I stayed at my warehouse for two days after that. Tokoyami hadn't tried to contact me, so it seemed Dark Shadow kept his word.
Sharps was still there, and Hirahara and his father didn't leave after I appeared in the alleyway. Doc was concerned about me and eventually managed to get the story out of me. I still couldn't really remember much about before I ended up near Kyushu, or who had done to me what that lady said. The last thing I remember before waking up in Kyushu is the raid on Boss' messed up experiments.
"Coffee?"
I nodded. Sharps smiled at me, but I could tell he was concerned. He went to the kitchen to make the coffee.
Doc had been working a lot at the hospital, but stayed constantly by my side when he was home. Though everyone here was trustworthy, he still acted protective.
"Sharps?" I said his name quietly, and I was on the couch, so I wasn't sure if he heard me.
"Yes?" He leaned on the back of the couch.
"What you said when we first met...We're the same?"
The kettle clicked off as he nodded. He got the coffee and come back, sitting next to me on the couch.
Doc was working, and Hirahara and his father were at their shop, so it was just me and Sharps.
He sighed. "You found out about the experiments?"
I nodded. "That guy I caught with Endeavor beforehand...They all think it was a trafficking ring?"
"Yea. Only certain people know the truth, as you probably would have realized. Only the ones the experiments worked on."
"River? You?"
He nodded. "Snake-Arms and Dox too. Though only I have what the Boss would call the 'perfected state'. Dox, Snake-Arms and River are still a work in progress. Their quirks have been enhanced, but they're not...like us."
I frowned and shifted to face him. "Multiple quirks. Boss said something about that. What was he on about?"
Sharps took a breath. "Hara told me you have...multiple quirks. He was here when I first arrived here. He asked me about this trafficking and I told him the truth. He freaked out and told me about your multiple quirks. I called anonymously to tip off the heroes that you were right about the island. Boss...Is obsessed with fixing and enhancing quirks, as well as being on a mission to find people with multiple quirks. There are...a small amount of us."
I widened my eyes. "There are more people with more than two quirks?"
He nodded. "We're rare, but we're out there. Mine weren't overly strong. I used my blades more than the others." He looked at me and smiled. "You're curious about my quirks."
I nodded and he laughed. "Fair enough. Tell you what. I'll show you one, and then you show me one. We'll do it like that."
"Uh..."
"I'll go first." He lifted his hand and a dagger slowly came out of his palm. I watched, fascinated. It wasn't like my weapons. His was solid, whereas mine wasn't quite like that. "They're metal. Iron. Uses the iron from my body to make them. I can make bone ones as well, and depending on how much calcium is in my diet, those ones can be just as strong at the iron ones. How much calcium and iron that's in my diet was the original draw back, but Boss enhanced it so I could create stronger blades with minimum effort. I don't have to use as much iron or calcium now."
"Wow." The blade came out fully. It was the size of a cheese knife. "I have a classmate who can create literally anything from the fat in her body. Can you create any type of weapon or just those?"
He chuckled. "Just daggers and small knives, I'm afraid. Your turn." He placed the cheese knife on the coffee table.
I held out my hand and created my Naginata. "I can create any weapon, but it's not like yours. I'm not entirely sure where it comes from or what it's made of. It's solid enough, but it's very similar to those summoned weapons on Skyrim. I can also create a shield, and kinda made of the same smoky stuff." I waved my hand and it disappeared. "Your turn again."
He tapped his chin. "I can sort of read minds."
I frowned. "Sort of?"
"Well, it's a cross between reading peoples feelings, like an Empath, but then I can see things in their mind that they associate with that feeling."
I must have looked confused, because he smiled and turned on the couch, crossing his legs under him. I did the same when he gestured.
"Ok, so what are you feeling right now?"
"Confused."
He laughed. "And you just pictured me in your head."
I smiled. "Well, that's obvious."
"Amusement." He laughed. "You just thought of Skyrim. I'll give you that one. Ok, um." He tapped his chin. "Ah! Joy?"
I had to think about that one. What made me happy? What made me laugh? I grinned, and Sharps laughed again.
"Who's that blonde boy?"
"Bakugo. He's a boy in my class who's always going off. I've nicknamed him 'BakuGoesOff'. He hates it. I call him Go-Go and he hates that just as much. I like teasing him."
"Do you like him?"
I made a face. "Gross. No."
He laughed again. "I believe you. Uh. Annoyance?"
I blinked. Kurogiri annoys me...
"Who's that guy?"
"Huh? Oh right. Kurogiri. He's basically my brothers keeper. Smoky fuck..."
He chuckled again. "Alright. Fear?"
"Fear?"
Sharps nodded, his blue eyes trained on me, intensely.
"Fear, huh? What do I fear?" I muttered, looking down at my hands. I didn't feel anything, just numbness.
"Anger."
I pictured watching the buildings in Kyushu burn, while I stood on the rooftop.
"Shame."
The image of Endeavor popped into my head, and I frowned. Why did that just happen?
"Guilt."
Todoroki. That made sense. I had gone behind his back to do a work study with his father after all.
"Despair."
Endeavor again. What the hell?
"Helplessness."
Endeavor. I felt tears in my eyes. I was trying not to see the connections, but I wasn't stupid. I sucked in a breath and Sharps quickly grabbed my hands.
"Love."
I blinked and looked up. "Love?"
"What do you think of when you here that word?"
Nothing popped into my head. "I..."
Tokoyami's face popped into my head. The day he walked with me to the principals office, when he smiled like he was humoring me. Then Deku, when I ran off and found myself at the beach.
"I'm, not sure..."
Ashido, with her constant in your face attitude and hugs. Kirishima and Bakugo when they pushed me to hang out with them at the arcade. Todoroki, after my first run in with Endeavor. Shouji, Sero and the three from 1-B at the sports festival, helping me. Iida's constant lectures. Aoyama's flamboyant personality.
"I don't know if-"
Mineta's twisted perversions that always amused me, as well as kept me busy as his keeper. Kouda and Satou at the school pool. All the girls in the hot springs at the training camp. Ochako seeming concerned, asking me questions. Kaminari, Mineta, Shouji, Tokoyami and Aoyama at the swim suit shop. Mei Hatsume at the sports festival and in the Development Studio.
"-I know what love is..."
Ojiro always fairly quiet, but always concerned.
All Might, when he took me to get a lecture from Mr Aizawa. Then, Mr Aizawa and Present Mic. Principal Nezu. Cementoss. Recovery Girl. Gang Orca and Rock Lock.
Lastly, I thought of Doc, Hara, Lio and Sharps. Sharps hadn't been around for long, but somehow I had already felt this bond with him. Probably because of our similar circumstances.
Sharps squeezed my hands. "I think you do."
I hadn't realized until then that I had been crying. I quickly wiped the tears away. "Sorry. Ugh."
I stood up and took my mug to the kitchen. "Should probably think about going back to school, huh?"
"Do you think that's a good idea?"
I nodded. "Yea. Otherwise Mr Aizawa is going to eventually come looking for me."
"Ah. Right. When did you want to go back?"
I sighed. "Tomorrow. The sooner, the better. Less suspicion."
Suddenly, my phone buzzed. I frowned and answered the phone.
"I need you."
"Huh? Wait, what?"
"I need you to come with me."
"What? Where? What's going on, Kurogiri?"
He stayed silent for a minute. "Are you at home?"
"Uh, yea."
A warp gate appeared in my lounge room and the line went dead. Kurogiri stepped through and walked up the counter.
"I need you to come with me."
"Where?"
He shifted his gaze to Sharps, who looked a mixture of confused and frightened.
"Kurogiri. Where are we going?"
"I'm afraid it might not be safe for me anymore."
I felt my heart twist. "What do you mean?"
"We need to get someone."
"Someone..." I repeated quietly. "You don't mean..."
"Yes-"
"Let's go. Sharps, I won't be long, provided everything is clear."
"What? Wai-"
Kurogiri created another warp gate and I stepped through.
"Are you sure about this?"
"Yes."
I glanced behind me as we walked. "How far away do you think they'll be, then?"
"On that, I'm not sure."
"Hm." I looked up at Kurogiri. "How many forests have you searched? Including this one?"
"More than I wanted too. There's reports he's here."
"You hope, you mean."
Kurogiri stayed quiet.
I shook my head and looked around. I was starting to get an eerie feeling. "How far ahead, do you think?"
"Just up there." He pointed to the mountains.
"You want me to go ahead?"
"If you feel you need too, Kitia Shigaraki."
I nodded, and shifted my eyes to look behind me. I took off running. I felt like someone was coming, and I didn't care much for being caught. I ran down the hill and into a wooded area.
He wasn't that hard to find; not really. Whether he felt like listening was another story though.
"Hey! Oi! I know you're here!"
I heard a crash behind me, and I nodded to myself. Called it.
"Answer me! Kurogiri sent me ahead."
I felt a rumbling and the man came out from beside a mountain. I couldn't but smile a little. I always thought this guy was cool.
"Kurogiri's over there." I pointed and the man put his hand down for me. Seems he heard the crash as well. I climbed onto his hand and he carried me to a tree, placing me on the highest branch. I slipped my hand into my coat pocket and pulled out the palm. I pressed it to my face and watched.
The man, Gigantomachia, was literally what his name suggests. A giant man. His skin and hair just looked like stone. I just it fit with his stiff personality. Though, he did seem fine with me and Tomura.
"Everything is for my Master..." Oh, and of course, the Master.
I held on to the tree trunk as he brought his fist down. I couldn't quite see Kurogiri or anyone else for that matter, aside from Gigantomachia. The shock-wave nearly sent me flying, but I managed to hold on.
I heard yelling and gunshots. Smirking, I held onto the tree. That's not going to help. I need to get out of here. I'm not sure why Kurogiri brought me here. Gigantomachia listens to him, so why did he need me?
There were a few more shock-waves and gunshots, and yelling; then everything stopped.
I looked up, Gigantomachia standing in front of me. He held out his hand and I stepped onto it.
"That was over quickly."
He just nodded and put me onto his back. I stood between the rock-like hump on his back and his shoulder, holding onto his hair. I looked back to see Gran Torino and Detective Tsukauchi running away with Kurogiri. Lucky I hadn't been caught, in that case...
"Will he be alright, do you think?"
Kept walking, not speaking for a minute. "That doesn't matter. What matters is the Master, and what he wants."
I looked at Gigantomachia, then at the giant hole in the mountain he had caused.
"You know, you don't have to be so stiff all the time." I sighed and sat down on his shoulder. "Could you at least take me close to home?"
He nodded, but said nothing.
I sighed again. "This is going to be a long trip..."
That night, I decided to go back to school. I didn't want anyone to notice me, so I figured night time would be better. Doc and Hara didn't like the idea.
"After everything's that's happened, you think that's a good idea?!"
"You're not going back so soon. We have to deal with this first. We have to catch the bastard-"
"Doc..."
He growled, thumped the kitchen counter and walked into the training area, slamming the door.
I sighed, and Lio put his hand on my shoulder. "He just feels guilty, that's all. This happened to you and he couldn't stop it."
"I know that. But...I can't let something like this stop me from going to school. I'm already in too deep, anyway. Backing out now would just be...It's not happening."
"Well, I'm sure he'll come around."
I nodded. Hara sat on the coffee table, and leaned back on his hands. "I don't like the idea of you going back to school, either, but on the other hand...We know you will be safe."
Sharps leaned on the couch and nodded. "Plus, we can still ring you to see how you're doing. And you can call us whenever."
I looked over at the closed door, where Doc was. "I just hope he come to terms with it soon."
That night, I snuck back to the dorms. I didn't have anything that I had taken to Endeavor's agency. I hadn't been back there since I found myself in Kyushu. I hadn't gotten any messages or calls from him either. I briefly wondered why, but then shook my head. I didn't want to dwell on it too much.
I appeared behind the dorm building, under my balcony, and looked around. Nobody would be in bed yet, but they wouldn't be outside either. Ever since Shouji and the others had turned up in my room that time, I didn't use my quirk inside my room unless I'd locked the door. I needed a name for this quirk...
I jumped onto each balcony until I got up to mine. Nobody was in my room. Good.
I walked in and turned the light on. I turned around and stopped, staring.
"What the...?"
All my stuff that I had taken to Endeavors had been brought back and placed at the end of my bed.
I felt myself go pale. "What the hell?" Did that mean Endeavor had been in my room? No, I doubt it. Even if he was allowed in the dorm, Mr Aizawa wouldn't let him in my room. No way that would happen.
I went to the fridge and took out a beer. I turned my TV on and started to play Skyrim. I needed to forget about everything for a while.
A little while later, I heard the door open a little. I turned my head, half expecting Mr Aizawa.
Bakugo came in, closed the door again and sat next to me. He didn't say anything for a bit, then just got up and got two beers out of the fridge.
I took one, and kept playing. I was in the middle of a mission to kill vampires.
"Why didn't you come through the front door?"
I didn't look at him. "Why did you come to my room, if you thought I wasn't here?"
He sipped his beer. "Icy-hot told me he had a bad feeling about your work study. I tried to get him to tell me what he meant, but he refused to say anything. The way he said it...I came up here every so often to check if you'd come back."
I didn't say anything, focusing on killing a group of vampires.
"Then two days ago, your stuff just turned up, but you didn't. Mr Aizawa said the explanation he was told, was that you were on a mission and as soon as it was over, you'd be coming back. We didn't get told what the mission was or if you were safe. Nothing. Everyone was worried."
He took another sip and looked at me.
"What happened?"
The incident at Kyushu flashed through my mind. I gripped my controller and narrowed my eyes. As I played, the image of flames from the burning buildings became strong in my mind. The conversation with Dark Shadow; what that lady had told me and what I had done to her.
I growled and tossed my controller onto my bed as a Master Vampire killed my character.
I opened the stubby and took a mouthful.
"How many have you had?"
Only then did I look at Bakugo. "Not enough."
He nodded. "That must have been a hell of a mission."
I shifted my eyes. "Yea. You could say that." I debated for a second if I should say anything to him. "...I mean the missions pretty much over, right?" I muttered.
"Huh? Your mission is over. You wouldn't be here otherwise. That's what Aizawa said. Once it's finished, you'd be back."
"Yea. I guess that's true."
He turned to me fully. "Right. Enough of this. Start talking."
"Huh?"
"I'm already sick of this pitiful look you have on your face. Start talking. What happened in this mission of yours? It's finished now, right?"
I stared at him and nodded.
"Then start talking. What happened?"
I hesitated, then took another mouthful. I shifted back so my back was against the wall, and I pulled my legs up. "Fine. I'll tell you some of it." I sighed and drank some more. "We thought we were investigating traffickers. Only, it turned out they weren't trafficking people at all. I figured out where they were and went there. By myself. The cops couldn't get there until the next morning at the earliest, but the criminals knew we were onto them, so they would've moved their operations. I didn't know that 100%, but that's what any smart person would do. I was only sent to scout the area, since they didn't know who I was, plus I'm pretty good at stealth when I want to be. I followed a small group who had kidnapped a woman, the hatch that was on the island. I snuck down after them, and watched as their Boss hacked off one of this woman's wings. There were other people there too. Some in cages, some chained to the wall. There was blood everywhere."
I lifted the stubby to my lips, staring at the wall above the TV. "One of them caught me and took me to this Boss, and he strapped me to some kind of up-right table." I took a long swig.
"I couldn't use my quirks. Any of them. Apparently the Boss had figured out a way to negate quirks. The straps stopped me from using them. The cages and chains where made of the same stuff, so no one could use their quirks while chained. You could use your quirks inside the cages, but they were bound to just inside the cage. For example, if that warp-gate guy, Kurogiri, was in one of those cages, he could use his quirk to get to the other side of the cage, but he couldn't get out if it." I shuttered. "I passed out. I don't know how long I was there exactly. He didn't have a chance to hurt me. He put me in a massive cage with some guy called Zoom. I still have no idea what his quirk is. He tried to use it on me, but obviously, it didn't work. We were supposed too..." I stopped and looked at Bakugo.
"You were supposed to what?"
I sighed and finished my drink. "It was supposed to be a fight to the death. People who were watching threw a knife into the cage with us. That was after they were sick of watching us beat each other up."
Bakugo got up and went to fridge. He got two more beers out and returned to his spot.
"Thanks, Bakugo. So...That was my work study."
"That's not all of it, though. Is it?"
I opened the next drink and swallowed as much as I could. I shook my head. "No. That's not all of it. But...I can't tell anyone about the rest. Not right now. I have to come to terms with it first, then...We'll see."
He sat back against the wall, next to me. "Hm." He turned his head to look at me. "Yea well, don't go all weird on us before you tell us."
"Huh?"
He sighed and sipped his drink. "I'm saying don't go changing just because of some bad experience you went through. It wouldn't be right."
"I'm not going to change too much, Bakugo." I looked at my hands and empty stubby. "At least, I don't think I will."
"And that's another thing."
I blinked. "What?"
"Don't call me that. It's weird."
"Uh...What?"
"Bakugo. You don't call me that." He looked away. "You call me Go-Go, like you always do." He sipped his drink. "If you don't, everyone will know somethings up and come gunning for you."
I blinked again, then gave a small smile. I lifted my fist and pressed it to his temple. "And here I was thinking you didn't give two fucks about me. Ugh, don't be going all soft on me now, Go-Go."
He smirked. "All I care about is kicking your ass in Mortal Kombat."
"Ha! Like that'll happen!"
We started to play for a little while, until he decided it was time for bed. He had is provisional licencing course the next day and needed a decent sleep.
I hoped that he'd be able to pass the next exam for it. Having him out there would give me piece of mind.
