#finally found some good texture brushes that i can use for buildings n stuff

[skleechtheleech]

redraw of this art piece i made last year

[chemicalmagecraft]

Taiyuu OCT Round 4

Character Nicknames: Nii-chan: Takeda Ryuji Mulan-sensei: Jailong Chen Mushu-chan: Firecracker Boron: Nerva Rekka Buck-sensei: Kazumi Shunsuke Akai-chan: Naishin-Sunomu Seisho Akai-obaachan: Seisho's grandmother (I do not know her full name and you probably don't either)

@taiyuu-oct

x x x

Yukino hummed to herself, grabbing a quick snack from the pantry. She'd participated in the UA entrance exam a few days ago and to be honest she was still a little drained from it. Still, she felt like she did pretty well. No way she wasn't getting into the hero course.

"Yuki-chan!" her brother shouted, running into the room with an envelope in his hands. "It's the letter from UA! It looks like you got in!"

"Oh?" she said, opening up a granola bar. "You didn't open it, did you?"

"Oh no," Nii-chan said, "it just looks like the one I got when I was accepted." He tossed the envelope to Yukino. "Now, just remember that, when you get into UA, you should be on your best behavior."

Yukino rolled her eyes and groaned. "Do you really think I won't behave?"

He shrugged. "I'm just making sure. I know some of the teachers at your old school had a tendency to... look away when people with 'heroic' Quirks acted up."

Yukino snarled, clenching her fists. "What, and you think I'm like those bullies?"

Ryuji winced. "N-no, I just meant that UA has higher standards than that, and you should-"

Yukino threw the now-frosted acceptance letter on the floor. "Know what?" she said coldly. "I changed my mind. Gonna see what other hero schools there are before I restrict myself to UA."

"Yuki-cha-" Ryuji started to say, but shut up when Yukino glared at him.

"Goodbye, Ryuji," she growled, then stormed off.

x x x

Mulan-sensei had spent the last half-hour berating the entire class about safety. Odd, Yukino didn't think any of the teachers actually cared about that by now. Finally, she was getting to the point of this exercise. "So today you'll be doing a mock rescue exercise." She pointed behind her, at the same dirt cityscape they'd used the last time Mulan-sensei dragged them out to do an exercise. Except this time it was ruined, like there was a massive supervillain attack or natural disaster or something. Wow, did they really have the budget to destroy one of their dirt training course mockups?

"You'll lose points for any injuries that occur, both to yourself and the mock victims. And you get points for every victim you rescue. We're not telling you how many points you have, lose, gain, or need to pass, so you don't simply stop when you have enough to make it. Heroes don't stop saving people until they're sure that there's nobody left to save, so neither will you. Of course, the ruined state of the cityscape means that parts of it might not be safe."

Yukino scoffed. Here Mulan-sensei was telling them to be safe while admitting she was sending them into somewhere dangerous. At least make sure nothing would collapse and kill someone!

"Because of that, my Quirk effects will be flying around the area." She pointed to Mushu-chan, who was floating around her head, when she said 'Quirk effects.' "If anyone gets injured they are to whistle so they can be rescued."

Yukino bit her lip. 'Quirk effects...' She'd tried to ignore it before, but... Mulan-sensei calling her dragons that was starting to really bother her.

"Mommy! What's that big lizard thing doing here?" "Ugh, did the demon woman have to come?" "Sorry, we don't want any weird monsters in our club!"

Maybe Yukino was making connections where there were none, but... The way Mulan-sensei called Mushu-chan and the others Quirk effects and stuff like that, only begrudgingly referring to them by their actual names... It felt disgustingly familiar to the sorts of dehumanizing remarks she and her family occasionally received due to her grandfather's Quirk and the mutations he passed down. Now, normally Yukino would at least try to talk to her about how the language she was using concerned her, but... Yukino glared at Fuwa-chan... the last time Yukino brought her concerns up to a teacher she didn't feel like it was properly addressed. So she just added it to the list of reasons she would be leaving this half-baked, understaffed, ill-funded travesty of a hero school and never look back. Mulan-sensei was still talking, but Yukino couldn't bring herself to listen at the moment. Hopefully it wasn't anything too important.

She did manage to tune back in when Mulan-sensei was starting to wind down, though. "And remember," her final point was. "You'll all be doing this at the same time! You'll lose a lot of points for fighting with each other, but there's no penalty for collaborating. It's encouraged, even. Now, go!" Mulan-sensei blew her whistle, causing most of the class to run to the ruined city. Yukino was among that crowd, though she was towards the back of the group because she couldn't really get that far into the crowd without getting trampled. The group quickly thinned out, thankfully, as people split off, either to go down side streets, climb up the buildings, or take to the skies. She looked around, trying to spot any of the fake civilians.

There! A vaguely-humanoid figure roughly hewn from what appeared to be stone, trapped under what appeared to be a streetlight made from dirt. They... probably didn't say anything about property damage, right? Typically in a situation where things were already this destroyed nobody really cared if heroes had to break a few more things to save someone's life. Yukino quickly tapped the 'streetlight' on both sides of the fake civilian, using Cryokinesis to freeze two segments and then cleave them apart to free it up. She lifted the cut segment off of the civilian, then concentrated on her Quirk. She'd had an idea for a special move, or at least a new usage of Cryomancy if it didn't exactly count as a special move... She chilled the air around her a by few degrees, extending the effect out in a pulse. Yukino could, if only for a moment, feel anything that she was chilling even if she didn't freeze it below zero. It was a little murky, but she could tell differences between things by temperature and texture. It'd have been a bit easier to detect the civilians if they were warm bodies and not made of cold stone, but at least it was something.

The reason why she'd found a civilian first, though, was because she wanted to have an example of what she knew the civilian might feel like to compare the surroundings to. And using the special move produced... mixed results, honestly. For one, it took a small bite out of her body heat, but she was expecting that. She felt like her sense might've gotten a bit too spread out towards the end, which was hopefully something she could work on, but she did notice two more civilians in a nearby building. The door was blocked by a bit of dirt building, but that really wasn't much of a hindrance to a telekinetic as potent as she. Yukino patted the ground next to her civilian, using her Quirk. "Hang in there a bit," she said despite the fact that it was an honestly creepy-looking rock and not even anything resembling a person. Then she walked up to the door, brushing off the rubble with her Quirk.

Yukino quickly froze the ground under the two civilians inside the building, thankfully not obstructed aside from the rubble over the door. She carefully lifted all three civilians on the impromptu telekinetic stretchers she made from the ground under them, then walked out the building. She walked out of the dirtban area, the three civilians in tow. Yukino noticed Boron down the street carefully carrying two civilian stones in the same direction she was going. "Hey, Boron," she said, waving.

"Hey," he said, though he was still concentrating more on trying not to drop the heavy stones.

Yukino, because she wasn't really burdened as much by her charges thanks to her telekinesis, reached the area where everyone seemed to be dropping off their civilians. She gently set them down, still on their platforms, and nodded to Mulan-sensei. She jogged back to the cityscape, slowing down a bit when she passed by Boron. "Trade ya when you get back," she said, then sped back up again. She walked around the city, not using her sensory skill again but just checking under rubble when she saw a spot where a civilian might be hidden. She'd managed to find one civilian that way by the time Boron found her.

"You said you wanted to trade?" he asked.

Yukino nodded. "I chill you off, you warm me up. Also, I have something I wanna try, if you'll warm me up again when I'm done."

He smiled and summoned some fire. "Sure, let's do it!"

After Yukino cooled him down and ate his fire in return, Yukino tried her idea. She sent a pulse of cold off in one directing, hoping that narrowing it down would let her sense a bit more. It was a success, so she, with Boron's help, sent pulses off in three other directions, turning roughly ninety degrees each time. She had a pretty good idea of where all the civilians nearby were, at least for the moment, so...

"There are some civilians that way," Yukino said, pointing. It was true, of course, but there were a few more in another direction that Yukino planned on taking. "Of course, I can't guarantee our classmates won't scoop them up." With that said, she went after the civilians that she'd felt.

x x x

After... maybe an hour or two of the exercise, Yukino saw two people in suits talking to Mulan-sensei and some other teachers as she brought some more civilians out.

"What are you two doing here?" Mulan-sensei asked, looking somewhat miffed.

"We're here about the outstanding debt of Chikyu Tane," one of the suited men said.

When she heard that, something inside Yukino just... snapped. She faintly heard the civilians she was carrying thud to the ground, but she didn't care at that point.

It made... a disturbing amount of sense. But still, learning that Chikyu-’sensei’ apparently got into debt making a shitty-ass seventh-tier dirt school that couldn't properly care for its students? It was all Yukino could do to keep from exploding then and there, instead gritting her teeth and seething at the situation until one of the teachers, she didn't notice who, gently ushered her back to the dorms.

When she was back at the dorms she immediately walked to her room, slamming the door open, and stormed over to her belongings. She immediately grabbed her scratching block, which she usually kept somewhere easily accessible in case of a situation like this where something (or someone) caused her emotions to spike severely. She sat down and growled to herself as she started furiously ripping into it. She tried to take deep breaths to calm herself down, but it ended up shallow and not helping at all.

"Are you okay?" a quiet, nervous voice asked. Yukino jumped to see Yuu-chan standing at the doorway.

She was about to shout at him, but sighed. He didn't deserve it. "I'm... really angry," Yukino spat out. She snarled. "It's... by itself it's petty, but this is just the latest in a string of issues I've had with this damn school. And to be honest? I'm fucking out. Bye." Yukino got up, still scratching at her block. She walked to the door, letting Yuu-chan get out of her way first. "And... for what it's worth," Yukino stopped to say before she left, "you and the other friends I made here... are pretty much the only good thing I got out of this school. I'd like to keep in touch, if that's cool with you."

"Yeah," he said, though he still sounded a little somber. "I'd like that..."

"Thanks." Yukino left, searching for a teacher. She quickly found Goudalone-sensei, trying to calm down some students.

"I-I'm sure Laccadaisy will get back soon!" they said.

That statement hit Yukino hard. Chikyu wasn't even fucking there? Goudalone-sensei probably was trying to keep the students from getting riled up, but all it did was anger Yukino further. "Who do I have to talk to to leave?" Yukino shouted at them.

"A-ah! Takeda-chan!" they winced. They got really nervous when they saw her, and the students they were talking to backed away a bit. "Um... We'd prefer that you didn't leave the island at this time..."

"Not what I meant," Yukino growled, clenching her fists. "I want out of Taiyuu. I was trying to be patient, but whatever's going on now is the last straw!"

"U-um..." they trembled a bit under Yukino's fury. "Y-you'd have to talk to Buckskin about that, but he's... looking for Laccadaisy with Ryujin at the moment... They're... probably on the mainland."

Yukino's hands shook. A few wisps of white vapor rolled off of her as she tried to keep herself from lashing out. "Okay then," she said coldly. "But I'm leaving. Now. I'll contact... Kazumi-sensei about that later." She stormed off, pulling out her phone and opening her contacts. She tapped one of the first contacts, pressing the 'call' button. She went to an area with no people, trying to get some privacy.

"Yuki-chan! What's up!" Nii-chan picked up almost immediately.

Yukino sighed, trying to compose herself.

Nii-chan picked up on her silence. "This isn't an 'I love my brother so much and wanted to talk to him' call, is it?"

"No," Yukino muttered, unamused.

He sighed. "Okay, you here to vent or do you want my help with something?"

"I'm leaving," Yukino told him. "I don't care if you don't want me to, I don't care if you aren't there when I get off the train, hell, if the train isn't available I don't care if I have to use my Quirk to leave!"

"Okay," Nii-chan said. "Wow. Did... did something illegal happen?"

Yukino snorted, a bit of white vapor puffing from her nose. "Supposedly not, but at this point I wouldn't be surprised at all."

"Yeah, you sounded pretty... serious. Okay, luckily my shift just ended, so I'll try to be there to pick you up. If I'm not there when you get off, please wait until I arrive. And if you can't take the train, call me. I should be able to arrange something a little less... technically illegal."

"Thanks, Nii-chan," Yukino muttered.

"Love you, kiddo. Be there as soon as I can!" *Click.*

Yukino put her phone away and headed for her room.

x x x

Yukino hefted her backpack. She'd put some of her clothes, electronics, toiletries, and valuables in her bag but unfortunately had to leave most of it behind for when she could get it later. Luckily Yuu-chan was still in their room, so Yukino apologized for everything and asked him to make sure nothing happened to her stuff until she came back. With that taken care of, she was heading out. But before she could get to the door, she heard a calm voice.

"You're leaving, Takeda-kun," Akai-chan remarked. It wasn't really a question.

"Yeah," Yukino said. "I just... can't take this shit anymore." She'd already vented to Akai-chan about how she'd been having a lot of doubts about Taiyuu, and how she was considering leaving even before this most recent incident.

The much taller girl nodded. "Would you want me to leave with you?" Yukino noticed that she also had her backpack.

"That... that sounds great, but only if it's what you really want..."

"Of course," she said. "I imagine the incident with the debt collectors is what set you off? It does seem very suspect."

Yukino gave her a small, nervous smile. "Let's go, then."

The coupl- pair left the dorm building together, heading for the trains. Luckily, the train was there and it seemed like it was running. Akai-chan spoke to the operators for Yukino while she texted her brother to let him know that the train was running and she was coming with a friend. The operators agreed to take the two back to the mainland after they were assured that there was an adult back there waiting for them. Apparently the operators were going to pick someone on the mainland up anyways, which certainly helped. Yukino and Akai-chan took their seats on the otherwise-empty train, sitting next to each other near the front with their bags in the seats next to them. Yukino leaned on Akai-chan as the train started. She sniffled and rubbed at her eye. Akai-chan put an arm around her.

x x x

Yukino and Akai-chan got off the train as soon as the doors open. When they did, they saw Jailong-sensei about to enter the train.

"Hey," Yukino said coldly.

"Ah, hello, kids," Jailong-sensei said nervously. "I... can guess why you're here."

"Sure, it could be the fact that our 'beloved' principal up and ditched us to dodge the debt collectors," Yukino shrugged. "That was pretty upsetting, but are you sure it isn't the severely cheap and often times literally made from dirt facilities that reek of the sort of budget you can't run a school on? Or perhaps it's the understaffing issues that made it hard to get a proper education? Or maybe, just maybe it was the fact that the girl with the 'uncontrollable'" (Yukino made sure to use her snarkiest air quotes when she said 'uncontrollable') "memory-erasing Quirk was allowed to just erase everyone's memories for a few months with no question or even making the students aware that there was such a student at all? Ooh, or maybe it was all of the shitty things above!" Okay sure, it might've been a little harsh to dump all that on Jailong-sensei, but Yukino was feeling petty at the moment.

Jailong-sensei sighed, looking a little weighed down by the contents of Yukino's rant. "...I can concede most of what you just said, but not your problems with Kayaki."

Yukino snarled. Whatever guilt she had over venting at Jailong-sensei suddenly evaporated. "What the fuck are you on about?"

"It's... it's classified," Jailong-sensei said.

"Oh?" Yukino asked. "Classified? How can I be sure you're not just covering up for her?"

Jailong clenched her fists. "There wasn't a good solution to her problem that wouldn't have negatively affected Kayaki's education."

Yukino cocked her head at the 'teacher.' "So letting her negatively affect everyone else's education was totally fine, then? And to be honest I can think of a few solutions that would've probably only made her a little uncomfortable, as opposed to your amazingly brilliant solution of 'ignore it even though it's probably gonna make over half the school even more uncomfortable than Zuruko would be if we just did literally anything about it.' Did you even try to think of a solution? No Quirk is omnipotent, there had to have been a better way!"

"Quirks can be unpredictable," Jailong deflected. "We couldn't have been sure anything would work..."

Yukino scoffed and crossed her arms. Did she even realize what she was saying? "There are so many holes in that argument I almost mistook it for a thin slice of Swiss cheese. Oh, no, sorry, excuse would be a better word for it. Doing anything is better than nothing, you know. And most Quirks aren't nearly that unpredictable. You're an outlier, you know that, right? Most Quirks aren't sentient beings, just supernatural biological functions and stuff like that. They're not so unpredictable that they can't be dealt with, or that trying isn't worth it!" Yukino uncrossed her arms and jabbed a clawed finger at Jailong. She could feel herself start to heat up, white wisps curling off of her. "Though to be honest from how you talk about your dragons I wouldn't be surprised if you don't think they're alive! You know what your problem is!? You pretend that your Quirk is a thing when it's LIVING BEINGS! ZURUKO HID BEHIND AN ACTUAL THING AND PRETENDED IT WAS THIS BIIIG SCARY MONSTER SO SHE DIDNT HAVE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE MEMORIES IT ATE! YOU KNOW WHAT'S NOT UNPREDICTABLE, THOUGH!? KEEP THE HURTY FIELD AWAY FROM PEOPLE AND IT'LL STOP HURTING THEM!! FUCKING!! MAGIC!!!" She let all the hurt, anger, and pain she'd been feeling over this pour into her words.

Jailong scoffed. "You think we should've kept Kayaki isolated? I didn't have a lot of records to work with, but I do know that her Quirk only affects memories of herself and blurs her into the background. I fail to see how that's worth that amount of vitriol, and you clearly disliked her to begin with." Seeing Yukino's glare, for whatever reason, not get any better from being told that her feelings weren't valid and that she was overreacting, Jailong sighed, her face softening. "No, I shouldn't accuse you of anything. But you should know that I did what I could, and I wasn't dealing with just her. Taiyuu was barely equipped to handle a class of completely normal people, and you and I both know that hero schools don't attract just normal people. To say I'm embarrassed by how poorly this went all down would be putting it lightly."

Yukino snarled, starting to see red. Not even a fucking apology. Jailong belittled her feelings, made excuses for her own shoddy work, and didn't even fucking apologize. And now she was making out that she was the one that was hurt by this. A lot of thoughts ran through Yukino's head, none of them polite. "You really think that makes it okay?" "Don't condescend me you fucking prick!" "You covered up for a fucking villain, don't act like I'm the asshole here!" "You're a villain, not a hero!" "Shut the hell up!" "Die, die, die, die die die diediediediediedie!"

Yukino felt someone grab her now-cold shoulder. She looked up at Akai-chan, her breath ragged. Akai-chan... didn't really smile or anything, but she gave her a look of sympathy. Yukino got her breathing back under control, then rubbed at her face with her sleeve. She glared at Jailong, but kept her tone cold. "It's... I can't believe you're looking down on me, when you're the one who didn't do anything when I was panicking over the holes that kept popping up in my memory." She shoved her hands in her pockets, partially to keep them from shaking. "But whatever helps your negligent ass sleep at night, hero." She spat out that last word with so much venom that she was honestly surprised that Jailong didn't die on the spot. If there was one thing she could think of Jailong as at the moment, 'hero' definitely wasn't it. She started to walk past Jailong, Akai-chan right by her side, but stopped when they were behind Jailong.

"Oh, and for the record," Yukino said, feeling like throwing one last barb in, petty as it was. "I hate just about everyone who spends months letting their mind-altering quirk permanently erase my memories about equally, regardless of how well they can directly control their Quirk. It's concerning that you, the pro 'hero' here, don't see what the big deal is. Though at least I know where Zuruko must've learned that self-centered attitude about how I'm not allowed to be angry about my memories of her vanishing, now." She smiled sardonically. "But hey, I guess you probably don't care about what a 'quirk effect' like myself might be feeling. Goodbye."

Jailong didn't have anything to say to that. Good. Before Yukino could start walking again, though, she heard a sound like a firecracker popping. "Hey!" A voice... was that Mushu-chan? He sounded angry, in any case. "You don't know anything about what she's like!"

Yukino snorted. "Ain't that the fuckin' truth. Good to know you've got your 'user's' back despite her repeatedly calling you a 'thing,' I guess." She started walking to the exit of the underground boarding area for the train.

"You kno-" Mushu-chan started to shout, but stopped.

Yukino turned back to see Jailong holding her hand up, probably having stopped Mushu-chan's rant with a silent command. "It's not worth it, Firecracker."

"Yeah," Yukino said flatly. "You've got a train to catch and our ride's probably here by now. I'd say this was a nice talk but, well, I don't wanna lie." Yukino was very tempted to say 'unlike you,' but she was probably pushing it already... She started walking to the exit again. Jailong didn't try to dig herself any deeper, she just sighed and got on the train. Yukino walked up the stairs to the exit, seeing her brother's car when she got to ground-level.

Nii-chan got out of the car, a worried expression on his face. It looked like he hadn't even taken time to change because he was still in his hero outfit. "Yuki-chan, are you okay?" He ran up to Yukino, sweeping her up in a hug. "I'm so sorry, Yuki-chan. I don't know what you've been dealing with, but..."

Yukino hugged him back, hard. It was like a dam burst and she couldn't hold back the tears anymore. She buried her head in her brother's chest, sobbing.

x x x

The next couple minutes were a bit of a blur to Yukino. She vaguely recalled being gently led somewhere, Nii-chan and Akai-chan talking about something. But she spent most of that time crying into Nii-chan's costume.

Eventually Yukino calmed down a bit... or maybe just ran out of tears. At some point Nii-chan had taken her to a nearby bench and sat her down. Yukino rubbed her now-wet face off on her sleeve. The tears on her sleeve turned to frost almost immediately. For whatever reason, despite the fact that Cryomancy wasn't technically an ice-based Quirk, her tears were cold and would freeze onto anything other than her. Apparently her grandmother, who had an actual ice Quirk, had the same effect. Even though she was only reminded of it when crying, knowing that she had a similarity like that with her grandmother tended to make Yukino feel... pleasant, at least a little.

Speaking of... Yukino looked at the surface she'd been crying into. Flame-retardant fabric with a scale-like design, covered in frost and, at some parts, outright ice. "Ah, s-sorry," Yukino muttered to her brother.

He gave her a smile, squeezing her back a bit before letting her go from his hug. "It's okay. My costume is made to give me a bit of resistance to cold, remember? While I'm thawing my shirt out, though, do you need some fire?"

Yukino nodded. "Yeah, I might need a recharge..."

Nii-chan took a breath, conjuring fire from his hands. He held one of his flame-wreathed palms over his icy shirt, melting and evaporating the ice, and held the other out to Yukino. Yukino held her hands over the fire, sucking the familiar-tasting heat from it. Nii-chan didn't say anything as she ate her fill of his Dragon Fire, and when his shirt was dried off he let the hand on his chest fall wordlessly, still keeping the fire he was feeding to Yukino up.

"Done," Yukino said when she had her fill, pulling her hands away. "Thanks."

Nii-chan let his fire go out, a slight hitch in his breathing. "I'm... sorry, by the way," he said after a while.

"For what?" Yukino asked.

"This whole thing is kind of my fault..."

"It's literally not, but go on," Yukino said flatly.

"Yeah, but..." He sighed. "I mean, yeah, I didn't cause... whatever happened there, but... you turned down UA because I was a jerk to you all that time ago."

Yukino snorted. "I turned down UA because I overreacted to you giving me valid criticism and decided to do something stupid."

Nii-chan put his hand on her shoulder. "It was criticism, but in hindsight I wouldn't call it valid. I was too harsh on you, and I ended up pushing you away..."

Yukino shrugged, though she didn't shake his hand off. "I still probably should've..." She sighed. "Let's just say we both did something stupid."

He chuckled and ruffled her hair. Yukino pulled away a bit, but grinned. "Yeah, I guess if we're both in agreement..." He looked over Yukino's shoulder. "Hey, kiddo!" Yukino turned to see Akai-chan standing around awkwardly a bit away. "I still want you to call a parent or guardian before I take you anywhere, but once you do that we can get lunch, my treat!"

"I'll need to borrow on of your phones," Akai-chan said. "My Quirk interferes with electronics, so my phone is only for emergencies and usually uncharged."

Ryuji's brow furrowed. "There's really nothi-" He stopped, looked at Yukino, then sighed. "No, no, it's your Quirk," he muttered, "you probably know best... Okay, Yuki-chan, can you give her your phone? I wanna call our parents so they know you're alright." He pulled out his phone.

"Yeah," Yukino nodded. "Though... I don't know if I'm ready to talk with Mom and Dad yet... Honestly I only called you because I needed your help..."

Nii-chan nodded understandingly. "Yeah, I get it. I still have to talk to them, but I'll explain that to them. I'll go call them in my car, give you two some privacy." He did as he said, getting inside his car and calling someone on his phone.

Yukino pulled out her phone. "I can go somewhere else, if you want some privacy," she offered.

"It's okay," Akai-chan said. "Could you please dial the number in and hold the phone for me? I would prefer not to destroy your phone."

"Yeah, that's cool. Gimme the number."

Yukino dialed in the number Akai-chan gave her, then put the phone on speaker for her. It sounded like it was her grandmother who picked up. Akai-chan told her that she'd left the school, and how it was probably not going to be a school much longer. Akai-obaachan asked how Akai-chan's stepsibling was (still on the island and apparently better off that way, which concerned Yukino...) and then suggested she start looking for another school. Then she asked where Akai-chan was and said she couldn't pick her up.

"I'm with... a friend and her older brother right now," Akai-chan answered.

"A friend?" Akai-obaachan asked, clearly interested in what Akai-chan would say next by her tone of voice.

"...Yes," Akai-chan answered.

"Is she the short blue girl with ice powers that you like a lot?"

Akai-chan's ears turned a little red. "...Yes," she muttered.

"And her brother is a pro hero, right? He should be trustworthy. You may stay with them for a while, but please go either here or your home by nightfall."

"Okay, Obaachan," she agreed. "See you soon."

"Bye, Sei-tan," Akai-obaachan said. "I'll tell your mother about this for you." She hung up.

Yukino smirked at her. Akai-chan, probably realizing what that smirk meant, blushed slightly harder in anticipation. "So I'm the short blue girl that you like a lot, huh?" She turned off her phone and put it back in her pocket.

Akai-chan gave a small nod. "That's right."

Yukino smiled at her. "I'm flattered."

"You're... you're welcome, I guess."

Nii-chan got out of his car, stopping Yukino from pressing Akai-chan any further. Probably for the best. "You guys done? I can take your orders if you want!"

"We are, thank you," Akai-chan said.

x x x

"Thanks for this, by the way," Yukino said as she sat down on the bench. They'd gone to Dad's family restaurant for the food, as Yukino thought, but Nii-chan had made it a takeout order and taken them to the park nearby instead of going inside to eat. Yukino had stayed in the car, but Nii-chan relayed the well-wishes of Dad and the employees she was closest with.

"No problem, kiddo," Ryuji said with a grin. He handed out the containers to Yukino and Akai-chan, then opened his. "Smells so good..." he said after giving it a sniff.

Yukino and Akai-chan opened their food, too. Nii-chan and Yukino both ordered the Da'long Katsukare, a special dish that they both liked a lot, and Akai-chan ordered it too because she liked spicy food anyway and didn't have as much of the menu memorized as the siblings.

"It tastes delicious," Akai-chan said after taking a few bites. It was, as the name suggested, a katsukare dish with the tonkatsu shaped and decorated to look vaguely like a dragon. It was also very spicy, as Nii-chan had warned Akai-chan before relaying her order to the restaurant. "Though if I may ask, was it named after Takeda-san's hero name?"

Nii-chan smiled at Yukino. "Really, Yuki-chan?" he asked, his voice dripping with exaggerated joy. "Your girlfriend already knows my hero name?"

Akai-chan's cheeks turned a very adorable shade of red at that comment. "Ah, uh..." she stammered out.

Yukino snorted. "Yeah, that's right Akai-chan," she said. "When Nii-chan chose his hero name, Dad decided to name a dish after him in support."

"And he naturally picked katsukare," Nii-chan added, "because it's kinda one of my favorite foods." He ate some of the curry-covered pork, then sighed in delight. A small, deliberately dragon-shaped puff of fire escaped from his lips when he exhaled. "Plus, it's so spicy that it makes you feel like you're breathing fire, like my Quirk."

"That... sounds nice," Akai-chan said.

Yukino grinned. "And when I finally debut, though unfortunately it seems like it's gonna be a while still, Dad's gonna name something after me."

Nii-chan chuckled. "Yeah, can't wait to see that, huh?"

"I'd love to see it," Akai-chan said.

"Thanks, Akai-chan." Yukino smiled and leaned on Akai-chan's side. "So are you gonna try to get into another hero school after this?" Yukino asked. "I'm planning to try to transfer into UA. Nii-chan's been looking into how to do that for me and could probably help you, if you want to as well."

Ryuji faux-pouted. "Don't volunteer my help without asking, Yuki-chan..."

"Love you too, Nii-chan," Yukino smirked at him.

"Thank you for the offer," Akai-chan said, "but I think I'm going to go into medical school after this, not resume the hero course."

"Oh that's cool," Yukino said.

"Med school is certainly a great goal," Nii-chan agreed. "People tend to glorify pro heroes, but doctors save lives too."

"Thank you," Akai-chan said. "For what you just said, and for the lunch as well."

Nii-chan gave her a smile. "You're welcome! It was nice meeting Yuki-chan's... friend."

He didn't say 'girlfriend,' but Akai-chan still blushed again.

"That's enough teasing, Nii-chan," Yukino said. "Let's eat before our food gets cold, huh?"

"Ah, right," Akai-chan muttered. She quickly took a large bite of her katsukare, probably to give herself an excuse to not engage in the conversation. Yukino smiled and had some katsukare as well.

"Aah~" Nii-chan sighed once they were all done with their food. "That was delicious~"

"Yeah~" Yukino agreed with a smile. She was feeling a lot better after some good food.

"It was good," Akai-chan said, putting her container down.

"So what are we doing now?" Yukino asked.

"We can do something else in a bit, but for now..." Nii-chan pulled another container out of the bag that the katsukare was in and handed it to Yukino. "Sorry if this... probably isn't the best time for it, but Dad and I both thought you might like a little pick-me-up."

Yukino quietly opened the container, revealing... "Is that a meringue?" Yukino asked. It looked like a lightly browned meringue, shaped into a scale pattern somehow.

"Take a bite," Nii-chan said, handing her a spoon.

Yukino took a spoonful of the dessert, revealing ice cream and a brownie under it. A warm feeling spread in her chest. "Oh, it's a baked Alaska," she realized. Her father had made her and Nii-chan the hot-and-cold dessert a few times when they were younger (once he even enlisted Mom's help and Quirk to make it right in front of them). Yukino chuckled. "Haven't had this in a while... What's he calling it? Baked Kuraokami?"

Nii-chan shrugged. "He hasn't told me the name yet, but he's been preparing to add it to the menu since you told us your hero name."

Yukino smiled, taking another spoonful. The meringue and brownie were only a little warm and the ice cream was starting to melt from the wait, but it still tasted delicious. A cold, but not sad, tear came from her eye. She quickly wiped it off, making sure it didn't get in her ice cream. "It's good," she said once she swallowed it. "Remind me to thank Dad."

Nii-chan smiled. "I will."