Chapter 5: The Script, The Sketch, and the Sanguine Schoolmate
(Sunny Midoriya POV)
I was in the middle of a very important scientific experiment—specifically, seeing if I could use my own tongue as a pogo stick—when the doorbell rang.
DING-DONG. (The sound effect actually appeared in physical letters above the door, but I'm the only one who notices these things.)
Mom went to the door, wiping her hands on her apron. I trailed behind her, my body clicking and popping like a bowl of Rice Krispies. Next to me, Izuku was vibrating with excitement. He loved new neighbors. He treated every new person like a potential entry in his 'Hero Analysis' notebook, which currently had three pages dedicated to "How Sunny Fits Into a Teacup."
Mom opened the door. There stood a woman who looked like she'd been pressed between two very stiff boards, and beside her was a girl with messy blonde buns and a look of practiced, polite boredom.
Himiko Toga.
I froze. My eyes didn't just widen; they popped out of my head on literal springs, extending three inches forward before retracting with a BOING.
"Wait a minute," I muttered, my voice dropping an octave. "Toga? The blood-obsessed shapeshifter? Here? In the suburbs? Next to the Cinnamon Roll?"
I looked up at the ceiling. "Hey! Author! Is the ink getting low? Are we recycling character designs already? Did the script get a rewrite while I was napping?!"
Mom and the new neighbor woman looked at me like I was possessed. I didn't care. I reached into the air—not into a pocket, but literally into the space between reality—and grabbed a thick stack of papers. The title page read: CHAPTER 5: THE NEW NEIGHBOR.
I flipped through it frantically, my four-fingered hands moving like a deck of cards being shuffled. "Let's see... 'Toga family moves in'... 'Sunny teaches them a lesson about repression'... 'Kindergarten chaos'..." I looked at the blonde girl. She was staring at the floating script with a tiny, genuine spark of wonder in her eyes.
"Okay," I sighed, vanishing the script back into the ether. "The plot is the plot. I guess we're doing this. Welcome to the neighborhood, Kid. Try not to bite anyone; I've heard the local blood bank has a very strict 'No Vampires' policy."
"Sunny! Be polite!" Mom scolded, though she was used to my 'episodes.' She turned to the mother. "I'm Inko Midoriya. This is Sunny and Izuku. Please, come in!"
Toga's mom—Mrs. Himiko, a woman who looked like she found the concept of 'joy' to be a breach of etiquette—offered a thin smile. "We are the Himikos. This is our daughter. We're hoping for a... normal environment for her."
She said 'normal' the way some people say 'unexploded ordnance.'
I caught a glimpse of Toga. She was looking at her own feet, her shoulders hunched. She looked like she was trying to disappear. My 'Gag Sense' started tingling. In this world, the "normal" ones are usually the most miserable, because they're trying to follow rules that gravity doesn't even bother with.
"Normal is overrated, Mrs. H," I said, leaning against a wall that wasn't there. "In this house, we prefer 24-frame-per-second chaos."
I looked at Izuku. "Hey, Izu-chan. Let's show our new friend the garden. I've got a 'shortcut' planned."
Izuku beamed. "Okay! Come on, Toga-chan!"
We walked toward the backyard. As soon as we were out of the moms' direct sight, I pulled a bucket of black paint out of my ear.
"Sunny, what are you doing?" Izuku asked.
"Improving the commute," I replied. I slapped a perfect circle of black paint onto the grass. It wasn't just a circle; it was a hole. A deep, bottomless ACME-brand hole.
I looked at Toga. She was staring at the black circle, confused. "Is that... a quirk?"
"Nah, it's a lifestyle," I said. I grabbed her hand—her skin was cold, like she'd been holding it in—and before she could scream, I jumped.
WIIIIIIIIII-WHAP!
We didn't fall down. We fell through. We emerged three seconds later in the middle of our garden's sandbox, thirty feet away. Toga tumbled out, let out a tiny, high-pitched "Eeeeeek!" and landed face-first in the sand.
From the porch, we heard two very different screams.
"MY DAUGHTER!" Mrs. Himiko shrieked, clutching her chest.
"SUNNY! DON'T TELEPORT THE NEIGHBORS!" Mom yelled, though she was mostly just worried about the laundry.
Toga sat up, sand in her hair, looking absolutely bewildered. She looked at the hole we'd just come out of, then back at me. I was sitting cross-legged in the air, eating a carrot.
"How?" she whispered.
"Physics are just suggestions, Toga-chan," I said, offering her a hand. "If you spend your whole life trying to be 'normal,' you're gonna miss the part where you get to bounce. You like blood? Cool. I like carrots. Izuku likes All Might. Aqua likes... well, Aqua likes herself. The point is, don't hide the weird stuff. It just makes the explosions bigger later."
She looked at me, and for the first time, a real, toothy smile touched her lips. "You're... really weird, Sunny-kun."
"Thanks! It's the highest compliment I can receive," I grinned, my teeth doing a literal 'ding' flash. "By the way, you're coming to our kindergarten tomorrow. Brace yourself. The teacher is one 'Boing' away from a complete nervous breakdown."
(Himiko Toga POV)
My mother always told me that I had to be a 'good girl.' She told me that the things I liked—the red, warm things—were 'scary' and 'wrong.' So I practiced my 'normal' face in the mirror every morning.
But Sunny Midoriya didn't have a 'normal' face. He had a face that could turn into a toaster if he sneezed hard enough.
The next morning, my mother dropped me off at the kindergarten. She looked at the building like it was a prison. "Be normal, Himiko. Don't do anything... strange."
I walked inside. I saw the teacher, Ms. Hina. She was clutching a rosary and whispering to herself, "Please let the new girl be normal. Please let her just play with blocks. Please don't let her be another Midoriya."
I wanted to tell her I was normal. I really did.
But then I saw the 'Chaos Crew.'
In the center of the room, a boy with spiky hair was currently being used as a human basketball by Sunny, who had turned his torso into a hoop.
"I'LL KILL YOU! GET ME DOWN FROM HERE!" the spiky boy roared.
"Kacchan, you have to work on your arc!" Sunny laughed.
Then there was a girl with blue hair who was standing on a table, pointing at the spiky boy. "Don't mind him, Toga-chan!" she yelled, her voice dripping with mock-pity. "That's just the Tsundere Boom Boom Boy. He's very grumpy because he hasn't had his nap, or because he secretly wants to be Sunny's best friend. He's all 'Pop-Pop' on the outside, but inside he's just a big, angry marshmallow!"
"I AM NOT A MARSHMALLOW!"
"See?" Aqua sighed, looking at me. "Classic Tsundere. I'm Aqua, by the way. I'm a Goddess. You may bow, or just offer me your snack-pack. I accept chocolate as a form of worship."
I sat down next to Izuku, who was drawing a very detailed picture of a hero. "Hi, Toga-chan! Do you want to color?"
I looked at the red crayon. I wanted to use it. I wanted to use all of it. I looked at Ms. Hina. She was watching me with hopeful eyes.
"I... I like red," I whispered.
"Me too!" Sunny shouted, appearing behind me with a POP. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a giant, five-gallon bucket of red paint. "But crayons are for amateurs. Let's do some 'Action Painting!'"
He grabbed a giant brush, and within seconds, the entire classroom wasn't just red—it was a mural. He painted a giant red dragon on the ceiling that actually started breathing real (but harmless) red glitter.
"SUNNY! NO!" Ms. Hina wailed.
"Look, Teach! It matches Toga's eyes! Aesthetic choice!"
The day didn't get better. At lunch, Aqua tried to turn her apple juice into a 'Divine Fountain,' which resulted in the cafeteria being flooded with three inches of sticky, gold-colored liquid. Bakugo tried to 'explode' the juice away, which just created a sticky, fruit-scented steam that coated everyone like glaze on a donut.
I found myself laughing. I wasn't being 'normal.' I was covered in glitter and apple juice, watching a boy turn his legs into a pogo stick to bounce over the puddles.
Ms. Hina was no longer whispering. She was on the phone in the corner, her voice cracking with desperation.
"Yes... yes, this is UA Nursery... I need backup. No, not a security guard. I need the Hero Course. Send Eraserhead! Send a priest! Send anyone who knows how to handle a child who can literally rewrite the laws of physics with a paintbrush! And we have a new one—she's actually normal, but the Midoriya kid is infecting her with fun! HELP ME!"
She hung up, looked at the chaos, and then slowly walked into the supply closet and closed the door. We heard the sound of a lock clicking.
The day ended with the moms arriving to a scene that looked like a glitter-bomb had gone off inside a juice factory.
Sunny walked up to me and Aqua. He looked perfectly clean, despite being at the center of the storm.
"Good job today, girls," he said. He reached out and gave Aqua a firm, rhythmic head-pat. She immediately melted into her usual puddle-state with a blissful sigh.
Then, he turned to me. I stiffened. My mother never touched me like that. It was always 'keep your distance' and 'be still.'
Sunny's hand landed on my head. It was warm, and it felt... bouncy. Like a soft cloud. He patted me twice, his gloved hand squeaking against my hair.
"You did great, Toga-chan. You didn't hide. That's a five-star performance for your first day."
I felt something warm in my chest. It wasn't the 'hungry' feeling I usually had. It was something else. I looked at him, and for the first time in my life, I didn't feel like I was a monster trying to be a girl. I felt like a girl who was allowed to be a little bit monstrous.
"See you tomorrow, Sunny-kun," I whispered.
"Count on it," he grinned.
As we walked away, I saw Ms. Hina being rolled out on a stretcher by two paramedics who were also wearing UA-themed uniforms. She was clutching a drawing of a carrot and sobbing.
I think I'm going to like it here.