Manly time skip

Red coats her hands in a very grotesque manner, appearing beyond bloody and coating one of her most liked shirts. Before her the scene is just as horrifying, a white sink stained with the evidence she's trying so desperately to remove. No matter how hard she scrubs, no matter how much soap she applies, it doesn't leave her hand. A frustrated sound leaves her throat as she almost slams her hand into the sink, risking breaking it. She gathers herself, breathing slowly as calmness takes over. Her eyes are sharp and focused as she returns to scrubbing, mind running with multiple scenarios and possibilities as to get the forsaken stain off herself. Her shirt is ruined, never to be worn again and she despises this fact. The incriminating stains on her hand have faded just the smallest bit, a disrespectful amount when taking into account how long she had been busy. She pauses, her mind going through multiple solutions and sticking on one she believes will work. She regrets what she had done dearly for the stains just won't go away. Just an angry color of indictments. She'll need lukewarm water, one-half teaspoon liquid hand dishwashing detergent, and one tablespoon ammonia. Yes, she believes that should work perfectly. She'll soak her hand in the mixture for fifteen to twenty minutes and hope for the best. Rubbing alcohol and acetone should work as well.

Damn it all, how had she gotten herself into this?

"You're seriously still at it?" A familiar voice catches her ears, she barely acknowledges her friend who approaches her quite leisurely. The pink girl wore a smile, a knowing smile, having predicted the current situation. She would hate to say "I told you so", but well, she did tell her. "I told you to wear gloves"

"It was already too late" Zena grumbles almost darkly as she gathers bottles from her cabinet, blocking the sink in the process and letting the water gather. "Why did I not consider the dye staining my hand?"

She felt stupid for not thinking about it when it is that obvious that the stuff would stain. It's hair dye for crying out loud, but she had been distracted by the feeling of excitement and anxiousness coming from Eijiro to even notice that she had failed to wear the gloves that come with the box of dye. Now she has to struggle to get the stuff off her hand all the while making her sink look like something out of a crime scene. For crying out loud.

Mina on the other hand is holding back laughter as she watches Zena struggle, grumbling complaints about the situation all the while with this incredibly adorable pout on her face. She hates when Mina points it out. She hates that she pouts and that makes it that much more amusing to Mina. When Zena glances at her, she averts her eyes, pretending to take interest in something else while forcing her thoughts to not focus on her friend and her adorable facial expression

"I am not pouting" Zena defends, huffing as she dumps multiple chemicals into the water she had gathered. "Don't you dare laugh at me"

Mina bites her lip to suppress the giggles that want to escape and quickly turns away from Zena because the longer she looked at her the more she wanted to laugh. She took multiple deep breaths, calming herself before turning to face Zena once more...only to fall into a fit of laughter soon after.

"I'm sorry"

"Um guys"

Eijiro wears a look of uncertainty as he enters the bathroom, standing by the door as if not sure if he's allowed in. His hair is wet to the roots, droplets of water falling onto his shirt and hair eclipsing his vision. He is uncertain when it comes to his hair, should he get a towel to dry it or a blow dryer. If the dryer where does he get it for he does not know where Zena keeps most of her things. His hair, once as black as the night sky is now the crimson of a red rose. The endeavor of coloring his hair is what has led to Zena's current situation, the teen girl having wholeheartedly agreed to help him dye his hair before realizing her mistake.

"I washed my hair, but what now?" The boy wonders, almost stumbling into the bathroom from the way he had been leaning on the door.

"Now we add the conditioner" there's the loud crinkle of a plastic bag as Mina says this, the girl motioning Eijiro into the bathroom and pulling the single stool towards her. "Sit"

Unlike Zena, Mina makes sure to wear gloves despite not needing them for the following task.

"Is it still not coming off?" Comes the question from Eijiro as he watches Zena stand over her sink with her hand soaked in the water she gathered. "I'm sorry, I should have told you about the gloves"

"It's not your fault"

She had been a bit too eager to help the boy so it was her own fault. When he had said he wanted to dye his hair she was surprised amongst others, amazed even as they are only in their second year of middle school. Originally he had made the change during his third year, nearing the end of the last semester most likely. However, with Zena's influenced things have changed. At first, the girl did not know how to feel about it, simply observing the changes objectively. Now she feels something, a mix of pride and something she has no explanation for at the moment. She's happy about the change of hair, she supposes, it is a visual sign of change for the boy.

Honestly, she's surprised it took him a year.

"How long will this last?" A strand of newly dyed hair falls before his eyes, appearing black by itself.

"A couple of months, long enough" replies Mina, gently applying the conditioner to her friend's hair.

The boy hums, going quiet as he lets Mina work through his hair. The only thing to be heard is the stillness in the sloshing of water as well as faint curses from Zena.

Eijiro and Mina watched her, both amused, though Eijiro would not admit it. He smiles when she furiously starts scrubbing her shirt with a wet cloth, clearly having lost all hope for her shirt but still trying her best. His eyes wander to her hair, still quite fascinated by the way she had it cut just recently. It was sudden when she appeared with the new hair, having not told either him or Mina about her choice. It's quite simple, with shaved sides and top cut down a bit shorter as to not get in her eyes. With the wild curls, she naturally possesses it's quite nice and at the moment her hair was very much a mess, curls pointing in every direction possible. For some reason, Eijro quite liked the way it looked.

She's going to get in trouble with the school, Eijiro had told her that to which she simply shrugged.

She did get in trouble with the school but there was very little they could do. Her hair was already cut and there's no undoing that, plus they couldn't just suspend her when she's one of the top students of the school.

"Finally" it's a happy exclamation from Zena, her hand no longer stained red from the dye. Sadly her shirt could not be saved as easily though she was not keen on giving up on it. "I'm never making that mistake again"

"Took you an hour"

"But I got it off," Zena said melodic tone, shaking her hand to get the water off before disappearing into her room. She returns a moment later with a changed shirt the dirtied one carried off to the sink for her to try to clean.

"Still"

~~~~~~~

Eijiro's hair is pretty long and I had failed to notice this until Mina put his hair in a nice-looking man bun. He looks really good like that, he should make it a usual style. He'd look good with an undercut too, or simply with his hair down as he already wears it. Now that his hair is red he's looking more like the boy in the anime, but I know he's not the same. For one, that boy is a fictional character and I cannot see him as such anymore. Second, he's still very much the same anxious boy I tried to befriend, only a bit more open with Mina and I. I like his jokes about his friends being only girls, a sort of reference to his mothers.

"How do you want it?" Mina asks him, an assortment of hair products laid out on my desk for Eijiro to look at. "I can style your hair any way you want"

"Well, I want it a bit like Crimson's hair" he admits coyly, his cheeks already blushing pink. Ha, such a fanboy for that hero.

"Awe that's cute" of course Mina would think so and she doesn't even question him about it. She's more than happy to help him if the burst of cheerfulness is anything to go by. She gathers a handful of my products and drags Eijiro by the chair to sit in front of my mirror.

"You can do it?"

"Of course she can" Mina's pretty good when it comes to styling hair as she's done my hair many times before and each time my hair looked great. "This is Mina"

There's this prideful smile on her face when I say this, all too happy to hear me say that about her.

"I'll take your word for it"

Trust the process Eijiro

While they're occupied with that, I find my laptop and take place on my bed. I connect it to the little speaker I have recently purchased, grinning when music blasts from the small things. The store had said that they were of great quality and they were telling the truth I see. The volume is nearly fifty percent and it's loud enough to fill the whole room. I dial it down a bit, settling on an acceptable and relaxing volume and finding a relatively calm song to entertain myself with while I continue my important job of sketching. Knowing my skills for art Mina had asked me to sketch her ideal costume for her and Eijiro followed after I told him I would gladly come up with an outfit for him.

My drawings take inspiration from the costume she had in the anime, though I have gone ahead and added what I think she would need to the stuff. For example gloves for better skin protection. Inside should be isolated to prevent burns if her quirk is overused. There's a pair of ski goggles for better eye protection, which I think she didn't have originally. Why would you not have eye protection in your line of work though? What if some of her acids get in her eye? I've also gone and added some gauntlets that store acid, kinda like Katsuki's grenade gauntlets, only these aren't incredibly huge and inefficient. The gauntlets would have point accuracy and far more concentrated acid streams. Then there's the belt that would store small vials of acid mixed with explosive properties, in other words, mini bombs. Mina can make a lot of acid types and some are quite combustible. Going with this, she could actually have a special attack with Katsuki. Let's not forget the knee protector because we gotta be safe out there. I mean, protect the knees. Oh and secure boots with built-in steel plates, that way her kicks pack a punch. Also, the openings underneath for her to use her acid to get around.

The sketch is littered with notes that are near unreadable which almost has me tearing the page out of my sketchbook. Instead of being so drastic, I draw it up once more, this time placing my notes neatly in a corner where it won't bother me.

Now as for my boy Eijiro, it really took me a moment, but after staring at him for the good half of an hour I came up with a few things. I felt as if he should have more protection other than the pauldrons - which are a problem themselves because they limit movement - and perhaps he shouldn't be running into battle completely shirtless, but I digress. His quirk is hardening so a shirt would likely only hinder him in the end, but when he's not hardened he's very much open for attacks. And he can't remain hardened because it becomes a strain at some point. So I'm left debating whether or not this boy should wear some sort of chest protection. I have a few sketches for him simply because I'm not so sure here. One has thinner more compact shoulder blades that would not hinder his movements like these pauldrons. While another has the pauldrons but modified to be more flexible and not a hindrance. I gave the costume some strong and flexy arm covers so he could protect people in the midst of battle. It wouldn't help if he couldn't save someone because his hardened skin would harm them, so I think with the arm covers that should help a bit. They should be made of polyurethane or something of the sort so his hardened skin doesn't damage or poke through. Some brass arm rings could be added as protection. Also, some jaw protection since he's a combatant meaning he's likely to be punched in the jaw more than anything else, some protection would prevent a busted lip. Could also work as a respirator in case he has to do anything near smoke or toxic gasses. And that forehead protection thing he wears can just be a part of the mask, far easier that way.

But should he be shirtless?

Eh, we'll just wait.

A question that is often prominent in my mind is why would the school let teenagers design their own outfits? It doesn't make sense to me. And why did they not fix some of the most obvious flaws in most of these costumes? Momo is out here walking with almost her entire front exposed, no actual protection and most of all her costume isn't suitable for her quirk as seen when she made something out of her back and ripped the back half of her suit. Katsuki is walking around with these massive gauntlets that are more trouble than anything else. Are they not heavy? Don't they get in the way? How does he open the door? And why does he not wear ear protection of any sort? Those explosions will have him deaf if he doesn't protect his ears. And Invisible girl, goddamn Toru is walking around naked.

What sense does that make?

"What do you think?"

Scribbling on an empty page I glance at Eijiro who marvels at himself in the mirror, the toothiest of smiles on his face when he sees himself. At the sight of his obvious joy, Mina brightens, happy she could make him happy and this fills the room with cheerfulness and joy that my mind forces away once it realizes it is not my own. It's still nice, however, so I don't mind the feeling.

"This is awesome" he all but exclaims, almost jumping in his joy. "Totally manly"

Now it's my turn to smile because it's the first I've heard him refer to anything manly before this point.

"Totally"