Chapter Twenty-Four: Rash Sickened


"I can't say I'm sorry, Mimi. I can't regret it at all, or I know I'll chicken out and ruin this shot I've got."

Did she really want to take the stabilizers?

A game of solitaire at the end of the security wing couldn't solve the wide eyed girl's dilemma this time, her figure frozen beyond manual thawing. Things were much too real, the shadows of fears thought to have been bleached out springing up to swallow Ayumi. Unease had consumed the girl, whose back was physically forced against the wall across from her bed, rigid yet weakened. Backbone sunk into the greedy stucco coating her room, gradually gnawed at like a puppy's bone, so vulnerable, so exposed, although encased in such thick skin. Snake bite rings couldn't do her any good, the black hoops shaking in harmony with the rest of Ayumi's panic ridden body. The bloodshot girl's eyes bulged, quivering under the only light hanging from the ceiling, desperately wishing for the silent shadows she once resided in. Ayumi knew it would all stop if she were to just satisfy the question:

To tell, or not to tell?

Red splotches spread over green skin, an invasive technique which forced Ayumi's hand. An itch had bursted into blossoms; a flowering rash had begun to creep up her bony forearms, bruising lost in the greenery plagued by red. Autumn was patching up on her skin far too soon, a premature leaf fall, the saturated greens not yet ripe enough to bloom. Nevertheless, they forced to by the absence of summer sweat, and now only Ayumi remained in the room, alone. Stress had forced the bullets of perspiration out in a heartbeat, her slick forehead and damp underarms clear signs of such. Ayumi had hit the peak of summer a few hours before - only to be forced into an early fall by dark eyes of the same breed as hers.

I need a buzz. I need the buzz. No one had to know, just like no one had to know of the words Bubaigawara Jin spoke to her not an hour earlier. No one had to know that she was conflicted, no one had to know and she could act innocent.

Is it really so hard to choose? What has Jin given me that these people haven't? They're in danger!

Though the heart screamed, begged for her mind's compliance one more time, there was no mercy left between the folds upon folds of her battered neurons, the ones fried and clustered within her thick skull. And so, Ayumi stood rigid yet weakly, rash covered against the wall across from her bed, an incomplete game of solitaire strewn over the table in a previous rage, the all-too-real shadows pouncing savagely.

This will have to do. To protect Jin, to protect myself. I guess...

All loose ended thoughts were silenced by an influx of barbiturates, strong enough to pacify an elephant, strong enough to make Ayumi drool. It was habitual; vices so enticing couldn't be let go of overnight, over the span of a season.

I guess the others can wait...

The rash and premature chills of autumn were forgotten when her mind was dulled, the ever familiar gray retiring the colors which came before. And thus, she sunk into the wall, the distance between the pained teen and the prowling shadows nonexistent.

Morning came, cannabis came, gray came, Asui - call her Tsu - came. She waited by the door, patient smile and large eyes welcoming Ayumi to the outside world. Under the influence, Asui's words blended and swirled like paint, paint that was reaching out to recolor the sticky gray coating the room. Wide eyed Ayumi couldn't decipher the small talk being thrown at her while laden with the very drug that had brought her to UA and the security wing in the first place. The more the frog girl spoke, her swirling words Ayumi assumed tasted green and fresh, the more the bruise ridden girl drifted away, unable to come back down to the safety of the security wing.

A pool day? Ayumi would have to check her schedule. Asui wasn't going to leave without her? Kirishima's orders? Kirishima's orders? But she didn't have a bathing suit. It was okay? The school provided them for training? A pool day? Kirishima's orders?

She focused on the chamomile she was chewing, teeth chattering and mashing away. Any words Ayumi picked up from swirling Tsu erupted into an endless string of questions. It all felt hollow to her, the entire scene, hollow to the point where the outside world felt impenetrable. The sickly girl knew she didn't deserve to hear the words Asui spoke, inadvertently blocking them out without doubt as a means of penance for what she was doing. She chained herself to her thoughts, the thoughts which resided between the web-like folds upon folds of neurons clustered within her skull, her oh so hollow skull. The neurons were shot under friendly fire, and Ayumi was chained to wisps of thought.

"I've trusted you since USJ, and I haven't doubted my choice once."

Said thought was the only thing numbed Ayumi had to go off of that morning. With a slow sizzle, the web nerves sent a message to the patient frog girl, one of the many Ayumi was choosing her brother over, and snake bitten lips uttered, "Okay. I'll be there."

Ayumi couldn't remember the trip over, but somehow she'd made it to the pool. The girls of the class were there, but the troubled teen was too swept up in herself to make more acquaintances alone. Kirishima wasn't there yet - for that, Ayumi was thankful, as the rash she displayed was anything but appealing. If she'd seen him, she predicted her mouth would've dumped all her mind's problems on the poor shark toothed boy, which was unfair to both parties involved. A little space, a little time. Her reflection was warped by the slow moving waves in the clear water.

Why wouldn't I warn them?

Another thought was born as Ayumi sat at the pool's edge, dangling her feet in the pool water warmed by sunlight. Said light had fended off remnants of the shadows which had eaten the poor, bloodshot girl the night before, allowing her the potential to reach clarity. The chamomile stuck between her teeth had begun to work it's magic, her body calmed beyond what even marijuana was capable of. The brunette popped a couple of stabilizers at the first sign of tension's recession, however, her mind wasn't completely at ease still.

He warned me. So why wouldn't I say something?

Eyebrows furrowed.

What was the warning intended for, if not to tell others?

The splashing and summer fun wasn't suited to Ayumi, the rash burning more than the sun had against her skin. It stretched over her forearms, dormant and waiting, waiting for a misstep, the right leaf to fall. Autumn was upon her still - she was not the same as the others.

Who am I protecting here? Jin's made his choice, to join them, to tell me. He knows what he's doing, so why do I feel the need to protect him?

"Ayumi." Todoroki approached from the side, sitting next to her and dipping his pale toes in the water. Their reflection made the two seem closer than they were, the waves that passed between them carrying a piece of the heterochromatic boy's mouth over to the wide eyed girl's forehead. He sighed at the sight, the sight of two of them in the water. The boy didn't look up as he said, "It's hot out."

"I feel cold." Ayumi didn't look up either.

"Are you sick?"

"In a ways, I think I am. Nothing that can't be fixed."

"Hm. I think I felt that way at the sports festival. My ice always gives me frostbite with overuse."

"I have a question for you." She couldn't tell if her reflection moved her or if she moved her reflection, but nevertheless, her eyes found his. Through the confines of mental unease, Ayumi asked, "What made you want to use the fire?"

The two toned boy was pensive, unfaltering in a way that made him seem so sure of himself. "Well, it does take a lot to break ice when you aren't melting it. Takes time." He put a hand to his watery image. Sprouting from his fingertips, a thin sheet of ice distorted the clear water version of Todoroki, the reds and blues of his complexion morphing into an all consuming white. "I just had to realize that my quirk is my own, my life is my own. I get to do what I want because it's my choice."

"But wasn't it your destiny to use the fire too? Inevitable?"

"You always have a choice when it comes to yourself. Hmm...let's see how I can put this." Todoroki put his left hand to the ice, slowly returning it to a liquid state, warm, calm. The image of the two was stagnant, no mixing. Ayumi had never seen herself so peaceful, without a smile but peaceful, as his voice returned: "Life is a road. You may not have a choice which one you're put on, but from there the road is all yours. To travel, to stop, to off-road." The boy stood, and offered his fire melding hand out to the girl who'd been frozen since the night before. It may have come out as little more than a whisper, but Todoroki's words rang loud and clear in Ayumi's head. "It's all yours."

Joints began to move again on their own, the brunette's rash plagued hand connecting with his creamy one. The bloodshot girl stood with the help of the heterochromatic boy, the mesh of colors between the two making Ayumi grateful she could see them for the first time. It was a combination that wouldn't have ever happened if Ayumi hadn't gone off-roading in the first place; she just needed him to remind her of that fact.

Jin doesn't need me to protect him anymore. The scar is proof enough, so it's time to save this class.

"That rash looks pretty bad. It must be why you feel sick," remarked Todoroki, his grip moving down from her hand to her arm, tenderly.

He used his right hand, the one with ice in its veins, to graze it, eliciting an itch like no other Ayumi's nerves had felt before. Overstimulation was mere child's play compared to the intense burning sensation which afflicted the area the boy touched. He'd kindled a cold blaze, the frost biting at the sensitive area, the area which was previously changing with the seasons. More patches of red bloomed as a result, the piles of leaves accumulating even beneath the blazing summer sun. Unknowingly, Todoroki had set off a nervous frenzy atop the skin of her arms, the wide eyed girl jerking back in panic. "Gah!"

Worry danced in Todoroki's eyes, a quick twirl and dip, then left when he questioned, "It hurts that bad?"

"I was just surprised at how cold your hand is." It wasn't the fact that his hand was cold - Ayumi knew that much. However, when she thought back to the warm shower and hot towel from the evening prior, an idea struck her mind, hot lightening.

It's because it wasn't Kirishima's touch.

Withdrawals. Ayumi seemed to be going through withdrawals of sorts. It had to have just been withdrawals which caused the stress rash after seeing her brother again. After all, he wasn't there to comfort me like he was the time before. Yes. Nothing more than withdrawals. The green girl decided then that she'd need to invite the red head over that night, maybe for some dinner and a card game, anything but icecream. If she was feeling good, maybe she'd tell him a story from when she was a kid, all young and raw, pumped with power she didn't have a handle on. I won't tell him about last night, though. I need to preserve what little image I have left in his eyes.

Her thoughts weren't silenced, racing even as Todoroki spoke again. "Oh, sorry. Do you want me to take you to the infirmary?"

"It's okay. The boys are arriving anyway. Go have your fun, I'm sure I'll make it there myself." And, leave she did, the girl with the insatiable rash walking off, but not to the infirmary.

To Aizawa's office, Ayumi went.

"I can't say I'm sorry, Mimi. I can't regret it at all, or I know I'll chicken out and ruin this shot I've got. I just wanted you to know what was going to happen, give you a fair chance. I don't wanna ruin your life again. I've realized this since I've gotten sober again. That day I ran into you and the red head kid - I didn't mean to scare you. I just wanted to say hi and be on my way."

"Oh."

"Yeah, sorry for that. I just missed you. I'm sorry it's gotta keep happening this way, but I need to warn you. The League of Villains...they're coming. I can't and won't stop it, but they're coming. I'm coming. They're going after your class, they're going after that Bakugo kid, they're going after you."

"...I heard part of it from my old affiliate."

"Must be that Dabi guy. Heard he used to run drugs too. Either way, they're all coming, and you can't stop it. So, please prepare. I don't care for your class or new life, but I don't want you dying, Mimi. You're all I have left, so let's play cat and mouse for a little longer, yeah?"

The words were stale and frozen when they exited Ayumi's mouth. Aizawa's features contorted into an expression of surprise, lifted eyebrows and hidden wrinkles on display. Left to hang in the air was the origins of such shock: the villains plotting, or the fact her brother was a bonafide villain?

After a minute frozen the way Ayumi was the night before, the man in black asked, "Is that everything he told you?"

"Jin, b-be careful. I love y-"

"Mimi I- can it. I don't want to hear things you don't mean anymore."

Her chest tightened, but Ayumi managed to spit out, "That's all."

Aizawa stares intently into pain stricken bloodshot eyes, unsure of how to act. She was still bound to the strings of her past, regardless of how the heroes proceeded and would proceed in the future. He knew would've been best to keep her in a cell under police supervision, protecting her while also protecting his dear Class 1-A. As a teacher, it was the most logical, responsible decision.

Against all rationality, Aizawa found himself leaning forward, the sickly teen before him breaking into tears of an origin which he was not privy to. He didn't need to be, however, to care, to lend a shoulder. And thus, Aizawa let the girl who was somewhere in her teen years cry into his shoulder, cry the tears he had no clue about. He let her cry, trying not to break down as well. All the while Ayumi sobbed, sclera reddened around the dark iris, her catharsis and relief still far, but closer than before. It was tangible, attainable, for the first time in years. That very thought made it all come down even harder.

The chamomile in her mouth couldn't bleach thoughts of wishing Kirishima's arms were around her, though, as the red hot itch continued on, throbbing under the heavy eyed man's compassion.

This is a problem.