Kuri wasn't sure what the hell was going through her mind with all those firework metaphors the night before (maybe all the sugar was to blame) because pursuing English in a hero school was anything but glamorous. On the first day of the new term, Kuri went to Endeavor Agency to announce her resignation and tie up some loose ends during her last-ever shift of hero work. The process was relatively smooth, just involving some paperwork, but Kuri waited for the boys to finish their patrols instead of heading home early.
When the sun hung low in the sky, Kuri stood beside Katsuki, Izuku, and Shoto in a packed train car on the way back to UA. It was cramped, and all the passengers had brought in the late summer's heat, but the four of them still stood together to have a sentimental conversation in honor of Kuri's last day with them.
"Congrats for escaping my father," Shoto said. "Maybe I should become a teacher, too."
"Yeah, come join me. It'll be way more chill," Kuri laughed. She linked her arm around a metal pole to keep herself steady as the train rocked to and fro. Kuri glanced out the window at the view of the city bathed in the afternoon sun's glow. Those days of chatting after a long day of work would only be a memory from then on.
"We'll miss working with you, Kuri," Izuku said fondly. "But, I'm more happy that you found something you enjoy. I'm sure you'll be a great teacher!"
"Thanks, though I am sorry for ditching you all," Kuri said. She glanced at her boyfriend, who had hardly spoken since they left Endeavor's. "Especially you because you've got no patrol partner now."
"It's fine," Katsuki shrugged, having accepted her departure long before. "I wouldn't want to work with anyone else except you."
"I thought Endeavor was turning us into a trio?"
"Oh, god…"
"Hope you have a fun time, Katsuki," Kuri said, grabbing his hand and squeezing it. He tilted his head back in premature exhaustion, uneager to spend that much time with the other two. "I'll miss working with you, too."
"By the way, Kuri, what exactly will you do now that you're done with work?" Izuku asked.
"Well, let's just say it's something more relevant," Kuri said, piquing the interests of the two boys who hadn't already heard about her plan. "Nothing is finalized yet, but yesterday, I had an idea…"
An idea that took shape when Kuri headed to the faculty lounge during lunch break the following day. She briskly walked through the school corridors, breezing past fellow students with a nonchalant expression despite her growing worry. Would this conversation lead to her removal from the hero course? Plenty of people would do anything for her spot in Class 3-A, and she wasn't becoming a hero anyway, but could she bear to leave the people who had become her family?
Kuri stopped outside the door to the faculty lounge, her jaw clenched tight and her breath sealed inside her chest. She closed her eyes and exhaled sharply, deciding her future was more important than the temporary state of her social life, and grabbed the sliding door's handle.
She let herself in and hurried over to the teacher who immediately came to mind the night Kuri decided on her calling.
"Excuse me, Present Mic," Kuri said, garnering the man's attention as he swiveled his head away from his lunch. "I need some career planning advice."
"Really? Then, here, sit!" the blond man exclaimed, procuring a stool from somewhere nearby. Kuri accepted his offer and took a seat. "What sorta thing do you want to know about?"
Kuri heaved a small sigh and placed her hands above her knees
"Is it too late for me to become an English teacher like you?" Kuri asked. Her eyes pleaded with him that there might be a way, and luckily, Present Mic smiled in response.
"It's never too late to follow your passion!" Present Mic proclaimed. "You have plenty of time to study for the college entrance exams. And if you're worried about juggling teaching and pro hero work, just get a job like me!"
"Um, I actually don't plan to become a hero anymore," Kuri said awkwardly. "Turns out it's not really my thing."
"That's alright. Not everyone is meant for the job," Present Mic reassured her. Kuri was glad he accepted her readily, considering it was supposed to be a hero school.
"Also, I wanted to ask: do I have to transfer to the general course now? I bet some other people are worthy enough to take my place, anyway…" Kuri's voice slowly weakened as she continued her sentence. Her throat became dry as dread hit her again. Kuri's hands curled into fists in her lap. She really did not want to leave her class.
"Oh, that's not possible at this point," Present Mic said quickly, waving his hand. "UA policy says third-year students aren't allowed to transfer, so you're safe!"
Kuri breathed an immense sigh of relief at those words, and her shoulder tension melted away like snow in the spring.
"I'm glad," Kuri said with a smile. "Anyway, the main thing I wanted to talk about is the tutoring program."
"You've heard of it?" Present Mic asked with a raised eyebrow. She understood his bewilderment since Kuri's classmates never mentioned it. In fact, she only knew about it because she happened to see a poster outside their classroom several months before—probably as a message to 3-A that they needed to get their grades up.
"Yes, and I want to join as an English tutor," Kuri said. "Are there any open spots?"
"For my top student? Of course!" Present Mic exclaimed. "I'll help you bypass the application, so just let me know your availability over email, then I'll get you paired up with some students!"
"Thank you, I really appreciate your help," Kuri said, standing up and bowing. "I'm excited to start soon!"
"Anytime!" her teacher grinned. "By the way, if you ever change your mind about the hero stuff and want a job here, just reach out to me. I'll vouch for you!"
Kuri laughed and told him she would think about it before leaving. She returned to her classroom with a pep in her step, which wasn't just from her naturally bouncy way of walking. Her excitement carried her to the next week when she started her new (unpaid) job!
Every weekday after school, Kuri had one-on-one sessions with various students seeking to improve their English. She spent an hour with each student and met with two per day, adding up to ten hours of volunteer work a week. It was shorter than her old shifts at Endeavor's, meaning she had more time to do homework and study for entrance exams.
So far, the program had exceeded Kuri's expectations. She returned to the dorms each day fulfilled by helping the younger students and succeeding at befriending them. She truly enjoyed talking to each student and getting to know them while also receiving the gratification of helping them learn. And, most importantly, she loved it so much more than hero work.
Kuri assumed that with such a smooth sailing experience during her first four days of tutoring, the rest of her time at UA would be quite peaceful. She began to doubt this conclusion by Friday.
It started like any other day; once class ended, Kuri bid Katsuki goodbye and headed to the vacant classroom reserved for English tutoring. Her ninth student arrived, then they introduced themselves and started their first tutoring session together. After their hour wrapped up, Kuri's last student of the week waltzed in.
Since they hadn't met before, Kuri didn't recognize him when he stepped through the open door and scanned the room. She only noticed the tall boy with messy mint-green hair when he addressed her loudly from across the quiet space.
"No way! It's really you!"
All heads turned toward the boy with a shocked grin slapped across his face, and then their attention diverted to the person he was looking at. The other tutors shot Kuri confused glances, but she looked around for whoever else the kid could be talking to—surely not her, right?!
Alas, the boy approached Kuri and stood by the desk across from her. Kuri withheld a sigh at the realization that she had an oddball student. She knew she had been too lucky when the other nine seemed sweet and reserved. This kid, on the other hand…
"You're the girl who ate an egg during the sports festival!" he said with an incredulous laugh. Heat splashed across Kuri's face at the reminder of her embarrassing behavior.
"What? I didn't eat—!" Kuri blurted, floundering as she tried to set the record straight, even though the truth wasn't much better. Putting a fake egg in her mouth after it was buried in the dirt was about as bad as eating it. "Whatever, just sit down."
Kuri sighed, annoyed that the egg thing was such a big part of her legacy that people still brought it up over a year later. The boy seemingly took no notice of Kuri's exasperation, sitting down excitedly and throwing his bag on the floor beside him before immediately chattering away.
"When I saw your name on my list of tutors, I knew it looked familiar! I'm Yukio, by the way. Yukio Maruyama. But you don't have to call me by my last name."
Kuri regarded him silently for a split second, analyzing Yukio's wide grin and dark brown eyes that wouldn't stop staring at her.
"Nice to meet you," Kuri said, putting on an air of calm. "I guess you already know, but I'm Kuri Nakano. Are you a first-year?"
"Mhm, Class 1-B!"
Kuri raised her eyebrows at the familiar class name since she tutored another student in 1-B on Tuesdays. Maybe their class had some issues.
"What brings you to tutoring?" Kuri asked.
"I'm trying to get better in all my subjects!"
"To be the smartest in your class or something?" Kuri asked, chuckling lightly as she thought of her overachieving boyfriend.
"No, just not the worst," Yukio said, sheepishly scratching the back of his neck. "I want everyone to stop teasing me."
Kuri furrowed her brow at Yukio's shy confession. Were his classmates bullying him…? In any case, she wanted to make him feel better.
"I'm sure you can't be that bad," Kuri said, laughing to make the atmosphere more lighthearted.
Yukio shrugged, then grabbed his backpack off the floor. He rifled through it before handing her what looked like his most recent English test.
Kuri fought tooth and nail to keep her jaw from dropping through the floor. Circles drawn in glaring red pen marked nearly the entire page, and at the top of the paper was the lowest score she had ever seen a person receive. The sheet crinkled in her hand as Kuri developed a tactful response.
"Oh," was all she could think to say at first. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Yukio look away shamefully. Kuri felt sorry, so she placed his test on the desk and came up with something reassuring. "But, you still don't deserve to be made fun of. That's mean."
"They're just joking," Yukio said with an awkward smile that contrasted with the downcast look in his eyes. Seeing him make a face so familiar to her childhood struck Kuri like a bullet. That expression had practically been her default throughout the years she struggled to fit in. Memories of those times trapped Kuri's tongue, rendering her incapable of saying something to comfort him before he changed the subject. "So, why did you choose to be a tutor? I expected a third-year like you to be doing a work study. I mean, you were pretty talented, from what I remember!"
"I actually want to be an English teacher," Kuri answered. "Weird, I know—"
"Wow!" Yukio exclaimed, placing his hands on the table and leaning closer to her. "I haven't met anyone in the hero course who doesn't want to be a hero! You're really cool for going against the crowd."
His genuine amazement and curiosity took Kuri aback, and she couldn't help but feel pleased by his praise.
"Well, most people have big dreams about becoming heroes," Kuri shrugged, trying to act nonchalant even though she deeply appreciated his compliment. "I might have, too, if I lived a different life."
"Yeah, everyone here is so much more ambitious than me."
"What do you mean?" Kuri asked, raising an eyebrow. To her knowledge, every student at UA dreamed big, with many sharing the lofty goal of becoming the number one pro hero. Kuri was the only person she knew who had no plan—that is, until about a week ago. Knowing that someone else in the school wasn't hero-crazy piqued Kuri's curiosity.
"I'm just here because my parents said it was a good idea," Yukio replied with an easygoing smile. "I didn't have anything else in mind, but this wasn't my dream school or anything."
Oh! This kid is like me!
Kuri's heart sank in her chest as she realized the pitiful implications of that thought. At the very least, Yukio didn't seem to mind his current conditions; the tone of his voice didn't betray any of the bitterness Kuri felt years before entering UA. She became more curious about his situation and continued to question him.
"What would you have done if you didn't come to UA?" she asked tentatively.
Yukio's smile faded as he thought about her question.
"I don't know. Go to school close to home, keep playing soccer," Yukio said, looking down at the desk. He suddenly pursed his lips frustratedly, then locked eyes with Kuri again. "Did you know we can't join clubs if we're in the hero course?"
"Yeah, so we don't get 'distracted,'" Kuri said, trying to hide her annoyance as she recalled when she was barred from trying out for volleyball. "Did you play soccer in middle school?"
"I've been playing since I was seven!" Yukio said, his eyes suddenly wide and sparkling with excitement. "I really wish I could've kept doing it here because I used to play all the time. Honestly, my grades are worse than they could be because I haven't studied in years. My mom always yelled at me for staying out late to play."
"You haven't studied?!" Kuri exclaimed, blinking at him rapidly. "How'd you get into UA?"
"My mom forced me to before the entrance exams," Yukio laughed. "I barely did well enough to get in because I was still sneaking out to play. It helped that the practical exam was more important."
"With all that practice, you must be really good!" Kuri said, earning a pleased nod from Yukio. "If you never came here, you could have kept training and gone pro!"
"Maybe I could have," Yukio said wistfully. Kuri didn't like his tone of voice; he sounded as if he had already given up. If Yukio really was like her and destined for something besides hero work, she wanted him to realize that goal.
"You're only, like, what? Fifteen?" Kuri guessed. Yukio nodded. "It's not too late to pursue your interests."
"But I'm too busy with school," Yukio complained, sinking his head to the desk and using his crossed arms as a pillow.
"It doesn't hurt to consider a new path," Kuri insisted. "If I never thought to quit hero stuff, I wouldn't be here to teach you."
Yukio lifted his head and looked up at Kuri, his dark chocolate-colored eyes softening as they gazed at her. Kuri felt a knot form in her stomach, but she pushed it down once Yukio broke the silence.
"I guess you're right," Yukio said, a toothy smile springing onto his face. Then, he furrowed his brow. "Wait, shouldn't we have started by now?"
Kuri jumped in surprise, realizing they had wasted several precious minutes even though she had witnessed his alarming grades firsthand. She frantically told him to get out any other old tests, worksheets, and homework he had so they could identify his strengths and weaknesses. For the rest of the hour, Kuri kept them on track and analyzed every piece of paper to reach an unsurprising conclusion: Yukio needed major help.
When their time together finally concluded, Yukio gathered his papers back into his bag and slung it over his shoulder. Likewise, Kuri donned her backpack and returned the desk she used to its proper place.
"Thanks for everything, Kuri," Yukio said warmly.
"No problem!" Kuri replied, craning her neck to shoot him a smile in return. Yukio was so tall it reminded her of Mayu, who shot up like a weed between her past two visits home. "I hope we can be more productive next time."
"Are you going back to the dorms now?" he asked. "We could walk back together!"
His suggestion gave Kuri pause, but she agreed a second later. She wasn't sure what had caused her hesitation. Katsuki was still at Endeavor's, so she had no one to walk back with anyway. She liked having someone to chat with, but part of her knew she should have turned him down, even if there was no reason to be so cold.
On the way out of the school building, Yukio made small talk about how his heroics classes were going. He apparently excelled in them compared to academics and was ranked first in his class. Though he didn't bring up his quirk, Kuri had an inkling as to what it was as soon as they stepped out of the air-conditioned lobby and into the early September heat. The sun was less intense in the late afternoon, but it was still hot enough that she noticed a stark temperature difference when she stood beside Yukio.
"I like training and getting stronger, but I keep thinking about soccer no matter what we're doing," Yukio said, drawing Kuri's attention back to their conversation. He slowed his pace, and his shoulders fell as he sighed. "Am I wasting my time? Should I quit before it's too late?"
The suddenly weighty questions gave Kuri pause, and she tilted her head up as she considered what Yukio needed to hear. In Kuri's case, she absolutely needed permission to quit. She didn't know Yukio well enough to offer words catered to his experience, but she still wanted to say something wise. After all, Yukio's entire life (and her reputation as a cool upperclassman) was at stake!
"You shouldn't ask me for an answer," Kuri said. "There's nothing wrong with getting advice, but you should decide for yourself. It's your future, after all."
Apparently, Kuri had it in her to be inspiring because Yukio's entire face changed after she spoke. His eyes lit up with stars that outnumbered those in the Milky Way, and he looked at Kuri as if she were a goddess bestowing divine wisdom upon him. Honestly, his reaction was overkill, but she was glad he appreciated her two cents.
"Then, can I keep coming to you for advice?" Yukio asked, leaning toward her eagerly.
"Sure, but I'm biased against hero work, so keep that in mind," Kuri said, stepping away unconsciously to keep a constant distance between them. She thought of more ways in which she could advise him and thought to ask another question. "Would you say you like being a hero?"
"Our class activities aren't bad, but I know they're not the same as real life," Yukio answered as he tapped his chin with his forefinger. "And now, I wonder if soccer would have been a better fit for me."
"You'll have doubts no matter what," Kuri told him. "I still fear I may be letting people down."
"Don't sweat it, Kuri," Yukio said with an earnest grin. "Teaching is important, too!"
"Are you trying to give me advice now?" Kuri asked, amused.
"Oh, sorry if I overstepped!" Yukio said, putting his hands up in a show of innocence. "I just wanted to make you feel better."
"Thanks, Yukio," Kuri laughed. He was a surprisingly sweet kid. Maybe she shouldn't have immediately written him off after the strange first impression he gave. "Speaking of feeling better, do you have an ice quirk or something?"
"I didn't tell you before?" Yukio looked at her with raised eyebrows.
"No, but I could tell because the air is cooler near you."
"Oh, yeah, I am great to hang out with during the summer!" Yukio beamed with pride. He held out his palm face up, and ice crystals suddenly began to materialize on the surface of his skin. "This is all I'll do so you don't get too cold. When my quirk manifested, I filled the house with snow, and it was a huge mess!"
Kuri brought her hand close to his and felt the heat of her sweaty palm being sapped away. Yukio's hand twitched closer to hers, and she instinctively dodged him. Kuri cleared her throat and let it fall to her side again to ignore the awkward moment.
"I can even make you shaved ice if you want!" Yukio happily offered, seemingly unfazed. He ran to the door of his dorm building, which they had finally reached, and waved to her.
"Maybe another time," Kuri called from a distance. She waved him goodbye, then continued down the path towards the third-years' dorms. "See you next week, Yukio."
Kuri turned to face the road ahead and used her hand to shield her face from the sun, which suddenly felt much hotter. As she hurried to her dorm, Kuri tried to make sense of Yukio.
Strangely enough, walking without Yukio for a few minutes made Kuri realize how relieved she was to be alone again. That feeling confused her because it wasn't as if the boy was difficult to talk to, even considering his intense eye contact. In fact, she conversed with him much longer than the other students she tutored because she wanted to provide him with top-tier advice.
When he first started talking, she had the impression that he was one of those kids with a really bubbly, talkative personality. Kuri guessed he was popular in his class despite them teasing him about his grades, and she thought the two of them wouldn't get along. But the more she learned about his troubles, Kuri discovered that deep down, Yukio was a good kid who was lost in life. Thus, her heart softened for him, and Kuri planned to give him all the help he needed to succeed.
As Kuri walked up the steps to the dorm entrance, she left her reflective thoughts behind to focus on studying. At that point, as she removed her shoes and casually returned to her room, Kuri had no way of anticipating what was to come. She had disregarded the lone snowflakes melting in her hair so she wouldn't notice the blizzard until it was too late.