"Wait, so, Yaoyorozu paired us up? Like, for the whole program? I thought we were just going to be in pairs for teaching and that was it," Mina asked while pushing the chalkboard down UA's entrance path.
Kirishima shrugged from the other side of the board, "That's what she told me. And honestly, I think it's better that way. It would be pretty hard to teach a bunch of new stuff with a different partner each time."
Mina thought about that, "Yeah. At least this way, we know who we're teaching with. That makes lesson planning easier."
"Man, I can't wait to meet these students!" Kirishima shouted. "It's gonna be so awesome to watch them fight! Maybe Yaoyorozu'll let me take one of them on myseeeeaaaaaahhhhh!" The two had gotten to the street. Kirishima's last step had been over the curb—the concrete was several centimeters lower than his foot thought it would be.
He fell backwards, his left hand flailing around wildly as his right still held onto the chalkboard (defeated by a curb!). As a result, it was pulled partially over the curb and became unbalanced. Mina had also held onto the board and was pulled forward abruptly, causing her to lose her footing. The board was going to tip, and Mina found that the leverage she had over it was abysmal. There was no stopping it. She closed her eyes and waited for the sound of the board clattering against the pavement.
Two seconds passed. Then, two more passed, and still no sound. She opened her eyes, wondering how Kirishima was fast enough to have caught it after tripping. She gasped when she saw that the person who caught the board was not Kirishima.
From the torso down, the person looked just like Yaoyorozu, her curves in all the right places. For a split second, Mina thought it actually was Yaoyorozu, but then she saw the girl's face. She was exceptionally good looking, her half-silver-white half-black hair fluttering in the breeze. Mina found herself drawn to the girl's eyes, two-toned like her hair. The only other mismatched set she'd seen was Todoroki's (which she often stared at, too).
"Looks like I was walking by just in time," she said, smiling at Mina. The girl then looked over at the still sprawled-out Kirishima. "Plus, if I'm being honest, watching Red here flail around was rather amusing."
After the two girls pushed the chalkboard back up and steadied it, Mina rushed over to Kirishima and helped him get up.
"Thanks," he said. "Nice catch, that was almost a disast—" his eyes had found the other girl. He gave her a quick once-over. "Woah, who's your friend?"
"Kiriuki Ochi," the girl answered, extending a hand.
xxxxx
Yaoyorozu was alone in the common room. She was also pacing, as she sometimes did when she was nervous. She had just gotten a call from Mr. Aizawa telling her that the exchange students would be there an hour ahead of schedule. She had no lesson plan, a poor idea who to pair Kaminari with, and no chalkboard.
"Where are those two?" she questioned the hardwood floor. "They should have been back ages ago."
Almost on cue, the front doors opened. Kirishima was the first in, followed by the chalkboard and Mina behind it. "One chalkboard, as promised," they said together.
"Oh, thank goodness! I got worried when you were taking longer than expected." Yaoyorozu said, helping Kirishima pull the board to the front of the makeshift classroom. Then, her relief vanished. "Oh no! I forgot to tell you to get chalk and erasers!"
Mina held up her hand. "Never fear, Yaomomo!" she said, shoving it into her pocket. "Hope has arrived..."
"Because I am here!" someone finished from across the room. The three looked over to see Izuku and Ochaco walking toward them, the former having done his (rigorously) practiced All Might impression. "That's a great video, Ashido!"
"I know, right?"
"We've got a chalkboard!" exclaimed Ochaco. "Awesome!"
"And chalk!" Mina added, pulling a bag out of her pocket. In it were a few pieces of chalk and an eraser.
"Perfect. Thank you two so much," Yaoyorozu said, emptying the bag and putting the chalk and eraser onto the chalk holder.
"Yeah, sorry we took so long. We almost tipped the board over when we went over the curb at UA's entrance, but someone helped us out." Kirishima explained.
"Yeah, she looked so cool, too!" Mina said excitedly, "her hair and eyes were two different colors!"
"No way," Izuku and Ochaco said in unison.
"Yes way!"
Izuku shook his head. "No, I mean, Uraraka and I ran into her earlier today. This morning, actually."
Mina was playfully skeptical, "No, that can't be. There's no way you and Uraraka would smack lips with an audience—"
"That's not what we were doing!" Izuku interrupted quickly, his face turning red.
"She said her name was Ochi, right?" Ochaco asked, trying to keep Mina on the right subject.
"Yep!"
"And she had one eye that was blue and one that was purple?"
"Yep!"
Ochaco glanced at Izuku, who rubbed his chin, "That's her, then. Did she tell you why she's here? Is she a student?"
The other two shrugged. "Haven't got a clue. If she were a student, though, I'm pretty sure I'd have noticed." Kirishima said.
"Yeah..." Izuku agreed.
Yaoyorozu rapped her knuckles on the chalkboard, getting the others' attention. "Sorry to interrupt, but I should let you know that the exchange students are going to be arriving an hour ahead of schedule. I expect them to be here in the next twenty minutes at least."
"So that's why you were so stressed about us taking so long," Mina realized.
"Yes, but since that's out of the way, I still am struggling to come up with lesson plans or pairing options."
Ochaco elbowed Izuku, looking between him, Yaoyorozu, and the scribbled-on schedule he had clutched in his hands. That was his cue.
"Oh, Yaoyorozu. About the pairings..." he held out the annotated schedule for her. "I've got some ideas that Uraraka helped me with."
"Always two steps ahead, aren't you?" she said, relieved that another thing weighing her mind down had been resolved.
She took the paper from him; her only real interest was seeing who he put Kaminari with. She failed to stifle a snort when she saw it.
"Jiro? You put him with Jiro?" Yaoyorozu laughed, her hand hiding her mouth. Izuku looked hurt so she stopped. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make fun of your choice. It's just that... do you think it's a good idea?"
Izuku was prepared for that response. "I have two good reasons to put them together. First, Kaminari's a go-with-the-flow kind of guy. I'm sure he'd work well with just about anyone. On the flip side, there isn't a singular person he works with better than anyone else. You already paired Kirishima and Ashido together, and Uraraka and my getting paired was pretty much a given, so that leaves Todoroki, Kaminari, Jiro, and you. I don't really think Kaminari or Jiro would do well with Todoroki."
Izuku paused briefly, allowing Yaoyorozu to absorb that before moving on.
"Secondly, Kaminari and Jiro were partners during the mock battle at ground beta. They fought against you, so you probably spent some time then analyzing their teamwork. Additionally, they fought together again at the USJ, also something you were a part of."
"And on top of that," Mina joined the conversation, "Kaminari's the only one I've ever seen get Jiro to laugh. Sure, it might be at his expense, but I think it's worth noting."
Yaoyorozu rubbed her thumb over Izuku's marked-up schedule. He'd made a good argument. "They've got an odd type of chemistry, I admit," Yaoyorozu said. "If I'm being honest, I was leaning toward pairing Kaminari and Jiro up anyway. I wasn't really sure and needed a second opinion."
Mina wished Hagakure were here, but Kirishima would do. She leaned over to him. "I bet it's because she wants Todoroki all to herself."
Yaoyorozu should've seen that one coming. After all, Mina did love a good romance game, and she'd jump at any opportunity to get a rise out of anyone, but Yaoyorozu wasn't playing. "Hardly. I think he would work better with Midoriya or Kirishima than with me. Should I split the two of you up?"
Mina was quick to wave her hand dismissively, her bluff called. "Nah, not worth it. That would negate our whole chalkboard experience."
Yaoyorozu smirked, "I thought not." She turned back to face Izuku. "Thank you for your input, Midoriya. I think it's time we get Kaminari and Jiro down here to see what they have to say about it."
xxxxx
"I don't think so."
"Jiro…" Yaoyorozu was normally patient during disagreements, but their time was limited. On top of that, Jiro was the only one who needed convincing.
"Yeah, Jiro, why not?" Kaminari asked. "Everyone else is already paired up. I don't think you have much of a choice."
It frustrated Jiro that Kaminari was being the voice of reason. She knew it would make less sense to pair Todoroki with her, but she had been hoping to be with Yaoyorozu.
"I thought that you and I were going to be a team, Momo!" she said, internally flinching when it sounded so childish. "Can't Kaminari be with Todoroki?"
Yaoyorozu shook her head softly, "That wouldn't be ideal," Jiro was being pouty. Yaoyorozu sighed. "Listen, I know this isn't what you think is best, but we've all done quite a bit of thinking about it, and this was the conclusion we came to. These pairs are meant to teach teamwork and contribution, so, Kaminari," she directed her focus at him, "you have to put in half the work. Jiro will not do everything for you, and if she feels like that's what's happening, there will be consequences."
Jiro liked the sound of that; she had been primarily against the pair because Kaminari was lazy. She grinned and shot him a sideways glance, "Yeah, lightning rod; you better pull your weight, or else."
He gave her a thumbs-up, "You can count on me!"
Yaoyorozu pulled out her phone and shot a quick text to Todoroki, asking him to come downstairs to discuss more of the schedule. "Ok, since that's taken care of, the only thing that's left is how the lectures and combat trainings are going to be arranged." She swapped her phone for a folded piece of paper from her pocket. She unfolded it and put it onto the front table closest to where everyone was standing.
"I've split the week up into lectures and trainings," she explained as everyone else looked at the paper. "On Saturdays, we'll have an overview of the week, have the students set weekly goals and report on their completion of the previous week's goals. We will still have the students set goals tomorrow, but reporting the previous week's goals will be replaced by introductions and them explaining their Quirks. We may also do some housekeeping, like explaining how the Quirk is genetically integrated into the body and what that means, just in case they really don't have any kind of background.
"On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, we will hold a ninety-minute class lecture, each dealing with one of the suggested topics. The order of the topics may change based on the needs of the students. On Wednesdays and Fridays, there will be combat training. Principal Nezu has given us permission to use Ground Beta and Gym Gamma as the location of this training. Using our own training as a basis, I think the first combat exercise should be what we did: a mock battle. There are four of them, so splitting into two teams of two will be simple. Any questions?"
Mina was the first to raise her hand, "If lectures are only going to be 90 minutes, what are they going to do the rest of the time?"
"An excellent question. In fact, it was the first thing I asked Mr. Aizawa. He said that they're free to do whatever they want outside of class, but that it would be a good idea for them to integrate into our way of life. Maybe they'd do some physical or Quirk training in Gym Gamma. Heroes and non-heroes aren't terribly different, but I-Island is pretty isolated from the rest of the world. Normally, they would go on patrols around the city with a pro, but Mr. Aizawa said he wasn't sure that was going to happen given… recent events." Everyone understood that to mean All Might's retirement and UA's questionable standing with the public.
Izuku raised his hand next, "Are we going to be grading them?"
Yaoyorozu thought a moment before answering. "I'm… not too sure about that. I doubt we'll assign homework, but I suppose we could do a big practical final, maybe with the students fighting us, kind of like our final exam against the teachers."
"Like, two vs. two? Or two vs. one?" Kaminari asked. He put his hand on his chin, "Boys vs. girls?"
Yaoyorozu rubbed her arm absentmindedly, "I'm not sure. Maybe a one on one to show personal growth and two on two or something for teamwork. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." She let out a breath and added, "any more questions?"
"I have one," Todoroki's voice came from across the room. All eyes moved from him to whatever he was pointing to that lay beyond the windows of the common area. "Are those the students?"
xxxxx
The bench had warmed up considerably in the heat of the sun compared to how it had felt eight hours ago. Kiriuki Ochi hadn't been a big fan of the cold metal on her thighs, but she had gotten to personally meet two students from UA's hero course. There was no doubt, in her eyes, that she had gotten the better deal.
Izuku Midoriya. She had been rather interested in him since viewing his performance during the Sports Festival. Ochi had seen dozens of Sports Festivals (her mom had several of them recorded from when they lived in Japan). After some time, it had become simple to discern patterns between a person's behavior, their Quirk, and how that tied into their overall personality. Her mom had a theory that, since bodies develop in accordance to the Quirk it possesses, it's not a far cry to think the mind develops in the same fashion. Whether true or not, Ochi felt like she had a pretty decent understanding of who these students were solely from watching them fight.
Well, a decent understanding of everyone but Izuku.
In both the Race and Cavalry Battle, she noticed he hadn't used his Quirk at all. She had never seen anyone qualify for the final event without having used their Quirk, let alone place first in one of the two preceding events. As a result, she had watched him intently during the one-on-one tournament.
Watching Izuku reveal his incredibly powerful Quirk had caused Ochi to become even more stunned. Where had that power been in the other events? It hadn't been until the middle of Izuku's match against the son of Endeavor, when the camera zoomed in on the green-haired boy, that they noticed his Quirk was destroying his hands.
The seemingly self-destructive nature of his Quirk hadn't been too surprising to Ochi—she had heard of abilities that could severely damage the user, or bodies that didn't develop natural resistance. The most glaring difference between those people and Izuku was control. Quirks that had backlash associated with them only affected the user if they unleashed an insane amount of power. The desperate look in Izuku's eyes while using his Quirk and the way Todoroki seemed to have been exploiting its self-destructive nature told Ochi one thing.
Izuku didn't seem to have control over his Quirk at all. There were even some moments where he had appeared to be afraid of it. It looked like it wasn't… natural, though Ochi was sure her mom would know more about that than her. She remembered thinking that, whatever the case was with his Quirk, having so much power at his disposal would likely grant him popularity among the similarly gifted and, with that, a sizeable ego.
Wrong again.
She remembered the camera panning over to where Class 1A was seated in the stands, and she remembered seeing Izuku scribbling in a pretty beat up journal, as if he were taking notes on each fight. Not only that, but he was hanging around people like Iida and Uraraka: not exactly powerhouses when it came to Quirks. She had figured his friend group would consist of students like Todoroki and Bakugo.
This only seemed to add to her growing suspicion that his Quirk was unnatural, a Procrustean bed that Izuku either chose or was forced to lie in. His timid personality and awkward demeanor suggested that he either didn't grow up with the Quirk or it manifested exceptionally late. She understood that both could be distinct possibilities. Still, there were too many arguments against it being natural to rule it out.
The logical conclusion was that he had been genetically modified to give him the Quirk or to enhance the Quirk he already had. Sure, another conclusion was that she was misinterpreting the whole thing, but at this point, that sounded like the very antithesis of logic to Ochi.
I'd like to ask him, she considered. Maybe he'll come on another jog tomorrow morning and I can find out then. I just need to figure out how to breach the subject. Hmmm…
Her pondering was cut short when a familiar crimson color caught her eye. In the distance, there were five people approaching what she had found out was Class 1A's dorm. She was seated pretty far away, but that color of hair was unmistakable.
What interested Ochi more was that the owner of the hair was a girl.
Ochi smiled. Right on time.