Howdy folks, happy new year. How's it going?
Here is the first of the many updates that await us in 2025. It is a bit of a slower chapter this time around, but these little quiet episodes are necessary every now and then, I believe.
As always, shout out to Chaos Productions for all the help.
And as always, I own neither BNHA nor WH40k.
Now, enjoy!
/
"Well," Ochaco commented, glancing up at the somewhat modest building before her, one that did that look pretty much like any other dojo she had ever seen and could've perfectly passed for one if not for the hero agency sign at the front. "I guess this is the place."
The trip here from the train station had happened entirely without incident, which frankly was something of a relief, considering what had happened the last time the class had had a big outing…
The girl shook her head and lightly smacked at her own cheeks. It wouldn't do any good to be pessimistic like that. And besides, being better equipped to handle situations that were gonna be inevitable on the job was precisely what she was here to do.
"Oh, this is unexpected."
The sudden voice broke the brunette out of her musings, as she looked to the side to see a familiar figure approaching, carrying luggage much like herself.
"Uraraka-san, correct?" The girl, with a distinct tangle of thorny vines for hair, inquired politely. "My apologies, I hadn't realized we had taken the same train. I was not aware that anyone else had also taken an internship in this agency. Makes me wonder why our classes were dispatched separately."
"Yep, that's me. And you're Shiozaki-san, from 1-B." Ochaco replied, smiling at with a slight shrug and a huff as the other girl nodded in confirmation. "Honestly, I don't even bother questioning what goes on in the teachers' heads anymore. Ten to one odds it's a "logical ruse" of one sort or another, or at least that'd be the excuse."
The reply drew a quaintly raised eyebrow from Shiozaki.
"…That is a rather cynical view of things." She noted, without any real judgement. "Nonetheless, thank the Lord there's a known face around. This is such a big step in the path to being a hero, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't find it somewhat daunting."
"Yeah, I'm with you on that. It's always good to not go at it alone." The brunette replied, happy for the moment of understanding between classes. "So, what made you pick Gunhead's agency? Considering how you were doing at the tournament before running into Midoriya, he wasn't the only name you had on offer, and I'm guessing something like this isn't really your style."
"Well, normally you would be right. I do abhor violence in all its forms." The vine-haired girl replied calmly, if somewhat uncertainly. "But despite the… unpleasant way in which it happened, after much reflection, I have come to an uncomfortable realization. It was naïve of me to believe I could be a hero on the power of my quirk alone. Prideful, even, and the thought shames me. I made this choice because I realized that I need new tools to face that which I abhor." Then she smiled, a knowing, bemused smile. "Your classmate was… scarily persuasive in that regard. I do not wish to be in a similar situation ever again."
"Pppffft, yeah, that's Midoriya for you, alright. You shoulda seen when I first met him…" Ochaco chortled, completely understanding where the other girl was coming from. "You get used to it with enough exposure, I suppose. And hey, nothing wrong with wanting to broaden your horizons, it's why I am here to!"
With that moment of levity, the two girls looked at each other. They didn't know each other all that well, but in this moment, they could feel a certain rapport, a mutual understanding, the beginning of a new friendship.
And so nodding to each other, they made their way inside the building, to meet the teacher that'd help fix their current mutual flaw.
/
To say that Katsuki was in a bad mood was like saying that the sky was blue, or that one plus one equals two. Something that simply was, whether you acknowledged it or not.
These last few days, however, his mood had become downright foul. Bad enough that his chance to shine and prove to everyone he was the best had been taken from him by a cheap trick. One small hidden benefit of living in the dorms was that he only heard his mother rubbing his loss in his face sometimes when his parents called instead of every fucking day. That wasn't going to go away any time soon…
But that benefit was soured by the fact that he wasn't even granted the decency of being allowed to fume (fume, not sulk, he wasn't a lil'bitch) about it in peace, because Midoriya senior kept dragging him out of his room and forcing him to mingle with the extras even when he insisted he just wanted to be left alone. And it wasn't like he could tell her to fuck off like he did his own mother, as was their way of communicating with each other. One thing he was forced to concede half-and-half was right about, was that Deku's mom had been putting up with his insanity for years. She might smile all the while, but Katsuki knew damn well she wouldn't take his crap if he pushed it too much.
And then the internship offers had been tallied and shown to them, and wouldn't you know it, making past the first two rounds didn't actually mean jack shit, because his chance to prove his greatness had been stolen in the tournament, and so no one had found him worth their time, all the big names focusing instead on the half-and-half bastard, not to mention the distressingly high number of people (as in more than zero) also taking an interest in fucking Deku, which as far as Katsuki was concerned should've been grounds for having their licenses revoked if they couldn't recognize the disaster waiting to happen. And so he had no other choice but to take one of the no name handouts that the school had on call. It felt like charity, like he was being given a pity price, and Katsuki fucking hated it.
But you know what? It doesn't matter, none of that fucking matters in the end. Because all this is, is a setback. The kind of crap that life throws at you on your way to your rightful place at the top. And Katsuki was gonna overcome this, and his story would become all the more awsome for it. He'd bounce back, there wasn't any doubt it.
"Oi, Bakugou, have you finished packing up those documents yet?" The hero that had taken him in inquired from the office's entrance, all polite and friendly. "You gotta have this part sorted before we can head out on a patrol, you know."
…Katsuki glared at the massive piles of as of yet unfiled paperwork at the desk, his teeth all but grinding together.
Just a setback, just another pebble on his path, just you fucking wait and see!
/
"Well, I guess this is the place." Momo muttered to herself, looking up at the building before her. At the end, after considering the advice she had been given, the pony-tailed girl had indeed decided to not go with her first choice of internship. From what she gathered, Kendo-san would be going there, though, so she supposed that later on she could find out how good an idea that had been…
Taking a deep breath to settle her nerves, Momo proceeded to enter the hero agency, the design of which seemed to be trying to emulate some sort of fitness club, which she couldn't help but think felt rather ironic.
"Oh, there she is!"
The jolly words drew her attention to the side of the large hallway, where the easily recognizable, round shape of Fat Gum stood, mouth wide in a friendly grin, and currently in civilian clothes. As Momo approached him however, she began to note that he was not alone, another figure standing back and to the side, almost like they were trying to hide behind the portly hero, which granted, wasn't that hard, but still the girl blinked in confusion. The research she had done on the hero didn't say anything about any active sidekicks at the agency…
"Welcome, welcome to our humble abode, Yaoyorozu-san!" Fat Gum greeted her cheerily. "Glad to have you with us, it's always good to have more people around, it really livens up the place."
"Hello, Fat Gum-sensei." Momo replied formally, all the etiquette training kicking in as she bowed politely. "Thank you very much for agreeing to take me in. I look forward to what I will be learning under your tutelage."
At that, to her mild surprise, the hero simply laughed heartily at her response.
"My, my, such a well-mannered young lady you are." He chortled, though it didn't sound mocking in the slightest, but rather genuinely amused. "But for real now, you do not need to be so formal, Yaoyorozu-san. While we do our best to play by the rules in this agency, we don't really stand on ceremony around these parts."
"I'll… I'll keep that in mind, Sensei." The pony-tailed girl replied hesitantly. Her time in U.A., and especially in the dorms with the rest of the class, had long since shown her that not everyone operated in the same manner as her family did, but she had to admit with some embarrassment that it still caught her off-guard sometimes.
"And speaking of standing," The hero continued, turning towards the other person with at teasing turn to his grin. "You just gonna stand there, Amajiki? Not really the best example you could be givin' your kohai here."
At that, Momo finally got a good look at the guy. He was a young man, not that much older than her, with slightly-pointed ears, spiky, dark-blue hair and narrow eyes, with pupils that seemed almost slitted. Or at least she assumed so, because the way he seemed to be trying to look everywhere but her made it kind of difficult to get the right angle to see properly. His entire demeanor was fidgety, nervous, timid, and for some reason, she couldn't help but feel in the back of her mind that she had seen him before.
"Please don't harass me in front of the newbie, Sensei…" The boy replied in a meek protest, still doing his level best not to look anyone in the eye. If Momo didn't know any better, by the way she was glancing at nearby surfaces, from the pillar to the wall to Fat Gum's girth, it felt like he was looking for somewhere to press against so he wouldn't be looked at…
"Oh, don't be such a wuss, kid, talking to one girl around your age, and a fellow student at that, shouldn't be that hard." The hero once again ribbed the young man, though the teasing didn't really sound mean spirited in any way that Momo could pick out, before once again turned back to her, clearly noticing her curiosity. "This here, Yaoyorozu-san, is Tamaki Amajiki, aka Suneater. He's a 3rd year at U.A's hero course, and he's been interning with me for a while now. Don't let the shyness fool you, he's one of the best hero students you school has ever seen! I have been trying to break him out of his shell, but it's kind of a work in progress."
"Harassment is what it is…" Amajiki muttered quietly, flinching when Momo looked his way, realization on her face. No wonder he seemed vaguely familiar, she had likely seen him around the school somewhere.
"It is nice to meet you, Amajiki-senpai." She greeted, trying to be a bit less formal, giving him a friendly smile. "Please take good care of me."
The boy froze, and once again refused to make eye contact, too flustered at the sudden address to even mutter a retort. And the scene once again made the hero burst into laughter.
"Ah, don't fret too much, Yaoyorozu-san, I'm sure he'll warm up to you enough to actually talk back before the week's done." Fat Gum said encouragingly, only to be interrupted by a light grumble, which Momo quickly realized was his own stomach. "And on that note, you had a long trip, so how about a nice meal? I know a great Takoyaki place nearby. My treat!"
And with that, after being briefly shown to her quarters to leave her luggage, Momo found herself being led out of the building by the exuberant hero, alongside a very quiet senpai. Not quite the start she had expected, but she couldn't really say it was bad.
/
I gotta be honest, I was today years old when I realized I have apparently been spelling Momo's surname wrong this whole time. Same thing happened with Monoma. At this point I can't even say whether it was because the English translations I read were faulty or if I just have some sort of mild dyslexia.
And the hero that Katsuki's working with is actually one of the nameless ones that were on scene during the clean-up of the Sludge Villain clusterfuck. He's a decent sort who takes the job seriously despite his relative obscurity, and is genuinely trying to teach all sides of the hero job to Katsuki, but we all know how the lad tends to mistake niceness for condescension.
Anyway, like I said, just a brief chapter to see how some other folks are doing, and next time we'll be back with Izuku and Lady Nagant, as the latter tries to see what she's got to work with properly.
Cya all on the next one, stay safe, take care, and have a lovely year.