Hitoshi had never felt so helpless his entire life. As he watched Hibiki, his first friend, his best friend, cry her heart and eyes out in her mother's shoulder, crying, weeping, screaming until her voice dies and leaves her silent. He couldn't do a thing.

It was clear that Ueno-San was panicked as well, her face said so, lost and frantic and vulnerable, it just made it all the more clear to him that no one knows everything. No one, not even adults.

It somehow scared him.

He didn't;t know how to help Hibiki.

Ueno-San didn't know how to help Hibiki.

Can he really trust that the people out there are going to help?

Hitoshi doesn't know. He really doesn't know. He gripped his phone tightly as he debated whether he should approach the two or not, fist clenching so tight that his arms shook. It took a long time, but when Hibiki's cried finally died down and her sobs faded into soft sniffles, he finally plucked up the courage to speak up.

"H... Hibiki?"

Ueno-san releases her daughter gently, and holds her by her shoulders. Hibiki looks terrifyingly blank right now, eyes dull and a little misty, bloodshot but hallow. Hitoshi gulped, and took a step forwards.

"Hibiki?" He asked again.

The girl opened her mouth, but only a small strangled noise left her. She tried again, but then closed her mouth and shook her head, not speaking.

Ueno-San let out a soft, strangled sob, and embraced her daughter tightly again.

"It's fine, Hibiki." She said, voice oddly tight. "You can speak when you're ready. It's fine, it's alright."

Hibiki doesn't reply at all. Her head lolled to the side, and gently, she pushed her mother away to pick up her phone, typing something into it.

Seconds later, Hitoshi's phone chimes with a new text.

'I'm fine.'

He didn't need to look at her to know it's a lie.


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

Akemi's paring:

Todoroki Shouto: 24

Midoriya Izuku: 7

Ueno Hibiki: 7

Bakugou Katsuki: 4

Iida Tenya: 3

Iida Tensei: 1

Kaminari Denki: 1

Seiba Hiroi: 0

Others (Please state in review!)


Hibiki's pairing:

Shinsou Hitoshi: 8

Kimura Akemi: 7

Iida Tenya: 4

Midoriya Izuku: 0

Seiba Hiroi: 0

Todoroki Shouto: 0

Others (Please state in review!)


I spent hours smoothing out a file of how Hibiki reacts to most things. Then I read through my entire fic again and realized that the whole tone of some of the earlier chapters... Don't really suit it.

I'm thinking about rewriting some of them and turning this into a more serious fic, but then again, I really like how it's like right now so I'm not going to delete this one, I'm just going to, uh, post a new version on Ao3, I guess, If I got around to writing it.

Keep an eye out, I guess?

Onto the comment(s)!

To darkpaladin89: Yea. Angst.

I have a discord server where I share art for my fic and just chat, link here:

https/discord.gg/2S7Cy4R