I'm not dead... yet. But... two months, huh? Between college, homework, and the sessions I take to relax between the two, I found little time where I could get myself into a state of mind for writing. So, sorry, I guess. I think that's all I can really say.
———————————————————————————————
-(Y/N)'s POV-
After the sports festival was over, we got two days off. For many in our class, that time was used to rest and recover from any injuries they sustained, but when the use of a single word can restore us to normal, there's little need to worry about injuries.
Instead, Chiyori and I went out on what was essentially a date, while Rin and Eiji did the same. That was what happened on the first day of our small break, and we all went out together on the second day. From the girls dragging me and Eiji around some shops, to having Eiji take us out of the city and spending time out in the middle of nowhere... It was a day for the four of us to do nothing but have fun.
But that's over now. Normal classes were back in session starting today. Though, there were a few differences that we noticed, even during our short trip from the apartment building to the school gates.
"Mama, look over there! It's those hero's from the TV!"
"Oh, Chiyori! The one who got third place in the tournament."
"And Eiji Hoshimiya. He was first place in the obstacle course!"
"You four all did great in the festival!"
"Good luck today, Heroes!"
To be polite, the four of us smiled and waved at the people who called out to us. I somewhat expected to be recognised after the sports festival - it was one of my worries, considering that people (read: Enemies) will know how well we can fight - but I didn't expect to have people calling out to us in the street.
"Please tell me this won't happen often," Chiyori begged as she waved from her hiding spot behind me.
"It shouldn't be a problem after a while," I answered. "People's excitement will die down after a few days."
"Not that I'd want it to," Eiji said as he stuck his hand out to the side to try to catch some rain. "Rin and I got recognised on our date, and it felt kinda good to be known."
"You're mainly going to be out front though," Chiyori reminded him as we got close to the school building. "I don't like the attention."
"I'm not the biggest fan either, to be honest," I admitted. "Chiyori and I got seen on our date as well, which normally wouldn't be too bad, but we were enjoying lunch."
"So people interrupted your precious time with your girlfriend and you got annoyed?" Rin teased. Chiyori went red at her comment, but I just nodded and looked up at the rain that Bind Dominator was pushing aside.
"Pretty much."
Rin pouted a bit at my lack of reaction, leaving me to smirk at her as a person in a yellow waterproof coat ran past.
"Hurry up you four!" Iida shouted to us as he ran. "You're going to be late!"
I checked my phone to make sure that we hadn't gotten the time wrong.
"We've still got five minutes before the first bell though!" Rin shouted back, but we all started running anyway.
"He said the same to me," Midoriya said from behind us. He seemed to have been encouraged by our class rep as well. "'U.A. students should always arrive ten minutes early', he said."
"Well, it's not exactly a bad idea to have," I half-agreed. "Though there'll be times where getting there early isn't an option. After all, Heroes only arrive on the scene after something bad happens."
-
"It's different when they broadcast the matches on TV after all, huh?" Ashido said after almost everyone had made it to the classroom. "So many people talked to me on my way here!"
"Yeah, me too!" Kirishima agreed.
That kind of conversation continued, going around the room while people talked about getting recognised. That is, until the door opened and Aizawa came in to start homeroom. Suddenly, everyone was in their seats, even those who were previously talking to friends on the other side of the room. It was a bit weird to watch.
"Morning," Aizawa greeted.
""Good morning!""
"Today, we're having a special hero informatics class today," he announced. This raised the tension in the room to the point where I could almost feel how nervous some people were. It reminded me of how the sports festival news was broken to us. "Code names. You'll be coming up with hero names."
""We're gonna do something exciting!"" most of the class celebrated, but everyone was silenced the second that Aizawa's eyes glowed red from his quirk.
"This is related to the pro hero draft picks that I mentioned the other day," Aizawa continued. "The drafts begin in earnest in the second and third years, after students have gained experience and can become immediate assets to pros. In other words, for them to extend offers to first years like you shows that they are interested in your future potential. These offers are often cancelled if that interest dies down by graduation."
"You need to make sure to improve, otherwise people stop paying attention..." I muttered, realising how the offers work. "Interested in 'potential'..."
"Adults are so selfish," Mineta complained.
"So we'll have to prove ourselves once we get picked, huh?" Hagakure asked.
"That's right. And here are the totals for those offers," Aizawa announced, turning and putting a list on the board.
Todoroki was number one, with over 4000 offers. With his power, it was to be expected. Plus, his father is Endeavour, the number two hero. That would likely have something to do with it as well.
Bakugo was next, with just over 3500 offers. Again, it wasn't unexpected. He has a way of making use of his explosions to do various things, and he's an excellent fighter.
Tokoyami was next, then Iida, Kaminari, and so on. The offers for everyone other than the top two were far fewer in comparison. Tokoyami got the third highest number of offers, and he only got 360. A good number, to be sure, but nothing when you look at Bakugo and Todoroki.
"In other years, it's been more spread out, but all eyes are on these two this year," Aizawa explained, gesturing to the top of the list.
"Todoroki's first, and Bakugo's second..?" Jiro read.
"It's the opposite of their placement in the sports festival," Kirishima realised.
"Some people are too scared to ask for a guy who had to be restrained on the podium," Sero explained.
"What're the pros scared of?!" Bakugo shouted, overhearing the conversation that was going on about him.
"You, Bakugo. Now calm down," I told him. "The ones who avoided you weighed the pros and cons of recruiting you, and said no. They're likely just idiots who don't look past the surface, but that just means you don't need to bother with them."
Bakugo clicked his tongue at me and faced the front again, giving me the time to look around. Uraraka was shaking Iida in excitement, while Midoriya was repeatedly being told by Mineta that he didn't get any offers.
"We don't have any either..." Rin noticed.
"Yeah, but didn't Aizawa say that he was handling any hero stuff that we do?" Eiji remembered. "He's pretty much our guardian when it comes to stuff like this, at least until we graduate."
"Keeping these results in mind, whether or not anyone asked for you, you will all be participating in internships with pros," Aizawa went on. "At the USJ, you already got to experience combat with real villains, but it will still be meaningful training for you to see pros at work first hand."
"So that explains the hero names!" Sato realised.
"... You know, it occurs to me that we never really thought of any names when we were planning," Rin told us as Midnight entered the classroom, talking about how names are temporary, but often become the names used as pros because that's what students get known as during their internships.
"Do we really need special names?" Chiyori asked.
"Well, they aren't technically needed I suppose. I've heard of a few heroes that have just used their real name," I said. "After all, pro heroes are more like celebrities than the superheroes you see in stories. Unless you've spent a lot of time hiding your info, like All Might, people are going to know your real name."
"Then I'll just use my name. I won't be in the spotlight of hero work anyway."
"We might as well," Eiji said. "Our agency will probably be like our little vigilante group, but more public. We were 'Order', but other than that, we're just us.
"So Midnight will be making sure that your names are okay," Aizawa explained, reaching under the teacher's stand to get his sleeping bag. "I can't do stuff like that. When you give yourself a name, you get a more concrete image of what you want to be like in the future, and you can get closer to it. This is what it means when they say 'Names and natures do often agree'. Like 'All Might', for example."
Whiteboards were passed back from the front of the class, along with pens to write our temporary hero names. We were all given a few minutes to think while Aizawa went to sleep and Midnight took over the class.
"Okay, let's start presenting names starting with those who are ready," Midnight called.
People obviously didn't expect to be presenting these, so some were relieved when Aoyama stepped up to the front of the class without a care in the world.
"Here I go... 'Shining hero: I can not stop twinkling'!" he announced, holding the words up above his head. "Which means you can't stop my sparkles!"
As weird a name as that is, it was allowed with a few edits. And just like that, Aoyama was now 'Can't stop twinkling'.
"Then I'll go next!" Ashido said, hopping up to take Aoyama's place. "Here name: 'Alien Queen'!"
"Are you trying for the thing with acidic blood?" Midnight wondered, visibly concerned. "I wouldn't if I were you!"
Ashido dragged herself back to her seat, bummed out about her name's rejection.
"Kero! Then, may I go next?" Asui raised her hand.
"Go ahead, Tsu," Midnight agreed, and Asui stepped up to the front.
"I've had this in mind ever since I was in middle school," she revealed, turning her board around and showing her hero name. "'Rainy Season Hero: Froppy'."
"That's so cute!" Midnight gushed. "It seems friendly! I like it! It's a great example of a name that everyone will love!"
Out of the blue, everyone started chanting Asui's hero name. It confused me, but I just focused on the next one."
"Then I'll go too!" Kirishima took centre stage. "'Sturdy Hero: Red Riot'!"
"You're paying homage to the Chivalrous Hero: Crimson Riot, right?" Midnight realised.
"Yes. It's pretty old fashioned, but the hero image I'm going for is Crimson himself."
"If you're bearing a name you admire, it'll come with that much more pressure," Midnight warned.
"I'm prepared for that!" Kirishima grinned.
As a way of getting this done with quickly, the four of our group decided to go next, ready to get our names, which would likely be seen as odd choices, locked in as hero names.
"All four of you?" Midnight asked as we all made our way to the front.
"Yeah," Rin answered. "Our names aren't anything special, in a literal way, but its what we're going as."
As first, there was no response from the class as we all turned our boards around, but then there were confused looks.
"But... those are your names. Is that really okay?" MIdnight asked.
"Of course it is," I told her. "Not using special names is easier for us, and besides... we are aiming to be heroes, and that won't stop just because we're missing a fancy costume and a cool name."
Midnight smiled at the response, giving us a thumbs up as we went back to our seat. Then everyone else took turns presenting their hero names.
Jiro was named the Hearing Hero: 'Earphone Jack'.
Shoji was the Tentacle Hero:' Tentacole'.
Sero picked the Taping Hero: 'Cellophane'.
Ojiro was the Martial Arts Hero: Tailman'.
Sato was the Sweets Hero: 'Sugarman'.
Ashido went for a second round, this time as 'Pinky'.
Kaminari went against Jiro's joke suggestion of 'Jamming-yay' and went for the Stun Gun Hero: 'Chargebolt' instead.
Hagakure went with the simple Stealth Hero: 'Invisible Girl'.
Yaoyorozu was the Everything Hero: 'Creati'.
And Todoroki took the same path as us, just going with 'Shoto'.
Tokoyami followed his would-be-a-chuunibyou-if-he-didn't-have-a-quirk nature and chose the Jet-Black Hero: 'Tsukuyomi'.
Mineta obviously realises his resemblance to grapes, since he chose the Fresh-Picked Hero: 'Grape Juice'.
Koda didn't say anything out loud, like usual, but held up his board that read, Petting Hero: 'Anima'.
And Bakugo...
"'King Explosion Murder'," was his simple announcement.
"You probably shouldn't use something like that," MIdnight rejected.
"Why not?!"
"You should be 'Explosion boy'!" Kirishima suggested.
"Shut up, Weird Hair!" Bakugo yelled.
While Bakugo subjected Kirishima to verbal assault as he went back to his seat, Uraraka went up to the front.
"This is what I thought of: 'Uravaity'," she revealed, not exactly seeming confident. She sighed in relief, however, when Midnight complimented her choice.
"Choosing hero names is going more smoothly that I thought it would!" Midnight said. "All that's left is Bakugo, who needs to rethink his, and Iida. Oh, and Midoriya, right?"
Iida... Last night, I looked into that 'family business' he had to attend to at the end of the sports festival. Well, it'd be more accurate to say that I looked into recent news concerning his older brother, Ingenium. Most of it was about his hero work, which was impressive. I saw some of his interviews, and in one of them he actually cut it short without warning when he got a call from one of his sidekicks concerning trouble that was happening nearby.
Ingenium was a hero... but that made him a target for the so called 'Hero Killer'.
Tenya Iida stood at the teacher's stand and presented his own name as his hero name, though he said nothing about it. He just stood there, looking at the ground.
"Midoriya, are you ready?" Midnight asked after Iida returned to his seat.
"Y-Yes!" Midoriya stood at the front of the class and turned his board around.
And written on that board, was something that made me smile.
"Are you sure you're okay with that?" Kaminari asked.
"You might be called that forever, you know." Kirishima was concerned as well.
"Yeah. I didn't like this name until now. But someone changed the meaning of it, and that had a huge impact on me." Midoriya explained. "It made me really happy." He looked up at us, a large smile on his face. "This is my hero name!"
'Deku'
-
Considering that 'Lord Explosion Murder', Bakugo's second attempt was also denied, the matter of his hero name was put on hold.
"Now that everyone's decided on their hero names, we'll go back to talking about the internships," Aizawa said, having woke up but decided to not remove himself from his sleeping bag. "They will last for a week. As for where you'll have them, Those who had offers from pros will be given your own lists, so you can choose from those yourself. Those who didn't have offers will choose from among forty agencies around the country that will be accepting our interns. They all work in different places and have different specialities."
"For example, Thirteen would be focused on rescues from accidents and disasters more than fighting villains." Midnight gave an example, and I for one wouldn't mind getting rescue experience, but we need to check with Aizawa to see if anything is already planned. Such is the lack of freedom given to those who were caught being vigilantes.
"Think carefully before you choose," Aizawa advised. "Turn in your choices before the weekend."
"We've only got two days?!" Kaminari complained.
"Make your decision efficiently," Aizawa answered before looking to the back of the class. "And you four, come see me in the staff room later. Dismissed."
And then both pros left us to our own devices until our classes start.
-
Come lunch, most of our class had ditched the standard routine of heading to the cafeteria to look over their internships.
"Hey guys, have you decided what pro agency you're going to yet?" Ashido asked to room. Most the class, including the four of us, were sort of hanging around that area, looking through people's choices.
"I'm going to Mt. Lady!" Mineta announced with a proud look.
"Mineta, you're thinking about something perverted, aren't you?" Asui asked, walking past him.
"Of course not!" he denied, putting on his best 'offended' look.
"And that's a lie," I said, getting his attention. "But just so you know, Mt. Lady has only been around for about... how long? A year? And while she's rather popular, she hasn't exactly got much to do around her agency, work wise. It's mostly interviews and petty crooks. I actually think her debut was against a purse snatcher. I wouldn't expect much out of an internship with her if I were you." While I was saying that, I caught a few people's attention. "What?"
"You don't really notice because you spend a lot of time within your little bubble of four instead of around classmates," Uraraka started, "But you have a habit of analysing a lot. It reminds me of Deku!"
"Yeah, but (Y/N) doesn't do that," Rin said, pointing to the green haired boy in his seat.
Midoriya was muttering to himself, which didn't really surprise anyone anymore. He said stuff about separating specialties into groups and narrowing down options, but quickly snapped out of his state of mind when he realised everyone was watching him.
"Oh, sorry!" he apologised. "I was lost in thought..."
"You're really thinking carefully about this, huh?" Asui asked.
"Actually, I've already decided!" Uraraka announced, getting people's attention. "Battle Hero: Gunhead's agency."
"Huh? Gunhead's a huge battle type!" Midoriya remembered. "You're going there, Uraraka?"
"Yup! I got an offer from them!"
"That'll be good for you," Rin agreed. "Gunhead developed a martial art style that focuses on close combat self defence and subduing opponents."
"Yeah, a style like that is good for anyone without an offensive quirk," I put in. "Plus, with your quirk, it'll give you an actual fighting style that'll allow you to get close enough to make an enemy weightless."
"That does sound good..." Midoriya agreed. "But it's surprising. I totally thought you were trying to be a hero like Thirteen."
"Ultimately, yes. But fighting Bakugo at the sports festival made me think... The stronger I get, the more possibilities I'll have!" Uraraka explained. "If I only do what I want, I'll have a narrower perspective!"
"You'll probably end up in the same place Chiyori and I are aiming for then," I realised. "Mainly rescue, but with combat capability."
"More importantly, this has been bothering me for a while, but... You're trembling, aren't you?" Uraraka asked seemingly not sure if she should be concerned or not.
"Oh, this? It's the air chair exercise." Midoriya told her.
I smirked a bit while everyone went nuts over that.
"Exercising all through class...," Chiyori muttered. "Midoriya is really focused on getting stronger, isn't he?"
"Well, he can't keep breaking himself to fight, can he?" Eiji asked as we left to get food from the cafeteria. "I'm not sure why he fights with one limb at a time, but he breaks whatever he uses. Fingers, legs, hands, his arm."
"He's been training his body, but he doesn't have a style of his own," I muttered. "Then he's likely trying to copy someone else for the time being. It was All Might's quirk before it was his, so he might be trying to be a mini All Might, focusing on punches and overwhelming strength during attacks."
"Doesn't sound like you think that's a good idea," Rin noticed, making me think for a second before shaking my head.
"To be honest, I think it's a bit dumb." When we got to the cafeteria, Eiji and Rin got everyone's food while Chiyori and I found somewhere to sit. That didn't mean that the conversation was being put on hold though. As crazy as it might look to everyone else, the four of us have gotten used to chatting in public via Artificial Convergence. "I mean, look at them both. Ignoring how they think and go about solving problems... how they are built is completely different. Midoriya isn't built to power up his arms and simply blow his opponent to the moon. Taking everything head on and acting like a tank just isn't like him, and it's not something he can accomplish at this point anyway."
"His arms are taking under too much strain if he tries that, right?" Rin noted, making me nod this time. "But how would he solve that? Anytime he uses that quirk, he gets hurt."
"Well, it's like Eiji said before..." I started, but said person cut me off while I was explaining.
"He fights with one limb at a time." He and Rin found us at our selected table and set all of the food down, joining us at our seats. "All Might's physical power was the strongest in the world at his peak. Who knows why he's weaker now, but Midoriya now has that strongest power." Eiji chuckled a bit as he took a mouthful of rice. "And he shuttles it all into one body part while hoping that it doesn't break."
"So... Here's the question of the day. Do we try giving Midoriya a different perspective to look from, or do we wait for a bit?" I grabbed my drink while the others thought.
At this point though, when we were all thinking about the same thing, I couldn't tell who was thinking what and why. It was a simple thing to sense and recognise a foreign thought in your head when you weren't thinking anything along the lines of said thought... It became a lot harder to tell when they were all similar thoughts. However, it was a refreshing sensation to feel those thoughts be passed around the group, basically arguing with each other before only one set of thoughts was left. It reminded me of planetary orbit... eventually, everything ends up going the same direction.
"Okay then," I continued. "We wait to see if he makes progress over the internships. If he hasn't, then we try to help." We all nodded.
"Oh, and speaking of the internships, didn't Aizawa want to talk to us about them?" Rin remembered.
"Yeah, but he didn't give us any time in specific." Eiji finished his rice and leaned back on the chair, looking up at the ceiling. "'Later' gives us a lot of time to eat. He didn't even say if he wanted us after school or at lunch, so we can go whenever."
Though, we were never going to go 'whenever', like Eiji said we could. We finished eating and made our way to the staff room, where various teachers were working and resting during lunch break. We didn't care about most of them though, and walked over to Aizawa who watched us from his sleeping bag as we walked in.
"Right," our homeroom teacher started, pulling an arm out of the sleeping bag to reach for a folder on his desk. "Due to the circumstances of your enrolment here, as well as the issue of your vigilantism, there have been certain changes to how you will be spending next week compared to your classmates." He took out a few pieces of paper and handed two to each of us, and we didn't have to read it in detail to see that it was a written agreement, already signed by Nezu, Aizawa, and some person whose name I didn't recognise, but was titled as an overseer of hero laws. "Those forms are basically to say that you will have permission to use your abilities should you need to protect yourself or save a civilian while performing the task that you are given."
I looked them over while he spoke, but it was pretty much as he said. There was some fine print concerning what would happen should we break the terms of what is essentially a government contract. The section going over when we're allowed to use our Orders was very clear as well.
"So what is this task?" Rin finished reading the form and raised a good point. None of the info we were given referenced any task other than what 'Nezu, Principal of U.A. High School,' issues.
"To make use of your experience as vigilantes," Aizawa summarised, before going into a bit more detail. "A man called the Hero Killer has shown himself in Hosu by the attack on Tensei Iida, also known as the 'Turbo Hero: Ingenium'. This villain usually attacks a few pro heroes per city and then moves on, so he'll probably still be in Hosu. As people familiar with the city, its back alleys, and all the areas which have and will likely be used to keep crimes out of sight, Nezu wants you over there to keep an eye on things and try to locate this Hero Killer."
"He's sending kids, alone, after a known murderer?" I asked, a little surprised. I was equally surprised when Aizawa shook his head.
"He's sending the vigilante group 'Order', alone, after a known murderer," he corrected, but we noticed a little bit of concern in his eyes. "Having said that, you four aren't expected to do anything major, like bring him in. If you can, then great. You likely won't get recognition publicly, seeing as you won't be with a hero who can admit to interning you, but there will be people higher up willing to help you more than before. Officially, you're being registered as interning under Nezu, but you won't have people keeping track of where you are all the time like regular interns."
"This all feels stupidly complicated," Eiji complained, bored of flipping through the papers in his hands. "We just need to sign these things, go to Hosu, find the Hero Killer, and find him slash deal with him, right?" Aizawa smiled a bit.
"Right. And I agree, Hoshimiya. Official work is often complicated without reason. But with all the laws put in place to regulate quirk usage and heroes, there needs to be something on paper to get around it." With that, Aizawa pulled himself back inside the sleeping bag and zipped it up. "On record, you'll be out of the city by ten PM on Sunday and back by the same time, a week later. Feel free to leave earlier, but you have to be back by that time. Just sign the papers and leave them next to me."
Aizawa fell forwards onto his desk and slept, leaving absolutely no one surprised. We checked over the papers again before signing them and leaving them behind as we went back to class. There was no fine print or anything, and nothing to worry about.
Until we got to work in Hosu, that is. Then we'd probably get caught up in something, but there's still two days left until then.
-
"So, why are we travelling like this?" I asked into the wind.
The weekend had rolled around, and Eiji was getting a bit impatient about something, but he wouldn't say what and his feelings weren't exactly painting a clear picture. So instead of waiting for Sunday to head back to Hosu, like we had originally planned, Saturday's plans involved having Eiji pick us all up and essentially launch us back to the city we used to live in.
Which is where we're going now.
"Because," he started explaining, "I don't like trains. Or cars. Or planes. I put up with it on our way to Musutafu, but I hate being in things I'm not controlling. Did I never mention that to you?"
"No, you told me about that, not them!" Rin shouted, keeping a tight grip on Eiji's arm like how Chiyori was holding onto mine. Though, Chiyori was keeping her eyes shut tight to avoid remembering that we were all very high above the ground.
"Oh, right... Well, now you all know. And why are you shouting? We can all hear you through the link."
"Well, I'm sorry!" she snapped back. "Moving very fast without any support isn't high on my list of things that I enjoy!"
Bringing that fact to Eiji's attention wasn't the best idea in the world. In fact, she seemed to realise that as soon as she said it, since her eyes widened and she opened her mouth to say something when she saw the smirk on her carrier's lips. Any words that would have been said were replaced, however, as both Eiji and Rin fell out of the sky, laughing and screaming respectively as Chiyori and I were held up in mid air.
"Should we get them to stop?" I asked the girl on my arm, who wasn't looking very happy about where we had stopped, her legs waving around in the air as we floated. I pulled her up a bit and let her rest her feet on my own, so that we were face to face. Admittedly, I did blush a bit when I realised how close we were, but I didn't say anything as Chiyori seemed relieved to have a place to stand now.
"Probably," she finally answered. "Eiji did seem to be in a hurry for some reason."
"Right then. Eiji, come on," I called to him. He was safely on the ground by this point, getting yelled at by Rin and, if the mark on his face was anything to go by, he had already suffered through the angry slap of the girl.
"We'll be right with you!" he called back, uttering the oh-so-familiar word and making himself and Rin float alongside us, Rin attached to his arm again, but in a much more secure position than before.
No part of the rest of the trip involved falling out the sky, which was good, because Bind Dominator or not, I don't think Eiji would have survived Rin's shouts and glares.
"Does this count as home anymore?" Chiyori asked as we set down in an alley and made our way towards the apartment building where we lived for years. "It's been a while since we've been here."
"Why does that have to make it any less our home?" Rin wondered. "Iyo and the others are here, Sena's in the city, and this was our turf for ages. This place is more of a home than anywhere else I can think of."
"And it certainly means more to us than anywhere else. Yeah, it's still home," I finished, looking around as we passed the park where we messed around in the snow on Christmas day, years ago. I felt my hand slip into Chiyori's as I focused on the bench where we met up on that day, and I found myself smiling at the memory.
I was brought out of my thoughts by Eiji, who had snapped his fingers in realisation.
"Oh right! My idea!" he exclaimed, turning and running off. Everyone looked at his shrinking figure, rather confused since none of us had any idea what was going on in his head.
"I'll go after him," Rin sighed after a moment, before running off as well. "You two can either stay here or head to the apartment ahead of us. I don't think we remembered to tell Iyo that we were coming to Hosu." Then she weakened her connection with us and focused on Eiji, trying to figure out what was going on with this 'idea' of his. With no preference myself, I turned to Chiyori.
"I'd like to stay here for a bit..." she replied quietly to the silent question. "I really like this place." I didn't say anything, but I moved myself over to the bench that I remembered was where I responded to her call that day. Seeing as Chiyori's hand was still with mine, I kind of dragged her with me until she realised that we were moving.
"You know," I said as we sat down, "I don't think we actually came here. In person, at least."
"Didn't we? We must have, at least once, right?" Chiyori muttered as she tried to remember. I just shook my head.
"We ran past a few times during training, and we spent time here for a bit of a picnic before with the other two, but we never came here, just the two of us like we were before."
"Oh." Her voice was quiet. Not in a whisper kind of way, but a not happy kind of way. I could guess why, but I didn't really have to.
I squeezed her hand, making her look at me, but said nothing. Not saying anything wasn't a bad move on my part though, since Chiyori just smiled and rested herself against my arm.
"Hey, can you talk about something? I don't mind what, but... just something," she requested, leaving me to wrack my brain over something to say. There was no topic which we hadn't already talked about, and nothing important to say that we couldn't feel. I cursed my brain, which seemed to refuse and ignore conversational topics that weren't practical.
"Do you have any idea what Eiji had planned, rushing us out here early?" I wondered, as much to myself as to her.
"Not a clue," she answered, shaking her head and rocking me back and forth a bit. "The only thing I felt from him earlier was excitement and hope, but that doesn't really help much." There was a blatant answer to my question staring us in the face. refocus the link between us and either Eiji or Rin, but I could tell that neither of us really wanted to have someone else around right now. I sighed, thinking that we'd end up having to find out later, which meant that my attempt at keeping a conversation going had already reached it's first dead end.
Chiyori seemed to sense that particular struggle, and giggled a bit at it. It was a wonderful sound to hear in this place, and my mind focused on a new topic that would likely leave us both content for a while.
"Chiyori?"
"Hmm?"
"I rather like you."
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Nothing big happens here, mainly because I didn't feel like writing more yet. I'm trying to write again, but it'll take a bit to get used to it after suddenly stopping for a while.