"You don't have to follow me, I'm fine," Jirou insisted once more, casting a side glance at Izuku. It was nice of him to worry, really, but it wasn't like she couldn't make the walk to a classroom on her own.
Izuku, unfazed, simply tilted his head. "Jack, how long have you known me?"
Jirou slowed her steps, blinking at him. "Uh… a year now? Maybe a little more?"
"And in all that time," he continued, voice taking on a grave seriousness, "have you ever known me to be the kind of person who would turn down an excuse to visit the UA Support Course?"
Jirou stopped completely, staring at him in disbelief. "Oh, so you're not actually worried. You're just a giant nerd."
Izuku shrugged, completely unapologetic. "Say what you want, I'm not passing up this opportunity."
Jirou let out a snort, shaking her head as she started walking again. "Won't Midnight be mad if you're late for class?"
That actually made him falter, his confident stride interrupted as he stumbled mid-step. Jirou smirked, reclaiming the lead.
"I-I'm sure she won't mind," he tried to recover, though he didn't sound too convinced.
"Uh-huh, sure," Jirou drawled, smirking as she kept walking. "Well, if you get detention, at least you'll have a fun excuse."
Izuku sighed, rubbing the back of his head before hurrying to catch up. Some things were worth the risk.
Stepping into the room, Jirou immediately noted that it felt less like a classroom and more like a full-fledged workshop. Instead of rows of desks, six large tables were scattered throughout the space, each surrounded by metal stools and covered in various tools, blueprints, and half-assembled gadgets. The walls were lined with power tools, wrenches in every size imaginable, what had to be a thousand different screwdrivers, and an array of precision measuring instruments. Safety procedure posters covered every spare inch of wall space, warning against everything from electrocution to fire hazards.
There were some students scattered around, all getting some work in before homeroom started, but no one seemed to notice the two strangers walking in.
At the front of the room stood a short, wiry man with long, messy ginger hair that obscured his eyes. His fingers, Jirou noticed, had metallic fittings over them, though she wasn't sure if they were support items or just part of his hero gear. Before she could ask Izuku, she heard him desperately trying to suppress an excited squeal, and that's when it clicked. This was Power Loader out of costume.
The Support Course teacher was in the middle of scolding a pink-haired girl, who looked less like she was absorbing his words and more like she was waiting for her turn to argue.
"For the last time, you are not putting an experimental battery pack into it," Power Loader said, exasperated. "This is an emergency order for a student. If you want to test your idea, build it into your own devices!"
"But with just a tiny modification, we could turn the back into a heating pad! It'd only take three minutes," the girl countered, arms crossed.
"Test your theories in your own inventions," Power Loader repeated, rubbing his temple. "Until then-" He finally noticed the two students standing awkwardly near the entrance and let out a resigned sigh.
"Jirou, right?" he asked, already seeming to know why she was there.
"Yes, sir. I was told to collect a support item today?" She still felt a little awkward about the whole thing, essentially being forced to wear a support device after never needing one. But she knew better than to argue with Recovery Girl. Even after all these years, legends from her younger years made society shiver with how she dealt with stubborn patients.
"Yeah, of course. Please, take it away from these gremlins." The man dug through his… desk? It was the size of every other teacher's desk in the school but it was covered with random bits of scrap metal and wiring. Eventually he pulled out what looked to be a generic full-sized headphone set. Nothing sleek, nothing advanced, just a generic, full-sized headset.
Jirou took them hesitantly, immediately noticing how cheap they felt. The plastic was light, almost flimsy, like something you'd find in a discount store's bargain bin.
"Now, these are simply the prototype so they're going to feel cheap and very light, we only got the minimum amount of work done to get them working. Recovery Girl did not exactly give us a proper heads up." Power Loader explained.
"Thanks sir but, I don't really think this is going to help." Jirou stated. She didn't want to insult the hero, he was one of the few in the world who made his own support gear, but something but have gotten misunderstood between him and the nurse. "I don't think headphones are going to be enough for my issues."
The pink-haired girl rolled her eyes. "Please, as if the support department would stoop so low as to make a basic pair of headphones." She snatched the item from Jirou's hand, "These cups are miniature soundproof chambers, that seal themselves airtight when your plug your jacks into these ports on the cups."
Power Loader snatched the item back from the girl, "Mei, what have we talked about? Ask people before you take their things." Mei didn't look the least bit guilty, only crossing her arms and huffing. Meanwhile, Power Loader handed the headphones back to Jirou, his voice tired but patient as he continued. "Though yes, she is correct. These are just designed to look like headphones to prevent people from staring at you. It's a common practice in support development."
Jirou decided to test it out, wrapping the headphones around her neck and plugging her jacks into the indicated ports. Once she did, she thought she went deaf. The entire world went silent, but just as she was about the panic she heard Izuku next to her. "How does it feel?"
She whipped her head around so fast she nearly got whiplash. "Huh?"
"Oh, do I need to talk louder?" Izuku asked, voice barely louder than before.
"I, uh, think they're working?" She was surprised that even her own voice was quieter than it should be. "Most noise is gone but I can still hear you talk. You're quiet though."
"That sounds about right." She heard Power Loader say. "According to the medical reports I had sent over, the metal tips in your ears are responsible for roughly 70% of your hearing. With that device on, you'll no longer be hearing all the little things, like bugs buzzing around, clothes shuffling, light breathing, all those distractions should be gone. And without that constant flood of unneeded stimuli, your quirk should be much easier to manage."
Mei chimed in, though she had somehow gotten her hands on another gadget and was fiddling with it. "Yep, as long as you have that baby around your neck, you're hearing what everyone else is. Welcome to our world."
"Wait, the world is this quiet for you people? How do you guys hear anything?!" Jirou yelled… she thinks. It was hard to tell.
"Actually, that's not entirely accurate. If the report I have is correct, even with just 30% of your hearing, you still have better ears than anyone in this room, just nowhere near as intense as it's been for you up until now. It will take some time for you to adjust, but I'm sure your teachers will be willing to accommodate you until you do."
Jirou was shocked. She knew her hearing was enhanced, but she didn't understand the extent to how much more she was hearing than others. All those times she got frustrated at people for making those small repetitive noises that irritated her, did they even realize they were doing it?
Power Loader clapped his hands together, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Now I cannot stress this enough, this is a prototype. A quick and dirty one at that. I'm going to need a full report addressing your comfort, such as scratching your neck or hanging too low or high for your jacks to be comfortable, suggestions about added features-"
"Like a Bluetooth connecter, or a radio communicator, or make the band into a neck massager, or add in a secondary chamber that allows for echoing blasts with your quirk, or-"
"Mei!" The man was getting more and more frustrated, but Jirou couldn't help but notice he had written down all her suggestions anyway. Addressing the purple haired girl, "Sorry, this is strictly a civilian support item until further notice. So any added feature you think off is going to have to be for comfort or better quirk management. Nothing too fancy."
"Yea, kinda figured." Jirou said, a little sad at hearing that neck massager idea get thrown out.
"But yea, give us a report of everything you have to say by Wednesday, and we'll have the real thing done by Friday afternoon. Seriously, anything you think of, nothing is off limits. The more feedback you give us, the better we can make this for daily use."
Just as he finished, a melody played signaling that homeroom would be starting in just a few minutes. She only now noticed that the room was full of support students, and a couple were even taking measurements of a perplexed Izuku for some reason.
"I suggest running." The man said. "Aizawa isn't known for his patience."
With that warning, Jirou grabbed Izuku's arm and darted out the door.
Izuku wanted to spend the entirety of homeroom with his head down. Why did he have to make a fool out of himself first thing in the morning?
Running to class wasn't exactly a habit of his at UA, he was usually painfully punctual, but after his detour to the Support Course, he'd been forced to sprint for the first time. And while he was a decent runner, what he didn't know was just how slippery the floors of the UA hallways could be.
He learned that hard way.
Crashing face-first into the doorframe was not how he had intended to make his entrance. After almost breaking his nose on the door frame, he walked into class while everyone else tried to hold back their laughter.
"Izuku," Miss Kayama called, "In the future, I would rather you be late than injured. I don't take tardies too seriously as long as it's not a regular occurrence."
"Yes ma'am." Izuku quickly muttered as he scurried to his desk.
As he sank into his seat, trying to ignore the occasional side-eye from his classmates, Miss Kayama addressed the room.
"So, change of plans today. Ectoplasm caught a bit of a bug and won't be in, so I'll be filling in for math."
The announcement was met with mixed reactions.
On one hand, most students looked relieved. Ectoplasm wasn't mean, far from it, but he had high expectations, and his teaching style was rigorous. Even Izuku had to go into full-on study mode just to keep up in his class.
On the other hand, no one really knew what Miss Kayama's teaching style was.
/ / / / / / / / / / /
It turned out that her style of teaching was remembering how much she hated math in high school and giving up immediately.
For the first ten—maybe fifteen—minutes, she tried. Really, she did. But after squinting at the textbook, flipping back and forth between pages, and mumbling "Wait, what even is that symbol?" under her breath, she finally sighed, closed the book, and turned to the class.
"Alright, new plan," she announced, writing down the chapters Ectoplasm intended for them to cover. "I trust you all to study this on your own time."
A hesitant pause. Then a hand raised. "Uh… what about the homework?" A girl with orange hair asked.
Miss Kayama smiled sweetly. Too sweetly. "Well, I could assign it…" Collective tension filled the air. "Or," she continued, "we could all agree to never speak of this class period, and in return… I'll conveniently 'forget' about the homework Ectoplasm left."
The silence stretched. Then, as if moving as one, every student in the room gave a firm nod.
The deal was struck.
With that done, first period just became an extended homeroom. Izuku didn't mind, while it was only the first week of school he felt exhausted by workload. School had always come easy to him, but UA seemed to turn everything to the extreme. So a somewhat easier Friday and less homework? Even if he knew he'd pay for it on Monday he was fine with it. He fished out his notebook, intent on refreshing for the language test he had in less than an hour when he heard her voice.
"Izuku, sweety, could you come here for a moment?" Miss Kayama called.
Izuku wasn't used to teachers wanting to talk to him. As he got up and started walking to her desk his mind started racing. He didn't do anything wrong did he? Had he interrupted the lesson with his muttering? Was she angry about the disturbance he caused when he ran into the door? Was this about him knowing All Might's secret? Was he going to get kicked out of UA?!
"Are you alright?" Miss Kayama was looking at him with concern, it was only then that Izuku noticed that his hands were shaking?
"Oh-uh, sorry." He clenched his fists, trying to stop the trembling. "Just… a little nervous. Teachers don't usually call on me."
Miss Kayama gave him a reassuring smile. "There's no reason to be nervous, kitten. You're not in any trouble." She leaned against her desk. "I just wanted to remind you that your painting is ready to be picked up after classes today." She looked at all the paintings that had been drying in the back of the room with a small smile. "Of course if you don't want to take it, or if you just don't have enough room at the moment, I would be happy to keep it for display."
"Display?"
The older woman let out a small laugh. "You would be surprised how much of my home is decorated by student's art pieces."
Izuku looked back at his painting, even in the sea of other canvases he could clearly make out the ugly blob of colors. "Why would you even want it?" he muttered to himself.
Apparently, he wasn't as quiet as he thought. "Are you sure you're okay, kitten?" Miss Kayama asked, her smile fading into a look of concern. "Would you like to talk?"
"Oh, no, no." Izuku quickly backtracked. "I'll be here after classes to pick it up. Thank you for reminding me." He quickly turned around to go back to his desk. 'If nothing else I can get a good laugh out of my mom.' He thought to himself.
As he walked back to his desk he missed the worried look he was getting from his teacher. But before she could call him back several other students approached her desk, each with their own problems that needed discussion.
As Kayama left the room to let Mic teach his lesson, her mind drifted to Izuku. If there was one thing she had to say about all the students of UA, is they were competitive and self-assured. Most of them were cocky, but that was just the teenage hormones talking. And while she had students who were softer spoken over the years, Izuku had to be the first student of hers that had next to no confidence in himself. At first, she just assumed it was new school jitters, she certainly had them growing up, but it had been a week and he hadn't seemed to get any better.
Reaching the teacher lounge she immediately fixed herself a fresh cup of coffee and logged in to her computer, opening up Izuku Midoriya's student file. "Let's see. Stellar grades, no detentions, no real issues with teachers, that all checks out." The older woman frowned, seeing a glaring lack extracurriculars, no volunteer work, outside of school he seemed to be a ghost.
This by itself wasn't too worrying, not everyone was a social butterfly and there was nothing wrong with preferring to keep to ones self, but combined with his lack of confidence it raised a few alarm bells in her head.
As a teacher, it was her job to guide students to be the best versions of themselves, and she was sure if the boy gained a bit more confidence in himself he could achieve greatness, she just needed some way to bring it out. All she had to do, was make a plan to build him up…
Jirou strolled into class, completely unbothered by the amount of noise they were making. A first this year. It looked as though Momo and Mina had made it here before her, discussing something in the corner of the room, so she decided to head over to join them. It was nice not already knowing what they were talking about…
However, as the other students noticed her, they started to snicker. That was odd. Jirou was expecting to tell everyone a thousand times that she was fine but she didn't really expect anyone to be laughing at her. Let alone the entire class. Before she could ask anyone what was happening, Toga and Hagakure approached her.
"We're sorry" Hagakure could be heard saying, but from the muffle in her voice it sounded like she was covering her mouth with her hands. "We're not making fun of you it's just, it's just-" She broke down into a fit, turning away as she tried to contain her laughter.
"We just didn't think you could be so cute!" Toga continued.
Jirou just stood there, barely noticing Mina and Momo join them. "The hell are you talking about?"
Both Toga and Hagakure took out their phones and showed her a picture of herself, one she didn't remember at all. In the picture, Mina was lounging in bed next to her, looking far too pleased with herself. Meanwhile, Jirou—doped up and clearly not in her right mind—was lying there with her head slightly tilted, eyes unfocused, and a dopey, slack-jawed grin plastered across her face.
Her eyes turned to Mina, who was doing her best imitation of a guilty puppy. "Sorry, I sent it without thinking. Didn't realize how out of it you looked until later."
Jirou took a deep breath, exhaling slowly through her nose. "Honestly, I don't even remember this." Then, meeting Mina's gaze with deadly seriousness, she made a promise. "When you least expect it, Mina. When you least expect it."
Mina gulped. "Noted."
Momo, watching the exchange, tilted her head. "You don't remember much from yesterday?"
Jirou's lips curled into a wicked smirk. "Don't get your hopes up."
Momo sighed, "Of course."
"Hey Jirou!" Kaminari jogged up to her as he entered the room "Are you alright?"
Jirou turned around, seeing his worried expression. "Yea man, everything's cool. Just some quirk exhaustion." No need to worry people telling them how bad it really was. Besides, it wasn't as if she was lying.
Kaminari let out a huge sigh of relief. "That's good to hear. You had us all worried."
"You especially huh?" Jirou said without thinking, making him perk up. "Recovery Girl said you were pacing out in the hallway until I woke up. Didn't take you for a worrier."
The blonde's face started turning red. "Well, you see, it's just that you collapsed so suddenly, who wouldn't be worried? And also you're my seat neighbor, so obviously it was my job to make sure you were good to go. I mean that's just what friends do right? Not that I-" As he talked he started walking backwards, his hands waving around a mile a minute. "I'm just going to go annoy Katsuki."
And with that he ran, leaving a very confused Jirou and a snickering Mina.
"Well, that was weird."
A major difference between Aldera and UA, lunch was now one of Izuku's favorite periods. He had gone from sitting alone in a classroom everyday to enjoying the wonderful banquet of the UA cafeteria with his friends. It was nice having something to look forward to during the day.
"So how is the support item so far? Is it still working? Is it uncomfortable at all? Should we go back to the support course to get it adjusted?" And, of course, it let him exhale all of his built up worries.
"I'm fine. Actually, I think I'm already getting used to how quiet everything is." Jirou said, not bothering to stop chewing on her meal.
"Manners, Jirou." Momo scolded.
"Oh, is that what the headphones are? I was wondering why the teachers weren't getting on your case about that."
Momo listened carefully as Jirou explained how her new support item worked, and Mina throwing a hundred suggestions she should as Power Loader for. As she listened, however, she noticed Izuku reach into his pocket and pull out a familiar looking envelope. It was something they had been arguing about for the last week. Every lunch period he would bring it up, they would go back and forth, and Jirou would stop them after letting them argue for two or three minutes. But she hadn't actually seen the envelope since Jirou snatched from them on Monday.
Jirou noticed out of the corner of her eye. "Hey, when did you get that back?"
"It's easy to steal from you when you're loopy." He said plainly, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He then held out the envelope to Momo to take the money, argument already primed on his lips.
Momo almost refused the envelope out of habit, but paused. This little fight of theirs seemed to be going nowhere, but she was afraid that if it continued it may start to create a rift in their friendship. Perhaps there was another way to end this. "Alright, I'll take the money back." She said to the surprise of the whole table. "But only if you give me your number." Realizing what she said, she quickly added, "I realized yesterday that I have no reliable way to contact you outside of school, it would be best to rectify that. You as well Jirou."
"Did you really not have our numbers?" Jirou asked as she pulled out her phone and handed it over to Momo, her and Izuku's numbers already on display. "Can't believe I didn't notice that."
"Ahem," Mina caught their attention. "Aren't you forgetting someone?"
"Oh, yea Momo can text you our numbers. Actually, we could just start a group chat." The punk suggested.
"Oh, yea! That'll be super fun!" Mina shouted, setting it up on her phone.
The entire time no one noticed how red Izuku had gotten from being asked for his number.
/ / / / / / / / / / /
"So," Jirou said between bites, "Anyone free this weekend? I'm itching to do something besides school work."
"Sorry, but I'm going to be busy. Consult, homework, chores, I'm booked." Izuku said.
"Sorry girl, I got plans. Me and Kirishima are spending Saturday at the arcade and later the movies. And I don't plan on getting out of bed on Sunday." Mina said with a grin on her face.
"What about your homework?" Momo asked.
"I'll get by, I always do." Mina replied.
Jirou chimed in, "You and Kirishima sure seem to get along. Anything we should know about?" She teased.
"Maybe, maybe not. He's certainly my type, I'll say that."
It wasn't planned, but Jirou saw an opportunity open up and took it. "Huh, on that subject, I don't think I ever asked you that question Izuku."
The green-haired boy just look over, puzzled. "Asked me what?"
"What's your type?"
She expected him to go red, maybe sputter out some generic answer to avoid the question, but instead Izuku just shrugged. "Don't have one."
"What do you mean you don't have a type?" Mina asked. "Never had a crush on a cute girl in class before?"
"Not really. I guess I just never thought about it too much. Nice girls? Does that count?"
"Booooorriiing." Mina complained.
Jirou persisted. "How 'bout I just ask questions and you say yes or no? How about tall? OW!" Jirou jerked up and started rubbing her leg, glaring daggers at Momo who innocently continued to eat her ramen, eyes closed.
"Are you alright?"
"Yea," she said through gritted teeth. "Just a cramp."
How was this so brutal?
Cementoss was teaching the heroics course today, and he wanted to test their ability to adapt to new situations on the fly. That meant an ever-shifting obstacle course that they had to run until they physically couldn't anymore. The gym was a cacophony of screams as students went flying at the sudden shifts happening right under their feet, sending them every which way.
At some point Jirou found herself running besides Toga, the two of them running up an incline that formed in front of them. "This. Isn't. Training. This is. Torture!" Jirou spat out between breaths.
"I don't think it's that bad." Toga replied, though she was also breathing pretty hard. "It's actually pretty fun."
Suddenly the ground in front of them dropped, turning the ramp they had been running on into a ramp to nothing. Jirou somehow managed to stop in time but Toga messed up, tripping on her own foot and falling off the edge.
"Shit, Toga are you all right?" Jirou yelled as she made her way to the edge. Looking over the cliff she saw Toga being slowly floated down by Ochako. She couldn't hear anything they were saying (still a weird concept for Jirou to wrap her head around) but judging by the blush Toga was sporting, it would probably be a good idea to continue running by herself and leave them be.
/ / / / / / / / / / /
Class 1-a huddled together, all trying to catch their breath.
"I must say, I'm impressed with what I saw today." Cementoss stated. "Of course there is room for improvement, but for first years, and your first go at this exercise, I expect great things out of this group."
There were some murmurs of thanks, but everyone was too beat up and out of breath to give a real response.
Before Cementoss could continue, the doors to the gym burst open followed by a familiar booming laughter. "I come delivering good news!" All Might yelled, striking a pose as he ran up besides Cementoss. "I just got confirmation; your Hero outfits are IN!" The whole class stood up straighter, a new burst of energy running through them. "Starting Monday, you'll now be training to be a hero, while looking like a hero. Now let me hear you say…"
As if a switch had been flipped, the entire class roared in unison, voices echoing through the gym, "PLUS ULTRA!"
The bell signaling the end of final period played out, breaking Nezu from his lecture on the different properties attraction type quirks could take on. "Oh, timed that one wrong I guess. Oh well, we will continue this discussion on Monday. No homework today, enjoy your weekend everyone."
The few other students in the room shuffled out fairly quickly, either in a hurry to get home or wanting to meet their friends. Izuku however stayed behind. "Excuse me, Principal Nezu?"
"Ah, Mr. Midoriya, what can I do for you young man?"
"I'm having some issues with a non-school project, and I was hoping I could ask you for some help?" He asked nervously.
"Of course, of course. What seems to be troubling you?"
Izuku pulled out his phone and navigated to his website before handing it off. "Sorry, it's a little hard to navigate on mobile. I had desktops in mind when designing the layout."
"Well, that's and easy enough issue to fix." Nezu hopped off the podium he was standing on only to pull out a laptop from the built-in cubby and walk towards the desk.
Izuku almost didn't think about it, a little used to the principal being a little odd by now, but then he realized he always saw him enter and leave the room with nothing in hand. "Do you just keep a laptop stored here unsupervised?" He asked. "Isn't that a little unsafe?"
The principal just laughed. "You should be a bit more perceptive of your surroundings. I keep lots of things just laying around this school, and yet nothing has gone missing."
Izuku considered this for a moment. Was this just another eccentricity from the teacher, or was storing things in his surroundings a leftover animal instinct of his?"
"Perhaps a bit of both, but I like to think it's the former." Nezu answered his thoughts, letting him know he was muttering out loud again.
Izuku's hands flew up to his mouth, clenching it shut even as he tried to apologize. "I am so, so sorry sir. I didn't mean-"
"Oh don't be sorry, it would be odd if you weren't curious. Now," the site just finished loading on the laptop, "what exactly is it you needed help with?"
Izuku explained his small consultation business, and how he had been running it until recently. He explained how he needed to implement a new system in order to keep up with his school work but he was having trouble making sure he was being fair to his potential clients. The entire time Nezu clicked through the small site, Izuku getting particularly embarrassed when he found the user review section.
"Well, I see one solution you can implement quickly." He said after listening to Izuku's whole explanation. "You are trying to sort out the entire influx of customers yourself, but you should set it up to where they sort themselves. Have them specify whether or not they want an online consult or an in person consult. That will greatly decrease your workload and remove some of that stress you're carrying. Another solution you can add on top of that is to put your online consults behind a paywall of sorts. That way you can message the recipient when they are done, and all they have to do is simply pay the fee in order to receive whatever you packaged for them. This way clients can pay at their convenience and you won't have to chase anyone down to see if they were still interested if your work starts to lag behind."
Nezu rattled off more improvements, such as adding an FaQ page to reduce the number of questions he was receiving, a more detailed questionnaire to be filled so he could get to work faster with the online consultations and have them be more streamlined, and even some suggestions to make the sight more visually appealing.
"Wow." Izuku was a little overwhelmed with how easily the man/stoat tore the site apart and put it back together in his head. "It all seems so obvious now. Honestly, I feel kind of stupid for not seeing some of those solutions."
"On the contrary, young man. Being able to get this far by yourself is no small feat. Everyone needs help now and then, and sometimes you just need a fresh set of eyes." The man/stoat said gently. "Tell you what, our next class is on Monday. Why don't you give me until then to write up a list of suggestions and perhaps write up a randomizer plugin for your site to help choose your in-person consultations."
Izuku quickly shook his head, "Oh no, that's really not necessary. You've already helped so much, I couldn't ask you to take time out of your weekend for this."
"Oh but I'm afraid it's too late, this has piqued my interest and now I won't be satisfied until I see it to the end. Now, I believe Midnight is expecting you. It would be rude to keep her waiting."
Realizing how long he had been talking to the principal, Izuku quickly said his thanks and ran out of the room.
Nezu turned back to the website he was shown, still loaded on his laptop. "Initiative, that that's what I like to see."
Izuku was in such a hurry, he nearly ran over Momo as he turned the final corner to get to Miss Kayama's room. "Sorry, sorry."
"It's alright Izuku, are you coming to pick up your painting?"
"Yea. Thought my mom might get a good chuckle out of it." Momo seemed confused by this, but didn't push much farther. They saw another pair of students walking out the room, waving goodbye to Midnight as they left, paintings in hand. Seeing how awkward they were being carried Izuku suddenly realized. "It's gonna be a pain getting them all the way to the station."
Miss Kayama greeted them as they entered and directed them to the back of the room, most of it's painting's already gone. "If the two of you don't mind," She lifted up a small camera, "I would love to get a picture of you two holding your paintings. At the end of the year, I make a scrapbook for the art club members. You don't have to of course, only if you're comfortable."
"Of course, that sounds lovely." Momo answered instantly. Izuku didn't really want to, but he also didn't want to disappoint Miss Kayama so he just gave a nod. The two of them stood side by side, holding up their vastly different paintings while the older woman took a few pictures, trying to get the best angle.
As they were doing this, a blond boy walked in the room. "Miss Midnight, would you be able to hel-" The boy froze, eyes locked in Izuku's direction.
"Oh, Monoma," Miss Kayama addressed him, "what can I help you with?"
The boy, Monoma, marched past her and towards an increasingly nervous Izuku. His eyes shone with the intensity of someone who had just stumbled upon a lost masterpiece.
"This... this is brilliant," Monoma declared, leaning closer to the painting in his hands. He looked as though he were analyzing every detail of the chaos on the canvas. "The boldness! The raw emotion! The sheer defiance of conventional structure! Truly, this is art that challenges the very notion of what art can be."
Izuku blinked. "Uh… what?"
Monoma waved a hand, silencing him as he continued his analysis. "The chaotic arrangement of shapes—it speaks to the turmoil of modern hero society, doesn't it? The blobs of color represent the unpredictability of human nature, and the scattered music notes—ah, what a stroke of genius! They symbolize the harmony we all strive for amid the discord of life!"
Izuku opened his mouth to explain, but Monoma pressed on, his voice rising with enthusiasm. "And look at this section here—the way the blue and red clash but somehow blend at the edges? It's an obvious commentary on the ideological divide between heroes and villains, yet it suggests a fragile connection, a shared humanity. Am I right? No, don't answer. Of course I'm right."
Izuku felt his face heating up. "Actually, I was just-"
"A revolutionary piece like this shouldn't need explanation!" Monoma interrupted, throwing an arm around Izuku's shoulders and gesturing grandly at the painting as if showing it off to an invisible crowd. "You've captured the zeitgeist, green-hair boy. A true artist lets their work speak for itself, and your work is practically shouting at the world!"
At this point, a small crowd of other students had gathered, drawn by Monoma's theatrics. Momo stood nearby, growing more and more amused as the blond kept talking. "Izuku, I had no idea you were such an expressionist." She couldn't help herself but to tease.
"Exactly!" Monoma interrupted again, jabbing a finger in the air. "He's too modest to admit it, but his subconscious has given birth to a masterpiece. This is what true talent looks like—a vessel for creative expression that transcends intent!"
Before Izuku could muster a response, Monoma turned to the crowd with a dramatic flourish. "Mark my words, this piece will be remembered. One day, it will hang in the halls of UA as a testament to the unyielding spirit of a true artist!"
Izuku sighed, finally giving up as the crowd murmured, all staring intently at the random colors and shapes Izuku had mindlessly painted five days ago. Maybe it was better to let Monoma have his interpretation.
"Well," Momo said, stepping up beside him with a gentle smile. "At least someone appreciates your work."
"Yeah," Izuku muttered, scratching his head.
Seeing him growing more uncomfortable than embarrassed, Momo decided to drag some of Monoma's attention towards herself. "You seem to have a deep appreciation for art. What do you think of mine?" She asked, holding hers a little higher.
"Oh, pretty flowers I guess?" He responded, a complete lack of energy in his voice.
"Thank you so much for the ride, I'm so sorry for the inconvenience." Izuku thanked both Momo and Gādo profusely. What was meant to be a simple pick up in the art room had somehow turned into an impromptu art expedition, causing him to miss his train. He at least remembered to text Jirou this time, telling her to leave without him.
"Ain't no trouble squirt." The large man said from his seat, eyes never leaving the road.
"Actually, I was wondering if you would just like to ride with me on Mondays and Fridays." Momo suggested. "Art club is likely to continue well passed your usual train home, and I honestly wouldn't mind the company. Besides, it would better than lugging whatever projects we receive onto the train."
"If its really no trouble to you or Mr. Gādo, I would greatly appreciate it."
"Another ten minutes on the road ain't gonna kill me."
"And as I said, I do appreciate the company."
They continued to talk, Momo entertaining Izuku with details about today's hero training. He seemed completely enthralled by the concept of an adaptable, moving obstacle course, Momo however could only remember how sore her legs were from all the falls she took today. "But what about your electives?" She asked, "Certainly they must be interesting."
"Quirk Theory and Application with Principal Nezu has been challenging, but it's also incredibly interesting. And it's exactly the type of class I need if I want to get into the quirk analyst field."
"Are you still doing consultations?" Momo asked. "With how demanding UA is, I can't imagine it would be easy to keep that going."
"I unfortunately had to cut back on how many I was doing, but I am still doing them. In fact I have one scheduled for tomorrow." He took out his phone and pulled up the name that he had randomly selected and contacted. "The name sounds foreign though, not sure if I'm pronouncing this right. Remy LeBeau?"
Authors notes;
If you recognise that name, we're friends now. Not like he's an obscure character or anything.
Next chapter will probably be pretty short as it will only be the consultation and nothing else. But if it goes well that's how I will handle consultation chapters going forward.
I feel like we don't have enough Recovery Girl lore, so I'm going to head cannon that the entire hero community is scared of her because in her prime she was the only one who could force the top heroes to get proper bedrest. By any means necessary.
Hot take, Mei explosion and baby jokes aren't funny. Even in cannon. I've only read one fic where the explosion thing was done right and that was one where Izuku had explosion based ptsd and she tried her best to stop things from going boom whenever he was in the room.
Lately I have been binging the hell out of Bringus Studios, Jame's Channel, and Dankpods/Garbage Time. I don't know why I am into the niche genre of torturing electronics/machinary, but dear god do I love it.
As always, please leave a comment. They tell me what I did right, what I did wrong, and I just enjoy getting them.