My cat, everyone. She's okay. 👍
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][ Previously: Mob kills the big bad and gets cancelled on Twitter for it. He almost deleted his own quirk but Reigen saves the day again!.. Mostly. ][
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      Tsubomi doesn't get enough love.

      Her alarm clock sung a gentle morning tune, waking her up steadily. The dark purple haired girl groaned and pushed herself to sit up, stretching her arms high above her head as she yawned. While she gave herself time to wake up, Tsubomi grabbed her phone on a lamp-table beside her bed and turned it on. Though she had a flood of notifications on her phone like always, the first thing she checked was a message from her childhood friend, Mob.

Mobbie:
[picture]
It snowed over here at UA! Look, we made snowmen!

Tsu-momma:
Awww, they're so cute!

    Since there was no response even after a few minutes, Tsubomi assumed he was still asleep. Oh well.

     Lucky him. She still had to go to school.

     Tsubomi got up and dug through her wardrobe for her uniform. Her room was pretty big. Bigger than most at least. Her parents weren't billionaires, but they were a half a step above middle class, which means she was "rich." She never really felt rich, though. Unless rich meant living alone most of the time.

     Storming down the open stairway, Tsubomi cupped one of her hands around her mouth and called out, "Fluffles! Fluffles, it's time for breakfast!"

     The skittering of harmless puppy nails on the hard wood floor raced to the bottom of the stairway, a small, white poodle mix meeting the teen at her feet. For an old dog, he was rather spry, hopping around the young girl's legs to lick at her hands.

     Tsubomi smiled and giggled. "Calm down, Fluffles. You don't want to hurt your back again, do you?" The dog followed her into the kitchen, where she warmed up some canned dog food and mixed that in with some leftovers from yesterday's dinner, which she had made for herself. She liked to spoil the old dog as much as she could, since he was the only company she had at home. Her parents were both very busy, and if they ever did visit, they were usually too tired to do anything with her.

     All-in-all, she was very lonely most of the time.

     Oops! Forgot to make herself breakfast! Oh well, guess she would just have to wait until lunch.

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      The same couldn't be said for her school life, however.

     "Tsubomiiii!!" The moment Tsubomi turned the right corner to school, a group of girls waved her way. "Come join us!" Not wanting to be rude, she jogged to catch up with them.

     "Oh my gosh!.. You guys wouldn't believe what happened between Alyssa and Gin the other day!"
     "Tell us!"
     "Did they break up?!"
     "Yes. Gin was........"

     Hhhh.... Not this again... Tsubomi pretended to be listening, but in reality, she was zoning out. Tsubomi couldn't quite understand why boy fever was up so high in middle school. In elementary school, boys and girls were practically at each other's throats! It took all of Tsubomi's delegating skills to end what would have been the great Third Spice War of their age group. Being obsessed with the opposite sex was just as childish in her opinion. Nobody here was even old enough to get married! So why were they so interested in dating?! What were they going to do? Just hold hands looking at the sunset together for the next ten years??... Not the most practical goal, she had to admit.

     But... Teenagers were hormonal creatures, weren't they? She had personally done over a dozen studies on attraction, yet she had yet to crack the code for why humans as a whole wanted to kiss so badly. That part made no sense psychologically nor biologically! Perhaps it was generational brainwashing, then?

     Or maybe there was something she was just missing...

     Come to think about it.. she was the oddball here. While all the girls around here chirped on about crushes, boys, and kisses... she just wanted a really good friend.

     Was there something...wrong with her? Was it weird to not be into all of this drama??

     Such were the daily thoughts of Tsubomi Takane, the girl who was afraid, or maybe just didn't know how.. to grow up.

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Riiiing!

     "Alright, class. Remember to turn in your assignments before Friday." The teacher talked over the rising class, who were already packing up and heading out the door. Tsubomi smiled at a few passing friends before dropping her smile entirely. She grabbed her notebook and pen, one of the last students to leave the classroom. "--Oh, Takane?" The teacher called to her, stopping her at the door. His hand glided over a sheet of paper on his desk, staring down at it with disbelief. "Your grades have been a little lower than usual lately... Are you alright?"

     The girl froze, gripping her books tightly against her chest. "N-no, sir... I-I-I mean yes! I'm alright."

     "Tsubomi has lower grades than usual..?"
     "That's unheard of."
     "Is she okay?.." The voices in the back of the class and out in the hall whispered, assuming like always that she couldn't hear them.

     The teen's face paled. Crap! Why did he have to say anything??

     "I--hhi've just been really busy with studying for extra curricular activities is all.." Fidgeting with her hair, she faked a cute, innocent smile... Hopefully this lie would work.

     "Hm.. Well then. Remember that you don't need to push yourself as hard as you do. You're a very talented young lady, Takane. Feel free to tackle whatever stress you may have first before any assignment. Alright?"

     "Mhm!!" Tsubomi nodded.

Problem: This was actually the least stressed she had been her whole life.

     She no longer poured hours of her day into her homework and assignments. Instead, she was actually studying things she enjoyed, trying to figure out what she wanted to do!

     Just as her old track friends inspired her to eat healthy and stay in shape, Mob had inspired her to seek out her true passions and find out what she wanted to become in the future! That must be why her grades are dropping... She's not treating school like it's the only thing that matters anymore...

     She was an extrovert. She knew she was! That's why she allowed so many people to bearde her with pointless conversation every day. Problem was that these talks weren't fulfilling at all. She had spent years like this too. Like, her body could easily be replaced with a cardboard cutout of a pretty face and nothing would change! That was why she was drawn to kids like Mob in the past. Just like she didn't care about whether he had a quirk or not, he didn't care about whether she was pretty or rich or not. Together, they were just two people...and that was it.

     At lunch, all of the students got to sit wherever they pleased outside. Just like recess, everyone was allowed to enjoy the beautiful winter chill. It was cool, but not so cold that it became a nuisance.

     "I'm going to go grab my coat real quick... You all wait here." Tsubomi stood up from her friend group.

     "Alright!"
     "Okay!"
     "Seeya!" The group continued soon after she left as though nothing had changed.

     For being the most popular girl at school, she really was easy to replace, wasn't she?

     Tsubomi left the other half of her lunch to finish once she returned.

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     Speed walking through the empty halls, the pretty girl shuffled with her newly acquired coat hanging under one arm. She was in a hurry, since lunchtime would be over soon and her tummy growled for more necessary nutrition.

     "-GOT'CHA!!!" A black haired girl jumped from one of the classroom doorways, tackling Tsubomi. "Hah! Not so indestructible without your human wall, are ya?!-- ugh!" Tsubomi ended the other's gloating with a solid elbow to the stomach. The strange, brash girl fell off of her back in an instant, clutching her stomach. "..D###, and I just ate too..." The stranger hissed.

     "Who are you to think you can attack me like that?!" Tsubomi angrily stomped her foot, pointing at the stranger with a rigid posture. Immediately, she began to worry about her hair. Ugh! She'd save that worry for later! "I should call the principle on you!"

      "Calm down! I was just in a playful mood is all.. And yeeesh, you really are the school pet, aren't you?" The young woman lifted her head, smirking. It was a fellow third year, held back a few years ago for terrible grades, Tome Kurata.

     Tsubomi scoffed. "I am not the school pet! You take that back!"

     Tome chuckled, stepping away from the angry girl. "Woah. I didn't even know you could get this angry."

     "Well if you're not here to rob me, then why are you here?" Crossing her arms, Tsubomi huffed. It was...actually pretty nice to let loose like that. Get some pent-up anger off of her chest for once.

     "That part's fairly simple. You know Mob, right??"

     Tsubomi's eyes widened a little. So these people knew her friend too? That was a first. "Um.. Yeah? How do you know him?"

     "Are you KIDDING?! We've been in the same group chat for like two months!!"

     "O-h, sorry. I'm not very active in there."

     "No kidding. You've been there from the beginning and all you've sent are a few memes!"

     "Sorry?"

     "So then you've heard the news, right?! About Mob!" Placing her fists on her hips and leaning in, Tome gave Tsubomi a very stern look. The younger girl withered away, blinking and shaking her head in confusion.

     "...No..? I- I don't think so at least? You mean the snow?"

     "Frick the snow! I'm talking about that villain Mob defeated!!" Suddenly, the third year smiled, more excited than annoyed. "You must have at least heard about it!! Pictures of him are circling all around the internet and news! He's basically a hero now!... or a villain..depending on your perspective..."

     "Wh....what..?" Tsubomi's eyes widened. Tome's further rambling phased out as the purple haired girl tried to wrap her head around the situation.

     Mob...extremely famous?

     She knew Mob. She knew how terribly he would hold under all of that weight. Taken from her own personal experience...she knew how impossibly hard it was to keep up a persona like that. To put on a smile and play up an act. Forced into being someone you aren't until you forget who you even were before, the act of turning yourself into a hollow puppet in a game where complete strangers tug at your strings to make you dance. The constant...endless struggle of trying to make everyone like you; but no matter how hard you try it just never works! Tsubomi, even with her lifelong experience, didn't know how much more of it she could take. And that was just ONE school. Imagining herself in Mob's shoes??... How could he even wish to stand?

     "Yo, Takane?... Earth to Takane, helloo~? Takane!" Tome clapped in the popular girl's face, successfully snapping her back into the present.

     "I-I'm sorry!" Jumping. The girl then bowed to her elder. "Thank you for telling me. Mob hasn't been responding to my texts, so I didn't know."

     "Awwh," Tome deflated. "I was hoping you at least would be in contact with him! The kid's ghosted all of us too!"

     "Us?" Ghosted??? Oh no... That wasn't a good sign.

     "Yeah! The Telepathy and Body Improvement clubs are having lunch together right now. Wanna join us?" Tome extended her hand to Tsubomi, a confident smile on her face. Tsubomi dipped her head and thought for a moment.

     If word got out that she had associated herself in any way with the Telepathy Club..she would be labeled weird like the rest of them... But..at the same time, she really wanted to know who Mob's friends were.

     Mob was always so true to himself, meaning the friends he made had to be the same way. So, maybe...I dunno..it would be fun to see what that was like?

     Tsubomi grabbed Tome's hand. "Okay, but you can't tell anyone, alright?"

     "Tch! Not like I'd want to be associated with the school princess anyways. Please don't hurt me, your highness~! Prayhands-prayhands." She mocked.

     "Grrh!" Tsubomi tore her hand out of Tome's. She sighed. Not too far off from deserving that title.

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     "Hey, you bozos! I brought back the bad b####, since turns out she knows even less than the rest of us!" Flamboyantly sliding into the club room, Tome entered her domain. Tsubomi slapped her side upon entry, since she didn't really know what else to do, and all Tome ever seemed to respond to were physical assaults.

     "Wait, Tsubomi is actually here?!" The small blond, Inukawa, slapped the table, making his club members' plates of food bounce. Everyone turned their heads and gawked at the popular girl.

     "I'm...just here to get filled in on what happened to Mob." She sat at the end of the table opposite to Tome shyly.

     "Ah! You're Kageyama's childhood friend, aren't you?!" Masushi spoke up from her left, sitting on one of the bench-presses. "Tsubani, was it?"

     The girl giggled. "No, Tsubomi. But you were very close." It was actually kind of nice hearing her name mispronounced for once. A sign that she wasn't the center of everyone's worlds.

     Sagawa, another member of the buff club sitting in the corner, spoke next. "You know Mob used to bring you up every now and then while he was here! You really inspired him to try his hardest!"

     "Me?" Tsubomi blushed platonically. She couldn't even describe the warm joyous feeling, to know that she of all people had inspired Mob to improve himself...just as he was now inspiring her to do the same. It was like a circle of inspiration between them! "Aww, thank you for sharing!.. You know.. I wouldn't even be looking into hobbies or job opportunities that catch my interest right now if it weren't for him... I would be focused on my studies instead to fill the time... Guess we inspired each other." The girl giggled again. Everyone in the room smiled hearing that. Almost all of them had been inspired by him as well.

     "--So, Takane!" Tome pointed her fork across the table, her mouth still full of food. "You're a popular girl, right? What is it with all the drama and boy talk?? I've been wanting to ask one of you this for a while now, but everyone runs away when I approach them about it!"

     Tsubomi chuckled and shrugged. "Beats me... I've been wondering the same thing, though I have done some pretty intensive research into psychological and biological factors that may play a role, as well as how culture can play a part. If you're interested, I can email you the documents I've written." The girl's head shrank between her shoulders, blushing as she looked around at everyone.

     "You bet I want to read that! That's the kind of information I've been wanting to know my whole life!" Tome exclaimed. "I'll send you a link to my E-mail in the group chat..."

     "Ay, do you think you can send me that too??"

     "Yeah! That actually sounds pretty helpful!" The other Telepathy club members joined in, soon after followed by a few of the Body Improvement members asking for a copy of her research as well. Tsubomi was flattered to be in a room full of so many people interested in her work. It was just a hobby, so she liked that everyone else was excited about it too. It was also beyond nice to be in a room full of people who knew just as little as her about all this pointless school drama. She..no longer felt like the outsider. At least not as much as before.

     Her tummy growled and she hummed in displeasure at the feeling that followed. Guess she would have to wait until dinner to eat again.

     "Oh?! Are ya hungry?.. Here! I snagged an extra chicken breast! You can have it!"

     "I- I have some broccoli if you want!"

     "I've got half an avocado."

     "My mom gave me another apple today.. I dunno why. Here!"

     Tsubomi didn't know what to say as the kids pulled together a whole new lunch on an extra plate. All she could even think to say was a simple thank you....but that didn't feel like enough. 

     Tsubomi was used to random acts of kindness being thrown her way, but this was different. None of the people in this room wanted anything in return. They were just that nice.

     It hurt her heart...to think she had been missing out on all of this for so long.

     "Thank you..."

     As she ate, everyone started to talk about the situation with Mob. And boy did he get himself into a pickle with this one.

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     Taubomi's front door creaked open, allowing its owner to enter into the large space beyond where the stairway, high ceiling, and two break rooms -- which were meant for hosting gatherings and game nights but collected nothing but dust -- welcomed the girl coldly. She flicked on a few lights. "Fluffers!!" She called. Along came the old dog, more tired now than before. He lazily shuffled up to the girl and licked her legs happily. Tsubomi giggled and hung up her bag and coat by the door, tired after what had turned into a long day of hanging out with various people.

     Though she spent the other half of the day hanging out, playing games, and even going on a stroll with other school friends, none of those experiences stuck so warmly by her side like her visit in the club room. Tsubomi wasn't sure if she could ever hang out with them again, since associating with those outsiders would lead to disaster! And it wasn't that she saw herself better than them at all! In fact, it was for their benefit more than her own.

     No matter what she did, the spotlight always followed. That meant that if she ever tried to join them...everything would change. Everyone in there would have the same pressures placed upon them as well. And she couldn't do that to them. That would just ruin the whole appeal of their group; the fact that it was far away from all the popular kids and drama.

     She thought about all this solemnly as she slid on her slippers and entered the kitchen. It was a little later than she expected to arrive, and she was kind of tired.

     Tsubomi heated up some leftovers and dogfood, then sat on the ground beside her feasting pup, serving herself the leftovers from last night.

     Such was life.

     After she finished eating, cleaning her dishes, tidying a little around the house, getting ready for bed, and spending about an hour on homework, Tsubomi checked her phone to see if Mob had replied.

     Still no response...

     The girl sighed, dropping again onto her bed. She hugged her big squishmallow close to her body as she scrolled through her contacts with a blank stare. It was really just to kill time. She had no reason to stay awake or check up on things.

     But she wanted her friend to respond and talk to her. She wanted to know that he was okay.

     Fine. Guess it was time for her backup plan.

     She pressed call.

     Laying on her stomach, Tsubomi waited for the boy on the other end to answer.

     On, and on.. and on it buzzed.

     ""I'm sorry, you have reached the person you were trying to call's voice mail.""

     "Hhh..."

     ""Please try calling again, or leave a message after the beep.""

.

  .

    .

Beep!

     "Um, hello? This is Tsubomi! Just wondering how you are doing is all..." The girl laid there with a fake smile. Her unoccupied hand clutched the blanket, angry at herself now for being the fake one. In all of this, she was nothing but a fake, wasn't she? With the barriers to her heart so thick, she even feared what could happen if torn down. "I..know how you feel... Not-not trying to say that your situation isn't a big deal or anything! Eheh... I just... I know what it's like to have everybody's eyes on you all the time, making you think that you have to be a perfect person no matter what happens... If you're taking a break from your phone for your own mental health, that's fine... Just... Call me back when it's over, okay? .... I miss--"

Bewwp

     Tsubomi sighed, dropping her phone and combing her fingers through her long hair. At least she was able to get most of that message out there. She made sure the voicemail was sent and sat around a little while longer, thinking of other ways she could help.

     Fluffles whined at the side of Tsubomi's bed, begging to be allowed on. The girl smiled and helped him up. The dog snuggled up beside her, falling asleep quickly. Tsubomi pet the old dog happily, thankful for his presence. She sure would be a lot lonelier if not for a pet--

     Wait for a minute...

     Mob's pet fish, Freckles, died pretty recently, meaning he was both short on a pet and probably still had the tank!

     The girl leapt from her bed and ran to the computer. In a hurry, she turned it on and hurried to an online shopping page. She scrolled and scrolled for the thing she desired. Ah! Adding it to her cart, the next thing she needed was an address to send it to!

     UA's address was easy to find, but they weren't taking mail for obvious privacy reasons. But, not to worry! Tsubomi was pretty smart. The next thing she thought of was the man Mob worked for, who followed him so they could continue working together. What was his name again..? Reigen Arataka! An odd dynamic, she had to admit, but judging by her past convos with Mob, he and his boss had a pretty wholesome bond. Wait, she vaguely remembered this guy, didn't she?! Oh yeah! He gave pretty basic but sound advice to one of her friends. Anyways-- while she couldn't find where he lived for obvious reasons, shipments were allowed to be taken directly to his office! Great!

     Aaaaand, click!

     Tsubomi leaned back in her chair, arms propping up the back of her head. She smiled with satisfaction, hoping the package would reach her friend in good condition. ...Oh yeah, and she paid extra to get that gift delivered in less than two days. Sometimes it does help to have a little extra cash!

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     "Huh??" Mob carefully pried up a cardboard door (of sorts) to the box. Reigen hovered over the boy carefully with his one half of a scissors in hand. "What is in here?" They stood in the UA dorm's dining area, the box seated on the table before them.

     "I dunno! It was sitting at my office door; says it's addressed to you, though!"

     "What if it's a bomb?" Dimple stared down at the two, smirking when the already cautious men shriveled with fear. "Heh, babies. I'll have a look inside if it helps ya any." The spirit phased through the cardboard, stared for a little bit, then slipped back out. "Eh, it's nothing harmful. Kinda weird, though..."

     With a little less caution, Mob opened up the box. Reigen pushed his head in to see what lay at the bottom of it. They both squinted and tilted their heads for a little while.

     Wrapped snuggly and surrounded in bubble wrap was a cluster of clear, goopy spheres with little black dots in the center of them.

     "What the..? Some kind of boba?" Reigen grabbed the things snugly wrapped in plastic. Water surrounded the cluster, so he gave the object a gentle shake.

     "Those are frog eggs, dumb###!" Dimple griped. "Look! It even says so on the box!" He pointed out the label the two genius psychics had yet to see.

     "Ohhh"
     "Ohhh"

     Dimple rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I swear, you guys are making a spirit who never took the time to learn basic math look smart."

     "Hmm... Wonder who would give you frog eggs? ..And why?.. Some kind of delicacy?" While Reigen tried to wrap his head around this seemingly complex equation, Mob's eyes began to sparkle.

     Immediately, he knew who had sent this to him. He and Tsubomi used to catch tadpoles together from a little brook in their neighborhood. And together they would update each other on their progression of them growing into frogs!

     'Thank you, Tsubomi...'

     Again, I say... Tsubomi doesn't get enough love.

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Did I mention that I love Tome?