Chapter 48

There's a shout, a thud, an explosion, and sudden pain as I'm thrown to the floor with a literal body weighing me to the hard stone floor and the sounds of curses as well as multiple more explosions that follow. My backpack is just within arm's reach of me, open and contents spilling onto the floor, the documents that are Midnight's assigned homework lay even further away, having slid across the floor to almost rest under the nearest seating. A take a deep breath and regret it later when the weight bears down even more, making it somewhat of a struggle to draw proper breath. I grunt, the sound followed by one that almost mimics my own and after a few dazed seconds, the body rushes off me. Green fills my vision, freckles, wide eyes, and an apologetic smile as Izuku scrambles to help me to my feet while apologizing profusely. His hair is messier than messy, his uniform ruffled and tie hanging loosely, he's missing a shoe and his smile is sheepish. Behind him, Katsuki appears with this hideous grin and explosions in his palm, all but glaring at Izuku and stomping his way towards us. Stomping turns to something of a speedwalk with morphs into a full sprint and I grab my backpack and jump away from the action before I could be caught in the middle once more. Izuku swivels on his feet, moving quite like a ballet dancer, and quickly parries his attacker, guiding Katsuki away from him with some good hand placements and sending the boy stumbling away from him. In a second his elbow hits the back of a blond head and the mighty lord explosion murder falls to the floor, smack on his face and Izuku smirks down at him for only a moment before rushing away. He bends and grabs a shoe I only now notice, shouts another apology and disappears into the elevator with his backpack barely held in his hands. He waves just as Katsuki turns to see him make his getaway and that smile my freckled friend wears is somewhat victorious.

Silence follows the sound of the elevator and I blatantly eye the fuming Katsuki, who's yet to get off the floor. His clothes are just as messy, an obvious sign of a fight if the previous scene hadn't been proof enough. The anger in his eyes can be felt and I shuffle back on instinct, bumping my foot against the documents that had slid away. I look down, look up and his eyes are on me. Red and near slits as he regards me as if I were the bane of his existence. His anger flares and makes way for something close to humiliation and defeat, which surprised me more than I would like to admit. He blinks and just like that he's on his feet, a scowl aimed at me and a grunt leaving him as he takes a step in my direction.

"What the hell are you looking at, huh?!" He inquires with another step taken towards me.

I clutch my homework protectively, as if he would do any damage to the things - he probably could. I stare at him, blank or incredulous, I'm not sure what's painted on my face, but it doesn't dampen his raging emotions any bit.

"You," I say simply, knowing that it's not the best thing to say in this situation. Katsuki is like a feral dog ready to attack at a moment's notice, anything can set him off and that one word is as dangerous as any other. "You're the only one here"

He makes this sound that's close to a growl, shocking me once more because I did not realize a human can make that sound. It seems some of those books weren't as absurd as they first appeared to be.

He scoffs, shoves his hands in his pockets, and turns away.

"Damn extra" he mumbles loud enough for me to hear.

"Got some type of inferiority complex?" I snark as I gather my fallen stuff and set them securely in my backpack. "Or bipolar disorder?"

I walk past him without much issue and can feel his eyes boring into my back.

"Your emotions are worse than a teenager on her period and being around you is almost painful" I don't make it a habit to talk this long to others I don't quite plan on befriending or things in that category. However, I do enjoy being a bother to certain people who meet certain criteria and Katsuki is just the perfect person to torment.

"Huh!" He sounds closer than before and his steps can be felt more than heard - my shoes had been taken off to offer some relief. "What did you say to me, you damn extra!"

"You're incredibly loud" another voice joins the fray and I turn to see the boy that's so intriguing to me today. He stands in the kitchen with a glass of milk, hair wet and already changed into some normal clothes. He wears glasses now, black framed and round upon his nose. Grey eyes blink slowly at us, specifically at Katsuki who regards him as he does any other "extra". "It's annoying"

The look on Katsuki's face almost sends me into a manic fit of laughter and I barely avoid it by grinning almost painfully. The boy - Nitsu Kimei - I think his name was, takes a sip of his milk and goes about his day as if Katsuki isn't attempting to kill him with his eyes alone. I can hear him sigh from here as he goes through the cabinets, standing on his toes just to reach the second shelf, and pulls out a container of sorts that he cradles to his chest carefully while refilling his glass of milk. He spares us a last glance, eyes dull and face blank before disappearing up the stairs.

An interesting character, that one.

Katsuki turns his attention back to me but I'm already pressing the button on the elevator, smiling slightly when he narrows his eyes at me.

"You can try to kill me, as you so helpfully put it," I say easily, revealing his thoughts and earning surprise from him. "Really, you can try, but if you do, just know that you won't even lay a hand on me"

Oh and it tempts him further, his emotions flaring dangerously and almost drowning me in its intensity. The elevator beeps, the doors open and I step inside, waving all the while to the unmoving Katsuki, who sobers a bit for some reason. He's a bit more relaxed now, shoulders back and eyes not so narrow, but that scowl remains. He mumbles something I don't quite catch and that's the last I see of him as the doors shut before my face and the elevator moves with my instruction.

I'm on my floor and to my room within minutes, stepping in and greeting Mina and Eijiro who have made themselves comfortable in my bed and are deep into a new game I had recently purchased. Most of everyone returned to the dorms before me - with me having left the school building a bit later because I wanted to watch Israel go through the obstacle course on one of the training grounds. I had the perfect view of the field from our classroom and had remained long after even Aizawa had left with a grumble and lazy drag of his feet. The obstacle course seems like fun and I wonder when we'll get a try at it.

There are familiar documents scattered on my bed, pictures of costumes on each of them and writing coating the rest of the pages. Mina sits in the middle of them, pen and pencil behind her ears and tongue sticking out as she attempts to beat some monster on the screen. It's a similar situation on the floor near the end of the bed where Eijiro sits in concentration. His pen and pencil are poked through his bun, sticking out oddly on his head.

I sigh and drop my backpack, my blazer almost comes off with that movement alone and soon enough I'm climbing into bed with just my undershirt and pants and my tie around my head after I gave up on getting it off. My own documents join the scattered ones on the bed, yet I make sure they don't join. Kurama is in his corner with a bowl of food and water and rests contently in his bed. I spot Orochi in her habitat, slithering between the pieces of nature of her little home.

"Midoriya and Bakugo were fighting," Eijiro says soon. "Well, arguing or something"

"It was a fight," I tell him. "Got in the middle of it the second I stepped through the door and ended up under Midoriya on the floor"

Mina snorts, then curses when she blunders and is almost killed in-game.

"Terrible luck," she says through a squeak when she once again barely escapes death.

I shrug, grab the pencil from behind her ear, and set to work on our homework. It's simple enough; find detriments in each costume and correct them as best I can. An easy enough task seeing as it is something I have been pondering about for a very long time. I should have it finished in record time if I don't let Mina distract me, which doesn't seem likely with the way she's already leaning into me.

"Really" she huffs. "Homework, you didn't even change"

"Later" I shrug her off only to have her return not a second later. "I can get it done quickly"

"We have three whole days" Eijiro reminds me.

I don't say anything and start marking down the flaws in Tokoyami's costume. The sound of screeching creatures and weapons of all kind become white noise as I focus on the task at hand. I get this done and I can help these two with their work when the time comes. We also have English homework, literature, and math, so I know they'll be in my room for some time. Their backpacks are on the floor near mine, in the same state of disarray as my own.

A pillow is set against my raised legs and Eijiro uses me as a backrest, relaxed and content as he returns his attention to the game. I wonder how long they had been in my room. Both have already changed and Mina smells like my soap, a fact she doesn't even attempt to hide even after my very pointed look. Eijiro's hair is a bit damp so I assume he also took a shower some time ago, so I'm the only one not cleaned up yet.

"Today was not what I expected"

Absently I hum to the statement, still busy with Tokoyami's costume and the changes that could be made to benefit him. I always found the cape a bit too much, a hindrance, and something that can definitely get in the way. I take Edna Mode's words and teachings very seriously. How about the foldable cloak instead? White on the inside made from reflective material so light can bounce off it and effectively subdue dark shadow should he....she....it? Wait, the hell even is dark shadow? Does it have a specific gender or does it not matter? Am I allowed to ask him this? Considering I haven't interacted with the person of interest it would an awkward thing to come out and ask such a question. Add onto that the fact that he hasn't even revealed dark shadow as of yet, so I'll simply have to wait until the moment comes. When dark shadow is eventually revealed, I can question him about it to sate my curiosity - if Izuku doesn't beat me to it.

"Today was pretty normal, don't you think, Zen?"

"It's the first day" I point out to Mina who shrugs in agreement.

"I guess"

Tokoyami should really work on getting a better handle on dark shadow when night falls, but I understand that it is a difficult task and perhaps quite terrifying. Would it be a good idea for him to have equipment that emits light or block out light? Something he can use quickly, like a flashbang of some kind if he needs to get dark shadow under control in a dire situation and it can also double as a distraction to his opponent. Or something of a smoke bomb that absorbs or blocks light when he needs to strengthen Dark shadow. Yeah, that would be useful so I note that down as a possibility, and should it be taken into consideration, I'm sure our classmates in the support course will happily get to it.

Tokoyami's file is discarded after a few minutes and the next turns out to be Denki's - nice.

Now where to begin with this one? His issue is the same as Jiro as in it lacks the protection he would need and lacks the equipment that would make the use of his quirk that much better and easier. Cargo pants would be far better than the ones he had chosen. The material they are made out of is not the strongest type.

Mina whoops next to me, just as Eijiro cheers, and I glance up in time to see the big shining words written on the screen declaring their victory. Good for them, playing my new game before I even got the chance to, I couldn't be happier for them.

"Ok," Eijiro claps once the game has been turned off and put away and the TV's been switched to some random anime that has been blowing up recently. He hops off my bed and returns with some of the scattered documents and places himself at my other side, sandwiching me between him and Mina. "Homework"

Mina groans, but doesn't offer further complaints as she grabs whatever is near and plucks her pencil from out of my hand.

"Homework" she repeats with less enthusiasm.

"It's not that bad" I try to comfort. "Just logical thinking"

"Oh I'm great at that" the sarcasm was heavy in her voice.

"Well, logical thinking is hard sometimes" I shrug and Eijiro nods as he stares at Iida's costume.

"He has engines coming out of his legs and I'm sure he's supposed to be fast," he says absently and continues when I nod. "Why is his costume so bulky and metallic then?"

I shrug.

"It'd be better if it were built a bit sleeker and not so restrictive to his movements," I say, glancing at the design for but a moment. There's nothing wrong with the aesthetic, it's just the way it was executed.

"Wouldn't it be fun if he had roller skates" Mina suddenly says with genuine wonder. "He uses his engine for speed right? So then if he had skates he would go faster than when he's running - just phew!" She mimics something like a bullet with her hands and the sounds she makes.

And it's hilarious.

But I guess she makes something of a point.

For a moment there's nothing but the scribble of pencils in the room and the few suggestions here and there and I'm surprised Mina actually got to work with so little prompting. It's not that she doesn't make her homework, it's just that she doesn't like to do it unless encouraged and usually it requires incentives. But when she does do it, she takes it quite seriously.

"Okay, this guy" she shows me Shoto's document and makes a face. "From what I'm reading here, he basically plans to freeze one half of himself for some reason, which makes no sense to me. Quirks have drawbacks and from what I've seen when you go overboard with your ice-making abilities, his decision isn't the best is it?"

"Major frostbite," I remark

"Numbing pain" Eijiro adds

"Breakages in the skin," Mina says

"See, the list" Mina taps her pencil against her chin. "Shouldn't he have a suit similar to yours? It says here that his quirk is half hot - half cold so I'm assuming that he has fire and ice. You requested your suit to be resistant to fire or temperature resistant or whatever, as well as have some temperature regulations, right?"

"Sure did" I'd be very content with not burning my skin off or freezing my limbs, thank you.

"So he should have a suit like that" she's confident in her thoughts and notes the suggestion down on the paper. "And eye protection, because you swear eye protection is always needed"

"Obviously" am I the only one with this concern? A hero is out there fighting villains, saving civilians, and all that stuff. Am I wrong to worry about the eyes? What if some lowlife decides to throw something into your eyes as a distraction, and they get away? Or debris get in there while you're busy with something crucial?

But I digress.

"Don't you have a date?" Mina asks a moment later, earning a very confused look from me because I don't remember having a date with anyone.

"The hell do you mean?"

"That girl from class B, did you already forget?" Now she looks baffled as if my confusion's unfounded.

"Oh, that" why would she call it a date? "Yeah, I didn't forget, I'll go find her after I'm done with homework and hopefully she isn't busy" a match with her would be fun. "Please don't refer to it as a date again, you really confused me there"

"She asked you out to an activity, gave you her number and her 'address'" Mina says matter of factly. "That's literally a date"

I'm not sure if I should be seeing her point because I actually do and don't make any comments on it. Mina's mind works far differently than my own and I've already understood that she's trying to bother me with this or tease me, it's one of the two, I'm sure.

"A date on the first day of school" Eijiro snickers. "You're more manly than some grown men"

"Would you two stop?"

"Let me know if she beats your ass," says Mina quite bluntly.

"See, I would have appreciated a "good luck", or "you can do it", or "I'm cheering for you" - or anything else, and that's what I get?" The audacity of this girl.

"Hey, maybe she does beat your butt" Eijiro adds with a shrug, not helping the situation at all.

"Such amazing friends I have, I am so blessed"

No sooner had I said that and I'm in a bear hug from the both of them, the two laughing like idiots while I struggle to get free. Eijro has me by my waist and Mina's arms are around my neck, effectively trapping me in this sudden attack.

"You don't get to hug me after that!"

"Awe but you're so cute when your pouting" Mina giggles and the sound that leaves my mouth is definitely a squawk.

"I wasn't pouting!" The hell?

"Yes, you were" Eijiro refutes in a fit of giggles and narrowly avoids a hand to the face.

Okay, no this is not fair, they better release me this very instant, the bastards!