Instead of leaving school with Byakuren, Mizuha ended up walking with him, Midoriya, Ashido, Yaoyorozu, Kirishima and Uraraka since they were going the same way for the time being. The girl didn't really say anything when they were all still discussing about the event and the fights that happened. She just listened quietly. When she reached for her headphones to separate herself from them, Byakuren threw an arm around her shoulder, which startled her, and smiled while she gave him a confused look.
"You can call me bias, I don't care, but I thought Mizu-chan's fight was the best today."
Mizuha arched a brow. "Really?"
He gave her a close-eyed smile and nodded. "You don't know how long I've been waiting to see that Quirk again." He looked at the others. "It's kinda pretty, isn't it?"
Uraraka beamed and nodded, "When you did that hand motion thing," she mimicked Mizuha's hand waves from when she fought Byakuren, "The water moved so gracefully!"
Ashido nodded fast in agreement.
"You think so?"
"It was pretty." Yaoyorozu smiled.
Having no real form of social interaction with the girl before, the green haired boy was a little timid when asking about her Quirk.
"… Do I have to? I'd like to keep the upperhand during class training if we ever go up against each other."
She got smacked behind the hand by Byakuren, making the group gasp. Mizuha frowned childishly and rubbed her head to soothe it.
He started to aggressively poke her cheek with his finger, "Must you be so sly?!"
Mizuha scowled and tried to pry him off her, "Well, excuse me for keeping a low profile so I can get good grades!" she argued in her defense.
"You're terrible for wanting to play dirty!" he poked her cheek faster.
Kirishima laughed a little at their banter just before Mizuha told Byakuren to shut up as she pushed him off her.
Midoriya sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, "I-I mean you don't have to if you really don't want to! I'll admit that I'm asking out of my own curiosity but I think it would be nice to let us know how you fight. That way, during paired hero exercises, working together might be easier..." the boy muttered while shifting his eyes away from her.
Teamwork. Right. She never really gave that much thought. She was so used to fighting with Byakuren at her side that communicating almost seemed unnecessary considering how well they knew how the other one thought during a battle. Their teamwork during the Sports Festival was a perfect example of it. Her cooperation with Todoroki went smoothly but she didn't think she could consider it teamwork since they both just did their own thing.
She didn't even notice Kirishima jog around her to the opposite side of Byakuren. He grinned at her, "Coooome on! Share with us!" he said before nudging her arm with his elbow amicably.
Byakuren smirked, leaning closer once again, "Sharing is caring!"
Mizuha whipped her head towards him with a scowl, "What the hell... that only applies to food!"
The white haired boy chuckled, "That's what you believe."
The platinum haired girl let out a defeated sigh, "Alright fiiiine, but I'm only saying this because you asked. I won't preach my Quirk like some glorified religion."
Ashido beamed, bouncing in her step, "The mysteriously distant girl finally opens up!"
"My Quirk—" she stopped and looked at Ashido strangely when the pink girl's words sank in. "Mysteriously distant…?"
Uraraka laughed sheepishly, "Ashido came up with that name..."
Midoriya, Kirishima, Byakuren and Mizuha stared at the other girls curiously.
Ashido pouted, "Well it's true! Hyoumei is well... she's as quiet as Todoroki and she's just as invisible as Hagakure. One second she's around and the next she disappears! Don't deny it! You do it all the time. You kinda make it impossible to talk to you with the way you keep your distance."
All the guys' eyes turned to her. She especially felt Byakuren's knowing gaze. Mizuha frowned and gaze at the floor, finding a crack in the pavement suddenly so interesting.
"You're the only girl in class who didn't communicate with anyone." Uraraka continued, "We thought it was because you were shy. But you got along so well with Kyouran, we saw it with our own eyes! You were different with him when you were at school." Then the brunette rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Then, Hagakure started gushing about how you were like an anime protagonist—"
Byakuren slapped a hand over his mouth to muffle his laughter.
An anime character that sits by the window and acts all uninterested but is in reality quite different? Dear lord.
Mizuha stared with a straight face. But her thoughts betrayed her calm demeanor.
What the heck?! Did I seriously seem like that?! What... that was the opposite of what I wanted! Oh, geez man. I wanted people to turn a blind eye, not to find me interesting.
"And the fact that you were called out by Aizawa-sensei also added to the fact that you were super mysterious!"
Ashido nodded enthusiastically, "You're also strong! There was so much about you that was unknown and you were also distant—"
"— and thus Mizu-chan was dubbed Mysteriously Distant Girl." cut off Byakuren with a grin.
Yaoyorozu smiled apologetically at Mizuha, "I'm sorry if it seems like we were talking behind your back. There wasn't any bad intention we were just curious is all."
Mizuha raised a finger, "When you say we... you mean—"
"All us girls." Ashido answered.
Byakuren bursted into a ball of laughter, no longer restraining his amusement. Mizuha slowly directed her eyes and stared at the laughing boy with a nasty look in her eyes, mentally promising to hit him with the same ice hammer she created against Bakugo. The white haired boy was currently oblivious to the dark look that was directed at him.
Kirishima and Midoriya took a step away from Mizuha, feeling her irritation radiating off of her. They were no stranger to detecting irritation thanks to a certain angry bomber.
Byakuren smiled at them. "Mizuha was dealing with some internal struggle that just made her like that. But she's fine now."
"Oh," Yaoyorozu's eyes widened a little and she covered her mouth with her hand. "I'm sorry. I had no idea."
"Um, it's fine. Don't worry about it." Mizuha waved her hand dismissively.
Ashido then quickly brushed off the current topic, "Never mind that. Let's go back to when you were about to tell us about your Quirk!"
With another sigh, Mizuha shrugged her shoulders. "You probably already have an idea. My Quirk is not actually just ice. I have the ability to manipulate water in any desired state by changing its temperature."
Uraraka saw Midoriya whip out a small notepad. "Can you manipulate the water in the atmosphere?"
Mizuha shook her head. "I can't move it around but I can change the temperature if I stick my hand in a pool or something. So, I could boil it and freeze it."
"Oh, I see!"
"Here's an example."
Byakuren's head was instantly drenched with water. The boy paused his walk and stood there, unhappy.
Everyone gasped in horror and watched as he slowly wiped off the water off of his face, revealing a very dark look.
Byakuren glared at her, "Mizuha..." he warned.
The girl merely smirked, "Calm down."
Byakuren started hissing in pain as the water started evaporating, "Ouch! Ouch! AH-! Hey! Mizuha, that's too hot!"
The girl ignored his complaints and motioned her index finger towards her, commanding the steam to gather around her finger in a swirling motion.
"Unlike regular steam that just evaporates, I can keep it together. It can be quite difficult to do, as such it takes a lot of effort to maintain it. The bigger the volume of the water the more difficult it is to do so."
Kirishima hummed as he pieced this information with the steam she made during her fight with Byakuren and Bakugo.
Byakuren reached the top of his head and touched his hair, and proceeded to frown when he felt it was slightly frizzy. "I'm not a lab rat."
"Oh, oh!" Ashido hopped, "Can you make snowflakes?!"
"Deposition?" Mizuha tipped her head. "Yeah."
"Des… huh?"
"It's when water in its gaseous form becomes solid, ice, Ashido-san." Yaoyorozu answered which made Mizuha nod her head. "There's more to water states than just freezing, melting and evaporating. There are three other transitions which are called deposition, sublimation and condensation."
"As expected of Yaoyorozu." Uraraka whispered.
"Yeah, it's definitely science-y." Kirishima grinned.
"But obviously, only three of those transition is more suited for battle. You're not going to see Mizu-chan fling around snowflakes in a fight." Byakuren snickered.
"Stop calling me that, Byakkun."
Midoriya closed his notes and smiled, "Your Quirk is strong and interesting. You can do pretty interesting things with it!"
"Um, thanks." the girl replied with a nod.
Not long after, Mizuha and Byakuren announced that they had to take another route to catch their bus, leaving Ashido and Kirishima together since Uraraka, Midoriya and Yaoyorozu had already went their separate ways. Goodbyes were exchanged before the pair walked away side by side.
Kirishima smiled and started walking off while talking about a certain topic with his pink classmate until he noticed she wasn't walking next to him. Curiously, he turned around and he found her staring giddily in the leaving pair's direction. The red head sighed, marching back to his previous spot to see what exactly was causing her to get all excited.
All he saw was Mizuha and Byakuren walking side by side with the taller boy occasionally looking at the shorter girl with a teasing grin which ended up with Mizuha staring up at him, annoyed. He saw her stomp her foot in his direction threateningly which made Byakuren flinch in surprise and laugh a little. Then she looked away, still annoyed. The other simply walked closer to her and bumped her side lightly.
"They're so cute together!" Ashido squealed gleefully, "Don't you think, Kirishima?!"
"… Again with this?"
"I totally ship it!" she clasped her hands together.
Kirishima sighed. He thought that the idea of the two not being together was made clear when Mizuha shoved Byakuren away from her on the second day of school. Perhaps it wasn't clear enough?
Kirishima shrugged, "Then you'll probably be disappointed." the redhead muttered.
"Did you say something?"
"Nothing."
Mizuha and Byakuren parted ways, separating at an intersection.
It allowed Mizuha to finally have a moment for herself.
The sounds around her were clear. She could hear a couple of kids running and laughing, probably on their way back from school. A dog barked behind a gate she walked past, she instinctively turned her head to look at the animal but was not startled by its barking. She turned away from any further barking and looked back in front of her. Her lips parted slightly at the sight in front of her. She wasn't sure when they appeared but, here they were. A group of students were walking before her, chatting and laughing with each other.
... A sight that brought slight envy.
She shook her head and turned a corner. Home was close by.
Mizuha had no idea if she was capable of having what those students had. She only knew that Byakuren embodied all of it for her.
However, Kirishima helped her take a real first step.
She created a false image of herself, transforming herself into a liar. All for the sake of keeping people at a comfortable distance. She made sure to keep Kirishima at that particular distance, but now it seemed like that distance was smaller or maybe nearly gone. She just needed to—
Mizuha chuckled to herself, "And I just needed to talk." she affirmed, dropping her head and breathed out loudly through her nose, "So simple yet so difficult for difficult me."
Mizuha arrived in front of her door and didn't even bother looking at the lid as she reached to flip it open. Her index and flicked the lid upwards and she quickly snatched the key out of its hiding spot. She looked at the silver key and turned it the right way before slipping it into the keyhole of the door.
Once unlocked, Mizuha gripped the doorknob and then turned as she push the door open, revealing an illuminated doorway.
She stepped into her house and closed the door behind her, locking it without turning around as she started removing her first shoe. As soon as she removed her last shoe, she ventured further into her domicile without even bothering to set her shoes neatly aside. Her feet dragged her towards the living room, making the sound of socks dragging across the wooden floor echo throughout the house.
"Hi." her mother spoke when her dragging sounds got closer.
Mizuha greeted her back while lazily making a beeline for one of the three couches in the living room, specifically the one-seated couch. Mizuha plopped herself into the purple chair and landed with an odd sitting posture. Her school bag lay abandoned on one of the armrests but slowly tilted to the side and fell dramatically on the floor with a loud thud. Mizuha glanced at her bag and then looked at her parents with a shrug.
"Good job on winning third place." Her mother said with a grin.
Mizuha gave her mom a thumbs up.
Waaaiit for it...
"Did you have to do that to your opponent?" Tenran asked, disappointment laced in his voice.
Her father and mother both looked at her and waited for her answer. They were expecting an answer from her. Mizuha sat up straight and quickly assured them that everything was fine and that there was no need for concern. She knew what she did, everyone knew. For Mizuha, telling her parents things, especially to her mom, was a natural thing. She explained the whole situation.
No one would have thought that Mizuha had a problem if they saw her behind closed doors.
She was quite normal when her switch was off. Her random hugs to her mother while saying she loved her were a little too much, but yet was appreciated. Her love for video games that was always accompanied with angry shouts and laughter. She always liked to show her drawings to her mother when she finished one, seeking for praise like a little kid.
"Honestly, Mizuha... you need to learn to open up to others. You need to."
"Yes, I know dad."
"You're not even close to any of your relatives, and no, you can't count Mari and Reina."
Mizuha wasn't going to argue with her mother one that one. Even if she had a huge family tree combined from both sides, she only communicated with two cousins she had that were from her mother's side; in fact, her aunt's family was pretty much the only people she had any form of communication. As for her father's side... her aunts on that side were quite smothering and that was without any form of interaction initiated by her. Instant love. She wasn't exactly close to them, it felt more like blood obligation to communicate.
Her mom would always tell her to build a connection with her other cousins just in case anything were to happen to her mother and father. But this made Mizuha cover her ears and talk over Mizuki's voice since she never liked talking about the reality of life.
It was just hard to communicate with them. They all lived in different areas that were far from each other. Visits were kind of hard since her parents were kind of busy.
Mizuha frowned, "What I wanna know is why didn't you guys tell me that Shinsui woke up?" she asked, a pout evident in her voice.
Mizuki leaned her head back and gave her a confused look, "What are you talking about? We did call you!"
Mizuha mirrored her mother's face, "No!"
"We called you several times. You just didn't call back." her father argued.
Mizuha was about to add her refute until she remembered that moment when she saw something about missed calls on her phone.
"Oh."
Maybe I should have called them in the end... Actually, no, the news might be too distracting or something. If I went to the hospital, I probably still would have been so stubborn and narrow-minded.
"Anyway, how is he?"
Mizuki nodded with a smile, "The doctor said he's just fine, but it's going to take some time before he's able to walk again."
"That's good to hear."
Seeing his daughter's obvious relief, Tenran leaned forward in his seat and reached out his hand, resting it on top of her head after ruffling her hair. Everyone was relieved that the absent Hyoumei finally awoke from his slumber, but it was Mizuha who was definitely the most relieved one.
"You want to come with your mother and I? We're going to go see him later in the evening after dinner. It shouldn't be a problem since you have no school tomorrow."
Mizuha shook her head and removed the hand resting upon her head, "No, Uncle Eijin said I should take it easy and rest. Instead, I'll go see him tomorrow."
Her mother stood up from the couch and walked to the kitchen, "Yeah, I agree with him. You should rest up for today, take it easy. You don't need to rush a visit."
With that, Mizuha decided to retire for now. She lazily pulled herself up from the couch and got back on her feet. Her body swayed as she turned around while snatching her bag off the floor, and then she walked to her room while dragging her feet across the floor, gathering a bunch of dust beneath her socks. When she arrived in front of her door, she twisted the doorknob and pushed the door open and then immediately tossed her backpack on her bed. She witnessed the bag collide against her wall and bounce little once it fell on her mattress. Her foot shut the door behind her and she walked further into her room, in the dark. It didn't take her too long to change out of her uniform and into her house clothes.
Once the after school routine was done, she turned towards her bed and strode over to it. She grabbed her bag and dropped it on the floor, causing a loud sound to echo in her room.
The girl lied down on her back and faced the ceiling above her. In her right hand was her phone that had her fingers clasped around it. Staring at the ceiling did not last long since she ended up having a screen in front of her face.
Shu ┐(￣～￣)┌
"... Maybe I should call him now..."
Her thumb slowly and softly pressed the screen where his contact name was displayed. She was offered a couple of different contacting options but she selected the button with the small telephone. The screen changed and it showed her that she was now attempting to call Shu. With a small breath, she placed her phone next to her left ear and waited for him to answer.
Ring... Ring... Ring...
…
…
…
6 seconds had passed.
12 second had passed
Her confidence just died when she realized he wasn't going to pick up. She moved away her phone from her ear.
... He probably doesn't answer anonymou—
"Hello?"
She hung up.
"Oh shit."
She instantly sat up in her bed and dropped her phone. She wasn't expecting an answer! She hung up from the panic. She slapped her hand on her forehead, "Good job, idiot."
RING!
"OH FU—" Mizuha picked up her phone and stared at it with enlarged eyes. If her mom opened her room and saw her daughter in the dark looking so weird.
Okay.
"Hello?" she held up her phone to her ear.
"… Mizuha?"
"Um, how did you know?"
"Hikari gave me a heads up."
His sister, right.
Then was a silence that made Mizuha grip her shirt.
Mizuha adjusted her sitting position and leaned back against the wall next to her bed. She did so quietly to not break the silence. It was awkward.
"Hey, um, I'm sorry about what happened to you."
Mizuha's features softened at the sound of his voice, he sounded a bit sad. She honestly didn't know how to phrase her next words so she began to trace circles on her bed cover and tried to formulate her words in a coherent sentence.
"Your sister told me everything. You don't need to apologize since it's not your fault at all. It's mine. So please, don't think like... you're responsible because you're not, I was the one who acted stupid that day."
She heard a chair squeak on the other side. She figured he was probably sitting on a desk chair somewhere quiet.
"Ah geez... I think... I've been waiting for this for a long time. I always wanted to talk to you... but I couldn't reach you at all."
Mizuha bit her lip and rubbed her thumb against her middle finger. He was referring to the time when she distanced herself. He even tried knocking at her door once but she was adamant about not seeing him. Not long after that, she never really heard of him again since he graduated and went on to middle school. Shu was a year ahead of her.
"The only time I actually got to see you was on TV, and I'm glad that you seem to be doing well now... you're using your Quirk properly."
Mizuha nodded to herself, then remembered how she cried during her fight with Byakuren. She didn't bother thinking about it earlier since it wasn't as important as the fights she had to participate in, but now that everything was over, the memory was starting to sink in. The girl dropped her head and cringed in embarrassment.
"Um, what about you? Are you doing okay?" she quickly asked to change the subject.
At her question, his voice suddenly changed into a happier one, she could practically see a smile accompanying his words, "Yeah, I'm doing really well in school."
"Wait, are you in like a regular school or like a hero school?"
"I'm attending a hero school just like you."
"Oh."
His Quirk was like his sister's. That's why it felt familiar. She completely forgot about that.
"Anyway, it was nice to talk to you again but I have to go. I, um, got some homework to do."
"Oh, I'm sorry for interrupting you."
"Nah, it's fine. Give me a call if you still want to talk."
"Hm, s-sure."
With a few more words, they both hung up.
Mizuha scrubbed her hair after dropping her phone on her bed.
Ahh, I don't want to call again. The first time was already so awkward.
For some reason, the moment the call ended, she felt like a weight was lifted off. She didn't have to worry about her older friend now that she told him what she needed to say.
She felt at peace now.
Accept the past and face forward, gathering the courage to take those first steps to do what's right.
Mizuha shoved her face into her pillow and sighed.
That's her starting line.
At around nine in the evening, a certain dark gray haired patient was currently pouting in his hospital bed. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, staring at the other bed across from his own. It was such a pain to have jelly legs.
"Oh, my love is so far away~" He sighed dramatically to himself with a hand on his chest.
Kyougyoku was still stuck in her slumber much to his dismay. He actually thought of planting a kiss on her lips, hoping it would wake her up just in like those fairy tales. Shinsui couldn't even do it if her tried, not with what he currently called 'poor excuse of legs'.
With his uncle's help, he was able to sit next to her bed for a little while when they returned from his little reunion. Instead of moping at the sight of her, he chose to smile hopefully and stroke her forehead, whispering about how she could take her time to wake up just as he did.
The sound of his door sliding open caught his attention. Like a rabbit, he perked up and stared at the door curiously, and when he saw two familiar faces his own brightened up.
"MAMA! PAPA!" he exclaimed while throwing his arms in the air.
Tenran shook his head.
Mizuki sent her son a tired look, "You and Mizuha are the same like that. You just woke up and you're already acting like this?" she asked, finding his behavior quite amusing for his age.
Shinsui grinned, "Hey, I don't need to change just because things changed without me for the past four years." he said while opening his arms out to them.
He received warm hugs from both his parents which he appreciated immensely. When he asked about the whereabouts of his little sister, he became a little pouty even though he knew she wouldn't be visiting him today. But he figured that she deserved rest after the long time. He knew the Sports Festival at U.A. could be could exhausting once the adrenaline were to wear off.
The visit's conversation was mostly a talk about the current time in which Shinsui was more or less aware of. Shinsui was glad his parents told him about his sister and how she changed these past four years, but he also stopped them when he felt like they were going to tell him things he'd rather hear from her.
"Mizuha's class got attacked by villains at school?" Shinsui repeated with his mouth agape.
Such a thing never happened during his time in U.A High School. He couldn't believe that it was happening now since it was unprecedented. The school had good security everywhere on campus. People couldn't access school grounds unless you were a staff member or a student. He supposed that All Might, the Symbol of Peace, was the magnet attracting those scumbags who dared attack the school. It was assuring to have the number one hero as a teacher but it seemed like it did not come without attracting the wrong crowd.
"While I am a little jealous that Mizuha has All Might as her teacher," Shinsui placed a hand under his chin, knitting his brows, "I don't know if this is a one time thing or actually a sign that things are about to turn ugly... I really hope it's the first and certainly not the latter."
"I don't think we need to worry. I'm sure U.A will now make sure to keep their students safe from another villain incident." Tenran reassured while patting Shinsui's shoulder.
Eventually, when it was time for them to leave, his mother pulled out something from her purse. It was his phone that was still connected to his charger.
His eyes lit up, "Technology! I completely forgot that I didn't have it!"
His extended his hands out to her with stars in his eyes.
"I figured you'd want to have it during your stay here so that you don't get bored."
"Thank you, mom! Love ya!"
He took his belongings from her and waved his parents goodbye as they left his room. Shinsui happily reached for the outlet next to his bed and shoved in his charger before slipping underneath his bed covers. He disconnected his charger from his device and rolled onto his side, practically coddling his phone.
"Man, I hope this place has wifi..." he mumbled before turning it on, but then reeled his head back when he saw the number of voice messages left to him. Who the heck was calling him when he was unconscious? Didn't they know he was in a coma?!
"Whose big idea was to flood my damn—"
Home
Mizuha (╹◡╹)
Frozen, Shinsui just stared at the names in pure confusion. His family, of all people, should know about his comatose state. Then he started scrolling down to check out the dates of the messages. There were at least twenty-five voice messages and they were all during his coma. Now, his curiosity was definitely piqued.
He decided to start listening to them chronologically.
"Nii-chan. I'm too scared to talk to them. After what happened, I don't… I'm not sure how I should like um…" silence, "I think I should stay away from them because I think it's better that way. I can't really talk to Byakkun about this because... well I just don't want to. End of voice message."
Shinsui stared at his screen and just swallowed.
"Mizuha…"
He dropped his phone and shoved his face into his pillow with a soft groan.
Say Happy Birthday to Mizuha and Byakuren (and the author of this book pfft) because November 21st is their birth date!
I used 'Nii-chan' as a way to show that Mizuha used to call him in a childish manner.
I'm thinking that one more chapter should wrap up this first book! I'm so glad I've been getting more reviews, it encourages me a lot! ^_^