Chapter 33

If dating was a video-game, then Izuku felt like he was a level one novice about to solo raid a high level dungeon with no armor, potions or stat-boosts. Like most video-games, he would have to gain experience points in order to level up, but that would involve multiple encounters and a lot of level grinding. He tried to remind himself that this wasn't the first encounter he'd had with Alyssa and that no grinding would be necessary, but even visualizing it in gamer terms twisted it into something that made his face burn.

The notecards crinkled in his hand, his fingertips smudged black where the ink hadn't dried. They contained numerous notes of what to do on his date, from lists of conversation topics to tips about how to show he was interested; he had even asked for advice from Kaminari, the only one of his friends that he knew who was actually dating someone. They were his game guide, his ultimate cheat code for if the date went south. He had spent several hours researching activities and places for what would be ideal dating spots for young couples with Alyssa's interests in mind and after three hours of notes, research, and simplifying a scribbled out mini Campos notebook into a handful of notecards he had memorized, he had the itinerary planned out down to the last second of their date.

First they would go to the arcade where he would win Alyssa a prize, then they would go to Jojo's Diner to eat and make general small talk, and finally he would take Alyssa for a walk on the beach in time to watch the sunset. Originally he had thought to start the date at Alyssa's lightsaber class and make that part of the date, but he still didn't qualify for Sunday intensive yet. She promised to meet him at the station when she was done; judging from the all caps on her phone, she seemed pleased to find out that the location of their date was deep in the boroughs of Akihabara. He had chosen it as the main location of their date due to it being the motherland of geek culture and one of the places they'd had first met. That would give them half the day to hangout before she had to be home by nine, giving him all the more reason to make each second count.

Having just come back from practice, Izuku expected to find Alyssa decked out in sweats and a t-shirt. Instead he was surprised to see her in a short-sleeved, waist-length black sweater and a long flowing shirt-dress that buttoned down to her hips and went well past her knees like a samurai's jinbaori. The sweater was only buttoned at the top button, creating a bare canvas for her collarbone while the slits between the paisley blue shirt-dress revealed a flattering pair of black skinny-jeans that showed off the length of her legs, ending at a sporty pair of black Asics.

Izuku swallowed. The boss battle had begun. "Wow... Y-You look great."

"Thanks, I managed to grab a quick shower at the rec center before going out." Alyssa tucked damp strand of baby hair behind her ear, something he noticed she always did when she was self conscious. "You look great too."

"Thank you." Not having any idea about what to wear on a date, Izuku had picked out the first thing that he thought looked nice, something his mother would have approved of if they had company over. He settled on a forest green cardigan and wore it over a green and white plaid shirt and a pair of denim blue jeans. After fidgeting with the mahogany buttons of his sweater for almost ten minutes, debating on whether or not he would look better with it being buttoned up or not, he decided to leave it unbuttoned for the sake of his nerves. He noticed that Alyssa's large tote bag and lightsaber were nowhere to be seen, replaced by a small, black handbag. "Where's your gear?"

"I rented a locker to keep it in while we're here. I'll pick it up on Tuesday when I go to my next class. So where are we off to?"

"The Kantobaito Arcade. Since you mentioned playing video-games was an ideal date for you, I figured that would be a good place to start," Izuku said, already starting to second-guess himself, "Unless all the sounds and noises are too much for you."

"Are you kidding? I practically grew up playing in arcades! Let's go!"

Once he corrected her which way they were going, Alyssa followed after him like an eager puppy before matching his stride. He made an effort to stand on Alyssa's left side in order to block her from the traffic, remembering the notecard that said that guys should stand on the side closest to the road to shield their partner from the busyness of the streets. That made little sense now, since the roads in Akihabara were blocked off from cars on Sundays and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, but the memory of how Alyssa had nearly been run over gave the idea merit. Izuku glanced down at the clenched fists she swung at her sides and felt relieved that he wasn't the only one who was a bundle of nerves. He thought about holding her hand, but with so many people around, it suddenly felt too advanced for him. For right now, he was content enough just walking beside her.

"I can't wait to show you around," said Izuku, feeling giddy after being greeted by a muddled symphony of 8-bit SFX and tinny main menu screens from his childhood. "This place has the best collection of classic games in Japan."

"Sweet! This one of those pay-to-play places, right? Not the ones that you can win prizes with tokens and tickets?"

Izuku frowned. "Yeah. Why? Would you prefer to go to a place like that instead?"

"No way, this is awesome! I'm just more accustomed to arcades giving you tickets than just letting you play for the sake of playing," Alyssa said and then cursed. "Oh shoot, I hope I brought enough change with me." Izuku then pulled out a sack full of ten yen coins that jingled in his pocket.

"Don't worry. I got you covered. Plus there's an ATM machine nearby if you need more." Izuku hoped it wouldn't have to come to that. Thankfully, arcades were relatively cheap that he could pay for him and Alyssa to go a few rounds without hurting for cash, but he still wanted to stay on budget. He still had to pay for dinner after all.

Alyssa eyes sparkled with excitement behind her horn-rimmed glasses, taking in the large, eclectic arcade. "Oh my gosh, I don't know where to start."

"If you want, there are a few crane games nearby if you still want a prize."

"I might take you up on that, but let's wait until later to tackle that. Those machines can scam you out of a week's worth of food money if you're not careful."

"Good point. Got any favorite games you want to start off with? They have pretty much everything."

"Hmm I do like choices... Oooh what is that? That looks like fun." Alyssa pointed towards the large console sitting in the back corner with two taiko drums sitting in front of the screen called Taiko no Tatsujin V, the exact kind of game that Izuku was terrible at.

"It's a rhythm game. You hit the drum to the beat of the music and try to win based on how high your spirit gauge gets," he explained. "I haven't played it all that much, but it's pretty fun once you get the hang of it."

"Oooh then I definitely wanna try that," said Alyssa, tilting her head slightly. "It looks kinda like Band Hero, just with taiko drums and anime songs."

Izuku had no idea what Band Hero was but it sounded self-explanatory as he stuck in two ten pieces and selected multiplayer mode, grabbing his bachi drumsticks and tapped the center of his drum with it to begin. "Let's start out with something simple."

They played through the tutorial on Easy and chose songs that only had low star counts, trying to hit the drum when the notes were red and the sides when the notes were blue. After some practice, Izuku had actually managed to nail bigger combos than Alyssa. Little did he know that was going to be the most he succeeded on this, steadily getting worse as they continued with harder songs with Alyssa barely fairing any better.

"Let's make next round more interesting," she wagered, resting her arms after dealing with a four star Vocaloid song with a grueling drum solo. "Loser has to buy the other person a drink."

Izuku thought for a moment. It was true he had no sense of rhythm, not wired for music like everyone else, but Alyssa seemed to struggle with it as well. Maybe playing the violin didn't translate well into percussion. "Okay, you're on. Here. You can even pick the next song," Izuku relented, handing Alyssa his bachi to choose the next song as he inserted two more coins to extend their time. Unlike him, Alyssa quickly scrolled over the playlist, not even bothering to read the text or take her time like before as she listened to the first couple of seconds of the song before skipping to the next. When she settled on a song called 'Bad Apple! feat. nomico' and hit Start, it struck him as odd that Alyssa picked a six star level and had chosen it to be set on the Hard difficulty setting, despite allegedly never having played it before. He couldn't dwell on it long, the notes coming hard and fast as Izuku struggled to keep up. Meanwhile Alyssa appeared to be having a blast, unfazed by the rapid beats as she sang along, her lips pressed together in concentration during the more complicated parts as she smacked the top and sides of the drum in quick succession. By the end, she had a long streaming combo of one hundred and forty six notes while Izuku was spent, left with a measly five, having failed before he had truly begun. It was almost like she knew the notes were coming...

Realization dawned on him. "You... you tricked me!" Izuku exclaimed. Alyssa's carefully straight face broke as she let out an evil cackle.

"That's right! You got hustled, SON!" she burst out with gusto like she was a comic-book supervillain revealing their nefarious plot in a gleeful monologue. "You fell for my trap card! Not only have I played this game before, but I knew about this song long before I even moved to Japan! I have fifteen different remixes of it on my iPod! Muahahaha!"

"...I've been defeated." Izuku felt like the spotlight was on him, knees sinking to the floor. He had never been played so thoroughly. He almost felt hollow from how blindsided he had been.

"I take my drinks cold and with no caffeine," Alyssa said smugly and let out another villainous laugh that reminded him of Iida when he got caught up playing the bad guy before she stopped and patted him sympathetically on the shoulder. "Awww don't feel too bad. I promise, this is like the only song I'm good at. You can cream me at one of the games you're good at."

"Oh, you are so going to get it!" Izuku challenged with a smirk, energy renewed as he grabbed her hand and led her past many rows of fighter games before stopping in front of one of the empty Hero! Royale consoles. It wasn't the exact game from his childhood, this console lacking his and Kacchan's high scores on the leader-board, but it still held the same nostalgia. "This was one of my favorite games growing up. It resembles your stereotypical PvP fighter game, but it actually has a ton of pro-heroes as players, many of which date back at least two decades before the current line up of heroes on the Japanese National Hero Board. Endeavor and All Might are there, of course, but they have a ton of retired and international heroes like Yoroi Musha and Big Red Dot-"

"So it's like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat?"

"Sort of. The game let's you control all four limbs instead of just the arms, plus if you fill the fight gauge, you can use one of their super moves like All Might's Texas Smash as an ultra finisher-"

"So like Tekken then."

"Not exactly-" Izuku paused. "Okay, so it's exactly like that, but I promise that it's really fun. The graphics are really good for this model and there's even a campaign mode for each character." He scrolled over the many choices, his Player 1 cursor hovering over Silver Age All Might before locking it in.

"You're not going to play as All Might Prime?" asked Alyssa who was still deciding, cursor hovering between Downpour and Thunderhead.

"Nah, I always play Silver Age All Might. I kind of prefer him over his other costumes, save for Golden Age All Might, but that one doesn't exist in this version of the game."

"Alright. I'll stick with the young Might then. I love me a good underdog, plus I think he looks rather dashing."

"'Dashing'..?"

"Yeah, you know gallant, handsome, cute."

"Cute!?"

"Of course. Heroes always look cute in their alpha costume phase. It's so fun to see where they grow from and how they upgrade their costume."

Izuku sighed in relief. "Oh that's what you meant..."

"What? Are you jealous?" Alyssa teased.

"Wh- no!"

"Don't worry! I still think you're cuter. Now let's play, cutie~" Izuku's cheeks burned, suddenly filled with a desire to show her his various stages of his hero costume and bury his head in his cardigan. Perhaps sometime after Izuku had told her who he actually was, maybe she would tell him that she liked his alpha costume too. Then again, his mother had made it for him and it was beyond destroyed, held only together by glue, thread, and sheer willpower. The only reason that it hadn't been thrown away by his designers was because he was sentimental. Would she still even want to talk to him after that or would she-?

"FIGHT!" the screen yelled. Izuku snapped out of current train of thought as loud, obnoxious grunts of the same voice erupted onscreen as if in stereo, displaying a bizarre image of All Might exchanging blows with himself. Having played this game more times than he could count, Izuku was quickly whittling down the HP of the younger Might, his character lauding over Alyssa's as if to say 'I am the far superior version.'

Alyssa chuckled, also finding the whole scenario of All Might beating himself up hilarious. "Ha, it's All Might beating up Small Might!" A tense couple of seconds seemed to pass over them at her unique word choice, causing Izuku to blow the combo he had been setting up, giving Alyssa an opening to get a few punches in. An unfamiliar emotion flitted across her face before it disappeared, continuing to mash buttons until one of the characters was on the floor. The screen yelled "FINISH THEM!" as the older All Might powered up and yelled a furious 'Texas SMASH!' and blasted the other All Might off-screen. "Winner, Player One!"

Alyssa dropped her hands from the controls. "Ahh dammit, I almost had you!"

"Don't worry. You can try again next time," Izuku cheered, not wanting to discourage her from playing. "If you want, I could teach you a few moves."

"Thanks, but I'll just stick with the power of button mashing. I'd probably forget them anyways," she shrugged and gave him another teasing nudge. "You better not go trying to let me win just because I'm your girlfriend. I wanna beat you at your best."

Izuku let that hang in the air for a moment. Girlfriend. He had a... girlfriend? Was that what they were now, boyfriend and girlfriend? He had heard that couples who had confessed to each other were automatically a thing, but she'd said it so casually! Had it always been that easy? Izuku couldn't help feel a simmer of frustration at all the years he could have had a girlfriend if he'd only had the courage to ask. Perhaps things would have been different between him and Muse-Musume or maybe even Ochako.

He felt his face stretch into a dorky grin. 'Girlfriend.' He had a girlfriend now. How cool was that?

"Whatchu smilin' about?" Alyssa grinned in satisfaction like a cat that had been given cream. Caught, Izuku's cheeks warmed as he bashfully turned away and rubbed the back of his neck.

"N-Nothing! I just kinda realized that... W-well you're m-my g-girlfriend now and... it just all kinda hit me."

"Oh... Okay. Cool," Alyssa returned with sheepish grin of her own. "I hope you don't mind if I called you that. 'Dating' might have been a better word."

"N-No no, it's fine!"

"Alright. Okay. Cool! Let's go for another game then!" They played a few more rounds, Izuku winning every time before they moved onto something else. He noticed Alyssa always seemed to go for the exact opposite games he had expected. He figured she would have gone for more music games like the dance machines he was always so terrible at, but sometimes she went towards the more retro games like a Jurassic Park shooter game or Mario Kart (something she was also smugly good at) or something that had complex controls outside of simple button pushing. His wallet nearly spent, they stopped at the vending machines for a break.

"One cold, caffeine-free drink," Izuku announced before handing her a can of Genki Forest sparkling water. Alyssa sipped the white peach flavor and hummed with satisfaction.

"Ahhh victory has never tasted so sweat," she said, absentmindedly twirling the can in her hand while he drank his milk tea. "You know the drum song I beat you at was from a bullet-hell doujin game series that actually made its debut at Comiket- the Touhou Project. The indie franchise got so popular that 'Bad Apple' went viral in the states. That's why I knew about it. So many people have made parodies of that PV for different anime."

"That's amazing."

"Yeah, it is." Alyssa took another sip from her drink. "I love pet projects like that. They feel so handmade and personal, like you can tell the creators poured their hearts and souls into it like a labor of love and not solely for a contract or obligation for corporate deadlines. You feel so proud when they make it big, like 'I knew them when they were coding in their parent's basement,' like you helped make them famous. Toby Fox did that with Undertale."

"I love Undertale!" Izuku exclaimed.

"You played Undertale?"

"Yeah, when I was a kid. I cried my eyes out at the true ending."

"I know! The pacifist route hits so hard, it was so good!" she squealed. "Do you play any other indie games, like on Itchio, or did you have stacks of CD-ROMs?"

"No, I just mostly played on Steam or internet flash games. Now that I think about it, I played a lot of PC games when I was a kid," Izuku said, his thoughts racing with possibilities. "Do you have a Minecraft account? I haven't played in awhile, but we could do multiplayer mode together and visit each others' worlds."

"I'm sorry but I've never played Minecraft. Everyone keeps trying to talk me into it, but I'm a casual gamer. I can't even remember the last time I even picked any of my console games, let alone anything else. I've been too focused on my comic and stuff."

"Speaking of which, when will I get to read your mysterious comic? I'm eager to get my hands on it."

"You will. I just uhh... need to translate it and get all the pages Xerox-'d and bound together into an actual book," she said, her voice and manner breezy despite her whole body appearing tense. "I promise, the first copy in print will be yours, free of charge."

"Okay, but I'm paying for the next two," Izuku added. "I want to have one to keep in the plastic and one to sell for when you become famous."

"But you haven't even read it yet! How do you know it's going to be any good?"

"Because you made it. I've seen your drawings. You could almost put Muse-Musume to shame with your style! I'm sure you'll be the next great thing to come out of Comiket."

"...Oh my gosh, fine, you nerd. I'll put you down for three copies," Alyssa muttered, tightly hugging her chest like she was trying to make herself smaller. "I doubt I'll ever get that big, but... thank you."

"You're welcome." Izuku glanced at the large analog clock on the wall. They'd have to get going soon if they were going to make their reservation. "So you want to hit the crane games real quick and then we can go eat?"

"Sure." Alyssa then chugged the rest of her drink and tossed it into the recycling bin with his. An extensive array of cute plushie creatures and trinkets stretched out before them, but none of them seemed to catch Alyssa's eye. 'They're all too generic cute,' she said, whatever that meant. While she wandered from machine to machine, Izuku glanced at the meager handful of coins in his palm. One of his notecards said that giving gifts to show you cared was important in a relationship, but he didn't have a ton left for the crane games and chances were that you would often spend more than what the prize was worth, if you won at all. He stared at a collection of gacha machines and decided to try his luck there first. He twisted the plastic knob of a gachapon that dispensed jewelry and received a large grey capsule. Inside was a celadon-green butterfly necklace with gold-colored plating and chain. He contemplated the style and glass colored wings for a moment and then pocketed the capsule before joining Alyssa. She was currently doing battle with a particularly stubborn plushie that refused to yield to her advances. She smacked the side of the machine. "Fall, damn you!"

"Which one are you trying to get?"

Alyssa pointed to a mint-color rabbit with wings that sat on the edge of a pile of mismatched stuffed animals. "I've been trying to knock him over like six times, but the crane keeps eating my money!"

"Let me give it a shot." Izuku placed the money in the machine and aimed. The crane shakily reached for the rabbit before barely nudging his ear and resetting. He tried a second time and managed to nudge it forward before the game reset. Izuku frowned. It appeared that this was the true boss fight all along, a secret boss he had unlocked with his story choices. He placed another fifty yen into the machine.

"Wait, I learned this trick from one of my dad's ex-girlfriends," Alyssa said, her long ponytail sweeping over her shoulder as she leaned forward, close enough that he could smell the rosemary in her hair. "The key is to not get what you want but get what's closest to the drop point, so you can knock it over rather than pick it up." Following Alyssa's advice, Izuku steadied his hand on the joystick and guided the claw until it dropped in the empty space between the rabbit and an Endeavor plushie. It nudged the bunny as the crane weakly dropped the hero plushie close to the exit and reset, leaving him out of cash. "...Well, it's not a perfect science. It's okay though. I didn't really want him for the right reasons anyways. I'm not even that big of a fan of Hetalia. I just liked color and the fact that he reminded me of... nevermind. It was an impulse buy."

Izuku could feel the blood rush in his ears as the dots started to connect. "Y-You really like that mystery hero a lot, huh?"

He felt like his heart was about to drop out of his chest as she shrugged in defeat. "Yep. You caught me. I am a total simp for the guy. I have no idea who he is or what he looks like without the costume, but I have a full-blown celebrity crush on him. How crazy is that?"

For the second time that night, Muse-Musume's name came to mind. "It's not... that crazy." His hand clenched around the necklace, feeling the edges press into his palm before he took his fist out of his pocket. "Here. It's no stuffed animal but.. consider this a consolation prize."

"You got me something? That's so sweet. You didn't have to do that."

"I wanted to. I figured if I couldn't win you anything from the machines, the least I could do was give you something you'd like." Izuku watched her reaction as he poured the necklace into her hands. "...do you like it?"

"It's beautiful..." said Alyssa, wordlessly running a soft fingertip over one of the wings in reverence. "Where did you get this?"

"From one of the capsule machines. May I?" Her head tilted, perplexed for a moment before she leaned over and pushed back her hair. Izuku could smell the fresh rosemary and lavender scent as he pulled the turquoise necklace around her neck, fumbling with the clasp for a few seconds before his calloused fingers pressed it shut. "It looks good on you," he said, admiring how the accessory filled the bare center of her olive-toned chest, like it was the only thing missing from her ensemble.

"Thanks. How'd you know this was my favorite color?"

"Your favorite color is green?"

"Yeah- turquoise, to be more specific." She blushed and looked down, caressing the smooth butterfly wing with her thumb. "What about you? What's your favorite color?"

Izuku glanced at the blush in her round cheeks. "Red."

"That explains the shoes." She pointed to the fresh pair of high tops that he had just started to break in before her eyes lit up. "You finally got new ones! Congrats. Those are Might-E brand, right?"

"Y-Yeah..." Izuku felt himself glow a shade brighter. He couldn't believe she noticed.

"You should sell your old ones on eBay, if you still have them. Who knows? Maybe you'll get something for them. You're a hero, aren't cha? Someone's bound to want Deku's shoes."

"Maybe... So uhhh did you get anything from the gacha machines?"

Alyssa lifted up a handful of capsules that had been hidden in her purse. "A glowing Koopa shell, a bootleg Lugia, a Sailor Mars charm, and another All Might keychain- though I think his colors are wrong. Aren't the stripes on his golden age costume supposed to be red and white, not red and blue?"

"Let me see." Izuku took the capsule from Alyssa, scrutinizing over the finer details and froze. "Holy whoa! You got a factory mispaint!? You're so lucky!"

"Oh cool, then he'll be perfect for your collection."

Izuku paused. "Wait you're giving him to me? Don't you want to keep him? I mean, I'm sure you could sell him online for hundreds of dollars. It's not every day that you get a one-of-a-kind treasure like this."

Alyssa giggled. "I'm sure. Plus, I was going to give him to you anyways."

"Wow, thanks! Gosh... Now I wish I got you something nicer than a gachapon necklace."

"Don't be. I love it."

"Really? You don't mind that it's not something really expensive?"

"I don't need expensive things to be happy. I'd much rather prefer a gumball machine necklace I like over a real gold necklace that just looks nice," she said, her smile mirroring his before a low gurgle broke the silence. Alyssa hugged her midsection in embarrassment.

"You okay? Is it your stomach?"

"No no, I'm fine! It's just that talking about gumballs reminded me of how hungry I am."

"Have you not eaten anything today?" he asked, concerned that Alyssa had denied herself food again for the sake of not ruining their date. He didn't enjoy the idea of her starving herself.

"No- I mean yes, I had a protein bar and a sports drink, but that was like three hours ago. You mentioned getting dinner, right?"

"Yes. I made reservations for six thirty."

"Oh great- wait, it's nothing too fancy, right? 'Cause I can't eat that and I don't want you to go broke on my account."

"No it's not too fancy, but will you get sick?"

"Don't worry. I can still eat. I'll probably just pick something off the menu that doesn't have a lot of sugar or spices in it." They had been walking side by side down otome road for awhile, having crossed into Ikkebukuro at some point when trying to find their way back to the station when Izuku remembered the notecard on showing affection and offered his hand to hers. Rather than take his hand, Alyssa took it up a level and took his arm instead. Warmth fluttered inside his chest at the gesture while a small part of him worried if she was avoiding his hand because she didn't like his scars. He tried not to think about it too much, instead focusing on the sensation of having Alyssa's arm wrapped around his. So far, things were going well. Phase One of the boss fight was complete. Now he just needed to make it to Phase Two.

"So what kind of place is it that we're going to?" she asked.

"It's this diner right by the station. It has the best American food, which I figured you would like since, you know, you're American, and have been living in Japan for so long and might feel homesick-"

"That sounds great- as long as it's not Jojo's Diner."

Izuku froze. "Why?"

"I tried eating there once with my mom after an oncology appointment in Shinjuku, and we both got so sick from it that just the smell from any of the food chains is enough to make me nauseous."

"...Oh." A cold, nervous sweat began beading on his forehead. He had tried so hard to avoid selecting restaurants with high price tags. He had never considered the possibility that American food from Alyssa's own country could make her sick. The diner still had healthy options, but even if he could get her in there, he couldn't make Alyssa only eat a salad when she'd hardly had anything to eat today.

He felt his arm tug back slightly as Alyssa slowed her pace, lingering at the doorway of one of the maid cafes. The smell of sweets and freshly ground coffee beans filled the air as the door to Ranka Nyan Café opened to let out a group of customers. He couldn't miss the sigh from her that followed as Alyssa stared longingly at the fleur de lis decorated glass door.

"...Do you want to go in?" Izuku asked.

"No!" Alyssa said a little too quickly, resembling a child that just had gotten caught with their hand in the cookie jar. "...Yes. But we don't have to if you don't want to! I'm fine with doing your plan."

"We can do this instead."

"But what about your reservations?"

"Forget about them. We can go another time."

Alyssa bit her lip. "Are you sure? You don't think it's a too nerdy or... weird?"

"Not at all. I think it's cute that you're all embarrassed," Izuku admitted. Alyssa forced back a smile, her dimples stretched wide and flushed pink as she wordlessly buried herself into his shoulder and let out a low whine. He chuckled at her attempt to hide herself before leading her into the café

Okay so everything hadn't exactly gone according to plan like he thought. There had been few bumps in the road, but if he was being ranked, Izuku would have to give himself at least a B Rank for the first part of the date. Now he just had to deal with making small talk over dinner.

A bell chimed as they walked in, the door opening up to a western styled coffee house café with various pieces of art and abstract illustrations decorating the walls.

"Welcome home, Nyaster~ Meowstres-" The dark-skinned cat girl broke off from her cutesy greeting, replaced by a growing horror in her wide gold eyes, eyes that had normally been narrowed and filled with scorn.

"...Amaya?"


Author's Note: References are literally any MMORPG like World of Warcraft, Canto Bight (Kantobaito) and Tattooine from Star Wars, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Storm from Marvel's X-Men, Thunderhead from The Incredibles, "Bad Apple" from Lotus Land Story from the Touhou Project, Yu-Gi-Oh!, The Amazing World of Gumball, Flying Mint Bunny from Hetalia, Koopa from Super Mario Bros, Lugia from Pokémon, Sailor Mars from Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, and Ranka Lee from Macross Frontier.

Hero/Villain Profiles

Name: Talia Bronte
Hero Name/Alias: Downpour
Quirk: Aquakinesis
She can manipulate water molecules and, depending on how fast she makes the molecules vibrate, cause them to become a solid, liquid, or gas.
Fun Facts: Despite having the ability to become a pro-hero, her ability is underdeveloped. She's more famous for creating products that appeal to housewives. Her name means 'dew' and 'thunder.' She is based off of a combination of Oprah, Martha Stewart, and Storm from Marvel's X-Men.

Bonus - Omake

Izuku: I can't believe it!
Alyssa: You thought you were going to beat me, but it 'twas I, Alyssa, that bested you! MUAHAHAHAHA!