Izuku was jogging through campus – although his jog might have been another person's run – and found himself taking a different route from usual. There was no particular reason for it, but he didn't regret it. The tree cover was so thick you could almost forget you in the middle of a campus… well, disregarding the occasional aircraft or student shooting by overhead.
Still, the trees did a good job of cutting you off from the rest of the campus. If it wasn't on the campus of a literal hero school, it would have been the perfect place to get lost in. The low-hanging branches blocked light and sound both, meaning Izuku didn't realize he had found somebody until he was barely a stone's throw away.
Shiozaki Ibara sat in the midst of little clearing, her feet on the edge of a mirror-flat pond. Her hair grew out aggressively, taking root anywhere the sun hit. Climbing up the sides of trees, curving around the pond… it was an impressive scene, if made a little disturbing by the thought of it all being her hair. That and the way it writhed.
Stranger still was the sound. The clearing was filled with a strange sort of singing. Wordless and without any meaning he could divine, tumbling through 'diddly dows' and rising back up with 'dum di dum di'...
Paying more attention to the tempo of the music, he thought he could see the vines moving in time with it, gently swaying in time with the acapella music.
Izuku was transfixed for a moment, before one of those vines swayed straight into his shoe. The entire mass of it froze, the singing stopped, and Ibara snapped around to look at him. "Greetings, Midoriya. Was I needed for something?"
"No. I just happened to find…"
"Nice, isn't it? I've informed my classmates, but most haven't visited."
"That's… unfortunate, Shiozaki."
"Would you like a seat, Midoriya?" The vines receded like the tide, a path opening up to the pond's side.
"Thank you," Izuku muttered, tracing the open path Shiozaki left and sitting down on the grass. The dirt was soft, but Shiozaki's gaze – centered on him – was anything but. He didn't think she meant to be intimidating, but it did feel that way.
"Have you been preparing for the upcoming training?"
"Yes. I was exercising just now. Was… that your practice, Shiozaki?"
"Indeed. I'm trying to focus on control of greater volumes of vines. More to work with in any context…" she chuckled to herself. "Monoma would not appreciate me divulging such information."
"Was that your maximum just now?" Izuku asked, his interest piqued.
"Yes, but it's lacking in the fluidity I need."
"It looked fairly fluid…"
"When I sang? Yes. That helps." Shiozaki said.
"Is it like that thing where you speak to plants?" Izuku muttered. "No. It's part of your own body, so more like dancing?"
"Like dancing." Shiozaki smiled. "I hope to grow beyond it as a crutch. Singing during hero work…"
"There are some heroes that try to branch out into singing or idol work. It's good for popularity."
"I am not interested in any fame it might win me," Shiozaki said. "Of course, I can't argue against effective heroism, but I think there is a tendency to… pollute heroism with clout-chasing."
"Well, I think some heroes are just… so good they become popular inherent? Like All-Might."
"That is true," Shiozaki conceded. "People are moved by charity. By love."
"Love?"
"Would you call it something else? All-Might loves people. Not in a romantic sense, necessarily…"
Izuku hadn't really thought of it that way before, but it made a sort of sense. What drove a true hero into the fight was, in some sense, love. Love that surpassed self preservation.
"Is that why you're a hero?" Izuku asked. That was… a personal question, he would admit. A loaded one. But he thought he was reading this right.
"Yes. I hope I might be able to help others. I've the ability, and so I have the obligation."
"With great power comes great responsibility?"
"Not the exact wording I'd use, but yes." Ibara smiled. "That's my sentiment."
"What words would you use?"
"I'd say… buried talents, but the lesson is more important than the image. We are all called. In fact…" Shiozaki trailed off for a moment, "May I join you in your exercise, Midoriya? Assuming that it isn't some Class A secret?"
Was this…? Izuku gulped. "Of course not! You're welcome to, Shiozaki!"
She stood up, dusting herself off. She held a hand out, and Izuku muttered "Thanks," as he rose to his feet by himself.
With that, they were off. Unfortunately, a pace that challenged Izuku certainly challenged Shiozaki, and she began to flag.
She sputtered to a stop, her hands on her knees and her vines almost trying to take root in the soil. "You're… welcome to carry on… without me…"
Izuku could wait. He offered her his water bottle and waited for her to catch her breath.
(The vines almost seemed to show a sort of intelligence, clumping up ever so slightly in Shiozaki's shadow. Was that counterintuitive to gathering solar energy? But no. Surely, that amount of surface area wasn't sufficient to keep Shiozaki running?)
"It doesn't even begin to cover the amount of energy I need," Shiozaki muttered. "I'm fortunate it's not a caloric drain."
"Do you need supplements for it?"
"They help."
It wasn't the only thing that the was curious about. "What was that singing before?"
"Lilting. Wordless singing. Irish."
"How did you learn that?"
"English studies pen-pal. Ireland."
"Really?" Izuku asked. "Did they ever speak about the European heroics scene?"
Shiozaki chuckled. "A bit. Mostly to warn me of the dangers of hero work…"