user to elongate any of their fingers. Maybe toes too, she's not quite sure.
"So Deku, I see you went under the knife or somethin' huh? You think that makes you an actual girl?" Hashiga asked, a sadistic grin on his face.
"K-Kacchan wouldn't like it if he knew you called me that. Anyway, that's none of your business, don't be gross," she replied.
"What your precious 'Kacchan' doesn't know won't hurt him," Hashiga replied.
"Plus, you should be grateful that we're giving someone like you any attention at all. You should thank us hehe," Tesaki said, leering at her uniform.
"You s-shouldn't say things like that, that's inappropriate," Ayami stammered, standing up and backing away from the two boys.
"Whatever Deku, just know that we aren't done with you. Sooner or later we'll convince you to give us a peek under that skirt of yours," Tesaki hissed.
At this, the two boys walked away, leaving Ayami by herself in the classroom.
She collected herself as best she could and hurried out as soon as she was sure they wouldn't ambush her, running through the halls with her backpack held close to her chest.
Pushing the thoughts of Kacchan's lackeys aside, all the other students were awful too…so many whispers and comments…they lasted for the entire school day. During lunch was even worse, since it meant the word spread to the entire school, which drove her to hide on the roof to eat and get away from all of them.
She let out a deep sigh as she took her seat on the train home, trying desperately to clear her mind with hero news and pictures of cute animals.
"...I don't know if it's better or worse that nobody else said anything to my face today," she thought. "Either way, I need to talk with Mom before those two do something drastic."
While helpful for passing the time, no amount of round seals and fluffy kitties could truly get her mind off of the harassment.
The walk back home after getting off the train was spent in an uneasy daze. Some part of her mind was holding steadfast and keeping her grounded enough to stay safe, but the rest was reeling in shock over the day's events.
Inko heard Ayami open the front door and was about to call out to her and ask how her day was, only to pause. Something was wrong, she knew the moment she saw the haunted look in her daughter's eyes.
"Ayami, hun? What's wrong? Did something happen at school?" Inko asked quietly, wrapping her child in a tight hug.
"It was awful today, like the day I came out all over again. B-but also worse too." she whimpered as tears began to stream down her cheeks, soaking into her mother's sweater.
"Oh darling I'm sorry, I understand if you don't want to talk about it right now" Inko replied. She took Ayami over to the couch and sat her down, taking a seat next to her.
"No, I…I have to tell you. Kacchan hangs out with these two guys, but he left immediately after school. Th-they came up to me and started harassing me, commenting about the changes in that way. One of them said they aren't done with me, and that they're-" Ayami didn't have it in her to finish the sentence, finding herself somehow unable to cry more but equally unable to continue.
Inko was taken aback by what she was just told, the shock quickly replaced with cold rage as her daughter leaned into her shakily.
No one was going to get away with hurting her child like this. No one.
—-
Ayami took the next day off from school, one night not being enough to recover from the ordeal of the prior day.
Coincidentally, her mother also called off from work, but said she needed to go run some errands in town.
That entire day was spent curled up in a ball on the couch watching comfort shows and catching up on her notebook's catalogue of hero information.
Inko meanwhile paid a visit to Mitsuki, filling her in on what those brats her son called friends (or according to Katsuki, two-bit extras that keep following him around) has done to Ayami, and filing a report with the Musutafu PD to try and get surveillance footage of the harassment. She also made a special stop to pick up some things to help cheer her daughter up.
"Ayami, I'm home. I got a surprise for you!" Inko's voice rang out.
Looking over at her mother, Ayami saw her holding a few bags of groceries. One held a fresh batch of pork cutlets to fry into katsudon for dinner, the other held a pint of ice cream for them each to eat while they watched movies that night.
"Thanks, Mom, you really are the best," Ayami sniffled, wrapping her arms around her mother in a big hug.
"Aw it's nothing kiddo, it's a mother's job to make sure you feel loved, especially when times are tough," Inko replied with a smile, ruffling Ayami's hair and separating to put away the newly acquired groceries.
—-
As she woke up the next morning, Ayami very much did not feel ready to go back to school. She wobbled upright and got off of the couch where she fell asleep, and shuffled her way to the bathroom to start her morning.
"I can't just hide from bullies like that forever. I gotta think like Mirko here, kick ass and take no bullshit," she thought as she hopped out of the shower and gazed into the foggy mirror, trying to emulate the Rabbit Hero's signature feral grin with little success. "Well…maybe not quite like Mirko, but at least like a hero. Show them I can pull off that Plus Ultra attitude and not be spineless like I always have been."
Ayami pulled her hair into a high ponytail before leaving the bathroom, even if it was a little silly, wearing her hair like that made it feel like her mom was right there cheering her on.
A quick breakfast and goodbye later, she was off to Yavin Middle to face whatever the day would throw at her.
—-
She grunted in pain as she was pushed hard, her back hitting a door and knocking the breath out of her.
"So, you gonna draw this out ya little bitch? Ain't gonna 'man up' and defend yourself?" Hashiga sneered with a large smile, giving Ayami a view of his maw of razor-sharp teeth.
They ambushed her yet again, someone had tipped them off that she was by herself on the rooftop during lunch.
"We didn't have to do this the hard way ya know, you brought this on yourself really," Tesaki said. He reached out with his creepy long fingers and tried to grab onto her face, but she scrambled to the side and out of reach.
"You think you two can just get away with this? Threatening me was bad enough, but actually attacking me?" Ayami said through gritted teeth as she was forced to backpedal to keep away from the pair of assailants.
"Pffft, like anybody would believe you, let alone give two fucks about what happens the quirkless tra-" Hashiga was cut off.
"Don't you call me that you piece of shit," Ayami yelled.
She rushed at him, time seeming to slow as her adrenaline kicked into high gear. Hashiga was surprised but lunged forward and snapped at her arm as she came close. Ayami shifted her torso to the side, narrowly avoiding the boy's potentially deadly bite.
"I'm lucky the procedure helped my fitness, this guy is faster than I thought," she thought, "Notebook #11, page 36: When fighting against opponents that rely on close-range attacks, throw feinting blows to get them to overextend and leave themselves open."
As Ayami shifted, she brought up her knee as if to catch him in the gut, which made the boy lower his guard to protect himself from the blow. This left him unprepared to block her follow-up punch directly to the underside of his jaw, a loud crack rang out as his teeth clacked together and he fell backwards.
Or…he would have fallen but he was…stuck floating in the air?
Hashiga flailed his arms trying to right himself, unable to move himself to any large degree.
Suddenly Tesaki came in from her left, blindsiding her and grabbing onto her with his gangly fingers.
"You're gonna pay for that punch you skank," he said, throwing her to the ground and squeezing her head trying to crush her.
Ayami yelped as the pressure became painful, Tesaki's fingers had more grip force than she thought they ever could have.
She reached up and grabbed one of his wrists, trying to push his hand off of her.
Moments after her hand made contact with him, the pressure subsided, and she was left stunned as Tesaki was launched across the rooftop. He slammed into the roof access door and was held in midair just like Hashiga.
"Was…was that me?" Ayami thought in a panic when the rooftop door slammed open abruptly.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE," Kacchan screamed as he burst onto the scene, palms crackling with small explosions.
He scanned the rooftop, taking in the scene before him.
Hashiga was on his left, stuck floating in the air with blood dripping from his mouth.
Tesaki was directly to his right, slumped over floating just above the ground, seemingly knocked unconscious.
Ayami was fifteen or so feet in front of him, laying on the ground looking up at him, her face scraped up and red with exertion as she panted.
"T-they came up here and attacked me, wanted to teach me a lesson because I wouldn't submit to them," she said, still trying to catch her breath.
It was at this point that whatever was causing Hashiga to float ceased and he fell to the floor, quickly trying to scramble away from Katsuki.
Katsuki stomped over to him and grabbed him by the collar, his handprint singing into the fabric as he almost literally steamed with rage.
"..." Katsuki's furious stare could bore holes in solid steel. "You two motherfuckers are dead, you hear me? My auntie Inko called the old hag and let her know the shit you pulled the other day, nobody fucks with Yoshimi but me," he growled.
A thump came from across the rooftop, Tesaki had stopped floating and the impact had jolted him back to consciousness.
"Gwuh?" he warbled, his head still spinning with a likely concussion from slamming into the door.
Katsuki changed his stance and wound up like a pitcher, "DIE YOU BASTARDS," he screamed as he used an explosion to launch Hashiga directly into Tesaki.
Both boys were left unconscious in a heap, Katsuki was satisfied with their state for now and marched over to Ayami.
He offered her a hand and pulled her onto her feet.
"Can't stay out of trouble worth shit, you know that Yoshimi?" Kacchan grumbled, turning away from her.
Ayami reached out to him, not wanting him to leave yet, when he suddenly froze mid-stride.
"The fuck's this shit? Feels like I'm trying to move through mud," Kacchan barked, slowly reorienting himself to face her.
"I u-uh, I have an idea maybe but…I'm not really sure Kacchan." she stammered.
"Just spit it out already, if there's one thing you can do it is analyze shit to death," he grunted with effort as his body took significant effort to move.
"I think I h-have a quirk maybe?"
"You're shitting me Yoshimi, no the fuck you don't."
"Well I was the only one on the roof, I don't know how else they could have started floating."
"Earth to nerd, you've been quirkless your entire life. Why the fuck would that change now?" he questioned.
"How am I supposed to know? Here let me try something," she said, reaching into her backpack and pulling out her most recent hero notebook.
Ayami held it up and dropped it, the book falling as if normally affected by gravity.
"What? But I thought...?" suddenly her notebook stopped falling mid-air, as if caught by an unseen hand.
She kept her focus on it and willed it to move, and it slowly floated to eye level between her and Kacchan.
"HOLY FUCK I HAVE A QUIRK" she yelled.