Boku no Hero, Hibari Kyoya! Chapter 10 (wow…) Also, you know what really sucks? When I started writing this (this whole story, not just this chapter) I was really optimistic about getting all caught up with the series before s4 came out but… oh well.
Disclaimer: I own nothing in this earthly plane.
Thanking everything holy and right in the world, Kyoya woke up without a clinging former hitman on his side of the bed; though he did wake up to the most ungodly sounds of snoring he had ever heard. It sounded like some kind of deranged love child between a chainsaw and grinding metal, and it was nearly directly in his ear. He looked to the offending noise and cringed back at the sight of his teacher drooling onto the blanket/barrier they had erected out of necessity last night. Kyoya stared at the man for a moment and then decided he had heard enough of the noise.
He kicked the man in the stomach as he sat up, watching the man tumble off the bed and land against the wall with a very satisfying 'Smack'. Kyoya wasn't sure which person he had woken up like so, but he knew that both of them could glare at him like that – though really all he cared about was the fact that the noise stopped.
"What in the name of Chaos was that for, Kyoya?"
"Ah, Reborn, lovely. Now that you've woken up, how about we start figuring out what to-" Kyoya was interrupted by a flying pillow to the face. There was a pause in the morning as the pillow defied gravity for a miniscule eternity to remain on his face before sliding off and landing on his lap with a soft 'puff'. The two old souls stared at each other for a full minute before Kyoya whipped the pillow back at the man, who then caught it, and the stare continued.
Without a truce even considered, both stood, pillows at the ready for a fight to end all pillow fights when the doorbell rang with the single most perfect timing either of them had ever heard in their multiple lives. Neither man looked away, telling the other to go get it with their glares alone when the doorbell rang again, this time accompanied by a loud voice calling for them – specifically Aizawa. Reborn scowled, knowing that he had lost this one. Kyoya smirked and made a shoo-ing motion at the man.
Reborn literally growled as he slunk off to go answer the door.
"What." He deadpanned as he nearly ripped the door from the hinges. There, in all his glory, was the loudest person (Ryohei included) Reborn had ever met, and self-proclaimed best friend of Aizawa Shota's, Yamada Hizashi. Dressed down in civilian clothes and without his speakers, the man looked shocked yet happy to see him. But in the quick seconds it took for him to register that Reborn/ Shota was practically naked at a students' home, his face began morphing to scandalous.
(It looked really weird with his omni-smile.)
"Sh-Sh-Sh-Shota! Wh-Wh-What?! Why are you-?!"
"You woke me up. This is how I slept. Would you like to come in, or at least tell me why you're here this early in the morning?"
The other man took a moment to blink at Reborn. "Oh, you're the alter, Re… Re something, right?"
Reborn sighed. "Yes. I'm Reborn. Now, will you enter, or will you leave? I'm closing this door at the count of 3."
Hizashi laughed like Reborn was telling a joke, and let himself in. The outrageous man removed his shoes like the typical polite Japanese man he was, and Reborn started to casually walk back to the coffee maker he saw Kyoya use the night before. Hizashi whistled as he looked around the very (so very) small space that was the 'kitchenette'. The noise must have drawn Kyoya from the bedroom, and the teen appeared, completely dressed for the day and looking a lot tamer than he had moments before.
If he had been anyone else, he would have done a double take at there being a Third Person in his space. As it was, Kyoya sneered distastefully, before glaring at Reborn in disbelief.
"You let a stranger into my home?"
"You call this hole-in-the-wall a home?"
"…touché. Now move aside. Get dressed and I'll make coffee." Kyoya side-checked the man out of his way, and Reborn sneered, but moved none-the-less, trusting the teen to need coffee as much as he did, and that Kyoya wouldn't spike it just to spite him.
"You two hardly act like teacher and student." Hizashi remarked, laughing in his normal boisterous tone. Kyoya growled lowly.
"You want coffee in a mug or in your lungs?"
"… A mug is fine."
10 minutes later found the three of them squished into the 'main room', sitting at the little table with mugs of coffee steaming in their hands. Hizashi took a sip rather than commenting on how tiny the space seemed, and another sip to swallow the question of how they slept – because while he was sure Shota wouldn't do anything with a student, he didn't know much about this 'Alter Persona' named Reborn, aside the fact that this alter liked to hurt people a lot more than Shota could stomach.
"I know what you're thinking, Hizashi, and I want to tell you that I am offended that you would even think that of me."
"Wha- really?" Hizashi just about chocked of his coffee.
"It's written on your face; I bet even Kyoya could read it." Reborn muttered into his coffee.
"Read what?" Kyoya asked with a smirk, head tilted in 'innocence' as he looked to Reborn and waited for the man to answer him.
"See?" Hizashi interrupted, swinging the coffee mug at the other man. "Even the kid doesn't like your mind-reading skills, Reborn!" He laughed boisterously.
Kyoya sat straighter the moment he heard the name roll off the loud man's lips and blinked between the two older men for a moment. Hizashi seemed to take that as Kyoya being confused by the foreign name, as the blond man smiled and fidgeted a bit in his seat.
"Ah, since you two are going to be living together for the foreseeable future, Himura-kun, you should probably know… ah, how to put it…"
"He knows about my Dissociative Identity Disorder, so don't worry." Reborn interrupted mildly, taking another casual sip of coffee. He had said it into the space, telling the both of them the same thing with two very different meanings. To Hizashi, he was merely letting the other man know he didn't need to make a fool of himself, and to Kyoya, well…
There was a lot to be read there, and they would have to have a real conversation about it, but it was summed up as 'He knows about me and Shota, but not about our past. Don't ask right now.'
Kyoya felt the caffeine begin to work while Reborn caught Present Mic-sensei up about their living situations, and that they needed a hotel but that the teacher didn't have the money for it.
"Why not expense the school?" Mic-sensei asked lightly, tilting his head.
"I was thinking that… I'm going to call Nedzu this morning and see what he says – or more likely, where we can go that would directly bill the school for our stay."
"Thankfully, it's the weekend right now, so we don't have to do this and worry about classes at the same time." Kyoya interjected. Reborn nodded with him. Abruptly, Kyoya hummed as he set down his coffee.
"Oh by the way, do you think I can still participate in the Sports Festival?"
Hizashi pouted in confusion. "Why wouldn't you be able to?"
"Last night." Reborn deadpanned. "You were there. At the meeting. When Kyoya made that comment to the principal."
Hizashi furrowed his eyebrows a moment before a lightbulb seemed to go off in his head. "Oh! Right! When he said that all animals that defy orders – oh. Yeah, sorry, kiddo, I don't think you'd be allowed to participate."
Kyoya looked at him, thoroughly unimpressed with the nickname, but he made no comment on it – especially when Reborn snorted as he tried to hold in a laugh.
"Why did you want to know?" Reborn said instead, trying to change the subject enough that Kyoya wouldn't try to hit him with an eyewitness.
Kyoya pursed his lips for a moment, staring contemplatively at his coffee before he downed the rest of it in a large gulp and started,
"I have this… idea. And maybe a plan."
Said idea and plan had to start that Monday morning with a visit to the principal's office just so Kyoya could humiliate himself to the literal small animal that ruled the school.
"I'm… I'm sorry, for what I said at the meeting. This past weekend with Sensei helped me see that I was… wrong on many accounts." Kyoya said as he bowed forward, his head lowered to face the ground. He fought down every single urge – no, every instinct in his body that screamed at him for lowering his head to anything, for any reason. He grit his teeth, his heart pounding loudly in his ears, his fists clenched so tightly he was forming crescents with his nails into his palms.
There was a tense moment where no one moved or made a sound. Kyoya, in waiting for the principal's response; Reborn, in shock that the teen would lower his head the way he has; and the principal in contemplation.
"I'm not overriding any of your punishments." The principal said at long last.
"I'm not asking that of you."
"Then what are you asking for?" the animal didn't sound particularly sarcastic or sceptic, just genuinely curious about the teen's response. Kyoya remained quiet for a time, though he didn't look up from his bow. The animal sighed. "You can stand up straight, Himura-kun. Also, Aizawa-kun? I think you should go start getting ready for class today."
Reborn wanted to point out that he was the teen's 'leash' and that he couldn't go very far without him, let alone all the way to the classroom, but he also understood the meaning behind the words – he wanted a few minutes alone with Kyoya. Reborn nodded, turned to give Kyoya one last meaningful look, one that he knew the teen saw, even if he hadn't turned in the teacher's direction, and walked out the door, closing it softly behind him.
The room, to Kyoya, got colder the moment the door sealed him in alone with the animal principal, and he suppress the shiver that tried to force its way up his spine. He meant to show sincerity, 'regret' (whatever that was, but the loud herbivore 'Mic'-sensei said it was something he needed to show) and a small amount of guilt in his actions in order to get the animal to allow him what he wanted. And, well, at least the sincerity was real – he sincerely wanted to get permission to join the Sports Festival. He didn't particularly care about anything else.
(Emotional conversation with Aizawa not-with-standing, Kyoya would never, ever change. Ever.)
"I would like to participate in the Sports Festival." Kyoya said as politely blunt as he could be as soon as he had fully straightened his back.
"No." the principal said, just as bluntly, though he sounded sedated, like the word just left his furry lips in a small hum.
Kyoya stood there in… well not quite shock, he really saw that coming. He had said a lot of things that he knew, even then, that he shouldn't have, but he was hoping the creature would at least hear him out. Silent minutes droned on, and Kyoya could feel Reborn's anxiety about being late to the morning class as if the man were in the room with him, and not on the other side of the door.
Nezu broke first. "You aren't going to ask me why I said no?"
"I was debating between respecting your choice by not asking and demanding you to reconsider." Kyoya replied smoothly, his hands folding behind his back. Nezu chortled.
"Would you like some green tea? I think you an I are going to have a very long conversation now, and I feel I need some."
"But isn't class starting soon?" Kyoya asked, not really denying the tea. If there was one thing that was the same between this world and his old, it was the traditional Japanese Green Tea. And he loved it.
"Yes, did you not want to miss class?"
"No, I don't mind. I live with Sensei now, so anything I miss he can catch me up. But…"
"But…?"
"Ah… Aizawa-sensei can't let me be on my own – he has that… that thing. For these." Awkwardly, Kyoya lifted a leg to show he meant the ankle monitors. The animal chortled again. It was such an odd sounding laugh, but Kyoya knew he had heard far weirder.
"You mean this?" Nezu asked as he produced the little remote that Reborn had had on him for the past few days. The little remote that, somehow, was in the other's paw. Kyoya blinked at it a moment, then blinked back at the door as he lowered his foot, then gave a single wide-eyed blink back to the principal.
"… a second remote?"
"Nope!" the animal said cheerily, and Kyoya felt a lot of Mukuro vibes coming from the principal. Not that the other man was in possession of the animal's body, but more like the other's soul reminded Kyoya of the bloody pineapple herbivore. The teen fought back a grimace just thinking about him.
(Somewhere deep in the city, Shigaraki Tomura shuddered and in his head, Mukuro sneezed. 'Damn Skylark.' The illusionist sulked. Tomura immediately went spastic with the voice in his head. Again.)
"Could you be so kind as to tell Aizawa-kun that I will return the remote when I bring you back to class later today?"
Kyoya nodded, accepting that he will never, ever be used to this world. (Though, watching the shock on the former hitmans' face as he realized that, yeah, he really didn't have the remote in his pocket, and the double take Aizawa – not Reborn – did after that when they switched made his mood a little lighter.)
Kyoya returned to the classroom just with about 5 minutes left to class before the lunch bell rang, and the principal called Reborn away before the teen could speak to him. Kyoya set his bag down on his desk as the bell for lunch went off, allowing time for the rest of his herbivores to crowd around him as if they actually cared about him. (Though, just looking at their faces, even he could tell that, yeah, they really did care. Weirdos.)
"Himura," Ojiro said as he dropped down into the vacated seat in front. "Where were you? Why were you with the principal?"
"Did you get in trouble from that thing with the villains?" Tokoyami added as he leaned against the desk Ojiro occupied.
"You mean when he was a fucking murderer?" Bakugou shouted from the doorway on his way to the cafeteria.
"You mean the creature that came back to life?" Ojiro snarked back as the explosive blonde walked out the door. The boy gave a sour look at the door before he turned back to Kyoya. "I really don't like his attitude."
"K-Kacchan is a good person…"
The four teens turned to their green-haired, timid classmate in question, waiting for him to continue. The boy just tilted his head and, with Iida walking up behind him he continued in a louder, more certain tone.
"He's a good person, he can just be mean about it sometimes." He said, looking at them all in turn. His eyes caught Kyoya's and the teen flinched back.
"I can see that." Kyoya admitted. He could remember, very clearly, how loud Hayato had been and how readily the man had been eager to fight – and yet, he was a graceful and kind man to those who knew how to read behind the explosive anger. The blonde teen was just lacking the idol-worship the silver-haired man had in his previous life.
(Suddenly, Kyoya really wanted to know what would happen should Hayato remember who he was in his past, and who his dear Boss was now. Even Reborn, as subdued as he is now, would love that kind of complete chaos.)
"As if you could."
Almost in unison, the teens all turned to Todoroki, who was walking past.
"Meaning what?" Hagakure asked, her voice tense and distrustful. His glare snapped to her and her shoulders jumped in tension; and Kyoya just about jumped from his seat to get in the herbivore's face for the insolence of sneering at what was his. Todoroki turned his eyes to Kyoya, and they met for a moment.
"I mean, that this is basically his Villain backstory." The duel toned boy bit out. There was something more in his eyes, though, that Kyoya couldn't quite make out. It wasn't fear, and it wasn't hatred, and it wasn't even pure anger. There was something… more 'raw' about the emotion, something more basic about the boy's look.
Kyoya had no idea what to make of it, so he did the only thing he could think of; he ignored it.
Kyoya smirked up at the teen and hafted both legs up and onto the desks, his pants hiking up enough to show the two ankle monitors, small red lights blinking quickly. He figured that meant that Reborn was just on the edge of how far apart they could be.
"I was teasing the small animal we all have for a principal, and I went too far. I now cannot be a Villain, even if you did want me to."
They all just kind of… stared at him. Even the students that had nothing to do with the conversation.
"That's so cool…"
It was muttered – so quiet it was almost inaudible – but everyone heard it. Slowly, every head turned to Ojiro, eyes widening as he lay his hands over his mouth.
"Uh… no, I mean… The design! Yeah the design. It… looks cool." With that, the boy all but jumped from his seat and darted for the door. Hagakure looked back between the teen's retreating back, and to Kyoya a couple times before she quickly jogged after Ojiro. Kyoya wanted to follow them, really he did, but the blinking lights on his ankles were now steady red ones, and if Reborn didn't come back soon, Kyoya was going to be in trouble with… someone. Or something. (He wasn't actually sure what would happen, but he knew it wasn't going to be 'good'.)
"Well, that was suspect." Mina called from across the room, watching everything with wide eyes beside a small group of friends at her desk.
Kyoya raised his eyebrow at the phrase, and just as he was about to open his mouth to question someone about it (he had heard it before, in a similar context, but he never quite knew the meaning of it) a teacher from the next classroom over walked in, looking at a small device in his hand, and a cell phone to his ear. His eyes scanned the classroom, and Kyoya knew it was for him before the man locked eyes with him.
"Do you need something, Sensei?" Iida asked as he started toward the teacher at the door.
"Yeah, I got him." The teacher said into his phone, holding out a finger for Iida to wait a moment. "… uh-huh… uh-huh… yeah, I can stay a couple minutes. See you, Aizawa." And with that, he pocketed his phone and looked up to answer the student that addressed him, even as he started toward Kyoya's desk.
"Hi. I'm one of the teachers for the General Studies course, but I am still, like most other teachers here, a Hero on call, so when I get a signal on this," he waved his pager for the class to see, "I get to go see what this delinquent is up to." And with that, the teacher plopped down into the chair Ojiro just vacated, beady eyes boring into Kyoya's unimpressed glare.
"I am not a de-"
"Yes you are. If you weren't, you wouldn't need these." The teacher put his hand on one of the monitors and laughed like he had told a joke. Kyoya recoiled with a sneer, despite how some of the class laughed with the teacher, albeit rather awkwardly.
"How long until Aizawa-sensei comes back?" Kyoya managed to grit out, one leg siting delicately over his other knee, and his arms crossed over his chest.
"Will you be staying even if Sensei is here?" Midoriya asked, back to sounding almost timid. Kyoya managed to withhold his eyeroll at the small animal's quick rebound to herbivore – but only just.
The teacher looked between the two of them and answered them both with a shrug of his shoulders. Which, honestly, pissed Kyoya off. At least have the decency to vocalize your uncertainty; the students around him were (supposedly) looking up to the man.
Kyoya huffed and turned his head away, praying Reborn wouldn't take too much longer and that this herbivore would leave him alone soon.
Super short chapter after such a long wait, and I do apologize for that. College has not been kind to me, and my funding was held back for an extra month, which meant I needed to work nearly full time with full time classes. I had virtually no time to write anything! I couldn't even watch anime! But this coming week is reading week, meaning I have a full week off from classes, and my funding was released, so I can cut back my hours at work now, thank god. Hopefully the next chapter will be longer and quicker to get out.
Bi-bye!