Wearing my new costume, perched atop Mustafu tower, I was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the maze. The city was huge; finding the Scorpion would be just as difficult as finding a needle in the ocean — but even that isn't impossible.
I started small, stopping petty crimes in the dead of night, interrogating them all with an iron fist. Despite not using my electricity or my webs — I didn't want to be linked to my Spider-Man persona — I took down hundreds of them. Still, after a week, I had no leads.
I spent my final night of summer break searching every last corner of the city. It didn't hit me until that night — my final night in my bedroom — that I'd been neglecting my friends somewhat. Come morning, I couldn't help but smile seeing them all again in front of the school dorms.
My friends and I stepped inside our new home. Immediately, those of us who didn't come from money were overwhelmed by how luxurious it was. Just the main lobby was bigger than the apartment I'd grown up in.
There were a couple of couches, a TV, and a massive kitchen. It looked closer to a fancy hotel than a dorm.
I could see Mineta looking at the showers, which were located in the common space. I leaned down to his level and whispered, "Whatcha thinking about, Mineta?"
He forced saliva down his throat and shook his head. "Nothing!"
The second, third, fourth, and fifth floors housed the bedrooms, with a maximum of four of each gender on each floor. Inside, we had our own fridges, bathrooms, closets, beds, and balconies.
I started unpacking as soon as we were free to do whatever we wanted. It took pretty much the whole day for me to finish, but I was more than satisfied with the result. I had my speakers set up on both ends of my computer monitor, and I placed my drawing tablet on the other end of the L-shaped desk. My shelves were filled with old American comics, textbooks, fantasy novels, and my entire manga collection. In my old room, I barely had enough room for all of my music posters, but there was plenty of space this time around.
I found the rest of the guys in the commons space. It was strange seeing everyone in their pajamas, aside from Iida, who was still wearing his gym clothes. I thought he'd chill out a bit at night, but I was wrong. As he lectured about how moving into a space together would benefit our team building, the girls came downstairs.
Ashido and Hagakure basically forced us at gunpoint to have a 'dorm room contest', where basically, they just went around and judged our interior decorating skills. Upon hearing this, Midoriya panicked, which only made the girls wanna see the inside of his room even more.
After seeing it with my own eyes after the girls dragged him by his feet to open the door, I understand why he wanted to keep it hidden...
It was all All Might... The entire room was All Might. All Might posters, All Might action figures, All Might manga, All Might bedsheets, All Might curtains... I think I might've even caught a glimpse of All Might boxers hanging out of his drawer. The dude was the definition of a stan.
Tokoyami tried to hide in his room, but the girls wouldn't let him have his way. They ganged up on him and pushed him out of the way, and broke into his space. There wasn't even anything embarrassing inside; it was just goth and edgy. He had a cool sword, though.
The other guys all had the kind of room you'd expect from them.
Bakugo didn't let us in.
Iida, Koda, and Oijoro's were basic. However, Iida did have a wall full of replacement glasses. Weird.
Shouji had a futon. That's it. Just a futon.
Aoyama's was sparkly.
Kaminari's was the definition of a man cave. Sports stuff, a dartboard, and a couple of posters.
Kirishima's was like something a samurai would sleep in. The girls made fun of him and basically implied that no girl would ever visit a room like that. Harsh.
Satau's was filled with a bunch of cooking equipment, which he used to swoon the girls into giving him a higher score once they tried his cake.
As for Todoroki, his room looked like the interior of a traditional Japanese home, with bamboo floor mats and all. I can't even begin to comprehend how he transformed the layout of his room so quickly.
The only room the girls wouldn't dare enter was Mineta's, for good reason. He cracked his door open and beckoned them with his creepy talons. I think I could even see a menacing aura spilling out from behind him. Everyone pretended like we didn't see him.
I was one of the last to present. The girls seemed to like my room enough, especially Jirou. She and I talked about the music artists I had hung on the walls, while Ashido marveled at my wall of artwork.
"Wow, Morales," said Ashido. "Where'd you get all these sick artworks?"
"I made them."
Everyone seemed so shocked to hear that I had any sort of artistic talent. I guess it made sense. I only really drew at night when I was done with all of my homework, and I never really showed my artwork to anyone.
"Ooooh, is this your secret sketch book!" Hagakure said, skimming through exactly that.
"That's personal," I said, webbing it out of her hand. I had a couple of sketches of my vigilante costume in there, which was definitely for my own eyes only.
I was ready to call it a night, but then Mineta riled up all the boys by saying it's only fair that the girls participate in the contest too. I wasn't dumb enough to buy what he was selling, but I was curious how the girls set up their rooms.
I could see Mineta foaming at the mouth at the idea of it. I knew right then that I needed to put him on a leash, so I did exactly that.
"Hey, what gives!" he said, trying to pull my webs off his back.
"I know what you're thinking, you little freak. No touching, no rummaging, no nothing," I told him.
"How did he know..." I heard him say under his breath.
The first girl's room was Jirou's. The walls, floors, and ceiling were plastered with a bold red, white, and black color scheme. Like me, she had a bunch of music posters scattered about, and beneath them were all of her instruments.
Hagakure's room was an explosion of pink. One of her drawers was slightly ajar, and I could feel Mineta pulling against the leash, trying to get to them.
Ashido's was similar to Hagakure's in terms of girliness; the difference was that it was a flurry of crimson and hearts.
Uraraka's was the most basic of everyone's.
Last but not least was Yaoyorozu's room. It looked exactly like her room at home; she even brought in the same bed that she nursed me back to health in. Unfortunately, all of her rich-girl furniture took up any walking space her bedroom would have had.
As for Tsu, she ended up hiding away in her room, so we didn't get to see it.
In the end, and to no one's surprise, Satou won due to his cake bribery.
I was about ready to head upstairs and get ready to patrol for the night, but that's when Uraraka told those of us who saved Bakugo that Tsu had something she wanted to tell us. We all walked outside, and there she was — she could hardly look at us.
She ended up apologizing for calling us all villains; she even brought up how the talk she and I had over the summer completely changed her perspective. She started to cry, and we all hugged her as a group, which only made the tears continue to flow.
As Tsu wept, Uraraka explained that the whole point of the contest was to make us all feel close again. I guess it was true that there was a bit of awkwardness after the whole All for One incident. Honestly, I felt bad for not picking up on how much this tormented Tsu. She seemed fine when she and I last spoke, but I guess that just goes to show how strong she is.
After that, we all returned to our dorm rooms. I unlocked my window and was about to crawl out when I heard a knock on my door. To my surprise, it was Jirou.
"Oh, hey," I said, my heart skipping three or four or maybe five beats per second.
"Hey... I noticed you had a poster of the Seven Deadly Roses on your wall during the contest. I was just wondering if you wanted to listen to their new album together, if you hadn't already."
"Yeah, sure. I actually haven't yet. I didn't really get the chance to. Besides, I did promise you I'd take you out for a swing, right? I'll show you one of my favorite spots."
"Aren't there cameras all over the school?" she asked me.
I laughed and said, "Luckily, I've got a new trick." I turned myself invisible, then reappeared.
"Another Quirk!?"
"Sort of. It's still electromagnetism control. I think I can turn other people invisible, too, but you'd be my guinea pig. If it works, we can sneak out pretty easily."
"I'm down. What do I have to do?"
"Well... We're going to have to get really close, I think. I don't actually become invisible; I create a warped field around me that makes it appear that way. So, as long as you're in the bubble, you'll be invisible too."
"How close..." she muttered, stepping a nudge closer to me.
"Probably about here," I said, wrapping my arm around her and pulling her as close as possible. I did my thing, and we were both invisible, so long as we stayed that close.
The next thing I knew, she and I were sitting atop Mustafu Tower, the tallest building in the city, sharing earbuds and listening to music. We were so caught up in appreciating the music that we didn't say a word to one another. I'd occasionally catch a glimpse of her while I bobbed my head to the rhythm, enjoying the view of the cityscape beneath us; she sat with her eyes closed, lost in song.
One of the songs was called 'Heartbeat'. The lead singer, Shi-No, recalled a moment from her past — one with her first love. She described her heart racing as she sat beside her lover, the feeling of the blood coursing through her veins like cars in a speedway.
I became conscious of my heartbeat then. It was faster than usual; it was like I was back at camp, fighting against villains. For the first time in my life, I could sense the heartbeat of another.
My newly developed Spider-Sense was to thank for that.
As the song raced on, so did Jirou's heart. My laugh forced its way out, compelling her to look at me. She didn't say anything, but she was looking at the dumb look on my face, raising an eyebrow.
"Your heart is beating pretty fast," I told her. "New Spider-Sense trick."
I expected her nonchalant expression to change; maybe she'd twirl her earlobe extensions and blush. Instead, she flashed a sly smile and said, "Yours is way faster."
I didn't notice that her earphone jack was plugged into the ledge we sat on, thus allowing her to hear the subtle vibrations of my heartbeat bouncing off of it.
"And," she said. "It just sped up."
I mentioned that her confession altered my brain chemistry all those weeks ago — something beyond that happened this time around. Had I a tail, her teasing and half-shut eyes would've made it wag.
Seeing her cheeky smirk, I felt the need to retaliate. I grabbed her hand and placed it over my chest, letting her feel it quake against her palm.
Her eyes dilated, and her earlobe extensions pitched. She couldn't figure out where to look; her eyes darted from our hands to my face and then to the streets below.
"What are you doing?" she stumbled.
"It's easier this way, isn't it? Can you feel the electricity?" I asked her with confidence that I mysteriously mustered.
"Yeah, it kinda tickles," she told me. In a moment like this, you'd expect the girl to be looking into your eyes, but she wasn't — her eyes were glued to my lips.
"What are we doing, Morales?" Her words were the prequel to her touch, her hand conjuring an electrical shock on my cheek.
"I don't know," I told her. "What are we doing, Jirou?"
She told me with actions that spoke louder than every word, from every language, spoken a thousand times simultaneously. Her hand slid up my cheek to the back of my head, her fingers running through my curls. Gently — so gently — she pulled my head down to her level. There was a moment of hesitation, both of us thinking about the same thing. Yet, we acted as though we didn't care.
Our lips embraced, and our tongues danced, mine zapping hers inadvertently with my Quirk. It shocked her, both literally and figuratively, but by the sound of it, she liked it.
Time and space distorted around us. It felt wrong, yet it felt so right. I could tell that she was thinking the same. Between pauses, we'd give each other a look, a look that would dissolve away before it could turn into a ceasefire.
"Wait," I told her. She pecked me a couple of times before letting me speak. "I feel like I'm taking advantage of your feelings for me."
"That's okay," she said in a windy whisper. "I don't mind. No more talking."
I was completely compliant with her; I didn't say a word until we'd had enough of each other. How can something feel so good, but so wrong at the same time? A beautiful girl, just my type, was hanging onto me with her lips on mine. Yet, I felt like I was committing a crime.
Meanwhile, the album continued playing, and it had finished, but we never heard it end.
Jirou quietly fixed her hair and sat at the edge of the building. She twirled the ends of her auxiliary cords that dangled from her ears and whispered, "Maybe that was a bad idea."
An hour of silence was condensed into five tense seconds.
"Was it?"
If this were one of those fanfics where the main character gets reincarnated as the hero, he'd have all the girls. However, that's not how the real world works. My inability to control my own lust has pinned me in a corner.
"Well, it was just a spur-of-the-moment type of thing, right?" she told me.
"Right. Spur of the moment," I said.
Yeah, right. Spur of the moment? At that moment, I wanted more of her, and her eyes confessed that the feeling was mutual.
The way I felt about Jirou was completely different than how I felt about Momo. With Momo, her beauty and my admiration for her were what compelled me to want to grow closer to her. However, with Jirou, I felt as though the two of us were compatible like opposite magnets. The closer we became, the more I could feel the pull.
Nothing of note happened until we made it back to the front of her dorm room. As she shut her door, she said, "We should do this again sometime. Not the last part, well, unless you wanted to, but I mean the other stuff. It was fun."
"Yeah, I'm down. Just text me when you wanna go for a swing."
Jirou smiled. "Goodnight, Morales," she said, shutting her door.
"Goodnight."
When the door shut, I could feel a presence beside me. It was Momo; perfect timing, huh?
Her hair was down, part of it covering her eyes. In the dim lighting, she sort of looked like the onryo that would crawl through your TV at night if you didn't eat your vegetables; at least, that's my mom's version of it.
"Hey," I said.
"Hey."
"Couldn't sleep?"
"My mouth was a little dry so... I went downstairs for some water. What about you?"
"Oh, Jirou and I were just listening to this new album. Lost track of time.
"I see..."
"Yeah."
"I didn't know you guys had gotten so close. I guess you do have a lot in common."
"Yeah, we're good friends."
"I'm glad. Good night, Miles."
I realized as she opened the door to her room that she hadn't looked at me during our exchange. That night, I returned to my room and found it difficult to sleep. Too many thoughts flooded my mind.
The Scorpion.
Momo.
Jirou.
Uncle Aaron.
With each passing day, my life becomes increasingly hectic.
I guess that's the life of a teenage hero.