Kyoka's heart was hammering in her chest as she made her way back to her room on unsteady legs. When she made it to her door and stumbled into her room, Kyoka's mind was full of nothing but images of Momo's face flooded with the moon's light. Simply laying next to Momo felt like being in the presence of a goddess. She had looked ethereal despite her hair being up in a messy bun, despite her rumped pyjama top, even though she had a grease stain from some pizza on her chin. Momo looked breath-taking.

Kyoka really wanted to admit her feelings to her best friend, but the fear of ruining what they already had stopped her. She had promised herself that she would admit her feelings soon enough, though. If Toru could admit her feelings to Ojiro, and Itsuka could admit her feelings to Setsuna, then Kyoka could admit her feelings to Momo. All she had to do was pluck up the courage, she would do it soon. She promised herself this as she let her blankets swallow her up and lull her into a peaceful slumber. 

Kyoka was woken up abruptly by a constant siren stabbing the air. Immediately, Kyoka's hands shot up to her ears to attempt to muffle the piercing noise that invaded her head. Pain rolled through her at the noise, it was like constant torture to her sensitive ears. She scrambled out of bed, hands still firmly held over her ears, and stumbled towards the door. 

Kyoka managed to get out of her bedroom, though it felt like somebody was constantly trying to stab her brain. It was dreadful. She looked around with tear-filled eyes and beheld the sight of all of the other girls looking around in bewilderment. It seemed that they, too, had no idea what was going on. 

"What's happening?" Toru yelled over the alarm. 

"I don't know!" Mina screamed in reply.

Somehow, the shrieking alarm seemed to grow louder, causing Kyoka to scream out in pain. It was almost too much to bear. Kyoka fell to the ground in pain. 

"Kyoka!" Momo shouted in fright, she rushed over to her friend, pulling out a pair of sound-cancelling headphones from her exposed thigh as she went. As soon as she reached Kyoka, Momo gently put the headphones over her ears had guided Kyoka's eyes up to her. 

"It's ok, now, Kyoka," Momo signed in JSL, a course which was compulsory to become a hero, "We're going to go outside, maybe the sound will be quieter." 

"Ok." Kyoka signed back sluggishly. Her head felt like it was full of cotton and her vision swayed dangerously when she attempted to stand up.

"Sorry, the alarm has really messed with me," Kyoka signed sloppily. Momo simply smiled at her and shook her head in dismissal of the apology. 

"Don't worry, I'll help you, come on,"  Momo signed. She took Kyoka's arm and put it around her neck so that she could lift Kyoka and carry her. 

Ordinarily, Kyoka might have blushed and stammered something about Momo not needing to expend her energy to help Kyoka, but Kyoka's head was so foggy that she couldn't even form a cohesive thought. So she let Momo carry her out of the building.

Toru liked her beauty sleep. There was nothing else to it. She went to bed on time, she tried her hardest to wake up when her alarm goes off. Sleeping well made her feel better. What wasn't a part of her usual sleep schedule, was being woken up at 3 am by a blaring alarm that wouldn't shut the fuck up. What Toru didn't want to be doing at 3:15 in the morning, was standing outside, in the cold, alongside the rest of her classmates. 

"Do you know why the alarm is going off?" Toru yawned to Ojiro. 

Ojiro shook his head and scratched it, he looked really uncomfortable. Toru stepped forward and hugged her boyfriend tight, half because she wanted to reassure him, and also because she was also cold and was leaching his body warmth from him.

Ojiro welcomed the hug readily, resting his chin on Toru's head. "Hey, do you know what happened to Jiro, she looks like she's in a lot of pain. Plus she's wearing those headphones..." Ojiro queried. 

"The sound was too loud for her. It looked like it was torturing her, so Momo made noise-cancelling headphones, but I think the noise might have incapacitated Kyoka." Toru sighed gently.

"Aww, I feel sorry for her. I can't imagine having a hearing quirk, must make certain things pretty hard," Ojiro hummed sympathetically.

"Yeah. She usually wears headphones to bed, Momo brought them for her. They block out all noise until a certain time, they usually turn on just in time for her alarm to go off." Toru explained, "I guess she forgot to put them on tonight, though I guess that's a good thing otherwise she wouldn't have heard the alarm." 

"Yeah," Ojiro muttered. 

"Everyone gather together!" Iida yelled over the faint sound of the alarm that was still sounding in the dorms.

Everyone shuffled closer to Iida and Aizawa. Tsuyu was cold, and all she really wanted to do was get back into the dorms so that she could go back to sleep, but that wasn't going to happen until the cause of the alarm was discovered so that it could be turned off. 

"Thank you, Iida," Aizawa muttered, "We discovered the cause of the alarm. There was a glitch in the alarm system for the dorms, it detected an unidentified person entering the dorms, but there is no unidentified person. We have scanned the CCTV, we've done thermal scans, nobody ever entered the building and caused the alarm to malfunction."

"The alarm has no been reset so you can go back inside and go back to sleep. The class will be starting thirty minutes later today to make up for a bit of the sleep you lost. I know that it's a lot, but you'll just have to deal with it. Now go back to bed."  Aizawa huffed before stalking over to Momo and Kyoka, no doubt to inquire if Kyoka was feeling any better.

"I feel really bad for Jiro, that alarm must have been excruciatingly painful," Midoriya sighed as he glanced over at Jiro. 

"Yes, they seem to be in quite a bit of pain," Todoroki confirmed. He took glanced over at Momo and Jiro, "Though I'm sure Momo did everything she could to aid them. She cares about Jiro very deeply."

"Mhm," Ochako yawned. Though she wouldn't admit it out loud due to her nerves, Tsu thought Ochako looked adorable when she yawned. She almost looked like a kitten or a puppy, it was cute. But, again, Tsuyu wouldn't admit that out loud, she was still coming to terms with the feelings which had been brewing within her for some time now.

"I simply want to fall onto my bed and go back to sleep," Tsu imputed into the conversation, she was met with emphatic nodding and yawned agreements.

Everyone went their separate ways once they reached the dorms. The boys remained on the lower two floors, shuffling into their room with yawned goodnight, whilst the girls did the same on the uppermost floor. Despite the dreadful intrusion on their peaceful sleep, nobody focused on the fact that they had been woken up, they all fell asleep with the same thing on their mind. Relief that they wouldn't have to be in their class until half an hour later. 

"Are you ok, Kyoka?" Shoji muttered to Kyoka over breakfast the following morning, "I saw how you were affected by the alarm last night, it looked super painful."

"Oh. I'm good, Shoji, don't worry about it!" Kyoka smiled tiredly, "Sleeping managed to rid me of my awful headache, I just don't think I'll be able to play any music today, which is a bummer." 

Shoji nodded sympathetically. He and Kyoka had formed a tight bond of friendship between each other based on their enhanced hearing. They shared funny stories and bonded over techniques they could use to isolate sound, Kyoka felt as though they had a life-long friend in Mezo. 

"Aren't you being too sensitive, Jiro? I bet literally anybody else wouldn't have reacted as you did." the lispy voice of Mineta invaded the perfectly peaceful conversation, immediately souring Kyoka's mood.

"Please don't comment on something you have no experience in, Mineta," Shoji admonished tiredly, "Your quirk doesn't affect your sense of hearing, so you have no idea what it's like to experience what Kyoka did last night. And, please, don't say anything about her being a female, we know where that line of thinking will lead you."

Mineta huffed and stalked away. He always got into a mood whenever his sexist comments were shut down before they could even be spoken. 

"Anyway," Shoji spoke softly, "As I was saying,"

Shoji and Kyoka fell a rabbit hole of quirk theory and ways of navigating everyday life with enhanced hearing. Kyoka didn't feel the need to thank Shoji. One reason was that he would simply dismiss her and insist that there was no need, and the other reason was that, in her mind, shutting down a creep and dismissing them was simply something you do for a friend. Something you do without expecting any verbal gratitude, you simply knew that your friend was thankful, and that was enough. 

Shoji's actions gave Kyoka hope. She knew that all of the guys had it within them. They just had to be taught a lesson in recognising their own misogyny and sexism. Kyoka wouldn't rest until she could at least get them to see the flaws in themselves. 

"I'm so excited!" Mina cheered at lunch that day, "I get to see my new hero costume today. I get to use it for the first time! This is a dream come true!" 

"Didn't you design your first costume?" Sero chuckled good-naturedly 

"Well, yeah," Mina sighed, "But my fashion sense was so tacky back then, and that translated to my hero costume. I've decided to just not go for a bodysuit this time, I'm gonna experiment a bit!"

"Your fashion sense is still tacky," Bakugo scoffed. His scowl, which seemed to be a permanent fixture upon his face unless he was looking solely at Kirishima, softened a little bit, a subtle indication that he was joking.

"Yeah, yeah. You're just jealous that I can rock whatever I wear." Mina said jokingly. 

As annoyed as Mina could get with the boys, she still loved her friend group with all of her heart. The friendly and familial bond she felt with them all, having gone through thick and thin together, was unbreakable. Sure, Kaminari and Sero may doubt her when it came to 'traditionally male' activities such as gaming. And sure, Bakugo might bitch and moan behind her back, and Kirishima sometimes (unintentionally) assumed she was weaker than she actually was. But Mina knew that, if it was drilled into their heads hard enough, her boys would come to see how harmful their words and actions could be, and they would cease their behaviour. 

"What's your new costume like, anyway?" Kaminari inquired with an excited glimmer in his eyes. 

"Well, I'm kinda taking inspiration from 80s fashion, leaning into the fact that my fighting style incorporates my history in dance." Mina explained, "I just feel like it would suit me better than what I've previously worn."

"Cool!" Kaminari hummed. 

Conversation from there strayed away from the subject of Mina's hero costume and towards separate subjects such as the LGBTQIA+ group happening on Saturday and what clouds tasted like.

"Good afternoon, young heroes!" All Might greeted enthusiastically, he may have lost his muscular body, but the eccentric man had not lost any of his overwhelming stage presence. 

"Good afternoon, All Might," everyone in the class parrotted back, some with a bit more enthusiasm than others. 

As All Might went on to explain the activities they would be doing in class that day, Ochako found it hard to sit still in her seat, a fact that seemed to bother those who at around her. But Ochako didn't care about their opinions. She was too excited about the fact that she would be receiving her freshly made hero costume as soon as All Might shut up and dismissed them to get changed. She could tell that Mina, Momo and Toru were just as excited as her to receive their new hero costumes as well. Ochako felt like a great injustice had been done when the costume designer made her costume tighter than she had previously asked for, there was no way they could fuck up this time, though. 

"And remember, heroes always do their best to save everyone with a smile!" All Might finished, "Now, young ones, collect your cases and go and get changed. You have 10 minutes!"

Ochako was out of her chair, grabbing her case, and skidding down the corridor before most people had even managed to stand up properly from their chairs. Perhaps, if she'd had the forethought to care, Ochako may have been embarrassed by her desperate and jubilant behaviour, but it was hard to feel embarrassed when both Mina and Toru were on her heels, both as eager as she was to try on their costumes.

"Wow, you guys, you look amazing!" Tsu croaked as she observed the new costumes of her friends. Ochako felt her cheeks heat, almost imperceptibly, at Tsu's compliment. Even if it wasn't directed solely at Ochako, hearing the tone of approval in Tsu's voice sent Ochako's heart racing. 

"Thank you, Tsuyu, I quite like my costume," Momo smiled with hidden glee. The girl beheld herself in the changing room's mirror, turning this way and that so that she could see every angle of her new costume.  

Momo's costume was simple, and yet it was fashionable and pleasing to look at. The costume maintained the same colour scheme as her old one, though it had a vastly different design. Momo wore shorts that stopped a centimetre or so below her belly button, they stopped at her mid-thigh, leaving plenty of room left for her to create things from her legs. Her top offered Momo breast support (unlike her previous costume). It was short, more of a sports bra with reinforcements and an elaborate design than a full-on top. Her stomach was left exposed, something that Momo was slightly self-conscious about, given her larger frame due to her quirk. Nevertheless, Momo felt more comfortable than she had in her previous hero costume. Momo twisted around and looked at the back of her costume, her back was exposed so that she wouldn't have to break through her costume whenever she created something big from her back. She had elbow and knee pads as well as fingerless gloves. Momo felt like a new person, she felt like she had been reborn.

"This is exactly how I envision my costume!" Mina squealed in excitement. She bounced in front of one of the other mirrors, her eyes sparkled with exuberant joy. Tsu thought her friend looked happier with her costume than she had looked when her favourite dessert was being served in the cafeteria. 

Mina retained the same white mask she had from her old costume but that was the only similarity between the two costumes. Where before Mina wore a full-length bodysuit with turquoise and purple colours, Mina's new suit was lilac with a lighter, almost white, purple simplistic pattern. The suit wasn't full length but instead stopped at Mina's thighs. Around her waist there was a white belt comprised solely of pouches that Mina could use to store things, alongside this belt, balls hung, presumably, their function was to hold acid that Mina could throw at her enemies or give to her allies. Mina also wore white knee pads that looked like they had been taken straight from a rolly derby game, and just below those, vibrant leg warmers poked out from her combat boots, one of which was a lilac that matched her leotard and the other was a gentle turquoise. In place of her beige cropped jacket, Mina wore a vibrantly coloured windbreaker. The yellow, purple, pink and blue of the jacket perfectly emulated Mina's bubbly attitude. 

"Yeah, I'm glad to be out of my old suit, it was so uncomfortable!" Ochako enthused, her eyes were glued to her reflection. Tsu couldn't help but admire her crush.

Ochako had elected to rid herself of the skin-tight suit that she had worn throughout their first year. Instead, Ochako wore a suit that vaguely resembled that of an astronaut. The costumed was slightly puffy, though not enough to inhibit her hands-on fighting style, it retained the same colour scheme, yet certain aspects of her previous design were completely dropped. The clunky belt around her waist, the small heels on her boots (even if they were there to make landing less jarring, they were hard to run on) and the abnormally large cuffs on her wrists. Instead, Ochako's boots had firm, thick soles that absorbed the shock of landing, they went up to her knees and in place of the large cuffs to stop her nausea, Ochako had small bracelets that served the same purpose.  Her 'helmet' was gone as well, seeing as it served practically no purpose and only got in her way, instead of the screen in front of her eyes, Ochako had an actual helmet that surrounded her entire head. The back of the helmet was made of a hard to break material that Tsu didn't know the name of whilst the front was made of indestructible glass. On Ochako's forearm, she wore a device that she later told Tsu was a grappling hook so that she could manoeuvre around better whilst she was in the air.

"Yeah, I can't believe we actually got to change our costumes! Look, I'm actually wearing clothes!" Toru squealed. 

Toru, as she had excitedly exclaimed, was actually wearing clothes. It was a full-body suit, covering Toru from her feet up to her neck, where it appeared to be unzipped ever so slightly. It looked similar to Camie Utsushimi's costume. Her shoes were not the same pale blue boots as before, she didn't appear to be wearing any separate shoes, instead, they seemed to be built into her suit. She wore a belt around her waist, which had pouches (similar to Mina, except the belt was the same black colour as her catsuit), it also appeared to hold a whip.

"Toru, is that a whip?" Kyoka asked incredulously, aww sparkling in her eyes.

"Yep!" Toru boasted, "My costume designer and I thought I could use a weapon, so we chose this. And look, if I press the button here, it goes invisible for everyone else but me! The same goes for my suit! The technicians are really smart! They took some of my hair and scanned the internal structure of my eye to make the suit visible to everyone else whenever I want it to be. And, get this, I can still use my light refraction move, even when wearing this suit!" 

"Wow, Toru, that's amazing! You have to take me to meet your costume technician, understanding the molecular structure of such a fabric could really help me!" Momo gushed.

"Of course," Toru responded.

Tsu followed after her friends as they all filed out of the changing rooms and towards the faux city they would be training in today.

"That lesson was exhausting," Kyoka sighed heavily, falling dramatically onto the sofa as she did so. Momo brushed her fingers through her crushes hair as her head came to rest upon her lap, the mere sight of Kyoka's serene face sent Momo's heart pounding in her chest. There was no way that Kyoka didn't hear it.  

"Momo, are you going to call a class meeting soon so that we can talk to the others. I think we might as well get this over and done with." Ochako hummed from the sofa opposite Kyoka and Momo.

"Yes, I'll call it now. Hopefully, everyone should arrive in a timely manner." Momo said. She took out her phone and quickly typed a message into the class' group chat. Now all they had to do was wait for the remaining 14 members of Class 2A to arrive before they could express their concern.

"Why'd you call this emergency meeting, Momo?" Shinso queried. They, alongside the rest of Class 2A, were seated in the lounge area of the dorms. Looking at Momo with tired, yet inquisitive eyes. 

"Yes, umm..." Momo stuttered, it took a second, but she gathered her courage and sat up a bit straighter in her seat. This was an important topic for her and the rest of the girls, it must be brought to everybody's attention. 

"I wish to be as delicate about this as possible, but I fear that I may not be able to achieve that," Momo started, "I, along with the rest of the girls, feel as though the vast majority of you may not fully understand the effects that your words and actions have on us."

Silence. Not a word was spoken. The entire room was slathered in layer upon layer of awkward silence and tension. Finally, Midoriya spoke up.

"I don't think I fully understand, could you elaborate?" he asked.

"Well, Deku," Ochako began gently, "We all appreciate the fact that you admonish Mineta when he does or says something pervy or blatantly misogynistic, but we think that some of you don't understand that you can be misogynistic as well." 

Looks of bewilderment were exchanged.

"Could you explain further?" Iida inquired. 

"Well..." Toru started, "There are a lot of things, microaggressions, if you will, that you do that can be viewed as sexist. Assuming we're weaker than you, despite our training to be heroes as well, we can do things on our own, if we want help, we're perfectly capable of asking for it."

"Gatekeeping certain activities," Kyoka started, "Like, let's say, gaming, for example. Sure, it's stereotypically a male activity, but automatically assuming we don't know anything about a game, or thinking we're cheating when we beat you fairly, just because you can't accept the fact that we're better than you in the specific round of that specific game."

"Talking shit about us behind our back, perpetuating stereotypes that women are 'needy' or 'whiny'. Even if we're not around and you're saying these things to your male buddies, you're maintaining the gender divide and doing nothing to actively stop the mistreatment of women in society. If you hear shit in private, and you don't say anything, then you're being complacent and we've already established that could lead to the death or rape of an innocent woman, which may seem extreme now, but it's the truth. Of course, in this circumstance, I doubt that's what would happen, but if you maintain your complacency now, who's to say you won't in the future when more is at stake?"

"There are a lot of things, and we don't expect you to be perfect, we're certainly not perfect and we most likely do things which are sexist towards men without realising it. We don't think you're aware of the sexist things you do, but now that you are, we hope we can help you with... not doing those things," Tsu explained. 

Again, the room was silent as everyone digested what had been explained. 

"So, we're doing sexist things without realising it?" Kirishima hummed. 

"Yes," Momo said simply.

"Well then, I'm so sorry, dudes, that's really shitty of us." Kirishima sighed. 

"Wait, hold on a second," Todoroki muttered, "Is it possible that maybe you're being too sensitive?" 

Momo had to physically hold back the monumental sigh that was simply aching to burst from her. She opened her mouth to gently explain why what Todoroki just said was perpetuating gender stereotypes, but someone a bit more abrasive beat her to it. 

"Fucking hell, Half and Half, I swear your brain doesn't fucking work," Bakugo scoffed aggressively, "You're literally doing what they just said we've been doing. Perpetuating stereotypes and shit." 

Kirishima laid a gentle hand on Bakugo's shoulder, something that nobody else would be able to get away with, "Chill dude, there were kinder ways to say that."

Kyoka knew for a fact that she wasn't supposed to hear it when Bakugo hissed under his breath at Kirishima, "I told you not to call me dude! It's weird now." It was no secret to both Kyoka and Shoji that Bakugo and Kirishima had started dating not long ago. They were subtle, but not subtle enough to bypass Kyoka and Shoji's magnificent hearing. Kyoka had the absolute pleasure of hearing as Kurushima awkwardly confessed his feelings and Bakugo, just as awkwardly, admitted that he liked Kirishima too. Of course, despite accidentally hearing all of these things, Kyoka didn't say a word to anyone, it wasn't her place to say. 

"Oh, I understand, I'm sincerely sorry," Todoroki apologised, turning to address the girls, "I will try my hardest to do better in the future."

"That's all we ask of you, of all of you." Momo explained, "I firmly believe that we can all learn more about each other and grow as people from this experience."

Momo begged any greater power, that her wish for everything to start going right would actually happen. The entire situation was quickly getting tiring. 

Momo's costume: I did my best to describe the re-design of Momo's costume by r1qqy on TikTok, but I didn't do the redesign justice. 
Mina's costume: Her new costume is inspired by _asimpleperson_ on Tiktok
Sorry, I couldn't describe the costumes very well, I'm shit when it comes to describing clothes. 

I'm not a bit fan of this chapter, it feels preachy, in a sense. But I was already roughly 3000 words in when I realised I didn't like it, and there was no way I was going to rewrite all of that. 

Anyway, thank you for reading. I hope you have a wonderful day wherever you are.