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Weekends at the 1B dorms; unlike the ruckus caused over at 1A dorms, 1B thankfully had a curve on normal teenage shenanigans."Bondo-kun!" Pony flopped down next to 1b's 'behemoth' that was the kindhearted Bondo, "I heard from Nejire-senpai that a new mochi place opened up down tha' street!" With a displacement of a throw pillow, Pony scooted next to her friend. Bondo looked up from his phone, a display of a recent hero article illuminated his chin, "You did? When did Nejire even have the time to go?" "You always worry about too much, Bondo-kun! What matters is MOCHI!" Pony leaned over in an attempt to knock Bondo's phone out of his hands and draped over his lap instead, "Means we gotta go try it!" Bondo was too engrossed in the hero article to care about Pony on his lap, but he decided to humor her anyways, "Right now? I mean, Mr. Vlad, with all the new rules and all, would have to escort us there. He has papers to grade." "We can get anooother teacher! What about Aizawa-teacher?" "He's watching over Eri," Shouda said as he took a seat to the left of Bondo, a juice box in one hand and a book in the other, "I heard it from Mina, that nice pink girl from class 1a." "Really...?" Pony whined, frowning and crossing her arms. "Really," Shouda confirmed. A brief moment of silence flashed between the three friends before from somewhere behind them, they heard the voice of Setsuna, "Oh? That new Umezuke Mochi place? Hell yeah! Maybe if we all go as a class, Vlad would let us go get some," She was missing her wrist and some of her shoulder, but what looked like to be a few fingers, hopefully hers, nearly missed her ear by a hair's breadth and hit the ground behind her, "Awase! You throw like Monoma does!" She called before chunking off a piece of the other shoulder and throwing it back. "Everyone seems busy, but from what these reviews say, I'll take your word about the place being good" Bondo turned their attention back to him. "Ugh, it's all because of this new rule we can't go anywhere," Pony huffed. "I think it's a good rule, it keeps us safe at least."After the multiple attacks by the League, Principal Nedzu declared that First and Second year students cannot go out of the range of the dorms or the school campus without a teacher escort or a trusted third year escort. The buddy system wasn't enough, so the school board declared that instead, escorts could protect the younger students. "Hey, what if we got Ectoplasm-Teacher to make a few of his clones and take us there?" Pony finally spoke up.Shouda didn't reply because he knew Pony had a good point. A dangerously good point. "I really don't think this is a good idea, Pony," Shouda put down his book and took a small sip from his juice box."Well... If it's a clone, then I don't see what's so wrong about that," It didn't seem like a bad idea to Bondo, after all it was nice to leave the dorms once in a while."Don't encourage her!"
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Bare trees stilled with their weak branches barely twitching as the chilly winter winds blew small twigs across the paved walkways leading to the teacher's dormitories. Pony, dressed in her winter coat and gloves, followed closely behind Bondo, who was the one doing the favor of leading the group. Shouda brought up the rear of the trio, dressed as warmly as his other two companions.
The housing that served as the teacher's dorms loomed above them, "Are you sure we should be doing this?" Shouda kept glancing around, nervous and hesitant if another group of students should see them, "What if someone sees us?" "We're not causing any trouble, we're just simply asking a question" Bondo approached the big red doors, the sconces mounted on either side of the doorframe watched him as his hand formed a fist and knocked twice. Pony caught up with him and joined him on the final step leading to the door, with Shouda still hanging back on the sidewalk. As they waited for the door to be answered, Pony twirled and untwirled a piece of hair around the tip of her horn. Who they expected to answer the door differed so much from the teacher who ended up answering the door that the trio began doubting that the one who stood at the doorframe with a gruff frown resting on two bottom canines could be none other than 1B's homeroom teacher himself. "Vlad Teacher!" Pony chirped, dropping the piece of hair she'd been playing with to beam up at him. Backwash-gray hair skewed in multiple directions, a stained wife-beater under a zipup coat of the most unflattering shade of red known to studentkind and workout shorts that were possibly older than the trio was themselves, Kan stood in the doorway with his signature scowl of displeasure looking down at three students - Who just so happened to be his very own - that greeted him there. Shouda could have died on the spot. This drastic change of normally seeing their homeroom teacher out of his hero costume, out of a suit, out of anything that didn't classify as homewear, was like someone had slapped him with a handful of secondhand embarrassment. "Yes?" His trademark speech impairment stuck out even with just one word. "Hi Vlad Teacher!" "Hello. Is everything alright? Usually when a group comes it means trouble." "Well, uh," Bondo took a slight step back, "We.. Uh, We were wondering if we could.. uhm.. Get someone to accompany us to this new mochi place down the street..?" Now that it was out in the open like that, he really had no chance to call it a joke and run into the bushes. "C-cause of the rule and all!" Shouda added from behind the other two. A sickeningly thick silence held its grip over the trio and the pro and for a second, Bondo felt like turning and sprinting away. He guessed Shoda wanted to do the same, but Pony still held a wide grin that stretched from ear to ear on her face. "Oh. Is that all?" Kan's mouth turned up to form a smile despite his overbite, "I suppose. Come inside and I'll fetch you some passes." Shouda exhaled a sigh of relief, following behind Pony and Bondo into the dorms.The common area was the same for that of the student's dorms, large windows and multiple sofas, but the only difference was a large kotatsu table that had many teachers from multiple departments crowded around it. Bondo instantly recognized 1A's homeroom teacher, Aizawa, with his hair messily shoved into a bun nonchalantly grading papers while the loud Present Mic to his left occasionally turned to strike up conversation. The longer part of the oversized kotatsu directly across from Aizawa only revealed the tips of hair and suits from teachers who had fallen asleep.
Thirteen, still napping in her suit, Cementoss on his side and a crown of dark blue hair resting on a pillow supported by two thin arms and two sets of sturdy wires with harnesses at the tops and iron soles at the bottoms with a pair of blue glasses whose color mirrored the hair of the sleeping figure. "We've got another group leaving," Kan nodded to Aizawa, who looked up from his papers to acknowledge the students in the room.After a short silence, Kan cleared his throat and repeated the same thing.
The trio exchanged glances with eachother, taking note small things like crumpled heaps of laundry, empty ramen cups and the occasional wrench littering the common area. Somehow, this seemed familiar.Thirteen, who heard the message, turned over and shook the shoulder of the figure to her right, who stirred, then looked up, revealing all-white eyes and the lipless constant smile."Another group?"Oh, Bondo thought to himself, that must be what Mr. Ectoplasm looks like with his mask off. Ectoplasm pulled an arm out from under the pillow and rubbed at his eyes then yawned. Both Bondo and Shouda could only watch the fluid displacement of his visible jawbones, the swipe of a velvety-soft tongue against his upper and lower sets of teeth as if to clean the debris that sleep has gathered and the precision of both jawbones then fitting back together with a childlike awe that made them seem younger.It might have been rude to stare, but the meticulous routine the clone hero had about cleaning was something only they felt they were fascinated about."Your... teeth!" Pony gawked.She'd said the obvious, something trying to be avoided, yet that was just a Pony mannerism to state the obvious that shouldn't be stated."Oh, I hope I do not scare you," Ectoplasm sat up and pulled one of his prosthetics out from under the pillow they were stashed under, "I would usually wear my mouthguard!" and quietly began to lace up the mix of velcro strips and shoe lacing that kept his 'house legs' attatched at the knees.
His mask usually altered his voice, so hearing it unaltered was another new thing. To Pony, it sounded like a mix of Present Mic and Snipe. "While 'plasm is preparing a clone, let's get you the identification tags," On one of the spare counters was a bowl of lanyards with official UA tags on them, blue and black lettering on a white background with 'student' underneath the UA initials, Kan took three out and softly threw them at the trio.Bondo caught his, Pony caught hers and Shouda's hit the floor with a soft noise. Kan looked away. "I wanna watch the clone making!" Pony's lanyard caught on one of her horns and draped across her face. With a sigh Bondo guided it past her horns and set it rightfully where it should be. Ectoplasm's lithe body dipped into an attacking stance, squaring his legs and shoulders, neck tilted downwards and jaw opened past what could normally be done, and prepared to excrete a chunk of the off-white material needed to make the clone.The clone began to take shape, within seconds it mirrored its creator perfectly."It only responds to yes or no questions, now come right back." Pony, Shouda, Bondo and the clone, all wearing the UA lanyards in their winter coat wear left the teacher's dormitories and began on their way to the new mochi shop."I wonder if clones can eat mochi..."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"Did you really have to do that?" Thirteen teased, watching as Ectoplasm crawled back under the blanketed warmth of the kotatsu. "No, not exactly," The clone hero smirked, adjusting himself to lay on his stomach, "But since they saw me without my mask, I thought I'd go all out." "That's so... extra!" ---"So, where did Nejire say this mochi place was exactly?""Accordin' to Nejire-senpai, it's just down this road!" Pony skipped down the hill to keep up with Bondo's large strides, Shouda and the clone hung back. The path began to gain a steeper and steeper grade, the cobblestone pavement still remained lined with lampposts. Nobody else was out walking, even if the day was a fairly nice one. UA sat on a large hill that gave it access to oversee most of the city it flanked, just a ways below the hillside there was an assortment of shops and just beyond that, a housing district. Places came and go, as with even being close to UA meant the price of property broke through the roof."Jus' past here!" Pony pointed to a few of the small cafes in the district right below the hillside; a coffeeshop here, an 'everything' shop advertising discount sales. The end of the hill and the end of the cobblestone guide gave way to a normal paved road, more people began to pop up here and there, a sense of 'normal' at the end of the hill leading to the hero school. The clone impatiently stomped a prosthetic foot on the ground, shaking the trio from whatever trance they were in."Um, while we walking, I wanted to ask a question!" Pony turned her attention to Bondo, "I heard from Monoma-kun that you had a CRUSH on someonny!"The group took their time when walking down the main road's sidewalk, looking left and right at decorative signs, koinobori flags, designs of flowers and the diversity of other people walking along.Bondo felt his face heat up, so he quickly turned his head away, "Didn't I tell you not to believe anything that guy says? Most of the time its just complaints about 1A anyways!""So you don't have a crush on anyone?" Shouda spoke up."Uh, well-""At the end! The shop is there!" Pony pointed, saving Bondo from answering."Umezuke, huh? Isn't that like... pickled plums? Do they do the same to Mochi?!"A shop with neon words glowing on a plum sign that read out 'Umezuke Mochi' stood proudly displaying the current sales and daily specials. The windows, bottoms decaled with small drawings of plums and mochi, held the large bars of separated self-serve mochi on the inside. Everything from the fanning tops of the bars had a design of a plum on it. Seating inside and out had simple silver iron chairs and tables with purple umbrellas."But who would ever pickle mochi? Wouldn't it just get all soggy and gross?" Shouda commented as Bondo held the door open for the group to enter with the clone being the last one in.Strawberry mochi, green tea mochi, even some types of ricecakes all sat piled on one another in tins arranged in three different bars. Plates with the Umezuke logo and a giant dark purple plum rested on the countertops, matching the light green that painted the walls. Pony grabbed a plate first and a second one to hand to Bondo while Shouda grabbed one for himself. He offered another to the clone, but the clone merely shook his head."I guess clones don't eat mochi, Pony" Bondo hoped that would change the subject."But you have a crush on someone! I know it!" Pony grabbed two cold strawberry mochi balls and one apple-filling rice cake."Yeah but if I told you, you'll tell everyone.""Would not!""Yeah you would!""You can tell me, Bondo. I won't tell anyone unless you want me to," Shouda had one chocolate mochi ball and one green tea mochi ball set next to eachother in a perfect pair.At this point, Bondo felt like his face was as hot as that Todoroki kid's fire power. He couldn't tell. It would be too weird! But Shouda was reliable, maybe he could just tell him and nobody else."Fine. I'll tell Shouda.""No fair!"Bondo leaned in towards Shouda and whispered the single name. Two syllables, one name. One classmate.Shouda recoiled instantly and almost knocked into the clone that guarded them."What?! Who was it? Tell me! Pleaaase?""I knew it!" Shouda exclaimed once he regained his balance, "Man, who knew Kinoko would be right about it?""What do you mean by that?!""Shouda-kun, tell me who it is!""Kinoko said that she had a hunch that Bondo had a crush on Manga!""MANGA?! WOOOAH!""SHOUDA!!"Ah! I'm sorry! It just slipped out!"Bondo turned away from the rest of the group to gather more mochi. He did need to eat more then the other two, but these other ones weren't for him; Manga was working tirelessly on his Shounen Jump entry. If he could finalize this, he could possibly score a chance to get his work published. He knew Manga liked mochi, and even if his entry wasn't picked, he'd be there with the mochi for him."Squeee! You have a crush!""Its not that important...""It's fine, we won't tell anyone else. It'll just stay between us, ok?""Alright... you better keep your word or I'll glue your bathroom door shut""Try me, bitch!""PONY!"Bondo and Shouda agreed that they should make it a point for Pony to hang out with Monoma less often.---After the mochi was paid for, boxed and stored into plastic bags, the trio and clone began the walk back to the UA campus. It was a little silent, since the air was filled with an awkward tension due to the incident in the mochi shop. To talk after a moment like that? Shouda, Bondo and Pony all knew they could never find the right words to recover from that.
The path gradually became steeper and steeper as they climbed up the hill, Pony holding the bag with the boxed mochi. The boxes were cute: simplistic white cardboard with a watercolor drawing of a plum and the shop's logo written in green.The teacher's dorms loomed in front of them like they did some long time ago, but this time it was Shouda who knocked on the door. Thirteen answered and ushered the group inside. They handed over the lanyards and Thirteen checked their names off on a sheet, apparently the tracker for students who left the campus. They didn't hang around to watch the clone be destroyed, but left as a trio again in silence back to the 1B dorms. A secret between three of the four group members, but how would they keep it from the very linking piece of the group?"Just don't tell anyone, or I'll glue your bathroom door shut."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The time was late afternoon when the trio made it back to the 1B dorms, with the sun starting to dip in the sky and the winds to blow colder, Shouda pulled out the key to the dorms and clicked the big doors open.
Kinoko, Kuroiro and Honenuki sat on the main couch, watching some sort of home video fails compilation as Rin and Reiko engaged in a game of Jenga. Hums could be heard from the small kitchen as Jurota gathered pots and pans to begin preparing dinner. Others lay sprawled on the chairs or the floors, noses buried in books, handheld games or phones. Kinoko waved a curt hello, while the others looked up from their activities to see who'd come in. "Hey! Where were you guys?" Kinoko beckoned them to come sit with the rest of the group, "We thought villains took you." Kuroiro tried to stifle a laugh. "Pony heard from Nejire about a new mochi place at the shopping center just at the bottom of the hill, so we went there," Shouda bent down to untie the laces of his shoes, "Oh, and we kinda didn't get any for you." "Rude!" Tsuburaba huffed. Bondo kicked off his shoes heel first and Pony slipped out of her sandals, both either kicking or setting them over on the shoe rack by the door, "I'll share mine!" Pony eagerly joined Kinoko, Kuroiro and Honenuki on the couch and removed the small cardboard box, gleefully showing off the box and letting others admire it."Was it a good place?" Reiko's monotone comment came with a clatter of wooden game pieces on the coffee table."Yeah, it was, I got some chocolate and green tea mochi balls." "Lookie, lookie! They even had rice cakes! This one's apple filled!" Pony held up the small rectangular cake and took a small bite out of it, letting the three on the couch look at the caramel-looking filling inside, "Its soooooo good! Maybe we can all go next time!"Bondo only gave a wave to everyone who waved at him and headed right for the elevator. Manga had a second floor room and Bondo could walk to it with his eyes closed. The elevator dinged open and he stepped inside, thanking whatever force led the elevator to be empty so he could go find Manga - Alone.
He held the remaining box with both hands and tapped the top as the elevator shifted with a soft lurch, running his fingers over the logo on the box. A plum, with dark purple and wisteria watercolors. He kept replaying the conversation that happened in the mochi shop in his head, everything down to the stillness of the clone and the occasional glance from the brunette cashiergirl.
Was it bad that he like-liked Manga? He spent most of his downtime with him, they'd always study together, he'd even agreed to pose for some art references, but in the back of his mind, there was a nagging fear that rejection would be the outcome.
Maybe he could just go to his room and let Pony and Shouda eat the mochi he got for Manga instead, or-
The door to the elevator opened and there stood the closed doors of the second floor dorm rooms. He stepped out of the elevator, glanced around and exhaled. It was too late to go back down to the first floor. He couldn't stop his fingers from shaking as he walked towards the end of the hallway to where the nameplate on the door read 'Fukidashi Manga'.
He could hardly believe this was real.Just knock on the door, now. It's not that tough, think of it like knocking on the teacher's door like earlier today! His nerves shot off like rockets, balling up his fist he knocked three times on Manga's door.
He stood in silence for what felt like eternity before he heard someone from deep within the room say,
"Yeah!?""It's me, Bondo. Shouda, Pony and I went to that new mochi shop down the street and I got something for you," His voice shook, legs beginning to quiver just a bit. He hoped that everyone else who's dorms were on this floor were downstairs, cause he'd hate to be caught quivering before the door of his crush like a middle schooler, "Can I come in?""Yeah, just close the door behind you," Manga's voice spiked with an irritated puncture that made Bondo begin to worry that it was him, his presence, just barging in like this that angered him.Mochi box in one hand, Bondo gripped the doorknob of Manga's room and swung it open. There, he saw the plain white and black checkered bedspread, a small bookcase full of sketchbooks and published mangas, schoolbooks and papers of all kinds and an adjustable desk that could be tipped up like an easel. The metal wastebasket by Manga's chair overflowed with crumpled paper balls, pencil shavings and snack packs.
Manga himself sat in an armed desk chair furiously scribbling on a panel as the desk lamp that sat beside him served as the only source of light in the room. The easel desk was adjusted so that it sat like a desk, Manga being hunched over his work like some sort of animal defending it's hoard.
He looked like he hadn't moved from this spot all day, dressed in gray sweats and slippers, he gripped the pencil and eraser like his life depended on it.Bondo couldn't help but feel bad for the guy. How long had he been going like this? Earlier this morning when Manga declared that he'd be spending the whole day finishing his entry then locking himself in his room- had he even taken any sort of break?"Have you," Bondo swallowed thickly, "Have you been up here all day?"Manga said nothing, scribbled something then replied, "Yeah."The air clamped down on Bondo's neck and he could barely get any words out, he was suffocating and all he could do was watch each stroke of Manga's pencil or each flex of his wrist.
He enjoyed watching Manga draw. Manga always got so deep within his work, unmoving yet creating and Bondo found him so fascinating when he was deep in 'the zone'. "I uh.. I got you some mochi.. 'cause you told me you liked it."No reply. Manga didn't even look up.Bondo was about to turn and leave when Manga set his pencil down and turned to inspect the box. He scooted his chair over to the very edge of the desk where Bondo put the small box containing both their shares of mochi and picked it up, weighing it in his hands."Is this from that new place?""Yeah, according to almost everybody, it's really good."Manga undid the box top and inspected the contents. Three chocolate mochi balls, two strawberry and two red bean rice cakes."Woah.. This is a lot for just me, you know.""Well, um.. Since you've been.. working so hard up here, maybe you could take a break and we.. could share it?"The hard thing about having no mouth, no eyes or any sort of facial features at all was that you couldnt display joy, relief or happiness.Manga got up from his chair, "I guess a short break won't hurt, then I really have to finish this page," He plopped down on his bed and motioned for Bondo to sit next to him.Bondo quietly edged his way over to the bed and took a seat, it groaned under the weight of both boys and Manga could only look down at the box full of mochi."I forgot which flavor you liked, so I got some of the most popular flavors."Manga held a chocolate one up to where Bondo guessed his mouth would be and took a bite, "This.. This doesn't taste half bad. Thanks, Bondo." Bondo watched as he ate the whole thing, hand perfectly centered in his own lap, "Its no problem, since you've been working for..""Six. Six hours." Manga finished around a mouthful of mochi."Since you've been working for six hours, I thought you deserved this."Manga swallowed and looked at Bondo, but Bondo was shyly avoiding his gaze by looking down in his lap. He felt the other's gaze on him and he mustered up all his courage to look up.
Manga had a small blush dusting his cheeks, with the box set down in his lap he looked at Bondo. It was if they locked eyes, even if they didn't have any visible ones to lock on to."It's been... exhausting," Manga began, "The deadlines for the submission end tomorrow night and I still don't feel like what I have is very good.""I'm sure what you have is great!""You only say that 'cause you're obligated to," Even if it was meant as a joke, Bondo felt his heart ache."Originally, I wanted to have the protagonist confront the first villain only to find out that their best friend was working with the villain all along, but then I thought that was too cliche and now... Well, here we are."Bondo said nothing, he couldn't possibly relate to Manga's distress, but he needed this."Writing and drawing this stuff is a lot harder than it seems... Sometimes I wish shounen was more... normal.""Well, I feel like we're in a shounen sometimes," Bondo joked."What makes you say that?!""We do go to the UA after all, y'know, a school for "heroes"," Bondo kicked his leg softly."I guess you're right."The silence of the duo returned and Manga reached for another mochi ball. Bondo looked back down at his lap and felt his voice catch in his throat. A voice told him to just ask already, to just ask and get it over with."Hey Manga.""Yeah?""Do you... have a crush on anybody? Anybody in this class?""....""P-possibly..." The sides of his speech bubble head flushed a light pink.The question was out there and Bondo didn't know what to do next. He hadn't even planned to have Manga let him in his room."I do, too," He said, after a short pause."Who?""I'll tell mine if you tell yours."Fine. Hey, let's both say it together on three.""...Deal.""One... Two... Three.""You." They both said in unison.Bondo felt like passing out. He began to tremble, was he hearing this right? No, this had to be a joke, Manga couldn't mean it-
Manga's face was a shade of pink that Bondo couldnt even name."I didn't think you actually meant it!" Manga put his hands to his face, embarrassment washing over him in pounding waves."N-neither did I..!" Bondo looked away, positive that his blush was prominent.The silence was filled with awkward glances and faces so warm with a blush that felt as if it could melt the ice caps. After looking in two opposite directions, Bondo looked back over at Manga, carefully reaching for his hand. Their fingertips brushed and Manga looked over at him, face still a pinkish color."Does.. does this mean we're.. uh...""I.. I guess...?""Well... I.. um, I... I'm glad you liked the mochi.""And I'm glad we're holding hands.""I- ... Manga...!"(End.)