DORM ROOM 3

[ Dorm Room 3 is situated between Dorm Room 1 and Dorm Room 5, on the left hand side. The dorm belongs to Izumi and Shizuka. ]

After finishing her exam with Izumi, Shizuka was excited to continue with the rest of her day, but her friend insisted she go to the infirmary. Shizuka thought she was fine, and that Izumi's healing had been enough to make up for the abuse she's suffered at the hands of Chizue, but she quickly realized there would be no arguing with a concerned Izumi, and gave in to her better judgement. Her trip to the infirmary was relatively brief, owing to the amazing medical technology and healing quirks at the school's disposal, as well as the relatively light injuries Shizuka was left with. In the end, Shizuka was glad Izumi had made her go to the infirmary. While her injuries served no major threat to her, getting them checked out and patched up, without using up even more of her friend's energy, would surely save her some trouble, and it would be a good practice to get into regardless. After her short checkup, Shizuka returned to class where she discovered, much to her immense joy, that she and Izumi would be roommates.

The little ball of sunshine could hardly contain her excitement as she practically skipped her way through the school and to her dorm with her friend in tow. Certainly, the trip to the infirmary must have worked wonders, because they were not slowing her down even a hair today. Arriving at their door, Shizuka took a deep breath, trying to hold herself together, before thrusting the door open and throwing herself into the room, looking around excitedly. She couldn't contain herself any longer, squeeing with delight upon looking at her side of the room. It's true, most of her stuff was still in boxes. Many, many, large cardboard boxes. It made sense they didn't want to bother unpacking so many things. But still, everything was just the way she had hoped. The bright blue sheets of her bed were just as she remembered back home. "We have our own room, Izumi-chan!" Shizuka said, the obvious finally, truly hitting her, turning around and grasping her friend's hands, jumping for joy in place, "Isn't this so, so, so amazing!?"

Shizuka rushed over to the boxes by her bed and started unpacking. She threw open the first large box to see it filled well over halfway full with various stuffed animals and other plushies of various shapes and sizes, which she began eagerly taking out and gently, carefully, positioning on her bed. "Oh, it's going to be so much fun living together!" she called to her friend as she worked, "We can talk all the time, and play video games, and you can help me study because you're super duper smart and stuff, and we can stay up late on the weekends, oh! And we can do each other's hair, your hair always looks so good! You need to tell me how you do it!" Her words came out a mile a minute, and she only realized she hadn't stopped to take a breath when she nearly ran out of air in her lungs, forcing her to stop and take one massive inhale. Realizing it might be time to take a break, Shizuka decided to shut up for just a second, and stepped back to take a look at her bed after finishing unpacking her plushies. There were several dozen, all told, all in various sizes. The majority of them were teddy bears, bunnies, and kitties, but interspersed throughout were plush versions of cute monsters from popular video games, and perhaps two or three cute anime girls. The smallest ones were tiny little things, the size of Shizuka's palm - and her palm was very small. The biggest were even bigger then Shizuka's entire torso. In total, they covered over 50% of the bed, leading one to wonder where exactly Shizuka expected to sleep.

She moved on to the next couple boxes, these ones mostly filled with clothes and a few other essentials that she stored away quickly, and finally moved on to her final box. She produced various handheld gaming systems from the box, placing them varyingly on her bed or the nearby desk, along with dozens of game cases, which she stored, for now, under her bed. She then pulled out several items that might've seemed out of place. A pet bed? A litter box? Food bowls? There definitely weren't any animals in this room. Yet Shizuka placed them dutifully at the foot of her bed as if it was totally normal.

Okay. She decided she was probably okay to start talking again. She whirled around to look at her friend's side of the room, realizing that she was so caught up in unpacking that she had completely forgotten to see what Izumi had done with her side, "Oooh, I'm just so excited! This is gonna be the best year ever, right Izumi-chan?"

Izumi was tired, there was no two ways about it. Immediately after their exam had concluded the green-haired girl had insisted Shizuka go to the infirmary. The girl seemed fine and said as much but Izumi wasn't having it. Though she had a healing quirk she was no doctor. She had no way of knowing if her power had healed her friend correctly or thoroughly. Thankfully, UA had some of the best stuff in the world when it came to treating injuries. It only made sense given the level of injury that could occur here was much greater than would reasonably be experienced by the average citizen. Izumi waiting outside for Shizuka with the concern being the only thing driving her. She hadn't bothered changing out of her hero costume and despite the fact that she was visibly ready to pass out from the adrenaline crash she refused any treatment or examination for herself.

Once Shizuka had a clean bill of health Izumi finally changed back into her uniform and reported back to the classroom where it was revealed that the teams for the exam would be roommates. It was a relief that neither would have to room with Chizue or any other potential bullies for the all too innocent Shizuka. And while she really wanted to share in her friend's enthusiasm for the whole affair, staying awake was proving to be a real struggle. Still she managed to trudge along to the dorm rooms and smiled at the sight of just how much stuff Shizuka had. Izumi's side of the room was far less cluttered. Her bedspread was fairly stylish though. The comforter atop it was largely the same shade of green as her hair but it had diagonal blue stripes to accent it toward the top and bottom. She did however have an array of seemingly unrelated things. There was a small bookcase with three rows packed tight with different tops both fiction and non-fiction. There were three different bows and a quiver piled neatly by each other yet also next to what looked like an acoustic guitar case.

There were several bags by her bedside and despite the desire to do nothing more than sleep she started unpacking. She listened happily as Shizuka daydreamed about what all they would get up to through the year together. She pulled out several different fancy looking dresses for the various dance styles she knew. While she did she couldn't help but notice what looked like dishes for pets piling up around her roommate's bed. Izumi didn't think pets were allowed in the dorms and couldn't imagine how many bowels a cat could use. She decided it better not to question things for now. Shizuka's final question had her thinking though.

"The best year ever huh..." she repeated softly. Her thoughts turned to her opponents in the exam. How a girl like that could have been allowed to come here, what the teachers were thinking letting her in, what the teacher who had finally interrupted was doing, all of it was beyond her for the moment. The heroes were flawed and she intended to show everyone what a hero ought to be. "Yeah... well until the year after that anyway." she eventually responded with a smile. "This is just the start. Thing's can only get better from here." she concluded. Not until she was an influential hero would things begin to really change. Each year was going to get better the longer her career went on. Though something Shizuka had said earlier brought a sudden panic to her. She touched the top of her head briefly and then began fumbling about her belongings. Eventually she found the dye she used to touch up her roots and sighed with relief before tucking back away out of sight. With that crisis averted she sat down on the edge of her bed for a moment and stared again at the bowels. Her previous decision of not asking wanted to stand but as tired as she was she needed the mental processing power she was subconsciously devoting to understanding them back.

"So uh, Shizuka-chan are you expecting... guests or something?" she asked curiously while keeping her gaze on the dishes and other pet-related items.

The shining light in Shizuka's eyes dimmed slightly, and the huge grin plastered across her face shrunk to a small, soft smile, as she noticed how exhausted her friend really was. Of course, she thought, she probably hadn't recovered from her adrenaline crash. She reached one hand up in a tiny fist and bonked herself on the head, playfully chiding herself for not thinking about Izumi's own energy, "Ah, sorry," she apologized, her voice still light and full of cheer, "I must be wearing you out." Truth be told, Shizuka often that had effect on people. Just seeing her bounce around with her boundless energy could be exhausting for normal people. "You're right, though! Things are just gonna keep getting better from now on, I can just tell! Let's both work hard to be amazing heroes!"

Shizuka raised an eyebrow as her friend retreated and began scrambling through her stuff, seemingly in a sudden panic. "Uh, Izumi-chan? Is someth-" she began to ask, then gasped, quickly covering her mouth in an attempt to mute the sound, as she noticed Izumi applying dye to the roots of her hair. She was shocked. Was Izumi's hair... unnatural? No wonder it looked so good! She should have known Izumi's perfect appearance was too good to be true. What other devious secrets was she hiding from her? It was impossible to say. Only one thing was for sure. This was a secret that Shizuka could never let the public hear. Just to be extra safe, she wouldn't even tell Izumi what she saw. The walls have ears, after all. This deepest, darkest secret, Shizuka would take to the grave, she promised herself. Just so she wouldn't be tempted, she took the first opportunity she saw to get her mind off the subject.

"Guests?" Shizuka asked, and looked back, following Izumi's gaze towards the dishes she had laid out by her bed, "Oh!" In just an instant, the light that had dimmed in Shizuka's eyes lit back up, "Yes! Guests!" She looked back to Izumi, once again bursting with excitement, practically unable to keep still for more than a moment, her body almost vibrating with sheer energy, "So! Remember when we went out for sushi - That was suuuuuuper good by the way, thanks again for that- Oh! We should totally go there again soon! I really wanted to try that Endeavor Roll you had!" Shizuka said, then stopped talking, as if her thought had been finished. The silence hung in the air for a second before the realization dawned on her, "Oh! Sorry, right, I was saying! We went out for sushi, and I told you about all my cat friends back at home, and I said I was really sad that I'd have to leave them at home, and you said that I should talk to the school about it, and I was thinking 'Oh, yeah, maybe if I ask really nicely they'll let them come with me,' and so I talked to the school about it, and-" Shizuka cut herself off as she began to cough, attempting to speak despite the lack of air in her lungs. Once again, she took a singular deep breath, then continued as if nothing ever happened, "and they said that it was okay for me to keep a pet in my room as long as I only had one! Now, it was super duper hard to figure out who I was going to have come with, because I love all ten of them so, so, so much! And that's when my mom suggested that I can have them swap out throughout the year! So my parents are gonna take care of my cats back home, but every month, I can have one of them stay with me for a while! I even got the schedule already planned out and everything, and Mom's gonna bring Momo-chan over on the weekend! Oh, I'm so excited to introduce you!" As she jubilantly explained her situation to her poor, exhausted friend, she practically bounced around the room, until she physically forced herself to be still, sitting on her own bed across from Izumi, "Ah, I did it again! Sorry, everything is just so, so, so exciting today!"

Shizuka seemed at least somewhat aware of how exhaust Izumi was. But still that didn't slow her down much at all. Especially when it came to her cats. The girl was curious to learn the school would allow her friend to keep one of her many feline companions with her here in the dorm. The green-haired girl wasn't allergic thankfully but it still seemed odd the school hadn't even asked her about it. It made her wonder how far in advance everything had been planned out. Thinking she knew how most heroes were, the lass could see them having done things pretty haphazardly.

"No, no, it's fine. You're right to be excited." the girl said with what smile she could muster. "I hope the place is big enough for Momo-chan and the others. They don't... claw or chew things much do they?" sounded Izumi's concerns. She looked over belongings and the last thing she wanted was for Shizuka's furry friends to ruin any of it. Blankets were one thing but the bows and guitar would be slightly more problematic. Her friend's happiness was important but so was the pristine state of her possessions. The thoughts brought a need to check on them and so the girl stood and began putting her archery equipment away in one of the closets. The guitar she wanted to inspect, uncertain how well their luggage had been handled. She lifted the case onto her bed and opened it up.

Inside was a well polished acoustic guitar. It was green in color of course. It seemed most things Izumi owned or wore had to work into her prescribed color palette. Below the strings on the face of the guitar itself was writing that appeared to have been written with a black sharpie. The words were in a very ornate cursive and read "Papa loves Mi-chan!" The sight always made the girl emotional and without realizing it a single tear fell from her eye onto the instrument which she quickly wiped off and rubbed at her watery eyes a bit. They hadn't damaged it in the move. Her list of worries was gradually declining. Soon her mind would let her finally sleep.

Shizuka suddenly gasped, again, taking a quick step back in her surprise. In her excitement, she totally hadn't even thought about whether or not Izumi would be okay with sharing her room with Shizuka's cats. Never mind that Shizuka had no idea she would even have a roommate, much less who it would be. She was still concerned that she had made some kind of grave mistake. Of course, Izumi hadn't said anything about being allergic, so it was a start, but she still seemed concerned, and understandably so. Shizuka briefly considered calling her family and telling them they'd need to cancel the plan. If her friend was going to have a problem with it, it was a sacrifice she would have to make. But she quickly shook off her doubts, and she was confident she could shake off Izumi's, too! Her darling little angels, scratching and biting things? Why, they would never! Shizuka vehemently shook her head, "Oh, no, no, no!" she insisted, "They're very well behaved, I promise!" Then, she paused for a moment, and looked down sheepishly, "Well, okay, I guess some of them can be kinda troublemakers sometimes..." she admitted, "B-but they'd never hurt your stuff, I swear! They usually leave stuff alone if it doesn't smell like me."

Resting assured that that issue had been cleared up, at least for the moment, Shizuka followed Izumi to see what she was looking at as she was putting stuff away. She'd placed her guitar case on her bed, but she seemed to be hesitating suddenly, as Shizuka was unsure as to why. She hoped there wasn't something wrong with it. She stepped behind her friend, and stood on the tips of her toes to peer over the taller girl's shoulder. The guitar looked awfully cute to Shizuka, and she smiled upon seeing the familiar green color. She giggled, "Green's really your favorite color, huh?" she asked, "It looks really good on you!" However, as she turned to say this, she noticed a peculiar look on Izumi's face, and the wetness of her eyes. Was she... crying? In an instant, Shizuka's bubbly attitude faded away completely, replaced with a quiet concern, "Izumi-chan? Are you okay? Is there something wrong?"

Shizuka had caught Izumi's emotions seeping through. A sloppy mistake the girl thought as she stifled her tears and put her usual warm yet somehow distant smile back on her face. Shizuka didn't need a sob story today or ever. And the green-haired girl certainly didn't have the emotional or physical energy to get into it at the moment. She'd have to proceed carefully to not worry her roommate any further. Today had been rougher on Shizuka than it had been her. It was rude of her to not be more considerate of that fact. So she decided it was time to stop being sad. She had a promise to keep.

"Uh... y-yeah I like green a lot. He used to say it made me look like a fairy or something and I liked the idea..." she replied, attempting to ignore the concern expressed. That was a bad move unto itself but in her state of emotional disarray she'd referred to her father indirectly. This would only call for context on who "He" was and the single thought was already bringing too many other memories back to the forefront of Izumi's mind. Things were going to fall apart at this rate. This was only day one. She couldn't be this weak. This just had to be the physical strain on her system getting to her. She had to stop it right now. This called for a major topic shift.

"Anyway... I think it'll be nice to have your cats around. They'll keep things from getting boring and stuff. Are they good with strangers?" came the girl's weak attempt at diverting conversation. She had to hope Shizuka's short attention span would play into her favor here. She began closing the guitar case with her inspection of it complete. Largely she just needed reminders out of sight until her body had rested and she had full control of herself again.

Shizuka kept her eyes close on her friend as she forced her tears to stop and brought a smile to her face. Though she tried not to let it show on her face, Shizuka grimaced internally as Izumi explained her attachment to the color green. Now, Shizuka wasn't the brightest bulb, and she knew that, but even she noticed Izumi clumsily ignoring her worried questioning. She was putting on a brave face, but whether it was an attempt to assuage Shizuka's worries, to stifle her own distress, or to hide some perceived weakness, Shizuka was unsure. All Shizuka knew was that there was clearly something troubling Izumi, and she didn't want to say what. Obviously, Shizuka didn't want to pressure her friend if she was uncomfortable, but her silence just made Shizuka worry even more, and while she planned on just letting the conversation go, at least for the moment, but she couldn't help herself.

"He?" she asked, tilting her head. Who was that? But Izumi was already changing the topic. Shizuka smiled lightly at her friend. It would be rude, she thought, to keep pushing if this was something Izumi truly didn't want to talk about, so she acquiesced, allowing the topic to be changed. "Mmhm!" she responded, her trademark cheerfulness returning in a snap, "Most of them are, at least. Kimi-chan and Haruto-chan are really shy around new people, so don't feel bad if they hide from you at first. Tamako-chan can be a bit feisty and aggressive towards people he doesn't recognize, but I swear he's a real sweetheart once he gets to know you! He might hiss at you a little bit, but I'll make sure he knows you're a friend, promise! Oh, and Chie-chan is really friendly and affectionate, even with strangers, so try not to freak out if she tries to rub up against you a lot." As the cat-lover rambled about her darling pets, her mind nearly managed to drift from the concern that had bogged it down earlier. Indeed, if there was any surefire way to distract the white-haired girl, it was to turn the conversation to her precious feline friends.

Still, as she thought about her cats and the fun she and Izumi would surely have with them over the course of the year, and the years to come, the concern at the back of Shizuka's mind still pricked her, unable to let her rest for long. Once again, the wide grin on her face fell to a soft, warm smile. She reached out to put a hand on her friend's shoulder, having to stretch up to make up for the height difference. Looking Izumi in the eye was similarly complicated, but the tiny girl did so anyway, "Hey, Izumi-chan, for real though," she started, "I just wanna let you know, we're friends. And if there's ever something you don't want to talk about, that's okay! But if there's ever anything you do want to talk about, you can tell me anything. That's what friends are for!" Shizuka offered these words with a sincere smile, looking not to express worry, but merely an invitation of comfort. She would not press her friend for details she didn't want to give. She would just be there for Izumi, if she was needed.

That's what friends do.

'That's what heroes do,' Shizuka thought.