God of Heroics: Comicman!

The karaoke place was called Star Voice.

It was a chain establishment in the entertainment district near the train station, the kind with neon signs and themed rooms and a drink menu that charged too much for melon soda. Monoma had booked the largest room they had, which seated twenty, because he'd invited all twenty members of Class 1-B and refused to accept that anyone might not show up.

Nobody didn't show up.

By 2:00 PM, every member of Class 1-B was crammed into Room 7 of Star Voice, which was technically a twenty-person room but felt like a ten-person room once Shishida's massive frame took up a corner and Bondo's glue-dispensing head occupied another. The lighting was purple and blue and the TV screen on the wall displayed the song selection menu in cheerful neon letters.

Tetsutetsu kicked the door open, despite it not being locked.

"CLASS 1-B IS IN THE BUILDING!"

"We've been here for ten minutes," Kendo said from the couch. "You're late."

"I WAS BUYING SNACKS!" He held up four bags of convenience store food. Chips, candies, crackers, and something that claimed to be "hero-flavored" pocky, which nobody was brave enough to question.

The room filled up fast. Kendo had claimed the center couch with Kodai beside her, both of them looking at the song catalogue. Monoma sat in the far corner with a bottle of tea. Kamakiri stood with his arms crossed because all the seats were taken and he didn't care. Shiozaki sat with perfect posture on the edge of a chair, her vine-hair arranged neatly on top of her head.

Honenuki arrived with Tsuburaba and Kaibara. Awase arrived with a bandage still on his forehead that he absolutely did not need anymore but was wearing as a badge of honor. Komori arrived in a mushroom-print hoodie and a wide smile on her face.

Rin, Shishida, Kuroiro, Bondo, Tsunotori, Yanagi, Shoda, and Fukidashi arrived at various intervals over the next ten minutes. The room went from crowded to chaotic.

Manga showed up with Tokage hanging off his arm.

"THE CHAMPION HAS ARRIVED!" Tetsutetsu bellowed.

"THE CHAMPION'S MUCH COOLER GIRLFRIEND HAS ALSO ARRIVED!" Tokage added.

"I don’t know about that…" Manga cheekily laughed.

“You wanna fight about it?” Tokage glanced at him.

“Maybe later. For now though, LETS GET TO SINGING!!!” Manga’s bubble had a microphone emoji in it.

Monoma stood up and clapped his hands.

"Before we begin this celebration," he said, "I'd like to acknowledge what we accomplished at the Sports Festival."

The room quieted. Mostly.

"First place. Fukidashi Manga." He gestured with his tea cup. "Third place. Honenuki Juzo. Four of the top eight were Class 1-B students. We dominated the obstacle race. We held the ten million point headband for the entire cavalry battle. And most importantly, we proved that Class 1-B is not, has never been, and will never be second to Class 1-A."

He paused.

"Class 1-A can have their villains and their media attention and their special treatment." His periwinkle eyes gleamed. "We'll take the real victory!!!"

The room exploded. Cheering, fist-pumping, Tetsutetsu shouting about them being the manliest class, Kamakiri slamming his bladed forearms together. Even Shiozaki clapped.

"NOW!" Monoma's voice rose above the chaos. "Let's celebrate the only way heroes should! WITH AMAZING KARAOKE!"

Tetsutetsu grabbed the microphone first.

What followed was the single most enthusiastic and least talented performance of a metal rock song that Star Voice had ever hosted. Tetsutetsu sang with the volume of a punk singer and the pitch of a car alarm, his eyes closed, his steel-grey hair swaying, his free hand clenched in a fist of pure emotional commitment. He didn't know half the words. He improvised the other half. At one point he replaced an entire verse with the word "MANLY" repeated at different volumes.

“MANLY! MANLY! MANLY! MANLY! MANLY!” Each one louder than the last. Some of the others joined along.

“MANLY! MANLY! MANLY!” Awase, Kaibara, Kamakari, Komori, Tsuburaba, Tokage, Honenuki, and Rin joined along until the last final Manly that was the loudest.

The room was in tears.

"That was the worst thing I've ever heard." Kamakiri cackled, wiping his eyes.

"THAT WAS BADASS AND YOU KNOW IT!" Tetsutetsu slammed the mic back into the stand.

Kendo went next. She picked a classic rock song and sang it well enough that the room went from laughing to actually nodding along. Her voice was strong and pretty, and when she hit the chorus the whole room sang with her.

Awase and Tsuburaba did a duet. It was terrible in a completely different way from Tetsutetsu's solo. They kept trying to outdo each other, stealing the mic back and forth, turning a love song into a competitive shouting match that ended with both of them on the floor laughing while the backing track played on without them.

Komori sang something that could be classified as hyper pop as she danced along like a pop star. The room gave her a standing ovation and plenty of whoops and whistles.

Kaibara picked an anime opening. He knew every word. He had choreography. Nobody knew he had choreography. The room lost its collective mind.

"KAIBARA HAS MOVES?!" Awase screamed.

"I have secret talents too, damn it!" Kaibara shouted back, mid-dance. "DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ME!"

Kodai didn’t sing. Much to the disappointment of many who wanted to hear her singing voice. She just stood on stage and stared at them blankly. Which to her credit, what did they really expect? Kodai wasn’t known as the Silent Queen for nothing.

Monoma took the stage after Kodai. He'd picked something dramatic, an operatic piece that had no business being in a karaoke machine but was somehow in the catalogue anyway. He committed to the performance with plus ultra dedication. He hit notes he shouldn't have been able to hit. He gestured at the ceiling during the climax. The room gave him an outstanding applause.

Shiozaki sang a gospel song. The room clapped and stomped their feet along. Her voice was clear and pure and totally into it. When she finished, everyone clapped.

"That was beautiful, Shiozaki-san." Manga complimented her. His bubble displayed a halo emoji.

"Thank you, Fukidashi-kun." She paused. "I have not yet forgiven Monoma-kun."

Monoma, mid-sip of his drink, choked. “I’m working on it! I promise!”

Tokage grabbed the microphone next.

"My turn!"

She picked something fast. Something with attitude. Something that let her prowl across the tiny stage space like she owned it. Her voice wasn't technically perfect but it didn't need to be. She sold it with confidence and energy and the kind of stage presence that made everyone in the room watch her instead of the screen.

During the chorus she pointed at Manga. Directly at him. With the microphone in one hand and a sharp-toothed grin that the entire room recognized from the Sports Festival confession.

Manga's bubble went crimson.

"GET A ROOM!" Kamakiri whistled.

"SHUT UP, KAMAKIRI! I’M STILL SINGING!" Tokage yelled back without missing a beat.

The song ended and she leapt off the stage toward the crowd. Everyone but Manga fled at the suddenly leaping girl. Just as he was about to catch her, she split into pieces, reorganized herself around him, before reforming behind him with her hands on his shoulder.

“Thanks for being there for me.” She whispered in his ear.

The class gave her the loudest applause of the night.

Honenuki sang something surprisingly mellow. A slow, jazzy number that nobody expected from the boy with the skull face. His voice was low and smooth and the room was quietly impressed. When he finished, Tetsutetsu wolf-whistled.

"Mud Boy's got pipes!" Tsuburaba said.

"Please don't call me that."

Manga's turn came last.

Not by choice. The room demanded it. Twenty voices chanting "MAN-GA! MAN-GA!" until he stood up from the couch where Tokage had been sitting half on top of him and walked to the mic.

He picked an anime song from his childhood that he sang every morning before school.

The opening notes played. Something with a big build and a bigger finish.

Manga's voice was trained. Not for singing exactly, but definitely trained. The vocal exercises he'd been doing twice a day for months, the ones designed for stage actors and singers and anyone who needed their voice to perform under stress, had given him something that the room wasn't expecting.

He could sing.

His bubble cycled through emojis that matched the lyrics. Stars during the hopeful parts. Rain during the soft feminine parts. A sunrise when the final chorus swelled.

The room was silent when he finished.

Then Tokage stood up.

"THAT'S MY BOYFRIEND!"

The dam broke. Cheering, stomping, and banging of the table.

"You've been holding out on us!" Kaibara shouted.

"I do throat training!" Manga's bubble displayed a musical note emoji. "It just happens to work for singing too!"

They stayed for three more hours. The song selection devolved from actual attempts at music into increasingly terrible group performances where half the room sang one song while the other half sang a different one over the top of it. Tetsutetsu and Kamakiri tried to duet and it sounded like two trucks colliding. Awase attempted a rap verse and forgot every word after the first line. Pony and Komori sang an American pop song in English and nobody but Pony understood the lyrics but everybody danced anyway.

At some point, Manga ended up doing a dramatic reading of the karaoke menu as if it were a manga monologue, complete with sound effects from his quirk that he kept tiny enough not to destroy the room. A miniature "DOKKAAN" the size of a marble popped like a firecracker. A tiny "ZAAA" created a sprinkle of water that wet Kamakiri's mohawk. A micro "PIKA" flashed like a camera.

The room declared it the best performance of the night.

By 7:00 PM, the energy was fading. The tiredness that came from having too much fun for too long.

They sprawled across the couches and floor of Room 7. Bags of chips half-eaten. Drinks empty. The karaoke screen cycling through its idle animation.

Kendo leaned back against the couch. "We should do this more often."

"Every month," Monoma said. "A new activity."

"You're paying too, right?" Awase asked.

"Forget it. I’m high-class but not that wealthy."

Manga sat in the middle of the room with Tokage leaning against his side and Monoma sitting to his left and Tetsutetsu sprawled on the floor in front of him. His bubble was warm. Content.

These were his friends.

These were the people he'd trained with, fought alongside, cheered for, and been cheered by. They'd watched him win the Sports Festival and screamed his name. He'd watched them fight their hearts out and felt pride in every one of them.

Class 1-B.

His class.

"Hey," Manga said. The room's attention drifted toward him. His bubble was simple. A smiling face. "Thanks for being the best classmates ever."

Silence. Then Tetsutetsu's lower lip trembled.

"DON'T MAKE ME CRY AGAIN, MAN!"

"I think it’s a little late to say that." Awase chuckled, because Tetsutetsu was already crying.

The room laughed.

They filed out of Star Voice into the evening air. The streetlights were on. The city lit up around them.

Twenty students. One class. Perhaps the strongest first-year class U.A. had ever produced.

But tonight, they were just teens.

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