Pastimes of the Invisible Girl

Nicknames

When no one looked, Toru recorded clever or hilarious insults in her diary-if one could call it that. She had been getting juicy ones since starting high school, thanks to a particularly explosive classmate.

'Take a hint, Shark Week, and go and chew on someone else's nerves!'

She giggled in her throat, silently, a talent she had acquired since finding her sense of humor wasn't exactly kind. Of course she didn't find it funny when other people were hurt (she was in the hero course), but there was something about the upfront abrasiveness of well-thought-out insults that tickled her fancy.

It probably had to do with the fact that she was invisible.

Bakugo, who had just snapped said one-liner, was still gnashing his teeth at said "Shark Week," his smiling friend.

"Jeeze, Kirishima, why do you even bother?" said Mina from beside her.

"Despite what you may think," said the red-haired boy, slinging an arm around the neck of a feral Bakugo. "Katsuki-chan's super manly and pure. He always says what he means."

"I'm gonna kill you!" snarled said manly pure.

Toru had to slap an invisible hand to her nose to stifle the snort.

"Aw, come off it, Kaachan. I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable-"

"Uncomfortable is the least of it!" A beat. "DON'T CALL ME KAACHAN, DAMMIT!"

"Jeeze, do you always have to belt everything?" asked Jiro from a few seats away. From the way she had a hand to her ear, Toru suspected she had an earache. Something she was more prone to due to her hearing-based Quirk.

"Uh oh, you said the no-no word. Only Midoriya can call him Kaachan," said Kaminari lazily, blowing a bubble with his gum and scratching at a tuft of his spiked blond hair.

"Can it, Pikachu!"

Midoriya slouched down in his seat, hiding his face behind his textbook.

"What did you ask him?" asked a bemused Ochaco.

Bakugo stiffened. "Don't you dare-"

"Just if he's ever had a girlfriend."

Every part of Bakugo seemed to rise like the hackles on a wolf...or the prickles on an adorable hedgehog, thought Toru.

"I doubt it," said Ochaco. "What girl would put up with him?"

"Does he even like girls?" whispered Mineta from the other side of the classroom. Toru had very good ears.

"Why is he even upset about that?" asked Momo with a cock of her head.

"Because my love life is nobody's damn business!"

"Seriously, can you speak at a normal volume for one damn day?!" snapped Jiro again from the front.

"I talk how I want!"

Toru reached for her diary just as Jiro twisted violently in her seat towards Bakugo and Akizawa-sensi stepped through the door.

"Quiet down," he drawled.

They all did so, though Mr. Hedgehog kicked his foot against his desk and leaned back in his chair, default scowl in place. Akizawa didn't even spare him a glance.

'Pikachu, Kaminari,' wrote Toru. If only she could come up with nicknames on the fly like that.

Class went rather boring that day. They ended up watching a documentary about the development of the code of laws governing hero work and the need for licensing. It was amazing to Toru how someone could make murders and crimes sound like tofu left out in the sun a little too long, let alone be able to sell said documentary to the best school on this side of the country.