Chapter 43 - Lunch encounter

After school ended, Hiroto was packing up and getting ready to leave with Katsuki standing by the door waiting, his usual scowl having gotten less… scowlier?

The rest of the class bid farewell to each other as they left one after another, with Hiroto parting from them after hearing someone grind their teeth.

As Hiroto left the school with Katsuki, who was annoyed at how slow Hiroto was, Hiroto asked him, "Katsuki, what score did you get when you entered U.A. on your written exam?"

Katsuki scoffed, saying, "5th place."

Hiroto raised an eyebrow, saying, "Well, who would've known you were smart, considering your appearance screams out 'delinquent'."

"You wanna die, bastard?" Katsuki said, he then scoffed and said, "The old hag forces me to study, or I would get punished."

"Fair enough," Hiroto said.

Katsuki turned to him and said, "So, what did you get?"

"Can't remember," Hiroto answered, to which Katsuki ground his teeth and increased his pace in annoyance.

Leaving Hiroto behind, he thought to himself, Doesn't his teeth hurt from all that grinding?' Hiroto then felt his pocket vibrate, to which he took out his phone, seeing that the caller was from Rumi.

Answering, he said, "Hey, What's up?"

"Remember that apartment I told you about yesterday?" Rumi said.

Hiroto answered back, "Yea, did you move in already?"

"Change of plans, I got a different place," Rumi replied in a jovial voice.

"Oh? Where then." Hiroto asked.

"It's a surprise," Rumi said in a teasing voice. She then hung up the phone, leaving Hiroto confused for a moment before he threw the matter to the back of his mind. (It must be getting cluttered back there)

After finally arriving home, just as he was about to enter his house, he felt someone wrap their arms around him and covered his eyes.

"Guess who?"

Hiroto removed the hands covering his face and said sarcastically, "Midnight?"

Hiroto has then spun around and was faced with Rumi's annoyed look, her ears twitching. She was in her yellow shirt and jeans that stopped just below her knees. Hiroto smiled and said innocently, "Oh, hi Rumi. Didn't know it was you."

"You're annoying." Rumi said with a pout, but then brightened up and said, "Aren't you curious about where I'm living now?"

"Let me guess, the house just down the road?" Hiroto said in a joking tone.

To which, Rumi replied in a surprised voice, "How did you know?"

"Wait, that was for real?" Hiroto asked.

"Yup," Rumi replied.

"... I have homework," (he didn't) Hiroto said, turning to enter his house but Rumiswung her leg in front of Hiroto, blocking him from entering.

"What is that all you have to say? Besides, don't you wanna come and check it out?" Rumi asked him, putting her foot back down.

"Sure, I'll swing by later," Hiroto said, nodding his head.

Rumi gave a toothy grin and turned to leave while humming a bright tune. Hiroto shook his head, but before he entered his eyes were drawn to the second floor of his house.

On the right window where his parent's bedroom was, the curtain was slightly open, and peering out was Hiroto's mother who had one arm under her ċhėst while the other was cupping her chin, a thoughtful look on her face.

Behind her was Hiroto's father, who had a phone in his hand, recording it all. When they saw that Hiroto noticed them, Hiroto's dad gave him a thumbs up and his mother nodded in what seemed to be approval.

Hiroto sighed and entered his house, doing his damn best to avoid his two nosy parents.

After having gotten changed into his usual casual outfit consisting of his hoodie, blue jeans, and black sneakers he left the house under his parent's gaze.

Arriving in front of Rumi's house, he rang the doorbell and a second later Rumi opened up, spreading her arms wide open and said, "Welcome to the dwelling of the Rabbit Hero Mirko!"

"Thanks for having me," Hiroto said, entering the house. It wasn't a big house by all means, but it was still large compared to her apartment before. This house had floors, with 2 bedrooms upstairs as well as an upstairs and downstairs bathroom.

After giving a short tour of her house, Rumi took Hiroto to the living, and Hiroto sat on the sofa and acted casual, with Rumi plopping down on the sofa and laying down with her head on the other end and her legs resting on Hiroto's ŀȧp.

Hiroto then said, "You do know this is the same as we usually do back in your apartment, right?"

Rumi swung her legs up and down and looked to Hiroto, saying, "So? I like it like this." She then turned on the tv and started to watch an action movie that was on.

Hiroto shrugged and watched the movie along with her, spending the rest of the evening like this and eating takeout pizza once it arrived, just chatting with one another until Hiroto was called to come back by his mother.

Before he left, Rumi threw him an object from the sofa, still engrossed in her movie. Hiroto opened his palm and saw that it was a key, to which Rumi said, "It's a spare key to the house, so you can come over whenever you want."

"Alright, I'll see you later then. Night." Hiroto bid farewell.

"Night," Rumi responded, waving her hand from the sofa.

-------------------- [Short Timeskip]

"I didn't study at all!!!!" Kaminari shouted, with Mina also laughing beside him with her arms behind her head.

"Why are you laughing?" Hiroto said, poking her side so she would stop laughing, "You got the second worse score in the midterm exams."

"W-Well… Ahahahaha…" Mina laughed at her own expense.

"Ashido, Kaminari! Let's try the best we can!" Izuku said, encouraging the two people who got the lowest scores in the class, ranking 19th and 20th.

Todoroki, who got 6th out of the class said, "Haven't you been attending class? How could you possibly fail?"

"Words hurt, y'know!!" Kaminari shouted, grasping his ċhėst.

Eijiro turned to Hiroto and said, "I would've thought that you would've gotten a worse score, considering… well… you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hiroto said, having attained 7th in the rankings.

"Nothing, nothing. Forget I even said anything." Eijiro said, waving his hands.

Momo then spoke up, "You two… if it's academics you need help with, I could lend a hand."

"Momo!!" Mina and Kaminari shouted in gratitude.

"I'm not as bad off as them, but… how about helping me too?" Jiro said, approaching her.

"Help me out too!" Sero said, clasping his hands.

Momo then gasped and covered her mouth with her hands in surprise and happiness, exclaiming, "Yes! Of course!!"

Eijiro then nudged Katsuki, saying, "That's what virtue looks like."

Katsuki ground his teeth in annoyance and said, "I've got virtue too. I'll tutor you 'til you're dead."

"I'm counting on you!" Eijiro said, his plan to trick Katsuki working.

Katsuki then turned to Hiroto and smirked, saying, "Looks like you can't measure up to me, ha."

Hiroto raised an eyebrow, then stood up and said, "Momo, tutor me as well."

Momo looked stunned for a moment, then quickly recovered and said with a smile, "Of course!" She then stood up and looked even more amped up than usual. "We can even meet at my house this weekend. I'll host a study party!"

"Seriously?!" Mina said, excited." We're going to your place, Momo? Awesome!"

"Ah! In that case, I'll have to ask mother if we can use our lecture ...!" Momo said excitedly, pacing around in small steps.

'Lecture hall?!' The group of people planning to go thought to themselves.

"Are you guys partial to a particular type of tea?! We always stock Harrods and Wedgewood at my house, but if you prefer another, I'll gladly get some!" Momo said with her eyes practically twinkling.

"Huh?" Hiroto muttered, saying, "Are those types of fish…?"

Eijiro whispered to him, "Nah, I think those are types of tea."

Meanwhile, the group were thinking to themselves how Momo practically drove home the point that they were from totally different worlds. But seeing her this excited, made her freaking adorable.

--------------------

When lunch arrived, Hiroto was sat with his usual group that consisted of Mina, Eijiro, Momo, and Todoroki.

Momo was alternating between her phone and eating, putting notes on what she wanted to do for the study group when they came over to her place this weekend.

"I wonder what they're going to do for our practical exam," Mina said poking her food.

"It might be robots," Eijiro said, waving his chopsticks.

"It should be a test on the things we've been training on so far," Todoroki added to the conversation with 3 ȧssortments of cup ramen in front of him. He was currently in a dilemma on which one he should eat for the day.

"What do you think, Hiroto," Mina said, nudging Hiroto's elbow.

Hiroto thought for a moment, then said, "Dunno."

"Come on, nothing?" Eijiro said, rolling his eyes.

"Alien Robots." Hiroto then said, to which Eijiro sighed in defeat.

As the group continued eating, a commotion from the table next to them brought their attention. They saw a student with blond hair wearing a shit-eating grin on his face after having 'accidentally' bumping into the back of Izuku's head.

He then went on to talk about how class 1-A kept hogging all the attention to themselves, following the events in Hosu city. Before he could continue any further, a girl with medium height and long ginger hair, Itsuka Kendo, approached him from behind and performed a neck chop, making him fall to the ground.

She then apologized to the group, but then saw Hiroto's group and waved to them as well, saying, "I overheard you guys earlier, saying that you're not sure about the practical exam."

Everyone nearby nodded their heads as she continued, " Between you and me, I heard that it'll be a battle against robots, like in the entrance exam."

"Robots? Seriously? No sweat!" Eijiro said.

"What a relief! It'll be a cinch for me to melt them!" Mina added, breathing out a sigh of relief.

Momo nodded and said, "You would usually need to dial back your quirks against human opponents, Mina."

Mina nodded and then turned to Kendo, who walked to their group while still dragging the blonde who was foaming in the mouth with his eyes rolled back, and asked her."How did you know?"

"I know an older student who told me, it's a little unfair, I know," Kendo said with a sheepish smile.

Hearing this, Izuku started to mumble about how it wasn't unfair at all and went on a speed rant about the benefits of intel blah blah.

"Kendo, you fool." The blonde murmured, his body hung limp and was being held up by the back from Kendo's grip. "We finally had an intel advantage over them!! This was our chance to show up the detestable class A and that bald bastard...!"

*wham*

Before he could continue, Kendo delivered another chop to the back of his neck, knocking him out as he gave a groan.

"I'm just being considerate." Kendo said, bowing to the group as she turned and walked away, "They're not detestable, and don't call Moriyama a bastard." She turned and gave an apologetic smile to Hiroto, to which he nodded gratefully.

[Authors Note: We'll arrive at the practical exam soon. It won't be anything special and just a means to have Hiroto improve his cooperation with someone else.. I paired him up with Sero to go up against Midnight because of her quirk.]