Ride Along (Jaz)

You know, when it came down to it, Jasmine wasn’t really someone who you’d consider… a morning person. Not in a traditional sense, at least. Normally, people considered as such were able to proactively control their moods. It was just one of those things where like… you could visually tell who was good with mornings and who wasn’t. That dude in a suit walking along the sidewalk with a dumb shit smile on his face at 6AM? Yeah, definitely a morning person. His wife probably decided it was high time to clear the cobwebs too, but that was another story altogether. That one girl with perfect make-up and nice hair just as obnoxiously early? Yup, she was undeniably a morning person too.

People like Jaz, though? Jesus fucking Christ, you did not want to mess with her this early in the morning. Yeah, she did wake up early on the regular. So much so that some people actually considered her a morning person. But in her case it was a little… different. Jasmine in the morning was basically a fucking storm without the calm before. With a face of an angry lion and a glare enough to kill, her aura a burning fire of utter rage, Jasmine would wake up early, before class on the daily. Every. Single. Fucking. Day. Why? Routines. Routines, routines, and yet again routines. She was a ball of chaotic angry early in the morning, so much so that even the sight of a dozed off Rin didn’t help. And you know what she did? She focused that anger (shit was pretty useful… almost like therapy) in the weightlifting room. Honestly there was some debate among Yuuei staff in regards to how the fuck some of the equipment hadn’t been broken yet. They were pretty damn sure she had snapped a bench press bar once. Whether this was true or not, though, Jasmine wouldn’t elaborate. Unless you asked her at six in the morning. Then she’d probably snap you in half.

The blonde lioness had been just as irritated this Saturday. Yeah, it wasn’t six AM – it was actually ten AM on the dot. But it was still a Saturday and thus way too fucking early. Even as she was sipping on her coffee in their dorm room, Rin having gone the heavens only knew the fuck where, she was struggling not to crush her cup in half. The simple sight of her bed, messy and unkempt (since of course she was way too fucking lazy to make it… that and had she tried she probably would’ve just passed the fuck out again) was enough for her to reconsider her decision to wake up this godawfully early. There was just something about mornings that she utterly despised.

The lone Noir had forsaken her training routine for this one day, though, and there was a very specific reason for it. Something which, she thought, was more beneficial than her letting her anger out on 25 kilo weights. No, today she was meeting with a Pro Hero. After several fights too many, Jasmine had ended up in the infirmary of the Semper Fi area. Nothing too major – just a few sprains and bruises that were a little worse than usual and thus needed looking at. She had somehow ended up in the same ward as none other than Red Horn – a Pro Hero that was… well. A pro that was quite like her in many ways, different in others. Suffice it to say it didn’t take long for them to get along quite swimmingly. Before she knew it, Jasmine had ended up calling the older blonde at some point or another, talking, discussing shit and, before long, the two had set up a meeting. It wasn’t anything super major, mind you… then again it wasn’t some kind of coffee get together either. Mia would go out on her usual Pro Hero patrol shtick and Jaz would simply tag along for the ride. Red Horn had told her that Jaz would have to stay back from most of whatever happens, but for some reason the blonde lioness had caught the glint of an unspoken don’t worry, you’ll be able to bust a skull or two, boomy from the older woman. If she wasn’t imagining things, boy would Jasmine have what to release her morning anger out on.

So without really staying in her dorm room for too long lest she get an angry aneurysm, Jasmine Noir quickly collected some of her stuff in a backpack, shoved on a long white blouse and tight black jeans ripped at the left knee which she tucked into a pair of black combat boots. She unbuttoned several sections of her blouse to give herself some breathing room before she slipped into a leather jacket she kept unzipped – it was chilly, but not cold enough to make her overdress. Before long she was close to the place, bobbing her head to the music ringing into her ears from her earphones. Her hair bad been tied into a pony-tail, a few strands of golden hair messily falling over her forehead. She glanced up at the large apartment complex in front of her, blowing a strand of hair away from her eyes. This was the place, right?

When she entered and began wandering around, her question was finally confirmed when she saw the tall woman walking out a… was that…? Jaz sighed, shook her head and snickered, all in that order, “Yeah, naw, you just make sure red here doesn’t,” the blonde lioness replied, helping herself straight in and going for the coffee pot as instructed, dropping her backpack in the hall and kicking off her boots as she went. Almost like she was right at home, really. Honestly she could do with some more coffee. And as she began brewing herself a cup, she spoke pretty much without looking back at Mia: “She looked like fun.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jasmine said with a nonchalant shrug, the mess in Red Horn’s office/apartment/whatever the hell this was nothing she hadn’t seen before. Honestly Jasmine wasn’t necessarily the messiest person around, but her room, before Rin had moved in, had its fair share of messes. Mostly because Jasmine would only come back to change clothes and throw what old stuff she was wearing into a random corner. Before long she would wash all of it and clean up, of course, but it was just… after having come from NYC where she used to live with ten people at a time, living in a room all by herself had been… well, it felt way too unnatural for the blonde’s liking. And don’t even get her started on how much of a fucking mess that was. She was surprised how quickly she had gotten used to the smell of old socks. “You should see my room before my roommate decides it’s time to kick my ass into cleaning gears,” was the reply offered by the blonde. And it was… sort of true? Like, all things considered Jasmine was a pretty organized individuals. Messes made the air feel stuffy now that she had gotten used to living decently. But honestly there was no way you could call her the poster girl of clean.

Anyway.

Jasmine continued brewing the coffee, paying close attention to the process. She had crashed for a little while at this bar when she had nowhere else to go at one point – the owner was nice enough to offer her a bed upstairs provided she earned her keep, which more often than not resulted in her working behind the bar, serving clients. She’d learned to mix a plethora of drinks, bartending strategies, how to put on a show, you name it. One of those skills was learning how to brew a decent make of coffee, too. That and, well, after her training with Aeris with the traditional Japanese tea making ritual, Jasmine had quite a few soft skills under her belt. Which, unfortunately, she wasn’t able to show considering Red Horn had little to no ingredients for something outrageously amazing… then again the Pro Hero could’ve probably tasted that the coffee was a little better than usual. Jasmine was good with portions – water, sugar, milk, all of that shit. Luckily after a quick investigation of Mia’s fridge it looked like the woman at least had milk.

Before long Jasmine returned with two cups and sat down on one of the chairs, right in front of the other blonde woman. She left her jacket on top of the backrest and got herself comfortable. She checked her phone – 11AM, a few missed calls here and there, several texts – one, surprisingly, from Principal Kobayashi. It was probably some one-liner telling her to get her ass into the gym. Yeah, he could wait.

As she took a sip from her coffee, the blonde lioness glanced up at Red Horn. A short snicker left her, “You’re talking to a seventeen year old who, not to brag, isn’t exactly the most decent broad around, which is probably fairly obvious. So, frankly? Unless you tell me you’re into the very literal backdoor dirty, I don’t really care.”

“Yeah, that’s one way to put it,” Jasmine admitted, a small smile on her face as she leaned back into the backrest. A small sigh escaped the blonde as she stared at the cup of coffee in her hands, mind momentarily drifting back to when Rin first moved in. Jaz had been… she didn’t know what she had felt at that particular moment. It was a mixture of confusion, happiness and… skepticism. When school had just kicked into gear, Jasmine never really felt at home in her dorm room. The place was technically hers, supposed to be considered her home, but at the same time it just felt so… barren. So devoid of life. Everything that should’ve made the room hers was just… missing. It was like nothing of that room actually made her belong as she was used to living in cramped spaces with tons of other people. And then she received a room far too large for her to know what to do with. On one hand it had felt incredibly lonely – just staying at that quiet room at night, lying in bed without hearing anyone else breathing in close proximity to her was just… unnatural. And then, on the other, it felt like Jasmine simply didn’t deserve the luxury she had received. The whole idea behind her coming to Yuuei was a mixture of two goals. First – escape. To leave the streets of NYC in chase of a life that was better than the seemingly bottomless downward spiral she was used to. The second? Improving. She needed to improve so she could return and clean up the streets. That was her main objective. That was always what she aspired to do and that hadn’t changed to the date. But when she stepped one foot through the door of reaching that objective, everything just felt utterly wrong. It was why she was struggling so much. Why she had borderline quit Yuuei within the first two weeks after being unable to sleep, fighting herself day in and day out trying to figure out if what she was doing was the right thing.

Then? Then came Rin.

She hadn’t gotten along with the president of 1A at first. Heck, from first impressions alone Rin just came across as this meek girl without a personality, barely worth a lick of anyone’s attention. They were stark contrasts of one another and had been avoiding each other for the most part, sticking to their own guns for most of the starting period of school. There had been one occasion where they were forced to work together – Yuuei hadn’t exactly been prepared to take in the students yet so the two girls were tasked to fix up the gym before any physical education got underway. Things went smoothly enough… until they found boxes with all kinds of random props lying around. Some schmuck had fudged up the deliveries and instead of delivering the necessary inventory – specifically weights and equipment of all kinds – they delivered what looked like arts’ school junk for drama class. Shit was fun, for the most part, though incredibly random. Jasmine couldn’t even remember the details, nor the last time she laughed so much. Speaking of, that was probably where Rin got the idea for that dumb but on some level adorable Ringuin shit she never shut up about. Halloween needed to never be a thing, she swore to God.

After that things pretty much went on business as usual, it was just that the two girls started saying hi to each other whenever they met in the hallways. Jasmine didn’t stick her nose into Rin’s business, and Rin left Jasmine to her own devices. It wasn’t until that one particularly painful meeting with Vespa and her motherfucking bees that Jasmine had been in a real pickle. The girl, stung to shit by a bazillion bees, battered and bruised, likely with a freaking concussion on her hands, had pretty much passed out in front of the Yuuei dormitory, too tired to even walk. The blonde lioness couldn’t tell you whether it was dumb luck or whatever deity that controlled fate laughing in her face, but Rin just so happened to come across a sprawled out Jasmine. She helped her up, nagged at her – something which she consistently does to this day, by the way – and led her back to her dorm. Then she did something which honestly now Jasmine realized was something of a hallmark of the little Raven. Since the reason Jasmine was hurt was because of things that would’ve very likely gotten her kicked out of school, the blonde lioness couldn’t exactly ask the infirmary for help. So the dumbass by the name of Rin went ahead and got stung by bees just so she could get some fucking medicine. Like… who in the seven holy fucks does that? One thing led to another, Jasmine found out a little about what Rin was going through in her home, and… well. Jasmine couldn’t tell you what it was. Pity, her own sense of justice, or the simple need to save this little twat… whatever it had been, Jaz had offered Rin a place in her dorm room, and Rin had accepted whole heartedly.

It was quite a fun series of memories, now that she thought about it. And considering what that little start between Rin and herself had led to… it was a curious thought to ponder. Never did the fiercely prideful lioness thought that she’d be domesticated by a baby raven too scared to leave her nest.

A little lost in her own thoughts, Jasmine jumped a little when she heard Mia’s voice again. God, this really wasn’t the time for nostalgia. She sipped on her coffee as her mind drifted back into reality, focusing on what the older blonde was saying. The lioness snorted at her words, nodding quickly thereafter, “Yeah, can’t say I’ve had any experience with that since, y’know, being a minor and all. Despite looking beyond my age, I never really wanted to get anyone into trouble,” she said, shrugging, “then again I can see where the appeal’s coming from. The longer you let it build up, the stronger the explosion’s going to be.” As Jasmine said this, she lifted her hand, letting sparks and crackles dance along her arm before a miniature explosion let out a plume of smoke from her palm. She showed Mia a toothy and cheeky grin afterwards.

She swiped a piece of toast that was lying around, munching on it without much thought, “So…” she began, “what the fuck does a Pro Hero do on the daily?”

“Shit, my bad,” Jaz replied, giving Mia a somewhat sheepish chuckle to boot. Yeah, this wasn’t at all the time to be going through a trip down memory lane. While taking a dive into nostalgia was very often very fun, this time around was honestly the wrong place and time. She had other things to focus on, namely this… mess of a Pro Hero she was going to shadow for the day. Well, mess wasn’t the right word. Jaz was pretty sure Red Horn was handling life about as well as she was – you took it day by day, did what you could, made sure life was fun and worth living, and you enjoyed.

The lioness snorted, the image of a very particular and very spicy redhead coming to mind, “I’m not exactly sure you can consider her a nerd but yeah, I’ve had my adventures at school. Don’t tell anybody though, shit might get me in trouble.” Jasmine then shrugged at the latter part of Mia’s sentence. Honestly? Yeah, she herself never thought she’d find herself in such a predicament, namely the one with Rin. The normally unruly lioness had always been a prideful, independent creature who stuck to her own guns. She figured it was going to stay the same all throughout her years at Yuuei, but… the way things were going now seemed like it wasn’t going to go how she thought it would. Whether that was a blessing or a curse, however, remained to be seen.

I wonder what’s the pay like… the blonde thought to herself as she grabbed her jacket followed the older woman and casually waited for her, leaning back against a wall with her arms folded beneath her breasts. She was playing with her leather jacket’s zipper as her mind wandered. She was making progress. Finally. Yeah, Jasmine tried to make progress every single day. Training, dieting, studying, you name it – all to adhere to the system set out for her and improve based on its requirement. She went above and beyond the call of duty, of course, training even further beyond what was required of her just so she could reach the goal that she had set out for herself – being the best. But now…? Now was a little different. Yes, it was the same type of ‘improvement’ but… it was a direct step towards what Jasmine herself wanted to do. She was about to see what an ordinary working day looked like for a Pro Hero… and boy did that get her a little excited.

“…” Jasmine had… well. Not that she lacked words (she never lacked words, really), she just… there was this thing she was told. Something along the lines of if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all. Was it that bad? Nah. And did Jasmine actually follow the advice other people gave her, doubly nah. Thus Jasmine ended up blinking. Once, twice. Then she snorted, “It’s… bandages, pants and sandals,” she said, looking the taller woman up and down, “I mean it seems oddly fitting but… that’s a hero costume. Huh.”

Jasmine snickered with some amusement at how Red Horn got a little frustrated over her own hero costume… or, well, lack thereof. The blonde could understand the appeal of one, even if she didn’t much care for it. Your hero costume showed who you are as a Hero. It was supposed to show character, how you’re different from everybody else in the pack, what made you unique. Much alike the art that she used, a hero costume was a way to express yourself. Her previous comment about this costume being “just some cloth and pants” was more of a joke than anything, really. In some ways, this fit Mia. Simple and plain, yet at the same time confident and bombastic, basically showing that she did what she wanted, how she wanted it. Plus it showed off quite a decent amount of ski – or rather, bulging muscle – which, from what the lioness had seen, was the reason for a good portion of Red Horn’s reputation… or notoriety. Both were pretty accurate nouns to describe this particular Pro Hero.

The lioness, now having realized that they’d very likely be moving soon, was half-way done with tucking her pants into her boots. Having fixed the laces and tucked them in as well, she stretched much alike a cat, moaning when several of her joins popped and cracked. Without much further ado the girl slipped into her leather jacket and slung her backpack over her shoulder, then glancing at Red Horn to ask what they were going to do next…

…when the answer pretty much came without her having to ask it.

“Fun way, huh…” the younger female in the room mused to herself, humming quietly when a window panel begun sliding open. The wind this high up immediately burst into the room, making the few untidy locks of her hair flail about in front of her eyes. She grimaced and blew the strands out of her face. Shrugging, the girl very quickly rummaged through her backpack, for one reason or another having brought her own ‘hero costume’ with her. To be fair this hero costume wasn’t anything more than a simple suit modified with some defensive capability and utility. It was a work in progress that she was still working on, thus, what she was really searching for were her gloves.

She pulled the item out before dropping her backpack to the ground. They were two long arm gloves. Fingerless, made of a specific type of reinforced leather modified to be able to accommodate her quirk. Her knuckles were reinforced with Kevlar plating – for obvious reasons - and the arm glove itself was like a suspension sleeve that ended at her mid-bicep, with more Kevlar padding at the elbow – for more obvious reasons. The leather material itself had been heavily modified, now capable of actually utilizing Jasmine’s quirk as though she was releasing it through her skin alone. That and the fabric was very lightly heat and friction resistant, meaning that Jasmine herself wouldn’t be injured by her own explosions. The suspension system of the gloves also helped the girl control the recoil better – something that she would forever find useful.

As Red Horn dove into the skies, Jasmine quickly rolled up her jacket’s sleeves and slipped her bitch-black arm gloves on – the left forearm of which had her usual golden flaming heart engraved on it. Hefting her backpack over her shoulder, Jasmine fixed her aviators before exploding into a sprint, heading straight for the window. Before long, she leaped forward. Like a swimmer diving into water, she launched herself diving into freefall, a wide grin spreading across her face as the wind made her golden locks flail wildly. Eventually, as the ground started to come closer and closer, she spread both of her arms. A loud explosion sounded off. Then another. And another. Jasmine’s body darted from one side to another as she tried to correct her trajectory. Finally she started her ascent again, bouncing along the air by using her explosions. Fast, graceful, free and loud, a wide grin was on Jasmine’s face as she flew by Red Horn, spinning as she did so, “No idea where we’re going but you best keep up!~” Jasmine cooed, her voice and grin cheeky as all hell. She gave a lazy salute as she fell over the edge of the building Mia was standing on, almost as though she was about to fall to the ground… until one more explosion saw to it that the girl was launched a good five stories into the sky.

If there was one thing the blonde loved more than hitting the highway with Bumbleby, it was flying. This was something she just wouldn’t ever get properly used to to the point that it got boring. Ever.

Without a care for the world, Jasmine simply did her own thing, soaring through the air like a hawk. Her explosions, at her beck and call, violently carried her along the air. Building after building was either overshot or avoided altogether. The lioness' movements were fluid, arranged, organized... to some degree even graceful. Ironic, given the borderline barbaric means that were used to achieve flight. And yet, the teenager had the smile of a child plastered on her face as she took flight, her wild blonde mane flailing wildly into every direction as she spun, flipped, and performed a wide variety of parkour-like acrobatics mid-air just to keep her momentum going.

The way Jasmine moved couldn't exactly be described as flight. Not in the literal sense, anyway. Simply put, Jasmine used the energy that was generated in the aftermath of her explosions to propel her into whichever direction she so chose, and by aiming high, she was able to consistently maintain her frame above the ground. Her 'flight' seemed more like a 'bounce' as every chain reaction set off by her Quirk kept gravity at bay, pushing it into the ground and stomping on it with a heavy boot easily. Every time she would reach the apex of the the arc her explosion created, she dove down into the streets below. Her eyes wide, burning with excitement, a grin spreading from ear to ear firmly plastered on her face. She screamed in wild excitement as she nosedived into the street. Before long, an explosion below softened her descent enough so she could reach out to a near lamp post without the risk of ripping her arm off. Grabbing the metal frame, she used it to redirect her momentum, spinning around it like an acrobat before launching herself forward, flying across the street.

Feeling this sense of freedom washing over her, Jasmine's glide was redirected sky-bound, a large explosion below her form launching her from the streets and above the buildings, the girl spinning to increase the velocity and fluidity of her movement. She could only laugh, really; sometimes that was the only way one could express how happy and... free they felt. Free from responsibilities. Free from rules, restrictions. Free from all the bullshit keeping her down. It was just her and the howling wind around her.

Even the grounded, wild lioness had the capability of soaring... and boy did she love to spread her wings.

Finally crimson eyes caught the sight of Red Horn dashing along the rooftops. Jasmine redirected herself so her explosions carried her towards the pro hero, the two now barreling along the rooftops of Tokyo side-by-side. Glancing at the woman after a few... well, rather close calls with walls, Jasmine nodded, "Lead the way."

Before long the two of them had finally settled on top of one rooftop overlooking the more... well, dodgy part of town. A slum-like area close to Kabukicho, Jasmine hadn't really had the pleasure of exploring this part of of Tokyo. Standing on the edge of the roof of the run-down six floor building they were on top of, Jaz glanced down at the streets, then back at Red Horn, "All you, horny."

"I'm waiting then," Jasmine replied as she turned over her shoulder to glance at Red Horn, a small smirk on her face. The blonde lioness had been crouched on the edge of the building they were on top of when the Pro Hero had finally seen something out of the social norm. A loud smashing sound a little ways away from the two females, making them both perk up at the sudden disturbance. Jasmine was a little surprised to see how quickly Mia acted, jumping up to her feet to mirror the older blonde. Jasmine leaped off of the structure and launched herself after her would-be partner, releasing several smaller and quieter explosions to propel her onto another rooftop. As soon as she landed she rolled to a halt, gritting her teeth a little at the sudden action and how the abruptness of it sent a small spark of pain along her ankles.

Standing up straight, Jasmine observed as Mia descended onto the pavement below, cracking the concrete below as she landed. Leaning over the edge of the building, Jasmine's keen lilacs observed the scene unfolding before her, her mind instantly screaming at her to go join in on the fight, but the more rational part of her brain telling her that it would get her - and, more importantly, Red Horn - in likely trouble because of all the dumb rules that had been set out for her as a part of the student body of Yuuei. Fucking rules.

"The fuck did you just call- oh, shit," the "battle toad's" eyes instantly widened when he saw exactly who had suddenly decided to make her entrance. First he noticed the legs - holy mother of fuck this person didn't skip leg day. Then the hips, the stomach, oversized chest, blonde hair, and the horn. The first indication he received were her muscles, then her sheer size, and then that goddamn unicorn-looking horn that told him everything he needed to know. A Pro Hero. None other than the one who busted skulls with less effort than she needed to and with so little care for her targets that the fear of God was immediately plastered all over his face.

"Don't you fucking move!" He growled out, darkened eyes narrowing dangerously as he hopped over the counter of the store, grabbed the owner by the neck, and shoved his gun against the man's temple, "You turn your testosterone around and walk away. One wrong move and he's dead, you hear me?!"

Jasmine had heard the exchange. Even a ways above them, her ears were enough to give her a clue in regards to the state of things. Thinking fast, the lioness jumped over the edge of the building, using the many stairs of the metal fire escape to guide her way down. It didn't take her long to quietly land outside the store, near the main window where she had a glorious view of the entire spectacle. As far as the lioness knew, Red Horn didn't have any ranged abilities to deal with this without endangering the store clerk, and even more so the blonde figured Mia wasn't fast enough to close the distance between them fast enough either. She had to think fast, and think fast she did.

Her eyes narrowing and turning crimson, she pushed two of her fingers against the glass of the store, focusing her quirk as she did so. The heat emanated from the collecting C2N14x was enough to slowly melt a small hole in it, just enough so Jasmine could push two of her fingers through it. Her focus going through the roof, Jasmine released one of her famed finger gun blasts - small, precise, and aimed directly at the gun the "battle toad" had aimed at the store owner. The sound was there - albeit quiet - but it was far too quiet and the blast far too quick for the villain to react in time. Within a second, the blast knocked the gun out of the male's hand from where Jasmine had remained unseen, thus giving Red Horn the green light to pummel the bastard into oblivion.

...Just please don't destroy the store... too much, she thought, fearing that the store clerk might be angrier with them than the perp when everything was said and done.