No beta for that one, do not hesitate if you see any life-threatening mistake!
Chapter 8
"Kyoko what are you… Oh!" Nemuri stops in her course to join her friend when she spots Aizawa and the Principal passing the gym door behind her.
"Good afternoon, class 1-A!" Nezu announces in his usual chirpy voice. "I know you must have been wondering why your classmate Aoki-san hasn't been training with you all until now. I am responsible for hiding you the truth of your friend's quirk. But today, we decided to put an end to this. Kyoko will join you all in all your classes from now on. But I will ask for your support, your understanding and your help..."
Kyoko tunes him out. She doesn't lift her eyes to meet her classmates's gazes either. Too scared of what she might see in them. Pity, fear, understanding… She doesn't want any of these.
Well not really… A small part of her craves to see the fear and reverence. But that's a part she does her best to ignore. Revenge won't bring her happiness.
No, instead she keeps her eyes fixed on Nemuri's slowly approaching feet. Only once feeling her best friend beside her and Shota's imposing presence in her back, she begins feeling supported and a little more at ease. She wasn't alone in this.
She hadn't paid attention earlier, but her friend wasn't wearing her usual uniform shoes. No, instead her feet were clad in shining black leather boots. She climbs up her legs until finding bare skin. Then she doesn't find anything but that, aside from the utility belt at her hips and the open trench coat floating at her back. She turns around, cheeks red, adverting her gaze to the ground once more-luckily the other would think that she was talking to Aizawa and not hiding her flushed face. She wasn't prude or anything, but still… this was a school…
"Nemuri?! What the hell are you wearing? Or rather not wearing?" she whispered, not able to suppress the laugh coming from her throat.
"How! My hero costume of course! Do you like it? Let me show yo…" she beams, beginning to turn around. But she stops her.
Shota is watching them with an eyebrow up and throw her a quizzical look. She just waves her hand shaking her head, and turns back to face her class. This time hiding her red cheeks from him.
It was completely stupid of course… He must have already seen everything when Nemuri came to join them. Maybe even before that. But she didn't like the idea of him seeing her all but naked.
'Well… all butt naked…' 'Girl, you have to stop with your stupid puns.'
Great now she was talking to herself…
"Hey you alright?" Nemuri asked and she simply nodded with a smile.
Yeah that's it. She wants to protect her friend against teenage boys salacious gazes, that's all. It has nothing to do with Shota…
"Are you ready Aoki-san?" The principal startles her from her musings, and she notices that all the other students are retreating to the edges of the gym, leaving Gran Torino alone in the middle. Much like for their very first encounter. In this very same gym…
They all wear their hero costumes, and she realizes that she doesn't have one herself. She never even thought about it. They're all very colorful, practical, more or less revealing -Nemuri winning the big prize on that aspect.
"Yes, sir." No she isn't really, but she doesn't really have a choice. She turns towards Nemuri and Shota who both give her reassuring smiles and winks and goes to face Gran Torino on the middle of the arena. It really feels like an arena at the moment.
"So… How do we do it?" she asks as nonchalantly as possible to conceal her nervousness to the others. Her teacher isn't fooled of course, but he plays with her rules.
"We'll manifest It, see how it goes against me first, and then I'll call a few others of your classmates and see with other types of quirks."
"Okay. Let go!" Kyoko answers, taking her fighting stance and preparing to focus, taking all the aspects of her environment into account.
They're twenty-three in total inside the gym. Eighteen students, scattered all around her, mostly leaning against the walls, Nemuri, Shota and Nezu standing next to the exit, a little further, and herself and her teacher in the middle of the room. Closed space, mostly empty, clay ground, cement walls, metal beams on the ceiling and high windows. She can visualize it all, no surprise on that side. Shota is still within earshot if needed.
She's good to go.
She gives a slight nod to Gran Torino and he jumps away, so fast that she can't follow his movements. However, she begins to know his ways, so she turns around to protect her back and lifts her head, expecting to find him on one of the beams. But he knows her too, and pounces on her from the side, punching her arm violently, making her stumble and fall on the hard ground.
There It is.
She doesn't bother standing up right away, preferring taking her time to make sure she has everything in control.
"You didn't last long today."
"That wasn't in my best interest anyway." she jokes, she wasn't here to show her fighting skills after all.
Not everybody would think about joking with their adversary when lying on their ass, trapped in the corner of the room, but she could.
Now that she's sure It won't go rogue, she focuses on what she wants him to do.
She has only one opponent for now. Close range. Fast -very. Being cornered ends up being an advantage as her back is safe. So protect in front of her and above her. She gets on her feet, eyes never leaving the hero. Her quirk is standing too far for her liking, so she makes it come closer. Waiting for her teacher to make a move.
When he jumps, she knows he's going to attack from above her, he has that advantage to be able to fly for short distances, and often uses it in combat.
'Catch him.'
When she spots him coming from the ceiling on her right, her quirk jumps to catch him mid air and traps it under him at the fall.
'Hold him. Don't smother him.'
Of course the hero doesn't stop there and tries to get free. He throws punches in the creature's stomach, torso and face. She doesn't pay attention at first, but the more blows fall on It, the more sore the area feels on her own body.
'Arm lock! Hold him firmly!'
It does as he's told, but it seems like they don't have the same notion of firmly. Gran Torino's face is growing red, and he's moving his legs, activating his quirk against her quirk's legs. She can feel it too, the air pressure on her tibia.
'Release him!'
…
'RELEASE HIM!'
It finally loosens its grip on the poor old man. But It hovers over him, still wary of its enemy. She walks toward him, ready to help him to get back on his feet. She outstretches her hand for him to grab. But instead of using it to get up, he pulls her on the ground with him.
She doesn't have time to think about anything, but her black matter guardian catches her in her fall, hoists her on his shoulder and kick the hero away. Fortunately he activates his quirk just in time to avoid crashing against the opposite wall of the gym.
It's the first time she makes contact with the entity and it feels… weird. It's not cold, but not warm either. Not hard, but not comfy. It's like sitting on a metal chair but right after someone else, so it's still a little warm and charged with some residual energy.
'Put me down.'
Once on the floor, her eyes search for Shota's, and when they meet, his immediately turn red, making the creature disappear. She runs to her teacher, ready to apologize profusely, but he surprises her with a genuine proud smile.
"See, you did it!"
"But you…"
"The kick wasn't that hard, it surprised me. I wanted to catch you off guard to see what you'd do. Seems like you did not truly wanted to hurt me, and you did not. This thing the size of All Might, it could have hit much harder trust me." he said, patting her shoulder. "Go take a break while I speak with the others."
She is more than happy to obey that order. She tries to walk as right as she can, hiding her sore body to the others. She doesn't want to show them a weakness she doesn't understand herself yet.
"What wrong?" Aizawa asks her when she take the water bottle he's handing her. Of course he would notice…
"Nothing."
"Liar!" he chuckles but the concerned frown on his face remains unchanged.
"Nothing!" she catches the same frown on Nemuri's face on the other side of the gym and reassures her with a smirk and a wink. "We'll talk about it later."
She falls on the floor cross-legged and winces at the pain in her legs, thankful for her jumpsuit that covered the entirety of her skin minus her head. No one could see the bruises she could feel blossoming everywhere on her body.
"You felt it, right?"
"I said shut up!" she hisses through clenched teeth.
"You didn't say that."
"Are you ready Aoki?" Gran Torino interrupts their quarrel.
"Yes sir!" she jumps on her feet and joins him.
He was followed by a bunch of other students. Hinoe, Akira and Nemuri among them, and others, all with different types of quirks. Physical, long range, short range, psychological, element manipulation… A nice sampling.
A the end of the hour, she felt beaten, sore, extremely tired, weirdly sad, but proud. She had won almost all her battles. Two two defeat being against Hinoe, whose ghostly creation had managed to get through her quirk and blinded her -making her quirk go feral and thus being cancelled-, and against a boy who could create force fields. He had trapped her quirk inside a bubble and had easily got to her after that. And she had miserably lost the fight because of her exhaustion.
"Alright everyone, thank you for your help!" Nezu began a new speech Shota quickly tuned out. Focusing instead on the staggering girl coming in their direction.
She was pale as death, her eyes red, her legs seemed to barely hold her weight and it was written all over her face that she was growing the migraine of her life. She stood next to him during the principal's speech and until all the others were out.
"How do you feel dear? Do you want to debrief in my office now or later?"
"I'm fine, we can go now."
Why does she do that? She is at a thread of passing out and she still pushes. How irrational…
He is prepared when, after taking two steps toward the exit, she collapses right in front of him. He shakes his head in exasperation as he takes her in his arms bridal style.
"Well. I guess this means we'll talk about it later then. Take her to Recovery Girl and stay until she's awake if you can. I have a feeling she'll need it." the principal instructs him, not more surprised by her passing out than he is. He must be thinking of some backlash of the hard training session. Considering the mental nature of her quirk, the most plausible option is heavy headache, and, if indeed it has something to do with her confidence and mental strength, a temporary depressed state. And that wasn't even considering his hypothesis that she could – in a reduced intensity- feel the blows received by her quirk.
Even the most powerful powers have their weaknesses…
He carries her to the infirmary, luckily not meeting anyone on his way there. She isn't really a light-weight and he often has to arrange his grip on her and hoist her back in his arms, getting his nose buried in her brown and auburn abundant curls. They smell like vanilla and tangerine.
When he lowers her on one of the white beds of the infirmary, he shivers at the feel of the cold skin of her hands.
Recovery girl mumbles to herself as she opens the front of her jumpsuit and lowers it to take a look at her injuries. He is about to turn his face but realizes she's wearing a tank top and his eyes get lost in the maze of bruises and marks covering her usually beige and freckled skin.
More or less intense purple bruises where fists and feet had landed. Red and inflamed skin where fire had burned. Vile red marks -like whiplashes- where the boy's -Akira? - blade had cut…
Not a that all-mighty quirk at all after all…
What could they do about that? It's not like if they could design a costume for the entity or counter this with her costume…
"You'll figure it later boy. For now stay with her, she'll need it. I have other patients to see." the old woman says sternly before closing the white curtain and leaving them alone.
He sits on the chair next to her bed. He will stay. With her.
He had vowed to after all…