After Kuri and Midoriya had parted ways upon arriving back at the dorms, the rest of the day passed without much consequence. The next day before class, Kuri and her classmates watched as Mina was breakdancing. Mina spun around towards Kuri.
"Come on, Kuri! You try!" she exclaimed. Kuri laughed nervously and reluctantly began to dance with her. Kuri wasn't that bad for an amateur, but she wasn't nearly as good as Mina.
"You sure are good at this," Kuri said.
"Well, I've taken a bunch of classes, so I better be!" Mina said with a giggle.
"Wow, what a cool hobby! It must be helpful for your hero work!" Midoriya said. "Can I try?" Mina said 'yes' and began to teach them the two-step. Kuri stepped off to the side with Kaminari and Jirou. Kaminari elbowed Jirou lightly.
"Hey, don't you have a cool hobby too? Considering how your room looks like a freaking music store," he said with a grin. Jirou blushed and looked away.
"Be quiet. It's not a big deal or anything."
"Aw, are you embarrassed? Honestly, it was coo-"
He was cut off when Jirou shocked him with her earphone jack. Kuri smirked a bit. Mina had said before that Jirou liked Kaminari, and Kuri found it fun to watch them flirt. If you could call that flirting…
She glanced over to Bakugo, as one does when they have a crush, and she was surprised to find that he was looking over at her. Or maybe he was looking at the two next to her. She wasn't sure because as soon as they made eye contact, he looked away. Only once he had turned away did Kuri realize that she was blushing.
Then, Mr. Aizawa walked in, and everyone returned to their seats. He was zipped up in his ratty sleeping bag.
"Um," he said drowsily. "We're going to have a school festival."
The rest of the class erupted in a cheer.
"A super normal school event!"
Kuri didn't understand why everyone was so shocked about doing a school festival. Is U.A. really that crazy? It's Japan, so don't they usually do these?
But Kuri didn't want to question it too much because this revelation was incredibly exciting to her. She couldn't keep the grin off her face as she realized that she'd finally be getting to participate in a school festival.
American schools were dumb as hell. They never got to do fun things like sports festivals or school festivals. Throughout the years, as Kuri watched anime and saw the characters get to have fun during school festivals, she had only felt jealousy and longing. And now, her dream would finally be fulfilled. What a lame dream.
Mr. Aizawa began talking about why they were doing the school festival to answer Kirishima as Kuri spaced out from the joy.
"Today you need to decide what you'll do…" he trailed off as he laid down on the floor and drifted off to sleep. The class reps immediately took over and began to take suggestions. Kuri sat there, wondering if she had any good propositions. She didn't feel like it'd be right to do so, considering that she was new. It's not like her idea would end up being what they use anyway.
When Bakugo suggested a deathmatch, Kuri laughed out loud. He glared at her, and she stuck out her tongue at him in response.
After everyone had given their suggestions (Kuri was prompted to give an idea, so she gave the ambiguous proposal of a cafe), Momo began to eliminate some ideas. Kuri began to tune out the class a bit as everyone else tried to decide on what to do. She pulled out her notebook and started doodling animals as she waited for the others to come to a decision. Before that could happen, the bell rang, and Mr. Aizawa immediately got up.
"Make sure you decide on this by tomorrow, or else I'm making it a public lecture," he said. Everyone collectively shuddered. Wouldn't that just be like class? Ew. "Also, put someone in the pageant if you want. It's not required."
That evening, everyone converged in the dorms to decide what to do. Well, everyone minus the interns with make-up classes and Bakugo, who had gone to bed already.
"We should do something to relieve the stress that our class has put on everyone else," Iida said. Everyone but Kuri nodded in agreement. She leaned in towards Mina.
"Hey, what's he talking about? What happened before I got here?" she whispered to Mina.
"Oh, well, our class has been attacked by the League of Villains multiple times. It's caused a lot of trouble for the school. Bakugo was even kidnapped," Mina whispered back.
"Kidnapped?!" Kuri's eyes widened in shock. She wasn't sure what to think or feel. To imagine that they had something like that in common… It was nice to know that he was physically okay, though she worried about how it had affected him emotionally. "Wow. That must've sucked," Kuri said, for she wasn't talented at handling unfortunate news. Mina nodded, and they turned their attention back to the discussion.
They began to try and think of things to do that would be fun for others.
"It'd be fun if we all dance together," Mina said, still riding the dance party train. Todoroki agreed, which shocked Mina. He opened up YouTube and began to type something into the search bar.
"There's something…" he said. "I don't know what it's called, but people have a good time during it." He clicked on a video, and it was a clip from a concert. Kuri liked the idea of it, though the idea of a live performance seemed daunting.
"I see… A concert where we sing and dance…" Iida said.
"But wouldn't it be stressful to watch amateurs perform?" Sero said.
"I can teach you all how to dance!" Mina exclaimed, then gestured to Aoyama, who had already mastered the two-step.
"Wait! You need music to dance to!" Mineta said, finally saying something constructive. The class looked to Jirou, their local musical prodigy. She looked back towards everyone, a mix of slight panic and confusion on her face.
"We can play live music on your instruments!" Hagakure exclaimed.
"Wait-" Jirou said, stepping back.
"Come on! You're really good at playing and teaching people how to play. Plus, you always look like you're having a lot of fun when you're playing music!" she continued. Jirou looked down, tapping her earphone jacks together.
"It's really just a hobby… I don't think I have the courage to brag about it publicly just yet," she said. Kaminari suddenly approached Jirou, leaning in very close to her face. For a second, Kuri thought he was going to kiss her, and a blush crept across Jirou's cheeks.
"But you should brag about it! It's super cool to be able to play so many instruments!" he exclaimed. She stumbled back, clearly wanting to run away from the situation at hand. Koda stepped forward.
"It'll make people smile, so you should do it!" he said. Jirou held her head in her arms, and Momo stepped between her and the class.
"Everyone, we should let Jirou decide if she wants to do it or not!" Momo said.
"Thank you, Yao-Momo, but it's okay," Jirou said, stepping out from behind Momo. "After all that, if I didn't do it, that wouldn't be rockin' at all, would it?"
Kaminari whooped and slid his arm over Jirou's shoulder. She visibly blushed yet again. Kuri felt like she was getting to watch a rom-com in real life.
"Okay, that settles it!" Kaminari said. "We'll be doing a live performance and dance to create a partying atmosphere!"
"Now, we should consider the beauty pageant," Iida said. "Who shall we send to participate? I inquired about it with another teacher, and if we plan to participate, we must send one contestant and at least two people to assist them. We need someone who thinks they can win in both the beauty and talent portions."
"Dope, can I be the contestant?" Kaminari asked, who still had his arm across Jirou's shoulders.
"Sorry, Kaminari, the pageant is currently only intended for women," Iida said.
"Aw, okay then. So I guess the girls can choose who will go," Kaminari said.
Kuri, Mina, Momo, Jirou, and Hagakure looked at each other. They collectively assumed that Tsuyu and Ochako wouldn't be participating because they were currently in make-up classes.
"Well," Jirou said. "We just decided that I would help with the music, so I can't do it."
"And I have to teach everyone how to dance, so I can't either," Mina said. "Though I would totally love to."
"I think it would be a fun time!" Hagakure said, then seemed to droop a bit. "But… y'know… I might not be the ideal candidate for a competition that partially relies on your appearance."
Ojiro patted her on the back.
"You're still beautiful, even if no one can see you," he said. Hagakure looked up at him, probably blushing. Ojiro quickly realized the weight of his words, and his face turned red. "Ah! I- I mean, um, I think you're beautiful as a friend!" he stammered.
Everyone stood there in awkward tension before Kuri decided to take it upon herself to break the silence.
"Anyways, I think Momo is more fit for the job than me," she said. "She looks like a model and can easily do well for the talent portion with her quirk."
"But, Kuri, you would do a great job as well!" Momo said. Kuri scrunched up her face in uncertainty and disagreement.
"But, Yaoyorozu, wouldn't you get a better score because of your popularity from that commercial you did during your internship with Uwabami?" Sato asked.
"See? You're perfect for the job," Kuri said. "Plus, I just don't wanna do it anyway."
"Yeah, Yaoyorozu. You'd be great," Todoroki said. Momo turned to him, pink tingeing her cheeks.
"Oh my, well I guess I will then," Momo said. "It will be my duty for the class!"
"I was gonna have a girls' dance group with all the girls…" Mina said disappointedly. "But you'll be cute, so it's fine!"
"Good! It's decided then. Now, I think we should draw lots to see who will assist Yaoyorozu in preparing for the pageant," Iida said. He managed to conjure up some slips of paper, and everyone took from the bundle. Kuri looked down at her paper slip. It was unmarked, so that meant she wouldn't be helping Momo.
After everyone had taken a paper, it was revealed that Sato and Hagakure would be helping Momo with the pageant.
"Okay, everyone," Momo said. "Now that everything has been decided, this meeting is adjourned! Go get some sleep because we have a lot more decisions to make tomorrow!"
The next day after school, Bakugo was walking behind some of his classmates as they chatted about plans for the school festival. He scoffed and looked into the distance. Those extras cared way too much about the silly little festival.
"Apparently, Class 1-A is doing a concert 'for us'."
Bakugo's attention turned to the person who'd said that. It was some random upperclassman girl. The guy next to her raised an eyebrow.
"What's that mean? They're thinking too highly of themselves," the guy said. Bakugo glared at them. Fucking bitchass upperclassmen.
"They're way too carefree," the girl said. "They keep getting attacked and injured, and thanks to that, even we had to go through a lot. Even though it was all their fault. And now they have the nerve..."
Bakugo clenched his fists. He already knew it was his fault for getting kidnapped, so they didn't have to keep saying it. Plus, they had no room to talk about going through "a lot". Were they attacked? Were they fucking kidnapped?!
That evening, Bakugo was dragged into a class discussion.
"The school festival is exactly a month away! We must decide on various things today!" Iida said. Bakugo began to tune out their conversation since he didn't really care about what they did. The other classes would be mad at them no matter what, so why did it matter what they chose to do? They would continue to be blamed for being targeted, so why should their class have to convince others to stop criticizing them?
"Oh, Bakugo, didn't you say you were forced to take music classes as a kid?" Kaminari said, putting a hand on his shoulder and subsequently ripping him back into reality.
"Huh?" Bakugo said, blinking at them as he processed the question. It was true that he had taken music lessons against his will, but why did it matter?
"Bakugo, play the drums for us!" Sero said, gesturing to the drum set a few feet away. Bakugo scoffed and turned away.
"There's no way I'd do that!" he exclaimed. Sero came up behind him, holding drumsticks.
"Well, I hear it's pretty hard…" Sero said. Bakugo snatched the drumsticks from him and stomped over to the drum set. I'll show him how "hard" it really is. He sat down and played a beat that he remembered from his past lessons.
"Well?!" Bakugo said, looking back at the rest of his class.
"It's perfect…" Jirou muttered. The rest of the class erupted in praise, and Bakugo's gaze drifted to Nakano, whose eyes were shining in amazement. In his heart, he smirked. Wait, what the fuck? My heart isn't fucking smirking.
"Bakugo has to be on the drums then!" Kaminari exclaimed, patting him on the back.
"I'm not doing something dumb like that!" Bakugo exclaimed, getting up from the drum set.
"Bakugo, please!" Jirou pleaded. "If you do it, it'll definitely turn out good!" His fist tightened around the drumsticks, and he looked at the ground.
"There's no way it'll be good!" he shouted, then began to storm off. He turned back for a second, his anger growing. "This is just some empty promise to let students from other courses blow off steam! If the cause of stress does that, it's just self-satisfaction, isn't it? They're not going to accept that from people they're angry at!"
Everyone was silent for a second before Iida spoke up.
"Indeed, we may not have been considerate enough…" he uttered, putting his hand to his chin.
"You didn't participate in the discussion, so don't complain about it now," Todoroki said.
"But doesn't it make you mad?" Bakugo shouted, turning to Todoroki. "It's not like we wanted to be attacked. Why do we have to care about how they feel?! If you guys are doing this to appeal to them, then stop it! We've gotta hit 'em! If we're gonna do this, we've gotta be serious. Let's kill everyone at U.A. with our sound!" he said dramatically, dragging his thumb across his throat.
For a moment, the rest of the class stood in silent shock at Bakugo's speech. Then, Kaminari embraced him, and he and the rest of the class began to rave about Bakugo's unexpected support. Bakugo wiggled out of Kaminari's grip and glared at him, but maybe—just maybe, he had smiled.
After the initial shock of Bakugo's speech had died down, Nakano raised her hand. She was now near Bakugo's side, unlike earlier when they'd been on opposite ends of the room.
"I think I should mention that I know how to play piano, just in case that is helpful for this," she said cautiously, looking to Jirou.
"Then, Kuri, you'll be on the keyboard," Jirou said.
"Cool," Nakano said, putting her hands in her jacket pockets. "I'll try not to fail."
Bakugo glared at her. "I'll try not to fail". What a half-assed response.
"You'd better be serious about this," Bakugo said roughly. Nakano looked up at him and smiled like a dumbass.
"Don't worry, I am," she said.
"Super serious!" he added.
"Got it. Super serious," she said through giggles.
"So, who's going to do the vocals," Tsu asked. The interns with make-up classes had returned home just a few minutes before. Upon their arrival, they had been briefed on who was doing what. Denki was leaning on his best bro, Kirishima, as the others relayed the information.
"Well, we haven't decided that yet," Jirou said, her earphone jacks twirling around. Denki watched her intently. Not in a creepy way, but more because he was interested in her for whatever reason. She wasn't what Denki would consider "his type", but something about her was so inexplicably attractive to him.
Maybe it was because she was cute? The way she blushed when he teased her was so satisfying.
Or maybe it was because she was so incredibly cool. Everything about her was cool to him: her walk, her talk, her sense of fashion, her quirk, etc.
And maybe there was a small part of him that liked how she could most definitely rock his shit if she wanted to. Like, please, take me.
"What? You're not going to sing, Jirou?" Uraraka asked. Jirou's eyes widened in confusion.
"Huh?!" Denki grinned. She was so cute when she was flustered.
"I'm with Ochako. I think it should be you, Jirou!" Hagakure said. "When you were teaching us in your room, your singing was super cool too!" It figured that her singing was super cool too! That's my girl who's not even my girl!
"Wait," Jirou said. "Don't make this harder by making people expect-" Hagakure cut her off and reassured her that everything would be fine as she set up a microphone in front of her.
"Sing something for us, Jirou!" Kirishima said. Jirou gulped and settled her hands on the microphone stand. Then, she took a deep inhale and began to sing.
Denki had never heard anything like it. Well, the closest thing he could think of was singing by a professional singer. The kind that sells out huge stadiums.
If he were to make more of a romantic comparison, then he would say that she for sure sounded like an angel. He didn't know what angels sounded like, but this was probably what they sounded like.
The only thing he knew for certain was that he was most definitely in love with Kyoka Jirou.
Jirou finished her song and slowly exhaled, then looked up at the rest of her class, who was watching her in amazement. When they were all pulled from the trance of the music, they all began to praise Jirou.
"It's decided then!" Iida said.
"Then, let's move on…" Jirou said, looking overwhelmed from the compliments. "So, we still need two guitarists."
Denki immediately raised his hand and started jumping up and down.
"Yay! I wanna do it!" he exclaimed. Bakugo, who was near him, suddenly spoke.
"It's not, 'I wanna do it'; Are you gonna kill it?!" Bakugo shouted. Kuri, who was beside Bakugo, gave him a funny look.
"Yeah, yeah, I totally will!" Denki said, grinning. He was excited that he'd get to work with Jirou. He turned towards her and caught her eye, then winked at her. Jirou blushed and turned away.
After some more deliberation over who else would be on the guitar, Tokoyami was chosen to play. Then, everyone else decided whether they wanted to dance or help with special effects.
"All right! Everyone's roles have been decided," Iida said triumphantly. "We'll be quite busy starting tomorrow!"
