Chapter Text
Out of all her classes at UA, Momo would have to say her favorite was art history with Midnight.
Sure, math was more rewarding when it came to intellectual stimulation, while english presented the occasional challenge here and there. Of course, foundational heroics was the very reason she even attended UA. But art history? It gave her creativity an unfettered outlet, with none of the fear of underperforming, which had become far more common as of late.
Even keeping that aside for a moment, it was simply the class that kept her the most engaged academically, with Midnight occasionally bringing sociology into their discussions. While the topic of each lecture always remained hero-adjacent, Midnight always had a way of shedding new insight on Japan’s hero-focused culture and the historical events that led to it.
Such was the case now, as Midnight posed a question to the class, the sumptuous smirk on her face telling them she expected them to already know the right answer, “Tell me, what is the most important factor in building a hero’s image?”
Several hands shot into the air at once, students yelling out answers one by one. “How often they patrol!”
“Nope!” she shook her head.
“How many people they save!”
“Important, but no.”
“How many villains they beat!”
“Still no.”
“How they interact with the public?”
“Almost, but no.” Before another student could guess, Midnight reached under her desk and showed off a small, chibi figure of herself, the kind that could be found in gacha machines all across the country. “Their visibility. And for the most part, a hero’s visibility is decided by what products they endorse, what kind of cool merchandise they have, and of course, consumer goods.”
Reactions across the class were mixed, with some more visibly doubtful than others. “Are you insinuating that even the profession of heroics is but a slave to the dark overlord that is capitalism?” Tokoyami solemnly shook his head. “What a bleak world we find ourselves in.”
Midnight offered a shrug in response. “Bleak or not, it’s the one we live in. Show of hands, who here owned a set of hero-themed pajamas when they were growing up?” Over half the class raised their hands in response. “See? Oftentimes, a civilian’s first exposure to a hero is through their merch. It can also become an alternate income source if it gets popular enough.”
“This is true!” Iida chimed in, dutifully standing up from his seat. “Ninety percent of my brother’s merchandise sales go directly into running his agency and paying his sidekicks’ salaries!”
“Oh, but what if you’re an underground hero? Don’t they get paid differently?” Toru leaned forward at her desk, Shoji’s hand on her shoulder being the only thing preventing her from tipping over.
“That’s correct, Hagakure!” Midnight pointed her whip at the excited student. “Aizawa knows all the details about that, so be sure to ask him if you’re curious.”
“If he’s actually awake for long enough…” Jiro muttered under her breath, which got Kaminari to smirk.
“But for today’s assignment, let’s assume you’re all looking to get into the merchandising market, because today you’ll be designing your own hero merch!” That got the class to sit up straighter in their seats. “It doesn’t have to be anything concrete, just a concept. It could be a sketch of a plushie, or a keychain, or a figure, or a kid’s toy, or an adult toy. For now, just have fun with it!”
Mineta got to work as soon as he heard the phrase ‘adult toy’, a seed of inspiration taking shape in his mind.
Meanwhile, the rest of the class broke off into groups, connecting their desks together to exchange ideas and get the creative juices flowing. Naturally, Momo grouped up with her closest friends, forming a large square of desks with Uraraka, Ashido, and Jiro.
“What’cha think?” Barely two minutes in, Uraraka turned her page toward the rest of the group, showing off her drawing of a t-shirt decorated with her hero costume’s pattern.
“Seems kinda basic,” Jiro commented dryly, earning an equally unimpressed look from the brown eyed brunette.
“Well… yeah, but that also makes it recognizable! Think about it, how many shirts have you seen that are just hero costume designs?”
“You know, you could get a teensy bit whimsical with it. Like me!” As if waiting for the opportunity, Ashido showed off her own design: a figure of herself in a neon green, pulpy sci-fi outfit, firing a laser gun at some unseen foe. “See? I have a whole space adventure theme going on.”
Uraraka pouted. “Hey, that’s my thing!”
“You don’t own the concept of space, Uraraka.”
“Besides, wouldn’t that mean you stole Thirteen’s gimmick?” Jiro met Uraraka’s glare with a knowing grin. “Anyways, here’s what I came up with.” She showed off her own idea: a pair of earphones modeled after her own jacks.
“And you called Uraraka’s idea basic…” Ashido tutted back, making a show out of rolling her eyes, earning her friend’s ire.
“Hey, this is different! Earphones are much rarer than a t-shirt.”
“Yeah, but it’s still the most obvious pick. Where’s your sense of whimsy? Your unique sense of style? What would make people want to buy your stuff in the first place? Like, I bet Yaomomo wouldn’t just doodle her nesting doll things and call it a day.”
At that, the girls’ gazes turned to Momo, who hardly even noticed. Instead, she found herself staring at her blank page for far too long, subconsciously tapping her pencil rhythmically against it.
This wasn’t out of any lack of creativity - it wasn’t hard to slap her face on a t-shirt - her mind just happened to be elsewhere. Specifically, she was reminded of her prior taste of commercialism during her, frankly, waste of an internship with Uwabami. As much as she wanted to be above holding grudges, a part of her still remained bitter. While the rest of her classmates got precious, hands-on experience with pro heroes, she and Kendo just learned how to look good in front of a camera, which she doubted would help save any lives.
“Yaomomo!”
“Huh?” she blinked, her eyes finally leaving her blank page. “Apologies. I was just thinking about what my merchandise would be.” At least… now she was.
Ashido nodded understandingly. “You’ve got a lot of options to choose from, especially since you can literally make whatever merch you want.”
Ah yes, the double-edged sword that was her Quirk. It had seemed like a dream come true at first, being able to make whatever she put her mind to. But if she gave in to that urge, producing thousands of expensive items without spending a dime, it could have some seriously negative effects on the local economy. She didn’t expect her classmates to understand. She hadn’t understood any of it herself until she had flooded her room with priceless jewels when she was six, leading to a long lecture from her parents.
Even so, she could grant herself small allowances from time to time, creating unique items that couldn’t be purchased via conventional means. She supposed her own merchandise would count as such. After all, what better way to go Plus Ultra than fast-tracking the conceptualization stage and directly creating a finished product.
“How about this?” Recalling a familiar formula, she held out her hand to her classmates. They all leaned forward, watching with rapt attention as the telltale rainbow sparkles of her quirk danced across her palm.
Playing up for the audience a little, Momo decided to release her creation slowly, despite all of her training focussing around “instant creations.” And so, when something did begin to rise from the sparkles - first a head, then a body, but no legs, the girls began showing signs of recognition. Finally, with an audible pop, a plastic doll formed in Momo’s hand, bearing her likeness. But that wasn’t all, removing its head revealed a smaller, similar-looking doll inside. Removing its head revealed another doll, and so on until the smallest doll was no taller than Momo’s pointer finger.
She smiled fondly at her Momoshka dolls, never tiring at the sight. They were one of her earliest complex creations, an important benchmark for her Quirk development that helped develop her three-dimensional thinking.
They would always remain dear to her, no matter how many she created. And yet… the thought of mass-producing them as merchandise just didn’t sit right with her. Surely she was allowed to keep some of her creations to herself, right?
“Actually, scrap this.” She put the Momoshka doll aside, thinking of another product to take its place. Russian nesting dolls probably wouldn’t sell well anyways - what she needed was something simple, easily identifiable, and would look at home no matter where it was placed.
The answer came to her in a flash, as Midnight-sensei had even mentioned them right as she was introducing the topic of hero merchandise. Seconds later, she had created her next product.
“Awwwww… it’s adorable!” Uraraka cooed at the small, plush version of Momo, with its bigger, chunkier limbs that helped it sit up on its own, its immaculate recreation of her hero costume down to the removable book on its back, and the large, soft ponytail sticking out the back of its head.
Heroes were no strangers to cheap, poorly-manufactured merchandise being sold in their names, but what Momo had created just then stood head and shoulders above even the highest-quality All Might plushes – a fact that wasn’t lost on her friends.
“It’s so soft!” Ashido exclaimed while hugging the plush tight and close to her chest. “Wait… is it weird to cuddle with a plushie of your friend?”
“It’s a plushie. I think it’d be a bigger insult not to cuddle it,” Jiro rationalized, which was all the pinkette needed to hear.
“I assume that means you like it?” Momo allowed her smile to turn hopeful, almost matching the one etched onto her plush.
“Oh, heck yeah! No joke, this might just be the softest thing I’ve ever cuddled! I could fall asleep on this thing!”
That was one of the advantages of Creation. Usually, when Momo created any textile based item, she would default to the highest quality material she could think of. As a member of high society, satin pillows and silk blankets, with just the right thread count, and the perfect weave pattern, were the norm for her, though sometimes she had to remind herself that wasn’t the case for everyone else.
Proving her point, all three of her friends were now grasping the plushie from different angles, trying to get a feel of its high-quality materials. “Damn, you’re right. This thing is soft,” Jiro hummed.
“Softer than mochi!” Ochako spoke dreamily, like it was some sort of earth-shattering revelation.
Momo chuckled at their insistence to hold the plushie, deciding she ought to fix that problem. “Here, you can each have one.” With minimal effort, she produced a plushie in each hand, which Uraraka and Jiro were quick to accept.
It may have been a bit more than she bargained for, but they were her friends, and she was allowed to spoil them. Besides, the plushy’s soft, spacious interior made it so she barely expended any lipids during their creation. She could theoretically pump out a hundred and not even feel a little bit peckish.
Little did she know, the rest of the class was about to put that to the test.
Noticing her three satisfied customers making the kind of sounds and expressions they were making as they rubbed their faces into the plush ponytail, Kaminari loudly exclaimed, “Whoa! Yaoyorozu’s already way ahead of us!”
“You’re making your own plushies already? That’s so sick!” Kirishima grinned.
“Makes me sick, more like.” Bakugo pointedly stared away from her, pretending to act above it all.
“Are you making them for everyone, ribbit?” Asui’s query earned a slight blush from Momo, not expecting to garner so much attention.
“Well, I suppose I could make one for anyone who wants it.” She didn’t expect that list to be long, but to her surprise, nearly half the class lined up at her offer. Some of whom she’d never thought to be plushie enthusiasts.
“My sister likes them,” Asui explained as she accepted her plushie from Momo.
“My room has been barren for years. It’s due for some decoration,” said Shoji.
“It’s for Dark Shadow…” Tokoyami refused to look her in the eye.
“My pets went through all their chew toys,” Koda told her. “...Please don’t take that the wrong way.”
“I’ve always wanted to sleep with Yaoyorozu!” Mineta drooled as he reached out toward his, only to be smacked upside the head by an Asui tongue whip.
“My my! Someone’s eager to put themselves out there. You’ve already got a group of followers just begging for more.” Midnight sent Momo a sultry smile, which she took as a sign of approval.
That’s how she spent the rest of the period producing plushies of herself for her classmates (minus Mineta), many of whom were incredibly grateful for her generosity, some overly so.
“C’mon, we gotta give you something for these!” Toru rustled through her purse, which seemed to contain everything but money.
“Indeed, madame! Such a good deed cannot go unrewarded!” Aoyama extended his hand out to her, revealing a small stack of yen bills which she politely declined.
“I appreciate it. Truly, I do. But I don’t need any compensation.” It was the principle of the thing; charging your friends for a tiny version of yourself sounded like the textbook definition of ‘self-absorbed’, which was the last thing she wanted to paint herself as.
Thankfully, the ringing of the bell allowed for a swift and convenient exit, with Momo powerwalking out of the room before her classmates had the chance to overwhelm her.
Don’t get her wrong, she enjoyed being praised and appreciated by her peers as much as anyone would, but the trigger behind said attention left her a bit… unsettled. Were her plushies really of that high a quality? Or did it come back to her being “pretty?” Fighting off the bitter taste of that thought, she began analysing the situation…
For once, she could rule out her two biggest assets in that regard, her plushie lacking any curves to speak of. That just left one notable trait. Idly, she found her hand combing through her hair, from the ponytail in the back to the longer strand protruding from the front.
Many had claimed her hair was one of her best features, and they were right to do so, given the work she put into maintaining every day. The ponytail made for a striking silhouette. It gave her character! Perhaps that’s what made her plushies so desirable in the eyes of her classmates - it captured her true character better than most other products on the market.
As flattering a thought as it was, she pushed it aside for now. Class was over, the day’s events were behind her, and her biggest concern now was figuring out which brand of tea she would brew once she arrived home.
Though… if she had stuck around for a bit longer, she might have noticed her classmates flaunting their Momo plushies on their way out, capturing both the attention and the cameras of several gen-ed students passing by.
———————————————
The Next Morning…
“Alright, we shall close our meeting here! See you all next week!” Iida declared, prompting the rest of the first-year representatives to stand up from their seats, Momo included.
Most would find them boring, but these weekly meetings were quickly becoming something she looked forward to. They gave her a relaxed start to the day, before she would inevitably have to buckle down for UA’s demanding curriculum. Her positive opinion on them was definitely helped by the fact that she would often bring in snacks and refreshments for her fellow representatives, who were all pleasant to be around, though she admittedly wasn’t acquainted with all of them.
While she’d love to stick around and get to know the rest of them, she knew Aizawa was expecting her and Iida in his classroom sooner rather than later - he tended to get grumpier than usual when they took too long. Waving goodbye to Kendo, she opened the door and stepped out into the hallway, only to find her path impeded by a wall of students crowded at the door, eagerly waiting for it to open.
“Oh… good morning.” She awkwardly waved to them. “Is there… something I can help you with?”
Without warning, the crowd broke out into hysterics. All of them spoke over each other, yelling requests and demands at Momo, none of which she could make out. “Please, settle down!” she tried yelling over them, but even she could tell her voice was being drowned out by the chaos.
“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?” Iida tried to yell, but even his commanding tone and robotic arm chops couldn’t match the crowd’s energy.
Through the cacophony of disjointed shouts, one student forced their way to the front to address Momo directly, gesturing to an image on their phone. “You were the one who made this, right? It’s you, isn’t it?”
She peered closer to the screen, the color draining from her face when she recognized a social media post. Not just any post, it was a picture of Ashido lounging on the sofa with her Momo plushie, with the caption ‘Check out my new bestie💖💖💖’.
Momo had never taken her friend for a social media star, but this post seemed to have garnered several hundred impressions. She wouldn’t be shocked if most of them came from the crowd badgering her right now. “W-well… it is of my likeness, but-”
That was all they needed to hear before swarming her even further, forcing her several steps back into the meeting room. Iida, bless his heart, was doing his best to act as a human shield, his arms spread out wide as he tried to push back against the crowd. But even with his best efforts, his solid, unflinching form wasn’t enough to hold them back.
Momo could feel her fingers twitch, grasping for a shield which her Quirk was about to create. This crowd was proving especially unruly, even worse than the media who had swarmed the UA entrance at the start of the term. In case she failed at reasoning with them, she may have no choice but to force her way through-
HOOOOOOOOOOONK!
The rainbow sparkles on her arm dissipated at the sudden blaring of an air horn from behind, instead moving to cover her ears by way of earmuffs. The crowd, unfortunately for them, didn't have that luxury. Most of them went silent at the overwhelming noise, save for a few pained winces.
When the sound finally died down, Momo glanced over her shoulder to find the culprit, where she was met with a shorter, somewhat plain-looking boy with messy green hair and freckles dotting his cheeks in a diamond pattern.
Now with everyone’s attention turned toward him, the boy put his air horn away and stepped in front of Momo - as if trying to protect her - and addressed the crowd with a tone just as attention-grabbing as the stunt he pulled mere moments before.
“PLEASE QUIT CROWDING YAOYOROZU! NONE OF YOU WILL GET WHAT YOU WANT IF YOU KEEP OVERWHELMING HER LIKE THIS! IF YOU WANT A PLUSHIE, THEN YOU’LL HAVE TO WAIT FOR AN OUTLET TO OPEN UP WHERE YOU CAN ORDER ONE YOURSELF! NOW DON’T YOU ALL HAVE TO GET TO CLASS?!”
The crowd remained silent for a moment, an air of tension still hanging in the air. Thankfully, it began to dissipate as, one by one, the group of students walked off. When the hallway was finally clear, Momo let out a breath of relief, one much heavier than she anticipated.
“Yaoyorozu, are you alright?” Iida asked, still shaken from the encounter himself. “I don’t know what those students were thinking! How could they attend UA, yet act so brazenly? And so early in the morning, no less!”
“No need to worry. I’m alright,” she felt compelled to say. “I’m just thankful the situation was resolved so quickly. Who knows how rowdy they would’ve gotten if not for…”
Her eyes landed on the student in question, now nervously pacing back and forth with his hands anxiously clutching the sides of his head, a far cry from the courageous boy who faced an entire crowd of students without so much as flinching. “I can’t believe I did that… Mom said to only blow my distress signal during emergencies. Well, I guess it was kind of an emergency, just not for me. Unless I wanna count ‘not getting to class on time’ as an emergency. Does that count? Midnight’s pretty lenient on these things, so it might not-”
“Ahem.” Momo loudly cleared her throat, snapping the boy out of his panicked mumblings, very little of which she could comprehend. “Sorry for the interruption. I just wanted to express my gratitude for your assistance. Things could’ve gotten much uglier back there if not for you.” She topped her thanks off with a heartfelt, warm smile.
The boy stared at her for a second, blinking dumbfoundedly. Another silent second found him rapidly reddening in the face, before giving his head a light shake, as if to reset himself. Then, as if all the information had hit him at once, he perked back up and treated her to his own smile - a wide, yet somewhat fixed one. “Oh! That was no problem at all! You just… looked like you could use some help!”
“That I did!” She extended a friendly hand toward him. “I don’t believe we’ve been properly acquainted yet. I’m Momo Yaoyorozu, vice president of Class 1-A.”
“From the Sports Festival, yes. I remember you.” She tried not to cringe at the memory as he took her hand in a firm, businesslike handshake, the kind her father always emphasized during his meetings. “Nice to meet you. I’m Izuku Midoriya, vice president of Class 1-F from the business management course!”