Koto's POV

Winter is a busy time for us in 1-A. A semester has ended, but that hardly means relaxation. While the end of exams may be a welcome weight lifted from my shoulders, I'm helping to lead the planning for our class' Christmas party.

Though it's not necessarily an intimate family holiday for most of my classmates, it was for my family. I can't deny that I get a bit teary-eyed as I string lights up on the tree.

"Soooooo," Mina draws out the word as she sidles up next to me. "Who did you get for Secret Santa?"

"Not telling," I immediately respond.

"Honestly Mina," Tsu interjects as she untangles a segment of lights. She puts a finger to her chin. "Did you really think you could get her with that?"

The pinkette pouts and picks up a bauble to admire it. "Denki told me his."

I give her a bright smile. "And now you know yours and his. You'll see who I got soon." I glance down at the box of ornaments at her feet. "Since you're not doing anything, you wanna help us here?"

Anything to get my mind off of that gift exchange. It's not that I'm bad at giving gifts, but this one has just been stumping me.

Momo and I aren't the closest of friends in the class, not to mention, I had it out for her a bit at the beginning of the school year. It's not like anything bad resulted from it, nor did she actually hear what I was thinking about her, but I still feel guilty for my poor mentality regarding her and Todoroki. Since I feel like I've turned a page with him, I feel it's only right to get myself on good terms with her as well.

I really want to get this gift right. Only one problem: what do you get for the girl who has enough money to buy whatever she wants?

I fight the urge to sigh as Tsu and Mina finish stringing the lights and we begin setting in on ornaments. I guess I just need to think harder.

•°•°•°•

I don't want to think harder.

I just finished finals, I have to delegate holiday preparations, I'm in no mood to do more thinking.

Over the past couple days, my friends and I have continued decorating, watching movies, and making food. At this point, I'm just tired and want to get to the celebrating part.

Today, Aizawa brought Eri to the dorms to hang out with our class, so we decided to make cookies. Taking my impatience out on the dough is mildly relieving.

"So, what have you been doing this holiday season?" Sato asks the little girl as he tips out a bowl of dough onto his own floured countertop.

A smile blooms across her small face. "Well, I went ice skating just yesterday and Mirio got me a really big hot chocolate. And Nejire-chan gave me a present!" She holds up the blue and green scarf around her neck gently, trying to not get flour on it. "She has a matching one! It's like we're sisters!"

"Hey, that's pretty cool!" Sato exclaims, propping his head up on his hand to show she has his attention.

I look on with affection in my eyes. It's like looking at a smaller, more innocent version of myself. What horrors has she gone through? To have seen all that and still be able to smile and seize every day with her friends...

Eri had Midoriya and Mirio there to save her. And I had Uncle Mic.

I make a mental note to give him an extra big hug the next time I see him.

"Koto?"

I jolt, not realizing I'd been spacing out while looking at the little girl. I blink the sheen of tears out of my eyes. "Sorry," I mumble. "I'm just happy to see you smiling."

Eri walks over to me and places a tiny hand on my arm. Her deep red eyes rove my face intently. "I'm glad to hear you speaking," she says at last. "I know you had trouble for a while. And I did too. But good things have happened since then. We can keep making good memories. We can smile and talk with good friends!"

The girl fixes me with a bright smile as she pushes a cookie cutter through my sheet of dough. She pulls it back out, leaving a snowflake-shaped indent in the dough. I fight through my tears to raise my eyes back to hers. "Yes, yes we can."

•°•°•°•

I ended up getting Momo tickets to an upcoming ballet. What Eri said really made me think about what was important in life. And I've decided the most precious thing to me would be the moments that I get to spend with those friends. I figured an evening out with somebody would be the best gift for the girl.

I was just shocked that she asked me to go with her. She said that, while she enjoys ballet, she'd like to hear more about my experience with it. Turns out we have some stuff in common after all.

I text Momo an update as I sit on the train to Nyikang's agency. I decided to come back for my winter work study after the internships went so well. The only difference is, I'm alone this time. Shinso is studying more under Aizawa's instruction, so I'll be working one-on-one with the samurai hero.

At least that's what I thought.

I enter the hero's compound to see many costumed heroes and other employees milling about. I'm stunned for a moment until the hero himself comes out to greet me.

"Maestro," he calls, clapping a gloved hand on my shoulder. As per usual, his thin frame is bedecked in traditional armor, and his face is obscured by his helmet. Even so, I get the sense he is smiling at me. "Glad to have you back."

"Glad to be back, Nyikang-sensei," I say, bowing low. "Thank you for offering me the position. B-but what's going on here?"

"Ah, last time you were here, I had directed the team to keep to the offices for the week," he explains. "But now you're in the deep end of hero work, so you'll be experiencing this agency at its fullest capacity. Usually, the heroes and sidekicks operate out of here while the business teams can come and go as they please."

He steps back and spreads his hands. "First thing's first. I'm very busy this week, but you'll be set up as a sidekick to one of the other pros that works here. My second-in-command: Glitter Bomb."

As if on cue, my eye is drawn towards the shimmering rainbow of light. The woman approaching is shorter than me in stature, but she has such a loud presence that I barely even notice. Her skin is completely covered in glitter. Or...no, it's made out of glitter. I can see every color reflected off of her in the midday sun. I can't help but wonder who has to clean up after her everywhere she goes.

Her hero costume is just as dazzling, pants ending in bell bottoms and a bedazzled scoop neckline on her top. The flowy sleeves are cut the same way as her loose pants. It looks like something a 70's icon would wear. Safe to say, I immediately like her.

"I've heard so much about you, Maestro," she exclaims, taking my hand in hers. "I look forward to working with you."

I expect my hand to be covered in glitter when she pulls away, but it seems she has some semblance of control over it as my hand comes away completely clean. "Yeah, you too!"

"Glitter, here, is going to be able to show you more of the nitty gritty work that I dump onto her," Nyikang continues in a jesting tone. "This is more than just quirk training now. You'll learn about running an agency and operating between all the different departments. You will also be on the front lines with our day-to-day hero work."

"You up to the challenge, sidekick?" Glitter Bomb asks, turning to me with a smile of near-to-bursting excitement.

I return her smile with one of my own. Best. Internship. Ever. "You bet I'm ready!"

•°•°•°•

I learn very quickly that Glitter enjoys music.

Correction: Glitter enjoys loud music.

The hero has decided that I'm basically going to shadow her along her regular work days while she explains what's going on. And then, I'll basically be a teammate whenever a case is assigned to her.

The first stop she makes is to the gym. I can appreciate that she handed me the aux cord before even knowing what my music taste is. That's certainly putting some trust in me. When I turn on my playlist, she cranks the volume all the way up.

"We'll do warm-ups now, then do more intense training at the end of our shift," she explains. "Don't wanna exhaust ourselves now, but gotta be a lil' limber."

I follow her lead and begin stretching. "Alright, d-do we have a case already?"

"Not yet." The woman sends me her bright, straight smile. "We're heading into the office to pick up an assignment. From there...the fun begins."

•°•°•°•

"There's been illegal arms dealing in this area for a good time now. We gotta be able to track them down," Glitter briefs me. She reclines in her desk chair, propping her chunky boots on the desk as she flips through a police report. "We're working with a team of officers for this, but you and I are best suited with our quirks to assist them."

She hands me the file, and I examine the information. A witness came to the police with information about these deals only to be found dead the next morning. The warehouse reported to be storing these things had been found empty, but the patterns of dust and dirt indicated that it was used frequently until recently when large items were moved out. Police surveillance suggests nobody has returned to the scene, but such large items would be difficult to move far under short notice.

Unless this is a bigger operation than they think.

I take a deep breath and turn to the coroner's report for the dead man. Apparently, he was strangled in his bed in the middle of the night. There were signs of a struggle.

Next in the file are pictures of the crime scene. The security system was fully shut down, his door knocked down, and all the pictures of him from the house were inked over with a smiley face with X's for eyes.

Clearly, whoever was behind this wanted it to make a statement.

I force down the nervous bubbling in my stomach. No DNA was found. No fingerprints, no footprints. How in the world are we going to figure this out?

"The descriptions he gave of those involved are listed here," Glitter says, holding a folded up paper. "We have a place to start. It's barely a lead, but it's a lead nonetheless."

"Then let's get moving," I state firmly.

The hero and I set out from the agency, taking the train to the area the police had highlighted as an area of suspicion. "Not only will your quirk be helpful," she explains, "but so will your status as a work study sidekick. It makes sense for you to be going around and meeting the locals. Especially in a place like this where heroes are always out on patrol."

She gives me a bright smile and lowers her voice. "So we're to keep a sunny disposition and talk with as many people as we can under the guise of you introducing yourself. As far as I understand, your Echolocation can be used on people?"

"Yes?" My eyebrows furrow.

"Then that's what you'll do. How fast can you use it? Can you activate it to determine if somebody is carrying a firearm?"

"I should, bu-but they'll be able to tell. It feels weird."

"Can it be activated and deactivated in an instant? Before they can even tell?"

I sigh, that uncertainty growing in me as I look down at the sidewalk before us. "Maybe. I'll give it my best shot."

------Author's Note------

Welcome to the last arc of Muted Voices! I hope you guys are prepared for what I have in store!

We also have some awesome fanart this time!

Thank you so much to Wolfitup for this awesome picture of Koto! The curls are awesome! And the fact you're able to do this with pencil? Incredible!

Anyways, strap in for this final piece of Koto's story!