After class was over, Kuri found herself being escorted to the dorms by practically all of her classmates. At least that's what it looked like. That Bakugo guy was nowhere to be seen. She wondered if he was still mad at her. She probably shouldn't have said those things about him. Besides the fact that it was rude, it was probably the deciding factor in her getting her ass kicked by him. And that would not be ideal.
Mina was clinging to her arm currently, which was making Kuri tense up, and the others in class weren't too far away either. Kuri was used to being in the spotlight in the sense that she was being praised, but she wasn't used to this kind of attention. You'd think that being top of the class would mean you'd be popular, but it tended to have the opposite effect. People often resent anyone who is at the top, but Kuri knew that it was mostly out of jealousy, and there wasn't really something wrong with her, right? It's not like she asked for or wanted people to pay attention to her.
"You'll love the dorms," Mina said suddenly. Or maybe she had already been talking and Kuri hadn't noticed. "They're great because we all get to live together, hang out together, and even eat together! It's great to be able to spend so much time surrounded by your friends."
Sounds like a lot of time together... Will I be able to just stay in my room by myself without facing some sort of social guilt? Probably not. Although I guess it can't be that bad.
"Speaking of eating," the yellow-haired guy said. His name is Kaminari, right? "The food is really good here."
"Of course the thing you'd mention is the food," the girl with headphone jacks on her earlobes said. I think her name is Jirou. "But you aren't wrong; the food is pretty good."
"And the room is so big! You'll love it!" the brown-haired girl exclaimed. I think she said that her name is Uraraka...
"Well, I find the room to be a bit small, but I believe that's just because my bed doesn't fit quite right," another girl said. Kuri didn't know what her name was. She remembered her from the sports festival, but somehow her name slipped Kuri's mind. She was sure that it started with a "Y", though.
Kuri smiled at them, hoping they wouldn't try to quiz her on their names or something. "I'm sure that it'll be great there. I can't wait to unpack."
"Oh, and after you're done unpacking, we can take you on a tour of the dorm! Like that other time when we looked at everyone's rooms." Mina said. Some of the guys in class sighed audibly. It was clear that they did not have good memories regarding that event.
"Oh, Kuri," the green-haired girl said. What was her name? "We should also introduce everyone in class to you." Oh, thank heavens. Now I'll actually know peoples' names.
"Oh, that's a good idea, Tsu," the red-haired guy said. Oh, her name is Tsu. I really can't wait for them to tell me their names. He turned to Kuri. "After all, you don't really know everyone's names yet, so maybe we should introduce ourselves to you after dinner." The notebook guy popped up from behind the red-haired guy.
"And we can tell you about our quirks as well. And maybe you can tell us more about yours," he said with a gleam in his eye. She guessed that his suggestion was mostly fueled by his desire to learn about her quirk. It was pretty funny. She smiled.
"Sounds good to me." As she said that, they finally arrived in front of the dorm building for their class. The building was larger than she thought it would be. Standing at five stories tall, Kuri personally thought it was unnecessary. How large did a building need to be to fit just twenty people? Well, technically twenty-one now that she had joined them. But maybe she had to go inside to understand.
They all walked inside and were immediately greeted by their homeroom teacher, Mr. Aizawa, who had apparently been waiting there. He walked up to Kuri with a tired look on his face, not that it was different from his normal face.
"Your dorm room is the one next to Ashido's. I figured that if you're already sitting next to her in class then it wouldn't hurt to have you in adjacent rooms. Your stuff is already up there, by the way. Now, I'm going to go take a nap." With that, he turned around and left. Mina was practically ecstatic.
"Yay! Even your room is next to mine! Come with me and I can take you there," she said, pulling her to the elevator. Most of the class left them at that point, except for some other people going to their own dorms.
Mina took them to the fourth floor and led her to the end of the hall. She pointed to the room on the end.
"This one is my room. This one right next to it is supposed to be yours now," she said. Her gaze landed on the nameplate by the door. It was already labeled "Nakano". She looked back at Kuri and grinned. "I guess that confirms it. Have fun unpacking! Come downstairs when you're done so that we can all hang out!" Mina went into her own room then, leaving Kuri alone in the hallway.
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Alone for the first time at last. She opened the door slowly, revealing a nearly empty room, only occupied by Kuri's boxes full of her stuff and some furniture. She closed the door behind her and sighed. This would probably take a while. Maybe I should set up my bed first. Just in case I end up being too lazy to do anything else, at least I'll have a place to sleep in. She found the box with her sheets, pillow, and ten stuffed animals and put them on the bed. She smoothed out her light blue comforter that was spread over the bed and fluffed up her pillow, then completely ruined all her hard work by jumping face-first onto it. She flipped onto her back and sighed.
"It should be a dream come true to be here, and yet some parts are more like a nightmare," she muttered to herself. Ignoring the fact that she wasn't interested in attending a hero school, there was already a person who probably wanted her dead. Her thoughts drifted to that Bakugo guy. She had to admit that when she saw him, her first thought was that he was good looking, but it seemed at this point that other characteristics of his would overshadow his looks. She smiled, amused. "He may be handsome, but he sure is a handful." Since when was I a poet?
She sat up and got off the bed. She'd need to get some more unpacking done today, or she probably wouldn't ever get around to it. She was lucky that there hadn't been any homework assigned today, mostly due to her arrival, but she was sure that there'd be work to do the next day, and she wouldn't want to have to deal with that and unpacking. Since she'd probably have homework soon, she decided that the next thing to unpack should be the things for her desk.
She set her school bag at the foot of her desk, then rummaged through her boxes looking for her stationery and books and such. After that was all set up, she stared at the table wondering what else she could put there, then remembered one of the most important things— well, most important to her.
She found the right box and pulled out the photos. There were pictures of Kuri with her parents, of Kuri with her friends, of Kuri's brother, of her pet cats, and other people that she cared about, but had left when she came to go to school here. Her eyes began to sting as if she were going to cry, but she quickly rubbed the feeling away with the back of her hand. She already missed them all. She got out some tape and put the pictures up on the wall above the desk. She smiled sadly, wondering when would be the next time she'd see all these people in person again.
After recovering from her short sad spell, Kuri unpacked the rest of her things and was finally able to change out of her uniform. She picked out a light gray t-shirt and the pants that were used for PE since they were pretty comfortable.
She put on the clothes she'd chosen, and looked through her recently-set-up closet, and picked out a light blue jacket to wear. She looked around her room, checking to make sure that everything had been unpacked. Once she was sure that everything was set up, she went to leave.
She opened the door to her room, and looked straight ahead, out the window to the other side of the floor: the boys' side. And it just so happened that as she looked over, the guy with the dorm directly across from her was leaving his room. And with Kuri's magnificent luck, it just so happened to be Bakugo. He noticed Kuri as well, and visibly tensed at the sight of her. He scowled and went on his way toward the elevator. Wait, I still need to apologize to him for saying those mean things. If I don't, I'm pretty sure he's gonna fight me. Kuri ran towards the elevator bank, in the hopes of intercepting Bakugo there.
She pressed the button to call the elevator and waited in front of the doors for him to get there. As he turned the corner, he noticed her standing there, and scowled again.
"What do you want?" he asked with a low growl. Yikes. She gulped.
"I want to apologize for what I said earlier today. I didn't know what I was saying. I realize that I know nothing about you, and I'm sorry for making rude assumptions," she said quickly. Wow, I'm surprised that I didn't mess up my words. Bakugo raised an eyebrow at her, and she heard the elevator arrive with a "ding".
They both stepped into the empty elevator, and she pushed the button for the first floor, all the while wondering how to fill the silence as it began to border on awkward, even though it'd only been five seconds. She looked away from the doors and up at him and he turned to face her.
"Look, I don't care what you think about me, because to me, you're just my competition. And I'm not about to lose to some damn extra!" he shouted at her. She blinked back at him. Extra? Never mind that, why does he consider me competition?
"Competition?" Kuri asked. "For what?" A look of confusion and disbelief crossed Bakugo's face for a second as if she'd just asked the dumbest question possible.
"To- To be the number one hero, dumbass!" he exclaimed. Oh, so he's intimidated by me. How funny. It's kinda cute, actually.
"Well, lucky for you, I'm not your competition," she said. Yet another look of confusion crossed his face. This time it took longer for it to pass.
"What the hell are you saying?" he asked, angrily. She almost shook her head. But she stopped herself when she realized he'd probably snap her neck if she showed any sort of implication that she thought he was dumb. Seriously, why is he becoming a hero? If I were in trouble, and he came to my rescue, I'd be more scared than I was originally.
"I'm saying that I don't care about being number one. You know, Bakugo, not everyone out there who has skills is hellbent on being the best. Some people may even want to help you. I don't think you really need to worry about people challenging you anyway. You're really intimidating." Kuri chuckled pathetically. I really hope he takes "you're really intimidating" as a compliment...
Bakugo stood in silence, probably thinking. Ah, maybe I need to say a bit more.
"Plus, I don't think you really need to be worried about me trying to get the spot of number one hero in Japan, considering that I'm not that good and that I'll be going back to America eventually," Kuri said. He looked back at her. "Besides, I was never really interested in hero work anyway." At that, Bakugo stared at her, in a sort of shock, and she avoided his gaze. I probably shouldn't have told him that. I hope he doesn't tell anyone that I said that. Then, the doors opened up to the first floor, and Kuri quickly walked out, leaving Bakugo behind to process what she'd said.
Some hours later, after Kuri had been given a tour of the dorm building, and everyone had had dinner, everyone sat down together in the common room to introduce themselves to Kuri. Even Bakugo had been roped in, despite his adamant refusals.
"Okay, everyone," Mina said. "We're all going to go around and say a few things about ourselves: our name; our quirk, plus a description; and our hero name. I'll start: My name is Mina Ashido, and my quirk is Acid. I can basically make acid come out of my hands. My hero name is Pinky. Now you go, Kuri."
Expectant eyes turned to Kuri. It wasn't like they needed to be introduced to each other, after all. This was what everyone was really waiting for. That one guy already had his notebook out again. Although, she did notice that one person wasn't looking at her: Bakugo. Of course. She took a deep breath.
"My name is Kuri Nakano. My quirk is called Super Jump. It makes me able to jump really far and really high without taking fall damage. And, um, my hero name is Bunny." She heard a snicker and looked for who had laughed, and lo and behold it was Bakugo. He smirked.
"Bunny?" he teased. She frowned. The red-haired guy who was sitting next to him opened his mouth to scold him, but Kuri spoke first.
"Oh, yeah, like your hero name is going to be any better." Bakugo stopped laughing at that point, and some of her classmates giggled. She smiled triumphantly. She probably shouldn't push him like this, but she couldn't help but want to test his limits until he lashed out.
"How far can you jump?" the guy with the notebook asked. Oh, I should probably find time to tell him about my parents' and brother's quirks later.
"Well, the highest recorded height I've ever gone into the air was roughly 387 meters, and the furthest I've been able to jump was around 814 meters. But normally, I don't jump that high or far, since it isn't usually necessary." He took notes in his book, then closed it up and thanked her for the information. The rest of her classmates' introductions passed in a blur, but luckily, she was able to remember all of their names and quirks.
Then it was time for Bakugo to introduce himself. Everyone stared at him expectantly. There was no way out. He groaned.
"My name is Katsuki Bakugo. My quirk is called Explosion. My hands sweat nitroglycerin which I use to make explosions." He paused. Kirishima, who was sitting next to him, nudged him with his elbow. "And I have no hero name," he said in a low voice, almost too quiet for Kuri to hear. She giggled. He really shouldn't have talked shit about her hero name when he didn't even have one. Bakugo blushed, then scowled. "Shut up! I'm going to bed," he said. Then, he stood up and left.
Mina giggled and Kuri turned to face her.
"Looks like he got a bit embarrassed. Serves him right, though, for making fun of your name," she said. "Come on, let's do something else now." She turned to everyone else. "Okay! Looks like we're all done here, so you guys can go now. Oh, but girls come over here!" She turned back to Kuri. "Is it okay if we all go hang out in your room to talk and get to know each other better?" she asked. Kuri was grateful that Mina had been so good about welcoming her into their class, and she wasn't going to get in her way, especially since Kuri would definitely need the assist in befriending everyone.
"Sure!" she said with a smile.