---

Haruki was super impressed.

Everyone else's quirks were so cool! He thought his quirk was cool, but it was almost disappointing when compared to the rest of them. He'd sort of downplayed everyone else's quirks out of irritation at being interrupted, but now he realized just how outclassed he was, and he couldn't be more excited. The thought of competing with all of these others while being at such a disadvantage, helping them achieve their potentials, it was so cool!

He was especially shocked by the girl who seemed to be nothing more than a mass of goo. Wow! He'd never seen anything even close to that, what the heck kinda quirks did they have here at UA?

Haruki watched in awe, as the principal introduced himself. He'd never seen anyone so powerful in his life, and he'd get to be taught by this guy? Wow! Haruki just kept getting more and more shocked with every reveal! It was like he was living in a movie! Haruki wanted to ask him so many questions, but he held his tongue and waited, no matter how much it sucked to do so. When they were done there, he bounced over to the teacher with their keys, and pumped his fists up and down as he waited. He was going to get a room, and a roommate! Katsuro! That guy who could light himself on fire! That was awesome! They were gonna be best friends, they were gonna conquer the world!

He was about to go over to introduce himself to Katsuro, but then he was interrupted by the security chief. Haruki immediately became concerned, there were so many rules all of a sudden. Haruki was willing to follow rules, but these were so over the top. Jeez, Haruki didn't know how okay he was with this, but he had to do this if he wanted to be a hero, no matter how strict the rules were. He shook himself and slapped his cheeks. Be happy, be excited, don't be worried, worrying is useless. Okay, rules schmules, he was gonna be a hero! Himura Haruki: best hero in the world!

Haruki retrieved his key and darted off to his room, where Katsuro was already setting up. Haruki went to go in, then realized he'd forgotten his suitcase in the car! Oh no! All his stuff! He turned to walk away, only for the security guy to shove it into his arms.

"You forgot this, your parents handed it in at the security checkpoint."

Haruki looked up with wide eyes.

"Aw man! I'm such a screw up, thanks sensei!" he replied quickly, turning to go back into the room.

"Sure..." he heard the man say behind him in a voice that seemed both confused and amused.

"Hi Ryuujin-san!" Haruki yelled out as he waddled his suitcase into his room. He pulled out a whole bunch of black clothes and stuffed them in a closet, then a laptop, which he put on one of the provided tables. Then he pulled out a black blanket which he laid over his bed, a bunch of paintings that he himself had made when he was younger, all of which were kinda spooky looking, with deformed faces and dark imagery, and stuck them up on the wall. He put out a small mat, meant for karate practice, and finally a speedbag, which he hung from the roof right next to his bed. "Done!" he yelled out with a wide smile. It felt just like home already.

The first thing that passed through Mizura’s head when witnessing Konomi’s Quirk was she would never have to worry about getting fat. Otherwise, she could only imagine the myriad possibilities of being able to split into two, regardless of the reduced capacity of the clones. She was going to call her “Double Team”.

The incredibly hyperactive Haruki could apparently come inside anyone he wanted, presumably at any time too. It was an interesting idea…but also highly disturbing, in more ways than one. This one she would call “Jumpy”.

Perhaps the most disturbing of all had to be Lacara, if only because of the thought of sudden impending death if she got worked up without Spacenaut around to deploy a shield. Though Mizura would simply raise an eyebrow as the lava spewed forth, she was more concerned than her face let on. It was a very devastating power, but not one she wanted being used anywhere near her. She would be “Hot Bod”. It was basically handed to her by her Quirk name.

Seo sounded like he didn’t want to be here, which begged the question; why was he? He probably had some reasons, none of which mattered to Mizura. The blood manipulation was mildly interesting, but it seemed like such a double edged sword. He could be “Bleeder”. Not terribly inventive, but in his own words, WhoTheFuckEvenCares?

Nadeshiko certainly had versatility, but without knowing the nature of the substance that made up her body, it was hard to tell how effective she could be in other situations. She was going to call her “Gummy”.

The shrimp girl, Hyouka, was almost as energetic and zany as Haruki, but was, of course, a shrimp. A shrimp with great strength, that was. She would call her “Pinchy”.

Himori was, in a way, similar to Nadeshiko, if only in the ability to manipulate their body. As Mori-sensei demonstrated, it appeared there was some strength behind their grip. She wasn’t so sure how she would stand up to someone with a knife, however. Mizura was going to call her “Silky”. She really was running out of good inspiration at this point.

Nyoko was a hard one to come up with anything for. Her Quirk was fairly banal and didn’t even have a name. It was bound to be effective, but it wasn’t something she could get excited about. Lacking inspiration already, a nickname for Nyoko would have to be shelved for now.

The next demonstration was annoying. Deeply annoying, which may have been the whole point of it. This son of a bitch Daizo’s Quirk was supposed to give people depression, apparently. What kindof cruel, miserable universe would invent something so disgustingly petulant? Mizura had a mind to suffocate the worthless reject right her and now so he would never get the chance to do that again.

Then she snapped out of it, and made a note not to get anywhere near him ever again.

Perhaps it was the residual effect of the last demonstration talking, but Mizura had a hard time getting excited by Dimitri either. He was strong like an ox. Good for him. She had a feeling nicknames about him being a bull would be almost offensive so she decided against it.

Apparently Marius’ Quirk was to be a psychotic and dangerous Werewolf. Great. More huge threats among their own student body, just waiting for a bad day to make someone regret setting up this school. As if she didn’t have enough to worry about.

As wild and unusual as Yaseishi’s Quirk was, it certainly seemed useful. At least it didn’t come with the possibility of them going nuts and eviscerating someone, which was an improvement. She would call them “Chimera”, given the hodgepodge of different elements their Quirk seemed to encompass.

That was finally everyone. For some reason, Mizura felt a bit tired just thinking about them all. At least they finally got to move on. They met the principal, talked about a bunch of weird things like sex in the dorms, and then were released from their duty to listen. Mizura decided she was just going to go to her room and sit down with a nice bottle of water. Whoever was to be her roommate could either meet her there or give her a moment of solitude.

The quirk demonstrations didn't end with him. There were a few more who had yet to show off what they could do before they would be moving on to the next part of the day. Another man from a myth, a Werewolf, and one more who seemed to be able to transform. There seemed to be no end of enthusiasm from the teachers, a level which would increase tenfold with the sudden appearance of the principal of the school, Todoroki Ishin. He was mighty and powerful with his quirk, and the flame in his heart almost seemed to burn brighter than he ones he produced.

Spacenaut had asked them all to line up in an orderly fashion to get their dorm keys. Dimitri knew for a fact that they would be living in dorms, simply a safety precaution because of protesters and the hostility over quirks, but he couldn't remember if he was going to living in his own room or not. Well, he packed light. He wasn't going to get in anyone's way with his things.

The excitement didn't end there. With a chilling wave washing over him, Dimitri flicked his gaze to Death Glare, the security officer and tutor of the school. The ground rules for the school were rather simple. Be back by nine, don't leave the city, guests must be checked in, and overnight guests are strictly prohibited. Dimitri didn't see any of the rules conflicting with him, and stayed quiet as Todoroki gave them a brief tour around the school.

Their tour, if one could even call it that, was simply a walk to the dorms where they would all be living for the next year, and hopefully the next four years. Dimitri's key was labeled for room Two.

With his door unlocked and opened, Dimitri flicked on the light to get a look at his new living quarters. Three beds. He would make due. Still, he wondered who he would be sharing the room with. It wasn't that loud guy with the fire based quirk. Dimitri had seen him walk into the first room in the hall, so there was no need to wonder if he would be bunking with him.

---

He was going to die here.

That was the only thought that dominated Mitsuo's mind throughout the rest of the demonstrations and subsequent campus introduction. As if the walking explosion waiting to happen that went before him wasn't bad enough, there was some foreign girl that was even worse! Was that real lava? Was everyone just supposed to die anytime she tried to activate her quirk? She couldn't even control when it came out either, she just... erupted whenever she got ticked off! And that werewolf kid might not've been as flashy, but he was just as bad. He was trying to fight a teacher for no reason. A teacher!

Mitsuo barely heard the principal's speech, focusing instead on the crippling horror that was steadily building in his chest. Did that magic depression guy forget to turn his quirk off? No, he was genuinely grappling with the thought that he was likely to end up as lonely here as everywhere else. So much for an optimistic new start. Maybe if he presented himself to the crowd outside as 'one of the good ones' he wouldn't be immediately lynched. He could definitely see where some of their grievances were coming from, given the motley crew of danger he was surrounded by.

Fortunately, Death Glare's list of regulations actually caught his attention before he could finish revising the first draft of Uncle Mitsu's Cabin. Structure and rules were... comforting, at least if he ignored that bit about birth control. He didn't want to dwell on the fact that this was a high school and such matters actually needed to be addressed. His classmates might outwardly appear as chaos incarnate, but coming here meant they likely had a desire to keep their destructive powers in line. At this point, Mitsuo was just falling prey to the same thought patterns as the protestors. He needed to keep in mind that, apparently, not everyone with a quirk was as blessed as he was. These were people, not monsters. Even that minotaur-looking guy.

His room was darker than he expected. Were windows a safety hazard or something? He tried the lightswitch - didn't work, must've been a construction oversight. He'd have to go tell one of the teachers now, great. At least the desk lamps seemed to be working, though they weren't very helpful. Mitsuo raised a hand, letting his palm heat up enough to bathe the room in a soft blue light, but not enough to actively prime an explosive. Shigeki-sensei had said they could use their quirk for everyday tasks, this should be acceptable.

"Oh, h-hi," He stammered out as he noticed his roommate was already present, "I didn't think anyone else was in here." The creepy guy with the depression quirk? Not his first choice to be staying with, but... no, on second thought, everyone here was a little off, this was probably one of the better rooming arrangements. "D'you already tell the teachers the light was busted?"

The other boy looked like he was sleeping, but Mitsuo wasn't really sure. Seemed a bit early in the day for a nap, unless - what was his name? Daigo? Daizo? - hadn't gotten much sleep last night. Then again, he was doing the same weird faceplant thing during his demonstration too, so Mitsuo assumed the guy might just be really eccentric. A cursory inspection revealed the room did, in fact, have a window, but that it was just covered by curtains. So Daizo was trying to sleep? He could sympathize, he guessed, but he had things to unpack, and he wasn't doing that in the dark.

Mitsuo let the light dissipate from his hand as he moved to open the curtains and let in some light. He paid little mind to the succulent on the windowsill as he went back to his suitcase. He didn't bring much, just some clothes and other essentials, which he diligently started putting away in the provided dresser.

---

@Zelosse

The light hit the side of his face and Daizo, wanting to lay there in the dark but also not wanting to upset his roommate, reached over and drew the curtains on his own side as much as he could to block out the light before rolling onto his back and staring at his roommate. The one with the wispy things? Better him than the other powerhouses in this place so at least in this the two of them saw eye to eye but Daizo knew true peace was not going to be so easy. Already the other boy showed he didn't appreciate the total void that Daizo preferred and would have to speak up or accept the others ones ways.

"Yeah.. hi. About the light, uhh.. The thing is that, well, my eyes are very sensitive and I'd like to keep the room..." What was the right way of saying this that wouldn't cause an argument. There had to be a way to avoid one or they would never know peace. "Dark. I know its probably not your preference but it would only be temporary, if that is any better?" Daizo briefly explained he had taken out the lightbulb and then his plan to put up a divider across his side of the room, as close to his bed as possible so the other boy could have more room, but explained that it was going to be a week or more before something like that was implemented. "I'm sorry to be a bother so early with such a stupid problem, so I understand if you want to keep the window open. I'll just put on some sunglasses or something. No big deal."

@AdmrlStalfos19

Returning to the crowd, Hyouka watched the rest of the demonstrations. First up was a sweet, gentle-looking girl who could turn into silk, followed by a girl who could transfer energy. However, that was all quickly pushed out of Hyouka's mind as the next student's poetry sent her to the ground in despair.


Memories of being bullied flooded her psyche, but worse than that, she imagined that the bullying then spread to her parents, ostracizing them from society, and forcing them to ultimately abandon her so that they could return to a life of normalcy. The terrible what-if scenario was more than Hyouka could bear as she pounded her claw on the pavement, until the force of the thought subsided, and a tiny voice in her head began reminding her to keep faith and to remember the love her parents had given her, and continue to give. Though she realized how silly the thought was, the thought still lingered. Getting back up, she caught the tail end of a demonstration by a minotaur, followed by a wild show from a werewolf, Hyouka being completely oblivious to the fact that Marius had actually gone berserk. She was merely impressed by the power of both her classmate and future teacher. All of this was finally wrapped up by a student who seemed to be mimicking animal traits. Hyouka wondered if she could 'donate' her trait to this classmate, and they could be shrimp buddies together.

This was followed by a wonderful announcement by their principal. Hyouka enjoyed the spectacle of a famous hero showing off his quirk. Then came room assignments. For this Hyouka was so excited, that she didn't even notice the content of Shigeki-sensei's announcement and the disturbing sexual implications of what he had said. Having received her key, Hyouka could see that she had been assigned to room five. As they were led to the dorms, Hyouka was bouncing with excitement, wondering who her roommate was. "Room five...room five...umm...are you in room five...umm..." she kept mumbling and asking no one in particular, her excitement suddenly becoming anxiety and shyness, perhaps because of the hit of 'Oblivion' from the demonstration earlier. When they arrived, Hyouka found the door, but stood outside, hoping to meet her roommate so her and her future best friend could walk in together.

Emiko and Jun-Tao Zhao

Emiko had no strong feelings about the bulk of the quirk demonstrations. Some were okay, others were pretty cool, and nobody seemed terribly offensive. There was a handful that stood out to her.

The first was Lacara. Her quirk just seemed dangerous. It didn’t really seem like it was her fault, but it was something she was going to have to keep in mind around her. Zhao-sensei too was making a mental note to keep her volatility in mind, lest something terrible come of it.

Then there was Seo. His attitude was just plain foul. It was like he had nothing but contempt for the whole demonstration. Emiko felt terrible for Mori-sensei as she saw that little shit flip her off. If it hadn’t been for the fact that there were a whole slew of demonstrations to come, Zhao-sensei would have been having words with that boy. It was the first thing on his to do list after the demonstrations and other procedures ceased.

Emiko could recognise Ebi has said something in a Chinese language, but she had only learned Mandarin from her daddy, so she had no clue what she had said. Zhao-sensei on the other hand had learned Cantonese back home, and had kept up to date on his Chinese media. He recognised the words, and although his face wouldn’t show it, he was glad someone appreciated good culture around here.

At some point Daizo’s poetry rang out through the crowd, and Emiko just felt sad. It was like something was dragging her back to those days where she was getting overweight and everyone poked fun at her. Zhao-sensei muttered something in Mandarin about how much he missed his motherland. Eventually both of them snapped out of it, and Emiko felt like she really didn’t want to be around that particular quirk, while Zhao-sensei had a feeling he would have to keep a close eye on this Daizo kid.

Zhao-sensei would have stepped up to control Marius when he wolfed out, but it seemed the boy had settled on engaging McCoy. McCoy was a new teacher, but Zhao-sensei had been informed he was more than capable of dealing with threats to his person. Indeed, his Tongzhi proved more than capable of wrestling with Marius without causing him any great harm. Emiko just considered his yet another quirk to be somewhat worried about.

Eventually the demonstrations came to an end, and the principal arrived. Emiko knew her daddy had a lot of respect for him, so it would be interesting to see more of him in action. He spoke for a bit and showed them his quirk before they were ushered on to more formal arrangements. Spacenaut-sensei handed out their room keys along with the emergency evacuation plans. Emiko knew from daddy that they’d be paired with other people in the dorms, but she did not yet know with whom. While she had nothing against her, she really hoped it wasn’t Lacara, if only because she was worried she’d wake up to a room full of lava. As for the rest, she couldn’t imagine anyone that she’d either need to worry about nor have any personal problems with.

Once they moved on, they were introduced to their dorm building. There wasn’t much to say about it, other than that it was there. Once all the talking was done and dusted, it was implied they had free reign for a bit. That made it time to get to socialising.

First she had to find out who shared a room with her. She could see she had the key to room 8, so all she had to do was find out who else had a key to room 8. “Who else has a key to room 8?” She called out. Hopefully it would be as simple as whoever else had the key just speaking up the moment they heard her call out.

@Karillin

(Anybody that cares about what Seo does I know, nobody read below)

Sure enough, the demonstrations continued as normal, with Mori-sensei continuing to praise the other students regardless of whether they were all that impressive or not, which... not all of them even held a candle to the first few Quirks that were displayed, if Lacara were honest. Still, much unlike her, at least they showed they could control their quirks. Lacara's was much too wild, and much too intimidating at that.

Even long after the initial chain reaction of eruptions that Spacenaught had to save everyone from, lava still continued to seep out of the openings in Lacara's skin. All the fear that was projected from the other students had started to reflect back onto Lacara herself. Even Mori-sensei felt obligated to change how she'd address Lacara in order to stop her quirk from triggering again and threatening to take lives again. It was the sudden sense of alienation that had caused tears to well up within Lacara once again.

On all students other than Konomi, who looked mostly worried towards the fiery girl. She knew what Lacara felt, the rage due to the fact that they were the ones who had to hide their quirks, that they were considered freaks for simply having a odd power or transformation, but unlike Lacara, she bottled her rage and always put on a wide smile and try to talk to people, to resolve the conflict without any actual violence.

Konomi found herself drawn to the emotional girl and could not help but walk towards her, same friendly smile that she usually had on.

"Hello there!" She greeted Lacara. "My name is Itsuki Konomi, I'm glad to hear that we'll be classmates in the future!" She said, now standing close to Lacara as if not afraid that she might be hurt by her lava.

Lacara looked up at Konomi, remembering her from a couple of turns back. She seemed awefully cheerful for someone that was also in the crossfire of the chain reaction of eruptions. She even had the courage to walk right up to Lacara, who could admire her bravery.

"Yeah, I know who you are," Lacara's eyes drifted back down again as she said this, but took the time to wipe away the tears that began to form, "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to go off like I did, I just... damn it, I knew I should've found something else to talk about,"

"You don't need to apologize for who you are, Hanazawa-san." She said, almost wishing to place a hand on her shoulder, but the lava prevented it. "We all feel like you do, but everyone chooses to deal with it in their own way, for example, I choose to believe that if we're at the bottom of the barrel then things can only get better from here on out and I choose to try my best to make things go better for people." She said, pondering what she had just said, realizing that it may not make that much sense to Lacara. "I'm sorry, sometimes I just keep talking when I meet new people."

"It's OK, I get it,"

Suddenly, Lacara found herself looking back in the direction of the front gate. Her thoughts trailed back towards the protestors that were there and her efforts to try and nab a megaphone off someone and speak her mind before she was stopped by a teacher. Perhaps she would've made it worse, perhaps they'd shut their mouths long enough to listen; it was too late to gauge now.

"In that case, I stand by the point that I was trying to make," Lacara stated in determination, "Those people are always picking on and bullying quirk users, and all that out of spite as well. Yet they wonder why villains exist in the first place..."

Konomi smiled wider than before, though now because she saw the determination in Lacara's eyes, but was still a bit sad that she wasn't the one to be able to cheer her up, but a happy person was a happy person as far as she was concerned. "Well, I'm not sure if you'll agree with me on this one, but it is now our job to make that..." She pointed towards the protestors. "... and turn them into crowds cheering as we, their heroes perform yet another heroic deed, or lock up yet another villain." Konomi based all of heroic knowledge on the many manga and comic books she had read and she really hoped that Lacara did not know about any of that, or Konomi's reputation might have to suffer.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Lacara had to admit, "Maybe if we save enough of their sorry asses enough times, they might actually have the incentive to finally give us the respect we deserve. Probably not immediately, but... hopefully soon."

"But enough of that whole mess, what I wanted to ask you is what you thought of the other people here, especially..." She looked over all of the students who had gathered there, trying to think of the one who had the most explosive and notable demonstation. ... that one? She asked pointing to the first student to do a demonstration, Ryuujin Katsuro. In truth, this whole conversation that she had started up was Konomi's own special way of trying to distract Lacara away from all the feeling that had made her explode in the first place and so far, she was not feeling very successful in the endeavor.

"Huh? Oh, him?" Lacara had to take some time to think about this Katsuro person, and how he stacked up to the others, "Honestly? His was one of the only real ones that had any real wow factor to his quirk. Dunno what happened to the idea of saving the best until last, but whatever, am I right?"

"Quirk is certainly explosive, pun not intended, but his personality could really use a bit of work if you ask me."

Lacara shrugged her shoulders at that last question, rhetorical as it was. Now that she thought of it, there were at least three others that caught her eye to one extent or another. It was worth a mention, at the very least.

"You didn't have such a bad quirk yourself, actually," she told Konomi, "Neither does the boy with the dog ears or that fat girl... Hattori Hiromi, I wanna say her name was? All of them seem useful in their own way. Not like mine..."

"While Himori-san's quirk seems pretty useful, I've yet to see the usefulness of a quirk that turns you into a bloodthirsty wolf monster." She said, briefly glancing towards Marius before turning back to Lacara just in time to hear her comment about her own quirk.

"So?" Konomi asked. "Quirks aren't supposed to be thought in that way, they're a part of who we are as people and they grow alongside us." She said. "Sure, your quirk isn't perfect now, none of them are, but give it a bit of time and training and you're bound to be better than everyone present here, fireboy included."

Lacara was bound to be better, huh? At what exactly? Killing everyone? That was the first thought that came across her mind, but then Konomi's statement seemed to resonate with her. Perhaps she could become a competent hero in due time. Lacara still had a long way to go; that much she knew going in. But at least now she garnered the confidence she'd need to tackle the aspect head on.

"Yeah... you maybe right," Lacara stated, "Thanks for the talk. I needed that."

Feeling a little better, Lacara stood up and collected her key from Death Glare, before turning back for the briefest of seconds.

"I'll see you around, Konomi."

It was then that she took her leave. As she walked towards the dormitories, she look a little more closely at the key she collected, noting that it had the number 5 on it. If not for the earlier conversation, that number would've meant nothing to her; all she would've cared about was getting inside and going straight into the bathroom shower so she could wash the lava off of her before it could cool and solidify. But now Lacara had an inkling of wonder that she might encounter Konomi again earlier than she could've expected.

With that, Lacara approached the room number 5, and slowly opened the door.

Sitting back down onto the stage, Yuuki was once again in the role of a watcher, sitting still and waiting for her colleagues to showcase their powers. The show was surely interesting, just after her presentation, someone had come with a quirk to control water with such skill that she could create a small humanoid figure that would act in perfect synchrony with her body. It was a far shot from Yuuki, who sometimes messed up how dense she wanted her barrier to be and ended up crashing instead of doing a sharp turn, though she didn't feel bad about it, she felt interested... for a while. The girl from the inland sea just wasn't made to stay still for long, no matter how interesting the skill was, she just had no patience to sit and watch others be reviewed, even if she really, really wanted to know her colleagues well.

Eventually, she got distracted with the shimmering shine of the water drops on her own hand, enthralled by it until the sound of a wind chime brought her back. She looked at the stage, but she only saw Mori-Sensei, weird! She could swear she had called another student, maybe they hadn't arrived yet? It would explain why she was waving her hand. Yuuki's attention had once again fled the stage even before Haruki had left Mori-sensei's body.

Before long, the presentations were over, and the principal had walked on the stage. Sensing it would be over soon, Yuuki paid full attention this time, as well as she could. After a motivational speech about Quirks, students were told about the dorms, including who they would share a room with. Yuuki suddenly realized her mistake, she hadn't paid attention at all, what if those people did? What if they started small talk about quirks and praised her but she didn't know how to answer again. In fact, she didn't even know who those people were!

She took a heavy breath, rubbing her temple, she was there, she heard the names, she could figure this out. There was definitely someone with the power to create silk... or... to summon it? She didn't remember exactly, she could remember the sensei trapped, but she couldn't recall who had brought the cloth, in fact, she couldn't even remember anyone else in the stage, there was some person with lava powers activated by cussing or something, there was someone who could create a clone of themselves... made from water? No, that wasn't right.

Ultimately, Yuuki was forced out of her panicked speculation about who her roommates were due to the security head's presentation of the rule. She found them incredibly oppressive, a curfew at 9PM was just absurd, it was like she was a caged bird... Of course, as a rural girl in the big city she had yet to leave her hotel room past 5PM thinking the streets looked way too scary at night, and even back home she rarely stayed up that late, as dinner made her sleepy and she got grumpy if she didn't have a bath and a glass of milk by 9PM.

After pouting during the rest of talk about rules and fines, she was led across the school, before leaving for the dorms. Looking around, she found out she was the first from her dorm to arrive. She smiled as she saw the staff did prepare a water-proof mattress for her, it looked way better than the makeshift solution she had in her own home, and then she started to settle down, setting her side of the room in an orderly manner that wouldn't last a week.

As the group began to break up, Yaseishi felt a waft or relief. Despite it being early, having been in a large group for so long had made it feel like a long day. The speeches, tours, demonstrations, and unfamiliar grounds hadn’t helped that either. Neither had the threat of death made it feel any shorter. So, key in hand, the Mutant decided that heading to the dorm room for a well earned rest was exactly the thing to do. A hand was pressed on Yaseishi’s injury, the pressure being used to mitigate the pain, and any residual bleeding.

Heavy boot steps and mechanical ticking fell on Yaseishi’s ears as Spacenaut approached. His otherwise pitch dark visor lit up faintly with a representation of a worried expression.

“Kemonohito-san. I’d like a word with you in private, please.”
Yaseishi quirked an eyebrow, turning to look at the armored man’s… ‘face’, or at least in the direction of it, “Um, did I do something wrong? Is it the uniform? Because honestly, I just hate wearing skirts in spring,” though, truth be told, Yaseishi didn’t care for skirts most of the time.

“No. Your uniform is okay. If that is what you’re more comfortable in, we’re more than happy to accommodate you.” Spacenaut’s visor briefly flashed an ascii thumbs up before returning to the previous expression.
His voice got quieter, but it wasn’t a whisper. It was more like someone had turned down the volume on a radio.
“I want to talk about your injury.”
Yaseishi’s dark eyes darted between her own grip on her left arm, and the dark screen that covered the man’s face. It occurred to the student that Spacenaut-sensei could be a woman, and that the voice that was being heard could simply be a synthetic voice that converted what was said, or selected, within the suit, and projected it outwards. But that was something for another time. Slowly, the hand was removed, exposing the, all things considered, minor wound to the air. Yaseishi was unsure exactly how this was going to go, but shoulders were shifted, assuring upper arms were covered by somewhat loose sleeves. The student’s social skills being what they were, Yaseishi had no verbal response to give Spacenaut-sensei at the moment.

“The wound is self-inflicted. I can see that much. But I must take responsibility for what happened. Chujiro-san’s Quirk should not have been allowed to affect the class during such a sensitive time in your lives. I won’t force you, but I would like for you to visit our counselor at your earliest convenience. All I ask of you for now is that you come with me to the nurse to have that wound addressed properly, and for your forgiveness.”

“It’s like you said, sensei. It was Chujiro’s Quirk. Nothing to be done about it now,” Yaseishi remarked, “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it. I just need some sleep and I’ll be fine tomorrow.”
It was a lie, but one that Yaseishi told far too often. One that had become far too comfortable. One that she almost believed herself. Spacenaut was silent for a moment, apparently contemplative but it was always difficult to tell when he lacked a face to view. He knew enough about youth to know that kind of answer was almost always a lie, convincing as though Yaseishi made it out to be.

“Very well. If you change your mind about the counseling, there is a map of the school grounds with contact information to reach out provided in your dormitory. But I must insist on getting that treated to prevent infection.”
Yaseishi’s eyes rolled, though it was more an admission of defeat than a gesture of disgust, “How about we skip the back-and-forth and you just escort me there, yeah?” the student compromised.

“Come along then.” Spacenaut’s visor faded to black, no longer displaying any representation of emotion, and he lead Yaseishi out of the dorm building just as soon as they had arrived.

When the pair reached the infirmary, they would find a sign hanging from the door, reading “Out to Lunch”, with a note adhered to the sign in what looked like romanji, but didn’t spell anything in Japanese.


Spacenaut analyzed that note for a long period of time, but no translating software, past, present, or future could decipher what the nurse thought was Japanese. He silently wished she had just used her native language, but he couldn’t fault her for trying in a primarily Japanese speaking environment. At least she meant well. In any case, it looked like the nurse couldn’t see her at the moment. Spacenaut let himself in with a set of staff keys and retrieved a small bottle of disinfectant and a roll of bandages.

“Here you are. I am sorry for troubling you on your first day here, Kemonohito-san.” Spacenaut said at his default volume, holding out his armoured hand to offer the first-aid. He would not belittle Yaseishi by applying it himself.
“I mean… you’re just doing your job,” Yaseishi replied, taking the disinfectant, gause, and bandages, and applied it to the injury with an almost disturbing level of competence.

“Yes. Indeed I am. Then allow this to be my first lesson to you. Not everybody will appreciate you for doing your job. Not in our line of work. Don’t let that stop you from doing what is right.”
Yaseishi hesitated for a moment, now with her back to the large figure, eyes shifting away, avoiding hypothetical eye contact.
“Yeah, well… being a teacher already is a job. Being a Hero isn’t yet,“ the student was about to comment about how Spacenaut-sensei may have been referring to quality of having a Quirk as being a ‘job’, and how that was inherently oppressive and hyperbolic in its utilitarianism, but she held her tongue- and also wouldn’t have used that exact wording; less intellectual and more biting.
And with that, Yaseishi began to stride towards her assigned dorm, a hand shoved into the pocket containing the key. Hearing her own footsteps echo through the halls, Yaseishi couldn’t help but feel at least a little introspective. No, she wasn’t going to UA for the reason anyone intended, or at least, not what it was publicly made to be. But was that so wrong? Did that render her reason for being there, her entire attendance at this highschool, hollow?
The green haired student’s head shook, attempting to loose the thoughts that wrest her mind. It was just a highschool. Students in Japan went to highschools that let them get ahead all the time. That was the point of having different qualities of middle schools, to get into good highschools. She had just jumped the process, and found a school that wouldn’t be worried about her Quirk. It was a win-win situation. Nothing to read into at all. UA was just a name; kind of a stupid one at that.
As this train of thought came to a close, Yaseishi found herself staring at the door to her new dorm. The space that would be at least partially hers for the next year was right in front of her nose. At least it had a door. With her hand on the doorknob, she noticed she was gripping it much tighter than she meant to. She released the door in shock, before inserting the key, and turning it, opening the door slowly.

The more things change...

Inside the room, plain and open as it was, her eyes caught two familiar sights. The first being Seto Yuki. The second was a pile of old, missmatched luggage. Well, at least she didn’t seem obnoxious, like that Zhao girl with her screaming, or that Ebisugawa girl, with her irritatingly loud voice. Yeah, the worst people in class were just loud, weren’t they?
“Seto,” Yaseishi acknowledged flatly.
Anyway, seeing as her roommate didn’t have a Quirk that could kill her, Yaseishi strode in like she owned the place, and began to unceremoniously unload the suitcases and bags by one of the beds. One of the three beds; hopefully their third wouldn’t be one of the forbidden three loudmouths, or some peppy snot that would insist on them ‘being friends’. Hopefully Seto wasn’t like that.
Thumbing her key, Yaseishi considered if finding out her room-mates would have been prudent to do beforehand. Her eyes rolled, inwardly scoffing at the thought of playing guess-and-check in a crowd of students. As she looked up now, unfurling an old, worn bed sheet, her eyes caught sight of several small terrariums lining the window sill. Seeing as they were empty, she doubted they belonged to Seto, and seeing as there were only signs of the two, it was equally doubtful that their third roommate had unpacked them and left. Were they some form of gift? Something to do with her Quirk perhaps? No, why would anybody do that? Allow animals in a school just for one student. Then again, four of the students in 1-A alone were basically animals, herself included.

@AdmrlStalfos19

Hyouka waited excitedly outside her dorm room, awaiting the arrival of her eventual roommate. She felt honored to have room number five, as it was a number that was commonly used in super sentai shows when it came to the number of team members. There was also the fact that one Japanese pronunciation of the number five was 'go', like the English word implying forward movement, a fact that the writers of such media did not neglect when it came to making puns. This train of thought led Hyouka to reminisce about some of her favorite songs that incorporated such a theme, which ultimately led her to start singing under her breath, making dramatic poses, and pumping her claw in the air whenever the lyrics "GO!" came up. Distracted in this way, Lacara slipped past Hyouka, and Hyouka didn't notice until it was too late, only seeing the tail end of Lacara's blonde pigtails.

Hyouka hurriedly scrambled inside to share the moment with new future best friend, but the moment had passed. She realized that her roommate was the lava girl, which excited her a great deal, but the awkwardness of the moment made Hyouka feel shy. "Umm...Hanazawa-chan, was it?" Hyouka squeaked, then reintroduced herself, bowing, "E-Ebisugawa Hyouka. Looks like we'll be roommates! I'm very excited to get to know you, and become friends, and to learn from each other, and to become heroes together!" Hyouka beamed; Lacara's previously violent demonstration didn't seem to have fazed Hyouka.

With that done, Hyouka noticed her luggage in the corner and decided to unpack. She had a lot of specialized 'handicap' equipment that made her life with claws somewhat easier, mostly stuff her dad had jerry-built that either granted her reach into small spaces her claws couldn't fit, or converted her grip force into smaller, dextrous manipulations. But in addition to basic essentials, Hyouka had a box full of figurines of heroes, real and fictional, and toys of transforming or combining robots that she started to pose and display on her allocated shelf space and desk, spending more time doing this than on more important, utilitarian concerns, giggling to herself quietly as she did so. She kept looking over at Lacara, trying to take in her glamorous, beautiful, new roommate, and committing her everything to memory.

---

Katsuro looked up from his phone with contempt from his bed as he heard a pair of voices right outside his door. He propped himself up on the wall and watched the doorway. His roommate, he thought, could have been anyone. But that voice... Himura. Rotten luck to be paired with the boy that couldn't even get through the gate without falling on his ass, what kind of growth could he expect to be gained from hanging around that loser all the time? He wasn't any kind of competition to someone like himself. That kid would be like a leech off of his own acheivements. Katsuro's look of contempt didn't vanish as the door swung open and the worst case scenario became true, but he greeted the kid anyway.

"Hey."Katsuro gave him a small nod of acknowledgement and leaned back against the wall, seemingly returning all of his attention to whatever he was doing on his phone. However he was actually watching Haruki through his peripherals to see what he was doing with his half of the room. A bunch of amatuer paintings that looked like they were done by a five year old in a horror movie. What an eyesore. However, Katsuro was somewhat pleasantly surprised that he had brought training equipment into the room. Maybe he was a loser now, but at least he had the right idea. Katsuro smirked and huffed out a silent nasal laughter.

"What's with the paintings?" Katsuro asked, well, demanded in his moody tone. Still not fully looking away from his phone. "Little sibling back home or something?"

Haruki looked over at Katsuro with a tilted head. Little sibling? Haruki had no... oh, Katsuro was insulting his art. That wasn't hard to figure out. He looked at the nearest panting. Maybe he was a bad judge, but he thought it looked pretty darn good. Maybe a little screwed up, but that was what made them fun to make. Maybe he was just jealous because he lacked the ability to make something like that. Hmm, Haruki would have to help him out, but for now he had to answer the question.

"No, I made them!" he said proudly. "They're pretty good right?" He gave Katsuro the benefit of the doubt that he was asking sincerely, even though he didn't believe that to be the case.

"That's not the one I'm looking at. That one looks like the artist wasn't a double hand amputee. It's fine, might even sell for a lot if you list it as a 'cursed painting' on iBuy. I was asking about that one." Katsuro clarified, setting his phone on his legs and pointing to another one on the wall.

Haruki looked over to the painting Katsuro was indicating. Oh, that one, yeah, he could see where Katsuro was coming from. That was one of the very oldest, he was still proud of it and all, but he knew it wasn't very good.

"Oh that one, I made it too, when I was five or six I think... I'm still proud of it though! Do you paint?" Haruki didn't paint very much himself anymore, now that he was focused on training his body.

So they were all his work. Katsuro wasn’t quite unsettled by the imagery, but this kid probably had issues if he was painting something like that from an early age. Great, his roommate was crazy.
“No. I don’t have time for something like that.” Katsuro replied, looking down at his phone once again briefly before changing his mind and gazing back up at Haruki. “Listen, I shouldn’t have to tell you this if you paid attention at the Quirk demo, but I have a feeling you’re going to need a clearer explanation. My Quirk is always active. That means that if I’m in this room with you in all likelihood a single spark or a heat source that reaches my flashpoint could ignite the gas. Do you understand? If you are not careful there will be nothing left of you to regret your mistake. Cut the power to the outlet before you plug or unplug anything to it. Discharge static electricity on the doorknob before you enter, and for fucks sake do not ever touch my lighters.”

Katsuro speech sounded harsh, and perhaps a bit unnecessary, but at least he cared enough to make it. If his roommate was as clueless as he let on he had to be sure he wouldn’t level half of the building in the middle of the night by mistake.

Haruki nodded silently. Oh boy, this guy wasn't going to be easy to befriend, he seemed to be a miserable type of guy, and Haruki didn't want to deal with that. So he'd have to transform Katsuro from a miserable jerk into a happy friend! It would sure be tough, and Haruki would need to try his hardest, but he would do it anyways. He clenched his fist as his resolve strengthened, and his eyes twinkled.

Wait, what was Katsuro talking about again? Oh right, his quirk, always on, any spark could blow up the building. Jeez, that must be a difficult quirk. Oh well, Haruki would do as he was asked.

"Okay, got it! No worries Katsuro-kun!"

Katsuro wasn't sure that he got it. Throughout that whole warning he looked as if he were thinking about something else. He might have gotten angry about it but Haruki told him he understood. That was enough to clear his conscious if this kid accidentally vaporized himself.

"Good." Katsuro huffed. With any luck he could make it through the year without his Quirk causing another catastrophe. He returned to his phone and started scrolling through a social feed, intent on not talking any further.

Haruki sat on his bed and swung his feet. He had to say something, this would just be awkward if he didn't. Haruki cleared his throat and walked over to Katsuro's side of the dorm, leering over him as he looked at his phone.

"What are you reading?"

Katsuro’s eyes glanced upwards and followed Haruki as he approached his side of the dorm and attempted to look at his phone. As he got close enough to see the screen, Katsuro pulled the phone to his chest and furrowed his brow.

“Didn’t anyone teach you not to stick your nose in someone else’s business?” Katsuro grumbled, but it seemed it wasn’t private enough to hide from him anyway as he lowered the screen to be visible to them both soon after. On the phone was a recent picture of him and a few other boys his own age posing together, all in soccer uniforms. It was a post on a social media site called ‘Twatter’.

“It’s just old news. Nothing interesting.” Katsuro stated.

Haruki backed away with his hands up, he didn't mean to intrude upon Katsuro's privacy, but he didn't seem too angry about it,a good start at the very least. He walked over to Katsuro's side of the room and looked at the trophies on his wall. Those and the picture, this guy was a real jock wasn't he? Haruki liked sports, maybe they had that in common?

"You used to play soccer?" he asked with a soft facial expression.

"Soccer. Baseball. Volleyball. You get the idea. I play a lot of sports. I gave it up so I could come here and embrace my Quirk." Katsuro explained airily. There was a hint of a sour tone in his voice as he continued. "They don't allow Quirkies to compete."

"Aw, that's crappy," Haruki responded, putting two fingers on his chin and nodding, "I like sports, but I was never really good at any of them. I do karate though! And Wing Chun too!" Haruki announced, rolling his hands over each-other and dropping into a Wing Chun stance, hands up ready to block or trap, and feet secure on the ground. "It does wonders for your coordination!"

Katsuro at first didn’t believe Haruki, how could he? This was the same kid that fell on his face just trying to get through the campus gates. But his form looked legit enough. Katsuro had no clue about any of that. He was fit, and knew how to fight, but not with martial arts. It would almost be threatening to know his roommate knew martial arts if Katsuro wasn’t so sure it wouldn’t work against him.

“So you know a few fancy moves huh? Good for you. You’ll need them.”

Haruki smiled widely, and returned to his normal stance. "I know! Heroes need to be ready to fight, even if they don't want to. You probably don't need to use martial arts with your quirk, right?" Haruki asked, jumping back onto his bed and making some beat-boxing noises. Katsuro's quirk was super strong, Haruki's was so much weaker than his. He needed to punch things, and Katsuro didn't.

He kinda envied Katsuro for that. Even with how violent Katsuro's quirk was, Haruki still would love to have it so that he didn't need to punch people. He didn't like hurting people of course, but if he was going to do it, he'd rather not hurt his own hands at the same time. Oh well, nothing could be done about that, he'd need to think about ways to help Katsuro out instead, hmm, that would be interesting to think about.

“Yeah. I’d like to see anyone try to lay a hand on me. I’m untouchable. That’s why I’ll be the best of the best.” Katsuro boasted, a smirk growing across his face as he finally locked his phone and set it beside him. Finally opening up to conversation. It seemed like praise was the key. “Kicking ass is just a natural career choice for someone on my level.”

Haruki nodded quickly. Best of the best huh? Haruki was excited to see him at work then! "Yeah! Bad guys beware!" Haruki yelled out, hopping up from his bed and delivering a roundhouse kick to the air.

"With the best of the best like you, and someone who never gives up like me, there's nothing in the world that could stop us!"Haruki cried out. "Which means that with no bad guys to stand up to us, it'll be easy to save as many people as possible!"Saving people was really Haruki's goal, and he assumed that Katsuro felt the same. That was what heroes did after all.

Katsuro tsked. Already his roommate was excited at the prospect of leeching off of his greatness. He was grinning, but not for the reason Haruki might have thought. Katsuro was debating with himself if Haruki even had what it took to follow behind him. He let out a small chuckle.

“When we’re Heroes, I’ll leave some of the weaker chumps for you.” Katsuro stated in his usual cocky tone. “Make sure you keep up with me in the meantime.”

Haruki laughed at what he assumed was a joke.

"Why not help out, if we work together we can beat them twice as quickly! Then we'll have twice the time to rescue people!" Haruki continued assuming that Katsuro cared about rescuing people as much as he did. He was a hero, so Haruki thought it was a safe assumption.

“Rescue people? People can rescue themselves.”Katsuro snorted, the idea of himself wasting time worrying about helping the rabble get away was laughable. “There are people like us out there making us look bad to the rest of the world and I’m going to roast them.”

"...Huh?" Haruki stared blankly at Katsuro a second. Did... Did he really just say that? Haruki hoped it was a joke but no laugh came, no satisfied smirk, nothing. Katsuro was serious.

"B-but youre a hero, rescuing people is what heroes do, Right?" Haruki asked in a pleading tone. He couldn't accept that, a hero was a savior, that was the long and short of it!

"That's just a fairy tale, Himura." Katsuro deadpanned. "Leave the 'rescue' to the paramedics, the firefighters, the police." Katsuro's tone soured on the word 'police'. "The way I see it, the world needs Heroes to stop the Villains, and that's just what I'm going to do. Show those pricks at the front gates that we aren't all monsters, by turning those that misuse their Quirks into ash!"

Katsuro suddenly had a wicked smile on his face, he got really worked up with the thought.

Haruki began to sweat profusely, this guy really was just about fighting villains!

"But there's some rescues the paramedics can't do! Sometimes heroes have to step in and help out! We can't just beat up bad guys all the time! That's only part of our job! Don't say it's just a fairy tale when you're the only one who can make it a reality!"

"What part of my Quirk screams 'rescue' to you, Himura?" Katsuro frowned at him, leaning forwards on the edge of his bed as if preparing to stand. "Do you think people are keen to be pulled to safety by a burning man? If you want to waste time following that ideal I wont stop you, but the best of us will be on the front lines kicking the threat where the sun doesn't shine. That's why they made this program anyway, emergency services aren't equipped to deal with Quirkies. I am."

"So you just... give up? Let other people do it for you? My quirk isn't even that good in a fight, nevermind rescuing people! That doesn't mean I can't try! Look at me! You think people want to be rescued by a guy who looks like a vampire? If we want to make people accept us, see us as people just like them, we can't do it by going around and being violent!"

Katsuro pushed himself into a standing position aggressively. "Give up?! You've got some nerve kid. It's not about looking threatening, I don't care if people are afraid of me. In fact, they should be! My gas burns at 1600°c, that's eyeball melting, skin roasting, human jerkey temperatures. If I'm going to be any better than a normal emergency service worker, that Quirk is active and ignited. I'm not here to convince people I'm just like them, I'm here to TELL them that I'm better than them! So I'm going to wipe out every last one of those Yakuza toughs, and they'll have no choice but to recognize the good we're capable of!"

Haruki was half tempted to strike Katsuro as he stood up out of reflexive fear, but he managed to contain himself and simply fall back into his bed. "People don't want you to tell them you're better than then, that'll scare them! When people are scared they get violent, and that only makes things worse! You don't need to save them by grabbing onto them and pulling them out of danger, you can leave that to other people if you really need to, but you can still support them and take the danger away! Wiping out the Yakuza only makes you look worse, Katsuro!"

"Taking the danger away is exactly what I'd be doing by taking those people down!" Katsuro argued loudly, still just as stubborn on his stance before. "You want to team up with me? Then you worry about the worthless damsels while I do the work I was born for."

Haruki sighed, shaking slightly due to nerves.

Katsuro stared at Haruki with a silent scowl for a few moments, but finding that he had nothing else to say he was satisfied that he had 'won' the argument. He backed down, sitting back on the edge of his bed.

"Listen. I don't want to fight with you. You and I are going to share this room for the next year so let's try to pretend we like each other at least. Let's change the subject." Katsuro thought on it for a bit, fidgeting with his phone in the meanwhile but not actually doing anything with it. Ah! A subject most boys could find common ground in. The failsafe. Girls. "Speaking of worthless damsels," Katsuro joked, chuckling before he continued. "there were a lot more women in the class than I imagined there would be. Real cute ones too." Katsuro smirked at his reflection in his locked phone. "Anyone catch your eye?"

Haruki looked over suspiciously as Katsuro recommended a change in topic. After basically screaming at him, Katsuro's sudden change in tone was a bit suspicious. Then when Katsuro introduced his topic, Haruki went red. "W-what?! No! Of course..." Haruki couldn't even finish the sentance before he turned redder than red and covered his face in his hands, shaking his head.

"I don't... I don't..." he repeated. "I don't think about that! I just... I don't think about it! Trust me! That's not the kinda person I am!" Haruki lied, wanting this conversation to not be the one he was having.

Katsuro burst into raucous laughter watching Haruki become that flustered from even the mere mention of it. He nested his forehead into the crook of his arm as if he couldn’t bear to watch. “Ah ha! Oh man. If that wasn’t the biggest lie I’ve ever been told, I don’t know what is.” He slapped his hands back onto his knees. “Everybody thinks about it. Come on, I’m not going to tell anybody. Who is it?”

Haruki leaned forwards, elbows on knees and hands on face as he shook his head. "Nonononono..." he mumbled to himself as Katsuro talked.

"I can't..." he continued to say, freaking out. Finally he calmed and stopped hyperventilating. He swallowed, still beet red, then looked up at Katsuro with a puffed out chest, trying to look confident. "I... I think...^{I think Emiko's cool."}

When Haruki had said he hadn't thought about it he was partially telling the truth, but when he saw the quirk demonstrations he had taken special note of a few of them, and Emiko's quirk was so cool he couldn't help but feel jealous, and his mind had lingered on her a bit, yeah. She wasn't the only one, but Katsuro didn't need to know that.

Katsuro had a wide grin aimed at Haruki when he finally spoke a name, almost a prideful one, but perhaps a bit of schadenfreude in it as well. "Emiko, huh? Let me think... oh! Zhao. The Chinese girl. Yeah, she's pretty cute. But her demonstration was kind of a turn off."

Haruki stared at his feet and scratched at his arm sheepishly. "I thought it was pretty cool. Her quirk is so good, I'm jealous..."Haruki sighed, covering his face with his hands. "It's not like... I'm going to try anything, I just thought her quirk was cool and she was kinda pretty, i'm still a hero above all else."

"What's being a hero without earning a little love from your adoring fans?" Katsuro asked rhetorically while he preened himself in a dramatic fashion. "Seriously though, you can't just be a hero, and I can't just be number one. We should all be allowed a little fun."

"Wh-what do you mean?" Haruki asked nervously. "Are-are you suggesting that I ask..." Haruki stopped before he could finish, but the luminescent blush that covered his face made it easy to identify what he was about to say.

Katsuro found it hard to contain himself, snickering behind his fist brought to his lips. He returned his hands to rest on his knees before responding in a frank manner. “Duh. Do it before someone else does. Not to say that there’s any small pickings of girls in this class. We’re outnumbered in 1-A.” Katsuro pondered for a moment. “All the dudes of our generation must be wimps.”

Haruki covered his face once more, his head going between his knees in embarrassment. He was really confused as to whether he should giggle nervously or keep freaking out, so he did both. "You're a real jerk!" he yelled out half-heartedly. "You... you're... you're right, though... How am I gonna do that?"

Katsuro had a smug grin on his face, even while he was being called a jerk. It was such a meaningless insult, and not one that he would even disagree with 100% of the time. Katsuro wasn’t really the type of guy to give good dating advice out to people, especially to someone too shy to even talk on the subject. It came naturally to him, so he thought, but Himura was proving himself the opposite. He’d just give him the basics.

“Just do it. Don’t think about how. Summon whatever small bit of confidence you have in yourself, man up, look her in the eye, and talk to her. Try not to act like… whatever you’re doing right now. Are you gonna blush and hide away from criminals? No. Do that and you’re dead.”

"I've been training my whole life to deal with villains," Haruki replied dismissively. "I've never even talked to girls..."

Haruki could understand the irony in being more afraid of girls, the worst they could do being refusing him, and not being scared of villains, who were willing and able to kill him if he screwed up.

"I guess... I can talk to people just fine, but when it comes to being... romantic... I don't even know where to start."

“Then do what you do best and run face first without knowing where you’re going.” Katsuro mocked airily. “At least then you can say that you’ve tried and didn’t sit around doing nothing like some loser.”

Haruki stared back a moment, lost in thought. He was right, Haruki would never know if there was any chance unless he tried. And goddamnit Haruki was no loser!

"Yeah! You're right! First thing after school tomorrow I'm going to shave then go ask her! Thanks so much Katsuro! You're a good friend!"

Katsuro stared back blankly at Haruki. He had honestly never expected him to take that advice, and he especially didn't expect to be called a friend for it so soon after being told he was a jerk. He had no idea what kind of fate he had damned Emiko to by encouraging him, but he was morbidly curious to find out.

"Sure. Don't mention it." he replied in a still harsh tone, picking up his phone to go back to what he was doing. "Ever."