Chapter 11
"I can't believe we're having class," Hitoshi said as they walked down the halls.
"I know right?" Ojiro asked. "I thought for sure it'd be cancelled." It was surreal to be walking down the halls of UA so soon after Kuroiro's body was found. Sure, it happened on a Friday and so they had a whole weekend, but still. There was a body, on campus. This was just, a really, really, REALLY weird decision.
The school felt so quiet and empty. They hadn't seen anyone since arriving, everyone apparently just going straight to their classrooms. They hadn't even seen any teachers. It felt almost spooky, especially with the damn flickering light right outside the door to Class 1-A. "Why is that light dead?" Hitoshi complained. "Are they trying to make it a horror movie?"
"Definitely fits the atmosphere."
"I wonder if anyone is going to be absent," Hitoshi mused as they reached the door.
"Probably," Ojiro replied with a shrug, and Hitoshi slid open the door only to freeze.
Blood.
Blood everywhere.
The whole classroom was red. Body parts strewn all over like a cheap horror movie. Severed heads sitting on several desks, Iida's legs sticking out of his seat with fingers jammed into the engine pipes, Shouji's arms hanging from the ceiling, Jirou's earlobes tied around her wrists.
Hitoshi closed the door, and opened it again.
Nope, still there. And somehow even worse than before.
"H-h-holy fuck," he wheezed, staggering back with wide eyes. Why? Why were they dead? How were they all dead?
"Quick, 1-B!" Ojiro hissed, and they took off running. The hallways seemed to stretch on forever, but they finally reached the doors of 1-B and threw it open.
The scene was near identical to their own classroom.
Familiar faces like Monoma, Tokage and Kendo stared at them with lifeless eyes, faces twisted with horror. People he barely recognized were dead too. That girl Sero pointed out at lunch was just a half-severed head that looked like a pile of brown hair on the floor. A boy with a sun for a head laid on the floor, Awase and a green-haired boy's heads resting on his chest. A blonde girl with horns sat at her desk with arms dangling limply behind her, a knife stabbed right in her chest.
It was something even worse than he could have imagined, the urge to vomit growing. They both scrambled back, terrified for their lives. As they did they heard footsteps approach and turned to see Aizawa turning the corner.
"What are you two doing here?" he grumbled.
"Dead," Hitoshi managed to force out. "They're all dead!" Aizawa's eyebrows furrowed a bit.
"I'm sure you're exaggerating, let me look." The boys backed up in horror as he stalked over to peek inside the door.
And then suddenly a chainsaw pierced through Aizawa's torso, and slowly dragged downwards as he released a horrific, gurgling scream. Hitoshi and Ojiro could only scream as they watched their teacher's body fall, revealing a single figure in the doorway. A pink-haired girl with bunny ears and glowing red eyes, covered in blood and her lips twisting into a demented grin as she raised the chainsaw.
"Hito-chan, let's plaaaay," she sang, and charged forward with a maniacal laugh while swinging the chainsaw—
And that's when Hitoshi woke up with a start, eyes snapping open as his heart pounded painfully in his chest. For a second he just breathed heavily, staring wide-eyed at the unfamiliar ceiling.
Slowly, he began to calm down, rubbing his eyes as he sat up. Then he had a half-moment of panic when he saw the near-empty room—shit, did he get kidnapped?—before he saw a familiar yellow sleeping bag on the floor. Right, Aizawa's place. He was staying with Aizawa.
Who happened to be staring at him from where he sat next to the table.
Hitoshi startled and jerked back at the bloodshot eyes, and Aizawa blinked placidly before turning back to his coffee. "Nightmare?" he guessed, voice soft but still a bit rough from only recently waking. Hitoshi needed a few moments to gather himself before responding.
"...I think that bunny girl from the show we watched last night massacred everyone," he finally said. The sun-head guy and green-haired boy were definitely also part of that show. Aizawa paused to consider it, and then nodded.
"As far as nightmares go, that's better than I expected."
"Do you have nightmares too?" Hitoshi asked quietly, and Aizawa nodded.
"More than I'd ever want to admit." His expression took a wry twist, and he sipped from his coffee.
Hitoshi felt like there was more to that statement than just the usual shit that came with being a hero, underground or otherwise. He also felt like probing any further would be like prodding a minefield, and he was not mentally ready to deal with it this early in the morning.
Actually, how early was it? He grabbed his phone from where he'd left it on the floor to check the time, and then winced when the screen lit up. Well, it was now a little after eight... and he had nineteen missed calls from his mom, eight from his dad, and many more texts.
"Shit," he whispered, face paling.
"I'm guessing you just saw the missed calls and texts from your parents," Aizawa guessed dryly. "They started last night after you fell asleep, though it took me a while to notice since your phone was on mute. Luckily UA has their cell phone numbers on record, so I called them at about... eleven, here?"
Eleven? Hitoshi frowned, brain too groggy to do the full math, but... Actually, no, it was just too groggy, period. "What time would that be in New Zealand?"
"Two in the morning," Aizawa replied. "The calls started around an hour before that, by the way."
Somehow that just startled Hitoshi even more. "I fell asleep at ten?" He was a chronic insomniac, how?
"Actually, you fell asleep around nine," Aizawa corrected, and Hitoshi just stared. "Yesterday was rough, so I'm not surprised it took a lot out of you."
"...Shit," Hitoshi whispered, unsure what else to say.
"Anyways, I told them you were safe with me and asleep, and they made me promise you'd call them first thing in the morning. I'm pretty sure the only reason your mom didn't come marching back is because no flights leave New Zealand at two in the morning."
"I'm surprised she didn't go on the first flight back," Hitoshi said weakly.
"I'm pretty sure that's because there's bad storms there, and she wanted to actually hear your voice first," Aizawa replied dryly, and Hitoshi swallowed.
"I... should probably call, huh."
"You can wait until after breakfast."
Hitoshi was very grateful for that. He'd need the strength.
Half an hour and two cups of coffee later, Hitoshi still wasn't fully prepared for his mother. Especially since it was noon for her and she had far more energy.
"Seriously, I'm okay," he groaned. "I'm not in any danger, I can wait until after Aunt Rika's wedding is over."
"Hitoshi, Rika will absolutely understand!" his mother countered heatedly. "You are our baby, and she knows you come first!"
"You guys also had to schedule your leave a full year in advance just to be able to attend her wedding," Hitoshi reminded her. "You guys have been looking forward to this since she got engaged five years ago."
"Yes, but that was before you saw your first ever dead bodies!"
"Kokomi-chan, the planes are all grounded because of the storms anyway," his father reminded her, ever patient.
"We can make the pilots fly us out anyway!"
"Please don't try to manipulate the pilots into flying through a storm," Hitoshi groaned. "I don't want to deal with you guys dying too because you can't suggest a pilot into being better than they are. I'm too young to be an orphan."
"I would also like to avoid a watery grave," his father added. "Kokomi, Hitoshi is a big boy and his teacher seems to have a good head on his shoulders. More than that, Hitoshi is our son. He'll be fine."
He heard his mother huff as she grumbled, "Still pisses me off, some crazy killer stalking my son's school..."
Hitoshi ignored her words, recognizing the tones of acceptance and defeat. "Just enjoy your time with Aunt Rika's wedding and fly back as soon as it's over, okay? I kinda doubt I'll have school on Monday anyway, so, no rush."
"Hitoshi, I love you, but that is not very reassuring reasoning," his father said after a brief pause.
"It is eight thirty in the morning, and I have only been awake for half an hour."
"That's fair, us too," his father replied cheerfully, while his mother kept muttering in the background.
"I will tear them limb from limb—"
"Bye Hitoshi, be sure to text us before bed tonight!"
"Will do," Hitoshi said. "Love you guys, bye." He hung up before he could catch any more of his mother's furious rambling, and dropped his phone with a sigh. He turned his head to see Aizawa watching him with an arched eyebrow, sipping his coffee.
"Can't suggest a pilot into being better than they are?" he repeated, and Hitoshi shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck to get rid of some of the morning cricks.
"My mom's Quirk is basically just super strong power of suggestion, she can plant ideas into people's heads to get them to do what she wants. Also, she uh, used to be in one of those delinquent biker girl gangs in high school? And she hasn't completely mellowed out from it? At least, not when she's all angry and worked up about protecting me."
Aizawa paused to consider it. "That tracks," he finally said with a nod, and went back to sipping his coffee. It made Hitoshi wonder how the hell their conversation last night went. Hitoshi's mother was usually one of the sweetest women in the world, the stereotypical Japanese housewife. But when Hitoshi's safety and comfort was at stake, it was like she became a different person.
(Seeing his father have to physically drag her out of the principal's office in elementary school as she spewed very colorful and graphic murder threats was probably one of the most defining memories of his childhood.
But also, the principal never again believed any false accusations of Hitoshi using his Quirk without any proof, so... everything worked out fine in the end?
...Actually, didn't one of those threats to the principal involve gouging out his eyes and stabbing him in the chest—)
Anyways. Hitoshi had managed to get through the phone call, and he now had a lot of the day ahead of him since he'd actually woken up early on a Saturday.
...He had no idea what to do now.
"Have you heard from anyone?" he asked awkwardly, and Aizawa set down his mug with a sigh.
"Shinsou, I am not sharing details of a sensitive investigation with you," he reminded the boy tiredly, and Hitoshi frowned.
"Sorry. I just, literally have no idea what else to talk about. I'm not used to being awake at this hour." At Aizawa's raised eyebrows he added, "On weekends, I mean. Obviously I'm awake at school."
"Debatable," Aizawa replied dryly, and Hitoshi stared. Aizawa had a sense of humor. He kinda already knew that, but still.
"...This is already such a weird day," he finally muttered. "I went to bed early, and I woke up early. And I just talked my mom out of plane-jacking someone and crashing into the ocean. And you made a joke."
"Definitely not an average morning," Aizawa agreed lazily, and Hitoshi frowned.
"You... you are Aizawa-sensei, right?"
"The password you gave me is 'chicken attack' for some reason. I don't know why, and at this point I don't care about the context. But also, I still refuse to use the response you gave me." He paused then, thinking for a moment. "Wait, no, Kaminari's the one who asked for the weird response."
Once again, Hitoshi just stared. The password was right, at least. "So Kaminari chose 'chicken attack' for his password too?" he finally asked.
"Yes, and I don't know your sources, but I'm relatively sure they're different based on the response he asked me to use. And no, I'm not telling you what it was," Aizawa added, beating Hitoshi to the punch. "Partially for security, and partially because I have actual dignity and self-respect."
That just made him wonder even more what the heck Kaminari asked.
The morning was quiet and uneventful. They stayed in Aizawa's tiny apartment, safely secluded from the world. Hitoshi only checked his email briefly to see the message Nezu sent out about the murder. The details were brief, stating that the body of Kuroiro Shihai had been discovered on-campus. Investigation was still underway, and no suspects had been determined yet.
Nothing about the dismemberment and how the pieces were hidden among cherry trees. No mention that he'd been missing since the second week of school. Absolutely no reference to the fact that students had been the one to find the remains.
Hitoshi didn't bother checking the press release Nezu sent to the media or look for articles on it, knowing it would recount the same information. And he didn't want to see the wild speculation. He already got the most important piece of information from the mass-email Nezu sent anyway:
UA would be closed next week.
He just laid sprawled on the floor, staring at the ceiling listlessly as his mind wandered. He'd expected no classes on Monday, but UA closing for an entire week was unheard of. And he didn't like being part of the year that got to experience that historic event, not with the reasons for it.
When classes resumed, would anyone else drop out? If enough people dropped out, would they just merge the hero classes? Would school resume? What if this just... caused the whole year to be canceled? Would they be shipped out to other schools to finish the year?
"Shinsou, I know the ceiling isn't that interesting," Aizawa remarked dryly as he sat at the table, working on his laptop. "Can't you message your friends or something?"
"I only have Ojiro, Todoroki, Asui, Monoma and Tokage on Curve," Hitoshi replied absently. "And I don't think any of them will have any ideas for other topics." He paused before adding, "Maybe Asui, but she'll probably be busy with her siblings today."
Aizawa just hummed and nodded. "I see," he said, and didn't push any further. That was the nice thing about Aizawa: he understood that sometimes, people just didn't want to talk to others, even friends.
It still left Hitoshi at a loss for what to do though. "I just wish there was something I could do," he muttered. "Lying around makes me feel so... useless."
"Sometimes, that's just how it goes," Aizawa murmured, and his voice had a slight bitterness that made Hitoshi wince. Right, he probably wanted to help investigate too, but he was stuck babysitting Hitoshi. Guilt crashed over him, reminded he was just another burden to his teacher in already stressful times.
Before he could apologize Aizawa turned away from his laptop to face him. "You don't need to blame yourself for doing nothing. Right now, there's not really anything you can do in this situation. You're still a kid and student, so it's not your problem. But I know it can still get frustrating to just sit around waiting, so if it helps, maybe you can tell me if you've noticed anything recently."
"Me?" Hitoshi repeated, sitting up to eye him curiously, and his teacher nodded.
"Any odd behaviors you've noticed in your classmates over the past few weeks. Any unusual occurrences at all, both on campus and off. It doesn't have to be related to what happened yesterday, either. I don't expect you to have any major breakthroughs so there's no pressure, but even the smallest detail can potentially help. Even if it's just eliminating a potential lead."
Hitoshi frowned, mulling it over. One thing instantly came to mind. "Midoriya Izuku," he said slowly, and saw Aizawa snap to attention.
"Who?"
"He's... a boy I met a couple times outside UA. He said he was friends with Bakugou since they were kids, called him Kacchan. He... he wanted to know if we'd heard anything new about the investigation. And I didn't tell him anything about it!" Hitoshi added quickly, remembering Ojiro's reaction. "I only talked to him because he seemed to know Bakugou really well, and just seemed... really lost about it."
"Like he needed someone to talk to?" Aizawa suggested, and Hitoshi nodded jerkily.
"Y-yeah, exactly! I... think he experienced some Quirk discrimination, his confidence was just, really shot. Said Bakugou was basically his only friend. I've only talked to him three times now, and one of those was just us running into each other at a convenience store, s-so..."
"Shinsou, I'm not going to be mad at you for talking to him," Aizawa informed him patiently before he could ramble any further. "It sounds like you just wanted to help. As long as you didn't disclose classified details, you won't be in any trouble." Hitoshi felt a good amount of tension vanish at that, relieved Aizawa didn't become cold the way Ojiro had. "That said, I assume you brought him up for a reason."
Hitoshi nodded again, though less jerkily now that he knew Aizawa wouldn't get mad. "The second time we met, he mentioned he overheard Bakugou talking to his friends around the entrance exams. Said he'd noticed some girl... maybe following him?" Aizawa's attention sharpened even further at that, eyes narrowing as Hitoshi hastily continued, "He said he only overheard it that one time though, and didn't really know any details. He was pretty hesitant to go to the police because, well..."
"I'm guessing it's related to the Quirk discrimination you mentioned," Aizawa said, and Hitoshi nodded.
"Yeah. Like I said, his confidence is just, really shot. He said he'd try to find some of Bakugou's other friends so they can report it, since they actually know more and all, but he isn't in contact with anyone from their middle school, so he said he'd probably have to wait outside their schools to find them. And I don't know if he found them or not. We never exchanged phone numbers, and I saw him at the convenience store last Saturday but it, uh, didn't come up."
"I see," Aizawa murmured with a frown, eyes narrowed in thought. After a moment he turned back to his laptop, clicking something and typing. "Was Midoriya wearing a uniform?"
Hitoshi startled at the question but nodded. "Uh, yeah, why—" Then it clicked. Schools could be identified by uniform. But, how would that help?
"It will be quicker to contact his school and get his contact information from them," Aizawa explained, as if reading his mind. "Then I can pass it on to the police from there, and they can speak to him about Bakugou's friends. He already knows who they are, so it would be faster to ask him for their names than contacting their middle school for records from last year and checking every student."
Huh. That... that was pretty logical. Hitoshi could feel even more tension leave his body, realizing he might have managed to actually help a bit. He wasn't sure if the girl Bakugou had mentioned was connected to the current cases at all, but even just being able to eliminate that possibility would be good, right?
Aizawa turned the laptop towards Hitoshi, the teen crawling over to kneel next to the table. He'd pulled up some sort of database for school uniforms, showing photos of mannequins wearing them next to each school's names. Based on the "city" column, Aizawa had filtered the results to only show Musutafu schools.
Hitoshi scrolled down the list and frowned. There were blazers, classic sailor uniforms, button-down tops and vests, even one bright teal gakuran weirdly enough, but... "It's none of these," he reported, and Aizawa frowned as he took the laptop back.
"You said you ran into him at a convenience store on Saturday?" he asked, and Hitoshi nodded.
"Yeah. We went there right after school because it was raining, and he was wearing the uniform then."
"So he likely attended school that day," Aizawa murmured. "Did you see what he was buying?"
"He had a basket full of basic stuff. You know, food, drinks, I think I saw soap? Just, basic stuff." Hitoshi frowned, already knowing exactly where Aizawa was going. "It was the kind of stuff you'd buy locally, not if you were just passing through."
Aizawa hummed, eyebrows furrowing as he thought it over. "He probably commutes out of the city, then. What does his uniform look like?"
"It's just a black gakuran," Hitoshi said in frustration. "It's as plain as they can get, black with gold buttons. Not that special at all."
Aizawa frowned. "That definitely complicates things, that's a pretty common one. A lot of schools only have morning classes on Saturdays, so even without accounting for the extra time you and Ojiro spent at UA testing the artificial vocal chords, he should have had enough time for him to travel back to Musutafu. I'll contact the police and ask them to look into it instead."
Hitoshi nodded, and Aizawa pulled out his phone and walked away to make the call. As he did Hitoshi looked at the laptop again, scrolling to the top of the list. He decided to mess with the filters to include the neighboring cities and even prefectures, including Tokyo.
When he scrolled through the updated list, he found at least five plain gakuran uniforms just like Midoriya wore in the first minute of browsing.
He sighed and pushed the laptop away, resigned to the fact he wouldn't be able to identify Midoriya's uniform. As far as he could tell the uniforms werenʼt completely identical, but they had only the tiniest of differences. Small details like the number of buttons, or the school's emblem carved on the button. He certainly couldn't remember if Midoriya's sleeves had buttons or not, so he wouldn't be able to recognize it at a glance.
Even though the police wouldn't need to know which school he attended to find him, Hitoshi felt frustrated. He wished he could give Aizawa just a little more concrete information.
Speaking of Aizawa, he'd already finished the call and returned. "I talked to my contact, and they'll look into it. It will be a while until we hear any results, but this could be even if it turns out to be a dead end, it will be good to eliminate the possibility." Hitoshi nodded, some of his frustration seeping away. Right, even if he couldn't do anything else, at least this might help, just a little bit. "Anyways, let's go get lunch."
Hitoshi's eyebrows rose. "You don't want to order more takeout?"
"I could, but I don't think staying in the apartment all day would be necessarily good for your mental health." Aizawa was probably right about that. "There's a place I like that's private, and would probably be right up your alley. It's a bit of a walk so normally I'd ride a train, but you could probably use the fresh air."
The last time Hitoshi had decided to get some fresh air had ended... less than well, to say the least. However, right now, Aizawa had a point. He really needed the break from his thoughts.
"Yeah, alright," he agreed as he got up. "Let's go."
Aizawa nodded and they headed out, entering the brisk late-spring air and beginning the long walk.
"Thank you for agreeing to come shopping with me, kero."
"It's fine. My aunt is busy today, and I needed out of the house anyway."
Monoma shrugged loftily as he walked beside Tsuyu, carrying two canvas bags with frogs on them matching the ones she carried. She would not normally call Monoma since they barely knew each other, but she still had to do the weekly grocery shopping and he was the nearest person.
With everything going on Monoma had stayed with his aunt, who turned out to live surprisingly close to Tsuyu's own family. Tsuyu learned this when she had graciously offered to drive her home yesterday so her own parents wouldn't have to leave work. Monoma had been unusually quiet during the ride, seeming lost in thought.
In retrospect, she realized he'd probably been informed of the murder yesterday.
So while they didn't know each other, she still felt compelled to reach out to him. She did need to do the weekly grocery shopping after all, and she'd rather not take her siblings like she usually would. Inviting him to help would be two birds with one stone: she wouldn't be alone, and he'd be able to be distracted for a little bit.
"If you want, you can come to my house for lunch," she suggested idly. "My little brother and sister would be happy to have you over, kero."
"Are you just inviting me as a babysitter?" Monoma huffed, though his words held no edge to them.
"Of course not. My mother is home today so they don't need a babysitter, kero. But they would love to hear about what Class 1-B is like."
"Ah, so you're using this as an excuse to gather intelligence on our class," he said with a nod of understanding. "How sly of you." Tsuyu quietly huffed but didn't bother responding, well aware of Monoma's personality after walking to the train station with him so many times. At the very least though, she was relatively sure he was joking right now.
"Perhaps you can tell them all the ways Class 1-B is better than Class 1-A. I'm sure they'll be impartial judges." Monoma snorted and smirked at her.
"Yes, I'm sure your siblings won't be biased at all," he chuckled. "But very well, I suppose I can join you." Tsuyu perked up and smiled at him, not that he would be likely to notice much of a difference in her expression. That was fine though, she was used to it. Monoma started to trail behind slightly, giving a gracious half-bow. "Lead the way."
She nodded and stepped forward, leading him down the familiar street. Despite the initial lead Monoma gave her he kept relatively close, walking more side by side than behind her. As they neared an alley she paused, rifling through one of her bags. "Ah, hold on, we need to make a quick stop, kero."
"Oh?" he asked, watching curiously as she pulled out a tin of tuna. His expression quickly morphed into surprised understanding before he smirked. "Really? Feeding stray cats?"
"Miike wasn't always a stray, she belonged to someone who used to own a shop here," Tsuyu explained patiently. "Her owner is very sick now though and had to give up Miike, so she lives in the alley and everyone likes to feed her. Satsuki and Samidare will get sad if I forget, kero."
"I suppose that's understandable." Monoma followed her into the alley, watching as Tsuyu crouch and set down the tin. It only took about a minute for a black, white and orange tortoiseshell cat to emerge from the pile of cardboard boxes, trotting over cautiously at first, but quickly picking up speed at the smell of tuna. Tsuyu took out her phone as the cat began eating, snapping a photograph for her siblings.
It only took about a minute for Miike to finish her meal, and once she did she rubbed against Tsuyu with a content purr. The froggy girl smiled as she scratched the cat's ears, sliding her phone back into her pocket. As she did Miike suddenly stiffened though, ears perking up as she looked behind Tsuyu. Then her eyes narrowed and she gave a sharp hiss before darting back to the cardboard boxes.
The sudden shift surprised Tsuyu, blinking once before tilting her head. "What the?" Monoma murmured beside her, making her glance at him to look at the exit of the alley with a frown. "Why is he wearing UA's uniform today?" Tsuyu blinked once again and turned around, and then froze.
Standing in the entrance of the alley was someone wearing the UA uniform, odd on a day without classes. A boy with spiky pale blond hair and sharp-looking red eyes.
Tsuyu stared dumbly for a moment, taken aback. "Bakugou-kun?" she croaked. Her long-missing classmate smiled, friendly and genial as ever.
"Hello, Tsu-chan," he greeted cheerfully, and then his smile took on a vicious edge, becoming a sharp grin that sent chills down her spine. Within seconds he'd darted across the gap, his palm slamming against Monoma's face. The other blond gave a muffled sound of surprise, just before
Bakugou's palm
exploded.
Tsuyu could only stare in shock as Monoma fell beside her with a painful, strangled cry, steam pouring from the raw burns where Bakugou's palm had been. His face was a bloody mess, the burns focused around the center of his face. He needed help now but Tsuyu felt paralyzed, unable to move as she just stared at her classmate.
The cruel edge vanished from his smile, back to the friendly smile she had become familiar with. He turned to her and gave a salute, smoke still lightly rising from his palm.
"Nice seeing you, Tsu-chan," he said, and casually sauntered off, leaving Tsuyu alone with a groaning Monoma.