April

Ryoichi POV

I was sleeping in my bed until my alarm started ringing. I lazily moved my arm to turn it off. Just as I looked at my phone, I noticed the time and saw we were going to be late for class.

"Shit!" I muttered to myself and got out of my bed quickly.

I grabbed my uniform and quickly ran out as I got to Kari's room and banged on her door. She opened the door and looked tired as she rubbed her eye.

"What? Why are you banging at my door so loud..?" Kari said in a tired tone.

"Because we're about to be late! Did you sleep through your alarm?!" I exclaimed.

Kari then looked fully awake when she heard that and looked at the time as she panicked too. She got her uniform and pushed me out of the way.

"Well don't just stand there! Get dressed!" Kari exclaimed as she ran to the bathroom.

"Wait, hold on!" I ran after her as I needed her to do a small favor for me.

Yui POV

I can hear those two causing a mess as they were getting ready for their first day at UA. I only sighed and chuckled a little. I figured this would happen. That's why I prepared their stuff earlier for them.

Soon, their rapid footsteps were heard as they ran down the stairs, looking for their school stuff and I handed it to them.

"Be thankful that your own mother made sure to pack your stuff in time" I said.

"Right, thanks mom!" Ryoichi said as he and Kari were leaving out the door.

"Hold it! Aren't you two forgetting something?" I called out to them.

They both sighed a little and walked back with their cheeks being red.

"Do we have to, mom?" Kari says, sounding embarrassed.

"Of course you do! I'm just showing my love to my children. Now come and get them before you go." I say to them.

They slightly groaned and leaned their faces to me. I then give them both a small kiss on the cheek and then hugged.

"I'm so proud of the both of you, and I'm sure he would be too." I said and hugged them closer.

I felt them hug me back and then took another look at them. They've really grown over the years, and they're going to be heroes soon.

"You two do your best at UA, okay?"

"Okay, we'll do our best mom." Ryoichi says as he and Kari left out the house.

UA High School Entrance

Third Person POV

Momo was standing outside the school entrance, looking around like she was waiting for somebody.

"Where is he? He can't be late on his first day." Momo thought in worry.

"Hey Momo!" Ryoichi's voice called out to her.

"Oh thank goodness you're here on time, I thought you wouldn't–"

When she looked at Ryoichi, she didn't see the usual spikey haired boy. What she saw was the same Ryoichi, but one thing was noticeably different about him.

"Well... what do you think?" Ryoichi asked Momo.

Momo blushed at his new hairdo, thinking that it made him look a bit cuter than before.

"I uh... I–I think it looks good on you." She said while maintaining herself. "He looks so cute!"

"T–thanks. I thought, why not do something new since it's the first day of school, you know?"

That's a lie. He would've stuck with the spikey hair but for some unknown reason, he put gel in his hair, combed it and made it like that.

"S–so uhh... Shall we head to class? Class 1A, right?" Momo asks.

"Um yeah. Let's get going." Ryoichi says,

"You guys are in 1A? Damn, I'm in 1B." Kari said, sounding a bit upset.

"Oh, that's a shame. I guess we won't be seeing each other that much then." Momo said, sounding sad too.

"Yeah… but hey, at least we're in the same course!" Kari says as she sounded happy all of sudden. "And you get to be with your c-r-u–"

"I think we should get going now!" Momo bursted out as her face turned red.

She then grabbed the twins and rushed into the building. They walked through the halls to find their classrooms until they found a large door that had 1A on it, and Kari went to hers that was just next door.

"That's a big door." Ryoichi pointed out.

"Yeah... Ready?" Momo asked while feeling nervous.

"Definitely. Ladies first."

"Hehe. Being a gentleman are we?" Momo said with a small chuckle.

She then opened the door and they were introduced to a few students that were either chatting with other students or just sat by themselves. That was until they turned their attention to them. It felt like they were in middle school again as they suddenly felt more nervous when they looked at them.

"Okay, calm down and just introduce yourself." Ryoichi thought and introduced himself. "Um, good morning. My name is–"

"Ryoichi Akatani, is it?"

Ryoichi looked to see the same guy at the orientation that called him "Problem child" at the orientation.

"Yes, I remember seeing you from the exam. I am Tenya Iida, it's a pleasure to meet you. I would like to apologize for calling 'Problem Child' at the exam. I didn't notice you were there and it's embarrassing to call one of the children of the now retired "Symbol of Hope, Yui Akatani.'" Iida said as he bowed down.

"It's fine really, it happens all the time." Ryoichi said to him.

"I see, but I must ask. What happened to your hair? It's more... straight." Iida questioned.

"Oh this? It's nothing really, thought I try something new you know? Dress to impress, am I right?"

"That is true, but who exactly are you impressing?"

"Oh don't worry about that, it's just a phrase."

"Ah, I see. Very well then. And you are?" Iida addressed to Momo.

"I'm Momo Yaoyorozu, it's nice to meet you Iida." Momo greeted herself.

"The same goes for me, Yaoyorozu." Iida greeted himself.

"Akatani?" A recognizable voice piped up.

They looked behind Iida to see Jiro. But instead of looking happy, she looked a bit more worried.

"Is… is that you?" She asks.

"Of course it is, who else would it be?" Ryoichi says.

Jiro walked up to him and took a good look at him, mostly his face. Ryoichi blushed while Momo just stood there looking jealous.

"Umm, is there something on my face?" Ryoichi stuttered out.

"No it's nothing, it's just…" Jiro said before reaching out to his hair and moving the right side of it out of the way.

"Your new hairdo was blocking your eye. That's all."

"I uh... I guess you're not wrong, it was getting in the way sometimes."

"Ryoichi, how about we sit back there?" Momo said as she was pointing to the back corner where a boy with half white half red hair was sitting.

"Oh, yeah, let's sit back there. Talk to you later Jiro." Ryoichi said before walking with Momo.

"Uh, yeah sure." Jiro said with uncertainty in her voice.

Jiro was the one that now felt jealous when she saw Momo being close to him. Too close. While waiting for class to start, Ryoichi decided to pass some time as he got something and brought out two wristband looking things.

"What are those?" Momo said, being interested.

"Oh, these are just some grapplers. Thought I could use these to travel around faster, in case I run out of energy during a situation." Ryoichi explained.

"Oh wow, you've made these?" Momo asks.

"Ehh… Kinda. I've been working on these for a while, but I don't have the exact materials to make them function properly, so they're not done yet. I thought I could bring them here to finish them up." Ryoichi says while checking them out.

"Well… maybe it's if I can help?" Momo says with a small blush. "I–I mean it's okay if you want to work alone on this. I just thought I could make up for the missing parts, since I can make anything, you know?"

"That's nice, Momo. But, I don't want to make it look like I'm using you for my personal gain." Ryoichi says with sympathy.

"Ryoichi, it's okay, really. You'd never really use me like that, and it's not selfish of you if it's helping everybody, that's why you're my best friend, right?" Momo says.

"Yeah… you're right about that." Ryoichi agreed with her.

"So… we can work on it after school?" Momo asked, feeling more jumpy and pumped to work on it.

Ryoichi pondered on the idea for a moment, and decided to let her help. "Alright then, I guess you can help."

Momo felt more happy than ever when he said that.

"Thank you, Ryoichi! I'm so happy to help out!" Momo cheered as she hugged him.

"M–Momo?!" Ryoichi shouted quietly, trying to not cause a commotion.

Just as Momo continued hugging him, her smile dropped and felt something was wrong. She looked around and found Jiro was looking back at them, sending a hard glare at her. Momo sent one back while holding Ryoichi a bit too close to her.

"Uh… Momo?" Ryoichi called out to her.

Momo noticed how close she was holding him and let him go, not before glaring right back at Jiro. Ryoichi was confused by her sudden behavior and then shrugged it off and pulled out one of his comics to read. As he was reading, he heard Iida called out some people and he looked up to see it was Ryoichi's usual friend group while Selvaria and Alicia went to go find some seats.

"Hey guys!" Ryoichi called out to his friends.

"Eh? Yo, Ryoichi!" Josuke said as he waved at him.

Ryoichi walked up to his friends while Momo felt sad before going back to glaring as her and Jiro looked like they were about to start a cat fight.

"It's about time you guys got up here." Ryoichi said.

"Well excuse us for not getting here early, and you're the one to talk to since you end up late at school sometimes." Akio retorted at him.

"Yeah!" Josuke and Izuku agreed with him.

"Plus what's with the hair? You look ridiculous"

"Hey at least I still made it on time before. And I look good with this hair, thank you very much." Ryoichi retorted back at him.

"Hey I recognize that messed up hair! Falling boy!" A new voice piped up.

They looked to see a girl with a brown bowl haircut and pink cheeks. Izuku seemed to recognize her and his face got red.

"You got in! Just like Present Mic said! Makes sense though. That punch was awesome!" The girl said, imitating a punch. "Oh, and are these guys your friends?"

"H–huh? Oh, y–yeah! This is Ryoichi, Akio and–"

"I'm Josuke Harukita. But some people call me JoJo for short." Josuke said, interrupting him.

"You mean us from time to time?" Ryoichi said with a smug.

"You shut it! And my nickname's cool, not lame!" Josuke shouted at him.

"I think JoJo is kind of a cool name." The girl surprisingly said.

The group just looked shocked at her response, including Josuke.

"Well that's the first…" The boys thought together.

"Yeah, JoJo! I'll call you that from now on! Oh where are my manners? I'm Ochaco Uraraka, nice to meet you guys!" Uraraka introduced herself.

"U–Uh yeah, nice to meet you too, Uraraka." Izuku said shyly.

"What do you think we're doing today besides orientation? I wonder what our teachers are like. I can't wait to meet everybody!"

"If you're here just to make friends then you can pack up your stuff now."

The group turned to see a grown man in a sleeping bag on the floor.

"Welcome to UA's hero course."

"What is that thing?!" They all thought collectively.

"It took eight seconds before you all shut up. That's not gonna work. Time is precious. Rational students would understand that."

That's most likely their teacher, but he looks a bit worn out, like he hasn't slept in weeks.

"Hello, I'm Shota Aizawa. Your teacher."

Yup, that's their teacher alright.

"Right, let's get to it. Put these on and head outside." He said as he pulled some gym uniforms out of his bag. They were confused at first and just went along with it.

As they were changing, some were done and were walking out to the field. Jiro was one the few that were done as she was thinking about something. She was brought out of her thoughts when she saw Ryoichi ahead of her, this time donning a ponytail and with some arm sleeves.

"You really like to get your hair done do you?" Jiro said as she caught up with him.

"Oh, this? I find it more practical for me to train and fight with. My normal hairstyle does get in the way at times." Ryoichi replied with a small chuckle.

"With that spiky hair of yours? I can see why." Jiro said jokingly. "Why not cut it down a bit?"

"Well, you see–"

"It's because his hair won't grow back if he does that." Momo suddenly appeared beside them. "Plus, he likes his hair that way, right, Ichi?"

"Um, y–yeah. Saiyans can't really grow their hair back when it gets cut so…" Ryoichi explained as he felt flustered from the nickname. "You know, I think we should get going now."

He started speed walking as he was hiding his small blush from them. They felt sad and then glared at each other before following him.

As they got outside, they were suddenly hit with a––

"What?! A Quirk Assessment Test?!" The class exclaimed.

"But orientation! We're gonna miss it!" Uraraka said.

"Is it safe to say that at least it's not a regular test?" Josuke said before getting a nudge by Akio.

"If you really wanna make the big leagues, you can't waste your time on pointless ceremonies." Aizawa said.

Everyone started to get nervous because of this.

"Here at UA, we're not tethered to traditions. That means that I get to run my class however I see fit. You've been taking standardized tests most of your lives. But you never got to use your quirks in physical exams before. The country's still trying to pretend we're all created equal by letting those with the most power not excel, it's not rational. One day, the Ministry of Education will learn." Aizawa said and took out a ball. "Akatani, you, not surprisingly, managed to get the most points on the entrance exam. Try doing that with your quirk."

Ryoichi was handed a ball and walked to the center. Aizawa looked at him and knew he wasn't gonna use much of his quirk, but didn't really care.

"Alright, let's give it a go." Ryoichi thought before taking a deep breath.

Ryoichi closed his eyes until he opened them and a small fiery aura surrounded his arm. With all his all his might in one swift movement, he threw the ball high in the air.

"All of you need to know your maximum capabilities. It's the most rational way of figuring out your true potential as a pro hero." Aizawa stated as he lifted his phone to show the class the ball went 710 meters.

"Woah, 710 meters, are you kidding me?"

"I wanna go, that looks like fun!"

"This is what I'm talkin about! Using our quirks as much as we want!"

"So this looks fun, huh? You have three years here to become a hero. You think it's all gonna be games and play time? Idiots. Today you'll compete in eight physical tests to gauge your potential. Whoever comes in last has none, and will be expelled immediately." Aizawa said in a serious tone.

The entire class was freaked out except for Ryoichi and Momo. Ryoichi? Him? Why do you ask? If you forgot, this guy is not all about brains or brains, he's freaking both. And the cou- best friends knows he's faking it. Also there may have been times where he had to push himself with certain tasks.

"Like I said, I get to decide how this class runs. Understand? If that's a problem, you can head home right now."

"You can't send one of us home! I mean, we just got here! Even if it wasn't the first day, that isn't fair!" Uraraka pouted.

"Oh, and you think natural disasters are? Or power hungry villains, hm? Or catastrophic accidents that wipe out whole cities? No, the world is full of unfairness. It's a hero's job to try to combat that unfairness. If you wanna be a pro, you're gonna have to push yourself to the brink. For the next three years, UA will throw one terrible hardship after another at you. So, go beyond. Plus Ultra–style. Show me it's no mistake that you're here." Aizawa instructed them.

Everyone now got pumped up to try their best to not get expelled.

"Now then, we're just wasting time by talking. Let the games begin."

Test 1: 50–meter dash

Ryoichi and Iida were first up against each other. When the gunshot was heard, they both took off at amazing speeds, but Ryoichi finished first with 2.50 seconds while Iida finished with 3.04 seconds.

"So close… You're really faster than me." Iida panted out.

"Don't mention it. You'll get to my speed one day." Ryoichi complimented him.

Then it was Josuke and Uraraka.

"I'll lighten up my clothes. Oh, and my shoes, too!" Ochaco said, making some of herself lighter.

"Alright, time to see if I can use my quirk to make me go faster." Josuke thought.

A light blue aura surrounded Josuke's body as small orbs appeared in his hands. The gunshot was set off and the took off at the same speed. Josuke was beginning to pick up the pace and finished with 7.69 seconds while Uraraka had 7.25 seconds.

"I could've done better, but I got the funny number." Josuke thought as he chuckled.

Izuku just got done and was looking disappointed, Ryoichi walked up to him to try and encourage him.

"Hey, if you're having trouble, do what I did when I was training you, Don't go all out, just start small and then work your way up to it."

"Huh?" Izuku looked confused at him.

"Basically try and use a certain percentage of it. If I had to guess where you are I would say... 1 to 5%?" Ryoichi guessed.

"That doesn't really help but I think I get it." Izuku said as he pumped himself up.

Test 2: Grip Strength

Akio did his part and got 65 kilograms. "65? I guess that's not so bad. Josuke, what'd you…" He trailed when he saw Josuke's grip strength measurement looked a bit broken.

"Ha ha… I may have overdone it with my quirk…" Josuke said with a small chuckle as he sweatdropped.

"I can see that… Ryoichi, how did you–!" Akio stopped as he looked in shock at Ryoichi's grip being 350 kilograms.

"I don't know why you're shocked. He did get stronger over time." Selvaria said.

"That's true. I'm a saiyan after all." Ryoichi said in agreement. "Plus, I think using my quirk would've gotten more than that multiple arms guy and maybe even broken it."

Test 3: Standing Long Jump

Everyone managed to do it, except for Izuku. He did the advice Ryoichi told him but still didn't manage to pass it. Things are turning the worst for Izuku as his friends are starting to worry for him.

Test 4: Repeated side steps

Yeah the only one who scored the highest was the little grape guy that used his hair to bounce back and forth for the test.

Test 5: Ball throw.

Uraraka used her quirk on the ball and threw it. It kept going, and going, and going, and going... Yeah she got infinity from that. The entire class was shocked at her performance. Josuke almost had Ryoichi's score but got lower due to usage of his quirk. Now it was Izuku's turn for the ball throw.

"Come on Midoriya, you got this. I mean you're not gonna be expelled but still." Ryoichi thought as he prayed for him.

Izuku looked like he built up some courage and threw the ball, with his quirk this time. When he threw it, it looked like that was a regular throw.

"Huh… But I was trying to use it…" Izuku pondered on what happened.

"I 'erased' your quirk." Aizawa spoke up.

Everyone looked to see that Aizawa's hair was rising up along with his scarf.

"The judges for this exam were not rational enough. Someone like you should never be allowed to enroll at this school."

Izuku took a closer look at him and saw that he had goggles around his neck.

"Those goggles... that's––!" Izuku excalimed.

"Eraser head! He can look at someone and take away their powers!" Ryoichi said in shock.

The class was mumbling about him, clearly they didn't know anything about him since he was hardly in the spotlight. He was the type of hero that would get things done quickly. Aizawa wrapped his scarf around Izuku and pulled him closer to him. The class couldn't hear what they were exactly talking about until he let him go to try again.

"I wonder if our teacher gave him some advice." Iida said with curiosity.

"Probably told him to start packing." Bakugo said in doubt.

"I highly doubt it. 2,100 yen he gets around 700." Ryoichi betted.

"Fine, you're on, hedgehog."

Izuku went up and concentrated again. When he started to throw the ball, at the last second, it went sky high. Everyone was in awe while Ryoichi looked impressed and Bakugo was in disbelief as got 705 meters like Bakugo. From the looks of it, he used his finger for that and was smiling even though it looked like it hurts. Ryoichi looked at Bakugo while smirking.

"So... about that 2,100 yen." Ryoichi said with a smug.

"Tch. I'm getting to the bottom of this!" Bakugo said and charged at Izuku. "What the hell?! Explain yourself, Deku!"

Just as Bakugo was running at, a scarf was wrapped around him and was being held back.

"Stand down. It'd be wise to make me use my quirk so much. It gives me serious dry eye." Aizawa scolded him. "What a waste of time. Prepare for the next event."

He then let Bakugo go as Izuku went back to his friends and Bakugo just glared at him.

"Your finger alright?" Uraraka asked him.

"Yeah, that looks really painful." Ryoichi pointed out how bruised it looked.

"Yeah, it's fine." Izuku told them.

After that, the final three challenges of the fitness test went by quickly. Akio showed off in situps, Josuke and Alicia did well out of the group in seated toe touch and Ryoichi clearly did the best in the long distance run with Selvaria behind him. Everyone gathered around for their results.

"Alright, time to give you your results. I've ranked you all from best to worst. You should probably have a good idea of your standing already. I'll just pull up the whole list." Aizawa just showed the class the placements of each student.

Ryoichi got first, Momo got second, Todoroki got second, Akio got third and so on. The list went down until it was shown that Midoriya was 25th, dead last. Midoriya looked disappointed in himself as he was in last while his friends looked sad for him. That was until––

"And I was lying, no one's going home." Aizawa suddenly said.

Everyone looked shocked at what he said.

"That was just a rational deception to make sure you gave it your all in the test." Aizawa said with a creepy smile.

"WHAAAAT?!" Most of the class exclaimed.

"I'm surprised the rest of you didn't figure that out. I'm sorry. I guess I probably should have something." Momo stated.

Yeah, she should have.

"Ok, not gonna lie... I kinda knew too." Ryoichi piped in.

The class got even more mad than before. "WHAAAAAAAAT?!"

"What do you mean you knew?!" Akio shouted.

"Just because you think you're so smart, you hid it from us, didn't you?!" Josuke exclaimed as he jumped in with him.

"What? You're telling me that you didn't see the hints I left?" Ryoichi asked them.

"What the hell do you mean you left hints?!" Akio asked in frustration.

"You can't be serious... Please tell me you guys are joking."

"Does it sound like we're joking?!"

Ryoichi just pinched the bridge of nose as heard, his friends, the ones he knew the most for his entire life, should be smart enough to know he would do something like that.

"He's not wrong, the hints were obvious, especially the grip test. If you think about it, if he used all of his strength with his quirk, then he would've broken it." Momo pointed out.

"Ohhh... that makes a lot of sense now that I think about it… sorry?" Josuke apologized with a small chuckle.

"Oh are ya?!" Ryoichi shouted this time.

"That's it, we're done for the day. Pick up a syllabus in the classroom. Read it over before tomorrow morning." Aizawa dismissed them.

Everyone, besides the clearly angry Ryoichi, sighed in relief and got dressed in their school uniforms and went on with their school day, while Izuku went to Recovery Girl to heal his finger. After school was over, Momo and Ryoichi were outside the school entrance waiting for Kari to meet them, and he was still clearly angry.

"Come on Ryoichi, can you just forget about it and stop being angry at them?" Momo asked for him.

"I'm not mad, I'm just very disappointed to the point where I look like you don't wanna mess with me and piss me off even more." Ryoichi stated

"That's the same thing! Come one just drop the act please? For me?" Momo asked him politely.

"Nope. Not gonna work this time. It only worked last time because I was tired."

"Pleaaase?"

"Nuh uh!"

"Please!"

"Nope!"

Then continued going back and forth like they were little kids.

"Alright then... You asked for it." Momo pouted before coming up with something.

Momo then moved close to him and grabbed his arm tightly to get his attention and did the puppy eyes. No one can resist the puppy eyes. Ryoichi blushed and looked away.

"Nope! Not falling for it!" Ryoichi said in denial.

Ryoichi tried to resist but accidentally took a peak and saw the puppy eyes were starting to affect him.

"Pwetty pwease?" Momo said in a child-like voice.

Ryoichi felt something stung his heart and looked more red. "I'm about to have a heart attack from this cuteness…"

"Fine. You win. I'll stop being mad at them." Ryoichi sighed in defeat and gave in.

"Yay! Thank you, Ichi!" Momo cheered as she pulled him closer to her and hugged his arm tight. This made Ryoichi blush madly and tired to have her let go.

"M–M–Momo let go!"

"Hmmm… Nope!"

"Momo please let go before somebody–"

"What are you doing to him?"

They looked to see Jiro and she was clearly jealous and angry. Momo loosened her grip on his arm as she did the same thing.

"Why hugging him of course. He just needed to cool down. Besides, it's not like your hugs would do anything to him." Momo said to her.

"Huh?" Ryoichi thought in confusion.

"Really? Cause to me it looks like you were squeezing his arm to death. And my hugs are more comfortable than yours if you ask me." Jiro replied back.

"I wouldn't say that. Ichi here thinks mine are better than yours. After all, he is my best friend."

"Oh really? Cause if I can remember, Ryoichi thinks mine are like pillows unlike yours that are like rocks."

"Wait hold on I never said–" Ryoichi was then silenced by Momo.

Momo then let go of his arm as she walked up to Jiro and she did the same thing and they got into each other's face.

"O–Ok now girls, let's not do anything harsh here…" Ryoichi said as he tried to calm them down.

"Shut up." They both said in a dark tone.

"...ok…" Ryoichi backed away and was hoping someone could help and stop them.

Luckily, as if it was a miracle, Kari got from her class and found them outside the entrance.

"There you are, bro! I was looking all over for you. Where's…" Kari went to ask for Momo until she looked beside and saw her and Jiro looked like they were about to fight. "Oh boy…"

"Yeah… mind if you help?" Ryoichi asked her.

"Don't need to ask me twice."

The twins went to the two girls and separated them from each other before any harm was done between them.

"Momo, just calm down and let's go home, okay?" Ryoichi said, calming her down.

"But, Ichi!" Momo pouted at him.

"Momo, please."

Momo saw the plea in his eyes and noticed how he looked concerned. She realized what she was about to do and regretted her in letting her anger get the best of her.

"Okay… I'm sorry…" She apologized to him.

"Don't worry about it for now. How about you walk with Kari to clear your head?" Ryoichi suggested.

Momo was against the idea, but seeing how she almost messed things up between them, she only nodded in agreement.

"Okay, I'll catch up with the both of you later, alright?"

Momo nodded again and her and Kari started walking to his place. Ryoichi stayed behind to clear things up with Jiro.

"Don't worry, she's actually really nice. She's just… protective of me." Ryoichi told her.

"Protective?" Jiro asked him.

"Well, last year when she was helping me with my training, she found out that some girls were constantly hitting on me, only because I'm my mom's son. So being my best friend, she would make sure they wouldn't get too close with me."

"Oh, I guess that makes more sense now…" Jiro said, now feeling bad as well. "But, don't you think she was being too close with you just now?"

"Oh that? She tends to be all jumpy when she makes me feel better after something. Kinda makes me happy to see her like that." Ryoichi said with a small smile before getting serious. "But this isn't about me, it's about the both of you."

Jiro felt her heart sink when hearing that.

"Look, I'm not upset, but you two have to apologize to each other. I'm sure both of you didn't mean to try to hurt each other, I just hope you two stay as friends and maybe get to understand each other better. How does that sound?" Ryoichi asked.

"Yeah… I guess that doesn't sound too bad." Jiro replied in a soft tone.

"Good, and before I go… Your hugs are soft too." Ryoichi before he went off to catch with his sister and Momo.

Jiro was left stunned by his words. She watched him leave as her cheeks became red. She put her hand on her chest, feeling her fast heartbeat, and a small smile appeared on her face. Jiro then turned around, before getting one last look at Ryoichi as he was out of her sight now and walked her way home.

Akatani residence

In Ryoichi's room, he and Momo were working on his grapplers.

"So after some thinking, I think I should go with web shooters. It sounds better to use if you think about it." Ryoichi suggested.

"Mhm…" Momo sounded gloomy.

As they were working, Ryoichi noticed how gloomy Momo looked and got worried for her.

"Hey, Momo, everything okay?" Ryoichi asked her.

"H–huh? Oh, I'm fine, really." Momo said as she put on a fake smile.

Ryoichi wasn't buying it and scooted closer to her, getting her attention as she looked at him.

"I know something's wrong with you. You put on a fake smile whenever you still look gloomy."

Momo looked surprised when he found out. "Huh, I guess you really are my best friend." She said a bit jokingly before she frowned up a bit.

"Momo, tell me, is it about earlier with Jiro?" Ryoichi asked.

"I… Yes…" Momo said as she looked away from him.

"Listen, Momo, I understand that you're looking out for me, and I appreciate that, but just know Jiro was looking out for me as well. She just didn't know how close we are with each other."

"I know that now. It's just… Do you hate me now?"

"Hate you?" Ryoichi looked at her confused.

"Ryoichi, I messed things up with you! I was just trying to make you feel better from earlier, and then jumped to conclusions about Jiro and… I just feel so selfish…" Momo said, sounding more upset with herself. "I'm just like those girls that were trying to keep you to themselves… some best friend I'm supposed to be.

Momo looked down and was looking more gloomy. As she was feeling sad, she then felt Ryoichi's hand on her shoulder and looked up at him.

"Momo, I would never be upset with you." He told her.

"You… you wouldn't?"

"Of course not! It's like you said, I'm your best friend, and you were just looking out for me, like I did for you." Ryoichi said with a warm smile. "Whatever happens, I'm staying by your side, always."

Momo looked surprised at him and her heart warmed up from his words. She returned a smile back and small tears were rolling down her face.

"Oh, you're crying! Was it something I said? I'm sorry if I said anything wrong!" Ryoichi panicked as he apologized.

"Ryoichi it's fine, I'm just… happy to be with you." Momo smiled at him.

"Oh, I see." Ryoichi as he sighed in relief. "Well, I'm happy too, and what happened to calling me 'Ichi?' Are you stopping that now or..?"

"U–um, nothing! I just prefer to call you by your name now!" Momo said with a small laugh.

"Really? But you randomly called me that when–"

"Let's just make these web shooters okay?!"

Ryoichi shrugged it off as he and Momo went to work on the web shooters. Just as the design was finished and Ryoichi tested shooting a web out, it backfired as webs got onto their faces.

"…At least we're in the right direction." Ryoichi said with a small laugh.

Momo laughed as well and cleaned herself from the webs. "It's not much, but we're getting there."

They continued working all night until they finished up and Momo went home. Ryoichi was getting ready for bed and tried to go to sleep, but something was stopping him. He turned onto his side and was thinking of ways to help him sleep, but something… or rather someone, got to his mind.

"What is wrong with me? I can hardly sleep now. Have I been overworking myself again? No, that can't be it." He thought to himself and he felt his heartbeat being quicker. "And my heart's been beating quickly ever since… could it be..? No, it's probably nothing. Maybe I'm just nervous for tomorrow."

He pushed it off and was focused on what tomorrow has prepared for him at UA.