There's so many of you shipping Ryouka and All Might it made me laugh lol.
But anyway, writing action scenes somehow came easier for me than writing these "calm" chapters so it came out later than I expected. On another note! I have a cover for this story now and it's put together by The Resurrection Lily! It's cropped and rotated because FFnet is very… particular about this kind of things, but I will link the image on my profile page as usual if you want to check it out!
This one's not even 3K words. Just a warning that I haven't check it over for mistakes.
No. 9 The Lie
…
When Ryouka opened her eyes, she was in an unfamiliar room with a white ceiling.
She threw herself up in a panic as the events before she fell unconscious rushed into her mind and immediately regretted it as her head pounded harshly at the suddenness of her movement. Clutching her head and hissing in pain, she observed the room she was in.
It was a hospital room that was fairly high class with good facility.
She was… safe, then?
Small rays of sunlight came through the gaps between the curtains and the television was left on with low volume by whoever was taking care of her. She released her head when the pain lessened and saw a familiar bag on the sofa beside the refrigerator.
It was the travel bag her mother always use. Was she back from the honeymoon already?
Carefully this time, she lowered her feet to the ground and tried to walk. Feeling no more pounding headache, she approached the bag and opened it. Inside was her clothes, neatly folded and crammed in along with various toiletries, a small fluffy towel, and a hairdryer.
Yup, definitely her mother, Ryouka thought as she took the entire bag to the bathroom, determined to take a very long and thorough bath. Who knows how long she had been in this hospital room already. She must have stunk.
She thoroughly scrubbed her skin and washed her really dirty hair inside. After that, she leisurely applied a generous amount of moisturizer on her face and wrapped her hair with the towel before she dried herself with another towel and get dressed.
Finally deeming herself decent, Ryouka finally came out of the bathroom.
"Oh!" A light female voice exclaimed. Ryouka glanced at the direction of the voice to see her mother beaming at her.
"I'm glad you're awake, Ryouka-chan!" Her mother chirped happily as she wrapped her arms around her taller daughter. "We were just wondering where you went."
"We?" Ryouka asked as she hugged her mother back.
She looked up and finally saw All Might, in his normal form smiling at her and her mother. In his arms was a big bouquet of white lilies.
"Yagi-san's here to see how you're faring. He even brings you your favourite flower, isn't he sweet?" her mother gushed, beaming at the clearly embarrassed man.
"Yagi-san, huh…" Ryouka raised an eyebrow.
Yagi-san coughed into his hand and stretched his arms towards her, offering her the bouquet. Ryouka felt her lips quirking up at his awkwardness and nodded her head demurely as she took the big bouquet from his hands.
"Thank you. They're lovely," she murmured.
"You're welcome, uh…" Yagi-san nodded, looking relieved that she liked it. "I'm glad you're alright."
"I was just exhausted. Overexertion does that to me sometimes," Ryouka shrugged. "How many days were I out this time?"
"A little over two days," the man answered, looking up and down her body to make sure she really was alright. He nodded when he didn't find anything out of the ordinary and smiled at her reassuringly."Don't worry, you have been excused from schoolwork by the principal."
"I see."
Suddenly a loud tune rang throughout the room.
Ryouka eyed her mother who pulled her phone from her purse and rolled her eyes.
"Sorry to leave you so soon, Ryouka-chan. Your dad is lost again. Honestly, he has lived here for twenty years and he still haven't learned a bit. I'll go pick him up real quick and come back here, alright?" She smiled, wide and beautiful like she always was. "Yagi-san, you're welcome to stay as long as you want okay? There's tea in the thermos and some cake in the fridge if you want it!"
All Might coughed into his hands and nodded. There was a little patch of blood on his hand when he pulled it away from his mouth and Ryouka gestured him to come closer, but he shook his head.
"No, it's fine. You're still in recovery, it's not good for you to use your Quirk now." All Might paused. "Oh, right. We're supposed to call a doctor when you wake up, so…"
Ryouka made a face at that.
"Ugh, don't. I'm fine," she grumbled as she went to the table beside the fridge to pour them some tea from the thermos.
All Might chuckled into his hand at her reaction. "We still have to though. To make sure you're really alright."
When Ryouka made a face at him again, he only smiled. Ryouka rolled her eyes and turned her back to him to take the cake from the fridge. All Might was strangely silent as she sliced the cake into serving portions.
After a strange silence, the man finally spoke again.
"Ibuki-kun, I… on the behalf of the entire U.A. faculty, we ask for your forgiveness."
Ryouka glanced back at him with a raised eyebrow.
"For what?"
All Might bowed his head slightly, a grim look on his face. "Not only we failed to protect you, in the end you had to do our job for us because of our incompetence."
With an audible sigh, Ryouka closed the fridge loudly and turned towards him. With a glass of steaming tea on one hand and a plate of cake on the other, she approached the gaunt-looking man and gave him the contents on her hands.
"Here. Tea and cake. Finish both of them," Ryouka grouched as she sat on the bed with her own cup of tea in her hand. She looked at the startled man and shook her head. "Also, there's no need to apologize. I chose to do what I did that day."
All Might looked up, stunned. "But…"
Ryouka scowled and waved her fork at his face. "Do you think I would have left those children to die, All Might? And Aizawa too, when I have the power to stop it from happening?"
All Might shook his head. "No. You wouldn't."
"There you have it." Ryouka nodded. "So no need to apologize. You and Aizawa did your best and it's more than enough for me."
"Alright," All Might smiled finally. "Thank you, Ibuki-kun."
Slurping her tea, she shrugged.
"Hm. Whatever."
Having recovered his spirits, All Might began to regal her with the shenanigans of class 1-A during and after the incidents and honestly, Ryouka was amazed at their ability to recover from what should have been a traumatic event for them.
"I feel like you guys should teach them to defend themselves without using Quirks though," Ryouka said in between his tales. "Quirks should be used as a tool—or something like a boon. They shouldn't depend on it too much. They wouldn't have so much trouble when they were separated if they weren't so dependent on their Quirks."
"We do teach the students hand-to-hand and survival tricks, but later in the curriculum…"
Ryouka scowled, shoving another mouthful of cake into her mouth. "Well, you should have made it your priority before anything else. These kids have lived with their Quirks all their lives, I'm pretty sure they're already familiar with the use of their Quirks and whatnot. You should teach them what they don't know instead. Also, battle tactics and strategy and how to utilize their surroundings to the fullest. It would be useful for them later."
"True… I'll talk about this later to the Principal then."
Ryouka nodded. "Yeah. You do that."
All Might suddenly perked up.
"Oh right. A friend of mine from the police force would like to ask you several questions about the attack, if you're up for it? The others had given their statements already, but since you got to talk to that Villain the most he would like to ask you some questions too," the gaunt man said.
Swallowing the cake in her mouth, she nodded at him. "Sure, you can send them here later."
"Alright." All Might nodded. "Also, Ibuki-kun… may I ask you a question?"
Seeing the hesitation in his blue eyes, Ryouka sighed. She had wondered when someone was going to ask her about this. Well,guess they weren't going to spare her from this then.
"I don't have multiple Quirks, if that's what you're wondering about," Ryouka said as she sipped her tea to clear her throat from the cake she just ate.
All Might shot up in surprise and looked at her with bewilderment.
Ryouka rolled her eyes seeing the expression on his face. "No, I can't read your mind. You're just easy to read. Everything you saw that day—even the Spring of Life you're so familiar with—were all stemmed from my main power."
That's a lie, but they got no way to proof her wrong, so hey! It's the truth for them now.
"Your 'main' power?" All Might asked.
Ryouka nodded. She had perfected this cover story since way back so hopefully it will hold.
"Mm-hm. I call that power of mine 'Magic' for lack of a better term, and as you can imagine from the name itself, it's versatile and does pretty magical things."
To proof her point, she took her used fork and with a small poof, she transfigured it into a blue butterfly. The butterfly fluttered above All Might's head and transformed back into a fork. Ryouka stifled a snort as she saw it dropped straight onto the blond's head.
"Then… your strength and speed?" All Might asked, rubbing his head to alleviate the pain.
"Enchantments. Buffs, if you prefer to call it that. They make my body stronger, more durable, and faster than what I normally am, but it wore off pretty quickly too," Ryouka shrugged. "Manipulating the elements, enhancing physical abilities. Transfiguring objects and summoning them from afar… anything you could imagine, I can probably do. The limit is just… my conscience, and also the vessel of this power—my body."
Ryouka paused and glanced at the contemplative All Might.
"Am I in trouble for lying about my Quirk?" she asked finally, after a long silence stretched between them. All Might looked startled by her question but shook his head in answer.
"No, you're not," the man said. He looked hesitant, but finally he voiced the question that was brewing inside his mind. "But may I ask… why did you lie in the first place?"
Ryouka hummed as she stacked their dirty plates and cups neatly on the table.
"Well… you know the saying? With great power came great responsibility and all that?" She said with a shrug. "I don't want to have responsibility, so I just pretend that I don't have the power."
Which wasn't exactly a lie. She didn't want to get involved in anything problematic, so she decided to hide her power so she could lead a normal life.
"Do you hate it then?" All Might asked again.
"My 'Quirk'?" Ryouka asked to clarify.
When All Might nodded, she looked down to her lap and closed her eyes.
Memories of her past lives flashed inside her mind. The tears she cried, the blood she spilled, the people she lost… but there was also the happiness she shared amongst the friends she gained along the way. The warm memories full of light that kept her sane throughout her journeys.
She opened her eyes again and answered the man with a small smile that didn't reach her eyes.
"Sometimes, I guess," she answered. "But they're a part of me. Without it, who knows if I can still call myself 'me'?"
There was a short silence before the man spoke again.
"Then… you said you don't want to be a Hero," he paused. "Is it because you hate Heroes?"
Ryouka shook her head.
"Not really. I'm the type who don't care what everyone else do for a living, but I know that being a Hero isn't just about glory, fame, and money. You risk your lives every day to protect society." She thought of her dead friends and the adventures they shared together and shrugged.
"I just don't think I will be happy living that kind of life where I have to fight for my life constantly."
All Might looked contemplative at her answer. "Then… if the incident the other day didn't happen, are you ever going to reveal your real Quirk?"
"No. I never planned on revealing it," Ryouka told him honestly. "Even my parents still didn't know about it. I wasn't ready for that. I don't think I ever will. But there's nothing I can do about that now. I'm not going to let Aizawa die just because I want to keep my secret. I may not want to be a Hero, but I'd be a horrible person if I let that happen—especially after he got beaten half to death trying to save me."
All Might gave him a small smile.
"Then you may rest assured, Ibuki-kun. Everyone present at the USJ who witnessed your ability have sworn to protect your secret."
At this, Ryouka was genuinely surprised.
"They… did?"
"Yes," All Might said before he got interrupted by a nasty round of cough.
"There's a… villain that possessed multiple Quirks that he stole from others. Well… there was a suspicion from my colleagues that your unusual Quirk have a connection to his so we asked the students to not divulge anything pertaining to the incident to the media or fellow student. It's a relief that you don't have any connections to him though, I must say."
Ryouka raised an eyebrow at that before she nodded for him to continue.
"Well, anyway. As of right now, only the principal, Recovery Girl, the students of 1-A, myself, and my close friend, an inspector from the police force, that know your secret and we will keep it a secret for you," the man continued after he calmed down.
"We can't do anything about the Villains, but if they ever try to attack you again, then I will defeat them before they can land their hands on you." All Might grinned at her as he transformed into his usual muscly-self. "I promise you that I will not fail for a second time."
Ryouka looked stunned for a second before she finally relaxed and a smile—a real one—finally settled on her lips.
"I'll hold you to that then, Hero," she said dryly at him and he flashed her another grin before he poofed back into his gaunt form.
"I will convince Recovery Girl to stop persuading you to be a Hero too. Your title as her apprentice will be useful for cover when you have to heal me, but you don't have to do the other duties she set out for you if you don't want to do them."
"Nah, you don't have to do that." Ryouka laughed lightly behind her hand. She glanced at the blond and smiled at him. "I think… this is fine for now. This is fine."
There was another silence between them, but this time, it wasn't suffocating like before.
"All Might?"
"Yes?"
"Thank you."
All Might chuckled and nodded his head. "Rest well, Ibuki-kun. School haven't been the same without you."
"Okay."
Hours later when All Might was gone, a frown settled between Ryouka's brows. A villain that stole other's Quirks, huh… dammit, her paranoia turned out to be true after all! She hope she would never meet him. That would just suck.
No. 9 The Lie — End
I was going to put in a NieR reference here with the lilies, but decided to scrap it out.
Okay. I'm going to be real honest with you. Somehow I like this story more when it's not as "popular" as it is now.
I mean, from the start this is a very self-indulgent kind-of-crack story and at first I don't really care about plot-holes or inconsistencies. I mean, I am writing this without a clear goal in mind. But some of the comments makes me wonder if I'm such a shit writer after all and it's suffocating my barely-existent confidence.
Also I have some notes for you people that took this story too seriously when I have clearly asked you not to:
1. Ryouka's not a sociopath and no, you don't have to have a hero-complex to help people. Hero-complex is just Ryouka's excuse. She's a tsundere. Like, "It's not like I want to h-help you or anything, I just have a hero-complex, s-stupid!" *blushes*. Like that.
2. To the one who call her a useless cumdump, if you comment again no matter what it is, I'll fucking block you. Seriously, I don't mind if you don't like what I write, but be polite about it.
3. I find that the battle magic in the original Harry Potter series to be terribly boring. What I love from HP magic is the charms, transfiguration, hereditary magic, and the potions. I also like the creatures, but the battle magic? Meh.
4. Reason why she was so flashy when using magic when she was adamant on keeping it secret before: 1) to pull the villains attention to herself so that they won't pay attention to the kids, 2) go big or go home.
Sorry for the word-vomit there. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'll try to answer to your messages soon, but no promises!