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1. tokage
Setsuna prides herself on her observational skills.
It’s barely been a month since school started, so she’s still getting attuned to her new classmates and life as a hero course student. While lessons and assignments are pretty unforgiving, she does find pockets of time during and in between classes to take notice of her classmates and all their little habits. Plus, no secret really gets past her—she has eyes and ears everywhere, after all.
Today is no different. She’s fiddling with her pen, dazing out as she waits for the bell to ring and wondering who she should spend her time picking apart, when her eyes land on an interesting sight. Though she doesn’t sit all the way at the back, it’s still far behind enough to provide her an ample view of the majority of the class.
Kuroiro had just walked in and placed his bag on his desk. A few classmates mumble their greetings, but one voice in particular stands out—a cheerful, sweet-sounding, Good morning, Kuroiro-kun!
It’s from Kinoko, who still has a half-eaten sandwich in her hands. She directs a wave over, and Kuroiro tenses up, like he wasn’t expecting to be acknowledged by her at all.
Setsuna squints. Is his face getting… lighter? Greyer? It’s hard to tell from where she’s at, but she swears that…
“Good morning,” he replies, his voice pitched way higher than Setsuna remembers it to be.
Well, if that isn’t interesting. So someone like Kuroiro is so prone to fluster, especially when it comes from a cute girl. She should keep an eye on this one.
2. kendou
As class president, it is important for Itsuka to regularly check up on her classmates’ well-being. Especially after the Sports Festival, which planted many seeds of doubt about their general strength and ability to be a hero, Itsuka wants to ensure that everyone is still feeling good.
She’s currently making her rounds around the cafeteria during lunch, searching for some of her classmates to sit with. Itsuka has been putting in the effort to sit with everyone at least once before the semester ends, and as she’s looking around, she notices Kuroiro sitting alone.
Ah! Perfect. Itsuka begins walking over, but she pauses when she sees Kinoko approaching him from a distance too.
Oh well. The more the merrier.
Itsuka arrives at their table and Kinoko instantly brightens up, offering her a seat next to her. They talk a little about the food they’ve gotten before saying their thanks and beginning their meal.
As Itsuka eats, Kinoko strikes up a new conversation. “Itsuka-chan! How was your internship with Uwabami?”
Itsuka grimaces at the sore reminder. “It wasn’t really… hero work that I expected.”
“Oh, but your commercial was really cute! Didn’t you at least have fun?”
“It wasn’t the worst thing in the world,” Itsuka relents. Not many in their class went for internships, plus it’s not like any of them have a hero license yet. “I’m thankful for the experience anyway. I hope that when we’re allowed to do more field work, we can go on more interesting projects.”
“I’ve heard of Team Up missions being a thing,” Kuroiro agrees.
Kinoko gasps, clapping her hands together. “Yes! Do you have a Pro-Hero you’d want to team up with, Kuroiro-kun?”
At being blasted with a direct question, Kuroiro’s entire demeanour changes. He draws back, averting his eyes from Kinoko, and stutters around his reply. “U-Um… I haven’t really, um, thought about that?”
Itsuka frowns. If she was meeting Kuroiro for the first time, she would just assume he’s shy, but she knows that’s not the case. And it can’t be a gender thing either, since he was speaking with Itsuka just fine a few seconds ago.
“That’s okay!” Kinoko says, moving on from the conversation easily. “I’d love to team up with Mount Lady, or maybe Hawks! They’re so dreamy…”
As Kinoko continues rambling, Kuroiro recovers from his sudden bout of fidgety behaviour. So it must only happen when Kinoko is speaking directly to him.
Huh. Weird.
3. monoma
Neito considers himself a huge fan of historical romance.
Tales of a tragic love, plays with a dramatic twist, oh, all of it! He’s been told that that’s where he gets his flair, actually, which he definitely views as a compliment.
A defining theme he’s noticed in these stories is the chivalrous gentleman that sweeps a fair maiden off her feet. So of course, Neito has developed a knack for gentlemanly behaviour himself. And he’s certainly learned to identify it as well.
Most of Class 1-B is currently gathered in the dining area of their dormitory, eating dinner. Neito is one of the first ones there—he would like to retire to his room early tonight. He’s been bingeing a new show!
As he finishes up his meal, more of his classmates start trickling in. And at one point, he spots Komori arriving, wearing a large, oversized green shirt. Oh, hey, that’s a fashion brand he recognises!
Just as Neito wants to open his mouth and ask Komori about her shirt, Kuroiro appears by her side. They approach an empty table together, and Kuroiro stops to pull a chair out for her before going to sit on her other side.
…Now that’s odd. Not the gesture itself, because Neito might’ve done the same for any of his beloved classmates, but Kuroiro isn’t exactly the gentlemanly type. Quite the opposite, actually. Neito has overheard him and Tokage swearing at each other with some foul words that would get Vlad King’s blood pressure rising pretty quickly.
So Komori is his exception, then? How sweet! What’s next, a serenade from a balcony? A letter from a secret admirer? Whatever it is, Neito definitely has to keep his eyes peeled for this exciting, budding romance.
4. honenuki
Being next-door neighbours (or next-dorm neighbours, as some of his classmates have taken to calling it), with Kuroiro isn’t for the faint-hearted.
He has a bad habit of not knocking before he enters and just siddling his way into a room via the shadows. Apparently, he does this a lot at home. What is privacy to this guy? Juuzou nearly had a heart attack the first time it happened, but afterwards, he’s gotten somewhat used to this weird behaviour from one of his friends.
Still, when Kuroiro materialises out of seemingly thin air while Juuzou is studying, he lets out an undignified yelp of surprise.
“Dude,” he sighs, setting his pen down. “I told you to at least knock.”
“Sorry,” Kuroiro replies, but his tone is flighty and he looks like he’s sweating. Juuzou starts getting worried—almost nothing gets Kuroiro so shaken up. He’s a pretty unflappable guy. Something bad must’ve happened.
“What is it?” he asks, already standing up.
Kuroiro shakes his head, holding his hands out. “No, nothing. I just had to escape for a bit, and your room was the nearest one. I’ll go back now.”
Juuzou refuses to let up just yet. Seriously, this is getting kind of concerning. “Escape from what?”
Kuroiro’s jaw clenches as he looks away awkwardly. After a long stretch of silence, he mutters, “…Komori came over to return me a book. I wasn’t expecting her, so I… panicked?”
“And left her hanging by your door?” Juuzou asks dryly.
“I believe she’s not there anymore.”
“Why does that even matter?” Komori isn’t even an intimidating person. Quite the opposite, actually—she gets a little too geeked out over mushrooms sometimes, but she’s overall one of the more cheerful presences in the class, and very approachable. Juuzou shared study notes with her once. He sees no reason for Kuroiro to be acting this way about her.
…Unless—
“Do you have a crush on her?” Juuzou realises. “Is that why you’re so freaked out?”
Kuroiro’s jaw drops. He shoves his hands at Juuzou’s face and shushes him, like that’s supposed to do anything, and Juuzou just stands there with a sigh, letting himself get minorly slapped. The things he goes through.
“It’s not a bad thing,” he continues, feeling more and more abused with every passing second. “Komori is a nice girl. And she talks to you pretty often, doesn’t she?”
“I’m not here for your advice, or anything like that,” Kuroiro replies with a shudder. “And I’ll be taking my leave now.”
He inches towards the door, slowly sinking into the shadows. Right before he entirely disappears from Juuzou’s sight, he pauses, turning around to give him a sharp look. “Tell no one.”
Juuzou raises his hands in defence. This is none of his business.
5. yanagi
At this point in time, it’s not really a secret that Kuroiro has a huge, smashing crush on Kinoko. Reiko is pretty certain that everyone in the class knows by now—sans Kinoko, who is somehow still living in her own world where Kuroiro is ‘just a really nice person’.
But the odd thing is that Reiko has never actually seen Kuroiro’s crush in action. It might be because she keeps to herself too often. Or, despite what others may say, Kuroiro isn’t actually that apparent about his crush. He has a pretty good poker face.
Well, except for right now, where Reiko can no longer attest to Kuroiro’s ability to hide his feelings.
The class is currently gathered in the lounge, scrambled across the various couches or throw pillows on the floor, watching a horror movie together. Contrary to what one might assume, this was not Reiko’s idea, but more of a combined effort.
It’s already past curfew, but the war has left most of their classmates with insomnia, nightmares, or some other reason that causes an inability to sleep. And when you’ve already experienced horrific things in real life, the horror movies become pretty amusing to watch.
Reiko herself has watched this movie many times, so she’s content to just exist alongside her classmates and let her gaze drift from the television every now and then. Which is why they end up landing on the couch opposite her, where Kuroiro and Kinoko are cuddled up, looking extremely comfortable.
To Kuroiro’s credit, this probably wasn’t what he was expecting. He’s pressed up into the arm rest, his eyes forcibly fixated on the screen, clearly doing anything he can to avoid confronting the girl next to him, while Kinoko has a death grip on his arm and is flinching at every little jumpscare in the movie. Reiko knows she’s pretty bad at handling horror, but she wanted to be here anyway for the sake of class bonding.
Kinoko yelps in surprise at another ill-timed jumpscare—this movie has cheap effects, Reiko thinks, but anything can be scary when you’re already tense—and buries her face into Kuroiro’s arm. Kuroiro finally breaks out of his stupor, turning to Kinoko with a mix of concern and fluster.
He whispers something to her, probably a quick check on if she’s actually okay, and Kinoko nods, extracting herself from his arm with an apologetic look. Thereafter, Kuroiro smiles and shakes his head, offering his arm out again.
Wow. Reiko can’t decide how she feels about that, but judging by the way Kuroiro’s eyes softened when Kinoko accepted his offer, she thinks she finally gets why everyone says that his crush is the most obvious thing ever.
+1. komori
“Wow, Itsuka-chan!” Kinoko laughs when Itsuka walks into the classroom, her hair a bit of a mess and a disgruntled expression over her tired features. “That’s a lot of letters!”
“Our beautiful Kendou-san is the most popular girl in the school, of course!” Monoma chimes in while Itsuka dumps her bag on the table. A few letters spill out, and Itsuka buries her face in her hands.
“It’s embarrassing,” she sighs. “I didn’t even know half the people who came up to me.”
“Such is the struggle of being pretty and popular,” Setsuna snorts. She leans back on her seat. “Pony, Ibara, anyone else receive letters this morning?”
“I haven’t checked my locker!” Pony replies cheerfully. “I don’t think any of us will best Itsuka, though! This same thing happened last year too.”
Itsuka groans like the reminder is enough to pain her.
Laughing to herself, Kinoko reaches into her bag, pulling out the bags of chocolates and pastries she prepared the night before. Valentine’s Day is one of her favourite holidays—everything is decorated in red, like her favourite mushrooms, and she gets to shower all her best friends with love! She hands out the gifts to the other girls, pausing at their desks to chat with them too.
When Kinoko returns to her seat, she digs into her bag to pull out her notebook for the upcoming lesson, but she pauses when her fingers brush against something unfamiliar.
It’s… a sealed letter?
It has a wax stamp, with some dried flowers caught within it, and the envelope is browning at the edges. Confused, Kinoko looks around to see if anyone could give any indication of who planted this in her bag. It definitely wasn’t there this morning, and she didn’t see anyone walk into the room. But no one else seems to have noticed.
How odd! Shrugging to herself, Kinoko opens up the envelope, pulling out the contents. It’s a simple letter written on lined notebook paper, but the moment she unfolds it, her heart catches in her throat.
It’s a love confession.
Not anything lengthy or poetic, but her sender’s handwriting is painfully familiar. She stares at it for a bit with butterflies growing in her stomach, but when she snaps her head to who she knows is the culprit, he isn’t at his desk.
Well, it does make sense. Not many people can sneak into a classroom undetected and then sneak back out. Not unless your quirk allows you to travel within the shadows.
Smiling to herself, Kinoko tucks the letter back into the envelope and slips it under her table. She’ll have to think of a reply later. Or maybe she won’t reply at all, and see how long it takes for Kuroiro to come clean.