Horizon: I'm sorry. This is a bit shorter than the last chapter and a bit sadder, but the next chapter is going to be kind of intense.
He was both looking forward to this and dreading this all day. Now that the time had come, now that he was walking down Shirayuki's street with Togata and Nejire, he started to tremble a little. Nausea set in, making his stomach churn. He knew his palms were sweating a bit and tried to wipe them on his pants. All while he tried to reason with himself about the situation.
I've been to her house before. I've met her grandma. I know I shouldn't be nervous. So why do I feel like I'm going to throw up? Amajiki was staring down at the sidewalk, trailing behind his friends with his hands in his pockets.
"I haven't seen the inside of her house yet! I'm so excited! Didn't you say she has a lot of cats, Tamaki?" Nejire turned around to look at him and paused in her steps, making him almost crash into her. Tilting her head, she frowned. "What's wrong?"
"N-nothing, I just…I'm not sure about this."
"What're you worried about, Tamaki? You've been to Yuki's house a few times." Togata beamed and put a hand on his shoulder. "You know, Yuki's going to be really glad that we checked on her grandma for her. She sounded pretty worried on the phone so when you call her and tell her that everything's fine, think of how happy she'll feel!"
"That's…that's true." Just thinking about her shy little smiles was enough to make his heart start to throb and he smiled to himself. "I-I guess we should hurry. So I can call her soon."
"You really miss her, don't you?" Walking next to him, with Nejire up ahead, Togata's smile grew. "I'm really glad that you asked her out. You pushed yourself out of your comfort zone and things turned out pretty great so far, right?"
Amajiki nodded, but he started to feel a weird sensation. Like a tingly feeling, in a bad way. "Mirio…"
Nejire had stopped on the sidewalk in front of the gate and tilted her head again. Turning to her friends with a frown, she nodded toward the house. "You guys, something isn't right."
"What?" The tingly feeling grew with each step he took closer to Shirayuki's house and Amajiki broke into a run alongside Togata. Standing at the gate, his heart was beginning to beat out of control. The gate was closed, but the front door of the house was open. Not enough to attract anyone's attention unless they were looking directly at it. "S-something's wrong. Mirio, you have to-"
"I'm on it!" He went through the gate, clothes dropping onto the ground and accepting them from Amajiki. He got dressed again in a hurry and unlocked the gate for the other two.
Staring at the slightly open door, all kinds of terrible things ran through Amajiki's head. Burglars might have broken in, thinking that no one was home, and hurt Shirayuki's grandmother. The girl's own mother might have done something; Amajiki knew that she was supposed to be a cruel woman. He glanced to Togata, who signaled for him and Nejire to stay back.
The blond boy quietly approached the door and nudged it open further. "No." The word was spoken so softly that it almost went unheard. Togata did not spare them another glance, he stepped into the house and closed the door.
The churning in Amajiki's stomach increased tenfold. "Wh-what is it? Did you see anything?" He glanced to Nejire, who shook her head. "Should we…should we go after him? What if he needs help?"
They moved closer to the house, both listening for any movement or voices inside. All they heard was one set of footsteps moving along what Amajiki knew was the center hallway. Each second that passed made the tension grow. His unease continued to increase until he was unable to stand it anymore.
Amajiki swallowed his fear and strode toward the door. His palm was sweating as he grabbed the doorknob. When he opened it, his heart sank as the strong, meaty scent of blood hit him. Looking down, his eyes widened. There was a trail of crimson droplets and a few large splatters on the normally pristine wooden floor. "No", he repeated Togata's response.
"What? What is it?" Nejire's voice pierced through the paralyzing terror and snapped him into hero mode.
"Call the police. Please. I have to find Mirio and make sure he's okay. D-don't come in here." He closed the door behind him and moved down the hallway quietly; carefully avoiding the blood so he would not contaminate any evidence. "Mirio? Where-?"
"Here." The call came from what he knew was Shirayuki's bedroom. "Tamaki. Don't look in the other rooms, okay? Just keep your head down and follow my voice. It's…not good."
Amajiki's hands were trembling so intensely that he had to curl them into fists. His nails dug into his palms from the intensity and he took slow, careful steps to his girlfriend's room. He found Togata sitting on Shirayuki's bed and he realized what his friend had been doing.
Togata had been rounding up the cats, but Amajiki could only see four of them in the room. Three of the cats were missing. Togata frowned as their eyes met and he nodded for him to close the door. "We have to get them out of here. It's just these four." He paused, studying Amajiki's face. "You didn't look in the kitchen, did you?"
"No. Mirio, what-?"
"How many of these cats can you carry? We need to figure out where to take them for now. I don't know what Yuki's going to do when she gets back." His voice was a little strained, his mouth pulling into a frown.
"Mirio…where's her grandma?"
Shift P.O.V
Grandma…still hasn't called me. Shirayuki stared down at the phone screen, her frown on full display to her friends. And Tamaki isn't answering my messages. What if something happened? Should I try Togata-senpai? But I don't want to bother him if he's busy. They might still be at their work studies.
An elbow nudged hers and made her look away from her phone. Warmth spread across her face when she realized that everyone at the table was looking at her. Bowing a little, she pushed her phone into her pocket and let her dark violet hair fall around her face to hide the blush.
"…I-I'm sorry…I didn't…um…it's rude for me to have my phone…at dinner…" She felt like she was shrinking in on herself. Gripping her glass of water and hoping that her friends would resume talking about their training from earlier that day.
"Yuki, are you okay?" Kirishima's voice made it clear he was worried.
"…I'm…fine, I just…ah…" The girl made herself look up at the boy sitting next to her and forced a small smile. "…I'm sure it's…nothing…I'm just overreacting…"
His eyes widened. "Your boyfriend hasn't called you?"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Bakugou growled from the seat on her other side. "You better not be talking about that upperclassman. Isn't he almost two years older than her? What the hell is so great about-?"
"Dude, not now! This isn't the time!" Their red-haired friend shot Bakugou a warning look and put a hand on Shirayuki's shoulder. "Hey, but you know what? He might still be at his work study, right? Do you have the numbers for his friends? You could probably try to call them."
"What's going on?" Kaminari asked, breaking into the conversation.
"Yuki's grandma wasn't answering the phone so she asked her boyfriend to check on her, but he hasn't called her yet," Ashido explained.
"That kind of sounds like something from a horror movie," Sero commented.
"Not helping!" Kirishima sighed and patted Shirayuki's shoulder. "Come on. We can go outside and you can call one of those other upperclassmen. They might be able to tell you something."
She nodded and they started walking for the exit. Ashido called after them to remind them of the test of courage planned for that night. Shirayuki's stomach was churning at the thought of the phone call, but the added fear of the test of courage made her tremble a little.
Togata did not answer the call and it was sent to voicemail. She left a timid message asking for him to call her back. When she called Nejire, she had more success. The older girl answered the phone with a little hesitation at first, but then fell into her usual bubbly and sweet demeanor. "Yuki! How was the training camp today? Did you get to do a lot of sparring?"
"…i-it was okay, but…Nejire-senpai, have you…heard from Togata-senpai and Tamaki…?" She did feel a little better because Nejire seemed to be in high spirits.
There was a small pause with the sound of a cat meowing somewhere in the background. "I haven't heard from them."
"…oh…um…I-I'm sorry I bothered you…"
"No way! Yuki, it's always great hearing from you! So how has the training camp been? Nothing weird happened, right? Like an explosion or a ufo?" It was clear that she was trying to make Shirayuki laugh and feel at ease.
It worked. Shirayuki smiled a real smile and bowed her head. "…no…um…well no explosions besides Bakugou-kun's…but that's his quirk so…"
Nejire sighed and, again, the unmistakable sound of a cat's meow could be hear in the background. "Good! Hopefully nothing crazy happens! I want you to have the best summer training camp ever! Oh, I know! Yuki, when you come back we should do something special! I can take you to the cutest store; they have the softest plushies there and they even have a bakery!"
Shirayuki nodded to herself. "…that…sounds really fun…"
When the call ended, Kirishima gave her a curious look. "So it sounds like everything's okay?"
"…yeah…um…it seems like everything's fine…" She stayed close to Kirishima when they went to join the others, but soon found herself separated from him again. Out of her main friend group, only she and Bakugou were able to actually go on the test of courage.
While her class was being put into teams of two, she tried to focus on the activity ahead of her. Nejire had told her not to worry. However, there was still a hint of that heavy, sick feeling in her gut. When her name was said, she blinked and turned to look at who she was being paired up with.
"…Midoriya-kun…?" She felt relieved. Not sure how she would have handled it if she had to walk through the dark forest with Bakugou. As she moved to stand with her green-haired classmate, she fidgeted with her butterfly pendant.
"Shirayuki-chan." He greeted her with a warm smile. "I'm really glad we got paired up. Let's do our best, okay?"