Chapter 51 - Painfully Musical

Zero requests.

For many in the class who didn't get to show off during the Sports Festival, they got zero requests from pro heroes to join them. It was up to them to put in requests to pro heroes to allow them to take on an internship, or they would be ȧssigned one for themselves before the end of the day. For a lot of people who didn't really place in the tournament, or got taken out of it quickly, that meant no requests. For others like Naruto and Bakugo, they had several thousand requests, or Todoroki with his famous father also having as many requests. Over half of the class didn't have a single request though, other than those who were being hand selected for their Quirks.

'This sucks.' Kyoka thought to herself as she laid down on her bed.

She didn't know any pro heroes who would take her, so at the end of the day, she was going to be ȧssigned one to take her own as an intern. She was just going to have to deal with it she guessed. Maybe she would pass the time practicing one of her many instruments, she was usually too busy with homework to do that anymore. She was already in her PJs, and she didn't feel like being social at the moment. She had asked for her dorm room to be sound proofed, so if she played a little loud, she was sure that nobody would notice or be bothered by it.

*Knock knock knock*

"Huh... nobody visits me." Kyoka had yet to have anyone really visit her room yet, despite all the time they had all been living in the dorms.

The door opened.

"Hope you're decent Kyoka." Naruto stated as he came in, with his hand over his eyes, just in case she wasn't. In his hand covering his eyes, he had some papers in them. Kyoka sat up and crossed her legs, she was decent in how she was dressed.

"I'm good, way to barge in." Kyoka commented with a small grin. She wasn't too bothered by what he had done, she was going to let him in anyway. "What brings you here, don't you have some offers to go through?" Kyoka asked him with a little scorn. Naruto had gotten the most offers out of everyone, thanks to his spot as 1st place, and how he did it in such an overwhelming way. She figured he would be up all night trying to pick who he was going to go for, after he had listed his preferences.

Naruto shrugged.

"I already chose, I chose a hero in a city that I need to go to anyway. I heard you and some of the others didn't get any offers, so I wrote some letters of recommendation for you guys. I think you would do great if you spent a week under the hero Native." Naruto walked towards her and showed off his letter for her. He sat down on her bed with her, a wide smile on his face. She was stunned when he passed her the letter, and saw that he had actually written a letter for her. A real one, and on the page underneath the letter, there was a letter of acceptance as well.

She glanced up at him.

"What do you want?"

"Nothing, I just wanted my friends to find places that could help them." Naruto stood up and started to get ready to go towards the next person. He had a few more letters to deliver, since he had gotten the approval of a few heroes to have his friends intern for them. Kyoka was just shocked when she heard that, and when Naruto didn't request anything from her. She looked around her room, to try and think of anything that she could do for him, and the answer came to her almost instantly.

Music.

"As thanks, let me teach you how to play something! Pick anything here, and I can teach you as much as I know. Before you try and say you don't need thanks, I insist you let me do this. I don't want to feel like I owe you or anything..." Kyoka got up from her bed and chased him down, grabbing the back of his shirt. She closed and locked her door quickly, refusing to let Naruto leave until he had picked something to let her teach him. It was honestly the least she could do, since he was going out of his way to further her career and experience with this.

Naruto looked down at her, before he grabbed her waist, picked her up and walked her back towards her bed. He sat her down, and her jaw dropped when she realized that she had just been treated like a child.

"I'm honestly good, I can already play the guitar and piano a little, so-"

He shouldn't have said that.

"Really? You play? You don't have any instruments in your room." Kyoka hadn't heard of this before. Naruto didn't seem to have any passion for music, so she had ȧssumed that he didn't know how to play anything.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head.

"My Quirk makes me angry, so my uncle thought this would be a good way to focus my mind... it didn't really work." Naruto was grabbed by the hand and pulled so that he was sitting on her bed. She went over and grabbed her keyboard, before she picked it up and put it down in front of Naruto, turning it on for him. She even sat next to him and looked at him with eyes filled with expectation. "Honestly, I don't really have fun doing it either, I only know one song." Naruto spoke to her with an uncomfortable face. It was the one song that meant a lot to him, and it wasn't something he really liked to do for just anyone.

She smiled when she turned the keyboard on, and scooted closer to him so that they were side by side, and she pushed her fingers to it and started to play something pretty simple, just a small few second tune.

"My family loves music, and I do too. I didn't know anyone in the class could play anything." Kyoka plugged one of her earphone jacks into the keyboard, before she extended the other and plugged it into a speaker.

With her Quirk, she could feel music more deeply than any other person (other than her mother).

"I... fine... but just this once... this is one hell of a way to thank somebody, making them play with you." Naruto told her with a sad smile.

This was going to hurt.

"Music is the heart's melody, right? Well, I want to play with you, and show you how thankful I am. You play your song, and make it come out of there. Then, when I know feel you, I'll play a song for you I'll know you will love." Kyoka just wanted to hear his song, so that she could play one for him as thanks. Naruto looked at her for a moment, before he sighed and nodded his head.

This was going to hurt him.

-Play: Naruto Ost- Decision (Piano Version)-

'Kind of slow... but it's...' Kyoka closed her eyes when Naruto's fingers slowly went over the keys. She could feel each note reverberate through her entire body, and with her hearing, every note felt like magic that coursed through her blood. She blocked out the entire world, and allowed her thoughts and body to only take in his song. From Naruto, she expected his song to sound fast, catchy, and pretty hard core for a guy like him. This slow beat, the timing of each note, and how long they all lasted was surprising.

Her heartbeat started to slow down as she relaxed, and laid back on her own bed, feet hanging off the edge as she found herself relaxing.

The music wasn't happy... it was almost saddening, but it was beautiful.

'I hate this song so much... why does it have to be so beautiful?' Naruto thought to himself as he leaned his head to his shoulder, and wiped a tear out of his eye. He was thankful that Kyoka was so oblivious to him at the moment. He didn't want her to see his reaction to the song he was playing. The worst part, it was his fault he learned this song. It was the song he had chosen over all over songs to learn. It held a special importance to him after all.

Kyoka was smiling.

She could feel it, in her imagination, this song had a cool rain washing over her body. She could picture herself standing in the light rain, alone, with nobody around. Slowly, her smile faded when in her own imagination, the rain started to get heavier, and it drowned out the world around her. As the speed of the notes came faster, she could feel her body stinging. Her face felt wet, not just in her imagination, but her face was getting wet somehow in real life.

'Music inspires emotions, and conveys so much... what was the person who wrote this song trying to say?... and why did Naruto learn it?' Kyoka allowed her mind to wander as the song started to draw closer to it's conclusion.

As she listened to the song, the end came almost too soon... she got so long in the song that timed passed her by too quickly.

Then it ended.

"Okay, now I've got to go take care of those letters-"

"That was really pretty... man, that was emotional." Kyoka unplugged her jacks from the keyboard and speaker. She sat up, and felt the tears drip off of her chin and into her ŀȧp. She rubbed her face, and dried it off. She had gotten really absorbed into his music, but she wasn't done. She grabbed Naruto's hand and pulled Naruto back into bed, before she pushed him over a little and sat directly in front of the keyboard. "Since this is the type of music you like, I know just the thing to show my thanks, I didn't expect you to like that sad stuff though." Kyoka spoke as she cracked her fingers.

Naruto stood up.

"I hate sad music actually, so I'm just going to go. I really didn't need a thanks though, but thanks for trying."

"... Wait, then why do you only know that song if you hate sad music?" Kyoka was a little, read as very, confused when she heard that. That song was completely beautiful, and to be honest, Naruto hating it when he was the one that learned it was weird.

Naruto gave her a fake smile.

"My uncle told me this song played at my parents and siblings funeral."

With that, Naruto closed the door, and Kyoka had no words to say. That was the quickest way for Naruto to ruin her enjoyment of his song, and the fastest way for him to stop her from trying to play a song for him. She felt bad that she had insisted so badly that he play for her, and she could now understand why she had felt so sad when she had been listening to the music. It was a song that was written to celebrate the memory of those who had passed away, it wasn't something that was made to be played for shits and giggles. Kyoka collapsed onto her bed, and looked at the letter and acceptance letter that Naruto had written and gotten for her. He had put in so much effort in order to make sure that all of his classmates, his friends, who didn't get any offers would be able to intern for somebody who would be a good hero for them.

"... I human garbage for doing that to him... after the internships, I'll make it up to him for doing this." Kyoka felt horrible for making him do that. She had taken advantage of the fact that Naruto had trouble turning down his friends when they insisted on doing stuff with him.

She needed to do something big to apologize.

She would talk to all of the other people who Naruto was getting internships for, and see if they would be able to help her. Since no doubt they would all want to thank Naruto for what he was doing for them.

She knew what she was going to do.