-This is made by Starrshard on Ao3 and Wattpad, please check them out. I have been given permission to upload this to, as they do not have an account on this website-
The next morning, Shouto awoke to someone desperately rapping on the door. Instantly on edge, he roused, carefully slipping out of Izuku's loose arms and tucking the blankets around him tighter.
After the commotion the previous sunrise, he wasn't all that eager about another situation arising. Approaching the door, he glanced back at the jadette's sleeping form, wondering what would happen if this person awakening him were a killer, or somebody dangerous, before warily calling, "Who's there?" to the person beyond the door.
"Shouto, thank god you're there- It's Mirio- there's something wrong with Tsuyu! Come quick!" The Ultimate Hope's voice was panicked, and his words were coming out much too fast.
"Alright. I'll be right with you," Shouto replied steadily. He quickly strode over to the desk and scribbled a note for Izuku on the notepad. "Mirio called me. Something's wrong with Tsuyu. Be back soon. Don't worry. -Shouto." The Theorist quickly left his room after that, nearly running into the taller blonde in the process. "What happened?" he asked, shutting the door as softly but swiftly as he could as to not wake up Izuku.
"Tsuyu... she attacked Mezou... said she wanted his strength... real weird... come on, I think they're still going at it in the cafeteria!" Mirio explained breathlessly before dashing off again. "Come on!" Shouto hastened to chase after him.
When the two finally reached the third floor, Shouto could instantly hear screaming and the crashing noises that signaled a fight. Over the ruckus, he suddenly heard one feminine voice stand out in particular.
"I want it... I want your power, your strength! I want it all!"
Tsuyu, Shouto realized. Her voice was so angry, so loud, and so harsh that he couldn't even recognize it for a few seconds as he picked up speed, anxious to see what had happened and what damage this newly-crazed version of the girl had done. Mirio and Shouto dashed into the cafeteria. In the center of the room, with tables and chairs knocked over around them, were Tsuyu and Mezou, still duking it out.
Tsuyu leaped at Mezou, kicking at him and blocking his hits with swift and agile motions. Mezou was keeping perfect pace with her, blocking and punching. Tsuyu appeared to be on the losing side, though, as her chest was heaving with exhaustion. Her constant screams of nonsense and power aren't exactly helping her keep a steady breathing rate, Shouto noted. Her clothes were battered, the ribbon in her hair askew and loose. On the other hand, Mezou appeared to be unscathed by the frog girl's unprovoked attack.
Around them, at the edges of the cafeteria, several people hovered to watch. Denki, Tooru, Mashirao, Hitoshi, Tamaki, and Nejire were spread out along the wall, observing the fight anxiously but too fearful to jump in, since the risk of getting hurt between the two hostile fighters was extremely high. They didn't even have a certified nurse among their ranks, so a broken bone or bad scratch could turn deadly in days.
"H-Hey! Knock it out, you two!" Mirio and Shouto leaped into the fray, Shouto easily restraining Tsuyu -considering their large height difference- while Mirio grabbed Mezou, hauling the two apart.
"What's gotten into you?" Shouto yelled at Tsuyu. The frog girl turned her head, and he suddenly found himself staring into a pair of cloudy, glaring green eyes.
Swirling green eyes... filled with despair.
As Shouto moved to secure a stronger grip on her, pinning her arms, he realized that the girl's skin was extremely warm; uncomfortably so, even. When he rose one hand to test her forehead, he realized that it was burning with fever. "She's sick," he spoke up. "She's not in her right mind."
"Thhhaaaaaat's right!" Monokuma suddenly jumped into the cafeteria, wearing a stethoscope around his neck and a nurse's cap. "This is the Despair Sickness!"
"This... this is the Sickness you mentioned as your motive?" A confused-looking Hitoshi spoke up from one side of the cafeteria. "How is that supposed to work?"
"That's exactly right!" Monokuma ignored the violette's second question. "It's a specially engineered illness designed by yours truly! For every day until there is another murder, another one of you will be -at random- inflicted by the illness! It is not contagious, and each case is different!" Monokuma grinned, flashing his pearly teeth. "Symptoms will vary, but they will all alter a person's personality to some degree! And because I'm a kind bear, I'll tell you a bit about them!
"Tsuyu here's case involves the symptoms lust, greed, and envy!" Monokuma paused to grin. "I'm clever, aren't I? I gave her symptoms from the Seven Deadly Sins!"
"It just proves you're incredibly uncreative," Hitoshi muttered, but the robot ignored him.
"Anyway, have fun dealing with her! Toodles!" Monokuma ran off again, and Shouto vaguely wondered why the bear had even bothered to bring the nurse's equipment.
"Um... what should we do with her?" Mashirao asked slowly. Shouto was starting to have trouble keeping Tsuyu down, so Mirio came over to help pin her arms. Mezou had already left in solitude, standing and watching by the door with a cold expression. He regarded Tsuyu with a particular icy glare; it was obvious that he was tired of being the target of hostile female classmates.
"We should keep her in solitude with someone she won't attack, to prevent her from going insane in her head," Tooru suggested, her voice small and wary.
"That's a good idea. Let's take her back to her room, then," Hitoshi said. "Who should we keep with her?"
"Nejire, maybe? She's her friend," Denki suggested shakily, his voice small.
"She may get envious of Nejire's beauty. I mean, she is the Ultimate Beauty Pageant Star, so that would be a problem," Hitoshi said.
"How about Mirio?" Nejire herself suggested. "Both of them tried to stir up hope in this group, so they're equal. Mirio even lost his quirk before the rest of us, so Tsuyu may see herself as superior."
"But Mirio's also strong," Tamaki pointed out. "Like Mezou... and you saw how that went. And... I don't know how Tsuyu's lust symptom would come into play if she's alone with a guy..."
"As far as I see, I'm pretty sure her 'lust' refers to her lust for others' power," Shouto spoke up. "Like how she wanted Mezou's strength. It's a powerlust, not sexual or romantic lust."
"What about Yaomomo?" Hitoshi suggested. "She's... tame. And her wealth has been put out of play by the game."
"But her title suggests it," Tooru interjected. "I think the best candidates are me, Tamaki, Denki, and Hitoshi."
"You should go, then," Denki spoke up quickly. "I mean... you two are kind of equal in power and stuff..."
After a bit of discussion and assigning Tooru the role, the two girls were locked in Tsuyu's room.
"We'll figure this all out," Mirio assured Shouto as the Theorist headed back to his room to find Izuku. "There won't be any killing. Once the villains realize the illness isn't doing much, they'll remove it."
Shouto nodded in agreement, but in his heart, he was hesitant. Would the villains really give up that easily? Look at what lengths Monokuma has gone to before for motives, imprisoning our families and such... it's unlikely they'd give it up that quickly.
I wonder what's going to happen...
Over the next few days, more people fell ill, as Monokuma promised.
The next was Tamaki. Nejire had arrived late to breakfast that morning to fetch a tray of food.
"Tamaki's sick," she explained while picking up bagels. "The Despair Sickness."
"What are his symptoms?" Shouto asked, curious.
"Uh- he's very anxious and distressed- Mirio's with him right now, but I gotta run," Nejire said quickly. "We're going to stay with him in his room. You guys, remember to deliver food to Tsu!" With that, she ran off as quickly as she'd come with a basket of fruit and baked goods.
Mei was next.
"Hey, Mei, are you sure you're gonna be able to eat all that?" Tooru asked the pinkette as she sat down. The Artist had swapped places with Hitoshi for the day to give her a break. "Besides, why did you come down to the cafeteria anyway? I thought you said you were gonna stay in your lab..."
"Nah. Got tired. Hungry." Mei immediately began scarfing down the massive plate of food
"H-Hey! What's up with you-? Stop eating so quickly, you'll get yourself sick!" Tooru attempted to stop Mei by grabbing her by the shoulders. She immediately winced back as soon as their skin met.
"What? What's wrong?" Shouto asked in concern.
"Mei... she's burning up!" Tooru wailed. Mei was oblivious to the ravenette's anxiety as she continued to devour her breakfast.
"It's the Despair Sickness," Mashirao commented from across the table. Shouto felt his stomach drop.
"We're going to have to isolate her," he said. "Um... Eijirou! You can accompany her."
"Why me?" the redhead asked softly, his eyes glazed over.
"Because-" Shouto stopped himself short. Eijirou was still in a state of grief over Katsuki. It probably wasn't a smart idea to put him in charge of another human being when he wasn't even capable of really taking care of himself. "Never mind. Mashirao, you take care of her. Make sure she doesn't overeat and get herself sick."
The next to grow ill was Izuku, much to Shouto's dismay.
The already sickly boy was instilled with wrath. Shouto decided to stay in his own room with his significant other, which proved to be a mistake.
"Hey, Izuku, what are you doing?" He reprimanded the shorter jadette, who was ripping apart a pillow. The ill boy turned, his eyes set in a dead glare, before he leaped at Shouto, who was promptly caught off guard and brought to the floor.
Shouto huffed, expecting it to be easy to push off Izuku. He'd been awfully weak before the Despair Sickness had taken him, so it was a surprise when he found himself unable to pry him off with minimal force. Left with no other option, Shouto twisted and kicked him off, sending Izuku tumbling to the floor next to him.
"Ah- are you oka-" Shouto hadn't even gotten back to his feet when Izuku jumped him again with a savage snarl that resembled an animal more than a human. Shouto dodged this time, sending Izuku diving into the floor. He scrambled for the door, racing out and hastily shutting it before he freed the apparent beast now living in his dorm. He swiftly locked it from the outside, since his and Izuku's keys were both in his pocket.
That night, he fell asleep in Izuku's bed, worried about how much longer the boy's physical body would be able to handle the Sickness.
He barely recognized the creature in his room now.
Yaomomo became sick the day after that.
"Yaomomo, what's gotten into you?!" A horrified Hitoshi was pinned to the wall under the ill Affluent Progeny, who had unbuttoned the top of her blouse and was rubbing against him like a cat. Mashirao rushed over at that moment to fight her off, kicking her away. She tumbled to the ground and began to advance forwards again in a crawl.
"It's today's Despair Sickness victim," Shouto said sadly, watching the formerly elegant, refined hero he'd come to know reduced to a less bloody rendition of Toga.
"We better lock her up," Mashirao insisted, standing protectively in front of Hitoshi, who'd since risen and was eyeing Yaomomo suspiciously. "Who should we put as her guard?"
"Someone tame, clearly," Nejire said. She was in the cafeteria, happening to see the commotion while grabbing food for Tamaki again. "Umm... what about Denki?"
Shouto considered her choice. While Denki was still grieving over Kyouka, Yaomomo was -had been- too. Perhaps he'd be able to handle her company, even if she was a bit wonky in the head.
"Denki, do you think you can do it?" He turned to the electric blonde.
"Um... I'll try," Denki said slowly, eyeing Yaomomo nervously.
It didn't work out at all.
"She... she attacked me..." Denki was shaking when he told the assembled group what had happened. "You know... Um..."
"Okay, it's alright. Sorry, Denki. I should've remembered her symptom was lust," Shouto said apologetically to the poor Electrician.
"So we can't give her a male guard. So far, she's only tried to assault two people, Hitoshi and Denki. They're both guys, so what if we gave her a female guard?" Mashirao suggested.
"It's worth a shot, but there are no girls left who aren't sick or already guarding someone," Hitoshi pointed out.
"Then let's switch out Nejire or Tooru," Mirio spoke up. He was off guard duty and attended the meeting.
"How about Nejire? I mean, Tamaki also has you," Shouto asked.
"Sure. I'll go get her right now." The blonde was already halfway out the door.
The change of gender in guard did not deter her at all. Nejire escaped the ill girl with the same traumatized story as Denki, so the class decided to leave Yaomomo alone instead.
The next day, Mashirao succumbed to the Sickness.
Shouto didn't even see the tailed teen in person; he just woke up and went outside when he ran into Denki, who informed him that Mashirao had fallen ill and he was taking over as Mei's guard.
Apparently Mashirao's symptom was pride, and he had been chattering since he entered the cafeteria, delirious, rambling on and on about himself and how great he was and how everyone else was terrible in comparison. Hitoshi was Mashirao's guard, which made sense, but Shouto wondered if even the Psychic would be able to take the noise, come tomorrow.
That night, as Shouto collapsed in Izuku's bed, he couldn't help but wonder.
How much longer can we go on like this?