This Color Ain't It

Chapter 19

Notes:

when I started this fic, my ten-page outline only meant to portray a self-indulgent, happy time as Kenji interacted with each character and end on a simple note. Now I am sitting here, 100+ pages of outline & ideas, with more issues than I originally planned xD oops

quite a bit of paraphrasing and dialogue from canon
CW : canon typical violence, implied dissociative episodes, mentions of ptsd-like symptoms (sorry 1-A kiddos)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text
"I mean, duh, outdated documents are gonna hold some level of truth," Jirou shook her head. She looked peeved with the young heiress' choice of words. "Outdated Hero documents also say that they were wannabes and incompetent in their jobs, but we've long strayed from that, haven't we?"

Yaoyorozu nodded thoughtfully. "Of course. I didn't mean to offend. I was just voicing my observations."

Shoji nodded along as he fiddled around with a pebble that had strayed from Kenji's pile. "The Ability users that Fumikage and Kirishima spoke of don't sound too bad."

"They were more competent than our Heroes in Kamino," Tsuyu agreed. "And as YaoMomo-chan said, those outdated documents were from a time when those in high power didn't understand Abilities much like how they didn't understand Quirks at first."

"The only difference being that Quirks were becoming more common and visible to the human eye, therefore making them easier to study. Abilities seem easier to hide."

Jirou leaned as far back as she could to stare at the ceiling in exasperation. "This is why we shouldn't let old geezers run the offices. They're far too closed-minded to understand that things change!" Then, a beat later, "Or rather, that it takes a newer set of eyes to see that things aren't always what they initially seem! Geez!"

Quiet chuckles filled the room.

"Well," Shoji started, causing the three girls to lift their eyes from whatever was keeping them distracted, "we could always ask Miyazawa what he thinks about all of this." Jirou and Tsuyu sat up straight at this.

"He grew up surrounded by Ability users after all, kero." Tsuyu turned to their distracted classmate curiously. "Why don't you tell us about the Ability users you've seen, Miyazawa-chan?"

Four pairs of eyes trained on the blonde curiously, and upon getting no response, frowned in concern.

"Miyazawa-san?" Yaoyorozu started softly. "Are you listening to us?" When there was still no answer, Yaoyorozu began to panic. "M-Miyazawa-san, what's wrong? Is there something bothering you?"

Before she could grab Kenji's shoulders to shake him back to reality, Shoji outstretched his arms to cover her path from the blonde. Jirou and Tsuyu stared in confusion though they didn't say anything. At Yaoyorozu's growing panic, Shoji sighed quietly.

"I've seen Fumikage sometimes enter in these types of episodes," he explained gently, his arms urging Yaoyorozu to sit back in her spot. He looked like he wanted to say more, but he hesitated and pulled his arms back. "If Miyazawa doesn't want to talk, then we should leave him alone for now."

Yaoyorozu didn't understand it fully, but seeing the look of finality in Shoji's eyes made her nod wordlessly. She'll have to look up what Shoji could be referring to, but she won't doubt her classmate. If her blonde classmate is uncomfortable, then she will respect his boundaries.

She was curious about what could have placed her cheerful classmate in such a state. He didn't seem upset. He was still smiling softly while his hands played with the pebbles surrounding him, but as was made clear, his eyes weren't showing that he was listening to them. It got her to think.