Chapter Text
Why was Chimon here again? Being forced to train with one of the weird, strong class A kids? No—seriously—whose idea was it to put him here, early in the morning, up against this crazy student whose quirk he wasn’t totally sure of but was definitely scared of?
Chimon kept his guard up as he eyed his opponent, Ichika Rin, circling him warily. Ichika had flowy, shoulder-length light blue hair and was slightly taller than Chimon, with a grin that never seemed to leave his face.
“We can’t stay like this forever, y’know,” Ichika said.
“I know that,” Chimon responded lowly, but made no move to get closer to the other.
Last time he’d done so, as soon as contact was made, it was like Chimon had zoned out, and all kinds of memories came flashing through his head, causing his resolve to waver and his Anima Mantle to give out.
Ichika backed up and got into a fighting stance, and Chimon mirrored him, watching him closely.
“What’s your quirk, anyway?” Chimon asked, already weighing a few possibilities in his head. It was still too early to tell.
“I’m gonna let you figure that out yourself.” Ichika grinned, and Chimon scowled a little.
“It’s something powerful, right? Since you’re so smug,” Chimon started, keeping his eyes trained on the other as they began to approach each other slowly. He knew Ichika was planning an attack. “Well, your attacks so far have felt normal. Except...” The distance between them started to decrease slowly, and Chimon decided to attack first this time. “Last time you touched me—” Chimon landed a swift one-two to Ichika’s chest and then suddenly went for a turning kick. He grunted when Ichika dodged. Spinning, Chimon readied his fist to hit Ichika in the chin once he completed the turn, but his uppercut missed by a centimeter. Ichika countered by grabbing his raised fist tightly.
And there it was again.
This time, the images and sounds that tore through Chimon’s mind were more specific. First, he saw his dad, shaking his head and looking down at him. Then came the same disappointment on the faces of each person who flashed before his eyes.
Give it up, Chimon. You’re not enough.
The words played slowly and loudly in his own father’s voice, uncharacteristically harsh.
Chimon suddenly felt the air leave his body, followed by a heavy pain in his back as he hit the ground. He snapped out of it to find himself face to face with Ichika, who had him pinned and was still grinning— though now it felt nothing but creepy. “You— your quirk—” Chimon’s eyes were wide, and Ichika’s face lit up. “You got it? Basically—”
Chimon cut him off. “What the hell, man?! Get off of me!”
He wasn’t usually so quickly driven to the edge, but goddamn, this quirk really weirded him out. And this idiot’s sunny and soft demeanor didn’t match it at all.
Ichika raised his hands defensively, that stupid smile finally dropping as he frowned slightly. “Wait, I’m sorry I gave you negative thoughts! I need time to figure you out, too, but I—“
Chimon rolled his eyes and took this as his chance to turn the tables. The idiot seriously lowered his guard like that?
He grabbed Ichika’s forearms and used his body weight and strength to roll them over. Chimon climbed on top, pinning him down. “Quit talking.”
“C’mon, Nishimiya, you’ve figured out my quirk, so you have an advantage now,” Ichika pouted.
Chimon scoffed, directing his focus away from the stupid pout on the other’s face and onto keeping him pinned. “Knowing your quirk didn’t give me any advantage. Getting you down is easy when you drop your guard so quickly,” Chimon said, allowing himself a bit of smugness when he realized the other wasn’t struggling against his grip at all. “Heh. Are you giving up? Why aren’t you fighting?”
Ichika chuckled, furrowing his eyebrows as he inspected Chimon and the glow around his body. “I’m perfectly fine, just figuring you out. Your glow’s getting brighter again, but what I did affected that before, didn’t it?”
Chimon’s face hardened. He stood abruptly, stepping off Ichika and dusting himself off. “Whatever. I won that round.”
He looked back up—and froze.
“Hey–!”
“You’re one to talk about letting your guard down!“ Ichika laughed as he tackled Chimon, and they both went rolling across the training mats, no doubt looking ridiculous. “This feels like a game, Nishimiya.” Ichika laughed kiddishly as Chimon struggled beneath him. Chimon shoved his hands in Ichika’s face. “This is so unfair— ugh—!“
He rolled them over, pinning Ichika again. “Why would you use your quirk like that?” Chimon complained, scowling.
Their positions flipped once more, and Ichika pinned Chimon’s hands above his head, laughing nonstop.
“Haha!” Ichika’s laugh wasn’t even the menacing or fake type. Just a booming, happy laugh, accompanied by a bright smile, that drove Chimon absolutely insane for some reason.
“Quit laughing, you weirdo!” Chimon squirmed, managing to wedge one leg up and press his foot to Ichika’s chest. He kicked him.
“Oof—“ The air was knocked out of Ichika’s lungs, but he still grinned, brows knitted. “We’ve been at this forever, Miya.”
Chimon made a disgusted face while Ichika giggled at his reaction to the nickname.
Before Chimon could land a harder kick, Ichika pinned his hands with one arm and grabbed his ankle with the other.
“I feel like I’m really getting to know you.”
Their position looked utterly ridiculous. Chimon—unusually pissed off—was pinned down and squirming beneath Ichika, who looked smug while holding Chimon’s leg up awkwardly between them. Chimon would be worried about other people seeing him like this if he weren’t more embarrassed by the guy on top of him.
“Are you guys sparring or doing yoga?”
A deeper, calmer voice cut in. Both boys looked over to see one of the teachers supervising the two classes, Mr. Midoriya, approaching with an amused expression. “Let him go, Ichika. Time to get changed,” Mr. Midoriya said lightly, clearly feeling bad for the embarrassed boy trapped underneath Ichika.
Ichika chuckled as he looked back down at Chimon. Leaning closer, he pressed Chimon’s leg down one last time and smirked.
“Field Beta after school,” he murmured before finally getting off of Chimon and standing up, offering a hand.
Chimon took his hand reluctantly and stood.
“Good spar,” Chimon mumbled, dapping up Ichika’s hand out of habit and walking away without sparing Mr. Midoriya a glance.
Chimon knew he was reacting unusually—too dismissive, too irritated—but it wasn’t his fault. The negative thoughts Ichika had forced into his head. The innocent smiles Ichika constantly wore that didn’t match his quirk. Ichika’s last words to him. Ichika.
Don’t get him wrong—he wasn’t mad about doing badly in the spar. Ichika was on a different level, and Chimon could respect that. He was used to losing. Boxing had taught him that much.
No. Losing wasn’t what pissed him off.
It was Ichika’s whole demeanor. His quirk.
He completely threw Chimon off.
He was weird.
Chimon let out a huff as he reached the boys’ locker room. He greeted his childhood friend and classmate, Sasaki Shu, while opening his locker.
“Hey.”
“Yo, some of those 1-A students shouldn’t even be allowed near us actual first years,” Sasaki said to Chimon as he pulled off his training shirt and grabbed his phone from his locker, immediately looking down at the screen.
“They’re not that much better than us, bro. You’re just making us sound bad,” Chimon mumbled. His overly dry response made Sasaki look up from his phone and frown.
“Somebody got his ass kicked extra hard, huh?” Sasaki raised an eyebrow, unimpressed by the tone.
Chimon shot him a glare. “No. My ass is fine.” He tugged off his shirt and pulled his uniform top from his locker. “The guy I was paired with in the end was so weird, man,” he hissed.
“Weird, how?” Sasaki leaned, lowering his voice. Of course, he paid attention when it came time to gossip.
“I dunno. He’s got this crazy quirk that got into my head or something when he touched me… and a creepy smile,” Chimon complained. He glanced around the room and spotted Ichika standing in the middle of a group of boys, laughing loudly. “Over there.” he nodded in Ichika’s direction.
Sasaki followed his gaze, studying Ichika for a moment before narrowing his eyes. “Creepy smile… who am I supposed to be looking at?”
“Dude, the stupid loud one over there! Blue hair!” Chimon pointed this time.
Sasaki laughed. “Bro. That smile’s perfectly normal.” He went back to scrolling on his phone. “You’re mad you got your ass kicked.”
“No I’m not! Look at him!” Chimon bristled.
He didn’t realize that he was staring until Ichika glanced over. Chimon froze for a split second before Ichika flashed him a grin and turned back to his friends.
“What’s even so bad about his quirk?” Sasaki asked absently.
Chimon turned back to his locker and started pulling on his uniform.
Truth was, Chimon wasn’t even sure what Ichika’s quirk actually was. If it really had put those images in his head, he didn’t like it– but all he had were assumptions.
“I dunno, man,” Chimon sighed with a shrug. “What about you? Who’d you get paired up with?” Chimon changed the subject.
He didn’t mention Ichika’s little invitation to one of the training fields after school, though his thoughts kept circling back to it. What did Ichika want with him? Crap, was he about to get jumped? Should he even go?
Whatever. He didn’t want to think about it until he had to decide.
For now, he had more important things to worry about– like the plural forms of hypothesis, index, and mouse in English– or else he’d have his ass kicked by a big fat F-minus next period.