Reiko Yanagi wasn't exactly antisocial. Sure the girl was an otaku who preferred playing video games, spending an inordinate amount of hours on her computer and watching old era anime and cartoons. But she wasn't a hermit. The ghostly girl functioned more than well enough in social settings. She just preferred not to at times.

But when Tokage randomly invited her to hangout today, she didn't really have a reason to say no. The only thing she had planned for the day was to kick back and catch up on some of her favorite manga series. Which was something that could wait until later. Besides, if she was going to become a hero, being more inclined to social settings was a part of the job that needed to be mastered.

The girl never really had a lot of friends growing up. There were a few people she would chat with here and there. And occasionally explore various parts of Aichi Prefecture with. But overall, she could count the number of real friends that she had on one hand.

The same was pretty much the truth when she got into U.A.. As everyone could piece together, Midoriya was the person she could consider her best friend. The two had a lot in common and meshed together pretty well. Plus, he was the other half of the unofficial "Dynamic Duo" of 1-B. And as much as it made her cringe to admit it, Tokage was the other person that she was closest to in their class. The girl was way too energetic and over the top at times, but she was nice to be around when you got used to her antics.

However, what confused her the most about this entire situation was the group that she was currently on the way to some bowling alley in downtown Musutafu with. Aside from the green haired couple were Kyoka Jiro, Denki Kaminari and Fumikage Tokoyami from 1-A. As far as she could recall, neither Midoriya or Tokage had interacted with the blonde and purple haired teens that much. But they were more than familiar with the 'dark shadow' user due to their partnering up for the whole Derelicta situation.

As they all drew closer to the aforementioned bowling alley, Yanagi had a weird feeling in her gut. One that told her that she was being set up or something. But for the life of her couldn't quite figure out exactly what that something was. So for the moment, the 'poltergeist' user simply chose to play it by ear and keep her guard up. Making sure to keep an eye on the green haired girl just in case she pulled something.

"Man, this place looks awesome!" Kaminari said with glee as the group of six stepped into the building.

The bowling alley seemed to be pretty lively and filled with all manner of people and groups filling up the lanes. The smell of pizza was permeating the air and the sounds of pins being knocked over practically assaulted their ears.

"I wasn't expecting this palace to be so packed on a Saturday." Jiro said nonchalantly. "We're lucky that we got a reservation."

Tokage started shaking Midoriya with excitement. "Oh man...I'm so looking forward to this!"

"Yeah."

"I guess we must proceed with procuring some appropriate footwear." Tokoyami began walking towards the counter.

"Yeah." Yanagi stoically agreed.

When the group approached the counter, they were greeted by a young woman with dark green eyes and a medium sized scar in the middle of her right cheek. She had beautiful auburn hair that was tied into a neat bun at the top of her head that went pretty well with her employee uniform. The woman wasn't paying attention to them at first and Tokage had to call out to her to get her attention. Curiously, the moment she looked their way, she paused briefly when she locked eyes on Midoriya. But seemed to shake it off before putting on her best smiling.

"Hello everyone! How may we help you?!" The woman, who's name was Shimisu judging by her name tag, spoke to them in a cheery tone.

"Hello, we have a reservation. Tokage, party of six." Said the green haired girl.

"Ah yes, we have you guys at lane nine for one hour."

"Sure do!"

"Wonderful, what size shoes do you all need?" She then asked. The students were quick to tell the woman their sizes and didn't have to wait long before receiving the necessary attire. With everything now in order, they were all ready to begin their game.

"Um, excuse me? You wouldn't happen to be Izuku Midoriya would you?" Shimisu asked.

"Yeah." Midoriya nodded.

"Oh wow, I saw you on the news with Blizzard a while back during that whole terrorist disaster. You're pretty awesome!"

"Oh wow, you're too kind." The boy blushed at the sudden compliment.

"Keep up the good work. I'll definitely be keeping my eye on you when you officially go pro."

"Thanks."

"Come on, we need to hurry up! We're burning precious time here, freckles." Tokage suddenly hooked her arm around Midoriya's and walked towards their designated lane. All while holding a slightly miffed expression on her face.

What the group of students didn't see however was Shimisu's face shift to a dark expression once their backs were to her. One that was a mixture of displeasure and malice.

'So...that's Nitro's little friend, huh? He's going to be a problem in the future, I can already tell. I'll need to find a way to get him and Blizzard out of our hair once we resume operations. Right now, he's the only leverage that I have against that boy in case things go belly-up again. But I'm sure that we can come up with something after we bust our other members out of prison.'

-(o)-

After about ten minutes, the group of U.A. students were already well into the first game. Now that she finally had the opportunity to put her plan into action, Tokage made sure that Yanagi and Tokoyami were forced to sit right next to each other. And for the most part, things seemed to be progressing just as she hoped.

Like they had previously rehearsed, Midoriya, Jiro and Kaminari would do everything that they could to direct the conversation towards either of the two emo teens. And set the other up for a response while Tokage kept nudging the two in the right direction.

"Forgive me for asking…" Yanagi suddenly changed topics. "But how do you all decide to hang out today?" Was the million yen question on the grey haired girl's mind.

"It was actually pretty random." Tokage was the one to answer. "We ended up running into Jiro and Kaminari here on our way back from our family dinner the other day and just started chatting."

"Really?"

"Mhmm." The green haired girl nodded. "On the way, we ended up finding out that Jiro and Izuku here actually live pretty close to each other."

"Yeah, it was actually a surprise." Midoriya then added.

"It makes sense though." The rocker teen stated. "I used to see you on my way to school all the time before we moved into the dorms. Tokoyami too."

That much was true seeing as all three students lived in Shizuoka.

"On the way back, she ended up telling us about this bowling alley and I just had to check it out. And we kinda decided to just go as a group."

"I kinda just asked Tokoyami to come with us on a whim and he agreed to it." Kaminari put in his two cents.

"And I am most gracious for your offer." The bird themed teen bowed his head.

"Hey, have you had a chance to talk to Kuroiro yet? I think you two would get along really well. You both have that whole darkness vibe going." Tokage joked. "Actually...you him and Ghosty here would make a pretty solid team."

"I am familiar with him to a degree. But I do agree that a partnership would be advantageous given our quirks."

"It wouldn't be the worst matchup." Yanagi stoically added.

'Geez...these two are not making this easy.' The 'lizard tail splitter' user groaned. And they were doing so well up until this point.

"Anyways, how are things in 1-B going? I'm still surprised that all you guys managed to pass the provisional license exam." Kaminari asked the trio.

"Pretty well." Midoriya replied. "What about you guys?"

"As good as they could be, I guess. Everyone gets along for the most part."

"Meaning?"

"He means that everyone not named Bakugou and Todoroki get along. Those two couldn't be bothered to even socialize on a good day. I'm still surprised that Bakugou agreed to be the drummer for our performance. He was still a total pain in the ass though." Jiro slightly huffed.

"It sucks that you guys didn't get a chance to perform. I was really looking forward to seeing that."

"Indeed." Tokoyami nodded.

"Weren't you supposed to be the bass player?" Yanagi asked the bird boy.

"Yes...It was difficult, but I was able to learn how to perform at an acceptable level."

"Too bad, I would've liked to see you play."

'And we're right back on track!' Tokage silently cheered.

Midoriya then stood up seeing as it was his turn on the lane. The boy picked up the bright red bowling ball off the rack and paused for a moment before proceeding to score his first strike of the game.

Never one to miss an opportunity at a little mischief, and since it was now her turn anyways, Tokage hopped up from her seat and walked over to the boy. However, Midoriya wasn't paying her any attention. Otherwise he would've been prepared for what happened next.

*POW!* The sound of the girl's hand impacting with his butt echoed slightly. Causing the boy to yelp out loud.

"Nice job!" She smiled.

"T-thanks…" He said sarcastically before going back to his seat. Hoping that none of the other groups saw that (They did).

"Y'know Midoriya…." Kaminari said to the 'telekinesis' user. "I'd much rather have you in our class than Bakugou. You're not one of those guys who thinks he's a big shot just because he's got a megastrong quirk."

"I try not to be."

"He has a point though, Midoriya-kun. It's pretty widely accepted that you're the strongest amongst the first years."

"That's pretty obvious at this point." Yanagi backed up Tokoyami's claim.

"You guys really give me too much credit." The boy blushed a bit.

"Not really, dude. If we had you in 1-A, our class would be pretty much unstoppable."

"Honestly, I wouldn't mind having Kan-sensei over Aizawa-sensei. He seems way more chill." Jiro stated.

Now that he thought about it, Midoriya did wonder what the selection process was for assigning each of the hero course students to their classes. Obviously there had to be some kind of methodology to avoid an imbalance. Even then, the divide was still pretty obvious. But the more he pondered over it, the more it made sense.

Class 1-A was composed of students with more destructive and flashy quirks. While class 1-B was primarily made up of those with support and close combat types quirks. But factoring in how Kan was still a new teacher and Aizawa could nullify any quirk at will. It made a lot more sense how it might have been decided.

"Well I wouldn't mind the teachers switching up the classes a bit. Maybe we can give you guys Monoma and we get Tokoyami here. Now that would be a fun time! Don't you think, Ghosty?" Tokage suddenly interjected once her turn was over.

"I think Tokoyami-kun would fit in pretty well with our class." The grey haired teen stoically added. For a brief moment, Tokage could swear that she saw the fainted ghost of a smile appear on Yanagi's lips.

'Oh yeah, she totally has the hots for him.'

-(o)-

The next hour practically flew by before the group had to wrap up their game. Unsurprisingly, Yanagi was the overall victor. The girl had gotten an absolutely insane fifteen strikes in a row. Apparently her talent for gaming extended to other areas as well. Tokage protested this quite a bit, claiming that the girl used her quirk to cheat somehow. But that was mainly because she was a bit of a sore loser.

At the moment, they were all walking along the streets of downtown Musutafu. They still had a good three hours before their curfew. But no one was ready to head back to the school just yet. Which was exactly what Tokage needed to enact part two of her master plan.

"Hey Ghosty…." The green haired girl looked to her friend.

"What is it?"

"Didn't you say the other day the latest chapter of that horror manga you really like just came out? The one about the guy with the parasite quirk."

"You mean "Leech", the Korean series?" Tokoyami raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah!" Tokage snapped her fingers. "That's the one."

"It did."

"Well I'm pretty sure there's a manga shop not too far from here. Since we're nearby, why don't we stop by and see if they have it?"

"I'm fine with that." The 'poltergeist' user said stoically. Although on the inside, she had to contain herself from making a beeline right to the shop.

"This would be a perfect time to procure a copy." The bird boy added.

"Actually...I just got a text from my mom." Jiro interjected while looking down at her phone. "She was hoping that I could stop by my parent's store before heading back."

"Oh man, I would love to go check the place out!" Kaminari smiled at the rocker teen.

"Honestly, I was hoping that we could get something to eat. I kinda worked up an appetite in the bowling alley." Midoriya then said.

It seemed that they were now at an impasse. Kaminari looked really excited about going to the music shop. Yanagi didn't want to waste the opportunity to pick up the latest copy of one of her favorite monthly series. And since Midoriya wanted to go get food, Tokage would more than likely join him.

Unbeknownst to the two emo teens, this was all planned. They needed an opportunity to get the two of them alone. And since Tokoyami was also a fan of those horror type stories, specifically the one that Tokage mentioned, this was the perfect time for the two of them to bond.

"I'm actually feeling pretty hungry too." The devious greenette than said. "How about we just split off from here and call it a day?"

"Fine with me..." Jiro shrugged. Hoping to get this over with as soon as possible. She didn't even really get a text from her mom. But that was just the best excuse that she could come up with.

Without even giving the Tokoyami or Yanagi a chance to respond, Tokage took Midoriya by the hand and started walking in the opposite direction. "We'll see you guys later!" She said with a friendly wave.

"Yeah, we'll catch you in the dorms, dude." The 'electrification' user said before he and Jiro also walked away at a brisk pace. Leaving the two alone in the middle of the semi-busy street.

"Well then...I supposed we might as well venture over to that store." Tokoyami then said. The boy was still a bit confused at his classmate's sudden odd behavior.

"Yeah, might as well." Yanagi shrugged.

It was only when the emo duo were about halfway down the street did the grey haired girl receive a text notification from her phone. She quickly pulled it out of her pocket only to see that it was Tokage of all people.

T-Rex: Have a fun rest of your date!

T-Rex: I'll cover for you if you plan on staying out late. I'm rooting for ya' Ghosty!

In all fairness, Yanagi really should've seen something like this this coming. Tokage was liable to do stuff like this at any given moment. Looking back on the last hour and some change, it became very apparent to the girl what was really going on here. Especially given the somewhat peculiar behavior that her other classmates had while they were at the bowling alley.

However, as much as she wanted to be annoyed at her friends setting her up on what could essentially be called a surprise "book date". The girl chose to play it cool for now. Primarily because she really did want to pick up a copy of that manga series. And Tokoyami was probably the best company to have for this kind of thing. They did have similar taste in literature after all.

'I don't even want to know how Setsuna-chan convinced Jiro-san and Kaminari-kun to go along with this nonsense. She probably had some dirt on them or something. I'm going to have a little chat with those two when I get back….'

After successfully getting away from Yanagi and Tokoyami, the young couple decided to stop by a convenience store on the way back. Midoriya was being serious when he said that he was feeling a bit hungry earlier. Which didn't do much to alleviate any of the guilt that he was currently feeling for abandoning his friend like that. And Tokage had the bright idea that they should try and cook something back at the dorms. Both of them were pretty decent when it came to working around a kitchen. So it seemed like a good idea at the moment.

The two greenettes were busy chatting away as they approached the door. In fact, they were so deep in conversation that both teens failed to notice another person coming out of the store just as they were walking in. Causing the 'telekinesis' user to blindly walk right into them.

"Ugh…" Midoriya rubbed the side of his head before apologizing. "Sorry about that."

"Izuku-kun?"

The boy raised his eyes and his heart almost leapt out of his chest at what he immediately saw. Ashen blonde hair with piercing red eyes. It was only after that sudden shiver subsided did he finally take in the rest of the person's appearance. Instead of an angry looking teenager with a massive superiority/inferiority complex. What he got was a middle aged woman with flawless skin.

"Bakugou-san?"

"Well shit! Fancy running into you here, huh?" Mitsuki Bakugou said with a slight bit of astonishment in her voice. It had been years since the last time Midoriya had actually seen the woman. As far as he could recall, that was before the Bakugou family had moved across the city due to Masaru getting a new position at his job.

"Y-yeah…it's been a while."

"Geez, I remember when you were barely tall enough to reach my knees. Now look at you! I was shocked as shit when I saw you in the Sports Festival. How have you been?"

"I've been doing pretty well." The boy answered a bit nervously.

"So I'm guessing that this is Bakugou's mom?" Tokage asked her boyfriend. Even though it was blatantly obvious based on the woman's appearance.

"Yeah."

"And who might you be?" The ashen blonde woman queried.

"Hello ma'am, I'm Setsuna Tokage. Izuku's girlfriend."

"Well you gotta be shittin' me! You have a girlfriend now too? I guess you're all grown up no, huh?."

"I guess." The boy awkwardly laughed.

It was then that Mitsuki's face shifted to a slightly somber expression. One that the boy couldn't ever recall seeing on the woman ever before.

"Anyways, listen…since you're here I'd like to apologize for all the nonsense that my dumbass son put you through. I wasn't even aware of it until the teachers from U.A. came to our house after that whole kidnapping fiasco."

"What?" Midoriya looked at the woman.

"I had a feeling that something happened between the two of you after you suddenly stopped showing up at our house all those years ago. And after listening to what the principal had to say, I can finally see why. If I had known Katsuki was bullying you all that time, I would've done more to shove my foot up his ass."

"Well…there's really no point in getting hung up on it now, Bakugou-san. We're not in middle school anymore and U.A.'s done a better job at making sure things like that don't happen. Besides, it seems he's learned to exercise some restraint."

In a different life, Midoriya may have tried to defend Bakugou from the wrath of his mother and downplayed all the harassment that he went through. But that version of himself was long gone by now. He didn't owe anything to the explosive blonde and had no reason to pull his punches.

"I still can't believe that shitty school let it go on for that long. Those quack teachers really thought they could try and profit off of my son somehow. Y'know, I read in the news a couple of weeks ago that Aldera Middle School is currently under investigation and that a lot of teachers have already been laid off. Tch...serves that bunch of incompetent fools right if you ask me!"

"Wow, really?" Tokage raised an eyebrow.

That was certainly a shocker to Midoriya. Hearing that his old middle school was on the chopping block definitely sent a slight bit of warmth down his spine. In fact, it made a lot of sense. If word got out that they were letting students get away with harassing and assaulting others and forging records. Then that was already grounds for the principal to be fired. And no doubt any official investigation just opened up an even bigger can of worms. Because Midoriya highly doubted that Bakugou was the first or last offender in recent years.

"Yeah, pretty wild, huh?" Mitsuki smirked. "Hey, I have an idea! How about we set up a dinner some time? I haven't seen Ko-chan in years. Besides, I doubt that my idiot son has actually apologized to you for what he did. And I want to be there to make sure that he's sorry for causing you and your mother so much grief."

There were at least fifty different reasons why Midoriya thought that was a terrible idea. And despite him wanting to accept the kind gesture, he knew deep down that the last thing he needed was Bakugou being forced to apologize to him in front of his family. The boy hadn't bothered him ever since the start of the new semester. So Midoriya wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.

'I don't get how this lady would think that would go over well.' Tokage's thoughts were identical to her boyfriend's.

"I appreciate the offer, Bakugou-san. But I'm going to have to decline. To be perfectly honest, I'd rather not deal with your son if I don't have to." Midoriya gave her an apologetic bow.

Mitsuki simply tapped a finger to her chin in contemplation before seeing where the boy was coming from. In all honesty, she was hoping that she would be able to do something herself to mend some of the damage. But considering the green haired boy quite literally spent a majority of his life being terrorized by her son. She didn't blame him for wanting to keep contact to a minimum.

"Don't worry, I get it. Anyways...I have to get going, it was nice seeing you again, Izuku-kun. Say hello to your mother for me! Have a good evening you two!" The woman waved as she began walking towards her car.

"You too!" The young couple waved back.

"Well…that was random." Tokage joked.

"Mhmm." Midoriya simply nodded.

"I see where Bakugou gets his charming personality from."

"Yeah well…at least his mother knows when to reel it in."

"Anyways…let's hurry and get the ingredients!" Was all the green haired girl said before grabbing him by the hand and pulling him into the store.

By the time the two greenettes made it back to the dorms, they were surprised to see that the common area was actually empty. Which was a rare occurrence considering it was a Saturday night. Normally their classmates would be having their weekly video game tournament right about now.

"Izuku, thank God you're here!" Pony Tsunotori suddenly popped out from the kitchen and shouted in her native English while frantically waving around a small blue box.

"Pony-san, what's wrong?" The boy asked.

"I need your help!"

"With what?" Tokage was the next to speak.

"I was trying to make some takoyaki balls and rice for dinner. But I have no clue what half this stuff even says…most of it's in kanji! Dammit, why can't you Japanese people just stick to one writing system?" The horned teen rubbed her hair in a distressed fashion.

Normally, Honenuki was the one to give the girl help when it came to her issues regarding understanding Japanese. But apparently the lipless teen was off with Awase and Tetsutetsu doing god knows what. Midoriya and Tokage simply glanced at one another before smiling.

"Don't worry Pony, we'll give you a hand. Mark my words, we're going to make the best damn takoyaki you've ever had!" The 'lizard tail splitter' user announced confidently.

"You guys are the best!" The horned teen nearly cried tears of joy…and slight hunger.

~Class 1-A Dorms~

A little further down the road, Jiro and Kaminari had also just made their return. The secretive couple felt a bit bad for ditching Tokoyami and Yanagi like that. But sacrifices had to be made to keep their agreement with Tokage.

"Kyoka-chan, Kaminari-kun, welcome back!" Yaoyorozu greeted them.

Pretty much all of the 1-A students were in the common area gathered around the television in preparation for their class movie night.

"Where were you two at all afternoon?" Ashido asked.

"Jiro was helping me look at guitars to buy at her parent's shop. We may not have gotten the chance to play at the Cultural Festival. But I'm interested in playing during my free time." The 'electrification' quirk user told him their practiced alibi.

"Are you sure that your grades can handle that, dude?" Sero joked at the boy's expense.

"Hey, screw you man! I've been doing a lot better." The boy pouted.

Jiro took a moment to look around the room and noticed that there were still a few members of their class missing. Namely, Shinsou, Todoroki and Bakugou. "Where's everyone else?"

"Shinsou-kun's asleep in his room and we have no clue where Tokoyami-kun went off to, gero." Asui stated.

"And naturally Bakugou-kun and Todoroki-kun pretty much told us to screw off." Uraraka followed. "But what else is new? It's not like they ever bothered to join us anyway."

Despite being the two most powerful students in the class, the 'explosion' quirk user and the son of the now number one hero were the most antisocial duo in 1-A. Despite their best efforts, the rest of the group had all but given up on trying to include them in class activities. Especially since neither one has been particularly friendly towards them.

The only person who actively tried to pursue a friendship with Bakugou was Kirishima. But even the 'hardening' quirk user stopped trying a while ago. And even though he wasn't exactly mean about it, Todoroki was just cold to anyone who attempted to talk to him.

"Well, if those two don't want to participate then there's no point in trying to convince them. It would just be wasted effort." Yaoyorozu said in what could be construed as an annoyed tone. Although Aizawa had given her the task of making sure that they weren't alienated from the class. The black haired teen had long since reached her wits end with those two.

"Oh well." The rocker teen shrugged. "So what are we watching?"

"Some movie that Toru-chan picked out, gero."

"You guys are gonna love it. It's some old American movie called 'The Notebook'!"

'Why do I have the feeling that this is another one of those cheesy romance flicks?' The minds of every boy in the class echoed simultaneously.

~Tokyo University~

There were very few times when Sasuke Unohana found himself completely stumped when conducting research on one of his experiments. But this proved to be quite the special occasion for the quirkless genius. Inside one of the labs in the school's chemistry department, he was hard at work trying to figure out the nature of the quirk bullets he bought from the yakuza a while back.

"These things are made from human cells?" The boy said in bewilderment. This discovery was certainly a surprise to him. Especially since he expected these things to be crafted from some sort of drug. But as he continued looking through his microscope, he couldn't help but feel a slight bit of annoyance welling up in his chest.

'This is going to set my plans back a bit. I'm guessing that these bullets were fashioned using someone's quirk, whoever that poor soul may be. But it looks like I'll have to do a bit of research into replicating living cells in the meantime.'

Even with this small hiccup, the quirkless boy was confident that he'd be able to find a way to work around this in no time. After all, bullets that temporarily or permanently erased quirks was a very lucrative business opportunity that he'd be foolish to pass up. And now that the Shie Hassaikai were all behind bars, the market for this type of product was wide open.

He was certain that Derelicta was going to be making their move again in the future. And he had a pretty good feeling that they would be asking for his services again when that happened. There were rumblings that the group was still recruiting people in the shadows. Including more children around middle and high school age. So it was all but guaranteed that he had a lot of money coming his way once he learned how to reproduce these bullets on a larger scale.

After taking a peak at his phone, Unohana concluded that he should wrap things up for the night. It was getting pretty late and there wasn't much else that he could do right now. So after cleaning up a bit and securing the cartridge containing the quirk destroying weapons, the pink eyed teen began making his way out of the building.

'It's too bad I can't get my hands on whoever's cells were used to make these things. If I had them, I'd be rolling in cash by the end of next year. Maybe I should look into that when I get the chance? Who knows, they could prove to be a very useful piece for my future plans….'

A/N: A bit of a "short" chapter this time around. I mainly just wanted to use this as an intermission before starting the Joint Training Arc. Also to get a look into how 1-A and some of other favorite characters and groups were doing. Right now I have the next part going for 3-4 chapters, but I promise that it won't be boring. Especially since it's likely that they'll all be 8,000+ words a piece.

1. That Mitsuki Bakugou scene was pretty much just to give an update on the whole Aldera situation that Tsukauchi was talking about earlier in the story. I never really got a chance to touch on that in this story. But just know that everyone's favorite detective has been hard at work. I'm not very well versed in the Japanese school system, so I don't know how any real investigations would go. So forgive me if it felt a bit weird.

2. Allow me take the time to give some special and long overdue shoutouts to some of my favorite readers/writers. A few of them have helped me make this story way better than what I had originally planned. You guys should definitely read some of their works when you get the chance.:

-Visionary0 (AO3)

-JKaner1005 (AO3)

-Matty014 (AO3)

-Unity-In-Silence (FF)

-Bucio (FF)

Like always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to leave a comment/review.