the things that you might like don't grow inside of me

Libraries had always been one of Arata's favorite places to be.

It wasn't difficult to really explain why. The fact was that while Arata had no problem being around other people - oftentimes he quite enjoyed speaking to those seen as new and interesting, actually - there were times when he needed to be alone. Put into a low pressure environment, a place where he could be alone with his thoughts and come up with new ones. Libraries often fit that bill and more. An avid reader and learner, he'd figured out from a relatively early age that being in a library would generally allow him to do something most adults had been nervous of - explore an experiment. Just in a safe, quiet and theoretical manner rather than practical, and books had always served to sate his curiosity and boredom either through fiction or in allowing Arata to seek out answers to questions that were best left untested in a practical sense. Just because his Quirk protected him (for the most part) didn't mean that extended to his surroundings.

More to the point, Seijin Academy's unofficial ban on electronics and internet plus the restrictions on town outings left Arata quickly finding himself with cabin fever.

While that same "ban" was applied to the academy's library and Arata found it uniquely free of electronics of any kind let alone internet access that failed to defeat the point of why he'd gone there in the first place. While there were few places in Seijin that Arata was able to relax and just be himself - for lack of a better word - the library seemed to be it. People there were there for one of two reasons. Either they were looking for something to read or they were looking to do schoolwork, especially now that they were into the first few days of the semester. Predictably the place was a bit more populated than Arata was used to as he walked into the room dominated by bookcases and worktables, but for some reason he still couldn't help but find himself surprised on noticing a few familiar faces.

There admittedly weren't all that many and the truth probably was that the only thing to have changed was that Arata now had names to assign to said faces, but one in particular stood out to him. Not exactly hard to miss given the guy's mixed hair colors or the fact that he was more than just a little tall for their respective age bracket, but Shiratori stood out like a sore thumb among the other students. Especially given the fact that while the other students had their noses buried in their books and work Arata's fellow classmate seemed to have his mind somewhere else entirely.

It was enough to earn a quizzical glance from Arata at first, but not enough to hold his interest. At least not initially. He'd gone to the library for a reason, and with that in mind Arata would begin perusing the numerous bookshelves that line the walls. First the disappointingly modest fiction section, although that made sense given that the place was supposed to be devoted to learning rather than entertainment, but as Arata began to move further and further along into the historical area he kept finding his attention drawn to the one table every time he would move to another bookshelf. And after a few more minutes of that and noticing that the guy really didn't seem to be doing much of anything compared to the other students in the library curiosity would finally get the best of Arata. Holding in a sigh that was equal parts disappointed in ending his sojourn to a normally happy place empty handed and knowledge that he may very well be involving himself in something he shouldn't be, the teen would break from his search to meander over towards his classmate - stopping a respectful distance away but still close enough to get a look at what the guy was pretending to work on.

Same algebra assignment he'd finished a couple of hours earlier out of boredom. Perfect, and yes, the dorms were that empty.

"Pencil's been sitting still for a while, you need a hand with that?" Arata asked, voice kept low enough to avoid irritating the other students.

Kazuyuki Shiratori