I had a simple goal and a simple reason that I needed to complete that goal.

I needed to go down to the little forest by my neighborhood, arrange stone sticks and rocks into a simple but interesting shape, and take a couple of pictures. Since the nation and the planet were in a mass quarantine, we had to do at-home schooling, and this was some of the best my teacher could do for an Art Sculpture class. I'm not saying that it was a bad idea, I just wanted to go back and work on the sculptures we had at school.

So, I was walking down the street, my music-blasting, noise-cancelling headphones over my ears as I wandered down to the forest. But, before I could find the marked path to get in, something caught my eye. The first thing that registered in my brain was something bright red, which would catch anyone's eye. The next thing was that an actual person was out and about. That wasn't unheard of, we were allowed to walk around, as long as we stayed a metre apart to avoid contamination. But, I hadn't expected to see someone that looked this... odd. Speaking of seeing, that's around when he stopped his confused turning, pacing and looking around, and turned to see me. His face lit up with a bright, toothy smile and he rushed over to me.

One metre apart, one metre apart! I quickly reminded myself, backing up slightly as he got a bit too close for my taste. Was it a metre apart? I wasn't really sure, I never really had a good time with depth perception. Telling how far away something was seemed like a skill that was foreign. I never knew how to tell, but I assumed that he would at least know to follow the quarantine rules. As he began to move his mouth, I realized that my music was still playing, so I paused it, and took my headphones off. "Sorry, could you say that again?"

Seeing the guy up close, I could easily recognize him as the red-headed member of the My Hero cast, but I thought he was just cosplaying, as many people would. Maybe after this interaction was over, I could ask for a picture? His cosplay was really impressive. How did he get his teeth like that? His hair looked a lot sharper than I imagined, like I could get a cut by touching it.

"Oh, sorry!" He replied, scratching the back of his scalp nervously. Christ, even this guy's voice was good! He sounded exactly like the real thing, at least in the dub. Maybe he was just a really good impressionist? Like my friend Luke, or the YouTuber MayDay? It just... it sounded so real. "I was just saying that I got really turned around after a fight, do you know where I am? Also, why aren't there any people around? You're the first person I've seen in like, I don't know, an hour!" I scanned him up and down, realizing that he was in a U.A P.E uniform, snickering, I decided to joke with him.

"A villain fight?" I tilted my head to one side, expecting and hoping that the cosplayer would laugh. But, he didn't. Instead, his face brightened (somehow) with relief and understanding.

"Yeah! Well... kind of. My class and I were working with some of the General studies students, and one of them had an enhancement quirk..." He continued on and on, and I began to tune out his rambling about quirks and stuff like that. Of course, I knew what quirks were, I watched the show! But this was ridiculous. This cosplayer really is deep in character, huh. "What?" The red-haired boy stopped himself, and I blinked.

"Oh, I... I said that out loud, didn't I?" He nodded in response, his confusion from before he saw me returning in full swing. "Crap... well, it is true... do you not have your phone on you? You could pull out Google Maps to find out where you are." He paused for a moment, then shook his head, patting the sides of his pants, displaying that the uniform had no pockets. "Double crap. Do you at least recognize this street?" I asked him, pointing to the street sign above me, and again, he shook his head. But this time, he spoke.

"I still don't know why no one else is out here... and what do you mean by 'in character'? This is the real me!"

"You really don't know?" I laughed again, putting my hand to my forehead. "Dude, there's a global pandemic going on! Almost the whole world is in quarantine, I should be asking why you are outside, cosplaying like it's a goddamn convention!"

"Global... pandemic..?" He tilted his head to the side like a confused puppy.

"What, have you been living under a rock or something?"

"I am a rock!" He pumped his fist up in front of him, and right before my eyes, his skin grew rigid, rocky, and... hard. Holy crap... holy crap, holy crAP! He must have seen how shocked I was, staring at his arm like it had just grown seven eyeballs, because he talked some more. "Oh, yeah! It's my quirk, I can harden my skin!" I did know that, I had heard countless jokes about it around my friends who also watched the show. That was when it registered in my brain.

This isn't a cosplayer, this is the real god damn deal!

Forgetting the rules of quarantine, I grabbed his arm that hadn't been hardened and ran towards the forest. "Quick, into the Bush! No one should see you in here!" He sputtered and stammered, following along as I ran along the wooden pathway built to wind into the forest... Bush... right, he likely didn't know kiwi slang. "Bush means forest around here. Just follow me, please!"

"Uh, um..." Finally, the cosplayer- no. Finally, Kirishima was able to make out words. "Okay, I guess!?" That wasn't exactly the drama in his voice I expected from such a situation.