The clattering from the front door wasn't loud, but it caught my attention. My guardian was home after a long night of defending the public. I continued making his bed.
"Get up Nora!" he called from the living room of our apartment.
"I'm already up Shota." I mumbled as I placed the pillows back at the top of the bed. I heard him shuffle to his bedroom door.
"What are you doing in here?"
"What does it look like?" I questioned turning to him, "I'm making your bed." he lifted a hand to his head.
"Slept in here again?" I nodded and picked up my jacket from his desk chair. "Sorry I wasn't here. Let's get going before all the coffee is gone." he finished, turning away. I followed him through our small apartment, grabbing my bag on the way out.
It's been a little while since I had slept in his bed, but I hadn't had nightmares for years and I didn't know what else to do. They probably started again with the stress of school. After being homeschooled for my entire life, being around other kids my age was a shock. Shota has had to keep me under close supervision since we started, but I can see it wearing on him. I tried to keep quiet as I noticed the extra fatigue.
"You've been awfully quiet lately." he stated as we walked to the school, "Are you mad at me?" It was an odd question. I had never been mad at him, for anything. We weren't particularly close for a guardian and ward, but I suppose that was to be expected when you aren't related. I don't think that when he saved me he had expected to get custody of a child.
"Why would I be mad at you?" I asked him back. He was surprised by my question, but kept walking. I guessed that he had gotten his answer since we didn't speak any more for the remainder of our walk. Once at the gates, I stopped and took out my medication, Shota continued on into the school to get his precious coffee. While I took in drags from my vaporizer, the class golden retriever called my name. Kirishima Ejirou waved as he walked closer, calling out his greeting. I shyly waved back and continued smoking. When he had finally arrived, he fidgeted with his hair and stood in front of me.
"No matter how many times I see you use that thing, I still think you're just smoking." he laughed a little and I smiled back at him.
"I know, it's a weird way to take medicine." He smiled back and suggested we walk in together, but I told him I wanted to take a bit more before class and he went on ahead. In the week since school had started, he did his best to be nice to everyone and make friends, but I didn't think it was a good idea to get close to anyone. In just the few training exercises we'd done, I had difficulty controlling my quirk. There had already been two incidents in which I could have killed them.
A few more drags and I followed in behind my classmate. Most of the class was already there by the time I walked in; they got out their notebooks and pens to get ready and I took my seat. Bakugou, the class delinquent and loudmouth, shouted behind me and I felt it ring in my ears and deep in my head. By far, he was the most difficult person to tolerate. I covered my ears and shifted my head down, closing my eyes tightly. His intensity burned in my neck and shoulders, pressing a weight down on me as though I were subjugated before a king. I breathed heavily and tried to push out the extra noise; I put my head up slowly, the pressure steadily sitting atop me.
"C'mon man, just relax. You'll get to explode all you want at training later!" Kirishima told Bakugou, lightly slapping him. Bakugou growled in response. Shota came in and began homeroom class as Kirishima sat back down. My classmates moaned and groaned through the day of class, though I mostly found time to doodle or read. There was nothing else to do while I was homeschooled, so I had already done most of the work for first and second years. Being in the school was a matter of getting used to being in public; Shota was sure that that would be the biggest struggle, so he always pushed me through my schoolwork. I was in the process of drawing a cat when Shota walked into the classroom again and announced that we'd be doing hero training off campus that day. The others cheered as we gathered our respective cases that held our hero costumes. I still wasn't happy with some of the changes the designers had made, but it was moveable and that was what mattered. All I had wanted was some cargo pants, combat boots, and a long sleeve top for clothes and while they did give me combat boots, they were thigh high and just barely met the "cargo" shorts. My midriff was revealed from the cropped, tight long sleeve top and I was forced to look at the scars from my childhood and recovery. Thankfully my gear hid my face with a mask; it was outfitted as a support item to help aim a long range attack and hide my face from others. I hid the rest of my face under a baseball cap as the embarrassment continued to take over my face.
As we stood outside of the bus, Iida, the class representative, tried to corral all of us together. I sighed and fidgeted with the hem of my shorts. Somehow the design company had managed to pinpoint the areas on my thighs and rib cage that had some of the biggest scars and I still wasn't used to feeling the warmth of the sun on them. I felt my skin crawl with a lecherous stare on my body and found Mineta gawking over my revealed skin. Infuriated, I used my quirk to make a mace of solid shadows and turned to look at him. I lifted the mace up and caught another part of the shaft with my other hand.
"If you want to keep those eyes, I'd look somewhere else." I said glaring at the pint sized cretin. He yelped and hid behind our nearest classmate: Kaminari. A joyful boy with just as many raging hormones, Kaminari looked me over and thought he'd shoot his shot.
"He definitely went about it the wrong way, but you do look totally hot in your hero costume Kagekiri." Kaminari said, giving me a thumbs up. The other boys near him-Sero, Kirishima, and Bakugou- all stared at him incredulously. In response, I lifted the mace and caught it in my other hand again, making sure that the boys in front of me could hear how heavy I had made my weapon as it made a loud clap against my hand. Kaminari's face fell and he slowly lowered his outstretched thumbs up. Sero gulped, Kirishima tried to shrug it all off, and Bakugou cackled at his classmate's failed pick up attempt. I made my weapon dissipate and walked toward the bus as Shota had us load in.
I chose a seat in the back away from everyone else near a window. We were heading to the disaster simulation center-the USJ- to practice rescue drills. It was supposed to be a routine day, but my life soon took a sharp left turn. While I had hoped no one would sit next to me, I had the misfortune of sitting next to Bakugou. After scanning the various seats left once he had entered the bus, his eyes landed on me for a second time and he scoffed lightly before walking towards me. As I saw him approach, I turned my head to look out the window and began fidgeting with the laces of my boots. I felt the shared space jostle as he flopped into the seat. His legs pushed out, invading both my personal space and the islway, as he made himself comfortable manspread in a poor attempt to assert dominance. Our legs touched from just above the knee, all the way to the soles of our boots for almost the entirety of the ride to the facility. Many of our classmates talked and even got a rise out of him, but I stayed quiet, focused on watching life happen around us. After his short outburst, he sat back down and readjusted his legs; this time just making sure that our legs touched. He was trying to get under my skin. He can smell the weakness on me and is trying to intimidate anyone since his old punching bag is well liked. I knew that Midoriya was a quick favorite for our classmates; even I liked being around him, he was enthusiastic and full of hope, so it was easy for me to be around him. Without intense negative emotions, I can be around anyone-that's why Bakugou is like some terrible karmic joke.
The vast majority of people don't experience backlash from their quirks, but there are some of us out there that use our power at a price. Some people just have aftershocks from large attacks like Ururaka's queasiness, but mine takes some of my sanity. My quirk feeds off of negative energy that we try to hide. The more negative emotions someone harbors, the more powerful my shadows are; however the more powerful the shadows, the deeper those voices sink their claws into my mind. Harboring that energy can make me powerful, but the longer I do it, the more I lose control of myself. If I can't resist them or have too much pent up, I lash out and hurt others indiscriminately. In other words, Bakugou will likely be my end.
My plan going into school was to avoid anyone that might be trouble like this, but it seems that Shota has other plans for me. The muscle sitting just beneath the surface of my skin began to tremble; I was beginning to get overwhelmed again. I took a few deep breaths and closed my eyes; my exposed skin felt like ice and I moved my hands to cover my legs. There was a warmth next to my thigh and I opened my eyes. Bakugou was watching me from the corner of his eyes and I did the same to him. The warmth from his leg on mine was helping, so I just tried to breath through the last few minutes of the bus ride.
Once we were off the bus, I made sure to put some distance between Bakugou and I. His anger in combination to his inferiority and superiority complexes was starting to vocalize in my head and I didn't want to hear him. If I'm too close and not releasing the energy, then I'll hear the emotions that are weighing people down. And that's where the medicine comes in- it's weed. Nothing else numbed my senses while letting me be somewhat normal, so that was the solution: train while I'm stoned until I'm able to handle myself.
As Thirteen introduced us to the facility and the purpose of our training that day, our lives went to shit. A warp gate opened and scores of villains flooded the central plaza. Once Shota realized that this was a real invasion, he flew into action. I have never doubted him for a moment, but as I watched him race toward the fight, I felt tears spill onto my cheeks. Thirteen rounded all of the students up and tried to protect us from the warp villain, but many of us were still spread out. I stayed at the top of the staircase, watching the only person I knew as family run to protect us. Thirteen called to me and Midoriya gently guided me to the group by the shoulder. However, as I joined the rest of the class, the warp villain appeared and started the age old monologue revealing that they were here to kill All Might. I could feel the fear pulse through my classmates and I let out a breath only to find that I was materializing shadows.
Bakugou, always the loudmouth, threatened the villain and Kirishima, the ever optimistic ray of sunshine, agreed. With that, the boys went to attack the villain, but once the smoke cleared, the warp villain spread us out over every corner of the USJ. I found myself in the landslide zone with Todoroki Shoto. He was an enigma; quiet but always seething with rage under the surface and in this moment, I got to see him unleash it. He froze every villain in front of us and berated them for losing to children. I fended off the villains coming from behind us by creating my signature scythe: completely made of shadows with a ten foot shaft and six foot blade. It only took three swings to take out some of the bigger men coming at us from behind. I could hear the ice cracking as I turned around to check on Todoroki. He turned back to me as well and I saw the rage quiet in an instant.
"Are you okay Kagekiri?" he asked as he raised his right arm to freeze another villain whose face landed directly in his hand. I gripped my scythe and nodded my head. He turned his head towards the villain and I saw the cap on his rage fall once more. "You're all pathetic and I would love nothing more than to get rid of you." Todoroki stated as he walked to another human popsicle, "Lucky for you guys, I want to be a hero; so I'm going to need some information." he held his hand up to another villain's face, "You'll want to be quick about it too; frostbite sets in faster than you'd think."
I watched on as a grown man whimpered at the threat of a 15 year-old. He told us that there was a weapon the group was planning on using against All Might, but it was hard to imagine that we hadn't seen said weapon. As Todoroki's sadistic side took hold, I gently took his shoulder and motioned to walk away so we could talk. I told him what I had been thinking concerning what we had already seen.
"Don't you think we'd have seen a weapon like that? It has to be one of the villains that came in."
"You're right, but it isn't any of them. If we can defeat these losers, then they must be hiding the guy they plan to use as a weapon." I nodded in agreement.
"We should head to the plaza." Oddly enough, my direction was met with a somewhat confused glance. "Not only does EraserHead need help, but that's likely where this weapon is. If they're planning on using him against All Might, they'll want him close by when he inevitably shows up." He thought about it for a moment, then agreed. After lessening the ice around the villains just enough to keep them from dying, we ran to the plaza, where I would find a terrible sight. Shota, under the terrible creature we would come to know as the nomu.