Chapter 88 - Planning for the Festival

Koto's POV

I can say with 100% certainty that we decided to hang out in Ei's room for the purposes of practicing English. I can also say with 100% certainty that we've diverged from that purpose.

Eijiro was just let out of the hospital today for a horrible injury he had sustained at his work study. Apparently there was a huge mission that Ochaco, Tsu, and Midoriya were also in on with their agencies to rescue a little girl from the Shie Hassaikai. I'm more than proud of their work, but wow were the damages severe.

One of the pros, Sir Nighteye who Midoriya was working under, even died from his injuries. Thankfully, there weren't too many casualties, but it was still enough to shake me up upon hearing it. Ei had pushed way past his limits and stayed in the fight longer than he should have, resulting in severe damages to his skin and muscles. He was forced to stay at the hospital these past couple of days, bandaged up like a mummy, until he recovered. He's still not perfectly healed, but he's well enough to return, so here we are.

I had volunteered to catch him up on the English lessons he had missed, which Kaminari had insisted on joining in on because he doesn't understand the language, but he seems to be distracting us more than helping.

The blonde struts across the room wearing tall red heels he apparently borrowed from Mina, causing Eijiro and I to double over in laughter. He stops when he reaches the door and spins around, flipping his hair dramatically.

"Hey Ei, you got anything I can wear that matches these?" The boy asks, opening a drawer and beginning to rifle through it.

"Hey, hey!" My redheaded friend exclaims, standing quickly only to wince and stumble. I reach out to steady him as he pushes through the pain to approach Kaminari. "You have clothes, don't you?"

"Yeah, but you've got the red clothes and I need something that matches these heels. Aha!" He exclaims, pulling a Crimson Riot shirt out from the stack.

"I don't think so," Ei chuckles, yanking the fabric from his friend's hands before he can put it on.

"Aww c'mon, I'm sure you'd let Koto wear it if she asked," Kaminari pouts. "Why can't bros share clothes?"

"It would look better on her anyway," Ei taunts, tossing the shirt at me.

Not expecting it, I catch the fabric with my face and flinch. The two look at me expectantly, as if they're waiting for me to put it on.

"Have you t-two lost your minds?" I exclaim, holding it up. "Red clashes with my hair!"

"You're absolutely right!" Kaminari chirps, pulling out a grey t-shirt that I've rarely seen Ei wear. "Which is why you should wear this and I should wear that!"

"Give out all my clothes, why don't you?" Ei remarks, raising an eyebrow, but laughing all the same.

I throw the red shirt at Kaminari as he chucks the grey shirt at me. "Fine, I'll call you Ketchup 'n Mustard!"

The boy looks down at the crimson shirt in confusion before realization dawns on him. He rolls his eyes in disappointment as Ei and I burst into laughter at the comparison between his hair and the fabric.

"Fine, then," he huffs, sloppily returning the shirt to the drawer. "I'll choose a different one."

"How 'bout you don't take any of my clothes?" Eijiro suggests, closing the drawer before our friend can rifle through it more.

"What about Koto?" Kaminari just about shrieks as I pull the soft fabric over my head.

"Isn't it a girl thing to take their friend's clothes?" Ei asks, glancing at me.

I shrug, smoothing out the wrinkles of having two shirts on. "I like t-to think of it more as borrowing. But yes." Our blond friend pouts, but doesn't protest. "So, should we get back to studying?"

The two groan in protest. Frankly, I'm not up for studying either, but I don't want either of them to fail English when I can help them.

We spend the next hour or so buried in our textbooks until we deem it time for a break. Around the fiftieth time Kaminari checks his phone, he exclaims how dinner is almost ready, so we make our way downstairs and into the common room.

I'm about to sit down with them when a pink arm slips through mine and yanks me to my feet. I glance at Mina in confusion as she pulls me over to the stairwell, nearly skipping.

"Koto!" She exclaims in hushed tones. "Are you two dating?!?"

I tilt my head to the side, confused until she points at the grey Crimson Riot shirt that I'm still wearing. "Oh! No no no, we were just hanging out. Kaminari threw it at me, and I just--"

"That's still so cute!"

I shrug, messing with the hem. "They were saying how it's just a girl thing, you know?"

"Of course," she remarks, schooling her features into sage understanding. In an instant, she's back to her bubbly self. "Hey! I should try to get a shirt from the guys too! It can be like a race!"

I chuckle, shaking my head. "No, let's let them have their clothes. I'm not keeping..."

The girl doesn't even let me finish the sentence before she's running off. I roll my eyes, wondering what I got myself into.

•°•°•°•

"This is going to be so much fun!" Ochaco squeals on our walk back to the dorms. I nod my head in agreement.

Mr. Aizawa just announced that UA is going to be holding a big cultural festival where each class is supposed to set up an attraction. Our brainstorming session in class didn't really yield any solid results, so we're reconvening at the end of the day. My thought is to do a food booth, considering how there's enough of us who are knowledgeable about cooking that we could get by.

"I just wonder what it is we're gonna do."

"Same, b-but I guess we'll find out when we have our planning meeting."

"Maybe a dessert stand or something? Ribbit," Tsu suggests, putting a hand to her chin as she catches up to us. "Sato would surely be a good leader for that."

"Ooh yeah!!" Ochaco exclaims. "Mochi! Dango! Dorayaki!"

"I'd b-be down for that," I say, nodding my head.

"You could provide some good music," Tsu observes. "With your quirk, we wouldn't even need speakers."

I nod once again, but I had also hoped to do some cooking. I could make fresh crèpes or something, like Sato had suggested earlier. But I guess it does make sense they'd want to use my quirk.

"Of course!" A deranged voice calls out from too close behind me. I jump a couple inches and see the unhinged individual laughing as if he were just handed his ideal opportunity for trouble.

"No doubt your class would hide behind their precious celebrity!" Monoma cackles. "Here! Look at her! Ignore the rabid troublemaker!"

I roll my eyes and get pulled along by my friends, trying to pay no mind to the 1-B boy.

"Of course Class A will avoid doing work by exploiting you! But you're more than happy in the spotlight, right? Last time you were asked to share, you had a little meltdown?"

I clench my fists, but keep walking, hearing Monoma's voice fading behind me. "I can't wait for you to see Class B's performance! Everyone gets to be a part of it! Maybe it'll show you what you can do when you have a cohesive team!"

"Shut your mouth and quit bothering her," a girl reprimands. I assume it's Kendo, based on her voice, but I don't look back. If I did, I'm sure I'd want to slap the smug grin off of Monoma's face.

•°•°•°•

We gather around the living room after the sun has gone down. The work study students have to catch up on extra classes, so we have to decide on an attraction without them.

"Now that things have quieted down, I have some thoughts about our list," Iida announces. "It's obvious we have caused some strain on the other students. It would make sense to choose something that might raise their spirits in an effort to make it up to them."

"I don't disagree," Momo says, leaning forward. "We're aiming to be heroes, right? So we should be aware of any trouble we've caused for others."

"Correct, and with that in mind, I don't think we can offer the students of UA a meal that satisfies their taste buds since they're used to Lunch Rush's gourmet cooking."

Hey, I think indignantly, don't diss my cooking, Iida.

"Aw, so food is out of the question?" Sero laments dejectedly.

"I believe that would be for the best," our class rep confirms. "There must be another way we can be of service."

"We have to keep their needs in mind," Shoji points out. If we're the only ones having fun, the event'll be a disaster."

Sato crosses his arms. "It's frustrating," he says, "but Lunch Rush is just too good."

"'Kay. So, what, then?" Toru asks, crawling across the couch to sit next to Momo.

The girl puts a hand to her chin, already strategizing. "Well, we can cut out all the food ideas, and that way we can focus on experiences. There's the maid cafe, petting zoo, and whatever a fun house is."

Sero crosses his arms, not looking impressed. "A zoo sounds kinda smelly and unsanitary."

"Hmm, stress relief..." Toru trails off, leaning back on the couch. I can assume her face has morphed into a thoughtful expression, though I can't see. "Maybe a skit!"

"Watching amateurs perform can be pretty stressful," Sero points out.

I decide to chime in. "Besides, Monoma was bragging about some show that Class B was doing. I'm pretty sure they decided to do a play. We don't want two of the same thing."

"Yeah, it'll look like we copied them," the black haired boy agrees.

"Why don't we have a big dance party?" Mina inquires in an impatient tone, shuffling her feet.

Todoroki stands from his far away seat and begins to walk over. I keep my eyes dutifully trained on my other classmates. "Dancing," he repeats. "That's a good idea."

Everyone flicks their attention over to him, and I can't help but do the same.

Mina voices the question I'm sure we're all thinking. "Uh? Wait, you mean you'd be into that?"

The boy's eyes flicker towards me for just a moment before they're back on the computer he's been walking toward. I jolt, chastising myself for even looking his way. But still, that one look seemed to carry a lot of meaning behind it. I recall what he had said about his mom teaching him to dance. Before Endeavor had sent her away.

"Hang on a second," he requests, pulling the laptop over to him and sitting on the ground. "There's something I've seen before. I don't know what it's called, exactly, but it looks like everyone really enjoys it."

He clicks on a video and music fills the air as well as the sound of a crowd cheering. "There, something like this."

"That's definitely not what I expected," Shoji remarks, gazing at the boy with wide eyes.

"I agree with Iida's opinion that we should provide stress relief for the people in the other courses," Todoroki continues. "In order to do that, maybe we should focus on something that offers entertainment for everyone. I got the idea from my extra exam training."

"What are they doing in those supplemental classes?" Sato asks, almost to himself.

"Interesting," Iida says, further pondering the suggestion. "Singing and dancing, huh?"

"None of us other than Mina and Koto really dance, do we?" Sero asks. "No one wants to see a cringy routine."

"No prob," Mina exclaims, throwing an arm around me. "We got you, fam!"

Aoyama and Kaminari begin talking about how Mina had taught the sparkly boy to dance earlier today.

"Well, if we're talking about dancing," Toru says with a scheming edge to her voice, "then we'll need some music. And if we're talking about music..."

I shudder as everyone turns to look at me. Monoma's words still carry through my head. No doubt your class would hide behind their precious celebrity!

I'm already shaking my head as the invisible girl continues with her idea. "We can all be performing while you use your quirk for the music! It's perfect!"

"No," I say firmly, looking at my classmates.

"What's wrong?" The girl asks, getting in my face. "I saw those videos online! You love to perform! Why not now?"

"B-because..."

"Yamada!" A high voice calls out. Koda is looking at me with such a precious smile, it's hard to keep looking at him. "Why not use your quirk to make other people smile?"

Of course Class A will avoid doing work by exploiting you!

"No," I say again. "I'm sorry, b-but I won't use my quirk. Not for this."

"I understand where you're coming from," Momo interjects, getting between me and the class that has begun to surge forward. "It's your choice whether you want to use your quirk or not. But maybe...maybe there's a way that you don't have to."

I look up at her, her onyx eyes already lost in thought. I can almost hear the gears turning in her head. "We can still put on a show, but with us using real instruments. I can play the piano, does anybody else know how to play anything?"

"I--" I raise my hand behind her. "I don't want to volunteer her or anything, b-but back in middle school, Ochaco, Reina, and I tried to perform some songs. I bet she's a little rusty, but she used to be able to play bass. I would play the drums."

Everyone's eyes light up, seeing how the performance is actually coming together. "So, what about everyone else? We still need guitarists!" Our vice rep continues. "And if not, I'm sure my friend Kyoka would be willing to teach you."

"I could learn," Kaminari says, shrugging. "It'll be super cool with the ladies, you know?"

"Maybe we should wait for the others before setting anything in stone," Sero suggests. "Some of them might have musical talent we don't know about. Plus Bakugo."

He and Kaminari share a smirk. What do they know that I don't?

•°•°•°•

Once again, the work study students have extra classes to catch up on. Mina snags my arm as I'm walking alone back toward the dorms. She pulls me into line between her and Kaminari. Shoji and Bakugo walk behind us. "We have, like, so many decisions to make about costumes and choreography!"

"What music do you think the rest of the school would enjoy?" Shoji asks.

I've had trouble thinking about this as well. There are so many songs that I'd love to do, but they might not be everybody's style. Not to mention, they'd be pretty hard on whoever we decide to perform.

"We should do whatever's trendy," Kaminari suggests. "Right, Koto?"

I hum noncommittally. I still need to work this out. I know they're all relying on me. I don't want to let them down.

"Alsoooo," Mina whispers in my ear. "I got shirts from Kaminari and Sero! If you even wanna tie, you gotta get one from Ducky."

She winks and skips ahead. I glance back at the scowling boy, once again dreading whatever this is I've unknowingly started.

•°•°•°•

Later this evening, we decide to all gather before dinner. This way, we can snag Bakugo into participating as well.

"The festival is only one month away!" Iida reminds us. "We don't have much time. We should start making decisions right now."

Toru steps forward. "First we need to pick out a song, right? What should we do?"

Ojiro scratches his head. "I don't know much about popular music, so I'll leave that up to you guys."

"Same," Shoji adds.

"If we're doing this for everyone, shouldn't it be a song that most people know so they could dance and sing along with us?" Kaminari asks.

"It's gotta be something with a good beat!" Sero suggests.

I exhale heavily and everyone turns to look at me. "I've got plenty of ideas. I j-just need to run a few by you, Mina. We can d-do that later. The only issue is just how many I have. We'll work on narrowing it down, but right now, we should focus on the other things. Like who plays what?"

The pink girl nods at me. "Well, I can't play anything, but I'm for sure helping with the dance, so that doesn't really matter."

"I'm still down to learn guitar," Kaminari reminds us.

Shoji inclines his head. "Tokoyami informed me that he can play guitar. If you need another."

"Shouldn't our first priority be the singer?" Momo asks. "They'll be out front, so we need to make a good choice."

"Hey!" Mina exclaims. "Koto, your voice is really good!"

"My voice th-that I haven't used since I was eight? I still struggle through my words sometimes."

"I'm just thinking about that night at your friend's house!" The girl exclaims, smiling at me. "You hummed along with the song and it sounded really pretty. I bet with all the practice that will happen over the month, you'll be able to make it through the song without stumbling once!"

"That's true," Iida says, putting a hand on his chin. "But wouldn't that make it difficult if she's playing the drums?"

Indignation begins bubbling up in my chest. "Hey, if Phil Collins can do it, then so can I." My statement is only met with blank stares. I guess it makes sense. Even if Genesis didn't make music a century ago when GGG was alive, they're still from an entirely different country. I wouldn't expect anybody to know them.

"Don't kid yourself," Bakugo sneers, staring out the window. "You can't handle both at once."

"Watch me," I retort, face beginning to grow red. I walk over to the drumset we had acquired earlier and pick up a pair of sticks, but they're quickly snatched from my hands.

Before I can say anything more, Kaminari chimes in. "Hey! Didn't you accidentally admit your parents made you take music classes when you were a kid?"

Bakugo hesitates, mouth open. Crimson begins to creep up his neck.

"You don't want Yamada to do it, cause you're jealous she might be better than you are!"

"Like hell I am," the boy growls. "I'm better than all of you put together!" He sits on the stool and I have to back up to not get hit when he suddenly improvises a drum solo.

I'm shocked, to say the least.

"Well I guess I'll just sing, then," I murmur to the ground.

"Better get on that soon so you're not fuckin' stuttering the whole damn time."

I glare at him and turn away to address the rest of my classmates. "So we have drums, piano, bass, two guitars, and then I'll sing. That works."

Bakugo clicks his tongue and stands. "No way am I making a fool of myself up on that stage."

"C'mon Ducky," I call after him.

"If we rock this, everyone'll have a great time!" Mina exclaims.

"Don't you get what's gonna happen?" He growls in response. "I'll spell it out for you. We're doing this because we want to let the other courses blow off some steam, right? But we're the ones who caused their stress to begin with. So we're just trying to make ourselves feel better. This is gonna seem like a slap in the face from the people they can't stand."

My classmates try to call him out for being mean, but deep down, I know he's telling the truth. I don't want Class B to think I'm stealing the spotlight, just as much as Bakugo doesn't want the other classes to feel dissed by this. I take a step back to appraise him.

What's going on inside your head?

"Doesn't all this make you mad?" he asks me. "It's not like we wanted villains to show up and ruin things for everybody. Why do we have to be so concerned about how these weaklings feel? Stop trying to get on their good side! We're not here to make friends, we're here to fight! If we're going to put on a show then we can't hold anything back!"

"And we won't," I state firmly.

"Then let's murder everyone in UA with killer music."

Tension eases out of my shoulders as the rest of my classmates cheer. But I understand what he was talking about. The other classes here don't like us. At this point, we can't focus on the reasoning for doing this. There's such a low chance that this will mean anything to them. We just need to focus on doing our best and they can take it or leave it.

------Author's Note------

Hey guys!!

Thank you for being so patient with me! I've been working on a lot this past month. As such, make sure that you're following, so you can get all the updates about new projects!!

We have some awesome fan art this time around!!

First, from yuunisumei here's an awesome picture of Koto!! The detail in her hair is so good!! It's like I could reach out and touch it!

Next is an amazing portrait of Koto from my friend sun_jin from the UA Storytellers!! The curls are so defined, how do you do it?? She looks awesome!!

And finally for this chapter, is a Shifuku for Koto from riceygirl101!! Thanks for putting this together, Ricey!!

That's all for now!! I hope you enjoyed!

Don't forget to like, comment, and follow! For those of you already following, you got a little sneak preview of my next book ;)

Take care!!