4

“You hear something just now?” asked Toru Hagakure, curled up in her futon.

“Sounded like a boy? Screaming, maybe?” said Kyoka Jiro, cooling off by the open window.

“The boys were fighting at dinner, weren’t they! With the class B dudes, I mean.”

“Idiots. All of them… But no, this scream sounded like Mineta?”

At the sound of Mineta’s name, Mina Ashido popped up in bed and said “Yechh” with the same level of disgust she reserved for her supplementary lessons with Aizawa.

“He got punished, right? I hope they really threw the book at him!” said Ashido, still good and angry about the night’s earlier events.

“Seriously!” said Ochaco Uraraka from one corner of the room, where Tsuyu Asui was pressing on Uraraka’s back to help her stretch.

“That boy will never learn until he actually gets hurt in the process, I fear,” added Momo Yaoyorozu, who was busy organizing her things.

This was the space set aside for the girls of class A. It was a simple washitsu room with only six tatami mats, smaller than the boys’ room since there were fewer girls to accommodate. There wasn’t space for much else besides the girls’ six futons, but since the room was only meant for sleeping anyway, it served its purpose. Raised in the lap of luxury, Yaoyorozu had at first been shocked and horrified by the cramped quarters, but she had quickly acclimated when the others explained that training camp was all about roughing it, so to speak.

“I should’ve stabbed his eye harder with my plug,” grumbled Jiro.

“And I should’ve hit him with the acid that really burns!” said Ashido, thinking back to their triumph over Mineta when he’d attempted to peep at the class B girls.

Criminals and villains would always be persona non grata, but to these girls, those who committed sexually based offenses were especially heinous. While the rest of them were still fuming, Asui spoke up.

“I don’t believe Mineta will ever truly change. He’s been hurt plenty already, and it’s never deterred him.”

“You…may be right…” admitted Yaoyorozu.

They all reflected on the boy’s past misdeeds and realized that if they were to represent Mineta as a pie chart, he would be a solid circle labeled “Lust.” Asui’s point was hard to deny.

“Even so, this particular offense was directed at the girls of another class… It’s shameful that a fellow member of class A would do such a thing…” said Yaoyorozu with a somber shake of her head. As vice president, she felt a certain responsibility for keeping her cohort in line.

Suddenly, they heard a knock on the door and a voice.

“It’s Kendo. Can we come in?”

The girls of class A glanced at one another, unsure how to react to the unexpected visitors. Those lying in bed sat up, and after Yaoyorozu received small nods from each, she said “By all means” and opened the door. Itsuka Kendo led the pack. With her were Yui Kodai, Ibara Shiozaki, and Reiko Yanagi—a class B girl with bangs flopped over one eye. Kendo thrust a bag toward Yaoyorozu.

“As thanks, for earlier.”

“Thanks for what?”

“Wait, what’s going on?” said Ashido, intrigued by the bag and hoping to get a peek. She wasn’t the only one—the other class A girls looked into the bag too, and Ashido yelped.

“Sweets!”

“Sorry, it’s just kind of a mishmash of whatever we had on hand,” explained Kendo, jostling the bag of individually packaged cookies, chocolates, and other goodies.

“To what do we owe this honor…?” asked Yaoyorozu with a tilt of her head. “If you’re referring to the incident with Mineta, think nothing of it! In fact, we should be apologizing to you for the appalling behavior of our classmate!”

She sounded like an abashed mother trying to make amends for a poorly raised, troublemaking son. At this, Kendo gave a puzzled smile.

“Don’t sweat it. All’s well that ends well, right?”

“Besides, we only caught him in the act because you girls warned us to start with,” said Yanagi from behind Kendo. Beside her, Kodai muttered, “Mhm.” Shiozaki took a step forward with hands clasped, as if in prayer.

“Please accept our gratitude and know that this is also on behalf of Tokage, Komori, and Tsunotori. They would have liked to thank you all in person too, but they were summoned by Vlad Sensei to review today’s training session…”

Setsuna Tokage was a girl with sharp features who had nonetheless given class A a cheery shout-out back at the bus parking lot. Kinoko Komori was particularly petite, with a mushroom-shaped bob cut, and Pony Tsunotori was a charming girl with impressive horns and wide, round eyes.

“Exactly. It meant a lot to us, so here,” said Kendo, thrusting the bag toward Yaoyorozu once more. The latter still had qualms about the gift, but Ashido jumped in and grabbed the bag with a “Thanks a lot!”

“Really now, Ashido…” started Yaoyorozu, but the others butted in.

“Come on, Momoyao. They got together to prepare this for us, so let’s not be rude,” said Jiro.

“Yes, Yaoyorozu. We can’t just refuse the gift flat out,” said Asui.

“But we only did what was natural…”

The generous gift still didn’t sit well with Yaoyorozu, but this time Hagakure had an idea.

“How about we all eat this stuff together!”

Everyone turned to Hagakure’s invisible face—presumably just above the collar of her floating pajama top—and could imagine a wide smile plastered across it.

“A slumber party! C’mon, since we’re all here anyway!”

Slumber party. The words hung in the air for just a moment before smiles broke out all around.

“Yes! A chance like this doesn’t come around too often.”

“Sure… Slumber party…”

“Can we really?”

“Why the heck not? Pretty sure the boys are all hanging out together, too.”

“Mhm.”

“All agreed then?”

“Yeah, let’s do it!”

They sprang into action, spreading the sweets out in the middle of the room, buying a bunch of soft drinks from the nearby vending machine, and rolling up their futons to use in place of floor cushions. The girls of class A added their own snacks to the pile, and everyone raised cups for a toast. The sweets and good company put their bodies and minds at ease—this simple chance to chat and hang out was a welcome, exciting relief in the middle of training camp.

With slightly flushed cheeks, Yaoyorozu glanced around, unable to hold back her own delight.

“To tell the truth, this is my very first slumber party… Could someone explain how this is meant to go?”

“Well, you get a bunch of girls together, stuff your faces, and sit around chatting about whatever!” said Ashido. But Hagakure’s invisible finger wagged in objection.

“Naw. Every good slumber party…demands talk about amore!”

The energy level in the room shot up a little.

“Yesss! The perfect slumber party topic!” agreed Ashido.

“Yikes, ha ha,” said Uraraka, blushing.

“A conversation about love, then?” said Asui.

“Really…?” sighed Jiro.

“So that’s where we’re taking this, huh,” said Kendo, forcing a smile.

“L-love? Before marriage, though?” gasped a flustered Yaoyorozu. The ever nunlike Shiozaki was on Yaoyorozu’s side.

“I must agree. Marriage is a promise made before God…”

“A-more? A-more of a-what?” asked Yanagi, to which Kodai shook her head and said, “Nuh-uh.”

Each girl was excited about this in her own way (or not), so the conversation switched to romance. Hagakure took charge and got the ball rolling.

“So, who’s got a boyfriend?”

They all glanced around on obvious pins and needles, but nobody made a peep. The silence hung in the air for a moment before being broken by an aghast Hagakure.

“Huh? Nobody? Really?”

The energy subsided a little as the girls all shook their heads. None of them seemed to be hiding a secret relationship status, at any rate. A sense of gloom descended over the room.

They all had friends who’d gone on to normal high schools without hero programs, and those friends always had stories about so-and-so dating this one or that one. As these girls understood it, high school was supposed to be a time for reveling in young love.

“Well, not like there was time for that at the end of middle school, what with cramming for exams. And we haven’t exactly had the luxury since starting U.A., either,” said Kendo with a grimace, prompting profound nods from the group.

There was a lot to learn on the road to becoming pro heroes, so students of the Hero Course attended classes Monday through Saturday. Beyond the practical exercises, they also had ordinary school subjects with the usual homework and tests, so free time was a nearly foreign concept at this stage of their lives.

“Argh, but romance! I wanna hear something to tug at the heartstrings! How about crushes? Any of you gals crushing on someone?” said Ashido, leaning forward hungrily. The romance spark wouldn’t be so easily snuffed out, and Ashido was more than willing to live it up vicariously if the others had stories to offer.

“Crushes, huh…” said Uraraka. She suddenly recalled Aoyama’s words to her during the practical portion of their final exam, when he had suggested that she was crushing on Izuku Midoriya. The freckled face with green hair floated up into her mind’s eye.

“Hmm? What’s wrong, Ochaco?” asked Asui.

“Ah, I know that look!” said Hagakure, probably pointing at Uraraka’s beet red face with an invisible finger. “There’s def someone you’re into!”

“N-no way. Sure isn’t. Me? Naww.”

“You’re not helping your case, girl,” said Hagakure.

“Who is it, who is it? We’ll keep it a secret between us girls!” said Ashido.

As the two cupids closed in on Uraraka, her cheeks somehow grew even redder than usual. She panicked.

“Nah, y’see, my thing, it’s not like that.”

“Your thing, huh? What thing is that?”

“Just spit it out already. You’re totally in love with someone, right?”

“Seriously, not like that!”

Hagakure and Ashido were coming after her like a pair of hard-boiled detectives, and at the word love, Midoriya’s face popped into her head again. She waved her hands around to chase away the image and accidentally grazed her interrogators, sending them floating into the air with her “Zero Gravity” Quirk.

“Huhh?”

“Ahh!”

“Oops, sorry!” said Uraraka, bringing her fingertips together and canceling the effects. The two girls flopped down onto some futons.

“Like I said, that’s not it! It’s just been a while since I got together with girls to chat about junk like this, so it got my blood pumping, I guess?”

“Been a while? That’s all, huh,” said Jiro, clearly exasperated. Hagakure and Ashido apologized and adjusted themselves back into position. Uraraka was still feeling awkward, but she breathed a small sigh and stroked her chest, relieved at having fooled the others.

Hmm? Fooled them? Nah, I just got them off my back, right? After all, what do I have to hide? I only started thinking about it cuz Aoyama had to go and be all weird… Thinking about it? Nah, not even that far. And thinking about what, exactly? Me and Deku? It’s not like that… Not us! We’re not together or anything. Just, like, connected or whatever. No biggie.

Uraraka’s mind raced, sending her tumbling backward onto her futon.

“Everything okay, Ochaco? You suddenly look exhausted,” asked Asui.

“Just trying to stop my heart from pounding, heh…”

“Do you need a doctor? That could be a sign of something worse.”

“I wish a doctor could cure what I’ve got…”

“How awful, that the body would react in such a way to the topic of love… Could the Lord truly have been so cruel while creating us?” said Shiozaki, gently stroking Uraraka’s head with all the compassion she could muster. This only got Ashido fired up again.

“See? This is why us girls gotta open up about romance every so often! So let’s hear it—any actual crushes?”

Nobody so much as twitched this time.

“We could always talk about literally anything else,” suggested Yanagi.

“Ugh, but my heartstrings are still begging for some tugging! I can’t help being a girlie girl.”

It wasn’t that Ashido wanted a boyfriend of her own, really. She wasn’t after love for herself, since she knew full well that she and the others had to devote themselves to their hero education for the time being. That said, once the seed of romance was planted in her brain, it had to sprout and bloom. She needed that tight-chested feeling that only came from the perfect sappy story. That sweet shudder down the spine, sparked by schmaltz. The almost-magical sensation that filled the heart to bursting. That could sustain Ashido in the meantime, feeding the girlie girl within, and what better time to refuel than these precious few evening hours of training camp? This jumble of emotions reached the other girls wordlessly, but though they nodded at her, not one of them could come up with a romantic anecdote of her own.

The conversation had come to a standstill again, but Hagakure had another idea.

“How about we get our fill with, uh, y’know, hypotheticals!”

“How, exactly?” asked Asui. Yanagi looked just as wary and said, “That might not end well.”

“What I’m trying to say is…use our imaginations! Fantasize! Like, is there any boy in class A or B you’d wanna date? That kinda thing.”

“That could work,” said Ashido, fully on board.

“Choosing a single boy, though, I don’t know…” said Yaoyorozu.

“Slumber parties are all about easy, breezy chatting, though. Just another way for us to communicate about anything we want,” offered Kendo as if she was an old hand at this, smiling and sitting cross-legged on the other side of the circle from Yaoyorozu. The latter was immediately impressed by the former’s open-minded attitude.

“I suppose so… Every experience can be a valuable lesson, somehow.”

“C’mon, then… Who would you guys wanna date?”

“Picking a boyfriend, huh…”

The girls fell into deep thought. So deep that they didn’t notice Uraraka blushing and shaking her head again.

“None of them really spring to mind as boyfriend material,” said Ashido, pouting, as if she’d gone out for a shopping spree only to be disappointed by the items on sale.

“True. Never really looked at any of them that way,” said Kendo.

“I view them as classmates, fellow heroes in training, and rivals, even…” confessed Yaoyorozu.

“Isn’t it more telling that we don’t even see these guys as potential boyfriends?” said Jiro.

“That sounds like a quick way to end this conversation,” said Asui.

Yaoyorozu gasped, remembering something.

“Hmm? Gonna tell us who you wanna go out with, Momoyao?” asked Ashido. She drew close to Yaoyorozu in hot anticipation, but Yaoyorozu responded with an awkward smile.

“No, not me. I was thinking of Jiro.”

“Huh? What about me?”

Jiro was caught off guard, and Yaoyorozu blushed a little as she tried her hand at romance talk.

“I was just recalling how well you seem to get along with Kaminari… What do you say to that?”

“Ugh, knock it off! He’s just easy to talk to, is all. But totally the type of flake to cheat on a girl, first chance he got.”

Jiro’s face scrunched in clear embarrassment, and to her left, Asui put one finger to her lower lip.

“You really think so? I actually believe Kaminari would make for a loyal boyfriend.”

“Do tell, Asui. Does that mean Kaminari is your type?”

“No. Not in the least. But as a rule, he’s always a gentleman when it comes to girls.”

“Only cuz he’s a big fat womanizer,” said Jiro in a bashful huff.

At the word womanizer, the exact same image popped into every girl’s mind, and practically in sync, they muttered some version of “Anyone’s better than Mineta.”

“Mhm,” said Kodai, late to join the chorus. The girls burst out laughing, suddenly feeling united in their struggle against the one villain they had in common.

“I’d take anyone in the whole world over Mineta!” Ashido said to Kendo, wiping tears from her eyes. “Anyone in class B similar to him?”

“No way. Our boys are pretty straight arrows, actually. Buncha hard-liners. Ah, we’ve got Monoma, of course,” replied Kendo with a dismissive wave of her hand. Neito Monoma harbored a competitive spirit against class A, sometimes to an unsettling extent.

“Monoma, he’s just…” started Yanagi.

“Mhm,” added Kodai.

“How do I put this…”

“Mhm.”

The girls of class B were accepting of their somewhat eccentric classmate, despite his faults.

“He’s actually not bad looking, so it’s a shame he’s such a wacko!” said Hagakure, holding nothing back.

“Speaking of hot dudes, how about Todoroki?” said Ashido. Everyone pictured Shoto Todoroki and couldn’t help but agree. The handsome boy was the independent sort who lived life at his own pace, and the girls couldn’t think of a single downside to Todoroki until Kendo spoke up.

“Oh, you mean Endeavor’s kid?”

The thought of Todoroki’s fiery father stopped them in their tracks. No way a relationship would survive with the number two hero breathing down your necks.

“Yep, I’m thinking nope.”

“The guy’d probably be a real jerk to any girl dating his son…”

The girls of class A shrank at the thought of the imposing Endeavor, while Shiozaki alone was moved by compassion.

“Those with the fiercest temperaments often have the deepest wounds. If only someone could pluck the thorn from that man’s soul…”

“You wanna get with Endeavor, Ibara?” gasped Kendo. The father of a schoolmate? Romance with a pro hero? Unthinkable. But Shiozaki maintained her composure and shook her head.

“All creatures great and small are deserving of love. No, I only speak of healing, not lust. Besides, the man is hardly my type…”

“Don’t spook us like that,” said Yanagi flatly.

“Mhm,” said Kodai with a nod.

Uraraka rubbed her chest and spoke up.

“You sure are a serious one, Shiozaki!”

“Serious? Nobody’s as serious as Ida,” said Asui.

“Oh, your class president, right?”

“You can tell that dear Ida would never cheat on a girlfriend. Why, he’d probably be his usual serious self, even on dates…” said Yaoyorozu. Everyone suddenly imagined it—the boy would turn a date into a stiff, formal affair. And after that, who could say?

“How many years would it take before Ida’d be willing to hold hands, y’think?”

“He’d probably wanna get married, first…”

“Har, har. Good one, girls,” laughed Kendo. They shook their heads at her, though.

“No, it’s entirely possible, given how Ida is,” said Asui.

“You mean it?”

“The guy is beyond serious about ev-er-y-thing.”

The girls realized how exhausting that particular relationship would be, and Ida was quickly eliminated as a viable option.

“How about Midoriya?” said Ashido. Hearing that name, Uraraka’s heart started to pound again. It was getting a workout, this night.

“I swear, I don’t get that kid,” admitted Kendo.

“Midoriya? How so?”

“Take the Sports Festival, for instance. He dug up all those land mines during the race, right? Totally insane strategy, but bold as hell. And then in the tournament, he’s an all-out, bare-knuckle brawler. But when I spot him in the hall or cafeteria, he gives off a totally different vibe.”

Uraraka opened her mouth to respond, but the swirling jumble of emotions kept her from forming words, so all that emerged was a “Hmm.” Asui spoke up instead.

“Midoriya, right… He’s just about the hardest worker you’ll ever meet. It’s like everything he does is aimed at getting him one step closer to being a hero.”

Asui looked around for confirmation of her interpretation. Uraraka came to her support with a weighty nod and finally found the words.

“Seeing Deku in action just makes me wanna do my best too!”

Witnessing Uraraka do her darndest to get across that exact feeling, Kendo grinned at her.

“Yeah, I get it. It’s great when someone can inspire others like that.”

Uraraka smiled back, happy to know that, just maybe, Kendo understood what made Midoriya special.

“Oh, but he’s kinda, like, an insane All Might fanboy,” added Ashido.

“He’d probably cancel on a date if there was an All Might meet and greet to go to instead!” said Hagakure.

“Yes. I do believe he would do that,” agreed Yaoyorozu.

“Huh? Even though we see the guy at school all the time?” asked Yanagi, referring to All Might’s recent decision to become a teacher at U.A.

“That’s Midoriya for ya,” said Ashido with a heavy nod.

“Or he’d ask his girlfriend to come along to meet All Might,” suggested Hagakure.

“You’re…not wrong, there.”

Uraraka could easily imagine such a date with the boy.

“Not boyfriend material, then,” said Yanagi flatly, thereby eliminating Midoriya.

“Nuh-uh,” added Kodai.

Uraraka was relieved to be moving on from Midoriya. Still, something about it bugged her, and she made a sour face.

“How about Bakugo?” she suggested.

“No way,” said Jiro, instantly ending Bakugo’s chances. “He’s smart and he’s probably got a bright future, but…that personality. Yeeeesh.”

The girls discussed the rest of the boys in succession, but each got eliminated by one harsh judgment or another, like so many soap bubbles popping into nothing. The very last one bit the dust, still with no heartstring tugs to speak of.

“Ugh… Don’t tell me I’m gonna have to go off to my extra lessons without a single bit of lovey-dovey goodness to keep me going?” groaned Ashido.

Ashido slumped over in despair, like a weary desert traveler in desperate need of water. Hagakure, hoping to come to her aid, thought for a moment.

“Maybe we’ve been going at it, like, backward? I mean, if we were boys and the boys were girls, which of them would make good girlfriends?” she said with what was most likely a wide grin.

“A change in perspective, huh?” mused Ashido.

They tried to picture their male classmates turning into girls, which in most cases just meant imagining those same muscular boys with long hair.

“Yeah, not doing it for me…”

“Us, choosing girl versions of them? My heartstrings aren’t feeling anything over here…”

“No, it could work!” insisted Hagakure with a giggle. Nearby, Yanagi stared at Kendo.

”You’d have tons of luck with the ladies as a boy, Itsuka.”

“Me? Y’think?” asked Kendo, wide-eyed. Yanagi nodded and said, “You’re the coolest one of us, in class B.” Kodai added a “Mhmm” in support.

“Quite true. A single word from you, Kendo, is enough to shepherd our wayward classmates. You’re evenhanded. Strict, yet warm… And eminently capable,” said Shiozaki.

Yaoyorozu was inspired to add her own praise. “During our internship, you helped carry me along when I was feeling like deadweight. Without you, I fear I might have grown despondent, even.”

Both Yaoyorozu and Kendo had interned with Snake Hero: Uwabami, but the commercial shoot they’d endured had made Yaoyorozu question the very nature of hero work.

“Naw, we both backed each other up. And cut it out, guys. I’m blushing over here,” said Kendo, slightly uncomfortable with all the attention.

“Plus, we already know you stick up for women, since you knocked Mineta for a loop earlier,” said Asui.

“That was awesome!” shouted Uraraka.

This got Ashido thinking. “I bet you’d slap the living daylights outta pervs and gropers! As a boyfriend, you’d probably be all like, ‘Hands off my chick, punk!’”

The whole group practically squealed, now imagining male Kendo defending their honor and driving off would-be harassers. Yes, Kendo would make the ideal boyfriend—sympathetic to girls’ feelings and ready to protect them at a moment’s notice.

“Hang on, now we’re getting lovey-dovey over a girl!” said Ashido, coming to her senses.

“Hey, don’t blame me,” said Kendo with a grin. “Maybe the love angle just isn’t gonna work. How about thinking of it from the sidekick perspective? Like, working alongside a boy?”

“Sidekicks, huh…” said Ashido.

“Or wait, no. What if you could be one of the boys for a day?”

The girls thought about Kendo’s suggestion, and one particular boy popped into Uraraka’s mind.

“I’d wanna be Bakugo for a day.”

“Eh? Him, really?” asked a shocked Jiro. Uraraka smiled and blushed.

“Mhm. He gave me a solid beating at the Sports Festival, right? During that battle, I really got a feel for how strong he is. Might be awesome to get a taste of that strength, myself!”

“Bakugo is quite strong, yes. With a keen sense for battle,” remarked Yaoyorozu.

“Exactly! If I got to be Bakugo, I’d wanna get in a fight and just go nuts!” said Uraraka, throwing a few snappy punches.

“I hear ya…” said Ashido. “In that case, I’d choose Sero. Always wanted to try shooting that tape of his! Since I get bored of my acid sometimes. How about you, Momoyao?”

“If I had to pick? Koda. The notion of controlling animals fascinates me.”

“Mhm,” said Kodai, who would’ve also picked Koji Koda.

Jiro worked up the courage to make her choice.

“Kaminari, I guess? I’d wanna fire off some electricity and feel what it’s really like when he goes into dummy mode. Just once! Once would be enough for a lifetime.”

“I would choose…Tokoyami,” said Asui. “Fighting alongside Dark Shadow and having it live inside you? I have to wonder what that’s like.”

“I’ll take Sato!” said Hagakure. “Eating all those sweets and turning them into power? No extra chub, so no guilt!”

“Girl, you’re invisible. Not like we could tell if you put on weight anyway,” pointed out Ashido.

“Sure you could! My clothes would reveal the curves.”

Kendo listened to the other girls chatter, somewhat shocked. She sighed and smiled.

“Not so hard to choose once we’re off the topic of love, huh?”

And it was true. Where the lovey-dovey talk had sputtered, the conversation about trying out other Quirks got their imaginations going.

“Gahh! We didn’t get anywhere with the romance stuff!” said Ashido, flopping back in defeat. The other girls exchanged pained smiles.

“Good luck with your extra lessons, heh,” said Jiro.

“Surely our failure here was a sign from God,” said Shiozaki.

“Nooo!” cried Ashido, flailing atop her futon in defiance of the naysayers.

“Still…” said Asui, “They say you ‘fall’ in love, right? It’s not something you can help, and when it happens, you’d probably want to tell someone about those feelings. We can always revisit the romance talk if and when that day comes.”

The thought of real love, someday. A distant possibility. Would they be heroes by then, with the pride and confidence to pursue romance? With eyes toward the future, the girls grinned, their smiles full of love.

The warm and fuzzy moment didn’t last long for Ashido, who was dreading the supplementary lessons with Aizawa.

“I need my fix, though! Anything! The tiniest romantic convo!”

Forget the distant future—she wanted it now. A dose of inspiration to help her survive summer school hell.

“Gotta come up with something quick, then… Ah, how about, like, what type of guys we’re into?”

“Yeah! What’s your type, Mina?”

“Well… He’s gotta be strong! But also with a childish side sometimes? A wild guy who plays by his own rules but always sticks by your side!”

Strong, childish, always by one’s side… The girls of class A listened intently and all came up with the same thought.

“That sounds just like Dark Shadow,” said Asui.

“Totally true!”

They leaped to agree with Asui before Ashido could get a word in edgewise.

“Dark Shadow? That’s Tokoyami’s Quirk, like you mentioned earlier, right?” asked a bewildered Kendo.

“Yeah! But…” pouted Ashido. “It’s not a person!”

“It’s so strong, though,” said Asui. “Today, just before lunch, I peeked into the cave where Tokoyami was training. Dark Shadow was unbelievably fierce in that darkness. Really giving Tokoyami a hard time.”

“And then, when it’s light out, it gets all cute! Always going ‘Yup!’ and ‘Yep!’” said Uraraka, thinking back to Dark Shadow’s more charming moments.

“During our final exam, I was teamed up with Tokoyami. He mentioned how Ectoplasm Sensei’s Quirk was particularly powerful, and Dark Shadow whined, ‘I’m powerful too,’” added Asui.

“Wow. That is cute, actually,” said Yanagi.

“Mhm,” agreed Kodai.

Even these two seemed to relax their typically stern expressions.

Hagakure added, “So it’s childish too!”

“This Dark Shadow doesn’t sound half bad,” said Kendo in earnest. The other girls nodded, as if Dark Shadow were a transfer student they hadn’t remembered up to this point.

“You guys can’t be serious…” grumbled Ashido.

“Plus, it’s a Quirk, so it’s always by your side,” said Jiro.

“Always by Tokoyami’s side, more like!” shouted Ashido.

“Guess that makes Tokoyami your type, since Dark Shadow totally makes him the complete package!” teased Hagakure.

“That’s not how any of this works!” said Ashido, practically snorting in frustration. “I’m getting my heartstrings tugged tonight if it kills me! Next up is…which pro hero would you wanna marry?”

The girls flinched at the question but were soon laughing it up once again.

Gossip, compliments, judgments, pure delight—this roundtable had it all. And while the romance talk may have stalled, the girls were feeling warm, fuzzy, and fulfilled before long. The slumber party was far from over.