Chapter Text
Izuku Midoriya was sitting in class writing in his notebook, except he wasn’t writing about what the teacher was explaining. He was writing in his Hero Notebook, volume 13 to be exact. The subject of discussion was Katsuki Bakugo, Izuku’s… he wasn’t sure if friend was the right term for it, but it was the term he’d still been using. Specifically, he was discussing his quirk, Explosion, in order to figure out ways to make it more useful. He was sure that Kaachan would never actually take his advice, but it was fun to theorize about what quirks can do.
Maybe if he stockpiled some of the sweat that hadn’t exploded yet, he could detonate it all at once to create a massive explosion? He’d need some kind of way to control it though, otherwise it could cause unintentional collateral damage, he thought to himself as he wrote it down before drawing a sketch of a potential containment mechanism. He could design the outside, if he actually takes my advice… Kaachan’s mother had been best friends with Izuku’s own mother long before the two of them were born, so the two boys should have been friends, and for a while they truly were friends, but then, Kaachan’s quirk awakened, and he changed. He’d become obsessed with the praise that the people around him heaped onto him. Then he started mocking Izuku for his lack of a quirk and from there their friendship became a lot more complicated.
As he was writing, the final bell rang, so he began packing his stuff and headed towards the door, giving a nervous glance to Katsuki, but seeing him huff in annoyance at being looked at, Izuku quickly rushed out. Izuku walked along the path home when he heard a large crashing noise. He looked up at the source and saw a giant villain. He looked extremely muscular, with a head like a shark or a horse, and was engaged in a battle against Kamui Woods.
Izuku stepped back as Kamui Woods extended branches from his arms to try to restrain the villain, but before the branches could reach him, the villain was launched into the air by a giant blonde woman who managed to appear below him. Or rather, Izuku guessed, she’d snuck underneath him before activating a growth quirk. She flipped the giant villain over before slamming him down into the ground, causing him to shrink back to normal height. Kamui Woods begrudgingly began tying him up with roots now that he was already neutralized.
“Pleased to make your ass-quaintance,” she said, posing with her knees bent and her hands resting on them to emphasize her rear. “My name is Mt. Lady, the Mountain hero.”
Izuku had taken out his notebook and began taking notes about her quirk, starting with a drawing of her in her hero outfit, not really paying attention to what the pose she was in looked like. Hmmm, it’s definitely a size change quirk, but can she shrink herself too? If so she can pull that trick she did against that villain against a villain of normal size, although she could probably just overwhelm a normal sized villain with her sheer size. I wonder what she’s doing in order to mitigate collateral damage? His question was answered by a construction crew declaring that the street that she slammed the villain into was not safe for crossing for the time being. Izuku sighed and took out his phone. “Hey mom, I’m gonna be home a bit late, there was a villain incident.”
Kyoka walked home from her own school, her earphone jacks plugged into her phone to listen to the latest Deep Dope song. She got herself lost in the music as she began navigating home via muscle memory. As she walked, the beat of the music got her to start jumping slightly before eventually breaking out into full skipping, completely consumed by the rhythm and the melody. She figured that’s why she didn’t notice the green haired boy muttering to himself until the two collided and Kyoka found herself on her butt looking up at the boy. To his credit, the boy was apologizing quite earnestly, bowing over and over again as he talked about how he wasn’t watching where he was going and how he’d make sure to pay more attention in the future and that he hoped she wasn’t hurt too badly (she wasn’t) and how he hoped her phone was okay (it was) and he just kept going on and on as she dusted herself off and got up.
“Look Green, I appreciate the concern, but I’m not made of glass,” she said with a bit of an eye roll which caused the boy to blush in embarrassment.
“R-right, sorry,” he said with a wince as he began looking for the book he’d dropped. Kyoka found it first and bent over to pick it up for him. As she opened the book, the first thing she saw was a drawing of what looked to be a new heroine, Mt. Lady, in a rather scandalous pose. Her cheeks tinged a tiny bit red at the sight, but then she noticed the writing. It was all about her quirk, and the different applications. She looked up at the boy who was reaching out for it nervously. “Did you like what you read?” he asked nervously.
“Yeah, the drawings are especially detailed,” she said with a sly smirk.
“I know what it looks like, but I swear that was the pose she was in when I took the sketch, I wasn’t thinking about the pose when I made it, I was just getting a good drawing of the hero in question before I began describing the quirk and applications, honest!” he was squirming rather adorably.
“You got a name, Midorido? [Green Boy]” she asked as she handed the book back to him.
“Err, it’s Midori ya actually, Izuku Midoriya,” he said blushing as he took it back. Kyoka snorted a tiny bit at how close the name she gave him was to his actual last name.
“It’s a nice name, but I think I’ll call you Midorido anyway,” she said with a coy smirk as she began walking, “Where are you headed anyway?”
“My home, it’s somewhere this way I think,” Midorido said, following her. “What about you, what’s your name?”
“Jiro, Kyoka Jiro. Feel free to come up with a nickname for me as well if you can think of a good one?”
“Well, Murasakihime [Purple Girl] would have been great if she had Murasaki in her name, but she doesn’t, plus it’s too long. So maybe something involving Kyo or Ji? Kyoji sounds too much like a guy, so not that. Could I maybe-”
“Do you always think out loud, or is it only when you’re nervous, Midorido?” She asked with a chuckle.
“Shoot, was I muttering again?” he asked with another blush, “Sorry, it kinda slips out when I don’t notice it,” he admitted. Although, Kyoka thought it was kinda sweet.
“Well, you don’t need to come up with one right away, I’m fine if you call me Kyoka for now,” she stated confidently as she walked alongside him now. “So, that book of yours, any other heroines in scandalous poses?” she teased.
“It’s not just heroines, I have heroes there too… and they’re not all drawn like that! Mt. Lady was an exception!” he said blushing like a tomato as he realized what he implied at first. He flipped through the book to show her the different drawings and quirk descriptions. She was giggling the whole time as he desperately tried to show that he wasn’t the pervert she didn’t think he was.
“Wow, have you shown anyone else your analysis? Cause, a lot of it is really detailed. I mean it is mostly theories based on what you think the quirk can do, but if you had input from the person who has the quirk, you could have some really great ideas!”
“You really think so? I was sorta just writing them for fun, it’s not like any pro hero would actually take my suggestions seriously…” he began fidgeting a bit sheepishly.
“Hmm, in that case, how about you come up with suggestions for my quirk?” Kyoka offered.
“Your quirk? Sure, I guess I could do that, umm could you give me some time to think about it after the description?”
“Of course,” she said, holding out her phone, “so, what’s your number?”
“My number? Oh umm, here…” he said, pulling out his phone. Once the two exchanged numbers, Midorido was shaking a bit as he held his phone.
“Don’t tell me, I’m also the first girl whose phone number you got?” she asked playfully. She saw him nod slowly and chuckled. “Good to know.”
“So… what is your quirk?” He asked as he took out his notebook to note it down.
“Earphone Jack,” she said, gesturing to the cords dangling from her ears. “I can plug them into things and listen to whatever is on the other side of a wall, or send vibrations through them into the other object.”
“I see, and what is the source of those vibrations?”
“...I’ll get back to you on that,” she said, a bit ashamed she didn't know. “What about your quirk? You’ve gotta have a ton of ideas for how to use it creatively!” Midorido looked embarrassed as he turned away from her and sighed before mumbling something, it was subtle, but her sensitive hearing picked it up.
“I’m quirkless.” The way he said it, like it was an admission of guilt and not a simple fact about his life, shocked Kyoka.
“You’re quirkless, yet you’re way more creative about quirk usage than I am! Just one description of what my quirk can do, and you already asked questions about something I never even considered,” she said, “besides, it’s not like having a quirk makes people suddenly treat you nicer.” As she spoke her jacks began tapping together, a nervous tic she’d never been able to break. “The amount of girls at my school who used to mock my ears for being different, especially behind my back when they knew I could hear them anyway,” she said.
“Yeah, but you have a quirk, and not only does it look cool, but I think there are some really cool ways to use it once you figure out how the vibrations work. Besides, it’s cute how you’re tapping them together right now,” he said earnestly, his expression hardening in determination as he emphasised how cool her quirk was before softening into a calming smile when he mentioned how cute the tapping was. That last comment was perhaps the first moment in their entire conversation that he was able to fluster her.
“You really think it’s cute?” she asked, as her jacks began tapping a bit faster.
“Yeah, you don’t mind, do you?” he asked awkwardly.
“No, I don’t mind,” she chuckled as they reached her apartment complex. “Well, I’ll see you around, Midorido.”
“Text me when you figure out how you make your vibrations,” he said with a smile and waved her goodbye. Kyoka then walked through the door and rushed up the stairs to her room.