Lightning – My Hero Academia

Chapter 35: Suspicions

"Hey. Can we talk for a second?" Zachary requested, approaching Cain while he was hanging out in the kitchen after a workout.

"Hm? Oh hey, the angel came down from heaven just to speak with little ol' me?" Cain joked. Zachary grumbled and rolled his eyes at this.

"Don't start, man."

"Haha sorry, just playing with you. What's up?" Cain asked.

"You and Ako are friends right? Like, you guys talk and stuff?" He asked curiously.

"I'd say so, yeah. Why?"

"Is there...like, something going on with him?" Zachary asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean like the last week or two I've heard weird noises coming from his room - it's only at night though. At first I thought he was just playing his weird vinyls again, but now I'm starting to think he might be sneaking around the dorm after curfew." He shared his suspicions.

"Sneaking around the dorm? What, like, he's sneaking a girl in, you think?" Cain wondered.

"I don't know, man. I just know something ain't right with him." Zachary insisted. Cain hummed at this.

"Well, I can't say you don't have reason to. I've heard some of the noises you're talking about. You two are next-door neighbors so you'd probably know better than me, but I know once or twice I've heard like a strong breeze or something hitting the wall in there." Cain added.

"Oh god, maybe he is sneaking a girl in there." Zachary said, his eyes widening as if he was only just now considering this as a real possibility.

"Haha, I don't think Ako's the type to do that." Cain laughed.

"You sure about that?"

"Well...hmm...I dunno," Cain shrugged. "But like, who would he even be sneaking in? Far as I know, he doesn't really have that many people he hangs out with."

"Maybe you just don't know him that well. I betcha he has a secret girlfriend none of us know about. Or maybe it's a girl from our class." Zachary theorized.

"Haha oh nooo. That would not be good." Cain laughed again.

"Ha, no. I don't think anyone in our class would do that though..." Zachary stroked his chin and thought about this. Cain hummed and took a moment to consider this as well. The two of them looked at each other.

"Aya." They both said at the same time.

"Alright," Cain raised his hands up in front of him. "We're totally overthinking this. Ako's our roommate; why don't you just pop in and ask him straight up?" He suggested.

"What? Me? I'm not doing that."

"Aw, are you scared?" Cain teased.

"I'm not scared! I'm just not that kinda guy. I'm not nosy like that." Zachary folded his arms and turned his shoulder towards him. Cain rolled his eyes and shook his head with a little smile.

"C'mon. Let's go up and ask." Cain said, walking towards the elevator.

"Ugh." Zachary grunted in dismay and discomfort as he reluctantly followed Cain into the elevator.

The two of them went up to the third floor of the boy's wing where they stayed along with Ako and Hideo. As soon as they stepped out through the elevator doors, they could already hear music playing from inside Ako's room.

"This is just gonna cause unnecessary drama, you know." Zachary pointed out.

"Not if we handle this in a mature manner." Cain said before knocking on Ako's door.

Ako, who was in the middle of tinkering with the respirator part of his hero mask, almost dropped his screwdriver when he heard the unexpected knocking. He set his tools down and answered the door. He was surprised to see Cain and Zachary on the other side.

"Hey, bud! We didn't come at a bad time, did we?" Cain asked.

"Nah, not really. Just doing some stuff...ya'll wanna come in?" Ako asked slowly.

"Don't mind if we do," Zachary said, entering the room first. Once inside, he paid more attention to the music that Ako was playing from his little record player. "You listen to a lot of old-sounding music. Are you one of those classic junkies?"

"Haha, I've just been in more of a retro mood lately. I have lots of records from different eras and different countries: Japanese, Spanish, English. Take your pick." Ako chuckled.

"Well, I guess that's cool to have a thing." Zachary passively commented with a shrug.

"You look tired, Ako. Everything okay?" Cain asked, noticing that Ako had some dark circles forming under his eyes. Ako smiled a little and nodded.

"Yep. I've just been up late the past couple nights tampering with my equipment." Ako explained simply with a chuckle. He gestured to how he was in the middle of making adjustments to his hero mask, which was still sitting on top of his desk.

"What are you doing that for? Shouldn't you leave that to the manufacturers? Or the support class, maybe?" Zachary pointed out.

"I was in the support class before I got here, remember? I mean, I was only in there for like a couple weeks, but I picked up a couple things." Ako said with a chuckle, sitting down sideways in his chair.

"Is that what you've been up to lately, Ako? Staying up late working on your stuff?" Cain asked. Ako quickly picked up on the odd level of concern in his voice.

"Yeahhh? Sometimes. Why do you ask?"

"'Cause we've been hearing some weird noises coming from your room." Zachary answered.

"What kinda noises?"

"The suspicious kind. Are you sneaking out of your room or something?" Zachary asked, raising his eyebrow at him. Ako's eyes widened.

"What? No!" He answered quickly and defensively.

"Are you sneaking someone into your room?" Cain asked next.

"Pfft definitely not!" Ako laughed a bit at this.

"Heheh, didn't think so. Zachary was just concerned was all. No biggie, man." Cain chuckled and patted Zachary on the back. He was ready to let the conversation end on that note.

"I was not concerned. I was just thinking you were messing around. You know that would reflect badly on our class." He said.

"I mean, that's fair," Ako said, turning towards his desk. "Still, that's a pretty big accusation to throw out there."

"We weren't really accusing you, man, just...ruling stuff out, if that makes sense." Cain said.

"Yeah, I gotcha. Sure. Well rest assured, I'm not sneaking around here, and I'm definitely not sneaking anyone in here." Ako said with a little chuckle.

"Haha good. I don't even wanna think about would happen if that's what you were doing and Mr. Aizawa found out." Cain joked.

"Found out what?"

All three students flinched in surprise. They turned their heads to see Mr. Aizawa standing in the doorway with his hands in his pockets. With his typical neutral scowl, he walked into the room.

"Stop that music for a minute, Mr. Tanaka." Mr. Aizawa instructed. Ako quickly got up and stopped his record player. All three of them gave their full attention to their teacher.

"Mr. Fa. You were saying?" Mr. Aizawa asked Cain again.

"O-Oh! Haha, it's nothing, sir. We were just joking around hypothetically." He laughed it off nervously with a wave of his hand.

"I see...well, I'm up here because I'm going around issuing an official warning to everyone: the security system has started to pick up movement outside our building after hours. I'm not assuming anything of anyone, I'm just letting everyone know.

"If it comes to my attention that a student is sneaking out of their dorm past curfew, there will be severe repercussions. Is that understood?" Mr. Aizawa threatened.

"Yes, sir!" All three of them answered in unison.

"Good. As you were..." Mr. Aizawa started to turn around to leave. However, he stopped just as Ako was getting up from his chair, "Mr. Tanaka?"

"Uh, yes sir?"

"Where'd you get that cut on your cheek?" He asked.

Ako swallowed nervously, gently gliding his fingertips over the healing cut. Thankfully Toga hadn't cut him too bad, but he still needed to come up with a quick explanation that wouldn't arouse any suspicion.

"Um...my hand slipped while I was shaving last night. The razor kinda dug in a little bit." Ako chuckled awkwardly.

"Hmm..." Mr. Aizawa didn't say anything else. He just walked out of Ako's room with his hands in his pockets. Once he was gone, the three students all exchanged nervous glances.

"What was that about?" Zachary asked.

"Beats me. I'm gonna go and check in with Chikashi about it. He's the class rep after all. Maybe he's heard something we haven't," Cain suggested. "We'll catch up again soon, Ako. Nice talking to ya." He said before exiting the room.

"Yeah, man, you too." Ako nodded and waved. Zachary waited until Cain left the room to speak again.

"It's not you, is it?" He asked bluntly.

"What?" Ako looked at him in confusion.

"You know how serious and strict Mr. Aizawa is. Don't mess things up for our class." Zachary warned him.

"I'm not doing anything, dude." Ako got defensive again.

"Then you've got nothing to worry about." Zachary shrugged it off and left the room. Ako swallowed and walked up to the door, closing it behind him.

"I really need to be careful." Ako thought to himself...