March 20th, Machibuse Residence, 0615.

It was going to be one of those days.

Normally Hakuba would've started his day with a sarcastic comment about how he woke up before the alarm and proceed to his Sunday morning routine, but he couldn't push himself to be funny right now. U.A.'s Sports Festival would start in little more than thirty hours and he felt as if his head was about to burst.

He had been fighting the urge to vomit for a while now. The battle was not going well on that front.

He'd spent the last seven hours in bed, trying to force himself asleep. His arm still sore from wounds caused by his own Chelicerae, the dose of sleep hormones and painkillers he delivered into his own system did absolutely nothing to ease his night. He couldn't take sleep pills; his Quirk would absorb the chemicals before they had an effect, the only drugs capable of causing reactions in his body being the ones with his biosignature.

He felt terrible.

His body was tense to the point that he had to keep himself from moving to not spring a weapon from his back and shank the innocent mattress by accident.

Hakuba felt that his right shoulder was about to pop out of the socket again even if he knew that all the pain and damage were long gone. The scars he had acquired over the years itched.

Even the small amounts of light that peaked from underneath his blinds offended his eyes.

His eyes shut once more, he had attempted to sleep in vain the whole night, but he was tired to the point of exhaustion. Maybe now…

Something stirred on the back of his throat as he shifted his head to the side and adjusted a pillow between his knees.

He made a run for the toilet, barely making it in time.

He couldn't care less if he had ruined the floorboards.

Every single chelicera in his body had jolted into position, the strain from emptying his bowels into the vase not only deployed the weapons but also caused the venom sacs linked to them to force chemicals out. The pungent combination of smells quickly filled the bathroom.

It took Hakuba a good ten minutes to push himself from the latrine. He sat on the floor with his right shoulder propped against the wall, legs too shaky to stand. He was sticky from sweat mixed with the clear, thin chemical-filled liquid that still oozed weakly from his mutations.

He pried his pillow from the chelicerae on the back of his left knee with some difficulty. Poor thing was not making through today, so it barely made a difference if he used it some more right now. Hakuba placed the ruined pillow on the floor and proceeded with laying down.

The pillow absolutely reeked, but so did he at the moment so he was in no position to judge.

He would take a shower in a minute, he needed to rest his head.

-.

March 20th, Machibuse Residence, Time Unknown.

The sound of his cellphone woke Hakuba up slowly. It took him a moment to pinpoint his current position as he got up leaning heavily against the sink.

Hakuba had passed out in the bathroom floor.

"How long was I out?" he asked to his reflection in the mirror in between deep breaths.

The cellphone stopped ringing for a few moments. But whoever just called him was trying to reach him again.

The walk back to his room had proven to be very hard without support from the walls, the once smooth wooden floor now had quite a few gashes alongside the corridor that he would need to patch somehow. Likely something else he would postpone.

He picked his cellphone from on top a towel that he placed onto his desk-box, a lazy workaround the issue of his cellphone vibrating on top of the cardboard.

Momo was calling.

"Ma'am." he spoke bringing the device to his ear after he swiped the green button on the touch screen

"Machibuse-san! You had me worried for a moment, it's unlike you to not answer... I'm just calling to inform of tomorrow's schedule. Iida-san and I were informed just this morning by Aisawa-sensei, so we have been making rounds to inform everyone else." Yaoyorozu explained, the sound of papers shifting could be heard as she spoke.

Hakuba quickly moved the screen in front of his face, he needed to check on some info. He had two missed calls from her number and four unread messages. Time was now 1322, so he had been out for about six hours, not that he felt any more rested.

He quickly brought the speaker back to his ear as she started talking again.

"…event will officially start by eleven o'clock with a pledge by one of the students, but attendees are expected to arrive sixty minutes earlier in the arena as to avoid delays. We will be directed to…" Momo continued her explanation, Hakuba however was barely following at this point.

"…Machibuse-san… you are panting. What just happened? Hakuba?" She called him, concern in her voice was apparent.

"Please continue ma'am." Machibuse asked but was unable to keep his breathing down.

"No. You are not well. Don't hide it from me… Hakuba, please." Yaoyorozu pleaded through the phone.

"I… passed out earlier this morning ma'am. Woke up just now with your call." Hakuba admitted somewhat painfully.

"You what!? Hakuba this is serious! I'm calling Shoji there right now!" Momopanicked with the knowledge.

"Shoji-san is out of town since we left school Friday. He is in Fukuokka with his family and should be back only by tonight." Hakuba stopped her.

"I am going then." Momo responded without a thought.

"Momo…" he started.

"Don't. What is your address? I will take the next train to Tokyo." she interrupted, he could hear the sound of her chair falling backwards as she got up.

There was a moment of silence, Hakuba groaned as he forced himself to his feet. He knew he wasn't getting out of this.

"I'll text my address to you and leave the door unlocked ma'am. " Machibuse offered as he braced onto the doorframe.

"Please do… Hakuba, take care of yourself while I'm not there…" she asked as she hung up.

Machibuse stood still for a few minutes, slowly attempting to stand on his own.

"Gotta at least clean some of this mess before she arrives…"

-.

March 20th, Machibuse Residence, 1445.

Yaoyorozu had made her way through the suburban area in haste, barely taking in the sight. Her only stop along the way was a drug store where she procured a small amount of different general use medicaments, only to realize how giving Machibuse any kind of remedy was likely to be pointless after reaching the building he lived. Six stories tall, no elevator, something around eight apartments in each floor.

She quickly made her way towards the third floor, his door being the one furthest from the stairs she took up.

MACHIBUSE

She eyed the small sign right above the bell. Took her the good part of a minute standing in front of his door to finally move. Momo couldn't deny that she was a little bit nervous about the idea of going to his house. At least the girls didn't know about this development, she had already heard her fill of comments, especially after Ashido told them about her upcoming date.

Iida was aware of the situation as she had called asking for him to finish up with calling everyone else about the schedule for the Sports Festival and needed to explain why. He offered to come with her, but she turned him down knowing that having someone else there would get Hakuba on his guard about speaking. Machibuse and Iida were rather friendly to each other, but they didn't really have much intimacy and the former was very unlikely to explain the problem openly to anyone outside his circle of trust. It was just how he was.

She had messaged Shoji about the situation as well, he would stop by to check on Hakuba later on.

With a deep breath she pushed the thoughts away, opened the door and made her way in. She took of her shoes as she made her way through the short entrance hall when a small shelf caught her attention, a portrait of a family. The sight of a very young Hakuba with a beaming smile on his face and arms up in the air made her chuckle. He was propped on the shoulders of a man in his early thirties besides a woman of about the same age, both in formal military attire... his parents. Hakuba's mother was a quite charming woman, fair skin, coffee colored hair kept in a short braid over her shoulder, although Hakuba clearly took it more from his father, with the same hair color and complexion, Yaoyorozu could spot the similarities between him and his mother: her eyes and Hakuba's were pretty much carbon copies. The man had a cheesy smile on his face while the woman was visibly losing her patience as they tried to get the kid to stand still for a normal family picture. Two stone tablets with their names inscribed stood beside the portrait.

"I suppose your son also gives me a fair share of trouble…" Momo said softly to the stones, bowing her head in respect before she moved on towards the living room.

Yaoyorozu expected his apartment to be small, Hakuba told her that the military had a place rented for him so he couldn't expect it to be some luxurious abode. That and he always complained about not having room to exercise indoors. She was not expecting it to be so small however, she had bathrooms in her house as big as his living room.

"Machibuse-san!" Yaoyorozu called out.

From there she could have a proper look at her surroundings. The room she was in had some twenty or so feet by fifteen feet of space. It had no windows properly, but a clear glass double door that led to the visibly cramped balcony provided enough natural light. She could spot the kitchen on the far side of the living room, given the devices she could see behind the counter that divided both spaces, and there were two other doors in sight. One was clearly a cabinet and the other led to a corridor running parallel to the living room, the door held open by a cardboard box propped against it. In fact there were quite a few boxes, some tucked underneath the glass table in the middle of the room, others just laying to the sides. His television rested on top of two larger, thicker, containers.

The corridor was darker, and she could see light peaking from underneath a door at the end of it. The light turned of and the door was opened. Machibuse came through wiping his hair dry with a towel, his walk somewhat wobbly. He was barefoot as expected, on black sweatpants and with the dog tags around his neck. Yaoyorozu caught a nice glimpse of his shirtless form while his vision was blocked by the towel, his athletic physique quite easy on her eyes.

"I apologize for the trouble ma'am." Machibuse spoke as he dropped the towel down around his shoulders and stepped into the living room.

She quickly rose her eyes to meet his as to avoid awkwardness. His face was drained, he had the same tired look she'd expect from their homeroom teacher.

Yaoyorozu stepped closer, placing her bag on the couch while eyeing his exhausted demeanor. He was clearly attempting to keep his usual façade as if nothing trouble him.

"What happened?" she asked worriedly, her hand reaching for his forehead to inspect if he had a fever.

"Nausea, muscle pain and insomnia. Dehydration came as a result. Last meal was at 2115 yesterday, nothing unusual." he explained to her as if speaking to an army doctor.

"Make yourself at home ma'am, I will get dressed in a moment." He continued, turning back into the corridor, his arm propping him on the wall.

"Here…" Momo offered as he moved to his hide, throwing his arm around her shoulders.

Hakuba gave her a soft nod as she helped him make it to his room at the end of the corridor. The passageway was a little on the narrower side so that forced Yaoyorozu a little too close to his skin, she hadn't thought about that before offering her help, but luckily his room wasn't far, and he wasn't paying attention to her flustered cheeks.

Hakuba's room had more boxes, the one that had her attention being the biggest one, with a "office desk" written in bold font above a photo of said desk. On top of it there was a towel, his school supplies and a somewhat dated notebook with an envelope branded with the military symbol beneath it. Other than that his room was rather ordinary, dull white walls, one wooden cabinet, one swivel chair in front of his "desk" and his bed was only dressed in plain white and gray bedsheets. No pillow for some reason. The one window in the room wide open.

The only objects in his walls were the shamisen resting on a support and what looked like a nail stuck a few feet above the head of his bed, maybe he had a painting there at some point.

"Thank you." Hakuba said as he moved away slowly in the direction of the cabinet as to procure himself a shirt, Momo unconsciously had her eyes on his back, the small slithers for the chelicerae on his spine guiding her eyes down.

Her eyes spotted the marks on the wooden floor, causing her brow to furrow as she studied the damage.

"Took me a few steps to pull the chelicerae on my feet back. Had to dash to the bathroom and was not thinking quite straight" Hakuba explained to her as he closed the cabinet's door.

She could follow the gashes for about half the way into the corridor, when she turned back he was just finished dressing a faintly pink tank top.

"Got this mixed with the colored ones." He sighed as he wobbled back in her direction, his footing a little more stable than before.

"Need help?" Momo offered again.

"Appreciated, but the hallway is a little bit to cramped, don't you think?" Hakuba asked, his tone, expressionless as usual, had her confused if he noticed her blushing on the way to his room.

"Y-yeah." Momo stuttered as she turned quickly to the doorway.

Soon enough they arrived at the living room, Hakuba then made a detour to his kitchen and started to look for something to eat.

"Go back to the couch and rest, I will get you something to eat… You can't even stand straight; no way I'm letting you cook." Momo ordered, pulling his collar so that he moved away from the fridge.

Hakuba stared her blankly, clearly annoyed by being taken care of as if he was incapable.

""Friends worry for each other." Now stop being so stubborn, I have come all the way here to help you." Momo quoted, starting to get annoyed herself at the situation.

Hakuba resigned, pointed her to the drawer that had his cooking utensils, and made his way back into the living room, picking up the remote and moving Momo's bag to the table in front of the couch before laying face down on the leather couch, his feet sticking out over the armrest.

"Two pro-heroes were found dead in an alleyway near the commercial district of Hosu, Tokyo. Police believe that this is the work of the Hero Killer: Stain, more informa…" The newsflash just had started when Hakuba turned the television on, but he muted it halfway through.

"This Hero Killer has been an issue for a while, right?" Hakuba asked, adjusting himself in the couch so that he could face Momo.

"From what police have uncovered he started acting a few years ago, but recently he has been more active… something between thirty and forty victims have been linked to him as far as I know." Momo responded with some grief in her voice as she placed a bowl of rice into the microwave.

"You think that we are targets? He may be after All Might in a similar way to the villains from the USJ incident." Hakuba pondered as he surfed through the channels, failing to find anything interesting besides the coverage on the Hero Killer.

"Unlikely, he only seems to go after pros, limiting himself to only knock out interns and bystanders if they don't pose a threat… Where do you leave the onions?" Momo interrupted her own train of thought.

"Don't have any ma'am. Sour stuff is not my taste." He replied, finally finding something more or less interesting, some random scare movie with special effects that aged very badly. He unmuted the television but kept the sound low.

"Well, then fish and rice it is…" Momo spoke as she waited for the microwave to finish its work.

A few minutes later she came to the living room with a tray in her hands, Hakuba forced himself to a sitting position with some small effort before taking the tray. She then sat down, about an arm's length to his left.

"Thanks Momo." Hakuba spoke with a soft smile on his face as he started eating.

"So, you plan on telling me what got you like this?" Momo asked as she watched whatever movie was on the television.

"Permission to break protocol ma'am?" he turned to her with a visibly annoyed expression, his only response was a sigh followed by a nod.

"If I was to say that I don't you would make me tell you either way. We both know that." Hakuba said nonchalantly as he ate.

"…Idiot." Momo said with a scowl while pinching one of his ears.

"Ow ow ow, I am injured you know!" Hakuba complained painfully. He then explained but while one of his hands now protected his ear "The stress of vomiting causes my chelicerae to pump chemicals, so a particularly intense bout of nausea like the one I had this morning empties me out, and since I use quite a bit of water from my system to synthesize those chemicals I may end up dehydrated. I can't exactly stop the process, it's like trying to not produce saliva."

Hakuba decided to keep something out of the conversation.

"I guess that makes sense…" Momo seemed to have been satisfied by the response.

One very badly animated explosion called their attention to the movie.

"I really hope you get us a better movie for our date…" she mused with an eyebrow quirked.

Hakuba only response to the comment was a very unamused look as he continued to chew on his food.

"But…there is one thing that is bugging me out…" she turned to him, ignoring his expression "What got you to throw up like that? From what I understand your Quirk makes pretty much impossible for you to get sick."

"God dammit." Hakuba thought before putting the tray onto the table.

He sighed.

"I'm nervous about the festival." Hakuba admitted, his eyes down to the floor.

"What? You can't be serious about that. You are unsure about your skills to the point of passing out like you did?" Momo was visibly confused by his statement.

He shook his head "Not that. I'm afraid of the spectators." Hakuba explained.

Momo's eyes widened with the realization…

"I don't need to be flashy to be a good hero ma'am."

"I know that you usually are not a beacon of enthusiasm Captain, but you were making faces during the whole talk about the Sports Festival."

Hakuba had stage fright.

And he was about to be in front of the whole nation.

"Ridiculous isn't it?" He spoke without averting his gaze from the floor, his hands clenched tight. She could see blood trickling down one of his fists, he likely had pierced his own fingers with his chelicerae.

"I dropped from the military band in less than a year, turned my attention to learn the one instrument that allowed me to play with my back turned to the crowd and it did nothing. Now here I am, less than a day ahead of what might be the year's most important day and I can barely stand for myself! I couldn't even sleep thinking about the damn crowd and ended up passed out on the bathroom floor!" he continued, his expression wasn't one of sadness or grief. Hakuba was just boiling anger.

"What a fucking amazing hero I'm destined to be, what a disappointment… You came all the way from Nagoya to help me and I not even sick or injured, I am wasting your time because I am a fucking coward… Please Momo, I'm thankful for what you have done today but please don't waste your time with me, tomorrow is your chance to shine, not mine!" Hakuba turned to face her, his eyes barely holding tears.

"I not worth to be a hero…"

*SMACK*

Hakuba barely had time to register the pain from the slap he just received before Momo warped her hands around and pulled him closer.

She just held him there, his head against her chest. His whole body stiff as a piece of rebar.

"You can hear it, right? My heart? I'm alive…" Momo asked him, not really expecting an answer.

"I would have died in the USJ if you weren't a hero. Jiro would have died. Kaminari would have died… Just a week ago, you damn near lost an arm and Ojiro is alive because of it. You are a hero, to me at the very least... Don't ever say that you are not one again." she spoke softly leaning her head on top of his.

She felt his body relaxing into her arms

"Here, let me see your hand…" Momo asked tenderly. Hakuba complied, resting his head on her lap and turning sideways as she created some bandages and alcohol with her Quirk. The wounds were very shallow, apparently he just broke through the skin. Closing his hand caused the chelicerae to retract, it just happened that he clenched his hand a little too much.

"What do I do tomorrow?" Hakuba asked her with a saddened, confused expression, yet he refused adamantly to cry.

"Your best, idiot." Momo responded as she finished wrapping up the wounded digits.

"We better stop breaking down like this ma'am, we both suck at playing psychiatrist."

-.

March 20th, Machibuse Residence, 1805.

Yaoyorozu actually managed to find something interesting on the television, some show about how stuff is fabricated. She actually liked those, some gave her insight on how to use her Quirk more effectively, and she was naturally curious.

Most people found these kinds of shows to be boring. Hakuba had no opinion she could perceive as he had fallen asleep on her lap quite a while ago. Momo couldn't deny that this went a lot beyond their usual proximity and at first she felt somewhat awkward, but it didn't take her too long to get comfortable with the feeling. He was absolutely exhausted by the whole ordeal and didn't even move when she wrapped the remaining bandages around his bicep where he injected himself, the wounds were mostly closed by now, but it didn't hurt to care.

He had some few scars from using his Quirk on himself but seemed like his attacks didn't usually left lasting marks unless he slashed with the chelicerae. Ojiro's tail had some faint marks from when Machibuse caught him, but Sero as far as she knew had no vestiges from being attacked.

That was the first time she'd seen him so vulnerable, both physically and mentally. Machibuse was truly peculiar, if she hadn't noticed his condition when they spoke over the phone he would've likely spent the whole day agonizing and would still perform well on the festival tomorrow even if he needed to drug himself to make it through. There was a lot she wanted to ask him, why the boxes, what was the meaning behind the tattoo on his arm, why he never told Aisawa about his problems with the festival, how his mother had been the one to get him off the military, what she was to him…

It was unfortunate, but it was time for her to go home, and there was no way for her to get up without disturbing his sleep.

"Hakuba… wake up." Momo called, the back of her fingers gently caressing his face.

He groaned, shifting his body to the other side as he tugged on her clothing.

"Sun is already going down, I need to head home." she insisted.

One of his eyes opened slowly as he looked up, Momo could see the chelicerae springing inside his mouth when he yawned as he started to sit down.

"Fow longhf waf I sfleep?" Hakuba asked her with a very broken diction.

"Something around three hours." Momo answered, one quirked eyebrow giving away her surprise to hear him talking like that.

"Stfufid Fuirk…" he mumbled before forcing his jaw open while brushing the sleep of his eyes with the back of his hand.

They were in silence for a while, Hakuba's still tired form leaned back on her shoulder while he mustered the courage to get up.

"Are you feeling better?" Momo asked resting her cheek on top of his head.

"Much better ma'am. Just need a good night of sleep. Suppose I will push my worries for tomorrow." Hakuba answered, his usual vocabulary back but not his tone. His fingers entwined into hers as he slowly lifted his head from her shoulder.

"Thank you Momo…For being with me through all of this…" he spoke in a voice much more affectionate than she would normally expect from him.

Momo could feel her heart racing, she squeezed his hand gently.

"Hakuba…"

"Momo…"

They spoke at the same time and now both sat in silence, avoiding looking into each other's eyes, one urging the other to go first.

Hakuba turned back to her, his mouth opened…

*BZZZZZZZZZZZZ*

"Machibuse! You okay in there!?"

Shoji had to come to check on his friend.

God dammit.

…

..

.

AN: Ah the wonders of timing.

Either way, this is the last bit before we get down to the Sports Festival business. Next chapter is mostly done since I started writing it before this one, but as much as I dropped tidbits about how poor Hakuba hated the whole idea of nation-wide attention it wouldn't feel as impactful if I just revealed it with a flashback during the event like I originally planned. A whole chapter to the issue might be overkill, but at least now things will progress much more naturally.

See ya soon