Len had never been so excited for the end of a school break. More information had been sent to his house about UA, and every new thing he learned got him more and more hyped. His parents were unsure about the whole situation, but they were going along with it, at least. And his sister seemed even more excited than he was.
One day he received a form in the mail—a costume request that he had to fill out. Len hadn't given a single thought to a hero costume. He asked his sister about it, since she was slightly more knowledgeable about heroes, and she told him, "just tell them to make something cool."
In the end Len just wrote "something black and orange, with an inkblot design on the front." While his parents had limited his access to the Internet, he had always had books at his disposal, and he was fascinated by inkblots in psychology. They had very little to do with his powers from a thematic standpoint, but he liked the idea as something that people could identify with him.
He also wrote down to add some kind of metallic mask for his eyes and nose, which would help him focus better and get less nauseous when he warped too much. But that was all. "Do you reckon I'm being too vague?" he mused to his sister.
Rin looked it over and shrugged. "Heroes change their costumes all the time, and you're just a student still. You can always request changes if they make something butt-ugly or stupid looking."
He raised his eyebrows. "You're right; I didn't even think about that. Smart girl. When did you get so perceptive?"
"Maybe my Quirk, '10000 IQ', finally manifested."
They shared a laugh and ended the conversation.
***
Finally the day had come. Len walked out the door of his home with a wave, while his parents stood in the hallway. "Good-bye, Mother, Father." He hadn't stuttered that time.
"Careful with that phone," was all his mother said. "We paid a lot of money for that." His father just remained silent.
Len ran his fingers over his pocket, where his first-ever cell phone sat. Getting a phone had been the big storm of middle school, but he had never dared ask his parents for one, even as his friends bothered him about it and complained that they couldn't stay in touch very easily. But apparently having one was a requirement at UA, and his parents had actually caved. Maybe they're coming around on all this… but I won't rely on that or anything.
He arrived at the train platform, and gasped. Hovering near the tracks was a floating UA uniform. "Hagakure?" he called out tentatively.
The uniform whirled, its skirt swishing around invisible legs. "Kagamine-kun!" She squealed in delight. "Oh, look at that uniform, it's beautiful! You made it in too, huh?"
"That's right. Class 1-A." He grinned.
She gasped, and her sleeves went up as if she'd put her hands to her mouth. "Noooo way. Me too!"
"Haha, yes! Hooray for knowing at least one person!" They shared an over-exaggerated high five, and then walked onto the train, laughing. People on the way to work gave them curious looks.
"Looks like our worries were misplaced," said Len as they sat down. "I've been kinda wondering about you, you know. Not in a weird way or anything! Just, ever since I got my acceptance letter, er… acceptance hologram, I was wondering what your results had been."
"It's okay. I was actually wondering the same after I got MY acceptance letter." She waved her hand, and then seemed pensive. "I looked through my contacts to call you and ask, but then I realised I didn't actually have your phone number."
"That would be because I didn't have a phone until like, today." Len pulled out the device in question, brandishing it for her to see.
Toru paused. "That's an old looking phone. Are your parents just tech-ignorant or something?"
"I guess you could say that." He put the phone away. Toru let out a little noise, as if she was about to say something, but then stopped.
I am no dense young man, unaware of the finer movements of social situations! I do believe she was going to ask me for my phone number! But then she cut herself off. Would it be rude to fill in the gap for her?
He tossed the dice. "Did you… want my ph…"
"No, that's okay!" she interrupted hastily, waving her sleeves about. "I wouldn't want to be a bother…"
Len pulled the phone back out and waved it in front of her face enticingly, grinning. "It's really no trouble at all… you'd get to be my first contact ever… besides my parents and sister, of course." His voice was singsong, teasing.
"Argh! Yes!" She practically snatched his phone from him, and then began putting her contact info into it.
"Hehehehe. I figured you might be the kind of person to gain satisfaction from being someone's first contact. Turns out I was right."
"You're evil, Kagamine-kun," she whined as she handed him his phone back. "You should be going to villain school instead."
Len blinked. "Is that a thing?"
"No, stupid! I swear you're a girl. You've got the perceptivity to know I wanted your phone number, but you don't seem to know anything about cool boy stuff like heroes and competing."
"Hmmph."
"You don't have a response to that? I just questioned your manhood, you know."
"I am choosing not to respond. A girl never reveals her secrets, after all." He smirked.
Thankfully Hagakure laughed. "She does to her closest girl friends."
"Hey, this goes both ways, Miss Invisible. For all I know, you could be a boy wearing a bra with lots of padding."
"These curves are one hundred percent authentic, I'll have you know."
Are we flirting now? Is this happening? For some reason, Len didn't feel like pushing further. Toru was nice, but… he'd just been messing around, really. I hope giving her my number didn't give her the wrong idea.
Idiot! Of course she realises that we're just friends messing around. Giving a phone number to a friend is completely normal.
"Kagamine-kun?"
"Hoh! I'm fine, everything's fine."
"Were you thinking about my curves?"
"No… just about… the concept of villain school, I guess." A lie.
"Haha, yeah! What would they even teach there?"
"Fighting to kill. Bypassing modern security systems. The intricacies of long-form tax evasion. The possibilities are endless, really." Now that Len thought about it, the underground Quirk training that he'd been attending could have been almost like a villain school. It WAS illegal, after all, and not everyone training there could have had good intentions with their Quirk. Something's nagging me about that, too…
"We're here," she announced.
They got off the train and approached the shining glass of the school. Third and second-years were scattered about the steps, as if they were looking out for the fresh blood. "Don't speak to us, please," Len mumbled, eyeing a group of older girls who were looking their direction and chatting and giggling. "Don't speak to us I swear to god I will throw a fit I will…"
"Kagamine-kun, you good?" asked Hagakure.
"Never better. We're about to start our first class, things are just dandy. Woo-hoo, hero time."
"It's just… I couldn't really hear what you were saying, but… your mouth was glowing for a second."
That took him aback. "Glowing? Glowing how? Like I have makeup on or something? I'm so happy you noticed, I spent an hour in front of the mirror this morning."
"No. Shut up, idiot. It was glowing yellow. "
"Hm. Odd. Oh well, let's find Class 1-A." One thing Len couldn't stand was when people asked him if there was something wrong, because it meant he'd slipped up the facade somehow. And when that happened, he made people uncomfortable. I wouldn't want to drag her good mood down by making her worry. So whatever she'd seen, he quickly dismissed it and moved on, re-energised.