Bakugo entered the classroom the next morning with the same sour expression as always, and as always, Naoko wasn't far behind.
"Hey, Naoko!" Yaoyorozu waved cheerfully from the other side of the room.
"Good morning!" she greeted with her usual smile, taking her seat behind the other raven-haired girl. "How's your arm doing?"
"Oh, it's fine now! Recovery Girl fixed it up in no time!" she assured, patting the arm that had been injured in yesterday's battle trial.
"Good morning, class," a tired voice droned as Aizawa entered the classroom, a stack of papers under his arm. "Today you'll be assigned a short-term project. You'll receive a paper detailing real-world scenarios involving villainous activity, and you're responsible for writing a short essay for each, analyzing the best way to approach the problem. You'll be working in groups of two or three, and your answers must be specific to your own abilities. Just imagine you're encountering these scenarios with your group members and explain what you would do, ideally, and why."
Pulling out a small cardboard box, slips of paper were drawn one by one.
"Groups will be chosen randomly, and you'll have today and tomorrow in class to work on it. The assignment is due in two days, collected at the beginning of class." As he drew names, Aizawa copied the selected groups onto the chalkboard behind him.
The students leaned in, waiting eagerly to see who their group members would be for their first written assignment of the year.
Aoyama, Hagakure
Kouda, Tokoyami, Jiro
Ashido, Kaminari
Iida, Asui, Sato
Ito, Todoroki
Bakugo, Mineta, Uraraka
Shoji, Kirishima, Sero
Midoriya, Yaoyorozu, Ojiro
"One member of each group, come get your scenario list."
The class quickly filled with chatter as everyone moved to gather in their groups and retrieve their assignment sheets. Naoko looked over to Todoroki, who stood up before she could say anything. The clatter of shifting desks filled the classroom as students began arranging themselves.
"Thanks!" Naoko smiled as her designated partner returned with their sheet.
He nodded and pulled his desk next to hers, setting the paper, or rather, packet, down between them.
"That's... a lot," she tilted her head. Briefly flipping through the packet, she counted well over a dozen pages, each filled with concerningly small text.
"We should be able to finish if we're efficient," Todoroki stated, apparently unperturbed, pulling out a notebook and flipping it open.
Naoko pulled out a notebook of her own, and the pair turned their attention to the first page. After reading the example response provided, they moved on to scenario #1:
Ten hostages are being held inside a meeting room of a large plastics company. The building has already been evacuated by the time you arrive. You know the following regarding the situation:
-There are at least two villains
-The meeting room is on the top floor
-The meeting room has one-way windows: able to see out from inside but not in from outside
-The villains entered the building 20 minutes ago
-At least one of the villains have one or more firearms
-There have been no demands made
As you enter the building, you overhear one of the evacuated workers say his supervisor, Matsumura Kei, was among those taken captive. You do not know the identity of the villains.
What do you do?
"It's probably someone with a personal grudge against the company or its owners, right?" Naoko mused.
"Considering the lack of demands and the location of the meeting room, I think it's likely."
"If firearms are involved, it's possible at least one of the villains is quirkless or has a non-combat quirk: I'd say probably the leader."
"It makes sense they would recruit others' help if that's the case. They'll be easiest to take down."
"How would we get into the room?"
"It would be best to separate them. Considering they can see through the windows, we can lure them out with a distraction."
"The villains would probably send one of their own to see what's going on; we can capture them the moment they open the door and blitz the ones inside with your ice!"
"That way the hostages would remain unharmed as well."
Naoko nodded cheerfully and picked up her pen. "Now how should we word it?"
They discussed the structure and syntax of their answer piece by piece, adding explanations and elements specific to themselves along the way. When they found loopholes in their plan, they modified their course of action, and when they thought of a better approach, they adjusted their ideas accordingly. Slowly, the complete narrative was coming together. It was only when they reached the final few steps that Todoroki remembered something.
"What's your quirk, Ito?"
"Oh, please just call me Naoko," she smiled, "And sorry, I guess I never told you about that, huh? It's air manipulation! I can move it around, compress it, shape it, things like that!"
"Ok."
"By the way, for what the distraction would be, I thought it would be best to set a fire somewhere they could see. It's plausible enough that they wouldn't suspect someone was behind it, so they'd be more likely to come out of the room to check it out," she smiled, tapping her pen against her cheek.
"...yea."
She glanced over to him, noticing his sudden change in demeanor, "Is everything ok?"
He averted his gaze. "Yea, it's nothing."
"Oh, ok." Naoko gave him a concerned smile before turning back to her journal, "Don't worry, I won't pry."
"...thanks."
She grinned in response and they quickly returned to discussing their essay; before they knew it, they had finished detailing their plan in its entirety! Hurray!
Only 39 left to go.
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By the time the final bell rang, Naoko and Todoroki had only completed 15 of the 40 scenarios, and they were decidedly drained. Most of the scenarios were reasonable, like the first one, but some were simply baffling. Were they supposed to know how to fight an 8-dimensional crane? Were they supposed to know what boneless pizza was? Naoko sighed as she put away her pens and notebook.
"I'll give you my number in case you need to contact me," Todoroki said, gathering his belongings as well.
She looked up at him, snapping out of her momentary daze, "Huh? Oh, good idea!"
She quickly flipped through her bag and handed him her phone. It only took a moment for him to type in his number before passing it back to her.
"Thanks! I'll text you so you'll have mine too," she grinned at the screen, already tapping away.
His phone buzzed.
1 new message
from: unknown number
I like your hair :))))
"I got it."
"Great! I'll see you tomorrow then!"
"Yea, bye."
"Bye!"
Naoko cheerfully made her way out of the building and leisurely started down the familiar path home. She walked alone, as usual, but sometimes she would catch a glimpse of Bakugo a ways ahead of her if the road was flat enough.
The area around UA was a pleasant, lively green with ample trees and foliage lining the roads. It faded to a more urban palate as she grew further from the school, but even then, the city was still rather pleasing to look at.
The sky was still a light blue with puffy white clouds drifting calmly overhead. What nice scenery.
'At least this place has one thing going for it.'
_______________________________________________
The next day was largely the same as the one before; Naoko and Todoroki spent long hours discussing solutions to the many situations presented to them, taking turns penning the short essays, in consideration of both their wrists, and bouncing ideas off of each other. The only break they got was during lunch, though they decided to work through that too, seeing how they could already tell they weren't going to finish in time.
As expected, by the time class ended, they had only just started scenario #32. They weren't even close to being done, and judging by the groans and complaints of their classmates, they weren't the only ones.
"Quit whining. If you need more time, the school library is open until midnight. I don't care what you do, just make sure it's done by tomorrow morning."
Aizawa's words weren't exactly sympathetic, but at least they still had time.
And so, weighed down by the looming burden of a few more hours of work, the class walked over to the library together, all rather glum as they settled in for the evening.
_______________________________________________
Time passed all too slowly.
It was 11:00 PM now, and the library was much emptier than it was at first. Their classmates had begun trickling out around an hour ago until only two groups remained. Unfortunately, Naoko and Todoroki were among them.
"Last one," she sighed with a faint smile.
Scenario #40:
A group of villains have been active for over 20 years. They have committed a wide variety of crimes across multiple cities and have yet to be caught or identified. They have most recently been suspected of a mass murder at a laboratory late last night. You know the following regarding the situation:
-There are believed to be 5 members in the group
-There are few confirmed images of the villain, but the police have produced sketches based on eyewitness reports
-At the time of the attack, the laboratory was researching a specific mutation that causes enhanced quirk capabilities
-The materials in the lab appear to be untouched, but given the death of the employees, this is uncertain
-There are no witnesses or video recordings of the attack
-The police believe the villain group is responsible due to similarities to crimes they have committed previously
Imagine you are called in to assist in capturing these villains who are believed to still be in the city; what do you do?
Naoko chuckled quietly, earning a questioning glance from her partner.
"Sorry, don't mind me," she waved apologetically.
He turned his attention back to the paper at hand. "This one is more vague than the rest," Todoroki observed unpleasantly, "I'm not sure what kind of answer they're expecting."
"Well, we should start with going through their past crimes to see what kind of targets they go after. That might give us a hint to their overall motive."
"Right. In the meantime, we can look for anything helpful in the lab. It might be possible to compare the materials present with expense records and data logs to see if anything is missing."
"Good idea, I didn't think of that," she smiled halfheartedly, resting her head on the table.
"It may be difficult to apply our quirks, considering it's mostly investigative work," he thought aloud, starting on the first portion of the essay.
"Yea, we can save that for when we catch them."
Todoroki continued writing as the dull quietness of the library settled between them, only the distant chatter of the other remaining group to keep silence at bay.
"Do you think we should-" He glanced up, pausing when he saw Naoko had fallen asleep in her seat.
_______________________________________________
"Hey, wake up." He tapped her on the shoulder, though to no avail. He tried again, a little louder this time. "Naoko, it's time to go."
The girl opened her eyes with a faint squint, groggy lifting her head from the table. "Oh- sorry, I didn't mean to doze off," she laughed sheepishly, throat a bit dry. "Where were we?"
"I finished the last question."
"Oh- really? Ah, sorry about that..."
"It's fine- it wasn't difficult," he waved, moving to put away his supplies.
"I can compile our answers then! I feel bad for falling asleep like that."
He nodded in agreement, quietly handing over his notebook.
"Thanks! I'll give it back to you tomorrow," she grinned, slipping it into her backpack along with her own journal.
Soon, the two left the now-vacant library and padded down to the main exit. The jarringly cold night air hit them as they stepped outside, and the moon shone brightly overhead as they reached the school gate.
"Do you want me to walk you back?"
"No, no, I'm fine! Don't worry about me!"
He wasn't entirely convinced, considering the yawn that followed.
"I'll just go with you," he stated plainly, motioning for her to lead the way.
"Ah, well, thanks! Sorry for keeping you so long."
"It's fine."
And they walked in comfortable silence down the city road, a faint smile lingering on her face. The sounds of crickets and wind filled the gap between the two, the street lights above casting quick-moving shadows all around. There were some other pedestrians here and there, and a few cars zipped by, but once they entered the residential neighborhood, they seemed to be the only ones in sight. There were few others out so late in this part of the city.
"It's this one." Naoko pointed to a house just up ahead. In a moment, they stopped at the end of the walkway as she turned to face her classmate. "Thanks again for walking with me, Todoroki!"
"Sure," he nodded.
"I'll see you tomorrow then!" she waved, starting up the path towards her house.
"Naoko."
She paused and glanced back towards him, head tilted attentively.
Todoroki shifted his weight, adjusting his hands in his pockets. "Why didn't you fight back?"
Naoko paused at the question, blinking curiously, "What do you mean?"
"During the battle trial. You noticed me outside the room, didn't you?"
"Huh? No, not at all. Why do you think that?"
"You only smile when other people are around."
A silence fell between them. The sound of crickets chirping from out of sight became almost uncomfortable.
Naoko laughed, waving her hands in front of her, "You must be overthinking things, Todoroki! You won fair and square; there's really nothing more to it," she grinned.
He gazed at her steadily, unconvinced, but decided to drop it for now. "Right. I should get going."
"Ok! Text me when you get back so I know you're safe!" She waved as he turned back the way they came, his silhouette growing smaller and smaller until it melded too well into the distant shadows, fading out of sight.
She approached the front door and slowly unlocked it, making sure to remain as quiet as she could. A soft click broke the silence as she stepped inside, gently closing the door behind her. She took off her shoes and padded upstairs, skipping over the creaky step, and soon slipped her room.
Flicking on the desk lamp, she set down her backpack and pulled the pair of notebooks from it. She sat down as she began removing and ordering the pages, placing them sequentially from 1 to 40. The handwriting on the pages alternated, but all together they formed a singular, complete, hard-earned project. Once completed, she clipped the sheets together and slid them into a white folder, placing them, along with the notebooks, back into her backpack.
She stood, stretching a bit before moving to flick off the light. She shuffled over to her bed, sprawling comfortably down as her eyes defaulted to the shadowy ceiling, lingering there for what seemed like an eternity.
Just when she was about the drift off, the buzzing of her phone pulled her back into reality.
She sighed, reaching over and turning it on, she had to squint at the too-bright screen.
2 new messages
from: Tragic Backstory
I got back safely
I'll see you tomorrow
She set her phone to silent and placed it back on the nightstand before rolling over, pulling the covers all the way up to her chin. Settled and warm, it didn't take long for her to fall asleep this time.
_______________________________________________
...
...
1 new message
from: Tragic Backstory
I like your hair too