Tara's Note: So if you've read my stuff, there are two hallmarks of most of my writing: lesbians and polyamory. The story introduced the former with the rewrite transitioning from Izuku to Izumi, and then the latter with Momo's gay panic around Kinoko. I decided to add a bit more of the latter with this chapter and the next, because people really wanted to see Ibara and Mina. Which, I mean, that's a polycule that I don't think has ever been done at all ever. I feel like tagging all the permutations would use all seventy-five of my tags for the story, so I'm not going to, but... yeah. Polycule, not harem.
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.
Taking a seat on one of the mushroom-shaped stools clustered around a mushroom-shaped table in a room decorated with heavy mushroom themes, the corner of Izumi's mouth quirked upward. "I can see why you like it here."
Giggling, Kinoko threw her hands up in the air excitedly. "Shroomageddon is my favorite restaurant for a lot of reasons! The décor, obviously but also because they let me eat in exchange for..." Sweeping her arm grandly over the table, the brunette caused it to erupt in mushrooms. "Shrooms!"
"I mean, I suppose that makes sense?" Izumi poked at one of the mushrooms curiously as Momo let out a surprised little gasp, drawing the verdette's attention to her. "Judging by the reaction of the cultured girl, these are special mushrooms?"
Momo nodded emphatically, reaching down and very carefully pulling one of the mushrooms free of the table so that she could examine it more closely. "These are matsutake mushrooms. Tricholoma matsutake. They grow in the wild in red pine forests, forming a symbiotic relationship with the trees' root systems. Like many species of mushroom, they've stubbornly resisted all efforts to grow them on farms. Average total harvest for the entire country is under a thousand tons per year, and mushrooms harvested in the first days of the season can go for up to two hundred and fifty thousand yen per kilogram. If Kinoko can produce them of similar quality on demand whenever she wants... my word, Kinoko, you're sitting on a veritable gold mine here."
Tearing another one of the mushrooms free, Kinoko casually popped it into her mouth as she stared at Momo appraisingly. "MAFF made me promise not to collapse the market for matsutakes when they discovered that my quirk existed. I was honored that they actually took the time to recognize that my quirk had a very lucrative niche use. Made me feel special. But yeah. Trading some mushrooms for dinner is about as far as I take it. Especially since quirk use is regulated by the law, things could get really bad for me really quickly if I got careless."
True enough, and Izumi and Momo agreed that was probably the avenue that the government would probably take to prosecute the ravenette if she ever got it in her head to disrupt the economy with her quirk. Which... raised an interesting question about Momo serving as Izumi's supplier. Was she unfairly affecting the cocaine market by producing Yaoyorokain for Izumi's use? Given how fast she went through the stuff, she should be buying a sizable quantity from some lucky dealer. And she wasn't. Would METI take offense to that? Or were they safe by dint of the fact that... admitting that Momo was affecting the market would mean tacitly acknowledging that there was a market?
Shaking her head to clear it, Izumi turned to the fourth person sitting at their table. "So, question. Possibly a stupid one, but I'm gonna go ahead and ask it anyway. I know why I'm here. I know why Momo's here. I know why Kinoko's here. But, uh, I feel like there's one too many people present on this date, considering we're only supposed to be a throuple."
"I admit that I am curious as to that as well." Momo's eyes darted over to the interloper, who smiled serenely back at her, and then back over to Izumi. "Kinoko was alone when I arrived. After I joined her, she simply... entered the restaurant and sat down at our table. I was loathe to be rude, but I am very confused."
Kinoko hesitantly raised her hand, drawing the original couple's attention to her. "It might have been my fault? I was talking about my date plans in the 1-B girls' chat, and I made a few jokes about us being the school's new drug-friendly polycule and she, uh, also does drugs? So I think she's here because she wants in on things."
Nodding agreeably, Shiozaki Ibara steepled her fingers under her chin as her dark eyes swept back and forth over the table. "Kinoko is correct. After broaching the subject with a decent number of our peers, I have discovered that my habits are... not particularly popular. Also, many of the people I asked were particularly judgmental about the very idea. When I discovered that you were willing to accept Kinoko despite her tendencies, I thought there might be hope for myself as well."
That... made a certain sort of sense, Izumi was willing to agree. And she could definitely empathize with being judged for using narcotics, cough Iida cough. That being said? "I didn't even know half of these terms existed until I went online googling polyamory to try and get ready for this date, but... I don't know if we're polysaturated at the moment? I mean, until yesterday, I thought Momo and I were monogamous. Like, obviously I looked at other girls, but it was a harmless sort of wandering eye thing. Now I'm in a position where I'm trying to decide if I want two girlfriends and you want to be my third girlfriend?"
"If you wouldn't mind." Ibara reached up to twirl one of her hair vines around her finger nervously as she met Izumi's gaze. "Forgive me if I'm putting you in an awkward position. I just thought it would be beneficial to, as they say, get in on the ground floor. And so I asked Kinoko for details about her date with you and decided to try and plead my case in person."
Izumi nodded slowly. Again, the logic tracked, even if the outcome was a little awkward for her personally. "Okay so we all know that I have the cocaine-fueled enhancer. Momo is my source. Kinoko can make... I looked this up and I'm pretty sure I'm mispronouncing it, but her quirk lets her make psilocybic mushrooms. Like, she doesn't need to make them but she can make them and so sometimes she does. Which is cool, I guess. But what I'm struggling to understand is how you fit into all this. Your quirk is... pretty obvious."
Gently tugging on the vine twined around her fingers, Ibara pulled it free of her scalp and held it out to Izumi to inspect. "My vines naturally produce over one hundred different phytocannabinoids. While none of them are specifically tetrahydrocannabinol, at least one of them has psychoactive qualities and..." Seeing Izumi's eyes glazing over, Ibara trailed off with a sigh and simplified. "My vines aren't exactly the same as marijuana, but they have some similar qualities."
Izumi's eyes went wide. "So you're like... Maribara." She giggled, before leaning in closer to the girl. "Can I call you that?"
"If you could get Kinoko to call me that instead of 'Shibara', I would be in your debt. Getting back to the subject at hand, in essence, my vines are psychoactive and so like Kinoko with her mushrooms, sometimes I choose to imbibe." Ibara's dark eyes slid over to pointedly stare at the prominent 'no smoking' sign hanging on the wall. "Within the privacy of my home, that is."
Oh, cool, so she was a considerate not-marijuana smoker. Izumi had been momentarily worried about that; one of her neighbors smoked tobacco and based solely on that, she was reasonably certain that she wasn't a fan of being around anything being smoked. "Okay so... Momo, thoughts? Technically you're the one with two entire girlfriends at the moment. This was supposed to be so I could decide if I actually wanted to date Kinoko or pull back a little and just be her, erm, metamour? I think is the term? So I mean, if you want a third girlfriend..."
Gasping, Momo smiled brightly and clapped her hands together excitedly. "I'm a harem protagonist! This is so exciting!" She blushed faintly as Izumi let out a louder giggle, before clearing her throat. "Which is to say... Ibara, I would absolutely be willing to date you if we hit it off tonight. At the same time, while I'm ecstatic about being given the chance to live out at least one of my fantasies, I would greatly prefer if you form connections amongst yourselves. Izumi, Kinoko, Ibara... trying to split my attention into three equal shares will likely be difficult, especially given that Izumi and I share a class and are essentially training to be a hero duo. I would like to know what each of your thoughts on the matter are."
"I see two simple and equally viable solutions to the problem at hand." Ibara gestured from herself to Izumi, back to herself, and then over at Kinoko. "The first and most obvious solution is that we all date each other. Polyamory, rather than a harem construct. Failing that, since Izumi doesn't seem entirely sold on that idea at the moment..." A handful of Ibara's vines rose into the air, circling a quarter of the way around the table to loop around Kinoko's shoulders. "We could be two couples that overlap on occasion."
Kinoko peered over at Ibara curiously. "So wait, you'd just date me outright? How come you didn't ask me out before now?"
A slender brow arched as Ibara glanced over at Kinoko with a bemused expression on her face. "I'm an introvert. You're an extrovert. If anything, you should have asked me out."
"Mmm, fair, fair." Kinoko reached up to run her fingers along the vines draped over her shoulders before shooting Izumi an uncertain look. "So I know I sort of like, rammed my way into your relationship, but do you really... not want me around?"
Izumi rolled her eyes at the question. "Kinoko, it's not that I don't want you around or don't like you or something. It's just that... once I stepped back and thought about it? Like, passed the fun of the cuddle puddle moment and started having thoughts deeper than 'girls are great'? I can count the number of times that we've talked on one hand. That number is three. And this is the third time of those three. It's not so much that I don't like you as that I don't know you. Which is why I'm trying to get to know you, but we've... sort of gotten sidetracked."
Nodding eagerly, Kinoko pulled a basket out from under the table. "Well, I still need to pay for our dinner so while I harvest... ask me anything! I'm an open book, pretty much. Especially if you want to know anything at all about mushrooms."
Personally, Izumi had very little curiosity about mushrooms but she also realized that every person had their own specific interests and so she resolved that if tonight went well, she'd try to learn a bit more about them so that she could engage Kinoko in conversation. "What sort of hero are you looking to be? I mean, I'm probably going to be a straight up spotlight hero because of my quirk. Sniff sniff, punch punch, pose for the cameras."
"I want to be an idol hero! Like Pop Step, just... not a vigilante." Kinoko paused in her efforts to remove the plethora of mushrooms from the table, her eyes sparkling as she brought her hands up to her chest. "I want to make people smile! And cheer! And feel happy! Obviously I'll need to do some heroics to be an idol hero and not just an idol, so maybe... working with the police on raids and stuff? My quirk has limited combat potential, but my Splitgill Lung Strike would make a pretty good suppressant for taking down groups of villains."
Oh, she had a super move already? That was pretty cool. And showed a level of foresight that Izumi hadn't demonstrated going into the Sports Festival, hence her 'Colombia Smash' against Iida. "Considering your quirk is just... lots and lots of mushrooms, I'm sorta curious how that would work and also sort of afraid because it's probably going to be something terrifying."
Kinoko smiled brightly at the verdette. "I use my quirk to cause Schizophyllum commune mushrooms to spawn inside people's throats! They quickly expand due to the moisture in a person's throat, causing them to asphyxiate and pass out!" Izumi stared at Kinoko in disbelief, causing the brunette's smile to falter. "Which, now that I think about it, is probably exactly as terrifying as you were expecting."
"A bit, yeah. Fuck. I mean, I guess I can't really throw stones because I'm gonna get high and punch people in the face until they pass out, but I feel like that's slightly more socially acceptable in the current climate than choking people into unconsciousness with mushrooms?" Izumi felt like kicking herself as Kinoko wilted further; she was just doing the best she could with the quirk that she'd been given. "Maybe we can dress it up as some sort of fungal sleeping powder or something? Get you a piece of support equipment that creates smoke and pretend that you're doing something similar to Midnight? That might make you slightly less scary in the public eye."
Kinoko perked back up at the more supportive turn to the conversation. "Maybe I could! Right now, I just have the Shroom-Shooters to help moisturize the air so my spores spread more effectively. It would force me to get into closer ranger with villains but on second thought, I can't really do area of effect with my quirk in most situations. Don't want to affect civilians, you know?" Izumi nodded agreeably and Kinoko gestured back to the verdette. "What about you? You said you want to be a spotlight hero, which is cool, but like... what drives you?"
Blushing, Izumi realized that nobody other than Momo had ever asked her that question and the answer... was a bit more risqué than most of her peers'. "I sort of want to be the thottiest hero. Like, Mount Lady's trying but she doesn't really have any nuance to her persona. She's just like, here, stare at my ass. I more want to take over Midnight's role as the sex symbol heroine. I'm thinking of opening an OnlyFans when I graduate, and then streaming most of my day online."
Humming softly, Ibara sent a vine dipping down into her bag before emerging with her phone. "I'm looking to be primarily a rescue hero, which could synergize well with your own ambitions. You 'sniff sniff, punch punch' and I do crowd control and minimize collateral damage. I could also hold a camera and a ring light for you as you stream."
Izumi slapped the edge of the table excitedly before pointing at Ibara. "I like the way you think! Also, you're pretty so if we end up dating, we could absolutely collaborate on content creation."
Blushing faintly, Ibara ducked her head. "I'm not entirely sure how comfortable I would be with appearing in 'content' alongside you. That being said, as you can guess from the nickname that Kinoko bestowed upon me, there are... possible useful applications for my quirk in your endeavors."
"Oh, I thought it was a simple mashup of Shiozaki and Ibara. Not... heh, Kinoko, you have a dirty mind. That makes me feel better about myself." Izumi winked over at Ibara. "I mean, I feel like tying me up in your vines is easily a third date activity, assuming we make it that far, but I'm not opposed in theory?"
Momo leaned in, lowering her voice to avoid being overheard. "Would you be willing to tie both of us up in your vines in a position where we can still kiss each other?" At Izumi's surprised look, she blushed a bit. "I have a bit of experience with shibari, thanks to my quirk. I actually rather enjoy being bound, although it's considerably less enjoyable to try and explain to the help why there are several yards worth of rope in my room's trash."
Several mental images that Izumi did not object to at all popped into the verdette's head, and she fanned herself lightly. "Wow, this is getting surprisingly horny surprisingly quickly. Um, maybe we should back off this line of conversation until we decide that we're, you know, all dating. Because I'm not above exploiting the fetishization of lesbianism for reach and profit, but I'd rather have more authentic content than those obnoxious girls who awkwardly slobber on their friends to try and get views. Like, if I'm going to have 'me and my girlfriend' content, I want it to actually be my girlfriend."
"That's strangely principled for a girl who shook her ass at a whole ass crowd on national television." Kinoko grinned teasingly before offering Izumi a thumbs up. "I completely get what you mean, though. I feel like as someone who actually likes to kiss girls, you can always tell when the girl genuinely wants to kiss the other girl."
Ibara raised her hand hesitantly. "I genuinely want to kiss another girl."
The other three girls burst into laughter.
