Chapter One: It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Breaks the Damn Mirror
I didn't realize till two days later
it was the mirror who took his breath away.
The monstrous old Victorian mirror
with the ornate gilt frame
—Paul Muldoon, "The Mirror"
I spat out a choked gasp and sit up on my bed, clutching the bedsheets like a lifeline and panting like I just ran 20 miles. My hand flew to where my right eye is, safely tucked away behind my hair. Just seconds earlier, I thought I felt the familiar texture of blood flowing down the right side of my face. I thought I smelled the thick scent of smoke and ash. I thought I saw the building shattering into a million shards of glass.
Slowly, my breathing slowed down and my muscles unstiffened. My heartrate began to go back to normal and I just sat there, staring hard at my hands. The feeling of blood and its rusty red hue was still there and at the same time, it wasn't. I heaved a sigh and clench my eye shut.
"Shit."
My name is Ejiri Chiasa.
"Ms. Ejiri?"
I am fifteen years old.
"You... wish to study in Yuuei?"
And I always felt like I lived in a mirror.
The scratching sounds my pencil made abruptly stopped and I blinked a few times before looking up from my notes to stare at my homeroom teacher. He was an older man, around 40 or 50, with graying hair and evident wrinkles. He wore those square glasses almost every teacher had and he had the most uncomfortable expression plastered onto his features.
Apparently, he makes it a habit to stick his nose in other people's business.
All the quiet murmurs stopped at once, my classmates' heads doing 180° turns towards my direction. My eye hardens. "Yes? Is there a problem, sir?" I ask, fists clenching under the table.
I hated my middle school. I hated Nabu.
My homeroom teacher flinches. "Well, there is no problem, however..."
One of my classmates piped in before the old man can finish his thought. "Aren't you at least a little bit... uncomfortable?" Me? Uncomfortable? I don't even recall this bastard's name.
"Why would I be?"
"Don't you hate heroes?" What's-his-face stated it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
My eye widened a fraction and I look back at my desk. Hate was such a vague word. I didn't hate them, mind you. They're just idiots. All of them heroes are idiots. Cowards and idiots. Just as much as the people surrounding me are.
I sucked in a shaky breath.
"Please, just don't go anywhere. I promise I'll come back for you."
"I passed the mock exams." I managed to calmly say, my knuckles white under the wooden surface. I lift a hand to slightly fix the hair covering the right side of my face, watching as some of my classmates flinch.
"Papa! Papa's in there! Why can't you go in there and get my papa?!"
"I might as well try." I lifted my face in time to see their expressions turn grim. "Besides, is it any of your business?"
"Did you tell your mom yet?"
I perk up as Shinsou sat in front of me. Lunchtime came around and after my episode earlier, my classmates aren't that eager to sit next to me. As if they'd ever sit next to me. Pretentious assholes, the lot of them. Shinsou Hitoshi was the only bitch I've ever respected in this shithole.
After I transferred to Nabu, I was assigned to sit next to him. At first, we didn't talk to each other. He didn't comment about my father, I didn't take notice of his quirk. We mutually respected each other, I guess? Before I knew it, we'd grown to be friends after a few months. The guy had it rough, rougher than me. Having a quirk like his made people feel entitled to group him with villains. Villains, of all things. I never liked that.
"Tell her what?"
"The mock exams? Yuuei?"
"Bold of you to assume I'd tell her right away."
He squints his exhausted eyes at me. "You gotta tell her someday."
I hum and take a bite out of the omurice. "That ain't today, though. She'd go crazy if she found out." I rest my head on the palm of my hand, chewing slower than earlier. "I'll tell her after entrance exams. That way, she won't be able to stop me."
"She would still be able to stop you, though."
"Shut up."
"Maybe even disown you on the spot."
"I said shut up already."
"You know," Shinsou sighed, "if I were you, I'd tell your mother about it. Exam's in ten months, Ejiri, you can't train in secret with Inukai-san any longer." I cough and look away, avoiding the fact that he was, in fact, right.
"Yes, I can. Watch me." I scoff.
"Fine, it's your decision whether you follow my advice or not." He waved a hand around, vaguely gesturing to everything all the while leaning further into his seat. "To hell with your advice, Shinsou-kun." I snort. I see him playfully roll his eyes at me and I snickered.
"By the way," Shinsou piped, "did you hear about the Sludge Villain incident yesterday?" I perk up at this; I caught a snippet of info about this on the TV last night but I didn't get the chance to hear the whole story. Something about a 'Bakuro Kazumi' or something. I can't remember. "I've heard the news here and there. What about it?" I reply.
"Apparently, two students our age were involved. One was actually held captive by the thief, while the other blindly rushed in and almost got himself killed." The purple-haired boy said. "Pretty dumb if you ask me." I snicker at his remark. The kid who rushed in probably got frustrated with the heroes' hesitation. Kudos to him. "Oh, and All Might was there." I stiffen a little at that.
"Oh really?" I goad.
"Yeah, he was tracking that guy the whole day. Thank God he managed to get him before anyone else got hurt." Shinsou continued and I clench my fists. "Yeah, thank God." I say, sarcasm dripping in my voice. "And that kid rushed in even when All Might was there? Weird."
"Alright, what is your deal with All Might?" Shinsou asked. "What do you mean?" I coyly asked. "You always act like this whenever someone mentions him in class. Do you not like him?" He asked.
Shamelessly, I replied, "Actually, yeah, I don't." He gave me another questioning look. "I just think people give him too much credit for what he does; it pisses me off. They glorify his 'many' accomplishments but choose to ignore the additional damage he did; or could do, even. I bet he got careless and lost that Sludge Villain in the first place!" Shinsou just sighs and scratches the back of his neck.
"Be thankful that I'm not one of his crazy fans or you'd be dead right now—" I cry out indignantly, "—and! I think you should try to see the guy in a different light."
"Eh?"
"I don't think All Might's that bad; you're just choosing to see him like that because you have this warped expectation of heroes." He replies. I sputter like an idiot.
"I do not—" "Yes, you do."
"Fine! I'm just saying; just because he's No. 1 doesn't mean he's all that great. Look at Endeavor, for Christ's sake." I blurt out. Shinsou just shakes his head at me. I continue my rant anyway. "The man's No. 2 but have you seen the way he acts? I thought we aren't allowed to burn trash anymore!"
"Whatever floats your boat. Come on, we gotta get to class." He pushed the chair back and stood up, as I did the same, cleaning up my bento box. "Time always passes you by in a flash, huh?" He murmured. We made our way to the corridors and halfway to the classroom, I noticed droplets of water splatter themselves across the window, decorating it in a symphony of small lights.
The soft pitter-patters of rain reached my ears and I caught a glimpse of lightning before hearing the thunder.
"Yeah," I mutter, though I'm sure Shinsou barely heard me, "time is an ass like that."
School was over in a blink of an eye and I found myself in front of my house under the rain with only the protection of my umbrella. My bag was slung over my shoulders. The plastic bag of groceries hung from my fingers. My shoes were wet. And I can feel my stomach dropping.
I push myself towards the front door and shake my umbrella, watching the droplets fall and splatter on the cement floor. In instinct, I thrust my hand into my bag to look for my keys. Hearing the familiar jingle, I bring them out and placed one in the keyhole. But, to my surprise, the door was already open. Immediately, my nerves start to tingle.
My mother shouldn't be home at this time.
I quickly place my keys in my bag and tighten my grip on the handle of my umbrella. Sucking in a breath, I turn the metal knob and crack open the door. The lights in the kitchen were on. My knuckles are white around the handle.
I quietly enter my home, the wooden planks barely making a sound under my weight. I make it past the living room and through the hallway, edging closer and closer to the kitchen. Once I got to the doorway, I suck in another breath. There might be a stranger in my home. There might be a criminal in my home. Best-case scenario, it's just Inukai-san or my mother. I don't want to think about the worst-case scenario.
"AAH—" I charge in with my umbrella high up in the air, ready to hit a man—
"Oh, you're home."
—and I find my mother, Ejiri Kaoru, sitting on a stool by the island, calmly sipping her tea. I freeze in place. How in what dimension is my mother home at 7:06 pm? "I thought you had a shift at the hospital tonight?" I ask, lowering the umbrella.
"I had the morning shift."
"Oh,"—I uncomfortably shuffle my feet in place—"I-I see."
"Why were you out so late?" Mother eyed me from behind the rim of her cup. I met her eyes and lifted the plastic bag filled with vegetables and meat. "I went grocery shopping; I thought you weren't here so I thought I'd make dinner myself tonight."
She lifted an eyebrow. "Is that all?"
I nod. She hums.
We stayed there in silence, mother finishing her tea and me standing aimlessly by the doorway. The groceries and the umbrella in my hands began to feel heavier as I began to feel my stomach dropping further. I know mother acted distant ever since papa... passed but she was acting even more... distant now. To alleviate the awkwardness that stunk the air, I cough and slightly shake the plastic bag. "I'm gonna go change. I'll make dinner right after, alright?" I announce. Mother nodded.
"If that's the case, I'm just going to step outside for a moment." She said in return. "Wait, it's raini—" I shout and before I could protest further, she was already out the backdoor. I know I saw the pack of cigarettes in her hand.
I sighed and went back into the hallway and up the stairs. After papa was gone, mother and I became... let's just say, distant. She became an emotional wreck and I was drowning in my own grief and hatred. It didn't take long for us to separate emotionally and neither of us even attempted to connect again. A part of me regrets that. Another really wishes that the world would just burn already.
I changed to my normal clothes— a t shirt and shorts— and run downstairs to prepare dinner. By the hallway, I catch picture frames hanging on the wall. Some of them were of us with papa. Some were of me and Inukai-san. I smile.
I got to work in the kitchen.
Dinner was quiet as usual. Mother was slowly chewing the tamagoyaki I prepared. I was anxiously watching her eat the homemade meal over the rim of my bowl of rice. An unfamiliar sense of dread had made itself comfortable in the depths of my stomach. I didn't know what made me this way. Mother's silence wasn't out of the ordinary. I would say that it was the norm whenever Mother ignores me. But her distant eyes, the tense shoulders— I know there's something wrong. And I was almost too scared to find out.
"You make decent tamagoyaki." She suddenly piped up and I jumped in my seat. "Huh? Uh, thanks, I had to— you know— learn, since you had the shifts and—" I stammer and wince. Was it really the wisest decision to bring up her absence in my life? Mother just watched me run my mouth. In the corner of my eye, I see her face darken. It could just be my imagination.
"How's school?" She asked and I shut my mouth in surprise. This was unexpected. Taking another bite out of the tamagoyaki, Mother stared at me with dull eyes. I blink. "Uh, fine, I guess." I answer. "You're still hanging around that Shinsou kid?" She asked. I nod slowly, not really understanding what's happening. I stand up and take the now empty plates to the sink, a million thoughts running through my head. Why would mother suddenly ask me about school?
"So, I heard you passed the mock exams."
"They were fairly easy." I respond in instinct.
She had something else in her mind, I know it.
"So, you'll be taking the entrance exam next?"
"Yeah, in ten mont—" I freeze in place, realizing the error I had made. She knows. She knows about Yuuei. And she managed to pry it out of my mouth in 5 seconds.
None of us moved an inch. I couldn't breathe. Her burning glare bore itself into the back of my head. I knew she was angry. I knew she was thinking of ways to drag me to my room and chain me to the bed. Because in this house, heroes are taboo. Mother didn't want anything to do with them.
"You had no intention of telling me, did you?" She glowered.
"T-that's not—"
"Tell me."
I stammered. I knew she would act like this. "I…" I choked out but I found myself faltering. Her stare felt like acid corroding my skin. God, how is it possible for anybody to have a gaze this intense?
"I didn't." I murmured, sure that my mother wouldn't hear me. Unfortunately, as if all gods from different religions seemed to find my misery amusing, she did. "Did your father's death teach you nothing?!" I heard her scream, the chair's legs screeching and a loud crash sounding right after. I didn't need to look behind me to know that the chair fell over.
"You stubborn girl, I told you! Do you want to end up just like your father?"
"No."
"Chiasa, look at me."
I can't. I can't meet her eyes.
"Look at me."
I slowly turned to her, my body stiff and shoulders as tense as a cord holding onto a 100-ton weight. My mother's face was red. Her breathing was ragged. She was fuming.
"I forbid you from going to Yuuei."
I saw this coming. I should've been prepared. But actually hearing the words, actually realizing that even my own mother doesn't want me to be a hero; it devastated me. It made me shake. It made me angry.
"No." I said.
"What?" She whispered.
"I'm going to Yuuei whether you like it or not!" I added fuel to the fire.
"You stubborn— Chiasa, listen to me—"
"I'm going to graduate from Yuuei!" The fuel bled into each word. Tears brimmed at the corners of my eyes.
"I'm going to be the number one hero!" The gasoline keeps pouring out into each letter that escapes my mouth.
"Why do you want to be a hero so badly?!"
This is it.
"I..."
The fire has been lit.
"I want to be better than them."
It felt like everything was shifting. Like everything was changing. My mother, my house, myself. I knew that after today, after I get into Yuuei, everything's going to change.
"I want to be better than those heroes who failed me and my father all those years ago!"
I hear the mirror shattering.
END OF CHAPTER ONE