To say Akemi's state this morning was concerning would be a little bit of an understatement. Shouto glanced towards the girl worriedly, she had her hair in a plain ponytail today, which is in itself out of the norm, and it's a total mess on top of that.

Not to mention she looks like death warmed over, with her usual dark circles even darker than usual, it's not like they aren't obvious other days, but she is usually so bubbly and, well, energetic that you won't even notice them and now that she's tired and slumped over it made her look almost sickly.

"Akemi, are you okay?"

She blinked a little and yarned, flashing him a smile.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." She sneezed, "Just tired. I'll be fine after a coffee or two, and a lot of sugar." She lifted the takeout drinks in her hand and groaned, a little dramatically in Shouto's opinion (But this is Akemi we are talking about, Dramatic's her middle name.)

"That's an understatement, kid!" Shouto startled slightly as Burnin' came out of nowhere and slung an arm over Akemi's shoulder, before blinking in surprise. "Ya' look like a friggin corpse!"

He watched as Akemi made a zombi imitation, making the heroine laugh before slapping the girl on her back. A smile tugged at the corner of his lip as the girl joked around and seemed to return to normal after downing the drinks in her hand and declared her hair is hideous before skipping off to the washroom.

"Wait for me, 'Kay?" She slapped him upside the head, "Or else I'm going to destroy you later in training!"

Shouto shook his head with exasperation and fondness, this girl, really... He watched as she skipped off, blowing a raspberry at him, only to frown.

Is that...?

He narrowed his eyes, heterochromatic irises locking onto the girl's shoulder. She had worn a hoodie over her tank top today so he didn't notice but just now it slipped off, and there, was the unmistakable white colour of bandages.

She hadn't injured herself yesterday, and the shirt she was wearing yesterday wasn't exactly modest, so he knew for a fact that her shoulders weren't bandaged. It has to have happened last night.

Akemi isn't a careful person, but she certainly isn't clumsy enough to injure herself enough to need bandages. A few possibilities popped into his mind, and none was pleasant.

"Tssss— "

Akemi hissed as she lifted the cotton away from her large cut, it wasn't deep, but it was wide and jagged and excruciating.

What an unpleasant family visit, indeed.

Blinking away stray tears Akemi rolled up the bloody bandages before patching the wound up with new ones.

She swiped her hair away from her eyes and rolled both shoulders a few times, to get used to the pain, before exiting the stall to wash the bloodstains off.

She could always blame it on girls problems if someone catches her with blood on her hands, can't she?

The washroom was thankfully empty as Akemi carefully rubbed the bloodstains away, it's also why she wore hoodies and cooling sleeves, they covered up her arms well. She made sure they're thin and breathy to avoid suspicion, of course. A simple cardigan, even if thin enough to be translucent can cover up a lot if you know the trick.

After pulling her hair back up into a much nicer basic knot, training friendly of course, Akemi exited the washroom and made her way back to find Todoroki.

"Yo, Todoroki!" Akemi grinned as she waved, "Sorry to keep you waiting, But I'm a teenage girl and you should get what I'm implicating..." She trailed off and her smile slipped as she noticed the severe look he is giving her, or specifically, her injured shoulder.

So he saw, huh.

She wet her lips and smiled, softer this time, "Let's head upstairs, okay?"

Todoroki glanced towards her, and nodded.

"Alright."

Akemi made sure they got in the elevator alone, and only after the doors closed, did she speak.

"You saw the bandages, right?"

His head snapped up towards her and he blinked in surprise. Akemi rolled her eyes and snorted, "It's pretty obvious, you're staring at my shoulder like it killed something. Unless you're staring at my chest but that's highly unlikely since I'm only wearing B to C cups, and with that sports bra I'm wearing it means I'm pretty much flat." The teen flushed a little, but Akemi's shameless, so, whatever.

"No, I... I saw the bandages." Akemi glanced up towards her classmate, "what..."

"Someone paid me a family visit." She answered softly, "To properly ensure that I'll 'keep my mouth shut', they left me a souvenir."

Akemi's face darkened at the reminder, "I was stupid. Should've known that the Hayashi Financial Group owns the Urban Paradise Hotel. I knew the name sounded familiar."

"...how is it?"

After a few moments of awkward silence, Todoroki finally spoke up.

"Just a shallow cut, it's a lot longer and bled quite a lot yesterday but I healed most of it with Overgrow. So I should be alright." She looked towards Todoroki to find the teen staring at her shoulder intensely, so sighing, she slipped the side of her hoodie off to expose the new bandages.

"Here."

The teen gave her a startled look, before turning his attention towards the bandaged wound again. Examining the white strip of cloth with an intensive gaze.

"Where did you hit yourself?"

"Bastard threw me down the stairs again, and since that's an apartment hotel with wood themed furniture, I got pretty cut up." He flinched slightly at that, hissing.

"Ah... Wood hurts the worse."

Akemi snorted, "that guy's an interior designer with his own workshop for making furniture, I've been through worse."

"Bamboo floors aren't any joke either, the spikes really hurts, if they got in the wound."

Akemi hissed, pulling the sleeve back up, "ooh that gotta hurt... Rough metal's still worse though."

"Where on Earth...?" He gave her a bewildered look before nodding, "Right. Designer."

"Wait, no. Ever been thrown down rusted metal stairs? That's really the worst."

"It's not a contest."


Current Poll Results~ (from both the poll and the reviews)

Akemi's paring:

Todoroki Shouto: 12

Midoriya Izuku: 1

Iida Tenya: 2

Seiba Hiroi: 0

Ueno Hibiki: 3

Kaminari Denki: 0

Bakugou Katsuki: 3

Tokoyami Fumikage: 0

Iida Tensei: 1

Others (Please state in review!)


Hibiki's pairing:

Todoroki Shouto: 0

Midoriya Izuku: 0

Iida Tenya: 4

Seiba Hiroi: 0

Kimura Akemi: 3

Shinsou Hitoshi: 4

Others (Please state in review!)


Alright, So there's been a few changes in the chapter 'the saddest story', but nothing else. Since it doesn't really affect the plot much, you can just leave it be, but check it out if you want!

Due to the virus, school is suspended and now I get to laze around home doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, which is BORING AS HELL. So that means I have a lot of time on my hands, which means longer chapters!

I have a Tumblr account, and I am planning to make a short comic version of Sonder, do you think I should do it? Tell me in the comments!

Onto the replies!


To Valen Goncalvez: Thank you!