[Yanai Yoko]

Despite how some school days were starting to feel the same to Yoko, this particular day had been marked in their calendars for a while now. ''Class on the weekend and at NIGHT? Have they gone crazy?'' Yoko grumbled to Nat as she stuffed her face with a rice ball. Given that class was due at midnight, they were having an early dinner so they could get some rest and be ready. ''Don't they know we're supposed to have time to rest? I'm telling you these hero types aren't right in the head.'' She tapped the back of her chopsticks to her forehead to emphasize what she meant. ''I've seen many things, but school at night? Bullshit.'' She moved onto her soup and quietly drank in annoyance as rain pitter pattered down onto her umbrella over her.

''Set an alarm, I don't want to be late because of you.'' Her tone was bossy, even if she didn't mean to be because most of her frustrations were with the school, not Nat herself. Her roommate just got the worst of it because she was right there. Slipping into her pajamas, Yoko watched videos on her phone until she drifted off.

---

''Still nothing.'' Sadako looked down at her watch. They were ten minutes late and all the other students had already set off. ''It's expected of the first years, they're not always punctual.'' She sighed, taking out her phone, but just as she was about to make a call Nat and Yoko appeared on the horizon. Once they got a little closer Sadako greeted them with just as much energy as she had the other students. ''Welcome girls!'' She beamed, taking out a list of names. ''You two must be Bee Natesa and Yanai Yoko, am I correct?'' Yoko grimaced when her last name was said. She had gone through so much effort and of course the school had to go and throw it around so casually. ''Let's get right to it since you're already late. Do either of you know what Orienteering is?''

nat

[nat]

Nat offered a very small shrug of her shoulders that was easy to miss as she popped a piece of pickled cucumber in her mouth with her own chopsticks, letting Yoko complain about the night class. She’d personally heard about night school before, and as far as she knew it was a pretty old concept even if it wasn’t a super popular one. But beyond even that, heroes often had to work at night, in the dork, or in other weird situations so she wasn’t surprised at all by the course being scheduled the way it was. Heroes had to be flexible like that, so heroes-in-training needed to be too. “On it.” Was her only real contribution to that conversation, fishing out her phone with one hand to set an alarm while Yoko went off to take a nap. She contemplated doing the same, but ended up spending her time reading instead.

Less risk of accidentally sleeping through the alarm that way, and she could catch up on some of her manga she had been meaning to read.

—

“Yeah, that’s us.” Nat confirmed, though she did give Yoko a small glance. Was Yanai not actually her last name, or had the teacher just mispronounced it really badly? Or did she just not like her last name? Whatever the case it wasn’t her business, so she focused on the task at hand and replied in her usual flat tone of voice. “Sorry, I misjudged how long it’d take to get here.” Because of Yoko, technically, but Nat didn’t see any reason to mention that to the teacher. Besides, Yoko had put her in charge of the alarm thing so it was a bit on her for not being able to make sure they were on time after all. “It’s an exercise where we get tied together by the feet, right?”

She lightly lifted one foot for a very small amount of emphasis.

Yanai Yoko

[Yanai Yoko]

Nat might be a roommate she was forced to live with, but at least she wasn’t annoying or anything during dinner and just let her whine as much as she needed to. The fact that she even seriously set an alarm kind of caught Yoko off-guard, but she wasn’t about to show it. She was thinking about one thing and one thing only. Cat videos and sleep. The only problem was by the time she woke up they were already going to be late for class. ‘‘Why didn’t you wake me up?’’ She frowned at Nat as she got dressed behind a half closed door. It was a rhetorical question and a no-win situation for Nat seeing as if she had woken her up, Yoko would have just grilled her for that instead.

—

‘‘Yeah.’’ She just added, letting out a small yawn. Her hair was all messy, but thankfully none of their classmates were around to see it. Nat’s last name was Bee? She had never heard of a name like that before, but it checked out with Nat having a mysterious background and all. When her roommate so willingly took the blame Yoko just remained quiet and let it fall on her instead even though she was totally to blame too, perhaps more than anyone.

‘‘Oh?’’ Sadako smiled with her hands behind her back. ‘‘You’re getting ahead of me! Did one of the second years tell you?’’ Either that, or Natesa had some god tier luck, or super intuition. ‘‘Orienteering is the art of navigation, so to speak.’’ She began, showing them a physical map. ‘‘You are going to use this map to navigate the USJ and stop by each of these checkpoints. Lights are out too, so you will have to make use of a flashlight and your quirks.’’

‘‘Why do we have to do all this at night?’’ Yoko frowned, still not happy about having been woken up even though she knew it was coming. ‘‘It adds to the challenge. Besides, heroes have to be ready to work at every hour of the day. That’s just the reality of our job.’’ It was just as Nat had suspected. Handing them the map and the flashlight, Sadako grinned. ‘‘Now, about tying you together… Orienteering just as is would be rather easy if you could just roam free. After all, you might be somewhat familiar with areas of the USJ by now. Soooo…’’ Using her quirk, Sadako conjured up a chain out of thin air and tied it around one of their ankles each, connecting Nat and Yoko. ‘‘You’re going to have to work together! If you somehow find a way to untie or destroy the chain you will immediately be disqualified. There’s faculty stationed at every checkpoint so we’ll know. Believe me. You can’t fool us.’’ There was an air of ominous seriousness to her tone on the last line. ‘‘Good luck girls! See you at the final checkpoint! ~ If you hurry you might catch Helt-san and Gotoh-san, they left about five minutes ago.’’

‘‘Yeah, yeah whatever.’’ Yoko grumbled and lazily waved back at Sadako. ‘‘Do you like reading maps?’’ She immediately handed Nat the map while turning on the flashlight.

nat

[nat]

Nat gave a slight shake of her head. She hadn’t heard it from the second years, but it wasn’t important anyways so she didn’t elaborate and let the teacher continue. Peering at the map, she tried to commit some of the checkpoints to memory while letting Yoko take it and the flashlight. Just on the off chance something happened to the map. She figured the shorter girl wanted to handle the navigating side of things and that suited her just fine, really.

The chains suddenly appearing and wrapping around her leg made her reflexively shift her weight to her other leg, subtly like she was about to leap away, but she caught herself and stayed put. Although it was so fast that trying to leap away wouldn’t have done much more than yank her leg, or maybe even trip Yoko, so it was a good thing she didn’t. “Alright.” She noted, half-raising her arm for a thumbs-up to show she understood. While she wasn’t interested in trying to catch up to or outdo the other pairs of students, she did intend to do her best and didn’t want to intentionally cheat or anything. Especially not when it’d get someone else in trouble too.

“Well enough, I think.” Nat answered as she accepted the map from Yoko before the words had fully left her mouth, turning her attention half-towards the map and half towards keeping the right pace with her teammate… who had shorter legs, so she had to make sure not to take too long of a step. “I think the first checkpoint is this way, if we’re starting here.” She tapped her index finger on a spot on the map, then raised it up slowly to point in a direction. “You set the pace?”

Yanai Yoko

[Yanai Yoko]

‘‘Yeah…’’ She turned the flashlight on the map and gave it a lookover too, before shining in the direction Nat had pointed out. ‘‘Looks like we’re going into the mountain zone first.’’ She put her umbrella up to rest on her shoulder, but didn’t open it. ‘‘I hate mountains.’’ An unnecessary comment, but when she was having a bad day Nat needed to hear about it.

Navigating the USJ didn’t seem too bad… At first anyway. ‘‘Wait, I think it’s this way.’’ She suddenly shifted course, but what Yoko didn’t anticipate was that the place she stepped had no ground to stand on. Slipping, she immediately went plummeting down a hill, dragging Nat with her. It all happened so quickly that she barely had any time to react. Only once they suddenly came to a stop. She was covered in dirt, grass and worst of all hurting all over. ‘‘Ow..’’ She whined. Was her ankle broken? It was hard to tell, but she had foolishly tried to catch herself with the ankle that wasn’t tied to Nat, resulting in her landing on it funny on the way down. ‘‘You okay?’’ She was still getting her bearings, only then noticing that she had dropped the flashlight and umbrella, both of which were just below them, barely out of reach. Somehow they had lucked out and got a tree caught in the middle of their chain, keeping them up for now. However, they were still suspended over a small drop and Yoko didn't have nearly enough upper body strength to right herself up. ‘‘Shit! The umbrella.’’ She struggled to try and reach it to no avail. Moments later the cloud appeared over her head and started raining down on her. ‘‘This sucks. School sucks.’’

nat

[nat]

“Looks like.” Nat agreed, glancing up from the map at the dark mountains she could barely see while Yoko looked at the map. Tilting her head to one side, she was curious what Yoko had against mountains. She could think of a few potential reasons, like them just being a lot of uphill, uneven terrain to get over or lots of loose rocks. She wasn’t certain, but her roommate didn’t strike her as the especially athletic type. So she just chimed in with a quick “Very uphill.” acknowledgement as they set off on their assignment. Pausing when Yoko wanted to change course, Nat turned her attention back down to the map and started to reply “Let me che-” when suddenly her leg got tugged out from under her by Yoko slipping off the side of a hill.

Pushing off with her other foot in a quick hop, Nat managed to spare herself from being awkwardly yanked into the splits on the way down, but that didn’t stop the rest of the tumble down the hill from being a problem. Yoko tumbling forced her to turn in the air and land hard on her chest instead of on her foot like she planned, and then she was caught tumbling down the hill too. Hands up around her head, keeping hold of the map, she landed at the bottom with a ‘oof’ noise and stayed still for a moment to get her bearings. Peeking out from her arms, pushing herself into an upright position, Nat gave cautious nod as she glanced her arms and legs over. “Think so. Just bruises. Yo-” She started to ask Yoko in turn, cut off by the sudden concern for the dropped flashlight and umbrella. And then the rain that started to pour down on them.

Moving the map out of the way hastily, leaning back to try and get enough room away from the rain cloud, Nat shifted her tied leg towards the flashlight and umbrella to try and give Yoko enough room to reach them. “Sorry, didn’t notice the ridge on the map. You okay?”

Yanai Yoko

[Yanai Yoko]

She only looked up at Nat once as they were about to ascend the mountain. ‘‘Riveting commentary.’’ She said sarcastically.

If only all she still had to worry about was how sarcastic she could be with Nat before she gave up on this exercise all together. Here they were, dangling, trapped. ‘‘Yeah, nice going, shitidiot. No, I'm not okay. How could I be okay like this?’’ She replied, noticing what Nat was doing, but failing to reach her umbrella. ‘‘At this rate we’ll catch a cold too…’’ She stopped to catch her breath, then stretched to try and reach it again, still coming short. ‘‘What’s your deal anyway?’’ Once again, she turned her frustrations towards Nat. ‘‘Any time I try to provoke you or hell even get a response out of you, your answers are so short. Like you don’t care, like you’re too good for any of this.’’ She gestured wildly around them. From the outside looking in Yoko’s fit of anger probably looked completely ridiculous. ‘‘What gives? Do you hate me? Then say you hate me! I’m not a people person, I don’t do well with all this shit! Why did someone like you choose to be a hero anyway? You’re quirkless! You’re no one special, you're just some girl. You-’’ Yoko’s fit of rage was interrupted as she had enough of the rain dripping on her head and reached for the cloud to try and tear it apart with her own hands, if only that was possible. She did this until she tired herself out and was panting for dear life. Thankfully it was dark, so Nat probably didn’t notice that Yoko’s skin had been turning blue under the artificial moonlight.

nat

[nat]

The sarcasm didn’t bother Nat. She wasn’t very good at conversation sometimes and she knew it. Plus, it was kind of funny to get called out on it in a way. Of course in the dark the very small bit of amusement on her face was harder to see than it normally would be, and the tumble down the hill put that whole conversation out of mind anyways. Yoko saying she wasn’t okay was the more alarming part, even if she was also angry. Nat couldn’t really tell much in the dark other than that they were stuck and she could feel something on the chain when she moved her leg. But she couldn’t tell how hurt Yoko was, or in what way, and she had a point about the rain risking them catching a cold if it couldn’t be turned off. Trying to cooperate with Yoko’s attempts to reach the dropped items, she was about to ask how bad she was hurt when the other girl went off on a rant.

Nat stayed quiet throughout all of it, and a little after as Yoko flailed about… probably trying to make the rain cloud go away. She was sort of luck to be not directly under it like Yoko was, but she was still getting pretty soaked and cold too, so she wasn’t surprised that on top of being hurt and frustrated the rain cloud was just that much more on top of everything else. Attempting to shift a bit and more or less failing, Nat finally spoke up.

“It’s not that I think I’m too good, and I don’t hate you at all. I know I’m not special, and that being Quirkless is a problem. If I had one I could probably get us out of this. I’m… not much of a people person either, I don’t usually know what to say and you seemed like you wouldn’t appreciate too much small talk. I guess I got the wrong impression.” She paused for a moment, trying to think of what would be best to say in this situation. Words couldn’t really help them right now, but there had to be something she could do to make up for it. “You’re not bleeding are you? We can probably get a makeshift bandage going somehow if you are.” They had the map, but it was probably not very good for that, and the rain would dissolve it pretty quick anyways. Maybe a piece of fabric or something? While she was thinking about how to possibly do that while unable to see much or move freely, depending on where Yoko was hurt if she even was bleeding at all, Nat thought of a small extra thing to say. “It doesn’t help much but, I actually think you’re pretty funny and being direct makes it pretty easy to know what to do or not, or if I’ve said something wrong. I’d hate it if I had a two-faced roommate that acted sweet but wasn’t.”

Yanai Yoko

[Yanai Yoko]

Maybe it was lucky that she was out of breath, if only just so she could listen to Nat reply without talking over, or interrupting her. The worst part was that her answer made her feel like a bigger piece of shit than she already was. ‘‘Despite all that you still want to become a hero?’’ She couldn’t wrap her head around it. She admitted that she was quirkless and probably less useful than other quirked students, and yet she still chose this path. ‘‘I don’t get angry because we don’t do small talk.’’ She groaned, feeling the pain in her ankle swell. ‘‘That thing you do, whatever it is that you do, it makes you look weak. People will see that, and they will take advantage of it. You can’t… Be like that.’’ She wasn’t exactly good with words, but words was about all she had right now considering their situation. ‘‘I’m not bleeding, probably… It’s hard to tell but it really fucking hurts.’’ She sneered. Despite her pain and frustrations, the cloud actually started to dissipate again.

‘‘Funny?’’ She might have laughed if she had the capacity to. ‘‘I’ve been called many things Nat. No one has ever called me funny.’’ She paused and looked up at the fake night sky as another thought crossed her mind. ‘‘You know…’’ She turned to look at Nat. ‘‘At least you don’t have a choice. You just said if you had a quirk you could get us out of here. I have a quirk.’’ She swallowed silently, fighting her own emotions. ‘‘But I can’t do it. I can’t just waste my quirk on stupid shit like this. Hero students, they love to sling their quirks around like it means nothing, like it’s as natural as breathing to them.’’ She shook her head insistently. ‘‘Not me. I need a good reason.’’ Her stubborn side was coming out. Not even being trapped in this awkward position was a good enough reason. ‘‘When do you think they’ll come looking for us? Could be an hour, maybe two…’’ She untied her hair and started wringing water out of it.

nat

[nat]

“Yeah.” Was all Nat really had to say in response to that first question. Skepticism was at least better than assuming it was some kind of pride thing like most people did. She wasn’t sure exactly what Yoko meant by ‘thing you do’ or how it made her look weak. She thought about it though, and made a mental note to not forget about it if they didn’t end up talking about it more. More importantly though was Yoko confirming whatever her injury was hurt a lot, but it at least wasn’t bleeding. Maybe she’d broken something? She still couldn’t really see, and the rain wasn’t helping… but maybe it was starting to go away again? She wasn’t sure if that was the case or if Yoko had shifted a little further away somehow and taken the cloud a bit more off of Nat in the process. While she was thinking about that though Yoko was still talking, and while Nat wasn’t sure how people could not find Yoko’s sassy commentary to be at least a little funny at times she didn’t get a chance to reply before she was talking about her Quirk. That she didn’t want to use it, didn’t want to be a show off about it?

“You don’t have to.” Nat eventually replied. It wasn’t like she could force her to use her Quirk anyways, and Nat herself didn’t even know what it was or how it would help. Maybe it was some kind of weather control and wouldn’t have an easy time of getting them free anyways? “And… I’m not sure. We’re training to be heroes, so they might let us sit here for a while as long as we’re not in immediate danger.” She paused, idly hoping the rainwater didn’t end up messing up her dreadlocks before focusing on something else. To pass the time if nothing else, since there was nothing she could do about it right now. “What do you mean ‘the thing I do’?”

Yanai Yoko

[Yanai Yoko]

‘‘Well,’’ She sighed deeply. ‘‘Great. Whatever. We’ll probably be stuck here for a while then. Unless you somehow have expertise in slipping out of chains made by a pro hero. I somehow doubt it though, you don’t strike me as the criminal type.’’ Ever since starting hero school it had been embarrassment after embarrassment. Why had they gotten themselves into a situation like this? Sure, Nat was to blame but… Was she entirely innocent? She did rush ahead up the mountain and she had been giving Nat a lot of attitude. ‘‘I guess they might.’’ Really besides risk of injury they weren’t in a whole lot of danger considering they were still on UAU ground. ‘‘Shit I dropped my phone too. I can’t tell the time from up here. Do you have yours?’’ She didn’t even think to ask if Nat wore a watch, because who cared about analogue time in this day and age? Probably only people as dorky as Nat or Jun.

‘‘I… I don’t know. That thing- listen man, I’m not your therapist.’’ For some reason she got worked up at being questioned so openly. She wasn’t exactly great with words and now she had to elaborate on her shittalking? She took a deep breath. ‘‘It’s… Okay, you know how I tell you to do things, right? Don’t listen to me. You just nod your head and do whatever it is I told you to. That’s pushover behavior. Bullies will see that and they will think you’re weak. You’re also way too nice and patient with others when you don't have to be.’’ She was pointing a finger at Nat like she was accusing her of a grave crime. ‘‘You’re just gonna get trampled all-over if you act like that. Sometimes you have to stand up for yourself and tell people to fuck off.’’ She emphasized her point by flipping up her middle finger. Her logic was completely flawed too, as Yoko saw the world from her own, paranoid perspective. Everyone is a prospective bully, everyone has the capability to take advantage of you. It’s you against the world and no one is coming to save you because no one cares about you. ‘‘A-And I’m not saying that to be nice or anything! It’d just piss me off if some rando shithead insulted you. Got that?’’ She had gotten herself a little worked up again, but soon calmed down. ‘‘I’m not… Used to being around people this much. People are annoying and they suck. Especially hero types.’’ She felt more vulnerable than she usually was, but she was still hellbent on keeping her guard up.

nat

[nat]

Nat would have kicked herself for not thinking of her phone sooner if they weren’t stuck in such an awkward position. Well, she probably still could have managed with her unchained leg if she really tried. Pulling it out of her bag, the cover a lavender color shaped like a cat, she tapped at the screen to check the time… they really hadn’t been here that long at all. Should she call someone? Would it be against the rules to use the flashlight built into her phone? She didn’t think the teacher had said anything about that. While she was thinking that over though, Yoko was explaining what she meant. Nat wasn’t sure how to take the advice, but it did make some things click in her head about Yoko.

“You might be right.” Nat admitted, tapping the flashlight button on her phone and shining it over at Yoko to get a good look at her. Thankfully she really didn’t look too hurt or anything, and if she craned her head she could see where the umbrella and flashlight had fallen. It really was just out of her short roommate’s reach. She could also finally see what they were hooked on, the chain somehow wrapped around an odd rock in such a way that it looked firmly wedged between it and the mountain they had tumbled down. She couldn’t fix that, but an idea did come to her. “Here, can you hook your umbrella with this?” Shrugging the bag strap off her shoulder she carefully held her phone in one hand and lightly swung the bag out towards Yoko. “If you can, maybe you can snag the flashlight with it next?” She didn’t exactly like not being able to do that herself, especially since Yoko was hurt, but there was no way she could reach from where she was.

Yanai Yoko

[Yanai Yoko]

‘‘What are you doing?’’ She closed her eyes slightly as the light shone in her face. She wasn’t sure what Nat was up to, but gears were definitely turning in that dorky head of hers. ‘‘What difference does it make?’’ She frowned, catching the bag and looking down towards the umbrella. She was openly complaining, but she could either play stubborn or just follow directions, so for the time being she was curious where Nat’s plan was going. Not like she was devising any plan of escape herself either. It took a few tries for her to get the hang of it, but eventually she was able to hook the umbrella and pull it in close.

Biting back the pain in her ankle she handed the umbrella to Nat before going for the flashlight. It was trickier, but little by little she managed to get it close enough too. ‘‘You know, for us to have this conversation I don’t need to see you. I was fine staying in the dark.’’ She turned the flashlight on like she was about to tell a horror story, but immediately regretted shining herself in the face with it. ‘‘So what now? We got our things, but it’s not like they were going anywhere either.’’ She said while rubbing her eyes.

nat

[nat]

Nat didn’t explain until she was handed the umbrella, focused on trying to think of something to do about the way the chain was stuck. Glancing back at Yoko after her complaint about the light, she offered a quick “Sorry, but I think I can try something. Hopefully it won't break your umbrella...” before taking a moment to try and plant her unchained foot firmly against the rocky hill they were stuck on. Eyebrows narrowing a bit in focus, Nat’s foot slipped and she would have fallen if the chain wasn’t keeping them stuck. She did bonk awkwardly into the rocks, but she ignored it to try again. This time she got better footing, and managed to get just a bit of slack on her side of the chain from where it was stuck. Now the tricky part was holding her phone for light in one hand, and using the umbrella to try and un-stick the chain from the spot it was wedged in. Without losing her balance again too.

Actually hooking the umbrella on the chain was harder than she thought it’d be, fumbling around for a few tries before she finally managed to get it hooked. With a tug, bracing her foot against the rocks, she tried to yank the chain free. It shifted, but she wasn’t strong enough to just yank it loose with one arm when it was pinned down by their own body weights and stuck in the grip of the rocks like that. “Can you reach? Maybe if we pull together?”

This was the only idea Nat had so if it didn’t work they were firmly stuck until rescue, and hopefully Yoko’s arms weren’t as short as they looked.

Yanai Yoko

[Yanai Yoko]

‘‘Sure, but why?’’ She panted, puzzled by it all. ‘‘Teachers are gonna come looking for us anyway.’’ Her actions betrayed her words as she was verbally against it, but still silently helping where she could, not that she could see the bigger picture like Nat could. ‘‘Hey careful, dumbass.’’ She scowled when she heard her roommate bump against the rocks. How was it going to look if Nat beat herself unconscious and they found Yoko as the only one of them awake? She would have to explain everything herself and she already hated talking to UAU faculty. She had no faith in Nat, but little by little she got more and more invested in her success. Seeing that she was trying to shine a light somewhere Yoko tried to help using the flashlight she was holding in one hand.

‘‘Pull? I just need to pull?’’ She reached up and did as Nat suggested. ‘‘Hey you know, us getting stuck here… It wasn’t entirely your fault.’’ She had been stewing on it and was bringing it up now of all times. ‘‘I couldn’t get out of bed so we were late because of me, I was the one that hurried you up the mountain and made us slip down here… I don’t usually…’’ She was trying to find the words, her entire body resisting like the phrase was somehow poisonous to her. ‘‘I guess I’m sorry.’’ She didn’t look at Nat when she said it. ‘‘Don’t think I’ll make a habit of apologizing, or being nicer to you. I still meant what I said earlier.’’

nat