╰☆☆ prologue

SHE DRUMMED HER FINGERS AGAINST HER DESK. Pencils and eraser shavings littered the surface. Her sketchbook lay open and abandoned in the corner, half-finished sketches lit up by the narrow swaths of sunlight that seeped past her dark curtains. Music pumped through the twin speakers on either side of her, though the volume was down so she wouldn't wake up her napping parents in the room above. She shoved a cookie in her mouth -- her sixth in the past ten minutes, she guiltily counted -- and brushed the crumbs off her hands, pulling up yet another tab on her laptop.

Ash groaned, rubbing her eyes under her glasses. "I'm gonna go feral," she mumbled, searching the Breath of the Wild message boards for the hundredth time. She didn't know what she was expecting; nothing had changed for the past half hour, and it wasn't like opening and closing GameFAQs would make something happen magically.

At the moment, she just didn't have anything better to do.

It'd been eight days since the citywide shutdown. Eight whole days since U.A. had closed its doors and ordered everyone to stay at home (translation: lock the kids in a prison of isolation) until further notice. Eight long, mind-numbingly boring days since she'd seen her friends.

Back when U.A. had built the dorms and set about convincing parents to allow their kids to live on-campus, Ash's parents ended up being some of the few that gave a firm no in response. It made sense; Japan was still foreign to them, the only reason they stayed being her dad's job and his translating Quirk. Plus Ash's acceptance into U.A., but that was kind of unplanned. Her parents didn't particularly like the idea of her, skinny little Ash Collins that got lost too easily and always bumped into everything, living away from her family for so long.

She'd been annoyed, at first. After all, she could handle herself! Sure, she was on the weak side and easy to startle, but training at U.A. had built up her strength, both physically and with her Quirk! She'd survived all of the challenges life had thrown at her and her classmates in Class 1-A (half of whom she was taller than/almost as tall as, so she wasn't that small).

Now, though, Ash was grateful that she was with her family. All of her friends were stuck in the dorms, per U.A. policy, complaining in the group chat about how much they missed their parents. She didn't think she would have been able to handle it, were she in their position.

Ash had her family. Even if her brother was at work every other night, parents at work every morning, sister doing "little sister" things, she still had them.

But if she didn't get some sort of human interaction outside of her immediate family soon, she was going to lose it.

With a huff, Ash shut off her laptop and stood, back popping as she stretched. Nothing seemed appealing. There was a pile of unfinished books sitting on the trunk near her bed, but she just couldn't focus enough to read lately. She took one glance at her sketchbook and quickly flipped it closed with a shudder. Nope, that page would never see the light of day again. She mindlessly grabbed another cookie from the package she snatched out of the kitchen.

Her bed creaked as she flopped down on it, bouncing slightly on the soft blankets. Ash pulled out her phone and winced. ooga chaka: 99+ Messages, read the top notification. "How," she whispered, swiping up.

The lock screen faded away, and Ash almost wished she'd ignored it altogether.

ooga chaka │ 4:26 PM

bakugo-go:

IT'S CALLED A CROSSANT

raka raka:

NO IT ISN'T OMGASDFJKLAJS

IT

IS

CALLED

A

CROISSANT

bakugo-go:

THAT'S WHAT I JUST SAID

CROSSANT

UT'S THE SAME THING

mido the hero:

guys,, cmon you've been arguing

for literal hours

ash ketchum:

excuse me wHAT

y'all just go crazy or smth

????

mido the hero:

they're arguing over how to pronounce croissant

ash ketchum:

ummmm

bakugo

you're spelling it wrong

bakugo-go:

THAT'S NOT

AJDFK;JASD;KFAJLJFS

todoroki but the cool one:

he's using text to speech

which means he actually says "cross ant"

instead of croissant

ash ketchum:

;AKJSDF;AF

I'M CRYING OMG A;SFDKSJF

raka raka:

todoroki but the cool one:

bakugo-go:

...

ash ketchum:

AHA;SLDFJDSAG

AKJDFLKDALSDDF;LDA

GUYS I'M ACTUALLY GOING TO DIE THIS IS SO FUNNY

bakugo-go:

...

mido the hero:

raka raka:

bakugo-go:

i'm going to murder each and every one of you

ash ketchum:

bakugo-go:

ash ketchum:

SKSKSJFSJJ

how about this

the next time you come over we'll make croissants

and you can blow up the cans

bakugo-go:

...

fine

raka raka:

SLJ;FDSLJFS;

and the fair maiden tames the beast

ash ketchum:

k so

i'm bored

todoroki but the cool one:

well yeah, us too

why do you think those two have been spamming us with their argument

mido the hero:

i tried to make cookies to pass the time

mr. aizawa says i'm not allowed to use the oven anymore

raka raka:

it was great

ash ketchum:

bakugo

friend

why exactly were you using text to speech

?

bakugo-go:

i do what i want scrub

todoroki but the cool one:

it's because he's playing the new animal crossing

bakugo-go:

SHUT UP ICY HOT

raka raka:

excuse?

mido the hero:

o h ??

ash ketchum:

WAIT WHAT

WHY DIN'T YOU TELL ME OMG

WE COULD HAVE TRADED FRUITS AND STUFF JADFJ;AS

bakugo-go:

IT'S NOT YOUR BUSINESS EXTRAS

ash ketchum:

BRUH

BEST FRIENDS ARE SUPPOSED TO TELL EACH OTHER THINGS

ESPECIIALY WHEN IT COMES TO ANIMAL CROSSING

raka raka:

it's nothing to be embarrassed about

i play it too

mido the hero:

oh yeah me too

i got it for my mom for her birthday (she likes the background music)

but i play it more than her

todoroki but the cool one:

fuyumi bought it but was too busy so she gave it to me

ash ketchum:

i feel bETRAYED

i could have brought my switch with me to school and done local play smh

todoroki but the cool one:

don't you have wifi at home?

you can just connect with him now

ash ketchum:

nah i don't have the online membership thing

raka raka:

haha me neither

i spent all my money on the game itself skksfj

mido the hero:

yeah and i'm not gonna pay just to go online

todoroki but the cool one:

i can use my father's credit card to pay for it if you want

that's what i've been doing for the past few months, he hasn't noticed

ash ketchum:

gASP

omg thanks todo ily

so just to be clear we ARE in agreement that we're gonna play new horizons together?

raka raka:

yup!

mido the hero:

yes this'll be fun

bakugo-go:

whatever

Ash grinned and jumped up, almost smacking her head on the ceiling fan. She grabbed her Switch from its charging dock and turned it on, hurriedly tapping through the menu and settings, typing in friend codes as they appeared in the group chat.

Now this would be interesting.

this ended up being waaaaaay too long and detailed but whatever, it's the most effort i'm going to put into this book ever lol

no editing we die like men

ok so info! this is set like,, sometime after they moved into the dorms, probably right after provisional licence exams or smth, idc. ash's family moved to japan for business reasons, her dad's quirk allows him to translate any language and can transfer that knowledge to another person (ex: he made it so she can speak&read japanese). she got a recommendation from a hero for ua and ended up in 1-a because plot.

"ooga chaka" is the group chat ash made for her, bakugo (her best friend), and uraraka. uraraka added midoriya and todoroki with ash's permission. iida and tokoyami are in it too, but they hardly ever actually join in.

alright that's about it