Ren wasn't complaining about Momo's new personality. Something had changed in her fundamentally over the weekend, though he couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was. As he chewed his curry rice in the cafeteria, he watched her talk animatedly with Mina about the upcoming sports festival.
It's strange, he thought, rubbing his chin pensively. She's still the same logical and refined Momo as always, but there's something different. It's as if someone turned on an inner light that was off before.
Her posture remained impeccable and her vocabulary was as precise as usual, but now there was a vibrant energy in every movement.
"We are finally going to be able to show what we're made of!" Momo exclaimed with genuine enthusiasm. "I've been studying the tactical applications of different Quirks in competitive situations; they are absolutely fascinating."
Mina clapped excitedly, her yellow eyes shining.
"That's the spirit, Yaomomo! I'm super excited too. I'm going to melt the competition, literally!" She laughed at her own pun.
"Confidence is important for optimal performance," Momo nodded. "Although we must balance it with strategic realism. There are incredibly talented students in all the classes."
Definitely something changed, Ren thought, feeling a nagging curiosity grow in his chest. The old Momo would have analyzed every word before expressing emotion.
He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't notice the movement behind him until he felt soft lips press against his bald head in a quick and affectionate kiss.
What the hell?
He tensed immediately; suddenly he felt someone leaning against his back.
Who dares to mess up my magnificent hair?
He felt the soft weight of what were definitely breasts pressing against the back of his head. Toru had leaned completely over him, peeking over his forehead to be right in front of his face.
Ren could see her perfectly, her emerald eyes shining with mischievous fun, her lips curved in a devious smile, her face inches from his. To anyone else in the cafeteria, it just looked like Hagakure's uniform had leaned strangely close to Ren.
"Hi," Toru whispered in a playful voice, keeping her face upside down millimeters from Ren's.
Before he could respond, she closed the distance and kissed him. Her lips touched his, warm and surprisingly demanding for a stolen kiss in the middle of a cafeteria full of students.
Shit, Ren thought. This reminds me of something...
The image arrived immediately: Spider-Man hanging upside down in the rain, with Mary Jane lifting his mask just enough to kiss him at that perfect inverted angle. One of the most iconic scenes in cinema.
Wait, he realized with growing horror. Does that mean I'm MJ in this relationship? Am I the girl?
The indignation at that thought was immediate and irrational. When Toru finally broke the kiss and started moving to sit in the empty chair next to him, Ren decided he needed to reassert his masculinity in some stupid and impulsive way.
His hand moved with speed, reaching behind him and finding the firm curve of what was definitely one of Toru's butt cheeks under her skirt. His fingers sank into the soft flesh, squeezing firmly.
Toru's small, muffled gasp was immediately audible.
Hold on, Ren thought, his brain activating even as his hand continued its improvised exploration. This feels different.
Normally, when he had touched Toru under her clothes, he had always found at least one layer of fabric. But now his fingers were touching bare skin directly, and when he moved his hand further in, under the short skirt of the uniform, he found exactly what he didn't expect to find.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing separated his fingers from Toru's private parts.
It can't be, he thought with genuine surprise.
He let his fingers explore brazenly, fumbling with a curiosity mixed with teenage lust. The skin was incredibly soft, slightly damp, with a heat that indicated arousal. When he slid a finger deeper between her folds, he felt a slippery viscosity and the silky texture of her swollen labia.
"Ngh!!"
"Hagakure-san?" Momo asked with immediate concern. "Are you okay?"
Ren kept his hand exactly where it was, with two fingers now brazenly exploring Toru's wet entrance while the invisible girl desperately tried to keep her composure. He could feel her trembling slightly against his palm.
"I hit my pinky toe on the corner of the table!" Toru exclaimed in a strained voice, though she managed to make it sound convincing. "God, that hurt!"
Mina shivered visibly, clutching her chest.
"Ughhh, don't remind me," she groaned. "Hitting your pinky toe is literally one of the worst pains there is. Worse than acid burns, I swear. That shit hurts to the soul."
"Do you need the nurse Recovery Girl to check it?" Momo offered, still with a worried expression. "Toe injuries can be more serious than they seem."
While they talked, Toru leaned toward Ren, bringing her mouth to his ear. Her voice came out in a shaky whisper that mixed embarrassment, excitement, and exasperation.
"Are you done feeling me up yet?"
Ren pulled his hand out slowly, deliberately dragging his fingers across the entire length of her folds before withdrawing them completely. When he raised his hand, he could clearly see the evidence: his index and middle fingers glistened with a clear, viscous fluid.
He looked her straight in the eye, raising his fingers between them in a silent accusation.
"So you're not an exhibitionist, huh?" he murmured in a low voice loaded with a mocking innuendo.
Toru let out a muffled giggle that tried to sound seductive but ended up sounding more embarrassed than she probably intended.
"I wanted to be daring today," she admitted in a soft voice. She paused and then added with a resigned sigh: "It's also that I didn't realize I didn't have clean underwear for this morning. I had to wash my last batch of panties yesterday because... well, one thing led to another and I ended up coming here with nothing."
Ren blinked.
Seriously? he thought with amused incredulity. This whole accidental exhibitionism moment was because she forgot to do her laundry on time?
"Everything was perfectly fine," Toru continued in a complaining tone, "until a certain baldy decided it was a good idea to put his hand under my skirt in the middle of a cafeteria full of people."
"Technically, you started it by kissing me," Ren pointed out quietly.
"That's different."
"How is it different?"
"Because I'm cute and you're a pervert."
Ren opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by an energetic presence that practically vibrated through the entire cafeteria.
"GUYS!" Ochako shouted, entering the cafeteria with competitive spirit radiating from every pore of her body. "THE SPORTS FESTIVAL IS GOING TO BE INCREDIBLE!"
The whole cafeteria turned to look at her. Conversations stopped mid-sentence. Some second and third-year students looked on with expressions ranging from amused to nostalgic.
Ochako didn't seem to notice or care about the attention. She walked straight to the table where Ren, Momo, Mina, and the now silently mortified Toru were, her brown eyes shining with fierce determination.
"If I get the attention of powerful pro heroes, then I'll get internship offers!" she continued with overflowing enthusiasm. "And that means money! Money I can use to help with my parents' construction costs!"
She dropped into a chair with so much force that the table shook slightly.
"Sorry," she apologized immediately, adjusting her posture. "It's just that I'm VERY excited. Did you know that my Quirk could be used to create floating platforms if I throw debris into the air and make it weightless? I can basically fly if I'm creative enough!"
Momo smiled, understanding the situation.
"Creative tactical application of your Quirk," she nodded. "Exactly the kind of innovative thinking that pro heroes look for."
Mina leaned forward with interest.
"Hey, that's super smart. You could literally create your own battlefield in the air."
As they chatted animatedly about strategies and possibilities, Ren felt his attention drift to the movement in his peripheral vision. Someone had just passed through the cafeteria entrance, walking at a calm pace toward the tables on the other side.
A girl.
Ren recognized her instantly, even though technically he shouldn't have seen her yet according to the timeline of the original anime.
Nejire Hado.
Clear and soft skin like porcelain. Large and expressive bright blue eyes that seemed to contain infinite curiosity about absolutely everything. But the most distinctive thing was her hair: light blue, extremely long, reaching literally to her legs, twisting around itself almost impossibly in the area of her waist as if it had a life of its own. Side-swept bangs framed her face perfectly, tucked behind her ears with two short strands falling on each side.
She wore a vest over her standard UA school uniform, giving her a slightly more casual air than the first-year students, who followed the dress code more strictly.
Nejire Hado, Ren thought, feeling his otaku brain activate automatically. Member of the third-year Big Three. Quirk: Wave Motion. One of the most powerful students in all of UA.
He closed his eyes like a true connoisseur, allowing himself a moment of appreciation.
There is a consensus among some anime fans that Nejire is more cute than sensual, he reflected with the seriousness of someone analyzing a topic of critical importance. However, respectfully, I have to disagree. Have you seen her thighs? Heh. Some of the best in the whole series.
He opened his eyes again, watching Nejire sit at a table with other third-year students.
I didn't expect to see her before her canonical introduction, Ren thought. But now that I think about it, it would be strange to assume that people in this world are like unlockable characters in a video game who don't appear until you reach the right point in the story.
His mind began to calculate possibilities.
Should I approach her? I have the sports tournament as a pretext. I could ask for advice or something. She's from the Big Three; she probably likes helping first-year students.
But then practical reality hit him.
How exactly would I look? Just appearing out of nowhere and saying: Hi, my name is Ren, what's yours? Yeah, that definitely wouldn't be normal. She'd probably think I'm a weird stalker or worse.
He sighed internally. Life would be much easier if he could use his telepathic powers to make social interactions less awkward, but even he had some ethical standards about when it was appropriate to manipulate minds.
Well, maybe not that many standards, he admitted honestly. I've done nothing but trashy stuff since I got here.
A hand shook his shoulder with energetic force, pulling him violently from his thoughts.
"REN!" Ochako exclaimed directly in his ear. "So what do you think of the idea!"
Ren blinked, coming out of the mental stupor in which he had been observing Nejire. He turned to Ochako with a slightly confused expression, processing that he had apparently completely missed an important conversation.
"I'm in," he said automatically with an enthusiastic smile. "I strongly agree."
There was a moment of silence.
Momo covered her mouth delicately with one hand, her eyes shining with barely contained amusement.
"Ren," she said in a kind but clearly mocking tone, "you don't even know what we were talking about."
Ren felt his cheeks warm slightly.
"My apologies," he admitted honestly. "I was wandering in my thoughts."
Mina laughed openly.
"Typical! You were completely lost while looking at that third-year girl with the super long blue hair."
Shit, Ren thought. Was I that obvious?
Momo cleared her throat softly, picking up the thread of the conversation.
"We were discussing forming a study group for the afternoons," she explained in her characteristically organized tone. "Now that the sports festival is coming up, we thought it would be beneficial to train together. Share strategies, practice combat, analyze the strengths and weaknesses of our Quirks in different scenarios."
"Mina, Ochako, and I are already signed up," Toru added, her voice floating from the chair next to Ren. "We also wanted to invite Tsuyu-chan, but first we wanted to know if our favorite baldy would participate."
Ren felt the excitement grow in his chest.
"I'm totally down," he said sincerely. "When do we start?"
Ochako practically vibrated with enthusiasm.
"We could start tomorrow after school! There are training gyms available for students. We can reserve one for private use."
Mina nodded vigorously.
"And we can take turns focusing on different types of training. One day hand-to-hand combat. Another day strategic Quirk application. Another day physical endurance."
Momo already had her phone out, apparently taking notes or creating some kind of organized schedule.
"We should set specific and measurable goals for each session," she suggested. "That will allow us to track our progress and adjust our methods as needed."
Of course Momo is already turning this into a full structured project, Ren thought with affection. She never changes in that sense.
Toru leaned closer to Ren, her voice dropping to a whisper that only he could hear clearly.
"It also means more time alone with you after the others leave," she murmured with playful innuendo. "You know, for additional private training."
Ren gave her a look that he hoped communicated: You literally just complained about me feeling you up five minutes ago.
Momo continued organizing details with impressive efficiency.
"What about Tsuyu-chan?" Ochako asked. "Does she know anything about the idea yet?"
Mina shook her head.
"We wanted to confirm with Ren first. But I'm sure she'll accept. Tsuyu is super dedicated to training."
Ren watched the group of girls planning with growing anticipation. Momo with her notebook organizing schedules; Mina gesturing animatedly about possible combat exercises; Ochako bouncing slightly in her seat with contained enthusiasm; Toru invisibly present but clearly committed to the idea.
This is going to be interesting, he thought.
Out of the corner of his eye, he looked back toward where Nejire was sitting. She was laughing at something, her blue hair moving with the sway of her body. For a moment, her blue eyes moved in the direction of Ren's table, and he felt a small rush of adrenaline wondering if she had been watching him while he was watching her.
But then she turned her attention back to her third-year classmates and the moment passed.
Soon, he promised himself. I'll find the right excuse and introduce myself properly. Just a normal social interaction between UA students.
Momo snapped her fingers in front of his face, pulling him out of his thoughts again.
"Ren, you really need to work on your attention span," she said in a slightly scolding but fundamentally kind tone. "This is the second time in ten minutes you've been lost in thought."
"Sorry," Ren murmured. "I guess the sports festival announcement has my mind racing in a thousand directions."
Mina laughed.
"That's the right attitude! We should all be thinking about strategies and possibilities."
Ochako stood up abruptly, her energy apparently impossible to contain while sitting.
"I'm gonna get food! Anyone want anything?"
After several people politely declined, Ochako practically ran toward the service line, her skirt billowing with the movement.
Toru took advantage of the momentary distraction to slide her hand under the table, her invisible fingers finding Ren's thigh and squeezing gently. He gave her a warning look that she completely ignored, her fingers tracing lazy patterns on his leg.
This girl is going to get us caught, he thought with excitement.
The rest of lunch passed in comfortable conversation. The plans for the training group were solidified. Mina told a seemingly endless story about something embarrassing that happened in her math class. Ochako returned with enough food to feed three people and proceeded to devour it all while talking animatedly between bites.
When the bell finally rang indicating the end of the lunch period, the group began picking up their things slowly.
Ren stood up, stretching muscles that had tensed from sitting too long. Toru rose beside him, her floating uniform adjusting as she moved.
Momo approached him, adjusting her backpack over her shoulder.
"Ren, about our plans to watch anime on Sunday," she said, and Ren noticed a hint of nervousness in her voice that contrasted with her usual confidence, "are you still available?"
"Completely," Ren confirmed. "I'm excited to corrupt your aristocratic mind with otaku culture."
She laughed softly.
"I'm not sure corrupt is the appropriate word, but I appreciate the enthusiasm."
As they walked together toward the classroom, Ren allowed his mind to wander into the near future. The sports festival. The training group. His anime date with Momo. The ongoing adventures with Toru.
And eventually, he thought, taking one last glance toward where Nejire had been sitting, I'll find a way to expand my social circle even further.
Life at UA definitely wasn't ever gonna be boring.
******
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