A special thanks to PhantomNyktos and Aki Ahmya!
Really, your support has been amazing and I love the reviews you guys always leave for me! It really makes my day.
/
Kirishima Eijiro felt uneasy. Anxious, like a string had been wrapped around his heart and a hole had been carved in his gut. Despite the lingering heat in the summer night, Eijiro felt cold somehow. Like he had been submerged in hot water all day until it was uncomfortably cold. All these negative emotions, they all sucked.
His eyes dragged away from the main entrance of the hospital to the concrete path they stood on.
"I wonder what Yaoyorozu decided…" Eijiro mumbled.
"Well, no matter how restless are, it's up to her." Todoroki said from his left.
The door to the hospital opened and Eijiro's attention was snapped away in an instant.
"She's here." He mumbled in surprise and steeled his nerves. Yaoyorozu had a serious look on her face as she approached them, but when the girl turned her glance behind her, Eijiro spotted Midoriya trailing along.
Kirishima took a small settling breath and calmed those anxious emotions, "Yaoyorozu… What's your answer?"
He felt that nervousness and frustrations begin to build up in his gut as he watched the hesitation cross Yaoyorozu's face. "I-"
"Wait."
The loud, familiar voice surprised Eijiro. He spun in the direction of their Class President in surprise. What the hell? Why was he here all of a sudden? Probably to try and stop them, maybe Iida would threaten to tell the teachers or the police… There was really nothing they could do if Iida decided to go to Aizawa-Sensei about their reckless plans…
"Why?" Iida muttered in frustration, "Why'd it have to be you guys of all people? The ones who stopped me when I acted recklessly for personal reasons… You two, who received amnesty with me… Why are you trying to make the same mistake I did? It's too much!"
Amnesty? The same mistake?
Eijiro stepped forward, ready to confront their Class Rep about whatever he had thought they were gonna go out there and da, "What are you talking about?" A hand grabbing at his shoulders stopped Eijiro from acting any further. Kirishima glanced back to Todoroki who had stopped him. Was Todoroki a part of 'those two'?
Now that Eijiro thought about it, wasn't Todoroki, Iida, and Midoriya all hospitalized after the incident in Hosu City? The dots all connected at that moment and Eijiro figured out exactly why their teacher had been so subtle about some things recently. Saying things Eijiro had just brushed off at the time.
Iida's mistake. Hosu City. Hero Killer. Iida's brother…
Yeah, Eijiro was a little disappointed in himself for not figuring that much out earlier. They had actually fought that crazy bastard. Not just some minor incident that the police and media had made it out to be, it was probably a lot more serious if it had landed those three in Hospital for a few days…
That was why Iida was so furious about their decision…
"We are still minors." Iida had mumbled.
Whatever had happened in Hosu had sparked an awareness in Iida, that mush was clear enough. That was why he was desperately trying to stop them.
"U.A is in a bad enough situation as it is. Who will take responsibility for your actions? Do you understand that?!" Iida's body shook and Eijiro was hit with a sudden wave of guilt.
"Iida, it isn't like that." Midoriya stepped forward. "We don't think it's okay to break the rules either-"
One solid right swing landed on Midoriya's cheek. Eijiro cringed in a mixture of understanding, sympathy, and anger. Eijiro knew Iida was feeling overwhelmed and obviously a whole lot of other emotions, but punching Midoriya was just uncalled for.
"I'm frustrated! And worried! It's only natural!" Iida's voice rose loudly yet still shook and wavered from emotion, "I'm the Class representative! I'm worried about my classmates! And not just Bakugou and Niwa, when I saw your injuries, I also saw my brother on his sickbed! What if your bodies end up irreparable like my brothers because of your recklessness?"
There was nothing Eijiro could do as the confident class rep broke down in front of them.
Iida grabbed onto Midoriya's shoulders and continued to crumble, "Are you saying that you don't care about my worries? Are you saying that you don't care about how I feel?"
So… Their class rep was thinking these things all along? How… relieving.
"Iida." Todoroki spoke, catching Iida's attention, "We don't expect to face them head-on and win either. We'll extricate him without fighting."
"In other words, covert action!" Eijiro couldn't help the small smile, "That's the way we students can fight while toeing the line on the rules!"
"I trust Todoroki." Yaoyoroza added, "But, so that I can stop them if anything happens, I plan to go along with them as well."
Eijiro grinned widely, in other words, she fully didn't trust him and Midoriya. Only Todoroki. Well, he was happy enough with that.
"I don't know, either," Midoriya said, his tone laced in frustration, " But after hearing that I could still reach, I couldn't just sit still… I can't help thinking that I want to save him!"
Eijiro watched their class rep filter through his initial emotions of surprise, frustration, resignation, and finally, determination.
"We can't come to an agreement, then?" Iida sighed, "Then, take me with you, too!"
Eijiro's eyes blinked wide and his mouth dropped a little in surprise.
Well… That was unexpected…
The group headed off down the streets and made their way toward the train station. While they were moving along the path, Iida took the time to stop and apologize to Midoriya for hitting him. Shortly after, both of their class reps stressed that they were only coming along with this mission to keep the rest of them in check. Eijiro gave a little grin at the two most formal students of their class. Even in times like these, they sure were reliable.
According to Yaoyorozu, they would need to catch a train to Kanagawa that leaves in the next thirty minutes. Kanagawa was near Tokyo so the train would take a few hours, two maybe?
Eijiro brought himself a couple Onigiri for the trip since he hadn't eaten anything since that early lunch. Really, even Onigiri could be the best tasting thing when you're hungry.
Midoriya leaned forward on his seat across from Todoroki, "Um, did you tell everyone that we would leave tonight?" Midoriya asked.
"Yeah." Todoroki replied and shrugged once, "They tried even harder to stop us when we told them, though."
Eijiro pushed the rice to the corner of his mouth and spoke around the mouthful of rice, "After that, Uraraka said something harsh too." He swallowed his food before repeating the same words Uraraka had spoken earlier that afternoon, "I think Bakugou will feel humiliated that he had to be saved by everyone…she said."
Eijiro went back to his tuna-mayo riceball, his eyes flickering over to Todoroki sat beside him when the dual-powered boy sighed loudly.
"Just to make sure, you know that what we're doing is selfish and no one wants us to do it, right?" Todoroki picked at the chicken in his bento box, "You can still turn back if you want to."
"If I was hesitating, then I wouldn't have said I'd do it in the first place." Eijiro frowned as his thoughts trailed to his missing friends, "Those two aren't the type to let villains just do whatever they want to them."
"What about you, Midoriya?" Todoroki turned to the curly-haired boy.
"I… I cannot turn back."
Damn, that was manly.
"Alright, I get it." Todoroki went back to his food after having finished with his little interrogation.
Kirishima starred out the window of the train, munching on his second rice ball, it felt like eating was all he could do to make himself feel any better. It filled his stomach and comforted the uneasiness lingering in the back of his throat. He hadn't wanted to get rid of these feelings. That's why he hadn't eaten all day… But now he would need his energy. Just in case. Just in case something happened, he kept telling himself that.
"Doesn't it seem like Niwa's fixated on Bakugou?" Todoroki asked and Eijiro nearly choked on his damn rice. Eijiro received a half worried half confused look from the double-Quirk guy as Kirishima hacked his lungs into his hand.
Kirishima squinted through tears his chocking had raised and glanced over to Todoroki who had reignited his interrogation.
"Now that you mention it, Todoroki…" Midoriya hunched over with his fingers to his mouth, covering up his voice so that his mumbling was even less likely to be heard.
Meanwhile, Eijiro chuckled nervously, "Uh, yeah? I guess…"
"You mean you haven't noticed it?" Todoroki asked in pure confusion and Eijiro started dying on the inside. Damn it! Why did Todoroki feel the need to be so damn curious now of all times!
Eijiro avoided Todoroki's stare and glanced far out into the darkness of the night beyond the train's glass window.
"What do you mean, Todoroki?" Yaoyorozu asked in confusion, "Niwa, Bakugou, and Kirishima have all become very good friends. Along with the others… I wouldn't say she's entirely fixated on just Bakugou. She is very aware of others, after all."
"During our fight in the Sports Festival, Niwa was different," Todoroki mumbled.
"You mean her Beast-Mode?" Eijiro jumped on quickly, really hoping to change the conversation topic.
"Beast-Mode?" Todoroki asked in confusion.
Eijiro shrugged, "That's just what Bakugou and I have been calling it."
"In our match," Eijiro deflated at his failed attempt to steer Todoroki off-topic, "She clearly wasn't in her right state of mind, but somehow she was perfectly capable of keeping up with all my attacks. Yet it felt like she was starring at something else, like a goal that was just out of reach…"
"Perhaps she just wanted to win the tournament?" Iida said confusion.
"Did you watch the re-runs of their fight?" Todoroki scoffed and leaned into his seat, "She didn't care at all about the Sports Festival. Otherwise, she would have won that obstacle race."
Midoriya blinked up to Todoroki and Eijiro figured the best thing to do was just keep his mouth shut and let them go over it on their own. "I've had been wondering why she let me take first place. You don't think she figured out there might be a trap for first place?"
Eijiro couldn't help himself as he snorted his amusement loudly, gaining the attention of the other three while Todoroki glanced up to the roof.
Eijiro grinned. Yeah, Bakugou had complained on and on about how much of a bitch he thought she was during the sports festival so Eijiro knew all the little details.
While Eijiro succumbed to his snickering, Todoroki sighed and explained how Niwa was actually a very petty person when someone pissed her off. It was difficult enough just thinking about what Bakugou had already whinned about, but hearing Todoroki's side of the story? It was almost impossible to contain himself.
"They've become adept at handling eachother's poor personality traits." Eijiro tunned back into their conversation just as Iida finished speaking.
And despite everything, just thinking about the two of them was enough to ease his worries.
"Yeah, don't know why it surprised me when she confessed to him."
. . .
. . .
. . .
Oh, he was so dead.
Eijiro panicked after the three beats of silence that it took for his classmates to process the words that had fallen out of his mouth.
"Confessed!?" Midoriya starred wide-eyed in absolute shock and the rest were in similar stages of comprehension.
"No, no, no. That isn't what I mean!" Eijiro waved his hands about furiously as he tried to cover up his own stupid mistake.
If either of those two devils found out… Would Eijiro ever live to see graduation…
In the words of his friend, Bakugou… What a fucken idiot.