Chapter 17 - Breakdown of Emotion
Matthew was able to make it to Aizawa, Class 1-A, and his fellow American students, who were just about to leave U.A and head back to the dorms for the rest of the afternoon. After giving Aizawa the tardy slip, Matthew joined his friends in their conversation, which was what they would be doing tomorrow after the half day of school. Since the American students were still new, the girls of Class 1-A suggested that they take them to the mall. The Americans agreed, and Class 1-A decided as a group to head there tomorrow after the half-day of school.
The group made it back to their dorms at Heights Alliance, where they changed out of their school uniforms and into their regular, hanging-out clothing. There, they all split into groups and did different activities until dinnertime; Joshua and Sunshine played a video game with Kaminari and Jiro, Annabelle let Uraraka do her nails, Matthew had a long discussion with Midoriya and Todoroki about American heroes (he made sure not to talk or mention One For All, as Midoriya was acting skittish around him), Ashido was teaching Milo how to breakdance, and Murdock was annoying Tokoyami with bird puns.
Afterwards, dinnertime rolled around, and Murdock and Sato volunteered to make dinner. Working together (and with a little help from a Japanese cookbook), the two made a reasonably good Japanese dinner. They then rapid fire served it to the hungry students, and then began eating themselves. At one point after being served, Milo jokingly said, "If those two are going to keep cooking for us, I'm probably going to need to buy some bigger pants."
Ashido giggled when he said that, and Milo smiled at the fact he made her laugh. As dinner continued, it got even more hilarious when Milo and Matthew began telling stories about their exploits at Justice High. Apparently, they had a lot of adventures together, and a lot of them were funny to hear about. They were such funny stories, that students of Class 1-A began throwing their two-sense in. The story at the moment was one where Milo, Murdock, Matthew, and two other students ran out of gas in their car, in the middle of a desert.
"So now, we all know that we're going to be trouble for not being on time, but that really didn't matter at the moment!" Milo spoke, his tone excited. "All were thinking is how are we going to get moving without any gas? And then Matthew gets this bright idea to use Murdock as a sail to pull the car along!"
"Oh no!" Uraraka laughed.
"Oh yeah!" Milo continued. "And Murdock is such a trooper; he lets us hog-tie him, which means he has to have his hands and feet tied, and throw him into the air! He activates his quirk, so now he's like some kind of weird-looking parasail! We have Yusuf, who's quirk allows him to change the mass and weight of objects and people, to make the car lighter, so now the car's just gliding along with Murdock as a parasail! And it would've worked too, if not for that dust devil that came out of nowhere!"
"What's a dust devil?" asked Kirishima.
"Think of a tornado, only weaker and on a sunny day!" Matthew replied, before continuing the story himself. "However, I don't know if this particular dust devil was made by a villain or not, but this rascal was huge! It was so huge that, if it was anything more powerful, it would've passed for a tornado! And, to make matters worse, its coming right for us! It wouldn't have been that bad, but then we remember, the car's now lighter than air, and we're all panicking that we're going to be launched all the way to Canada! So Yusuf deactivates his quirk, and he, Nemo, Milo, and I make a run for it! But then we remember, Murdock is still up there!"
All of Class 1-A began laughing at that; this was one of the funniest, and strangest, stories they had ever heard! Even the most serious students, such as Yaoyaorozu, Todoroki, and Tokoyami, were smiling and laughing in spite of themselves! Even Bakugo was cracking up at what was happening in the story!
"So then this quirkless wonder goes running back to save Murdock!" Milo spoke, picking up the story. "He goes charging into the belly of the dust devil, and he disappears! A few seconds pass, and then we see him and Murdock go sailing out of the top of the dust devil; Matthew's holding onto the rope that we used to tie Murdock to the car with!"
Class 1-A, and even the other American students broke out into another fit of laughter, and Matthew said, "What happen was I cut the ropes that were holding Murdock, and tried to pull him down like a kite! Except, the dust devil was a lot more powerful than I anticipated, so the two of us got sucked up and fired out of it! And we're sailing away to the heavens, and we can't do anything about it, because I'll die if I let go, and Murdock will kill both of us if he deactivates his quirk!"
"So now Yusuf, Nemo, and I are running behind them, and I tell Yusuf to use his quirk on me, and then to throw me into the air towards them!" Milo continued. "He does, and I go flying, to which I use my slime quirk to latch onto Matthew, so I can pull him down! But then, I remember, I'm as light as they are, I don't have any weight! Now I'm praying for Yusuf to deactivate his quirk, and he does, thank goodness! We float back down to earth, and just our good fortune, there's a cop driving through desert and coming towards us! He gets out of the car and begins yelling at us for using our quirks in public, and then Matthew said-"
"I'm quirkless, sir!" Sero yelled out.
"Hey, that's my joke!" Milo yelled back in mock anger.
Everyone once again began laughing at that, including Joshua. But suddenly, while Joshua was laughing, something happened. Somewhere in his heart, past the infinite maze of darkness, the glowing light inside him began glowing even more. He started feeling again that, despite his origin as the son of a villain, despite being here as a spy, despite all of those things, he belonged in U.A. He belonged among his friends, who had treated him nice despite him being mean to them. He wanted things to stay like this; he found himself wanting to be with them. He wanted to stay in this place where he accepted.
Joshua suddenly wasn't laughing anymore; he was crying, and he was crying hard. When everyone stopped laughing, they thought for a second that he was still laughing, only to turn and see he was crying. Embarrassed, and knowing that everybody was probably looking at him, Joshua bolted from the table and ran into the men's showers.
"Gee, I didn't think the story was that bad." Murdock said in surprise.
"I've never seen him act like that before." Sunshine spoke. "Is Joshua all right?"
"I'll go check." Matthew replied, getting up from where he was sitting and heading to the men's showers.
Having bolted into the men's showers, Joshua now found himself sitting in one of the showers, crying his eyes out. He had never cried but only once in his life, and that was when he had to accept the truth that he could never be a hero. Now, here he was, sobbing like a child and he didn't know why. His feeling at the moment were barrage of different emotions: Guilt, anger, sadness, all kinds of different emotions. All he could wonder at the moment was why he was feeling this way, and why couldn't he stop the tears from coming?
"Joshua, are you alright in here?" Matthew asked.
"I'm fine!" Joshua spoke, trying his hardest not to sound like he was crying. "Just go away!"
"You sure? You looked like you were crying."
"I told you, I'm fine! Just leave me alone, quirkless!"
"Okay, Okay. Just wanted to make sure…"
Matthew then left, guessing that Joshua was probably embarrassed and didn't want to be seen in a crying state. After he left, Joshua tried doing different things to stop himself from crying, including slapping himself in the face and biting his arm. Those tactics didn't work, and he just gave up and continued sobbing. He then tried to gain his composure and get up, but he accidentally turned the water faucet and freezing cold water hit him, soaking him and causing him to jump out of the shower in surprise. Despite being half-soaked, the freezing water shocked him out of crying. He then got up, turned off the water, and went back to the mirror.
"What the heck was that?" He asked himself, panting hard like he was just in a fight. "Why was I crying?"
And then he realized it; he was getting too close with these people. They were his enemy, and yet he wanted to be their friend. He was supposed to hate them, and more than that, it was his job to find out information on them so he could have destroyed. And yet, here he was, crying because he had never felt anything positive in his life.
"You idiot!" he growled at himself, staring at his reflection. "These people are your enemy! You're not here to play around and get friendly with them! Remember, you're on an assignment to have them destroyed! So straighten up, get out there, and fake it like you're not having a good time!"
After he said that, he gathered his composure and went out of the bathroom. When he came out, everyone (minus Bakugo) was looking at him with a worried expression. Joshua tried not to look like he cared, but it was hard to show that he did care that they cared.
"You alright?" Midoriya asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine…" Joshua replied, trying to sound nonchalant. "Sorry about that; I don't know what came over me."
Uraraka came beside and patted Joshua on the shoulder kindly, but pulled back her hand when she felt that he was wet.
"You're all wet." Uraraka spoke, looking at her hand.
"Yeah, about that…" Joshua replied. "I accidentally hit a shower handle and turned on one of the showers. Boy, talk about cold; I thought I was going to get frozen!"
He chuckled at that, but everyone still had a worried look on their face. Joshua then said, "Look, there's nothing to be worried about; I'm fine. Really, I am…"
He then walked back to his seat, sat down and continued eating his dinner. Everyone else did the same, but Joshua's emotional breakdown had caused them to become a lot more calmer than usual. As Class 1-A and the American students ate, they were all wondering what caused Joshua to begin crying like that, and some began forming their own theories to what happened. The theories included that he probably came from an abusive family and never laughed like that, that he was homesick for his family, or that he must have had a painful experience that happened, and laughing brought it back to him. Either way, they didn't know, and not even the American students knew anything; Joshua had not told them anything about himself except that he liked listening to music.
It was quite the mystery, and it seemed to be the only thing that their minds could focus on at the moment…
After dinner, the students did their normal activities until it was lights out. Afterwards, they went to bed. Everybody slept perfectly fine except for Joshua, who was lying in bed still awake. He was thinking about the crying attack he had, and why it happened to him.
Suddenly, his phone began buzzing, signaling that he had received a text message. He reached for it to check the text message, and it showed that it was from the unlisted number. It said:
MEETING TONIGHT; EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!
Joshua texted back:
UNDERSTOOD. I'LL BE THERE.
"A student at U.A has committed treason." Joshua spoke, upon approaching Haruki in the alleyway.
"For becoming a hero, there's no real reason." Haruki replied.
"How it's going?"
"It's going good. The information you've given us is quite impressive; it's really helping with the plan that we have in store."
"Good to hear. As for me, I worked with Class 1-B today. They're a secondary class filled with students who are trying to make it to the top, only to come crashing down."
"And why do you believe they come crashing down?" asked Haruki.
"They lack certain things, such as unity." Joshua replied. "One of the students in Class 1-B is constantly trying to start a war with with Class 1-A, and that seems to be his only focus at the moment. Had he actually start focusing on being a hero and working with his classmates, rather than trying to one-up Class 1-A at every chance he can get, then he might have a chance to succeed."
"Maybe we can use that to our advantage…" Haruki said thoughtfully. "Either way, tell me what the quirks are for Class 1-B."
Just as he did with Class 1-A, Joshua began telling Haruki all that he knew. He told about their quirks, their strengths and weaknesses, all of which Haruki wrote down on a small notepad he had with him. After Joshua was done, Haruki put the notepad back in his pocket.
"By the way, you said that it was 'Extremely Important' that I meet with you." said Joshua. "You want to tell me what this is all about?"
"Oh yeah; I forgot…" Haruki replied, looking back into the shadows. "The boss wants to meet you…"
Joshua also looked back, and noticed that there was a person who was standing in the shadows. The figure came out into the moonlight, and Joshua saw the he was one of the sickest-looking human beings he had ever seen.
The figure had pale light blue hair, a sickly looking face with red eyes, he was dressed in a dark grey trench coat, black shirt and pants, and red sneakers. The expression on his face was a sickly looking smile, and Joshua felt a weird urge to step back when this man approached him.
"Tomura Shigaraki, this is Joshua Rourke, son of Death Wish." said Haruki. "Joshua Rourke, meet Tomura Shigaraki, leader of the Paranormal Liberation Front."
"Uh… pleasure…" Joshua said hesitantly, sticking out his hand for Shigaraki to shake.
"You shouldn't stick your hands where they don't belong…" Shigaraki replied, his voice as sickly as his appearance. "I would shake hands with you, but I don't want to disintegrate your arm… yet…"
Joshua pulled back his hand quickly; this guy's quirk probably caused him to disintegrate whatever he touched!
"Sorry; force of habit." Joshua apologized. "So, you're the leader of the villains?"
"Correct. And you're the spawn of Death Wish, I take it?"
"Correct. My father told me about you and your army of villains. I hope your a good leader for them, otherwise things will end badly if you try to lead an attack."
"I am a good leader…" Shigaraki replied, his voice sound a little ticked. "I trained with the greatest villain who ever lived, and now I am going to be the one to take up that mantle. With All Might gone, my chance for glory has come."
"Of course." said Joshua, trying his hardest not to anger the unstable villain. "It's just that Class 1-A and Class 1-B have a lot of good heroes in their groups. If you're going to win the war against them, you're going to need to know your enemy."
"Which is why I have you. The information you have given Stonefish here has proven vital; I am breeding a special group of soldiers for the sole potential of destroying Class 1-A. And the best part, these soldiers are impervious to the quirks of the young heroes. Once we find the perfect place to have them destroyed, all will be lost for them!"
Shigaraki let out an evil laugh, and began scratching his neck with one of his hands. Stonefish let out an evil laugh as well, and Joshua was about to, but something stopped him from doing it.
Joshua then said, "So, if it's alright with you two, I have to get back to Heights Alliance. Big day tomorrow, and I need to get some rest."
"Of course." said Stonefish. "See you later, Death Wish II."
"Likewise, young villain…" Shigaraki added.
Joshua nodded curtly, and then began jogging away from the two villains. He decided not to mention his emotional breakdown; the last thing he needed was to be taken away from his mission. Anyway, when he got back to Heights Alliance, he would need to try and find a place for Class 1-A to be attacked. The want to be a hero was still faint in his mind, as he wanted to be a villain like his father. Hopefully, he would be able to overcome that want, and switch sides over to being a hero…