09 - Starting School Days II
OP 1 - ADAMAS by LiSA
Previously on GPSL:
Gold Class moves into the dorms!
A wild game of Quirk dodgeball appears!
A/N: I will be making some retroactive changes to the previous chapter: the Gold Class will henceforth be the only hero course of the school! Officially, it is because the school is in an experimental era and they are in a trial year. Unofficially, it's because I physically cannot handle another batch of hero kids right now and the logical writer side of me refuses to allow them to be a thing without actually introducing them. Sorry for any confusion!
TW: Implied panic attack and dissociation
…loud. It was so loud.
That was the first realization she had when she came to.
It was loud. She hated loud places.
"—you bitch, I told you it was an accident, what are you making such a fuss about it for, huh?"
"And I told you already, we're over! I don't want to see you anymore, so leave before I call the police!"
"The police? You'd call the police on me?! I'm your boyfriend!"
"No, you're not! I said we're over and I meant it, okay?!"
Out. She needed to get out. She—before—
She tugged anxiously at her mother's sleeve, drawing a soft "What's wrong, dear?", but that wasn't enough—hurry, they needed to hurry—
She shook her head, insistently dragging her mom by the arm through the convenience store aisles. Every nerve in her body was on hyper alert, her eyes flitting across her surroundings restlessly. The door was—right there, they just had to make it—
But no matter how much she walked, the exit never seemed to get any closer. No—no! She was running now, sprinting even, desperate to reach—
The sun's rays cruelly shined through the glass without ever reaching the endless dark aisle she was trapped in, and the convenience store aisles slowly transformed into shadows, melting in a darkness synonymous with the abyss she was drowning in.
She panted loudly, struggling to breathe, but refused to stop, forcing herself forward, faster—sheer desperation was all that was carrying her now, and—
Light hit her face then, and she stumbled to a stop in front of the glass door, the only light in the darkness. Her breathing hitched slightly in disbelief, and she could only stand there in a moment of stunned shock before finally scrambling for the door, fully prepared to claw the automatic door open with her fingers alone—
"Kaname!"
Crack.
She froze, and then stared in horror down at her empty hands. How long had they—
"Kaname!"
She whirled around at the second cry of her name, and she immediately flinched at the sight of her mother's terrified face, her mother's desperate hands reaching out towards her, struggling against…against—
Crack. Crack.
Her eyes traveled upwards slowly, butterflies swirling up a storm in her gut despite knowing exactly what it was that she would find.
Crack—crackle—snap!
The crackling noises echoed, growing louder and louder, and she reluctantly turned her face up to stare the skeleton monster in the eye, her pink eyes filling with tears of fear at the sight of the dull, empty sockets—no matter how many times it happened, she'd never get used to it, the feeling of staring into the abyss—
"Kaname—"
"Where…do you think you're going?"
Kaname flinched violently at the sound of the voice, a guttural growl ripping its way through the space with the strength of a mini earthquake. Her knees gave away under her, and she plunked down onto the floor, cradling her head to defend from the dust and rocks dropping from the tremulous ceiling, as if it were copying her own shivers of fear. She almost wished she could do as it did and entirely crumble apart, then she wouldn't—wouldn't have to face—
"Kaname!"
"M-Mom…" She forced herself to look up again, almost failing at the next roar that sounded, and caught sight once again of her mother's wide-eyed expression of pure fear. She uncurled, trying in a frenzy to push her fear apart in favor of determination as she climbed to her feet again—
"Run!" Her mom cried out. "Run, Kaname, run!"
"No—" She reached out—
"Kaname!"
"GROAAAWRR!"
The giant skeleton monster exploded in a loud howl, and on instinct, she raised her hands to protect her head just as the convenience store exploded in a blast of light and wind pressure—
"Kaname-chan!"
Kaname gasped awake—oh, oh no no no, when had she fallen asleep? She couldn't—she couldn't—
She jerked up, and her breath hitched at the light glowing faintly in the corner of her room, at the skeleton fingers prying their way out of the floor—
"Kaname-chan," The voice said again, gently this time. Her gaze flickered briefly in the direction it came from (she refused to take her eyes off the skeleton climbing out of the corner of the room), catching sight of the other source of light in the room—the 2D figure on the wall screen. "Breathe, it's okay. Follow my count, in, two…three…four…out, two…three…four…"
Kaname gulped in air, and it felt like forever before she finally managed to get her breathing under control with Aina's help, and it was only after the glowing fingers clawed their way back into the floor that her heart stopped trying to escape from her chest.
"How do you feel? Better?" Aina asked softly.
Kaname nodded. "Th-Thank you…"
"But of course!" Aina beamed. "If you need to get some air, you always can! It might help to go downstairs for a change in environment? Maybe make some tea?"
Kaname considered it for a moment before nodding. Either way, it wasn't like she would be sleeping again (she shouldn't have slept in the first place, in fact), so tea sounded good. Too lazy to put on her outdoor shoes, she slipped on a pair of slippers before leaving her room, making her way down the elevator and to the kitchen area—
She stopped at the sound of music, hesitation clear in her halting footsteps. She almost turned around on the spot, but the other noticed her presence first, the blob of white hair turning to reveal swirling rainbow irises framed by bleached lashes, thoroughly distracting Kaname from her intentions of leaving.
"Oh, Kanakana! Hello~!" Akeno gave her a brilliant smile, switching off the music emitting from her watch. Then she caught a closer sight of Kaname's face in the light as the silver-haired girl stepped closer and her expression immediately dropped into a sympathetic one. "Bad dream?"
Kaname nodded, hesitantly curbing her instincts to escape (the open space of the kitchen was already doing wonders for her anxiety) and settling in the seat at the breakfast island next to Akeno instead. She carefully hid her still trembling fingers under her thighs and tried not to think about the dream still floating in her mind—
"I get that, nightmares are the worst," Akeno huffed. "You seem pretty shaken up; it was pretty bad then, huh?"
("Run, Kaname—")
Kaname's mouth felt irrationally dry, and she almost choked on her next inhale. She barely managed another shaky nod, hoping that Akeno wouldn't press on the subject anymore, because she really, really didn't want to talk about it.
As if reading her mind, Akeno reassured quickly, "Don't worry, I won't ask anything else, I promise."
Kaname peered at her curiously, trying to get a read on her expression, and she found that it didn't hold any semblance of annoyance or curiosity—in fact, she seemed almost…contemplative?
Akeno noticed her staring and relaxed her face again, giving a sheepish laugh, "Oh, sorry! Just got a bit lost in thought there for a moment ehe, buuuut~ Hm, if you're interested, Kanakana, I think I might know a way to chase the effect of those bad dreams away? You know, help you calm down a bit?" Akeno paused briefly for dramatic effect. After noticing that she had Kaname's full, wide-eyed attention, she pushed on, "I've heard that sometimes touch can be reassuring! Like hugs and stuff to ground you! But since you might not be very comfortable with that, what if we start small, like…you can hold my hand for a while?"
Well, it wasn't as if Kaname hadn't heard the same thing before, and to be fair, she'd never really had friends to try it out…in fact, she hadn't really had much physical contact since…since…
She forcefully pushed away the flashing memories of her mother that came to her mind unbidden (of her loving mother cradling her to sleep, of her fearful mother being held down by a skeleton monster—)
So, perhaps Nijima had a point?
"Let's start with tea, shall we?"
Kaname squeaked in surprise, swiftly withdrawing the hand that she didn't even realize had moved and nearly falling out of her chair. She whirled around to find the source of the unfamiliar voice. A man stood in the kitchen entrance, his short silver ponytail resting on his shoulder and spring green eyes smiling lightly. He carried with him a strange…almost calming aura simply by standing there, one that seemed to carefully ebb over the frazzled parts of Kaname's mind in a relaxing wave.
He smiled and lightly waved a hand at them. "Good…hm, how should I refer to four am? Morning?" He mused to himself as he passed them by, entering the kitchen directly to click open one of the cabinets as if it were his own home. "Well, good morning to you both either way—how do you feel about lavender tea? I just bought some because it's my friends' favorites, and although I don't drink tea very much myself, they tell me I'm quite good at making it for whatever reason."
Kaname had never had lavender tea before, but she liked flowers, so. She nodded.
Akeno blinked twice when the man's gaze shifted to her after a moment of silence, and she gave a laugh. "Who, me? Nah nah, I'm good! I don't really do tea either~"
"Well, that's certainly fair. It's far too early for coffee unfortunately, so could I get you some water instead? Ice, warm, honey, lemon?"
"It's okay, I don't need anything, thank you!" Akeno answered cheerily.
The two girls watched in silence as he began preparing the tea with the occasional tinkle of noise, humming lightly to himself. A few moments of comfortable silence passed by, and Kaname felt herself relaxing—it really was true when they said that you didn't realize how tense you were until you relaxed, and she felt like she had been tense for years now without her knowledge.
Akeno finally broke the silence by inquiring curiously, "Naa~ I don't think we've been introduced yet, actually! I'm Nijima Akeno, and this is Kanakana~" Kaname debated on correcting her with a proper introduction, but she was unable to find the right moment to do so as Akeno barreled on seamlessly, "Are you going to be our teacher?"
"Hmm…not quite~" The man answered lightly. He turned to face them, sliding a piping cup of tea in front of Kaname and giving her a slightly mysterious smile. "You'll find out tomorrow; for now, you can just call me Ayu."
I wonder why we're only meeting our teachers now, Sagi thought to himself as he made his way to the meeting room. It's been a few weeks since we've moved in already, and the only adult we've seen around is Hijiri-sensei…although Haruko-sensei has visited a few times too, I don't think anyone's actually talked to her. She seems really busy; if I had to guess, she probably has to make up for all the work Hijiri-sensei doesn't do by hanging around here. Heck, if I hadn't met Kuguriyama-sensei in the entrance exam, I'd almost guess that Hijiri-sensei was just trolling us all by pretending not to be our teacher. He seems like someone who would do that.
Sagi recalled his memories of Kuguriyama-sensei again, frowning slightly. He may have been distracted fighting for his life, but even then, it was unsettling to him how little of the man he'd been able to read. He'd been as cold as stone, strong and firm even in all the chaotic combat, and Sagi hadn't seen any signs for his impending emotional explosion coming at all until it had happened.
Either way, it'll be nice to finally fill in that gap, Sagi thought.
After all, he felt that he'd basically grasped a good understanding of everything else. He pushed open the door with a clear mental image of what he might see in the room, and he was pleased to find that reality matched up with it almost perfectly.
Noise drew his attention to the center of the room first, where he noticed that a group of several students were settled on the couches. As he had expected, the conversations were being headed by the more social of the group—Nijima Akeno, Otome Nadeshiko, Hira Shizuka, and Nousagi Shouhei—and they had roped in the more introverted of the group, including Koge Kayo, and Naito Kaname. Sagi was mildly amused but not expressly surprised to find that Ketsu Hisoka was among them, chatting casually in a manner contrasting the aggressive behavior he had exhibited in the entrance exam. Sagi guessed that it was to show a good image in front of the teachers later, although he was pretty sure it was too late since there was no way in his mind that the entrance exam had been unmonitored.
He wouldn't even put it past the staff for the dorms to be monitored either, especially with how Aina always seemed to appear immediately whenever they needed anything.
He expanded his gaze outward to find Kannou Mitsuki curled up in a corner as he expected, and somehow, he seemed…even worse than he had the last time Sagi had seen him, which was when he was having a breakdown in the middle of the exam. Sagi would have gone to offer some comfort if it weren't for Kunitaro Tooka already settled next to him protectively, chatting quietly even while giving him a cold stare.
Thus, he only offered her a polite nod before quickly swinging his gaze away from them again, finding Akiyama Murai standing a short distance away from the center group, as if wanting to join them but unsure how with his gruff expression. Fujimori Sekoia also stood a distance away from everyone else, but it was obvious at a glance that she was doing it by choice. She sniffed at him a bit snobbishly when she noticed his gaze on her, and he only gave her a smile in return before observing the last group. Nigarashi Monoka, Shinohara Mio, and Hikara Nozomi wasn't a group that he'd expected, but they were all open enough that it wasn't surprising either. He guessed that Mio must have been the one to bring them together, given the boy's outgoing if a bit naive nature…and the way he was staring at both Monoka and Nozomi's colorful hair. He was pretty sure he could guess how the conversation was going.
All in all, nothing unexpected, Sagi nodded to himself, satisfied.
It seemed there was nothing wrong with his current profiling of the other students.
"Yaho, Sagi!" Akeno called out, and Sagi really didn't know when they had entered a first-name basis. He suspected that everyone was just naturally on a first-name basis for her. "What are you doing lurking around at the door like a creeper for?"
"Aha, sorry, sorry, I was just surprised to see that everybody else was already here," Sagi responded easily, entering the room and settling on the armrest of the couch next to Shouhei.
"Is everything okay?" Nadeshiko asked with open concern.
"Of course, thank you," Sagi reassured her. "I think I'm just still adjusting to some things…like time management."
He said the last part wryly, immediately drawing several sympathetic looks as he anticipated. It wasn't true, of course, (or at least not completely true), but it was an easy excuse, given they were all still adapting to the newfound freedom after having a simultaneously strict schedule back at the Institute.
They ended up chatting for a few minutes longer, with each passing minute drawing on his curiosities more. But finally, the doors swung open again and two adults walked through. Sagi immediately recognized Kuguriyama-sensei as the taller of them, his face as blank as it was the first time Sagi had seen it. Curiously, he drew his attention to the unfamiliar man instead, a…more fragile-looking young man who looked barely over 20, who had such a serene smile that Sagi swore it had to be fake.
"Aah, I know you!" Akeno exclaimed, pointing rudely at the silver-haired man who only smiled and waved at her.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," Kuguriyama-sensei said in a slightly clipped tone, ignoring Akeno's outcry entirely as he reached the front of the room. "I hope you all have been adjusting well to the new environment. As you know, we'll be starting school in a few short days. I apologize that we haven't greeted you sooner; there were some technical matters that we only just finished sorting out. Nevertheless, I will be your future homeroom and combat teacher moving forward, Kuguriyama Yusuke."
"You can call him Kuguri-sensei," The other man chimed in.
"No, you can't," Kuguriyama-sensei said without missing a beat—without a single change in infliction or expression even, Sagi noted. Then the man paused and amended, "Or I would rather you didn't, but if you insist on it like Ayu does, I won't stop you. Either way, I will primarily be taking charge of your studies, although either one of the headmaster Renjou's may visit to help out with lectures at any point—headmaster Hijiri in particular. Primarily, I will be responsible for helping you all to control your Quirks and teaching you to defend not only yourself, but to defend others, with or without the use of your abilities. Hm. I believe that's all I have to say for now, so I will end it here. May we have an enjoyable school year ahead of us."
Sagi couldn't help himself when he pursed his lips slightly in a hint of annoyance. Truthfully, he couldn't imagine how being taught by Kuguriyama-sensei would go—he couldn't imagine much of anything with Kuguriyama-sensei, actually, he had really never seen someone as blank-faced as the man was. He thought that he would be able to read something from him in a casual environment, but evidently he was wrong. Perhaps the man genuinely just didn't feel anything, which was concerning in and of itself—
"Well. This is more nerve-wracking than I anticipated…wait, why are they looking at me like—Ayu."
Kuguriyama-sensei turned to glare at the other man, and it was only then that Sagi realized his mouth hadn't been moving at all. Even under the piercing stare, the silver-haired man only gave a laugh, "Sorry, Kuguri, I did say I needed a demonstration~ Also, it'll be good for the students to know that you're not all as cold and unapproachable as you come off as~"
Sagi immediately scowled before he could help himself. (Thankfully, he noted that he wasn't the only one, as many other students' expressions also stiffened). They have a teacher with mind-reading? Is that why they're so confident? Will they be using him to monitor us—well, it didn't seem to be typical mind-reading, so I'm not sure how that would go…
"Now, now, calm down, I'll explain momentarily," The man said in a soothing voice as he stepped forward to greet them. "For starters, let me introduce myself—hello everyone, my name is Kusanagi Ayu and I'm a licensed psychologist. My position on the staff list is officially listed as counselor, but to put it plainly, I'll be your therapist for the year."
Sagi and several other students' expressions dropped even further at those words. Oh, and it gets worse…
"As I'm not technically your teacher, I don't mind if you refer to me on a first name basis as I usually do with all my clients, but you may also call me Kusanagi-sensei if that's more comfortable for you," Ayu continued, ignoring the spike in tension that his reassuring smile did nothing to soften. "As your therapist, I do have the authority to write mental health excuse forms for school days or training days or call an emergency stop for combat exercises as I see necessary, and you are always free to request one from me if you feel you need one. And before anyone asks, yes, weekly therapy will be mandatory with no exceptions."
His tone changed to a serious one then as he said, "Additionally, I will tell you right now that while I am a therapist, and that I do indeed have a strict confidentiality agreement with each and every one of you, I am also the one who makes your progress reports to the government that ultimately allows you to continue to attend Shinraikai Academy. It is against my contract to provide them with any details or anything that you have said, of course, but if I express any concerns about your morality or your placement in the school and class, I'm afraid legal action may still need to be taken as a result. I make reports once every week, which will later become once every month should things go well—except in cases of emergency, which I do hope won't ever be necessary."
Well this is just great, Sagi thought sourly.
"Furthermore, as you just saw, my Quirk is called 'Broadcast,'" Ayu explained, and Sagi immediately sharpened his ears at the mention of his abilities. "I won't go into any details, but it's basically a trippy version of mind-reading, as people have said before, where I project someone's thoughts to anybody within hearing range instead of reading them myself. The person themselves will not be aware, as observed through Kuguri previously, so I can assure you now that there are only two reasons I will ever use my Quirk on you: first, if I have your permission to do so, or second, if I have any reason at all to suspect that you will be a harm to yourself, to others, or the law. If you ever feel that I am abusing my power, then you are free to file an anonymous concern report through Aina and an investigation will then be conducted. If it comes to be true, then I will be promptly replaced by another government-assigned psychologist. You do not need to be afraid of the authenticity of the investigation, as Aina will be monitoring my Quirk usage through this device I am wearing."
He could say that all he wanted, but it didn't mean anything—Sagi knew firsthand just how deep government corruption ran.
Still, Ayu paused here to meet their eyes solemnly before stating, "Therefore, in this regard, I can only ask that you trust me when I say that I am here because I want to believe in you, and not because I want to condemn you. I will not exaggerate reports in either direction, and I am more than willing to give you all a strong benefit of doubt and the leniency for mistakes, but I know where to draw lines. You may test them and feel those lines out as you need to, but I will not redraw them. But…and this goes for anyone in therapy, not just you—I will tell you now that I am not a miracle cure of any kind. I am here to help relieve some of your psychological burden, to offer you advice, to guide you along the right path—but if you do not put in the effort to change yourself, then neither I nor anyone else here can help you."
Sagi didn't even have to look around the room to feel the skepticism radiating from the room, although he also knew that with it was a hint of hope…hope that he himself didn't have.
"With that, I will meet with each of you individually for short fifteen minute sessions across the week before posting weekly session times on Sunday. Hm, but before that…please stay for a few moments and cooperate in completing a pre-meeting evaluation that I'll be passing around." Sagi noticed that Kuguriyama-sensei actually raised an eyebrow at that, meaning that this clearly wasn't in their original plan. "A forewarning that I will be going over these with Kuguri, so you are free to state a desire not to respond to any of these questions, I only ask for you to be as honest as possible…"
What a scheming bastard, Sagi thought, carefully masking his expression to a neutral one. That face he's wearing isn't an honest one at all…what a waste of breath for someone who's probably just another heartless, greedy, backstabbing adult. I won't let him screw me over.
They sure are being open about this, Tooka thought to herself as she eyed the psych evaluation in front of her skeptically, tapping her pen absently against the table as she debated on how to phrase her responses. A therapist was bad enough…one with a mind-reading Quirk is just a fucking breach of privacy. She suddenly felt that she had gotten off easy with the lie-detecting Quirk during the initial interview process.
But, there was no use dwelling on it now. She had made it this far, like hell she'd let this chance slip through her fingers now. She certainly wasn't about to let some stupid therapist ruin it. Lips pressed together in a firm determination, she carefully began working her way through the questions again—
Scritch.
The remainder of the sentence that she had carefully planned out in her mind abruptly broke and scattered at the noise of distraction. She hissed out a breath of irritation, carefully constructing her thoughts again to bring them back—
Scritch. Scritch. Scritch.
Oh, that was it. She only barely managed to stop herself from slamming her hand on the desk, whipping her head around with a fierce glare—
Her breath caught.
Mitsuki sat next to her (of course, as if she would have let anyone else sit next to her), his pen robotically scratching out a dark patch on his…alarmingly inked paper, with characters scribbled all over the page so densely that Tooka couldn't even make out a single one.. His dark hair hung loosely over his eyes, but not enough to hide the way he was staring straight at the paper and yet obviously not seeing at all, his gold eyes that had been brightly lit with nerves only ten minutes prior now dulled to an empty husk, blank but edged with a hint of fear, exactly like—
Exactly like—
"Obi—Obi! Let him go—let my little brother go!"
Her heart seized with panic, watching the way her precious little brother sagged limblessly against that…that scumbag's arms, his midnight eyes that had glistened so brightly with excitement just yesterday eerily dull and empty, showing no signs of reaction even with a gun shoved against his temple, no signs of recognition of his own sister—
"OBI!"
"Stop struggling, bitch—"
"What did you do?! What did you do to him?!"
"What did you do to him…" Tooka breathed out inaudibly, her hands clenching tightly, painfully, her nails cutting sharply against her palm, her skin vibrating with fury—
("I'll kill you, you bastard—")
"Would you like me to take that?"
A soft voice cut into both the stark silence of the room and the screaming in her head, startling her out of the memories. She shook her head lightly to clear the thoughts, irritated with herself at her loss of control. She forced herself to focus on the question at hand, carefully debating the plausible deflections she could use, but when she looked up, she realized it wasn't directed towards her at all.
Ayu was squatting in front of Mitsuki's desk, his posture relaxed and nonthreatening, his green eyes earnest and his tone effortlessly gentle. (Tooka didn't trust it for a second). He gently tugged at the page on the table, and Mitsuki wordlessly lifted the pen to let him take it, and then allowed the man to take that from his hands as well.
Tooka had hated the way that Mitsuki had entered the room physically shaking with anxiety earlier, had been seething with the desire to eviscerate whoever had caused him to know such fear, but she decided now that she hated this nonreactive Mitsuki more. Everything from the sparsely blinking gaze to the abnormally still hands just felt wrong.
"Thank you," Ayu said, sticking the page underneath some other papers already on the clipboard he held without taking his gaze off Mitsuki. "If you're not feeling well, would you like to head back first?"
He waited patiently for the response, and Tooka hated that he had to wait at all. She knew that if Mitsuki had been asked before the teachers had arrived, he would've been gone before Ayu had even finished speaking. But as it was, the question seemed to take an eternity to process in Mitsuki's head before he finally bobbed his head once, the movement slow and with a hint of fear. Black eyes were overlapping with gold ones again as her memories blurred with reality, and she couldn't help herself when she watched him move in concern. Ayu helped the boy to the door, and Tooka saw him whisper something into his smartwatch, although she could only make out the beginning syllable "Ai" before the rest was blocked by his hair falling forward. She could only assume it was a request to their all-handy AI to make sure the boy got back to his room safely.
As if sensing her gaze, Ayu turned to look at her then, directly meeting her eyes with a look of…of understanding.
Tooka wanted to claw out his eyes. You don't understand anything, she thought vehemently, tempering down on her glare enough to turn it into a challenging stare before turning back to the paper sitting in front of her.
You can't understand it. And I sure as fucking hell don't need you or anyone else's pity.
Everyone completed the evaluation at their own pace, which was irritating as fuck because why were people so slow. What did they even have to write? Were they really just spilling their entire life stories to a stranger? If they were, then gosh they were naive—no wonder they'd all ended up here.
Sekoia tapped her fingers impatiently against the desk, the speed and volume of the taps increasing proportionally with the passing time. She ignored the occasional scathing stares she received from the people around her, although she returned a few of them with pointed stares. Honestly, what more did they want from her? It was already a testament to her patience that she hadn't turned them all into plant food yet…more than they already were, anyway, because their brains had to be vegetation by now, given how long they've been sitting there staring at that same page of questions.
She glared at the therapist, daring him to keep her trapped in this stuffy room for even a minute longer. But he only acknowledged her stare with a nod before he was turning away again, and Sekoia wished for a moment that her Quirk was laser eyes instead so she could physically burn a hole in his head.
She overturned the thought quickly, however, as that would mean giving up on her precious plant…she'd have to stick to turning him into plant food instead. Surely, there had to be ways to make that look like an accident too.
The therapist had clearly already let that other kid go, so she didn't understand why she had to be scolded for trying to do the same. What 'not feeling well' bullshit, the kid had clearly looked fine—if a bit fucked in the head, but wasn't that normal for him? Gosh, was she being punished for being sane?
Okay, maybe that was a bit much. But still. She let out another deliberately loud sigh of frustration. There was a thump from the black-haired girl sitting in front of her, and she guessed that it was the other slamming her hand or pen on the desk. Fully prepared to cause as much of a disturbance as possible, Sekoia waited for her to turn and confront her—
"All right, since it seems most of you are finished, I'll collect them now and let you go," The therapist cut in smoothly. "Thank you for your patience and cooperation, everyone…"
Accident be damned, I'm just going to commit murder.
But maybe another day. For now, she just needed to get out of this stuffy as hell room—
"Hey, hey, everyone, wait up!" A white-haired girl rocketed to her feet, swiftly drawing everyone's attention to her. "While we're all here, I think we should all take the time to, you know, get to know each other and play a game or something! I found a really interesting one in the Rec Room that I think would be fun to play as a class!"
Gross, not the 'let's all be friends' type. Must be so nice to not have any brain cells in that head.
"Not joining, Fujimori?" asked a black-haired boy nearby the moment she turned to leave. For a moment, she almost demanded how he knew her name, but then she vaguely remembered that he was in her entrance exam team—what was his name again, Sasuke? Saru? He seemed monkey-brained enough for that, if he was seriously asking what he was.
Whatever, she hadn't forgotten about how he'd destroyed her plants, so she'd just call him Plant Destroyer.
"Huh? Of course not!" she exclaimed. "Do I look like I want to spend another moment in this pigsty filled with sweaty meatheads?"
It was amusing but mildly infuriating to her how many people glared at her for that but let her push out the door without a single word. What a bunch of cowards, she thought with a roll of her eyes. If you have something to say then say it.
"You're still a fucking bitch I see."
"Hm?" Sekoia turned to find the black-haired girl she had been on the verge of breaking out into a fight with, looking surprisingly calm given their last interaction. She shrugged, her pleasant mood unaffected by the accusation. "What? You got a problem with me?"
"Several actually, although I refuse to elaborate only because doing so would require me to speak to you for longer than a minute," The other girl snarked.
"Well, suit yourself," Sekoia shrugged carelessly and made her way towards the elevator, a bounce to her steps and a hum on her lips. She let her imagination carry her as she passed through the corridors—some begonias in the corner there, some peonies in the corner here…she wasn't allowed to cover the screens, but she wondered if she could hang some pothos in the spaces above. Some bonsai by the window would be perfect, and she wondered if she would be allowed any cacti…perhaps not, and she wouldn't push her luck when she had only just received blanket permission from the staff to help include some greenery throughout the dreary building.
The ding of the elevator drew her attention then, and she put her thoughts aside to step in. The other girl followed her in, stabbing the button for the third floor as she passed—
Sekoia squinted. She had scouted out her floor not long after they had all moved in, and, "You don't live on the third floor, why are you—" She paused as she suddenly recalled, "Oh, are you the one from the entrance exam?"
"And you have the audacity to call everyone else a meathead," The girl snorted. "Seems to me you're the one suffering from wildlife for brains."
"The entrance exam was ages ago, and those teams were random. Why should I care to remember who took it with me after all this time?" Sekoia complained. "But don't worry, I remember you now, Kanemoto—"
"It's Kunitaro."
Close enough. "—weren't you the one who kept babysitting that one crybaby kid who was like, literally scared of his own shadow? The one who got let out early?" She vaguely recalled the boy's appearance, perpetually pale and shaking like a leaf even in her scuffed memory. She wrinkled her nose, and before she could help herself, she added, "Why do you even bother?"
"Excuse me?" Tooka snarled, her eyes flashing dangerously, and wow, Sekoia had underestimated the protective energy she remembered the other girl having in the exam. She briefly wondered what it was about the boy that stirred such a thing in a girl with edges as jagged as Tooka's, but then she swiftly tossed the thought out on the basis of 'I don't care.'
Still, Tooka couldn't scare her; if Sekoia had something to say, she'd say it—that, she would never go back on again. "Because he's probably just going to end up getting dropped or something sooner or later, right? Either that or sent to a psychiatric ward with how things are going. I mean, he doesn't even look like he's trying—and he won't get anywhere in life with such a passive attitude. Nobody will, that's just how life is. If you really want something, you have to actually go for it yourself—and actually, I can't even tell if he does want to be here at all."
Tooka was quiet for a long moment. The elevator was blissfully ignorant of the loud silence wrought with subtly prickling tension as it calmly dinged to announce its arrival at their destination. Just as Sekoia thought she wouldn't respond altogether, stepping out from the confined space with a careless shrug, Tooka's voice rang out from behind her, "For legal purposes, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and conclude that you're either incredibly ignorant or stupid. I'm going to go with both, so I'll say it like this: everyone has different circumstances that make 'trying' a lot harder than it might be for the next person."
Sekoia refused to let the mocking provocation dig under her skin like it intended to, turning to look at Tooka quizzically. Unexpectedly, she found herself genuinely curious how the other would respond.
Tooka also stepped out to stand in the middle of the corridor, letting the elevator doors slide shut behind her. Her unwavering onyx eyes met Sekoia's green ones, and they stared at one another steadily, challengingly, both refusing to back down.
"I bother because I feel like it." Tooka enunciated her words slowly and infuriatingly, as if she were speaking to a small child who was only just learning to understand words. (Sekoia decided she hated her). "And since you're so interested in knowing, a word of advice, just by the way—being passive about everything isn't ideal, but what does judging gain you? Consider staring straight and reevaluating yourself. The whole 'speaking your mind game' is gutsy, if nothing else, but you better make sure you're prepared for the consequences that come with it, because I can tell you now that if it wouldn't get me directly thrown back into a cell, I'd make sure you weren't able to speak your bullshit at all."
Without waiting for a response, Tooka directly turned and walked in the opposite direction, the sound of her footsteps on the carpeted floor fading slowly.
"Wooooow, scary," Sekoia said to herself sarcastically, huffing lightly to herself as she made her way into the girls' wing.
As soon as Tooka was out of sight enough, Sekoia thinned her lips subconsciously as she ruminated over the girl's words again. "…what a bunch of self-justifying bullshit. She's just like the rest of them."
("What are you saying, sensei? Sekoia-chan's our friend! Isn't that right, Sekoia-chan~?")
("Sekoia-chan! You're not busy, right? Then, go buy me some yakisoba bread. Hurry up, before they sell out!")
("What? You liked this garbage? Oh, well, you should've said so! How was I supposed to know?")
Sekoia forced herself to unclench her fist, shaking her head furiously to clear out the nasty memories.
"If you're weak, you'll only get trampled on. I won't let that be me…never again."
"A psych evaluation?" Kuguri asked the moment Ayu entered the staff lounge, shutting the door behind him with a click.
"Oh, sorry Kuguri," Ayu said absently as he dropped a stack of papers on the table and settled on the couch. "I know you're not a big fan of schedule changes…it was a bit of a last minute addition."
"No, it's all right," Kuguri said. "I only remembered that you said that you had already finished constructing your personality profiles for the students, did something alarming come up?"
"Oh no, not at all," Ayu reassured. "In fact, you're right—this evaluation actually wasn't conducted to evaluate the students' personalities, but rather how truthful they chose to be with me, especially after I told them they were free to not respond if they wanted. And besides, I'd rather do official psych evals in person, so."
Kuguri nodded knowingly. "And how did it go?"
"About as I expected," Ayu commented, flipping through the forms lightly. "Most of them seem to be genuinely attempting full honesty, although some of them are either denying something about themselves or a bit cagey about certain subjects…Fujimori Sekoia refused to say much about anything—" An understatement, Kuguri realized as Ayu tilted the page in his direction briefly to show the messy variations of 'I'm not telling you' underneath every question before continuing, "but that's all still perfectly normal behavior and either way, any genuine attempt at honesty always helps to smooth out the recovery path. There were a few…here," He flipped through the first four pages in the stack and set them on the table in front of Kuguri. "Nijima Akeno, Ketsu Hisoka, Mahou Sagi, and Kunitaro Tooka. The four of them aren't quite as truthful, to varying extents."
"Oh?"
"It's nothing malicious, just that they're purposely hiding the parts they don't want me to see around mixed truths and lies—which is still very normal, of course, traumatized people always have a tendency towards distrust. At the very least, I can tell that Mahou doesn't seem to be doing it with hidden intentions but rather a habit of trust issues, which I expected, but I can't 100% say the same for the other three based on what I've observed, so that's just something to note down for now," Ayu rattled off, clearly having entered one of his rambling moments again. "But again, nothing unexpected here—more importantly, these three were my more concerning results, you should probably take a look."
Ayu slid two more pages in front of him, and the first page caught his eye immediately because of all the blank space on the paper. He almost thought it was entirely blank for a moment, but on closer examination, all the questions had one sentence answers each consisting of three neatly written words: I don't know.
"Whose is this?"
"Koge Kayo," Ayu answered immediately. "From what I've observed of her, she seems to be struggling quite a bit with having her own voice, which is something I'll have to slowly ease her into—in the meantime, keep an eye on her in classes, and don't let her classmates take advantage of her. Or even just drag her too far one way or another; she's too susceptible to anything right now."
"I understand," Kuguri nodded.
"Rather than Koge's, I'm actually more concerned about Hira's," Ayu tapped a finger on the second form. "Hira Shizuka. Read it through and tell me what you think."
Kuguri took a few moments to do as instructed before reporting, "I don't see anything wrong with it. She answered every question thoroughly, and her answers all seem in line."
"I thought you would say that, but…do they though?" Ayu muttered, frowning now. "I can't explain it to you fully, but I can't help but feel that something is off about her responses. All of her answers seem to be in line at first, but when I look closer, some of them feel…disconnected, perhaps? I haven't really had time to process it myself so I'm not sure how to explain it, but I'm thinking it has something to do with her Quirk. I'll review it with her files again and report back to you on it soon, but I can at least guarantee that it's not anything harmful. You could chalk it down to more of a personal concern in the end."
"I understand," Kuguri said again habitually. Then a thought occurred to him and he asked, "You said three earlier?"
For some reason, the alarm bells in his head were going off prematurely.
Ayu grimaced, and the alarm bells peaked. With a sigh, Ayu slid another sheet out of the stack. "Yes, I'm afraid it's exactly who you're thinking."
"Ka—" Kuguri broke off at the sight of the sheet. Silently, he picked it up to look at it closely.
It started off fairly normal, although the handwriting was a bit shaky, but it was only two sentences into the first question that it was clear something changed. Several words were carefully scratched out, and then following that was a collection of words that grew increasingly messy, scattered all over the rest of the page without any care for pre-existing text in an overwhelming black scribble. Kuguri expertly deciphered the overlaying texts to make out some of the clearer words:
why why WHY this was a mistake I shouldn't be here I'm sorry I'm sorry PLEASE STOP why WHY ME please please I'm sorry I shouldn't be here wrong wrong this is wrong I'm sorry I'M SORRY
This selection of words were also the most prominent, as they were written repeatedly all in different font sizes, thicknesses, and angles. Kuguri frowned, concerned and uncertain of what might have triggered the boy from the evaluation page. It didn't seem to be the content of the question, as the first question was definitely harmless enough…
"What is your take on this?" Kuguri asked finally.
"With this alone, I can't say—I'll have to talk to him about it," Ayu answered carefully. "But…to be honest, I…" Ayu hesitated, and then quietly admitted, "I keep feeling like there's more to his anxiety than genetics and trauma, but…I can't figure out what it would be."
Kuguri frowned, scrutinizing the paper for a final time before passing it back to Ayu—
"Hm?"
A tiny ray of light shone through, catching his attention, and he carefully examined the corner of the paper again. He ran his fingers across the scribbles, attempting to decipher the tiny line of unique text buried underneath several other layers of text, and finally made out the words: I don't want to—world.
The words in the middle had been so harshly scratched out that a hole poked through the paper, which ironically enough ended up being what had caught Kuguri's attention in the first place, and Kuguri could only ponder for himself all the possible words Kannou Mitsuki could have written.
"Hai hai hai~! Gather round everyone and behold my recent discovery: voila!" Akeno threw her hands out in the direction of the table in the rec room. Perfectly on cue thanks to Aina, the surface of the table flickered to reveal a digital game board, colorful tiles curving in complicated patterns that spread over the entire expanse of the table. It looked suspiciously familiar, like— "It's the Game of Life!"
"Really?" Hisoka snapped reflexively. "This is what you called us all over for?"
"Maa maa, hear me out now!" Akeno chirped in a singsong tone. "It's not the same Game of Life that you know—I agree, that would be quite boring. Non! I tried it out with Kayo-chi out of curiosity when we first found it, and iyaaa, they have some very interesting cards~"
"Interesting in what way?" Sagi asked, curiosity piqued.
"I can explain!" Aina piped up from the tabletop screen. "This…ahem, 'scuffed' version of the Game of Life, as the creators often referred to it as, was made by a group of students for fun and has bits of a Quirk embedded into it to ensure that you pull a mix of the most entertaining and the most relevant cards to you~ For example, Akeno-chan's route the last time she played was—"
"Aah! You have that saved?!" Akeno exclaimed, waving her arms frantically. "Wait wait, Ai-chan stop! There's no need to show that!"
"Hehe~" Aina only giggled mischievously but made no further movements. "Anyway, why not give it a try and see for yourself? Who knows, you might find it to be more entertaining than you expected~"
"I think it sounds like a lot of fun, let's do it!" Shouhei said excitedly, moving to take a seat on the other side of the table.
"Tch, what the fuck ever, we've already come all this way anyway," Hisoka grumbled, the next to plop into a seat nearby.
The rest of them filed into the seats arranged carefully around the table, and Akeno gleefully declared, "Yosha! Game…start~!"
"Roger!" Aina saluted as the screen blinked into a loading screen. "Loading: Game of Life! Total players: 11."
"That's almost the entire class," Sagi commented casually. "We're just missing Kannou, Kunitaro, Fujimori, and…"
"Kaname-chan," Nadeshiko supplied. "She said she wasn't feeling well…"
Well, she had a rough night, Akeno thought but tactfully didn't say anything.
The screen changed. "Generating cards…incidentally, the contents of the cards you can pull are created and selected from a Quirk influenced randomizer, so I also have no control over them whatsoever~" A stack of cards shuffled across the board to lie in a neat pile in the corner, face down. A green check mark flashed briefly in the corner before a series of small figures began populating at the starting square. "Generating player avatars…"
"Hey, that's us!" Mio exclaimed, nearly squishing his entire face against the screen to see the chibi avatars in more detail. Aina helpfully selected his avatar to zoom in on, allowing him to scrutinize it in full. "Look, they even have my new kitty pin!"
"Loading complete!" Aina cheered, bringing the page back to the game screen. "Starting the game now, if the first player would like to spin the wheel~!"
"Ooh, ooh! Then, me! Can I go first?!" Mio said excitedly, hand shooting in the air, which was quickly followed by his entire body as he jumped impatiently. "Let me go first! Please!"
Not waiting for an answer, he reached over and smacked his hand haphazardly against the wheel on the screen. It spun for an adequate amount of time before slowing to a stop, functioning the same way all game spinners did. Mio was mildly disappointed, even though he wasn't sure why he was expecting it to be any different. The school was spoiling him, evidently.
"Moving Player [Mio] four spaces," Aina announced, and Mio's avatar stepped forward four spaces. The red space he landed on flipped over, and two cards from the card pile in the corner moved to hover above them. Aina read the words on the card aloud, "Player [Mio] has wandered away from his parents and gotten lost! You come across a fork in the road, which way do you go?"
Mio blinked and pointed at himself in confusion before declaring, "Left!"
"Left it—oh…" Aina was silent for a long moment, her avatar entirely frozen on screen.
"Um, Ai-chan?" Mio asked curiously, poking at her figure on the screen. "Did you die?"
"No," Aina answered blankly, flipping the selected card on the screen over. "But I'm afraid you did…"
Oh no! The card on the screen read. Player [Mio] unfortunately stumbled onto a busy street and was met with an accident! Better luck next life!
"…"
"E-EHHH?!" Mio shrieked. "JUST LIKE THAT?!"
What an intriguing game this was, Shizuka thought to herself. As everyone else successfully made it through the stages of adolescence and into the stages of adulthood, it became immediately clear to her how Quirk influence played into the game's RNG. For example—
"Congratulations to Player [Shizuka] for successfully graduating from the University of Tokyo after six years of schooling on a full scholarship with a PhD in cognitive neurosciences! You now have the option to stay at the university as an official research assistant and lecturer or accept an offer to join a project team in a government sponsored laboratory," Aina read off cheerfully.
It's such a specific event, Shizuka noted as she selected the second option. (She tried to ignore the voice in the back of her head that whispered, And one that could've still happened if it weren't for…that incident—)
And for more examples—
"Player [Nadeshiko] helped save City H from imminent disaster during the internship with the number one pro hero, All Might! Your actions have won you an award and formally recognized you as a pro hero!"
"Player [Nozomi] found a lottery ticket on the roadside and won 1 million yen! Would you like to spend it now or save it?"
"Oh no! Player [Sagi] was involved in an accident! The offender of the accident is the player closest to you, and you successfully sue them for 1 million yen in damages! You now have enough capital to start a business! Would you like to do so now?"
Nozomi stared blankly as her in-game financial balance peaked and then plummeted in the same heartbeat, ending exactly where it had started. "…what the fuck. Well, that sounds like my life, honestly."
"Player [Monoka] has landed on the same space as Player [Sagi]! It's a chance encounter! You are enamored at first sight and are determined to win their heart—please spin the wheel again to determine the outcome of your romantic conquest, a 1—"
"It's a two."
"Congratulations to Player [Monoka] and Player [Sagi] on their engagement—"
"What the fuck." Akeno slammed her hands against the table and shot to her feet, pointing accusingly at Monoka. "How is this your third marriage when we've only played eight rounds?! I'm tired of paying for your wedding gifts, damn it!"
Monoka cackled loudly, and Akeno promptly bashed him across the head with a pillow.
"I'm more surprised that in those three marriages, you've managed to hit only the guys," Sagi commented. "Because with Shinohara out of the running, there's only four of us to begin with."
He gave Mio an apologetic glance when the shorter boy pouted at him for the reminder of his untimely death.
Monoka leaned over the table with a sly smile to tease, "What, are you jealous? Don't be, I only have eyes for you, honey~"
"I want a divorce," Sagi said plainly.
"But babeeeeee…"
"Divorce."
"If you really want to, you have enough money to obtain a divorce card," Aina chirped.
Sagi blinked. "Oh, it costs money? Then forget it."
"…"
"Given Nigarashi's track record, you'll probably divorce naturally in a few rounds anyway," Nozomi commented dryly. "Just saying."
"Yeah, that's what I'm counting on," Sagi agreed.
"Hey," Monoka complained. "Why must you hurt me this way?"
"What, is it my fault you can't keep your own marriage together?" Nozomi retorted.
"Or what, is it my fault?" Monoka sniffed dramatically. "I'll have you know that I'm doing my best here too—"
Light-hearted squabbling filled the room, easing some of the stiff tension that many of them hadn't even realized was there until it was gone.
And so, the game carried on.
"Geh, not another debt card!" Akeno pulled a face at the screen and then immediately spun around to the girl sitting next to her with a bright smile. "Kayo-chi, lend me some money~?"
Kayo didn't even bat an eye before responding, "'kay."
"Player [Kayo] has transfered money to Player [Akeno]!"
"Oh wait, do you have more you can spare, actually?"
"Yes."
"Player [Kayo] has transferred money to Player [Akeno]!"
"Oi. Nijima."
Akeno waved Nozomi's concerns off flippantly. "It's fine, it's fine, I'll pay her back—"
"Player [Kayo] has transferred money to Player [Akeno]!"
"Sure you will," Sagi said wryly.
Akeno made a motion of clutching her heart, gasping dramatically. "Sagi! So little faith in me!"
"Player [Kayo] has transferred money to Player [Akeno]! Congratulations! You now have enough capital to open a business if desired—"
"Hell yeah!"
Player [Akeno] has now opened a bar!
"There we go, finally!" Akeno whooped, shooting to her feet in excitement. "Let's go, I'll make you the best red eye you've ever seen, bitch!"
"…red eye?" Shouhei blinked in surprise. "Like the cocktail?"
"You actually know how to mix drinks, Nijima?" Monoka whistled, impressed.
"Sure~ I'm only the best bartender in Shibuya!" Akeno boasted.
"Huh," Nozomi blinked.
"Hey! What's with the skeptical look?"
"You're underage though," Nozomi said flatly.
"And? I didn't say I drank it, did I?" Akeno retorted.
"Why am I still the only one who's dead?!" Mio wailed. "This is so unfair, why can't someone else die with me, I'm so lonelyyyyy—"
"Uh-oh! Because of the much-desired limited-edition All Might merchandise obtained last round, Player [Nozomi] has unfortunately had an unlucky late night encounter with a stalker-burglar! Please spin the wheel again to determine your fate…"
"Too bad, player [Nozomi] has unfortunately died by the villain's hands!"
"…"
"Thanks," Nozomi deadpanned.
"You dodged death six times in a row already," Hisoka snarked. "It was only a matter of time, really."
"Indeed, you've really had quite the roller coaster life…" Nadeshiko murmured.
"Yaayyy, welcome to the afterlife, Hikara-chan!" Mio cheered, and—
"Wai—Sh-Shinohara-kun, don't just throw yourself across the table—"
"Oi, you're messing up the settings—"
"Get off—" Nozomi grumbled, shoving the shorter boy away from her.
Mio looked up at her with wide, innocent-looking baby blue puppy eyes. "…No hugs?"
"…" Nozomi looked awkward. "…well, if it's only a few seconds—"
"Yippee~!"
"—hey!"
"Kayo-chiiiii~"
"More?"
"Please!"
"Oi, Nijima, stop stealing money from Koge—"
"I do what I want, thank you, you're just jealous—"
"Hm…" Sagi tilted his head slightly in consideration before saying, "So, can I get a loan from Koge too?"
Kayo nodded. "Yes—"
The words had barely left her mouth when Akeno was screeching, "No! Say no!"
"…um, no," Kayo corrected without missing a beat.
"You can't do that, only I can!" Akeno said shamelessly. "Don't give anything to anyone else, okay, Kayo-chi?"
Kayo only blinked at her innocently. "'kay."
"You are literally the richest person in the game right now, what do you need a loan for," Nozomi said to Sagi flatly, entirely forgoing the intonation of the question mark.
"Well I'll certainly never complain about more money," Sagi mused, eyeing the two with an intrigued expression, "but that wasn't why I asked."
He made eye contact with Akeno then, and she narrowed her eyes slightly at him, her eyes glinting with warning. He only raised an eyebrow at her in return, letting the mirth flash briefly across his own gaze. Their movements were extremely minimal, the interaction happening in a fraction of a second, and afterwards they both turned back to the game as if nothing had happened, the rest of the class none the wiser.
Monoka vaguely felt like he had gone backwards in time. This felt more like a gathering of kindergarteners rather than a social hangout for high schoolers, and he couldn't tell how much of it was because the last time he played board games like this was as a five-year-old and how much of it was because his classmates were squabbling endlessly like brainless toddlers. That's not to say it wasn't amusing, because it definitely was, but he could also feel his brain cells dying with every passing minute.
To his left, Sagi's gaze flickered in his direction briefly before murmuring in an amused tone, "I don't think you have any right to be making that expression when you instigate half of these conversations."
"Who, me? I don't know what you mean," Monoka blinked innocently at him.
"Sure," Sagi rolled his eyes and gestured at him to spin the wheel.
"Oh shit, wait, you're single right now?" Akeno said suddenly, her eye catching on the relationship status listed under his profile. "That's rare, any bets on Nigarashi's next marriage?"
"Sagi, because I think it's funny," Nozomi said immediately.
Sagi made a noise of protest. "Please don't curse me like this, three times is enough."
"That's what makes it funny though," Nozomi snickered.
"It's still kinda hard to believe that actually happened," Shizuka commented. "Statistics dictates that you probably should have hit a girl by now, and yet here we are. It must be the Quirk influence, it's really interesting…"
Monoka spun a nine on the wheel, and Aina moved the game forward accordingly. "Bad luck! Too bad, Player [Monoka] has fallen victim to an arranged marriage—you are now in a relationship with the player closest to you on the board…Player [Kayo]!"
"Oh, fuck no!" Akeno shot to her feet in outrage.
Horrified, Monoka spun his gaze to glare at Shizuka. "I thought we were friends, how could you do this to me?"
"Hey, are you saying there's something wrong with my Kayo-chi? Huh?"
Nozomi deadpanned at Akeno, "Are you angry about this or aren't you, make up your mind."
"Che," Monoka clicked his tongue in annoyance as he watched Akeno successfully roll a new drink for her business. Not this bullshit again.
("Monoka, back straight, chin up. And smile, dear, there are people watching.")
("Stop with your foolish nonsense, I won't have it. You're acting on behalf of the Nigarashi's, have some grace.")
("Honestly, you make it sound like we're torturing you—isn't this all for your own good? We're giving you everything you need to be successful, Monoka, don't be so ungrateful. You'll thank us for it later.")
Monoka tugged irritably at the lock of rainbow hair in his face at the sudden onslaught of memories. He hadn't thought about them in a while now, and he had been perfectly happy with that—he hadn't expected a shitty board game like this of all things to bring them back so suddenly.
"What a joke," He muttered under his breath. Then he shook his head to collect himself.
It was just a game, there was no need to get so worked up about it. And if his parents dared to try that again in real life…well. His gaze darkened imperceptibly. He's already been acquitted once, what's another murder charge to the list—
"Oh no…Player [Kayo] appears to have mysteriously passed away in the middle of the night! Whatever could have happened?"
Monoka blinked once, and then twice. "…sooooo…wait, did I just kill a person? I mean, wow what an unfortunate death that I'm definitely very upset about and have nothing to do with—"
Akeno let out a pterodactyl screech that had Monoka flinching straight into Sagi and nearly shoving them both off their seats. (From Akeno's other side, Kayo didn't even so much as flinch, and Monoka wondered sympathetically if Akeno had already rendered the poor girl deaf with her inability to shut up). "Mo—no—ka—!"
"Ignore them," Sagi said blandly, mercilessly Monoka off of him and straight into Akeno, who promptly attempted to strangle him. He leaned around both of them to say to Shouhei, "You should just go, I don't think they'll ever end."
"Oh, sure," Shouhei acquiesced easily. As he leaned forward to spin the wheel, he accidentally made eye contact with Monoka, and Monoka noticed the way he suppressed a flinch.
Monoka rolled his eyes internally. What a fake. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Sagi watching their interaction with interest and deliberately mimed blowing him a kiss. Sagi only raised his eyebrow at him, clearly unfazed by the distraction attempt. Shame, it would've been cute to see him flustered.
The following sequence of events occurred in succession:
"Despite last turn's successful charity event, Player [Shouhei] has unfortunately failed to stabilize business operations, and his nonprofit organization has now been acquired by Player [Sagi]."
("Oh…what a shame," Shouhei lamented, putting his head in his hands dramatically.
"Okay I swear to god, Mahou, you have to have like 99% of the capital in this game," Nozomi accused.
"Hey, what about me? I'm running a very profitable business here, thank you!" Akeno interjected
"Well who knows, maybe you bar'll end up being mine in the future too~" Sagi teased.
"Keep your filthy hands off Sagi, I dare you—")
"Player [Murai] encountered some trouble while on a stakeout, and as a result has arrested Player [Monoka] for interfering with police duties."
("I still don't know how I ended up on a police route of all people, but okay."
"…obstruction of duty? Is that what we're calling flirting nowadays?" Akeno quipped slyly.
"How rude, what if it's just a little roleplay?" Monoka returned without missing a beat.
"Nigarashi, I will murder you with this pencil—" Murai grumbled, but he was flushing slightly at Monoka's brazen words.
"Sounds kinky—ow! Don't actually stab me!")
"Player [Shizuka] has just been awarded the Nobel Prize for successfully discovering a way to identify psychopathology in the brain…"
("What even is that."
"Psychopathology?" Shizuka blinked. "It's the study of mental illnesses, although in this case it's more on the cognitive neuroscience side as it's referring to identifying neural connections—"
"…no, sorry, I wasn't seriously asking. Please stop, Hira, you're making my brain hurt.")
And so on, although none of it was particularly relevant until his turn came around again—
"Player [Monoka] was met with an unfortunate accident in Player [Akeno]'s bar…"
"Did you fucking poison me?" Monoka said, not even having to feign the astonishment in his voice.
"HA! SERVES YOU RIGHT!" Akeno cried.
And barely ten seconds later—
"Player [Akeno]'s bar was sued by Player [Sagi] for misconduct and has been forced to shut down! As Player [Akeno] does not have enough money currently to pay the required fine, you will be sentenced to prison for a time…"
"Excuse me?!" Akeno shrieked, and Monoka cackled at the way her voice pitched. "No, fuck you, shut the fuck up—and fuck you too Sagi, okay, listen—"
"Language, Nijima-san! I'm right here you know!" Aina protested, but she was drowned out by the mix of laughing and screaming. Monoka threw his head back as he laughed, and—he couldn't remember the last time he had laughed so hard.
(Maybe…maybe things really could be different here…)
"Oh~?"
A breath suddenly puffed against his ear. Monoka immediately stiffened and reflexively threw out a glowing red fist in the direction of the source. Next to him, Sagi also leaped to his feet, absorbing a piece of his clothing to transform his arm and then whipping the fabric out at the intruder.
But said intruder only laughed as he easily dodged Sagi's whip attack, even grabbing the fabric and wrapping it around Monoka's incoming fist. The darkness neutralized his light in a heartbeat, and his fist fell harmlessly into the net.
"Now, now, is that any way to greet your headmaster~?"
"H-Hijiri-sensei!" Monoka exclaimed, hastily withdrawing his hand. Which, of course, only meant that he ended up taking Sagi's fabric arm with him and getting more tangled than before. Hijiri-sensei only laughed again as they clumsily unraveled themselves, and Monoka forcefully squashed the flush that threatened to surface on his face. He hoped Hijiri-sensei wouldn't take the reflexive strike seriously—he actually rather liked the professor.
"What are you doing here, Hijiri-sensei?" Sagi asked with a smile, the perfect picture of politeness.
"Hope I'm not interrupting, I heard the noise and wondered what everyone was doing~" Hijiri-sensei said cheerily. "Isn't this our scuffed Game of Life? How nostalgic, I didn't realize you still had it, Ai-chan."
"…'our'?" Shizuka pointed out keenly.
"Hm? Aina didn't tell you? Haruko and I made it for a school project."
"…EH?!"
"What's everyone screaming about? It's dinner time," Another voice sounded from the door, and then Haruko-sensei walked in a few moments later to peer at the table curiously. "Oh, isn't this…"
"It's our scuffed Game of Life," Hijiri-sensei answered gleefully. "So what paths did you kids get?"
"Well, Otome is the only one who got the hero path, so," Akeno threw out. "I don't know if that bodes well for our little redemption arc, you know~"
Haruko-sensei blinked. "There's a hero path in this game?"
"Apparently so?" Hijiri-sensei shrugged in response.
"…didn't you make this game?" Nozomi deadpanned.
"Well, the paths are determined by an embedded Quirk," Haruko-sensei explained. "But we've played this game several times before and I don't think we've ever seen a hero route."
"Eh?! Really?!" Mio exclaimed. "Then what did you get?!"
"Hm, it's been a while, but…" Haruko-sensei tilted her head. Then her eyes narrowed and she suddenly turned to face her brother, "Didn't you land the villain route last time, actually?"
"You know, that sounds about right actually. Well, in any case your memory is better than mine so if you say it's true it's probably true~"
"Huh?" Monoka was the one to blink in confusion this time.
"Hijiri-sensei did…?" Nadeshiko repeated faintly.
"Well, in the end, it's just a game~" Hijiri-sensei laughed. "Real life is bound to be filled with more twists and turns; don't take it to seriously~ And see, none of you even landed the villain route, so I'm sure you'll all be fine."
"No, like, five of us went to jail actually."
"Well, if that's the problem, then even I've been to jail before—"
"That doesn't count," Haruko-sensei interrupted blandly.
"It does too, but I refuse to argue about the semantics with you when we could be taking these kids to dinner instead," Hijiri-sensei finished, and before the class could ask any of the pressing questions they all had, he was heading out the door as fast as he had arrived. "Come on, to the cafeteria~! I'm starving, and I'm sure you all are too~"
With excited chatter filling the air, the students abandoned the remaining few turns of the game and filed out of the recreation room together. The atmosphere was much lighter than before, as the students now found common topics of interest to exchange. Shizuka hung back upon noticing that Nadeshiko had as well, the brunette scrutinizing the area around their seats carefully.
"Nadeshiko?"
"Huh?" Nadeshiko jolted and looked up at her. "Oh, sorry, Hira, were you waiting for me?"
Shizuka shook her head. "It's all right," She headed back to squat next to the other, peering curiously at the floor as well. "What are you looking for?"
"It's nothing really," Nadeshiko reassured but raised her arm to show a silver bracelet. "I just noticed that the charm is gone from my bracelet, so I was wondering if I dropped it…"
"Hm…it doesn't seem to be here…" Shizuka mused, taking another careful look around. "Maybe it was during the meeting?"
"Maybe," Nadeshiko shrugged and held out a hand to help the other girl to her feet. "It's all right. Let's head on to dinner, Hira-san."
"Sure."
The two pushed out of the room and into the corridor, trailing a distance behind the excited chatter of their classmates.
"That was fun," Nadeshiko said pleasantly. "I'm glad Nijima-san invited us to do this, I think it was a really good way to get everyone together."
"Mm," Shizuka agreed. "It was a strange game, but…I was able to learn a lot about everyone else. Maybe…more than I should have?"
"Well, as long as everyone had fun," Nadeshiko hummed lightly. "Fuu~ I can't wait for classes to start~"
("To study?"
"Mou, to get to know people of course—")
ED 1 - Bless Your Breath by WADATAKEAKI ft. Hatsune Miku
Updated Quirks: Kaname, Monoka
(Someone asked me about this…this just means I'm putting the Quirk name on the bio! Imagine it as the little namecard thing that appears in the anime; if there's even the slightest hint of a Quirk use, I'll reveal the name of the Quirk~ But don't worry, they'll all get proper Quirk introductions later on, I am keeping track of those! :3)
Disclaimer: I am winging all the psych stuff because my only actual psych knowledge comes from AP Psych in high school that I fluked my way through, everything else comes secondhand through fanfiction so pls forgive thank you—
The same goes for all the neuroscience things Shizuka mentioned. Please don't take it too seriously.
Hi. I'm a clown. This was supposed to be out in May. It is not. Holy shit, we love writing. (It's been a busy summer and school semester but also just a year of poor writing motivation. I have no excuse, honestly).
The ending is honestly not my favorite, but it was giving me so much trouble I needed to just post it so. Here it is lol.
The initial inspiration for this chapter's game came from Kaguya-sama Love is War Season 2 Ep 1, but then I got stuck and Nijisanji's Game of Life collab came in a clutch so I ended up pulling more inspiration from there instead~
Also it is so hard to showcase Quirks for the Silver Class because they have so many restrictions and I am so sorry, I'm doing my best TwT So instead of Quirks, we get some obscure life facts for the Silver Class instead I suppose, huehehe~
Big thank you to ComplicatedYetSimple, AJ Aviary, Severance Fate, San Wolves, and Roggi for the reviews on last chapter! A big thank you to LeNinja365 for the feedback via PM as well! :)
Tis all from me for this chapter, until next time! (Which is hopefully much sooner). We'll be wrapping up the transitional fluff arc with some glimpses at first classes and class representative elections!
Chi
PS. If you're still here reading this, I send you my love. Truly.