xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx First Day xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
It had been several hours since the first time Seiji woke up in this place, hours of solitary confinement with strangers that seemed to have been stuck with the same reason as him.
They all huddled up in the cafeteria. Several separate tables were neatly placed in rows and columns, what's curious about them is that they were literally nailed to the ground.
"It like the teacher knew that there were going to be an inevitable fight" Seiji thought to himself while taking a seat in one of the tables.
After last night's uncomfortable sleep, if he could even call it sleep, there had been several loud shouting outside his room that continuously woke him up. And those angry shouts wouldn't stop until he got up, including accidentally tripped himself and falling face first on the floor that caused the shouts to become muffled with hisses of pain.
"I think it's best to not engage with any of them right now…" Seiji thought again, cringing when he thought about the things these people would do to him when they find out he had caused them pain for the last few hours. "… Or ever…"
"What did you say you runt?!" Barked a voice from the other side of the room.
There was the sight of two students, Date Takehiro and Jun Hamada, looking as if they were ready to start attempting to murder the other.
Jun scowled at the taller, more muscular male's insult. "Are you on steroids right now, bub? I clearly just said that gorilla's aren't allowed in the cafeteria!"
Date, who just had taken his seat, stomped angrily towards the boy. "I'm getting real tired of your shit! If you want to fucking die, just say the word, short-stack!" Date said through gritted teeth.
"The only stack that's short is your intelligence!" Jun sneered, throwing his tray of cafeteria food on the nearest table.
"Oh snap!" said Kudou Satou at a different table, watching the fight unfold.
Seiji could only watch silently from afar, furrowing his eyebrows as he did. He heard a small exasperated sigh from the other side of his table.
Kaori Tsukinose had taken her seat right on the other side of his table, following her was the wolf girl Mori Kururugi. And the both of them had taken their food trays with them.
"Erm…" said Seiji before Kaori instantly cuts him off.
"Don't get the wrong idea, I'm merely sitting here because it's conveniently close towards the exit." She said.
"O-oh!" Seiji said, obviously taken aback. "Right…"
"You're Seiji, right?" The wolf girl greeted. "I'm Mori!"
Seiji managed to let out a decent smile. "It's nice to meet you."
"You're pretty skinny for a boy! I doubt that you can even fight!" she said with a smile on her face
Seiji lets out several awkward laughs in response, his face having mixture of a frown and a smile.
"It's annoying." The jet black haired girl said nonchalantly. "Having to be cooped up here for several days with everyone being so volatile."
"Pfft! Let them be at it, the worst thing they could do is NOT kill each other." Mori scoffed, sitting with her legs up on her seat.
Kaori glanced sideways at the girl. "I wasn't talking to you." She told her bluntly, spoon in her mouth.
Ignoring Mori's frown, Kaori shifted her gaze towards Seiji. "You. Seiji? Right?" She said. "Do you plan on being a hero?"
"I…" Seiji paused. "I… suppose so? I mean, I guess I'm not cut out for something like that but… it wouldn't hurt to try…?"
Kaori blinked at him before going back to her food. "Everyone here is, to put it simply, "awful people." And I am not speaking out of annoyance, no, I have been taken from my home because of my history as well. And to top it off, even the monkey we met earlier told us that we are all problem children."
She took her time to wash down her mouth with the drink she got earlier.
"And you are no different, yes?" Kaori said, pointing her spoon at Seiji. "What's gotten you here?
Seiji gulped, hesitating to answer. "I-I…"
"Look out!" Mori shouted as she saw something flying towards the table that she, Kaori and Seiji were sitting at.
All of a sudden, the giant man Date had instantaneously crashed into their table. Charging so fast, nobody had time to comprehend what was happening.
The muscular boy had unknowingly ran through where Kaori was sitting, the sheer force of his impact was felt by both Mori and Seiji as they fell back onto the floor. But Date didn't stop there as he kept charging forward until he had finally hit the dense wall of the cafeteria.
The table they were sitting at was now scattered in several dozen pieces all over the floor, with Mori looking thunder-stricken while holding a spoon near her open mouth. She was sitting in a half destroyed chair.
There was no sign of Kaori, for she had disappeared earlier with a flash of light. What was in her place at her seat was a destroyed trash can, presumably from Date's charge through.
The jet black haired girl stared at the destruction Date made on her table, her gaze went from the muscled lunk who had just crashed and stopped, to Jun.
"You think this is hilarious?" Kaori said to the shorter boy, obviously ticked off.
"It's worth chuckling over." Jun remarked. "Not my fault for being in the way. All I did was step aside."
"A week you have to think about joining a program that'll help you clean your records and you choose to stain your identity even more than before?" Kaori said, walking closer towards Jun.
Jun sneered at her, showing the canines in his mouth. "I am not going to join your half-ass superhero club..."Princess..."'
Kaori kept a straight face as she was already a few inches close to his. "Princess?" She repeated with a hint of a disbelieved snort.
"That's right, Tsukinose." Jun barked. "I can probably guess why you're here too, I've heard your last name before."
The whole cafeteria was silent, all of the people present were either too interested in their conversation or too wary to stop it.
"My father spoke a lot about your kind." Jun continued, the threatening tone in his voice rising every time he spoke. "Normally, when he spoke about them, he would laugh at their outright stupidity."
"And my mother spoke a lot about yours, too." Kaori said. "It was a shame, really. Your parents died before you were old enough to remember, not knowing that they would've been better without a son like you under their roof."
Jun's face contorted into another, horrible scowl. He lowered as gaze as Kaori lifted her chin, both were just in each other's hit range. There was rumbling, the ground shook, and it was no doubt that Jun made it.
As the place tremored violently, some people had to hang on to the tables to keep themselves from falling down. But Mori held her wolf-like ears in pain and hissed.
"What is that sound?!" She howled.
Kaori glanced at her, a moment passed before she locked eyes with Jun again. "I have no will to change the mind of a thick headed person like you."
And with that, she left the cafeteria, leaving the others in silence. Whatever it is that had happened before was no longer something that was worth being interested in, according to the face of most of the occupants present.
But Jun, with his patience on end, had begun to grit his teeth in an angry manner before beginning to walk away and passing by Seiji.
"What the fuck are you looking at?!" The shorter boy said snapped with so much hatred in his voice.
Seiji only took a step back, not trying to engage with him. He watched the other boy walking away from him, and out of the cafeteria with a scowl.
"I am no different from these people…" Seiji thought. His face began to sweat as he did.
The breakfast session ended like that.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Second Day xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
A day later, the participants of the experiment were still trapped in the underground facility of the U.A. All of them forced to stay in their current clothes without anything to change into. Even the food that they served had seen better days. All of them had tried to pass the hours by doing something, but they all end up walking aimlessly around the corridors and avoiding talking to each other.
Meanwhile, in the cafeteria, Seiji was sitting alone at the table until suddenly, a small group of people had begun to sit around him. Kaori and Mori had returned to sit with Seiji but also with them was the tall intimidating boy with smoke coming out of his mouth; Oboro.
They all sat awkwardly across one another. The four of them all sitting silently and not attempting to talk until one of them spoke up.
"This is hopeless." Kaori told them, head resting on her hand. "Unless we can convince the human earthquake machine to join."
"I think it's better to try and convince the others first." Oboro said. "We can try Jun last."
"You think this could work? the ten of us being a class and learning to be heroes?" said Seiji with a raised eyebrow.
"I don't know about you," Oboro said, smoke fuming out of his mouth "but I'm not planning on going back to where I came from anytime soon."
"Me neither." Mori agreed.
Seiji nodded in understanding, "I guess everyone here has the same thought process…" He said in his head.
There was a 'ahem' from the table and they all turned to Kaori. "Picking up where we left off yesterday, let's try recapping our strategies in order to persuade the rest of those stuck down here."
Everyone else exchanged glances until Mori piped up. "I thought we're still stuck on Jun Hamada?"
"I'll confront him myself, it'll be more efficient to try convincing everyone else first." Kaori told her.
"Well, how about Suki?" asked Seiji.
"She's very likely a victim of domestic abuse. The scar on the right side of her neck looks thin and not that deep, meaning that the abuser did not plan on killing her; it looks old, about a couple of years most likely and the wound was not treated at the time as well. She doesn't live in poverty, not by the looks of her blouse but she came from a bad neighborhood; her family is probably at fault, judging by her attitude." And with that, Kaori ended her deduction. "I suppose we can convince her by threatening her."
The other couldn't help but stare at Kaori's deduction skills with their eyes wide, as if she had just put a puzzle together in mere seconds.
"What if we just talk her into joining?" Seiji told her.
"She already kneed me once in the stomach, I doubt talking to her would be easy to do..." Mori said.
"Ah… right…"
"Now what about Tarasu?" Mori said to Kaori.
"Since he's the son of a pair of mercenaries. I suggest we get him interested on the Hero License, because that way his family business would improve."
"How could you've possible known that?!" Seiji asked in shock.
"I asked him…"
There was a moment of silence, everyone not sure how to continue the conversation after getting the information about Tarasu.
"I engaged him in a conversation, he said a lot of things, and I came to the conclusion of him being a mercenary in training."
Everyone nodded hesitantly at the same time, but all of them doubt that they'd understand.
"Date's just a big lughead, right?" Mori asked, trying to confirm.
"He's a gorilla…" Oboro said with mockery in his tone. Letting out another set of smoke from his mouth.
"For once, I agree with Hamada." Kaori told her. "Takehiro's a gorilla. He's short tempered and acts on instinct. There's one way to get him aboard though: we can convince him that he'll be able to fight villains all he wants once he joins the program."
After an agreement, Mori brought a finger up to her chin. "And… who's that skull-girl… Miyu?"
"Oh, that'll be for you to handle." Kaori said pointing at Mori.
Mori cocked her eyebrow. "What? Why?"
"Because," Kaori began "when I confronted her earlier, her pupils dilated and her pulse fastened when I held her hand to see her powers in effect. She was purposely trying to get closer afterwards while still trying to keep her distance, the tone in her voice when she spoke was filled with enthusiasm and she wasn't fidgeting which means that she's aware of her body and her functions."
"Which means… what?" Mori asked confused.
Kaori had a look of astonishment on her face, it's as if she's surprised that Mori's still not following.
But Seiji's eyes were as wide as plates when he realized what Kaori meant while Oboro was shaking his head in minor annoyance at Mori's lack of comprehension. A few seconds later, Kaori began whispering in Mori's ear, which made the wolf girl's face go red.
"W-what?! I'm not going to do that!" Mori started shouting in protest with an embarrassed expression on her face.
"Calm down, it's not that big of a deal." Kaori said nonchalantly. "Besides, how else do you think you can convince a hot head like her?"
With her face still red, Mori frowned and accepted the job. "Fine! I'll try convincing her to join…"
Kaori shrugged, looking like she couldn't care less. "All that's left now is Kudou Satou."
Oboro raised his hand. "Well… about Kudou…"
Kaori cocked her eyebrow. "What about him?"
"Yeah! What about me?" said a familiar voice that appeared.
All of them fell silent when that extra voice came out of nowhere, there was a disturbing giggle that came after. Seiji felt something poke his leg, and Mori quickly pulled out her tail from underneath the table.
"He… had been listening to us from the very start…" Oboro said.
A head popped up from the width side of the table, an unhinged smile greeted them.
"Hi!" said the lanky blue haired boy.
Seiji glanced from his seatmates back to Kudou. "You… want to join us?"
"Sure!" Kudou said with exhilaration, popping out from underneath the table. "I got nothing better to do and you were gonna ask anyway so, ok! I overheard your whole conversation. Hehehe." Kudou said with a giggle and a smirk on his face
"How did you get here!?" Mori began. "I didn't even hear anything!"
"Oh, that's because I used my Quirk!" Kudou said playfully. "I can slow down everything around me! That's why I move so fast that you didn't even notice!"
Everyone else exchanged glances, an agreement had settled between them as they greeted Kudou to the team. The group was now an even five to five in convincing the others to join the program.
"So… I'll be taking Hamada." Kaori said.
"The Kobayashi kid works fine for me, I guess." Oboro said.
Mori crossed her arms in annoyance, but she agreed to convince Miyu.
"And Seiji, would you do the honors of convincing Date?" Kaori said, reverting her attention.
"I'm sorry… but… how do I do that?" Seiji asked. "I highly doubt that he'll listen to any of us, so…"
Kaori scanned the boy up and down. "You… your Quirk possesses the ability to hurt others, correct?"
"Eh?" Seiji said, pointing a finger to himself. "Well… I… uh…"
"It's kind of obvious, really." Kaori told him. "I mean, we've all seen what the others could do. But you are the only one here who hasn't really shown their Quirk at all."
"…" unsure of what to say, Seiji rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Wait, what does my Quirk have to do with anything?"
"Oh, I figured that you'd might be able to beat Date if given the chance." Kaori simply said.
"What?! I can't do that! My Quirk only works when I'm hurt!" Seiji said, accidentally knocking his knee on the table's bottom. In result, everyone felt begun to clutch their knees from the sensation of pain.
Annoyed, Kaori had begun to glare at Seiji. "I thought having you use your Quirk to help around here might make a difference… but sadly, I was mistaken…"
"W-well, I don't think I'm fit in that role-"
"Can I do it? I want to do it!" Kudou cried with his hands up, his face practically inching closer to Kaori's, who seemed to be pulling her body further from the boy's presence.
"Fine! Satou, do the honors." Kaori harshly commanded to get him away from her.
"You can count on me!" He exclaimed as he skipped away from them and out of the cafeteria.
Kaori turned back to Seiji after a moment of silence. "Then I guess you'll go for Takara?"
"I… I guess…" Seiji said, hesitating. "I think it'd be better to just talk to her, y'know?"
"Fine… whatever… I don't care…" Kaori said. "Just so you know, if any one of you bails out, there will most likely be no second chance."
"Okay." Mori said.
"Sure." Oboro said.
"Alright…" Seiji said
"There is already a girl in my life that I am afraid of and it's definitely not Suki but..." Seiji thought to himself alone, all the other members having gone to do what they've agreed to. "I mean… if I… want to be a hero… I can't turn my back on this."
The rest of the day ended abruptly, nobody knows why. They just felt like they're inching dangerously closer to the last day every second.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Third Day xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"I really hate this…" Mori thought to herself. "I really hate that I'm going to have to do this…"
The day after that Mori, Seiji, and Kaori huddled up in the cafeteria for dinner. It was quiet this time around, people had taken their food trays back to their room.
The group of three had their attention locked on a particular girl who was sitting alone at a table in the corner.
Kaori then changed her gaze towards Mori. "Miyu Yakushi is very likely a juvie. I don't recall any past crimes that has her name in it, nor was she a daughter of a supervillain. She's young, about my age. Her built is athletic, but I doubt she works out at all. She seemed to have no hesitation when she tried to attack Jun when we first arrived."
"A high school juvie?" Seiji said. "That's a rare sight…"
"Why?"
"Well… from what I've seen, everyone here seems to have past crimes or related to villains. Even you, right?" Seiji told her.
Kaori said nothing to him, she only kept her attention somewhere else.
"So…" Mori sighed. "I guess I'm doing this…"
"Yes, you do." Kaori simply said.
The wolf girl frowned at her. "Why can't you do it?! You're a girl!"
"Don't expect Yakushi to get proper attention from me." Kaori said, her voice icy. "I'm not into emotional nonsense."
"Ugh…"
"G-good luck, Mori." Seiji felt like he was obliged to do that.
Mori stood up from where she sat, and left the table with her dinner. With Kaori and Seiji secretly watching closely, Mori walked towards the lone skull girl.
Miyu noticed her presence once Mori was just three feet close to her.
"Can I help you?" Miyu asked her, face straight.
"N-no… it's just… can I sit with you…?" Mori said awkwardly, tightening her grip on her tray.
"… Okay…?"
Mori took the chance to sit next to her, the space between the two was close enough for their elbows to make occasional contact.
Mori had her food uneaten, and when she looked beside her, she saw Miyu also doing the same thing.
The wolf girl noticed her two companions table. Kaori was staring past her shoulder and Seiji giving a hidden thumbs up.
"So… what obliged you to sit beside me?" Miyu suddenly said, surprising Mori.
"I don't know… I guess I just want to sit here!" Mori said while she had forced a decent smile, a mix of cringing and grinning.
Miyu stared at her for a few seconds, then she looked down. "You… don't have to, you know… I know that you're forced or something—"
"Oh god yes!" Mori blurted out, fist banged on the table. "You have no idea how difficult that was!"
"Oh… o-ok…?" Miyu responded weakly, surprised by the sudden outburst.
"No, seriously, I just had to be the one to ask you out! Like, why couldn't she do it?!"
Miyu went red. "E-eh?"
"Well, of course!" Mori told her. "Kaori didn't want to bother herself with asking you!"
"K-Kaori?!"
"I mean, how hard is it to just ask someone to join the program?"
Miyu blinked, realizing what she was saying. "Oh...now I get it... Look to be honest, I don't much care for being a hero-" Miyu was going to continue before getting cut off.
"That's bullshit!" Mori said, leaning closer. "Look at you! Look at your Quirk! You're like… the Grim Reaper if he was a girl! Scything and fighting bad guys to death!"
Miyu pulled her eyes off of Mori when she realized she had been staring too long. "L-look… I don't want to be a hero, okay?! I just… I don't feel that it fits with me…"
Mori snorted mockingly. "Oh come on. You're a lady who can take her bones out and use it as a spear! Look at me, I'm just a freaking canine! You literally have more chance than I do. You can be an amazing hero!"
Miyu's eyes widened at that, then, she looked away from the wolf girl's gaze. "...You think so?"
"Well… why would you want to be a hero?" Miyu asked her, her brows furrowing.
"Let's see… how do I say this?" Mori began. "I guess I'd like to have a home… you know… I don't want to go too much into detail but...I just want a better life for myself because things aren't working out well for me right now."
"Yeah…" Miyu replied. "I guess…"
"Well!" Mori exclaimed, taking another spoonful of food in her mouth. "Let me know if you finished thinking about it… I'm really looking forward on working with you!" She said between chews.
Miyu's face lit up, even more so when she realized that Mori wasn't even trying to leave her table. The both of them ended up finishing both their dinners at the same time.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Fourth Day xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date was not in a good mood as he continued to do exercises to keep his strength up. Performing multiple push ups, he huffed and wheezed with sweat dripping down his face.
"A hero? Ugh!" Date thought angrily. "As if I have the chance to be a hero…"
After several dozen reps, he stopped exercising. Standing up and drenched in sweat, he begun to stare at his hands.
"Those four dummies… they really think they could be a hero?"
"howdy neighbor!" said a loud and familiar voice filled with insanity.
That voice brought Date from his thoughts, his instincts kicked in and he was already mimicking an offensive pose.
He came face to face with a smirking boy whose leaning against his door frame, his hair was blue and his smile disturbingly unhinged.
"Who the fuck are you?" Date snorted at the sight of him.
"I'm Kudou! We met already!"
"Yeah? Well fuck off then..." Date said, taking a more neutral stance.
"No can do!" Kudou whistled, he slowly put one foot in front of the other and got closer to Date. "Look, man. How about we go to the cafeteria? Get some drinks, have a little guy talk, eh?"
"What the fuck do you want?!" Date said threateningly.
"I just want to offer you… a spot in the heroics program!" The smaller boy said enthusiastically, patting Date's broad shoulder's as if they were close friends.
But instead, Date took him by the collar. "I thought I made myself clear that day! I don't wanna be here!' He barked.
"I'll fight you then!" Kutou said with a smile and a funny expression.
Date's mouth dropped, a look of disbelief splattered on his face.
"I'm serious!" Kudou said. "If I win, you'll promise to agree to join!"
Date was silent for a few seconds before the chuckle started to come out of his mouth. "hehehe... Bwahahahaha! You really think you could defeat me?! One on one? With what, your Quirk?"
"Of course!" Kudou said with a smile.
The laughter had ended as Date found himself staring at a dark abyss that was Kudou's unblinking eyes. His smirk was more sinister now. "Let's start now…"
Date was taken back by the sudden invisible chill that enveloped the smaller boy. And before he knew it, Kudou was already out of the grasp on his clothes. Looking frantically around, Date began trying to find where the boy had disappeared to.
He suddenly felt a long object touching his throat, and weight on his shoulders.
"I win…" Kudou whispered to his ear. His hand held Date's head, while the other held out a finger on Date's throat. His legs were locking on Date's upper arm.
Kudou let out a small giggle on Date's ears. "You lose! Time to join!"
"What the- Get off of me!" Date yelled as he whirled his body around, trying to get the boy off him. As his hands searched for Kudou's hands, Date found nothing as he looked up from his frantic swinging to see Kudou now standing in front of him.
"Too slow…" Kudou said with a smirk.
Date, in response to the cockiness of his opponent, had lifted his leg and attempting to hit him with a swing kick. For a split second, he was close to contact until Kudou had disappeared from his line of sight. Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder.
"Still too slow…" said Kudou now standing behind him
Date attempted a jab at the place he heard the voice, but only to find himself striking the air. Laughs were echoing all around him; everywhere he looked, he saw traces and fast blurs of Kudou all over the place, like see-through imprints of where he was standing.
Then, Date spotted him; Leaning against the doorframe with a smile on his face.
"Well that was fun!" Kudou said. "Let's fight again someday!" he continued before skipping away from Dates room.
Date begun to rub out his eyes, unsure of what he had just seen. After rubbing his eyes, he looked down to notice something. On his left arm was a black substance that was in the shape of lettering, a sentence formed as if hastily written.
It read: "Welcome to the club! :3" in big black bold letters with a comedic face at the end. The mere sight of it caused a look of irritation on Dates face.
"A hero, huh?" Date thought as he shifted his gaze towards the door.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Fifth Day xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Oboro was going through the dormitory doors, as if to search for someone.
"I guess it's my turn to convince the Kobayashi kid…" He thought to himself. "The kid never showed up anywhere, where the hell is he all the time?"
After a short while, after looking through rooms and corridors, Oboro finally found Tarasu; he was in the showers, fully dressed and sleeping on the floor.
His mouth was wide enough to possibly catch butterflies as he snored with drool dripping from it with him laying on his stomach
Oboro stared at the other boy with uneasiness on his face before finally getting the nerve to speak up.
"Hey… kid…"
"Don't bother me, I'm sleeping." Tarasu said between snores, eyes closed as he said it.
"Yeah… I'm not buying it…"
Tarasu opened an eyelid and made a quick scan of Oboro from top to bottom, he then gave a low sigh and picked himself up from the floor where he slept on, Stretching and making several loud cracks with his body.
"You're the smoky-guy, right? What do you want?" Tarasu said, hunching over.
"I want you to join the hero-"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Can't be bothered to do so…"
Oboro kept his face straight, even though deep inside he wished to sigh. "Not even for the amount of money you'll make as a hero?"
Tarasu lets out a dry laugh. "Sorry pal, I doubt that I'll even get through first class. Much less… you know… accepted in society."
"Well, that's no secret…" Oboro thought.
"I guess the family history just gives it away…" Tarasu asked him.
"Son of a pair of mercenaries, right?" Oboro contemplated. "You don't have to be one. You could try to be a Hero if you took the time, it's just a matter of thought."
"Hell if I care…" Tarasu said. "I'm mostly following in my parents line of work for the fighting."
"The fighting?"
"Yeah. You know… brawling?"
"I know already what fighting is…" Oboro told him. "I guess… That's something we have in common?"
"I mean… sure, a hero license would be good but how many times would I get to bash the head of someone to keep me awake? hehe..." Tarasu said jokingly.
"Hehehe..." Oboro said with a small smile on his face.
Following the chuckles, the atmosphere having gotten lighter along with their moods. After the laughter had subsided, they both preceded to leave the shower room and continued to talk down the hallway.
"What about you?" Tarasu told him. "How's your history?"
"Just petty theft… nothing more…" Oboro explained.
"And that makes you want to be a hero?"
"No. I just really prefer that I do not go back to where I come from." Oboro replied. "I also like real beds…"
"Heh…" Tarasu said, almost as if he had find it interesting. "I've just been living of my folks money… working at a decent private security business never seemed like a bad idea…"
"Why don't you go into the Hero business and make your families business better by association?" Oboro asked as smoke came out of his mouth.
"Peh... Please… as if I got the energy and time…" said Tarasu. "If you want, I can give you a job with the family business, with your large sizing and smoking, you'd make one scary security guard."
"Nah, I'm not interested in jobs like that with no future in them." Oboro said.
"Ouch…"
"I'm just being truthful...Ever since the business of Heroism has been invented, private security jobs like your families are becoming less and less necessary to keep people safe. If a Hero, were to join a private security firm"
Silence fell between them.
"So…" Oboro started after a moment of silence. "Is that a yes?"
Tarasu gave a tired-ish chuckle. "That's an "I'll think about it in my sleep."'
The chat ended with soft laughter filling up the silence of the hallway as they went their separate ways.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sixth Day xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Kaori was walking through the hallways, looking at the floor trying to think until she had begun to look and notice a familiar female face coming her way; Suki.
"What does she want?" Kaori thought. "Did Seiji mess something up?"
When the tall and bustier girl reached her, she was close to her body; a mere few inches separated them while Suki had a smile on her face with a set of angry eyes.
But Kaori kept a straight face. "Is there a problem?"
"You think it's funny, don't you?"
"Are we talking about your chest?" Kaori said as a retort.
Suki growled under her breath before speaking with a serious tone. "I don't want be a hero, especially if it means having to spend training with the people down here."
"You know you don't mean that." Kaori calmly said.
Suki crossed her arms. "And why would you think that?"
"Because then you'll have to go back to your home where you have issues with your father, you'd rather be here then there."
Suki's face flushed, her gaze lowering in frustration.
"Great… she's speechless…" Kaori thought. "I'm only offering space, but if you'd rather go back to your home be… my…"
Suddenly, the room felt different in Kaori's line of sight; walls beginning to melt, the room feeling like it was getting hotter and hotter, sweat dripping from her hands to the point where it looked like her hands were melting. She was barely able to stand on her own feet as she noticed her fingers began to turn into liquid from the heat.
"Reality bending? No… I can still feel my fingers even though they have melted off… hallucinations?" Kaori wondered.
"You're pretty bold, aren't you?" Suki said a deep and horrifying voice. "Let me tell you something, little girl... I don't need your help… and I don't need your wannabe-club..."
"Kaori!" a loud voice had reverberated through the halls, knocking Suki and Kaori out of their concentrated states on each other. Looking down at her hands, Kaori noticed her hands beginning to reform after melting.
After a few seconds, the hallucinations stopped with everything turning back to the way they were. Suki had then looked at Kaori regaining her composure, her eyes widening with sweat trickling down her.
Kaori then saw someone else behind her, it was an out-of-breath Seiji.
"Sorry!" Seiji said. "I… I didn't do well talking to her."
"Keep your nose out of my business…" Suki said hatefully to Kaori, before circling back towards where she came from.
"Ah! S-Suki… wait!" Seiji said, preparing to follow her to continue talking to her.
"Let her go, Orimura." Kaori told him. "Just let her go back to her parents, I'd say she deserved it."
Suki stopped in her tracks. "Hmmmm?"
"Got your attention now huh? Well it doesn't matter anyway." Kaori walked closer towards her.
"K-Kaori?" Seiji seemed to be at loss at words.
Suki curled her lips and stood her ground fiercely. "Yeah, keep talking, that'll keep you alive..."
"You don't realize it, do you?" Kaori said. "Or maybe you don't want to realize it."
Suki made a loud, insulting snort. "What are you talking—"
"You're scared…" Kaori said, cutting her off.
Suki had took several long strides towards her, then, she got to the point where they had left off earlier. With her bust only one inch close to hers.
"You think I'm scared of you?" Suki said. "Just so you know, you're not the first person I've knocked on the ground."
"Oh, I don't think you're scared of me. If anything, you're scared of me being right." Kaori pressed. "But no… you're scared of the fact that a certain family member wouldn't agree with you being a hero."
"I will kill you if you don't stop talking…" Suki threatened, stepping closer.
"Why don't you do it and cut the act?" Kaori took a step even closer to her. "You're not as strong as you think, Takara. What you have under that fragile armor of yours is just a pathetic little girl who's scared of being grounded."
Suki pulled back an arm with a fist, her face contorted and filled with loathe.
"Sure, pull a punch. See if that changes anything." Kaori told her. "But know that there's only two options you can take from this point. Either you change what you are, or face the truth that your father won't ever be satisfied with who you are—"
Suki had grabbed Kaori by the neck and pulled her to a wall and punched the surface next to her head. Seiji watched with a hint of regret for not being able to stop Suki from nearly hitting her.
The punch did not leave a mark on the wall but Suki's knuckles were red from the pain of hitting the surface hard.
"Don't ever… talk to me again…" Suki growled, gaze lowered and her eyes filled bloodlust.
Kaori stared into her eyes with dull eyes, she said nothing.
Suki left with her knuckles bloodied and her head held high, she walked away as if nothing ever happened between them.
Seiji went over towards Kaori with worry plastered on his face. "Oh shit! Oh shit!" He thought in distress. "I fucked up… I fucked up real bad…"
"K-Kaori! A-are you okay?" He asked her, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Yes, I'm fine." Kaori gave Seiji a mortified look, then she removed his hand from her shoulder. "Suki Takara's chances of being on board has risen gradually. Next, we move to Jun Hamada."
"R-really?" Seiji said. "How could you've possibly known that her father was the one she has problems with?"
"I didn't, I simply guessed and tried to look at her reaction." Kaori told him. "Come on, we have more important matters at hand."
"W-what? Er… okay…?"
Kaori had left off first, and Seiji followed suit.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx The Last Day xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The final day of their student confinement, Seiji walked around the corridors in search of Suki, he hadn't found her when he knocked on her room door. Either she was somewhere else or was ignoring him.
It felt like it was mid-day, or Seiji thought it was as the place had no clocks to tell the time. It had been a couple of hours since he woke up, skipping breakfast to search for Suki, before deciding to head for the cafeteria for lunch.
As Seiji circled around the corner, he was greeted by the sight of a full house.
All of them had huddled up for dinner. Each and every one of H.R.I's participants.
He saw Oboro, and he was engaging a conversation with Tarasu Kobayashi. Kudou was sitting around an aggravated Date which prompted him to shout at the insane boy to leave him alone.
Seiji had managed to let out a soft smile on the corner of his lips as he passed them.
He caught the sight of Mori and Kaori, with an extra guest by their table; Miyu.
"Can… I sit here?" Seiji asked them.
When he got their permission, he took a seat besides Kaori, who was holding a cup with water inside.
"It seemed like most of the people here had already decided to try the program… huh… I would be lying if I didn't say that I'm glad…" Seiji thought. "But… I don't see Jun or Suki anywhere…"
"Have you convinced Jun yet?" Seiji asked Kaori in curiosity.
Kaori seemed to be ignoring him but in reality, she was watching someone with interest.
Seiji's eyes then averted towards the place where Kaori's attention was; directly staring at Jun, alone at his own table.
"I had no luck with him…" Kaori told Seiji. "The boy's too thick headed for his own good, even more so than Date if I'm correct."
"O-oh… well… how about Suki?" Seiji said, trying to change the topic.
"Ask her yourself." Kaori said, her head tilting to her right. Looking over Kaori, Seiji saw Suki sitting at a table by herself, similarly to Jun. In accordance with his role, Seiji walked over to Suki to attempt to chat with her.
"Hey, Suki." Seiji started, a bit too early much to his distaste.
"What do you want?" Suki snapped in annoyance, her voice bringing Seiji to silence.
Seiji gulped as he tried to regain his voice. "Have you… made your mind yet?"
Suki said nothing, she averted her hateful glare away from Seiji. "What's the point? It's not like we'll be treated as equals out there…"
"But it'll be worth trying if you ask me..." Seiji stated, turning to everyone as if to address everybody in the room. "Don't you think that it'll be at least worth attempting?" Silence pressed the room after what Seiji said, just listening to what he had to say.
Seiji swallowed spit again, unsure of what he was saying. He had not expected himself to be talking as a center of attention.
"I mean… why don't we all just give it a chance?" He said again.
Murmurs, agreements, and scoffs were heard at the same time. But Seiji knew the truth, most of them had already gotten in on this. Not whole heartedly, but at least interested in participation more than a week ago.
"You really are a naïve idiot, you know that?!" Suddenly the atmosphere shifted to a more intense feeling as a hateful sentence came out of a familiar voice.
Seiji, and the others, had instantaneously shifted their gazes from each other, to a glaring Jun.
Kaori had a look of disgust on her face while Seiji was taken back by the harshness in his voice.
"It's nothing but "second chance" and "try, try, try" from you, isn't it?!" Jun shouted at a surprised Seiji. "What are you even in here for anyway?! It's probably nothing even worth talking about!"
Seiji said nothing, his lips shut, and his head trying to pick up words to say.
"I don't think that-" Seiji was going to continue until Jun cut him off by continuing to speak.
"Look around you, idiot!" Jun barked sharply, his arms wide. "Criminals... psychopaths... offspring's of "good for nothings." Who in their right mind would think we even have the slightest chance of becoming Heroes, let alone decent people in the way our society works!"
The room fell more silent than ever, the atmosphere was becoming heavier and heavier.
"Just face it! this fucking pipe dream is just a pipe dream!" Jun said. "It's all gonna blow up in everyone's face and there's nothing you can do about it…"
"Shut up already!" Mori suddenly said. Her fists curled, her canines showing, and her ears pointed forward. "None of us want to go back to way things were for us all! And this is the only chance we all got! No matter how much you try to deny it, you know this is the only option left!"
Jun stared at her, then back at Seiji, with a sneer of incredulity.
And with that, Jun left the cafeteria with stomps trailing behind him. Seiji thought that it couldn't get any worse, until he saw Suki began following what Jun did and left the cafeteria.
Date also left the room, so that makes seven people left. But Seiji highly doubts that anyone wanted to join the program after that.
His knuckles whitened as his fists curled up, rage fueling him.
He glanced at Kaori, who said nothing and did nothing at the whole ordeal.
She sighed. "It's hopeless…"
Mori, also piped in. "I really… really don't want to go back…"
And Seiji, he did the only thing he can do.
He ran after Jun.
He searched left and right, the showers, the dorms, but Jun was nowhere to be found.
"I can't give up now!" Seiji thought angrily, gritting his teeth. "It's only a matter of hours until the monkey comes back to check on us! And it'll be too late, then!"
Then, he felt a rumble in the ground. A strong quake that shook his center of balance, and toppled him off.
Seiji rubbed his sore bottom after he fell, but now he knows that he's close to Jun. He picked himself up. He continued searching.
He came across a light at the end of the corridor he stood in, if he remembered correctly, that path leads to the giant room where he was explained the purpose of his capture.
He stepped into it, bright lights shining his face. And a lone figure was the first he recognized as his eyes adapted to the brightness.
Seiji had found Jun. And the small boy was aggressively trying to punch a hole in one of the walls.
Seiji hesitated to approach him, but he knows better than turn back from his goal now. He now stood just a few feet from Jun, but Seiji could only look at his back.
"J-Jun…" Seiji called, expecting a painful punch.
Jun stopped pulling punches. "I thought I made myself clear…"
"And I still don't understand it…" Seiji said. "Why would you just let a chance like this slide like that?… I don't know what your past life was like but your life wont change for the better without help..."
"You… would never… understand…" Jun scoffed.
"Well, I sure as hell want to!" Seiji shouted in incredulity. "You're acting like a full blown idiot, you know!"
Jun made a growl, he spun around to face Seiji. "And you're full of yourself!"
"What do you know about me?" Seiji asked him, eyes narrowing.
"You're not as great as you think." Jun told him sharply. "If I knew better, they took the wrong kid. I've been stuck in this dump with you for a whole week and there isn't a single sign of similarity between you and the rest of us."
"...I don't think they made a mistake..." Seiji fought. "I know I'm here for a reason..."
Jun stared at him, gloweringly. "And what's that?" He sneered tauntingly. "You took the cookie jar without mommy's permission?"
"No." Seiji said, standing his ground. "All you need to know is that you… are not as strong as you think, either."
Jun's curled lips fell, his eyes showed baffled anger. "What did you just say?" He said in disbelief.
"Kaori's right…" Seiji told him, turning his back on Jun. "This is hopeless… you'll never understand it"
Jun stood by himself, watching Seiji walking away.
"You're delusional!" Jun called out. "What the hell makes you think you're any better?"
Seiji stopped in his tracks, he looked back, eyes boring into Jun's.
"You want to know..." Seiji's only words to say to Jun in response.
"This aught to be good..." Jun said with expectations.
Seiji could only breathe in a deep breath, not even sure where to begin to tell his story.
"I never met my mother...nor did I ever meet my father."
"Is that all? Big deal..." said Jun unimpressed.
"My mother was named Dokuro Chabane and she liked to hurt people from what I was told...She enjoyed wealthy men and their stuff to the point that she wanted what they had. She also liked knifes a lot from what my adoptive father had told me." Seiji continued as he pulled out his butterfly knife to show it to Jun.
Jun maintained his uninterested facial expression but he now had a raised eyebrow of curiosity forming on his face.
"One of her victims was a man she apparently had a sexual attraction to, a nice looking guy named Kazu, who had a decent construction business and a ton of stored up wealth apparently... one thing led to another and she murdered him to get his money but she didn't stop there..." Seiji said looking away from Jun as a recounted the story of his mother.
"Before she stabbed him to death, she proceeded to have intercourse with him... That man named Kazu was my father... Wasn't long after, my mother was starting to become pregnant with me inside her and me being inside her, led her to eventually being caught... and then died in prison via lethal injection after I came out of her."
Seiji turned his head back to looking at Jun, noticing his expression had changed. What originally was an unimpressed face filled with disinterest had become a face that was a mixture of shock and frustration, baffled at the story he was listening to.
"...You expecting me to believe this? You, the guy who acts like he has no baggage whatsoever could possibly be alright with knowing his mother was a psychopath who sexually assaulted a man?! That seriously can't be the reason why you are here!? That sounds too fake to be believed by anyone!" Jun shouted in disgust.
"Oh it's true...I think that's the reason why the school brought me in...but the reason I think am here is something else and has nothing to do with my family, at least in my mind."
"Wait, there is more to this now?! What!?" Jun said as he got closer to Seiji, almost in frustration. "What other reason could you possibly believe got you sent here that has nothing to do with your fucked up mother?!"
"..." Seiji was silent, noting the smaller boys interest in learning his other reason. Seiji begun to turn away from the boy and begun to walk away. It wasn't until more of Jun's shouting had reverberated throughout the large white room.
'Where are you going!? Finish what you were telling me!?"
"I might...but only after you join the class for the meeting when Sunny shows up..." Seiji said looking back at the small boy with an unnerving look on his face.
Seiji left the area, silence filling the giant room as Jun stared at his bloody knuckles with dull eyes, he made absolutely no movement for several seconds.
"Grrr…!" Jun said in irritation, gritting his teeth like there's no tomorrow.
He clenched his fist, not caring at this point if it hurt like hell.
"Fucking...hell..."
A Big shout out to ThalioTP for helping me write this chapter. Due to legitimate time constraints I've had, that all you readers probably know about from my update awhile ago, I had trouble writing this chapter so I got into contact with ThalioTP and he offered to write the chapter for me, while I gave him ideas for what I wanted as well character bios and then I edited it.
I'm trying to get more time on my hands so I can get back to writing the story myself. This chapter was written by ThalioTP and we both have different writing styles so there is some noticeable differences in our word setups but I think he did a good job to keep the story going and I'm very appreciative for it to satisfy you as the readers.
We end this chapter on a relative cliffhanger as two members of Class H.R.I. are undecided and are still wary to the idea of participating. With Eight of the 10 on board and Sunny's arrival coming soon, will the class happen or was the principals dream of the U.A. being a beacon of hope just a fantasy? Find out next time on "My Hero Academia: The Delinquents Class."