Chapter 23

"So how was your first day?" Ayumu asked, throwing water in her face, getting off the bubbles. She should have waited to call Mina on Facetime until after.

Mina sighed on the other end of the phone, "Honestly, it was pretty slow. Yoroi Musha just spent time explaining to me what it meant to be a hero and explained how patrols worked."

Ayumu picked up a towel and dried her face before picking up her phone and looking at Mina. "I got to go on patrol, but nothing really exciting happened."

"How was the train ride over there? I know you had to go with Bakugo."

Ayumu felt her heart stop for a moment at Bakugo's name. She pulled on her sweatshirt and avoided Mina's gaze on the screen. "It was fine."

"Fine?"

Ayumu shrugged, "Yeah, it was fine. We road the train and then he walked me to the agency-"

"He walked you to your internship?" Mina questioned, surprised.

"Yeah, Protean was supposed to meet me at the train station, but he had to go on a call so Bakugo walked me to the agency." A message from Shinso appeared. A smile pulled at Ayumu's lips, but she slid it away to see Mina better, "He usually walks me if I have to go somewhere. He's walked me home before too."

Mina squinted her eyes at Ayumu, "That's oddly nice of him."

"He's actually a pretty nice guy." Ayumu defended, "He's just also kind of a jerk." Another message popped up, she slid it away again.

"Does your boyfriend know how much time you're spending with him?" Mina teased.

A third message appeared. This time Ayumu clicked on it, forcing the Facetime call into the corner of the screen.

"What boyfriend?" Ayumu asked absentmindedly as she replied to Bakugo's messages.

Mina giggled, "That boy from general studies?"

Ayumu rolled her eyes and clicked back into the call, "What do I need to do to convince you Hitoshi isn't my boyfriend?"

Mina laughed loudly, "I'm just teasing you. Anyways, it's late and I have to do patrolling with Yoroi Musha really early tomorrow."

"Alright, I'll talk to you tomorrow, good luck!"

Mina waved before ending the call.

Ayumu clicked on the Facetime icon for Shinso and waited. It rang twice before Shinso's face appeared on the screen.

"Hello?"

"Why are you still awake?" Ayumu questioned leaning back into the pillows.

Shinso leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk he was sitting at. The circles under his eyes seemed more pronounced. He was already in his PJs.

"I was going to ask you the same thing." Shinso's nose scrunched up, "Is that my sweatshirt?"

Ayumu looked down at the sweatshirt she had pulled on. Sure enough, it was one Shinso had left at her house earlier that week. She nodded, "Yeah, it's really comfortable."

"I've been looking everywhere for that."

Ayumu smiled, "Well you found it."

Shinso shook his head, "I'm going to bed."

"Liar, you don't go to bed until at least midnight." Ayumu accused, "and it's only," she looked at the clock, "10:30. You're not even going to ask how my first day went?"

"How was your first day?" Shinso sighed.

Ayumu leaned forward, "I'm so glad you asked!"

Ayumu chatted about her first patrol and gave Shinso a tour of the small dorm-like room she had been given. Shinso listened quietly as she walked around the room, laughing at her own jokes. Finally, she fell onto the bed, her hair messily covering the pillow. Her eyes had finally grown heavy and she yawned.

"Go to sleep." Shinso instructed.

Ayumu shook her head, "Wait, how was your first day of school without me?"

"Basically the same as when you are there." Shinso droned.

Ayumu rolled onto her belly, holding the phone so that the bottom rested gently against the pillow. "So you didn't miss me at all?"

"No." Shinso stated plainly. Once he saw her face he added, "You make it very hard to miss you when you're texting me all day."

Ayumu felt a half smile make its way to her lips, "I think you did miss me and you're just too proud to admit it."

Shinso sighed, "Good night, Ayumu."

"Good night, Hitoshi."

"This is boring." Ayumu complained.

Protean watched as she threw another dart at the dart board, earring another perfect bullseye. "It may be boring, but you need to continue training your quirk."

"Isn't that what school is for?" Ayumu asked, watching Protean retrieve the darts from the boards.

He examined the boards and started to move them farther away, "You will need to be continuously-Hey!"

He spun around and picked up the marble on the ground. Ayumu put her hands up in surrender, "My hand slipped."

Protean glared at her, "I was around your father enough to know how your quirk works. Throw something at me again and I will call your mother."

"Sorry."

Protean paused and hung up the dart board on the wall before making his way back over to her. "Speaking of your mother. You have a second quirk, don't you? Show me."

Ayumu reached out and touched Protean's wrist. Around them the training room melted away and was replaced with tall trees. Light trickled in through the leaves and a cool breeze caressed their skin. Birds could be hard whistling their sweet songs and far off a brook babbled. Protean looked around in awe before his gaze landed back on Ayumu.

"You've gotten very good."

She nodded, "I'm going to step out of the image now. Once I do, you won't be able to hear me anymore, but I can still hear you."

Protean watched as the spot Ayumu stood shimmered slightly before she disappeared completely and he stood alone in the forest. He reached out and touched one of the trees and pulled off a piece of bark. It felt rough in his hands, he turned the piece over and wondered vaguely how he must have looked to someone outside of the illusion. He looked back at the spot where he thought Ayumu had been standing.

"Alright, now change it." There was a hesitation so Protean repeated himself a little louder.

The image shimmered for a moment. Protean felt himself sink slightly and when he looked down he was standing in sand. The piece of bark he had been holding was gone from his hand. The salty smell of the ocean enveloped him. Seagulls squawked overhead and the crash of the waves relaxed him. This scene was different though. Although Protean still felt as though he was standing at the beach just as much as the forest had felt real, something was off. The sparkle of the water was just a little dimmer than it should have been and the seagulls sounded farther away.

"Change it again." He commanded.

The beach shimmered before disappearing and being replaced once again. The beach air suddenly changed, feeling heavy and dry. Protean fanned himself against the sweltering heat. Beads of sweat started to form on his forehead and he swallowed hard against the dryness of his throat. Mountains of sand surrounded him and the sun beat down on him from overhead. Although the heat felt real, the image around him was not as convincing. If he focused hard enough, he could begin to see Ayumu's outline and some of the equipment in the training room around her.

Protean wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, "Alright, drop the illusion."

Ayumu did as she was told and Protean was back in the training room. Ayumu dropped to the ground and closed her eyes. The light of the training room suddenly became unbearable. Her head felt like it was going to split in two. Protean pulled one of her hands off of her head and dropped a bottle into it.

"Take one. That's enough for now. Go rest and we'll have lunch in an hour. After that we have to head out for patrol."

Ayumu forced one of the pills down and got unsteadily to her feet. She stumbled down the hall to the room she had been given and fell onto the bed. She wondered if Protean would let her skip patrol, but before she could think much more of it, she had fallen back to sleep.

"Ayumu, get up." Protean demanded.

Ayumu rolled over and squinted against the light of the room. Sitting up, she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked up at Protean. Her headache was gone now.

"What time is it?" Ayumu yawned.

Protean towered over her, "It's almost three in the afternoon, you slept through lunch and patrol."

Ayumu threw her legs off the bed and sat up straighter, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I think today took a lot out of you. We're going to try again tomorrow." Protean turned to leave the room, but stopped for a moment in the doorway, "If you were a pro and you missed your patrol, the consequences could be disastrous. I don't want you to feel bad, but you need to know. No matter how sick you feel, or tired, or lazy you have to go. I let you off the hook today, but if this happens again, I'm not going to let it slide."

Ayumu nodded, feeling a little guilty, "Yes, sir."

The door closed, shutting Ayumu away, alone in the room. She felt bad. Two days into her internship and she'd already messed up. She got up and went into the bathroom, throwing some water on her face to wake her up more. She looked in the mirror and studied her features for a moment.

"I'm going to do better." She said to herself. Tomorrow was a new day she wasn't going to let herself make more mistakes.

Author's note: Sorry for the wait on this chapter. I had it ready, but not uploaded into the site and with everything going on I wasn't able to get it uploaded. So here is the next chapter and I hope to be posting on a more regular schedule again.