In place of Shouto not being able to come because of his exams, Fuyumi makes her reappearance. It's the first time she's visited since coming with Shouto.

"Hi, Mom!"

"Hello, Fuyumi. It's nice to see you again." Rei says before embracing Fuyumi for their hello hug. "The school's not working you too hard now, are they?"

"Ugh, don't remind me. I've been through the ringer." She groans. "Sorry again about last time and not seeing you again until now. I really couldn't avoid it, but I made sure to come as early as I could!"

"And I'm very thankful for that but, as I've told you before, you don't have to come and force yourself to visit this old woman if you don't want to."

"Don't put it like that, Mom. I would come every day if I could." She says before separating. 'You look so lively today! Is it because you've been seeing Shouto recently?"

"Is it that obvious?" Rei asks and touches her own cheek. It's probably her imagination, but her skin does feel smoother than ever. "I've missed him so much. Our talks may have rejuvenated me a little. I've missed talking with you too, Fuyumi." She thinks about the most common people that Shouto talks about, and her mind drifts towards the one that she's most wanted to ask Fuyumi about; Momo. "Fuyumi, does Shouto ever tell you about his friends?"

"Friends?" Fuyumi jolts from surprise. "Er- sorry, this is going to sound really awkward, but I honestly didn't know he had any friends… He either never tells me anything or just gives me vague answers when I try to ask. He was always closer to you than I could ever be…"

"I see." Rei hums. "Don't worry too much about it. He himself refused to call them friends when I first asked. Lately, he's made significant efforts to become more approachable and he's willing to call them friends now. But, I'm sure he'll tell you about them soon enough. One of them is apparently a girl!" She says, unable to hold her excitement.

"What?! Does this mean Shouto has a girlfriend?!"

"No, I'm pretty certain that that's not the case. But, based on what he said, he does seem quite fond of her. He sounded just like a fan when he was describing her!"

Fuyumi leans in, likely a habit inherited from Rei. "Could you tell me about her?"

"Her name is Yaoyorozu Momo. She sits next to him in class and is the other recommended student in his class."

"...Sorry for saying this, but that's it? Surely there's more, right, Mom?"

"It's not that I don't want to share everything… but this is something that Shouto should share with you. I don't want to lose his trust by sharing everything that happens in our private talks." Rei bites her lip. She doesn't want to keep secrets from her children, but it's a little different when it's about one of their siblings. Still, Fuyumi's crestfallen face breaks Rei's heart, and she tries to come up with a more elegant solution than just repeating everything that Shouto said. "I know a way to kill two birds with one stone." She says after a few moments. "You said you've had trouble bonding with Shouto, right? Just ask him about her and he'll share lots of information with you. That's how it was with me. Oh, I forgot one more fact about her. She was his teammate during the second part of the tournament that you told me about before."

"That's a great idea!" Fuyumi exclaims. She then closes her eyes for a second and seems to think deeply about something. "Second part of the tournament? Yaoyorozu Momo, it's starting to ring a bell… Ooh! I think I know who you're talking about now!" Fuyumi begins to rummage through her bag. "I recorded some of the tournament, and Dad sent us some recordings too. Aha!" She pulls out her phone and starts to look through the pictures. "There's some pictures of her here. Do you want to see, Mom?" Rei assumes that her face is slightly apprehensive as Fuyumi quickly adds: "Don't worry, Dad isn't in any of these."

"Ah, that's good. The doctors still say I'm not ready to see him yet… though, I feel like I am at least capable of looking at him in pictures now. That aside, please show me. I would like to know the face of the person that your brother has great interest in."

A picture of four. Not counting Shouto, two boys and one girl. The two boys must be the Iida and Kaminari that Shouto described. Somehow, they look exactly like what she thought they would. And then her. An attractive girl with a high black ponytail. Based on the picture, she is nearly as tall as her son. What stands out more to her is the look that she's giving him. Not a schoolgirl in love that she slightly hoped for, not contempt, but… a look of respect alongside a refusal to ever back down to him. And he shares the same look as her both in this picture and whenever he is talking about her.

"I didn't think anything of it at the time, but she is quite pretty. She actually reminds me of you, Mom."

"...I don't know about that last part." Rei wonders if she's ever had that same look on her face. "Well, I do agree she is pretty, though." Rei laughs. Shouto would be mortified if he found out about what they were talking about.

"They look good together, don't you think so?"

"...I must agree." Rei admits. "Perhaps one day, he'll think the same. However, I don't want to push him. It's important that he makes this decision on his own."

"Hm, I guess you're right. That boy always goes at his own speed." Fuyumi sighs. "Anyway, I can't wait to hear him talk about her! By the way, has Natsu stopped by lately?"

Rei shakes her head. "No, not recently."

"Hah." Fuyumi sarcastically laughs. "There's no way he's been studying for this long. He probably got a girlfriend and only wants to spend time with her…"

Post-Final Exam

Two weeks. Two long weeks. Rei felt like it would be no issue to go through one week without seeing Shouto, and Fuyumi certainly helped dull the pain, but the week after ended up feeling excruciatingly long. The wait for her son is finally over.

"Hello, Shouto."

"Hi, Mom. I'm back"

"Welcome back. How were your exams?"

"The written exam was what I expected. My ranking for that was exactly the same as the practice exams; fifth place. Everyone managed to pass the written part, so that's good. Even the ones that ranked at the bottom of the class worked hard. Either that, or Yaoyorozu is very adept at teaching. Perhaps both, I think I'll try going next time. As for the practical, apparently some people got information that previous years used robots. That info proved to be incorrect. Our class got broken up into pairs and we needed to defeat the assigned hero teacher acting as a villain. The pairs didn't seem to be made randomly, though I had trouble understanding the logic for some of them. To pass, we either needed to incapacitate the teacher or at least one of us needed to make it to the designated exit."

"Who did you end up pairing together with?"

"Yaoyorozu."

"Oh?" Not that she wasn't being attentive before, but Rei braces her mind, ready to memorize his every word from now on.

Shouto seems to misinterpret Rei's murmur as a question. "She was my partner. I've told you about her before, right?"

'Yes, many times.' She thinks but refrains from saying. "I'm a little familiar with her. Her name comes up from time to time."

"We were against Aizawa-sensei and he was a tough opponent. Both of us have powerful quirks, but he was able to nullify that with his own. We got off to a tough start, which didn't help. I proposed a plan where she would make small objects while making our way towards the exit. If she couldn't create anything, that meant that he was nearby and we could take him by surprise. I would then distract Aizawa-sensei and she would run towards that exit. That was the plan… but instead of us catching him off guard, he was the one that turned the tables on us. Fortunately, Yaoyorozu managed to save us both from failing."

Rei frowns. It sounds as though they were a hair's breadth away from failing. "Was the exam that difficult?"

"Yeah, several people failed the practical exam. When Aizawa-sensei announced that we were together, we had some time to prepare. I thought she wasn't in good condition so I offered my plan first. Obviously, that didn't go as well as I hoped and we had a real chance of failing after Aizawa-sensei caught me. I also thought that I could find a way to get the upperhand in close range with my training, but that was arrogant of me. As expected of someone with years of experience in fighting villains with only his hands and weapons. Even if he didn't catch us off guard, I could tell that I was no match and my plan would have failed regardless. Still, I at least fulfilled the minimum duty and held him long enough for Yaoyorozu to get away. He saw through my plan and, after tying me up to a lamppost, told me that I should have listened to her first. I consider myself fortunate that I got another chance to correct my approach. She used her matryoshkas to disable him momentarily and then untied me so I could listen to her plan."

"Matryoshkas?" She asks, confused about what the Russian doll has to do with the story.

"Oh, the small objects she chose to create were matryoshkas. I was also confused when I saw them because it seemed very… out of the ordinary. Perhaps that was the idea; she hid flashbangs inside of her matryoshkas. That was quite clever of her, it fooled even me."

"Now you have me curious. What was her plan? You make it sound brilliant."

"After freeing me, Aizawa-sensei was right behind us so we needed to lose him. I was hesitating whether to fight him instead, but she immediately suggested that we run. She mentioned that his eyes haven't been as dependable ever since the villains attacked us, so I should keep trying to use my quirk in case he ever blinks. I used the same move I used at the Sports Festival, the Giant Ice Wall, to block his line of sight."

A technique that had been passed down among the people in Rei's family that had become heroes. She herself couldn't use it because of her weak constitution, but it makes her a little happy that Shouto inherited this technique.

"She made a replica of his binding weapon with something else in it. I think she said it was Nitinol Alloy. We would use that to capture him since we needed to keep property damage to a minimum to attain a good score and it's hard to pin him down because of his mobility and the speed of his binding weapon.

"In preparation of facing him, she created a mannequin, cloth, a mini-catapult, in addition to the alloy from before. The cloth was made to cover ourselves in. Though I say us, the mannequin was made to give the appearance that both of us were standing while she was holding it up with one hand by lying close to the ground. Her logic is that Aizawa-sensei needs to actually see the person to erase their quirk, so he would approach us to remove them. That part is just a decoy. She was right and, once he got close enough, she used the catapult to fling the alloy forward. My fire intentionally missed so he wouldn't try erasing it. The Nitinol Alloy temporarily returns to its original form when heated, so it binded him. We followed her plan and ended up trapping Aizawa-sensei. I told her it was thanks to her that we passed."

"That is quite the plan." Rei comments. "She came up with a plan where both of you managed to show off your abilities to your fullest. You should've both gotten high marks for that."

"If she were partnered with someone else, I'm sure she would have come up with an alternative plan that also suited them. I'm lucky that she was my partner."

"It sounds like you two worked well together."

"Yeah, you're right about that. Thanks, Mom."

"For what?"

"I managed to find the right words to comfort her thanks to you. I used your words that I should have said to Kaminari as a guideline for what to say to Yaoyorozu. I told her while I was tied up: 'This is your time to really shine! You got two votes for Class President, remember? I voted for you! Because I thought you were perfect for it!' She told me later that that was exactly what she needed to hear." He makes a small pause, and then asks: "Mom, can I ask you something? Is there crying that doesn't come from sadness?"

"What's this about?"

"When I said it was thanks to her that we passed and I should've believed in her sooner, she started crying and I had no idea why. She put her hand to cover her mouth so I thought she was trying to vomit. I offered to massage the pressure point on her foot. She didn't seem to like that and looked upset since her cheeks turned red and she walked away saying 'That's not it!' Aizawa-sensei also gave me a weird look."

"Oh, Shouto…" It takes everything she has to stop herself from laughing at him for making the pressure point comment. "Based on what you've told me, it sounds like she suffers from confidence issues. And since you, who she looks up to, acknowledged her plan and said thanks it made her happy. It may have been crying from happiness."

"Crying from happiness? Is that really possible?"

"Of course. When I heard that you were going to visit, I also cried from happiness."

"I see. I guess I have a lot to learn."

Rei tosses a question that's been plaguing her mind for a while. "What do you think of her?"

"She's very gifted. I think you're right about her confidence issues… but I don't understand it at all, she's not lacking in anything. Her quirk is very powerful and flexible, and her plan. She's even effective at teaching others; even the ones that scored at the bottom of the midterms managed to pass thanks to her efforts."

"What about her appearance?"

Shouto looks taken aback. "What?"

'It's the first time he's made that kind of face.' Rei smiles. "What do you think about her appearance-wise? Fuyumi showed me some pictures of you in the tournament and I happened to see her. I think she is a very attractive young lady. And you did mention that she had a nice smile before."

"...I don't disagree that she is attractive." He replies after a few seconds with a faint, but visible, blush on his cheeks. Up until now, she's only seen him being stoic and always wearing the same expression. Seeing this side of him is entertaining in its own way.

Perhaps it is just Rei, but she certainly feels something starting to bloom. 'But no need to push things. As Fuyumi said, Shouto should go at his own pace.'

"You mentioned that everyone who passed is going on the trip. What about the ones that didn't pass? And when is the trip?"

"They're taking everyone along, even the ones that didn't pass. The ones that didn't pass will just have supplementary lessons that he said would be far worse than summer school. The training camp is in two weeks. We still have to attend some summer classes, though."

"Do you know what to pack?"

He shrugs. "I'll just bring clothes and some essentials, they'll be providing us with food and lodging. The others mentioned they wanted to go shopping to prepare, but I don't think that's necessary. They're actually there right now."

"Shouto, but are you sure you don't want to spend time with your friends?"

He blankly stares back at her. "I missed you, so I came." He replies matter-of-factly. Though it warms her heart to hear him say that, she knows that this is an important time to bond with others his age when he hasn't had many opportunities. "Did you not want me to?"

'There's no way I can say no to that.' She thinks about the best approach for this situation. "I greatly appreciate you coming here," She starts slowly. "It's summer vacation, it's a good time to celebrate. Not just with me but with your friends."

He looks like he comes to a realization. "Oh that's right, you reminded me about something. There's also a festival coming up. I think it's called Ennichi. It's near our school."

"Are you going to go?"

"Yeah, I never got to do anything like that when I was young." His comment hits her like a rock.

"...I'm sorry."

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to put it like that. Though, I would love to go with you one day."

"Thank you, Shouto. Whenever I'm allowed to be outside I promise I will take you to all of the places we should have gone to when you were younger."

"You can't go with me this time, right?"

"I'm sorry, Shouto." She apologizes again. "It seems like I'll have to stay here a little longer. But that's okay. You can go and have fun in my place. When we go there together, you can show me all the places you've tried."

I'm out of busy season so I can write/read more fics! Or procrastinate trying, since I think I actually write more when I'm stressed lol