A Girl can be the number 1 Hero

Chapter 21 - Days Off

Two days off. That's what we "won" after the championship. And it was almost 10 o'clock in the morning of the first day when my mother entered the room and opened the curtain in a single swoop, waking me up instantly.

"Come on, sleeping beauty. Change your clothes".

I pulled the sheet over my face. In addition to the previous day being exhausting, medication for pain made me sleepy.

"Change?"

"Let's go to the mall, have lunch and buy you new clothes".

"I don't need new clothes," I grumbled, just wanted to keep sleeping.

"Yes you do, and it's my gift to you to have gone so far in the competition".

"But I didn't win."

"Small details, small details. We need to celebrate how fantastic you were".

She ripped the sheet off me and in a way only mothers can do, in less than an hour she had me change, dragged me down the subway and we were entering one of my favorite malls. Inside was a huge manga store and a hero collectibles store.

I faced my mother, now I almost passed her height. She had taken care of me all by herself. We didn't talk about my father, but I knew he had abandoned us. I didn't even have any memories of him. She worked as a store clerk and I believed she received a small amount of support from him – I wasn't sure about that.

"No need to spend on clothes, Mom," I said, watching her as we climbed the escalators to the next floor. "Most of the time I'm in uniform."

"Let me buy you something to congratulate you". Her tone was pleading. Ever since I told her about having "late developed" a quirk, my mother radiated happiness. I knew how much she too had suffered when we received the news. And I don't doubt that she blamed herself. No, I knew she had blamed herself, I heard her questioning health professionals if she did something wrong in pregnancy, or if she did something wrong when I was a baby.

"Okay," I replied with a pout. "Something darker this time. My friends make fun of me saying that I have a lot of pink things in my room".

My mother laughed.

"In your Barbie phase you wanted everything pink. Do you remember? You even made Bakugo show up at the house wearing Ken's clothes, polo shirt, shorts, white coat tied around the neck".

We both laughed together as we walked down the hall.

"He was so pissed off. I thought he wouldn't even show up with your clothes on. At least back then, he still joined in the fun.".

"You don't talk anymore?"

"I told you, Mom, he's been being a total jerk to me for quite a few years now. Bullying me, including..." My throat caught, I wanted to tell that it had only been a few months since he said I could throw myself off the building to see if I was born again with a quirk. Damn, that was too mean. It was the height of bullying that day, I had to rewrite everything in that notebook he threw burned out the window. Bakugo had spent the last few years belittling and criticizing me, but that was the first and only time he ever said something so aggressive. Of course, there was also the day he asked if I'd had sex with someone to get admitted to U.A. Mom stared at me waiting for an answer. "He's an idiot. Without further ado".

"Hmm, a pity. I miss Mitsuki's visits".

"You could continue to meet her, Bakugo's mother is really nice."

She smiled.

"Who knows, I think at some point I'll actually meet her again".

We continued our tour. I was too indecisive to buy clothes, but my mother loved that strip and put it on, the steps "parading" in front of her so she could give her opinion - and the process was time consuming, after all the splint on my arm didn't help me so much to change.

Finally I bought a dark purple pleated skirt and a black blouse, made of light fabric, with long sleeves and a high collar. She insisted that I leave the store wearing them, said that the clothes I was wearing were too clunky.

"It's your first purple outfit. It's the same color as that boy's hair you defeated yesterday".

I blushed instantly, I had thought of that when I tried on the skirt.

"Serious? I hadn't noticed".

I turned to face the stores down the aisle.

"Shall we go to the arcade?"

I looked at her with a smile.

"Yes, please!"

My mother loved the arcade at the mall, even more than I did. And the love of her life was aero hockey. Never won from her.

"I can tell you that you're going to win, I have my good hand bandaged".

"Ahhhh". She provoked. "I would have won anyway".

I sticked out my tongue.

While we were playing we were talking, she was not satisfied with my new quirk, she thought it was too dangerous, which broke me too much. I tried to convince her that the problem was exclusively mine, that because it developed late, my body was still trying to get used to it. She wasn't satisfied with the answer.

"I almost fainted watching you participate in the competition. I don't know how I still have hair after all I ripped out in your final fight".

I grimaced at the moment of one of her goals. I knew all about it, I knew how worried everyone was, and I needed to find another way. That was already in my plans.

"Midoriya?" My mother and I looked to the side just as she scored another goal. Tokoyami was standing next to the air hockey table, and next to him was a woman with long black hair and completely black skin – just like china ink. Only her eyes and lips were red.

"Tokoyami, good to see you here!"

I introduced my mother to him and he introduced his own mother, the woman with the blood red eyes. She was more like the dark shadow than him. She was tall and slender, she looked like a model. Her skin was mesmerizing.

"Looks like you're losing it". His mother pointed to the table's score.

"It's because my arm is hurt," I replied.

"Sure, sure". Mom laughed. "Want to play?" She offered it to Tokoyami's mother. Her eyes widened softly, but she smiled.

"I would love".

I went to Tokoyami's side and they both started a much fiercer dispute than I imagined I would see. They were women determined not to lose.

"Your mother seems like a nice person," he said.

"Yours too".

In the end they evened out. But they finished the game sweating and laughing. His mother invited us to lunch and my mother agreed. I sporadically looked at my cell phone, I hadn't heard from Iida all day, and it wasn't for lack of texting him.

I didn't know how, but after lunch we still went for a coffee and by the time we saw it, most of the day had passed and our mothers had arranged to see each other the next day while I went with Tokoyami to a rock band concert. I didn't even like rock that much, but I didn't want to deny it after all the excitement of the two of them having a time "free from children".

"Thank you, Midoriya". Tokoyami approached me and said softly as our mothers said goodbye. "She doesn't have many friends. I think it's because of the way she looks". He shrugged his shoulders in disagreement. "And she seems to have enjoyed talking to your mother quite a bit".

"All right, Tokoyami. My mother doesn't have many friends either. She's always busy working to sustain us". If his mother's "many" was the same as mine, then it was actually "none". "Let's have fun".