"You hold onto friends by keeping your heart a little softer than your head."
After the USJ, Izuku had listlessly filed onto the bus with the other students. Both Ochako and Momo sat near him, and he could see how worried they were for Aizawa in their expressions.
If he was being perfectly honest, he wasn't optimistic about Aizawa's chances of recovering fully. He might have some lingering permanent damage from what that…
thing did to him.
They'd gone back to their homeroom, where Midnight supervised them as their parents were brought in to pick them up. Principal Nezu also came to see them all, announcing that classes were canceled for the next week and counseling services would be provided for students. He left, saying that he had to attend to the ongoing investigation.
Everyone was strangely quiet, and subdued. That was…until Midnight stood up and said, "Alright, class, I just got word from Principal Nezu. Aizawa and Thirteen are going to be alright after about two days!"
The class cheered in relief.
His mom came to UA about two hours later, and picked both Himiko and Izuku up. They rode the train back home. Naturally, once they'd told her what happened, she had almost flooded the genkan with tears. She'd made lunch, and sat down with him and Himiko.
"All said and done, Izuku, Himiko I
am glad you're safe. What you did was…well, it was under extreme pressure, and both of you are still learning how to be heroes. I…wish your first rescue training had gone differently, but there's not much I can do. Do you know anything about whether U.A. is going to add more security measures?"
Izuku frowned. "I mean…probably? They couldn't have accounted for that particular villain's quirk, considering warping and teleportation Quirks are really rare. Going forward, they'll definitely implement security measures, though. The two teachers present for the attack are still recovering, UA's probably going to ask them for suggestions later on."
His mom nodded, and let them play video games for the rest of the day. Himiko was more fond of games that allowed her to relax and enjoy herself, while Izuku was fond of strategy games, and ones that stressed him out slightly. He did play some Overwatch, but he wasn't super committed to it.
His allowance primarily went into hero merch, so he didn't have money left over to get some of the hero skins on the Overwatch characters.
Suffice to say, Himiko always got the Switch while Izuku got the PC. They kept each other entertained with running commentary throughout the day, stopping only for food, water, and sometimes a stretch break.
Izuku and Himiko woke up the next day, but with different plans. Izuku was going to stay at home…and turn his brain off, unless something came up.
"So, Toru, Mina and myself are going to the Koko Taun Mall for some shopping therapy," Himiko said.
"That's great," said Izuku. "Don't buy too many plushies."
"Oh, it'll be fine! We've got three people, how bad could it be?"
"If Toru and Mina are anything like you, each of you will forget the others want to buy stuff too."
Himiko waved him off. "We're not
that bad! Anyway, I'll be off!"
"See you later, Himiko. Have fun!"
Once she'd left, he was in the mood for some strategy games, so he booted up the computer.
That would have been his plan, had he not seen a text from Momo.
Now, to ask his mom. He opened the door to her office, and found her making some notes on a case she probably had.
"Mom? One of my friends invited me for a sleepover…can I go?"
His mom thought for some time. "You can go, but remember to take a toothbrush and a change of clothes! And…who's going to be there?"
Izuku gulped. He'd really hoped his mom wouldn't ask that question, but it couldn't be avoided now.
"Um…Ochako…and Momo," he said quietly. "Momo's hosting it…"
Inko smiled gently. "Well…be careful, okay? You guys were attacked recently, so I'm not going to prevent you meeting up with your friends. Go have some fun! Do you know how to get there?"
He really didn't. He should probably text Momo.
Izuku had packed his bag with a spare t-shirt, shorts, his laptop and power cord, and a few other necessities. He had no idea what they were going to do during the sleepover, and he was really curious if Momo had anything planned.
Momo's house was about a ten minute walk from a train station. His Maps app said that it had a gate which he'd need to get through. Momo had told him to simply say his name at the intercom on the gate, and someone should let him through.
He nervously walked up to the gate, and pressed his hand to the button.
Well, he might as well try saying hello. "...Hello?" asked Izuku.
"Good morning, who might I be speaking to?"
"I'm Izuku Midoriya…I was invited today?"
"Ah yes, we'll open the gate right away."
The gate opened smoothly, and Izuku walked in.
It took him about 2 minutes to reach the house. He couldn't really call it a house, actually. It was more like a mansion. It was quite spacious and artistically designed, at least to his eyes. He shook himself once, before he rang the doorbell. He still hadn't gotten over the fact that
his friend (who was also a really pretty girl) was inviting him to a sleepover! He was understandably nervous…and excited.
He hadn't really thought about how rich Momo's family must be if she lived in such a fancy house. Her family probably had some kind of housekeeping service.
The door opened, to show a man dressed in an impeccably tailored suit. He had graying hair, and he was maybe twenty centimeters taller than Izuku was. "Ah, good! You're here quite early. Miss Yaoyorozu will be glad to see you. Do come in!"
Was he a butler? He probably was.
As Izuku entered, he said, "Hello! Um…Do I wear my shoes inside, or do I just take them off here?"
The butler replied, "You can take them off inside and keep them in this shoe rack. You'll want some slippers, the floor is rather cold."
Izuku sat down on a bench, and began the task of prying his shoes off. "Excuse me, um…what's your name?"
"You can call me Mr. Iwasaki. Now, once you've got those slippers on, I'll lead you to Miss Yaoyorozu's room."
"Oh, you're here! Fantastic! Thank you for showing him here, Mr. Iwasaki!"
"It's no problem, young miss. Have fun!" With that, Mr. Iwasaki left.
Momo beamed at Izuku. She was wearing comfortable clothing, and looked right at home. She had a console with quite a lot of games, actually. It seemed like they'd be spending some time on that.
"Well, Ochako's not here, yet, so what would you like to do? I have some co-op games, but is there anything else? Oh, and you can sit on the bed, there's no problem."
The bed in question was absolutely massive. It was bigger than some rooms in the apartment complex he lived in.
Izuku thought for a moment. "Honestly, it's hard to think of something to do without Ochako. Can we try taking turns on a single player game?"
"That sounds grand! Which one would you like to start with? I have
No Man's Sky 4,
Baldur's Gate 21,
Final Fantasy 84, Subnautica: Absolute Zero, and a few more games."
"I feel like Ochako would like
No Man's Sky 4. We could try that?"
Momo nodded, and began booting up her console. "Izuku, are there any games you play consistently?"
"I mean, I don't, really? I play some
Overwatch 50, but very casually. I like some strategy games, too, but it's been some time since I've started. I definitely don't play League, though."
Suddenly, somebody knocked on the door, and opened it. It was Mr. Iwasaki, who'd brought Ochako along. She looked a little dazed, but thanked him for leading her to the room.
"Excellent! Now that we're all here, we can all decide on a game! Ochako, the two of us agreed that we'd try out
No Man's Sky 4. Is that alright with you?"
Ochako blinked. "I'm still trying to process the fact that
I'm in a house this expensive. I think I need a moment."
With that, she flopped onto the carpeted floor, and didn't move.
Momo looked concerned. Turning to Izuku, she asked, "Will she…recover?"
"Physically? Yes. Emotionally? I couldn't tell you."
They waited in silence for another few seconds, before Ochako sprang back up with a smile. "Okay, I'm good now! What's this
No Man's Sky you keep telling me about?"
"It's a space exploration game, creating unique worlds…I've played a little bit before, do you want to start and I can explain it as we go along?"
"Sounds great!"
They spent about two hours messing around with space exploration before moving on. It was a fun game, and there was a multiplayer option. Izuku would probably save up for it, eventually. Maybe he'd be able to coordinate with his two friends, and play with them sometime.
Either way, it was time for lunch. Momo's parents were out of the house, and she wanted to have the three of them make food together.
Momo led them to the kitchen. It was a spacious place, which would make it easy for the three to cook…something.
"Any preferences for what we make today? We can do…just about anything, actually. Nothing terribly exotic, but we have a good selection of ingredients," said Momo.
Ochako told them, "My parents and I have Thai jungle curry all the time! It's got chicken, and I think the two of you would really like it!"
"I can try throwing together some katsudon," Izuku stated.
Momo smiled. "Well, I think I'm going to make some shogayaki. We have some rice made yesterday, so we can eat that with the dishes we're making."
With that decided upon, they set about making their food. Izuku concentrated on chopping the vegetables for the fritters, but he couldn't help but notice how familiar Momo was with the kitchen. Ochako also seemed to be pulling together the jungle curry with ease borne from extensive practice. It seemed they liked cooking.
Compared to them, he felt like a fish without fins. He hadn't really gotten into cooking. Maybe he should change that.
Time to focus, anyhow.
Lunch was delicious. Momo complimented his katsudon, and Ochako's curry. They were a bit too busy eating to make much conversation.
Afterwards, Izuku asked the two of them, "Do you two like cooking? I just noticed that you two seem to have a sort of familiarity with what you were cooking…I learned how to make my favorite dish, but I didn't explore cooking too much beyond that."
Momo explained, "To use my Quirk effectively, I need a very high-calorie diet. I could achieve this using a combination of honey, saturated fat, and meat, but that's not very palatable to me. I learned how to make those dishes mainly out of curiosity. How about you, Ochako?"
Ochako was saddened a little as she answered, "My parents were pretty busy sometimes, and they wouldn't be home a lot. I…kind of had to manage on my own sometimes, y'know?"
Both Izuku and Momo looked at each other, having noticed their friend's downturn in mood.
Izuku reached over to awkwardly pat her shoulder, "That's actually really admirable, Ochako. You don't need to feel down about that!"
Momo nodded. "I agree. Most of us are still quite dependent on our parents, but you are an independent person. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that."
Ochako looked shocked, but then her lips curved into a small smile. "Thanks, you two. You really are the best friends I could ask for."
Izuku spotted an opening. He asked, "So…do you have any tips for a cooking noob?"
Ochako and Momo smirked at each other, and launched into a discussion of different dishes they'd made, and the best pieces of advice that they had.
With lunch finished, they decided on doing something other than video games.
Momo went into a closet, coming back with arms full of board games. "Which one do you think we can play? I've got Uno, chess, a strategy game, and a few more."
"Why don't we try Uno? It seems fun," said Ochako.
"Very well, then! I'll deal, and you all know the rules, right?" questioned Momo. Once she'd gotten confirmation of that, she led them to a small table and began to deal the cards. They were from the Uno Minimalista set, which honestly looked fantastic.
Izuku was slightly concerned, given Momo's Quirk. She was wearing a T-shirt, so it's not as if she could cheat easily by creating plus four cards in her sleeves. He'd have to keep track of how many cards she held. He trusted Momo, but at the same time, he'd spent enough time on the internet to know that Uno was known as the 'destroyer of friendships' for a reason.
Once their hands had been dealt, he pulled his hand out and examined it. He had seven cards, 3 blue, 2 red, one green skip turn, a color changer, and a plus four. Not a bad hand.
And now, to decide who goes first.
Ochako said, "If none of you mind, I guess I can go first." Momo and Izuku nodded their affirmation.
She drew a red two from the deck, and she placed down a red four on top. Next, it was Momo's turn. She placed down a red seven.
Izuku placed down a red three, and Ochako swapped the color to blue.
The game continued on, with nobody playing any of their black cards (if they had any).
Izuku managed to keep himself from getting more cards than he put down, somehow. All he had left were the color changer card, and a plus four. Momo had two left as well, and Ochako had 3, thanks to a plus two Momo played when Ochako had called "Uno!". He'd been watching Momo's cards all game, and he didn't detect any…shenanigans going on, thankfully.
He was going to lose a friendship today, he just knew it.
It was better for him if he started off with the color changer card.
He placed it down, and told them, "Alright, I think I'll change the color to…red."
Momo sighed, and drew a card. Ochako looked very smug, for some reason.
And then she put down a seven. And then another.
She called out, "Uno!"
And then one last seven. She'd won this round. But if Izuku had anything to say, she wasn't going on a win streak.
Izuku and Momo looked at each other and nodded. They were going to take Ochako
down in the next round.
They ended up playing Uno far longer than they expected. When they finally took a break, Ochako had won far more than Izuku or Momo.
"How did you get so good, Ochako? Have you played before?" asked Momo.
"I told you guys that my parents weren't home that much, right? I learned how to play poker from an elderly couple who were my neighbors growing up. It didn't take me long to start winning at those games, and I guess that experience carried over from there," replied Ochako.
"Anyway," she continued, "Now that we're done with cards, I've always wanted to try playing a
Subnautica game. Are you two okay with that?"
"Sure, sounds fun!"
"Of course!"