Chapter Text
Ground Omega was a forest created around UA to help with emulating natural disasters. Setsuna and Izuku were walking further into the forest, until they saw a picnic basket on a blanket.
"Surprise!" Tokage raised her arms in an exaggerated manner. "Mom prepared the food for us. Here is katsudon for you and burgers for me."
She took the food containers out of the basket and handed over 2 of them to Izuku. She also gave a box of apple juice stylized after Cementoss.
"Wow, this is amazing!" Midoriya said after trying. "It’s just like my mom’s."
They ate while enjoying the sounds of nature. After a few minutes Koji Kouda, a student from general education course walked by. Tokage tried calling him, but he turned around and walked away. Later on he returned with a small squad of squirrels tailing behind him. He took the nuts from Setsuna’s stash, thanked her and gave it to the critters. They ran up on her shoulders and head, acting like she was another tree. It was so cute that Izuku made a few photos. Out of curiosity, he asked Koji about his quirk, which turned out to be talking to animals. Midoriya’s analyst side came out and he asked if the rock headed boy could make a squirrel take a quirk from an object. To everyone’s amazement, it worked, and the animal started pulling nuts from everyone. Koji had to calm it down so that Izuku could take Attraction back. After Koda went further into the forest, Midoriya and Tokage lied down on the blanket and stared at the skies, trying to find clouds with familiar shapes.
"Hey, Freckles." She said. "May I ask you for a favor?"
"Yes, of course. What is it?"
"I want a new quirk. Pretty please."
"Uhhhh." He groaned. "Let’s hope my next visit to Tartarus is soon."
Before Daigo and Ochako could leave the UA grounds. Tenya caught up with them.
"Wait for me!" He said.
"We kind of wanted to spend time alone." The blond boy responded.
"Toyomitsu-sensei asked me to watch over you, make sure you don’t get into trouble." The tall boy fixed his glasses.
“Smartass. I need to come up with something.” Brando thought.
"Do you have any ideas where we can go?" Uraraka asked.
"No, but I will gladly follow you anywhere." Iida replied.
The three of them take a bus to the city center. Daigo gave his quirk token to Ochako when Tenya wasn’t looking. She absorbed the sentient quirk and it told her to go on her own. She said she needs so alone time and got off on a random bus stop. Her first stop was a costume shop, where she bought a space helmet reminiscent of Thirteen, as well as her gloves. She then followed Holy Diver’s directions to get to a building in the city outskirts. She put on a mask entered a seemingly random building and it actually looked fabulous on the inside. There were other people (some masked, some not) sitting at tables, gambling and talking to each other. Ochako walked up to the counter.
"H-Hello." She was nervous.
"Hello, little lady. Are you here to play?" The lady at the counter asked.
"Yes." The girl gulped.
"Before I exchange your money for chips, I need you to show your quirk."
Uraraka took off one of her gloves and asked for a knife. She carefully cut a small wound and let it heal. She really didn’t want to show her Zero Gravity here, so Regeneration was her choice.
"Wow, I wish I had that." The cashier smiled coyly. "Alright. I can now exchange your money for chips. We accept Yen and US dollars."
Ochako’s hands were a bit trembling when she handed over money that wasn’t hers. She picked up the chips and asked to join the tournament. Her first bunch of opponents were around her age, and they laughed at how awkward she looked in that helmet. She wanted to talk back, but was afraid of pissing them off. She kept quiet for the most part and just played along, ocassionally checking other players’ cards. After an hour of listening to their ramblings, she busted them out pretty easily. Those guys weren’t particularly hard to read, so she didn’t have to overexert by using time stop.
Next group shocked her a little bit. She recognized the man with the shark head as one of USJ attackers! He talked about how it was the easiest job of his life. All he had to do was beat up of bunch of hero wannabes, and then exit through a weird black mist. This was her chance to get more info!
"Sounds cool!" She tried to sound differently than usual. "Are you still working with those guys?"
"Why are you asking?" The shark villain increased the bet. "You want to join them?"
"Yeah. My, er, family is struggling for money."
"Really? You seem to be pretty stacked." Another guy pointed at her chips.
"I’m just getting lucky, he he." Uraraka let out a nervous laughter.
"I see. Well, let me tell you, those guys aren’t worth working with long term. That Shigaraki guy is unstable, he even dusted someone for demanding a raise. I took my money and said I want to part ways."
"Could you at least tell me how to get in contact?"
"No idea. I was approached by a weird guy in a mask and each time I was teleported in and out of their base. It looked like a bar, but I can’t say much more. sorry."
“Damn it.” Ochako thought.
"What was the job, anyway?" Another player walked up because she got curious. "I heard it on the news, but I bet they aren’t telling the full story."
"Shigaraki told us he wants to destroy hero society. No idea why, but he sounded genuine to me. He told he had a secret weapon to kill All Might."
"WHAT?!" Everyone turned to the shark man.
"That’s impossible." The curious woman said. "Nobody can beat that guy."
"Right." The villains nodded. "That ’Secret weapon’ got fucking destroyed by one UA students, so I can’t imagine it being all that strong. Anyway, all I had to do was wait in the faux lake and beat whoever gets brought to me. There were 2 girls, around your age." He pointed at Uraraka, who started sweating bullets. "I think one of them had a Flight quirk cause they got the fuck out pretty quickly."
"I bet you wish you could fight." Someone from the gathering crowd said.
"I’m not going to complain about free money." The shark showed it toothy smile. "If you are really desperate for work with those guys, just stick to dark alleys. I’m sure they’ll find you."
Everyone got back to their seats. Ochako won the game by cheating a lot, which caused her to get really tired. There was too much effort and stress for her to continue, so she quit early and took whatever money she got. 300’000 yen, neat. After doing the math, she would end up with 112500 yen, which a lot of her. On her way back to the dorms, Ochako wondered if she should tell someone about what happened. One one hand, she wanted to help find those villains with what little information she found, but on the other hand, she was afraid of what would happen to her after she told on herself. Holy Diver actively encouraged her to keep quiet.
Daigo and Tenya went to an amusement park. Brando "forgot" his wallet at home, so Iida paid for their tickets. Tenya wasn’t familiar with some of these kind of attractions, since he was never interested in them in the first place. Daigo decided to run through everything so that his boring classmate could finally have some fun. Roller Coaster was right up Iida’s valley due to all the wind that blows in your face. Likewise, he was exceptionally good at Go Karts, despite lacking experience. Due to Tenya’s athletic body, he was pretty good at High Striker, Strike Out and Shooting Range. He absolutely refused to participate in Splish Splash and wanted to reprimand people for using it. After a few more hours of rides, the boys went back.
"I wonder why Uraraka didn’t come with us." Tenya wondered.
"Maybe she thought you’d suck the fun out of things." Daigo joked.
"That’s ridiculous! I’m a fun guy. That’s what Tensei always says."
"I guess we have different opinions on that matter. You really like Ingenium as a hero?"
"Of course! He is a pillar of the community that holds up Hosu. He provides 50 of his sidekicks with stable jobs and moderate exposure. He..."
"Okay, I get it. Look, what I’m trying to say is: If you want to be beloved like him, you really need less annoying. I’m pretty sure that’s the reason why you didn’t get the class representative role."
"You didn’t get it either."
"I mean, I could have." Daigo snickered. "But that’s probably because my speech wasn’t very good. I’m sure people wouldn’t mind it too much if I was the class President. I wouldn’t be getting at people’s nerves."
"I have a feeling you would be setting a terrible example for others. You used your ability to joke at Toyomitsu-sensei’s expense."
"Like I said, be less annoying."
After Itsuka finished her improvised lesson, Denki asked her out on a date once more. The boy was persistent, and he put effort into learning, so she finally agreed. He took her into his rooms so they could play video games together. Denki’s quirk allowed him to think pretty quickly, so he was naturally at an advantage, but he tried to hold back against Kendou. She was picking up really quick, and beating up someone with flashy special moves was pretty fun. Her favourite character was a big and muscly guy who screamed in Russian. Kaminari jokingly asked if Kendou could dress up like his favourite character: blonde woman in a green leotard and red beret. She said he’d have to try way harder to convince her.
After the gaming sessions was over, they started talking about classes. Denki was very curious about Izuku specifically.
"I never heard of quirks like that before. Did he really just hand over quirks for no reason?"
"He said he can’t use many at a time anyway, so he gives most of them." She said. "I was hoping he’d give one to me too."
"Yeah! Everyone was jealous of Shouji when he was given that shooting quirk for free. I wish I had that!" Denki clenched his fist.
"I hope I can get something good before Sports Festival. Izuku already put Daigo, Ochako and few others ahead. And don’t get even get me started on guys like Momo and Shouto."
"I’m sure you’ll do great regardless." Kaminari showed thumbs up.
"Thanks."
Shouto entered Cammie’s room, where she and Momo were sitting on the bed.
"We want to talk about your mental condition." Yaoyorozu spoke up after a brief silence.
"I’m okay," Shouto said with disinterest in his eyes.
The girls watched him briefly, and thought to themselves. Nobody was nearby, so there was no fear of intervention or overhearing.
"You don’t look okay, dude." Camie put a finger on her lip.
"I don’t?"
Momo shook her head, "No, and you are not doing a good job at pretending otherwise."
"You sound just like Mic-Sensei." Todoroki rolled his eyes.
"Wow! did you just make a joke?" The blonde girl giggled.
"What?" Shoto looked at her.
Momo sighed, "N-Never mind. Look...Shouto, do you mind if we show you something?"
"What?" Shouto was confused.
"We will...hold you." Yaomomo stood up.
"...Huh?"
"Just for a couple of seconds, or a bit longer if you’d like." Utsushimi got on her feet as well.
"...Why?"
"Because you look like you need it."
He wasn’t looking at them, and he was dead quiet. Momo hesitated but placed a hand on his shoulder. Shoto didn’t react to that. Being careful was the strongest quality she needed right now. The things he has been through, they must have made him cautious and mistrustful.
Another hand on his other shoulder from Camie, he didn’t respond to that either. Slowly, carefully, they brought him for a group hug. Then something happened, something that surprised them more than anything.
He returned the hug, and he was holding them tight. His arms were fully wrapped around their waists as if he were trying to push them into him. Momo allowed it noticed tears gathering in his eyes. After a few awkward minutes, he let go and bowed down before them.
"Thank you. I feel better now."
"We can do it again any time, hot stuff." Camie showed a peace sign.
"Hot? Did I burn you by accident?"
"No!" Momo hit her face palm. "Look, we’ll need to work on your understanding of figures of speech."
"Alright." Todoroki nodded. "By the way, Midoriya wanted to ask me about my quirk. Did he do the same with you?"
"Yes. He suggested potential improvements. I learned a neat trick that lets me create pseudo armor."
"I can freaking go invisible!" Camie used Glamour to conceal her presence. "Totally wicked!" Her disembodied voice was thrilled.
"I see. Perhaps he can teach me something as well."
"We should totally hang out some time!"
Shouto went back into his room. He wanted to tell Fuyumi about his new friends. Momo sat back down.
"Did it go well?" She asked.
"Of course!" Camie replied. "I’m sure we can open him up soon. Do you think he’ll agree to a mall date?"
"I suppose? Now we should wait until Brando-san returns."
"Sweet! Now, could you please help me with matrices? They’re hard, not gonna lie."