Motome Fumika
Chiwa Hatori
Hatori sat quietly and twirled her pen as she stared at the pile of homework she had right in front of her, groaning and leaning down her chair. It was the second week of class and already the instructors were giving her a heavy load. Well... not quite. If she had the willpower and patience, it was easily doable in two hours. But if her previous childhood had told her anything, it was that it took more than a bit of pushing to get her to actually work hard in her academics.
God damn it, this is hero academy! Aren’t we supposed to learn about...hero stuff? Hatori thought as she looked outside. The sun was setting past the high rise buildings, the lights slowly coming on for each independent room. She sighed and turned on the lamp before staring at her pile of homework again. First was World History, then Chemistry, and finally analyzing a Japanese poem on her weekly journal. She glanced at Fumika uncomfortably as she took out her pencil box.
...Or rather, she glanced herself at where her roommate had been. Last she’d checked, Fumika had been sitting by the window, staring out at… something. The sunset, maybe? In any case, her uncannily silent roommate had evidently moved at some point during the interim without Hatori noticing, as the chair was empty and the curtains were closed. This… was not as strange of an occurrence as one might think. After all, the blonde was usually very quiet even when otherwise engaged, and, at present, she didn’t seem to be doing much of anything. Since Hatori herself had been doing a good job of at least
looking busy, it wasn’t unlike Fumika not to say anything at all. Still, she had to still be in the room somewhere, as the door definitely hadn’t opened or closed… As Hatori’s gaze panned slightly to the left, she found her answer. Atop the room’s second bed, the rather plain white comforter had been rolled up with surprising neatness, creating an almost perfectly symmetrical roll of blanketing that resembled nothing in its shape quite so much as an upended bale of hay. This wasn’t what caught her particular attention, however, as from within this exceedingly fluffy cylinder, a single, arching strand of golden hair stuck up like an antenna, bobbing slightly back and forth as its owner evidently contented herself with snuggling her face into the warmth of the covers. Then, all of a sudden, this strand stood bolt upright, jabbing slightly back and forth, and then drooped unexpectedly back down into the roll of blankets.
”E-eh?” Hatori muttered with mild confusion, her writing hand pausing in midair just as it was about to make contact with the paper. She put down the pencil and glanced around the room. Did she go out the door? No, she didn’t even hear the door creak... She turned her head around to the left before suddenly noticing a huge lump inside the comforter on Fumika’s bed. After several days of living together, her side of the room was still nearly as empty as it was before, and unusually neat and tidy.
There was a muffled flop as the cushy bundle toppled onto its side. It wobbled slightly back and forth, then began to steadily unroll itself down the bed, its occupant making herself heard before she was seen.
“Gorogorogorogorogorogoro~” A monotone voice cooed, uttering what was either complete nonsense or an unsuccessful attempt at imitating the sound of a train. Fumika was slightly muffled by the blankets for only a moment, as the incomprehensible girl proceeded to unwrap herself before rolling clear off of the bed and into a rather meticulously placed stack of pillows, demolishing it completely before disappearing once more from view as the blanket, still partly wrapped around her ankles, was tugged down on top of her. There were a few moments of silence as the pile on the floor shifted slightly to one side or the other, followed by complete stillness. A quiet but unmistakably happy sigh ushered forth from the impromptu pillowfort, and all was, evidently, right once more with the world.
”What!? Did she finish her work before I did? Hatori shuffled uncomfortably, a bit shocked by how idle Fumika was. Several days of living together at least gave Hatori some time to get used to the strange rituals and other actions she performed while the two were in the room. She glanced at Fumika again and pressed her pencil towards her cheek – she never heard Fumika talk much in class, though if she remembered correctly, Fumika’s Quirk also gave her photographic memory...and even without that, she was getting pretty good scores early on the class as well.
Hatori smiled and looked at her World History homework sheet for a moment. “Hey, Fumika...can you help me with a question?” she asks, moving down to the middle of the page and reading the question. “Question 2-6–”
“‘The ancient civilizations which emerged in the wake of the agricultural revolution were primarily based in fertile river valleys supportive of crops. They included early Mesopotamian civilizations, the Indus River Valley civilization, settlements around the Nile River in Egypt, and settlements along the Yellow River in China.’ Page 27.” The answer came almost before the number of the question was out of Hatori’s mouth, recited with all the precision of a computer - and all the emotion of one, too. A tuft of fluffy blonde hair poked out from under the corner of the comforter, followed shortly by the expressionless face of her roommate, who lay upside down, craning her head at a rather silly-looking angle and staring blankly up at Hatori with calm blue eyes.
”Don’t say it exactly like that, though, because that’s how the textbook says it, and they don’t like direct quotes. I got in trouble for that a lot before I figured out.”Hatori blinked and grinned before twirling her pencil and writing down the answer.
”Yeah yeah, plagiarism and all that. Our English teacher gave us this fifteen minute lecture on how to cite sources or whatever and not copying stuff word for word,” she replies as she finishes her answer. Hatori writes for about a minute or two before she met another pitfall.
Crud...I should have really read up on this… she thought before chuckling sheepishly and turning to Fumika again. [color=C0C0C0]”And what about Question 3-1…”
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Friday, April 6th, 20:28, Room A-108
“...Hello?” Fumika blinked, her tone calm but slightly confused, almost questioning. She cocked her head slightly to one side and stared quizzically up at Hatori from where she’d been sitting in the corner.
[color=C0C0C0]“W-What!?”
Hatori nearly dropped the backpack she had carried into the room, noticing that Fumika, the teammate she had been paired with earlier that morning, was in the same dorm room as she was. From afternoon to dinner, she had been thinking non-stop about the exercise tape they had to watch near the end of physical instruction. Mr. Yoshida was as cold and critical as usual, and thankfully their team had gotten off easily with little criticism, Amane excluded. Apparently, after Amane went by himself, a chaotic fight had ensued at the point, and the exercise had to be cut short before the team could even get into the building.
It was also a perfect opportunity to see each one of her classmates’ Quirks and weaknesses. There were some she couldn’t tell at all – Jett’s Quirk remained an unknown to her. Mina could emit light apparently, like the baby with the first Quirk, though with far more control. She had taken quite a beating in the clip, too, and from what she had heard, she was now getting her wounds treated. There were also a new face, namely Ruby, who also had some kind of strange Quirk, and Hatori wasn’t able to understand fully what it was.
But that wasn’t what Hatori was thinking about right now. She tried not to show too much negative emotion towards Fumika and cleared her throat, letting out a small smile. Fumika wasn’t a bad classmate really, and she could have gotten worse classmates out of the bunch, but their personalities didn’t fit at all! Hatori took a deep breath before turning to her.
”Oh...it’s nothing. You just surprised me a bit is all,” Hatori remarked and threw her backpack next to her desk.
”You were pretty cool in that exercise clip, by the way. You didn’t get hurt too badly, did you? I saw that some of our classmates needed to be sent to the clinic. I kind of just got minor burns myself from that dust firestorm thing I pulled off, so they patched me up pretty quick.”The blonde girl shook her head. It was odd, now that Hatori looked at her. She was holding a book in her hands, and had been staring at it rather intently as if reading, but she hadn’t even opened it to the first page yet. And had her eyes been glowing slightly before she had looked up to see Hatori enter? Maybe it was just a trick of the light…
“I’m fine. Takeshi protected me, so I didn’t get burned. I was very tired, though, so I passed out as soon as the battle was over. But when I woke up, I was okay. It was a good nap.” She declared this last bit as if it explained everything, patting the bed next to her demonstratively as if showing off how fluffy the covers were. Then, after a few moments of peering quizzically at Hatori in abject silence, went back to staring blankly at the cover of her book. Although, Hatori couldn’t but be skeptical of this claim, since she, of all people, knew that Fumika had taken several hits before the explosion even went off. And yet she claimed to be fine? No, the more likely explanation was that she’d been sent to the nurse’s office and simply been lucky enough to remain totally unconscious through all of Nurse Kiwi’s rather…
unpleasant… treatment procedures. But then why had she been gesturing to her bed? She didn’t seem like the type to use one thing to represent another. Whatever the case, her explanation didn’t exactly shed much light on anything.
Hatori paused and stared at Fumika for a moment, not paying enough attention to her before to notice the faint glow in her eye. She was a bit more focused on the book Fumika had on her hands, which she seemed to be reading, yet upon a closer look, noticed that she had not even opened the cover. She turned back towards her desk and took out an unopened pack of flash cards, opening up the plastic wrapping – while Hatori had missed what Fumika did with her Quirk, it was rather clear what Hatori herself was doing as she started making creases on the paper cards. After all, that firestorm had burnt out at least half of the paper supply on her, and she needed to make more to be ready for tomorrow.
By the looks of it, Fumika had worn herself out from that battle and was sent to the nurse’s offices like the others...ugh. I’m lucky I wasn’t that injured enough to have to be treated like that from the nurse.There were still some questions she had, like whoever that Haruka person Fumika was mentioning during the exercise. And that projection, too...during the exercise, she assumed it was probably some sort of imaginary friend due to Fumika’s rather eccentric attitude, but something in the back of her mind told her that it wasn’t that simple.
”You um...done reading that?” Hatori asked half-jokingly.
”Must be a real good one if it’s caught so much of your attention.”After a few more moments of staring at the closed book in silence, Fumika nodded to herself and set it down on the end table next to her, giving it one last pensive glance before looking back to Hatori and nodding again.
“Mm,” she uttered stone-facedly.
“Just finished. It was a very emotional read.”Hatori placed a hand near her cheek and sighed.
What did I do to deserve this? she thought.
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Oh boy, what did I do to deserve this! Hatori had already completed her history homework in a breeze with Fumi just spouting out the answers straight towards her. She never really thought of how beneficial her roommate’s Quirk was until now, but with this, she could get a good grade before the end of the semester. Now, next was math...
Hatori opened her mouth to ask for additional help, only for a slight rustling beneath the mound of pillows and blankets beside her to catch her attention as Fumika sat up suddenly, staring down at a small pink phone with a quizzical look. She mumbled something under her breath that sounded a lot like
”Why would someone want specifically to talk to me?” Whoever it was, some kind of answer seemed to strike her, as she shot upright with surprising speed. Her eyes flashed green for a moment, and two copies of herself took form, quickly cleaning up the various pillows and blankets around her and making her bed up while Fumika herself fetched her glasses from the bedside table. The two copies tossed the comforter into the air, then disappeared beneath it as it fell onto the bed, vanishing like the assistants in a stage magician’s grand illusion. Biting nervously down on her bottom lip, the blonde girl strode quickly towards the door, not so much as looking back.
”Woah, where are you off to?” Hatori blinked, dropping her pencil. She was a bit startled at the clones at first, though she had seen Fumi form clones casually to do all the quick cleaning and work before. She stood up and pushed her chain in, intending to tag along with her.
”Going downstairs now,” Fumika said seriously, hardly glancing back as she headed briskly for the stairs.
”Someone’s waiting for me.”
