As I left behind the stairway and stepped onto the walkway of my apartment’s floor, I found myself blinking.

Himiko I expected to see, she leaning on the wall beside the door to my unit. We hadn’t had time when we first arrived so we were planning to hit a few stores to buy everything we would need for our respective apartments, food at the very top of that list.

“Hey, Himiko.” I said, pulling out my keys as I stopped in front of my door. “And…Uraraka, right?”

A friendly smile in place and her own keys in hand, Uraraka focused on me. “Yep! And you’re Katsu, right?”

“Akaguro Katsuya.” I corrected. “You can call me that if you want though.” Just about everyone who actually knew me did and I’d be spending the next few years alongside all our classmates. No point in being picky about who could and couldn’t call me by that nickname. “I’m guessing we’re neighbors?”

“Uh-huh It looks that way. I guess we must’ve missed each other this morning.”

A coincidence that wasn’t worth much thought, but it was oddly fitting. She wasn’t plain looking by any stretch of the word but compared to all the others in our class, she really didn’t stand out the way they did. With her shoulder-length brown hair, a friendly smile, and what looked like a perpetual blush on her cheeks, she just kind of gave off the vibe of the cute girl next door.

Which was exactly what she was now.

“Man, you’re so lucky. I wish my place was here.” Himiko complained.

“Like you don’t plan on spending most of the day here anyways.”

“You got me.” Himiko said hands raised as she pushed herself off the wall. “But it’d still be convenient.” While I got to unlocking my door, shaking my head, Himiko poked my side. “You don’t mind if she comes with us, do you?”

I shrugged; Himiko was hitting the ground running in terms of making friends, having talked with far more of our classmates than me.  I wasn’t going to stop her when she was in her element.

“We’re going to buy some stuff for our apartments. Want to come with us?” Himiko asked, smiling Uraraka’s way.

“Oh-“ Uraraka looked between us, a pause lasting for a brief moment before she nodded. “-sure, if you don’t mind. I need to grab a few things too.”

XOXO

“Think we could get away with buying some-“

“Don’t try it.”

“Come on. You don’t want to know what it tastes like?”

“The labels tell you.”

“Lameeee.” Himiko complained as we passed through an isle full of all types of alcohol. Instead of walking she hung off the side of the shopping cart I was using, letting me push her forward. “You can make stuff float, right Uraraka? We could sneak a bottle or two to try with that.”

Uraraka, walking beside us with a basket in hand rather than a cart, laughed nervously. “I don’t think heroes in training should be trying to steal anything?”

“Lameee.” Himiko complained but forgot about the idea once we moved on.

With me being on my own and well aware that Himiko would be around more often than not, I didn’t need to grab much in terms of food, only shopping for a week’s worth of ingredients. That skill I got for cooking might have only been novice level but with how many cultures there were across the world? I could cook everyday for a month straight and still not make it through the mountain of recipes burned into my head, so we wouldn’t be hurting for variety.

But even though I was restraining myself to what I thought was just enough, Uraraka was buying even less.

“I’ll be right back.” Himiko said dropping off the side of the cart, giving me a smile that instantly gave away she was up to something and heading back the way we came.

…Hopefully she didn’t get us arrested.

“She’s not actually going to try and take one of those bottles, is she?” Uraraka asked, looking after Himiko before focusing on me.

“I have no idea.” I admitted while looking over the collection of fresh cuts on display and grabbing the ones for whatever I felt like making.

I didn’t think she’d do anything crazy enough to get us in actual trouble, especially not if there was a chance it’d reach her parents, but she was being a lot more carefree since we got here. Himiko was already a wild card in a lot of ways and that was only going to be truer from this point on.

I wasn’t too worried though.

Uraraka looked far more concerned but let it go after one more look in the direction Himiko took off, starting to fill her basket up. I said fill but that wasn’t really the right word. She browsed through it a bit, something I could instantly pick up as being more for show than anything else, before grabbing a few cuts of the cheapest chicken to place in along with the few other cheap dry things she’d chosen on our way through the store.

She wasn’t buying enough for a week of full meals. The one or two snacks she allowed herself was the dirt cheap stuff. And that bit of hesitation before agreeing to join us here at all.

Those other memories felt more distant than ever, almost always taking a backseat in the here and now unless I was planning ahead. All the same, I clocked what she was doing.

“You took part in the normal entrance exams, right?” I said, deciding not to bring it up and instead grabbing a bit more than I initially planned. “Himiko told me they had you guys fighting a bunch of machines.”

“Yeah, I knew U.A. did things their own way but I still didn’t expect something like that before we even became official students. It was exhausting. I ended up-“ She stopped short, a hand raised to rub the back of her head. “-using my quirk way too much. Luckily, I still passed and got in!”

Right. If I remembered correctly, overuse of her quirk ended with her feeling sick and throwing up at its worst. Not really a good conversation topic in front of food.

“Wait, you didn’t take that exam? Does that mean you’re one of the students who got in through recommendations?”

“Yeah, we had a different kind of test. I think we had to go up against the same robots though.” I explained a bit about the recommendation exams before our conversation turned to the stuff that went down on our first day, lasting all the way until we were heading through our own self checkouts.

While I was still in the middle of paying for myself, the wayward Himiko made her return, poking my side and watching. She didn’t have anything in her hands other than a small receipt.

“You bought something?”

She hummed, nodding with that same mischievous smile from before and a not so subtle red dusting to her cheeks. “Just something that we’ll be needing a lot of sooner than you think.”

…she wasn’t that bold, was she?

“Himiko, what did you buy?” I asked, stopping to stare at her.

She returned the stare, her blush growing. “I think we both know what I bought.” Himiko said lowly.

As Uraraka rejoined us I focused on finishing up my own checkout, ignoring any rising embarrassment. I think I underestimated just how much a new city and no oversight would change things.

Or maybe just how quickly.

XOXO

“Come on, you should use it more. Its convenient.” Himiko said. “You could use it to get the TV remote when you’re feeling lazy, type on your phone if your hands are full, or open the fridge.”

“Maybe for Tsu that’d all be convenient, but my tongue isn’t long enough for most situations.” I said, skimming through one of the pages of the stapled packet I was reading through. “Besides, do you have any idea how unsanitary all that is? Your phone alone-“

“Nerdddd.” Himiko cut me off. “Don’t ruin things for me with your stupid logic.”

Placing the packet down, I turned my chair to look her way.

My apartment, matching its price, was a small compact place. The entranceway lead right into the living room that was pretty much one with the kitchen, a small counter separating the two. My bedroom, technically a part of the same room, was right around a corner so someone coming in from the entrance didn’t immediately see it.

And last but not least, a very short hallway that led to the bathroom and a closet.

I was sitting at a desk tucked into a corner between the two areas, Himiko over in the living room. Kicked across the small dark sofa that came with the place, she was still eating the dinner we’d cooked up, uniform thrown haphazardly across the cushions, left in her button up shirt, the top few left undone, her skirt and stockings.

Despite there being no visible changes, the light use of her quirk was revealed by her tongue, far longer than it should’ve been, being used to pick up and eat some of the steamed vegetables at the corner of her bowl.

We tried getting her to use my quirk but other than the mutation that was my tongue there’d been no success on that end.

“Tsu’s tongue is pretty long.” Himiko said with a smile I knew all too well. “I bet you 3,000 yen that she’s uses it get off.”

This girl. “Perv.” I said, twisting back around to face the desk. Not even an insult she bothered to deny anymore. “I’m not taking that bet.”

“HA, so you think so too.”

“I think it’s getting late.” I said, refocusing on the syllabuses I’d been reading through. She sounded way too proud about that. “Let me known when you’re done eating. I’ll walk you back to your place.”

Himiko hummed. It wasn’t long until she abandoned the sofa, TV, and what was left of her food, chin dropping into my hair as she got a look at the packets. “What are you doing anyways?”

“Coming up with a study plan for the year.” A majority of the heroing and practical parts of our classes would be prepared for through my usual training but, top hero school or not, U.A. was still a high school. Getting acquainted with what would be coming up in our more typical classes would keep my grades high and give me more free time in the long run.

More time to split between Himiko and testing out whatever I got from the Gacha.

“Going for number one in everything?”

“Not really but there’s no reason I can’t be.” I imagined the rewards for staying at the top at the most competitive school around would net some high ranked tickets too. Plenty of reason to keep doing my best and see it where it took me if my own internal motivation and built up habits failed me.

Humming again, Himiko reached down, taking the packets and looking through them as if she didn’t have her own set in wherever she left her bag.

Leaving her be, this just her way of trying to keep me from being a workaholic as she put it, I decided to take the chance to roll that ticket I got from my walk with Yaoyorozu. Usually, I started with the tickets I was looking forward to the most, but I might as well change things up and start from the worst ones to test the waters.

I’ve got to believe in the heart of the cards!

[Rolling Bronze Familiar Gacha Ticket…]

[Taurus Demons]

|Rare Familiar|

Dark Souls - a large truck-sized bull demon with super strength and durability formed by Chaos. Ordinary gunfire is almost useless against it and it can take down even military companies by itself. The more energy you have the more demons you can summon at once.

…holy shit.

I never expected much from bronze tickets despite a good stroke of luck with one here and there, but this went beyond simple good luck. A familiar that I could summon multiple of? One with super strength and durable enough to take gunfire? The rank was the same as HK so assuming they used the same amount of energy, I wouldn’t be summoning an army or anything, but I didn’t need one.

The USJ incident. I’d been entertaining a few ideas and a new one just presented itself.

I needed to test these Taurus Demons ASAP.

The stapled papers dropped on the desk in front of me, Himiko’s hands dropping around my shoulders, fingers walking their way around them.

“What if…what if I want to stay here tonight?”

XOXO

(A/N: Toga ain't wasting no time.

There'll be a lot of rolls over the next few chapters so I'll drop an updated character card once they're all done. I ain't going to spoil but damn, I'm writing ahead and I definitely need to adjust plans for some of the stuff the higher ranked tickets are bringing him.

U.A arc is definitely taking a step up from his mediocre luck at the start.

Oh and R-18 stuff in like the next chapter or two if that wasn't obvious. Need to properly edit it all.)