It had been a couple of days since that odd confusion had started. Her head felt much clearer, she hadn't overslept anymore times and her body overall felt great. No headaches, no dizziness, no weird gaps in memory. Nothing odd to display!
The only headache she was experiencing right now was the math homework due for tomorrow. After dinner, she decided to try and finish the dreaded exercises before going to sleep.
Her bedroom was quiet, with only her table light illuminating the room. Staring with a mental block at the wall of text, she tapped her blue pen on the sheet of paper, as if hoping that the exercises would be completed with a simple touch.
"Okay, maybe if I just… try to look at it from another perspective?" She twisted around the paper, squinted her eyes and tried to squeeze out any knowledge that might be around her head.
After a few seconds of looking, an exasperated sigh escaped her lips. She certainly wasn't getting any better at maths, regardless of her streak of lucky guesses in class. What happened a few days ago was probably a mix of oversleeping and luck. One for the weird writing, another for the answer.
Exhausted, she realised that apart from her desk, the room was dark, her windows barely enough to light it. Following a few refreshing stretches, she turned on the artificial lights of her room and headed to the curtains to close them.
Her gaze drifted along the city lights in the distance. The fourth floor was enough to see them. The night skyline was oddly beautiful, gleaming with yellow and white lights. One of those lights caught her attention, a relatively small and white light that seemed to be flicking on top of one of the buildings. It was soothing but somewhat disconcerting. To be so close to the city yet so far away.
The knocking on her door made her wise up.
"I'm coming!" She closed her curtains and headed towards the entrance.
Uraraka slowly opened the door to receive the sight of her friend Mina, hiding her face behind a notebook.
"Who am I~?" Ashido cooed behind her shoddy cover.
"I can see the rest of your body?" Uraraka mentioned, slightly puzzled.
"That's right, it's me!" She triumphantly emerged from behind the notebook and laughed. "I'm here to ask for help! You've been pretty good with math this week and all that."
The Muse pondered for a moment, quickly remembering that her schoolmate wasn't exactly keen on studies.
"And you're asking me? I was only a bit lucky and… Why don't you ask someone smarter like-" Her words were quickly cut off.
"Yaomomo doesn't have space in her bedroom! Besides, I already asked her too many times beforehand." Ashido admitted. "I only want to be a knowledge leech on exams!"
"Well, okay. I was doing my homework anyways. I don't have another chair though." Uraraka motioned her hand and headed back inside, followed by Mina.
"It's alright, there's a reason why you have a coffee table! Besides, you know, coffee."
Her guest quickly sat down next to the table and opened the notebook with a happy hum. Uraraka joined her not too long after, after resettling her notes and pencil case.
They spend a few minutes just chatting, complaining about studying and subjects.
"Have you finished this one? It's like correlation or something, I didn't have time to copy it." Mina pointed to a lengthy exercise while keeping her eye on Uraraka's notes.
"Let me see… I don't think I've done this one, but it should go like this." She began explaining how to make the statistical table. "I think if you do that well, you just have to follow the formulae. I think so at least, it's been awhile since I had to remember highschool stuff."
"You mean cram school?" Mina asked, almost correcting Uraraka's slip up.
"Uh, yeah. Cram school. Silly mistake!" She awkwardly laughed it off, wondering if it had just a slip of the tongue.
Her friend didn't think much about her mistake as she continued to follow the advice she was given.
"I thought you mentioned that you didn't learn much there. I also had to go to cram school and look how I ended up! But just because I don't study enough, totally."
"I guess my memory is sporadic or something like that." She pulled herself back to her place and looked at the half done exercises. "I'm so bored! I don't wanna do this anymore!"
"Welcome to the club then!" Ashido joined her between laughs. "I can't wait for the winter break, at least we'll be able to hang out outside and do something more fun!"
Uraraka's ears perked up at the sound of freedom.
"Oh that's right, we can't really go outside without supervision. But at least we can hang out around the school grounds." The Muse admitted.
"But it's kinda claustrophobic, don't you think? With all the security and what not. I want to break free! Before what happened at the camp, we could at least go back home and do normal things. Now it's just… blegh!" Mina stuck out her tongue and feigned fainting. "But you went out with Deku a while ago, so…"
"Not this again!" Ochako almost fell on top of her back as she heard Ashido's implication. "You've been all week with that!"
"It's cause you don't want to tell me what happened! I'm sure something interesting went on and you're hiding it!" She begged for an answer while softly grabbing Uraraka's hand.
Her mind raced to find an answer, but the same thought persisted. Do not say anything. It constantly looped on her head, blocking any answer she might have figured up. This mental debate she had every time this question popped up was straining, especially because she had already forgotten what she was supposed to be hiding.
"It's nothing, I was just wondering…"She blurted out without thinking, noticing her right hand trembling for some reason.
"Wondering what? Don't tease me like this, just say it!"
"Wondering who would notice if someone sneaked in on the school, like on the first few days!" She hid the shivering hand below the table before continuing. "You know, maybe they'll use some voodoo magic or something!"
"You're very bad at switching topics, that's a very depressing scenario! They've upped the security since then, remember? With robots and even more heroes patrolling, you know! I'm sure it's basically impossible for them to enter again. And if they do, we'll beat them again!"
"Oh yeah, of course. From our class, who do you think would notice it first?" Uraraka's plain words earned her a perplex stare from Mina.
"You're even worse than I thought at switching topics… again! But I don't know, depends on the situation. Yaomomo would probably notice any foul play, and I'm sure Iida would too. Midori and Baku always seem to go straight into trouble too. I'll add Todoroki to that mix as well!" She leaned against the table, exhausted. "Come on~, just tell me what happened between you two! I won't say anything, I promise!"
Uraraka glanced around the room, trying to find any good answer that might satiate her interest.
"I had… fun. I enjoyed spending time with him. I would like to do it again." The dull tone of voice, mixed with her averted gaze, just fueled Ashido's curiosity.
"You're being honest with your emotions? Oh my god, that's a first! Why am I the only one excited over this?!"
She lunged at Uraraka, hugging her between giggles and celebratory quips. In any other situation, her optimism and excitement would rub off to any other sane person in the planet. But not in this exact moment. Ochako's right hand slowly stopped it's strange tremor, leaving a scar of anxiety and embarrassment that couldn't be explained.
She woke up once again without any fatigue, way before her alarm activated. It was very early but at least her legs could enjoy not having to run all the way to the main building.
After enjoying the warmth of her bed for a few minutes more, she reactivated her body with a few morning stretches. This only stimulated her appetite for some breakfast.
The dorms were still silent, with rain droplets hitting the windows of the corridors. Nobody else was awake. A perfect time to indulge herself with some early breakfast. Or that's what she was thinking, at least. Secretly she still wanted to find someone and not eat alone.
Reaching the lower floor of the building, the sounds of someone else walking around reached her ears. Perhaps some of the boys in the other dorm had woken up early too. Whatever it was, a yawn made its way out of her body, making her oblivious to the fact that someone was crossing the corner at that instant. Like a hidden instinct taking her over, as soon as she bumped into the unknown student, her arm swung upwards in an uppercut and struck the unlucky student's chin with a powerful palm strike.
The student recoiled, completely unaware of what had transpired for a few moments. Until he covered part of his face and yelled. "What the fuck was that?!"
Uraraka stopped dead on her tracks as Bakugou's glare sent shivers down her spine.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!"
"You just fucking sucker punched me out of nowhere and you expect me to believe that shitty lie?!" He got a hold of the collar of her shirt, bringing her closer to him.
"I swear! It just sorta… happened...!" She had to defuse the situation as soon as possible. "L-Let's go to the nurse, I'll take responsibility. I'm so sorry, I just…"
"I don't care." He scratched the mild pain on his jaw, maintaining the angry stare on Uraraka. "How the hell did you sneak up on me?" He emphasized that last word.
"I, um.. I don't know…I mean… I don't think..." She blabbered ceaselessly, out of confusion and shock.
"Just stop and fucking calm down. I can't understand a single word that's coming out of your stupid mouth. Where the hell did you learn how to hide yourself like that? If you have really done that while being half asleep, you must have trained religiously."
"Um… Gunhea-"
"Don't fucking utter those words. I'm not stupid, you didn't learn that from him." He pressed on again.
"L-Look, you're reading too much into this. It was just luck and instinct. I mean, if I really wanted to hit you, I would have used my quirk, right? That way you'd be a floating punching bag!"His eyebrows furrowed even more. "I'm not really making this any better, am I?"
"You're telling me that you can beat me if you wanted to, huh? Still crying about the sports festival? I didn't think you were one to hold grudges, Uraraka. That just pisses me the fuck off even more." He stepped forward, once again grabbing hold of her collar and ignoring her quirk. "If you want a rematch, just say it to my face. And then I'll kindly kill you even harder, you're not the only one learning new tricks."
This was just a misunderstanding. She wanted to say that. But something held her back from saying it. It was like something covered up her mouth with tape.
"Maybe I just don't like you, have you considered that?" She muttered, confronting his glare. "Now, release me, you brute."
Bakugou snarled, ever so little stunned and her change of tone.
"How about you tell me what you actually want instead of making me waste my time with your moronic acts?" The grip of his hand loosened, pushing Ochako aside with a minor push.
"I don't want anything, I already said it was just a reflex, didn't I?" Goading her opponent, Uraraka fixed her top without much interest.
"Is it your time of the month or have you always had a stick up your ass?" He barked back.
"I said I don't like you, what is there not to understand? It can't be the first time somebody's told you that. I realised like a month ago that I've actually hated you ever since the beginning."
"Like I care." He scoffed proudly at the provocation, twirled around and returned to his path.
The Muse stood silently, a wave of discomfort traveling through her body. Something odd had just happened. Did she actually mean what she said? It was out of place, a pointless taunt. Even if she did, she wouldn't have the guts to directly tell that to his face.
She hugged herself at the realization of her actions. Her bitter words meant nothing at the time, but what if he told everyone? Hopefully Bakugou was not that type of person and nobody else was listening.
Feeling weak, she headed towards one of the many sofas of the lower floor. Contemplating her actions, her eyes noticed something strange again. Her right hand was quivering. Like yesterday, when she said those strange questions. Overall, it wasn't the third time she had been questioning her actions.
This wasn't a strange coincidence or an unlucky happenstance. There was clearly something happening to her. And with all, her right hand seemed to be a key-point. The first time it happened, it was with that math exercise and the weird handwriting she presented. The second time it was with Ashido. And the last time with Bakugou.
Every fiber of her being was saying that she should tell somebody, anybody. This wasn't normal, full stop. Once is Chance, twice is coincidence, third time's a pattern.
She should tell someone.
She should be doing it right about now.
"What was happening here?" Uraraka noticed a somewhat drowsy Iida walking up to her, slightly confused at the sounds he was hearing. "I heard some shouting."
"Oh, don't worry about it, Bakugou just… woke up with the wrong foot today. It's okay." She got up from the sofa and faced her friend. Her heart was beating loudly, fighting against the panic that had started boiling minutes ago.
"I have to tell you something." She continued, trying to force her words to come out. But none came. Instead, a rising urge to puke forced any words to come to a halt.
The adrenaline coursing through her blood made her attempt another go at telling the truth. Cramps suddenly attacked her back and thighs, making her fail yet another doomed try.
Her stomach clenched as the dreadful realisation slowly settled inside her.
She couldn't say anything about it.
"Y-You're still with your bed hair."
Iida pondered for a moment, trying to understand the situation but chose to ignore Uraraka's odd expression.
"Were you trying not to laugh? Indeed I do, even when I wake up in disorder!"
"I… I need some sugar in my blood." Uraraka muttered as her shoulders lost strength, defeated.
"You look a bit pale, yes. Follow me and I shall deliver the goods you desire!"
The Puppeteer's shaky pulse was tested as he wrote down notes about Uraraka, his muse. Not only that, he added a few more notes about those friends close to her, and the possible troublesome people who might pose a threat if he let down his guard.
From what he gathered, he had at least five possible troublemakers who were smart enough to figure out something odd. However, only the people who are closest to Uraraka would be an actual danger. Iida and Deku.
"I was a bit paranoid with that Bakugou kid, but he seems to be all bark." The Puppeteer laughed, remembering the exchange. "Honestly I'm surprised I still have it in me. The expressions came out a bit stiff, but I'm still warming up."
He stopped and went over his last few paragraphs. All seemed to be in order. He only needed a bit of information on their quirks, but he doubted they'd be much of a threat. After all, he had faced countless opponents, and these were only heroes in training.
"Oh dear, one o'clock."
He hastily wrote down a few more notes and headed down the staircase as quick as he could. His leg was still hurting from kicking his door down. He hadn't even fixed the front door either.
With those thoughts in mind, he headed out of his home. Entering the front yard, he saw his acolyte entering empty handed.
"Good afternoon, Rummager." Tanaka greeted him. "Have you brought me anymore info on her?"
Rummager shifted uncomfortable.
"I… haven't. What I brought you the first day was all I could gather. I can't use my quirk properly at this distance. Besides, she doesn't look out of the window frequently so it's an uphill battle. UA's security would snuff me out if I got any closer."
"It's understandable. I didn't give you the best situation to work around, but what you brought me is enough to pull some strings." He admitted. "But I must remind you, information is essential for my quirk to work properly. The more I know about her, the more precise my movements will be and the less… chance for her to detect anything odd. So far everything seems to be in order."
"Why are you exactly obsessed with this girl?" Rummager mentioned sheepishly. "Back when we, uh, were heroes, you only targeted people who were worth it. Hell, the first time I entered your agency, you were still playing by the rules. But this? I just… feel like a pervert. Even more than usual."
The puppeteer looked at his former student, taking the time to process his question before answering it.
"Have you never read a book and… Have you never watched a TV series and suddenly become infatuated with it? Became the number one fan, recommended it to everyone you knew, followed every tiny marketing move, searched for every little bit of lore you could muster?" Tanaka slowly explained.
"Well, no. I did like the Kamen Riders as a kid though."
"...Then imagine that. But now forget the name of the series. Forget most plot points. Just try your best to find that series, and fail and try and fail again. Spending your whole life searching for it, trying to replace it with different series but never filling that void. And then, years later, you find it again. That's what I'm feeling right now." He finished his exposition with a grin.
"That doesn't answer anything. And it's still creepy." The Puppeteer sighed at his former sidekick's lack of enthusiasm.
"Anyhow, good job. I'm planning on doing something with their security system, the electronic one at least. I need you closer, and I need that girl out of their field of view. I can barely act at the moment."
"That would help, I guess. But how are you going to do that?"
"I'll go talk with one of our previous teammates, Sentinel. If nothing comes out of it, I will sell my soul to the devil again." Tanaka announced. "Or perhaps I should say, the devil's successor."