Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Vongrak.
Izumi POV - October 11, 2xxx.
"Alright, the university festival is only a month away, we don't have much time, especially with our classes, so we need to get several things sorted quickly," Taylor said once we were all gathered again. "First, the music. As we said, Jirou and Izumi will be in charge of it, emphasis on Jirou," she said curtly. I rolled my eyes. Jirou just stepped forward.
"Since we chose a duo, unfortunately, that changes our plans a bit, especially if we're going to make dance music, and even more so because you want to play instruments, right? So EDM, while ideal, is out of the question." Jirou said matter-of-factly. Several people blinked in confusion. "We'll start with the basics. Does anyone know how to play bass or drums?" Jirou asked.
"Katsumi can do it!" Izuku squealed excitedly as he hopped up and down on Bakugou's arm.
"Huh?!" Bakugou growled in her direction.
"How unexpected!" Ashido said in shock.
"I'm not doing any of that useless crap." Bakugou growled, trying to turn around, but Izuku had a firm grip on her arm. Bakugou made the mistake of looking at Izuku, who had pouted in his direction. Bakugou stumbled and immediately realized her error.
"Please," Izuku said shakily, making Bakugou shudder. I could see her resolve crumbling really fast, and she gritted her teeth. "Please," Izuku repeated as he hugged Bakugou tighter.
"Ah! fuck! Fine! Stop making that face! " Bakugou growled, pulling away from Izuku. Izuku cheered and hugged Bakugou tightly, making her blush slightly.
"Yay ! Thank you, Katsumi! " Izuku shouted happily. We all snorted loudly.
"Whipped." "Wow, you're really weak, Bakugou." "She's so easy to manipulate." "I didn't know Midoriya had that inside him." "It fell apart really quickly." "Pathetic." "I think it was adorable." Whip! "Izumi, did you download an app with a whip sound effect just for this?" "Is that even a question?" " Waaah... Bakugou, you just completely lost your bad-girl aura."
"I'll kill you all!!" Bakugou yelled, interrupting us completely, utterly embarrassed. Explosions erupted from her palms. We all looked at each other as she huffed and puffed. Honestly, her threat wasn't intimidating at all; it only made Bakugou growl louder and her eye twitch.
"Alright, let's continue before Bakugou explodes us up or she blows herself up," Taylor said with a discreet smile and clapped her hands.
"Yes, class representative!" several people cheerfully exclaimed.
"Then, more instruments." Jirou said, looking at the rest. "We have drums, which is the base of the band, and vocals. My specialty is guitar, and I can play bass. Can anyone else play an instrument?" Jirou asked curiously.
"Thanks to my training etiquette as a child, I'm quite familiar with the piano... would that be enough?" Yaoyorozu asked, raising her hand.
"That will be a big help, Yaomomo, synthesizers are essential." Jirou said, giving a thumbs-up.
"I'll do my best!" Yaoyorozu said excitedly.
"Alright, anyone else?" Jirou asked expectantly.
"And I can play the guitar," Yunyun said shyly.
"Oh? Can you?" Jirou asked curiously, Yunyun nodded shyly.
"I thought that if I learned to play an instrument, I could join a band and have friends... but no one wanted to accept me or join my group," Yunyun said, starting excitedly before ending dejected and depressed. We all shuddered slightly.
"Don't worry, Yunyun! You'll be in our band now! " Ashido said immediately, hugging Yunyun. Yunyun smiled broadly and nodded firmly.
"Anyone else?" Jirou asked quickly.
"I can play the violin, but I don't think it'll do," Ravel said, raising her hand. We looked at her curiously; she blushed slightly. "Also, training etiquette," she added quickly.
"Woah, we have a lot of rich girls in our class," Hagakure said, impressed. Jirou frowned slightly.
"Would you be willing to learn to play the guitar? A violin is completely different; you might have the hand-eye coordination and musical affinity, but the chords and strumming are different from playing a violin." Jirou said quickly, and Ravel frowned slightly.
"If no one else volunteers, I could do it," Ravel said after a while. Jirou nodded and looked at the others.
"I can play... or something like that." Jinx said, shrugging. We all looked at them.
"Something like that?" I asked playfully. Jinx snorted and crossed her arms.
"Without formal classes, I found an electric guitar thrown in the trash, tinkered with it and repaired it, it was there, I played with it every now and then, I learned a thing or two, but all self-taught." Jinx said, shrugging.
"Oh, that's really impressive," Jirou said honestly. Jinx blushed slightly and looked away. "I'll have to help you read the sheet music and all, but if you're already familiar enough with it, you'll pick it up quickly," Jirou said confidently. Jinx just sighed and nodded. "Alright, that covers the basics. Phenex, we'll have to keep you on standby," Jirou said apologetically to Ravel, who just shrugged.
"Don't worry. If you need me, just let me know." Ravel said easily, and Jirou nodded.
"Yay! Everything's coming together!" Ashido said happily. "Now we need to add a stage!" Ashido said excitedly. "A stage with lights, ribbons, or a disco ball! Anything that's essential to creating the atmosphere of a stage! " she said excitedly.
"That sounds exciting!" Hagakure said, bouncing on the spot.
"And we can use our Quirks to make it more exciting and fun!" Mina said quickly. "Taylor can use cute insects, like fireflies or butterflies, something that looks nice! Or Rose can scatter her petals all over the place! Or things like that!" Mina exclaimed, bouncing with excitement.
"Oh, I see. If it's something good, I can prepare fireworks. I have experience with that," Jinx said with a wide smile.
"Didn't you just sign up for the band group?" Sinon asked playfully, Jinx shrugged.
"They're just explosives, I can prepare them in a day or two, they'll just need someone else to activate them during the performance," Jinx said, shrugging.
"Remember, we'll be performing inside one of the gyms, I don't think there's enough height or space for fireworks." Taylor said, frowning. Jinx snorted.
"Don't worry, I can add confetti or streamers, or even make fountains of cold sparks. They're sparks with very little heat and no open flame, although... they're not meant to explode. But I can create some spheres that launch columns or fountains of cold sparks. Just make them float and spin with Uraraka's quirk, and they'll light up the whole place," Jinx said easily.
"That sounds amazing! I can't believe you thought of it so quickly! " Ashido said excitedly. Jinx just smiled proudly.
"Explosions are my thing," Jinx said easily.
"Very well! Since we're splitting up to create effects with our quirks, we'll need three teams. The band is complete, now we'll decide which groups will dance and which will be helping on stage." Taylor said while clapping. Everyone nodded and began to discuss until almost midnight, but the three teams were completely decided.
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Kyoka POV.
"You really have that many songs, huh?" I murmured as I looked at the papers. We had to decide on a song quickly, so first thing in the morning after class, I had come to Miyamura's room where we were looking at a large number of papers, notebooks, and folders scattered about.
We were both sitting on the floor looking through all the papers. We really had plenty of room on the small table, or on the bed, or anywhere in this room. The boys' bedroom was really spacious compared to ours.
"I had to go get them from my mother's house since most of my old notebooks were there, but yes," Miyamura said easily. I grabbed the folders and started flipping through them, lyrics, scores, notes from one side to the other.
"You said you didn't know about instruments, but here it all is, the complete scores for every instrument." I said, confused, as I flipped through the pages. Miyamura nodded.
"I said I usually buy the songs, and I meant it. Also, I made sure that the service came with the complete sheet music and every part written out, and that the rights to it were completely mine," Miyamura said easily. I nodded.
"Intelligent." I simply said.
"You sound surprised." Miyamura mocked, and I mocked him.
"Do you really know every song by heart?" I asked, curious. There should be at least 500 songs here, or more. That was amazing.
"Oh yes, I have a good memory," Miyamura said easily. "You know about my Total Concentration Breathing trick, right? " he asked. I nodded.
"We all know that, and you showing it to the girls you date is... well, family stuff, we get it." I said easily, shrugging. Was I interested? Yes, definitely. Enough to go out with Miyamura to learn it? Not quite.
"Well, as you know, it involves maximizing the amount of oxygen in the body and making it circulate faster to physically enhance the body, in very few details. The thing is, I've been able to do it since I was a kid."
"And the oxygen goes everywhere, including to my brain. More blood circulation, more oxygen, more oxygen, my brain works faster and is more robust. A child's brain is quite malleable, so it just... strengthened, so to speak."
"My reactions are ridiculously high and my ability to retain information is also ridiculous, not something like eidetic or photographic memory, but I only need to read something once or twice to be able to memorize it." Miyamura said easily, I stopped and looked at her almost indignantly.
"Every time you talk about your skills, they end up being more and more insulting to everyone else." I snorted dryly, and Miyamura burst out laughing.
"It's always a pleasure," Miyamura said playfully. I rolled my eyes.
"Why haven't you posted... any of this? I just... don't understand. You upload these weird, ridiculous videos, but here's... gold, literally. Some of these songs are incredible. The ones you sang the other day, they're amazing." I said honestly, Miyamura stopped before humming.
"I don't know if it's the right thing to do," Miyamura said honestly. I blinked, confused.
"The right thing to do?" I asked, confused.
"Mmm." Miyamura hummed as if he were considering it, then simply shrugged. "Once again, you know I can see the future, right? Or well, at least something similar. I have visions, here and there, of things that will happen or things that happened or things that will never happen, but I have them." Miyamura said, and I frowned as I nodded slowly.
"I mean, I don't fully understand it, but yes, I know," I said slowly. Miyamura nodded.
"As I said, good memory, so what if I told you that I heard these songs in those visions? " Miyamura asked curiously, and I froze, looking at Miyamura in horror.
"You stole them!?" I hissed, completely horrified. Miyamura snorted amusedly.
"Stealing sounds harsh, after all, I've never published them or made them public to anyone. The songs were made only for me," Miyamura said dryly. I stopped and sighed shakily, calming myself. "Besides."
"It's not theft if they never existed, right? " Miyamura asked gently. I opened my mouth, but he spoke first. "My visions don't always come true," Miyamura said, looking intently at me. "Sometimes what I see doesn't exist, or it's so far removed from reality that it's impossible for it to happen."
"The people who composed this, some didn't exist, others sadly died before they could compose it, others went on to do something completely different from music, and so on."
"Maybe there are a few here that were officially released, but most of these songs weren't," Miyamura said gently before shrugging. "So... does it count as theft or not?" Miyamura asked, looking at me. I opened my mouth before closing it.
Miyamura was right, that… was strange. If the person didn't exist, if the person had died and never composed the song, and it was never composed, was that theft? In his situation, could I publish these songs as my own? Would they be mine?
"I... don't know." I said honestly, Miyamura chuckled.
"I came to the same conclusion," Miyamura said with amusement. "So I just stopped thinking about it and ignored it. I don't need to share it with people to enjoy these songs, so I never really saw the need."
"The money or fame I could gain from them never really caught my attention or held any importance, so I never made the effort to think about it," Miyamura said, shrugging. I blinked.
"Oh... wow, that's... quite honorable." I said to Miyamura, and he chuckled.
"You wish. I was just too lazy to even think about it, and even lazier to think about the fame it would bring, so I just ignored it." Miyamura shrugged. I sighed heavily before looking at the papers.
"Wait, but you constantly post very insulting songs on your social media. Did you create those yourself, or did you see them in your visions?" I asked curiously. Miyamura burst out laughing.
"50/50," Miyamura said playfully. " And I don't think any of those people would mind. They created those things to bring a smile to people's faces. I'm sure they'd be happy knowing they were able to make so many others smile even when they weren't there."
"Especially when this world needs all the smiles it can get, right?" Miyamura asked with a gentle smile. I looked at him in surprise before blushing slightly and looking away. Damn Miyamura, he didn't have to be so honorable!
"Could you... publish them, the songs I mean, and give credit to those people? Even if nobody knows who they are, or who you're giving credit to or dedicating them to, you would know, so... could you do it? " I said uncertainly. Miyamura blinked and looked at me surprised.
"Wow, I really didn't expect you to want me to post this after finding out about it," Miyamura said playfully. I blushed slightly.
"Shut up, these songs are too good to let them rot here. You said it yourself, the things you upload are meant to bring a smile, these songs also have their feelings, I'm sure those people would also be grateful if they reached more people." I said sheepishly, Miyamura burst out laughing.
"I'll think about it." Miyamura said playfully, and I snorted.
"Okay, now putting that aside, we need to decide what to do for the festival! The sooner we decide, the sooner we can practice." I said quickly, changing the subject. Miyamura just snorted, but accepted it.
"A duet complicates things," Miyamura said, and I agreed. "We could both sing a normal song at the same time, but it would be very boring," Miyamura said, and I nodded in complete agreement.
"Exactly, we could just separate the verses of any song and sing them one after the other, but that's unimaginative. We need something better!" I said excitedly. "I mean, it would work, and we don't have to discard all the good songs. That would be a waste, so... let's go with a little bit of everything," I said after thinking it over. Miyamura nodded.
"The question is, do we create something new or use what we already have?" Miyamura asked, looking at the papers. "I have some pretty good duets, and some decent ones that I think would work. We can start there and decide on something that will work well," he said, beginning to look at the papers. I nodded.
"Let's start there. If there's nothing we like or that suits us, at least we might get some ideas or some inspiration," I said quickly before stopping. "Wait, you said you hadn't written any of this. Do you know how to write songs?" I asked, almost horrified by his answer. He just snorted.
"I'm completely offended." Miyamura snorted, crossing his arms. "All these songs are from my visions, yes, but I've had singing lessons for almost 14 years. I've put in the effort, I know how to create a song." Miyamura said firmly, and I grimaced.
"Sorry." I said with a grimace. Miyamura snorted before shaking his head.
"Don't worry, now, let's see what we have here," Miyamura said, not sounding truly angry. He simply began shuffling through the papers once more. "Let's see, something in Japanese that's actually useful..." Miyamura murmured, reviewing the papers.
"About that, I really don't think Japanese is necessary," I said suddenly. Miyamura looked at me, surprised and curious. I shrugged. "We're doing this for the UA students. We have the same educational plan in our regular classes, so they'll know English just as well as we do."
"So... we really shouldn't limit ourselves, especially when you have so many good ideas here." I said, shrugging. Miyamura stopped and looked at me, then blinked before groaning loudly. "Miyamura?!" I asked, surprised.
"No, nothing, I just... forgot something," Miyamura grumbled before sighing. "But okay, yeah, we don't have to limit ourselves, so... aha! We can start with this one! " he said, handing me the papers. I blinked as I watched him pull out his scroll. I guess he was going to sing them too; I suppose it was a good way to listen to the song.
I smiled as I prepared to be here for a long time, but I guess listening to new songs wasn't the worst way to spend an afternoon.
Author's Notes : While writing this, as always, I had the manga chapters, the anime, and the wiki at hand, and I just remembered— or rather, was looking at—that "Hero Too," the song they play, is entirely in English. Yes… I had forgotten about that and overlooked it while writing last week's chapters. It doesn't really change much, but I wanted to mention it, and make sure Izumi forgot it too.