New Festival, New Friendship [Kumoko & Berker]

To call Kumoko a nervous wreck was probably the understatement of the century. The poor spider-headed girl was shaking. Her legs (human and spider ones) were wobbly. It was a miracle that the girl had not tripped or crashed into something yet. She was just so nervous.

I signed up for the battle tournament. The battle tournament! Me! I'm not even a fighter! What was I thinking? I'm gonna get annihilated! And definitely in the first round too! Everyone is so much stronger than I am! I don't stand a chance!

It all started with a promise. Or well, promises to be exact. Kumoko was tired of being feeble, weak, and useless. Even if she was not necessarily any of those things, the poor girl saw herself as such. So how to convince herself that she was indeed worthy of calling herself a UA student? Why, it was simple! Hastily declare that she was going to sign up for the battle tournament and then tell all her friends about what she intended to do! What could possibly go wrong with that plan?

If there was any consolation to this, it was that her friends' words of encouragement were touching. Kenshin had even gone as far to say that he believed in her and that she could actually win the whole thing. While Kumoko did appreciate his words and promised to do her best, she knew that there was no way that she could ever hope to compete with most of the students in her year. Even if Kumoko was not literally the weakest student in the school (though she refused to believe that anyone was weaker than her), she was certainly nowhere near the top percentage of UA's first years.

What did I get myself into?

With how nervous Kumoko was (and consequently, how much her legs were shaking), it was unwise for the girl to be standing. She needed a place to sit, lest she ends up tripping for what would be the seventeenth time today. So she headed to the nearby canteen area. May as well get something to drink while I'm here. After getting a can of lemonade, Kumoko sat down on the bench, thankful that she somehow didn't trip and faceplant, and took a sip.

While lost in various thoughts (such as nervousness for the tournament, worry about whether or not she would be able to finish crafting her gear in time for the tournament, and sadness about being alone for Valentine's Day yet again, to name a few), Kumoko heard a voice. Eh? She turned around and saw a guy extend a hand out to her. Someone approaching her for a change. Even if such a thing was no longer super uncommon, it was still nice to see someone look at her and notice that running away screaming in fear wasn't their first reaction. Smiling, Kumoko shook the guy's hand. "Nice to meet you! I'm Kumoko, class 1-S. And sure, I don't mind."

So Berker was a new student. Wanting to make friends was completely understandable, and Kumoko was more than happy to help out in that regard. The poor girl could use some more friends of her own. "How do you like the school so far?" Kumoko lost count of how many new students she had shown around the school now. But still, it was always a fun time. She did not mind if anyone ever came to her wanting a tour. She was always happy to help. Anything to not be useless.

"You excited for the Sports Festival, Berker?" It was both of their first time being a part of it. But Kumoko wanted to keep her mind off of the tournament for now. She did not want to start shaking again.

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Kumoko had noticed the slow but definite progress she was making throughout the school year. While the spider-headed girl was always shy and will probably never not be shy, talking to others felt a bit easier now compared to at the start of the year. Yay, progress! For now, she just wanted to keep talking with Berker. It could help with her nervousness if she was distracted by conversation.

Unless the conversation somehow ended up heading towards the subject of the tournament. Then she was basically screwed there.

"That's great to hear!" It would be a massive shame if someone was not enjoying their time here at UA. "Omigosh, I know exactly what you mean! People actually not making a big deal about my spider head has been super relieving!" It still happened a bit outside of school, but it felt very refreshing to be looked at and not have to deal with people screaming and then fleeing in terror. Not that Kumoko could blame anyone for doing so, but it was nice to be seen as a regular person and not as nightmare fuel.

"Yeah, UA is definitely amazing. I wish I had enrolled sooner, but ah well. Better late than never, right?" And of course, the subject went to the school festival. The poor spider-headed girl of course saw this coming. And naturally, the nervousness was coming back. Not that she could blame Berker. "Y-yeah, I'm shaking too. Partially from excitement. Mostly nervousness and fear, though."

Kumoko then sighed. "I signed up for the tournament, but I'm really worried. Honestly, I don't really like fighting all too much. Not just because I'm terrible at it, and that's the understatement of the century, but I'm just way too much of a pacifist to ever be effective at combat. That's one of the reasons I'm a support student and not in the hero course." Kumoko's slightly gloomy expression then changed back to a cheery one. "But I'm determined to do my best and show everyone what I can do. Even if that means I'm very likely to not make it past round one."

Despite the girl's nervousness, despite her lack of confidence in her abilities, Kumoko still had that desire to prove herself, to show that she was not completely useless, that she could fight too.

"Sorry for the bit of gloominess there, Berker. I promise I'm not that much of a downer." Not anymore, at any rate. "Anyway, what about you? You planning on joining the tournament as well?"

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Kumoko listened to Berker's words. She smiled as he did so, as the guy did bring up a good point. Winning a fight did not necessarily mean having to fight. "Good point there." There were many ways of winning a battle. Making the opponent lose their will to fight, making them unable to fight by various means (like restricting movement or disarming them), achieving a win condition that did not depend on having to get physically violent. Kumoko liked all of these methods of winning. Now if only she were good enough to actually make it feasibly possible.

"No worries." Kumoko giggled. "Your secret is safe with me." Well that was one similarity the two had. They had their weapons, Berker his staff, and Kumoko her slingshot. Removing these limited their offensive options. Though Kumoko imagined that Berker at least could put up a good fight with his staff. The spider-headed girl was lucky to be able to do more than just try to keep her opponents at bay with her slingshot.

Kumoko's eyes lit up in excitement. "Oh, you too? That's great! I hope we get to be on the same team too!" She did not want to think about what would happen if the two were pitted against each other. That would probably not go well for her. She had no idea what Berker could do with his quirk, and she felt that asking would be quite insensitive of her. In any case, she did not want to have to fight against a nice guy like Berker. "Well regardless, I'll be cheering you on, so do your best out there, alright? I'll do the same and try my best to not screw up too much."

The poor girl's lack of confidence in herself was showing again. But there was not much she could do about that. Kumoko just didn't have a solid enough reason to believe in her own abilities. Though I guess if Berker and I do face off against each other, he could get himself an easy win. So that's nice.

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"Aww, thank you!" Kumoko smiled cheerfully. It was sweet to hear Berker's words of encouragement. "I could use all the support I can get. And yeah, I'll do my best, even if that proves to not be enough." Yeah, the poor girl still did not have much faith in herself. She was probably going to mess up and disappoint everyone cheering for her by losing in the very first round. But hey, as long as she got something from the battle, it was okay. There are no lessons in victory, but a thousand in defeat. Or something like that. ...Wait, who said that line again?

But Berker was right. Kumoko sighed and nodded upon hearing his words. "You're absolutely right. Regardless of whether or not I have a chance at winning, stress is not good to deal with, especially before the match even begins." Why did she not believe in herself more often? Kumoko wanted to believe that she was not as weak and pathetic as she thought she was. But it was not an easy thing to do. She did spend a majority of her life putting herself down due to all the bigotry and hate she got throughout her life. That was not something she could just get over in a single night.

But still, she needed to try. She needed to at least put up a decent fight, and do her best. "With how nervous I am, it's easy for me to forget that this is supposed to be for fun. It doesn't matter if I win or lose, as long as my opponent and i are having a good time." Kumoko smiled warmly. "Thank you for reminding me of that." It was silly how something so simple was so easy to forget.

"Hey, do you want me to buy you a drink from the vending machine? I don't mind, and it's the least I can do. Well, I can also sew you something if you ever want. Having a spider head, I tend to be really good at sewing things. It's actually really fun! It's my favorite hobby!" It was fine if Berker didn't want anything, but if he did, Kumoko wouldn't mind paying. It was just a bit of change, after all, so it was no big deal.

"Oh, speaking of hobbies, what do you like doing?" Because it would be unfair if Kumoko just started talking about her own likes, she would listen and see what Berker liked doing. Plus, she was curious anyway.

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Kumoko smiled a bit more cheerfully. Berker was really nice! It was a shame that she did not meet more people like him when she was younger. It would have been nice to have friends in elementary school. Oh well, better late than never. The spider girl appreciated the chat distracting her from her nerves.

"Ah okay." After the festival then. Kumoko did not mind. It would be fun to chat about how each of the two did in their respective events. Unless they somehow got paired against one another. That would be interesting to think about. Anyway, Kumoko did not mind going to the city. She was from Tokyo after all, and even though there were many dangerous encounters she had there, she had also met some really nice people there as well. Hopefully we won't need to worry about getting mugged. That would certainly be terrible! "I look forward to it!" Hopefully there would be nothing to worry about. Still, if anything did happen, she had Kenshin on speed dial. Oh, and she could call the heroes for help. But hopefully neither would be necessary.

Kumoko listened to Berker as he talked about his hobbies. Gaming, reading, and swimming, huh? They were certainly simple, but there was nothing wrong with that. "Ooh, that's nice! Games are always fun! And so is reading! I have a bunch of favorite authors, but talking about them would take all day." She then laughed nervously. "And swimming sounds like fun too. I just wish I could do that. But I found out the hard way that I just really can't swim. There are some spiders that can, but I'm not one of them." It was not fun trying to swim at the beach at the age of six and nearly drowning. Fortunately, the lifeguard that saved her was really nice.

"Anyway, what kind of games do you like? And what books do you like reading?" Kumoko wanted to get to know Berker a bit better, and even if these hobbies he liked seemed plain and uninteresting to some people, that was not the case with Kumoko. She was interested in hearing what he had to say.

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