Chapter Text
“Haaaahh...” Kyoka Jiro sighed. After the week she’s had, she wishes she could just stay in bed the whole day.
Class 1-A had just finished up their week-long hero internships. Jiro had spent the time under the hero Death Arms, an experience she honestly found more exhausting than educational. Most of the work she did while there made even the most difficult days at U.A. seem like a walk in the park. When she returned home at the end of the week, she was so worn out that she slept for sixteen hours, and still felt drained the next morning.
But as much as she wanted to, she wouldn't spend her entire free day just laying around. Before leaving for the internships, she had made plans for today, and she had no intention of missing them. After a week without any contact, she looked forward to spending time with someone much more relaxing than the man she interned under.
“Well, our plans are here in Shizuoka, so I have a little time before I need to get going.” the punk rocker muttered to herself as she stretched out her stiff muscles, “Ugh… That’ll give me time for a hot shower…”
After a long soak in the shower, Jiro went to her closet and grabbed out her purple “The End of Villains” shirt and a black skirt.
‘We aren’t going anywhere crazy, so this should be fine to wear.’
After getting dressed, she decided to head out. She was a little early, but she was also still tired, so this way she could take her time.
“Yaomomo!”
Momo Yaoyorozu perked up upon hearing the nickname be called out. She stepped away from the other departing passengers, scanning the train platform around her to find the source. A smile formed across her face as she found who she was looking for.
“Kyoka!” she responded, walking towards her friend with outstretched arms. The violette did the same, meeting together with a hug, “How was the ride over?”
“It was alright,” Jiro responded as they separated, giving a quizzical look. “I thought I told you that this place was pretty casual?”
“Huh?” she looked back at her friend, slightly confused, “Yes, you did. Why do you ask?”
The punk rocker chuckled, covering her mouth to stifle it. It wasn’t until Yaoyorozu took a moment to look at her own outfit — a bright pink dress, complete with frills at just about every opening — that she was let in on the joke.
“I overdid it, didn’t I?” she groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose.
“No no, I think it’s great that you want to see where lowly commoners such as myself spend our time, my lady.” Jiro teased, a smirk plastered on her face.
“Can we just go? Please?” the raven-hair girl said, already starting to walk away, covering her face in embarrassment.
“Why of course madame!” Jiro curtsied, before running up to take the lead as they made their way to their destination.
The café was a very small place, seemingly nestled in the alleyway between two buildings. The outside had the appearance of a semi-rundown house, but inside was cozy, in many ways reminiscent of visiting a grandparent’s house. They also had an excellent selection, Yaoyorozu could barely contain her excitement when she saw they sold her favorite tea, much to her friend’s amusement.
“So…” the tall girl began, wasting no time as the two sat down in what appeared to be a repurposed living room, beverages in hand, ”How was your internship with Death Arms?”
“UGH, exhausting.” Jiro groaned while slumping back in her chair, “I don’t think I got a single second of rest the whole time, it was just ‘work harder this, go faster that, tired? Deal with it, hurt? Tape an aspirin to it!’ the whole time.” Attempting her best impression of Death Arms.
“Oh my…” the raven-haired girl responded, “Well um... I’d imagine all of that hard work allowed for ample opportunities to learn from a pro!” she quickly added, injecting an almost forceful tone of hope into the statement.
The punk rocker started twirling one of her jacks with her finger, “Don’t get me wrong, I got to experience a lot. I even helped with evacuations during a hostage crisis. I just wish I’d been given a moment here and there to reflect, ask questions, y’know? And rest! I was so worn out halfway through that any lesson I did get just went in one ear and out the other. The only thing that got me through it was thinking about…” she trailed off, her eyes seeming to drift alongside her words.
After a moment, Yaoyorozu repeated her words back, “thinking about…?” attempting to pull her back to the conversation.
Jiro’s jacks seemed to react before her body could, a jolt going through them, followed by her head jerking back to the attention of the table. “W-what!? No on— u-uh, nothing!” she snapped as her cheeks began to take on a light red hue.
‘I wonder what that was?’ the raven-haired girl quirked her brow, “Really, are you sure?” unsure what to make of her friend’s reaction.
“Y-yes, I am. Can we please just, just drop it?” the violette pleaded, “A-anyway, what about your internship? It’s your turn to share, come on.”
Yaoyorozu opened her mouth to protest, but decided to let the deflection pass.
‘I shouldn’t pry, that could just make it worse.’
As her eyes softened, her friend let out a sigh of relief, which Yaoyorozu echoed with a sigh of disappointment, “Well I guess you could say my internship had the opposite problem to yours. Some days I felt more like one of those teen idols than I did a hero…” she said, forcing out a small chuckle.
The look of relief on Jiro’s face then began to morph into confusion, looking her in the eye to signal her to continue.
“Uwabami had… a lot of concern for the... public image a hero presents.” the tall girl said, trying to answer diplomatically.
When she saw this did nothing to alleviate her friend’s confusion, she gave in.
“Oh, who am I kidding? We hardly learned anything and spent the whole time shooting a commercial! We didn’t even go on patrol until halfway through… And Uwabami apparently only chose Kendo and I as interns because she thought we were cute…” she mumbled, lowering herself to the table and burying her head in her arms, adding a muffled “It was so embarrassing...”
She could hear Jiro chuckling at her misfortune. “Well at least you won’t have to worry about getting your name out there once you’re a pro! Hey, can I get your autograph? Might be worth a lot in the future, I wanna be prepared!” her friend teased, which was no doubt accompanied by a mischievous smirk.
Yaoyorozu said nothing to this, raising her head from her arms just enough to meet her smug friend with an annoyed glare, before lowering her head back down.
The intended effect of this was lost, however, only causing Jiro to laugh more, “Hahaha! Well, it sounds like neither of our internships turned out exactly as we’d hoped.”
Yaoyorozu let out a small lighthearted huff of affirmation, knowing her friend would be able to hear it.
“I wonder how everyone else’s went.” hearing Jiro say this, Yaoyorozu raised her head, giving the rocker a confused look she barely had time to register before speaking.
“You mean you haven’t heard?”
“Heard what?” the violette asked, the confusion on her face was clearly genuine.
“About what happened in Hosu. Did you not see the ping in the group chat?”
Yaoyorozu watched as her friend’s expression changed. It was subtle, as though she was trying to remember something she’d forgotten.
“Location ping? No, Death Arms kept us so focused on our work, I never had the chance to even look at my phone. I still haven’t actually gone through and gotten caught up...” she replied, scratching the back of her head, slightly embarrassed by the situation.
‘She said her internship was intense, but wow, that’s on a whole different level. She didn’t even get a chance to look at her phone?’
“So what happened in Hosu?”
Yaoyorozu’s face took on a grim expression as she looked to her friend, “There was a villain attack there, by what appeared to be three Nomu.”
Jiro’s eyes widened. “What? Holy shit...” her disbelief very clear to see.
“Additionally,” Yaoyorozu continued, causing the rocker to snap back to attention, “there was another attack by the Hero Killer nearby, police think the two events may be connected.”
“Yeah, that sounds about right… Damn, that’s… that’s a lot to take in.” Jiro said, looking down at the table in thought.
Realizing she soured the mood, Yaoyorozu quickly added, “Oh, it’s not all bad news however! During the incident, the Hero Killer was actually defeated and captured!” in an attempt to try and lighten the mood.
“Wait, really? How?”
“Well, the Hero Killer was fighting Iida, Midoriya and Todoroki in an alleyway, but they were able to hold out long enough for Endeavor to show up and take him down.”
“Endeavor huh, I guess that makes sen—” Jiro’s eyes shot wide open as she locked eyes with the raven-haired girl, “Wait WHAT?? WHO WAS THERE??”
Yaoyorozu jumped in surprise and looked back at her friend, confused. ‘What’s this outburst about? All I said was that Endeavor stopped the Hero Killer’s fight with—… Oh… Oops.’
She hadn’t mentioned their classmates up until now.
Her face flushed slightly, “Oh my, I’m so sorry! I guess I got so caught up in the whole story that I forgot to menti—”
“Why was he there??” Jiro cut her off, a look of terror stained her face, “Was he hurt??”
She leaned over the table and demanded, “Is he okay!?”
‘’He’?’ Yaoyorozu quirked a brow, ‘who does she…’ she cut the thought off, pushing it back in her mind. She needed to assuage her friend’s fear first.
“Well, it sounds like Iida sustained a pretty bad injury to his arm, and Midoriya has a stress fracture, other than that, only minor injuries, some cuts and bruising. They just needed to take a few days to recover.”
She could see the tension leave Jiro’s shoulders as she lowered back to her seat. “It sounds like they’re all well enough to be back in class tomorrow even!” she added in with a smile.
“That’s a relief,” the violette sighed. “How did they even end up in that situation? I didn’t think all three of them were interning in Hosu.”
“Not all of them, no.” Yaoyorozu responded, “After seeing Midoriya’s ping in the group chat, I tried to inquire what it was about, but I never heard back. I knew Iida was in Hosu for his internship, so I asked him if he knew anything about it. He explained the whole situation to me, but at the time he wasn’t sure why Todoroki and Midoriya were there either. I suppose we’ll be able to find out more tomorrow, the important thing is that they’re safe.”
“Yeah…” Jiro said. It was clear her focus was elsewhere, but considering what she had just learned, Yaoyorozu couldn’t exactly blame her.
The two sat in silence for a while, neither wanting to interrupt the other’s train of thought after the heavy conversation.
But Yaoyorozu’s curiosity got the better of her, and she broke the silence.
“So…” she started, causing the punk rocker to turn back to her, sensing that the topic was shifting. “Who is ‘he’?”
“What?” Jiro questioned, her head recoiling subtly backwards as a confused look spread across her face, understandably caught off guard.
“When I told you about Iida, Midoriya and Todoroki’s encounter with the Hero Killer,” the tall girl elaborated. “You asked if ‘he’ was okay, not all three of them.”
Jiro froze, a look of sheer horror on her face as she looked back at her interrogator. To Yaoyorozu it almost seemed as though she didn’t even realize what she had said.
“W-what? I—”
“So which of them did you have on your mind?”
The violette’s face became so red it looked like it had been set ablaze. Upon seeing this Yaoyorozu couldn’t help but giggle, though hearing this only seemed to make her friend’s reaction worse.
“I-I just…” she looked down, starting to tap her jacks together, her hands gripping them tightly . “Sh-shut up,” she offered weakly.
“Kyoka,” Yaoyorozu said flatly, the rocker glanced back up, only enough to see the expression on her friend’s face
“You’ve only given me three options,” she said, holding up three fingers, “It’s not going to take me long to narrow it down.” lowering her fingers one by one to illustrate.
Jiro said nothing, only lowering her eyes back down, returning her focus to the tapping of her jacks.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Yaoyorozu just sighed, her mouth forming a soft, if not mildly exasperated smile. “I guess we’ll do this the hard way.”
Tap. Tap. Tap.
She brought her hand to her chin as she looked over to Jiro, still just as red as before; she wouldn’t be getting anything out of the punk rocker, so she’d have to work this out herself. She began to work through her thoughts, her voice drifting in and out without her realizing.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“Let’s see… I think I can easily say it’s definitely not Iida, a bit too uptight…”
Tap tap tap.
“So that leaves… Midoriya and Todoroki, but… which one would Jiro be interested in? ”
Tap tap tap.
“Hmm… Well, Todoroki… He might be a little too… aloof... I don’t know if she’d like that. ”
Taptaptap.
“ If that’s the case… then it must be…”
Taptapta—
“Midoriya!”
Jiro’s jacks rocketed out of her hands, flailing around her head as she searched desperately for a response. “I-I, I-I… u-uh…”
Yaoyorozu covered her mouth, attempting to stop herself from laughing at her friend again. Upon seeing this, the violette collapsed onto the table, hiding her face in her arms.
“Oh my, I can’t say I expected this much of a reaction out of you!” Yaoyorozu teased.
Jiro raised her head in an attempt to glare at her best friend. But she was foiled by her own face, still bright red from embarrassment.
Yaoyorozu’s giggling then slipped out, having lost her composure at the sight. Leading the rocker to lower her head back into her arms.
“Sorry! Sorry!” Yaoyorozu said, pushing her laughter back down, “I don’t mean to laugh, I’ve just never seen you react quite like this before, it’s surprising.”
There was no clear reaction from the purple mound on the table in front of her, so she decided to continue.
“Though I must say, who it’s all for is quite surprising as well. I never would’ve guessed you’d have a crush on Midoriya.” She said, her warm smile lost on top of her friend’s head.
“... Sh-shut up” a muffled response came from the slumped mass on the table, weakly attempting to protest her friend's teasing.
“Kyoka, come on now,” Yaoyorozu said, softening her tone, “I’m not making fun of you, I just didn’t expect it is all.”
She reached across the table, placing a hand on her friend’s arm, causing her to poke her head up and meet her gaze. “"I am curious though," she leaned back, resting her head in her hand, "Izuku Midoriya, huh? How did that come about? If you're okay with telling me of course." she continued, giving the violette a reassuring smile.
The punk rocker readjusted her head against the table, now facing her friend, with her arms obscuring the lower half of her face. Her eyes wandered, as if she was deep in thought.
The two sat in silence for what felt like hours. Jiro, unsure if she wanted to say anything, and Yaoyorozu, not wanting to push her to say it.
“Th… The USJ...” Jiro whispered, barely breaking the silence.
This caught Yaoyorozu off guard, not just because of the event in question, but that the violette had answered at all. Before she could respond however, Jiro continued.
“A-at least… that’s when I first started to… to take notice of him…” she continued, clearly battling her nerves.
Yaoyorozu straightened herself out, silently waiting as her friend prepared her thoughts, not wanting to pressure her.
“H-He risked his own life to help All Might… How could that not catch my attention?” the rocker said, finally turning back to look at her friend
Yaoyorozu couldn’t disagree, what Midoriya had done that day certainly was incredibly... something. Whether that something was 'brave' or 'stupid', she hadn't quite figured out.
“After that, I guess I just started paying him more mind, during class, training… whatever…”
The raven-haired girl couldn’t help but chuckle, “Oh? Is that why I always beat you during sparring?” she teased.
“Th-That’s not what I mean!” Jiro sputtered, picking herself up off the table, her face flushed a deep red, “I just... the way he looks at every quirk like it’s the greatest thing he’s ever seen, or how excited he is every time we have class with a pro, or…” she looked away as a her lips formed a smile, “or when he gets really deep into analyzing something and...”
“... Mutters to himself?” Yaoyorozu took a guess at finishing the thought.
The violette’s eyes narrowed for a split second, before softening again as her gaze returned to the table. She began tapping her jacks together again, confirming, “Mmhmm.”
‘Wait, really? When he goes off I’m lucky to pick up a third of what comes out of his mouth. I knew her hearing was good, but she can understand him? I wonder what it is he mut— er, note to self: Find a better term for muttering...’ Yaoyorozu thought to herself. The confusion that had stained her previous expression didn’t go unnoticed by Jiro.
“When he’s talking about heroes, and quirks, it… it reminds me of how I feel about music…” she tried to explain, not looking away from her jacks.
“Ah,” the raven-haired girl said, “I think I understand. There’s certainly no denying his passion for hero work, it’s safe to say no one in class can match him in that.”
“Yeah…” the smile from earlier reappeared in the punk rocker’s lips.
Yaoyorozu paused for a moment. She couldn’t help but smile at the dreamy look in her best friend’s eye. Jiro was never the most expressive person, so Yaoyorozu couldn’t help but giggle at this sudden outburst of emotion over the class’s resident mumbling mess.
The small noise from the raven-haired girl was enough to pull her friend’s attention back to her.
“W-What?”
“Oh, nothing.” Yaoyorozu replied, meeting her friend’s confusion with a smile.
After another moment, she continued, “So…” she started, as the violette braced herself for whatever would follow, “What are you going to do about this?”
Jiro’s expression didn’t change, but she responded with a nervous lilt, “What do you mean ‘what am I gonna do’?”
“Well,” Yaoyorozu began as her hand began supporting her head again, “you should get to know him better, talk to him more, you could study or train with him, just try to spend time with him outside of class…” Tapping her finger towards her friend, she added, “I’m pretty sure he lives around here, after all.”
She saw the rocker’s jacks wriggle slightly, likely at this final piece of information.
“There’s… There’s no way he’d be interested in doing… any of that, with me…” Jiro mumbled as she looked away, avoiding eye contact.
“What do you mean by that?” Yaoyorozu asked, “Why not?”
Was there something Jiro knew about him that she didn’t?
“Because I—” She cut herself off, before sheepishly beginning again, “I-I mean, he barely even knows me…”
“That’s kind of the point of ‘getting to know someone’ you know.”
The violette returned her gaze to the table to meet Yaoyorozu’s wry smile.
“You’re having way too much fun with this.” She deadpanned.
“Can you blame me?” the tall girl laughed, “It’s not often I get to hear about real crushes, it’s always just Toru and Mina’s gossip, and,” she narrowed her eyes, huffing, “I’m pretty sure they just make most of that up.”
Getting back on track, she added, “It’s exciting is all I’m trying to say!”
“O-Oh?” Jiro said, despite fighting against the rising heat in her cheeks, she managed to deflect the conversation, “So you’re saying the things those two said about you and—”
“LIES! Yes! All lies! All of it!” Yaoyorozu quickly slammed her hands against the table, cutting her friend off.
Both girls' eyes widened as she realized what she’d just done. The two girls just stared at each other in silence for a moment, until laughter escaped Yaoyorozu’s lips. It slowly grew in intensity as the violette across from her joined in, collectively acknowledging the silliness of the situation.
After recovering and calming down, the duo spent the next hour or so chatting and catching up, the topic of conversation shifting and changing. Before long they had to wrap things up to prepare for the coming week.
The duo got up to leave as they finished their conversation, a comfortable silence falling as they exited the cafe, Yaoyorozu taking a slight lead.
“... Momo?” a small voice came from behind her, “You better not tell anyone about… y’know...”
The raven-haired girl scoffs lightly, turning back to look at her friend, “Come now, I know I brought up Toru and Mina earlier, but I’m not a gossip.” she smiled. “I don’t plan on spreading this around the class, don’t worry.”
Jiro gives off a small smile in return, glancing up only briefly before her eyes looked off into the distance again.
The two then fell back into a comfortable silence until they arrived at the station. There were still a few minutes before Yaoyorozu’s train arrived, so they took a seat at a nearby bench.
“But,” this time Yaoyorozu broke the silence, “I still think you should talk to him.”
The violette’s jacks stiffened before she grabbed them in an attempt to hide the reaction, but was once again foiled by the warmth filling her cheeks. She turned towards Yaoyorozu, narrowing her eyes in irritation.
“Oh yeah, you’re nothing like Mina.” she sarcastically grumbled.
A smirk had found its way onto Yaoyorozu’s face. “ I’ll be keeping this to myself, that doesn’t mean I’m going to just let you sit on this.”
The punk rocker next to her shifted in her seat, giving a sardonic huff, “Yeah, cause he’d totally want to spend his free time with me ...”
‘There she goes again, what is she talking about? What is it that has her thinking like this?’
“Kyoka,” Yaoyorozu said sternly, quickly drawing her friend’s attention. “How do you know he wouldn’t? What happened to make you think Midoriya would dislike you?”
The train could be heard in the distance, it would arrive soon.
Jiro opened her mouth, the tall girl wasn’t sure if it wasn’t sure if it was to argue her point or object to the question, but the rocker closed her mouth before she could find out, looking down in defeat.
Yaoyorozu’s expression softened, “You know as well as I do that he isn’t like that. You just have to take the first step.” she looked back out at the train tracks, “Even if it’s just becoming better friends with him, whether it led to something more or not, that wouldn’t be so bad, would it?”
After a few moments, she didn’t hear a response. She turned back to her friend and gave a small smile, seeing her deep in thought. She could only assume the violette was working through her feelings and what the tall girl had said.
The sound of the train approaching was enough to snap her friend out of her thoughts, however.
“L-looks like your ride is here.”
Seeing the train pulling into the station, Yaoyorozu rose from their shared seat, looking over to her friend, rising to meet her.
“So it seems,” she said, turning to the violette, “I’m glad we were able to meet before going back to class.” she held her arms out to her friend.
“I could’ve done without the interrogation, but… yeah, it was... nice.” Jiro smiled, before mirroring Yaoyorozu as they met for a hug.
The raven-haired girl squeezed her friend’s torso, “I’m not sure what’s eating at you, and I don’t want to pry. But if you ever want to talk about it, I’m always here.” she whispered.
She didn’t get any reaction at first, but then Yaoyorozu smiled to herself as the violette tightened her hug around her, her own silent way to say ‘thank you.’
As they broke the hug, Jiro spoke softly, “And um… I-it wouldn’t be bad, no... I- I’ll uh, I’ll think about it…” she then turned quickly, but Yaoyorozu was pretty sure she caught the blush growing on the girl’s face.
The tall girl gave a nod of affirmation and smiled, “See you tomorrow!”
“Yeah, see you!”
As Jiro turned and made her way off the platform, Yaoyorozu slipped into the crowd of boarding passengers.
Taking her seat on the train, Yaoyorozu thought about the coming week. When she realized what was in store, she quietly giggled to herself.
‘Maybe I’ll just give her a little push.’