Chapter 2 (Part 2 of 3)

"You're pretty ballsy I'll give you that, I haven't really gone on dates, but I've never heard of a guy blatantly flirting with another girl while on said date. Pretty ballsy." Setsuna says through sips of her drink.

"... this is a date!?" Why wasn't I informed of this?

At my words Setsuna looks just as shocked as I am, that quickly fades into indignation.

"Of course it's a date!" 

I start thinking back to recent events, hanging out at the Arcade, the banter which could definitely be interpreted as flirting. We're eating at this nice restaurant. It really 'is' a date!

I'm an idiot.

"Unless…, you don't want this to be a date." She sounds insecure and vulnerable as she asks me. Again, I don't know her very well, but I can't see this being normal for her. It's so contrasting to her normal upbeat personality.

"No, I do!" I yell perhaps a bit too loudly, my ignorance seems to have hurt her feelings and it's not like I'm a complete asshole. I don't want to make a girl upset if I can avoid it, especially not one I've come to care for in the short time we've known each other.

"Look, I'll just admit it, I was diagnosed with chronic idiocy when I was 3. I can't control its random outbursts. Because of my illness I'm unable to understand obvious things, unless I'm beaten over the head with them."

"I'm sorry, can we start over?"

She chuckles at my jokes so clearly it had some positive effect. "It's fine, maybe I should have made it clearer. Though I don't think I was being particularly subtle about it."

"Yeah I get it, I'm stupid. So are we cool now?" I ask hopefully.

"Yes." She smiles, "On the plus side, 'if' this does get serious, I'm never letting you live this down."

'I can believe that.' Regardless I'm relieved, I managed to defuse the tense situation with my patented Akira Defusing Technique.

From there we talked and ate, it was a bit awkward at first but the mood quickly recovered and before long we were laughing and having a good time.

"... so when the substitute opened the drawer my severed head was laying there with wide vacant eyes, covered in fake blood."

"Let me tell you the scream she gave that day, I'm sure it was heard for miles." She says.

Throughout the entirety of the story I was just entranced, "So did you get suspended for it?" I asked.

"Even better, the substitute tried to have me expelled. The entire reason I pranked her was because she was a bully, most of the students hated her, so they had my back. In the end I guess she decided it wasn't worth it to press matters, one thing's for sure, she never substituted at my school, ever again." She finished with a smirk.

"But what about you? I mean teleporting, I can only imagine the things you've gotten up to with a quirk like that." She leans in eager to hear my no doubt juicy story, unfortunately for her, I have none.

I'm not going to make one up either, I only lie when I want to avoid people and their questions, or when I think it'll create a funny situation.

I try to avoid pointless lies as best I can.

"I mean not really, my quirk isn't as cool as you think. It's very draining so I've never thought to incorporate it into pranks."

"The closest I've ever come to using it for mischief was years ago when I used to smuggle in food, bypassing my school's morning bag checkups."

"Aside from that, I only ever use my Quirk for small things. Your quirk seems a lot cooler, at the very least it has more casual uses." I told her.

"You think my quirk's cool?" She asks.

'Why is she surprised? She has one of the coolest quirks I've ever seen.'

I meant it, anything relating to Buggy D. Clown is automatically amazing. The closer I am to Buggy-sama the more enlightened I become. Even being around Setsuna, a blatant Buggy rip-off, I can feel the clown energy coursing through my body nurturing me. Sustaining me.

… did they drug my food?

Anyways, I tell her as much and she seems flattered.

[+5 Affection with Setsuna Tokage]

"It would be a great quirk for hero-ing, just from the basics I know about it, it seems very versatile." 

"You know you're one of the first people outside of my parents to say that. People see my Quirk and because it's not flashy-"

'Wrong. Buggy-sama is always flashy!'

"-and because it's not inherently built for combat, they don't believe in me when I say I want to be a hero." She vents in frustration.

"That sucks. But the way you said it, you do want to be a hero, right?" I ask not very surprised everybody and their mother wants to be a hero.

"Yeah, I do. Do you think I can?"

"I don't see why not." I reply, I wasn't lying about it being a versatile Quirk, there are plenty of heroes with ass quirks that somehow qualify as pro-grade quirks.

Her splitting power is definitely league's above a large portion of those B-listers.

She gives me a sincere smile, "Thanks."

Eventually it gets late and we're both completely stuffed, when Setsuna sees how large the bill ended up totaling she offers to split it, but I don't go back on my word.

We swap phone numbers and decide we'll make plans for our next date over the phone.

She teases me about making sure I know it's a date a few days in advance so I could process it.

Which is good, it's nice of her to accommodate my Chronic Idiocy.

'I'm surprised my mother hasn't called me.' Realizing that sounds nothing like my mom I suddenly remember I turned off my notifications.

Oh dear God. I turned on my phone just to take a peek and what I was dreading ended up being true.

Mother

69 Missed Calls!

Setsuna must've seen the color drain from my face because she just wines sympathetically, turning her phone in my direction so I could see her screen.

Mom

41 Missed Calls!

Pops

52 Missed Calls!

"You know how we were talking about having our next date sometime next week? Might have to reschedule by quite a bit. I'm probably grounded for a while."

"I assume you're in a similar situation?" She asks.

"Not really, my mom doesn't really stay mad for long. I'm sure she'll be mad right now, but by tomorrow she'll be back to normal. She might pout a bit though." I clarify.

"Lucky. I should really get going." She says.

"Okay, I'll text you later." 

We start to part ways a bit awkwardly, both of us not having much experience, and not knowing how to really end a date.

"Wait, I know you have my number, but before we part ways, what school do you plan on going to." She asks all of a sudden.

"U.A." I say with no hesitation, it's where all the fun is after all. If I somehow don't get accepted I might just become a villain and invade via the USJ. 

As long as I can fight some strong guys, that's all that matters.

"Really!? I didn't want to assume, but a Quirk like yours could be very useful for a rescue hero." She says.

"Rescue? Fuck that, I just want to fight people."

[-5 Affection with Setsuna Tokage]

"Look Setsuna, I'm going to be completely honest with you, I'm not that good a person. Better you learn now before anything more serious can develop."

"My main source of joy in life is adrenaline, so long as I'm feeling excitement, I'm satisfied. Don't get me wrong, I would never become a villain or even do anything illegal or outright malicious." A blatant lie, but one I can't afford to be honest about.

"Our world as it is now is dominated by heroes, and with them came along a new world where people were more morally 'righteous' than ever. People of great nobility who truly are in it to help others are more common than ever before, I can already tell you're one of them. I am not, plain and simple." I air everything out honestly. 

Despite how I'm presenting myself I don't consider myself a bad guy. I wouldn't ever outright hurt an innocent, not personally anyways.

I'm selfish which seems odd in a world where people, or at least hero prospects are less selfish than ever. Though that might just be me projecting the obviously very heroic characters of the MHA anime.

It seems like every single named character has true heroism within them, even the losers like mineta have their moments. A character whose first introduction led me to believe they would act as the 'corrupt', selfish archetype is Mt Lady. But even she has her great moments.

Sure, she's lazy and hyper conscious of her own popularity and self image. But you can't hate on a woman who regularly risks her life even upon serious injury to save a bunch of kids. Not for fame, I doubt she got much credit in the instances I'm thinking about, but out of a real desire to help and protect.

It's selfless, it's amazing, it's such a phenomenon exclusive to this world and I can't wrap my head around it.

True heroism!

Everything I do, I do out of selfish desires. If I put myself in danger it's my choice, to risk my well being for others, it's madness!

"The point I'm trying to make is, don't expect too much from me. I don't want you to have a misconstrued perception of me simply because I desire to be a hero."

"If you're still interested in me despite all this, I'd love to go on a second date some time." 

[+10 Affection with Setsuna Tokage]

"I'd like that. I'll be honest, you completely threw me off with how you started, but I really appreciate you being honest with me." She informs me.

"I think you're being too hard on yourself for one thing, you're much kinder than you seem to give yourself credit for."

'Press X to doubt.'

"Even if some of the stuff you said is true, that's fine, I don't hold people to extreme standards. So long as you're not abusing those weaker than yourself, and your habits can be spun in a positive way, I think the ends justify the means. For example, becoming a hero for the adrenaline combat grants, is objectively immoral. But that still adds 1 more hero to fight crime and make the world just a safer place."

"It doesn't matter if you're doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, so long as you're still doing the right thing." She takes a deep breath.

"Man, I was not expecting to get so philosophical when I asked you what school you were going to." 

"Yeah, that's my bad. I kinda dropped a lot on you, huh?" I say sheepishly.

"Kind of yeah." She gets yet another call on her phone.

"I should get going." She says.

Suddenly I start wondering what I should do, I decide to lean in for a hug. Which seems to be what she was expecting judging by her nervous smile.

We're clearly not on the same page however as when I lean in for the 'hug', the shorter girl grabs the sides of my head and pulls me down for a kiss.

Our lips lock and I won't say something as corny as fireworks went off, but as cheesy as it sounds it felt pretty magical. Technically this is my first kiss, and it didn't get the endorphins rushing like skydiving or bashing someone's skull in did, but for such an innocent gesture it sure got close.

Maybe sex really will be better than fighting, will wonders ever cease.

It feels like we've been kissing for hours when in reality it was probably closer to 5 seconds.

We finally disconnect a trail of saliva still interlocking both of our lips.

Considering we've already said goodbye like 10 different times we don't say anything else as we really do part ways this time.

As I watch her walk away, mostly to look at her ass, it hits me.

'Setsuna Tokage? SHE'S THAT GIRL FROM CLASS 1-B!'

That's why her Quirk felt familiar, I didn't get too far in the anime, and quite frankly I don't remember seeing her fight at all. But I did see her get blown up by Bakugo while she was all split on a YouTube clip.

I just assumed she reminded me of Buggy.

'Wait a minute, isn't Pony also…'

Needless to say, I stood there for a while.