Death by Sushi [Kiyashi Ward Shopping Mall][Shizuka, Izumi]

Amid the hustle and bustle of the mall were an array of different restaurants with varying seating accommodations. One of the few with plentiful seating was a Sushi diner which sported a wide array of different rolls with influences from around the world. In place of traditional names for the rolls they tended to replace them with the names of various pro heroes both past and present. For anyone who liked seafood and heroes, it was a veritable paradise one could go to and chat with their friends over good food.

Izumi had been standing around outside the restaurant for a dozen minutes or so. She wanted to be early to make sure Shizuka didn't arrive before her. It was a day after the exam and she had celebrated with a fourteen hour nap immediately after getting home. But now she was feeling as good as ever making it the perfect time to celebrate properly. The girl was in a casual outfit which was a fair bit different from the athletic clothes she'd been wearing. She wore simple jeans that fit her well and were a dark blue color. Her blouse was a very light green and loose fitting. The sleeves ended around her elbows and trailed off into little tassels. Her hair was down and as bright green as ever. She wore sandals which she found more comfortable than proper sneakers but obviously weren't appropriate for settings like the entrance exam. A green phone case was in her hand. Having invited her new friend to the place she had to be ready in case a text came indicating she was lost.

The girl seemed mostly relaxed but as with any time alone this brought an opportunity to reflect. She wasn't sure if she'd made the cut. She could easily see many very talented applicants beating a time of forty-four minutes. But she had to make it. There wasn't a question about that. She'd planned the next decade of her life out around making it into U.A. So she made it. Clearly. But thoughts of this and the promise she'd made would keep her well lost in her own head until otherwise interrupted.

Shizuka walked merrily around the mall, practically bouncing with every step, as she scanned around for the sushi place Izumi had shown her the other day. She payed no mind to all the other mall-goers, or the various goings-on happening all around her. She was super excited to eat at a new restaurant for once, and to talk to her new friend more too, so she didn't have a care in the world right now. As she bounced down the mall, she hummed along to the centuries-old rock music playing in her ears, courtesy of her cat-ear headphones - one of her most prized possessions. She wore a short, faded-blue dress, with detached sleeves, covering only half the area between her shoulders and elbows, along with black tights. Over her shoulder hung a brown, leather bag, from which a wire protruded, connecting to the headphones she wore.

Finally, Shizuka noticed Izumi's bright green hair off in the distance. She seemed to be lost in thought, so Shizuka took off her headphones and waved to try and get her attention, "Izumi-chan!" she called loudly to her as she ran up to the older girl. She stopped on a dime right in front of her, then gave her a grin, "Evening, Izumi-chan!" she greeted her, "Ah! You look so pretty!" Izumi's casual look caught Shizuka off guard a bit, and she momentarily felt that she might not have prepared herself quite enough. Should she have worn a different outfit? Done something different with her hair? Did her makeup look alright? Then, she took a breath, and smiled. Nothing to fret over. "Oh, so this is the place?" she asked, getting her mind off of that topic, "It looks good! Have you eaten here before?"

Izumi perked up out of her little mental obstacle course at the sound of her name being called out. Shizuka was excitedly greeting her. Sure enough the girl seemed to have no calm setting. The green haired girl chuckled a bit as she was complimented on her looks, returning them to her friend in kind. She slid her phone back into her pocket since Shizuka had arrived.

"Yeah this is it. Welcome to Hero Sushi! Where all the heroes of old ate... except it's unclear how long the place has been open and what all pro heroes have visited. But you have to appreciate the effort I guess..." Izumi began explaining with regards to the restaurant. She motioned to her friend to follow her inside and the two were quickly seated with menus placed in front of them. Most of the rolls were named for current or past top five heroes with the Deku and All Might rolls being among the more popular off of name alone. The names rarely matched up well with what was inside but there was one that lined up. Izumi ordered an Endeavor roll, which promised to be spicy.

"I hope you like sushi, I didn't even ask before deciding to come here..." Izumi said with some concern in her voice. The last thing she wanted was for Shizuka to be putting up with food she didn't like for her sake.

"Oooh, how cool," Shizuka said as she listened intently to Izumi's introduction to the restaurant, "if that's the case, then the food must be really good!" She accepted the marketing gimmick easily, not bothering to look too much into how unlikely it was that anything that the place claimed was actually true. Besides, they probably couldn't get away with lying like something about that, right? So it must be true. Shizuka was pretty confident about that. So she blithely followed her friend into the restaurant, fully anticipating something incredible, and gazed around restlessly as they were seated.

Shizuka scanned the menu, unsure of what she should actually get. The names seemed pretty random, and not very indicative of what she'd actually be ordering. Ultimately, she ended up ordering the Edgeshot Roll, more or less at complete random. Then, noticing the concern in Izumi's voice, Shizuka put her hands up and shook her head vigorously, "No, no! I love sushi!" she assured her. That was a bit of an exaggeration. She did like sushi, of course, but only about as much as any other person would. But that minor detail wouldn't get in the way of her enthusiasm. "Besides, I've never eaten here before, and I love trying new things," she added, looking around at the decor, "so thanks for inviting me out here. It's always fun eating someplace new!"

Shizuka's exuberant response that she loved sushi and new experiences eased Izumi's nerves some. Even if the excitement seemed a touch over the top it had to have been based largely in truth. They hadn't had much time to know each other but the idea of the girl before her intentionally lying felt impossible. It felt strange to her to be sitting here with someone else now that she thought about it.

"I hope you'll enjoy it. I used to come here a lot with my..." she trailed off. What was she doing? She couldn't think about him. Not right now. This was supposed to be a happy time. She had a new friend. They were both gonna get into U.A. and become heroes. Only happy feelings should be here. That's all there ever were before. Yet the world was different now and the warm memories of the past brought a cold emptiness with them. There was nothing to do but replace them with new happy ones. She shook her head a bit. Somehow the physical action could tell her mind that this wasn't the time. At least she hoped.

"A-anyway, I've been here a lot and it's never disappointed." she said, recovering from the drop in her mood. That was all well and good but Izumi needed something else to talk about. "So, think we made it in? I keep telling myself I had a good time but part of me wants to think a lot of people could have been faster." she said, expressing her anxieties from earlier with a laugh at the end of her sentence. The wait, however long it ended up being, to get the results of the exam was going to slow eat away at her. Commenting on the exam reminded her of one of the core reasons for the meeting. They had some time before their food was ready so after letting Shizuka reply to her question she'd interject.

"Oh right! I was going to tell you about my quirk. That green light you saw was part of it. I can heal people by giving them some of my energy. But I can only give it to them through my feet so it's a bit odd some times." Izumi began, her mood definitely better now that she was on an easy topic. "Turns out other people's bodies don't like my energy though so I sort of have to force it in."

Shizuka took note of the way Izumi trailed off for a moment, not finishing her thought before changing the topic. Curious, but seeing that she probably didn't want to talk about it, Shizuka let it pass without comment, and fell into Izumi's new topic. She tilted her head, confused, at her question, "Hm? Did we make it in?" Shizuka repeated, "Well, yeah, of course," she said, matter-of-factly. Her mouth spread into a cheerful grin, "After all, I finished before you, and there's no way someone like you wouldn't get in," she said, then playfully added, "especially after that little boost I gave you." In Shizuka's mind, it was so simple. Izumi seemed all cool and mature, totally hero material, so there was no doubt in her mind that she would've passed. And since Shizuka did even better than Izumi, that meant that she passed too. There was no question about it. "Besides," she started, "we made a promise to work together and become heroes! If we didn't pass, we couldn't keep that promise, and a promise is something you have to keep! So, we must have both passed," she said, acting as if that train of thought actually made sense. It wasn't entirely clear if she was joking, trying to lighten the mood, or if she actually believed in her own backwards logic.

Then, the conversation shifted to Izumi's quirk, the whole reason they'd come out here in the first place. She could heal people by donating her energy? That was cool! "Oh, wow!" Shizuka exclaimed, "That's really cool! That must be really helpful." Not only did it just seem like a really neat quirk to have, Shizuka was admittedly a little glad to see someone else with a more "support-oriented" quirk, especially one who seemed as mature and competent as Izumi. Going through the entrance exam, she saw so many people with cool, offense-oriented quirks. It was hard not to feel a little small when all she could do was help people with her voice. But it looked like Izumi wasn't too different herself. But then, Shizuka snapped back to reality. "Wait," she said, suddenly, "what do you mean by force it in?"

Shizuka had a simple confidence that the two of them had both passed the exam and it helped to ease Izumi's nerves somewhat. It felt nice to be able to have that kind of pure belief without accounting for dozens of factors outside one's control. Reminding the girl of their promise only helped to settled her mind for a time. She was right. They had made a promise. And promises meant the world to the green haired girl. But then came Shizuka's reaction to her quirk. She seemed really excited for what surely was a fairly boring quirk next to some others either of them had seen. Yet her friend treated it like it was the coolest quirk she'd encountered.

"Heh... what indeed..." Izumi fake laughed through her response to Shizuka inquiry. It was simply natural to her how it worked but having to sit down and explain it to another brought to light the paradoxical nature and she couldn't help but laugh at it. "Well like I said I can only channel it in my feet. So if I kick someone that's usually enough to get it in." she said, still a nervous laugh accompanying the words. "Seems a bit backward for a healing quirk right? I've gotta hurt people to fix them." she continued.

"I took a lot of martial arts classes to try and train it since the harder the kick the better it works. I've never thought much about how silly it sounds but now that I say it out loud..." she concluded without really finishing the thought. However weird it was, her quirk was suited to rescuing and helping others. It wasn't anything to be ashamed of. But explaining something requires thinking of the thing in a way you might not have considered before. And Izumi couldn't help but think of all the comical uses to her quirk. In fact she began giggling the more she went. If this continued she'd be in the middle of a laughing fit for the next few minutes.

"You... kick people to heal them?" Shizuka repeated, making sure she understood correctly. That was pretty weird, now that she mentioned it. Especially since she'd just have to kick harder to heal more. "I guess it is a bit backwards," Shizuka agreed, "but I think that's pretty cool, though! Quirks can be pretty weird sometimes, but yours is really neat! And you must be pretty good at kicking by now!" she said encouragingly, "So whenever I get hurt, you can just give me a swift kick, and I'll be good as new, right?" she asked, giggling when she realized that she was asking to be kicked.

Actually, Izumi was giggling too. Shizuka wasn't even entirely sure about what, but since she had already begun laughing herself, she found Izumi's laughter contagious, and she began giggling even more. "W-what's so funny?" Shizuka managed to ask through her laughter. Shizuka didn't even know why she was still laughing so much. Seeing Izumi laugh just made her want to laugh too. And she was having so much fun with it that she didn't want to stop. Here she was, sitting in a sushi restaurant, with a new friend, laughing way too much about kicking people for no particular reason. This was what she lived for. Little moments with friends.

With her friend laughing alongside her, it took Izumi a few solid minutes to recover from her laughing fit. She could see it now. Someone with a concussion getting kicked in the head and suddenly feeling fine. Other similar images filled her mind and the sound of her own and Shizuka's laughing just somehow made everything funnier. It wasn't until their food arrived that she finally began to calm down some. The server seemed confused at what had been so funny but said very little in the process of setting down their plates. Izumi tried taking deep breaths with some small attempts at giggling pushing through. Eventually she let out one long exhale and wiped a tear away from her eye before settling down.

"Sorry about that. Things are just so funny sometimes." she said, still not entirely calm. This changed as she began eating her food, the spice helping her to compose herself finally. "So, Shizuka-chan, I take it you like music?" she said between bites. At the exam when she'd handled the girl's phone she'd seen several stickers, musical notes among them. "Do you play or listen or both? What kind of songs do you like?" she said asking follow-up questions. It seemed like high time to get away from simply talking about the exam or U.A. or quirks and just getting to know each other as real people with real interests and hobbies.

Shizuka managed to force herself to stop laughing, with some difficulty, when their food arrived. She nodded in understanding to Izumi, wiping at her eyes, before taking a bite out of her sushi. "Oh wow!" she said suddenly, "This is delicious!" Overcome by the intense and incredible flavor, she couldn't stop herself from scarfing down the rest of her sushi right then. She let out a satisfied sigh, then perked up at Izumi's question, "Oh, yeah!" she replied, nodding emphatically, "I love music!" She leaned closer to Izumi, her excitement evident now that they were on a topic she enjoyed so much. "I can't really play any instruments," she admitted, "but I sing! I'm pretty good at it, too!" She knew that it was wrong to boast like that, but she really was proud of her singing ability. It was something she practiced a lot, and worked really hard on, so she felt she earned a little bit of boasting ability. "I like most music, really, but I really love rock! All kinds of rock! A lot of people don't like it 'cuz it's so old and outdated, but it's still really good. The banging instruments, the passionate vocals, it's all super awesome!" she said, then giggled, "Actually, I don't really understand most of the vocals. Most of the rock songs I like are in English," she admitted, "I can still sing some of them, but I don't really know what half of the words mean."

Shizuka's face softened, her excitement dying down just a tiny bit, "It might sound a bit silly," she said, "but rock music is actually pretty special to me. I have lots of really good memories of it. So I really, really love it." Shizuka tilted her head, "So what about you, Izumi-chan?" she asked, "Do you like music, too?"

Izumi had to ponder a moment over the role music had in her life. It seemed like a big part of Shizuka's and she wondered if she could say the same. It had always been there in some form. She'd picked up an instrument or two, tried to sing some. She was often listening to music but what was the impact? Ideas came to her but they were all tied to the same person. She pushed it away, not wanting to go there and found a way to give her story without mentions to him.

"Well, I remember as a little kid listening to classical music a lot. It was supposed to like make me smarter or something." she started with a bit of a laugh. She wasn't sure how successful the music had been in that effort. She ran a hand through her hair before continuing. "Somewhere along the line the blues and jazz crept in and sort of took over. I remember wanting to learn a lot of different instruments 'cuz of all that. I settled on guitar and saxaphone after a while. I even tried singing but I was never really that good." she continued. So far so good. She was finding a way to talk freely about it all. "I listen to a lot of stuff now. What just kind of depends on the day you know?" the green-haired lass said. She took another bite of her food before carrying her thoughts forward.

"I dunno that i have the attachment you do, but it's kind of always been there. To the point I don't know what my life would have been like without it. But that goes for a lot of things I did." Izumi said, referencing her host of other hobbies vaguely. "Now if I remember your phone correctly..." she said lightheartedly, "You also must really like cats and sweets huh?"

Shizuka listened intently as Izumi explained her history with music, nodding along to show her interest. "Woah, you can play two instruments?" Shizuka asked, impressed, "I'm so jealous! I never could get the hang of playing guitar," she admitted. Even if Izumi claimed that she wasn't as attached to music as she was, Shizuka was happy to hear her friend enjoyed music a lot too. Maybe they could hang out and listen to their favorite songs together sometime, Shizuka thought. Or, if she was lucky, jam out together. "I think music is like that for a lot of people," Shizuka thought aloud, "Music is, like, part of the human soul, or something. I don't think anyone can exist completely without it," she said, then giggled, her innocent laughter running contrary to the oddly philosophical nature of her words.

At Izumi's next question, Shizuka gave an embarrassed laugh. It was just the tiniest bit embarrassing to realize that Izumi had picked up on that from just seeing her phone case. Shizuka was never one to hide her feelings or interests, far from it, but she felt a little silly being so transparent. She shook it off easily, though. "Mmhm," she nodded enthusiastically, "sweets are my favorite!" she said, starting with Izumi's second question first, "I really like all kinds of food, but I totally have a sweet tooth! Cake, cupcakes, candy, I can't get enough of it! Ooh! Especially ones with strawberry flavor!" Her eyes practically sparkled as she dreamed of delicious sweets. "I even bake a little, though I'm not very good at it yet. I can make cupcakes alright, but I prefer the ones from this place in town. Oh, but I can make really tasty brownies! I don't like brownies as much as some other things, but I end up making a lot of them because it's what I'm best at," she explained, "I wanna do more, but it's certainly a learning experience," she said with a laugh.

Then, she moved on to Izumi's other question "If there's anything I like more than sweets and rock music, it's cats. They're just so cute! And they're such sweet little animals!" she said, her voice radiating love and affection for her feline friends, "I've got a whole bunch of little kitties back home. Rescues, actually," she said, "Things started to get a little crowded after the seventh one, but every time I think of a poor little kitty without a home, I feel like I just have to help it, you know?" Shizuka pulled out her phone and opened her photos, quickly locating her large cache of photos of her many cats, "Here, take a look!" she said, scrolling through the pictures one at a time, pointing to each of her ten cats as she went, telling Izumi their name and describing what they were like, occasionally going on a tangent to explain the story behind the photo and why it was so cute.  When she finally finished gushing, her face suddenly fell a little dour, "Well, I guess if I'm going to U.A. now, I won't get to be with them very much," she said sadly, "I don't think they'd let me get away with bringing ten cats to my dorm." She sighed, looking at the pictures on her phone, "I know they can get along fine on their own, and my parents will take good care of them, but I'm still gonna miss them, and they're gonna miss me..." Then, she snapped her head up, trying to shake the feeling off, "A-ah, I'm sorry! I talked for so long! I get that way about my little friends sometimes."

Of the three talking points from her phone case, Izumi hadn't counted on Shizuka's main passion being cats. She spoke of her love of food and attempting to bake some with her usual energy. Music had been a clear love earlier in their conversation. But neither really compared to the energy in the girl's voice as she started discussing her pets. She had pictures to show on her phone. The girl seemed to keep their names straight somehow or other and had specific stories to every one of them. Izumi had a hard time keeping up but didn't want to interrupt her friend. It wasn't half so important she knew all about the cats as much as Shizuka getting to talk about them freely. Her mood noticeably dropped at the thought of not being able to have them with her at the U.A. dorms which reminded Izumi of a million things she needed for her room that she'd have to buy later. Assuming she got in anyway. Well she was getting in, she had to. She hoped.

"No, no, it's fine. It's great that you love them so much." Izumi started, not wanting the girl to feel bad about sharing things about her cats. "You know, I haven't looked into it a ton but there's probably someone you could talk to once you get your acceptance letter." she began, while looking through websites on her phone. "I'm sure there's someone who's in charge of the U.A. student housing who'd be able to approve a cat or two. Ten though....." she trailed off, knowing it was a ridiculous idea. One pet couldn't hurt anything surely but there was no school anywhere that was going to let a student bring ten cats with them. "I'd have to look a little more in depth but I'm sure you can check the school's website for the contact information."

Shizuka was relieved to hear that Izumi didn't mind her spending so much time talking about her cats. She'd annoyed people in the past by doing that, and was worried she might have scared off her new friend already. But it seemed like Izumi was too nice for that. At Izumi's suggestion, Shizuka leaned back and hummed in thought, "Yeah, maybe," she said, "who would I take though...?" She began muttering to herself, suddenly deep in thought about the decisions she would have to make. After a minute, she shook her head, realizing she was still in company. She could fret about this later, but she was being rude right now. "Well, thanks for the suggestion," she said, suddenly smiling again, "I'm sure I'll figure something out!"

"Now, I've been talking about myself a lot," Shizuka pointed out, "but what about you, Izumi-chan? Do you have any pets? What kind of food do you like? What else are you interested in?" Shizuka piled on question after question, wanting to give Izumi a chance to talk about whatever she wanted, after she took up so much time herself, "Come on, I wanna know everything!"

"Everything?" Izumi started with a chuckle. "I don't know that you'll find me half so interesting." she said, not wanting the girl's expectations too high for what she viewed as a fairly average life and set of interests. The girl had asked her a few specific questions then left it open ended so she could speak about anything she wanted. It was probably best to start with the specifics. "Well let's see. I don't have any pets. Well... my aunt and uncle have this weird bird they keep around in a cage but I don't ever really much with it so I wouldn't count it. Food... well I love pasta. Just kind of in general. Never really met a dish i didn't like there. Seafood's up there too if that wasn't obvious." she said while taking another bite of the sushi. Where did she want to go next? What would interest her friend?

"I have a few black belts running around from different martial arts styles." she said with a pensive look on her face. She was trying to recount how many exactly but details like that she'd forgotten. She did however share a story about trashing some pompous boy when she tried learning a new style. Due to her experience she was more than ready and had him flat on his back in only a few seconds. From that point on, no one thought of messing with her in the class. She laughed as she recalled the experience. She'd made a good friend there. Another girl who went to a different school. They still kept in touch occasionally over social media. There was a warmth to Izumi's face as she recounted her time with the girl.

"There were the dance classes I took too. Though if you ask me, I think I have two left feet. I can get a routine down but once I have to move off of that it's over. Oh right, I'm pretty big on archery too! I've handled all sorts of different bows. It's such an old weapon and skill but it's kind of amazing getting to know how they work and what our distant ancestors came up with given what they had. But it really just feels great to hold the string back and let an arrow fly and have it go where you were aiming!" Izumi said, getting a bit more energized as she went. She could have gone on with any of the topics for longer and had a few more tucked away but these felt appropriate for what Shizuka was looking for.

Despite what Izumi claimed, she really was a fascinating person to Shizuka. As she listened to Izumi talk about her interests and recount stories, she already felt like her hobbies and stories were so cool or interesting. She occasionally interjected with a small comment, but mostly let Izumi talk on her own until she was finished. It made her sad, hearing about animals being cooped up in cages all the time, even birds, but she decided it would be inappropriate it say anything about that. Also, Izumi was good at martial arts and archery? That was certainly impressive. For someone without an offensive quirk, she certainly knew how to defend herself. Which was more than Shizuka could say for herself. Maybe she should change that, if she wanted to be a hero...

"Whoa, what are talking about?!" Shizuka suddenly said when Izumi had finished, "That was super interesting! You've got so many cool hobbies, Izumi-chan!" Shizuka giggled, thinking about her own hobbies, "The extent of my hobbies besides music and baking are pretty much just watching anime and playing video games," she admitted sheepishly, "not exactly cool, I know." Then, her embarrassed expression was replaced by a grin, "But I think archery and martial arts are really cool! Being able to do that sounds really awesome," Shizuka said excitedly. Izumi seemed like a really modest person, the kind who wouldn't brag about their own accomplishments very much, but to Shizuka someone like her was incredibly cool. Of course, Shizuka was easily impressed, so that might not have been saying much.

People were always so different yet often found ways to get along. Izumi had long thought on the differences between herself and those she associated with. It happened here too with Shizuka. The two had different interests but they had enough common ground and interest in the other that it didn't matter. Each paid attention as the other spoke, even without a common experience to relate it back to. This carried on for a while after both had finished their food and Izumi offered to pay for Shizuka's as well. She was her guest after all it only seemed right. However it went down the conversation carried on for a while. She remained careful not to mention her family in anything they talked about. And with the focus on their hobbies and interests that was fairly easy to do. After enough time Izumi would check her phone to see a few text messages she had missed.

"Well, I should be going. This was great, thank you so much for coming Shizuka-chan." she said warmly as she stood. There was nothing urgent but her little sister was wondering when she'd get home and there was little that could motivate her faster than her sister. "I'll see you at school." she said with a sly grin on her face. As it stood neither of them had been accepted. And while this had worried her a lot prior to sitting down with Shizuka, she was now a lot more relaxed about. Enough to joke around anyway. This would only last through the evening though. The morning would bring a new day and a new host of worries.

But at least the sushi had been good.