- December 17 [Day 5] -
Chitose stewed in her thoughts, her fingers instinctively intertwining with themselves as she lay on the sofa. It took her a good few seconds to realize what she was doing and immediately stopped, mentally questioning herself why her long-gone habits from long ago are suddenly returning again.
'This whole Getting-Younger thing might be more serious than I thought… Old habits are coming back and I'm getting strange college dreams every time I wake up…'
The sound of a chair being pulled snapped her back to the present. Based on the sound, she deduced that Izuku might have decided to sit at the dining area, contrary to what she initially thought. She waited in silence for a brief moment before her thoughts returned on how to possibly get on good terms with Inko's son for the time being.
'Hmmm… what could I do?'
She thought about possible alternatives. As the most important part of the MLA propaganda machine, her main job aside from making sure the Meta Liberation War book is being kept in circulation, is to convince the country that heroes aren't needed and everyone should be free to use their natural-born gifts – by way of articles and other various media.
Right now her problem is convincing one person to let her stay in the apartment, and she doesn't do one-on-one convincing. It was Re-Destro's specialty, especially when it comes to various black market deals. So how is she going to convince a regular kid in his late teens to let her stay?
'Think, Curious! THINK!'
While she may be book-smart, with her curious nature alone allowing her to amass tons of knowledge over the years, she is absolutely horrendous when dealing with people outside of her usual journalism work. Overall she generally prefers to be alone in peace and quiet.
'Looks like it's gonna be harder than I thought…'
She thought about some possible ways. Naturally the first thing that got to her is to exploit the natural convincing advantage women have over men. While she doesn't know Izuku's exact age, nor hers, but both of them looked very much the same age-wise so it wouldn't be awkward.
Chitose nodded to herself. It's not half bad of a plan. But there's only one problem: she's nowhere near attractive enough to pull it the start all the way to her reaching age 46, not a single person even got remotely attracted to her, even during her teenage years at school when boys are supposedly at their hormonal peak.
An awkward smile escaped her lips and made her shake her head, remembering all the times when co-workers and other MLA lieutenants asked why is she still single at her age and she would just answer because she's busy at her job, when it's partly reality that she's just not attractive to begin with.
Many times she considered plastic surgery, but all the plastic surgeons she got into contact with refused to operate on her on the reasoning that they would have to take into account her unique internal anatomy, which meant that some chemicals could be toxic, and too much time would be wasted on a single patient despite her willing to pay for everything.
On the other hand there are people within the MLA with Meta Abilities that could alter one's appearance. But the effects last too short, and in the end it wasn't really worth it. She would just look like she's overcompensating.
'But hey, wouldn't hurt to try.' Chitose shrugged from under the covers and then proceeded to slowly remove the sheets and carefully place them at her feet. Almost immediately she felt a strong chill. Her fever had just gotten worse. She knew it's only a matter of time before she starts sneezing uncontrollably.
She then sat up straight, her mind quickly compiling all available information on 'flirting'. She stayed silent for a few seconds, making up different scenarios for different quotes she could say. Most of them turned out good, but at the end of the day, they're just made-up scenarios, and could be drastically different from the real , most of her knowledge on flirting only comes from the drama shows she usually watches, but those involve already-attractive people and already-attractive people don't really need to flirt very much to get to the point.
Chitose turned her gaze towards Izuku, assessing the situation. The son is on the dining room and sitting on one of the chairs with a smartphone in hand and reading something based on the lack of movement from his fingers. He seemed detached, bored, and overall unfocused, completely unaware.
"Uh… Midoriya?" she spoke. Naturally it got the son's attention.
Chitose immediately blanked out once Izuku turned to face her. What does she do now? Well if her drama shows are to be followed, the love interests just stare at each other most of the time, with romantic music playing over. So does that mean she just has to stare at him? And not do anything? Is that it? Isn't this how flirting works in shows? How about maybe repeatedly blinking for a bit?
Chitose blinked five times in quick succession, but kept her gaze locked onto Inko's son.
Izuku's brows slowly furrowed. Is it working?
"What is it?" he asked with a blank expression.
'Welp, at least I tried…' Chitose mentally shrugged, hearing Izuku's question. Based on the drama shows she usually watches, if he successfully charmed Inko's son, then the boy should have been all red and flustered by now. Instead, all she got in response is a blank stare and question.
"What's your Meta Ability-" Chitose asked out of the blue out of sheer curiosity, before just stopping herself at the very last moment, leaving her with her mouth slightly hanging. 'DAMMIT CURIOUS! Your mother just died! AT LEAST TRY TO ACT LIKE IT! You don't want to stay at a shelter, there's too many people! YOU HAVE TO STAY HERE!' she mentally scolded herself shortly afterwards.
"Meta Ability huh?" Izuku put his phone down and clasped his fingers together. "Isn't that the old name for Quirks?" he asked.
"Hmm… I thought those aren't taught at school anymore, what school do you go to anyways?" Chitose asked again, realizing the son didn't care one bit about her 'slip up'. Quickly thinking up an alternative, she decided it's best to just take it slow to see how casual she can get with the son without him question anything about her supposed 'dead mother'. She knew she can't rely on her (virtually non-existent) charms now, which means plan B has to work: which is to befriend Izuku through normal means.
Now if only she could find any common ground with him.
"UA. I'm a General Studies student."
Chitose's eyes widened after hearing the name of the most prestigious hero school in the country. UA had always piqued her curiosity in more ways than one, especially its ability to effectively churn out capable hero after capable hero year after year. But as much as she would like to interview some of its hero course students and hopefully discover the secrets to its success, Re-Destro advised against it on the reasoning that she should focus more on the army's propaganda aspect than self-interest.
But since the Revival Party's done anyways, and then there's still the whole 'Chitose Kizuki found dead in Deika' so-
"Woah…" Chitose said back, keeping her voice low to appear sad despite her interest being at maximum level. "Why are you not a hero student? Everyone wanted to become one these days. Didn't make it?"
"Long story short, my Quirk didn't make the cut," Izuku said with an awkward smile, scratching the back of his head while he averted his gaze off of her. "Apparently their 'anyone can be hero' slogan only applies to those with cool, flashy, and powerful Quirks…"
"So what's your Met- I mean Quirk? I saw you levitate your cup earlier, is that it?"
"Uh…" Izuku repeatedly tapped his fingers on the table as if in embarrassment, his green eyes still not looking towards her. "I have a uh… Conjoined Quirk…"
"Huh…?"
Izuku tilted his head, took a brief glance at her, and then went to look away again, his embarrassed expression now replaced with a frustrated look. "Yeah I know it sucked, no need to remind me."
"What's the other Quirk?"
"Fire-breathing," Izuku said through gritted teeth, the frustration clearly slipping through. He continued to look around and not set his eyes onto her, his brows furrowing like he hated what he just said.
Chitose froze in place for a few seconds, before realizing she's already leaning forward onto the backrest of the sofa with her arms dangling down coupled with a slightly hanging mouth. She quickly readjusted herself, as well as blinked multiple times to get rid of any wide eyes that must've appeared after she heard the term 'Conjoined Quirk'.
She did a quick mental calculation. Izuku is not only from UA, but also has an incredibly rare Quirk mutation.
Chitose slowly turned around and faced the television set in front of her, taking deep breaths trying to calm herself down from sheer excitement.
'Calm down Curious… The Revival Party is done… your job now is to spread propaganda on how easily the League has been defeated and that heroes are no longer needed, and then spread some more propaganda about why Trumpet should be the next Prime Minister… well at least that's how I remember it. But wait! Re-Destro specifically said to wait for his command, right? Wouldn't that mean I have free time-?
'CURIOUS, THE ARMY NEEDS YOU! GET BACK TO THEM ASAP AND STOP THINKING ABOUT UA!'
The young blue-skinned woman shook her head, her thoughts immediately switching over. 'But Curious, imagine how thrilled they would be when you return having successfully figured out the secrets to UA's training regimens! Not only that, but you could get inside detail on the respective weaknesses of the pro heroes there!'
Chitose instinctively nodded on her own thoughts. 'And the best part is that Izuku has a Conjoined Quirk! An incredibly rare mutation! It may not be of any substance to the army whatsoever but there's been very little research done on it by far! It's a complete enigma! Re-Destro didn't call you Curious for nothing! You had to figure it out! Do it for SCIENCE! Think about the awards you'll receive! Think about the adoration from across the globe!'
"Wow, I like that…" she muttered weakly. Gathering information and stockpiling it inside her head, no matter how mundane it is, had always been a favorite past time for her. Reading encyclopedias, researching about random topics, and general observation have always been far more interesting than her army propaganda work and her real work combined. And now she's face to face with a person with one of the rarest mutations in the world of Meta Abilities.
Chitose took a peek at the boy, barely able to contain her excitement, before turning back again after seeing Izuku is also staring at her. Would it be okay to conduct a whole interview with the son on an ability he clearly hates? Chitose thought about it some more, as normal for people to confuse the term 'Conjoined Quirks' are to 'Dual Quirks', the two are vastly different.
A person having Dual Quirks is best described as someone who has the two sides of the same 100 Yen coin – like people having the ability to control multiple elements or having armor and super strength combined. A person having Conjoined Quirks, however, is like someone with two 50 Yen coins from different time periods just placed side by side. The two conjoined Quirks are always drastically different from each other, and are far weaker than if it were a singular Quirk, on top of having further limitations.
This could be the reason why Izuku hated it so much.
Chitose gulped as she sat on the sofa, her palm on her knees and her fingers repeatedly tapping onto it. On one hand, researching about Conjoined Quirks is in sharp contrast with the Quirk Supremacy philosophy the MLA is going for and Re-Destro obviously wouldn't like it one bit, but on the other hand, she really wanted to study it just for the knowledge alone.
She knows it's going to be useless in the grand scheme of things, but her curiosity is just pushing her to do it.
'THIS WILL BE THE ARTICLE OF A LIFETIME! CHITOSE KIZUKI WINS-'
Chitose shook her head, trying to shake off images of herself receiving a Nobel Prize for diving into the still-unexplored world of Conjoined Quirks. Okay well maybe not a Nobel Prize, but a similar one.
"Wow…" the young woman whispered to herself, one hand automatically placing itself on her chest, feeling her heart pounding away in anticipation. 'I'm sure the army will understand if I said I can't be with them for a couple more days – THAT is if I can contact them.' She then lowered her head afterwards. 'But look on the bright side! Since I can't contact them yet, I'll just go do other things in the meantime – like research about Conjoined Quirks, befriend Izuku, know the secrets of UA, and other things! And then I'll just go inform the army of the things I found once I manage to contact them! Brilliant! Everyone at the army will be so proud of me!"
Taking a deep breath, slightly feeling awkward that her way of thinking is also reverted back to its 'younger state', she tried to calm herself down despite her grin growing ever larger - as visible in reflection in the blank TV screen right in front of her. She hit the jackpot, what more can she ask for? While yes she's in the middle of something not even she knows, but what matters is the amount of knowledge she can get from this one time alone.
And now she's sick and she would have more reason to stay for a while. Maybe she can tell the Midoriyas that she has a chance of easily relapsing back into illness if she exerts too much force when in 'cooldown'?
Now only if she can fully convince the son to be more accepting of her. Yes she doesn't have the looks to pull it off, but she has to find other ways. She can't let this opportunity pass up. She knows Izuku doesn't like her there, and she has to change it, but how?
'How about some small talk? I'm not even good at it but it's worth a try.'
"Um… Midoriya? I uh-" Chitose instantly stopped as a sneeze welled up inside her. But before it let loose she managed to block it off. Whatever sickness she got from the cold is intensifying further, she can't do her befriending missions with a runny nose. "Why are you not at school?"
"My mom found you last night, I didn't go to school just in case something happens," the son answered, his freckled face now back to being blank. "You get the idea."
"Point taken…" Chitose's voice trailed off as she nodded, and was already in the middle of thinking about other topics to continue the conversation when Izuku spoke again.
"So you said your mother made a lot of enemies? Those aren't really the enemies we should fear right? I mean they're just corporate enemies right?" Izuku asked with slight worry apparent in his voice. "So where do you live now?"
"My mom made a lot of enemies on her ascent towards Executive Director. Quite a number of her articles are jabs at other high-ranking people, and a whole lot of folks think she has a Free Quirk Usage agenda or something. She has a lot of haters and enemies but so are lots of other people high up in the social hierarchy. They're not really the enemies you should be worrying about. Even All Might has tons of haters," Chitose said, making sure to lower down her eyebrows in an attempt to look sad. "About where do I live now, there's uh… I'd rather stay away from Deika for a while. But my mom has a mansion at Yamate Hills at Yokohama. I'll go live there for the time being."
"You really sure you don't know any relatives? Are there other people living there? Workers? Maids? Helpers?"
"Only the helpers…" Chitose responded. In reality it's the truth. Despite the mansion taking up a ton of square meters in size, the only inhabitant, aside from servants, is herself. As for notable things on that mansion, she remembered having the bedroom renovated to fit an extra-large bed, and had an entire room hollowed out to make space for her eventual children – which never came.
"Must be pretty lonely huh?"
Chitose instantly snapped back to the present, noticing Inko's son now sporting a look of concern while looking at her. It took her a brief while before she realized that remembering about the renovations of her mansion in Yokohama actually made her sad enough to have a genuine forlorn look on her face. It appears that no matter how stubborn Inko's son may have looked earlier, he's almost as gullible as his mother as long as she has the correct expression.
But as she planned to milk the scene for all its worth, the mere thought of her plans succeeding flawlessly caused her sad face to quickly fade away.
'Well there goes my plans…' Chitose thought, before quickly thinking up a back-up plan. "Yeah…" she said, her face kept at blank as she replied from Izuku's statement about her loneliness.
"Do you have at least a bank account or something?"
"Well kinda," Chitose responded, her mind instantly remembering her earrings that she pawned that turned out irrelevant in the long run. To her defense, it was back then when she thought she's just in an illusory world – which turned out false. "My mom never allowed me to make a bank account of my own. Although I do know her account details."
"Your mom lived alone, had no friends, had plenty of enemies, and she never allowed you to have a bank account?"
Chitose nodded as she slowly turned back to face the empty TV screen. "I'm kinda used to it now. By the way is there a nearby bank here?" She turned back to face the son again. "I could use a few thousand Yen."
"Well there is one just a bus ride away but," Izuku looked at her with ever more growing concern, "You're looking way worse than this morning. You said conventional medicine don't work on you because of your mutations, right? So what do you do when you get sick? You wait it out or something?"
Chitose slowly nodded. "Yeah. I just wait them out. This flu will only take a few hours tops."
"Is it another one of your alien anatomy thing? Diseases normally just take around a few hours?"
Chitose nodded again, making sure to keep her face blank. "Doctors theorized that because my insides are very different from a standard human, pathogens have a hard time gaining a foothold before getting completely overwhelmed by my supposedly supercharged immune system,"she said with a light shrug. "Well actually that's just the theory, I don't really know the real reason why."
"Woah… but what about the more dangerous illnesses? Can you survive them?"
"I was bitten by a rabid teacup dog when I was 10, and for some reason the virus just disappeared on its own. I didn't even get any symptoms of rabies." Chitose leaned onto the backrest of the sofa she's on. "Anyways, it's because of that the doctors came to the 'Can't get a foothold' conclusion in the first place. Others say my immune system is just supercharged. But if there's some similarities between the two groups, is that they both advise my diet to be heavy in garlic."
A small laugh escaped Izuku's lips. "So if a vampire bit you, will they get instantly killed-" he suddenly stopped as if he thought his joke is offensive to someone who just had their remaining relative die. "My apologies," he hastily said, a light blush faintly visible on his freckled cheeks. He then stood up and walked towards the sink to wash some remaining dishes.
"Nah that's okay, you're just making a garlic joke anyways," Chitose muttered in response, slowly standing up and stretching her arms despite numerous joint pains all over. She wobbled a bit, barely able to stand straight.
She turned to Izuku. "You said there's a bank just one bus ride away, correct?" she asked.
"Yeah, why?
"Good." Chitose nodded, her mind shifting over to her goal to reach her mansion at Yokohama. While she doesn't have anything on her currently, especially the requirements for an actual withdrawal, it wouldn't hurt to try and get to the bank, who knows if they have alternatives? "I need to get there, where is it?"
"Uh Miss Kizuki, you can barely stand. You have a swollen face and I don't think your right eye can see very much," Izuku's face turned into a look of worry as he scratched the back of his head. "Why in a hurry-?"
"I've endured far worse than this, this is nothing. As for the hurry, it's personal money issues, I prefer you to not ask too much about it. So where's the bank?"
Izuku slowly turned around, and walked towards the window located nearest to the television set and looked outside, specifically towards the right side of the window. "The bus normally gets there at around 10:30am. You get on the bus and get off on the next bus stop, walk straight, turn left and look for a pizza joint, and then go behind it and it's there," he said before turning to face her again. "Although I really do suggest waiting it out a bit. Who knows? Maybe with that supercharged immune system of yours, you'll be in great shape in no time."
Chitose shook her head, crossing her arms. She then walked towards the right side of the doorway and leaned on it. While it's true that there's a great chance she'll be fully healed just after lunch, especially with her unique anatomy and immune system giving her an advantage against standard illnesses, she doesn't want to stay idle, she prefers to be always on the move and accomplishing something. Right now since she can't contact the MLA yet, the second best thing is to keep enough cash in hand and readily available. With it she can be a little more independent, and a little independence can go a long way especially when there's someone who probably planning to kick her out the moment he feels she's freeloading. And if she's going to stay in this household for the next few days, she's going to have to pull her weight around and not ask too much.
And there's also that sudden nagging feeling that keeps telling her that something might have already happened to her bank account.
"Midoriya, I just want to check if my Mother's account is fine." She knew the excuse sounded nonsensical, but her head is beginning to spin and it's the best she can think of.
Izuku let out a defeated sigh. "Mom's not gonna like it if she heard you passed out on the street."
"See? That's why you must come with me. It's just a short trip, what's so bad about that?"
"Do you have any money on you right now?"
Chitose's face went blank. "Uh… no… not really. But if I can withdraw anything I'll just pay you back. Plus I've been freeloading here since last night, don't you like to get paid?"
"But Miss Kizuki, you haven't even spent a whole day here yet. It's not technically 'freeloading' yet. Well actually I don't really have the term for the right timespan before freeloading becomes freeloading but-uuhhh… Look, my Mom just rescued you, and you're very sick, I'm pretty sure that doesn't count as freeloading." Izuku sighed again, green eyes looking everywhere as if finding the right word to say back. "Also you're very sick. Yeah I know I said 'sick' twice."
Chitose sighed as well. As much as it was very heartwarming to have someone she doesn't even know show far more concern for her wellbeing than anyone in the entire army, she really needs to withdraw some cash, and check her bank account while she's at it. "I can pretend I'm not sick. I can just wear sunglasses and a face mask and my injuries will virtually disappear. If the bank teller asked why are there some bruises on my face, I can just say it's part of my skin color."
Izuku once again scratched the back of his head, looking confused as he slowly glanced over to the wall clock that's currently timed at 10 in the morning. "Fine, I'll get my glasses…" he said as he walked towards a small wooden cabinet located near the dining area, while his left hand is pointed towards the television set and doing the exact same jellyfish-like motion he's doing with his fingers to pull a face mask hidden from behind said television set.
He pulled out a drawer and grabbed a pair of sunglasses, with the face mask arriving to him just in time. "What's your Quirk, Miss Kizuki?"
"I don't have one," came Chitose's quick response. It's for the best, the last thing Izuku should hear right now is her having a Quirk capable of destroying everything in his house. And with the boy having an extremely weak Quirk, made even weaker by being Conjoined, him being scared off is the only possible outcome once he knew, and if she wanted to stay a little longer within the household as she figures out what's really going on, scaring the son (and by extension the mother) should be off of her list.
And now that she remembered, she quickly switched to her Mine Vision and deactivated the explosives she set on the sofa and her blankets. It took a little while, with all the cooldown limits of the old version of Landmine has, but she eventually got them all removed.
"Must be tough looking like that with no Quirk, huh?" Izuku said as he walked by and gave the glasses and face mask.
"Yeah, I won the stupidest lottery in the universe." Chitose said as she hurriedly put on both the glasses and the face mask given to her and backed off one step. "Got a lot of bullies back then. People don't really like mutants where I live."
"Yeah I can see that, your childhood must be pretty rough."
"Huh-?" Chitose's eyes widened upon seeing the sleeve on her right arm had gone down from her reaching up her face, revealing a noticeable amount of scars. She immediately pulled the sleeve to cover it back before continuing to talk. "Uh yeah, very rough. How about you?"
"Same as you. Only I got blast marks instead!" Izuku chuckled to himself as he went beside her and opened the door, before gesturing for the young woman to exit first. "But he mellowed down now. We haven't really interacted in years."
"Oh? He? A specific person?"
"Yeah, he got all the luck and is now the current 'best hero' of UA right now." Izuku once again gestured for her to go down the stairs first. "… Even won the darn Sports Festival…"
"Katsuki Bakugo?" Chitose asked, remembering the ending stages of the Sports Festival as she watched it live in television. While she doesn't really care too much about UA's hero students as much as she cared about the school's actual methods in training them, but seeing the champion all chained up like a rabid animal is certainly odd. "Then looks like you're not fond of explosion-based Quirks then," she added.
"Nah they're fine," Izuku shrugged as he took an unusually thick jacket placed nearby.
The two eventually exited the apartment and began walking towards the bus stop.
"You should've brought your jacket, you're shivering," Izuku suddenly muttered after a few minutes.
"I already have glasses and a face mask on, wearing a jacket would just make people suspicious of me further. We're going in a bank, and I certainly wouldn't want to get tackled by first-time-in-the-field heroes who are a little too 'trigger-happy' when it comes to their first arrests."
"Okay, so how are you still holding up?"
Chitose looked down, mind instantly thinking of how short the boy was compared to her. "I'm holding up fine. So about UA, do you ever get the chance to, like uh, develop your Quirk? Do they allow that in Gen Studies?"
"We actually have a dedicated class on Quirk improvement."
"So how do you do? So is it true that if you try to improve your telekinesis ability, your fire-breathing gets weaker? And vice versa? Like it says in the very few researches about Conjoined Quirks?"
"Yep, Conjoined Quirks really are very special…" Izuku said with a clear annoyance to his tone. "But since telekinesis is way more useful than fire-breathing, I want to at least level that up. By the way the Quirk's name is 'Attraction'. They had to change it up since my Mom's Quirk is already named 'Attract'.
"Then looks like you're an attractive person then!" Chitose chuckled at her own words, but found the story relateable. So many times she tried to find a more suitable name for her Meta Ability, like Prime Explosive, or Antimatter, or Detonate, but all of those are taken so she just had to settle for Landmine instead.
"Yeah I get that a lot."
"Uh yeah?" Chitose looked ahead and noticed that they're getting closer to the bus stop. "How's lovelife then?"
"Why would I tell a story about that to a stranger?" Izuku chuckled as well. "Sorry, but that's private."
Chitose rolled her eyes at the response. It didn't take long before a bus arrived at the bus stop at exactly 10:30am. And in they go.
The bus ride is rather long compared to what she imagined, and the air conditioning is also unusually strong no matter where she pointed it towards. Although at least on her side, she hasn't really sneezed yet, nor did her nose become runny.
In a few minutes, they reached their destination. And after just a few more minutes of walking, they finally reached the bank.
"Okay we're here. I do suppose you already know what to do?" Izuku said, taking a step back and sitting on a nearby metal bench located just outside the establishment itself. He shortly took out his phone form his pant pocket afterward and muttered something about getting pizza on the way home.
Chitose, on the other hand, just stared at the sign on top of the bank, barely able to make out whatever's written on it amidst her now-blurry vision. But if she's sure on one thing, is that whatever it is, is written in big bold Japanese characters, so it might just be the bank's name – whatever it is.
'I think I should've just waited a little longer…' she thought, mentally kicking herself for her stupid decisions.
"Yeah sure," she said, answering her own thoughts, much to Izuku's confusion as he looked up at her. Chitose ignored him and in she went into the bank. But compared to her arrival in a hero agency just a few days ago, this time she didn't attract too much attention despite much more looking like a villain about to make a robbery attempt-
She suddenly froze in place.
'Looking like a villain about to make a robbery attempt…'
The thoughts repeated inside her head a few more times as she straightened her posture. Her mind suddenly went blank and, almost out of instinct, she immediately made her way towards the nearest vacant chair to think. Her plan is simple: ask around the bank, provide all the necessary account information, and then hopefully withdraw some of her savings…
Upon re-thinking the plan, it is only then she discovered how utterly stupid and nonsensical it sounded:
Her bank account specifically stated that she's 46 years old and still single. Logically speaking, she can't just come barging into a bank all covered up, having no debit card nor any physical necessities for cash withdrawal, and then claim to be her own previously unspecified daughter in an effort to get some money. Even if she can provide all the necessary bank information, all it would accomplish is just make her look like she's attempting to rob from a recently deceased person!
Wide-eyed, her glance slowly panned over to the bank tellers as her fingers and legs suddenly began trembling all of sudden.
If it weren't for her suddenly thinking about what she thought, she would have been thrown in jail at the instant she tried to withdraw.
'I am literally seconds away from being jailed!' the thoughts keep echoing inside her mind over and over and over again like a broken record player, her mouth slowly hanging agape as he stared down the nearest bank teller. It took a good few seconds before she realized what she's doing and immediately looked down.
Taking multiple deep breaths and sighing, she tried to calm herself down, mentally kicking herself again and again afterwards for the incredibly stupid plan.
But the most important thing is that she caught herself in time. And that's what matters.
Legs still lightly trembling, she slowly made her way back outside. The moment she stepped out of the bank, relief immediately washed over her. It's over for now. She just saved herself from jail.
"Back so soon?" Izuku asked, still sitting on the metal bench, but now with his legs crossed. His brows furrowed after a short while as he narrowed his eyes onto her forehead, noticing the sweat droplets forming. "You got scared inside? Is there a spider?"
"No no-no-no," Chitose took a few steps closer to him, wiping off the sweat. "It's just that-" she cut off her own words in defeat, deciding to sit on the metal bench beside Izuku instead, and immediately cupping her face with her hands. She can't get any money, not in this state, the least she could do is-
Her eyes suddenly got caught sight of Izuku's phone, amidst the green-haired boy patting her back. She instantly remembered something about cardless ATM machines. And since she's just in front of a bank, then that means-
She scanned around, and eventually caught sight of said machine, located just two meters to the left from the entrance of the bank itself. But before she moved, she thought about the whole thing. She imagined multiple scenarios. She knew very well how cardless ATMs work, and there's no way she would look like a criminal while accessing it.
Since she supposedly died just an hour ago, then that means her bank account is still active. Maybe. Probably.
"Midoriya, can I borrow your phone?"
The boy's face suddenly went blank in utter confusion about her abrupt change in emotion. "M-my phone? What for?" he asked, gesturing towards his smartphone on his right hand.
Chitose pointed towards the cardless ATM. "I don't have my phone on me right now and that thing requires one. I'm pretty sure you already know how verification codes work, yes?"
"Uh yeah…? But do you really need to use my phone?"
"What else can I use? Come on, kid, it's just gonna be a few minutes."
"Why are you calling me kid? Aren't we just the same age?"
Chitose went blank, realizing that the both of them are just probably the same age. "My bad," she said, nodding. "Anyways." She stood up, gesturing over to the cardless ATM. "Let's go, it's just gonna be fast, I promise. If you want, we could get pizza after this. My treat."
"Hmm… I do suppose that's not too bad…"
Nodding at the response, Chitose walked towards the cardless ATM and was about to use it when a brightly-colored sign on top of it caught her attention. She thought she was in trouble for a bit before she realized it was just a guide on how to use it. Letting out a sigh of relief, she entered all her account information, as well as asking for Midoriya's phone number afterwards to input it as well.
To stay on the safe side, she's just going to check the account status. She's not going to withdraw any money, not as of yet.
Upon pressing the button to send a verification code, the boy's phone immediately rang. Midoriya muttered something about near-instant messages and quickly checked his phone.
"What does it say?" Chitose asked, and almost immediately Izuku raised up the phone, with the screen facing her. Displayed is a series of letters and numbers, separated by dashes. She memorized the arrangement and hurriedly entered the code to the machine.
There was an error.
"Miss Kizuki, you got some numbers wrong…" Izuku said, his voice trailing off as he inspected if there are more errors.
"Wrong verification code-?" Chitose turned around and checked the code again. "Oh, my bad… my vision's kinda blurry for a moment there and then there's this stupid headache," she said as she stared at the phone's screen.
"Surely you're not gonna pass out yet, are you?"
"Nonsense!" Chitose turned back and corrected the numbers on the screen. This time it was a success, and her account information appeared.
All is well except for one thing: her bank balance is zero.
