PLASTIC FLOWERS ( k. bakugou )

chapter 06

' a festival for champions. '

━━━━━

Yuko forgot that it was nearly time for that event. Only when Iida Tenya— the boy wearing glasses, the one who chastised her the day before— reminded everyone to be in best behavior during the festival.

"W—Where are you going, Yuko-san?" Kouda, her kind, soft spoken classmate asks her.

"The teacher's lounge, I have something to say," she answered with a cordial smile. "And you can just call me Yuko, no need for the formalities. You're like the nicest person in this class."

The boy blushes at the compliment, smiles, then says, "Keep safe."

Yuko nodded.

Yuko loathed the festival. It was a juvenile event in all senses, a cliché, a waste of money and time, a target for those with evil deeds, a compromising event. But, that really wasn't the case 'cause you see, the festival, it was an event in which Yuko was very bad at.

Yuko always had troubles with tracks and she's never been proud of how clumsily she uses her quirk. A painful recoil for a painless quirk. Yuko thought that it wasn't fair. Especially when others around her managed to do all those fascinating things with only nausea to worry about.

It stole her breath and even the slightest, most miniscule moment spent in that agony felt like a vacuum, a black hole attached to her mouth and sucking everything up and filling her up with a pain that she wished to be gone but was not.

So, being the charismatic student that she is, she sets her plan into motion. Free period, an hour before lunch, she heads to the Faculty Room, rehearsing her convincing argument and practicing the most pitiful look her face could morph into.

Of course, when the moment came, she froze like water sealed in plastic bags inside the freezer. She'd counted at least four transgressions with Aizawa Shota today and she doubts that he would be in a good if she made another one again.

Do it.

Unwilling and incapable of letting her Fate rest unto various coincidences and luck, she slid the door open and headed to her teacher's table. The older man was cocooned in blankets, his appearance more alike to a pitiful middle aged man who only had television and his dog for company.

Not the proud heroes the school boasted of producing. She felt a surge of pity for the poor man. He looked bleak, probably financially bleak, his love life bleak. She wondered if introducing Aizawa to a woman would better her chances. Yuko was desperate so she swore to use every weapon in her arsenal.

"Consultations only happen during classes," the man said in a gruff voice. "Hold that question and never come back."

Yuko frowned, clicking her tongue in dismay and Aizawa mirrored her appearance after she refused to leave. The professional hero sighed. "What is it?" he asked.

Yuko beamed.

"Turn down the beaming please," Aizawa muttered.

She didn't.

"It's a very pleasant morning, Aizawa-sensei!" she began, with that signature Yuko smile. "So I woke up this morning, and then this strange, fascinating, little thought came to me. I unpeeled the covers, savored the morning breeze and then when I took a shower—"

"Akihisa, if you don't get to the point in five seconds, I'm giving you detention for five months," the threat was real. She could feel it crawling up her bones.