Pneumatophany

4

Throughout the way back to the girls' locker room, you noted how, many of the girls had already began to mingle with each other and chat happily.

You envied their ability to just talk with anyone without stuttering or making a complete fool out of themselves. Oh, well... At least you have your spirit friends.

As you all reached the lockers, you wasted no time in changing back into your uniform. Thankfully, both Oboro and Eiji had wordlessly waited outside. And you're really glad, cause you're already way too tired from just a simple quirk test, you can't bother with the girls watching you as you speak to Oboro and Eiji to stay outside.

God, you already dread what holds in the future of these next three years.

Since you were so focused on changing as quickly as you could to get back home already, you didn't even notice when the pinkette of your class approached you with a giant smile, "Hey there! We noticed that you've been super quiet this whole time! Can we know your name?"

You snapped your head in her direction, only to be greeted with her yellow eyes, with black scleras.

Wait... She's talking to you?!

Shit, shit, shit... What do you say?! Didn't she ask for your name? Should you say it first or apologize for being quiet this whole time?! They don't seem that angry at you being quiet so maybe it's not that much of a problem...

Gulping the saliva that was slowly forming in your mouth out of nervousness, you noticed how all the other girls had gone quiet and were looking at you expectantly.

God, this isn't helping your current situation!

You tried your hardest to maintain eye contact (because looking away from her would be rude) and slowly started, "I... I'm... Nice to, um... nice to meet..."

Fuck, did you forget your own name?! What are you even trying to say?! You darted your eyes fearfully to your spirits friends, hoping Rina or Shizuka would possess you and take charge of this whole interaction.

But to your horror, they were looking at you, hoping you would tackle this on your own. Your social anxiety was getting rather out of hand and they were certainly hoping that UA would be the place where you would be able to conquer your problem.

After all, you had consistently refused professional help that your parents had offered so it only left the option that you would fix it through slowly mixing in with other people your age.

"Hey, you okay?" The earphone-ear girl from the 100-meter test asked, stepping up after she saw how you were sweating feverishly and looking close to passing out.

"Come on, [Name]! Just say your name!" Rina encouraged and you gulped once more to calm your nerves before closing your eyes and pretending that you were just talking with a new spirit, and not an actual person, "I'm-I'm [Name]. [Last Name]... [Name]. P-Pleased to meet you..."

You barely managed to squeak out before you finally opened one eye to gauge their reactions. No one looked annoyed and neither was anyone judging you. In fact, when you looked at them, all you saw were small encouraging smiles on each of their faces.

"Nice to meet you, [Last Name]-chan! You were really cool back there!" The pinkette from before cheered, not having minded that you had taken so long to answer her simple question. Infact, she had even smiled at you and complimented you.

You're... not used to someone being so understanding of you. It certainly felt... nice to not be judged for being scared of talking to new people.

"T-Thanks... you too!" She smiled even brighter at you returning her compliment, and motioned to herself, "I'm Ashido Mina! But you can just call me Mina since Ashido's a mouthful!" You shakily nodded, your shoes forgotten and your full focus being on having at least one positive interaction with another person that you could tell your parents about after you went home.