Sound of Silence (Aizawa X OC)

Ch. 7: Struggles

-------Shouta's POV------

Today was set to be Shinobu's first day as my sidekick, and I knew it would be a bit stressful for her considering Nezu and I had just confronted her with the proposals yesterday. I was currently waiting at one of the training grounds at UA that I had gotten permission from Nezu to use while training Shinobu with hand to hand combat. There was a chance of us going on patrol, but Hizashi had volunteered to take the patrol for us so that I could do some "bonding" with Shinobu so she wouldn't be so nervous around me.

"Don't get any funny ideas though, Shouta! She's still my baby cousin!" Hizashi had warned with a glare that I guess was supposed to be intimidating. I had rolled my eyes at his comment, but had refused to respond. As an introverted person, I was already very aware of my growing admiration for the silver-haired heroine, but I was determined for it to be purely a platonic admiration for a coworker. No more. No less.

My thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of the woman in question. She was in a black, skin tight long sleeved workout shirt and a pair dark gray leggings with lavender sneakers. Her long silver hair was pulled into a high ponytail with a black headband that kept her hair out of her face. There was a nervous glint to her vibrant green eyes as she approached me with a small wave which I returned with a small nod.

"Alright. You're a bit early, but that doesn't mean we should waste any time," I stated, my expression and tone bored as ever as I tied my hair into a low messy bun, "Today, we're going to be working on your hand-to-hand combat. Your quirk is similar to mine in that it doesn't have any offensive power. I know you carry your scythe, but if you become disarmed, you still need to be able to defend yourself." She simply nodded, looking more nervous before taking a deep breath and looking much more determined than before. I took a roll of bandages out of my pocket and threw them to her. She caught them, but gave me a confused look.

"Wrap your knuckles. It'll minimize injuries during our sparring. Just know, I'm not going to hold back," I explained, showing my already wrapped knuckles. Shinobu didn't respond verbally. She merely nodded before quickly wrapping her own knuckles and tossing the bandages to me, which I then put back in my pocket.

"Is your hearing cancelled?" I inquired, activating my quirk to cancel hers just in case as she shook her head no, "Then, why aren't you speaking?" She looked at me before nervously speaking, her voice hoarse and painfully scratchy sounding.

"Zashi-nii trained me with my voice quirk first thing this morning for 3 hours. It hurts to speak," she explained as she signed along with it, "I'm sorry, Shouta-san... I didn't mean to appear rude." I shook my head, dismissing her apology.

"It's fine. I wasn't aware Hizashi had already started your voice quirk training," I responded before getting into a fighting stance as she did the same, "Luckily, your ability to do combat training won't be affected by that. Let's not waste anymore time." She nodded with a determined look in her eyes that almost made them seem to shine. Dammit, Shouta. She's Hizashi's younger cousin and your sidekick who you are SUPPOSED to be focused on training at the moment. Focus!

Because of my distraction from my internal argument, I just barely dodged a right hook from the petite heroine in front of me. Now that she was off balance, I launched a strong right hook of my own right into her abdomen, successfully knocking the wind out of her and landing her on her ass.

To my surprise, she jumped up in little to no time at all and was charging right back at me, seeming to prepare to give another right hook. As I went to block it, I was shocked to see her kick my legs out from under me before jumping over me and pinning me down in an attempt to immobilize me.

I noticed her face was tinted red, but I was unsure whether it was from the exertion or from our close proximity. Deciding to take advantage of her nervousness, I leaned upward to where our faces were only inches apart and gave her a small smirk. Her face turned a deep red, reinforcing that she was in fact flustered by our position. Using that to my advantage, I leaned up even further to where our lips were almost touching, causing her to loosen her grip on me in nervousness as I quickly freed my arms and flipped her over to her stomach, holding her arm down behind her back.