48

Chapter 48: Passing Days I – Fun and GamesNotes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Kyoka massaged her neck as she walked, feeling with a bit of annoyance whenever she touched the spot where one of her jacks had ended up under all night. She had once again forgotten to retract them all the way before hitting the hay, and now she was feeling one of the small downsides of her Quirk. 

- At least they didn't get tangled up this time, - she thought cursing the memory of that unlucky instance. She hadn't sneered at somebody for getting their earphone cords tangled in their pockets ever since. 

Putting those times aside, the girl approached her objective. 

"Yaomomo, you up?" Kyoka asked as her knuckles knocked on her friend's door. 

They hadn't agreed on a morning schedule or anything but, after repeating the same actions for a bit more than a week, the punk girl felt like they were falling into a nice habit. 

Going out of her way to walk to Momo's room wasn't that hard—literally less than twelve meters, imagine the effort—and fetching her friend to go get breakfast together meant that she would enjoy some company during the morning rush. She wasn't used to waking up early, but it wasn't like they had to take a train to get to school now, was it? 

Moreover, being the first to see Momo's smile every day filled Kyoka with that warm feeling... 

Shaking her head out of that line of thought that would be better staying buried for a while, Kyoka knocked again, repeating her question. 

- Weird, - she thought as, once again, no reply came from inside. 

Kyoka had left the common room together with Yaomomo the night before, and not even that late as they'd all been tired as hell. She'd seen the ravenette enter her room, biding her goodnight. Yaomomo didn't seem like the type to stay up so late as to be still asleep in the late morning. She wasn't Mina or Kaminari, for goodness' sake. 

Third time was the charm, as the final knock finally made something stir from inside the room. Kyoka's ears caught the noise of a light grumble, followed by what seemed light a gasp at seeing the time and a flapping of sheets and pillows. The sound of hurried steps came closer to the door, which opened after a second of struggle against the handle. 

Kyoka was graced by a yet-unseen vision, that of a tired Momo with vivid eyebags and ruffled bed hair, wearing a reddish-purple nightgown. She reveled with the voice in her head that whistled at the sight for all of one second before telling it to shut up and stop trying to make her look flushed. 

The heiress immediately assumed an apologetic expression. "Oh, Kyoka, I'm sorry, I seem to have forgotten to set up my alarm yesterday. How long have you been waiting?" 

"Just got here," she responded with a white lie and a shrug, not wanting the other girl to feel like she'd missed an important appointment. "You still wanna get breakfast together?" 

"I- Yes, of course," the heiress answered after a second of hesitation. "Let's go." 

Kyoka quirked an eyebrow, looking at her friend's appearance up and down. "Dressed like that?" 

She could have put it in a milder way, yeah, but it got an immediate reaction out of Yaomomo, the girl realizing that her nightgown wouldn't have been as appropriate in the common room. The ravenette stammered a quick excuse, falling back into her room to get changed. 

A bit surprised, the punkette cleared her throat and got closer to the door. "Do you want me to wait for you? It's-" 

"Please, don't feel like you have to!" the heiress made her voice be heard through the closed entrance, along with the sounds of rummaging through a closet and some unintelligible grumblings. "You can make your way to the kitchen and I'll catch up with you as soon as possible!" 

"... Alright, see you downstairs," Kyoka said as she retracted, beginning to walk away with a slight worry for her friend's unusual behavior. 

The rocker opted to slither one of her jacks into her pocket, connecting it to her phone to get some music into her head and fill the silence. As the words of the refrain hit her, she remembered about having stopped the song midway the day before after an abrupt interruption. Wanting to listen to it from the beginning, she mentally hit the rewind button, and only then did she start bobbing her head lightly to the riff. 

Even while wearing casual clothes—a knitted, light azure shawl over a long, green-embroidered, cream dress—during her spare time, Ibara walked with purpose and with her back straight. At that sight some would think that she could be incapable of relaxing but, truth to be told, she felt rather at ease. She'd been taught not to slouch and to be careful about how she walked since an early age, mostly for safety reasons. Scratching others with her thorns because of her carelessness was the last thing she wanted. 

She went to knock on her friend's door, smiling and hoping not to catch her sleeping or studying. She'd have preferred to avoid the guilt coming from having interrupted either of those activities, good cause or not. "Do to others what you would have them do to you," Matthew 7:12. The Golden Rule never failed her, and she would have been quite miffed with either interruption. 

Fortunately for Ibara's conscience, Toru was both awake and very likely not studying, if the quick response and bookless desk she could see as the door was opened was any indication. Still, noting the crumpled bed sheets behind her friend, Ibara found it prudent to ask and excuse herself. Just in case. 

"Good morning, Toru. I'm sorry, did I wake you up, by any chance?" 

"Oh, no, I was just lying there... Just thinking and stuff," the invisible girl—dressed in a lovely striped crop top—reassured her after a moment. A few bracelets made it clear that she was also waving her hand, as if to shoo away the question and the worry in her tone. 

"I see. That's a relief," she sighed, her smile growing a bit. "I missed you at breakfast, so I thought of coming directly here." 

She noticed that the little movement of tension the other often showed whenever someone mentioned "not seeing" her hadn't made its appearance. She wasn't going to use those words again if they made the invisible girl uncomfortable, so she was glad to have found a valid alternative. 

"Don't sweat it! So, what brings you?" Toru asked, tilting a bit to one side and resting on the door's jamb. 

"Oh, right. I've come to ask you if you would like to join the rest of us girls in playing with little Eri until lunchtime." 

Toru brought her hands together in a clap. "Aww, thanks! I'd hate to miss that!" 

Ibara nodded in understanding. "We thought so. Mina sent you a message some time ago, but you had yet to respond, so..." 

With a short exclamation of surprise, the invisible girl skipped over to her bedside table, swiping up her phone. "Silly me, I can't believe I was so deep in my own head I didn't notice my tone," she let out a light chuckle. Turning back and skipping over, she added, "Alright! Let's go down to meet the lovely little devil."

Pleased at her friend's cheerfulness, despite the shocking idea of comparing Eri to something so terrible even as a harmless nickname, Ibara took a second to remember that they were meeting somewhere else. "Actually, we're going to Setsuna's room. Kinoko and Mina said that it would be better for another 'girls only' time." 

Toru paused as she closed the door. "Midori's not with Eri?" Her tone revealed how surprised she had been by the notion. Ibara could empathize with the surprise. 

"Yes. Setsuna somehow managed to convince the little one to ask for some time apart," she said with a nod, remembering the stuttered, adorable question that had come from the child. "Though I'm sure that Midoriya only allowed it thanks to Itsuka's and Momo's presence. Sometimes I wonder how many idiotic events our Class Representatives are saving us from," she sighed before letting out a slightly amused chuckle, shaking her head. 

Toru remained quiet for a moment before joining her with a bit of laughter. "Right, who knows. Thankfully we're in good hands," the invisible girl hummed. "Come on, let's hurry!" 

Ibara nodded, happily stepping beside Toru as they walked. She had been a tad concerned at her prior absence, but it was nice to know that she was just as lively as ever. 

Locked in a fight with no holds barred, the two Heroes had accumulated their fair share of damage. Knowing that neither could last much longer, they rushed against each other one last time. The match had been long, but neither was going to give up. Kamui Woods had the reach, his branch letting him close in faster and attack first, but he hadn't accounted for a perfect parrying by its adversary. The counter blow from Gang Orca was a punch that would break cement, and it did its job by sending the other flying far away, but not enough to impede a last-second recovery with a well-timed grab. The Tree Hero was still in high waters though, as he hadn't touched the ground when the other pulled his Super Move. Gang Orca's Sonic Boom hit him as he fell, defenseless, and this time there was nothing her could do to avoid his demise. The Killer Whale Hero turned to join the still on-going battle, only to see that Snatch had come for him first. Already deeply weakened, he was swept away by the sandstorm, joining Woods on the list of the fallen. Finally, Snatch turned back to face the nemesis he'd faced for the last two minutes: himself. The red-masked Sand Hero attacked the blue-masked one, but none of his moves connected. The Hero on the left just kept evading, biding his time, until he found a moment to reply with a different combination of moves: Sand Whip, uppercut, Sand Wave, downwards crash, Sand wave again, and Sand Roar. From the first lash to the mighty blow of the lion-shaped strike, everything went exactly as planned, the combo ending with the copy being blown directly out of the arena, the sound of an explosion following immediately after. 

"Aaand that's game over," Yosetsu proclaimed with a clap after watching his mates getting slaughtered in what could have been a 2 vs 1. 

"So close," Kaibara clicked his tongue, having hoped that his teammate would finish the job. 

"I never stood a chance," Honenuki sighed. For all his strategic knowledge, he couldn't hold a candle to what could be dozens—perhaps hundreds—of hours of experience. "Damn, Kaminari, you're good." 

"With all the time I've spent playing this stuff, I'd better be," the blonde laughed, clearly euphoric after his victory. He turned to his companion to share his glory, pocking his side with his elbow. "See? See? I told you I'd bring it home!" 

"I never doubted you!" Sero grinned, playfully putting his arm around the other's neck. 

"You were so giving up after your loss!" Kaminari rebutted, trying to shake the other off. 

"So," Kamakiri started, moving to take the controller with a sly grin, "who's next on the chopping block?" Shoji silently followed his example, gratefully receiving Honenuki's gamepad. 

Yosetsu groaned, knowing full well that it was his turn again. "I still think it's bullshit that you two are teaming up. You're both too good at this. It's unfair." 

"Real life ain't fair," Mineta sighed, almost quoting their hobo-looking teacher as he joined Yosetsu in their soon-to be second loss in a row against the other duo. Sixth if you counted the day before. Tenth with Friday night. All things considered, maybe they just weren't that good as a team in the game as they were during Hero training. 

"Take it up to whoever cares," the mantis teen replied curtly, pressing a button to start the slaughter of their chosen characters. "If you can't handle somebody who knows what he's doing, get better." 

As expected, things went downhill fast. Shoji's hand-eye coordination was too good, never missing a block or an attack window, and Kamakiri was just a relentless beast that never gave you a moment to breathe or think. The slugfest only lasted about a minute and a half before the little guy's Rock Lock was down for the count, and Yosetsu's Crust only lasted a few more seconds, being surrounded and pummeled into oblivion. 

He sighed as he let himself slid down the couch. "I give up. We just can't play against you two." 

"It's not like you did any better against Tokoyami and Kuroiro," Kaminari chuckled, rubbing salt in the wound before turning his gaze on the remaining duo. "But at least you're just above Tsuburaba and Fukidashi in wins." 

Sero nodded, looking at them with a full grin. "One is only slightly better than zero, but it is better." 

"I'll never be able to show my face outside again," Fukidashi's speech bubble changed to show a dejected expression, the picture including two fake rivers of tears. Nevertheless, his highly sarcastic tone was a clear indication that he had taken his losses much more sportingly than his partner had. 

"Hey! I'm doing the best I can!" the brunette lamented. "I just prefer first-person shooters, that's all!" 

"To each his own," came a voice with a slightly teasing—but happy—tone. 

Yosetsu turned to welcome the newcomers, being slightly preceded by the electric blonde. "Hey, Midoriya, Todoroki! Nice of you to join us!" 

"Didn't you say that you'd be with that kid of yours today? Where's she?" Kaibara asked, looking around. 

"She has been taken from us," Todoroki answered, seemingly deadly serious and therefore causing a moment of mild panic between the boys. 

Midoriya interrupted any kind of rash action or question by raising a hand, sighing, and shaking his head. "No, she's just with somebody else. He means that Tokage and Kendo convinced her to spend some time with the girls, so we're free for the time being," he explained, much to the collective's relief. 

"Goddammit, Peppermint! Stop trying to give us a heart attack!" Kamakiri yelled, stopping a moment before throwing his controller against the other teen. 

"I wasn't?" Todoroki tilted his head, looking confused. The boys reacted by either chuckling or sighing at the display. Yosetsu had seen some people with little social experience before, but damn, this guy took the cake. He looked like he'd never even talked to somebody his age before. 

"So, are you still playing Hero Clash Three?" Midoriya asked as he stepped closer and put his elbows on the closest couch. 

The Class Representative had seen them play last evening, but had politely declined the offer to join them by saying that he needed to catch up on some rest after his night out. Still, he did know about the game, and Yosetsu was eager to see if he was any good at it. The others probably wouldn't mind an addition to their rotation. 

"Yeah, wanna give it a try?" he proposed, raising his gamepad towards the greenette. 

"Uh, two versus two? Todoroki, would you like to play?" the teen asked, getting a nod back from his now teammate. 

"I have no experience, but I will do my best." 

"Can't do worse than we are, that's for sure," Mineta commented with a snicker as the two sat on his side. The little guy started to explain how things worked to the two-toned teen, who absorbed the knowledge with great focus. 

"So... now I have to choose a character?" 

"Yeah, whoever suits your fancy, Peppermint," Kamakiri snorted, sounding tired of waiting. 

"There are a lot of them," Todoroki thought aloud, his eyes moving around the list. 

"Some would say that there aren't enough," Kaminari joked. 

"They just keep increasing the roster with each consecutive game by adding whoever makes it in the top fifty or so," Kaibara shrugged, talking as if it should be common knowledge. 

"Oh, they're arranged by the current ranking," Sero explained. "Your father's up there, if you want." 

"I'd rather not," Todoroki replied curtly, moving his controller on All Might's icon before frowning slightly. "Why is he young?" The Hero's model couldn't have been older than twenty. 

"The developers had to justify his 'low' power level in some way," Midoriya said with a smirk. A lot of game producers kept using that same excuse to cover their asses, which made sense as the number of diehard fans of the Number 1 surpassed whatever number of fans any game could have. "So, it's either 'Young All Might,' 'Quirk-Suppressed All Might,' or 'Certainly Not All Might.'" 

"Last one's just a meme skin. Sold like crazy though," Kaminari grinned, showing the image of the greatest man of the nation dressed in a suit and a tie, but with his face covered by a pair of fake glasses and a ridiculous mustache. "It's supposed to be a callback at some sort of very old superhero comic or something." 

"Legend has it that he asked for it himself," Sero added with a chuckle. 

"I mean, it would have taken a lot of balls to propose something like that about the Number 1," Mineta noted. 

The fact that the Hero had supposedly agreed to be portrayed with those ludicrous things—nobody had heard of any lawsuit against the videogame publisher, and the skin had been out for months—told a lot about his sense of humor. 

"I'll take it," Todoroki hummed, selecting the character. "At least it'll make losing fun." 

He didn't look like he was having fun, but who was Yosetsu to judge. 

"Sounds good," the greenette agreed with a chuckle. "Then... I'll take him." 

Anybody in the room that knew anything about the game and the characters in it did a double take. 

"Dude, are you sure?" Kaminari spoke between confusion and laughter. "Lunch Rush, really?" 

"Really," Midoriya confirmed. "It's fun." 

"He's got the lowest rating in the game though," Honenuki pointed out. 

"Being bad at something doesn't mean that you don't get to enjoy it," the other teen replied with a shrug. "I just like how crazy his moveset is." 

Yosetsu hummed, as he could agree with those words. The enjoying part, that is. Lunch Rush's moveset sucked. Even if he wasn't that good of a player, there weren't many things that were as fun to him than a few hours spent gaming with friends. 

"Come on, he's free to choose the Hero he wants," he supported Midoriya's decision, earning a wide, thankful smile. 

The group let the match begin, the four Heroes showing a signature pose before the introduction sequence started playing out, bringing them to the familiar—if a bit unimaginative—arena of Tokyo. Concrete cracked and lights flickered as the characters made their appearance and shouted their introductory lines. In his opinion, Lunch Rush's "Prepare for a full-course beatdown!" didn't quite compare to Shishido's "Bow to the King of the jungle!" or Present Mic's "Time to make some noise!"—not to talk about All Might's "I AM HERE!", of course. 

"Hey, maybe we'll finally get a win," Fukidashi whispered to his teammate, his speech bubble turned into a hopeful thumbs up. Their choices did have a higher overall rating, at least, and they were surely more experienced than Todoroki. 

Tsuburaba quivered in glee. "Oh yea-" 

"Don't pop the champagne just yet," Midoriya interjected, not looking away from the starting fight as he smiled confidently. "Don't underestimate a Support Hero." 

Some of the group took it as a bit of bravado in the face of what was, admittedly, a lost battle. 

It didn't take much for them to change their mind, and just a bit more to see that they had been greatly underestimating the new team. 

"How. The. Hell. Are. You. Doing. That?!" Kamakiri grunted, pointing each word with a strong press of a button. The mantis teen's attacks weren't connecting as much as he would have liked, while his Yoroi Musha's damage counter had been steadily rising since the start of the fight. 

"Again, a lot of experience," Midoriya repeated for the third time, not losing his focused look for a moment. The guy was staring at the screen with an intensity worthy of a real fight, and his fingers were practically flying on the controller as he kept his character out of his opponent's reach. 

Of course, he was somewhat justified. It wasn't often that somebody managed to hold his own in what was practically a two on one, especially when playing against some of the best gamers in the dorm—Tokoyami's [Dark Shadow] had proved themselves to be, admittedly, better than his owner, Kaminari, and Kamakiri, much to the shock of the latter two, but they weren't there to participate. 

Shoji—who had been holding the crown as the best player until the new challenger entered the field—was keeping his silence, but Yosetsu saw the way the guy stared as the screen. His Best Jeanist wasn't as badly hurt as Yoroi Musha was, but he had still taken as much damage as Midoriya's own Hero. 

Yosetsu wondered what would happen if the heteromorph teen were to use his Quirk while playing. Having a couple more eyes on the action certainly wouldn't hurt his chances. Would he use two or three characters with the same precision as he did with one? Perhaps his reaction speed would be lowered by the surplus of information, but wouldn't that make for some good training? 

- Damn, Midoriya's getting into my head with all that stuff, - he mentally chuckled. 

He was brought out of the train of thought by Kamakiri's grumbling. Yoroi Musha's Super Move had just missed its mark. "Fuck that pigeon," he seethed, trying to distance himself from danger as fast as he could. "Can't believe you can play that shit. How is your head not splitting open yet, Greeny?" 

"Thick skull," Midoriya replied as he gave chase, being unwilling to give him any time to breathe and refocus. 

"Is he that hard to use?" Todoroki asked, confused. The guy had run out of beginner's luck, leaving the match a full minute before to join the watching party. He was now engrossed by trying to understand why this match was going so differently. 

"Yeah, a lot," Kaminari responded hastily, too focused on watching the exciting fight to waste thoughts on anything else. 

Yosetsu had to admit that it was hard to look away. 

Midoriya had discarded his previous troll pick—which he had still used to win every other two versus two matches, although he had somewhat struggled against Kaminari—and he was now playing as Hawks, widely known as one of the characters with the highest skill ceiling in the game. The Wing Hero was fast and one of the best damage dealers in the game, but... 

"It's not just hard," he started explaining to Todoroki. "Most people can only play Hawks with the assisting tool to guide the feathers." 

"The easy mode," Kaibara interjected. "Introduced after a ton of players complained that he was unplayable. It saved the producers from thousands of refund requests for that DLC." 

"That," Yosetsu nodded. "It lets the player concentrate on moving the actual character, and it keeps the damage dealt stable, but also way lower that how high it could be." The Hero was a light weight, and a good hit could send him offscreen. Dodging was essential to his playstyle, but many couldn't keep up with the Hero and his feathers at the same time. 

"But he's doing everything manually," Mineta continued, his eyes wide. "It takes a lot of skill to pull off." 

"But if that is how it works... I might have to learn Hawks now," Honenuki commented, intrigued. 

"It's the only way I could think of to keep up with these two," Midoriya said, evidently struggling to do just that, following the words with the hit that signed the Equipped Hero's defeat. 

Kamakiri cursed, but not as loudly as he usually did. He probably didn't want to break the others' focus, which was strangely thoughtful of him. 

Midoriya, who should have been relieved at now being in a one-on-one situation, looked conflicted and pensive. By that point, Shoji's Best Jeanist had laid out enough wires to be a damn menace. With the way he played, they all knew that the silent teen really knew how to put the "control" in "crowd control." Furthermore, he couldn't be downed with just a few feathers, and Midoriya didn't have enough time to collect enough for a heavy attack from a distance. He could only try his luck and approach the enemy with his sword. He was trapped, and they both knew it. 

Lesser men would have probably admitted defeat at this stage but, seeing the way he smiled, the green-haired teen seemed to be having the time of his life. 

The two Heroes kept dancing around each other as the time limit slowly trickled towards the end. They had both accumulated too much damage to risk getting hit because of a silly mistake, but things couldn't just end with a tie. The Winged Hero tried a last rush, the signature feathery red sword raised to cut the Fiber Hero, but even speed had its limits. The bird had just fallen into the spider's web, wires instantly gathering to stun him for the second necessary for the blonde's final move. Caught by the Blackout Bind, Hawks could only remain still until the long awaited "GAME!" appeared on screen. 

The tension in the room decreased by a few notches as the guys collectively let out the breaths they had been holding. 

"Damn, that was intense," Sero commented with a shake of his head. 

"Preach," Tsuburaba nodded along. 

"Seconded!" Fukidashi agreed, a few exclamation points appearing on his face. 

"It was a good match," Midoriya let out with a puff before turning to his adversaries. "At least I hope." 

"Ugh, shut up, Greeny," Kamakiri grunted. "You almost took us both down." 

"I wasn't so sure my strategy would work either," Shoji nodded, closing his eyes as he visibly relaxed. "Things may have gone quite differently in a true one-on-one." 

"And I wouldn't have lasted that long without Todoroki's help," Midoriya shrugged. 

"I didn't do anything though," the ice and fire teen noted. 

"Being bait counts," Kaminari joked with a sly wink, making the others chuckle. 

"Know that I'll need a rematch, Greeny," Kamakiri pointed out, pointing at the other teen with the controller. 

"Of course! I didn't even get to win this one," the greenette smiled, his tone just a tad cheekier than before. 

"Ah! That's more like it. Drill, hurry up with your match! New round!" 

Kaibara's sigh was muffled by the sound of the door opening and Kirishima's sonorous voice. 

"Hey guys! Still playing?" the redhead asked, stepping closer with Tetsutetsu while an aloof Bakugo kept his distance from the group. 

"Yup! Wanna join?" Kaminari proposed. The blonde looked around as Tetsutetsu answered with a "Yeah! Team Men!" and quickly counted how many guys were present. "Hey! We just gotta find someone else and we could get a tournament going!" 

It only took a moment for Yosetsu to understand that the electric teen's idea wouldn't work out. Bakugo's expression was pretty indicative of how little he wanted to stay, and he wasn't making it hard to understand where—or rather, who—he was gazing at. 

- Man, what a real sore loser, - he thought as he noticed that Mineta had made himself smaller, if possible, almost sinking into the sofa. 

"Nah. I'm outta here," the blonde huffed, walking off towards the stairs with his hands in his pockets and without sparing them a second glance. They watched as he left in silence, exchanging a few looks at the guy's general and recurring unwillingness to spend time with others. Even the notable exceptions—Kirishima, Kaminari, Ashido, and Sero—wouldn't be enough to stick around. 

Kirishima looked a bit saddened by the sudden departure. "Sorry, guys, looks like he's still in a bit of a mood." 

Sero and Kaibara shrugged at the same time with a "He'll get over it," and a "Leave him be," the first being way more optimistic than the second. 

"So, no dice on that tournament?" Tsuburaba asked as the two gym buddies took a seat. 

"Kuroiro and Tokoyami both had other stuff to do," Yosetsu thought aloud, as he'd been the one to ask the two earlier. "Sato is on family leave. Rin and Ojiro went to find a dojo or something." 

"We could ask Shinso and Monoma," Midoriya proposed. "They're still in the dorm, and I think they might enjoy this." 

"Just keep down the shouting, Shinso's complained before," Mineta pointed out. 

"Fine," Kamakiri grumbled, knowing that most of the noise was his fault. "Get us Understudy and Black Coffee. We'll get the thing started." 

"And let's mix the teams!" Fukidashi piped up, clearly hoping to get some luck. 

"It would make things more balanced," Shoji agreed in his usual low voice. 

Kamakiri rolled his eyes, but conceded. "Fine, at least somebody will stop bitching about it." 

Monoma and Shinso might not have been the best players, being roughly at the same level as Todoroki and other newbies, but they fit well into the group. Sarcasm and theatrics mixed well enough with the guys' banter, and they sure made things livelier. Kaminari and Sero kept chuckling at anything that was produced by Shinso's sharp tongue, and the discussion struck up by Monoma and Midoriya—and interjected by everybody else—over the Pros' Quirks and strategies on how to use them was weirdly interesting. 

All in all, Yosetsu was terribly pleased with himself for bringing in the console and having started their little gaming party. 

"When you asked for some time to think, I thought that would mean more than a day and a half, ribbit," Tsuyu pointed out as she let Mina in her room. Truth to be told, she had expect the other to either accept the offer on the spot or to ponder on it for at least a week. Having the girl knock on her door when she had been getting ready to sleep wasn't exactly how she imagined things would go. 

She settled on her chair, leaving the softer seat for her guest. She was sure that she would appreciate. 

"Me too, I guess," the pinkette replied, plopping down on a giant, frog-shaped cushion, making the thing's eyes widen comically. "I had some help putting things into perspective." 

"Really, ribbit? Found something online?" The horned girl didn't seem like the type to do research, but perhaps that was limited to stuff that didn't catch her interest. She did feel like the type of person to end on an endless link surfing game though. 

Mina shook her head. "Nah. I just had a nice, long chat..." 

- Oh, - the single, surprised exclamation echoed in her mind. Mina had surprised her again. She had thought that the pinkette wouldn't go babbling about this matter so easily. Had Tsu pushed too much too early? Or had she just worked her away around the subject and gotten some insight anyway? 

"Ribbit, can I ask who you talked to?" she asked, letting the underlying "Can we trust them?" go unsaid. 

The horned girl raised a hand to try and reassure her, although she looked somewhat torn. "Um, I'll tell you in a moment... but I assure you, she's cool, won't say a word." 

- She, uh? So, Toru, probably? Well, that's understandable. - 

"Okay, ribbit," she hummed acceptingly. The fact couldn't be changed anyway, so reproaching the other about it wouldn't really help her cause now. Toru would have ended up learning about it sooner or later anyway. 

"Thanks for understanding. Just gimme a sec to put all these damn thoughts in order... It's just like me to forget the little speech I was planning," Mina huffed, looking down pensively and drumming on her horn with her fingers. The girl took a few moments to gather her thoughts before raising her eyes again with renewed vigor. "Alright, so, I had this chat... Which was a lot, actually, opened my eyes to a few more things I wasn't thinking about... Which brings me to the point we should discuss." 

Tsuyu straightened a bit on her seat, waiting for the other to continue her choppy piece. The words didn't match the tone they were said with, nor the expression on the girl's face. For once, Mina looked more serious than Shoji or Ida, her eyes gazing at Tsuyu's with a sort of determination without the barest hint of sillyness. It was a strange look on her visage, but not an unwelcome one. It was a serious matter, after all. 

After a few moments of opening and closing her mouth, struggling to find the right words, Mina continued. "Your idea seems very nice, but it may also be very damn hard to pull off right." 

- True and true, - she thought with a nod. 

"There's a lot of us, and we don't know if everybody, if any, will be alright with it besides us." 

The negative thought would have hurt if Tsu hadn't gotten distracted by the rest of the sentence, letting out a light, surprised sound. Had she...? 

"So, you're in?" she said before she could hold herself back. 

Mina opened her eyes like a deer in the headlights before smacking her forehead while sputtering a small curse, leaving Tsuyu to feel a bit dumbfounded. After a calming sigh, her frown quickly turned into a smile and a nod. "Ugh, sorry, I keep getting this wrong. Yeah, of course I'm in, Tsu." 

The frog girl felt a boulder being lifted from her stomach as she let out the breath she'd been holding. It wasn't much really, just a few words, but this declaration of intent may just have been the first tile that would lead to the full, perfect picture. 

"Thank you, ribbit. You don't know how much this means to me." 

Mina waved it off. "Don't mention it... and that's pretty much what I was going to ask for, actually." Tsuyu felt the other's eyes on her again, so she met the intensity with her placid façade. "You really want this to work, do you?" 

The question seemed superfluos, but Tsu answered it anyway. "Yes." 

"And it's not just a momentary fling to have some fun, right?" the pinkette asked, her tone grave. 

- Is she worried I might not be taking it seriously? - 

She felt an ember of anger burn in her gut at the baseless accusation, but her calmness won out. Despite Mina's usual carefree self, she didn't have any of that at the time. Maybe her friend had found it necessary to analyze her own feelings to understand if the same applied to her... and he thought of somebody not taking something as important as this was with the right care didn't sit well with either of them. 

She silently thanked whoever had talked to her for the job well done. 

It wasn't a game to Tsuyu, defintely not. 

She nodded gravely, being as genuine as possible. "No. I'm not playing around, Mina." 

The other observed her for a few moments before letting out the same kind of breath she had just released, tension visibly disappearing from her muscles let go of the anxiety. 

"Oh, thank god," the girl relaxed in her seat. "I didn't know what I would have done about it if that wasn't it." 

Tsu looked at her friend, perplexed. "I know that talking about this stuff is hard, ribbit," she understood some of her plight, "but were you just worried about that?" 

"Um, I was, but that's not all of it," Mina admitted. She recomposed herself, locking their gazes again. Those gold and black orbs really looked like they could gaze into your very soul. "What I wanted to say is: If we wanna do this, we have to do this right." 

Tsuyu blinked. "Ribbit, can you elaborate on that?" 

"We gotta make things clear." Mina nodded and started raising her fingers. "No sharing it with whoever just to brag or some shit. No going behind each other's backs. No more improvised meetings like this—fuck if I know how they're not working as expected." 

She nodded along. Those terms seemed like the bare minimum, and—although she had been very good at hiding it—she too had struggled a lot with their first encounter. 

"No pressuring people into it, and no rushing into things. We need to take our time and figure out what to do and how before we do it. I don't want to make a mess out of it and risk losing a good thing, or any of our friends, because we were too damn hasty," she concluded. 

"Then we're on the same page, ribbit," she replied, barely keeping her overflowing joy out of her tone. 

What were a few more weeks of carefulness before the prospect of years of happiness? 

"Good." Mina's frown finally turned into a smirk. "When do we start?" 

Notes:

Let's start with the first of a few chapters that will span the rest of the weeks before the exams. There are some character that didn't get that much screentime yet, so I'll fix that. We'll be jumping forward a bit, finally. Though I cannot guarantee that I won't meddle with angst to balance things out.

Sorry for letting that cliffhanger continue, but I'm going to keep my cards close to my chest for a bit longer.

Wonder what Toru and Momo might have been thinking about, and what Mina and Tsu just agreed on... Not that it's that hard to guess.

Eh, I'm sure everything's alright.

Up next, I spy something sunny and awkward.

I love interacting in the comments, so feel free to leave one and speculate.