Mission Midoriya || A RuthTheNerd MHA fanfiction||

Chapter One: Hourglass Strikes

Sunlight streamed through the wide windows of the living room where Ryo sat. She leaned against her emptied backpack and rolled her right hand into a fist, a loud cracking of the bones echoing through the room. Her wrist groaned in pain and her fingers were tempted to drop the sweaty grip it had on her pencil, but she couldn't stop. Her work was almost finished.

White pages of neat Japanese handwriting and well sketched out drawings covered the sheets of her hero notebook. Next to it was another notebook, burnt and bent in comparison. The cover was dusted with sooty black that had hardened into the creases, giving it a cool ombre effect. At the time, her father hadn't appreciated the handiwork, and Ryo didn't think she would've either.

The pages were another disaster of their own. The handwriting was even better than hers, but due to the black ash and ripped edges, she couldn't tell what it was supposed to say. Some of the rather worse entries had been re-written near the back of the book, where the damage wasn't nearly as bad, yet it still took a magnifying glass for her to interpret some of the words.

She cracked her knuckles again and peered over to her left, where a red and white box laid. Thin biscuits, half covered in chocolate and slowly melting in the summer heat, peered up back at her. 

Ryo popped one into her mouth, the cookie sticking out like a sweet cigar. She could imagine transparent puffs suffocating the room. 

The familiar squeaking of the back door alerted her senses and she leaped up. A figure came into view and her grip on her pencil loosened, but she still remained cautious. Her brother could be dangerous in his own way.

"Geez, it's just me," Toshi muttered, tossing his bag next to hers and sitting down. He placed his feet up on the coffee table, and she cringed as his dirt encrusted soles left a print on her journal. 

"Hey!" she chastised. "This is new! If you want a place to put your feet, check out the ground."

"Already did," he replied lazily. "The table is closer."

"Is it really?" she sneered.

"You can measure it if you'd like," he replied, a faint smirk on his face. Despite his behavior, Toshi was very smart and could get himself out of nearly any situation. That included anything involving work. The only thing he endeavored passionately about was school, and Ryo could understand that. She just wished he'd make more of an effort to be nicer. His attitude had gotten him in trouble more times than she could count.

"No thanks," she said, and returned her attention to her book. As she chewed her now soggy stick of pocky, her hand ached with every stroke. It was hard enough trying to make her messy scrawl legible. 

"Is dad going to be around soon? I need to train for the sport's festival, and could really use the help."

Her twin's voice cut through the tranquil silence, and the scribbling of her pencil halted. "He's free this weekend, and so is mother. They plan on training with us."

"Great," he murmured, inching over and pulling out several sticks of pocky. She scowled but didn't stop him. Her brother wasn't one for sweets, but when he did agree to eat them he didn't eat too much. As expected, once he swallowed his cookie, he made no more attempts to steal her snack.

"Done!" she announced brightly, holding up her notebook. The long rectangular shape blocked the sun that was setting through the window, but the '150 count comp' was a better sight than the fleeing colors outside.

"Finally. I'm making dinner, what do you want?" her brother stood up arubtly, and she had a feeling that he'd been waiting to eat for a while. Eating meals together was one thing they did frequently, usually when their parents had heavy shifts. And that was often.