Musume

Chapter 38

“Do you want my advice?” asked a voice behind her.

Yumi paused where she was toweling off the sweat from training and drinking some water. Her father approached slowly.

“I always want your advice, dadd- I mean, Yagi-sensei.” She finished with a sheepish rub of her hair.

The man smiled softly down at her before lowering himself into the boulder next to her.

“You’re new style suits you well, but you’re forgetting to implement something important into your new move: your quirk.”

“My eyes are not suited for especial moves, though.” Pointed out the girl.

“I wasn’t talking about your eyes.”

“But, then… you mean my fire? How could I use that in a special move? It can only heal people, it has no offensive capabilities…” she mused aloud, already trying to think of a way to make it work.

“Well, you said you think it will allow you to travel in the future, right?”

“Yes, but… wait, travel…” she muttered.

“I can see you have an idea already. I’ll leave you to it, then.” Said the man standing up but not leaving yet. “You have detention with Midnight this evening, don’t you?”

The girl blushed and looked away.

“I… yes.” She admitted, looking defeated.

“What were you doing alone out in the forest in the middle of the night?” pressed the man.

Her blush deepened as she remembered soft lips pressed against hers and she stared at her feet.

“Alright, don’t tell me if you don’t want to, but I don’t want to hear there was a repeat, okay?” he said in his sternest voice he rarely used on her, before his voice and eyes softened. “I don’t like thinking of you getting hurt.”

“I won’t do it again.” She promised with a small smile directed his way.

She certainly owed Midnight one for keeping her own word.

But now, she had to train.

And then she saw it: a boulder had broken off and was falling towards her dad, who was looking in another direction.

Her father who couldn’t use One For All anymore.

Faster than she thought possible, she jumped forward and tackled him out of the way just as Izuku destroyed the boulder with his new technique.

She could tell by the look on her father’s face that he still wasn’t used to having gone from someone who protected others to someone to be protected.

HPBNAHPBNAHPBNA

Yumi didn’t know how they had gone from speaking about their hero training to speaking about love, but his female classmates seemed pretty focused on the topic.

Ochako ended up flying through the air as she denied having feelings for Midoriya or Iida.

“You’ll get a lighter sentence if you confess.” Needled her Jiro.

“It’s no good to force an investigation, you know?” said Yumi trying to get her friend off the hook.

“You’re just trying to get out of having to share your own details!” accused Mina. “You girls should be more considerate towards us lonely girls and share!”

“Share what?” asked Yumi, her face heating up.

“Details about your own relationship, of course. Are you and Todoroki finally an official couple?” asked Hagakure. “Is that why you were sneaking off the dorms last night?”

“H-How do you know that?” asked Yumi wide-eyed.

“She’s not denying it!” crowed Mina triumphantly.

Even Tsuyu, Momo and Ochako seemed interested now.

“I went to get a glass of water from the kitchen and I saw you both.” Said Hagakure with an invisible shrug.

“Not you too…”

“Too? Someone else saw you?”

“Wait, what happened after you met alone?”

“Hey, Todoroki-kun!” shouted then Mina attracting the boys attention from where he was sitting with a book near Fumikage. “Are you and Yumi-chan together now?”

And the boy, who had not an ounce of guile in his body, nodded.

“Yes.”

Mina and Hagakure squealed happily, whilst Yumi felt her face heat up to previously thought impossible heat and she hung her head in defeat.

“Was it supposed to be a secret?” asked Shoto tilting his head cutely.

“No.” she whispered.

And it wasn’t, not really, but she’d hoped to have time to come to terms with it before everyone learnt of this.

“So who else caught you?” pressed Momo.

Yumi mumbled something.

“Who?”

“Midnight-sensei.” She muttered louder.

“Oh, is that why you both have detention? This is so romantic. You have to share all the details…”

Yumi looked in Shoto’s direction with growing horror, but for once the boy seemed to get a cue and he stood to leave. Unfortunately for him, Ashido caught up to him faster.

HPBNAHPBNAHPBNA

And speaking of love, it was also a topic right before their exam to get a provisional license. And she meant right before, as they were standing in front of the doors to the exam’s location when a heroine approached Eraser-head and asked him to marry her.

Apparently, Miss Joke had been an old associate of him ―which only Shinso and Yumi knew, due to them being fans of the man previous entry to UA― and she often needled Eraser-head with the same topic.

At least it was a nice way of getting distracted from their nerves about the exam.

Or it was so until she saw the girl cozying up to her boyfriend and asking for an autograph. Yumi’s darkest side reared its head and she glared at the blonde girl.

HPBNAHPBNAHPBNA

At the end of the orientation, Yumi gathered her classmates close, ignoring the mutters of other classes as they saw her.

“Is that…?”

“All Might’s daughter…”

She gritted her teeth and turned to her classmates.

“As vice-president of the class, I would like to speak with you all about something before the exam begins.”

“What is it, Yumi? We only have a few minutes before the exam begins…”

“Exactly. But when it does, everyone will be going after us.”

“What?”

Yumi nodded.

“Since the UA festival we have lost the only advantage we had in this exam, because now everyone knows our quirks and fighting styles, at least a little. That means that the safest way to pass this exam is to score by taking out the UA students.” She explained as succinctly as she could. “Due to that, the safest course of action is for us to stick together and work as a team.”

“It makes sense…” muttered Tenya.

“The provisional exam always begins with everyone going after UA students!” she remarked.

However, Bakugo refused to listen to her, saying he could take care of himself. Kirishima apologized and went after him, followed by Kaminari.

“Be careful,” she warned them before they left. “I think there may be more to this exam than we’re seeing…”

Her fellow redhead nodded and run to catch up to Katsuki with Kaminari.

“I’ll be going on my own, too.” Announced Shoto then, looking down at her.

“Shoto…”

The boy shook his head.

“It’s difficult for me to use my powers close to others.” He reasoned. “Especially close to you.” He added in a whisper.

And she understood. His fire would be useless if she touched it even without meaning to. It didn’t have to make her happy, though.

“I’ll see you later.”

“Right, all others, we need to find an advantageous terrain. Mind you, doing this as a team is not mandatory and you may do what you want but…”

“… but we’ll have better chances of passing the exam if we follow your strategy.” Surmised Izuku with a smile.

Yumi blushed faintly and run a hand through her hair.

“I think so.”

“Let’s do this!”