Chapter Text
“Sabishi.”
Loner
Alone
What an odd thing to name a child.
“Sabishi—“
Who would name a kid that anyway?
Was it just a cruel joke? Or just horrible foreshadowing?
“Damn, Sabi, wake up dude.”
His eyes fluttered a bit as he was nudged harshly by the girl next to him. Though bleary eyed, he could see the trademark pillar of thin, light grey smoke that constantly rose from her mouth that almost matched the colour of her eyes. It was a bit odd to see when the details were hard to make out. Luckily, it wasn’t enough to set off any alarms in the classroom.
“You basically slept through all of History. Cementoss looked pissed.”
“No, that’s just his face. If anything, he would just be disappointed.” The boy shrugged before stretching out his legs and feet. His talons— to be more precise— Black and shiny, outstretched like they’re ready to snatch up a small animal.
“Which is worse? You feelin’ okay?” The girl cocked her head and the unruly brown curls fell with the jerk. “You look sick.”
“ ‘M not sick.” Maybe hungry . “That part time job thing is kinda killer’sall.” His weekend job —most students took one up to either pass the time or begin saving up. Not everyone had daddy’s money to fall back on, after all. But what’s exactly “killer” about working in a bookstore? Grey eyes— framed by those messy, brown, winding locks— narrowed at the boy and gave him a full once over.
“You’re a shit liar.”
“Nen, you’re a shit.”
That got Nensho to laugh at least. Tamashi — as most other students would call her — shook her head, the smoke trailing from her lips became a bit thicker, less like blowing out a candle and more like burning a piece of paper.
“C’mon, let’s grab lunch. You’ve got money to buy this time, right?” Tamashi stood up, pushing her chair backwards. The classrooms were large— had to be with so many different types of quirks in one room. Even the desks had to be different sizes to accommodate students. Those with tails or extra limbs had different chairs. It almost made him feel special to know that the school considered his tail feathers needing a special chair.
“Hm? Thought you were paying for the first day of college.” Karasu stood, his talons clicking quietly against the polished, hardwood floor. His name was ironic, given that his quirk was the same. Large feathered wings rested against his back, tucked in neatly against his back to avoid bumping anything while he walked. Under the school’s LEDs, they looked stark black, midnight in colour. But, like the real crows in the city, the sunlight brought the purples and blues out from the inky darkness. His hair, short and fluffy, had a similar distortion, much like his feathers, but the sheen was dulled. He probably needed to eat more fish. His hair was cut to a pseudo-mullet, but was tied back into a rat tail with a dark red yarn wrap once the length had reached from his slightly pointed ears down to his shoulder blades.
Tamashi stayed silent for a moment as she grabbed the stapled together syllabus Cementoss passed out, beginning the collection of forever unread papers.
“Ugh, did I actually say that?”
“Mhmm. ‘ My treat for both of us getting in ’ is what you said.” He spoke with a grin as his voice did what Nensho thought was the absolute most unnerving thing: her own voice spoken back to her, the same tone and cadence she voiced so casually to her best friend. And it was so goddamn weird every single time he did it.
“Okay! Fine! Just stop doing that.” She smacked him on the head with the papers before going for the door.
Sabishi followed after her, weaving his way through the desks to the door, into the hallway, and eventually to the cafeteria. They chatted softly on the way, mostly gushing about which heros they were hoping to see or which ones they thought would be their favourite teacher based solely on vibes.
UA was massive. A college meant to house and train the next generation of heroes would have to be. Each pillar of the school belonged to one of four courses. The Hero Course: the internal building being made up of lecture halls, specialised gyms, heated pools below ground, faculty rooms, and common spaces every few floors. The Support Course: multiple spaces to build, share, test, destroy, and rebuild their projects as well the standard classrooms spanning over several floors. The Business Course: labs, miles of documents to learn from, and an entire floor dedicated to what could only be described as a hero nerds wall street. A giant screen inside a boardroom with updating standings on heroes, projection rates, and every inch of public data that an aspiring manager would ever need and then some. The General Ed Course: the final pillar, and the one most thought lackluster. In theory, it was— however there were bits of everything. Moving from the general course was actually easier than people assumed as every aspect of their building was meant to encourage just that. They had miniature versions of what the other three pillars had, just not as detailed to not overwhelm them.
The center of the pillars were the main common spaces. Casual sports courts and gyms, an amphitheater and auditorium, quite an extensive library and main network computer lab, main faculty rooms, arts and music space, the outer campus training grounds, and rest of the world through archway lined paths to the front gate.
The dorms, which no one has even seen yet, stood in the back. The walls of UA, its pillars, the training facilities, all surrounded the dorms to protect the students one last time before they’re sent out into the world. Supposedly, they were meeting their roommates mere minutes before they were meant to get into the dorms. Something about “ learning how to work with new people on the fly ”. Each student was already randomly assigned, but no one has any idea how the randomised roommates were matched up.
The duo had basically stuck to each other’s sides since they arrived, barely giving any of their new classmates a glance. They didn’t need to know anyone quite yet. Even through the awkward introductions, they didn’t try to make friends. Nensho was quiet with purpose, she had already decided she didn’t need other people in her life. She had Sabishi, after all. Said bird didn’t really know how to talk to new people. How he became friends with her was a miracle all on its own. He just wanted to get through college so he could get to work.
So, they stuck by each other. Talking quietly amongst themselves while people played those stupid ice breaker games. A lot of loud and eccentric classmates made it easy to keep the metaphorical spotlight away from them. Even as they took up a small corner table on the balcony of the cafeteria, they were alone together.
Nensho’s quirk basically required her to stay by an open window or stand outside. Sabishi’s met her parents, and their quirks really made hers something cool and unique. Her mother’s quirk,“Pilot Light”, allowed her to hold a steady stream of concentrated, superheated flame from her fingertips. Her father? “Blacksmith”. The man’s entire torso was an open chamber that he could heat up to incredible temperatures. And then, Nen. “Internal Furnace”. A constant smoldering fire sat in a second stomach chamber that basically allowed her to ingest anything flammable. Some woods made her smoke smell or look different, added more smoke, made it less noticeable, all really cool for someone doing very literal “smoking them out” style tactics. Like her father, it would be dangerous for this fire to go out. Nensho’s quirk was a really cool mutation in comparison to someone whose quirk could be boiled down to “bird.” It was just slightly inconvenient to be inside a completely enclosed room for anyone that needed to breathe oxygen.
Between them sat two plates of hot food, a couple bowls of broth, and one plate of fried tofu - Sabi’s addition. Nothing in particular made him choose it today, but it was better to try it now than be disappointed later.
“Wanna try to sneak into the dorms?” Nensho’s grin almost made him agree without thinking, but that usually got them into trouble a lot in high school. Really, who thought they’d be good additions to the hero course….
“I don’t think we should try that hard to get kicked out on day one, Nen.” The crow huffed as he jabbed his chopsticks towards hers, stealing the piece of tofu as punishment for even suggesting something fun, but also expulsion worthy.
“No no, it’ll be quick. You just fly me up there, we land on someone’s balcony-to-be, poke around, and leave before anyone sees us.”
“Solid plan, besides the fact that their room would forever smell like burning rice and tofu and give us away.”
Nensho sniffled a little before frowning, brow squished together as they did when she got annoyed. He was right, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be upset about it.
“Fine, buzzkill.”
“Buzzkill would rock as a hero name if I had a vulture quirk instead.” He slouched a bit, disappointed that he couldn’t have that over being a crow. The ability to just eat things whole, bone and all? It would be awesome, sick and disturbing, but awesome.
“Pft, right. As if anyone would let that slide.” The brunette shoved her mouth full of food. The smoke trailed from her nose now, puffing rhythmically with her breathing while she chewed.
“They would! It’s cool.”
She rolled her eyes in response.
“Okay, smartass, let’s hear your proto-names then.”
She still didn’t respond, but the smoke emitting from her began to turn whiter and smell a little more like chicken.
Sabishi sipped on his soup while he waited. Finally she swallowed her mouthful, huffing again.
“I’ve had mine decided for years now. And it’s something that not even-“ Nensho’s eyes widened with hate as she fully stopped for a moment. “That sonovabitch— “
Sabishi turned his head to see, honest-to-god, one of the prettiest men he’s seen in real life. Tall, built even through the college’s uniform, strong jaw and straight nose. White hair sat slicked back and styled to look a little rougher, while a streak of black hung down just above his bright red eyes that were narrowed in their direction. Oh, good god he was walking towards them.
“I didn’t realise they let the riffraff in here.” Oh— even his voice was smooth and low, soothing and silky with a light singing edge.
“Oh fuck you, you pompous dick. Who even says ‘riffraff’ anymore?” Nensho was quick to quip back to Mr. Mystery. Sabishi— honestly— was way too busy staring to realise he was being actively insulted.
“Who uses ‘pompous’?”
“I do, that’s who.”
“Figures you’d hang out with a rat with wings. Couldn’t make normal friends in middle school?”
Who was this man? Why was he hot? Why was he mean and really hot?
“He’s not a rat! You’re just a dick!”
Even the way he pressed his mouth into a repressed snarl and quirked his brow was attractive.
“Are you going to call me names or are you going to answer me? Why are you here?”
“…. Who the fuck is this guy?” Sabishi finally found the brain power to turn back to Nensho, his own brow furrowed and wings shifting as if to push the growing awkwardness away to no avail.
“I got in because I worked hard for it and didn’t have to pay my way in like some people.”
Guess he wasn’t getting an answer anytime soon.
Red eyes glared at Nensho before he leaned in a little closer. A jet of flames flew from his mouth and completely burned the rest of the tofu into a crispy, charred mess. Sabishi pouted a bit. It wasn’t half bad, but he didn’t want it burned to hell and brought back to life like this.
“I worked hard. I’d say they let you in on pity points. Stay out of my way, Tamashi.”
Oh. He knew her name. That made sense— obviously.
“Up yours, Yamakaji.” Nensho flipped him off as he walked back inside, leaving them in a weird, tense limbo. He should ask, right? Or say anything?
“The tofu…” His voice cracked a little. “Also, that was weird.”
“I’ll buy you more, it’s fine.” She put both of her elbows on the table and pressed her palms into her eyes, groaning. “I forgot he was going here.”
Logically, that made no sense, but he was not poking that bear.
“… He was kinda—“
“I swear to god if you say anything about him or his body, I am never buying you lunch again.”
Sabishi clamped his jaw shut with a sudden click of his teeth. That was a threat— a real one— that he didn’t want to chance.
They sat quietly stewing in this not-quite tension as they ate. Nen ended up eating the burned tofu since taste didn’t matter much to her and Sabi took the rest of her soup as retribution for catching a wild fucking stray like that.
They finished up, returned their dishes, and made their way to the outer campus pathways. First years were gathering on the field between the main building and the dorms where they had a giant stage and screen set up. There were three buildings for dorms. Not quite tall — compared to the school itself — just five floors, one for each of the four courses, a common area, and roof access. Tan buildings, plenty of windows and a balcony per room, but the inside was completely unknown. It… was a really unconventional move-in day, and the first day of classes.
Sabishi’s talons dug into the soft dirt they stood on, relaxed, then sunk in again. The ground was cool against his skin, and it felt so nice to sink his talons into something. His wings were kept tucked tightly against his back so as to not take up more space than necessary. Everyone was still marked by course and then by “class”. Technically, they were still two separate classes per course just to keep the balance while separated into training groups and dorms.
Once everyone had arrived and eventually divvied out into their courses, the speakers were clicked on with a low electrical buzz. Sabishi grimaced a bit and rubbed his shoulder into his ear as if the hum was something he could get out. A woman, popular by hero standards, took to the stage.
If he hadn’t the slightest clue to who his biological mother was, he’d say he could pass as the woman’s kid easily. Midnight was tall already, and her heels just made her that much more confident. Her newest uniform went hard too. It was technically just BDSM gear with the underlayer she could tear off whenever but that didn’t mean it wasn’t awesome. The red highlights were striking enough to make you look where she wanted, too. One hell of a badass. Her blue eyes and dark black hair almost matched Sabishi’s own. Except he’d call his blue more cornflower and hers was closer to midday summer sky.
She tapped the microphone a couple times, gaining the attention of everyone in the crowd— not that she didn’t already have it.
“Welcome to UA, new faces! I’m glad everyone made it here alright, met some of the professors and had a glimpse of what’s to come. I know that making you wait to go to your dorms is a bit unorthodox, but we wanted more flair this year.”
Oh. They were the lab rats for this. That meant this was going to go swimmingly .
“We have already sent your things to the rooms, so no need to worry about getting them. We also took the time to set up the rooms to some of your specifications! We do hope you like them. Each floor of the middle building belongs to one of the four courses — There’s a common space, large kitchen, extra bathrooms all on the first floor, Business is the second floor, GenEd is on the third floor, Support, you get the fourth, and the Hero course students get the top floor.” As she spoke, the screen lit up with each floor and a list of rooms. Two classes per floor, twenty two students per class. Four bathrooms for each unit. Eleven rooms.
“Shared dorms, huh?”
“You’d think we’d get our own damn rooms.”
Midnight, with what seemed like Cemetoss’s help, began going through the first two floors, making sure that floor’s students got their key cards and met their roommates before going into the building. Everyone’s names were being shown next to what dorm number they were in. Shouldn’t take long, only had a hundred or so students to get through. Sabishi’s blue eyes looked down at the grass, his brow furrowed.
A feather, black in colour but with that familiar indigo sheen.
He knew spring was coming, but he definitely shouldn’t be molting already. He picked it up and held open a wing, trying to see if he was missing anything.
“What’s up?” Nensho leaned in to see, taking the chance to see the underside of his wings.
“See any of them missing or loose?” He ruffled the feathers but nothing fell. Weird.
Nensho shook her head and looked up, snorting softly.
“No, it’s probably not yours, though.” She nudged him, motioning to a bird-headed classmate that was now staring at him. “How many kids in your bloodline would it take for them to just be a bird that was the size of a person?” She teased, the smoke from her mouth growing as she laughed at the blush on his face.
“What? You can’t just ask that.” He dropped the feather and turned away from the other bird, brow furrowed as he glared down at Nensho. She wasn’t really that much shorter than him, but the bird feet did add an inch or two just because of his joints.
“Yeah, you’d probably have ugly kids anyway.”
Sabishi rolled his eyes as he began looking over the students in their class. Twenty other people. He definitely wasn’t getting roomed with Nensho since it was randomised, apparently. Would he hate living with the bird guy? He supposed it depended on how bird-like he was. Two broody little shits in one room might lead them trying to kill each other. What about Pretty Mean? What did Nensho call him? Yamakaji? No, since he saw him with her, the guy would probably just use any excuse to torture him for fun. His eye drifted downwards to what he could only say was a gremlin that was deep fried in purple something. No, his vibe was just off. And… and he was trying to look up skirts, fantastic. Absolutely not. Random roommates was a horrible idea in his opinion.
The professors took little time at all to get the first two floors done, quickly moving through the support students. A head of silver caught his eye this time. He also seemed tall, and spoke so animatedly with his classmates. He seemed kind of cool, actually. Sabishi watched as the man waved over to their class, probably saw someone he knew over there. What kinds of quirks did support students have? Ones that made them want to work with hero’s or building stuff, probably? That’s what made sense at least.
Cementoss motioned over to Class 1B and began the final schpiel about how the dorms were going to go. He watched as students were pairing off and handing in the keycards everyone had received in the mail.
Turns out those were temps, meant to deactivate by now so that no one else could use one, and students would get their real keycards that gave them access to the entire campus. Smart, actually. Midnight finally turned to them and the board behind her lit up with their names and dorm numbers.
5J- Tamashi Nensho and Uraraka Ochako, at least that meant she would have a corner room and plenty of ventilation.
5F - Karasu Sabishi and- yeah he had no idea who that was supposed to be.
Honestly that’s all he cared about, find his room and go there. He didn’t bother trying to figure out who the other guy was. As long as he had window access, he was fine. Once the new keycard was in hand, he took a glance behind him to see if anyone was looking at him . Which, there were , mostly pity glances, a glare or two, deadpan staring. Weird, but whatever. Once everyone asked their dumb questions about his name, they’d stop staring.
Roof access probably needed to be swiped to get in or out, right? Why waste time going through all the stairs and hallways then. Sabishi shrugged before taking off for the roof, leaving Nensho at the mercy of a sweet looking girl that was her new roommate. He got inside just as he was hearing some of the 1B students in the stairwell, dipping off into his class’s dorm before anyone else saw him. Two main doors sat in the middle of the hallway, and emergency supplies closets were placed at the stairwell entrances.
The main room of the dorms was actually quite nice, couches already set up for at least fifteen people, a large counter with a few in-wall appliances and a fridge for the entire class to share, large TV with set ups for anything someone brought with them. All the doors were labeled with the letters A through K, so it was easy to find his room. There was a second pseudo story of rooms, five on the bottom, six on the top, all going around the entire dorm space like a giant bubble. F was tucked away in the upper floor corner.
One more small, fluttery hop to bypass the stairs again and he was finally able to relax. One side of the room had whoever that was’s stuff, and a bunch of supplies that he guessed the guy asked for to decorate. At least he wasn’t living with a savage, then. His side looked… bare. A couple shelves, larger bed to accommodate his wings. That’s what the form they were to fill out was really for. It asked too many questions— and too many he didn’t know the answers to— about how he wanted his room to look. As long as he had a bed that he could lay in, he was satisfied. They left him a box of extra supplies as well, string lights, sheer curtains, extra sheets and shelving. For some reason, there was a board in the corner that looked like it was a scratching post for cats. Did they think he needed something like that? Maybe they were just trying to accommodate his quirk more.
Sabishi sat down on the bed, not sure what else to do. He should unpack, but that would only take a few minutes and he’d be completely done. A duffle bag and a backpack was all he had with him. This other guy had plenty of bags on his side. It made him feel weird. Overwhelmed? The silence. Home has never been silent so why was it now—
In the main room, the door slammed open with some loud cheers about being first, and then someone immediately correcting them that they were in fact, not first.
“Fine! First with taking the stairs and not cheating.”
Hm.
That… was a bit better, at least.
The noise and chatter grew louder, and for once, Sabishi found himself kind of relaxed with the intrusion. New stuff and people could be difficult to get used to, but maybe it wouldn’t be outright horrible.
The crow stood up and grabbed his bag of clothes, tossing them in a couple drawers while listening to the others as they made it to their own rooms. Barely anything to organize so it all fit itself into the top two drawers. He had a couple books with him, sentimental things he didn’t want to leave behind, and random knick-knacks he’s picked up over the years. For now, those were going to sit on top of the dresser until he figured out what to do with them. Footsteps trampled up the stairs, some of the boys almost quite literally hootin’ n’ hollarin’, followed by some more reserved voices passed by the corner room. Sabishi held his breath for a moment.
No one came in. Guess his roommate was slow to get places? Maybe he’d go bug Nensho while she decorated since they were basically free until Monday. Saturdays were apparently reserved for practice patrols with one of their professors on a rotating schedule, and Sundays were completely theirs. It‘s nice to know he had a few days to fix his shit sleeping schedule. It wasn’t entirely his fault that classes ran through his obligatory 4 hours of sleep.
Sabishi stood on his bed, hanging up the string lights and ignoring the thudding coming out of everyone else’s dorms, while he tried to not bail out of nervousness. Seemed like they were roomed next to some of the girls, but he didn’t know who. One keeps ribbiting, though, so he could at least guess one of them.
Finally, one more set of footsteps came trudging up the wooden stairs, a not-so-quiet string of curses and complaints accompanying them. The door was pushed fully open to the lovely tune of bitching, ranging from being the first door from the stairs and the roommate situation as a whole.
“Can’t believe I have to room with a fucking bird.”
Sabishi furrowed his brow as he looked down — barely — at his roommate, and fuck, what was with this school and having tall ass students?
Red met blue for the first time, though one was significantly more confused than the other. And what did he have to say? What brilliant words of wisdom did tall, blond, and pissy have for him?
“You didn’t go through my shit like some sort of creep, did you?”
Wonderful. Maybe this guy was a savage after all.
He rolled his eyes before stepping off the bed to grab the fabric curtains they gave him, his wings ruffling and puffing up at the man.
“Nice to meet you too, whatever your name is.” He had no idea what the hell he was going to use this for. Maybe hang it over the bed like a canopy? Yeah, that sounded cool. “No, I didn’t touch your stuff.” He looked up at him, making an effort to at least memorise his face. The guy might have been nice to look at if he wasn’t snarling at him with rabies levels of hate in his eyes.
He was certainly built, probably did a lot of lifting, but it was hard to tell how extensive that was due to his uniform being messy. On purpose, though. He could respect the styling choice. He watched as the other’s eye twitched and his jaw clenched. Day one and for some reason, he hated him. Maybe it was the inconvenience of having a roommate at all, and not the mere fact that he existed in the first place. Yeah, hopefully it was that.
“Don’t talk to me like you don’t know my name.” His sharp eyes glared holes into the bird, the red looking vibrant in the daylight coming from the cracked open window and balcony door. The snarl turned upwards, the hate turned to confidence as he opened his mouth again. “I’m the one that’s going to be the next Number One. Bakugo. And I’m stuck here with a fuckin’ nobody-ass-extra for the next year.”
“Charmed.” Sabishi spoke flatly. This guy was clearly delusional. Maybe it wasn’t too late to beg the faculty for a room assignment change. “You’re not gonna kill me in my sleep, are you?” He stepped back onto the bed with a few wall pins in his hand, trying to plan out where they were going to go.
“Tch, don’t fuckin—“ This ‘Bakugo’ took a breath, “Why would— ya know what, I don’t care. Not worth it.” The blonde waved a hand to him before turning his back to the crow to unpack. And Sabishi just watched him. To be fair, he didn’t mean to stare directly at him, but he did want to see what kind of person he was sleeping four feet from for the foreseeable future. Bakugo didn’t get that far in unpacking before he turned back around. The offended silence hung thick between them for a moment too short.
“Why the hell are you staring at me?”
Sabishi shrugged, not sure what kind of answer would placate that of all things, before finally moving to pin up the fabric. If he let this part hang down, it would act as a curtain for the bed… Then he wouldn’t have to look at that face all the time.
“Hey, birdbrain, a question requires an answer . In case you weren’t aware.”
“I know? I gave you one.”
“Shrugging isn’t an answer.” Blondie squared himself off as he turned fully towards Sabishi. Was he seriously trying to intimidate him right now? He looked towards the ceiling, trying to find the will to not throw pins at him, and shrugged again.
“I didn’t mean to stare. Sorry for being cautious.” He kept his voice as low and unthreatening as possible. When more aggressive questions didn’t come his way, he chose to speak again. “You’re just new so I’m just trying to gauge how you are’sall.”
Wrong choice apparently. He obviously should have left it where he had silence.
“You don’t need to do shit. Don’t stare at me, it’s fucking creepy. Bad enough that you’re going to shed everywhere, I don’t need you being weird, too.”
“I don’t shed, I molt. Once .” Sabishi hopped off the bed and made way for the door. Bakugo stared at him as he left. The audacity . What thoughts could be bouncing around in his brain was up for debate, and he wasn’t sticking around. If that five minute max interaction was a preview of the next year, Sabishi was in for one hell of a treat. Maybe Nensho was having better luck with her roommate.
Uraraka had marched right up to Tamashi the second their names came up on the screen. At least someone was paying attention to who was who. The two girls were actually quite similar physically. Uraraka was a hair taller, Tamashi was a tad stockier, but they were both chubby brunettes with a fire inside them. One being a little more literal. The taller of the two was all excited smiles as she made the first move to greet the other.
“I saw you in history earlier! You didn’t really look into the ‘ introduce yourself to the class ’ stuff, though.”
“Oh, yeah, not really my thing.” Grey eyes looked down at the girl’s extended hand, sighed, and took it. This was her roommate, after all. She had to be civil at the very least, even if that meant touching. “I was trying to keep Karasu awake, but his sleep schedule’s all kinds of messed up.”
“Mhm, I noticed. Oh! I wasn’t sure what kind of stuff you had asked for in your room but I made sure to ask for extra shelves and sheets, just in case.” Her honey brown eyes seemed earnest, genuine. Maybe. She didn’t look like the kind of roommate to hold stuff over someone else, but you could never be too safe.
“You sure that the smoke isn’t gonna drive you nuts? It’s not exactly something I can turn off.” The girls took the cards Midnight handed to them, handing the old, now defunct, keycards back. Whatever that was for. Nensho didn’t get why they didn’t just send their actual ID’s and cards the first time.
“Oh no, your smoke will be fine. It looks like it can be pretty cozy on a cold night.”
“Well, winter is an entire semester away, so don’t hold your breath for ‘cozy’.”
“Summer nights can get cold, too. Besides, all the rooms have balconies and windows, so I’m not worried about suffocation.” Uraraka waved her hand a little bit before looking up at the board again. Her smile wavered a bit and her brows furrowed. Nensho followed her gaze, but didn’t see anything to be worried over.
“You good?”
“Yeah, it’s just…” She glanced behind her at one of their classmates. He stood alone, arms crossed and jaw clenched tight, uninterested in getting chummy with his roommate. His annoyed face almost felt like her own sometimes, but she had Sabishi to calm her down most of the time.
“That guy is kind of a known jerk. Like, a big one. I heard something from one of the others that he told someone to jump off a roof and they did. And he’s… rooming with your friend?” She shrunk in on herself a bit as she spoke, pressing the knuckles of her fingers together. Nensho frowned before scoffing. The mere idea that anyone else was allowed to bully Sabishi was a joke. That was her job, and she wasn’t going to let some blond asshole take that place.
“Sabi’ll be just fine. He’s grown, he can handle himself. Trust me, there’s nothing that overgrown hairball can say to him that’ll lead to some sort of breakdown.” Nensho waved off the thought before following the rest of their class inside the building. Sure, there were elevators, but that would probably smoke everyone out before they got to the top floor. Or she could take the stairs.
Good luck, everybody else, she was taking the elevator. Fuck the stairs. A group of boys were lined up at the bottom of the stair well with a couple of the girls. The pink one, Ms. Gyaru, had an arm raised and a mischievous grin on her face as she counted them off with a “ready, set, go!” They giggled a bit before joining Nensho and Uraraka by the elevators, not paying any mind to the smoke. Some of the others had already headed up, so it would be just a handful of them left for this one. The blond guy had come up behind them, took one look at the gaggle of idiots, and took the stairs as well. Good, she didn’t want to deal with him anyway.
They got off the elevator with a few people clearing their throats as politely as possible, probably regretting taking the elevator with her. Not her damn problem. If they can’t handle the smoke, then that’s on them. The sound of the guys fighting over who ‘won’ filled the hallway. Some onlookers from the other class snickered, leaving their main door open to watch them roughhouse.
“Hey! These are our living spaces, please do not mess it up or break anything on day one!” There was a taller guy standing over two of them that got tangled up in each other on the floor. He looked stern, waving an arm over them like he was their dorm security.
“Iida’s right, you should be a little more careful with everything. Besides, you haven't even unpacked yet.” The tallest girl in the room spoke up. She should really try to learn their names. Or, not. That was a lot of work for people that probably would forget about her as soon as summer break hit. At the realisation that they haven’t even seen their rooms yet, both of the boys took off to the stairs, still being loud as shit. Good god, that was annoying.
Nensho turned to the left, seeing her room and Uraraka opening the door with excitement. Sir Stiff Arms made way for the room next to theirs, the very last one for their dorm, followed by the worst possible goddamn choice imaginable.
Yamakaji fucking Imori.
She was not dealing with this, not now. She could feel his stupid red eyes watching her move across the living room space to her room, trying to hold back her entire being from going at him. Just breathe, calm down, he wasn’t worth it. She had plenty of chances to kick his ass later. Once in the room, she kicked the door closed behind her with a sigh. It muffled the shouting pretty well, actually. Good to know the school wasn’t skimping out on privacy.
“They seem like a handful.”
Nensho opened her eyes to the girl’s patient smile. She was pretty, if a little plain. Uraraka opened up the balcony door fully, letting in a good breeze of fresh air and to vent out some of the smoke that had already begun pooling over the doorway.
“If you mean really damn loud, then yes. They are.”
She had asked for a generous amount of supplies for decorating and organising, some flowers to put in the ceiling, some tacks for posters she had, extra shelving. She didn’t have a lot technically, but she knew her best friend. That moron would absolutely take the bare minimum if it meant he wasn’t bothering anyone. So some of her extra stuff could go to the crow, and she could use some of Uraraka’s extras if she needed to. It works out just fine. Notably, there was an air purifier for the room with a few extra filters. They were going to run out quick, but the school faculty seem to have good foresight about their students’ quirks.
“Hey, uh… what’s your quirk?” Nensho looked up at the girl as she tossed her largest bag onto her bed. Uraraka turned back to her and grinned, looking all giddy as she began touching her suitcases. They all began to hover in the air, turning ever so slightly in the breeze.
“Zero G, I guess you could just call it gravity manipulation, but that’s boring and wordy.” She plopped herself on her bed and pulled some of her cases close. It made it way easier to move stuff around and unpack, for sure. Nensho hummed and nodded her head before turning to her side of the room. Oh yeah, she was totally lofting her bed way up there. And if her roommates quirk made it easy to move heavy shit around, then it would be a piece of cake!. She heard the suitcases and other bags land with a thwump and the other girl humming.
“Do you listen to music?”
“Are you always this friendly?” Nensho snapped back quickly. She hadn’t really meant to, she just wanted to set up her stuff. The girl hesitated before letting out a small laugh, pulling her phone out to try and ease the tenseness.
“Yeah, my papa says it’s cute but could get me into trouble. I ask ‘cause I wanted to play some, drown out whatever’s left of their yelling.” She nodded her head to the door as more muffled cheering made its way into their room.
Well that made her feel bad. Barely. She’ll be fine, she’s grown. “Yeah, go for it. As long as it’s not cringe or something.”
They unpacked to some childhood EDM and Pop music for a while, stuff Nensho kind of knew just from the radio, and it wasn’t all that bad. They got their dressers filled and some of the extra furniture set up when the door cracked open.
Nensho looked up to see the blue eyes of her friend, relieved that she didn’t have to kick any weirdo guy out of their room already. Uraraka perked up as well, having to lean back a bit to see the crow coming into the room.
Sabishi smiled a bit at the sight of them not arguing and no one was crying. He knew Nensho was kind of a spitfire, but she meant well— most of the time. He closed the door behind him and shoved his hands in his pockets. Sometimes, people were a bit put off by the sharp claws. They didn’t want him to shred their arms trying to shake their hands.
“How’s setting stuff up?”
“Fantastic, hold this.” Nensho practically shoved the finished half of the loft into his chest so she could grab the crossbars. He blinked a bit before holding it properly, his claws clinking against the hollow metal. Uraraka was staring at him, growing more and more antsy the less he said. His wings ruffled a bit as he turned to her, not moving an inch while Nensho set up the loft.
“Sorry, I’m Karasu. I’m probably gonna be in here a lot.” He gave her a half smile that she mirrored knowingly.
“Uraraka Ochako. And, I figured as much when I saw Bakugo’s name next to yours.” She sighed softly. Rumors were rumors, but there was usually some sliver of truth in them. From what she could see, that rumor just meant he was a massive bully for no reason other than pride.
“You know the guy? What’s his deal? Think he’s just havin’ a bad day, ‘r what?” Nensho pushed against him a bit harder than intended, knocking him back a bit before barking at him not to move.
“Nnno,” She held onto the n a little too long for comfort, “He just is like that.” The brunette shrugged as she pulled out some of her pictures and posters from a tube. “I hope living with him doesn’t taint your experiences here otherwise. That would totally suck.”
Their room already seemed a lot more put together. Maybe he should find some old posters or something to hang up. The school painted their room a dark charcoal grey, but this room was more of a slightly pink off white with a grey ceiling. Probably to cover up the smoke stains. Smart.
“I’ll make sure we get some extra seats in here then! I have a super fluffy rug, but I don’t think it’s soft enough to sit on for long periods of time.” Uraraka spoke again. She just seemed happy to be making friends so early into the week.
“Shit, I didn’t even think about a rug.” Nensho groaned softly, letting go of the loft. It was ready. “Hey, you don’t mind working some of your magic on the bed, do ya? Damn thing’s heavy.”
Uraraka nodded and tapped the bed post, barely needing to push it up and over the loft with one finger to get it to move. Sabishi and Nensho pushed the loft where she wanted it before lowering the bed into place.
“Your quirk is really cool! Being able to move stuff like that could make for one hell of a rescue hero.” Sabishi fluttered a little, climbing up the loft to help put the sheet on.
“Yeah, though I might go a little more into like… fighting head on? I guess I haven’t decided what kind of direction I want to go, yet.” She sounded unsure, but he couldn’t put his finger on why. Lack of direction could be a confidence issue, but it could also be genuinely no idea what to pick. He wasn’t here to play therapist, though, so he wasn’t going to pry.
“That’s still cool. Could throw cars at villains as easily as blinking.” He shrugged a bit, taking over Nensho’s bed. It was nice up there. Maybe he should have lofted his bed as well. Uraraka’s eyes sparkled a bit as he spoke. Throwing a car at a villain did sound kind of fun. Who cares about the insurance pay out. She had to do that at least once, now.
Sabishi chuckled a little as he climbed down from the bed, helping Uraraka as much as she needed. Nensho worked on hanging up the little cherry blossom strands along the ceiling. Their room was oddly pink based. There was nothing wrong with that, but Nensho didn’t really seem that way to people outside of her circle. Well, more specifically, just Sabishi.
The three of them stayed in the girls’ room for the rest of the night until they were basically kicking him out so they could sleep. Nensho sent him back to his room with a box of extra supplies, extra blankets, small decorations, posters she bought doubles of so they could match, and one odd little thing. A bonsai starter, a Japanese maple tree, specifically. It was still small, its red leaves were just starting to come in with the spring. He’d never considered having plants before, especially since his old room got the worst amount of sunlight possible for an intercity apartment building.
He got up to his room, lightly tapping on the door before opening it because god forbid the man inside be indecent. No yelling came to tell him to wait, so it was probably okay. The room was lit up, his string lights and the couple lamps on Bakugo’s side were all on. The blond was laying in his bed and stared up at him over the edge of the manga in his hand. One of Sabishi’s manga. Weird, but he wasn’t going to start anything over it. He barely had set the box and tree down when Bakugo spoke up.
“I go to bed at nine.” He stopped there, seemingly expecting Sabishi to just nod and agree. When he just gave him a furrowed look, he scoffed and sat up a bit more. “So, I expect no light or sounds from you after. And if you’re going to be out of the room, either be back before nine, or find somewhere else to sleep.”
The crow snorted softly, grabbed some of the extra bedding Nensho and the school gave him, and tossed them onto his bed.
“Not happening. It’s my room just as much as it is yours. You don’t get to just give me a bedtime.”
“Not a bedtime, I just don’t want my sleep interrupted.”
“I’m quiet, you won’t even know I’m here.”
Bakugo narrowed his eyes at Sabishi before putting his book down on the shelf above his bed and rolling off to stand.
“You’ll also ask every time you want to bring someone in here.”
“Same goes for you.” Sabishi crossed his arms and fluffed his wings up.
“No eating in here, either. I don’t want to deal with the smell.”
“Not happening. If I’m hungry, I’ll eat.”
The two of them stood there, the silence ringing out a bit louder than it had earlier. Tense. He hated tense. It wasn’t fair that this stranger was trying to impose immediate rules on him like this.
Sabishi made the first move, turning his back on the blond to get his bed set up. The other took this as a retreat and turned back to his side as well. They both crawled into their respective beds and the lights were turned off. And the silence was still there. How did this guy actually expect him to just be completely dead asleep at nine pm? He didn’t sleep until after midnight, just due to insomnia. So he was just supposed to lay here for three hours? Lame .
He pulled his phone out, turned the brightness all the way down, popped an earbud in, and turned to doom scrolling. He could feel the other’s tired gaze, so he dropped a wing in front of the phone to block out the ambient light the phone gave off. This at least kept him satisfied for the night.
True to himself, Sabishi didn’t end up falling asleep until midnight. Too tired from the pretty eventful day. At the very least, he was getting a decent amount of sleep for once.
The weekend passed, most of the students taking the next two days to relax and hang out in the common area. Sabishi made sure to take a few laps around the campus, getting a good stretch on his wings while also getting a good view of all the buildings. When he was inside, he just sat back and watched his classmates chatter and interact with each other. A couple times they managed to drag him in, even if he was hiding well off to the side. There was one guy that was at least sweet about it, Kirishima. Very supportive in his own way. The redhead got Sabishi and Mina to click right away, the pink gyaru type girl with an acid quirk. She even offered to do some “skincare” for him using her acid, but he was honestly a little too scared to try that. It seemed like she knew what she was doing, but acid on his face did not sound pleasant. Nensho stuck with him when she could, but was constantly dragged off by her roommate. Uraraka was just excited to have a girlfriend she could actually hang out with. It didn’t seem like Nensho minded too much. She needed to talk to other people at some point. A low stakes weekend with her roommate was a great start for her. If only his roommate didn’t just disappear on him for the entire day to do god knows what. He’d at least like to try to be civil with the guy.
With how things were starting, he was sure the school year couldn’t be that bad.