[hider=Omake: What if Kokone tried to narrate like a hard-boiled detective instead?][CENTER][img]https://i.postimg.cc/BQYN7PYL/Kokone-Header.png[/img][/CENTER] [hr] [color=#4F8D1B][i]...I may, perhaps, have underestimated the natures of those who, in today's peaceful day and age, would seek to become heroes of justice. So it was that with a dreadful sense of sudden certainty, I realized far too late that perhaps, in time, the indistinct noise and bustle of stumbling drunkards, angry wage slaves, and depressed public servants in the old districts of Tokyo might quickly begin to seem preferable to my current environs.[/i][/color] But it's a terribly unpleasant feeling, viewing the world through the lens of somebody else's thoughts -- isn't it? So rather than taking the first opportunity I get to regale you with an unending diatribe of my own [color=#4F8D1B]jaded[/color] (Heh.) musings, perhaps it would be better to treat this as a sort of conversation? But where to begin, then? After all, I haven't had any of those worth remembering in quite some time. Ah. Right. A self-introduction. My name is Manaka Kokone. I'm 14 years old, and am just starting my first year of junior high as a student of Isshin Academy, in Hokkaido. I have never had a boyfriend, nor is there anyone from my former class whom I was particularly close to. If I had to describe myself, I suppose I would say that I am something of a recluse by nature. I strongly dislike crowds, noisy people, and social functions that serve no purpose but to uphold meaningless ceremony. If I [i]must[/i] do something, I should like that thing to be important. And, if I can at all help it, I would much prefer the company of a good movie or book to that of my peers. This is not because I am the kind of person who holds petty grudges, mind you; nor is my aloofness due to some misbegotten sense of superiority. I simply find other people's presences unbearably stifling. Yes, exactly as stifling as you find me right now, in fact. After all, I'm in the prime of my youth, about to make my grand debut upon the glorious and tragic stage known as high school! Why should I be uttering such gloomy thoughts, even if only in the solace of my own psyche? [color=#4F8D1B]Hey![/color] [i]Pretentious[/i] I'll allow, but I draw the line at narcissistic! Ugh. Fine. You're free to think whatever you want... But since you're clearly getting tired of listening to me talk about myself, I'll stop being so melodramatic and just... cut to the chase. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I’m a person who wishes to live a very quiet life. Making friends is just as stressful as making enemies, so -- Will you [i]stop[/i] interrupting me?! And what the heck is a "Jojo's Reference" anyway? ...Ugh. Happy now? I've totally lost my train of thought. Now we have to start all over again! But where should I even begin? It has to be at least [i]sort[/i] of dramatic or else nobody will even be interested. How about... [i]It was a cold and snowy day.[/i] ...No, that doesn't work at all. I mean, most of the snow's already melted since the sun came out, and there's barely any more coming down. Sure, it [i]is[/i] still cold, but... isn't that just false advertising? Maybe the genre's the problem. Rather than a hard-boiled film noir detective's internal monologue, maybe something more personal and friendly would be better, like an early morning radio announcer? Mm. Yeah. That might be a little easier on both of us. Ehem! From the top, then![/hider][hr] [CENTER][img]https://i.postimg.cc/BQYN7PYL/Kokone-Header.png[/img] [h1][color=#4F8D1B]TAKE 2[/color][/h1][/CENTER] [hr] Hello, world! It's your girl, [color=#4F8D1B]Manaka Kokone[/color] here, coming to you live from the front gates of Isshin High! ...Ooooooor maybe from the gates of hell. Honestly, looking at the scene in front of me, I'm not actually sure which it is. For those of you just tuning in, let me set the stage for you. I had a rough trip up from Tokyo via the undersea rail line that took... well, most of yesterday. And by the time I arrived in Sapporo, I was expecting that I could find a place to stay in a hotel somewhere close to the school, then make the rest of the trip in the morning. The hotel was... quite nice, actually. The walls of my room were mercifully thick -- so much so that I could barely even hear the thoughts of the vacationing college couple in the neighboring suite, even without my headphones on while I was showering. After saying a quick prayer to thank the kami, Jesus, Buddha, and whoever else might be listening for that [i]mercy[/i], I quickly covered my ears before they got any more [i]ideas[/i] unfit for a junior high schooler's "pure" mind, set my alarm early for the big day tomorrow, and fell asleep almost before I knew it. ...Well, let it not be said that a mind reader is infallible. Apparently, I had failed to account for the rather important distinction that Isshin wasn't [i]in[/i] Sapporo. It was [i]near[/i] Sapporo. More specifically, it was almost a full hour's train ride outside of city limits, followed by a bus ride, followed by a [i]walk[/i] that felt more like a [i]hike.[/i] And, well... I have my pride, but even so, I like to think of myself as a realist. And looking at the situation realistically, it's honestly miraculous that I managed to haul all my luggage that far all by myself [i]at all[/i] when it probably weighs twice as much as I do, and is half again as big to boot. ...Yeah. I'm a scrawny little pipsqueak. I know. It's fine. I am at peace with what I am. It doesn't bother me at all. It doesn't. Bother. Me. ...It bothers me [i]a lot.[/i] Needless to say, my plans of arriving [i]early[/i] were dashed. Instead, I found myself rather unfortunately located on the far outer ring of the [i]throng[/i] of people all nudging, shouting, pushing, and shoving their way through the front gates. And, on account of my afforementioned smallness, the moment I tried to slip through a gap... ...Well, let's put it this way. Do you know what happens to a twig when it's dropped into rushing water? Yeah. Something like that. Which brings me to my present predicament. See, as I probably told you before, crowds and I... we don't really mix well. Or, to put it more bluntly, I hate them. I hate the noise of everybody talking over each other. I hate the noise of everybody [i]thinking[/i] even louder than that. I hate how [i]angry[/i] it makes me when everybody wants to be somewhere and can't get there and so they just sit and sit and stew in their own frustration until it spills over and gets all over my own thoughts and -- And isn't it just a [i]lovely[/i] day? Isn't it so nice that the sun is [i]shining[/i] and the snow has mostly stopped and so I only had to drag myself here through the [i]mud[/i] instead of wading knee deep in the snow? And aren't we all just so excited that in just a few short hours, we're gonna be taking our first steps towards being [i]heroes?[/i] Yeah, it's a great day today. I'm happy. I'm so [i]darned[/i] happy I can hardly bear it! OR AT LEAST I WOULD BE IF PEOPLE WOULD STOP [i]TOUCHING[/i] ME. Seriously, why is everybody so nervous!? You got accepted to the second best hero school in the entire country, and your first thought is to worry that you won't make the cut and you'll get kicked right out again!? Come on, have some bloody [i]confidence![/i] If even a half-baked person like [i]me[/i] could make it in, you've got nothing to worry about, right? Oh, sure, you've had a bad few weeks. Your girlfriend dumped you because she didn't want to date long distance? Well maybe you should have talked things over with her first! If people would just [i]actually communicate[/i] with each other, then half of their pointless woes would be -- And [i]you![/i] Stop pushing me! I don't care that your grandpa's sick, so stop [i]thinking[/i] about it so loudly! ...Although he seems like a very nice man and it would be a terrible shame if anything happened to him, so fine, I hope he gets well soon -- NOW STAY OUT OF MY HEAD! STOP REMINDING ME OF -- ...For just a split second, I want to go home. Failing that, I want to curl up in a corner somewhere and disappear. I want to vomit. I want to -- Deep breaths, Kokone. Deep breaths and happy thoughts. Or, if "happy" is too high a bar right now, I can at least take some solace in the fact that I'm not the only one who's miserable. Schadenfreude is a powerful thing, and right now, there's... there's... ...There's [i]so many[/i] weirdos. And yes, I know I'm one to talk. Somewhere up ahead of me, a person who thinks in [color=999999]Grey[/color] is trying to pretend her thoughts have some color to them. Which is to say, she's pushing and shoving her way forward with every last ounce of strength she has, relishing in the spite-filled gazes of those around her... until she had to actually meet them, anyway. Yeah. That's right. That's [i]exactly[/i] what you looked like. You're not the big girl on campus, you're just... kind of being a jerk. In the [color=999999]Grey's[/color] wake, someone whose thoughts are [b]Colorless[/b] angrily shouted after her, grumbling something I couldn't quite hear -- or rather, [i]thinking[/i] something I can't quite make out, about becoming a "mega bitch." ...Well, I can understand her [i]frustration,[/i] at least, though her way of expressing it was... [i]questionable.[/i] Still, at least her thoughts were more intelligible than the... [color=#FF825C]Orange?[/color] [color=#15397D]Blue?[/color] Well, whoever she is, she forced the surrounding crowd aside with a rather shocking display of some kind of water Quirk, blasting a small geyser into the air that sent the people around her scattering. I almost feel sorry for her, hearing her complaints about the cold and given the ice covering her clothing. And I almost felt grateful there for a moment that she parted the crowd enough for me to slip through in her wake. But mostly, I just feel confused, since, after all, she's currently rejoicing that nobody else knows about the "Dragon" -- ...Ah. A secret. Or... more like a dark history. Well, I'm terribly sorry, but there is someone who knows about it, and she's right here. Seriously, though. Why's everyone so caught up on making a first impression when all of that will be forgotten once our actual training begins? Do they seriously think they'll be remembered for how they [i]entered the school[/i] when it's their performance under pressure and their usage of their Quirks that will make or break their aspirations? Well, it's often said that actions speak louder than words. But, I suppose, some people's actions, like their thoughts, speak too loudly. ...Oh. Speak of the devil. There's a very special sort of person amongst us -- a person whose thoughts [i]echo[/i] with glistening [color=Yellow]Gold.[/color] His very presence is like a deafening roar, his aura like blinding sunlight. And to be honest, I couldn't tell if that was just my synesthesia acting up again, or his actual Quirk, given the way he just [i]launched himself over everybody's heads[/i] and skidded to a stop in the courtyard, bellowing bombastically all the while... then laughing about how it "wasn't bad for a first try." He's lying, by the way. This young man had crashed and faceplanted in ways I scarcely even thought possible practicing that little stunt, and even with all that effort he'd almost messed it up this time, too. ...Between him and the lighter, purer [color=2A9FCB]Blue[/color] thoughts calling me and everyone else in the assembled crowd "sidekicks" just because its owner hadn't quite made the cut for UA, I honestly can't even tell whose ego is more fragile. This [i]is[/i] a hero school, right? I didn't take a wrong turn somewhere and end up in a clown college? Regardless, I'm not exactly about to stay out in the midst of this throng of lunatics any longer than I have to. So, with the crowd distracted by the various showoffs in front of the school, and with I myself having at last broken through, I make my way to the assembly hall...