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It had been a few days since Kyoka and her class had gotten Izuku back from his suicidal quest to find and defeat All For One on his own. She loved her boyfriend with all her heart but the man was too heroic for own good sometimes. Even now she could tell he felt restless. He wanted to get back out there even if he knew he shouldn’t. A small part of her felt a bit hurt that he didn’t feel like he could relax with her by his side but she pushed that thought out of her mind. He loved her. He loved all of them but her in particular. He just needed something to focus on.
It seemed like Uraraka noticed too.
“Hey Deku, do you remember when you and Jiro used to record reaction videos to songs she knew but you didn’t?” She winked at Kyoka.
Note to self: send Uraraka a basket of fruit flavored mochi. Kyoka thought.
Izuku and Kyoka had started a HeroTube channel after moving into the dorms both as a way to get better at their English and as a fun couples thing since they’d be spending more time together.
“Yeah that was a lot of fun, we should do that again! What do you say Izu?” The punk rocker asked.
Izuku’s previously anxious expression faded into a small smile. “Yeah, sure, that sounds like a good time.” The now former vigilante answered, his voice soft, almost vacant, as if he was just now remembering how to speak.
Kyoka wrapped herself around Izuku’s arm, she’d missed doing that. “What do you want to listen to babe? Some Metallica? Some Green Day? Some AC/DC?”
“Let’s do a grab bag of songs. Just put on whatever you like.” He replied, his voice sounding just a bit more lively.
Kyoka visibly hesitated for a moment. “Are you sure Izu?”
“I’ll be fine Kyo, I promise.” Izuku chuckled, giving her a tired smile.
Kyoka felt relieved to see him smile at her but she could tell the poor guy was still exhausted. Physically, mentally, emotionally. She didn’t think a grab bag of random bits of heavy music was a good fit for her boyfriend right now but she also knew giving Izuku something to do would be good for him and not treating him like glass was what he needed. More specifically, he needed to be treated like he was normal, or rather like everyone wasn’t still worried about him.
“Alright babe, let me get a playlist of some songs together while you set up your equipment.” Kyoka agreed, smiling up at him.
A short while later Kyoka had the playlist set up. They’d been going album by album before this so next up. She was still nervous for Izuku so she picked tracks that she thought wouldn’t be too triggering to start before steadily moving into more emotional tracks. The list was a mix of a lot of classic metal tunes from the late 20th century and a handful of stuff from the early 21st. Some Metallica, some Anthrax, some Black Sabbath, some Judas Priest, some Iron Maiden, some Tool, some Mastadon, some Machine Head, some Slipknot, some Trivium, some Alter Bridge, some Testament, lots of good stuff.
“You ready babe?” She asked, walking into Izuku’s still All Might clad dorm room.
“Almost.” Izuku grumbled out, plugging in the microphone set. “Alright! We’re good to go! Take a seat babe.”
Kyoka took a seat next to her boyfriend and rested her head against his shoulder for a moment. She’d missed his presence. His strong arms wrapped around her. His bright smile and his kind eyes looking at her like she was the most amazing thing in the world. His dorky murmuring whenever he saw a cool quirk. How animated and goofy he got when he talked about how cool All Might was. Her boyfriend was a good person and she was so glad to have him back.
“Are you ready?” He asked, running one of his scarred hands through her violet hair.
“Yeah I’m ready.” Kyoka nodded, turning on the camera. “Hey everyone! It’s Earphone Jack and Deku! We’re back!” She greeted in English, giving a peace sign.
“Hi guys!” Izuku added, grinning widely as he gave a thumbs up to the camera.
“I know it’s been a little bit but let me explain, I’m sure a lot of you heard about the villain attack on Jaku City, well we there trying to evacuate the city before anything happened, but Deku and our friend-“ Kyoka paused and looked at Izuku, “We can’t just call him Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight, right?”
“Oh absolutely not.” Izuku agreed. “Let’s just call him Dynamight?”
“Dynamight? Yeah! Yeah, Dynamight that works.” Kyoka agreed. “Deku and our friend Dynamight found out that there was a very dangerous villain just outside the city limits and they ran off to face him-“ Kyoka glared at Izuku, “Like a couple of hotshots.”
“No regrets.” Izuku chuckled, a playful grin on his face.
Kyoka’s face hardened. “And after that Deku decided to run away from home to keep the villain’s attention on him instead of on our whole school.”
Izuku let out a defeated sigh. “That part I do regret.” He conceded.
Kyoka sighed too. She wasn’t being fair. “But that’s okay because he’s back now and there’s no better place for him to be than with all of us here at home.”
“And there’s no place I’d rather be.” Izuku added, putting his arm around Kyoka as his regretful expression turned into a warm smile.
“So with that all said, it’s been a really scary few weeks here in Japan and we just wanted to help make people smile again.”
“As long as people can smile, there’s still hope.” Izuku agreed.
“So today we’re gonna be listening to a bunch of random heavy metal songs and seeing what Izuku thinks of them.” Kyoka explained, prompting her boyfriend to burst into laughter. “What? What is it?” She giggled, infected by her boyfriend’s laughing fit.
“You just used my real name.” Izuku laughed.
“I did?” Kyoka asked, looking confused. “Oh crap I did!” She gasped in Japanese as the realization dawned on her.
“That’s going on the blooper reel.” Izuku laughed.
Kyoka paused the camera and waited for Izuku to stop laughing. It took another five minutes. “Are you done?” She huffed, rolling her eyes at her goofball boyfriend.
“Yes, yes, I’m sorry.” Izuku wheezed, sitting back in his seat finally. “I haven’t had a good laugh since before we left for Jaku, I kind of needed that.”
Kyoka let out a sigh. “Well now I feel like a jerk.”
“No no, babe, you’re not a jerk. You’re a great person and I love you, it’s okay if me laughing made you feel a little annoyed. I get it.”
Kyoka groaned. “Why are you so kind and understanding?!”
Izuku chuckled. “When you’ve been through a lot, you tend to understand a lot.”
“Alright, let’s start over.” She decided, playfully rolling her eyes at Izuku before unpausing the camera. “So today we’re gonna be listening to a bunch of random heavy metal songs and seeing what Deku-“
“That’s me!” Izuku quipped, a trollish grin on his face.
“-Thinks of them.” Kyoka concluded, starting to giggle before pausing the camera again.
After another moment Kyoka had her playlist set up on Izuku’s laptop and they were ready to film again. “Okay first things first, we’re gonna start with a classic from Metallica, this one is gonna be Seek! And! Destroy!” The punk rocker declared in the same enthusiastic tone as she performed on stage.
Izuku is soon greeted by the energetic sound of the opening riff and quickly finds himself taken away by the exciting and aggressive track. The lyrics are your usual “We’re the toughest guys ever! We’ll mess you up!” Sort of thing you heard from a lot of heavy metal bands, it reminded him a bit of Kacchan, but it was still pretty fun.
“I like it a lot! It was really cool!” Izuku grinned. “The lyrics are kind of on the simple side but I really like it. 7/10! 9 for the music, 5 for the lyrics.”
“Oof! Only a 7, our commenters won’t be happy about that.” Kyoka teased.
“When our commenters are as scary as Overhaul, Muscular, Shigaraki, or All For One, I’ll let you know when I start to care.” Izuku retorted, a wry grin on his face.
“Damn Deku! When did you get so sassy!” Kyoka laughed.
“Well you see, a few months ago I started dating a girl named Earphone Jack.” Izuku teased.
“Oh shut up!” She laughed, gently swatting at Izuku.
Izuku laughed with her. “What’s next?”
“Next is another Metallica song, this one is called Creeping Death, actually this one might be fun to show Vine, it’s about the story of Exodus from the Bible and the Angel of Death.” Kyoka explained.
“Angel of Death?” Izuku repeated, looking confused.
“Yeah, basically in the Bible, there was a race of people in Egypt who were kept as slaves.”
“That’s messed up.”
“Right? But the thing is the Hebrews were God’s chosen people, so he picked this one guy named Moses, and this is where the story gets a little bit complicated, Moses was born a Hebrew but was raised as part of the Egyptian royal family.”
“What does this have to do with the Angel of Death?” Izuku asked.
“I’m getting there, I’m getting there.” Kyoka promised. “So basically the pharaoh was worried the Hebrews would eventually be more populous than the Egyptians, so he ordered his army to go out there and kill every Hebrew baby they could find!”
“What the fuck?!” Izuku yelped.
“Right?! That’s messed up! But luckily for Moses, his mom knew what was coming so she wrapped him in his baby blankets and put him in a basket and sent him floating down the Nile River where he was found by the pharaoh’s daughter.”
“Wow. Good for Moses. I’m sad for his family though.”
“But the thing about Moses is, he never forgot where he came from, so one day he’s out and about he sees a slavedriver working an old Hebrew man really hard.”
“I don't think I like where this is headed.”
“So Moses fucking kills this dude and then runs away from home but after a few years in the desert, God calls out to him and says I want you to make the pharaoh let my people go.”
“I mean i get it but jeez, interesting choice there God.” Izuku muttered, looking skeptical.
“So Moses comes back to Egypt and basically tells the new pharaoh, his adoptive brother, let my people go or things are gonna get messy.”
“How messy?”
“Well God basically gave Moses his power, so when the pharaoh said no, the first thing Moses did was turn the river into blood.”
Izuku jerked his back in shock. “Wow! God and Moses weren’t messing around.”
“Oh big time, but the pharaoh was a stubborn little jerk.”
“Well he was the baby brother and the biological child, maybe he was spoiled and didn’t like the idea of being told what to do?”
Kyoka actually considered that for a moment. It made more sense than what Shiozaki told her. “That might be it, but anyway, that was plague number one out of ten.”
“Damn!”
“And the tenth plague was the worst one yet.”
“Oh no.” Izuku said quietly.
“God told the Hebrews that he would send down an angel and they would take away the life of the first born child in every home in Egypt that didn’t have their door marked by the blood of a lamb. Be they Hebrew or, be they Egyptian.”
“Damn.” Izuku repeated, quieter this time before perking up. “Oh! That’s the creeping death!” He realized.
“Yeah, pretty metal right?” Kyoka mused.
“Very metal!” Izuku agreed. “So I’m guessing after that the pharaoh finally gave up?”
“Pretty much.”
“Alright then! Let’s go!” Izuku declared, finally putting the song on.
Once again Izuku is greeted by more epic guitar work along with some actually pretty solid drum work. He’d heard Kacchan rant before about how bad Metallica’s drummer was but he wasn’t hearing it so far. The song sounded a bit more technical than the last one with the band’s lead guitar using riffs that sort of evoked Egypt. Izuku wasn’t sure if more fantastical themes were what he wanted from this band but the lyrics were definitely more interesting than they were for Seek & Destroy.
“I’m gonna give this one an eight. Music is still a 9, but the lyrics are a 7 now. Much improved!” Izuku declared.
“An 8? Alright! What do we think about that comment section? Does Deku know what he’s talking about or do you still want his head?” Kyoka teased.
“Oh I’m not scared of these people.” Izuku snarked.
Kyoka smirked. “The big strong future number one thinks he can handle anything huh?”
“Absolutely.” Izuku replied, leaning into the bravado he was putting on. He wasn’t really this cocky but being on camera and occasionally mentioning all the horrible things he’d survived and walked away from still in one piece made him feel a bit more confident.
“What do you say we move over to something a bit crazier?” Kyoka suggested, a wicked smirk still plastered to her face.
“Alright Earphone Jack, what are you thinking?” Izuku asked in the same tone he’d use her full name with.
Kyoka giggled. “We’re gonna move ahead 15 years to a newer band called Slipknot.”
Izuku nodded his head in recognition. “And they’re a bit on the crazier side you say?”
“Nine of the craziest dudes you’ll ever see.” Kyoka quipped.
Just like us kid. Teased a voice in Izuku’s head.
Banjo? Why are you here? You guys have been keeping quiet ever since I got back to UA. Izuku wondered internally.
Eh, I got bored and decided to hang out up front for a little bit while you guys jammed out. Don’t worry, I won’t bother you.
Izuku shrugged. “Well, no time like the present.”
“Alright then, this is (sic) the first song off of their self titled first album.” Kyoka explained.
Before Kyoka even played the song Izuku was struck by the enormous difference in aesthetic between the two bands. Where the two Metallica album covers showed a bloody hammer and an electric chair being struck by lightning, this Slipknot album featured nine men in red jumpsuits wearing strange masks. They looked like they’d broken out of the Tartarus psych ward but instead of hurting people they just stole a bunch of instruments and started recording music. Then the music actually started playing and Izuku started to wonder if that actually was the case. Izuku could immediately hear the difference in production quality. Where the Metallica songs had sounded pretty good, this song was just a wall of sound that complimented the music itself really well. The music also sounded incredibly angry. Just a psychotic level of rage Izuku wished he didn’t understand. Lyrically it reminded Izuku a bit of Seek & Destroy, but where Seek & Destroy felt like someone walking into a fight ready to defy all opposition, (sic) felt like someone who’d been fighting for a while and was hopped on adrenaline and screaming at everyone to either back up or step up. The first two lyrics also made it very clear why Kyoka had decided to put this song on.
“Enemy, show me what you wanna be! I can handle anything, even if I can’t handle you!”
He really enjoyed the crunchier sounding guitars and the extra drum sound from the two additional percussionists. And the way the electronic sounds and the DJ scratching blended with the traditional heavy metal instrumentals really did make for an incredibly unique sound. And then it was all tied together with the singer whose screams genuinely made Izuku wonder if this man was having a psychotic break on record. When the song was finally over Izuku just whistled.
“Wow! Those guys were crazy.” He chuckled.
“More?” Kyoka smirked.
“Yes please.”
Kyoka giggled. “Okay, we’re gonna stick with their first album and do something a little bit goofier, this one is called Spit It Out.”
Izuku is then greeted by a much different song that starts with a distorted sampling noise playing along with the rhythm guitar that sounded vaguely like an evil laugh. The singing soon came in but it wasn’t nearly as angry as (sic) was. It sounded oddly kind of mischievous at first but then the anger came back in only instead of just shouting it sounded like the singer was… Rapping? But really loudly and angrily? But it was somehow working?
“That was… Kind of weird, but still pretty good! (sic) I give an 8 to but Spit It Out gets another 7 to. Do you have anything a little less crazy from these guys?”
Kyoka nodded. The Slipknot songs were mostly just a joke to start but now she felt challenged. “We’re gonna skip ahead nine years to their fourth album, All Hope Is Gone, this song is Dead Memories.”
This song was even more different from (sic) than Spit It Out was, the rageful instrumentation was all but gone and instead was a much more pleasant though still obviously metallic sound. The singing was much more melodic with the vocalist going for a lot more high notes and no screaming whatsoever. It was an extremely enjoyable song with melancholic lyrics about love lost and feeling like you’d been burned but it was so strange to hear after the last two songs.
“Huh. That was different. It was really good but it was different.” Izuku smirked. “They don’t have softer songs than this do they?”
Kyoka’s eyes lit up at her boyfriend’s challenge. “One word.” She clicked on another song in the playlist list. “Snuff.”
Izuku’s own eyes went wide. “An acoustic guitar?” He murmured, forgetting to use English for the video.
The song was even more melancholy than Dead Memories, perhaps melodramatically so, but no doubt the feelings were sincere. The instrumentation had no rageful feeling to speak of but the lyrics did have a kind of angry and sad feeling to them.
“That was not what I expect from this band.” He murmured. “Alright, sad, soft boy Slipknot is too weird, give me angry screaming for vengeance Slipknot again.” The boy requested.
“So you’re saying you want the angry Slipknot? Perhaps even-“ She clicked on another song, “Devilish Slipknot?”
Izuku was now greeted by what sounded like the perfect synthesis of the first and third songs he’d heard. After a short guitar noodle the song roared to life with loud and powerful instrumentations before settling down into a more melodic verse and then screaming bloody murder on the choruses. The A perfectly constructed piece of heavy metal music.
“Okay Dead Memories is a 7, Snuff is a 6, and this one is a 10!” Izuku declared excitedly.
“Devil In I gets a 10! Oh wow! Savor that one guys, he doesn’t give out a lot of tens.” Kyoka teased.
“I gave tens across the board to American Idiot!” Izuku protested while laughing in response.
“Because it’s a perfect album, if you didn’t love it, we’d have to break up.” The punk rocker teased. She glanced at the clock on Izuku’s laptop. “Speaking of 10s, we’ve done 7 songs so far, three more and we’ll call it a day?”
“Yeah, that sounds fair. So what’s next?”
“Let’s stay on Slipknot a bit longer. This next one is called All Out Life, it’s technically from the next album for us but not for everyone else.” Kyoka explained, pulling up the next song.
“Japan wins again!” Izuku cheered. “Take that everyone else!” He joked.
“Shut up before they drop the sun on us again!” Kyoka teased.
Izuku immediately lost his shit, laughing harder than ever. Kyoka, like the true professional she was, paused the camera as she started losing her own mind with laughter.
“These videos are gonna be great when we’re actual pros.” Izuku wheezed.
“They’ll have us on some dumb talk show and then they’ll show us cracking up talking about Slipknot.” Kyoka howled, the two of them starting to settle down.
Izuku took a deep breath, his laughter turning into panting then back to laughing then back to panting then laughing then panting again. “Okay okay, I think I’m ready.” He breathed out.
Kyoka put her hand on the pause button then smiled back at Izuku. “It’s really good to be laughing with you again babe.”
Izuku kissed her softly. “It’s good to be laughing with you too, Kyoka. I’m sorry I scared you when I ran away.”
Kyoka moved away from the camera and hugged Izuku, tucking her head under his chin. “Please don’t ever leave me like that again. I know you had a good reason for that, but you can’t just refuse to take care of yourself, or let the people who love you help you.”
Izuku sighed. “I know babe, I know.”
Kyoka let out a sigh of her own. “You still helped a lot of people though. I’m not upset you did that. I just wish you’d talked to all of us.”
“You especially?” Izuku asked.
Kyoka resisted the urge to smile at that. “Well yeah.”
“I promise I’ll talk to you next time.” He reassured.
Kyoka actually smiled. “Alright enough of this gooey shit, let’s finish the video.” She chuckled, finally unpausing the camera.
Izuku then finally took the song in and found that it was probably his number two song so far. The lyrics were stronger than (sic) but the topic felt pettier than what Devil In I had going on. Musically it felt like a return to the pure rage that (sic) had more tempered by experience and maturity, where Devil In I had that rage as well and the melancholic melodies of Snuff and Dead Memories, it also felt like there wasn’t quite enough rage outside of the screaming the title during the chorus.
“Okay so at this point I think I’ll go Devil In I, All Out Life, (sic), Dead Memories, Snuff.”
“You heard it here first people, Deku hates Snuff!” Kyoka teased.
“I don’t hate Snuff!” Izuku laughed. “Actually I might hate Spit It Out, I forgot about that one. I don’t think I liked it very much. The music was good but the lyrics and the vocals were just… Strange.”
”Wait didn’t you give Snuff a 6 and Spit It Out a 7?”
”Oh yeah, eh, flip it around.”
“Fair enough, so the boy likes the angry songs more than the weird song or the sad songs. How about something angry and sad. This song is called Solway Firth.”
“What’s a firth?”
“I have no idea.” Kyoka replied, clicking play.
Izuku chuckled at his girlfriend’s reply before taking in the song. It was starting with a melodic intro that oddly reminded him of the singer’s speech in All Out Life but this felt less preachy and more like just a cool way to start the song, he really preferred it to be honest. Then the first verse began and Izuku was locked in, it had the usual angry music with more violent lyrics than usual, but it oddly felt normal for this band, then a line came up that made Izuku do something he hadn’t done even once while recording…
He paused the song. He needed a minute.
“Are you okay babe?” Kyoka asked, visibly worried.
“Yeah, yeah, I just- Give me a second.” He murmured. “‘You want the real smile or the one I used to practice, not to feel like a failure.’” Izuku quoted. “That- that really got me.” He admitted.
“What do you me- Oh!” Kyoka gasped. His letter. “Do you want me to pause the camera?”
Izuku thought it over for a moment. “No, no, don’t pause it. I guess this could be important.” He sighed.
Kyoka nodded. “You can change your mind at any time babe.” She reassured, gently taking his hand in her own.
Izuku gently squeezed it. “Thank you.” He whispered. Izuku took a deep breath. “So I spent the first 15 years of my life without a quirk. I didn’t get my quirk until the day of UA’s hero course entrance exam. I was formally diagnosed as quirkless when I was 4 and from that time on I believed I would never have any powers, it was hard for me.”
“I’ll bet it was. Is that why that line hit you so hard?” Kyoka asked, trying to support Izuku during this. They hadn’t actually gotten around to talking about how Izuku was actually quirkless before UA, not misdiagnosed, not a late bloomer, a fully quirkless person given a quirk by the greatest hero in Japan and probably the whole world.
Izuku nodded. “There were a lot of days where I just… Didn’t want to face the world. I felt like a failure because I wanted to be a hero more than anything in the world and I knew that I never could be. But I also didn’t want to let anyone down, so I learned to put on a fake smile. Because-” Izuku’s eyes started to water. “Because that’s what All Might always did. Even when things were hard, he always smiled.”
Kyoka kept holding Izuku’s hand while putting her opposite hand on his back. “You know you don’t have to pretend to be happy anymore, right? It’s okay if you’re sad or angry or hurt. Everyone here understands. And even if they don’t, then fuck them.”
Izuku gave her a wobbly smile, his eyes filling with more tears. “I know babe. And just so you know, I can genuinely say I’ve never felt like I needed to hide my feelings at UA. I’ve never been happier than I have been with all of you here in the dorms.”
“Shit.” Kyoka muttered, feeling herself start to cry. “Even doing these silly reaction videos with me?” She whimpered out.
“Especially doing these silly reaction videos with you.” Izuku answered, grinning widely at her before giving her a kiss. “I’m ready to finish the song now, do you want to keep going?”
Kyoka nodded, trying to dry her eyes. “You inherited my sense of humor, why did I have to inherit your emotional vulnerability?” She teased, unpausing the song.
As the song went on again, Izuku continued to find the lyrics more and more relatable. “I don’t need you to do it for me. I don’t need you to hide it from me. I don’t need you to understand. I just wanna feel like any other man.” “If I’m alive tomorrow, I will alleviate the pressure by cutting you out of me.” “I know I’ll never go home, so set fire to your ships and past regrets and be free.” “It wasn’t somebody else, you fucking did it to me.” So many lines resonated with him, though one really didn’t connect at all, and actually felt a bit strange. “You want the real smile? I haven’t smiled in years!”
“That last line is kind of melodramatic but I really like this one, it might actually be my favorite of these.”
“Alright, one last song.” Kyoka hummed. “And because we haven’t cried enough yet, we’re gonna go back to Metallica, this is called Nothing Else Matters.” She explained, laughing despite her eyes being nowhere near dry.
Izuku was quickly taken in by the much gentler guitar work on this song compared to the songs he’d listened to half an hour ago. The vocals were much better as well, the singer had definitely matured a great deal. The drums sounded incredible. Lyrically it was pretty straightforward, the singer was speaking to their loved one and assuring them that no matter the distance between them, their connection and their relationship was always strong, and with the singer admitting that their lover was the first person they ever opened up to.
When it ended, he looked back at Kyoka and smirked. “Is this you saying that to me or me saying that to you?” He teased.
“Both.” Kyoka replied, wearing a guilty smile.
Izuku muted their mics. “I love you Kyoka Jiro.”
“I love you too Midoriya Izuku.”
He smiled at her. Oh yes, that was a real smile. The smile that made her feel like the most special person in the world.