Warning: slight cussing. Dark themes. Nico being the gay shit he is.
Chapter 7: Of Special moves and Secrets
Nico's POV.
Aizawa and I walked into the training facility at the same time.
"Since Nico wasn't here yesterday, I've caught him up on what we're doing. You may begin." He stated in his monotone. I nodded, and flew out to an open area. We had to make special moves. I guess my demon was a special move, but that wasn't a good idea for one. Hmm, what kind of special move did I want?
"Having trouble coming up with ideas?" the ectoplasm clone I'd been given asked.
"Yeah. I have a technical 'special move', but it's not reliable or safe. I'm trying to think of a different way to use my quirk." I said, sitting on the ground, and pondering. What was a safe way to use my quirk? I'd always just gone demon form whenever something I couldn't handle came up. what could I do? I'd never actually tested the limits of my new power boost. Hmm.
I stood back up, and focused on my powers. I summoned as many shadows as I could towards me. I closed my eyes, and drew in more, as much as I could. I felt the strain on my body start, but I didn't stop. Wow, I could feel that I had more shadows than I'd ever had before under my control.
"Nico? Is that you doing this?" I heard someone ask. I opened my eyes. The entire building was completely chock full of shadows. It was pitch black for anyone who wasn't a son of Hades. So, for everyone but me.
"Oh, sorry guys." I said, dropping my control. The shadows all receded back to where they originated from. All 19 of my classmates, and the three teachers were all looking at me.
"That was awesome man!" Kaminari announced. I smiled a little.
"Thanks." I said with a dip of my head. I had a higher limit. I could use that to my advantage. But what about a special move? Could I shadow travel in objects? Or maybe just a large-scale shadow attack. Were you allowed to have more than one? I had questions. But first, I was going to try something else.
I steadied my breathing, and held my hands out in front of me. I concentrated, and the shadows swirled up in front of me. could I transport someone else, and myself at the same time to two different places? Why not try? I closed my eyes, and concentrated. I grabbed the clone in the shadows, and slipped into them myself. I went to the other side of my little area. The clone I concentrated on coming out at the entrance. I popped out fine. The clone never popped back out. Ectoplasm sent me a weird look, and gave me another clone.
"Guess I sent it to another plane of existence." I muttered to myself. So, that was a no.
Welp, back to training then.
"The hero licensing exam is tomorrow, get a good night's sleep, and be here at 6 am tomorrow. That's all." Aizawa stated, and curled back up in his sleeping bag. I sighed, and doodled on the edge of my notes.
"Hey Nico. Wanna go spar?" Katsuki asked, leaning on the edge of my desk. I looked up, and purposely avoided looking at his muscles.
"Sure." I said, staring at his eyes intently.
"Great! let's go!" he said, grabbing my arm, and dragging me with him. We went and asked Present mic, who gave us permission to use the training area for a mock fight.
"You ready?" he asked, setting off a few mini explosions in his hands.
"Yeah." I said. hey, now would be a great time to practice my special move.
"Here I come!" he yelled. I closed my eyes, and relaxed. I kept my eyes closed, and relied on only my ears, smell, and touch feelings completely ignoring my quirk. I wanted to see what I was physically capable of.
Bakugo was coming from the left. He jumped, and attacked. I dodged by turning my body. He was behind me. he charged, and I dodged by stepping to the side.
This pattern of dodging continued, before he attacked me from both sides. I jumped over his arms, and encircled his throat with my hands.
"Tag." I stated, and let go twirling away.
"Argh! Why are you so darn hard to hit?!" he demanded, coming from my right. I had created this fighting style to deal with Shigaraki. It was defense only. I didn't want to hurt my friends. I dodged him again, but this time he launched a second attack from the air. I did a twirl on my left foot, and danced out of the way.
He came at me from the front. A direct approach. I danced forward to meet him, and grabbed his arm, pulling him with me as I twirled. I unbalanced him, and sent him twirling away in the opposite direction I went.
"Goddammit Nico! We're fighting not dancing!" he yelled at me.
"Who's to tell the difference? In both you must be light on your feet, flexible, and accommodating to your partner. Who's to say a fight isn't a dance?" I asked, my eyes still closed. I heard the shift of gravel behind me as Bakugo launched himself into the air. His explosions gave away his exact location, and being blind for 3 days had improved my hearing.
He attacked from above, but I dodged out of the way to the left. He attacked again to my back. I extended my wings, and flapped to move out of the way. Now I was airborne. I'd never tried my attacks airborne before. I should probably work on that.
He came at me, and I twirled in the air. I didn't have a good of a handle on my flying as I should. It was harder to dodge when you didn't know your own body. He sent a massive explosion at me from the ground. I did an aerial backflip, and flew straight up.
"Get down here and fight me like a man!" He screamed at me.
"As you wish." I said, and fell into a steep dive.
100 feet.
50 feet.
25 feet.
10 feet.
I snapped my wings open, and caught myself before I crashed. I landed lightly, and opened my eyes.
A look of pure fear was etched onto Katsuki's face.
"Are you alright?" I asked, taking a step forward. Bakugo's face went from panic to anger in record breaking time. He stormed up to me, and I took a few steps back. Katsuki grabbed my shoulders, and pulled me into his chest.
"Don't do that again. You scared me." he said quietly. I stood there, kind of awkwardly. I totally wanted to hug back. But I also wanted more than that, and I wasn't sure I could control myself.
"You know you can hug back. I don't usually bite." Bakugo said.
"I, um, I uh." I stuttered. Gods. I stuttered. I put my arms around his back, and buried my head in the crook of his neck.
I'm not sure how long we stood there like that, but it felt like an eternity, and yet still not long enough. I pulled away. my face was probably pretty red.
"Um, I, um I'm going to go change." I said, turning away so that he couldn't see my face.
"Ok." he said. I snapped my wings open, and flew back to the dorms. I sat on the roof, and didn't go inside.
Gods I couldn't take this. The tension. It was fine while we were training but then he had to go and hug me. gods. And to add to it, I could tell Shoto was flirting with me. he was wearing things in the common room that none of the other boys would ever think of wearing, but of course once he started Bakugo turned it into a competition to see who could wear the most revealing clothes without making it completely obvious.
It was a miracle that Mina hadn't caught on yet. Wait, maybe I could talk to her about it. I got up off the roof, and jumped off the side. I flew to the ground, and went inside. Shoto was there. wearing a tight pair of basketball shorts, and a t-shirt that had no sleeves. I pointedly avoided looking at him. I went to where the girls were sitting.
"Hey Mina, do you have a minute? I asked, rubbing my arm through my sweater.
"Sure! What do you need Nico?" she asked.
"Um, come with me." I said, turning and walking to the elevator. She walked with me. we rode up in silence. I led her to my room on the fourth floor, and held the door open. She walked in. I shut the door, and locked it. I didn't want anyone to come in.
"What did you need?" she asked, plopping down on my bed. I sat on the bed next to her.
"So, do you remember that day when you said you were going to find out who my crush was, and I denied having one?" I asked. her eyes went bright, and she sat up to stare at me.
"Spill the tea!" she demanded.
"Have you noticed anything about any of the boys recently?" I asked. she pondered and then shook her head. "About their clothing choices?" I narrowed. She concentrated, and then gasped.
"You mean how Todoroki and Bakugo are wearing super tight clothes?!" she asked.
"Yeah. so, um, it was a few weeks ago now, but we were all in my room talking, and then Bakugo and Todoroki both called me hot, and we kind of all fell asleep." Mina squealed.
"You like one of them don't you!" she squealed.
"No. that's the thing. You see, I like them both equally. And both of them are vying for my affection, and I don't want to choose." I told her. her eyes went wide.
"Wow. That's tough." She said pensively.
"Yeah. and then Katsuki and I were training earlier, and I did something that scared him. he was genuinely worried about me." I thought out loud.
"Wow. That is news. Bakugo doesn't care about anyone. Or, at least he doesn't show it." she confirmed what I'd guessed to be true.
"Yeah. so, I'm stuck. I don't want to choose either of them. I, I've done things, and I feel like they'll be really upset if I don't pick, and the one that doesn't get chosen will feel left out." I told the pink girl.
"Alright. You know I won't tell anyone what you've told me today, so I need you to tell me. what did you do?" she asked, serious for a change. I flinched.
"I, I don't," I stuttered out. She put her hands on mine.
"Nico, you can trust me. I know Bakugo and Todoroki rather well. I think I'd be able to tell you as a third party what would happen. But, for me to do that, I need all the information." She said, squeezing my hands. I closed my eyes, and let out a sigh of defeat.
"Fine. But this is extremely confidential. Only 6 people know about this, and only because they have to know." I told her. she did the 'my lips are sealed' motion. I pulled my hands out of her grip, and pushed the bottom of both of my sleeves up. I turned my wrists up so that she could see the large scars on both of my wrists.
"Nico, are those what I think those are?" she asked. I pulled my sleeves back down.
"I slit my own wrists open." I said emotionless. she gave me a bone crushing hug.
"Nico! You could've told us! We would support you no matter what!" she said, squeezing me tighter.
"Thanks, and all Mina, but you're hurting my wings." I said, pushing the pink girl away. she sat back.
"When did this happen?" she demanded.
"Do you remember the day that Midoriya threw that party and we played truth or dare with Hitoshi?" I asked.
"Oh my god. That's why Izuku threw a party?" she asked.
"Not quite. He doesn't know. I just asked if I could not be alone, and he threw a party to keep company. You remember how Shinso came in and demanded to speak with me? well, he'd used his quirk on Aizawa to figure out where the hell I was, and got the whole story." I told her. she nodded sagely.
"Alright. I think that they're probably going to give you as much time as you need. They both must love you very much if they haven't crossed any boundaries. They're giving you time. When you're ready, then you can pick. You got lucky Nico; most people won't wait until you're ready." She told me.
"Thanks Mina. I needed that today." I told the pink girl, smiling softly.
"No prob. Now, when you guys do get together, I want to be the first to know!" she demanded.
"Of course. You and all of 1-A would figure it out pretty soon." I said with a smirk.
"Yeah. none of you three are very subtle." She confirmed. I rubbed the back of my neck.
"Yeah, we're kind of dumb, aren't we?" I joked. She nodded.
"Yup. Well, I've got to go, and don't worry. I won't tell anyone." She said, getting up, and leaving my room. I sighed, and laid back on my bed.
Gods, what the hell was I supposed to do?
I stood, and took my shirt off. I threw my shirt across the room with a scream of rage. Gods I hated this! I wanted to just time travel to a point in time where I didn't have to admit feelings at all. I stood there fuming at my wall for a good ten minutes before someone knocked on my door.
"Nico? You in here?" the voice of Todoroki asked.
"Yeah, come in!" I said, and then I realized I was still shirtless. Shit.
"Nico, I-" Shoto cut himself off when he saw that I wasn't wearing a shirt. "Is now a bad time?" he asked.
"Um, not the best, but go on." I said, sitting on the ground, back to him.
"I was just wondering if you were alright. Bakugo came in without you looking distraught, and it had me worried." He stated. I smiled softly, though he couldn't see it.
"Thanks, but I'm fine." I lied.
"Nico, don't lie to me." he sighed. I flinched slightly. Dang it. I forgot that he knew when I was lying. I needed to work on that.
"Sorry, it's just, I guess a lot is all happening right now, and I, I don't know. I don't know anymore." I started to break down. "I have no control over my life anymore. I used to have it all figured out. Now, it feels like someone took a whisk, and mixed my life with it."
"I, I want to help you. Any way you want. I'll be there for you. Whether as your best friend, or as something else. I, I just want to stand by your side." Shoto gushed out. I stood, and looked into his multicolored eyes.
"Thank you." I whispered, hugging him around the neck. We just stood there for a while. I pulled away.
"I should probably put on a shirt, huh?" I joked, grabbing a long-sleeved one from my closet.
"Why the long sleeves?" Shoto asked. I turned to him in disbelief.
"Um, hello? Did you not see my arms?" I asked, holding up my arms. Shoto looked at the plethora of scars I had.
"I see them. Your scars define who you are. I don't want to pressure you to do anything you don't want to. My personal opinion is that when you're ready, you should show the world that you have climbed past your struggles." He stated. I looked down at my shirt.
"I'll think about it. but I definitely can't say that I have. Not yet." I whispered, mostly to myself. My thoughts wandered to my knife, that was currently on my hip. The very same one that I'd used to slit my wrists. I shrugged my shirt on over my wings, and pulled my knife out.
"Do you know what this is?" I asked my best friend. He looked at it.
"Um, a knife?" it came out as a question.
"This is the blade that slit my wrists." I announced. His emotions became blurred, and I couldn't figure out his expression. I twirled the blade on my fingers, and just watched it spin. "This is also the same blade that saved my life 2 years ago." I continued, not pausing my spinning.
"Why are you telling me this?" he asked.
"To prove that we are who we make ourselves. A knife can be used for good or bad. just like people. The same knife can do good and bad. I am much like this knife. I'm a weapon that everyone wants, but only a few can wield. Those who wield me have power to do whatever they want. I know that's not a great outlook on life, but it's true." I lost concentration, and the knife slipped, and cut my pointer finger. The stygian iron clattered to the floor. A black dot of blood started to form on my fingertip.
"Even if people don't mean to, those who control me manage to end up hurting others. It's just the way it works. We are all just pawns in the fucked-up game of chess we call life." I stated.
"That's not true. Some of us are kings, and bishops." He joked. I cracked a smile.
"I guess that makes you and Bakugo the king and queen." I snarked.
"Then you're the player." He said, a sly twinkle in his normally emotionless eyes.
"I guess I am." I conceded, picking my dagger up. I put it back in its holster under the wary eyes of Shoto. He visibly relaxed when it was put away.
"Well, let's go find Kacchan."
End of Chapter 7.